#sirius black ~ thread

[thefvrious]

@hawkinshellraiser said -> tell no lie - it’s impossible to lie to your soulmate

Sirius has every intention of blowing smoke right up Eddie's ass the next time he sees him. There is no inherent need to tell Eddie just how horrendously things had gone when he'd spoken to his parents, no need to explain that his worry is growing to a bursting point inside of him because, still, no one has heard from his baby brother. What should it matter to Sirius? They'd never been close anyway.

But it does matter, and he can't stuff it down deep enough. He forces a smile even as the other man bounds into the room -- like a chaotic ray of sunshine. Sirius already has all the lies formed on his lips but they fall out of his mouth all wrong.

"Mother is an evil witch -- I think she's seconds from hexing me. And Regulus is still missing." He screws up his face, pulling his head back as if surprised that the sounds have come out of his own lips. Who said that? Sirius thinks, but he knows it was him and he hasn't the foggiest idea why he can't lie all of a sudden when he used to be quite good at it, thank you very much. "I don't know why I said that. I had every intention of telling you something else entirely."

[thefvrious]

sirius’ grin only grows as cain continues to speak to him. “that’s right, butter me up.” he says, leaning closer, his eyes alight with mischief and something else a little more difficult to place. “make me pliable in those hands.” to punctuate the point, he reaches out and grabs one of those massive paws, fiddles with cain’s finger, then leans back, little smirk still on his lips. cain’s confession makes the smirk grow into an impish grin, and a delighted laugh bubbles up as he turns his hand over, squeezes one of cain’s fingers right back. they’re being playful. it’s cute. “you can do as you please.” he says, lifting his glass to take a drink but his eyes are still dancing behind it. “oh, i just want to see myself under your hands.” he pauses, gaze dragging over cain’s now wet lips. “your body…”

sirius was plenty of words that cain could easily pull out of a dictionary. adorable was only one of them, some of the others were a little less clean, more shamefully dirty. "ah, guess you got me there. your pretty face is certainly enough of a reason to seek out your presence, love." there weren't many on this planet that inspired cain, that forced him to confront himself, who and what he was and admit that yeah, okay, not everyone on this godforsaken planet was all bad. cue the cocked brow, and the cocked smile as he leans in ever closer, "that's the thing -- i don't want to just look at you," he counters boldly, reaching to stroke his digits along the other man's own, licking at his lips, forever unashamed of his actions. "what did you have in mind? before i share some of my own..."

[slitheringghost]

“When Lily Cast Her Life As A Shield”: Analysis of the Shield Charm

Some busily burnished the aegis Athena wears in her angry moods—a fearsome thing with a surface of gold like scaly snake-skin, and the linked serpents and the Gorgon herself upon the goddess's breast—a severed head rolling its eyes (Virgil, Aeneid)

The recurring use of the word “shield”, the Shield Charm (Protego), and the Invisibility Cloak are all a reference to the Aegis, which Zeus god of lightning lent his daughter Athena in battle ("daughter of aegis-bearing Zeus"), in some variations of myth depicted as a shield or breastplate and in others a cloak; it's described as producing "a sound as from myriad roaring dragons" and often features Medusa's head whose gaze turns people to stone (like a basilisk, like Lily and Harry's killer green eyes).

JKR also predictably incorporates it in misogynistic ways to indicate "ideal" vs. "warped" motherhood - i.e. "Aunt Petunia screamed worse than ever and threw herself on top of Dudley, shielding him from Mr. Weasley", "Umbridge gave a little scream and pushed him in front of her like a shield", Narcissa in DH "her lips were an inch from his ear, her head bent so low that her long hair shielded his face from the onlookers", the German family LV kills "She screamed. Two young children came running into the hall. She tried to shield them with her arms.", etc.

But much more interestingly, it shows up across the narrative in several dynamics.

