#and also tried to smother Anne to death with a pillow when she was a child …..??????

[fideidefenswhore]

brandy purdy saw pgreg and went ‘hold my beer’.

[solemn-marauders]

Undercroft Confessions

Sebastian x MC (Thea), but only Sebastian and Ominis are in this.

A direct follow-up to my Patronus piece where Ominis has to spell it out for Sebastian.

Disclaimer: More of my Hogwarts Legacy drabble that I’m posting. These are written quickly while the ideas are fresh. They are short and most likely sprinkled with errors. I’m posting these for me, but if other people enjoy them, then all the better. I will be using my MC’s name, Thea, since this is her story. I also keep the time period in mind. I do my best to keep it as period accurate as possible.

Trigger Warning: Brief mention of ending one's life and death.

Additional Information: This takes place in their 6th year immediately after a Defense Against the Arts class. I highly suggest you read the piece before this one.

His surroundings were a blur. His mind barely registered a voice calling out his name. Thank Merlin that the Undercroft wasn’t far. Waving his wand in front of the ornate cabinet was second nature by this point. It wasn’t until he heard the metal locking back into place that he finally let out a shaky breath. Sebastian shuffled to the sofa they had conjured long ago to make the room more comfortable. He had just made it to the piece of furniture when he heard the metal components of the door moving again.

Ominous entered in a flurry, his glowing wand held aloft. The door had barely closed behind him when he turned to Sebastian.

“I knew it!” He gestured towards him with his wand.

“Don’t.” Sebastian groaned.

“I knew you were in love with her!” He was walking closer now. 

The brunette threw himself face-first into the cushions of the settee. “And now the whole bloody school knows.” He grumbled into the thick fabric. Unfortunately for him, his blind friend possessed superhuman level hearing and didn’t miss a word. Sebastian felt the cushion shift as his friend settled in next to his pathetic form.

His tone much quieter than before, “Why did you never tell me? Did you smell her in your amortentia as well? Is that why you dashed out of potions that day?” Ominis asked. “I know I gave you two a hard time last year about it, but all teasing aside, I wish you had felt that you could have talked to me about it.” He trailed off.

Ominis tried to hide it, but Sebastian winced at how wounded he sounded.

Sebastian nodded into the pillow. “I’m sorry, Ominis.” He had turned his head, the desire to smother himself in the chaise slowly fading. “I swear to you that I didn’t even know the extent of it.” He was too embarrassed to even glance at his comrade. He fixed his gaze on a wooden crate against the far wall as the words tumbled out. “Whatever they were, every time they sprang forward, I would just bury them deep down. I was so focused on saving Anne, Thea had the weight of the world on her shoulders with all of the Ranrok and ancient magic business, and I didn’t want her to think that my feelings for her were disingenuous. That they were just another one of my manipulations.”

“Then why in Merlin’s name did you abandon her?”

“Because I love her!” He pushed himself upright, folding his legs underneath him as he finally faced his fellow Slytherin. “She saw me murder someone, Ominis! I know that we’ve deduced that Salazar’s book had me under some sort of spell, but that excuses nothing. Even at my darkest, my lowest, she stayed by my side, convinced you and Anne not to turn me in.”

“Exactly, Sebastian! After all of that, she still cared for you. I don’t see your logic here.” 

“I have blood on my hands, nightmares where I wake up in a cold sweat, moments where I feel like the world is closing in and I can’t breathe. I sometimes even fantasise about killing myself.”

“Sebastian..”

“She deserves someone uncomplicated. All I am is a burden. It’s a wonder why you even decided to come back into my life.”

“Sebastian.” Ominis said with force. “I come from a family with an infinite streak of cruelty and genocidal tendencies. I am far from uncomplicated, and yet you are still my friend and I am yours.”

“Yes, but..”

Ominis cut him off by abruptly holding a finger up. “Theadora is a presumed orphan with no knowledge of her past, an extraordinary amount of a mysterious and powerful magic, and yet you stuck to her like glue after your first meeting even before learning of her abilities, and she welcomed it.” He released a deep sigh. “The point I am trying to make is that both myself and Thea chose to be your friend, flaws and all. You took away her choice in the matter. You’ve been incredibly selfish and to someone who has been a far better companion to you than anyone else, myself included.” His forceful tone wavered and turned quiet. “She’s convinced that you just used her to cure Anne, and when that failed, you casted her aside without a second thought at her lowest.”

Sebastian’s head whipped up, his gaze finally landed on his friend. “What do you mean?”

