#and potter is soooo fed up with it.

[k-kizkhalifa]

i am feral for this

Maybe Draco wants to get caught who knows

[chocfrog-enjoyer]

Things I hate in Harry Potter Fanfictions

This are the tropes I found multiple times in lots of different fanfictions and I got fed up with how illogical, overused and badly written they are :/

Completely changing the story to the point where I’m starting to wonder if it’s even Harry Potter because the only thing that stayed the same are the names.

( If it’s ships ) When one or both sides are already in love with each other ( in this cringy “I always loved him/her ) especially on what normally would be considered enemies to lovers. If I’m reading a story especially with a non canon ship I’d want to know how they’ve came to be, how the love blossomed. Or at least a reasonable explanation of why the character loves the other from the start of the story.

( If it’s Dark Harry ) The: One morning Harry wakes up and decides ah fuck it I’m changing sides “I care not for your good side anymore, now I’m going to be evil” and Voldemort is like “Oh well- guess I won’t kill him then, never mind that it was my obsession for the last decade and more, It changed today”

Evil-Good Harry…? Honestly I hate this trope soooo much. The: Voldemort was good from the start and it was Dumbledore that was truly evil and he manipulated Harry and/or he was the one who killed Harry’s parents. “Yeah, no like Voldemort is a pretty good guy. He can even be considered as a role model of being good if we ignore all of his other/earlier victims and people he tortured. I mean- I don’t see any evil right?”

Ron, Ginny and Hermione bashing because why not ( this happens especially often with Slytherin Harry fanfics). I don’t mind if some characters get their negative traits explored but make it real people, I can’t read a story where those characters act so bad and OOC for no actual reason. And no Harry being in Slytherin isn’t a reason because those characters never bullied and harassed anyone purely because they were a Slytherin. Yes they did not like this house ( for a good reason might I say ) but they never even acted out on Malfoy who was openly bullying them, the only situations we get where Malfoy and his friends got attacked by Ron and/or Hermione were deserved, and were responses to his provocations.

( If it’s not in order to hide his identity ) Changing Harry’s name. I can understand using Hadrian or Harris as the elongated versions of Harry but when someone straight up changes his name and now I’m reading a story about Daniel or Bob or something for no apparent reason then the whole thing seems stupid and illogical for me.

When Draco and Snape liked Harry from the start. Draco was a narcissistic, spoiled little child and he wasn’t nice to Harry both when he knew who he was ( train ride ) and when he didn’t ( Madam Malkin - their first meeting ). He expected admiration and friendship from Harry like if he had earned it. Making him be like a best friend from the very start is non sense, those boys would need time to come together, and with Harry’s personality I bet they’d still have a silly rivalry if they were in the same house. Same with Snape, like there’s no way he would tolerate Harry let alone like him. He hated Harry from the moment he saw him in the great hall and even before the boy went to Hogwarts. For Snape and Harry to like each other there would need to be a very good reason and it wouldn’t come immediately, but with lots of time and more interactions between each other.

Too much muggle stuff in the magical world. I don’t mind it if a lot of the story plays out in the muggle world or some muggle stuff is crucial for the story point but when I read a fan fiction where Harry was in St.Mungos and he was being treated the muggle way I lost it and dropped the fic. Like are you really going to put full on muggle medical equipment in a gigantic wizard hospital and make your healers use almost only muggle diagnostic methods? Most Wizards barely have any proper knowledge on muggles, and even muggleborns don’t know that much since they are introduced into wizarding world at a young age and basically spend the rest of their life in it. They have a lot more knowledge about muggles than pureblood wizards but it’s still not THAT much.

Overpowered Harry. The „Lord Potter; Black; Peverel; Gryfindor; Slytherin; etc… etc.. :/ nothing wrong with powerful Harry. I like powerful Harry. But it’s ridiculous that a child, a 11-15 yo boy would just instantly have more magical power than Merlin himself, and he would immediately know what to do with it

Gringotts knows everything about you. The „heritage tests” and all. Making a good use of Gringotts is amazing in fanfiction and I love exploring ideas people have on it but this trope is not only overused but also dumb. I’m not talking about simple family linking that people use or like blood checking. I mean the young Harry goes to Gringotts and just with a drop of his blood it is instantly known that he is meant to be a lord of this and that and he owns such and such properties and he is hella rich because of all the vaults that were left to him. And also goblins being friendly. These creatures do not like wizards.

Know it all Hermione. But like literally. Hermione being so overglorified and being literally smarter than Dumbledore and basically all Hogwarts staff often at age 11-16. She’s smart but let’s be real this is not possible. Like her being able to do anything in the world after “reading a book/going to the library for a bit”

Harry being the most handsome, ripped and freaking amazing Hogwarts student while literally being like 14 or 15.

Harem… Nothing bad with Harry having a flock of girls that are attracted to him ( this is canon ) but oversexualizing women in order to make Harry the girl-magnet that has 7 girlfriends and like all the „conventionaly attractive” witches around him - Hermione, Ginny, Fleur, Daphne etc.”

Harry hating Dumbledore from the beginning, blaming everything on the poor old man, being annoyed by the most stupid thing like: “Dumbledore smiled at him, and Harry went utterly furious” :// and generally Dumbledore bashing

Child Harry behaving like an adult and teenage/mature Harry behaving like a child. Why would a 11 yo go to Hogwarts and suddenly be a master manipulator, know exactly what to say to get out of difficult situation and can outsmart his peers and/or adults to show „how much better he is”. And the other situation: Harry being completely clueless, using childish language, being referred to by others as “little one, pup etc.”

All Slytherins are misunderstood angels. No they aren’t! As a Slyhetin myself I can recognize Draco’s ( and his friends ) bullshit when I see it! Yes stop the stereotype of “All Slytherins are bad” but do not excuse actually bad Slytherins.

Fics gloryfing toxic pureblood culture. Exploring different aspects of the culture, the better and worse ones is cool and creative but I’ve seen a lot of fics gloryfing what is just abusive and toxic and romanticizing it in the name of “pureblood customs/traditions”

Guns… just no… like what? It’s like how to tell you’re American without telling you’re American. I hate seeing guns in HP and the wizarding world, and the often following glorification of this weapon

Excessive American English. I don’t mind it much if it’s just some words but please all the slang and common words from American English are annoying. It’s not that hard to do a little bit of reaserch of the common differences in some words. The story is played ( mainly ) in the United Kingdom, the language used by characters should be British English ( like Harry & Hermione ) and Scottish English ( like McGonagall )

Excessive ( and especially if heavily described ) abuse from Dursleys that would have killed Harry at least 5 times before he would be 10. Like heavy beating, breaking bones, stabbing. I do not like reading such things and I found this in fanfics quite a lot….

Oversexualization of children 11-15. While exploring the sexual side of romance/life is okay in a teenager, it is a part of life, I hate seeing fics that oversexualize ships that at the time have characters aged 11-15 - literal children, especially oversexualizing young Hermione, in some Harmony fics ( where she was 14 ), or Ginny, with fics calling her a slut/whore because she had a crush on Harry, or when she’s a bit older because she dated a few boys.

Illogical use of Parseltongue. First of all Parseltongue is a language and Parselmouth is the speaker ( pls I beg don’t describe Harry as a Parseltongue ). But suddenly this language being like all powerful, and you can do wandless magic with it and basically perform any spell without ever using it before.

Luna being bullied by every Ravenclaw, ( like most of those ppl - especially the older ones or younger ones - do not actually care ) and her being like a super mega seer that knows all about the future and is actually super mega smart in her weirdness.

Feel free to add your points to this list!

[pineau-noir]

First line game

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line. Then tag 10 of your favorite authors!

So I only have a dozen or so Harry Potter fics, so this will be multi-fandom. I'll be sure to tag everything. Oh, and I fully expect most of my opening lines to be dialogue. It will be interesting to see if that ends up true

Thanks so much to @glittering-git, @bonesliketambourines, and @tackytigerfic for the tag!

1) 2 Much Booty (In Da Pants)- (Drarry, not rated, 318) “Hey,” Draco says. “It’s that guy.”

2) Almost-but-not-quite- (Drarry, gen, 2.1k) Potter and his merry little band of misfits have won the war.

3) The Snuggle is Real- (Drarry, mature, 2.2k) “Remind me why we’re here and not at our nice warm flat,” Draco said with a wry smile.

4) Bob Weasley- (Drarry, gen, 1.4k) Draco walks into his flat with Luna on his heels.

5) A Very Tipsy Christmas- (Drarry, teen, 1.6k) “Harry,” Draco slurred. “Harry, I thought everybody here was going to hate me.”

6) Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright)- (Drarry, explicit, 9.1k) Harry doesn’t really like to travel, but when the Ministry tells someone they want them in Paris, in August when the weather is perfect and their children can stay elsewhere, that person had better well take their spouse.

7) Only Happy When it Rains- (Drarry, teen, 13.6k) In the twenty-nine years Draco Malfoy had been on earth, there were exactly two things he had done of which he was proud.

8) a little chocolate now and then- (Ginsey, explicit, 4.2k) Pansy loved her girlfriend.

9) In Love With the Ferret- (Drarry, explicit, 21.9k) "Dear Merlin, you're in love with the ferret," Ron says, apropos of nothing, one sunny May morning.

10) As You Wish- (Drarry, teen, 21.9k) The sun has long since set and Scorpius is dragging his heels when Draco finally insists that it is bedtime.

11) The Heart of a Mother- (Molly Weasley character piece, gen, 2.4k) Charlie, Your father and I are hoping to visit you at the end of the month, if you are available.

12) Ex-cons (and feds) just wanna have fun- (Scott Lang/Jimmy Woo- Marvel, teen, 1.5k) What was Scott thinking?

13) You Can't Spell Awesome Without Me- (Spideypool- Marvel, mature, 25.3k) The day Wade Wilson met Peter Parker was the day he died.

14) Dream Daddy- (Stucky-Marvel, mature, 16k) “Dad!” Amanda’s voice was loud in the empty hallway.

15) everything we do, we do it big- (Kate Bishop/Gwen Poole-Marvel, teen, 5.2k) If there was one thing Kate Bishop knew, it was being a superhero.

16) All I Want for Christmas- (Stucky-Marvel, mature, 8.3k) Steve was really enjoying his post-Avengers life.

17) When you Move, I'm Moved- (Stucky-Marvel, explicit, 15k) I sit down with Steve Rogers in his apartment over a corner bodega.

18) When I'm Reborn- (Stucky-fem!Steve-Marvel, explicit 20.1k) His turgid manhood throbbed.--HA! so for reference, this is a book Stevie is reading, not actually part of the story. The actual fic starts with, “What rot!” Stevie shouted as she threw her book on the ground.

19) Bad Ass. Smart Ass. Great Ass.- (Winter Soldier + Deadpool broship, Stucky-Marvel, mature, 2.8k) Wakanda was nice.

20) I Need to Tell You Something- (Spideypool-Marvel, Mature, 21.2k) “Let’s start the story several years ago.

Wow, so I was SOOOO wrong about starting with dialogue! I did notice that all of my Drarry fics started out talking about Draco in some way which is hilarious to me because I have yet to write a whole fic from his POV. I also noticed that my first lines usually set up something else. So they're a bit short and tend to not say much? But then the next line will explain more? (I hope)

I would have to say my favorite HP line is from In Love With the Ferret, which I know is such a broken record at this point, but it was so much fun to write! ALSO IT'S RON AND I LOVE RON!!!!!!

And my favorite non-HP line is from You Can't Spell Awesome because I adore Wade Wilson and his tendency to exaggerate. A lot. (Like me.)

But this was so much fun! I'm sorry if I'm tagging people who have already been tagged but @cibeewastaken @static-abyss @slytherco @drarry-quite-contrary @the-kellephant @gnarf @maesterchill @thejadewritergirl @digtheshipper @cassiaratheslytherpuff and anyone I've forgotten, please tag me if you want to do this. I have a horrible memory and I love you all, I just forget user names!

[nekoprankster218]

Alternative Harry Potter Villain Ideas + A Question Regarding Hufflepuffs

Okay, so you know how out of all the houses, Slytherin is the one that gets the most bad rep? I wanna consider some ideas for antagonists in the other Houses. Soooo:

Griffindor:

An arrogant student who believes themself to be the next great hero, but in their delusions end up mainly doing deplorable acts. For example: bullying Slytherins that didn’t do anything, blindly attacking any creatures in an area as if they all could be potential threats (kinda like a video game approach), making everything about their hero complex.

One of those fuckboi jocks types that bully any students who aren’t “tough” like them and also harass girls into being with them. Could also blend into the hero complex type.

The con-hero, who only does things for rewards and glory. Not necessarily a coward, though, just someone who takes advantage of bad situations and victims.

Ravenclaw:

The evil genius. Although more emphasis on being smart over ambitious, otherwise they might as well have been sorted into Slytherin.

The stuck-up smart kid who thinks everyone else is dumb. Not evil on its own, but motivations could drive this student to sabotage others or even join a higher villain for their own gain. Could be rival material, too.

The mad scientist. Might not necessarily be evil, but definitely at least on accident causes problems and might not listen to reason.

The nerdy incel, who looks down on Griffindors/jocks and bemoans their own love life.

So here’s where the question bit in the title comes in. I’ve been pondering and trying to come up with even one idea, but I can’t seem to come up with a fitting Hufflepuff villain? My train of thought leads me to consider aspects of each house - for example the Griffindor ideas drew upon the House’s reputation for strength and heroics. But it’s kinda hard to see a Hufflepuff villain, mainly because they’re the “heart”. There’s not much I could think of that doesn’t also negate their Hufflepuff status. The only thing I can think of then is that they were a faux Hufflepuff the entire time as part of their master plan. They also could just be misguided in antagonizing a character; like a Hufflepuff bullying a nice Slytherin because an antagonist Griffindor they respect fed them lies.