I. Voldemort, Harry, and Lily

The word “shield” is repeatedly used for Lily’s sacrificial magic/deflection of the Killing Curse (for elaboration on how Priori Incantatem is related to Lily’s magic, see this meta):

Voldemort had advanced on Lily Potter, told her to move aside so that he could kill Harry… how she had begged him to kill her instead, refused to stop shielding her son... and so Voldemort had murdered her too, before turning his wand on Harry (Ch 14, GoF) [...] the golden thread broke; the cage of light vanished, the phoenix song died — but the shadowy figures of Voldemort’s victims did not disappear — they were closing in upon Voldemort, shielding Harry from his gaze (Ch 34, GoF) “Your mother’s sacrifice made the bond of blood the strongest shield I could give you” (Ch 37, OoTP) The green light filled the cramped hallway, it lit the pram pushed against the wall, it made the banisters glare like lightning rods, and James Potter fell like a marionette whose strings were cut... He could hear her screaming from the upper floor, trapped, but as long as she was sensible, she, at least, had nothing to fear [...] [...] and there she stood, the child in her arms. At the sight of him, she dropped her son into the crib behind her and threw her arms wide, as if this would help, as if in shielding him from sight she hoped to be chosen instead (Ch 17, DH) Tell him that on the night Lord Voldemort tried to kill him, when Lily cast her own life between them as a shield, the Killing Curse rebounded upon Lord Voldemort, and a fragment of Voldemort’s soul was blasted apart from the whole (Ch 33, DH)

Note that in the last quote, Dumbledore doesn't say that Lily "died to save" Harry - he instead uses active phrasing, and very similar to the phrasing he uses for the death of Ariana ("It was the truth I feared. You see, I never knew which of us, in that last, horrific fight, had actually cast the curse that killed my sister.")

Despite it being James's Cloak, it's textually linked to Lily in DH, as Death's Invisibility Cloak (and Lily and Harry both implied as the “true owners”, as the conquerors of death - see my meta Unweaving Canon Lily: Master of Death) and also representative of the Aegis. Harry received Death’s Invisibility Cloak the same day he first found the Mirror of Erised - on Christmas Day - in which the text focuses on Lily (Harry’s true reflection - “his deepest nature is more like his mother’s”), and in front of which Lily’s blood magic saves Harry from death.

Christmas is also when we finally see the full memory of Lily’s murder/vanquishment of LV in DH (“he screamed with rage, a scream that mingled with the girl’s, that echoed across the dark gardens over the church bells ringing in Christmas Day”) and the Invisibility Cloak is mentioned in Lily’s letter, part of what leads Harry on the trail of the Hallows.

“Both of us could conceal ourselves well enough without the Cloak, the true magic of which, of course, is that it can be used to protect and shield others as well as its owner. I thought that, if we ever found it, it might be useful in hiding Ariana [...] (Ch 35, DH) “But though Death searched for the third brother for many years, he was never able to find him. It was only when he had attained a great age that the youngest brother finally took off the Cloak of Invisibility and gave it to his son. And then he greeted Death as an old friend, and went with him gladly, and, equals, they departed this life.’” (Ch 21, DH)

Lily is aegis-bearing Zeus (and the third brother, and Death himself), passing down her shield and her cloak - Death’s cloak - to her son.

Hidden beneath the Invisibility Cloak, Harry cast a Shield Charm between Neville and Voldemort before the latter could raise his wand. Still hidden beneath the Invisibility Cloak, Harry was buffeted into the entrance hall: He was searching for Voldemort and saw him across the room [...] still screaming instructions to his followers as he sent curses flying [...] Harry cast more Shield Charms, and Voldemort’s would-be victims, Seamus Finnigan and Hannah Abbott, darted past him he saw McGonagall, Kingsley, and Slughorn blasted backward, flailing and writhing through the air, as Voldemort’s fury at the fall of his last, best lieutenant exploded with the force of a bomb. Voldemort raised his wand and directed it at Molly Weasley. “Protego!” roared Harry, and the Shield Charm expanded in the middle of the Hall, and Voldemort stared around for the source as Harry pulled off the Invisibility Cloak at last. “Potter doesn’t mean that,” he said, his red eyes wide. “That isn’t how he works, is it? Who are you going to use as a shield today, Potter?” “I’ve done what my mother did. They’re protected from you. Haven’t you noticed how none of the spells you put on them are binding? You can’t torture them. You can’t touch them.” (Ch 36, DH)

Another allusion is when Harry finds Tom Riddle's name on the Award for Special Services shield, this quote right after the passage when Harry thinks of Riddle as "a friend he'd had when he was very small", establishing the dynamic as familial (and the shield first mentioned by Ron, right after which Harry points out T.M. Riddle must've been Muggleborn - like Lily):

