#muggles are the true victims of hp

[fanfic-lover-girl]

Double Standards: Malfoys vs Weasleys Edition

I'm on a roll, baby! TWO double standards today! All from book 4!

Nepotism/Favoritism

Moody’s magical eye spun around to stare at Ron; Ron looked extremely apprehensive, but after a moment Moody smiled – the first time Harry had seen him do so. ‘You’ll be Arthur Weasley’s son, eh?’ Moody said. ‘Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago …”

. . . my husband, Arthur, has just managed to get prime tickets through his connections at the Department of Magical Games and Sports.

Fudge, who wasn’t listening, said, “Lucius has just given a very generous contribution to St Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, Arthur. He’s here as my guest.”

Bonus from Book 5

Harry distinctly heard the gentle clinking of what sounded like a full pocket of gold. ‘Really, just because you are Dumbledore’s favourite boy, you must not expect the same indulgence from the rest of us … shall we go up to your office, then, Minister?’

What I find most notable here is the difference in nature between the scenarios. The Malfoys' nepotism is more quid pro quo. Charity donations and political bribery. Whereas Authur Weasley seems to have used his position to help people like the Bagmans skirt the law. A government official helps another official's relative with a sketchy situation and in return, he gets expensive, premier seats?! Sounds a bit corrupt to me.

But hardly anyone in HP fandom has an issue with nepotism when the Weasleys do it. Nope, it's only bad when the rich Malfoys do it, duh!

Discrimination

Mum’s writing to the Muggles to ask you to stay. We’re coming for you whether the Muggles like it or not, you can’t miss the World Cup, only Mum and Dad reckon it’s better if we pretend to ask their permission first. Ron, it’s all OK, the Muggles say I can come.

Mr Malfoy’s eyes had returned to Hermione, who went slightly pink, but stared determinedly back at him. Harry knew exactly what was making Mr Malfoy’s lip curl. The Malfoys prided themselves on being pure-bloods; in other words, they considered anyone of Muggle descent, like Hermione, second-class.

Bonus: Weasley hypocrisy

“That’s sick,” Ron muttered, watching the smallest Muggle child, who had begun to spin like a top, sixty feet above the ground, his head flopping limply from side to side. “That is really sick…”

What I found very fascinating is how the discrimination is presented. The Weasleys' disgusting prejudice towards muggles is very casual. It's treated as normal and acceptable: for heaven's sake, Harry (our wonderful hero) even participates in dehumanizing his relatives. I bet most HP readers don't even bat an eye - JKR has trained the reader to accept muggle dehumanization. Yet, what I find strange is that Harry has to literally spell out the Malfoy's distaste for Hermione. Why is JKR wasting her time with this? By book 4, we already know how the Malfoys feel about Hermione. I think it's another indicator of JKR's crappy writing.

Anyway, after we see the appalling way the Weasleys treat the Durselys and the Grangers, JKR expects her readers to swallow Ron acting as a moral compass when he sees the muggle family being tortured? Please.

People need to remember that we are the muggles. Would you prefer the Malfoys who hate all things muggle and mainly want their world to be separate from muggles and keep to themselves (which Draco said way back in book 1 when he met Harry)?? Or would you prefer the Weasleys who have little respect for muggles and have little qualms about invading your home and bodily autonomy?

As a black woman, I prefer a KKK racist who lives far away from me and who I will probably never see in my lifetime. Compared to a white liberal who causally asks me degrading questions every day like why my English is so good when I am from Jamaica. Or anyone else for that matter who makes me feel insecure about my culture and abilities. All under the guise of being a so-called ally.

Truly, between the Malfoys and Weasleys, who has caused muggles more harm on screen or on paper?? I don't know how many people Lucius hurt as a DE besides the poor Roberts family but given JKR treats muggles as NPCs in her books, I guess those rando people Lucius may have killed don't matter :(. And why were muggles there anyway?! At a wizarding event?! That poor Mr. Roberts being treated worse than a dog by people who are supposed to be pro-muggle leaning.

At that moment, a wizard in plus-fours appeared out of thin air next to Mr Roberts’s front door. “Obliviate!” he said sharply, pointing his wand at Mr Roberts. “Been having a lot of trouble with him. Needs a Memory Charm ten times a day to keep him happy.”

Sigh. Muggles deserved better. Forget Draco calling Hermione a mudblood. Like that slur means anything to Hermione anyway. Or has any meaningful impact. Muggles are the true victims in these books.

[drarryspecificrecsdaily]

2023.10.19

Complete fics posted on AO3 this day

1. Can You Keep A Secret? by ailepaix [M, 1k]

►Of course Harry knew. The curse wounds on the victims were reminiscent of the ones he inflicted years before. The victims’ features were telltale signs: dark hair, green eyes, tanned skin. No one else knew the significance of these details.

2. Inevitable by @dobbyrockssocks [T, 5k]

►In the middle of an apocalypse, the promise of a safe haven is almost too good to be true. And Harry really loves his truck, okay.

3. Love... right? by Shaming_Leo [M, 3k]   *typo

►They see each other one afternoon and fall in love. Because it is love, right?

4. When You Look At Me Like That, My Darling, What Did You Expect? by i_dont_read [E, 115k]

►After his partner dies in the field in a tragic accident, Auror Harry Potter is in over his head and desperately wishing for an escape. The last thing he expects, however, is for that escape to come in the form of Draco Malfoy. [...] Harry agrees to take the position only after learning that the Ministry revoked Malfoy’s wand and relocated him to a muggle city in New York, far from the crowds and press of the wizarding world. All of Harry’s expectations go out the window the moment he lays eyes on the now grown up—and infuriatingly attractive—Draco Malfoy. Everything Harry thought he once knew about him is turned upside down, and his life along with it.

---

Fest/Exchange

1. Fāmēlicus by @the-changing-of-constellations [E, 14k]

►Draco was bitten at the age of eighteen. But, he perseveres and finds his way through to the other side. Now, three years later, Harry is back at the Ministry, and Draco isn't aware just how much the wizard is about to upend his life, again. It doesn't take them long to figure their shit out. ★ Bite Me Delight Me 2023 | @bite-me-delight-me-hp-fest​

[letteredlettered]

Hello! You already told us what you think about Ron, but what are your thoughts on Ginny Weasley? Pretty controversial figure in drarry fandom, yet you have a fanfic about her

That's one of the fics I'm prouder of! You can read it here.

This got long, so here you go:

When I first started reading HP I loved Ginny and wanted her to hook up with Harry. I really identify with youngest-girl-lots-of-brothers, so I could see the attention she wanted and the way Ron dismissed her was familiar to me. In the second book, I was a bit disappointed that she ended up mostly being a victim, but after I processed it I was happy she would have to face the darkness of being used in such a way. Ginny murdered chickens and wrote on walls in blood and was responsible for kids getting petrified; even if she was being possessed, she can remember her hands doing those things. I assumed at some point Harry would have to face a darkness within himself, and I felt like CoS positioned Ginny to understand and identify with him in a way others--who had not been possessed--could not.

Ginny wasn't a big feature in PoA or GoF, which was disappointing In OotP, I was disappointed at first that Ginny seemed to be growing up without much "screen-time", as it were, and seemed to have her own interest in guys other than Harry. I was a shipper! I'm ashamed! Once I had time to process, again, I realized I far preferred a Ginny who had moved on from Harry and could be her own person. That way, they could be more like equals when they eventually got together.

In HBP, I really rooted for her going her own way--but also began to feel pretty confused. I didn't understand how she could be Harry's love interest with so little attention paid to her. And then the romance did start, and it felt--completely out of the blue for me? Especially when it happened right after a very powerful scene in which Harry almost made someone bleed to death, and especially when it seemed to have more to do with Quidditch and Dean Thomas than Ginny herself. And then Ginny was barely in DH, which made me wonder why the romance even existed in the first place.

I think a big part of the problem for me is the love interests I enjoy in fiction share goals and are an important and equal part of both the characters' lives. Harry going camping to fight Voldemort while Ginny stays at Hogwarts feels a little to me like the fantasy of the wife you come home to, the one who waits. By DH, Ginny shouldn't join in the adventure; she has no place there. Furthermore, we all hope that Harry gets to move on and have a life after Hogwarts; Ginny can become central to him then in a way she wasn't earlier in life. People you end up with don't have to be the people who were the centers of our young lives--and in most cases, they probably shouldn't be!

But it doesn't make for a good story, and frankly, I have difficulty identifying with it. I have trouble understanding couples who seem to live in separate worlds. I don't mean that a person can't have their own friends and interests; having some aspects of your life that don't belong to your partner is good and healthy. But Harry starting a romance with Ginny when Ginny is never involved in anything he does is as weird to me as if I were to have a relationship with someone and never ever share my fandoms with them. That's just the way I am.

I do think this is a classic problem in Hero's Journey stories, in that the most important person to the hero is the villain they're trying to defeat. See Star Wars. Luke's most important relationship is with Vader, which is why it makes sense to discard Leia as his love interest by writing her as his sister. Aang's most important relationship is with Zuko and then Ozai, which is one reason Katara/Aang falls flat. I think a lot of this has to do with the propensity for creators (generally male) to make both the central hero and the central villain male, and an unwillingness to really tackle the homoeroticism inherent in the central relationships. The narratives I can think of with central female protagonists, like Buffy, are give male counterparts who function as both villains and love interests.

I'm making some sweeping statements here; it's not true for all heroes journey stories, but I think it's why you see Hermione and Ron paired off. Harry's central relationship is Voldemort, and if you scale that down, you can make Draco Harry's central relationship, because Draco is a pawn of Voldemort. Now, I have argued quite stridently that Draco is only peripheral to Harry's life, and I stand by that statement most fervently--but that is according to Harry. According to the structure of the narrative, you can replace Voldemort with Draco under and umbrella of "evil/Death Eater/foe." By doing so, you can deal with issues that are very central to Harry's story.

As for Ginny herself, in the end, she suffers from the exact same problem as Ron, and so many other characters in HP. In other words, the set-up is there, but the execution is not. Ginny is the youngest of seven in a loving, magical family. In that way, she is a perfect counterpoint to the loneliness and negligence and Muggleness Harry experiences growing up. Yet, in such a large family, Ginny has to understand what it feels like to be overlooked and ignored--in that way, she's in a perfect position to understand and identify with some of Harry's isolation.

Ginny is the only other person in the book besides Harry to be possessed by Voldemort. (The only classmate to come close to having a similar experience is Draco, and his mind and body are not possessed at all, not like Ginny's or Harry's.) As such, she's also perfectly positioned to identify with a lot of Harry's trauma. She's also perfectly positioned to hate Voldemort with a very personal passion that's different from Ron or Hermione--Voldemort befriended her in the journal, and then violated her; it's very different than hating Voldemort on principle.

But in the end these aspects of Ginny just aren't utilized. We never see what she suffers in CoS really resonate. We never really learn the effect her family has on her, or even really who she is, other than that she is sporty, tough, and pretty. It's difficult to dislike Ginny Weasley, because the way she's written does her such a disservice, and she could have been such a brilliant character. She's just a lot of wasted potential, in my opinion, but those last two books certainly killed my whole Harry/Ginny shipper heart.

[cto10121]

Harry Potter Clown Takes Part 2

Featuring shipping whinging, fatphobic fatphobia, and…old-fashioned conservative pearl clutching? Oh, heavy burden. Spoilers, of course

“Glaring Societal Issues”

The “Muggle farmer” in the GOF is actually the camp director, Mr. Roberts, who had been growing suspicious at the number of people (wizards booking tents for the Quidditch World Cup) who are booking tents. The wizards need to keep their existence a secret (that’s, like, the number 1 rule of being a wizard) so they modify his memory. The Obliviator who does this says he needs to do it “ten times a day,” not every few minutes, and carps about wizards (Ludo Bagman in particular) not shutting up about wizard things that draws suspicion.

Wizards in HP can be indeed callous, indifferent, patronizing, and even cruel in their attitudes towards Muggles, but this example really isn’t it. It’s already established that wizards have to use Memory Charms and damage control in order to hide their world from the Muggles. It’s standard protocol.

Yes, because the people in HP that want to change things and make things better for Muggleborns are portrayed as the bad guys and the ones that want the wizarding world to be for wizards only are portrayed as the good guys. Oh, wait.

