#harry potter and the birthday weekend

[crowbone]

My daughters have been discovering Harry Potter (against my desire to not give any money to fucking TERFs), and all I can think of is Wizard People, Dear Reader.

[fragglez]

friendly reminder this is an anti harry potter blog if I see any of those brits in my notifications one more time istg

[kay-elle-cee]

@jilytoberfest 31 Prompts: Day 4 || 641 Words || Read on Ao3 —

4 October 1985

Harry bounces between his parents, one hand clasped in each of theirs as they walk through the streets of Hogsmeade. “Can we go to Honeydukes after lunch?” he asks eagerly, grinning a gap-toothed smile.

“How else would we round out our Hogsmeade trip?” James asks, lifting his arm up a bit and causing Harry to kick and giggle.

“We should stock up on Peppermint Quills for the holidays,” Lily grins down at him, stepping through the door to the Three Broomsticks that James holds open for them.

“Happy birthday!” Harry shouts into the room, and Lily and James both look up to where Minerva McGonagall sits at a booth not too far from the entrance. A serene smile spreads across her face as the small family makes its way towards her.

“Thank you, Harry,” she nods, accepting the hug he offers her as his parents echo his sentiments before sliding into the booth across from her.

“I didn’t see many students milling around,” Lily muses, craning her head to look out the window. “Is it not a Hogsmeade weekend?”

“The first Hogsmeade trip for students is next weekend.”

“Well thank you for stepping out of the castle to meet us,” James says with a smile. “You know how much I hate to cause you trouble.”

This earns a laugh from the older woman, whose brows raise in interest as James slides a large envelope across the table.

“I know I could’ve owled it, but there’s something more satisfying about handing it to you directly.” He watches as she opens it and scans the first page. “I’ve been focusing on the intersection between Transfiguration and Charms theory the last few years, and would love to discuss it with you. Maybe Filius, too, if you think there’s enough merit there.”

“We brought a real present for you, too!” Harry chimes in, pushing a small, wrapped box across the table.

“My, well…” Minerva’s eyes flit between the box and the research in her hand, before settling on the small boy in front of her. “Thank you for the gift. All of you,” she adds, gaze wandering up to the parents. It lingers there, shifting from Lily to James and back again, and something in her eyes softens as she looks at them—two of her pupils, years out of school, with a horrible war behind them and a happy family.

“The thesis on this looks good, Potter,” she acknowledges, shaking the parchment and herself out of her nostalgic stupor. “Term is in full swing right now and I want to give this the proper attention. I likely won’t get to it until the students start revising for end-of-term exams—perhaps we can discuss it in detail around the holidays once I’ve had a chance to read?”

James nods. “Of course, at your pace.”

“We’d love to have you over to the cottage for some Christmas tea again,” Lily invites, raking her fingers through Harry’s hair as he fidgets in his seat.

“I’d like that,” Minerva nods, eyes darting down to the young boy. “Besides, I imagine I should be enjoying all my winter breaks while I can. With this one starting Hogwarts in a few years, I’m sure I’ll be needed at the castle over the holidays to undo his messes, if he’s anything like his father.”

A warm grin breaks out on Lily’s face as she looks down at Harry. “He’s not that much of a troublemaker. I like to think there’s a good bit of me in there.” She looks across at her old professor as her hands slip to cover Harry’s ears. “Though we do have to contend with the Sirius influence,” she adds in an exaggerated whisper.

This earns a laugh from both Minerva and James as Madame Rosmerta sweeps up to the table to ask for their order, and the birthday lunch truly begins.

[im-josh-b]

Job Legacy Challenge Rules:

MUST USE ONLY THE SAME PLOT FOR WHOLE CHALLENGE.(Doesnt mean you cannot change house for each gen),

2.DOESNT MATTER WHAT GENDER THE HEIR ARE,

3.THIS IS A BASE GAME LEGACY CHALLENGE DO NOT NEED ANY PACKS TO COMPLETE,

4.YOU MUST MAX EACH JOB,

5.ONLY ONE CHILD PER GEN (if you have twins triplets etc, you must move them out of your lot and continue with your heir of choice, 6.MUST COMPLETE THE ASPIRATION OF EACH GENERATION. Now Time For The Generations:

Generation 1-Barista! The first gen is the barista career, Your dream is to be the best barista in the sim world Aspiration: Master Mixoligist Traits: Clumsy, Outgoing, Loyal MUST: Max Mixoligy Skill

Generation 2-Criminal (Boss Branch)! Your the child of a master barista but you dont like the goodness and kindness of your family, Unlike your barista parent your not telling people to have a nice day… no no no you are going to be turning to a life of crime an d want most sims to hate you. Aspiration: Public Enemy Traits: Evil, Kleptomaniac, Non committal MUST: Have 3 failed marriges with the fourth being the parent to next gen, Max Mischief Skill.

Generation 3-Buisness (Management)! Unlike your criminal parent you want to be more like your Grandparent and be kind to people, Your a buisness man/woman living your best life working in the office and having many friends. Aspiration: Renaissance Sim Traits: Good, Family Orrientated, Neat MUST:Max Writing Skill

Generation 4-Astronaut (Space Ranger)! In your childhood you dream of flying to space andexploring new worlds and galaxies, Your buisness parent for your birthday when turning into a teen buys you your very own rocket in the garden. Aspiration: The Curartor Traits: Genius, Loces Outdoors, perfectionist MUST: Max your fitness skill, Get married during the night with no guests and exchange vowls under the stars

Generation 5-Style Influencer (Trend Setter)! You wanna be popular in the world, Your gonna be popular but a heartbraker at the same time taking after your criminal ancestor. Aspiration: Friend of the World Traits: Cheerful, Self Assured, Romantic MUST: Break 5 Hearts and Marry The Sixth Have 3 best friends by being Young Adult

Generation 6-Painter (Patron of the Arts)! You love art and want a wall in your house dedicated to your paintings, You want a wedding in a museum. Apiration: Painter Extrodinare Traits: Cheerful, Creative, Art Lover MUST: Max Painting Skill

Generation 7-Freelancer (Artist)! Growing up with a painting obsessed parent you have naturally gained a liking for painting and want to make a buisness out of it, You only start painting when becoming a young adult where your parent finally lets you touch their paint supplies. Aspiration: Painter Extrodinare Traits: Art Lover, Creative, Childish MUST: Your child must not see the paintings you create and dont let them gain a liking for painting.

Generation 8-Writer (Author)! Since you were not allowed to get into painting you get into writing instead, You dream of being a world famous author and making books as big as harry potter. Aspiration: Best Selling Author Traits: Neat, Pefectionist, Bookworm MUST: Have made atleast 10,000 Simoliens of off books in your lifetime

Generation 9-Tech Guru (eSport Gamer)! Unlike any of your ancestors you want to be a world famous gamer and have many who want to become just like you. Your goal in life is to make a living off of playing games. Aspiration: Computer Whiz Traits: Geek, Lazy, Materalistic MUST: Max Gaming Skill

Generation Ten-"Final generation"-Baby Sitter! You love kids and want the best for them in their lives therefore you spend your weekdays spending time with your familky and sacrifice your weekends to help fellow parents have a break from kids, Aspiration: Big Happy Family Traits: Family Oriented, Good, Outgoing

!!!CONGRATS!!! YOU HAVE JUST COMPLETED THE JOB LEGACY CHALLENGE!!! If you want to continue with your save file i recommend going from generation one to generation 10 again but the next ten never knew about the previous 10 that they turn out just like!!! Thank you for completing my Legacy challenge an dhope you enjoyed playing -Josh

[stashandtell]

Newest Fic: Ranking the Weasleys

Hermione was drunk. It was all Ginny’s fault.

“RANK MY BROTHERS, Hermione! The people deserve to know!”

“OKAY! Okay. FINE. I give in! I’ll rank all your brothers, based on their looks AND PERSONALITIES. You have such a morbid fascination with how shaggable I find your brothers!”

“You’re STALLING!”

Hermione huffed as she tucked into a ball and then shoved Ginny in the butt with her lint-covered sock. This was a normal girls’ night for them. Lots of wine, shouting, and playful-but-catty roughhousing.