Riddle's burnished gold shield was tucked away in a corner cabinet. (CoS)

Note how "burnished gold" matches the description of the Aegis in the first Aeneid quote. Shields are mentioned in relation to the founders, as LV's replacement parental figures, by Hufflepuff's cup, Ravenclaw's diadem, and LV mentioning Slytherin's shield:

Harry’s wandlight passed over shields and goblin-made helmets [...] higher and higher he raised the beam, until suddenly it found an object that made his heart skip and his hand tremble. “It’s there, it’s up there!” Ron and Hermione pointed their wands at it too, so that the little golden cup sparkled in a three-way spotlight: the cup that had belonged to Helga Hufflepuff, which had passed into the possession of Hepzibah Smith, from whom it had been stolen by Tom Riddle. (Ch 26, DH) all around them the last few objects unburned by the devouring flames were flung into the air, as the creatures of the cursed fire cast them high in celebration: cups and shields, a sparkling necklace, and an old, discolored tiara — (Ch 31, DH) “There will be no more Houses. The emblem, shield, and colors of my noble ancestor, Salazar Slytherin, will suffice for everyone. Won’t they, Neville Longbottom?” (Ch 36, DH)

Then there’s Voldemort in the DoM battle - which is likely meant to indicate LV having a weak shield game; realistically though, he can do an excellent Shield Charm, but his conjured Shield is weak, because, well, Dumbledore was his Transfiguration teacher:

Dumbledore flicked his own wand. The force of the spell that emanated from it was such that Harry, though shielded by his stone guard, felt his hair stand on end as it passed, and this time Voldemort was forced to conjure a shining silver shield out of thin air to deflect it. The spell, whatever it was, caused no visible damage to the shield, though a deep, gonglike note reverberated from it, an oddly chilling sound... “You do not seek to kill me, Dumbledore?” called Voldemort, his scarlet eyes narrowed over the top of the shield. “Above such brutality, are you?” “We both know that there are other ways of destroying a man, Tom,” Dumbledore said calmly, continuing to walk toward Voldemort as though he had not a fear in the world [...] “Merely taking your life would not satisfy me, I admit —” “There is nothing worse than death, Dumbledore!” snarled Voldemort. (Ch 36, OoTP)

This conversation between Dumbledore and LV happening in tandem with the shield mention is significant, because Lily deflecting the Killing Curse landed LV in a state of suffering that the series intends us to read as "worse than death": the despair caused by the dementors (grief, trauma, abuse, isolation, imprisonment, helplessness, etc.), and LV was trapped alone in Albania in that state, in his own personal "Azkaban" - which is also the state LV inflicts on his victims, the "other way of destroying someone" (of course, a result of the horcruxes and not Lily's intent - unlike Dumbledore, merely killing LV would've satisfied her).

II. The Golden Trio

In PoA, Ron gets his willow wand - the same wand wood as Lily - and embodies Lily in the Shrieking Shack by physically shielding Harry and echoes her last words disobeying Voldemort's orders to stand aside ("Take me, kill me instead"):

Ron, however, spoke to Black. “If you want to kill Harry, you’ll have to kill us too!” he said fiercely, though the effort of standing upright was draining him of still more color, and he swayed slightly as he spoke. Something flickered in Black’s shadowed eyes. “Lie down,” he said quietly to Ron. “You will damage that leg even more.” “Did you hear me?” Ron said weakly, though he was clinging painfully to Harry to stay upright. “You’ll have to kill all three of us!” (PoA)

Hermione’s the one to teach Harry the Shield Charm while training him for the Triwizard Tournament, which Harry then teaches the whole DA (Neville, the other Chosen One, mastering the Charm faster than anyone other than Hermione), which permeates throughout the wizarding world via the Weasley twins’ Shield line (the narrative significance of this and how Hermione starts performing the part of Lily elaborated further in my meta Hermione As Teacher and Connections To Lily). Then we have the trio in DH:

“It’s all right for you two, isn’t it, with your parents safely out of the way —” “My parents are dead!” Harry bellowed. “And mine could be going the same way!” yelled Ron. “Then GO!” roared Harry. “Go back to them, pretend you’ve got over your spattergroit and Mummy’ll be able to feed you up and —” Ron made a sudden movement: Harry reacted, but before either wand was clear of its owner’s pocket, Hermione had raised her own. “Protego!” she cried, and an invisible shield expanded between her and Harry on the one side and Ron on the other; all of them were forced backward a few steps by the strength of the spell, and Harry and Ron glared from either side of the transparent barrier as though they were seeing each other clearly for the first time. Harry felt a corrosive hatred toward Ron: Something had broken between them. (DH)

We see the memory of Lily's death in the center of these two instances of the Shield Charm - and Lily echoes Hermione, throwing herself as a shield in between the two "brothers" Voldemort and Harry, with the fight between Harry and Ron echoing that dynamic, while Harry then follows in both Hermione and Lily's footsteps when it's Ron and Hermione fighting:

“You — complete — arse — Ronald — Weasley!” She punctuated every word with a blow: Ron backed away, shielding his head as Hermione advanced. “You — crawl — back — here — after — weeks — and — weeks — oh, where’s my wand?” She looked as though ready to wrestle it out of Harry’s hands and he reacted instinctively. “Protego!” The invisible shield erupted between Ron and Hermione: The force of it knocked her backward onto the floor. Spitting hair out of her mouth, she leapt up again. “Hermione!” said Harry. “Calm —” (DH)

There's also Harry throwing himself between Sirius and Snape like Lily does in SWM, and between Ron and Ginny fighting and drawing wands on each other in HBP, and Percy "shielding Fred's body from further harm" in DH.

III. Snape, Harry, and Lily

Chapters before this, Snape saw Lily in the Mirror of Erised through Harry's memories ("His father and mother were waving at him out of an enchanted mirror"), and when Harry performs the Shield Charm, he then glimpses Lily in Snape’s memory for the first time:

He raised his wand. “One — two — three — Legilimens!” A hundred dementors were swooping toward Harry across the lake in the grounds... He screwed up his face in concentration... They were coming closer... He could see the dark holes beneath their hoods... yet he could also see Snape standing in front of him, his eyes fixed upon Harry’s face, muttering under his breath... And somehow, Snape was growing clearer, and the dementors were growing fainter... Harry raised his own wand. “Protego!” Snape staggered; his wand flew upward, away from Harry — and suddenly Harry’s mind was teeming with memories that were not his — a hook-nosed man was shouting at a cowering woman, while a small dark-haired boy cried in a corner... A greasy-haired teenager sat alone in a dark bedroom, pointing his wand at the ceiling, shooting down flies... A girl was laughing as a scrawny boy tried to mount a bucking broomstick — (OoTP)

The wording here evokes the idea that Snape is like a patronus, driving the dementors away from Harry (a patronus described as “a kind of anti-dementor - a guardian that acts as a shield between you and the dementor”), foreshadowing the appearance of the doe patronus in DH.

(Later in OoTP, similar wording is used for Snape as for Lily - lilies called the "white-robed apostles of hope" - "A door stood ajar to his left. It was his only hope" when Harry first finds the Mirror of the Erised // "He closed the door behind him with a snap, leaving Harry in a state of worse turmoil than before: Snape had been his very last hope." // “'while that enchantment survives, so do you and so does Voldemort’s one last hope for himself.'”)

“Well, Potter... that was certainly an improvement...” Panting slightly, Snape straightened the Pensieve in which he had again stored some of his thoughts before starting the lesson, almost as though checking that they were still there. “I don’t remember telling you to use a Shield Charm... but there is no doubt that it was effective...” (OoTP)

Then a paranoid Snape checks the Pensieve, where he's stored his memories of Lily, because of Harry managing to glimpse her in Snape's head.

