#hp canon pairings romantic

[runin-reads]

James/Lily vs James/Sirius: a case of accidental queer coding

Jily (James/Lily) is a pairing central to the HP universe in the sense that had they not been married, Harry Potter, the main character, would cease to exist and neither would his story as we know it. Yet we are left with only a few brief glimpses of their relationship in canon whilst other pairings are textually far more fleshed out– take Prongsfoot (James/Sirius), for example, who are frequently portrayed as The Duo, not just by those closest to them (Lupin) but by many others too such as McGonagall, Flitwick and so on. Harry himself could see how close they were during SWM in OOTP and this is someone who had a very limited time with Sirius and close to none with James. 

Queercoding is described as “the subtextual coding of a character in media as queer. Though such a character's sexual identity may not be explicitly confirmed within their respective work, a character might be coded as queer through the use of traits and stereotypes recognisable to the audience.” One character comes to mind when I think of “queercoding” and that’s Sirius Black. He’s estranged from his family, goes against the norms associated with his upbringing, there’s no mention of any ex-girlfriends and most notably he has intense love and devotion for his male best friend; James Potter.  At first glance, James had led an incredibly hetero-normative life by virtue of his wife and son, but through his relationship to Sirius there’s leeway to reach a queer reading of him as well. 

As recognised by countless characters and even Sirius himself, Prongsfoot come in a two-for-one deal:

“Do you remember who his best friend was?”  “Naturally,” said Madam Rosmerta, with a small laugh. “Never saw one without the other, did you? The number of times I had them in here — ooh, they used to make me laugh. Quite the double act, Sirius Black and James Potter!”  “Black and Potter. Ringleaders of their little gang. Both very bright, of course — exceptionally bright, in fact…”  “You’d have thought Black and Potter were brothers!” chimed in Professor Flitwick. “Inseparable!” 

The use of the word “brothers” in the above quote is one reason why fans don’t interpret Prongsfoot as queer-coded and/or romantic. However, it’s important to note that Sirius never referred to James as a brother, and there’s no canonical proof to suggest that Flitwick was close to James and Sirius– he was their teacher, not their friend or confidant. He isn’t calling them “brothers” either but rather he’s saying that word to express how strong their bond was. Hence why I believe an exclusively fraternal reading of their relationship doesn’t hold much weight. 

They are, however, established as each other’s closest friend and most trusted confidant. 

“Harry had the distinct impression that Sirius was the only one for whom James would have stopped showing off.” “Potter trusted Black beyond all his other friends. Nothing changed when they left school. Black was the best man when James married Lily. Then they named him godfather to Harry.  “I persuaded Lily and James to change to Peter at the last moment, persuaded them to use him as Secret-Keeper instead of me.”  “Lily and James only made you Secret-Keeper because I suggested it,” Black hissed

On multiple occasions James and Sirius were described as a unit– The Unit– within their friend group. Lupin said they were “the cleverest students in the school.” They were the “ringleaders” of the Marauders; always on the same page and in agreement with each other.

“Then, with identical fluid movements, they reached into their back pockets.” 

Even during their very first encounter, they quickly and effortlessly become a team. 

“Got a problem with that?”  “No,” said Snape, though his slight sneer said otherwise. “If you’d rather be brawny than brainy–” “Where’re you hoping to go, seeing as you’re neither?” interjected Sirius.  James roared with laughter.

This excerpt from DH also neatly sums up the Marauders group dynamic:

“To Sirius’s right stood Pettigrew, more than a head shorter, plump and watery-eyed, flushed with pleasure at his inclusion in this coolest of gangs, with the much-admired rebels that James and Sirius had been. On James’s left was Lupin, even then a little shabby-looking, but he had the same air of delighted surprise at finding himself liked and included” 

Lily herself acknowledged Sirius’ importance in James’ life in her letter to Sirius, where she all but says that only he could lift James’ mood whilst the Potters’ were hiding from Voldemort’s forces. 

“James is getting a bit frustrated shut up here, he tries not to show it but I can tell — also, Dumbledore’s still got his Invisibility Cloak, so no chance of little excursions. If you could visit, it would cheer him up so much.” 

On the other hand, Jily is portrayed in a less compelling way for lack of better words. I spoke about this in my other meta but to summarise it briefly: Lily is James’ wife, the mother of his son and… that’s pretty much it. In the books they’re barely spoken about as a couple, unlike Prongsfoot who are always mentioned together as if they were a package deal– which they were, as recognised by practically everyone. That’s not to say Jily has zero textual backing, though it is far and few between.

“How come she married him?” Harry asked miserably. “She hated him!”  “Nah, she didn’t,” said Sirius.  “She started going out with him in seventh year,” said Lupin.  “Once James had deflated his head a bit,” said Sirius.  “And stopped hexing people just for the fun of it,” said Lupin. 

Conclusion

What we do know about James and Lily’s relationship is limited to the following: Lily disliked James because he and Snape were enemies, James developed feelings for her first, they began dating in seventh year once James had matured, they got married when they were nineteen to twenty years old, had a child together. The end. 

On the contrary, James and Sirius are constantly implied to be each other’s closest, most loyal friend; each other’s most trusted confidant. They are equals in every conceivable way. Both were popular, from wealthy backgrounds  and intelligent. Throughout the entire series Sirius’ only priority was Harry, James’ son. He went through unfathomable lengths to protect Harry: he was the first to escape Azkaban, he snuck into Hogwarts with all the dementors around and lived off rats during the GOF so he could be close to Harry, the last piece of James he had left. 

There’s also evidence to suggest Sirius was a narrative parallel to Snape. There are two adults in Harry’s life who sought to protect him due to their respective relationships with one of his parents. Snape was a double agent for Dumbeldore out of love for Lily; Sirius escaped Azkaban to protect Harry out of love for him, an extension of his love for James. 

All these factors are  why I believe that by not fleshing out Lily as a character and Jily as a couple, JKR accidentally queer-coded Prongsfoot. 

