#so it was neat to see a creature i've never heard of before

[jakilani]

today i found out that the flower crab spider exists by seeing one for the very first time and the world can be beautiful sometimes i think

[v3nusxsky]

Dont tempt me| NSFW

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Authors note~ here’s some content for my lovely lady lesso. This could be absolutely poor quality as I'm exhausted and it will not be proof read so I apologise for any mistake but they are all mine :)*

Trigger warnings ~ dom/sub begging fingering oral overstimulation accidental mommy kink praise kink degrading kink

Prompt~ "fuck you" ... "would you?"

Since the merger of the school for good and the school for evil, the environment has been reflecting the mood swings of a teenager. Good and evil now learning to co-exist and lean on each other. Baby steps of course. That's where you come in. You were hired to teach literature for both Evers and Nevers. One of the first teachers to have a mixed class. Yet you were thriving. Your students seemed to bond well with you, rather engaging in the lessons as you tried to cater to everyone's interests while sticking to the curriculum. It was truly magical to see the students slowly but surely not want to kill each other. You hadn't been brave enough to assign any mixed group work projects yet tho. That for sure would cause bloodshed, not particularly something you wanted to deal with in your first semester.

With the Evers, professor Dovey stood with them. Her beauty and pristine gracefulness shone through her joyous personality. Truly a joy to be around. Should anyone ever need cheering up, you'd definitely send them to Dovey. Clarissa Dovey, Dean for good used her powers to comfort struggling students the most. Instantly you could spot how certain students would seek her out in a room. She made them feel safe. A smile and a hug could go a long way.

Then there's her counterpart, Lady Leonora Lesso, Dean of evil. Now imagine the complete opposite of Dovey. Yep that's her. Quite a complex human. That's what drew you in if your truly honest. She's so guarded, you just want to know more. Often you could find her staking the halls like a fox hunting it's prey. Despite the merger, students still feared her. You'd heard stories of a doom room. One with some rather interesting attributes. Although probably not the desired effect of the room, you ached to visit, to just experience it one time. Two consenting adults could have so much fun in there. The thought causing a flush to adorn your cheeks. She was a coworker for heavens sake. The thoughts of becoming Lesso's prey only grew with time. Little did you know, you were quite the curious creature to the red head. She longed to clip your innocent white wings, and watch you fall under her spell. This is what leads you to the current moment.

The past few weeks had become some what of a game between you and the dean of evil. It all started when she interrupted a lesson of yours as you were teaching one of your favourite Shakespearean plays. Macbeth. The particular passage where you were asking your class to asses her body language and what that implied. Lesso smirked and offered to give a real demonstration for the students. "After all some students learn visually isn't that right Miss y/l/n"

She revealed in your reaction, immediately starting the cat and mouse game. Or rather the fox and her dove. Pay back had been sweet, of course you had to be mad to challenge Leonora but still you did so anyway. This is exactly what lead you to her office after hours. You should be marking your students essays on Lady Macbeth however, a black raven swooped in, narrowly missing your head while dropping a piece of parchment before leaving again. You carefully untied the bow and instantly recognised the neat cursive penmanship.

Does my dove give up? I've been eagerly awaiting your next move. I expected more of you y/n. At least give me a challenge.

The fox.

As you read you could practically see her lips curling up into her famous smirk. She signed it as the name you'd accidentally given her. In a lesson you had with first years you we're discussing a descriptive words to describe a fox. Only when a few students began to give answers such as "sly" "sneaky" "feisty" "stealthy" did one student stutter "lesso." You couldn't help but agree. She did rather match the description so you wrote it with the rest. At that moment you heard a chuckle. The fox herself stood in your doorway. "Miss y/l/n, you think I'm a fox? Then what are you? The innocent dove?" She taunted you watching the blush appear that you desperately tried to fight off. "Lesso, how lovely of you to join us. Did you need something?" You deadpanned hoping to avoid the feelings stirring in you at the pet names.

You definitely had feelings for the women. But she was infuriatingly untouchable. No matter your best attempts you couldn't achieve the level of flustering her that she did on you. Which is why you decided to get brave. Parchment in hand you stormed your way down to Lesso's office. Anxiety rolling off you in waves at your plan. You were most definitely going to get killed. But death by her stunning hands? Well worth it.

When you arrived at her door you bypassed knocking and just waltzed in. The women sitting at her desk busily working away. She didn't even spare you a glance as you entered. "Now dove what are you doing in here?" She mumbled seemingly very uninterested in your presence. Her eyes never stopped scanning her work and he quill scribbling down words in her beautiful cursive penmanship.

"What is this game lesso? Is it anything to you? Just fun. Why do you keep messing with me during my lesson times. What was with the raven? Miss me that much huh" you were spiralling, desperate for some kind of reaction. "Maybe I'm making you wait fox maybe I'm busy" you finished eyes blaring with determination.

"Miss y/n I'm rather busy-" she tried only to be cut off by you approaching her and crushing your lips to hers in a bruising kiss. Waiting for the moment she was desperate for more. Only then to pull back and completely remove yourself from her. "Oh such a desperate fox" you taunted her watching the frustration and desire fight for control.

"Fuck you dove!" She all but growled at you her breathing heavy.

"Would you?" You retorted unsure where this brass neck of confidence came from. Her eyes darkened in response as she leapt up and stalked towards you. Instinctively you moved backwards until you were pressed between the wall and the fox. Her grin almost sadistic, eyes black with desire. A embarrassing squeak drew from your body as she roughly claimed your lips as hers. Teeth sinking into your bottom lip. The cooper taste mixed with the taste of her causing a low whine to leave you.

Pulling away to gain air, she kissed nipped and sucked all over your neck. The dark purple blemishes already showing. All you could do is whine and whimper at the sensations and desperately pray your legs would hold you up. "Some innocent dove you are" she sneered after a particularly low whine left you as she nipped your pulse point, "such a response slut for me hmm" she all but cooed.

"Please" you begged not knowing if she'd comply. Completely at her mercy was not what you had planned for the night. With that you were lifted into her arms and carried to her bed. Immediately her hands working to rid you of your dress. Desperate for more skin to explore. Months of pent up desire finally coming to head. She moaned out in approval once you were stripped bare and laid out for her. Her hands trailing all over your skin. Feather light and teasing. Hickeys now adorned your neck and the tops of your breasts. Her mouth creating more bruising while her fingers stroking your breast with one had and pinching the bud with the other. Moans were flowing more freely now. But as nice as it was, it wasn't enough. Your hips jerked up in a silent plea. This was torture. You needed her. And now.

However your plea was ignored, simply moving her hand to pin your hips to the bed. You whined in response to her denial of your unasked question. "Now now dove, be a good girl and you'll get what you want. You want me to touch you hmm?" She husked out still completely enthralled with brushing your pale skin. All you could do is nod and try to be patience.

"If you want me to make touch you then I need words my slut" she purred loving how you were responding to her. Who would've knew you would be like this? Some meek little English teacher, not an ever, but not a never but a secret little minx. That fact only adding to the attraction and infatuation lesso has with  you.

"Please, please Nora I -" a moan broke your sentence off as she immediately moved her hands to your soaked folds just teasing never fully giving you anything. "Nora?" The smirk on her lips showing you she liked the nickname. "I wonder how many times you've screamed that with your own fingers between your legs wishing they were mine." She mused out loud before bringing her lips to taste you. Your aching core was dripping and the taste absolutely Devine. Her self control dwindled as she lapped you up like fine wine.

Your orgasm building faster than normal, you were no use anymore. All you could focus on his the pleasure the fox was giving. Feasting on you like there was no tomorrow. Your bundle of nerves reviving the attention it craved. "Please please fuck please I need" you whimpered as you teetered on the edge of pleasure.

"You may dove. That's my good girl hmm. Such a good slut" and with those words she continued eating you like there was no tomorrow. Lapping up every drop of your essence as you tumbled off the edge and into the pools of pleasure. A whine of surprise left you as you realised Lesso wasn't done with you. Her mouth still working diligently between your soaked thighs.

"Fox i fuck what?" Your train of thought completely lost as two fingers were thrusted into your core. Immediately your walls reacting to squeeze the life from them. Fuck this women was going to kill you. She set her own brutal pace as she finger fucked you soaking in every delicious sound you made. Watching as you screwed your eyes shut and flung your head back in pleasure. The whimpers were nearly constant now. All you could do is lay there and mewl at her administrations like a cat in heat.

"Oh fuck mommy!" You all but screamed as another gush of white hot pleasure tore through you. How many orgasms had you had now? Honestly you'd lost count, all you knew was your body called for her. You didn't even know what you said until you felt her withdraw the fingers that has been bringing you pleasure. "Mommy? Oh what a little minx you are young one" she teased as you stumbled over an apology. Why did you say that. God but it had felt so good.

"No no dove don't say sorry I like it."she reassured before going back to business. Her touch was killing you. It was all too much now. You're tired battered body couldn't handle another orgasm but lesso seemed sure on forcing another. She'd rip it from your body despite the fact your exhausted. She wanted one so she'd get one. "Mommy! Please I can't! N-no m-more " you whined. Feeling the familiar feeling of the edge once more.

"You can and you will pretty girl. I want you to cum for me" and with that you tumbled over the edge with a scream of pleasure "mommy! Oh fuck god I"

The room feel silent oddly quick besides the unstable breathing from you both. Did you just? A quick peak confirmed it. You'd passed out. She'd fucked you so well your body physically couldn't handle it and shut down. The fact filling her with an unmatched sense of pride. Quickly but gently, Leonora set to work cleaning you up, carful knowing you would be sore before shifting you into her bed and wrapped the covers over you. Despite not actually being pleasured that was something that Lesso would treasure forever. In fact she wanted more. You were hers now. Her dove and she your fox.

Word count ~ 2118

*Authors note~ I haven’t wrote for lady lesso before but I’m obsessed with her character so I may write some more for her*

[chronotsr]

No. 3 - G3, Hall of the Fire Giant King (July 1978)

Author(s): Gary Gygax Artist(s): Erol Otus, Dave C. Sutherland III (cover), David A. Trampier Level range: Average of 9, preferably 5+ players Theme: Standard Swords and Sorcery Major re-releases: G1-3 Against the Giants, GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders, Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff, Dungeon #200, Tales from the Yawning Portal

So that was a little disappointing. But maybe it just middles in the middle? C'mon Gary, let's see that special skill I've heard so much about.

G3 begins how G2 ended: teleporting conveniently on the outskirts of the fortress in such a way as to skip a trek without surprising the players. Meh. Our big bad this time is King Snurre -- I haven't mentioned the Chieftains yet because they're all just midbosses compared to the this guy. And, he's kind of famous isn't he?

For a guy who is functionally a one-off NPC that the party presumably kills, he ends up in a lot of paintings. Not that I'm complaining, that 4e art is amazing. In fact, broadly, 4e's art is a little underrated, it benefits from being less restrained than 5e. I don't think that's a knock on 5e's artists, more like…the art direction seems to be intentionally tamer. Anyway, thank you 4e art, I never realized there was a dog in the background of the 5e PHB until now. Neat.

Yada yada yada the setup is exactly the same as before, but now it's got ~mordor vibes~. As far as changes change, these fire giants (even the children) expressly do not do morale checks because apparently Snurre is such a motherfucker. Scary!

Anyway, we're already in the room-by-room, so let's begin the juicy part:

There's a scooby doo trap with a tapestry in the doorway having holes for eyes so a giant guard can alert the entire building if the players don't catch it. That's evil! But not unfair, which is a good balance. Naturally, there is a ballista tripwire on revisit that does some nasty damage, so this hallway is just The Troll Zone

Snurre has two pet hellhounds leashed to his throne, but also he's wearing a white dragonskin as a cloak at all times, which overcomes his natural aversion to cold with MAGIC. What an asshole! Also, as you look at that picture from the 5e cover, there's a bevy of (unimportant) changes from the original, like Snurre is no longer in his signature pitch-black platemail, but I think special mention should go to the fact that in the original he has literally 60k worth of precious stones on his person and scattered throughout the architecture of the throne room. This room should be GLEAMING.

A Gygaxism: Queen Frupy is a 'haradin', which roughly means 'scold', which. Ok. So, so much attention is given to how uggo she is (to Gary). Actually, I think the description of her armor is kinda cool, she wears black dragonskin, studded with iron (so by Runescape logic I guess she's good with a bow?). Reaper Minis did a character that sort-of resembles the description, but their Vanja has a spear where Frupy uses a scepter:

You can actually negotiate with her, the implication of the text is that she's unreasonable but…just ignore that. Lol.

She also has a magic mirror (implied to be a furniture mirror, not a hand mirror) that reveals invisible creatures in the reflection, which is kind of awesome. Good way to catch assassins! Somehow the drow are using a gifted necklace to spy on them, but I feel like the mirror probably should've revealed in some way (maybe the mirror was also a drow gift?) She's more astute than she lets on, because she has a huge stash of mind control crap in her dresser drawers for emergencies.

????????????????????????????

Keeping with the "giant leader's treasure sucks" tradition, Snurre's treasure is genuinely crazy. It occupies a FULL PAGE, and each INDIVIDUAL TRUNK has a listing and an explicit mention of the traps. Traps range from a standard scything trap to secret snakes to the treasure being invisible to contact poison. How the hell does Snurre use this room? You're telling me he never fucked up remembering which of the 13 chests were trapped in which way? Oh, also, they're pick-proof, because fuck you thief. Naturally, the loot itself is also a fucking trap, because while there is some truly amazing stuff in there (20 randomized magic items, a decent amount of valuables, a +3 ring of protection, and a ring of 3 wishes), there is also lots of troll items (statues with a stacking curse of -1 to all tests, ring of contrariness, ring of delusion). On the whole, a big fuck you to the party. Oh, and while the locks are unpickable, you can shoot them off with magic missile, which is…why?

Snurre's dwarf-slave-advisor is bizarrely well equipped and loyal, and given the opportunity to escape he will…backstab the party. As much as people complain about how early DND has too many save or die traps, I genuinely think the regularity with which rescued npcs betray the party is a waaaaaay dumber and more ridiculous trend. I simply cannot fathom why someone as smart as Obmi would choose to keep being a slave to Snurre when adventurers showed up with the ability to free him. Honestly? Take his big lie and make it true. The lie makes sense because it makes more sense than the canon character.