Ominis grunted and pinched the bridge of his nose. “It still amazes me just how dense you can be. You were there, you saw her absorb that mass of corrupted magic. You knew she meant to sacrifice herself by doing so, not believing that she would survive the ordeal. She lived but Fig died in the process, the closest thing to a father she has ever experienced. As if that weren’t enough, she now struggles daily with complications stemming from her housing all of that unbridled magic. She’s terrified, Sebastian. She’s never felt more alone.”

Sebastian was thankful that Ominis couldn’t see the tears brimming within his eyes. He tried as hard as he could to keep his voice steady. “I had no idea.”

“Correct! Because you’ve been an absolute cad! You would have known all of this, and more, had you stayed by her side as she did yours!” Ominis threw his hands in the air. “Merlin’s beard, you could have even been courting this whole time, instead of your pathetic pining from across whatever room you happen to be in together. It would have saved me five galleons if you had.”

Sebastian gave his head a shake as he blinked back his tears. “Saved you five galleons?”

The atmosphere had lightened slightly as Ominis scoffed. “You think there hasn’t been a running wager within our year of when the two of you would finally stop pretending like you aren’t completely besotted with one another? I had my money on by the end of the summer.”

“What? Who is participating?”

“Nearly our entire year.”

“Who is currently winning?”

Ominis visibly blanched. “That’s not important. What is important is that you owe me five galleons, thank you very much.”

Sebastian narrowed his brown eyes. “It must be important for you not to tell me and then make a poor attempt at changing the subject.”

Ominis turned his head away from him. “You’re not going to like it.”

“Who. Is. It?”

"It’s Garreth. Currently he’s in the lead to win the pot. He bet that you two would never end up officially courting.”

Ominis was right. Sebastian did not like that. He very much did not like that. He felt his face flush with his rising anger. Garreth probably made that bet with the confidence of himself being the one to woo Thea. Once again, the thought of Weasley doing anything remotely intimate with Thea made the bile in his stomach turn. At the same time, he wanted to blast at every crate, barrel, and dummy within the vicinity. 

“I can feel you seething.”

A sudden thought occurred to Sebastian that hit him like a fist to the gut. He loathed to ask this, but he had to know.

“Does he..” He struggled to form the words as his nausea built. “Does he make her happy?”

“Who? Garreth and Thea? That’s not necessarily the impression she gave me. Their dalliance seemed more of a distraction on her part. She had a rough year and welcomed the diversion he offered. We all know Garreth has a penchant for pretty things, and a soft spot for our ivory-haired friend.”

Sebastian audibly grumbled at his statement. Ominis continued nonetheless.

“Need I remind you that she ended it before term began. She would not have done so if she were serious about him.”

“Are you certain that they actually ended things? That they didn’t just say that so they can sneak around the castle without suspicion?” Sebastian was wondering if it were possible to throw up and punch a wall at the same time.

“I am certain. She told me herself. And before you ask, she was not lying. You know I can tell those things. But Sebastian, please heed my words. To be blunt, you broke her heart. She may no longer have the capacity to love you the way you wish she would.” He placed a hand on his comrade’s shoulder.

They sat in silence as Sebastian stewed on his words. He came to accept that he missed her deeply enough that he could learn to be happy with just a friendship between he and Thea. If his feelings were to remain unrequited, he would learn to live with it. Live with it for the rest of his life just as he would live with the regret of squandering something as precious as her heart when he had it. He sat up straight and squared his shoulders.

“I don’t deserve it, but I need your help.” He told his oldest friend.

“Merlin, help me.” Was his reply.

[minervacasterly]

The caricature of Margaret Beaufort:

From pop culture POV and the POV of those influenced by it, this powerful matriarch is all of the following: Religious nut case! Bitch. She killed the princes in the tower! Old and ugly! Screw her! She and her son were the worst thing that happened to England!

