#blame the british middle school

[tonycries]

wait tony does this mean you have an aussie accent

[northlight14]

Speaking as someone who was constantly late to school, I think punishing kids/teens for being late to school is stupid. Like, I get it. When they’re older, they can’t be late to work and stuff and they need to understand that. But majority of kids/teens are getting to school via their parents or someone else driving them or hell the school bus which is also driven by an adult. So when a kid arrives late and gets punished for it, all that’s happening is a child getting punished because the adult responsible for getting them there on time wasn’t successful. That’s not teaching the kid anything, that’s just annoying. Especially when, as a kid I was always ready on time and it was my parents I was waiting on and then in detention I’d be expected to write down a “what will I do better” that didn’t apply to me because I didn’t do anything wrong

I get that sometimes it will be the kids fault but I feel like those cases are few and far between and punishing a kid for the adults in their life is just counterproductive

[birdiewritessometimes]

Tutor

A/N: Soft hours ;-; this goes out to all my academic over achievers out there, girl me too. One beautiful anon who requested soft Matt or soft Theo got me thinking about this! Also please don’t skip meals, food is fuel <3

Also, also, I’ve heard your demands, and I have added a summary!

This has been a struggle tbh, I love it but I’m also not happy with it. Oh well, I hope you guys enjoy it <3

Summary: As Professor Flitwick assign you to tutor Theodore Nott in charms you two develop a strange friendship that brings a new set of friends into your life. Theodore helps you see that there might be more to life than just studying in the library every day.

Pairing: Theodore Nott x Ravenclaw!reader

Themes/warnings: Reader is overworking herself, skipping meals, self-doubt, sleep-troubles, cursing, fluff, found family, clichés (but oh what I love them), kissing, Italian pet names (Italians, I’ve tried to do some research, and I hope I didn’t butcher them, please let me know if I did though!), is this qualified as a slow burn?,  mentions of a dead parent.

Word count: 10 000-ish

Please do not copy or translate my work!

“But Professor, please. I really need to focus on my own work.” You pleaded with your charms professor and your head of house, Professor Flitwick. He was a short, clever man. You really liked him; he was a good teacher and a good head of house. Which is why you were feeling slightly guilty for pleading with him not to assign you to be a tutor.

“I’m sorry Miss l/n, I’m afraid you’re the best one for the job. Mr. Nott really needs an outstanding in his OWL in charms. Professor Snape asked me to help make it happen, and I have no doubt you are more than capable.” Flitwick said, an encouraging smile on his face. You felt your shoulders sag in defeat.

“Are you sure you can’t ask anybody else?” You asked, your last simmer of hope to be able to study undisturbed faded as you saw your professors head shake no.

“Alright, I’ll do it.” You said in defeat. Professor Flitwick smiled up at you from his seat behind his wooden desk.

“Excellent Miss l/n!” He said as he clapped his hands together. He paused when he saw your defeated expression, “Oh, Miss l/n, please try to see this as a learning opportunity, maybe young Mr. Nott could teach you something too.” He added, a sympathetic smile on his face as he surveyed your defeated form.

“Okay, I will.” You said, trying to brighten your own voice, “I’ll see you later, Professor.” You added while giving him a small smile before turning around to leave his office. Professor Flitwick’s office led out into the charms classroom that resided on the third floor, in the charms corridor. The classroom was dimly lit, the afternoon sun casting a golden glow on the wooden floor in the middle of the classroom. The benches were empty except for one where a tall boy sat. His legs were sprawled out in front of him, effectively making the chair look small beneath him. He was fidgeting with the ring that sat on his index finger. His head shot up when he heard your footsteps echo on the wooden floorboards.

“I’ll tutor you every Tuesday and Thursday, four o’clock in the library, don’t be late.” You said after you stopped right in front of the desk he was sitting in. He was looking up at you with his steely blue eyes, a tired expression in his eyes. He gave you a short nod as he stopped fidgeting with his ring.

“Good, I’ll, uh, see you then.” You said, giving what you thought was a friendly smile. The least you could do was to at least try to be friendly, it wasn’t his fault that you were in this situation. Come to second thought, it kind of was, but you can’t blame the guy for being stupid.

“Right, see you.” He said after he cleared his throat. His voice was deep and rich. You noticed that he didn’t have a British accent like most students in the school. You couldn’t quite place your finger on what accent it was though. But it added to the smoothness of his voice making you wonder why he didn’t speak more often. You gave him another small smile before turning around to head to the library.

The library was quiet when you entered, some students were scattered around the room. The smell of old books and burning fires hit your nose as you walked towards your usual space. It was in the corner, near one of the fires making it the perfect spot for studying, away from the cold draft that usually swept through the castle regardless of season. You spent most of your free time studying, finding yourself lost in books and books about different magical topics. You did this mostly because your dream was to one day become an unspeakable. The Department of Mysteries intrigued you but the way there meant top grades and hard work. And that’s just what you did, worked hard and got top grades. But that also meant that you had to spend your free time in the library, studying.

You sat down in one of the cushioned chairs around the table, gently placing your Ravenclaw robe on the seat next to you along with your bag. You pulled out the ancient runes-book. The worn leather rough against your fingers as you placed it on the table along with your quill, inkpot and some parchment. You opened the book at the bookmark and got to work. For hours you poured over the runes, their translations and writing down their meanings. The only thing that reminded you of the time was your back being stiff and your butt numb. Taking a glance at your watch you noticed that it was almost time for curfew. With a yawn you stood up. You quickly packed your things, grabbed your robe and hurried through the castle and up to Ravenclaw tower. After you got ready for bed, you fell asleep the second your head hit your pillow, sleeping through yet another restless night.

The next day you awoke feeling tired. It was a Tuesday which meant tutoring with Theodore after your last lesson of the day. Noticing the time, and that breakfast was soon to be over, you hurriedly got ready. You added light makeup to hide the dark circles that was accumulating under your eyes from another night where it felt like you didn’t sleep. Collecting your books for the day you dashed out of your dorm and hurried to the great hall. When you entered you found your seat next to the girls you share your dorm with. They were by no means your friends, but you could eat and make small talk with them, which was good enough for you. When you had quickly eaten a piece of toast you once again dashed away towards your classes for the day. The lessons went by quickly, like usual. Before you knew it lunchtime came. You actually had time to eat your meal calmly before you headed to your last two lessons for the day. These lessons went by as quickly as the ones in the morning did. Maybe it was because you had revised the material beforehand, or maybe time just went by quicker when you learned something.

It was a quarter to four when you walked into the familiar air of old books and warm fires of the library. You took your usual seat by the fire, placed your robes and bag on the chair next to you before picking up your copy of the Standard Book of Spells, grade 5, the large book heavy in your hands as you placed it on the table with a thud. You gently flickered through it as you waited for Theodore to show up. You refreshed your memory for some of the spells as you looked through the book. After around five minutes you heard low footsteps come nearer your spot by the warm fire, away from the chilly autumn breeze that seemed to drift through the castle. Looking up you saw Theodore approaching your table. His hair was its usual floppy self. He had rid himself of his Slytherin cloak, the material hanging over his forearm. He had rolled up the sleeves of his shirt as well as loosened his tie and leaving the top button unbuttoned. You kept looking him over until he stood beside you, looking down at you.

“Hi.” You said softly as you gestured for him to sit. He gave you a nod of acknowledgement before placing his bag and cloak on a chair around the table before sitting down in the seat next to yours. You let him take his time packing up, he was early after all.

“So, is there anything in particular you want to start with?” You asked cautiously when he had placed his copy of the textbook on the table, along with a notebook, a quill and an inkpot.

“I’ve had problems with the locomotion charm.” He shrugged nonchalantly. So, he was not a talkative person, that’s fine, you thought. You were surprised by his honesty, though you by no means had an opinion on the boy beside you, you knew he was friends with a group of troublemaking boys. You had assumed he would wave it all off or say that he didn’t need your help, so when he admitted, although with some air of nonchalance, what he was struggling with it surprised you.

“Okay,” you nodded, “how about we start with that one and then revise the others?” You suggested as you flipped through the worn book to the page of the locomotion charm. You saw how Theodore nodded in agreement with your suggestion. You went over the basic theory of the charm, explaining things such as wand movement and what the spell was useful for. It took you around five minutes before you zipped closed your pencase, plopping it down before the tall, brooding boy next to you.

“Alright, enough chitchat, show me what you’ve got.” You said with what you hoped was an encouraging smile. Not that he was looking at you, he was busy sending an icy glare at your pink fuzzy pencase. He was looking like he was personally offended by its presence. You flicked your hair over your shoulder as you turned in your seat to face him.

“Okay, so what crimes has my pencase committed against you?” You asked, a playful note in your voice as you studied him. This seemed to pull him out of his staring match with the pencase as he raised an eyebrow at you in a silent question.

“Don’t look at me, it was you who was having a staring competition with an inanimate object.” You shrugged, a small giggle escaping you. You saw how he cracked the smallest of smiles at your comment. You had to admit that his smile was cute, really cute actually.

“Alright, come on, show me.” You nodded at your pencase again and his small smile fell. With a sigh he picked up his wand from the table. He cleared his throat as he pointed his wand at the fuzzy pencase in front of him.

“Locomoto pencase.” He said, his voice smoot and deep. He did the upwards motion with his wand, but nothing happened. You noticed right after he had said the incantation that he has mispronounced it. He let out a sigh of frustration as he looked away from you, embarrassed. You felt some sympathy for him as you placed a gentle hand on his arm, effectively making him look at you.

“Hey, you did good. You just didn’t pronounce the incantation correctly,” You said softly, a kind smile on your face, “it’s locomotor with an r.” You explained.

“Alright, let me try again.” He muttered, surprising you with his words. You nodded encouragingly, letting him try again. This time the pencase hovered for a while before falling down on the table in front of him with a low thud.

“See! Try concentrating more next time.” You said, excitement in your voice. Theodore flashed you that small smile again, making you feel warm inside, before trying the spell for the third time. He made the pencase move around the table for a while before it fell with a thud again.

“Good job Theodore!” You cheered him on, “how about some theory?” You suggested, to which he nodded. He placed his wand on the table, scooting back in his chair, sprawling his legs out as he picked up the leatherbound textbook in his large hands, effectively making it look weirdly small. Your eyes travelled up to his face and saw that he was already looking at you, an expectant look in his eyes. You quickly looked away from him as you cleared your throat. You felt a blush dust your cheeks when you heard a faint chuckle from the boy next to you. Straightening in your chair you started to explain some more in-depth theory. Time went on rather quickly as you quizzed Theodore on some things and asked him to explain some others back to you. He was improving quickly, making you feel somewhat proud of him. In the last moments before it was time for dinner, he practiced the charm once more on your pencase. This time the pencase zoomed up and down from the table, making it do flips and other tricks around the table before he stopped it right in front of you. The pencase fell on top of your book with a muted thud.

“Good job Theodore! Look at you!” You said, not being able to contain your enthusiasm. He let out a shy sort of chuckle at that as he averted his eyes from you.

“Thanks for helping me.” He mumbled, still looking away. His words stunned you as you turned your head to really look at him. He didn’t seem like his usual stoic, broody self. He seemed more embarrassed and defeated now, making the sympathy you had for him earlier to come back.

“Hey,” you said softy, placing your hand on his arm effectively making him look at you once again, “we all need a little bit of help from time to time, it’s nothing to worry about.” He looked at you, an unreadable look in his usually tired eyes. The background faded as your heartbeat sped up, making you feel warm inside.

“Thank you.” He mumbled, not tearing his eyes from yours. The air around you shifted as you looked into each other’s eyes, making your heartbeat race even more. The air around you became almost palpable as you sat there together.

“You’re welcome.” You breathed out. Your eye-contact broke when there was a loud thud from someone dropping a book somewhere in the library. Coming back to reality you straightened up as Theodore cleared his throat awkwardly.

“I’ll, uh, see you Thursday?” He said as he hurriedly put his things in his bag. You nodded at him.

“Yeah, see you Thursday.” You mumbled, giving him a small smile before he walked off to dinner. You slowly packed your things away in your bag before you made your way to the great hall for dinner as well. On your walk there he was on your mind. You wondered why he was so cold and quiet. Your mind drifted to his deep, smooth voice as you thought back to the tutoring session. And how he had beautiful eyes, cold, blue and tired, yet they intrigued you. Like he was pulling you into him. You were lost in thought when you arrived at the big oak doors that led to the great hall. You absentmindedly walked in and sat down at the long wooden table, next to the girls in your dormitory. You plated some beef stew and potatoes on the porcelain plate in front of you.

As you ate your eyes drifted over the great hall, scanning the groups of students who were chatting to each other excitedly. Your eyes soon drifted over the Slytherin table. The table was filled with students, some were chatting, others reading or just minding their own business. Your eyes then met the steely blue ones that belonged to Theodore. He caught you off guard, but you couldn’t seem to look away from him either. You sat there looking at each other for a moment, the background once again fading, before he looked away first, laughing at something his friends said. You turned back to your food, eating as you thought about him.

He remained in your thoughts during the next day. You found yourself thinking about him when you were eating your meals, when you were walking to classes, and you even found your thoughts drifting to him when you were studying. You were wondering things about him that you have never cared about before with others. Like where he grew up? Did he have any siblings? What was his parents like? While you found yourself thinking more about him you started to notice him more around the castle too, noticing him in classes or that your paths crossed on your way to different lessons.

The day had passed quickly, now with your thoughts occupied by both Theodore and school. You had just finished dinner and were on your way towards the library to get in some more studying before bed. When you entered the entrance hall you heard rowdy voices from a group of boys and when you lifted your gaze you saw the Slytherin quidditch team. You assumed they were heading to the quidditch pitch to practice since they were walking towards the great doors. A shiver ran down your spine at the thought of being outside right now. The rain was whipping against the windows of the castle as the winds were harsh. Your eyes fell on Theodore who were walking next to his friend, Mattheo Riddle. You never thought you would find a quidditch player attractive but by judging from the leap your heart did when you saw him in his uniform you found yourself proven wrong.

Pictures of Theodore in his emerald green quidditch robes, his broom propped up on his shoulder, flooded your brain as you walked to the library. None of the boys had noticed you when they had stridden across the entrance hall and out into the stormy weather. Opening the doors to the library you were immediately enveloped in a warm hug of burning fires and old books. You slowly made your way to your usual seat in the far back corner. The wooden chair scraped against the floor as you took your seat on the cushioned seat. You pulled out the leather-bound transfiguration book, opting to read up on the topic Professor McGonagall discussed during the transfiguration lesson you had earlier during the day. The rain was smattering against the window next to the fireplace, the sound mingling with the cracks and pops of the burning wood in the fire making you relax as you settled in your seat to study the whole evening. You worked long into the hours of the evening, your numb butt once again reminding you of curfew, making you hastily pack up your books and other materials before making your way to bed.