“Not A Glaring Societal Issue”

Harry and Ginny becoming a couple was foreshadowed as early as the first book, OP, and there were many, many essays back in the day on why they were endgame because of these subtle hints. Ginny had a huge crush with Harry, but I don’t think it reached the level of God worship even in her younger years. Even then she tended to understand Harry’s true nature (his modesty, his aversion to nagging, and resistance to authority) way better than even Hermione.

I agree that Rowling could have set up Hinny better by exploiting Harry and Ginny’s connection of both being victims of Voldemort, perhaps had Ginny aid somehow in the Horcrux mystery (Memory!Riddle canonically “poured some of his secrets into her” so why not?). But of course she was always meant to be Harry’s safe haven, so to speak, untouched by the long shadow of Voldemort. Rowling was also playing the “who will Harry end up with???” shipping game with the fans as the series went on so it behooved her to keep is a tightly wrapped mystery until the last possible moment. Not a good choice in the long-term, frankly, but then HP never really revolved on romance.

As for Harry/Luna, you’re not the only one, OP. My dad shipped them from the movies (Radcliffe and Lynch did look good together)…until he read OotP and found a much quirkier Book Luna than Movie Luna. Nothing wrong with Harry/Luna, but I’m personally fine with Harry/Ginny.

Yes, these never-ending accusations of fatphobia are exhausting. It’s an old one, which Rowling has flatly denied before and fans themselves have argued for and against, over and over.

Suffice to say, both fat and skinny characters are portrayed negatively and positively throughout the the books and their size has nothing to do with their personalities. While Vernon may be fat, he isn’t really described as ugly (he has ugly expressions when he loses it, though). Dudley actually lost weight due to his diet and boxing, but he was still nasty to Harry up until Dementor attack. Neville stopped being comic relief past Book 4/5 and in 7 became a straight-up BAMF (and still chubby!). Hagrid is more than fat—he is literally half giant, so of course he is clumsy and doesn’t fit in much anywhere (he has accommodations). While he has some comic moments, he can’t really be said to be a comic relief character as a whole. Molly Weasley is also described as “plump” (I think Charlie is also described as stocky) and she is one of the most idealized characters in HP. Slughorn was never portrayed a bad guy, just a flawed one, and Fudge’s weight is barely mentioned. Among the truly skinny characters, there is Petunia, Snape, and, er, Voldemort.

If anything, the series is skeptical of (extraordinary) physical beauty and charm in general, sometimes to a fault. Fleur, Sirius, and Cedric aside, there is also Gilderoy Lockhart, Bellatrix Lestrange. And then there is perhaps the hottest, most seductive character of all HP—Tom Riddle, a young Voldemort. HP definitely leans towards the “looks can be deceiving/don’t trust appearances” category in terms of theme.

As for this supposed negative framing revealing Rowling’s supposed IRL fatphobia, years ago she shared a telling anecdote about an old friend she met, who had this to say about her appearance:

I went to the British Book Awards that evening. After the award ceremony I bumped into a woman I hadn't seen for nearly three years. The first thing she said to me? ‘You've lost a lot of weight since the last time I saw you!’

‘Well,’ I said, slightly nonplussed. ‘Last time you saw me I’d just had a baby.’

What I felt like saying was, ‘I've produced my third child and my sixth novel since I last saw you. Aren't either of those things more important, more interesting, than my size?’ But no—my waist looked smaller! Forget the kid and the book: finally, something to celebrate!

And of course this now-famous quote:

Is 'fat' really the worst thing a human being can be? Is 'fat' worse than 'vindictive', 'jealous', 'shallow', 'vain', 'boring' or 'cruel'? Not to me.

“They’re Supposed To Be the Good Guys!!1!!”

You keep saying the phrase “good guys.” I don’t think you know what it means.

So it’s pretty obvious that the injustices and corruption of the wizarding world are deliberately meant to reflect the injustices and corruption of the real world, particularly Britain. But since Rowling is evil now, all depictions of government corruption and the prison-industrial complex are now meant to be endorsements, approved by Rowling herself! After all, it isn’t as if Rowling didn’t confirm that the new generation did make radical changes to the Ministry of Magic (the Auror Department in particular) or the world in general. Perhaps she should have gone more into detail as to the nature of these changes, but that would require another HP book. Honestly, that’s really up to the fanfic writers.

[tickledpink31]

Epics of Ink & Light Chapter 1: Family Curse

Disclaimer: Twisted Wonderland belongs to Aniplex and Disney. Harry Potter belongs to J. K. Rowling. I do however own the character Minako Nezumi, the rest of her family and the illustrations featured in this fanfic.

DO NOT REPOST, EDIT, OR SELL MY ART!

Notes:

The patronus warding overblots idea came from @chu1luc from Wattpad. Thank you so much for giving me permission to use this idea.

This work was inspired by writingterror's Yuu and the Power of Magic, HummingSparrow's Smile Now, Dear. It's Sunrise, HarvestMoonBeam's Harry Potter Crossover Ideas, and likely many more

No, I do not condone Rowling's actions or beliefs. I love HP for its story and characters just not the author. That means Terfs, racists, transphobes, ableists, and homophobes are not welcome here.

I acknowledge that some of Rowling's prejudices have seeped into the HP series and if I ever come across these in the story I can change them accordingly because this is fanfiction and I can change anything. Please let me know if I missed anything regarding that.

This story is set years after the Second Wizarding War in the HP universe.

While I'm not sure if the theory on Muggle-Borns born 1985–1998 not getting their Hogwarts letters is true, I'm going to choose to believe that the Muggle-Born records were restored after the war otherwise Minako's sister attending Hogwarts wouldn't work.

Disney does not exist in Minako's world. I am aware that things like computer animation and Dreamworks would probably not exist or not be the same, but I have chosen to ignore that fact.

This story will contain some elements of the Twisted Wonderland manga.

When you see an asterisk (*), there will information about a topic that appears within the story and will be explained in the author's notes at the end of the chapter.

My InstagramRead on Ao3Read on Wattpad

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◐ ━━━━━ ºoº Minako ºoº ━━━━━ ◑

Minako Nezumi often wondered what kind of sadistic mage had decided to lay a curse on her ancestor. She had no clue what her ancestor did to warrant a curse, but she did know that the rest of the family did not deserve to suffer with the victim. That was always the most brainless part of a family curse.

I mean really, nobody else deserved to get hurt, especially children who had yet to exist, she thought.

A blood curse has its way of rearing its ugly head within at least one magical child every other generation. Seemingly healthy individuals give in to it once they reach a certain age. However, the Nezumi family hasn’t produced a single magical child in a long time. For decades, they were just a normal Muggle family with no blood curse to worry about.

There was no mention of the curse until four Muggle-Born siblings appeared in the family.

Minako grew up athletic and was brought up in a loving environment. It wasn’t until the later half of her first year at Hogwarts did her problems arise. That time was riddled with moments of her accidental magic acting up whenever she was in a bad mood, moments that left her feeling sick and frail. It was embarrassing that her accidental magic was not under control yet as a witch of her age, so she didn’t utter a single word about it to anyone.

The following summer after she turned twelve was when her condition went from bad to worse.

Her parents’ untimely deaths gave her night terrors that triggered the outburst of magic. Her older sibling, Alexis, had described how a dementor dripping with an inky black ooze was stalking over her as she slept and wailed. Ate Flor,* their sister and oldest sibling, had to chase it out with her patronus. Kuya Kento,* the second-born sibling and older brother, insisted that it was no dementor for it had no business to go all the way to London and that it didn’t even try to take her soul.

“It was just standing there… menacingly!” Kento made an attempt to get her to laugh during a dark time. It was a poorly made joke, but Minako still gave him a small chuckle.

As it turns out, Kento was right that it wasn’t a dementor at all. The Healers at St. Mungo’s Hospital deduced that it was something Minako had created unconsciously. Her blood was stained with splotches of ink-like ooze when it was drawn with a needle, the same kind that the false dementor was covered in. A newly discovered blood malediction was not only making her magic erratic whenever she was incredibly upset but was slowly killing her too.

The Healers had rushed to find as many methods as they could to prolong her life. Minako was encouraged to learn light spells like the patronus charm, potions were shoved down her throat to remedy her, and she was to make sure that strayed away from feeling negative emotions. The latter of those three solutions proved to be an impossible task, for you see, no one one can avoid bad days.

She’s had several scares in her short life all because she couldn’t help but feel sad, angry, or scared. Even a simple nightmare has landed her in a hospital bed a couple of times. Every moment of her life was dangerous to tread. Time and time again, she’s been scolded and told that she would have to be very lucky if she managed to live to see her thirtieth birthday.

If she could go back to when this curse nonsense all started, she would do everything in her power to stop it from burdening her bloodline.

◐ ━━━━━ ºoº ━━━━━ ◑

Notes: *Ate: This is the Tagolog honorific used to refer to your older sister which is sometimes preceded with your sister's name. It is also used for older female cousins or even older female friends.

*Kuya: the older brother equivalent of Ate.

Minako uses "Ate" to refer to her sister Flor and "Kuya" for her brother Kento. Her older sibling, Alexis, is genderfluid and mostly appears as non-binary, so they don't care too much about honorifics. Nevertheless, Minako still uses Ate on their girl days and Kuya on their boy days. Of course there's also a gender-neutral term, "Kapatid," but it doesn't sound right to me when used as an honorific.

Some Examples of using sibling honorifics: Ate Clara (Big sister Clara), Kuya Joseph (big brother Joseph).

Although Minako was born and raised in England, she is still half-Filipino and half-Japanese, therefore she was taught to use the proper honourifics. She's more familiar with Tagalog honorifics (and so am I because I'm Filipina and not Japanese).

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[chelleblack]

✖Unhealthy Hypersexualization: Draco Malfoy vs Fanfiction✖

This is an official complaint to all the random Harry Potter writers who have been savagely and ruthlessly destroying the essence of Draco Malfoy. For years, and they've been hiding behind: "He's a fictional character, he's not bad."

After reading so many fanfictions of Dramione / or Draco being the protagonist as such. And, apparently it has become a general rule when writing and bringing Draco Malfoy to life, being that it is not his canon in the first place, (although they defend themselves saying that they want to make it as real as possible, and that is why they have created and reproduced this horrifying image). Second; this is twisted and much more because we are talking about a teenager, not an adult. Without exaggeration, 80% of the fanfics that you find of Draco; he's a sex symbol, despite being a minor in most of those stories. And it's not okay that they want to cover this up just because he's a fictional character. It's still noisy, and troublesome.

The first story I found (and I won't say the name of the fic, or author) had this "trope", it surprised me because I had recently finished reading the HP saga, and the image of Draco, the real personality, was still fresh. So even though it disturbed me, I continued reading for a bit and then gave it up because I was annoyed by the hackneyed badboy cliché they imposed on it. And I thought, "Well, not everyone writes about Draco Malfoy like that, I just had a weird experience, and that didn't mean that everything I would get to see about the Slytherin boy would be like this."

So ... I venture into Fanfiction, I go to Ao3, I give Wattpad a spin, I have a look on Tumblr, I even get into a lot of potterfic forums, a lot of potterfic forums and blogs. And guess what?

It turns out that in an extremely terrifying way, the fandom has turned Draco Malfoy into fanfiction; into a sex symbol, and no one is complaining or even stopping this. What the hell?

Why are all the most famous fanfictions written have this trope? When the hell was Draco Lucius Malfoy Black in the JKR books a playboy? AT THE AGE OF 16!?

Because when it comes to developing a character as deep and complex as Draco: the most interesting and complex thing they do with him is to be a mediocre womanizer, and with a very bad sexual education, very worrying and alarming. I know that in the world of HP, there is machismo, I know that in the Slytherin house they didn't even let women play Quidditch. But still, where did this come from? And why has Draco been the worst hit victim in the fanfic genre? The boy literally never had a girlfriend in Hogwarts days, or talked dirty about women. The only girl in Hogwats who was next to him was Pansy, and although they refuse to accept it; Draco was really fond of her, and he never disrespected her, he seemed rather very reciprocal.

The only character who is constantly sexualizing and speaking macho about women is Ron. But hey, that's another topic.

The real Draco, is the complete opposite of the macho that they have established in the fanfics. Draco is a boy who comes from a strict family, with retrograde ideals, what is the most daring that we have seen of him in the Harry Potter saga? That is, with Hermione in the fourth book when the Death Eaters sabotaged Quidditch and injured several children of Muggle parents; Draco told Hermione that if they saw him they would cast a spell on her and her panties would be exposed as well, hinting at an event they were witnessing with a poor woman flying through the air.