The scroll that finally tips at the motivation of the giants is, no kidding, scroll #68 of almost 450 paper items, none of which are mentioned. The weird need for a number baffles me.

The kitchen is doing some lateral thinking and using one of the gas vents as a gas stove, which is hilarious.

Oh, we're only now to level 2?

All of the former kings are entombed in a Giant Tomb, which, that is entirely too cool of a visual for them to have not included a visual. In a fucking grave mistake, this room is cut from the 4e remake, so there is no incredible art of it. There is no justice.

If you somehow didn't kill the hill giant chieftain AND you didn't get him in G2, he's here in G3. And he brought the pet bears!

Gary, you're such an asshole. No one would ever think to throw their cool mace into the lava pit mid combat. This is just trolling.

🤷 Guess I'll die

"The were-rats, if losing, will turn into rats and flee down the drain" That is, actually an incredible escape plan, except that we have pre-established that this Hall is founded upon LAVA AND COOKING-HOT GAS.

Fuck the party I guess

You often hear people who got into ADND in the late 1e/2e era talk about how people speculated that Hommlet must lead to Temple of Elemental Evil because of hints about the Elemental Eye and, honestly it just kind of feels like Gary defaults to the Eye. It has come up in every scenario he has written so far (which admittedly is 2 so far), but with the power of Knowing What Comes Next I can assure you that this is going to keep happening. Anyway, there is a temple to the Eye here, complete with human sacrifice, and the allusion to tentacles eating people is already starting to signpost what we now know is true: It's Tharizdun. The Eye is Tharizdun. It always comes back to Cthulhus!

A lot of early players clearly enjoyed Poking Random Shit because if you decide to touch the Elemental Eye's altar and also play every musical instrument in the room, you get to make every person in the room roll on this table, AND also execute whichever player is nearest to the altar (no save). But, hey, you will suddenly get whatever you want most on the altar. If you are somehow dumb enough to do it again, there's a 1 in 12 chance you get a +1 in all stats, a 2 in 12 chance of something extremely bad happening, and a 9 in 12 chance nothing happens.

Would genuinely like to know how many GMs bothered following this instruction. It does teleport you towards the final encounter, so that's something.

An entire page is dedicated to disarming the tentacle wall magic trap, which to be honest looks like it'd repel a significant percentage of players because you either need an evil cleric or some good magic to dispel the wall, and the wall punishes the shit out of you for trying to disarm it. To be a mild devil's advocate, the tentacle wall IS super suspiciously placed (the shape of the room implies it's going somewhere), so at least it's not also super esoteric. If you DO bypass it, you are now the proud winner of the "discover the drow" award! Woah, elves but they're ontologically evil??????????????????????????????????? Truly novel! Eclavdra, head of the drow here, hangs out doing nothing in particular, and you may unceremoniously execute her if you want to bring her storyline to an unceremonious end.

The frost giants are here from last module, if they survived. They really want you to kill these kings!

No really why did they used to draw trolls like that

This adventure just won't end. There's a surprising amount to say about this module given that it's only 22 pages of monster murder and motherfucker traps. Anyway, welcome to level 3!

There are fake dragons here to troll you into getting excited for loot

The fire giants also have a panic room? Every giant has a panic room. Why are panic rooms so normal in the G series?

A SECOND fake dragon that is actually a gorgon, which is almost funny

Finally, a REAL red dragon, which is frankly cruelty to fool me three times

After many, many drow are fought, you eventually run into a magic-fighter drow noble who has a wand of "viscid globs", which despite the suggestive name, is actually a superglue gun? You can literally rip yourself apart trying to separate yourself from a glued object. It's a really, really bizarre item. And it has a LOT of charges -- 79.

Mercifully, finally, something that could be potentially interesting: Eclavdra's rival is hanging out in the basement and can be sweetalked into helping the party screw over Eclavdra, which. FINALLY. However, if you displease her, it's demon time.

For reasons I cannot fathom, there are mind flayers here observing the drow, and the drow are not super bothered by that.

And that's basically it! at the very end they find a tube with a map and a wish leading to the D series, and a quick explainer on the then-new Drow. Well, not that quick, it's a page and a half, but the conceptualization of the drow is basically unchanged between then and now. Evil elves, forced underground, adapted to living there, dark skin, magic spidersilk clothes and adamantine weapons, sunlight sensitivity, drow spell list.

On the whole, G3 is, an adventure. While yes the Drow twist is kind of neat (but not special, since Drow are functionally Melniboneans and Elric was already decades old at this point), mostly this module lacks the fun of G1 and substitutes lots of murder traps for any genuine creativity with the scenario. On the whole, I consider it…crowd pleasingly boring? Your treasure goblins will love it for how much nice stuff they can find, if they survive.

We will end today with the back cover, which features some hippogriff mounts. People just don't give parties flying mounts anymore, it's honestly strange the tradition died. See you in the D series later. And if you're waiting for more obscure modules…I can only promise one in 1978.

[braveclementine]

Chapter 17

Warnings: None. However, future chapters will contain sexual content so readers that are under the age of 18 may have to skip those chapters (Please keep note of the warnings).

Copyright: I do not own any Wizarding World characters that J.K. Rowling wrote. I do however own Elizabeth Kane (main character) and Trang Nyguen (best friend). There should be no use of these two names without my permission. I also do not condone any copying of this.

🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎

𝕴 𝖘𝖆𝖙 𝖉𝖔𝖜𝖓 at the Hufflepuff table the next day and unfolded the newspaper, skimming for the important things.

Mundungus had been arrested and placed in Azkaban. Reading the rest of the article, it seemed as though he had impersonated an Inferius while attempting to rob someone. I snorted before taking a bite into my muffin. Just lovely.

There were multiple disappearances though none of the names rang a bell.

A nine-year old had been arrested for trying to kill his grandparents. They'd put him in a ward in St. Mungo's with top security. Of course, it looked as though he was under the Imperius Curse so they couldn't blame him. Especially at nine! I mean, full adults had a hard time throwing off the Imperius Curse. I wished I was on the jury that was going to try him. I'd find him not guilty.

On top of all the bad news, it was Monday which meant using the time turner to get to Care of Magical Creatures class and Ancient Runes before Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

Hagrid talked about Nundus in class and all I could say was that I was glad that he hadn't found a real one to bring into class. They were terrifying creatures and the only thing I was glad about learning was that I should most definitely stay away from one if I ever came across one, which I wouldn't because I was never going to East Africa.

I hurried to Defense Against the Dark Arts after that, arriving on time, and sitting in my seat, quickly pulling out the dementor essay and my book. Harry entered the room, the last to come in and Severus said, "Late again, Potter. Ten points from Gryffindor."

I glared at Severus but he would not look at me. He probably knew the look I was giving him.

Severus waved his wand so that our essay floated from our desks to his in a neat pile and said, "Before we start, I want your dementor essays. And I hope for your sakes they are better than the tripe I had to endure on resisting the Imperius Curse. Now, if you will all open your books to page- what is it, Mr. Finnigan?"

Seamus had his hand in the air and he lowered it as he said, "Sir, I've been wondering, how do you tell the difference between an Inferius and a ghost? Because there was something in the paper about an Inferius-"

"No, there wasn't." Severus said in a bored voice.

"But sir," Seamus protested, "I heard people talking-"

"If you had actually read the article in question, Mr. Finnigan, you would have known that the so-called Inferius was nothing but a smelly sneak thief by the name of Mundungus Fletcher."

I rolled my eyes. Mundungus and Severus were on the same team and he certainly should act like it.

"But Potter seems to have a lot to say on the subject." Severus said, pointing towards the back of the room and I instinctively turned to see Harry's bright red cheeks. I faced forward again, glaring at Severus who was still not meeting my eyes. "Let us ask Potter how we would tell the difference between an Inferius and a ghost."

"Er- well- ghosts are transparent." Harry said awkwardly.

"Oh, very good. Yes it is easy to see that nearly six years of magical education have not been wasted on you, Potter. 'Ghosts are transparent'."

I sighed, leaning on my left hand while I drew absentmindedly with my right hand.

There was laughter, a shrill shriek from Pansy and the rest were scattered through the others.

"Yeah, ghosts are transparent, but Inferi are dead bodies, aren't they? So they'd be solid-" Harry said, sounding very much like he'd like to curse Professor Snape to oblivion.

"A five-year-old could have told us as much. The Inferius is a corpse that has been reanimated by a Dark Wizard's spells. It is not alive, it is merely used like a puppet do to the wizard's bidding. A ghost, as I trust that you are all aware by now, is the imprint of a departed soul left upon the earth. . . and of course, as Potter so wisely tells us, transparent." Professor Snape sneered.

"Well, what Harry said is most useful if we're trying to tell them apart!" Ron exclaimed, "When we come face-to-face with one down a dark alley, we're going to have a shufti to see if it's solid, aren't we, we're not going to be asking, 'Excuse me, are you the imprint of a departed soul?'"

I nearly laughed and quickly lowered my head so that I could laugh without Severus knowing that I was laughing.

"Another ten points from Gryffindor. I would expect nothing more sophisticated from you, Ronald Weasley, the boy so solid he cannot Apparate half an inch across a room." Severus snapped.

I looked up at him, exasperated.

"Now open your books to page two hundred and thirteen and read the first two paragraphs on the Cruciatus Curse." Severus said, his lip curling. His eyes met mine briefly and he went back up to his desk.

I sped-read the chapter on the Cruciatus Curse before pulling out an artpad and started to draw again. I was very carefully trying not act as though I wasn't doing my work, because people tend to notice when Professors favor students. If Severus simply walked past me drawing and not working, people would notice. After all, I wasn't a Slytherin.

But today, Severus didn't seem keen to walk through the class and I had a very nice outline done for my next painting. It was a farm scene, a place I'd like to live one day. Own horses and cows and sheep and chickens and rabbits. No pigs.

I also wondered about the apparition lessons that were going to be held in Hogsmeade. I was upset, mostly because they weren't open to those who weren't seventeen by the date in April. Of course, this had surprised Mr. Twycross because of my superb ability to apparate. He was talking to the Ministry about bending the rules for me. I'd told him good luck with that, but it wasn't going to happen. He was quite confident I was wrong.

There was no way that Scrimgeour was going to bend rules for me. Though of course, I would've liked to have seen Umbridge's face when told I apparated on the first try of the first day without any prior tries. It was probably carefully concealed fury. Kingsley would've been proud though.

I hadn't seen Kingsley in a long time and I missed him. I could always contact him on my two-way mirror though. . . maybe I would soon.

The bell rang and I slowly packed my things away, making sure that I was the last student in the classroom.

"You'll be late for your next class if you don't hurry along Miss Kane." Severus said indifferently, not looking up at me as he continued to write on the parchment.

"Really?" I snapped, "I told you to lay off Harry just a little bit." I swung my bag off the table and stomped out of the room.

He was a right pain in the ass, he was. My husband and yet the person who hated my brother, one of the people I loved most after him. Or maybe before him, I wasn't sure. Did siblings take preference over mates?

The rest of the day passed in a blur and I went to the art studio before dinner. I had all the teachers drawings in a manila folder, labelled and ready to be set out this weekend. I also had duplicates in a folder in my bag and the other duplicates for the message board were spread on the table. I planned on writing the names of the Professor's underneath in calligraphy or maybe a broad font inside a banner.

I took out the two-way mirror, propping it up on an art easel, completely uncertain if this was going to work.

"Er- Kingsley?"

I waited a few seconds and then there was some movement in the mirror and he pulled it out. I smiled, looking at his handsome, kind, intelligent face. A weight was lifted off my chest.

"Elizabeth!" He said in that slow, deep voice of his. It was quite a handsome voice. Sexy, almost. "Is everything alright?"

"Yes." I said, remembering that the last time I had seen him I'd been fighting four Death Eaters by myself. "I just. . .I wanted to see you for a bit. . . talk to you. . . I haven't seen you in a long time. This isn't a bad time, is it?"

"Not at all." Kingsley said. "I'm just working on a simple case. We're trying to track down Bellatrix Lestrange. The Ministry's furious that her and Greyback got into the Burrow. They don't know how they did it yet. The security at the Burrow's been upped triple."

I shivered, blushing a little. "That doesn't sound simple at all."

Kingsley smiled. "How's school?"

Ah, a subject change. Very well then. "It's alright." I said with a shrug of my shoulders. "Boring, actually."

He chuckled. "Where are you? I don't recognize that room."

I held the mirror up a little higher, showing him around the art studio, showing him most of my drawings (including the funny Professor ones) and also the drawings up on the walls and everything in between. I'd finished one of the windows (a middle one) for the stained glass project.

"Quite splendid." Kingsley said. "I think Tonks mentioned something about your art skills sometime after Christmas."

"Yes." I said. "She was at the Burrow. She said I should sell my artwork." I rolled my eyes. "But everyone knows that art doesn't sell until after the artist is dead."

Kingsley chuckled again. "Is that an unwritten rule?"

I grinned. "I can name a dozen artists who were penniless when they lived and rich after they died. Picasso, Van Gogh, Modigliani, Paul Cezanne-"

"Alright, alright, I take your point." Kingsley said. There was a sound behind him and another face popped into the mirror.

"Hello Elizabeth." Uncle Moody growled, his magical eye rolling, his normal eye focused in the mirror.

"Hi Uncle Moody, how's work?" I said genially.

"Better when not interrupted." He said, but he sounded amused rather than disapproving.

I grinned. "Blame Kingsley. Not me."

Kingsley chuckled again and shooed Uncle Moody away.

"Tell Tonks I said hi, alright?" I asked. "I'll let you get to work, I just really wanted to see someone."

"No problem." Kingsley said, picking up a quill now that the conversation was almost over. "You can call whenever you want."

I smiled, but said nothing else, and put the mirror upside down. It was like hanging up a phone call.

I went back to the Professor drawings, throwing myself into my work.

The door opened and I looked up in surprise. My friends were more accustomed to letting me know before they came and when I realized that it wasn't anyone I was expecting, I turned the folder with the Professors over and swept the papers that were laid out on the table into my arms.

