#nitwit-blubber-oddment-tweak

[wisteria-lodge]

Manipulative/Morally Grey Dumbledore? An In-Depth Canon Analysis

So when I look at Harry Potter, my goal is to separate what I think the books are intending to say, from what they actually say, from what the movies say… and what the common fan interpretation is. So today I’m interested in Dumbledore, and specifically in the common headcanon of  Manipulative/Morally Gray Dumbledore. Is that (intentionally or unintentionally) supported by the text?

PART I:  Omniscient Dumbledore

“I think he knows more or less everything that goes on here”

In Book 1, yes Dumbledore honestly does seem to know everything. He 100% arranged for Harry to find the Mirror of Erised, publicly left Hogwarts in order to nudge Quirrell into going after the Stone, and knew what Quirrell was doing the whole time. It is absolutely not a stretch, and kind of heavily implied, that the reason the Stone’s protections feel like a little-end-of-the-year exam designed to put Harry through his paces… is because they are. As the series goes on this interpretation only gets more plausible, when we see the kind of protections people can put up when they don’t want anyone getting through. 

Book 1 Dumbledore knows everything… but what he’s actually going to do about it is anyone’s guess. One of the first things we learn is that some of Dumbledore’s calls can be… questionable. McGonagall questions his choice to leave Harry with the Dursleys, Hermione questions his choice to give Harry the Cloak and let him go after the Stone, Percy and Ron both matter-of-factly call him “mad.” The “nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweak” speech is a joke where Dumbledore says he’s going to say a few words, then literally does say a few (weird) words. I know there are theories that those particular words are supposed to be insulting the four houses, or referencing the Hogwarts house stereotypes, or that they’re some kind of warning. But within the text, this is pure Lewis Carroll British Nonsense Verse stuff (and people came up with answers to the impossible Alice in Wonderland “why is a raven like a writing desk” riddle too.) 

This characterization also explains a lot of Dumbledore’s decisions about how to run a school, locked in during Book 1. Presumably Binns, Peeves, Filch, Snape are all there because Dumbledore finds them funny, atmospheric, and/or character building. He's just kind of a weird guy.  He absolutely knew that Lockhart was a fraud in Book 2 (with that whole “Impaled upon your own sword, Gilderoy?” thing after Lockhart oblivates himself. ) So maybe he is also there to be funny/atmospheric/character building, or to teach Harry a lesson about fame, or because Dumbledore is using the cursed position to bump off people he doesn’t like. Who knows.

(I actually don’t think JKR had locked in “the DADA position is literally cursed by Voldemort” until Book 6. )

Dumbledore absolutely knows that Harry is listening in when Lucius Malfoy comes to take Hagrid to Azkaban, and it’s fun to speculate that maybe he let himself get fired in Book 2 as part of a larger plan to boot Lucius off the Board of Governors. So far, that’s the sort of thing he’d do.  But in Books 3 and 4, we are confronted with a number of important things that Dumbledore just missed. He doesn’t know any of the Marauders were animagi, he doesn’t know what really happened with the Potter’s Secret Keeper, doesn’t know Moody is Crouch, and doesn’t know the Marauders Map even exists. But in Books 5 and 6, his omniscience does seem to come back online. (In a flashback, Voldemort even comments that he is "omniscient as ever” when Dumbledore lists the specific Death Eaters he has in Hogsmeade as backup.) Dumbledore knows exactly what Draco and Voldemort are planning, and his word is taken as objective truth by the entire Order of the Phoenix - who apparently only tolerate Snape because Dumbledore vouches for him:

“Snape,” repeated McGonagall faintly, falling into the chair. “We all wondered . . . but he trusted . . . always . . . Snape . . . I can’t believe it. . . .”  “Snape was a highly accomplished Occlumens,” said Lupin, his voice uncharacteristically harsh. “We always knew that.”  “But Dumbledore swore he was on our side!” whispered Tonks. “I always thought Dumbledore must know something about Snape that we didn’t. . . .”  “He always hinted that he had an ironclad reason for trusting Snape,” muttered Professor McGonagall (...) “Wouldn’t hear a word against him!”

McGonagall questions Dumbledore about the Dursleys, but not about Snape. I see this as part of the larger trend of basically Dumbledore’s deification. In the beginning of the series, he’s treated as a clever, weird dude. By the end, he’s treated like a god. 

PART II: Chessmaster Dumbledore

“I prefer not to keep all my secrets in one basket.”

When Dumbledore solves problems, he likes to go very hands-off. He didn’t directly teach Harry about the Mirror of Erised - he gave him the Cloak, knew he would wander, and moved the Mirror so it would be in his path. He sends Snape to deal with Quirrell and Draco, rather than do it himself. He (or his portrait) tells Snape to confund Mundungus Fletcher and get him to suggest the Seven Potters strategy. He puts Mrs. Figg in place to watch Harry, then ups the protection in Book 5 - all without informing Harry. The situation with Slughorn is kind of a Dumbledore-manipulation master class - even the way he deliberately disappears into the bathroom so Harry will have enough solo time to charm Slughorn. Of course he only wants Slughorn under his roof in the first place to pick his brain about Voldemort… but again, instead of doing that himself, he gets Harry to do it for him. 

Dumbledore has a moment during Harry’s hearing during Book 5 (which he fakes evidence for) where he informs Fudge that Harry is not under the Ministry’s jurisdiction while at Hogwarts. Which has insane implications. It’s never explicitly stated, but as the story goes on, it at least makes sense that Dumbledore is deliberately obscuring how powerful he is, and how much influence he really has, by getting other people to do things for him. But the problem with that is because he is so powerful, it become really easy for a reader to look back after they get more information and say… well if Dumbledore was controlling the situation… why couldn’t he have done XYZ. Here are two easy examples from Harry’s time spent with the Dursleys:

1. Mrs. Figg is watching over Harry from day one, but she can’t tell him she’s a squib and also she has to keep him miserable on purpose:

“Dumbledore’s orders. I was to keep an eye on you but not say anything, you were too young. I’m sorry I gave you such a miserable time, but the Dursleys would never have let you come if they’d thought you enjoyed it. It wasn’t easy, you know…”

It’s pretty intense to think of Dumbledore saying “oh yes, invite this little child over and keep him unhappy on purpose.” But okay. It’s important to keep Harry ignorant of the magical world and vice versa. fine. But once he goes to Hogwarts… that doesn’t apply anymore?  I’m sure when Harry thinks he’s going to be imprisoned permanently in his bedroom during Book 2, it would’ve been comforting to know that Dumbledore was sending around someone to check on him. And when he literally runs away from home in Book 3… having the address of a trusted adult that he could easily get to would have been great for everybody. 

2. When Vernon is about to actually kick Harry out during Book 5, Dumbledore sends a howler which intimidates Petunia into insisting that Harry has to stay. Vernon folds and does exactly what she says. If Dumbledore could intimidate Petunia into doing this, then why couldn’t he intimidate her into, say - giving Harry the second bedroom instead of a cupboard. Or fixing Harry’s glasses. In Book 1, the Dursleys don’t bother Harry during the entire month of August because Hagrid gives Dudley a pig’s tail. In the summer between third and fourth year, the Dursleys back off because Harry is in correspondence with Sirius (a person they fear.) But the Dursleys are afraid of all wizards. Like at this point it doesn’t seem that hard to intimidate them into acting decently to Harry. 

