#no he just doesn’t think she should be planning his sister’s wedding considering her behavior

[yourqueenb]

I randomly got a book pass for Save the Date, so my take of the day is that the way people talked about Justin was actually insane. Not exactly a new take, but still very accurate.

People were literally saying he was in the wrong for “following” MC to her new job to warn her employer not to hire her? As if said employer wasn’t his sister and she was considering MC as a wedding planner. And as if he hadn’t watched MC either flip a whole table or shove bread into her boss’ mouth like the day before 😐

[foxanddragonbooks]

Witchshadow Review and Rating

★★☆☆☆

I have thought about this rating for a long time. This was my most anticipated book of the year and my favorite series. It hurts my soul to rate it low, but anything else would be a lie. There were just so many things I did not like. Of course, there were things I liked, the writing was beautiful as always, Stix’s arc, but unfortunately the positive couldn't outweigh the negative. And I had a lot of negative feelings while reading this book.

The first thing that didn't work for me was the nonlinear timeline. The prolog takes place a few days after the last book ended. That was nice. Then the next chapter takes place one month after that event. That is already too big of a time jump for my liking. Characters were in certain places already, and you don't find out why, how, or when until later on. Usually in a flashback scene. It was so confusing. I want to know why someone is at this place now and how they get there when it happens, not through a flashback. This type of storytelling might work for movies and tv shows, but it's really difficult in books. The flashbacks also felt ill-placed. We already knew this plan went wrong because if it didn’t the character wouldn't be in the position they are in now. It could have just been described in a few sentences, instead of flashbacks that took up several pages.

Second of all, one of the MAIN characters was completely absent. This just doesn't make sense storytelling-wise. At all. He still has so much left to do and there is only one more book left. One 500 page book that is distributed into 6 povs. I really can't see how that's supposed to work. I can see how that character had to be gone for some time, given the events of the previous book, but that could have been solved with the usual 2 week time jump between books. Keeping the main character away for a whole book/movie/series just never works. Remember when Game of Thrones left out Bran for an entire season even though GRRM said that he is one of the key five? This is what this book felt like.

Another main character was barely in the book either. He was there, but he was not himself. He was literally possessed for 95% of the book, so in a way, two main characters were not part of the book.

That brings me right to my next point. Way too much focus on side characters I couldn't care less about. This was supposed to be Iseult's book but it felt more like a Hell Bard book. Again, I don't understand why. They are side characters but they felt so present in the book while other characters that are much more important to the story were absent. I wanted this to be a Nomatsi book. A book about the history of the Nomatsi. Why are they hated? How did they live before they came to the Witchlands? I was so sure that all those questions would be answered in this book but all we got were a few folktales and a history in hell bards. This was supposed to be Iseutls book, not theirs. They are not even that important to the plot and a big chunk of their plot could have been given to maybe the two missing main characters. That would have been pretty epic. The hell bard loom was never mentioned before, Midne, the first hell bard was never mentioned before, but they take up such a big plot in ISEULT’S book? Why? It felt so random. Esme’s loom was important to the story in the previous book, but it was barely mentioned in this one.

And Esme, oh God. This was supposed to be this super powerful, badass villain, and then she is turned into a weasel just like that. It felt so off and weird.

Furthermore, at this point, Safi has more development with the hell bards, SIDE CHARACTERS, than she has with any of the main characters. She had 1 book with Merik, her love interest, 1 with Iseult, her best friend, and 0 with Aeduan, Vivia, and Stix. This is the second to last book. I really don’t understand how she didn’t get to interact with all these important characters more or at all so far.

Things also didn't add up. It's implied that Safi is 18 in this book when she has been 19 for the last two books. Leopold suddenly becomes younger too. In the first book, Safi says he is the same age as Merik, who is 20, now he is 18. Or it is implied that he is. It’s confusing. It doesn't make sense.

There is a very weird scene that borders on romance and made me dread reading further. It's said in the beginning of the book that these characters are thread FAMILY. Thread SIBLINGS. Yet one thinks about the other as very handsome and they are only inches apart and holding hands in a scene. IT'S WEIRD. If they are supposed to be family then why was this scene written? If you consider someone your sister or brother from another mother you don't do this kind of stuff. The Vivia/Vaness romance came out of nowhere.

The Vivia/Stix being thread siblings came out of nowhere and made 0 sense. They were supposed to be the mutual pining childhood friends to lovers ship, now they are family. Vivia was jealous in Windwitch when she thought Stix had slept with someone. This is not sibling behavior! The set up for Vivia/Stix was right THERE and so present! Whereas Vivia/Vaness came out of nowhere. I don’t understand what’s going on anymore. Please don’t foreshadow things that you don’t mean to go through with. I hate this.

To quote Iseult: “Nothing felt real. Nothing made sense.” That sums up the entire book for me. The characters felt so off to me.

Safi comes up with this ridiculous plan to noose the Emperor while kissing him, and OF COURSE, it goes wrong. It was such a stupid plan, and Safi at this part of the story would have never done this. It felt like a step back for her and made zero sense. She is supposed to be smarter than that now.

Iseult felt so off at the beginning of the book, I didn’t even realize it was her at first. She was all ‘I kill people and regret nothing, I am the badass puppeteer, don’t fuck with me’ and then she went back to her old self in like a blink and never returned to her ‘dark self’.

There is a scene where Safi walks into the Emperor’s room while he has sex with his mistress, IT WAS SO WEIRD and uncomfortable. Literally, why was this scene necessary. Like she wanted to steal something from his rooms but she could have done this at night while he was sleeping. While everyone was sleeping.

Safi’s original plan was also to noose Henrick during their wedding night. That was so weird and made me so uncomfortable. He is 3 times Safi’s age, please. Like I get that she honestly believed she would be forced to consummate the marriage, so she thought hmm might as well get my revenge on this bitch then. But when Henrick said he had no intention of taking Safi to his bed, she was not relieved at all? She was like no, no, no, you have to take me to your bed. It felt so unrealistic. Safi is literally a teenager. Any teenage girl would be glad to not have to sleep with a man old enough to be her father. She should have been relieved that she wasn’t forced to sleep with an old man, and glad that that would mean she had more time to come up with a more fleshed-out plan to kill him. And Iseult would have never let Safi go through with her original plan. Never.

This book felt so, so different from the other books of the series that I love so much, and not in a good way. I don’t think I have been so disappointed and upset since the last season of Game of Thrones aired.

I want to go back in time when the main characters of this series were still main characters. At this point, I have so little hope for the last book. Maybe I am wrong, I would be glad to be wrong, but this book feels like a bullet hole in my chest and I am not sure it can be fixed.

[p-artsypants]

I’ll Handle This (9)

In Which Plagg cuts the Umbilical Cord

Howdy folks! Thanks for the patience! I like to pretend I’m regular with uploads, but we all know that’s not true. And for a little while, it’s going to be worse. I had a gallbladder attack this week, and I have to wait about a month to get it out. In the meantime, I get sick pretty easily from most foods. So I’ve kind of put writing on the backburner. 

Oh, I’m also planning a wedding!

Thanks for understanding and not sending demands for updates!

FF.net | Ao3 

—

Adrien was feeling pretty darn good, all things considered. 

Ladybug, or Marinette rather, had been so adamant for so long that no one could know their identities. It was a mantra he stuck to, though he desperately wished to know her outside the mask. 

With Nino in on the secret, it felt more liberating than he expected. All night, he told Nino stories of his terrible excuses and narrow misses of getting caught. 

“I don’t know how I didn’t catch it sooner.” Nino had said, hindsight being 20/20 and all that. 

And Adrien admitted that he felt dumb for not realizing Nino was Carapace sooner. So Nino’s guilt was lessened a bit by that. 

While the boys talked, Plagg stayed rather neutral. He didn’t divulge any more of his plans or prepare them for what was to come. 

Because he couldn’t. Plagg was preparing for several different outcomes, all hindered on many overlapping factors. He just had to hope for the best for now and not stress Adrien out. 

The kid deserved to enjoy his first sleepover.

—

Being an ancient being, Plagg’s passive perception was relatively high. He noticed things and had an awareness that surpassed most other entities on the planet. 

Though, he rarely acted on anything he noticed, since he could phase out of most danger.  It mostly kept him from being seen by people who weren’t supposed to see him. 

However, alarm bells were currently going off like crazy inside his—or Adrien’s—head. 

Lila was hovering just a bit too closely for comfort. 

Though she was usually the main attraction in a conversation, she wasn’t very good at spying. She hovered, just at the edge of the circle, throwing out plenty of ‘oh, don’t mind me’s, but keeping her eye trained on him. She even followed them when they went out for lunch. Far enough away that no one would notice, mind you, but there none the less. 

Lila was not Gabriel’s muse. She was his stooge. His little puppet. His meat camera. 

As long as Lila was around, Gabriel was aware of every action he took. Who knew what kind of bull shittery she’d pull if he did something remotely different. 

But what exactly was she watching for? Just reporting his change in behavior? 

Had Gabriel suspected too much? 

It was high time Plagg put the next phase of his plan into action. 

But first, he needed to throw Lila off the trail. 

It was after class, and everyone was packing their stuff up and discussing how the weekend had gone. 

This seemed like the perfect opportunity. 

“Hey guys! I taught Lila how to play Magic at the last photoshoot! Anyone want to play with her?” 

The words were like fresh blood in a tank of sharks. Lila was grabbed and sat down at a desk, as she tried to come up with an excuse to leave. 

“Oh, I’d uhh...I’d love to play. But my mom has a doctor appointment after school and she wanted me home...” 

“Oh Lila, it’s okay,” said Plagg. “Don’t feel bad about skipping our study session. This is your chance to really bond with the boys in our class!” 

Lila just sent him a tight lipped smile. 

“Okay, Kim, let Lila use your deck.” 

“What? No! ‘Soul Sisters’ is perfectly crafted and only an expert can really unlock its true potential.” 

Alix swiped the deck from his hand. “Yeah, you build a deck with all the tig-bitty angel wifus. It’s great. Take a break, horn dog.” She slammed the deck down in front of a traumatized Lila. 

Max was her partner. “Don’t worry, we’ll go slow and I’ll explain everything as we go along.” 

Plagg smiled to himself, watching as the boys, and even some girls, crowded around to watch. 

He then caught Marinette’s eye and gestured out to the hall. There was no way Lila could stealthily maneuver her way over to him without drawing the attention of all their classmates. 

In the hall, Plagg took Marinette’s hand and led her away, into a secluded corner of the upper floor. Hopefully, Lila wouldn’t spot them if she tried to do something rash. 

“Is everything okay, Adrien?” Marinette asked, her face tinged pink. 

“Not...not completely. Lila was following and eavesdropping on me all day.” 

Marinette gasped, covering her mouth. “That’s sick!” 

“Yes, I agree. I’m not quite sure what she was looking for, but I’m fairly certain she’s spying for my father.” 

Marinette squeezed his arm. “I’m so sorry, Adrien. If I knew how to help...” 

“I should be the one apologizing.” He said, genuine sadness in his voice. He had hoped solving Adrien’s problems would have helped Marinette out, but he worried it would be the opposite. 

“What do you have to apologize for?”

He took her hands, holding them delicately in his own. “I told you that I made a deal with her to get you back into school. But…”

She whispered. “Adrien...” 

He touched her face, ever so gently, laying the charm on thick. “Marinette, I care about you so much, and if I could avoid this I would, but...” 

“But what?” 

“Lila’s made it clear that she’s taking this feud I’m having with my father personally. She’s going to take whatever chance she can get to go back on our agreement. She’s going to go after you again.” He shook his head, conjuring tears into his eyes. “I can’t bear to see you hurt by her!” 

“Oh Adrien!” She gasped, before throwing her arms around him. “Please don’t cry. I can handle her, honest.” 

“I have a plan in motion,” he clarified, squeezing her. “She won’t get away with her lies and harassment for much longer. I just need you to be strong.” 

“Whatever you need, just let me know. You don’t have to do this alone.” 

“I know. Thank you, Marinette. Now, I have to go before Lila escapes my trap.” 

Her smile was genuine and full of gratitude. “I’ll see you tomorrow then! Bye!” 

Eager to take what head way he could get, Plagg pressed a kiss to Marinette’s cheek before hurrying away. 

He missed her squealing and dancing after he turned his back. 

—

“I really dislike that sausage-haired cretin.” Plagg muttered as he walked home. “It’s one thing to lie to get attention, but for her to spy on us all day? Talk about creepy!”

“Thank you for warning Marinette,” Adrien said as he floated by his shoulder. “I agree that Lila is looking for any opportunity to go back to bullying her. I think with the warning, she’ll be able to come up with some way to protect herself.” 

“Nothing against your lady’s ability to find solutions, since that is her job as Ladybug, but I don’t know what kind of back up plan she can have against a compulsive liar. Why is every adult in Paris so gullible?” 

“I have a theory,” Adrien suggested. “They aren’t gullible. They just see a pretty young girl crying and they just go along with whatever she says to make it stop. They just assume she’s exaggerating or something.” 

“Good observation,” Plagg commended. “I agree.”  

“But I think we should put off worrying about Lila for a bit and focus on my father. He hasn’t seen you since Friday morning when you serenaded him. I can’t imagine he’s going to be happy to see you.” 

“Adrien, we’ve been over this. I can handle a grown ass adult throwing a temper tantrum. There’s only two things he hasn’t tried yet, and they’re both pretty extreme. I don’t know if he has it in him. I called his bluff before, anyways.” 

“What two things?” 

“Having me arrested...or getting violent. I dared him to hit me and he swore he never would. I just can’t imagine he was telling the truth.” 

“Are you trying to drive him to it?”

“I’m trying to drive him to a place of ‘I give up, what do you want’? Hopefully we can talk, and he’ll come to see you aren’t a child anymore. As much as I think your dear old dad is capable of being a butt head, I think he’s also capable of understanding. He is a successful businessman after all. Business doesn’t come without a little mercy.” 

“That’s a...way to look at it...” 

At that point, they reached the mansion, and Adrien returned to the pocket. 

Plagg decided not to ring the doorbell, and instead climbed the wall. 

He strolled very nonchalantly up to the front door, and entered, slamming the door shut behind him. 

Then he waited three seconds. 

“1...2...”

“Adrien!” Gabriel rushed out of his office. “I didn’t expect you home already.” 

“Because Lila didn’t text you with my location?” 

Gabriel just stared, slightly wide-eyed and pale. 

Caught red handed. 

“She is spying on me for you, right? This isn’t just her stalking me on her own. She’s not smart enough for that.” 

“I—“ 

“So what? You don’t know how to communicate with me so you go to the only person in my class that I not only dislike, but has a record of compulsive lying? Seriously? You thought that was your best option?” 

“You do not get to lecture me about my choices!” Gabriel barked. 

But Plagg just shook his head. “You make no sense to me.”

“My decisions and actions don’t have to make sense to you. You are my child, and you will obey me! Do you understand?” 

Plagg just gave him a patient smile. Arguing with him never went anywhere, because Gabriel always turned his ears off the second Adrien said something he didn’t want to hear. 

Which was anything that wasn’t “yes sir.”

“I understand what you want. But I can’t give it to you. You haven’t listened to what I’ve said. You’re so caught up in injustice, that you haven’t seen how your yelling has affected me. I’m just pulling farther and farther away. Do you want to lose me for good? Is that what you want? Because that’s the road you’re heading down. I’m 15 now. Three years of this, and I could easily move away and never speak to you again after how badly you’ve treated me.” 

“I do not treat you badly! Have you ever gone without food? Without a soft bed? Without clothes or showers? No! You have it better than most people in this city.” 

“You’re right, I should be without want or need. But you’ve severely neglected my heart. Gabriel, I’m lonely, and sad. I’m disappointed every time you break a promise. I can go anywhere and have food and shelter and whatever, but only you can give me the love of my father.” 

Gabriel was silent at this, staring at his son, his lips in a firm line. 

“So I’m going to go. I’m staying with some friends for a while. Just to give you a taste of what it’s like without me. If you like it, then, when I’m 18, I’ll leave, and never come back.” 

Gabriel looked to the ground, but found himself unable to say anything. Plagg ascended the stairs, and went into Adrien’s room. 

“I don’t want to leave…” Adrien said, quietly. “I’d rather stay and…” 

“And do nothing?”

Adrien looked away. 

“Look,” said Plagg, directing his chin up. “Your father is a hard nut to crack. We just have to push harder and harder. Do you still trust me?”

“What choice do I have?”

“It’s going to be okay, kid.” He rubbed his thumb over his whiskers. “I promise.” 

He packed up his duffel that he had taken for his sleepover, and came back down the stairs. 

Gabriel was right where he left him. “So, you’re going? Just like that?” 

“At this point, I think it’s for the best. Just for a little while. Give us both some perspective.” 

“You’ll regret it,” he warned. 

“Maybe. But what’s there to learn from if I don’t make mistakes?” 

Gabriel didn’t stop him as he walked out the door. 

After he left, Nathalie emerged from the office. “Your son is surprisingly mature for his age.” 

“No, he’s stubborn. Just like his mother. I give him three days before he comes crawling back.” 

“And if he doesn’t?” 

“Then I’ll make him come back.” 

—

Chat Noir bounded over rooftops at sunset. He had a destination in mind, and getting spotted by Lila or one of Gabriel’s other goons would ruin it all. 

After traveling in circles, he finally reached the Lahiffe house and stopped on the fire escape outside Nino’s room. 

Nino looked up at the sound. “Oh dude!” 

“Nino Lahiffe, the time has come.” Said Plagg in his ancient voice. “This is the Miraculous of the Dude.” He opened his hand to show a single Hersey’s kiss. “You will use it for the greater bro-kind, and let me crash here for the foreseeable future, as I have run away from home.” 

“Dude...” Nino took it reverently. “I will fulfill my sacred oath...but you should probably come in through the front door, and we should kind of explain this to my mom, or she’s going to wonder how you got in the house.” 

“True. Meet you downstairs in five!” 

—

Marinette laid in her bed, eyes trained to the sky through the sky-light, hands clutching a pillow tightly to her chest. 

She sighed.

The sound made Tikki roll her eyes. She knew Plagg was hamming it up, but did he have to be so…charming?! 

“Tikki…” Marinette announced, after mooning for over an hour. “I think…I think I can tell him tomorrow.” 

The words were music to her ears! Finally! “You can do it Marinette!” 

Then a shadow passed Marinette’s face as the worst past through her mind. “But what if he hasn’t been earnest? What if the way he’s been acting has just been to get back at his father or Lila?” 

Tikki almost groaned. “Marinette, Adrien loves you. He really really loves you! The way he pulled you aside today and warned you about what was going to happen with Lila? He didn’t do that for anyone but you. That was real care! The longer you beat around the bush, the more you’re putting off your own happiness. And you don’t want that, do you?”

Marinette sat up, resolve hardening. “Tomorrow then. I’ll tell him tomorrow, and get my happily ever after.”

[she-wolf-of-highgarden]

As someone that likes both Sansa and Arya, what’s your take on Ned’s parenting? I feel like Ned really needed to sit them down together after the trident and explain to them the dangers of the Lannisters as well as drawing a line for acceptable behavior. Say to Sansa: you cannot tell Arya you wish she was dead. Say to Arya: it doesn’t matter what Sansa says, you cannot beat her up. Ned never talks to Sansa after he kills Lady and his talks with Arya aren’t enough. (Sorry for sending all the asks

Oh my gosh don’t worry about it. I love asks…I’m just sometimes slow with them. Fair warning, this got...long

At his core Ned loves his children; he really does. He also doesn’t know them super well or at least isn’t super in touch with them and he is not in charge of raising them. Which is pretty on par with the Westerosi fathers we see. He’s still a heck of a lot better than Bobby B and Roose Bolton over there. There’s still some distance there. Which again considering the universe Martin has made and the social standing it makes sense.

Ned does kinda sorta address the don’t-hit-your-sister thing with Arya when he finds Needle. But, admittedly, it is kind of a joke.

“For true." He smiled. "If I took it away, no doubt I'd find a morningstar hidden under your pillow within the fortnight. Try not to stab your sister, whatever the provocation.” – Arya II, AgoT

But I think part of the reason he isn’t that worried is that even Sansa is surprised when Arya hits her.

“Arya, stop it!" Ned shouted. Jory pulled her off her sister, kicking. Sansa was pale and shaking as Ned lifted her back to her feet. "Are you hurt?" he asked, but she was staring at Arya, and she did not seem to hear.” – Eddard III, AGoT

After that the worst Arya does to her is throw a piece of orange at her and while it was unkind and Arya needed to be reprimanded for it, it wasn’t like it was unprovoked. This isn’t like the show where Arya sheep-shifted Sansa’s bed (that still annoys me) and threw fruit at her at the feast for the king for fun. When Arya does it, they are arguing about Mycah…the same subject that had Arya kicking her sister.

“Arya screwed up her face in a scowl. "Jaime Lannister murdered Jory and Heward and Wyl, and the Hound murdered Mycah. Somebody should have beheaded them."

"It's not the same," Sansa said. "The Hound is Joffrey's sworn shield. Your butcher's boy attacked the prince.” – Sansa III, AGoT

Feels like the adult sitting right there should have ended that conversation.

It doesn’t matter if Sansa is in the right not to be mad at the royal family or that she can’t. The issue is that Arya is 9 and has a thing about lying and is traumatized. Remember even though it is never brought up again, Arya is hiding in the woods for three days. A 9-year-old little girl. In the woods. In Westeros. The fact Ned didn’t turn around or send at least Arya back is honestly one of the times I wish I could shake a fiction character and demand answers. Why Arya was in the south in the first place still boggles me, but I’ll get back to that.

It takes Ned until Sansa III to actually talk to the girls together. This should have been like Eddard IV or Sansa II or something. Sansa III is a bit too late and we can see that because Sansa is just plain mean in this chapter, the girl has reached a breaking point. Arya ruins her dress. Which is bad, no argument here. The issue is that she gets an apology. She gets one in front of Ned and refuses to accept it.

“Enough, Sansa." Lord Eddard's voice was sharp with impatience.

Arya raised her eyes. "I'm sorry, Father. I was wrong and I beg my sweet sister's forgiveness."

Sansa was so startled that for a moment she was speechless. Finally she found her voice. "What about my dress?” – Sansa III, AGoT

This conversation between the girls goes on for a pretty minute in front of Ned. Instead of just standing there he could have given some Stark speech about forgiveness or something. Instead he just lets it go until he tells them that they are leaving and just kind of does his best to comfort Sansa about not being queen and dips. That’s it. He doesn’t mention that fact that Arya came up with two different ways to make it up to Sansa. What he should have done was tell Arya she had to mend the dress or clean it or whatever because she messed it up and tell Sansa that that was the way her dress is getting fixed. You don’t let it just go on like that. They are 11 and 9, they don’t know when enough is enough it why some voice of reason is needed. 

Part of the issue is, as mentioned above, Westerosi highborns parents aren’t how we think of parents. They are pretty hands off. Martin doesn’t even let us see Arya and Cat together. Ned bit off more than he could chew. To be honest, I’m still unsure why he brought Arya along. He never really tells us and even Cat just chalks it up to her needing refinement.�� 

“You must," he said. "Sansa must wed Joffrey, that is clear now, we must give them no grounds to suspect our devotion. And it is past time that Arya learned the ways of a southron court. In a few years she will be of an age to marry too.” - Cat II, AGoT 

I guess the plan was to marry Arya off to a Southern lord? He didn’t need her to go to keep Sansa company, Jeyne was already going. It was just a bad plan. And then you add the incident at the Trident (aka Joff “kitten killer” Baratheon is left unsupervised and adults suck at the Trident) and the depression and trauma that both girls face and it gets worse. 

At least he gets Arya Syrio. What does Sansa get? She wanted high harp lessons, find a harpist or whatever. If you can find the first sword of Bravos just wandering around you can find someone who plays the harp. It would have given Sansa an outlet that she needed as well as maybe putting a balance in her life. A different perspective or something. 

Ned should have talked to both girls about going to KL. He should have had joint and separate conversations. Contrary to fandom belief 11 and 9 are different ages. Sansa can take a little bit more information because she is older. Why he doesn’t give it to her is a different question. I think he relies on the Septa to do it. If Arya hadn’t spiraled and had a weapon, I dont think he’d have a big sit-down with her.  The issue with letting the septa take charge instead is that the septa doesn’t really get the political intrigue either because that just isnt her job. 

I think Ned is a man who loves his children and got way in over his head. In different universe where the incident at the Trident doesn’t happen and the court is a bit more stable (IDK Baelish gets lost at sea or something), then i think it might be kinda okay. There would still be problems, but they might seem less severe. 

[halothenthehorns]

TLTNL- THE SLUG CLUB

James took the book from Lily, their hands lingering for an extra second on each other. It didn't seem possible, but somehow every new year of their sons school added an extra layer of worry, and this one was no better. With only more worrisome details for whatever the Death Eaters were planning, the parents terror could only grow when Harry would figure it out.

For now though, they could at least hope the rest of his stay at the Burrow and his soon train ride held no excitement, so James still continued with high spirits.