Thursday went by quickly, lessons flying by in a haste and before you knew it you were seated in the library, a quarter to four in the afternoon, flipping through the Standard Book of Spells, grade 5 again. It was a particularly cold day today, making you wear your Ravenclaw sweater over your button up to shield yourself from the cold mid-November air. The fire next to your table seemed to nothing to keep the chill at bay. You sent a glare at it as you shivered once more, trying to urge it to make the room hotter, or else.

“Look who’s now having a staring contest with an inanimate object.” The deep voice of Theodore pulled you out of your thoughts about threatening a fire, you really needed a good night’s sleep. You looked to the side of you and saw how Theodore plopped down in his chair, his fluffy hair flopping on his forehead in the process. He was wearing his Slytherin uniform in his usual dishevelled way, his robes draped over his arm once again.

“What did that fire do to you, huh?” He asked, a small smirk on his lips when he turned back to look at you, the Standard Book of Spells in his hands.

“It didn’t keep me warm.” You said, your teeth clattering slightly as you spoke. You were rubbing your arms with your hands, trying to warm yourself with the friction. Theodore let out a huff-like chuckle.

“Come on y/n, it’s not that cold.” He said, the smirk slightly wider now, making you smile lightly at him. It seemed like he was more comfortable around you this time, already talking more than he did the last time you met.

“It is, but that’s no- hey!” You let out when he stood up and before you knew it, he had grabbed his robes that he had hung over the back of one of the chairs around the table and draped it over your shoulders. His action stunned you as he pulled the material tighter around your shoulders, fixing it.

“Where did you put your own robes?” He muttered as he sat down in his seat again, looking at you expectantly for an answer. Coming back from your momentary chock you looked at him, sure a blush was on your cheeks.

“I forgot them in my dorm.” You mumbled, now feeling the heat of the blush on your cheeks. Your fingers moved to clutch the woolly fabric of his winter robes, subconsciously pulling it closer around you as his cologne hit your nose. It smelled fresh, like freshly laundered clothes but it had a hint of citrus and the obvious cigarette smell that lingered on the garment. The smell was surprisingly comforting as it surrounded you like a hug. Theodore let out a chuckle at your answer to his question.

“So, what are we doing today, teach?” He then asked, a tone on nonchalance in his voice as he turned back to face straight forward. The nickname made you smile, it made you grateful that he was trying to be friendly too.

“I was thinking that we really perfect the locomotion charm, you know so it really sticks.” You suggested. Theodore nodded as he picked up his wand. He was more eager today than he was last Tuesday, it made you smile as you zipped up your pencase again and plopped it on the table before him. He cleared his throat before performing the spell. You sat next to him as you looked on as he made your pencase move around on the table. It seemed like he lost concentration once because he dropped the pencase. But you encouraged him to go again, and he did. After he was done making your pencase perform circus tricks on the table he tried the charm on something heavier, your stack of schoolbooks that you had placed on the table for later. He had no problem making them move around at his will as he performed the charm.

Tutoring Theodore was easier than you thought, he seemed to have no problem learning and perfecting the spells when you were working on them together. He took his time and perfected the locomotion charm just as you had suggested, even going so far as to answer every question you asked him about it correctly. You felt proud of him when your tutoring session came to an end.

“Really good job Theodore!” You beamed at him, the feelings of happiness and pride taking over you. He smiled shyly as he thanked you, not being used to the praise that you were giving him. You might have been seeing things, but you were sure you saw a faint blush on the boy’s cheeks from your complement. As it was time for dinner he stood up and slowly packed away his things.

“Oh, right, thank you for letting me borrow your robes, Theodore.” You smiled as you started to shrug of the garment that had been keeping you warm the two hours you had been working together. He shook his head at you, making you pause.

“You can keep it for tonight if you want, I have a couple of others.” He said, stuffing his hands into his pants pockets and looked down at his feet. You felt a blush creep up on your face again.

“Are you sure? Aren’t you going to be cold?” You asked shyly making him look at you, that small smirk on his face again.

“Nah, I’m good, you look like you need it more.” He said, his tone considerably lighter than before.

“I’ll give it back to you tomorrow?” You suggested to which he shrugged his shoulders somewhat nonchalantly.

“That’s fine, honestly it’s no stress.” He said as he hoisted his bag on his shoulder.

“Thank you, Theodore.” You smiled at him gratefully as you pulled his cloak tighter around your body again.

“It’s fine, bella.” He said casually, but as he said the nickname it clicked in your head.

“You’re Italian?” You blurted out as he was about to turn around to leave. He raised an eyebrow at you, the smirk back on his face again.

“I am, why?” He asked, somewhat amused by your outburst. You started to feel stupid by your actions, letting out a nervous chuckle.

“I, uh, have been trying to figure out where your accent’s form…” You trailed off, feeling more stupid by the second. He let out a chuckle at this.

“My mum was Italian; I moved here when I was 10.” He explained but your mind got stuck on ‘was’. His mum was Italian, not is. He had lost his mum. The thought weighed on your mind as you looked up at him as he stood beside your chair. You weren’t sure on what to say to this. You saw how his smirk had dropped slightly when he had mentioned his mum as well, it was obviously a painful topic for him.

“Oh, I’m sorry Theodore.” You said softly, feeling heartbroken for him. He gave you a half-hearted smile.

“It’s okay, it was a long time ago.” He shrugged, trying to come off as nonchalant. You gave him a weak smile, still feeling very sorry for him. He gave you a half smile back before clearing his throat.

“Well, I got to go to dinner,” He said, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly, “see you, bella.” He said, his small smirk back on his face again, making you smile back at him.

“See you, Theodore.” You said softly before he turned around and walked towards the exit of the library. You looked after him until he was out of your line of sight before you reluctantly turned back to your books, picking up your textbook on the goblin rebellions. You had an essay due next week and decided now would be a good time to start writing it. Once again you worked into the long hours of the evening before you decided that enough was enough and made your way to Ravenclaw tower. Theodores cloak was heavy and warm against your shoulders as you walked through the corridors and up the staircases that lead to Ravenclaw tower. When you arrived at your dorm you folded the cloak neatly before getting ready for bed.

When you awoke Friday morning you were surprised that you felt rested for the first time in a long time. You felt like your mood were better than normal, the usual stress you felt now better. You got ready, collected your books for the day and grabbed Theodores robes before you went down to breakfast, assuming you would see him there, but you were wrong. No big deal, he maybe overslept, and you were just handing him his robes back, you could do that at any time. Throughout the day you looked for Theodore in the crowds, classes and during the meals. It was now dinnertime, and you hadn’t seen him all day. As you walked towards the library after dinner, you decided to actually go to the quidditch match to give him back his robes tomorrow. It was the first game of the season, Slytherin against Hufflepuff and you knew Theodore was on the Slytherin quidditch team alongside his friends.

After another long night of studying you awoke Saturday morning, feeling tired once more. You dragged yourself out of your warm bed, feeling shivers go through your body as your feet hit the cold floor. You made your bed, making sure the royal blue cover laid neatly over your bed before you tied back the blue curtains with the bronze cords. You looked out of the window to see the weather, it looked like a crisp day, the grounds were covered in glittering white frost, but no snow to be seen and the sky was clear. If you had to guess this had to be optimal quidditch conditions. You picked out a warm, comfortable outfit, bringing a warm jacket, mittens and earmuffs to keep warm in the high quidditch stands. Topping it all off with your Ravenclaw scarf. When you arrived at breakfast most of the students had left, probably to get warmer clothes for the match. You ate a piece of toast and had a cup of warm coco before you started to make your way to the stands. You were right, it was very cold out, you were thanking yourself for brining such warm clothing as the icy winds swept through the high stands where you were standing along the rest of your house.

You were standing next to the girls with whom you shared your dorm, Theodore’s robes neatly folded in your mitten clad hands. You made small talk with them as you waited for the match to start. The spectators erupted in cheers (and boos) as the two teams made their way onto the pitch. The seventh year Slytherin captain shook hands with Hufflepuffs captain Cedric Diggory, a handsome sixth year. You saw how both teams mounted their brooms as your eyes scanned the Slytherin team for Theodore. You found him just as they kicked off, he was soaring towards the Slytherin goal posts. He was a keeper. You heard Madam Hootch’s whistle signalling that the game had begun but your eyes were on him the entire game. He was unbelievable. He caught almost every ball, only letting in one or two goals, you weren’t counting. You couldn’t help but think about how good he looked in his green quidditch robes, hair windswept and his usually tired eyes determined. The Slytherin team were making goal after goal and they were leading by so much that, after about two hours, when Cedric had caught the snitch Slytherin still won by sixty points.

You saw how the Slytherin team were cheering on Theodore and Blaise, one of the chasers that did the most goals, when you started to make your way down to the pitch along with the rest of the spectators. You slowly made your way onto the pitch, feeling out of your element and uncertain what to do you decided to stand slightly to the side to let the boys celebrate together. You were standing next to a Slytherin girl in your year, Pansy Parkinson as the two of you waited for the boys to calm down.

“Who’s your boyfriend?” She asked with the same air of nonchalance that most Slytherins seemed to have as she looked at the group. You knew who her boyfriend was, Draco Malfoy, the seeker on the team.

“Oh, I, uh, no-”

“Bella!” Theodore interrupted you as he jogged up to you a surprised but happy look on his face. You felt your face break out in a smile as you saw him running towards you. But before you could say or do anything he had reached you, thrown his arms around you and picked you up, spinning you around. You let out a squeal in surprise quickly letting one of your arms snake around the tall boy’s neck so you wouldn’t fall, you other hand holding the reason you came to the match in the first place, his cloak.

“What are you doing here?” He asked you as he put you down, a broad smile on his face as he looked down at you. You were sure you were blushing from his hug, but you decided to let it go, emotions were just running high after the match. He would have hugged anyone like that, you thought.

“I came to congratulate you on your good match,” You said, and you saw how his smile became even wider in happiness, it made you smile too, “and to give you this back, since I didn’t find you yesterday.” You said softly as you handed him the thick fabric of his cloak. He took it in one of his large hands, the other, you just noticed, was still resting on your waist. If you weren’t blushing from before you had to be now, hopefully you could blame the wind. Just as he was about to say something he was interrupted by his best friend and one of the beaters, Mattheo.

“Oi, Theo, who are you hiding there?” You could hear the teasing note in the voice. Theodore was giving you an apologetic look before he gave you a gentle squeeze on the waist before letting go just as Mattheo, Lorenzo, the other beater, and Blaise joined you. They were looking at the two of you with great interest making you chuckle in embarrassment.

“Uh, hi, I’m y/n, I tutor Theodore.” You said while giving a wave at the boys, to break the weird silence that had fallen upon the group.

“Teach?” They all exclaimed, making you smile and raise an eyebrow in a silent question at Theodore who suddenly seemed to find the sky extremely interesting.

“We call you teach because Theo refused to tell us who you were.” Lorenzo explained.

“Yeah, he thought we were going to hassle you or something.” Mattheo playfully scoffed, making you let out a giggle.

“Yeah, because that’s not something you would do.” You said, a smile on your face.

“Exactly, we would- hang on, you’re being sarcastic, aren’t you?” Mattheo said, his eyes narrowed in a joking manner. You feigned a look of innocence.

“What? No of course not, I would never.” You let out, your voice dripping with fake innocence. Lorenzo, Blaise and Theodore chuckled as you batted your eyelashes jokingly at Mattheo.

“You know what, I like you,” Mattheo turned to Theodore, “I like her, why didn’t you introduce us right away, she can obviously handle some hassling.” He said, a smirk on his face making you laugh. Theodore shook his head in feign annoyance.

“Yeah, yeah whatever Mattheo.” Theodore muttered as he rolled his eyes before turning to you, “we have to go change, maybe I’ll see you later?” He asked, completely ignoring his friends who were now dramatically reenacting people kissing and batting their eyelashes at each other. You let out a chuckle at the groups antics before looking up at Theodore.

“That’s fine, I have to go study anyways.” You said smiling up at him. You missed the flash of disappointment in his eyes.

“Good job again with the match,” You smiled softly up at him before turning to his friends who abruptly stopped their antics, “It was nice meeting you guys, great match.” You smiled as you gave a small wave before turning around to trek up to the castle again. The boys shouted their various goodbyes at you making you turn around to smile and wave again at them. It was like something had shifted between you and Theodore after the quidditch match. Theodore became friendlier with you, he would even make you walk with him and his friends to the classes you shared. Sometimes if you had time after your tutoring sessions, you would join the Slytherin table for dinner, you now had a permanent spot among the group in between Lorenzo and Theodore, across from Mattheo. You found yourself growing fond of the others too, you would bicker with Mattheo like you were siblings, tease Theodore with Blaise and gossip with Lorenzo.

You became happier, more alive as you befriended the boys. You still spent most of your free time in the library studying, but you found yourself joining them for meals more often than not. You still had problems with sleep, sometimes feeling like you haven’t slept for weeks. Days would blur and before you knew it, it was mid-December, and the grounds were covered by a thick blanket of snow. You were sitting in the library under a thick sweater to keep you warm as you waited for Theodore to show up for your session. You had propped up the Standard Book of Spells, grade 5, on your pencase as you refreshed your memory on Descendo. You felt yourself lay your head in your arms on the table. Last night had been a particularly rough night where you had been sleeping so restlessly that you felt more tired after you woke up than you did the night before. You were just going to close your eyes until Theodore came.

“Bella, wake up.” A soft voice said, though it sounded as it came through cotton.

“Please, bella, it’s time for dinner.” The voice said again, slightly less muffled this time. The voice was wrong though, it couldn’t be time for dinner now, Theodore hadn’t shown up for his session yet. You felt a warm hand on your back, shaking you gently. You slowly opened your eyes and saw none other than Theodore. You were confused at first, not knowing where you were and what time it was before it dawned on you. You were in the library; Theodore was sitting beside you saying it was time for dinner. You shot up.

“I’m so sorry Theodore!” You burst out, the feelings of guilt and anxiety washed over you like a bucket of cold water. He gave you a soft smile. It was one of those smiles you rarely got to see, but it made your day better every time you did see it.

“Shhh, it’s okay, bella, you were so tired, you needed the rest.” He said lowly making you frown slightly.

