#like why does Hermione not have more female friends?

[winn-wynn]

hm, 💚 and 💖?

- armadilloradio

💚: Percy Weasley my beloved in so sorry that people who aren’t Percy stans don’t understand your complicated relationship with you family. I feel like people want to take things at face value. They want to see black and white and take sides. Family relationships are very complicated and we are seeing things from Harry’s pov. Of course he’s going to take Arthur’s side. He sees no reason to go against the Weasleys because they took him in and everything. (I mean he was an abused child. The Weasleys aren’t perfect but Harry would probably defend them till the day he dies.) It also doesn’t help the siblings he usually hangs out don’t like Percy that much. (I get sibling humor but some of what they say about him is kinda of mean)

💖: I feel like all my opinions aren’t that unpopular in a way I feel like they’ve been discussed before I think. I don’t know I guess I really wished Harry didn’t end up with Ginny. Like ginny is such a good character. But because jkr has internalized misogyny, she can’t write female characters that well. So Ginny is treated as an afterthought. Honestly, she hates seeing women perceived with “feminine” traits. Like the main female characters are given “not like other girl traits.” So I do feel like the females aren’t given great treatment. Honestly, she writes like a male manga writer. They can’t write women so all the main characters (who are male) tend to have deeper relationships with their male friends. Honestly it would have been interesting if Harry didn’t end up with anyone.

[odinsonslut]

4 am

⊹ genre: angst, fluff ending

⊹ pairing: george weasley x reader (implied female)

⊹ themes: slight enemies to lovers, slight friends to lovers???

⊹ summary: following the abrupt ending of your friendship, George, the instigator of the breakup, continues to treat you with carelessness and disregard. You’re pushed to the point of retaliation, leading to a cruel confrontation. George attempts to redeem his character and finally express his feelings.

⊹ warnings: swearing, kind of a heated suggestive make-out, a mean george.

⊹ word count: 2.1k

⊹ a/n: I haven’t written since, like, 2018. PLEASE, please treat me gently. I know I tend to overuse the same phrases within a story. I also suck at writing summaries. I promise there’s more to it than described 🫶🏽🫶🏽

It was 4 am when I jolted awake, still wading off the reminiscent agitation from a dream involving a sinking ship and a niffler from what I could remember. Hermione’s lamp was on its dimmest setting right next to where she had fallen asleep, book in hand, a muggle book I had gifted her since I rarely saw her reading for pleasure since we entered our fifth year. 

I turned her bedside lamp off on my way out, hoping the elves were up preparing breakfast. I’d befriended Winky and often spent time with her over butter cookies in the kitchens when I had trouble sleeping. Her addiction was steadily improving without the burden of her previous master.

I made my way to the common room, contemplating walking all the way down to the kitchens, when I heard a thudding pair of footsteps down the stairs. It was George. It was too late to act like id never looked up; we had already made eye contact. Our usual routine was to avoid an acknowledgement of any form. Things hadn’t been the same since he’d rejected my invite to the yule ball last year, though that wasn’t why our friendship had fallen through.

“He’s got you sneaking out at night now too?” 

I was taken aback. The last time we’d ever spoken was the reluctant exchange of Merry Christmas’ due to Molly’s prodding at the burrow. The ‘he’ George was referring to was the date you ended up with at the ball, Draco, the reason George had cut you off completely that night.

“Tell Angelina she’s welcome to join us when she grows tired of faking it with you.” 

I was furious. Why does he get to decide your friendship is over? Why does he get to be mad about your relationship after rejecting you? Why is the standing of our relationship always dictated by how he feels and what he wants? And why should I continue acting civilly towards him?

I picked a book off the shelf and bumped his shoulder as I passed him, deciding to return to bed. I had lost my appetite.

-

I’d practically sprinted to the great hall for dinner after a two-hour-long class of potions. Since your breakup, being partnered up with Draco for the next year was a little awkward. Keeping the DA a secret and him being on the inquisitorial squad just caused too many issues that couldn’t be resolved on top of the Gryffindor-Slytherin debacle. He was the sweetest boy, and being apart still hadn’t affected how he treated you at all: softly, politely. It was comforting knowing he’d always have a soft spot for you, but getting to the point of friendship would take a little longer.

I sat between Hermione and George, across from Harry, getting subtle looks from my friends. I was tired of walking on eggshells around George, waiting for him to dictate how our interactions go or tailoring my behaviour for his comfort. This was his problem, not mine. 

“Get yourself somewhere else to sit. This seat is spoken for”, he spoke immediately. 

I refused to react defensively. Instead, I picked an eclair off his plate and took a bite. 

Harry avoided looking at us at all, shovelling meat pie into his mouth. Hermione didn’t employ the same faux indifference, staring directly at us. George shifted a bit farther away from me and continued eating, similarly refusing to give me a reaction. 

“Where is Angelina? Last I saw, she was off ‘practising’ with Marcus Finch”, I prodded, refusing to concede

“Your desperation for me is becoming pitiful to witness; it’s pathetic. Keep her name out of your mouth; you’d think it’d be exhausted with what all you spend your time doing with it.” 

You finally got the rise out of him you were looking for, you pushed him to a breaking point, but it wasn’t the satisfying victory you imagined. It hurt.

I kept my gaze downcast, lightly placed the remainder of the unfinished eclair back onto George’s plate and left the hall. I spent the night on a couch in the room of requirement, unwilling to accept Hermione’s comfort quite yet.

-

“What on earth is going on with you two?”  Hermione was lying on my bed beside me, our hands loosely intertwined. She’d spent all Saturday morning with me, avoiding the topic of George completely till now. 

I sighed

I knew it would be an inevitable discussion, but a part of me wished I could avoid it into in-existence. “It was embarrassing, Mione. I think we’re truly done with each other, and I honestly feel okay with the thought of that. I know I pushed him, but hearing those words was jarring. It felt like a completely different person than who I thought was still in there. It’s the lighthearted and slightly sarcastic tone in which he said it that made it hurt. I feel foolish.”

“Nothing you put him through warranted that response, honestly? It sounded more like a projection to me. You were dignified in accepting his rejection, and he cut you off for going with someone else?”

“There is absolutely no sense in trying to decipher why the Weasley boys act the way they do. I’ve still never gotten a sound explanation as to what exactly Ron was on that night, either. I mean, it’s obvious he was jealous but-

“Yeah, jealous he wasn’t Victor’s date for the night”, She cut me off.

“oh my god, whatever happened to the Krum-themed anal plug Fred had custom-made Ron for Christmas third year?”

-

Opening my eyes felt like such an effort; my head felt like pounding out of its skull in an unfamiliar bed in the boys’ dormitory. I recognised the burgundy hand-knitted sweater with a large W embroidered on it. My heart leapt into my throat for a split second. I had worried I’d somehow managed to break into George’s room for a confrontation. 

He had been on my mind a lot lately. It had been about two months since the incident, and since we last spoke, and lately, he and Fred have been all everyone can talk about with the success of their prototypes and antics that seemed to have tightened in frequency the more decrees imposed by Umbridge.

I was rushing to get my things together when he walked in. I paused in place, petrified.

“You were careless last night. I don’t know when you became this person, but you’ve got to stop letting Malfoy ruin you. Muggle narcotics are dangerous.”

Just hearing his voice chastising me yet again pulled at me internally. 

“I’m begging you to stop saying anything to me at all if they’re going to come out like that; I will genuinely beg because I just can’t take this from you anymore, George.”

He looked unamused 

“When did you become so weak? Malfoy broken you down so badly that all you know how to do is make yourself small and beg?”

I’d had just about enough. I threw George against the wall yelling at him to shut the fuck up, haphazardly punching him wherever I could land any, the frustration that had built up for months finally meeting its outlet. Save from shielding his face, George stood there and took it till I was done.

“Draco and I broke up over two months ago. He’s a good friend, he does help me get what I use, but he makes sure I’m safe and alive whenever I’m using” I finally broke the silence, and we sank to sit on the floor across from each other.

“I know, he told me last night. He was carrying you outside the common room, yelling at the fat lady to let him in to put you to bed. He told me you’d broken up and that you remained friends. He also said you were developing a problem and needed me back.”

“I don’t need Malfoy speaking for me, and having you around would actualise my supposed ‘problem’. Why am I in your clothes in your bed?”

“When I opened the door for Malfoy, you asked me to stay with you. You told me you just wanted one night of being us again, so I gave you clothes to change into, put you to bed in my room, and slept on the couch in the common room.”

I stood up to leave without acknowledging his response, relieved nothing else had happened. 