Harry spent a lot of the last week of the holidays pondering the meaning of Malfoy's behavior in Knockturn Alley. What disturbed him most was the satisfied look on Malfoy's face as he had left the shop. Nothing that made Malfoy look that happy could be good news.

"I entirely agree," Sirius couldn't help but dejectedly say, there wasn't much of a funny spin he could put on that.

To his slight annoyance, however, neither Ron nor Hermione seemed quite as curious about Malfoy's activities as he was;

"They what?" They all demanded, sure they'd heard wrong.

"Let him finish," Harry soothed, though the look on his face showed it wasn't going to end much better.

or at least, they seemed to get bored of discussing it after a few days.

"It is now a good thing Molly never let them join the Order," Remus rolled his eyes. "After the third meeting they'd probably stop attending."

"Be fair, they don't know what we know, which is there is something going on," Lily halfheartedly defended. "They just know that for the past five years Malfoy's been a rotten child, they've just witnessed one of his acts this time."

"They should have believed me when I said it was something more, how else was I supposed to figure out what Malfoy was up to if I couldn't bounce ideas off of them," Harry huffed.

  Hermione impatiently agreed as much when he brought it up again. She was sitting on the windowsill in Fred and George's room with her feet up on one of the cardboard boxes and had only grudgingly looked up from her new copy of Advanced Rune Translation.

"I'm still amazed you can accomplish that at all," James smirked.

"Why would she even bring that in there and expect to get any work done?" Sirius agreed.

Reminding there could be any number of things they just didn't know about.

Ron suggested Malfoy could have broken his Hand of Glory.*

"When on Earth did Malfoy have that?" Sirius demanded, clearly thinking he'd missed something.

"I told Ron Malfoy took an interest to it the first time I was in there, maybe Ron thought I meant his dad did buy it," Harry offered, though they'd never actually seen him use it in school.

Harry repeated Malfoy's instructions of keeping ‘that one' safe, making it seem Malfoy had a broken set of something. When neither of his friends responded to him again pointing this out, Harry insisted with his dad in Azkaban, Malfoy would want revenge.

"I can't see even Borgin and Burkes having anything to help with that though," Remus disagreed. "Revenge against who? Azkaban? The Ministry? You?"

"I would have said the first seemed the most likely, what with the 'it's never been done before' bit Narcissa offered, but just last year there were massive breakouts, so that doesn't seem the problem," Sirius sighed.

"Voldemort's gotten others into Hogwarts if he was the target, and Malfoy's also a student, so that shouldn't be it either," Lily agreed while trying not to bite at her lip.

"And I can not for the life of me imagine what a sixteen year old could do against the Ministry of Magic, even they're not that incompetent," James sighed.

"You're missing the part where this was originally Voldemort's idea," Harry insisted as he felt sure they were missing the mark on all accounts.

"Yet Malfoy's clearly pleased to go along with whatever it is, not just following orders, so it must be something he'd be for as well. Revenge is the best we've got to go on as far as motive," Lily patiently reminded.

Harry couldn't help smiling at them, they'd already offered more for his idea than his two friends, and it felt nice to not be so dismissed.

Ron was baffled what Malfoy could do about any revenge, and Harry agreed in frustration he didn't know, he was clearly up to something serious.

Sirius look muddled, like he wasn't sure what the response he was supposed to give for that was. His preferred joke was most certainly in poor taste, but it would be crass of him not to do it at this point!

Then he saw Harry look to him, almost genuinely concerned at even the hint of a pause, so Sirius finished as if there hadn't been one, "I wish I could still help out with this pup."

Lily gave the obligatory groan and Remus made to flick him in the ear, but all of them had an almost relieved look about them. At least they didn't look like they were counting down how many times he had left to do that.

His father was a Death Eater and-

Harry broke off, his eyes fixed on the window behind Hermione, his mouth open. A startling thought had just occurred to him.

"And that is?" James encouraged when Harry got a rather dissatisfied look on his face for this thought occurring to him now.

"That Malfoy's a Death Eater," he sighed.

There was a pitying little pause at the look of resignation on his face while Sirius nodded slowly.

"Guess you already put that together from what Narcissa said. I wish it was more surprising, or rare honestly, for that megalomaniac to be using anyone and everyone he wants." It was an even more depressing realization his own little brother was hardly older than this Malfoy kid when he'd suffered a similar fate, and likely as undo-able a task from what they'd heard. Sirius couldn't come up with another reason for why he'd desert his lifelong dream other than getting a job he couldn't handle.

Hermione anxiously demanded what was wrong, Ron nervously asking if it was his scar.

"Can't even blame him, after last year, that's the first thing I would have thought to," Remus sighed.

Harry slowly said aloud his idea Malfoy was a Death Eater.

"Actually, why would you have put that together considering you didn't know what we did," James couldn't help but jump at this leap.

"You guys just agreed it isn't so crazy," Harry said defensively at once.

"Because we know it's true," James agreed, "but you haven't exactly seen a lot of experience with it, or had it confirmed before that. You were just chatting about his dad and what he could be up to."

Harry just huffed and muttered, but waved his dad on, knowing he'd have to explain himself to his friends in a few moments already like he'd already been doing all summer.

There was a silence; then Ron erupted in laughter, reminding Harry he was only sixteen, You-Know-Who would have to be crazy.

"Age has never been a factor for him, it's what you can do for him," Sirius scowled.

Hermione agreed it was highly unlikely, where had he come up with that?

Harry reminded how in Madam Malkin's he hadn't let her touch his arm, he must have been branded with the Dark Mark.

"I, didn't even notice that," Lily's brows shot up in surprise, before she corrected, "though joining the Death Eaters doesn't automatically mean you got a Dark Mark. I'd think that was only for those he's marked as worthy, not of every single one."

Harry chose not to argue back since she didn't call him crazy outright for it.

Ron and Hermione looked at each other, clearly unconvinced, while Harry went on Malfoy had shown Borgin something, and it seriously scared Borgin.

"I could scare the pants off of him without pants!" Sirius agreed without the hesitation this time, but as his friends winced slightly and Harry gave a softer laugh than usual, he needlessly pointed out, "You keep invoking my name, I can tell how much you'd been missing me."

Harry grinned at him again, though he'd willingly admit he'd have liked to have his godfathers opinion on this at the time as much as anything.

It was the Mark, he knew it. He was showing Borgin who he was dealing with, they saw how seriously Borgin took him!

"He'd treat him nothing like me!" Sirius insisted while Remus flicked his ear again.

"To Harry's credit, Malfoy did show him something and he seemed much more likely to back down," James agreed with that logic, never not astounded how his son so easily put such things together they'd only given passing thoughts to.

Ron and Hermione exchanged another look.

Annoyed, but absolutely convinced he was right,

"It's not usual you've got to deal with that with Hermione and Ron," Remus sighed, already exhausted by this ongoing argument he could feel brewing.

Harry snatched up a pile of filthy Quidditch robes and left the room; Mrs. Weasley had been urging them for days not to leave their washing and packing until the last moment. On the landing he bumped into Ginny, who was returning to her room carrying a pile of freshly laundered clothes.

She warned him to be careful in the kitchen, there was an excess of Phlegm around.

"What a kind warning," Sirius couldn't help but snicker.

Harry smiled and thanked her, promising he wouldn't slip in it.

Sure enough, when he entered the kitchen it was to find Fleur sitting at the kitchen table, in full flow about plans for her wedding to Bill, while Mrs. Weasley kept watch over a pile of self-peeling sprouts, looking bad-tempered.

Fleur was explaining more wedding plans. They'd narrowed it down to two bridesmaids,

"Who were the other options besides the two sisters?" James wondered at that.

"Hopefully not past girlfriends of Bill's, that wouldn't do him any favors," Sirius smirked.

"Sirius, I'm advising you I don't care how far in advance, don't ever bring that up in your own wedding, it will get you cursed," Lily promised, wanting to smack him herself for the stupid suggestion no matter how much he was joking.

"Padfoot seems to have an unfortunate ability to attract violent women," James pleasantly noted.

"I imagine they were far less violent before they met him," Remus rolled his eyes. "Lily's the only exception I've met."

and their dresses would be pale gold, Ginny would look horrible in pink of course.

"Why?" Harry asked in confusion, thinking Ginny wouldn't look horrible in any color she chose.

"I'm not going to let Lily explain that, no one else cares," Sirius loudly said.

She scowled at him even more than before, honestly wanting to smack him herself now just for thinking she would, she hadn't really a care for that sort of thing.

"You're only proving Prongs' point," Remus happily reminded him while James ignored them anyways.

Mrs. Weasley loudly interrupted at the sight of Harry to explain they'd be getting Ministry cars to the train again tomorrow and Aurors at the station. Harry asked if it was Tonks again, to which Molly explained Arthur said she was already positioned somewhere else.

Fleur inserted Tonks had let herself go, while gazing into her own reflection in the back of a spoon.

"You really can't blame those girls, thinking her so vain, when every time she's been mentioned this summer she's talking about herself and doing that," Lily sighed.

Mrs. Weasley tartly cut in Harry should have himself ready, no one needed the usual last minute scramble.

Indeed, their departure the following morning was smoother than usual. The Ministry cars glided up to the front of the Burrow to find them waiting, trunks packed; Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, safely enclosed in his traveling basket; and Hedwig; Ron's owl, Pigwidgeon; and Ginny's new purple Pygmy Puff, Arnold, in cages.

"The Weasley's really do have the most interesting names for things," Remus cocked his head to the side, thinking Arnold the most mundane thing that could be given to a purple ball of fluff.

"Remember Ginny named Pig to, so as of now it's all her fault, and she seems to have no consistency on how wild they get," Sirius chuckled.

Fleur gave him a double kiss goodbye. Ron hurried forward, looking hopeful, but Ginny stuck out her foot and Ron fell, sprawling in the dust at Fleur's feet.

"What a lovely sister," James noted.

"Growing happier by the moment I never used to have one," Sirius agreed, making Lily flush in surprise and decide not to put extra salt on his plate at lunch, for now.

Furious, red-faced, and dirt-spattered, he hurried into the car without saying good-bye.

There was no cheerful Hagrid waiting for them at King's Cross Station. Instead, two grim-faced, bearded Aurors in dark Muggle suits moved forward the moment the cars stopped and, flanking the party, marched them into the station without speaking.

"There is such a thing as taking your job-" Remus cut himself off with a nasty look at Sirius, who looked disappointed his friend hadn't slipped up.

Mrs. Weasley, seemed a little flustered by this austere efficiency.

"I can't really blame her, it just sounds odd to need security for the short walk it is onto the platform," James agreed.

An Auror even tried to guide Harry straight through the barrier by his arm before Harry snapped he could walk on his own as he jerked his arm away.

"So ungrateful for someone trying to hold your hand," Sirius nodded.

He pushed his trolley directly at the solid barrier, ignoring his silent companion, and found himself, a second later, standing on platform nine and three-quarters, where the scarlet Hogwarts Express stood belching steam over the crowd.

Harry really couldn't help a nostalgic smile as that image lingered in his mind, and he really did wonder for a moment why he'd feel like it would be so long before he saw it again. He still had another school year left of course to be missing such a thing.

Hermione and the Weasleys joined him within seconds. Without waiting to consult his grim-faced Auror, Harry motioned to Ron and Hermione to follow him up the platform, looking for an empty compartment. Hermione reminded they couldn't they had to go check in as Prefects.

Harry admitted he'd forgotten.

"Poor thing is probably going to forget that next year as well, it is odd to get used to," Sirius sighed, it had always thrown him off when Moony did it, and then Prongs as well in their last year.

Mrs. Weasley was hugging everyone goodbye, before Harry made the impulse decision to ask Mr. Weasley for a quick word.

"Well this is bringing back an unpleasant flashback," James grumbled, but tried to ignore Sirius shifting in unease as well for the reminder of when this had last happened.

Mr. Weasley, who looked slightly surprised, followed Harry out of earshot of the others nevertheless.

Harry had thought it through carefully and come to the conclusion that, if he was to tell anyone, Mr. Weasley was the right person; firstly, because he worked at the Ministry and was therefore in the best position to make further investigations, and secondly, because he thought that there was not too much risk of Mr. Weasley exploding with anger.

"Well you're certainly not wrong on either account," Sirius burst out with surprised laughter.

James couldn't get the same enthusiasm for realizing what Harry was going to tell him, it was too depressing to once again here his son turning to someone else who should have been him.

He could see Mrs. Weasley and the grim-faced Auror casting the pair of them suspicious looks as they moved away.

Mr. Weasley interrupted Harry's starting by asking if he was finally going to learn where they'd really disappeared to when they were supposed to be in the back of the shop.

"I'm not really surprised they didn't fall for that," Sirius agreed.

Harry was surprised he knew otherwise,

"I'm more shocked than anything Harry thought they did," Remus snorted.

but Arthur interrupted to remind he was the same man who had raised Fred and George.

"He's got you there," James agreed.

Harry admitted to that, and Arthur said he was ready to hear the worst.

"Oh don't say that, he'll actually be getting it," Lily sighed.

Harry again tried to explain they'd seen Malfoy and decided to follow him under the Cloak- Arthur again interrupted to ask if there had been an actual reason, or just a whim?

"Honestly the second," Sirius pointed out while Harry tried to scowl at him without admitting he was right.

Harry insisted he'd done so because he thought Malfoy was up to something, and then explained the rest. Arthur took it in silence, contemplated for a moment, before saying slowly he doubted You-Know-Who would allow a sixteen year old-

"I'm almost glad that's not as common place in their time," Lily blinked in surprise for that response from him.

"Voldemort also doesn't have the swollen ranks he does in this time," James reminded pityingly. "Now he's got massive followers every which way, from all we've seen though, he really may not have more than his circle. I can almost see where Arthur's coming from."

Harry at least felt better hearing that explained, but it didn't make him feel better everyone kept calling this such a crazy idea when he knew he was right.

Harry shot back no one really knew what Voldemort would do.

Mr. Weasley slowly explained that when Lucius had been arrested, his mansion had been searched, and the Malfoys had been stripped of everything that could be dangerous.

Harry insisted they must have missed something, and Arthur agreed in a tone that implied he was only humoring Harry now.

Harry's scowl increased, this was as maddening as last year! Hadn't he proved himself more than a paranoid child! He should be taken seriously about this!

"Relax Harry," James tried to sooth with a look Harry couldn't quite identify with. "You've come to him with a hunch, and he's at least listening to you. Come back again with a bit more proof, which I know you'll get during your year, and I know you'll get something done."

Harry did relax just a bit, hoping he was right, and missing his dad's smile increasing.

There was a whistle behind them; nearly everyone had boarded the train and the doors were closing.

Harry hurried to the train as it began chugging along, while Mrs. Weasley called after them he was coming to their house for Christmas, the train began picking up speed as she continued, moving along with it, for them all to be good, the train was rounding the bend now as she nearly jogged to keep up with her final warning to stay safe!

Sirius honestly wanted to laugh at the woman again, but the look on Lily's face promised he wouldn't be allowed without getting an earful. She was grateful someone was still looking after her boy.

Harry waved until the train had turned a corner and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were lost to view, then turned to see where the others had got to. He supposed Ron and Hermione were cloistered in the prefects' carriage, but Ginny was a little way along the corridor, chatting to some friends. He made his way toward her, dragging his trunk.

People stared shamelessly as he approached. They even pressed their faces against the windows of their compartments to get a look at him.

"Suppose you should be grateful they're not all following you around like Collin was yet," Remus sighed.

He had expected an upswing in the amount of gaping and gawping he would have to endure this term after all the "Chosen One" rumors in the Daily Prophet, but he did not enjoy the sensation of standing in a very bright spotlight. He tapped Ginny on the shoulder, asking if she'd like to find a compartment.

She returned she had to find Dean, but she'd see him later.

"Ouch, getting dismissed all over the place this year," James winced.

"What a sight to behold, little Ginny dismissing the Great Chosen One," Sirius agreed.

Harry found their teasing only mildly less annoying than the staring and chose to ignore them just as well.

He felt a strange twinge of annoyance as she walked away, her long red hair dancing behind her; he had become so used to her presence over the summer that he had almost forgotten that Ginny did not hang around with him, Ron, and Hermione while at school.

"Was she really around that much? You hardly mentioned her more than normal," Lily asked in surprise.

Harry chose not to answer, still in a clear bad mood for the gawkers it seemed.

Then he blinked and looked around: He was surrounded by mesmerized girls until a voice behind him called for his attention and Harry turned in relife to find Neville,

Sirius inhaled deeply, and this time Remus swooped in and jammed his finger into Sirius' ear, causing him to yelp in protest but thankfully not again be able to shout about one of Harry's friends showing up. Sirius rubbed at his ear and called Moony a killjoy, who decided he'd rather be that than Sirius, killer of ears.

with Luna right behind him.

"Luna's back," Sirius said pointedly to Remus, though thankfully he kept it at a decent volume, his hand still protectively on his ear.

"Thank you Sirius, that's quite interesting to know," Remus gently pandered now that he wasn't shouting it.

Harry greeted them gratefully, asking how their summer had gone. She replied very well, already clutching a copy of the Quibbler which promised a free pair of Spectrespecs inside. Harry asked their magazine was still going well, having a fondness for it after giving an interview last year.

"To Rita Skeeter though, we just can't forget that part," James wrinkled his nose at the reminder.

"Worth it," Harry shrugged, it had done him much more good than harm for once.

Luna happily agreed circulation was still up.

Harry offered they should go find seats, and the three of them set off along the train through hordes of silently staring students. At last they found an empty compartment, and Harry hurried inside gratefully.

Neville told they were even being stared at, because they'd been with him.

"Congratulations, they're getting what Ron always wanted," Lily rolled her eyes.

"Hope they enjoy it," Harry sighed.

Harry reminded they were staring because they'd also been at the Ministry, the Daily Prophet had made that clear.

Neville had thought his Gran would be mad about that publicity, but she'd been really pleased, saying at long lost he was living up to his dad.

All five of them made agitated faces at that, honestly wishing Neville would stop being compared to his parents as much as Harry wished the same of late.

She'd already bought him a new wand. He pulled it out and showed it to Harry, proclaiming it as Cherry and unicorn, one of the last Ollivander had sold, as he'd vanished the next day.

"Blimey, Neville's already getting some better luck for his life," Remus winced for the reminder.

Then he shouted for Trevor to get back here.

"Glad to know at least that toad won't let a joke die," Sirius chuckled.

And he dived under the seat to retrieve his toad as it made one of its frequent bids for freedom.

Luna asked, while detaching a pair of psychedelic spectacles from the middle of The Quibbler, if the D. A. meetings would continue this year.

"That's actually a good question I hadn't thought of," Lily agreed at once.

"Won't need to will we, unless we actually manage to get another teacher like Umbridge who refuses to teach us," Harry shrugged, very much hoping his luck wasn't that awful.

"Well yes, but who says you can't still use it to help along students. The classes in general are still majorly behind on most basic curses, as was apparent by Fred and George," Remus reminded.

"Plus study groups actually make doing work more bearable," James agreed.

Harry was a bit surprised they were all so encouraging of an idea that hadn't even crossed his mind, and honestly regret just a bit not continuing with it. Though he wasn't sure how it would have even been possible, considering his Quidditch practices and upcoming lessons with Dumbledore would honestly make his schedule as hectic as last year.

Neville thumped his head under the seat, coming out with a bit of fluff in place with disappointment on his face, saying he'd liked the D. A. He'd learned loads.

Luna serenely agreed it had been like having friends.

"Well that was depressing," Sirius said with chipper what everyone was thinking.

"Surely she has friends," Lily tried at once to say positively as if to the girl herself. "She's been known to hang around with Ginny."

"She said friends plural though, making me wonder how many others besides Ginny," Remus muttered.

This was one of those uncomfortable things Luna often said and which made Harry feel a squirming mixture of pity and embarrassment.

"She's rather good at that, I should be taking notes," James agreed.

Before he could respond, however, there was a disturbance outside their compartment door; a group of fourth-year girls was whispering and giggling together on the other side of the glass, all telling each other to go ask him!

One of them, a bold-looking girl with large dark eyes, a prominent chin, and long black hair pushed her way through the door. She introduced herself as Romilda Vane, and offered he

could come sit with them! She finished in a stage whisper, her eyes on Neville's bum again poking out of the seats and Luna in her psychedelic glasses.

"Romilda clearly has no sense of fun at all, not immediately asking what was going on in there," Sirius scoffed.

"Why would they think Harry would want to sit with them anyways," James scowled. "Who wants to sits with brats two years below them."

Lily honestly wanted to tell James he was being a brat by saying that, but she couldn't disagree with him either.

Harry coldly returned those were his friends, and after an awkward pause, she said okay and left.

"Hopefully that taught her right quick about opening her mouth," Remus rolled his eyes. Confidence could be as much a hindrance if not used correctly, which he'd had seven years to watch.

Luna once again displayed her knack of embarrassing honesty by stating people expected him to have cooler friends.

"Who says they're not cool, I'd hang out with them," Sirius scoffed.

"Harry did," James reminded with a chuckle, thinking this wasn't far off from how his last year had started. If Neville's plant spit up on everyone again and Cho came around it would get eerie.

"I learned my lesson," Harry said smoothly.

Harry at once said they were cool! They hadn't been at the Ministry with him.

Luna beamed at him, telling that was very nice to say, before going to her magazine.

Neville quietly reminded they hadn't faced him though, coming back out with his toad in hand. His Gran kept going on about how that Harry Potter had more backbone than all the Ministry of Magic put together.

"Well that's true," James puffed up his chest with pride.

She'd give anything to have Harry as a grandson.

Sirius made a deep snarling noise, well to aware of the feeling your parent wished to replace you, and wouldn't wish that on anyone else! His noise of disgust was echoed throughout the room, Lily couldn't keep going for a moment she was so depressed anyone could think that about themselves!

Harry laughed uncomfortably and changed the subject to OWL results as soon as he could.

James made a little noise of sympathy for Harry though, he had heard Sirius say much the same and had just as quickly himself diverted the topic, there just wasn't much you could say to that.

While Neville recited his grades and wondered aloud whether he would be allowed to take a Transfiguration NEWT, with only an "Acceptable,"

"Highly doubt it," Remus frowned, mind still lingering on other things.

"Did he at once tell you that? Surely he mentioned his better grades," Lily tried to cajole out something positive of that.

Harry distractedly said no, but he hadn't been listening in great detail to what Neville had been saying either.

Harry watched him without really listening.

Neville's childhood had been blighted by Voldemort just as much as Harry's had, but Neville had no idea how close he had come to having Harry's destiny.

None of them had forgotten this, but they'd been happily side stepping that in the hopes it wouldn't bog Harry down. Clearly it was going to now though.

The prophecy could have referred to either of them, yet, for his own inscrutable reasons, Voldemort had chosen to believe that Harry was the one meant.

Had Voldemort chosen Neville, it would be Neville sitting opposite Harry bearing the lightning-shaped scar and the weight of the prophecy. ... Or would it? Would Neville's mother have died to save him, as Lily had died for Harry? Surely she would. . . . But what if she had been unable to stand between her son and Voldemort? Would there then have been no "Chosen One" at all? An empty seat where Neville now sat and a scarless Harry who would have been kissed goodbye by his own mother, not Ron's?

Lily was near tears by the end of this, and James wasn't feeling much better. Their conviction to change this path Harry had been on suddenly put a cold spin on in it like they'd never have believed. What if they did stop this from happening to their family? Could they still guarantee the same for Neville, put this fate on someone else? Were they condemning another child to this life just to save theirs?

James refused to let himself linger on that, he'd find a way to save his family, Neville, the whole bloody world if he had to! He wasn't going to let this happen again, and he wouldn't hear a thing about it otherwise!

Neville noticed Harry's distraction and asked what was wrong, and Luna inserted she thought there was a Wrackspurt going around.

"Didn't she already mention those?" James demanded with more force than the question called for.

"Not that I've heard, unless you're thinking of the Nargles that were never explained," Remus said lightly.

James hardly heard him any more than he'd realized he'd asked a question.

Then she explained Wrackspurts were invisible, they floated into your ears and made your brain go fuzzy.

"Who knew there was an actual reason for the way Sirius was," Lily halfheartedly poked fun. It really was impossible to get on with just twenty minutes without something depressing dragging them all down of late, even the thought of trying to preserve their own future was doing it now.

Sirius was so distracted he didn't even have a response for her.

She flapped her hands at thin air, as though beating off large invisible moths. Harry and Neville caught each other's eyes and hastily began to talk of Quidditch.

"Which Harry is Captain of!" James burst so loud it was as if he was actively trying to see how loud he could say it.

Harry managed a half-hearted laugh for him, and James kept listening feeling just a bit better he'd managed to shout about something good again.

The weather beyond the train windows was as patchy as it had been all summer; they passed through stretches of the chilling mist, then out into weak, clear sunlight. It was during one of the clear spells, when the sun was visible almost directly overhead, that Ron and Hermione entered the compartment at last.

After greeting them, Ron delivered the news that Malfoy wasn't doing prefect duty.

