#dumbledore can go boil his head for all hermione cares right now about his opinion

[wellpresseddaisy]

But with the Dawn, a New Day is Born pt 1

I have 0 self control when it comes to a new AU. The title comes from the 1931 song Goodnight Sweetheart. I recommend the Bing Crosby version (and also his version of P.S. I love you from a similar vintage).

I probably wouldn't have written this without some enabling from @sneverussape so thank you, friend. Now we all get Harry being Very Confused by a Tom Riddle who mostly isn't a homicidal dick and a Ron who is going to do his level best to make Dumbledore regret taking up teaching. Hermione is going to enjoy the hell out of the library and not having to only research things to save people's lives.

Harry startled as Ron and Hermione melted out of the trees to stand on either side of him. They weren’t shades of themselves, they were solid…and he’d dropped the stone already, anyway. They were real and breathing and they were with him.

“What are you doing?” His voice shook.

“Dumbledore may be convinced that you’re the one he needs to kill, but we aren’t letting you do it alone.” Ron set his jaw in a way Harry knew. Argument was pointless.

“We’ve done everything together.” Hermione continued, her own voice shaking. “And we aren’t…well, three is a magical number too, isn’t it?”

“But you have families.” Harry insisted. Hermione, in his other side, mumbled something he only caught snatches of.

Steadfast in this fateful hour

I place my magic with all its power,

And the sun with its brightness,

And the snow with its whiteness,

And fire with all the strength it hath,

“Think my mum knows.” Ron tried to smile, but it twisted. “She sent her love, you know, for all of us. Said she’d make them understand.”

“Your mum?” Harry couldn’t finish.

And lightning with its rapid wrath,

And the winds with their swiftness along their path,

And Black Lake with its deepness,

“Yeah. She doesn’t want to…after her brothers…I reckon she knows us all pretty well at this point. Anyway, she loves us.”

And the hills with their steepness,

And the moors with their starkness:

      All these I place,

      With my friends help and grace

Between this world and the bringer of darkness.

They’d reached the clearing.

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

After…after Voldemort accepted their triple sacrifice, after the green glow enveloped them, they tumbled together on the floor of Kings Cross, only it was much neater than Harry ever remembered it. So terribly white, really, from the lights to the tiles.

“I didn’t think there’d be an after.” Ron croaked.

“Neither did I.” Hermione’s voice quavered. “I hoped…”

Harry coughed, spat up something foul, and rolled to his feet. “What was that you were saying, Hermione?”

His voice sounded as raspy as his throat felt. Whatever he’d hacked up and spat on the floor pulsed there, thick and black and wet. Instinctively, he herded the other two away from it.

“A version of St. Patrick’s Rune.” Hermione admitted, flushing a bit. “I found it in the library at Grimmauld, tucked away in something ancient. Someone marked it as ‘for absolute life or death emergencies’ so I memorized it. I didn’t know if it would work for me. I’m not sure if it was meant to do…this.” She gestured at their surroundings.

He couldn’t say anything. There weren’t words enough in the world to say anything to Hermione and Ron, who loved him enough to walk with him into death. He launched himself at Ron with all the coordination of a drunk Niffler. Ron caught him, pulled him close, and Hermione crowded in from his other side. They stood for a moment, just breathing, just holding on.

“Thank you. Thank you thank you thank you.” Harry tried to tamp down on the ridiculous urge to cry as he mumbled into Ron’s chest .

(Even in the after…after he couldn’t be as tall as he wanted, which was a crock in Harry’s opinion.)

“As if we would do anything else.” Hermione huffed. “We’ve walked with you every step of the way and we aren’t abandoning you now.”

‘You’d probably muck up your…after by feeling guilty without us.” Ron pointed out, patting his back. “D’you think we’re waiting for a train?”

“The three of you,” a voice that reminded him of an annoyed Dumbledore came from behind them. “Are not supposed to be anywhere together.”

They turned as one, Ron trying to shove Harry and Hermione behind him. Harry decided that actually, Ron could take this one.

“I am meant to be meeting Mr. Potter to discuss his options.” It was Dumbledore, if you’d known him in the 1930s. Harry remembered the pictures.

“Huh, no wonder old Grindy went for him.” Ron mused.

Harry tried to muffle the semi-hysterical giggles that threatened.

Hermione thumped her head against his back. “Do not tell him what you think of his plans. Do not tell him what you think of his plans.” She whispered.

“But, as we seem to have had a change of plans, Mr. Potter’s options are no longer what they once were. You will no doubt be happy to know that Mr. Longbottom ended Nagini right before the three of you created a magical backlash that took out the Death Eater encampment and the Acromantula colony.” He spoke as sternly as Dumbledore ever did.

“Good on Nev.” Ron cheered. “You said something about options?”

Death, Ron discovered, took away pretty much all the terror of Dumbledore being upset with him. What was he going to do, dock points? Could people in the waiting room, if that’s what this was, have high blood pressure? Had anyone ever tried?

“I am no longer allowed to discuss options. That has been decided by…others. While I am not pleased with this disruption in a delicate plan, I am proud of your loyalty to one another and to the world you lived in.”

“Well we weren’t daft enough to let Harry walk off to his death. Figured we had the best chance of joining him and it wouldn’t be the same if we weren’t together.” Ron shrugged. “So, we just hopped on that next big adventure.”

Dumbledore opened his mouth, shut it with a snap, and then turned on his heel and stalked off, muttering something under his breath about the sanctity of life after death being lost on Weasleys.

“I hope he has to spend all his time with Great Grand Aunt Wilhelmina and Great Grand Uncle Bilius. They were in his class at Hogwarts and it would serve him right.” Ron muttered, making both Harry and Hermione snicker.

“I suppose now we wait?” Harry asked. “I wonder if a train will come.”

No train came and no one was quite sure how long they waited after Dumbledore stomped off in a huff. Pocket watches didn’t work, wherever they were. It was sort of pleasant, though, not having anywhere to be. Hermione still had her beaded bag, and after a little while she produced a non-magical deck of cards.