But hey ... Because of that aforementioned scene with Hermione and the "Half-Blood Prince" wagon scene where Draco has his head resting on Pansy's lap and she's stroking his hair and he looks relaxed. They have been the reasonable enough reasons of some writers to create according to the "true personality of Draco Malfoy". I'm not exaggerating, when I discussed this on Reddit, these were the "strong justifications" they gave me.

It is completely ridiculous to claim that Draco is a misogynist because he practically warned Hermione to be careful because he could see her, and they would also blow her up in the air and show her panties, why is this alarming everyone? This is literally how the woman they bewitched looked like, Harry Potter describes her like that, Draco just made a comment on that. And about Pansy, it is already very degrading that they sexualize that scene in the wagon, very personal comments were taken very out of place from Harry. (Which should be noted that Harry always had very out of place comments about other people, but that didn't mean they were good or real)

So, back to the point of the issue of sexism and objectification.

Why didn't they act equally alarmed when Harry began to view Ginny too sexually? Or when Ron used Lavender just to calm his hormones? Where were you to point out the clear objectification of the woman's body? Where were you? They clearly existed hideously in regards to Lavender and Ginny.

However, hypocrites, is Draco alone the only moral and ethical target to escrack on?

In his life Draco Malfoy verbatim according to the books, he only dated more than two girls. His Malfoy-Black family is super traditional; They come from marriages arranged from an early age. Possibly Draco was raised in the most prim way possible. And as he got older, he had more important things to do than act like a hormonal jerk. He had manners and used all his neurons.

Is it very difficult to write about Draco like this? Is that the real boy, is he not a Don Juan, or did he have a long list of exes (and why does this seem strange to you? Draco just turned 18 at the end of the saga, they need to calm down wanting to see that the teens have more partners than the average adult in the first place, that's not normal). The real Draco hardly had any friends, he was an insecure and damaged boy who hid behind that rude and immature behavior that in the end paid dearly. I don't think it is very difficult to overexploit an insecure and complicated boy with too many things and responsibilities. It didn't cost JKR that much.

Or is it that writers find it difficult to write about a man who is not macho and super heteronormative? It's sad to see how they continue to reproduce this crap, and it's very hard to see that they don't hyper-sexualize with a teenager, because they've practically turned him into a bad boy sexual fetish on Fanfics.

They've done it, they've ruined Draco Malfoy. And they are demonizing it even more.

Draco, who is a completely intelligent boy, had one of the most powerful young minds of his generation, apart from Hermione Granger; since apparently they forget that he was for the second in class with her. It has a lot of potential to write a complete saga. And no, it is not necessary to hypersexualize it to develop it. It is not necessary to write about a man who has a fragile masculinity, or who is heteronormative. Although they do not believe it.

I know Draco's character has a very, very vague development in HP, he was missing his historical arc, we all know that. And everyone is free to turn it into a story, and whatever (even if it's annoying and boring to see its canonical image spoil). The problem here is that this type of "trope" is the one that abounds, and Draco is the one that is used the most, nor does he want to use other characters, they only do what they do with Draco, they just continue to idealize him in this way. And it's already reached a point where Fanfiction is making it canon in Fandom, something JKR never wrote, but you keep reaffirming. You random writers took things out of context, made guesses without concrete material. And it seems more like a wave of people hating this guy and looking for the need to make him more dirty, and they can only cope with it by sexualizing and dehumanizing him. They know he has a story with potential, but they hate him so much that they don't want to be nice or treat him like a human.

It is time to accept it.

Because you do that? Could you stop writing like this? It is practically decent. And writing about decent men, what Draco Malfoy really is like, is what it takes; because that's what it really is. Stop apologizing that he's just a character, show how much you need to stomp on him, and keep dehumanizing him.

If you hate him, you better not write about him, you are only causing that poor boy to be killed. And rather it would be very good for you a writer, because firstly, why do you write about someone you hate?

[theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin]

Yeah, so I read your HP headcanons/analysis and I found it really well put. I was wondering about your thoughts on Dumbledore and who he really was as a person. (It’s okay if you don’t really want to reply :> )

We’re just getting all up into The Carnivorous Muffin headcanon land, aren’t we?

Well, this one’s probably obvious to anyone who reads my work.

I fall on the manipulative Dumbledore side of things and then some. Dumbledore is not only a bastard man but is a raging misogynist and extremely classist (which is funny because I don’t see too many people calling him out for those last two when to me canon all but shouts it at you). 

Basically, what it comes down to, is even taken in very good faith I simply cannot read Dumbledore’s actions as benign in pretty much every single goddamn decision he makes ever.

God, where do I even start here? I guess we can go chronologically.

Well, there was Dumbledore’s Wizard Nazi youth with an oddly Dorian Gray flare to it with Gellert. I think it’s fairly obvious why Dumbledore’s not exactly... good there so I’m going to skip past it. Suffice to say, it took his sister’s death (and maybe murdering his own invalid sister) for Dumbledore to stop planning world domination. Even then it wasn’t so much that world domination was wrong, but because his sister died and he was an asshole.

I’m going to go ahead and include CoG and Fantastic Beasts because I can (CoG, while a terrible movie, actually does entertain me in many ways). Anyways, before the films came out I always considered the younger Dumbledore far more stoic and brooding. He doesn’t get his eccentric persona until after the defeat of Grindelwald and was before then angsty mcangsts and an academic at heart. 

Well, per CoG, apparently he was a budding spy master long before defeating Gellert/Voldemort popped up. We see him manipulating Newt, sending him to Paris as his own agent, WHEN NEWT DOESN’T WANT TO GO AND HAS ACKNOWLEDGED THAT DUMBLEDORE USED HIM INTHE LAST FILM. Dumbledore writes off having used Newt for his own agenda with a charming smile but none the less it paints a pretty grim picture that Albus has always been... Albus. There has always been a greater good out there somewhere and the man is always using someone as a pawn.

Cut to canon and his treatment of Tom Riddle. Frankly, Dumbledore’s treatment of the young Tom Riddle, and even Tom Riddle just before he came Voldemort, is insane. The thought experiment I like to run is “replace Tom in those scenes with Harry Potter”.

Harry was a poor orphan, whose guardians would more than match what Mrs. Cole said about Tom Riddle, who had spurts of accidental magic now and then and enjoyed when his bully cousin was discomfitted. Now, imagine Dumbledore giving Harry his letter, and then pretending to light all of Harry’s possessions on fire to “teach him a lesson”. What the fuck?

Now, am I saying Tom Riddle wasn’t creepy here and that killing a rabbit was terrible. No. But I am saying Dumbledore had a horrible reaction to it and is proud of it years later. (Also, the fact that he uses this memory to convince Harry of how evil Tom is, is hilarious to me. Dumbledore, you were the shit that lit people’s wardrobes on fire. If I was Tom, I’d be upset too). 

Dumbledore is always like this with Tom Riddle. He thinks the worst of Tom even in points where Tom hasn’t done anything. I’m not talking about later when, yes, Tom did live up to Dumbledore’s fears but when Dumbledore treats him like garbage and actively sabotaged Tom’s career.

Anyways, cut to later when the Marauders are in school. One of the big things is that Dumbledore puts up a guerilla resistance gang OF SCHOOL CHILDREN. While most members are older, James, Lily, Sirius, Remus, and Peter are all only just out of Hogwarts. “Well,” you say, “It’s their choice and they did graduate. Surely Dumbledore wasn’t actually recruiting school children.” I point you towards canon, where Dumbledore convinces three actual school children that the fate of the nation rests on their shoulders and to go fight the good fight. So yes, Dumbledore canonically uses child soldiers and has no regret for doing so.

The other is letting James and Sirius off the hook for the Lupin incident. While Dumbledore talks the talk this showed that he was not willing to walk the walk. True, while getting them into major trouble would have involved outing Lupin (who was innocent in all of this) at the same time they were nearly responsible for the murder of another student. It’s very convenient that Dumbledore lets off the rich son of a lord, two individuals who later end up in the resistance movement (Potter likely funding part of it), and tells the impoverished half blood to sit down and shut up.

And in canon, yes, I believe that Dumbledore absolutely knew what Harry’s home condition was like. While the blood wards are an excuse they aren’t a particularly good one as for most of Harry’s childhood the Death Eaters were all accounted for. Harry was in no extreme danger from them. To not have had an inkling of Harry’s home life (when Harry even hints at it when wanting to stay over the summer, Harry runs away from home in third year, Fred and George see the bars on the window, and he even visits Harry’s home in sixth year) would be such laughable incompetence and stupidity it’s right out.

With that, I absolutely do believe what Snape showed us in the memory, the Dumbledore behind the scenes as it were. That Dumbledore knew fairly early that Harry Potter was a horcrux and began grooming Harry for suicide. Specifically, that’s what sixth year really is. All those memories of Tom Riddle, the pretext to get some memory from Slughorn, it’s an excuse for a smear campaign designed to convince Harry that Tom Riddle is inherently evil and must die at all costs, even Harry’s own life. 

Dumbledore didn��t need that Slughorn memory. Sure, it was useful to know Tom intended to make seven but think about it. How did Dumbledore know there’d be anything remotely useful in there? He doesn’t know that Tom actually drops a number on Slughorn. Even then, he doesn’t know whether Tom actually goes and does it. All of it felt like, “Harry, I have a super secret important mission that only YOU can do. Can you handle it, Harry? Because without this the country is surely doomed” And in that I mean it was an effort to win back Harry’s favor after the previous year meltdown, keep him busy, and start in on the excuse to show Harry some pretty damn innocuous memories of Tom Riddle and go, “See, HE IS EVIL!”

Due to this, I frankly think that the train scene was a hallucination on Harry’s part. Wishful thinking for some gentle explanation of how Dumbledore had not cruelly used him for years and intended his death. 

Well, that and it never made much sense that Dumbledore could predict Harry’s a) becoming the master of death b) miraculous second resurrection.

In the first case, Harry becomes master of death because of wand lore bullshit and happenstance where Harry happens to save Draco’s life. Dumbledore had no idea such a thing would happen. Dumbledore’s plan was for there to be no master of death, as the wand would default to having no owner when Snape defeated Dumbledore on Dumbledore’s orders. That Draco got the wand is a sort of Deus ex Machina. Sorry guys, Dumbledore intended Harry to die.

More, even then, while Dumbledore was very into the occult of these things we leave canon without any idea if these things are even responsible for his resurrection. They’re just relatively nifty objects with a legend behind them. There was nothing concrete to suggest that, should Harry happen to get all of them, he would be able to rise from the dead.

Otherwise onto the misogyny and classism parts.

In terms of misogyny this is from every time Dumbledore talks about Lily Evans or Merope Gaunt. In the case of Lily, she’s this weird Madonna figure whose love for Harry was so powerful it saved his life. That she also happened to make these blood wards Dumbledore cannot reproduce and extended her protection to Harry wherever he went is irrelevant. It’s her love that counts. That feminine, maternal, love purer than all others.

Basically, Dumbledore seems to be of the belief that women are flowers. The best of women are these demure, selfless, brave women who sacrifice themselves for their children. Yikes, Dumbledore.

Merope’s the really bad one though. Merope’s tale is how she drugged and raped a defenseless muggle for months and then he escaped. Dumbledore spins it into this Victorian tale of woe where Tom Riddle Sr. THE KIDNAPPED RAPE VICTIM is the asshole here who abandoned Merope to the merciless cold world. How dare he. 

It’s very clear that Dumbledore doesn’t see Merope, or women in general, as people. Instead these weird Victorian ideals who can be tragic victims of circumstance.

As for the classism.

While Dumbledore’s very against the pureblood culture we see in the Malfoys a lot of his treatment of Tom Riddle feels very... classist. The big one, which is a little tangential but I say it counts, is Dumbledore’s theory that children of rape are incapable of love. Granted, he’s saying this while convincing Harry to kill himself for the good of the cause and there is a real world parallel in that alcohol/drugs while pregnant is a very bad idea that can lead to extreme mental and physical health disorders. That said, we’re talking love potions at conception, and it always read more as “rape babies” vs. specific drugs. And that is... just yikes on so many levels.

Now, do I agree with manipulative Dumbledore we see in many fics? No, because Dumbledore’s not that stupid.