So do you think Hufflepuffs are immune to villainy? Can an antagonist Hufflepuff only be born out of outside influence? Or can someone come up with something I couldn’t?

[ickle-ronniekins]

clarity, george x reader

hey guys! happy new year! it’s 2020, which is crazy, ‘cause wasn’t it just 2009 like a second ago? anywho, i’m sick with a cold and am working on requests (i promise!) but i recently discovered the whole soulmate au thing and i really wanna try it soooo...here’s hoping this isn’t terrible! i posted about it yesterday about the idea but i did change some things (i rewrote the end five different times i shit you not) also ps sorry this is hella long

prompt: soulmate au; everyone has a journal that allows them to write back and forth with their soulmate

A/N: so as i’m writing this it kind of reminds me of when harry wrote to tom riddle in CoS haha. anywho—i still want the reader to be a ~magical being~ so i do still want them to go to hogwarts (does that count as an au, then? WHATEVER, lol) however even though they can write back and forth with their soulmate, there’s this lingering restriction on soulmates revealing their identities because of the impending war and voldy and stupid fucking umbridge and all this stuff so they’re sworn to secrecy, not even names, not even hints, until one of them breaks

warning(s): mentions of war, blood, bodies, anxiety, not proofread

So sorry my writing’s been sporadic. Potions is dragging, love.

The words appeared very lightly, you almost didn’t catch them at first. Grinning giddily to yourself, you pulled your journal close to you so only you could see the fragile script in front of you. Potions. With Snape. You were just in Potions with Professor Snape. Is it possible that your soulmate had passed you by on your way out of the dungeons?

Well, of course it was. The castle was only so large, after all. It was proving rather difficult to keep your identity a secret.

You wanted to know who he was the second he first wrote you and made you blush. But, there were rules. Rules you both didn’t want to follow.

Is it four o’clock yet? He asked you now.

You grinned with excitement. Each time his handwriting appeared, it filled you with an overwhelming sense of closeness to him—since this, of course, was as close as you’d gotten.

The impending war put so much worry on your heart—for you, for him.

Biting your lip, you wrote back, I reckon Snape’s class isn’t going terribly well?

A quick response appeared. It’d certainly be better—if you were here.

You wanted nothing more than to know his name, hear his voice, be there with him.

The feast anxiously awaits your arrival, you wrote back cheekily, taking a sip of your pumpkin juice and watching as a cackle of students filtered into the Great Hall. Desperately, you searched the crowd for an inkling of him. There was none, of course. You had no bloody idea. Sighing greatly, you slumped back into your seat, poking at the food on your plate. How long could you possibly keep this going? Your soulmate didn’t really feel like one, especially when you didn’t even know his name.

Are you here, in the Great Hall? he wrote. I just walked in. C’mon, any type of sign that you’re here—at least tell me the color of your hair so I can eliminate some people—that isn’t too daring, now, is it?

How you wanted to. You wanted more than anything to tell him. But the worry that pulled at your heart—it was too much.

With utmost regret, you scribbled, You know we can’t, darling.

His response wasn’t exactly what you’d wanted. What you wanted, truthfully, was maybe for him to break—for him to finally reveal himself to you in a fit of fury, because he was so irrevocably in love with you that he just couldn’t stand it anymore. You could practically feel his sadness when, after a few painful minutes, he just answered, I know...

You looked around you, anxiously searching for some type of answer, but there was none. Many around you were scribbling quickly in notebooks in front of them. It was useless, really, to search for someone you barely knew in a sea full of people.

These restrictions are bloody ridiculous, he wrote one cozy, autumnal afternoon. He was frustrated. You could tell. The pressure of his quill marks and his messy handwriting showed you just how frustrated he was. It’s not fair that they’re keeping us from one another. It drives me bloody mad.

He had already left Hogwarts. Any hope you had of maybe locking eyes with him in the Great Hall and just knowing, deep down, that he was the one...those feelings of hope we’re gone. He was even further away now than you could imagine. You were no longer under the same roof.

In the common room next to the fire, you gripped the pages of your journal tightly. You knew how he felt, of course you did. I’m sick of it too, love... Your heart ached for him.

It seemed silly, but it was the truth. How were you supposed to feel about the man you were to spend the rest of your life with when you barely knew anything at all?

An idea of sorts came to him. You could almost feel his excitement and adrenaline rush. He answered, softer now, What if, instead of in writing, we just plan to meet...

His writing trailed off. You knew he recognized the danger of this idea, with every single slip of parchment and message being watched and intercepted.

I don’t care, you know. I don’t care what they do to me. As long as I can finally meet you.

Slowly, you flipped through the many pages of your journal, reading some of your conversations with him from the past years. It had proven extremely difficult to not give any hints about your identities over the years, so of course, you reread, every single day, the hints that he had given you.

He was one of many children. He was an inventor. He inherited his mum’s love for cooking and was a damn good one, if he did say so himself. He loved Hogwarts in the wintertime. His dad was overly fascinated with Muggles and their way of living. And he was funny—really funny, but he didn’t need to tell you that. He was always making you laugh.

You fed off of these five and only things for years. Years, they had sustained you, but right now, it wasn’t feeling like enough. Nothing felt like enough.

I want you to be safe, you told him. You need to be.

And then, you wrote again. Promise me that you are. Safe, I mean.

Your answers had been more sporadic and choppy and less long and interesting. He’d told you after he’d left Hogwarts that he’d been working on something, something to ease the pain of the impending war, something that he was excited about. The glimmer of those feelings kept you afloat in what felt like a world in which you were drowning slowly.

An answer came when you were asleep. I’m safe, darling. We had a long night. Promise me you’ll focus on your classes and graduating and keeping yourself safe and sound and I promise everything will be worth it.

All these years of writing and waiting and hoping seemed to be taking it’s toll on you both. There had been days where you hadn’t talked with one another at all, days where you didn’t even have the energy to pick up you quill and write a single thing. You barely had enough energy to discuss the news of you finishing school.

He told you one stormy night that he’d gotten hurt, that he’d lost one of his ears. In a moment of panic and worry, you’d written back as quickly as you could with questions you knew he couldn’t answer. What happened? Where are you? I’ll find you, let me come and help you.

A stern “no”, and then a softer, “I’m okay, I promise,”, had not helped your nerves at all. Things were getting worse. Voldemort’s army were taking out witches, wizards and Muggles alike, one by one, as the world you knew and loved was crumbling in pieces around you.

It was an awful feeling, knowing your soulmate was out somewhere in the world, hurting—in pain—and you couldn’t do anything at all to help him.

As the war worsened, your family was tortured for information. Death Eaters had stormed your home, questioning you on the whereabouts of Harry Potter, a boy just a year younger than you, a boy whom you went to school with—but you didn’t know. It didn’t matter, though. You were left with stinging burns, open wounds, broken ribs and gashes along your arms and legs.

It’d been exactly four days since you’d written your soulmate.

Please, love, let me know that you’re okay, he pleaded. You swore you could see tear drops next to the words he’d written. You told him swiftly, with all of the energy you could muster, that you were.

It seemed as though the sky had turned permanently dark gray. Storm clouds had swallowed the world whole. There was an eerie, cool wind that sent chills down your spine, and it was quiet—too quiet—the kind of quiet it is when it’s snowing outside. But this wasn’t the good kind.

Word had gotten to you that Hogwarts was under attack. The school you grew up in was being pummeled to the ground with those that you loved inside of it. He was there, he had to be there. Maybe, just maybe, in a moment of clarity, you’d find him somehow. You hadn’t thought once—you apparated almost immediately, the pull behind your naval nearly knocking the wind right out of you, but before you’d left, you wrote him one last thing. I’m going to Hogwarts. If we don’t survive...know that I love you. Salty tears escaped your eyes and landed on the pages of your journal.

You did, of course, even though you hadn’t met yet. Love him. You knew it deep in your heart. He was your soulmate, after all, even if you didn’t survive.

But the second before you apparated, you saw scribbly, messy handwriting on the journal placed delicately on your desk. It was so quick that you almost missed it, but you know you couldn’t have dreamt it. It was all too real. My name’s George Weasley—find me as quickly as you can.

Of course you knew him. He was one of the most well known people at Hogwarts when you were in school there. Heart thumping as you landed on your feet in the middle of the Great Hall, you noticed the blood, the bodies, the debris all around you. You swallowed over a lump in your throat. What would happen now that he revealed himself?

You’d been waiting years to hear his name.

Where was he?

And you saw him, hoisting himself on top of rubble, firing spells in every which direction, with his brothers next to him. A piece of debris slid against your cheek and left a stinging burn in it’s place. You touched your fingers to it gently, only to see some blood appear. You winced and fumbled over bodies and bricks and rubble.

He knocked a Death Eater over the edge of the bridge.

“George?”

He whirled around immediately—his face tired and his eyes bloodshot and sad. There were cuts and bruises all over his head, his red hair matted down by dirt, a large gash in his arm glistening with bright blood.

“It’s you,” his voice was hoarse and dry. He brought a hand to your cheek and wrapped it around the back of your neck. His hands absentmindedly made their way through your long, messy hair. His eyes were glassy. You tried to choke back your tears.

You placed your hands against his chest. “Finally.”

A moment of clarity hit when you realized that you’d met the man you’d spend the rest of your life with.

“I love you, you know—” he said in a moment of panic, a small smile tugging at the edges of his lips.

Everything went black.

When you opened your eyes, you were in a hospital of sorts—St. Mungo’s. Everything was still hazy. You rubbed your temples, head throbbing, and swallowed. Your throat was extremely dry. You reached for the glass of water on your beside table.

There was a news clipping there. Once your eyes adjusted to the light, you read slowly. There’d been a war a few months prior. Lord Voldemort was dead—he had died at Hogwarts. Wasn’t that the school you’d attended? You furrowed your brow.

Your memory was very fuzzy.

A red haired man walked slowly into the room with some sort of book in his hands.

Why did he look so familiar?

He stopped in his tracks when your eyes met his. Careful, so as not to scare you, he grinned lightly and said softly, “You’re awake.” There was a hitch in his voice.

He tried to tell you many things about your life. Your name, your age, where you went to school. What had happened during the war. That he was your soulmate. He mentioned something about journals and how he and you had communicated only through them for years. You couldn’t seem to understand. You wanted too, but you just...couldn’t. He didn’t really tell you anything about his life—just yours. Perhaps you needed to remember yours first. Having him near you gave you a sense of warmth, though.

“The doctors say she may not remember for a while, mate,” another man who looked exactly like him had whispered one afternoon. He patted his brother on the shoulder. “Maybe try and start from the beginning.”

The beginning. Had you forgotten everything from the beginning?

Panic rose in your chest.

Through a very frustrating conversation, trying to get you to remember anything at all, he reintroduced himself, as if to start new. “I’m George,” he told you.

George, you thought. Familiar. You smiled at him.

Everyday, he stayed by your side and watched as your memory seemed to improve, even slightly—bits and pieces coming back to you. You’d attended Hogwarts. Your father was a wizard, but mum was a Muggle. Your favorite class at school was Charms. But him—he was still hazy.

You could tell it was hurting him, but he’d never let on. Your heart ached.

“When did we meet?” You asked him one day, sitting up in bed and blowing on your hot soup.

He loved it when you asked him questions. “During the war, actually,” he told you. “It was only for a moment, though. Very fleeting, but very wonderful.” He smiled at you.

You grinned back at him, feeling a surge of familiarity enter your body. You reached out and placed your hand on top of his, squeezing lightly. You saw him swallow over a lump in his throat, his eyes yearning for you to remember.

And now?

You asked him, “Can I...can I read your journal?” It was the book he brought with him every single day.

Tears welled up in his eyes, he gently placed the book into your hands. “Of course you can.” He stood up and placed a kiss onto your forehead. “I’ll have a word with the doctors—I’ll be right back,”

When you were sure he was out of the room, you opened the pages. Some were ripped and tattered, but you could still read the passages and differentiate between your writing and his. I just can’t wait to spend my life with you. You’d said that. Your heart skipped a beat.

I hope you that when we finally meet, he’d written, I am going to kiss you and never stop. I know it sounds silly because we haven’t met, but I love you...more than anything in this world.

Your cheeks flushed red at the thought.

As you sat there in bed, imagining what it’d be like to press your lips to his, slowly biting your bottom lip, he sauntered back into you room and snapped you back into reality. You hadn’t noticed how wide you were smiling until he startled you.

You placed the journal gently on your bedside table and took to cooling off your soup again. George was busy tidying up around the hospital room. When you took a slow sip, it was as if your taste buds had been reawakened. “Bloody hell, this is delicious—where did you get it?”

George smiled gratefully at you. “I made it this morning,” he told you. And just like that. Clarity. “I love cooking, actually, nobody really knows that but I got it—”

“—from your mum,” you cut him off.

He stood at the other end of the room, peering at you.

“Yes,” he said.

It was like everything came back to you at once—the writing, the moment he revealed himself, the war, seeing him for the first time—it was everything. Your soulmate.

Smiling greatly, you continued. “And your dad, he—he loves Muggle things, doesn’t he? He’s fascinated by them, everything about them—and you’ve a lot of siblings, don’t you?” He’d sat down next to you and pulled your hands into his. “And you absolutely hated Potions class—” at this, he laughed through a sob. A feeling of bravery entered your body. “And you promised me that when we finally met, you’d kiss me and you’d never stop.” You inched closer to him. “Guess we never really got a chance, did we?”