“Anyone for rummy?”

They played fourteen hands of rummy and three of hearts before they were interrupted again, which was just as well because Hermione and Ron were bickering over Hermione counting cards. Harry worked on ‘improving’ his own hand from the deck while they were occupied. They never noticed, not when they really got going.

“Beg pardon?”

They whipped around, staring at the young woman just stepping out of a doorway that didn’t used to exist.

“Are you here to take us with you?” Harry asked unsteadily.

“That…it isn’t an option yet. What you three did…well, you upset any number of those much higher up than me.” The woman chuckled. “In any case, they’ve decided to send you…sideways a bit. Finish your unfinished business.”

“What does that mean?” Hermione asked.

“You’re going to be sent…elsewhere. It’ll be 1941, and…it gets a bit complicated here, I’m afraid.” She sighed. “There’s only so much we can do when we get an, er…special delivery like you three. How to explain this? Well, you’ll keep your current memories because there are limits and we aren’t interested in playing dolls with people. You’ll have an…overlay, I suppose, of your 1941-current memories. I’m afraid before Hogwarts won’t be much fun, but we have to explain the twitchiness since we aren’t in the business of wiping people’s personalities away. You’re going back as firsties. That was a non-negotiable. As I said, you made quite a few people upset.”

“Will we be ourselves?” Hermione seemed to be absorbing everything they were told.

“You and Mr. Potter will be Harry and Hermione Perhalion. Mr. Weasley will be Galahad Weasley.”

“Why don’t I get to keep my name?” Ron looked disgusted at the thought of being Galahad.

“Because we can only change the essential nature of a Weasley so much, we aren’t making any of you have new faces, and the Weasley family isn’t slated to have a Ronald for a few generations yet.” The woman answered sternly. “We do try not to meddle too much, unlike certain teenagers.”

“You said we had unfinished business?” Harry picked up where Hermione left off.

“None of you finished school or did any of the things you might have done. And you, Mr. Potter, are actually going to feel the feelings you bottled up on your last go-round.” She poked him in the chest. “No more hiding behind anger. No stuffing everything into the feelings barn.”

“I…what?” Harry stared.

“Do any of you read the…bugger but that one’s in the future. Never mind that. It was from the New Yorker.”

“Oh, my parents like the long-form journalism.” Hermione said brightly.

“Yes,” the woman replied slowly. “They would.”

“Is my unfinished business now a quest to change my name?” Ron asked acidly, clearly trying to change the subject.

“Don’t be ridiculous.” The woman snapped.

“My name is now Galahad. I can’t help it.”

The woman raised her hand and snapped and all Harry knew was darkness.

[theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin]

After reading your opinion on Molly Weasley, i want to know: What are you're opinions on the Weasley family? Besides Ron & Molly that is.

Five characters? In one post? Well, alright, here we go.

The Weasleys as a Whole

I’ve mentioned this before but JKR writes the Weasleys to clearly be a believable but ideal family. They’re all fiercely loyal, progressive per wizarding world standards, love each other and Harry deeply, and have this wonderful off-kilter joyous house where there’s always some rambunctious thing going on. 

Harry comes to associate the Weasleys with family and, personally, I believe a large part of him marrying Ginny boils down to it will make him a Weasley for real. 

That said, they’ve got some major issues. They’re very righteous people who, as a whole, will ice you out the moment they even suspect you do something that disagrees with them. You don’t even have to do it, what you did or didn’t do doesn’t even have to be something terrible or something bad, but god help you if the family decides they’re done with you. 

They’re very resentful of people like the Malfoys. This isn’t just because Lucius is a smarmy, pompous, ass (he is) or that he indirectly almost murdered Ginny but seems to mostly be because Lucius has so much money. All of their interactions seem to boil down to the money. More than this though, the Weasleys seem fully supportive of laws that... well, used against themselves would be a travesty but used against the likes of the Malfoys it’s about damn time.

They’re unquestioningly loyal to Dumbledore. Granted, most people we see in canon are, Dumbledore’s very very very good at convincing people he’s a saint. However, these guys are practically his cult member to the point where they do things like refuse to have Harry over the summer, even before Voldemort returned, because Dumbledore told them not to. 

They also never really adopt Harry into the family. Oh they give him a nice sweater, he comes over every once in a while to the house, he’s very good friends with Ron but he’s mostly treated just like that, a good friend. Now, there’s nothing wrong with this, except the way JKR sets it up we’re supposed to believe this is the family Harry found. It’s just that the family Harry’s found let’s him stay in a house with bars on his window where twelve-year-old Ron tells them, “Harry’s muggle family is really really awful” in a way that should have been raising red flags. Hermione practically lives at the Weasleys, Harry never does.

Now, are the Weasleys evil? No, far from it, they’re ordinary people who act in ways I’d expect ordinary people too. Technically they didn’t have to do anything more for Harry than they did, they didn’t have to hate Lucius Malfoy for better reasons, and they don’t have to be even slightly less worshipful of Dumbledore. They’re people, and they’re fine characters, but the overwhelming worship and love of the Weasleys we see across fandom does get on my nerves.

But you asked for individuals, so here we go.

 Arthur Weasley

Arthur is the epitome of “Pretty Fly for a White Guy” in the worst of ways and is, frankly, a giant awful joke to me. He’s the white kid you see going around with dread locks, a beanie the color of the Jamaican flag, smoking weed, and attempting to speak like Bob Marley 

Only, because he does it with muggle things, we’re supposed to find him funny and progressive.