“It isn’t okay, Theodore, we were supposed to work on Descendo today.” You said, panic still evident in your voice.

“Y/n!” He cut off your spiralling, “I’ve practiced, look,” he did the charm perfectly on your pencase, “I might’ve looked at your book to see what you were reading up on. Oh! And I might have looked at your notes too.” He said sheepishly. Your face turned into an impressed expression as you looked at the boy beside you.

“Wow, Theo, you did really good.” You praised him, making him grin at you.

“Thanks.” He said softly before he started to gather his things. When he noticed that you still sat there, the tiredness washing over you in another wave, he closed your book and started to gather your things as well. You looked at him with curiosity in your tired eyes.

“Come on, bella, let’s get you dinner and then to bed.” He muttered softly as he closed your bag shut and hitched it on his shoulder before reaching out an inviting hand to you.

“I’m fine Theodore, you don’t have to take care of me.” You mumbled, the guilt making a reappearance in your chest. He smiled slightly as he grabbed your arm and, rather roughly, pulled you out of your seat, making you face him. His hand slowly travelled down from your upper arm and grasped onto your wrist, engulfing the upper part of your hand in the process. His action made your heart flutter and your breath hitch in your throat. He was looking at you with puppy dog eyes, the smile still on his face. His free hand found its place on your jaw, gently stroking your cheek.

“If I don’t do it, who will, hm?” He asked softly as his thumb continued to stroke your now hot cheek. You averted your eyes from his blue ones, suddenly finding the table beside you very interesting.

“I really need to study, Theo.” You mumbled as an answer. You felt how his hand moved from your jaw to grip your chin, tilting it upwards, making you look him in the eye again. Your heart was beating so fast now you were sure he could hear it, or at least feel it.

“How about we make a deal,” he said, a small smirk on his face now, “you come to dinner with me now, and if you feel like studying after you can come back.” He shrugged before nodding his head towards the exit. His eyes were pleading with you to go with him and before you could even think it through you felt yourself nod in his grasp. A smile broke out on his face, making you give him a tired smile back. He turned, not letting your wrist go, and started towards the exit of the library. You were still feeling very tired as the two of you strolled to the great hall for dinner. Theodore pushed the great oak doors open, leading you to your now usual place, next to him and Lorenzo. The rest noticed you as you came up to the part at the table where they were sitting. Mattheo let out a low whistle.

“Damn, y/n, you look like shit,” he smirked, making Blaise snort into his goblet of pumpkin juice, “is tutoring Teddy that bad?” You rolled your eyes as you sat down in between Theodore and Lorenzo.

“At least I have a reason for looking like shit, what’s your excuse?” You countered making Blaise snort once again and Lorenzo give you a fist bump under the table. Mattheo held up his hands in surrender, an amused smirk on his face.

“Damn, she is snappy today, what happened, library run out of books for you to read?” He asked teasingly. You felt a small smile twitch on your lips, despite your exhaustion. You heard Theodore chuckle beside you as you felt his warm hand on your back in a comforting manner.

“I’m surprised you knew we had a library, Mattheo.” You said, your lips still twitching from trying not to smile. He broke out in a grin making you mirror it as you put some food on your plate, before putting some on Theodore’s. The boy thanked you quietly making you smile softly up at him.

“Yeah, I found it the other day actually.” Mattheo said, mock pride in his voice making you chuckle.

“Good job! Just you wait until you can read, it will be like a whole new world for you.” You teased him. Mattheo was anything but stupid, he was talented in most subjects, he could easily be one of the best students in the school if he put in the effort. But it was an inside joke your group had that he was stupid, mostly due to some of the stupid things he says, he had a habit of speaking before thinking, but that definitely didn’t make him stupid. The group chuckled making you smile once more as you slowly ate your dinner.

“But seriously, why do you look like you just woke up?” Blaise asked, you could see a hint of concern in his eyes making you give him an apologetic smile.

“Because she just did.” Theodore said before you could even think of replying. You turned to Theodore to send him a pointed look, but he was looking at his friends. “I found her asleep in the library.” He added.

“And you scold me for sleeping in class, this is just as bad!” Blaise pointed an accusing finger at you making you roll your eyes in a joking manner.

“Oh, shut up Blaise.” You laughed, tiredness still clear in your voice.

“Are you okay, though?” Lorenzo asked you cautiously. You gave him an apologetic smile, feeling guilty for worrying your newfound friends.

“I am, I’m just having sleep troubles, I have been for a while.” You admitted. It surprised you how easily you admitted that to them, but they made you feel safe in a weird way. You looked around at the group and you saw various looks of sympathy in their eyes.

“Guys, please don’t worry, it’s been like this for as long as I can remember.” You tried to make the problem smaller than it was, but it had the exact opposite effect. You felt Theodore’s hand come up to your back once again, rubbing it in a comforting manner.

“Maybe you need to see Madam Pomfrey?” Mattheo suggested, now serious.

“I mean it has been better now for a while; it was just last night that was bad, I don’t think I need to see her…” You trailed off. You felt Theodore’s hand move around to your waist, giving it a gentle reassuring squeeze.

“I’ll come with you if you want me to, bella.” He said softly, making you look at him. You felt warm inside from the concern he was showing you.

“I promise, I’ll go if it gets worse again.” You said after stifling a yawn. You saw how he smiled softly at you before he let his arm rest around your waist, letting you lean into him. You let your head fall to his shoulder. You looked around the group who still looked worried.

“Guys, I’ll be fine,” You said a smile on your face, “what did you guys do today?” You asked, not lifting your head from Theodores shoulder. The others were quiet for a quick moment before they started to recount their day. How they had pulled some pranks and how they accidentally intimidated a first year. You sent them a glare at this information making them apologize quickly before Lorenzo started to recount some gossip that had made its way around the school. You felt your eyelids droop as you listened to Lorenzo explain something about someone setting off a dungbomb in Filch’s office. The others, who would never admit that they enjoyed gossiping, were listening intently and they even suggested who it could be. Your mind started to focus less on the conversation and more on the warmth that Theodore was emitting. The way he was stroking your waist was comforting as you breathed in his now familiar scent. You started to just hear isolated words from the boys as you started to slip in and out from consciousness and before you knew it you were out like a light against Theodore’s shoulder.

“Is she asleep?”

“Yeah.” The voices were quiet and muffled as you felt someone grab the back of your knees, to lift you up.

“Man try something else.” You heard someone say as a frustrated sigh was heard from above you.

“Stupid riddle, stupid knocker, stupid Ravenclaw common room.” You heard someone mutter angrily from beside you, still sounding like it came through cotton.

“Finis Coronat Opus.” You heard a voice mutter and then you heard stone slide on stone.

You woke up the next morning, utterly confused but surprisingly well rested. You looked around your unfamiliar surroundings. Your eyes scanned the dark green canopy above you before tracing the same green curtains that hung around the bed you were laying in. You saw a desk with a chair against the wall next to you as well as a dark brown dresser opposite the foot of the fourposter bed that you were laying in. The bed was unbelievably comfortable, the comforter thick and warm against the cold air in the room, the pillows were fluffy. You noticed that you were alone in the bed, but you were wearing a big t-shirt and a pair of green plaid pyjama pants. You shot up in panic. These were not your clothes. Just as panic really started to set a door opened and in walked Theodore in just a towel.

“Morning, bella.” You barley heard him over his almost naked form. Your eyes shamelessly scanned his toned torso as he walked towards you with a smirk plastered on his face, using the other towel around his neck to dry of his hair.

“Did you sleep well?” He asked, a teasing hint in his voice as he sat down on the foot of the bed to look at you. You gulped as you felt the bed dip from his weight. You cleared your throat awkwardly.

“What happened?” You settled on asking first. He let out a chuckle.

“You fell asleep by the table.” He said but chose to continue to explain when he saw your confused look. “Me and Mattheo tried to get you to Ravenclaw tower, but we couldn’t solve the riddle to get in. And I didn’t want to wake you since you were so tired earlier, so we thought of the next best thing, to, uh, bring you here.” He finished as he chuckled again. You brain was trying to piece together this information.

“Did you... did you, um, change my clothes?” You gestured to the clothes you were wearing making Theodore let out an actual laugh. You tossed a pillow on his head at this.

“What’s so funny?” You asked as he continued to chuckle, the pillow now on his lap.

“You don’t remember? You’re quite the sleepwalker.” He mused, his eyes sparkling with amusement. You felt a blush creep up on your cheeks.

“Oh, no, what did I do?” You asked as you hid your face in your hands in embarrassment. You heard how he chuckled again before you felt his warm hands around your wrists, pulling your hands away from your face.

“You were adamant that you couldn’t sleep in your normal clothes once I put you down on my bed, and, well, you started to take your clothes off. Don’t worry!” He said as he saw how your eyes widened in panic, “I tossed you some clothes before I turned around, I didn’t look, I promise. But I’m pretty sure you fell sometime while you were changing but when I turned back around you were out cold on the bed again, completely dressed in the pyjamas.” He finished explaining as you let out a groan in embarrassment. He was probably right though; you felt sore on your hip.

“I’m so sorry Teddy.” The nickname just slipped out as you apologised for your antics. You saw how he tensed for a moment before a smile spread on his lips, his hands squeezed your wrists reassuringly.

“Don’t worry bella, I found it quite funny,” he chuckled before looking at you, a mischievous glint in his eyes, “and you’re always welcome to share my bed.” He winked before standing up, walking towards his dresser. Your eyes raked over his wide shoulders and muscular back. If you said he wasn’t attractive you would be a liar. You felt the blush come back to your cheeks as he confirmed the thought that had been floating in your mind. You had shared his bed. Oh, you hoped that you didn’t do anything else embarrassing.

“You might want to get dressed, unless you want to be late.” He said as he shrugged on his pants, making the towel fall to the floor. You sprang into action, getting out of bed before getting dressed in the outfit you wore yesterday. You thanked your past self for always keeping a spare pair of underwear in your schoolbag, in case you got your period unexpectedly. As you looked at your school shirt, makeup stains on the collar, you wondered for a second if it was too much to ask to borrow one of his shirts. You turned around to face him as he tied his Slytherin tie.

“Teddy?” You said softly making his eyes snap to yours. He smiled at you as you stood there, your school skirt on along with his t-shirt. His eyes drifted to your shirt in your hands.

“Do you mind?” You asked as you gestured to the stains on the shirt.

“Here.” He said, smile still on his face as he handed you one of his school shirts. You smiled gratefully before turning around again, quickly ridding yourself of the t-shirt before slipping on the soft material of the button up shirt. It was quite big on you; you noticed as you buttoned the buttons. You tucked the fabric inside the waistband of your skirt as you surveyed yourself in his mirror by the door. Theodore was sitting on the bed, looking at you. You quickly tied your tie around the collar of the too big shirt before turning around to Theodore.

“Do I look okay?” You asked gesturing to his shirt. He smiled at you from his bed.

“You look perfect, as always, bella.” He said smoothly making you blush. He stood up from his bed, walked over to you, took your hand and led you to the other door of his room, the one he came out of when you had woken up. It was a bathroom. Damn, the Slytherins really had the superior dorms, you thought as Theodore was rummaging through his cabinet before he handed you something. A toothbrush, still in its packaging.

“Here, I thought you might want to brush your teeth.” He shrugged as he grabbed his own toothbrush.

“Thank you.” You said softly as you ripped up the packaging before letting Theodore add toothpaste on it. The scene was painfully domestic as you stood there, looking at each other in the mirror while brushing your teeth. After you were done you quickly splashed your face with water, Theodore, to your surprise, held out a small container with face cream. You smiled at him as you applied a small layer of the cream.

“I didn’t know you cared so much for your skin?” You asked as you walked through the Slytherin common room together. Your eyes wandered around the stonewalls and black leather couches. The common room had large windows that showed the bottom of the black lake. You let your eyes linger on the creatures on the other side of the window as you walked past it with Theodore by your side.

“It’s not all easy being this handsome.” He smirked making you let out a laugh. The two of you walked to breakfast together, his arm found it’s home on your shoulders as you were walking through the corridors littered with students. You noticed that people were looking at the two of you as they were whispering to their friends. Your eyes narrowed at them as you walked past groups and groups of people staring and whispering. Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion before you turned your head to look up at Theodore.

“Why are people staring at us?” You whispered up to him. He looked down at you, his eyebrows furrowed at your question.

“Hm, I don’t know, maybe because you’re beautiful?” He shrugged, sending you a wink before moving to hold open the large oak doors to the great hall. As you walked in the hall got quiet before everyone broke out into hushed whispers. You looked at Theodore with suspicion.

“That’s not it.” You said, narrowed eyes.

“I’m sorry bella, I have no clue.” He said with a chuckle as he held up his hands in mock surrender. You decided to let it go as you walked together towards your friends. Theodore’s hand on the low of your back.

“Morning, y/n.” Lorenzo said a broad smirk on his face as you sat down next to him, Theodore next to you.

“Morning, boys.” You said smile on your face as you reached for a piece of toast.

“So, did you sleep well?” Mattheo said before coughing, “with Theo.” He added between coughs. You narrowed your eyes at the boy you have come to look at like a brother. The others let out various chuckles at this. Theodore did tell you that Mattheo tried to help him get you back to your common room last night, so you assumed he filled in the others on what had happened.

“Yeah, did you use protection?” Blaise asked with a shrug making both you and Theodore choke on your tea and him his coffee. You looked at Theodore who was trying to hold in his laughter, deciding to turn the tide you turned to Blaise, a smirk on your face.

“At least there’s a reason to ask us that, when was the last time someone asked you that Blaise?” You asked innocently making Lorenzo and Mattheo laugh.

“Oi, y/n, that was foul.” Blaise said with a grin on his face making you laugh before you turned to Mattheo.

“I heard you couldn’t solve the riddle, what was it?” You asked, curious.

“Oh, I barely remember, like something lost in the day, blah blah, comes at night, what is it?” He said, his mouth full of food. You scrunched your nose at him.

“Do you mean They come out at night without being called and are lost in the day without being stolen.” You asked curiously as you looked between Theodore and Mattheo. They both nodded, making you shake your head at them.

“Yeah, that was the one.” Theodore confirmed as he took a bite out of his toast.

“Stars, you idiots. The answer is stars.” You said with a sigh making Lorenzo let out a chuckle.

“Well, how are we supposed to know that?” Mattheo protested making you chuckle and shake your head before sipping your tea.