[greenerteacups]

favorite relationship (non romantic or otherwise) in the hp canon? one thing I love about lionheart is Harry and hermione’s friendship - criminally overlooked in the books imo pidgeonholing hermione into only the “nagging mum” role for so much of it ! these two are siblings!

interesting parameters! my favorite non-romantic relationship in canon is ron and harry, actually. i think that hermione has great friendships with both of them, but the sheer intensity of the bond between ron and harry is unmatched anywhere outside romantic pairings in the books. harry latches onto him basically at first sight and imprints like a baby goose, and goes, "excellent, at last, a Friend; i will now spend all of my time and attention on you Forever." what's that? hungry you say? sad you say? i will buy you All The Food. then draco "definitely homeschooled" malfoy rocks up with his hilariously incompetent friend overtures and harry says right that's cool, but you threw shade at ron, so you can fuck right off forever. i've had this weird little ginger in my life for less than a day and if anything happens to him i'd kill myself. bye.

and ron drinks! it! up! because he's never had it! he's never been First for someone before, and he LOVES it! and he responds by becoming an instant ride-or-die for harry. that's not a reading, either, that's straight up text: in book 3, ron says, verbatim, "if you want to kill harry, you'll have to kill me." and he's thirteen!! takes him about five minutes to get there, too — in the ten weeks they've known each other before christmas break, eleven-year-old ron weasley tells his MOM about his new cool friend, and whatever he writes is so glowingly effusive that molly knits harry a goddamn family sweater (if you knit, you Know) without having stone cold met the kid! not to mention — ron (at eleven! eleven years old, ron weasley!) decides to pass up his only chance to see his parents until june, not to mention missing his family christmas, so he can stay at hogwarts and keep harry company! because harry potter will never be lonely if ron weasley can help it!!

basically. ron and harry are the original platonic soulmates. they ARE the catherine-heathcliff "he's more myself than i am" dig-up-his-grave-so-you-can-lie-in-it type of love. they are each other's destiny and each other's choice.

[saintsenara]

Hey, I've been enjoying going through your takes on various hp ships, and I haven't seen this one. Did I miss it? What do you think of Ginny/Luna??

thank you very much for the ask, anons!

i've hinted at my views on linny in various places, but they don't yet have a dedicated post. so let's rectify that...

while i have a lot of time for the idea of both ginny and luna as queer, i'm sorry to say that linny is a victim of my general view when it comes to luna-centric pairings: that fics in which it's presented as something which works depend on the presence of fanon!luna, who is a beautiful clairvoyant ray-of-sunshine, rather than canon!luna, who is a stubborn conspiracist with the vibes of a golden retriever which can speak.

i don't doubt that ginny is incredibly fond of luna - nor that luna's positive characteristics [like her resilience, loyalty, kindness, and courage] must have been an enormous comfort to her while they're stuck at hogwarts with snape and the carrows - but her fondness always reads as the same sort of fondness you might have for a friend's precocious toddler. it's nice eye-rolling, but it's eye-rolling nonetheless.

which i think adds a slightly condescending element to their relationship which often gets left out of its portrayals in fanfiction, in both the platonic and the romantic sense. ginny and luna become closer just as ginny approaches her hot girl era [and, may i say, the implication of canon is that they're barely acquaintances prior to order of the phoenix, rather than childhood friends], and ginny's interest in keeping her around is evidently rooted in the fact that she views luna as unthreatening - her making luna take harry to ravenclaw tower in deathly hallows instead of cho always sends me, because she basically says "luna, you're unfuckable" and luna jumps up like "right you are!" - to her during her teenage peak. it's not exactly giving "christ, i think you're gorgeous"...

except, of course, that this doesn't matter in the slightest because this is fanfiction - the entire point is for two characters to be shoved together and made to realise they think the other is beautiful! i am perfectly amenable to the idea that linny can be written in which ginny and luna like and respect and are fucking obsessed with each other and which also feels coherent to both of their canon characterisations - and i love that for anyone who's a fan of the ship.

i just don't entirely think i am...

[there's also the... slightly discourse-y point, which is that linny often feels thrown into fics as a secondary ship as a way to enable a harry-centric slash pairing in a way which doesn't require the author to think about unravelling harry and ginny's canonical relationship.]

[i don't think there's anything wrong with this, per se - i break hinny up all the time, authors should be free to do whatever the fuck they want with their stories, not all fics need to do a completely canon-coherent wrangling with the canon couples they're breaking up in order to have their blorbos kiss, and i am increasingly uncomfortable with how some of the discussion i've seen recently pushing back, rightfully, on the misogynistic treatment of female characters in slash subfandoms is starting to sound a lot like "our canon het is pure and good and their non-canon slash is incomprehensible and wrong".]

[but i do nonetheless think it's worth being aware of a fandom tendency to make femslash relationships a throwaway line in order to enable m/m slash ones - and to think about how just smashing two female characters together without exploring how the relationship would align with their canon personalities doesn't necessarily help...]

[hpcestfest]

Prompting for HP Cest Fest 2024 is OPEN! ☕️

Prompting Schedule

Prompts Open: Wednesday, April 17, 2024 9:00am EDT Prompts Close: Wednesday, May 1, 2024 10:00pm EDT

👉 A few of our rules have changed this year, so make sure to thoroughly review our Fest Guidelines before prompting! (Particularly regarding Original Characters!)

👉 Please use THIS FORM to submit your prompts. The form will remain active from April 17th through May 1st, and you may submit up to 10 prompts. Hold on to your Self-prompts for the claiming period!

👉 All accepted prompts will be available to view on the Airtable Prompt Gallery HERE. Anyone can submit a prompt; you will NOT be required to submit a claim in order to submit a prompt and vice versa.

2024 Prompting Update: We will be starting fresh with prompting this year, so claiming previous years' prompts will not be accepted. However, you are welcome to re-submit your old prompt(s) for this year's consideration!

Join our Official Fest Discord - for participants and followers!

Prompting Guidelines

What counts as incest?