"He what!" Harry wasn't the only one to shout in surprise, but did keep going, "I didn't even know you could do that."

"I've only known one to," Remus frowned uneasily, "and she had Maledictus, though I don't know what kind. Could barely keep up in the corridors she was so sickly, she certainly didn't want the extra Prefect duties."

Harry had no clue what that was, though understood enough by that to understand it was a sickness you wouldn't want, so instead keep going with determination, "this is proof then! Malfoy is up to something! There's no way he'd give up that power otherwise," he finished with his fist in his hand to prove his point.

"Calm down Harry, nobody in here disagreed with you," Lily half scolded why he was being so adamant about this.

"Right, sorry," he muttered, backing down at once but that triumphant look lingered and James kept going despite his friends still muttering curiously if there could be something else going on.

Harry sat up straight, interested. It was not like Malfoy to pass up the chance to demonstrate his power as prefect, which he had happily abused all the previous year. Harry asked what Malfoy had done when he'd been seen, and Ron said the usual, before demonstrating a rude hand gesture. It wasn't like him, well that was, he did the hand gesture again,

"Was that really necessary, I'm sure we got that all on our own." Lily rolled her eyes.

"He's had his fingers threatened for months, let him enjoy his free range," Sirius chuckled while wagging his own.

but why wasn't he out there bullying first years again.

Harry agreed it was odd, his mind was racing. Didn't this look as though Malfoy had more important things on his mind than bullying younger students?

Hermione pointed out he'd probably preferred the Inquisitorial Squad, and Prefect seemed a bit tame in comparison.

"Not really that crazy," James agreed. "It's almost like he's been demoted after abusing so much power."

Harry looked offended, like he thought he was being dismissed, but forced himself not to snap at him. He was being crazy, they knew something was going on, he didn't need to go shouting at everyone like they were his friends trying to tell him otherwise.

Harry began to disagree before he could expound on his theory, the compartment door slid open again and a breathless third-year girl stepped inside.

"What were you going to say?" Sirius asked.

"Exactly that, I think he's got better things to do this year," Harry sighed, already feeling he had no care for what was fixing to happen and would much rather focus on what he'd been interrupted on. "I was still debating how much farther I was going to keep going though. I trust Neville and Luna of course, but wasn't sure if I was going to tell them what I saw on holiday yet."

"I don't see why not, they know about as much as you do on Malfoy's front, and since you're own friends are driving you nuts, I'm sure at least Luna would have indulged hearing you talk about it," James pointed out.

Harry nodded his agreement, now looking even more agitated by whatever this interruption was.

She was holding out two scrolls of parchment tied with violet ribbon for Neville and Harry. Perplexed, they both took the scroll addressed to each of them and the girl stumbled back out of the compartment.

Ron asked what it was, and Harry explained it as an invitation, not inserting, from Slughorn.

Neville nervously asked why he was invited, as if expecting detention.

"Neville's clearly a name in this future, if to a lesser degree than Harry without all the press. I'm sure Slughorn's heard of his parents anyways," Lily said without surprise.

"Why was Slughorn on the train though?" Harry demanded, he'd been right to be annoyed by this, it seemed pointless already.

"He does it every few years or so, scope out new students and invite the older ones in early, a way to reconnect over the summer before school even kicks in," Lily shrugged.

Harry said no idea, which was not entirely true, though he had no proof yet that his hunch was correct.

"Hasn't seemed to stop you yet," Sirius chucked.

He took the opportunity to ask Neville to come with him under the Cloak, so they could spy on the Slytherin Compartment on the way there.

"I completely forgot now Luna and Neville know about your cloak, as well as Ginny if she didn't before," James blinked in surprise.

"Least Neville's getting a new experience out of this," Sirius grinned.

This idea, however, came to nothing: The corridors, which were packed with people on the lookout for the lunch trolley, were impossible to negotiate while wearing the cloak. Harry stowed it regretfully back in his bag, reflecting that it would have been nice to wear it just to avoid all the staring, which seemed to have increased in intensity even since he had last walked down the train. Every now and then, students would hurtle out of their compartments to get a better look at him. The exception was Cho Chang, who darted into her compartment when she saw Harry coming.

"No love loss there eh?" James couldn't help but tease.

Harry didn't even change colors for this, just shrugged while his mind lingered on other things.

As Harry passed the window, he saw her deep in determined conversation with her friend Marietta, who was wearing a very thick layer of makeup that did not entirely obscure the odd formation of pimples still etched across her face.

Lily couldn't help but frown severely for that. "Honestly, was Hermione's curse permanent? That's well going beyond what the girl deserved, making the decision she did. Did she really ruin another girl's life with that?"

"I really don't think so, it was fading, slowly," Harry shrugged. "Certainly at the end of last year even that wouldn't have hidden it as well, so I'm positive given another month it'll be gone."

Lily still looked a bit tart, but couldn't hold it onto her forever so long as Hermione hadn't. 

Smirking slightly, Harry pushed on.

When they reached compartment C, they saw at once that they were not Slughorn's only invitees, although judging by the enthusiasm of Slughorn's welcome, Harry was the most warmly anticipated.

Slughorn jumped right to his feet, his velvet-covered belly seemed to fill all the remaining space in the compartment. His shiny bald head and great silvery mustache gleamed as brightly in the sunlight as the golden buttons on his waistcoat.

His reaction to Neville was just as cordial if less bouncy.

They didn't need to ask how Harry felt about this, his unimpressed look spoke volumes. He'd no more cottoned onto all Slughorn could offer from Dumbledore's and their own explanations than decided he wanted to master potions.

Neville nodded, looking scared. At a gesture from Slughorn, they sat down opposite each other in the only two empty seats, which were nearest the door. Harry glanced around at their fellow guests. He recognized a Slytherin from their year, a tall black boy with high cheekbones and long, slanting eyes; there were also two seventh-year boys Harry did not know and, squashed in the corner beside Slughorn and looking as though she was not entirely sure how she had got there, Ginny.

"Ouch, how'd Ginny end up in there and not Ron?" Sirius asked.

"I've no idea, but she doesn't seem any more pleased with it than I was," Harry said with a bit of sympathy, wishing he could swap places with Slughorn to at least let Ginny breath a bit.

Slughorn began introducing everyone for those who needed them, starting with Blaise Zabini in their year, of Slytherin.

Zabini did not make any sign of recognition or greeting, nor did Harry or Neville: Gryffindor and Slytherin students loathed each other on principle.

Lily clucked her tongue and rolled her eyes while the boys grinned.

Then there was Cormac McLaggen, perhaps they'd crossed paths already.

Harry then imitated his mother, rolling his eyes heavily and not at all enjoying the sensation telling him he'd rather forget this one all over again.

McLaggen, a large, wiry-haired youth, raised a hand, and Harry and Neville nodded back at him.

That was Marcus Belby who was thin and nervous-looking, gave a strained smile while Slughorn finished they both knew this charming young lady.

Ginny grimaced at Harry and Neville from behind Slughorn's back.

"As welcome a greeting as Zambini's from that," Remus snickered

He had them all sit down and offered them food he'd brought along, the trolley's tendency to stock licorice wands wasn't good for a poor old mans digestive.

"Considering the man's favorite treat is Crystallized Pineapple, I wouldn't hold him to that," Lily said with the same old indulgence she'd used for seven years when speaking to Slughorn. She couldn't believe how much she was enjoying hearing about him again interacting with a new round of students, she felt like she could have been in there chatting along with the whole thing. It was all too easy to picture the man wagging his finger in reprove at her for giving that away already.

Belby accepted what looked like half a cold pheasant from Slughorn, who began asking him about his Uncle Damocles, who'd gained an Order of Merlin. Did he see much of him?

Unfortunately, Belby had just taken a large mouthful of pheasant; in his haste to answer Slughorn he swallowed too fast, turned purple, and began to choke.

Slughorn calmly vanished it with the spell Anapneo, pointing his wand at Belby, whose airway seemed to clear at once.

Belby gasped, his eyes streaming, not much of him.

Slughorn agreed he was a busy man, what with inventing the Wolfsbane Potion.

"Well this conversation just got a lot more interesting," James muttered while Remus shifted around, not sure how to feel about that being brought up again. Considering it had last been spoken of ruining Sirius' life because of him, not ecstatic, but if he could actually find a way to make that a routine part of his life...

Belby, seemed afraid to take another bite of pheasant until he was sure that Slughorn had finished with him and halfheartedly agreed.

"Frightening the kid into not eating, this man really knows how to push buttons," Sirius huffed.

He admitted his didn't get on with his uncle very well, so he really didn't see him at all.

His voice trailed away as Slughorn gave him a cold smile and turned to McLaggen instead.

"And that's Belby gone from the group," James mimed pointing his wand at nothing and blowing it away.

"Because he doesn't keep in contact with an Uncle? He might still be really good at something even so," Harry defended.

"Doesn't have many proper connections though, to get him many places," Lily reminded. "Or he's not yet realized he should be mentioning those."

Slughorn turned towards Cormac then, saying he knew he spent time with his Uncle Tiberius because he'd seen a picture of the two hunting nogtails on his desk in Norfolk.

"Fascinating creatures, I think they should be studied much more than they're given the chance," Remus began babbling at once with a sad little frown that hunting them was such a popular sport.

"You can only run one off with a pure white hound, and they're known to curse the farm they locate to by suckling on a mother pig, but I'd love to see more studies of the extent-"

"Just remember if you bring one of those home, I can't run it off," Sirius rolled his eyes before waving James on while Remus continued muttering to himself.

McLaggen at once agreed that had been great fun, Bertie Higgs and Rufus Scrimgeour had come along as well, before he'd become Minister of course.

Slughorn beamed he knew them as well.

"I think McLaggen just became his new poster child," James scrunched up his face at this kid somehow managing all that, though trying hard not to yet judge him as pompous as the rest of the Slug Club ended up being. Lily of course never went the same way, so he was trying to be mature here.

now offering around a small tray of pies; somehow, Belby was missed out.

Harry huffed and muttered he wished he'd noticed that before he'd swallowed his own.

It was as Harry had suspected. Everyone here seemed to have been invited because they were connected to somebody well-known or influential, except Ginny.

"I'd consider Arthur well-known and influential from what little we've been able to hear about his life," Lily rolled her eyes.

"Maybe Slughorn recognizes he made a mistake missing him and won't do it again with the first female Weasley in seven generations," Remus shrugged.

Zabini, who was interrogated after McLaggen, turned out to have a famously beautiful witch for a mother (from what Harry could make out, she had been married seven times, each of her husbands dying mysteriously and leaving her mounds of gold).

"Right," Sirius grumbled while making a face.

It was Neville's turn next: This was a very uncomfortable ten minutes, for Neville's parents, well-known Aurors, had been tortured into insanity by Bellatrix Lestrange and a couple of Death Eater cronies. At the end of Neville's interview, Harry had the impression that Slughorn was reserving judgment on Neville, yet to see whether he had any of his parents' flair.

All five of them were shifting uncomfortably by the end of this, all knowing Neville didn't need anyone's validation to know how good he was without his parents constantly being brought up, and wished the world would realize that same as Harry.

Slughorn shifted towards Harry last with the air of a compere introducing his star act. He contemplated Harry for a moment as though he was a particularly large and succulent piece of pheasant,

"Lovely mental image," James' scowl increased, he could still distaste Slughorn even while cheering in the background better this than hearing Snape again.

and began with his title of him being the Chosen One.

Harry said nothing. Belby, McLaggen, and Zabini were all staring at him.

When Harry didn't respond Slughorn kept going, saying there had been rumors for years about him, that terrible night, word already was out how extraordinary he was.

Zabini gave a tiny little cough that was clearly supposed to indicate amused skepticism.

"I don't need a Slytherin in the conversation to know when I've heard such loaded dung thank you!" Sirius snapped.

Harry tried for an awkward laugh that couldn't get through, no matter how many times this was mentioned it just wasn't easy to hear.

An angry voice burst out from behind Slughorn, telling Zabini he was so talented with his posing!

Slughorn chuckled comfortably, looking around at Ginny, who was glaring at Zabini around Slughorn's great belly.

"Ginny really is just growing better with every mention," Sirius smirked, cackles smoothing at once at least someone in there would keep them on their toes.

He warned Blaise should be careful, he'd caught this young lady performing quite the Bat-Bogey hex. She wasn't to be crossed.

"Concurred," James needlessly agreed while Harry smirked without surprise.

Zabini merely looked contemptuous.

Slughorn went right back to Harry, open endedly saying the Prophet had been saying a lot, though it was known to make a few mistakes,

"Tiny, minuscule ones, wouldn't even notice them, why bother," Remus snipped for this being so dismissed.

but there was no doubt he'd been in the thick of it all with the disturbance at the Ministry.

Harry, who could not see any way out of this without flatly lying, nodded but still said nothing. Slughorn beamed at him, calling him modest, but there was no need to downplay the sensational stories, of a fabled prophecy even-

Neville interrupted to say that had been smashed, no one had heard it.

"Thank Merlin for Neville," Lily sighed in relief, she'd hug him right now for getting Harry out of that no matter how unentinally.

Ginny agreed at once, the Prophet was just making up things as usual with that Chosen One nonsense.

Slughorn seemed undeterred, looking to both of them with just as much interest they'd been there to. Both of them sat clam-like before his encouraging smile.

"Not going to get a great story out of this one," Sirius sneered.

"Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll forget our invitation along with Belby's," Harry said dully without any real hope.

Finally he agreed how things could get away from people, why Gweong Jones, of the Holyhead Harpies, had just been telling him-

Harry's good mood swung back at once though, for no reason he could tell, he could just imagine for some reason at least Ginny got a kick out of that conversation.

He meandered off into a long-winded reminiscence, but Harry had the distinct impression that Slughorn had not finished with him, and that he had not been convinced by Neville and Ginny.

"A crying shame, I know I'm done with having him around," Sirius mocked with a smirk at Harry.

"Thank's Sirius, it's about time," Harry smiled.

The afternoon wore on with more anecdotes about illustrious wizards Slughorn had taught, all of whom had been delighted to join what he called the "Slug Club" at Hogwarts.

"Really couldn't have picked a worse name," Remus crinkled up his nose.

"Don't know what you're talking about, it speaks volumes about it's members already, certainly the head fat slimy git," James happily tuned Lily in to many of their jokes growing up with this. She merely rolled her eyes and ignored them.

Harry could not wait to leave, but couldn't see how to do so politely.

"I'm starting to regret the fact you even have manners sometimes," Sirius sighed, he knew he'd walked out of there long before this part with Prongs right behind him.

Finally the train emerged from yet another long misty stretch into a red sunset, and Slughorn looked around, blinking in the twilight. Amazed it was sunset, he set them all free, though gave McLaggen in particular the invite to come see him soon for a book on nogtails he'd mentioned. Everyone else except Belby were departed by name.

As he pushed past Harry into the darkening corridor, Zabini shot him a filthy look that Harry returned with interest. He, Ginny, and Neville followed Zabini back along the train.

Neville sighed gratefully that was over, what a strange man.

Harry agreed while asking Ginny how she'd wound up in there.

Ginny shrugged he'd seen her hex Zacharias Smith.

All of them whooped with further laughter, that story just got ten times better.

They remembered that idiot Hufflepuff from the D. A.

"Hard to forget someone with a nose up his own arse," Sirius agreed.

He'd kept on and on asking about what happened at the Ministry and in the end he annoyed her so much she hexed him.

"Perfectly reasonable," James agreed.

When Slughorn came in she'd thought she was going to get detention, but he just thought it was a really good hex and invited her to lunch! Mad, eh?

"Best reason he's ever invited anyone to those things!" Remus disagreed.

Harry loudly said it was better than being invited along because of a famous mother, his eyes still on Zabini's back.

"I'm glad you agree Harry," Sirius said with such enthusiasm he didn't even take his crack at pointing out the two had essentially said the same thing.

Then he stopped, an idea occurring to him, a reckless but potentially wonderful idea...

"You seem to get those a lot," Lily sighed.

"I blame you," James happily told his wife. "Whenever I got them, a corridor just got filled with all the suits of armor in the castle. Whenever you got them, you put yourself in the hospital wing for a potion experiment, so it's really all you he gets it from."

"I resent that," she halfheartedly defended, "I never went about spying on anyone for fun, that was far more up your alley!"

"Fine then, he gets it from both of you being insane," Sirius happily inserted. James seemed satisfied enough to go onto the actual idea while Lily made a face at him.

In a minute's time, Zabini was going to reenter the Slytherin sixth-year compartment and Malfoy would be sitting there,

"Why on Earth would you think that?" Remus blinked in surprise. "Does he hang around with Malfoy often? You well know the students don't get their own compartments by grade and house."

"I saw them all in there all the other years, they tended to band together," Harry defended. "Sorry I've never mentioned it before."*

thinking himself unheard by anybody except fellow Slytherins... If Harry could only enter, unseen, behind him, what might he not see or hear?

"Them all congratulating themselves for being part of the an elite human species. Idiots." Sirius told Harry in disbelief.

"Or something like what Malfoy's up to," Harry said pointedly.

"Narcissa made it clear this was top secret information, Bellatrix was surprised when Snape knew," Lily reminded. "So Malfoy's not likely to be blabbing it around."

"I didn't know that at the time," Harry reminded. "I just wanted proof of what he was doing."

"You might get something then, you are fairly good at picking up on details," James went on curiously.

True, there was little of the journey left, Hogsmeade Station had to be less than half an hour away, judging by the wildness of the scenery flashing by the windows, but nobody else seemed prepared to take Harry's suspicions seriously,

Sirius at once insisted, "I'm telling you, I'd totally believe you!"

"I know Sirius," Harry said quietly, trying to force a laugh again, but now all the more determined he could pull off something he was sure the Marauders would approve of, no matter how much they thought it a goofy idea at the beginning.

so it was down to him to prove it.

Quickly telling the other two he'd catch up later, he slipped on the Cloak and hurried away before either could ask why. Darting after Zabini as quietly as possible, though the rattling of the train made such caution almost pointless, the corridors were almost completely empty now. Nearly everyone had returned to their carriages to change into their school robes and pack up their possessions. Though he was as close as he could get to Zabini without touching him, Harry was not quick enough to slip into the compartment when Zabini opened the door. Zabini was already sliding it shut when Harry hastily stuck out his foot to prevent it closing.

He angrily began smashing the door repeatedly on Harry's foot.

Harry let out a hiss of breath in remembered pain, shifting his foot uncomfortably, and ignoring the almost pitying look of those around him. He didn't want to hear what better idea they would have come up with to avoid that happening, but Sirius gave it anyways. "It's too bad you didn't bring an extendable ear with you, or even just manage to leave a crack in the door they wouldn't have noticed. Then you could have stayed on the outside and avoided this problem of actually slipping in."

"You lot just come up with the best strategies sitting around comfortably in here," Harry grumbled, though admittedly he was just as sure they would have come up with that on the spot, they'd trained their minds to think up such on the spot lies and solutions, as they so constantly reminded him.

Harry seized the door and pushed it open, hard; Zabini, still clinging on to the handle, toppled over sideways into Gregory Goyle's lap, and in the ensuing ruckus, Harry darted into the compartment, leapt onto Zabini's temporarily empty seat, and hoisted himself up into the luggage rack. It was fortunate that Goyle and Zabini were snarling at each other, drawing all eyes onto them, for Harry was quite sure his feet and ankles had been revealed as the cloak had flapped around them; indeed, for one horrible moment he thought he saw Malfoy's eyes follow his trainer as it whipped upward out of sight. But then Goyle slammed the door shut and flung Zabini off him; Zabini collapsed into his own seat looking ruffled, Vincent Crabbe returned to his comic, and Malfoy, sniggering, lay back down across two seats with his head in Pansy Parkinsons lap.

"That right there was almost worth the price you going in," Sirius laughed heartily, imaging all those dumbfounded expressions for this happening.

"I'm now regretting not pulling more stunts on the train like doors randomly opening, would have been a kick," James agreed.

"Best we didn't, wouldn't want the trolley lady giving us hell if she caught us," Remus pointed out. "She might have withheld snacks from us," he finished with a horrified look.

"I wouldn't put it past her to tell McGonagall though, so I guess it's best," Sirius sighed.

Harry lay curled uncomfortably under the cloak to ensure that every inch of him remained hidden, and watched Pansy stroke the sleek blond hair off Malfoy's forehead, smirking as she did so, as though anyone would have loved to have been in her place.

Lily in particular had a crude look on her face, that sounded like a punishment, pampering such a toerag.

The lanterns swinging from the carriage ceiling cast a bright light over the scene: Harry could read every word of Crabbe's comic directly below him.

Malfoy casually asked of Zabini what Slughorn had wanted, and while still glowering at Goyle he answered their new teacher was just trying to make up with well-connected people. Not that he'd managed to find many.

Malfoy was clearly displeased with that information, demanding who all had been invited?

"Not him? Oh, the horror!" Sirius managed a simpering impression of a teenage girl.

"The horrifying part is, he might have actually got one the year before his father lost so much favor," James crinkled his face in disgust.

McLaggen from Gryffindor, Zabini began listing off,

"I didn't realize he was a Gryffindor," Lily said in surprise.

"Shows how much Harry pays attention to even his fellow students in his house," James shrugged without much concern, though there hadn't yet been anything wrong with him, it was still annoying he'd been a prime example of everything wrong with that Club.

-Malfoy agreed he had a big Uncle in the Ministry-

Belby, from Ravenclaw, Zabini continued-

Pansy referred to him as a prat.

"Been liking him more and more lately on principle," Remus rolled his eyes.

Zabini finished with the last three Gryffindors.

Malfoy sat up very suddenly, knocking Pansy's hand aside, demanding Longbottom had been invited!

"I really am glad Neville outranks me on the scale of his outrage," Harry shook his head.

Zabini indifferently agreed he assumed so, since he'd been there.

Malfoy demanded what about Longbottom had Slughorn interested?

Zabini shrugged.

Malfoy went on to sneer about Potter, that was obvious, him being the Chosen One.

Then Harry sighed without surprise that had come soon after. He'd have to be sure to mention to Neville he wasn't in fact the person Malfoy hated most though, perhaps he'd get lucky and Neville would put Malfoy in a dress and feathered hat for him next.

That Weasley girl though, what was so special about her?

Pansy pointed out a lot of boys liked her, obviously watching Malfoy for a reaction.

Harry felt his blood start boiling at once at the idea, that was ridiculous! Of course Ginny was good looking, but surely Pansy was just being her usual pugnacious self!

Even Blaise had mentioned how good-looking she was, and they all knew how hard he was to please.

"Her exact sentiments as well I'm sure," Sirius rolled his eyes while Lily giggled a bit at the expression on her sons face, he looked far more agitated by this than she would have thought. He really must have grown fond of her over the summer.

Zabini coldly replied he wouldn't touch a filthy little blood traitor no matter what she looked like.

"Well at least he won't turn out like his mother," Remus snarked.

Pansy looked pleased. Malfoy sank back across her lap and allowed her to resume the stroking of his hair.

"Allowed her," James couldn't help but repeat that like speaking of curdled milk, it really was odd to think of Malfoy having a girlfriend.

Malfoy decided he didn't think much of Slughorn's taste in all, a shame, as his father had spoken of him highly in his old days. Slughorn probably just hadn't heard he was on the train-

Zabini cut in to point out Slughorn didn't seem to have an interest in Death Eaters, Nott hadn't gotten an invitation either.

"The one good thing that man has going for him," Sirius sighed.

"As if they need a way to make more connections," James agreed solemnly.

Malfoy looked angry, but forced out a singularly humorless laugh. Deciding who cared then, he was just some stupid teacher.

Remus went wide eyed in mock concern. "Of course! Now next time, try backtracking before you go out of your way to show how much you care, it'll come off much better."

"Why couldn't you be on the train again Moony," Sirius muttered.

Malfoy yawned ostentatiously before declaring he might not even be at Hogwarts next year, what did it matter.

"Considering I already had my fingers crossed he wouldn't be there this year, I refuse to get my hopes up again," James grumbled.

Pansy indignantly demanded what he meant by that, ceasing grooming Malfoy at once.

He just smirked when he told he'd soon be moving on to bigger and better things.

Harry perked up with interest in the conversation again, easily distracted from picturing Ginny releasing a few more Bat-Bogey Hexes in this compartment again. This was exactly what he'd been in there to hear!

Crouched in the luggage rack under his cloak, Harry's heart began to race. What would Ron and Hermione say about this?

"Probably dismiss it again," Harry pessimistically answered himself.

"They haven't dismissed anything love," Lily patiently corrected, clearly determined to stop him griping about this. "They just need more to go on than you. It's not that they don't believe you, they know you're right, they're just not as convinced it's as terrible as you seem to think."

Harry looked simmered at least, though not at all comforted he hadn't found himself as wrong as he found her right.

Crabbe and Goyle were gawping at Malfoy; apparently they had had no inkling of any plans to move on to bigger and better things. Even Zabini had allowed a look of curiosity to mar his haughty features.

"Praise Merlin!" Sirius mock raised a glass.

