#albus core

[rewritingcanon]

angsty au: what if scorp just straight up left after harry didnt let him be friends with albus as a gryffindor? Like, just transferred to beaxbatons or some shit?

then cue albus sailing the seven seas to get him back again

[wickedwitchofthesouth]

The feminine urge to write an atyd level fic for new gen Harry Potter where the slytherins have their own marauders-esque friend group and scorpius and albus are the main focus ship. UGHHHHH THE URGUE TO WRITE A FATHER SON ARC FOR AL AND HARRY THAT GOES INTO DETAIL ABOUT HARRYS TRAUMA AND HOW IT EFFECTS HIS PARENTING!! The heavy looming weight of the urge to write a strained sibling relationship for James and albus because they are THEE prodigal son and the cursed child.

THE WAY I WOULD WRITE THE PERFECT FRIENDS TO LOVERS FOR SCOR AND AL . the way I would add the best oc who the fandom will fall in love with and regard as canon for years to come UGHHHH

[gellertalbus]

Dangerous times favor dangerous men.

[grim-has-issues]

“wait, they don’t love you like i love you” trend but me with albus york

[jeandejard3n]

Patronus

[deadsetobsessions]

Headmaster Dumbledore is sure that the ghosts of Hogwarts were hiding something. He’d be the first to admit that he’s nosy when it came to things like these, but he simply doesn’t have the time. Whatever that lingered these halls, he’s sure does not mean Hogwarts any harm. The ghosts would not protect it if it did.

Albus Dumbledore Hummer around a lemon drop as his quill scratched over endless parchment paper.

His wand glowed green for a brief second, an acknowledgement, and settled down into its current owner’s hold.

——

Danny Phantom hadn’t thought the castle he found during the summer months in this universe would be… so full of life. Not when there were ghosts, floating around like the castle were their own home.

Magic.

They were ghosts made of magic.

His core struggled, at first, to survive. Then, it took the magic and thrived.

He floated, invisible amongst the glittering candles beneath the imitated night sky, and watched students file in.

Quite different, from his own entrance.

He had floated into the tower, having felt a hint of resistance that he knew now were the castle wards. The ghosts, what he thought were ghosts before he realized ectoplasmic ghosts existed, stopped dead. Hah.

The shades dancing and whirling and conversing froze as he entered the tower. Life and death, and the beings that walked the line, stopped at the arrival of the One Who is the Line. The boy king wreathed in black and green glanced around.

“Hello. I’m Phantom.”

“The High King,” a ghost whispered. “Our king.”

“He’s an American?” Another one asked, scandalized. Danny, surrounded by those who he recognized as his, cracked the first smile he’s had in a while.

“Who cares? He’s…” The knight sunk to his knees, bowing with his ghostly sword in front of him.

The ghosts bowed. Danny floated in further. “Can you tell me where I am?”

“Of course.”

——

Now… he’s watching the children get Sorted. Weird, for a hat to decide your classmates, but whatever.

Harry Potter’s name is called, and the whispers broke out. He doesn’t know why, but Danny couldn’t ask the ghosts. They barely know the current headmaster, as the dead generally care only for their own times.

Danny decides to visit the lake octopus. Lake squid? Something like that. The mer people beneath the waters liked him, the last time he went. The Sorting is put out of Danny’s mind. He’s dead now, too. The only thing he cares about now is to explore the vast halls of Hogwarts and the occasional visit to the kitchen to steal some food for his living body.

(Thank the Ancients he found a house elf who knew what seasoning was.)

(Sometimes, Danny flew to where his home would have been and gets comfort food at the nearest town. He missed it, but he can’t go back.)

The ghosts know by now to call for Phantom should they need something (“I’m American,” he joked at the ghost. “We’re not big on kings. You can just call me Phantom.”)

——

The third year he’s there, Danny feels the effects of Clockwork’s power. When he investigates, it’s the red headed girl he once saw leaving the library, paper clutched in her hand.

She helped save one of his subjects, so he owes her. Plus, if she’s using Clockwork’s powers, this Hermione has potential.

And… she’s using it to study.

She reminds him of Jazz.

——

A wave of ice crackled and froze the fleeing rat and the feral wolf man.

“What?!” Harry screeched to a stop, eyes wide at the ghost child in front of him.

Danny turned, and landed gently on the ground. Snape snarled at him in suspicion. Danny allowed himself to become living again, black hair and blue eyes and tan skin replacing the white, green, black thing his dead form had.

“Who’re you?” The red-headed boy, Ron?, asked him through gritted teeth.

Danny smiled at them, dimples appearing. “A friend.”

Before the trio and co. could say anything, Danny whips his head around, palm coming up.

“Stop.” He orders. The creeping sense of cold and dread shuttered to a stop. “Go over there,” he said, and the dementors, hovering at the edge of his periphery obeyed. Danny turned back to the mildly terrified and flummoxed group.

“Let’s go. You’re all going to catch a cold, if you don’t move it. Especially you, scrawny and greasy.” He pointed at the godfather and Snape.

——

“Hey, Danny?”

“What, Harry?”

“Why’d you help us? I mean, you said you didn’t want to involve yourself in stuff like that.”

Danny hummed, wisped tail curling up against him as he soaked in the sun’s rays. “Because you reminded me of myself. And in the end, you died.”

“You literally brought me back,” Harry deadpanned, remembering the place between life and death, and how the angry Danny was when he stormed onto that train platform. The King had taken him by the scruff of his shirt collar like a particularly incensed mother cat, and dragged him off away from a puzzled Dumbledore.

“You were being stupid. You’re too young to die.”

“Like you?”

Danny snorted. “Nah. I didn’t have a choice.”

[acewitch-writes]

I love Canon Remus and all of his flaws. Enough of this "Casanova of Gryffindor Tower" BS, Remus is the cowardly lion of Gryffindor tower. He values bravery because it is something that he lacks and yet still strives to be. He has an ingrained sense of shame and self-loathing and an inferiority complex that stems from society's contempt and marginalization towards Lycanthropy, a condition he was cursed with from a very young age. He wasn't a leader, he was a follower. A blind follower who believed to his core that he was unworthy of love and respect because of what he was.

Which opens the door to what I believe to be Remus' greatest flaw: His unwavering, unquestioning devotion to Albus Dumbledore.

I think Remus saw Dumbledore as the perfect encapsulation of Good. He was everything that Remus desperately wanted to be, everything that society was determined to believe a werewolf could never be. And maybe, if Remus could earn (and cling to) Dumbledore's favor and make him proud, he would prove to the world and himself that he is Good, too, in spite of his lifelong curse.

Remus felt that he owed Dumbledore a debt he could never hope to repay for allowing this chronically ill little boy into his school when no werewolf before him had ever been given such an opportunity. So many of Remus' choices in canon stem directly from this imagined debt that he had dedicated his life to paying. Hell, he didn't even hold a grudge against Snape for OUTING HIM to the entire wizarding world simply because Dumbledore trusted him.

Remus trusted Dumbledore wholeheartedly. And Dumbledore personally saw to Harry's placement with the Dursleys. Why should Remus have considered, for even a moment, that Harry wasn't safe? Certainly far safer than he would have been with a monster in close proximity, as Remus believed himself to be. In his mind, staying away from Harry was what was best for Harry. Until Dumbledore needed a favor, that is.

It's reductive to suggest that Remus failed Harry (and by extension, James) for putting his trust in Dumbledore to do right by Harry. James and Sirius trusted Dumbledore, too. They all did. Stripping away all of the nuance and blaming the abuse Harry suffered on Remus is simply unfair. NO ONE helped Harry, not even those who were fully equipped to do so, and Remus was the farthest thing from being equipped to take that on, what with being an impoverished werewolf living in a society that reviles his very existence. The only person who could have saved Harry from the abuse was the very man that placed him in that home, the very man that Remus revered with blind conviction.

[klarolinexluv]

I think there is some misconception with the sorting hat. I don’t think you have to necessarily be brave or smart or loyal or ambitious to be sorted into those houses I think it’s more what your core values are.

Like. All of the Black for example were Slytherin (except for Sirius ofc). This wouldn’t be because they are all ambitious when they were 11 but because they value ambitious. They want to be ambitious. It’s been drilled into them since they were little. Thus being sorted into Slytherin.

The Potters for example. All of them were Gryffindor (expect Albus ofc). They aren’t all necessarily brave. They just value braveness. It’s what they were taught growing up. Like you can’t tell me Effie and Monty didn’t teach James that bravery isn’t the absence of fear. Like. You know?!

Do you get what I’m saying??

Peter and Neville weren’t particularly brave when they were 11 but they were still sorted into Gryffindor. Why? Because they value bravery. It’s a core value for them.