All works submitted must be around one or more romantic incestuous relationships. For the parameters of this fest, we allow any of the following to be considered incestuous…

Incestuous Relationships (Canonical or AU):

• Blood Relatives • By-Law Relatives • Step-Relatives • Adoptive Relatives • God-Relatives • Self-cest

2024 Rules Update: OCs are welcome! Be that an original relative that is paired with a canon (book series, films, and extended universe) character (i.e., Harry Potter/OC Adoptive Parent or Child) OR in terms of putting a name to a character who exists in canon, though we may not know their full name. (I.E. Mr Brown/Lavender Brown)

All romantic relationships must be established AFTER the characters have been officially named relatives in some fashion and are aware of this relationship. (I.E. NO previous Draco/Harry before James marries Lucius; NO Sirius/Harry until after Harry is aware he is his Godfather)

This fest welcomes all characters from the Harry Potter extended universe, including games/extended HP properties/Fantastic Beasts, etc)

If you are unsure if your pairing is applicable, feel free to contact the Mods at hpcestfestmod@gmail.com or shoot us an Ask.

2024 Fest Schedule

Prompts Open: Wednesday, April 17, 2024 9:00am EDT Prompts Close: Wednesday, May 1, 2024 10:00pm EDT Claims Open: Saturday, May 4, 2024 9:00am EDT Claims Close: Friday, June 28, 2024 10:00pm EDT Submissions Due: Sunday, June 30, 2024 11:59pm EDT Anon Posting Begins: Sunday, July 7, 2024 Anon Posting Ends: Sunday, August 11, 2024 Creator Reveals: Monday, August 19, 2024 9:00am EDT

Please review our Fest Guidelines for further details! You can also find all of our Fest Forms here!

[winfleure]

been obsessed w/ different types of worldbuilding so if you’re a certified™ yapper who likes to worldbuild, headcanon, make boards & playlists & gush abt ur chars & ships like me, hmu !!! under the cut is more info abt me & my style !! also many options can be combined too !!

general plots:

medieval / modern/slice of life fantasy (ex. frieren, the hobbit, etc.)

supernatural (can be integrated w/ human society or just their own)

mythology (reincarnated?)

bands/musicians/actors/influencers/celebs universe

crime/mafia/assassins/corruption universe

(slice of life) utopian/dystopian/cyberpunk/sci-fi/horror-esque apocalypse

murder mystery-inspired universe!!! (ex. only murders in the building, clue)

traveling circus troupe! (modern or historical/supernatural) (ex. cirque du soleil)

fandom settings:

pokemon setting

hp/hogwarts-golden trio setting (anti j.k.r)

one piece setting

genshin impact setting

boku no hero / my hero academia academia setting

manhwa webcomics setting (esp. isekai, superpowers, climbing the tower subgenre)

iyashikei/slice of life genre (ex. aria the animation, yokohama shopping log)

hiya! i’m VI! 25+, s/her, pst! i’m looking for 21+ (prefer 23+) long-term discord rpers who are interested in writing queer & possibly mature rps! if interested, pls do like this message, reply to me and/or dm me (either here or discord - eboyzoro / i'm more active on discord). open to ongoing partners & new partners raHHH ^3^

rating: 3/3/3

some genres i enjoy are: action, adventure, alternative universe, apocalypse, bands/celebrities, comedy, crime, detective, fairytales, fandom, fantasy, horror, magical, mystery, romance, cyberpunk/science fiction, slice of life, soulmates, superpowers, supernatural, thriller & more

some dynamics i enjoy: familial, platonic, romantic, sexual, antagonistic // friends to lovers, strangers to lovers, roommates/coworkers to lovers, enemies/rivals to lovers // angst, fluff, hurt/comfort, slow burn & nsfw (w/ plot ofc!) i have some ❌ no banned faces except for the regular criteria (ask if unsure!) also not into, noncon, incest, physical abuse, pregnancy but i am 👌 with: cnc/cdc, toxic relationships, power imbalances, and (short-medium) age gaps

faces: have premade ocs on rotation but open to creating more! most the fcs i use are musician/kidol fcs but i also use actor fcs as well!

shipping: m/m & f/f only! prefer to double up but not necessary

open to: ocs, canons and crossovers! also open to animanga faces as long as they have a real face counterpart! additionally i'm open to animanga oc x oc queer romantic/sexual and/or platonic/familial/antagonistic (any pairing) plots!

i enjoy: * talking & yapping & being friends ooc !! headcanons, char/ship dev, worldbuilding, pinterest/spotify, fun tingz

activity: relaxed/low/sporadic, energy/time dependent, hours to weeks but i'll let you know if i'm not feeling a thread/plot anymore

plotting style: * mutual !! plotting/brainstorming

writing style: 50-300+ wc, 3rd person, past/present tense

discord style: i use private servers & tupperbox, i use bold+italics for text formatting, i dont use gifs but idm if u do

* i want us BOTH to be engaged / interested ooc & ic otherwise i lose muse / interest in our rps, sawry yall but this is absolute for me!

[department-of-landing-strategies]

Quick thoughts on two person ships that I've seen in the fics I like or read fics for in both HP and RWBY

Percy x Penelope: I like it it's cute. Ginny catching them snogging would probably have a greater impact on canon if Penny was someone the Weasleys had a vocal opinion of.

Percy x Audrey: It's cute in fanfic. In canon though, it suffers from the thing of canon Audrey is just a name.

Percy x Oliver: This fits into so many of my favourite tropes, it's kind of hilarious. I think this was my first Percy ship.

Percy x Marcus: Character I love shipped with a charater that absolutely would go to hell and back for the other is probably the quickest way to get me to ship two characters and Flintley isn't any different. This is my favourite Percy two person ship, hands down

Percy x Anyone in Harry's year or Ginny's year: Not getting into specific ships because this is the most common theme of Percy ships that I end up filtering out. Personally, I only see it happening post second wizarding war after both members have left Hogwarts, and I have to be in a really specific mood to read fics for these types of ships. However, depending on who Percy is shipped with, it can be cute

Penelope x Audrey: I love these two together in fanfic and I love the versatility. If you thought Perciver fit a lot of tropes, then this ship can fit more because again canon Audrey is just a name.

Penelope x Fred: I think my enjoyment of this ship heavily depends on how Fred is characterized. These two in a ship read to me as Bookworm x Prankster, and I'm really not a fan of that trope. It absolutely doesn't help that the twins are tied for my least favourite (I don't hate them but I like the other siblings better) of the book Wesley children.