"Sev." I said, shock lacing my voice. "What are you doing here?"

He didn't answer for a moment. He looked quite out of place, wearing all black and magical robes and all. He looked around at my paintings on the walls and the rest of the art studio. "Looking for you." He answered, tapping his knuckles against one of the desks, looking uncomfortable. Good.

I became aware that my bun was being held in place by a paintbrush and I quickly reached up, taking it out. My hair tumbled down my shoulders, reaching my knees in waves. "Oh." I left the papers on a chair, pushing it under the table and made my way to an art easel that was far away from the table.

I picked up a paint palette, moving my hair out of the way to work on the farm scene.

"Are you still mad at me?" He asked quietly.

I watched him out of the corner of my eye as he made his way towards me and I kicked a stool at him for him to sit on which he did.

"Not really." I said, slightly untruthfully.

"You know that I know that you're lying, right?" Severus asked.

I gritted my teeth, holding the paintbrush inches away from the canvas and then pulled away. I'd spent a lot of time replicating the drawing onto the canvas and I didn't want to have to start over because I painted something wrong.

I put the palette and brush aside and sat down on a stool across from him. "Look, I lost my temper, alright? It's really not that big of a deal."

"When you storm out of my classroom in anger, it's a big deal to me." Severus said, high voice rising an octave.

"Well when you insult my brother, I tend to get slightly defensive." I snapped.

We stared at each other for a moment and I put my face in my hands before running my fingers through my hair and looking away.

Part of me wanted to apologize, say I was sorry, that I didn't mean what I had said. At the same time, I figured it was time to set it straight with Severus. Couples had fights and still made it through. I shouldn't live in fear that I was going to lose Severus if I lost my temper with him occasionally or told him exactly what I thought.

"Sometimes I forget." Severus finally said softly.

I could've left it at that but I didn't. "You avoided my eyes the entire class! You knew exactly what you were doing!"

Severus stood up angrily. "Why can't you just let this go?"

"Why can't you just be nice to him?" I said and then said, "Forget nice, how about just plain decent? You target him on purpose and it's stupid."

"Fine!" He snapped, swinging his cloak behind me, moving to leave the art room and my heart screamed at me to say something, to stop him. I opened my mouth but he was sweeping from the room and I closed it. I sat back down on the stool, staring at the canvas on my easel.

"Hey!" A voice said some minutes later and I snapped my head up and saw Hermione and Ginny had entered the room.

"Oh, hey." I said rather unenthusiastically. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We wanted to see how the portraits were coming along." Ginny said, peering curiously at me. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." I muttered, standing up and striding over to the table, picking the portraits up again off the chair and spreading them out on the table. "I'm almost done with them."

"What happened Elizabeth?" Hermione asked kindly.

"It doesn't matter." I muttered. "Just forget it."

She dropped the topic, though I'm sure she wouldn't forget any time soon. "They are finished, aren't they?"

"Yes." I said, a bit more enthusiastically. "I was thinking either Sunday night or Monday morning."

"Sunday night." Hermione said. "We can use the cloak."

"I can pin them up on the board." Ginny said.

"And I'll put them in each Professors place." I said. "Just let me work on the ones that your going to put up on the board for a moment."

I placed them all out and started working on the banners and putting the names in calligraphy inside. It was a win-win situation. Now, we just needed it to be Sunday night.

"We can leave them in the room." I said. "That's what I've been doing."

"We'll just have to make sure that Malfoy won't be in here when we need to get the drawings." Hermione pointed out.

"Right." I said. I put the drawings in another sheaf and labelled them 'board' and then put them right next to the other package.

"What are you working on currently?" Ginny asked, looking around.

I motioned for them to follow me over to the art easel and showed them the farm scene I was working on.

"You're painting it?" Hermione asked, bending down and peering at the details.

"Yes." I said simply. I was still quite unhappy.

"Well, we'll leave you to your work." Hermione said, grabbing Ginny's arm.

I shrugged, "It's not just my studio you know. You guys are welcome to stay and do whatever you want, even study if you guys want."

"Sure!" Ginny said. "That sounds great."

"We'll have to go get our schoolbags." Hermione fretted.

"I'll be here." I said.

I briefly wondered if spending all my time in here was going to screw things up for Malfoy. I supposed it didn't matter. Perhaps I should really only be in here on weekends.

They left and I started to paint the canvas in small, light strokes. The night moved on. Ginny and Hermione came with their homework and left and still I painted. When I was done, it was one of the most beautiful things I had painted. I left it to dry.

I headed over to the desk and pulled out my Defense Against the Dark Arts homework and started writing an essay for the Cruciatus curse. Sometime in the middle of it, I fell asleep.

🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎

"𝕰𝖑𝖎𝖟𝖆𝖇𝖊𝖙𝖍 𝖑𝖔𝖛𝖊." 𝕬 soft voice whispered in my ear.

I rustled uncomfortably.

"Elizabeth, come on, you have to wake up." the voice whispered, still soft and beautiful almost.

I tried opening my heavy lids but I didn't really want to surface. My dream had been nice. Severus and I had been spending a nice afternoon together. I think there was an amusement park even though I knew Severus had never set foot in such a place.

"Elizabeth!" The voice was more anxious now and I finally blinked my eyelids open.

I was on the floor, looking up at the ceiling of the art studio. Severus was leaning over me, his hands on either side of my face, his anxious face relaxed when he saw my eyes were open.

I looked around as I sat up quickly. Ink had spilled down off the table and I wondered if my Cruciatus Curse essay was ruined. I quickly stood up and looked down at the table. Much to my relief, the ink had missed the essay by a few inches.

I quickly picked the essay up, rolling it up and stuffing it into my bag. For the first time, I didn't have my homework done for tomorrow. Panic started to set in.

"I didn't do my homework." I muttered, pulling the bag onto my shoulder. With a wave of his wand, the ink was gone.

"It doesn't matter." Severus said, putting an arm around me, "Come on, let's go."

"Where?" I asked, feeling slightly dazed.

"Our room, of course." Severus said, sounding worried.

"Oh, right." I said, blushing though I was still dazed. So we were fine?

We didn't meet anyone on the way to his office and once we were inside, I checked the time. It was only eleven o'clock. I supposed that the amount of time I'd spent in the art room really had mixed up my sleep cycle.

I sat down on the bed, pulling out homework that Severus grabbed from my hands, "Go to sleep. I don't care if you have the essay done."

"You wouldn't let Harry get away with it." I said, clumsily grabbing for my homework. Severus moved it away from me.

"Yes, but I don't love him and wish his best health either." Severus said, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me into the bed. Once the covers were around me, I nestled into him, feeling quite warm and fuzzy. I fell asleep quickly.

🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎

𝕴 𝖜𝖔𝖐𝖊 𝖚𝖕 in a dark room, tied to a chair in a circle of light. There were people standing in the shadows, wearing black and I could not see their faces.

"Hello Elizabeth Kane." A cold, shiver inducing voice said and from the shadows stepped Voldemort.

I kept my mouth shut, trying to figure out how I had gotten here.

Voldemort seemed to almost glide towards me, my heart pounding by my brain acting rationally. Surely, I couldn't actually be here, could I? After all, I had been at Hogwarts, I had been at school.

"Mr. Malfoy brought you to us." Voldemort continued, walking around the chair, one pale hand moved along the back of it. "He found you sleeping in the Room of Requirement when he went to work on what he was supposed to be doing. He could not get in. He had heard rumors of what you had turned the room into and he found you. Careless of you, really. . ."

Had I fallen asleep in the room? I could've sworn I'd woken up though. I could've sworn I'd left the room. . . with. . . with Severus, hadn't I? Unless that had been a dream while Draco was transporting me out of the castle. And if this was real. . . I couldn't think about Severus.

"Draco made up for part of his father's mistakes, enough to get Lucius out of Azkaban. You've met Lucius, haven't you, Elizabeth?" Voldemort said in the same, cold voice.

Lucius moved in the shadows, his pale blond hair should have been a dead giveaway from the beginning. His steel gray eyes met mine, but he did not smile the way I would have expected him to.

A snake hissed nearby and I felt something coil around my feet. I would not flinch. I would not say anything.

"I've wanted to meet you for a long time, Elizabeth Kane." Voldemort said softly. "The rumors that surround you. Harry Potter's long lost sister, the future-see-er, the brilliant one."

He circled me again. My fight or flight response was trying to kick in but I could not move. Voldemort took a step back, making a motion to Lucius. A small light appeared, revealing Severus laying on the ground. He was alive, barely, blood seeping from his stomach. His eyes were half open, meeting mine and he mouthed 'I'm sorry'. My heart started to beat double-time, throwing a panicked look at Voldemort.

"What do you want?" I choked out. Voldemort started to laugh. I started to cry.

"Elizabeth. . ."

That voice was different, that voice was far away, more like a voice on the breeze than anything else. And that meant that I wasn't actually here. That meant that I could make this my own.

I willed the ropes to fall off of me and they did and I stood, drawing my wand. Voldemort's eyes widened in shock but his wand was already in his hand.

I willed myself to find a way out of the room and I was outside, by the sea, somewhere I'd wanted to be in a long time.

"Elizabeth..."

I willed myself to wake up and I did so, sitting upright in bed with Severus, gasping, shivering, sweating, shaking. My face was wet with salt water. My voice was hoarse, it was possible I had been screaming.

"Elizabeth!" He said, trying to face me. "What happened? You were crying and screaming in your sleep. I couldn't get you to lay still. You were thrashing around."

"Voldemort." I choked out, wiping my face.

He bit back his usual retort and said, "What?"

I explained what had happened and Severus listened intently and then said, "It was just a dream."

"I know." I muttered, "I'm not stupid."

"I never said you were." Severus said patiently. "I was trying to reassure you."

"Right." I muttered, flopping back down on the bed, "Sorry."

"No." Severus said, laying back down next to me, "I'm sorry."

He didn't elaborate and he didn't have to. He held me in his arms as I sobbed into his chest, shaking, trying to get rid of the image of him bleeding on the ground. The story had been so real, but my imagination was horribly active, and many of my dreams were quite vivid. I was shaking, but he hugged me close and I managed to calm down, falling asleep with no more nightmares.

🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎

𝕿𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝕾𝖆𝖙𝖚𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖞, 𝕳𝖊𝖗𝖒𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖊 and Ron went with other students to Hogsmeade to do apparition lessons while Harry and I stayed behind. Twycross hadn't gotten back to me yet about whether or not I was going to be able to apparate before the designated time.

Harry had gone off to the room of requirement, hoping to catch Malfoy in the act. Meanwhile, I went over the plan for tomorrow in my head.

About half an hour later, I headed up to the Room of Requirement and knew Harry was under his invisibility cloak.

I heard a loud "OUCH!" and watched as Harry appeared, the invisibility cloak having slipped off of him.

"Harry?" A different, unexpected voice came and I hurried to see that Tonks was coming up the corridor. Harry had spun around and toppled over onto his ass and quickly scrambled to his feet, his cheeks flushing.

"What're you doing here?" Harry asked.

"I came to see Dumbledore." Tonks said.

She looked absolutely horrible and I closed my eyes as though I could block out the unhappy image. I preferred her with her bubblegum pink hair and cheery appearance. Now, she was thin, even thinner than dad. Her hair was hanging lank and loose.

"His office isn't here, it's round the other side of the castle, behind the gargoyle-" Harry said as though Tonks was stupid.

"I know. He's not here. Apparently he's gone away again."

"Has he? Hey- you don't know where he goes, I suppose?" Harry asked curiously. I snorted.

"No." Tonks said.

"What did you want to see him about?"

"Nothing in particular, I just thought he might know what's going on. . . I've heard rumors. . . people getting hurt. . ." she sent another look my way. I shook my head slightly.

"Yeah, I know, it's all been in the papers. That little kid trying to kill his-"

"The Prophet's often behind the times. You haven't had any letters from anyone in the Order recently?" Tonks asked, sound slightly desperate.

"No one from the Order writes to me anymore, not since Sirius-" Harry started and stopped when he saw Tonks eyes were filling up with tears, "I'm sorry. . . I mean. . . I miss him, as well. . ." He glanced at me like I was going to help him.

"What?" Tonks asked blankly. "Well. . . I'll see you around, Harry. Elizabeth. . ."

She turned around and went back the way she had come. Harry stared at me, "What was that about?"

I shook my head, "It's not really my place to say. She's worried about someone, though. She was hoping you'd have a letter from that person, that's all. I wouldn't know if I didn't have my powers so I don't feel comfortable intruding into her personal life without her permission, make sense?"

"Yes." Harry said. "But doesn't she work with Mad-eye and Kingsley?"

I shrugged, "I don't know. Neither of them have written me either. Dad can't write either, he's underground. See ya around Harry."

I headed away from the Room of Requirement and made my way down to the Great Hall and found that Ron and Hermione were already sitting down to lunch. Halfway through it, Harry came down and sat with us.

"I did it- well, kind of! I was supposed to be Apparating to outside Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop and I overshot it a bit, ended up near Scrivenshatft's, but at least I moved!" Ron said enthusiastically before Harry even sat down.

"Good one, How'd you do, Hermione?"

"Oh, she was perfect, obviously." Ron interrupted before Hermione could speak for herself, "Perfect deliberation, divination, and desperation or whatever the hell it is- we all went for a quick drink in the Three Broomsticks after and you should've heard Twycross going on about her- I'll be surprised if he doesn't pop the question soon- if he doesn't ask Eliza first that is and-"

"And what about you? Have you been up at the Room of Requirement all this time?" Hermione asked though I wasn't sure if she was asking me or Harry.

"Yep and guess who I ran into up there?" Harry asked, ladling his bowl with soup. "Tonks!"

"Tonks?" Ron and Hermione repeated together.

Harry explained what had been said and included my thoughts at the end of it before Ron said, "If you ask me, she's cracking up a bit. Losing her nerve after what happened at the Ministry."

I glared at him angrily.

"It's a bit odd. She's supposed to be guarding the school, why's she suddenly abandoning her post to come and see Dumbledore when he's not even here?" Hermione asked.

"She didn't know that he was gone." I suggested.

"I had a thought." Harry said. His voice sounded strange, almost hesitant, "You don't think she can have been. . . you know. . . in love with Sirius?"