Barty Crouch Jr. All though we mostly headcanon him as a Slytherin, canonically, he was a Ravenclaw. He was obvious rather ambitious in his later life but as an 11 year old, he valued knowledge. He wanted to know things.

Im trying to give examples but the house sorting system is a bit constricting. Obviously you can value knowledge and ambition (or any combination) at the same time, and that can change as you grow up you know but from the perspective of an 11 year old, I do think it’s just what they value at the time not what they actually are.

[kay-elle-cee]

in the latter days || Read the Prologue on Ao3 A First War AU || 1.4K || Rated M || Playlist

In February of 1983, a cataclysmic shift occurred in the wizarding world, plunging it into chaos. Four years later, revelations shake the core of James Potter’s new reality when, on a mission, he discovers another faction of the Order of the Phoenix — and with them, the woman he thought he’d lost forever.

Now the two broken factions of the Order must team up to finish what they once started, while James and Lily work through four years of loss and rediscovery.

Prologue

At 11:57am, on the 23rd of February, 1983, a curious, blinding light suddenly erupted from the Portishead coastline. A giant, glowing dome of silver and white rested upon the sand for several minutes before burning in on itself with a deafening crack—like wood splintering—and a powerful blast of hot air knocked the many spectators to their knees as they scrambled to see the aftermath.  At 11:57am, on the 23rd of February, 1983, Albus Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort both perished at the hand of the other, after years of war, after countless dead on each side. On a chilly shore in Portishead, the two most powerful wizards of their time fell, and the delicate balance of the wizarding world shattered. At 11:58am, on the 23rd of February, 1983, chaos enveloped the wizarding world in the aftermath of what would become known as The Fall.

[rewritingcanon]

hpng characters and how they study for exams because im literally dying rn

rose- academic weapon. need i say more. she has the pomodoro technique down pat. she’s the girl at your local library claiming an entire table with an outlet to herself so she can plug her chunky ass laptop into it and make sure it doesn’t explode on her. she has a sugary iced drink near her at all times but she only takes a sip when she feels she’s deserved it. she eats dinner at 1am because she will not let herself move from her desk until she’s completed the practicals she has laid out in front of her. but trust that she’s losing hair and she’s greasy asf and her short fuse is basically nonexistent. she’s also always randomly sick during exam prep, but her symptoms are never bad enough to warrant a doctor’s visit, it’s only hella inconvenient so she’s chugging neuyrofen and vitamin c like her life’s on the line. no special consideration for her. when she experiences one minor setback (technical malfunction, stubbed her toe, bit her tongue etc) she starts angry crying immediately. just don’t speak to her during exam time, she’ll slap you for breaking her concentration.

albus- exam period what exam period. what are you talking about. these assignments aren’t worth half of his grade what do you mean. you’re telling him the essay was due at 5pm today and not 11:59………………. number one— doesn’t cope well at all. in denial until the twenty-four hour mark before his assignments are due and then will lock in as hard as he can but it is absolutely not a pretty process. so don’t even talk to him about it before then. number two— it’s not like he was relaxing during swotvac (idk the british term for swotvac leave me alone) period, my boy was stressed asf he was just procrastinating. you know when you’re too stressed to do literally anything. albus is a prisoner during exam period free my boy. he can’t study, he can’t relax. when he fucks up because of his poor time management he will psychoanalyse everything about himself and convince himself he’s the stupidest mammal to walk on two legs with five fingers. the mental abuse he puts himself through after submitting the shittiest 2000 word essay is crazy. but he is an affront to the english language (he’s surprisingly alright at exams cuz he’s really good at bulshitting, just don’t make him write anything longform 😭 he can’t back up his impassioned opinions with any evidence ok)

victoire- she is the influencer on studytok that makes studying for eight hours straight look like the most aesthetically pleasing pastime ever. her skin is clean, her hair is washed, her clothes are pressed, her eating and sleeping schedule is routine. she’s so not real.

james- most people think he’s an academic weapon because most people will just see the results he gets at the end of the marking period and conclude he’s hella smart. but if they saw the type of basement-dwelling creature he turns into during the study period they would be horrified. he doesn’t touch grass, he doesn’t leave his room, his lips are chapped asf. in fact his room is growing into a whole new ecosystem to account for the cave-dwelling lifestyle james has going on. he’s got the most psycho routine ever, no sane person would replicate this. he’s so mad-scientist-scribbling-incoherent-observations-at-his-barely-lit-desk-at-midnight core. he never sleeps, he only has intervals of three hour naps so it doesn’t disrupt his sleep inertia. friends can’t text or call or reach out to him— he’s on dnd for the next two weeks. you’d think he died. his siblings think he’s doing cocaine in his room to keep himself up. there is the occasional james sighting around 5am where he may trudge out of his room like a night stalker to make himself tea. his face is gaunt and ghostly and his body is brittle and awkward. don’t speak to him because he’s not going to respond he’s too busy spacing out through the entire exam period. if you do get a word out of him it’ll probably not be in a language understood in this world. best he keep to his room.

hugo- he’s absolutely broke yet the only way he can cope is through impulsive storms of online shopping and doing shopping hauls on his close friends. if he had it his way he’d wind down the night with some dti with the boys but hermione has that boy’s arse glued to the dining chair and she and rose are circling hawks scrutinising all of his answers and then insisting to mark his pracs for him. in all realness they do save him because his marks are always pretty good in the end.

teddy- simply did not study if the subject didn’t appeal to him. one of those woke students that truly believed that marks did not equate to worth. knew he would only feasibly want to pursue careers in the subjects he liked so would prioritise one or two subjects. motivational speaker to all his friends. actually didn’t let exams stop him from living his life. his speeches on the wotters aren’t so successful since a lot of them highkey gaf about their results. rose gets pissed off every time he tries with her. victoire politely ignores him. james is disassociating through the entire speech. he doesn’t even attempt it with percy’s kids. bad luck ted.

lily- if there is a person who is the exact type of person who isn’t built for studying, it’s her. she can get away with it at the start of her schooling, because she is quite smart, but when it gets serious its the biggest humbling ever. she just can’t lock in. she’ll have an exam the next day and suddenly she’s knocking on albus’ door and is willing and wanting to listen to him complain about Life Problem #218. she’s suddenly volunteering to help her mum garden and help her dad cook. she’s going to ‘study sessions’ with friends where she forces them to do anything but study. she’s binge watching shows with james. she’s picking up a new hobby in juggling. she’s attacked by a new hyperfixation she can’t get out of her head and she has to spend 6 hours a day looking at fanart. like girl go study. james will give her the most bomb (but lowkey psycho) tips on how to lock in and she’ll get motivated until she looks at her prac and sees an 8 mark short answer question. like goodnight she’s having a nap. also she eats everything in the fridge, no snacks are safe. fuck the no sugar rule fr. she’s not even hungry she just convinces herself she is so she can do literally anything else besides that 8 mark question waiting for her on her desk in her room.

dominique- would drop out.

scorpius- he’s a fucking freak because he probably likes the stress of exam period 💀 like he probs does feel stress about it, but since he’s always constantly stressed out this isn’t anything new to him. “i get to pour over all my in-detail notes i’ve written on all these subjects through the semester again?? and then do an assessment regarding the in-detail notes i have? yippee!!” his optimism is absolutely not shared by his peers but he’s so oblivious to it. he’s fantasising about what topic questions he’ll get and what his damn body paragraphs are going to be. he’s the guy seated behind you in the exam who unintentionally peer pressures you by requesting for another booklet because he’s written too much in the first. he’s the one joyfully skipping up to you after the test is over and excitedly asking for what you wrote about or what answers you got, and when he shares his responses with you, you realise his points were better or his answers were actually correct. and then he’s emailing his teachers every week asking for when the marks will be released because he’s just so excited. weirdo.

[ashesandhackles]

Harry and Dumbledore: Crisis of Faith

The Life and Lies of Dumbledore chapter from DH lives rent free in my head, and I would love to get on my soapbox about why. It's no secret that DH is an allegorical tale with Harry as Christ figure and Dumbledore positioned as God figure - often represented by the symbolism of the all-seeing eye. The eye in the mirror (which turns out to Aberforth, who sends Dobby to the rescue), the symbol of Deathly Hallows in Dumbledore's signature.

Eye symbolism:

A flash of brightest blue. Harry froze, his cut finger slipping on the jagged edge of the mirror again. He had imagined it, he must have done... If anything was certain, it was that the bright blue eyes of Albus Dumbledore would never pierce him again.

and

 Above what Harry assumed was the title of the story (being unable to read runes, he could not be sure) , there was a picture of what looked like a triangular eye, its pupil crossed with a vertical line.

