#hp fandom meta

[fernhelm]

btw no where in the books is it stated that any of the deatheaters (marauders or golden trio) were forced into anything. they chose that road. they are literally racists. people are allowed to hate. regulus black was a racist. its stated in the book that not even walburga and orion were but that regulus WAS. he loved that shit. severus snape was a racist. no matter how hard you try to baby them and make them a pretty little boy toy they are FACISTS. and you literally cannot compare james potter being a bit of a bitch when he was a teenager to them being facists.

it is insane to equate real world racism to the prejudice designed by jkr for her children's wizard series.

the death eaters are hateful, bigoted people in canon. insulting that you don't think i have the analytical skills to puzzle this out. seven year old me knew that when I was reading these the first time. jkr alludes to n@zis using language and aesthetics to create an immediate link in the mind of the reader. it's lazy to lean on that symbolism for your big evil group, but it is effective, because people (like you) see them as identical. to you these characters WERE racist. they WERE fascist. but like. jewish people in this fandom have asked time and time again for people to stop sanctioning that comparison.

please don't use your emotional energy for condemning evil people in fiction?? condemn the ideology of superiority (example voldemort) that leads to violence and bigotry in the real world. don't let jkr's heavy-handed analogy make you bestow the same weight to "anti-muggle" discrimination or whatever as historical atrocities.

i never compared james' actions to those of the death eaters??? say no to bullying ig? if only the marauders fandom was capable of discussing power dynamics in a normal way alas. but stop telling me what all of these people were like in canon. this shit is escapist and reclamatory 4 me. my regulus black wears a tutu and shit and has a complicated relationship with god. i only reference the books when im crafting my theories. idgaf about jkr's boring and narrow moral world.

if you are consumed by the theories of good v evil read goated philosopher hannah arendt and stay out of my inbox

[consistentsquash]

5 meta recs!

Some meta recs because we have lots of interesting/relevant meta.

1. Fiction Works 1/2: Different Strokes for Different Folks and Fiction Works 2/2: Storytelling, not Teaching or Preaching by @danpuff-ao3

The two posts are totally worth reading/framing on the wall/preserving in The Library of Congress. It's essentially Fandom 101. Also Life 101. But it's something a lot of folks forget. Danni goes incredibly incisive in the two posts. She looks at the basic problems and zooms out to look at what's the real point of creating a story? What are the limits? What does it mean to feel something is problematic? It's a super uncomfortable read because it's talking about things with more clarity/detail than just the normal vague words we are used to seeing on proship posts. Love, love, love these two essays. <3

Right off the bat, I feel the need to clarify that I understand there are portrayals in fiction that can be troublesome, and sensitivity readers are a boon. However, even here there seems to be too firm a hold on what “should be.” This does not take into account that everyone is different.

People accept this in a vague sort of way. “Dave likes football, and Carrie likes soccer.” This goes beyond people having different favorite colors, or different skin tones. We are all born with different bodies, different genes. We are all born into different circumstances, and are raised differently. We are all molded into different people, and have different preferences, and choose different life paths.

What people also fail to take into account is: the world is a big, crazy place. All sorts of things are possible. How probable they are is another question, but “probable” matters less than “possible.”

 

2. Don't Quit Your Day Job, AI by @squibstress

AI!!!! So I have been following a lot of AI news about how it's going to replace actors, designers and other creative jobs. Also a lot of fandom posts about fanfic/fanart created by AI getting posted on AO3 and also about authors/artists locking their works because AI is using them to improve. Squibstress did an investigation for what I really, really cared about.

So, okay. We know AI is already writing copy and fiction, but the real question, the important question, is: Can it write fanfic?

To find out, your intrepid reporter made an account on ChatGPT and gave the bot two simple fanfiction prompts.

Love, love, love.

[. . .] I use way too many smirks and rolled eyes in my Minerva/Severus fic.

That's how Minerva/Severus works! I need smirks and rolled eyes in my Snagonagall!! Definitely going to stick to Squibstress and Jane Austen for my reading diet for now. Sorry, AI <3

  3. Laughing, Crying, Killing Myself by eldritcher

Fandom has like two big problems now. Ok that's really simplifying things. But AI and antis. Eldritcher has a lot of super clear insights about fandom and why some type of cults/mobs happen here. We definitely know this but it's the type of message which is good to repeat a lot. Cult stuff is scary.

So many who came to fandom and similar creative spheres in the last decade have only known belonging in cliques that are one turn away from becoming mobs. They haven't had the chance to explore discomfort in creation that goes against the norms of their clique, because it endangers belonging and often endangers more than merely belonging because of how dependent they are on the validation of the group what with little support available elsewhere outside. It is tempting to think these mobs are only prevalent in circles that are against shipping or slash or kink or anything seen as transgressive by some consensus, but that's harmfully reductive. Ostracisation via pitch-forks are as present in the bastions of those who ship the most transgressive ships as they are in the bastions of those who don't. The mob is a weapon and all factions have learned by now how to weaponise it to vanish those they don't like.  

4. Heroes, Villains, and Blorbos by @danpuff-ao3

I kind of gave up on reading convincing Marauder group characterizations in Snape centric fics and convincing Snape characterizations in Marauder centric fics esp with the more recent fanon takes. But omg. I love those characters/potential. Danni's essay really, really goes into the reason why some characterizations don't work for me because she is spot on about identifying what makes those characters tick. Including their flaws. Flawed characters are sexy because they are human. Our fandom really really doesn't get that point about these characters a lot of times.

None of them were perfect. All of them had potential.

So much of their promise died in the war. They were all so damn young, and so deeply impacted. They all made grave mistakes. They all achieved great feats.

But what draws me to them all above all else is the horrible humanity of them. All of their virtues, and especially all of their flaws.

5. What is good writing anyway? by @danpuff-ao3

At this point I'm rambling, but the point is: how can any of us really judge what good writing is? Even if we can, how do we recommend what is "good" in a way that is fair, or in a way that will be well-received? But most of all, I sort of want people to think beyond the popular view of what is "good" because what is "good" doesn't matter so much as how much you enjoy it, and how it touches you and your life.

Really not sorry for triplereccing danni's essays. I read them in a binge this week and that got me inspired to do a meta post. So! Everybody needs to read them because they are really getting at the heart of a lot of fandom things we can identify with. This essay especially was so personal for me because of why I got into reccing. The fics I normally saw recced didn't work for me. Totally not a fault of the fics/recs. But I wanted to rec fics I loved. I feel those fics are definitely worth reccing because they made a big difference to me beyond just good writing by some definition. But also this is a really good read for authors who feel they are not good enough/comparing to other authors/feeling imposter syndrome. The readers that love your fics are really in love with those fics. For those readers your fics are the best fics in the world. Like Danni says because what is "good" doesn't matter so much as how much you enjoy it, and how it touches you and your life.

[dinarosie]

"Snape vs. James: Why I’ll Defend One and Not the Other"

Let’s break it down. Severus Snape and James Potter both made mistakes. Both hurt people. But the why behind their mistakes? That’s where the comparison becomes impossible to ignore.

Snape’s cruelty? It came from a place of deep pain. He grew up in neglect, surrounded by violence, and never knew a life where love or kindness came freely. He didn’t know what “healthy” even looked like. He lashed out because that was all he knew, survival meant hardening himself. He joined the wrong side because he was desperate to belong somewhere, anywhere.

But here’s the key: Snape regretted his choices. He recognized the harm he caused and spent his life trying to make things right. His redemption wasn’t easy or clean—it was hard-fought, messy, and deeply human.

Now, let’s talk about James Potter. James hurt people too—but not out of pain, not because he didn’t know better. He knew better—he just didn’t care. His actions came from boredom, from entitlement, from the sheer fun of watching someone else suffer.

James had everything Snape didn’t. He was rich, popular, loved, and endlessly privileged. He had every advantage in life, every opportunity to be kind, and he chose cruelty because he thought it was funny.

And the real kicker? James never really had to pay for his actions. There’s no regret, no apology, no attempt to make amends. He graduated Hogwarts, married Lily, and got his “happily ever after.” Snape, on the other hand, carried the weight of his guilt for the rest of his life. He fought for redemption until the moment he died.

So, no, I don’t feel the same about their mistakes. Snape’s flaws came from the wounds he carried, the scars of a life filled with suffering. James’s flaws? They came from privilege—a choice to hurt others because he could.

و این قلب آن است. زندگی اسنیپ مبارزه ای بود برای بالا رفتن از رنجی که زندگی به او تحمیل کرده بود، مبارزه ای برای بهتر شدن علیرغم احتمالات. جیمز؟ او همه چیز داشت و همچنان ترجیح داد به دیگران آسیب برساند.

[my-castles-crumbling]

Reblog to see how chaotic we are!

[yallthemwitches]

Like a lot of other authors/content creators in the HP fandom, I am feeling a sense of heaviness over the rulings that happened in the UK and feel the need to speak on my (albeit very complicated) feelings.

What JKR is doing is terrible. It will ruin lives. It will end lives.

If you feel like that is being hyperbolic, please go look up the suicide rates for the trans community. It's a staggering number and it only grows as people seeking information, comfort, and support are locked out of proper resources due to heinous legislations like the one passed yesterday.

It saddens me too because I know that so many in the LGBTIQA+ have found characters/stories in the HP universe that have spoken to them and helped to understand their personal journeys---only to have that comfort ripped away by the very person who created them.

If you can permit me to be personal for a second: My brother is trans and before/during his transition (this was early 2010s) he always cited Remus Lupin as one of the foundations for coming to terms with his trans identity because he saw some of his own internal struggle in Lupin's character. He even went so far as to write a letter to JKR (which, thank GOD he never sent...) thanking her for creating a character that aided him with the complicated feelings he had when there were no other resources for him.

My brother is now a psychologist specializing in the young trans community and speaking to him recently, he has said that he comes across this same story constantly and each one ends in tragedy because that little piece of solace and comfort was not just taken from them, but told them that no, actually. You thought wrong to see yourself in this character. You don't matter.

Watching what happened yesterday and knowing the long history of bigotry JKR has spouted for years now weighs heavy on my heart every time I step into this fandom and often I question if I should still contribute to it. I know it's not much, but I would like to share some of the things that keep me going--even when it all looks really fucking bleak:

Fanfiction and fanart are, at their foundation, anticapitalist works--and can be used to fight JKR's agenda. By consuming fanfic/fanart zero money goes towards JKR. None. And further, JKR has no say in how you use her characters in these spaces. So, if you want to use these creative outlets to uplift trans voices, please do! Support trans writers/artists and urge them to PERSIST--because I promise you nothing is going to tick off the ole' bitch more than trans bodies/ trans supporters writing her characters.

Just because the writer is the devil, doesn't mean the art has to be. I won't go into the concept of "death of the author" because I think it can be pockmarked to hell with various examples, but what I DO subscribe to is that once the art is out in the world, it is now owned by the person who consumes it. To put it simply: when I read HP I am POSITIVE I imagine characters/settings differently than the person next to me. It's the beauty of the imagination: the creator can give us the blocks but how it is built is contingent on how WE perceive it.

