#and while doing that he also framed Sirius for the murder of their friends

[scaramionee]

Obviously Sirius and then Peter...WHO TF VOTED FOR REMUS LMFAOOOOO

[ooh-theseus]

If you will!!! Imagine a moonwater au where pre deserter!Regulus runs into Remus while he’s on his wolf mission trying to dissuade the werewolves from joining Voldemort and it is awkward and it’s messy because neither can trust the other anymore,

but somehow, Regulus lets Remus in on his plan of deserting and destroying the horocruxes, so someone knows of his whereabouts on the night at the cave, and being distrustful Remus follows after him, keeping his distance and watching up until the moment he almost falls into the lake and Remus is there, casting the Inferi away with his Dada knowledge and pulling Regulus out, he’s freezing and coughing up water, but he lives, he calls Remus an idiot, ‘can’t he see he’ll die anyway once the death eaters find out of his treason?’, but Remus isn’t hearing any of it, all he can see when he looks at Regulus is the same scared face from when they were 13 and 14 respectively and he would not dare leave him like this. So he takes him home, and they pretend Regulus is dead, at least until the end of the war.

Remus’ loyalty to Dumbledore almost makes him go and tell him of this, but Regulus threatens him against it. Still, Remus goes on to tell Dumbledore about the horocruxes.

But Regulus being alive, also means he knows who the traitor is, and it is not Sirius, it is Peter. With this information, Remus tries to warn the Potter’s but despite it, James doesn’t believe him. And.. well, worst comes to pass. However, when Sirius is framed for the murder things go differently, pushing very hard and pressing Dumbledore for it, Remus is able to get Sirius a trial, and testify for him. The only problem is, Regulus needs to testify too in order to get Sirius’ charges dropped, but that means having the world know he was alive and a death eater. Remus begs him, pleads, because Sirius is innocent and his best friend and Regulus’ brother! And Regulus is so very guilty, he should’ve died in the cave, he owes Remus, so he testifies. Because of Dumbledore’s connections, both brothers are able to get off for the most part but the house of Black is disgraced. Regulus experiences something so much more humiliating than death, dishonor, disdain from his peers, disowned by his mother who cut hims off for being a blood traitor.

And so, Regulus is destitute. A man broken by the war, but he is alive and free and his brother is too. And he owes a big part of that to Remus. Remus who’s absolutely crushed after the death of two of his closest friends, Remus who’s terrified for the future knowing there’s no future for him as a werewolf, Remus who starts to fall apart now that he has nothing to fight for.

Sirius takes in Harry, as soon as the legal matters settle, and he offers Remus and Regulus to stay with him while they manage to get back on their feet with the money his uncle inherited him, they both are too stubborn to accept and refuse him. But ultimately Regulus is forced to accept, having no where else to go. Remus keeps away, feeling he is too dangerous for little baby Harry, but visiting every few months, to keep an eye on things.

A few years later, Dumbledore offers them both employment at Hogwarts, when they meet again, Remus greets him like an old friend, which Regulus’ supposes they are. Remus hugs him for just a second too long, but Regulus’ doesn’t pull away. Overtime the two grow closer and for once things are different, they are equals with full autonomy, and all that kept them so separated now, is distant, so one night as they’re talking by the fireside at Remus’ teacher dorm, Regulus kisses him, and Remus is surprised but he returns his affections.

Remus continues teaching at Hogwart’s long enough to get to teach lil Harry and his friends and Regulus is able to help Dumbledore track down the horocruxes so much faster, which is a big factor in the war’s outcome and also means Harry gets a bit more time to be a kid.

Things are not easy, but they aren’t bad. Regulus learns that he has the ability to do good, to be good. Remus learns that he’s not hard to love, that he’s worth the effort of being loved. And Sirius makes sure Harry, is loved, he knows it’ll never be enough to give him back everything he has lost, everything they all have lost, but Harry grows up surrounded by love. Of his guardian and his ‘uncles’, and he’s better off for it.

[saintsenara]

How involved in bullying Snape do you think Lupin was? I feel like a lot of the fandom goes with the idea that he was al Aud a reluctant bystander and felt guilty but I’m not sure I agree. With what Snape says about fighting 4 on 1 I think Lupin and Pettigrew would have to have been directly involved at least sometimes. Maybe Lupin was more involved in the early years when things were less serious like tripping each other in the hallway, the got uncomfortable as things got more vicious? And how do you think the prank/murder attempt effected this? Curious to hear your take!

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

my view - which will come up in both the war of the roses and scylla and charybdis - is that lupin and pettigrew are both involved with the physical side of the marauders' bullying of snape [and what they do to him is indistinguishable from what james and sirius do - it's not less violent etc.] as back up for james and sirius, but are never the direct instigators of this violence.

this fits lupin's belief - expressed in both prisoner of azkaban and order of the phoenix - that james only ever attacked snape when provoked. lupin clearly justifies his involvement in the physical cruelty to which snape was subjected by framing it in his own mind as defensive - a brave and necessary thing to do in the face of snape's hostility towards james [whom he understands in an extraordinarily idealised way].

and it's also clear that - when he finds himself in a situation where it's impossible for him to justify that james and sirius are acting in self-defence [that is to say, snape's worst memory], he simply goes full:

which can be used - i think - to suggest that james and sirius thought he was a bit too unreliable in terms of his willingness to start fights to be treated by them as their co-instigator.

[hence sirius saying in order of the phoenix that lupin used to make him and james feel guilty over their more egregious attacks on snape - we can parse this as him saying that lupin's struggle to pretend all of their violence was justified was obvious.]

but i also think that they were willing to make use of lupin - and to respect and encourage his participation in their violence, and to use his approval to justify the righteousness of it to themselves - whenever he was on board.

pettigrew, in contrast, would clearly love to be involved in the violence as james and sirius' co-instigator - just look at how he behaves in snape's worst memory! - but ends up relegated by james and sirius themselves to the status of follower rather than team mate.

that he resents this is obvious... given that he ends up ruining their lives.

it's clear that a significant - and indeed, in my view, the main - part of pettigrew's reasons for defecting to the death eaters is a desire to say "fuck you" to james and sirius, who - while they do clearly conceive of him as their friend [and i think takes that they don't really like him, or that they could have worked out where his true loyalties lay, are delusional] - also understand his friendship to both of them as subordinate to their friendship with each other, and enforce this hierarchy by making it known that they think he's less important, talented, cool, clever etc. than they each understand the other to be.

pettigrew is excluded from joining james and sirius' bullying of snape as an equal, because james and sirius fundamentally see the bullying as something which helps them maintain their identical images of each other. they don't see him as a cunning and charismatic ringleader, punishing a pathetic target like snape [as they see themselves]. they see him as only a few rungs of pathetic above snape himself.

and he realises this, and it festers, and it ends with him making them both pay for underestimating him.

on "the prank tm"...

1. sirius tells us in prisoner of azkaban that the werewolf prank was a punishment - cooked up because he wanted to teach snape a lesson for constantly eavesdropping on the marauders. 2. this would - therefore - mean that sirius announcing his intention to lure snape to the shack would meet lupin's threshold for being something snape himself provoked/the marauders retaliating to defend themselves. 3. lupin has a tell when he's lying: he says "er" or "erm". when he describes the prank in prisoner of azkaban, in a way which heavily implies the entire thing was sirius' idea and that neither he nor james had any prior knowledge of the plan... this tell is out in force. he was clearly in on it - and so, without a doubt, was james. 4. it's really striking that pettigrew is completely irrelevant to the incident - not only in sirius and lupin's retelling, but in snape's. he clearly wasn't involved - there's no way that snape wouldn't have mentioned it if he was. 5. the prank looks, then, like the perfect encapsulation of this dynamic. - sirius and james as ringleaders - lupin allowed to ascend to their level as a co-conspirator, because he's justified the plan to himself in a way his friends know won't cause him to flake - pettigrew excluded from this trio of equal standing because his friends treat him as an afterthought - good for back-up in a hallway duel, useless when it comes to something which requires a bit of slyness and charm.

[hoaxriot]

FOR THE FIRST TIME

pairings. sirius black x fem!reader

synopsis. years had passed and your daughter was at hogwarts. your husband was out and had not showed himself yet.

notes. this is part two coney island! i also put a name for the kid but you can imagine any other name or gender i just chose this so it would be easier to write. this follows the scenes of the movie in the shrieking shack. idk why i wrote most of the scene but i felt it was important and some things are a bit different.

it had been years since your friends were murdered by one of your best friends and your husband was put in askaban for it. of course, years since you had given birth to your only kid, your daughter— celeste. she had become your entire world after she was born.

you continued to live with remus after because you still needed that help and he was glad to do it. his dream became true and he had became uncle moony.

celeste’s first words were moony and he was thrilled about it, soon after she turned one you moved back home but he was still around. life had started to become better as celeste grew up, everything was okay again. you still missed your friends dearly but after celeste you knew you could not stay in bed all day, she made you happy.

when your daughter started to grow you knew she was a wizard which made you happy. time came around where she could finally understand that other families had a father around and she didn’t.

the right age, you sat her down and explained to her in the best way possible with remus to help.

then it was time for celeste to go to hogwarts and you to become a professor. ever since then, life had been better. your daughter was sorted into gryffindor and she had found herself friends, she was happy so you were too. of course, one of her friends were harry potter which made you happy but he had not know you even though his father was your best friend.

just days before now, you had learned the truth about who killed your friends and who was framed because of remus lupin. that’s how you found yourself running into the whomping willow like you had done multiple times before.

your daughter was in there, you knew of it. you watched as remus shoved the door open and yell a spell. you ran in behind him to see your husband, sirius black on the floor with remus pointing his wand at him. you looked up to see your daughter standing beside hermione with fear struck in her eyes.

moving your eyes back to your husband who was being pulled up by remus into a hug, “i found him!” you heard sirius say causing a frown to come upon your lips. sirius had not noticed you standing behind remus.

“let’s kill him.” sirius said pulling away from the hug, you still stood frozen behind remus. too in shock, your husband was in front of you while your kid was a few feet away from you. sirius was older just like you, he has a beard and he still wore his askaban clothing.

hermione started to yell at remus causing him to turn towards the girl, then sirius saw you. it didn’t feel real the way you stood in front him, you looked the same as you did the night he got taken away. sirius has waited for this moment since then, he saw you look towards the kids. confused he sees you meeting eye contact with one that looked like him and you. was that—

he got distracted by remus and his anger. remus told him to wait after he started to yell.