He doesn’t need to borrow money from Harry’s vault, he doesn’t need to pay off Hermione and Ron to be Harry’s friends, he doesn’t need to choose Harry’s friends for him, he doesn’t need to manipulate Harry’s memories directly. He doesn’t need to do any of this because he got what he wanted just fine in canon.

Dumbledore is one of the smartest characters in canon, far smarter than Harry, and he doesn’t have to stoop to such outrageous schemes to get what he wants. Poorly concealed smear campaigns convincing Harry to commit suicide are more than enough.

[fedonciadale]

Hello! Your post about Harry Potter’s problems was so bloody brilliant.

“Then there is the fact that by the end of the book only the very extreme classists are defeated and otherwise “Everything was well”. No, JKR, it is not all well. Harry, Hermione and Ron basically become part of the system!” AAAAAH THANK YOU SO MUCH! I’m reading The Phoenix Potion (currently on chapter 53, LOVING IT), and honestly? I’m seriously considering it canon. Your characters are more canon than JKR’s epilogue and Cursed Child *shudders*.

The Statute of Secrecy’s Checkov’s gun was such a let down! It could have been such an interesting turn of events.

Absolutely agree on your points about the schools. If you think about it, it really doesn’t make any sense, for one simple reason: the language. Krum is Bulgarian and Durmstrang is a Scandinavian school (presumably) that accepts students from where? The entirety of Eastern Europe? What language do they speak? Same goes for Beauxbatons: wiki says that students from France, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium attend. Do they all speak French? We could give the Purebloods the benefit of the doubt (maybe magical families are used to learning other languages), but what about the poor Muggleborns that learn they are magic at 11, and soon have to attend a school where the spoken language is unknown to them? Not every Spanish or Portuguese kid knows French. And the rest of Europe? Where are they gonna go? Which language will they have to learn? And the poor children who can’t speak that language very well, how are they going to cope? That’s going to affect their life enormously! Are there also foreign language courses, along with the magical ones? So many unanswered questions.

Really, everything you said was so true. From James Potter, to “girly girls” and “not like other girls”, to the Irish, slavery and antisemitic codes...yikes.

I hated how the Slytherin-Gryffindor rivalry was handled. The Gryffindors’ bias and prejudices are never recognized, it’s always the Slytherins who are bullies and the Gryffindors who are the victims, when actually there are many instances throughout the books where the Slytherins are the victims. Both house members are culpable, they’re both awful to each other, and sometimes Gryffindors are pettier...but that might be an unpopular opinion.

If you have the time, would you like to rant about Snape? About the way his character was handled? And also your opinion about the Blacks interests me, as a family in general and also specific members like Regulus and the sisters. And maybe the Weasley twins too? If it’s not too much trouble!

Hi there!

Thanks! Glad you like my little rant!

And glad you like The Phoenix Potion! It's my big baby and I always feel honoured when someone likes it enough to say it's 'canon'. Für me it is anyway!

Phoenix Potion was a way for me to fix one of the biggest issues of HP, but you're not there yet, so I don't want it to spoil it for you.

I'll gladly talk about the things you asked, but could you do me a favour and send in different asks for them? Just 'Severus Snape' for example. That makes it easier for me to organize my answers and the posts. 😃

For now, I stick to the schools. Language is a huge problem there! I could buy Belgians going to France, at least the Flemish Belgians at least know French most of the time. But in Luxembourg they speak a variant of German and they would absolutely go to a German school (being too small a country for a school of their own). And Beauxbatons would have to handle about thrice the number of students than Hogwarts (if you estimate the ratio of muggles / wizarding people is about the same everywhere) and I think in non- European countries the system could be completely different, because schools and universities as we know them have developed from their medieval ancestors (which would have meant they spoke Latin in Hogwarts when it was founded - which is a pet headcanon of mine anyway because we have all the spells with Latin roots)

Anyway let's stick to Europe for now: I mean Scandinavians nowadays are fluent in English and most know another Scandinavian language but I think most countries would prefer to have a small school with their own language over children having to learn a new language just for getting basic education. In medieval schools in Western and Central Europe they spoke Latin as universal language but it was only for a small percentage of the population. If you want to educate all wizards you can't do that.

And sorry not sorry, there is absolutely no fucking way that Germany doesn't have its own school. Germany is obsessed with education (just one word Jodeldiplom, 🤣). I should know this as a German. Education pretty much defines your social status and the number of certificates you get have a huge impact on your salary. Education her is much more than just school education. So I headcanon that there are three schools for the German speaking population of Europe : one in Bavaria in a former baroque monastery just at the border to Austria (and boy are the Austrians pissed about that, because it used to be Austria). It's opulent and fantastic and the puttos of the ornaments are semi-alive and prank the students and teachers in a harmless way. Another school is somewhere in the Alps in Switzerland and it's for the rich and uppity and tuition fees are high. And then there is the school in the North close to Hamburg perhaps, no fees because you shouldn't pay for education and that is the school that had a founder who was basically a carbon copy of Helga Hufflepuff. Lol!

Italy would have two schools as well, one in the North and one in the South, because there is no reason on earth that would make a Northerner go to a Southern school and vice versa.

So this got a bit longish as well. You probably see why it's better if you send several asks!

Thanks!

EDIT: why are there no magical universities? Why don't they learn anything non- magical like Math, foreign languages (although the lack of languages might be because Hogwarts is an English school, 😂)?

[senadimell]

If you've got time to share, I'd love to hear more about your thoughts around Snape and Lupin.

@deathdaydungeon, here you are!

After a conversation with @frederick-the-great, I’ve been thinking about Lupin, Snape, and what they say about morality in HP. I’m not talking about the troublesome white hats, black hats morality, but am instead looking at from this angle: Lupin is nice and well-liked, but often lacks a backbone, whereas Snape is mean and disliked, but incredibly brave. Which is more important? I find Harry’s last sacrifice to be a useful point by which we measure their impact.

Lupin and Snape useful to compare on several important fronts.

As foils for each others’ teaching methods

The way they deal with social disadvantage

Their connections to Harry’s father and how they pass on James’ legacy

1) They both teach at Hogwarts, and are foils for each other in many ways. Snape is mean and takes away points. He’s seen as selfish. His classes are hard and unpleasant for Harry. He’s mean to Neville, and rather than encouraging him, mocks him and belittles him, which just adds to the overall disaster of Neville’s poor self-esteem mixing badly with potions class.

However, even Umbridge admits that Snape’s teaching methods work, and she’s working for Fudge who doesn’t like Death Eaters and has been defied by Snape in GoF, so we know he’s effective for a lot of people, if not Neville.

Yet, for all that, Snape saves Harry’s life multiple times. On top of that, Snape wants to keep the fact that he saved Harry’s life a secret.

“Very well. Very Well. But never--Never tell, Dumbledore! This must be between us! Swear it, I cannot bear...especially Potter’s son...I want your word!

My word, Severus, that I will never reveal the best of you? Dumbledore sighed, looking down into Snape’s ferocious, anguished face. “If you insist...”

DH 679, The Prince’s Tale

Conversely, Lupin is nice and rewards points. He’s seen as generous. His classes are fun and interesting for Harry. He’s kind to Neville, and expresses confidence in him that leads him to succeed and do well. That confidence is a huge part of Neville’s character development. I doubt he’d grow into the resistance leader in DH if not for the many times teachers expressed confidence in him, like Dumbledore in PS, Lupin in PoA, Fake!Moody in GoF, and Harry in OotP. Harry certainly approves of his methods:

“You’re the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we’ve ever had!” said Harry. “Don’t go!”

PoA 424, Owl Post Again

However, it’s worth noticing that Hermione does worse on his exam than we ever see. She fails the Boggart test, and she and Harry were the only two people not permitted to experience the Boggart in class. Lupin’s teaching methods aren’t foolproof. Despite that, he’s overall seen as a nice guy and good teacher.

Yet Lupin endangers Harry’s life. The secrets he keeps are dangerous: his secret to keep is that he’s a werewolf and  actively endangered three students lives with his negligence, as well as the fact that he hid a secret about a believed and convicted mass murderer to save face with Dumbledore.

“That was still really dangerous! Running around in the dark with a werewolf! What if you’d given the others the slip, and bitten somebody?”

“A thought that still haunts me,” Lupin said heavily. “And there were near misses, many of them. We laughed about them afterwards. We were young, thoughtless--carried away with out own cleverness.

“I sometimes felt guilty about betraying Dumbledore’s trust, of course....he had admitted me to Hogwarts when no other headmasters would have done so, and he had no idea I was breaking the rules he had set down for my own and others’ safety. He never knew I had led three fellow students into becoming Animagi illegally. But I always managed to forget my guilty feelings every time we sat down to plan our next month’s adventure. And I haven’t changed...

Lupin’s face had hardened, and there was self-disgust in his voice. “All this year I have been battling with myself, wondering whether I should tell Dumbledore that Sirius was an Animagus. But I didn’t do it. Why? Because I was too cowardly. It would have meant admitting that I’d betrayed his tryst while I was at school, admitting that I’d led others along with me...and Dumbledore’s trust has meant everything to me. He let me into Hogwarts as a boy, and he gave me a job when I have been shunned all my adult life, unable to find paid work because of what I am. And so I convinced myself that Sirius was getting into the school using Dark Arts he learned from Voldemort, that being an Animagus had nothing to do with it...so in a way, Snape’s been right about me all along.”

PoA 355, Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs

Plan is emphasized because those trips that ended in “near misses” weren’t some impulsive romp. They were planned and coordinated in advance.

“I just saw Hagrid,” said Harry. “And he said you’d resigned. It’s not true, is it?”

“I’m afraid it is, said Lupin. He stared opening his desk drawers and taking out the contents.

“Why?” said Harry. The Ministry of Magic don’t think you were helping Sirius, do they?”

Lupin crossed to the door and closed it behind Harry.

“No. Professor Dumbledore managed to convince Fudge that I was trying to save your lives.” He sighed. “That was the final straw for Severus. I think* the loss of the Order of Merlin hit him hard. So he--er--accidentally let slip that I am a werewolf this morning at breakfast.”

“You’re not leaving because of that!” said Harry.

Lupin smiled wryly.

“This time tomorrow, the owls will start arriving from parents ....They will not want a werewolf teaching their children, Harry. And after last night, I see their point. I could have bitten any of you...That must never happen again.

“You’re the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we’ve ever had!” said Harry. “Don’t go!”

PoA 424, Owl Post Again

What strikes me about this conversation is how Lupin shifts the blame around. This doesn’t start with an admission of guilt. He’s not leaving because the parents are right. He’s not leaving because he’s seen how dangerous he can be, or because he owns up to making an incredibly dangerous decision. He’s leaving because Snape forced his hand. If Snape didn’t do that, he would do the same thing he’s always been doing: sweeping his misdoing under the rug and promising himself privately that he’s going to change, but never doing it.

It’s always someone else’s fault for Lupin. That’s a neat tie in to the next point of comparison:

2. Lupin and Snape both experience marginalization in wizarding society, but in very different ways. Lupin faces socio-legal** marginalization and Snape faces socio-economic marginalization.

Lupin’s a werewolf. We see how prejudice affects his life, from his inability to find a job and his worn out clothes to his people-pleasing nature. He’s always acting nice and harmless. He does nothing to play into the condemning stereotypes he’s faced since childhood. Despite that, he still can’t find a job. Nobody will hire him, and people are scared to interact with him. From the way he talks about werewolves, it’s implied that this prejudice is held blindly across Wizarding society. Both Ron and Hermione are horrified to learn Lupin’s a werewolf. *** Later on, he’s legally limited in the kinds of jobs he holds and the kind of magic he’s allowed to perform. Lupin has no control over his transformations, and did not choose his condition.

Lupin’s not really wrong when pities himself. The odds really are stacked against him when he’s treated as if he’s a wolf 24/7, not just a few predictable times a month. His prospects are honestly awful.

The problem is, his condition is dangerous. Thus, the issue of victim blaming is particularly thorny for Lupin. He can’t just accept that he’s a monster for something he has no say over, and yet he can’t escape the fact that sometimes he is monstrous for reasons out of his control. He feels guilty for the people he could have hurt, but also seems to resent that people blame him for something that’s not his fault. The problem is that he carries that lack of accountability into spheres where he should be accountable, like not taking his medication and endangering children because of it.