Did I mention money? DON'T GIVE IT TO HER. Buy the books/movies second hand. Pirate the media you wish to consume around the fandom. Don't give her any reason to give any more hate funding and instead send that money to trans communities and groups who need it (they REALLY need it.)

Maybe I'm naive to say this, but I don't think interacting with the story as an art form is bad. She invented it, sure, but she isn't in charge of what goes on in my brain. If anything, this fandom NEEDS the trans community and supporters within it because not only can they push back, but they can educate those who otherwise are listening to the author. Don't let her win the space even though she's the author. It's no longer hers to have.

If you are someone who wants to leave the fandom because you can't bear to watch her continue to destroy it--I completely understand. But, as someone who has been in this fandom for over 20 years, the one thing I've learned is: besides monetarily she doesn't own shit. Don't let her take what you love from you and don't let her get away with scaring people out of their community spaces. Support and love our trans brothers and sisters and enjoy your HP despite it all. The things you love are worth fighting for.

[arkadijxpancakes]

Yes. The Weasleys had too many kids. An analysis. (Part 1 of 2)

Everyone who read Harry Potter read about the prejudices regarding the Weasleys: They all have red hair, are poor and have more kids than they can afford. Insert a sneering Malfoy here.

The books were adamant that that was not the case. The Weasleys are depicted as the best family in the books. (Just look at the others. The Dursleys were narrow-minded, bigoted and abusive. The Malfoys were bigoted terrorists. The Lovegoods were weird. Let’s not even start about Merope and Riddle.)

However, if you look closer, the prejudices have some truth to them: They had more kids than they could afford. However, money isn’t the issue here, not really.

Yes, the Weasleys are clearly depicted as members of the working class. They don’t have much money and fall back on second-hand stuff a lot of the time. Ron in particular is shown to be using hand-me-downs in book one.

However, they don’t live in abject poverty. The family owns their own home on their own land. They have a garden to grow their own vegetables and they have chickens. This means that food scarcity shouldn’t be a big issue for them, because they can produce a lot of it on their own. (Magic should make this even easier, because they can use it for the gardening stuff. And if we assume that you can duplicate food, this should keep everyone well-fed.)

The main issue when it comes to money isn’t that they don’t have anything. They have clearly enough money to stay comfortably over water. They just don’t have enough money to buy all the fancy shit the wizarding world uses as status symbols. (Like racing brooms and dress robes.)

Could things be better, money-wise? Sure. But one can have a loving, comfortable childhood, even with second-hand clothes and working class food. So no. It’s not about the money.

It’s about time. 

And it's also about how the parents divide that time (and the work that comes along with it.)

The Weasleys follow a family structure one would expect from a muggle family of their time (the second half of the 20th century): Arthur is the one who goes out to work and earns money, while his wife Molly is a stay-at-home-mother who takes care of their home and kids. It’s also just their nuclear family that lives in the burrow. There are no other relatives (no grandparents and no aunts or uncles, either) living there.

I find this a little bit weird, tbh. The nuclear family (parents and kids) living alone, without any other relatives and with the father as the sole breadwinner, is a pretty new development. The practice only really established itself after the Statute of Secrecy went into effect. It developed first in the upper classes (who used this to flaunt their wealth) and in urban centers (where there was no space to live together with your extended family.) Before this, living with one's extended family was very common, especially in rural areas, where it was beneficial to stick together. The Weasley’s don’t really have a reason to live as a nuclear family. There is no need for wizards to follow the Muggle trend, and things were different before the statute. Living with other, adult family members would also be beneficial, especially for Molly. And the books do suggest that the extended family is quite large, so “They don’t live with other relatives, because they don’t have any” doesn’t fit their situation either.

This is a common theme for Rowling, by the way. She tends to ignore the extended families of her characters, whenever it is possible. The numbers of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins that get mentioned in the book is incredibly low. (The only character who seems to have close connections to his extended family is Neville – and that’s because the other members of his nuclear family are completely absent because of health reasons.)

Anyway. When we look back at the Weasleys, this leaves Molly basically as a tradwife. (Minus the religious baggage.) But let's start at the beginning. 

(Note: I will focus on the books in this. I don’t consider the games canon and will not use them as a source.) Arthur and Molly were born around 1950. We know that he went to Hogwarts from 1961 to 1968. They were close enough in age to start a relationship while still at Hogwarts, and they married shortly after graduating. For this to work, she must have been in his year or maybe the year below or above.

Bill was born in 1970 and was followed by six siblings, the last who was born in 1981. So from the age of ca. 20 to the age of ca. 33 Molly was either pregnant or nursing at least one baby at any given time. (There might have been a short break in that pattern between Charlie and Percy, but it only got worse after that.)

As I said before, Molly and Arthur seem to have a very traditional division of labor between them: He works at the ministry and earns money, she takes care of their home and kids. This means that Molly has drawn the short end of the stick.

While Arthur is working one job 9-5, Molly has to work three jobs and at least one of them is 24/7. Let’s pick them apart:

Her first job is to take care of the home. Molly cleans the house and does the laundry. It is also very likely that she is not only responsible for cooking, but for food production in general. This means that she takes care of the garden and chickens. This would be pretty exhausting, if not for her magic. She can likely cut down on time and effort by using magic for most of those tasks.

On top of this, she is also producing at least some of the clothing her family wears. We don't see her sewing, but she knits a lot. She is using magic for that, too.

Her second job is to raise their kids. Molly is their primary caregiver and does most of the parenting. This is a difficult job to begin with, but there are seven of them. This is where her workload starts to stretch her thin. It can’t be easy to do the laundry, while Ginny needs to be fed, Bill and Charlie are arguing in the backyard, and the twins have just vanished. Magic is less helpful here, because a lot of the work requires her to interact with her kids. She can’t really flick her wand to speed that up.

On top of that - and this is where things get even worse - there doesn't seem to be any kind of elementary school in Wizarding Great Britain. At the very least, the books do not mention any form of primary education and Hogwarts seems to be Ron’s first school. But Hogwarts still requires its students to be able to read, write and do math. Having some education about the Wizarding World couldn’t hurt, either.

However, someone has to teach the kids. And this someone is probably Molly, because Arthur is at work, and they don’t have the money for a private tutor. They cant sent their kids to an elementary school, because there is none. (And they obviously did not send them to a muggle school.) 

So this is her third job. This is another job she can’t really speed up with magic, because she can’t hex the knowledge into her kids’ brains. (Or at least I hope she can’t, because everything else would be disturbing.)

This means Molly has to take care of their home, produce their food, take care of their kids and teach them elementary school-stuff. All while being pregnant and/or nursing for circa 13 years straight.

Her workload just isn’t doable for a single person. It might have started off okay, when she only had Bill and Charlie, and it probably got better once most kids had left the house to study at Hogwarts. But the years in between must have been hell. And she did not really have any help to do it.

Arthur was off to work most days and seems to spend quite a lot of time on his hobby. Additionally, he just doesn’t seem to be all that involved as a father and seems to take care mostly of the fun stuff. 

His parenting style is much more relaxed than Molly’s, too. He’s probably the parent the kids go to when they want to do something their mother would say no to. This, of course, makes parenting even harder for her, because she doesn’t just have to deal with the kids, but also with Arthur’s parenting decisions. There are no other adult family members around to help her, either. They also don’t have the money to hire help. (No wonder Molly dreamed of having her own slave house elf. It would have allowed her to drastically reduce her workload. It’s a really disgusting wish, but I understand where it comes from.)

This is where the family dynamics probably took their first severe hit: It’s very likely that Molly’s workload left her with more work than she was able to do consistently. Whether Arthur pulled his weight in that regard is questionable (and he was at work for most of the day anyway.) She also had no other adults to help her, so she probably offloaded her workload elsewhere: her kids.

Yes. I think it is very likely that the Weasleys parentified their kids, especially Bill, Charlie and Percy. We don’t see it with Bill and Charlie, probably because they had already left the house when Harry meets the family. Still, it’s a little weird that both of them went to live so far away from home. Yes, sure, exploring tombs in Egypt and taming dragons in Romania is fun and exciting in and off itself – but being so far away from home that mom can’t rope you into household chores and babysitting duty is probably a really nice bonus. It would also relax their familial relationships quite a bit, because moving away gives them control over when and how they want to engage. (And it’s probably easier to be the fun big brother to your younger siblings when you aren’t required to watch and control them every day.)

We do see it with Percy, however. He looks after and take responsibility for his younger siblings a lot, especially at Hogwarts. You can see it in the way he looks after Ginny and how he’s constantly at odds with Fred and George because they refuse to follow any rules.

Fuck, he still does this after the big row with his father. Yes, the letter he sends to Ron is pretty obnoxious, but he still wrote it. He did not need to. At that point he had cut all contact, after all. He clearly cared for his younger brother and wanted to look out for him, even if he did it in the most annoying way possible. It would be interesting to know whether he also wrote to Ginny or the twins or not.

Also, did I mention that the Weasleys have too many kids?

They have too many kids.

It’s a numbers game, really. The more kids you have, the more time you have to use for household chores (you need to clean more, wash more, cook more, etc.) You also have less time to spend time with each kid individually. This is especially true for quality time – so time that isn’t spent on chores or education. Time that is spent playing and talking with each other, just to enjoy each other's company.

Molly is already working three jobs. She doesn’t really have any opportunity to spend time with her kids equally. She’s too busy looking after the home and teaching the older ones, while watching the younger ones and making sure the twins don’t burn the house down. 

I just don’t see her spending quality time with her kids regularly, because of this. It’s just difficult to talk with Charlie about his favorite dragons or read something to Percy or to play with Ron, when there is always someone else who needs her more. Full diapers. Empty stomachs. Unyielding stains of unknown origin on Arthur's work robes. A sudden explosion on the second floor. And probably everything at the same time and all the time.

So yeah. Chances are that her attention and her affection can be pretty hard to come by at times. (To a certain degree, this also applies to Arthur, because he is away from home so much.)

Let’s look at the timeline.

It probably starts pretty harmless:

1970 - Bill is born, and he’s the only kid for two years. Yeah, it’s Molly’s first child, and she is a really young mother, but she is a stay-at-home-mum, and it’s just one kid. It’s mostly her and Bill who are at home, and her workload isn’t all that big, because she can use magic for most stuff. The war has started, but it probably hasn’t kicked into overdrive just yet, so this shouldn’t affect her too much either.

1972 – Charlie is born. Molly’s workload is expanding, but things should still be pretty manageable. Also, they don’t have another kid for almost four years. This allows Molly to adjust to caring for two kids. She can also relax from both pregnancies and births. If it wasn’t for the war, this might be her favorite years as a mother.

When Arthur is involved in parenting Bill and Charlie, it’s probably on the weekends. I can imagine him taking them out to do fun stuff, so their mother can get some rest. It’s probably a great time for him, because he can bond with his boys. I can’t see him do much more than that, though. Molly has a handle on things, and interfering could be seen as overstepping.

1976 – Percy is born. This is probably the moment, where the attention-distribution in the family gets a little bit wonky. Molly has three kids now, and it’s the middle of the war. Bill is almost six, which means that she has to start teaching him, while simultaneously nursing Percy and keeping Charlie entertained/away from trouble. This is probably still manageable. She can wait a little longer with teaching Bill, so she can teach him and Charlie together. She can also hand him (and maybe Charlie) over to Arthur, so he can teach him/them on weekends.