“i did my waiting! twelve years of it… in askaban!” sirius yelled in desperation causing tears to evade your eyesight and your daughter to flinch.

remus gave his wand to sirius, “very well, kill him. but wait one more minute. harry has the right to know why.” the potter boy started to yell at sirius and remus blaming him for the death of his parents. he had every right to, he didn’t know. then professor snape came in. harry then yelled a spell and he went flying. celeste scrambled back against the wall causing you to look at her in sadness, this must’ve been so confusing for her.

then somehow sirius got rons rat from him and turned him back to what he truly was, peter pettigrew. they dragged him from the hole in the wall, pushing him into the middle of the room. sirius grabbed your hand and pushed you behind him a bit.

of course, peter tried to play nice in some way but he was failing miserably. he also failed at trying to get his way. now you were walking behind the granger girl with your daughter as she held onto your hand tightly. she always thought she would run straight into her father’s arms but neither of you did.

once you climbed out of the whomping willow, sirius put ron down and celeste dragged you away.

“mom, why didn’t you hug dad?” she questioned letting go of your hand facing you, you smiled sweetly at her.

“i wanted to, badly. things were a bit difficult down there.” the both of you laughed lightly. your smiled dropped when you saw sirius making his way to the two of you. celeste noticed your expression and before she could say or do anything you took off in a jog to jump into sirius’s arms.

sirius caught you with a large smile as he wrapped his arms around your waist, clinging onto, all the years he missed with you. you still had the same vanilla smell to you, the same grip you always had on him when the two of you hugged.

there was just one thing different— the kid watching you, the kid who immediately ran into your arms and stayed with you until now. you could feel sirius lose his grip on your jacket, you knew what he was looking at so you pulled away still holding onto his arm.

“c’mere.” you said to him as you pulled his arm towards celeste, you felt her nervousness so you smiled at her.

“sirius, this is celeste,” you saw his smile grow at the name, he had brought the name up one time when you two were talking about kids, “celeste, this is sirius… your father, as you know.” you spoke looking at her, she was quiet which scared sirius until she threw herself into him, very hardly causing him to let out a small ‘hmph.’

nonetheless, he hugged her back. you smiled at the interaction. he then heard her start to cry, your smile dropped a bit but you knew she was just like you and cried at overwhelming times. sirius then brought his hand to her head rubbing it comfortingly. at that action, she gripped onto him harder.

sirius opened his eyes to see your eyes filled with tears, he laughed a bit also knowing how you were, crying when you were happy. celeste heard him and pulled away to see you as a tear fell down your cheek.

“mum!” she laughed at you making you gasp playfully, “don’t mum me, you’re crying too.” you spoke pointing at her tear covered face. she then copied your playful gasp.

“don’t mind me, i just met my dad.” celeste joked causing sirius to laugh, she had humor just like him which made him smile as he laughed. he moved to stand beside you wrapping his arm around your waist.

“let’s go home,” he whispered into your ear but then you were distracted by each other again when remus started to transform causing the moment to be ruined.

that night was only a few nights ago, but now you were sitting in the noble house of black on the floor around the coffee table playing a game with celeste and sirius.

games had become something you and celeste did every night she was home, sirius was more than glad to be apart of that.

he finally had what he has always wanted, you— his wife. a kid who loved him and who he loved, giving her a life he had never once had. he was free and happy.

[fangirlingsss]

Girls Club | Chapter 1

Chapter 1 | Polaroid Pictures

Eleonora’s  POV

Hi Nora!

France is great! I’ve had such a great time so far. The pastries we get each morning have got to be my favorite thing ever! I can’t wait to get home and get a room to myself again. though I didn’t think sharing with Hermione would be this bad. I think she’s mad that mum and dad want me to go to Diagon Alley with her when she goes to meet her friends.

Speaking of which! They’re going this Wednesday. I was thinking we could meet up with Rory and get our shopping done together! It would be great to catch up with you two before term starts. You should owl her about it! I can’t get an owl out here to send a letter. to do it myself.

I get home on Sunday so you can owl me after then. Can’t wait to see you!

xoxo Catherine! 

Eleonora smiled as she read over the postcard from her friend. The front had a picture of an amazing view of the Eiffel Tower. The side with the message had an extra piece of paper taped to it, to fit the long message. A piece of ribbon laid discarded on the desk in front of her, it had once held the letter together.

There was also a small polaroid picture attached to the postcard. The picture was of Catherine smiling wildly, her dark curly hair framed her face perfectly. She held a steaming cup of coffee, while sitting at a cafe in front of the Eiffel Tower. It was a regular muggle picture but Catherine’s happiness radiated from the picture. 

A soft knock pulled Eleonora out of her thoughts and she turned her head towards the door.

“Eleonora?” a muffled voice from the other side said. “I’m making breakfast, some toast with scrambled eggs. Let me know soon if you’d like some,” the faint footsteps echoed through the hallway as the man left. 

Eleonora stood over her desk, still looking over the picture of her friend. After a moment of deliberation the blonde girl grabbed the postcard and a quill before leaving for the kitchen. She walked out of her room and took a left down the hallway. She could hear shuffling around in the kitchen, as well as the radio playing some muggle news station. 

“Goodmorning Remus,” Eleonora said when she entered the kitchen. 

The kitchen wasn’t very large. Simple brown cabinets littered the right side of the room. Remus stood by the stove, preparing the scrambled eggs. The large window across from the entrance of the kitchen made the room feel slightly larger than it really was and at this time of day it was letting in plenty of sunlight. She walked past him towards the table in front of the window and placed her things down before joining Remus next to the stove. 

“Good Morning Nora,” the older man smiled towards the girl. He took his eyes away from the scrambled eggs and glanced towards the blonde to see what she was rummaging for. “Are you looking for anything?”

“Yeah,” Eleonora mumbled. She pulled an inkwell out of the drawer and grabbed a few loose pieces of paper off the counter. “Found it!” she cheered and smiled towards Remus. She raised her findings in the air in victory and walked back towards the table. “I have to write Catherine back,” Eleonora explained once she took a seat. 

Eleonora wrote out her response to Catherine. Remus walked around the kitchen, finishing up breakfast and setting a plate in front of the blonde and another plate in front of the seat across from her. 

“There have been no sightings of escaped murderer Sirius Black,” a voice on the radio announced. Remus froze. Coffee pot in hand he stood there waiting for any other news. 

Eleonora didn’t know much about the convict. She only knew that he was in fact an escaped prisoner from Azkaban and not from a muggle prison. She also knew that he had killed a bunch of muggles during the wizarding war. Remus didn’t answer any of her questions about Black. 

Eleonora had a strong feeling that Remus did in fact know something. However he was never one to talk when it came to the events of the war. A pained expression would only cross his face and he’d say “There’s no point in dwelling on the past.” That frustrated her to no end. Especially when she asked about her family. Remus would promise that he’d tell her everything one day but that day never seemed to arrive. 

The radio clipped out, drawing Eleonora’s attention back to the present. Remus went back to filling two mugs with coffee, making a point to fill one of them with mostly milk. He wasn’t very keen on Eleonora drinking coffee. He thought she wasn’t quite old enough.

“Is Catherine back from France yet?” Remus asked in an attempt to lighten the tension in the room. 

“She gets home on Sunday,” Eleonora said and passed the picture of her friend to Remus. “We’re planning a shopping trip for Wednesday,” the blonde tapped the edge of the table, glancing towards Remus for a response. “We want to get our school supplies,” she added.

“Sounds like a fun time,” Remus smiled and took another bite of his eggs. “As long as you stay in Diagon Alley and get home at a reasonable time,” he added sternly, pointing a fork in her direction.

“Of course!” Eleonora responded cheerfully. Ever since the news of Sirius Black escaping Remus had been anxious about letting Eleonora out on her own. It had made Remus slightly more overprotective than usual. “I’ll be sure to be home before dark,” Eleonora reassured and took a sip of her coffee. 

The two continued to eat their breakfast in silence. Only the clatter of utensils and a quill scratching on a piece of paper could be heard. 

“I should be out for work,” Remus said as he took his last sip of coffee. “I’ll be home around six as always,” he added and placed his dishes in the sink.

 With a wave of his wand the dishes began to clean themselves and soon enough they were also being dried off and put away in their respective places. Eleonora couldn’t help but stare at the casual use of magic. It made her excited about going back to school, and even more excited to turn seventeen in sixth year. 

“I’ll just be home,” Eleonora groaned. ��Writing my letters,” she waved a hand around at her predicament. “Maybe I’ll get around to finishing the Handmaid's tale,” she added. 

“I’ll see you later,” Remus smiled and placed a kiss on top of her head before heading out of the kitchen to gather his things for work.

Remus had mentioned to Eleonora that he was looking for another job, yet again. He was still waiting for an interview. However the past couple months he had managed to keep a job at a muggle post office. Unfortunately his employer was starting to get frustrated with him for his frequent days off. In Eleonora’s opinion two or three days out of the month didn’t seem too bad but Remus only chuckled at this comment. 

Eleonora took the remainder of the morning to finish her letter to Catherine, as well as the second one for Rory. Much to her annoyance she also had to wash her own dishes by hand. After drying the dishes she walked towards the kitchen window.

The window looked out into a small courtyard area. It was surrounded from both sides with buildings, only allowing access for those who lived in the buildings. The courtyard was empty, except for a few stray cats chasing each other. Eleonora opened the window to take a better look at the cats fighting on the ground floor.

“Chip!” Eleonora yelled out towards the cats. “Chip knock it off!” she yelled again, this time gaining one of the cats attention. The white cat took another swipe at the tabby cat before letting out a loud meow and making its way towards the second floor window. Soon enough the white cat made its way towards the windowsill beside Eleonora. 

“There you are,” Eleonora said and gave the cat a little scratch behind his ear. Chip purred quietly and nuzzled his face further into the blonde’s palm. 

Chip was a skinny white cat. The only markings he had were a brown spot around his eye and a brown strip around his tail. One of his ears was half missing. Eleonora wasn’t sure what had happened to him. She had been taking care of him for the past three years and during her fourth year she had even brought him to Hogwarts although she wasn’t quite sure what he was up to most of the time. 