"I'm not thankful we don't have to hear about him more, as if we needed to hear of more smug expressions," Remus told him with an obvious look Sirius happily ignored.

Pansy resumed the slow stroking of Malfoy's hair, looking dumbfounded.

Clearly enjoying the attention, Malfoy continued his mother wanted him to complete his education, but did the Dark Lord care about N. E. W. T. grades? Of course not, it was about service and devotion that mattered when the time came.

"I really hate it when he's not wrong," James sighed.

"At least he's right in all the wrong ways," Sirius said with mock chipper.

Zabini scathingly returned Malfoy thought himself a fully qualified wizard to be doing anything like that.

Malfoy returned maybe the job he was going for didn't require a fully qualified adult.

James hadn't meant for his voice to go so quiet at the end, but he certainly hadn't been expecting Malfoy to bring up something so casually that had reduced his mother to tears and pleading.

Narcissa hadn't been joking when she'd said Malfoy was eager to be doing this. Maybe not anytime soon, but even then Malfoy was impling whatever this job was wasn't far off in the future.

Crabbe and Goyle were both sitting with their mouths open like gargoyles. Pansy was gazing down at Malfoy as though she had never seen anything so awe inspiring.

The moment was broken by Sirius snorting viciously and snapping, "here I thought she'd get that expression any time she tried to look in a mirror without breaking one!"

"Those poor deluded kids have no idea what they're hearing," Lily gave a resounded agreement.

Malfoy then chose to change the subject by pointing out he could see the castle in the distance, and got up to get his robes.

Harry was so busy staring at Malfoy, he did not notice Goyle reaching up for his trunk; as he swung it down, it hit Harry hard on the side of the head. He let out an involuntary gasp of pain, and Malfoy looked up at the luggage rack, frowning.

"Uhoh," all five of them muttered in unease. Harry was pinned with five against one, that wouldn't be a friendly fight even with his slight advantage of getting the first surprise attack in.

Harry was not afraid of Malfoy, but he still did not much like the idea of being discovered hiding under his Invisibility Cloak by a group of unfriendly Slytherins. Eyes still watering and head still throbbing, he drew his wand, careful not to disarrange the cloak, and waited, breath held. To his relief, Malfoy seemed to decide that he had imagined the noise; he pulled on his robes like the others, locked his trunk, and as the train slowed to a jerky crawl, fastened a thick new traveling cloak round his neck.

Harry could see the corridors filling up again and hoped that Hermione and Ron would take his things out onto the platform for him;

"I have no doubt they'll grab Hedwig for you," Lily distractedly agreed, wishing he'd get out of there already, but knowing he had to wait anyways for them all to leave. It was only a slight relief Malfoy hadn't noticed anything, but they were all acutely aware now how much trouble Harry could have potentially gotten himself into, and it wasn't much fun now.

he was stuck where he was until the compartment had quite emptied. At last, with a final lurch, the train came to a complete halt. Goyle threw the door open and muscled his way out into a crowd of second years, punching them aside;

"It's good to know they really are as terrible as the one they follow around," James rolled his eyes.

Crabbe and Zabini followed, but Malfoy had to wave Pansy out, saying he wanted to check on something.

Pansy left. Now Harry and Malfoy were alone in the compartment. People were filing past, descending onto the dark platform. Malfoy moved over to the compartment door and let down the blinds, so that people in the corridor beyond could not peer in. He then bent down over his trunk and opened it again.

The others perked up with interest at once, thinking that would have been worth it if they could know something so early of what Malfoy was up to, while Harry sank back uneasily in his seat, not at all getting a good feeling about this.

Harry peered down over the edge of the luggage rack, his heart pumping a little faster. What had Malfoy wanted to hide from Pansy? Was he about to see the mysterious broken object it was so important to mend?

He was not expecting the spell Petrificus Totalus to be shot right at him.**

Sirius was so surprised a spell had come out of James' mouth he accidentally drew his wand and shot a hex right back at him, causing the book to sail away along with his glasses.

"Really Sirius? Was that necessary?" Remus asked him as James scowled and summoned them back.

"You were just as thrown by that as I was!" Sirius defended.

"Least I didn't try to throw him across the room for it," Remus rolled his eyes.

Lily had yelped in surprise and tried to jump away from James, they'd all startled hard at a spell of all things coming out of his mouth!

"Bloody hell, I take it back!" James groaned as he gazed at that and back to his son, unphased by his best mate, eyes only on his kid. "Don't you ever do this again without backup!"

Harry just nodded with a resigned expression in place, he wasn't looking forward to the shock wearing off and all of them realizing he'd just been bested by Malfoy!

Without warning, Malfoy pointed his wand at Harry, who was instantly paralyzed. As though in slow motion, he toppled out of the luggage rack and fell, with an agonizing, floor-shaking crash, at Malfoy's feet, the Invisibility Cloak trapped beneath him, his whole body revealed with his legs still curled absurdly into the cramped kneeling position. He couldn't move a muscle; he could only gaze up at Malfoy, who smiled broadly.

Lily groaned and put her face in her hands, while the boys as well looked miserable for how this was going to go. Harry would be lucky to leave with tentacles on his face, for all the revenge Malfoy could give of the past few train rides.

Malfoy jubilantly declared he'd known as much, he'd heard Goyle's trunk hit him and seen his shoes when he'd come in.

"Pity he's really not as stupid as he looks," Sirius ground out, clutching his wand tight and wishing more every second he could retaliate in some way against someone who deserved it.

He continued Potter hadn't heard anything he cared about, but just for good measure, he stamped hard on Harry's face. Harry felt his nose break; blood spurted everywhere.***

Harry couldn't help but cover his nose now, his face still leary of what was to come next, while James hissed in outrage for an extra moment before noticing this part was almost done. He couldn't decide if that was a good thing or not.

That was for his father. Malfoy dragged the cloak out from under Harry's immobilized body and threw it over him, deciding no one would be looking for him until he was back in London. Guess he wouldn't be seeing him around.

And taking care to tread on Harry's fingers, Malfoy left the compartment.

Not, most definitely not!

"Of all the cowardly, black-hearted things to do!" Sirius snarled in outrage. "He's just going to leave you there!"

"I- what's going to happen to me!" Harry demanded in a panic. It had certainly been funny enough to do the same to Malfoy back at Nine and Three-Quarters the past two years, but not at Hogsmeade station!

"I, honestly have no clue, never tried," James groaned as he passed Sirius the book, no one looking forward to finding out.

HPHPHP

*The Hand of Glory and this are both guilty of just randomly inserting things that apparently should have been common knowledge. Zabini hangs around Malfoy though he's never been mentioned since his sorting, Malfoy just apparently has a hand of Glory though it was mentioned all of one time in book two Malfoy certainly didn't own. I feel like this was one of those moments JK just made up something on the spot and obviously by this point didn't have a chance to go back and put in, leaving me unable to help noticing both of these would very obviously be important later. One out of two was.

** I think JK meant Stupify, as that one paralyzes you the way you are, where as Petrificus Totalus has all your limbs snapping together before you do the same.

***Four people to do with that Prophecy have their noses broken. Voldemort doesn't have one, Neville got his broken last year in the Department of Mysteries, Dumbledore by Aberforth all those years ago, and now Harry here. If something had happened to Trelawney's nose, I would have thought it was some curse of Prophecy type thing for this to happen.

[fayevalcntine]

can we talk about how over the course of her relationship with logan, rory is more or less conditioned to just be okay with everything he does?? whenever she expresses displeasure or disapproval with him he gets upset and persuades her into not being upset??? and it happens like. every single time. she’s a bit more resistant when he cheats, but even then he throws a tantrum until she agrees to forgive him. (1/2)

like in s5 when he tells her to come over without mentioning he has friends over (and then ignoring her all night), or in s6 when he goes over to the pool house and invites a bunch of friends over without her permission, even when he cheats, or fucks off to vegas in s7. she gets upset but he convinces her that her side of things doesn’t matter, and she’s never allowed to develop past that.

Yeah, Rory just has to let so many things be his way in their relationship and whenever they're not, or she even simply disagrees with him about something, it always has to be his way otherwise he'll get upset and argue with her until she relents or he'll leave if she doesn't back down.

Logan's main problem in their relationship, even when he seemingly doesn't have it in season 7, is that he just doesn't know how to properly communicate with Rory. Specifically, he doesn't want to hear her side or he simply won't accept her side as one with valid arguments against his own, like when they have a fight at the bar after Jess leaves, and she tells him how he (very accurately) possesses more opportunities in his lifetime than so many other people have, even her. Another example that is similar to this is when he's so personally offended by her article about rich people that he feels the need to bring up her own family's wealth and how he's "just like him" in terms of having money and opportunities. But even if Rory does have that, why exactly should she not criticize wealthy people and their behavior that stems from that? And on what ground does Logan get to stand on to tell her that she shouldn't write such an article simply because her grandparents have money and are more than happy to use it for whatever they wish? In both scenarios, Logan takes to victimizing himself over his family's money and influence and how he so blatantly uses it, while at the same time considering himself someone who has no opportunities outside from the one role his father has planned out for him (despite the fact that said role is such a significant one and he's going to be starting off with a vastly bigger step than other people by literally inheriting a company). I will have to at least give him credit for going to talk to her after they have the latter fight, but I hate that his fans view this as such a significant moment over someone acknowledging Rory's privilege as if Logan has any ground to stand on when it comes to that.

In the scene where Rory shows up to find him playing cards with his friends, I can never understand fans loving it when Rory was pretty clear on wanting to meet up with him to talk to him personally. And he doesn't even allow her that because he spends the entire night talking to his friends while playing, even though he knew she likely wanted some time with him alone. The scene itself might not be this significant since they're not officially involved yet, but it's so foreshadowing in how Logan's general attitude towards Rory's requests can be. Whether it's him controlling the setting that Rory comes in or him basically telling her to drop everything and go with him to New York on a whim, or even inviting his friends over to the pool house with a European girl that is a complete stranger and speaks no English, Logan only seems to do whatever he wants to do without taking her feelings or plans into consideration. This can even be pointed out in how he relentlessly pursues her after he decides he wants her back, despite the fact that he was the one who "broke up" with her through his own sister in the first place. And he doesn't take no for an answer from her until she gives in, even going so far as to go and pester Lorelai about it when whether or not Rory wants to take him back is her own decision, not her mother's.

I hate the cheating thing, it's the most irritating and idiotic thing Logan ever did and even if you take his side and not consider it cheating, it's beyond fucked up that he knew that the girls he hooked up with would be at the wedding and that Rory could easily bump into them, never mind the fact that he left her in a room with them while they were preparing for the wedding. I hate how the show again frames all these girls as flighty and promiscuous, therefore distrustful (Logan even takes to calling them "vipers" as if they're personally out to get him), when if anything else it's his fault that he didn't even tell her? He should've been honest about sleeping with them while they were apart, and even if he didn't consider it cheating, it vexes me so much how he never even takes Rory's feelings into consideration at all here. 

LOGAN: I've not even thought about another girl. RORY: Except for Walker, Alexandra... LOGAN: We were broken up, Rory. RORY: No, you were. LOGAN: I thought we were broken up. I thought that's what the fight was. I thought that's what the separation was. Do you believe me? Do you believe that I honestly thought we weren't together? RORY: I guess. LOGAN: So then, if you believe that, that I thought we weren't together, then do you believe that, in my mind, I was not cheating on you? RORY: I guess.

He doesn't apologize for not telling her, he doesn't apologize for hurting her feelings, he doesn't even give her any space when it's clear that she wants to be alone at Paris's. He corners her and gives her an even dumber version of Ross's "we were on a break!" routine, only by saying that in his mind it wasn't cheating because he thought they were broken up. Again, he doesn't take Rory's side into consideration at all here, especially since he personally decided they were broken up instead of it being a mutual one. What I especially hate after all of this is that Rory is understandably still bitter over it, seeing as how she wasn't even allowed to be angry, and when she becomes passive-aggressive towards him, he takes to being the victim again.

LOGAN: [...] You haven't forgiven me. RORY: What are you talking about? LOGAN: For the girls I was with when we were separated. RORY: I said I forgive you.  LOGAN: Yeah, you said it, but you haven't, though. You haven't. I'll be at the pub. 

In this entire scenario, Rory’s viewed as unjust and unfair towards Logan, and only his feelings are taken into account when it comes to her unresolved anger. And of course, Rory’s feelings are even further unresolved and never mentioned beyond this episode because Logan (conveniently) almost dies on his trip with his friends, which prompts Rory to feel guilty and immediately take to his side to nurse him back to health. Rory’s never allowed to process through her feelings over the cheating argument, and she’s never even allowed to see her feelings as justified because again, Logan never told her about it. For even the most practical reasons, he should’ve at least mentioned that he wasn’t exactly celibate during their time apart. 

It’s telling how even with his improved behavior in season 7, Logan still doesn’t tell Rory the truth about why he ran away to Vegas with his friends until after he comes back. It’s baffling that we’re suddenly supposed to accept him telling his father that he doesn’t want to work for him anymore and is set upon improving himself for the course of over 2 episodes, before he yet again, makes the decision himself to propose to Rory when he never even discussed marriage with her before that. And not only does he propose, but he does so right in front of her family and friends at her own graduation party. I don’t think I need to explain how public proposals are pretty manipulative if they’re done suddenly and without the approval of both parties for it. Logan’s decision being that he breaks up with Rory as soon as she makes her answer clear that it’s no, because she wants to live her life after just having finished university, just makes the before-mentioned ‘development’ that he was given fall flat to me. Yes, it’s great that he’s decided to make something of himself outside of his own family’s influence, but this comes right near the end of the season without us seeing him even think about it or consider it before that, and even after this, he still takes to only doing what he thinks is right and doesn’t take no for an answer from Rory. 

[scarletjedi]

Sangcheng Time Travel Fixit Outline Part 3: Rebuilding

Here it is, folks, the final installment! 

(Part 1) (Part 2)

Part III: Rebuilding

After the Banquet, everyone returns to their respective sects to rebuild, with plans to meet in Lanling in one month for the Mountain Hunt/Flower Banquet

Nie Huaisang sees this as a blatant political move/first step in an ultimate power grab. Jiang Cheng sees it as well, but mostly because he’s expecting it from Jin Guangshan. Huaisang also thinks it odd because, last time, the hunt was Jin Guangyao’s idea. Who is whispering in Jin Guangshan’s ear? He retreats to Qinghe and watches and waits

Jiang Cheng, meanwhile, is at loose ends.

He is *engaged* which is the first actually new thing to happen to him in years, at this point.

The war is over, he is as he remembers except Lotus Pier never burned down, so he doesn’t have to rebuild. (He’s earned the loyalty of the disciples in the war, that hasn’t changed, but they’re different disciples, more and less familiar. He does, however, convince his father to open recruiting to their sect – if nothing else, the war and actions of the Wen have left a lot of resentful energy. They’re going to need to cover more cases over greater distance or risk a second Burial Mounds

His parents are *alive* which is great, but even after their heart to heart (or maybe because of it) his father constantly looks surprised to see him and his mother sees far too much. They’re getting along better, but nothing like the couples Jiang Cheng knows who actually love each other.

Wei Wuxian is in Gusu, and his absence is perhaps the most familiar thing, for all that Jiang Cheng occasionally finds himself frustrated and looking for him in the places where he would hide to drink after the war. (and it hurts that it’s only now sinking in how wrong that was, and what kind of leader was he that his head disciple, his brother, was in so much pain and he didn’t see it)

Maybe he should get a hobby? He misses his dogs something fierce, but refuses to allow dogs on Lotus Pier.

I AM OPEN TO SUGGESTIONS AS TO WHAT HIS HOBBY SHOULD BE. I’m sure Nie Huaisang also has some ideas

Jiang Yanli is in Lotus Pier, and Jiang Cheng is shameless about following her around. He missed out on 16 years of his sister, he’s not missing one more minute. Yanli thinks it’s pre-wedding jitters (for both of them). She’s not *entirely* wrong

Jiang Cheng ends up spilling the beans to his sister. He’s just so tired, and it *all* comes spilling out. Time travel, Lotus Pier in flames, the death of her and Zixuan, Wei Wuxian being the weapon pointed at them, raising Jin Ling, his core—and he *cries* and Yanli cries with him and when it’s over, they have soup

Yanli invites Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji to lotus pier the next day, with the idea that they’d spend the time between now and the hunt with them and go back to Gusu after the hunt. She insists (and she’s right) that they all need to be with each other. And that Wei Wuxian needs to be told.

So, Jiang Cheng writes to Nie Huaisang, appraising him of the situation. Nie Huaisang is the mastermind, after all.

Nie Huaisang has about 3 days of painting/poetry/porn before he grows tried of it (and oh, the irony), and begins his study of the yin iron shard that Xue Yang left behind, beginning by recreating his notes, and what he can remember of Wei Wuxian’s (and what he knew of what Jin Guangyao kept in his treasure room)

Meng Yao finds out and tells Mingjue because some things should not be kept secret. He gets very angry – the war didn’t do his qi any favors.

Huaisang comes clean the way he only does with his brother and Jiang Cheng – as long as the Yin Iron is around, it will be coveted and we will end up with another Wen Rohan sooner or later

Meng Yao immediately realizes Nie Huaisang is talking about Jin Guangshan. “There are faster ways of solving that problem.” “I’m not letting you assassinate him, no matter how much he deserves it”

….WOULD THIS BE A GOOD PLACE FOR A VERSION OF FATAL JOURNEY?!? Only one that is less fatal.

Nie Mingjue proposes the sword castles to suppress the Yin Iron, that it could perhaps be used instead of corpses?

Nie Huaisang brings the shard with him, but of course it all goes wrong. They get separated from the disciples (and have their wonderful heart to heart – Nie Huaisang comes clean about doing this all before. Nie Mingjue comes clean about him and Lan Xichen considering propositioning Meng Yao) and have to fight off the sword spirits raised by the Yin Iron. Which they do, together, and escape. Nie Zonghui brings Nie Huaisang back to The Unclean Realm while Mingjue oversees the settling of the castle.

Nie Huaisang makes a crack about being glad they didn’t accidentally kill Sandu Sengshu’s fiancé

Nie Huaisang gets Jiang Cheng’s letter and confesses that Nie Mingjue now knows. It may be time to start letting people know, strategically. So yes, tell Wei Wuxian…but wait for me to start research!

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji arrive in Lotus Pier. Jiang Cheng tells all. Wei Wuxian hugs him so hard they both fall off the pier

Something fishy is happening. There are upticks in resentful activity that is ascribed to the fallout of a war involving the Yin Irons, but Nie Huaisang’s little birds smell something fishy. He begins to play closer attention to Jin Guangshan

Flower Mountain Hunt

No Wen prisoners this time, but Jin Zixun continues to make an ass of himself, natch

Riding in, Jiang Cheng makes DAMN sure that Nie Huaisang has flowers because they are courting and that is what one does (and Jiang Cheng has a habit of blurting out exactly what he thinks and it is at times incredibly romantic), and is *completely flustered* when Nie Huaisang beats him to it. He’s almost used to affection between them in private, but *was not prepared* for public courting when HE is the target.

Jiang Cheng refuses to look at Wangxian being themselves because of course they are. He’s mostly happy that he knows Jin Zixuan will be better behaved towards Yanli. He’s already told her he likes her, so no awkward confessions in the woods.

But, of course, Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang come across Wangxian rustling some bushes, and have to VERY LOUDLY delay Zixuan and Yanli until they emerge, sheepishly pulling twigs from their hair.

They advance as a group and come across Jin Zixun harassing Wen Ning, who was until then doing very well in the hunt (because he’s a damn good archer) but he doesn’t have his years as a fierce corpse to give him the backbone he needs to tell Zixun to take a hike.

This is one step of Jin Guangshan’s plan. He wants information on how to use the Yin Iron and is convinced that Wen Qing knows something, and if she knows, then Wen Ning might know something, too. So, the purpose of this is “what do you know?” with a combination of “tell your sister to cooperate”

Without The Yilling Patriarch, there are no impostors, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t demonic cultivators - people like Xue Yang but not him because I don’t like him so he’s dead. (Wait for it!) FUCKING SU SHE!! 

Jiang Cheng - “I thought he died in the war!” “He was supposed to...”

I know his focus is on transportation arrays, but he’s also desperate to prove himself and Jin Guangshan is *good* at exploiting weakness

So, we get a “demonic cultivator” who knows just enough to be dangerous because of what he doesn’t know and can’t do. 

Despite the interruption, Wen Ning ranks in the hunt, as does Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen.

During the banquet, Jin Zixun tries that “Drink with me” bullshit to “apologize” for his shitty behavior, and to celebrate Lan Xichen’s standing.

Jin Guangshan has seen the ways the others are closing ranks and instead of saying “I have an in through my son, and possibly my nephew if he had a personality transplant” he wants to gain leverage over them.

He straight up tries to marry Zixun to Wen Qing again, thinking it’s only a matter of time before the Yilling Wen are a major house again. Wen Qing will not have any of it, because Zixun is a) odious and b) mean to her brother. 

The date for Yanli’s wedding is announced, some two months hence.

Yanli is already pregnant, and Wen Qing notices (she’s the only one)

She’ll be around just 12 weeks when they marry, and while her due date gains her some serious side-eye from her mother, Zixuan is head over heels about the baby and is the softest father – but more on that later

There is a brief meeting to discuss the state of things. They plan to meet in Qinghe after the Banquet to compare notes and study the piece of Yin Iron to which Huaisang has access (the one in Gusu is still in the hands of Lan Qiren, who would not let them experiment, and there’s no way they can get to Lanling Jin’s artifact room.)

Nie Huaisang invites everyone to Qinghe for a night hunt

Everyone shows up like “okay, why are we really here” and are surprised when he says “no for real, a night hunt”

What are we hunting? “Xuanwu of Slaughter” the fuck you say?

Jin Zixuan mentions that his father is getting a bit too interested in the fact that Jin Zixuan is friends with the heirs to the main clans. Jin Zixuan tells him nothing except a very politely worded “fuck off” that Jin Guangshan doesn’t truly understand.

Jin Zixuan reunites with Meng Yao, and makes a formal offer of “brotherhood” 

Nie Huaisang tips Jin Zixuan off on Qin Su and Mo Xanyu, who is now a year or two old

Fighting the Xuanwu isn’t easy, but it’s easier with more people/weapons.

Wangji uses chord assassination but with the actual guqin and the help of zidian.

Wei Wuxian still goes inside the Xuanwu as bait, finding the sword.

Wen Ning uses arrows and Zixuan is rathter good with his sword, actually. Nie Huaisang fights with talismans and the occasional fan

The beast dies in 2 hours rather than 6.

“At least we didn’t have to swim for it this time.” “And I wasn’t left behind in Qishan”

They  take the sword back to Qinghe and begin their experiments in earnest. They are looking for a way to purify, destroy, or suppress the metal. Along the way, Wei Wuxian is gaining a clearer and clearer understanding of demonic cultivation.

“I have an idea, but it’s going to require huge amounts of resentful energy.” “You should go with Wen Ning to Yilling. There’s a place called the Burial Mounds” “Huaisang, no!” “Huaisang, yes!”

Before they go, Jiang Cheng reminds Wei Wuxian than he has to be happy, healthy, and whole for Yanli’s wedding. Wei Wuxian says not to worry, there’s a few things he wants to check in Gusu’s library before he tries anything

In Lotus Pier, wedding prep is in full swing, and Jiang Cheng throws himself into everything he can

It’s different than last time, last time Yanli did a lot of her prep in Lanling as Lotus Pier was still under construction

Her wedding will be perfect, damnit

True to his word, Wei Wuxian appears (sans Wangji) to escort Yanli to Lanling. For everything that’s been happening, Wei Wuxian is focused entirely on the wedding.

A-Jie’s wedding

It’s Jinlintai, so it's tacky as hell, but it’s also extravagant as hell.

Jiang Cheng weeps openly, and Nie Huaisang only mocks him a little before handing him a handkerchief. It’s odd, but so much better to have Wei Wuxian next to him, also weeping openly, but that’s Wangji’s problem.

Everyone (minus the wedded couple) end up in Jiang Cheng’s room after the wedding, and Jiang Cheng is able to ignore their absence only because of Jin Ling

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji leave for 9pm curfew (though Jiang Cheng is horrified to know that they won't be sleeping yet. He’s seen that look too many times to know differently), and one by one they all leave, leaving Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang alone for the first time in a while. Something they take full advantage of

The next morning they are woken by an alarmed Wen Qing - Wen Ning has gone Missing. They find him just over the border in Qinghe. (transportation array! Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng know IMMEDIATELY who it is - “WHY ISN’T HE DEAD?” “I don’t know!”) He’s very badly hurt, so they take him first to The Unclean Realm, bringing Wen Qing there to treat him. He’ll recover, but it will take time. Possibly, we’re looking at the return of Ghost General!Wen Qing. He was absolutely experimented on and left to die

The place they find him has been abandoned, but only recently. 

