#anti james crest

[romanceclub-confessionss]

Confession:

"Usually I understand why people want a side character as an LI/fling, but seeing ppl thirst over James from 7B makes me feel like I’m taking crazy pills?? Enemies to lovers is appealing when one of them doesnt look and have the reproductive tendencies of a rat, like I want better for y’all omg! 😭"

[hyunjins-orange-slice-too]

Regally Smitten

chapter 2: the secret

chapter word count: ~5.2k

synopsis: A future king and his servant are bound by their forbidden love. With the odds stacked against them, and a jealous brother out for blood, will their love prevail? Or will history repeat itself?

warnings: homophobia (specifically religious homophobia, this is a period piece so these beliefs are a reflection of the time period being portrayed, and the characters themselves, and do not reflect my personal beliefs. please read with caution and remember to take care of yourself. ily.) descriptions of violence, main character injury (no main character death), foul language, suggestive themes, brief mentions of anxiety, depression, and panic attacks. one mention of suicidal thoughts (but no action)

disclaimer: this is a work of fiction and in no way represents any member of stray kids in reality. this is a fanfiction and should be treated as such. this is not me “shipping” them, these are simply characters based on real life people. i don’t need the minsung antis coming for me.

authors note: i definitely cried multiple times while writing this chapter.

series masterlist • main masterlist

The road to Westwood was a long one. About a weeks trip to be exact. They had rode all day long in the sweltering heat, along a dirt path with little tree cover. Well, Han did. The two princes and the king and queen rode in a gold trimmed carriage. Two members of the royal guard rode in front, their black stallions draped in the colors of the kingdom, their long manes braided with flowers. The guardsmen carried swords and tall poles that flew the flag with the crest of the Lee Dynasty.

Han rode on a much less impressive horse, behind the carriage. As did two other squires, one for prince Rian and one for the king and queen. The carriage kicked up dust from its wheels. It stuck to Han’s sweaty skin and left him feeling gritty and dirty. This was his first time as squire, his first time traveling this far away from the castle, his first time being on the back of a horse for this long. His legs and back were absolutely killing him. And to add to it, the other squires would not shut up. They had all been at their post for years. Whereas, this was Han’s second day.

"How you holding up over there, newbie?" called James, the squire assigned to the king and queen. He had been their squire since heinrich first took the throne almost ten years ago, and he was a royal pain in the ass.

"I’m fine. Just a little sore is all." Han told him. The other squires laughed.

"This is only day one. We’ve still got six days worth of riding before we make it to the Westwood gates. You better get used to it."

Han nodded. Unable to focus on their conversation anymore. He was more focused on not falling off his horse.

And just when he thought he could ride no longer, he could see a small village in the distance. As they approached, they started to see more people. Little stone houses, and small fields of crops. A waist high stone wall surrounded the little town. The entrance was guarded by two men, their armor dented and worn. The carriage stopped. The royal guard didnt have to say anything, before the two small guards stepped aside and let their party through the gates. Both guards bowed as the carriage passed. Everyone in the town stopped what they were doing and gathered around the town center, where the carriage stopped. The small door swung open and minho was the first one to step out. He looked just as he did when they had left the castle that morning. He showed no signs of having been riding all day. Han was sure the same could not be said for him.

Minho was dressed in his royal garb, his white undershirt covered by his lilac velvet vest, and tucked into his black trousers. He approached the town leader as the rest of the royal family exited the carriage. Prince Rian was next, followed by Queen Charlotte and lastly, King Heinrich. Everyone in the town center knelt to one knee, bowing their heads.

"Your Grace," said the town leader. "Welcome to Nalefell. It is an honor to have you."

"Thank you, my lord." Minho told the man. "You all may stand." Minho said louder, so everyone could hear him. "Thank you for your warm welcome."

Though no one stood. Rian gave a snobby chuckle. "You’re not king yet, brother." he whispered into Minho’s ear.

"Thank you, people of Nalefell. We wish to seek shelter for the night on our way to Westwood." the king announced.

"Yes, your grace." the town leader said. "Clarice is the head of our inn. She will get your rooms together right away."

A woman to Han's right stood up, he assumed this woman was Clarice. She bowed and said a quiet 'your grace' before turning on her heel and heading into a large building behind her.

Minho, Rian, and the king and queen followed. Leaving the royal guard and the squires to attend to the horses and the carriage.

Once the carriage was parked, their horses tied and fed, Han and the rest of the squires headed to find their respective royal family member.

Han was so incredibly tired, it took everything in him to drag his feet through Minho’s door. The prince was sitting on the edge of the bed, untying his boots. "I am starving." he announced without looking up.

"Of course Your Grace." Han said, his voice worn with exhaustion. “Let me fetch your dinner." He turned to leave, to head to the small pub across the square from the inn where he was sure he could find something to satisfy the king.

"Hold on." the prince stopped him. Han turned back around, facing Minho, waiting for instruction. "Are you alright?" the prince asked.

"Yes, Your Grace. Just a little tired from the days journey." Han explained. "Though I’m sure you are even more tired than I am. Please allow me to get your dinner."

"Han, you look awful." Minho said.

The look on Han’s face made Minho backtrack a little. "I mean no disrespect." the prince said. "You just look like you need to rest." Minho put his boots back on and stood. "Here. Please lie down." Minho motioned to the bed.

Han froze. "Your Grace.. you are too kind. I could not lie in your bed." Han shook his head. "I will get your dinner and then I will find my own bed if you have no need for me after that."

Minho wanted to tell his squire that he will always have need for him. He needs him in more ways than anyone will ever know. He felt so bad. Han was filthy, covered in dirt and sweat. He looked like he was about to pass out on the spot.

"As prince, im ordering you." Minho said, his voice gentle and not at all sounding authoritative. "Wash up while I go across the way and get us some food. It will give me a chance to talk to some townspeople anyway." Minho crossed the room to where Han stood in the doorway.

"Oh and by the way, my bed is your bed tonight. They only had three rooms. One for my parents and their squire, one for Rian and his squire, and one for me and you."

Han's cheeks pinked at the thought of sharing a bed with minho. Surely the other squires weren’t sleeping in bed with the royals. There’s no way that the king and queen are sleeping in the same bed as James. No, Han would sleep on the floor, as he was sure thats what the other squires would do as well.

Minho smiled, pleased with the blush that covered Han’s weary face. He patted the squire on the top of his head and gently moved passed him, in search of some food.

----

The dinner that Minho had found, filled Han’s tummy and made him very happy. They ate in silence together, both unsure of what to say to the other. The only break in the silence was when Minho had quietly said, "You’re cute with your cheeks filled with food like that. Like a little chipmunk." and Han was so stunned, he could not reply. He just bowed his head slightly to the royal. Minho also didnt add anything after that, having accomplished his mission of flustering his squire once more. He had decided he would do so any chance he could, as he never tired of seeing Han blushing and speechless.

Plates empty and left on the table, the prince climbed into bed. Han grabbed a spare pillow from the corner and took his place on the uneven floorboards at the foot of the bed.

"What’re you doing?" Minho asked.

"We should get some sleep, Your Grace. We ride again at first light."

"I know that." Minho said, shortly. "I meant, what are you doing on the floor? There is plenty of room and I promise I dont bite." Well, not unless Han wanted him to.

"It would be inappropriate, Your Grace. I am comfortable on the floor." Han curled up on his side, unable to see the prince any longer. Even thought the floor was dirty and hard as a rock, it was nice to finally rest his body by lying down. The bed squeaked, and Minho’s head popped up over the footboard. He looked down at Han, curled up in a small ball on the floor, and took a moment to admire him. His eyes were closed, his hair tickling his forehead, his full lips in a small pout. Han opened his eyes. "Your Grace?"

"You’re going to make me sleep up here all by myself? While you’re miserable on the hard floor?" Minho raised one eyebrow at his squire.

"Your Grace," Han began.

"Call me Minho." the prince interrupted. "You were practically limping earlier. There’s no way you will be able to do another full days ride after sleeping down there."

"Your Grace, I am flattered at your concern for me. But I must sleep on the floor. I promise I am okay." Han’s stomach was in knots, the prince's face so close to his.

The prince rolled his eyes. "I’m not taking no for an answer. I’m your future king. Get up here." Minho said, before crawling back to the top of the bed and climbing under the covers.

Han took a moment to take a deep breath before he stood. He awkwardly stood at the end of the bed, wringing his pillow in his hands. Minho lifted the cover next to him and patted the mattress. "I promise to keep my hands to myself." he teased.

Han nodded before gently laying on the bed, as close to the edge as he could get, facing away from the prince. The mattress sank under him and conformed to his body. He had to admit, it was extremely comfortable. He felt sleep coming for him quickly. Minho let out a small chuckle and smiled to himself. "Goodnight, Han." he said, quietly.

"Goodnight Your Grace."

----

The rest of the trip to Westwood was much of the same. Long grueling hours on the back of a horse, behind a carriage thats kicking up dust. The only reprieve being the rest when night fell in a small inn somewhere in the countryside. Though every night that followed had not been like the first night. Each inn they stayed at had a room specifically for the squires to share. Han sometimes let his mind wander back to that first night. Why had the prince insisted on sharing a bed? And why did he seem so.. flirtatious? Surely Han must be mistaken. No, he was delusional. That’s what it was. He would write to Hyunjin and have his best friend set him straight. Though, does he risk writing that down and sending it with a messenger? Han’s newfound feelings for the prince could cause him to loose his job should the word get out. And not only that, it could ruin the prince's reputation. Same sex relationships were defintely looked down upon in this kindgom. Han wondered if maybe it went even further than that. Han had always kept his feelings to himself. Only Hyunjin knows which way Han leans. Who Han fancies. And Han had never heard of anyone else in the kingdom being like himself. Only the gods know what would come about if this information got out. And selfishly, he didnt want to loose his place at the prince's side. No, he would admire him in secret and make sure to keep his distance from now on. Though the prince made it hard sometimes.

On the last day of their trip, the last night in an inn before they made it to Westwood, Han had been asleep on the floor, James had stolen the only bed in their room all for himself, when he was awoken. Someone was shaking him awake.

"Han." shake shake. "Han, wake up." shake.

Han slowly opened his eyes and he was met with.. chocolate. Han jumped back, scooted as far away as he could until he hit the wall.

"Shhh. Don’t wake them." The prince pressed a ringed pointer finger to his lips, telling Han to shush. He motioned with his hand for Han to follow him. Han clutched his boots in his hand and tiptoed out of the room.

"Your Grace." Han whispered. "Is something wrong?"

Minho shook his head and began walking to the entrance of the inn, Han trailing behind him, trying to put on his boots and walk at the same time. They snuck outside, the town quiet, the horses softly munching on their hay. Han finally caught up with Minho, who walked casually behind the inn.

"Your Grace." Han said, quietly. "Might i ask what's going on?"

"I couldn’t sleep." the prince answered. "I thought some fresh air would do me good. And the stars look so nice."

At the edge of the little village, a small river bubbled along, Minho standing on its banks, head tilted toward the sky.

"I agree a night walk is rather lovely.." Han said, still unsure why the prince woke him up for this. Han tipped a small rock over with the toe of his boot, the silence between the two men growing.

"You’re wondering why I woke you up." the prince stated.

Han looked over at Minho, the moonlight making his sharp features even sharper, his nose prominent. Though Han wished he could see that small freckle he knew was there. No, the darkness still hid that from him. "You dont need to explain, Your Grace."

The prince took a step closer to Han. Close enough to poke him in his side. Han jerked away, out of ticklishness, and unsure how to handle this playful nature. "It’s Minho." he said. "I wish you would call me Minho."

Han just nodded, taking a step back, looking at the dirt and trying to gather his thoughts.

"Can i ask you a question, Han?"

"Of course, Your Grace." Minho rolled his eyes. He would get Han to drop the formalities one day.

"You don’t have to answer if you so wish." he said. Han nodded, intrigued with what the prince could possibly have to ask him. "Do you think I will make a good king? Or do you think Rian is better for the job?"

Han took a moment to process the question. He needed to tread carefully. He didn’t want to say the wrong thing. "I think you would make a fantastic king."

"I’ve been raised my whole life to be king one day." Minho said, taking a seat on the soft grass next to the running water. He gestured for Han to sit next to him. Carefully, Han sat cross legged, the soft grass slightly damp with the morning dew. Han noticed the sun would be up soon. "I’m only going to be king because I was born first. If Rian had been born first, he would be the heir, not me."

"If i may speak freely, Your Grace." Han said, pulling up little blades of grass and rolling them together in his fingers. Minho nodded, gesturing for Han to continue. "I think your brother can be a little.. crass at times." Minho chuckled at that. Han continued. "I mean no disrespect toward Prince Rian, but he can be a little harsh. But you, Your Grace.. you are kind. You are what the people need." Minho looked over at Han, who was focused on the grass in his fingers. "You are kind, and fair, and enjoy talking with the people, hearing their stories and where they come from. Sometimes I feel like your brother is just interested in the notoriety." Han looked up and met Minho’s gaze. The prince was staring at him, hard. "But- but I’m sure im mistaken. prince Rian is lovely."

"Do’nt lie to me, Han." Minho said.

"Never, Your Grace." Minho looked as if he was searching for something in Han’s features. Any trace of dishonesty. Not about Rian. No, Minho knew his brother was an ass. But did Han really believe everything he had said about Minho being kind? Should Minho be harsher? More like his brother? Is that what it takes to be king? Minho wasn’t sure.

Han turned his gaze to the water, dipping his fingertips into its cold depths, unable to look into Minho’s eyes any longer.

"What if I just left?" the prince said.

Han's head snapped up, shocked. "What do you mean, left?"

Minho shrugged. "I don’t know. It’s just something I’ve thought about." He studied Han’s face. The way his blinks were slow, processing the words and formulating an appropriate response. He was so cute. Minho felt the need to protect him at all costs. Nothing bad could happen to Han. Minho didn’t think he could live if it did. "I’ve been thinking about it a lot more, recently." He continued.

"Is that something you want?" Han asked.

"I don’t know. Maybe." Minho ran his hands through his hair before reclining back on his hands. "I don’t want to run from my responsibilities, but at the same time, I’m not sure if being king is what I want. But I may not have that choice."

Han nodded, listening. "Could I say something rather selfish, Your Grace?" Minho looked over at Han, the dim light casting shadows across his face. "I think you would make a wonderful king. The best king this realm has had in a very long time. But I would not be mad if you decided you wanted to run from it. I can not imagine the amount of stress and pressure that must be on your shoulders." your incredibly broad, muscled, perfect shoulders. "but if you were not king, or if you left while still a prince, then I would no longer be your squire. And that would make me sad, I think."

"So come with me." Minho said, quickly. He sounded so sure of himself. Like he had thought this out already and had the plan in place. "..if i decide to go." he added. Han was stunned, his mouth hanging open, dumbfounded. And somehow Minho thought it made him even more adorable. The prince slowly inched his hand across the grass until his fingertips brushed Han’s. He ran his index finger down the length of Han’s thumb before Han pulled away. His stomach was in knots, he felt he may throw up his mutton he had for dinner.

"The sun will be up soon, Your Grace." Han said quietly. "We should go back to the inn."

And all Minho could do was admire the flush on Han’s cheeks. He wanted so badly to tell him that he has made up his mind. That they should leave, start a life together somewhere else. Somewhere where kings and queens didn’t rule, somewhere where Minho could kiss Han. Where he could openly kiss him and hold his hand and tell him just how happy he makes him. But Minho knew it was a fantasy, knew that it could never be. Minho had duties, a whole kingdom of people depending on him. He could not just run and leave them to suffer the nightmare that would surely be the rein of his brother. No, Minho must stick it out. He knew he needed to be king. But it was fun to entertain the thought of happiness, sometimes.

And with the sun peeking over the hilltop, Minho also rose, and led the way back to the inn.

----

Han had decided Westwood was a beautiful city. It was slightly smaller than the capital city where their castle was, but it was twice as beautiful. The city was covered in flowers. As far as the eye could see, flowers. Fields of lilacs and peonies, tulips and roses. Bright green vines crawled up all of the stone walls. The shops that lined the square were selling bouquets and don’t get Han stated on the smell.

"First time in Westwood?" James asked, seeing the awe on Han's face. Han nodded in response, unable to take his eyes off of the beautiful colors, but being careful to keep his horse in line. "Westwood is the main flower supplier for all of the realm." James said. "Anytime there’s a wedding, or a coronation, or birthday feast, the flowers come from here." James scrunched up his nose. "I think it reeks."

Han turned his head toward his fellow squire. "What? You hate it? How? It's so beautiful."

James rolled his eyes. "You're kind of a priss, aren't you?"

Han turned away, decided not to even respond to that comment.

If the town was beautiful, and the square was beautiful, it paled in comparison to the house they approached now. The single story stone house was sprawling. Covered in vines and flowers just like the rest of the town, but the house was very open and airy. There were so many windows with no glass, just large holes decorated with gossamer curtains that blew in the rose scented breeze. They were greeted by Lord Alexander and Lady Ere, and a young lady who Han did not know of her name but assumed her to be their daughter. Based on the way she was dressed, and the way she curtsied when the king approached, Han knew she was no servant. She had been raised well.

"Welcome, my lord, to Westwood." Alexander said, bowing, and then spreading his arms wide. The king laughed a laugh that Han didnt think him capable of. One that actually sounded.. happy. One that sounded like it originated deep in his belly.

"Alex! So good to see you, old friend." The king embraced the Lord before turning his attention to Lady Ere. He kissed her hand gently.

"I trust your trip was comfortable?" Lady Ere asked.

The queen answered her. "Oh very much so. But we are glad to have finally arrived. A week is a very long time to travel."

"Of course, of course." Alex said. "Please, do come inside out of the heat. We have dinner prepared."

And with that, the king and queen and both princes followed them inside the beautiful flower covered home. And Han rode away to feed and water his horse.

--

The servants at the Westwood home, showed the squires to their guest rooms. Unlike the inns they stayed at along the way, this house was large enough for everyone, all the members of the royal family and their squires, to have their own individual rooms. The room Han was placed in was small, but that was okay with him. He had a bed all to himself for the first time in a week. He wasn’t about to complain. He relaxed onto the soft cushion mattress and before he knew it, sleep overtook him. He only awoke to the sound of a soft knocking at his door. Bleary, his eyes cracked open. The once bright room was now overtaken with darkness. He squinted, trying to get his eyes to adjust. The soft knocking happened again. Han begrudgingly hauled himself off of the bed and cracked the door open.