PART III: Dumbledore and the Dursleys 

“Not a pampered little prince”

JKR wanted two contradictory things. She wanted Dumbledore to be a fundamentally good guy: a wise, if eccentric mentor figure. But she also wanted Harry to have a comedically horrible childhood being locked in a cupboard, denied food, given broken glasses and ill fitting/embarrassing clothes, and generally made into a little Cinderella. Then, it’s a bigger contrast when he goes to Hogwarts and expulsion can be used as an easy threat. (Although the only person we ever see expelled is Hagrid, and that was for murder.)

So, there are a couple of tricks she uses to make it okay that Dumbledore left Harry at the Dursleys.’ The first is that once Harry leaves…  nothing that happens there is given emotional weight. When he’s in the Wizarding World, he barely talks about Dursleys, barely thinks about them. They almost never come up in the narration (unless Harry’s worried about being expelled, or they’re sending him comedically awful presents.) They are completely cut from the last three Harry Potter movies, and you do not notice. 

The second trick… is that Dumbledore himself clearly doesn’t think that the Dursleys are that bad. During the King’s Cross vision-quest, he describes 11-year-old Harry as “alive and healthy (...) as normal a boy as I could have hoped under the circumstances. Thus far, my plan was working well.”  

Now, this could have been really interesting. Like in a psychological way, I get it. Dumbledore had a rocky home life. Dad in prison, mom spending all her time taking care of his volatile and dangerous sister. Aberforth seems to have reacted to the situation by running completely wild, it’s implied that he never even had formal schooling… and Albus doubled down on being the Golden Child, making the family look good from the outside, and finding every means possible to escape. I would have believed it if Molly or Kingsley had a beat of being horrified by the way the Dursleys are treating Harry… but Dumbledore treats it as like, whatever. Business as usual. 

But that isn’t the framing that the books use. Dumbledore is correct that the Dursleys aren’t that bad, and I think it’s because JKR fundamentally does not take the Dursleys seriously as threats. I also think she has a fairly deeply held belief that suffering creates goodness, so possibly Harry suffering at the hands of the Dursleys… was necessary? To make him good? Dumbledore himself has an arc of ‘long period of suffering = increased goodness.’ So does Severus Snape, Dudley‘s experience with the Dementor kickstarts his character growth, etc. It’s a trope she likes.

It’s only in The Cursed Child that the Dursleys are given any kind of weight when it comes to Harry’s psyche. This is one of the things that makes me say Jack Thorne wrote that play, because it’s just not consistent with how JKR likes to write the Dursleys. It’s consistent with the way fanfiction likes to write the Dursleys. And look, The Cursed Child is fascinatingly bad, I have so many problems with it, but it does seem to be doing like … a dark reinterpretation of Harry Potter? And it’s interested in saying something about cycles of abuse. I can absolutely see how the way the play handles things is flattering to JKR. It retroactively frames the Dursleys’ abuse in a more negative way, and maybe that’s something she wanted after criticism that the Harry Potter books treat physical abuse kind of lightly. (i.e.  Harry at the hands of the Dursleys, and house-elves at the hands of everybody. Even Molly Weasley “wallops” Fred with a broomstick.) 

PART IV: Dumbledore and Harry

“The whole Potter–Dumbledore relationship. It’s been called unhealthy, even sinister”

So whenever Harry feels betrayed by Dumbledore in the books - and he absolutely does, it’s some of JKR’s best writing  - it’s not because he left him with the Dursleys. It’s because Dumbledore kept secrets from him, or lied to him, or didn’t confide in him on a personal level. 

“Look what he asked from me, Hermione! Risk your life, Harry! And again! And again! And don’t expect me to explain everything, just trust me blindly, trust that I know what I’m doing, trust me even though I don’t trust you! Never the whole truth! Never!” (...) I don’t know who he loved, Hermione, but it was never me. This isn’t love, the mess he’s left me in. He shared a damn sight more of what he was really thinking with Gellert Grindelwald than he ever shared with me.”

Eventually though, Harry falls in line with the rest of the Order, and treats Dumbledore as an all-knowing God. And this decision comes so close to being critiqued…  but the series never quite commits. Rufus Scrimgeour comments that, “Well, it is clear to me that [Dumbledore] has done a very good job on you” - implying that Harry is a product of a deliberate manipulation,  and that the way Harry feels about Dumbledore is a direct result of how he's been controlling the situation (and Harry.)  But Harry responds to “[You are] Dumbledore’s man through and through, aren’t you, Potter?” with “Yeah. I am. Glad we cleared that up,” and it’s treated as a badass, mic drop line. 

Ron goes on to say that Harry maybe shouldn’t be trusting Dumbledore and maybe his plan isn’t that great… but then he abandons his friends, regrets what he did, and is only able to come back because Dumbledore knew he would react this way? So that whole thing only makes Dumbledore seem more powerful? Aberforth  tells Harry (correctly) that Dumbledore is expecting too much of him and he’s not interested in making sure that he survives:

“How can you be sure, Potter, that my brother wasn’t more interested in the greater good than in you? How can you be sure you aren’t dispensable (...) Why didn’t he say… ‘Take care of yourself, here’s how to survive’? (...) You’re seventeen, boy!”

But, Aberforth is treated as this Hamish Abernathy type who has given up, and needs Harry to ignite his spark again. There’s a pretty dark line in the script of Deathly Hallows Part 2:

Which at least shows this was a possible  interpretation the creative team had in their heads… but then of course it isn’t actually in the movie. 

So in the end, insane trust in Dumbledore is only ever treated as proper and good. Then in Cursed Child they start using “Dumbledore” as an oath instead of “Merlin” and it’s weird and I don’t like it.

PART V: Dumbledore and his Strays

“I have known, for some time now, that you are the better man.”

So Dumbledore has this weird relationship pattern. He has a handful of people he pulled out of the fire at some point and (as a result) these people are insanely loyal to him.  They do his dirty work, and he completely controls them. This is an interesting pattern, because I think it helps explain why so many fans read Dumbledore’s relationship with Snape (and with Harry) as sinister. 

Let’s start with the first of Dumbledore’s “strays.” Dumbledore saves Hagrid's livelihood and probably life after he is accused of opening the Chamber of Secrets - and then he uses Hagrid to disappear Harry after the Potters' death, gets him to transport the Philosopher’s Stone, and he’s the one who he trusts to be Harry’s first point of contact with the Wizarding World.  Also, Hagrid's situation doesn’t change? Even after he is cleared of opening the Chamber of Secrets, he keeps using that pink flowered umbrella with his broken wand inside, a secret that he and Dumbledore seem to share. He could get a legal wand, he could continue his education. But he doesn’t seem to, and I don’t know why. 

So, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is a well known fix-it fic that basically asks “What if Harry Potter was a machiavellian little super genius who solves the plot in a year?” I enjoyed it when it was coming out, but the only thing I would call a cheat is the way McGonagall brings Harry to Diagon Alley instead of Hagrid. Because a Harry Potter who has spent a couple of days with McGonagall is going to be much better informed, better equipped and therefore more powerful than a Harry spending the same amount of time with Hagrid. McGonagall is both a lot more knowledgeable and a lot less loyal to Dumbledore. She is loyal, obviously, but she also questions his choices in a way that Hagrid never does. And as a result, Dumbledore does not trust her with the same kind of delicate jobs he trusts to Hagrid.