The Deathly Hallows or the Gifts of Death is marked by a triangular eye - and it is explicitly seen as God's eye in Christian art and iconography.

So now, back to the chapter, where Harry completely loses faith:

The sun was coming up: The pure, colorless vastness of the sky stretched over him, indifferent to him and his suffering. Harry sat down in the tent entrance and took a deep breath of clean air.

The chapter opens with the smallness of Harry against the vast sky, a bird's eye view shot to really highlight how vulnerable he feels. On the heels of the chapters where he sees himself and his family immortalised in statues and have their bombed home preserved as memorial - a site people take comfort from the legend of Harry, and Harry takes comfort from the graffiti they left behind - it feels especially isolated. The vulnerability is glaring: Harry has lost the protection of the twin cores. The church bells are distant.

His senses had been spiked by the calamity of losing his wand. He looked out over a valley blanketed in snow, distant church bells chiming through the glittering silence.

Harry does not deal with vulnerability, most specifically helplessness very well. As a child raised in an abusive environment - his savior complex is rooted in needing to have agency. We see him grappling with what he perceives as complete abandonment from Dumbledore: 'Dumbledore had left them to grope in the darkness, to wrestle with unknown and undreamed-of terrors, alone and unaided: Nothing was explained, nothing was given freely, they had no sword, and now, Harry had no wand.'

And then, Harry reads the chapter titled Greater Good from Rita Skeeter's book.

So what was Albus doing, if not comforting his wild young brother? The answer, it seems, is ensuring the continued imprisonment of his sister.

This is important, because Harry's feelings about this are made clear in earlier chapters:

Could Dumbledore have let such things happen? Had he been like Dudley, content to watch neglect and abuse as long as it did not affect him? Could he have turned his back on a sister who was being imprisoned and hidden?

Harry is projecting onto Ariana Dumbledore, specifically with his experience of the Dursleys. He had once raged at Dumbledore in OOTP: "People don't like being locked up! You did it to me last summer!"

Harry's grievance with Dumbledore is not just about this exchange, but a specific choice Dumbledore made for his physical safety with blood wards. The narrative comes close to acknowledging it, in OOTP:

“Five years��ago you arrived at Hogwarts, Harry, safe and whole, as I had planned and intended. Well — not quite whole. You had suffered. I knew you would when I left you on your aunt and uncle’s doorstep. I knew I was condemning you to ten dark and difficult years.” He paused. Harry said nothing.

to

“She doesn’t love me,” said Harry at once. “She doesn’t give a damn — ” “But she took you,” Dumbledore cut across him. “She may have taken you grudgingly, furiously, unwillingly, bitterly, yet still she took you, and in doing so, she sealed the charm I placed upon you. Your mother’s sacrifice made the bond of blood the strongest shield I could give you.”

to

He knew one thing, though: unhappy as he felt at the moment, he would greatly miss Hogwarts in a few days' time when he was back at number four, Privet Drive. Even though he now understood exactly why he had to return there every summer, he did not feel any better about it. Indeed, he had never dreaded his return more.

Harry understands it then, so it is striking that the only time he allows himself to get truly angry at the position Dumbledore put him in this chapter, through Ariana:

 “I’m not trying to defend what Dumbledore wrote,” said Hermione. “All that ‘right to rule’ rubbish, it’s ‘Magic Is Might’ all over again. But Harry, his mother had just died, he was stuck alone in the house —”   “Alone? He wasn’t alone! He had his brother and sister for company, his Squib sister he was keeping locked up —”

“I don’t believe it,” said Hermione. She stood up too. “Whatever was wrong with that girl, I don’t think she was a Squib. The Dumbledore we knew would never, ever have allowed —”   “The Dumbledore we thought we knew didn’t want to conquer Muggles by force!” Harry shouted, his voice echoing across the empty hilltop, and several blackbirds rose into the air, squawking and spiraling against the pearly sky.

I am especially struck by the image of Harry's angry shouting making blackbirds fly into the pearly sky, and spiral over him. Blackbirds are associated with mystery, secrets and are seen as messengers to netherworld - this combined with the image of pearly white sky (heavens/God) seems intentional. It is carrying Harry's disillusionment to the heavens.

And then, the quote that pierces my soul, which is the heart of this chapter:

“Maybe I am!” Harry bellowed, and he flung his arms over his head, hardly knowing whether he was trying to hold in his anger or protect himself from the weight of his own disillusionment. “Look what he asked from me, Hermione! Risk your life, Harry! And again! And again! And don’t expect me to explain everything, just trust me blindly, trust that I know what I’m doing, trust me even though I don’t trust you! Never the whole truth! Never!”

It is reminiscent of Snape's "you have used me! I have spied for you, lied for you, put myself in mortal danger for you" - basically, "why have you forsaken me?" moment.

��He had trusted Dumbledore, believed him the embodiment of goodness and wisdom. All was ashes: How much more could he lose? 

The chapter being set in whiteness and emptiness, reminiscent of King's Cross chapter where Harry does get his answers from Dumbledore.

And then Hermione, who has modified her parents memories, can confidently assert that "He loved you, I know he loved you", because her love for her parents, for Ron, can also be sacrificed at the altar of greater good, even if it means doing things that would hurt them (not choosing to go with Ron) and dismiss their agency (as is with her parents). It doesn't mean she doesn't love them.

  “I don’t know who he loved, Hermione, but it was never me. This isn’t love, the mess he’s left me in. He shared a damn sight more of what he was really thinking with Gellert Grindelwald than he ever shared with me.”

Harry ends the chapter with seeking comfort from Hermione's touch, brushing his hair - wishing he could believe that Dumbledore really cared. (shoutout to @bluethepineapple meta here about this chapter)

And it is then where Dumbledore's gifts come in motion next chapter: his Deluminator lets Ron find his way back. Snape, effectively Dumbledore's man, sends the doe. Harry counts on what he learned from Dumbledore to destroy the Horcrux - he gives Ron the opportunity to wield the sword:

As certainly as he had known that the doe was benign, he knew that Ron had to be the one to wield the sword. Dumbledore had at least taught Harry something about certain kinds of magic, of the incalculable power of certain acts.

And then by Shell Cottage, Harry accepts Dumbledore's plan as is, and reaffirms his faith in Dumbledore's idea of Greater Good:

Dobby would never be able to tell them who had sent him to the cellar, but Harry knew what he had seen. A piercing blue eye had looked out of the mirror fragment, and then help had come. Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.

And then Harry chooses to stay on path Dumbledore laid out for him, only wishing now that he simply understood the man:

When Harry had finished speaking (about Voldemort), Ron shook his head.   “You really understand him.”   “Bits of him,” said Harry. “Bits . . . I just wish I’d understood Dumbledore as much. But we’ll see. Come on — Ollivander now.”

And finally, he starts to understand Dumbledore - through his conversation with Aberforth:

"And Albus was free, wasn’t he? Free of the burden of his sister, free to become the greatest wizard of the —”   “He was never free,” said Harry.   “I beg your pardon?” said Aberforth.   “Never,” said Harry. “The night that your brother died, he drank a potion that drove him out of his mind. He started screaming, pleading with someone who wasn’t there. ‘Don’t hurt them, please . . . hurt me instead.’”   “He thought he was back there with you and Grindelwald, I know he did,” said Harry, remembering Dumbledore whimpering, pleading. “He thought he was watching Grindelwald hurting you and Ariana. . . . It was torture to him, if you’d seen him then, you wouldn’t say he was free.”

Finally, he gets his chance to have a conversation with Dumbledore at the crossroads of life and death. TLDR: Deathly Hallows is an allegorical tale and it is best to treat it as such and roll with it, because otherwise it's deus ex machina galore.

[olympip]

The Sorting Hat // Peter Pettigrew & Neville Longbottom Being Foils *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Recently, I saw someone say they don't understand why Peter is a Gryffindor... and this made me want to talk about how the Sorting Hat possibly works. Harry tells Albus that the Sorting Hat takes "your choice into account", but I think the best descriptor is that the Sorting Hat takes what you value into account. For example, some people think Hermione should've been a Ravenclaw because she's intelligent and quick-thinking. But here's the thing- I think it'd be fair to say Hermione valued bravery over intelligence. She's passionate and outspoken with her beliefs and was determined to remain strong in the face of her adversaries. We see this in First Year and she only grows into these traits as she faces difficult situations. At her core, Hermione values traits like courage and determination, and happens to have a passion for learning and pursuing knowledge. And here's how Peter Pettigrew and Neville Longbottom play into this. Both were sorted into Gryffindor despite not really having been described as brave when they were 11 years old. However, I think it'd be fair to say that both valued bravery. We see Neville step out of his comfort zone and as the series continues, he grows more confident and (you guessed it) brave. He goes from being a nervous, shy 11 year old to being a leader in Dumbledore's Army while Hogwarts is under Death Eater reign. Peter, I imagine, had a similar start to his years at Hogwarts. He has these friends who are just so cool and do whatever they want and he loves that. He admires the courage they have to be able to do that. But, where he differs from the other Gryffindor students is that he never achieves that bravery himself. He remains a coward. He can't find it in himself to be brave and instead does what he thinks will keep him safe. That's what makes him a bit tragic, in my opinion. He never becomes what he values.