Additionally, Arthur is probably still taking Bill and Charlie out for some bonding-fun-time. However, the war is in full swing now, so leaving the house gets increasingly dangerous. Their trips will get shorter and stay closer to home. They will happen less frequently, too. He will also end up working more because of the war, doing overtime much more frequently. When he is home, he is going to be exhausted, as a result.

1978 – Fred and George are born. The attention-distribution in the family falls off a cliff.

This is when Molly's workload starts to become overwhelming. Charlie will be 6 at the end of the year, Bill will be 8. She has to start teaching them, if she hasn’t already. Otherwise, Bill will not be ready when he starts Hogwarts.

And on top of everything, Molly has to take care of the twins. She has to do everything that needs to be done for a newborn – times two.

So her workload explodes. Molly is raising five kids, now. She needs to educate Bill and Charlie, nurse Fred and George, and has to make sure Percy doesn’t fall to the wayside completely. She also has her household chores that aren’t related to her kids. The war is still raging on. Arthur is probably tied up at work most of the time, and when he is home, he’s exhausted. And Molly will be pregnant again in a year. (Really, why do they have so many kids during a war? One or two, I would understand, but this is getting irresponsible.)

This is probably the time when Bill has to take over at least some chores, not just to learn how to do them, but to take some pressure off of his mother. This might not be parentification yet, but it will get worse over time. I assume he has to look after his younger brothers a lot.

On top of all that, it is increasingly hard to shield the kids from the war. At least Bill and Charlie are old enough to understand that things are really, really wrong and scary. And there is not much Molly can do about it.

1980 - Ron is born. The twins are already old enough to open cupboards. Molly is not having a great time. She probably hands over Percy to Bill and Charlie (“Go, play with your little brother!”), so she can take care of baby Ron while keeping an eye on the twin shaped chaos that is growing by the day. She will be pregnant again in a couple of months.

Bill (who will be 10 at the end of the year) and Charlie (8) still require teaching. Percy (4) isn’t old enough just yet, but he will be, soon. (And, let’s face it: It’s Percy. Chances are that he wants to learn, even now.)

The war is still in full swing. Arthur is still overworked and underpaid. Everyone is tired and scared. This also affects the kids. There is probably a lot of pressure on Bill as the oldest brother to watch over his younger siblings, to make sure all of them stay safe. They don’t spend much time outside their home, because it’s just too dangerous to do so.

Around 1980/81 is also the time when Molly’s brothers Fabian and Gideon die. (Gideon can be seen in the photograph that was taken of the Order before James and Lily went into hiding, so he was still alive back then. But we know that he dies soon after the photograph was taken.) Molly never talks about her brothers in canon, but this must have been horrible for her.

1981 – Ginny is born. They are seven kids now. Fabian and Gideon will be dead by the end of the year (if they aren’t already.) Molly’s workload is at its peak, while her ability to pay equal amounts of attention to her kids is at an all-time low. She’s grieving, the rest of her family is in danger, and Arthur is stuck at the ministry. This means that she will likely lean on Bill’s support even more. As Charlie is 8 now (and will be 9 at the end of the year), Molly might consider him old enough to help, so he might see an increase in responsibility, too. At this point, we are in parentification-territory.

With each day, the twins grow more into the troublemakers we see in canon. This sucks away attention and affection from their siblings (simply because they need to be watched and disciplined).

I think the following years are very formative for the family dynamics between the kids. It’s probably less pronounced for Bill and Charlie (who are stuck with chores and babysitting-duty and will leave for Hogwarts soon-ish) and Ginny (who gets more attention because she is the youngest child and only girl). It’s worse for the others. Percy, Fred, George and Ron are basically in direct competition for their mother's attention. I think the dynamic develops as follows:

Fred and George are active and pretty extroverted. They explore a lot and start to play pranks on their family members. This is overall harmless, but Molly has to pay attention to them, to make sure that no one accidentally gets hurt. From this, the twins learn that they can get Molly’s attention by causing trouble, so they will lean into it even more.

This sucks away attention from Percy and Ron. It causes Percy to veer hard into the opposite direction: He tries to gain Molly’s attention by following all her rules and fulfilling her wishes. This earns him her affection and will turn him into her golden child in the long run. It will also put a strain on his relationship with the twins, because Molly compares them a lot, especially when angry. This will cause Percy to perform the “Good boy”-role even harder (because he doesn’t want to be treated like the twins), while they start to resent him on some level.

Ron on the other hand is still too young to affect the family dynamic on his own. He internalizes that his mother cares more about his siblings and that there is nothing he can do about it.

The only good news: At the end of the year, the war ends. This will bring a lot of relief. (It’s short term relief for now, things will need some time to go back to normal.)

However, the end of the war also means, that Percy gets a pet. Either late in 1981 or early in 1982 he (or another member of the family) finds a rat that is missing a finger on its front paw. Percy keeps him and calls him Scabbers.

We all know who Scabbers is, of course. I just want to highlight how fucked up this situation is. Percy is 5, when he adopts him. Because he was a little kid, he probably took him everywhere without a second thought – into the bathroom, into his bed, you know, everywhere. There is probably no part of Percy’s body Scabbers hasn’t seen. Percy probably told him everything, too, all his worries, all of his fears. It’s just creepy.

And keep in mind, Scabbers – Peter – is not just a random wizard. He is a Death Eater and mass murderer. We don’t know if he ever hurt Percy (there are fanfics that do explore that possibility). He probably didn’t, but the idea alone is nightmare fuel.

To get this back on track: This could have impacted the sibling-relationship, too. It depends on whether the other kids were allowed to keep pets.

With that, we are done with the war and with Molly’s time being pregnant. The family dynamic is already fucked up – and it will get worse, as the kids get older. However, this post is long enough, already. So we’ll take a break here. Next time, we will look at how the dynamics shift, once the kids start to go to Hogwarts. See ya!

[velvet4510]

I used to love Hinny as a ship - until I realized all the reasons I loved it were blanks in the text that I filled in in my head. Within the text itself, JKR seriously ruined this ship. She gave Harry & Ginny absolutely phenomenal potential as a couple … and then went nowhere with it.

The Horcrux plotline could’ve been THE thing that brought those two together. Because Ginny was literally possessed by a Horcrux for a whole year. She of all people should understand what it’s like for Harry - a Horcrux himself - to feel so mentally violated by Voldemort. And honestly this is why I shipped them as I was reading the books; I figured that’d be a beautiful way of bonding them in the future.

But instead…when Ginny mentions that experience in the later books, Harry literally says “I forgot.”

EXCUSE ME??????

We’re supposed to believe she’s the love of his life when he FORGOT THAT SHE SPENT A WHOLE YEAR POSSESSED BY HIS GREATEST ENEMY AND HE HAD TO RESCUE HER FROM SAID ENEMY????

(Meanwhile he remembers something Draco looked at in a shop 4 years ago.)

I’m sorry but I just can’t buy that.

Then when they do get together, does it happen because Harry realizes “oh Ginny gets me”? No, it’s because Harry suddenly and abruptly thinks “oh no, she’s hot.”

And then they never talk about Voldemort. He never trusts her with the Horcrux info, the way he trusts Ron and Hermione, his best friends. He gets with her as an escape/way of forgetting what he’s been going through, which is the most shallow excuse for a relationship.

Then she proves she actually doesn’t get him at all, when she says “I knew you wouldn’t be happy unless you were fighting Voldemort.” HAPPY??? Harry is not HAPPY to be fighting Voldemort!! Ginny assumes Harry enjoys being The Chosen One, being the hero that she sees him as. If she really understood him, she would never say that.

We’re supposed to think they’d actually be perfect life partners???

Plus there’s not even a payoff between Ginny and Voldemort in any way. Imagine how satisfying it would’ve been if Ginny got to destroy one of the Horcruxes. Not that Neville didn’t deserve his big moment, but like if Ginny had been in the Room of Requirement fire scene and tossed the diadem into the flames herself, or if she’d been the first one to pick up the Sword of Gryffindor and used it to save some people before tossing it to Neville for him to take out Nagini. Forget her being the main character’s endgame love interest - Ginny herself, as her own character, deserved that closure.

And then the movies didn’t even TRY to fix this - they actually made it blatantly worse by stripping Ginny of all of her book personality, causing their relationship to make even LESS sense.

Hinny are more of an idea of a great couple than actually a great couple. We come up with all these reasons in our heads why they’d be good together, but JKR never actually puts those reasons into the text or makes them a proper part of the story to give their relationship real development. Instead, she makes it extremely superficial and, in many ways, toxic.

Ladies, let’s all agree we can do better than a guy who is a longtime family friend and yet forgets about that one time we got possessed by an evil wizard even though he remembers what his “rival” glanced at in a store 4 years ago.

[profoundmakerdreamerss-blog]

It is funny to me how Harry Potter is literally the main character, yet people tend to go like he didn't suffer that much or he wasn't "abused"; Like, how can one misunderstand the literal main character of the damn franchise?

He wasn't abused; yes okay. He absolutely did not grow up inside a cupboard; the tiny place that is mostly reserved for brooms or cleaning supply. He absolutely was not treated inferior to the other child who lived in the same house. He was totally was not treated like a "freak" or a "stain" that his family was ashamed off. He grew up inside a cupboard while there was a literal unused bed in the same house. And you want to know what that screamed to a child, a baby — who slept inside a cupboard while there being a perfectly usable room right there? You are worth nothing and we don't love you and we are ashamed of what you are.

He wasn't starved, or at least he was fed; Yeah, no. We see it from the first book. How Vernon was no food for you and in the cupboard you go — and by the looks of it, that was like his most common punishment. And then, in the second book — you practically see it happen. He was locked, inside a room with only a can of soup that he shared with Hedwig. Now, tell me what it would do to a child — to be given food through a cat flap, and fun fact? Harry got to eat less than people on war rations; in short? He was starved, yes.

He wasn't abused physically so it's not abuse; As for people's thinks abuse isn't abuse until it's physical (which is inherently wrong because abuse isn't only physically, fyi); Harry has learned to dodge Vernon and he states that, very proudly when his uncle tries to grab him. He dodges a flying pan and states that fact, again very proudly as if it is the norm; do you know how heavy pans are? And do you know what would happen when one hits you? If you want an even clearer proof; Vernon Dursley strangles Harry in Ootp. There you go. Also, in the first book, we clearly see Vernon encouraging Dudley to hit Harry. Read between the lines and actually try to understand what that signifies.

And favourite part; When he wasn't treated like a prisoner, or a freak— he was their servant. And that is very much canonical. Tending Petunia's garden during summers and drinking from the water hose in the garden because of how hot it was? Having to wake up early so he can tend the kitchen and when he wasn't doing all that he is locked away. And it is all canon.

In conclusion, Harry— not only grew up to think that he was inhumane, undeserving of love, a freak that didn't even get to have his own bed because someone like him didn't deserve it, physically harmed enough times that he dodges them out of reflex and also the Dursleys' glorified servant; that is not even taking into account what Harry went through in Hogwarts. And after all that if someone tells me; this child, right here — didn't go through much then well, maybe read the books again?