The prince immediately felt better after seeing Han’s face. He could tell his squire had been sleeping, his eyes barely open, his face puffy. It instantly made his heart feel lighter. It’s just what he needed. "I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you." Minho said.

Han stepped aside and allowed the prince to enter. "No, that’s okay, Your Grace. I was just getting up." Minho knew that was a lie, but he appreciated the way Han worried about his feelings. "Did you need something from me?" Han asked.

Minho paused for a moment, thinking. "No." he said. "No, not really. Just.." he paused again, turning to face Han, who was closing the door behind them. "Some company?" Minho finished his thought.

Han looked surprised. Minho noticed that Han often looked surprised. Like he felt that the prince would never want to voluntarily spend time with his squire. But that was not the case at all. Minho wanted to spend every single minute with Han. But it wasn’t appropriate to tell him that. Especially after the news he had just been given at dinner. Minho sat on the edge of Han’s bed, and looked up at the sleepy man. Han took a seat next to the prince, the small bed dipping under their weight causing their bodies to slide closer together. Their knees touching.

"I was thinking again about our conversation from this morning. About leaving and starting somewhere else." Minho said. Han nodded, but was unsure of what to say, so the prince continued. "It’s a wonderful fantasy. Don’t you think?"

Han did think that it would be nice to run away with Minho. To spend a life with Minho. But Han was sure that the future he was imaging was far different than the one the prince was picturing. "It does sound nice, Your Grace."

Minho sighed, he turned his head toward Han, who was looking down at his hands. "Will you ever listen to me when I say, please call me Minho?"

Han looked up and met Minho’s gaze. His eyes were intense. That was the only way that Han could describe it. They were so filled with emotion. More than one emotion for sure, but Han couldn’t place what they were. Sadness? Fear? Love?

"It would not be appropriate for me to call you anything other than your grace.. Your Grace." Han said quietly, feeling small under Minho’s stare. He couldnt tear his eyes away from the princes, though. He was captivated, enthralled. In this moment, nothing else existed for him. And Minho felt the same way. When he looked into Han’s eyes, he could see the future he so longed for. Deep in his brown iris, was a whole life that Minho could see. A whole world away from all of this princely bullshit. A simple life, with the man he loved.

The prince was leaning closer, trying to chase that life he could see. Han was busy trying to memorize all the lines of his prince's face. They had never been this close, their breath mingling together. That freckle that Han loved so much was only a few inches from his own nose. And what would he do if those noses touched? What would Han do if the prince's pouty lips met his own? Han didnt know.

Minho placed one hand on Han’s knee, the contact sending shivers through Han’s body. As the prince drew ever closer, Han knew this was a bad idea. He knew they should stop. But he couldn’t bring himself to pull away. He didnt want to. Minho brought his other hand up and brushed some hair away from Han’s eyes, before sliding that hand to cradle Han’s head. Han was having trouble breathing now, his breaths coming in short ragged pants, his heart rate spiking.

Minho loved it when Han let out that little gasp, loved it when his cheeks turned a soft pink. But he thinks he loves it the most when he finally gets close enough.. after these long, longing days, he finally gets close enough..

Han closed his eyes, his fists clenched in his lap, as the prince finally was close enough, that their lips touched.

And it was everything Han had dreamed of. The prince's lips were soft, and warm as they moved against his own, the pressure feather light. Minho used his hold on the back of Han’s head to pull him closer, deepening the kiss. Han felt his whole body relax as the prince's tongue ran along his bottom lip, the pince's hand rubbing soft circles on Han’s leg. Han thought this must be what heaven felt like. This is what the devoutly faithful meant when they said that heaven is beautiful. And Han thought he may take them up on their talk of gods if it meant he could stay in this heaven forever. In Minho’s arms for the rest of eternity.

Minho gently pushed Han, until his back hit the mattress. The prince broke the kiss, but only to move his lips to Han’s neck. he placed gentle kisses there. Minho was used to being a prince, used to having people worship him and faun over him. But in this moment, and in all future moments, all he wanted to do was worship Han. Wanted to give him everything he could ever want and more. And when the prince bit down softly on the flesh of Han’s neck, that’s when he heard it.

Han let out a soft gasp. "M-Minho.." he breathed out.

And then it clicked. Hearing his squire finally say the one thing he had been begging for this whole time, it finally brought the prince back to his senses. They can’t be doing this. This is dangerous. Minho threw himself off of the bed and across the room. His back against the cold hard stone of the wall, as Han lay on his back, flushed and panting, embarrassed.

"I- I’m sorry.." Han said quietly.

Minho's heart broke. What had he done? There was no going back from here. He promised not to make the same mistake as he did before, and now look at him.

Han sat up, his head in his hands. "I’m so sorry. I- I shouldn’t have.." Han couldn’t find the words. Minho had done this. His heart felt like a lead weight in his chest. He had made Han feel this way. Had made Han feel like he had done something wrong. Had practically begged for him to drop the honorifics and call him by his name and when he finally did.. it was so beautiful. But then Minho freaked out and now he fears he will never hear it again. And if that’s the case, then it’s what he deserves.

"They want me to marry her." Minho said bluntly. Han looked up, his eyes brimming with tears. Minho had to look away. He would not cry in front of Han. "The daughter here, Astrid. They want me to marry her. That’s what the dinner was about. What this whole trip has been about.”

Han's heart shattered some more. "oh-- oh." he stuttered. "I th-think you and the lady would make a fine match." Han said, though his voice shook.

"I told you never to lie to me, Han." Minho said quietly. He approached the squire. He knelt down on the floor in front of him. Looked up at him and used his thumbs to wipe his tears. "I don’t want to marry her." He whispered. Han sniffled. "I don’t want to, but I fear I may have no choice."

Han remained silent, holding back his tears. "I’m sorry, Han. I shouldn’t have put you through this.” He searched Han’s face, searched his eyes, no longer seeing their future there. "I’m sorry. I had a moment of weakness..” Han nodded, silent tears falling down his cheeks.

"But this has to remain a secret." Minho whispered. He leaned in and kissed Han on the cheek softly. “This has to remain a secret, and it can’t happen again.”

And with that, the prince stood and left the room, the door softly shutting behind him and Han’s heart was in pieces, littering the floor.

♡ pls reblog if you liked it! it truly helps a lot and makes me smile :) ♡

©hyunjins-orange-slice-too i do not give permission for this work or any of my work to be translated, copied, or reposted.

[renfieldrenrat]

Intro Post 🎱💫

Welcome to my personal blog! ᯓ★

Name: Renfield (prefer this name over everything else)

Gender: Male (FTM) 🏳️‍⚧️

Pronouns: He/They

Sexuality: Uranic, Ace

Languages: English/Deutsch

Identities:

Corekin:

Renfield (Dracula 1931, Renfield 2023)

Theriotypes:

Californian Valley Coyote, Black Wolf (Gray Wolf), Red Fox

Kintypes:

Vampire (Vampyre), Timelord

Fictionkin:

Doctor Who (every regeneration), Renfield, Clint Barton, Mobius, Edward Munson, Eric (AQPDO), Stede Bonnet (OFMD), Jack Russel (Werewolf by Night)

Musickin:

Djo: Twenty Twenty & DECIDE/D-SIDE Album 🎱

Songtypes:

Steam Powered Giraffe: Honeybee, Wired Wrong, Fire Fire

Synpath:

Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler), Josh Levison (Being Human), Brigitte Fitzgerald (Ginger Snaps), Doctor Strange, Marc Spector, Rocket (Gotg)

Kiths:

Corvids, Seagulls, Blue Footed Booby, Wolves

Fact C-link:

Joseph Quinn (To cope with dysphoria)

(Anti Factkins & Factives DNI)

Any kind of hate isn't welcome here, think before you comment :]

Music:

Djo 🎱, Lapfox 💉, Steam Powered Giraffe ⚙️, The Correspondents, Cosmo Sheldrake, Radio Head, Shayfer James, The Family Crest, Alex G, The Neighbourhood, Sewerslvt, Machine Girl, Flyleaf, Rammstein.

Interests/Hobbies:

Dracula, Doctor Who, Marvel, Hamilton, Dr. Re-Animator, Stranger Things, Resident Evil, OSU, OFMD, Good Omens, Dirk Gentley, Jekyll & Hyde, Splatoon, drawing, writing, reading.

Thanks for reading!

[grimwalker-grimoire]

System Member Blogs

Moving this from our pinned so that our pinned is a little shorter, and we have more room to actually update this!

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@archiealterhuman -- Archie

Zonic [STH] fictive

Shadow [STH] fictionkin

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Hank Anderson [D:BH] fictionkin

Peridot [SU] fictionkin

James [PKMN] fictionkin

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Hunter [TOH] fictionkin

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo therian

Maned Wolf hearted

Scourge [STH] linker

Post Topics: Alterhuman.

@killingthrilling -- Fleety

Fleetway!Super Sonic [STH] fictive

Post Topics: Alterhuman, misc.

@ohmyxeros -- Xeros

Sonic.EXE [STH] fictive

GLaDOS [Portal] fictionkin

Reaper Leviathan [Subnautica] fictionkin

Belos [TOH] fictionkin

Deerhearted

Post Topics: Sciencecore, villaincore, misc.

@royalscourge -- Royal

Scourge [STH] fictive

Dialga [PKMN] fictive

Bluestar [WC] fictionkin

Eda Clawthorne [TOH] fictionkin

Dragonkin)

Post Topics: Alterhuman, aesthetics (gemstones, castles).

@dime-time -- Dime

Sonic.EXE [STH] fictive

Bill Cipher [GF] fictionkin

Alastor [HH] fictionkin

Cecil Palmer [WTNV] fictionkin

Noncanon Sonic character hearted

Post Topics: Alterhuman, misc.

@glowyliquid -- Hazard

Scourge [STH] fictive

Queen [DR] fictionkin

Post Topics: Sciencecore, villaincore, neon aesthetic.

@periperil -- Peri

Peridot [SU] fictive

Post Topics: Alterhuman.

@spectrum-scourge -- Rave

Scourge [STH] fictive

Raine Whispers [TOH] fictionkin

Post Topics: LGBT+, neurodivergent, alterhuman, music, misc.

@sarksdimension -- Sark

Sark [Sonic.EXE NB] fictive

Longtail [WC] fictionkin

King [TOH] fictionkin

Post Topics: Alterhuman.

@spamtonbytes -- Byte

Sonic.EXE [STH] fictive

Metal Sonic [STH] fictive

Spamton [DR] fictionkin

Cabinet Man [Lemon Demon] songkin

AI-hearted

Post Topics: Alterhuman, fandom (Deltarune), memes.

@collector-chaos -- The Collector [TOH] fictives

Various fictives and alterhuman identities.

Post Topics: Alterhuman, fandom (The Owl House), memes.

@abadbutsadcollective -- Hunter [TOH] fictives

Various fictives and alterhuman identities.

Post Topics: Alterhuman, fandom (The Owl House), birds, queer.

@possessed-pack -- Possessed!Hunter [TOH] fictives

Various fictives and alterhuman identities.

Post Topics: Alterhuman, fandom (The Owl House), aesthetics (monsters, darkness, nature), disability.

@corvus-ad-astra -- Alpha Centauri Subsystem

Crowley [GO] fictives

Bearded Vulture therian

Post Topics: Alterhuman, fandom (Good Omens), aesthetics (space, religious), misc.

@mystery-aberration -- Mystery

The Distortion [TMA] fictive

Hisuian Zoroark [PKMN] fictionkin

Macaw therian

Post Topics: Alterhuman, fandom (The Magnus Archives), various art and memes, aesthetics (weirdcore, liminal spaces, unreality, glitches, snow and cold).

@leviafin -- Fin

Noncanon Vast/Hunt Avatar [TMA]

Sebastian Solace [RBLX: Pressure] Fictive

Shadow the Hedgehog [STH] hearted

Post topics: Various art, memes, alterhumanity, aesthetics (water, ocean).

@mercury-lattice -- Cinnabar

Noncanon Desolation/Web Avatar [TMA] fictive

Post topics: Alterhumanity, plurality, aesthetics (fire, nature, spiders), memes.

@kaboom--bitch -- Shrapnel

Bakugo [MHA] fictive

Sylvesqual [RBLX: COS] hearted

Dragonkin

Post topics: Alterhumanity, anti-psych, disability, advocacy, terrorpunk.

@deltoradecay -- Dagger of Decay Subsystem

Dain [DQ] fictive

Tomura Shigaraki [MHA] fictive

Post topics: Alterhumanity, disability, whatever else.

@funeral--pyre -- Onslaught

Dabi [MHA] fictive

Reshiram [PKMN] othervague

Post topics: alterhumanity, aesthetics (fire), pokemon.

Source Key:

COS - Creatures of Sonaria

D:BH - Detroit: Become Human

DR - Deltarune

DQ - Deltora Quest

HH - Hazbin Hotel

PKMN - Pokemon

RBLX - Roblox

STH - Sonic the Hedgehog

SU - Steven Universe

TMA - The Magnus Archives

TOH - The Owl House

WC - Warriors/Warriorcats

WTNV - Welcome to Night Vale

[obsessioncollector]

Do you happen to have any book reccomendations for books with an unreliable narrator and some kind of (sort of) anti-hero? I’ve been curious, but almost all recs are for mystery, murder mystery, or just outright following the direct villain types and I’m considering looking for ones that just look at the ethics of the main character in a limited perspective.

Hi!! Here are some books that come to mind, not sure if they're exactly what you're looking for but worth checking out :) Some of these are probably obvious suggestions but I'm mentioning them just in case. Also anyone reading this, feel free to add on, I'm sure there are many I forgot!

Lolita and Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis

The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie by Ágota Kristóf (I think this one was originally three short novels but in English publication they combined it into one volume)

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg

Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner

The Iliac Crest by Cristina Rivera Garza

A few other books that I wouldn't straightforwardly categorize the way you described but might still be of interest (all of them are really excellent imo):

A Personal Matter by Kenzaburō Ōe: Including this one because you mentioned ethics and the narrator is quite pathetic and repulsive, but in a way that's often encouraged (or at least not discouraged) by the society around him.

History of Violence by Édouard Louis: The narrator himself isn't particularly unreliable, but the story’s told through an interesting framing device—he’s listening to his sister recount an attack he survived and mentally noting when he disagrees with how she describes it or characterizes him, so it plays with narrative.

A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov: Classic multiple narrator/book within a book situation

The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead: The narrator isn't knowingly withholding information from the reader, but there are a bunch of twists and turns that keep you guessing (you discover them as she does.)

[dearfriendsinhigherplaces]

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆ 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙤 ⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚖𝚎 ‧₊˚ ⋅* ‧

•i’m alexis

•i’m 21 years old

•i use she/her and they/them as my pronouns, you don’t need to use them interchangeably in the same sentence, just use whatever honestly gender is hard

•i’m bisexual and i’m demigender (i just call myself queer mostly)

•my shifting journey started in 2021

•i had my first shift in october 2023 (minishift)

•i want shifting friends

•send me asks i love them

•the main theme in most of my drs is friendship and found family

•i’m a subliminal creator and i’ve been listening to subliminals for over 7 years

•i sketch portraits (traditionally and digitally), sew, do tarot, play the ukulele and the guitar, and play video games

•i’m a northwestern wolf and crested honey buzzard therian, and im otherhearted with barn owls

•i’m in the mythical and nonhuman community

•i’m in an endogenic system and i have 3 headmates

•i have dyslexia

•i’m learning danish, jeg snakker og forstår lidt dansk men meget dårligt. and i’m also learning spanish

•i’m a very nervous person

•infp

•vampire lover

•my proudest accomplishment in life was beating the game getting over it with bennett foddy

•was there for unus annus

˚ · .

𝚖𝚢 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚜 ‧₊˚ ⋅* ‧

•music: the beatles, will wood, idk how but they found me, the smiths, james and the shame, the mountain goats, bo burnham, tim minchin, chappell roan, mother mother, the crane wives, aeseaes

•movies: crimson peak, another round, a ghost story, nope, httyd, thor ragnarok, into/across the spiderverse, titanic

•tv shows: hannibal, barry, bbc’s ghosts, supernatural, good omens, ofmd, bridgerton, the great, all of us are dead, atla, hazbin hotel, love death and robots, the end of the fucking world, sex education, breaking bad, rita, the handmaid’s tale

•video games: bg3, rdr and rdr2, detroit become human, shelter 2, the sims 3 and 4, animal crossing, stardew valley, the isle, resident evil 7 and 8, minecraft

•books: the little prince, the handmaid’s tale, war of the worlds, high-rise, wings of fire, warrior cats, anything edgar allan poe

˚ · .

𝚖𝚢 𝚖𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚍𝚛𝚜 ‧₊˚ ⋅* ‧

•bg3 (my main MAIN dr)

•bg3 isekai

•wizarding world

•dhampir (iwtv vibes)

•beatles

•hawthorne (ahs dr, but without the horror part)

•camp half-blood

•bbc’s ghosts

•marvel

•wings of fire

•supernatural

•detroit become human

•beastars

•waiting room

𝚖𝚢 𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛/𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚒𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚍𝚛𝚜 ‧₊˚ ⋅* ‧

•botw

•lore olympus

•bridgerton

•rdr2

•adventure time

•steven universe

•the boys (gen v)

•H2O

•the isle

•mha

•sky: children of the light

•heal inner child

i’ve got some other random/smaller/one-off drs that i won’t include in the list. i’ve also got an entire made up realm that i’ve been making and doing world building for for years that i’m shifting to, it’s called Aurora.

˚ · .

𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚖𝚢 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚐 ‧₊˚ ⋅* ‧

•i mainly post about reality shifting, but i also post about therianthropy and subliminals from time to time

•i post about my bg3 dr A LOT as it is my main one

•the drs that i’m most connected to and have been trying to shift to the longest are bg3, hogwarts, and my beatles dr

•my hogwarts dr is a university, but i’ll always just refer to it as my hogwarts dr

•i deal with intrusive and obsessive thoughts (i have ocd tendencies but i’ve never gotten a diagnosis for ocd so i’m not sure if i have it), so if i make a post talking about those I’ll put a trigger warning

•i have undiagnosed social anxiety

•i swear, but i’m not going to put trigger warnings for swearing

•i’ll never talk about anything explicitly sexual on here

•dni: if you are an anti shifter, transphobic, homophobic, biphobic, arophobic, acephobic, terf, transmed, racist, just a bigot in general, anti-Palestine, anti-Ukraine, against therians/otherkins, sysmed, anti endo

•while i don’t talk about being in an endogenic system (much), my account is still very pro endo. i’ve been in an endo system (more specifically a tulpa system) for over 5 years. i do not have DID and i would never claim to. my system was formed completely by choice and without trauma. endo neutrals can interact

˚ · .

feel free to ask me any questions about my drs/about my interests, i’m happy to share. you can ask about literally anything in this introduction, doesn’t have to be about shifting. happy shifting :-)

profile picrew by makowka.

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

[berezina]

But Charlestown's most characteristic pastime had long been the reckless sport of 'looping'. The young 'looper' played by a rigid set of rules. First, he stole a car in downtown Boston. Then he roared into Charlestown, accelerating as he reached City Square, where the District 15 police station stood in a welter of bars, nightclubs, and pool halls. Often he had to take a turn around the square before the first policeman dashed for his patrol car or motorcycle. Then the chase was on: down Chelsea Street to Hayes Square, up the long slope of Bunker Hill Street to St. Francis de Sales' Church at the crest, then down again, picking up speed, often to 70 or 80 miles per hour, until a screeching left into Sullivan Square took him onto Main Street, where, dodging the stanchions of the El, he roared into City Square again, completing the 'loop'. All that remained was to ditch the car before the police caught up.

Looping was an initiation rite, proof that a Townie had come of age. But it was something else as well: a challenge flung at authority, a middle finger raised to the powers that be. Before long, looping became a kind of civic spectacle, pitting the Town's young heroes against the forces of law and order. Plans for a loop circulated well in advance. At the appointed hour, hundreds of men, women, and children gathered along Bunker Hill Street, awaiting the gladiators. When the stolen car came in sight, racing up the long hill, a cheer would rise from the spectators, followed by jeers for the pursuing policemen.

The first recorded 'loop' was performed in 1925 by a sixteen-year-old daredevil named Jimmy 'Speed King' Murphy, but most renowned of all was 'Shiner' Sheehan, the teenage son of a federal alcohol agent, whose exploits so electrified the Town that he drew round him a group of young acolytes. Membership in their 'Speeders Club' was limited to those who could produce newspaper clippings showing they had bested the police.

For some the sport proved fatal. In November 1932, two eighteen-year-olds were killed when their car, careering down Bunker Hill Street, smashed in a steel stanchion. Innocent bystanders also suffered. A twenty-two-year-old woman was killed when a car hit her as she waited for a trolley. A young attorney died while trying to cross the street.

By the early thirties, Boston's press began taunting the police for failure to capture the 'young hoodlums'. Stung, the police devised new 'anti-looping' measures. Motorcycle cops were instructed to conceal themselves by St. Francis de Sales' Church and cut the loopers off as they crested the hill. But the drivers quickly caught on, heaving bricks or firing pistols at the cops. Then plainsclothesmen were ordered to mingle with the crowds, sidle to the curb, and 'shoot to kill' as the loopers passed; undeceived by the policemen's disguises, the crowds proved so hostile that this plan too had to be abandoned.

Finally, the police devised the 'Magic Carpet', a forty-foot leather strip studded with 1,400 spikes. When the police got word of a loop, they spread the carpet across the roadway. On several occasions, it worked, but on June 5, 1934, as Patrolman James Malloy, dressed in plain clothes, unrolled the carpet across Bunker Hill Street, the car swerved directly toward him and dragged his lifeless body 125 feet. Two young Townies were charged with Malloy's murder. One confessed he had been seeking revenge on the cop for the death of two loopers in 1932.

By 1937, Charlestown's civic leaders were fed up with the practice, which had blighted the Town's reputation. A committee demanded that the Police Commissioner end looping 'at all costs'. Late that year, authorities announced that any captured looper would be publicly flogged on a platform in City Square. The plan was never implemented, but increased police surveillance led to the arrest of seventy-seven loopers in 1937 alone. The next March, Mayor Maurice Tobin ordered Bunker Hill Street dug up at three locations to create 'bottlenecks' slightly wider than an automobile wheel base and filled with low concrete pyramids. If these traps weren't negotiated at low speeds the pyramids would rupture the car's undercarriage.

~J. Anthony Lukas [buy]

[shiningloki]

Trials Of Pleasure - Chapter 2

Trials Of Pleasure - Chapter 2/8

(LOKI X READER / PRINCE HAL X READER / SIR THOMAS SHARPE X READER / CAPTAIN JAMES CONRAD X READER / DOCTOR ROBERT LAING X READER / ADAM X READER / JONATHAN PINE X READER)

You want Loki. You always have. You admire his magic. You crave the power he can give you. But most of all, you want to be his pleasure slave. You want to be the one he fucks every day.

After years of unsuccessfully trying to summon Loki, you turn to dark magic. It works and you manage to forcefully bring Loki to you. He’s impressed by your dedication and talent but angered at the way you summoned him. For that reason, Loki is going to make you prove that you are worth all of this trouble. He’s going to see just how willing you are to submit to him and his sexual desires. To do that, he’s going to put you through a series of trials to see if you have what it takes to be his student and his toy.

Your mission is to deliver pleasure to Loki’s “friends” throughout history. You’ll have to find them, please them, fuck them.

Who are they? The Prince. The Baronet. The Soldier. The Doctor. The Musician. The Spy.

Loki will send you to the time periods, you’ll just need to find them. Will you be able to survive the peril that comes with searching for these men? Can you give them enough pleasure to prove to Loki that you are worthy of being the woman who warms his bed? Or will you get lost in the timelines without your magic and without a way back home?

Start from Chapter 1

Previous Chapter

Master List

~ ~ ~

Chapter 2: The Prince

Word Count: 5201

Summary: It’s the first trial you must face. You have no idea what to expect, you just hope you can figure out how to get through this challenge

NSFW, SMUT, DOMINANT PRINCE HAL, ROUGH SEX, FLOOR SEX, BREEDING KINK

1402

You weren’t sure how long you were falling for when you finally landed. Your back hit the ground with a thud and you watched the portal close in the sky above you. You took a shaky breath as you looked down and noticed that your short dress had been replaced by a long, elegant maroon dress.

One that was certainly not from your time period.

You looked around as you stood from the ground, wiping blades of grass off of the unfamiliar fabric. It itched and was heavier than you expected. Grunting, you took in your surroundings - green grass, rolling hills, and...fuck, was that a castle?

It stood like a behemoth in the distance, its gray stone and brick appearing cold against its green backdrop. Looking around, you realized that was the only building around you. That must be your first destination. 

Great. How am I going to find the person I’m looking for in that?

You collected the bottom of your dress and began walking towards the castle. You could hear the pounding of horse hooves in the distance and when you got closer to the castle, you realized you were extremely out of your element. Guards surrounded the castle wearing thick sheets of armor and they held pointed spears. Flags with crests billowed in the wind. The road beneath you was made of dirt and you watched donkeys and oxen pull carts to and from the castle. This looked like something straight out of an old period film.

Oh. Right. Loki said he was sending you straight to 1402. Wonderful.

( CONTINUE READING HERE )

Fic requests are CLOSED! Be sure to check out my AO3 for more Tom Hiddleston and Loki angst, drama, fluff, romance, and smut!

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Want to be added to my tag list for my one shots or for “Trials Of Pleasure”? Send me a message, an ask, or leave a comment letting me know you would like to be added!

“Trials Of Pleasure” Tag List: @lehuka123 @rorybutnotgilmore @bellening @ragnarachael @bellesque @jessip1ier @winterfrostsarmy @myraiswack @hanyasnape @kiliskywalker666 @delightfulheartdream @imnotrevealingmyname @erisofmischief @kellatron55 @lady-crowned-with-stars @sherala007 @sheris532 @theatrelove3000 @like-a-wildfire @theimaginier @playing-the-villain-baby @lokisimp-3000 @khadineberry @hufflautia @hiddlesgoddesses @memenerdlover @han68000 @is-it-madness @fantasy73writing @littletime67 @itsthedoctah10 @lokislastlove @lowhostrikesback @ciaodarknessmyheart @tom-ben4ever @sallymagnoliaposts @ladyfluff @darrenthehappyhedgehog @maxsaturdayhatesnarwhals @from-hel-i-with-love​ @whyispistashanuttaken @burning-in-my-hell @kimanne723​ @anti-social-realist @ornella0910 @lotus-eyedindiangoddess @villainousshakespeare​ @newprincessbrat @rjohnson1280​ @tinyglamdramaqueen @p0tat0nug​ @thedarkreapersblog​ @molly-morris​ @dontgivedeath @ravenclaw5606​ @deaddetermined @elisabethvanroseblood​ @outlawangel2020 @incoherent-excitement​ @xx-lokiizsmexy-xx​ @crystalkitty33​ @burningarbiterheart​ @loki-yoursaviorishere @vipervixxwn @emmacolband​ @jooordanharrrop​

[halothenthehorns]

BAGMAN AND CROUCH

As James started, he prayed to Merlin and anything else that this was the Quidditch chapter already, he'd waited long enough for it!

Harry had to unravel himself from Ron and his siblings, then looked around to find himself on the edge of a moor. In front of him were two oddly dressed wizards, one holding a watch, the other a long sheaf of parchment. Both had made an attempt at wearing Muggle garb, though both failed;

Remus already had a grin flickering on him, he loved hearing about wizards poor attempts to dress like Muggles.

The man with the watch wore a tweed suit with thigh-length galoshes;

Remus and Lily collectively snorted with amusement at that mental image, while James and Sirius exchanged curious looks, but decided they didn't really want to know what a galosh was. It sounded like some noise one of Hagrid's pets would make.

his colleague, a kilt and a poncho.

Lily lost it, and had to press her hand firmly to her mouth to suppress her giggles.

Harry and Remus weren't much better, and this time Sirius did ask, "Which one of those is wrong?" He may know a fair bit about Muggle technology and some of their other things through his Muggle Studies class, but they hadn't gone into great detail about dressing. Mostly, they just wore blue jean material but he wasn't certain why.

"Both," Harry managed to choke out, only having managed to restrain himself back then because he and Hermione had been the only ones to get the joke, and they hadn't wanted to make the wizards feel bad.

    Arthur greeted the man with the list by the name of Basil

"Does Arthur just know everybody?" Remus asked, only half intelligible since he was still laughing. "I've yet to see him meet anyone he doesn't know the name of."

"I consider this a good thing," James shrugged back.

while picking up their portkey and handing it over. It was tossed into a bin full of other seeming junk, such as a punctured football.

Basil greeted Arthur back, noting that he wasn't on duty, and how lucky he was. The two of them had been at this post all night, then he ushered that they should move along, they had a huge party coming in next. He consulted his list, found the Weasley name, and told them to go seek out Mr. Robert's for their campsite.

Harry strangely felt a wash of sympathy at the mention of that name, which was puzzling since he had no real feelings towards the actual man. Still put off by the last time he'd dug into a name, he didn't press at it.

The Diggory's were sent in a separate direction, so Harry's group wandered off, coming across a Muggle stationed at the crest of a hill.

Harry's feeling of concern only increased, but it only managed to confuse him all the more. Why would he be worried for a Muggle? Why would he be getting worried at all?

"Oh, I guess he owns the campsite then," Sirius said in surprise.

"That poor thing," Lily sighed.

"Why?" James asked at once, feeling that was a bit harsh, wizards weren't that bad around Muggles.

"I can only imagine how confused he must be, wizards aren't very subtle at hiding themselves," she smirked at her husband, who clearly wanted to argue back, but at a loss as to how, he was aware he was pretty bad and he knew plenty of people, like his wife, who tried to correct him on it all the time.

They greeted each other politely enough, and Arthur told his name and that he'd booked two tents here a few days ago. Mr. Robert's agreed, then asked if they'd be paying for it now? Mr. Weasley agreed, then pulled Harry aside to help him with the Muggle money he'd brought along for this. He correctly identified a ten pound note, then glanced at the next one, saying this was a five? Harry corrected it was a twenty.

"Where did he get a five from?" Remus asked. "There's a twenty on the note, and he got the ten right."

"I guess the pound symbol looks like a five to him," Lily offered with a shrug, not really sure how he could make the mistake herself, as she found Muggle money far easier to understand then the wizard money that had taken her quite some time to work out.*

They returned to Mr. Roberts watching them wearily, asking if they were foreign?

"I'm not surprised that's his first guess," Lily nodded.

Mr. Weasley was confused by the question, so Mr. Roberts elaborated that he wasn't the first person to be confused by the currency, two others had tried to pay him in giant gold coins.

James couldn't help a little smile though, at least he wasn't the only one who'd try to do that first in hopes it would work.

Mr. Robert's continued on in a vague tone now about how strange it was of people pre-booking to come, most just showed up.

"Yes, well, there's a very big event going on this weekend," Sirius said with a completely straight face.

"That's cause for a little oddity." James agreed.

He kept going on about how weird some of these people were, running around in kilt's and ponchos.

Lily, Remus, and Harry began snickering all over again, but this time James just ignored them.

Arthur was getting anxious now as he tried to get his change and leave, but Mr. Robert was still prattling on about how all of these odd people seemed to know each other, like they were all here for some party. Then another wizard in plus-fours apparated right in front of them.

Remus sighed in pity, thinking it was an accidental apparition, and one more thing poor Mr. Robert's would try to analyze. The man's brain would turn to mush by the day's end if this kept up.

He quickly shot the spell Obliviate at Mr. Roberts.

"Or he could do that," Lily yelped in mild surprise.

"He was pretty fast on the draw," Sirius nodded in agreement.

Mr. Robert's face instantly glazed over, an unconcerned smile now floating onto his face, and Harry recognized all of the symptoms of someone who'd recently had their memory modified.

Which gave them all a bit of a dark laugh, for the first time wondering if Lockhart had ever recovered from that mishap, but none of them able to care too much.

Mr. Robert's finally handed over Mr. Weasley's change, along with a map of the camp, and bid them good day. The wizard in plus-fours accompanied them out of earshot, muttering about how that was the tenth time he'd had to do that today.

"Oh dear," Lily squeaked in real fear this time. "That cannot be good for him."

"You'd really think they'd have someone with some muggle knowledge at least around where Mr. Robert's is working, try to keep these people under control at least in front of him so that wouldn't be necessary," Remus agreed with a pitiful frown.

"Would that give him, like permanent brain damage or something?" Harry frowned in sympathy for the poor muggle, deciding those memory charms on him was probably where his memory gap on this man stemmed from.

"I don't think so..." Sirius' tone showed he really didn't even mean that, "But I can't say it's a tested theory either."

"I'm sure he's fine," James couldn't stop a little frown of his own, but he tried to keep up the confidence. "They won't do anything permanent to him." No one could think of anything else to say though, so he decided to keep going and hope this man explaining things would say just that.

Ludo Bagman wasn't helping anyone,

"Ludo Bagman's running around there!" Sirius practically screamed, leaning over like he wanted to snatch the book away from James, who held it tightly to his chest now and glared at his hand like he'd bite if he came closer.

Sirius turned his attention on Harry instead, begging, "Please tell me you meet him! I'll take even a passing glance!"

Harry's shoulders were shaking with suppressed laughter, but what flowed out of his mouth was a pure gut reaction he didn't have to much problems deciphering, "I've got a good feeling at least, yes."

Sirius looked likely to faint from happiness his little pup was meeting a Quidditch star, so Harry neglected telling him another sinking feeling he was getting about Bagman. He decided he didn't really like the man, something about him bothered Harry, but as always he had no clear idea what.

running around screaming about Bludgers and Quaffles, not even bothering with the anti-Muggle security. The man still talking couldn't wait for this whole mess to be over, then he bid good day to Arthur and disapparated.

"I feel so bad for the people who have to work during this," Remus sighed.

"You're right," James nodded along. "This should be a national holiday!"

Lily and Remus snorted at how much he clearly meant that, while James gave an agreeable smirk at Sirius when he agreed before he kept going.

Ginny turned to her dad in surprise, asking since Bagman was head of a department, shouldn't he know better then to be doing that? Arthur defended him by saying that he'd always been a lax man, but you couldn't ask for a more enthusiastic Head. He'd played Quidditch for England and was the best Beater for the Wimbourne Wasps yet.

"I wonder what year he retired," Sirius couldn't seem to stop himself from blurting out, though James in no way looked upset as he grinned at Sirius getting wound up about this. "What do you think his stats were like by then, better and he ended on a high, or slowly going down so he retired early? Who do you-"

"Sirius," Lily cut in, knowing he could go on like this for hours. "Please, you lot can talk about this over dinner and I won't say a word, but let him get through this first."

Sirius stuck his tongue out at her and crossed his arms in a pouting gesture, but bit his tongue as James kept going.

They made their way into the campsite, finding most normal looking tents, but a few standouts, such as one that housed a chimney, or one done up in pure silk with peacocks out front.

'Wonder if the Malfoy's showed up' Remus thought in surprise, knowing that was their preferred animal, and they'd do nothing less than the best even in tent form. He really hoped Harry didn't run across them though, really hoping for just a nice calm Quidditch filled weekend.

One even had three tents stacked on top of each other, complete with a sundial in front.

Lily had been giggling almost none stop for all of those descriptions, remembering her plans of taking the family camping, and just imagining James and Sirius trying to set all of that up as well, oh they were going to have so much fun.

Arthur was smiling as he passed all of this by, saying that it was common when Wizards got together they'd always try to show off.

"That's always true of communities," Sirius muttered, thinking it wasn't always a good thing either.

Then he spotted their place, right on the edge of the woods, with a small picket marking their spots, with the name Weasley misspelled as Weezly.

James couldn't help a little snort of surprise, then spelled out how Weasley had been misspelled, causing the others the same reaction. "How did they screw that up?" Harry demanded with an eye roll. "Mr. Weasley would have given them his name to mark the spot."

"Maybe he has bad handwriting," Sirius shrugged.