This puts Nie Mingjue and Wen Qing together, and she gets brought in on the whole “our method of cultivation makes us more susceptible to qi deviation” issue to offer medical advice, as an exchange for “allowing” Wen Ning to recover there

Like Nie Mingjue was going to kick out Nie Huaisang’s friend. Pssh. 

This is where Meng Yao approaches Wen Qing with a solution for her marriage issues (which might honestly boil down to “I’ve been in touch with my brother and he’s informed the ladies and I don’t think Jin Guangshan will be an issue any longer)

Jiang Cheng returns to Koi Tower to report to Jiang Yanli. She’s relieved that Wen Ning (and A-Qing, and when did they get so close??) are okay. She’s sad for Jiang Cheng that Nie Huaisang had to stay in Qinghe to host, as Nie Mingjue was still at Koi Tower, though he doesn’t stay long, ultimately.

Jiang Cheng returns with his parents to Lotus Pier, and is only mildly horrified to realize that his mother is beginning the preparations for HIS wedding almost immediately. Luckily, he’s able to put her off by telling her that Wen Ning was absolutely abducted by the Jin Sect. With Yilling Wen being a recognized house (and close neighbor to Yunmeng Jiang), Madame Yu is in favor of fostering good relations. She is (unfortunately) out of children, and Jiang Cheng only has to yell a little to remind her that he’s marrying Nie Huaisang and that *nobody* would be happy if he had to break his engagement to marry Wen Qing.

After his recovery, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji arrive to escort them to Yilling, where Wei Wuxian begins his task at the Burial Mounds. This puts him close enough that it makes *perfect* sense for Nie Huaisang to visit his fiancé in Lotus Pier (and assert that yes, *he* is going to marry Jiang Cheng. Wen Qing doesn’t even want to marry!)

This is the beginning of the end, everyone!

The Breakthrough

This happens “off-camera,” but basically, Wei Wuxian throws himself into the Burial Mounds, and with the help of Lan Wangji, learns how to manipulate resentful energies. With the background of his own (from another timeline) research, he’s able to stumble upon a more sustainable path very quickly.

I want it to have the side effect of purifying (at least in part) the burial mounds. It’s a form of suppression that, over time, purifies.

Absolutely, this is something that will also work on the saber spirit. This is a fix it, damnit

The End: SangCheng wedding

It all comes to a head at their wedding. It’s a natural end to both their romantic plotline (the shift from friends, to friends with benefits, to power couple, to terrifying husbands) and the other driving action (things only seem to happen near the great sects.) 

It’s a week of party, and everything goes down right before the wedding, like, the night before

Wen Ning was the test subject, and the Class of ‘84 is abducted (via talisman) to a secret location, the goal of which is to turn them into (non-zombie) puppets so that Jin Guangshan can control them. Thing more Manchurian Candidate than Renfield

This is, of course, a blatant parallel to the Guanyin Temple, where the major players are either brought back or subbed in. 

Jiang Cheng, Nie Mingjue, WN, Wei Wuxian, and Lan Wangji are all there, as is Su She

Jin Guangshan takes Jin Guangyao’s role, Jin Zixuan takes Lan Xichen’s place (I trusted you!) and Jiang Yanli takes Jin Ling’s place

Wen Qing and MianMian are also there, though they don’t have a direct parallel

I think Wen Ning still arrives, like, half way through and bursts down the door with Nie Mingjue, because that’s fucking poetry right there. (Lan Xichen should also get to have fun, and if they’re there, Meng Yao is there)

And if Meng Yao is there, then perhaps he should have a stab at Jin Guangshan. Though, I don’t think Jin Zixuan would like that

I think the most fitting end is that Jin Guangshan is subject to the weight of his own hubris. His cultivation is high, which helped to a certain extent, but this isn’t the sort of cultivation that can be brute-strengthed. Best case scenario, you have Wen Rohan. Worst case, you blow yourself up. I’m not sure if a Qi Deviation or literal explosion would be better here. 

They marry, and live happily ever after

Jiang Yanli might also announce that she’s pregnant...and Jiang Cheng might cry “HIS NAME IS JIN LING COURTESY RULAN AND HE’S A GODDAMN MESS BUT HE TRIES SO HARD I MISS HIM SO MUCH"

Well, that’s all she wrote, folks! I’m going to be writing bits and pieces of this, at least, and I’m more than willing to take suggestions! If there’s something you want to see written out, let me know!

[dwellordream]

Hello! You've mentioned rewriting But the Wolf a couple of times now, which is certainly exciting as I enjoyed it and would love to see how you would approach it as an increasingly skilled writer. Could you give any hint as to the changes you are planning? I'm guessing maybe some parts of the Berena/Jaime dynamic? I totally understand if you prefer not to reveal anything at this point. Your stories were always interesting but your recent stories are especially captivating and well developed!

I don’t want to make any promises because there are other fics I’d like to write before rewriting that one, and one of my problems is I have little interest in working on two ASOIAF fics set in roughly the same time-period at the same time. As in I don’t want to be writing 2 WOT5K fics at the same time because it would be too overwhelming. I do have some vague ideas as to what I would like to change in a rewrite/reboot, and I can list them here although none of it is set in stone, of course. Just to begin with I think the very premise of the fic (a Stark daughter wedding Jaime Lannister after Robert releases him from the Kingsguard) is on shaky ground because in what world would Ned agree to this. Yes, Robert could overrule Ned as King, but they were already on tense terms at the time and it seems out of character for Robert to insist on this, having no love for Jaime himself and having already married Cersei. So were I to rewrite I think I would approach it from the point of ‘Rickard and Tywin were in talks to betroth Jaime and Berena years earlier’ (like how Jaime was maybe going to be betrothed to Lysa in canon), but this is derailed with Cersei encouraging him to join the Kingsguard and him happily agreeing. Thus the match is off, both Tywin and Rickard are pissed, Rickard pivots to trying to get Elbert Arryn for Berena instead, considering that an even better match.  Unfortunately the Rebellion then kicks off, Elbert is killed before him and Berena are ever officially betrothed, everything else proceeds as in canon, Ned marries Cat, Lysa marries Jon Arryn, etc, and then in the aftermath, Robert agrees to release Jaime from the Kingsguard, and the idea of that old betrothal that was all-but-announced between him and Berena comes popping back up. It’s still a stretch but I could see Ned reluctantly agreeing to it on the grounds that he knows it was what his father had intended for Berena, Jon Arryn is putting the pressure on to make peace with the Lannisters, *and* Berena herself is in agreement and thinks the marriage should happen. Why is Berena all for it? Because in this rewrite I would come at it from the perspective of a young Berena helped Lyanna plot to be the Knight of the Laughing Tree, and then helped her plot her grand escape with Rhaegar, which obviously had terrible consequences. Berena feels tremendously guilty for this, blames herself in part for the Rebellion (however misplaced that guilt may be), for Lyanna’s death, etc. As she cannot join the Night’s Watch as Benjen in canon did, and she feels horrific about what happened to Rickard, she sees the marriage to Jaime as a sort of penance or what she ‘owes’ for her part in Rhaegar absconding with Lyanna, despite her only being like 12/13 at the time. Ned would never force his sister into it, but seeing her *seem* enthusiastic about the marriage, Catelyn being like ‘yeah, it’s the Lannisters, they suck, but they are a Great House, it’s a good marriage’, and both of them wanting to support Berena = the match goes through.  Jaime, as in the original, is not a happy camper and certainly blames part of it on Berena, feeling she was just scheming for a rich husband and an ‘easy life’ at Casterly Rock as opposed to the ‘brutal North’.  Anyways the marriage starts off very rocky as Berena, although initially trying to make the best of it, quickly realizes Jaime is not at all into this, he’s also just an asshole to everyone involved, sour feelings quickly multiply, etc.  I’m also leaning towards in the rewrite the births of Joff, Myrcella, and Tommen all still happening because Cersei is frequently visiting the Rock and the Lannisters are frequently visiting the capitol, and it seems even less likely to the average person that an affair could be happening if both Cersei and Jaime are married.  I’m not sure yet what I would keep/change about Berena and Jaime’s kids. Might be some different birth orders/names.  Tyrion does not get married but the Tysha incident is probably averted and thus he has 10% less horrific childhood trauma. Berena’s ladies in waiting have a larger role and more defined personalities. Genna and Kevan probably play larger roles as well.  Ned doesn’t die.  Cersei and Berena would have a very strange dynamic insofar as yes, Cersei loathes her with all the fire of a thousand suns and would off Berena in an instant, but is also... oddly fond of her at times because she is the one other person who knows Jaime as well as Cersei does? Not that they’re uh... light-hearted frenemies now but that it’s a very fucked up sort of ‘Jaime is my other half and thus you’re almost as much my spouse as his’ back-and-forth where Cersei flashes between outright ignoring Berena, being all buddy-buddy with her, and being privately venomous towards her (not that this becomes a Jaime/Cersei/Berena poly relationship haha but... on an emotional level, kind of?). Like Berena becomes almost... oddly attached to Cersei too, despite coming to know all this horrible shit she’s done.  The characterization of both Berena and Jaime would be slightly different. I think the original went easy on him, insofar as excusing some of his horrible behaviors. In a rewrite I would go all in on detailing how genuinely disturbing the entire Lannister family dynamics are and what it is like to be an outsider married into that mess. Berena would be a different character in terms of behavior, probably dutiful in so far as ‘this is the marriage, it’s what I’m stuck with’ but in terms of the personal relationship with Jaime, she’d be just as petty and spiteful as him- they’d have similar personalities insofar as coming across as pretty flippant/’light-hearted’ but there being a lot of Bad Stuff insofar as repressed guilt/shame underneath the exterior. I don’t have many more specifics but for now that’s what I have mapped out.

[whump-town]

Fic idea for your consideration: somewhat non-cannon because I think Emily owned property before she bought that brownstone... but what if that brownstone is her first purchase and she feels kinda weird buying it without a partner the way she thought her first home purchase would be. Cue Hotch making her feel better about it.

[I’m fairly certain that I understood your idea but if I didn’t just let me know :)]

“Penny for your thoughts?”

It’s ten o’clock at night and the bullpen is cast in darkness aside from Emily Prentiss’s desk lamp. So, rightfully, she thought she was alone. That is until her stupidly tall unit chief comes stalking into the bullpen. Making no noise.

“We need to get you a collar,” she says with a shake of her head. Her heart is racing, pounding against the palm she presses to her sternum. “Jeez,” she grunts, letting her hand fall back down to her desk. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!” she chides with no real heat. 

More surprising than Hotch’s ability to sneak up on her is the smile he cracks. “I’m sure Sergio has one that I can borrow,” he says far too matter-of-factly considering what it is that he’s suggesting. 

Emily blanches at him, more than a little surprised. “Did you-- Did you just make a joke?” She chuckles dryly. He’s such a strange man. In the same breath that she feels off about his joke, she feels like she’s just seen a special feature film. Hotch’s jokes come so rarely and far between, often so dry that they crack and go unnoticed, that she’s afraid she’ll never see it again. So does she reward the behavior or tell him how odd it is to hear him crack a joke?

“Are you done here,” he asks, stepping up to her desk. He lifts the cover of her case, giving it an approving nod. “There’s a sandwich place downtown, I was gonna stop and catch a late dinner.”

Again, it’s ten o’clock at night. “What kind of sandwich shop is open at ten on a Saturday night?” However, after spending her week eating crappy food from vending machines it’s sounding pretty good. He’s convinced her and he hasn’t even laid out his best argument. 

Admittedly, he really doesn’t feel like dining alone.

Hotch takes her inquiry as a yes because that’s, essentially, what it is. “It mostly gets cadets and a few college students,” he admits. It wasn’t around when he was a part of either of those groups but he can still appreciate a good late-night sandwich. Especially, with the way, he forgets to take breaks. “I would understand if you’d rather go home though. It’s late and the kids at the shop have a tendency to be pretty nosey.”

Emily rises to her feet with an eye-roll. “Hotch, I didn’t die and come back from the dead to abide by societal standards on when I should eat my meals.” She smiles when he hands her bag to her. He can be a bit uptight but he’s a gentleman and she can appreciate that. “Besides,” she adds, “I’ve never said no to a sandwich in my life. I’m not going to start now.”

He lets himself laugh with her. Not all that long ago, he almost lost her. He wants to enjoy her company just as much as he wants to get to the bottom of whatever’s bothering her. And he plans to do just that. “I can drive,” he offers, knowing that she drove to work too. He’s really just buying time… time with her that he’s afraid is coming to an end.

Emily blows a breath out her mouth, slow but steady. She’s heavily considering it.

“I’ll pick you up in the morning,” he offers, “and we can stop for coffee.”

She snaps her finger, “sold!” She motions in front of her, comically allowing him to lead the way. 

While she’d hoped that a sandwich and some small talk would deter her spiraling thoughts. 

It doesn’t.

She just sits in his car and thinks about the family he had. Haley and Jack. His marriage wasn’t the world’s happiest but Haley and Hotch loved one another. He had someone to come home to. That’s more than she can say she ever had. 

These thoughts plague her past the car ride and she finds that he’s mumbled something to her multiple times now and she’s been too far gone to notice. 

As they take their seats at the diner, opposing sides of a booth, Hotch sighs. “What did I tell you?” He means, of course, the two other groups in the shop. One of the kids is definitely a cadet, there’s something spectacularly star struck about the grin on the young woman’s face. It’s hard to tell, which one of them is causing said reaction. 

While her name may be the stuff of urban legend, his comes with his tricky career. Cadets are taught about the woman who infiltrated a unit renowned for studying human behavior. The only person to ever have her name and face placed on the wall of the fallen and taken down. While they teach his name alongside George Foyet-- the gift that keeps on giving. Cadets know, in intimate detail, what Foyet did to Hotch. 

He’s a lesson.

She’s a legend.

“So,” Hotch brushes his hands off. He’d torn into his own sandwich while her own had garnered only a little bit of her attention. She can’t stop thinking about the cadets and the students watching them. There seems to be a median of reactions and she knows that has to do with their attire, their jobs, and their names. 

“Buyers regret,” he recalls, frowning as his fingers work to undo his tie. To her shock, she sits and watches as SSA Aaron Hotchner is torn apart leaving only Aaron with slightly tousled hair and loosened collar. “Dave thinks you’re planning on leaving. Morgan knows you’re stalling. Reid’s... He’s certain you’ll ask for reassignment.”

Reassignment?

She shakes her head. Profilers, man, they suck. 

Hotch sighs, leaning forward and placing his elbows on the table. “I think they’re probably right,” he surmises. 

Emily winces. Now, she can’t lie to him. She pops a french fry in her mouth, buying herself time but looking incredibly guilty in doing so. “It’s about the brownstone,” she admits, playing with another fry so that she doesn’t have to look at him. “I just… It feels wrong, you know?”

He wishes he understood. He wants to offer her that comfort but he doesn’t understand. Her emotions, everything concerning her lately, has been pulled away. She’s guarded, even to him and JJ, and he can’t say he blames her. “I’m afraid I don’t,” he replies. “I’m willing to try, though, if you’re willing to explain.” 

Emily keeps her eyes lowered to the table, unable to meet his eyes knowing that they’re going to be burning with compassion. To think there was once a point in their lives that they hated the simple sight of one another. Only to end up here. 

The only thing holding them together these days. 

“I’m almost forty years old,” she admits sheepishly, rubbing at her cheek. She knows that he’s not a misogynist. So he’s not going to think it’s silly or childish that she planned out her wedding before she was even ten and thought she had her life planned out. 

Yet, when she meets his eyes all she can think about is that he probably had plans for forty-five too. 

Probably thought he’d still be married to his high-school sweetheart with three or four kids. Things wouldn’t be perfect but he’d have a family too. He’d have more to come home to than his dead ex-wife’s sister and his son. Not that he ever complains.

Now he’s raising an eyebrow at her, waiting for her to fill him in. Informing him of her age isn’t connecting the dots and he’s starting to think he’s missed something. Her birthday isn’t for a few more months. So, he knows that’s not it.

“I thought I would have a family,” she whispers, grimacing when she blushes. “I thought I would be married and I’d have kids.” She’s afraid to see his reaction to her words. To her surprise, the corners of his mouth have fallen into a deep frown. His eyes have moved to the table but he’s not mad. He’s not even upset, he’s just thinking. 

She sucks in a breath, fumbling to amend whatever she’s said to throw him for a loop. “I mean, it’s kind of selfish--”

“It isn’t.” His voice is deep, thick with the emotion he means to punch into the statement. “It’s not selfish to want a family, Emily.” He manages a small smile her way but his eyes are still pulled down by the weight of the topic at hand. Reaching up he rubs at his jaw, shaking his head as he thinks of something to say. “What does that have to do with the brownstone though?”

She grimaces. She was kind of hoping he’d put that together by himself and spare her the explanation. Clearing her throat and pulling her hands under the table to hide any tells he might see she manages. “I’ve never bought a home before,” she glances up for his immediate reaction before dropping her eyes back down. “I always… I just let myself down, Hotch. I just bought my first house but I don’t even have a partner to move into it with.”

He can see her tears swelling up in her eyes so he reaches across the table, resting his palm upright on the table for her to take. She looks up at him and then down at his hand and back at him again. He raises an eyebrow, silently waiting for her to take it. 

Hesitantly, she places her hand over his. 

“Emily,” he says softly. “There’s no right way to do any of this.” He motions vaguely around them, meaning not just her brownstone problem but life in general. He gives her hand a soft squeeze. “If it did, I imagine…” his immediate thought goes to Haley. If things had gone down as he planned… Well, things wouldn’t be as they are now. He shakes his head clear of that thought. “Things wouldn’t the same,” he decides. “We probably wouldn’t be a sandwich shop at eleven o’clock at night, that’s for sure.”

Emily nods her head. Good point. She’d be at home with a husband and kids to spend the night with. Not hanging out with her boss-- who doubles as one of her few friends-- and the only person waiting for her being a spoiled cat. “Rossi would probably still have his handful of divorces though,” she says with a shrug.

Hotch chuckles, “oh yeah.”

Pulling back to their respective sides of the table, Hotch turns his attention back to his food. He’s starving and he looks up to find Emily’s going back to own food as well. 

“I can-- I can put together IKEA furniture,” he offers lamely, after a moment. “I mean, I put together Jack’s crib and toddler bed…” Not to mention the half-dozen times he’s had to move over the last decade. He’s assembled his share of furniture.

She laughs as his weak offer to help but appreciates it none-the-less. “Morgan already promised he’d do that,” she tells him. She’s smiling but his shoulder’s drop a little as his only chance to help is kindly brushed away. Quickly, she adds, “but you and Jack can come by and I can bastardize one of Dave’s recipes to better suit the tastebuds of a five-year-old?”

He smiles, nodding. “I’ll bring wine and promise not to tell Dave you messed with one of his recipes.” 

Emily rolls her eyes. Dave loves her but he might also beat her if he were to find out she regularly adds and takes things out of his recipes. She smiles at Hotch, already excited to have Jack over. “It’s a date then.”

He nods his head, a date indeed.

[365daysofsasuhina]

[ 365 Days of SasuHina || Day Three Hundred Fifty-Six: Don’t Go There ] [ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata, Hyūga Hiashi, Uchiha Itachi, Tsunade, Hyūga Hanabi ] [ SasuHina ] [ Verse: Best Years of Your Life ] [ AO3 Link ]

Well, this...isn’t at all how she thought this would go.

This morning, Hinata was driven to the hospital by her father for a rather rudimentary procedure. Once a person turns sixteen, they’re of the legal age to have a piece of technology implanted into their wrist. Said to be a strange mix of science, astrology, and other...interesting methods, it’s proclaimed to be able to count down to the moment a person will meet the one they’re the most compatible with.

In other words...a soulmate.

Hinata, personally, has never put much stock in it. While records do show that divorce rates have fallen in the past few decades the devices have been around, it’s not shown to be perfect, either. Though she’s a romantic at heart (and part of her really does want it to be real), the skeptic in her just can’t quite accept that something based on such questionable evidence could ever be accurate.

But her father insisted she have the surgery done. And so, the morning of her sixteenth birthday, she had it implanted.

She’s now on her way home, the tech wrapped and hidden under gauze. And much to her chagrin, she’s being escorted out via wheelchair. Something about the anesthetic making it possible she could fall. Which is silly. She feels fine!

But it’s when she, her father, and the nurse pushing her chair make to step up to the elevator that the unexpected happens.

Barely in a handful of hours...her timer begins to beep.

And beyond the lift doors, so does someone else’s.

Everyone involved has frozen, save for one. A man in a wheelchair much like herself just seems lightly amused, smiling as the teen boy behind him and pushing his ride gawks at his blaring timer.

Beyond him, it’s Hiashi that reacts first. Though she really has no idea what she expected him to do, given how absolutely unexpected this is...getting angry isn’t what she’d have guessed.

Bristling, the man steps out in front of his daughter, the nurse wheeling her back in surprise. “What is the meaning of this?!”

The chair-bound man blinks. “...I believe this is the function of timers, is it not? To count down to a person’s supposed fated meeting of a soulmate?”

“My daughter just had hers implanted -!”

“Then I suppose that makes her a bit of a statistical miracle. From what I understand, that’s a very rare occurrence.”

As though mulling that over, Hiashi then rounds on the nurse. “Explain this!”

“Sir, I...I have no idea. In all my years working here, we’ve never had something like this happen! It’s...certainly possible. But very unlikely. It seems the young lady and young man are -”

“Don’t...go there,” he cuts in, tone icy. “My daughter is sixteen. That’s far too young to be entertaining the idea of a soulmate.”

Behind him, the seated man perks a brow. “...and yet you knew it was a possibility, given that she’s had it implanted at said age. Sasuke too is only sixteen. Has been only for a few months. But there’s no written rule saying they must now immediately wed. It’s just a knowing.”

“That is...not my point!” Hiashi stutters, clearly unsure how to make his argument, given his conflicting ideals.

“Dad, I -”

“Don’t interrupt me.”

“Sir, I think maybe we should all go sit, and -”

“No! I am taking my daughter home. And you -” he then spits, pointing at the one previously called Sasuke, “are to stay far away from her!”

“Dad!” Hinata cuts in, unable to take his attitude any longer, timid or not. “Don’t t-talk to him that way, you don’t even know him!”

“Don’t you talk back to me, young lady -!”

“What on earth is going on?!”

Storming down the hall, a blond woman of short and stout stature glares amber daggers at Hiashi. “I won’t have this nonsense in my hospital!”

The nurse tries to explain. “Doctor Senju, I’m so sorry - we had a bit of an incident, and -?”

“My daughter hasn’t had her timer for three hours, and she’s already been declared a match!” Hiashi cuts in, clearly trying to intimidate said doctor with his taller height.

Hinata just does her best to shrink in her chair, utterly ashamed at his behavior.

Hands on her hips, Senju doesn’t bat an eye at his posturing. “That’s not my problem, my nurse’s problem, or my hospital’s problem. If you want to make a ruckus, take it outside! I’ll throw you out myself before I let your conduct ruin the calm in this place of healing, am I understood?!”

Looking ready to explode, Hiashi demands, “Then let us go. Your nurse can entrust the chair to me. We are leaving.”

“But Dad -!”

“No buts!”

Meanwhile, the pair in the elevator have nowhere to go. Sasuke just stares, dumbfounded. His brother now looks wholly unamused.

“Excuse us,” Hiashi growls, pushing Hinata in as Sasuke scrambles to get out.

Heart racing and feeling desperate, Hinata calls, “I’m Hinata Hyūga! What’s your name?”

“Hinata, don’t -!”

“...Sasuke Uchiha!” he manages to reply, a bit too shocked for a moment.

The doors then close, and Hiashi rails on his daughter. “What are you doing?!”

“I w-wanted to know his name!” she retorts. “I should at l-least get that much, since you’re being so, so...obstinate!”

“Obstinate?!”

“The nurse was right! It’s always a possibility, and s-some people meet their soulmate even younger, before they can get the timer! Getting mad at me because y-you don’t like it, despite forcing me into it, is ridiculous!”

Hiashi goes deathly quiet. Neither of his daughters have ever dared spoken back to him like this...let alone in a way that proves he’s in the wrong.

His pride won’t stand for it.

“...I forbid you from seeing that boy,” he then demands. “Not until you’re eighteen.”

“Fine! The o-only reason I know is because you m-made me do this!”

“One more word with that tone out of your mouth, and the consequences will be dire, Hinata. Not another sound.”

Though hardly the sort to get mad, Hinata seethes, completely at a loss of how unfair this all is. Sasuke getting yelled at when he had no idea what was going on...her father being a raging hypocrite...and she never even wanted this in the first place! Now she’s in trouble because Hiashi refused to consider the very real possibilities?!

...still, she reins in her temper. As upset as she is, she doesn’t want to risk having anything taken away...especially her phone or her computer.

She knows his name. Knows what he looks like. Her father is just dated enough he doesn’t yet realize that she has ways to work around his ‘no meeting Sasuke’ rule. She doesn’t have to see him face to face to text him, or facetime him.

So long as she plays it cool...she can still make this work.