“Oh, I don’t know, I suppose I expected more from someone with the last name Riddle.” You said pointedly making the others chuckle again. Mattheo sent you playful glare as he sipped his tea. The rest of breakfast went by quickly, so did the rest of the day and before you knew it you found yourself walking around the grounds with Theodore before dinner. Where the others had gone you had no idea. Theodore’s arm had found its way around your shoulders again, holding you close to his side. As you were walking outside in the thick layer of snow towards the green houses a blonde Hufflepuff boy bumped into your shoulder, making you stumble into Theodore’s side.

“Watch where you’re going.” The boy said, rather rudely, making you look at him stunned when you had regained your footing. You recognised him as Zacharias Smith. You frowned at him and just as you were about to tell him off Theodore had grabbed the collar of his cloak. He was snarling as he dragged the shorter Hufflepuff closer to his face. He had a dangerous look on his face while sending the boy an icy glare.

“Che cazzo stai facendo?” Theodore asked angrily.

“O-oi-” Zacharias protested, trying to get lose from Theodores grip.

“I asked you what the fuck you’re doing.” Theodore repeated, interrupting Zacharias protesting, dangerously slow this time. You saw how he gulped nervously. Coming out of your momentarily shock you jumped into action. Curling your fingers around Theodore’s bicep you successfully got his attention away from the Hufflepuff boy.

“Teddy,” You said, your voice soft, “please, I’m sure it was just an accident.” You looked with a pointed look at Zacharias who nodded fervently in agreement.

“Y-yeah, I’m s-sorry y/n.” He sputtered out. Theodore looked at him, the cold, dangerous stare back in his eyes as he reluctantly let go of Zacharias collar. The moment he was lose he scurried away like a frightened deer. Theodore turned back to you, his eyes now back to their puppy dog look that you’ve become familiar with. But this time you weren’t feeling the usual warmth in your stomach when you gazed into them. No, you were feeling the prickling feeling of annoyance bubble up in your stomach instead, along with something else.

“What did you do that for?” You asked, glaring at the boy with fluffy hair. A small frown made its way onto his lips.

“What do you mean, bella?” He asked, a hint of worry in his voice.

“Why did you have to go all ‘cave man’ on Zacharias? He only bumped into me for Merlin’s sake.” You let out in an exasperated tone, crossing your arms over your chest.

“Cave man? Bella, he hurt you and he was rude to you!” Theodore said as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Sure, he was rud-”

“No one can treat you like that in front of me.” He interrupted you, his voice low. You felt the icy wind nip at your face as the warm feeling returned to the pit of your stomach.

“I- what? Why?” You stuttered, his admission catching you off guard.

“How can you be so smart and so stupid at the same time?” He muttered irritably as he took a step closer to you, snow crunching under his feet.

“I’m not stupid.” You scoffed, sending him another glare. He let out a laugh in frustration as he looked to the side before looking back at you. His hand grabbed your chin making you hold your eye contact.

“You are the smartest person I know, and yet you can’t see what’s in front of you.” He said, his face coming closer to yours. Your heart was beating fast as your eyes searched his blue ones. His eyes were raw with emotion as he was staring at your face.

“What?” You asked softly, still lost in his eyes. He let out a huff, eyes quickly darting to the side before they found yours again. His face was so close to yours that you could see the specs of green and grey in his blue irises. The cold air evaporated around you when his soft lips found yours. His hand that was gripping your chin moved to the nape of your neck to bring you closer, his other finding your hip, squeezing it gently. It took you a moment to realise what was happening. Theodore was kissing you. The boy you had been crushing on was kissing you. Before you could even think about reciprocate the kiss he pulled back. Worry was swirling in his beautiful eyes.

“Bella, I-” He started to apologise but your mind caught up with the situation. You interrupted his apology by kissing him, your hands grabbing onto the ends of his knitted Slytherin scarf, effectively dragging him down to your height. It felt like a breath of fresh air to be kissing him. Like you had been closed in a stuffy room for too long and he was the window that was cracked open. You felt how his soft lips stretched into a smile as he kissed you back in a gentle, slow kiss. The wind swirled snowflakes around the two of you as your arms found their way around his neck to get even closer to him. The two of you smiled as you kissed each other in the cold winter air. Only pulling apart by the loud cheering of three other Slytherins you have come to look at as your friends and brothers. You looked at your friends, laughter in your throat before you looked back to Theodore who was smiling down at you, adoration in his eyes.

“Should we get to dinner, amore?” He asked softly but made no move to go over to your friends.

“Amore?” You questioned, butterflied fluttering in your stomach. He nodded as he gently took on of your hands in his before placing a soft kiss on your knuckles.

“Amore mio.” He said making your heart beat considerably faster. He smiled softly at you making you stand on the tip of your toes to place another kiss on his lips. Yet another loud cheer could be heard from up the hill near the castle. You couldn’t contain your smile as you kissed him, only breaking apart because the cheers became too loud. With a laugh you and Theodore joined your friends before heading to dinner. Maybe there was more to life than studying. What neither of you saw was Professor Flitwick that had witnessed the whole ordeal, a fond smile on his face.

[aithusarosekiller]

Can't wait for when everyone stops making all the marauders American and instead focuses on the fact that Lily (+severus) was raised in an industrial midlands town in the years between WW2 and Thatcher. And then choose to think about how that may have impacted her life as someone who was raised in a lower-middle class family who likely had dangerous jobs in the industrial sector while her schoolmates for from ancient prestigious bloodlines who hated her for existing.

Or that the fact despite his parents being well-off, Remus as an outcast is a stereotype of the entire British working class and the way the government will always blame minorities or those on benefits as a way to keep them down and maintain power, ESPECIALLY when he grows up and has to scramble to keep his life together, as many council-housed Brits have to do

Or how the black brothers and James were both raised in really posh parts of the south. The black traditional family being strategically placed in a rich borough of London, only a small drive from Westminster itself to reinforce the way their family uphold and push for oppressive traditional values, mainly at the expense of those in typically poorer areas (like the midlands and north). James was likely raised in a large, wealthy rural area with a great separation from the rest of society, allowing him to form as an arrogant boy, disconnected from the rest of society until he was in school.

But that's probably never gonna happen tbf

[cookiescribble]

spencer x british!reader

as a brit i would love to see a fic of a reader with a british accent and spencer adores it and mimics her sometimes

Taking It In (Spencer Reid x British Fem!Reader)

A/N: Thank you so much for the request! This is a bit of a team effort because I’m a bit more knowledgeable about British culture (in no means an expert, I just had a hyperfixation on the Beatles and Doctor Who in middle school/ high school lmao) but Mod Angel is usually the one who writes for fem!readers. Also, we’re both American so we hope this is what you wanted! Sorry for the little wait - Mod Ghost