He turned his wand on Harry so fast that Harry reacted instinctively; all thought of nonverbal spells forgotten, he yelled, “Protego!” His Shield Charm was so strong Snape was knocked off-balance and hit a desk. [...] “There’s no need to call me ‘sir,’ Professor.” The words had escaped him before he knew what he was saying [...] “Detention, Saturday night, my office,” said Snape. “I do not take cheek from anyone, Potter... not even ‘the Chosen One.’” (HBP)

Chapters earlier in HBP, we were told that Lily gave "cheeky answers" to another Head of Slytherin house, and it’s right after Harry uses the Shield Charm that Harry mirrors Lily in his sarcastic answer to Snape - and right after that, Hermione points out how Harry mirrors Snape ("I thought he sounded a bit like you"). Then, Snape in the final battle:

Snape looked into her eyes. “Have you seen Harry Potter, Minerva? Because if you have, I must insist —” Professor McGonagall moved faster than Harry could have believed: Her wand slashed through the air and for a split second Harry thought that Snape must crumple, unconscious, but the swiftness of his Shield Charm was such that McGonagall was thrown off balance. (Ch 30, DH)

This is also the scene Snape uses the suit of armor implied to be the one by the door where Harry first found the Mirror of Erised, and then flies unsupported, like Lily:

[…] Harry spotted the suit of armor. "It's here - just here - yes!" They pushed the door open. Harry dropped the Cloak from around his shoulders and ran to the mirror. There they were. His mother and father beamed at the sight of him. (PS) From behind a suit of armor stepped Severus Snape. [...] Snape avoided them only by forcing the suit of armor in front of him, and with echoing clangs the daggers sank, one after another, into its breast — [...] Flitwick’s spell hit the suit of armor behind which Snape had taken shelter: With a clatter it came to life. Snape struggled free of the crushing arms and sent it flying back toward his attackers: Harry and Luna had to dive sideways to avoid it as it smashed into the wall and shattered. When Harry looked up again, Snape was in full flight (DH)

IV. Sirius, Bellatrix, and Harry

In the DoM battle, these three mirror each other (and Harry and Bellatrix also mirror LV):

The words were hardly out of his mouth when the female Death Eater shrieked, “Accio Proph —” Harry was just ready for her. He shouted “Protego!” before she had finished her spell, and though the glass sphere slipped to the tips of his fingers he managed to cling on to it. “Oh, he knows how to play, little bitty baby Potter,” she said, her mad eyes staring through the slits in her hood. (OoTP)

He made the same slashing movement with his wand that he had used on Hermione just as Harry yelled, “Protego!” Harry felt something streak across his face like a blunt knife but the force of it knocked him sideways, and he fell over Neville’s jerking legs, but the Shield Charm had stopped the worst of the spell. Dolohov raised his wand again. “Accio Proph —” Sirius hurtled out of nowhere, rammed Dolohov with his shoulder, and sent him flying out of the way. The prophecy had again flown to the tips of Harry’s fingers but he had managed to cling to it. Now Sirius and Dolohov were dueling, their wands flashing like swords [...] (OoTP)

“Potter, you cannot win against me!” she cried [...] He backed around the statue away from her, crouching behind the centaur’s legs, his head level with the house-elf’s. “I was and am the Dark Lord’s most loyal servant, I learned the Dark Arts from him, and I know spells of such power that you, pathetic little boy, can never hope to compete —” “Stupefy!” yelled Harry. He had edged right around to where the goblin stood beaming up at the now headless wizard and taken aim at her back as she peered around the fountain for him. She reacted so fast he barely had time to duck. “Protego!” The jet of red light, his own Stunning Spell, bounced back at him. (OoTP)

Sirius reflects Harry at the same moment Harry next performs the Shield Charm, "shielding" Harry physically with his body. Bellatrix echoes this after Sirius's death, when right after gloating about her Dark Arts lessons from Voldemort, Bellatrix doesn’t use a powerful Dark curse - she uses the Shield Charm, the spell she witnessed Harry using earlier. This mirroring also occurs in the “mad laughter”:

“Laughed,” said Stan. “Jus’ stood there an’ laughed. An’ when reinforcements from the Ministry of Magic got there, ’e went wiv ’em quiet as anyfink, still laughing ’is ’ead off. ’Cos ’e’s mad, inee, Ern? Inee mad?” (PoA) “Get it himself?” shrieked Bellatrix on a cackle of mad laughter. “The Dark Lord, walk into the Ministry of Magic, when they are so sweetly ignoring his return? The Dark Lord, reveal himself to the Aurors, when at the moment they are wasting their time on my dear cousin?” (OoTP) Only one couple were still battling, apparently unaware of the new arrival. Harry saw Sirius duck Bellatrix’s jet of red light: He was laughing at her. “Come on, you can do better than that!” he yelled, his voice echoing around the cavernous room. The second jet of light hit him squarely on the chest. The laughter had not quite died from his face, but his eyes widened in shock. (OoTP) “Potter, I am going to give you one chance!” shouted Bellatrix. “Give me the prophecy — roll it out toward me now — and I may spare your life!” “Well, you’re going to have to kill me, because it’s gone!” Harry roared — and as he shouted it, pain seared across his forehead [...]And he knows!” said Harry with a mad laugh to match Bellatrix’s own. “Your dear old mate Voldemort knows it’s gone! He’s not going to be happy with you, is he?” (OoTP)

And the other instance Harry laughing madly in OoTP is when he's feeling LV's happiness at Bellatrix escaping Azkaban (and Bellatrix's scream when Sirius dies is echoed by her scream when Voldemort momentarily disappears):

Maniacal laughter was ringing in his ears... He was happier than he had been in a very long time... Jubilant, ecstatic, triumphant... A wonderful, wonderful thing had happened... “Harry? HARRY!” Someone had hit him around the face. The insane laughter was punctuated with a cry of pain. The happiness was draining out of him, but the laughter continued... He opened his eyes and as he did so, he became aware that the wild laughter was coming out of his own mouth [...] [...] “He’s really happy... really happy [...] Something good’s happened [...] Something he’s been hoping for.” (OoTP)

[thefvrious]

"Harry's alright. It's alright." Sirius says, but he knows that's far from the truth. Lily is not alright -- Voldemort is nowhere to be found, and they have no idea what's happened to James; no idea how or why he survived when his wife was, well...

"Please..." He starts, but he won't try to stop James. He helps the other man to his feet, holds onto James' elbow as they both go up the stairs. The tears are still rolling down Sirius' cheeks. In another life, he might be embarrassed, but not now.

"James..." He trails off, shakes his head, doesn't know what else to say. "You shouldn't be alive." His voice cracks then and he grips his friend by the arm of his jumper. "He'll be here soon. He'll know what to do."

Sirius. Sirius was above him --- Sirius had come to... to... to... James didn't know, but Sirus was here, and he was so pathetically grateful as he stares up at his best friend, their tears mingling on his cheeks as their foreheads are pressed together.

In the next moment, his son's cries filter through, effectively stealing his attention away from the fact that Dumbledore is coming and he's still alive.

"Harry?" He struggles to sit up, wills his body to move ( his bones feel like jelly - he wonders briefly what kind of spell he'd been hit with, because if he's not dead, why does he feel so bad? ).

"Lily?" Succeeding in struggling to his feet - mostly by using Sirius to boost himself up - James staggers up the stairs of their little home, aiming for Harry's nursery and stopping dead ( bad choice of words ) in the doorway as he catches sight of the absolute carnage before him.

[m-macdonaldx]

where: daisy & tilden's house party who: @siriblk

Mary had lost track of how many drinks she had consumed, nor did she care that the skirt she was wearing sat right under her ass, tired of continuously pulling it down. The only two thoughts in her head were to drink more and dance, and that was why she had pulled Sirius up to dance with her; knowing that they were both in the same mindset - she hoped.

"I's glad you came with me." Her body moved to the beat of the music, pushing body back into his, swaying their hips together at the same time. If she was more coherent, she knew it was hurting him that he wasn't at his cousins wedding, but he was too god for them and she promised herself that she'd make sure he had fun and forgot about it.

[reesespenisbutercups]

lord i hate tiktok marauders fans learn what fandom is pleeeaaase😭😭😭😭

[iamrhyme]

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[thefvrious]

it’s true that sirius spends as much time as physically possible away from his family home and with those that he cares about the most. the most readily available of his mates is james, whose parents have welcomed sirius into the flock as if he were born a potter and not a black. but he can’t spend all his time with euphemia and fleamont and james; only in a perfect world. so, while the majority of his holiday was spent with the potters, there were still moments where he was left in the cold chill of number twelve grimmauld place.

