#justice for my boy wormy | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nearlymanaged · 4 years

Text

17. Arrogant Toerag and A Birthday Kiss

That spring, the morning of March tenth ushered Remus’ seventeenth birthday in with a thunderous rainstorm. James, Sirius, and Peter had woken him up with magical fireworks whizzing all around their dormitory, and spent the rest of the morning surprising him with little acts of service. One of them happened to be James hexing a sixth year Ravenclaw boy who once won a duel against Remus in their third year and had been boasting about it every chance he got ever since.

Unlike Sirius, Remus didn’t care for big celebrations and loud parties to commemorate his existence. Instead, it had become a Marauders tradition for the other three boys to get him a chocolate cake every year. They always did it in secret, sneaking off to the kitchen a couple of days beforehand, making plans with the house elves. And Remus always pretended like he didn’t know what was going on.

“Where’s Wormy?” James checked his wristwatch, tapping his foot impatiently. “He should have been back by now.”

“I can’t believe he’d gotten himself a detention on Moony’s birthday,” Sirius folded his arms over his chest with a pout, at which James turned to face him pointedly slowly.

“Do you hear yourself?”

Sirius merely narrowed his eyes at his friend. James had just suggested that everyone play something together, like Transfiguration Charades or Spin The Bottle or whatever else, while he was going to go get the cake. He plunged into this whispered conversation the moment Remus disappeared at the top of the stone steps, to stash away all the chocolate bars he’d gotten from his friends throughout the day.

There was a wide, red banner suspended in air across the length of the common room. It read ‘HAPPY 17TH BIRTHDAY, REMUS!’ with a whole bunch of hearts that Sirius had personally charmed to float around the words, leaving faint trails of sparks behind. Occasionally, it would start singing Happy Birthday, consequently startling an unsuspecting student here and there.

“We should go get the cake now,” James said louder this time, speaking over the singing banner. “Sirius?”

“I’ll go with you!” Lily jumped up from her armchair.

“Nevermind, Sirius…” James mumbled, all while gazing at Lily, starry-eyed. “Well, well, well. I didn’t know you’re that interested in spending time with me.”

“Get that smirk out of my face, Potter. Didn’t you see that Sirius is busy?” She cast a glance back into the common room as the two of them clambered out through the portrait hole.

“Ah, yes, daydreaming about Moony...” James shrugged, throwing the invisibility cloak over them both in one swift motion; when he spoke again, he couldn’t keep a note of annoyance out of his voice. “I don’t get it. If Moony fancies him back, how come they’re not together?”

“You tell me! We both know Remus is not going to make the first move.”

There really was no arguing with that, James thought as he crouched ever so slightly, loosely hooking his fingers under Lily’s arm to keep her close and fully covered. “Sirius’ Boggart is Remus rejecting him... But I didn’t tell you that!” James added in a hasty whisper.

“Of course you didn’t,” Lily waved it off as they marched down the corridor, unseen by anyone, “but surely, Sirius has been nervous about asking people out before?”

“Oh sweet Merlin, you have no idea how dramatic Sirius can be. He hasn’t stopped whining about how he can’t mess it up because it’s Moony.”

“Well... Encourage him! Be his best mate, cheer him on!”

“Easy for you to say, Evans,” James chuckled, gently nudging her side with his elbow. “How about you encourage Remus?”

“It’s not a matter of encouragement. Unfortunately, he doesn’t believe that Sirius fancies him.”

“What do you mean, he doesn’t believe it? Hasn’t he noticed that they’ve been pretty much acting like they’re already together?”

“What, you mean Sirius always touching him somehow and walking him to lessons when he himself should be on the other side of the castle? No, no, that’s just what friends do. Or are you talking about how they wrestled in the common room the other day until Remus managed to pull his jumper off Sirius while sitting on top of him? Because, obviously, Sirius hadn’t asked permission to borrow it so justice needed to be restored, that’s it, nothing more than that. Just two pals,” Lily sighed and shook her head.