Just my thoughts on the matter, but I wanted to share because I like talking about this kind of stuff. I'd love to hear everyone else's thoughts or ideas :D i wrote this at like 1 am so sorry if it doesnt make much sense lmao

[slitheringghost]

"And Cain Repented Not Of What He Had Done": Harry Potter as Retelling of Cain and Abel, Part 1

Then Cain, the hard-hearted and cruel murderer, took a large stone and smote his brother with it upon the head, until his brains oozed out, and he weltered in his blood, before him. And Cain repented not of what he had done. “I regret it,” said Voldemort coldly. He turned away; there was no sadness in him, no remorse. Thereupon Allah sent forth a raven who began to scratch the earth to show him how he might cover the corpse of his brother. So seeing he cried: Woe unto me! Was I unable even to be like this raven and find a way to cover the corpse of my brother? Then he became full of remorse at his doing. // And he became of the regretful. “But before you try to kill me, I’d advise you to think about what you’ve done... Think, and try for some remorse, Riddle…”

Section 1.0: Introduction

The Harry Potter series is, at its heart, a retelling and performance of Cain and Abel, the biblical story of the first murder, of Cain telling his brother Abel ‘let us go out into the field’ and killing him. In this retelling, the characters of HP put on different masks, perform different parts, play several characters at once.

Like most stories, Cain and Abel has many different interpretations, and JKR has weaved every single one of those interpretations into HP in a gigantic intricate web that's one of the most fascinating and formative parts of the series, yet one that goes unnoticed by most of fandom.

JKR essentially wrote HP like one long Cain and Abel web weaving post, and in this meta I’ll be quoting all the various interpretations in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic tradition with the corresponding passages in the HP books alluding to them.

Despite the original Cain and Abel story, it's not just about brothers - because HP as a retelling is about brothers and sisters killing their brothers and sisters. And at the center of it all is:

1) the events between and attempted murders of Voldemort, Harry, and Lily by each other

2) the murders of “sisters” Ariana Dumbledore, Merope Gaunt, and Lily Evans by their "brothers" (brothers loosely referring to any familial or symbolic familial dynamic) - Ariana murdered by Albus, Aberforth, and Grindelwald; Merope’s murder by Marvolo, Morfin, and Tom Riddle Sr., and then the six men leading to Lily’s death - Sirius, Snape, Wormtail, Harry, James, and Voldemort.

Some of these characters are Cain in the traditional sense, cruel intentional murderers - such as Voldemort as the main Cain of the story, Merope's family, Wormtail, perhaps Bellatrix depending on how you interpret her. Others are Cain much more symbolically and allude to their unintentionally bringing about the deaths of their loved ones and the subsequent guilt - such as Sirius's guilt over bringing about the deaths of his "brother and sister" James and Lily, Harry's guilt over Lily dying for him, etc.

Notice how there’s a heavy emphasis on twins and sibling dynamics in HP, and it’s because all of that links to the story as a Cain and Abel retelling:

“Fred and George, who were identical to the last freckle.” Fred and George turned to each other and said together, “Wow — we’re identical!” “Parvati Patil’s twin’s in Ravenclaw, and they’re identical. You’d think they’d be together, wouldn’t you?” "Or was it Potter’s identical twin in the Hog’s Head that day?" Albus and Aberforth wore matching lacy collared jackets and had identical, shoulder-length hairstyles. Albus looked several years older, but otherwise the two boys looked very alike, for this was before Albus’s nose had been broken and before he started wearing glasses. “You will suggest to the Order of the Phoenix,” Snape murmured, “that they use decoys. Polyjuice Potion. Identical Potters.”

Harry and Voldemort are framed as "twin brothers" (brother wands, the twin cores, etc), as Cain and Abel are brothers and in some interpretations twins too, and the lightning scar on Harry's forehead is the mark of Cain.

Voldemort as Cain is driving the story - he murders or nearly murders almost every familial relationship he has, from all his living relatives to Ginny as a "sister", to Snape and Bellatrix, to of course, his "brother" Harry. Voldemort also turns his followers/“true family” into Cain as they become more and more like him - i.e. Barty Crouch Jr. murders his father, Snape is made to murder his father figure Dumbledore, Bellatrix ordered to kill Tonks, etc.

And, Voldemort marking Harry as his equal, turning him into someone like himself, has multiple meanings - because just like he did with his followers, Voldemort who is Cain himself marked Harry as Cain too, Harry marked to one day kill his "brother" Voldemort, as well as marked to inadvertently lead to the deaths of his loved ones, to become a killer of his "family" the way Voldemort is, due to Voldemort's choice regarding the prophecy.

Additionally, in some interpretations, Cain and Abel have twin sisters, which is also weaved into this text in integral ways - one being that Lily is framed is Voldemort's symbolic sister the way Harry and Voldemort are "brothers", which you can read about in my meta Unweaving Canon Lily: Parallels to Voldemort.

Also note that most of these characters play the role of Cain, as well as playing multiple other roles - there isn't just one Cain and one Abel and one the Lord and one Cain's twin sister, etc. Indeed that’s the point, because they’re “twins”, they’re not just Cain and Abel, but often Cain and Cain.

In Parts 1 and 2 I'll explore all the different interpretations of the original passage, and then in Part 3 I'll expand on the passage itself in Genesis 4:1-18. Read Part 2 here. Read on Ao3 here.

Some disclaimers and notes: 1) This meta is meant to unravel a lot of the symbolism and allusions JKR weaved into the story, and isn’t necessarily a literal interpretation of these characters.

2) Some of these may seem strange to emphasize, because obviously they're words or phrases that appear often and may not be intentional references to this narrative thread, but some specific details and JKR's writing style makes me think they are - i.e. see how JKR weaved in Dracula passages in this post; there's also Tom Riddle’s “burnished gold shield” borrowing from a passage in the Aeneid in this post, etc. So an extremely close reading of the text and paying attention to the exact wording (sometimes even just a single word) does matter a lot here to catch the allusions.

On that note, I’ve done my best to elaborate on the quotes, but since this is sort of like web weaving, many times the quotes are the meta, so make sure to pay close attention to them.

3) There’s a lot to unpack and it’s really hard to fit everything in one meta series - so bear with me on some of loose threads, I plan to elaborate on them in future metas.

4) Admittedly I got lazy with citations - my main sources are the article Why Did Cain Kill Abel? and this article on the Quran, and you can find elaboration on these interpretations and the sources for them there.

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Section 2.0

2.1 Now the brothers rejoiced in different pursuits. Abel, the younger, had regard for righteousness and, believing that God was present in all the things that were done by him, looked after virtue; and his life was that of a shepherd. On the other hand, Cain was both most wicked in other respects and, looking only to gain, was the first to think of ploughing the earth; and he killed his brother for the following reason.

It seeming best to them to sacrifice to God, Cain offered fruits from the cultivation of the soil and plants, while Abel offered milk and the first-born of the grazing animals. God took greater pleasure in this latter sacrifice, being honored by things that grow automatically and in accordance with nature but not by those things that grow by the force of grasping man with craftiness. Consequently, Cain, provoked that Abel had been valued more highly by God, killed his brother and rendering his corpse unseen, supposed that he would escape notice.

The following quotes may have weaved in the first passage, as Cain is often referred to as "the wicked one" - in HBP, “Of the Horcrux, wickedest of magical inventions, we shall not speak nor give direction” and “This time, as you will have seen, he killed not for revenge, but for gain.”

As for the second passage, Lily’s sacrifice isn’t just referring to Lily as a Christ figure - it’s also the sacrifice Cain and Abel offer to God. There are several ways it could fit - one being that Voldemort and Harry as Cain and Abel respectively, offered the same sacrifice which is Lily's death.

Voldemort doing so was looked upon with disfavor by God, because he was murdering his symbolic "sister", which lead to his partial death, while God favored Harry’s sacrifice because he got his mother willingly sacrificing herself for him, which led to Harry surviving the Killing Curse.