And yet her son became the founder of a dynasty that reigned for more than a century and continues to fascinate us. Now on to the real Meg Beaufort. In the White Queen she is all this and that but the real Meg was no religious nut case and she certainly didn't plan the murder of the Princes and you can debate me countless times on this but there is no concrete evidence that she did! Richard had more than enough motive and opportunity to kill the Princes and oh wait before I get the Ricardians on my case, I don't hate Richard. I actually find him interesting, I wouldn't find him interesting if he was perfect. Richard had learned from his brother's mistakes but made mistakes of his own. If he produced the boys then that would've propelled them to sainthood and the last thing he wanted was a cult was already building around Henry VI. What happened with this last monarch is fascinating and you might be wondering -hey! Isn't that the guy they smothered with a pillow in the White Queen? Yeah, that's the one. Except there are so many theories abounding to his death. The first one comes from Bettini who wrote three weeks after the Lancastrian king's death that it was Edward NOT Richard who gave the order. At the time the blame was solely pinned on Edward, so let's not confuse contemporary sources with secondary. Rous and Vergil writing in the Tudor period pinned the murder on Richard and even early Ricardians say that he did it, but with one major difference -*under* Edward's orders. If this is so, one thing we can all agree, if Richard gave the order or personally took care of Henry, it was all done under his brother's command. But this backfired, soon people were attributing all sorts of miracles to this guy, he became more famous in death than he had ever been in life. Edward tried hard to suppress this cult but he couldn't and Richard did the next best thing. If you can't beat them, join 'em! He cashed in on the cult and officiated a reburial of the dead monarch and started all new kinds of celebrations for him but people still talked as they always do. Now if he had produced the dead children as he and his brother had done with the Lancastrian king, then it would've been chaos, complete and utter chaos!

Margaret Beaufort's sole aim up until the princes disappearance in the summer of 1483 was to gain back her son's lands and bring him back safely. She was forced to give him up before after the Lancaster line had been wiped out from the face of the earth by Yorkist forces, ending to some historians' view, the wars of the roses in 1471. Margaret would not see him until the aftermath of Bosworth in 1485. She had little to worry about the first years of his exile, he was with his uncle Jasper, his father's brother. They intended to sail to the French court, a court his uncle knew very well but landed in Brittany instead because of the bad weather. Brittany was not on good terms with the French and they had their fair share of enmity with the English so it served the Duke well to have two valuable English hostages, one who had a considerable (if debatable) claim to the English throne via his mother. Edward attempted to coax the old Duke into give up his charge and while the Duke never believed Edward's intentions, some of his ministers did and those who didn't just wanted to cash in on the juicy rewards. Henry was an intelligent youth who was far from the serious and mama's boy he's depicted in today's fiction. He loved to laugh, play, joke and gamble. But he was aware how valuable he was and at one point feigned sickness and took sanctuary in a church when he suspected his future voyage to England was a hoax -which it was -and that small trickery on his part saved him.

By 1480, Margaret had more than enough to worry, but she wasn't giving up on her son's legacy. With Edward's promise to marry him to his eldest daughter, Margaret continued to rely on the faith that gave comfort to so many women in this period, and Edward's promise, albeit a fake one, was something she never let go of. The accession of Richard and Anne changed all that. Always an opportunist at heart, she tried to curry favor with the new regime. Whether she agreed with it or not -we will never know but her husband was an official in Richard's government and she had more than enough reason to believe that Richard would grant her her request to bring her son back. After all he was more busy convincing everyone his brother had never been legally married to Elizabeth and securing his position. But surprise, surprise for Margaret and everyone involved. Her life was never easy, it was one obstacle after another and this was no different. The boys' disappearance changed everything and Buckingham's rebellion gave her a chance she had never considered before. Her moment to shine had come. She was no longer looking to bring her son back as a mere earl but as a king so she started plotting with the queen dowager through her Welsh doctor. After a lot of plotting and intrigue and tragedy at Richard's court, her son's shining moment came and thanks to the defection of his stepfather from Richard's camp to his side, he won. There is a famous myth that his stepfather, Thomas Stanley found the crown in a thorn bush but this is likely Tudor propaganda. Richard's treatment afterwards was one that's always given by the victor to the loser, stripped of all his clothes and shamefully paraded, he was then written as the worst monarch that ever lived.

And while I do agree there needs to be a better assessment of Richard, doing the same to Margaret and Richard is just as dumb. She was born in 1443 and a year after, John Beaufort, her father and Duke of Somerset died. Many said at the time that it was because of suicide because of his terrible leadership in France. Truth or not, Margaret was now a wealthy heiress and her wardship was widely sought after. William de la Pole, the crown's favorite tried to marry her to his son, but after he was murdered, at only nine years old Margaret was brought to court to swear that she never intended to marry his son. Later she rewrote history saying that it was because of a godly vision that told her that it was her destiny to marry Edmund Tudor and establish a great house, that she denied it. Margaret married at only 12 and Edmund Tudor, anxious to get his hands on her wealth, didn't bother to wait. He impregnated her less than a year after and she gave birth in January 1457 when she was months away from being 14, to her only offspring. The birth damaged her, she never had any children with her other spouses. She had a happy marriage with her next spouse, Henry Stafford and they celebrated their anniversary in big style every year and even housed Edward IV in their hunting lodged in one occasion. This doesn't sound like the power hungry, vindictive Margaret of TV. And that's because she wasn't! She was very learned and founded and refounded many colleges, chief among them: Christ's College which had previously been God's House and St. John's in Cambridge. Aware that only the privileged few could attend these institutions she voiced her concerns in 1479, and her attempts bore fruit when Wimborne College was established posthumously in 1509, which was later renamed Queen Elizabeth's school. She also established the Lady Margaret Beaufort Professorship of Divinity at Cambridge in 1502 and the first women's college in Oxford was named after her.