Mrs. Figg is another one of Dumbledore’s strays. She’s a squib, so we can imagine that she doesn’t really have a lot of other options, and he sets her up to keep tabs on (and be unpleasant to) little Harry. He also has her lie to the entire Wizangamot, which has got to present some risk. Within this framework, Snape is another very clear stray. Dumbledore kept him out of Azkaban, and is the only reason that the Order trusts him. He gets sent on on dangerous double-agent missions… but before that he’s sort of kept on hand, even though he’s clearly miserable at Hogwarts. And I do wonder about Trelawney. We don’t know much about her relationship with Dumbledore, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she was a stray as well.

I think there was an attempt to turn Lupin into a stray that didn’t… quite work. He is clearly grateful to Dumbledore for letting him attend Hogwarts and then for hiring him, but Lupin doesn’t really hit that necessary level of trustworthy that the others do. Most of what Dumbledore doesn’t know in Book 3 are things that Lupin could have told him, and didn’t. If had to think of a Watsonsian reason why Remus is given all these solo missions away from the other Order members (that never end up mattering…) it’s because I don’t think Dumbledore trusts him that much. Lupin doubts him too much. 

“Dumbledore believed that?” said Lupin incredulously. “Dumbledore believed Snape was sorry James was dead? Snape hated James. . . .”

 We also see Dumbledore start the process of making Draco into a stray by promising to protect him and his parents. And with all of that… it’s kind of easy to see how Harry fits the profile. He has a very bleak existence (which Dumbledore knows about.) He is pulled out of it by Dumbledore’s proxies. It’s not surprising that Harry develops a Hagrid-level loyalty, especially after Dumbledore saves him from Barty, from his Ministry hearing, and then from Voldemort. Harry walks to his death because Dumbledore told him too. 

Just to be clear, I don’t think this pattern is deliberate. I think this is a side effect of JKR wanting to write Dumbledore as a nice guy, and specifically as a protector of the little guy. But Dumbledore doing that while also being so powerful creates a weird power dynamic, gives him a weird edit. It’s part of the reason people are happy to go one step farther and say that the Dursleys were mean to Harry… because Dumbledore actively wanted it that way.  I don’t think that’s true. I think Dumbledore loves his strays and if anything, the text supports the idea that he is collecting good people, because protecting them and observing them serves some psychological function for him. Dumbledore does not believe himself to be an intrinsically good person, or trustworthy when it comes to power. So, of course someone like that would be fascinated by how powerless people operate in the world, and by people like Hagrid and Lupin and Harry, who seems so intrinsically good. 

PART VI - Dumbledore and Grindelwald

“I was in love with you.” 

I honestly see “17-year-old Dumbledore was enamored with Grindelwald” as a smokescreen distracting from the actual moral grayness of the guy. He wrote some edgy letters when he was a teenager, at least partly because he thought his neighbor was hot. He thought he could move Ariana, but couldn’t - which led to the chaotic three-way duel that killed her. 

One thing I think J. K. Rowling does understand pretty well, and introduces into her books on purpose, is the concept of re-traumatization. Sirius in Book 5 is very obviously being re-traumatized by being in his childhood home and hearing the portrait of his mother screaming. It’s why he acts out, regresses, and does a number of unadvisable things. I think it’s also deliberate that Petunia’s unpleasant childhood is basically being re-created: her normal son next to her sister’s magical son. It's making her worse, or at the very least preventing her from getting better. We learn that Petunia has this sublimated interest in the magical world, and can even pull out vocab like “Azkaban” and “Dementor” when she needs to.   She wrote Dumbledore asking to go to Hogwarts, and I could see that in a universe where Petunia didn’t have to literally raise Harry, she wouldn’t be as psychotically into normalness, cleanliness, and order as she is when we meet her in the books. After all, JKR doesn’t like to write evil mothers. She will be bend over backwards so her mothers are never really framed as bad.

And I honestly think it’s possible that J. K. Rowling was playing with the concept of re-traumatiziation when she was fleshing out Dumbledore in Book 7. We learn all this backstory, that… honestly isn’t super necessary? All I’m saying is that the three-way duel at the top of the Astronomy Tower lines up really well with the three-way duel that killed Ariana. Harry is Ariana, helpless in the middle. Draco is Aberforth, well intentioned and protective of his family - but kind of useless, and kind of a liability. Severus is Grindelwald, dark and brilliant, and one of the closest relationships Dumbledore has. If this was intentional, it was probably only for reasons of narrative symmetry… but I think it's cool in a Gus Fring of Breaking Bad sort of way, that Dumbledore (either consciously or unconsciously) has been trying to re-create this one horrible moment in his life where he felt entirely out of control. But the second time it plays out… he can give it what he sees as the correct outcome. Grindelwald kills him and everyone else lives. That is how you solve the puzzle.

If you read between the lines, Dumbledore/Grindelwald is a fascinating love story. I like the detail that after Ariana’s death, Dumbledore returns to Hogwarts because it’s a place to hide and because he doesn’t feel like he can be trusted with power. I like that he sits there, refusing promotions, refusing requests to be the new Minister of Magic, refusing to go deal with the growing Grindelwald threat until he absolutely can’t hide anymore, at which point he defeats him (somehow.) I like reading his elaborate plan to break Elder Wand’s power as both a screw-you Grindelwald, the wand’s previous master, but also as a weirdly romantic gesture. In Albus Dumbledore’s mind, there is only Grindelwald. Voldemort can’t even begin to compare. I like the detail that Grindelwald won’t give up Dumbledore, even under torture. And, Dumbledore doesn’t put him in Azkaban. He put him in this other separate prison, which always makes it seem like he’s there under Dumbledore authority specifically.  Maybe Dumbledore thinks that if he had died that day instead of Ariana…he wouldn’t have had to spend the rest of his life fighting and imprisoning the man he loves.

And then of course, Crimes of Grindelwald decided to take away Dumbledore's greatest weakness and say that no, actually he was a really good guy who never did anything wrong ever.  He went all that time without fighting Grindelwald because they made a magical friendship no-fight bracelet. Dumbledore is randomly grabbing Lupin’s iconography (his fashion sense, his lesson plans, his job) in order to feel more soft and gentle than the person the books have created. Now Dumbledore knows about the Room Requirement, even though in the books it’s a plot point that he's too much of a goody-two-shoes to have ever found it himself. He loved Grindelwald (past tense.) And Secrets of Dumbledore is mostly about him being an omniscient mastermind so that a magical deer can tell him that he was a super good and worthy guy, and any doubt that he’s ever felt about himself is just objectively wrong and incorrect. Also now Aberforth has a neglected son, so he’s reframed as a bit of a hypocrite for getting on his brother’s case for not protecting Harry. 