Read Ranking the Weasleys on AO3

- - - -

I'm so happy to be sharing this on the deadline I set for myself, which is today, Hermione's birthday, 9/19/24. As a very new fanfiction writer, who is committed to enjoying this hobby as long as the muse is with me on it, I had marked a handful of bdays of some of my favorite characters as occasions to post fics this year. It's been a nice way to stick with projects and put some artificial pressure on myself. Originally I was working to release a piece based around Hermione getting a belated Moon Party thrown for her by the Gryff girls. Moon parties are typically thrown for young people when they start menstruation if their friends and/or families are into that sort of thing. I'm still working on that fic but I did quickly push pause on it last weekend when, at 2 AM, after letting myself indulge in almost a full day of writing a different fic, I had the seed of the idea for Ranking the Weasleys and cranked out a very formidable first draft in 2 hours. (Yes, this means I went to sleep juuuuust before the sun was preparing to rise. Worth it.) When the words flow, you go with it. It also happens that I'm participating in The Weasley Clock Discord's Bingo Collection (Event? Fest? Bingo-Thing?) and this covers my square for "Ginny Weasley" quite nicely!

- - - - About Fred, George, Bill, and Fetishizing War Wounds These are some initial thoughts I had on the subject and is in no way a comprehensive analysis of the topic.

I wasn't expecting to discover that Fred's battle injury and recovery included him using a wheelchair for the rest of his life in this story but it came out in the writing process. I thought deeply about how, in many Harry Potter fanfics, we see examples of fetishizing elements of people's injuries or hardships (I say this in a non-judgemental way. I truly was pondering it.) If you read Dramione, think about how Draco's Sectumsempra scars are sometimes described. "Scars are sexy" is often a thing in our fandom (and in real life for some!) and it paints a complex picture of attraction, reverence, and attractiveness in a shorthand, accessible way to many readers, from writers. Especially when writers are writing from inside the private minds of characters, the characters are allowed to have thoughts that may not be appropriate or sensitive to others' identities, sense of self, language preferences, etc. It's why many of us love reading fiction; we get an intimate look into the messy, imperfect, and sometimes illicit thought processes of characters. It can be enthralling. But, for this particular, shorter one-shot, I wanted to try to be consistent about how I approached how Hermione was objectifying and trash-talking the characters for many things they either had control over or were core parts of their developed personalities. But what about George's gold ear? I thought about this too. Yes, Hermione thinks the ear is "very fun and cheeky," but she's not into how he's missing an ear or saying that she is attracted the prosthetic because it's a prosthetic or symbolizes a trauma he went through-- my intention was for her to make a comment on the choice of it being solid gold. The opulence of the ear prosthetic was a "fun and cheeky" choice of George's. I hope that came across. I deleted a whole section about how Hermione found Bill to be sexier after his attack from Greyback, not because of the injury but because it changed his mindset about how he wants to protect others.

"...even after he was attacked, he grew even more assured in himself which just made him hotter. And it wasn’t the mild-lycanthropy that made him more confident..."

I couldn't make it work without it being clunky and preachy, so I cut it. I wanted to make sure Bill's scars and the effects of a werewolf affliction weren't portrayed as a turn-on in the very same piece where I was trying to navigate a sensitivity and neutrality to Fred's use of a chair. Sometimes it IS best to "murder your darlings," amiright? I'll admit, I fell in love with Fred in this fic and how he's hot and cold with Hermione, even though he's pretty successful in the dating field with other wixen. Maybe this fic will inspire something longer [shrugs]. I grew fond of some of the implied backstories that grew out of this absolute brain-barf I was seemingly compelled to type out through tired, tired eyes. - - - -

A while ago, I drafted a post ranking all my favorite Hermione/Weasley sibling ships, and it was nice to have such a hefty post pre-written that fit in with all this. It was likely the base of the fic I would write-- cooking along on the back burner of my brain until it was ready to served out. I appreciate that my inner-monologue-made-outer-tumblr-posts may be another way of puzzling out plots I may eventually create! Check It Out:

Nobody Asked For This: My Rankings of the Hermione x Weasley Ships with REASONS (tumblr post)

Some Recommendations for Fics That Influenced My Weasley-Ship Rankings (tumblr post)

Ranking the Weasleys, a Harry Potter fanfic by stashandtell on AO3

[tedwardremus]

Happy Birthday Sirius Black

Hogwarts Years

Interesting House Guests

(Or The time Sirius invited the lads to spend the week at Grimmauld Place)

Tree Cutting

Every Gryffindor in the tower heard Walburga's howler calling Sirius a filthy traitor.

Lily knows what it feels like when someone you love calls you nasty names.

My dog said I can't go out with you

Lily had been waiting patiently for James to ask her out for the first Hogsmeade weekend of the term. Sirius insists she turn James down so Sirius can hang out with her instead. (it's all part of Sirius' greater matchmaking plan)

Does Permanent Mean Forever?

It is James Potter's seventeenth birthday, and to commemorate the occasion, he proposes to the gang that they go out and get tattooed.

To Climb Steep Hills Requires A Slow Pace At First

Sirius Black feels the need take a walk but really he just needs someone to love him

Harry and Sirius Canon Compliant

The Past is a Bucket of Ash 

Over burnt photographs, Harry had a late-night chat with Sirius about his family history

Retrouvaille (or the happiness of meeting someone you love after a long time)

It was late, and the street was dark except for a faint glow from the street lamps. Even from this distance, Sirius saw the familiar untidy hair and felt a pang of recognition.

Harry.

The times Sirius and Harry reunited and the times they were forced to say goodbye.

Constant as the Northern Star 

In the summer of 1995 Sirius helps Harry with his astronomy homework.

Harry and Sirius AU

A Time To Mourn

Sirius Black, recently declared innocent by the Ministry of Magic, visits his godson on Halloween.

Snuffles & Son

Sirius raises Harry and opens a shop that specializes in repairing cursed artifacts and places protection wards on family heirlooms. One day, an Unspeakable from the Department of Mysteries walks in with a cursed artifact from his cousin's confiscated Gringotts vault, requesting Sirius's assistance.

Padfoot in Privet Drive 

Sirius Black follows Harry to Privet Drive after the Triwizard Tournament.

Miscellaneous

The Parting Glass 

The last full moon, Moony and Padfoot spend together.

Unresolved Questions Of Wizard Cosmology

Ten-year-old Sirius and his father take a trip to the British Magical Observatory.

Citius, Altius, Fortius – Communiter 

Sirius is an Olympic athlete competing in the wizard pentathlon, James is a quidditch player, and Lily is a sports reporter. The three of them meet at the Olympic Village. And well, you know what happens at the Olympic Village...

Finding Your Magical Roots 

The Black Family welcomes the reality show Finding Your Magical Roots into their home to film a special episode.

[turnin9pag3]

THIS IS NOT ABOUT HARRY POTTER

i feel i have this inexplicable sadness born in my veins. its been stuck there making a home inside me since birth and the people that are supposed to help have done nothing but make it worse. im alone. painfully so. im everyones second choice and i have lots of friends but a friend to all is a friend to none. those who claim they are my closest are the ones moving to hurt me most. it sucks because i still long for the girl who was my entire life for a year. my best friend and i miss her. she took the thing i wanted most in this world from me and told me i was crazy. my other friend tells me she was wrong and i deserve better but now that friend is doing the same thing to me and thinks that i don’t know. but i do know and i almost wish i didn’t because that would make this so much easier. im so tired. all the time im tired. and im sick. i keep waiting for a chance that never wants to come and im good but not good enough and im funny but not funny enough and im pretty but not pretty enough. im second always. i feel uncomfortable expressing this to the people i actually know so i opt for anonymous posting on a ghosted app full of people i’ve never met. i miss being young. not to say im old im still a child by all means but i miss 7th grade when i always had someone to talk to and i hung out with someone every weekend and school didn’t make me depressed and my friends weren’t toxic and i liked random boys in my class instead of obsessing over the same boy for 10 months. when i blew out the candles on my 15th birthday i wished for him. my best friend and the girl standing 2 feet away watching me is the reason i never got him. shes no longer my best friend but god i wish she was. i miss being at her house everyday. i miss walking to the park with her. i miss getting ice cream after school. i miss sleepovers on school nights. i miss i miss i miss. it feels like thats all i do nowadays. i just miss. i don’t have any constance and i feel like im not doing anything right. i want someone genuine who isn’t going to stab me in the back or leave me. i want someone who can be there a lot of the time and not shit talk me to others. i need friends who wont keep secrets. i need friends who want to be around me. i need people who wont laugh at me when i speak. i need people who wont judge my every move. its hard to be confident when everyone is shoving your insecurities down your throat every 5 seconds. i don’t know what to do with myself anymore. i feel remorse for the way i act but i don’t know how to fix it. i just for once want someone to love me the way i love them. i want someone to want me the way i want them. i need someone to like me like i like them. i cant go on being next best every time. the school year is ending and i feel like im going to be forgotten. these people who claim to be my friends barley spare me a glance outside of classes and i don’t want to have to talk first. i don’t know why people keep me around if they so obviously hate me. why do you try and get me to like him if you’re going to try and get with him anyways? why do you ask me to sit by you if you’re going to get mad at me when i speak anyways? why do you text me things if you’re not going to tell me what its about anyways? why do you want to be included in conversations that don’t concern you if you’re going to be rude anyways? why do you entitle yourself to my conversations and friends but when i do the same thing its a problem? and why do i stick around if im treated like shit by you all the time.