We also just binged season 2 of Heartstopper and tried our best to pick up on some of the language because we thought this was a really cute idea and wanted to write it as best we could! - Mod Angel

~~~

“Coffee? I thought that people from the UK drank tea?” Spencer piped up from behind as his girlfriend was pouring coffee into one of the paper cups she’d found around the canteen. 

“It heavily depends on who you’re talking to, Spencer. I feel you should know just as well as I do that everyone’s different. You didn’t profile me as soon as we started dating?” Y/N joked, to which he looked puzzled.

“Wha–no, I usually try to keep my job separate from…personal relations.” He replied sheepishly, starting to mix up his own mug of coffee. 

“That changed when we started dating, didn’t it, love?” She teased him, patting his shoulder.

It made him blush and stutter like mad, his hands waving around as he tried to scramble to find something to say. It was rare to see him speechless, but she couldn’t help but to smirk as she watched him struggle. It only lasted a few more seconds before she cut him off, reaching out and gently touching his hand.

“It’s alright, I was just being cheeky, that’s all. C’mon, let’s go back to workin’ on the case, okay?” She chuckled, leading him away from the counter with the hand that wasn’t holding her coffee resting at the small of his back as they walked. 

“I knew that!” He squealed in his own defense, which made her giggle loudly. 

*

A few weeks later, the BAU were out to dinner, taking a small break while in the middle of a case. Though, it wasn’t much of a break, considering they were still talking about the profile.

Spencer pointed to a plate in the middle of the table. “Can I have a chip?”

A confused silence fell over the table as they all looked in his direction. Spencer stared back at them, an eyebrow raised in his own confusion.

“What?” Spencer asked finally, breaking the silence.

“What did you just say?” JJ responded with a smirk, raising an eyebrow at him. 

“I asked if you could pass me a chip” he answered, pointing to the plate again.

“Where do you see chips?” Hotch chimed in, concerned for his mental stability. 

Still confused, Spencer pointed to the plate again.

“The fries?” Penelope clarified, gesturing to the same plate finally. 

“Oh.” He nodded awkwardly. “Yeah, can you pass me a fry?”

“You’re really spending too much time with that girlfriend of yours, aren’t you?” Morgan teased, grinning and playfully nudging his shoulder.

He smiled and shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said in a faux-English accent as he finally got the ‘chip’ he wanted as the rest of the table laughed. 

“Speaking of Y/N, where is she tonight?? I miss that girl.” Garcia complained from the other side of the table, 

“Oh, she went out with one of her mates–” Spencer started before Prentiss cut him off from where she was sat next to him, 

“Mates??” She asked incredulously, seconds away from giggling as he groaned and leaned back in his chair. 

“FRIENDS! Her friends.” he grumbled, finishing his food and making a mental note to not only tell but blame his girlfriend, Y/N, for everything he’d been through tonight. Not before giving her a kiss, though. The fact that she wasn’t here just made him realize how much he missed her, and it made him wonder if there was a correlation between missing her and talking like her.

The girls dropped him off at home a few hours later, where the first thing he said when he saw Y/N was ‘this is your fault’.

“Do you…want to elaborate on that or…?”

“Later.” Was all he said before he was hugging her and burying his head in her shoulder. 

She tugged him close, feeling him start breathing deeply against her shoulder as if he was falling asleep and tapped him to wake him up a bit so she could start leading him to their room. “Come along, darling, let’s get you into bed. You seem tired.” 

“I know that they’re fries but you say chips…it’s cute…” he mumbled as he walked, only adding to the confusion but she chalked it up to him being tired from a long day and let it go for now as she tucked him in with a smile at how cute he was. 

[codmw2019-2022]

Modern Warfare Character Ages [2019 + 22]

Preface: Just wanted to add before getting into this that this is my interpretation of the character ages based on information from the games, confirmed information, research into the military/CIA and collage/university course information. This is by no means meant to be a definite statement about character ages, I'm happy to discuss or change any of the information here within reason.

I would also like to credit @sleepyconfusedpotato and @oleworldblues posts with their own opinions on the character ages. Which helped base my own thoughts and provided some good information that they had found. You can find Sleepy's post here and Blue's here they are really good posts and they both explain their own reasons for how they perceive the main cast of modern warfare's ages.

Farah & Hadir Karim : 30 & 32 [2022]

Both Farah and Hadir's ages have been confirmed by Taylor Kurosaki who is one of the writers from Modern Warfare 2019. This was confirmed when a fan ask him via twitter/X about how old Farah was during the Barkov invasion.

This means in 1999 when Barkov invaded Farah was 7 and Hadir was 9. In 2009 when they escaped they are 17 and 19 respectively and in 2019 they are 27 and 29. Hadir dies in December of 2022 as discovered in the Atomgrad raids at the age of 32.

John Price : 37 [2022]

Using the information provided from his original operator bio we find that "John Price joined the infantry at the age of sixteen and has served the British Army for 18 years." and that "he was ‘Badged’ a member of SAS in 2005, spending the next ten years in the Middle East, the horn of Africa.".

With this Price's age works out to be about 34 years old, but since it only mentions serving the British army. I added 4 years for him to be able to complete basic training which is roughly 18 weeks basic training.* Followed by Special Air Service (SAS) training with is roughly a couple months, but you must serve at least 18 months in the military to be selected**, and finally his training at the Royal Military Academy to become a Lieutenant and then Captain which is 44 weeks with 2-3 weeks of leave.***

So Price would join the British army at 16 in 2001, be badged a member of SAS at 20 in 2005, become Captain at 25 in 2010. In 2019 he would be 34 and finally 37 in 2022, which to me makes the most sense based on other character's ages.

*[army.mod.uk solider training] **[eliteukforces.info SAS] [eliteukforces.info SBS&SAS] ***[army.mod.uk officer training]

Kyle 'Gaz' Garrick : 32 [2022]

We can do the same process as we did with Price for Gaz, his operator bio says "Kyle ‘Gaz’ Garrick, enlisted in the British Army in 2008. Within four years, he passed selection for Her Majesty’s elite Special Air Service where he is currently rounding out a decade of service."

Since his bio never mentions what age he joins like with Price and Soap I'm going to assume he finished school and joined the military at 18. So Gaz is 18 in 2008, 29 in 2019 when he meets Price for the first time and 32 in 2022. I am not taking into consideration the archived Activision blog posts, which say he joined in 2014 because of them being archived. I do use it for some other characters but for Gaz it changed the date he joined not just giving extra information.

Johnny 'Soap' MacTavish : 26 [2022]

You can blame Activision for why Soap is so young compared to the others. So according to his updated operator bio, "Soap has spent the last seven years carrying out both covert and overt operations around the world." this with the contents of his old operator bio before MW3 "At 16, too young to sign up, but lying about his age, MacTavish enrolled in the Special Air Service…"

Means that Soap would be 23 in 2022, which doesn't make the most sense especially considering he is a Sergeant in 2019 meaning he would be 20 in the MW3 flashback. So I gave him the same treatment as Price and added 3 years, to make up for basic and SAS training. So he would be 16 in 2012 joining the British Army have to wait 18 months to apply for SAS, be roughly 18 when he starts SAS training and finish it at 19 in 2015.*

So making him now 23 in 2019, 26 in 2022 but since he lied about his age TF 141 would think he's 28 during MW2 or 25 during 2019.

*[jobs.army.mod.uk SAS reserve]

Alex Keller : 35 [2022]

Alex is one of the last characters who have dates or years of service in their information. From his Campaign Biography it says he was a part of, "CIA's Special Activities Division," and also has surrendered "his former rank and history of special ops military service with Army Delta, Alex sacrificed traditional contact and association with family to join the SAD. He has spent the last six years living a series of assumed identities to achieve “sensitive” objectives wherever he is needed."

There's also, "Through 2017, Alex’s units played a key role in ensuring definitive victories against emerging terrorist networks." So we know Alex has been working in the military before 2017, now most SAD members are former Delta operators. There's also some reports of SAD members having Master's and law degrees.* So with that we can add roughly 6 years to his age to complete a master's degree in law.**

Now Delta force has some requirements like being over 21 to join and having two and a half years of service remaining, so if Alex joined the US military at 18 after finishing High School and getting his diploma.*** In a couple years he could join Delta Force, so by 26 he would be able to be apart of CIA's SAD. (If studying part time while in Delta Force) Then adding the another six years which is when he is apart of SAD, which is mention in his biography as the last six years. The bio is published late 2019 so Alex would be 32 years old.

So Alex would join the Military at 18 in 2005, would be 32 in 2019 when he loses the lower half of one of his legs and 35 in 2022.

*[CIA SAD] **[coursera.org law school] ***[Delta Force] [US Military Requirements]

Now for the Characters with little infomation

Alejandro & Rodolfo : both 37

We find out they've known each other for 20 years and signed up together. So they are both younger than 38 but older than 30 since Alejandro is a Colonel. Looking at Wikipedia you can/have to join 18 the Mexican military for at least 3 years, this gives them about maybe two years to get to know each other before joining together.

Ghost : 35 [2022]

Honestly just pick an age between Price and Gaz, I personally like the idea of him being the same age as Alex and having them know each other previously. Maybe even before Ghost starts wearing the skull mask.

Laswell & Nikolai : 52 & 45 [2022]

No older that 52 and 45 if we go based on their actors ages, which personally makes the most sense to me. Laswell's Campaign biography mentions her supervising a SAD program in 2008, and her having studied a Master's degree in strategic intelligence analysis and having a BA in International Affairs. This doesn't help much though with figuring out her age.

AN: Hopefully this very long post is some what helpful or at least has some good resources that people can check out, especially fanfic writers or people making their own OCs.

I'm also going to repeat what I put at the top the end here. But what I've written down is not a definitive answer for their ages (minus Farah & Hadir) it's just what I personally think makes the most sense.

Don't let my own opinions/conclusions about their ages get in the way of you having fun with how you view/interpret these characters.

[captain-mj]

You had a very short tiktok series about Gaz watch a true crime documentary about the Riley Christmas murders and one regarding ale talking about how they had a “demon” take out the Zaragoza cartel.

I’ve always wanted to see that expanded on if you could?

Hey Rose!

Gaz was politely listening to something on his phone. His earbuds had died and he couldn't find his normal headphones. He wasn't allowed to use his work ones and while normally he'd do it anyway, his phone didn't have the right adapter for it.

"And the youngest son, Tommy Riley, was found shot dead with the rest of his family. The military covered it all up. There's no evidence that wasn't redacted. What could they be hiding?"

Gaz could've swore he heard Tommy Riley before. But right now, he couldn't quite place it. He could blame it on fatigue.

Ghost walked in and stood near by. He stayed silent as he watched over Gaz's shoulder.

Gaz paused, feeling himself being watched, before relaxing immediately. "Hey, Ghost."

Ghost hummed. "What are you watching?"

"True crime documentary." Gaz answered. "Want to watch with me?”

Ghost thought about it for a minute before sinking into the chair with him. "Sure. Keep playing."

Gaz turned the captions on and raised the volume just a little. Ghost watched with him, staring impassively at the screen.

"What about his oldest brother?" The second host spoke up. "You mentioned they had two sons."

"This is all we have." A family photo of a blond woman, brunette man and their two children. She looked a bit off, almost like she hadn't been expecting to take a photo. Her hand was on a little boy's shoulder. His wide brown eyes were staring at the camera. His hand was on the slightly smaller boy's arm.

"That's it?"

"Yep. Everything about him was apparently burned. No real explanation for it."

"You keep saying him. Who is him?"

"S. Riley. It's all we have. According to the people from his home town, he was unremarkable. just... some guy. For some reason it seems, his school records were burned. His history in the military was burned. And, oh yeah, his medical records, several pages long apparently, and that's just his childhood medical records, were also burned. All different fires. All within the same week." It was clear the implication and it was now hitting Ghost that this was his fucking case.

Yikes.

Gaz laughed. "Military cover up, right Ghost? They blame everything on that."

"This one actually was."

Gaz looked unsure. "You know about this?"

"Yeah. Quite a bit." Ghost got up. "Poor bastard is dead. Died a long time ago. Military just didn't want people to know their hands were in it." He got up. "Don't listen to Ghost stories too much."

As he was leaving, he could see something in Gaz's eyes. A thought.

S. Riley.

Ghost didn't have to deal with his past for a while before he and Alejandro were staking a place out. Valeria were said to be around and that was all the excuse Alejandro needed to be there.

"You ever hear about the Zaragoza cartel?" Alejandro asked, using a hushed tone. It was clear this wasn't reverence. He was baiting Ghost into asking him to tell a cautionary tale or ghost story.

Ghost grinned under his mask. "No. Tell me."

Alejandro launched into the story with a rather good amount of showmanship. There was shockingly little embellishment, but with Roba, there wasn't much need for it. He went over the torture the men, Ghost included, endured. The drugging, the assault, the beating and fighting.

"What happened to them?" Ghost asked on cue and he could see Alejandro smiling.

"A demon. Wiped them all out. Said he wore a..." Alejandro trailed off. He glanced at Ghost. He was a smart man. But when Ghost responded by tilting his head and waving him forward to continue, he seemed to realize that the British man in front of him most likely would not have been in the middle of Mexico at the time. It made no sense. "Skull mask."

"To mock Roba?"

"Rudy thinks so. I don't."

"Why do you think he wore it?"

"I think he was a dead man." Alejandro answered. He sighed softly and his eyes closed. "Forgot how boring stake outs are."

Ghost hummed. "If you want, I could take first watch? Might be good for you to go sleep."

Alejandro nodded. "Might be a good idea." He moved his stuff and managed to lay down.

"Don't let Manuel Roba bite." Ghost grinned.

Alejandro laughed and closed his eyes. Only a moment later, his eyes fluttered open. "Did I say his first name?"

"Nah. I heard of him before. Just wanted to keep you entertained." Ghost patted Alejandro's legs and stood up. He stretched and shook his own legs out before continuing to watch out the window.

Alejandro seemed to let it go.

Soap saw the scarring on Ghost's chest where the autopsies and unnecessary surgeries had gone on. Ghost thought Soap was going to vomit when he saw the extent of it. He didn't think it was because Soap thought it was gross, his scot loved the Glasgow scars on his face and had kissed the scarring on his throat with a vigor Ghost didn't understand. But more, the fact that Ghost had clearly been tortured in such horrific ways.

Soap opened his mouth and closed it a few times before swallowing. "The people wh-"

"Dead. Killed them myself, don't worry."

"They still hurt?"

"Sometimes. I've started taking care of them more and it's not as bad."

Soap traced the mortuary scars first and then the scarring over his ribs. "This feels personal."

"He hated me because I wouldn't break. Fucking Cartel." Ghost answered softly and leaned into him. "Come on. Do you really want to spend our time together doing this?" He leaned down and kissed him.

"They also make the Glasgows?"

"Yeah. The venom scarring was my dad though."

Ghost thought Soap was going to blow up at first. Instead, he just spent the rest of their time kissing all over Ghost as if he could make up for lost time.

Ghost cheekily recommended one of his documentaries to Rodolfo. It was one of the ones that dropped part of his name in it but also insisted that he was the one to murder his family in cold blood. The documentary was one of his least favorite and Ghost had spent more than a few nights after watching it staring at his ceiling, feeling sick. But it was one of the ones that was most misleading. Rudy was smart, but the doc was mixed into several others as well so it wasn't obvious.

Rodolfo didn't call him out on it, but there was something in their eyes when they bumped into each other again. He knew. Just needed a shred of evidence before outright asking Ghost if he murdered his family.

Alejandro invited everyone to his Ranch for a celebration. There was nothing to celebrate, but they all were on leave for the first time since Los Almas.

Rodolfo thanked Ghost and Gaz for the true crime documentaries they had been sending him.

Gaz, who had started to become very suspicious about this whole thing, nodded. "Yeah, thank you for the recommendations too. The Riley Family Christmas murders were an interesting one." They both glanced at Ghost.

So did Price. He was frowning, looking almost panicked. He assumed, reasonably, that this would be a triggering topic for Ghost.

Ghost laughed. "Yeah. That's a good one. Whole family, dead and mutilated. Then they find the oldest son burned somewhere else? Fucking hell." He walked away, getting one of the spiked drinks. He also made sure to pass Price to nod at him. Price got worried and he didn't want him.

Alejandro started the tale about the Zaragoza Cartel to everyone and Soap listened to the methods of torture.

"Wait. Did you say they'd... autopsy them? While alive?"

Alejandro grinned, thinking Soap was just into the nitty gritty details. "Yeah. It was so they could put drugs directly into their organs."

"Huh... Ghost, did they do that to you? The drugging I mean."

Pause.

A pin drop could be heard.

"Yeah. Nasty hallucinogens."

"Huh. Wonder if the two groups had the same idea."

Price was catching on and he quickly glanced at Ghost who gave him The Nod. Politely, he waited until Alejandro was done before asking. "You hear about the people that escaped?"

"Yeah of course. All brainwashed though. They were half insane."

"You hear about the one that did though? Truly escaped? He was an SAS member. Vicious young Sergeant at the time. I was his Lieutenant." Price took a drink. Unlike Alejandro, there was no showmanship. No excitement. Instead, there was a string of sadness.

"S. Riley. I remember finding his patch. Right next to a bunch of bloody dog tags. Roba knew I was following him and he wanted me to know he hurt or killed some of my members. Fucking bastard."

There was a sharp moment. Everyone was putting things together.

"Riley escaped. They found him, mostly dead, wandering the border. We brought our boy home along with some of those brainwashed bastards. Didn't know they'd be targeting civilians."