[lines-in-limbo]

I've been mulling over a particular little passage in COS that often goes unnoticed:

“‘A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself!’ Professor Flitwick let out a squeal. Professor Sprout clapped her hands over her mouth. Snape gripped the back of a chair very hard and said, 'How can you be sure?'”

This moment is important because it challenges the misconception that Snape is indifferent to the students physical well-being. We see in the book how Flitwick and Sprout react with audible shock and visible distress, but Snape's response is more subdued yet equally revealing—he tightens his grip on the chair, betraying a palpable tension. It seems like a visceral response, which underscores his genuine concern for the safety of the students under his care. We also see his cautious and analytical nature emerge as he seeks confirmation to the seriousness of the situation.

This scene occurs early in the series and long before any promises made to Dumbledore before his death, which reveals Snape's innate care for his students. It's a very subtle yet powerful clue to his character, that challenges simplistic assumptions about his motivations.

[fafodill]

Everything began upon @snapey's request and what I thought was going to be a tricky but fun dive into Headcanon territory became a full on fascinating (and frankly a tad depressing) deep dive into Hogwarts and 1970's social classes living conditions.

Because what Severus Snape might enjoy eating as an adult or as a teen would be influenced firstly by his childhood and oh boi put your seatbelts on my little rats.

- So, a bit of context first -

Snape grew up in the slums in the 60s. His family was from the working-class and we canonly know they didn't have much money (Severus didn't have his own clothes as a child), and so they might not had much to eat either. And the Snapes weren't just working-class poor, they were dirt-poor (go here if you want to see photos of what the slums could look like back then). Living in the slums was not a choice. We're talking people working for a desperately low wage and barely making by. They were stuck there, at the bottom of the social and economic chain, living in incredibly difficult conditions.

So we're talking homemade meals, sometimes only once a day or none at all. Cheap vegetables (potatoes, carrots, beans, greens etc), a cheap cut of meat sometimes, tinned soup or meat, sometimes sausages. They had to make it last as long as possible and of course never let anything go to waste. Sometimes when he got hungry, he'd only get beans on toast or buttered sandwiches with cheap white bread. No sweets, no snacks for the whole day. Sometimes he just went hungry. He was familiar with the sensation of an empty stomach.

It's possible that he learned to chew very slowly from that time, to trick his mind and stomach into thinking he was eating more that he truly was.

One can wonder if he went to muggle primary school. It's hard to say if there was one near Spinner's End or if maybe his mother homeschooled him. It could make sense if he went as it would mean getting one (even bad) free meal that day. We're talking pies and maybe pudding, but considering the area was poor it might not even have been any good... but at least it was food. Maybe there wouldn't be enough for everybody, or not much. Food poisoning might have been frequent too.

In any case, what becomes clear is that food wasn't a given for Severus. It was rationed, of poor quality, little variety, maybe even flavorless if not bad tasting. Not saying his mother was a bad cook, but there's so much you can do in these times with no income. I'm sure sometimes there would be a special meal, for a birthday or a Holiday (Christmas maybe?) but that wouldn't be the norm.

So Severus grew up without eating much, which has little to do with his natural body frame, but I wouldn't be surprised if it had stunned his growth at least a little (if not a lot). I don't have any difficulties picturing him as too little and too scrawny for an 11 year old when he left home.

And since food wasn't a given it wouldn't be surprising if he integrated deep down that he couldn't eat too much at every meal or else it would mean he (and his parents) wouldn't have enough for the next one. Maybe there was even an unspoken rule that his father needed more food because he was the bread-winner of the family and Severus saw his mother eat less purposefully and mimicked her. I'm sure his mother wanted him to eat, but if he said he was fine maybe she wouldn't argue too much, as that may also mean Tobias would be in a better mood. And Severus might have also wanted for Tobias to be in as much of a good mood as possible back then.

He might also have stolen food back then. Sometimes from the pantry (very tiny, strategically unremarkable things) or from the outside.

We know the Evans family was better off than the Snapes, so it wouldn't be surprising if through Lily he was able to experience some nicer things (maybe candies, licorice or even chocolate) or maybe he was even invited a few times for dinner.

Could be really cute to imagine Lily introduced him to some new flavors that left him speechless and so fricking happy as he got home with the taste still in his mouth. Maybe she'd give him a candy and he would just lick it a few times then carefully put it back in the wrapper to make it last as much as possible. For days. It's be a treat after dinner, just one, two licks, letting the taste fill his mouth, closing his eyes and hiding it back under his pillow.

In any case, taking into account what we know from canon and the reality of what living in the slums means, we could - in my opinion - safely assume that Severus Snape knew what Hunger was.

- When he first went to Hogwarts -

With all of this in mind, can we take a second to stop and imagine what finally coming to Hogwarts might have been like for 11 years old Severus Tobias Snape? Of course he was excited, his mother had told him all about it, but nothing could have prepared him for the reality of the sheer amount of food appearing before his little eyes when the Sorting Ceremony was over. Nothing.

His first meal in the wizarding world was a proper feast. This is something a starving child doesn't forget and this might have played an early role in strengthening his resolve of embracing his magical side instead his muggle heritage. The magic part of his life was literally abundant and nourishing.

I won't go into detail here but there's this incredible post detailing every food appearing in the books that we know of (so in the 90s). Here is an extract from it that I think is important to give a bit of context:

Probably to give a subtle wave to the fact that Hogwarts is the magical version of a public school, nearly all the food consumed there is traditional and British. A public school here is NOT a state-maintained school, it is a private, extremely expensive, prestigious, boarding school, e.g Eton, which only the children of people with a lot of money and a lot of influence attend. By default, these people are usually upper class or aristocracy. (Obviously in the wizarding world money isn’t a factor in school attendance, but nevertheless that is what Hogwarts is modelled on.) There is never any mention of processed foods at Hogwarts except chips and a few common desserts.

When the food appeared, I can totally imagine him being so stunned that he couldn't move for a few minutes. Too many smells, so much variety, everything overflowing everywhere. And as he looked around, people were just... digging in. And it took him a moment to realize he was allowed to. Because of course he was. He was a student, he was finally at Hogwarts.

So he slowly plated himself something, looking around expectantly as if someone was about to get angry at him. Of course it didn't happen but he couldn't fight off years of conditioning so he might have not eaten much that evening. Anyway, he was already so overwhelmed with nervousness and happiness from being here that it didn't matter.

In the weeks that followed though, as he settled in, he might have eaten more. Way more. He wanted to try everything, even stuff that looked almost suspicious since he had no idea what it was. I think he discovered the pure joy of just stuffing his face. It was great, the freedom of not expecting to lack, of just reaching out for an apple whenever he was hungry. And I'm pretty convinced he got a few stomach aches for 1) eating too much/too fast and 2) trying things his stomach wasn't familiar with. That's when he discovered you could also get a tummy ache if you ate too much. Huh.

Maybe he even discovered that he was like... allowed to take some food with him (like I could see him stuffing one? two? three??? apples in his bag, bewildered that he was allowed and could just... snack on it whenever he wanted??? WHAT A LIFE.)

And it was like discovering a never ending new world of savors through the seasons as the meals changed. So exciting. Abundance but also a journey of tasty discoveries.

This being said, talking about food with other students might have been a strange and alienating experience. He might have gotten strange looks (because who was that feral child eating everyday like it was his last meal and asking what mince pies were?) and felt self-conscious when sharing his home life. He might have stopped doing that real fast, especially if he was surrounded by wealthy slytherins heirs.

His big discoveries might have been (please remember I'm talking out of my ass here since I'm trying to imagine the big differences he might have perceived in the 70s from his childhood in the slums):

-Fresh vegetables.

-Being able to eat meat at every meal if he wanted to.

-Actually good gravy.

-Spices.

-Deserts.

This being said, I wouldn't be surprised either if Hogwarts was a lot to deal with. Talk about his life doing a 180°. So maybe he also developed coping mechanism to deal with the onslaught of stress/socializing/work and one of them might have been... eating a bit like at home: eating things closer in taste to things he had back there (comfort food?) and to run on very little. It could have been a way to control soothe his senses.

I have a headcanon that when he went home for Christmas that first year (maybe the only time he did), when his mother welcomed him at the station she almost wept when she saw her little boy with fuller cheeks. He was still thin, still a little too small for his age, but he had some colors on him and sparkles in his eyes and so much to tell her. She was so proud. Of course he told her about the food as well - it made her happy and able to relive some of her own memories, but she also grew sad and regretful that they couldn't offer him a 'proper Christmas meal' (which was ridiculous, he perfectly knew what their usual Christmas dinner was like, he was just happy to see his Ma, but from this point on he refrained from talking too much about it as to not make her sad).

Speaking of that, going back home might have been a cold shower (metaphorically and figuratively)(he had also discovered the joys of hot showers and indoor plumbing) and as he went back to school in January, food might have tasted different again. Maybe tainted with the ever growing question: why would his mother embrace Muggle culture if it meant revoking such privilege ? And what could it say about his own future?

We could imagine a lot of different things about how his relationship with food would change over time. He might have slowed down his eating pace again after that trip home and chewed very slowly again because food=privilege and he wouldn't take it for granted. Maybe he'd eat very little because unconsciously he wouldn't feel deserving of it? Maybe he'd starve himself then binge and get himself sick?

I'm going with the idea that over his school years he normalized his eating habits. He's not a big eater (and I headcanon this being a consequence of his childhood conditioning) and has a fast metabolism (part genetics, part stress). For sure though, his upbringing impacted him and we canonly know he has trouble separating himself from his childhood (since he kept the house in Spinner's End).

- What about after school? (aka studies+DE days) -

We have literally 0 clues regarding his studies after Hogwarts (tho to become a Potion Master he must have done a Mastery of some kind) but we could assume it was as another Potion Master's apprentice, who could have been an honorable witch/wizard and thus, he might have had decent living conditions.

But we also know (or we assume more like) that he might also have been introduced into the DE circles around that time, maybe as a protégé of Lucius Malfoy and so now we're upgrading from Hogwarts's food to aristocracy-tier meals. We're talking expensive alcohol in crystal glasses, multiple courses meals, foreign delicacies, sculpted magical deserts... I have a few headcanons about that.

-He knew the basics of etiquette from his mother but Lucius and Narcissa trained him on everything (tables manners, conversations, pureblood customs, posture, voice inflections, etc.) He learnt fast and asked a lot of questions.

-As for the food... don't get me wrong I'm pretty sure he must have been blown away by some stuff that tasted incredible but I can't shake the feeling that he also must have struggled due to the invisible class barrier from his upbringing. In their world, food had always been a given. They never experienced the joy of stuffing their face after starving for years, had no idea what discovering chocolate at 10 years old was like, the weeping joy of not being afraid to skip meals. He might have been envious of them but also maybe a bit angry because they had no idea how easy they had it.

-Also yes, the food was good but could we not spend an hour blowing smoke up each other's asses about that filet? Yes it's good, but at the end of the day it's meat. Yes yes, caviar is expensive but it's just fish eggs and the texture is disturbing as fuck, can we just not?