The car ride home is spent in bitter silence, Hinata staring out the window and doing her best to still act sore to hide her intentions. If he puzzles out that she has a plan, he’ll stop her.

“Go to your room, and remain there until dinner is ready. I want you to think about how you disrespected me, and ensure you never do so again. Am I understood?”

“...yes, Dad.”

Hanabi is lounging on a couch when they come in, watching awkwardly as she immediately notices the tension. As Hiashi starts banging things around in the kitchen, she sneaks around to the upstairs where her and her sister’s rooms are located.

“...‘nata…?”

“Come in, Hanabi.”

Peering through a crack, the younger sister then bounds in, confusion written all over her face. “What the hell happened?”

“Language, Hanabi…”

“I haven’t seen Dad that mad in...in...forever!”

Sighing, Hinata explains as briefly as she can, shushing her sister as she gasps.

“That fast?!”

“Yeah. And Dad was furious.”

“What? Why?”

“Because I’m too young.”

Brow furrowed and eyes flickering between Hinata’s, Hanabi considers that for a long moment. “...but you’re of age to get it.”

“That’s what I said, and he got mad. I guess he never expected it, but...it can happen. And now he’s mad at m-me for his own miscalculation. I didn’t even w-want the stupid thing…”

“Wow...man, Hinata I’m sorry.”

“...it’s fine. He’ll get over it.”

“Do you know who he is?”

“Mhm.”

“...sooo…?”

Hinata glances to her door, wary of being overheard and her plan ousted. “...don’t mention anything to him, okay?”

“I won’t, I won’t!”

“Thank you.”

Hanabi then sighs, glancing aside and clearly thinking. “...I’m sorry, Hinata.”

“Don’t be. It’s n-not your fault.”

“I know, but...jeez!”

“It’ll be fine. I’ll just keep pretending, and...he doesn’t have to be the wiser. Just remember, don’t say anything.”

“Dude, I’m the best at keeping secrets, don’t worry!”

“All right...well, you better leave before he gets any angrier.”

“Are you gonna try to message him today?”

“After dinner.”

“Man, I hope he’s cool…”

Hinata can’t help a short snort. “Yeah...m-me too.”

Half an hour later, Hiashi calls them both down for a rather tense and awkward dinner, no one really talking. Even Hanabi chews quietly, eyes flickering between her father and sister.

“...do you have any homework to do tonight?” Hiashi eventually asks.

“No...I got it all done early.”

“Good. Back to school for you tomorrow.”

“...yes, Dad.”

Once dishes are done and everyone retreated to their corners, Hinata begins her digging. Social media is her first stop. He doesn’t have a Facebook, or at least not one she can find. But she finds him on Twitter.

“...all right, Sasuke...time to say a proper hello,” she murmurs, clicking to follow him.

To her surprise, it takes all of five minutes for him to do so back. And less than a minute after that to DM her.

“Hey...are you really the girl from the hospital this morning?”

“Yeah...that’s me. Look, um...I’m so sorry about my dad. He was so rude to you…”

“I mean...yeah. But hey, it was a really weird situation. You okay?”

“I’m fine. Got yelled at but otherwise fine.”

“Does he know you’re talking to me…?”

“Oh gosh, no. He’d ground me into the next century. I just...wanted to say a proper hello. This is...weird, isn’t it?”

“...kinda, yeah. To be honest, I haven’t really been thinking about my timer. I knew I only had a few months when I got it, but...I lost track of time helping take care of my brother.”

“Oh, that was your brother?”

“Yeah...he has an autoimmune condition.”

“...I’m so sorry.”

“It’s all right. He’s doing pretty well with medication and stuff. We were on our way for an infusion when we uh...ran into you guys.”

“And then my dad ruined it...I’m so sorry. I hope you weren’t late?”

“A little. Man, that doctor was PISSED.”

“I bet…”

“She got it all ironed out though, and my bro got his meds. We’re home now and just kinda chilling. It’s always a rough few days after an infusion.”

“Oh...well, tell him I hope he feels better soon. What’s his name?”

“I will. And it’s Itachi.”

For another hour, Hinata just...talks to him. It’s funny. They’re strangers, and she’s usually so shy, but...for some reason, she feels totally comfortable. Part of her blames the timers, but...well, maybe there is something to it.

“Well, I better head off and get my homework done. But hey, I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Okay! Good luck with your work.”

“Thanks. Maybe after a while we could like...meet up or something? Since uh...our first run-in wasn’t very...great.”

At that, she bites her lip. “...maybe. Not that I’m against it! I mean I’d like to talk a lot more first, but...my dad said I couldn’t see you.”

“Oh...well, shit.”

“...let’s just...give it a while. Let him cool off, and get to know each other more. Then maybe I can have my friends help sneak me out. You know, just so happen to run into you while we’re like...at the mall or something.”

“Ooh, sneaky...I like it. Sounds good. But yeah, I don’t mean to come off as an eager freak. My bad.”

“Oh, no no! I know what you mean, I’m really curious too. And I feel bad about today...but best to just like...take things slow and easy, right?”

“Yeah, cool. Guess I’ll chat with you tomorrow, then.”

“Mhm! Goodnight, Sasuke.”

“Night.”

Glancing to her clock, Hinata finds it rather late...and after almost no sleep last night, she decides to call it a day. Readying for bed and bidding the others goodnight, she slips into bed, mind once again full...but in a good way this time. She doesn’t want to rely too much on the notion of a soulmate. After all, she still has no idea who this Sasuke is, what he’s like...best to be careful. Just in case.

...but for now, she’ll let herself dream about when they’ll meet. Properly this time.

                                                            .oOo.

     Okay, more of the soulmate AU! This one kinda blew up compared to normal, so I wanted to get another part out as soon as I could! I might also be able to do ANOTHER part tomorrow, looking at my prompt list...I guess if you guys want that, let me know? xD      I am very quickly liking this AU, lol - as I said, never done a soulmate AU before. It's neat! While I don't like this one QUITE as much as yesterday's (mostly, I will admit, because of Itachi's line at the end xD), it makes for a good segue, and has Hiashi's jerk reaction. Some verses I like to redeem his behavior. This is not one of those times, haha!      Anyway, I gotta head to bed now, so that's all for now. Thanks so much for reading!

[bisexualgendryas]

gendrya + jonsa au: bastard lords and hidden ladies (part 1)

so, this is very much not the whoooole concept as I practically just switch from Cat!Arya to Alayne!Sansa (this post is basically just Gendrya + Alayne!Sansa, sorry, not even written Jonsa, but I promise the full concept includes happy married!Jonsa (two versions, too, lol)), but I am tired af whilst simultaneously being really pumped that ppl wanted to see this idea so here’s (much of) the longass outline of the thing I posted about earlier:

au wip, a legitimized-boys, secret-identity-sisters canon divergence piece, where: Stannis becomes king (and keeps Gendry alive), Arya accepts Jaqen’s offer to work for a courtesan and Gendry finds her while on business for the Crown, Jon gets legitimized after taking Ramsay down, and Baelish makes a betrothal for Alayne to Gendry that she later basically manipulates Stannis into changing into one with Jon after Gendry and his true love ditched the whole ass crownlands. It’s got a lot of book plot overlap too but I have no true concept of the timeline in terms of when different canon events happened. If you want more of this or have ideas or anything, feel free to share them!

Instead of Gendry having to escape from Stannis, Shireen finds out that her father’s found a cousin of hers - a true one, not one of Cersei’s bastards but one of her uncle’s - and especially with pressure from both her and Davos, Stannis ultimately decides he’ll keep Gendry alive, have him taught to behave properly, how to manage lordly duties, and so on.

Jaqen realizes that Arya may not be perfectly cut out for being Faceless, and makes her an offer - that he could find her employment of a different sort. As he’s noted, she’s taken by the allure of the courtesans, whose jobs include far more than just the sexual duties shared by those who work in brothels.

At first, Arya insists she can get better, but then Mercy!Arya ends up becoming friends with a girl who works on one courtesan’s ship, and after hearing many stories about how the women play instruments and tell stories and sing songs, she decides that perhaps it wouldn’t be the worst thing to try out. She talks to Jaqen, tucks Needle in a belt, and makes friends with Mercy’s friend with her own face, as Cat, and then the friend convinces the courtesan that Cat’s a charming young woman who should come work with them.

Stannis first loses at the Blackwater, but then with assistance from the Iron Bank and much of Westeros, as well as some more magic, he later manages to topple Tommen and take the Throne.

Needing to be sure of where the Crown stood with their Essosi allies, Stannis sends Gendry and Davos to Braavos to speak with the Iron Bank. As the Starks were always so keen to remind everyone, winter was coming.

And, ahem, the men sent with Gendry and Davos certainly intend to as well. And, only naturally, after a couple nights of well-enjoyed brothel trips, some of them decide they all ought to take advantage of their being in Essos and seek out some renowned courtesan as well - they had Westerosi lords and knights, after all, one of whom was in line for the bloody Iron Throne! Surely someone would love to host them!

Spoiler: yes, someone absolutely would. (Especially considering that Robert had quite the reputation - not as a particularly fun partner, but definitely as a man who’d finance the purchasing of a week’s worth of alcohol in two nights and come back to bed every pretty girl an establishment had afterwards.) How many Braavosi courtesans or whores can say they were bedded or courted in any manner by the son of a Westerosi king? Not many.

Contrary to expectations, Cat ends up being one of them, though not so much while they’re in Braavos. And as sweet and reassuring as it is that her friends, her companions in training, are certain that this lord immediately realizes how pretty she is, she knows the moment that Lord Baratheon meets her eyes he can see Arya, buried deep beneath Cat, and when she speaks in response to the courtesan he and his men are visiting, he hears her as well, though she’s glad to see he’s smart enough not to have his shock blatantly on display.

After a couple visits, his men return to the brothels, the enchantment of listening to old songs more lost on them than the enjoyment of fucking - but Gendry keeps coming to the barge, even though it’s only him and his uncle’s Hand at that point, and after a couple nights of only them, trading stories with the women and listening to songs in languages that have barely been heard since Westeros’ common became, well, common, he actually asks to have time with only Cat.

And of course, the parts of them that are closest to the Arya and Gendry they once were have an awkward but heartfelt reunion - but the parts of them that have grown up are acutely aware of how different they are, how different their places are. Still, he’s not surprised she became an assassin, and she’s not surprised he doesn’t enjoy the vast majority of what’s involved in being at court. They don’t share everything, but they share quite a bit, almost falling back into the sort of friendship they’d thrived off having. On following nights they talk more about things - about Shireen, about the Hound, about the Red Woman, even a bit about King’s Landing girls and Braavosi dockworkers.

It takes a couple more nights, but after a while she decides to remind him that, while it’s not something guaranteed simply by seeking out a courtesan, he is allowed to bed her. (With permission from her employer, of course, as payment and whatnot would be arranged, but…it’s him, her friend, grown and handsome, so Arya doesn’t mind giving the suggestion.)

He asks, though, what would be the cost just to kiss her. For all the time she’s spent learning people, especially men, it’s embarrassing to be caught off guard as she is, but she manages to gather herself and say that it would depend on who he intends to be telling. She doesn’t really let him consider that, though, not the first night, because she simply does kiss him.

They don’t explicitly tell people they’ve started kissing, but they’re terrible enough at hiding their affections that they’re quickly the talk of their respective social groups. Everyone among them, and probably others who view the barge consistently, knows that he keeps coming back, after all…until their few weeks in Braavos are coming to an end, at least, Iron Bank negotiations and all other necessary business of the Crown having been handled.

But then, before Arya’s really made to think about the fact that he found her on the other side of the world and inched closer and closer to becoming a lover only to have to leave her again, Gendry asks her to leave with him. He can’t give her back her home or her family, but if nothing else they can live safely, together - and more than that, he simply wants not to leave her, ever. From what he’s said of his own family, she doesn’t imagine she’ll get a warm welcome, but she can’t stand the idea of him leaving her either, so she packs up what few belongings Cat has and says farewell to her friends, and to Braavos.

Other than the scandal of her coming with, none of the men seem to think much of her taking a place in his cabin. It’s there that he ultimately decides he’s free enough to bed her for the first time. They’ve not yet made it to King’s Landing by the time he realizes he’s completely and irrevocably in love with her.

Arya’s mainly right to think she won’t get a warm welcome; both Stannis and Selyse almost immediately denigrate Gendry for following his father’s path, the path of foolish men, for what kind of lord openly brought a whore to their castle? She’s not actually a whore, he cares to remind them, even though it stokes the fire of the fury. He has his own to match Stannis, though, and it’s clear and it’s spectacular in its own way. So, too, does Shireen - lovely, kind Shireen who’s so happy for the prospect of a friend that she again begs her father on Gendry’s behalf, and reluctantly, Stannis allows Cat to remain, with some strict guidelines, many of which Arya has no complaints about meeting.

Up North, though, Jon has heard about Arya’s marriage to Ramsay, and decides to reach out to Stannis for help on the matter, help of some sort, any sort. It’s not immediately granted, especially as Jon is already asking for Other help, but ultimately, Stannis starts to consider it. Ramsay was only ruling in the North because of a series of betrayals against those who would rightfully rule it - if the last known living child of Ned Stark, a man who died for speaking the truth of Stannis’ claim and denouncing Cersei’s bastards, was asking for help, to save his family, was it not Stannis’ duty to give it?

He does decide that having Jon as an ally is his best move, and begrudgingly he sends some troops North with Davos and Melisandre, to assist Jon’s wildlings in taking back Winterfell. The Night’s Watch doesn’t all take kindly to the Lord Commander’s priorities, but by the time mutiny drags down Jon Snow, Melisandre is in residence at Castle Black and she brings him back, having seen him at battle at Winterfell in her flames, knowing it needs to follow.

He takes Stannis’ sent men and his wildlings and begins to march south, only for a broken Theon to bring to him Sansa’s friend Jeyne, whose identity Theon had hid so that she could be believed to be Arya. The battle is hard-won, but they win it still, and Stannis gives him his father’s name for the victory, but it’s hollow.

Hollow, too, is the love promised to sweet Alayne, whose false father seeks out his best excuses to wed her to the highest bidder, a title claimed all too soon by the king and queen, part of their plan to change the behavior of the king’s nephew and part of Petyr’s plan to return to power in King’s Landing. A bastard lord for a bastard lady - to Stannis that’s like to sound fair, but to Sansa, it’s everything but. She’s learned to pay attention to whispers and rumors, and with this…Petyr intends to mold her into Cersei, it nearly seems. A Baratheon with a temper and a love, and he’d have Alayne marry him, if only to return to seeking the power of the crown. She knows he’d been speaking with Lord Bolton, which still boils her blood even now that she knows it wasn’t her sister who had been made to be his poor wife - she’d doubted it always, especially with the recollection of how Arya had once raised her own sword even to Joffrey - but he still will drag her back to residence in King’s Landing rather than let her go home…unless she can work something out with her betrothed, and perhaps she can.

Not that he intends to give her the chance, though - the moment that Stannis informs him of the betrothal is a bigger, louder fight than they’ve ever had. Stannis might be king, but he owns Gendry no more than he ever could his brothers, and Cat even less, and he won’t be allowed to forget it. There’s a ship bound for Braavos in the bay, and soldiers intended to take her to it, soldiers who are meant to grab her from Gendry’s chambers while she’s alone there and escort her so that he doesn’t get a say.

Stannis, though, doesn’t know that only some parts of any woman are soft, and Gendry’s the only man with rights to ask for any of her softness. Even without real context she knows the soldiers are only obeying their king, so Arya focuses on injury and little more, rushing down underneath the castle, down where she’d ran when Syrio had told her to do so. And, as if by magic - perhaps, actually, by magic, for she wouldn’t know - Ser Davos finds her. He takes her to a dusty corner, hands her a wine skin and one of Cat’s other dresses, and tells her to wait for him to come back…and so she does.

She waits until the entire area is getting dark, only the trail of the sun and no lanterns or sconces to show her the possible way out, and holds tight to Needle until after the sun is set and he scurries back to her, Gendry at his side, rushing to her like never before. Davos has given him clothes that once had belonged to a son of his, and grabbed them some food.

They make it out of the city on a ship manned by one of Davos’ other sons, a trade ship headed for the Riverlands - straight for Hot Pie, as far as they’re concerned. Arya might cry, in part from feeling terribly anxious and in better part because he’s so terribly kind.

Alayne and her father arrive in their carriage a few days later, to a very apologetic royal party, and Alayne spends much of her first days back in the city thinking how horribly fed up she is with men for all their machinations. Princess Shireen, though, is very clear that while it’s a pity someone was hurt by it, her cousin is deeply in love, and in their private company she calls her father foolish for thinking he could ever sway him. It’s so very Sansa of her, that Sansa herself is easily swayed to their side, though she knows Petyr is having much more difficulty accepting the rejection.

It’s all very much a lovely love story to Sansa, though, as it is to Shireen, and Alayne bonds with the princess easily. She even enjoys Shireen’s stories about this woman Cat, and finds herself wanting to know more and more, especially as she realizes that in a way she has taken the other woman’s place, just in Shireen’s life as a friend as opposed to in her cousin’s. Stannis and Selyse, though, really do stew in their displeasure. Petyr does a better job of hiding his, but she knows that’s only because his intentions are about power and not family, let alone love.

Then, one day, about a fortnight after their arrival, Stannis mentions a part of the plan she’d been unaware of, one she might be able to use.

He wanted to secure the Vale support so that he could support Jon - Jon Stark, now, newly legitimized Lord Stark, warden of the north, the man who had beaten down House Bolton but needed more of his king’s support to fight a larger, more pressing battle, one against the dead, one for the living. As Petyr says, the details make it sound like madman’s words, but King Stannis has magic on his council and more importantly, this was Jon, and Jon was…Jon. Surely if he declared that the dead could be raised by some unnatural force and made to fight the living, he was speaking the truth of it.

She confronts Petyr in private - had the Vale not already been sworn to House Stark? He disagrees, cautiously - House Arryn had been truly bound by House Tully, and Jon had no Tully to speak of.

“Jon Arryn, my uncle, fostered my father, Jon’s father. He called his banners against House Targaryen in defense of Rickard Stark and his children, and Jon is as much Ned Stark’s son as Robb or Bran or Rickon, no matter where your loyalties lie.”

“Your cousin -”

“My cousin trusts his beloved stepfather not to mislead him,” she finishes, proud that she can see in his eyes how the remark wounds him, and then she takes a walk to the godswood to get her head around her situation.

She wounds Petyr again the next day, by bringing to court a proposal of a marriage between her and Jon - she prefaces by saying that she and her father had spoken of it, just gently enough that no one would doubt her, for Lord Baelish keeps his expression so very static, his surprise just barely visible to even an educated viewer. It’s a good offer, to Stannis, and on the surface it’s good for Petyr as well, though no one would say it’s better than putting his future grandchild in the line of succession for the Iron Throne.

Stannis, though, is perhaps realizing he’s glad to have removed a contender from his line, and he’s quick enough to agree to write to Lord Stark with little more than Petyr’s confirmation that the Vale would give its strength in this war of Jon’s.

Petyr makes his displeasure known, but Sansa is sure enough that Jon will side with her that he agrees not to raise a fuss. She knows she’s made the potential error of keeping either of them from an heir, but if it allowed her to go home with her brother, she’d manage what she had to manage.

Jon, too, agrees, surprised for an offer but happy for it all the same, writing back to Stannis days before he’s actually set to leave for Dragonstone to mine dragonglass on the island, another part of their deal. Jon would remain the ever-vigilant guard of the realm, and Stannis would provide him what he needed to hold such a position well - that was how Ser Davos had said it.

They could figure out heritage when this great war was won.

[lgbtqiahistoricalromance]

LGBTQIA+ Historical Romances for Valentine’s Day

Rainbow Bouquet: an anthology from Manifold Press (Released on 2/14/19)

- Authors featured are Harry Robertson, Edward Ahern, Victoria Zammit, Erin Horáková, Cheryl Morgan, Sarah Ash, Kathleen Jowitt, Sean Robinson, Garrick Jones and MJ Logue, and the settings vary from a mediaeval monastery to the 'final frontier', give or take the odd supernatural realm along the way. Stories of love in the past, present and future - all as fascinating in their variety as love itself.

The Auspicious Troubles of Chance by Charlie Cochet (An MC named Valentine is cheating, but…)

- The Auspicious Troubles of Love: Book One Chance Irving is a young man with a gift for getting into trouble—not surprising, as trouble is all he’s ever known. After losing everything he held dear one fateful night, he decides to leave New York and his past behind, and joins the French Foreign Legion. But even in Algiers, Chance can’t seem to shake his old ways, and he ends up being transferred to a unit made up of misfits and rabble-rousers like him—a unit he finds just in time to be captured and thrown into a cell with his new commandant, Jacky Valentine. A highly respected commandant with a soft spot for hard luck cases, Jacky is the kind of guy who would go to war for you, and the three equally troubled youths from his unit he’s more or less adopted feel the same way about him. Suddenly Chance starts to think that his life doesn’t have to be as desolate and barren as the wastelands around him. But even after their escape, with the promise of a future with Jacky to buoy his spirits, or maybe because of it, Chance can’t stop making mistakes. He disobeys orders, lashes out at the boys in Jacky’s care, and blazes a trail of self-destruction across the desert—until someone makes him realize he’s hurting more than just himself. A Timeless Dreams title: While reaction to same-sex relationships throughout time and across cultures has not always been positive, these stories celebrate M/M love in a manner that may address, minimize, or ignore historical stigma.

Will and the Valentine Saint by Summer Devon and Bonnie Dee (Victorian Holiday Hearts Book 2) (This is possibly the sweetest story in the series, though they are all charming.)

- A Valentine bonbon from Devon/Dee. Will Andrews wishes to escape the craziness of his bohemian family and create some order in his life. Hiding his eccentric theater background and presenting false letters of recommendation, he interviews for a position at a legal aid society. The last thing he expects is to fall hard for his genteel employer, Hugh St. John. When Hugh needs a secretary, one magnetic candidate draws him. Will Andrews shares his vision for the Society and is also the most attractive man he’s ever met. But Hugh has never even kissed a man and would never throw himself at an employee. As the pair plans a Valentine charity dinner, they grow ever closer to surrendering to Cupid’s arrow. But when Will’s false credentials and true background are revealed, can Hugh forgive his lies and omissions? Can fragile romance blossom into true love after trust is broken?

Aunt Adeline’s Bequest by Amy Durreson (Part of the A Valentine Rainbow series)

- One snowy evening, wounded WWI veteran Jasper Pritchard arrives at Valentine Nugent’s sweet shop with an unusual request. Jasper’s deceased great-aunt has left him a fortune, along with a box of indiscreet letters she wants returned to the writer, and the only clue is a tin sold in Valentine’s shop over twenty years ago. As they search the shop’s records and uncover a love story from long ago, they find far more than the answer to the mystery. A part of the “A Valentine Rainbow” set of 14 holiday stories.

How to Talk to Nice English Girls by Gretchen Evans (Releases on 2/14/19)(f/f!)

- In the aftermath of The Great War, everything is changing. But not for Marian Fielding. Marian’s life is quiet and predictable in the solitude of the English countryside, where she plans to remain and care for her parents. But Marian’s world is turned upside down when she meets brash, confident Katherine Fuller. Katherine arrives at the Fieldings’ estate for the wedding of Marian’s sister and immediately shakes things up. Instead of keeping an eye on the ill-mannered American girl and keeping her out of trouble, Marian finds herself magnetically drawn to Katherine’s vivacious nature, and they are swept into a whirlwind romance that will change both of their lives. But will Katherine’s unconventional behavior ruin their chance at happiness? Can Marian leave her old life behind? Will two women from different worlds find a way to be together against all odds and expectations?

The Princess’s Valentine by KT Grant (Pirates of Flaundia #2.5) (f/f!)

- Daisy and her ex-pirate wife of one year have created a wonderful life together on an island paradise, after many years of separation and heartache. Daisy worries that Chelsey has become bored and misses her life on the open seas. When she catches Chelsey in the arms of another, she runs away with a broken heart. Chelsey made the mistake of trusting an unscrupulous individual who ended up playing a cruel joke on her. Now she must regain Daisy’s trust before their relationship is ruined forever. She uses abduction and seduction to claim her princess’s heart and soul again.

Eidolon by Jordan L Hawk (Whyborne & Griffin 1.5)

- Griffin Flaherty wants nothing more than to create a perfect Valentine’s Day for his lover, Dr. Percival Endicott Whyborne. Dinner at a fancy restaurant, an evening at the theater, and a romantic interlude at home should do the trick. But a new client with an urgent case puts Griffin’s plans in jeopardy. A magic talisman has been stolen, and if it isn’t returned by sundown, it may unleash disaster not only on the thief but the innocents around him. Can Whyborne and Griffin track down the thief and return the amulet by nightfall, or will dinner reservations become the least of their worries?