“You’re joking...”

“I wish. For someone as smart as Remus--”

“He’s a fucking idiot.”

“Couldn’t have said it better,” Lily let out a melodious laugh and James felt it wrap itself around his heart.

“Who’s there?” The voice of Peeves spoke almost directly above them, prompting them to quickly tiptoe away while trying not to laugh.

“So what are we going to do about them?” James whispered again once they were sure there was no one around at all.

“What do you mean?” Lily turned her head to look at him.

“I mean, we have to help them. They’re two of my best friends, I can’t watch them throw their love away… And also,” he added with a guilty smile when Lily peered at him with a quirked eyebrow, “I am so bloody tired of Sirius whining about it.”

“I don’t know that it’s up to us to do anything,” she grinned at his confession. “They’re both adults...legally, as of today. They can handle themselves.”

“Uh-huh, so you didn’t volunteer to come with me so that Sirius could spend more time with Remus without us around? I see, I see. So you are hopelessly in love with me, after all. Incredible,” James concluded as they stopped in front of a painting of a fruit bowl, offering her a cheeky smirk.

“You know,” Lily was feeling for the edge of the invisibility cloak as she spoke, “sometimes you say things that are so moronic that there simply aren’t words in the English language I could respond with.”

She stepped from under the cloak and then things happened in such rapid succession that James’ unspoken retort died in his throat - they heard quick footsteps getting nearer, Lily held her arm out just to the left or where James was still hidden by the cloak, and right as he was about to lift it and cover Lily again, it was too late.

“Oh. It’s you.” Snape was standing at the end of the corridor; he seemed to be stunned for a second but then took a few rather eager steps towards Lily. “What are you doing here?” He stumbled over his words, doing a poor job at hiding how surprised by Lily’s presence he was.

“Waiting...for someone… Am I not allowed? Are you a Prefect now?”

“No…” Snape clicked his tongue, managing to pull himself together now. “Waiting for your new delinquent friends?”

“Who?” Lily’s face soured.

“Potter and his gang, of course,” he spat out and James narrowed his eyes, trying to decide whether he wanted to hex Snape or smack him instead. “I’ve noticed you’ve become rather friendly with them lately.” He paused, allowing Lily to say something, perhaps hoping that she would deny it; however, she remained silent. Snape spoke again, now sounding more like his usual annoying, stuck-up, nasty self, James thought. “You used to think that Potter was an arrogant toerag. What happened?”

“I did the hard thing: I grew as a person and learnt and accepted that I had been wrong, instead of holding onto a grudge against a silly childhood memory.”

“A silly childhood memory, really?” Snape laughed mirthlessly. “They’re bullies and you know that as well as me. And freaks, too. Did you know that one of them is bisexual? Even Muggles call his kind freaks.”

“Yeah,” Lily spat out, stoney faced. “And the other’s a gay werewolf, and I’m a mudblood. So what? None of this means anything, Severus.”

“That’s not fair-- You know I didn’t m--”

James caught a briefest moment of hesitation in Lily’s steady breathing. “Severus,” she took half a step towards the Slytherin boy. “I’m planning on joining the Ministry and Dumbledore after Hogwarts, as soon as I sit my last exam. A lot of us are going to do that. Don’t you ever for a second forget that this is not about Potter,” James saw her fingers curl into a fist slowly, to stop her hand from shaking, but her voice was strong and fierce. “And not about anyone else at all. This isn’t even about you calling me a mudblood-” Lily plowed on even when Snape gave the tiniest jerk of his head, as if about to say something- “you chose the Dark side and I just cannot— I will not stand for it.”

Snape stood there for a moment that seemed to drag on and on, silent, staring at Lily down his nose. “Dark side?” He finally uttered, barely above a whisper, and James rolled his eyes before remembering that he was invisible. “There are no such things as bad and good sides. The world isn’t just either black or white. You, of all people, should know that, Lily.”