“Instead of getting into fights with the alley cats go and look for Erwin,” Eleonora nudged the cat. “Bring him back here, I have a letter for him,” she said. Chip nuzzled against her palm one more time and meows before leaving to look for the barn owl. 

Eleonora quickly addressed each letter, preparing each one appropriately. When Erwin arrived back at the windowsill Eleonora scratched the top of his head and placed a sickle in the pouch around his leg, and attached the letter for Rory. Erwin was about to fly off but Chip couldn’t let him leave without trying to swipe at the owl.

“Chip!” Eleonora groaned, pulling the cat inside and closing the window behind the owl. “Why do you have to be like that,” she scolded and placed the cat back on the floor.

“Now I know Remus probably wouldn’t be too happy with me leaving unannounced,” Eleonora spoke to Chip and walked out to the living room. “However Catherine is still in France so I can’t owl her and I’ll be gone only an hour at most,” she added, a mischievous grin making its way onto her face. “You won’t tell him, right?” However all Chip could do is meow and watch as Eleonora walked out the front door.

~~~

A/N: This is the first chapter of a new story I have started. You can check it out on ao3 under the same title and author! Let me know if you want me to continue posting here as well!

[leogichidaa]

Bella is an awful person, but I do think that she’s fiercely loyal to her family, especially pre-Azkaban (she travels alongside Narcissa to Snape’s house even though this is not all going along with what Voldemort wanted, and Voldemort seemingly never learns of this so Bellatrix didn’t tell him that her sister was skating the line of betrayal). I think that she was devastated when Andromeda and Sirius left and if she had the opportunity to prevent that from happening, she’d grab it with both hands. She’d also make sure the people she thinks “stole” her family suffer and who is she to protest if fate just so happens to align in such a way that she can keep her family while murdering those who “corrupted” them. I don’t know how she does everything yet or what ends up happening (I do think that Sirius doesn’t leave his home though, since he has nobody to run to here as everyone he typically interacts with are either random classmates he doesn’t know, his family, or their friends), but I know she’s at a level of stress rivaling Hermione in POA, trying to keep her family together and also helping with a war that only she knows the future of. Also, Bella, thinking of how much she hated Snape and the whole prophecy debacle, thinking of the fact that Lily gave birth to the prophecy kid, frames Snape for Lily’s murder in their later school years, neatly removing both of those potential problems. A decent chunk of her problem-solving repertoire is homicide, really

Yeah absolutely, I think murderous loyalty is a Black family trait.

Imagine Snape seething in Azkaban while everyone thinks he killed Lily...Real twist of the knife, I love it.

[thebibutterflyao3]

I’m not arguing that fat phobia doesn’t exist within the fandom and the original texts itself, it is an issue that needs to be addressed more. However, to claim that the lack of inclusion of Peter in fanfics is only because of fat phobia is disingenuous. His character is not simply “flawed,” his betrayal is the catalyst for the entire series and he actively continues to escalate the conflict throughout. His only redemption is a hesitation to kill Harry that ends his own life, but even that is undermined by Dumbledore’s claim that Harry sparing his life creates a magical bond between them that may serve Harry later. Overlooking the horrific things that we know he did when discussing him is a “weak and shallow” analysis of an already flat character.

I agree that he deserved more depth and Peter certainly does not have to be portrayed as a villain in fanfics, especially if he’s a teenager. He’s not the one leading a cult or abusing children from a place of power (like a few teachers do). He is not portrayed as inherently evil, he’s desperate. At his core, he is insecure and should be explored as a sympathetic character. He admires and latches onto more powerful/stronger people for protection and needs validation from those in a place of power or authority. This is a relatable personality that can, and does, add a lot of interest and depth to the friendship group, but there is no mention of what he contributes and plenty of evidence that he was ignored/dismissed by Sirius (and possibly James) as useless well before his betrayal. He is the odd man out. I do wish we knew more about what led up to him going astray and about the dynamics within the group, but we don’t have that.

As for his motivation, I’ve written at length in the past that self-preservation is a valid motivation and that saving himself is not inherently selfish, but Peter goes beyond that. He murdered a handful of people, screamed out lies to frame Sirius, and destroyed a city block to escape retaliation for his actions. In the Shrieking Shack, he continued to lie and blame Sirius for his actions even after seeing how Sirius suffered. He caused unnecessary harm to save himself over and over again while completely disregarding the lives he destroyed in the process. He shows little remorse.

Bringing in Regulus or Lily is a logical choice because they are natural extensions of this friend group: Regulus is Sirius’s brother and a morally grey character with a redemption arc. He adds familial conflict and a sharp contrast to the Gryffindors. Lily is one of the few canonical Gryffindors that we know by name from their year and a woman who we know they were close to (although combative with). Personally, I prefer to write Lily as a confident, plus-sized character who doesn’t take anyone’s shite and I’ve seen several other portrayals of her in a similar way. Bringing in a strong female perspective to this group also creates an interesting shift in the dynamic.

Don’t get me wrong, adding positive, diverse representation where none exists is a choice and I would love to see more of it in this fandom. It is avoided in all generations of HP characters in canon and I know that Marauders writers make a conscious effort to diversify the characters we are largely creating from scraps.

As for Regulus, I didn’t see the need to delve into the nuance of his character on this thread because he is not the main topic, but to claim you “cannot find much of a difference” in canon between his character and Peter is ridiculous. Regulus is Draco’s mirror, not Peter’s. They were raised in the same belief system, faced with similar challenges, and ultimately balked at the expectations dumped on them. They were both children being manipulated by adults who knew better. That doesn’t take away the consequences of their actions, but it does put them in context. If you have no experience with cult-mindset, then it is easy to ignore the influence of these parents, the Blacks, who approved, and the Malfoys, who actively participated.

Peter does not have that parallel. He sought out Voldemort and the Death Eaters as an adult with the full knowledge of what he would be expected to do. He was a member of The Order and well aware of what they were doing.

The last line in my response above was flippant, I’ll admit that, but Voldemort is more often excluded from AUs than Peter. Accusing people of fat phobia because they don’t include Peter is probably better compared to accusing people of homophobia because they prefer a straight ship over a queer ship. If there is evidence that fat phobia is the reason for his exclusion, then by all means, point it out. However, the blanket accusations tossed out on behalf of an unrepentant, unnecessarily destructive character are not productive or constructive toward change in the fandom. It is generalized gas-lighting and guilt-tripping.

Regulus and Peter both betrayed people. They both worked for bad people. Hell, story wise I cannot find much of a difference between the two. Just one thing. Peter is fat and Regulus is a conventionally attractive twink.

Regulus or Lily always replaces Peter. Because why? Regulus also harmed many people.

Peter fanfics are so rare compared to the other marauders. He’s not included in poly marauders. Marauders without Peter isn’t the marauders.

Stop replacing Peter. He’s not a bad character, you’re just fatphobic.

[pet-genius]

Arrested Development – Sirius, Snape, Obsessions and Blind Spots

We discover Sirius’s true allegiance and heart in the climactic ending of POA, but underneath his unquestionable courage, integrity and loyalty to his friend James and his remorse for letting James down and putting his fate in a traitor’s hands, and his wish to make it up to Harry, we also see the hints of a disturbing fixation on Severus Snape.

“[…] so, in a way, Snape’s been right about me [Lupin] all along.”

“Snape?” said Black harshly, taking his eyes off Scabbers for the first time in minutes and looking up at Lupin. “What’s Snape got to do with it?”

“He’s here, Sirius,” said Lupin heavily. “He’s teaching here as well.” He looked up at Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

Sirius is looking at Peter, who had betrayed James and framed Sirius, intending to murder him, but a mention of Snape makes him lose his focus. And Lupin doesn’t seem surprised, as he is answering heavily, as if already weary of the subject (and this is the first time Sirius and Luipn were in the same room in a long while). Snape is as interesting to Sirius as Pettigrew, despite Snape being, as far as Sirius knows, no more than his former target.

We immediately learn about the trick Sirius had played on Snape, somehow luring him to the Shrieking Shack to meet Lupin in a transformed state.

“It served him right,” he sneered. “Sneaking around, trying to find out what we were up to . . . hoping he could get us expelled. . . .”

To preempt the (irrelevant, stupid, and morally bankrupt) assertion that it does indeed serve him right because he supposedly knew Lupin was a werewolf, Sirius himself says of Snape that “Snape is clever enough to stay out of trouble”, so whatever Snape knew, Sirius believed he was sending a person who isn’t stupid or suicidal into a predator’s cage. More on that later. Back to the point, the attitude that “he deserves to die or get bitten and at the very least traumatized because he is annoying and in our way” is alarming. But not surprising. People seem shocked that Sirius would betray James in the conversation Harry overhears in Hogsmeade, but no one seems shocked that he would be a criminal in general. Lupin isn’t so surprised, and even after the truth is revealed he has this to say:

“Not if he thought I was the spy, Peter,” said Lupin. “I assume that’s why you didn’t tell me, Sirius?” he said casually over Pettigrew’s head.

“Forgive me, Remus,” said Black.

“Not at all, Padfoot, old friend,” said Lupin, who was now rolling up his sleeves. “And will you, in turn, forgive me for believing you were the spy?”

“Of course,” said Black, and the ghost of a grin flitted across his gaunt face. He, too, began rolling up his sleeves. “Shall we kill him together?”

“Yes, I think so,” said Lupin grimly

[...]

“What was there to be gained by fighting the most evil wizard who has ever existed?” said Black, with a terribly fury in his face.

“Only innocent lives, Peter!”

“You don’t understand!” whined Pettigrew. “He would have killed me, Sirius!”

“THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED!” roared Black. “DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY YOUR FRIENDS, AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!”

Black and Lupin stood shoulder to shoulder, wands raised. “You should have realized,” said Lupin quietly, “if Voldemort didn’t kill you, we would. Good-bye, Peter.

Sirius, who cares so much about innocent lives, moments before said Snape was served right for snooping (a brave card to play for the maker of the map, but never mind that). The way Lupin and Sirius both naturally roll up their sleeves for an execution, Lupin’s exclamation that Peter “should have realized” he would be in mortal danger, speaks volumes. Harry and his friends are already old enough to know better than the three adults.

Moments before, Sirius criticizes Harry for using Expelliarmus on Snape:

“You shouldn’t have done that,” said Black, looking at Harry. “You should have left him to me.”

To do what with? Why would Sirius think Snape needed to be rendered even more helpless than he was? Snape threatened Sirius, but nothing more than that.

With a roar of rage, Black started toward Snape, but Snape pointed his wand straight between Black’s eyes. “Give me a reason,” he whispered. “Give me a reason to do it, and I swear I will.” Black stopped dead. It would have been impossible to say which face showed more hatred.