[weeklyreadings]

Week 46

draco malfoy's substitute murder service ny @oknowkiss

Rated E. 11k. Drarry

When Harry joins the Curse Breakers shortly after his twenty-fifth birthday, he’s surprised to find himself assigned to the Department of Creatures, Cryptids, and Associated Calamities.

OR: the one where Draco goes goblin mode, and Harry has a thing for monsters.

the long ways by @oknowkiss

Rated M. 10k. Drarry

Five times Harry thought he was seeing Draco for the last time, and one time he didn’t.

OR: what it’s like to fall in love, slowly and without realizing it, over the course of 20 years.

Nights With You by @the-sinking-ship

Rated E. 58k. Drarry

Draco is mortified when moments prior to departing for the most anticipated destination wedding of the year, he is cruelly dumped. But when he learns that Harry Potter has, at long last, split with his horrible boyfriend, Draco is certain his luck has changed. Never a man to squander an opportunity for revenge (and what would probably be a spectacular shag), Draco vows to make Potter his for the weekend.

Now all Draco has to do is convince him.

Per my last letter (I hope you choke on it) by fluxweed, lastontheboat

Rated T. 10k. Drarry

Dear Mr Potter,

The answer is, and will remain, a no.

Sincerely,

Draco Malfoy

Accounts Manager, Phoenix Press

Or: the one where Harry has writer’s block and Malfoy isn’t helping.

[chicken-wayng]

My little cousin's birthday party is this weekend, and since she's finally growing out of her Harry Potter phase (it's a cannon event, I can't interfere) and asking for new book recommendations I decided to just get her the next phase. I'm very happy because I was able to get the same set design my mom got for me when I was 13

[oflights]

allie i've been trying to gather the courage to reread close behind honestly ever since i first read it in march last year but i've been too. emotionally distraught to actually do so but! i've literally thought about it probably twice each week. and now i'm finally actually almost over my ex so i should just bite the bullet but im SCARED bc the last time i cried for 5 hours

like i literally remember 2 am on a weekday in literally -2 C weather and i sat on my balcony, wrapped in a blanket, chain smoking and reading at the same time, tears streaming down my face. all this to say i long for that catharsis but i'm. scared

omg. anon!! first of all it's probably weird how happy this kind of message makes me lol, like yay, i left you emotionally ravaged!!! mission accomplished!!

second of all: just remember the happy ending! read the last chapter first, and keep it in your mind as you read the rest!! think about everything that could come after it, too, like:

harry and draco's first awkward af date in hogsmeade. ron, daphne, their kids, and scorpius all follow them in various disguises courtesy of george and they are very obvious but harry and draco are too into each other to notice.

draco never wears black again. for every date with harry, he wears a different set of brightly-colored, over-the-top robes.

he steals harry's colorful fair isle sweaters all the time, too.

oh and he gets a weasley sweater like, day one of his renewed relationship with harry. molly had actually been knitting him a bunch over the years but held them back because she didn't want to make things weird or upset harry, so there's a backlog to get through. some have a little dragon stitched on them and ron is super jealous.

their first holiday at the burrow? emotional, life-changing, beautiful, cathartic. harry weeps at least five times. ginny punches him for old time's sake.

speaking of, headmaster harry who holds regular office hours for all hogwarts students in case they ever need to talk to him about something. even if they just want to talk about socks.

(headmaster harry who gets all embarrassed whenever anyone calls him "the youngest hogwarts headmaster in a century")

terrifying new DADA professor hermione granger, who is distressingly unpopular amongst the students because they're all too intimidated by her and it takes her a while to learn how to deal with kids.

until she skips out on a hogsmeade weekend to scandalously elope with a much younger former department of mysteries intern and then she's just incredibly cool to them.

and listen. scorpius locks himself in his room when he finds out about harry and draco's past. he asks draco if he'd ever loved astoria and makes draco cry. draco teaches him that the heart is a universe and he doesn't have any regrets and a wonderful future doesn't invalidate a past he was truly happy in.

and then!! there's stepdad harry. my favorite thing. scorpius asks harry how he knew he was gay. harry gives scorpius the invisibility cloak and asks him to help perfect his disillusionment charm in return. scorpius asks harry to rig the house cup for slytherin as his birthday gift. harry refuses, even though draco thinks it's only fair.

harry and draco date, get engaged, get married in their 40s. they go back and forth between hogwarts and the hogsmeade cottage (which includes ron and daphne's fam like 70% of the time too; harry loves summers spent as part of the extended weasley-greengrass-malfoy-potter family). draco eventually retires from curse-breaking and becomes a nepo hire charms professor after scorpius graduates.

they really do live happily ever after, after all that. promise. 😌

[sitp-recs]

Hi liv! I hope you’re having a great Friday! Do you have any recs for a “rainy romance” like something that may feature a lot of rain but is just cozy in essence. Think Little Compton Street maybe? Something that maybe one could read while listening to piano and rain sounds? Thanks for allllll that you do!!!!!

Hi anon, happy weekend! Oh I love this ask, as you know LCS is one of my all-time favorite fics and I really love the idea of a rainy, cozy love story to lose myself in. This got long enough so I’m also linking HP Drizzle Fest for more recs. I hope you enjoy, some fics are a bit melancholy but I still think they’re a great fit:

The Reason to Start Again by @phdmama (T, 2k)

The rain that’s been pouring down all day has finally tapered off, leaving the streets wet and a heavy mist hanging in the air. It’s warm and cosy inside the pub, and it’s been 362 days since Draco packed his bags and walked away.

Sky Full of Song by @writcraft (T, 2k)

Draco turns up at Harry's birthday party unexpectedly and Harry takes a leap of faith.

Petrichor by @tsauergrass (G, 2k)

After the war, Draco found himself uncontrollably drawn to the rain.

waltzing lights by @piarelei (T, 4k)

The rain is cold, the boat shaky and all that Draco can find comfort in is the warmth of Potter's presence. Or, Draco is a miserable sod and decides to take action.

Rainfall by Saras_Girl (T, 4k)

So what if Draco has a rain kink? Everyone likes something weird.

Twenty Minutes Till Free Fall by BelladonnaLee (T, 5k)

A night of rain. A bare-boned safe house. A clandestine meeting between a spy and his case officer. Being with Harry is like falling through the air—and Draco isn't sure he wants to stop.

Rain by Omi_Ohmy (NR, 5k)

Luna is getting married, and old friends meet up. It's too hot, and everything's changing for everyone except for Harry, who is still mooning after Draco.

A Little Understanding by disapparater (G, 6k)

Everybody needs good neighbours. During a storm, Harry turns to his newest neighbour for help.

Harmony (Left-Handed Melody Remix) by mindabbles (M, 6k)

He is the last person Draco was expecting, but then again, this is not a place Draco ever expected to be.

Howl by @tackytigerfic (M, 9k)

After an encounter with a vicious werewolf, Draco Malfoy wakes in a field hospital with a mangled shoulder, a furry little problem, and an inconvenient crush on Harry Potter. Potter, meanwhile, is still trying to save the world, only this time he wants Draco right there with him while he does it.

