#except dumbledore and snape were the only ones who KNEW that were doing that

[erinwantstowrite]

While Loki may be up to some shit, I still trust him. Honestly, I'm just a sucker for a Loki with a soft spot for Peter. But also, Peter & Dick made it sound like the only reason Peter was trusting Loki was because he was from Peter's worldline, BUT that's completely dismissing Peter's spidey sense which has declared Loki a friend.

Like, that's important!!!! The sense doesn't just react to who Peter trusts either, bc when he was cautious of the bats his spidey sense still labelled them friends. I'm pretty sure that while Loki is definitely up to something, he doesn't mean Peter any real harm. Especially since the spidey sense only seems to call those who want to help (and probably hold some form of care for) Peter friends. I trust the spidey sense more than anything.

If I'm being honest, whether or not all of what Loki said was true, he does have a big point on that they didn't and don't tell Peter crucial information. I'm a big advocate for actually explaining to kids WHY they should not do something rather than just telling them not to. Like, y'know, Peter's whole misunderstanding with why the avengers don't like Loki.

Keeping Peter in the dark is a terrible idea. Especially since as a super powered, mutant, vigilante he'll need to actually know things. I always like these sort of conflicts in texts, where an adult's wish to keep a kid ignorant for their own good actually endangers them. Like in the Harry Potter books, when Molly tries to keep the kids out of the Order meetings, despite it directly affecting Harry and in conjunction the others. (Harry is kept ignorant of most things in those books and it does NOT help). People should know of threats and dangers to themselves in detail, ESPECIALLY KIDS. Peter deserves to be involved in "adult business" because it directly affects him.

ANYWAY,, thank you for another great chapter!!! I love Loki he's such a little shit and so is Peter. They could be besties.

!!!!! 👀

Loki's definitely up to something, but you're pretty damn closes anon!! Peter hadn't picked up on it but a big part of his trust was that his spider sense hadn't felt a danger around Loki at any point. He's just upset about something. But Loki definitely has his own goals in mind and it might still cause a rift

As for the Avengers (teehee) I feel bad because they were definitely supposed to talk about it this chapter but I didn't have room. There's a lot in play about the adults wanting to keep Peter safe but misinterpreting 'safe' as not knowing the larger details about what they're doing. It's the root cause of the problem here. However in their defense... Peter got kidnapped and experimented on last time when he learned a big detail like that. He found out someone he cared about died as a result of these kidnappings, and he went looking for them on his own before he was ready. Peter will talk about this in chapter 17 when he tells Dick pretty much his entire life story (in a game of 21 questions again). It'll also be clear to the reader why they'd be nervous about letting Peter know about Loki... He lost his first foster family to the Battle of Manhattan. And Peter has a habit of going "punch first, figure out later." (Pulled that habit directly from the comics)

[weasleyreidstyles]

Serendipity

chapter fifteen

summary: it was only meant to be a purely transactional relationship. he would help her strengthen her abilities in return for her getting his friends out of his father's nasty path. he didn't mean to fall for her, but loving her was the easiest thing in his dark world.

no use of y/n, but your general nickname is Meadow. all characters are aged up to be over 18.

pairings: mattheo riddle x fem!ravenclaw reader; platonic!slytherins x fem!reader; platonic!golden trio x fem!reader

warning(s): allusions to death and cannonical violence, angst

series masterlist; previous part; next part

Draco is confined to the Hospital Wing for three whole weeks.

He was in and out of restless sleep for the first week, comatose in the second and fighting off the fog of pain reducing potions in the third.

Harry has detention with Snape, polishing endlessly dirty cauldrons, until the end of the year, which you and all of Slytherin house think should've been a far harsher punishment, but at least he's not gotten away with attempted murder.

You had visited Draco diligently almost every day during your free periods, alongside Pansy and Blaise, keeping him up to date on typical Hogwarts gossip and bringing him notes for classes that he needed (and avoiding the topic of quidditch because the thought of the matches he'd missed had put him in the most foul mood). He'd asked about the other trio that made up your group when they weren't with you, but there wasn't much you or Pansy could say.

It's like you've gone back to square one with him all over again.

Ever since the duel in the second floor bathroom, Mattheo has been avoiding you like the plague and you have no idea why.

But it's not just Mattheo; Lorenzo and even Theodore have not uttered so much as a hello to you; if Draco wasn't hospitalised you were certain he'd be giving you the same treatment. And it seems that Pansy is being offered the same sentiment, too, which can't mean anything good.

The two of you had been thrust together in solitary, abandoned by your friends, who would whisper conspiratorially with eachother when you were not there, and would completely change the subject when one of them spotted you or Pansy heading their way.

It was downright infuriating.

He could see it written all over your face, but he couldn't risk either of you knowing what they were doing. Blaise was an unfortunate exception; Mattheo tried to get him to leave it be, but his best friend was relentless, and would not stop pestering all four boys until he took it upon himself to follow them when they were none the wiser all the way back in September when the task had officially commenced.

The Vanishing Cabinet was almost repaired.

They were one step closer to completing Draco's seemingly impossible task. But, of course, Mattheo's father didn't think they were doing it fast enough, and he did not care that Draco's hospitalisation took priority over a stupid wardrobe. He would force his son's hand if he had to.

So the boys had spent the better part of a week locked away in the Room of Requirement. They hardly went to lessons, and when they did, it was only to keep up appearances to cause less suspicion among the staff (especially those that they suspected were high up in the Order's chain of command) and their peers.

He knows you're angry about his avoidance, but Mattheo cannot bring himself to involve you; to put you in anymore danger. Your display of power was enough to engage his overprotective side, and he knows that if he was able to figure you out before he even considered a civil friendship with you all those months ago, that his father would have you figured out in half the time. He already suspected that the Order knew about you, if Dumbledore knew, which already put you on Voldemort's radar, even if his father didn't know the siphon's true identity. He only knew that there was one in existence.

Mattheo only hopes that his father is too focused on his vendetta against the Headmaster to figure it out.

It's becoming increasingly more difficult to lie to you. Even the Unbreakable Vow he's forced to adhere to doesn't seem powerful enough anymore. You know about Horcruxes, he knows that for certain. Which puts you in danger, no matter if you know where the objects are or not. When he saw the memory of you holding the ring without knowing just what was in your hands...

...Mattheo had to keep you far away from that burden for as long as possible and he hated that Dumbledore had knowingly given you such a cursed object without a thought or qualm of the consequences.

Now, alongside Theo and Enzo, Mattheo is staring resolutely at the deep brown wooden door of the Vanishing Cabinet on a random Friday afternoon. The spell that they'd discovered had worked thus far; there were only so many more incantations needed for it to catalyse the spellbinding properties of the complex magic that was weaved into the wood centuries ago.

The boys were putting off the inevitable for as long as possible. But as Blaise arrived, with a freshly healed Draco in tow, they knew that it was time to do the inevitable.

"Harmonia Nectere Passus." Draco repeated the spell for the nth time and allowed Enzo to let the bird, whose wings were flapping wildly in his tentative hold, into the deep abyss.

They waited.

And waited.

And waited some more until Mattheo slowly reached for the handle, brows furrowed in apprehension when he felt the palpable pull of the wardrobe's magic, and opening it with a soft creak. The bird flew out and rose towards the ceiling of the Room of Requirement, disappearing from their sight and into the rafters in the ceiling.

The five of them stood silently for some time after that, each coming to their own grim realisations.

They had done it.

Finally after months of trial and error; after months of physical and mental torture, they had fixed the unfixable.

But at what cost?

Their left arms burned in earnest as Voldemort rallied his forces to prepare for infiltration. Blaise looked at his friends in solemn understanding. Horror swept through them like a wave in the sea.

What had they just done?

~∞~

He watched you from the shadows of the viaduct for some time before he decided to approach you.

You were sat in the courtyard, accompanied by Pansy, Ginny, Hermione, Luna and Neville (an odd bunch – your little group had garnered some whispers from passers by, and sneers too but none of you cared to pay them any mind).

He admired your beauty. The way your features brightened inexplicably as you laughed with your friends; how your eyes softened as a smile stretched across your flushed face; how the sun framed you like a halo would an angel. He hated that he would be the one to burst that bubble of indescribable happiness.

As he made his way towards you from the shadows, approaching you for the first time in a week, his chest tightened as your features hardened when you noticed him. He knew he deserved it. But it didn't mean it didn't hurt any less.

"What do you want, Riddle?" the way Pansy spits his surname pains him just as much as your furrowed expression. He knows without a doubt, that the boys' actions had hurt her just as inherently as they had hurt you, if not more. But she would come to understand, eventually, that it was done for her protection.

"I need to talk to you." He says slowly. "To all of you."

This has their attention. And you watch as he brushes a hand through unruly curls, the sunlight highlighting deep, dark eyebags, as if he hadn't slept all week.

"About what?" Ginny demands, sitting up straighter from where she was lounging lazily next to Luna, whose head is tilted inquisitively. You still haven't shown him much of a reaction, and your mental walls were built up high and solid. Hermione looked skeptical, and Neville only looked confused and scared.

"You need to get in contact with the Order." he begins and he watches as you share a look of concern with Hermione.

"Why?" Hermione asks him and he casts his eyes to her chocolate ones, a grimace overtaking his face.

"Because there's going to be an attack on Hogwarts. Tonight." His statement sets off a chain of events.

Neville is a blubbering mess of nerves and fear as he rushes to stand. Luna has a contemplative look on her face; seemingly calm in the aftermath of Mattheo's words. Hermione looks terrified, but her face cools with a mask of indifference as if she herself is preparing for battle. Ginny looks up at him, a determined glint in her eyes as she rises to her feet, pulling you all up with her. Pansy looks horrified, her hands twisting together frantically as your own hands fight to calm them. And you...

Gods he wants someone to paint the look on your face onto a canvas; to cement it into existence forever.

Your brows are furrowed, creating a divet in the space between them and your lips are pulled into a frown that casts a melancholic sadness across your warm features. You're staring up at him with big, questioning eyes and all he wants to do is grab you and take you far, far away from everything; drag you to another continent so that he knows for certain that you'll be safe.

"How do you know there's going to be an attack?" you ask and he wants to desperately put off the inevitable, but he sees it in your eyes, and in your eddying thoughts (as well as Pansy's) – you already knew what he was about to admit, even if it killed him in the process.

"Draco had a task-" the Dark Mark burns angrily against the skin of his forearm and Mattheo grimaces and his heart skips a beat when you move towards him, shaking off Neville's wary hand. "-It was meant to have been completed three weeks ago-"

But he ended up having a brutal near death experience.

Is what he was trying to say, but the Mark was causing him agony, tearing at the very seams of his brain as he tried to make sense of the words appearing in his mind. But he couldn't string them together.

The feeling is gone as soon as your hands are gracing his skin, which is hot to the touch.

You watched as his face scrunched in pain and your heart physically hurts for him. You wanted his misery to end. So you used your ability and siphoned away some of the magic that was binding itself aggressively to Mattheo's very being, letting the veins of dark magic coarse through your's and settle restlessly into the conduit around your neck, casting your indigo core in dark shadows of obsidian.

It burned like hell, but watching his face return to it's relaxed state, was worth it.

"Why did you do that?" he asks you incredulously, staring down at you with wide onyx eyes.

"You were in pain." you say breathlessly. "I don't like seeing you in pain."

He brings his forehead to rest against your's. It's the first point of contact you've both had all week and you all but melt into him.

"I'm trying to explain myself to you," he mumbles. "But this damned thing has a chokehold on my very core."

He's glaring hatefully toward his left arm and you hear the way your friends take a collective inhale of breath. You grasp it gently, running sooting lines up and down his forearm with a soft caress of your fingers that has his tensed shoulders relaxing imperceptibly.

"You don't have to explain yourself, if it means you may end up killing yourself in the process, Théo." you reply, ignoring the eyes that are on you, feeling like you're the only people stood in the viaduct courtyard. "No one wants that. I don't want that."

Ginny clears her throat, knocking you from the haze of staring into his captivating eyes. She's looking at Mattheo with a little more determination than before. He shifts on his feet, hand reaching for your's, which you take without question, letting him hold you in some way, for comfort.

"Does the Order still have people guarding the outskirts of the castle grounds and the town's streets?" He asks Hermione who nods slowly, confused on how he knows this information. "There are spies everywhere, Granger don't act so surprised."

His words resonate with all of you, but you don't have time to ponder it as Mattheo continues.

"Find them and tell them, now. There's not enough time to waste." he says, voice strong and commanding. "And where's Professor Dumbledore? He needs to stay away from the Astronomy Tower."

"Why?" Ginny asks but it's not Mattheo that answers her question.

"They're going to kill him, aren't they?" Pansy's voice is no louder than a whisper, and the way Mattheo flinches is an answer in itself.

Hermione is frozen. Eyes wide in horror.

"He's not here." She says, voice low. "He took Harry to search for a- for a horcrux. They won't return until well past curfew."

Your mouth gapes in realisation.

"The only point in the castle that Dumbledore can apparate to and from is the-"

"Astronomy Tower." Mattheo says with you and you turn to eachother with identical looks of dread on your faces.

"Go to the Order. Tell them to get reinforcements."

It's the last thing he says before he drags Pansy away, probably towards the Slytherin common room where the others are, leaving you with your friends in a state of pure distress.

You run to the nearest Order member you know of immediately and Professor McGonnagall is just as shocked as you all are.

Reinforcements are called upon immediately and by eight o'clock, just before curfew, the corridors are swarming with Order members.

~∞~

The Dark Mark streaked vibrantly green across the night sky like an ominous painting. It had appeared only moments ago. When Bellatrix Lestrange and a group of more than a dozen Death Eaters had infiltrated the school's usually impenetrable defences. Calamitous and imposing with the snake moving silkily into the mouth of the giant skull, Dumbledore's Army and Order members were fighting tooth and nail to eliminate the hoards of Death Eaters that had managed to get past the wards.

Meanwhile up in the Astronomy tower, protected against Order members with their own wards, Mattheo stood shrouded in shadows, alongside Draco, Theo and Enzo as they watched the swirls of green mist form a cloud of animosity in the vast, open room. They stood in typical Death Eater masks, to conceal their faces, all but Draco who stood with his head held high, right hand clenching his wand harshly, to prevent it from trembling like a leaf.

Professor Dumbledore and Harry Potter landed with uncoordinated grace only moments after Bellatrix had cast the Mark. The former looked haggard and ill – as if he could topple over with a gust of wind at any second.

This will make Draco's task easier. Theo said wordlessly as they observed the way the Headmaster clutched at his chest with his decaying hand.

Mattheo agreed without so much as moving a muscle. Body tense as he tried to imagine you safe in your dorm room, away from the chaos that was no doubt about to ensue. But he knew you better than that.

He knew you were in the fray, fighting for the right cause. Fighting for your life, and your friend's lives. He could hear the distant sound of spells clashing against eachother; walls crumbling; people screaming out for help. He only hopes one of those screams is not your own.

He locks away the thoughts. He cannot be distracted right now. Not when the deed was about to be done.

"Go and wake Severus. Tell him what has happening and bring him to me. Do noth- nothing else. Speak to nobody and do not remove your cloak. I shall wait here." Dumbledore says faintly to Potter, who slowly slips the infamous Invisibility Cloak over his head, but before he can conceal himself fully, Draco's arm begins to burn, as does Mattheo's.

It's time.