Gaz gasped so loud Rodolfo jumped. "The military coverup."

"I told you not to listen to Ghost stories." Ghost smiled, taking a drink.

Price hummed. "You know, Simon. I was scared when you went missing a second time. Until I heard that cartel had been wiped off the map and I found you knee deep in bodies."

"Aye. They made one mistake that evening. Just one."

Soap asked the question, right on cue, even if he didn't know it. "Just one?"

'Yeah. Really shouldn't have killed my mom. Might've let a few of them live if they hadn't."

"Mary was a lovely lady." Price clicked their bottles together. "Raised a lovely son."

"You recommended us documentaries over your own family's murders??"

"I have to keep myself entertained somehow."

[the-horned-pyramids]

ok so!

modern au but like still in the op world so the races devil fruits and haki still exist and the whole canon story played out like,,,,400 years prior.

omega mihawk is the middle child of some royal family (think less world nobles more british royal family but they are like,,, lords or something idk less then kings and queens but still up there ya dig?)

his older brother is the perfect son, diligent and respectful alpha who is the perfect heir, he is also significantly older than mihawk and his younger sister so he is also quite distant from them. The lord and lady had their perfect heir but the lady desperately wanted a daughter and after almost a decade and a half of trying and failed attempts, they had mihawk and they were disappointed and his childhood was quite lonely up until his sister was born when he was five, she was everything they ever wanted and they spoiled her greatly, she grew up to be a bratty child and would constantly blame mihawk for everything she did wrong, whenever mihawk started to excel in something she would have to as well, she would whine and cry to their parents who would instruct mihawk to stop overshadowing your sister and they would pay off judges to help her win. this went on their entire childhood until mihawk left for college at 20.

it took him three years to convince his parents to allow him to go to college because they are asses but when they finally relent he chooses the college with a sword fighting team as he has always expressed an interest in swords, there he meets two alphas, his roommate King, and an interesting red haired man on the sword fighting team

the semester goes on and mihawk and king add ‘with benefits’ to their roommate agreement and mihawk and shanks are getting closer and closer.

and then in their third year, king asks mihawk to marry him.

king comes from a very old and traditional family that is descended from the distant lunarians however most of the traits that they were praised for had vanished, there is a program within the clan to breed those traits back into existence and King is slated to be the next head of the family and is being pressured by the clan elders to pick a wife and so, after hearing that mihawk is also descended from lunarians, king asks for his hand in marriage. so the clan elders can get off his back and so mihawk won’t have to worry about his parents deciding to not pay for their “omega sons frivolities” anymore.

mihawk agrees and they tell their families, both are in agreement however, kings family makes them sign a prenup, that a child must be conceived within ten years that must belong to both individuals, should a child be conceived by either of the couple without the inclusion of their partner, will result in the breaking of the marriage and a severe consequence upon the offending family.

this is so very clearly targeting mihawk that it’s frankly unfair but he was so desperate to get out from under his parents harsh gaze that he accepted without argument.

the wedding was large and extravagant and utterly offensive to mihawk’s senses. the ceremonial garb was itchy and too tight, the smell of the flowers was too cloying and the lights were much too bright.

the one thing mihawk did ask for was for his brother to give him away, because while they were not particularly close, he was far kinder than the rest of their family.

although most of kings family were friendly enough and he had a few pleasant conversations, the clan elders were critical of his every move and the end of the reception could not come soon enough.

they were content with each other and began working on fulfilling the requirements of the prenup quite soon. both graduated college, king in idk the one the politicians take and mihawk with a degree in history of warfare, particularly the great pirate era. during school he also kept up with his swordsmanship, he competed in competitions and won medals, he even competed in the olympics once, several years into their marriage.

it was nearing the end of the eighth year of their marriage with no child to show that king suggested that they spice things up a bit and add a third, so mihawk suggested his long time friend shanks. king agreed and they invited shanks to join them in their bed for a night, but not before mihawk made them all meet with a notary to gey it in writing for the prenup.

so they have a lovely night together and a few months later mihawk is feeling under the weather so he makes an appointment for a doctors visit but as he goes to inform king, he over hears him speaking to someone over the phone about divorcing mihawk because “its obvious that he’s broken, if i want a child i need someone who is capable of giving me one, someone like you my love.”

mihawk stops, and goes to lay down to process what he heard. he didn’t exactly fall madly in love with king over the course of their marriage, but he did grow to care for him greatly, he was a great friend and a great fuck. or so he thought. this betrayal struck him deep because mihawk really thought that king also cared for him, but now it’s obvious that the only reason he even entertained this was because he wanted a child. mihawk quickly pushed his heartbreak down and got up to finish dinner.

when they sat down to eat, mihawk told king about the appointment he had made because he had been feeling under the weather, he watched kings face closely and was able to see the distance.

the conversation carried on about their day’s and they went to bed.

the next day king announced his intention to divorce mihawk because he did not fufil the agreement of the prenup and give him a child within 10 years, mihawk did not protest and the divorce was finalized within the day.

mihawk was able to get a suite at a hotel because he is not broke thats for sure, and he called up his friend and lawyer to start planning, because if the result of this appointment was what he thought it was then either mihawk was going to be able to spread some nasty rumors about kings “ability” to produce children, or mihawk is going to squeeze that pompous family for everything they have.

sometime during the day the news of the divorce hit the tabloids and paparazzi were waiting outside the hotel when mihawk went to his appointment and he smirked to himself knowing that this will just fan the flames even higher.

the test came back positive.

mihawk was pregnant.

mihawk and crocodile took king and the family to court, which became a whole lot more dramatic when it was revealed that the woman king was speaking on the phone with had been mihawks younger sister, and that she was also pregnant, she had gotten pregnant about a month after mihawk did which started the death tolls for the family.

there was a lot of fuss that led to DNA tests being taken on king and the sisters side to prove that the child was indeed kings’ child which was proven true, but also revealed that mihawk’s sister was a result of an affair on their mother’s part.

sometime during the court case and mihawk’s pregnancy, he began spending more time with shanks, and then shanks invited mihawk to move in woth him once the baby came. he also admitted that he had a crush on mihawk since freshman year of college and didn’t find the courage to tell him until it was too late. mihawk smiled and drew him down for a kiss and called him an idiot.

the day came,mihawk was admitted into the hospital and after four hours of sitting tensly in the waiting room, a nurse came out and invited shanks and king to come look.

shanks, king and the clan elders gathered arounf the window to the baby room as the nurse wheeled one bassinet to the window, a baby with dark hair and a tanned complexion matching shanks.

the elders tittered to themselves, confident that this showed that the omega had also broken the prenup, when another bassinet was wheeled to the window, this one contained a baby with dark skin and white hair. the titterign stopped.

then a nurse came by and helped the babies onto their stomachs to allow their wings to stretch out.

needless to say, mihawk was pleased as the cat that got the cream when the court ruled that king broke the prenup, and that mihawk would be getting full custody of both children and a vast majority of the assets previously owned by kings family.

@milfhawks @blackholesun321

[moonshynecybin]

the british gp gifs have undone me. what do u mean marc looks away quickly but vale catches him and smiles and looks back. what do u mean vale always breaks away first. marc-get-up.gif

marc in 2013 was having the literal time of his life it’s so crazy he STILL says its his favorite season he’s ever ridden…. he came into the senior racing class like i hope i score some podiums :) and started fucking clearing bitches started WINNINGGGG…and his hot childhood idol is now his hot coworker slash friend slash guy who took his virginity!!! AND he’s paying attention to marc and smiling at him and doing dumb bits with him like i literally would have embarrassed myself publicly too. imagine the fattest crush you ever had in middle school is leaning into your space and translating questions from reporters and choking you in parc ferme and complimenting your riding and saying you’re the rider he sees the most of himself in. like marc couldn’t deal. its literally in his rookie documentary as a romantic montage bc that is what he was feeling !!!! i cannot blame him for being down horrendous he is simply reacting as any person would to the situation at hand

[imagines--galore]

Hello! I’ve read your rules and character list and would like to make a request for Severus Snape! Could I please have when he was attending Hogwarts as a student, probably 3rd or 4th year. He’s being bullied by James and Sirius. Reader sticks up for him. Reader is a new student from America. Severus is mean to Reader at first but he comes around. Please, no words like mudblood and absolutely no smut. Thank you very much. Take all the time you need!

Pairing: Severus Snape x Reader Rating || Genres || Warnings: T. General. Just a little bullying, though nothing drastic. A couple of curse words, but only minor ones. And a bit of reference to parental abuse, alcoholism and death. A/N: Thank you so much for the request! I hope you like my take on it! Also this would take place during their fourth year at Hogwarts.

"I didn't need your help."

Well this was certainly not the reaction you had expected from your fellow Housemate.

You stood in the middle of the corridor, hardly aware of the students as they began to scatter. The show was over now, and it looked like no one was about to stand around for the after show. You, however, stayed where you were, a look of utter confusion crossing your features as the black haired boy glared at you.

"Really? You sure you didn't need my help?" You asked, raising an eyebrow at him. "Because from where I stood, being made to tap-dance against your will counts as a cry for help." The boy, Severus, as you recalled his name, flushed with embarrassment. "I had it handled. I certainly didn't need help from an outsider." The word was innocent enough, but as someone who had never had a sense of belonging, it cut deep. Deeper then you cared to admit. Outwardly, you stood up taller, jutting your chin out as your eyes flashed with anger.

"Fine. Since you had it handled, the next time Potter and his friends torment you, I won't step in." With that you pushed past him, making sure to bump his shoulder hard as you walked down the corridor and disappeared from view.

The very next week, you would be sent to your Head of House for hexing James Potter when he pointed his wand at Severus.

                                              ————————–

Your life had been one big disappointment after another.

Your father had left after he discovered that you were a witch, and that his wife was as well. Your mother had managed to conceal her heritage, but once you started to exhibit signs of having magical powers, as was the norm for any child of your age, he had confronted your mother who had told him the truth.

He had left that very night.

Your mother blamed you, and would torment you day in and day out. It wasn't until you started to fight back that she decided to back off, and turn her attention to drinking. You started attending Ilvermorny when you became of age, and thought perhaps you had finally found a place where you could belong.

That dream went up in smoke, when you received the letter, notifying you of your mother's death. Alcohol poisoning, they had said. And with no other living relatives in America, and a father who was nowhere to be found, you were sent to live with a Cousin that lived in Britain.

She was from your mother's side, so it was easy for her to take you on and become your guardian. You were shipped off to the new country, and after an assessment that would determine the level of education you had received in America, you were placed as a Fourth Year student at the British magic school. Hogwarts.

You had hated it.

Hated very minute of being in a new place. Of being the outsider. The odd one out. And being placed in a House that was considered taboo seemed to label you as even more of an outcast. Your Housemates were not thrilled at your presence, and the rest of the student body shunned you for being a Slytherin. The only person who seemed to care about you was your cousin, but of course, you hardly saw her during the school year.

There had been a point in the very beginning of your new school year, when you had been cornered by a couple of older students, looking to humiliate you. But years of living with an abusive parent had thickened your skin. When words had no effect, one of them had pulled out their wand, but you had been quicker.

Once news spread how you had managed to send three older students to the Hospital Wing with several lethal combinations of hexes and jinxes, everyone decided to give you a wide berth.

From then on, you became something of a savior to those who were tormented or bullied by others. And though the students you helped were grateful to you, no one truly approached you to become your friend. To them, you were still an outsider.

That is until the day arrived when you first helped Severus Snape.

He was in the same year as you, and since he too was a Slytherin, you two shared multiple classes. You, like every other student, knew of the bad blood that was between him and a couple of boys from Gryffindor. James Potter and Sirius Black.

                                              ————————–

This would be the first time, you would step in and help Severus, and despite his repeated claims that he did not need her help, and your promise to never help him again, neither of you seemed to hold on to their vows.

The humiliation Severus felt at being saved by you, prompted him to be extremely rude to you whenever you had the chance to run into one another. You, never being one to back down from a fight, pushed back. Whatever rude comment he threw your way, you would throw it back in his face.

However, if there was one thing you began to notice after a month or so of your interactions with Severus, was that they had begun to loose their bite. And somehow, it had become a game between the two of you. Who could come up with the most ingenious ways to be rude to the other. Neither of you made any comments about the other's parentage, or anything that would be truly hurtful. Soon your constant back and forth became almost...............teasing. The words lost their edge, and on more then one occasion the two of you would share a smile after a rather successful battle of wits. In a way you had acquired a friend. Your first friend at Hogwarts.

Since you had begun to help Severus, Potter and Black had decided to make you their target as well. And though you had been bested by them on a few occasions, you would teach them both a lesson the next time they would cross paths with you.

And after every attempt at helping Severus you would try to talk him into leaving Potter and Black alone. He had just as much of an equal hand in hexing or jinxing them as they did him. It was an endless cycle. Neither of them refused to back down.

That is until one fateful day after their O.W.L. exams.

                                              ————————–

You had been there when Lily Evans had tried to help Severus. She had also acted as his savior on more then one occasion. But in his humiliation, Severus had said the one word you had hoped would never come out of his mouth.

Once Lily Evans had departed, you had quickly stepped in. Once Potter had been disarmed and Black incapacitated with a long length of rope from your wand, you had turned your attention to Severus. He was laying on the ground now, his face red with utter shame and humiliation.

Your eyes met, and you slowly shook your head, looking completely disappointed in him.

And you left.

                                              ————————–

It was a few nights later when you finally had a chance to speak with him properly. You hadn't seen him anywhere in the Slytherin Common Room, not that you had been looking for him. At least not actively. Despite what had happened, you were worried about him. The situation must've been truly humiliating for him to have slipped up like that. You hadn't heard him say something of the sort of anyone since you had known him.

At least you hadn't been aware of it.

Sighing to yourself, you exited the Common Room to get a nice cup of hot chocolate from the Kitchens when you nearly bumped into him.

Awkward silence ensued, once you saw who it was you had bumped into. Your eyes met his for a brief second before you lowered them to the ground. Muttering an apology under your breath, you shifted to move past him.

"Y/N?"

You stopped, head whipping around to stare at him wide eyed. Never, in all the months you had known him, had he ever addressed you by your first name. You had used both his given name and surname on several occasions. He had only ever used your surname.

He was facing you, a kind of determined gleam in his eyes, one you had never seen before. His hands clenched at his sides as you spoke.

"Yes, Severus?" You asked, crossing your arms over your chest and raising an eyebrow at him. "Where're you off to?" It looked as if it physically pained him to speak so politely to you. You held back a snort at his obvious discomfort as you shrugged. "Fancied a hot chocolate. Where are you coming from? I doubt you sneaked out to snog with someone." Alright so maybe you had picked up a couple British slang words since your arrival here. But only the ones you liked.

His cheeks turned a bright red, prompting you to smirk. "At least I have snogged an actual person. You've only ever snogged a book." You couldn't help it anymore as you let out a loud laugh. "Thats the best you came up with?!" You managed to gasp out between giggles. "Shit Severus, you're loosing your touch." Finally gaining some control over your emotions, you were surprised to see him smiling softly at you.

It was your turn to blush now, as you cleared your throat and turned away from him. After a couple of steps you looked back at him and shrugged. "Well? Aren't you coming?" You asked. He stayed where he was and you turned to walk away once again.

A few seconds later hurried footsteps sounded behind you, before you saw Severus fall into step beside you. The back of his hand brushed against yours and you smiled softly.

A moment later, you had his hand in a firm grip as the two of you ventured to the kitchen for some hot chocolate.

[perrysoup]

I glad a lot of you people are not in positions of power cause some of you fuckers have no concept of rules of war, the Geneva Convention, the rights of the oppressed, and the obligations of the oppressor.