Impervius by ravenclawsquill (E, 11k)

Harry and Draco are working together on a case in the beautiful English Lake District. Or, it would be beautiful if only it would stop raining. Fortunately, Harry has an umbrella. Unfortunately, it's pink and frilly, and Draco would rather die than share it with him.

Voices From The Fog by @noeeon (E, 13k)

After years of running away, Harry crosses paths with an all-too familiar face and follows him to Amsterdam.

Exiled by A_factorygirl_69 (E, 16k)

Draco is declared persona non grata by the Ministry after the War. Harry has been tasked with keeping an eye on him, ensuring he stays out of England.

Bound To You by agentmoppet (E, 21k)

Hag magic is capricious and unruly, and Harry and Draco are bound to stay by each other’s side until they can solve the riddle. In between long car trips, misty rain, and midnight star charts, they begin to understand each other.

Thunder by keyflight790 (E, 21k)

The storm will disappear; the rain will subside; but what's left in its wake will last forever. A story of love and loss, redemption and thunder.

The Isle of Discussion by @shealwaysreads (E, 22k)

Harry and Draco arrive at the shores of Loch Leven to record the magical history of the land. They’re friends now, but up there in the Highlands, amidst the trees and sky and that wild expanse of water their own past is more present than ever; a gap they still can’t bridge. Magic illuminates the truth, but it is Harry and Draco who have to speak it. Happily, it turns out that honesty is, in fact, the best policy.

Better To Burn Than To Fade Away by Ren (E, 23k)

Harry Potter is a legend in the world of broomstick racing. He's won almost every cup, trophy, and bowl – except for the historical London-Nome which has been on hiatus for the past several years. Now the London-Nome is starting again, and Harry will do anything to pull off one last big win.

War Wounds by SilentAuror (E, 30k)

Some wounds take longer to recover from than others.

To Vanish Into Something Better by @m0srael (E, 35k)

Harry Potter thought he could outrun the burden of infamy by isolating himself in the Muggle world. Draco Malfoy hasn’t been seen or heard from since his trial. Will a top-secret Ministry project, a beautiful garden, and a little heat carry them both home?

The July Tree by @oknowkiss (E, 51k)

Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail… nor well-meaning friends, nor questionable communication skills, nor seven years of hating each other’s guts can keep Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy from falling in love.

Nightcall by Femme and noeon (E, 116k)

A hideously mauled corpse is found sprawled across the paving stones of Brick Lane in the East End of London. Inspector Harry Potter--widely believed to be the lead candidate for next Deputy Head Auror--is called in to investigate a possible magical crime. To make matters worse, his occasional lover and former school-nemesis, Viscount Draco Malfoy, now billing himself as a consulting criminologist, shows up at the crime scene to aid in the investigation of the suspicious death.

Taking Chances by @gracerene (E, 135k)

After the war, Draco disappeared and started over in America, vowing never to return to Great Britain and the fraught past he left behind. Unfortunately, when his mates convince him to sign up for an exchange programme for the last year of their Auror Training, Draco learns that he doesn't have much of a choice in the matter.

Artwork:

in my solitude comes our rain by @ihopeyoubothstaysafefromharm

Rain by @istehlurvz

Rain of Fate by @lilbeanz

[sailtomarina]

HBD, Harry!

Maybe if he pretended today was like any other day, nobody would remember that it was Harry Potter’s birthday.

Once upon a time, nothing would have made him happier than acknowledgement of his day of birth, much less these several past years of celebration. It had all started with Hagrid’s cake and a curly pig tail, and now? Now, Harry was well into his 30s. The time for rejoicing in turning one year older was over. 

Just this past month he’d finished training the next line of aurors, kids straight out of their N.E.W.T.s and over eager to catch the baddies and get their names in the limelight. He’d put them through their paces, made them almost wish they’d never been born. He could still run laps around young adults twenty years his junior. They only wished they could land a single hex on the Head Auror. 

That still didn’t stop him from realizing that it had been years since he last beat his personal bests. He could glare at his Nimbus 5000 all he wanted—the broom still couldn’t catch his decade-old record. Harry had carved the downward turn of his graph of marathon times into his heart. There was no question about it.

He was getting old.

So forget about the cake, forget about the candles and sparklers. Forget about a special dinner. He’d take Ginny out the next weekend, somewhere poncy, somewhere she’d get to wear some sinful, body-hugging excuse of a dress.

He should’ve known better than to expect her to forget. He should’ve stolen one of Hermione’s latest Time Turners, or maybe jumped straight from bed into his invisibility cloak.

The second he walked into the kitchen for his morning coffee before work, Ginny pounced.

“Hey there, birthday boy.” She snagged him in her arms and shoved him against the counter.

“Ginny, wait—”

Any protests were silenced by a swift yank on his tie, another hand in his still unruly hair—thank goodness he’d never have to worry about balding—and the complete ownership of his lips by one Mrs. Potter.

How could he do anything but submit? Of course he’d wrap his arms around her and her still fit form.

“I made reservations for Tito’s,” she bit out breathlessly, hands now yanking at the buttons of his shirt. 

“Love, I’d rather stay home—” He choked as she twisted a nipple and grinned up at him.

“We can come home after and stay in bed for however long you’d like.” She peppered his chest with kisses, moving steadily downward.

“It’s not that, it’s just…Gin!”

He yanked her up the moment she reached for his belt, and nearly laughed at the look on her face, a mixture of someone having stolen the last pudding and the sight of an open shot to the goalpost.

“What?”

“Can we not celebrate my getting older this year? We can go to Tito’s this weekend instead and celebrate, I dunno, your next big scoop.”

Oh, he did not like the smirk on her lips.

“Are you…having a midlife crisis?”

“No!”

“Because Harry, you know witches and wizards live a lot longer than muggles, right? We’re not even middle aged.”

“I know that.”

“Then why the sudden hesitation?”

He could barely think with the way her fingers brushed up and down his torso. “I’m not old, but I’m not young. I haven’t beaten my own times in years. We have three kids now. I sit behind a desk more than go out into the field.”

Ginny snorted before running her eyes down his body, licking her lips at the sight. “Babe, do you even realize why you’re not getting faster?”

“Why?” He dared her to say it. That he was fat, that he was slow. As ridiculous as the desire was for her to state the ugly truths, he needed someone else to point them out.

She lay her hands flat against his stomach with a predatory smile. “You didn’t have these when you were a seeker, not even in the first few years as an auror.” She pressed down on his abs, making him flex in reaction.

That did make sense. He was several stone heavier now than he was as a new recruit, so of course he’d be slower. He wasn’t a bodybuilder, or anything like that, but there was a weight to his movements now, one that he’d unconsciously adapted to in combat and mock quidditch matches.

“So no more of this birthday-less nonsense, okay? I want to celebrate my husband’s special day…starting right now.”

She resumed her descent and there were no further protests. Harry’s mind blissed out over the next couple of hours, and nobody batted an eyelash when he waltzed into the Auror Department late. It was his birthday, after all.

WC 797 Might this be my first ever Hinny? I think it is, other than when I've referred to them in Dramione pieces. Either way, happy birthday, Harry!

[startanewdream]

For @ginnyw-potter's Fluff O'Clock Challenge. Hope your birthday is amazing, Kami ❤️

On a rainy day, Harry and Ginny play a test to prove there is no fail-safe secret to falling in love.

Read on AO3, or below:

*****

It was raining, which, according to Mrs. Weasley, meant they couldn’t go flying. Harry complained lowly about how the rain hadn’t ever stopped a Quidditch match at Hogwarts, to which Ginny shook her head in agreement, exchanging a mutinous look with him.

“We’ll fly later,” she promised. “Mum likes to take a nap after lunch, we will just skip past her.”

He had to grin. “Flying hidden? Isn’t that your thing?”

She placed a finger over her lips. “I can let you into one of my secrets, just once.”

Her eyes were sparkling with mischief; something pleasant took flight inside him, like the wings of a butterfly—or a Golden Snitch. He hadn’t realised how the idea of flying against the rules was so exciting.

Ginny moved to the living room and Harry followed her. Ron was enjoying the rain to sleep late that morning, and Hermione was not there because she had gone back home to stay with her parents for the weekend. He grabbed one of the Quidditch magazines, reading articles about the latest matches in the European League—there was a comment about a pass that Ginny could practice later, especially in bad weather conditions, but when he turned to tell her, all thoughts vanished for his mind for a moment.