With tears in his eyes, he gently caressed your cheek and glanced longingly from your eyes to your lips. With a tiny nod from you, he laughed into the kiss that was years in the making. You felt like you were reentering your body. He kissed your forehead, your jawline, your neck, your shoulders, your hands— “You remember,” he said quietly.

You let out a soft hum as you pulled him close again. He gave you the most genuine and heartwarming smile when you told him, “I could never forget the man I love. I just can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”

tag list: drop me a message if you’d like to be added: @mintlibri @georgeweasleyx @seppys-return-to-madness @fopdoodledane

other tags: @toranyx @wolfwistleweasley @t1nycak3 @hyuangel @iluvharrypotter172

reblogs + feedback are always appreciated! :)

[ceresoktavia]

15 and 16 for the writer's ask please? :3

Thank you soooo much for asking <3 :3

15. What’s the weirdest fandom you’ve ever written for? Depends on what people would consider as weird. I’ve written stuff for Digimon Adventure, Harry Potter, Devil may Cry, Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda, Stargate SG1, the Borderlands Games and of course Overlord. Make your pick :3

16. Any guilty pleasure trope(s)? Chosen one being fed up with being chosen one xD

[my-arlington-academia]

Rules: Share 6 random facts about yourself and tag 10 favorite followers.

Tagged by @fuhenao (thank youuu!! And sorry it took me like... several days to do this.)

1. I used to play the piano! Buuut I quit after about 2 years because I was too nervous in front of a crowd and quite frankly I enjoy listening to music more than playing music 😂

2. I love nail art and painting my nails! I often try to draw different things like ladybugs or watermelons or... just weird combinations of colors where I paint all of my nails the same color except for one (the ring finger most times.)

3. I can't ride a bike! For the longest time I was really sad about it because I felt like I was lame for not being able to do what the other kids could (not to mention that the PE teacher wasn't helping my insecurities, on the contrary she was pushing them and telling me that not knowing how to ride a bike is like not knowing how to swim or to ride a car) but then my mom and I went to the doctor because she was getting fed up of the teacher picking on me and surprise surprise! The doctor was like "oh yeah, that's normal. About 1 person out of 100 never learns how to ride a bike." (I've been literally trying to learn for YEARS and couldn't 😭) So now whenever my classmates have to ride a bike during PE I can sit this one out and do my homework and study instead.

4. I looooove ice cream AND milkshakes. Like. A lot. I don't care about cakes, chocolate, candy, pastries, etc. But ice creams and milkshakes?! Ooooh boy. I'm ready to taste any type, like any time I'm in a store/cafe/restaurant and I find a flavor that I've never tasted before I HAVE to buy it. Oreo flavor? Raspberry flavor? Pistachio flavor? Lemon flavor? Yes please. Sometimes I make milkshakes at home too by trying out different combinations like mixing up bananas and strawberries for example (it tastes good, I swear!)

5. I'm multilingual! I can speak 4 languages and I'm learning 3 other right now at school (Dutch, Spanish and Latin... not like anyone speaks Latin anymore though 😂 that's a pretty useless skill to learn in 2019)

6. I used to read soooo much. When I was 12 I read a 500 pages long novel in 3 days during SCHOOL days. Basically I spent my whole evenings doing only that for a while. I read one book after the other non-stop. Funnily enough though I have never read the Harry Potter saga despite of the fact that they have... the most successful author of all time or something? I haven't even watched all of the movies yet, I stopped at the 6th one for some reason. I can't stay focused when watching it no matter how many times I try.

Tagging @weda @username-janai-katsura-da @sleepysloth707 @sponsoredbyroxy and @phans-eldarya-adventure because they're all awesome people 👏👏👀

[mystery-star]

Buddy - Fred Weasley (Epilogue)

Pairing: Fred Weasley x reader

Warnings: swearing, mentions of sex, mentions of death

Words: 4211

A/N: This is a (long) list of events that happened after the end of the Buddy series because I still had soooo many ideas for the story and I wanted to share them XD. Hope you like this Headcanon-like style. Consider it as a very belated birthday present, @rochelle-the-ravenclaw^^

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 |  Part 5 |  Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Epilogue

Please do not repost my work on other sites or platforms!

-

You almost had no peace in the following days because everyone came over to see Fred and celebrate with you

And it was a huge deal in the medias

Suddenly “The boy who lived” was snows of yesteryear

Now everyone spoke of “The retrieved Retriever”

You couldn’t go anywhere without people talking to you

And it was the best advertising for the shop

According to Fred, their sales were increased by about 220%

There was so much to do that you and Mrs Weasley had to come and help

Also Ron and Lee Jordan helped in the evening after they finished work

The twins almost couldn’t keep up with the production

In the end they hired two more sellers so that they could focus on producing new supplies

And experimenting with new ideas

But after two stressful months, the whole fuss about Fred died down anyway

And soon the flocks of customers stayed away as well

Not that the shop wouldn’t be crowded anymore

Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes still was as popular as ever

Still it was a welcome change

-

But it seemed the twins weren’t ready do take a pass on the extra earnings

They bought Zonko’s shop in Hogsmeade anyway

Goodbye repose

During two days in which they let the shop in Diagon Alley closed, their new premises were equipped with everything they needed

Each twin would be a manager of one shop

George in Diagon Alley

And Fred in Hogsmeade

Your husband betrothed even bought the rooms above the new shop as well, as a place where you three (soon four) could live

George didn’t like that you’d live on the other end of Great Britain

“Stop whining George, We’re only a handful of floo powder or a portkey away. And we all can apparate”

But the younger twin still decided to pout about the decision

When you moved out from the flat in Diagon Alley, he didn’t even help you

And he threatened he’d never come to visit you

But it was George

He almost spent more time at your new place than at his own

Just in time for the next Hogsmeade weekend, the new shop opened

Of course the younger twin was here to help you while their employees would take care of the shop in London

Even Ron had come to help you in Hogsmeade

Better said to see Hermione

Fred threatened to throw both of them out if the snogging didn’t end anytime soon

The students LOVED the shop

And the twins, let’s be honest

Mostly Fred though

He was always surrounded by a group of kids that wanted to know everything about his return and what being a dog was like

If you were completely honest it made you a little jealous

This was so different from when they interacted with him in his dog-form

-

Speaking of dog-form: a little after the new shop was opened, the twins decided to start the process to become animagi

Since they had to keep a mandrake leaf in their mouth for a whole month, Fred almost never kissed you properly in fear he’d lose it

(Because then he’d have to start over again)

George would always tease him about it and tell him to make sure he wouldn’t lose the leaf

But funnily it was George who had to start over after he swallowed the leaf when he got drunk on his birthday

Needless to say Fred laughed him out of court

(Almost lost the leaf himself because of that though)

But he managed to keep it in his mouth from full moon to full moon and could continue by brewing the potion

Then he had to wait for the next lightning storm to complete the whole process and become an animagus

-

But first there was the anniversary of the battle

It was the first time in a long time you remembered that you had actually lost Fred a year ago

Making you even happier to have him back

Of course there was a memorial in Hogwarts and speeches were made

And someone forced or persuaded Fred to hold one too

The rest of the event was merrier

Although you were still surrounded by people who wanted to know more about Fred’s story or see Chris

It did good to be reunited with old classmates and catch up on your lives

Much to Fred’s dismay you talked a lot to your ex-boyfriend whom you hadn’t seen since Fred shooed him out of the shop almost two years ago

And typically Fred, he had to make it clear you were his

What made you angry

“But if I say something about the flocks of women that surround you while wanting to know everything about Buddy I am the jealous beast!”

“That’s something different. I never was in a relationship with them”

“Oh and what about Angelina? Shouldn’t I be concerned about her?”

“That was one date! And the only reason I asked her was because you’ve been in a relationship with someone else at the time”

You sighed and decided to drop it

Later in the evening, Skeeter barged in and wanted to know if she could write an article about the fate of people who lost someone in the wizarding war

Oh wonder, she chose you…

But Fred knew how to handle it

“Listen, I know you’re bitten by the bug with this whole story but if you don’t stop bugging us and don’t bug off right now I might let something slip the next time I’m at the Ministry. Which will be when I’m going to get registered as an animagus.”

It didn’t surprise you that she left

And it also was clear that her next choice was none other than Harry Potter

Who conveniently was sitting with the rest of the Weasleys

(Ginny)

A simple ‘Oi beetlebrain, don’t put a bug in his ear’ from Fred was enough to make her leave the Great Hall

-

In the middle of May Fred could complete the process of becoming an animagus

As you had almost imagined, his animal form was indeed Buddy

Even though Fred was happy about that, he also found it a shame that he wasn’t another animal

But after a while he saw the advantages in Buddy being his animagus form

“Now I can keep my clothes on and you don’t need to put me into ugly clothes before I change into a human. And I’m finally not depended on you to transform me”

(Because George had developed the habit to transform Fred into a dog when he was getting annoying over the past months

(Needless to say it pissed Fred off and made sure to get his revenge))

And after the registration he never let a chance to piss you off by using his animagus ability pass by

But mostly he transformed when he wanted something from you, to have more convincing puppy eyes

And it worked damn well

-

Mid-June George finally became an animagus too

The result was interesting

He was a brown haired dog as well

But not a Chesapeake Bay Retriever like Fred

(A muggle veterinarian told you he was a Flat-Coated Retriever and it made sense since the breeds were pretty much alike but not exactly the same, just like the twins themselves as humans)

But George didn’t believe your theory that he was a Retriever because Fred was one too

He made it his mission to find out why he was “just a dog and nothing cooler”

Fred transformed and peed at him for that comment in case you wondered

Then George transformed too and they were fighting each other

Chris was amused and laughing while you were annoyed, having an anticipation what you’d have to put up with in the future

And you were right

Their new abilities meant more possibilities for pranks

Like setting one up and being able to enjoy it as dogs without being suspected

At least as long as they did this in the Muggle world or around people that didn’t know them

But the Weasleys were so fed up with them after half a week

And probably even Fred wished his brother wasn’t an animagus

Because George’s fur was way, way more fluffier than Fred’s

In other words

Petting Fred = Nice

Petting George = Nicer

Which had the consequence you petted George more

Result of that:

A jealous Fred

(According to him, even Chris betrayed him by petting his uncle more than his father)

And George wasn’t helping

No, he even made it worse by constantly transforming in front of you

And how could you not pet him?

Inevitably you had two wrestling dogs almost all the time

Even when you went on walks with both of them (when both twins were in their dogform)

George always got more attention

“Poor thing. How did it lose its ear?”

Sometimes Fred pretends to be limping, just to get attention too

But always denying he’s jealous or doing it on purpose

Typically Fred

-

Or incidents like this: Since Fred was reborn as a dog he also enjoys being petted when he’s a human

One day, Chris sat on his chest after playing with his father

And fondles him

Fred let out content growls

“Oh yes that’s nice. Like that”

As if that wouldn’t be funny enough George entered right in that moment

He didn’t see what Fred was doing, only heard him

And leapt to conclusions

“Oi! No fucking when kids are around”

You left the kitchen to have a look when George grew pale

And Fred almost choked from laughing

Later on the younger twin told you he’d be distraught for life because of this

-

Fred’s and yours wedding was on the 2nd of August

The same date as your first wedding because Fred claimed then he wouldn’t have to remember two dates

At least the wedding was much better than the initial one

After all there were no Death Eaters who ruined it

But one of the best things was that you could reuse your old dress because your baby bump in 1997 had been about as big as it was now

Nevertheless Molly tried to persuade you to get a new one

A dress, not a baby bump of course

But you absolutely didn’t want to

You had too much to do anyway and let’s be honest, being pregnant wasn’t a bed of roses

But luckily your boss aka Fred gave you holidays for as long as you wanted

And Fred was very sweet with you and never wanted you to do too much

He helped you wherever he could

However he was still working 100%

And the seller that he hired to fill your job wasn’t the best as it seemed

For you, this wasn’t such a bad thing

Because in the evenings he’d always rant about the worker

And the best way to calm him down was to rake your fingers through his hair

Which you loved

At times he’d even transform and curl up in your lap, enjoying the thorough petting you’d give him

-

All in all the last month of your pregnancy was pretty much like two years ago when you were pregnant with Chris

Fred taking care of you and being extraordinarily sweet

But on the other hand you both are so worried

What if you hadn’t thought of everything?

What if something was missing?

Would Chris like his sibling?

Or would he get jealous?