Arthur is absolutely, albeit unwittingly, condescending in his love of muggle knickknacks. He has no idea how any of it actually works, not limited to how muggles could possible survive without the gold standard, but ardently believes he does because he can enchant the car to fly. Seriously, that he believes he’s an expert on muggle culture, as a pureblood wizard who heads an office in the ministry on it, is the worst part. His love of toasters comes across as, “Wow, look how cool it is that these poor little muggles made all this neat stuff. We should absolutely love the muggles because of it!” And that he heads an office in the ministry called “The Misuse of Muggle Artifacts” which is all about catching down Jackass style pranksters who think it would be hilarious of they enchanted toasters to bludgeon muggles to death...

Goddammit Arthur, why do you exist?

Right, otherwise, he’s got some pride issues going on. Part of the reason Percy is excommunicated is not so much that Percy doesn’t believe Harry, but because Percy dared to do better than Arthur in his own career. Arthur is stuck in his position as head of a joke of a department, he is an underling at its finest, and frankly likely only has that position because he’s a pureblood and the idea of putting a halfblood or even muggleborn at the head of a department dealing with muggles just made the higher ups shudder. (Don’t tell Arthur that though, he likes to think he’s not benefitting from nepotism). 

Arthur goes so far to accuse Percy as Fudge’s secretary as spying on him. Arthur, the guy who heads “Misuse of Muggle Artifacts”. Yeah, Arthur, I’m sure Fudge is really wasting his time using his straight laced secretary to find out all your dirty secrets. 

He also tends to see the world as very black and white. When Skeeter in book 4 writes an article after the Quidditch World Cup disaster complaining about the ministry’s lax security in enabling domestic terrorists to enter (something completely valid and true by the way) Arthur is so personally offended that both he and Percy go straight to the ministry to complain about Rita Skeeter and her daring to assume freedom of speech! HOW DARE SHE CALL THE MINISTRY’S NON-EXISTENT SECURITY AT THE WORLD CUP LAX! (To be fair, she also cited Arthur as having been in attendance at the event, a ministry employee, and having done nothing but, well, this is also true Arthur. You’re in a guerilla, underground, resistance movement. If I didn’t already think the Order was a joke this would kind of highlight it for me).

He’s also very resentful of Lucius Malfoy, and it seems to mostly be about the money. Arthur and Molly have a severe spending problem and actively resent that Lucius is swimming in money. That Arthur is ardently pleased about a law being passed in which the ministry without warrant can ransack Lucius Malfoy’s home... 

Well, Arthur, imagine the slippery slope if the government decides that it would like to search the Weasley home without warrant? In fact, he doesn’t even have to imagine it, as the beloved government in a few short years turns against him and then it’s all about how corrupt the ministry is. 

Arthur’s delightfully narrowminded, basically, and reminds us at nearly every opportunity.

Percy Weasley

Mostly, I just feel bad for Percy. Percy’s the son/brother that nobody likes and he’s painfully aware of that fact. He doesn’t fit in with the others, he has far too much ambition for the Gryffindor family and they resent him for it, and then he dares to say things like “I don’t know guys, Voldemort resurrecting from the dead after decades doesn’t sound plausible, we know Harry’s a little off kilter, and Dumbledore’s one shady dude”. Percy happens to be wrong about Voldemort resurrecting (and admits as much when the evidence is plainly visible), but he’s pretty on the money with the rest of it.

Regardless, growing up we see Ron constantly hating on Percy along with the rest of the siblings. I’m sure Percy is obnoxious, and certainly full of himself after making prefect and head boy, but he’s very clearly even before Order of the Phoenix the Least Favorite Brother (TM).

Then the Weasley family completely ices him out for a) getting a very high ranking position very quickly as Fudge’s secretary and b) not being gung ho about Dumbledore saying crazy things in the paper. Remember that to Percy Harry is Ron’s weird friend who seems to get into highly illegal activities every other week. From Percy’s point of view, it’s probably a matter of time before Harry becomes a crack head in Knockturn Alley (or given how behind the times wizards tend to be, an opium den). 

He’s constantly getting Ron into not only trouble but life threatening situations, is erratic and apparently a parseltongue of all things, and now Harry’s flipped his lid and saying that Voldemort has been resurrected after having gone through a very traumatic experience of watching a classmate somehow die. 

While we see Percy kind of (sort of)  make up with the family it’s clear that for Percy to have any relation with these people he’s the one who will always, ALWAYS, have to come crawling back on his knees and begging for forgiveness. It’s the Weasley way or the highway and I imagine, at some point probably a little after/during that epilogue, Percy will just slowly drift away because it’s just not worth it anymore.

Percy’s very much the black sheep of the family.

Fred and George Weasley

You all are going to kill me, but I actually don’t care in the slightest about Fred and George Weasley. This is because they basically have no personality aside from “funny”. 

They just have their weird, tandem, twin act and are either playing jokes on the school or else serving as Deus ex Machina in giving Harry magical items such as the Marauder’s Map for no apparent reason. The plot told them it was time, I guess. 

Their jokes, while not as bad as Sirius and James’ “Let’s sexually harrass Severus Snape by pantsing and beating him at the edge of Hogwarts lake” or Sirius’ “Let’s get Snape eaten by a werewolf!” are still often needlessly cruel and... kind of pointless. They harass Slytherin house constantly just because they happen to be Slytherins, they’re acceptable victims (which of course makes house tension that much worse). Harry gets sent a toilet seat in the hospital because... that’s funny? Har de har? 

They’re so indistinguishable from one another I routinely see people mistake which one got his ear chopped off and which one died. Because the point is, that we can’t tell the difference! It doesn’t matter who lived and who died because all we know is that Freorge is dead! 

Similarly, you see tons of fics around where character of the day ends up in this weird twincestuous relationship with Fred and George and it’s not only for a) that delightful twincest but b) because they’re such a singular unit that any attempt to pair one with somebody else feels weird. So you just get these porn fics about Fred and George being weird rapey teenagers who seem like they’d be more interested dating each other. 

Charlie Weasley

I really have no thoughts on Charlie. He raises dragons in Romania, the family loves him. Now, dragon raising feels like one of the most dangerous jobs in the Harry Potter universe, like Charlie had just gone and signed up to be a lumberjack but he seems to like it?

