#hp review

[yandere-daydreams]

in mourning today,,, the laptop i've had since highschool finally took its last breath </3 i'll be shopping around for a new one and digging a grave over the weekend, and any recommendations/advice help to have me up and sexualizing old men that much sooner </3 </3 </3

[solisitude]

tumblr year in review is out and here are some of my favourite bits:

wolfstar AND jeggy in the top 30 baby!

merlin fandom is insane. i love you guys. i love being a part of this.

this threw me for a LOOP but i'm very happy about it

[hollowed-theory-hall]

Revisiting population size in the Wizarding World

So, I wrote about this subject in the past (here and here), and I was of the belief the Wizarding World is pretty small (~300 students at Hogwarts, ~6,200 wizards in the UK). However, I wanted to challenge my own notion with book evidence that there are more students at Hogwarts in Harry's time, working under the assumption that there are more students in Harry's year we just never hear about.

I was somewhat inspired by this post by @perilousraven that calculated the capacity of the coaches that take the students up to the school. As I wanted to revisit my estimates on the wizarding population and Hogwarts population anyway, I decided to calculate the capacity of the Hogwarts Express to see if it matches the stagecoaches' capacity. Plus bringing up book evidence that my estimate for the Hogwarts population was low but I was correct about the size of the overall wizard population due to their distribution by age being different than in my earlier posts (a case of the "math was wrong but the result was right-ish").

So, let's start with evidence that there are more than 280 students at Hogwarts:

“No more’n four to a boat!” Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore.

(PS)

4 in a boat for 40 students will be 10 little boats. I'm not sure if Harry would call that a "fleet". Technically it could be considered a fleet, but I think there would be more boats for Harry to refer to it as a "fleet".

They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Harry could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right — the rest of the school must already be here 

(PS)

Professor McGonagall led the first years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight.

(PS)

Harry left the castle and set off in the dusk toward the Quidditch field. He’d never been inside the stadium before. Hundreds of seats were raised in stands around the field so that the spectators were high enough to see what was going on. 

(PS)

But it was too late. A rumble, as though of distant thunder, told them that the feast had just ended. From either end of the corridor where they stood came the sound of hundreds of feet climbing the stairs, and the loud, happy talk of well-fed people; next moment, students were crashing into the passage from both ends.

(CoS)

One casual wave of his wand and the long tables flew to the edges of the hall and stood themselves against the walls; another wave, and the floor was covered with hundreds of squashy purple sleeping bags.

(PoA)

Harry got to his feet, trod on the hem of his robes, and stumbled slightly. He set off up the gap between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables. It felt like an immensely long walk; the top table didn’t seem to be getting any nearer at all, and he could feel hundreds and hundreds of eyes upon him, as though each were a searchlight. 

(GoF) - when Harry is chosen as a champion

He was falling through cold blackness, spinning furiously as he went, and then — He was standing in the middle of the Great Hall, but the four House tables were gone. Instead, there were more than a hundred smaller tables, all facing the same way, at each of which sat a student, head bent low, scribbling on a roll of parchment. The only sound was the scratching of quills and the occasional rustle as somebody adjusted their parchment. It was clearly exam time.

(OotP)

more than a hundred seats, but they are both fifth and seventh years:

Once breakfast was over, the fifth and seventh years milled around in the entrance hall while the other students went off to lessons. Then, at half-past nine, they were called forward class by class to reenter the Great Hall, which was now arranged exactly as Harry had seen it in the Pensieve when his father, Sirius, and Snape had been taking their O.W.L.s. The four House tables had been removed and replaced instead with many tables for one, all facing the staff-table end of the Hall where Professor McGonagall stood facing them.

(OotP)

So the over a hundred we see above in SWM is both seventh and sixth years, meaning each year in the Mauraders' generation is about 70 students, so then we'd have ~110-120 students in the Great Hall in the exam in SWM. Since not all 7th-years are taking the NEWT exam in DADA, I assume most of these students are 5th-years.

“I would like each of you to place yourselves now so that you have a clear five feet of space in front of you.” There was a great scrambling and jostling as people separated, banged into each other, and ordered others out of their space. The Heads of Houses moved among the students, marshaling them into position and breaking up arguments. “Harry, where are you going?” demanded Hermione. But Harry did not answer; he was moving quickly through the crowd, past the place where Professor Flitwick was making squeaky attempts to position a few Ravenclaws, all of whom wanted to be near the front, past Professor Sprout, who was chivying the Hufflepuffs into line, until, by dodging around Ernie Macmillan, he managed to position himself right at the back of the crowd, directly behind Malfoy, who was taking advantage of the general upheaval to continue his argument with Crabbe, standing five feet away and looking mutinous.