Deep down Severus Snape isn't refined, though he tried hard to hide it back then. Underneath controlled inflections was a thick accent, underneath that elevated pinky were rude but earnest table manners and behind the compliment about the vinaigrette was a yearning for some fucking boiled potatoes. Despite everything, despite his efforts, despite himself... at the end of the day inside of him he was still that poor gruff man from the Midlands.

- Adult life (back to Hogwarts) -

No we venture into what he might have enjoyed eating. Honestly, it's so difficult and subjective because I'm so not-versed with British food, having never tasted anything so projecting what this specific guy might have liked or not is just me blabbing so I will focus more on eating habits and, big likes and dislikes and a few specific ones. (feel free to give me your own headcanons in the comments!). Here we go:

-Severus is still not a big eater. It's part residual conditioning, part metabolism, part nerves/anxiety/depression. But he works a lot and needs energy so he rarely skips a meal, except for his bi-annual depressive episodes.

-Little breakfast, medium/big lunch, light dinner. Sometimes a late-night snack if he works late.

-With age and after his time with the Malfoys, he went back to enjoying simpler food again. It wasn't so much nostalgia as much as feeling more 'himself' that way.

Breakfast

-He always has the same breakfast for long periods of time (which goes in hand with my autistic headcanon) going from two to six months until he's bored of it. Sometimes it's two buttered pieces of toast. Sometimes it's one egg and some beans but always with one cup of black coffee.

-He finds porridge's texture deeply unpleasant as it reminds him of the sludge his mother used to make.

-He also enjoys crumpets a lot. Sometimes as a late-night snack.

Lunch/Dinner

-He's not difficult with food, really. But he prefers his meat tender (because it's better than the rubber shit he ate as a kid) and his vegetables a bit crunchy.

-His mother made good sausage rolls and he still enjoys it quite a bit.

-He likes chicken but thinks it's way tastier if you eat it with your hands (childhood memory) but he has a reputation to maintain so..

-He often gets stomach aches if he eats too much at dinner so one of his go-to is soup.

Sweets

-As a teen he didn't have money to buy stuff from Honeydukes (he always told himself he didn't care anyway)(he did)(someone heal his inner child please). He still considers sugar as something a bit luxurious even though it's both available and affordable to him now.

-He doesn't necessarily have a sweet tooth per say but he enjoys the... practicality of sugar. Since he doesn't eat a lot and works long hours he relies on it to get his energy boosts.

-He's got a little tin of biscuits in his office (plain ones or with cinnamon or ginger) for when he drinks tea by himself and is in the mood for a tiny treat after a long day.

-Dark chocolate. He bites and lets it melt slowly under his tongue. He especially likes the kind with sea salt.

-Treactle tart is one of his favorites as it still reminds him of Christmas with his mother (it was one of her specialties and he always helped her make it. It's one of the nicest memories he has with her).

-He makes his own candied flowers once a year. When he goes into the Forbidden forest for ingredients in Spring, he also picks some violets and makes three jars. (He gives one to Minerva.)

-He enjoys grapes, mostly because he likes spitting the seeds.

Drinks

-First coffee of the morning is taken black. Don't talk to him, don't breathe near him. In fact, don't exist it's better this way. The second one is taken with sugar and in the afternoon he switches to tea. Then coffee again at night at the end of semester when he has too much work.

-As a teen he drank a lot of pumpkin juice. Less so as as an adult (he almost completely stopped when he became teacher because he wanted to appear as mature as possible in front of his colleagues and the students) but later on he would rarely say no to a cup.

-He rarely drinks alcohol and maybe got hammered twice in his life (once he got angry-drunk and it reminded him way too much of his father and another time he got depressed-drunk, which was pure shite as well).

-He likes his tea black, sometimes with sugar. Will judge heavily anyone who fails to prepare it properly (Minerva makes a great one).

Dislikes

-Stringy meat. It gets stuck between his fucked up teeth and he abhors the sensation.

-Sticky stuff (like caramel). Same issue.

-He hates corn.

Unrelated you won't convince me he's not a constipated bitch. I don't think I need to explain myself here. The man is a walking knot.

Here you go! I'm finally done. If you made it this far, thank you... I'm tired and I hope this was mildly interesting to you. I'd love to hear your thoughts and headcanons about this so feel free to reblog or comment ! <3

Big big thanks to @dirty-dirty-muggle, @wumbocroft, @historycat for their precious help and contribution on that topic. Also thanks to @arkadijxpancakes again for showing me this incredible post about Hogwarts's food.

[thepulsatingflapper]

Peter Pettigrew is an anti-trans allegory.

Peter's character is made up of two allegories for transitioning: 1. changing sides in the First Wizarding War, and 2. living as a rat instead of a person

Changing sides in the war is a metaphor for transitioning because he fundamentally changed who he was from his original identity to the exact opposite, but kept his new identity a secret even from his friends specifically in order to fool and harm them. This is just like how JKR believes trans women try to fool and harm cis women with their identities.

Peter's initial betrayal/transition ended in the ultimate effect of giving a man (Voldemort) access to a cis woman's (Lily's) private room (sound familiar?) which was framed as the ultimate evil by JKR. Here, Voldemort plays the role of JKR's trans woman when he forces his way into a cis woman's private space (Lily's bedroom) specifically to harm a cis woman (Lily) and a child (Harry). This scene ends with the cis woman brutally murdering the trans woman, which the narrative frames as very positive and the readers are supposed to agree with.

Notice how Peter then eventually also betrayed Voldemort, which is an allegory for detransitioning. JKR believes trans people's "true selves" are their original selves/assigned gender, and that everyone is always going to detransition. Peter ended up on the same side he started because JKR believes trans women are always still men deep down.

Peter living as a "Rat" is a metaphor for living as a "woman" after he transitioned. Notice how the narrative frames it as if Peter was never "truly" a rat, just a person pretending to be a rat (like how JKR believes trans women are not truly women just men pretending to be women).

Peter was never given the opportunity to tell the reader whether he was a rat or a human, the text decides for us that his "real" identity is always human no matter how long he lives as a rat and passes as a rat. The choice of a rat to represent a trans person shows how JKR believes trans people to be animals/inhuman. And also a rat represents sneakiness and dishonesty so that's obvious.

When Peter talks about being a rat in the Shrieking Shack in PoA, he is met with disgust and revulsion from Ron. We're supposed to read this as Ron being rightfully disgusted and distrusting of a person he just found out was trans.

Peter lived as a rat for 13 years (a notoriously evil number), concealing his "true" identity (which was seen negatively by the text because JKR is saying that Trans people's "true" identities are evil) in order to sleep in Ron's bed. This is meant to be read as a child molester allegory because JKR believes all trans women are child molesters.

Other evidence

Peter was barely taller than 13 year old Harry because he's not being a man properly (not a "Real man") according to JKR's bigoted and cisheterosexist worldviews. What other reason does JKR have for specifying how short Peter was?

He was also shown to be balding at a very young age as another reference to not being "man enough" for JKR.

He was ugly.

Since wands are used as a phallic symbol in the series, we can further see Peter doesn't have a penis anymore because in GoF he uses Voldemort's wand rather than one of his own.

Peter cut off his own finger, which is an allegory for gender reassignment surgery/vaginoplasty. Peter not having a finger anymore is a metaphor for a trans woman not having a penis.

He later cuts off his own hand, just furthering and cementing the reference to bottom surgery.

Peter then gets a human-made bodypart in place of his "biological" hand, a silver hand made by Voldemort. This is just like how trans people will get human-made bodyparts installed after they get their other ones removed. Of course JKR makes it the evil villain (Voldemort) who plays the role of the evil doctor who provides gender-affirming care. JKR believes gender-affirming surgeries are evil. And notice how Peter was coerced by Voldemort into getting the surgery when he really didn't want to deep down, which is very telling.

As we know, Peter's silver hand (his vagina) eventually killed him. And he died by suicide, which feels in very bad taste given the symbolism JKR is working with here, but knowing her that was probably intentional.

Anything I missed?

[ugly-cactus]

common criticism i see of remus lupin is that he should've taken in harry as a baby (forseeing his mistreatment by the dursleys) but petunia is harry's blood relative. she is a mother, financially stable, and physically and psychologically capable; she and vernon are ostensibly fit to accept a second child. meanwhile, remus is a single 21-year-old who can never have stable employment. he can't afford childcare while he's working/wolfing. even if he had money, his mental state (likely the worst of his depression) is in shambles after the deaths of his friends and comrades. his furry problem would be a danger to harry. he no longer has a strong support system. he is in no state to, especially by himself, figure out how to care for an infant, raise a child, and protect this very very high-profile boy from politics, violence, and literally himself. and remus never checks up on harry or visited him, because he trusts dumbledore implicitly and can't imagine that his childhood would be unsafe. i think he wouldn't presume that petunia could mistreat harry either. he's friends with james, but doesn't seem to know lily that well (lily's letters talk about sirius, but never remus) so maybe he doesn't know of her hatred for wizards.

no hate for young remus yo

[dinarosie]

Re-Reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Snape’s Moment of Unyielding Bravery

The scene I want to highlight in The Goblet of Fire is one that carries so much weight, and each time I re-read it, the gravity of the moment only increases. Imagine the setting: the hospital wing. It’s packed with people—Cornelius Fudge, Madam Pomfrey, Professor McGonagall, Bill and Molly Weasley, Hermione, Ron, and Harry. All eyes are on Snape as he steps forward, pulls up his sleeve, and reveals the Dark Mark burned into his skin.

“There,” said Snape harshly. “There. The Dark Mark. It is not as clear as it was an hour or so ago, when it burned black, but you can still see it. Every Death Eater had the sign burned into him by the Dark Lord. It was a means of distinguishing one another, and his means of summoning us to him. When he touched the Mark of any Death Eater, we were to Disapparate, and Apparate, instantly, at his side. This Mark has been growing clearer all year. Karkaroff’s too.

Let that sink in. Snape isn’t just showing a Mark; he’s exposing the deepest, darkest secret of his life. He’s standing in front of his students, his colleagues, and—let’s not forget—Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic, and he’s admitting something most people would bury forever.

What makes this even more remarkable is that the choice to do this wasn’t something Dumbledore told him to make. This isn’t part of some grand plan discussed beforehand. Snape makes this decision on his own, in the moment, fully aware of how it will tarnish him in the eyes of others. Why?

Because Snape understands the stakes. Fudge’s denial of Voldemort’s return endangers the entire wizarding world. By exposing the Dark Mark on his arm, Snape hopes to convince Fudge to take Voldemort’s return seriously. His goal is clear: to push the Ministry into taking precautionary measures and preparing the wizarding community for the battle ahead.

And then there’s this haunting line:

“…We both knew he had returned. Karkaroff fears the Dark Lord’s vengeance. He betrayed too many of his fellow Death Eaters to be sure of a welcome back into the fold.”

What Snape doesn’t say, but what we understand, is that he knows he’s facing the exact same fate. When Snape goes back to Voldemort, he knows he’ll be met with pain, torture, and humiliation and even death. Where Karkaroff sees only a way out, Snape sees his duty—a stark contrast that underscores Snape’s resolve.