We really don’t see much of Charlie, he’s just the obligatory older Weasley son so that the Weasleys can be this ridiculously large family.

Bill Weasley

We see slightly more of Bill, but again, not enough to really leave an impression. We know that his marrying Fleur sent Molly into a complete state, and that they’re going to have awkward Christmas dinners forever because of it where Fleur just sits there and pretends not to loathe every second of Molly’s presence while Molly notes how bad it is that Victoire got stuck with that ugly pink hair instead of the Weasley red. 

Bill doesn’t seem to really do anything about this. He still marries Fleur, but we don’t really see a major confrontation where he tells the family “Look, I’m marrying her, so grow up.” So, I imagine he just tries to smile pleasantly and tells Fleur to just endure it for another few hours. He loves his family, his family’s great, but they only have to see Fleur once a year at Christmas.

Ginny Weasley

Ginny is weird. She’s this weird, frankly, almost personality-less void whose sole obsession in life seems to be marrying Harry. She and Harry end up in the world’s weirdest relationship and I honestly have no idea how people ship it other than canon told them to.

Ginny’s... well, first off, she’s very much in love with an idea. She had always worshipped Harry Potter but then he personally saves her life in what was a horrifically traumatic year and so that feeling just grows even more. Despite being Ron’s sister, she barely seems to know Harry, and everything she seems to like about it are just things she made up.

I imagine her and Harry’s marriage will be littered with affairs on her end. Not divorce though, because Harry would never admit his wife is having affairs on him all the time even if someone directly confronted him. Harry also won’t admit he’s gay. 

More than though we get hints of a personality. Ginny’s a fiery red-head tomboy with a temper. But... Well, it’s only ever hints. She never felt like a real person to me. She has I think one throwaway line about the Chamber of Secrets incident and how it personally affected her. We’re told she’s great at the bat boogey hex so we know she’s a fiery independent woman.

She feels more like a character sheet than an actual person. 

Whenever she’s around I always had this nagging question in my head where I ask why Ginny’s here. She has a lot of potential but nothing’s ever done with her. And when something is, it’s to get her into this bizarre relationship with Harry where he imagines there’s a green rage monster in his chest that loves her skin.

Okay Harry, if you say so. 

TL;DR: The Weasleys aren’t evil or anything, I’m not on Team Bash Them All, but they are shortsighted, ordinary, people who don’t deserve to be worshipped as all that is good in this world.

[runenc03]

HH - Sean’s first year (part 1)

Writing date: October 2018 (it’s so old help)

Genre: Fluff? Friendship? idk lol

Warnings: The beginning of a long road...jk, no warnings, everyone is 11 after all. Also, this isn’t editted, I only got a beta by chapter three, so grammar will dramatically improve, I solemnly swear!

Word count: 4k 

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Autumn

'Well well, what do we have here? Sean Charles Lew... I guess this won't be too difficult, but before I sort you into your house, I want to know your opinion...What house would you like to be in? Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Hufflepuf or Gryffindor?

Sean remained silent. There he was, in the great hall, with an enormous hat over his head, thinking of finding a way to communicate with the sorting hat without making a fool of himself in front of all those other pupils.

'I kinda like Ravenclaw', he thought, 'but I'm okay with any house the sorting hat will put me in. I'm thankful I'm here, the sorting hat knows what house suits me best. I'll let him decide.'

And to his surprise, the hat heard everything and answered the young boy:

'And that, my boy, is what I wanted to hear. You have a unique personality and an incredible wisdom for an 11-year-old. Your house will be...'

"RAVENCLAW!"

And with that, the Ravenclaws rose from their seats and began applauding. Soon, the other houses followed, although less excited than Sean's house mates.

His housemates...

Finally, there was a group of people that would understand his uniqueness, his individuality. He'd make friends there, family even. He'd finally fit in completely. He felt professor McGonagall tilt the sorting hat from his head. "Go on, next!" He hurried out of the chair and walked, with a smile gracing his features, towards the Ravenclaw table.

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

Sean was laying in his four poster bed, curtains closed. He did that a lot, just laying there, thinking. Some of his roommates laughed at him for always having his curtains closed, speculating that he needed to hide things, but Sean didn't really care. He liked the intimate atmosphere he created, like he was in his own little bubble. He got his best ideas while laying like that. Today, he was thinking about a dance routine he could do when he got home. He could dance here in Hogwarts too, but he couldn't film it, which is why he'd rather wait to do it. Now, before you think that he filmed his choreo's to get attention, that's not the case. He filmed his choreo's because he wanted to be able to look back in 10 years and see his own growth.

Everything was peaceful, until 2 voices disturbed the silence:

"Of course I can play the piano! My mum used to teach me!"

"I don't believe you...not to question your intelligence, but you're just so clumsy with everything you do, how could you move your hands so precise?"

"You want me to prove it to you? Saturday, there's a piano workshop in the Great Hall. Muggleborns can go to play, or purebloods to learn from the instructor or their housemates. Dumbledore organized it, he said it's good to get familiar with muggle instruments...are you coming with me?"

"I don't know. I have a lot of homework and...

Sean zoned out of the conversation the 2 boys had. A workshop piano playing? That was interesting. He loved Hogwarts and all it's magic, but a piano was something from his other life, his non-magical one. A life he secretly missed sometimes. 'Besides', he figured, 'I could use some social contact. Haven't really worked on making friends since I got here. I could use some company.' And that's all it took to make his decision. With a sigh, he left threw open the curtain and left his safe haven. He was going to get ahead with his homework, because he certainly wouldn't have time for that on Saturday.

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Sean Lew sat in the great hall behind a grand piano. He was surrounded by complete silence. The instructor of the workshop had cast a spell so they wouldn't hear the other people around them. That silence felt misplaced in such an enormous room, so he decided to break that silence. Tentatively, he reached out his hand towards the keys. The, he pushed the first one, the second one, 2, 3 at a time. Soon, he was lost in a world full of melodies and harmonies, and everything around him suddenly didn't exist anymore...