Snape’s story is very different. He is poor in both the wizard and muggle worlds, and half-blooded, and was sorted into Slytherin as a child. He doesn’t have one condition against him, but checks boxes that make it hard for any one side to accept him. He’s too impure and poor to survive on his own for the Slytherin, but is a Slytherin with Death Eater friends and housemates interested in dark magic, which means he’s never going to fit in with the Order of the Phoenix crowd, especially when some of its members torment him at school. ****4

 This essay makes a convincing point that the wizarding world is not a meritocracy, and that people like Snape need powerful patronage to advance if they don’t have the money to support themselves.

I don’t consider the sorting a proper choice. I know Harry does, but I’m of the opinion that at age 11, very few people have been taught how to analyze different perspectives and make an informed decision. Most 11-year-olds are trained to obey their parents and accept their family’s ideology. Harry’s choice rests on very little evidence--most of what he knows is what Hagrid told him, and that he doesn’t want to be sorted into Voldemort’s house along with Draco Malfoy, someone who reminds him of Dudley. I don’t think Snape was very informed either (I’d love to know why), because he doesn’t realize why it Lily wouldn’t be sorted into Slytherin.

“You’d better be in Slytherin,” said Snape, encouraged that she had brightened a little. DH 671, The Prince’s Tale

Either the pureblood rhetoric just wasn’t strong in those days, or his mother didn’t tell him about that.

...“Where are you heading, if you’ve got the choice?”

James lifted an invisible sword.

“’Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!’ Like my dad.”

Snape made a small, disparaging noise. James turned on him.

“Got a problem with that?”

“No,” said Snape, though his slight sneer said otherwise. “If you’d rather be brawny than brainy--”

DH 671-2, The Prince’s Tale

It seems that most people just follow familial preferences. As to why Snape wants to be in Ravenclaw over Slytherin, my preferred interpretation is that he had a family legacy, knew that Slytherin rewarded the ambitious and clever, and that Slughorn, the head of Slytherin house, had a knack for making the kind of connections that a poor, clever boy would need to succeed.

Nevertheless, once Snape was in Slytherin, the odds were stacked against him. The house in that era was full of people who would later be Death Eaters. “Dark Magic” wasn’t frowned upon among his housemates, and siding with Voldemort wasn’t yet widely acknowledged as a transgression by wider society.

“No, no, but believe me, [Sirius’ parents] thought Voldemort had the right idea, they were all for the purification of the wizarding race, getting rid of Muggle-borns and having pure-bloods in charge. They weren’t alone either, there were quite a few people, before Voldemort showed his true colors, who thought he had the right idea about things.…” OotP 112

Additionally, people like Bellatrix were in the years above him, and given how Fred and George acted with younger students, I think it’s highly likely younger students had to find a place in the hierarchy or be the target of ‘pranks.’ He was a halfblood, after all, and dirt poor.

Snape knew these people. He ate with them, slept with them, and went to class with them. It is so much easier to understand and befriend someone you spend time with. I’d say that most people who subscribe to problematic ideologies aren’t just awful to be around all the time, or else these movements wouldn’t gain any traction. They’re likely funny and nice to be around if you’re not on their bad side.

In addition to strong peer pressure to befriend the people who would be death eaters, he was also bullied four to one. His bullies received protection from the headmaster when he was nearly killed or permanently maimed. They were popular and well liked.

The best analogy I’ve heard to describe Snape's Hogwarts situation is that he’s a kid in a rough neighborhood who joins the local gang. It provides protection and the hope of social mobility, and from his perspective, the other gang fights just as dirty (his treatment by the marauders). He doesn’t stop to think that the system is flawed, or that the gang’s very existence indicates the failure of authority and threatens its members. He just sees himself as a kid with nothing who needs help with protection and advancement. We know that Voldemort hasn’t shown his true colors, and it’s possible he showed different faces to different people.

‘Now, yer mum an’ dad were as good a witch an’ wizard as I ever knew. Head Boy an’ Girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst’ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get ’em on his side before ... probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin’ ter do with the Dark Side.

‘Maybe he thought he could persuade ’em ... maybe he just wanted ’em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Hallowe’en ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an’ – an’ –’ (“The Keeper of the Keys”)

Dumbledore’s cited as the reason they turned him down, not their blood status. I think there’s evidence that the wholesale anti-muggleborn campaign wasn’t a huge part of the first wizarding war, and wasn’t implemented until the second, even if there was anti-muggle propaganda. (Muggle=/=muggleborn). It’s implied that Tobias is abusive and that Snape hates him for what he did to him and his mother; it’s implied that faced class prejudice by the muggles around him as well:

“I know who you are. You’re that Snape boy! They live down Spinner’s End by the river,” she told Lily, and it was evident from her tone that she considered the address  a poor recommendation.

DH 665, The Prince’s Tale

When you read stories about people who are able to escape cycles of gang violence and poverty, there’s almost always someone who lifts them out. There’s someone who pushes them, or extends a hand, or believes in them. There are community outreach programs, or churches, or an English teacher that pushed them to do better and try out for a scholarship. That person is usually someone who knows what it’s like and knows how hard it is to get out.

Snape doesn’t seem to get that support anywhere. Slughorn doesn’t seem to notice him, for whatever reason. Lily doesn’t approve of his friends, but also doesn’t understand at all what the pull is--that it’s hard to swim against the current of what everyone else is saying, despite the fact that she feels the same pressure to end her friendship with Snape.

“… thought we were supposed to be friends?” Snape was saying. “Best friends?” “We are, Sev, but I don’t like some of the people you’re hanging round with! I’m sorry, but I detest Every and Mulciber! Mulciber! What do you see in him, Sev, he’s creepy! D’you know what he tried to do to Marry Macdonald the other day?”

DH 673, The Prince’s Tale

In the very same conversation, the fact that Snape is not allowed to share what happened to him with Lupin and the werewolf incident means that Lily will never be able to understand what Snape is facing: That the leader of the good guys makes excuses for and protects people who recklessly endanger the lives of others.

“And you’re being really ungrateful. I heard what happened the other night. You went sneaking down that tunnel by the Whomping Wollow, and James Potter saved you from whatever’s down there--”

Snape’s whole face contorted and he spluttered, “Saved? Saved? You think he was playing the hero? He was saving his neck and his friends’ too!...”

DH 674, The Prince’s Tale

Later in the year after SWM, she tells Snape this:

“None of my friends can understand why I even talk to you.”

DH 675 The Prince’s Tale

She expects him to reject all of his classmates and stand against the tide, despite the fact that she knows how hard it is to do that and can’t comprehend why he sticks with his classmates. She expects him to be grateful to James Potter as if what he did was altruistic, because the Headmaster swore Snape to secrecy and he keeps his promises, despite the fact that someone else was spreading the story. (The fact that she says she heard it instead of talking about it like its common knowledge implies that she heard it from a friend, so our friends the Marauders likely weren’t keeping their lips zipped even if Snape was.)

I don’t say this to shift the blame away from Snape to Lily in regards to Snape joining the Death Eaters. I just want to point out that Lily wasn't someone who could help him break the cycle. He didn’t squander some chance she offered him. She just wasn’t enough to break him out--not empathetic, motivated, or well-informed enough. (I think the fact that they were peers plays a big role in that).

Ultimately, Snape did choose to join the Death Eaters. He did yield to peer pressure. He did obey his assignment and report the prophecy to Voldemort. He spent his youth yielding, following the path in front of him, and choosing what was probably the easier choice: stick with your group, find powerful friends, do what they want, and don’t ask too many questions about their methods. That’s what makes his decision to betray Voldemort so powerful to me.

Here’s part of the passage when Snape betrays Voldemort:

...The adult Snape was panting, turning on the spot, his wand gripped tightly in his hand, waiting for something or for someone...His fear infected Harry too, even though he knew that he could not be harmed, and he looked over his shoulder wondering what it was that Snape was waiting for--

Then a sliding, jagged jet of white light flew through the air. Harry thought of lightning, but Snape had dropped to his knees and his wand had flown out of his hand.

“Don’t kill me!”

DH 676, The Prince’s Tale

He was terrified. He knew he was caught between the world’s two most powerful wizards, but it was worth it if he could save his childhood friend.

Then when Lily dies:

“Her son lives. He has her eyes, precisely her eyes. You remember the share and color of Lily Evans’s eyes, I am sure?”

“DON’T!” bellowed Snape. “Gone...dead...”

“Is this remorse, Severus?”

“I wish..I wish I were dead....”

“And what use would that be to anyone?” said Dumbledore coldly.

DH 678, The Prince’s Tale

Whatever motivation Snape had before is gone. A person’s life who is not his own is worth more than his own, and he’s drowning in guilt. From now on, Snape works to be useful in saving Harry’s life, and later many lives, at risk of death. His choices are a black mark on his record, likely making it difficult for him to get a job when he’s been tried as a Death Eater, and all of his wizarding connections are Death Eaters or their associates. He has no money or influence. Dumbledore hires him.

So Lupin has a single ailment and faces constant social and legal discrimination. He constantly tries to undermine people’s expectations about werewolves by being mild, but unfortunately is too afraid of rejection and its consequences to stand up against bad behavior or take full responsibility for his failings. He has friends who support him, but do it by engaging in risky behavior. He does not stop them. Perhaps he fears exposure and expulsion. Perhaps he just likes belonging for once. Either way, he does not come clean until forced to.

Snape is different; instead of facing outright rejection, he’s from a poor background and grows up surrounded by peers who join something somewhere between a gang and a cult while being bullied by people groomed by a rival organization. The headmaster of his school supports the rival organization and swears him to secrecy about an incident when they endangered his life, sending the message that his life is worthless. That same group continues to publicly bully him. He continues down this path until he realizes that it endangers something he cares about, and makes a decision that puts him at risk of being killed by the two most powerful wizards alive. He changes course.

Snape seems to view his problems as challenges facing him, whereas Lupin sees his problems as part of who he is, and not something he can change. Lupin seems to accept what happens to him in a fatalist kind of way. He sees what happens as inevitable and somewhat out of his control, whereas Snape never seems to blame his circumstances for him becoming a death eater, even though they clearly limited his options. I think that attitude matters. However, because Lupin’s facing a fictional magical malady, it’s difficult to fully blame him for that attitude.

Both Lupin and Snape have to react to powerful societal pressure that makes it difficult for them to succeed. Comparing them is apples and oranges at best, because their circumstances were so different. I don’t think you can judge either’s morality based on group identity, though.

3. Finally, they both act as a window on James: who he was, and what he means to Harry, who never knew him. That means in some way, they help pass on his parental legacy to orphaned Harry.

Hogwarts is Harry’s home, which means that the teachers are more than just teachers, but play a symbolic parental role in his life.

Hogwarts was the first and best home he had known. He and Voldemort and Snape, the abandoned boys, had all found home here.

DH 697, The Forest Again

You can’t understand Harry without realizing what he lacks: a loving home and living parents. He’s always looking into the past to find his parents, and is saddled with a legacy he struggles to understand--why did he live, who were his parents, and what does he need to do now?

Lupin and Snape also share a connection with Harry that goes beyond a normal teacher-student relationship, unlike McGonagall or Flitwick. Snape and Lupin are more personally connected to Harry than the other professors because they know Harry’s parents and went to school with them. I will mostly focus on James from here on out since we know so little about Lily personally and Harry mostly tries to emulate or avoid his father’s behavior and legacy.

They’re also the last people who knew James to survive, and they die almost at the same time. They’re the only teachers apart from Dumbledore who give Harry private lessons. More importantly, these lessons are all tied thematically to Harry’s past. Harry’s experience with dementors and the patronus charm are his first re-encounter with his parents and his past.

Terrible though it was to hear his parents’ last moments replayed inside his head, these are the only times Harry had heard their voices since he was a very small child. But he’d never be able to produce a proper patronus if he half wanted to hear his parents again.

PoA 243, The Patronus

In the end of PoA, Harry sees himself and mistakenly thinks it’s his father.

“Come on!” he muttered, staring about. “Where are you? Dad, come on--”

But no one came. Harry raised his head to look atet he circle of dementors across the lake. One of them was lowering its hood. It was time for the rescuer to appear--but no one was coming to help this time--

And then it hit him--he understood. He hadn’t seen his father--he had seen himself--

Harry flung himself out from behind the bush and pulled out his want.

“EXPECTO PATRONUM!” he yelled.

PoA 411, Hermione’s Secret

So the patronus itself is linked up with Harry’s past, and his coming-of-age. He doesn’t rely on others to save him, but must do it himself. (Though Harry’s never really trusted the adults to save him.)  It’s interesting to note that Harry actually learns the Patronus charm under Lupin’s tutelage.