The floor creaks as Draco moves to step around the corner of the room where he sees a ripple of movement by the door, but no body. Harry had already disappeared under the cloak, seemingly unmoving, as if he was paralysed.

He errupted around the corner in seconds, shouting "Expelliarmus!" and had disarmed his Headmaster with surprising ease, though he does well not to show the emotions cross his face. The Elderwand, that was previously gripped snuggly in Dumbledore's dueling hand, flies in an arc-like shape onto the floor, rolling under a group of orreries in the far corner of the Astronomy Tower.

Professor Dumbledore was, for the first time in his over one hundred years of life, deathly weak and utterly defenceless. Despite this, he did not look panicked or distressed. He only greeted Draco with a cold smile of recognition.

"Hello Draco. Pleasant evening, isn't it?"

Draco stepped into the foreboding green light, reflecting off of the countless metal contraptions surrounding them. His eyes darted across the clearing, from where Dumbledore stood, to where Potter's now invisible body lay.

Mattheo, Theo, Enzo and Draco knew he was there. But the others did not, probably expecting him to be fighting alongside the Order. Most were fighting below, others were waiting for a signal of their own. But Bellatrix wanted to watch her nephew complete his task. She had appeared silently beside Mattheo and had spotted a veil of magic that wasn't supposed to be there.

She looks suspicious. Make it look convincing. Draco heard Mattheo's warning and so the acting began.

"Who else is here?" he demanded, face void of any telling emotion. Dumbledore only smiled knowingly.

"I might ask you the same. Or are you acting alone?"

Draco's stoney eyes fell on Dumbledore's weakened figure.

"There are Death Eaters roaming your school grounds. We let them in right under your nose and you didn't have the slightest idea." Draco sneered, lifting his wand higher in anticipation.

"Ingenious." Dumbledore replied, and Mattheo could sense a shift in his demeanor. "I wonder...where are they now? You seem quite....unsupported."

"They're a little preoccupied with your precious Order. Fighting below. They won't be long, but I have a job to do." Draco responds icily, wand hand twitching. Mattheo knew then that Draco wouldn't make the killing blow.

"Well then, might I suggest you get on and do it," Dumbledore says, his voice growing softer as he smiled. "You are not a killer Draco Malfoy. Am I to believe that your friend would try to help if she knew what you were about to do."

"I've made peace with that possibility, sir." Draco says, though regret shines in his light grey eyes. It shines in all their eyes at the thought of what you will say in the wake of their ultimate betrayal.

"You have no idea what I'm capable of. The things I've done!" Draco continues, his voice surging with growing confidence.

"I do." Dumbledore says slowly. "I know you and your friends almost killed Katie Bell and Ronald Weasley in your desperate attempts to kill me all year. I can't help but notice that they have been feeble at best. Forgive me, my boy, but I wonder whether your heart has really been in it–"

"It has been in it!" Draco retorts vehemently, as if Voldemort was listening from around a corner. "We've been working on it all year and-"

There's a loud and muffled yell somewhere in the corridors below them and Mattheo stiffens at the thought of it being you.

He'd only seen you once in passing, fighting against Dolohov with one of the Weasley offspring. You didn't recognise him while he was in his Death Eater robes, You were fighting strong and fast against the older man, who barely stood a chance against all your unleashed power.

"Somebody is putting up a good fight." Dumbledore says, voice filling the tension that permeates the air.

"You managed to introduce Death Eaters into my school which I'll admit, I thought was impossible. How did you do it?" He sounds intrigued rather than nervous or frightened. Mattheo tenses more. Ignoring Bellatrix's presence as she too observes, clearly fighting the urge to intervene and kill Albus Dumbledore herself.

Draco did not respond. His focus was on the battle happening beneath them.

"Perhaps you ought to continue with the job alone, although I am curious to know where your friends are." Dumbledore's words prompt Voldemort's right hand woman to forcefully shove Mattheo from the shadows.

He stumbles unexpectedly, but rights himself as his gaze settles on his Headmaster. He removes the mask and runs a hand through his unruly curls.

"Ah Mr Riddle." he greets with cool eyes of steel as if he wasn't a lamb sent to the wolves. "I have to say, I'm surprised it's not you stood in Mr Malfoy's position."

"My father wanted to punish his father. Thought it was fitting that Draco did his dirty work for him." Mattheo says, voice low and deep as he stares into irises of silver. Dumbledore cocks his head as Mattheo opens up his mind to the Headmaster as he speaks out loud to fill the otherwise empty silence.

I warned the Order before the Death Eaters got here. They were prepared.

Perhaps Miss Meadow was right about you after all. Dumbledore's response holds an ounce of regret that does not translate to his face. Do not let your father know of her abilities. We both know what he will do with her if he does.

With my life, Sir. He will never know that she is the one with the power to summon from the elements.

She doesn't know the full extent of her abilities does she?

We've barely scratched the surface, Sir.

With the most imperceptible of nods from his Headmaster, Mattheo comes to stand beside his best friend, face stoic, yet expressionless, resembling his father's old face as if they were identical twins.

"What if your back-up has been thwarted by my guard? The Order are efficient at what they can do."

Malfoy merely stared at him. He did not know of the passing conversation that had just occurred between the other two men.

"I see," said Dumbledore kindly, when Draco neither moved nor spoke. "You are afraid to act until you have an audience."

"I'm not afraid!" Draco snarled, though he still made no move to hurt

Dumbledore, who stood defencelessly before the two of them. "It's you who should be scared!"

Mattheo's bones were practically vibrating with anticipation. Draco needed to stop stalling.

"But why? I don't think you will kill me, Draco. Killing is not nearly as easy as the innocent believe. So tell me, while we wait for the rest of your friends. How did you smuggle them in here? It seems to have taken you a long time to work out how to do it."

Draco looked as though he was fighting down the urge to shout, or to vomit. He gulped and took several deep breaths, glaring at Dumbledore, his wand pointing directly at the latter's heart.

It's Mattheo who responds this time, giving Draco the time he needed to compartmentalise his emotions. "We had to mend that broken Vanishing Cabinet that hasn't been used in years. The wardrobe that Graham Montague got lost in last year."

It takes effort for all of them to hold back their snickers as they vividly remember when Montague had emerged almost two months later.

Dumbledore makes a sound of acknowledgment that was more of a painful groan than a sigh. He closed his eyes for a moment.

"That was clever. There is a pair, I take it?"

"The other's in Borgin and Burkes," Mattheo continues, voice raspy and slow as he explains, reminding Dumbledore even more of who the boy's father is.

"They make a kind of passage between them. Montague told us that when he was stuck in the Hogwarts one, he was trapped in limbo but sometimes he could hear what was going on at school, and sometimes what was going on in the shop, as if the wardrobe was travelling between them, but he couldn't make anyone hear him. In the end he managed to Apparate out, even though he'd never actually passed his test. He nearly died doing it. Everyone else thought it was a really good story, but we – Theo, Draco, Enzo and I figured out that there could be a way into Hogwarts through the Cabinets if we fixed the broken one. My father thought it was....ingenious."

"Very good," murmured Dumbledore. "So the Death Eaters were able to pass from Borgin and Burkes into the school to help you. A clever plan, a very clever plan. And, as you say, right under my nose..."

"Yeah," Draco says, quite recovered from his momentary stupor and bizarrely, seemed to draw courage and comfort from Dumbledore's praise. "Yeah, it was!"

"But there were times, weren't there?" Dumbledore went on, "When you were not sure you would succeed in mending the Cabinet? And you resorted to crude and badly judged measures such as sending me a cursed necklace that was bound to reach the wrong hands–"

Draco flinched.

"–Poisoning mead that there was only the slightest chance I might drink–"

Mattheo grimaced only slightly. He imagined that Theo and Enzo had similar flinching responses, too.

"Yeah, well, you still didn't realise who was behind that stuff, did you?" Draco sneered, as Dumbledore slid a little down the ramparts, the strength in his legs apparently fading.

"As a matter of fact, I did," He said. "I was quite certain it was you."

"Why didn't you stop me, then?" Draco demanded and Mattheo couldn't help but wonder, himself.

"I tried, Draco. Professor Snape has been keeping watch over you on my orders–"

Everyone in that room froze at his words. A pin drop could be heard for miles at the noxious silence that followed that statement.

"No that's not right. He hasn't been following your orders, he promised my mother–"

"Of course that is what he would tell you, Draco, but–"

"He's a double agent, you stupid old man, he isn't working for you, you just think he is!" Draco shouts over the dying man.

"We must agree to differ on that, Draco. It so happens that I trust Professor Snape–"

"Well, you're losing your grip, then!" Draco sneers again, ignoring Mattheo's careful hand that rests on his friends shoulder in warning. "He's been offering me plenty of help, wanting all the glory for himself, wanting a bit of the action–"

Mattheo drowns out Draco's depressing monologue in favour of observing the way Dumbledore grew weaker with every passing second. They didn't have long. They needed to get this done.

"How long was Rosmerta under the Imperius Curse, Mr Riddle?" Dumbledore's question brings him back to the present.

"All year." He responds lowly, shamefully. Admitting it felt like being pelted by thousands of tiny shards of glass, but he knew that was the guilt.

"So poor Rosmerta was forced to lurk amongst her own bathroom stalls and pass the cursed necklace to any student who entered unaccompanied?" Dumbledore sounds intrigued, disgusted and weirdly amused as he lists off his suspicions. "And of course she poisoned the mead before she sent the bottle to Slughorn, perhaps believing it to be my Christmas present, despite it being so late into the new year. Very insidious. Of course Mr Filch would not think to check something addressed from her. Tell me how you were communicating with her. I believed we had monitored all forms of communication in and out of the school."

"Enchanted coins." Draco replied, his wand hand was trembling badly now. "I had one and she had the other-"

"Like the secret method Dumbledore's Army used to communicate last year? Did Miss Meadow give you that idea?"

"Leave her name out of your mouth." Mattheo hissed, teeth gritted together in a rage. He could practically smell Bellatrix's curiousity. He wondered how she'd managed to stay so still and quiet for all this time. He had almost forgotten that she was there, had he not felt the daunting barbed walls of her mental shield.

"I got the idea from Granger, actually. I overhear her talking about all sorts in the library." Draco says, sharing a fleeing glance with Mattheo, who once again drowned out the sound of their voices, in favour of trying to reach you.

Meadow? Nothing.

Answer me! No response. Your mind was as hard as a stonewalled fortress against his desperation.

There was a bang and a collection shouts from below, louder than ever; it sounded as though people were fighting on the actual spiral staircase that led to where they were stood.

Wordlessly he tells Draco, Enzo and Theo to be ready to sink into the shadows and leave at any given moment. Their silent aggreement has his tense shoulders slacking only for mere moments.

"There is little time, one way or another," said Dumbledore. "So let us discuss your options, Draco."

"My options!" Draco said loudly. "I'm standing here with a wand – I'm about to kill you–"

"My dear boy, let us have no more pretence about that. If you were going to kill me, you would have done it when you first Disarmed me, you would not have stopped for this pleasant chat about ways and means."

"I haven't got any options!" he yelled and he was suddenly as white as Dumbledore. "I have no choice! I have to kill you. Or he's going to kill me and my family."

"I appreciate the difficulty of your precarious situation." Dumbledore responded "Why else do you think I have not confronted you before now? Because I knew that you would have been murdered if Lord Voldemort realised that I suspected you."

They all winced at the sound of the name. Except Mattheo. His onyx eyes only hardened.

"I did not dare speak to you of the mission with which I knew you had been entrusted, in case he used Legilimency against you, but I suppose with the help of his son you would have been fine," Dumbledore continued, casting a singular look at Mattheo. "But now at last we can speak plainly to each other...no harm has been done, you have hurt nobody, though you are very lucky that your unintentional victims survived. I can help you, Draco."

"Where was that offer when Meadow came to you?" he snapped, wand hand raised and shaking. Mattheo's eyes shut briefly. Your name was bound to be brought up in the next meeting at this point.

Dumbledore said nothing in response to that and Mattheo practically growled his discontent. But before anyone could utter another word, a dozen sets of footsteps thundered up the spiral staircase and Bellatrix Lestrange had finally, finally stepped out from the shadows, a menacing smirk stretching across her gaunt face as Severus Snape stood ominously beside her, wand poised and ready to strike.

~∞~

hiiii!! it's been a while (like two weeks??) since i updated serendipity

this is part one of the astronomy battle scene from the book – the next part (chapter 16) should be out within the next week since i have uni work to complete 😒 but i hope you enjoyed this one xxx

also unrelated to this post, i saw niall horan last night and it felt like a fever dream?? take me back right now.

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(striked out users are ones that i couldn't tag)

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[deathmetalunicorn1]

Record of Ragnarok x Severus Snape!Reader like he's one of the Healer almost but he just makes the Potions to help heal the injured during Ragnarok. Despite his Brooding and Mean manner, he doesn't mean it. He's just isolated and collected.

Also R.I.P Alan Rickman, I know he died years ago but I love him! Along with the actors who played Hagrid, Dumbledore, Narcissa, Olivander, and many others! ❤️

I agree with you, I miss all the actors, but Hagrid was the one that hit me the hardest.

-You glowered quietly, glaring down into the arena, seeing these idiots beating each other senseless as you knew who was going to be dealing with it once the match ended.

-You were regarded as one of the best healers in Valhalla, which is why Brunnhilde recruited you to help with the human fighters.

-You knew your work was exceptional, but you weren’t cocky when Brunnhilde recruited you, as you knew that she would only want the best.

-Your ‘patients’, however, were not as welcoming of you, due to your stoic and brooding personality- you didn’t have much as far as bedside manner.

-Lu Bu pretty much just ignored you, wanting to heal quickly so he could go fight Thor again, that was until you slipped him a numbing potion, to make him stay in bed, so now he was just pouting, glaring at you.

-Adam was praising you for your hard work, something you were a little apprehensive about, as you didn’t have much of that growing up- not like you should have. However, Adam was respectful of you, following your orders, which made him your favorite patient.

-Kojiro was irritating, wanting to talk to you, being so bright and cheerful, wanting to chat with you. It was amusing, seeing the cheerful Kojiro and the brooding you, sitting together, him chatting your ear off while you were doing treatments. You always had to take a break after his treatments, to recharge your social battery, or lack of.

-Jack was another of your favorites, mainly because he didn’t complain and follows your instructions on taking it easy, not pushing himself. It was hard to find good patients like him.

-Raiden and QSH were both irritating, being loud, obnoxious, making demands of you like you were a servant- you had pulled out your wand once or twice, fully ready to put them in their place, something Leonidas saw, teasing you playfully- which did earn him a nasty glare, but he was at least more well behaved, when he wanted to be.

-When Ragnarok was done and over with, Brunnhilde approached you, thanking you for your hard work and your help in keeping everyone patched up. You were quite stoic with her, “Quite. Next time choose less annoying warriors.”

-She couldn’t help but laugh, knowing that you did care, in your own odd-ball way.

[night-night-stories-before-bed]

Two birds on a wire…

Warning ⚠️; blood, angst, description of wounds, character’s death, spoiler for the Harry Potter saga

Pairing; Severus Snape x Male Reader, unconfessed feelings.

Summary; You thought you had time, but sadly Severus didn't.