"Or it was someone's idea of a joke," Remus offered, thinking of the time he'd convinced most of Gryffindor house to call Sirius and James Brown and Pottam for the day.

Mr. Weasley couldn't be more excited, saying they'd gotten the best spot as the trail leading to the stadium started right next to them. Then he set himself of setting up the tent, with no magic allowed.

"Oh this should be fun," Lily smirked, already thinking of poor Arthur trying to work all of this out, though at least he'd probably get a kick out of it.

Harry had never been camping before, but he and Hermione worked out how the poles and pegs were to be set up. Mr. Weasley was more of a hindrance than a help, but not from lack of trying. He just tended to get overly excited when the time came to use the mallet.

"At least he's enjoying himself," Remus agreed with Lily, thinking of an over enthusiastic James and Sirius acting much the same way.

They finally managed to erect a pair of shabby two-man tents.

"He only brought two?" Harry asked in surprise, thinking that would hardly be enough space after doing a headcount.

James just gave him a knowing smile though, he had a very good idea that Arthur wasn't doing this all Muggle, but kept going to see if he was right.

Arthur ducked into one and called back they'd be a bit cramped, but they'd make it work. Harry exchanged a puzzled look with Hermione before they ducked in and their jaws dropped.

Something Harry did again now as he visibly remembered what he'd walked into, causing the four of them to give affectionate laughs, knowing they'd never get tired of watching him react to magic.

It was a miniature version of an apartment, complete with beds and a stove. Harry found it strangely reminded him of Mrs. Figg's place,

"That's probably just coincidence," Remus shrugged. "The Engorgement Charm placed on them would have reacted to the person who'd placed it. Though it might adapt to the person setting it up," he added on thoughtfully, never having considered the idea, but magic was known to change form.

"I think it's the second," Lily nodded in agreement. "It wouldn't be the first time I've heard magic acting like that."

as it smelled strongly of cats. Mr. Weasley explained he'd borrowed this from Perkins,

"Wasn't that the guy Mr. Weasley works with in his office?" Sirius puzzled. "Guess that means he's not coming to the game."

who used to go camping a lot until his lumbago got to him. Then he spotted an empty kettle, and said they'd need to find a place to collect water. Ron had ducked in behind them, saying he'd seen a spot for that on the map. He showed no reaction whatsoever at the interior being larger inside than out.

"Well of course he isn't," Harry sighed, now feeling slightly foolish for his surprise, of course Mr. Weasley would think ahead like that, though since Hermione had been thinking the same thing at the time at least he wasn't the only one.

Arthur asked Ron and his two friends to go fetch it while they stayed back and cooked up a fire.

"Even more fun," Sirius perked up, "I hope you get to roast some marshmallows!"

Ron asked why they'd need to do that as they had a stove, and Arthur said that they were supposed to be doing things as Muggles, and they cooked over fires at these campsites. The three departed, wandering through the endless sea of tents, and Harry was looking around with interest as it only just began occurring to him how many wizards there were in other countries.

Harry nodded to himself as these thoughts trickled back to him, wondering why he had a feeling his knowledge of the world of magic was fixing to expand quite a lot this year...something about Hogwarts, or maybe it was another wizarding school, did those even exist? Of course they did, he corrected himself, Hogwart's couldn't be the only one.

The camps with small children were already beginning to arouse, toddles seen crawling out of tents. They passed one of about two, who held a wand in his hand and was poking a slug, with each prod it grew larger until it was nearly the size of a loaf of bread.

Sirius gave the baby in his lap an affectionate little cuddle while Lily and James exchanged indulgent smiles, treasuring every moment they had with their toddler, and already trying to picture him when he got to that age.

As they drew level with him, his mother came hurrying out of the tent, telling off the infant, Kevin, for touching daddy's wand, and ending with a squeal of disgust.

"Tell daddy to stop leaving it around," Lily smirked, already picturing herself instead of that mother, Harry instead of little Kevin, James being thoroughly confused, then abundantly pleased, when he found out his son was engorging slugs with his wand.

She'd stepped on the slug, causing it to burst. The sound of her scolding her child faded as they walked past, along with the little boy's delight that his mommy had squashed his slug.

Causing all five of them to laugh merrily, that was a picture perfect moment.

Not too much farther away were two little girls gliding along on miniature brooms that barely rose a foot off the ground.

Sirius' eyes sparked with interest, he had already pre-ordered one of those for Harry for his first birthday, and couldn't wait to see his little pup gliding around this living room carpet on it.

A Ministry official had spotted them and came hurrying past the trio, muttering about how the parents were letting them do that where anyone could see, probably sleeping in.

"They are on vacation," James shrugged. "And I don't see why Mr. Robert's would come wandering into the campsite, give them a bit of a break."

Some adults were starting to come out as well, taking a quick look around, and then shooting a spell to create a fire before anyone could notice. Others were clearly tempted to do this soon, looking at a box of matches as if sure this couldn't be useful.

"Then I hope they all get a real surprise," Remus laughed.

Three African wizards sat in serious conversation,

"Wow, they're even talking about me in Africa," Sirius smirked, happy he was on the opposite side of Harry so none of his friends could take a swing at him.

all of them wearing long white robes and roasting what looked like a rabbit on a bright purple fire,

Harry blinked in surprise at the color, the question bursting out of him before he even had time to process, "Do other countries have to say the same spells in the same language as Hogwarts? Is that why the fire's a different color, because they translate them, or are they universal?"

Lily's eyes brightened as they always did whenever she had the opportunity to look into new things, starting out by voicing, "Well I know for a fact that saying the spell is just a way to channel magic, but the incantations themselves aren't set in stone. After all, accidental magic doesn't require a command word, it's simply your mind using your magic in an uncontrolled way. The wand and spells are designed to help you direct your powers, which makes your magic more focused and powerful." She only paused for a moment, thinking through her answer to make sure of it, before concluding, "So I would have to say no, other countries most likely do have a different system for their spell casting. Most of ours are in Latin, with some exceptions, but I presume these African folk for example have a different spell to create fire then our Incendio, creating the different color through their own phrasing of it."

Harry was watching her with wide eyed fascination, even James and Sirius looked pretty intrigued as they'd never thought too deeply about this, but when Remus made to jump in, that old light in his eyes saying he may even be creating a debate's worth of commentary on the subject, James quickly jumped in saying, "Alright, more fun things to discuss later. Sirius and I can go crazy badgering Harry about Quidditch stats he will hopefully remember, and you two can have a gay old time discussing that." This time Remus stuck his tongue out at his two friends, but didn't protest.

while a group of middle-aged American witches sat gossiping happily beneath a spangled banner stretched between their tents that read: THE SALEM WITCHES' INSTITUTE.

"What's that?" Harry asked quickly, for the first time trying to get information about other wizard schools other than his own, "The American Hogwarts? Salem is in the United States, yes?" He vaguely recalled, either from his History of Magic or perhaps his primary school, he'd never payed attention to either honestly, some terrible movement against witches involving a place called Salem.

"Yes there's a Salem in the United States, but no, there school is called Ilvermorny,"** Remus shrugged. "I think this is some kind of women's organization."

The longer they walked, the more conversations they heard from all languages, but they all held the same tone. Excitement. Then Ron suddenly pointed out that everything had gone green. The trio had wandered into a patch of tents, every inch of which were covered in shamrocks.

Sirius began laughing anew, having known a few Irish supporters in his time at Hogwarts, and they were well known for going all out like this.

As they were walking through, they heard their names shouted from behind, and turned to see a fellow Gryffindor in their year named Seamus Finnigan, his mother, and his best friend Dean Thomas, also of their year and house. Seamus greeted them by asking if they liked the decorations?

"Yes, yes I do," James nodded happily, knowing he wouldn't be much better if his preferred team had made the Cup.

Adding on that the Ministry wasn't happy about it,

"I just can not imagine why," Lily rolled her eyes indulgently.

but Mrs. Finnigan happily said she didn't care, they were proud to show their colors! She also added on it was still better than what the Bulgarians had done, then quickly asked them if they were Ireland supporters?

"Here's hoping Harry has more sense than those two," Remus muttered quietly to Lily, who nodded while she watched James and Sirius smirk. They knew full well they'd love to start a Quidditch fight by supporting the opposite team in the middle of that field, possibly start a riot, it would be plenty of fun.

They all quickly said of course they were, while walking away, Ron adding once they were out of sight that they could hardly say anything else.

"Such a missed opportunity," Sirius sighed, shaking his head tragically, still unable to keep that smile off his face.

Hermione asked what the Bulgarians had done.

"With any luck, Vultures will be circling everywhere," James snickered.

Harry said they could go check, as he spotted their flag waving nearby. When they got there, they found every available tent surface covered in the face of the scowling Seeker, Viktor Krum.

"Ooh, new blood," Remus nodded.

"He must be good, to be the star player on everyone's tent," Lily shrugged.

"Wasn't Charlie talking about him earlier," Sirius mused. "Hadn't he said he was such an excellent Seeker, it would be a tough game just between him and the whole other team?"

"This match is going to be wicked," James looked like that smile was going to be frozen in place very soon, hoping it would come up anytime now!

Hermione's first comment was that he looked grumpy.

Harry gave a funny laugh, though he wasn't sure why. Something about Hermione and Krum though, why would he have a feeling about that?

Ron was flabbergasted that's what she noticed. He was the best Seeker in the world, and so young, only eighteen!

"Wow, and their star player," James was practically bouncing in his seat by this point. "He's got a nice long career ahead of him."

"Or early retirement, assuming a Bludger doesn't knock him stupid," Lily muttered.

They finally reached the water pickup, to find a line had already formed. They got a few paces behind a man in a flowery nightgown,

Lily, Harry, and Remus cracked all over again, even James and Sirius joined in this time as they were certain that even in the muggle world, blokes weren't exactly supposed to be wearing gowns.

arguing with a Ministry wizard holding a pair of pants, and nearly crying from exasperation as he tried to explain to the dressed man named Archie that Muggle men don't wear those. Archie argued back he'd bought what he was wearing in a Muggle shop.

"Well, he's not wrong," Lily managed to get out breathily.

Muggle women, the Ministry wizard corrected, trying to get Archie to take the pants, but the elder man wouldn't hear it, saying he liked what he was wearing, it created a nice healthy breeze around his parts.

Causing the boys to continue melting into the cushions with laughter, tears nearly coming to their own eyes they'd been laughing so much lately. Why couldn't they have just started with this book, it was certainly the most enjoyable yet. Waving aside that pesky first chapter which they had all adamantly put behind them, they were all finally starting to hope this good feeling would last a whole year.

Hermione couldn't stop giggling through the whole exchange, which lasted until it was Archie's turn to collect his water, which he did with dignity, his dress swaying in the breeze as he left. Having to walk more slowly now weighted down with the water, they reversed course and this time through the maze of tents found a few more fellow Hogwarts students, including Oliver Wood, Harry's old Quidditch Captain.

"Ooh, there's going to be a new Quidditch Captain this year," James yelped in remembered excitement, now realizing that Harry wasn't it, and wishing he'd gotten more of an insight into the rest of his team to see who it was. He was upset for his son it wasn't him, but he supposed as a fourth year it would be too soon for him anyways. Surely someone else would graduate and his son would get the chance before he left school though.

He dragged Harry over to his parents while informing him that he'd been assigned on the reserve team of Puddlemere United.

"Congratulations to him," Sirius nodded, really meaning it. They'd all had some irksome moments when it came to Wood's captaining, but the boy was a good player and he did deserve that at least. Hopefully working with professionals would help him with his, ah, team problems.

Then they ran into Ernie Macmillan, a Hufflepuff in their year. Then Cho Chang, a very pretty girl who was a year above them and Seeker for Ravenclaw, gave Harry a wave as he passed.

Both James and Sirius gave Harry not so subtle little nudges, which he still dutifully ignored despite the blush trying to prove otherwise. For some reason whenever he thought of Cho, he didn't get a real feeling for her. Sure she was still pretty even in his memory, and while he was certain he may have liked her at the time, she held no interest to him for any length of time.

Harry sloshed most of the water he was carrying down his front as he waved back.

Causing all of them to smile at him now, and Harry to burrow even deeper into his seat, trying his best to avoid all eyes and brush his bangs onto his forehead with nerves. The exact opposite reaction of what James would have done giving Sirius and Remus an extra shot of delight.

In hopes to change the subject, the next time they passed a group of kids their age but he in no way recognized, Harry asked what school they went to, certainly not Hogwarts. Ron just shrugged and said it was probably some foreign school. His older brother Bill had pen palled with one from Brazil for a while, but when they'd tried to set up an exchange and Bill couldn't afford it, his pen pal had got all offended and sent Bill a cursed hat, which shriveled up his ears.

"Wasn't that one called Castelobruxo?" Sirius asked, finally stopping his smirking at Harry.

"Sounds right," James shrugged, wincing in sympathy for Bill.

Harry was shocked to hear there were more wizarding schools besides his own, but in retrospect he felt stupid as it made sense that there were several nationalities here, and not all of them could be attendance at just one place.

"Not stupid," Lily corrected at once. "It only just now occurred to you of the wider world, all kids come to that moment at some point."

Harry gave her a bright smile back, never growing tired of anyone in the room trying to correct his negative side, always feeling a happy bubble the more he realized he'd never had the experience before, though it only increased the craving every time that he had grown up not knowing all of them.

He gave a quick look at Hermione who was unphased by the news. Surely she'd come across this fact in one of her books.

"Would not surprise me," Remus agreed.

When they got back to their campsite, George complained at them they'd taken forever.

"Well you were taking your time," Sirius chuckled.

Ron just shrugged that they'd met some people along the way, then asked why the fire wasn't going yet? They looked around and saw Arthur was trying with enthusiasm, striking the matches against the box as he should, but several littered attempts around him proved what they saw next, he lit the end then dropped it in surprise.

Giving Lily and Remus another friendly giggle, picturing that all too easily.

Hermione kindly went over to him and helped to show him how to do it without killing it, then they had to wait some time for the fire to get warm enough to cook anything. While they waited, Mr. Weasley kept up a running commentary of everybody who ran by, mostly for Harry and Hermione's benefit as his own kids knew most of this already.

"Well I'm glad for it," Lily's eyes continued to brighten with interest, knowing she'd much rather enjoy the thoroughfare of the Ministry rather than Quidditch.

One man named Gilbert Wimple was hurrying past, he was on the Committee on Experimental Charms, and happened to have some horns sprouting, though according to Arthur they'd been there awhile.

"There's a point of conversation," Sirius smirked.

Then two men passed named Bode and Croaker, who were Unspeakables. Harry asked what that was, and Mr. Weasley explained they worked for the Department of Mysteries, and no one outside that field knew what they got up to.

Harry felt a terrible tightening in his gut at the mention of that place, unconsciously moving closer to Sirius, causing his Godfather to give him a look of surprise, though neither of them said anything, knowing if they did Harry would be the one to pay for it. Still, the motion bothered Sirius, and he was finally distracted from the upcoming game to let his mind wander back and wonder what he was up to, had he gotten Harry's letter yet, and why would that place have any connection to him?

Just as they were setting the kettle on, the rest of the Weasley's appeared, Percy greeting them by saying they'd just got done Apparating.

"Thank you, captain obvious," James snorted. "Here I thought you'd frog marched."

"How did they know where we were?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Remember that little post from where your portkey landed," Remus reminded him. "They would have gotten the same instructions as you from there."

The next person to arrive, Mr. Weasley greeted very warmly, calling him the man of the hour as he greeted Ludo.

Which gave Sirius an instant distraction, Harry's odd moment completely lost in his mind. The Ludo Bagman! "So you do meet him!" he practically screeched in Harry's ear, causing him to quickly reverse course and edge away from him, rubbing at his ear but grinning all the same.

"Guess I was right that time," he agreed easily, though still unable to shake that feeling that he didn't enjoy the man's company long.

Bagman certainly stuck out, even more than Archie in his dress.

"Now that's saying something," Lily smirked.

He was wearing his old Quidditch robes, slightly too tight around his girth, which had thick yellow and black stripes all down it, with a wasp pressed into the chest.

"Thinking someone's being a wee bit nostalgic," Remus snickered.

He had a round, childishly happy face, with large blue eyes, and a squashed nose, which could easily have come from one to many bludgers crushing it.

Sirius was practically quivering with excitement, wondering when that had come up, had it cost them the game, had he persevered through it and Bludgeoned someone off in retaliation!?

He practically bounced to their side, giving them a warm greeting, and walking as if he had springs in his heels.

"As he should be," James nodded along, his tone conveying the exact same feelings.

He greeted Arthur, then began at once talking of the coming match, speaking of the perfect weather and how all the arrangements had turned out perfectly, there was hardly anything Ludo could find to do! Behind him, Harry spotted two Ministry officials gesturing to a large purple plume of smoke that was rising.

"Timing," Remus exclaimed, not even bothering to fight down his laughter much anymore.

"Guess those African's got out of hand," Lily chuckled.

Percy jumped forward at once. Clearly whatever he disliked about the way Bagman ran his department, he still wanted to show a good front.

"Let's see him say that to his face," Sirius sniffed, never liking two faced people.

Arthur introduced first Percy, then Fred, quickly correcting that one was George, and that one was Fred-

"Even the parent's get them backwards," James smirked, still nursing and quite liking the idea if he could somehow have twins in his future.

before continuing along the lot, ending with Harry. Bagman's eyes at once flashed to the scar on Harry's forehead, but then he easily met Harry's eyes and gave him a smile.

"Least he was subtle about it," Lily sniffed, still sore as the rest of them from Mr. Diggory's presence.

"He's an international Quidditch player," Sirius offered. "I'm guessing he's used to fame, and he's being polite enough not to shove on Harry about it."

Then Arthur introduced Ludo Bagman as the one who'd gotten them their tickets! Bagman waved him off, saying it was no big deal, then asked if they'd like to put anything on the match? He gave a bag hanging from his belt a suggestive clinking noise.

Harry's instincts rose even more, his eyes narrowing as he was now sure this had something to do with his own disapproval of Bagman, something about him...and maybe Ron? It was definitely one of the Weasley's...at least he thought so...