"Hello, I'm Hermione Granger, do you mind sharing this piano with me?"

Sean looked up from the keys to the girl who'd just spoken to him. Het hair was bushy and her teeth were crooked, but she had a polite expression on her face, which indicated that she was genuinely asking him something, and not making fun of him.

"Uhm, no, of course not...but wouldn't you rather want your own piano?"

"Well, I'd like that, yes, but the instructor just explained that there aren't enough piano's for everyone, so the people who have never played the piano before that chance first. Since I already play the piano at home, she ordered me to sit with you, 'cause you play the piano as well, apparently. Haven't you listened at all?"

"Actually, no. I was a little lost insides my own bubble. That happens a lot when I'm busy with music."

Sean quite liked this girl. She seemed friendly, but with a strong personality. And she played the piano already, so he immediately had a topic to talk about. He scooted over.

"Have a seat"

And that was the beginning of a great friendship.

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Winter

"It's no wonder no-one can stand her...she's a nightmare, honestly."

Sean and Hermione were walking right behind Ron. As soon as Ron's words reached them, Sean looked at Hermione, to check how she took that remark. She was biting her lip to keep from crying, but her eyes began watering nonetheless. Sean's blood began boiling and his hands balled to fists. Who did Ron think he was? What gave him the right to insult his best friend? 'Cause that's what Hermione became to him over the past few weeks. His best friend. After they had to share the piano they began talking, and discovered that they really had a connection. They bonded over walks around the lake and studysessions in the library, and Sean began feeling quite protective over her. He wanted her to be happy, but right now, she was anything but. And that was all Ron Weasley's fault.

"Don't mind him, he doesn't know anyth-"

But Hermione had already ran off, leaving Sean alone with his building rage.

"You! You just had to go and embarrass her, didn't you? Why? Because she's smarter than you are? Because she knows more than you do and tries to teach you nitwit something? Now look what you've done! Are you happy now, knucklehead?!"

And with that, Sean began catching up with Hermione, leaving Ron speechless.

"Hermione, please wait! He's not worth your tears!"

Hermione turned around, eyes already blotchy and red.

"I appreciate your efforts to comfort me, but right now, I just want to be alone for a while. You understand, right? You often just need a bit alone-time to order your thoughts. I need that now. I'm sorry, Sean, thank you for being there for me."

He wanted nothing more than to comfort her, be there for her. But he understood like no other that you need time for yourself sometimes, regardless of how much you love the people around you. So he gave her a sad smile and gave in.

"Alright then. But remember, you're not a nightmare and there are people around you who care for you. You're not alone."

And with that, he turned around to go to the great hall.

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"TROOOOOOLLLLL!!!!!! IN THE DUNGEONS!!!!!!! TROL IN THE DUNGEONS!!

The whole hall kept silent, not knowing how to react to this.

"I thought you ought to know", professor Quirrell added as an afterthought, before fainting.

All hell broke loose.

Students of all ages began whispering or screaming, some already jumped up to leave the great hall until...

"SILENCE!", Dumbledore yelled.

"Anyone, do please not panic. Prefects, lead your house back to the dormitories. Teachers, you follow me to the dungeons."

All ravenclaws rose from their seats and followed their prefects, but Sean was having none of that. Hermione was still God knows where, probably crying her eyes out, not knowing about the troll. He had to find her. So, he quietly snuck out of the stream of students and into a deserted corridor. He waited until it was totally silent before coming out of his hiding place. "I have to find Hermione, I have to find Hermione", was the only thing on his mind. He kept repeating it like a mantra.

"I have to find Hermione"

But when he didn't find her after wandering throught the castle for about 15 minutes, panic began creeping through his veins. A cold feeling started spreading through his chest.

What if he didn't find her in time?

He began running. At the end of a particularly small corridor, he turned right...And promptly collided with someone else. He fell to the ground. When he looked up, he saw -to his surprise and utter dismay- Ron Weasley and Harry Potter.

"What are you doing here?", Ron asked Sean hesistantly, probably still a bit scared of the Ravenclaw after his outburst earlier.

"I'm looking for my friend, who's ran off after you had to talk about her like that. Not that you'd care."

Ron's cheeks colored red from shame.

"Actually, we are looking for Hermione. We realized that she probably doesn't know about the troll, since she wasn't at the Gryffindor table for dinner. We went looking for her, but we just can't seem to find her. Do you know where she is?"

"Do you honestly think I'd run around the castle like that if I knew where she was?", Sean snarled at Ron, but he noticed that Ron had a guilty look in his eyes, and softened a bit.

"Come on, if we look for her together, we might find her sooner. There's no time to waste."

And so the 3 boys began searching for any signs of Hermione. They didn't have any luck, until they heard a massieve crash, followed by an extremely high-pitched "AARGGHG!!"

They looked at eachother. Time to rescue Hermione. When they arrived in the girls bathroom, they couldn't believe their eyes. Everything was destructed, and the troll stood in the middle of all the debris.

"HELP!!"

Sean saw her first. A head of bushy brown hair, hidden under the sink. "There!", he pointed towards her, so Harry and Ron would see her too. As soon as his Ravenclaw brain could, he made a plan.

"Okay, Harry, Ron, you guys distract the troll, then I crawl under the sink and get Hermione out of here. Then we all run as soon as possible. Deal?"

Harry and Ron nodded their head and began with their task. While Ron threw things at the troll, Sean began crawling towards his friend. It didn't work. The troll kept trying to hit Hermione, until Harry jumped to action. He ran towards the scary creature and managed to sit on his schouders, but not for long. Suddenly, the troll squeezed harry in his fist and swung him around.

