#Minster of Magic James

[i-want-a-weasley-sweater]

Leaving - Part 1 (Remus Lupin x Potter!reader)

Reader is James Potter's sister.

This is my first time posting any of my writings. It is not the best, but I just wanted to get it out there :)

Warnings: mentions of loss/death, crying

Part 2

Hogsmeade was finally beginning to feel like it had before the war. You had decided to travel to the shops while Remus stayed in your shared cottage on the outskirts of the village. You had some errands to run and you needed something to distract yourself.

It had been a little over a year since Voldemort had disappeared you lost your brother and many close friends to both death and betrayal. You were trying your best to keep moving forward. You had been fighting for custody over Harry since the war had ended. You and Sirius had been his godparents and you were trying desperately to fulfill one of James and Lilly's last wishes but the ministry hadn't budged since Dumbledore sent Harry off with Lilly's horrible muggle sister.

Your main stop was Dogweed and Deathcap to restock on some potions ingredients. On your way back to your cottage, you decided to buy some chocolate for Remus at Honeydukes and picked up some toffees for yourself.

When you returned home you walked into the kitchen and called out to Remus that you were back. Receiving no answer and assuming that he was lost in a book, you moved to put your bags on the counter. You grabbed some food to feed your owl, Opal, before looking through the post.

There was an already opened letter laying on top of the stack, addressed to you. Remus must have opened it, it wasn't uncommon for you to open each other's letters.

Dear Ms. Potter,

We regret to inform you that your request has been denied. You have been barred access and rights of guardianship over Harry Potter. The reasons for this denial have been listed below.

a) single-person income

b)closeness with known murder and You Know Who affiliate, Sirius Black

c)unregistered Animagus(although no charges are being pressed)

d)known affiliation with a lycanthrope

Sincerely,

Minster of Magic Millicent Bagnold

Headmaster of Hogwarts Albus Dumbledore

You couldn't believe this, after trying so hard to obtain guardianship of Harry all the ministry could give you was bullshit excuses. And to top it all, Dumbledore signed off on it. You had a death grip on the counter as you called out to Remus again.

Laying down the letter to go look for him you spotted something else on the counter. There beside the stack of mail was a napkin that had I'm sorry scribbled on it with unmistakable handwriting.

It was only then that you realized how unnaturally quiet the cottage was. Moving through your home looking for Remus you began noticing items misplaced and his belongings not where they were this morning. Your eyes were beginning to blur and your heart felt like it was going to beat out of your chest. When you reached the bedroom it was unquestionable. Remus had left. It seemed he packed in a hurry and left you without saying goodbye. Without explaining, without talking to you. You didn't get to tell him that those were just bullshit excuses so that Dumbledore could have Harry stay with Lilly's sister. That he wasn't at fault, that he didn't cause this to happen.

Tears were streaming down your face as you collapsed onto the foot of your bed, wishing for him to come back home.

[iliveiloveiwrite]

Stormy weather

A/N: THE LONGEST FIC I HAVE EVER WRITTEN. As I was writing it, I started to hate the reader lmao so I'm hoping I have redeemed them. I am hoping it flows as you read, that you can see the change in time without having to add ‘time skip’. I hope you enjoy! If you would like to be added to a taglist, let me know, I’ll happily create one! Please like and/or reblog.

Title: Emmy Raver-Lampman - Stormy Weather (originally sung by Etta James)

Pairing: Young!Sirius Black x Reader

Summary: You didn’t realise that a change in seating plan could lead to this.

Requested: Nope

Warnings: some angst, some fluff, some swearing 

Word count: 4.1k

You felt silly – no, you felt stupid.

Two years… two years you had managed to keep your love for Sirius Black quiet. He barely even noticed you on a good day; you hadn’t known where these feelings had come from, yet they were very much present. It had all started when the class had been assigned a seating plan; the teacher had moved you and Black together so there was no choice on his end – he had to talk to you if there was pair work set, and there nearly always was.

There was no reason for you to socialise. You were in the same house, but he had the Marauders, and you had yours. Sirius Black was known amongst the girls of Hogwarts for being ridiculously attractive but also as a notorious flirt – it was your luck that you had a crush on the one boy who would never wholly be yours. There was the occasional overlap when it came to parties in the common room which you rarely attended but for the most part, a word had never been spoke between the two of you until this class.

At the end of the lesson, you were packing away your things, very much glad that you had a free period next so you could try and get ahead on the homework that was beginning to pile up. It looked as if you free periods and your evenings would be spent in the library trying to keep on top of the workload that accompanied an exam year.

A quiet voice next you pulls you out of the routine of packing away, “(Y/N)?”

You turn to Sirius, “Yes?”

He smiles politely at you, “Would you be able to help me with what we’ve covered? I’m struggling slightly in this subject.”

You raise your eyebrows at him in surprise. He may be a prankster, and doesn’t necessarily take everything seriously, but nobody could deny that Sirius Black wasn’t smart. All of the Marauders were.

“Really? You want me to help you?”

He chuckles, “Yes. I’m not completely understanding the context for wizard involvement within the Great Muggle War.”

You nod, “Sure, I’ll help you. When are you next free? We could meet at the library?”

“I’m free now, actually. If you have time, that is?”

“So am I. Let’s head to the library now, I know some good books that can help us.”

Sirius starts to pack his things away while you wait for him. You sigh inwardly, the pile of homework is going to get bigger, but you knew that you wouldn’t be able to deny Sirius. He’s too handsome, and your feelings definitely get in the way.

“Are you ready?” Sirius asks.

“I am. Let’s go read about Muggle wars!” You cheer.

Sirius laughs loudly. You walk together to the library, talking aimlessly to each other. By the time you arrive at the Library, Sirius has you breathless from laughter as he recalls one of the many adventures of the Marauders. From the minute you enter the Library, you know that there is an extremely high chance of you being shushed by Madam Pince.

Steering Sirius towards the right section, you start to whisper about the causes of the First Muggle War. “It had been brewing for a while, there were tensions between the countries surrounding growing militaries and navies, growing empires and such.”

“How does that relate to the wizarding world?”

“The minute war broke out, the Minster for Magic had to be alerted. Archer Evermonde passed a piece of legislation that forbade wizards from fighting in the war. It was a key moment in wizarding history. However, he Minister had to understand that regardless of what he decided, wizards would volunteer, look at Theseus Scamander.”

Sirius opens his mouth to ask another question, but he is interrupted by the rest of the Marauders.

“Padfoot! We wondered where you had gotten to!” James shouts, earning a hush from Madam Pince.

“You’ve found me.”

“Padfoot?” You ask, raising an eyebrow in question.

“My nickname.” Sirius explains.

The rest of the Marauders had joined you at table you shared with Sirius, their eyes looking over the reading material sprawled across it.

“We didn’t know you were struggling with this, Sirius. We could have helped you; you didn’t need to bother poor (Y/N) here.”

“It’s not a bother!” You almost shout, a little too quickly, all attention is now on you and you can feel the tell-tale blush make its way to your cheeks, “I mean,” you start, trying again, “it isn’t a bother at all. I love this topic, wizard involvement within both Muggle world wars interests me, I could talk about it all day. Sirius wasn’t being a bother at all asking me for help.”

Both James and Remus lift an eyebrow each at your explanation. They can completely sense your feelings for Sirius, and you want to slide under the table right about now, your heart going ten to the dozen.

Sirius chuckles, “You see, I’m not being a bother at all. You two are though, bugger off.”

Remus laughs at him, “Okay, okay. James, come on, let’s leave them too it.”

Remus pats James on the shoulder, they both start to depart with a goodbye to both Sirius and you.

Your heart rate has started to settle down, but then Sirius smiles at you and it kicks back into action again.

“Where were we?” He asks.

Checking your watch, you utter, “I’m sorry, I’ve got to go. I’ve got potions with Slughorn and I really don’t want to be late.”

Sirius nods, understanding. “Of course, can we meet again though? I like studying with you, you’re a really good teacher.”

You blush harder, if that’s even possible. “Thank you, Sirius, that means a lot. How about tomorrow evening in the common room?”

“That sounds great, see you there.”

Gathering your things, you wave a final goodbye to Sirius before heading to Potions. You would be brewing Liquid Luck today and you needed to focus, however your mind kept drifting back to Sirius. You felt like a teenager with her first crush, it seemed like Sirius had taken up your entire mind, the butterflies in your stomach fluttered every time you thought of the study session tomorrow evening. Twice, Slughorn had to pull your attention back to the class, it looked like when Sirius was on your mind, your mind went to goo.

The following day passed by slowly as if it knew that you had something to look forward to. Classes dragged and more than one teacher had to bring your attention back to the class since your mind had wandered off to what could possibly happen that evening.

You had seen Sirius once all day; at lunch where he waved at you from his place further down the table where he sat with the Marauders. “Are we still on for this evening, (Y/N)?”, he had shouted causing multiple heads to turn towards you.

You blushed deeply, “We are! I’ll see you this evening, Sirius.”

He smiled widely at your answer and threw a thumbs up before leaving the Great Hall with the Marauders.

That had been hours ago, and you were finally in your last class of the day. You were never normally eager to leave a lesson, but you had fallen into your feelings for Sirius and well, you wanted to see him even if he didn’t feel the same way as you.

Finally dismissed, you practically sprinted to your common room so you could change into comfortable clothes and grab the books you thought you may need.

You meet Sirius at a table in the corner of the common room; an intimate choice you note with the warmth of the fire wrapping you in a bubble. You also notice the rest of the Marauders not too far away, watching with eager arms – both James and Remus wiggle their eyebrows at Sirius.

“Okay,” You start, sitting down. “Where did we get to yesterday?”

Sirius beams at you, and you begin to study.

Two hours you sat there; studying for the first part of it, talking for the second part. Both of you had sat there and talked about anything and everything – Sirius asking question after question on you and your family; what were they like? Did you have siblings? All sorts was asked, and you didn’t mind opening up to him. You knew better than to ask about his family, it wasn’t a secret that he had run away from home and was living with James. However, you did ask him about his friends – what they did, how did they come to know one another.

Conversation flowed between the two of you until you couldn’t stop yawning. You decided then that it was time to wrap things up.

“I’ve really enjoyed myself tonight, Sirius.”

He quickly agrees, adding “I feel I understand the Great Muggle War a lot better now.”

“Good, I’m glad.” You answer, tidying up your books and notes.

Sirius grabs your hand, squeezes it gently before he brings it up to his lips and presses a small kiss to the back of it. Again, you’ve been reduced speechless and blushing by the teenager in front of you – you needed to do something about that.

“Goodnight, Sirius. I’m sure I’ll see you at some point tomorrow.”

“Goodnight, (Y/N). See you tomorrow.”

You pull your hand from his, and before your judgement can get the better of you, you place a lingering kiss to his cheek.

As you head back to your dormitory, you don’t see Sirius press his hand to his cheek in disbelief. His cheeks aflame with the mere touch of your lips to his skin.

Time with Sirius simply flew by. You didn’t realise how quick time passed when you were with him until you were rushing to class in the hopes of not being late. Sirius seemed to occupy your mind and your time; he could be a distraction, but you always managed to get some work done, and he helped you with topics you weren’t entirely confident on. The both of you had grown closer to the other, you had started spending time with all of the Marauders, but you were with Sirius for the majority of the time. It did nothing to help your feelings for him; they simply grew until you were fairly certain you were in love with him. At least, that what your dorm mates told you, they had pointed out how obvious it was that you both had feelings for each other and whilst you had confirmed yours to them, you believed that Sirius did not feel the same way, that he simply saw you as a good friend and study partner.

It is through one of your study sessions when Sirius interrupts your speech about wizarding society in the inter-war years focusing on the adventures of Newt Scamander and the publication of his book. He didn’t like to interrupt you, because not only did he not understand this aspect of the subject, but you got so animated and passionate that it brought out a side of you he adored, but he really needed to ask you something.

“Look, we’re throwing a party in the common room this Friday night. Will you come?”

“You’re inviting me to a party?”

“I am. Will you come?”

“I think I will.”

Sirius smiles at you, knocking you slightly breathless. Then he kisses you the cheek and you’re pretty certain that you’ve died now because his lips made contact with your skin and your heartrate hit the sky.

“Good, I’ll see you there.”

“You’ll see me beforehand, but yes you’ll see me there.” You whisper, too breathless to try to speak normally.

Friday came too quickly for your liking; you hadn’t even picked out an outfit which had led to your latest predicament - your entire wardrobe spread across the whole dormitory. It didn’t matter what your dorm mates said, you couldn’t find anything to wear and you were starting to feel like a stereotype in a bad film.

“Okay, that’s it. I’m calling it – I’m going to pick what you’re wearing and you’re going to deal with it.” Your dorm mate, Jenny states as she places her hand on the small of your back and guides you to your bed.

“Are you sure?”

“I’ve known you for what? Five/six years? I’m sure, now hush and let me work.”

You’re silent as Jenny goes through your wardrobe, placing item against item seeing what goes together.

“You must really like him.” Jenny murmurs.

“I really do. It honestly started as a little crush because he was pleasing to the eyes, and now that I’ve gotten to know him… well I’m worried that this could be it for me. That one great love all your books go on about.”

Jenny throws a blouse in your face, “You love those books, don’t hate on them.”

You laugh at her, feeling more at ease now than you had felt all day.

“Here you go, wear these and if he doesn’t kiss you by the end of the night, then I’ll hurl my romance books out of the astronomy tower.”

“I’ll hold you to that, I hope you know.”

She presses a kiss to your cheek, “I know, now get changed, I’m going to sort out my makeup.”

You change into the clothes that Jenny had chosen for you; figure hugging maroon flares that you didn’t realise you owned, with an airy white blouse that when tied at the front, showed enough of your stomach to not make you entirely self-conscious.  

When Jenny returns from the bathroom, she wolf-whistles and you contemplate throwing a show at her. She links her arms with yours and you head down to the common room, where you can hear music start to play.

You didn’t know parties would be so warm; it explained why so many got drunk at these things. Not just for pleasure, but to also cool down. Sirius had met you not long after you entered the common room, he kissed your cheek and complimented your outfit. You had thanked him, blushing all the while. You had wondered when you were going to get a grip in such things.

Music was playing, drinks were flowing, and you were enjoying yourself. You found yourself dancing with Jenny more often than not. You had danced with Sirius a couple of times, but he kept getting pulled away somewhere else. You had to admit it annoyed you, but he was the one throwing the party.

Deciding that you had had enough of dancing, you head back to the drinks table and grab yourself a drink that was definitely more alcohol than mixer. Jenny sidles up next to you, shouting over the music, “I think you’ve caught his attention.”

You grin widely, the alcohol taking over “Do you think?”

She nods, “He hasn’t been able to take his eyes off you all night.”

You feel giddy, elated. “I really like him.”

Jenny nods, “I know you do. He’s coming this way though, so maybe tell him, and not me.”

Jenny takes you by the shoulders and turns you around to face Sirius from where he’s walking across the common room to you. Jenny is still holding your shoulders when Sirius’ attention is pulled away from you and onto another girl. Jenny is also there when Sirius and the mystery girl start to kiss.