"Why would Hamas do this?"

Do what? Appear after a deal was made where Palestine agreed to a two state solution based on the 1973 lines and ISRAEL REFUSED?

"Hamas did XYZ"

And that justifies killing civilians, bombing hospitals, poisoning wells, blowing up ambulances, killing journalists?

Some of you, genuinely, are so far up your own ass and refuse to admit you were wrong even though a ton of us have shown it's fine to do so that you can't see how you're enabling.

Do you think a lot of us, fuck, MOST OF US started as a pro-Palestinian? Shit man I was raised in America, I was told OVER AND OVER AND OVER that Israel had a divine right to be there. I don't mean by parents, I mean by TEACHERS, GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS, CHURCH LEADERS, PEOPLE WE WERE TOLD TO TRUST! That Palestine was wrong. NO ONE told us that it was formerly Palestinian land. NO ONE told us why Palestinian was fighting back. NO ONE told us the horrors that occurred while we sang songs about how happy we should be Israel has Jerusalem. NO ONE told us Palestine has Jews and Christians, and was insanely diverse.

And when 9/11 happened they took us and used that to fuel our rage against the Muslim populace at home and abroad. They painted all of them as people who hated us, and Palestine specifically was taught to us that they were all anti-semites who hated non-Muslims. DO YOU SEE THE FUCKING ISSUE!? THE CONTEXT AND DETAIL WE WEREN'T TOLD? THE DIVERSITY CONVENIENTLY LEFT OUT!? The half truths fed to us on the news, in church, at school?

Or why entities exist. Have you wondering why Israel exists? Have you wondered why Hamas exists? Have you wondered what non-violent resistance the Palestinians have tried before? Cause if you had you'd realize that this was a decision by the British. A nation which *checks map* IS NOT EVEN IN THE GOD DAMN MIDDLE EAST! They were just a conqueror and colonizer who had bigger guns that the Palestinians. Palestinians have for decades tried JUST self defense, JUST peaceful protest, and you know what happened? THEY WERE MURDERED!

So fuck off with this "not the way to do it" shit. They tried it your way, and Israel killed them. Do you want them to just keep lining up to get shot and say "Thank you for shooting me?"

I can't believe this has to be said again and again but here we are:

There is not justification for genocide and blaming and punishing the entire Palestinian population for the actions of a terrorist group not even headquartered where Israel is destroying, literally, people lives is the sign of a genocidal maniac, and you dick riding without even taking the time to look at stuff outside of Israeli propaganda enables it.

[hazz-a-bear]

F A M I L Y  — i see things that nobody else sees.

meet the family.

masterlist | wattpad

──── ★

SONIYA FERNANDO & JONATHON RAE » the parents

1970 // BRITISH

⊹ ࣪ ˖ company director...

Aviana's father, Jonathon Rae was born and raised in London, England. It is during his stay In Sri Lanka during the 80s that he meets Soniya. After getting married in the outskirts of the country, the two reside in Colombo along with their two children before moving back to his hometown in the UK. With his flourishing career in the field of business and logistics, Jonathon Rae is the owner of multiple tea plantations in Kenya, India, China and Sri Lanka whilst also working as a Director at Lipton Tea and Infusions™. 

1970 // SRI LANKAN

⊹ ࣪ ˖ senior proffessor...

Soniya Fernando is a woman from Colombo, Sri Lanka. She was born and raised as the middle daughter of a five-membered family. She met her spouse during a university exchange programme. Now married to Jonathon Rae and mother to Aviana and Alden, she's currently a Senior Lecturer for Business Studies and Management at the Camden School of Business.

+

Aviana's relationship with her parents is one of huge complications. Dating back to the early days of childhood, Aviana and Alden seem to have a rather distant bond with them. Soniya, always a strict and orderly woman, is much more of a teacher than a mother to any of them from what Aviana reveals. Jonathon, who's much linear in comparison, is mostly swayed by his wife's stern and unwavering decisions that aren't always great.

Soniya and Jonathon, though close to the rest of One Direction parents, have never publicly shared their happiness with Aviana's success like the rest. The two were initially so against with their daughter's choice of career that they refused to support her in the matter altogether, leading Aviana to fully depend on herself. The rift between Aviana and her parents runs deeper than any of them lets it out, hence why the first thing she did once turning eighteen was change her family name 'Rae' to her paternal grandmother's family name; Fernsby.

₊ ⊹

❝She couldn't make us happy just for once, could she?❞

+

❝I chose this career...knowing I was giving a new meaning to the word disappointment. I just hope, maybe one day, they'll be happy with what I've achieved as parents❞

played by: n/a

──── ★

ALDEN RAE » the brother

1992 // BRITISH-SRI LANKAN

⊹ ࣪ ˖ pursues automotive design...

Ruvin Alden Rae is Aviana's biological older brother. With a two-year-old age gap between them, both of them were born and raised in Sri Lanka for the early part of their childhood. Alden is a badminton player as well as a community server. Once he finishes his studies at North Hampstead High, he eventually pursues a career in the design field which leads him to be an automotive designer in the future.

[ aviana + alden ␥ mistake 1 + mistake 2 ]

Alden and Aviana have a complicated brother-sister relationship as revealed by themselves, close family and friends. thought they used to be close when they were young, the two drifted away once the Rae family moved to England. Physical fights between Aviana and Alden are normalized in a way they shouldn't be. The tense and uncomfortable atmosphere between them can't be blamed on simple sibling rivalry - there seemed to be something more than that. All differences aside, Alden and Aviana have the ability to get close when it's beneficial for them. And surprisingly, community service is something that brings the two a little closer.

Though the two are not on good terms most of the time, Alden is the only family member whom Aviana contacts consistently. Alden is also the only one who at least half-heartedly supported Aviana's career throughout the years. The older is close to her sister's bandmate Louis. With his public bond with the boys of One Direction, fans almost speculate that Alden is closer to them than her sister in some instances. Alden is also known to be the one who acquired all the 'brown genes' of their maternal family.

₊ ⊹

❝How's Aviana? Well...she's alright, I guess. I don't know. Why are you asking me that? She's just here for the holidays yall, she's not dead❞

+

❝Alden, he's my brother, yeah. But, the only thing we truly bond over is, I think, Marvel and...alcohol? Yeah, probably❞

played by: dominic fike

──── thank you.

[everything-is-crab]

:))

This is what I meant when I said both rightoids and liberals in India are equally dumb as fuck. Both are pro imperialists. She's not even lower caste and yet she's speaking on behalf of us. I have seen this trend in a lot of "anticasteist" upper caste women (who unfortunately have more voices than people like me, actually women from oppressed castes).

How are these people different from the white supremacists who say brown people are intellectually and socially inferior?

"At least the goras let us have meat" oh okay we're gonna ignore the 3 million lives lost in Bengal famine caused by Churchill's policies (after which he blamed it on us instead of his own greediness). Did he let those people eat meat then? Unhinged shit. They wouldn't let people fill their bellies cause sometimes instead of food crops they wanted our ancestors to grow cotton, indigo, spices, tea. Which also left areas prone to land disasters. Commercial stuff that they could sell at much cheaper prices in their own countries and others in the Western world as well. Also levied extremely unreasonably high taxes. Leaving us with no money. Delusional world these middle/upper class liberals live in where the British let us have meat. They didn't even let us have rice.

The British protected the caste system. Read Sharmila Rege's work about how the British introduced the process of "Brahmanisation" in colonial India.

This is the exact thing Hindu nationalists are doing rn! And have been doing forever! Protecting Western imperialists! Why do you think Modi is bootlicking the US so much? Do you think the farmers' protests and the after effects of globalization after 1991 are disconnected from Western imperialism?

Just because nationalists claim to be against white dominance doesn't mean they practice what they preach.

And this folks is why you need to incorporate class and gender in your analysis and not read about the work of only the middle class men of a community :)

Women and poor people matter too.

But unfortunately many earlier anti caste activists who were middle or upper class were anti Marxists and only later few like the Dalit Panthers and R.B More realized the importance of Marxist analysis for understanding modern caste based oppression more. Yes many Indian Marxists ignored casteism. But that does not mean we must dispose it as a useless theory.

But who tf cares about the Dalit Panthers or anyone else? Have you even heard of any other names that aren't Phule or Ambedka? Everyone followed and still follow people like Periyar, Ambedkar, Phule who were all from relatively well off family. And why will people who uncritically follow these people not think colonization was as bad? All of them attended British school and went for higher studies as well. The British was staunchly anti communist. They constantly resisted communist activists in colonial India. This is a privilege even today many people from oppressed castes cannot enjoy.

I have seen all these upper caste women, ignore people like me pointing this out. They think we're against education of oppressed castes (why would I advocate that for my own community?). But rather we take issue to these men ignoring their economic and male privilege and speaking on behalf of all of us.

A reminder that Periyar criminalized devadasis and read Ambedkar's arguments against Hindutva solutions to the Partition (hint: he cared more about the money that could be wasted in missionaries rather than the violence and human rights and unironically called Muslim people "tyrannical" and referred to "Muslim oppression" on Hindus). He was anti casteist, but he was Islamophobic.

To avoid with this kind of thinking, follow Dalit feminist theory. Dalit femininism from its inception has been pro Marxist (cause women make most of poor here). And they explain the effects of colonization on lower caste women (how the British introduced evidence act, a law that justified rape against lower caste women and let me remind you gang rape of lower caste women by upper caste men is a national issue. Ex the Manipur case, the rape of Phoolan Devi, the Hathras case etc). And how dowry (that earlier used to be a practice mainly amongst upper castes was now becoming dominant in lower castes as well due to capitalization of economy during colonial era). Maybe then you will understand why the British abolished sati but not any temple prostitution or other issues faced exclusively by women from oppressed castes. In fact they called upper caste women those who deserve to be protected but lower caste women were inherently deviant in their justification. But please go ahead and argue how imperialism brings "good things" sometimes.

Just read about caste reformation during colonial era. The choice isn't between hindutva and colonial era. The choice is between hindutva and hindutva along with colonial rule. Why do most liberals pretend the British never favored the Brahmins over everybody else?

White supremacy is so much better than Hindu supremacy for women of lower castes am I right guys?

This is so much better?

Also reminded of the "breast cloth" controversy. Do not mistake that anti caste activism is always anti caste for both Dalit men and women. Sometimes it favors Dalit men. And oppresses Dalit women further. Cause usually the colonizers never cared about oppressed castes but when they did, it was only for the men.

Ik many upper caste Marxists are not good at anti caste politics but I cannot separate Marxism from my anti caste or feminist politics. And as a Marxist from a formerly colonized country, I cannot ignore the imperial divide between the West (that is white dominated) and the global south (that includes India). You cannot separate the conditions of brown and black people today in the global south from the past dynamics of the colonizer and the colonized.

Lower caste women are obviously very poor. The poorest of all with least social protection. These upper caste women can sit on their asses and write papers and blogs on how much white supremacy was much cooler. But the ones from oppressed castes and working class? They don't have this privilege. They have the same burden of upper caste women related to marriage and domestic work and everything. But on top of that they have to do labor as well. And after globalization, when condition of "blue collar jobs" degraded (wages lowered, subsidies cut, worker protection rights gone etc) , the percentage of women in these fields increased. That's not a coincidence. Men always force women into lower earning occupations that have little job security. I am not gonna ignore this.

Fuck Hindutva. But fuck white supremacy too. For me neither is better. Both go hand in hand in fact. Look at the Hindu nationalists in France allying with white supremacists over shared conservative interests.

[buffyspeak]

the big book of craig manning meta, part 2: pre-series background.

trigger warnings: discussions of emotional, psychological, physical, and potential financial abuse, as well as brief references to classist attitudes.

albert: what's your interest in my son? joey: just... albert: he's my son, right? joey: yes, but he's also angela's brother. albert: half-brother.

though craig's introduction is quite memorable and the show is quite good at letting us get to know his life circumstances right away, because certain things happened pre-series (or at least pre-craig's introduction) there are a couple of things that are left ambiguous and up to interpretation. i've seen different perspectives, for instance, on how julia leaving albert went down, whether albert was abusive to julia as well, or whether craig used to live with joey and julia before she died. a lot of this is going to be based on speculation/my interpretation of what's talked about.

a couple of things we know to be textual in canon by when doves cry:

joey and julia's wedding was five years ago, so craig would have been about 9 at the time.

angie is six in season 2, so julia and joey had her before they got married.

craig went to a different middle school as most of the rest of the main cast, which is why he wasn't in season 1. (i mean, realistically, i don't know if the writers had come up with his character at the start of the show. but this is the in-universe reason.) he starts at degrassi because the nearby high school closed down due to budget cuts. this also seems to be the the high school the other grade-nines would have gone to, so he likely would have met them, but he would not have gotten to know emma more or met sean, who are both in grade eight. (and both of whom are pretty instrumental in helping to get him out of his situation.)

albert is a rich surgeon, and at least since julia died, seems to have full custody of craig.

julia died two years ago, given that at the start of season 1, joey says she's been dead for a year, and it's now a year later. so i believe craig would have been 11 or 12, depending on what time of year it happened.

at some point, when angie was a baby, craig was with angie (and presumably joey and julia) on a trip to british columbia.

joey is unaware of the abuse until the events of when doves cry. while he seems generally concerned for craig's well-being due to his mom's death and his clearly missing angie, he doesn't seem concerned for craig's literal safety until sean and emma inform him that albert is hurting craig and angie unwittingly tells him about the bruises she saw.

a couple of things i feel can be intuited from the aforementioned facts:

albert frames the separation between him and julia as her leaving him for a used car salesman. while he is not the most reliable source and we have little perspective about what their marriage was like, the timeline seems to indicate that julia either divorced albert in order to get together with joey very quickly, or that she cheated on him with joey, and that getting pregnant with angie was possibly the final push to leave albert. i've always kind of assumed the latter to be true since i first saw these eps, given exactly how much resentment albert seems to hold for both julia and joey.

(note: i am 1000% not blaming julia or joey for albert's abuse of his son. his actions are his own, and whatever reasons he has or feels he has do not excuse those actions. we also know very little about the relationship between albert and julia, making it difficult to judge her actions, as elaborated on below.)

i think it is unlikely that albert was physically abusive to julia, because i think if that was the case, joey would likely know about it and would be much more concerned about craig's safety. while it's clear joey and albert don't like each other, and that joey thinks albert is not a very nice person, i think it's fairly logical to chalk that up to the relationship drama in their history. i do think it's possible that albert was emotionally/verbally/pyschologically abusive to her, as he also is with craig. but even now, some people don't recognize these things as abuse, and at the time period this would have been happening, i think there was much less understanding of the kind of toll these forms of abuse can take. i think for joey's part, if julia did confide in him about any potential problems with her relationship with albert, he likely thought albert was a dick and a bad husband, but may not have the language or the knowledge to recognize him as an abuser. julia herself may not have at the time, either.

these notes are even more speculation based, but this is how i tend to interpret the events before craig's intro on the show, based on what we do know:

i pretty strongly believe that even when julia was alive, at the absolute most, the time craig spent with joey, angela, and julia was on weekends, maybe holidays, and at least one trip to british columbia.

i know people are often confused by the idea that albert might have gotten full custody, but honestly, it is not that much of a stretch to me. if julia initiated the divorce, and especially if she and joey had an affair, putting my own feelings about it aside (because again, i really do not want or think it's fair to judge her for this, given how little we know about the relationship), i think any court likely would have seen julia as the one 'at fault' for the divorce. we also don't know anything about her own background or what she might have done for work: it is possible that she did not have the financial means to either start or win a custody battle, and albert is established to be a rich surgeon with a good reputation. so it's possible that julia did fight for custody, but it's also possible that she wasn't able to and that they worked something out for whenever albert oh-so-graciously (note the sarcasm) decided to let craig see her.

i've seen it implied that joey, julia, and angela might have lived in british columbia, or that albert and craig moved there for a while, but i don't see this as viable, given that we know joey has a long-standing used car dealership and that albert is a well-regarded and well-known surgeon at his hospital. while it's not impossible, it seem seems unlikely and is not confirmed.

what we do know is that at some point, craig and angie were there together, though angie was too young to remember it and craig says she was "just a baby". my best guess would be that maybe joey and julia had a little honeymoon there and brought both kids along with them. angie would have been about 1, then, making it a lot more feasible that they would have taken her on this trip. with her being so young, i doubt they'd want to leave her, even with another family member, like joey's mom. and hey, if angie's coming, craig can come along, too!