In Trouble with Angels by Felicity Ivey (Part of the A Valentine Rainbow series)

- With the increasing commercialization of Valentine’s Day in the 1950s, the Pagan deities of Love, led by Eros, gather to make sure everything runs smoothly. Shy, quiet angel Shateiel offers help, and Eros is quite taken with the cute angel, though he keeps his lust to himself. When the higher-level angels discover Shateiel’s little rebellious streak and how he’s been spending his time, they intervene to keep him from falling from grace. Now, Eros may wish he’d admitted his feeling before it was too late.

Paper Valentine - by AJ Llewellyn

- London, 1840. At the height of Victorian hypocrisy, two men meet and fall in love. Their romance is forbidden, punishable even by death, but their passion blossoms thanks to a paper Valentine.Saint Valentine s Day has become a new and very popular day for lovers. Thousands of Londonites are clamouring for the ideal romantic gift. While men buy chocolate and posies, they yearn for something more unusual, more personal. Enterprising brothers Aldon and Samuel Barnaby hit upon the idea of paper Valentines, creating lavish presentations decorated with silk, lace, and paper flowers.Aldon is fortunate to have his perfect valentine going to his expectant wife, Geneve, but Samuel still longs for his own true love, pouring his heart and soul into his beautiful creations. Samuel s romantic verses inside his paper Valentines are in huge demand, yet not a single local girl can lay claim to his heart because his passion lies not in a woman, but another man Jude, a handsome but shy widower.Jude’s heart, haunted by grief, hasn’t been ready to consider marriage again. But slowly, through his inclusion in the Barnaby family’s lives…and his frequent excursions to stop and stare at the Barnabys shop window…he begins to wonder in what direction his future lies.Can Samuel possibly allow his heart to explore love with another man? Could Jude ever love him in return? He sends Jude an exquisite, anonymous paper Valentine, not suspecting that his entire world is about to be turned upside down.

Rooks and Romanticide by J I Radke (Turning Valentine’s Day theme upside down with this one!)

- In an alternate world, Romeo and Juliet are gunslingers. Verona gives way to a steampunk Victorian London. The victims of turf wars are dumped in an alley they call Lovers’ Lane, and the moment the son of his family’s enemy touches his face, Cain’s revenge is poisoned by love. Fate would have it no other way.

Levi Ruslaniv is the heir to the Ruslaniv family gang, but ridiculous ancient feuds do not interest him. Cain Dietrich’s vengeful hatred for the Ruslaniv family is rooted deep, since he believes the Ruslanivs arranged for the murder of his parents. But his encounter with Levi pierces him deeper than hatred ever could.

With bullets and blazes of glory, schemes, spies, and pack mentalities, loyalty runs as deep in the veins as passion or revenge, and there is only one way to end the fighting. From the start it was inevitable—a bloodstained fate for children with bloodstained hands, and the streets of New London will never be the same.

Madcap Masquerade by Persephone Roth (The MC is Valentine, but this is such a sweet read, I had to include it on this list. Val is naive is some ways, but has a lot to teach too, in this May/December staple of the genre.)

- The Randwick family is as noble as any but lives in greatly reduced circumstances. When Loel Woodbine, Duke of Marche and heir to three fortunes, makes an offer for Miss Valeria Randwick’s hand, it seems like a godsend, but the young lady has already promised her heart to another—and a commoner, at that.Desperate to avoid the marriage, Valeria concocts a wild scheme that depends upon the good graces of her monastery-raised brother, Valentine. When the prospective groom sees through the ruse, he surprises Valentine by agreeing to cooperate. But can Marche and Valentine fool London society while dealing with an accusation of murder and the distracting fascination between them?

A Timeless Dreams title: While reaction to same-sex relationships throughout time and across cultures has not always been positive, these stories celebrate M/M love in a manner that may address, minimize, or ignore historical stigma.

The Winter Triangle by Nikki Woolfolk (Novella prequel to Sweet & Steamy series)(f/f)(POC MC)(Wonderful piece, with some comedy and flirting, as well as a dose of intrigue in an alt steampunk version of Victorian WV.)

- In the town of Stubborn, West Virginia, 1880, happily single Cassandra Holloway has decided to come out to her father, Walter, on the eve of Valentine’s Day. Before she can reveal being a woman of “two-spirits” her well-intentioned, but offspring obsessed father has set her up on another blind date with someone named Morgan. When Cassandra attempts to cancel the date she is faced with a first. She must choose between a beautiful, deaf Astronomy Professor at the local University or the Professors’ handsome sign-language interpreter— both named Morgan. With a comedy filled evening that Cassandra’s cupid playing father could not have planned, she must make a choice as the sun rises on Valentine’s Day. Which Morgan will be her Valentine? 

[afteriwake]

Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures (16/?)

So this is the last of the new chapters I have for the moment! Hopefully, I’ll get to finish this one sooner rather than later...

Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures - It all begins with an invitation to Mycroft’s wedding to his PA and seven days at a resort in Jamaica, with the assumption that Molly pretends to be his girlfriend that his mother might be under the impression that he’s going to propose to sooner rather than later. It ends up being so much more than that…

READ CHAPTER 1 | READ CHAPTER 16 | HELP ME SURVIVE? | COMMISSION ME? | BUY ME A KOFI? | MY PATREON

Molly and Sherlock went away for a few hours, enjoying an afternoon to themselves. They got back to their room as the sun was setting, taking turns using the shower and getting ready for the rehearsal ceremony. The other guests were going to be doing something different, but the six people involved in the ceremony needed to be on the beach where the ceremony was to be held. The chairs weren’t set out, but the areas where they would be were roped off so they would know where to go. Sherlock bristled as he saw Sherrinford lingering, leering at both Molly and Amanda, the other female of the wedding party, and he could see his other brother clenching his jaw.

“If he’s here, we know he’s not seeking out information,” Sherlock said, leaning over to his brother to speak to him without the officiant hearing them.

“I know, but the looks he’s giving...”

“Yes, they make me feel ill as well.”

Mycroft sighed. “I had hoped he’d have grown out of his derelict behaviors as he got older but apparently he’s simply gotten more foul. Robert went over what was found in his room. I’m not shocked, sadly.”

“He’s always been a lech?”

“As long as he’s known the opposite sex existed.” Mycroft crossed his arms. “This may pose a problem for some of the newly arriving guests. Your...goldfish, for example.”

Sherlock blinked. “My goldfish?”

“Inspector Lestrade, who is bringing Inspector Donovan as his plus one, and the Watsons. Molly said she felt lonely and you were busy with our brother, so they’re all on a private jet. I felt you would appreciate having both Gregory and John watching over her.”

“Honestly, I do,” Sherlock said as Andrea began to walk down the makeshift aisle. Mycroft uncrossed his arms and smiled at the woman he was going to marry, and Sherlock glanced over at Molly from across the way, who caught his gaze and gave him a warm smile. He was caught up in the sudden image of Molly walking towards him in some confectionery white wedding dress trimmed with yellow, holding a bouquet of flowers with that bright smile on her face.

Yes, he thought to himself. Definitely strong feelings.

Andrea got up to the makeshift altar they were using for the ceremony and the officiant began the ceremony. He was surprised that they didn’t go over the vows, as apparently Andrea and his brother were writing their own and wanted to wait until the wedding to share them. It was over far more quickly than he had expected, much shorter than John and Mary’s wedding rehearsal had been. It made him wonder again what his own wedding would be like as he was starting to gain much experience with different types of weddings.

The rest of the wedding party milled around the end of the aisle while Andrea and Mycroft spoke privately with the officiant, and Sherlock could see both Molly and Amanda glancing at Sherrinford with worried looks, as though they didn’t want him any closer.

“I mean, I can see how you and Mycroft are brothers, but your eldest brother is just a creep,” Molly said, rubbing her bare arms. Sherlock had brought a linen suit for the dinner and took off his suit jacket, draping it over her shoulders. Molly grinned at him quickly before putting her arms through the suit sleeves and then rubbing her arms again.

“I hear he’s been that way for most of his life,” Sherlock said. “It was rather something Mycroft was hoping he’d grow out of, but I doubt he’d planned on seeing him again in person ever again.”

“And you?”

“I barely have any solid memories of him, just rows between him and the rest of my family and a few fleeting interactions.” He put his arms on her waist and pulled her into his arms, running a hand up and down her back to warm her. The night wasn’t cold, but the breeze coming off the ocean wasn’t exactly warm. “I asked about him growing up but Mycroft would snap at me and my parents would change the subject. I know now that he stole money from them, and must have done more to get my brother’s ire more than I ever have.”

“But why is he here?” she asked.

“He told my father it was to repay the money he had stolen and try to make amends, but I doubt there’s any truth to that,” Sherlock said. “He’s on the run from people who want the money he stole from them and the secrets in his head, according to rumour. I still need to talk to Robert about what he found, but I had wanted to give you at least one day of fun in case it all goes to hell in a handbasket.”

“Thank you for that,” she said before leaning in and giving him a soft kiss. He kissed her back and only pulled back when he heard a chuckle from Sherrinford’s direction. He rested his forehead against Molly’s and resisted the urge to roll his eyes as his brother approached.

“Is it true that the best man and maid of honour have to have a fling? It’d be a bit awkward for some people if it was the maid of honour and groomsmen.”

“You’re foul,” Molly said, pulling away from Sherlock and glaring at Sherrinford. “Go crawl back into your hole.”

“Such a sassy mouth for a sweet looking girl,” Sherrinford said with a smirk.

“And she has such great skill with a scalpel that I’d worry about your bits and bobs,” Sherlock said. “Don’t underestimate her, Sherrinford, if you don’t want to lose something important to you.”

Sherrinford appeared to pale slightly and stop in his tracks a few feet away from them. “You would get a bird with bite,” he said.

“I carry a gun and I know how to use it,” Amanda said in his direction. “So don’t think of cornering me somewhere and having a try at me.”

Sherrinford held up his hands in front of him. “Point taken. There are other birds in the coop to have a go at.” He doffed the hat he was wearing towards them and then turned and walked back to the resort.

“What a prick,” Amanda murmured. She nudged Robert and he shook his head, grinning as he pulled out his pack. She got a lighter out of her dress pocket and lit up the cigarette, inhaling for a moment and then blowing out the smoke away from the others. “He gives me the creeps.”

“Me too,” Molly said, leaning into Sherlock. “Don’t you have enough dirt to get him to go yet?”

“Aunt Mildred says we need to keep him close. She’s gathering intelligence and making up the basis of a case to give to your friends,” Robert said. “There are enough people who want him back in England that he can rot in a deep dark hole for a bit while we get the intelligence we need from him, and then we can let him rot at Her Majesty’s Pleasure for a while.”

“That sounds better than having him on the loose,” Amanda said. “I know my sister would be happy if she could kick his arse for a bit first, though.” At Sherlock and Molly’s confused look she ashed her cigarette. “My sister was sent to Russia to deal with his mess. She barely made it out alive, and she’s in forced retirement now. She loved her job with MI-6 and the bastard...” She shut her eyes and took a deep breath. “At least she’s alive.”

“I’m sorry,” Sherlock said. He knew that someone had been injured in the process of dealing with his brother but he hadn’t realized it had led to her needing to retire. He knew, sadly, most agents didn’t live to retire, so as Amanda said, at least she was still alive.

“Not your fault, mate.” Amanda had another drag off the cigarette and then knelt down to put it out. “Never could finish a whole one of those. But when I get the creeps I just need something to steady the nerves.” At that point, they were joined by Andrea and Mycroft. “Andy, how much longer does the creep need to stay?”

“Until Aunt Mildred has things settled. Mycroft has promised Gregory that if he doesn’t get to stay for the wedding Sally can at least stay long enough to have a bit of a vacation. Right?” Mycroft nodded. “Ben is working his magic on gathering the video, Aunt Mildred is sorting out the paper trail so hopefully the rubbish will be gone before the hen night.”

“Maybe sooner if he paws at anyone,” Mycroft said grimly. “Fratricide is an option. Sherlock isn’t the only one who can beat a murder charge.”

“I had Mildred’s help,” Sherlock noted.

“As will I.” Mycroft reached over for Andrea’s hand. “We should head to the dinner now. There may be booze flowing freely and if Sherrinford is snooping...”

The others nodded and they began the walk to the resort, with Sherlock and Molly trailing behind the rest of them. After a moment Molly stopped and looked over at Sherlock. “Is it going to be safe to have Mary here?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” Sherlock asked.

“Well, she has her past and all, and if your brother deals in secrets, Mary has some big ones to keep, even with Magnussen dead. Just because he kept it all in his head...”

“Damn,” Sherlock said, shaking his head. In the happiness he’d felt knowing his friends would be arriving, he hadn’t even considered that. “Mary shouldn’t have to hide in a room.”

“Or maybe she’s here to celebrate after he leaves?” Molly asked. “I mean, she could be hiding just for a day or so, but not the entire time.”

“True,” Sherlock said with a frown. Then he sighed. “Why is this all so complicated?”

“Because it’s typical of the life you lead?” she said with a half-smile. She squeezed his hand. “We’ll all make the best of the situation, but I’ll admit, it’s going to be good to have them there.” She began to walk again, pulling him along, and he allowed himself to be lost in his thoughts for a time until he needed to put a smile on his face and do his best man duties. Then he cleared his mind and went about to the task, vowing to himself that if nothing else, he would not be a burden to Mycroft like their eldest brother was turning out to be.

[moonlitgleek]

samwpmarleau

replied to your post

“Don't you think POD was a bit abelist for refusing tyrion?”

see, idk, while that may be par for the course in westeros, it's pretty dang hypocritical. elia wasn't supposed to survive infancy either, and yet she did. oberyn is the one putting the ableism spin on his mother's choices, we have nothing from her specifically. imo, she easily could have taken it as an insult for a) ableism towards her own daughter, b) the reneging on the deal she had with joanna, which tywin presumably used to be on board with, c) the assertion that elia isn't ~worthy~ of his precious jaime, and d) because betrothing elia to tyrion would mean at EARLIEST elia couldn't have her first kid until she was 29, which is just ridiculous in westeros' terms.

It’s true that we haven’t heard from the Princess of Dorne herself but Oberyn is as close to a reliable witness as we’re going to get until GRRM deigns to give her a voice. By no means does that mean that everything he says must be accurate, but the flow of the conversation between him and Tyrion doesn’t seems to support that this is only Oberyn’s spin imo. Oberyn alternates between telling his mother’s observations and giving his own conclusions in this conversation but he does frame each as they are. For example, he clearly presents his thoughts about the supposed double betrothals and the cabin on their ships as his own deduction before he shifts into telling information that his mother told him. The part about the match with Tyrion being taken as an outrage not only comes with Oberyn’s assertion that it was, it comes in-between an instance where Oberyn is recounting things his mother told him, and another where he confirms that she did think that she won the tilt. The context that Oberyn gives - that this is a story that merited a mention on the Princess’s deathbed, no less than 6 years after the incident and (probably) after Elia had married Rhaegar - coupled by his lack of objection to Tyrion’s assumption that the Princess did think of the offer as an outrage makes me inclined to take this as the Princess’s take too and not just Oberyn’s. After all, if she didn’t take it as an insult, why did she think that she won the tilt like Oberyn confirms? Yes, it’s absolutely because wedding Elia to Rhaegar was a resounding rebuff to the ableism Tywin showed towards Elia, but that is intrinsically tied to Tyrion and his disability.

Thing is, the ableism against Elia can not be separated from the ableism against Tyrion because it was delivered through Tyrion. The very expression of Tywin’s ableism towards Elia was in offering disabled Tyrion instead of able-bodied Jaime, sending a message that sickly Elia could only be worthy for the disabled kid, not the golden able-bodied one. If Tyrion was not disabled, if there was no ableism leveled at him from both parties, the offer wouldn’t have been an insult in the first place. We can’t claim that the Princess of Dorne was insulted only because the offer of Tyrion displayed ableism towards Elia which had nothing to do with Tyrion himself when said ableism lies in offering Tyrion. If she didn’t think there was something wrong with Tyrion, then what was the insult to Elia? That Tyrion was much younger? That might have made the match a bad fit, disadvantageous and unsuitable for the Princess’ dynastic hopes, but it’s no insult in and of itself. Not “an outrage” as Tyrion put it and Oberyn agreed with him. Simply a part of dynastic negotiation.

Nor can the fact that Tywim refused the match be taken as an insult on its own, unless every other lord took failed marital plans as a personal insult, and unless the Princess of Dorne herself took Tywin’s rejection of Oberyn for Cersei as an insult. Which she didn’t though Tywin’s brusque tone clearly bothered her. Too, it can not be said that Tywin reneged on a previous marital agreement because we got no indication that Tywin even knew about the correspondence between the Princess and Joanna, and Joanna’s own agreement can not be seen as a solid promise of betrothal that Tywin should be held to because marriages are typically arranged and negotiated between heads of Houses so Joanna couldn’t have formally betrothed the twins without Tywin’s approval. As a political actor in her own right, the Princess knew that, which is further supported by how all the information we have indicates that she didn’t approach the matter like it was previously preliminary approved. I’d also think that the Princess would have mentioned it to Oberyn if this was a case of Tywin going back on his word, considering that betrothal agreements are a big deal in Westeros.

while ableism is rampant, given elia's own condition, the fact that dorne is more lenient with pretty much everything, and tywin's betrayal, i think it just as likely she took it as just a plain insult, irrespective of tyrion's condition.

I don’t think that Elia’s illness precludes the Princess of Dorne displaying ableist behavior. It is not uncommon for someone to display prejudice against the same minority group that a loved one belongs to. This is a bit like saying that someone isn’t racist because they have PoC in their family. Not only does casual prejudice exist in behavior that isn’t consciously recognized as prejudice, but selectivity in prejudice also exists. It is not uncommon for someone to exclude a loved one from a certain prejudice. We see this all the time in real life and also repeatedly in the text. Various Starks causally dehumanize Tyrion by referring to him by a slur or reducing him to his disability, but they’d never do that to Bran (though casual ableism towards Bran does creep up in several places because they don’t even realize that’s ableism). Tywin is a ramping misogynist who thinks women are inherently inferior and has wild issues with powerful women but Joanna was still his confidante who he left in charge when he was absent. Rhaenyra Targaryen displayed the usual prejudice and scapegoating of bastards when she ordered the arrest of Addam Velaryon based on nothing but his bastardy, even though her fiercely protected elder three sons were all bastards. Lysa Tully is grossly ableist towards Tyrion, even though her own beloved child is also a victim of Westerosi ableism.  Oberyn himself showed ableist behavior towards Tyrion in a way I highly doubt he showed with either of his beloved siblings.

(I also think there is a conversation to be had about the kind of disability in question because that does affect the form of ableism leveled at a disabled person. Ableism aimed at Tyrion is different from the one aimed at Elia is different from the one aimed at Lollys is different from the one aimed at Hodor, even though all have points of correlation and all share the implicit belief that the disabled person is worth less than others. That casual assumption of Tyrion’s immorality and evilness and violence even as a baby or before he’d done anything questionable that’s from people who aren’t as grossly ableist as the Lannisters, that’s a distinct pattern of disturbingly common reactions to Tyrion that is patterned to his specific disability. But I’m not really equipped to tackle this subject so I’ll leave to more informed people).

additionally, the fact that elia was besotted with baby tyrion and thought him absolutely adorable, and that oberyn thought him a perfectly normal (or at least not deformed "enough") baby suggests the POD didn't display much ableism at all in raising them. maybe they just turned out well in spite of her, but i'm not inclined to think that the case.           

That’s a too narrow view of what ableism is, though. It restricts ableism to the purposely malicious and more extreme form, to instances where people call a disabled baby monstrous because of his disability or use it as an excuse to abuse him. But that is not the only form of ableism there is. Casual ableism is still ableism.

More importantly, it is not accurate to imply the Martells haven’t shown ableism and use it as a proof that the Princess didn’t display it in turn. Because Oberyn was repeatedly ableist. He might have thought Tyrion “a poor sort of monster”, but he said baby Tyrion had “an evil eye” (evil being a stereotype often used against Tyrion due to his dwarfism which automatically vilifies him in the eyes of everyone), regularly referred to him as the Imp, told him to his face that it was an outrage that he was put forward as an option for his sister and expected Tyrion to see where he was coming from. Oberyn displayed a lot of casual ableism with Tyrion, because ableism is inescapable in their society. I tend to think about the instance with the Princess of Dorne as a similar kind of casual ableism. I reiterate that I don’t think the Princess of Dorne was malicious or that she wanted to tear Tyrion down. But I do think that she thought him not good enough for her daughter because of his disability, in a similar way to Catelyn’s reaction to his marriage to Sansa (though that has other elements as well, of course. But thinking of Tyrion as “the twisted little man” really can’t be taken as anything but ableism).

Point is, one doesn’t need to be actively abusive or terrible to be ableist. Jon Snow actively lorded his physicality over Tyrion at the beginning. Some of the kindest souls in the series like Sansa and Bran still display that prejudice, not out of maliciousness or a desire to hurt and not out of a conscious belief of superiority to the disabled person. It doesn’t mean they are bad people. But that doesn’t make their behavior any less ableist, not when it’s built on, informed by and expressed through a person’s disability.

[setepenre-set]

@elf-kid2 asked for Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue chapter 4 for the DVD commentary meme!

Megamind stops breathing, pressing himself back into the corner of the couch automatically, thinking for a horrible, sickening half-second that Minion was right after all, that this is a trick, all a trick; Roxanne only asked him here tonight so that Metro Man—her boyfriend; he should have known it was too good to be true, what Roxanne said about her and Metro Man not really being together, should have know that this was a trap, but—

But then he looks over at Roxanne who looks—aghast, actually, at hearing Metro Man’s voice. And then her expression morphs into something furious as she glares at the apartment door.

This is the moment where Megamind begins to allow himself to trust Roxanne.

“Are you serious right now, Wayne?” Roxanne says loudly. “What are you doing here; go away!”

Megamind stays perfectly still, trying to breathe silently, wishing his heart wasn’t beating so loud, and watches Roxanne’s face.

Wow, she’s—really mad; Megamind’s glad she’s not looking at him like that, no matter how gorgeous she is with her eyes snapping and her chin up and her lips and cheeks flushed with anger.

I’ve always loved the concept of “you’re beautiful when you’re angry” as a line, but not the way it’s almost always used in things, with the male love interest being deliberately irritating/insulting to the female main character and then saying “you’re beautiful when you’re angry” in a way that mocks and dismisses her--ignores the force and power of her anger by telling her that she’s ‘pretty’. 

It is the force and power of Roxanne’s anger that Megamind finds beautiful.

Roxanne watches Megamind’s face. His expression is one wide-eyed shock, now, but that’s much better than the wide-eyed terror that she saw on his face when he first heard Wayne’s voice, much better than the expression that followed the terror: for a moment, he’d looked—betrayed and disappointed and not surprised at all.

And Roxanne knows exactly what he must have been thinking, knows he must have assumed the worst when Metro Man showed up to their date.

(it catches Roxanne off guard, how much she wants for Megamind to trust her, how much that split-second expression of unsurprised disappointment on his face actually hurts.)

She’s beginning to understand that she really cares about Megamind, that she really cares what he thinks about her and feels about her.

(also, this is. not a date. obviously. obviously not a date.)

ahahahaha yep. there she goes again, thinking about it like a date and only catching herself afterwards.

“But—but I’m here to pick you up for the party,” Wayne says from the other side of the door and this is it, this is the last goddamn straw.

“I am not going to your mother’s party with you, Wayne,” Roxanne says. “I am not going anywhere with you. I’ll tell you where you can go, though—”

“But you said that you would!”

“Wh—no I did not!” Roxanne says. “I hung up on you when you asked! It doesn’t get much more ‘no’ than that!”

“But you didn’t say no,” Wayne says, voice sulky. “I just figured you were mad.”

Wayne wanted the answer to be “yes”, so he went ahead and assumed it was “yes”.

“Mad does not even begin to cover it!” Roxanne says, “You had just told me that you weren’t coming with me to my step-sister’s wedding because you didn’t feel like it; oh my god, Wayne, fuck entirely off! ‘Dating’ you was the worst mistake of my life; seven years of sexual dissatisfaction and this is what I get?”

Roxanne hears Megamind make a choking noise beside her on the couch.

“Roxy!” Wayne says, sounding scandalized. “Your neighbors are listening!”

Wayne is very attached to his Metro Man image of perfection, and to what he sees as the standards of “good behavior”. 

“‘Dating’ you was the worst mistake of my life!” Roxanne shouts at full volume, “Seven years of sexual dissatisfaction!”

Megamind makes another choking noise, this one more like smothered laughter. When she looks over at him, he has his free hand over his mouth, but his eyes are dancing with amusement.

Roxanne is really enjoying making Megamind laugh.

“Roxy! Roxy, let me inside; let’s—talk about this—privately—”

“Seven years!” Roxanne shouts, “seven very. long. years!”

Megamind snickers silently.

“Roxy—”

“You never made me come even once!” Roxanne shouts, watching Megamind’s face, wanting to see if she can keep him laughing.

It works; his eyes go wide, his face blushes behind his hand, and his shoulders shake with suppressed laughter. Roxanne grins in spite of the fact that she’s still pretty angry.