Here’s what makes this even more powerful: Snape is so determined to convince Fudge that he uses the suffering he knows awaits him as evidence. He stands there, knowing that returning to Voldemort will mean enduring unbearable torture, and he uses that as proof of Voldemort’s return. Snape essentially says, “I know what’s coming for me, and I’m still standing here to tell you the truth.”

Then we reach the next turning point in this scene:

“Severus,” said Dumbledore, turning to Snape, “you know what I must ask you to do. If you are ready . . . if you are prepared . . .”

Look at Dumbledore’s approach here. He’s cautious, almost hesitant. This is a sharp contrast to Half-Blood Prince, where Dumbledore gives Snape direct orders about killing him. Here, Dumbledore knows exactly what he’s asking of Snape: to return to Voldemort, to put himself in unimaginable danger.

And Snape’s response?

“I am.”

That’s it. Two words. No hesitation, no complaint. J.K. Rowling describes him as pale, his cold, dark eyes glittering strangely. Dumbledore, too, is described as watching Snape leave with a trace of apprehension on his face. Both of them know that Snape might not come back. Both of them know he’s walking into the lion’s den. And yet, Snape doesn’t waver.

This moment is a masterclass in bravery, but it also completely dismantles the argument that Snape’s good deeds are purely motivated by guilt over Lily or his promise to Dumbledore.

This scene also shows us that the promise Snape made to Dumbledore after Lily’s death wasn’t just about protecting Harry. It was about choosing a side. Snape made the decision to fight against Voldemort, no matter the cost. From that moment on, he dedicated himself to sabotaging the Dark Lord’s plans, enduring unspeakable pain and danger in the process.

And let’s not overlook this: Snape doesn’t just fight when Harry is in danger. He fights Voldemort at every opportunity because he knows it’s the right thing to do. He does it not because of guilt or obligation, but because his own moral compass demands it.

This scene in The Goblet of Fire encapsulates everything that makes Snape such a complex, fascinating character. It’s raw, vulnerable, and incredibly brave. Snape isn’t perfect—far from it—but this moment proves that he is so much more than the sum of his flaws. He’s a man who chooses to stand and fight, even when it means sacrificing everything.

[wisteria-lodge]

Manipulative/Morally Grey Dumbledore? An In-Depth Canon Analysis

So when I look at Harry Potter, my goal is to separate what I think the books are intending to say, from what they actually say, from what the movies say… and what the common fan interpretation is. So today I’m interested in Dumbledore, and specifically in the common headcanon of  Manipulative/Morally Gray Dumbledore. Is that (intentionally or unintentionally) supported by the text?

PART I:  Omniscient Dumbledore

“I think he knows more or less everything that goes on here”

In Book 1, yes Dumbledore honestly does seem to know everything. He 100% arranged for Harry to find the Mirror of Erised, publicly left Hogwarts in order to nudge Quirrell into going after the Stone, and knew what Quirrell was doing the whole time. It is absolutely not a stretch, and kind of heavily implied, that the reason the Stone’s protections feel like a little-end-of-the-year exam designed to put Harry through his paces… is because they are. As the series goes on this interpretation only gets more plausible, when we see the kind of protections people can put up when they don’t want anyone getting through. 

Book 1 Dumbledore knows everything… but what he’s actually going to do about it is anyone’s guess. One of the first things we learn is that some of Dumbledore’s calls can be… questionable. McGonagall questions his choice to leave Harry with the Dursleys, Hermione questions his choice to give Harry the Cloak and let him go after the Stone, Percy and Ron both matter-of-factly call him “mad.” The “nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweak” speech is a joke where Dumbledore says he’s going to say a few words, then literally does say a few (weird) words. I know there are theories that those particular words are supposed to be insulting the four houses, or referencing the Hogwarts house stereotypes, or that they’re some kind of warning. But within the text, this is pure Lewis Carroll British Nonsense Verse stuff (and people came up with answers to the impossible Alice in Wonderland “why is a raven like a writing desk” riddle too.) 

This characterization also explains a lot of Dumbledore’s decisions about how to run a school, locked in during Book 1. Presumably Binns, Peeves, Filch, Snape are all there because Dumbledore finds them funny, atmospheric, and/or character building. He's just kind of a weird guy.  He absolutely knew that Lockhart was a fraud in Book 2 (with that whole “Impaled upon your own sword, Gilderoy?” thing after Lockhart oblivates himself. ) So maybe he is also there to be funny/atmospheric/character building, or to teach Harry a lesson about fame, or because Dumbledore is using the cursed position to bump off people he doesn’t like. Who knows.

(I actually don’t think JKR had locked in “the DADA position is literally cursed by Voldemort” until Book 6. )

Dumbledore absolutely knows that Harry is listening in when Lucius Malfoy comes to take Hagrid to Azkaban, and it’s fun to speculate that maybe he let himself get fired in Book 2 as part of a larger plan to boot Lucius off the Board of Governors. So far, that’s the sort of thing he’d do.  But in Books 3 and 4, we are confronted with a number of important things that Dumbledore just missed. He doesn’t know any of the Marauders were animagi, he doesn’t know what really happened with the Potter’s Secret Keeper, doesn’t know Moody is Crouch, and doesn’t know the Marauders Map even exists. But in Books 5 and 6, his omniscience does seem to come back online. (In a flashback, Voldemort even comments that he is "omniscient as ever” when Dumbledore lists the specific Death Eaters he has in Hogsmeade as backup.) Dumbledore knows exactly what Draco and Voldemort are planning, and his word is taken as objective truth by the entire Order of the Phoenix - who apparently only tolerate Snape because Dumbledore vouches for him:

“Snape,” repeated McGonagall faintly, falling into the chair. “We all wondered . . . but he trusted . . . always . . . Snape . . . I can’t believe it. . . .”  “Snape was a highly accomplished Occlumens,” said Lupin, his voice uncharacteristically harsh. “We always knew that.”  “But Dumbledore swore he was on our side!” whispered Tonks. “I always thought Dumbledore must know something about Snape that we didn’t. . . .”  “He always hinted that he had an ironclad reason for trusting Snape,” muttered Professor McGonagall (...) “Wouldn’t hear a word against him!”

McGonagall questions Dumbledore about the Dursleys, but not about Snape. I see this as part of the larger trend of basically Dumbledore’s deification. In the beginning of the series, he’s treated as a clever, weird dude. By the end, he’s treated like a god. 

PART II: Chessmaster Dumbledore

“I prefer not to keep all my secrets in one basket.”

When Dumbledore solves problems, he likes to go very hands-off. He didn’t directly teach Harry about the Mirror of Erised - he gave him the Cloak, knew he would wander, and moved the Mirror so it would be in his path. He sends Snape to deal with Quirrell and Draco, rather than do it himself. He (or his portrait) tells Snape to confund Mundungus Fletcher and get him to suggest the Seven Potters strategy. He puts Mrs. Figg in place to watch Harry, then ups the protection in Book 5 - all without informing Harry. The situation with Slughorn is kind of a Dumbledore-manipulation master class - even the way he deliberately disappears into the bathroom so Harry will have enough solo time to charm Slughorn. Of course he only wants Slughorn under his roof in the first place to pick his brain about Voldemort… but again, instead of doing that himself, he gets Harry to do it for him. 

Dumbledore has a moment during Harry’s hearing in Book 5 (which he fakes evidence for) where he informs Fudge that Harry is not under the Ministry’s jurisdiction while at Hogwarts. Which has insane implications. It’s never explicitly stated, but as the story goes on, it at least makes sense that Dumbledore is deliberately obscuring how powerful he is, and how much influence he really has, by getting other people to do things for him. But the problem with that is because he is so powerful, it become really easy for a reader to look back after they get more information and say… well if Dumbledore was controlling the situation… why couldn’t he have done XYZ. Here are two easy examples from Harry’s time spent with the Dursleys:

1. Mrs. Figg is watching over Harry from day one, but she can’t tell him she’s a squib and also she has to keep him miserable on purpose:

“Dumbledore’s orders. I was to keep an eye on you but not say anything, you were too young. I’m sorry I gave you such a miserable time, but the Dursleys would never have let you come if they’d thought you enjoyed it. It wasn’t easy, you know…”

It’s pretty intense to think of Dumbledore saying “oh yes, invite this little child over and keep him unhappy on purpose.” But okay. It’s important to keep Harry ignorant of the magical world and vice versa. fine. But once he goes to Hogwarts… that doesn’t apply anymore?  I’m sure when Harry thinks he’s going to be imprisoned permanently in his bedroom during Book 2, it would’ve been comforting to know that Dumbledore was sending around someone to check on him. And when he literally runs away from home in Book 3… having the address of a trusted adult that he could easily get to would have been great for everybody. 

2. When Vernon is about to actually kick Harry out during Book 5, Dumbledore sends a howler which intimidates Petunia into insisting that Harry has to stay. Vernon folds and does exactly what she says. If Dumbledore could intimidate Petunia into doing this, then why couldn’t he intimidate her into, say - giving Harry the second bedroom instead of a cupboard. Or fixing Harry’s glasses. In Book 1, the Dursleys don’t bother Harry during the entire month of August because Hagrid gives Dudley a pig’s tail. In the summer between third and fourth year, the Dursleys back off because Harry is in correspondence with Sirius (a person they fear.) But the Dursleys are afraid of all wizards. Like at this point it doesn’t seem that hard to intimidate them into acting decently to Harry. 

PART III: Dumbledore and the Dursleys 

“Not a pampered little prince”

JKR wanted two contradictory things. She wanted Dumbledore to be a fundamentally good guy: a wise, if eccentric mentor figure. But she also wanted Harry to have a comedically horrible childhood being locked in a cupboard, denied food, given broken glasses and ill fitting/embarrassing clothes, and generally made into a little Cinderella. Then, it’s a bigger contrast when he goes to Hogwarts and expulsion can be used as an easy threat. (Although the only person we ever see expelled is Hagrid, and that was for murder.)

So, there are a couple of tricks she uses to make it okay that Dumbledore left Harry at the Dursleys.’ The first is that once Harry leaves…  nothing that happens there is given emotional weight. When he’s in the Wizarding World, he barely talks about Dursleys, barely thinks about them. They almost never come up in the narration (unless Harry’s worried about being expelled, or they’re sending him comedically awful presents.) They are completely cut from movies 4, 6, and 7 part 2 - and you do not notice. 

The second trick… is that Dumbledore himself clearly doesn’t think that the Dursleys are that bad. During the King’s Cross vision-quest, he describes 11-year-old Harry as “alive and healthy (...) as normal a boy as I could have hoped under the circumstances. Thus far, my plan was working well.”  

Now, this could have been really interesting. Like in a psychological way, I get it. Dumbledore had a rocky home life. Dad in prison, mom spending all her time taking care of his volatile and dangerous sister. Aberforth seems to have reacted to the situation by running completely wild, it’s implied that he never even had formal schooling… and Albus doubled down on being the Golden Child, making the family look good from the outside, and finding every means possible to escape. I would have believed it if Molly or Kingsley had a beat of being horrified by the way the Dursleys are treating Harry… but Dumbledore treats it as like, whatever. Business as usual. 