So to summarize, I think Dumbledore began the series as this very eccentric, unpredictable mentor, whose abilities took a hit in Books 3 and 4 in order to make the plot happen. He teetered on the edge of a ‘dark’ framing for like a second… but at the the end of the series he's written as basically infallible and godlike. I’ve heard people say that JKR’s  increased fame was the reason she added the Rita Skeeter plot line, and I don’t think that’s true. But I do think her fame may have affected the way she wrote Dumbledore. Because Dumbledore is JKR’s comment on power, and by Book 5 she had so much power. In her head, I don’t think that Dumbledore is handing off jobs in a manipulative way. She sees him as empowering other less powerful people. That is his job as someone in power (because remember - people who desire power shouldn't wield it.)

Dumbledore’s power makes him emotionally disconnected from the people in his life, it makes him disliked and distrusted by the Ministry, but it doesn’t make him wrong. That’s important. Dumbledore is never wrong. Dumbledore is always good. That’s why we get the Blood Pact that means he was never weak or procrastinating. That’s why we get the qilin saying he was a good person. It’s why we get the tragic backstory (because giving Snape a tragic backstory worked wonders when it came to rehabilitating him.) And that is why Harry names his son Albus Severus in the epilogue, to make us readers absolutely crystal clear that these two are good men. 

[hollowed-theory-hall]

ok so what are some of the changes you would want in the upcoming harry potter hbo series. and since your blog is Harry centric so I'll ask how do you want him to be portrayed in the series ? what traits of him do you think the series makers should shine more light on ?

Okay, I have, like, a list of things I didn't like in the movies and could be improved upon by the show. The list I have here isn't just about things the show could improve, but also things I want to see in the show in general. I think most of my opinions are pretty common, though.

(Also I'm not sure how good the show will be, like, I'm somewhat hopeful, but also very cautious with my expectations. We should start getting casting announcements around in a few months, which could help indicate where this show is going)

Regardless, here's my list of top concerns for the upcoming show:

Harry's character

This is the one you questioned specifically and one that could make or break the show for me. I want Harry's sass and anger, I don't want him to be a self-insert for the audience the way he was in the movies. I want his actual character. The sass, anger, and tenacity that is Harry Potter combined with his kindness, compassion, and sometimes clueless awkwardness. Let him be smart, clever, and talented.

Harry in the books is so much more than "just Expeliarmos" and the fact people could think that about Harry is a legitimate crime against his character the movies committed. Truly character assassination that Harry isn't an exceptional wizard with the world's lowest self-esteem and cheeky attitude.

(Also, for the love of god, give him green eyes, please. Contacts exist for a reason and it'll be a good way to differentiate the new actor from Radcliffe)

2. Ron & Hermione's characters

I could probably just put a "make all characters like in the books" category since this is true for a lot of them.

Specifically for the other two members of the Golden Trio, I want Hermione to have her flaws, and Ron to be smart. He is talented and smart and just as skilled as Harry and Hermione. He isn't the dumb comic relief and I'm so mad the movies made him such. And Hermione isn't a perfect Mary Sue who can do no wrong. Let her put Rita in a jar. Let her show how much she actually appreciates Ron and Harry and their approach to problems, different as it is to hers.

3. Voldemort's everything

I didn't like Voldemort's design, I didn't like his characterization, I didn't like how he spoke, how he walked — none of it felt like Voldemort to me.

I want Voldemort to be scary, not some odd caricature of himself. Give me a Voldemort design that looks scary. Give him the red eyes, and make him look actually skeletal. And let him move elegantly, talk softly. He isn't shouting and throwing tantrums, usually, he is very deliberate in what he says and does.

Also, give him his weird sense of humor. In the books, he makes bad puns ("Wormtail is here to lend a hand"), I like my villains a little campy with bad puns but also terrifying.

4. Dumbledore's everything

Well, honestly, I have no complaints about Dumbledore in the first movie, my problems started after he was recast.

I want Dumbledore to speak softly. I need an actor who could say "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" and make it work. I want an actor who'd smile like he knows things you don't as his eyes fucking twinkle, but could still look intense and even intimidating for the later seasons. I also want him to look whimsical and dress in the most absurd eye-catching robes you've ever seen.

5. On the matter of robes — wizard fashion

I want wizarding fashion. I want long robes, silly hats, colors, and patterns. I want the costume designers on the show to have fun with it. I want them to go wild.

The wizarding world should look whimsical and campy — that's part of the magic. I want it to look like a foreign world. Even the most purebloods of purebloods (like the Blacks) are more like the Addams Family than any serious drama. They have a sense of campiness and whimsy. Let wizards be weird as shit and show it in their dress and interior design (I mean, the Blacks hang house elf heads and have a troll leg umbrella stand, the Ministry of Magic has paper airplanes flying all around, they're weird).

6. About the more filler-y sections of the books

I want all the silly little plots that were removed from the movies. I think some of the more filer-y things add a lot to the books and to the whimsy of being a student at Hogwarts. I want the trio to sneak out Norbert, I want to see Peeves, the deathday party, all of these things that make Hogwarts truly feel like a magic school.

7. Hogwarts Castle

I love the castle of the movies and that of Hogwarts Legacy. Honestly, I think Hogwarts Legacy did a good job of capturing the feeling of the movies castle while making it its own new unique thing. I think the TV show should do something similar and kinda create a Hogwarts castle amalgamation of all previous iterations that would feel familiar and allow them to still use some of the same merchandise but also be new and unique at the same time.

8. Time period

I think this is a pretty common opinion, but I want the muggle clothes and sets to clearly be set in the 1990s. I want the show to be a period piece. I don't want to see smartphones, or modern fashion, or modern cars — none of that.

9. Age-appropriate casting

I'm not the only one who says this, but as great as Allen Rickman was, he was too old for the role. Part of the tragedy of Snape and the Marauders is how young they actually are. I think it'll just be much more heartbreaking if the actors looked as young as they're supposed to be.

(Including James and Lily in the flashbacks!)

10. Worldbuilding & extra scenes

Since it's a TV show and not a book, which opens up more perspective options, I would like to get, maybe, some extended Pottermore facts into the show. Like, to flash out the world in a way the movies didn't.

Additionally, I wouldn't mind if some extra scenes were added to build up characters we don't get as much of in the books and it could serve the plot. Like, as long as the scenes are added in a way which is like 'they might've happened in the books, we just didn't see them cause Harry wasn't there', that sort of thing without subtracting from anything else and without retconning or contradicting anything. Like, with good writers, this could be really well done, I'm just worried about them adding anything because I don't know how much faith I have in the whole project. But it could be cool if done well.

[stackofstories]

shotgun rider | chapter 2

Like the rest of the Great Hall, Blaise watched as Harry made his way to the stool where the sorting hat sat.

McGonagall, a tall severe severe-looking witch, dropped the hat onto Harry’s head. The hall went quiet. The type of quiet where even breathing felt too loud.

Blaise crossed his fingers. Not Slytherin. Not Slytherin. Anywhere but Slyther--

“GRYFFINDOR!” the hat shouted to the entire hall.

Blaise twitched as the whole of Gryffindor let out a single thunderous roar of approval. Harry’s sorting brought out the loudest cheer by far. Thank Merlin—Blaise’s galloping heart calmed. Harry was a Gryffindor.