“I’ve said my piece, Severus. No matter how many times we’ve tried to figure it out, we always ended up in the same spot. Can you please just...go. Leave me and my freak friends be.”

James heard bitterness in the last sentence that Lily uttered. He watched her stare at Snape so intensely and fearlessly that her eyes seemed greener and hair redder all of a sudden, as if her whole being was charged full of magic bursting to get out. Finally, Snape turned on his heel without another word, and angrily marched off.

James’ hand was clutching a fistful of the cloak and, after waiting a couple of seconds, he pulled it off himself. Lily was still looking in the direction where Snape had disappeared around the corner. Then, she turned away, as if waking up from a trance.

“What? What’s that look?” Lily peered up at James, her eyebrows knitting together over those green eyes.

There were a few things he wanted to say, and it took some amount of self-restraint to get his thoughts in order before he spoke. “Remus is gay?”

“Fuck.” Lily breathed out, her voice saturated with frustration. “I should not have told him. I really shouldn’t have… But calling Sirius a freak because of who he fancies… It just made me so mad...” She mumbled on.

“Don’t worry about it. If Snape tries doing anything to hurt Remus, I will personally pluck his greasy hairs out, one by one. I won’t let anyone bully Remus for...” James trailed off, a wave of red hot shame flushing his face. “I know I’ve been an ass,” his eyes darted to the floor momentarily, “to quite a few people. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Snape’s not wrong about that, about me being a bully.”

“Yes, you have been an ass. But listen to yourself now.” Lily’s arms were folded across her chest, her right hand fingers picking at a loose thread coming out of her left sleeve. “Isn’t that the best we can do? Try to be better, all the time?”

“Yeah… I think so. Look, Lily, I--” James kept fiddling with the bunched up cloak in his arms; he wished he would have known how to put into words what he was trying to say. He wished he knew how to make Lily understand that he truly was ashamed of how he had behaved in the past, oftentimes around her, and that he didn’t think he was that prick anymore. “I’m not saying that I’m sorry that that tosser is not in your life anymore, but...I’m sorry you lost a friend. I know that you used to be close…”

“Yeah…” She offered him a faded smile, but the next moment, her eyes had lively sparks in them again. “I appreciate you saying that.”

“So…” He glanced around for what to say next, before the words erupted out of his mouth. “You don’t think I’m an arrogant toerag anymore?”

Lily shook her head at James’ grin. “I like being friends with you, James.”

“Me too.”

“So shall we get going then?”

“Huh?”

“The cake…”

“Ah, yes! The cake! Right!”

* * *

“What’s that?”

Remus, who had just walked out of his dormitory and down the steps, lifted a book he was holding to show Sirius the cover. Slanted gold letter across it read ‘Twelve Fail-Safe Ways To Charm Witches’. “My dear aunt Davina sends her love for my birthday.”

“Oh…”

“She loves to talk about how getting married at seventeen was the best decision she ever made.”

“Oh?” Sirius crossed the common room alongside Remus.

“She’d love nothing more than to have my dad allow her to arrange a marriage for me.”

“Oh.”

“I think she might secretly be a lesbian. There you go,” Remus handed the book to an unsuspecting second year boy who was sitting on a pouffe, counting his gobstones. “I’m a Prefect,” Remus added when the boys stared up at him utterly bewildered.

“Remus. I love you.”

“Thanks, Pads,” Remus laughed out. “So where did everyone go?” He looked around the room.

“Come over here, we’re playing Truth or Dare!” Dorcas Meadowes waved them over from a group of people clustered in a disorderly circle.

“Ooh!” Sirius perked up at the same time as Remus let out a groan. “Oh, shut up, you. It’ll be fun,” he grabbed Remus by the wrist and dragged him towards a spot where a few people scooted over to make room for them.

Remus had never been a big fan of the game, he always rather felt that he had too many dark and embarrassing secrets for it. Over the years filled with long evenings in the Gryffindor tower, it had become a bit of a joke about how he would become grumpy and sour at the very mention of it. But he would humour his friends once in a while and join in for a bit, and try to be a good sport about it as much as he could bear.