(HBP) - when the 6th years are taking the apparition exam they are a considerable crowd

When Harry describes the Great Hall or a crowd of the entire school, he's talking in the hundreds. The above phrasing would be odd if the "hundreds" talked about are 3 max. So, the implication is that there are more students, probably not a thousand, but closer to it.

Now, I wanted to know what number of students we're talking about, so I could have an estimate of the population size. There are two available avenues:

A hundred horseless carriages stood waiting for them outside the station. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville climbed gratefully into one of them, the door shut with a snap, and a few moments later, with a great lurch, the long procession of carriages was rumbling and splashing its way up the track toward Hogwarts Castle.

(GoF)

A hundred (or over a hundred in PoA) coaches to the school only for the older years, plus the boats for the first years. In the post I linked above from perilousraven calculated the capacity would be for 700 students or more at the school (I think the estimate of the older, smaller coaches is probably closer to the case in the books and would work with what the Hogwarts Express would allow).

But I wanted to look at the Hogwarts Express, as well, to see if we get a different number of students or if we're around the same estimates since the train should have all students, including first-years traveling by it:

They struggled off down the corridor, peering through the glass-paneled doors into the compartments they passed, which were already full. Harry could not help noticing that a lot of people stared back at him with great interest and that several of them nudged their neighbors and pointed him out. After he had met this behavior in five consecutive carriages he remembered that the Daily Prophet had been telling its readers all summer what a lying show-off he was. He wondered bleakly whether the people now staring and whispering believed the stories. In the very last carriage, they met Neville Longbottom

(HBP)

So we have at least 6 passenger carriages (potentially more if we're talking about a newer 20th-century steam engine, which I assume we are since the earlier Victorian ones only had up to four carriages).

Now, there might be a 7th perfect carriage:

“We’re — well — Ron and I are supposed to go into the prefect carriage,” Hermione said awkwardly.

(OotP)

But earlier Percy mentions Prefect compartments:

“Can’t stay long, Mother,” he said. “I’m up front, the prefects have got two compartments to themselves — ”

(PS)

So, we have at least 6 regular carriages and another carriage just for the prefects' compartments and the large compartment Slughorn used for the slug club (possibly he used a prefect compartment, as I assume that first car is designed differently).

(I will note the prefects have a place to sit on the train (Ron and Hermione rejoin Harry later in OotP) and we see Lupin has a place to sleep on the train in PoA:

This had only one occupant, a man sitting fast asleep next to the window. Harry, Ron, and Hermione checked on the threshold.

(PoA)

Although the train is apparently "full":

Harry, Ron, and Hermione set off down the corridor, looking for an empty compartment, but all were full except for the one at the very end of the train.

(PoA)

So, while all compartments are usually in use, there are likely quite a few that aren't completely full but still don't have a place for 3 more students.

Now, the number of carriages varied a lot throughout the years. The early steam engines that were around when the Hogwarts Express was first established (circa the 1830s) were weak and the trains were pretty small, only carrying at most 4 smaller carriages most of the time (either when the Hogwarts Express was established there were way fewer students or there was more than one train). In the early 20th century we see Express trains with stronger engines (such as the Flying Scotsman) that would regularly carry 8-12 carriages but could carry up to 14 on busier days. So, let's say the Hogwarts Express has 13 regular carriages and another prefect carriage that isn't part of this calculation for the reasons mentioned above.

Each carriage is divided into compartments with 6 people fitting per compartment:

Too soon, it was time for the journey home on the Hogwarts Express. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, and Ginny got a compartment to themselves.

(CoS)

This gives an idea of the layout (with a large enough corridor for the trolly lady):

(Using diagrams from the Flying Scotsman which is my closest analog)

Which lands us with 7 compartments per carriage. That being said, as Harry says this:

Firstly, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who had clearly been waiting all week for the opportunity to strike without teacher witnesses, attempted to ambush Harry halfway down the train as he made his way back from the toilet.