The jealousy aspect then, which is the most common interpretation of why Cain killed Abel, refers to Voldemort's jealousy over Harry's immortality:

“Well,” said Riddle, smiling pleasantly, “how is it that you - a skinny boy with no extraordinary magical talent - managed to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How did you escape with nothing but a scar, while Lord Voldemort’s powers were destroyed?” (CoS)

Harry’s immortality is one way in which Voldemort and Harry are twins, and in a way is tied Voldemort’s name (meaning “flight from death” in French) - because Harry is Voldemort’s “twin brother” Flight From Death #2 (and Lily is Voldemort’s “twin sister”, Flight From Death #3 - more in this in future metas).

Another interpretation is that Voldemort and Harry are both Cain, and like the twins they are, both again offering the same sacrifice, and here both offering Lily as a sacrifice alludes to the guilt Harry feels at (inadvertently) being Cain and bringing about Lily's death for his immortality. Both offerings were looked upon with disfavor and rejected by God, and both Voldemort and Harry as Cain were exiled elsewhere, made to restlessly wander ("You will be a restless wanderer on the earth" from Genesis 4:12) - Voldemort in Albania, Harry with the Dursleys.

The last line of this passage - Cain, provoked that Abel had been valued more highly by God, killed his brother and rendering his corpse unseen, supposed that he would escape notice - is extremely important to analyzing Lily, but that’s for another meta.

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2.2 She gave birth to an infant and his color was that of the stars. He fell into the hands of the midwife and (at once) he began to pluck up the grass, for in his mother’s hut grass was planted. The midwife replied to him and told him, “God is just that he did not at all leave you in my hands. For, you are Cain, the perverse one, killer of the good, for you are the one who plucks up the fruit-bearing tree, and not he who plants it. You are the bearer of bitterness and not of sweetness.”

Interestingly, Sirius and Snape as narrative mirrors were inspired by the same passage - both of them are Cain, Sirius for causing his "brother" James and "sister" Lily's deaths through the Secret Keeper switch, and Snape for causing his "sister" Lily's death by conveying the prophecy.

"Color of the stars" refers to the Black family's star naming pattern, while "grass planted in his mother's hut" refers to Snape's connection to Eileen Prince and Potions, and Snape is shown "plucking up the grass and fruit bearing tree" in this scene in The Prince's Tale:

“Oh yes, they’re arguing,” said Snape. He picked up a fistful of leaves and began tearing them apart, apparently unaware of what he was doing. “But it won’t be that long and I’ll be gone.” “Dementors are for people who do really bad stuff. They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban. You’re not going to end up in Azkaban, you’re too —” He turned red again and shredded more leaves. Then a small rustling noise behind Harry made him turn: Petunia, hiding behind a tree, had lost her footing. (DH)

That refers to Snape plucking up the forbidden fruit of knowledge offered by Voldemort as the snake (see this meta by @ashesandhackles). The line about being the bearer of bitterness may refer to how Petunia and Snape, as Lily’s “sister and brother”, both have similarly negative names - Petunia flowers symbolize bitterness, anger, resentment; Severus means serious, grave, stern.

Fandom has pointed out that Snape is often associated with feminine figures i.e. Lady of the Lake; it's possible that Snape wearing women clothes (i.e. wearing his mother's clothes while sitting on the ground facing Lily - facing her as her reflection/"twin") is an allusion to Snape as Cain's twin sister (Cain in this case could be Lily, Voldemort, Harry, or Sirius).

Snape is also all but explicitly called Harry’s identical twin in OoTP - the joke here is that while Fudge was referring to the DA meeting in the Hog's Head, it was once upon a time Harry's “identical twin” - a.k.a Snape - in the Hog's Head:

“Yes, do let’s hear the latest cock-and-bull story designed to pull Potter out of trouble! Go on, then, Dumbledore, go on — Willy Widdershins was lying, was he? Or was it Potter’s identical twin in the Hog’s Head that day? Or is there the usual simple explanation involving a reversal of time, a dead man coming back to life, and a couple of invisible dementors?” (OoTP) “The Hog’s Head Inn, which Sybill chose for its cheapness, has long attracted, shall we say, a more interesting clientele than the Three Broomsticks [...] Of course, I had not dreamed, when I set out to meet Sybill Trelawney, that I would hear anything worth overhearing. My — our — one stroke of good fortune was that the eavesdropper was detected only a short way into the prophecy and thrown from the building.” (OoTP)

The "infant the color of the stars" additionally refers to Bellatrix, who also is Cain, killer of her “brother” Sirius, and later of Tonks; she also plays the “twin sister” of Cain (in this case Sirius).

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2.3 And the time arrived when Cain and Abel had gone up toward their fields. Two demons resembling Cain and Abel came. Now, one demon reproached the other demon. He became angry with him and took a stone sword, which was of a transparent stone. He cut his throat and killed him. And when Cain saw the blood, he went quickly and took the stone in his hand(s).

This passage corresponds to the scene of Ron destroying Slytherin’s locket - the stone sword is Gryffindor’s sword, Riddle-Harry and Riddle-Hermione are the demon resembling Cain and Ron as the other demon, Riddle-Harry and Riddle-Hermione “reproach” Ron aka torment and taunt him, Ron becomes angry and kills Riddle in the locket with the “stone sword”.

The imagery of "cutting his throat" may also refer to how the locket strangles Harry:

All he could do was raise a shaking hand to his throat and feel the place where the locket had cut tightly into his flesh. It was gone: Someone had cut him free. (DH)

All of them in that scene resemble Cain (in this case Voldemort), because the Riddle-Harry and Riddle-Hermione, distorted versions of the real people, verbally abuse and humiliate Ron using his insecurities exactly like Voldemort does to others.

Ron here also resembles Cain - when Harry sees Ron's red eyes, he fears that Ron too has become Cain, that he's become like Tom Riddle and will kill him, his "brother".

“Ron, stab it, STAB IT!” Harry yelled, but Ron did not move: His eyes were wide, and the Riddle-Harry and the Riddle-Hermione were reflected in them, their hair swirling like flames, their eyes shining red, their voices lifted in an evil duet. Ron looked toward him, and Harry thought he saw a trace of scarlet in his eyes. “Ron — ?” The sword flashed, plunged: Harry threw himself out of the way, there was a clang of metal and a long, drawn-out scream. Harry whirled around, slipping in the snow, wand held ready to defend himself: but there was nothing to fight. (DH)

The Cain and Abel passage then continues, and now this part corresponds to the scene of Voldemort killing Snape, with LV as Cain and Snape as Abel.

2.4 But when Abel saw him coming, he begged him, “Do not make me die, O my brother Cain!” He, however, did not accept his prayer and he spilled Abel’s blood in front of him.

And now Snape looked at Voldemort, and Snape’s face was like a death mask. It was marble white and so still that when he spoke, it was a shock to see that anyone lived behind the blank eyes. “My Lord — let me go to the boy —” […] “You have been a good and faithful servant, and I regret what must happen.” “My Lord —” “[…] While you live, Severus, the Elder Wand cannot be truly mine.” “My Lord!” Snape protested, raising his wand. “It cannot be any other way,” said Voldemort. “I must master the wand, Severus. Master the wand, and I master Potter at last.” [...] He pointed it at the starry cage holding the snake, which drifted upward, off Snape, who fell sideways onto the floor, blood gushing from the wounds in his neck. [...] He did not know why he was doing it, why he was approaching the dying man: He did not know what he felt as he saw Snape’s white face, and the fingers trying to staunch the bloody wound at his neck. (DH)

Interestingly, once Snape realizes Voldemort's about to kill him, he protests and begs Voldemort not to kill him three times, echoing Lily begging Voldemort and how she offers her own life in exchange for Harry's three times.

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2.5 It was said: Cain killed Abel by throwing a rock at his head while he was asleep. It was also said: Cain choked Abel violently and bit him to death as beasts do.

Not sure what throwing a rock at his head refers to, but the latter sentence ties to the scene where Voldemort tries to kill Harry and Snape via Nagini, and then Merope’s locket horcrux choking Harry, with Voldemort as Cain, and Harry and Snape as Abel.