Most of the kids in the group were sixth and fifth years, with a few girls that Remus knew to be fourth years, and a handful of younger pupils whom he did not know, other than recognising their faces from seeing them around. It was a while before the bottle landed on him, and the moment it did, his heart seemed to give out an extra beat. Remus scolded himself silently and gave out a faint sigh as he looked over at one of the fourth year girls as she posed the dreaded question:

“Truth or dare?”

“Truth,” he answered without missing a beat and a couple people hissed ‘oh come on’.

“How many people have you snogged?”

“Very original,” he drawled. “I didn’t realise we’re playing truth or dare for eleven year olds.”

“Fine then. What’s the biggest secret you’ve ever kept?”

“Wouldn’t be much of a secret anymore if I told you now, would it?”

“Oh please. You just didn’t want to answer the first question because you’ve never snogged anyone,” jeered a fifth year old boy in a Sex Pistols T-shirt, already reaching for the empty bottle impatiently..

Remus looked him squarely in the eyes and said, “four,” before snatching the bottle himself and spinning it.

There was some debate at first but it was agreed that the glass neck was pointing more towards Marlene than Frank. “Dare!” She exclaimed before he could even ask.

“Alright,” Remus grinned at her with blatant mischief painted all over his face, “go ask Sir Nicholas out,” he nodded his head towards the Gryffindor ghost having a seemingly pleasant conversation with some first years at the edge of the common room.

“But...he’s dead!”

“I don’t make the rules,” he shrugged.

“Fine,” Marlene was grinning now, obviously unwilling to lose. “Take notes, you lot!” She got up as everyone laughed.

“You sly thing, you!” Sirius lightly smacked Remus’ knee, leaning in a bit closer, grinning at him as he did. “I thought we weren’t doing Truth and Dare for eleven year olds!”

“This whole game is for eleven year olds,” Remus smirked back at him.

The bottle kept getting spun over and over again, and miraculously never landed on Remus again. He was laughing with everyone, having loads of fun; but he mostly cared for the moments when Sirius would lean in, far closer than necessary by some standards, to whisper a joke that only Remus could understand.

“They’re still not back?” Remus glanced around the common room while Frank was accepting a dare to smell five people’s armpits.

“Who?” Sirius followed his gaze distractedly for a split second. “Oh, our two closest, best friends in the world, yeah…”

“It’s good that you have nice hair,” Remus bobbed his head with mock gravitas. “At least you have that to offer to the world…”

“You think I have nice hair?” Sirius asked with a strange mixture of eagerness and sheepishness.

“Speaking of our friends,” Remus slowly peeled his eyes off Sirius’ face, letting them roam around the circle of people they were a part of as he spoke. “They’ve been leaving you out this year, haven’t they? You’ve only had, what? Four detentions?” He looked back at the black haired boy who, for a moment, seemed to have been hypnotised.

“I’ve been busy, I don’t have time for detention this year,” Sirius’ features fell seamlessly into a relaxed smirk.

“Oh god. What are you plotting now?”

“You’ll find out…” Sirius answered vaguely just before their conversation was cut short by someone having spun the bottle and landed on him.

“Truth or dare?” Another one of the fourth year girls with waist-length, silky-smooth hair batted her lashes at SIrius none too subtly.

“Dare, of course.”

“Alright,” she smirked and then exchanged looks with her three quietly giggling friends. “Snog anyone in the circle for thirty seconds. You can choose any person. As long as they’re okay with it.”

“Alright,” said Sirius as he mirrored the girl’s smile; she and her friends, as well as a couple other people, all seemed to be bursting with anticipation. “Remus…”

Remus didn’t register the sound of his name at first, having suddenly lost all interest in the game. He had no desire to watch Sirius snog anyone. In fact, he couldn’t think of anything else that he didn’t want to do more than that. He gave a little jolt and looked over his shoulder, assuming that Sirius needed him to move out of the way to get to the person he was going to kiss. He could see the confusion that he felt reflected in a handful of the faces among the group. “Yes?” Remus looked over at Sirius again. Great, he thought, front row seat...