“I don’t know that it’ll change anything for you, but I’ve felt sorry for treating you the way I did for a really long time. I figured you’d finally found peace with the situation and avoided trying to resolve things for that reason. At least, that was the excuse I forced myself to believe. I didn’t realise I was really just afraid of confrontation and rejection. Not generally, just with you. You were right about Angelina, too, apparently, she’s been shacking up with Finch since Christmas,” He continued 

“None of that means anything to me. For as long as you got to decide to do whatever you wanted with my feelings, all I wanted was to get past this. This doesn’t mean anything to me after what you’ve done with the importance I trusted you enough to hold to you. I’m well within my right to decline your apology. And it isn’t even to spite you for your selfish decisions. You were right. I am truly happy without you. You don’t mean anything to me anymore.” I spoke with my back towards him and walked out and back to my dorm immediately after.

-

George had spent the last three weeks trying to earn back a spot in your life as the friend he once was to you. He’d done everything you hoped he would for the longest time, and it felt empowering to ignore his advances and put your pride first. But the more time you reluctantly spent with the old George, the harder it was to stop your previous feelings from resurfacing.

This particular morning, if you could even classify 4 am as the morning, George had snuck into your dorm with Harry’s cloak in hand. You only agreed to leave with him because he promised you a visit to Winky. After devouring an entire gooseberry pie between you, George suggested a walk by the lake. It was tempting, especially after seeing how he interacted with Winky, as normally as he does everyone else, without judgement. But you pushed yourself to decline and returned to the common room together.

You spotted professor Snape on your way up, seemingly aggravated by Peeves, omitting a chuckle from George as he watched Snape flail around, attempting to curse the ghost.

“Who’s there?” He sneered

I immediately lifted my hand to cover George’s mouth as we scooted closer together under the cloak. We kept our eyes locked as we tried to remain still. His eyes dipped to my lips at the same time he lifted my palm off of his. Tangling his left hand into my hair, he used his right to guide my waist back till we hit the wall and kept me in his hold, his lips moving closer to mine with every breath he took

“What’re you doing?” I asked softly enough for just the two of us to hear

He looked into my eyes as he finally connected his lips with mine, our eyes fluttering shut after the initial kiss as we melted into it. He teased my tongue with him as he hoisted me up to his level, wrapping my legs around his waist. The build-up of tension escaped us with every rough feverish kiss. His kisses moved to my neck as he began guiding my hips against his, perfectly lining me up against him. I could barely keep myself composed.

“It’s unfortunate, the 50-point deduction limit per student” My blood ran cold at the sound of Snape’s voice. George immediately dropped me to the ground, where I landed on Harry’s discarded cloak. George squeezed my hand in comfort, signalling he’d take care of things.

He took a breath and stepped toward Snape. “I drugged her, Sir; she’s completely innocent.”

“God, you’re an idiot”, I thumped him on the back of his head.

We sniggered, trailing a few steps behind Snape as we were escorted back to our dormitories, not too fussed about detention every week till the end of the term.

End

✩ I DO NOT CONSENT TO HAVE ANY OF MY WRITING POSTED ON ANY EXTERNAL WEBSITES ✩

[seriousbrat]

100% agree on the last post! James is the norm in terms of teenage boys in his society, unfortunately that is not speaking much of that society considering he’s blackmailing his crush through doing harm to her friend and pantsing people. Which is honestly the problem, that specific behavior isn’t seen as an issue it’s the other stuff he does (his arrogance is what’s mostly focused on by the other characters). Looking at violence and gender in that society and how it functions, I really don’t think James is transgressing any of these norms but falling right into them. Which again is the problem. His behavior is a product of the culture which shaped him, that’s not an excuse, but it is an explanation.

Exactly. Like on a scale from Woke Feminist King to Inbetweener, I think James would have been decent enough, average, like I said, maybe even a little bit better than average because of his sense of 'honour' or whatever lol. But not that much.

Also, I know people might not agree with this but I do think the WW is less misogynistic than the Muggle. I think this is logical in a society where magical ability is what primarily contributes to raw labour rather than physical strength. Not to get Marxism 101 on everyone but if we look at the origins of patriarchy as based in the Agricultural Revolution, the division of labour following the emergence of private property (men work in fields, women produce men to work fields, men accumulate resources) is somewhat lessened if everyone can use magic equally, and when women can defend themselves very effectively against becoming the resources that are accumulated.

I say somewhat because yes, women (cis women, I don't think we can expect neolithic farmers or Engels to be trans inclusive haha) are still the ones who can give birth. Obviously for this reason (and also because of influence from the Muggle world) the WW is still a patriarchy and misogyny does still exist, just slightly less acutely than in the real world, and women have an easier time advancing within it.

(((In pureblood society, because they value bloodlines and heirs, there is undoubtedly more misogyny. But we know from pottermore that pureblood supremacy is a relatively recent advent, certainly much more recent than the Agricultural Revolution and the emergence of private property haha. I can imagine that misogyny grew stronger alongside pureblood supremacy quite naturally. This is why Narcissa acts more as a handmaids tale esque wife to Lucius than Lily or Tonks or even Molly and Fleur, who are still housewives themselves.)))

I think there's evidence of women generally faring a bit better in the WW, such as female Ministers long, loooong before Muggle women even had the vote, and culturally I think this is reflected too:

From the intro to Beedle the Bard, which goes on to talk about 'The Warlock's Hairy Heart' in which the female character does have a passive role, so it's not like this is unheard of, just a bit less common. In 'The Fountain of Fair Fortune,' the aforementioned Asha, Altheda, and Amata are all much more useful and powerful and active characters than Sir Luckless who basically just follows them around. (I actually really like that story, and 'Hairy Heart' is delightfully creepy. Probably my faves.) James would have grown up with these stories.

Anyway this got VERY off track but for for this reason too, I think James and the other Marauders would probably be a little bit better than their Muggle equivalents, but also not perfect. Just like Ron, to whom it's perfectly normal that Hermione would be top in everything and that Gwenog Jones ('THE Gwenog Jones') would be someone to idolise, but he also displays misogyny such as when he calls Hermione a 'scarlet woman' lol. As do others. (For contrast, ask an average teen boy in our world to name 3 female football players. Yeah.)

And yes maybe some of it is jkr's learnt misogyny leaking through too, from growing up in a patriarchy along with the rest of us (and let's be objective about this, she has been a victim of it too, very much so.) But personally I think the WW still being misogynistic but slightly better than irl actually ends up being realistically relatable while also providing a level of escapism and aspiration for young girls. It doesn't feel that inconsistent to me but idk. Hermione easily outstripping her male peers in intelligence and talent, Ginny and other female Quidditch players being on the level of men and often better, and this just being accepted, was inspiring for me, anyway.

[jasminedragonart]

Thoughts about the impact jK Rowling has had on the female character:

I think it's fair to say that we have a long way to go in media and literature to achieve a steady basis of good female characters. That's not to say there's none, but the bad does outweigh the good. The thing is, it is getting better. These days when we look at media we can find a lot of well written female characters. Tina, Louise and Linda Belcher. Star Butterfly and Mabel Pines. Nadja of Antipaxos. These are just a few characters I thoroughly enjoy watching on screen and the reason for this is because they're relatable to me. I sometimes sing to myself like Linda, I've found myself writing fan fiction like Tina. I've had that moment like Louise where I stood there as a child and wondered why others around me don't like the things I do. I'm flawed like Mabel and I like cute things like Star.

All of these women above are women. They're feminine. They allow themselves to embrace everything that makes them who they are and yes there are struggles but they're not standing there telling me they're modernising what it means to be a woman. They're women and I like them.

Characters like these have been hard won. We've legitimately struggled to get them here and every year it's getting harder and harder to keep women like these on screen. The reason behind this, I kind of blame a lot on the impact Harry Potter had not just on media but what it means to be a woman.

Has anyone else heard the phrase 'Be a hermione in a world full of princesses?' Does anyone see how toxic this is? Does anyone else not see the problem JK has created by her series getting popular? A problem she hasn't and doesn't want to address because she doesn't realise the problems in her own books.

Hermione was a breakthrough character in children's media. By that, I mean that people finally saw the bookish girl as holding value in a narrative beyond what she had been before (maybe annoying. Maybe just a side character. Never a main character or love interest.- except no, that's wrong. we had lisa Simpson way before Hermione...

Lisa is more nuanced though. I enjoy Lisa because she's very self aware and does try and improve herself even if she's doomed to love in a sitcom she can't escape her role from.

Back to Hermione. Hermione was new to children at least. She showed kids there was value in reading and learning. But, in all honesty, how much is Hermione's popularity down to Emma Watson's portrayal of her and how much is it down to the character of Hermione.