On the other hand, Snape introduces Harry to the unpleasant side of his father’s legacy. Through Snape, we see that James wasn’t just a little cocky, but a bully.

“Apologize to Evans!” James roared at Snape, his wand pointed threateningly at him. “I don't want you to make him apologize,” Lily shouted, rounding on James. “You're as bad as he is.” “What?” yelped James. “I'd NEVER call you a--you-know-what!” “Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you've just got off your broomstick, showing off with that stupid Snitch, walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can--I'm surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK.” She turned on her heel and hurried away.

....

He had no desire at all to return to Gryffindor Tower so early, nor to tell Ron and Hermione what he had just seen. What was making Harry feel so horrified and unhappy was not being shouted at or having jars thrown at him; it was that he knew how it felt to be humiliated in the middle of a circle of onlookers, knew exactly how Snape had felt as his father had taunted him, and that judging from what he had just seen, his father had been every bit as arrogant as Snape had always told him. OotP, Snape’s Worst Memory, emphasis added

It’s interesting note that Harry fails to learn Occlumency from Snape. (In fact, we never see Harry use magical skills he learned from Snape apart from Expelliarmus, which is...important). At the same time, he gains an important perspective.

You can’t have James without this part of him. However kind James was to Lupin, however brave James was when he saved his wife, he was neither kind nor brave when he bullied Snape. It’s uncomfortable and awkward, but it’s important.

When he had finished, neither Sirius nor Lupin spoke for a moment. Then Lupin said quietly, “I wouldn’t like you to judge your father on what you saw there, Harry. He was only fifteen —”

“I’m fifteen!” said Harry heatedly.

OotP

Harry rejects the idea that actively bullying someone is just folly of youth. He knows what it’s like to be disenfranchised. Regardless of what Snape and James’ relationship was, he didn’t deserve that kind of humiliation. And Lupin watched, and defends him. Harry has to grapple with that.

Ultimately, Snape and Lupin do more than just connect him to his past. They also teach him his two signature spells, Expelliarmus and Expecto Patronum. One saves his soul, and one saves his life and frees the wizarding world from Voldemort because of Voldemort’s fractured soul.

Snape and Lupin as moral counterpoints

How do we evaluate this:

“I’d never have believed this,” Harry said. “The man who taught me to fight dementors--a coward.”*****5

DH 213, The Bribe

and this?

“Albus Severus, you were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I ever knew.

DH 758, Seventeen years later

Ultimately, I don’t think it’s really that useful to pit two people with different backgrounds against each other. At the same time, they represent two different halves of a question: when it comes down to it, should we try to be kind or brave? I don’t think you have to pick one, but when pursuing the two, there are bound to be moments of conflict.

I always come back to the lyrics to Last Midnight from Sondheim’s Into the Woods.******6

You're so nice You're not good You're not bad You're just nice I'm not good I'm not nice I'm just right I'm the witch You're the world

Snape doesn’t care about being nice. I think this is where most non-Snape fans start pulling out the pitchforks and torches. Snape isn’t nice, and he’s not nice to kids. He’s not nurturing.*******7 He’s abrasive, allergic to coddling, and petty when he can get away with it. In fact, most of the people he’s ‘nice’ to are significantly more powerful than him, or someone he needs to be on good terms with.

Lupin is nice. He’s mild. He’s often kind. However, he often picks being liked over standing up for something.

What does that result in? He doesn’t stand up for Snape. The bullying continues and keeps Snape firmly on his path. He wins the respect of the Gryffindors with the Snape Boggart incident but loses whatever credibility he had to tell Snape to ‘put their past behind him.’

On the other hand, Neville’s bravery in DH was nurtured by Lupin’s confidence. Neville kept hope alive and led a rebellion. Lupin is one of the few adults that Harry fully respects and trusts up until the Grimmauld place confrontation. (He likes Hagrid and Molly, but doesn’t necessarily trust them to make decisions in their best interest, while he usually respects Lupin’s judgement). Harry loves him, and it’s because he loved him and watched him die that he needs to act and fight back against Voldemort.

Ultimately, Harry’s relationship with James and the adults who pass on his legacy is one of the most important symbolic relationships in the book. The thematic resolution of the series is Harry’s act of sacrificial love.

He did not know what to feel, except shock at the way Snape had been killed, and the reason for which it had been done....

...He could not bear to look at any of the other bodies, to see who else had died for him. He could not bear to join the Weasleys, could not look into their eyes, when if he had given himself up in the first place, Fred might never had died...

He turned away and ran up the marble staircase. Lupin, Tongs...He yearned not to feel....He wished he could rip out his heart, his innards, everything that was screaming inside of him.

To escape into someone else’s head would be a blessed relief....Nothing that even Snape had left him could be worse than his own thoughts.

DH 660-662, The Prince’s Tale

He rushes to the headmaster’s office to escape into Snape's memories. His memories convince Harry that sacrificing himself is the expedient thing to do, and he heads to the Forbidden Forest. To enable is last sacrifice, he uses the Resurrection stone to witness his parents and his father’s friends. Their combined testimony is enough to ameliorate his personal fears about following through with this final act.

Lupin and Snape leave entirely different legacies behind. Lupin encourages and inspires. As an authority figure, he gives people like Neville space to grow and his compassion towards Harry gives him the strength to face his demons. Harry’s decision in DH to die must have something to do with the kindness he was shown, and the sacrifices people who loved him made for him, of which Lupin is a part. Despite what he saw in Princes’ Tale, Snape wasn’t one of the people who’d make an appearance with the Resurrection stone.

Yet Snape sacrificed his life for Harry and the wizarding world, entities that Snape didn’t seem to like and that certainly weren’t kind to him. His form of bravery is about endurance, tenacity, and willingness to do what is right even when you hate your allies and no one else is going to credit you for what you do. And that’s very Harry. Even if he hates Draco, he’s not about to let him die if he can help it. Harry has much more in common with Snape than Lupin, I think.

Since this is about souls, let’s return to the Patronus charm. Snape’s not the kind of person who typically inspires that kind of emotion required to cast a Patronus in others, at least from what we see in Harry’s perspective. Yet because he has experienced that love, he can cast it and shows Harry what needs to be done. Snape enables Harry to dive under the ice. Lupin’s the kind of person who can inspire a patronus, but isn’t the one to make the sacrifice play until after Harry confronts him about his duty to his family. Ultimately, though, they both sacrifice themselves in the Battle of Hogwarts.

* Ever since I realized how blatantly tangential Order of Merlin must be to Snape’s character motivation, that line has frustrated me to no end. There’s no way frothing-at-the-mouth PoA Snape just really coveted that Order of Merlin. He’s often petty, yeah, but if Lupin believes it’s just about that and has nothing to do with Snape’s real conviction about how dangerous Lupin’s actions were, he’s deluding himself. I hate that he passes it on to his students.

**Yes, I am making up words today. Lupin’s faces prejudice and discrimination on a social level enforced by increasingly powerful discriminatory laws.

*** It’s worth noting that if we take every book as equally valid canon, then there’s either widespread ignorance towards lycanthropy, as Lockhart convinces everyone he was able to “cure” the Wagga-Wagga werewolf, and as teenage Horcrux!Riddle said Hagrid raised werewolf cubs under his bed, or else lycanthropy is actually a wide range of conditions under a wolfy umbrella ranging from treatable to incurable. Lupin is our primary source for lycanthropy: he’s the one who tells us about Greyback, for example. If we hold the first two books as equally valid, then perhaps we only know about Lupin’s particular type of condition. That’s the Watsonian analysis, anyways.

****4 These footnotes are getting ridiculous. Basically, there’s no consensus on what Dark Magic is, and on what basis it’s Evil. This essay goes into things that are labelled as curses. I’m inclined to believe that the vast majority of Dark Magic is just Magic We Don’t Like for Reasons.

The definition of what is and isn't considered Dark Magic is never explained: often it just seems to mean "a curse I don't approve of".  Even "curse" has never been satisfactorily defined, but we can certainly say that not all curses are regarded as evil, since some appear to be on the Hogwarts curriculum, and are certainly performed without censure.

*****5 While I paired the quotes at the top of this section together for dramatic effect, it’d be a shame not to look at the context of the Lupin fight.

“I thought you’d say [that your mission was top secret],” said Lupin, looking disappointed. But I might still be of some use to you. You know what I am and what I can do. I could come with you to provide protection. There would be no need to tell me exactly what you were up to. Harry hesitated. It was a very tempting offer.

Hermione then asks about Tonks.

“I’m pretty sure my father would have wanted to know why you aren’t sticking with your own kid, actually”... ...“I’d never have believed this,” Harry said. “The man who taught me to fight dementors--a coward.”

...“Parents shouldn’t leave their kids unless--unless they’ve got to.”

...“I know I shouldn’t have called him a coward.”“No, you shouldn’t,” said Ron at once. “But he’s acting like one. “ “All the same...” said Hermione.

“I know,” said Harry. “But if it makes him go back to Tonks, it’ll be worth it, won’t it?”

He could not keep the plea out of his voice. Hermione looked sympathetic, Ron uncertain. Harry looked down at his feet, thinking of his father. Would James have backed Harry in what he had said to Lupin, or would he have bene angry at how his son had treated his old friend?

DH 213, The Bribe

Harry feels personally betrayed that someone who has a family and child would abandon them. Here he is unyielding and accusing to someone he cares about in the hopes that they re-evaluate what matters. It’s a rather Snape-like tactic, actually. Or else a Dumbledore one.

I love the dialogue in this scene, but have some major issues with how Harry’s internalization drops out the window for shock value. JKR does the same thing when has Harry pull the Veritaserum trick in HBP. I don’t like it.

******6 The witch and Snape aren’t perfect analogues, since she’s decidedly more amoral in my opinion, but they’re both contractually-motivated characters whose humanity is shown by their (platonic/familial) love for a more “innocent” character and the guilt at the innocent character’s sacrificial death. Guilt doesn’t lead the witch to do anything productive, and for Snape it does, which is where they diverge on the character path.

*******7 Draco may be an exception to this. However, watching Snape struggle to build rapport with Draco in HBP leads me to think that while Snape’s been on Draco’s side, he’s still not “nurturing,” or in other words, good at cultivating trust and encouraging the strong and wholesome parts of someone’s personality to grow.  

[adenei]

Auror 99 - Prologue

I know most of my followers are mostly HP/Romione people, BUT I am so excited about this new story! It’s a Brooklyn 99/HP Crossover!

Disclaimer that I do not own anything to do with Harry Potter OR Brooklyn 99, but the idea was too good to pass up (at least it is in my head anyways).

Summary: Crossover AU where a magical fugitive (OC) is wanted by both the Aurors and Brooklyn's 99th Precinct. The Golden Trio is sent undercover to New York by Kingsley to team up with Jake and the gang to work the case and catch the bad guy. Will they be able to do it without the squad finding out the true identities of the Golden Trio?

Prologue: Casecation

Ministry of Magic, London:

Hermione walked into Harry and Ron’s office with a case file in her hand. “You’ll never believe it,'' she said.

Harry and Ron looked up at her. “What?” They both said at once.

“They found him! Gerteso. He’s in New York. We’ve been given special permission by Kingsley to go there and bring him in.”

“No bloody way,” Ron said.

“Finally! Brilliant work, Hermione!” Harry said. 

Howard Gerteso was wanted for a variety of crimes. Most notable was the money laundering. The goblins at Gringotts had been completely unaware that they’d been Imperiused for the better part of a year, placing small amounts of gold in Gerteso’s alias account when making deposits for innocent witches and wizards. By the time someone had caught on, he’d laundered thousands of galleons from his victims, emptied the fault and fled the country. Hermione had been assisting on the case as part of her position with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and Harry and Ron were the lead investigators on the case. They were able to deduce his real name, but had lost the trail in Peru three months ago.

“Thanks, Harry. There is one catch, though.”

“What? We have to work with the New York Auror division, don’t we?” Ron questioned as he rolled his eyes.

“N-no, not exactly.” Hermione grimaced. 

“What is it, then?” Harry asked impatiently.

“Gerteso’s wanted for his crimes in New York as well. But not within the magical world. Muggle New York. There’s a task force on the case with the detectives of Brooklyn’s 99th Precinct. Kingsley’s been in contact with their Captain. We’ll be teaming up with them.”

“The muggle police? You can’t be serious, Hermione,” Ron groaned.