Note; So I am not satisfied with this work but can't seem to make it sadder. I love the tragedy of Severus’ life and yet maybe I wasn't in the mood for a sad story? I might rewrite this in the future.

~~~~~~~~~~

Severus and you never were friends. Not during Hogwarts nor after and especially not during the first war against Voldemort, but you were on good terms. You never had a real reason to be in any disagreement or fight. Except for how he treated kids. You knew what James Potter and his friends did to Severus, but it didn't excuse him for doing the same to innocents children.

No matter how many times you fought over it, he never changed.

And then, Voldemort came back.

You'll never forget the fear and horror that filled you when you saw Cedrik Diggory’s corpse and heard Harry Potter. You knew the boy was telling the truth. You always knew it wasn't over. And with his return, Voldemort brought chaos into the wizarding world.

Severus took back his role as a spy just like you took back your own role in the Order. You two began to spend more time together; at first, he assisted you when you had to brew potions, and then he did it for you without being asked. In exchange, you gave him rare ingredients and books you knew he would like. Slowly, a friendship grew between you.

You were the one he came to after his meetings with Voldemort as if you were his safe place. You let him vent, speak about what horror had been said or done and never once judged him when he was forced to participate.

He came to you after making an unbreakable vow with Narcissa Malfoy, which horrified you. The thought of Severus having to murder Dumbledore chilled you to the bone, but it was true that the young Malfoy didn't deserve to become a killer. Since Dumbledore was already dying it would almost be mercy. Almost. Mercy for the headmaster and cruelty to Severus. You wished to take that responsibility, but it was impossible. You could only keep the secret and be there for your friend.

You promised him to run away with him once Voldemort was dead. Promised to live free far from the wizarding world. And Severus had accepted. You'll always remember how he actually smiled at the thought of being free and not serving anyone ever again.

He even called you his dearest friend.

Friend. What an euphemism for what your feeling grew to be. You loved the man more than that, more than you had ever loved anyone. Yet you couldn't admit it by fear of rejection and that it would ruin your friendship. You didn't want to lose Severus.

But you could see in his eyes that he didn't truly believe it, that he actually could be free. He was just a liar. There was so much sadness and acceptance in those onyx eyes which only made you more determined. You wouldn't leave Severus behind, you wouldn't accept to watch him let himself rot. That what you promised yourself.

Even when Dumbledore did die by Severus’ hand and Voldemort got his grip on Hogwarts, you still stood behind Severus. Not physically, unable to be in the school, but you spoke with a two-way mirror. For the whole year, you kept in contact, trying to help.

Then came the Battle of Hogwarts.

It was Severus who thankfully warned you and you immediately came. You felt desperate learning that Severus was nowhere to be found, that he had ‘fled�� knowing it was a lie. Severus was anything but a coward.

He wouldn't abandon you behind. You two made a promise.

You still had to confess your feelings.

You made your way to the only place you could think of where Severus could hide; the Shrieking Shack. The old place always crept you out, the air so heavy and dusty. It looked like the hideout of a murderer or someone with bad intentions, but its reputation made it the perfect place for Severus to find shelter.

As always, the place was dirty and quiet. You looked around, calling for Severus with low whispers. The man had good ears, you knew he would hear you. But you have no answer. You frowned, a rusty smell hitting you. You were used to that smell, but not here.

The smell of blood, fresh.

- “Severus?” You called louder. “Severus are you hurt?”

Again only the silence of the Shack answered you. You didn't like it. Severus would never leave you in the dark like that. Sneak and scare you? Yes. Ignore you? Never. A bad feeling in your gut made you feel almost sick, but you decided to have a look from where the smell of blood came from.

You wished you didn't.

Wished this was all a nightmare.

You froze, a silent scream on your lips as tears filled your eyes. Eyes that couldn't look away from Severus’ bloody body resting against the wall. Even with all the blood he had lost, your friend looked so peaceful, almost like he was asleep or trying to play a terrible prank on you.

- “Severus?”

Your voice broke as you stumbled toward him. Again, no reaction. You fell on your knees next to him, hands grabbing the front of his robes. A whine left your mouth when you shook his body, trying to wake him up.

- “Come on, Severus, wake up. Please wake up.” You pleaded, refusing to believe what you were seeing. “You can't be dead. You can't! You promised me…”

You sobbed cradling Severus’ cold body in your arms. The coldness of his skin was all you needed to know Severus was truly gone. He was gone, leaving you alone behind.

Your fingers brushed the wound on his neck, feeling the littles marks left by a bite. Lips trembling, you realized what had happened. Voldemort had gotten him using Nagini that damned snake. A pained whine left your lips as you rocked his body in your arms.

You two had been through hell back and forth, fighting for this war and sacrificing everything with no one to call your friend. Except each other during the last few years. So much done and for what?

- “You can't... You can't do that to me! You promised me! And… and I still have to admit my feelings. You can't be gone.” You sobbed, nose buried in his black hair.

Behind you the floor cracked but you didn't react. You didn't care anymore having lost your will to live. Without Severus what was there left to fight? You had no one, not with the job you had to do.

- “Sir?”

That voice. You would recognize Harry Potter’s voice from anywhere. You kept quiet as the boy walked up to you and dropped on his knees by your side. You said nothing when Potter put his cloak on Severus, covering his body.

- “It was Voldemort, with Nagini.” He said, confirming what you thought. “He left me some of his memories for me to see, you know?” Of course you didn't. “He loved you too. You… you became his only light in the darkness, his reason to keep going.”

Potter’s words cut you deep, like a thousand crucios. You whined, holding Severus tighter as Harry laid his head on your shoulder, wrapping his arms around you and Severus. And you cried. Cried for all you had lost and all what could have been.

[kitty-tea]

Why do you hate me

Severus Snape x reader

Wc: 5.1k

Here’s the second and finale part. Requested by multiple people here and ao3. I’m so happy I finally got around to writing it!

Warnings: Super angsty, crying, age gap, physical violence, mentions of abuse, some spiciness, but no actual smut because I’m trying to keep the entire story pg-13 in the romance department

Link to masterlist

Link to part one

Why do you hate me? That question didn’t stop plaguing Severus Snape’s mind as he left you in the corridor after he… did something you weren’t expecting him to do. He wasn’t expecting himself to kiss you either. Ever. It was an impulsive decision that he had to run away from as soon as he had sobered up from the intoxicating taste of your lips. It wasn’t just the taste he couldn’t get out of his mind throughout the day, it was how soft they were as you kissed him back. Even though you showed no signs of resisting him, he still felt guilty about kissing you without your permission. He knew he stepped over the line he should never have crossed. He couldn’t just get through the rest of the school year and look at you without being reminded of that kiss. He felt awful that it had to be him who kissed you and not someone who deserves you more than he did.

His solution was to avoid you in order to get himself away from the guilt. He knew he should’ve apologized for how he had treated you in the past, but he didn’t think you’d ever forgive him. How could he deserve your forgiveness?

For as long as he’d known you, it never made sense to him why you were placed in Slytherin when you couldn’t be any more different from the rest of them. He supposed your pure-blood lineage had something to do with it. He also knew who your parents were. He met them when he first became a Death Eater, and not that much long after, he became your teacher.

As his student, he never shied away from treating you with the same distaste as he did with students from other houses. What irked him the most about you was how kind you tried to be to everyone who was supposed to be seen as being beneath you. He saw that as a sign of weakness.

It wasn’t difficult for him to figure out your parents were the same Death Eaters he met as a young man even though they never mentioned having a daughter. He could only assume that they didn’t like you which made sense considering how different your personality was from theirs. You still had their last name, and you looked like them.

He thought after you had graduated that he’d never have to see you again, but that night Dumbledore introduced you as a new teacher, he was shocked at how wrong he was proven to be.

He couldn’t believe it was you sitting next to him after not seeing each other for years. This time you were his equal. During those three years, Snape noticed you… changed a lot. Except for the happy personality you put out. He also hated how his heart skipped a beat in front of you for the first time at the moment you smiled at him.

After that, every time he’d see you around the school, that same feeling kept coming back inside him, making him feel like he was being lured in by a siren until he broke out of your control that you didn’t even know you had over him. Every time you were in a room together, his eyes were magnetized to wherever you were. His attraction towards you was growing at an alarming rate, and he wasn’t pleased at all.

You were the complete opposite of him: gentle and kind while he was cruel and callous, something he’d gotten used to everyone seeing him as.

Another thing he didn’t understand about you was how you never grew to act bitter and resentful like him after everything he put you through, especially with how he had passed on to you the anger from the trauma he had experienced in school and at home.

Maybe fate had a reason to bring you two together again, to make him recognize the regret he should’ve felt for how he treated you. And he did, which was why he felt like he couldn’t be in your presence anymore after he had kissed you.

Not only was he filled with regret for how he had treated you, but he was also filled with regret for kissing you. It’s not that he didn’t enjoy it because he did. That’s what made him regret it in the first place. It was too overwhelming for him to think about.

What was a relief for him was the fact that he had managed to successfully avoid you for the rest of the school year, even if you had to be in the same room together, you were never alone with him. He didn’t know what he would do if that happened.

No matter how much he tried averting his gaze, you were always that temptation that burned a hole in his peripheral vision. He could feel your eyes on him, a curious gaze, nothing malicious, but making that hole burn deeper.

Every time he had accidentally become trapped in your gaze, he could read the endless questions you had in your eyes even without using magic: why did you kiss me? Why are you ignoring me? Am I that horrible?

No, you weren’t horrible. It was he who was horrible. He had always been too harsh on you. You were clearly too pure and innocent to be associated with someone like him.

As soon as the school year was over, Snape felt relieved that he was guaranteed to never see you again. Or so he thought.

You didn’t tell your students why you were leaving, but Snape had to take a guess that it was because the remaining Death Eaters who weren’t imprisoned had likely tried coercing you in an attempt to join them, scaring you off.

It wasn’t until after you graduated from school that your parents had officially acknowledged your existence to him long after he was able to connect the dots of your relation to them. In short, the less than savory things he read about you in their letters only confirmed his suspicions about them acting as if you didn’t exist earlier. At first Snape didn’t know if he should empathize with you; you were treated worse by your parents as a child than he had been by his. In the end, when he reunited with you as a teacher, he decided to continue to treat you the same as he always had, a reflection of his bitter self he couldn’t let go of and grow past.

After the school year, Snape thought that not seeing you was enough for him to get you off his mind, but he should’ve realized that your parent’s letters to him were a constant reminder of your existence for the past three years since you left his life for the second time. He now had to dread the inevitability of seeing you again after being summoned by your parents to your family home. He wasn’t sure if you were hiding out there, but he liked to think you were somewhere far away with a new life, away from him.

He hoped for your sake that you had made a new life for yourself in a place that was happier and more suitable for you, unlike the gray, dreary living room he was seated in with your parents sitting opposite of him.

Apparently you had not done that because as soon as he heard footsteps coming down the stairs, he turned his head and saw you.

“Mother? Father? What are you doing here?” Snape wondered how on earth you could look and sound so chirpy to see such dreadful people.

“Professor Snape?” He cringed at how you seemed to shrink back a little as if being hit by the pain he had caused you three years ago. “I didn’t know you and my parents knew each other.”

He saw your parents roll their eyes.

“Yes. As we understand, he was also your teacher in school, then your colleague.” Your mother looked at you as if she were talking to a non-sentient creature that she wanted to shoo away.

“How have you been? I haven’t seen you since I said goodbye to you on the train before my first year at Hogwarts! I hope you’re happy with how the house has been. I’ve done my best to care for it.”

Snape almost choked on his own spit. He couldn’t believe it. Did he just hear in other words that your parents left you at the train station and never bothered to check in on you or take care of you during the holidays? That you were left with no family? At least his own parents made sure that he was with them during school holidays even if his situation at home wasn’t the best.

“I didn’t know you were coming.” You said. “I wasn’t expecting to see you when I woke up.”

“That’s because we just got here now.” Your father scoffed.

“Oh… Well, there’s so much to catch up on! I was sorted into Slytherin! Just like you and Professor Snape! Isn’t that wonderful?” You sounded so proud and hopeful that they’d be proud of you in turn.

“Why have you come back? I missed you.” You said. How could you sound genuine and sincere towards them?

“We’ll discuss that later. We have company. Go put on something… other than that.” Your mother scrunched up her nose in a way that made her look both disgusting and disgusted as she pointed at your outfit which consisted of a hoodie, leggings, and bunny slippers. Snape hated to admit to himself that even in plain Muggle clothes you still looked beautiful.

After you went upstairs he realized how hollow he felt without you in his presence. He hadn’t recognized the light you brought in wherever you went until you were gone.

He drowned out your parents’ conversation as his thoughts drifted over to you. It was as if the more he tried to stop thinking about you the more the opposite happened since the day he kissed you.

“Ugh. What is taking that wretched thing so long?” Your mother groaned, tapping her foot impatiently. “Severus, go make sure she has listened to my orders. Tell her to come down. First door next to the stairs.” She commanded him.

He didn’t say anything as he simply stood up, letting his cloak trail behind him. Any excuse to get out of the boring conversation would do.

He swore he wasn’t thinking when he turned the knob of the door and found it unlocked.

“I… apologize. I should have knocked.” The sentence came out of his throat sounding constricted.

He shouldn’t have looked either.

His breath caught in his throat as he saw how perfect and elegant you looked in just your black lingerie. There was nothing you could do to hide the bright redness of your cheeks as your eyes met each other through the mirror of the vanity you were sitting in front of. There was nothing he could do as well to prevent his own eyes from shamefully devouring the sight of your exposed skin he couldn’t stop dreaming of running his fingers over. Feeling guilty for thinking that, he harshly turned himself around, his heart racing in his chest.

“Your mother sent me to check on you.” Snape said after he was by some miracle able to come to his senses. Even though his back was turned towards you, he couldn’t stop thinking about how you looked and how he felt seeing that much of your skin exposed in front of him, with only the bare minimum covered with the flimsy lace fabric.

There was no way he’d ever be able to convince himself that he only saw you as the same student from all those years ago now that he knew what you looked like in… such a revealing state. Not to mention the way you looked at him in turn. The innocence that you projected in your eyes chipped at his cold heart, crumbling it until guilt speared through his conscience.

“Sir, could you… give me a hand?” You called out in a shaky voice.

He didn’t say anything as he turned back around, making sure to keep his gaze away from you at a respectable enough distance.

“I need help putting this on. Please?” You held out a black velvet choker with some sort of a dark colored jewel pendant attached to it. He never recalled seeing you wear such elaborate jewelry before. He wondered if you’d gotten it from some other man that had caught your affection. His heart ignited with jealousy at that thought. After all, what man wouldn’t be smitten with you? You were too beautiful to not be spared a second glance from any stranger.

He heard you shiver as he gathered your hair, his fingers brushing the delicate skin on your neck. He could still feel your eyes on him through the mirror with every movement he made as his nimble fingers clasped the necklace.

Suddenly, snippets of your last conversation together fogged his ability to think.

Your tears running down your cheeks as you begged for answers that one day.