Who hates who more? From Snape’s perspective, he has plenty of reason already: He has a personal vendetta against Sirius, he is convinced that Sirius is the one who betrayed Lily*, and in his mind, he is protecting Harry from his parents’ fate. He probably would have gotten away with it, legally. And yet he needs even more reason.

*To pre-empt another criticism, Snape did not know Sirius was innocent or about Peter, or he would have warned Dumbledore. Karkaroff explains that the Death Eaters did not all know each other.

Later, when he has Sirius unconscious and helpless, he conjures a stretcher to carry him to the castle and send him back to Azkaban. He and Harry are of the same mind here:

“I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing it because — I don’t reckon my dad would’ve wanted them to become killers — just for you.”

[...]

“He [Peter] can go to Azkaban,” Harry repeated. “If anyone deserves that place, he does. . . .”

Harry’s hatred is understandable and rooted in reality. Snape’s is, too. Both of them are choosing the legal and non-lethal course action.

In the original timeline, Sirius levitates Snape out of the shack:

Harry went right after Black, who was still making Snape drift along ahead of them; he kept bumping his lolling head on the low ceiling. Harry had the impression Black was making no effort to prevent this.

Again, why? Why not just leave him there? Doesn’t he have bigger rats to fry just then? It’s clear who hates who more, or at least who is more willing to act on his hatred.

We know how this all ends. The book ends with Snape looking deranged, vindictive, “quite unbalanced.” But judging by their respective behaviors, Snape was mild. Sirius was the one who took more care to show how much he hates Snape than to keep an eye on Peter.

In GOF, in the cave scene, Sirius mentions Snape again.

“I think they’ve both got a point,” said Sirius, looking thoughtfully at Ron and Hermione. “Ever since I found out Snape was teaching here, I’ve wondered why Dumbledore hired him.

[...]

But as far as I know, Snape was never even accused of being a Death Eater — not that that means much. Plenty of them were never caught. And Snape’s certainly clever and cunning enough to keep himself out of trouble.”

[...]

Sirius stared at the cave wall, then made a grimace of frustration. “There’s still the fact that Dumbledore trusts Snape, and I know Dumbledore trusts where a lot of other people wouldn’t, but I just can’t see him letting Snape teach at Hogwarts if he’d ever worked for Voldemort.”

So by Sirius’s own words, he has been thinking about Snape for months now, wondering why Dumbledore would hire him. But why is this so strange, on its face? Dumbledore needed to fill a vacancy and Snape was a Slytherin who was good at Potions, just like Slughorn, his predecessor (who also knew a thing or two about the Dark Arts). It would seem only natural, and not something that would require much explaining, especially if (to Sirius) Snape never worked for Voldemort. Sirius doesn’t know Snape was hired precisely because he had worked for Voldemort. Sirius’s frustration at the thought that Snape is NOT a DE is, I think, Sirius wishing he could attribute every negative quality to someone he hates (#relatable). He seems to wish Severus was a DE. His internal back-and-forth and his frustration show that he really did drive himself up a wall thinking about Snape all this time, never mind that it’s plain weird that he can list Snape’s friends off the cuff, decades later (but not Lily, oddly enough). I’m about Sirius’s age and I don’t know who my high school nemesis’s friends were.

They meet again:

Snape had not yelled or jumped backward, but the look on his face was one of mingled fury and horror.

“Him!” he snarled, staring at Sirius, whose face showed equal dislike. “What is he doing here?”

Snape is still scared of Sirius. Sirius doesn’t fear Snape and never did, and he has no reason to, and yet he is displaying the same immaturity. Yes, they’re both stuck in the past, but only one of them has a salient reason to worry about the other. Just because you’re paranoid, don’t mean they’re not after you, and Snape, who is about to return to Voldemort, knows this. Why is Sirius not even attempting civility?

Snape is beneath Sirius in every way, not worthy of his regard, not even for the sake of Dumbledore’s mission. The man who said, “If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals” again has a massive Snape-shaped blind spot. In OOTP, Sirius pays for his treatment of his inferiors with his life. We also get further evidence of Sirius’s long-time fixation on Snape and refusal to move on from this:

“I’m bored,” said Sirius. “Wish it was full moon.”

“This’ll liven you up, Padfoot,” said James quietly. “Look who it is. . . .”

Sirius’s head turned. He had become very still, like a dog that has scented a rabbit.

“Excellent,” he said softly. “Snivellus.”

Even I wouldn’t be happy to see Snivellus if I saw him every day at breakfast. I’ve analyzed SWM to death, so I’ll mention only one more line:

How’d the exam go, Snivelly?” said James.

“I was watching him, his nose was touching the parchment,” said Sirius viciously. “There’ll be great grease marks all over it, they won’t be able to read a word.”

Again, doesn’t he have better things to do in the middle of an exam than to watch Snape? Evidently not (#relatable again). James sure seems certain that Sirius would be fascinated.

20 years later:

“I’ve warned you, Snivellus,” said Sirius, his face barely a foot from Snape’s, “I don’t care if Dumbledore thinks you’ve reformed, I know better —”

First, in what context did you have time to warn “Snivellus” already, Sirius? And why do you think you know more than Dumbledore, when you didn’t even know Snape was a DE in the first place? Never mind that this is said in response to Snape criticizing Harry, i.e., it’s completely irrelevant. Sirius has no idea of the Prophecy and that Harry is particularly important, all he knows is that Snape is a spy for the Order. An animosity toward Harry does not have to suggest Snape is not truly reformed.

“Oh, but why don’t you tell him so?” whispered Snape. “Or are you afraid he might not take the advice of a man who has been hiding inside his mother’s house for six months very seriously?”

“Tell me, how is Lucius Malfoy these days? I expect he’s delighted his lapdog’s working at Hogwarts, isn’t he?”

They are both acting like children, but Snape is also letting Sirius know he’s been spotted, in response to a perfectly gratuitous and unsavory insult. Sirius is the first to draw a wand, and again Harry finds himself stepping in to control Sirius, in this way acting exactly how James would not.

Snape checks on Sirius, warns him and does what he can to keep him safe. I somehow doubt that Sirius would have done the same. This is hypothetical, but we have evidence enough that Snape steps up to protect people he despises, his former bullies included. Sirius never shows the slightest inclination to do the same. In fact, he needs to be persuaded by a child not to actively harm others. Harry is able to appeal to his better nature at least some of the time.

I think this goes to the root of Sirius’s hatred: We see how Sirius and James first met, and instantly bonded over their hatred of Slytherin and their disdain for Severus.

In HBP:

“You are determined to hate him [Snape], Harry,” said Lupin with a faint smile. “And I understand; with James as your father, with Sirius as your godfather, you have inherited an old prejudice.”

Now, this is interesting, because Harry has very legitimate reasons to hate Snape and suspect him. Snape has been singling him out for mistreatment since he set foot at the school. Harry is not prejudiced, but Lupin is so certain that James and Sirius were, and that it was a core part of their identity Harry would inherit it from them. The word “prejudice” here, where “baggage” or “enmity” would have done, is telling. My interpretation is that Lupin is referring to Snape’s poverty, as this is the book where we find out Snape is a half-blood from a slum. It certainly was the only thing that would have stood out about Snape as soon as he met the others on the express. It is fair to assume that James and Sirius were not prejudiced against half-bloods, we must give them that, and certainly they were more accepting of werewolves. Perhaps Lupin is referring to Snape’s Slytherin-ness.

The word “determined” here is even more important: Lupin can only be talking about a very young James, and he very well might be commenting on James’s own irrational hatred in the face of evidence to the contrary. For James, I believe (and JKR said as much) he was determined to hate Snape because he wanted Lily; for Sirius, I believe he was determined to hate Snape because he wanted to emulate James in the lack of better role models in his own family. He shows his contrarian nature as soon as he boards the train, and that nature too never leaves him (#relatable, again).

“My whole family have been in Slytherin,” he said.

“Blimey,” said James, “and I thought you seemed all right!” [Why did Sirius seem alright but not Snape?]

Sirius grinned.

“Maybe I’ll break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you’ve got the choice?”

In other words: “Maybe I’ll be unlike my family, but hold on, I need a new identity in that case. What’re you going to be?”

James and Sirius instantly bonded over teasing Snape (and Lily). Over time, there was school and quidditch and girls and their animagus project and full moon adventures, but Sirius only ever seemed interested in going after Snape and in the full moon adventures, and then in serving the Order. And in the end, those memories were all he had left, with James dead and Peter a traitor. As for the friendship with Lupin, it appears that this relationship was already cracked by SWM, possibly as a result of the trick Sirius had pulled (which already shows he didn’t care about Lupin all that much to begin with). He is cavalier about Lupin’s secret then, says he wishes it was the full moon, etc., and when it comes the time to choose the actual Secret Keeper, Sirius trusts Peter more. And so, when James died and the war was won, Sirius lost everything, except his hatred for Snape. He could never let it go because it was all that was left of the identity he had crafted and of the memories of the short good years of his life.

“Yes, but the world isn’t split into good people and Death Eaters.” Another killer line, and another blind spot. Sirius is unable to see the good in someone he dislikes, he relishes in his hatred, in defiance of Dumbledore.

Snape, conversely:

“Don’t be shocked, Severus. How many men and women have you watched die?”

“Lately, only those whom I could not save,” said Snape.

This conversation takes place in March, following Sirius’s death months prior. Snape could be talking about Sirius here, possibly Emmeline Vance. By the time he died, he learned to value all lives. He grew up, if not as much as he should have, and he overcame whatever prejudice he held. The same could not be said for Sirius, though he wasn’t without his virtues. Something to be said there for forming your identity, ultimately, based on love and not on animosity.

[ashesandhackles]

Someone Like A Parent: The Beginning of Bond in POA

I have seen people struggle to understand why Harry sees Sirius as "someone like a parent" in the beginning of GOF and why he reaches out to him about his scar hurting.

There are many, many reasons within the Shrieking Shack chapters of why he attaches himself to Sirius so strongly, to the point he grabs onto his "wasted arm" when Dementors attack in POA climax and think "they weren't going to take him" (brb going to cry about Harry's hunger for father figures)

So let's start with the reason that is easiest to understand:

1. His parents' appointed Sirius as his godfather

Once Sirius' innocence is established, the idea that this man was appointed by Harry's parents is important to Harry. It's a gateway of connection to his dead parents, a longing for whom that permeates the entire 7 books. Harry Potter as a series is largely about Harry coming to terms with his parents' death. Harry even makes this connection - "he had believed he would be living with Sirius from now on...his parents' best friend...It would have been the next best thing to having his own father back."

2. Sirius' dialogue points to message that centers around Harry

...which is not something Harry has ever had before, that the fact he is in danger motivated this skeletal and starved looking man to break out of prison.