“It’s the closest option we have. Kingsley said we’ll need to go undercover though, so we’ll need to use appearance altering charms,” Hermione added.

“Why?” Harry asked. “No one’s going to know us in New York, so what would it matter?” 

Hermione frowned. “He wouldn’t say. But our portkey is meant to leave in three hours so we need to get moving.”

With that, they went to gather all the files they’d need, and flooed home to pack for an indeterminable amount of time.

Brooklyn: 99th Precinct, the following morning:

“Attention, everyone. Listen up,” announced Captain Holt in their morning meeting. “I have an announcement to make regarding the Gertesto case.”

“AKA Shredder,” Jake interrupted.

“Jake, no one’s using that nickname but you. It doesn’t even make any sense,” Amy rolled her eyes at him.

“As you know” Captain Holt continued as Jake shot Amy a look as Boyle patted him supportively on the shoulder, “Gerteso is not only wanted for a series of patent infringements and identity thefts in New York, but he’s also wanted in London for a significant money laundering scheme. I’ve been in contact from an official in London and they are sending three detectives to work the case with us. They will be arriving this morning.”

“What, the Brits don’t think we can handle capturing a man who’s wanted in multiple countries on our own?” Jake scoffed. “I’m pretty sure we can handle it.”

“Sir, what will this mean if he is taken into custody? If he’s caught in the United States, we have the right to detain him here,” Amy questioned.

“Yes, Santiago, this is normally true. However, this is a unique case, and it has come to my attention that outside help will be necessary. The reasons are confidential so I may not speak any further on the matter. I’ll call you in when they arrive. You’re dismissed.”

As the squad made their way out of the conference room and back to their desks, Jake looked at Terry and Boyle, “You don’t think they’re with MI-6, do you? How cool would that be. Real life spies and everything.”

“I don’t know, Jake,” Terry said unconvincingly. “The crimes don’t seem that severe to call in England’s top secret intelligence service for this.”

“Yeah, but it does smell like something funny’s going on,” Boyle said, agreeing with Jake as he always did.

“Does everything always have to be suspicious with you?” Amy asked, butting into their conversation.

“I’m not saying it’s suspicious, Ames, but there is something off about it.” Jake defended.

“Guys, can you stop talking about it until they actually get here? I’ve got work to do and you’re all giving me a headache,” Rosa chimed in. 

Terry nodded in agreement to Rosa’s crassstatement. “Rosa’s right, guys, let’s just try not to think about it and get to work.”

[changeling-fae]

I didn’t get any asks but I really wanted to do this so here we go!

1. What’s their name? Is there a reason why they were named that?

Maris (mah-riss) is Melody and Talbott’s son and Lorelei (lora-lie) is their daughter. Since Melody’s line has merfolk in it, it was important to keep the sea ties to their lineage.

2. Who are their parents? What’s their relationship with them?

Melody Prince and Talbott Winger are their parents and they have a very close relationship. This is definitely due to Melody and Talbott’s family trauma and their desire to make sure their kids didn’t endure what they endured.

3. Which relative do they resemble the most? Why?

Maris is not only the son of Talbott but is also the son of a Prince and all the Prince men are reserved and aloof.

That being said he is more... mischievous? He’s too smart for his own good and thanks to being a legilimens he knows a lot of secrets. I’d say he’s a good blend of both parents.

Lorelei is also a good blend but her aloofness is more whimsical than serious. She’s also a legilimens but doesn’t use secrets as a weapon like her brother. She’s a poet like her father and writes her own songs.

4. How much did MC influence their growth?

Quite a bit, she grew up feeling abandoned by her family and never wanted her children to feel that. She and Talbott make sure that their kids know that they’re loved.

5. How much did Jacob influenced their growth?

Assuming he survives the game, he doesn’t have too much influence. He and Melody’s relationship was never able to fully heal.

He’s of course welcome to the family and he does visit occasionally but he felt guilt for what he put his sister through and thought he didn’t deserve his place in her life.

6. Describe their wand.

Maris’ wand is 11in Elm wood with a scale from his great-grandmother’s tail.

“The unfounded belief that only pure-bloods can produce magic from elm wands was undoubtedly started by some elm wand owner seeking to prove his own blood credentials, for I have known perfect matches of elm wands who are Muggle-borns. The truth is that elm wands prefer owners with presence, magical dexterity and a certain native dignity. Of all wand woods, elm, in my experience, produces the fewest accidents, the least foolish errors, and the most elegant charms and spells; these are sophisticated wands, capable of highly advanced magic in the right hands (which, again, makes it highly desirable to those who espouse the pure-blood philosophy).”

Lorelei’s wand is 12in Beech wood also with a scale from her great-grandmother.

“The true match for a beech wand will be, if young, wise beyond his or her years, and if full-grown, rich in understanding and experience. Beech wands perform very weakly for the narrow-minded and intolerant. Such wizards and witches, having obtained a beech wand without having been suitably matched (yet coveting this most desirable, richly hued and highly prized wand wood), have often presented themselves at the homes of learned wandmakers such as myself, demanding to know the reason for their handsome wand’s lack of power. When properly matched, the beech wand is capable of a subtlety and artistry rarely seen in any other wood, hence its lustrous reputation.”

7. Do they have any pets? If not, how do they feel towards animals in general?

Basically just as many pets that Melody had growing up. They’re animagi like their parents and are good with animals, especially aquatic ones and birds.

8. How much of the Magical World have they already experienced before they started attending Hogwarts?

They were born into it, with Melody being a healer for St Mungo’s (and later Hogwarts) and Talbott being an Auror. They grew up in Melody’s childhood home which is tied to a magical reserve for aquatic magical creatures.

9. Do they have any muggle based interests?

Maris finds psychology and science fascinating. He can often be found reading muggle doctors textbooks. He’s also a big fan of HP Lovecraft, mostly because he finds the concept of muggles finding fish people horrifying hilarious.

Lorelei loves muggle music and has gone to quite a few concerts. People might be surprised to find that her favorite is heavy metal.

10. In which house were they sorted? How much do they fit the Sorting Hat choice?

Maris gets sorted into Slytherin like his mother and definitely fits his house. He’s cunning, ambitious, and very resourceful. He’s also John Oliver level of trolling ability.

Lorelei was sorted into Ravenclaw like her father and she also very much fits her house, especially the creative and independent part. She’s very open minded like her mother too (who had been a hatstall with Ravenclaw).

11. Which is the general opinion about them?

Maris is a sparkly, hot (heart of gold) asshole and Lorelei is a mysterious, whimsical space cadet.

Maris is following his uncles footsteps in having a bit of a fan club. The only difference is he’s more into it and will absolutely use it to his advantage.

Lorelei is the only one who can easily knock him off his pedestal when she feels his head is getting too big.

Lorelei is incredibly intelligent like her family but she’s such a daydreamer that upon first meetings, many people think she’s just an airhead.

12. What do the professors and the other people working at the school think about them?

Kind of a combination “oh no” and “huh, they’re not too bad”.

Maris and Lorelei are good students even with their quirks and they will never be as bad as Melody in breaking the rules.

13. Is there a professor they highly respect? Is there instead a professor they can’t stand at all?

Flitwick is a favorite to both kids and they respect McGonagall as Headmistress.

(If Snape were alive they’d like him to, especially Lorelei).

There isn’t really a professor they dislike but Maris likes messing with Trelawney because he finds it fun, especially being a legilimens.

14. Talk about their favorite subjects.

Maris loves DADA, herbology, and flying the most. He’s also really into arithmancy and astronomy.

Lorelei loves potions, charms, and divination. She’s good at transfiguration too.

15. Talk about their least favorite subjects.

For Maris, HoM, he just gets so bored and isn’t really a history fan.

For Lorelei, DADA, she’s just not an aggressive person by nature and is more passive in how she views the world.

16. Do they possess a broom? If not, do they have another devices that allows them to fly?

They do but they prefer to fly in their animagi forms. Maris is a belted kingfisher and Lorelei is a diving petrel.

17. What do they think about Quidditch? Are they part of the Quidditch team? If yes, in which role do they play?

Maris actually becomes seeker for Slytherin and quite good at it but he’s weirdly enough not really a fan at watching other teams. He just likes the thrill and competition but only when he’s involved.

Lorelei doesn’t care about Quidditch at all but she does watch on the days her brother plays.

18. Do they attend other club activities at school?

Maris becomes a Prefect and is the leader of the Gobstones club. He’s just as bad as his mom in leaving no survivors in the game.

Lorelei is part of the Frog Choir and is also a member of the potions club.

19. Have they developed any peculiar skill, magical or not?

Both are legilimens like their mother and animagi like their parents.

Maris is good at strategy games and enjoys muggle poker.

Lorelei is good with her hands and is actually a pretty good masseuse.

20. List five things they like.

For Maris; Intellectual stimulus, trolling people, swimming, fishing, and flying.

For Lorelei; Singing, song writing/poetry, swimming, making wind chimes, muggle aquariums.

21. List five things they dislike.

For Maris; Ignorance, blood purists, incompetency, boredom, hypocrites.

For Lorelei; Close mindedness, cruelty, assumptions, blood purists, dishonesty.

22. Have they any interest in dating? Have they a crush on someone? How do you think this someone feel about them?

Maris is a serial flirt and Lorelei believes things will happen when they happen. Haven’t thought further than that.

23. Are they able to cast a Patronus? If yes, what animal does it represent?

Yep, Maris patronus is the same as his animagus form as a kingfisher (so his form and patronus match just like his father).

Lorelei’s patronus is a moon jellyfish (so differs just like her mother).

24. What’s their greatest fear? How does it translate into their boggart?

Probably losing their parents or each other, they have a very happy childhood and would be devastated if something suddenly happened.

Boggart would be a dead loved one.

25. What’s their greatest weakness? How do they deal with it?

For Maris, probably hubris. He’s very proud of his skills and actually does work hard to maintain them so if he suddenly couldn’t succeed at something he put effort into, it would damage his esteem.

He’d turn to his mother for advice after a lot of angst because he knows that he got his overachiever attitude from her.

Lorelei’s weakness is probably passivity, as in she’s not really proactive. She’s fine with things just happening to her instead of seeking it out.

It’s mostly her brother who gets her to be more proactive, usually through brotherly teasing.

26. Is there an objective they’re trying to accomplish?

For Maris, be the top of his class and for Lorelei just graduate.

27. How do they change throughout their school years?

Maris becomes more cocky midway through but he settles down by graduation.

Lorelei becomes less dependent on her family and more comfortable with her place in the world.

28. Talk about their relationship with the other Fankids.

If anyone wants to their fankids to be friends with mine, please let me know because that would be awesome! (please)

29. Are they the “bully”, the “victim” or the “hero” of the situation?

Maris isn’t a bully per se, he’s not cruel, he just likes to tease people, but he does troll people he thinks deserves it (like bigots).

Lorelei is very accepting of people no matter their quirks so if someone needs help she’s good at making people feel good.

30. Use a meme to describe them.

Maris

Lorelei

[somebody-already-took-this-url]

HP Magical Theory: Possession vs Parasite

In both Chamber of Secrets and Order of the Phoenix possession = a foreign presence taking over the mind of the victim. In CoS it leaves Ginny with memory loss, and in OoTP it's merely Voldemort inhabiting Harry's mind and controlling him, all while Harry is conscious – although I don't consider the events in OoTP to be normal possession, as we must take into account the connection Harry shares with the Dark Lord. Therefore, we must consider Ginny's experience with the diary to be what normal possession looks like.

I would like point out that in The Philosopher's Stone, Voldemort is considered to have possessed Quirrell. If you take into account Ginny's experience with possession in the CoS, and then compare it to Quirrell's experience with possession, it is only logical to conclude that one is possession, and the other misnamed. It's my belief that Voldemort did NOT possess Quirrell, as in every other reference to possession in the series there is no physical aspect the way there is for Quirrell in PS. So then, what exactly is Voldemort doing, if not possessing Quirrell? Well, he is described as a parasite on the back of Quirrell's head, it follows that he isn't possessing but rather leeching off of Quirrell, sort of hitching a free ride until a body can be created for his soul to be placed in. The reason he has any physical form at all is due to the strength he gained through drinking unicorn blood, and possibly the strength and magic he's stolen and leeched from Quirrell.

What is a Parasite and how is it possible for Harry to shake Quirrell's hand?