Look, Harry’s half Weasley. Blaise watched the string of redheads orbit Harry. The youngest Weasley squeezed next to Harry in minutes completing the set. Harry would forget about him by night’s end.

And then, it was his turn. Blaise felt the barest touch of the worn felt on his braids before the old thing was screeching Slytherin. As long as it wasn’t Gryffindor, Blaise was pleased.

When he joined the Slytherin table, the Headmaster got to his feet.

“Welcome,” Albus Dumbledore said. “Welcome to the new year at Hogwarts. Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment. Tweak!”

“Thank you!”

Dumbledore sat down. The Slytherins politely clapped.

“Dumbledore knows gobbledygook?” Blaise asked. It was a notoriously difficult language.

“Well. He is Dumbledore,” an older year with a milk complexion as if that explained everything. “I heard he also knows Mermish.”

That didn’t surprise Blaise. He could very well imagine his floral robe-wearing Headmaster caterwauling and screeching with the best of them.

“Mad,” Blaise said.

The older year gave him a rueful curved smile.

All thoughts of their eccentric Headmaster fled with the appearance of food. English food appeared on the gleaming serving plates: roast beef, lamb chops, pork chops, roast potatoes, chips, etc. There was enough for seconds, thirds, and fourths if one was feeling particularly gluttonous.

Blaise thought of arancini.

When Mamma was around she cooked his favorites. He thought of last night and himself seated at her right side. Her dark skin glowed like the best of Tahitian pearls and her golden hoop earrings caught the fireplace light. He had gorged himself on her arancini hoping to keep a part of her with him when he went away.

Blaise shook his head. He piled his plate with fried fish and chips. With a dash of vinegar, it wasn’t the worst thing he had ever tasted.

Blaise nibbled on a chip. He looked over at the Gryffindor table and saw the curly-haired ghost from earlier with his head pulled to the side hanging on by a sliver of ghostly skin and marrow. Nearly Headless Nick, Blaise abruptly remembered. How had Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington become nearly headless again?

His stare moved from jolly old Nicholas to Harry beside him. His moss-green eyes were curved and he was smiling and talking and laughing.

Blaise swallowed. He turned and focused on Malfoy prattling away doing his best to ignore their House lar—the horrific Bloody Baron—haunting his shoulder.

“— yes. Cousin Livia goes to Ilvermorny. It’s the premier school in America but Hogwarts is the best wizarding school in the world,” Malfoy said.

Blaise held back a snort. That was categorically untrue. The best schools were in Alexandria and Shanghai. But Malfoy was no more likely to be admitted than Blaise had of being a dementor. Blaise ate another chip.

“There was never a question about my attendance even if Father is worried about the rise of riffraff. Father will be talking to the education board, of course.”

Of course. With the last two wars, the crown jewel of wixen British society – the Blacks – dwindled into a nearly defunct House. In their place stepped in the Malfoys and so had many lesser House like Nott, Parkinson, Bulstrode, Flint, Crabbe, and Goyle. Their names became synonymous with power and prestige in place of the old like Rosier, Avery, Yaxley, Lestrange, and Gaunt. Malfoy and his ilk now sat at the head of the table, but from Blaise’s perspective, it was more of the same, just another wheel turn.

The connections Blaise was meant to curry if he stayed in British society.

Blaise stole one more glance at Harry. Curious green met his.

Blaise broke the connection.

Harry was going to be trouble. He minded his own business.

_

Blaise might have considered Harry’s thoughts on the matter.

_

Harry wobbled on the seat next to him placing his bag under the table.

“Do you want to have tea with Hagrid and me this afternoon? Ron is coming along.” Harry ducked down and fiddled with the brass scale.

Blaise stared at Harry incredulously until the boy wonder looked up at him. Doubt in his eyes.

“You do have Friday afternoons off, right?”

Blaise made a noise in the back of his throat. Harry wasn’t this dense. Couldn’t be.

“Why are you sitting over here?” he asked.

“Er, Snape told us to partner up for the pimple–”

“Boil.”

“— potion, and.” Harry faltered, licking his lips. “And well, it’s been a lot. How have you been?”

How have I been? Blaise rolled the question around in his head. Competing answers crowded his tongue. He shook his head, glancing over his shoulder to see his head of house, Severus Snape, make a sharp turn toward their direction.

Blaise wanted none of Snape’s ire though he was sure because he was there Snape would be a little less intense. But Snape also disliked Harry from the jump.

“It has been a lot.” Blaise agreed. “Can you weigh the nettles? I’ll bring the cauldron to a simmer.”

“It’s wicked though, right? I never want to go back to Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. Ron’s older brother, George or Fred, I don’t know—one of the twins told me that Slytherins were stuck in the dungeons. Do you know about the moving stairs and the portraits that talk? It’s almost like telly. Have you watched telly? I tried explaining that to Ron and he looked at me like I belonged in an institution. And we have to say a password to get into our common room, do you guys also have a password?”

Blaise blinked at his simmering pot. Once more reminded of the train ride and what exactly Harry was trying to tell him. Harry talked a lot but not the self-assured chatter of Malfoy. It felt hurried and unpracticed like Harry was trying to tell him everything all at once as if he were going to die or go away for a long time.

“We do have a password and you remember we share classes. I have been on the stairs,” Blaise said. He held out his hand for the dried nettles then set Harry on crushing the snake fangs– “No, crush the fangs into a fine powder not just pieces,”– while he stewed the horned slug.

Snape arrived at their table. His dark eyes swept over Harry and their potion. Snape’s sallow skin held the barest hint of red to match his sneer. He offered no biting criticisms but no praises.

It was not because Snape was bereft of words. A table over, Snape’s weighty whisper transformed into stirring praise for Malfoy’s technique for stewing slugs. Blaise contained his eye roll.

“Of course, Snape would like that prat,” Harry muttered darkly. “They go together like peanut butter and jelly.”

Blaise bit back a laugh. He continued stirring his potion, glancing over at the other table to check their progress. He froze. “Stop Longbottom.” He hissed at Harry. “The porcupine needles.”

“Neville! No!” Harry raised his voice. “Don’t put the needles into the potion.”

“B-but it says too,” Longbottom said.

Snape sauntered over. A dark cloud brewed on his face. “Idiot boy!” he spat. “The needles go in after taking the cauldron off the fire. Your incompetence would have sent you to the hospital wing though I suppose some might need a more hands-on lesson.”

Tears filled Longbottom’s cow eyes.

Snape banished the potion, growling. “Since I can’t trust you with a cauldron maybe you’ll be a better hand at writing. An essay on why a close reading of potion instructions is fundamental will be due next class.”

Snape whipped around to Harry. “You – Potter – thought you could play hero in the classroom and do Longbottom’s work for him? Anoth--”

“Professor.” Blaise stood as tall as possible. His face smoothed down into nothing, revealing nothing despite the chaotic confusion bubbling inside of him. He knew better. He was raised better but it was out in the world and there was no putting the genie back in the lamp. “I advised Harry to help Longbottom and his partner.”

Snape looked at him with his black eyes. They reminded Blaise of lake waters and their murky depths.

“In the future, concern yourself with only your potion.”

“Sir.” Blaise bowed his head.

Snape turned to the rest of the class, snapping. “You have an hour left on your potions. Any table with less than an Acceptable Boil Brew will be joining Longbottom in writing an essay.”