(OotP)

This implies only the first carriage has a toilet (the prefect carriage), which seems weird to me since you have a few hundred students on that train for around 9 hours. But, the books imply there is only one toilet at the first carriage (maybe it's more than one stall. I hope it's more than one stall), so the train cars would look slightly different from the ones above —two more compartments and everything shifted a little to the side to accommodate. There will be one less door leading outside from such a carriage and slightly narrower compartments (which did exist, there were 6-person train compartments that were 6'1 wide instead of the pictured-above 6'6. These cars came with a toilet though so I edited the above picture. Why do they only have a toilet in the first compartment? Makes no sense):

9 compartments * 6 students * 6 cars = 324 for the minimal amount of space for students on the train.

9 compartments * 6 students * 13 cars = 702, which is spot on to the lower stagecoach estimate of about 700 students at max capacity of the train.

Potentially even more seats would be available if the prefects' carriage is sometimes replaced by a regular carriage (with a toilet) when there are more students. This would explain why Percy described two prefect compartments in PS, but in OotP and HBP the prefects have a whole carriage. This extra car will give us space for another 48 students. The fact they needed to remove the prefect carriage in PS to allow more space for students suggests Hogwarts was practically at its full capacity in 1991. (And that in 1995 there were ~50 less students in the school than in 1991)

So, at the maximum capacity (which seems to be the case in most of the books), the train is pretty much in the range of @perilousraven's stagecoach estimate.

So, what does it change about my estimates of the wizarding population? Not much actually.

Let's say there are around 700 students at Hogwarts when Harry is there (700 makes sense, it's 7 and it divides nicely, it's a round and pretty number. A little lower than the stagecoach estimate, but it makes more sense with the train. I actually think for most of his years it's a little less than 700, but I like round numbers):

700 students at the school -> 100 students per year -> 25 students per house per year -> 175 students per house.

(This also means Harry has more of an excuse not to know people in his year)

Which leads to the distribution of the population to be something like this approximation (The percentages are loosely based on 1992 UK population distribution by age, adjusted so there will be higher percentages for 90+ people due to the supposed longer lifespan of wizards and I made the generations born in the 1970s larger in percentage due to the first war's baby boom. Note that the number per house/year is inaccurate in the older generations since they're dying out):

(The percentages above are rough estimates cause I hate math and I like round numbers)

This keeps us at a wizarding population of about 6,000 wizards in the UK and Ireland (in the range of my former estimate of 5,700 - 6,200).

My former estimates were made with an adjusted distribution by age I explained here and here, due to the wars in the wizarding world being a little different from the muggle one, but I think that former distribution is wrong. I disagree with my past self on that, hence why I'm making this post and will edit a link to it in the relevant former theories. I came to the conclusion Harry's generation is actually one of the larger ones and that their population is younger. After all, most of his grandparents' generation is dead. The 1980s came right after Voldemort's defeat — so it's likely it brought a baby boom with it. Additionally in the 1970s (especially the latter half), we see couples marrying young and having children young (Arthur & Molly, James & Lily, probably Frank & Alice, and others) and we see this pattern of marrying during the war happening again in 1997-1998. So, I think the war years will also come with a baby boom compared to the generation of the Mauraders. Which, all in all, is closer to irl UK population distribution in the early 1990s.

So, my estimate now is still at around 6,000 wizards in the UK and Ireland (a bit less than 0.01% of the population) in the 1990s and 700 of them are at school with Harry since his generation is actually the largest one presently.

(Unfortunately, this changes some of my older percentages and estimates. It means that less than 5% of wizards in the UK are muggleborn and that below 12% of students get Os in most OWL exams, for example. Though, luckily the population remains in my former estimate range so it doesn't change everything. So I might slowly go back to add edit comments. I'm not planning to rewrite them for now, but just to add a little comment about this.)

[mrsriddles-blog]

Reads of the Week: Mar 31-Apr 6

*indicates smut

green font represents multiple characters (poly, rh, etc.)

A/N: So sorry this is late! Let me know if there is any errors, the links don’t work or aren’t taking you to the right place or if the @ is wrong! I tried to check it, but I’ve been really busy with school.

Thigh-ly Adored* by @thatdammchickennugget

Reading Between The Lines by @thatdammchickennugget

Butterbeer And Comfort by @thatdammchickennugget

The Stages of Grief by @obsessedwithceleste

Lost Cause by @thatdammchickennugget

Vacation by @mattsturnioloswifey

Overbearing by @amsznn

Motive* by @recklessmatt

Five Love Languages by @thugpugs4lrh

Rather Be With You by @amsznn

three is not a crowd* by @junovrsmp4

Rated R | pt.1 by @6ix9inewiturmom

Rated R | pt.2* by @6ix9inewiturmom

Cramps by @sturniolo-fall-enthusiast

Complicated by @incendiobrock

Voice by @hollandsangel

dad!matt x mom!reader by @stvrniclo

daydream by @chrissturnsgirlll222

Treat you like a lady* by @letstrip-teamblue

Rumors by @sugrhigh

Cool Spider* by @gamermattsgf

Well, I Read Somewhere* by @rizzsturniolo

Bonfire* by @evie-sturns

three is not a crowd* by @junovrsmp4

Bench Press* by @evieolo

[everestseal]