(Fred thought that was impossible but given the fact he was one jealous man you weren’t that sure)

At least you now had some experience with taking care of a baby so one sorrow less

Molly gifting you baby clothes almost every second day

Getting a little nostalgic when digging through Chris’ old stuff to see what you could use again

Chris getting mad when you told him that he baby would get his old playsuits and baby bottles

Or worse, when you tried to throw some stuff away

Yelling around as if he was being tortured and kicking his foot against furniture

100% Fred’s temper

And Fred thinking it’s adorable how your son freaks out

-

Four days after Chris’ second birthday you went into labour

Fred grabbed your packed bag, told Chris to behave for a couple of minutes before he accompanied you to St Mungos

But as soon as you were taken care of, he left again to get your son to a babysitter

Namely George who only wanted to relax on his free day as you were told

Much to your relief this time the whole process was shorter than the first time

Then he healer placed the baby in your arms

Another boy

Your husband seemed overjoyed about that

(And again tried to persuade you to call him Fred, although you sad no so many times before)

Finally you settled on Fabian

After Fred’s uncle

He was sure Molly would freak out when she heard

But first George arrived with your firstborn

Whereas George seemed absolutely thrilled, Chris had no idea what was so special about his new sibling

As it seemed he was very disappointed

Because his brother would be too young to play with

“Hey! You’ve still got Uncle Georgie and me to play”

But Chris didn’t seem impressed

He pouted until the rest of the Weasleys arrived

George must have told them you went into labour

The delight was huge and to your amusement, Molly held her eldest son a lecture since Fred already had two kids and he still none

“He’s just more careful than Freddie”

The younger twin got hit for that comment

By both Molly and Fred

They all stayed until a healer told them to leave

Only Fred was allowed to stay for the night if he wanted

And hell he did

However, he wasn’t allowed to sleep in your bed

Of course he snuggled up next to you anyway once the healers left for the night

-

Back at home you had to realise that Chris could get really jealous

He thought you liked the baby more than him because you spent more time with Fabian

Then he got angry because he couldn’t hold his brother or got annoyed because he cried all night

It got better when Fred brought home a Pygmy Puff from work

So that Chris too could look after a living being and realise that there is stuff you have to do to make it happy

Now Chris had a task and dragged his pet everywhere

One day even on a walk

Not even a minute later, the animal dashed away, never to be seen again

Chris was on the verge of tears when Fred promised he’d go and find it

Two hours later he came back with a Pygmy Puff

Of course you knew it was a new one but Chris didn’t

But he did notice it behaved differently than before

Fred assured him that was because it was all alone and scared without your son

As much as he loved his pets, after three month he thought Pygmy Puffs were boring

He wanted a more challenging animal

Much to your chagrin Fred thought this was a good idea

A day later you owned a baby Niffler

Although you were mad at him you made it plain that Fred was supposed to take care of any mess it produced

-

One day after work Fred seemed quite excited

“He’s got a girlfriend!”

“Who?”

“Georgie. Met her on a walk”

After that Fred stuck to his guns until you got to meet her

She was a Muggle and seemed very nice

Suddenly George didn’t hang out at your place that often anymore

Although he never would admit it you knew that Fred was jealous of her because she spent more time with his twin than he did

Which often ended in George having his dates ruined by a certain dog

And you actually thought Fred had stopped using his dog form to mess up with people

Think again

Your husband would never act his age

-

When Chris grew older, he developed an interest in experimenting as his father

When Fred didn’t lock up the office door Chris would sneak in all the time to brew his own potion

Sometimes accompanied by Fabian who really seemed to enjoy the show

Luckily that was something Fred didn’t let him get away with

But oh, Chris had his ways to continue experimenting

Though not with potions anymore

-

Years passed by and before you knew it Chris was eleven and got to go to Hogwarts

Even though you lived in Hogsmeade, Fred insisted he’d take the train from London like everyone else

Chris hated him for it

The goodbye at Kings Cross wasn’t as tearful as you had imagined it

After all you lived in Hogsmeade

Chris was Fred Weasley’s son

And Fred and George probably had sneaked out to Hogsmeade more than they went to classes

So it only was a question of time before your son was home

Most likely to refill his stack of joke items

Although he already had one trunk full of them

Somehow you pitied the Hogwarts teachers

This might be a good time to mention that he still had Jingle, his Niffler

Which he wanted to take to Hogwarts

And he even wanted to take another pet

Though that wasn’t a pet

But his father

You had to explain several times that he couldn’t take Fred to Hogwarts as his dog

Among other because others knew it was your husband

After everyone said goodbye Chris got on the train

Everyone meant not only Fred and your kids but also, George with his kids Molly, Arthur as well as Harry and Ginny (who also came to see Teddy Lupin off)

And yes your kids

Plural form

Fabian wasn’t the youngest anymore

You had two other kids now: Virgina, who turned seven this spring and Ben who’d become six in three months

And another yes; George was a father too

Meet your nephews and niece: Gideon, Matthew and Nathan and Jennifer

Gideon was eight now, Matthew and Nathan (twins obviously) would turn six in a month and Jennifer was two

This meant George’s twins and Ben would start at Hogwarts at the same time

And this would also be the time Harry’s firstborn James Sirius would first go too

If you pitied the teachers now, what would happen then?

-

When the train arrived in Hogsmeade Fred made sure to “randomly” pass by the station

You didn’t want to go with him so you never knew what happened

However you were quite sure that a few students got more joke supplies than they already had

Especially your son

So it didn’t wonder you when there was an owl with a letter from Hogwarts on your window ledge the following morning

And in the evening your son showed up in your living room

To tell you he was sorted into Ravenclaw

And to tell everything about his pranks and what he learned

Your other kids and Fred were extremely happy and excited about it

But you didn’t think it was such a good idea when he always came here

Not only because he wasn’t allowed but also because it would do him good to be away from the family some time

Because somehow a part of you had the suspicion Chris could come here as often as possible

-

To your surprise he didn’t

Okay, he came home about ten times during the year, especially when he didn’t feel well

In a way you found that very cute of him, it showed how much his family meant to him

But he was a Weasley after all

They put family above everything else

-

Fabian was the next one to go to Hogwarts

When Chris started his third year

(Fred joked he wouldn’t sign the Hogsmeade permission with the words one never knew what kind of scum might be lurking there)

Since it was Fabian’s first year, Fred insisted he’d take the Hogwarts Express as well

(In his second year you just brought Chris to Hogsmeade station when the train arrived there)

And again you went through the same discussion

“No Fabian, you can’t take your Dad to Hogwarts as your pet. Besides you got your owl”

(He actually wanted a cat but Fred wouldn’t allow it because he loathed cats since he was reborn)

-

Although Fabian usually was more insecure than Chris, he only showed up at your place on Hogsmeade weekends

Or when Chris came to visit you

Most likely because he didn’t want to go alone and felt safer when Chris accompanied him to Hogsmeade

-

And also in the following two years you went to King’s Cross on the first of September

First to see your nephew, Gideon off

(He too sneaked to Hogsmeade a lot and somehow on that days George was at your place)

And a year later your only daughter started her first year

George laughed at his brother when you heard that she was sorted into Slytherin

But you had other sorrows

Since Fred was reborn as a dog it was likely he’d only life a dog’s life span

And now he already lived as a dog since 15 years

So every time he turned into a dog you feared he might would shorten his life even more

Of course you didn’t tell him

Or the kids

And somehow you knew that if he died, he would find you again if he was reborn

Worst was the uncertainty how long he still had

You decided to go and ask around

But this was a special case

No one could give an answer for sure

All you could do was make sure to make best of the time you had left with him

That was when he got suspicious

You told him the truth

He sighed and hugged you tight

“I promise that if I should die shortly, I will come back if I can”

“And what if you can’t? I mean what if you are reborn but you’re on the other end of the world? How are we supposed to find you?”

he chuckled and kissed you

“I’m Fred Weasley. I’ll find a way to stand out for you”

-

Another year later you were almost sure that somehow Fred would live longer than a dog

To say that you were happy about that is an understatement

Yet there always was the fear you had been right earlier

Or maybe Fred would age like a human if he didn’t transform into a dog that much?

You told him about your suspicion and he shared your thoughts

So you decided he’d stop transforming all the time

Because like hell was he gonna die if George’s twins and his son alongside James II would go to Hogwarts soon

He just had to hear what kind of mischief they got up to

And if that meant he had to give a source for his own mischief making (his animagus form) a miss, then so be it

-

Before you knew it you were at King’s Cross again

The kids were threatened with disinheritance if you didn’t get a load of owls from them soon

As if they needed anymore stimulation to cause mischief

Now it was valid to pity the teachers of Hogwarts

And Filch

-

Now George stayed at your place even more because he had frequent visitors

Not that you minded though

Or Fred

He eagerly listened to what his nephews and your son had to tell them

And even gave them new ideas

Or tips on how to improve their pranks

And the kids thankfully accepted them

You rolled your eyes

All you needed now was that Fred and George decided to go to Hogwarts to help them with a prank

But they did

-

One day after the Christmas break the kids visited you again

And hell, they seemed insecure

“What happened now? In what kind of trouble are you this time?”

you asked, feeling a little concerned

“Actually we need your help”

“For something mischievous?”

Oh sure, that’s all Mr Weasley can think of

Not some school project

The younger twins nodded

Their father asked what it was they needed help with

“It said that if we are who we claim to be our Dads could help us”

Your son nodded at his cousins

“Show them”

Nathan seemed reluctant

“What if they confiscate it?”

“Why should we?”

“Because maybe it’s a dark artefact. James found it in his father’s stuff”

Your husband and his twin exchanged a look

“Alright. If it is a dark artefact we will have to confiscate it because it’s dangerous

“If not, you may keep it”

“But now do show, why does it say we can help you?”

Nathan nodded and pulled out something from under his robes and put it on the table

An old piece of parchment

Fred and George exchanged another glance

“George?”

“Fred?

“You think what I’m thinking?”

“Definitely”

They pulled out their wands

“I solemnly swear that I’m up to no good”

-

And I made a little timetable about Fred and George’s kids for my own reference. Thought I could post it too, for extra information XD

1997 Birth Chris (Early September)

1999 Birth Fabian (Early September)

2001 Birth Gideon

2002 Birth Virginia (In spring)

2003 Birth Matthew & Nathan (October) / Birth Ben (December)

2007 Birth Jennifer

2009 Chris starts at Hogwarts (Ravenclaw) / Teddy Lupin starts at Hogwarts (Hufflepuff)

2011 Fabian starts at Hogwarts (Hufflepuff)

2012 Gideon starts at Hogwarts (Ravenclaw)

2013 Virginia starts at Hogwarts (Slytherin)

2015 Ben, Matthew & Nathan start at Hogwarts (all Slytherin) / James Potter II starts at Hogwarts (Gryffindor)

2018 Fabian graduates from Hogwarts / Jennifer starts at Hogwarts (Gryffindor)

-

Taglist: @ta-ka-shi-ma, @malindacath, @muggleborngirl

[jq37]

sooo.... what’s the tea on the new ep? :)

**spoilers for family in flames**

I have so much to say I’m not drafting this on tumblr lest it crash and I lose a soul-crushing amount of yelling into the void.

And, I gotta say, THIS episode is the reason I haven’t posted my adult rankings list yet. THIS RIGHT HERE. I KNEW some crap was gonna go down and force me to make some HUGE adjustments.

Also, We are feeling vindicated in this house today! But let’s start from the top and work our way down.

“Raise your hands if you really care about your parents.”

Fabian having to be like, “Look, your parents suck but don’t you have siblings?” (Kristen: Ugh, I guess)

Adaine pointing out that she cares about Gorgug’s parents.

Brennan listening to them argue about what to do like he doesn’t know they’re about to be arrested for a whole ass MONTH.

Fig wanting to method act while texting the phone, pretending to be scared.

So is the arcade owner (Frank Dunford) relevant? Brennan had the name on hand. But maybe it was just him being a good worldbuilder and anticipating the question. I feel like it’s probably that because this is late in the game to be introducing new people who are super relevant.

“Gilear’s got a little knife”

I KNEW those arcade prizes were gonna be gear they could pick up! ALWAYS RAID THE ROOM. Some of that stuff might have helped in the fight. I loved the group silently reading the cards and exchanging them to whoever they thought it would help most in the background as Brennan did the ID spell.

“This has been, if I may say so, the *best* use of the identify spell.”

I love that Adaine thanks everyone, including her inanimate spells. She’s just a good person.

OK so this episode addressed a LOT of questions I had about how these literal children were getting away with all of these murders and such. Apparently, the adventuring academy kids traditionally just get away with this stuff because of Arthur’s influence and the nature of adventurers.

Adaine coming in hot with the diplomatic immunity and then remembering, oh wait, we’re at war w/ Falinel.

Fig immediately starting smoking when she gets arrested.

I love the federal agent outsider with perspective coming in and being rightfully horrified by the absolute nonsense that’s been going on the past 15 episodes.

Is Riz’s mom the only competent cop at this station? Is there a one competent adult per location rule?

Bill Seacaster Upon Learning the Bad Kids are In Jail: Did you try to escape?

“How are things going?”/“I mean bad. I’m in jail.”

Fig upon offhandedly and indirectly being called a vigilante by Sklonda: Thank you.

Emily loses it whenever anything happens in Gilear’s orbit.

Wild that Adaine decided to spontaneously call Goldenhoard considering what happened later. Like, it wasn’t a completely out of nowhere decision and it was totally logical but they could have easily overlooked that decision. 

Like, I know things happen later that make this kinda moot but I loved Goldenhoard’s conversation with Adaine in jail. “Don’t to talk to anyone without a lawyer and kill anyone you have to to get out. The school will pay for the rezzes.”/“That’s exactly what our plan was. God, I love this school.”

Although, sidenote, I feel like you can only easily rez someone within a minute? Like, I know there are other D&D spells that let you do it after a longer period of time but with the whole phoenix egg thing and the fact that they haven’t come up so far, I feel like Brennan isn’t using the in this setting for stakes reasons.

Man that whole conversation with Fig and her mom. Emily plays Fig so balls to the wall that I kinda forget sometimes that she’s actually an intelligent adult woman who knows what she’s doing with the character so I really shouldn’t be surprised with how well she stuck the emotional beats of this episode.

Gorthalax man! TyraWeWereAllRootingForYou.gif If he left, like, actually left and isn’t just held up somehow, then that’s gonna be really not great for Fig’s general psyche. 

Kristen COMPLETELY undercutting the moment by point blank asking if they had sex.

No wonder Sandra-Lynn was so worried about Fig. She was totally Fig growing up. Which, lol, she’s not even half tiefling. She was just *like that*

Oh so Gilear has always been super lame. Good to know.

Fig: I think I have mommy issues./The Rest of the Party: You have all the issues.