Movie Hermione is very watered down. In fact she's given a lot of Ron's lines which makes her more impactful and Ron further into the shadow of the comedic best friend. Emma Watson is very pretty too. Even as a child she looked a lot like how a lot of prettier girls in my class looked. Her hair was the only thing that made her an outcast. But even then, this was the early 2,000s. Do you know how many kids my age came to school with Hermione's hair? They brushed those curls out until they were dead. No one knew about the curly girl method in primary. The point is, Hermione is different on screen than in the books. she's pretty, she's emotional, shes more nuanced than she is in the books and I applaud the movies for doing this to Hermione because it did make her more likeable.

That's the thing though. More likeable. In the books Hermione is not a likeable character to a lot of people. She would have been the know it all in class that reminded the teacher they had homework. Yes, she did some good things, she spoke up about the house elves, she saved Harry's life a few times but her character, in my opinion, got worse as the books went on. She remained very consistent. there wasn't a lot of change to her character. She didn't seem to grow because she didn't have to.

Worse. she was elevated.

I don't know if anyone else caught the horrific misogyny in these books but I did and it infuriates me.

JK makes a point of elevating Hermione. Hermione is always right. Hermione will always win. Hermione is the standard we should hold other females to, and I know for a fact it's because her popularity increased as the movies were brought out.

If we look at the other female characters in comparison to Hermione I honestly hate it. Mainly because Hermione is elevated to a point where she isnt feminine. If you show any femininity in those books you're villainised.

Don't believe me?

What colour does Umbridge wear? Pink. What is her favourite animal? A cat. She likes sweet things and lace. Shes everything we've come to know about women but she's twisted inside so we can't like these things. we turn against these things because Hermione doesn't wear pink. she wears blue like at the yule ball. she's almost masculine in her appearance so we don't associate her with natural beauty.

Lavender. Girly girl. Just wants a boyfriend because all girls at that age are boy crazy. She's a very supportive girl. Its turned to clinginess. Something hermione is not. In fact she keeps ron at such a distance I didn't even know they would end up together until the last book. the movies made it more obvious, they did their best with it. But the books didn't.

Cho Chang. Cries a lot. Emotional. Doesn't matter that she's grieving and was forced to give up the location due to a potion. No, she's villainised so Ginny can have a sudden romance with harry that again came out of nowhere.

Luna escapes this thankfully. Only because she's too weird for us to consider her having romantic notions. she doesn't have to be put down or twisted to make way for someone else.

Jk made a whole generation of girls hate anything girly. They turned away from pink. They would rather pick up a book than do their make up. Their interest in Hermione and rejecting femininity is the reason we have so many bad female heroines these days.

My question to jk is why? Why couldn't a girl like make up and reading? Why is it one or the other? Why must we reject the pleasures of being dainty and liking cute and fun things in order to be a good woman? Why couldn't we have a character like Louise? Louise is very much a tom boy. But you know what? Louise wears a dress and bunny ears, pink bunny ears, every day of her life because the writers of that show understood a female character. Louise loves smashing mirrors. She also loves Boo Boo. She doesn't like pixies but she still likes wearing a dress.

For years the girly girls of this world had to put up with characters like Hermione being paraded in front of them and told that they themselves were being bad women because they liked pink. Because they liked cats and boys. It wasn't right. And we really need to ask the question on why JK thought to put women down like this in her books when she herself is- apparently- such a protector on what it means to be a woman.

I spy some internal misogyny. I spy a lot of things and theres probably more i could say but it's late, I'm tired and my phone keeps smashing my words together so I need to stop typing.

This is just my opinion. You don't have to agree. This is just the experience I've had growing up in a world where these books shaped a lot of my childhood. I probably would have explored dresses and brighter colours faster if I wasn't told by a fictional character and the grip she had on me and my femininity that pink is bad. That being a girl is bad.

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

What do you think about Katara

Like most the Avatar characters, I don't really have complaints.

Katara does sometimes fall into the dreaded "naggy female friend" role that we see the female character in a trio end up in (looking at you, Hermione) but there is depth to her, and she has some great episodes to flesh her out.

Particularly, Katara's trauma over her mother, the obstacles she faces in order to become a bender at all, really help give her depth that helps her beyond just being every character in the universe's love interest.

I do think that given Katara and Aang ended up being the canonical end game, that as much as we did have episodes focused on it, we could have had a little more focus on why Katara likes Aang so much. We know why Aang does, we cover that in many many episodes throughout the show, and we sort of know why Katara does but I feel like not as much time is given to that end. We know why she sees him as a friend, what she likes about him beyond being the Avatar, but I really can't pinpoint beyond that when she decides she's attracted to him and why.

It feels like Aang made his interests known, Katara said no for a while, then Katara said yes.

I would have appreciated more of a look at why Katara feels the way she does for the various characters.

[lunatheseus]

The lack of female friendship scenes in Harry Potter (and what I personally would suggest) - an investigation

One thing that I wished was different in the Harry Potter series is all of the girl to girl relationships! We need more scenes! We need to dive deeper into these relationships!

Exhibit A: Cho and Ginny's "rivalry"

They're both iconic and amazing in their own right, and I feel like they could have had such a great friendship!

Not only did they both absolutely kick ass in quidditch, they both risked their lives to join the Hogwarts war efforts! Cho was already graduated by the 7th book, but she chose to come back and help out! Ginny literally was one of the main leaders of Dumbledore's army!

The only reason why JK Rowling would make them rivals is because of Harry and how he liked Cho, but Ginny liked Harry? LIKE- GIRL- not the girls hating girls because of some GUY... seriously??

We need those scenes where they pat each other on the back after a quidditch match to congratulate each other on a good game. Female empowerment moment, yes? Maybe they show each other tips and tricks on their brooms.

There should be a scene where Cho teams up with Ginny during battle! Where they fight death eaters together!

Exhibit B: Hermione and Ginny's friendship

The only thing that bothers me about this one was that Hermione became friends with Ginny because they were forced to share a room as there was not more space in the Weasley Burrow. It was convenient. While I don't love that, it's ok, it makes sense logically.

There should be scenes where the two girls relate to each other, more scenes where they giggle about boys and talk about the latest books they've read. Maybe they can both complain about Ron and Harry to each other. They practically lived together for a while, so maybe we could get more scenes of them being more sisterly and having a sibling-esque relationship.

Exhibit C: Luna and Ginny's friendship

Correct me if I'm wrong but these two became friends shortly after Ginny was saved by Harry in the Chamber of Secrets. I feel like at that point, everyone kind of shunned/was scared of Ginny, and Luna was the only one who would talk to her. This is fine and all, but there's no in between fluff about how they built up their friendship from there.

We need more scenes where Ginny defends Luna from bullies, or when Ginny ditches her boytoy to comfort Luna. Maybe there's a scene where Luna misses her mom, and Ginny is there to talk it out with her! There is so much potential in this friendship! When Luna gets kidnapped, how does Ginny react?

Regardless, I know that there are other female friendships in HP (like the slytherin ones), but these three are probably the most relevant when it comes to the actual story.

Don't even get me started on how Molly, Hermione, and Ginny all hated on Fleur, or when Molly assumed Rita Skeeter's articles about Hermione being a player were true! Like- did none of the girls really have each other's backs?

[anorc-writing]

Deconstructing Daphne Greengrass

Ice Queen. Borderline sociopath.

Rich girl with a a heart of gold.

Well, in the last 20 years or so there have been many, many Daphne Greengrasses in fanfic.

And I'd just like to say, my name is An Orc, and I'm here to burn it all down. And yes, I'm aware that I've written tropey Daphne Greengrass fics.

But also, I've written, and continue to write fics where Daphne isn't quite as much of a paint-by-numbers love interest.

Though I've got a fic that deconstructs that too in the works, because of course I do. (Healer Harry and the annoying impatient. Maybe coming late 2025)

Before I dive into the details, I'll lay out some basic ground rules. Don't worry, I'll explain where this goeth eventually. Oh, and we're going to use snippets from Cursed Child, because nothing in life is totally worthless. Not even bad fanfic. (Dr Hadley on Youtube has a great vlog about Daphne, and has written Daphne into fanfic, so if you wanted background, go watch that. He's also quite funny.)

Daphne's Blonde.

Daphne's got blue eyes.

Daphne's a girl.

Daphne isn't a genderbent Draco Malfoy. There's no point in doing that.

Has a little sister called Astoria.

There's a blood malediction that's going to kill Astoria.

Daphne has at least a passing resemblance to 'Anonymous Slytherin girl extra' in the film "Order of the Phoenix"' (Who isn't that anonymous, and apparently at least at some point found the whole Daphne Greengrass phenomenon all rather funny.)

The ship is called Haphne, and it's Harry Potter and Daphne Greengrass.

Daphne Greengrass canonically has an OWL Practical just before Hermione Granger in Order of the Phoenix, the book. She never appears before or after in canon.