"But then I saw Peter in that picture...I realized he was at Hogwarts with Harry...perfectly positioned to act, if one hint reached his ears that the Dark Side was gathering strength again.."

..ready to strike at the moment he could be sure of allies...and to deliver the last Potter to them. if he gave them Harry, who'd dare say he'd betrayed Lord Voldemort? He'd be welcomed back with honors....So you see, I had to do something. I was the only one who knew Peter was still alive.."

The initial fire that sparked the obssession and drive to come out of prison was the desire to protect Harry. Not only does his dialogue send that message, it's in the way he backs down with barely a protest ("You are the one who has the right to decide Harry, but think he did") when Harry asks him to. Given that Peter framed Sirius to endure a hellish prison after putting target on the Potters' back, I would say Sirius is entitled to argue his case and have his say. But he doesn't.

The other way Sirius centers Harry is when Harry attacks him, and while Sirius tries to get him to listen - he stops immediately after Harry mentions that he remembers his mother's murder. He essentially lets Harry decide what to do with him - which is an indication of his immense guilt but it also puts Harry first.

"You've got to listen to me," Black said, and there was a note of urgency in his voice now. "You'll regret it if you don't...You don't understand...."

"I understand a lot better than you think," said Harry, and his voice shook more than ever. "You never heard her, did you? My mum...trying to stop Voldemort killing me...and you did that...you did it...."

Before either of them could say another word, something ginger streaked past Harry; Crookshanks leapt onto Black's chest and settled himself there, right over Black's heart. Black blinked and looked down at the cat.

"Get off," he murmured, trying to push Crookshanks off him.

(.....)

Harry raised the wand. Now was the moment to do it. Now was the moment to avenge his mother and father. He was going to kill Black. He had to kill Black. This was his chance....

The seconds lengthened. And still Harry stood frozen there, wand poised, Black staring up at him, Crookshanks on his chest. Ron's ragged breathing came from near the bed; Hermione was quite silent.

And then came a new sound --

Essentially Sirius hands over the anger in the scene to Harry, until Lupin intervenes.

3. Harry deeply understands what it means to suffer under Dementors

Harry spends the whole book learning how to fight Dementors, and how it makes him relive his parents' murders. He knows, very intensely, what it is like to be near them and to suffer for it. He understands this aspect of Sirius' suffering immediately - and in GOF and OOTP, is shown to have nightmares about Dementors cornering Sirius in shadowy alleyway. He doesn't want that to happen to Sirius again, and tries to protect him.

In fact, his suffering makes Harry emotional as we see when Harry finally believes him - "throat too tight to speak, Harry nodded"

4. Sirius is associated with hope.

The moment he is free, he offers Harry a home, which causes an "explosion" inside Harry's stomach. It's such a radical idea to him that he can finally escape his abusive home, and there is someone who wants to be with him, live with him.

Even when that couldn't happen, Sirius' letter comes bearing a permission slip to Hogsmeade (something that caused Harry much angst earlier in the book) and a new pet for Ron. That is not counting the Firebolt he gifted Harry. With these offerings, he is associated with hope and happiness.

Over the summer, he reminded Harry to call on him if he ever needed him - therefore reiterating the idea that he intends to be there and wants to be in Harry's life.

Therefore, Harry thinking of him as someone "who cares about him, like a parent" and forming that immediate bond isnt a stretch at all

[slytherinsnekxvii]

let's talk about lily evans and the marauders, aka moony, wormtail, padfoot and prongs. given that i didn't use their actual names, i think you can figure out where this is going. it's also long as hell, so. canon vs fanon, marauder edition, except snek is sleep deprived.

now, before we begin, i don't dislike the marauders. or lily, tbh. if I'm being perfectly, genuinely honest, i still go back and forth sometimes but they've been growing on me for a while now. the canon versions, at least. fanon does them real dirty, and that's part of why i'm writing this, because i'm genuinely tired of it. it's an injustice.

you can at least make excuses for james and lily, who were so undeveloped that jkr practically dropped a fill-in-the-blank sheet of character information in our laps, but sirius, remus and peter were around long enough for y'all to get real acquainted with them.

in canon, sirius black is an unhinged mf. genuinely. this isn't to say he's a bad guy, in fact, we see that he's still capable of doing good things, still capable of love, still capable of all the things that prove he's actually not bad at heart, just,,, severely traumatised and very steeped in negativity from his time with the dementors. what i'm saying is that this man is absolutely, no questions asked, no holds barred demented, and how could he not be? the guy sat wrongfully imprisoned in azkaban for twelve years, a good portion of which he spent as a dog in order to protect himself from the dementors. he certainly wasn't completely insane, but you cannot tell me that he was all there. he got out of azkaban fuelled almost solely by the intent to get revenge on pettigrew, tried to commit murder in front of three witnesses who were also children—one of whom was his godson—ate rats and was also malnourished, which i'm certain did not help the situation any. this man is off his goddamn rocker, and you know what? you love to see it. good for him.

oh, but, snek, that's what he's like as an adult. what about when they were at school? before azkaban? my guy, the reaction he has to grimmauld place is not the reaction of someone without trauma. i don't believe that walburga and orion were the type to physically abuse their children, but whatever happened in that house helped to fuck him up enough that he skipped the joke of part of practical joke, and pranked snape by telling him how to meet a werewolf that he knew would be fully transformed and dangerous to humans. more than that, the werewolf was remus, whom he's friends with, and who—best case scenario—would be facing a trial if james hadn't stepped in. you can say that maybe he didn't think about or understand the gravitas of his actions, but at the end of it, that's not how properly sane people react to people they dislike, and that's not how they treat their friends. if anything, it reads like he was in the middle of a breakdown and absolutely losing his shit and he wasn't thinking at all.

my guy went through some serious shit, and was in no way completely mentally stable. we can see pretty clearly that he's got a serious dark side to him that probably would have gone unbridled had he not disagreed with his family, and yet, fanon took one look at him and went, "teehee, uwu bad boi go vroom."

fanon said padfoot is a pretty boy with nice hair who is tastefully traumatised from his horribly abusive household. sirius rides his motorcycle and plays jokes and flirts with anything that moves, but he can do no real wrong and always comes back to his soft, bookish, chocolate-loving boyfriend remus, who will laugh about his lycanthropy and quietly disapprove but secretly laugh at his friends' antics while hiding his smile in his cardigan.

respectfully, what in the absolute fuck.

i'd put that meme in here if i could, the one that's like, "well done, you've broken _______ down to its bare essentials," but no. i can't bc it doesn't even apply. this isn't a meme, it's theseus' fucking ship.

fanon broke it down, and replaced the pieces one by one until we got to this point, where we need to sit down and ask ourselves, "is this even the same character?"

the answer is no, by the way. it isn't. when people talk about woobifying characters—you know, taking away every flaw they have, romanticising everything they do and making them only capable of doing good, wonderful, lovely things?—this is what we mean.

and it'd be one thing if it was just the one character, but, no. fanon went all in and made them all squeaky clean and boring, especially peter, who draws the shortest of the straws.

remus got fucked, too. not just because fanon insists on sticking him into a relationship with sirius. which, we'll tackle wolfstar in a bit, but that's not even the worst of it. here, we have yet another example of blatant, rampant woobifying. again, is he a bad person? no. we know he's a good guy, we know he's generally kind and well-mannered, we know that he wants to fo the right thing but hey, fun fact. did you know that you can be nice and a coward? did you know that you can be benevolent and good and kindly and have the greatest of intentions and still be shady as fuck? no? ask dumbledore. the man played people like chess pieces when he needed to, and he was a twinkly grandpa. these are things that can coexist.

teenage remus is a coward who, understandably, does not stand up to his friends, likely for fear of being ostracised, and doesn't uphold his prefect duties as he should and takes part in their bullying of snape as a result. he lets them romp with him in werewolf form while they are in their animagus forms and then, he lets them continue to do so even after they have multiple close calls, which, again, had anything happened, would have resulted in a trial in the best case scenario.

grownup remus is still a coward, he tells no one that sirius can move about the school in his animagus form despite wholeheartedly believing that he's a mass murderer, he tries to run out on his wife and unborn kid. he isn't deliberately making attempts to harm anyone, but he's content to sit back and let things happen to him and around him so he doesn't rock the boat, although he is capable of action, which we see when he is more than willing to help sirius merk pettigrew in the shack. he can be careless, he runs out to the shack knowing he hasn't taken his wolfsbane and ends up transforming in front of the students he, as a teacher, is meant to be protecting. of course, this doesn't negate his good qualities, it just bears repeating that his flaws do exist, and they're pretty serious.

fanon moony is always pleasant and kind and soft-spoken and bookish, and he always has to have his chocolate. he knows when to tell off his friends, and he'll do it, even if he's secretly amused by everything they do and laughs about it with his best friend, lily evans, who coincidentally spends all her time with them so he and sirius can go on double dates with james and lily and no one has to remember peter exists.

why. theseus' ship 2.0. does the actual character still exist or is this something entirely different thing bearing the same name?

as for peter, who needs peter pettigrew, the actual, legitimate, fourth marauder when you have lily evans? canon pettigrew is opportunistic as fuck. he's latching himself to the biggest bad on the block and he's going all in. for teenage peter, that was james and sirius, and for adult peter, that's voldemort. canon peter is good enough at transfiguration to master the animagus transformation, just like his friends, and he's good enough at potions to brew the potion that gives voldemort a body. and honestly, you can't say he wasn't brave. he could've run off somewhere and died, or changed his identity or something after he faked his death and framed sirius, but, no. he goes and resurrects voldemort. that's fucked up, yeah, but it happened and honestly, i respect that it. he stuck to his guns.

fanon wormtail is lucky if he exists beyond being a spineless sycophant for james and sirius, or an evil conniving little rat who's looking to toss his entire friend group to the wolves at eleven.

of course, this isn't meant to negate his bad qualities, he still murdered people and framed sirius and sold out the potters to die, but his good characteristics do exist, and james, sirius and remus genuinely were his friends.

and now, we get to lily and james.

we have hardly any information on either of them. they're a pair of cardboard cutouts that we can paint and stick flyers to and colour outside the lines however we want. we can do whatever the fuck, as long lily is brave and smart and somewhat kind and james is brave and willing to die for his family. we were essentially handed a pair of ocs.

and yet.

what little bits of canon we have are thrown out of the window regardless.