Fabian: You’re trying to hook up with a 25 year old adult./Fig: What do you mean trying?I’m successfully kissing him once every couple weeks. (Which, lol but also I’m glad that’s as far as it got…you know if it has to go any amount forward).

They just let Bill into the cell?????

Lou when Zac rolls a 1 for perception on Bill Secaster and he knows what’s coming: Don’t fucking do this. (Everyone else: Already trying not to lose it)

Zac’s Gorgug being contemplative and also completely wrong face is so funny to me every time.

“Why would you kill me?”/“Why would you know that?”

Who is more insane? Gorgug for suggesting him and Fabian could be twins (aren’t they different ages????) or Bill for thinking he’s so awesome he could somehow do that?

Kristen trying to help FIg distract Bill by blurting out, “Have you ever had sex?” After the conversation where he said point blank he’s slept with 100s of orc women. 

Fabian yelling at his dad is kinda undercut by continuing to call him papa in the most poncy accent.

I don’t think I’ve articulated this properly before but this episode really drove it home: Fabian and Bill have a *close* relationship but not an entirely healthy one. Like, better than Adaine and her parents by leaps and bounds but he wrestled his son in a jail cell while his friends just watched. Like, who does that?

Imagine if Riz had tried to get between Bill and Fabian. 

Also imagine being the rest of the party just sitting there, watching that go down.

“We’ve spent so much of our lives obsessed with our dads and we’ve completely ignored our moms.”/“You’re just again talking about yourself.”

I can’t believe Fig’s suggestion spell would have worked if head boss in charge fed lady hadn’t been there. Speaking of her, as soon as she showed up I knew they weren’t going to be able to shenanigan their way out of this one (which is literally the word Emily used, hilariously). I don’t think even a nat 20 would have gotten them very far. Remember last week when I said that I was sure there was going to be a prom finale but I was also pretty sure there was still a good chunk of time before prom? As soon as they got arrested and the feds showed up I was like, “Oh they are not getting out until prom for sure.”

Siobhan trying not to laugh while Emily tries a ridiculous plan that might have worked in a different episode honestly.

Ally trying to Pirates of the Carribean her way out of the jail cell.

The cops didn’t even take their stuff in a month!

“I’m glad this is in my head and no one else can hear things like this.”

I love how Fabian rolls his eyes at Adaine for thanking her spells but he always thanks the Hangman.

Realistically the Hangman would have told Fabian the plan before it happened but the way it played out was soooo good.

The return of Mr. Cubby!!!! I was hoping it would be him but man! It was still so awesome to see happen. I wonder if Brennan introduced that family specifically in case the group ever needed to be busted out of jail (a likely need).

“Laws are threats made by the dominant socioeconomic ethnic group of a given nation.”

“You guys wanna make some bacon?”

“That was on fire the whole time? You’re so brave!” Adaine likes adults who aren’t her parents so much.

Riz being like uhhhhh my mom works here.

“To the AV club!”/“It’s been months!”

OK so they took a palimpsest from Bill in this episode. That was there to tip them off that he’s up to something I’m sure, but I feel like that could also turn out to be a Chekov’s gun for next ep. I’m sure the ability to trap someone’s should would be useful in the finale.

S/O to Brennan for his excellent foreshadowing throughout the episode and honestly the whole series.

Siobhan thinking to check the trash folder of his computer was a good move, even if it didn’t end up being the right one.

OK, strap in guys. This is where things get WILD.

Siobhan’s “Oh shit!” when she got halfway down the page of Watches and Wards and then that Harry Potter sounding sting in the background.

(Before I get any further, I love that Adaine’s first thought was well that means my sister isn’t Kal Vaxis because she thinks her sister is the root of all evil).

But WOW. After all the trash talking of the old oracle, it turns out Adaine is the new eleven oracle! And she has been since EPISODE ONE. I almost thought she was gonna be *that* elven oracle because of the questions the cast was asking but nope. It is, as Zac and Siobhan put it, a The Santa Clause situation where the last one dies and someone else gets the job.

Brennan’s faint amusement as they work through that is so good.

You know what’s kinda hilarious in hindsight about that? I said before that, so far, every person Adaine has pegged as trash has ended up being trash of the highest order and an enemy of the party and of course she’s been good at predicting things! She’s the literal oracle.

Am I reading this wrong or is the Religious Studies teacher name Yolanda Badgood?

Also the sheet says “Lunchlad (Official Title)” RIP dude.

Emily low key thinking this is going to be about pay disparity between the races.

Will putting the book back retroactively get rid of anything bad currently cast in school?

Brennan going, “Nothing happens.”/“You see an upside down waste paper basket.” Is such a GM mood. I had a session once where I spent half an hour just saying, “You’re looking at the door,” in various ways.

No one knows what Goldenhoard’s name actually is and it’s the second to last episode.

I feel like Brennan must have gotten forehead/cheek kissed a lot as a child because he’s constantly having NPCs do it. 

Are elves in this setting actually immortal (barring being actually killed) or just long lived? Because Adaine talks like she’s immortal but I wasn’t sure. Anyway, newsflash Adaine. You’ve been mortal this whole campaign! Because apparently, the elven oracle always eventually dies. 

I love that Adaine finally confronted the oracle about sinking on a ship and actually ended up kinda sympathizing with her. I can’t believe this is how that running joke ends.

Fabian at the ghost of the past eleven oracle who’s imparting wisdom on Adaine: Who are you?

Ally: Can I do something weird? (Dude, when do you not?)

Ally mumbling through an inspiring spell as Murph clues in to the paperwork discrepancy that blows the plot twist wide open. And then miming the whole thing in the background as the scene goes on.

“He was mean so I thought that meant he was a good guy.” More stern than mean really but yeah! Same Murph!

You know how you know things are about to get real? When the DM starts letting you do stuff like bust down doors without even rolling for it because there are bigger fish to fry.

The 69 glyphs of binding. Nice.

But in seriousness, Kal Vaxis (apparently it’s spelled Kalvaxus but I can’t be bothered to change that in this post) was apparently trapped by Arthur and bound to work at Aguefort (as Goldenhoard) because…he’s a wildcard I guess. Sidenote, can you imagine what this season might have looked like if Arthur hadn’t died? Or was that always the plan for him to die in some way? Like to resurrect an NPC maybe if the crew hadn’t lost 2 party members.

Man when he said last ep that the girls were going back to school I thought OK that makes sense because it’s the AV computer that Biz used or maybe it’s Penelope. But I totally overlooked teachers.

OK so the binding spell specifically says “as long as I live” and Arthur is dead. So….what does that mean exactly? And this plan seems to have been in motion from before Arthur died. What does that mean? Also, if that wording means he’s freed when Arthur dies, what was Arthur thinking killing himself???? Did he need Kristen to sneak him into heaven so he could talk to Sol and do some scheming or something? AHHHHH I have so many questions.

Also in the binding is a clause about tea. Now, first of all, Arthur, bro. Come on. Second of all, a lawyer really should have looked at that. “I will drink anything you give me”? I work at a law firm. I’m a lowly first year but even I know that’s a terrible thing to put in a contract. I’m sure y'all non lawyers know that too!

Karam-Kajam (the binding spell words) kinda looks like “magic maker” backwards. That doesn’t mean anything. I just wanted y'all to know I was freeze framing every thing that might be a clue.

OK ok ok, so I’ve been saying for a while now (in posts but mainly over chat) that all this bad stuff must be like connected to a central person in service of a central goal but the players were probably all unconnected wild cards acting in self interest. The one thing I couldn’t quite put together was what because these plots have been mainly unconnected. But now, we have it! All the weird things starting a war (by manipulating the harvestmen), getting 7 maidens (by manipulating Biz), and reinstating prom king/queen (by manipulating (?) Penelope and Dayne, also yes! my wild card guess was that prom king/queen was going to be part of a spell or curse or something. Guess it was prophecy but yes! vindication!) are parts of a prophecy on how to bring back Kalvaxis! (Along with him getting his “glittering treasure”?)

But yeah! No wonder it was so hard to put the pieces together! They all connected but only through a prophecy. Good job Bren!

“The sun shall fall from the heavens” is part of the prophecy which makes me think Sol or Helios might be involved in this somehow.

Ally: There are definitely going to be 7 virgins at prom. (That deserved a rim shot).

Good on Murph for making sure none of them were on the virgin list bc that would have been a pain in the ass to find out mid-fight. Also, I KNEW “Where are their bodies” was the question to ask last ep when Biz said they were going back to their bodies.

“Who told you that? An oracle?”

I hope Adaine just uses her oracle status to make sick one liners like, “I predict this is gonna hurt,” before she witchbolts someone. She never does her actual job. 

Adaine who hates her family, righteously indignant: Between our houses and the world, you expect us to choose our houses?

The rest of the group who loves their family: BYEEEEE.

Well, no. Kristen also had reservations before she remembered her brothers existed.

Adaine texting her mom: You should probably leave.

Siobahn and Ally fistbumping over their mutual not caring about their parents.

OK so what’s up with the rat? What’s so important about the rat? And what’s up with Zayne? We still haven’t figured out what’s up with him.

Still not clear on if the crystals trap your physical body or just your spirit and leave your physical body dormant irl.

So that’s how they got rid of the adults for the fight. Nice job again Brennan.

As far as I can tell, Brennan made up this usage of the word palimpsest and I’d never heard of the word before and now I type it so much. Wild.

“I’m calling an Uber. You use the minute to go look at as much shit as you can. Jump in the Uber with me, come to my house. Look Rudolpho will be here in two minutes in a Honda Civic. Use one of those minutes. Go.”

A Knight to Remember. 

They freaking Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to Kristen’s house.

I love how Uber Drivers in this world are still gunning for 5 stars.

OK, time for the most stressful 30 minutes of Fantasy High (so far).

I think the wagering mechanic Brennan used for the fights was brilliant. For each conflict a d20 was rolled. 1-6=epic fail. 7-14=bad but not awful. 15-20=favorable outcome. The twist was that if the person chose to help their family they could give up half their HP and 14 spell levels and he would roll with advantage.

Everyone quickly took that deal except Adaine who truly does not give a damn about her family (and also, reasonably, thought that they wouldn’t even be at home. Idk why they apparently were tbh).

When Emily said, “She’s a complex person and she’s allowed to be,” that was the moment I was like, “Oh yeah. She’s not actually Fig. IRL she knows what’s happening.”

Siobhan uses her divination roll of 18 to save Kristen’s family without having to risk anything but the Ally turns around and decides to take the deal to try and save Adaine’s family WHEN ADAINE DOESN’T EVEN CARE. But it makes sense that Kristen would.

Lou’s monolog as Brennan rolls about how nerve wracking and terrible it is to have no idea what’s going on.

“This is the worst thing I’ve been a part of.”

“I was wondering why my mom visited me and humanized herself and this is exactly why.”

Lou/Fabian: What if my fucking family dies? (F O R E S H A D O W I N G, albeit unknowingly)

Brennan (sagely): It couldn’t have been any other way./Siobhan: It could’ve been!

lol at Adaine trying to trigger that ice cream later wish at their darkest moment (so far). Also, not that I think Brennan ever forgot about it but now I’m for sure it’s gonna come up next ep bc if nothing else that would have reminded him.

OK first up, Fig and her mom.

“Dang they’re already organized with costumes?”

That was so boss, her mom getting revived and then IMMEDIATELY shooting two guys w/ her bow.

Emily LEGIT crying through that scene. The whole room was on an emotional tightrope. You can tell.

Where in the mountains Sandra-Lynn!? I want specifics Sandra-Lynn!!

I love the idea of her jumping out of a window onto a dope griffin’s back. Fig’s mom just bought herself a bunch of spots on my grown-up rankings list.

Ally: THAT WAS NUMBER ONE

Me: SAME.

Next Riz at Strongtower

I knew Sklonda was going to be in the secret room!

I love that apparently Riz can recognize his mom’s gun by hearing it.

I know it was in the promo but Riz’s mom being like, “I was so scared you were gonna ask me to prom” was hysterical.

You just know Sklonda and Agent Angela have been fighting like cats and dogs this past month.

Riz and his mom high fiving. They have the best relationship.

Gorgug and the Thistlesprings

lol, looks like his parents had the easiest time wrecking their intruders.

But based on how it was described as compared to everyone else (bar Fabian–we’re getting there), it sounds like he got pretty dang hurt.

And I guess they have a tank (which they usually use to mow the lawn) and a bomb chest? Wild.

Anyway, if anything had happened to them insert Rosa B99 meme.

“You come to the tree, you better be ready to never fucking leave, you understand?” So boss. (Also, is that a pun?)

Gorgug’s parents launched a satellite while Gorgug was in jail.

Kristen and co.

Kristen’s dad (who is the worst): You think these guys were illegals, what?

Kristen: I’m gonna take the car, byeeee.

Kristen and Adaine bonding over their terrible parents.

I’m Concerned about Kristen’s brothers.

Abernants

They poofed out. Idk why they were still there to begin with.

So the damage they took was supposed to represent the danger the took in their respective fights. Kristen got Adaine’s divination roll meaning her family was fine either way but she did take damage for Adaine’s family. But the fight was already over by the time they got there. So, in story, any injuries sustained must have been from the fight at her house, even though that wasn’t technically the deal.

Anyway, Adaine doesn’t care about her family so let’s not waste any time moving onto

Seacaster manor

Geez

OK, you guys. Let me tell you my buildup to the realization that Bill had to die.

In the first set of episodes, when tone was established, I said to myself, a parent is going to die. I don’t know who, but someone will.