Oliver x Marcus: I like the ship, and I think it's a good rivals to lovers ship. I'm pretty sure the only reason I've dropped a FlintWood fic is because I didn't vibe with the non-Flintwood ships in the fic

Ruby x Weiss: White Rose I think is partly as popular as it is because of the thing of pair off the spares. However, unlike a lot of couples I've seen with that thing, their canon interactions are pretty cute. On the other hand, their canon status of getting partnered during initiation does help their cause.

Ruby x Blake: I know I've said it for basically most of the other ships on the list but it's cute. I think I got into this ship with either a Team RWBY poly fic or a Beauty and the Beast retelling that used Ladybug

Ruby x Jaune: I like their friendship and I think a romantic relationship would be fine. I don't really ship it myself but I can see the appeal.

Weiss x Blake: I like it. However, I think it would be better in the later seasons rather than when they were in Beacon.

Weiss x Yang: Freezerburn, my beloved. I know with recent events, it's absolutely not going to be canon, but imma just vibe with their dynamic with fanfic

Weiss x Pyrrha: I think this is my favourite Weiss ship. There's a possibility of one-sided rivalry to lovers while in Beacon, and I think that's my favourite trope the ship could fall into

Weiss x Jaune: Personally prefer a friendship between the two but the volume 9 white knight moments were cute

Blake x Yang: It's cute. I'm glad they got made canon, and I want to see more cute canon moments between the two if the show does somehow get another volume. In the meantime, I will be chilling with fanfic.

Blake x Sun: Like Bumblebee, its cute. I also don't want to see discourse between it and Bumblebee.

Blake x Adam: The exception to my Blake ships that I've read are cute. The stuff I've read have sometimes had this as a past relationship for Blake and it should stay a past relationship.

Yang x Neo: Would be an interesting friendship post s3 but I don't feel comfortable shipping them romantically with recent canon events even with the Neo age discourse I've seen.

[hp-confessions]

I honestly just fully believe that HP is just too big to die

JKR is a garbage human, she's horrible, she's disgusting, the moment she drops dead I'm going to be so damn happy

But the thing is that at this moment HP has 519,075 fics on Ao3

That's a stupid large amount the only thing bigger then it is the MCU

Any random side character you get attached to in HP you will likely find at least 300 fics for

Rolanda Hooch? 1,126 

Hannah Abbot? 3,616 

Charlie Weasley? 11,490

So like yeah you should read other books but unless you get lucky and really end up loving like LOTR or ASOFAI it's just not the same

It's just sometimes when it comes to fandom it doesn't actually have as much to do with the source material as you think

yeah i could read/watch 100s of other magic based series and i do! But I end up falling back onto HP because fandom wise it's just not the same

Merlin (BBC) for example is one I've seen thrown around as a replacement and one I have seen and read/write for

Merlin has 63,610 fics but out of those 32,933 are the top ship Merthur with the closest after being a little under 5k

So like great if you like Merthur this fandom is perfect for you

But anything else?? not really. you can maybe find a few things if you get lucky and end up loving a canon ship or something but there's just not much else and I know from writing most people here don't want to read much else either

which is fine and fair but means I don't fit very well

which is a similar issue with another series people like to recommend

Little Witch Academia

it has 3,205 fics which is a good amount for a random anime imo

but looking at the numbers its similar to Merlin in that the fandom seems very decided on what ship they care about with the top ship having 2k vs the second place romantic pairing at 310

So again if you love that ship Great! you will fit right in. If not? well that fandoms not for you then

And yeah Fic numbers are not everything and should not be everything but when something is that big??? you really just think it's going to fully go away? like honestly? is it just wishful thinking or what

like I could go into how fandom fests seem to be happening at all times in the hp fandom

Like i think the Marauders side of the fandom popping up so heavily from TikTok of all places is proof enough that it won't

I don't know i just think it's never going to die out like some people like to hope and that it's better to have people in the fandom that hate JKR then for all people with a conscience to leave and let it become a TERF wasteland

I just don't think its a good idea to leave TERFS to feel safe here because I do fully think that as long as all those fanfics exist there will always be more people finding it

People who are less online who don't know as much about how horrible of a human she is

In my opinion i think the best possible thing we will get is if people stop buying things she makes to the point where it's no longer even profitable and she just stops

i don't think that's really possible either but a guy can wish and hope

~

[dracomort]

I never really knew that Taco exist before reading your fics. I was kinda just scrolling for Tomarry and came upon your fic Echos. I quite like the fic and decide to check your profile to see if you have other fics. And you have a bunch of Tacos. I was kinda hesitant bc I really do not like Draco, and was about to click off. But I was curious, so I clicked on Alley Cat.

Safe to say, I never recovered. I stopped reading Tomarry alltogether bc the thought of Tom being with anyone other than Draco seems kinda boring now. So I blame you (and thank you) for bringing me to this shipdom.

That being said, what brought you to Taco? I know you ship Tomarry and Drarry too, both of which has a lot of fics and contents to enjoy as well as canon materials. In hindsight, Taco seems like a ship that came outta nowhere.

Sdfghjk that's how i reel you into rarepair hell

Tbh i started shipping it as a joke but then it stopped being a joke... Tom and Draco are my HP faves and I always ship my faves so it made sense to me in my head lmao.

I like Taco as a writer precisely because of having read both Tomarry and Drarry and because there's so little Taco. It allowed me to put a new spin on themes and scenes around those characters from an angle I hadn't read before. Keeping somewhat faithful to their characters and writing them in a plausible relationship is a huge challenge (I don't even like Draco sometimes) but that's part of the appeal to me. I also get to come at both characters from a very different angle than I do when they're paired with a character as morally righteous as Harry. There's just a lot of shit that Harry wouldn't accept from either of them that Tom and Draco are chill about in each other.

There's also a lot to build off in Canon imo. Not in terms of them having romantic chemistry lol, but when you think about it, there are only a few years of Draco's entire life where he isn't living with Voldemort in some form—either the Diary, which is in Malfoy Manor for Draco's whole life up to age 12, or the real deal from OotP or whenever he starts freeloading. Then post-Canon you have Delphini, if you accept Cursed Child. There are heaps of places to set a Taco/Dracomort fic.