james is privileged and rich, and he throws hexes for fun. he's willing to hex lily when she disagrees with him, and then, he goes behind her back to continue hexing snape after she believes that he's stopped doing so. and that's all we know about him until he dies for his family at twenty-one years old. once again, say it with me: this does not negate his good qualities. he definitely had them, he took sirius in when sirius ran away from home, he became an animagus to keep remus company as a wolf, and he saved snape in the shack, thereby saving remus and sirius by extension. him having flaws does not make him a bad person.

fanon prongs is a feminist. he fights for equal rights for women everywhere, and he constantly treats his girlfriend, lily, like an absolute queen. he's the hottest boy in school and everyone claps when he walks through the halls. mcgonagall and dumbledore are always patting him on the back and making jokes with him. he has a built-in dark detector that helps him sense when someone is a evil and needs to he punished.

give me a break. the dude's cool and all, but was the gary stu treatment necessary?

...oh, he needed to match fanon lily? right, right.

canon lily is a contradiction unto herself. she's supposedly a great friend, but since we see her at a point where they were already drifting apart, we see her putting little effort into keeping their friendship afloat. she victim blames based on rumours, she doesn't seem to care over much about what snape has to say about the people who have been tormenting him since day one. and she's justified, of course, she doesn't have to stick around. canon lily is a bit of hypocrite, she says that snape calls everyone of her birth mudblood, but then that begs the question why she still hangs around with him if that's the case. he calls her mudblood, she retaliates by calling him snivellus, and finishes up with a dig about his underwear, which, sure, it's kicking a man with a rusty spoon and pouring salt in the wound, but she's, again, justified. i get where she was coming from. and then, of course, she dies for her kid after marrying the guy who relentlessly bullied her quote-unquote best friend for their entire school careers. but, like i said, canon lily is, in many ways, a contradiction.

lily is basically a plot device. she pushes everyone's narrative but her own, and does little else.

of course, this trend would continue in fanon. fanon lily exists to be the perfect girl who gets really angry over the slightest injustice, and of course, she gets to be one half of one of the oldest enemies-to-lovers "it was just sexual tension" cliche pairings in the book. she's just,,, a mary sue. in so many fics, so many headcanons, she's just pettigrew's stand-in, a girl to form a gang with marlene, mary and dorcas—who happen to be more undeveloped ocs who also get the woobify mary sue treatment—to parallel the marauders. there is nothing compelling about her character when she's presented as a saint, and even less when she's supposedly the other moral compass for the marauders that doesn't actually work because she thinks that james is cute.

and this brings me to the next topic. jily. what, why, how. this was supposed to be a healthy, happy relationship that would have lasted in the long run? absolutely not. even for its time, i can't say that i see it lasting.

first of all, jkr presents james' crush on lily as just that: a crush. a mildly obsessive one, but a crush nonetheless, which she tries to liken to the pulling of pigtails. and then, we see that james' way of getting her to go out with him consists of blackmail, and when that doesn't work, he resorts to threatening her. this could have been set aside if he had actually, genuinely changed when they started spending more time together, but as we're told by sirius and remus, he didn't. he just got better at hiding what he was up to. and it has to be that he hid it, because if she knew, this further damages the character that she's set up to have and paints her out to be either unable to stand up to him or an enabler.

regardless, they get married. and while i have trouble believing that it was out of genuine love, there are scenarios that could make some semblance of sense. it's wartime, after all, and maybe lily is worried about her stability in the wizarding world, so why not marry into an established family whose son is already showing interest? or perhaps, she falls into the trap of every bad boy cliche ever, and she thinks to herself, well, i got him to be better then, maybe i can get him to do even better in the future. or maybe, she doesn't get into a relationship with him immediately and sees him on and off, until eventually, she accidentally gets pregnant and they scramble to have a shotgun wedding so as not to leave lily alone at nineteen with a baby. or maybe they marry each other because they're there and sure, neither of then is ready and they don't know what love even is but what else is there to do when there's a dark lord about? anyways, the point is, they get married.

and then what? if we count pottermore into canon, he goes on to further damage her relationship with petunia and vernon, to the point where she ends up crying. if we don't, she fades into the background enough that nobody has anything to say about her. she's harry's mum, she's james' wife, lily potter, she was kind and smart and brave and that's it. her agency is gone, anything else we have of her personality is gone.

jily just,,, wasn't built to last. and, yeah, this,,, this is a hill i'll die on.

same with wolfstar, honestly. there are so many reasons why it wouldn't work, but fanon has made it so fucking prevalent that it's literally everywhere no matter where you look.

first of all, i've said it before and i'll say it again. sirius is more likely to get with james that he is to ever end up in a relationship with remus. their chemistry is just,,, underdeveloped. net zero for a relationship.

secondly, sirius instigated the werewolf prank, and lupin would have paid the price for it. this could have been overlooked, but he doesn't seem the slightest bit guilty about any of it when it's brought up in poa. he could have been responsible for lupin losing the security of his place at hogwarts in the best case scenario, and in the worst case, his life. and he seems to look forward to full moons, even though they clearly aren't pleasant for remus, which,,, yeah, you're going to have fun, but like, maybe be concerned about the fact that your friend undergoes excruciating pain and it isn't a pleasant time for him? read the room, my g.

thirdly, they don't trust each other as much as fanon seems to think they do. they were both willing to believe each other the traitor before ever suspecting pettigrew. sirius thought remus gave away the potters, hell, he thought remus was a spy for voldemort, and remus was convinced that sirius was a mass murderer. neither of them needed to be convinced.

fourthly, maybe i'm reading too much into it, but like. sirius had money. remus had no money, since, yk, he was a werewolf and struggling for cash and still, sirius,,, did not leave him any money. i feel like if you had money to spare, you would give to your friend who is literally poor. but, again, maybe i'm reading too much into it and this isn't as valid a point as i think it is.

and ehh, the fifth reason is that it's,,, actually very much not the representation for the ltgbt community that fanon says it is but y'all aren't ready for that conversation.

anyways, just,,, even when you set the couple shit aside, the power dynamics between everyone here is fucked. like, james and sirius are clearly at the top of food chain calling the shots and egging each other on. then there's lily, who isn't even a marauder, but is always ever-so-slightly above remus but still not on their level, because, well. neither of them actually listen to her. remus is the novelty friend, the friend who's,,, alright, i guess, but you keep them around specifically because they're funny or they can dance or they have something that you can either show off to other people or keep as your little inside joke, your little secret, yk? and peter is just sort of there. like, yeah, he can do what we can but does that make him as good as we are? no. does he have a funny little something about him that we can exploit? nah. therefore he sits at the bottom. and like, yeah, james and sirius are on the same level, but james is yanking sirius' chain, not the other way around. anyways, like i said. power dynamic's fucked and it bothers me that we were given all of this, and fanon decided to take it all and throw it away so they could give us flamboyant!badboi!sirius black x softboi!motherhen!remus lupin going on double dates with feminist!trustfundbaby!james potter and saint!lily evans while ignoring peter pettiwho?

theseus' fucking ship, indeed.

anyways, this needed to be said. it might not make as much sense as i want it to, considering it's 4:12 in the morning as i'm posting this, after taking a break from writing to do some research and coming across way too much content about fanon marauders, but it's here and it still makes enough sense that you can read it and understand what i mean. and like, at the end of the day, you can go ahead and headcanon whatever you please, you can write fic and make art and do whatever you like, just,,, remember that they're exactly that. headcanons. stop presenting fanon as canon. please. i'm literally begging. we actually have evidence against it. just,,, acknowledge that they're headcanons and stop putting them forward as though they're able to fit into canon. please.

[sorenphelps]

This question is very interesting, and I can see many have shared their thoughts before me, in a probably more coherent way, but I still feel like adding my two cents to this discussion, because I think all of them can be good problem solvers, it just depends on how you define problem solving.

Long post, beware!

Sirius is very good at solving puzzles and approaches the problems by analyzing them, his best solutions come when he identifies the root cause of an issue. He is also very confident in his own abilities and he proceeds further by formulating another plan if his previous option failed. He can get frustrated and does have a temper, but most of the time he showcasts great level of strategic thinking. His brain is wired to solve problems by default, and he is able to focus on the „big picture” and keep in mind multiple variables and adapt his actions accordingly. I think it is best represented by his attempts at murdering Peter in PoA (see: he needs to be unnoticed → he waits for the Tower and the Castle to be presumably empty; the portraits won’t let him in → he stabs it (he gets frustrated and goes for violence), then gets the passwords; Peter fakes his death yet again→he adjusts his plan and gets him anyways by accepting some risks that he tried to avoid before).

James on the other hand is not that concerned about the „big picture” in my opinion, he faces a problem, he comes up with a solution right away. His way of solving a problem is actively doing something (e.g. going after Snape to save his ass, becoming an animagus to help Remus, „adopting” Sirius when he runs away), and he is smart enough to come up with new ways to solve a problem and not just stick with the „standard” ones.

Remus is the complete opposite, he is not confident in his own abilities to solve problems, so he usually stays passive in the process. He either pretends that the problem doesn’t exist or just learns to live with it being unsolved. Remus’ problem solving is very theoretical, he is smart, he can definitely figure out what might be the best solution, but he rarely acts on them. When he does, it’s a „standard”, already proven solution. I think he is so focused on solving his One Problem (fitting in society as a werewolf with a general lack of confidence), that he just cannot really prioritize solving any other problem. But I will give him that he's quite good at solving his One Problem (on the short term anyways).

Peter is a combination of all 3 of his friends in regards to problem solving. He is absolutely capable of strategic thinking and considering multiple variables (see: his frame job of Sirius), but he proceeds to solve a problem if it is directly related to him (similar to Remus). While he tends to rely more on his already proven methods (e.g. faking his death, „befriending” the strongest, spying), he can quickly adapt his approach. I think he is actually the best among the four of them at reading people (see: how he tried to convince the Trio of helping him in the Shack, how good Ron was to him as a pet as his master, how smart Hermione is and how James would spare him to Harry – highlighting exactly what his audience might be the proudest/most insecure about).