Him not being able to say anything, instead crashing his lips against yours.

Your soft lips moving in sync with his.

How he hated the feeling of being so drawn to you.

Why was your beauty even more irresistible to him after spending years without you? The answer was because he was a depraved man. There was nothing that could satisfy his depravity more than a beautiful, innocent woman in front of him.

He couldn’t hold himself back. With each caress of his fingers over your skin, he felt that same hard exterior melt away, and he did not care. He was done caring.

You let out another shaky breath as his fingers trailed below your ear and down the back of your shoulder blade. He dared to take a look into the mirror to see your eyelids flutter, and your teeth biting your bottom lip, pleasure written clearly all over your face.

He really wanted to see you make that face again in… other situations. What was he thinking? That wasn’t right. He almost felt guilty about letting those other thoughts about the things he could do to you slip into his mind. Almost. He swallowed a huge lump that had formed in his throat at that idea.

With his free hand, he placed it onto the vanity next to where yours was, laying unassumingly. His thumb inched its way to your pinky finger before running along the length. It was a hesitant movement, one that he decided he would retreat from if you voiced any discomfort or showed any signs of it. Except you didn’t. In fact, you were the one who took it further, placing your entire hand under his and intertwining your fingers together.

With this unexpected move from you, Snape had confirmation that you wanted more of him as much as he did from you.

He noticed that there were no words exchanged between you for several minutes. Not that there needed to be.

As he forgot about your impatient parents downstairs, he debated his next move. You were still turned towards the mirror, looking into his reflection demurely, soft lips pouted. You didn’t seem to know what to do, leading him to make the assumption that you didn’t have much experience with men in these situations. It was up to him to take the lead.

Still hesitant with his movements, he brought up his other hand from its spot along your hair, back to your neck, this time caressing the soft skin once again. He smirked a little at the little noises that left your mouth. He knew he could find the right places to touch you to get you to whimper, acting like you were so shy to reveal this part of yourself, the part that enjoyed being pleasured by someone else.

He looked to where your choker pendant sat around your neck, imagining for a moment that it was his hand wrapped around you instead, holding onto you like a delicate flower, too precious and fragile to dare to crush. He had committed many heinous acts with those same hands, tortured, beaten, and much worse. He didn’t deserve to touch something so virtuous after all that he had done. It was wrong. So why did touching you feel so perfect?

Worst of all, because you had no knowledge of his past activities, he was dreading the time you’d find out which he knew would be very soon.

But all that was thrown out the window as soon as his fingers found their way under your bra strap without him having any memory of them moving there. He wanted to see your face as he let it fall off your shoulder. How much more beautiful could you get?

Even if he wanted to resist (which he didn’t anymore,) he wouldn’t have been able to stop himself as his lips found their way to your skin. Except they didn’t.

“Severus! What is taking her so long?! Make sure she comes here… At once!” Your mother’s shrill voice was what broke whatever spell he was under.

“You heard your mother. You should get dressed.” Just like that, he was instantly back to the stoic man you always knew him as. He didn’t have time anymore to think about what he had just done or how far he had almost taken things with you.

He regretted looking back at the mirror to see your disappointed face, frowning with a far away look in your eyes.

Snape didn’t bother explaining to your parents anything as he came downstairs, ignoring their annoyed sneers. He assumed you weren’t that far behind.

“When we tell you to do something, we expect you to do it efficiently.” Was the first thing your mother scolded you when you entered the living room.

You were wearing the same color as the pieces of clothing Snape had last seen you in, a black dress with sheer sleeves and a cinched waist.

“I’m sorry… I-” Your eyes flicked over to Snape’s, cheeks bright red presumably thinking about what had happened between you. Unlike you, he was much better at hiding his emotions, barely sparing you a glance. “I couldn’t find something suitable much quicker.” You finished.

“Apologize to Severus. You kept him waiting too long.” Your mother scolded you again.

“Sorry I kept you waiting too long.” You looked down, not daring to meet his eyes.

The next few moments came at him too fast in a blur. Your mother grabbed your arm and spun you to face her and your father’s sneering faces. Her palm connected to your cheek, the slap making you stumble back but not enough to make you fall over.

She leaned over to your height, and said in a low voice that sounded threatening, “You are and always have been insufferable. Now go and make dinner. We have more guests coming.” She gave your arm another painful looking jerk before letting go.

Without a word or a glance, you held your cheek as you turned away and walked into the kitchen.

Snape stood in shook, blinking at the open space where you had been. Out of all the horrible things he’d seen, none of them could come close to a parent hurting their child. He didn’t even know he still had it in him to feel shocked at something like that.

Your parents had to be on another level of evil to treat you like that in front of other people.

That was one of those moments that involuntarily made him dig up memories from even before his dark past as a Death Eater and his days as a student at Hogwarts, back to his childhood. He thought he had buried those memories of his own family deep enough not to be revisited.

From what Severus Snape had seen, your parents treated you more like a House Elf rather than their child to care for. On top of that, they had no problem showing off their disdain for you in front of company as much as other parents would show off their child’s achievements. There was obviously no way you didn’t think this wasn’t normal. You just didn’t know any better.

As you sat next to him at the dinner table you never spoke unless spoken to, which wasn’t often in the conversation. Remembering what your parents had asked him to do, his heart was shaking inside his chest as his eyes kept darting to your face, to the red welt on your cheek.

There you sat at the table with several other Death Eaters, completely oblivious to the turmoil inside of him, as much as the other guests were to the longing glances you were giving him. It was like you didn’t care or know how to hide your feelings.

You were too innocent to be caught up in the types of people similar to your parents. Unfortunately for you, your innocence only made your parents even more eager to find ways to break you, something Snape didn’t wish to see anymore, but only after he stopped denying his feelings. That still didn’t make him a better person, nor did it make any of the things he’d done to you acceptable. Maybe he was too far gone to ever truly become a better person for you, himself, or anyone. He should never have treated you so harshly in the first place from the moment you stepped into his classroom.

After what seemed like forever, he felt as if he could breathe again as he saw people leave the table one by one and migrate to the living room until it was just him and your parents who remained while you walked around, collecting the plates.

Meet me inside the guest room at midnight.

You picked up the note that was written on a piece of napkin under a plate. You knew exactly who wrote it even if he disguised his handwriting and placed it at a completely different seat than where he sat. He was also the only person staying at the house. Why he felt the need to hide his identity even though you were obviously the only person who would see the note, you had no idea.

You just hoped you’d have your first proper conversation in three years. Your heart pounded faster at that thought. You might’ve been naive (which you had often been accused of being) but you weren’t stupid. You could tell Professor Snape had gone out of his way to avoid you for the rest of the school year after he kissed you that one day. You wanted to get more answers out of him, but at the same time you knew you shouldn’t be pushing him, so you gave him space. You started to wonder if he thought he had made a mistake. Were you really that horrible?

However, you couldn’t deny the way had started to look at you with those piercing black eyes that had made you blush back when you were still his student. You didn’t exactly understand why you had to develop a crush on him out of all people. Why couldn’t it have been someone your age? You wished you could control who you were attracted to, then maybe you would feel the way you should feel about him, and not get butterflies in your stomach in his presence.

You were so distracted by your thoughts that you almost dropped the plates into the kitchen sink. You stopped your movements and blinked before getting sidetracked again.

You sighed, remembering the fiery feeling along your skin that trailed beneath his fingers making a thrill run through you. That wasn’t all that he did.

Even though it was midnight, your parents and the guests were still talking, leaving you confused on why Professor Snape instructed you to meet him in the guest room. Maybe he wanted you to go inside and wait for him so that your parents wouldn’t see you. The note did say “inside” after all.

You opened the door, and quietly shut it behind you before leaning against it and letting out an exhale. You were still wearing the same clothes as earlier since you hadn’t bothered getting changed.

Wondering what Professor Snape wanted to talk about, your mind rushed with theories of your own that were accompanied by a feeling of dread that crawled through your chest and stomach. What if he was coming to tell you that this whole thing, whatever was going on between you two was a mistake?

You pushed yourself off the door and paced around in small circles, keeping your head down until you heard the door open.

Your head jerked up as your eyes met his black ones. He was already so close to you, and you had forgotten how much his taller frame loomed over you.

You weren’t able to control the speed of your breathing, and you didn’t care about how scared you looked. He always knew you were scared of him anyway.

“I’m sorry.” You whispered, not knowing what else to say, not that you ever did in front of him.

He didn’t say anything. He only took out a piece of parchment from his pocket and handed it to you.

From the moonlight outside the tall window, you could barely read it.

Make her join us or kill her.

“What does this mean?” You looked up at him. You didn’t know if you were confused, shocked, or both. “Wh-who wants you to… kill me?”

You didn’t know you had started crying until you felt a thumb sliding against your wet cheek.

“I received this note from your parents earlier.” He said. In contrast to you, he showed no emotion.

“Why? I don’t understand. Why would…” You never thought your parents would ever want any harm to come to you. They were your parents after all. They were supposed to love and protect you like how any other parent should.

Your former professor took a deep breath. “I would never let anyone hurt you. Do you trust me?”

“Of course.” You answered after wondering why he would doubt you trusted him.

“Haven’t you had your life threatened by someone before?” He asked shakily.

“Well… yes.” You thought about the time you received letters from the Death Eaters who weren’t imprisoned, telling you the horrible things they would do to you when they found you. Luckily, you left your teaching job at Hogwarts before they could reach you.

“I will explain everything. Eventually, you’ll find out the truth. I can protect you. From everyone, even your parents. I promise I won’t let them hurt you.”

“Why did you kiss me?” You blurted out. Professor Snape blinked at the change in subject.

“It was a mistake.” He set his mouth in a firm line.

“It didn’t seem like it…” To your dismay, your eyes were starting to water again, but you were able to blink the tears away. “I didn’t think it was.” You looked into his night sky-colored eyes.

“You don’t understand.” He said. You instinctively leaned in a little as the backs of his cold fingers traced along your heated cheek before he tucked a strand of hair behind your ear.

“I wasn’t lying to you… about what I said that one day.” He continued. He took another deep breath. “Which is why I can’t allow things to go further. It would be selfish of me. Because… of the things I’ve done.” You could tell he was having a hard time getting his thoughts out. You wanted to tell him it was alright and that he could tell you anything, but at the same time, you didn’t want him to take it the wrong way and think you were pushing him to tell you more than what he was comfortable with.

“What will happen with us, then?” You asked.

“I told you that I was going to protect you, and I will.”

Damn it, you were making things so difficult for Severus Snape and you didn’t realize it. On top of acting as a double agent for Albus Dumbledore, protecting Harry Potter, fooling the other Death Eaters, and his teaching job, he didn’t know how much longer he could keep this up, whatever “this” was. He really did care about you, and revealing his feelings for you was a mistake.

For a moment he envied you. Everything was so simple to you. You tried to look for the good in everybody, even the people who obviously didn’t deserve it, such as him or your parents.

And now, you were in danger thanks to your parents and Voldemort’s return. Snape hoped that the day would never come where you would directly face that danger. He truly wished for your innocence to be protected.

“Are you alright, sir?” Your sweet voice broke him out of his own mental prison.

He looked down to where you placed your hands into his. You slowly intertwined your fingers through his, making them look like a tangled mess, reminding him of what his life had come to.

“You didn’t really mean it. Did you?” He didn’t know what you were talking about at first. “It didn’t feel like a mistake… Especially after what almost happened earlier.” You added in an almost whisper. Even though it was mostly dark, he could still see the blush in your cheeks.

He had dug himself into an even deeper hole when he walked into your bedroom without knocking (which he shouldn’t have done,) and took things that far with you. And he would have if he wasn’t interrupted. That’s what scared him, how much he wanted you, how lovely it was to see you, kiss you, touch you in ways he could tell you hadn’t known you liked to be touched.

“You’re right. I… didn’t. I was only lying to myself.” He confessed. He wanted to tell you so much more, like the regret he felt for everything he did to you, but he couldn’t. Because he realized you weren’t the one who was weak, he was. He didn’t know how much more difficult he could make his own life.

He couldn’t stop his eyes from hungrily gazing at you. The moonlight made you look ethereal, highlighting your beauty, tempting him, telling him to come closer and get a taste of what he wanted: you.

Your eyes shined brighter than the stars, pulling him into that siren-like trance you always had him in, but this time he let himself get pulled in. He didn’t want to get out, he wanted to stay where he was, with his lips locked onto yours.

[sofoulandfairaday]

1 for the ask game

from: choose violence ask game

1. the character everyone gets wrong

Err... all of them? I'm not even kidding. More on this here.

Bellatrix: fortunately there's been progress in the fandom, but for years everyone loved to describe her as an overly sexualized, crazy, shrieking mindless slave, when she's actually quite the opposite. She is sadistic, but not insane, she's passionate but not irrational (she is the only one who knew Snape was a traitor; to me, it's because of a peculiar mix of rationality and intuition that shows her to be actually quite intelligent). Nothing suggests her being promiscuous in the text and I would actually argue the opposite of her (why would she ever lower herself to sleep with someone who she deems her inferior - so basically everyone -, even just to satisfy mere physical desires? This post, to me, is Bella at her core).

Narcissa: this is canon Narcissa, all of you are perfectly entitled to your soft babygirl headcanons, of course, but then again you are perfectly entitled to be wrong <3 [also, shameless self-promo: x]

The blorboification continues for every single member of the Black family and I hate it so much you have no idea:

Andromeda: somehow described as a soft little girl who loved her mean, mean sisters so much and had to run away? Bitch stood up to seven centuries of tradition, and abandoned her sisters and parents, to marry a boy she had fallen in love with maybe two years prior (we know this based on Tonks' age). Good for her, but as I have said previously, both Narcissa and Andromeda (and Sirius, really) strike me as a bit selfish. The one with the romantic attachment to the idea of her family, the child most like Walburga, is Bellatrix.

But this is nothing, NOTHING, compared to what this fandom does to Regulus and Sirius.

Regulus: canonically a Voldemort fanboy, with newspaper clippings of him everywhere, and a blood supremacist. Sirius says it better than anyone: Reggie is soft. But not in the way the fandom believes, nope. He's just a coward who, much like Draco years later, was super excited to be like Bellatrix (Lucius) until he realized what killing really meant, what fighting a war really was, and most importantly because Voldemort touched him personally (Kreacher, whom he loved). Voldemort was probably a little more deranged than he had been at the beginning of the First War, and someone that had inherited the Black pride/haughtiness probably didn't like being branded like cattle and treated like a slave, on top of everything else.

Sirius: fanon Sirius is basically another character. Canon!Sirius is: tall, canonically incredibly handsome, quite masculine (in an explicit and toxic way, especially as a teenager in the fucking 1970s - the skirt-wearing, feminist one-liners spouting version of Sirius is something I just cannot get behind), a dick, a bit classist ((don't come @ me with your "oh, but what about Moony?!" because a) we don't know Remus' wealth when Lyall and Hope were still alive, we only know he can't get a job as an adult because of his condition and b) Remus is Sirius' exception, in the same way Lily is Snape's when he calls her a Mudblood - everyone else is in his eyes)), brave to the point of recklessness, quite cruel, funny, witty, magically talented, loyal to a fault, extremely charismatic and everything else outlined here. For the same reasons, I'll say Remus too.