[whinlatter]

thoughts about wolfstar? you're now the one i go to for any hp related thoughts

omg this is VERY nice of you but i'm pure flop on marauders thoughts, they're all extremely half-baked, so best left to others. here my half-baked wolfstar thoughts offered sheepishly and apologetically!

the thing is - i quite like the idea of wolfstar. to be honest i was sort of imagining a sort of wistful wolfstar vibe to how i wrote lupin in orchards in the aftermath of sirius' death. but i think the wolfstar i like is quite a specific version of it that's increasingly hard to find in fic searches so i don't often go looking for it (which is pure laziness on my part). my interest in canon coherent characterisation limits me here - i think there's such a strong case for wolfstar as a pairing written in ways that attend to the very clear dynamics (and timelines) that canon makes plausible (including in AUs, where actually characterisation matters more, not less, than in 'canon compliant' fics, because it's the reader's only anchor). there is an intensity and an intimacy to what sirius and remus share in the marauders and the significance of a boyhood spent together in their adult lives, a literal physical proximity of them living together as adults post azkaban as two men who have such complex feels towards themselves and especially to their bodies, including an overlapping self loathing, and they're both characters that can very plausibly read as queer-coded in rich and interesting ways. and then, of course, there's an inherent narrative shape to both of their canon arcs (the tragedy, delicious). these are just some of the dynamics in a potential romantic relationship between the two of them that can make for really rich and interesting potential to work with in fic writing.

the trouble i find with a lot of wolfstar, less as a matter of principle than what actually gets written more often than not, is that the stuff i personally find rewarding and interesting as a writer/reader is work that bears some relationship with the canon text (even if - especially if - it's to pull it apart and expose its flaws and complexities). a queer reading of the relationship between sirius and remus in canon is absolutely plausible and can be deeply compelling, and, as queering HP as a text remains a powerful fuck you to its author whose reaction to the ship was errrr quite homophobic, still really important.

but. challenging the text means having some sense of the characterisation of the essence of these characters as rendered in the text, and canon is clear about certain aspects of sirius and remus' characterisations that limits my enthusiasm for a lot of wolfstar that has sprung up in recent years (especially in and around ATYD, which i'll say more about in a minute). the truth is that canon strongly suggests that sirius cares much less about remus than he ever does about james (dropping @saintsenara's excellent manifesto for why unrequited prongsfoot is canon, also the rec for one of the best fics i read last year that @ashesandhackles put me onto, empire builders by shecrows, a gorgeous complex funny angsty prongsfoot fic that's not not canon compliant timeline-wise). it's also clear that the marauders as a friendship group functioned as a group of three boys all working towards james potter as the de facto leader, each with their own complicated feelings and levels of loyalty and devotion to james that undoubtedly shaped, and limited, how the other three felt towards each other (especially after james' death). the kind of wolfstar lore that's sprung up in the last few years, especially from marauderstok, of roadman remus the romeo of gryffindor tower that young sirius is wildly and hopelessly in love with, and is desperate to reunite with after azkaban, is a version of wolfstar that's sort of compelling as an original story but, for my taste, bears too little relationship to their core canon characterisation to be really up my street. a wolfstar with really fucked up power dynamics that plays with sirius' idolisation of james and remus having to play second fiddle? delicious. or even unrequited/onesided wolfstar from remus to sirius - yum. but the rest, i struggle with. by the time they've left school, remus thinks sirius is the spy and sirius thinks remus is the spy. that is not giving soulmates, in my mind. but as with most of these things, i'm very open to being proved wrong.

(with that said, though, i think the subculture and lore that's built around wolfstar is really astonishing and often extremely compelling, i think ATYD is obviously a huge accomplishment and deserves its flowers for launching such a phenomenon, and there's masses of quality writing and art and general creative talent coming out of wolfstar spaces that it's hard not to be continually impressed by. also some of those tiktok edits absolutely slap. that remus-centric animated noah kahan one. unreal)

[roleplayfinder]

A canon-centric examination of a selection of antagonists (LOTR/ROP, HG/TBOSAS, HOTD/ASOIAF, HP)

A canon-centric examination of a selection of antagonists (LOTR/ROP, HG/TBOSAS, HOTD/ASOIAF, HP)

All characters are (18)+

Pairings: CC x CC (preferred), or CC x OC

Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, The Silmarillion

Hunger Games, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

House of the Dragon, A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones

Harry Potter

———————————–

I am looking to write a deep-dive examination of a variety of fandom antagonists. This will include but is not limited to incorporating, tweaking, and sometimes altering canon events entirely.

I am an adult with a full time job, but I work from home and have an incredible amount of time to discuss and write throughout the week. I am exclusively interested in a writing partner that is 18+ and while I am happy to chitchat out of character (especially about fandom works and the characters within), I am first and foremost looking for writing partners. I really don’t care what genders you attach to me the writer because it is inconsequential to my writing and if you are too preoccupied with my plumbing on the other side of the monitor, then we have no reason to consider writing together.

I am a lazy-lit writer who roleplays almost exclusively over Discord but I do have previous backing in email / google docs, as well as (more recently) here, writing if that is more your tempo.

I am not traditionally an OC-friendly writer and gravitate toward universes with ample canon characters to select from. Trust that I am interested in interacting with any canon character and I would be willing to discuss your OCs, but please do not take offense when I am not interested in them, especially in a romantic setting.

I’m down for a variety of pairings ranging from MxF and FxF. I will rarely participate in an MxM story, but I can tell you now that you will have a hard sell with me, not because I am opposed to it, but simply because the characters I am looking to write currently have little interest latently in relationships without power being attached and things of a more emotional nature are a stretch. I digress.

I have experience writing the following characters and would be happy to do so, however, I have listed them in my order of current interest level.

Lord of the Rings, LotR: The Rings of Power, The Silmarillion

• Halbrand / Mairon / Annatar / (Sauron)

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Hunger Games

• Coriolanus Snow

House of the Dragon, A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones

• Aemond Targaryen

Harry Potter

• Tom Marvelo Riddle / (Voldemort)

Interact and I’ll get back to you.