it was in his childhood home that he heard the stirrings of trouble -- heard what was building and brewing; another rebellion, another upheaval from the pureblooded families. it was disgusting and sirius hated even the whisper of it, but the things he had heard most recently were what weighed most heavily on his shoulders. it seemed that a fight, of some kind, was inevitable. he didn’t understand how or why people like his mother and father couldn’t accept people like remus lupin, like lily evans.

there are expectations placed on all of their shoulders, but sirius doesn’t know that it will get that far -- doesn’t know when james will be able to become a famous quidditch player or an auror or whatever it is he wants to be; doesn’t know what the future holds only that it seems bleak. still, he’s happy to stuff it away -- fold it up and compartmentalize it for later. especially since they’ve only just gotten back and, while he cares deeply for marlene, he doesn’t want to bring down the mood -- doesn’t want to tell anyone anything they’re maybe not ready to hear.

“yes! ‘course i was with james. you think i would spend an entire holiday with my family?” he blew a raspberry, laughed, rolled his grey eyes -- back to his charming self, even if it was just a mask shifted down. “i’ve got some sweets, perhaps i am willing to share.” he said, reaching into his rucksack to dig out a little pouch which was filled to the brim -- mostly with wizarding candies, but there were a few, normal, muggle sweets, too. “can you believe we’re practically adults?” he asked with a sigh, popping a candy into his mouth as the professor trudges in, starts barking out orders. “pretty soon, we’ll be doing all sorts of magic and without guidance. do you think the world’s ready for that?”

one last winter holiday. and funny thing, it, that things felt as frosty as ever regardless of the weather. there were pained silences and asks about work ; had she decided what she was to do once she'd finished out her year? marlene already knows the answer they're fishing for out of her - would she or wouldn't she join the ministry to be with them. THE PRESSURE of it would have earned a raging fight from her any other year. but this one, there's a quiet... a contemplating of things. change, after all, rarely ever came from the outside. and even if her feelings on the matter were that her parents would far rather she'd use her position to toe to the lines of their own political leanings...

there's something better of an option out there, isn't there? hopeless optimism wasn't quite the ravenclaw's style, but she had AN IDEA of where to tackle this in a far more... practical manner. the idea of a quiet rebellion was appealing, even if it was unrealistic. you'd have to be daft to have missed the signs, however quieted they were. the trembling of the letters in the newspapers that arrive. the hushed voices and the sneering contempt out of some of their peers. no. she shan't allow this to be what bends her. there had to be something to be done.

or perhaps these were the DERANGED THOUGHTS of a desperate girl, realising that her time with those that she loved was drawing to a close. and how everything, everything might change from here on out, slipping into her charms class with a near fixed expression of boredom as her things were laid out with meticulous order to it all, the seat next to her filled, soon-after, by a rather dazed vision in sirius black. her nose wrinkling as she waved awareness into him, eyes rolling readily as it seemed to snap the life right back into him.

oh sirius black. troublemaker, difficult. she doesn't blink twice for the nickname lifted from his mouth, her eyes rolling. he's still a laugh though, wasn't he? grown up in familiar places, she exhales with an audible edge to it, her chin propped to the end of her palm. "an unfortunate no from me, sorry. all i got were lectures and a promise that if i did what they wanted and got the scores they expected, that there's an APARTMENT or something as equally incestuous waiting for me. i know a bribe when i see it. what about you? off to james' again, i suspect?"

- @thefvrious

[thefvrious]

@ghostsxagain sent -> “Who are you?” and my muse will re-introduce themselves to your muse after yours has been in an accident and is suffering from amnesia.

"You're fucking with me." Sirius says incredulously when he hears the words fall out of Jericho's mouth. He looks at the nurse in charge of taking care of the man and she just gives him a shrug. These things happen. He scoffs, shaking his head, watching her until she's gone from the room. "I'm Sirius." He says, then realizes that it might get misconstrued and huffs. He grabs a piece of paper and writes his name down in his beautiful, scrawling script: Sirius Orion Black. "You know, a real son of a bitch?" He offers, grinning at the idiot who went and got himself knocked out so good that whoever had done it had knocked out his good sense, too. "Amnesia, huh? There's probably a spell for that... Can't go having you forgetting me. I mean, look at me, I'm pretty unforgettable, I think."