I nearly spit out my soup while Hermione stared at him and asked, "What on earth makes you say that?"

"I dunno but she was nearly crying when I mentioned his name. . . and her Patronus is a big four-legged thing now. . . I wondered whether it hadn't become. . . you know. . . him. . ." Harry said awkwardly.

"She wasn't crying from you saying his name, she was crying because you haven't received any information that can help her." I said. "And neither have I and that's what worries her even more."

"But who is she worried about?" Ron asked.

"It's not my place to say." I said quickly. "I try not to intrude into other people's personal lives unless I don't like them, if I'm allowed to, or if you guys find out eventually anyways."

"It's a thought, the love thing." Hermione said to Harry. "But I still don't know why she'd be bursting into the castle to see Dumbledore, if that's really why she was here. . . it was more likely what Elizabeth was saying. After all, Dumbledore would be the one who would know everything."

"Goes back to what I said, doesn't it?" Ron asked, shoveling mashed potatoes messily into his mouth and I was so glad that I was having a girl and not a boy. Boys were so messy. "She's gone a bit funny. Lost her nerve. Women, they're easily upset." Ron finished to Harry.

I rolled my eyes and Hermione said, "And yet, I doubt you'd find a woman who sulked for half an hour because Madam Rosmerta didn't laugh at their joke about the hag, the Healer, and the Mimbulus mimbletonia."

Ron scowled.

The rest of us laughed.

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𝕴 𝖕𝖚𝖑𝖑𝖊𝖉 𝖔𝖚𝖙 the mirror again in the art room and called Kingsley's name. He appeared much quicker than he had previously.

"Everything alright?" He asked, his voice much deeper than before. He looked tired. He must be working a lot of hours.

I paused, wanting to be careful with how I was going to word my question, "Is. . .have you seen Tonks recently?"

"No. . .not too recently." He said carefully. "Why?"

"I'm- I'm worried about her. She came to the school a few days ago and she. . .well she seemed really upset. I think she wants to hear from someone and she hasn't heard from them. . .I think she wants to hear from Dad. Is he okay? Do you know?"

Kingsley looked slightly uncomfortable and he said, "Well. . .no, I don't know. Your father hasn't made contact with us in some time, though it is possible that he is contacting Dumbledore directly rather than through us. And I haven't seen Tonks since around Christmas. She's been staying on guard in Hogsmeade and I'm here at the Ministry."

I sighed, downcast.

"I'm sure your father is fine." Kingsley said in a reassuring voice.

"Oh, I am too." I said lightly. "I just wish I could help Tonks, that's all." I sighed again and then said, "Well, I'll let you get back to work. I just wanted to know if you'd heard anything. I'm just worried about her."

"I'll ask Mad-Eye for you." Kingsley said. "And I'll see if I can contact Tonks and help her out, alright?"

"Thanks Kingsley, you're the best." I said with a tired smile.

He smiled back and then I put the mirror upside down in my pocket, 'hanging up' on him. Then I made my way back out of the art studio and to the Gryffindor Common room.

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"𝕬𝖑𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙, 𝖜𝖊 𝖓𝖊𝖊𝖉 to be careful." I whispered to Ginny as we made our way down the marble steps towards the Great Hall under the invisibility cloak.

"I know Eliza." Ginny said, sounding exasperated.

"You-"

"Stay under the cloak while you slip into the hall." Ginny said. "Elizabeth, I know."

"Right." I said, nervous. I wanted everything to go as planned, I wanted everything to be perfect. This surprise had to be just perfect.

We paused on the tenth stair as peeves glided by and then continued after he had passed. Ginny stopped near the doors to the Great Hall so that I could slip through the doors. Crouching down, I saw that no one was there and I hurried up to the teachers table and started laying out the portraits.

After that was done, I slipped back down the stairs and out of the Great Hall, leaving the doors closed behind me and hurried over to the notice board. Ginny had nearly posted all of the drawings. I helped her pin up the last couple of ones and then we headed back up the marble steps, retracing our path.

We split off, her under the invisibility cloak, and I as a cat. She went back to the Gryffindor Tower and I went back to Severus' room.

Severus was asleep when I arrived and I quickly climbed into bed, making sure I could be up early enough so that I could get to the Great Hall early.

The alarm went off and I quickly shut it off, rolling out of bed while Severus groaned. "Why are you up so early?" he muttered.

"Early day, lots of homework." I said cheerfully, grabbing new robes and my bag. "See you in class this afternoon." I kissed his cheek.

I ran out of the room and down the stairs before he could stop me, my heart pounding, and hurried into the Great Hall. No teachers were in there yet- breakfast didn't start for another seven minutes. I hurried up the stairs, double checking to make sure the portraits were still there. I also doubled checked to make sure that the portraits were the same one's I'd drawn and I hurried down to the Hufflepuff table, satisfied.

Ernie, Hannah, Susan, Justin, Zacharias, Rose and a few other Hufflepuff students were there. Trang sat at the Ravenclaw table and many Gryffindors were already sitting down.

Dumbledore entered first, striding to his spot. We all watched him as he stopped in front of his place. I quickly ducked my head, peeking up to see him pick up the drawing and laugh joyfully, his laugh filling the room.

His eyes flashed over to the Hufflepuff table and I flushed.

"This is great." Susan said, bouncing up and down on the bench.

Food appeared on the table and more students started to file in slowly. Some where chattering about the art, laughing, having spotted the notice board already. Others were confused, darting back out of the hall to take a look.

Other teachers came in and we watched as they picked the portraits up, either covering their faces in embarrassment or laughing. Severus stalked into the room and we all bent low over our breakfast, wondering how he'd react.

He held the portrait up to the light and then pulled out his wand and set the drawing on fire. Our table broke out laughing. Professor McGonagall started to scold Professor Snape.

"Think this was enough to throw them off for a bit?" I asked with a smile.

"Definitely." Susan said. "I can't wait for the real thing."

"I wonder which one they'll like better." Zacharias said.

"I think Professor Snape will like the other one better." Ernie said with a smirk. The entire Great Hall smelled like burnt parchment.

"Good thing we have extra copies." I said with a smile. "Hopefully he doesn't burn the one on the notice board too."

Professor Dumbledore was leaning over, showing Professor McGonagall his drawing. I was quite pleased with my doings.

"I should um go to Care of Magical Creatures Class." I said with a smile. I got up and quickly left the Great Hall. People started to clap as I dashed out the door. I blushed. There was a crowd of people standing outside the notice board, laughing and looking at the drawings.

I passed by quietly and quickly and felt liberated as I entered the fresh air. Hagrid joined me soon on the grounds. He had a piece of parchment in his hands and looked quite pleased.

"Yeh draw wonderfully Elizabeth." He complimented, opening his cabin door and putting the drawing on his table before exiting and coming over to where I was standing, "My favorite was Professor Dumbledore's."

I grinned. "That one did come out good, didn't it?"

Throughout the rest of the day, there were compliments from students and teachers alike. Professor McGonagall had put hers up on the wall. Of course, there were complaints that the drawings didn't move, but the complaints didn't bother me. They didn't seem to bother the Professors either.

The ones that drew the most laughs were Professor Flitwick's and Professor Dumbledore's because they were the most unusual.

What surprised me the most was when Filch came up to me and actually shook my hand before moving past. Any student that saw that thought they were dreaming, and the story spread around quickly, though never talked about in Filch's presence.

However, the most talked about drawing was Professor Snape's. Unbeknownst to him, there was a duplicate drawing on the notice board that he hadn't burned yet, and it was the drawing that people were secretly duplicating and stuffing into binders.

"The thing is," Luna chirped at lunch, sitting with us along with a few Gryffindors and Trang at the Hufflepuff table. "No one has ever seen Professor Snape smile but you make it look so natural."

"Yet!" Zacharias interjected, "It's disturbing at the same time because he never smiles."

"Did you all duplicate that drawing?" I asked, amused.

"Yes." Came about seven different voices.

I snorted.

I seemed to earn quite a few points for Hufflepuff that day too, just random things.

It was one of the best days of my life. 

⬅️➡️

[mixelation]

vagueposting but i link to the post pissing me off and quote it. so not vagueposting at all but the blog has a massive following so it's not like. bullying

there is A Post i keep seeing, despite my best efforts to scrub OP from my dash, and it's specifically this version

reasons this post annoys the bejeebus out of me:

This is not a dunk on fandom—love the energy!—but I dream of the things we all could accomplish if we devoted some of that love and passion to the living creatures of planet Earth.

This is absolutely a dunk on fandom. You have literally structured your post around calling out "fandom" for not spending energy on something you think is more worthwhile. "Oh, no, OP meant in addition to fandom activities--" Nope! Maybe that's what they wanted to say, but they did not frame their post this way. The singled out fandom, played the "not to mean but--" card completely straight, and then somehow laid their environmental anxieties at the feet of fandom. They genuinely sound like one of those PTA moms who gives themselves anxiety over what innocuous things other people's kids do in their free time, which do not affect them at all.

[...]

Let me tell you a secret. Talk to gardeners and ecologists from your parents' and grandparents' generation, and you will recognize the same kind of people [as artists], passionate, socially awkward and probably some flavor of neurodivergent, except their blorbos are lichens, salamanders, mushrooms, bats, turtles, and birds.

These people were the ones that taught us how important those creatures were in the first place. That learned how to study them and wrote down what they observed.

Here's a neat little rhetorical device where OP isolates people "from your parents' and grandparents' generation" as separate but still accessible entities. This magical mood of loving nature is so close to you, but you've been isolated! Forgotten the old ways! These magic old people infused you with love for nature, and learned how to.... study them and write down what they saw...? No one was studying ecology or studiously improving gardening methods before your grandparents. There are no gen Z ecologists. There are no magic nature-loving people who also do fandom. Nuh-uh. It's just these magical older generation gardeners with all this secret knowledge.

Also, I never talk about (one part of) this, but I am a neurodivergent scientist running a fandom blog, and I do think claiming ecologists/gardeners are all "some flavor of neurodivergent" is a super weird take. First, ecologists (and scientists at large) are diverse people, not some cute stereotype in your head. Second, don't diagnose strangers, jfc. Third, "some flavor of neurodivergent" does not automatically make someone your friend or your magical relatable nature guide who wants to infodump all their cool nature facts like a trained dog.

IME ecologists and other people working in conservation ARE hype to tell you about their research and work, but I think linking this trend of enthusiasm to "oh, probably your local cute neurodivergent person--" is harmful in more ways than one to, like, everyone involved.

Here is something important: People cannot care about saving what they haven't even heard of.

This is true, or at least dogma I've heard actual conservationists say. It also has nothing to do with "fandom."

When I first started researching plants, I was shocked and horrified to find the internet almost empty of informative resources. No pictures, no paragraphs written by knowledgeable people, no cheat sheets, no diagrams.

There is not a single photo of a couple-months-old American Sycamore sapling anywhere on Google. Not one.

This is not true. There are in fact many plant identification websites, along with insect, spider, bird, mushroom, etc websites, often run by government organizations, botanical gardens, plant nurseries and nature enthusiasts. They often look like they were designed in the early 2000s and never updated, and there's not a really good umbrella website (except maybe iNaturalist?), but these resources definitely exist. If you google "Platanus occidentalis seedling" or "Platanus occidentalis sapling," you can indeed find the photos OP claims do not exist (examples: x, x). This is the piece of the post that pisses me off the most, because by claiming things literally don't exist on the internet, you actively discourage people form seeking them out.

Side note: I actually blocked OP over a different set of posts where they blogged at length and with extreme performative concern over not being able to find a specific type of study, which was a study design so common anyone who's spent more than thirty seconds figuring out google scholar could have found one. Posts like this are not actually helpful for general science education and instead just upset people while simultaneously misinforming them and discouraging them from doing their own searches.

When I started doing educational events at the place I volunteer, I had to write stat blocks and handouts about my trees MYSELF. From scratch.

So does the information literally not exist, or did you compile existing info into a streamlined form to fit your purposes....? How did you learn the information? Did one of the magical old people tell you?

Everyone I've talked to has said the same thing—I would like to plant native species and create a place for wildlife, but there isn't any information.

Don't let people tell you that you can't do anything. We already have scientists. We need artists. Bloggers. Enthusiasts. Hobbyists. Shitposters. We need love, passion, and obsession.

These things exist. These types of spaces exist in real life and all over the internet. Why are you writing like they are a dying breed? Reddit might have its problems, but there are tons of subreddits filled with enthusiastic people who will help you figure out a native plant garden. There is almost definitely at least one desperate conservation group who has this information available for your area (try googling your region and "native plant" - example: "bay area native plant" brings up the California Native Plant Society). You will have to spend some time reading, but I promise the information is there if you spend as long on google as you do making posts like this. You are harming these groups by writing as if they don't exist or are barely functioning due to lack of community support.

We need people whose talents are in editing, photoshopping, shitposting and meme-making, because the internet is where the conversations of the world happen, and we need to be talking about the living things of our planet that are in peril. Their beauty. Their importance. I'm completely dead fucking serious here.

I do agree with this point. Scientists are trained to make graphs, but they're not trained to make graphic design, if you know what I mean.

However, OP's goal is......

Do y'all have any idea how powerful a force your enthusiasm is?? To save the world, we need people who are like that, but about niche bees.

Imagine the most feral and unhinged of freaky fandom folk.

Now imagine someone who is Like That about prairie grasses.

To... have "fandom folk" redirect their energy at.... plants and bees? The subsequent blogging indicates that OP simply wants more blogs that post photos and art of plants and fungi. Okay, cool. What does this have to do with fandom? Do you know that fandom is a hobby for most people, and they go off and do other things in their life that might not be apparent to you, a stranger on the internet? Do you know how many of these magic ecologists and conservationists spend all day doing the work you want to see, and then go goof off in fandom to relax? Do you know that you do not have the right to control or criticize people's harmless hobbies, which do not affect you?