(it is, of course, true that Wayne has never made her come, although it’s not true in the way her neighbors will be thinking if they really are listening. Oooh, Roxanne hopes they are; she wants Wayne to squirm.)

Roxanne winks at Megamind, her heartbeat picking up—this is—this is fun, the two of them sharing a secret joke like this.

She winks at him; she is such a flirt and she isn’t even flirting consciously.

“I’m coming around to the balcony,” Wayne says and Roxanne feels her eyes go round with horror, Megamind’s face mirroring the expression.

“What—no!” Roxanne shouts, “Wayne, do not come around to the balcony—”

But he doesn’t answer, and—shitshitshit—Roxanne jumps up from the couch, pulling Megamind to his feet, trying to shove him towards the stairs—

“Bedroom; hide in the bedroom—” Roxanne hisses as Megamind pulls her hand in the other direction.

“No, no, watch!” Megamind says in a frantic undertone.

And Roxanne’s about to snap watch what? when Megamind snatches the wristwatch up from the coffee table and straps it on his wrist and—yeah, that’s probably a better plan—

Roxanne forgot about the disguise watch. She is so into this “pretending to date Megamind” thing--that she kind of isn’t very focused on the fact that he’s supposed to be someone else.

“Megamind,” Wayne says, and Roxanne looks over to her balcony door to see him standing in one of his stupider Heroic Poses.

Roxanne’s critical sarcasm when she’s annoyed is so enjoyable.

Beside Roxanne, Megamind—freezes.

There are several seconds of silent stillness.

And that’s—odd; Megamind tends to respond quickly to actual threats. Roxanne looks over at him in confusion, sees the carefully neutral way he’s holding himself, sees the way he’s watching her—why is he—?

“Should have known you were behind this!” Wayne declares.

heh, Wayne is basically playing this scene alone so far--Roxanne never cooperates and takes her damsel cues, and now Megamind’s not taking his villain cues either.

And Megamind still doesn’t respond right away, doesn’t taunt Wayne about how Roxanne actually invited him, doesn’t gloat or make insinuations, and Roxanne realizes abruptly that—

He’s trying to give her a chance to respond first, to decide which way to play this.

Megamind is starting to think of this as separate and different from any of their damsel/villain interactions. Roxanne yelling at Wayne and making Megamind laugh and winking at him--all that has started to make him see that this is...really very different, and it’s only the damsel/villain thing that he feels he needs to take the lead in. Now that he feels he’s allowed to give Roxanne a choice, he definitely wants to, definitely wants to do this right, to do what she wants.

She realizes it a moment too late, though; Megamind pulls her in front of himself, one arm around her waist and the de-gun, suddenly, in his other hand, pressed to her temple.

When she doesn’t indicate what she wants, he assumes that he should definitely deflect any and all blame from her. So he pretends he’s kidnapping her.

“It looks like Miss Ritchi’s best efforts to break your heart for your own good were all in vain,” Megamind says with an evil laugh that sounds only slightly forced. “You’ve fallen right into my trap!”

Not a bad line, considering he’s improvising all this completely.

Metro Man looks around the apartment suspiciously, searching for the alleged trap—the entirely nonexistent alleged trap, but what Metro Man doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Quite literally won’t hurt him in this case, ha ha ha, ohhh Megamind is so fucked and this is going to be painful—

I was quite pleased at that turn of phrase: What Metro Man doesn’t know won’t hurt him--quite literally won’t hurt him in this case.

(worth it, he thinks, remembering Roxanne’s fingers laced with his, remembering her hand on his wrist, remembers her telling him to stay. definitely entirely worth it.)

He is so very in love with her.

“My trap which—should be springing at any moment,” Megamind says, letting some of his nerves creep into his voice; if he plays this right, Metro Man should just assume that the ‘trap’ had malfunctioned…

Ah, yes, there’s that smug heroic smirk; the idiot’s bought it.

This is really quite a clever move on Megamind’s part--it means that he won’t have to come up with a reason for why there’s no real evil plot. Fake a malfunction!

“Sorry, Megamind,” Metro Man says, “looks like the spring is out of your step.”

(banter! trap should be springing--spring out of your step)

“Nonsense! Hope springs eternal!” Megamind declares, a little distracted by the memory of Roxanne’s hand on his wrist, by the reality of her in his arms now.

Shit, that doesn’t sound evil at all, hope springing eternal.

“Evil! Evil hope!” Megamind says, “Springs eternal! It just. Pops right up out of the ground. Like. Daffodils. Fuck!”

Poor, stressed-out, flustered Megamind, trying so hard to be convincingly evil, and failing at it even more obviously than usual.

To his consternation, Roxanne makes a smothered noise of amusement.

“Daffodils of—of evil! And—and pain! And—springtime allergy season! Stop laughing, Miss Ritchi!”

He’s so cute! And trying so hard! And not convincingly evil at all!

Roxanne chokes down her laughter—daffodils of evil; oh Megamind—and leans her weight back against him.

“It’s okay,” she says, tipping her head back and sideways to look at him, “it’s okay, Megamind; you can stop now.”

All she mostly sees is the line of his jaw; for a very confusing moment, she has the oddest urge to press her lips to it, and then he turns his head to look at her and—wow, he is really close. And. Yes. Very—very close.

Megamind got flustered about holding her, and now we get to see Roxanne getting flustered over that, too.

Then he lets go of her and steps away, sliding the de-gun back into the holster on his thigh.

He immediately does as she wishes. This whole fake dating thing for Megamind is really quite--he thinks of it a bit like knight errantry, actually: Roxanne is the maiden with a problem who he’s being allowed to serve. He’s such a romantic.

Wayne’s eyes dart between the two of them in obvious confusion.

“…are you going to come quietly?” he asks, the manly boom of his voice somewhat spoiled by the note of perplexity.

“Oh, fuck off, Wayne; he’s not going anywhere with you, either,” Roxanne says crossly.

Wayne is trying to keep this scene Dramatic and Heroic, and Roxanne brings it down to earth hard with “oh, fuck off, Wayne.”

Wayne and Megamind both shoot her looks of surprise—Megamind actually looks more shocked than Wayne, which is saying something.

“But—but he was kidnapping you!” Wayne says.

“No,” Roxanne says, “he wasn’t. He—unlike you, might I add—was actually invited here tonight.”

“Invited,” Wayne repeats.

“Yeah,” Roxanne says, “invited.”

“You invited him,” Wayne says.

“Yeah,” Roxanne says flatly, “I did.”

“Have you been feeling confused, lately, Roxy?” Wayne asks, looking at Megamind suspiciously. “Maybe you have a headache—or there’s a funny noise—or you drank something that tasted weird—or something?”

Wayne is not having an easy time accepting that they really aren’t going to play his game any more. And--although he is a huge jerk at this point in the story--he is actually concerned for Roxanne.

Megamind clearly catches the insinuation right away; his eyes narrow and his mouth goes flat.

“Oh fuck you,” he snaps, crossing his arms in front of his body, “I don’t do things like that.”

To Megamind, this is basically the worst possible thing that someone could imply about him. His response isn’t anything like villainous banter, it’s just angry and deeply offended.

“I invited him,” Roxanne says loudly, “because he is going to do me a favor, Wayne. Not that it’s any of your business.”

Wayne scoffs. Roxanne has to suppress the urge to throw something at him.

“You were the one who gave me the idea, actually, Wayne,” Roxanne says with poisonous sweetness. She raises her eyebrows, “Didn’t you suggest I take someone else to my stepsister’s wedding?”

Roxanne is mad about him implying that about Megamind, too. She’s letting Wayne know that he’s very much been replaced by Megamind.

There’s a moment of silence, and then Wayne bursts into laughter. Out of the corner of her gaze, Roxanne sees Megamind flush dully, sees him lift his chin like he’s forcing himself not to drop his eyes in shame and Roxanne’s anger flares again, bright and incandescent, because this is not fucking funny.

Wayne must notice the way she’s glaring at him, because he stops laughing.

“You—aw, come on, Roxy, be real!” he says, “you can’t take him to meet your family. I mean—look at him.”

Roxanne does, makes a point of looking Megamind up and down (his face is turned away from hers; he doesn’t meet her eyes).

“I don’t see anything wrong with him,” Roxanne says.

She means this. 

Megamind turns his head sharply, looking at her, a lavender blush on his cheeks and the tips of his ears, an expression of utter shock on his face, his eyes round and his lips parted.

This is, quite possibly, the best compliment that Megamind has ever been given. She doesn’t see anything wrong with him. To Megamind, who feels that he’s nothing but wrong, this is--terribly shocking and extremely meaningful. The fact that it’s Roxanne saying it makes it even more shocking and so much more meaningful.

(He looks like he’s just been slapped across the mouth, or kissed when he wasn’t expecting it)

The fact that his reaction to being kissed looks a bit like a reaction to being struck--to be so unused to being treated affectionately that it almost hurts when someone does treat you with affection. And Roxanne’s subconscious is already very interested in what Megamind would look like after he’s been kissed.

“Roxy,” Wayne says, and Roxanne forces herself to look away from Megamind, “he’s a supervillain. You can’t take a supervillain home with you.”

And, okay, maybe that’s a fair point; Roxanne knows that her mother would flip if Roxanne brought Megamind, the supervillain who has kidnapped her for years, to Laura’s wedding—which is why the disguise watch is necessary!

It is very interesting to note that the only thing stopping Roxanne from pretending to date actual Megamind is the thought of her mother’s reaction. Roxanne doesn’t feel like it’s that implausible of an idea, and doesn't see anything wrong with the idea in and of itself. 

She opens her mouth to tell Wayne that, and then a thought occurs—

—Megamind probably uses the disguise watch, doesn’t he, for—supervillainy things. And maybe that should make Roxanne want to tell Wayne about the watch, but—

(that split-second look of resigned disappointment on Megamind’s face when he thought she led him into a trap—Roxanne never wants him to look at her like that again)

And really, like Wayne needs any more advantages against Megamind. Please. Wayne has invulnerability, eye lasers, superspeed, and he can fly. Roxanne can let Megamind keep a secret holographic watch.

“Lucky for you, Wayne,” Roxanne says, “you don’t need to worry about my family. Megamind and I will manage this just fine. Thanks.”

Roxanne is proving again that Megamind can trust her.

Megamind is still staring at her, looking shocked.

“…are you doing this because you want me to say I’ll come to the wedding with you?” Wayne asks.

Megamind’s expression goes shuttered at that, like he might actually believe that, like he—

“No,” Roxanne says forcefully. “I am not doing this to get you to do anything, Wayne. Because this is not about you at all. Shockingly, Wayne, not everything is about you.”

A fact that Wayne really needs to realize.

“So that’s it, then,” Wayne says, “Megamind is—what, your new fake boyfriend?”

“Pretty much, yeah,” Roxanne says, swearing to herself that after this is over with, she is going to go on a real, actual, not-fake date like a reasonable and totally non-crazy adult person who is in no way going to die alone and get eaten by her nonexistent cats.

Just—she just has to get through this wedding.

Again, Roxanne hasn’t really had very fun experiences with dating. Her swearing to herself that she’ll go on a real date after this is about feeling like she needs to appear “normal” rather than anything that will actually make her happy.

“And you’re really not coming to the party tonight,” Wayne says, as if this is some sort of terrible betrayal on her part.

“No, Wayne,” Roxanne says, “I’m not.”

Wayne clears his throat and nods stiffly, clenching his jaw—the clear image of a Strong Man Stoic in the Face of Rampant Female Treachery.

I do so love that description; Roxanne is so wonderfully caustic.

And then he shifts his stance to Metro Man’s Stupid Heroic Pose Number Three.

“Well,” he says, “I hate to crash your party, Roxy—but I’m going to have to take your boyfriend here in all the same.”

Megamind twitches slightly at that, hearing Metro Man say your boyfriend to Roxanne about him in that mocking tone.

(as if the very idea is ridiculous, and it is ridiculous, but that doesn’t mean he wants it thrown in his face)

Megamind might still feel like that idea is ridiculous, but we’ve already seen that Roxanne definitely doesn’t.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me!” Roxanne snaps. “Stop being such an asshole; he isn’t doing anything wrong!”

“He’s a supervillain, Roxy,” Metro Man points out in a virtuous tone. “It’s my duty to take him to prison. Of course,” he adds, “I probably wouldn’t have time to capture him if we were busy going to the party.”

“You—hypocrite!” Megamind gasps, actually shocked, pointing an accusing finger.

Megamind is so--oddly innocent. He knows Wayne is a jerk, but Metro Man is supposed to be a hero--heroes aren’t supposed to blackmail people!

“Extreme hypocrite,” Roxanne says, “double hypocrite. Blackmail, Wayne? That’s what you’re going with?”

“All right, then!” Metro Man says, advancing into the room, “I’ll just arrest him!”

“It’ll be fine,” Megamind says quickly to Roxanne, as she opens her mouth to argue.

(Metro Man looks annoyed; Megamind doesn’t think he would hurt her, but most of his assumptions about that have been based on an erroneous view of Metro Man and Roxanne’s relationship, which—yeah, not worth the risk.)

“It is not fine,” Roxanne says stubbornly. “I asked you for a favor and now you’re getting arrested. It’s not fair.”

(of course, of course she’s not worried about him—personally, specifically. but it’s—nice, anyway, that she’s concerned about unfairness even when he’s the one being affected by it.)

She is, in fact, worried about him specifically and personally.

“You can just—owe me twice,” Megamind says lightly, “I’ll be fine. It’s me—in and out before you know it!”

Roxanne shakes her head, lips pressed together, unsmiling.

“Oh, come on,” Metro Man whines, “you guys are making me feel like the bad guy!”

“Yeah, and it sucks, doesn’t it,” Megamind mutters under his breath.

Roxanne gives him an odd look.

Megamind and Roxanne are both aware, and discuss, quite early on in this story, that he doesn’t actually want to be a supervillain, that he feels constrained by circumstances to do it--much like Roxanne feels constrained by circumstances to appear “normal”. Both of them eventually freeing themselves from these constraints is an important part of the story.

“I just need a date to the party!” Metro Man says. “I can’t go by myself; they’re expecting a date; there’ll be questions if I show up by myself! Man, I hate questions!”

Roxanne looks over at him, then glances at Megamind again.

“Fine,” she says, voice tight. “You—fine. I’ll go get dressed.”

Metro Man gives a relieved whoop.

Wayne is really very like a spoiled child. Not actually evil, just--terribly selfish.

“You—you don’t have to—” Megamind says, honestly feeling a little bit dizzy at—she’s going to—do this, even though she doesn’t want to? Just to—just so—just for him? Nobody ever worries about—

“Stay here,” Roxanne says to him, and turns to go upstairs.

Megamind nods, bewildered, and stays.

Roxanne! Is rescuing him!!! Roxanne is rescuing him! And Megamind very much views it as a rescue, and is so shocked and grateful.

Roxanne slams her bedroom door and yanks open her closet, shoving clothing aside. She pulls down a black dress and tosses it on her bed, then gets out a pair of heels: the nicest of the outfits she tried earlier on when she was attempting to decide what to wear to her not-a-date with Megamind.

She wishes she had worn it for him; he’s definitely more worthy of it than stupid Wayne and his mother’s stupid party.

Roxanne dresses rapidly, then quickly applies makeup: dark eyeshadow, darker eyeliner, and crimson lipstick.

Megamind and Roxanne both have a tendency to become Dramatic in defiance. Angry and stuck doing something they don’t want to do, they both dress up in some shocking clothing, apply some makeup, and prepare to go into battle.

“So,” Metro Man says, in the awkward silence that follows Roxanne’s departure up the stairs, “you and Roxy, huh?”

“She doesn’t like to be called that,” Megamind says, folding his arms protectively across his chest.

Metro Man blinks.

“She never told me that,” he says defensively.

Megamind shrugs.

“Well, she told me,” he says. “I asked. Did you ask? Maybe you have to ask.”

(He’s not really sure why that causes Metro Man to flush with annoyance; for once that wasn’t really the reaction Megamind was going for.)

Megamind has very effectively drawn Wayne’s attention to how much of an ass he is--and he hasn’t even had to insult Wayne to do it. He did it simply by demonstrating what decent and thoughtful behavior actually looks like.

“Maybe she just doesn’t want you to call her that,” Metro Man says.

Megamind glares at him.

Like I said, Wayne is kind of like a spoiled kid.

Metro Man sighs and runs a hand through his hair.

“Listen, little buddy,” he says, failing to notice when this makes Megamind glare at him even harder, “I gotta warn you—Roxy’s mother is kiiiiinda a lot to handle. I met her once, for lunch, and—whew, questions; talk about questions. Like. I was sweating by the end of it.”

“Is this you trying to scare me off?” Megamind asks, narrowing his eyes. “If you wanted to go with Roxanne to this wedding yourself, then you should have agreed in the first place.”

(this is mine, he doesn’t say; you can’t have it)

“Whoa, buddy!” Metro Man says, holding up his hands, “No; that’s a big no. Better you than me, as far as this wedding gig goes. I just didn’t feel right letting you walk into this thing blind, you know? Nemesis to nemesis, it’s gonna be rough.”

“Thanks,” Megamind says sarcastically.

(he honestly can’t tell if Metro Man is messing with him or not; best to assume this is some elaborate form of mockery.)

Wayne wasn’t messing with him; he actually really was trying to warn Megamind. And to be friendly, kind of. Wayne sort of sees the nemesis thing as a game, because it’s never occurred to him that it’s much more dangerous to Megamind than to him.

Metro Man frowns and opens his mouth, but luckily at that moment, Roxanne comes down the stairs and Megamind is saved from having to continue the conversation.

(Evil heaven help him, but she is beautiful. Somehow it always seems to catch him off-guard, how very beautiful she is.)

Roxanne stalks towards Megamind, ignoring Wayne entirely.

(Megamind is looking at her; she can’t read his expression, can’t tell if he’s impressed with the dress or not)

He’s impressed with her.

“You sure you want to wear that lipstick?” Wayne asks. “It’s a little bright, don’t you think?”

And here you have the extreme contrast of how Wayne thinks of Roxanne, and how Megamind, who loves her, thinks of her. Wayne looks at Roxanne and thinks her lipstick is too bright. All Megamind sees is how beautiful she is.

Distantly, Roxanne notes that she is extremely angry, the kind of angry that makes her reckless and stupid and that this is probably Not a Good Thing. 

Again, this is definitely a trait that she and Megamind share, the way that strong emotion makes them reckless.

She doesn’t know what she’s going to do until she’s already doing it: she stops in front of Megamind, reaches out to put one hand on his chest and one on the side of his face, and then leans forward to kiss him.

It says a lot that what she automatically goes for here, when she’s not thinking, is kissing Megamind.

Sanity intervenes at the last moment; Roxanne turns her head slightly so that her lips catch his cheek and just the corner of his mouth.

The contact lasts less than a second, but the jolt of sensation that goes through her is like electricity, like grabbing hold of a live wire, a shock that steals her breath, makes her heart seem to stop for a moment in her chest before slamming against her ribcage.

Ohhhh she cares about him so much; she is so very attracted to him.

Roxanne pulls away, looks at Megamind—fuck, he really does look like that after he’s been kissed when he wasn’t expecting it.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, sweetheart,” she tells him.

The ‘sweetheart’ is partially intended as a fuck you to Wayne, but it’s also partially automatic, since her mind is a little scrambled from that kiss, still.

“—ah?” Megamind says blankly.

“Tomorrow,” she says, “remember? Meet me here at ten?”

Megamind blinks at her, looking dazed.

“…tomorrow,” he says, “I—yes, tomorrow; ten; I will—I will see you tomorrow, Roxanne.”

Megamind is so shocked--she kissed him!--that it’s hard for him to string words together.

Roxanne steps away and sweeps out of the apartment, not waiting for Wayne to catch up. He does, of course, but it’s—the point still stands.

Dramatic Evil Queen Exit.

“Why did you do that?” Wayne asks, when they’re in the back of his limousine, pulling away from the curb of her apartment.

“Do what?” Roxanne says, opening her compact and looking at her own reflection.

“You kissed him,” Wayne says.

(fuck. she did, didn’t she. she definitely kissed Megamind oh god)

Internally panicking!

“Practice,” Roxanne says, uncapping her lipstick and rolling it up. “I am supposed to be ‘dating’ him, Wayne.”

But she quickly and cleverly covers with an excuse!

“You never did that when we were fake-dating,” Wayne says.

“Yeah, well,” Roxanne snaps, not really wanting to examine why she feels so defensive, “I like him a lot more than I like you.”

She does, of course. As she told Megamind, earlier. Also stop asking questions Wayne, Roxanne doesn’t want to discuss her perfectly sound and reasonable reasons for kissing the supervillain, okay?! 

(Wayne doesn’t say anything after that, and Roxanne is too busy pointedly ignoring him and re-applying her lipstick to notice the thoughtful glance that he gives her.)

Even Wayne the Oblivious is starting to wonder about Roxanne and Megamind.

[dwellordream]

On the other side of Eddard VII, we get ‘War should not be a game.’, a theme that pervades this book. Tourneys are largely the wealthy play acting at war, and we see how casually death is treated through Sansa’s POV.

We also see how characters like Cersei and Littlefinger (and Renly, in ACOK) hold the opposite view, seeing war as a game they can win if they play their cards right, or as a useful tool, with little regard for loss of life and the suffering of innocent bystanders.

Ser Hugh, it’s suggested, may have been ordered killed by Clegane to keep him from being questioned by Ned as regards to Jon’s strange actions before his death. Young and cocky Hugh was ultimately just a teenage boy caught up in events beyond his control.

Ned considers that unlike most men, Robert would not go back on words spoken ‘in drunken bravado’; he’s too stubborn and proud, even though he’s in no shape to fight in the melee.

He also notes that both of Robert’s squires are Lannisters, which does not bode well; the King is literally surrounded by spies for Cersei day and night.

We also find out that Cersei ‘tried to forbid’ Robert from the melee... unsurprisingly that just made him determined to fight. It’s interesting to think how things might have gone had Cersei’s plan here succeeded, and Robert been killed off much earlier.

We also see that Ned, in contrast to his earlier belief that Robert loved Lyanna more than life itself, now takes a more cynical (and realistic) view, pointing out that Robert is delusional if he thinks Lyanna would have just demurely agreed with him at every turn. Robert idealizes an image of Lyanna, not the actual person, because he never really knew her. In his head she is just an empty pedestal for fantasy.

Barristan points out that people will be afraid to go up against Robert in the melee because he is king, and will let him win. This sends Robert into a rage; he threatens to kill Barristan after chucking his breastplate at him in a pretty shameful display, like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

He then forces Ned to drink with him while bemoaning his circumstances; miserable as king, having no real bonds with his children, hating his wife, and ignoring how much responsibility he bears for his own problems.

Robert expesses genuine concern over Joffrey’s behavior, and fears what he will be like as a king under Cersei’s influence, ignoring how much he has also failed as a parent, having written Joffrey, who is still only 12, off years ago.

We also hear that Renly has been hyping up Margaery to Robert and in general trying to position the Tyrells for Robert’s favor in court.

Ned still holds out hope that Robert can change and become the young man Ned knew and loved again, as doubtful as that seems to the reader.

Septa Mordane is ‘ill today’; Ned is totally oblivious to the fact that she passed out drunk and Sansa had to be taken home by Sandor.

Interestingly, Sansa is rooting for Sandor now, having already seen through Jaime’s golden veneer, the first sign of her starting to grow more cynical about court.

We finally hear about the prominent rumor that Gregor was the one to kill Elia and Aegon. There are other nasty rumors about Gregor too, with his two dead wives (he is also apparently betrothed in 298 AC, though hopefully that marriage never went through with Gregor being in the Riverlands for the war before finally returning to court for Joffrey’s wedding) and dead little sister and his father’s ‘hunting accident’.

We also see Loras is no fool with how he uses his mare to provoke Gregor’s horse, which was cunning, if very risky. Sandor jumps in to save Loras’ life when Gregor flies into a rage, and notably does not try to seriously harm or kill his older brother in the process.

In a bittersweet moment, Sansa and Arya seem to be almost reconciling in this chapter; Sansa is in high spirits at the feast and doesn’t ignore Arya, even asking after her ‘dance lessons’, and Arya shows off her best bruise to her sister.

Ned hopes Arya is going to grow out of her swordfighting, and offers to get Selmy to teach her instead, but Arya refuses, though it’s interesting to think what might have happened had Selmy been the one instructing Arya and forming a bond with her.

Ned does spend the night with his daughters, which is nice to see after all the tension between them.

Ned thinks about Robert’s bastards; he only knows of Gendry, Edric Storm, and Mya Stone. He doesn’t see why Cersei would want to harm any of them, since they are no threat to her trueborn children.

Varys then visits and informs Ned there was a plot to kill Robert off in the chaos of the melee. He also compliments Ned, telling him he can see that Ned truly cares about the greater good of the realm, and that Ned has more power than him, since Robert would never be convinced to have him executed.

He also confirms that Jon was poisoned by Tears of Lys, likely via someone he knew and trusted. And there must have been some kind of time crunch on killing him in such short order.