It was not that he hadn't seen Ginny before,but—it was raining, the waterdrops falling thinly, not properly a storm, just enough to turn the sky into a light, lifeless shade of gray; Ginny was sitting by the window, and against that bland sky, her bright red hair was lively, entrancing, fiery; he felt a sudden compulsion to touch it, see if it burned under his touch or was as silky as it looked. There was a smile on her lips, a happy calm one that didn’t match the weather—it reminded Harry of the sun and blue skies. Her brown eyes were warm, fun; he thought about chocolate, melted chocolate with a touch of caramel, and—

And Harry blinked when he found that Ginny was watching him.

“What?” She asked, joyful as ever.

Harry gulped, shaking his head and looking down at the magazine she was holding, an old edition of the Quibbler, and read the first thing that he could see on the cover.

“Fail-safe secrets to fall in love.” It was only then that he considered that, after weirdly being caught ogling at Ginny, this was not the best thing to notice. “Ah—how is that?”

“Oh.” Ginny turned the magazine to check the cover. “Yeah, this is an edition discussing love. All sorts of articles about what is love, if you can use it as a magic ingredient, if you can fabricate it—” She shook her head, clearly amused. “Mum does say love is the secret ingredient of good cooking.”

Harry breathed easily. “I’ve tried your muffins, you can’t hate your brothers that much.”

“Watch it,” she said, the menace in her voice eased by the fact Ginny was smirking. “I’ve never poisoned anyone.” She handed him the magazine. “Give it a try.”

Harry browsed through the Quibbler absently. “There is a room in the Department of Mysteries that studies love,” he mumbled, grimacing slightly. A humming, disbelieving sound was his only answer. “What?”

“I never thought love could be something you study, I mean—studying is pouring through books and taking notes, like Hermione does, but love—love is for feelings, right? How does one study love? You cannot control it.”

“Hmm.” He showed her a page in the middle of the magazine. “According to this, you can fall in love with thirty-six questions.”

Ginny rolled her eyes. “This is stupid,” she declared, but then she slid onto the couch to her left, patting for Harry to sit on the spot she had just vacated. “Come on, let’s do it. Let’s prove this doesn’t work.”

Harry sat next to her, watching her uncertainly. “You want us to ask each other questions to see if we fall in love?” He felt as stupid as she called that test when he said it out loud; Ginny was his friend, and his best friend’s sister; the only thing he felt for her was friendship, of course, the same as he felt for Hermione or—

But it felt weird comparing Ginny to Hermione as if they belonged to two different categories inside his mind; sure, he had never lost track of his thoughts just by looking at Hermione, and if he had to be grounded because of the rain, he was rather glad that Ginny was his company—

“No,” Ginny said, interrupting his reverie once again. “I want us to prove this test makes no sense. Go on, what’s the first question?”

“Ah—who would want as a dinner guest, given the choice of anyone in the world?”

“Am I cooking for them?”

“I think not.”

“Someone I like, then.” She exchanged a grin with him. “I would say... Morgana. There are so many stories and mysteries about her that I would want to know who she truly was, and not by people who feared her or didn’t understand her. She would be an interesting dinner guest… What about you?”

Harry bit his lips. “If we are considering anyone, not just people that are alive… my parents.” Ginny nodded slowly. She didn’t look judging or pitying, something that made him immensely grateful. He considered the second question. “I don’t think I’m the best person to answer this test.”

“Why?”

“The next question is, would you like to be famous and in what way?”

Ginny just looked at him; Harry felt a sudden urge to arrange his fringe over his forehead, but Ginny didn’t break her gaze, not once deviating from his eyes to steal a glance at his scar.

“So?” She asked quietly. “What would you like to be famous for?”

Most of the time he didn’t want to be famous at all, but Harry remembered a lost dream: lifting the Quidditch World Cup, the crowd cheering and admiring him for something he had done, not related to any dark wizard; once, there had been Cho Chang’s face in the crowd, but she wasn’t there anymore. No, when Harry looked to his side, he could see Ginny there, beaming, wearing the same English team uniform—

“Quidditch,” he said, trying to urge his mind to focus. “You know, a bit like—Viktor Krum.”

“Don’t let my brother hear you,” she teased. Then a blush coloured her cheeks. “I would like it too. Sometimes I think… Ginny Weasley, the chaser who broke all the records—something that young girls who cannot fly with her brothers would look up to, you know?”

She was avoiding his eyes now; Harry nodded. “I can see you doing it,” he said earnestly.

Ginny glanced at him, her face still pink, before she took the magazine to read the next question. “Before making a Floo call, do you ever rehearse what are you going to say?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever called anyone.”

“Me neither.” She considered it for a moment. “Have you ever sent someone a love letter?”

His eyes widened. “No, of course not!”

She grinned at the panic evident on his face. “Let me try a different angle. You’ve had a date this year, right?” Harry shivered, remembering that disastrous Valentine’s Day with Cho months ago. “Did you rehearse it in your mind?”

“Ah.” He truly couldn’t remember it. “I don’t think so—not really my style.”

Her grin turned into a smirk. “You would rather be spontaneous on a date?”

“More like if I thought too much about it, I would combust internally and die.”

Her smile flickered for a moment. “This is not really how you want to feel before a date with someone you fancy.”

“That was how I felt all the time around Cho.” Her lips were twisted as if she was holding a grimace. “What?”

“Nothing, it’s just I always thought…” But Ginny shook her head, dismissing whatever was troubling her, and before Harry could say anything, she moved to the next question. “What is a perfect day for you? And I already know it’s not a rainy one.”

He threw an overdramatic offended glance at the weather outside, earning Ginny’s laugh. She had a nice laugh, Harry thought suddenly: sparkling, full of life; bright.

“Summer day,” he answered at once. “That sunny warm day, a blue cloudless sky, birds singing, green grass and—” He looked at Ginny, and imagined them flying in this picture he had painted. “Like those we had this summer.”

She nodded. “The same, but with a few clouds. I like to watch the sun filtering through the clouds.”

Harry smiled. “Okay, we can add that.”

She threw him a funny look. “It’s your perfect day.”

“We can share a perfect day,” he said, and then he felt suddenly awkward, realising that Ginny was in his vision of a perfect day. He looked down hastily at the magazine. “When did you last sing to yourself? Oh, I know this one. You sing in the shower all the time.”

She chuckled. “Yes, and I’m not ashamed of it.” Ginny winked at him. “My bottle of shampoo never once complained about being used as a microphone.” Harry laughed as well; whenever he passed in front of the bathroom when Ginny was taking a shower, he could hear her voice inside, singing one of the latest wizarding hits; the sound of her voice always made him grin. Ginny wasn’t bad; sometimes she missed a note though Harry thought it was only because she was doing it on purpose, exaggerating her favourite parts of the song. He could picture her then, shampoo bubbles around her as she sang animatedly—only if Ginny was in the shower, then the water would fall over her head, down her hair, on her bare back and— “I’ve never heard you singing.”

He gulped quickly. “Ah, I don’t.”

“Everyone does. You have a nice voice, I think you could sing well if you wanted.”

“A nice voice?”

Her face was pink once again. “Yeah, a normal voice, you don’t sound like a banshee. Anyway—if you would live to the age of 90, would you rather keep the mind or the body of a 30-year-old for the last 60 years of your life?”

“I’d say that living up to 90 would be a miracle for me.”

She threw him a sharp look. “Not funny. Next… hum, we might skip this one. So, name three things—”

He read the question she had moved past. “Do you have a secret hunch about how you will die? Come on, this one I would ace.”

“Harry—”

“At the age of 90, trying to play Quidditch when I chose the mind of a 30-year-old guy, not the body.” And, as he expected, that earned him Ginny’s amused chuckle. “Speaking of, three things we appear to have in common: first one is easy, our mutual love for Quidditch.”

“Well, we are Gryffindors so we are probably more reckless than smart, we love a nice summer day, we both agree that I’m brilliant—”

Harry snorted. “When did I say you are brilliant?”

“You don’t think I’m brilliant?”

“I never said I didn’t think it, just that I never vocalised it.”