"Do something!", he yelled at Ron, but the boy seemed frozen in place. Upon seeing him so helpless, Sean screamed: "Ron! Try wingardium leviosa! Quick!", from under the sink, while still trying to get to Hermione. Ron took out his wand and cast the spell. The troll loosened his grip on Harry, who fell to the ground, but was able to stand up quickly. They all watched in horror how the troll's bat flew out of his hand, floated in the air, and landed on the troll's head with a big whack. After that, Sean was able to take Hermione's hand and they climbed from under the sink together. All four of them now stood around the troll.

"Is it...dead?", hermione asked.

"I don't think so, just knocked out.", Harry answered the girl. Sean was the first one to come closer to the troll.

"Harry's right! It's still breathing, but slo-" he fell silent when they heard a number of feet approach them. In just a matter of seconds, the girls bathroom was invaded by a number of teachers, all looking in between scared and worried. McGonagall was the first to speak:

"Oh my goodness, explain yourselves, all of you!"

Harry started stuttering something, but to the gryffindors' surprise, Hermione cut him off.

"It was my fault, professor McGonagall. I went looking for the troll. I thought I could handle it, but I was wrong. If Harry, Ron and Sean hadn't come and found me, I'd probably be dead."

The dissapointment on McGonagall's face made them all cringe.

"This was an extremely foolish thing to do. I would've expected more rational behaviour on your part and I am fairly dissapointed in you, miss Granger. Five points will be taken from Gryffindor."

Sean looked up from the feet and glanced at Ron and Harry to seize their reaction on the house points, knowing that they were both fairly competitive. But to his surprise, both boys were still looking at Hermione with open mouth, shocked by what she had just done. Sean couldn't suppress a grin. Maybe they'd finally show some respect for her after this was over.

"As for you 3 gentlemen...I just hope you realise how fortunate you are. Not many first year students could take on a full grown mountain troll, and live to tell the story. 5 points will be awarded to each of you. For sheer dumb luck!"

After giving them all one more dissapointing look, the transfiguration teacher turned around, signaling to her colleagues to follow her. They all did.

Now, Ron, Harry, Sean and Hermione stood in front of eachother, processing what just happened. Harry was the first one to break the silence.

"We're really sorry, Hermione."

For a second, all boys thought she was going to cry, but her expression soon changed from vulnerable to cold.

"I could've handled this, you know. Why would you even want to help a nightmare?", she said, emphasising the word 'nightmare'. Ron looked down, The guilt eating at him. He shouldn't have talked to her like that. She honestly wasn't that bad, even helped him in class...He decided to swallow his pride for once:

"H-hermione, I'm sorry. I didn't even mean it like that. I guess I'm just a bit frustrated because you know so much... and Sean, I thought about what you said, and you're right. You were only defending your friend, so I shouldn't hold a grudge towards you either. Can we start over please?"

Sean looked at Hermione, to check if she agreed with making up with Ron and Harry. She nodded her head slightly to signal that she was okay.

"Alright then. I'm thankful that you came and rescued me from that troll. We can start over."

The reached out her hand towards the two Gryffindors.

"Friends?"

They broke out into a grin and both shook her hand.

"Friends!"

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

Spring

"Thank you so much for taking me out of the castle, I hadn't realised I needed this so much! Ron's just so annoying sometimes, ugh! You can't even imagine! Always laughing and joking, never even a tad bit serious! Seriously, why does he always expect me to be okay with giving him my notes? If he would pay attention for just 10 minutes, he..."

Sean chuckled. He and Hermione were taking a walk around the great lake. He'd pointed out that she looked stressed and needed to take a break, so that's what they were doing: taking a break. Or at least, he was, Hermione was using her non-homework time to ramble about how annoying Ron was. It amused him greatly.

"Mione, you're rambling again. Let it go. Just relax for once. You'll see, it'll do you good."

Hermione shot him a greatful smile. She really did need her Ravenclaw friend sometimes.

"Hermione and Sean, sitting in a tree, k.i.s.s.i.n.g! First comes lo..."

Sean's head turned around as soon as humanly possible, in the direction of where the voice -or better, voices- were coming from.

"Who on earth are those girls and why are they singing...that...about us?"

He looked over at Hermione. The was rolling her eyes and had a disgusted look on her face.

"That's Lavender Brown, on the left, and her best friend Parvati Patil beside her. They're my roommates."

She spit out the word roommates like it was something moldy.

"Don't mind them. They're just two girls who love drama and spend their time with gossiping instead of making homework. I can't stand them. Come on, let them sing. We're out of here."

She took his arm to signal that he had to keep walking, which only caused Lavender and Parvati to whistle harder.

"Mione, calm down...like you said: don't mind them. They don't know anything about us...I mean, I'd never even think about kissing you, that's just...eww...right?"

"Same here. You kind of remind me of my little sister, so I guess I see you as my little brother...definitely not as someone I'd consider kissing. You're right, that's just eww."

"Should I feel honoured that you see me as family or offended that you remind me of a girl?"

Hermione let out a laugh. "Definitely the first one. I really love her, just like I love my older brother and sister, it's just different with my younger sister, because we are the closest in age. She's only one year younger than us. She's probably coming to Hogwarts too next year. She's always showed signs of accidental magic like me, we just never knew what it was, until I received my Hogwarts letter last year. I can't wait to see her again when we get home for the summer holiday. Speaking of vacation, what are you doing this summer?"

Sean sighed deeply. That was something he'd rather not talk about.

"Don't remind me, please. My parents want to visit my grandmother. For 2 weeks! Now before you begin defending a 'nice old lady': there's nothing nice about her! When we're there, my sisters and I aren't allowed to do anything! She even forbids me to dance, saying that it's something for girls! She always invites her friends for tea and then we're forced to sit with all those old ladies and listen to their gossip for hours! I wish my mum would let me stay home, but she doesn't want me to stay alone. She thinks I'm too young for that. So, until I'm at least 15, I'm getting tortured with tea parties every summer."

Suddenly, Hermione gasped and her eyes widened.

"That's it!"

Sean looked at his friend weirdly. Where did that sudden outburst come from?