it might seem counterintuitive, when i'm sitting here saying that i don't think albert usually let craig see them, that he would then allow him to go on this trip, but for one thing, it's clear that craig did spend at least some time with them, given the bond he and angie have developed. i also think the show does a pretty good job at showing the complexities of abusers: they're not always these complete monsters, doing one bad thing after another. we see 'nice' moments between craig and albert, couched as they are in manipulation, but realistically, he probably wasn't always this 100% unreasonable guy all of the time. and honestly, that's one of the really dangerous things about abusers: they can seem nice in front of other people and even to their victims, and they may even mean it some of the time, but that 'niceness' is often what keeps people from seeing the truth. someone could see one of act of kindness albert might do for his son and think, there's no way that guy hurts his kid.

maybe craig really wanted to go, and the day he asked, albert was feeling charitable. because again: the show is actually pretty good about showing the cycles and complexity of abuse. albert, while awful to craig in general, probably did not always seem awful 100% of the time.

or maybe julia insisted and threatened, regardless of her circumstances, to take him to a court. for one reason or another, i think it's feasible that this happened without necessarily being indicative of albert agreeing for craig to spend a lot of time with them in general.

however, based on what we know, i do not believe craig lived with joey long-term prior to the show for a couple of different reasons. this is fairly subjective, and they obviously know and are decently familiar with each other in when doves cry, but it does not seem like they know each other particularly well. i don't know exactly why i say this, it could be totally off-base but... the way they talk to each other just does not strike me as two people who have spent tons of time with each other.

to be fair, you could chalk this up to the fact that julia has now been dead for two years, and albert obviously isn't letting craig see joey in any signifcant capacity. 12-14 are also pretty formative years where a lot can change for a kid. but still, it doesn't seem like, up to this point, they are more than somewhat acquainted to each other. i imagine that trip to british columbia was probably the most significant length of time they spent together.

however, my especially big reason for believing this is the case is what happens after craig moves in with joey and angela. in the next especially craig-focused episode we get, drive, something subtle is happening in otherwise overall pretty lighthearted episode: craig and joey are both learning the boundaries with each other. craig doesn't know where he'll go if joey goes away for the weekend, but joey says he's old enough to stay at their home. joey establishes ground rules for having friends over during the weekend. craig gets into trouble at joey's for the first time and it is clear it is the first time joey is disciplining him as his dependent. i think that, had joey and craig lived together in any significant capacity prior to this, their boundaries and dynamic would be more firmly established. the underlying conflict here might be "i do not know how to raise craig now that julia's gone and i can't coparent with her" rather than "i don't know how to raise this new teenager in my life." but instead, a lot of what we see between them this season is learning how to live together, what the roles are, and how to be a family unit.

this sort of leads to my next point, as convoluted as all of this problem seems (i swear the structure makes sense in my head): because i believe that albert had full custody pretty much from the moment julia left, i think it logically follows that the abuse toward craig either started or ramped up/became physical once julia was no longer in the household.

i've seen other people say that it doesn't make sense for albert to be abusive to craig but not julia, and while i can understand that to a degree, i don't know how much i agree. as i said, i think it's more than possible he was emotionally abusive to her, and that may have contributed to her leaving, but it's clear that her leaving triggered a lot of albert's behavior, as he let that resentment fester and began projecting it onto his son. i think the abuse toward craig likely started or significantly ramped-up and became physical once she left because albert could get away with it, being his primary guardian and given his ability to isolate craig the way he does.

albert is an esteemed surgeon who clearly cares a lot about what people think of him and about his prestige, and he is very used to being in control. yet, with his wife leaving him for someone he considers so low beneath him (because classism), his pride is wounded, he feels his sense of worth, tied up in ego and masculinity as it is, slip, and i think his abuse of craig is pretty undeniably him grasping for the one 'thing' that still is under control: his son, who he sees as his to parent how he pleases.

which tracks, because albert often frames his abuse of craig as punishments for craig 'misbehaving', such as lashing out and throwing a dinner plate when craig is home late for dinner, or saying "because you always screw up" when craig reminds his dad that he always says it will never happen again and it always does. it obviously goes past what any reasonable person would deem appropriate discipline for a child and is instead abusive, but i truly do think that's how he justifies it in his mind. it may have even started out - i don't want to say more normally, but there are more socially accepted (especially at the time, though to some degree, even today) physical punishments, like spanking, and it's possible albert's assertion of his extreme control over craig started somewhere there, and escalated as he began projecting all of his issues onto craig and realized the degree of control he had over craig as his primary guardian. which i think is why he can stand there at the end of when doves cry and say he doesn't beat craig, and some part of himself probably genuinely believes it, because cognitive dissonance. (it is still gaslighting, though.)

anyway. this was long. it realistically should have been the first part, but oh, well. i think that a lot of this is subjective and up to a viewer's own interpretation, as i think they left some of this purposefully ambiguous because trying to establish the prior events when craig's story is supposed to be about what's happening now would have been confusing. regardless, this is my two (or three, or five million) cents.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

#20yrsago Itunes blocks you from sharing music with YOURSELF, on your own computer https://web.archive.org/web/20041009202513/http://www.raelity.org/computers/operating_systems/apple/mac_os_x/apps/itunes_single_instance.html

#20yrsago How fanfic makes kids into better writers (and copyright victims) https://www.technologyreview.com/2004/02/06/40304/why-heather-can-write/

#15yrsago Flashmob of ATM crooks scores $9 million in 49 cities https://web.archive.org/web/20090205214559/http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/090202_FBI_Investigates_9_Million_ATM_Scam

#15yrsago Internet not full of pedos, the statistical edition https://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2009/02/06/doing_the_math.html

#10yrsago Turks bid farewell to the Internet in the face of brutal censorship/surveillance law https://medium.com/@ahmetasabanci/saying-goodbye-to-internet-in-turkey-33d805b98f6c

#10yrsago Middle class brands collapse, 1% brands thrive https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/03/business/the-middle-class-is-steadily-eroding-just-ask-the-business-world.html

#10yrsago How UK spies committed illegal DoS attacks against Anonymous https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/war-anonymous-british-spies-attacked-hackers-snowden-docs-show-n21361

#10yrsago Toronto’s reference library gets a makerspace https://web.archive.org/web/20140209061223/http://torontoist.com/2014/02/reference-library-unveils-3d-printers-is-cooler-than-indigo/

#10yrsago Toxic Avenger’s brilliant rant about the importance of Net Neutrality https://www.techdirt.com/2014/02/05/innovation-our-better-future-depend-preserving-net-neutrality/

#5yrsago One of pharma’s most notorious gougers is going bankrupt, but 2019 is a banner year for shkreli-grade pharmaceutical price-hikes https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/02/infamous-pharma-company-declares-bankruptcy-after-3900-price-hike/

#5yrsago Chasing down that list of potential Predpol customers reveals dozens of cities that have secretly experimented with “predictive policing” https://www.vice.com/en/article/d3m7jq/dozens-of-cities-have-secretly-experimented-with-predictive-policing-software

#5yrsago Amazon is using purchase data to sell targeted ads, which is creepy, but not because they’ve invented a mind-control ray https://memex.craphound.com/2019/02/06/amazon-is-using-purchase-data-to-sell-targeted-ads-which-is-creepy-but-not-because-theyve-invented-a-mind-control-ray/

#5yrsago The next Firefox will block all autoplayed audio, video https://hacks.mozilla.org/2019/02/firefox-66-to-block-automatically-playing-audible-video-and-audio/

#5yrsago RIP, author Carol Emshwiller https://locusmag.com/2019/02/carol-emshwiller-1921-2019/

#5yrsago Washington State sheriff used courtroom camera to zoom in on defense attorney and juror’s private notes https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/san-juan-sheriffs-use-of-courtroom-camera-to-view-jurors-notebook-lawyers-notes-sparks-outrage-and-dismissal-of-criminal-case/

#5yrsago Lawsuit says that America’s “break even” court records website shouldn’t be making 98%+ profits https://www.techdirt.com/2019/02/06/multiple-parties-including-author-law-governing-pacer-ask-court-to-stop-pacers-screwing-taxpayers/

#5yrsago Fox News blames schools teaching “fairness” for support for a tax on the super-rich https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/annfs6/fox_news_blames_public_support_of_wealth_tax/

#1yrago Bruce Schneier's "A Hacker's Mind" https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/06/trickster-makes-the-world/#power-play

[serendertothesquad]

Seren's Studies: The Odd Squad UK Promo

Now, before reading this, I need everyone to give a middle finger to Firefox for repeatedly flashbanging me throughout this entire followup whenever I went to take a screenshot. This has never happened before. I don't know why it's happening. I do know that I am inches away from throwing that inflamed vixen in the trash and moving to SlimBrowser instead.

Okay, so now that you've done that, let's discuss this 30-second promo that someone on Discord was very polite enough to dredge up. (Since there's a lot of...sensitive stuff that happens in that server -- in an "inner workings of a television network" kind of way -- I will refrain from naming names. If you see this, you know who you are, and thank you.)

At the time of this writing, there are no teaser images, nor have all the expansive synopses been released yet. It'll take a while for TVO to get through all of them, BBC doesn't have any expansive synopses, and my other sources are...dead in the water.

I don't think I need to say this, but I'll say it anyway: there are spoilers abound in this. If you haven't seen the promo yet, it's best if you view it here before proceeding with this followup.

Let's dive in below the break!

The only reason I'm putting this here is because the plehn started in Arlington and it's goin' to the United Kingdom and to Britain.

Because PBS's Headquarters is in Arlington.

MOUNT VIRGINIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

Am I fuckin' trippin' on some shit or are we inside Big Ben? Because I mean the clock to the left there is confusing my pea brain. And if we are in Big Ben, some agent is going to go clear through these doors and wind up doing the Peter Griffin death pose but...y'know...they're dead. So.

On another note, I see we're ditching Apple computers and going straight for Microsoft. I know what iMacs look like. I have Google. Those are not iMacs. Sorry, Cook, but you're not cookin' in the UK.

We can also see the breakroom that was spotted in the gadget competition briefing video, which...kinda makes all my cracks about the shitty editing age poorly. (The video editing, mind. Not the audio editing. Those cracks stay. There is no excuse.)

So there's a lot to take in here -- and I mean it's a disgusting amount; I have to go frame-by-fucking-frame -- but let's focus on Captain O and Ozzie specifically. We have Captain O holding a letter of some kind, while Ozzie himself is still in his Department of Help uniform. The letter could be something along the lines of "congrats, you're hired", but who's to say. Hard to tell from a simple zoom-in and an "attention, everyone!"

Me, I just wanna know what the knitting needles on Captain O's jacket are for. Watch it not be answered in 12 episodes and then I'll be staying up Googling when I have a car to drive and cry in.

People in the Odd Squad Discord server are, by general consensus, not happy with this British-fied Odd Squad logo. And really, I don't blame them. This is pure "graphic design is my passion and I get paid for it handsomely, motherfucker".

Look, I liked it better when it looked like a sun. The sun, at least, is symbolic from a certain standpoint. This is just making it British because we're in Britain, and it's not funny.

Pure excitement written all over that girl's face, right there. He's gonna be the poor schmuck just being dragged around everywhere in town.

Kind of like the guy who was my "boyfriend" in high school and then literally dragged me through the halls showing me off like he got the most valuable plushie in the world. (Yes, that actually happened. Yes, the quotation marks are intentional. No, you don't want me to elaborate, trust me.)

Only the guy is a tourist, I'm the poor schmuck who has to help the tourist, and the guy probably can't drag me because I outclass him by about a hundred pounds.

It took them ten years, but we finally have magic effects for when agents combine gadgets.

Oscar is shedding a tear of joy somewhere. He's never been able to make that happen, but a tourist and a Brit somehow made it work, and he's so proud of them.

I could've sworn I've seen this structure as a filming location, but I can't for the life of me figure out whether it was in the Season 3 days or if it was last year. My memory's trying to make me think the former.

Taken out of context, though, this is a monster that sees Orli and whom I have to assume is either Onom or Orwell as two fresh-blooded meals. Which ups the danger ante of the entire franchise considerably, because there is a line between "I'm going to hurt you" and "I am going to kill you".

This octopus...thing is just...more direct about the latter.

In the medical industry, that would be classified as a brain disorder.

...In the real world.

Here in the Oddverse, you can have electricity shooting out of your head and it's as much of a minor inconvenience as an item being out of stock at the store.

(Also, someone mentioned that this guy sounds like TomSka, and...I mean, I'm inclined to agree. Not exact, but it's pretty close.)

This is William Ocean's brother, who finally emerged out of the depths of Monty Python. Good for him!

I'm sorry, I just noticed this...but they have a steel rotating door?

Like...like a captain's ship...like it's...

And it's automatic...

I'm sorry, but I'm just so damn used to seeing metal doors that seeing one in a completely different color, material, and shape is sending me for a whirlwind. Holy cheesin' Jesus.

"I wanna be a cooowgiiiirl, baby!"

"Heeeell yeah!"

"I wanna be a coooowgiiiiiirl, baaaaabyyyyy!"

(Or, alternatively, Smoothest Bitch in the East.)

And finally, we get to my favorite part: the gay triangle villain. Gay villains, if you want to count the one on the left, but since they don't speak, it's hard to tell where they fall on the LGBTQ+ spectrum.

I could make an entire Seren's Study on Odd Squad and LGBTQ+ representation, and I probably will one of these days, but I need you guys to understand something for a moment.

So in the aforementioned Discord server, there was talk of an episode of Season 1 of Alma's Way called "Say I Guess to the Dress". It involved Alma struggling to figure out what dress to wear to a party she's attending. It was meant to air in January of last year, but got mysteriously pulled and replaced with a different episode, and hasn't aired in the US since.

You might think this is not normal fare. You'd be right.

But in one scene of the episode, Lucas, one of Alma's friends, models a dress that -- and I am going off of the Wiki here -- was worn by Julia, his late cousin. Only for one scene. Only for a bit. Nothing more, nothing less.

This led to speculation that the episode got banned, hence why it hasn't aired yet. In Australia, it aired fine. However, we are on Season 2 of the show, and all we've gotten is pure crickets. We don't know for sure what happened, but with PBS, it's a minefield -- since they get a lot of money from donors, adding in an LGBTQ+ major character would sap up a good financial origin because people would be too pissed off to donate. So they relegate it to tiny sprinkles.

I'm not sure what the BBC's rules are on LGBTQ+ people in kids media. They could be strict, they could be lax, who knows. I still need to do some research on that. But for how much PBS is trying to make Gay Triangle Villain straight...he's not. He's really not.

Because let's be honest here: they're called the Triangle Sisters. That already says enough on its own.

Oof...didn't wanna make this super long-winded. But I'll discuss this at length later in another Seren's Study, once the episode airs.

I really might as well come out and really say it: I'm really not really a fan of the "really" gag. For a really short episode spanning really 11 minutes long, they really don't have time really for something of really this long and really painful.

...Really?

Really.

*distant ding*

Ahaha...ahaha...haha...aaaaaaah...

Mmm...

Cute. Real cute. Fuck you. But real cute.

And also, fuck PBS Kids execs for only putting out promos of new episodes of shows the day of. Remember when they used to put out promos earlier than that? Pepperidge Farm remembers, and for how much my memory sucks ass, so do I. Those were the golden days. Now we get stuff like these, because not a day goes by where they're stuck under the feet of Netflix and Hulu. Big competitors. Target and Walmart kind of rivalry.

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

Overall, not a lot of beef to this promo. I wasn't expecting anything mindblowing like, say, the trailer for the first movie (and that was epic in its own right), but it's pretty standard as far as PBS Kids promos go. I'm fairly positive CBBC will put out something far better that pulls in viewers, though I can't attest to how great their promos are because the last I saw one was...whoof, a long time ago.

But hey, look at it this way: Odd Squad UK and Pokemon Horizons will air on the same network, which means I can be an insufferable "Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon is my life" bitch all I want.

As for the contents of the promo itself...aside from gay triangle villain, there wasn't really any spark that caught my eye. Nothing to make my jaw drop or make me go "wowee kazoo". At this point, I'm watching for two reasons: curiosity, and to give them another chance at making a franchise going stale a lot better. And also the fanfic ideas. Lots of fanfic ideas.

I doubt I'll put out another Seren's Study before this one (my PBS Kids one isn't done yet), so the next one will come sometime after the first batch of episodes releases and will be an episode followup for "Odd Ones In". Once that's done, I'll work on followups for the other episodes.

Thanks for reading. Seren out.