In this case, Voldemort is much like a barnacle attached to the side of a ship. His soul attaches itself to a host, but is too weak to integrate fully and is therefore nothing but a passenger. What little magic he has control of in his weak state is used to keep hold of his host as well as communication (whether that be to the snakes he inhabited in the forest in Albania or Quirrell later on in the timeline). Because Quirrell is a wizard, and therefore has a magical core of his own, I believe it's possible that the longer Voldemort's soul is attached to him, the more he is capable of leeching off of Quirrell's power. We also see Quirrell cast powerful magic, which is possible due to Voldemort growing stronger from drinking unicorn blood and then using his own magic and knowledge to help Quirrell cast spells.

In my story The Magnum Opus of Nicolas Flamel (http://archiveofourown.org/works/13824291/chapters/31792149) it can be inferred that Quirrell and Harry do shake hands in the Leaky Cauldron. We later learn in the story that Harry and Voldemort (and as a result, Quirrell) cannot touch due to the blood wards (Lily's love and sacrifice). I believe that at the point in the story where Harry and Quirrell shake hands, Voldemort is already attached to Quirrell, but is so weak that Harry doesn't get a headache and Voldemort is unaffected. At this point he is nothing more than a barnacle, using all of his will to remain attached to his vessel, which he has only recently attached himself to, as in the story Quirrell only departed Albania very recently. It isn't until later, when Harry is at Hogwarts during the feast that he finds himself affected by Voldemort's presence, and gets a pain in his scar. At this point, Quirrell has already been back at Hogwarts for most of a month and therefore has had time to lend Voldemort strength, not to mention many chances to consume unicorn blood in the Forbidden Forest. At this point, Quirrell is wearing his infamous turban, and so it makes sense that Voldemort is stronger than before as the turban wouldn't be necessary unless Voldemort had begun to grow a physical form.

If this is true, what would the Timeline look like?

Order of events:

1981-1991, after his "death" Lord Voldemort leeches off animals in the forest of Albania

around 1989-1990, Quirinus Quirrell leaves the Muggle Studies position and takes a sabbatical for an unspoken amount of time

1991, Quirrell travels the world until he reaches Albania where he becomes the vessel for the Dark Lord's soul

summer of 1991, they return to England unannounced, where they reside in the Leaky Cauldron until the end of July

31st of July 1991, Quirrell meets Harry and shakes his hand, then later attempts to steal the stone and fails

Early August 1991, Quirrell returns to Hogwarts to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts

August 1991, Quirrell begins drinking unicorn blood to strengthen the Dark Lord, and this continues for a couple months at least

September 1st 1991, Harry arrives at Hogwarts

Every time I challenge something from the series, or bring up a bit of magical theory, I will make a post like this and tag it #magical theory: the magnum opus of nicolas flamel or #theory explained: the magnum opus of nicolas flamel

[athyrabunlord]

Response to @argnatien‘s super awesome feedback for LLSHP AU’s ch14 (๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ  Decided to answer this publicly because there are some very good points that are brought up (and some questions that I believe some readers have as well). Still though, putting my comments below the cut~

Yes, there are chances I may not have gotten Anon asks XD; I’d prefer a signed Ask, and I’ll just answer privately if the person noted that. I’m happy to have brought you out of your lurking days though heheh

First of all, I’m glad that you’ve felt ch14 to be powerful. I did a lot of back and forth on how to proceed/write out its content. At the end, I acknowledge there’s no way to ‘soften’ the situation, and I shouldn’t do so either. The situation needs to be portrayed as it is, as terrible as it is, especially for our narrator and main character Yoshiko.

Secondly, I’d like to point out that my HP knowledge isn’t the most meticulous either, having planned the majority of the story through memories of the books, the visuals from the movies, and some extra stuff from fanfics I’ve read in the past. I did research as much HP content as possible to verify things like spells, locations and the lore etc. However, I have also taken liberties with many HP things, such as original spells and Horcrux.

Indeed, ch13-14 revealed Yoshiko as a ‘matured’ Horcrux. She is what Tom Riddle would have turned into had he succeeded in absorbing Ginny’s lifeforce in the Chamber of Secrets. Of course, I cannot answer exactly how the quill Horcrux was created in the past XD You’re right, more will be explored later.

POV effect is my favorite way of writing a story. Why? Because there are many factors you can play with. The reader can only rely on what the narrator knows and thinks, and that’s not necessary the ‘truth’. This applies to other characters too. They’re humans, what they believe to be true isn’t necessary the truth. And yes, as far as the canon HP books showed, a Horcrux is created through deliberate murder. That said, Yohane does pity Yoshiko, and everything she told Yoshiko is what she deems as the truth. Has she told any lies, deliberately or unknowingly? Only time will tell ( ͡• ͜ʖ ͡• ) 

No comment about Yoshiko’s past and the Fallen because, Arc3. Since it’s the last arc of the story, the answers to this will be in there.

Yoshiko and Yohane share the same soul. There is indeed some emotional feedback from Yoshiko - Yohane only spared Riko’s life because of that. Being aware of Yoshiko’s existence agitated Yohane’s magic; meanwhile, all those times when Yoshiko blanked out, something is happening there, attracting them to each other through their magic linkage. Yes, this link was opened subconsciously, but neither knows exactly how ‘open’ or how connected they are to each other. I’ll just add here already that, the loss of emotions Yoshiko experienced at the end of ch14 is due to this link as well - she’s feeling how Yohane feels.

I’ll refrain from commenting on the physical wound part XD But yes, this whole thing is a magical anomaly, an idea that’s not in HP canon, but based off of various canon factors.

( ;;;ఠ ͟ʖ ఠ) yup, Arc3 stuff, an’t answer ahaha. But! Those are all very good questions, definitely keep them in mind while this slow slow writer tries to keep up an acceptable upload schedule. Again, all this has no HP reference so... wait and see ;)

We see the terrible fate of Frank and Alice Longbottom after Bellatrix’s tortured them to insanity. I promise I hadn’t gone that far, I’m not that evil xD; But I will refrain from commenting on her.

You and Chika are putting up a tough front. At the Infirmary, Yoshiko isn’t exactly able to pick up details even though she’s normally quite observant, given the circumstances. She’s quite distracted, so through POV effect, You and Chika only appear tired like the others due to lack of sleep and stress. They had each other to resist breaking down. They did take Draught of Peace when they were at St. Mungo’s, so this helped too.

I’ve always thought mind magic to be fascinating, be it Obliviate, Imperius, Legilimency and Occulumency. I have taken liberties with these spells but they’re more or less the same as HP - I just added/expanded its effects and usage.

I cannot discuss too much about Maru, but just elaborate a bit more on what Yohane meant by the Imperius Curse being similar to Muggle hypnosis. Instead of direct orders that goes against Maru’s wishes, the Curse worked more like a suggestion, a Devil’s whisper, so Maru was never aware of it and her overall behavior was never affected enough to be noticeable until ch12.

And no, as far as I know, there is no magic draining curse in HP canon. This spell is something I created for LLSHP AU... or, rather, a new spell the Fallen had created. I’ll just leave it at that.

You’re correct though, Maru’s memory was affected by the stress/strain of being exposed to the Curse for so long, especially that last defiance by breaking her own wand instead of hurting Yoshiko further. For the purpose of comparison, Barty Crouch Sr. definitely wasn’t himself during the 4th book after being Imperio’d for who knows how long and how many times. There’s also the Dementors - psychological trauma had caused Maru to repress memories of encountering one the first time after all. That said, exactly what happened to Maru and her magic will be shown more in upcoming chapters though!

The Patronus is definitely a key point in this story. When I first created the concept art for the FirstYears, I had put the blurb about the coelacanth. This single point was what spawned the rest of the ideas that eventually grew into this story. I just want to say I’m so happy to have reached this point OTL Ahem, yes, Yohane cannot cast the Patronus Charm. How and why she found out etc., I cannot say yet. I do remember the dark wizard (also forgot his name though LOL) who failed because he doesn’t have the heart. I’ll just leave it at that.

Yoshiko, on the other hand, managed to grasp the trick behind conjuring a corporeal Patronus, similar to how Harry did in Book3. In spite of what happened to Maru, she will still be able to cast the Patronus from this point onwards. Whether it’s just as strong as it was in the Chamber of Secrets or not, we’ll wait and see.

⁽⁽◝( • ω • )◜⁾⁾ once again, cannot comment on this part~ Very good points tho~ so happy you’ve noticed many subtle details ;)

I feel horrible for what I did to Dia. Why do I always somehow end up abusing my favorite character/nadeshikos *looks at Umi from past fanworks*  This is the time she needs her friends and little sister the most... yet she’s basically stripped of her hard-earned status/power and imprisoned within her own home.

Maru... gad, that’s the horrible aspect of the Imperius Curse. The victim remembers everything they do during the duration of the Curse, meaning Maru was aware of the whole incident when they were down at the Chamber. I’m being mean to Azalea huh? *turns towards Kanan*  (nah she has that prequel-interlude already so I shall leave her relatively alone...)

Indeed, unbeknownst to Yoshiko, she’s been channeling Yohane all these years. Yohane does have some very-Yoshiko traits too - more in Arc3!

Ah, maybe I wasn’t clear on this part, but then again it was just a passing comment from Kanan. What she meant was that, the Kurosawa family was so viciously opposed to Dia and Riko’s relationship; in comparison, Riko’s parents did not say anything. And so, Kanan wasn’t certain how Riko’s parents feel about the said relationship.

I checked out the music and I love it! That does suit datenshi Yohane-sama! For the record, I was listening to Deemo & Cytus & Voez soundtracks, in particularly Suspenseful Third Day, Rain of Flowers, and also all my BGM/OST from Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica haha :’D the good ol’ days. My grief seed definitely needs cleansing.

Ruby is my baby. Even though this story is YoshiMaru, Ruby is vital to this story and their relationship, and for the rest of the girls as well. I have a feeling you might enjoy the upcoming chapter then ;D

Don’t be sorry it’s long - I love it! It makes me feel that all the effort and time invested are worth it!! I’ve rambled all that response too, I don’t even know if I’ve given away too much or made things more confusing, but there they are XD

Thanks again for the awesome feedback!

[ottogatto]

Who is using the comparison?

Snape haters, mostly, though theh also confuse it with racism and white supremacy as though it were the same...

One Snape hater is that person just above:

That person also has done this:

(On another reblog:)

They chickened out after I put this in evidence.

This was the same person who also said this:

And I’m just scrapping at the surface of what Snape haters (who are mostly marauder fans like you visibly) have done.

See this? Now that’s what I call embarassing: when the marauderfen community becomes so toxic that its own people start leaving.

That’s what you can change, if you care so much about Jews and POCs and in general, marginalized communities.

Don’t worry dear, we are the first ones to know the difference between real-life discrimination and purism in the hp books. That’s not whom you will want to rant again. I’ll be waiting for some changement among your community then, if you care about that comparison being wrong this much.

In any case, I have every right to think a character has been written a certain way. For instance, as a queer person, I can see queerness in Severus—and visibly this anti

agrees too because they’re calling him a "p*ssy boy" which is a homophobic insult directed against men who are thought to be soft and always bottoming in homosexual relationships.

This is another user you can rant against, if you care so much about accurate representation.

Back to my point, yeah we Snape stans—who include POC, Jewish and lots of queer fans—so get the right to discuss a character’s codings and/or hc him as we wish regarding the causes we belong to. Let’s not forget that

Severus was a victim of prejudice at the hands of James Potter (very often compared to Draco Malfoy too), and that he is a half-muggle bullied by an aristocratic pureblood jock and his friends in a way that emulated Death Eaters canonically (see GoF). Whatever way you take it, there certainly is something disturbing in that context.

I digress; now that you see who are the true wrong people, perhaps you can focus your efforts on them? even if they might be your mutuals?

Cheers :)

WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING, CAUSE THERE SURE AS HELL NOT THE SAME ONES AS ME-

TF??? SNAPE WAS IN A FUCKING WIZARD NAZI-

Wait so Aryan James Porker bullying (half-)Jew Severus was also antisemitic? ‘Cause that’s what you’re basically saying whenever you compare Muggles with Jews and DEs with nazis.

Damn, Jincel Porker really is a sick person

At least literal mixed-race/Jew-coded Severus had the decency to kill the "nazis" down while saving children lives for years (something Jincel was never able to do but we’ll leave it at that)

Keep going though! It’s always fun to see users ‘round here revealing their true colors 🤗