Don't even get me started on Severus Snape. Other people have spoken on this better than I could ever. At least here on Tumblr, though, it seems to me that things are getting a little better after years of absolutely bizarre takes. Or maybe I've blocked all of the idiots idk.

Dumbledore. More on this here and maybe I'll outline my ideas better in a future post.

Also: I do not accept any characterization of Evan Rosier, Barty Crouch jr, Reggie, and Rabastan Lestrange as anything less than violent blood supremacists. Yes, they can be nuanced and gay (and only for each other might I add), but these people are the KKK (metaphorically, of course, because I hate comparing real-world tragedies to completely fictional ones, but still).

Lucius: a complete dick, but definitely not abusive. The man couldn't raise a hand to Draco if the Dark Lord threatened to kill him over it.

Speaking of which: my darling Lord Voldemort. Not much to say about him really because I know that some people do write him in a very interesting way (and I am open to interpretations of his character even if they are different from how I see him - and I have a very fucking specific vision of him). The problem is that perhaps three (3) of these people write him with Bellatrix and that saddens me.

Now, I mostly read First Wizarding War stuff or Death Eater stuff so I can't really speak to many other characters, especially in Harry's generation, but anything other than cowardly Draco is not a good Draco characterization to me. Ron is hands-down the best one in the Golden Trio and Ron Weasley bashing is pathetic. Hermione has faults but is ultimately a strong, take-no-bullshit girl and I'll take that over basically any and all female YA protagonists. And Harry is sassiness personified, but with a heart of gold, and oh-so-caring. Which is also why I can't read dark!Harry for the life of me. It just makes me giggle.

[slitheringghost]

snape + 1, 5, 14

lily + 2, 11, 12

sirius + 7, 15, 16

(sending you my three fav marauders' era characters <3)

Thank you so much for the ask! <3

Snape

1. what i most like about them

I really like the glimpses we see of child!Snape as a friend. He tries to reassure Lily when she's worried about being Muggleborn, he’s not mad at her when she deflects blame onto him about Petunia, and then is “encouraged” when she brightens. He’s also so visibly upset when she's sorted into Gryffindor. (As I’m not a Snape fan that’s… sort of where the list of things I like about him end.)

5. a headcanon i have

Cheating because this falls under “a HC someone else has” but I really love it. From this post - that Snape tried to set Lily up as the exceptional Muggleborn amongst his Slytherin friends when he came into Hogwarts. It’s clear he came in prepared to impress the Slytherin purebloods (at least that’s how I take the “Snape came in knowing more curses than half the kids in 7th year” comment, that he was loudly showing off his knowledge) and it makes a lot of sense to me that he *also* planned to ~get Lily in the with the Purebloods~ and make her social climb along with him. Evidently Snape knew about Muggleborn prejudice, and he also expected Lily to be in Slytherin for 2+ years pre Hogwarts and knows she would’ve experienced alienation and hostility in it similar to how he would.

It feels like such a Slytherin-esque loyalty thing for Snape to do (and heavily misguided of course but well intentioned), to lie to Lily about how Muggleborns are treated and keep it secret from her for years only to come into Hogwarts prepared to be like “Hello Slytherins this is my super special Muggleborn friend she’s totally Not Like Other Muggleborns look how powerful she is, pls accept us”. That post interprets her as a Parselmouth so it’s questionable how much it would work without that (though Parselmouth Lily is excellent and now my HC too), but regardless I think he’d at least try anyway.

14. my fav au for them

I... can't think of anything rn sorry.

Lily

2. what i hate about them

Nothing, she’s perfect <3 In seriousness, I don’t dislike anything about her, but I’ll talk about some of her flaws (because despite fandom claiming she’s written as a Saint, she clearly has them).

- She’s emotionally volatile when she’s hurt - i.e. she blames Snape for Petunia’s anger when Lily readily went sneaking with Snape (and frankly I’d guess that Lily was the one who suggested that they sneak into Petunia’s room in the first place, even if Snape was the one who found the letter).

- She’s a fash apologist. Invented Snape apologism, no Snape fan could get on her level. Defends her fascist terrorist friend when he’s going around attacking Muggleborn students while calling them slurs - including her (most likely) friends like Mary Macdonald.

- Manipulative and knows how to use people’s weaknesses against them! She strikes back viciously using Petunia's insecurity. She does the same with Snape (bringing up the Prank, I'd wash your pants if I were you Snivellus) and James (That Whole Rant in SWM). In these cases, it was deserved and Lily was completely right and did nothing wrong in those scenes… BUT I'm sure this tendency played a role at points when others didn't deserve it too.

I also see her as really leaning into those manipulative tendencies when she was working for the Order and trying to figure out a way to deflect the Killing Curse to save Harry i.e. I interpret her dynamic with Bathilda Bagshot in part as her manipulating Bathilda for information, maybe about Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s experiments, and possibly unethically using Legilimency in those situations too. (More on Lily being manipulative here)

11. what i think of that character's friends

I’ve talked about that some here - I think the obvious answer to “where are Lily’s friends” is “they were horribly murdered” and it bothers me how people downplay the tragedy of the First War and its effect on Lily.

I like to go with Mary Macdonald and Marlene Mckinnon as her friends for several reasons. There's the alliteration (that also exists with Sirius and Snape - it's like Lily's found family got its own little naming pattern) and that the three of them could allude to the three Marys at Christ's resurrection, with Lily as the (not so Saintly) Virgin Mary, and the name Marlene apparently stems from Mary Magdalene.

Plus, Lily having one Muggleborn girl friend and one pureblood girl friend gives an interesting variation of dynamics to explore, and commonalities and culture clash, etc.

The dynamic between Lily and Mary also has the potential to be fascinating, because Lily being friends with her while Snape is tormenting her and Lily is defending him? Extremely spicy.

12. how i think their childhood was like

It was like, fine but I still HC some mild dysfunction amongst the Evans family. In that they're the kind of class conscious parents who see their children as idealizations vs. real people. They clearly didn't do anything to stop the fighting between Lily and Petunia, and I HC that when Lily got pregnant, it's not like they wouldn't accept her back or anything, but Lily also didn't entirely feel like she could live with them without their judgment - being pregnant at 19 and jobless and unmarried doesn't look good to the neighbors etc. Which made her more likely to accept James’s proposal.

I like this fic’s take on the dynamic (the excerpt is from a letter Lily’s writing to Mary Macdonald):

My parents are fine, you know - I mean since you're also muggleborn I suppose you do know. They ask me how I'm doing at school and how my classes are and the answer might as well be in Ancient Greek, but they nod along with it and smile and say they're sure I'll get top marks, etc. I think what they like more than anything else is that they've got a daughter in boarding school in

Sirius

7. my unpopular opinion on them

Sirius was severely physically abused by Walburga lol (and likely Orion too). People make Walburga into the kind of abusive parent that like, Molly Weasley canonically is - who screams at her children constantly and is very critical of them with high expectations and apparently uses corporal punishment often.

But none of Molly’s kids would have a complete breakdown if they were brought back to the Weasley house. Sirius’s situation pretty clearly implies extreme childhood trauma, which can take many forms (Harry was physically abused, but his situation is extreme even without it) but the details we get about the Blacks and Walburga really heavily imply physical abuse (…and tbh sexual abuse was also my first thought). There's also the fact that the magical world is centuries behind the Muggle world in terms of social progress, and so violent abuse is much more normalized (proven with Merope's situation, more on that here), which makes it even more likely that the Blacks (who are at the extreme end of that culture) are deeply violent.

15. my hc for their style

Predictably, leather jackets, and in general getting really into Muggle fashion.

16. what song i think they'd like

Cop Car by Mitski <3 Also I’m just projecting my taste onto Sirius some, but I think he’d love Velvet Underground. (Additionally, I HC Lily loving Nico and Chelsea Girl being her fav album).

[alexander-arcturus-black-lupin]

Draco finds out

He knew something was wrong the minute he saw Harry, something was off about him. Weasley and Granger had no clue as they were bickering over something. He cast a slight charm and had Harry's head turn slightly. He nodded to the staircase and Harry got up and went there. Once he reached there he grabbed his hand and he took him to the Gryffindor common room.

"Draco, I'm not- I can't," Draco stopped him. 

"I didn't bring you here to snog you Harry as much as I want to," He closed the door to theroom and cast a silencing charm. "Is this where you lot sleep, like a bunch of-” Harry shot him a look. “Well mannered people, er- remove your shirt let me see," 

"How did you-"

"I know the signs," Draco wanted to say that he had been in this position before. Except he hid it so well no one knew to ask, plus there were no visible marks. But Harry already knew

“Draco,” Harry said softly. 

“Harry, shirt.” Harry sighed and took off his robes. Then his shirt. Draco didn’t even need to ask him to turn; he could see the beginnings on his shoulders and a couple marks on his arms. They were still angry red. “Harry…who did this to you,” 

Harry chuckled, taking a seat on the bed. “The muggles I live with,”

“But they’re your mother’s- her sister, her brother in law, ho-”

“Draco, they hated my mother, they loathed my father, I can safely say compared to Snape, loved my dad and him were lovers,” Harry said as he  fiddled with his fingers.

”They only took me in out of obligation, they never really loved me, because my mother was a witch and my father a wizard. In Fact they make sure to tell me everyday, in every language.” His fingers shook as he spoke.

“They never used to hit me, just scream, yell, neglect me, either only make me eat breakfast cause i made it and then not eat again for the rest of the day or make me do work around the house, no actually it was both, be my cousin’s punching bag, his outlet.’

“When did they start hitting you,” Draco asks, although he was still trying to wrap his head on what Harry had just said. 

“When they found out I couldn’t use magic outside of Hogwarts, they got so angry I didn’t tell them that it set off the chain of events,” Harry hestrued to his back, “Which led to this, my uncle snapped.”

“Harry…” Draco stood behind him as he started casting healing charms all round. “Why don’t you tell someone you know the Minister of Freaking Magic for Merlin’s sake, he’ll hex them himself if you asked.”

“Dumbledore said I had to stay with them because of the magic that was keeping me safe,” Draco whipped his wand and a tiny bottle came flying out of his trunk. 

“Harry, I say this without my usual voice of sarcasm, screw Dumbledore, screw your relatives,” Harry hissed as Draco’s wand grazed a rather recent wound. “At least now I know who to add to my hitlist.”

“I’m sorry,” Harryneeded to apologise, he had to apologise.

“Harry don’t apologise you did nothing wrong, it’s your family that needs to apologise and then be thrown in Azkaban” Harry chuckled but he knew Draco was being serious. 

 “Then for behaving the way I did towards you, you’re friends.”

“Draco,”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry too,”

Draco paused, wrapping Harry’s back. “What ever on earth are you possibly sorry for?”

“For not taking your hand that day,” that day.

~When his father and mother had taken him to go get fitted for new robes. His father had left him  to go buy books and his mother dropped him off in the shop to get new robes. His mother started to look at wands in a nearby shop. He noticed a giant in the seat outside, he wanted to make a snide comment about how nothing in this shop might fit him when he heard chatter behind him.

“Hogwarts dear, got the lot here- another young man being fitted up just now, in fact.'' Then he suddenly met the eye of a green eyed black haired boy, his eyes were very pretty. For some reason his mouth flew open and he knew the moment he’d opened his mouth to talk about the gameskeeper he’d screwed up royally.

“Sorry about insulting Hagrid, I was a little stuck up back then,” Harry snorted. 

“You still are but I like this stuck up, he’s a fancy kisser,” Draco rolled his eyes and shocked Harry with his wand. 

“I’m sincerely apologising, Harry,” Harry reached behind him and pulled Draco’s hand in front of him. 

“I’m sorry for not taking your apology seriously, thank you Draco,” He brought Draco’s hand to his lips. “Thank you,”

“I’m still gonna buy you a flat though,” Confusion painted Harry's face.

“Erm? What?” 

“If you think you are leaving this school with the notion you’re going back, you are mistaken.” Harry just smiled.

“Wizarding laws-”

“Don’t matter,”

“Draco, was it, was it an unforgivable curse?” Harry noticed Draco's hands had stiffened in his. He got up and hugged him. 

“I’m sorry,”

“It wasn’t your fault.,”

“I hate your father,”

“That makes both of us,” Draco chuckled and held  him back. “This term is rather short, once we board the train and I’m hoping I get you all to myself,” Draco sounded like he was joking but Harry knew better.

“You’re dad hates me Draco, He was a Death Eater, Plus he’s gonna notice you buying a house” 

“Harry, I can buy a random house somewhere, without the consent of my parents, I’m a bloody Malfoy, he with his thinking is gonna suspect that I’m pissed about something, or worse I was bitten by a werewolf” Harry chuckled Draco making him roll his eyes.

“Just say you wanna move in with me Harry, please, I wanna live with my boyfriend” Harry blushed at boyfriend. 

“Okay,”

“I swear I’ll even get Dobby to- what?” Draco doubled over. “I thought i’d have to do a whole Sonnet,”

“A what?”

“Ironic how I know more about Muggle literature than you,” Draco said, rolling his eyes. Harry sensing a lecture due to hanging out with Hermione for so long, leaned in and kiss him.

“Thank you,”

“For you, anytime,”

Edits: @swymsuyt for the art 🎨 ✨️

[crystlizabeth]

Oh so Familiar.. -Severus Snape

Paring: Severus Snape x Blackfem!reader

Warnings: none

Summary: the new year began which means having to teach students how to brew the Amortentia potion, having to endure the same smell he faces every year except this years..

The new year began the lessons finally leading up to this one. It was that time of year again, Severus had to teach the 6th years how to make the Amortenia potion. He frankly didn’t like teaching this god forbidden love potion. He got tired of teaching it having to smell the same smell if lilies and honey over and over again, it had started to become boring to him yet it still stuck around. With that he had to be reminded of memories he didn’t want to remember.

As class began students gathered around Severus as he began to brew the example for them. Walking through every step to ensure they do it correctly even though they would mess it up. But this time as he brewed he started to smelled something sweet yet refreshing, it didn’t smell if lilies and honey anymore but of a far to familiar aroma.

Shea butter, coconut and and Earthly aroma of fir and other plants. He blinked hard to collect his thoughts back hoping the students didn’t notice his pause in demonstration question him. He wrapped up his demonstration leaving the student to start their own. This was new he was relieved, happy even though his expression stayed neutral walking throughout the class room.

His final class of the day had finally finished up, the new aroma lingered around him throughout the day. He knew who it was and who the aroma belonged to.

“Professor would you be interested in observing Ms. L/ns lecture with?” The voice of Dumbledore snapping Severus out of thought, Professor Mcgonagall standing next to him.

“Now why would i do that.” He questioned turning around, he was gonna go but didn’t want to make it obvious to the woman standing next to him.

“Oh common Severus it will give you something to do.” Minerva said giving the man a smile.

“Perhaps…”

Upon arrival the smell of earth hit them such a refreshing room. Your class room was like and open terrarium you would often see in a muggle zoo it was big the open roof letting the sunlight shine through. Plants laid everywhere stone pathways between the desk leading up to your desk. Students sat in desk in pairs of two they sat on stools looking at you. You stood on a big circle of water a glass cover on top of it so you didn’t fall through.

You wore a satin light cream colored dress that came down past your feet with a v shaped neck not one long enough for cleavage but to show of your necklaces, the dress hugged your torso and hips it falling loose after your hips. The sleeves where like your robes the open hung sleeves but they where shorter exposing your wrist showing if the bracelets your wore. Your hair in bohemian goddess braids some of the hair pulled to the back of your head to keep it out of your face only leaving two strands in front having some if the hair rest in your shoulders.

The three professors entered your room standing in the back watching, you gave them a small smile when you noticed them as you walk through the isles going on with your lesson. A faint giggle came from a desk you stood by.

“I suggest you pay attention Mr.Malfoy, Zabini for i know you two aren’t doing quite well in my class.” You spoke your voice stern.

“Apologies professor…” Zabini said quietly Malfoy giving a quiet apology as well.