He mentioned a few other people who'd already placed money down, and Mr. Weasley agreed he'd give a Galleon for Ireland to win. Bagman was clearly disappointed at those low stakes, but wrote him a slip for it anyways. Then Bagman offered if any of his kids wanted in, and Arthur tried to say they were too young, Molly wouldn't approve-

"Molly's not there," James scoffed. "It's their money, let them be."

Lily narrowed her eyes at her husband, she didn't much approve of gambling and quite agreed with Arthur, and most likely with Molly, that those kids shouldn't be until they were at least of age, but didn't pick an argument for it now.

the twins completely ignored him and offered up a huge sum of money,

Harry's gut went haywire, there it was, it was the twins and Bagman that made him feel so uneasy, but then Remus gave a breathy whistle as he said, "Well they're certainly playing to win," and the feeling was gone at once, to be replaced by a sharp pain for his trying to understand the connection. He just crossed his arms in disappointment and agreed aloud that he hoped it payed off.

that Ireland would win, but Krum got the Snitch.

At once, Harry again felt a pull, something in him saying that he should have a memory about this bet, but considering he'd just dealt with a mental backlash he wasn't going to push it.

Then they threw in one of their fake wands. Percy tried to tell them off for that, saying Bagman wouldn't want to see such rubbish, but Bagman turned out to be delighted when it turned into a rubber chicken, causing him to laugh loudly.

"I'm loving him more and more," Sirius cheered, his own eyes shining with childlike glee. "Any man who can laugh at that has a great sense of humor, oh I really hope those twins win now! Can you imagine them getting in good terms with Bagman! They might even get a sponsorship and-"

"Breathe Sirius," Remus said peaceably, at least trying to reign his friend in. "Let's see if they win the match first." Though privately he was thinking it could work out the way Sirius was picturing even if they didn't win their bet, if Bagman did like their ideas enough there was some great potential room in there.

Bagman happily agreed to the terms. Percy's face looked like he'd been smacked he was so disapproving.

"I still don't care," James happily chirped, like his friends all too pleased at where that could head.

Arthur tried one more time, saying that was their life savings,

"Bagman really should consider that their father is telling them no," Lily sighed, "And back him up. It's rude otherwise."

"They're, what, about a year from turning seventeen?" Sirius shot back. "When's their birthday Harry?" He directed, looking to make his point.

"April first," Harry shrugged.

The boys blinked in surprise, before all four of them cracked up laughing at how perfect these twins had been born on April Fool's day. Sirius quickly collected himself though, continuing like Harry had just made his point for him, "Less than a year then, their father really shouldn't get too much of a say what they do with their money."

Lily sighed, still in disagreement that Bagman wasn't showing proper manners, but before she could say anything else, Harry asked, "You guys got any predictions for the game?"

"Sadly not," James pouted, "as we don't know their stats or anything, otherwise I would put some money down."

but Bagman laughed Arthur off, saying they knew what they were doing. He wrote down their bet and a slip for them, adding on five Galleons to the boy's deed for the fake wand.

"Oh I definitely want to meet this guy in person," James wriggled around in pleasure, more than pleased to meet someone who was giving such vivid support to the twins.

Arthur stopped arguing the point as the twins handed over their money and tucked their slip safely away. Bagman turned back to Mr. Weasley cheerfully and asked if he'd seen Crouch around? He'd just had a run in with the Bulgarian minister, and he needed a translator, and as Crouch spoke over fifty languages he'd be a help.

Harry blinked in surprise, trying to process how you could cram so many languages into your head, but looking around he saw this wasn't new information to the others, which meant Crouch must have made this public knowledge often. He'd probably been at it for years then.

Percy happily jumped back in now, saying his boss knew over two hundred! Beginning to list some, such as Mermish, Troll- but Fred cut him off by pointing out anyone could speak troll, you just point and grunt.

Giving the boys yet another happy round of chuckling, fully agreeing with Fred on that point.

Percy gave his brother a fire shot look.

"Was he really expecting them to be impressed or something?" Lily snorted. "I'm positive Percy's mentioned this a dozen times to them, does he keep expecting a different response?"

"He's fighting a losing battle if so," James agreed.

Arthur then asked of Bagman if there'd been any news of Bertha Jorkins?

Then James gave a deep sigh, wondering why he couldn't go one chapter without that being brought up of late. He just wanted to enjoy the Cup, not keep thinking of that poor dead girl and the return of Voldemort, was that too much to ask for?!

Bagman didn't seem concerned as he brushed that off, saying this wasn't the first time she'd gotten herself lost. She'd probably show up in October still thinking it was July.

Making all five of them wince in sympathy, sadly knowing that not to be true.

Arthur tried to say it was time someone went looking, but Bagman just laughed and said Barty kept saying the same thing, but it really was pointless. As if their talking had summoned him, a new wizard appeared on their sight, making a stark contrast to Bagman. He held himself impeccably, wearing a fine suite and proper tie.

"I can already see why Percy's in love with him," Sirius snorted.

His hair and beard were perfectly groomed, and it was easy to see why Percy thought so much of him. His every demeanor showed he was a rule follower, he'd accorded himself so well to the Muggle clothes he looked like a broker.

"I at least give the others credit for trying," Lily gave yet another smirk as she flashed back to all of those flashy outfits she'd heard about. "Not all the wizards have the means to look into that kind of thing before hand, I'm sure he probably had someone lay the outfit out for him and probably didn't even look into it himself."

Harry doubted even Vernon would have spotted him for what he really was.

"You are not encouraging him to us," Remus sniffed in disdain.

Bagman happily offered him to take a seat with them, but Crouch said he hadn't the time, he'd been looking all over for him. The Bulgarian minister had found him, and was insisting they needed twelve more sets up in the Top Box. Bagman was surprised that's what was going on, he'd thought the chap had been asking for some tweezers.

All of them couldn't help another snort of amusement, picturing that conversation taking place a nice laugh.

Percy reacted at once to Crouch's arrival, giving him a bow then asking if he'd like some tea? Crouch only gave him a half glance, saying that would be nice, then referring to him as Weatherby.

"Ouch," Lily winced in sympathy while the boy's only laughed harder. She felt bad for him, clearly all of his hard work at the office wasn't paying him too much good yet if Crouch didn't even know Percy's name yet.

His siblings choked into their drinks while Percy turned pink and went to work.

"He's not going to correct him?" James asked in surprise.

"I'm sure Crouch could call him Grindelwald and Percy wouldn't correct him," Sirius snorted, not really noticing Harry give an odd start at the name.

Crouch then turned to Arthur, saying he'd needed to speak with him as well.

"That almost feels like a slap in the face to Percy," Remus still had a bemused smile in place even if he was starting to feel a little bad for it. "He's literally talking to Percy's dad, and didn't acknowledge the name mess-up."

"I've got a feeling Crouch would sooner eat his highly polished shoe then correct himself," Lily huffed.

A man named Bashir was demanding that flying carpets be let into the country, and Arthur gave a heavy sigh as he said he'd had this conversation before. Those were classified under Muggle Artifacts by the Registry of Proscribed Charmable Objects! Crouch agreed as much, saying that Bashir was still looking to export here in Britain. Bagman jumped in saying they'd never replace the broom, but Crouch countered that Bashir had the idea they'd become a family mode of transport.

"Well he's got a point there," Lily nodded, her mind spinning curiously. "I suppose if they were charmed to simply look like a cloud or something, Muggle's wouldn't even pay too much attention to them. I really can see how they could work."

"I still don't see those replacing brooms," James shrugged, "plus, it's the same problems with the flying car. You can enchant it all day, but the charms will wear off, and eventually some Muggle will notice. It'll cause more harm than good I'm sure."

A spark of interest was still there in Lily's eyes, she looked fully prepared to actually start a debate with her husband about it, but Sirius groaned and pleaded, "can we do this later, I want to hear about the Cup, and this book's been dragging on it long enough already."

Lily huffed as she muttered "you never let me have any fun," but didn't argue as James happily kept going.

Crouch agreed his grandfather had owned one that could seat a dozen, before they were outlawed of course. His tone making it perfectly clear even his ancestors had abided by every law.

Harry felt a funny feeling about that, like he should laugh at Crouch and something to do with a law? Does he do something illegal? Harry couldn't process it very well, he was too busy watching Sirius pantomiming like he was trying to remove a stick from his arse.

Bagman changed the subject then, asking if he was very busy? Crouch agreed he was, it wasn't easy getting five continents organized. Mr. Weasley asked if they'd both be glad when this was all done, and Bagman was shocked, saying he was enjoying himself! Then again, there was something else to look forward to organizing, giving Crouch a conspiratorial wink.

"Now what's this?" Remus asked in surprise. "Something else that the Head of Sports is also involved in?"

"Clearly not just some dull meeting then," James nodded in curious agreement.

Crouch gave Bagman a stern look which he ignored, as he went on to say that everyone had signed, these kids would want to know! It was happening at Hogwarts-

"What?" All five of them yelped in surprise this time.

"Now what on earth-" Lily began faintly, shooting furtive looks at Harry, a sad but familiar feeling of fear starting to creep into her already. She was being paranoid of course, just because something was going down at the school this year didn't automatically place her son in danger, but she really couldn't beat the feeling away anymore, it had too much practice settling a coldness in her chest.

Harry was blinking spastically, just knowing something was there, this was a part of the echoing feeling he'd held when this was mentioned earlier, but it wasn't complete yet. Nor was it boding well that his first instinct was to not be pleased about it.

Still, none of them had a clue what this could be, so James kept going for now in hopes Bagman would say more.

Crouch cut back in with force this time, saying they needed to see to the Bulgarian's. Just as Percy was done with his tea, he handed it back and thanked him, again calling him Weatherby.

That wasn't as distracting and funny the second time, only Sirius managing a faint laugh at Percy's expense while the others were still wrapped up in curiosity.

Bagman happily agreed they could get going, then promised to see the rest of them tonight. He was commentating up in the Top Box with them.

James actually almost passed out, that distracted him! "Y-you-you're in the t-top-" he was clearly unable of stuttering that out, his eyes likely to fall onto his glasses any second they were getting so wide with excitement.

"You've literally got the best seat in the house," Sirius half screeched, "and they were just given to you! I'd pay my weight in gold for that kind of seat!"

Harry had a wide smile indeed on his face, childishly pleased at the experience he was fixing to get. The only thing that would make it better was having the four of them hear about it with him, so that he could picture all the more easily what it would have been like had they really been up there with him.

James was left a gasping mess before he slapped his brain back into action, already half yelling his excitement as he continued.

Bagman gave one last cheerful wave before they both Disapparated, and Fred at once pounced on his father, demanding to know what was going on at Hogwarts? He just gave a small smile as he said they'd see.

"Now that's just cruel," Lily sighed, though clearly none of the boy's noticed. She seemed the only one left to ponder on the Hogwarts part, the males were all jittering in place for the match to come.

Percy agreed that was classified, Bagman had been foolhardy even mentioning that much. Fred snapped at him to shut up, now referring to him as Weatherby as well.

"That jokes not going away anytime soon," Remus muttered to himself, more excited then he would care to admit to listen to this coming game.

As dusk began to settle, the Ministry gave up. More and more wizards were releasing their pent up excitement, so much so that it was no longer possible to contain.

Lily sighed, already rubbing at her ear in discontent, but still unable to tell off James for being so blatantly excited for what he was reading. He needed this release, Peter's betrayal would most likely return eventually and continue to eat away at him, so she knew she'd let him carry on like this as long as he could.

Salesmen were starting to appear, carts full of memorabilia for both teams, including Bulgarian scarves that roared like lions.

"I'd buy one of those just so I could take it back to Hogwarts," Sirius smirked, "it's a two for deal."

Ron happily told his friends he'd been saving up his pocket money for ages for this, buying a shamrock hat, and a miniature figure of Krum.

"Good to see Ron supporting his team," Remus snickered, now more unclear than ever which side he was rooting for.

Harry spotted something else and darted off to look at brass binoculars, which were covered in knobs and dials.

"Ooh, another good buy," James all but squeed. "Can be more than useful outside of just watching Quidditch games at Hogwarts too. We used them all the time to spy on the other houses, and the teachers, and-"

"Okay," Lily did cut in this time, "I sleep better having less knowledge of what you lot did in your free time in and outside of that castle."

"You know you love our stories," Sirius shot back at once, and his smirk only grew when Lily didn't deny it. Still, James was too pent up for the Cup to let them keep at it.

The sales wizard happily told them they were omnioculars, could be used to show play by plays of the game, reverse footage so you could replay, and only ten Galleons. Ron pouted that he wished he hadn't gotten his hat now, but then Harry bought three pairs for them. Ron tried to protest, always having been embarrassed his family sported so little money.

"Ah they get over it," James said from experience, watching Remus pretend to ignore his friends eyeing him. "You just got to keep at it and wave away the thanks, they repay you back in other ways."

Harry laughed it off, saying he wasn't going to give Ron anything for Christmas for ten years instead.

Causing Sirius to release a bark like laughter as he joked, "that's all you spend on his presents, a galleon? For shame Harry, I think you actually owe him a few more now."

Harry pretended to look offended for a few moments, but he couldn't hold the expression long as he started laughing.

Ron happily agreed now, and Hermione showed back up, thanked Harry and said that she'd gotten them programs.

"Oh yes, I'm so sure that was on their to do list," Remus nodded, feigning a straight face.

"She really saved them some gold by taking that task on," James agreed with a solemn nod, before the chuckling continued.

Their money bags considerably lighter,

"Worth it," Harry smirked.

they went back to find the others also bedecked with souvenirs, except the twins.

"I'm sure they won't regret that if it pays off," Sirius snickered.

Mr. Weasley was just saying how it would happen any minute now, when a gong went off, and lights began coming to life in the forest, glowing red and green lanterns marking a path. Arthur's excitement was as visible as anyone as he told them it was time to go.

James mouth sagged in shock when he realized that his chapter was over, then he turned the wide set eyes to Sirius, before his face turned just as quickly away and he handed over the book.

HPHPHPHP

A lot of this chapter turned out to be Remus and Lily ganging up on James and Sirius, and I'm not sorry for that. It was pretty fun, and the reason I sat those two beside each other.

*I googled what British money looks like, sorry my American is showing, and from what I could tell British have the numbers on their money as well, so that was my best guess at Arthur's confusion. If I'm wrong and there's something else going on, please correct me.

**Childishly happy shout out to the American and all other wizarding schools being revealed after all these years. I got sorted into Horned Serpent, let me know yours.

[romanceclub-confessionss]

Confession:

"Wait. WAIT. Who told Langley they wanted James to be a LI??? Simon, Avery, Logan and Jasper are right there ... and yall asked for James?? "

[fatehbaz]

In the Falklands: Intersections of extinction; the “Antarctic wolf”; colonialism, whiteness, racism, “invasion,” indigeneity; environmental history; decline of penguins; introduction of non-native European sheep, cats, cattle, pigs and ecological reinforcement of settler-colonial culture, etc.

 ----

Abstract: [...] I explore a series of ecological practices that demonstrate how some nonhumans become institutionalized into systems of racial and colonial classification whereas others appear natural. I show how agroindustrial and technoscientific value systems categorize human and nonhuman cohabitants according to degrees of political, economic, and ecological status through particular periods in the Falklands: from the eradication of ‘native pests’ (1833‐1982) to defence against ‘alien invaders’ (1982‐present). [...] Islanders have begun to uproot their own ecological imperial past through removal of British‐introduced ‘invasive’ species and native habitat restoration. [...]

In 1833, just months after the British settled the Falklands permanently, Darwin visited the islands. Upon disembarking from his vessel, he found himself among a small population of Englishmen, gauchos – debt‐bonded cattle herders – and other ‘runaway rebels and murderers’. [...] As in other cattle frontiers during this period, the largely mestizo (mixed‐race) gaucho workforce embodied barbarous danger and criminality for Darwin (Baretta & Markoff 1978). One particular species mystified the otherwise unflappable Darwin: the Falkland Islands wolf (or warrah). Darwin found no evidence that the species had been discovered anywhere else. The warrah was remarkably tame, and Selk'nam Natives used relatives of the same genus Dusicyon for hunting, pointing to the likelihood that humans had domesticated the warrah before arriving in the Falklands. Based on a comparison of the wolf's teeth with that of other South American species, scientists have now dated its origin in the Falklands to a period when an ice bridge connected the archipelago to the continent (Austin et al. 2013). Considered a threat during lambing season, the wolf was one of the Falklands’ first ‘native pests’.

Cattle and gauchos faced a similar fate to the warrah's under British rule. To tame and kill feral cattle, Samuel Fisher Lafone, an English merchant living in Montevideo, established the FIC in 1851‐2. The destruction of cattle ushered in a monopolistic land tenure regime focused on sheep farming. Parallel to this shift in livestock, British shepherds, primarily from the Scottish Highlands, displaced South American gauchos. The colonial government listed South American ‘Aliens’ and ‘Resident Strangers’ separately from ‘whites’ and ‘coloured’ in colonial reports. Passing an ‘Alien Ordinance’ in 1849, the government began deporting South American workers, who were suspected of spreading anti‐British views. By 1858, the FIC had ‘no Spaniard in its employ’ at Stanley. Besides the gauchos, British colonial administrators viewed sheep imported from Río de la Plata as a racially inferior breed. To ‘improve’ the South American sheep and yield higher rates of profit, settlers crossed the animals with ‘hardy’ English rams. [...]

The rising socioeconomic valorization of sheep produced a new assemblage of ‘native pests’. Farmers began to view birds of prey and scavengers, such as the striated caracara (known locally as the Johnny rook), the crested caracara (carancho), the giant petrel (stinker), the gull‐like skua and the turkey vulture, as dangers to lambs. Settlers also accused rare marine fauna, such as the burrowing Magellanic (or ‘jackass’) penguins, as well as sea lions, of causing soil erosion and grass degradation. Colonists and transient sealers dating back to the late eighteenth century slaughtered penguins, seals, and sea lions for oil and skins; they collected penguin and albatross eggs on a mass scale. Rendering these animals ‘native pests’, Falkland Islanders rationalized accelerated depletion. [...]

However, the wool industry introduced a sharp class division between growers and workers, exacerbated by an uneven land tenure system. While workers pined after the possibility of raising their own flocks, growers culled sheep at their employees’ behest. As proletarianized settlers began to self‐identify as ‘native’ Falkland Islanders, colonial administrators treated them as subjects rather than citizens. [...]