The breath is knocked out of you, Jenny’s hands slip from your shoulders, and you make your escape. Only just managing to get to your dorm room before starting to sob mercilessly.

Sirius pulls away from the girl immediately. His eyes search the room for you, but he can’t place you. He does find you friend Jenny watching him from the drinks table.

“Where is (Y/N)?”

“She left, Sirius.”

“Why? What happened? Is she okay?”

“I don’t think she is; she saw you kiss that girl.”

“Shit.”

“Shit indeed, Mr Black.”

“I didn’t kiss her, she kissed me.”

Jenny places a hand on Sirius’ arm, “It isn’t me you need to tell that to. She really likes you; I have never seen her this way about a boy before. Please be kind.”

“I will. I really like her as well, I’ve never felt this way about a girl, the last thing I want to do is screw this up.”

“I’m going to go check on her, I’ll see you later Sirius.”

Jenny leaves, while Sirius stands at the drinks table, planning out what he needs to do.

The rest of the night passes in a blur of tears; Jenny is there holding you through it, offering tissues and dramatic retellings of her romance books. Sirius tries to talk to you, but Jenny goes to the door, telling him it would be best to let the alcohol wear off and speak with sober minds. He understands, and he leaves.

The week after the party is emotional hell. All you want to do is fall back into your routine from before and sit with Sirius, but you simply couldn’t. he had cornered you in the common room one evening, “I need to talk to you, (Y/N).”

You whisper, “I know.”

“Please let me talk to you,” Sirius whisper, his voice breaking, a hand partly raised as if he wants nothing more than to grab your hand and keep you there.

You draw back, “Not yet, I need a little more time.”

He nods, the hope that had been flickering in his eyes dimmed slightly. He moves to one side, letting you pass. His heart breaking that little bit more with each step you took away from him.

You were dreading class; it would be an awful class; not the subject matter but the tension between you and Sirius. It had been more than a week since you had a proper conversation, since you had properly enjoyed his company without a worry. He had tried to catch your attention on several occasions, but you just weren’t ready – Jenny had fought for him, stating the plain fact that you would have to face him sooner instead of later.

Conversation in class is attempted on his end, but all you can see as you look at him is him kissing that girl. The class passes by slowly, your need to speak to your Professor increasing. You almost shout in glee when she dismisses the class. You do not miss how quickly Sirius gathers his things and leaves.  

“Professor?”

“Yes (Y/N)? What can I help you with?”

“Why did you sit me next to Sirius?”

“What do you mean? Are you not happy with your assigned seat?”

“Yes, and no.”

Your Professor nods, “I see what’s going on here. Sirius asked me to change the seating plan a few weeks ago.”

Your mouth drops open in shock, “He asked you to do what?”

“He asked me change the seating plan – he asked to be sat next to you. He argued that it was because you would be a good influence on him, and I agreed, but you could also tell that he harbours some feelings for you.”

You stay silent at your Professor’s words. She nods, “I understand now, his feelings are returned, I see. This is interesting.”

“Thank you Professor for letting me know.” You gather your books and bag, ready to go. You needed to have a conversation with Sirius, and you needed to have it now.

“No problem, (Y/N). Hope everything works out.”

“Thank you,” You rush, “I hope so too.”

You run back to the common room; hoping to catch Sirius there. As luck would have it, upon your entering the common room, you catch sight of the messy-haired teenager, sitting on his own by the fire. He looks up as you enter, as if he knew that it would be you to enter through the portrait. He averts his eyes quickly though, and it hurts. It hurts you because you feel utterly to blame for the breakdown in relations between Sirius and yourself; he had started to open up to you, become comfortable with you and you drew away, and left him hanging. It seems you hadn’t just broken your own heart.

“Sirius?” You murmur, walking over to the boy who has had your heart for two years.

He doesn’t answer, but he doesn’t leave either. There’s a million things running around in his head – you hurt him by pulling away, by avoiding him. You never gave him a chance to explain what happened at the party; that he didn’t kiss that girl, that the minute she had kissed him, he pushed her off and started to look for you. Only to find out from your friend that you had left, that you had seen what had happened.

“Sirius, I came to apologise. I’ve been a bit of a bitch if I’m honest.”

His head whips around to you, his grey eyes now focused solely on you. “What?”

Fiddling with your fingers, you say “I came to apologise. I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did, I shouldn’t have pulled away. You have these walls and when you’re with the Marauders, they’re down and they had started to come down with me and you were beginning to open up and then everything happened. At the party, when I saw you kissing that girl, I just lost it. Sirius, you have to understand, I have had feelings for you for a long while now and seeing you kissing that girl when we had grown so close, I got jealous and I got upset. You have a reputation, Sirius, and I thought that you would only ever see me as a friend, as someone to help you with schoolwork. I didn’t even let you explain your side of the story. I spoke to Professor just now to ask why she had sat us next to each other, and she had told me you asked to be moved to be next to me, and everything clicked into place. I shouldn’t have taken it out on you the way I did though, and I am so sorry.”  

Sirius is silent for a few minutes; taking in everything that you’ve just thrown at him. You sit down next to him on the couch and watch the fire.

His voice is hoarse when he starts to speak, “I do have a reputation, but since spending time with you, I have only wanted to be with you. I didn’t kiss her. She kissed me, that’s what happened. I was on my way to find you, to speak to you when she pulled me to her and kissed me. I pulled away immediately, I didn’t want her, I wanted you, I wanted to kiss you. Once I had gotten over to you, your friend Jenny had told me you left and that you had seen what happened. When I got to your dormitory and you wouldn’t answer me, I thought I’d talk to you in class, but you ignored me. When you did talk to me, it was so formal, I thought we had moved past that. It hurt, I feel silly for confessing it, but it hurt. I’ve got feelings for you too, and to see you revert to what we were like before, I was crushed.”

“I am so sorry, Sirius.” Your voice breaks on his name, your eyes shining with unshed tears.

“I’m sorry too. I feel like we could have avoided everything if we simply spoke to each other.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for. However, that girl who kissed you without permission has a well-fashioned hex coming her way.” You frown, not happy with the idea of someone forcing themselves onto Sirius.

“Now that is something I would pay to see.”

“Can you forgive me, Sirius?”

He looks at you startled, “What?”

“I’ve been a fool, a complete fool.”

“As long as you’re my fool.”

You laugh through the tears that are now falling freely. Sirius pulls you to him, places his hands on either side of your face, his thumbs brushing away the tears. You place your hand on top of his, keeping it pressed to your cheek.

“Sirius, I’m not sure if you know this, but I’m about 99% sure I’m in love with you.”

He smiles down at you, a blinding smile. “I’m not sure if you’re aware, but I feel the same.”

“What do you say? Shall we try doing this the right way?”

“I really like the sound of that.”

“I do too.”

Sirius dips his head, and his lips are pressed to yours. You fit together seamlessly. If you could bear the stormy weather, you could bear it all.

[hd-wireless]

📻🎶 H/D Wireless 2020 - Weekly Wrap-up #5

Well here it is! We’re all done and the band has left the stage and the stadium lights have been turned on. We want to thank everyone for their involvement, support, and especially for your cheering!

We’ll be posting the full anonymous set list tomorrow, and then a week after we’ll be posting the set list with all the performers too!

But for now, please treat yourself to all of our creations from week 5!

🎙️ Check out the Playlists:

Youtube

Spotify

🎶 H/D Wireless Art 🎶

📻 Time to Get Out (T)  

🎵 Song prompt: My House - PVRIS

🎵 Summary: A few years post-war, Pansy convinces Draco to go on a night out at a muggle club. They run into some familiar faces.

🎶 H/D Wireless Art and Fic 🎶

📻 That Sweet Sweet Craving (E, 33.2k) 

🎵 Song prompt: Bleeding Out by Imagine Dragons 

🎵 Summary: Harry is miserable living a lie because he thinks being a gay role model is wrong. Fake dates raising money for a charity that ends up putting him in a situation he had never expected. Draco Malfoy appears back in his life by some odd chance trying to flip his world upside down and he isn't sure it's a good thing. Malfoy always worked that way to him. Mental health issues, sex, escaping, and that sweet sweet craving of happiness.

🎶 H/D Wireless Fic 🎶

📻 What Will We Do With a Drunken Harry? (E, 4.9k) 

🎵 Song prompt: "Drunken Sailor" by The Irish Rovers

🎵 Summary: A victorious Quidditch match, a claimed Quidditch Cup, and a wild House party can mean only one thing. Will the aftermath lead to one excruciating hangover in the morning, or will it perhaps lead to something more?

📻 Though Your World Is Changing, I Will Be The Same (E, 15.9k)  

🎵 Song prompt: Slave To Love by Bryan Ferry 

🎵 Summary: “I shower after work,” Harry had told him once when Draco had asked what cologne had such longevity as to be effective after a full day of gruelling Auror work. 

“For me?” Draco had asked. Teased, just a little. There had been a smile lingering on the edges of his consciousness, threatening to traipse onto his mouth. 

“For Ginny,” Harry had said, voice flat. “She hates it when I come back sweaty and crackling with other people’s hexes. Did you know magic has a smell? I didn’t until she told me.”

–

It's all fun and games, till somebody falls in love. Given his luck, it's obviously Draco who has to go and do it.

📻 I Can't Help Falling in Love with You (NR, 4.8k) 

🎵 Song prompt: I can't help falling in love with you - Elvis Presley

🎵 Summary: Harry stood up and set his hand out to Draco. “Dance?”

“I didn’t know you danced, Potter.”

“Hm, I’ve danced a lot in my time," Harry replied smugly.

“How do I know you won’t step on my feet?”

“You don’t, but I think the risk will be worth it.”

📻 Title: Searching For a Place to Hide (T, 12.5k) 

🎵 Song prompt: Love Will Keep Us Alive - The Eagles

🎵 Summary: After the war, there were threats against the Malfoys. Needing them kept safe until the trials are over, the Ministry puts them in protective custody but a murder attempt proves there’s a Ministry leak. Desperate, the Ministry decides a safe house is best, but who to trust to keep it secret and keep them safe? Narcissa calls in a life debt, the Minster calls in a favour and Harry Potter wonders why his life continues to hate him. 

Along the way, the Malfoys learn how to be a family again, Harry learns that some things are not how he thought and maybe never were, and the touch-starved boys discover that they may be each other's forever answer.

📻 Isolated Thunderstorms and Scattered Showers (T, 21.3k) 

🎵 Song prompt: Iris - the GooGoo Dolls

🎵 Summary: Post-war, Harry needs space. Everything is too much all at once, and time and time again, he finds himself pulling the invisibility cloak over his head, just for a bit of peace.

Returning for eighth year is hard, especially when you're considered a war hero, and your name is Harry James Potter. It's just that things go a little wonky when Harry starts following Malfoy, and finds that he can't (or doesn't want to) stop.

📻 Kiss It Better (E, 1.5k) 

🎵 Song prompt: Kiss It Better by Rihanna

🎵 Summary: When Harry's injured, Draco knows there's no place he'd rather be than by his side.

📻 (shut up and) dance with me (T, 7.9k)  

🎵 Song prompt: Shut Up and Dance - Walk the Moon

🎵 Summary: Four dances Harry and Draco share.

📻 In Love with the Ferret (E, 21.9k)  

🎵 Song prompt: I'm Yours by Jason Mraz

🎵 Summary: Harry has never been the most observant bloke. Sometimes to the point of him not realising his feelings for a particular pointy, pale git. And it's not his fault if literally everyone else knows about said feelings except for Harry and the git in question. So it's really not his fault, when faced with the scope of his feelings, he suddenly has a hard time talking to one Draco Malfoy. Or looking him in the eye. Or not being a total weirdo around him.

There's nothing to do but take the advice of his friends and try to woo Draco over dinners with friends, Ministry cases, and an unfortunately named Italian restaurant.

Harry just can't stop the flutter in his chest when he sees Draco smile.

📻 Dance with me? (M, 8.2k)  

🎵 Song prompt: I Wanna Dance With Somebody - Whitney Houston

🎵 Summary: Draco had given up on love, until one day sitting outside the usual gaudy cafe he frequented 'people watching' he spotted Harry Potter lurking, a suspicious Draco investigates and a series of events ensue.

📻 The Cupid Incident (E, 12.6k) 

🎵 Song prompt: Can't Get You out of My Head - Kylie Minogue

🎵 Summary: Draco gets into the way of a potions attack and can't get Potter out of his head.

📻 Carouse (E, 19.9k) 

🎵 Song prompt: Dead by Madison Beer

🎵 Summary: Carouse (verb): To drink plentiful amounts of alcohol and enjoy oneself with others in a noisy, lively way.

Harry finds himself using alcohol in increasingly dangerous ways to cope with the stresses of life. When he is put on leave from work to sort out his issue, he instead falls head first into a lively club scene where he can drink and fuck his worries away. That is, until a certain blond from his past reappears and throws off his entire routine.

Thank you again to everyone who’s sung along with us so far!

We’ll see you again tomorrow for the anonymous masterlist!

[aime-tu]

Don’t Imagine (The Marauders)

When thinking about The Marauders, please don’t imagine the following things. I’m begging you.

Don’t imagine James Potter picking on the obviously scarred and weak boy because he’s different than he is, but later regretting it to the point of complete sadness and humiliation.

Don’t imagine Sirius Black walking to the Gryffindor table after being sorted, the only thought running through his mind, “I don’t belong here.”

Don’t imagine Remus Lupin crying himself to sleep silently every night in his first year because he can’t believe how much of a monster, a disgrace, an animal, a danger, a disappointment, a nuisance he is.

Don’t imagine Peter Pettigrew feeling undoubtedly overwhelmed anytime he’s around his new best friends, trying and failing to keep up with their shenanigans.

Don’t imagine James and Sirius and Peter gaping when they find out that Remus is a werewolf, but deciding that it doesn’t define who he is and will become.

Don’t imagine them telling Remus they know and Remus immediately having a panic attack because, “They’re going to hate me.”

Don’t imagine Sirius hugging Remus so tight that it somehow helps his breathing rather than constricts it, crying into Sirius’ shoulder as he fists the back of his white button-up.

Don’t imagine James Potter beginning to swoon over Lily Evans in the middle of second year, trying to impress her in exceedingly obnoxious ways.

Don’t imagine James staying back with Sirius at Hogwarts for Christmas in third year, and don’t imagine them playing Exploding Snap until the sun rises, empty chocolate frog and Bertie Bott containers spewed across their beds.

And definitely don’t imagine Sirius almost crying because, fuck, he actually had presents for once in his life, only from Mr. and Mrs. Potter.

Don’t imagine Remus confused in the beginning of fourth year after realizing that the carriages that brought them up to the castle aren’t actually pulled by themselves, but rather horse-like creatures that seemed to intrigue him.

Don’t imagine him telling Liky about them a week later, only for her to keep a stony expression as she explained to him what thestrals were.

Don’t imagine him always looking at the thestrals and them being a reminder of the monster he truly is.

Don’t imagine James Potter almost crying that same year when Lily told him that she hated him and wished they never met.

Don’t imagine Sirius waking Remus up at three in the moring having had a nightmare, only to crawl into Remus’ bed and cry into his chest as the other boy stroked his hair and rubbed his back.