In spite of her joy of seeing her son crowned, she could not help herself. Fisher and many contemporaries described how she cried -a clear sign of a woman that doesn't care about power- and when asked why, she responded because she had lived through so many kings and princes who had been murdered and killed in battle. Who knew if her son was next or if his reign would last. She cried the same tears of grief on her grandson's joint coronation with Katherine, fearing that his reign would face the same troubles.

Margaret passed away days after in 1509, after a long life of hardship and triumph.

[edgen11]

Michael Haneke

Artistic Background

Michael Haneke is an Austrian director and screen writer who was born on March 23, 1942 in Munich Germany. His father was a German theatrical director and his mother was an Austrian actress, but he was primarily raised by his aunt in Wiener Neustadt, Austria. He studied philosophy, psychology and drama at the University of Vienna and afterwards found work developing screenplays for a public television station in Baden-Baden, West Germany. Three years later, Haneke began directing for the stage, which led to an opportunity to direct small-screen films. He wrote and created 10 of these short films and they aired on German and Austrian television between 1974 and 1997. Haneke’s career in cinema began in 1989 with a film titled “Der Siebente Kontinent”, however the screenplay was rejected from television. The film depicts the tedious routine of a middle-class Viennese family and their joint suicide. This would be the first movie of Haneke’s emotionalen vergletscherung (emotional glaciation) trilogy. It was followed by a 1992 film titled “Benny’s Video” in which a movie-obsessed teenager commits a murder out of pure curiosity. That film was followed by the third film of the trilogy in 1994 titled “71 Fragmente einer Chronologie des Zufalls” (71 fragments of a chronology of chance). This film included a fractured mosaic of mundane moments that culminate in an incident of random violence. Many critics deemed these three films nihilistic, but Haneke considered them as attempts to “attune viewers to the ways that the structure of modern bourgeois society inhibit moral empathy and interpersonal communication”.

Environment

Most of Haneke’s films take place in Vienna, Austria and Paris, France. Some films were shot in other places like ‘Happy End’ in Calais France, and ‘Funny Games’ in Long Island New York. Almost all of his other films were shot in Vienna Austria and Paris France. Films like ‘The Piano Teacher’ , ‘Benny’s Video’ , and ’71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance’ were filmed in Vienna Austria and the films ‘Amour’ and ‘Code Unknown’ were filmed in Paris France.

“The Piano Teacher” (2001)

The film ‘The Piano Teacher’ is based on a book of the same title written by Elfriede Jelinek, who won the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature. The film is about Erika Kohut, a piano professor at Vienna Music Conservatory who was consumed by sexual repression and was not able to share her interest in different forms of paraphilia. While at a recital, Erika meets Walter Klemmer, a young engineer who also plays the piano and he expresses his admiration of her talent for classical music. Walter attempts to apply to the Vienna conservatory to be her pupil and his audition impresses many of the other professors, however Erika votes against him. Despite this, Walter is admitted at Erika’s pupil. We later meet Anna Schober, another of Erika’s pupils, as she is socializing with Walter. Erika witnesses this and sneaks into an empty coat room, breaks glass and hides a shard inside one of Anna’s coat pockets. This cuts Anna’s hand, which prevents her from playing at the upcoming concert. Immediately after Erika secretly injures Anna, Walter follows her into the bathroom. Walter kisses her and she responds by repeatedly humiliating and frustrating him. They then engage in oral sex until Erika abruptly stops when he does not abide to her orders. She tells him she will write him a letter regarding their next meeting. Later that day, with Anna’s mother distraught due to the injury, Erika says that she is the only one who can substitute for Anna in the concert with such late notice. Later on, Walter is becoming increasingly insistent about his desire to have a sexual relationship with Erika, so she gives him a letter saying what acts she will consent to and says that those acts are the only way that she will agree to a sexual relationship, but the list repulses him. She then confronts him at a hockey rink after his practice to apologize and the two then engage in sex in a janitor’s closet. Later that night, Walter goes to Erika’s apartment and attacks her in the exact fashion described in the letter of sex acts she would consent to. He locks Erika’s mother in her bedroom and then proceeds to beat and rape Erika. The next day is the day of the concert that Erika would be substituting for Anna. Erika brings a kitchen knife to the concert and Walter arrives and enters cheerfully with his family and greets Erika. Then, just before the concert is set to begin, a distraught Erika stabs herself in the shoulder with the knife and exits the building out to the street.