Despite their ambiguous racialization, rural labourers came to view themselves as proud ‘native’ Falkland Islanders. The term that would refer to a ‘native’ of the Falklands was kelper. Alluding to Kelp seaweed, the abundant marine flora surrounding the archipelago, ‘kelper’ indexed an individual born in the islands. Some repatriated Islanders in the United Kingdom and elderly residents in the islands still self‐identify as kelpers. This collective assertion of belonging engendered a possessive ‘white ethnic community construct’ (di Leonardo 1994; Frankenberg 1993; Harris 1993) as nativist Islanders protested labour recruitment from Patagonia following the Great Depression. [...]  

Settlers disregarded penguins as ‘native pests’ historically, but a widespread local embrace of biodiversity conservation has reclassified the Falklands’ seabird populations as ‘globally important. [...] Testament to their increased local value is that, presently, farmers protect penguin colonies from their sheep rather than the other way around. This reclamation of local seabirds as ‘natural assets’ signals a wider shift in the Islanders’ environmental management: not only do they prize livestock or exotic ‘native’ species, but they have also come to regard introduced species, including some of British origin, as ‘alien invaders’. [...]  While eradication of ‘alien’ plants is a priority, the most ‘high‐profile’ of the Falklands’ ‘alien’ species are insects. Apparently introduced via South America, the European earwig is invading Stanley residents’ homes and vegetable gardens. [...] Islanders negotiate daily irritation from the sovereignty dispute through talk of insect invasion.

------

James JA Blair: “Settler indigeneity and the eradication of the non‐native: self‐determination and biosecurity in the Falkland Islands (Malvinas).” 2017.

[maidenxfmight]

i will not bow

Tagging: @ofcosmicwonder, @daisyquakes, @ofalexdanvers & Kara When: The day the siege started Where: Central Park What: Donna tries to buy time for Alex to cure Kara. Donna loses. But so does Kara. Warnings: Violence, injury.

KARA: It wasn't enough, it wasn't enough it wasn't–

Kara's feet hit the pavement with a resounding crack, bricks and dust lifting up around her. She'd always been so concerned with restraint; carelessness led to destruction. Destruction led to fear. At one point in time, that might have meant something to her. There were those who proclaimed her a god, not to which they should pray, but rather contain.

They were the same people who wrote slurs on signs and screamed "roaches go home" from street corners. The very park in which she stood had played host to protests and anti-protests, to those who held up petitions and canvassed for hate. She'd once stood by the fountain with a notebook and asked for their thoughts and now all she wanted was to see it burn.

Dust and steam and melting bronze as the Angel of the Waters collapsed into the pool below. Her eyes lit red and she took one step forward before someone landed in front of her.

(No, not Donna. Just leave, just go, you don't want to–)

"Move, Donna."

DONNA: The tide of the news rose overnight and then the dam broke. Supergirl flying proud above the ruins. Destruction and chaos caused by the same hands that held a brush and painted with gentle strokes the beauty of a long-dead world. Something dark had infected Kara. Something dark like the demon Darkchylde that had controlled Illyana. Alex told her that it was some kind of kryptonite and the older Danvers sister had been working ceaselessly with Lena Luthor to find some way to reverse its effects, but time was running out. Each passing moment led to more violence inflicted under the crest of the House of El, and Donna knew each moment would only push Kara farther from her reach.

Donna had to reach her, or Donna had to stop her.

Shield strapped to her back, silver bracers on forearms, the same black and silver uniform that she'd first donned when fighting Darkchylde. Her lasso sat in pieces on the shrine in her room. The sword still hung on her wall. Whatever was happening, this was still Kara, and she would never raise her sword against Kara. No matter what the cost might be.

Donna landed as Kara's eyes glowed with a fire darker than any she'd seen before in the crystal blues that had always held a kindness and love deeper than any she'd seen in another. Even her voice didn't sound the same.

"No." A breath. "I can't. I won't."

KARA: Donna stood defiant and Kara burned. Her hands shook, her foothold on the Earth tentative at best.

There'd been something burning inside of her for so long. It had lit the moment her mother had but her on her pod and said go, even as the words 'let me stay' danced silently on the end of her tongue. She'd smothered it, stuffed it into every small space she could. She'd tried to shape it into something more suitable, let it out in bits and pieces every time her fist connected with a training mannikin, or the unfortunate villain of the week.

Donna helped temper it, once. She pushed and she gave in just the right amounts. She learned her language, said she loved her. And it always meant something, even if the pronunciation would never be quite right. They were sisters.

(They still were. Kara scrambled for purchase, even as her body took another step forward. She clawed at any logical thought she could find because ukiemodh w rrip eh donna and she always would. It mattered that Donna tried. Her traditions didn't have to be everything, so many of them were wrong. And Donna was right, Donna was– )

No. Because Donna didn't get the pronunciation right, she signed the Accords, she didn't get it. She only ever played at understanding, and Kara was done accepting it as enough. She was done accepting any of it as enough. Anger coiled hot and restless in her chest and there was no reason to hold it back anymore.

"Then I'll go through you." The heat behind her eyes pooled and released, uncaring that Donna was between her and the fountain.

DONNA: Kara took another step, but Donna held firm. An Amazon knew when to give and when to take, and now more than ever, Donna needed to be an Amazon -- with a strength of heart worthy of Athena's calling. It had been so long since Donna prayed, but now she prayed to the gods, to the Titans of Myth, to any deities that would listen... she prayed that they would bring Kara back to her.

The heat of anger rising from Kara was one possessed by Ares and his wars. Donna understood anger and war and lashing out against the ones held closest to your heart. She remembered a fight with Diana turned so physical that it had left their knuckles bloodied and chest heaving from the fire burning in each of them. She remembered other fights too -- ones not of this realm and universe. She remembered a world where her arm lay severed by her sister's sword. She remembered hurling Dick through a wall. She remembered the unseeing eyes of Teen Titans, dead by her own hands. She remembered the collapse of a universe and being alone, alive in its wake. She remembered a moon and a crest and being worshiped by mortals. A name humming in each reality: Troia.

No.

Donna noticed the shift as Kara spoke and her hand reached instinctively for the shield at her back, rolling to the side in order to narrowly miss the beams of heat shooting from Kara's eyes. She lowered the shield in front of her body as she stood firm, even as she felt the intense heat of the water now steaming around them, obscuring her vision to whoever may have been in the background. She had eyes only for Kara. "Kara," she shouted. "This has to stop. You're angry? Okay. Then, we go somewhere and crush cars, and if you need to hit someone, then you hit me. You don't tear down the Brooklyn Bridge!"

KARA: "Okay." Kara laughed, something high and not quite right, before she launched herself at Donna. She imagined her shoulder driving through the shield, their bodies hitting water and steam and cement. She didn't think much at all when she felt herself connect, focused only on driving forward.

The laugh melted into a yell, and if somewhere, somewhere she was crying, the water rising up around them would hide it.

"You don't get to tell me how to be angry." She thought of Cat, of James and his cars. Of train yards with Peter, and the way she always shoved it away. Hid it in small corners like it didn't exist, swallowed around it as Lena offered up devices disguised as humanitarian efforts, and when Clark flew away again.

She'd been so angry for so long and she hadn't realized how much it hurt until she'd landed in that office with Erik.

"No one does." The words ground out, breaking just around the edges, and she tried to focus on driving forward. On getting her hands on the obstacle (on Donna, it was Donna, Rao just remember who you're–), "Not anymore."

DONNA: No one dared come close to this fight. Humans made movies and talked about what they thought the 'clash of the Titans' might look like, but they had no idea. They could not really understand. An unstoppable force. An immovable object. Two impossible extremes.

The Teumessian Fox and the Laelaps. Dionysus once set the giant fox upon the city of Thebes as punishment for their crimes, a beast to devour their children... one deigned to never be caught. The King of Thebes charged his general Amphitryon with finding the impossible solution of stopping the monster, and he found one: the Laelaps, a dog destined to always catch its prey. One, a fox who could never be caught, and one, a dog who would always find its quarry. A paradox for the gods.

Kara's shoulder slammed into Donna and she let herself be pushed back, water spraying up like a wave around them until she dug in her feet and brought them to a stop, shield pressed tightly against her body. Steam surrounded them like a cloud, cutting them off from the rest of the world. Just the two of them for the first time in weeks. Perhaps Donna had waited a few weeks too many. "Then, tell me!" Donna shouted back, pushing the shield out and gritting her teeth, forcing an imperceptible space between them so she could look Kara in the eyes -- eyes reddened from anger and pain and loss. "Kara, just tell me." Not yelling anymore but firm in her resolve of buying time of doing something, anything to help Kara.

KARA: The steam shrouded around them, and suddenly Donna felt close. It seemed like it had been so long since the two of them had taken a moment for just them. Their apartment was a revolving door of visitors, her cousins, Jean, Scott, Cassie, even Olivia. Lar knew when to give them space, but he was still there.

It almost felt like it did with Alex; there was a careful distance neither of them had meant to create, but had created all the same.

"Oh, now you want to talk?" Kara moved away in a blink, water trailing up in her wake. Her eyes still glowed red in the steam. "Let's talk, then. What about how I sat by your side as you almost bled to death, and we still haven't talked about why."

She moved right, her eyes dimming. "Or how you're sleeping with the woman who almost killed you, even though you've admitted it doesn't make you happy.

"No, we don't really talk. If we did, you wouldn't have to ask me to tell you anything." Kara moved forward again, only far enough to send a wave of water Donna's direction, pulling in a breath and releasing until the water turned to ice. It arced in shards towards–

It's still Donna. It's Donna and Kara ached, but she couldn't bring herself to stop.

DONNA: She knew she deserved it -- every word of what Kara said. The two of them hadn't talked the way they used to in so long, and that was down to the both of them. But if Kara was so desperate for them to talk, then this wasn't going to be how Donna would have it. Now, the only words spewing from Kara's mouth were words intended to hurt.

And they did hurt. But they hurt even more knowing that wherever they were coming from was just the tip of the iceberg of what was truly wrong with Kara right now. Kara. Her best friend. As close to a soulmate as Donna could understand...

A wave roared toward her and crouched down and lifted her shield, holding her breath in expectation of a flood. Instead, she was met with shards of ice slicing through the uniform at her calves like dozens of tiny little razors coming for her. Donna grit her teeth and plucked out the few that had stuck in her legs before standing back up and facing Kara once more. Small cuts would heal, but this wasn't stopping. An immovable object. That's what she had to become. If Kara was the Laelaps that would always catch its prey, then Donna had to become like the Fox, illusive and uncatchable.

She just prayed that Zeus wouldn't see it fit to bring about an end to this infinite loop of paradox before Alex and the Luthor found a cure for whatever plagued Kara's mind.

"If we're going to talk, then let's talk. But not like this Kara. Not like this." Donna could only brace herself for what was inevitably going to be another attack, and maybe the fog in her vision wasn't just from the steam surrounding them now. Maybe the mist also came from her own eyes.

KARA: Not long ago, Kara may have listened. She would have put it off, waited for a more opportune moment. Or bottled it up, shoved it down and down until–

Rao, she was so tired. Tired of fitting herself around what others expected; tired of shoving things down until they were crammed so tight they hurt. It wasn't a feeling she'd felt all the often with Donna. But then there were signatures and colors, dreams and swords and lassos shattered. Suddenly there was so much about Donna Kara didn't know, and yet she stood asking her to bare all.

Bottle it up, let it out in a controlled trickle. But Kara had no interest in light rain, she was a hurricane, gathering force as it approached landfall. Donna thought words could temper her as they had before, but she was wrong.

Kara laughed, just as cold as the shards of ice Donna was picking from her legs. "Then how, Donna? Over text? When I've finally pushed enough? You want to take this over tea in our apartment while we pretend we're the same? I'm not interested, not anymore."

(They are, they are. There was so much they had in common, and their differences were always understood and celebrated. Donna bled the same. Kara loved her, she loved her, she–)

She dropped her shoulder and charged forward. If Donna wanted to try to be an immoveable object, Kara was going to show her how she could plow right through her.

DONNA: Her eyes had lost their reflection. Where blue used to reflect the moonlight, red swallowed everything around them. Red veins and red eyes and what was next? Were horns and hooves going to appear like that had with Illyana? Was Kara that far gone? No. Donna couldn't -- she refused to believe that. Because if that was the truth, then there was a sword and a duty to something she could never bring herself to do. The unstoppable force and the immovable object. The fox and the hound.

And then Kara pushed, shoulder lowered and enough force to send any man through the nearest building across the park. But Donna wasn't human, and she couldn't pretend to be one. Her shield raised to take the brunt of the force, sliding through the water a few feet before Donna planted her feet firmly and felt the ground CRACK and cave until they came to a jarring stop, calf-deep in splintered granite. Donna grit her teeth. This wasn't what she wanted, but it was what she had to do. She had to buy Alex and Lena enough time to finish the cure. Letting out a grunt, Donna pushed back to create enough space to escape the damaged ground and float up before bringing the shield back and slamming down on Kara's face. Donna had to hope... because that's what Kara would do.

KARA: She couldn't stop, she couldn't stop, she couldn't stop.

Donna didn't even reply, she took the hit and followed it with one of her own. The shield landed home on her face and for a moment the world spun wildly around her. If anyone could pack a hit that would actually hit, it was Donna. Invulnerable was an adjective given only by those who didn't actually know Supergirl. The hit landed, the world spun, and Kara knew they were done talking.

They'd never actually talked. All there was left was the burn in her chest and the obstacle in front of her. Someone standing between her and a home, someone asking her to temper herself when all she could feel was rage. Any hesitation left, thoughts spiraling, morphing hurt into anger.

She'd been holding back since the moment she landed. Be less, Kara. Too much and you'll break something: crashing through walls, plates shattered, cutlery bent around her fingers. Too strong to hug Eliza or Alex, to pet a cat. No more. She was done holding back.

One hand wrapped around Donna's shield on the follow-through, trying to use Donna's own momentum to yank it to the side as she brought her other hand around in a swing of her own.

DONNA: Blood sprayed across her face as Kara’s fist collided with her nose. Fuck. Her roommate held none of her strength back and Donna grunted as she held in a cry of pain. Fuck. The world feared them — feared those with powers to be like this. Unfettered and unleashed on a world that hated what it could not understand. Alien, meta, mutant, Amazon. Raw power wrapped in skin and bones and roaring to be set free. The man Hercules had enslaved the Amazons out of fear of what they could do, and the warriors, once free, had made him pray the price for his persecution of them. A bloody price. Donna remembered sitting on Hippolyta’s lap as her adopted mother recounted the tale behind the bracelets they wore. Bracelets of submission: as a reminder of the time when they were enslaved but also to remind them of restraint. Vowing to settle with words first and fists second.

Donna grit her teeth and wiped the blood from her crooked nose as she staggered back from the blow. “I can’t let you do this!” She shouted as her boots sloshed through water, the mist setting an eerie haze around them like a wall keeping the world outside of this moment. How she wished that the world would never see or remember this Kara, knowing that the Supergirl in front of her was the image that Kara fought with pen and paper to tear down — a being to be feared, not a hero. Donna had sworn to care for all those that Kara cared for, but in this moment she hated Lena Luthor for having any kryptonite in the first place because maybe then Magneto wouldn’t be able to use her friend like this. “Magneto is just using you! This isn’t the way, and you know it.” Donna circled Supergirl, tensed for the next attack that was bound to come. Because while Donna played defense, the Fates string pulled Kara along as the ever hunting hound — the Laelaps in relentless pursuit. If Donna could only be as cunning as the fox, maybe she could get in close enough to knock her best friend out until Alex could bring a cure.

KARA: "He's promising me a home!" Her voice broke on the last word, falling into the noise of the water and her hand scraping against Donna's shield. It broke because despite the red snaking through her veins and way her worst thoughts plowed over every good thought she tried to throw in their way, it still came from somewhere deep inside of her.

She wanted the Fire Falls and the Jewel Mountains and for dragons to be more than a marvel but an accepted normal. She wanted Alura's arms around her before bed and her family prayers and Zor-El's laboratory while Kara snuck underneath tables and between his various experiments. Kara wanted normal, she wanted it so bad it felt like it would consume her (it was, it already was). But she was never going to have normal. The best she could as for was a world that didn't fear her simply for being who she was. It was as close to home as she would ever get.

(But Alex, but Eliza and Donna and Lar. But Kon and Jon and Kal. There were so, so many reasons Earth was home, if she could only hold onto them for more than a fleeting moment, thoughts slip-sliding over each other to make room for all the reasons it wasn't.)

"He's promising me a home, Donna." It was so much easier to fall back into her anger. Everything else was too hard to hold onto. She gripped the shield with both hands and drove forward, pressing it with all her strength into Donna's chest, pushing them both down into the water. Her eyes glowed red, close. "And you're in my way."

DONNA: "A home?" Donna's voice broke on the same word as Kara's had. "Then what have we been living in together for months?" The tears threatened to choke her. Donna would go to war if she thought it would give Kara a home, but this wasn't it. Because a home for Kara couldn't be found in the violence. It was in the quiet moments when she could hear Lar and Kara whispering stories to each other in their bedroom while Donna hummed contently while stirring a pot of noodles. It was found when she came home from a long day of volunteering at the community center when her heart was breaking for these kids that didn't have a home to go to and Kara was sitting there waiting with re-runs of House Hunters queued up on the television and a bowl of popcorn just for the two of them. It was found in texts in their native languages because even if they couldn't always spell things the right way or the grammar was just a little imperfect -- the words were still there and they tried.

When had that stopping being enough?

Kara slammed into her with renewed vigor, with a dark fire in her eyes that drowned out all reason, pushing Donna down and into the foundation of the fountain. A snarl formed on her own lips and reared forward, slamming her head into Kara's to stun her long enough to flip their positions -- this time Donna driving Supergirl back with the force of her shield. "If you think this is the way, then you are spitting on Krypton's grave. This isn't you. Whoever did this to you -- I won't let them get away with it."

KARA: No, no no!

Donna's head struck hers and for a moment her vision blurred. Her fingers went slack and her head spun, water settling around her. For a moment, just a moment, her eyes met Donna's. Actually met. Her face was wet and her chest felt like it was caving in on itself, hollow and empty.