Don’t imagine that while sitting across from Remus in the library, eyes peering over his book and onto the amber-eyed boy, that Sirius, indeed, had a crush on him.

Don’t imagine Sirius not talking to anyone, not even but especially Remus, for a week because he refused to believe that he was gay.

Don’t imagine Sirius crying to James and Remus and Peter almost a month later that he was gay, but didn’t dare tell Remus that he had a crush on him.

Don’t imagine James being so unbelievably happy when Lily hugs him for the first time, her head pressed into his chest and her scent lingering on his body just long enough that he was happy for a little while.

Don’t imagine Sirius climbing into Remus’ bed, yet again in fifth year, only to have his chin lifted up from Remus’ chest, grey eyes staring into amber, and soft lips pressed against his own.

And please don’t imagine how utterly spectacular Sirius felt after that moment as their foreheads rested against each other’s, Remus planting soft kisses on Sirius’ jaw.

Don’t imagine Remus and Sirius hiding their relationship for months with various broom closet rendezvous and skipping class to find an abandoned classroom to snog in, or just making out in the dorm room carelessly.

Don’t imagine James covering his eyes when he sees them together, and then commenting that they just had to make out on his bed.

Don’t imagining Sirius laughing at his comment so hard that he falls off the bed before James shouts, “Serves you right, you horny wanker! On my bloody bed! Where are your manners?”

Don’t imagine James and Sirius and Peter trying to find out for fucking months on how to become Animagi, only to have a gigantic party when they finally do complete the rituals.

Don’t imagine Remus’ confusion when he walks into the dormitory and streamers hanging off bed posts and ballons conjured and spelled to glow different colors fill the room, and when asked simply why, James responds, “We’re animals!”

Don’t imagine his further confusion and Sirius explaining it to him, and please don’t imagine how he was in denial for a few minutes because, “There’s no way you three knumbskulls managed to find a way to turn yourselves into bloody animals whenever you want.”

But don’t imagine him suddenly coming to terms with it when the three did it for him and crying in happiness to them.

Don’t imagine Sirius and Remus’ PDA after sixth year starts, random forehead and neck kisses given to the shorter boy on the train ride back to Hogwarts.

Don’t imagine James gagging jokingly every time they do it, Peter hitting his arm because, “They’re cute, shut up!”

Don’t imagine Remus crying over his scars and condition, not believing a word Sirius says when he remarks that he’s the most beautiful person he’s ever laid eyes on.

Don’t imagine Sirius kissing every scar sensually, attempting to show Remus how gorgeous he actually was.

Don’t imagine Sirius and Remus breathing heavily, bodies covered in sweat and passion lingering off of them as they lay in each other’s arms, shocked and happy because, fuck, that really just happened.

Don’t imagine how Remus’ time during the full moons got better after the three boys became Animagi, and don’t imagine how shocked he was to see that he hadn’t gotten a new scar in two months.

Don’t imagine the four of them sneaking through the halls at night, mapping their masterpiece with smiles across their faces.

Don’t imagine how fucking happy they are when it’s finished, dubbing it, “The Marauder’s Map,” as Sirius attacks Remus with a deep kiss, smiling against his lips.

Don’t imagine Sirius coming back to Hogwarts at the start of seventh year with dead eyes and a much paler complexion.

And don’t imagine him breaking down into Remus’ arms about how a war was starting and he was sure his family wasn’t on the good side of it, his brother included.

Don’t imagine Remus being scared in that moment because a war was breaking out and they were in the middle of it, but putting on a brave face and comforting Sirius.

Don’t imagine James being over the goddamn moon when Lily finally says yes to his Hogsmeade invitation, only for it to be the most awkward first date ever.

Don’t imagine how they warmed up to each other eventually and became as close as Remus and Sirius were, and don’t imagine her kissing James on the cheek after a date and James just standing, frozen in his spot and clutching his cheek, for about half an hour.

Don’t imagine Remus and Sirius kissing everywhere and all the time, because they didn’t know if the war would somehow separate them.

Don’t imagine Remus secretly knowing that he wouldn’t let anything come between them.

Don’t imagine the four boys graduating Hogwarts, Sirius and Remus still together and James and Lily newly dating, only to volunteer to fight in the goddamn war and join the Order.

Don’t imagine Remus and Sirius getting a flat in London, and don’t imagine that those three years were the best three years they spent together.

Don’t imagine Sirius running around the flat, arms in the air and smile on his face because, “Lily’s fucking pregnant!”

Don’t imagine how shocked Sirius was when James asked him to be Harry’s godfather, and him accepting immediately and hugging James tightly.

Don’t imagine how Remus smiled every time Sirius held Harry or played with him, because he so badly wanted that with Sirius.

Don’t imagine the five friends shocked and confused when Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall, along with the fucking Minster of Magic appear at their doorstep with grim expressions.

Don’t imagine how silent the room fell when Dumbledore told James and Lily about Voldemort and the profecy.

Don’t imagine Sirius being made the secret keeper, only for James and Lily to change it to Peter in late October of 1981 because, like the name implies, it needs to be a secret, and Sirius was a bit obvious.

Don’t imagine Peter Pettigrew loving these people dearly, but not enough to stop himself from feeding Voldemort information on where the three were hidden.

Don’t imagine when James hears someone break into his home, starting to yell for Lily to take Harry and run, that he’ll hold him off and they should leave him.

Don’t imagine when Lily doesn’t budge from spot in front of the crib, gripping onto the wood as she begins to cry to Harry about how much she loves him and James.

Don’t imagine her whimpers as she sees a faint flash of green light and the whoosh of a spell, followed by a body hitting the floor and someone beginning to walk towards Harry’s room.

Don’t imagine her blocking Harry from Voldemort, shielding him with her love, and crying as she pleads for him not to, her wails blending into the thin air as she falls to the floor as well.

Don’t imagine Sirius getting a hunch that something’s wrong, taking his motorbike and going to Godric’s Hollow, only to find the front door ajar slightly.

Don’t imagine him walking through James and Lily’s house, eyeing their walls and shelves carefully because, why would their front door be open?

Don’t imagine him going numb as he sees James’ lifeless body, his brother, his best friend, lying dead on the ground.

Don’t imagine him crying as he sees Lily as well, picking Harry up and crying with him as he examines the lighting-bolt shaped scar on his head.

Don’t imagine him feeling wretched as Harry is taken from his arms by Hagrid under Dumbledore’s orders, as he wanted to take care of him with Remus.

Don’t imagine him finding Peter and confronting him in the street, only to have him take out the Muggles as a distraction for him to get away as Wormtail.

Don’t imagine how Sirius was suddenly arrested for the murder of these people, said to be thrown in Azkaban to his dismay.

Don’t imagine Remus getting the call and speeding down to the Ministry where Sirius’ immediate trial was taking place, bursting through the doors as he cried slightly.

Don’t imagine the two locking eyes, and Sirius somehow communicating with Remus, trying to tell him that he didn’t do it.

Don’t imagine Remus looking right back at him, but without any message attached, as he didn’t know what to believe at that point.

Don’t imagine him wanting to scream with every word the Minister said, because Sirius was innocent and he needed to let him go.

Don’t imagine Remus not able to move as they sentenced him to life in Azkaban, his pleadings filling the court room as he was hauled away.

Don’t imagine Remus not knowing what to do, because in the span of a day, all three of his best friends, one of which being the love of his life, were taken away from him.

Don’t imagine him going back to his flat and crying into Sirius’ leather jacket, clutching it against his chest as he thought about how he wouldn’t be able to live alone, without Sirius.

Don’t imagine Remus a week later, face unshaven and having worn the same clothes for seven days, digging through Sirius’ bedside drawer in attempts to somehow bring him back.

Don’t imagine Remus picking up a small, black velvet box and impeaching it curiously, only to see that it was an engagement ring.

Don’t imagine him refusing to wear it, but definitely not throwing it out.

Don’t imagine him grieving for the next three years over the fact that he would never feel Sirius’ lips on his own again, his touch or even his breath.

Don’t imagine his transformations becoming ten times worse after all of his friends are gone.

Don’t imagine nine years later being offered the DADA position at Hogwarts by Dumbledore himself, and hesitating before he gleefully accepted.

Don’t imagine him trying to keep his composure as Harry walks up to him during their Ridikulus lesson, because fuck, that’s James.

Don’t imagine him confiscating the Map from Harry as he wanders the halls at night, only to bring it back to his room and smile as he repeatedly got the saying wrong so he could see James and Sirius and Peter giving him advice on how to flip his words.

Don’t imagine Remus in the shrieking shack, suddenly staring at goddamn Sirius Black, disheveled and dirty from Azkaban, laying in front of him.

Definitely don’t imagine him hauling Sirius up and hugging him so tight, he couldn’t muster up a single shallow breath.

Don’t imagine him getting back together with Sirius and finally being happy for the first time in twelve years, back in his arms.

Don’t imagine the two feeling safe together, their late-night talks filling up their time along with snogging everywhere to make up for lost time.

Don’t imagine two years later in the Department of Mysteries as he watched Sirius duel with Harry, smiling slightly as he duels himself, because he’s staring at Sirius and James in essence.

Don’t imagine him suddenly standing next to Harry and watching in shock as Sirius fights against his cousin, spells flying everywhere.

Don’t imagine the screams of Harry James Potter as he watched as Sirius Black fell into the Veil, being held back by Remus who couldn’t even think himself.

Don’t imagine how Remus felt when he realized that Sirius Orion Black was dead.

Don’t imagine how he felt torn apart. Don’t imagine how much he began to miss Sirius, how much he grieved for him, like he was in Azkaban again.

Don’t imagine Remus crying hysterically later that night because it wasn’t like Azkaban; Sirius was gone for good.

And, for the love of Merlin and the Lord above, don’t imagine Remus fighting in the Battle of Hogwarts another two years later, a killing curse hitting his shoulder, and the last thing running through his mind as he hits the floor being, “I’ll be with you soon.”

This was super long, sorry, but just brb. Crying my eyes out.

[bush-viper-cutie]

“The Three Broomsticks” || YEAR 3 – Ch.20 (HP au)

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Day posted: 9/15/2020

Word count: 2, 706

Relationship: EVENTUAL severus X oc (slow burn)

Rating: E for everyone

Warnings: none

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A/N: This is my first fan fic I’m writing mainly as a way to practice. This is a retelling of the hp books with an inserted character. Although most every character will be written about, this is mostly for the pro snape fandom. Please do not fear, although this is a severus x oc story, it is an incredibly slow burn as I do not intend for them to get together at all until after the final book events. Chapters will be posted twice a week.

This derivative work follows the events of the Harry Potter books by Jk Rowling and is intended as a fun way to practice my writing. Thank you for reading :D

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Heather stepped out into the road outside of Honeydukes and jumped behind Harry and Hermione, shielding her face from the whipping wind and stinging snowflakes being thrown around them. They quickly ran down the street and entered the tiny inn before they froze in the blizzard.

The bartender woman smiled at them as they entered and went back to serving a loud group of wizards in the back, calming them down with another round of drinks and chips.

“Butterbeer’s two sickles.” Ron opened his hand.

They stuffed their hands in their pockets and pulled out the coins before making their way to a corner table while Ron got the drinks. They slipped in beside a Christmas tree and sat at the table. Heather looked out the window at the blizzard and shivered in her chair.

The inn was nice, far nicer than the Leaky Cauldron, and cozier too. There was a warm fire next to the bar and the heat radiated all the way to their back table in waves that followed the flames.

Ron came back holding two tankards of butterbeer in each hand and sat down next to Heather. “These’ll thaw us down.”

Heather slid her tankard in front of herself and hummed happily, keeping her hands on the warm wood and feeling the blood return to her hands. She tipped it into her mouth and drank the toasty liquid and set the tankard down with a clank.

“That’s amazing!” It was the most delicious drink she’d ever tasted. Better than eggnog even, and she loved sneaking sips from the Dursley’s eggnog cartons.

Now that their lips weren’t so frozen, Hermione reminded them of why they were there.

“Right… So,” Harry started, looking around. He leaned in and waited for them to do the same. “Fred and George gave us a map that shows all the secret passages out of Hogwarts.”

Ron’s jaw dropped. “They what?”

“They said they didn’t need it anymore, having memorized it all and everything,” Heather said quickly, seeing the face of betrayal Ron was making.

“It’s a secret map too, enchanted to look like normal parchment and everything. It’s really amazing.” Harry avoided Hermione’s eyes when speaking, seeing the look of shock wash away and concern replace it.

Hermione turned to Heather. “You’re going to turn that in immediately, aren’t you?”

Heather pressed her lips together, knowing that would be the right thing to do, if only she didn’t find that map incredibly useful, especially since it had come in handy once before and would come in handy way more, now that she was used to the idea of sneaking around the castle. “Well…”

“Well what?” Hermione demanded. “Do you three have any idea how dangerous that map is right now?” She lowered her voice, “With Sirius Black walking around TRYING to get in?”

“Succeeding, remember. He doesn’t need that map,” Ron reminded them.

“Exactly. Besides, if I handed it in, I’d have to tell on Fred and George. I’m sure Filch realized it was gone and would ask me where I got it. They’d get in trouble.”

Heather nodded in agreement, but knowing that was a horrible excuse. “And, Hermione, do you really think Professor Dumbledore doesn’t know about any of these passages? He knows everything about the castle – ”

“Except the Chamber of Secrets,” Hermione crossed her arms.

“R-right… but that’s different…” she bit her lip and looked to Ron for help.

“Uh,” Ron started. “A-and they came in through Honeydukes! We’d’ve heard about a break-in there if he knew about the secret passage they took.”

They all looked at Hermione who did not seem very happy but couldn’t argue against all of them.

Ron finished the discussion by pointing to a notice posted to the window, reminding them all of the dementors roaming around the village after sundown. “He’d have to break into Honeydukes during the day or risk getting caught by those things at night.”

Heather gasped suddenly, as she spotted emerald green robes walk past the window. There was a rush of air that pulled on their hair as the door opened with a ding of the bell and closed behind Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Hagrid, and Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic.

Ron and Hermione pushed Harry and Heather under the table, hiding them from view. Heather watched their feet walk over to the bar, turn, and walk towards them. She heard Hermione whisper ‘Leviosa’ at the Christmas tree, levitating it several inches off the ground. Heather quickly took out her wand and whispered ‘Mobiliarbus’, helping Hermione move it over to cover their table.

Through the thick lower branches of the decorated tree, she saw four sets of chair legs move back at the table right besides theirs and heard creaks as they all sat down in their seats. A pair of sparkly high heels came clacking down to them.

“Gillywater, Minerva?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“Four pints of mulled mead?”

“Ta, Rosemerta,” said Hagrid.

“Dry cherry soda?”

“Thank you, thank you!” Professor Flitwick squeaked.

“Your rum then, Minster.”

“Rosemerta, thank you m’dear. Won’t you take a break and join us? It’s lovely to see you again.”

“I’d love to, Minster.” There was a final thump and another chair got pulled back. The sparkly heels moved in front of the chair legs one at a time and with a creak of the chair, Rosemerta sat down.