The clock chimed not to soon after letting the students know class was over. Dumbledore and Mcgonagoll waved you off as they left severus staying behind.

“Hello professor Snape.” You spoke a smile rested on your face as you greeted your colleague.

“Afternoon professor L/n, how was your day.” He asked walking word me before i could ask him his face remained in its resting position yet you could fell the warmth if him.

“It was nice the 2rd years were a little more talkative then i would have liked but you know it is what it is, how about you?” You told him, your body leaning against the dest behind you looking slightly up at him.

“I went through the basics with the first years again, the went on to teach the 6th years how to brew a more advance potion.” He explained sighing at the thought of the chaotic first years.

“Oh and how fun that must have been.” You laughed knowing those first years drove him crazy.

“What potion did you teach the 6th years?” You asked looking at him.

He didn’t say anything but he did grab a small vile out of his robs pulling the cork off it. “Smell this for me tell me what you smell.” His voice calm as he offered the vile out to you. You wanted to question him but knew your would probably receive no answer. Closing your eyes leaning forward you the smell comforting.

Cologne, spices, and new books. Its was an Amortenia potion, it was the aroma of the man that stood in front of you.

“Nothing.” The lie rolled of your tongue, you leaned back on to the desk not looking away from him.

He pulled the vile back putting the cork back on it his eyes train on you. Your head tilted slightly, The way the sunlight the creeped through the vines and branches from the open roof how it shined so perfectly on your melanin skin, making your darker complexion sparkle. “You know that silly little lie of yours would have made it past anyone else, but you try and lie to me common now, really.?” He asked catching you in your lie.

“..now do tell me Y/n what did you smell.” He spoke in a teasing manner a smirk tugging at is lips.

“Don’t. Because you know damn well what i smelled Severus.” You sniped at him, you knew damn well he has been in your head for that past month yet you allowed it, you Allowed this man into your head. Letting him see every though, how you got excited when he enters the room, how his voice can make you squirm in your seat, how you imagined him in your most vulnerable moments.

“Oh i do.. but i want you to say it Y/n..” his voice became a whisper his tone almost seductive, pushing the braid out of your face it tucked poorly behind your ear.

Your face heating up and he came close now to eye level his arms trapped you on the desk.

“I smelled men’s cologne, spices for brewing specifically rosemary and thyme. And freshly opened books.” You spoke softly not breaking eye contact.

“Why did you smell Severus..?” You spoke not sure if you wanted the answer.

“Well ms.L/n i smelled Shea butter, coconut and a refreshing aroma like the forest, the smell of fir trees and plants.” He said his tone nonchalant.

He just..

“Wait you smelled me..” your eyes widened.

“And you smelled me.” He said.

You stood there you didn’t understand why you where so shocked for merlins sake he had you pined against a desk. He let out an amused chuckle.

“You’re extraordinary, you know that.” His voice was sweet you felt his hand press against your face causing you to lean into his touch.

“I reckon you want a kiss.” You teased.

“Hmm if you insist..” he says pulling you in.

His kiss was gentle filled with passion, his other hand making it to your face to pull you closer to deepen the kiss. Pulling away you noticed how some over your darker gloss made its way to his pale skin.

“Making a mess of yourself hm?” You asked cupping his face your thumb running across his lip smearing the colored gloss.

He didn’t say anything, he just pulled you in for another kiss.

Hope y’all like this i had to re WRITE IT BC TUMBLER DECIDED TO GLICH AND KICK ME OUT WHILE I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF WRITING IT. Anyways it the as good at the first version but i still like it

[marauders-slytherin-whore]

Hes gone

Summary- yn potters boyfriend (cedric diggory)dies and she dosent handle it well.

♡♤♡♤♡

Yn Potter was, of course, just as famous as her brother, maybe even a little more. It was no secret that everyone fancied the beautiful girl.

But everyone knew that her heart was already claimed by the one and only cedric diggory. The two of them had been together since the 2nd year and still going strong even tho they thought it wouldn't be anything important as they were both young.

Even tho they were two years apart it didn't stop them from falling more and more in love with each other everyday.

Even snape couldn't bring himself to hate the relationship between them, the relationship didn't just bring happiness to themselves but to everyone around them they were simply made for eachother nothing could ever come between the two.

The two would always be seen walking in the halls with each other as yn happily spoke about anything and everything on her mind, and Cedric simply let her, smiling as he looked at her with adoration and love.

They would hold each other tightly when they were scared of what the future held in front of them.

In the free time, they'd play in the yard playfully, tackling each other and laughing as they put fruit in each other's mouth.

Cedric had even memorised every Taylor swift song just so he could impress yn and sing her, her favourite songs.

When they argued, it never lasted longer than a day before they apologised and were back to how they were like, nothing had happened.

Their relationship was perfect. You couldn't describe it as anything over than perfect.

It was now the last stage of the triwizard tournament, and yn was wearing a gryffindor jumper and a hufflepuff scarf to support her twin brother and boyfriend.

"Who are you hoping to win, your twin or your boyfriend?" A girl spoke From next to where yn stood with hermiome and Ron.

"I don't really mind who wins as long as they are both ok im happy." Yn spoke with a kind smile waving at Cedric as he blew her a kiss.

She laughed a little, taking a photo of him and Harry on her polariod as he smiled at her happiness.

Cedric ran up to the stands and kissed yn whispering how he loved her before going back to stand in line waiting for the tournament to start.

-----harrys pov------------

I looked down at Cedric lifeless body crying ad I remembered they events that had just happened.

Voldemort had killed cedric and attempted to do the same to me, except my parents and cedrics spirit had helped me win against him.

I remember the last words out of Cedric mouth crystal clear.

"Bring my body back to my father and yn, please keep her safe for me and tell her I love her more than word could ever tell her"

I grabbed his body and the port key and was taken back where everyone was waiting.

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

Harry had arrived, and everyone cheered for him, but something wasn't right.

Cedric wasn't moving and Harry was clinging to his body with tears streaming down his face as he met my eyes mouthing that he was sorry.

Thats when I noticed how cold his body looked I stood up and ran over to where he was dropping to my knees screaming in distraught as his father joined crying in just as much pain as I was, we both cried while hugging his lifeless body.

His father stood up as dumbledore helped him up and escorted him away from the scene trying to do the same to me.

"No, please baby, please don't leave me, please don't leave me," I whispered over and over again into his shoulder.

Harry came over and hugged me from behind as I refused to let him go, not wanting to believe he was actually gone.

"I couldn't save him yn im sorry voldemort killed him to get to me im sorry I couldn't help I tried". Harry cried, trying his best to comfort me while telling me what had happened.

The news had only made me cry more, My boyfriend was murdered the same exact way my parents were murdered.

The grounds were cleared with only mcgonagall, snape, dumbledore, and Harry trying to coax me away from him gently.

Snape leaned down to my level, sympathy in his eyes. I had never seen any emotion except hate in his eyes when looking at me.

"Come on, yn, it's time to let him go," he whispered gently as he would break me if he spoke any louder.

Mcgonagall had pulled snape away and knelt down in front of me gently, grabbing me, pulling me away from the body sitting on the ground with me holding me tightly as the others covered cedrics body.

I grabbed her robes tightly, crying into them as she stroked my hair gently.

"His gone, Minnie, he's really gone, I can't live without him. I just can't please tell me it's not real"

"Im sorry, sweetheart, I'm so sorry," she spoke, cradling me gently.

"Come on dear lets go back to the common room and get warm" she spoke standing up and leading me to the gryffindor common room as I curled up into my bed clinging to a photo of Cedric, breaking down as she left the room to give me my space.

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

Mcgonagall made her way to dumbledores office where snape and dumbledore himself were waiting for an update on the girl.

"How is she?" Snape asked eagerly, voice filled with concern as soon as mcgonagall had entered the room.

"Broken, she's absolutely shattered," she spoke quietly, trying not to cry as she remembered the look on the girls face when she climbed into bed and saw a picture of the two.

They all looked to the ground, not knowing what to say about the events of the night before leaving and going back to their houses.

The day after his funeral, it was classes, and yn hadn't shown up to any classes. The teachers had noticed but left her to herself to grieve.

Instead, the girl spent her time in her room drinking till she passed out and smoked till she couldn't walk. It was the only way she knew how to numb the pain.

She had also begun cutting herself, blaming herself for every little thing that had ever happened.

She was slowly killing herself and wasn't making an effort to stop.

-----------

Mcgonagall and snape had decided that they should go and check up on the girl as she hadn't left the rooms since the incident.

When they entered the room, they hadn't expected what they saw.

The room was trashed cupboards were smashed and things were thrown on the floor, the floor was littered in empty alcohol bottles, empty pipe bottles, and burnt out cigarettes.

But there was no sign of yn.

But the bathroom door was slightly cracked open, making the professors think that's where she was.

Before they could walk to the door, Harry entered the room, witnessing the state it was in with the same shocked expression that mcgonagall and snape previously had shown before it changed into sorrow.

Harry walked to the door before knocking and not gaining any reply. He cautiously opened the door a little before gasping and running in.

Mcgonagall and snape followed his steps before laying their eyes on what harry had opened the door on.

They ran to the girls' side, trying to wake her, but it was pointless.

She was already gone.

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

Today was the day that the pain would finally end, I had decided it was time to finally let go and go somewhere peaceful.

Somewhere where I would meet my parents and finally be reunited with Cedric.

It had taken a lot of thought about not wanting to leave Harry behind, but I knew he'd be ok with his friends, and I'd still be with him just ad a spirit, though.

I grabbed my blade and pills, sitting down against the bathroom wall, writing a letter to whoever found me so that they had some sort of goodbye from me.

"Dear everyone,

Let's start with the most important person, harry, please dont dwell on it too much I know that this isn't the best way to go but I have no choice, we all know that staying here I would just continue destroying myself more and more everyday, so I want you to know that I am now in a better place with our parents and Cedric, and until the day that you die by old age I'll promise to watch after you everyday, im not saying don't be sad I mean of course you'll be sad im not they're to annoy you with my Taylor swift karaoke anymore, more along dont take this as a tragic suicide, take this as me finally meeting peace that we both know I needed, im not really gone I'll still show up randomly as a ghost and help you kill voldemort and embarrass you with karaoke in the great hall with nearly headless nick, so this isn't goodbye it's a I'll see you in heaven when you're old and wrinkly and I'll see ya around hogwarts when I randomly visit i love you hazza, and Minnie same goes for you I'll still continue to show up and gossip about all the people in the afterlife, and thank you, thank you for being my parental figure when I had no one else I love you minnie, snape and dumbledore I may not be your biggest fan nor are you mine but I'm still gonna say a partial goodbye even though you'll both soon be up here with me since your both extremely old anyways moving on again, to all the other professors that have taught me, thank you that's all ive gotta say is thank you and see ya soon, now for my friends I love all of you dearly and don't think you've finally escaped me, and Ron and hermione if you two don't hurry up and admit you love eachother I'll haunt you while you sleep, and to every other student in hogwarts heres a piece of advice just do what your scared of because if you don't you'll end up living with what ifs instead of im happy I did that, anyways thats all I've got for all of you just one more thing make sure you play the most out of pocket songs at my funeral, that's all so bye for now".

Love yn."

I placed the paper beside me before opening the bottle and taking a handful.

And finally, the darkness overtook me, and I smiled, feeling a sense of peace wash over me.

-----------------‐--

It was my sisters funeral today as I read out the letter she left a few laughs were shared along with some cries from the people who really knew her as I finished the letter I looked up at the sky saying a goodbye to her even though i knew it wasn't really goodbye.

We planted her beside Cedric, decorating the graves with photos with both of them and special things that belonged to the two.

I silently cried with Ron and hermiome but also smiling, knowing that she was finally at peace.

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

As I entered the white gates of heaven I couldn't help but laugh at how cliche it all was but that's when I noticed them standing there waiting for me.

My parents, they ran over to me, embracing me in a hug filled with tears and laughter.

We pulled away as my father grabbed my face and kissed my forehead.

"Hey sweetheart, welcome home," he said as Mum smiled, pushing the hair out of my face to look at me properly.

"Mum, dad, God, I've missed you," I spoke, and they smiled, holding my hand.

"We missed you two, sweetie, but first look behind you," they smiled as i turned around confused only to see him standing there.

"Couldn't stay away could you love" Cedric laughed smiling as I ran over to him jumping into his arms embracing him tightly, he held me laughing a little while slowly lowering me back down to the ground.

I wrapped my hands around his neck, and he wrapped his around waist, pulling me in and kissing me softly.

"I love you," we both whispered in sync, hugging each other tightly.

My parents joined the hug after a while as we all smiled happily.

I was finally at peace.

[enbysiriusblack]

Everyone thinks Lily is the most imp Marauder era character but I disagree.

What did she do? Decline death when she had an oppurtunity. Brave and loyal. But I think James plays a bigger role than her. Lily only dies when she has a chance at survival and decides to stop being friends with Snape bc Snape's bigotry was affecting her.

James meanwhile plays a bigger part both b4 and after dying. He and Snape are sworn rivals. He is the on who understands how dark the path Snape chose (and probably before Snape).

He's the one that, despite the war, manages to look at someone from themselves and not their families. He looks at the person not the family, or at the lycanthropy, or blood status.

He's the one that saves Remus, Peter and Sirius from themselves and others repeatedly. He saves Snape too (and foghting the war he obvi saves others as well)

Also, I don't think the prophecy is alone the reason Voldemort went after the Potters.

I mean obvi plays a role bc they had a 'child born as the seventh month dies' and 'defies thrice' Voldemort but I think James had a bigger role in this than Lily.

I mean was Lily really so exceptional that Voldemort wanted *her*? I think not. Not saying she's dumb but she definitely isn't *that* important. So why does Voldemort ask her to join? I can see two reasons:

Snape

James

I think Snape asked Voldemort to consider her, just like he asked her to be spared.

I also think, however, that the reasson Voldemort agreed was not only bc Snape was trusted and a spy and what not, but also bc Lily was involved with James. James Potter, a wealthy pureblood. Probably the only wealthy pureblood family which was so known and likely powerful that fought against him.

Basically I think by the 70s, there were three big pureblood famlies, and that the rest of the wizarding world often bended to their will. If all three were with Voldemort he would be unstoppable. Not even Dumbledore would be a problem. And Voldemort had two; Blacks and Malfoys. Because of this he had a huge following, bc of this was the war so big and long and dangerous.

But he didn't have the Potters. The three living Potters, Fleamont, Euphemia and James were extremely open about where their priorities lied, unlike the Blacks and Malfoys who were hiding their support, handling things from being the curtains, the Potter made it public from the first signs of conflict (in fact even before that) that Voldemort did not have their support. Later James remained, and he married Lily.

Lily Evans just happened to be the girl Snape believed would do great on his side, and so he tried to convince him. She denied, and so did James. When he realised which famlies the prophecy spoke of, Voldemort chose Harry, because he was half-blood but more importantly because the Potter family, because James, was a threat.

I suppose this might have gone to theory/head canon towards the end, but you got the point right? I think James was far more important Canon-wise.

And in the main series we see Harry yearning for James all the time. Lily is barely mentioned in comparision. He has some 7 father figures but he wants James, but he's perfectly happy with Molly as a mother figure.

Also, James happens to be where he gets his quidditch skill from (which is important). Harry's patronus is also James animagus form and I think in that way James keeps Harry safe.