This is a very interesting film by Haneke that addresses the issue of sexual repression. Erika and many other people in the real world feel the need to hide their sexual interests and desires because of embarrassment and the stigma surrounding some of the many interests there are. The film “The Piano Teacher” shows that embarrassment and what it can do to a person.

“Amour” (2012)

The movie ‘Amour’ begins with a Paris apartment buildings residents complaining of a smell coming from one of the apartments. Police and firemen break down the door to find the corpse of Anne laying on the bed surrounded by cut flowers. We then cut to several months before the opening scene where Anne and her husband Georges, who are both retired piano teachers, attend a performance by one of Anne’s former pupils. They then return home and the next morning, Anne silently suffers a stroke and she sits in a catatonic state, not responding to Georges. Just as Georges is about to get help, she comes around, but has no idea that the stroke occurred. Georges unsuccessfully tries to persuade her to get help, until she finds she is unable to pour herself a drink and agrees. Anne undergoes surgery, but it goes wrong and leaves her paralyzed on her right side and confined to a wheelchair. She makes Georges promise not to send her to another hospital or nursing home, so Georges becomes her caretaker, although he is a somewhat irritated one. Later on, Anne falls from a window seemingly attempting to commit suicide, and tells Georges that she does not want to live anymore. Anne is then visited by her former pupil Alexandre and has a lively conversation with them which gives Georges some hope, but she doon suffers a second stroke which leaves her demented and incapable of coherent speech. Georges continues to look after her even though it strains him greatly. Georges then hires a nurse to come to the apartment while their daughter insists that he check her into care, but Georges refuses to break his promise to not check her into a hospital or nursing home. Then one day, Georges sits down with Anne and tells her a story of his childhood. After the story, he picks up a pillow and smothers her to death. Georges then collects flowers and puts Anne in one of her dresses and leaves her on the bed with the flowers spread around her as we see in the opening scene.

The movie “Amour” addresses the issue of what can happen to a person’s mental state from watching a loved one become sick. It is extremely difficult for some people to watch their loved ones become more and more sick, especially when they lose their ability to speak and think like Anne did. It is especially hard when you are the person caring for them and watching them become worse and worse every day. Georges became depressed and angry about what had happened to his wife and watching and caring for her as she approached a painful death ate away at Georges. He struggled to care for her and eventually it was to much, and he had to put her out of her misery. This is an issue not often addressed, but it is very important and effects the loved ones of every sick person.

Haneke’s films bring awareness to many issues that effect many people all over the world and his powerful films offer entertainment as well as lessons for the audience.

 Works Cited

Frey, Mattias, et al. Senses of Cinema, 19 Oct. 2018, www.sensesofcinema.com/2010/great-directors/michael-haneke/

“Michael Haneke.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 19 Mar. 2021, www.britannica.com/biography/Michael-Haneke

“Ratings, Reviews, and Where to Watch the Best Movies & TV Shows.” IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/

Carter, William H. “Money, Violence, and the Financialized Self in Michael Haneke's Glaciation Trilogy.” Wiley Online Library, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 10 Feb. 2021, www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gequ.12159  

Collection Michael Haneke, www.haneke.filmmuseum.at/haneke/en  

Writer, Director, et al. “Michael Haneke Movie Reviews & Film Summaries: Roger Ebert.” Movie Reviews & Film Summaries | Roger Ebert, www.rogerebert.com/cast-and-crew/michael-haneke

Zielinski, Interviewed by Luisa. “The Art of Screenwriting No. 5.” The Paris Review, 24 Feb. 2020, www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6354/the-art-of-screenwriting-no-5-michael-haneke

Cinescope.

Masters of Modern World Cinema: Michael Haneke

, 15 Sept. 2020,

www.cine-scope.com/2013/07/14/profile-michael-haneke/