It was the last weekend of term for the teachers too, and it looked like they were going to enjoy their time in Hogsmeade with the rest of the students. Heather looked to Harry, both knowing this meant they’d have little to no time to make it back to Honeydukes before it closed at sundown.

“What brings you down here, Minister?” said Rosemerta.

There was a pause and in a hushed tone, Cornelius Fudge responded. “I’m on the business of Sirius Black, m’dear. You heard what happened up at the school on Halloween, did you?”

“There’s been rumors.”

“If by rumor you mean Hagrid…” Professor McGonagall sighed.

“Is Black really still in the area? Is that why you’re down?”

“I’m absolutely certain of it.”

Hermione lightly kicked them after hearing the Minister’s words.

“Which means the dementors will be staying,” Rosemerta sounded annoyed. “They searched my pub twice last week – scared nearly everyone away.”

“I am sorry about that, m’dear. I don’t like them any more than anyone else does – those awful creatures – but they are necessary to keep everyone safe. I’ve just met a few and, well they’re in quite a mood. Dumbledore won’t let them in the castle and – ”

“And why would he?” Professor McGonagall cut in. “How can we teach with those horrifying things floating around above our heads? You know how many wizards experience severe reactions to them. Let alone young students.”

“Oh absolutely could not teach with them in my classroom,” Flitwick agreed.

“Yes. But however true that is, the dementors serve a purpose. They protect from something much, much worse. Remember what Black’s capable of.”

“We remember,” came Hagrid’s somber voice.

“I still can’t believe it. All these years and I just can’t,” Rosemerta sighed. “Sirius Black… of all people? I remember him and his friends back when they went to school… If you’d’ve told me any one of them could turn to the Dark Side I’d’ve said you had too much to drink.”

“You know he’s far worse than people realize.”

“What’s worse than murdering all those people, Minister?”

“You remember his best friend, don’t you, Rosemerta?” Professor McGonagall asked.

Rosemerta laughed. “How could I not? They were joined at the hip! Thick as thieves those, two. There was never one in here without the other. Oh, and they were the funniest pair of kids I’ve ever had in here. Quite the double act, those two… Sirius Black and James Potter… What boys they were.”

Heather choked on her breath. She squeezed her mouth between her elbow and coughed. She couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. She stared at the sparkly heels and shook her head.

“A couple of troublemakers those two, but exceptionally bright – very bright minds. They were the ringleaders of their little gang. Those four…” Professor McGonagall trailed off.

“They were all good as brothers,” Professor Flitwick added.

Professor McGonagall continued. “Inseparable. He was best man at James’ wedding… In fact, James made Sirius godfather to his children.”

Rosemerta’s gasp echoed that of Heather and Harry’s. Why hadn’t they been told any of this? That’s why everyone was so weirdly intense about it all around them. That’s why Mr. Weasley thought they’d go looking… Because Sirius Black was they’re father’s best friend.

“Can’t imagine how that’d torment them to know,” Hagrid murmured.

“Because Black was on the opposite side as James? Black was in league with You-Know-Who?”

“Worse, m’dear. Far worse,” Fudge spoke up. “The Potters knew You-Know-Who was after them. Dumbledore had many useful spies, and one of them tipped him off about it and he immediately alerted the Potters. He told them their best chance at hiding from You-Know-Who was the Fidelius Charm.”

“What’s that?”

“The Fidelius Charm,” Professor Flitwick put on his teaching voice. “Is a complex spell that conceals a secret inside of a single, living soul. The information is hidden inside that person and is impossible to find… unless that secret keeper chooses to divulge it. As long as the secret-keeper never opens their mouth, the information could be right under your nose and you’d never find it in your lifetime or after.”

“The Potters made Black their Secret-keeper then?” Rosemerta whispered.

“Of course,” Professor McGonagall tapped her foot. “Naturally. Dumbledore offered to be the Secret-Keeper for them… but James told him that Black would rather die than reveal their location, that Black said he’d go into hiding for them… Dumbledore was still worried, however.”

“Did he suspect Black?” Rosemerta asked Heather’s question.

“He suspected someone among them – someone close to them – was keeping You-Know-Who informed. Everywhere the Potters hid, Death Eaters were not far behind.”

“And yet he insisted on having Black as his Secret-Keeper?”

“He trusted him,” whispered Harry.

Heather turned to him and stared into his eyes. He was too focused to notice.

“He did,” Fudge said slowly. “That only lasted a week of course… Just a week after the Fidelius Charm was performed… Black turned them into You-Know-Who sometime that week. Of course, little did You-Know-Who know that’d he’d meet his downfall facing little Harry Potter. All weak and powerless, he fled and died who knows where. With no master, Black was put in a very serious position. He was a traitor with nowhere else to go.”

Hagrid growled. “I met him that day. I musta bin the last to see him! I went down to rescue Harry an’ Heather from their house. It was me what took them to safety. I’d gotten there, seen all that ruin an’-an’ their parents lyin’ on the floor in front o’them… Harry with a big gash on his forehead. Then here comes Sirius Black, in that flyin’ muggle motorbike. He was all white an’ shakin’ in his boots, he was. AN’ I COMFORTED THAT MURDERIN’ TRAITOR!” Hagrid roared.

“Shhhhhh.” Professor McGonagall kicked him under the table.

“He wanted them, y’know. He asked me for them. But I said no. I’d had me orders to get them to their aunt and uncle’s house. He gave me his bike ter use. Said he wasn’t needin’ it no more.”

“It would have been too easy for the Ministry to trace,” Fudge said.

“At least the Ministry caught him next day,” Rosemerta said after a long pause.

“If only we had. One of their friends, Peter Pettigrew got to him before we did. Furious at him for betraying them. Fought Black as soon as he found him…”

“He had always been a poor duelist,” said Professor McGonagall heavily.

“Took a team of highly trained Hit Aurors from Magical Law Enforcement to take him down. I was a junior Minister in the Department of Magical Catastrophes… It was a sight to see. The giant crater and Black standing there… right in the center standing over bloody robes and… the remains.”

There was a long pause.

“Well, there it is, m’dear. Took twenty squad members to bring him into Azkaban, where he stayed for twelve years.”

“But he must be mad now, spending all that time in Azkaban.”

“You’d think that. No, I met him my last visit to Azkaban… Everyone else normally sits in their cell, muttering wildly to themselves, rocking back and forth, staring at the walls… Not Black. He spoke to me quite clearly. So normal, it was unnerving. He asked for my newspaper, ha! Must’ve been bored… How he managed to stay sane is beyond me. He was the most heavily guarded… dementors posted outside his door and barred window day and night.”

There was another pause and a clink of glass on wood.

“Minister, if you’re dining with the Headmaster today, we should get going,” said Professor McGonagall.

One by one they all got up and pushed in their chairs. Professor McGonagall’s emerald green robes swung back into place just at her ankles and slowly everyone but Rosemerta left the inn.

There was a flurry of snow that had blown in as the door swung closed, and Harry and Heather stayed sitting there in shocked silence. Heather was shaking her head, unbelieving everything they’d just said. She pushed everything away, hating it all. She hated knowing about her parents and their past, hating thinking they existed without them.

They were names and words, sounds without meaning. And now she knew her father had a best friend, and a group of loyal friends… and he was a troublemaker and a brilliant wizard and… he’d trusted his bestest friend with his life… and the life of his family… ‘Quite the double act, those two’… She shook her head again.

“Heather?”

“Harry?”

Heather and Harry looked up at Hermione and Ron, poking their heads down to check on them. The tree had been moved back and it was clear to come out. They sat back in their seats and sipped the butterbeer in silence. Ron and Hermione never spoke a word the rest of the time.

“We should head back,” Harry pushed his empty tankard away.

Everyone nodded and they slowly got up. They exited the Three Broomsticks and ran back to Honeydukes. They were told they were closing soon and the first chance they could, Heather and Harry snuck back down to the cellar, leaving Ron and Hermione standing worried and awkward alone at the door.

The tunnel walk back to the castle was quiet between them. She knew Harry had a million questions and wanted to talk to her. He kept glancing at her as they walked in the light of their wands, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the rocky ground.

When they were younger, she had always rejected the idea that their parents had died in a car crash. She’d told Harry stories about how they were simply dust clumps come to life for the sole purpose of annoying the Dursleys. And now she couldn’t stop thinking of two young boys running around Hogwarts, throwing dung bombs in the halls and getting yelled at by Filch. About a boy that looked very much like Harry, wearing ruby red robes and flying around in the Quidditch Pitch. About people laughing at his jokes.

She was brought back from her thoughts by Harry asking for the spell to open the witch up again. She mumbled the spell and let him lead her out.

In no time at all she was lying on her bed, face buried in her pillow, trying not to think about what James Potter would have been like as a father. He was a bright wizard… would he have been proud of her? She crawled under the covers and stayed there through dinner.

In the end, she decided it made no difference. She closed her eyes for bed as the other girls blew out their candles. If she didn’t care what her grandparents or great, great, great grandparents were like, why should she care what they were like?

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[aparecium-hq]

Name: Albus Potter Birthday (Age): March 15, 2006 (21) Gender (Pronouns): Male (He/Him) Blood Status: Halfblood Hogwarts House: Slytherin Occupation:  Researcher at the Ministry Faceclaim: Aubrey Joseph

Character Teaser

Albus has always been the middle Potter child, the serious one, the anxious one, and any number of descriptions that don’t feel fair. No one ever calls him the ambitious one or the one who wants to make his own way. Perhaps that’s because James quite literally soared straight into his dreams and his own fame. Albus didn’t have the luxury of a broomstick to take him there, but personally he’s always wanted to settle his ambitions on something a little more meaningful. That’s not a slight to James, not directly. Albus wants to matter and as more than just Harry Potter’s son and Albus Dumbledore’s namesake.

Feelings on Magical Integration

Muggle technology was something Albus embraced completely. Most of his family seemed to, but while no one else seems to realize it, Albus was the one who taught his dad to use a computer, who got the hero of the wix world ready to introduce them to the auror office. Albus has a similar optimism for muggle integration, although he isn’t naive enough to think that it can happen quickly or on a whim. It will take planning and slow work, but as far as Albus can tell, most of the best plans do.

Biography

The middle Potter, the second son of a hero, Albus Potter has lived a certain amount of his life in the public eye. He’s always been conscious of attention, desiring it less and less as he grew older. He finds respite in close acquaintances and good friends, small settings and familiar environments. His family, though sometimes the very people he’s clashing with, are always his first source of solace and comfort. Whatever tensions they might have, they’re his people. And woe be told to anyone who crosses the line in his presence.

From a young age, Albus showed a taciturn bent and found himself at his Aunt Hermione’s side with frequency. Books and stories became his companions as much as his brother. And sometimes to better effect. He devoured literature, asked his aunt and parents for lessons and primers, and had a raging row over the fact that other children could go to primary school. He saw Hogwarts and education as the next great challenge, the next great adventure. He saw it as where he truly belonged.

How wonderfully cruel that reality can be.

Hogwarts wasn’t the worst thing really. It was a learning experience to be sure, in more than just the academics. Sorted into Slytherin and falling into a different vein than his brother and father, he acquired more than a little gossip. But Albus had been backed into an unfamiliar corner before, so he did what came naturally. His tongue lashed, far faster than his wand ever could, and he caught trouble with it. A black eye and a split lip were his reward, but the third year Gryffindor was on the ground and his opinion amongst his housemates was settled: he was a snake, through and through.

He learned quickly, taking in everything he could from his housemates and classes. He learned that his reserved nature was a gap people had to cross, that the masks he used out of indifference or out of annoyance with the press were tools at his disposal, he learned that his words were not just barbs, but arrows. By his third year, he changed tones and temperaments like cloaks, dressing for the occasion as it was warranted. He found that the most effective mask though, was indifference. He could take on the affect of the uninterested, the teen who was there just to be there. It let him sink to the back, people looking over him for someone more interested. And that gave Albus the thing he valued most : time.

From his seat in the background, he developed a knack for patterns that spread naturally to arithmancy while his ability to apply accumulated logic on the fly endeared him to charms all the more. They became his best subjects, followed rather quickly by history of magic. Though that one? That was a practiced study. Especially after the Madley Properies came about.

The change of the world while he was at Hogwarts was sudden. The access to more technology meant access to more information. Muggle information. Albus devoured it all, spending hours cross referencing magical history with muggle timelines, building comprehensive understanding of events and their influence on either side of the Statute of Secrecy. How the political actions in the muggle world influenced the economic realities of the magically community, or how a magical malady could seep over into the muggle world and insight chaos because of the tiniest bit of other. He learned that things were far more interconnected than most people thought.

And he realized how absolutely mad changing anything quickly was.

He graduated with respectable marks in his favored disciplines, with his only truly problematic grade coming in Defense. But he wasn’t looking to join his father in the Aurors. Eventually he wanted to end up somewhere in the DMLE, somewhere in regulation and jurisprudence. But first, he needed information. His classes were dreadfully sparse on the machinations that drove their society, and that’s what he needed to understand. He’d never had to fake an interest in his Aunt Hermione’s work, and the right words had him at the Ministry, running paper and writing briefs and other monotonous work best left to the newly graduated. But he was there. That was the important part.

He worked in the depths of the Ministry’s archives, pulling up documents and cross referencing whatever needed to be done. He ran errands, made tea, and hug out in the break-room generally putting on the show of being a disaffected teen working simply because he had to. And it made sense that he was in the Ministry, being who he was after all. Why it made perfect sense that he was wandering into the Minster’s office to bother his family.

Just a nephew visiting his aunt. Nothing sinister in that.

Now at twenty-one, Albus has become something of a fixture in the research apparatus of the magical government of England. His pattern recall and gift for memorization has made him the place where most research inquiries begin: ask Potter, he’ll show you how to start. His analytical mind lends itself to complicated cross application of policy and precedent and his use of technology in the filing system has made him indispensable. He’s still technically a lowly researcher in the basement of the government buildings, but it’s a carefully crafted image. He’s sitting carefully at the center of a web of ministry communication and employees, feeding on and putting out information as needs musts.

Connections

Scorpius Malfoy: Albus never wants Rose to know that at this point, he considers Scorpius his best friend. Generally he doesn’t talk about his relationship with his roommate to anyone else because if he did, it might acknowledging that there’s something more.

Rose Weasley: Albus sometimes feels like he came between Rose and Scorpius with his friendship, but if Rose thinks the same, she’s never said. The two are just as close as they’ve always been.

Morgan Thomas: Their parents are family friends, so Albus has sort of known Morgan for most of his life. He’s always found Morgan to be a bit standoffish, but Albus is sure the same could be said about himself.

Albus is played by Wes.

[amethysttribble]

Harry Potter!Silmarillion AU, GO!

- Finwë Noldoran the Seventh is from an old distinguished pureblood family, with a fine Gryffindor history. Miriel Weaver was a Slytherin half-blood, and people were shocked when they married very young and very much in love.

- Years later though, Finwë, an up and coming politician in the MoM, caused quite the scandal when his sickly wife died a few years after the birth of their son and he remarried within the year.

- Finwë’s eldest son, Feanor, Miriel’s boy, makes sure this scandal doesn’t die, and Rita Skeeter is inspired in her youth by the angry interviews he gave as a teenager.