i recently was commissioned by a wonderful repeat customer of mine, ThatsOnYoutube, to do some thumbnail art and decorative text for the 1992 japanese tv movie Innsmouth (Insumasu o ouu Kage), which he has both reviewed for his main channel and created a meticulously subtitled version for all to enjoy!

[rederoma]

[mustelidsinlove]

Love and Other Historical Accidents by PacificRimbaud on AO3

[thecouchsofa]

My 2024 year in fic

First up: some stats!

Fics posted: 22, for 3 different fandoms (HP, Captive Prince, Dark Rise)

Total written: 415,488 words

My favourite fic I wrote in 2024: Us, Infinite (unfortunately)

My most kudos'd fic of 2024: Future Histories

My most productive writing month was January, with 63k written, while my most productive writing day was December 1st, with 9k written on that Sunday alone! I participated in 10 fests, wrote 10 unique pairings, and ended up with a total of 289k words posted in 2024.

My goals for next year are to finally finish Something in the Orange (an angsty Drarry fic that I started writing nearly a year ago), post at least one fic a month (I have a backlog of like 7 already), and write 500k by the end of the year. Here's to a creative 2025! ⭐

Fics listed below the cut alphabetically, by pairing/fandom.

✨ Drarry ✨

💛 A Wizard’s Guide to Co-Parenting with Your Ex-Arch Nemesis | T | 38k | Tags: Eighth Year, Temporary Children, Humour, Fluff, KidFic

Harry had expected a few things when returning for his Eighth Year. Rooming with Ron, a cheeky Firewhisky down at the pub, leaving his assignments to the last minute – those were all but certain to occur. His list of certainties definitely hadn’t included McGonagall’s shake-up of the curriculum, which tasked the Eighth Years with the responsibility of parenthood for three weeks. Caring for a baby Transfigured from a sack of flour would have been alright if: 1) Malfoy wasn’t Harry’s assigned partner, 2) Their baby’s one goal in life wasn’t to spite Harry, and 3) Malfoy wasn’t infuriatingly good at fake parenthood.

❤️ As Per Request | E | 17k | Tags: Virgin Harry, Loss of Virginity, Praise Kink, a PWP in a trench coat

Harry decides that it’s high time to lose his virginity, and figures that asking Malfoy is his best option. He’s fit, he won’t go to the papers, and he’ll be fine with Harry’s ‘no emotional attachment’ plan. Surely nothing could go wrong there.

🩶 Bare Moon Rising | E | 15k | Tags: Bets & Wagers, Charity Calendars, Wizarding Nudes, Humour, Quidditch, !Greg Goyle!

Potter moved towards him, sticking his hand out. “If that’s the case, we’re both doing it. You do the nude Tornados calendar, and I’ll do the Auror one. Most sales wins.” Oh no. “Are you backing out already?” Potter leaned in closer, voice dropping to a whisper. “Finally admitting that mine’s bigger than yours, then? Or do you want to cop a feel first?” Charities could bugger off. Nothing good ever came of them, really.

🩷 Catch the Snitch | T | 2k | Tags: New Years Eve, Pining, Harry in a Snitch costume

Ron grabbed Draco’s shoulder and pulled him out of the room. “We’re going to play something. A game.” His eyes were rather maniacal. Draco wanted to ask if he’d gotten into the Mallowsweet, but he could not, for he was very committed to the mime costume and his resulting vow of silence. “You’re going to go into the garden and catch a Snitch.”

💜 Effervescence | E | 4k | Tags: PWP, Established Relationship, Daddy Kink, Praise Kink, Soft Dom Draco, Veritaserum

Harry has trouble asking for what he wants in bed. Draco uses Veritaserum to help him along.

🩵 Future Histories | T | 6k | Tags: Temporary Amnesia, Established Relationship, Draco's canon-adjacent obsessive crush, Fluff

After an accident at work, Draco finds that two decades of his memories have been temporarily wiped. His Healers are reluctant to tell him the identity of his mystery husband, thinking he’ll react badly. Oh, how wrong they are.