Additionally, I think their animal forms also support this quite well: Dogs were domesticated because they were smart, adaptable and good at solving various problems humans faced (e.g. herding, guarding, hunting, searching). A stag approaches the problem as it emerges: he senses the danger, he either runs (which is an absolutely reasonable solution for a prey animal) or fights. They face their enemies right away, head first, tackling them with their antlers. Wolves are pack animals. The not dominant members of the pack mostly only need to focus on following the lead and „rules” of the leaders. (I know Remus technically is not a wolf, but his patronus is, so the comparison still works.) Rats are very intelligent with A++ survival skills.

TLDR; the correct answer to this poll is ANYONE, BUT Remus.🤷🏻‍♀️

[padfootastic]

Sirius claims that he overheard other Azkaban inmates speaking of Peter, so the other Death Eaters blamed him for Voldemort’s fall, and that’s why Sirius and Remus believed Peter stayed a rat for so many years, he was afraid of free Death Eaters harming him but Peter also said he knew Sirius would escape somehow, so it’s really up to the reader to decide who to believe on this; maybe it was both.

Also, James might’ve been up in the afterlife encouraging Sirius and Remus to kill Peter since Peter got Lily killed, framed James’s Sirius for James’s murder like Sirius was ever capable of thinking of harming James, and led to Harry living with the Dursleys. James and Lily were getting ready to square up in the afterlife only to get monumentally disappointed that Peter wasn’t going to die yet.

see, i’m combining these because both of them have a james in the afterlife scene, even if they’re on two different ends of the spectrum and i just wanna say i love both possibilities.

no. 1, of course, i love because it’s protective james + someone getting mad on sirius’ behalf. also there’s an element of subversion where the morally black & white guy is advocating for murder and that appeals to me. quite a bit. it’s also a bit funny if u imagine harry saying ‘dad wouldn’t want this’ while james is screaming ‘NO NO NO! I DO WANT THIS DAMMIT’ in the afterlife as he looks on at this train wreck. also, lily & james have been preparing all year to welcome peter when he gets there bc they were so sure that it’d happen. sirius literally escaped azkaban and this would at least be one part of his plan, right? so they come up with all sorts of creative ideas, rope in others for the execution, and sit their asses down in anticipation. finally, d-day is here, they’re so eager they can’t think straight and bam! murder-blocked by their own son. betrayal.

no. 2 is funny from a mom friend!james perspective. sure, deep down, he wants revenge for himself and his family. he hates that peter’s actions had dire consequences for sirius and harry but at the same time, what harry said. he doesn’t want his friends to become murderers. not fully bc of moral/ethical reasons (i think james can accept the darker side of his friends if required) but bc of the logistical issues of it. his priority rn is harry’s well being & sirius’ innocence being proven (and i guess remus getting a better life but meh. see if i care). neither of those will be accomplished by peter being murdered. in fact, it will be actively detrimental to the latter.

he’s also probably stressed as fuck due to the utter chaos that’s being spread. there’s limbs being broken, shouting & shrieking everywhere, secrets are exposed mercilessly & sirius still hasn’t explained a single thing. harry is looking at his godfather with mistrust and rage and it was never, ever supposed to be that way. on top of all this, severus fkn snape has to make an appearance bc when has he ever been able to resist sticking his leg into others business? it’s too much, too fast, and none of it seems like it’ll end well and it’s giving him a stress ulcer up there in the afterlife where he’s supposed to be chilling & not feeling any humane emotions. but oh well. when has james potter ever listened to stuff like that? so yeah. i can see him fully panicking as well.

[moonlightdancer26]

heyy! I just wanted to ask u this what would have happened during the prank if James was the werewolf instead of lupin? and even if severus somehow went to the shreaking shack and got attacked by james, do u think that james will be self ashamed of this fact? or will he continue bullying snape? as a person who likes both james and snape i kinda want them to be friends. and i also hate sirius mor than james tbh...

Hi!

Aight, let’s get to work:

Hm, I don’t really know. I know for a fact that Sirius wouldn’t have told Snape shit if it was James in the Shack instead of Remus. So, let’s say Snape was somehow led to the Shrieking Shack and it has something to do with the Marauders (otherwise it isn’t James’s fault).

Do I think James would be ashamed of himself? Yes, I do.

I think one of the main reasons why James didn’t really have a problem with the Shrieking Shack fiasco in canon is because he wasn’t in Remus’s place, or at least Sirius’s. If James were to be in Remus’s place, he would’ve known what it would be like to be that close to murdering an innocent student and becoming what you most feared—a monster. James is not murderous in canon, unlike Sirius. James is more of the sadistic type.

I believe James is one of those people who think death is crossing the line, anything else—be it torture, rape, abuse, etc etc—is fine, because “they didn’t die so what’s the big deal?” And it’s also why he saved Snape (and went on to torture him in SWM), he despised Snape but he wouldn’t go as far as to murder him.

But would James continue bullying Snape? That, I do not know. If you’ve been through my blog for a while, you’d know that I… don’t exactly have the best feelings about James. I don’t think James and Snape will ever be friends in canon, whether or not James apologises or regrets what he did. Severus’s trauma does not suddenly disappear. Perhaps it would be nice for an AU. I actually really like the idea of that (which is another reason as to why I ship Jeverus), it would require James to grow and become a better person and I love that for him!

I understand how you feel; liking both James and Snape and wanting them to be friends; that’s how I feel about Severus and Remus. XD

and i also hate sirius mor than james tbh...

I don’t blame you! I like Sirius a lot more than James—I’m an ex Sirius stan—because Sirius makes up for how despicable he is by being a complex, enjoyable, dark character but James is barely there in the story so the same cannot be said for him. I was actually thinking of making a post about which of them’s worse.

Who did more bad things between the two? If we’re judging on bad things alone, then yeah, Sirius is definitely worse. But, Sirius has his excuses, he was abused by his family, lost the love of his life his best friend, was framed by his supposed friend, and trapped in Azkaban—an evil prison surrounded by soul-sucking creatures—for over a decade. James was loved by his parents, never had to deal with the loss of a loved one (at least from what we hear in canon), and lived a happy (but short) life.

I also think it’s unfair to compare the two, for the reasons I stated above and because Sirius lived up to 36 while James died at 21. It’s the same with comparing Snape and James, it’s unfair to the former.

As I’ve said above, if we’re judging them on who did more bad things then yes Sirius is worse. But, Sirius lived longer and we got to see more of his… non-terrible qualities. He looked out for Harry, he went to the Ministry for Harry (it was reckless as hell but still), he even ate rats just to keep in contact with Harry, and he broke out of Azkaban partly because of Harry. He did do good things for the wrong reasons and his bad deeds overshadow his good, but he still does have some slightly redeeming moments.

James does seem more mature than Sirius in their teenage years. We see him doing a lot of things because of Sirius’s influence. James only attacked Severus because Sirius was bored, James stopped playing with the snitch only when Sirius told him to. Hell, it even says this in the text:

“If it bothers you,” he said, stuffing the Snitch back in his pocket. Harry had the distinct impression that Sirius was the only one for whom James would have stopped showing off.

This suggests that James might’ve turned out differently without Sirius’s influence.

Despite liking Sirius far more than James, I agree that Sirius is a lot more irritating. I definitely understand why you hate Sirius more than James.

I hope you liked my answer! Have a great day!

[scvrllet]

General Harry Potter Headcanons Because Why Not

CONTAINS: Mentions of death/murder, small implications of abuse, and that's about it I'm sure. These are also general headcanons and are not reader inserts

AUTHORS NOTE: All headcanons are my own personal ones except for those marked with (*) which are popular one's I've read online. Enjoy! [HP MASTERLIST]

Newt Scamander, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Luna Lovegood, Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy are on the aspec spectrum because I am asexual and said so. (Extras; Luna is grey-ace while Hermione and Draco are demi)

Regulus flinches when someone raises their hand quickly and gets scared when someone that he is close to goes silent (whether it be after an argument or for no reasons). He tries to hide it but they can usually see right through his act. They all know Walburga did a number on him no matter how much she may have favored him over Sirius

Speaking of Walburga, the reason she hates Sirius so much is that she sees a lot of herself in him. She didn’t want to get married to Orion, she had her own lover who was a Halfblood or Muggleborn but Orion found out and, wanting to keep the bloodline pure, proposed to her knowing she would be shunned if she denied. She became much more cold and strict once they got married, much to Orion's pleasure. When Sirius was later born and she saw so much of her younger self in him, her love for him quickly turned to envy. On the night Sirius ran away, Walburga kept her composure until night fell and she cried. Cried because he was able to do what she wasn't able to, cried because he was hopefully happier, and cried because she had officially lost her first child. She avoids his burnt off portrait on the family tree for this reason

Harry and Cho often found each other in the library late at night when both couldn't sleep. Harry would be sat at a table far away trying to do homework in attempt to distract himself and Cho would be reading a book. One night, Cho came up to his table with two cups of tea and took the seat across from him. Harry didn't say anything but she caught his small smile. They made it a routine every night for whoever gets to their table last has to bring tea and biscuits (and without getting caught by anyone). They would be exhausted when morning Quidditch practice came but it never stopped their late night meet ups in the library. When she started dating Cedric however, those late nights in the library together stopped. Harry would only go to the library when he struggled to sleep from the nightmares and such but there was no longer a cup of tea and bag of biscuits for him and when Cedric died, he hesitated before getting out of bed and heading down the tower. When he arrived to their spot in the library and saw a familiar figure sitting in the seat that has been vacant for so long, he felt his heart ache. Setting down two cups of tea, a bag of biscuits, and a book he knew she loved to read when she needed comfort, he didn't know how to react when she stood up and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly as she cried. Taken aback by the sudden action, it took him a moment before wrapping his arms around her and letting her cry until she no longer could

In the afterlife, the first person Sirius saw was Regulus. He offered nothing but his extended hand and after a short moment of eying the boy Sirius once called brother, he grabbed it and pulled him to his chest in a hug. That was the first time Sirius had ever seen his brother cry

Killing Marlene was what got Peter his dark mark* and every time he finds himself missing his friends, he'll look at his forearm and remind himself that he has no right to. And every time the dark mark is cast in the sky or used to call upon Voldemort, he hears Marlene scream

Draco was chased by the peacocks outside Malfoy Manor at least once. If you saw my post about this last year (this one), I still fully believe that this has had to happen before