- The second wife, Indis Vanyar, is from another pure-blood, very distinguished family. Her elder brother served two terms as Minister of Magic, but lost favor when he refused to interfere in the growing Death Eater problem on the council of ‘higher powers’

- Finwë became the Minster of Magic right as the war against Voldemort started. Albus Dumbledore backed him.

- Finwë was a very distinguished Gryffindor, and he, as well as everyone else, expected the same of his sons (though he’d never say it allowed)

- So it caused quite the stir when neither the eldest nor the youngest were Gryffindors (Feanor went to Slytherin, though it took the hat half an hour to decide; Fingolfin is a Gryffindor, the selfless bastard; Finarfin went Ravenclaw)

- The girls, Findis and Lalwen, went to Hufflepuff and Gryffindor respectively

- While at Hogwarts, the young prodigy Feanor aces all his courses, wins Slytherin the house cup six times, (one year he blew up half the castle and couldn’t win back all the points that lost him; winning and losing points in astounding quantities was his M.O.) dazzles a lot of people, and pisses even more people off.

- He’s in the same class as Arthur Weasley and Molly Prewitt, among others, and studies alchemy independently. He has very little free time, associates with very small groups of people, and spends more time in the Restricted Section than the actual library.

- He makes Head Boy, but not Prefect.

- Feanor once challenged his little half-brother to a duel in the Great Hall during his seventh year and received a months worth detention. 

- The Gryffindors hate him for attacking a second year, among other many and varied reasons. All the Gryffindors hate him, except one.

- His company is mostly kept by the Gryffindor Seeker, Nerdanel Smith, and they elope hours after graduating. 

- Feanor wasn’t speaking to his father at the time, so no family attended the ceremony. Not even the Charms professor, Mahtan Smith (he retired within the next few years. Filius Flitwick, rather scandalously as he was part goblin, replaced him).

- Feanor spends two years working in the Department of Mysteries, before quitting in a rather spectacular display. After that, he and his family seemed to go off the grid.

- It was generally accepted that Feanor (snobbish, talented, Slytherin) was a perfect candidate for Voldemort’s movement, and that's where he went after leaving the ministry. These rumors were mostly perpetuated by gossips, embittered school mates, and his brother, but only when Fingolfin was in a foul mood and severely drunk. (He never believed it in the light of day.)

- These rumors are wrong. Feanor’s in France with Nicholas Flamel, living a bohemian lifestyle with his artist wife and newborn, Maedhros.

- Meanwhile, Fingolfin, five years Feanor’s junior, is in a silent war with his year mate, Lucius Malfoy, and trying to follow in his father’s footsteps. He’s a keeper. He’s dates a Ravenclaw prefect girl. He is a prefect and a member of the Slug Club, and in the top ten of his class. He’s Head Boy. And it’s never enough to get his Father to notice him sitting in the dust of Feanor’s disastrous, amazing genius.

- Fingolfin watches the rise of the Death Eaters in Britain, while his brother is off to the continent. He watches Slytherins come back from summer with tattoos. He sees friends get letters about dead relatives. His Muggle-born girlfriend, Anaire, is assaulted once. 

- Fingolfin keeps in touch with Dumbledore after he graduates, and abandons his political plans. He becomes an Auror. 

- His parents are only slightly appalled, though Mother still cries. Through Ingwë they see the decay. Finwë hears nasty rumors about Voldemort’s shadowy benefactor.

- Lalwen follows her brother to the Order of the Phoenix. Findis marries an American and moves.

- Finarfin, meanwhile, quietly studies legilimenecy and occlumency. 

- He does moderately well at Hogwarts, joins the gobstones club, and makes a fool of himself trying to ask out his childhood friend, Earwen Teleri. His is a prefect, but not Head Boy. He’s okay with this.

- He and Earwen open a teashop after graduating.

- The war happens. 

- Finwë is named Minster of Magic amid an unparalleled disaster.

- Due to old family connections, Fingolfin is Dumbledore’s go-to on matters concerning someone named ‘Melkor’.

- It is emotionally exhausting work. He and Anaire collect rumors, he creates an auror task force focusing on this ‘Balrog Gang’. The Order makes contact with someone known as ‘The Lieutenant’ and Caradoc Dearborn pays the price. People are dying. They are so tired.

- They have a son named Fingon, born two years after the First Wizarding War starts. The year was 1972. James Potter and Lily Evans had just started their second year.

- Across the channel, Nerdanel and Feanor have a pair of toddlers, increasingly distressing letters from their families, and the designs to some shiny rocks. They talk about having another child.

- They are visited by a man with a tattoo that doesn’t quite look like the dark mark. He introduces himself at Melkor Bauglir and is very interested in Feanor’s work. 

- Feanor say, “Get out of my foyer, you dementor’s pet of Azkaban.”

- How Feanor knew he was once imprisoned in Azkaban by his brother, Melkor doesn’t know. He just knows he’s angry. And that he must bide his time.

- Feanor loves his father very dearly and wishes to help him in this awful war that Ingwe caused and then ran away from. Feanor sends his father the alchemic weapons he’s been creating. He calls them the ‘Silmarils’.

- Minister Finwë Noldoran the Seventh was murdered in Diagon Alley on July 27th, 1973 by Melkor Bauglir and an acromantula. Three gems were stolen from his corpse.

- Feanor and Nerdanel hold off on that third child and come home. Nicholas Flamel hides the Philosopher’s Stone down a deep well. Feanor swears bloody vengeance against all even loosely associated with the Death Eaters. He wants his rocks back.

- Fingolfin thinks it’s about damn time Feanor cared about this war.

- Finarfin and Earwen add a bookshop onto their tea shop. They talk about having a child.

- The war wages on. 

- Fingolfin is busy, Feanor is angry, Finarfin is painting, and everyone is so very frightened.

- Feanor does not join the Order of the Phoenix. Fingolfin doesn’t let anyone entertain the idea of asking him to. He knows his brother doesn’t take orders well. Despite that, they make sure Feanor’s efforts are supported and don’t clash with their own unintentionally.

- Feanor is very charismatic. He almost starts his own order. He personally kills Evan Rosier at Finarfin’s tea shop. Earwen isn’t happy.

- Lalwen dies a hero, saving the lives of Edgar Bones’ family. She and Edgar both lost their lives in the triumphant last stand.

- Finarfin takes her favorite drink and cake off his menu. Fingolfin is never the same. Feanor regrets, and contemplates.

- Findis moves her mother to America, and vows to never return to Britain. Her tears are plentiful and furious.

- War goes on.

- The year is 1975, and Finrod Noldoran is born. So is Turgon Noldoran. 

- Nerdanel remembers that they wanted another child before everything went to hell. Everyone has vowed, after all, to still be happy and unafraid, despite being absolutely terrified.

- Celegorm Noldoran is born in 1976.

- Aredhel Noldoran is born in 1976, a few months later.

- Feanor’s fourth child, Caranthir, is a year after them, and was conceived rather suddenly and surprisingly.

- Fingolfin thinks Feanor just wants to claim he has the most children, and makes sure everyone knows it at their meetings in Finarfin’s teashop.

- Somehow, ‘The Swan’s Cup’ has become the center of Feanor and Fingolfin’s joint efforts. They host anti-Voldemort-and-‘Morgoth’ meetings there.  

- When Feanor wants to be annoying he conducts business in French, or one of the other twelve languages he seems to know and Fingolfin hates it. Anaire speaks French and thinks it’s hilarious. 

- It is the Order of the Phoenix’s favorite place for sandwiches. Moody and Dumbledore have a debate about whether Earwen’s scones or petifores are better. It is more violent than some battles.

- Swan’s Cup also does babysitting services. Molly Weasley takes advantage, especially after her brothers are murdered.

- Between the fear and the death and the pain, they laugh.

- They don’t have a choice but to work together in this war, and Fingolfin saves Feanor’s life from a brute known as Gothmog. 

- Between the bickering and rapid fire spells and years of bitterness, they get along.

- The deaths of their father and sister have made them more family than family dinner ever did. Fingolfin and Feanor won’t admit it, but they mourn this. Their father will never see them being civil. There sister will never know that they war could end.

- They’re not sure the war can end.

- The war drags on.

- There’s an incident involving a pureblood girl from a neutral family wanting to marry a muggle boy. Her father is angry. 

- Luthien and Beren complete some task to gain her father’s blessing.

- They marry. Melkor is furious. Luthien just wants a peaceful life, but she has seen horrors. She tracks down Feanor, a leader of the resistance against Morgoth, and returns one of his great weapons to him.

- As Feanor is not known as a murderer of innocents, this is not a problem.

- The year is 1978. Angrod is born. His brother Aegnor is born a year later, within hours of cousin Argon’s birth. All three boys are close.

- Also, James and Lily Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Marlene McKinnon, and Peter Pettigrew join the Order of the Phoenix.

-They’re punk kids, and Fingolfin knows them, but Feanor doesn’t. Not at first. Not well.

- Sirius flirts with Anaire at ever Order meeting, and Remus swears he will marry Earwen every time they goes to the Swan’s Cup, which is often. None of them know how to cook.

- The war drags on. Marlene McKinnon, and many others, are dead.

- It’s taken it’s toll. They are so scared. And so tired.

- Maedhros goes to Hogwarts. He’s a Hufflepuff, and his Slytherin/Gryffindor parents are so proud they can’t breath. Maedhros still worries he’s not good enough.

- He does well in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, and Herbology. He takes after his mother, and loves flying. Maedhros wants to join the Quidditch team next year.

- He knows a lot about the war. He’s worried about his parents and his brothers and his cousins. But the war seems so far away at Hogwarts.

- Feanor cries for the whole first week Maedhros is gone, but he can’t be too sad. He and Nerdanel are relieved. He’s somewhere safe.

- The amount of times they’ve considered sending the children to Nicholas and Perenelle in France is too many. But they can never bare to part with the children.

- In 1980, Neville Longbottom, Harry Potter, and Curufin Noldoran are all born in the same month. 

- Finarfin had thrown quite the party nine months before. Someone spiked the punch, but no-one knows who. (It was Moody). It becomes a running joke among their group of disjointed fighters, united only by a common goal and a tea shop. 

- And the grief.

- Amid the pain, they smile and laugh.

- These babes get to know each other in the Swan’s Cup’s play group. 

- Galadriel is born just seconds after the New Year.

- Then there’s a prophecy.

- The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies... 

- It never occurs to Voldemort or Dumbledore that this prophecy might apply to Curufin Noldoran. 

- But that’s only because it’s not common knowledge that there are two dark lords running around.

- Nor is it common knowledge that Feanor defied him thrice. 

- Once was as a youth at Hogwarts. Melkor came personally to recruit the brilliant young Slytherin. Feanor politely said ‘no’, and walked away. He was young and angry and obsessed with his own brilliance, and he’d never admit how close he came to saying yes.

- The second time, he slammed the door in Morgoth’s face.

- Third, Feanor nearly died spitting vitriol at Morgoth and his sneak attack, so angry he could almost feel himself go up in flames, and Gothmog loomed at his unsuspecting back. 

- The only reason he survived his defiance was because Fingolfin didn’t need the fireplace Feanor dismantled to find his brother. He apparated just in time.

- While this does not occur to Voldemort, who has rarely dealt with Feanor, or Dumbledore, who Feanor does not report to, it does occur to Feanor and Melkor.

- Maglor, Celegorm, and Caranthir are sent to France. 

- Feanor and Nerdanel take Curufin and hide. And fortify. And prepare. 

- Feanor’s a genius. He mastered non-verbal at thirteen. He makes new spells like others make biscuits. He is an alchemist on par with Nicholas Flamel. He is a more than accomplished duelist, leader of men, and the only man Morgoth fears (or so he likes to think). He’s been practicing wand-less magic.

- Like everything else, Feanor is good at this.

- He sets his lone Silmaril in a sword. The sword was Nerdanel’s idea. 

- The Potter’s are betrayed by a friend, and attacked in what should have been a safe haven. Feanor plans to virtually invite Morgoth to a battleground, but he needs time.

- Morgoth doesn’t give it to him. The Lieutenant found them, and informed his master.

- Sauron launches a diversion attack on the Swan’s Cup, and it works brilliantly. Except no one realized that after Finwë’s brilliant son and brave son, the bashful one is the most skilled legimens of two generations.

- Finarfin divined the scheme, and screamed at his brother. 

- Fingolfin apparates away from the battle as soon as he can. The house is in ruins, but all is not lost.

- Nerdanel and Curufin are long gone. Their escape was obviously the first thing Feanor ensured. 

-But Fingolfin’s brother is lying on the ground, bleeding, and there’s a discarded sword across what used to be the dining room but is now mostly lawn.

- “Accio sword!”

- Fingolfin is not good at wandless magic, or non-verbal magic. But he is a Gryffindor.

- He wounds Morgoth seven times.

- He’s beginning to suspect that the shadow-y powers behind the ministry are not wizards. Morgoth wouldn’t be alive is he was just a man. 

- The light from Feanor’s silmarils burns him, though, even if the slashes don’t do much. It helps.

- Fingolfin has done well enough, but he has a boot on his neck, and he’s pretty sure he’s going to die.

- They’d both forgotten about Feanor.

- Just because he can do wand-less magic, doesn’t mean Feanor’s fool enough not to have carried his wand with him.

- Ten inches, Ebony, Phoenix feather.

- “Avada Kadavra!”

- It doesn’t kill, but Morgoth stumbles and turns.

- What Fingolfin meant to be a final strike to the leg becomes a stab through the chest.

- The Silmaril burns hotter than anything any of them have ever seen.

- When the temporary blindness fades, Feanor and Fingolfin see that Melkor’s body has crumbled to dust.

- Feanor cries, Fingolfin laughs, and they hug one another. 

- Feanor contacts Nerdanel. She and baby are okay. They apparate to the Swan’s Cup.

- They’ve survived mostly intact, though the shop is destroyed. Finarfin hugs his brothers tighter than any would have thought him capable of. His scrawny arms are strong!

- On October 31st, 1981, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is defeated by a baby.

- James and Lily Potter are dead. Peter Pettigrew is dead, and Sirius Black is in prison.

- The price feels much too high.

- But the war ends.

- No one cares too much about the prophecy concerning Curufin. Feanor doesn’t believe in such stuff, everyone else is convinced it applied to Harry.

- There are more than two Dark Lords.

- Life goes on. 

- The interim minister, Harold Minchum, leaves office. Many think Fingolfin should replace him. But he is very tired.

- Millicent Bagnold is elected minister, but only after extracting a promise from Fingolfin that he will succeed her. 

- Fingolfin quits being an auror and takes a small but prestigious desk job in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. He has an under secretary named Cornelius Fudge.

- Feanor collects his children, and he and Nerdanel decide to move back to France for a few years.

- His other two Silmarils are still missing, but it doesn’t seem to matter as much now as it once did. He’s still worried about it. Fingolfin keeps an investigation open.

- He allows Dumbledore to study the one he still has. Feanor doesn’t really want to look at it anymore, not when its covered in his, his brother’s, and Morgoth’s blood.

- Maglor goes to Hogwarts the next year. He’s a Ravenclaw, and annoys his roommates with his harp and guitar. He’s in the same class as Charlie Weasley. 