But that isn’t the framing that the books use. Dumbledore is correct that the Dursleys aren’t that bad, and I think it’s because JKR fundamentally does not take the Dursleys seriously as threats. I also think she has a fairly deeply held belief that suffering creates goodness, so possibly Harry suffering at the hands of the Dursleys… was necessary? To make him good? Dumbledore himself has an arc of ‘long period of suffering = increased goodness.’ So does Severus Snape, Dudley‘s experience with the Dementor kickstarts his character growth, etc. It’s a trope she likes.

It’s only in The Cursed Child that the Dursleys are given any kind of weight when it comes to Harry’s psyche. This is one of the things that makes me say Jack Thorne wrote that play, because it’s just not consistent with how JKR likes to write the Dursleys. It’s consistent with the way fanfiction likes to write the Dursleys. And look, The Cursed Child is fascinatingly bad, I have so many problems with it, but it does seem to be doing like … a dark reinterpretation of Harry Potter? And it’s interested in saying something about cycles of abuse. I can absolutely see how the way the play handles things is flattering to JKR. It retroactively frames the Dursleys’ abuse in a more negative way, and maybe that’s something she wanted after criticism that the Harry Potter books treat physical abuse kind of lightly. (i.e.  Harry at the hands of the Dursleys, and house-elves at the hands of everybody. Even Molly Weasley “wallops” Fred with a broomstick.) 

PART IV: Dumbledore and Harry

“The whole Potter–Dumbledore relationship. It’s been called unhealthy, even sinister”

So whenever Harry feels betrayed by Dumbledore in the books - and he absolutely does, it’s some of JKR’s best writing  - it’s not because he left him with the Dursleys. It’s because Dumbledore kept secrets from him, or lied to him, or didn’t confide in him on a personal level. 

“Look what he asked from me, Hermione! Risk your life, Harry! And again! And again! And don’t expect me to explain everything, just trust me blindly, trust that I know what I’m doing, trust me even though I don’t trust you! Never the whole truth! Never!” (...) I don’t know who he loved, Hermione, but it was never me. This isn’t love, the mess he’s left me in. He shared a damn sight more of what he was really thinking with Gellert Grindelwald than he ever shared with me.”

Eventually though, Harry falls in line with the rest of the Order, and treats Dumbledore as an all-knowing God. And this decision comes so close to being critiqued…  but the series never quite commits. Rufus Scrimgeour comments that, “Well, it is clear to me that [Dumbledore] has done a very good job on you” - implying that Harry is a product of a deliberate manipulation,  and that the way Harry feels about Dumbledore is a direct result of how he's been controlling the situation (and Harry.)  But Harry responds to “[You are] Dumbledore’s man through and through, aren’t you, Potter?” with “Yeah, I am. Glad we straightened that out,” and it’s treated as a badass, mic drop line. 

Ron goes on to say that Harry maybe shouldn’t be trusting Dumbledore and maybe his plan isn’t that great… but then he abandons his friends, regrets what he did, and is only able to come back because Dumbledore knew he would react this way? So that whole thing only makes Dumbledore seem more powerful? Aberforth  tells Harry (correctly) that Dumbledore is expecting too much of him and he’s not interested in making sure that he survives:

“How can you be sure, Potter, that my brother wasn’t more interested in the greater good than in you? How can you be sure you aren’t dispensable (...) Why didn’t he say… ‘Take care of yourself, here’s how to survive’? (...) You’re seventeen, boy!”

But, Aberforth is treated as this Hamish Abernathy type who has given up, and needs Harry to ignite his spark again. There’s a pretty dark line in the script of Deathly Hallows Part 2:

Which at least shows this was a possible  interpretation the creative team had in their heads… but then of course it isn’t actually in the movie. 

So in the end, insane trust in Dumbledore is only ever treated as proper and good. Then in Cursed Child they start using “Dumbledore” as an oath instead of “Merlin” and it’s weird and I don’t like it.

PART V: Dumbledore and his Strays

“I have known, for some time now, that you are the better man.”

So Dumbledore has this weird relationship pattern. He has a handful of people he pulled out of the fire at some point and (as a result) these people are insanely loyal to him.  They do his dirty work, and he completely controls them. This is an interesting pattern, because I think it helps explain why so many fans read Dumbledore’s relationship with Snape (and with Harry) as sinister. 

Let’s start with the first of Dumbledore’s “strays.” Dumbledore saves Hagrid's livelihood and probably life after he is accused of opening the Chamber of Secrets - and then he uses Hagrid to disappear Harry after the Potters' death, gets him to transport the Philosopher’s Stone, and he’s the one who he trusts to be Harry’s first point of contact with the Wizarding World.  Also, Hagrid's situation doesn’t change? Even after he is cleared of opening the Chamber of Secrets, he keeps using that pink flowered umbrella with his broken wand inside, a secret that he and Dumbledore seem to share. He could get a legal wand, he could continue his education. But he doesn’t seem to, and I don’t know why. 

So, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is a well known fix-it fic that basically asks “What if Harry Potter was a machiavellian little super genius who solves the plot in a year?” I enjoyed it when it was coming out, but the only thing I would call a cheat is the way McGonagall brings Harry to Diagon Alley instead of Hagrid. Because a Harry Potter who has spent a couple of days with McGonagall is going to be much better informed, better equipped and therefore more powerful than a Harry spending the same amount of time with Hagrid. McGonagall is both a lot more knowledgeable and a lot less loyal to Dumbledore. She is loyal, obviously, but she also questions his choices in a way that Hagrid never does. And as a result, Dumbledore does not trust her with the same kind of delicate jobs he trusts to Hagrid.

Mrs. Figg is another one of Dumbledore’s strays. She’s a squib, so we can imagine that she doesn’t really have a lot of other options, and he sets her up to keep tabs on (and be unpleasant to) little Harry. He also has her lie to the entire Wizangamot, which has got to present some risk. Within this framework, Snape is another very clear stray. Dumbledore kept him out of Azkaban, and is the only reason that the Order trusts him. He gets sent on on dangerous double-agent missions… but before that he’s sort of kept on hand, even though he’s clearly miserable at Hogwarts. Firenze is definitely a stray - he can't go back to the centaurs, and who other than Dumbledore is going to hire him? And I do wonder about Trelawney. We don’t know much about her relationship with Dumbledore, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she was a stray as well.

I think there was an attempt to turn Lupin into a stray that didn’t… quite work. He is clearly grateful to Dumbledore for letting him attend Hogwarts and then for hiring him, but Lupin doesn’t really hit that necessary level of trustworthy that the others do. Most of what Dumbledore doesn’t know in Book 3 are things that Lupin could have told him, and didn’t. If had to think of a Watsonsian reason why Remus is given all these solo missions away from the other Order members (that never end up mattering…) it’s because I don’t think Dumbledore trusts him that much. Lupin doubts him too much. 

“Dumbledore believed that?” said Lupin incredulously. “Dumbledore believed Snape was sorry James was dead? Snape hated James. . . .”

 We also see Dumbledore start the process of making Draco into a stray by promising to protect him and his parents. And with all of that… it’s kind of easy to see how Harry fits the profile. He has a very bleak existence (which Dumbledore knows about.) He is pulled out of it by Dumbledore’s proxies. It’s not surprising that Harry develops a Hagrid-level loyalty, especially after Dumbledore saves him from Barty, from his Ministry hearing, and then from Voldemort. Harry walks to his death because Dumbledore told him too. 

Just to be clear, I don’t think this pattern is deliberate. I think this is a side effect of JKR wanting to write Dumbledore as a nice guy, and specifically as a protector of the little guy. But Dumbledore doing that while also being so powerful creates a weird power dynamic, gives him a weird edit. It’s part of the reason people are happy to go one step farther and say that the Dursleys were mean to Harry… because Dumbledore actively wanted it that way.  I don’t think that’s true. I think Dumbledore loves his strays and if anything, the text supports the idea that he is collecting good people, because protecting them and observing them serves some psychological function for him. Dumbledore does not believe himself to be an intrinsically good person, or trustworthy when it comes to power. So, of course someone like that would be fascinated by how powerless people operate in the world, and by people like Hagrid and Lupin and Harry, who seem so intrinsically good. 

PART VI - Dumbledore and Grindelwald

“I was in love with you.” 

I honestly see “17-year-old Dumbledore was enamored with Grindelwald” as a smokescreen distracting from the actual moral grayness of the guy. He wrote some edgy letters when he was a teenager, at least partly because he thought his neighbor was hot. He thought he could move Ariana, but couldn’t - which led to the chaotic three-way duel that killed her. 

One thing I think J. K. Rowling does understand pretty well, and introduces into her books on purpose, is the concept of re-traumatization. Sirius in Book 5 is very obviously being re-traumatized by being in his childhood home and hearing the portrait of his mother screaming. It’s why he acts out, regresses, and does a number of unadvisable things. I think it’s also deliberate that Petunia’s unpleasant childhood is basically being re-created: her normal son next to her sister’s magical son. It's making her worse, or at the very least preventing her from getting better. We learn that Petunia has this sublimated interest in the magical world, and can even pull out vocab like “Azkaban” and “Dementor” when she needs to.   She wrote Dumbledore asking to go to Hogwarts, and I could see that in a universe where Petunia didn’t have to literally raise Harry, she wouldn’t be as psychotically into normalness, cleanliness, and order as she is when we meet her in the books. After all, JKR doesn’t like to write evil mothers. She will be bend over backwards so her mothers are never really framed as bad.

And I honestly think it’s possible that J. K. Rowling was playing with the concept of re-traumatiziation when she was fleshing out Dumbledore in Book 7. We learn all this backstory, that… honestly isn’t super necessary? All I’m saying is that the three-way duel at the top of the Astronomy Tower lines up really well with the three-way duel that killed Ariana. Harry is Ariana, helpless in the middle. Draco is Aberforth, well intentioned and protective of his family - but kind of useless, and kind of a liability. Severus is Grindelwald, dark and brilliant, and one of the closest relationships Dumbledore has. If this was intentional, it was probably only for reasons of narrative symmetry… but I think it's cool in a Gus Fring of Breaking Bad sort of way, that Dumbledore (either consciously or unconsciously) has been trying to re-create this one horrible moment in his life where he felt entirely out of control. But the second time it plays out… he can give it what he sees as the correct outcome. Grindelwald kills him and everyone else lives. That is how you solve the puzzle.

If you read between the lines, Dumbledore/Grindelwald is a fascinating love story. I like the detail that after Ariana’s death, Dumbledore returns to Hogwarts because it’s a place to hide and because he doesn’t feel like he can be trusted with power. I like that he sits there, refusing promotions, refusing requests to be the new Minister of Magic, refusing to go deal with the growing Grindelwald threat until he absolutely can’t hide anymore, at which point he defeats him (somehow.) I like reading his elaborate plan to break Elder Wand’s power as both a screw-you to Grindelwald, the wand’s previous master, but also as a weirdly romantic gesture. In Albus Dumbledore’s mind, there is only Grindelwald. Voldemort can’t even begin to compare. I like the detail that Grindelwald won’t give up Dumbledore, even under torture. And, Dumbledore doesn’t put him in Azkaban. He put him in this other separate prison, which always makes it seem like he’s there under Dumbledore authority specifically.  Maybe Dumbledore thinks that if he had died that day instead of Ariana…he wouldn’t have had to spend the rest of his life fighting and imprisoning the man he loves.