“So you do agree I’m brilliant.” A wink; those butterfly wings tickled him. “What in your life do you feel most grateful for?”

“Hum. That I have—and had—people in my life that loved me.” He bit his lips, wondering if he’d said too much, but Ginny just nodded, thoughtful. “And you?”

“I think… I’m grateful for today. I know things are never certain, and there was one time when I thought…” She took a deep breath. “I am alive, here, today, now. And I know how special this is.”

It was not a memory that crossed his mind usually, but Harry thought about a dark chamber, water on the floor, a lifeless girl with flaming red hair—only he didn’t see the 11-year-old Ginny, but Ginny as she was today, older. That image was even more frightening than how he had felt living that moment; Ginny was so lively, so energetic, that he couldn’t imagine her like that, never again.

He shook his head and looked down. “If you could—we might skip this one. I would change everything about the way I was raised, that’s obvious.”

Her eyes flashed dangerously for a moment before she nodded. “Then the next question…” She watched him. “Share your life story in four minutes. Oh, we can skip that, I think you know mine already.”

“And, well, my life so far could fill about five books, I don’t think it would take only four minutes.” Harry snorted. “This one is nice: if you could wake up having gained any one quality or ability, what it would be?”

“Oh, no, I cannot choose one. I wish I could fly, that I could actually concentrate during classes, that I could be more moderate.”

“Hum.” He sighed, amused. “I was thinking about the same, your last one; sometimes I wish I could think more before acting. But also…” He shrugged. “Sometimes it was all I had.”

She gave him a sympathetic nod. “It’s who you are. Not all your impulses are bad.”

“But when they are… people end up hurt.”

“No.” Ginny’s eyes were hard. “People get hurt because other people hurt them. Not you. You wouldn’t hurt a soul.” She turned the page of the magazine. “If a crystal ball—no, Divination is just random nonsense. Let’s see—is there something that you’ve dreamed of doing for a long time? Why haven’t you?”

It had nothing to do with the question, he knew, because that question was about accomplishments or plans, but Harry had dreamed about Ginny the last night. It was not unusual; his days were filled with so much activity, so bright unlike any other summer he had ever had, that at night he usually relived those moments, his brain trying to deal with everything; sometimes his dream would add colourful details that made no sense. His latest dream had almost slipped away from his mind, as dreams do, but then Harry had a faint memory of flying with Ginny, only they were on the ground, and everything around themwas tsuspended in the air, swirling around them like a hurricane, and the only gravity was her presence—

“No dreams,” he said hurriedly, then he remembered what the question really meant it. “I mean—there’s this dark lord I would like to vanquish—"

“It shouldn’t be your responsibility,” she mumbled, more to herself than to him. Then Ginny shook her head, still adamant about keeping things light. “I dream about locking Ron and Hermione in a broom shed and only letting them out when they finally snog.”

Harry shuddered exaggeratedly. “I don’t wanna see this.”

“They would be in the shed, Harry, you wouldn’t see.” She grinned. “Oh, what’s the greatest accomplishment of your life? Mine is the day Fred and George saw me flying for the first time. Merlin, the look on their faces. I wish they would forget it all over again so I could relive that moment.”

Harry nodded. “It must have been something.”

“Well, just not perfect because, you know, I was trying out for the Seeker position.”  She sighed, and they exchanged a grimace thinking about a toad professor they would rather not. “What about yours?”

“My Outstanding grade in DADA.”

“Ohh, educational accomplishment? You stun me, Harry.”

He chuckled. “I got top grades because I cast a Patronus by imagining Umbridge being expelled. Talk about a happy memory.”

She glanced at the magazine. “That would be one of the next questions, your most treasured memory.”

Harry looked down as well. “I’m skipping the question about the most terrible memory, we’ve got dementors for it. But my most treasured, actually…” He bit his lips. Ginny just looked at him, and there was something so calming about her presence that Harry found himself sharing a story he usually didn’t. “Has anyone ever told you about my first Christmas at Hogwarts?”

She frowned, thoughtful. “I remember that you and Ron stayed. And that was the year you saved the Philosopher’s Stone, right?”

Harry nodded. “That Christmas I got my father’s Invisibility Cloak. So I did what anyone would do with such a powerful cloak—”

“Sneaked around Hogwarts? Played a prank on Slytherins? Midnight trip to the kitchens?”

“I went to the library.” He waited for Ginny’s disapproved snort, and he wasn’t disappointed. She had dimples at the corner of her mouth when she smiled. “We were searching Nicholas Flamel. Anyway, I ended up having to make a quick exit to escape Filch, and that’s when I found it, the Mirror of Erised.” Ginny looked politely curious. “It’s a magic mirror. It shows your heart’s deepest desire.”

She slid closer to him, unblinking. “What did you see?”

Harry closed his eyes for a moment. “My parents. I had never seen them before, the Dursley had no photos… but I knew who they were.” He leaned his head against the couch. “Nobody else could see them, so it was just mine.”

She leaned her head as well; there was a touch of sadness in her eyes now, something that Harry understood better than he wanted. “Thank you for sharing this with me,” she whispered. “Do you want to take a pause? We don’t have to do all these questions today.”

“No, no, I’m fine.” He looked outside. “It’s still raining, so no Quidditch for us. Shot the next question.”

She didn’t look assured, but she moved her gaze down the list. “A few questions about the importance of friendship; I already know what Ron and Hermione mean for you… oh, here is one. Share five things you consider a positive characteristic of your partner.” Ginny watched him for a moment. “You are kind.”

“Kind? No one ever told me so.”

“Well, you are. Especially with people that aren’t used to kindness or in situations where others would make fun.”

He’d never thought about himself in those terms; Ginny’s voice left no room for argument, though, and he felt a sudden urge to say something about her. “You are lively. Like there is no raining day with you.”

She tilted her head. “It is raining,” she reminded him. She was right, but being around her, in that room, Harry could easily ignore any bad weather outside. “You are the bravest person I’ve met.”

“You are tough,” he shot back, trying to ignore the surge of warmth that her compliment brought him. “Not in a mean way, but like as if you could overcome any challenge.”

Her eyes were hard, blazing; they reminded Harry of diamonds. “You are smart.”

“My grades—”

“I don’t care how Snape grades you in Potions or something like that. You are intelligent, you can keep your head even in the most stressful situations, and that’s being smart.”

“Well, you are fierce. There is no middle term with you, your heart is into everything you do.”

“My heart? You are one who gives all you’ve got when you like something. I’ve seen you do this with flying or the DA or fighting Death Eaters—”

“And you are powerful, a very bright witch—your brothers were impressed, I was impressed during DA—”

Ginny blinked. “You were?”

“Yes, I—” He felt suddenly exposed, until he remembered he was supposed to be her teacher then. He had to watch her in those classes. “Your spells were always perfect, only your partner—”

His voice died, but Ginny nodded. “Michael was stupid, most of the time he was afraid to hurt me as if I couldn’t just defend myself.”

“You can,” Harry agreed without any hesitation. “You are�� you are brilliant.”

“I knew you would say it aloud.” Her smile was teasing, but she looked self-conscious. “I lost count of how many things we shared.”

“Me too,” he said, not wanting to admit that for a moment Harry had all but forgotten about what they were doing. He eyed the list of questions. “This one, if you knew that in one year you would die suddenly, would you change anything about the way you are now living?”

She considered the question. “Yes, I would be more fearless.”

Harry had to chuckle.

“How is that even possible?”

“Well, contrary to popular belief, I think before acting… sometimes.” She shrugged. “I don’t tell Bill how I really feel about his engagement. I plan on actually studying this year because I don’t want to face Mum’s disappointment. I haven’t jinxed Percy for leaving this family. I never really told you how—” Ginny blinked. “Anyway, there are things I wish I could do, and if I thought I would never get any chance to do it… It’s silly, isn’t it? We will all die, that’s the one thing anyone can be sure of, and yet we keep pretending we have countless days, so we postpone what we really want to do.”

She looked far away from him, thoughtful. Harry could understand what she meant—there was a prophecy hanging on his neck, threatening to pull him down to a bottomless lake, a recurring reminder that maybe his life would be short—but also, somehow, in that room with Ginny, feeling a scent of flowers even though the window was closed, he couldn’t worry about the future.