- Maedhros is now Hufflepuff Keeper.

- Finarfin and Earwen reopen the Swan’s Cup. Their children help decorate. They make Remus Lupin manager.

- Life goes on

- Voldemort’s spirit has been split seven ways. He waits in a Romanian forest.

- The Lieutenant escapes capture and notice. He mourns the death of his master. Sauron plots.

- Harry Potter sleeps in the cupboard under the stairs.

- The story continues.

[ao3feed-tomarrymort]

by Starbright89

When Minster Bones decides that the Departments need some help working together, she decides to hold a competition. Auror Harry Potter and Unspeakable Tom Riddle have to work together to win the prize. Which might just turn out to be each other.

Words: 2024, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Series: Part 1 of Mayhem at the Ministry

Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: M/M

Characters: Harry Potter, James Potter, Lily Evans Potter, Tom Riddle | Voldemort

Relationships: Harry Potter/Tom Riddle | Voldemort

Additional Tags: Unspeakable Tom Riddle, Auror Harry Potter

[thelordgreen]

Can you do a fluffy Tomarry?

Fluffy non-magic AU tomarry featuring politician!Riddle and sports star!Harry :D

Thomas Marvolo Riddle. Former school dean. Politicianextraordinaire. Well on his way to being the youngest prime minster ever.

Harry James Potter. Philanthropist. Football star. Britain’smost eligible bachelor six years in a row.

It was not love at first sight (not that Thomas believed insuch, mind you). The row they had over Britain’s fiscal policy was front pagenews for days. But love it became (after Thomas grudgingly admitted Harry wasright and Harry grudgingly admitted being right didn’t actually get policiesimplemented), and love it stayed.

Every Saturday afternoon, Thomas brought Harry flowers. EverySunday morning, Harry made brunch.

And to the very end of their days, morning and night, they broughteach other love.

[tasha9317]

Links: 

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12740940/1/Privilege-and-Deprivation (fanfic.net)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13857972/chapters/31877367 (AO3)

https://www.wattpad.com/501575314-privilege-and-deprivation-introduction  (wattpad)

AU: James and Lily raise Harry. 

Tom Riddle is Minster of Magic instead of Voldemort. He’s a greyer character. Muggle-borns are deprived under his rule and sent to a lower standard school. Lily is Hermione’s teacher at the muggle-born school and takes her under her wing. The Marauders and Harry (and friends) get involved in a mystery!

Rating: Mostly general, but there might be one of two scene of those only above 12 or 13 (ie: Jily romance)

[evergreenourgroupoffriends]

Okay let me start off with my absolute favorite job related headcannon - Healer James.

James has been helping look after Remus since they were twelve. Before the boys could become animagi they would be down in the hospital wing after every full moon keeping him company and watching Madam Pomfrey work. James ends up picking up quite a lot that way. After they're animagi, he has to start learning to patch up himself and the other boys if they ever get injured running around with Remus because nobody can know. As graduation nears he realizes Remus isn't going to have Madam Pomfrey anymore, so he starts taking lessons from her, learning everything he can, and he really likes it! James would do anything for anyone and it makes him feel good to be helpful, so he decides to peruse it as his main job and plays quidditch on the side.

Lily runs a little potions shop, and she works together with James to develop new healing potions and cures. Remus gets his monthly wolfsbane potion free of charge from her. She has a magical garden and shelves of jars filled with ingredients. She can make you anything you need, and if you can't afford it she slips it to you for free.

Sirius is a sort of magical repair man. He owns a shop in Hogsmeade and nobody knows how he does it but he can make pretty much anything magical. It started after he enchanted his first moterbike to fly after weeks of work, now people bring him all sorts of things to enchant and tinker with. He can usually be found with his hair tied up messily and grime all over his arms and face.

Remus was practically born to be a teacher so of course that's what he becomes. He lives in Hogsmeade with sirius above the shop and heads up to the castle every day to teach defence against the dark arts. He's every students favorite teacher because of his engaging and interactive lessons, his seemingly endless chocolate stash, and his incredible stories of the legendary Marauders.

Regulus inherits the Black family fortune and puts almost all of it towards charities working to free house elves. He uses the rest to open a safe home for runaway children.

Marlene owns a small pub and plays bass in a band. She's an incredible bartender and can make a drink for every mood, and when she's not behind the counter she's on the stage performing.

Peter works a boring minestry job, but has a passion for baking. He'll bring deserts to Marlene's pub once a week for her to sell and customers love "Peter night"

Dorcas and Mary fight for muggle born and half blood rights and other social justice issues and Dorcas eventually runs for Minster of Magic. Mary becomes a healer.

what do y'all think would James and Lily work as? Would James stick to quidditch? Would Lily persuade work in the Ministry? Something connected to Charms or Muggle Studies? Maybe she was recommended by Slughorn to someone. Could she be a nurse? I don't think James would want any job in Ministry.. continue his father business? Develop it?

Just think, there is no Voldemort, James and Lily are young adults, they have kid and although they have Potter fortune they want to have jobs. What do they do?

What about Sirius and Remus? I can actually see Lupin deciding to be a professor at Hogwarts earlier. Sirius? Developing magical objects? I mean, let's state it all marauders were geniuses they created marauders mad. Do they make a business sorta like the Weasleys Twins?

Peter would open a bakery maybe?

Who knows

[ao3feed-snape]

Privilege and Deprivation

read it on AO3 at http://ift.tt/2Fm216g

by Tasha9315

Tom Riddle decides to gain power as a shrewd politician instead of becoming Lord Voldemort. He manages to become Minster of Magic. Muggle-borns are sent to a lower standard wizarding school and are deprived under his rule. Lily Evans Potter is Hermione Granger's teacher at the muggle-born school and decides to take her under her wing. Harry Potter is raised by James and Lily. Also includes Marauders. The Marauders (James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin) are investigative officers who investigate the McGuffin.

Words: 2302, Chapters: 2/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/M

Characters: Harry Potter, James Potter, Lily Evans Potter, Hermione Granger, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Tom Riddle, Original Characters, Ron Weasley, Draco Malfoy, Severus Snape, Dolores Umbridge

Relationships: James Potter & Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black & Mary Macdonald, Remus Lupin & Nymphadora Tonks, Remus Lupin/Original Female Character(s)

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Hogwarts Era

read it on the AO3 at http://ift.tt/2Fm216g

[thechasefiles]

The Chase Files Daily Newscap 6/2/2020

Good Morning #realdreamchasers ! Here is your daily news cap for Thursday February 6th, 2020. There is a lot to read and digest so take your time. Remember you can read full articles via Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS), Barbados Today (BT), or by purchasing a Daily Nation Newspaper (DN).

PM: NO PROMISES ON JOB LOSSES, TAXES – Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley says she cannot give Barbadians assurances there won’t be more layoffs, or that taxes and fees will not increase. But Mottley, who is Minister of Finance, made it clear the administration “will not in any way topple the apple cart for individuals or companies”. The Prime Minister was responding to questions yesterday at the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s luncheon at Hilton Barbados Resort. She explained that the big corporate tax cut meant that Government had $40 million less revenue and had to get funding in other ways. (DN)

IMF AUSTERITY DRIVE ‘MAY STILL NEED REVENUE’ – Prime Minister Mia Mottley has not ruled out the imposition of additional taxes and user fees for some services as the island continues under the austere International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme. Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme. “I am not going to give any assurance to anyone that there will be no taxes or fees. What I will say is that whatever increase there is will be justified on the basis on prudence [and] stability,” she told a gathering of the country’s leading business people at the first Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) luncheon for 2020 held with a packed house today at the Hilton Barbados Resort. Her comments came in the question and answer segment of the event after featured speaker Senior Technical Advisor to Government Dr Kevin Greenidge gave the assurance that the economy had been stabilized and promised that once Government stuck to the strict programme it should begin to see some growth. Mottley said she was satisfied her administration had “done the right thing” to date in order to put the economy on a path of recovery over the past 20 months. She pointed out that Government had allowed individuals and businesses to benefit under new corporate and income tax regimes and an extended reverse tax credit, while keeping the Value Added Tax (VAT) rate at 17.5 per cent. “It has meant however, that we have to look at aspects of our revenue collection because our corporation taxes are $40 million less than what they were at the end of December. With that, we are still on target because we made decisions to be able to increase our taxes on land assets and we have made adjustments to other things. We are pretty much steady,” said Mottley. However, she quickly pointed out that some fees that have not been “touched” for “20 years, 30 years and 40 years” were hampering the delivery of some services and would need to be reviewed in the coming months. “If we try to bring the provision of those services back onto the central Government, then this country will face continued erosion. And we are not going to do that at any cost,” she told the hundreds of business officials. “So I am not going to give any assurance to anyone that there will be no taxes or fees. What I will say is that whatever increase there is will be justified on the basis of prudence [and] stability. We are sensitive to the fact that we want to increase disposable income in this country because Governments don’t trade and don’t grow on their own. Individuals do and companies do,” said Mottley, without identifying which fees were likely to be changed or how soon. The finance minister made it clear however, that her administration would not be taxing businesses “out of existence” since that was counterproductive. She said in addition to stabilizing the economy, Government would be continuing with its transformation and improvements in efficiency. “So I can give you the assurance that the Government is sensitive to the condition of households and companies and will ensure that whatever decision we take with respect to revenue adjustment will not in any way topple the apple cart,” she promised. In relation to future layoffs in Government, Mottley said she could not give any guarantees there either, adding that “we cannot insulate everybody at all times for all reasons”. She said at this time the economy called for all hands on deck and an increase in productivity. In relation to concerns about the ailing ease in the doing business climate, which ws raised by President of the BCCI Trisha Tannis, Mottley disclosed that every month Government was picking apart the recommendations of the World Bank Doing Business Reports in an effort to make the necessary changes. However, she said some areas required a lot more work than others. In his presentation, Dr Greenidge pointed out that of the seven percentage points improvement in revenue that Government was expecting by the end of March this year, only two percentage points would be from tax receipts and the rest would come through efficiency gains on Government’s expenditure. “And that is even done in such a way to ease the burden. So we are shifting from direct to indirect taxes moreso, and research has shown that the indirect taxes like VAT and those kinds of taxes are more conducive to growth than direct taxation,” he added. In relation to the growth prospects, Greenidge said it would come through “sticktoitiveness” in the transformation of state-owned entities, improving Government efficiency and strengthening institutions, capacity building in the public sector and increasing productivity in the private and public sectors. “On the private sector side, your role is to invest,” he added, while insisting that now was the time to “buy up, build and expand businesswise” in order to grow this economy”. Dr Greenidge whose is on secondment to the Barbados Government from his role with the IMF, gave the assurance that the digitization of Government was “well on its way”, adding that public sector reform was also ongoing. He urged the business community not to panic, adding that all the key economic indicators were pointing in the right direction with the debt levels now down from 176 per cent of GDP to around 119.5 per cent of GDP at the end of December; reserves are up and the Barbados peg of BDS$2 to US$1 is protected. Pointing out that no country involved in an IMF programme had ever seen growth in the first year, he said it would therefore be unreasonable of any one to expect otherwise for Barbados. “That is why it is called austerity . . . I am not sugar coating it. There is no magic pill,” said Greenidge. “I can tell you that based on what we are doing, I am confident we are going to get growth this year if we continue to do what we are doing and continue to stay the course and do the transformation and the private sector continue to invest and do things,” said Greenidge, without given an indication of how much growth he was expecting. (BT)

PARTS OF HIGHWAY 1 AND 7 TO BE REPAVED – Two of Barbados’ most used roadways are in for major repairs this year. Highway 1 from the bottom of University Hill to the Methodist Church in Holetown, St James, and a section of Highway 7 in Christ Church, will finally be repaved. Prime Minister Mia Mottley made the announcement earlier today during the question and answer section after addressing the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry luncheon at Hilton Barbados. No start dates were given. Mottley said most of the work on Highway 1 would be done at night because they were mindful of the fact that there are no access roads between UWI hill and Holders Hill. She said the water mains would be laid at the same time, so there would be no paving and digging up later. The Prime Minister said work would end at the Methodist Church because major construction was set to be done on the Royalton Hotel, so it made no sense extending the work to Trents. Restrictions will also be placed on heavy-duty vehicles at that time. They will use the Greenwich Village road which connects Trents to the Ronald Mapp Highway. Meanwhile, those who live and work on Highway 7 can expect roadworks “soon”. Mottley said that a section of that road, which runs from Bay Street to the Airport, was earmarked for repairs. She was not sure if it was the stretch from Garrison to Rendezvous or from Rendezvous to Maxwell, as she was awaiting final word from the Ministry of Transport, Works and Maintenance. The Prime Minster was at the time responding to a question from a member of the audience who asked if communities or companies could adopt roads and be responsible for their maintenance, thereby eliminating the pothole problem. Mottley acknowledged the roads were in terrible shape and nothing bad been done to them for ten or 12 years. (DN)

MORE LAWS COMING TO SAFEGUARD WORKERS – Amendments to existing legislation which will allow victims of violence or harassment at work to “remove themselves” from their workplace environment without fearing penalties from their employers are on the horizon, says Labour Minister Colin Jordan. He revealed that officials at the Labour Department were completing amendments to the Safety and Health at Work Act to clarify the channels through which workers can withdraw their services to escape “imminent or serious danger to life, health or safety” in the workplace. “We must make sure workers have the right to remove themselves from a work situation where they have a reasonable belief that the situation presents imminent or serious danger to life, health or safety due to violence and harassment and to be able to do that without suffering retaliation or other undue consequences,” the Minister declared. Jordan was addressing dozens of employers during a seminar hosted by the Barbados Employers Confederation (BEC) entitled Violence in the Workplace held at the Courtyard Marriott, Hastings, Christ Church. Acknowledging that some workers could abuse such legislative changes, the Labour Minister promised that structures would be implemented to prevent this. But during his near hour-long address, Jordan who is also responsible for Government’s social partnership relationship said the problem is so serious that new legislation may be required to address it. “[Workplace violence and harassment] is a serious multifaceted problem that affects not only its intended targets, but also colleagues, the entire workforce, households and families, and therefore, it impacts communities. This issue has long plagued our workplace, more so harassment and it is recognised as a health hazard,” added Jordan as he examined the International Labour Organisation (ILO)’s Convention 190 on Violence and Harassment in the workplace. While acknowledging that numerous pieces of legislation including the Sexual Harassment Act, the Safety and Health at Work Act and the Employment Rights Acthave improved workplace safety, he suggested that they have not sufficiently addressed the issues and suggested the possibility of drafting legislation to address the issue more directly. “We must also ensure that the inspectorate is empowered to take certain actions and make some determinations to protect workers because our job is to protect our workers in a fair and even-handed manner,” he added. The Minister further declared that the country could only realise much needed economic development if workers, “the most precious component” have access to “decent” workplace environments. “My Government has committed to not only protecting our workers but to developing those workers. This will safeguard the path to sustainable economic growth so badly needed to transform the country. “We must also be cognisant that violence and harassment can impact productivity, decrease worker engagement, contribute to a hostile work environment, increase the level of absenteeism and worker turnover and lead to a poor public image for the employing organisation,” the Minister explained. He added that violence and harassment at work could affect the psychological, physical, sexual health, dignity, family life and social environment of those affected. “Recognising the link between our workers and our economic growth and development, should compel us to fervently and actively address any issues that negatively affect them. It would be a wonderful day when employers take a proactive approach rather than reacting to things like laws and regulations and conventions,” Minister Jordan suggested. (BT)