#rings of power #lord of the rings #the silmarillion #the ballad of songbirds and snakes #hunger games #house of the dragon #a song of ice and fire #game of thrones #harry potter

🎶

[writingwhilecaffeinated]

Do you think you'll stop writing Ben and Pen now that Sophies cast?

Hello!

No, I’ll still write Benelope fanfiction because I have fun with rare pairs. I read the books and have known and loved Sophie as a character for a very long time. I love Benophie, I love Polin, but I’ve always had fun writing rare pairs in fandoms for fanfiction and reading them.

I mean, I still love reading and writing Dramione and Fremione in the HP fandom, for example. When I was younger and watched a lot of early 2000s anime, I was the person who read pairings like Sesshomaru/Kagome.

In all fandoms, I love and respect the original pairings. But fanfiction is a fun way to try new things and combinations and I have fun doing that.

I will say, with Sophie being cast, I adore it and believe the actress will be perfect for Sophie. I’ll also use that actress’s overall image in future when writing Sophie, whether it’s a Benophie fic or anything else. In fact, I do have an idea for a romantic comedy fic with all original canon pairings, but I gotta finish my big fic first.

What I can PROMISE, is when Sophie is ever included in my fics, whether she’s the focus or not, I will always portray her as her character is: strong, kind, determined, loyal, and all around amazing.

[saintsenara]

Just for argument's sake, what's a sibling incest ship in hp that you think /could/ be compelling?

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

it's certainly an interesting question - which i've popped the answer to below the cut, not only because it's about sibling incest, a trigger warning in and of itself, but because it also discusses physical and sexual abuse.

in the response which inspired this ask, i said that it seems to me that the reason why people ship sibling pairings is primarily because they find the taboo engaging - and "engaging" here can refer to anything on a spectrum from "mildly interesting" to "hot".

and i have no moral objection to this in a fictional context. many of the best books i've ever read - the secret history and ada or ardor chief among them - have sibling incest, and sibling incest which is presented specifically as romantic, as a prominent theme. i've also [like any other millennial with too much time on their hands] seen game of thrones...

but in fanfiction, while i understand the fun of a taboo fantasy in which siblings hook up in an imaginary setting where nobody is getting hurt, i find this quite uninteresting. by which i mean, i don't vibe with the fact that the standard presentation of sibling incest is as something that everyone involved is broadly fine with.

and i think the reason for this is that it ends up being woven - a lot of the time - into the fanon which has sprung up around "pureblood culture", which presents aristocracy as something dark and sexy, the class system as something it's legitimately important to maintain, and notions that pureblood families are genuinely special [i.e. that they have certain "family magics"].

a lot of the time, sibling incest pairings - and parent/child ones - are situated within this context: that it is natural for someone who is special by virtue of their birth to think that the only person worthy of their attention is their own blood relative.

i'm on the record as finding this aristocracy wank uninteresting in general - and so i find it uninteresting in this specific form as well. and it's why i don't vibe with pairings like sirius/regulus or bellatrix/narcissa - they are typically written as making perfect sense.

what I think would be compelling, however, is an approach to such pairings which takes a view of sibling incest closer to our real-world understanding of the phenomenon. not as something which is taboo in a naughty, forbidden way - but as something which is corrosive, almost certainly abusive, and highly like to be accompanied by other forms of violence.

which is to say... there is a sibling incest pairing actually implied in the canon text who i think are fascinating to explore: morfin and merope gaunt.

the gaunts’ extreme incestuousness is played for laughs in half-blood prince:

“Marvolo, his son, Morfin, and his daughter, Merope, were the last of the Gaunts, a very ancient Wizarding family noted for a vein of instability and violence that flourished through the generations due to their habit of marrying their own cousins. Lack of sense coupled with a great liking for grandeur meant that the family gold was squandered several generations before Marvolo was born. He, as you saw, was left in squalor and poverty, with a very nasty temper, a fantastic amount of arrogance and pride, and a couple of family heirlooms that he treasured just as much as his son, and rather more than his daughter.”

this alludes to common jokes in britain about how inbred the aristocracy are. it also winks conspiratorially at the reader about the irony of a family which considers itself to be of such “pure” blood living in filth and fucking their own blood relations - and morfin and merope both have a birth defect associated with inbreeding [exotropia, eyes which stare in different directions] which serves as a visual metaphor for the gaunts' hubristic decline, in that it is written as making them look ugly, simple-minded, and poor.

but there is also a subtext here - in the way that dumbledore talks about the family's increasing isolation from the rest of the world -that the gaunts' incestuousness is narrowing from first cousins to siblings.

[indeed, i always wonder if we're supposed to imagine that morfin and merope's - presumably - dead mother was marvolo's sister, and that's why the siblings have this birth defect while marvolo does not...]

the three gaunts do not appear to go anywhere or know anyone, and morfin and merope evidently did not attend hogwarts. this isolation - especially when coupled with their appearances, since many of the pureblood families we meet in canon are described as being good-looking, and their finances - means that neither child has any hope on the upper-class marriage-market.

but the way that both morfin and marvolo talk to and about merope - especially the way morfin taunts his sister about tom riddle sr. - suggests that this doesn't matter, since morfin and merope will be keeping it in the family...