“Come on,” he called suddenly, grabbing Ginny’s hand and pulling her up; she startled, but followed him.

They moved quietly; Harry could hear Mrs. Weasley singing to herself in the kitchen, and she didn’t hear when they opened the front door and walked down the path leading around the house to the yard. The rain was still soft; it sprinkled their faces slowly, like the beating wings of the Golden Snitch that was flying inside Harry as he twirled in the rain with Ginny, still holding her hand, splashing water on them as he stepped on the puddles in the ground without a care in the world.

His head was spinning when he paused and turned to face Ginny. Waterdrops were clinging to her eyelashes. “I would enjoy the rain more,” he declared confidently.

The smile on her lips was infectious. “Next question,” she teased, “was to make three true statements starting with ‘we’. We are getting so grounded when Mum finds us here.”

“We are so not going to regret it.”

She laughed warmly. The Snitch inside him made a dangerous turn, dizzying him as if he had dived on his broomstick, but that whooping feeling had always been one of his favourite things about flying.

“We have fun together,” he said.

“We do.”

Harry grinned. “That didn’t count.”

“Of course it did! Let me think… We will miss this summer like no other.”

“We will,” he agreed, and winked at her. “Another question?”

She opened her magazine, not minding the rain. “Complete this sentence: ‘I wish I had someone with whom I could share—’

“Share what?”

“That’s what you have to complete.” Ginny chuckled. “I wish I had someone with whom I could share all my flights. Someone who wouldn’t ever ground me.”

I wouldn’t ever, Harry thought suddenly. Ginny was made to be in the air, free like a bird.

“What about you?”

“Ah—everything.” Through the wet lenses of his glasses, his eyes locked with hers; there were strands of her hair clinging to her face and he felt a sudden urge to pull them away from her face. “I wish I had someone with whom I could share my happiest memories.”

This would be one of them, he realised. On that warm summer day, with his feet soaked and his clothes all wet, standing under the rain with Ginny in front of the Burrow, it dawned on him that he was at peace—that he was happy.

It was such a strange otherworldly feeling that it took Harry a few seconds to notice that Ginny was reading the magazine again.

“You are a good person,” she said, and that broke through his reverie.

“How so?”

“The question to tell your partner what you like about them, something that you might not say to someone you’ve just met.” Ginny’s gaze was soft. “You could be sorrowful. You could act as if life was unfair. You could be mean. But you are good, and that’s because you have a good heart and that’s who you are. That’s what—that’s what I like about you.”

Her voice shivered just a bit, but Ginny didn’t break the eye contact. His cheeks burned.

“You are no quitter,” he whispered. “Ginny Weasley doesn’t listen when others tell her something it’s impossible—you would never give up on anything, and that’s something I admire about you.”

She looked away for a moment, whispering something that Harry couldn’t hear.

There was a moment of silence; he felt suddenly awkward about what he had just said. “These questions are very personal,” he said, running a hand through his hair nervously, and moving to stay closer to the wall of the Burrow, under the roof and safe from the rain.

Something in his voice seemed to spark her back to herself. “The whole point of this article is that intimacy leads to love,” Ginny said, shaking her head to share her disbelief with him as she joined him. The rain had thickened, tapping on the roof over their heads. “Question 29 – share… oh, no, I am not answering this one.”

“What?” He asked, curious.

“Share an embarrassing moment in your life.” As Harry just kept looking at her, his expression unchanging, Ginny sighed exaggeratedly. “Your eyes are as green as—”

“As fresh pickled toad!” He finished suddenly, the first verse of the poem coming back easily to him. Ginny’s face was burning like the setting sun then, a sight that Harry hadn’t seen in years. “Was it really you?”

She groaned. “How many girls were crushing on you back then?”

He had to concede that. “I thought it might have been Fred and George, it sounded like something they would do.”

“As much as I would like to blame this one on my brothers, no, all me.” Her cheeks were still pink. “Well, I know it was your most embarrassing moment—”

“No, I mean, twelve-year-old Harry was embarrassed, but if it happened nowadays, I would—” Take it as a compliment, he’d meant to say, but now he was picturing a different Valentine’s Day—maybe in that same hideous place he had visited in Hogsmeade, only Ginny would be sitting with him, and they would have a laugh about the decoration, those pink hearts; she would send him a Valentine card just to tease him, and so would Harry, only he didn’t know what he could rhyme with your eyes are as brown as a pool of melted chocolate—

“I hope my poem skills are better nowadays than back then,” Ginny said, and the light teasing in her voice was enough to disperse his thoughts. “So what was your most embarrassing moment?”

“Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop,” he said. Without Ginny in the picture, it was easy to know the answer. “Have you ever felt so out of place?”

“That place has that effect,” she agreed. Ginny was shaking her head in sympathy, and it suddenly occurred to Harry—not that he should mind—that Ginny had been there before and though he had just imagined himself with her there, he suddenly couldn’t see her in that tea shop with anyone else.

It wasn’t Ginny at all.

He picked the magazine. It was soaked, the pages starting to dissolve, but he managed to read the last question.

“Of all the people in your family, whose death would you find most disturbing?”

Ginny turned to look to the Burrow, her face wrinkled. Harry regretted asking the question—that was a theme he understood better than most, and he couldn’t ever choose whose death has impacted him the most—

“Percy,” she mumbled. “Right now, it would be him. I haven’t talked to him in… nearly a year.”

“He will come along,” Harry assured her at once. “He just needs some time.”

Ginny watched him, her head slightly tilted. “You would be okay with him, wouldn’t you?” She asked; her voice betrayed a hint of amazement. “Percy believed all the lies the Ministry said about you and yet you would not hold against him.”

He held the back of his neck, unsure. “He wasn’t thinking clearly.”

“No, he was. But he made a mistake and you—you never judge anyone by their worst. That’s so you.”

“That’s good?”

“Yes,” Ginny said softly. “You are more than enough.” She smiled to herself before shaking her head. “Well, I think the last question was about advising the other about a personal problem, and you’ve just done it for me. So—any problem you want to share with me? I’ve been told – well, I tell myself anyway – that I am an excellent adviser.”

She was inviting him to join her tease, a glint in her eyes—Harry found himself entranced by the depth of her eyes. Passionate rhymed with chocolate – if he could make it work in the second verse of his poem, he would have the perfect combination to her chocolate-brown eyes—

And then he remembered.

“You’ve also done it already for me,” he said, the memory fresh on his mind. “A few months ago, when you told me I could find a way to talk with… with Sirius.” Hope, Harry remembered. Talking to Ginny that day had sparked a feeling that anything might be possible, indeed, as if a small fire had been lit inside him and kept burning even in the darkest days.

“Chocolate in the library,” Ginny said; her smile looked almost nostalgic as she stared into the rain. Harry wondered if she was reliving that moment also.

There was a moment of silence, broken only by the tapping rhythm of the rain; it sounded like a song, and then it occurred to Harry that there were multiple possibilities of where a raindrop would fall, so many factors that it was unlikely the sound he heard now would be ever repeated. It was a song just for him and Ginny.

“Feeling in love already?” Ginny asked suddenly, her voice teasingly even as she kept staring ahead. “I don’t think we went through all the questions, so I am not sure it counts as a failure for the test.”

Harry glanced at the magazine, unreadable now. “Er—I don’t think we will finish it. I may have to buy you a new magazine.”

“Don’t mind it.”

He shrugged. “I wanted to complete the test.”

“Oh, it was silly, and you know it. There is no fail-safe way of falling in love—just as you cannot force someone to fall out of love. Those things just happen, or they don’t.” She sighed to herself.

“Maybe it doesn’t work,” Harry agreed slowly. “But I had fun, I mean, it was nice. I feel closer to you—that was one of the points of this test, right?”

She turned to him then; they were cloistered close, Harry noticed suddenly, sharing the same roof by the window, so close that he could see the dark shade of brown that circled her eyes, and the tiny spots of honey sprinkled inside. Her eyes were warm, captivating; he could stare at Ginny for hours, and yet Harry felt he would still find a detail he hadn’t noticed before in her eyes—

“Perhaps we shouldn’t do this,” Ginny noted, her voice rough. “I think the last part of the test was to keep eye contact for a few minutes.”

And indeed, she turned away, taking a step ahead and rejoining the rain. “Since we are going to get grounded anyway,” she said, once again bright, “do you want to play Stormy Quidditch?”