🖤 Knot Your Average Coworkers | E | 22k | Tags: Werewolf Draco, Oblivious Harry, Knotting, Humour, Ron-themed crafts

It takes Harry a while to work out that every month, almost like clockwork, Draco is given an assignment in the field that takes him out of their shared office for days on end. After each assignment, Draco returns looking so bloody exhausted that Harry gears up to file a complaint with their boss. When questioned about it, Draco’s explanations range from mildly suspect to intensely suspicious. Harry takes it upon himself to find out what’s going on. Or: Harry makes a bunch of unintentional knotting jokes while an increasingly baffled Draco is driven insane.

💚 Like London to a Brick | T | 4k | Tags: Eighth Year, Clothes Sharing, Quidditch, Getting Together

“Malfoy? Blond wanker of epic proportions. Goes around with a sour look on his face all the time. Comes up to about yay high.” Ron held his hand a few inches above the top of Harry’s head. “Ring any bells?” Harry bent down to tighten the strap on his kneepad. “Still no idea what you’re on about.” “You…” An odd spluttering noise left Ron’s lips. “You’re taking the piss.” “Harry,” Ginny shouted from the changeroom door. “Why the fuck is Malfoy wearing your Quidditch jersey?” Ron made a face that very plainly said ‘there it is’.

🧡 My Good Name | M | 13k | Tags: Homophobia, Coming Out, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Complicated Family Relationships

Standing there, in the foyer of Draco’s parents’ house, was the most visible display of love that Draco had ever been shown. Harry loved him. He loved him. And Draco was about to throw him to the wolves.

🤍 Sons of Aphrodite | E | 11k | Tags: Small Cock Size Kink, Party Games, Meddling Friends, Praise Kink, Friends to Lovers

“So … yeah.” Harry ducked his head as he pulled Draco’s hand towards him. “It’s not that I didn’t enjoy doing that to you, it’s that my cock is like … that.” Draco reached out to touch, running a finger down Harry’s hard length. “You have a small cock, Harry, not a tentacle or something equally terrifying. It’s incredibly fucking hot, actually.” Featuring twenty push-ups that nearly broke Draco’s brain, meddling friends with the best of intentions, Draco admitting his crush on Harry under party-game-themed duress, a pet cat named Willow, and a small problem that isn’t actually a problem at all.

🤎 Stretched Out | E | 5k | Tags: Friends With Benefits, Fisting, Rimming, Edging, Soft Dom Draco, Fluff

Harry looked at him for a moment, thumb tracing the line of Draco’s cheekbone. “I’ve never trusted anyone like I’ve trusted you. Isn’t that mental?”

💙 Us, Infinite (unfortunately) | E | 77k | Tags: Time Loop, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Breaking the Law, Magaluf, Cooking as a form of intimacy, 'last day in the time loop' vibes

It’s very fitting for how Harry’s life has gone thus far that he gets trapped in a time loop without rhyme, reason, or warning. To make matters infinitely worse, the one other person stuck on the same hellish chronological ride is Draco Malfoy, git extraordinaire.

✨ Other HP ✨

🤍 August Storms over Devon | Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley | T | 1k | Tags: Summer of 1998, the Burrow, Emotional Intimacy

“What if…” She clenched her hands into fists, pressing them against her thighs to stop them from shaking. “What if I can’t? What if they never…” Ron’s voice was even-keeled, steady as an oak in a storm. “Do you want to try?”

🩵 Cornerstone | Scorpius Malfoy/James Sirius Potter | E | 6k | Tags: Consenual Infidelity, Loss of Virginity, Humour, No Angst, Topping From the Bottom

James is a virgin, so Albus lets him borrow his boyfriend.

💚 Jasmine and Cherry | Pansy Parkinson/Ginny Weasley | E | 8k | Tags: Clubbing, Friends to Lovers, Face-Sitting

Pansy’s lips brushed Ginny’s ear as she tilted her head back. “That gloss is flavoured, you know. Cherry.”

🖤 New Gods | Sirius Black/Harry Potter | E | 4k | Tags: POV Sirius, Sirius Lives, Age Difference, Ambiguous Sirius/James Potter

It rocks Sirius to his core every time he thinks about it, because they aren’t the same – Harry and James. Sure, Harry pushes his glasses up with the knuckle of his pointer finger. James used to do the same thing when he had dirt or sugar or random potion essence on his hands. Other people do that too. Sirius has never seen it, but they do.