The snake struck as he raised his wand: The force of the bite to his forearm sent the wand spinning up toward the ceiling; [...] He could not get enough breath into his lungs to call back: Then a heavy smooth mass smashed him to the floor and he felt it slide over him, powerful, muscular — “No!” he gasped, pinned to the floor. “Yes,” whispered the voice. “Yesss... hold you... hold you...” “Accio... Accio Wand...” But nothing happened and he needed his hands to try to force the snake from him as it coiled itself around his torso, squeezing the air from him, pressing the Horcrux hard into his chest (DH) “[…] The snake bit you too, but I’ve cleaned the wound and put some dittany on it...” He pulled the sweaty T-shirt he was wearing away from himself and looked down. There was a scarlet oval over his heart where the locket had burned him. He could also see the half-healed puncture marks to his forearm. (DH) Then something closed tight around his neck. He thought of water weeds, though nothing had brushed him as he dived, and raised his empty hand to free himself. It was not weed: The chain of the Horcrux had tightened and was slowly constricting his windpipe [...] Thrashing, suffocating, he scrabbled at the strangling chain, his frozen fingers unable to loosen it (DH)

And Voldemort swiped the air with the Elder Wand. It did nothing to Snape, who for a split second seemed to think he had been reprieved: But then Voldemort’s intention became clear. The snake’s cage was rolling through the air, and before Snape could do anything more than yell, it had encased him, head and shoulders, and Voldemort spoke in Parseltongue. “Kill.” There was a terrible scream. Harry saw Snape’s face losing the little color it had left; it whitened as his black eyes widened, as the snake’s fangs pierced his neck, as he failed to push the enchanted cage off himself, as his knees gave way and he fell to the floor. (DH)

In general there are quite a few similar scenes involving choking and strangulation - i.e. Marvolo attempting to kill Merope by choking her, Vernon strangling Harry in OoTP, etc. It also evokes a dementor’s/Death’s hands wrapping around someone.

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2.6 And so they went on, until they came to a lonely place, where there were no sheep; then Abel said to Cain, “Behold, my brother, we are weary of walking, for we see none of the trees, nor of the fruits, nor of the verdure, nor of the sheep, nor any one of the things of which you told me. Where are those sheep of yours that you told me to bless?” Then Cain said to him, “Come on, and presently you will see many beautiful things, but go before me, until I come up to you.” And Abel was walking in his innocence, without guile, not believing his brother would kill him. Then Cain, when he came up to him, comforted him with his talk, walking a little behind him. Then he hastened and smote him with the staff, blow upon blow, until he was stunned.

This refers to the scene of Voldemort's vanquishment, with Lily as Cain and Voldemort as Abel. Because the text reveals Lily, far from being solely the Virgin Mary, is also Cain in several ways, and reveals that Lily killed Voldemort intentionally (more on this in future metas).

This is Voldemort walking in his innocence, without guile, not believing Lily would kill him:

He could hear her screaming from the upper floor, trapped, but as long as she was sensible, she, at least, had nothing to fear... He climbed the steps, listening with faint amusement to her attempts to barricade herself in... She had no wand upon her either... How stupid they were, and how trusting, thinking that their safety lay in friends, that weapons could be discarded even for moments (DH)

Then Lily comforted Voldemort with her talk when she pretended to plead and begged him for mercy and to take her life instead. Then Lily smote him blow upon blow, until he was stunned:

“I miscalculated, my friends, I admit it. My curse was deflected by the woman’s foolish sacrifice, and it rebounded upon myself. Aaah… pain beyond pain, my friends; nothing could have prepared me for it.” (GOF)

The phrase “blow upon blow” is alluded to in the wording used for Ariana’s murder by Dumbledore:

“Though Ariana had been in poor health for a long time, the blow, coming so soon after the loss of their mother, had a profound effect on both of her brothers.” “You see, I never knew which of us, in that last, horrific fight, had actually cast the curse that killed my sister. You may call me cowardly: You would be right. Harry, I dreaded beyond all things the knowledge that it had been I who brought about her death, not merely through my arrogance and stupidity, but that I actually struck the blow that snuffed out her life.” (DH)

And now note that in the next quote, Dumbledore doesn't say that Lily "died to save" Harry - he instead uses active phrasing, and very similar to the phrasing he uses for Ariana’s death, again establishing both Lily and Dumbledore as Cain - Lily striking the death blow on her “brother” Voldemort, as Dumbledore fears he did with Ariana:

“Tell him that on the night Lord Voldemort tried to kill him, when Lily cast her own life between them as a shield, the Killing Curse rebounded upon Lord Voldemort, and a fragment of Voldemort’s soul was blasted apart from the whole, and latched itself onto the only living soul left in that collapsing building.” (DH)

I'll further expand on the significance of “walking a little behind him" in a future meta, but to explain some here, the phrase is weaved in PS with the Mirror of Erised, setting up Lily as the true killer of her "brother" Voldemort and Dumbledore as killer of his "sister" Ariana:

He looked in the mirror again. A woman standing right behind his reflection was smiling at him and waving. He reached out a hand and felt the air behind him [...] (PS) He looked behind him. Sitting on one of the desks by the wall was none other than Albus Dumbledore. Harry must have walked straight past him, so desperate to get to the mirror he hadn’t noticed him. (PS)

The reason Lily is right behind Harry, presenting Lily as Cain to Harry, is referring to Lily’s guilt at that fact, similar to Harry's guilt at getting Sirius killed, etc - because it was Lily’s choice that deflected the Killing Curse, Lily who fulfilled the prophecy and landed Harry in these circumstances. More on this in section 2.10.

Lily's arms are emphasized because they're Death's arms closing around Voldemort from behind - hence "walking a little behind him":

he felt arms enclose him from behind, thin, fleshless arms cold as death, and his feet left the ground as they lifted him and began to carry him, slowly and surely, back to the water, and he knew there would be no release, that he would be drowned (HBP) now little lights were popping inside his head, and he was going to drown, there was nothing left, nothing he could do, and the arms that closed around his chest were surely Death’s... (DH) [...] and there she stood, the child in her arms. At the sight of him, she dropped her son into the crib behind her and threw her arms wide, as if this would help, as if in shielding him from sight she hoped to be chosen instead... (DH) His job was to walk calmly into Death’s welcoming arms. [...] the end would be clean, and the job that ought to have been done in Godric’s Hollow would be finished: Neither would live, neither could survive. (DH)

The phrases “Come on”, “until I come up to you”, “when he came up to him” may be alluded to in the repetition here, and also that the Killing Curse’s deflection happens on the upper floor of the house.

“I have been waiting for you to appear since we arrived here. I knew you’d come. I have many questions for you, Harry Potter.” (COS) "Time’s nearly up. Potter’s had his hour. He’s not coming.” “And he was sure he’d come! He won’t be happy.” (DH) “I thought he would come,” said Voldemort in his high, clear voice, his eyes on the leaping flames. “I expected him to come.” (DH) “The Dark Lord will rise again, Crouch! Throw us into Azkaban; we will wait! He will rise again and will come for us, he will reward us beyond any of his other supporters!" (GOF) “Now it was just Father and I, alone in the house. And then... [...] My master came for me.” (GOF) “Your mother’s coming…” he said quietly. “She wants to see you… it will be all right… hold on…” And she came… first her head, then her body… a young woman with long hair, the smoky, shadowy form of Lily Potter blossomed from the end of Voldemort’s wand (GOF)

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2.7 At that time Eve told Adam, “My lord, Adam, in my sleep I saw that the blood of my son Abel was pouring into the mouth of Cain his brother, and he drank it without mercy. And Abel beseeched him to leave him (a little) of his blood, and he did not agree to hearken to him but he drank it completely … and it could not at all be removed from his body.”

This corresponds to Voldemort taking Harry’s blood inside him - however it also refers to Lily, Voldemort taking a bit of Harry and Lily inside him, both not able to be removed from his body:

“I wanted Harry Potter’s blood. I wanted the blood of the one who had stripped me of power thirteen years ago... for the lingering protection his mother once gave him would then reside in my veins too...” (GOF) “He took my blood,” said Harry. “Precisely!” said Dumbledore. “He took your blood and rebuilt his living body with it! Your blood in his veins, Harry, Lily’s protection inside both of you! He tethered you to life while he lives!” [...] “He took your blood believing it would strengthen him. He took into his body a tiny part of the enchantment your mother laid upon you when she died for you. His body keeps her sacrifice alive, and while that enchantment survives, so do you and so does Voldemort’s one last hope for himself.” (DH)

This could also refer to the horcrux inside Harry, a piece of Voldemort that can't be removed from his body, and also the description of Ginny here, and how that ties into the way Voldemort's parasitic to his followers/"family":

"Voldemort put a bit of himself in me?" Harry said, thunderstruck. (COS) "So Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted... I grew stronger and stronger on a diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets. I grew powerful, more powerful than little Miss Weasley. Powerful enough to start feeding Miss Weasley a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul into her..." (CoS)

Note the repetition of the word "pouring" ("the blood of Abel was pouring into the mouth of Cain", "poured out her soul", "pouring a little of my soul into her"), and how words like "diet" and "feeding" evoke the idea that Voldemort’s drinking Ginny's soul like drinking blood, and likewise she’s made to drink his - tying into the Dracula parallel mentioned in this post.