Someone else reblogged and added this comment:

Unfortunately fandom is mostly character analysis, and plants have no character to analyze so this will never happen

Also, the most helpful thing for them to do to save the planet is to donate money to those already doing it, not clogging up the system with terribly thought out newbie orgs

OP decided to reply to this comment more than once, jumping on the idea that "plants have no character" as ridiculous and then making fun of the idea of donating money. I want to emphasize that OP reblogged this person twice, which solicited their many followers to jump on their wording and yell about making plants blorbos, rather than think about any of OP's supposed points about conservation or gardening or environmentalism.

This person, apparently: the only form of doing good in the world that exists is donating money to a charitable organization. There is no such thing as work or outreach or education only money

In the ideal world, people would have dedicated jobs for the things described above. There are people who make a living off of doing scientific illustrations, and I would love for there to be more paid positions where artists and trained educators work with scientists on outreach. Established organizations do need volunteers, but they also need money so they can hire trained professionals to do the things OP is calling on fandom for.

Anyway, as a scientist and a fandom blog, here's this:

What you do with your spare time is up to you. If it's posting weird headcanons at 2 AM, whatever. You do you. You do not have to direct energy at saving the world or whatever.

If you're interested in ~touching grass~, I recommend googling for state/national parks in your area, as they're easy to identify and often put on cool events. You can also google for specific societies or hobbies, or places like botanical gardens and nurseries. Hobbyist mycologists are wild people, for example. These orgs often have volunteer days if you don't have a lot of time to commit.

Are you an artist, graphic designer, or illustrator? You may be surprised how many groups would love to have you design a pamphlet or logo! They will generally give your the information they want people to know and not just have you put together your own information unless you volunteer to do so (source: anecdata from scientists I know who also happen to be talented artists).

Memes are cool, but if you're trying to use them to ~spread information~, please do your best to fact check and then also provide citations. If you make a viral meme of bad information I will be forced to write a vent post about it. :P

[dogmomwrites]

Find the Words!

This tag came a while ago from @cabbojage, so thanks for including me in this game!

Passing it along with soft tags to @magic-is-something-we-create, @sender-paulson, @sam-glade, @lychniscitrus, and @irathgo, as well as keeping this an open tag!

Rules—share an excerpt from your wip/s for the words given to you, then tag as many people as you choose and give them some words to find. Your words will be lucky, steady, indestructible, and final. If you can't find one, leave a fun fact about your WIP, OCs, or writing process!

My words were fall, sky, gloat, and calm

Fall  Curious, Nuka leaned closer as well. More wolvins had come over to join the diggers. The snowfall was so heavy in the field that they seemed to materialize out of the white haze. Nine more, all of them much larger than the others. The diggers paid them no heed and the newcomers didn’t appear at all interested in the hole. Instead they set themselves up around the little gathering of workers, their backs to them. 

Three of them sat while three stood and the last three paced all around the group. Every single one of them was alert. Their ears were pricked forward, twitching at every sound. Their eyes, though they couldn’t be seen in the mirror, scanned the snowy landscape all around them. Their noses lifted to every fresh wind, scenting for danger. 

“They look like they’re guarding them,” Nuka said after the nine new wolvins had settled into their positions. 

Sky  It was true that Nightwish had gone before. He’d had a team of six, the first elites, and he was the only one that had made it back out. In the darkness of the never-ending labyrinth of tunnels and caves, they couldn’t see what had attacked them. Whatever it was had blended so well with the shadows that they’d fought blind. The creature had picked them off one by one until Nightwish was alone. 

He’d only survived because he’d stumbled upon an exit to the tunnels and the creature hadn’t followed him out into the sunlight. It had stayed in the cave, far back away from the sky, screaming in rage that he’d gotten away. The noises were like nothing he’d ever heard before, and nothing he’d heard since. 

Gloat  Not in this doc, so a fun fact! There's a lot of stuff in the Castle world that I don't have time to touch on in the story itself, such as a mysterious ruin on Iverness near the river. I've always felt like an open-world video game would be a really fun and neat way to expand on that

Calm  “Please, please, please!” (the mouse) squeaked at Hank, no longer trying to squirm out of his grip. “Don’t let him eat me!” 

“No one is eating anyone here,” Hank said, but it didn’t calm down. 

“Try telling that to him!” 

Hank turned to the cat. “No one is eating anyone here.” 

The cat laid his ears back in annoyance. “I can hear just fine, thank you.” 

[animereaderinsertwriter]

Cupbearer (Eren/Reader)

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV (in progress)

Warnings: MINORS DO NOT INTERACT (im watching you, if you see this, begone!), vampire!eren, hunter!reader, fem!reader, smut, some amount of predator/prey dynamics but only kinda?? there is also a significant age difference but only cos eren is immortal and all that jazz. we're all adults here. there will eventually be smut.... and do i really need to say that there's gonna be blood in a vampire fic?

Description: A story of falling in love in 4 parts.

Eren is a bad man (well, a bad Creature) who has done bad things. When he meets the great-great-great granddaughter of one of his former friends in his favorite blood bar, however, he thinks it might not matter so much what happened in the past, so long as he can make the future something worth living to see.

Ao3 link here

Part I

A lamb in a den of lions, he thought, watching the newcomer as she settled in, ordering whiskey neat. A fool, for sure.

A fool she may be, perhaps, but even fools could be dangerous. Eren had known that the young woman was a Hunter from the moment she entered the bar (everyone else had, too) but something told Eren that she was hardly cut from the same cloth as the average Bane of Creatures. There was something in her movements— a predatory grace in her stride, perhaps, or a stiff, straight posture, with muscles tensed and ready for action— that betrayed her power to him; but for all that, she really was lovely, and the image of a rabbit caught in a patch of bramble came to mind whenever he looked at her.

Sitting in a corner, drinking his B-neg, he watched the woman as she sipped her drink, checking over her shoulder now and then. She was wary— as anyone with good sense would be— but she didn't appear frightened, and Eren's curiosity was piqued. It wasn't every day that someone so bold happened across his path, and it became harder and harder for him to resist the urge to approach her.

Eventually, Eren gave in to his curiosity— he never had been very good at or even particularly fond of restraining himself— and when he came silently up behind her, the newcomer didn't even notice his presence until he murmured a greeting close to her ear.

"Hello, little love," he said, and she startled in her seat. "Are you lost?"

She turned around then, her eyes big and bright in the dim lighting of the bar, but by the time she managed to look at the spot where Eren would have been, he was already seated on the barstool beside her. Eventually, though, her eyes found his, and when their gazes met, Eren was amused to find no fear in her visage.

"Far from it," she told him, turning her body towards him. "I am precisely where I mean to be."

Eren blinked, nonplussed.

"Curious," he said, leaning forward so that she could see the sharpness of his teeth as he spoke. "Do you fancy yourself a wolf among sheep, little Hunter? Did you really not think we would know you for what you are the moment you crossed the threshold of this place?"

Any normal, human ear would have missed the way her heart leapt in her chest, but Eren missed nothing. The fear he had hoped to inspire in her was present after all, but her face never moved from its impenetrable mask— an affectation that was somehow both soft and steely at once.

"That's not what I'm here for," she told him, widening the distance between her knees as she readjusted on the stool. "I'm here to discover the truth."

The truth— what an odd notion!— and yet Eren sensed no lie in her.

"You're a strange one," he told her, but forced himself to relax his posture to appear lazy, almost drunk. "Most Hunters— even ones so pretty as yourself— shoot first and worry about the truth later. What's your name?"

Her nose crinkled. "It's polite to give your own first."

Sharp, he thought, watching her closely. Names have power.

"Eren Jaeger."

"Eren Jaeger," she echoed, then extended her hand. "My name is (Y/N)."

That name sounded familiar to Eren— and though most names did after living a few centuries, this one seemed to hit closer to home. He knew that name, and knew it well…

"What's your surname?"

(Y/N)'s eyes flashed with an emotion that Eren didn't catch.

"Kirschtein," she replied, averting her eyes. "I'm Jean Kirschtein's great-great-great granddaughter."

And damn if Eren didn't want to laugh. Perhaps his nosiness into the posterity of his old acquaintances really was as bad of an idea as Armin always seemed to imply.

"I see," he said, and he truly, truly did. "Then you know who I am— what I am— and what I've done."

More than that, if she truly did know who he was, it was unlikely that she had come without a specific purpose in mind.

(Y/N) nodded, confirming his suspicions. "I was digging around in my family history and— well— I read what my grandfather wrote, and I just— I wanted the truth."

So wide-eyed, so innocent— so alive. Eren could see now her resemblance to Jean; if they were not similar in looks, she had his sharpness, his humanness… and, as he always had Jean, Eren envied her for it.

"If that's the case, then I'm sure you know that you don't get something for nothing," he told her, sipping his drink just to watch the expression on her face as he let the warm blood slide down his throat. "And that dealings with me can be dangerous."

"Jean Kirschtein loved you, Eren Jaeger," she told him fiercely and with such conviction that Eren nearly choked on his drink. "To take such a tone with me, to threaten me, the last living remnant of him, is the most disrespectful thing I've ever heard."

Eren was about to say that he didn't owe her, Jean Kirschtein, or anyone else any sort of respect, but she plowed on, unwilling to let him say his piece.

"You broke his heart a million ways by doing what you did, but— but he was your friend through all of it, no matter what side each of you were on," (Y/N) continued, passion aflame in her eyes. "I can't even imagine what inspired such a love, such a loyalty from him that he would forgive you for the horrors you caused. That's what I'm here to find out— what you have that a man such as him would find you redeemable."

The reproof in her words stung, but Eren was too old to argue. She could never understand what it was like back then.

"I understand more than you think," she snapped, and Eren actually flinched. "I understand that you hurt the woman my grandfather loved immeasurably, and that he forgave you for that even though he never even particularly liked you. I understand that you were ready to sacrifice the world for that selfsame woman, for Jean, and for all the others. I understand that you're a monster who loved and was loved back, but I want to know why."

How? Eren thought, shaken.

How had she known his thoughts? It was as though she had seen straight through to his innermost being.

Without speaking, she answered his question. (Y/N) took a hand and rolled up her left sleeve, presenting to him a scarred marking in the shape of a pentagram.

"My grandfather didn't settle down with just anyone," she told him, holding his gaze. "I come from a line of powerful witches, all of whom possessed strong claircognizance. Paired with my nature as an empath, you can assume I know what you're going to say before you say it."

Eren hummed, trying to appear less perturbed than he was.

"And yet you hunt Creatures for a living; strange, since you're practically one of us yourself."

(Y/N) glowered. "I hunt monsters that prey on my people, not Creatures. No innocent has died by my hand."

The unlike you went unsaid, but that didn't mean that Eren didn't hear it anyway.

"Don't get high-and-mighty with me, girl," he told her roughly. "Knowing is one thing, but experiencing what we experienced is another."

"I'm not here to judge you," she replied. "I told you, I'm here for truth, nothing more."

"And I told you that the truth doesn't come for free," he told her darkly. "You must give me something in return."

(Y/N) set her jaw.

"What would you have of me?"

It was a mean, base request. Eren was wicked for even thinking it, and vile for wanting it— but looking at the great-to-however-many-degrees granddaughter of a good man that he had once known, seeing the vitality that brought a flush to her cheeks and thumping to her heart, he knew he couldn't pass up this golden opportunity.

It had been so long since he'd had a Companion.

"Become my cupbearer for six moons," he told her, crossing his arms. "Starting with tonight, the moon becomes new; let me drink from you until six of these have passed, and along the way, you will learn what you want to know."

(Y/N) eyed him warily.

"Can you assure my physical safety?"

Eren grunted, almost amused. It was a bit late to be worrying about that.

"I think you know that I can."

"And will you let me continue in my duties as a Hunter?" she asked, her eyes searching his own as if she would find the answer to her question there inside the same eyes he'd had since he was nineteen. "Completely uninhibited?"

"That depends. Will you kill Creatures in the discharge of your duties?"

(Y/N) made a face. Eren had forgotten how expressive mortals could be, but he found that being reminded was not altogether unpleasant.

"You know I will," she replied, "But you have my word that any killing won't be unprovoked."

Eren supposed it was as close to a compromise as he could expect.

"As you wish it, so shall it be."

He turned away, signaling to the bartender for another drink, but a lightning-fast hand shot out to grab his wrist.

"Swear it," she demanded. "I need us to be Bound by it."

The meanness in Eren finally won over. He reached forward, grabbing (Y/N) by the neck, and the silver rings on her fingers burned him as she pulled at his hand to try and restore her breath. Eyes from all around the room were on the two of them— had been, since the very beginning— but it was only once the Hunter before him began to look appropriately humbled that he withdrew.

"Do not touch me without my permission," he said, "And I will return the favor."

(Y/N) looked at him then, but there was still no fear in her eyes. Anger, yes, but no fear.

She must be mad, or foolish one, he thought, considering her for a moment. I always have been partial to mad fools in general, but…

Something about her seemed different, and Eren didn't know what to do other than accept what she had to offer. Heavens knew he was getting the better end of the deal anyway.

"Swear it," she repeated, this time more quietly. "Give your word, and I will be your cupbearer."

Eren brought his hand up and unbuttoned the top three buttons of his shirt. At his will, the nail tip of his forefinger sharpened, hardening into a point; he used it to draw an 'X' onto the skin just over where his heart rested inside his chest, cold and dead. Blood welled into the cut— precious little, compared to that of a human, but still enough to run down his chest in smudges— and it was by that blood that he swore. He spoke the terms of their agreement, then took the blood from his wound with the pad of his finger and marked the same spot over (Y/N)'s own heart.

"Satisfied?" he asked, their faces almost touching, and (Y/N) shivered.

"Yes."

Her warm, living breath fanned over his face with her reply, and Eren took the moment to close his eyes and appreciate the scent and sensation of it.

"You may think you're satisfied," he told her, pulling away, "But you don't know the meaning of the word."

She eyed him warily, but before she could speak, he added, "In six months' time, I'll ask you the same question, and it is then that you will truly know what it is to feel satisfied— satiated in every way."

"As you say."

It was a throwaway comment, nothing more than a dismissal, really; but Eren felt like it was the start of something truly remarkable.

[nerves-nebula]

I completely get the mourning for stars. The idea that there is so much out there, so much to see and witness that thousands of millions people and creatures have seen centuries before, and knowing that the sky you see now is nothing like what it should be like. It's not quite mourning per se, but it's not a quiet acceptance. An ache for what should be, you could call it.