“Are you okay with it?”

“Okay...with what?”

Sirius gave him an unamused look, tilting his head to the side ever so slightly, as if asking him to quit playing dumb. The smile tugging at his lips was nothing short of charming, but there was an ounce of bashfulness in it too. “You can say no…”

“No. I mean...I’m okay with it,” Remus stammered, his heart suddenly beating so hard that it was knocking all air out of him.

“Alright then,” Sirius turned himself on the spot, still cross-legged, to face Remus.

At a loss of what to think, say, or do, Remus mirrored his movements so that their knees touched as they looked at each other. “Let’s make it five,” Sirius mumbled feebly and placed his hands on Remus’ knees as he started leaning in.

Remus had momentarily gotten lost in his head, trying to figure out how he got to be there, in that moment. He looked into Sirius’ eyes as he felt his own upper body gravitate towards him. There was only a ghost of a smile crossing Sirius' face now; he seemed tense, on tenterhooks almost. And yet, there didn’t seem to be any hesitation in his movements as he closed the gap between them.

This time, Remus was getting lost in a kiss. This kiss felt nothing like the mundane fifth that it should have been by all accounts; this kiss tasted like the sweetness and the yearning of the very first and the very last one too.

* * *

Sirius couldn’t remember ever being happier than he was in that moment; feeling Remus’ eyelashes flicker against his, the barely-there stubble on Remus’ chin lightly grazing his skin as their lips danced and their mouths breathed magic in each other. He wished he didn’t have to stop kissing Remus after thirty seconds - and, unless he was sorely mistaken, it didn’t seem like Remus was in any hurry to pull away when someone finally announced the end of their half a minute of bliss.

When Sirius opened his eyes, his hands still planted on Remus’ thighs, he couldn’t - and didn’t try to - keep a giddy smile at bay. “I knew you’d taste like chocolate,” he said quietly.

Remus’ face glowed red but he was smiling back at Sirius. “Interesting thing to spend your days thinking about.”

“Oi! Black! It’s your go,” Frank leaned over to push the bottle towards him.

Sirius tore his eyes off Remus’ face slowly, reluctantly. He grabbed the bottle, spun it again, and just as it was slowing down, a panting Peter showed up.

“I’m so sorry, lads! I thought I’d never get out of Filch’s sad dungeon! He was threatening to keep me scrubbing armours until midnight… Oh! Truth or Dare!?” Peter asked excitedly and, without waiting for an answer, plopped down to sit right between Sirius and Remus.

Mere minutes after that, James and Lily came back with a three tier chocolate cake (the house elves had been making them bigger every year). Some players from their circle dispersed around the common room, others stayed to raise butterbeer bottles in a toast to Remus’ birthday. Big slices of the cake were being passed around and people were chattering and laughing, and talking to Moony and wishing him a happy birthday; hugging him and patting him on the back. It seemed like all of a sudden, everyone needed to be in his immediate vicinity; all while Sirius desperately wanted to cling to that one, now seemingly fleeting, moment of happiness.

He found himself perched up on the armrest of a chair, his fingers loosely wrapped around a cold bottle, his mind wandering, watching Remus deep in conversation with Marlene from afar. It made Sirius nothing short of ecstatic, seeing him smiling and laughing so much. But he also felt a selfish gnaw of bitterness - the whole night was rushing by and he just didn’t seem to find a good enough moment to steal Remus away and tell him about all that time he had indeed spent thinking about what it would be like to kiss him.

“Hey…” A soft voice startled him out of his daydreaming and Lily sat down on the other armrest of the same chair. “Those two boys were fighting over this,” she lifted the same book that Remus had gotten rid of earlier that night, “but...I don’t think they wanted to have it, I think they were both trying to get rid of it… Anyway,” Lily shook her head, relaxing her frown. “It says ‘To Remus, with love, Aunt Davina’ right here, on the title page,” she held up the open book.