Harry gleamed like goblin gold when Snape went to harass another student. “You stuck up for me,” Harry whispered with a toothy smile.

“Don’t flatter yourself, Potter,” Blaise said tightly.

The chaotic confusion inside of him shifted into jitters in the bottom of his stomach like hot stones.

“No one has defended me before.”

Blaise closed his eyes and inhaled. Harry needed to stop telling him bits and pieces.

“I’m not writing that essay.” Blaise shook his head. “Let’s focus.”

An hour later, they were finally out of the Potions classroom. Harry was hot on his heels like a duckling. That was another thing. Harry had little concept of personal space. He was always skirting too close.

The youngest Weasley caught up to them. His book bag was worn and full of stitched patches. He and Weasley exchanged appraising looks.

“I can’t believe you left me with Hermione,” Weasley faced Harry. “She’s such a know-it-all.”

“Got you out of writing though,” Harry said. “Cheer up.”

Weasley sighed. “Is he going to Hagrid’s with us?”

He was obviously him. Blaise adjusted his satchel strap across his chest. “I hate to decline. My hair. It’s Wash Day.”

Before they could answer, or in Harry’s case protest, Blaise spun on his heel and walked away. His mind raced. Harry wasn’t going to disappear as easily as he had thought.

[s-novyd]

“Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!”

I was perusing a Harry Potter fanfiction today, and came across Dumbledore's infamous words. For years, I paid them no mind. Or rather, I lacked the curiosity to delve into their significance, as an English speaker but not a native one, they initially puzzled me. Today, however, I finally decided to unravel their meaning. After looking up each word, I deciphered Dumbledore's intent. Yet, it seems that the Potter fandom has long dismissed these words as meaningless, creating memes and jokes. Intrigued, I embarked on a quest to understand whether the true meaning behind these enigmatic words is known or not. Admittedly, my search was not as thorough as it should have been. I merely skimmed through headlines, Quora, and Reddit answers. Nevertheless, I was taken aback to discover that such a longstanding mystery still eluded a solution in bold lines..

Therefore, I have taken it upon myself to propose my theory on the meaning of Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!. I do so with utmost confidence that my interpretation is the correct one, and I present it to all witches, wizards, and wixens for consideration.

Nitwit: a stupid, foolish person

Blubber: swollen part [formally: lips].

Oddment: a remnant. (A part of something, typically left over from something bigger.)

Tweak: a twist or adjustments to the system's machinations.

Well, it's crystal clear, isn't it? He's referring to Quirrellmort. He was aware of it all along. The insufferable old coot.

[vifetoile]

obviously when dumbledore said “nitwit blubber oddment tweak” he understood the need to say “fuck you” to ai learning & writing loud and clear

[ao3feed-bakusquad]

Between the Space of a Breath

Between the Space of a Breath by Nitwit Blubber Oddment and Tweak

Katsuki's partners won tickets to their school friend Jirou's concert.

The issue is that Katsuki hasn't told his partners that he can't hear almost anything anymore.

Words: 2331, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga)

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: Multi

Characters: Ashido Mina, Jirou Kyouka, Bakugou Katsuki, Kirishima Eijirou, Kaminari Denki, Sero Hanta

Relationships: Ashido Mina/Bakugou Katsuki/Kaminari Denki/Kirishima Eijirou/Sero Hanta

Additional Tags: Hard of Hearing Bakugou Katsuki, this will make you feel emotions, seriously all three of my betas cried, quirkless au

Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45348178

[cimerran-714]

Here's a theory I'd heard, although I don't remember where I'd found it.

You know the part where Dumbledore says "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak"? There are quite a few theories about what it meant.

Well, this one suggests that they refer to the names of four Hogwarts house-elves (presumably with one of them being responsible for ensuring that proper food is served at each House). Hence, there are four in all.

Dumbledore was thanking them for their efforts.

[ao3feed-bnha-girls]

In the Moment

In The Moment by Nitwit Blubber Oddment and Tweak

How better to get to know yourself, and what you want- than to explore your mind?

Ochako takes Katsuki on a shared trip, and along the way, he finds love.

Words: 2272, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia

Rating: Mature

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M

Characters: Bakugou Katsuki, Uraraka Ochako

Relationships: Bakugou Katsuki/Uraraka Ochako

Additional Tags: Drug Use, Recreational Drug Use, Mind/Mood Altering Substances, LSD, sex while under the influence of drugs

Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43560756

[theburdenofresponsibility]

Harry Prince and the Philosopher's Stone - Chapter 4 - Into The Badgers' Den

prev chapter || masterpost || next chapter

read on AO3 | word count: 3,096

--

It’s only a moment before the noise starts back up. One quick pause of pin-drop silence and then people are gasping, yelling, cheering.

The whole yellow table jumps to their feet, yelling out in victory like they won a great prize. It’s… not really an experience Harry knows how to feel about. While the tables cheer for every new student within their ranks, this is something else and Harry isn’t sure how to react under this attention.

A glance at the professor over his shoulder, as she lifts the hat from atop his head, gains him a reassuring smile. And so Harry pushes to his feet and shuffles his way to the celebrating table. Some students shuffle around and Harry drops himself in the nearest vacant seat. The fact that Hannah is close enough to talk to, should he need, is something of a reassurance.

When the noise starts to die down, Harry looks back up to the top of the hall, face flaming. The teacher Harry assumes to be the headmaster is already looking at him, an expression Harry can’t understand on his face. But then the man is smiling and pushing himself to his feet to call for quiet. 

Reluctantly, all the students settle down, though a glance suggests that the other tables are a little put-upon that Harry didn’t end up with them. It’s a dizzying thought. But the rest of the names go by easily enough, all getting sorted into their houses with suitable applause. Zabini is last and ends up in Slytherin, much to his pleasure if the smirk he wears is anything to go on.

After the last bout of celebration that brought drew to an end, the probably-headmaster rises once again to his feet and surveys the hall with a wide smile. 

“Welcome!” he says. “Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you”

Harry and Hannah exchange bemused glances, quickly distracted by the appearance of food beneath their noses. Platters are piled high with any and every food Harry could possibly think of; he doesn’t know where to start!

“This is all mental,” he breathes to himself, overwhelmed by everything around him.

An older student smiles at him and leans across the table to stage-whisper.

“That’s what makes Hogwarts so amazing.”

Harry laughs a little nervously before glancing up towards the professors’ table. A breath steels his nerves and then he turns back to the person who addressed him.

“Is he… a little mad?”

“Professor Dumbledore?” they ask, dishing themselves up roasted carrots and then offering the serving spoon to Harry. “A little. He’s a genius, though, and a great Headmaster. Everyone loves him, and you get used to his eccentricities.”

“Ah,” Harry nods with a grin. “Yeah, okay.”

Another older student nudges at Harry’s side, catching his attention and then gesturing towards the hesitant chatter amongst the other first years.

“You’ll want to start chatting with the other first years,” he says with a knowing smile. “It’s always a little easier to get friendly with people on the first day, when everyone’s feeling a little shy.”

“So I can’t be friendly with you?” Harry jokes.

The boy huffs a laugh, spearing a potato with his fork.

“You can, I’m Cedric.”