Regulus was an animagus. His form took the form of a cat, more well known as Crookshanks*

Remus was actually good friends with Regulus during their Hogwarts years. They wouldn't say much, but it was enough to put Regulus at ease knowing that his brother was doing well*

Speaking of the Black Brothers, a pile of unopened letters sealed with the Black family crest sat in a drawer of Sirius' desk before he was arrested. Sirius never got the chance to read the letters signed "Your brother, R.A.B"

On James and Lily's wedding day, the two spent the entire morning before together, much to Lily's mothers dismay who believed it was 'bad luck to see the bride before the wedding'. The young couple brushed it off, not quite believing in those "silly beliefs" but perhaps she was right all along.

After graduating Hogwarts, Harry went to his parents vault and Gringotts and found several items left behind but what caught his eye was a photo, hidden in plain sight. It was in a small frame and the photo itself was of a women with red hair, green eyes and a kind smile sitting beside a man who had messy black locks and brown eyes. The women had her head resting on the mans shoulder, smiling as she looked at the child in his arms. Enchanted to move, Harry watched as the man made the child give the women a kiss. Harry didn't realize he was crying until a tear fell onto the photo and he quickly went to wipe it away, scared he would ruin the photo

During his years at Hogwarts, after he ran away more specifically, Sirius got many tattoos. Each and everyone had a special meaning to them that all his friends knew but no one could quite understand the significance of the tattoo on his upper forearm that was just a single raven bird. Back at 12 Grimmauld Place, Regulus smiled at the ravens perched outside his window. They were always his favourite bird

And that’s all for now! :))

[casquecest]

I read through some of your replies, @theprettieststarfr, and you're arguing you don't feel there's enough text to show why Peter would change sides, would betray his friends, in the first place, but it is spelt out quite clearly in PoA during the confrontation in the Shrieking Shack, backed by SWM, and it's as others have said: Peter, simply put, is a desperate coward who would do anything to save his own skin, and it's clearly shown in SWM that he delights in being on the more powerful side. SWM also shows that the dynamics between MWPP are not ones of four equal sides.

Evidence of his cowardice is seen time and again in the text. In some instances, it's subtle, such as Peter using things like 'the Dark Lord' and 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named' rather than 'Voldemort', as Sirius and Lupin do, but in others, such as when Sirius clearly and concisely lays out in PoA that Peter would not do anything without seeing a clear benefit for himself, that Peter would always lurk behind those more powerful than he, that Peter would not make any move with without assurance of protection from 'the biggest bully on the playground,' is more overt. Even Voldemort recognises in GoF that Peter's not sought him out out of any sort of loyalty or belief in the cause, but out of fear for what Sirius and Lupin would do to him. This is a character who does not believe in owning up to his actions, and would rather murder a 17/8-year-old boy outright, would rather blow up an entire street that saw twelve people killed and frame another friend who would have died for him, and would rather be complicit in the murder of a 15-month-old (who was his supposed friend's son) than take any sort of stand that might see harm come to him.

In SWM, once James draws Sirius's attention toward Snape and they start to go after them, Peter is looking between the three of them with 'avid anticipation'; he gets to his feet, 'watching hungrily' as James and Sirius advance on the fallen Snape, 'edging around Lupin to get a clearer view'; he 'sniggered shrilly' when Sirius insulted Snape. While he's laughing along and delighting in James and Sirius's bullshit, he's actually no more a part of the James'n'Sirius Show than any of the other nameless, faceless students watching. He enjoys the benefit of being associated with James'n'Sirius, 'the height of cool,' 'the best at whatever they did,' but make no mistake that the dynamics were James'n'Sirius and then the other two: Harry sees evidence of this in the picture on Sirius's bedroom wall (though he also admits inwardly he might be seeing that in the photo because he knew that's how it had been). Even years after they've left school, McGonagall and Flitwick still see it as James'n'Sirius ('ringleaders of their little gang', 'you would have thought them brothers! Inseparable!') with a hanger-on with regards to Peter.

The tragedy is that both James and Sirius are trusting Peter to be as principled as they are with regards to the war. They are both very much of the 'death before dishonour' sort, but Peter isn't like that. He has never been like that, and James and Sirius miss it because they are both young, naive, and blind enough to think the people on their side think just as they do, that they're brave in just the same way James and Sirius are. The tragedy is that Peter could have taken inspiration from them and tried to be and do better, but he just didn't. He had every chance, but it's just not in his character to be that bold.

Look, I don't think that Peter maliciously set out to betray his friends in the beginning when he first started spying, but I also don't think that Peter gave a damn as to the fallout so long as he was safe. He's selfish and scared and unprincipled, and selfish and scared and unprincipled people do things that wreak havoc on others with negligible (if any) concern. That's his character.

Somewhere, maybe in an another universe, Peter Pettigrew became a spy and a betrayer, but for the other side. Gained the trust of Voldemort and others, because be honest, what can he even do? How can he even try betray them? He's just small and scared, like a mouse. So he was almost like Snape, minus being a git to the Order.

Because, fight me on this, but Peter would never, EVER betray his friends. Never in his life. Marauders were all equal in each other's eyes. He would have rather died, than betrayed James, the one, who saw potential in him first. The one, who always stayed with him through the years, and Lily, who always made sure he was alright. Never would have framed Sirius, because despite having arguments, Sirius always was so very protective over him, almost like two brothers. Never would have left Remus alone like that, because he spent so much time with him together when Sirius and James went for Quidditch or just other jock things.

Rowling did Peter so dirty. He was brilliant. And he would never betray his friends' side.

[spookys-diary]

Some of my hp unpopular opinions:

- this one isnt really unpopular (or I hope its not) but remus lupin gets the short end of the stick Constantly (specifically in his relation to harry but also just in general considering hes a werewolf and all). Like imagine teaching the kid of your dead best friend and 1. he doesnt even recognize you (although harry is stupid so...) and 2. even after he figures out that you knew his dad he doesnt even try to have a close relationship with you like he did with sirius. I get that he was harrys teacher and its a little weird to suddenly have a close relationship with him but also hes one of the only last living people who was friends with your dad and he isnt an insane fugitive. Like it sometimes feels like the only reason harry isnt as close with remus is because he isnt harrys god father like... c'mon.

- percy weasley isnt that bad of a person. like yes hes a dick and shouldnt have been on the side of the ministry but also his family constantly bullied him, not just fred and george but everyone in that family was mean to him and disrespected his work, something that he was insanely passionate about. and its shown that he holds a lot of value and pride in the ministry this shouldnt really have been as big of a surprise to the family, and everyone is susceptible to propaganda especially when they put so much value in the ministry.

- the books were written somewhat badly. like theyre great and i love them but i feel like jkr ruined a lot of things that could have been really cool. also the overuse of adverbs. like i understand using adverbs to a point and i dont agree with some people saying that you shouldnt use adverbs at all but when its after every single line of dialogue it gets too much after a while. also the plot conveniences! the most famous example probably being the time turner where they just use it and it never comes up again, but i also feel like there is a lot of things that could have been used less like polyjuice potion. in the second book polyjuice potion was like super hard to make and in the restricted books section and then they go on to use it so many other times. i guess they do have a whole potions master in the order so it would make sense that they have a store of it but it just feels like a copout most of the time.

- i dont think sirius should get so much hate for acting impulsively in the books. my man was locked up for twelve years, and not in any normal prison, no, in one where the guards literally suck away all your happiness, after he got framed for ratting out his best friend to voldemort, getting them killed, by one of his other best friends. and then when he finally got out he had to go on the run fully knowing that the murderer of his best friend is still on the loose, and starving because he was on the run. and then when he finally had a place to go after all of that it was the home of his family who abused him! and on top of that snape is constantly making fun of him for being stuck inside and not being able to do anything. and then he heard that his best friends son is in danger and cant help himself from going to save him. and somehow people hate sirius for being impulsive. (also the people who defend snape and attack sirius by saying he only sees harry as his father need to shut up because like what do you think snape does..? im not saying either of those things are right just get a different thing to hate him for. also this isnt @ people who criticize that with both parties just the people who think snape can do no wrong and then hate on other characters for doing the same things snape does)

- i dont think in the first book when dumbledore gave the win to gryffindor instead of slytherin was all that terrible. although definitely shouldnt have made it seem like the slytherins had won and then rip that away from them but the points he gave them were completely justified like its not everyday that you defeat the most powerful wizard in the world when you are 11 (even if he was less than a ghost). plus everyone knew that something happened they just didnt know what so its not like it was all that random for the other students either. was it still unfair to the slytherins? yes. was it as bad as people make it out to be? i dont think so (but i do understand if you disagree)

- (again probably not all that unpopular but) there was a serious lack of good slytherins. i think the best we got was regulus and even then he still became a death eater (largely because he was forced into it and then once he realized that the death eaters were horrible he sabotaged voldemort and sacrificed himself to protect his house elf and the wizarding world at large) + we didnt even meet him and only know about him through letters or something (cant remember exactly how we learned about him). you also have slughorn but he "collected" people which is very weird and he only cared about his students when he thought they would become powerful and help him in some way. then theres draco who barley if at all got a redemption arc, and again became a death eater (although again largely by force). then some people try to claim snape but hes just not. anyway being ambitious and cunning are not bad things and doesnt mean you are selfish or only care about stuff when it personally benefits you.

- idc why everyone is so against cho chang. like oh no shes crying after her boyfriend got murdered by a fascist *shocked face* like i agree that harry and cho should not have even tried dating after that but its clear that they both liked each other before and i feel like cho wanted to relate to harry with the murder (which is probably not the best way to deal with that but therapy in the wizarding world seems to be severely lacking)

- i like kreacher way more than dobby. kreachers vibes are just more immaculate. also is it bad if i say dobby kinda annoys me.