That was it, wasn't it? Everything broken down into one simple sentence. Rao, she'd never asked to be the last. She'd never asked to be the only one left to honor her family, her traditions, her culture her world. She'd been pushed into a pod and told to do great things. Her home had turned to dust and she hadn't been given a choice.

At thirteen cycles old, Krypton was her grave to honor, and she'd never once been asked. All clarity left in a moment.

"Don't–" She struggled against the shield pressing into her, movements increasingly jarred. "Don't tell me how to honor my people! Don't–"

The words came out cracked around the edges. There was nothing left but the burn in her chest. She worked to get her hands free, shifting underneath Donna and getting nowhere. The water rose and splashed around them, and she couldn't move, and she didn't want this, she didn't want this (she really didn't want this). "Don't talk about Krypton!"

Her eyes lit red and released with a scream.

DONNA: She held the line, shield locked against her body as she pressed down and back against Kara like she'd been taught to as a youth on Themyscira alongside the fiercest race of warriors. An immovable object. But Kara was like the unstoppable force of the hound and something had to give -- one of them had to snap.

Energy pooled within her body until she no longer felt that her body was her own. Every fiber of being connected together until shield became an extension of muscle and became part of bone. A perfect unity even with the water foaming around them as Kara lashed back in frantic and stuttered movements. The moon reflected back at her and Donna felt its pull, calling out something deep within her. A raw energy in the dark that pulsed through her veins until she could feel pressure rising in her blood, rushing and pushing her. Every beat of her heart saying to consume and shatter and break the alien in front of her. Donna could see herself pulling at the moon to control tides until the fox became the hound. The hunted became the hunter. A white light of the moon shining through her eyes and stars dancing in her hair and the strength of a thousand gods coming forward to --

No. Donna closed her eyes and let out a yell, just as Kara screamed and a red so bright burst forth that Donna could see even through closed eyelids. A pain like a hammer hitting an anvil struck her body and suddenly she was flying and landing with a splash, eyes fluttering open for a moment so that she could see the stars. There. There they were in the night sky. The punishment for creating an ultimate paradox was mutual destruction, and the gods struck Laelaps and the Teumessian turning them both to stone and placing them in the sky. Canis Major and Minor. Donna smiled for a second through the pain before her eyes fluttered shut.

The unstoppable force had won, so maybe the gods would be kind and let the one still live.

KARA didn't feel, not anymore. Nothing but the fire that raked red hot through her veins. Her vision was bathed in orange and the only thing that mattered was getting up. Was wrapping her hands around the force that held her down and wrenching it in half. It didn't matter that it was Donna.

(It was, oh Rao it was Donna.)

Everything pooled into her eyes and then Donna was gone, the pressure released. Her breath left her in a rush, her throat raw, her lungs aching. She stood with water dripping down her temple, off the ends of her hair into the uneasy waters of the fountain. It was dusk when they started, now stars reflected bright off the pool around them. The glow of her eyes faded as she stepped forward, listening to the sound of Donna's heart beat once, twice...three times.

Pause.

For a moment she was left with only the sound of the water as it settled, small waves lapping and broken stone. Somewhere a helicopter beat a steady staccato against the night sky. And nothing. And nothing.

Kara felt like she was collapsing in on herself. A moment of clarity rushing over her as her eyes widened, her breath stalling in her chest. What. What. Her eyes glassed over and she wasn't sure if it was with fear, agony, or anger that she began to reach forward, praying to Rao for the next beat of her best friend's heart.

Thump.

DAISY: She had seen it by chance. A glimpse at a television that still had power in the city. A glimpse was all it had taken — a scrolling line of text at the bottom. Kara was fighting Donna. Daisy hadn’t wasted a second, she had given her companion a nod and an excuse that he understood — people were important. And Donna was important to Kara, which was why Daisy couldn’t wrap her head around what she had seen. She didn’t get a lot of what had happened, Kara destroying the bridges and keeping people trapped in a city that was burning — Kara cared about people. In a selfless — almost self-destructive way, so, what happened? What changed?

There was no time to waste, Daisy propelled herself into the air with her powers, she hadn’t quite perfected this, but there was no time like the present. She landed on a roof and then quickly traveled, jumping from roof to roof with the assistance of her powers, a careful balance of enough power to throw herself forward and not leave the building she had been on in ruins. (The Stark made gloves helped reduce the reverb, but knowing her limits? Daisy wasn’t particularly skilled at that yet.)

Flinging herself into the air again, once she was close enough to see the fight, she hit the ground with some buffering from her powers, a circle of cracked Earth formed around her. And Daisy inhaled as she stood up straight, eyes shooting up to see Donna lying on the ground a short distance from her. Unmoving.

Kara moved forward and Daisy immediately jumped between her and Donne. “Kara,” she said in warning, a hand up, her palm pointed towards Kara’s chest. A threat. Silent, but clear. Kara knew what Daisy could do if she wanted. “I don’t want to do this.” Don’t make me. Daisy kept her gaze locked on Kara, the expression on her face — she looked distraught... then why had it gone this far? What could have possibly happened here to lead to this. “But I will if you don’t stand down.”

KARA: She didn't even see Daisy, not at first. She only saw Donna, how her eyes fluttered closed, how the twitch of her fingers stilled. She waited and waited and Daisy was saying something, but Kara couldn't hear a thing. Not until Donna's heart gave another thump, and another. The pressure in her chest eased, and she could think, she could–

No no no it was all wrong. She was supposed to find a home on the other side of the flames. They just had to let her get through them. They had to.

Somewhere behind her, friendships were piling up, tattered and torn. It should register that this wasn't one of them. Daisy was spilled ink and confessions neither of them truly meant to make, but accepted anyway. She was once-a-week text messages, and stumbling over acceptance she deserved, even if she didn't fully understand it. Kara had chosen to love Daisy.

And Daisy was choosing to be another obstacle.

"Move, before I make you." Red snaked across her face, fire crawled beneath her skin. She didn't even wait for an answer before stepping forward; she was done with words.

DAISY: She had never imagined her friendship with Kara coming undone like this. She never thought that she’d catch Supergirl on TV beating her friend half to death — she never imagined that Kara would fall so far from the person she had been in that cafe, carefully keeping her composure while masking who she was. A broken pen the only show of force that Daisy could claim to have witnessed.

Every other moment had been touched on with kindness, with a softness — a gentleness that Daisy could have never have claimed to have earned. A whisper of family. The talk of value — that they mattered to each other. But Daisy was looking at Kara with this feeling building in her chest. A red glow just under Kara’s skin, a flicker of the color in her eyes. (A different meaning of seeing red. Or maybe the same... just more plain.)

Was this Kara? Or something else? Something like Hive? Crawling in her mind, drawing out the ugliest, meanest part of her soul?

Standing her ground, Daisy could feel Donna’s pulse behind her, the familiar beat of her heart — the quiet vibrations of her body that said that she was alive. (Would she make it? Daisy couldn’t claim to know that.)

“No. You’ve done enough.” The words came out harsher than Daisy had intended, but she didn’t back down. Kara took a step forward and Daisy... she couldn’t risk it. Daisy couldn’t wait for Kara to come ot her senses, couldn’t let her get any closer to Donna without risking Donna’s life. That had always been the line for Daisy. The lives of others. “Stand down,” Daisy commanded before focusing only one hand on Kara, holding back a fraction of her power, not wanting to kill Kara. The air around her hand shifted in a visible way, waves surrounding her hand and cutting through the air until it pushed into Kara. Strong enough to make each step Kara took more labored, but not enough to still her completely. “This is your only warning. Is this what you want, Kara?”

ALEX: It had taken longer than Alex would have liked to find a cure for the Kryptonite that Kara had been affected with. First she'd had to go over the research about the creation of the Kryptonite that Lena had brought her, then she had to find a way to reverse the effects it'd had on her sister. Blue Kryptonite was what she was testing now, it was the molecular opposite of green, which Alex had made by reversing the ionic charge of green Kryptonite, hopefully this would work because honestly she was out of ideas. Donna was trying to distract Kara, buy Alex some time to find a cure but from the updates her agents were giving her it didn't seem to be going her way. She'd just gotten the results back when one of her agents came into give her the latest update, Donna was down, they weren't sure if she was alive, but someone else had shown up to confront Kara now.

Alex knew she was running out of time with this cure, though the test results of the blue Kryptonite seemed to show it would reverse what Lena's Kryptonite had caused. It was liquid instead of a solid form so she would have to use a syringe with a green Kryptonite needle to inject it into Kara. Once the cure was in the syringe and the needle had been replaced by one of green Kryptonite Alex changed into Green Lantern and flew towards Central Park. It wasn't until she was there she saw who the other person was, Daisy, who seemed to be holding Kara's attention for now, she still had to be quick though if she was going to be able to get the cure to her sister. She landed behind Kara, moving to inject the blue Kryptonite into her neck hopefully before Kara realized what was happening.

KARA: "Yes!"

Kara tried to take a step forward, but her feet rooted to the ground. Her very bones rattled, her vision blurred. Why couldn't anyone just leave her be? She just wanted a home, she just wanted to be free. She didn't want to be hated, or revered, or held on a perfect pedestal where feelings didn't matter. She wanted to feel, Erik had allowed her to feel so much.

(Of one thing, of one thing, Kara.)

This was what she wanted, and Daisy was trying to stop her. Like Donna, like Jon and Kon. Her words fell into a scream as she tried desperately to step forward. Her eyes lit red, and–

Something pricked at her neck, and suddenly everything hurt. The fire in her veins pulling out like thousands of needles, like kryptonite. A red mist lifted from her and she had a moment, just a moment. A moment of thank you, and finally, and she could think, she could feel for the first time in days. She was Kara, and there was Daisy, and Donna.

And Donna. Her chest seized and she couldn't breathe and everything went black.

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

Fawley Family - History, Head-canons, and other stuff

I’ve been delaying this post for far too long, so let’s talk about the Fawleys. This will not be canon to Remembrance, (Though I might mention spoilers from the fic, so be warned.) as I’m working on a Ravenclaw AU for Luca (Spelled “Luka” in this timeline.)  that is as of yet going to remain unfinished because I want to know the full story of HPHM before I finish it - Mainly concerning Rakepick and R.

Politics 

So, The Fawleys are part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. I’m inclined to think they don’t really care about their status in the Pureblood Directory, even though it’s an inherently racist document. As opposed to the Malfoys, who pride themselves on their inclusion, and the Weasleys, who can’t stand that they were put in. The Fawleys have never properly declared for one side of history or another. They never supported the Death Eaters, but they also didn’t join the Order of the Phoenix. They’ve never been hostile or dismissive to muggles, but they also mingle with the more racist pure-blood families. They keep their options open, and as a result, most people tend to enjoy their company, but don’t fully trust them. It helped that they were usually sorted into Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, and were therefore able to keep out of the school-age rivalry between the Lions and the Snakes.

Reputation

Of course, The Fawleys aren’t entirely popular either. People tend to avoid them in general, particularly if they’re superstitious and believe in things like the Grimm. This is because, for countless generations, The Fawley Family has been...well, there’s no simpler way to put it, than horribly unlucky. Misfortune seems to follow them wherever they go. It doesn’t usually affect those close to them too directly, although it can. Fawleys are known for madness, as a great number of them go off the deep end over time, even if there were no warnings signs. Far too many have committed suicide. The history of this family is a trail of blood and tears. People have noticed over time, and rumors grew that the family is cursed...and they actually are not wrong. A curse does indeed live in the blood of the Fawleys, and is unfortunately passed down genetically. It doesn’t strictly cause bad luck or anything, but the rumors are still true. 

Lineage

Being one of the oldest pure-blood families in the U.K, they can trace their heritage back hundreds of years. The oldest notes about the family tree suggest that the children of Merlin and Morgan Le Fay, were in fact the Fawley’s original ancestors. There is no way to verify this, of course, and unlike some of the more pompous Wizarding families, they see no need to parade it or make any claims. If it’s true, great. If not, whatever. (In my head, this rumor is definitely true, but it doesn’t change much about them either way. It’s just fun to think about.) On the other hand, it seems to be fact that many generations of the Fawleys were hunters who lived in the woodland and caught their food, sometimes doing odd jobs for hire - this is where the name Fawley (roughly translating to “fowl”) comes from. 

Signature

Several pure-blood families have some kind of motto or sigil. The Malfoys and the Blacks both have a crest, and the Fawleys do too. You might be expecting a bird, but this is not the case. During the War of the Roses, the Yorkshire muggles received some unexpected help from mysterious advisors, who became infamous for their abilities to control people and arrange the deaths of enemy soldiers before they even set foot in battle. Many were grateful for the aid, others voiced doubt, fearing and mistrusting the advisors. They seemed to vanish after the wars ended, having earned the nickname, “The Black Roses.” Sometimes derisively, sometimes approvingly, depending upon who was asked. Within the Wizarding community, however, the Fawleys never hid that they and some of their closest friends had been the Black Roses. It became their symbol.

Darkness 

As stated, the Fawleys have never been Anti-Muggle, not have they favored blood supremacy. But whether or not they stand against the Dark Arts tends to vary between the generations - the Black Roses definitely used dark magic in their efforts, for example. Rarely do any of them go full-out and cross to the dark side. Most of them favor unicorn wands. Rarely do any of them turn completely evil. But a wizard who can employ both light and dark magic is a versatile one, which is advantageous in multiple ways, particularly when it comes to exploring magic itself. What is consistent across centuries of the family is that they like to experiment, they push the study of magic to it’s limits. Some of them became spell inventors. Others travel all over the world in pursuit of greater powers and secrets. More than once, a Fawley has gone off the grid and simply disappeared, never to be heard from again. 

Friendships

The Sacred Twenty-Eight is composed of the core families that often inter-marry, either due to coincidence or to intentionally keep the blood pure. In the Fawleys case, it was the former. There was no rule about avoiding marriages to Half-bloods and Muggles, and sometimes these would even happen - but the number of premature deaths that occurred in this family unfortunately cut off any branches that might have formed. Most consistently, the Fawleys seemed to associate with the Burkes, the Greengrass’s, and especially the Blacks. They had a consistent, ongoing friendship and occasional rivalry with the Black family. They would explore the boundaries of magic together. Sometimes they would be mortal enemies, at others they would protect each other. Many Fawley-Black marriages occurred, and present day, Tonks is distantly related to Luka and Gail. 

Abilities 

The Fawleys have frequently become Healers and either worked at St. Mungos or started smaller practices and apothecaries of their own. Some say this tendency to heal is born of the anguish the family regularly faces. After all, many say the kindest people are those who have suffered the most. Others say that learning these skills became a necessity with how many tragedies there were. But regardless, they usually have talent in the Healing Arts. Typically a Fawley will be gifted in either Charms, Potions, Herbology, or some combination of the three. They are also natural fliers, despite having little interest in Quidditch itself, most of them know their way around a broom. On an unrelated note, I like to imagine the Fawleys, ever-neutral, generally keep themselves out of Quidditch culture, but would be fans of the Montrose Magpies. Finally, we know from canon that MC and Jacob are Legilimens’, so I’d say natural talent toward this magic runs in the family.

Home 

In the Remembrance timeline, the Fawleys live in a small cottage off the coast of a place called Dulcimer Beach, always cloudy and with black sands. However, I like to imagine that at least one branch of the Fawley family grew up in Godric’s Hollow, perhaps just outside the cemetery. I don’t know, there’s something about growing up literally next to a graveyard, that kinda suits them in my opinion. Plus. the whole idea of them being nearby when James and Lily died, even if they weren’t at all connected to it. Not sure where I’ll put the twins in the AU, I might have each of them in one of these two places. All I know is, they have a garden with a bed of black roses, that have magical properties and are used in their potion making. 

The Curse

If the Fawleys have one fatal flaw, that is consistent across the vast majority of them...it’s curiosity. This is why they’re usually in Ravenclaw. It’s why Jacob went after the vaults.They don’t thirst for knowledge but when presented with the idea of a secret they don’t know...they want to know it. This family has done terrible things over the years in their journey to learn the darkest secrets imaginable. They don’t crave power, they just want to see how powerful they can actually become. While they often use that power for good...it always comes with a price. The Curse...was their own doing. Despite spreading rumors that it was the Fault of the Blacks, the Fawleys placed the curse in their blood on themselves, centuries ago. Present day, the current inheritors of the curse don’t even know this to be true. 

Heirlooms 

Just one. A set of thick, fur-lined robes that are white and lined with black, as well as having a black rose emblazoned on the side, usually concealed when the robes are bundled up. Supposedly, these belonged to one of the “Black Roses” but there’s no way to know if that’s true. They could have been made years later, as a simple reference. But Luka’s father Arik had them, and his father before him. Other than that...I suppose there is the Wizard’s Chess set that they have? But it’s only a couple of generations old. 

The Cabal

I’ll get straight to the point. No matter what R winds up being, no matter who they are or what they want, my personal theory or head-canon is that MC’s family has been connected to them, or at least to the Cursed Vaults, for longer than we initially thought. That Jacob and MC being sought out by them was no accident or coincidence. I believe the Fawleys are deeply involved with the Cabal, and have been all along, perhaps going back many generations. Perhaps Dumbledore or the Aurors already know this, and simply keep it from MC. This could also play in to how they never sided with the Death Eaters or The Order - they already had a faction they had pledged loyalty to. 

Miscellaneous 

I’ve always pictured them as Iranian, at least for the past several generations. I also think having twins is not unusual for them, since it seems to happen more consistently in certain families. However, still-born babies and miscarriages, not to mention infertility, are all the more common. As for family traits, I see the Fawleys typically having large dark brown eyes, thicker, longer hair, and smaller, button-like noses. Luka is lactose intolerant, Gail is dyslexic. As I alluded to, they love Wizard’s Chess and probably don’t like Gobstones very much. They generally don’t believe in superstitions and many will claim the Fawley Curse is a hoax, even if they know this not to be true. I also have always imagined them as being Jewish, and if I ever write a reboot fanfic of the Ravenclaw AU, I’d like to incorporate that into the story more. 

Damn if you actually read all of my nonsense you deserve a cookie ☺️ If there are any questions about the Fawleys or head-canons for your own OC's family, please share them!