“‘Darling,’” whispered Morfin in Parseltongue, looking at his sister. “‘Darling,’ he called her. So he wouldn’t have you anyway.” Merope was so white Harry felt sure she was going to faint. “What’s that?” said Gaunt sharply, also in Parseltongue, looking from his son to his daughter. “She likes looking at that Muggle,” said Morfin, a vicious expression on his face as he stared at his sister, who now looked terrified. “Always in the garden when he passes, peering through the hedge at him, isn’t she? And last night - ”  Merope shook her head jerkily, imploringly, but Morfin went on ruthlessly, “Hanging out of the window waiting for him to ride home, wasn’t she?”  “Hanging out of the window to look at a Muggle?” said Gaunt quietly. All three of the Gaunts seemed to have forgotten Ogden, who was looking both bewildered and irritated at this renewed outbreak of incomprehensible hissing and rasping. “Is it true?” said Gaunt in a deadly voice, advancing a step or two toward the terrified girl. “My daughter - pure-blooded descendant of Salazar Slytherin - hankering after a filthy, dirt-veined Muggle?”  Merope shook her head frantically, pressing herself into the wall, apparently unable to speak.  “But I got him, Father” cackled Morfin. “I got him as he went by and he didn’t look so pretty with hives all over him, did he, Merope?”

morfin's hatred of tom riddle sr. is obviously driven by his blood-supremacist beliefs. but it is also transparently sexual - he loathes the idea that riddle might "have" merope, he attacks riddle in response to his sister's unrestrained display of romantic/sexual interest in a man who is not him, and he delights in the knowledge that hurting riddle [and telling his father why he did so] will only secure his power over merope.

indeed, merope is "defeated" by marvolo - dejected and broken in his presence and by his violence - but the only person of whom she is "terrified" is morfin.

merope is also treated - as dumbledore says - as little more than an heirloom. she is the conduit for slytherin's blood - and she is, therefore, the person who is the primary victim of her father's desire to keep this bloodline pure. with no other candidate on the horizon, if this pure bloodline is to continue... then it is because she will be forced to bear children for morfin, extending the cycle of abject poverty and pain which defines the decaying last generations of slytherin's line.

and this raises questions which i think are genuinely compelling, both within the canon timeline and outside of it. what understanding of consent and bodily autonomy can merope have, and how does this play into her rape of tom riddle sr.? what happens if merope doesn't escape - if morfin gets away without prison time and returns to the shack? what happens to her and her baby if - when riddle sr. flees her - she is forced to come home? what would her life have been like as a mother to her brother's children - especially if she had daughters she knew would be similarly abused? how might she have resisted - since, if she can brew a love potion, she can brew an abortifacient - if she had been trapped with morfin? what would morfin have done to tom riddle jr. if his nephew hadn't been holding a wand?

and what does the teenage voldemort make of it all? after all, he attacks his uncle, knocks him out and frames him for murder... immediately after morfin has called his mother a "slut".

[uhhhitsme]

002: Barb Larvenor?

002 | Give me a character & I will tell you

How I feel about this character: 

All the people I ship romantically with this character: 

My non-romantic OTP for this character: 

My unpopular opinion about this character: 

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

my OTP:

my cross over ship:

a headcanon fact:

thank you snarky-wallflower the mutual of all time for sending me these i would die and kill for you

HOW I FEEL ABOUT THIS CHARACTER: i am very genuinely truly in love with her. she is the light of my life. i cannot go a single day without thinking of her. i want her to kiss me on the mouth and then rant to me about some gadget i most definitely will not understand while i stare at her dreamily. she's just sososososo incredible i love her so much words cannot describe it. she's happy and smart and loves herself and talks too much and is loud and bold and brash i LOVE HER!!!!!!!!!!!

ALL THE PEOPLE I SHIP ROMANTICALLY WITH THIS CHARACTER: i am a spyentist truther til the day i DIE !! i know that half the people in this fandom dont see the point of it and i get it but i just fucking LOVE the idea of their dynamic!!! i also used to think her and the informant would also be a very funny pairing

MY NON-ROMANTIC OTP FOR THIS CHARACTER: carvenor save me carvenor carvenor CARVENOR!!!!!!!!! let them geek out about cool sciency things together while tatiana and curt stare in befuddlement!!!!!!!!!! let them be pathetic and bad and terrible!!!!!!!!!!!!!! owen deserves friends barb deserves friends PUT THEM TOGETHER NOW. i also very much see them as two people who are outwardly very different but inwardly very similar and therefore they deserve to have each other.

MY UNPOPULAR OPINION ABOUT THIS CHARACTER: okay i wildly flip between the different options for this character, and i definitely see the bi vision, but i also really like the idea that she's a lesbian with the worst case of comphet known to mankind. i like bi barb a lot too but idk i like projecting on my characters actually she deserves a little bit of lesbianism. as a treat.

ONE THING I WISH WOULD HAPPEN WITH THIS CHARACTER: i need more content. i need it. i. RUAGHGHAHG. i would also love more art/content for her because she's so expressive and fun!!! honestly one of my favourite characters!!!!!!!! like she's so me in every single way (loud!! loves talking to people!!! enjoys whimsy and joy!!!!!!!!!!) and idk i love her so much guys please appreciate my girl please guys

MY CROSSOVER SHIP: hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm her and esther (solve it squad) would be interesting

A HEADCANON: hmmmmmm. hmmmmmmm. hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. closing my eyes praying the vision comes to me. if you are nice to her One time she will be devoted to you because like. a lot of people arent nice to her and it sucks. also she's a sucker for cute romance books but absolutely adores horror. she's read all of HP lovecrafts books a million trillion times. also she loves making shitty bad science puns and pick-up lines.

[sitp-recs]

HP Rec Fest, Day 30

Here we come with more @hprecfest! Today I’m only reccing rare pairs since I couldn’t think of any pre-canon Drarry fics 🤔 I wonder if canon divergent / canon rewrite applies?? I don’t read them often either way, so I figured this would be a good opportunity to boost lesser known fics. I think this is my favorite rec post for the fest so far - there’s something so poetic in reccing these two specific fics alongside each other since Little Compton Street verse was my first (unforgettable, devastating) contact with Prongsfoot and 5 years later here I am reading them again - this time welcoming the pain. More embarrassing emosh blabbing below!

Day 30) a pre-canon fic:

empire builders by shecrows (James/Sirius, E, 25k)

Say, James, he rehearses in his head. Remember that time we were both roaring drunk at the end of term, and you put your cock in my mouth, and I came so hard I still get tingly thinking about it? Was that just a one off, d’you think, or did you want to do it again sometime?