A genuinely tickled chuckle escaped Sirius’ lips. “Evans, I don’t think he’s interested in charming witches.”

“You don’t? Oh, okay. Good. I mean, this is pure rubbish, anyway…” Lily tossed the book straight into the fireplace, causing a little cloud of ash to rise up.

Sirius looked at her with a curious smile, quirking an eyebrow at the unexpected act of delinquency. “I always thought you were a bit of a prissy know-it-all, Evans, but just in the last few months you managed to completely shatter that image in my eyes.”

“Charming.”

“That was a compliment.”

“Explains why you’re single.”

“How dare you,” Sirius let out a dramatic gasp, making Lily laugh.

“Alright, I shall leave you to it then,” she said, getting up.

“To what, Evans?”

“To lovingly gazing at Remus, of course,” she flashed Sirius a grin before disappearing on the other side of the common room.

He started drowning in his thoughts, almost immediately, his eyes landing on Remus once again, catching his beaming eyes dart away just then. The past couple of weeks had been so different, so impalpably lovelier than the ones before. Sirius had noticed Remus flirting back a lot more readily and sitting a lot closer than necessary. There were so many other, smaller things that excited Sirius and made him feel giddy with possibilities. And he knew - he had known for a while - that he needed to tell Remus how he felt about him. He needed to tell Remus he was in love with him.

#wolfstar fanfiction #wolfstar #marauders #hogwarts #fanfic #remus lupin #sirius black #james potter #lily evans #peter pettigrew

104 notes · View notes

nymini · 7 years

Text

A list of lines & other things in ASOIAF that break my heart

…because I just finished adwd and I’m trying to cope

“And afterward, we'll ride north to see the Wall. We won't even tell Jon we're coming, we'll just be there one day, you and me. It will be an adventure." "An adventure," Bran repeated wistfully. He heard his brother sob. The room was so dark he could not see the tears on Robb's face, so he reached out and found his hand. Their fingers twined together.

Distressed baby Rickon not quite knowing where his family is and what’s going on. (“You leave him. You leave him be. He’s coming home now, like he promised. He’s coming home.”)

“The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends," Ser Jorah told her. "It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace." He gave a shrug. "They never are.”

Promise me, Ned.

“How then did you save me? I saw my god's house burn, where I had healed good men beyond counting. My home they burned as well, and in the street I saw piles of heads. I saw the head of a baker who made my bread. I saw the head of a boy I had saved from deadeye fever, only three moons past. I heard children crying as the riders drove them off with their whips. Tell me again what you saved." “Your life." Mirri Maz Duur laughed cruelly. “Look to your khal and see what life is worth, when all the rest is gone."

“Dimly, as if from far away, she heard a … a noise … a soft sighing sound, as if a million people had let out their breath at once.”

The tragedy that is the story of Jeyne Poole

PROUDWING

The Starklings remembering Robb with snow melting in his hair.

"Rhaenys was a child too. Prince Rhaegar's daughter. A precious little thing, younger than your girls. She had a small black kitten she called Balerion, did you know? I always wondered what happened to him. Rhaenys liked to pretend he was the true Balerion, the Black Dread of old, but I imagine the Lannisters taught her the difference between a kitten and a dragon quick enough, the day they broke down her door."

Mycah & Lady’s deaths

Barra & her mother

Alayaya

Arya held her breath and kissed the mud on the floor of the tunnel and cried. For who, she could not say.

Run Weasel, run as far as you can, run and hide and never come back.

“It’s always summer in the songs. In the songs all knights are gallant, all maids are beautiful, and the sun is always shining.”

The fate of the people in the Riverlands, Hardhome, Astapor & Saltpans.

When they took his head off, they killed me too.

But if we are winning, why am I so afraid?

Davos pretty much having to watch half of his children die at the Blackwater

Sansa singing the mother’s song to Sandor before he leaves King’s Landing

It was not dead, just broken. Like me, he thought. I’m not dead either.