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2.8 Cain was brought punishment very soon afterwards. On the same day he killed his brother, Abel, his foot was tied up to his thighbone and his face was forcibly directed up to the sun disk. His face used to go where the sun goes as a way of punishment and penalty in return for what he had done to his own brother.

On the same day when Voldemort killed Harry in the Final Battle and Harry was once more resurrected, Voldemort's "foot being tied up to this thighbone" likely means that Voldemort finally dies, his feet are no longer leaving the ground and landing lightly, he's no longer flying from death. And as he dies, his face is "forcibly directed up to the sun":

A red-gold glow burst suddenly across the enchanted sky above them as an edge of dazzling sun appeared over the sill of the nearest window. The light hit both of their faces at the same time, so that Voldemort’s was suddenly a flaming blur. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he too yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: “Avada Kedavra!” “Expelliarmus!” [...] Harry saw Voldemort’s green jet meet his own spell, saw the Elder Wand fly high, dark against the sunrise, spinning across the enchanted ceiling [...] The fierce new sun dazzled the windows as they thundered toward him, and the first to reach him were Ron and Hermione, and it was their arms that were wrapped around him, their incomprehensible shouts that deafened him (DH)

This is also an allusion to Voldemort as a vampire (the Dracula influence is obvious), melting in the sun.

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2.9 However, Abel's saying when Cain threatened to kill him: {If you do stretch your hand against me to kill me, I shall never stretch my hand against you to kill you

This corresponds to Voldemort using Avada Kedavra while Harry only uses Expelliarmus and also Harry walking to his death, never stretching his hand against Voldemort to kill him.

It also ties to Lily not directly fighting back while Voldemort kills her with his wand, and the fight between Aberforth and Dumbledore:

Aberforth shouted that it was all Albus’s fault that Ariana was dead and then punched him in the face. According to Bathilda, Albus did not even defend himself, and that’s odd enough in itself, Albus could have destroyed Aberforth in a duel with both hands tied behind his back. (DH) when at last he flung himself across Voldemort’s path, and did not raise a wand to defend himself, the end would be clean (DH)

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2.10 What were they arguing about? They said, “Let’s divide up the world. One took the land and the other [took] the movable goods. This one said, “The land you are standing upon is mine.” This one said, “What you are wearing is mine.” This one said “Strip” [so you are not wearing my clothes]! and this one said “Fly” [so you are not on my land]! As a consequence, “Cain rose up against Abel…”

They both took lands and they both took movable goods. What were they arguing about? One said “the Temple will be built in my territory” and this one said “in my territory…”

“You know,” said Sirius loudly [...] “I think I’d prefer it if you didn’t give orders here, Snape. It’s my house, you see.” (OOTP) “This is my house, Bella, you don’t give orders in my —” (DH) “Stand aside, you silly girl... stand aside, now.” (DH)

Voldemort is giving Lily orders in her house, on her land, in her territory - and she doesn't obey (And, well, since James died first, Lily inherited all his stuff, so I guess it was truly her land).

Both the Godric’s Hollow house and the blood wards on Privet Drive are also Lily saying to Voldemort, this land you’re trying to stand upon is mine, Voldemort can’t enter without her express permission:

And his scream was Harry’s scream, his pain was Harry’s pain… that it could happen here, where it had happened before… here, within sight of that house where he had come so close to knowing what it was to die... to die… The pain was so terrible… ripped from his body And then he broke: He was nothing, nothing but pain and terror, and he must hide himself, not here in the rubble of the ruined house, where the child was trapped and screaming, but far away (DH)

The same applies to the graveyard scene in GoF, where Priori Incantatem first makes both Harry and Voldemort fly away from where they’re standing after Voldemort points to his father’s grave and mentions Lily, alluding to Lily’s grave (which comes full circle in the graveyard scene in DH):

“You stand, Harry Potter, upon the remains of my late father,” he hissed softly. “A Muggle and a fool... very like your dear mother. But they both had their uses, did they not? Your mother died to defend you as a child... and I killed my father, and see how useful he has proved himself, in death...” And then — nothing could have prepared Harry for this — he felt his feet lift from the ground. He and Voldemort were both being raised into the air, their wands still connected by that thread of shimmering golden light. They glided away from the tombstone of Voldemort’s father and then came to rest on a patch of ground that was clear and free of graves (GOF)

That’s Lily telling her "brother" Voldemort, you mentioned my death, therefore this land you’re standing upon is mine, and Fly [so you’re not on my land!].

You could say the territory Voldemort as “brother and sister” are fighting over is Harry - Voldemort says "Mine!", and immediately Lily's magic comes to save Harry and says no, he's mine:

Barely gripping the plummeting bike with his knees, Harry heard Voldemort scream, “Mine!” It was over: He could not see or hear where Voldemort was; he glimpsed another Death Eater swooping out of the way and heard, “Avada —” As the pain from Harry’s scar forced his eyes shut, his wand acted of its own accord. He felt it drag his hand around like some great magnet, saw a spurt of golden fire through his half-closed eyelids, heard a crack and a scream of fury. The remaining Death Eater yelled; Voldemort screamed, “No!” (DH)

While Voldemort tries to claim Harry as his, Lily is claiming Harry as hers; while Voldemort marked Harry as his equal, Lily marked Harry as her equal:

"Love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign [...] It was agony to touch a person marked by something so good" (PS)

But there’s another meaning to this - that Lily also inadvertently marked Harry as Cain, because it was Lily’s choice that forged the connection between Harry and Voldemort, and therefore Lily’s choice that resulted in all the pain Harry’s going through, Lily’s sacrifice being what is truly responsible for that scar on Harry’s forehead, and Lily's subsequent guilt the way Dumbledore feels guilt about Ariana etc.

"What you are wearing is mine" and "So you are not wearing my clothes" refers to Death's Invisibility Cloak - which represents the aegis and Lily and Harry framed as the two “true owners” (see my meta “When Lily Cast Her Life As A Shield": Analysis of the Shield Charm for elaboration). Those lines are weaved into this highly significant passage:

“One: He’s sitting on my chair. Two: He’s wearing my clothes. Three: His name’s Remus Lupin...” (OoTP)

This joke actually has an important hidden meaning relating to Lily, but more on that in future metas.

"This one said 'Fly'" also refers to Lily, Voldemort, and Snape's ability to fly unsupported, as well as Harry's Quidditch skill and him being Voldemort's "twin brother" Flight From Death #2.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Read Part 2 of this meta

See also: this post

[goodboyaudios]

Also hypothetically speaking, can Karmor prevent certain historical events from happening? In specific, can he change certain things from Albus' backstory(like him ever applying to sub-delta)? If so, what would change in Albus? :3

(this is fun)

Karmor prevents Albus from going into Sub Delta, huh?

How would that look...

The thing is, he was chosen to go into Sub-Delta and made to believe it was his decision to do so. They implanted the thoughts into his head. They did this because of who he is as a person, which means he'd have to have never been born.

If he were to erase the TRIAD...well, then the Paladins would have been driven to madness, and the leviathans would've succeeded in consuming the core of Emprzeal. The universe might be a little worse off if that happened...

[metalomagnetic]

What is Voldemort's favorite and least favorite thing about each of his partners?

Sirius: Voldemort would have a very hard time picking one favourite thing. He values Sirius' loyalty, his bravery, his wild nature; he is fascinated by the dual nature of Sirius, how he can be a perfect, well mannered, high society man, yet he can also be a cruel, vicious dog (and not just when he transforms into Padfoot). How Sirius can be kind and selfless one moment, and then turn around and bully someone just because he can. He likes Sirius' sense of humour, and he is blown away by how fearless he is, how reckless, even in the face of death, something Voldemort fears so much. Sirius is the type to live in the moment, make the most of it, something Voldemort never learned how to do. I think what gets to Voldemort the most is that Sirius is, at his core, a good man (at least by Voldemort's standards) but he's not 'stupidly' good or kind, he's not preachy about it, he's not self righteous. Voldemort can experience being around a good man, probably for the first time...ever, but not as 'good' as to hate Voldemort on principle alone. Voldemort is made of darkness, and he's attracted to Sirius' light, and yet he's also in understanding with Sirius' darker side, which allows them to at least have some morals, or lack of morals, in common, enough to have a foundation for a relationship.

His least favourite thing about Sirius is that he cares too much about people that aren't Voldemort, has strong, impossible to break bonds to so many other people.

Albus: Voldemort's favourite thing about Albus is his genius and nerdiness. He is not one to be easily impressed by intelligence, since Voldemort himself is a genius, but Albus is his equal in this regard. Same goes for his magical skill. They truly are equals, and no one else can match them. And they both experience a type of loneliness that only men like them would know, because they are so different from everyone around them, no one can possible relate to such---beings made of big brains and magic.