🧡 One Night in Bristol | Regulus Black/James Potter | E | 10k | Tags: Everybody Lives, Post-Hogwarts, Complicated Sibling Relationships, a horse statue that is canon to my IRL life

Regulus eyes the statue, forces himself to pull his gaze away from James as he pats down the back of his blue jeans. “How’d you even get up there? It’s, what, a full storey?” “If you include the base bit, yeah.” James slaps a hand on the brick stack under the horse’s bronze feet. “And I couldn’t tell you how I get up to half the shit I do.” He wiggles his eyebrows, looking far more lecherous than he has any right to. “Trade secrets, Reggie.” Regulus raises an eyebrow, leaning his weight against the base of the statue. “And your trade is…?” James shrugs and offers him a smile, slow and bright. “Fucking about, mostly.” Or, Regulus happens upon James on a chilly night in Bristol.

❤️ Some Nights | Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter/Ron Weasley | E | 23k | Tags: Eighth Year, Dorm Sharing, Friends with Benefits, Voyeurism, Exhibitionism, Threesome, Switching, Harry + Ron = 1 braincell

Ron fucks up his Silencing Charms in the dorm one night. Then Malfoy does. The rest, as they say, is history.

✨ Captive Prince ✨

💛 Golden Starbursts | Damen/Laurent, Damen/Auguste | E | 5k | Tags: Canon Divergence, Auguste Lives, Arranged Marriage, Marriage Consummation, Damen's Canonical Blond Kink

Damen has only ever fucked two men in his life. Both have worn the golden starburst emblem.

💙 Lay Me Down | Damen/Laurent | E | 5k | Tags: PWP, Canon Divergence, Tent Sex, Comeplay

Two princes walk into a Vaskian camp. Aka, what if the tent scene in Prince’s Gambit had gone differently.

✨ Dark Rise ✨

💜 Give/Take | Will Kempen/James St. Clair | E | 2k | Tags: PWP, Dom/Sub Undertones, Topping From the Bottom, Old Language Kink

James takes control. Until his concentration breaks.

🖤 Scheggino | Will Kempen/James St. Clair | E | 3k | Tags: Missing Scene, Spoiler for book 2: Dark Heir, PWP, Loss of Virginity, Dom/Sub Undertones,

As Anharion was Sarcean’s, James was Will’s. Regardless of their past selves, the reverse was also true here; Will was James’ before he was even his own. “I’ve always been yours,” Will whispered. “Thousands of years ago, longer, since the grains of sand on the beach were still stars, I have been yours.” Or, Will gives James what he asks for. An alternate ending to Chapter 44 of Dark Heir.

[ficview]

View - Muggle Studies is Economics in Disguise

By May_May_o_o

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/41205912?view_full_work=true

A short and fun fic that's really quite sensible if you think about it.

Tom Riddle, the DADA professor, is first annoyed, then intrigued by Harry Potter, the Muggle Studies professor whose class is suspiciously popular among students. Just what is he teaching in there?

Pros:

- It's the perfect length to help kill time while waiting at your dentist's lobby (which is where I read it). Short yet contains within it a fully developed world with likeable characters and complete plotlines.

- Logical plot development - the very premise of the story and where it leads to just make sense. Characters make informed, reasonable choices. For a borderline crack world, the decisions made are entirely rational.

- And the author does it all with a touch of mischievous humour that puts a smile on your face! Watch out for the scene where Tom demands his followers to study IB Economics after hearing Harry discuss the flaws of Wizarding Economy to his students.

- The ending is sooo satisfying! All I'm saying is everyone gets a good ending, and to know more, just read it. And check out the final author notes for a cute and clever wrap up!

Cons:

- The Tomarry relationship, while pleasant in its own way, felt cookie-cutter and had cursory buildup and payoff. But who cared when the fun more than made up for it?

A zesty romp that deftly covers enough material for a long novel in its crisp length! I'm definitely revisiting this one.

[nuninho2000]

My favourite Weasley twins moment and it's not even in the books

[coolnightmaremagazine]

Character Analysis: Hermione Granger and the Mishandling of House Elf Slavery

Series: Harry Potter Author: J.K. Rowling Topic: House Elves

Hermione Granger makes me think of Britta Perry from Community. But I don’t think she should.

Britta often stood for the right causes, but for the wrong or shallow reasons—usually as a setup for the joke. She’d fumble her delivery or overstep in a way that made the audience laugh at her rather than with her, and it often undermined the legitimacy of the causes she was trying to champion.