On another note, idk if they have them where you are but I've heard some places have Night Sky conservatories (or a name similar to that) where they work on preserving the night sky where light pollution isn't allowed. I've never been to one, but they seem pretty neat. Hope you get to see the night sky free of light pollution one day!!

thanks haha i didnt think anyone would really care about my late night ranting about stars, but I'm glad I'm not alone with this feeling.

I didn't know night sky conservatories were a thing, but that's definitely a good place to start. Like I said though, life is kind of a lot right now, so it's not like I've got tons of free time or expendable income to go on a trip to see the stars.

[hinatastinygiant]

Chapter Seventeen

Icebreakers

Pairing: Osamu x Fem!Reader

previous | next | missing heiress

TW: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE!!

The morning after you finish the book Motoya let you borrow, you pick it up from its spot on your bedstand, take out the bookmark to set aside for the next book you read, and go downstairs for breakfast for the first time since moving in. Downstairs, you see Motoya by the stove. You place the book on the counter and sit at the table nearby.

"Is your idea of fun cooking and looking after two brats like me and my brother who don't even bother to visit you down here?" you ask.

Motoya chuckles as he continues to cook. "Not always. I enjoy hiking and nature in my free time. I plan to write a book on the different creatures native to this area someday."

"Ah, so you were already used to the quiet before we came," you tease.

"I suppose so," he smiles as he flips something over on a pan. "What about you? What'd you do before you came here?"

"Outside of working I loved to spend as much time as I could with my friends," you reply, the slightest smile growing on your lips as you recall the past. "We always made it a point to see each other once a week... well, until recently."

Motoya nods and turns around to face you with a plate filled with huge pancakes. "You should eat 'em while they're warm," he tells you gently.

"And what about you? Aren't you going to eat?"

"I've already eaten. Now I'm gonna go find Kiyoomi to give him some breakfast and then take a nice shower," he explains.

"Heard my name," a third voice calls out. Surprised, you look over and see Kiyoomi maskless as he shuffles towards the two of you. "I came to get coffee."

"Don't worry, I'll make it!" Motoya replies, his back straight as a board as if he was talking to an army general.

"Don't bother," Kiyoomi shakes his head. "You do enough for us 'brats'."

It's your turn now for your back to straighten at his words. He must have heard everything you and Motoya were talking about. But quietly, Motoya leaves without saying another word.

Kiyoomi walks over to the coffee pot and turns on the machine. He then looks over his shoulder and asks, "Would you like some?"

For the first time that you see his mouth, you watch as his lips draw a neat line looking neither angry nor cheerful. Either way, you don't want to burden him by saying yes.

"No thank you," you reply politely. Then, just as quietly as he turned to you, he faces away and placed a coffee mug under the machine.

"I'm sorry this happened to you," he says without looking at you anymore.

"It's not your fault, you don't need to apologize."

"Well if I had done something about Daisho before father-" he begins before you cut him off.

"Seriously, Kiyoomi, we don't need to talk about it."

"Yes we do," he replies with conviction. "Don't think you missed out on much from him. He may have been our father but he wasn't our dad. You would know that already though, wouldn't you?"

"Of course," you nod. "I never met him and mom never talked about him, not once."

It's now as you talk about your mother that you wonder whether Kiyoomi is your half or full brother.

"Yeah, I wish I didn't know him either. He was a disgusting pig of a man. It's no wonder Daisho betrayed him. But, the fact that he's just greedy to get to the top means he's no better."

Once he's done talking, the coffee stops pouring as if on cue. He picks it up and turns around to face you. He's got beautiful dark eyes, he must have gotten them from your mother.

"Before you were born, Y/N, about two years before, our parents had me." As he speaks, he walks around to the opposite end of the table from you, creating enough space for him to feel comfortable but not too much to make you feel awkwardly distant. 

"Everything was fine, we were all happy just the four of us until you were about four and I was six. Mom found out that father's 'business' was just a front for a whole other life. He had other girlfriends and a whole syndicate behind him, a whole world she knew nothing about until she accidentally stumbled upon it."

"Father was furious," he continues, "beat her up a lot. One time I tried to intervene and he took out his anger on me instead. It went on for some time until mom finally had enough. She said she was gonna leave him but before she had a chance, father was the one who left and he took me with him."

When Kiyoomi's finished with his drink, he gets up and places the empty mug in the sink. He looks at you once more before walking away just like that, leaving his full plate of pancakes behind.

At the same time, your insides feel both hollow and full. You're glad to know the truth, but it's so dark that it's almost unbelievable. After hearing Kiyoomi's recollection of the past with how depressed he sounded as he spoke, how are you ever going to tell him that mom passed away last year...

Whether you and he like it or not, the two estranged siblings and their nature-loving cousin are all relatives they have left. You sigh as you look down at your empty plate soaked in syrup. Well, that's one way to get to know him, you suppose. Maybe now it won't be as awkward anymore. Or maybe it'll only get worse from here. 

previous | next | missing heiress

Taglist: @thisbicc

want to join the taglist? Click here for more

[purplerose244]

My thoughts on Seabound!!! 🌊🌊🌊 (3/4)

SPOILERS ALERT!!!

Yep yep yep, I'm liking this season a lot! 😍 Although I hope we'll get into a more frantic situation now, like with more battles and more bonding moments (Nya and Maya hopefully, but with Bentho too 🦈🦈🦈)! We got half a season to go, I'M READY!! 😎😎

Alright, here we go!

GENERAL THOUGHTS

I do like the season a lot, maybe MoM was a little more cohesive? Idk but it's not a big complain, I still love it so far 😍

Also maybe I would've liked more interactions between Nya and Maya about how they've been apart for so long, they had a chit chat but I would've loved even more. Maybe with Nya saying that it was fine and she grew up only to realize she is still hurt by that, even though it wasn't Maya's fault. I still like how they did it, I wished there was more that's it 🤷‍♀️

While I do make sense to Maya's behavior, that while it seems a little different from Hands of Time it had its logic in my opinion, maybe Ray feels a little weird? He seems less courageous than before, and it was established that he is a hothead like his son so that came off as unusual 🤔🤔

But I do love the fact that he's here and he's bonding with his son, for real, I've been waiting for this for so long so I'm happy nonetheless 🤩

Maybe I'm just easy to please and I take all I can get idk 😅

THE STORM AMULET

Oh, are we gonna address the wind element? It feels like we haven't really seen a Morro reference since Hands of Time, that would be cool! 😍 I mean, why even mentioning the wind then 😅😅

Well what do you know, they tracked them, who saw that coming?... me, I saw that coming... we all did probably 🤷‍♀️

Jay took upon himself making a quick recap on how Ninjago will be destroyed this time, thanks Bluebell 👌

Yep nyeheh electricity makes Nya go crazy for sure ❤💙 ... wait it wasn't a Jaya pun?

Jay wear your seatbelt please, you risk you life enough 😅😅 Pff lol "are we there yet" and they are actually there, biggest plot twist I've ever heard of 😂

LEGO HUG 💜💜💜

And with someone who might as well join the League of Jay apparently 💙

I liked The Island yet it was not as exciting as I hoped for, but now understand the meaning of it. The ninja helped the keepers and they are all allies. Without The Island the moment where Mammatus gives Nya the amulet wouldn't be as meaningful

Is it just me or Nya looked even more gorgeous during that moment?... just me huh? Okay then 😂💕

Wait that's a fake? Wait... UNCLE POWERS?!? OMG THAT I ACTUALLY DIDN'T SEE COMING 🤯

Here I thought he was just messing around, he always makes things harder 😅 Or maybe better? I mean, they kinda missed a bullet on this one...

BENTHO IS SO SWEET AND COOL OMG HE IS ALREADY OUR FRIEND 💙🦈💙🦈

Jay somehow had his own TV show in the past and yet he's got that horrible acting skills wth 😂😂😂

Kalmaar is a very cool villain, like, deeply evil. Not only he's calculated and merciless, he stops at nothing to get what he wants. And the people that get in the way? He wants them to suffer because they had dared to confront him 😳

And yes the voice does help a lot, I'm sorry I'll keep saying it until the season is over 😂 (or even beyond? Please cast Giles again LEGO 🥺🥺🥺)

Awww Nya no my poor girl 😢 Jay wanted to hug her to comfort her he is so sweet my SHIP ❤💙❤💙

MOM PEP TALK MOM PEP TALK!!! 🤩🤩🤩 How cool was it?

Like, this isn't even Maya asking Nya to believe in herself, this is her saying that she KNOWS her daughter can do anything when she puts her mind into it. FINALLY SHE SEES HOW AMAZING WATER GODDESS IS 💜💜💜

MORE LEGO TEARS OMG THIS SEASON IS FILLED WITH TEARS 😱 Which... kinda makes sense considering it's a water based season 😂

Nice one, and now? NOW WE GO BACK TO KAI COLE AND RAY YAS!!! ❤🖤❤🖤

RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX

That is... surprisingly Egypt theme like? It feels like a title coming from the Fire Chapter of season 11... well we got two fire elementals so 😍😍

SPARRING KAI AND RAY

I REPEAT SPARRING KAI AND RAY!!! SPARRING KAI AND RAY!!! ❤❤❤ Lol Ray got old, but how can someone blame him? He did touch death while aging in Hands of Time, I'm just happy he is alive 😂

Yep, master prankster Wu, that's what I love 👌👌 I always thought Wu had become a father figure for Kai at the beginning, so seeing Ray and Wu in the same picture feels very wholesome to me 😚

Ah, uncle Powers, I both love you and hate you so freaking much 😌😌 But you make cool slides nonetheless 😂

ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME WITH BEAUTIFUL SMITH INTERACTIONS??

BECAUSE I LIKE IT KEEP GOING 🤩

Oh no you guys are stranded on an island whatever are you going to do?? It's not like you had already before and managed to survive (Skybound) or you got stranded on a rock in a sea of sand filled with giant monsters (Fire Chapter) or you were on a freaking COMET in SPACE (Rebooted). Yeee, this is the worst yet 🙂

I'm starting to think these ninja are just a bunch of drama queens so no matter what happens, it's always hopeless 😂😂 I feel like I'm kinda right on this one honestly 😛

Whoa whoa WHOA WHO IS NYAD THIS SOUNDS VERY COOL???

Aww I like that, while Ray told his kids stories about dragons and how they traveled through the Underworld, Maya told them about Nya the first water master that could summon whales 💙❤💙❤

Pff imagine if it turned out Nya was the master of fire, carrying a very water based name? Lol

Maya: I would know if it was possible!

Nya: Yeah, like she knows that I can control a bit of ice because it's frozen water

Maya:...

Maya: YOU WHAT

I find both interesting and very annoying that this explorers club thinks so highly of themselves, to the point the deny to aid even the FREAKING SAVIORS OF THEIR FREAKING LAND 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Misako got good reflexes after all, Kai was probably ready to melt this guy's face 😅

Oh, so a trial by Sphinx is a challenge? A mental one? A cultural one? A physical one? Idk but Misako is actually taking charge and that is cool I guess 🤷‍♀️

Okay this is kind of weird, how is Ray so afraid? Is it because there's fire?... did he... did he grow afraid of fire for some reason? Because it feels a bit off for now, but if there is a deeper meaning that could be interesting 🤔

Wait is that the riddle from Decoded? That's fire right?

IT IS FIRE 🔥🔥🔥

Lol at least in this one Kai wasn't completely ignored 😂 I know my flame babe isn't the most rational person, but I do like that it was an answer connected to his element where he used his head!

Ah Clutch, you really got no backbone 😅 And apparently you're the only explorer who doesn't, dang look at the others go! I'm having a bit more respect for them now 😚

LOOK AT SENSEI GO FINALLY!!! 😍😍 FIGHTING SCENES HECK YES!!!

Kalmaar: I'm your conquerer

Wu: so after skeletons, the serpentine, nindroids, the Stone Army, Chen's army, ghosts, oni, more snakes but on fire and people from a game, that makes you the tenth. Have a free cookie

Kalmaar:...

Wu: you're not special

Is this a little throwback to Possession too? Nya seems to always control better water when she doesn't actually think about it. When her feelings are free, so are her powers 🌊🌊🌊

Also this opens up more possibilities! Creatures connected with other elements might get summoned too! I would love something like that 😍😍

This was NEAT, or maybe I just missed Kai that much ❤ What's next??

PAPERGIRL

ANTONIAAAAAAAA!!!! MY GIRL IS BACK!!! All my girls are back in this season, I'm so happy 😍😍😍 And if she is here, sweet little Nelson has to be around and I cannot wait! Bring in the purple ninja! 💜

Owww Antonia's last day as a papergirl? Nooo why??