Then, Bill gave them a training montage and I thought, curse of the mentor. He’s going to die. Besides, he’s one of the biggest parental figures and he’s larger than life–perfect for a fall.

Then Sklonda took down the Harvestmen and I briefly shifted my worry to her.

But then Fabian started clashing with Bill. And I remembered all the constant talk of his mortality.

And then, this ep, Brennan made him choose between his mom and dad and I was pretty sure. (sidenote: Fabian yelling at his mom the same ep Adaine said he has a great relationship with his mom. But, like, compared to her, maybe. Also, mean Brennan.)

And then Fabian lost an eye (with a description that still makes me wince) and I KNEW. Once he lost his eye, there was no way Bill could leave the fight alive, thematically.

Honestly, it was a wrap when Fabian played the video from his dad. I was worried he’d die before he got there. 

(It was a low blow, and I credit you that.)

Why were there Harvestmen attacking Fabian’s house and no one elses?

Fabian’s mom just drinking while the house is being raided.

I was so sure the tuxed Harvestman who attacked Fabian was going to turn out to somehow be Daybreak or something. Anyway, it has to come up again. There’s no reason for that level of detail otherwise. And tux sounds like prom attire.

Lou rolls a nat 1 and then rerolls it because he has the lucky trait. What’s funny is just started listening to NADNDPod and Murph (who reminded Lou about the lucky thing) disallowed one of his players from rerolling a nat 1 even w/ the lucky in the last ep I listened to. I don’t remember if the circumstances were different though.

Bill handcuffing himself up to keep fighting. Yikes.

Anyway, ugh that whole death scene. I would write more but this is closing in on 4k words and I’ve been working on this for hours. I just wanna say, that was a perfect way to go out for him. Killing 60 people and then getting stabbed by his son and exploding. So baller (as was Fabian jumping out the window onto his bike and catching Bill’s sword. He has so many cool swords now).

It’s a crime no one does animatics for this show.

We also got a piece of the puzzle. Bill was the one supplying the palimpsests (or at least one of the ones. who was doing it before?) not for an evil reason. Just a chaotic neutral reason of wanting to recapture the glory days. So now we know that.

I mentioned this before but…Fabian is Thor.

“I SHALL LEAP INTO HELL AND KILL THE DEVIL HIMSELF” and Bill Seacaster is dril apparently.

I love Fabian destroying the nice thing Bill said about him to preserve his legacy.

Ally: HE COULD HAVE SURVIVED.

I appreciate so much that Lou knew his character so well that without any hesitation he stabbed Bill and that was the right choice.

Whew, that was a lot.

Also, not that I don’t trust Brennan but it’s wild that Bill, the most thematically appropriate parent to die, was the only one who failed his roll apparently. 

Aww at Zelda’s message to Gorgug. She made him a playlist! So 80’s high school. It gives him a bonus! Also I really wanna know what’s on the list. Like, is it all fantasy rock puns or actual songs? Yay for Brennan giving them cool items for good RPing. 

Live band. Nice.

Emily and Zac both rolled 20’s for initiative for next week’s fight. Hopefully that’s a good omen. We have no way of knowing because THERE’S NO PROMO FOR NEXT WEEK.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

This isn’t edited. This is more than 4000 words. This is so long my computer is about to die. Thank you and goodnight. 

[monsterfucker-lisa-swallows]

Hey. So, I've had thoughts that I might be autistic for a while, but I'm not sure how to proceed because I fear people might think I'm just looking for attention. I'm also BPD, so I do wonder if it's me just projecting or something. I'm a girl and have read that it's more "difficult" to diagnose in girls. Do you have any advice I could use? Thank you.

BPD is one of the most common misdiagnoses for autism (I’m just unlucky that I happen to have both, though there is an overlap in symptoms). The only reason it’s more difficult to diagnose autism in girls is because they look for stereotypical male symptoms - women are socialized differently so we tend to present differently, at least in my experience. and it’s especially difficult if you are an adult - i got diagnosed with asd when i was 9 (when it was still called “aspergers” which i’m soooo glad they did away with for obvious reasons), but before that they wanted me to just be classified as add/adhd which as a 9 year old i read up on and was like….uhhh…nope??? doesn’t fit me…at all? but finally got the diagnosis. my bpd diagnosis happened when i was 20, so it took me some time to get there. i got off track…anyway.

the reason it’s more difficult to diagnose as an adult is because adult women have been pretty well socialized by that point. we’ve learned how to blend. maybe we don’t do it well or perfectly, but we’re what’s known as “social chameleons”. we learned through mimicry what was acceptable and what was not. this is also why there’s overlap with bpd because there is the shifting identity aspect as we just try to be who we think the world wants us to be. bpd just makes this urge too strong and can lead to way worse problems with our identity. but with asd this is why a lot of girls on the spectrum enjoy theatre or performance, because it literally helps us learn how to mimic humans effectively. (i use the word “humans” there because i often use the idea of being an alien or a robot in order to cope, sorry.)

this chameleon aspect is great for coping with real life, but it’s not great when getting diagnosed. we get nervous and we shut down our stimming and our bad symptoms because it’s just habit. they don’t get to see us on our bad days, so they label us “high functioning” if anything then tell us we don’t need help. my advice is to expect it to be a process of several sessions before a formal diagnosis will be given - i don’t know how they test it in adults but i expect there are tests just the same. be honest about your symptoms and don’t try to hide stims or any nervous habits you might have. it’s the scariest advice to give to anyone with either of my diagnoses, but try to be authentically yourself. an impossible task, i know, but my diagnosis would’ve taken less time if i’d walked on the tips of my toes and flapped my hands and rambled on about harry potter instead of trying to seem normal and mature. make a list of bad symptoms you have that you’d like to discuss, and any questions you might have. because trust me, you’ll forget in the moment.

and that’s really the best advice i can think of. i wish you luck! and even if you don’t get the diagnosis you’re looking for, you still have a place in our community. we all know the struggle of getting a proper diagnosis is super real.

EDIT:

can i just add, if you struggle with self harm or suicidal ideation and that’s part of why they say you’re bpd and not autistic, that is bullshit. i have a huge network of autistic friends on and offline (i’m even dating one of them) and the common thread is we’re all anxious depressed messes. i just happen to have trauma. but i’d argue that growing up autistic in this society is trauma enough. (that scene i wrote in AIG where red was force fed food? that really happened to me and when you’re autistic and small that kind of thing can mess up your relationship with food even more.) i have a theory that a lot of the self harm in our community starts at the age when we started consciously repressing our harmless stims. self harm becomes, in a way, a harmFUL stim. we feel this self loathing about self soothing so we take it out on ourselves. that was definitely my experience.

so anyway. hope that helped.

[artsistory]

Keepin’ it weird

After a satisfyingly deep and un-waking Benadryl slumber we left the Big Easy for Bat City (which I guess is a nickname for Austin? I google ‘nickname for Austin’ and it came up soooo). This was a long drive... About 9 hours. Texas is BIG and we had to get thru Alabama as fast as possible. We stopped at a Trader Joes on our way and bought up every veggie we could find. Our airbnb was in an apartment complex right by Congress bridge. We had a full kitchen and the bathroom was swanky as hell. I cooked dinner for our weary souls and we watched some Harry Potter (coincidence? or is FX spying on us?).

Austin is pretty outdoorsy as a city and there were a lot of parks and lakes and things. So in a rare turn of events we decided to scoot over to Ladybird Lake and wander around the nature for a bit.

Naturally it was 100 degrees out. Our only other plan for the day was to see some BATS! We walked to the bridge and waited for the sun to go down. It was fun to see everyone else also hanging out. 

Well we waited and we waited. I tried my very first live stream! And used up all my data having a solo convo with main fan of the cast, Makanakai. The sun went down and we were expecting this:

But then the sun totally set and the darkness took over....almost 2 hours went by and the bats started to fly out! What we saw was this:

A little underwhelming to be honest.

The next day we decided to check out Barton Springs! It’s a huge pool that is fed by natural springs. 

The pool is very long and quite cold. It was refreshing but a little gross with all the slimey rocks. It’s also home to an endangered salamander! 

After we all showered the salamander juice off we went out for dinner near 6th street. 6th street is home to a lot of fun bars with cheap drinks. We wandered around a bit but the street was pretty dead (not surprising for 9pm on a tuesday). 

We ended the night by taking an uber back to our apartment. The driver had trivia set up and it was a very fun ride! This is pretty much our last major stop for our road trip. There was still so much we missed! We will have to do this again sometime soon. We reflected a bit on our journey and I treated myself to this face mask that looks like skin.

[kachulein]

🌸85 Questions🌸

Since the last time I did this tag was a few months ago, I thought I’ll do it again. I was tagged by the cutie @taeyongsflatbutt thanks dear💖

Rules: Answer these 85 statements about yourself, then tag 20 people.

Last

1. Drink - tea and water

2. Phone call - I literally never call anyone besides my therapist, so yeah, my therapist :3

3. Text message - I’m currently spamming my baby @taetaejagiyaaa95 with links to dance performances of the dance club I’m in lmao

4. Song you listened to - I’m listening to What Now by Rihanna as I’m writing this (I’m actually listening to the playlist @taetaejagiyaaa95 made for me💖)

5. Time you cried - Today while listening to Grow Up by Stray Kids because the lyrics and the song in general hit me so hard that I cannot listen to it without crying T-T

Ever

6. Dated someone twice - nope, when I end something it’s a definite end and I’m not getting back together with that person

7. Kissed someone and regretted it - Actually yes... because there was this one time when this guy pressured me and kind of forced me into kissing him and I didn’t know how to escape ;-;

8. Been cheated on - not that I know of :o

9. Lost someone special - Haven’t we all? :/

10. Been depressed - Probably at some points in my life

11. Gotten drunk and threw up - yup >.< but I was like 13/14 years old back then and a stupid idiot

Fave colors

12. I seriously love all colours

13. Especially pastels

14. and of course black

In the last year have you…

15. Made new friends - YES💖

16. Fallen out of love - definitely (glares @ ex bf for treating me like crap and just ghosting on me without ever explaining his actions to me...so I guess that’s over for good)

17. Laughed until you cried - I always cry when I laugh tbh and my friends like making fun of me then xD

18. Found out someone was talking about you - probably but I can’t really remember since I push such moments out of my mind

19. Met someone who changed you - I believe every person you meet in your lifetime has some kind of impact (big or small) on you and thus changes you to some extent (maybe only just for the time being they’re in your life but still)

20. Found out who your friends are - Yes, I am actually better at reading people than it may seem^^

21. Kissed someone on your Facebook friends list - Idk I don’t use facebook anymore xD

General

22. How many of your Facebook friends do you know irl - Again, idk since I don’t use it anymore

23. Do you have any pets - a Kitten💖

24. Do you want to change your name - My last name, yes. Since I don’t like it and people like making fun of it smh

25. What did you do for your last birthday - I went out to dinner with my mom and stepdad and ended up having the whole restaurant sing me happy birthday^^ it was awesome omg

26. What time did you wake up today - At noon I think

27. What were you doing @ midnight last night - I was finishing off a reaction on my blog @kachuwritings and posted it

28. What is something you can’t wait for - My I am WHO album to finally arrive T-T

30. What are you listening to right now - Daya - New

31. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom - nah, I don’t know no Tom :o

32. Something that gets on my nerves - Someone interrupting me when I’m in the middle of daydreaming, people who brag about how great they are and in general just arrogance gets on my nerves a lot, animal cruelty is something that makes me extremely mad and sad and in general people with bad personalities/who abuse others/treat others badly, any form of discrimination and inequality in this world, our society and especially the unrealistic beauty standards our subconscious is being fed through the media 24/7 and so many more

33. Most visited website - Tumblr, YouTube and Vlive

34. Hair color - black^-^

35. Hair long or short - about middle length but I’m growing it out c:

36. Do you have a crush on someone - yesssss but not on someone I know irl glares @ Han Jisung from the other side of the world

37. What do you like about yourself - I really like being an empath tbh because it allows me to fully understand other people’s struggles and it can be nice to feel everything so deeply (love for example) (of course there’s also a downside to it) :3

38. Want any piercings - I already have 8 piercings on my ears but I always thought about getting nipple piercings someday but I honestly don’t know about that one^^’’ what do you think?