Harry lifted his eyebrows. “How is that different from normal Quidditch?”

“You will get mud all over yourself.” He looked pointedly at his legs; jumping into puddles was not the best idea to keep one clean. Ginny giggled. “It will get worse,” she promised, then she ran down the path to the broom shed. With the rain falling heavier now, all Harry could spot was the flash of her red hair.

He laughed as he ran to join her; the rain soaked him at once, almost like a shower. Maybe his perfect day had nothing to do with the weather after all.

[seriouslysam8]

Since it’s almost Ginny’s birthday…. What does Ginny’s birthdays look like after the war? After her and Harry have kids?

I love the thought of Harry and the kids always making her breakfast in bed. They bake their own cake too. Harry is patient with the kids too even though it looks like a bomb exploded in their kitchen.

Harry totally gives her a talking card every year, attempting to match her mad poem skills but never quite being up to par with her.

The big thing is, the Potters spend the day together (schedule permitting). If they can't have a family day because it's during a busy workweek and they can't take off, they make plans for the weekend.

I feel like Harry's gift giving skills steadily improved over the years. Like at first, our boy had no idea what to even buy. He realized Ginny likes sentimental or handmade gifts the best.

[maniacalgenius]

heyyyy everyone!!!

so!! i had my exam(s) yesterday. 64/75 on the solo one and 71/75 on the group one, which i’m happy with. of course i’ve already put the numbers into my spreadsheet, and i will only need 2/3 of the points on the last exam (which isn’t cumulative! whoop!) to keep my A.

since the pressure is so little for the third exam, i’m taking it as an opportunity to practice studying really well for exams, so i can feel confident about my ability to do so in the fall.

it’s been a pretty chill last day and a half; after my exam yesterday, i picked up food and went to study with my best friend at her house. (we planned this earlier because she was stressed. i forgot to ask the prof to send me the next lecture to study, so i mostly just yapped and drew flowers on my iPad.)

then my mom and i went to the bookstore to get a present for a friend. (of course, after i found said present, i also found something for another friend and stuff for school for myself.) then we went home, i took a shower, went to bed and i was asleep by like eleven. (ahh, the life.)

this morning i had a very nice surprise, which was that my organic chemistry professor from last fall/unofficial mentor was in her office! so i was able to bring her early birthday presents and had a nice little visit with her! and i got to say hi to the prof i had in the spring, who is also lovely :)

it’s a long story but basically she was the first prof to treat me like a person and not an aggregation of grades. going to her for help shut off my fight or flight response and allowed me to just try my best. since last fall, i go to her office all the time to study and chat. and i drive her son to and from places when she’s busy with class :) i’ve decided that i’m going to call her dr. sandwich here for anonymity.

anyways! after that i had some time before class and my prof had sent me the lecture so i went to the student center and took notes. class itself was really nice today; she did an extra credit activity, so i’m glad i was there for that.

after class i came home and worked on my little painting for my best friend’s birthday. i can’t wait until it’s done!! and until i get to give it to her next week!! then my mom and i had dinner and i studied some more. didn’t use the forest app because i was simultaneously watching Harry Potter and that felt like it would be cheating 😂

here are some pictures from the past few days:

1. my little brought me flowers when she came to visit and when the sunflower was finally on its last leg my mom decided to use it for one of her projects!

2. snowball!!!! in this house we are all about the Little Treats

3. baby blanket i made for my big sister to give to her friend :)

4. new (ish) lunar chronicles covers!!! i want this set so badly :] (i’m pretty sure this is the second time that i have taken a picture of these covers and added it to the “books i want” album in my phone 😂)

5. the flowers i drew on procreate while i yapped and my friend studied!! the blue one is my favorite, the other ones were more of a warm-up but i still love them <3

the plan for the rest of today is: read my Bible, get ready, go pick up my friend and go to our other friend’s birthday gathering, take friend home, go home and go to bed :))

here is my plan of attack for the next exam:

- notes on part 12, quizlet 12 (it’s amazing what you can get done with the help of Harry Potter)

- notes on part 13, quizlet 13

- notes on part 14, quizlet 14

- notes on part 15, quizlet 15

- read through all flashcards twice

- star most important terms

- memorize important terms

hopefully i will be able to keep myself motivated to keep up as we get through the different parts. only three left!! i’m going to try to get ahead this weekend since a friend is coming to stay at my house next week in between moving apartments; i’m also going to spend this weekend trying to make progress towards fixing my sleep schedule.

☙ song on loop: while doing notes today on campus i had “temporary bliss” by the cab playing.

☙ current book: last night i finished rereading the sorcerer’s stone!! i was definitely not half falling asleep. i don’t have the chamber of secrets on iBooks sadly and i don’t want to pull my physical copy off the shelf because i already have too many physical books that i’m trying to read floating around in my house, so i think my next comfort re-read will be another childhood favorite series, the sisters grimm.

☙ hours studied today: on my little app i have 40 minutes spent studying so far today. however! i also used it during class to keep myself from getting distracted because it blocks everything else on my phone, so i have another 1 hour and 9 minutes from that. hopefully this method will work in the fall when i have a bunch more hours to spend in class.

that’s all for now folks!!

xx

[t1oui]

currently working on a hermione-centric muggle modern au with a side of best friends!ginny and cedric and here are my headcanons for them

they're both trans

shared interest is gay (bi and pan) panicking

they're astrology girlies

complete jocks who watch every football game together (their parents got tired of the screaming so now they either invade harry's house or watch with cho)

they have matching vans (cedric's are yellow, ginny's are pink)

both OBSESSED with chappell roan

spend friday nights mutually pining for pedro pascal via watching ever piece of media he's been in ever (including those merge mansion ads)

they coordinate at least one outfit a week and refuse to acknowledge it

they are forever single and ready to mingle (they have no game actually) and their valentine's day tradition is getting ice cream that is 99% toppings and watching cheesy rom-coms together

sleepovers almost every weekend

they always take mixed-grade electives so they can have at least a few classes together

once again they are forever single and always plan the most elaborate proposals to ask each other to school dances

they're the type of people to fake propose to each other in restaurants for free dessert

ginny got cedric a sherlock holmes hat with "thinking cap" written on it in sparkly glitter pen and he wears it unironically

the most elaborate matching halloween costumes

lots of cuddles (especially when one of them is sad, especially if it's about crushes)

when they finally start dating people they DEFINITELY need help (read: hermione granger) because they both freeze when they talk to pretty people.

both of them have had crushes on blaise zabini before

cedric is obsessed with regulus black (one of harry's parents) after finding out he's trans and ginny whole-heartedly supports this

they have a "secret handshake" that changes every time they do it because they can never remember what it is

both of them have adhd btw. enter james potter, local adhd dilf and another one of harry's parents, who they both drool over on a daily basis

constantly in harry's houses bc they're in love with his parents (james, reg, mary, lily... take your pic, the duo are obsessed with all of them)

every year molly buys them matching ugly christmas sweaters and they wear them the entire week leading up to winter break

molly also takes them shopping because she thinks their friendship is adorable

cedric and his parents go over to the weasleys' for christmas dinner every year

(cedric used to have a crush on percy from ages 7 to like 12 or something. percy knows and is pleased with himself. ginny knows and is mortified.)

would totally kiss in the name of bi/pan solidarity and immediately find it disgusting. and then they'd do it again

(alex claremont-diaz and nora holleran vibes)

when they're not in the mood for talking they read together by a window... they annotate books for each other <3

you never see them without each other except when they're in class. they could have classes across campus from each other but the second that bell rings they're arm-in-arm

they love buying each other trinkets

they have 100 friendship bracelets but the main ones they wear are pink and yellow to match their shoes

they also each have a pair of shoes in the other's color so they can switch or mix and match if they want to. you know, for the vibes.

matching rings

they got their ears pierced together for ginny's birthday because she was too nervous to do it alone

they get matching butterfly tattoos on their ankles :) ced's is pink with yellow details and ginny's is yellow with pink details bc they're just best friends ok.

this post is really fucking long so i'm going to end it here long story short I LOVE GINNY AND CEDRIC AS BEST FRIENDS AND I WILL SPREAD MY GINNY/CED BEST FRIEND AGENDA TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.