"What's going on, Mione?"

"I've got a brilliant idea! It's simply perfect! I'll ask my parents if you can come to us while your parents and sisters go to your grandma! I'm sure they won't mind, they're ecstatic that I finally made a friend. They even said during christmas break that they'd like to meet you! This is the perfect opportunity! What do you say?"

"Hermione...are you sure your parents won't mind? I mean, I don't want to bother anyone...and since you have 3 siblings...won't they mind?"

But Hermione shook her head and shot him a radiant smile, still excited about her idea.

"They won't mind! My brother moved out a few years ago, he's an adult. My older sister's best friend comes to us every summer, so we're used to that by now, and as I said, you kind of remind me of my younger sister, I'm sure you'll get along really well. Hou could get to know her sooner than septembre. Oh, this is such a great idea! If you'd excuse me now, I need to write a letter to my parents. Bye!"

And Sean was left alone. But considering that it was likely he would get to spend 2 weeks of his vacation with Hermione and her siblings instead of with his crazy grandmother, he really couldn't complain.

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

Summer

Dear Kaycee,

First of all, I'd like to say that I'm very sorry I didn't write to you sooner. It's simply because I'm always so busy! I'm constantly doing something, not to mention exams. I'm actually quite relieved that they're over. I didn't even have time to read Hogwarts: A history! this month! I'm constantly trying to learn new things, 'cause there's so much I still don't know about this world. A lot of my time is spent in the library and outside at the lake.

And that are just my normal pursuits.

Something extroardinary yesterday and I just have to tell you. That's the reason I'm writing this right now, even though I'll see you in a few days (I can't wait!)

Basically, my teacher Defence Against The Dark Arts turned out to be a helper of You-Know-Who (the 'bad guy' I told you about) Quirrell was the one who tried to rob the wizarding bank (Gringotts), he was the one who allowed a troll to enter Hogwarts (I told you all about that already) and he was also the one who jinxed Harry (My friend with the black hair and scar, the famous one) during his quidditch match! And if that's not enough, I somehow got involved in a very dangerous situation yesterday. We (Harry, Ron and I) thought professor Snape (the one who looks like a vampire, remember?) was trying to steal the philosopher's stone (told you about that as well), so we tried to go after him. We went through different chambers, each one with a puzzle, to try to catch up with professor Snape. I'll spare you the details, but I helped Harry get through those chambers till the second-to-last one, where I had to stay behind in order to let Harry continue. I was so scared, Kaycee. I was absolutely convinced something was going to happen to him. After all, we're only first years and we wanted to fight against a professor.

But boy was I wrong.

It turned out to be professor Quirrell, not professor Snape. Anyway, Harry bravely doucht Quirrell and we were all able to escape. We even got housepoints which led to Gryffindor winning the house cup !!

On another note, I want to inform you of something really exciting. You know about my best friend Sean, right? Well, his parents are going to his grandmother this summer. Apparently, his grandmother doesn't like him, and even forbids him from dancing when he's at her house (could you imagine not being able to dance for 2 weeks? You'd probably die!) So, I suddenly got a great idea when we were talking about his grandma: letting him stay at our house for those 2 weeks! Mum and dad already told me that they're okay with it. It'll be perfect! Sean doesn't have to deal with grandmother and I can introduce him to you! Sometimes, he reminds me zo much of you, it's unbelievable. And not just because you both dance. He just has the same kind of personality as you have. Maybe that's the reason we get along so well.

I'm sure you'll like him too, Kayc!

Much love,

Hermione

Satisfied with her letter, Hermione rolled up the piece of parchment and attached it to one of the Hogwarts owl's leg.

"Bring this to Kaycee Granger, please."

The owl hooted and flew off, and Hermione watched how the owl became smaller and smaller, until it was just a tiny dot at the horizon.

She couldn't wait to see her sister again.

[droo216]

Hey Drew, do you think you could go into detail and explain your feelings on the recent Harry Potter debacles (The Cursed Child and also what Pottermore has become)? Your opinions usually mirror mine but I'm having a hard time putting it all together. Cheers! Hope you're doing alright (I think you live in Florida?) watch out for that nasty, nasty weather.

Hey there! Let me see here. I’ll try to express my feelings, I’ll be eager to hear from you to see if you agree!

So basically the current expansion of J. K. Rowling’s wizarding world breaks down into three categories: Pottermore, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and the Fantastic Beasts series. I’ll take them one at a time.

Pottermore started out as this amazing addition to the Potter fandom. We were all so excited to be officially Sorted into our houses, learn what kind of wands we might receive, and delve deeper into the world of Harry Potter. Pottermore was excellent at the start when we were learning more about Jo’s writing process and fun facts. Why were Hufflepuff’s colors yellow and black, for example. Even the character biographies we got at the start were thoughtful and creative and felt like an extension of the universe that was already there. Pottermore has deteriorated as we’ve moved further and further away from what Jo already had written down and we’ve gone deeper and deeper into material invented for Pottermore. Ilvermorny is obviously the biggest example here. The American copy-and-paste version of Hogwarts is so clearly an afterthought developed for a quick name-drop in the Fantastic Beasts movie. It truly makes no sense as an actual American school for reasons that plenty of people smarter than me have expanded on – the trivialization of Native American culture, the absurdity that one school would suffice for the entire United States, the dismissal of the canonically established Salem Institute. The inclusion of “houses” is particularly frustrating for me. I’m sure we have private schools in the States that have houses but in general it’s an extremely British concept that doesn’t translate here. More importantly, the Hogwarts house system is so incredible. The house mascots and colors, the association with the four elements, and the values prescribed to each category all come together in a truly beautiful way. Our generation in particular has come to adopt the Hogwarts houses as core elements to our personality. It’s our way of discussing our values – the morality of ambition, the importance of loyalty, the discussion of mind versus heart or knowledge versus instinct. The Ilvermorny houses belittle the brilliance of the Hogwarts houses and it honestly infuriates me.