Daphne was in Slytherin house and is a pureblood. (That's in the Hogwarts 40, ephemera from JKR that she used in planning. Shame she didn't do some remedial maths beforehand too.)

Epilogue? What Epilogue. EWE is the fan movement that simply rejects JKR's epilogue as well, trash. I'm signed up unless I'm not.

Now, those are the things I regard as 'immutable' parts of a given OC called Daphne Greengrass. And I'm a book reader, who happened to see the films first, so I don't much care what mess various directors made of the setting.

So, first off, I'll lampshade #1 by saying that Daphne is blonde, for some value of bleach. (I have an old female friend who there's only one person alive that remembers her actual natural hair colour, and well, the extra wasn't a natural blonde either, so there you go.) And while that sounds silly, it gives Daphne some... dare we say, character. Why does Daphne change her hair colour? (It's mousy brown, honestly, she just wanted not to look less plain.)

Blue eyes at #2, because she has to have eyes, and they need a colour. Blue is, if you missed it, a colour. (And there's a sodding U in it. Get over it, Americans.) And the "Book of Names" that researched all the names in the Hogwarts original 40 list from JKR, put the Greengrass surname in Norfolk, and they're probably Saxons. So Daphne has blue eyes. And may be from Norfolk.

It would be weird for a boy to be called Daphne, so that explains #3.

Number four, well, the point of a female OC is to ship Harry with her. Seriously. JKR can't write romantic relationships at all convincingly, so Harry ended up with a lump of wood in a red wig. (And that's not picking on Bonnie Wright -- she can act, and has done so since quite well. Cloves et al are hacks, which doesn't help.) Having a Slytherin, and a Pureblood girl means she's literally from the other side of the tracks. (In keeping with the tiny tatters of CC we can regard as 'not shit', Greengrasses are fare more politically moderate than Malfoys.) We never really got to see how the SP lived, and this lets us go wild.

Badly written Regency romances are a fandom trope. I'm no less guilty, but that's jsut, like, an opinion.

There's a legend that JKR intended the Non Nazi Slytherin Students to come back from Hogsmeade with Horace Slughorn, when he leads the people of Hogsmdade as reinforcements in the battle of Hogwarts. As a writer, the setup is all there in the text, but, alas, the last three books (at least) have shoddy editing due to the massive amounts of gold they were making. So she left it out, and that leaves the implication that they're all Nazis. Literally 'Evil House.' Which is far too simplistic a view, and my god you did a personality test on eleven year olds, and now a quarter are Death Eaters. To coin a phrase, Bad Rowling, No. Being ambitious isn't evil. (And having met, over the course of many years, some quite evil people who were not ambitious, there's Death Eaters in Hufflepuff.) So Rowling left that out. I'm actually okay with the idea that the Slytherins that weren't evil hid in their dorms and common room during the Battle of Hogwarts. They'd had rubbish Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers for at least five years out of the last seven, so most of even the Seventh years were sitting ducks; just like Voldemort intended. That DADA curse is 'preparation of the battle-space,' as was making sure Snape was a bastard to Potions students. Less Aurors, less Healers. A nation weak, ready to be taken over.

Number five, having Daphne have a sister, family etc, well, there are great 'Daphne Greengrass is a penniless orphan' fics, but I'm trying to parody what's there, so she'd better have a family. And that lets Harry meet a magical family that aren't the Weasleys. That would make two families he's met. In total. (And I can lampshade the ever-loving putty out of Harry having a tiny circle of friends.)

Number six, the blood malediction, possibly a Greengrass family curse, is free conflict, so what's not to love. Also, it means there's a real risk Daphne herself may be at risk of snuffing it. And a mystery for Harry to solve. If only to discover why that Greengrass girl's trying to break into the restricted section.

(Oh, and I just had a sodding plot bunny.)

Number seven, there's a running theme in fan wish-fulfillment that Daphne Greengrass must be gorgeous. The only thing is, that surely, we'd see that mentioned in the books. Ginny Weasley is gorgeous, Cho Chang is gorgeous. And Harry's possibly a tiny bit superficial. I generally regard this is just cringeful, and I love trying to squeeze sense from the world-building. If a girl was really pretty, she'd be mentioned in the book, right? (Ignoring that JKR didn't make enough characters for the roll size she wanted for Hogwarts etc etc.) In a way, (it's called parodic deconstruction, I think?) so Daphne must either be... good looking but not stand out, or she had a glow-up after school. She's also not atrociously ugly -- she's unremarkable. I parody this in one of my worse stories with Daphne literally having a magical glow-up, courtesy of her mum. A middle ground is that like the reference face from the films, she's pretty, but horsey from some angles. Fans who've met said person in ... person say actually she is gorgeous, so there's that. That further lends weight to the 'otherwise unremarkable girl' angle, where she might age into her looks, but at Hogwarts, is... shy. (Oh god, terrible Hughes films flashbacks.)

Number eight, shipping. I ship so hard I have my own harbor. In real life, actually yes. So I'm quite prepared to have fics where Daphne shock, Horror, isn't with Harry. (I've got one (not quite released yet) where he... brace yourselves... becomes friends with her post-war. And that's all. A friend. (I'll do the screwing it up in a sequel, because I am an orc. Torturing people is our thing.)

Or... is gay. Because that's a thing, folks. Some people are. It just happens. Not going to try and take on all that crap, but hey, have a gay Daphne story. She stays gay, because that's how people tend to work.

Number nine: There's a fixed point in time in canon where Daphne Greengrass exists, and did her OWL Charms Practical at the same time as Hermione. That leaves the question open if she was even at Hogwarts in Harry's sixth year. Given the reappearance of a dark lord, maybe they fled. Lots of possibilities. Also, on the flip side, sixth year is the one year Harry could really meet Daphne at Hogwarts and change canon a little but not a lot. (Or maybe with an alternative point of view in a planning session, things could go very differently indeed.) People have done 'She's actually working for Voldemort, willingly or otherwise' to death, so I've left it alone. Harry might not be a genius at telling if someones' trustworthy, but Crookshanks, Hermione's cat, is half-Kneazle and magically gifted in this regard. (See Prisoner of Azkaban.)

There's no point arguing a single point in time, unless someone wanted her to be imaginary, and that's pretty limited as a basis for a story.

Number ten: If you make her not a Pureblood in Slytherin, make her someone else. She's an OC with a name, respect the three things we already know about her. (And I'm quite prepared to skewer any Siberian Pricness, Ice Princess etc tropes at this point.)

Number Eleven: No epilogue.

Well, unless she was over and done with Harry before he married Ginny and had 2.4 children. I've played around in this non-plot non point a bit, including skewering Cursed Child repeatedly. It's quite hard to have Harry, who only wanted a family, be an absent father and still be in character. Cursed child never managed it, but I've had a couple of goes so far.

Or maybe AFTER cursed child starts. And suddenly I'm writing 40-year old Harry Potter getting divorced, meeting someone from school... there's a rich vein to mine here. And yes, I've got a satire of a Hallmark Christmas romance with Harry and Daphne post-Harry's divorce, of course I do. Maybe released late 2025 at this rate.

Now for some freeform ranting.

One of the valuable things, as a writer about Daphne is that she can be unfamiliar with muggle Britain, and Harry's a native. So you can do the wonders of... Tesco. Basically, Harry's discovery of the magical world, upside down, and backwards. Or to be posh, holding a mirror up to contemporary Britain. See that sounds all literary, and this is just fanfic.

But like any idea, I can look at the back side, and Harry could, alternatively make a complete berk of himself, trying to show someone that already kind-of-knows muggle culture and technology things, and instead of childlike wonder she can say "I had one when I was eight, Potter. I wasn't born yesterday."

And there's even room to explore the idea that maybe she doesn't have a heart of gold.

There are some fantastic fics where she's the bad guy.I haven't written any of them. Personally, I'd rather not glorify bad people. But she can easily be the 'Slytherins will take any means to achieve their ends' character. And while I can't see the attraction about writing about psychopaths, just having someone prepared to bend the rules in the service of her own life is a nice contrast to the background characters 'who do nothing'. She could even, shock, horror, be a criminal, inasmuch as she did whatever to get through the war. (And I've got a neat fic stuck in plot development hell where she's a fraudster... but not a death eater. And Harry is a post-war Auror, so he gets to play detective and play the hypocrisy card. It may be a noir detective novel in wizards robes.)

Because so many writers have tried to make Daphne very special and extra, I've gone and written 'A very ordinary girl' where Harry slowly falls in love with someone who's... an ordinary witch at Hogwarts. While that's a short story, I feel disinclined to write more in that setting, because by the end, all Daphne and Harry want in some privacy, post-war. So they get to have it, in a way, as long as I don't write another chapter of it.

