#literally saw someone like 'well I don't like the marauders so no one should'

[softestaries]

both harry potter and the marauders are made up btw so just stfu and eat ur food because it's never that deep

[fairytaleendingss]

Marauders Christmas Shopping Headcanons

So this is low-key inspired by my friend and I Christmas shopping the other day. We always joke that we're very James and Remus coded haha. Let me know any other ideas you have for this! Also if you'd like me to make more headcanons.

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I feel like James is quite a chaotic person in general and I imagine Christmas shopping would be no exception.

One of James' main love languages is gifts and he loves buying things for people so this is his favourite Christmas tradition.

He rocks up to the shopping center with absolutely no plan, just vibes.

He's the kind of person to just follow his heart when it comes to presents and somehow he never misses. He just looks around until he finds something he thinks the person will like and makes an impulse purchase.

He probably gets distracted looking at something he wants for himself in the process.

Makes his friends wait while he tries on a bunch of clothes.

"James, you don't need to by that. It's literally about to be Christmas." "But Remus it's so cool!"

He's the kind of person who would think he found the perfect gift for someone but then see something else he thinks they'll like and just have to buy that for them as well.

Ends up buying like 4 presents for each person.

Thank god he has money.

Remus I feel is the polar opposite of that.

He's extremely thoughtful and probably plans out what he wants to get everyone in advance.

I feel like he'd probably even make notes throughout the year of things his friends and family mention they like/want so he can reference it later.

He's very methodical about his shopping. He knows exactly what shops he wants to visit and what he's going going to purchase.

He probably has a well-thought out budget as well as to what he's willing to spend on each gift.

He's a quick and efficient sort of guy and ends up getting all of his gifts in the first hour of the trip.

He then spends the rest of the time being dragged around by his friends (particularly James).

Unfortunately I don't think Sirius would be particularly into Christmas.

Because of everything with his family, it's never been a very nice time of year for him (until he went to live with James, that is.)

It wasn't until then that Sirius actually started enjoying the holidays.

So he's very new to the whole happy, wholesome Christmas thing.

He pretends to be annoyed about having to buy things for people but secretly he enjoys it.

He's a complete show off with presents. He always buys ridiculously expensive gifts for people and pretends it's nothing.

"Do you think she'd like that?" *points to a 24k gold, diamond necklace*

He'd get really bored after a couple of hours and start to complain, like how little kids do when their Mum drags them along for shopping.

He has absolutely no patience whatsoever.

He'd probably need to go on several trips before all his shopping is done.

He would just end up flirting with all the retail workers by the end of it.

He and James would probably do something stupid like knocking over a display or something and end up getting kicked out of the mall.

(Additionally, I feel like when Harry is born, he'd always spoil him on Christmas and Birthdays with insanely expensive presents from "Uncle Padfoot" that James and Lily would scold him for.)

Peter is an overthinker to his core.

I think Christmas shopping would stress him out.

He wants to get everyone the perfect present but he can't make up his mind about what he should by.

Probably makes the group go back to the same shops multiple times because he can't decide if he should buy that item he saw in there or not.

(Something all the boys would moan about)

Stares at an item for like 20 minutes umming and ahing over whether or not to get it for someone.

Remus and James try to help him decide but give him completely opposing advice which just confuses him more.

Remus: Do you remember them mentioning that they'd like something like that? Did you get them to write you a Christmas list?

James: None of that matters. Just go with your gut. When you see the right thing, you'll know.

Peter: aaaaaahhhh.

Finally buys something but then changes his mind 10 minutes later and returns it.

He'd end up leaving the trip with nothing and would have to come back and try again another day.

Lily, I imagine would be a very practical gift giver.

She and James would balance each other out because while James buys a lot of really fun, thoughtful gifts for people, Lily would buy them stuff they actually need.

She has go-to shops she visits every year.

She's been known to buy people things like household appliances, dishware, pieces of clothing or new sporting equipment (particularly for James.)

Everything she buys is really really good quality.

Although it's slightly less exciting than some might think, it's always very personalized and thoughtful.

I feel like Mary loves making people homemade presents.

That or she does something really personal like framing a picture of their friend group or making a scrapbook.

She's very sentimental and her gifts are as well.

I feel like she probably crochets things for people for some reason.

Marlene without fail, buys every single one of her friends a joke present.

She also probably cracks up laughing at their expression when they open it.

James always loves it.

One year she bought him an apron that said "May I suggest the sausage?" and he unironically wore it every time he was in the kitchen (much to Lily's dismay).

[gigglesandfreckles-hp]

For the ask:

🖤: Which character is not as morally good as everyone else seems to think?

ooh, I have to go with Slughorn! I think he is genuinely one of the most interesting characters in the series, both in the trio and marauders' years.

he's this professor, mostly likeable and with incredible influence. but the way he picks and chooses who he extends his favour to is so messed up and interesting to me. especially when we consider that Lily was one of his favourites.

he obviously knew she was muggleborn. and so i assume he went to bed at night feeling pretty good about himself, for granting such great opportunities to someone like her. her blood status may not have changed the talent he saw in her, but the fact that we never see him do more, never see or hear of him standing up for muggleborns, even just standing up for Lily, when he was literally the head of the House that (we assume from the bits of canon) committed the greatest number of offences against her.

he grows on me a bit in the series, especially when he literally duels voldemort, lolllll. but i just wanna get in his head and wonder how he does it, how does he compartmentalise every day, and see headlines and not think immediately of his students?

in the words of the good Dr. King: "To ignore evil is to become accomplice to it."

modern political commentary/comparisons below the cut because i can't help myself:

to me, Slughorn reminds me of older folks in america (and elsewhere) today with money and influence who sit back and "let things play out" because they don't want any trouble, but the truth is that if they would just stand up and say something, they could do so much good. they watch the debates, they keep up with the news, they know what is at stake. but they're cowards and when push comes to shove, they want to be able to play the middle and say 'well it's not as if i believe it myself.' neutrality is not always a virtue!

as a teacher, the sticking point for me is what i mentioned above where he is aware of what is going on, makes the connection to his own students, but then doesn't do anything. how does his heart not break for his muggleborn students? i teach in a title 1 school where most of my students are immigrants or first-gen and every time i see a headline about the conflict at the border or listen to idiots engage in pathetic discourse claiming "it's simple, really" i want to scream. and i do! i know we can't pick every single battle, but i just don't see how we don't hear of slughorn picking that one more often. i just want him to shut down the bigots even once.

in my opinion, we should have seen him having that conversation with harry, either expressing regret for not doing more or recounting stories where he did. but we don't get that. we just get his inane generalisations and a continuation of him picking and choosing students to add to his long-standing collection, to bolster himself while feeling good about it in the meantime.