[voluntadfuerte]

@midncghtrcin

Both Sirius and James put their hand on her bump. James felt such love to share this moment with Lily and Sirius. Sirius himself being unsure at first. But finding himself fitting in this trio. "That's probably because the baby can feel that you can't settle down until James and I are both in you," Sirius said cruedly. But also, rather truthfully. "This baby was a team effort," James added.

[inmy70schaos]

If the marauders group had social media, what would be their app?

inspired by @redadidassneakers

James:

snapchat. 100% He would spam his stories daily talking about quidditch or filming remus with voice effects and filters when he is trying to study. He would change his bitmoji weekly, and he would die to keep his streaks

Lily:

Lily would absolute love instagram. She would post really pretty and wholesome things on her feed like flower gardens and cats in cozy blankets, and use her instagram stories to post daily inspirational quotes and do brand deals with scented candle companies.

Sirius:

He would definitely have an unhinged addiction to tumblr. He just knows he is hot, and thrives on telling the world about it. He would post pictures of his messy hair and rank his favourite cigarette brands, and also write cringy blogposts at 3am about how in love with Remus he is

Remus:

Very much a dad on social media. I think he would enjoy facebook, purely to just keep up with his friends and maybe share his thoughts on books he was reading from time to time. Bonus, I can see him owning wattpad to read fanfiction, and telling nobody except Lily that he has it. They definitely read fanfictions together and rate their favs

Marlene:

Her favourite app would definitely be twitter. She would post all of her most unfiltered chaotic midnight thougths, and start political arguements with old men on the internet about womens rights.

Dorcas:

I think she would love Tiktok. She would definitely be on cottagecore soft side of tiktok. She loves to bake and would post recipes, and would also post alot of videos with Marlene like "my girlfriend dresses me like her for a week" or "rating my girlfriends playlists"

Peter:

Youtube would be Peter's favourite. He would watch alot of prank videos and gaming channels, and post mukkbangs occasionally.

I can also see him baking and making recipe videos with Dorcas.

[thefvrious]

Tension between Sirius and any of his immediate friend group was never something that sat right with him. He would think about it and think about it -- picking the wounds until he was covered in the blood of it, trying to figure it out, trying to see how things could've gone differently or how he could fix them. It wounded him particularly so when Remus was cross with him.

He was about to tend to his unruly hair after having a bath when Remus came into their shared room. He looked over his shoulder, held the brush out, then nodded. "Yeah... sure. I can't get the back." Of course, he had sold that line to Remus a million times before, the truth was Sirius just craved tenderness. Looking at the other through the glass of the mirror, Sirius studied Remus' face. "You feeling any better?"

@thefvrious​ asked: [BRUSH] Sender offers to brush receivers hair reverse, sirius/remus

Remus didn’t enjoy fighting with his best friend, even less so when they all went to sleep in the same room every night. The dead silence ate him up inside. So he resolved to break and engage; hopefully, Sirius needed to forgive and forget just as much as he did. “Er… hi,” he greeted the other boy.

Noticing the brush in his hand, he shrugged. “I could–if you wanted?” He offered. Sometimes they did this, on nights when Sirius went to the baths. His friend claimed he couldn’t reach all the knots in the back, but sometimes Remus wondered. 

[divkazkdovikde]

remus folklore lupin and his reputation boyfriend sirius black

[swiftiesforpeeta]

do y’all think the real grant knows about his being adopted by the marauders fandom like does he know he’s being fancast as george mackay 😭

[shefatalesarch]

EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS WAR WAS RAMPING UP AND IT WAS LIKE A FLASH BACK TO CHILDHOOD. even to the early days of hogwarts, or the order of the phoenix. did everyone else feel it as he did? he was trying to do right by his god son, as was remus but there was ignoring the growing dangers, the growing what ifs, the growing weight that not everyone would walk away from this unscathed much as their best friends had lost their lives so many years ago, many more would probably share their fate, unfortunately. “thought i might find you out here.” he spoke towards remus as he pushed hands into his pockets as he began to venture closer to his friend. they had been through so much in their life time already, surely they would have each other’s back on this one as well. “how are you fairing, remus?” he questioned in a soft manner.

@voluntadfuerte ♥ for a starter from sirius black for remus lupin