And one of the interesting things is that the very idea of 'A very ordinary witch' from an ordinary magical family isn't something that appears in the books. So ah, that's really interesting, even if it requires tricky niche world-building to fit inside Rowlings quick and dirty worldbuilding.

But, given all that, could Daphne have... interests?

She could be a music dork. They don't mix with non music dorks at school much, and they can be quite unusual sorts ... once you get to know them, though they might be quite as mice outside of doing music. And we know there's a choir. Kinda.

Gobstones is a thing, but Harry doesn't play, nor do any of his friends. Therefore, book canon Daphne Greengrass might be eighth seed in the gobstones club, and Harry would never know.

People then jump onto 'she's a genius, she's Hermione's academic rival!' But that's kinda silly. And would have had Hermione grizzling about her at some point, surely?

Hogwarts doesn't have printed class rankings on the walls at any point, so Hermione, for all we know, may not actually be ... shock horror, the brightest witch at school. She studies hard, but in seven years, hadn't invented a single spell. Snape invented several by the time he was in sixth year. (Halfblood prince, his potions journal has his own spells in it.) I'm not saying Daphne is either. But she doesn't answer questions in class like Hermione, though Hermione is suspiciously quiet about all those electives she takes and the boys don't. (Maybe Daphne's an arithmancy nerd? Could be. And what would that actually mean, in practical terms?)

It's possible, nay likely that students with special interests might do better in the classes they are interested in, but they may not necessarily be the best in the school... if they are interested in something related to the class, but not in studying hard to get good exam marks. That's just how learning works.

On the other hand, Hermione Granger doesn't attend Hogwarts for the 97-98 academic year. (maybe she goes back later.) It's possible that every other student, apart from being bullied and possibly tortured by the Carrows, also had a chance to get some house points for a change without Granger hogging all the questions in class. If Daphne attended Hogwarts after 1996, she might have actually got to NEWT level in her classes. So it's possible a post-war Daphne is better at magic than say, Hermione, at least excluding Hermione's specific skills, like Polyjuice making.

Weird worldbuilding fact. In sixth year, in 'Halfblood Prince' there are 'two other Slytherins' in Potions with Harry that aren't Malfoy or Nott. And they are never named, nor are they mentioned again. One of the ''one simple trick's" of writing is to provide the bare minimum and have the readers fill in the rest. It's... possible one is Daphne.

The curly haired elephant in the room.

Tracey Davis is possibly Daphne's best friend. She certainly is in many fics. She is... definitely in the same dorm in Slytherin with Daphne. I've settled on the idea they're neighbors out of school. It's the simplest possible solution of Daphne needing a bestie.

Which can't be Pansy, or we'd notice Daphne more.

And cant' be Millicent, because Daphne is at best a hanger-on in Pansy's gang. And... we'd notice Daphne more.

What's Tracey like? Who can say. She's a halfblood in Slytherin (according to the list.) Poached this pic from Living Dangerously, and why not have Tracy wear a brown hat?

[oflights]

Thoughts!!! About that last ask!!! It would be nice in fanon if Hermione was allowed to grow out of feeling compelled to manage her friends and tell them what they’re supposed to be doing. It speaks to a certain amount of stress and fearfulness on her part, doesn’t it? That she thinks she needs to badger everyone into doing what she would do. Wouldn’t it be better for her if she could put those things down? I think honestly a lot of it is kind of. Sexism. That whole she’s the only one who has a brain cell is sexism for sure and not even accurate to the books. Hermione is not able to give Harry any meaningful direction with regards to the horcrux quest for instance, and she’s very hands off with his social relationships even when she expresses some insight into his situation with Cho and later with Ginny.

The trope of the m/m couple with some manipulative female friend who has to cajole them into expressing themselves enough to actually get together is sexist also imo. Men are capable of like. Cultivating emotional intelligence and it’s not some woman’s responsibility to manage them even when they don’t manage themselves. Like if your friends can’t speak up to get together, then they don’t date each other and that’s that.

yeahhhh i think people really blur the line between "friend who gives good advice" and whatever the hell hermione winds up doing in fic. and it's specifically a fic thing, which feeds itself the more it circulates and more people accept it as fanon. it's def sexist. pansy does this too, with this much more meaner tint to it that constantly makes me earnestly wonder why draco would be friends with her (and who tf that girl was in canon that doted on him and defended him and was absurdly loyal to him; i know this is partly that idea of like, slytherins aren't really friends, only gryffindors have friends, which is whatever), but that it's almost always women is so tiresome lol. there are better ways to include women in your m/m fics!!!

also like, idk. i've said this before but i'm always disappointed when post-canon hermione grows up and has this perfect relationship with ron and can give perfect relationship advice based on exactly one relationship where everything is perfect. somehow she knows exactly how to have amazing interpersonal relationships (even though canonically she has like, three friends ever) and is great in social situations and everyone loves her and agrees with her.

successfully being an overachiever in literally every aspect of life is not actually real or possible. being good in school does not always translate to being good with people (something canon actually shows well??). tbh it doesn't even always translate to instant career success, but that's another story.

[acourtofthought]

It's one thing to ship a ship because you personally like the idea of two characters together (Hermione and Draco, for example).

It's another thing to try twist canon to prove a ship is going to happen.

I think a good portion of the fandom envision the next two books will be (in no particular order) either:

E/riel and Vassien

or........

Gwynriel and Elucien

It's pretty obvious which of the two I believe in but I still find the Vassien ship an odd one and there does seem to be a large number of people who push this ship to make E/riel more of a possibility.

I know why Lucien and Elain haven't had many real conversation but in terms of Vassa and Lucien, there's nothing preventing them from interacting. They live together so one would expect a level of familiarity and chemistry.

When we actually read the conversation between two characters, the chemistry / fire / angst between them and their words is what matters. Not Feyre's interpretation of what she's seeing, not anyone else's. It's the feeling we get when we see their actual interactions up close and personal.

Actual conversations with words shown between Vassa and Lucien. (Them "chatting" when we have no idea what's being said is meaninglessness because there were a couple of times where Feyre left Lucien and Elain to "talk" as well and it's pointless for us to fill in the blanks of what was said just so it suits our personal narrative. That leaves too much space for us to also imagine that their conversation included laughter, a hug, etc. Not to mention, it's another characters interpretation of how something went, not our own).

Lucien asked, “How would she even get here and vanish that quickly? Crossing the sea takes weeks. She’d need to winnow to pull it off.”. “The queens can winnow,” Jurian corrected. “They did so during the war, remember?” But Vassa said, “Only when several of us are together. And it is not winnowing as the Fae do, but a different power. It’s akin to the way all seven High Lords can combine their powers to perform miracles.”

Lucien’s eye clicked. “Who?” “You wonder who is capable of making a unit of Fae soldiers across the sea vanish? Who could give Briallyn the power to winnow—or do it for her? Who could aid Briallyn so she’d be bold enough to do such a thing? Look to Koschei.”

“He’s still at the lake,” Lucien said carefully. “Yes,” Vassa said, relief in her eyes. “But Koschei is as old as the sea—older.”

Also, it's not necessarily an exchange of words but, we are still getting a front row seat for:

"Tamlin wouldn’t notice anyone missing at this point.” Lucien cringed

That's all we get, it's all very business like for two people who supposedly have feelings for one another. Jurian and Vassa share a more personal interaction than she and Lucien (snark is one of SJMs love languages). Sure Lucien looks at her with a pained expression when she's talking about Koschei, sure Feyre notes he's relaxed when chatting with her and he jokes about how she and Feyre would get along because of their foul mouths and tempers (if Feyre shares those characteristics with Vassa and she and Lucien are friends, then common sense says he'd also look at Vassa as a friend. I've never gotten the impression Lucien lusted after Feyre based off her personality) and yes, he speaks of her positively (Lucien is canonically a supporter of females in general) but as a reader, what do you think about the chemistry that exists between Lucien and Vassa when they're actually having a conversation with one another that you can "hear"? In SF, Vassa and Jurian snipe at one another while Lucien chooses to sit next to Jurian rather than stand near Vassa. And it's pretty obvious that Vassa doesn't feel the least bit of remorse for bringing up what is a sensitive subject for Lucien. So considerate of his feelings isn't she? 🤦

Saying Lucien currently has romantic feelings for Vassa is 🤯 especially when you consider he's still looking at Elain with longing at the end of SF.

But back to those moments that Feyre believed she witnessed between Lucien and Vassa and that others like to use to prove their interest in one another.

Let's look at some of Lucien’s interactions with Feyre:

Lucien rose, stalking to me.

Lucien paused half a foot from me. He didn’t so much as object as I threw my arms around his neck, burying my face against his warm, bare chest.