EXTENDED HOURS SOON AT DAVID THOMPSON COMPLEX – From July 1, the operating hours at the David Thompson Health and Social Services Complex will be extended to 8:30 p.m. on weekdays. This was disclosed by Minister of Health Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic on Tuesday, at a media briefing on issues related to the Coronavirus, at the Ministry’s headquarters, Frank Walcott Building, Culloden Road, St Michael.While noting that Cabinet had approved the decision, he said the Ministry was contemplating extending those hours further to Saturday and Sunday because the polyclinic is closed on those days. “The polyclinic would normally close at an earlier time during the week. And, we are doing so for two reasons. One, transportation is vital to the utilisation of the facility, especially cross country travelling. People coming from St Joseph, St Andrew, St George need to be able to use the facility, and until we have the bus situation under control, it is prudent to do so rather than to go the full 24-hours.” The other reason, he stated, was related to the Ministry trying to ensure that there was diagnostic capacity at the polyclinic before commencing the 24-hour system. People would not have to go to Bridgetown to have diagnostic and radiological tests. Bostic added: “After the first of July, after we have been able to sort out the bus situation, then we will make an announcement as to the 24-hour service once we have had everything put in place in terms of getting those facilities at the polyclinic. For now, we are looking at extended hours from the first of July.” (BGIS)

FASHION WEEK COMING – There will be a Barbados Fashion Week, Minister of Small Business Dwight Sutherland has promised. But he has also urged designers to let Government help them form a fashion cooperative. The Minister was speaking at the Style Out Loud fashion show which was led by designer Cicely Harewood of CH Needleworks. He told the audience in the Daphne Joseph Hackett Theatre on Sunday night that the current administration will do all in its power to make the week a reality. Sutherland said: “I stand here tonight on behalf of the Government without speaking to the Prime Minister, but I know the Prime Minister is probably listening and she watches on; we will have such a week. He was responding directly to a previous conversation he said he had with Harewood who told him Jamaica had just celebrated a fashion week and she had been asking for one for many years. But the Minister for Entrepreneurship issued a challenge to the apparel industry to do its part to ensure the future of its livelihood. He declared: “I challenge all the fashion designers – stop me from wearing Robert Graham; let me Style Out Loud with a Barbadian fashion designer. “Help us as we seek to form more bilateral agreements with the African Nations, Suriname and even the US. “Help us through our vision for style, through our vision for skills, through our vision for empowering and enfranchising this industry that will be supported by working class people such as Ms Harewood and the others. Help us to build out this sector. “Help us to revive the apparel industry and the fashion design industry that is driven by international foresight such that when we design a product someone from the US, Robert Graham can want to copy it.” The small business minister suggested that through overseas linkages, Bajan clothing could be exported all over the world. Sutherland said: “We can send it to Ghana… Kenya… Europe with the names Cicely Harewood in the back. “We have what it takes when we come together as a people and this Government will create the enabling environment that our businesses will continue to flourish next year or two years from now when I come to the week of fashion I can boast we have truly arrived on the global stage.” A number of cooperatives had already been formed, said Sutherland, also the Minister for Cooperatives, as he urged the designers to get on board. He added: “My ministry has in it a section called the Cooperatives Department. “We just formed in the year 2019 five cooperatives. There are mostly in the transport sector. “Those working-class people who join together to provide a service to the Ross University students; they form a cooperative. “Those retrenched workers from the Transport Board came together and formed a transport cooperative led by the Barbados Workers Union. The Minister said that new cooperatives were also benefitting from exporting their products across the region. He said: “Recently the artisans and builders of Barbados… cried out loud for not having their fair share of the local market justifiably so they formed a cooperative and there were two other transport cooperatives along with one other cooperative which make[s] products such as soaps… shoes and some are exporting to the Caribbean region.” (BT)

GOVT 'ON BALL' WHILE BAJANS STOCK UP – Health Officials say they are “on the ball” regarding preparations for the coronavirus should it land here, but Barbadians appear not to be taking any chances and are flocking to stores buying up masks and hand sanitisers. Pharmacist-in-charge at Massy Pharmacy Warrens, Bernard Bailey, said they had sold more than 700 masks over the past three weeks. He said these, along with hand sanitiser, were in great demand. “It’s a good thing because people are being proactive; you don’t want the virus to arrive and you’re scrambling,” he said. A representative of Pharmacy Sales Caribbean Inc., based in Friendship Terrace, St Michael, said Barbadians had been demanding the masks in such great quantity they had to order more, adding another shipment was in the Bridgetown Port waiting to be cleared. Another pharmacist also reported last night that Collins Pharmacy was also out of masks. During a media conference yesterday, Minister of Health Jeffrey Bostic gave an update on Barbados’ position concerning the virus following an emergency CARICOM ministers of health meeting on Monday. (DN)

LESSONS FROM MANGROVE FIRE – Once the three-day fire at Mangrove Landfill is fully extinguished, local fire officials will be knocking on the doors of the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) with a number of recommendations aimed at minimising the risk of future blazes and improving the response if they do occur. Among them is a suggestion from Chief Fire Officer Errol Maynard that the SSA establish formalised arrangements with private waste haulers to tackle future fires. “Whenever we get a fire, private haulers including Jose Y Jose, SBRC [Sustainable Barbados Recycling Company] and other private waste haulers join together and assist. “As far as I know, there is no formal arrangement written or signed. They do it out of the goodness of their hearts, I suppose. But when we sit and discuss with the policymakers, we will see if we can formalise an agreement. But until then, I wouldn’t want to say more about that,” he told Barbados TODAY. Maynard made the disclosure as two fire tenders, six fire officers, a dozen private trucks and two from the SSA attempted to permanently extinguish pockets of burning tyres still sending fumes into the communities below. On Monday, Environment Minister Trevor Prescod admitted that more fires should be expected as authorities pursue long-term solutions to the troubling issue as the landfill accepts 8,000 tyres each month. But Maynard however suggested that much of the SSAs efforts should also be aimed at improving management of the site in the short-term “I don’t know to what exactly the Minister was referring… what I can tell you is that yes, there is a possibility of fire of any such facility. Nevertheless, we have to make sure that there is constant management and proper vigilance on the site to ensure that even if a fire starts, it can be contained as quickly as possible. “And we will have some recommendations to present to policymakers to advise them on what should happen at these facilities, but we would have to make those recommendations to the policymakers first before we make them public,” he added. Late Wednesday afternoon, he reported that most of the hot spots at the Mangrove Pond landfill were covered, while others have been “contained, but not extinguished”. On Tuesday, the fire, which started on Monday flared up at the Mangrove Pond dump when a bush fire started at the northern end of the landfill ended up on the southern side, igniting tyres, which had not been affected by the original blaze. Fire fighters were also battling a lack of topsoil to cover the hotspots, broken down vehicles and uneven terrain. On Wednesday, those problems had reportedly been solved, but the Fire Chief was very reluctant to provide a definitive timeline because there were “too many surprises in this particular fire”. (BT)

STENCH IN LICORISH VILLATE – Garbage is piling up in a section of Licorish Village, My Lord’s Hill, St Michael, but not because there are no Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) trucks available. Residents say it is because the workers are refusing to pick up their trash after one of them was splashed with human faeces recently. Desmond Weekes, who lives in the area, said it was the second time such an incident had occurred. “The first week, the man discover it, but he still take it up. Then, the second week when the [compactor] was rolling, it burst. He called me and say this is two weeks that this thing happening,” Weekes said. (DN)

MUM OF TWO WANTS A HOME – A St. Michael mother who lost everything to fire is appealing for help. Simone Bynoe, 36, is now living with a sister in Dunlow Lane, The City, after her home in Henry’s Lane was reduced to a burnt pile of rubble. “The fire happened August 3. My house burnt down as well as my sister’s who lived next door, and now we all live by my eldest sister down the road. It’s me, my two sons and four others living with her and her children, so it’s cramped. I would like to have a place to live where we can live comfortably,” she said. (DN)

TEEN ARRESTED IN CONNECTION WITH HOLDER’S DEATH – A seventeen-year-old boy has been arrested and charged with the murder of Shakeem Holder. He is Tyreke Delandre Benskin, of Promenade Road, Bush Hall, St Michael. Holder, 22, was fatally wounded in an altercation on Sunday in the same district. Benskin is set to appear at the District A Magistrates Court tomorrow. (DN)

MAGISTRATE WANTS TO KNOW ABOUT GREENE’S LIFE BEFORE SENTENCING – Eighteen-year-old Justin Shemar Greene who went on a burglary spree last month “needs saving” and is “not entitled to walk about” for the time being, Magistrate Douglas Frederick has said. The District ‘A’ Court magistrate made the comments after the Greene’s attorney Martie Garnes made an application for bail on his behalf as he awaits sentencing. The teen who lives at Ridgeway, Pine, St Michael had earlier pleaded guilty to entering the home of Crystal Trotman on January 5 as a trespasser and stealing an $85 gas bottle and on January 28 stealing a $400 television as well as a $400 laptop. He also admitted to damaging a $550 window belonging to the complainant who is his neighbor. Greene further confessed to entering the home of Seon Jacobs on January 31 and stealing a quantity of food items worth $35.59; taking two batteries worth $500 belonging to the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) on January 30 and stealing $535 cash – “lotto money” – belonging to Cynthia Gooding on January 13. He however told Magistrate Frederick he was not guilty of the charge of stealing a $480 battery belonging to the SSA on September 26, 2019. In many of the cases the complainants left their homes secured only to return to discover that they had been burglarized. Greene’s lawyer in addressing the court described his client’s offences as “opportunistic crimes” adding that they were not planned. “He is 18 years old and has lived a very unfortunate life. He is currently using cocaine and “you do things that you don’t usually do”. Garnes said he committed the acts and sold the items in order to feed his habit and help his mother. “He is not a person of bad character,” he told the court. The lawyer requested that his client be given the opportunity to go to Verdun House but Magistrate Frederick told him “We are not there yet.” Frederick explained that a report on the first-time offender was needed in order to get an indication of how to assist him. “He can’t go home today because he is on a rampage. Although he is a first-time offender a pre-sentencing report is needed,” the magistrate stated. But Garnes added: “Psychi [Psychiatric Hospital] will be a better place to send my client than prison” causing the magistrate to explain why a social inquiry was critical at this stage. “He is on a spree that we need to save him from. We need to find out what is the root cause. He is a first-time offender but he is not entitled to walk about because of these crimes,” Frederick added as he called the young offender’s mother to the stand. “He is not a bad person,” said the mother who revealed that Greene had been using cocaine from age 15. She also disclosed that she had tried to get him help before He has been remanded until March 5. (BT)

SENATE ACQUITS TRUMP - President Donald Trump was acquitted on Wednesday in his U.S. Senate impeachment trial, saved by fellow Republicans who rallied to protect him nine months before he asks voters in a deeply divided America to give him a second White House term. The businessman-turned-politician, 73, survived only the third presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history - just like the two other impeached presidents - in his turbulent presidency’s darkest chapter. Trump now plunges into an election season that promises to further polarize the country. Trump was acquitted largely along party lines on two articles of impeachment approved by the Democratic-led House of Representatives on Dec. 18, with the votes falling far short of the two-thirds majority required in the 100-seat Senate to remove him under the U.S. Constitution. The Senate voted 52-48 to acquit him of abuse of power stemming from his request that Ukraine investigate political rival Joe Biden, a contender for the Democratic nomination to face Trump in the Nov. 3 election. Republican Senator Mitt Romney joined the Democrats in voting to convict. No Democrat voted to acquit.o give him a second White House term. The Senate then voted 53-47 to acquit him of obstruction of Congress by blocking witnesses and documents sought by the House. A conviction on either count would have elevated Vice President Mike Pence, another Republican, into the presidency. Romney joined the rest of the Republican senators in voting to acquit on the obstruction charge. No Democrat voted to acquit. On each of the two charges, the senators voted one by one on the Senate floor with U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts presiding. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans engineered a stripped-down trial with no witnesses or new evidence. Democrats called the trial a sham and a cover-up. Trump called the impeachment an attempted coup and a Democratic attempt to annul his 2016 election victory. Throughout the impeachment drama, Trump and his Republican allies kept up their attacks on Biden’s integrity. It remains to be seen how much political damage that inflicted. In the first of the state-by-state contests to determine the Democratic challenger to Trump, Biden placed a disappointing fourth in Iowa, according to incomplete results from Monday’s voting. Biden has accused T Trump faces no serious challengers for his party’s presidential nomination. He is poised to claim the nomination at the party’s convention in August and previewed in his State of the Union address on Tuesday campaign themes such as American renewal, economic vitality and hardline immigration policies. Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, broke with his party to vote to convict Trump on the abuse-of-power charge. Romney called the president’s actions in pressuring Ukraine to investigate Biden “grievously wrong” and said Trump was “guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust.” “What he did was not ‘perfect,’” Romney said on the Senate floor, as Trump has described his call with Ukraine’s president that was at the heart of the scandal. “No, it was a flagrant assault on our electoral rights, our national security and our fundamental values. Corrupting an election to keep one’s self in office is perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one’s oath of office that I can imagine.” Romney, a moderate and elder statesman in his party, paused during his speech as he became choked with emotion after mentioning the importance of his religious faith. (Reuters)

There are 330 days left in the year Shalom!  Follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram for your daily news. #thechasefiles #dailynewscaps #bajannewscaps #newsinanutshell

[noneofyourbusiness42]

Changes

Pairing: Wolfstar Rating: 12+ there are some snuggles and kisses. Mentions of sex as well.

Everything has changed. How could it not have after 12 years of being locked away, separated, and 10 of those years being accused of murdering the man both of you had loved like a brother? It changed him, and it had certainly changed Remus.

–

Sirius’ rough paws rubbed at his growing beard with a soft sigh, his darkened eyes staring at the wooden table in front of him. His left hand was clasped around a pocket knife which he seemed to take great delight in using to carve patterns into the table. The patterns- which were dug within the old, rotten oak table that resided within the middle of the kitchen with many different stains upon it from dinners, teas, breakfasts and other events taking place at it -were rather similar to the ones which lived along his body. His mind wandered and his hands fiddled idly as the cogs and wheels in his brain set hard to work at twisting and turning. 

Sirius had become ever so more vigilant since he’d escaped. Roughly six months on the run did that to a person - Left them always feeling on guard, twichy and rattled. He still felt like that now, surpringly. He feels as if any time soon the Minster of Magic will burst though the doors and send in Dementors; they’ll Kiss him, kill Remus and possibly take the rest in for questioning. After that they’ll be imprisoned and the worse ones (like Mad-Eye who’d get himself in more trouble than needed with his delightful attuide) would end up within Akzaban. A shudder ran down his spine. 