Prongsfoot my beloved 😭😭😭 sometimes I feel like I’ll never feel as strongly about a ship as I feel for them which sounds so crazy because I don’t even read it! or, well. after being utterly ruined by Winter of ‘79 (curiously a fic within LCS verse as mentioned below) I promised myself I wouldn’t look for this ship anymore bc the inevitable tragedy of it depressed me way too much. I locked them away in a secret space deep within my heart and only allowed myself to re-awaken those feelings this year, with the brilliant empire builders. what a fic! a few lines in and I was hooked and completely obsessed with Sirius’ unbelievably spot on voice, the peak friends to lovers dynamics, and the unbearable sexual tension mixing guilt and devotion (my favorite shippy combo btw). fuck, they are so young and so lovable, and so attuned to each other it makes me wanna cry. never before a 25k fic has felt so short, I’ve read it in a frenzy and couldn’t stop thinking about their love for days. the best word to describe my state after this fic is “tormented” which might as well be the best compliment I’ve ever given in a rec.

Play Me Like A Love Song by @writcraft (Minerva/Will, E, 67k)

Minerva McGonagall doesn’t believe in love at first sight, which is why her instant attraction to drag king Wilhelmina ("Will") Grubbly-Plank is so unexpected. War tears apart the wizarding world and as one battle ends Minerva and Will must fight once more, this time for the lives of their friends on Little Compton Street. A love story spanning five decades defined by music, laughter and tears, in which love is not always easy, but it’s always worth fighting for.

truly a masterpiece of lesbian fiction, this fic is more like a religious experience, bold, brutally honest, romantic, eye-opening and necessary. I never thought I’d care so much for a ship like Will & Minerva but they worked their way inside my heart and I’m deeply moved by how their story encompasses everything that’s inherent to the queer experience: love, loss, resistance and hope. there’s so much joy and grief walking hand by hand, and it is our privilege to watch the characters mature and experience life as individuals and as a couple. Writ crafts oh so thoughtfully two stunning character studies (Minerva’s voice omg, please don’t @ me on my competence kink) while taking us by the hand into the magical universe of Little Compton Street, which is so completely irresistible and healing. I adore the atmosphere, the imagery, the soundtrack, and how this seductive setting allows them to explore their queerness in such a free, proud and joyful way *getting emosh* I feel like nothing I add here will make this story justice, it’s such a poignant and transformative fic but sadly deeply underrated like it happens to so many wlw tales. I hope this rec inspires at least one person to check it out and while at it please also check the entire series with a Drarry piece and a Prongsfoot piece, a perfect trifecta!

[hpcestfest]

Prompting for HP Cest Fest 2024 opens tomorrow!! ☕️

Prompting Schedule

Prompts Open: Wednesday, April 17, 2024 9:00am EDT Prompts Close: Wednesday, May 1, 2024 10:00pm EDT

👉 A few of our rules have changed this year, so make sure to thoroughly review our Fest Guidelines before prompting! (Particularly regarding Original Characters!)

👉 Please use THIS FORM to submit your prompts. The form will remain active from April 17th through May 1st, and you may submit up to 10 prompts. Hold on to your Self-prompts for the claiming period!

👉 All accepted prompts will be available to view on the Airtable Prompt Gallery HERE. Anyone can submit a prompt; you will NOT be required to submit a claim in order to submit a prompt and vice versa.

2024 Prompting Update: We will be starting fresh with prompting this year, so claiming previous years' prompts will not be accepted. However, you are welcome to re-submit your old prompt(s) for this year's consideration!

Join our Official Fest Discord - for participants and followers!

Prompting Guidelines

What counts as incest?

All works submitted must be around one or more romantic incestuous relationships. For the parameters of this fest, we allow any of the following to be considered incestuous…

Incestuous Relationships (Canonical or AU):

• Blood Relatives • By-Law Relatives • Step-Relatives • Adoptive Relatives • God-Relatives • Self-cest

2024 Rules Update: OCs are welcome! Be that an original relative that is paired with a canon (book series, films, and extended universe) character (i.e., Harry Potter/OC Adoptive Parent or Child) OR in terms of putting a name to a character who exists in canon, though we may not know their full name. (I.E. Mr Brown/Lavender Brown)

All romantic relationships must be established AFTER the characters have been officially named relatives in some fashion and are aware of this relationship. (I.E. NO previous Draco/Harry before James marries Lucius; NO Sirius/Harry until after Harry is aware he is his Godfather)

This fest welcomes all characters from the Harry Potter extended universe, including games/extended HP properties/Fantastic Beasts, etc)

If you are unsure if your pairing is applicable, feel free to contact the Mods at hpcestfestmod@gmail.com or shoot us an Ask.

2024 Fest Schedule

Prompts Open: Wednesday, April 17, 2024 9:00am EDT Prompts Close: Wednesday, May 1, 2024 10:00pm EDT Claims Open: Saturday, May 4, 2024 9:00am EDT Claims Close: Friday, June 28, 2024 10:00pm EDT Submissions Due: Sunday, June 30, 2024 11:59pm EDT Anon Posting Begins: Sunday, July 7, 2024 Anon Posting Ends: Sunday, August 11, 2024 Creator Reveals: Monday, August 19, 2024 9:00am EDT

Please review our Fest Guidelines for further details! You can also find all of our Fest Forms here!

[fellfirst-fellharder-fight]

Welcome to the Fell first Fell harder FIGHT!

Do you have one pairing that you just KNOW one fell first but the other definitely fell harder? Well here's your chance to have them battle other pairings in a FIGHT and share them out to the world.

Guidelines:

Can be up to interpretation but you have to sell me on why they're fell first x fell harder

No incest or minor x adult obviously

Can be canon, fanon or anything in between

You can submit multiple pairings but no spamming the same pairing

No real people unless it's rp characters that are detached enough from the creators

No ocs (sorry)

Can be more than just 2 people

Hp is blacklisted

tags of tourneys that inspired me to get it rollin

@qpr-competition @guess-that-ship @ungodly-amounts-of-godly-trauma @romantic-friendship-tournament @sapphicshipshowdown @black-and-white-showdown @character-of-all-time @the-nobody-tournament @ultimate-tragic-couples-showdown @theyrebasicallycanonpoll @bestshipsmackdown @enemies-to-lovers-bracket @thecompetitionshowdowntournament @ultimate-poll-tournament