Lily seems to more or less exist bc Harry needs to have a mother whereas James exists as a stand-a-lone very important character, and I think he very easily defeats Lily in most imp. character of that time.

What did Lily contribute? The protection charm thing? I don't thing that helped Harry at all ever. Not even when the text says so. I think he aquired Potter Luck from his father, James.

I also think that Harry is, Canon-wise, more like James because we only see Lily as someone Snape is obsessed with, someone who Sirius and Remus knew, someone who James married, someone who is the mother of Harry, someone who was prefect with Remus etc. Harry? We know him as him, just like we know James as James, in opposition to Lily was that in relation to that.

I'll get to a last point which was Slughorn and the memory Harry acquired. Harry was going to get that memory no matter what bc he had drank the liquid luck.

Literally anyone else could have been Harry's mother and the only change would be is Harry's eyeshape, colour and nose.

Male someone else Harry's dad and everything changes, from is he going to be the boy who lived and does Snape hate him *as much* to his personality. Half the time he lives it's luck and things that he has due to James so I think James definitely takes this win.

My opinion though feel free to disagree.

okay so, i get what you're saying. but lily does still play a very large part (in my opinion, slightly more than james, but i can understand if you think james is more important).

james is severus' rival (i'm pretty sure it's more severus thinking of james as his rival than the other way around, whilst james doesn't really, he more messes with severus because of his ideology + trying to entertain sirius, but anyway. getting a bit off topic there). james and severus are 'rivals' because of lily. without lily, they would have barely interacted ever. lily is severus' best friend/crush and severus gets jealous that james spends lots of time with her/lily dates him. they do have that argument on the train in first year, but again. the conversation started between lily and severus- without lily they would never have argued about hogwarts houses. lily is the central point to their conflict- severus fights james and his friends because he wants to control/be with lily and he thinks james is in the way of that, even though lily just doesn't like him in that way. and james fights severus because severus is picking a fight with him/severus is bigoted.

also severus is pretty major in the storyline of harry potter- like he plays a vital role in the majority of the books/films. and everything he does is fuelled by his obsession/inability to get over lily evans. he's overly mean to harry because he looks like james who he thinks stole lily from him. he's overly mean to other students because he's mad that his ex-best friend/childhood crush died. he's a spy for dumbledore because he knows that's what lily would want from him (ish). he secretly helps harry because he is still lily's son. literally every action of this man (who is in the top 10 most important hp characters for this storyline) is because of lily.

i'm pretty sure voldemort wanted both james and lily, not one or the other. both. they are both very powerful and if voldemort gets them than he gets two very powerful wizards that had previously been against them. also yes, i do think james is smarter than lily. but, maybe this is my own hc, but she is more powerful. she's slughorn's favourite even as a muggleborn likely from a working class or middle class family, because she's very good in class. she manages to do that dumb mother-y magic to protect harry (i disagree that it wasn't effective- without it harry would've died when voldemort tried to kill him as a baby. he is the boy who lived because of lily. not saying it's not such a dumb plotline, i honestly think its so fucking stupid- but that's my beef with jkr (well part of it. i hate her so much for countless reasons ofc). and i know you said this bit was more your headcanon, which is fine of course. but in my mind and I'm pretty sure it's canon that there is the sacred 28 (so that's 28 families that are seen as fully pureblooded) and i think voldemort would go after them all, which the potter's are a part of, but again, that's one family out of 28 and he probably only has like half during the 70s. also he went after alice and frank as well- as neville also fitted the prophecy so voldemort tried to recruit alice and frank as well. maybe the guy was just trying to recruit all the order members tbh.

i think with harry seeming to care more about james is more because he knows more about james. like, yes he's been living with his mum's sister for years (oh yeah didn't mention the dursleys. but real quick, the people he grew up with are lily's relatives. he's abused, which is of course a huge part of the protagonist's life, is because of lily and her past with her sister. petunia was jealous that lily was a witch and not her, and disagreed with the way lily lived/who she dated, so then decided to abuse her sister's son after her sister died). anyway, harry only really has petunia to tell him about his mum, who isn't really gonna do that, especially in a nice way. he does have slughorn for like a year, who tells him a bit. and remus, who also tells him a little (and i think sirius does?? i don't remember), and then obviously you have severus' memories. which i wouldn't really fully trust either. whilst harry has got his dad's best friend and his other close friend telling him stuff for several years. james was more outgoing in school, so there's also more teachers/hagrid/rosmerta that remember james more and have stories for harry about him. whilst lily has a lot less. but that doesn't mean she's not as important to harry. they're both what harry wants more than anything- equally. (also i very much disagree with the molly being practically his mother. like as someone with a mum a bit like molly, she very much does not see him as a son/he doesn't see her as a mother. if she treated him as a son, she wouldn't act so nice to him and be so mean to her actual kids. she puts on a charade in front of harry to appear as the perfect family. my mum would do that when i had friends over. harry is not a son to her, but an outsider that she has to impress or she'll feel embarrassed. mcgonagall is more a mum to harry, or even sirius is more his mum.

we don't really know how james or lily fully acted. but tbh i don't think he acts like either of them, personally. like yes he's into quidditch like james. but who says lily wasn't a quidditch fan too?

what is potter luck? i've never actually heard that before and I'm so curious. like is being a potter give you luck in life?? is that a thing?? why have i not heard that?? is that canon?? (i haven't read/watched in ages so forgive me if this is like. a huge thing in harry potter that I've just completely forgotten about)

I also think that Harry is, Canon-wise, more like James because we only see Lily as someone Snape is obsessed with, someone who Sirius and Remus knew, someone who James married, someone who is the mother of Harry, someone who was prefect with Remus etc. Harry? We know him as him, just like we know James as James, in opposition to Lily was that in relation to that.

^you are so very right here. i fully agree. but i don't think it takes away lily's importance. i think it becomes part of jkr's sexism/sexist writing. she just loves to put her female characters in mother/wife roles and give them absolutely nothing else. because being a mother is just so fucking important and the biggest thing in a women's life whilst being a father isn't important at all and is just what a man comes home to after a day at work. but being a mother is all a women has, being a mother gives you mother superpowers and magic baking abilities. (sorry i got mad at jkr). lily is the mother. james is james. god you are so fucking right. lily is defined by the men around her.

apart from the letter!!!! i've been building up to this. but the letter. mwah the letter. we get a letter from lily!! remember that?? lily writes a letter to sirius thanking him for the toy broom he got harry?? and its lily's actual fucking words instead of someone's else's memory of her?? but we don't have that for james, we only ever have other people talking about him, never any of his own words (if you want to view snape's memories as actually what happened in the past then you can, i just tend to view it more as what memories actually are- biased and warped over time). but we have lily's own words and handwriting!! and she's still just fulfilling a role as mother and friend and wife but at least this is her own voice/writing in it and although it's not words that are too harry, he does get a small glimpse into lily and how she spoke (well, wrote), which he doesn't get from james, sadly. but he does get lily's!! and that's so important to him and he's the protagonist so its also important for the story as a whole!!

what you said about "make someone else harry's dad and everything changes" is very much true. but that does also apply to lily. make someone harry's mum and harry is no longer raised by the dursleys/raised in an abusive home, or treated badly but secretly helped by severus, or told things by slughorn, or even fucking alive, he would've died as a baby if someone else was his mum.

my closing statement: lily evans is important because i think she's very hot and I'm so very gay for her and also she's the reason the protagonist didn't die as a 1 yr old or whatever.

[saintsenara]

Unhinged ships for you: Nagini/ the Basilisk ; Albus Dumbledore / Mrs. Cole ; Hagrid / Aragog. ; Snape / Vernon

cheers, anon. finally, some good fucking food.

nagini/the basilisk

which also got a separate shoutout of its own:

yes.

now, i want to be very clear that i am of the view that nagini is and has only ever been a snake - the tiresome orientalist backstory given for her in the fantastic beasts films is unwelcome in this house.

but nagini is also evidently not one of the two species of snake which is native to britain. the description of her in canon makes her sound like a reticulated python - albeit a reticulated python who is also venomous and fonder of biting than constricting - which means she would have come, were she born in the wild, from somewhere in south or south-east asia.

i very much like the idea of her having been captured from the wild for the exotic pet trade and having been transported thousands of miles from her homeland to the balkan coastline, ready to be sold in western europe, when she manages to escape from her cage and slither off to freedom. except - a stranger in a strange land - she's lost and afraid, and is therefore so very, very grateful to encounter an odd-looking man who can speak to her in her own language...

canon makes a lot of the fact that nagini is voldemort's only friend. the flip-side of this is that voldemort is her only friend too - and, while snakes aren't usually thought of as social creatures... maybe that's just what humans think because we've never actually asked.

we get flashes in canon which allow an author to flesh out nagini's inner life as quite lonely. she gets agitated when voldemort spends too long speaking english, or when the other death eaters are doing things and making noise which she doesn't understand. she doesn't like being back in a cage at the end of deathly hallows. she likes to feel useful - her describing her trip to see the prophecy as "important work" stands out to me, and i think it's lovely. her personal world is quite small - voldemort is not someone who gallivants around, and so she probably spends a lot of time behaving as she does at the start of goblet of fire: drifting around strange houses, homesick and half a world away from a life she once knew.

the basilisk, too, must be quite lonely. after all, if you were a cold-blooded creature, would you enjoy shivering in the dark under a school for a millennium? she too must be far from home - basilisks originate in greece, in canon, and i won't be pulled from the headcanon that slytherin [since salazar is a name from the iberian peninsula] arrives in britain from sunnier shores too.

i always like the idea of the basilisk being genuinely fond of the teenage voldemort - and their relationship mirroring the one his adult self has with nagini, with him popping down to the chamber for a chinwag - because he's presumably the first person she's spoken to in decades, the gaunts clearly having stopped [in the seven-book canon] sending their children to hogwarts as they became poorer and more isolated.

i am also wedded to the idea that basilisks pair-bond for life. but slytherin didn't realise this.

two lonely souls finding each other and making each other less lonely is my poison of choice. even when they're both snakes.

mrs cole/albus dumbledore

dumbledore immediately being willing to start day-drinking - while he's supposed to be working, no less - just because mrs cole displays a basic interest in the things he says has "desperate simp" written all over it.

i reckon he popped back to the orphanage a couple of times with flowers and whisked her off for a night at the pictures, while the assembled orphans gawked from the stairs.

it broke off because dumbledore is terrified of commitment - mrs cole tried to get him to make things official and he responded by wiping her memory [the ultimate ghosting]. despite what he will later tell harry, the real cause of his beef with the young voldemort is that he spends his first time at hogwarts trying to finagle them getting back together.

after all, being prepped to throw hands with an eleven-year-old would be pretty strange, wouldn't it albus?

unless that eleven-year-old was attempting to parent trap you...

rubeus hagrid/aragog

flopping, i'm afraid.

aragog's plausibly into it - he properly gasses up hagrid to harry and ron - but i don't think hagrid's going for it. not because he's not inclined towards a bit of monster-fucking but because he finds aragog - who is generally described in canon using the word "fretful" - to be a bit of fun sponge.

that's why he hooks aragog up with mosag. it makes him feel less guilty...

vernon dursley/severus snape

jesus christ this would be messy...

i think they might end up in some begrudging hate sex following a bit of arguing over whether snape's technique with a wand is more impressive than vernon's knowledge of how to properly wield a drill, and then their mutual loathing of harry sustains them through round two.

but that's it.

vernon's love for his solidly middle-class life is going to turn snape into a trotskyite, and vernon's taste in men is towards authoritative hotties with earrings - which is why him being canonically willing to risk it all for kingsley will never not send me - rather than scrawny goths.

[misguidedasgardian]

The Lifeaters (II.8)

VIII. Guilty

MASTERLIST

Chapter Summary: All eyes turn to you

Pairings: Draco Malfoy x Fem!Reader (platonic)

Warnings: Cursing, magical objects, Mugglephobia, classism, charms and curses, people getting petrified, might miss some warnings 

Wordcount: 2,2 k

Notes: Just get swimming… I’m thinking about making edits in tiktok, that’s how far I’ve come with this story… Considering I very much dislike video editing

It was bad

You knew because Snape had personally escorted you back to the common room after the canceled game, he looked exceptionally gloomy, extremely serious, more than normal. He didn’t even have to raise his voice, he only stood there, in the middle of the common room, and it was mere seconds before everyone quieted down so he could tell you lot about what he needed to. 

“Because of the recent events, the school had thought it prudent to impose strict rules, in benefit of your safety”, said Professor Snape. He took a parchment with official stationary and read it outloud, “All students will return to their house common room by six o’clock every evening. All students will be escorted to each lesson by a teacher. No exceptions. Quidditch is canceled for the remaining of the school year, as other activities in big groups, and after six o’clock”, he said and then he lowered the parchment

Many hands were raised, many had questions, everyone started speaking, you, mainly, and Draco, whining about Quidditch being canceled, you only got to play one game on your very first year as a chaser with your very new broom, and next year you were going to get challenged again, and you didn’t think it was fair, wouldn’t it be good to be in a place with a lot of people? more witnesses? they wouldn’t dare attacking someone in a place filled with people, wouldn’t they?

“If the attacks don’t stop, you will go home, I advise you… if you know something, come forwards, to me”, he said slowly

“Would they close the school?”, someone asked

“Indeed”, he said slowly, he then searched among the crowd, “head boy, head girl, prefects follow me”, and then he dramatically turned and left, followed by the top students in your house, as it was already around 5.30, you couldn’t leave the room again and you were content with finishing the day early. The common room get cleared except for your closest friends, to your surprise, even Flint stayed around 

“They wouldn’t close the school”, muttered Matthew, and for the very first time, you thought you saw a hint of fear in those dark eyes of his, “would they?”

“No if they find the wacko who is doing this”, muttered Theo

“Nobody is dead yet”, Draco said like he was disappointed, “people will be un-petrified”

“Yet! you said it”, mocked Flint, “it’s just a matter of time” 

“But this… person or thing… Why is petrifying people if the objective is to kill them?”, asked Pansy, “I don’t understand”

“We don’t even know what is this monster, perhaps it can only petrified people”

“Some monster”, mocked Matthew

“What is going to happen when they close Hogwarts?”, asked Daphne

“If…”, corrected Draco 

“If they close Hogwarts, they will send me to Beauxbatons”, you whispered, Draco looked at you

“I’ll be send to Dumstrang”, he said back

“Are they going to have space for all of us?”, asked Pansy 

“How are you going to get in?”, mocked Matthew

“My family is one of the founders, and… they have had a space for me in it since I was born, basically”, you muttered, “You can’t imagine my grandfather’s face when they told him I was coming here instead”

“So you can hook us all up”, said Theo with a soft smile

“They won’t close this thing”, muttered Draco

“How do you know?”, you asked, he only winked at you.

“My father is one of the governors of the school, he won’t let this place shut down, although, he can totally blame it on Dumbledore, get him sacked!”, he mocked

“Maybe he can get a Slytherin as headmaster”, muttered Daphne with a soft smile

“GUYS!”, Blaise entered the room almost running, “It’s Granger!”