Hermione, on the other hand, stood for something right—the liberation of house elves—and she did so with real conviction. She researched their treatment, took action (however naive), and clearly saw the moral wrong in a society that used magical beings for unpaid labor, even as everyone else accepted it as normal. Her motivations were sound, and her sense of justice was admirable. But despite this, the narrative gave her the “Britta treatment.”

Rather than exploring house elf slavery as a serious systemic issue in the wizarding world, J.K. Rowling treated it as a punchline. Hermione’s campaign to free the elves—S.P.E.W.—was ridiculed not only by other characters but by the structure of the story itself. The language around it was infantilized (“elf hats,” knitting clothes), and the elves themselves were written as happy to be enslaved. Even Dobby, the one elf who wanted freedom, was portrayed as quirky and strange for it. The underlying message seemed to be: “This isn’t really a problem, and Hermione is silly for thinking it is.”

But the truth is, it is a problem. It’s slavery. Generations of magical beings are born into servitude, denied autonomy, and punished for disobedience—and yet the only major character who questions this is mocked. It’s a glaring moral blind spot in a series that otherwise wants to talk about good vs. evil, oppression vs. resistance.

The other characters’ dismissive responses to Hermione’s activism reflect poorly on them. Ron jokes about it. Harry, who spends so much time fighting tyranny, can’t seem to care. Even Hagrid, who should empathize as a marginalized being himself, brushes her off. Their reactions would have made sense if the story used them as a way to interrogate how even “good” people can ignore injustice when it’s normalized. But the series never does. The discomfort is played for laughs or quietly swept aside.

Worse still, Hermione herself is never given a moment of vindication. There’s no turning point where the characters realize she was right. There’s no reckoning with the system of enslavement or serious follow-up on the future of the elves. Even after the war, when so many broken things in the wizarding world are being rebuilt, the issue of house elves is left untouched. It feels like a betrayal—not just of Hermione’s character arc, but of the moral framework the books set up.

It's a failure to grapple with the implications of the world Rowling created. By making light of a character who tried to take a stand, and by depicting the oppressed as content in their oppression, the series sends a troubling message about activism, justice, and whose liberation is considered worth fighting for.

Hermione deserved better. And so did the house elves.

[recordcrash]

Incredible month. I stepped out of my comfort zone and watched Die Hard on New Year’s to avoid the Reddit allegations. I also perused some anime yaoi on AO3, read someone’s self-insert dating Batman and played a Bejeweled mod. This somehow leaves me with one of the best hit rates this blog has ever seen.

★: Challengers, Speaking in Tongues, Dragonsweeper

*: Die Hard, We All Need a Hero, The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling, Sonic 3, The Pipes of Heaven, Forged Symbol, it’s about magic eyeball biology

[360degreesasthecrowflies]

Many of JKR's approaches to social class seem to me to reflect precisely the same mind-set that she so loudly and shrilly denounces in her depiction of the Dursleys. People like the Dursleys, JKR tells us, are wickedly regressive -- brutish, even. They and their ilk should be scorned, as should the things that they tend to believe in. Things like corporal punishment. Things like the death penalty. Things like disdain for the lower classes. Things like suspicion of the aristocracy. Things like jingoism, and law-and-orderism, and political paranoia, and the belief that foreigners are intrinsically dubious, not to be trusted. Things like "blood will tell." We are treated to this at the beginning of each novel, almost as if JKR wants to establish her progressive credentials from the very outset. Once we move on to the meat of the text, however, it can sometimes become a bit difficult to avoid the suspicion that in some indefinable way, the spirit of Aunt Marge is pushing the hand that holds the pen. Blood really does seem to tell in the Potterverse, and foreign names do often serve as a marker of dark allegiance. The lower classes are stupid and beneath notice; the aristocracy is sinister, and very likely sexually perverse as well. Corporal punishment is precisely what children like Draco Malfoy deserve, and although Hogwarts does not itself permit this, the narrative voice positively exults whenever the little brat gets physically smacked down. The political approach of Crouch Sr. was regrettable, of course -- but all the same, you know, his son really was guilty...and besides, Fudge is ever so much worse. And Sirius Black, whom Vernon Dursley so brutishly classifies as gallows-bait, was innocent all along. Pettigrew was the real culprit -- and the narrative voice rather gives us the impression that the author believes that he really does "deserve to die." It is troubling, this, and it casts the Dursley sequences which open each novel in a strange and somewhat disturbing light. The broad slapstick viciousness of these passages—often strikingly stylistically out of kilter with the more subtle shadings of the rest of the text—almost begin to read like expressions of authorial self-hatred, or perhaps even as failed authorial attempts at self-exorcism. JKR rings her little bell and lights her single candle: she sneers at Vernon; she blows up Aunt Marge. But the values that these characters represent cannot be so easily dismissed. Their personifications may receive all manner of public thrashing in the first chapter or two of each novel, but it would seem that their spirits are lodged somewhere deep within the author's very soul. When it comes to the Dursleys, the closet conservative doth protest too much. The result—much like the homophobic rantings of those trapped in a somewhat different closet—is strangely unconvincing. On some fundamental level, we simply do not believe in the Dursleys in at all the same way that we believe in the rest of the fictive world. The explicit condemnation of their values doesn't carry the same weight as the implicit approval that these same values are granted by the rest of the text -- in very much the same way that JKR's use of stereotypes as a form of humor so often fails to quite convince readers that she really doesn't, deep down in her heart of hearts, genuinely believe the things that she passes off as "nothing but a joke." JKR wants to be a progressive. But there's a rock-solid streak of conservatism in her writing, and even though she herself seems to dislike it, she nonetheless seems incapable of banishing it even from her very own text.