Lucien loosed a heavy sigh and slid an arm around my waist, the other threading through my hair to cradle my head. “I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I’m sorry.”

He held me, stroking soothing lines down my back,

I dreamed of the howling, dark night beyond, of all the sounds that Lucien so carefully sorted through while he kept watch. His attention slid to me at one point and lingered. I dreamed that he removed his cloak and added it over my blanket.

“What have you done,” Lucien breathed, and Tamlin’s face was the picture of devastation as Lucien shoved him aside. He let Lucien shove him aside and help me stand.

“Let’s get you cleaned up,” Lucien said, an arm around my shoulders as he eased me from the room

Oooo weeee, those are quite the interactions! Lucien must have the hots for Feyre! 🤔😂

Lucien is just a really emotional character. What he feels is all over his face and he is expressive and affectionate towards his female friends.

It does no good trying to prove your ship when you don't take the time to really understand the characters personality.

Claiming he did nothing for Elain after making a big fuss out of wanting to find her is choosing to ignore literal text that says otherwise. It's ignoring that her own sisters put Elain under lock and key and prevented Lucien from being able to go to her as often as he wanted though he still spent time in his room thinking of ways to help her. That the second they allowed to him help, he jumped at the chance.

And the ONLY reason he went after Vassa is because he realized Elain was not ready for anything at the moment, that what she needed was space. He did that for his Mate, at the expense of what he wanted. The reader can say with almost 100% certainty that Lucien didn't want to leave Elain but knew it's what was best for her.

THAT is Mate behavior. Not "taking action" but instinctively realizing what your Mate needs and giving it to them. In the same way Rhys took no action with Feyre and was going to allow her to marry Tamlin until the time Feyre no longer wanted that.

Lucien instinctively understood what Elain needed and he gave that to her. Az canonically made no effort with Elain until he witnessed others reaching out to her, at which point he started paying attention to her. Because he views her as a damsel in distress and suddenly it gives him purpose. Everything about Az with Elain is born out of his desire to feel worthy and useful and has nothing to do with him actually liking Elain as a person (as evidenced by the fact that he has not once acknowledged anything special about her personality).

Arguments only work when others can't easily poke a thousand holes in them and claiming Lucien is in love with Vassa is one with a bunch of holes. When you consider that he felt guilt over thinking he's betrayed Jesminda for having a Mate, when it's canon that he thinks Elain is the most beautiful female he’d ever seen, and when it's canon that it's Elain he still looks at with disappointment and longing after living with another female FOR A YEAR, I think it's safe to declare that Lucien is not remotely in love or fixated on Vassa.

And acting like Lucien wasn't trying to do what was best for Elain by giving her space (after he knew she had begun recovering from her depression) to accept this new world she's found herself in is actual crazy talk. It's literally THE BEST THING he could have done for her. To allow her time to process her emotions without the Mating Bond being a constant presence was a GIFT. Rhys gave Feyre space, Cassian left Nesta alone for months, but somehow only "Lucien" is less Mate like than them?

That argument bucket has a million holes in at this point and is losing water fast.

[greenerteacups]

i have two questions for you! the first is: could you tell us more about your decision making process with narcissa, and how you brainstorm and eventually write for her character? for context, she’s one of my favourite female characters, but very few books portray her as authentically and gut-wrenchingly painfully real as you do. my second question is i’d love for you to tell us about how you do your research when you write harry potter fics. you mentioned google sheets upon google sheets of research and i’d love to learn more. i think you’re incredible, and lionheart is one of the best, if not the most excellent, draco and hermione fics i have ever read. the way you ended volume i so poetically lives in my head rent free. i want it on my tombstone. ily so much!

Hello! Delighted to answer both. Talking about writing is my special treat to myself for actually doing it.

1. Narcissa: She's so complex! She's just a spiny mille-feuille of a creature, she's so complex. I wrote the prologue before I'd even outlined Book 1, so I had this idea of Narcissa, as a widow, attempting to somehow manage the legacy of these two enormous wizarding houses without allowing them to suffocate her son, whom she loves intensely and truly — her son, whom she loves enough to lie to the face of an immortal dictator just to know that he's alive. What's she like? And so I started picking through her backstory, like: what makes her tick? What does she believe, why did she marry Lucius, why is she the only Black of her generation that survives? And then, once I had the questions lined up, the answers started coming: she grows up sandwiched between Bellatrix and Andromeda, neither of whom are model pureblood daughters, so as a sort of reaction, she ends up becoming this Model Pureblood Gentlewoman, which is epitomized by her marriage into perhaps the only house as old or important as the Blacks. But she's still an heiress in her own right, which means she doesn't need Lucius either for his money or his connections — so theirs was probably a love marriage, or at least an arrangement she had some say in. And she's the last Black standing after two era-defining wars, despite the fact that she's in very close proximity to power in both of those conflicts, so she obviously has some serious survival skills and an intuitive grasp of how to manage people.

But she's also deeply damaged. She's lost her whole family. Bellatrix joined a cult and went off the deep end, Sirius and Andromeda ran away, and Regulus died. Narcissa is the only one who did exactly what she was supposed to do, and her reward was being abandoned by everyone she ever loved. She has baggage. Her life basically ended at the close of the First Wizarding War, and the only thing she has left to live for is Draco, who she knows that she's losing to influences outside of her control, but she doesn't have the power — or isn't willing to use the power she has — to stop him, because that's how she lost Sirius and Andromeda. Pushing too hard. She doesn't want to be Walburga Black. Her problem is that she remains a Black to her core, and for her, that will always mean certain rules and certain ideas. The possibility that Draco might be moving in the right direction — i.e., that her worldview might be outdated and profoundly misinformed — is incompatible with the fact that for years she has been sacrificing her own happiness on the altar of this Thing, this Idea, of the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Black. If 'pureblood' doesn't mean something, then Narcissa has ruined her life for nothing. She has lost her entire family for nothing. Reform? For what?

2. Research: God bless the fanwikis, because they are my best friend. If I need a date or a timeline check, the fanwiki is my first resource. I have a spreadsheet of important dates ranging from 1971-1991, just because the backstory with the Blacks and Snape and Lucius is somewhat involved (many irons in the fire!) and when I was writing Book 3, I realized that I needed to hash out what happened when and where all these people were at different points in each other's lives. (Like, did Sirius and Snape see each other during the war, or is Book 3 the first time they've crossed paths since the 1977? Surely not, right? But then... when?? And where the fuck has LUPIN been since 1981? That question took about an hour to hammer out.) I make these things sound like chores, but they're not: they're more like fun little writing side-quests that I get to do before coming back to the main story. A lot of it won't even end up in the actual fic, but knowing it helps me keep the text consistent, and it also informs how I write the characters.

I also keep a big list of "miscellaneous Information" at the bottom of my outline document. Yearly quidditch rosters go here; so does stuff like political factions, family trees, and (most recently) a full diagram of who works where in the Ministry of Magic, because I realized I'd invented a passel of bureaucrats and couldn't remember who was allowed to order whom around. I have short character profiles for people like Odin Davis and Prescott Parkinson, especially ones like Pansy's mom who barely appear, because I need to know who they are if I'm going to write Pansy consistently; I also have a reference sheet for hair/eye/skin color for everyone in the cast, because I don't want to get caught up and have to invent a reason that Theo's eyes are blue in one book and brown in the next. (E.g.: they're brown, have always been brown, will always be brown. #browneyedTheo truther.) Finally, I use sites like the HP Lexicon, the conceit of which is basically "odd lists of things you didn't realize you wanted." That link takes you to a list of Harry's Christmas presents for all seven years, which is bonkers helpful if you're trying to write a Christmas scene and you can't remember who gave who what and when.

I also make a point of keeping a copy of the books on-hand while I'm writing, because I want to make sure I'm not neglecting subplots (and, if I am, then I at least want to be neglecting them on purpose). Lionheart is canon divergent, but I want to minimize the divergences to things that I can attribute to a change I've made deliberately, not just because I forgot someone was there.

Finally, if I can't find an answer to something, I might consult Reddit or fan sites to see if someone's dug it out of the books. Names of odd second-cousins, really remote family trees, who's married to whom and why, stuff like that, I'll rely on word-of-mouth. Then, if I can't find something (or find it after a reasonable search) I'll just make something up. I console myself with the knowledge that most people will tolerate you getting Harry Potter's great-grandfather's goldfish's middle name wrong so long as it's in the service of a good story, which is what I hope I can offer.