“Harry.”

“I caught that, funnily enough,” the other boy grins, making Harry flush. 

“Ah, yeah,” he manages, ducking his head and busying himself with piling food onto his own plate. “Usually I go by Harry Prince, though so… That hasn’t really happened before.”

When he dares a glance back, Cedric offers him a sympathetic smile. 

“Well, you handled it great – I nearly fainted during my sorting just as it was, I was so nervous.”

“Really?”

“Really,” he laughs, nudging Harry again; “so try talking with everyone else – I promise they’re nervous too, and will want to make friends.”

Harry offers a last shy smile, before sucking up his courage and turning to the other first years, noticing for the first time how all their robes are solely black. Maybe they’ll have to hand them in to someone to get them changed to their house colours?

“I thought I might’ve been put in Ravenclaw,” one of the boys is saying. “At least, that’s what me mum thought, cause I were doing real well in school before this.”

Another kid grins at him.

“That’s so cool! Do you think that’s why you were up there longer than me?”

“Well, duh,” the first returns with a teasing smile.

“You weren’t gonna be anywhere other than Hufflepuff, Kev,” a girl with long black hair leans in to tell the second boy, before turning to Hannah and another girl. “Y’know, Kevin used to just come home with stray animals… all the time. Should’ve started his own shelter.”

“That’s cute,” the red-head next to Hannah smiles shyly.

“You know each other, then?” Hannah asks the dark-haired girl.

“Hmm? Yeah – live in the same town, don’t we?”

Kevin nods back at her.

“I’m stuck with her.”

“Oi!” She huffs, good-naturedly.

It makes Harry’s chest ache, longing for his friends back home already.

“So… are you all raised magic or…?” he finds himself asking, genuinely curious.

Hannah grins at him, nodding although he already knew about her.

“Me and Megan were, yeah,” Kevin says, and Harry makes a mental note of his friend’s name.

The red-head nods, and the boy next to her grins a gap-toothed smile.

“I was half-raised magic. Mum’s a muggle, but dad made sure I knew all the basic stuff,” he agrees.

“I wasn’t,” one of the last first years says, not meeting anyones eye. “My family isn’t magic”

Everyone, seemingly satisfied with the answers already given, turns to Harry.

“What about you?” Megan asks, waving three skewered green beans at him with her fork. “I haven’t heard about you at all!”

“Oh, uh,” Harry flushes. “I was raised with muggles, but by a wizard.”

Unconsciously, his eyes dart to Snape where he’s whispering to the Professor that did the sorting. Harry realises, suddenly, that he’ll actually be able to put faces to the names of the friends his dad talks about. He also realises how weird it’s going to be knowing the gossip about the teachers – though Snape is adamant he doesn’t gossip, that is exactly what he does.

“So, um,” he continues, turning his gaze quickly back to the group, “I don’t actually know a lot about magic, but I’ve known that I have it for a while, y’know?”

“And you’re friends with muggles?”

Harry manages a bitter-sweet smile. It’s only been a day and he feels the distance between them already.

“Yeah, I am.”

“Neat,” a boy who hasn’t spoken yet is saying. “What’s everyone’s names, by the way? I’m Justin.”

The group goes round introducing themselves and Harry finds out that the boy who might have been a Ravenclaw is called Ernie, the red-headed girl is called Susan, and the boy with the gap-tooth smile is Wayne, and Roger is the last and most quiet of the lot. Including Harry that makes nine Hufflepuff first-years, which doesn’t strike him as a lot considering this must be about a quarter of his whole year-group and this school supposedly holds the whole population of school-aged British witches and wizards. Harry’s year group was larger than this in his primary school, and that was just for Cokesworth.

Still, though, there’s enough of them that they manage to bounce through conversations that aren’t actually that awkward. Harry likes these kids, he thinks. He definitely likes Hannah, at least, and he’s very glad he got to get to know her a bit already on the train so he feels less alone in this group. He just hopes Neville and Zabini are making friends at their own tables, though he can’t quite seem to spot them through the crowds of students even as the good food and late hour starts to subdue them. 

It seems that the teachers seem to notice that the students are finishing up their desserts – Harry had a pretty large piece of treacle tart that he absolutely didn’t have room for, but that was unequivocally worth it – and are growing tired. After a dip in the chatter, the headmaster pushes himself back to his feet once more, all eyes swinging round to him. 

With final words of warning from the Professor and a, pretty confused on the part of the first years, rendition of the school song, students were dismissed to file out of the hall.

“You guys’ll want to follow Gabriel, he’ll be the prefect who’ll show you to the common room,” Cedric leans over to tell Harry before hurrying off to catch up with the other older students waving him along.

Gabriel turns out to be a tall, stocky boy who seems to be practically vibrating with excitement to be giving them the tour. House pride, Harry assumes, but his sleepy mind and heavy limbs aren’t nearly as on the ball as their guide’s.

“Right, hi, firsties!” the guy beams. “You’re lucky, it’s really not far to the Hufflepuff common room so you’ll be settling in to rest in no time.”

Harry and the rest follow after him, docile from exhaustion, as the prefect continues on.

“Gryffindor and Ravenclaw both have entrances to a tower somewhere, so that’s a lot of stairs for them.”

They descend a set of stone stairs not too far from the entrance to the Great Hall.

“Slytherin’s a bit better since they’re only somewhere in the dungeons, but still not great. Whereas we…”

There are a few turns down corridors before they stop before stacks of huge barrels, each of them that Harry could probably stand up in were they open. In fact, Gabriel mightn’t even have to duck too far to fit through.

“Ha!” the prefect exclaims, throwing them all a grin. “We’re right here.”

He pulls a wand from a pocket in his robe and raises it to one specific barrel.

“Now, pay attention, cause this is how we get in–”

And then he taps the tip of his wand against the wood, making Harry think back, briefly, to his venture into Diagon Alley. It wasn’t all that different from the entrance there, he supposed.

“Hel–ga… Hu-ffle-puff…” Gabriel mutters under his breath to the rhythm of his tapping, a little smile still on his face.

That smile widens as the wood of the barrel lid rolls aside to reveal not the inside of a barrel… but a bustling room full of Hufflepuff students. Even as tired as they are, there are some gasps of awe and surprise as Gabriel ducks into the opening to the space on the other side.

“C’mon!” the prefect coaxes and everyone scrambles to follow him inside.

The space, Harry has to admit as he looks around in awe, is pretty damn amazing. The room is pretty huge, as he figures it has to be to house all of Hufflepuff in their down time, and has beautiful stone-brick walls. The space isn’t cold, though. The room itself forms a large and yet snuggly cluttered circular space. There are tapestries and moving paintings adorning the walls, and shelves upon shelves of books and potted plants. The floor has overlapping rugs, all in various states or wear but feeling beautifully lived in. The furniture, too, looks cushy and inviting. The space is full of plush sofas and armchairs, all piled high with soft-looking cushions and discarded blankets. 

Everything is warmed by the roaring fireplace and further lit by the candles mounted to the walls and cluttered on beautiful wooden side-tables. It gives the room a bright, cosy feel that only accentuates the personality of the mismatched furniture. And, on the other side of the room, is a large glass window taking up most of the wall-space. Light must pour through that in the day to keep all the plants thriving; though, now, all that can be seen is an ocean of night.