“When the sun has set, no candle can replace it.”

Sansa pitied them. Sansa envied them.

“Gods be good, why would any man ever want to be king?”

But the wolf’s dead and the young one’s gone south to play the game of thrones, and all that’s left us is the ghosts.

“She was,” said Meera, “but that’s a sadder story.”

We look up at the same stars and see such different things.

“I have won every battle, yet somehow I’m losing the war.”

“The singers make much of kings who die valiantly in battle, but your life is worth more than a song. To me at least, who gave it to you.”

Jaime, he thought, my name is Jaime.

The training of the Unsullied

“Could you bring back a man without a head? Just the once, not six times. Could you?”

“And if we die, we die. All men must die, Jon Snow. But first we’ll live.”

In this light, she could almost be a beauty. In this light she could almost be a knight.

“We’re all just songs in the end. If we are lucky.”

“No, don’t, don’t cut my hair, Ned loves my hair.”

Let him grow taller, she asked the gods. Let him know sixteen, and twenty, and fifty. Let him grow as tall as his father, and hold his own son in his arms. Please, please, please.

“D’you remember that cave? We should have stayed in that cave.”

Back in Winterfell, Sansa told him, that the demons of the dark couldn’t touch him if he hid beneath his blanket.

I have a hole where my heart should be, she thought, and nowhere else to go.

The story of the dying archer Sandor and Arya come across after the RW.

"You remember where the heart is?"

Arya took the doll away from her, ripped it open, and pulled the rag stuffing out of its belly with a finger. “Now he really looks like a soldier!”

The boy had wanted to be Ser Arthur Dayne, but someplace along the way he had become the Smiling Knight instead.

“I’d win in the end, yes, but you’d bleed me, and my people have bled enough.”

Joffrey was dead, but if Robb was dead too, what did it matter?

I thought my song was beginning that day, but it was almost done.

A pure world, Sansa thought. I do not belong here.

What do I want with snowballs? She looked at her sad little arsenal. There’s no one here to throw them at. She let the one she was making drop from her hand.

“I was a man grown when they were playing in these pools. Yet here I sit, and they are gone.”

“And pull your hood up. The snowflakes are melting in your hair.”

Arya never seemed to find the places she set out to reach.

“I’m his squire,” he repeated, as the rain ran down his face, “but he left me.”

“I prefer my history dead. Dead history is writ in ink, the living sort in blood.”

“My sister Elia had a little girl as well. Her name was Rhaenys. She was a princess too.”

The knights of summer. And now it was autumn and they were falling like leaves…

It was not the scorn of the many that left her confused and vulnerable, but the kindness of the few.

“Egg? Egg, I dreamed that I was old.”

Gilly having to leave her baby behind

“We are sworn to protect her as well,” Jaime had finally been driven to say. “We are,” Darry allowed, “but not from him.”

“I’m sorry I never trusted you. I don’t know how to do that anymore.”

“It’s just a sword,” she said, aloud this time… but it wasn’t. […] the Many-Faced God can have the rest, she thought, but he can’t have this.

“I used to have a dog when I was little. I called him Hero.” “Was he?” “Was he what?” “A hero.” “No. He was a good dog, though. He died.” (oh Podrick…)

The Broken Men speech

Jaime’s dream about Joanna

“The war of the Ninepenny Kings?” asked Hyle Hunt. “So they called it, though I never saw a king, nor earned a penny. It was a war though. That it was.”

“Egg? It’s dark. Why is it so dark?”

“I am the only child the gods let him keep. The freakish one, not fit to be a son or daughter.”

“Death should hold no fear for a man as old as me, but it does. Isn’t that silly?”

“[…] I was never afraid, when he was throwing me. I knew he would always be there to catch me. Then one day he wasn’t.”

“It were the black one,” the man said, in a Ghiscari growl, “the winged shadow. He come down from the sky and… and…”

Jon remembered Ygritte, crying. I am the last of the giants.