The large, wooden Grandfather clock that lived within the deep and drowning hallway on the other side of the kitchen struck loudly and echoed though out the quiet house, declaring it was 11:15pm. Had everyone gone? He knew that Tonks stayed some nights here and there - he didn’t know why but she bought life back into the house so he wasn’t complaining - and so did Shacklebolt and Moody but the rest seemed to only bother appearing when it involved Harry. He ticked everyone off in his mind who was within the order, a sort of registration of his own; Molly, Arthur, Bill, Charlie, the twins, Shacklebolt, Moody, Tonks.. who else was he forgetting? Black was positively sure that someone was missing from the list.. 

Again, his aging digits fiddled and twinned within his ever growing farcical hair as he mulled over who was missing..

Remus.

Fuck. He forgot Moony. Of all the people he could forget and it was his partner-.. his best friend. Black raised his head and squinted his silver eyes with a soft grumble. His tongue left his mouth and licked his rather parched lips. Where was Remus Lupin now? Where was he staying? Was he back on the streets after Hogwarts or did he finally decide to swallow his pride and take the help that was given to him. The tension between Sirius and Remus was ever growing. They had things both needed to talk about but surpringly neither of the old Gryffindors had the guts to confront the other. If only James could see us.. a soft chuckle departed from his lips at the thought of James screaming at him to talk to Moony about recent and past events.. unspoken questions lay between the living Marauders. With an exhale of air, the dark haired man got to his feet. Where would Remus be? The study, the living room? Or in Sirius bed.. anywhere, really. It wasn’t like Moony hadn’t slept in Sirius bed before although when he did there wasn’t much sleeping going on (and it had been 20 years ago). Black deicded to check the downstairs living room first.

As Sirius approached, the floor creeked and cracked like they would snap any time soon but Sirius knew these floorboards. He knew which ones made a noise and which ones were silent, tricks of the trade of having to sneak out. His palm closed around the silver door nob and he slowly to open the old door and peered in. A few speckles of light came crashing into the darkness and revealed the old, tattered and scarred body of a certain sleeping werewolf upon the sofa. He was still wearing his grandpa jumper and a red tie. His hair a shaggy mess- so messy that James would have been proud -and his mustache certainly needed a trim. Remus had definitely let himself down over these years.. One thing Sirius had noticed, however, was how deeper and larger his scars had gotten. Remus face was clear of any harsh scars when Black was imprisoned apart from one which travled along his neck but now.. large ones crisscross over his cheek and nose. Deep, dark red ones that had nightmares behind them. Nightmares he must have created.

With an unspoken spell and a flick of his old wand, Sirius lit the rooms dimmed lamps up. The light within them flickering and creating dancing shadows upon the wall, Sirius own silhouette being tall and dark like a monster from an old children’s book. Remus had been asleep but his breathing had quickened when the lights came on. He knew Remus was awake now. Black walked past the sofa which was being used as a bed by the ex-professor and settled within a large armchair. Remus opened his sad, amber eyes and peered at the man before him. He sat up slowly and began to roll his sleeves up.

Should he stay or should he go? Knowing Sirius, he’d probably jinx him with a body binned curse upon the couch if he dared tried to leave. It’s best to stay voluntary. Remus found that the most difficult of things in life was making eye contact with a person who he believed to be a murder for so long. Someone he had truly loved and admired suddenly becoming the darkest person to walk the world. His heart clenched and turned in on itself at the memory of the darkness which engulfed him all those moons ago. His eyes slowly drifted around his body; his dirty and rather unkept beard (Although Remus was no better, knowing what his own face must look like.), his tattered purple robes and the Black tattoos that seemed to be planted around his body. He shivered and shrugged his shoulders back with a groan. His hands gripped onto the decaying leather arm chair and finally let his eyes slowly slither up to meet the deep, twinkling, ashen coloured eyes that Black held. There was a moment of pure, utter, drowning silence which engulfed the dust-covered living room.

“Remus. We need to talk.” Were the words which escaped the rubbery lips of Black. How should he respond? He felt the anger from the years of loneliness begin to fill him. “Oh really? I wouldn’t have guessed. I thought you’d come in here to watch me sleep.” He spat. His words full of hate yet also grief filled. It wasn’t like him to respond to Black like that. He regretted the words as soon as they entered the air. Black was taken back by how Moony answered. This isn’t like you at all! His thoughts clouded his mind with thundering ideas. What should he first ask, maybe he should apologies for being rude. That night at the shirking shake had happened do quickly, he shouldn’t feel angry; Sirius should! He was the one who was abounded by his lover that night 14 years ago. With a sigh, Remus opened his mouth;

“I’m sorr-”

Black was quick to cut him off. “No Remus, it’s okay. I think it’s time we turn over a new leaf.” His words were soft yet rather powerful. Remus gave a short nod in agreement. They needed a fresh start. But, before they could, the air needed to be cleared first.

“Remus. What.. where have you been staying, whilst I was gone?” Sirius asked reluctantly, fearing the answer.

“Well. Nowhere and everywhere.“a strange, sad grin lay across his lips as his hand slicked his dirty blonde and greying hair back, revealing his eyes clearer to the man in front of him. it was true, he’d slept in places he supposed no one should have been able to sleep and he’s slept in the fairly common areas. “I’ve stayed under muggle staircases, car parks, park benches, abounded houses, garden sheds, I’ve stayed one or two nights at Dora’s place and then I ended up here. On your couch.” It’d only been as few weeks since Sirius had finally returned but this was the first time he recalled Remus being here, in this house, on this sofa.

“Right..” he tried to hide the heart break which surfaced in his trembling voice. “I’m going to tell you something. And you are not getting a say no no matter what happens, Remus John Lupin, and if you do then I’ll just have to get Dora involved. If you still protest, I’ll just tell Molly and Arthur and so forth until you finally understand how many people bloody care about you.” He said with a more stable and determined voice now! His hands clapped together. “You and I shall be sharing a room since the rest have been taken by the large amount of members staying here. One bed to share or two, you can choice. I’m quite alright with either.” Remus couldn’t get a word in edge wise. His face slowly flushing at the thought of every member in that darn house becoming concerned for their little old Pet uswerewolf. He crossed his arms without protest.

“I’m buying you new robes; well Dora will be buying you new robes since neither of us can physically leave this house seen as the Minster of Magic and Pureblood families both want us beheaded.” He shot a wink at Remus who chuckled very quietly. The first Chuckle he’d made since leaving Hogwarts.

“I’ll also Convert the basement for you. I hope, from now on, you won’t be feeling as lonely as you would usually..” Sirius looked down and so did Remus. Both, even though they certainly didn’t admit, missed the company of their fellow canine companion on them Lunar nights. 

Remus was first to move. He took Black’s hands into his own and held them gently yet lovingly. “Thank you, Padfoot.” It was the first time he’d heard that name since his imprisonment. He couldn’t help but smile widely, so wide that his cheeks began to ache but the happiness that filled him from the nickname was too great to contain. It reminded him that he hadn’t lost everything and a piece of the past, even if extreamly tiny, stayed with them all these years.

“I.. Moony, shut up.”

He pushed himself upon the taller man. Not forcibly, but noticeably to suggest that tonight he was going to be in charge. One of Black’s hands rubbed up the side of Remus outer-thigh as Remus let out a soft giggle, falling back onto the sofa. Their lips connected and soon the two men shared a quick, tasteful snog before Moony wrapped his long arms around the dog-like man who lay upon his chest. That night, the pair deicded that the living room was going to be their bedroom when no one was around round. Their special room. Sirius was first to doze off as Remus moved a soft curl of dark brown hair out of his face. What a cutie. With a smile on his face, Remus began to drift into a deep sleep. His dream tonight would not be haunted by the Wolf. It would be as bright as the smile which laid upon his lips.

[yuminov]

Wedding Casino in Forrabury and Minster

Wedding Casino

A Wedding Casino can help make your wedding memorable. The tables give your guests a great opportunity to mix with each other away from the dance floor.

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Cards and Chips

The Wedding Casino is strictly for fun and helps in breaking the ice and warming up the guests before they hit the dance floor in full flow. The atmosphere provided by the fun casino is similar to a real land casino. You have the expert croupier, music, and real players. With fun casino, the fun factor increases since nobody loses money here. Even before the couple left for their honeymoon, they get to play their share of rounds alone with the support of professional croupiers.

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The fun casino does not permit playing with real money, but rather, “fun money” which is exchanged at the casino tables for chips. Anyone that has the most chips once the casino ends wins a prize at the event. This encourages the attendees to play with more eagerness.

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The Duration For A Fun Casino For A Wedding

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Wedding Casino Hires are becoming popular nowadays. If you are considering one for your wedding, some of the things you need to look for include the quality of equipment as well as the croupiers’ expertise. You need to also look for themes offered by the casino.

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[thesydneyfeminists]

Ditch the Witch: The problematic portrayal of witches in popular culture

Recently I sat down with my partner’s family to watch the film “Hocus Pocus”, a story of three old Salem witches who steal the life force of little children to perpetuate their own, and the three modern children who accidently bring them back from the dead.  It’s a fun adventure romp, a scary children’s film that was a childhood favourite of mine.  Upon re-watching it, though, I found in me a quietly distressing ambivalence towards its content.

The stereotype of the ugly old hag, the spinster who deals with dark magic and deadly potions, is a culmination of a number of misogynies; from the hatred and fear of an independent (and sexually liberated) woman, to the disdain for the unmarried female, to the phobia of age and ugliness in the “fairer sex” to the mistrust of traditional women healers (hence the potions).  All of this and much more goes into the modern day incarnation of the so-called witch – the dark, often elderly and hideous female being that wrought havoc with her voice (spells) and arrogant rebellion (heresy).

The reality is that witches were never a real thing.  They never actually existed.  The “witch’ is a concept, one that was invented and used as an excuse to execute people for a wide variety of reasons.  The idea of the witch as a devil-worshipping deviant was embedded in the public imagination thanks to the publication of the Malleus Malleficarum in 1486, written by two Dominican inquisitors as a handbook for witch hunters.  Sales of this book during the time period ran second only to the Bible, and it was a major source of justification for the trialling and execution of tens of thousands of women.  (Exact figures are unknown.  Estimates vary wildly from 30,000 deaths to millions.  The most commonly accepted figure is between 30,000 and 50,000 from the year 1500 to 1700.).

Using the Latin, Malleficarum translates literally as “female evil-doers”, and reasons for why women were by and large the perpetrators of witchcraft ranged from their supposed inherent weakness to believe anything, including the words of the devil; their slippery tongues when spreading such evil information; their deceptive nature, and their lack of faith.  The most important reason stated, however, was that “All Witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which is in women insatiable.” (pg 56,digireads.com)

Sexually impure or promiscuous women were obviously major targets.  Indeed, the obsession with women’s chastity dominated so much of the rhetoric of that time, as it still does today (albeit to a lesser and subtler extent). Radical feminists, such as Andrea Dworkin and Mary Daly, argued that the “witch craze” was a “gynocide”, a deliberate attempt by powerful men to annihilate all traces of independent, single or empowered women.  Having myself read Daly’s harrowing chapter on the European Witchburnings in her book Gyn/Ecology, it’s no surprise that I found myself deeply offended by this everlasting caricature of the female deviant: old, deformed and sexually liberated (all of which are portrayed and mocked in Hocus Pocus, as in other films and media of modern times.)

Given the atrocities that happened to women across the centuries, why is it that today at Halloween we don costumes at parties or watch our children dress up and pretend-curse their friends?  Grotesque caricatures of witches hang in all the stores in the lead-up to the evening, including the supermarkets, and we unthinkingly accept this without wondering about the history behind it.  Why aren’t these caricatures as offensive as Golly Wogs are today?  Although they symbolise different things, they are alike in that they are a white man’s mockery of group of human beings they saw fit to persecute, enslave and ridicule.

Of course, if you look deep enough into all our religious (or pagan) festivals throughout the year, you’ll discover plenty to be unsettled by.  It’s downright absurd the way we “celebrate” things we know almost nothing about.  But if you do know something about it – some of the history and symbolisms – the stereotypes and distortions embedded in pop culture and modern festivities can leave you wondering if you’re the only sane person alive.

I know that if I were to voice these concerns, I’d be told I was too earnest, taking it too seriously, and lacking in the spirit of fun.  But I cannot dismiss my discomfort, because I know that in reality people still cling to some of these notions, especially the witch.  Anyone remember this summation of then Prime Minster Julia Gillard?

Ditch the Witch

[Source: Daily Telegraph]

We still use the term to denigrate powerful and ambitious women, or women we don’t like; women who speak too loudly or take too many liberties.  The hatred and fear that feminists have argued underpinned much of the female-centric persecutions during the Early Modern Period is still with us today, whether we’re aware of it or not.

Of course, men were also persecuted as witches during the same time period, although to a much lesser extent.  But it was always men who made the decision to put a woman to trial, often after she had been tortured into admitting her imagined crimes.  Public executions and graphic descriptions of their “abominable behaviours” served to terrify the public into submission, to ingrain sense of distrust in one another and to imprint on the memory and consciousness of generations to come the dangers of / of being the deviant woman.

If women did not conform to the mould of appearance and behaviour expected of them (even moles were cause for alarm and suspicion during that era) then they ran the high risk of persecution.  How different is it today?  If women don’t fit the young and beautiful mould of the good girl (always sexually available but never promiscuous), they get called ugly, a bitch, a witch, a hag, frigid or a slut.  Women today are persecuted by the advertising industry for failing to meet its impossible standards of ideal beauty, and society condemns a woman who fails (or chooses!) to be both a wife and mother and a careerwoman.  Women may no longer be hung or burned for failing to measure up, but they are still tortured in a way, and some of that torture is now self-inflicted.

Seeing witches in films or cartoons depresses me where before it frightened me.  Hocus Pocus scared the living daylights out of me as a child; I loved the story and the bravery of the kids, but feared the witches themselves.  I feared the witch in Snow White and the sea-witch, Ursula, of The Little Mermaid.  The Blair Witch Project played on this ingrained fear in our imaginations and was tremendously popular.  This vicious, sadistic caricature of the empowered woman survives today, and is at once reviled and ridiculed.

Despite all this, I’d still recommend “Hocus Pocus” as a fun film for older children to enjoy.  In and of itself, it’s a well-made, entertaining film with good humour.   But I’d also recommend giving children a history lesson on the real story of witches.  Being aware of such things might take some of the fun out of pop culture from time to time, but as the saying goes, knowledge is power.  We’d be wise to remember that.

By: Tessa Barratt

First published on DiscordiaZine, September 20, 2014

 Sources:

Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism, Daly, Mary, 1978 [The Women’s Press]

History.com http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/7-bizarre-witch-trial-tests

The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America, pg 551.

Malleus Malleficarum, Kramer, Heinrich; Sprenger, James. Digireads, 2009.

Lewd Women and Wicked Witches: A Study of the Dynamics of Male Domination, By Marianne Hester [pgs 115-118], 1992, Routledge.

Fantasies of Gender and the Witch in Feminist Theory and Literature, Justyna Sempruch, Purdue University Press, 2008. [Pgs 20-24]

Ten Common Errors and Myths about the Witch Hunts, Corrected and Commented by Brian A. Pavlac, King’s College London, >http://departments.kings.edu/womens_history/witch/werror.html<