As a tangent to this, I think Jo also insults her own system by continuing to sort the “good guys” into Gryffindor and the ���bad guys” into Slytherin. Celestina Warbeck would have been a great good-Slytherin but Jo says she’s a Gryffindor. Dolores Umbridge would have been a fascinating bad-Hufflepuff but Jo says she’s a Slytherin. Remember that meta about how Hagrid’s house is never identified in the books and how it makes way more sense for him to be a Slytherin than a Gryffindor? The houses have so much depth to them, Jo even talks about how Hufflepuff is her favorite house, but she treats them in such a superficial way.

My frustration with the Fantastic Beasts series is not dissimilar to my frustration with Pottermore. Mostly my feeling with Fantastic Beasts so far is a lot like my feelings for Pandora – The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom: it’s beautiful, it’s amazing, but who cares? I don’t care about Newt Scamander and I don’t care about Gellert Grindelwald, especially if we’re going to continue to avoid Albus Dumbledore’s sexuality in telling this story. I wouldn’t mind all of this extra history if I had the history I want. I want Marauders! I want Founders! We know more about the founding of Ilvermorny than the founding of the school we actually care about! If we already had the stories that we’re all deeply fascinated by, I think we’d be more invested in these additional stories. Instead, the Fantastic Beasts series feels like a distraction so that Jo doesn’t have to tell the Marauders and Founders stories. Plus, including the abuser Johnny Depp in the cast is disgusting and infuriating.

Now we come to the ultimate insult to the Potter fandom: Cursed Child. I almost don’t know where to begin with this one. It is unfathomable to me that Jo, who cares so much about her characters, signed off on this and said it can be considered canon. There is just so much wrong here. The characterization of our existing characters, particular the Golden Trio, is so off. Hermione is a shadow of her former self; Ron seems to be based on the film interpretation rather than the book; and while portraying Harry as a misguided father is certainly an interesting choice and could be argued as a plausibility given the fact that he grew up without James and with Vernon, it is certainly the sadder choice, especially considering the wonderful father figures he’s had in Lupin, Sirius, Hagrid, Arthur, and even Dumbledore. It seems like this character choice is only there to serve up drama with Albus.

Next up, perhaps the most absurd piece of the Cursed Child puzzle, is Delphini Diggory. She might as well be named Ebony Darkness Dementia Raven Way. Delphi is the worst part of the entire Harry Potter universe. Her very existence makes no sense - not only would Voldemort have absolutely no need or want for a child and no need or want to have sex with Bellatrix, it also doesn’t fit into the timeline as far as I know. On top of that, she is so illogical as a character, underdeveloped in every way and uncompelling as a villain.

The story itself is aggravating because it seems to be entirely manufactured as fan service while simultaneously letting the fans down. The time turner storyline is clearly all about allowing the play to show us scenes and characters from the original books, yet the scenes we go to are the Triwizard challenges where very little actually happens to advance the Potter story. It’s such an odd choice. And so much centers around the Diggory family, who we hardly know anything about and it’s not like we really learn any new information about them except that apparently if Cedric hadn’t died he would have become a Death Eater, which is so absolutely ridiculous. They clearly just wanted to show us some of the old characters and that’s where this story came from. Even in the present story we see how fan service affected the writing - Jo has said the McGonagall wouldn’t be headmistress by the time Albus got there, and yet here she is. I haven’t even touched on the concept of returning to the night James and Lily died and forcing Harry to watch this trauma or the various stupidities of the alternate timelines like Ron and Hermione’s loveless fates if they aren’t married to one another. 

Also, I have to mention that Jo establishes some very clear laws of magic that this story just decides do not apply. If we all just believe hard enough, we can make Harry look like Voldemort! I know there were other cases of this, but it’s been a while since I’ve read the play so I can’t quite remember them off the top of my head. I could say though that this is probably the aspect that makes the whole thing feel so much like fanfiction (along with Delphi). The Potter world has rules and Jo sticks to them very carefully. The play’s disregard for these rules is sloppy.

The final issue I have to discuss regarding Cursed Child is, obviously, the relationship between Scorpius and Albus. It's been discussed to death, I know, but any criticism of the play is incomplete without mentioning it. These two boys are great characters on their own. Albus living in his father's shadow is compelling. Scorpius in particular is a wonderful character. I also have to applaud the choice to sort these two protagonists into Slytherin, finally breaking the mold I talked about earlier. But the queer baiting in this play is blatant and painful. Honestly, it wouldn't be so bad if we hadn't forced Scorpius into asking out Rose at the end of the play. I get it, fourteen-year-olds don't always understand their sexuality, and maybe you could even say attaching Rose to Scorpius is part of that, but the play certainly doesn't imply it that way at all. It's particularly hurtful because Jo is amazingly progressive in her politics and actively talks about LGBT rights, feminism, Black Lives Matter, and so on, but she does not demonstrate all of these powerful values in her books, especially when it comes to LGBT characters. The only character she has identified as anything other than straight is Dumbledore, and even that is never mentioned in the literature, and if you know it's there it's still  only implied as a tragic barely-there subplot. The wizarding world struggles with diversity across the board. Jo's made steps. Casting black actresses as Hermione and Rose is absolutely incredible. We're starting to see characters of color appear in the Fantastic Beasts series, although way too slowly in my opinion. But despite all of her politics, Jo is dragging her feet when it comes to LGBT representation, and denying us even an implied future relationship between Albus and Scorpius is just... frustrating. I could go on and on about the details of their relationship throughout the play and how the writing clearly indicates feelings between them, but others who know the text more thoroughly have already been there and done that.

Basically it all boils down to this: Jo is giving us an overload of information that we either don’t want or don’t care about and denying us the stuff that we do. Maybe she should have quit while she was ahead. Goodness knows the Potter fans have enough creativity to fill in their own blanks. I can only hope that as Pottermore and the Fantastic Beasts series continue to grow, maybe she can do better.