[thecreaturecodex]

Velroc

Image by James Zhang, © Wizards of the Coast. Accessed at the Dragon Magic Art Gallery here

[I guess Dragon Magic had to prove the latter part of its title by having both an anti-magic dragon (the spelleater) and a wild magic dragon (this guy). My version differs somewhat mechanically from the original, but it meets the same design goals--it can redirect and duplicate spells cast near it. I also changed their alignments from CN to CE, based on their listed ecology and behavior.]

Velroc CR 12 CE Large Dragon This creature is a blue-scaled, bipedal dragon, with a beaked maw and a crest of feathers. The light plays off of its scales in an odd way.

Velrocs are wyvern-like dragons infused with wild magic. Although they are more intelligent than their wyvern progenitors, they are even crueler, viewing all non-dragons as prey to be tormented before being killed and eaten. Velrocs prefer to lair in rough terrain, swooping down over the plains and flying for great distances in search of fun-looking prey. They often target well armed and defended groups intentionally, looking to test their mettle, rather than resort to eating mere animals.

A velroc’s abilities come into play most when fighting spellcasters. They can mimic spells they see, although this copying must be done quickly or the velroc’s disordered mind rapidly loses track of the spell. Their sting is no longer venomous, but instead carries a curse that weakens the magical ability of those afflicted. And they can redirect spells cast near them, causing mages to injure their own allies or affect the velroc with beneficial spells by mistake. After a few rounds of delighting in the chaos these magical feats cause, a velroc will typically lift a light-looking adversary in its claws and fly away with them, dropping them from a height if they struggle too violently. Velrocs value their own safety highly, and will usually flee if outmatched.

Velrocs are solitary creatures, simply because they distrust and hate members of their own species as much as they hate other species. When velrocs come together to mate, they typically fight over which parent will get to raise the children and indoctrinate them with their various values, and these fights are often fatal to the weaker parent. Young velrocs are treated as little more than slaves by their surviving parent, until they grow large enough to possibly challenge their parent for dominance, at which point they are driven away, fled from or killed. Velrocs are highly territorial, and battle other creatures for control of their hunting grounds—the exception are true dragons, which velrocs fear.

Velroc   CR 12 XP 19,200 CE Large dragon Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +21, scent Aura spellwarp (120 ft.) Defense AC 26, touch 13, flat-footed 22 (-1 size, +3 Dex, +1 dodge, +13 natural) hp 168 (16d12+64) Fort +14, Ref +13, Will +14 DR 15/magic; Immune sleep and paralysis effects; SR 23 Offense Speed 30 ft., fly 80 ft. (good) Melee 2 claws +21 (1d8+6 plus grab), bite +21 (2d6+6), sting +21 (2d6+6 plus curse) Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft. Special Attacks copy spell Spell-like Abilities CL 16th, concentration +20 At will—detect magic 3/day—quickened dispel magic 1/day—antimagic field Statistics Str 22, Dex 17, Con 18, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 19 Base Atk +16; CMB +23 (+27 grapple); CMD 37 Feats Combat Expertise, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Mobility, Quicken SLA (dispel magic) Spring Attack, Whirlwind Attack Skills Acrobatics +19, Fly +24, Intimidate +23, Knowledge (arcana) +20, Perception +21, Spellcraft +20, Stealth +18 Languages Common, Draconic Ecology Environments any plains or hills Organization solitary or pair Treasure standard Special Abilities Copy Spell (Su/Sp) If a velroc succeeds a Spellcraft check made to identify a spell being cast, it may use that spell as a spell-like ability on its turn. The spell-like ability uses the velroc’s caster level (16th) and save DCs (14 + spell level). If the velroc chooses not to use an observed spell on its turn, it loses the opportunity and must observe the spell again to use it. Curse (Su) Injury—sting; save Will DC 22; duration permanent until removed; effect -1 to caster level. Multiple failed saves against this effect stack. A creature’s caster level cannot be reduced to 0 or below with this ability. The save DC is Charisma based. Spellwarp Aura (Su) Any time a creature within 120 feet of a velroc attempts to cast a spell with a range other than personal or touch, it must succeed a caster level check, as if overcoming the velroc’s spell resistance. If it fails, the velroc can choose the spell’s target instead, as long as that target is also within the area of the velroc’s spellwarp aura and is legal for the spell cast. A velroc is immune to its own spellwarp aura and the aura of other velrocs.

[butterflydm]

The Magicians Revisited: 1x05 Mendings, Major and Minor

Significant moments: Quentin asks Dean Fogg if anything will happen to Julia because of what she did in 1x04; Dean Fogg essentially tells him not to worry about Julia or her current life.

Julia is trying to get her hands on the spells that Marina stole from Brakebills now that Marina has cut her off.

Fogg is trying to get Alice back into the loop of his and Jane’s little magicians’ group, after she stormed out at the end of 1x03.

The school is having their Alumni week, where the current students try to get one of the school’s graduates to mentor them. Eliot and Margo want to get more exciting mentors than they had last year, Q is just kinda drifting along, and Alice arrives with her aunt, Genji, who is a famous magician who runs a retreat and is reputed to be a strong personality. Q apologizes to Alice for boxing her brother’s niffin, and Alice sorta kinda accepts the apology.

Penny is doing work by himself and a mentor named Stanley foists himself upon him. Travelers are rare, Stanley explains, so Penny doesn’t get a choice in who mentors him. He tells Penny that being a traveler is a life-destroying curse. Astral projection is like “traveler’s training wheels”, he says, but he tells Penny that he should forcibly stop himself from ever doing more by getting a tattoo that prevents physical traveling.

Q asks Eliot and Margo for advice on impressing a mentor. Margo tells him to do a good job in the upcoming Welters match that the school is throwing. Eliot thinks the game is boring, Margo likes it.

Q gets a message that his dad, Ted, is sick and goes to visit him in Jersey. He learns that his dad has brain cancer. Ted is worried about Q because he hasn’t seen him since he started at the new school. He tells Q not to study finance and to do something that makes him happy, like card tricks. At first, Ted plays off his cancer as less bad than it really is, but squares with him after Q walks in on him throwing up. Q asks why Ted isn’t taking treatments, and his dad tells him that trying to fix things sometimes makes them worse.

Now, both Eliot and Margo are definitely making up to Alice with the thought of gain for themselves — they (believe they) are competing against each other to get mentored by her aunt. Yeah, seeing how fake this attempt is does confirm for me that Margo’s friendship attempts in the first episodes were genuine, because she’s so much less… herself in this scene talking to Alice.

Julia reconnects with James and is still searching for more spells on her own. After she gets hurt, she calls Pete come to help her out. She trades him sex for information. She’s not impressed with the safe houses he sends her to. When he suggests they leave New York together to seek out places with more magic, with an interest in turning their sex into romance, she turns him down.

Q talks to one of the mentors about healing magic and whether or not it’s possible to cure cancer. She tells him that cancer is not considered treatable and this is potentially because it’s too much a part of the body to separate it or, alternatively, that cancer itself is a magical result of an old curse (which I guess gets confirmed in S3/S4). She tells him that some magic comes at too great a cost to actually use.

The physical kids play Welters against the nature kids, but Quentin gets distracted because he can’t stop thinking about his dad’s cancer. Q creates a spell that wipes the board and wins the game — tying back to Eliot’s point in 1x02 that magic is fueled more by pain than by talent, I guess, though this is not something the show is consistent about. At the party after the game, Margo has a personal talk with Quentin about magic and what powers it.

Penny meditates and focuses on Victoria’s voice and discovers her location, trapped in a dungeon cell. The Beast comes in to interrogate her, and then speaks to Penny, freaking him out so much that he shocks back to his own mind in Brakebills. He confronts Stanley about lying - there was a traveler in the missing third-year class named Victoria. Stanley basically tells Penny to protect himself by getting the anti-traveling tattoo and forget about helping other people. Stanley does not know Penny well enough to know that Penny can’t help himself from helping other people, even if he actively dislikes them.

Eliot talks to Alice, there’s an opportunity for them to potentially build a friendship… he’s being sincere, she’s not immediately shutting it down… and then Q interrupts and hauls Eliot off, cutting short that particular seed of possibility. We’ll see how Eliot and Alice develop as a potential friendship as we continue along! Anyway, Q asks Eliot about Cancer Puppy, and, with Eliot’s help, Q does a spell to try to cure the puppy. It goes… poorly.

Q and Dean Fogg talk about the late Cancer Puppy, the failed spell, and the essence of magic. There’s a lot here that obviously Fogg wants to impress onto Quentin for the sake of the immediate danger of the Beast - we can't fix everything but we can fix some things, so fix what you can. And the warning that magicians are not just the caster of magic, but also the material through which magic is cast. After that conversation, Q goes to talk to his dad again. He shows his dad magic by repairing the model airplane that he broke when he was a kid and tells his father he’s learning real magic.

Julia talks to James and he’s forgotten her existence. She goes to the hedge witch bodega and accuses Pete of selling her out to Marina, and he tells her that she’s out of control and doesn’t listen to anyone’s advice.

Alice decides to stay at the school and her aunt decides to mentor no one. In her next class with Q, Alice tries to comfort him about his dad. He tells her he’s glad she came back to Brakebills.

Kady and Penny talk about what he saw in the dungeon with the Beast. She recommends he talk to Alice and Q, since they were involved in the spell and what happened with the Beast. He’s reluctant, but agrees. Q immediately recognizes that the crest is Ember’s seal, from Fillory.

Magic: 1. Q is practicing a spell when Alice drops by to give him a message from the office that his dad is sick. 2. Julia creates invisible fire in her apartment. 3. The students do spells for the Welters game. 4. Julia shows off a spell for the hedge witches that Pete sent her too. 5. Penny astral-projects to Victoria’s location. 6. Gerrold the Cancer Puppy is being kept a puppy through anti-aging magic but that kind of magic does not prevent diseases. 7. Q tries - and fails - to cure Cancer Puppy. 8. Dean Fogg’s glasses show him outlines. 9. Q repairs the plane that he broke when he was two. 10. Marina made James forget Julia’s existence

Relationships: Quentin & Julia: estranged friends Quentin & Eliot: friends, confidantes, romantic undertones Quentin & Penny: frenemies & reluctant allies Quentin & Alice: friends, romantic undertones Penny & Kady: romantic & sexual relationship Kady->Penny: manipulative relationship Marina & Julia: burned bridges Pete & Julia: transactional -> burned bridges Marina -> Kady: blackmail/extortion Quentin & Kady: friendly but not friends Jane&Fogg->Quentin&co: manipulative mentorship Julia & James: relationship broken through a memory-erasure spell Eliot & Margo: best friends (with a competitive streak) Margo & Quentin: friends Eliot & Margo->Alice: fake friendliness Penny & the Beast|Martin: enemies with a personal interest Alice->Kady & Penny: allies Penny->Alice: allies Kady->Alice:  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Physical contact: Julia tries to physically push past Pete into the hedge witch hideout and he stops her. Margo and Eliot hold hands as they walk through the gardens during Alumni week. Eliot presses his arm against Q’s when he stands next to him. The boy sitting next to Eliot in the cottage is hand-feeding him food. Ted Coldwater touches Q’s shoulder and hugs him. Julia sits in James’s lap as she’s trying to convince him that she’s doing better and kisses him. Julia kisses James again before he leaves her apartment. Pete takes care of Julia’s injured hand after her invisible fire spell. She kisses him and they have sex in exchange for him giving her info on other hedge witch safe houses. Margo smacks Q on the shoulder to get him to pay attention to her and come play in the Welters game. Penny and Kady snuggle post-sex. Stanley brushes past Penny as he’s leaving. Eliot hands Alice a drink. Q grabs Eliot by the wrist and pulls him off for a private conversation. Q takes Cancer Puppy from Eliot. Q and Eliot’s fingers brush while they’re working up the spell to try to cure the puppy. Q touches his dad gently on the chest to wake him up. Pete touches Julia as he tries to usher her out of the bodega. Margo holds Eliot’s arm as they go to try to compete over Alice’s aunt as a mentor. They snuggle as they walk away after the conversation is over. Alice’s fingers brush Q’s when she’s talking to him about his dad; he pulls away. Kady and Penny touch casually as he works on drawing out what he saw in the dungeon where Victoria is being kept. Q and Alice’s shoulders brush when they stand up together.

Character Notes: Penny: Pisces. Margo: is reading “The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science”. Quentin: his parents are divorced and don’t really like talking to each other. His dad has brain cancer. He’s still on his dad’s insurance, so his dad knows he checked into Midtown Mental Health and that Q isn’t taking his meds, since they are coming to Ted’s house. Q broke the wing off one of his dad’s model planes when he was two. Ted Coldwater: used to build model airplanes with his dad. He now knows that magic is real. Julia: not generally a good baker, as James is surprised that what she made tastes like ‘people food’. Kady: does not recognize Fillorian imagery. At this point in the series, we’ve got two known Fillory fans (Julia and Quentin) and three known non-fans (Kady, Alice, and Penny). Margo has not yet been revealed to be the stealth nerd queen of our hearts, so I’m looking forward to that. And, iirc, Eliot likes the books but does not know all the details by heart the way that Margo, Q, and Julia do.

Students: Stanley claims that Penny is the first traveler at Brakebills in 35 years, but Penny learns in this episode that Victoria - who went to Brakebills in 2013 and is part of the famous missing third-year class - is a traveler too. Third-years: Victoria Second-years: Margo, Eliot First-years: Alice, Penny, Quentin, Kady

Timeline Notes: Julia and Pete’s second talk is two days after she casts the invisible fire spell and sleeps with him. Other than that, time is a mystery.

Who is in Fillory? The Beast Victoria Penny (briefly)

[brookston]

Holidays 11.30

Holidays

Argyle Day

Blue Beanie Day

Bonificio Day (Philippines)

Cities For Life Day

Clear Up the Clutter Day

Commemoration Day (UAE)

Computer Security Day

Day of Friendship

International Computer Security Day [Last Workday]

International Soccer Day

Judge A Book By Its Cover Day

Magal de Touba (Senegal)

Monitor Your Monitor Day

National Day (Dahomey renamed Benin, 1975; Benin)

National Mason Jar Day

National Methamphetamine Awareness Day

National Mississippi Day

National Personal Space Day

Native Women’s Equal Pay Day 2022 ( website ) 

Perpetual Youth Day

Rabbit Rabbit Day [Last Day of Every Month]

Regina Mundi Day (South Africa)

Sfantul Andrei (Romania)

Squirrel Hunt Day

Stay Home Because You're Well Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Ham and Roast Beef Night

National Mousse Day

Scotch Ale Day

4th & Last Wednesday in November

National Package Protection Day [Wednesday after Thanksgiving]

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting [Wednesday after Thanksgiving]

Women Wednesday (a.k.a. Women Wow or Choose Women Wednesday) [Wednesday after Thanksgiving]

Independence Days

Barbados (from UK, 1966)

Yemen (from UK, 1967)

Feast Days

Andrew (Christian; Saint) [Scotland]

Andrzejki (Feast of Love Divinations; Pagan)

Bolivar (Positivist; Saint)

Day to Mark the Departure and Expulsion of Jews from the Arab Countries and Iran (Israel)

Feast of Hecate (Ancient Rome) Festival of Hecate Trivia (The Night of the Crossroads; Wicca, Neo-Pagan) [also 11.16]

Gnome Awareness Day (Pastafarian)

Joseph Marchand (Christian; One of the Vietnamese Martyrs)

Mahanes, Abraham, and Simeon (Christian; Martyrs)

Mrs. Grand High Triangle Lover (Muppetism)

Mustache Appreciation Day (Pastafarian)

Narses (Christian; Saint)

Samuel Clemons Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Sapor and Isaac (Christian; Saints)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]

Unlucky Day (Grafton’s Manual of 1565) [55 of 60]

Premieres

Anna and the Apocalypse (Film; 2018)

Blondie (Film; 1938)

Brian’s Song (TV Movie; 1971)

Concerto for Trumpet, recorded by Harry James (Concerto; 1939)

Gandhi (Film; 1982)

The Joy of Cooking (Cookbook; 1924)

Live at the BBC, by The Beatles (Album; 1994)

Misery (Film; 1990)

16 Candles, by The Crests (Song; 1958)

Straighten Up and Fly Right, recorded by The Nat King Cole Trio (Song; 1943)

The Talented Mr. Ripley, by Patricia Highsmith (Novel; 1955)

Thriller, by Michael Jackson (Album; 1982)

The Wall, by Pink Floyd (Album; 1979)

Today’s Name Days

Andrea, Andreas, Volkert (Austria)

Andrei (Bulgaria)

Andrea, Andrija, Hrvoslav, Konstantin, Narcis (Croatia)

Ondřej (Czech Republic)

Andreas (Denmark)

Andi, Ando, Andre, Andreas, Andres, Andro, Andrus, Andu, Anti (Estonia)

Andreas, Antero, Antti, Atte (Finland)

André, Tugdual (France)

Andrea, Andreas, Kerstin, Volkert (Germany)

Andreas, Andrew, Andriane, Andriani (Greece)

Andor, András (Hungary)

Andrea, Clemente, Martino (Italy)

Andrejs, Andris (Latvia)

Andriejus, Andrius, Dovainė, Saugardas (Lithuania)

Anders, Andreas (Norway)

Andrzej, Justyna, Konstanty, Maura, Zbysława (Poland)

Andrej, Ondrej (Slovakia)

Andrés (Spain)

Anders, Andreas (Sweden)

Andrew, Andriy, Vladyslava (Ukraine)

Anderson, Andra, Andre, Andrea, Andreas, Andres, Andrew, Andria, Andy, Dandre, Deandre (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 334 of 2022; 31 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 3 of week 48 of 2022

Celtic Tree Calendar: Ruis (Elder) [Day 5 of 28]

Chinese: Month 11 (Dōngyuè), Day 6 (Ding-Hai)

Chinese Year of the: Tiger (until January 22, 2023)

Hebrew: 6 Kislev 5783

Islamic: 6 Jumada I 1444

J Cal: 4 Zima; Threesday [4 of 30]

Julian: 17 November 2022

Moon: 50%: 1st Quarter

Positivist: 26 Frederic (12th Month) [Bolivar]

Runic Half Month: Is (Stasis) [Day 6 of 15

Season: Autumn (Day 69 of 90)

Zodiac: Sagittarius (Day 8 of 30)