She's got a job at the... DAIRY DRAGON??? OMG OMG OMG IT'S THE ICE CREAM PLACE BRAGI TOLD US ABOUT ON TWITTER!!! 🤩🤩🤩 I remember the post, he was asking about names for the place and ice cream flavors. Now I can't wait to see what did he choose 🍦🍦🍦

UNAGAMI BABY HI HONEY!!! 🙋‍♀️ I hope he's doing great 😘😘

This is so cool honestly, Antonia got her own character arc going on! Living in a chaotic city like Ninjago City must be pretty dang exhausting 😅

Was... was that Dareth in the garbage can? Am I wrong? Poor brown ninja 😅🤎😅

SPINJITZU SWIRL, BANANAKHAN, ORANGE SERPENTINE, I'M DYING 😂😂😂

Their friendship is so wholesome, I'm so happy they are still together no matter what happens 💕

I thought Kalmaar wasn't much of a fighter but DANG he's got skills! Also the fact that he uses tentacles makes the fight very cool to watch! 😚😚

RAY RUNNING IN AFTER KAI GOT HURT HECK YES ❤❤❤

Well at least you tried Ray 😅

Ah, little cameo of the original Weekend Whip, always nice to hear it again... AND DO THE WEEKEND WHIP!!! 🌪🌪🌪

EVEN NELSON GOT CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT I'M SO PROUD 💜

I don't even know what is cooler, the kids being mad lads on their bikes, Kalmaar driving a TRUCK or Kai going full parkour on the buildings to follow them 🤯

I'm sorry... am I the only one that during the Kai and Kalmaar talk kinda thought of Jestro and Clay? I miss my boys from NK, they're even more at odds now 😭😭

KAI YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DIE OR EVEN TRY TO DIE GET BACK HERE AT ONCE 😱😱

Kalmaar just loves to make everyone feel inferior, gotta be his hobby 😶

Oh good Kai is back

OH NOT GOOD KAI IS NOT BREATHING?!? FLAME BABE I TOLD YOU YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO DIE 😱😱😱

Antonia, Nelson, you guys are now my heroes. You saved my fave, I'll be forever in dept with you ❤❤❤ Am I being overdramatic? Most likely, but Kai is one of the few that didn't almost die or did die in a dramatic situation and he is also my absolute favorite character so that... kinda keeps my sanity in check in this show 🥴

I wonder... does he still not know how to swim? He saved Lloyd in Possession but I wonder if he was only trying to float on the surface... THAT'S TERRIFYING

This episode was so adorable, I love Antonia and Nelson so much 💜💕💜💕 It's nice to see what the other people of Ninjago do while everything goes mad 🤣

Wait hang on my Ninjajan is a little rusty

"Ninjago City. City that never sleeps" well if that ain't the truth 😂

MASTER OF THE SEA

Like Master of the Mountain? Wait are we going back to Shintaro?? VANYA?? ANOTHER BEST GIRL RETURNS??? 💛

Hey hey hey, we got a full Nyad backstory! I really like when they do these little drawn shots, they feel more like legends! And... the ending sounds terrifying? Like, they wouldn't let Nya sacrifice herself and die... again... right? 😱

Bentho: and the world was in balance, until now because of my brother

Lloyd: and the Overlord before of course

Bentho: the what now?

Lloyd: the evil one my grandpa the first Spinjitzu Master fought?

Bentho: YOUR WHAT NOW

Why do I like this offscreen "hiiiyaaa" that sensei Wu does before actually going into the scene? 😂😂

No matter if they come from the underground or the sea, these are all snake-like creature with the same intellect 😅 Kalmaar and Garmadon would have a lot to talk about, sea king dealing with his minions does remind me of Lord Garmadon in season 2 a lot 😂😂

KAI AND RAY FIGHTING TOGETHER KAI AND RAY FIGHTING TOGETHER ❤🔥❤🔥❤🔥❤🔥❤

OMG Kalmaar is such a brat and petty villain I love him so much 😂😂😂 Yes I didn't even mention his amazing voice!... AH DANG IT 😳😳

*Misako kicks Kalmaar and is actually useful* 🙆‍♀️🙆‍♀️🙆‍♀️

*Misako gets taken as hostage immediately after* 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

KAI LITERALLY JUST GOT SAVED FROM DROWNING WHY MUST YOU DO THIS TO HIM!!!... and Ray and Cole and Wu of course, I care okay 😅

OMG that face 🤣🤣🤣

That some meme material right there

Whoa Vincent that voice just got super up when the Unsinkable showed up, it kinda sounded like Jay's lol

NO NOT BENTHO!!! 😢😢😢

Kai: Nya talks to whales now? (I snorted so hard at this 😂😂)

HECK YES NYA GOT THE AMULET!! 😍😍😍 ... we got, like, four more episodes to go so something needs to happen in between... do I need to be scared? I feel like I need to be scared 😅

Jay starting a fire then blaming Kai?... this is so in character I got chills 😂😂

SHARK BOY IS STAYING TO THE MONASTERY THIS IS SO PRECIOUS!!! 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩 I want all the shenanigans and we need to write fanfictions about more shenanigans and AAAAHHHHH 🦈🦈🦈

Bless these two fire idiots

They own my heart ❤🔥❤🔥 Also Vincent, this is supposed to be a fun little gag moment, your amazing voice acting is kinda distracting me 😭😭😭

ANOTHER LEGO HUG

YOU GUYS ARE SPOILING ME OVER HERE HECK YES 💙🌊💙🌊

Maya learned that her daughter is capable of everything, I love that. Nya simply understood that she doesn't have to give up when something gets difficult. She is AMAZING and can do anything she puts her mind into. She simply has to hold on until the end 💪💪💪

Omg Benthomaar playing billiard with the guys I already love this 😍😍

YES IT IS SHINTARO!!! THE UPPLY ARE HERE OMG!!! HI VANYA YOU LOOK AMAZING GIRL MISS YOU I HOPE YOU'RE DOING OKAY!!! 💛💛💛 ... I just really like Master of the Mountain okay 😅

I love how Vanya doesn't even question it. It comes from Cole and he said it needs to be protected? Done and done 👌

Wait what, did something fall?

IS THAT THE FAKE?!?!? WHAT HOW WHEN??? UNCLE POWERS??? OR KALMAAR DID SOMETHING??? SOMEONE??? I'M LEGIT CONFUSED AND EXCITED??? 🤯🤯🤯

Well dang, I didn't see that coming, now what Seabound? What do you have for me?

[thewidowsghost]

The Unknown Muggleborn - Chapter 17

Series Masterlist

Main Masterlist

Harry manages not to shout out, but it is a close thing. The little creature on the bed had large, bat-like ears, and bulging green eyes the size of tennis balls and for some reason, Harry associates the green of the creature's eyes with (Y/n)'s green eyes.

As they stare at each other, Harry hears Dudley's voice from the hall.

"May I take your coats, Mr. and Mrs. Mason?"

The creature slips off the bed and bows so low that the end of its long, thin nose touches the carpet. Harry notices that is wearing what looks like an old pillowcase, with rips for arm - and leg - holes.

"Er - hello," says Harry nervously.

"Harry Potter!" says the creature in a high-pitched voice Harry is sure would carry down the stairs. "So long Dobby wanted to meet you, sir . . . Such an honor it is . . ."

"Th - thank you," says Harry, edging along the wall and sinking into his desk chair, next to Hedwig, who is asleep in her large cage. He wants to ask, "What are you?" but thinks it sounded too rude, so instead, he says, "Who are you?"

"Dobby, sir. Just Dobby. Dobby the house-elf," says the creature.

"Oh — really?" says Harry. "Er — I don't want to be rude or anything, but — this isn't a great time for me to have a house-elf in my bedroom."

Aunt Petunia's high, false laughs sounds from the living room. The elf hangs his head.

"Not that I'm not pleased to meet you," says Harry quickly, "but, er, is there any particular reason you're here?"

"Oh, yes, sir," says Dobby earnestly. "Dobby has come to tell you, sir . . . it is difficult, sir . . . Dobby wonders where to begin . . ."

"Sit down," says Harry politely, pointing at the bed.

To his horror, the elf bursts into tears - very noisy tears.

"S - sit down! he wails. "Never . . . never ever . . . "

Harry thinks he hears the voices downstairs falter.

"I'm sorry," he whispers. "I didn't mean to offend you or anything -"

"Offend Dobby!" chokes the elf. "Dobby had never been asked to sit down by a wizard - like an equal -"

Harry, trying to say Shh! and look comforting at the same time, ushers Dobby back to the bed where he sits hiccoughing, looking like a large and very ugly doll. At last, he manages to control himself, and sits with his great eyes fixed on Harry in an expression of watery adoration.

"You can't have met many decent wizards," said Harry, trying to cheer him up.

Dobby shakes his head. Then, without warning, he leaps up and starts banging his head furiously on teh window, shouting, Bad Dobby! Bad Dobby!"

"Don't - what are you doing?" Harry hisses, springing up and pulling Dobby back onto the bed - Hedwig had woken up with a particularly loud screech and is beating her wings wildly against the bars of her cage.

"Dobby has to punish himself, sir," says the elf, who had gone slightly cross-eyed. "Dobby almost spoke ill of his family, sir . . ."

"Your family?"

"The wizard family Dobby serves, sir . . . Dobby is a house-elf - bound to serve one house and family forever . . ."

"Do they know you're here?" asks Harry curiously.

Dobby shudders.

"Oh, no, sir, no . . . Dobby will have go punish himself most grievously for coming to see you, sir. Dobby will have to shut his ears in the oven door for this. If they ever knew, sir -"

"But won't they notice if you shut your ears in the oven door?"

"Dobby doubts it, sir. Dobby will have to punish himself for something, sir. They lets Dobby get on with it, sir. Sometimes they reminds me to do extra punishments . . ."

"But why don't you leave? Escape?"

"A house-elf must be set free, sir. And the family will never set Dobby free . . . Dobby will serve the family until he dies, sir. . . ."

Harry stares. "And I thought I had it bad staying here for another four weeks," he says. "This makes the Dursleys sound almost human. Can't anyone help you? Can't I?"

Almost at once, Harry wishes he hadn't spoken. Dobby dissolves again into wails of gratitude.

"Please," Harry whispers frantically, "please be quiet. If the Dursleys hear anything, if they know you're here -"

"Harry Potter asks if he can help Dobby . . . Dobby has heard of your greatness, sir, but of your goodness, Dobby never knew . . ."

Harry, who is feeling distinctly hot in the face says, "Whatever you've heard about my greatness is a load of rubbish. I'm not even top of my year at Hogwarts: that's Hermione, she -"

But Harry stops quickly, because thinking about Hermione is painful.

"Harry potter is humble and modest," says Dobby reverently, his orb-like eyes aglow. "Harry Potter speaks not of his triumph over He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named -"

"Voldemort?" asks Harry.

Dobby claps his hands over his bat ears and moans, "Ah, speak not the name, sir! Speak not the name, sir! Speak not the name!"

"Sorry," Harry apologizes quickly. "I know a lot of people don't like it. My friend Ron -" Harry stops again. Thinking about Ron is painful, too.

Dobby leans towards Harry, his eyes wide as headlights. "Dobby heard tell, he says hoarsely, "That Harry Potter and (Y/n) (L/n) met the Dark Lord for a second time, just weeks ago . . . that Harry Potter and (Y/n) (L/n) escaped yet again."

Harry nods and Dobby's eyes suddenly shine with tears.

"Ah, sir," he gasps, dabbing his face with a corner of the grubby pillowcase he is wearing. "Harry Potter is valiant and bold! He has braved so many dangers already. But Dobby has come to protect Harry Potter, to warn him, even if he doesn't have to shut his ears in the oven door later . . . Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts."

There is a silence, broken only by the chink of knives and forks from downstairs and the distant rumble of Uncle Vernon's voice.

"W-what?" Harry stammers. "But I've got to go back - term starts on September first. It's all that's been keeping me going. You don't know what it's like here. I don't belong here. I belong in your world - at Hogwarts.

"No, no, no," squeaks Dobby, shaking his head so hard his ears flap. "Harry Potter must stay where his is safe. He is too great, too good, to lose. If Harry Potter goes back to Hogwarts, he will be in mortal danger."

"Why?" Harry asks in surprise.

"There is a plot, Harry Potter. A plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year," whispers Dobby, suddenly trembling all over. "Dobby has known it for months, sir. Harry Potter must not put himself in peril. He is too important, sir!"

"What terrible things?" says Harry at once. "Who's plotting them?"

Dobby makes a funny choking noise and then bangs his head frantically against the wall.

"All right!" cries Harry, grabbing the elf's arm to stop him. "You can't tell me. I understand. But why are you warning me?" A sudden, unpleasant thought strikes him. "Hang on - this hasn't got anything to do with Vol - sorry - with You-Know-How, has it? You could just shake or nod," he adds hastily as Dobby's head tilts worryingly close to the wall again.

Slowly, Dobby shakes his head.

"Not — not He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, sir —" But Dobby's eyes are wide and he seems to be trying to give Harry a hint. Harry, however, is completely lost.

"He hasn't gotten a brother, has he?" Harry asks.

Dobby shakes his head, his eyes wider than ever.

"Well then, I can't think who else would have a chance of making horrible things happen at Hogwarts," says Harry. "I mean, there's Dumbledore, for one thing - you know who Dumbledore is, don't you?"

Dobby bows his head.

"Albus Dumbledore is the greatest headmaster Hogwarts has ever had. Dobby knows it, sir. Dobby has heard Dumbledore's  powers rival those of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named at the height of his strength. But, sir" — Dobby's voice drops to an urgent whisper — "there are powers Dumbledore doesn't . . . powers no decent wizard . . ."

And before Harry can stop him, Dobby bounds off the bed, seizes Harry's desk lamp, and starts beating himself around the head with earsplitting yelps.

A sudden silence falls downstairs. Two seconds later, Harry, heart thudding madly, hears Uncle Vernon coming into the hall, calling, "Dudley must have left his television on again, the little tyke!"

"Quick! In the closet!" hisses Harry, stuffing Dobby in, shutting the door, and flinging himself on the bed just as the door handle turns.

"What - the - devil - are - you - doing?" says Uncle Vernon through gritted teeth, his face horribly close to Harry's. "You've just ruined the punch line of my Japanese golfer joke . . . One more sound and you'll wish you'd never been born, boy." Uncle Vernon stomps flat-footed from the room.

Shaking, Harry lets Dobby out of the closet.

"See what it's like here?" he says. "See why I've got to go back to Hogwarts? It's the only place I've got - well, I think I've got friends."

"Friends who don't even write to Harry Potter," says Dobby slyly.

"I expect they've just been - wait a minute," says Harry, frowning. "How do you know my friends haven't been writing to me?"

Dobby shuffles his feet. "Harry Potter mustn't be angry with Dobby. Dobby did it for the best -"

"Have you been stopping my letters?"

"Dobby has them here, sir," says the elf. Stepping nimbly out of Harry's reach, he pulls a thick wad of envelopes from the inside of the pillowcase  he is wearing. Harry can makes out Hermione's neat writing, (Y/n)'s neat scrawl, Ron's untidy scrawl, and even a scribble that looks as though it is from the Hogwarts gamekeeper, Hagrid.

Dobby blinks anxiously up at Harry.

"Harry Potter mustn't be angry . . . Dobby hoped . . . if Harry Potter thought his friends had forgotten him . . . Harry Potter might not want to go back to school, sir . . ."

Harry isn't listening. He makes a grab for the letter, but Dobby jumps out of reach.

"Harry Potter will have them, sir, if he gives Dobby is word that he will not return to Hogwarts. Ah, sir, this is danger you must not face! Say you won't go back, sir!"