Pia being genuinely confused when Jaime has her rapist executed. Those poor people are seriously not used to actually getting some justice.

Penny and her brother

“He taught me how to climb a tree when we were little. He could catch fish with his hands. Once I found him sleeping in our garden with a hundred butterflies crawling over him. He looked so beautiful that morning, this one… I mean, I loved him.”

Her name had been Hazzea. She was four years old.

One day when the war is done and King Stannis sits the Iron Throne and has no more need of onion knights. I'll take Devan with me. Steff and Stanny too if they're old enough. We'll see these dragons and all the wonders of the world.

“I’m no slave.” “Every man ever taken by slavers sings that same sad song.”

“Should you reach your queen, give her a message from the slaves of Old Volantis. Tell her we are waiting. Tell her to come soon.”

I am so sorry Marya, I have loved you. Please forgive the wrongs I did you.

“Who is Eroeh?” “A girl I thought I’d saved from rape and torment. All I did was make it worse for her in the end. And all I did in Astapor was make ten thousand Eroehs.”

The story of the Mountain and the Hound

What if I don’t want to remain when you are gone? he almost asked, but he swallowed the words unspoken.

“That was in the dawn of days, when our sun was rising. Now it sinks, and this is our long dwindling. The giants are almost gone as well, they who were our bane and our brothers. The great lions of the western hills have been slain, the unicorns are all but gone, the mammoths down to a few hundred. The direwolves will outlast us all, but their time will come as well. In the world that men have made, there is no room for them, or us…“

I was going to be a knight, Bran remembered. I used to run and climb and fight. It seemed a thousand years ago. What was he now?

Bran did not want to be married to a tree… but who else would wed a broken boy like him?

Bless me, Dany thought bitterly. Your city is gone to ash and bone, your people are dying all around you. I have no shelter for you, no medicine, no hope. Only stale bread and wormy meat, hard cheese, a little milk. Bless me, bless me.

“I saw your father die. Here is his killer. Can I take a skull to bed with me, to give me comfort in the night? Will it make me laugh, write me songs, care for me when I am old and sick?”

It is an easy thing for a prince to call the spears, but in the end the children pay the price.

“Thousands of enemies. Thousands of wildlings.” Thousands of people, Jon thought.

An honest kiss, a little kindness, everyone deserves that much, however big, or small.

It was my home, though. Not a true home, but the best I ever knew.

“Naath. Butterflies and brothers. Tell me of the things that make you happy, the things that make you giggle, all your sweetest memories. Remind me that there is still good in the world.”

Where was I? I should have died with him.

Perhaps I cannot make my people good, she told herself, but I should at least try to make them a little less bad.

Her song is sad and pretty. What happened to her wasn’t.

Men’s lives have meaning, not their deaths.

I rose too high, loved too hard, dared too much. I tried to grasp a star, overreached, and fell.

“Sister. See. This time I knew you.”

“Theon,” he repeated. “My name is Theon. You have to know your name.”

A thousand years ago, she had known a girl who loved lemon cakes.

Quentyn did not want to die at all.

"I want to go back to Yronwood and kiss both of your sisters, marry Gwyneth Yronwood, watch her flower into beauty, have a child by her. I want to ride in tourneys, hawk and hunt, visit my mother in Norvos, read some of those books my father sends me. I want Cletus and Will and Maester Kedry to be alive again..."

They know nothing, Ygritte. And worse, they will not learn.

Stick them with the pointy end.

“Drogon killed a little girl. Her name was… her name was…” Dany could not recall the child’s name. That made her so sad that she would have cried if all her tears had not been burned away.

“I was tired, Jorah. I was weary of war. I wanted to rest, to laugh, to plant trees and see them grow. I am only a young girl.”

Feel free to add.

#nymini reads asoiaf #long post #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #a game of thrones #a clash of kings #a storm of swords #a feast for crows #a dance with dragons #grrm #quotes

29 notes · View notes