“WHAT?”, Draco asked, a smile showing up on his lips 

“She is the one that has been petrified!”, he said, “she is the last victim, alongside a Prefect from Ravenclaw”. You looked at Draco who looked like Christmas had come again. 

Blaise knew everything about everyone, maybe it was because of his calm demeanor, he was silent, and sneaky, he knew a lot of things, if something was going on in the castle, he knew at least to some extent what was going on.

“Two more”

“They are definitely closing this joint”

Nothing could spoil Draco’s mood, or Matthew’s or Vince’s or Greg’s 

You had to admit it was empowering to walk at his side, through the corridors, everyone would move out of your way and look at you fearfully

At the both of you

Rumor was spreading that Potter could not possibly be the heir of Slytherin, since Granger was one of his best friends, and also, because no one in the Slytherin house had been attacked….

Well, except for you

Even though you weren't really attacked and nobody found out so… maybe that is why you weren’t attacked, because you were a pure-blooded Slytherin

Were you?

And a couple of weeks later, Draco was jumping with joy

You asked him of course what was that about, but he just said that he had a surprise for all of you, and tomorrow they were going to figure out what.

It was a long night, you were very curious, and you couldn’t help but feel a bit sad that Draco wouldn’t share things anymore

He had caught on that you were not as enthusiastic about this whole situation like he was, in fact, you were clearly scared and concerned, unlike all of them Slytherins 

He would reassure you constantly, that you were not in danger and everything was going to pass, but you really didn’t see how that was going to be possible/ Draco told you to… “have faith?” What was that supposed to mean?

It was a long night, you could barely sleep, or not at all. 

And the very next day, Draco was jumping with joy through breakfast, but in the teacher’s high table, no one was smiling, nobody. You could feel it in the air, that there was something bad going on, besides the attacks

And then, when everyone was sitting on the table… Draco told the lot of you, the entire table, what had transpired last night 

Uncle Lucius had come to Hogwarts, late at night, as a governor, in representation of the other governors, and asked for Dumbledore to step away from the school, for an indefinite time, he had almost been sacked, he was in the very steps to being so. 

Also, Hagrid…

Hagrid was a suspect of opening the chamber of secrets

Nobody knew why, but he was sent to Azkaban. They must have known something terrible

“That oaf isn’t the heir of Slytherin!”, mocked Malfoy, as you were at the end of the day, in the common room drinking pumpkin juice and hanging out

“Maybe he did it by accident”, you suggested, “you know how much he loves animals, maybe one of those animals broke loose and…”

“Not even he could be that thick”, muttered Theodore

Granger petrified, Hagrid sacked, Dumbledore suspended… It was a good week for Slytherin in everyone’s book. 

You realized that Draco had become more… sensitive… when you were near, as you didn't like it when he spoke like that, but you still could hear him express his disappointment that the monster hadn't “finish their job”

Classes were now almost boring because Granger wasn’t there incessantly raising her hand to answer whatever question the professor was asking

Potter and Weasley looked like Christmas hadn't come at all

So you guessed that Potter wasn’t the heir of Slytherin, he couldn't possibly have petrified Granger, right? Because nobody believed that Hagrid was the one who did all of this, well, nothing but uncle Lucius’ friend Cornelius Fudge

Why him though? if they send him to Azkaban they must have a good reason to. 

You could barely focus on class, thinking about what was going on, it was even harder with Draco, in potions, as he couldn’t stop boasting about what had happened with Dunbledore and Hagrid 

“I always knew it was going to be my father to get rid of Dumbledore”, he whispered to Vince and Greg, not caring of who was listening, that by now, it was the entire class, “I told you he thinks he is the worst headmaster the school’s ever had. Maybe we’ll get a decent Headmaster now. Someone who won’t want the Chamber of secrets closed. McGonagall won’t last long, she is only feeling in”

You knew he was boasting because Potter and Weasley were there, he had told you these things personally, thanks to the chamber and said monster, you pure-blooded witches and wizards were on top of the world.

That is when Professor Snape walked by. 

“Sir”, Draco called for him, “Sir, why don’t you apply for the headmaster’s job?”

He was the head professor of your House, and even though he was very strict and severe, you admired him and his mastery in potions

But him as a headmaster looked like something out of a nightmare, like he would turn this into some version of Azkaban, you didn’t imagine events. Quidditch games and fun activities or feast with him on the helm of these huge ship

“Now now Malfoy”, muttered professor Snape, he was almost smiling, “professor Dumbledore had only been suspended by the governors, I dare say he’ll be back with us soon enough”

“Yeah right”, boasted Draco, “I expect you’d have Father’s vote, sir, if you wanted to apply for the job, I’ll tell father you’re the best teacher here, sir”

Again… a Hogwarts run by Snape sounded like a nightmare, but again you didn’t know anyone else to take the mantle, Dumbledore might be Gryffindor coded but… at least he was cheerful, you believed that Mandrakes would take the lead in a more entertaining way if given the opportunity, instead of professor Mcgonaggal

But Snape smiled, actually smirked… and you started day-dreaming about Headmaster Snape, perhaps it wouldn’t be that bad. 

“I’m quite surprised the Mudbloods haven’t all packed their bags by now”, he went on, “bet you five galleons the next one dues. Pity it isn’t Granger”

You trembled at the mere thought, trying to concentrate on the potion in front of you 

The very next weeks went by a blur

A certain monotony had spread in Hogwarts, nobody was supposed to be outside, or alone, you moved in groups, you were even escorted to the bathroom

You didn’t dare to tell anyone what you thought you saw in the bathroom at Christmas, you had nothing of value to tell anyway, you had convinced yourself you imagined it 

Were you spared because of your blood status? Because you were a Basili…

And then… you knew, you gasped loudly and everyone looked at you, surprised

“What?”, Draco asked, raising his head from the book on astrology he was studying, but you shook your head, coming back to your senses.

“I just remember something”, you muttered, “homework”

“Yeah, we still have to study for those exams!”, said Draco, closing the heavy book 

Did you cracked it? could it be?

Next weeks went by so slowly, there was no fun, only study and learning, which before it was fine, but now it isn't. Even Astronomy had canceled its late nights, and now it was in daytime, which made no sense, because you couldn’t see the stars or anything really.

So you only depended on the books and illustrations 

Professor Sprout was very cheery, apparently Mandrakes were sneaking into each other's pots so that meant they were almost ready to be chopped up and…

You still thought that was insanity 

Draco however, seemed to enjoy the chaos and terror

And you couldn’t help but… liking it too

Nobody had died, right? and this feeling about needing to stick together with your friends, and having to be in the common room with the rest of your house, hanging out, you felt guilty of how much you were enjoying it

Even Marcus, and Adrian stick around you and Draco, didn't leave you because the season was abruptly cut short, instead choosing to even talk to you!

You were over the moon

The Gryffindors though seemed to be in an awful mood, when you heard Lockheart that it was all going to be alright, people will be un-petrified and the guilty part had been caught

Potter however, you had heard him defend Hagrid publicly, saying that there was no way that he was the one who opened the chamber of secrets

You didn’t believe it either

He didn’t struck you as a bad person, in fact, you liked him -a thing you couldn’t admit to Draco even if you were being tortured-, from your experience with him in the forbidden forest… he was kinda nice, he had talked you out of your fears about the headless troll, and he had somewhat protected you in there.

But if he was taken to Azkaban, it meant he was guilty, nobody was taken to Azkaban with mere suspicions, they had to have something big against him.

You didn't know what to think anymore 

[vivithefolle]

Hi,

Hope you are doing well.

So, I was thinking about the Horcrux hunt, and I think these two parts get neglected in that fight.

First, Ron said that he thought in all this time they would have achieved something. I don't think he was wrong to assume that, because I think all this happened in November or end of October-start of November if I recall right.

Second, he told Harry that he thought Harry knew what he was doing. Its clear that Harry had no idea.

Unfortunately, these two factors, plus what he heard about Ginny, and the way Harry thought that the Forbidden forest is less scary, to me seems to make him angry at Harry, because Ron must have realized even with his injury that Harry really had no clue and running around is achieving nothing.

I think these two factors also need to be considered in some sense when Ron decided to leave. I would like to hear your thoughts on this.

No, no, it's better than just that, you know what's insane about that?

It's that Ron is right.

No, really. He's right. Look. Where was everything they needed to find again?

Gringotts. Hogwarts. At Voldemort's side.

None of these places are in any way shape or form "some random spot in the English wilderness".

They did get Gryff's sword from a random lake, but it's only because Snape put it there, KNOWING the Trio would come accross it.

Ron is portrayed as the one in the wrong, and therefore needing to apologize, over the Horcrux Hunt. It's treated as this most terrible mistake on Ron's part, this “abandonment” of Harry and Hermione who were so much more devoted to the Cause… except let's get real: Harry had no plan, and when prodded about it, had “Dumbledore told me to do it" as his sole excuse… except, Harry, Dumbledore told you “find the Horcruxes”, he didn't tell you “find the Horcruxes but only in the stupidest manner possible, without using any of the resources from the Order, without planning and discussing how to get it done, just run around the British countryside like some headless chicken I guess stuff will happen and somehow the Horcruxes will fall on your lap or something idk".

Anyone with a lick of common sense would realize Harry is flying by the seat of his pants, and that wouldn't be so bad if only he was willing to stop being a dick and actually PLAN SOMETHING instead of “leading" his friends around in circles in the world's most unbalanced Easter egg hunt. Because as he is doing it, he's just leading them right into a wall.

So to sum up: Ron and Hermione have the lick of common sense, however Ron (egged on by Teh Horcrux so we know it's really the evilness of Voldemort that's making him question Harry, because questioning Harry is the most evil thing you can do, it's not like he's being a complete idiot that's wasting everyone's time with his “Horcrux Hunt" since none of the remaining Horcruxes were anywhere in the British countryside-) decides he's done with this bullshit while Hermione, desperate to stay in Harry's good graces, prefers to suck up to Mr Chosen One; Harry tells Ron to leave, and Ron obeys, since it's asked so nicely. Harry then gets all surprised and promptly forgets all about how he is the one who told Ron to leave in the first place, rather than accept he was doing a terrible job of “leading" the Horcrux Hunt and sit down to try and salvage the fiasco.

Nope! Instead everything is shown as Ron's mistake and how he “wasn't strong enough" to stay with Harry and Hermione… except Harry and Hermione only succeeded in nearly getting themselves killed while Ron was away so yknow. Who's the incompetent one again?

Again, it's an example of narrative imbalance: Ron was right to leave. It's insane how this is treated like a huge fault of his when in truth Harry was doing buttfuck nothing, accomplished absolutely nothing and only wasted everyone's time WHILE MUGGLEBORNS WERE ACTIVELY BEING ROUNDED UP AND THE LONGER HE TOOK TO KILL VOLDEMORT THE MORE PEOPLE WERE DYING.

But, unfortunately, we can't have Ron be right about anything. We can't excise this tumor of a contrived plot point because we neeeeeed for Ron to be villainized and portrayed as "immature" for his terrible crime of... needing food because he's injured, and also he's sick of Harry's bullshit, HOW DARE HE BE SICK OF HARRY'S BULLSHIT, THAT'S SO EVIL.

(I don't know, spending 7 books watching an idiot run headfirst into danger to "save" people and only succeeding in putting people in more danger also made me kinda sick of Harry's bullshit ngl)

[romaine2424]

WIP SNIP

Thanks you @sleepstxtic for the tag! OMG definitely take a look at Kat's.

This is SNIP is from my WIP good stuff folder. It's over a decade old, but I keep it because I always felt it had potential. I have about 5K written. It's temp title is Ghost Ship. I've spliced some scenes together here, so you can get the gist.

Scene 1: "Draco, come here, look properly! What do you think?" Harry saw Draco's face up close now, right beside his father's. They were extraordinarily alike, except that while his father looked beside himself with excitement, Draco's expression was full of reluctance, even fear. But then the words came out. "It's him. It's Potter," he said, and he walked away toward the fireplace where his mother stood watching. Lucius pressed his wand to his forearm, calling Voldemort. Bellatrix, Narcissa, and Draco all had their wands pointing towards the trio.  Harry knew at that moment he'd lost. The world seemed to shake on its axis. Everything seemed wrong.

Scene 2: 3 spliced scenes the morning after Hogwarts Battle

...

Draco gave a wry smile and walked over to the four-poster bed.  Harry kept his wand pointing at Malfoy's chest.  "What do you want, Malfoy?" "I—I need to show you something.  I need you to know and I'm afraid it will be gone soon," Draco said, his hand sliding through his fringe that needed a wash.  "What do you need to show me right now?  Why can't it wait?  I've had a bit of morning." Draco couldn't help but laugh.  "A bit of a morning you say?  I know, Potter, but I think you should know.  It was what Dumbledore left me in his will." ... "Just some words," Draco said.  None of us could figure it out then but eventually its meaning became clear. Harry snorted.  It sounded like the Headmaster. "What did his will say?" "My mercy still awaits," Draco said. ... Draco burst out laughing.  "Potter, this isn't a fairy ring like they taught us in school.  This is one where second chances are given." "What?" Harry asked as he rose so he could see Draco as they talked.  "You mean like a Time-Turner?"  "Almost," Draco responded and then turned towards the white marble....he took a few steps over and then lay his hands on it.  "Time-turners were mainly used to observe and not interfere." Harry coughed.  "Well small changes could be made, and then life carried on absorbing this new course.  Eventually it all blends in. This type of fairy ring, though, only appears when the course of history has been altered. Someone made a wrong decision, and the repercussions were so bad that it couldn't be absorbed. There was no way for things to get back on track.  It had been irrevocable altered.” "What did you use it for? Why didn't you go back to the night Dumbledore died?" Harry asked. That is what he felt he would have done if given the chance. "That might have made a difference, but I doubt it. Dumbledore was going to die anyway. That is what Snape told me once in confidence. No this was worse than that night, Potter." Harry walked over to where Draco stood and placed his hand next to his. The marble was cool and smooth. "What could have been worse?" Draco looked at him. Harry shivered. The last time those grey eyes had stared at him like this had been at Malfoy Manor when Draco said he wasn't sure it was him. Harry knew that Draco had been lying. But why? Then it struck him...the truth. "You confirmed it was me that day in the Manor, didn't you?" The nod was slow but deliberate. "Did I die?" Harry asked without hesitation. "Yeah, you did along with Weasley and Granger. It was over in a few moments and then everything became so much worse."

tagging: @ghostofnoir, @mosrael, @apricitydays-lazynights, and @pixieliciousnippletassles. And anyone else who wants to join in!

[hp-debates-ramblings]

You know what I think of; day in, day out?

That James, Peter and Sirius were smarter than McGonagall and Dumbledore combined.

Yes, Ik, idiot Peter who needed all the help he could ge- HE STILL DID IT BEFORE HER AND THAT ONLY PROVES J&S WERE SMARTER.

And Yes, I know I know, people have this Remus would have helped and he knew. And, okay, lets say he knew and didn't stop him okay that's Canon compliant enough. But he would not help them. Just. No. That would ruin the delusion he has of himself. (Sorry for the anti Remus rant but...)

Anyway.. Ima stop confusing you now.

Minerva McGonagall becomes an animagus in her seventh year, with the help of Dumbledore. Since she is registered I'd like to think that the ministry helped a little bit, y'know like giving them the mandrake leaves.

James, Sirius, and Peter became one by their fifth year. Yes, by, it's possible they were before that. You honestly think they would go in not knowing what they were doing? No, they got PHDs in werewolves, werewolves with human and animals and Animagi before ok so go die. By them selves. They did it in 3 years. They were 12/13 when they started. And were done by 15/16. And you could argue that we don't know when Minnie starts but regardless she was older and more acknowledged. And had Dumbdoor. And these guys did it under everyone's nose; probs without Lupin finding out, and no one ever suspected anything. Except for Snape but who even is that guy? (Yes I hate Snape fight me) and they do it with the ministry not knowing but like the ministry is useless. And they do this w/o failing and stuff. James is on the Quidditch team. Like c'mon they had a mandrake leaf in their mouth for a month (Probs more bc they kept chewing on it) and got all the ingredients no probs. And Dumb-Door didn't see the signs. And Minnie didn't see the signs.

(HC: 100% they got at least half the ingredients from the Centuars who James knitted sweaters for in the winter so they liked the grp)