39. Blood type - A

40. Nicknames - Kachu

41. Relationship status - married to Han Jisung in my head single like a pringle

42. Zodiac - Aquarius

43. Pronouns - she/her

44. Fave TV shows (Can I add anime? I don’t watch other TV shows) - Sword Art Online, Tokyo Ghoul, Ouran High School Host Club

45. Tattoos - A violin key with a rose on my right forearm (that I drew myself and it signifies my love for music) and I’m thinking of getting angel wings on my shoulder blades but I need to draw them first kdjdksooidsfuhi

46. Right or left handed - right

47. Ever had surgery - nope

48. piercings - ears

49. Sports - dancing,,,mainly & hula hooping

50. Vacations - I’ve been to England, Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland(of course), Denmark, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy and Greece already but never outside of Europe jckdcudscn but I’m going to South Korea next year c:

51. Trainers - uhm... don’t really know what to answer here???

More general

52. Eating - I ate potato salad for dinner but that was around 6 hours ago lmao

53. Drinking - water^-^

54. I’m about to watch - Nothing since it’s 3.30am and I should go to sleep

55. Waiting - for better days *sigh*

56. Want - to be more motivated and not always feel exhausted and powerless on a daily basis because every little thing gets me overwhelmed lately and I feel so lazy since I lack power to accomplish anything and I have so much shit to do T-T 

57. Get married - not sure ._.

58. Career - Probably psychologist but I’m actually dreaming of becoming a singer&songwriter

Wich is better

59. Hugs or kisses - Depending on my mood either can be better

60. Lips or eyes - ....I love both equally tbh, beautiful eyes and plump lips really affect me sjakdansfunoj Hyunjin’s lips are a good example seriously they look so soft :( and Felix’s eyes are extremely beautiful and big wow

61. Shorter or taller - shorter because I’m too tall and I hate it ._.

62. Older or younger - younger, I don’t wanna grow up the world seems to only get worse the older I get akfnsdfisdsuld

63. Nice stomach or arms - hmmmmm I LOVE slim waists so I guess stomach?

64. Hookup or relationship - relationship!!! ALL. THE. DAMN. WAY. i can’t stand hookup culture :/ (but you do you fam, I’m not gonna judge anyone since it’s none of my business)

65. Troublemaker or hesitant - hesitant (I’m a good girl okay :c)

Have you ever

66. Kissed a stranger - I don’t think so omg

67. Drank hard liquor - yup, long ago though, I barely drink since I don’t like alcohol due to,,, reasons

68. Lost glasses - surprisingly, no xD

69. Turned someone down - unfortunately, yes :/

70. Sex on first date - It wasn’t a date... o.o it was just a hookup and that made me realize that I dislike sex without love involved and that’s how I found out that hookups are nothing for me^^’’

71. Broken someone’s heart - Probably the people I’ve turned down :/

72. Had your heart broken - ...yes

73. Been arrested - OMG NOOOOOO :o

74. Cried when someone died - Yes

75. Fallen for a friend - No never

Do you believe in

76. Yourself - I really wish I could

77. Miracles - not sure but I hope they’re real T-T

78. Love at first sight - naah

79. Santa Claus - yeeeah no, I’m not 5 years old anymore honey^^

80. Kiss on first date - Sure if it feels right

81. Angels - Not sure o.o

Other

82. Best friend’s name - I don’t have a best friend actually... (applications are open lmao)

83. Eye color - a really ugly brown istg there are so many beautiful kinds of brown eyes out there and mine just look ugly tbh D:

84. Fave movie - I have so many skaudbjf but Harry Potter is pretty high up on the list (I cannot trust people who dislike Harry Potter... my ex disliked it...yeah that just confirmed my hypothesis)

85. Favorite actor/actress - I always liked Audrey Hepburn, Olivia Newton-John, Julia Roberts, Keira Knightley, Emma Watson, Cameron Diaz, Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, John Travolta, Patrick Swayze, Jack Black, Logan Lerman, Dylan O’Brien, as well as Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant - see, I can’t choose D:

soooo that was it yay^^ I’m tagging @marculees @taetaejagiyaaa95 @glamjae @bloomingfantasy @taetarte @1oonar @00njm @star-sam @hyunjinsgiggle @jbemin @orrin-uwu @redcucumbers @donghyuwus @alonelysquid and as always, you don’t have to do it💖

[wearepangaea-blog]

❰ 𝗖𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗔𝗜𝗡 𝗟𝗢𝗚𝗦 ❱ This is why we love creators like Sam Potter who has posted an incredible series from his visit to The Amazon and documented every image with a little story to go with it. Read below #wearepangea ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿: @captainpotter ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ❰ 𝗕𝗘𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧 ❱ Funny how quickly “strange” became normal in the Amazon. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
PHOTO 1: Never go anywhere without your machete 🐍 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
PHOTO 2: We slept on floors of jungle shacks the whole time 😂 @nainoalanger First night we had a deadly snake hanging above our heads. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
PHOTO 3: All my friends are five. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
PHOTO 4: Amazon Warriors 👊🏽 it’s incredible how quickly the Waorani are educating themselves and learning how to win their battles in the courts. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
PHOTO 5: They have forever changed my tree climbing game 💯 mas coconuts to come haha. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
PHOTO 6: Some of the elders I spoke with had gone more than 50 years of their life without being contacted. It was like speaking with someone from another planet. This aunty fed this wild parrot with her mouth, besides her, the parrot wasn’t Interested in people. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
PHOTO 7: This is a petroglyph. They’ve had a bunch of archeologists check it out, and no one knows origins, it dates back longer than we thought people lived in the Amazon. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
PHOTO 8: This morning Moi kept waking me up. “Wepe... wepe...Wepe” to make trades haha. I traded a machete for a giant rodent leg, and another for a very twitchy, bloody, and recently killed chicken. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
PHOTO 9: We flew out to attended the court appeal for the Waorani’s land. When the pilot landed, we asked if he would take off and land again so we could film the plane taking off. He agreed, and he took a bunch of kids with him too!!! They were SOOOO stoked. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ PHOTO 10: I miss the sounds of it, the stars through the jungle canopy, and how the village would come together and eat dinner on the floor of our jungle shack. It was a beautiful trip. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ •• 𝗣𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗔𝗘𝗔 • 𝗣𝗘𝗢𝗣𝗟𝗘 • 𝗖𝗨𝗟𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 • 𝗔𝗗𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 •• « #planetearth #amazon #indigenous #vogue » (at The Amazon) https://www.instagram.com/p/B9ZDOKAheQX/?igshid=1jgw6f1ycu0ee

[songofanothersummer]

The Hateful 8

Tagged by: @madworlddiary, @justinloveletters and @strikezilla01

Rules: List 8 fictional characters which you extremely despise from stories you fully enjoy. These are the ones you have zero affection, remorse, or respect for. They can be from books, shows, movies, and/or video games. Tag others if you so desire.

PSA: Let me just say, that this was really hard for me because I tend to like most characters in everything I consume, especially from a storytelling stand-point, so this is more of a list of characters I get fed up with often or am bored by, and spoiler alert, they’re mostly characters we the viewers/readers are supposed to like...

1. Harry Potter - from, you guessed it, Harry Potter 2. Walter White - Breaking Bad 3. “Canon” Revan - Star Wars: The Old Republic, Revan (soooo. boooooring.) 4. Michael Bluth - Arrested Development 5. Margery Tyrell - Game of Thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire 6. Jack Shepard - Lost 7. Denethor - The Lord of the Rings (maybe the only one that makes sense...) 8. Anders - Dragon Age: Awakening, Dragon Age 2 (I love Anders, but I also very much don’t at the same time - he’s a very tragic and problematic character and while I enjoy him overall, I could never condone his actions) 9. Thane - Mass Effect  (meh, idk I just don’t find him that interesting?) 10. Bobby Briggs - Twin Peaks *this is a special case, though, because he was pretty awful to begin with and because I LOVE HIM this season, talk about character development

tagging: @loved-the-stars-too-fondly, @the-girl-that-no-one-ever-knows, @katlypso, @irrationalramblings, anyone else I normally tag or anyone interested, it’s been a while and I (apologetically) forget your URLs

[you-andthebottlemen]

24 - AU

“Request: Okay since you do AU's, hear me out: Harry Potter AU?”

Anon: I’ll do more than hear you out. Thank you SO much for this request oh my god I was so excited when I saw it. I’m a huge Harry Potter nerd and I had so many ideas right away. This was soooo fun. I hope you love it as much as I loved writing it. 

I could write the boys into Hogwarts forever, this is fantastic. I’m just imagining those photos of really young Van with his awful hair and bad teeth and it just fits? So well? 

P.S this is obviously about teenage Van. 

P.P.S clearly all HP ideas are not mine, they are JK Rowling’s.....like yeah. Anyway. ENJOY!! <3

*******

Your first year at Hogwarts was wonderful; the wizarding world was more alive than ever and every single thing you learnt blew your mind. You couldn’t believe what you could do. But the excitement soon faded when you realised that as you got older, you actually had to study, had to learn, had to pass exams. You weren’t very good at finding a happy medium between work and play. You often had your nose in a book, or you were watching Quidditch games, supporting your house. You blended into the background and always thought no one ever took any notice of you. As it happens, you were wrong. 

“Y/n, come to the match with me tomorrow. Hang out with us for a change!” Rhiannon pleaded, clinging to your arm. 

She was your best friend. Though since she’d started dating Bondy at the beginning of the year, you saw less and less of her. His friends were a massive distraction; none of them ever studied. Except the one in Ravenclaw, typical. 

Rhiannon was a good friend, she always tried to get you to hang out and do things. You were usually too shy or stressed out to oblige though. She was blonde and had big brown eyes that no one could resist. You always felt just a little jealous. She also had tattoos that she had to keep hidden under her robes. She’d enchanted them so they moved and swirled on her skin, it was amazing. Bondy was not what you’d have called a perfect match; he was weird. Like really weird. But yet somehow they fit together like two puzzle pieces. Even though she was a Gryffindor and he was a Slytherin. 

“Okay fine,” you said grumpily, dreading the antics that you knew were bound to go down. You still hadn’t let go of that time Bondy and his mates hid in the restricted section to smoke out the window where no one could see. The only time they’d ever be caught dead in a library was to muck around. 

“Yes!!” she hugged you, kissed your cheek then skipped off to class. You just smiled and shook your head. It was nice having someone being so excited to hang out with you.

You wandered the corridors, passing time before your next lesson; saying hello to the odd ghost that passed you by. You thought about all the charms you had left to practice that you still hadn’t nailed and groaned internally. That’s when a rushing body collided with yours, knocking you right to the ground.

“Hey watch it!” you spat, feeling the bruise that’d appear on your ass tomorrow, ache.

“Fuck, I am so sorry.” 

You looked up to see Van, one of Bondy’s friends. The leader of the pack. The ultimate trouble maker. Of course, it was Van. 

He held out his hand and you took it, letting him pull you up from the ground. He straightened out your robes for you and you fought the urge to swat his hands away. 

“You alright love? I’m so sorry, I-”

“I’m fine,” you interrupted. 

He stood there looking around like he didn’t know what to do. You stared at him for a bit. You looked at his awful but somehow still cute, fluffy and uneven haircut. His equally as horrific eyebrows. His long eyelashes. His pretty blue eyes. 

“Rhiannon said you’re hanging out with us as at the match tomorrow?” he asked, looking hopeful and swinging his arms around. 

“Yeah, she convinced me. Hope you guys don’t do anything stupid this time,” you replied, looking down at his skinny Gryffindor tie; clearly, he thought it was cool to do it up like that.

“Can’t promise that,” Van replied with a wink and a grin but his face fell when he realised you weren’t joking. 

“Um, yeah well, I’m glad you’re coming. See you later yeah? Sorry again y/n,” Van said before rushing off, late to class. Leaving you with the slightest blush on your cheeks that you ignored adamantly. 

.........

“Yeah, but like, if Van played Quidditch he’d probably fall off the broom or fly into the post or some shit,” Larry laughed, pulling his red and yellow beanie down over his ears.

“Oi nah mate, I’d be fuckin’ class!” Van argued back, his voice going all high.

“Wouldn’t I, y/n?” he said with a grin, shaking your arm. You just shrugged and the boys laughed at your lack of support. Van quietened down a little, almost like he was hurt you didn’t stand up for him for some reason. 

"Getting snacks," he mumbled.

Van stood up, tying his scarf around his neck and walked off.  

“I think he’s butthurt you didn’t agree with him,” Bondy said with a smirk, pulling Rhiannon onto his lap. You just looked at him with a raised eyebrow, still feeling shy.

Bob came and sat on your other side, taking Van’s spot. 

“Hey,” you smiled. 

“Hey y/n. Looking forward to the match?” he asked and you nodded. 

You liked Bob the best out of all the guys, he was your stereotypical Hufflepuff. He was quiet until you got him talking, always polite and had this wild curly hair that was somehow still well kept? He got teased by the boys sometimes but everyone loved him to bits. You felt the most comfortable with him, he wasn’t as much of a trouble maker.

Van came back and squeezed himself between yourself and Bob, offering him some Bertie Bots Beans to which he politely declined. Probably still scarred from when Larry force fed him vomit flavour. 

“None for you sorry, you didn’t say I’d be mad good at Quidditch,” he said, shaking his head and throwing some beans into his mouth. 

“Oh leave her alone Van, give her some damn beans,” Rhiannon said, rolling her eyes at him. 

“I’m just kidding love, here,” he smiled cheekily, offering you the box. You said thank you and picked out your favourite flavours, careful to avoid rotten egg. 

The match started and everyone cheered. It was Ravenclaw vs Gryffindor. Larry and Benji started yelling, trying to be louder than the other, somehow thinking that if they could out-yell each other, it was the same as their team winning. You looked at Van who chuckled at their competitiveness. You were surprised he wasn’t joining in with them. His nose was all red from the cold air. He looked kind of cute in his large fuzzy ear muffs but you quickly dismissed the thought. 

“I’m only competitive when it’s Larry I’m up against,” he said as if reading your mind. 

“I’ve seen,” you replied with a teasing smile.

You felt him shuffle closer to you and your arms touched. You didn’t move away, you just stole more of his beans without asking and he didn’t say anything about it. 

........

A few weeks had passed since you’d attended the match with Rhiannon and her gang. You’d finished your charms and were ready for exams in a months time. It was that quiet part of the semester where exams were just far enough away that no one was worried and there wasn’t much to do. 

You sat at the table in the great hall on your own, pushing some scrambled eggs around your plate, lost in thought. 

“Hey y/n,” Larry said as he slid in beside you, breaking your solitude. 

“Morning,” you replied, still looking at your eggs. Owls flew swiftly through the air around the hall, dropping off mail to those that were lucky enough. 

You had hung out with Rhiannon and the boys a few more times since the match. They’d accepted you as a part of the group and you had gotten more acquainted with their antics and how to avoid it. But you’d also learnt that you actually liked being around them. They were funny and kind and they never dragged you into trouble. Well, not really. 