[takeariskao3]

I've never found Pansy interesting and don't know why so much of the fandom like her. But since you'll be writing a Panville fic, I'm willing to give it a shot. I'm Genuinely curious about what you like about her. Could you give us some of the reason why you like her?

so, i'm going to get on a soapbox for a second (or a high horse)

first off, i don't think your message was combative or confrontational in any way! but i do get a little defensive when it comes to some of my preferred ships/characters (especially female characters) because i shouldn't have to justify why i like them or why i find a story arc with them as the central focus interesting. you know?

however, seeing as you do seem genuinely curious, i think it is two fold.

there is a quote from JKR about pansy and it goes something like this: "I loathe Pansy Parkinson. I don’t love Draco but I really dislike her. She’s every girl who ever teased me at school. She’s the Anti-Hermione. I loathe her." now on the surface this is a whatever statement right? how could we disagree with it? of course we loathe pansy, the narrative *wants* us to loathe pansy. she's mean! but when i think about it longer than thirty seconds i get a little cringed out. because when i was a teen, i was the anti-hermione. i liked fashion, and makeup, and traditionally feminine things, i had a large group of friends and i liked my boyfriend. i was popular in the traditional sense of the word. i don't think i was a mean girl but who hasn't ever, in their life, been mean? so does the narrative (author) loathe me as well? i feel similarly about pansy that i do about lavender, that they were written from a place of deep misogyny and by a person who bought into the YA trend that main female characters needed to *not be like other girls* to be interesting.

the other half of my enjoyment of pansy & panville is that i don't like caricatures, and i really like redemption stories. genuinely. and as a fic writer, and a person who enjoys complex characters, typically the worse a character can start out, the more i want to push every button they have until they start learning some life lessons. pansy is PERFECT for this type of story. she was awful. she was raised to be the most bigoted, vapid, vain, conniving, prejudiced bully imaginable. she tried to hand harry over to voldemort! she is every resentment and insecurity rowling had as a middle schooler personified. so, if i take all of that, and try to fit it into as realistic as a person as i can, wouldn't pansy's mindset post-war be fascinating?? does she double down on dogma and hatred, or does she start to see a life and a world without division and is desperate not to be left behind? does she remain selfish and superior? or does she maybe learn there is more than one way to be good and brave? there are facets to her personality that are very queen bee-esque and despite her many flaws and failures, she still has strengths. using subtext, and a little of my own personal experiences, we can deduce that she is: confident, driven, calculating, sometimes wildly ignorant, and not very nice. in terms of a romantic story she is exploding with potential for an opposites attract (hate to love) scenario. neville is humble, content, morally steadfast, and most of all he's kind. pansy can learn a lot from him, but at the same time, neville could benefit from someone who won't coddle his more... wallflower(?) tendencies.

now i won't go into my entire history with hp fanfiction (unless you have enough time to hear ten years worth of experiences) however, i've become pretty attached to this little corner of fic for the reasons stated above. it's no secret that i like redemption stories and enemies to lovers as a romance trope. that's just what *i* enjoy. you do not have to enjoy it. but i do think it is important to think critically about the source material before deciding whether something is worth exploring or not.

i'll leave it with this, rowling has stated on the record that: "Let my girls be Hermiones, rather than Pansy Parkinsons. Let them never be Stupid Girls." and this bothers the shit out of me. i don't think girls should be hermiones or pansys or ginnys or whatever the fuck. i think girls should be whoever they are and not get told that their interests, or their experiences, or their stories are unworthy of being told because they aren't the smartest person in the room. so not only is pansy an interesting character for me to explore, she also feels like a wrong that i can make right. however small of an imprint that leaves on the world. pansy feels like a representation of what femininity is when it is defined at its worst and i intend to tear it to fucking shreds.

TLDR; pansy reinforces girl on girl hate for no other reason than vilification of teenagers, redemption arcs are fucking fire, and the idea of one character's weaknesses being another character's strength is SUCH a good foundation for romance.

thanks for the question <3

[mirrorofliterature]

here's an opinion that i don't necessarily entirely agree with but i think it has great points and i'm curious to hear your take on it:

while molly weasley was very far from a perfect mother and made many mistakes, it's as good as a human person can do under the circumstances she grew up and lived in (two wars, losing her brothers and many friends, her husband and kids constantly being in danger, living under constant threat of war, financial status, treatment by other families etc.) and the fandom judges her way too harshly while characters who were much worse parental figures and were plain out horrible and neglectful (especially men) get off the hook very easily

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

I agree in part - this may surprise some people, because I do not like molly, nor am I her biggest fan - however.

I think it is important to remember, when criticising molly's parenting (as I do frequently) to not forget the pressures she was operating under - trauma, patriarchy and rigid social structure. And people do often treat molly more harshly than other subpar parents - which is why I make sure to criticise arthur as well, as it takes two to tango and whatnot.

The only part I mildly disagree with is 'as good as a human person can do', because I think that molly could have done more by listening to her children. I don't think that molly or arthur are to blame for their family's low socioeconomic status - poverty is a social construct, and whatnot. What I do fault her for her is her misogynistic treatment of other characters, like Fleur and Hermione, and her treatment of Sirius in Grimmauld Place. That was needlessly cruel.

So in short - I'm not naive. I think the key issue is that a lot of people view Molly as a saint, so a lot of people swing heavily back into painting her as the devil - whereas, as a lot of things in HP, the true answer lies somewhere in between. Molly was good intentioned as a parent and was hampered by a lot of things, particularly trauma and money. She loved her children, undeniably. But this provides an explanation for her behaviour - it doesn't excuse it.

I think that other characters should get similar levels of scrutiny - as I do with arthur, but I don't think that necessitates us giving her the excuse of 'oh, it's okay that her children felt conditionally loved because she was traumatised!' [Which I don't think this opinion is suggesting, but something to be careful of]. I understand why molly is the way she is - she grew up in a socially conservative time during a war and lost a lot. But. If I am writing from the perspective of a Weasley child, they are going to have complex feelings about Molly, and Arthur.

So, in short: I agree. I think molly is a deeply flawed mother, shaped largely by her environment, but that does not mean she cannot be held accountable for the hurt she caused. I think the fandom's laser focus on her is at times misogynistic, but it's not particularly unique. Also, not every criticism of a female character is necessarily misogynistic. Molly often takes a lot of flack because she is presented as this paragon of motherhood quite overtly in the books, compared to others - so she's a bigger target than a lot of others.

I like the take, but I personally would veer away from saying she couldn't have done any better. She is a realistic mother: that doesn't mean she couldn't have done better.

[hpsaffics]

2010 ~ Longest HP Femslash Fics

F/F tagged works sorted by Word Count on AO3*

As of 2023.2 (216 works)

*Only fics with a sapphic main pairing are included (listed by WC)

—

1. Now And Then by angelholme[Hermione/Pansy, Hermione/Luna, T, 83k]

Seven years ago, Hermione Granger was sent to Azkaban for attempting to murder her best friend. Now, she's back and wants to finish the job.

2. We Shine Like Stars by Cluegirl [Luna/Ginny, Ginny/Harry, Harry/Severus, E, 37k]

Harry is not the only one struggling for identity; Ginny's dreams are mortgaged too. A brush with tragedy alerts her to the possibility of losing all, if she does not take matters into her own hands.

3. Unbreakable by seedee [Millicent/Hermione, E, 34k]

Why do elves keep dying? What's the secret of the striving elf agency? Where is Pixy? What do you wear to a Halloween party if your host is Millicent Bulstrode? Hermione's profession is to find answers; and she has the cloak to prove it.

4. Storytelling by kelly_chambliss [Minerva/Hermione, Minerva/Wilhelmina, M, 27k]

Had Hermione known what a cliché it was for a young girl to have a crush on a teacher, she might have been more cautious about giving away her heart. But she didn't know. A story about stories and how we read them.

5. Dedicated by Kiwi Stubbly-Punk (cranky__crocus) [Luna/Pansy, Pansy/Rita, E, 11k]

Luna is dedicated to finding herself many years after the war. Pansy is dedicated to evolving herself for her career and life.

6. Girl Meets Girl: A Study of Sociomagic Attitudes Towards Female Bodied Same-Sex Attraction by @verbosewordsmith [Padma/Sally-Anne, T, 10k]

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it, and the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about in The Daily Notes From History of Magic. An alternate look at Sixth Year.

—

Want more HP Femslash?

Find recs in the WLW Library

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More from 2010 | Top fics in other years

[seriousbrat]

Do you think Lily (or atleast your lily) is “not like other girls-ing” it. Meaning do you think she looks down on the hyper feminine or atleast holds her self as being better (consciously or unconsciously) for not being that?

Given the time period she grew up in it would be a bit of an anomaly for her to not have these deep seated ideas of femininity (which is why I don’t give hermione too hard of a time here), but if you think she didn’t adopt that thinking what caused that? And if she did (to any capacity) what does that look like in her day to day life?