Harry glances at Hannah, who seems to be taking this all in with a great deal of awe, too. In fact, all the first years are looking around with a kind of sleepy wonderment as the rest of the house tiredly say their goodbyes and shuffle off to what Harry assumes must be their beds. 

“Welcome to the Hufflepuff common room,” Gabriel grins. “You’ll get the proper speech from our head of house tomorrow morning before breakfast, but this is where you’ll probably spend a lot of your evenings.” He gestures to two wooden doors, one on either side of the room. “Through these are the student dorms – girls on the left and boys on the right. Some of the other houses have preventions against boys or girls going in the wrong dorms, but Hufflepuff doesn’t for reasons you probably don’t care about. Either way we just need to wait for….”

Gabriel trails off, looking around until his eyes fall onto an exhausted looking girl who makes her way over to them. 

“Ah! Tina,” Gabriel grins at her.

Tina, Harry notes, is wearing the same ‘P’ badge attached to her clothes that Gabriel is on his school robes, despite the fact she’s already changed into a pair of soft pink pyjamas. She nods, blinking through evident exhaustion, before turning to their group and putting her hands on her waist.

“Right, hello!” she tries for cheerful. “I’m Tina, and I’m also a Hufflepuff prefect.”

Even through everything, Harry feels a sense of ease with both the prefects. Gabriel and Tina, outwardly, seem to be quite opposite. Gabriel is a tall, lanky boy with dishevelled, dirty blonde hair and a dusting of freckles who is vibrating with energy and excitement, smile wide enough to show both rows of his teeth. Tina, on the other hand, is a plump girl with beautiful ochre skin and wide downturned eyes who seems a lot more calm, at least right now, and wears a much more subtle smile. Despite all that, they both feel oddly approachable and friendly. That’s probably, thinking about it, how they both ended up both in Hufflepuff and as the prefects greeting the first years.

“Tina’s gonna show the girls to their room. Just cause we can go into the girls area, doesn’t mean we do so for no reason.”

The boys all nod. That’s fair enough. 

“Right, girls,” Tina announces sleepily, waving a hand over her head, “to bed! This way.”

The girls and guys wave a quick goodbye before they trail after Tina and the boys are led to the other door by Gabriel. The hallway behind is is simple and quaint, with doors at various intervals on either side, each with a name plate dictating which yeargroup’s dorms lie beyond. It’s the second door on the right with a sign proclaiming ‘1st Years’.

Behind this door is yet another, much shorter corridor. There are five doors branching off this corridor, though only two have nameplates on currently. At the end of the corridor, almost stretching from the ceiling to the rug that runs along the floor, is a canvas of a greying, red-headed wizard sat up a chess board.

“Ah!” the painting greets. “Evening boys.”

“That’s Lucien,” Gabriel introduces. “He was a Seer who attended Hufflepuff… was it three hundred years back, sir?”

“Three hundred and four,” the man nods agreeably, stretching his legs out.

“He’s sort of security for these dorms, but he wanders off from time to time.”

“Is an old man not allowed friends?” the painting teases in the background.

“You’ll be in these dorms for your years at Hogwarts – the sign will be changed between the years to match what year you are in when you return. This’ll be your home for as long as you’re here, so take care of it!

“That door at the end–” he gestures “--is your shared bathroom space. You can check that out in the morning. For now your cases have been put in your respective rooms. Feel free to debate which beds you all get, but they should all be about the same.

“Have a good night, guys! You’ll need to be up for half past six tomorrow to meet Professor Sprout in the common room.”

With that, the older boy lets himself back out of their corridor and off to his own room. For a moment all the boys just blink at each other tiredly.

“C’mon then chaps,” Lucien smiles. “Spit spot! To bed with you.”

They startle slightly and then peer at the doors around them. It seems the six of them have been split evenly between two of the four dorm rooms. Harry finds his own name – ‘Harry P.’ it reads, which is a little relieving since being Harry Potter has already been such an overwhelming experience – on a door alongside ‘Roger M.’ and ‘Justin F.’.

The inside of their dorm is as round as the common room, with canopy beds pushed with the heads against the walls somewhat-evenly spaced apart. They hang with muted yellow curtains – a colour that had been seen in abundance in the common room. It seems the whole of Hufflepuff is adorned with yellows, blacks, greys, and earth tones as well as a splash of green from plants. Even here they can’t seem to escape the pop of a new colour. Each bedside table has a potted plant standing proud. 

On the wall directly opposite the door is a little fireplace that makes entering the room warm and cosy.

“Who wants the bed nearest the fire?” Justin asks, yawning as he makes his way over to their cases left neatly to the side of the door.

Roger doesn’t say anything, but shifts a little, eyes darting towards the bed longingly.

“You want it?” Harry asks him and the boy nods.

“If – uh – if no one else does? I get a bit cold at night.”

“Cool with me,” Justin says, tugging out a pair of pyjamas from his case. “You mind if I have the one closest to the door, Harry?”

“No, that’s cool,” he agrees, moving to haul his bed over to the last remaining bed.

They change in comfortable silence before burrowing into the comforters and pillows on their new beds. Eyes heavy and belly full, Harry thinks he won’t last long at all before slipping into the embrace of sleep. Even so, he can’t help muttering out a little:

“This all feels so strange…”

Roger hums in agreement as Justin snorts in amusement.

[the-quivering-quill]

10 years of HPFA

Today each one of us reflects back with a good memory from this decade.

We thank you for having been part of this journey with us!

Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

[bibliophilicstranger]

I wonder if Nitwit, Blubber, Oddment, and Tweak are the names of house elves in charge of making the food appear in the house tables.

[chrmiing-arc]

harry potter open starter , mutuals only

          ❛ okay, no you’re wrong. i could so beat you in a duel - in fact i could do it blindfolded any time any place. i’d even bet my complete set of famous vampire cards on it. there’s no way you could take me on one-on-one. ❜

[lamentedhope-a]

Dumbledore: I'm disappointed Severus, I thought you and I were close.

Snape: I know you're manipulating me. . . but I love it and will tell you anything.

[thegirlfallsfromthesky]

@goddamnmuses

From here

“I know, I know. I’m not really worried about it, but it wasn’t exactly the nicest thing to hear from a new teacher.”

[ao3feed-bnha-girls]

Between the Space of a Breath

Between the Space of a Breath by Nitwit Blubber Oddment and Tweak

Katsuki's partners won tickets to their school friend Jirou's concert.

The issue is that Katsuki hasn't told his partners that he can't hear almost anything anymore.

Words: 2331, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga)

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: Multi

Characters: Ashido Mina, Jirou Kyouka, Bakugou Katsuki, Kirishima Eijirou, Kaminari Denki, Sero Hanta

Relationships: Ashido Mina/Bakugou Katsuki/Kaminari Denki/Kirishima Eijirou/Sero Hanta

Additional Tags: Hard of Hearing Bakugou Katsuki, this will make you feel emotions, seriously all three of my betas cried, quirkless au

Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45348178

[fanonical]

dumbledore's funeral

official: would you like to say a few words, harry?

harry: yes

harry: ahem

harry: nitwit! blubber! oddment! tweak!