His least favourite thing about Albus is what he perceives as hypocrisy. That, and Albus' determination to do the right thing, to protect everyone he can.

Gellert: His ambition and willingness to do whatever it takes to get ahead. The 'eyes on the prize' mentality. He's also attracted by Gellert's power and understanding of dark magic.

His least favourite thing is the regret Gellert sometimes exhibits.

Abraxas: he's beautiful and rich, and a young Tom Riddle likes both those things. He's fascinated with Abraxas' inherited status, with the power and influence he carries just because he was born with the right name. Tom hates Abraxas for it, is deeply jealous, but at the same time, having Abraxas is like touching those things himself, in a way. He likes that Abraxas, who could have anyone, who could have a pureblood with a name as ancient as his own, wants no-one Tom Riddle, obsessively so.

He detests Abraxas' cowardice most of all.

Bella: While she's pretty much perfect all around, Voldemort values her unflinching loyalty, her complete devotion to him, her lack of fear and her extreme bravery.

He finds no fault in her.

[oh-my-bindery]

I clearly had a little late night rant to myself so I decided to share it…

Drarry and how I see them and why they are SO IMPORTANT to me

Draco

Draco is sheltered, an only child, he is spoiled, he has been fed blood purist nonsense all his life by his family and those around him. Which is so relatable to me as I am an ex-catholic who not only had extremely clouded beliefs about race, but also sexuality and religion. I said awful things to people, I was being fed that by teachers, parents, newspapers, Catholic Church, school classmates and teachers. Everything around me was that way. I was a very closeted trans gay man who eventually lost it and wanted to burn all those beliefs down once I figured out what I his deep down about myself and became more aware of people, suffering and prejudice.

I used to use my words to protect myself and even being nasty to people, wanting to hurt them so they couldn’t hurt me. I was a very closeted gay and transgender person. I really relate to Draco.

Draco’s humanity/ vulnerability

The turning moment for me seeing Draco differently (or having a chance of change) as it was for Harry in the books, was seeing the humanity to Draco.

We never truly see Dracos humanity or how he is on his day to day basis (we do get some scenes that shape him as a person and present wider outlook on his character) as the book is written from Harry’s perspective and JKR really hates Draco.

Which is awful, she never gave him a true redemption despite hinting at it, building it up over the 6th, 7th book. Draco stops eating in his 6th year (it’s not directly stated but it is said that he looks “sick” which could be taken is such which addition to not sleeping and overwhelming stress and pressure clearly visible on him), he is forced to become a Death Eater and given the mark as a punishment to his father, he becomes panicked and miserable and acting out of paranoia and not doing a great job. He cries so much so, he becomes friends with Moaning Myrtle and even she says how sad and depressed he is, how lonely he is. Which leads me to conclude that either a) he distanced himself from his friends b) his friends are not his real friends but only friends with him bc of his high up status as a Malfoy or they have been family friends for years due to their parents being friends. c) both. At first maybe Draco felt like he could restore the good family name to his family. He was proud. But then he realized what all of it meant it meant that he would have to kill and he is truly not capable of it.

Draco’s wand working for Harry very well/ being a light side wand

Let’s take a look at what Harry Potter Wiki says about it first.

“Draco Malfoy's wand was 10" long, made of hawthorn wood, and had a unicorn hair core. “

“Hawthorn wands are said to be "most at home" with a wizard passing through a period of turmoil. During the last couple of years of owning this wand, Draco Malfoy was under enormous pressure to murder Albus Dumbledore, and immediately afterwards suffered through Voldemort occupying his family's home. Harry Potter claimed mastery of this wand at a time of great turmoil as well, undergoing a robbery of Gringotts Bank and the Battle of Hogwarts within a short time of gaining this wand.”

What can be told about Draco from it is that he not only was going through some turmoil when he was chosen by his wand at 11 but also continued to do so in Dracos darkest time in 6th year.

What we can gather from this regarding Drarry is that they are both going through the worst. They would understand each other.

Then we move on to:

“Wands with unicorn hair as its core are the hardest to turn to Dark Arts. Although this would seem ironic at first, as Draco's inclination to Dark Arts during his early to middle years (and his success at casting the very dark Imperius Curse) his last years at school led to a change of his lifestyle that made him realise he had gone further than he expected, and henceforth turn away from the Dark Arts.”

Draco was opposed to Dark Arts from a young age even though his father was most certainly very into them. Which is extremely interesting. What was Draco like before he came to Howarts? I can only assume his mum was a good and living influence on his life (she’s definitely flawed and believing in blood purity, but she will give up her own life and happiness if it means Draco is alive and happy).

And yeah Draco was always a terrible Death Eater because his heart was not truly in it. He wanted to save his family and himself from dying.

Draco’s wand in Harry’s hand (GET YOUR MIND OUT IF THE GUTTER)

“Harry looked down at the hawthorn wand that had once belonged to Draco Malfoy. He had been surprised, but pleased, to discover that it worked for him at least as well as Hermione's had done.” - Deathly Hallows

IM SORRY BUT DRACOS WAND CHANGING ALLIANCE TO HARRY IS THE GAYEST THING EVER.

Wands to tend to have difficult time switching masters. Yet Dracos wand doesn’t. It works great for Harry despite Garry not winning it fairly.

Draco’s wand is one that is the least likely to turn into dark arts. The wand chooses the wizard. On the topic of wands Dracos wand felt the most friendly to Harry and he defeated Voldemort with it. Dracos wand also is said to have a very hard time to switch owners/ sides yet there was no problem of it when Harry took it from Draco. Draco didn’t even fight back enough for it. Almost as if he wanted Harry to have it. Which would make sense that the wand worked so well for Harry as Draco wanted it to work for Harry. It only makes sense that way. It may have not been intended by JkR to write that but it’s what she wrote.

Not Identifying Harry in the Malfoy Manor

Draco lies to his family risking his own and his family’s lives to give Harry time to escape the Manor. He knows Harry is Harry but instead says he “can’t be sure” which is the only response he could go for in order for Harry and his friends not to be killed. If Draco said that Harry was not Harry, him, Hermione and Ron would have been killed because they are useless to the Death Eaters and Snatchers.

Draco is top student in some of his classes from what we know. He is smart, he must have known how to deal with this situation. He also was terrified when he saw Harry as Harry noticed.

“… Draco… approached.

“Well, Draco?” said Lucius Malfoy... “Is it? Is it Harry Potter?”

“I can’t—I can’t be sure,” said Draco….

“But look at him carefully, look! Come closer!… …Draco, come here, look properly! What do you think?”

“…Draco’s expression was full of reluctance, even fear.

“I don’t know,” he said, and he walked away…”

-Deathly Hallows

Harry noticed so many of Dracos emotions, more than anyone, they both read each other so well. Know each other by their breath, by their slight movement (main piece of proof is the emotive HBP). They know what the other is going to say or is thinking. Harry knew Draco was terrified and didn’t want to torture Rowle as his punishment. He could see it on Dracos face in his visions after the Manor escape. So far so Harry felt bad for Draco, it hurt him to look at it and he had to cut off that connection it hurt him so much.

“

“More, Rowle, or shall we end it and feed you to Nagini? Lord Voldemort is not sure that he will forgive this time. . . . You called me back for this, to tell me that Harry Potter has escaped again? Draco, give Rowle another taste of our displeasure. . . . Do it, or feel my wrath yourself!”

A log fell in the fire: Flames reared, their light darting across a terrified, pointed white face — with a sense of emerging from deep water, Harry drew heaving breaths and opened his eyes.

He was spread-eagled on the cold black marble floor, his nose inches from one of the silver serpent tails that supported the large bathtub. He sat up. Malfoy’s gaunt, petrified face seemed branded on the inside of his eyes. Harry felt sickened by what he had seen, by the use to which Draco was now being put by Voldemort.” - Deathly Hallows

Also going back to Draco, he had to live with Voldemort since his fifth year. Terrified, watching people die in his house, terrified that his parents or himself will be tortured or killed. And let’s not lie he probably was tortured himself by letting Harry get away. Draco is a skilled at occlumency so he could probably hide his feelings towards Harry from Voldemort or his father.

Harry saves Draco from the Room of Requirements and then again even tho Draco is talking to a Death Eather saying he is on their side. Harry cares about Draco not dying. He risks his own and his friends lives to save Draco. I’m pretty sure Harry would not to that to other people he hates and he didn’t- not Crabbe or Goyle. All he cared about was Draco. This boy is not just a noble Gryffinor and his Harry-self who is adamant about saving lives. He cares about Draco more than he does for other people that are not his friends or family.

I can definitely continue but if people want to add to it, please feel free as I WOULD LIVE IT!