via Elkins's essay on Class in Harry Potter. Notably, this was written before the last two books were released and is very insightful on things that would later be revealed both about the authorship, Rowling's views as a writer, and her general social views in the following 15 years.

[riverwriter]

Fanfic Rants (This one is not HP specific)

I posted my writing online.

I did that. I have to own that.

I knew from the beginning that I was opening myself up to criticism, which is why I waited years to post anything.

I never thought anybody would care enough to troll me.

I downplayed in my mind what some of my fellow authors were experiencing.

I was wrong.

However, mine is a wonderful problem, in its own way. I have enough people paying attention to me, that there is also a small subset that seems to only read to find fault.

I know I’m yelling into the void because those of you that truly care are kind, and even when you have a criticism you are willing to engage me and help me improve and I love, love, LOVE that. So please don’t stop.

Those of you who are just looking to be mean. I know there’s nothing I can do. But venting helps.

Okay.

This shouldn’t be a rant. It should just be a thank you to the so many amazing people I’ve been privileged to be in contact with over the last several years.

(I just realized that sounded like a goodbye. It’s not at all. I simply wanted to get a few things off my chest and send out some grateful vibes.)

[rewritingcanon]

guess whos doing their uni assignment on the cursed child

[omgkatsudonplease]

Lord Harry Potter and the Whispers of Lady Polixenes, a fic by @omgkatsudonplease with banner art by the lovely @the-colourful-witch

Suddenly, there was a shout from the Hufflepuff table. “Look!” exclaimed Hannah Abbott, pointing at the enchanted ceiling. “It’s snowing!”  Harry looked up, and was nearly hit in the face by a piece of parchment. He grabbed it to see that it was titled Lady Polixenes’ Hogwarts Secrets, Issue 7.  All around them, leaflets of parchment were falling out of the rafters. Students were brushing leaflets off of their food, slipping on loose sheets, flinging them at one another. A sleeping Neville Longbottom over at the Gryffindor table was quickly covered in a mountain of parchment. Up at the High Table, Dumbledore was watching the mayhem with great amusement, while Umbridge had gone rather purple-faced trying to destroy all of the falling parchment without setting the rest of the Great Hall on fire.  “STOP IT!” she bellowed, as some of the first-years started to jump around, plucking papers out of the air. “Do not read these! These leaflets are illicit publications, and I forbid you to read them!”  No one, however, seemed to be listening to her. Professor Liu, who had finally deigned to start taking meals in the Great Hall again, was openly reading a leaflet in the seat right next to Umbridge. Professor McGonagall and Severina were both surreptitiously tucking their own copies into the folds of their robes. Students from all four houses were also sneaking copies of the leaflets, though some of their peers—especially at the Slytherin table—were trying to help Umbridge destroy the rest.  “Detentions!” howled Umbridge. “Detention to anyone caught with a copy of this pernicious Lady Polixenes!” Election Year has hit New Avalon, and everything is changing. This year, Lord Harry of the Honourable and Most Ancient House of Potter must navigate the chessboard of Pureblood society, whilst dealing with the appointment of a despotic High Inquisitor to Hogwarts, internal strife amongst previously-unshakeable friend groups, and his own confusing teenage feelings. Part Five of Heirs of Avalon, a Pureblood Culture deconstruction.

Read here on AO3!