Oooh, honestly a very interesting question! My most honest answer is that.... probably a little bit. The thing is that we've only begun to question the whole "not like other girls" thing very recently, so we have to consider that this was absolutely not a thing during the 70s. I do think Lily would consider herself "not like a lot of other girls" in the sense that maybe intellectual, political, philosophical things are more important to her than stereotypically feminine concerns like makeup, boys, fashion etc. That being said, I think she would in general be what we now call a "girl's girl."

I don't think she can be blamed for this; again the way we now see the whole "not like other girls" thing is very recent. Personally I don't believe that any women or girls who have felt excluded from the roles traditionally ascribed to women are at fault for feeling that way. Especially in the past, I understand why women would have felt like they weren't meeting certain standards that were expected of them and would take that as proof that they weren't like the majority of women-- the truth is that NO women are meeting 100% of the standards expected of them, but all of this is a pretty recent idea.

Lily would have likely compared herself to the model of Petunia, who is in many ways very stereotypically hyperfeminine-- her main life goal was to get married, be a housewife, and have a kid. While Lily did get married and have a kid, I don't see her as being content with just being a housewife, and I don't think that was her only life goal at all. If it weren't for the war (which is already something Lily was dedicating herself to beyond a sterotypically feminine role) she likely would have had aspirations beyond being a mother and a wife. So I do think she compared herself to Petunia in that sense, but you have to consider that in the 70s and 80s women were still fighting for many rights and considerations that today we consider basic.

I imagine that for Lily, Petunia represented something actively anti-feminist-- she married a chauvinist, conservative, middle class man who expected Petunia to cook his meals and clean his house-- and that was all that Petunia aspired to. I think that, in a sense, Lily did look down on Petunia for choosing this lifestyle, simply because she would never be content with that herself. We also have to take into account the fact that, for all the faults that the wizarding world has, gender is not really as big of a factor as it is in the Muggle world---although misogyny definitely exists in canon, a witch could potentially be much more powerful or talented than any given wizard, and it seems as though witches are very capable of reaching the same positions as wizards in the Ministry.

So, basically, I do think Lily would have judged Petunia especially in some sense for making choices that Lily considered to be anti-feminist. Does that make her an "I'm not like other girls" girl? I don't think so, personally I see her as being a stalwart feminist and very supportive of her female friends. Her judgment of Petunia likely came from the disparaging attitude that Petunia and Vernon had towards Lily and James-- I see Lily as being prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt, and really making an effort to support her sister and maintain their relationship even if she didn't fully agree with Petunia's choices. But as we know, Petunia didn't let her. Lily tried to understand, and that does show a lot of empathy. I think that in this situation he problem was Petunia.

[seedsinmygarden]

Peter Green, the Nerd

“I don’t stare, I observe. Your sweater is inside out, by the way.”

Basic Information

Identifying Gender/Species: Cisgender Human Male, he/him pronouns.

Birthdate: December 3rd, 1874 (Sagittarius)

Blood Status: Muggle-born

Wand: Notched design, Dusty Pink color. Beech wood, dragon heartstring core, 11”, supple flexibility.

Pets?: A female black cat with blue eyes named Persephone.

Appearance

Height and Body Type: Slightly tall at 5’11, and doesn’t grow much more past that. Not many muscles but he’s not really scrawny either, giving him a rectangle body type.

Hair: Well-combed dirty blond hair that remains straight. A little longer than most— he doesn’t get a haircut often.

Eyes: Green eyes with brown specks, like a dyed green leather book. He does wear glasses, a pair of black circular ones— his vision isn’t horrible, but the glasses certainly help.

Scars and Other Marks: None, really. Semi-tan skin from always living on the coastal town.

Clothing: Most often just the Ravenclaw uniform or really anything Ravenclaw related. He doesn’t have a lot of clothes from home, really, and he doesn’t really go clothes shopping. He just has what he has. However, one thing he does treasure is his mother’s scarf. It no longer smells like her after years, but he still holds onto it for the sentimential value it holds.

Personality

Not really shy, just quiet. Prefers to sit silently rather than chat, but doesn’t mind if someone comes up and starts chatting with him (as long as he’s not busy with something important).

Book nerd. Book smart. The Hermione Granger of the 1892 graduating class. Jack of all trades, master of none, better than a master of one.

He wavers with Cassius, Amit, Cressida, and the other braniacs. He doesn’t care where his rank is, he’s not competitive about it.

Takes no shit. He won’t hesitate to put someone in their place if he felt they deserved it.

Prefers brain over brawn. He’ll use his words— and boy is he good with his words! He’s got a sharper tongue than anyone in the school, including the professors. He knows exactly what to say, when to say, and how to say it.

Home Life

Birthplace: A coastal village in Wales.

Birth Parents: Robert and Charlotte Green

Adopted?: Yes.

Adoptive Parents: Kit and Cassandra Gray

Siblings?: None.

Other Guardian Figures: None.

Places of Residence: Born and raised in that Wales coastal village, but Hogwarts quickly became a home he would hold close to his heart, even if he doesn’t have a lot of friends. He’s perfectly content just being within those walls.

Hogwarts Life

House: Ravenclaw

Quidditch?: Nope. He feels he doesn’t have the athleticism, but he is still involved as Ravenclaw’s commentator.

Clubs: Runs the Hogwarts Herald student newspaper. Will occasionally attend meetings for Tommy’s Game Club, but isn’t involved to the point he’s an official part of the club.

Other Activites: Studies plenty. Most of his time is spent reading, however, and he’s often found in the library for it.

Romance?: Sure. He’s not really into it, but if there’s a cute guy… yeah, why not? He’ll entertain the idea, but he knows not to take it too far if he truly isn’t interested.

Patronus: To be learned.

Animagus: To be learned.

Boggart: To be learned.

Amortentia: To be learned.

Trivia

Mother died in childbirth, and his father died in a work accident when he was very young. The only blood family he had left was his aunt and uncle, aunt being his mom’s sister. The two weren’t close, so Peter didn’t exactly have a happy family relationship with them.

Not to say it wasn’t bad either! They were basically just people living under the same roof. There was no good relationship, no bad, just amicable. His aunt and uncle cared for him as one would care for a child, but they didn’t care enough to want to bond or actively spend time.

Peter is the ONLY KID that Madam Scribner remotely likes.

He’s a nice boy, he keeps quiet, he’ll even occasionally help her put returned books away and help other students when they’re looking for a book. Kind of became the unofficial librarian’s assistant.

[dhr-ao3]

The Things Draco Malfoy Finds Lovely

The Things Draco Malfoy Finds Lovely https://ift.tt/C2lwBse by AdhdTendencies98 The last thing Draco Malfoy expected was to be at Hogwarts for his 8th year in a muggle studies photography class. But here he is, paired with his new MBB (Muggleborn Buddy) Hermione Granger, and taking pictures of things he finds lovely for his term project. Can Draco convince everyone that he's really changed and stand a chance at winning over the Golden girl? The last thing Hermione Granger expected was to be approached by the new muggle studies professor and asked to be in the MBB program. But here she is, paired up with Draco Malfoy. With Ron and Harry becoming more upset at her predicament by the day, they demand she make a choice. The snakes, who accept her, flaws and all? Or the lions, who see no problem in shutting her out if they don't get their way? Can Mind Healer Hoppe make it through the year with our three boys without throttling them? Join our favorite idiots as they navigate life post war while battling mental health issues, practically raising the Slytherin first years, and completing their found family with pride. Words: 3766, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M Characters: Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger, Theodore Nott, Blaise Zabini, Millicent Bulstrode, Minerva McGonagall, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Ginny Weasley, Original Characters Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, Millicent Bulstrode/Theodore Nott, Luna Lovegood/Blaise Zabini Additional Tags: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, POV Draco Malfoy, Slow Burn, Muggle Studies, Angst, Sarcasm, Hermione is having a bad fucking time, Ron Weasley Bashing, Harry Potter Bashing, Anxiety, Panic Attacks, Theo is dramatic but that's why we love him, Blaise is chaotic neutral, Luna Lovegood does stick n pokes, Millie is a gem and we must protect her at all costs, Baby Snakes, Mother Hen Draco Malfoy, Eventual Smut, Draco Malfoy wearing Muggle clothes, Draco Malfoy and his earrings, Draco Malfoy has an artsy soft side, Hermione and Millicent friendship, Protective Slytherins, the snakes go to therapy so you don't have to, Hermione needs a hug and some firewhiskey asap, HEA, Hermione is an honorary Slytherin, Draco is trying, Horcruxes affected the boys and they need therapy, no betas we die like men, POV Hermione Granger, POV Original Female Character via AO3 works tagged 'Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy' https://ift.tt/m5qIuXH May 11, 2023 at 06:59AM