“You okay?” he asked as he cut up a sausage. 

“Yeah, sleepy,” you responded, rubbing your eyes as you looked at him. 

Soon enough Bondy and Rhiannon bounced over and joined you. They took turns spoon-feeding each other porridge, Rhiannon purposefully letting some spill down Bondy’s chin so he’d look like a slob. 

“You two are gross,” Benji said as he sat down beside Bondy. 

Rhiannon then levitated a serviette into the air to wipe Bondy’s chin. 

“Goood mornin’,” Van said cheerfully as he plopped himself down across from you. He began shovelling food into his mouth and only stopped to flick some baked beans at Larry who fought back by pelting some toast. 

“Hey! Stop, don’t need the professors ducking any more points off you,” you said, trying to get between them before a full blown food fight broke out. 

“True. I cost Gryffindor like 25 yesterday. Got caught smoking in the toilets again,” Van admitted sheepishly and you rolled your eyes.

“Well, last week I got given 5 for answering a question right in potions for once,” Larry interjected in a very pompous tone. 

“Yeah, alone I’m probably responsible for Slytherin coming last in the house cup this year,” Bondy said casually. “They’ve caught on that I skip every magical history class and the other week I got dobbed on by a prefect for being in the Ravenclaw common room again,” he continued. 

Bondy was strange. He was the least ‘Slytherin’ Slytherin you’d ever met. He either spent his time with this lot or up in a common room that wasn’t his own. Yet at the same time, he fit in with his house perfectly. It was weird. You’d heard rumours in first year that he was what they call a ‘hat stall’. You took a mental note to ask him about it later. 

“Hey look at Sideshow over there! Gettin' his flirt on!” Van exclaimed, pointing over to where Bob was sitting at the end of the table with a nice looking girl who had curly hair just like his, but red. They were sitting close and talking quietly. You could feel the nerves a mile off. 

“Aw that’s cute,” you said happily. 

Just then Bob saw you all staring and he dropped a bit of egg off his spoon into his lap. 

“Nice one Bob. Real smooth,” Van teased as if he could hear him. 

“Someone’s jealous!” Rhiannon giggled and Van blushed, making everyone laugh.

After breakfast, you all piled out of the hall and began making your way to class. You bid everyone farewell and went your separate ways. You started to mentally run through the ingredients you needed for your potion today but were interrupted by Van running up behind you. 

“Hey, yn?” he asked, running his hand through his hair and licking his lips. 

Something you noticed he did all the damn time without realising. You looked at him and raised your eyebrows, implying that he continue. 

“So I know breaking the rules isn’t your thing. And I know you’ll probably tell me to fuck off... but you know that band I’m always on about?”

“The Weird Sisters?” You asked and he nodded, his eyes lighting up at the realisation you remembered. 

“Well, they’re playing in Hogsmead on Thursday night. We’re all going, me, Rhiannon and the lads. But I got an extra ticket for you? In case you wanted to come? You don’t have to, I know it’s not your thing but-”

“I’ll be there,” you said, before thinking. You were flattered he’d thought of you. He was right it wasn’t your thing, but how could you say no? He’d bought you a ticket and everything. 

“Really?” He grinned. 

“Not if you make me late to potions.”

“Oh, right. Yeah. Sorry. Catch ya later y/n?” 

“Yes. Catch you later, Van,” you smiled and walked off to class. You saw him throw his fist into the air when he thought you weren’t looking as if he’d just scored the quaffle through a hoop or something. 

.........

It was after lights out, you were meant to be in bed and getting your rest for the next school day. Instead, you were all congregated in a quiet corridor somewhere near some secret passageway Van had heard of. You’d all snuck out of your respective dormitories and met up over the last hour. You’d spent the day with the boys working out when each corridor would be empty so you could sneak out without being caught. 

"So if we go through there, we'll end up in Hogsmead?" you questioned, never having broken out of the school before. 

"Yep. Cool right?" Rhiannon said excitedly, you just stayed quiet, feeling nervous. 

The boys were dressed in black skinny jeans and leather jackets, clearly trying to look older than they were. It was weird seeing them out of their robes and sweaters. You'd just thrown on a dress and jumper, unsure of what attire the occasion called for. Besides, you didn’t bring many outfits to Hogwarts anyway; you’d never really had many occasions that called for nice attire. Your wand was firmly tucked into the pocket and you kept checking to make sure it was still there. A dress! With pockets! Now that's magic. 

The group began to tiptoe through the hallways and you lingered behind, keeping an eye out for any professors. 

"You look really pretty y/n, love the dress," Van whispered, hanging back from the others to walk in step with you. 

"Thank you," you smiled. He was sweet really, when he wasn't getting into a scuffle with the prefects or making jokes about the professors. 

You walked in silence for a bit, ducking behind a curtain at one point when you saw a ghost. 

"So you know how you're like dead organised and stuff? And you're good at everything?" he asked shyly and you chuckled. 

You were definitely not good at everything but you liked that he thought so. 

"I was wondering if maybe you'd help me practice my charms some time? Since you're dead smart. Can't get the damn things right, see. Last week I turned Larry's tie into a worm."

"Well, Benji is the dead smart one. But sure, I'd love to," you smiled at the thought of spending more time with Van, especially if he was going to be sweet like this. 

He smiled as if he'd won the lottery and walked off to the front of the group, taking his wand out from his belt. 

"Right. Here we are, lads. And uh...ladies," he said as he pointed his wand at a tapestry. 

Van waved his wand and said some incantation and the tapestry changed colour. He smiled and pulled it back, thrilled that it actually worked. Behind the sheet of fabric, there was a door, he pulled it open and held it for everyone. The tunnel was pitch black, you all illuminated your wands and plunged into the darkness. You couldn't shake the nerves that were hiding in the bottom of your chest. What if you got caught? Expelled?

Rhiannon leading the way, you eventually arrived at another door. Her and Bondy slowly pushed it open and you were relieved to find yourself, just as Van had promised, in an alleyway in Hogsmead. You smiled in excitement and Van winked at you before walking off to lead you all to the Three Broomsticks. 

The guy at the door looked mean, to say the least. You began to get all shaky, worried he'd catch you out for not only being underage but also for having broken out of the castle. Rhiannon held your hand, sensing your panic. Van and Bondy rocked up to him confidently and showed the tickets. 

"You lot look a bit young to be here," he said dubiously, his eyes darting between the seven of you. Your heart stopped. 

"Mate. You think we'd have the balls to break out of Hogwarts?" Van said with a laugh. "Of course, we're of age. Graduated last year," he finished seriously, deepening his voice. 

You couldn't deny, he was convincing. Charismatic and confident; traits that would get him far in life. The guy nodded and stepped aside to let you all in, you breathed a sigh of relief. 

"Nice one," you said to Van, winking. 

"I was shittin' bricks on the inside," he responded and you laughed.

The Three Broomsticks was larger than you remembered it ever being. Maybe there was an enchantment on it? Witches and wizards gathered from far and wide to watch the legendary band play. You felt out of place, never having heard any of their songs. The boys were buzzing, all jumping on the spot. They spoke a million miles an hour about the band and music in general, they were so into it. You just stood back and listened. 

Once people started crowding around the makeshift stage, definitely an enchanted add in...god magic was great, you and all the strangers squished together to get a good view. The pink and purple lights started to shine, you looked over at Rhiannon who was smiling. The silver glitter on her face reflected the lights and it was so pretty. She saw you looking at it and reached over and wiped some of it on your cheek bone. 

You stood with Bob and Benji as the band came out, strumming their guitars and strutting around. Larry and Van jumped around shaking each other’s shoulders and yelling in excitement, it made you smile and feel warm and fuzzy. Bondy stood behind Rhiannon, wrapping his arms around her and nodding his head to the beat. He always looked too cool for whatever he was doing. 

The music was loud and you didn’t really understand the fuss but you were enthralled none the less. You shimmied with Bob who was just as awkward as you were, it was fun. Bondy started to kiss Rhiannon’s neck and you could see her just melt inside. She kissed him and there was definitely tongue action happening. 

“Gross you guys, stop,” Benji said, turning up his nose at them. Rhiannon pulled away from Bondy and smirked. 

“Wanna join?” she said to him with a wink. His eyes went wide and he turned away, sending you all into a fit of laughter. She took Bondy’s hand and led him back through the crowd and you watched as they disappeared off out the back. Probably to make out. Oh, young love. 

You were left standing slightly to the side, alone and awkward. Just watching those around you. Van weaved his way through the crowd back towards you, he and Larry had managed to get right to the front. 

“Why’re you back here? Go have fun!” you said, not wanting him to miss out for your sake.

“Nah, I wanna have fun with you though,” he smiled, knocking his shoulder against yours lightly for effect. 

Van looked back out towards the band, his eyes glittering; he was completely in love with it. Without looking at you, his hand found yours and he squeezed it tightly before letting go. Almost like he was trying to comfort you. Your tummy flipped and you felt that fuzzy feeling come back. 

“I wish I was in a band,” he said with a sigh, you could only just hear it over the loud music. 

“You should start one, you and the boys. Larry could be your manager,” you suggested with a laugh, he turned to look at you. 

“Larry would kiss you if he heard you say that. No way in hell that lads’ gonna manage me,” Van joked back. 

“I’ll keep quiet then, don’t want Larry to kiss me,” you said. 

"Why not?" Van asked. 

"Um, guess he's not my type?" you replied awkwardly with a shrug, unsure of why he even asked. 

"What is your type then?" Van questioned. Oh god. 

"Erm..." you looked around awkwardly. 

Van moved closer to you and moved your hair behind your ear. Your heart rate picked up and you thought you were going to explode. You stared at him with wide eyes. The moving bodies around you disappeared. He laughed to himself at your inner panic and leant down to kiss your cheek. You felt the blush happen instantly. 

“Maybe I could be your type? I’d like that,” he suggested. 

You smiled at him and looked down at your shoes, nodding. His face twisted into a grin and he reached to hold your hand again. You and Van both looked back out towards the band. He lifted his free arm into the air and cheered for the band, but you both knew that wasn’t the only reason he was celebrating. You bit your lip to contain the the cheesy smile that was seconds away from spreading across your face.

Who’d have thought, you and Van McCann? Never-mind telling the boys off for their antics, you were now well and truly a part of it, and it was better than you could have ever imagined.  

[flappingbrickwings]

No more dirty looks

PARENTS. Bring it in.

Here we are again - so close to the end of the school year, we can taste it. Or smell it. Or wait, no, that’s not summer, that’s the decomposed string cheese I found under my driver’s seat this morning. Anyway - come on you guys, we can do this. Come on. (Did I already say that? I stopped paying attention to anything 17.3 days ago.) Yes, we’re all at the point where we basically don’t give a fuck if our kids learn a single goddam thing between now when that final bell rings and they come marching home carrying a year’s worth of “art” that we have to figure out how to discreetly dispose of - I mean cherish forever. Normally I tell Mila to avoid the cafeteria like the plague, except on the occasional Friday when, after another grueling week, I simple cannot manage to slap together a PBJ and they usually featured grilled cheese anyway (which seems much harder to fuck up than, say, sweet & sour chicken, or even tacos - I remember the tacos at my elementary school and let me assure you, they were no bueno), this week I checked the menu Sunday night and decided with zero guilt (none!) that she could eat pizza on Tuesday and grilled cheese Friday, which means I had exactly three lunches to make this week. So manageable! 

While we’re on the subject, does every school now give kids an open cafeteria account or is it just ours? Who the fuck thought that was a good idea? Let’s stock the shelves with Apple Jacks, chocolate milk, and cinnamon rolls and then let the under-ten-year-olds self regulate. Where’s the oversight? Every few months I get an email notice that Mila’s cafeteria balance is -$0.11 and I have to interrogate her about what she’s been eating on top of the delicious (well ok, palatable) and nutritious (inasmuch as I can manage given everything else I have to do - cook, clean, walk the dog, work, listen to Harry Potter, etc.) lunches I lovingly/sleepily pack for her each morning. Which always turns out to be something un-food-like that she argues is totally okay because one or more friends of her “always get it,” or pancakes and bacon for breakfast: the sequel, “because it just smells soooo good.” What happened to begging, borrowing, or stealing? She just charges it. To me. Are the credit card companies behind this, or is it the sugar lobbyists? Are they working together to destroy our future? 

While we’re still on the subject, one of the rotating items on our cafeteria menu is (I shit you not), “Mac & Cheese w/Goldfish Crackers.” I mean... Thank God our “president” is taking on Michelle Obama’s crazy idea to get healthy food into our schools. Imagine if they had to eat processed pasta and processed cheese without a side of processed crackers. What in the actual fuck?

Listen, I know you’ve had a busy week. So have I. We all have, and we’re not in the clear yet. But just remember, with each end of year concert/carnival/pot-luck/fundraiser/gift-contribution/dress-rehearsal/raffle/silent-auction/butterfly-release/whatever else they’re throwing at us, we are one step closer to that glorious day when we don’t have to have the tiniest members of our household fed, dressed, brushed, slathered, and buckled in by 7:26 am. When we can say, “You know what? Yeah. Yeah, you can have ten more minutes. Fuckit. Take 20.” When we throw all caution to the wind and trust that if we let them watch “Some Assembly Required” (last sidenote: when can we address the abominable children’s programming available on Netflix/Hulu/Amazon? which generation will put an end to canned laughter?) until midnight and we’ll still be able to make it to work on time. When we let them survive on popsicles and sunshine and completely forget how to separate the unidades from the decenas and maybe even how to write a sentence. Not to worry, it will all come back.  

Take a couple warm-up laps, summer. Get limber. We’re coming for you.