And then of course, Crimes of Grindelwald decided to take away Dumbledore's greatest weakness and say that no, actually he was a really good guy who never did anything wrong ever.  He went all that time without fighting Grindelwald because they made a magical friendship no-fight bracelet. Dumbledore is randomly grabbing Lupin’s iconography (his fashion sense, his lesson plans, his job) in order to feel more soft and gentle than the person the books have created. Now Dumbledore knows about the Room Requirement, even though in the books it’s a plot point that he's too much of a goody-two-shoes to have ever found it himself. He loved Grindelwald (past tense.) And Secrets of Dumbledore is mostly about him being an omniscient mastermind so that a magical deer can tell him that he was a super good and worthy guy, and any doubt that he’s ever felt about himself is just objectively wrong and incorrect. Also now Aberforth has a neglected son, so he’s reframed as a bit of a hypocrite for getting on his brother’s case for not protecting Harry. 

So to summarize, I think Dumbledore began the series as this very eccentric, unpredictable mentor, whose abilities took a hit in Books 3 and 4 in order to make the plot happen. He teetered on the edge of a ‘dark’ framing for like a second… but at the the end of the series he's written as basically infallible and godlike. I’ve heard people say that JKR’s  increased fame was the reason she added the Rita Skeeter plot line, and I don’t think that’s true. But I do think her fame may have affected the way she wrote Dumbledore. Because Dumbledore is JKR’s comment on power, and by Book 5 she had so much power. In her head, I don’t think that Dumbledore is handing off jobs in a manipulative way. She sees him as empowering other less powerful people. That is his job as someone in power (because remember - people who desire power shouldn't wield it.)

Dumbledore’s power makes him emotionally disconnected from the people in his life, it makes him disliked and distrusted by the Ministry, but it doesn’t make him wrong. That’s important. Dumbledore is never wrong. Dumbledore is always good. That’s why we get the Blood Pact that means he was never weak or procrastinating. That’s why we get the qilin saying he was a good person. It’s why we get the tragic backstory (because giving Snape a tragic backstory worked wonders when it came to rehabilitating him.) And that is why Harry names his son Albus Severus in the epilogue, to make us readers absolutely crystal clear that these two are good men. 

[pangaeaseas]

The Problem of Religion in Harry Potter (or, what is Wizard God?)

tl; dr: I wish more hp fics did something with religion and the wizarding world

so to state my credentials up front: I've read a lot of hp fanfiction, a little on the Reformation and religious history--like, I have probably more background knowledge than the average person but I am very emphatically not an expert and have never actually taken a class specifically on any kind of religious history, and I'm an ex-Catholic who did ten ish years of religion classes. There are probably a LOT more people more qualified to talk about this than me but whatever I've never actually seen very much meta written out on this specific issue so I'm giving it a try. (if you have written or read such meta, please send me recs)

ahh the Problem of Religion one of the great unsolved mysteries of the hp world building (similar issues include What the Fuck is Going on with Ireland, How Does the Ministry Actually Work, What is the Population, etc) and I call it 'unsolved' because the fandom has no massively popular solution (like Lordships for the Problem of the Wizengamot) and in general tends to just not think about it, much like JKR originally did. Now IMO she probably intended most wizards to be, like, generically Church of England or whatever without much investment--basically copying the Muggle equivalent whenever it isn't spelled out how the two worlds differ, which is I think a lot of her un-filled-out world building is meant to be. Which. OK. You can do that, but, you know, religion is a very very important aspect of worldbuilding and in my opinion ignoring it and expecting it to be just the same as 1990s Muggle Britain is uninteresting and lazy.

This (wizards are meant to be some kind of Christian and probably Church of England just for simplicity's sake) is evidenced by things like Hogwarts having Christmas and Easter breaks, James and Lily having a Bible quote picked out by Dumbledore on their tombstone, and Draco Malfoy, most emblematically wizard of wizard characters who can be taken as a potential baseline, automatically saying things like 'Good God'. Which, you know, implies that the idea of a single God, and probably the Judaeo-Christian God because that's the same cultural background as the rest of Britain, is taken for granted by wizarding society. It doesn't necessarily imply anything about Draco's or even the Malfoys' personal beliefs, and of course you have other characters saying things like 'Oh my Merlin' and "Morgana" and things like that. Which in my opinion wasn't meant to be indications of some kind of Merlin or Morgana worship but more quirky and fun flavor things of the kind jkr loves to include without thinking out the implications. But you absolutely can take those statements that way--this post is absolutely not meant to dictate how people want to headcanon and I am absolutely here for giving wizards a well thought out pagan or Non-Christian religion, I just don't think that was the author's intent. There's also plenty of other things that imply Wizarding cultural Christianity that I'm not remembering off the top of my head.

And, of course, much better writers than me have extensively discussed all the Christian themes in HP. Of course, themes don't need to affect how people worldbuild in fanfic.

So: with HP canon, we are looking at a society that is probably culturally Christian and probably (key word) intended to be Church of England. But, because JKR wasn't putting much thought into it and basically just took a Chrisitian bedrock of society for granted, the implications of this are not really explored at all. So what I'm interested in is how fandom deals with it.

Mostly, that is...not at all, either taking cultural Christianity in the Wizarding World for granted the way JKR does or by ind of handwaving that wizards have evolved beyond the need for religion and that's just how it is. And that's perfectly fine! Not everyone wants to come up with a full, working, wizard society, and even if they are trying to worldbuild some aspects of wizarding society religion is often ignored, because people don't want to deal with it for often valid reasons (religious trauma, just disinterest, grew up agnostic, not Christian but thinks wizards probably are etc, etc, etc, ) Personally I wish more fics delved into what wizarding religious belief actually is, but to put it bluntly, that's just me. And I have never dealt with religion in my own fics. So don't takethis as judgement at all.

But there are interesting headcanons when people do choose to try and worldbuild religion in HP.

Fom what I've seen, one of the major ways to deal with religion in HP (aside from not dealing with it at all) is to give wizards, often pureblood wizards, some kind of pagan, often Celtic-inspired, religion. And this is quite defensible! Sometimes this is badly executed and/or turned into Death Eater apologia, but the idea of wizards having a different religion is really interesting and a good deal more interesting (IMO of course) than just not mentioning religion at all. Most fics that I've seen don't delve too deeply into, like the actual history and theology of these religions, but there are definitely some that do. (Also if you know any PLEASE send me recs). So if handled well, this is a great way to add some religion worldbuilding in the world of Harry Potter.

However, my personal favorite set of possibilities--obviously I have some personal bias as a history nerd with a long standing if never as deeply researched as I would like to interest in the history of Christianity and as an ex-Catholic--is that, well, we know the statute of secrecy started..when, exactly? 1690. So this much is obviously a result of JKR's Hollywood understanding of witch hunts (a subject for another time and someone far more qualified). For interested wrodlbuilders, we can take this as a guideline at best, as personally I think it would have taken a good deal longer than one year to agree on and implement something like the Statute and I tend to take 1690 as an end date, not a start. I also tend to take the Statue as a largely European phenomenon, at least at first. But, uh, what was happening in Britain at the time..oh, right...the Glorious Revolution....what was happening that created the conditions for the Glorious Revolution...oh, the English Civil War...which was because of...oh yeah, and what was also happening on the continent, maybe it involved, wait, thirty years..oooh, the Thirty Years War...wait weren't there a whole bunch of massive social shifts happening in Europe at this point in time isn't that funny but surely the stature of secrecy could be considered a part of these massive social shifts...all of which was heavily influenced by...you guessed it, the Protestant Reformation.

Wait. So. Maybe, the separation of Wizards from Muggles, at least in Britain, wasn't actually about Muggles hating wizards or wizards hating Muggles. Maybe it was about religion. Now personally I find this ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING. The possibilities, the possibilities...

Wizards had a massive religious civil war that created the blood status system in its modern form? Particular families have wildly different denominations? Excellent. Religion both in terms of level of religiosity and in terms of denomination is a blood status marker? Excellent. Purebloods are all Catholic (what does this do to both Catholic and not Muggleborns?) Excellent. Purebloods are all Puritans? Weird, but if you can pull it off excellent. Purebloods are all one of the wacky new denominations that sprung up after the Reformation and then either died out or conquered the world? Excellent. Pure bloods are all Lutherans who really hated Henry VIII? Excellent. One of my favoirite ways to create a wizarding religion was someone who had most pure bloods follow a denomination that split off from Catholicism in the Great Schism and then a small minority being Catholic, with the worlds splitting around the Reformation. Even the paganism headcanons can be incorporated: the Reformation could conceivably have made it much more difficult to keep practicing wizard paganism causing separation of the worlds.

Personally I would love to see a world that used the history of the Protestant Reformation super well, but it's not the only way to relate a Wizarding religion or a Wizarding religious history. I just wish more people tried to do that at all. Let wizards be religious! Or let them be irreligious but have thought about it, instead of just ignoring religion at all as something that might conceivably have influenced human societies. Maybe Wizarding Britain has state sponsored atheism. Just say that outright!

Another thing I'd like to see more fic doing is theology: how does having magic impact people's religious doctrine? Does every major religion essentially have a wizarding branch with its own theology because magic impacts their view of the world so much, or do most wizards simply follow the majority Muggle religion in their country with no modifications? if so, why? Do some wizards disagree, potentially violently, over how to incorporate magic into their religion? Do some people refuse to use magic because they think it goes against their religion? Etc etc etc you could go on forever. I've seen fic, which randomly enough was about Regulus Black, do this pretty well (or I thought so as a non-Jew) for Judaism, and I'd love it if done with other religions.

Anyway. Now I have to figure out how the hell religion works in the Wizarding Britain of my own headcanon.

[teacup-gathering-itself]

Severus getting a prep cook job in Cokeworth one summer and picking up solid mf knife skills. Like those culinary school chopping videos. Just fast asf precise knife work and handling.

He gets back to Hogwarts and it’s just business as usual until he’s DEAD tired one day and is prepping ingredients in Slughorn’s class. He gets to something that needs to be sliced uniformly and is similar in shape/size to food he prepped at the restaurant and muscle memory just kicks into overdrive.

The whole classroom freezes and looks at him because idk if y’all know this but that shit is LOUD compared to hesitant knife work. It smacks the cutting board and has a way different rhythm than normal kitchen noise.

Yeah it’s a skill no one has encountered unless they have been back of house at a restaurant.

Severus is too exhausted to process that anyone is paying attention to him so he just keeps going. Ingredients? Prepped? Potion? Brewed with gusto, like he was born to do it. His brain isn’t online so he’s acting like it’s a dream and adds in some flourish and flair, a trick to catch a knife, a fancy stir to help aerate the brew, a crazy amount of multitasking just because he can.

Jaw dropping behavior.

Slughorn doesn’t know how to react honestly, and is spared needing to praise him considering Severus is half awake when he hands his potion to his head of house.