"No," says Harry angrily. "Give me my friends' letters!"

"Then Harry Potter leaves Dobby no choice," says the elf sadly.

Before Harry can move, Dobby had darted to the bedroom door, pulls it open, and sprints down the stairs.

Mouth dry, stomach lurching, Harry springs after him, trying not to make a sound. He jumps the last six steps, landing catlike on the hall carpet - feeling like (Y/n) for a moment - looking around for Dobby. From the dining room, he hears Uncle Vernon saying, " . . . tell Petunia that very funny story about those American plumbers, Mr. Mason. She's been dying to hear . . ."

Harry runs up the hall into the kitchen and feels his stomach disappear.

Aunt Petunia's masterpiece of a pudding, the mountain of cream and sugared violets, is floating up near the ceiling. On top of a cupboard in the corner crouches Dobby.

"No," croaked Harry. "Please . . . they'll kill me. . . ."

"Harry Potter must say he's not going back to school —"

"Dobby . . . please . . ."

"Say it, sir —"

"I can't —"

Dobby gives him a tragic look.

"Then Dobby must do it, sir, for Harry Potter's own good."

The pudding falls to the floor with a heart-stopping crash. Cream splatters the windows and walls as the dish shatters. With a crack like a whip, Dobby vanishes.

There are screams from the dining room and Uncle Vernon bursts into the kitchen to find Harry, rigid with shock, covered from head to foot in Aunt Petunia's pudding.

At first, it looks as though Uncle Vernon would manage to gloss the whole thing over. ("Just our nephew - very disturbed - meeting strangers upsets him, so we kept him upstairs . . . ) He shoos the shocked Masons back into the dining room, promised Harry that he would flay him within an inch of his life when teh Mason's had left, and hands him a mop. Aunt Petunia digs some ice cream out of the freezer and Harry, still shaking, starts scrubbing the kitchen clean.

Uncle Vernon might still have been able to make his deal - if it hadn't been for the owl.

Aunt Petunia is just passing around a box of after-dinner mints when a hug barn owl swoops though the dining room window, drops a letter on Mrs. Mason's head, and swoops out again. Mrs. Mason screams like a banshee and runs from teh house shouting about lunatics. Mr. Mason stays just enough to tell the Dursleys that his wife is mortally afraid of birds of all shapes and sizes, and to ask whether this is their idea of a joke.

Harry stands in the kitchen, clutching the mop for support, as Uncle Vernon advances on him, a demonic glint in his tiny eyes.

"Read it!" he hisses evilly, brandishing the letter the owl nad delivered. "Go on - read it!"

Harry takes it. It does not contain birthday greetings.

Dear Mr. Potter,

We have received intelligence that a Hover Charm was used at your place or residence this evening at twelve minutes past nine.

As you know, underage wizards are not permitted to preform spells outside school and further spellwork on your part may lead to expulsion from said school (Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, 1875, Paragraph C).

We would also ask you to remember that any magical activity that risks notice by members of the non-magical community (Muggles) is a serious offence under Section 13 of the Internation Confedeation of Warlocks' Statute of Secrecy.

Enjoy your holidays!

Yours sincerely, Mafalda Hopkirk Improper use of Magic Office Ministry of Magic

Harry looks up from the letter and gulps.

"You didn't tell us you weren't allowed to use magic outside school," says Uncle Vernon, a mad gleam dancing in his eyes. "Forgot to mention it . . . Slipped your mind, I daresay . . . " He is bearing down on Harry like a great bulldog, all his teeth bared. "Well, I've got news for you, boy . . . I'm locking you up . . . You're never going back to that school . . . never . . . and if you try and magic yourself out - they'll expel you!"

And, laughing like a maniac, Uncle Vernon drags Harry back upstairs.

. . .

(Y/n) runs up to the front door, and bursts inside the house, tackling Hermione in a tight hug.

Hermione throws down her book, and bursts into tears, hugging (Y/n) tightly.

(Y/n)'s emerald eyes soften, and she hugs Hermione tighter, the brunette's tears eventually stopping after a minute or so.

"You're home?" Hermione asks, her eyes still watery.

"I told you I'd be back soon," (Y/n) murmurs softly, smiling at her adopted parents sitting on the couch across from them, and Jean and Tom smile back.

Then she glances over to the door to see her father carrying her trunk, and setting it just inside the front door.

Tony walks over to the elder Grangers, and, with a quick word, the three adults walk outside.

Suddenly, (Y/n) is knocked out of Hermione's tight embrace and off the couch. (Y/n) lets out a yelp as her head slams into the coffee table, Marvel weaving excitedly on (Y/n)'s stomach, rolling around, shoving her face into the crook of (Y/n)'s neck, and nuzzling her face.

Hermione wipes her tears away, laughing at the black-and-white cat.

"There's my cheery sister," (Y/n) says with a grin, clambering to her feet, Marvel clutched in her arms.

Tony and the elder Grangers walk back into the house, Tony standing at the door and looking meaningfully at (Y/n).

Understanding the meaning of the look, (Y/n) follows, Marvel jumping up to perch on (Y/n)'s shoulder.

"Have a good school year," Tony tells his daughter softly. Swallowing the lump in his throat, Tony Stark says something that makes (Y/n) tear up a little. "(Y/n), you remind me so much of your mother."

(Y/n) steps forward, hugging her father tightly. "Thanks Dad. I love you," she murmurs, and Tony smiles softly, his brown eyes sparkling.

"I love you too, kiddo," Tony says softly, and after a moment, the billionaire steps back. "I'll write at least three times a week."

And, with that, Tony Stark walks to his car, waves, and gets inside, driving away.

A Month Later

The room is growing dark. Exhausted, stomach rumbling, mind spinning over the same unanswerable questions, Harry falls into an uneasy sleep.

Harry dreams that he is on show in a zoo, with a car reading UNDERAGE WIZARD attached to his cage. People goggle through the bars at him as he lies, starving and weak, on a bed of straw. He sees Dobby's face in the crowd and shouts out, asking for help, but Dobby calls, "Harry Potter is safe there, sir!" and vanishes. Then, the Dursleys appear, and Dudley rattles the bars of the cage, laughing at him.

"Stop it," Harry mutters as the rattling pounds in his sore head. "Leave me alone . . . cut it out . . . I'm trying to sleep . . ."

He opens his eyes. Moonlight is shining throuh the bars on the window. And someone is goggling through the bars at him: a freckle-faced, red-haired, long-nosed someone.

Ron Weasley is outside Harry's window, ready to whisk Harry off to the Burrow - The Weasleys' home.

Word Count: 3005 words

[fictional-worlds-are-exquisite]

i am out there!! i'm glad you liked it! i'm definitely trying out the recipe you left in the tags. it sounds way better than just banana and peanut butter. i always have to pay a lot of attention when i type banana because i've ended up with "bananana" way too many times

i was planning to run straight to your askbox the second i saw you replied but then the end of the semester happened and it killed me. hopefully i'm done with it now

i do exactly the same thing with height! if you tell me your height in feet i have absolutely no idea how tall that is. if you say that in centimetres that's easy. i mean you're 155cm so that's 12cm shorter than me. when you told me that in feet i was like okay cool i have no idea how much shorter than actually is

i love birds!!! so that seems awesome! i am now titling you the queen of birds. and i'm glad your vacation was good! i think i saw a couple of posts you made about it so it definitely does seem like a lot of fun! and did you ever figure out completely what that see through animal (?) in the sand was? i had no idea stuff like that even existed so now i'm invested in knowing what it is

i am 100% hiring you for my coming out party i'm throwing in a couple of years. it's gonna be fun. if we don't get immediately kicked out i promise good food and some spicy drama between my homophobic relatives and my accepting relatives! and my brother's, who i already came out to, dry commentary

i was definitely not the one you told about burma trails! but from the tags i'm just gonna say how is that allowed and why does it seem like a weird type of torture? i hate it, i probably would've had a heart attack 3 seconds in

oh yeah i actually can't tell most of the time if the memories from my childhood are actual memories or if it's just a combination of having seen photos and heard stories about it

my glasses prescription is fine i think. my eye doctor said that i get headaches from glasses because... well i tried to explain this and then deleted it all because it was a very scientific explanation when she said it and i zoned out pretty much halfway through and even the part that i did understand i can't translate to english! but it has something to do with the fact that with contacts it's enough to move my eyes in the direction i want to look at and with glasses i have to move my whole head and my brain got so used to contacts that it overdoes it with the eye movements when wearing glasses? i dunno. this is the best i can do in explaining it

i must admit i'm very jealous of the never snows part because while snow is pretty to look at it's absolutely freezing! for the past week i slept under a duvet, three blankets while wearing pants and a long sleeve shirt and i still woke up cold. because for a couple of nights it was around -22°C. it's great

ohhh you got pretty lucky as a kid then! my kid self would have absolutely lost it at getting the equivalent of 5/10 bucks. i probably would have bought so much candy

excellent!!! hope you’re enjoying the vague void from whence you came! i’ve never said whence before in my LIFE i wonder if i used it correctly. anyway. the actual recipe was way more specific but once i saw ‘2 frozen bananas’ and looked at all the sliced bananas in my fridge, having no idea how many there were, i just started improvising sdfkhsdfs. I’d be interested to try it with yoghurt though if I can get some dairy free plain stuff, I’m sure I can somewhere. Banana used to be my biggest problem when I was younger. Then I learnt words like occasion and necessary and embarrassed and I realised the more english I tried to learn, the worse my life was gonna get. And I was right. On the bright side, developing an inability to ever spell occasion correctly made banana seem a lot easier to handle.

that is fair. end of semesters are rough. i cannot function during them at all. i hope everything chills out for you!! i’m not sure how the school year is over there but maybe it’s break time? that’d be nice. but rest in peace anyway, enjoy being dead! they say necromancy is frowned upon in all societies but I reckon it’s just called making a friend when you’re dead so maybe you wanna take that up as a hobby! I’ve heard it’s nice this time of year!

yup! sometimes I’m like oh you’re 5 foot 4? that sounds way taller than me. but it...it really isn’t...it’s like an extra 8cm or something. which adds up! but in my head I was picturing a MUCH taller height. In my head I think I picture 6 foot and 5 foot 4 as the same height, now that I think about it.

!!!!! my first order as queen of birds is to meet a morepork face to face so we can chat about the price of pork these days. yes!! the first half was nice but the second half was really fun. my best guess is still that it’s a salp? Maybe? So many salp pictures are massive groups of them but like,, from what i can tell of singular photos,,, it was maybe that? I guess the only other possibility is it’s just some clear jellyfish but salp does seem more likely. At first I was like oh duuude boob implant for the ocean!! but then I realised it actually seemed kinda alive and was probably an actual creature. my bad.

excellent. i’ll break any tension by dropping the vampire act for the mouse act. will do backflips for cheese. will bite ankles for homophobic comments. Will pull a knife out of god knows where, not to threaten anyone, just to clean my nails with to make everyone nervous. I offer many services. I’m flexible. And I love me some good food.

I actually DON’T know the reason behind burma trails. I really don’t. The reason ‘it’s a fun activity!’ seems a little fake. if it’s a fun activity then why did Mrs. G. tell us a horror story about the forest before we went out to navigate said forest at night, blindfolded, surrounded by wildlife and parents supervising (*cough* waiting for the opportunity to jump out at you *cough*) with a teacher at the end waiting to scare us. So we can learn how to navigate the forest in the dark? So we learn how to follow a mysterious rope INTO the forest at night? seems dodgy to me. school camps be like [drives you out to forest] follow this rope and don’t take your blindfold off. like. bruh. i almost DID have a heart attack one time, I got stuck like something was holding my leg. First thought-ah, must’ve got my leg stuck in a big stick. Second thought-maybe this is one of the parents fucking around, it feels more like a grip than a twig. Third thought-I cannot get my leg free no matter what I do what the fuck is HAPPENING so I started crying out for help. When they FINALLY came they found nothing my leg was caught on so that was fun. love that for me. I was able to move as soon as they arrived. That’s not weird at all. anyway.

I think most of my early memories are just from stories I’ve been told and photos I’ve seen. My memory tends to be horrible I highly doubt I remember that one time I was eating dirt from the garden out in the yard gleefully. I just saw the photo evidence. mm spaghetti. bone apple teeth. my character hasn’t changed at all since I was a wee babe.

ohhhh okay. I think I get what you mean by that. Thank you for trying to explain! That’s really interesting. I guess I do move my head a lot with glasses. Although I have massive glasses so it’s probably easier for me to just move my eyes where I want. I reckon with smaller glasses I’d have to move my head way more.

the temperature comment is so funny because during the heart of winter i tend to sleep with a sheet, a blanket, a duvet, then 2-4 blankets on top while in a long sleeve shirt and long pants and sometimes bed socks and often a hottie (i’ve never realised how that sounds out of context...a hot water bottle...is calling it a hottie normal or is a my family thing? is this a nz thing? now i’m questioning myself). in my uni accommodation last year we didn’t have proper heating during most of winter and well. there was a quilt added to everything else. every blanket i could find. how cold does it get here in winter? rarely ever past 0 degrees celsius. I would literally die in your position, clearly. I could not survive that. Props to you for making it through aha.

yesss. Before when I found five dollar notes it’d be on the street and I’d be like oh no! Mum we have to hand this into the police station! It’s a lot of money, someone will be looking for it! Understandably she was like,, lindsey they might miss it but there’s not really any way you can find them,,, I still refused to spend it. That was like my first time really getting that much money for myself. The dairy on main street sold lollies for 10 cents each and they had like, 30 different lil glass boxes so you’d go I want 3 of 26, 5 of 7, ohhh and 5 of 13 please! I dunno if they’re still 10 cents each but I thought it was the best thing ever as a kid. I think I wanted to save the money though sfdjsdkfhs put it in my piggy bank to save up for something ‘super cool’. Aka probably like a neat soft toy to sleep with sdfsdkfs.

[luv4fandoms]

Laying Claim (Castiel x Witch!Reader)

@ladyofhellhounds

So with that in mind, this is what my brain came up with, idk why XD, I hope you like it 😊

(Also guys, my mom and I finally got to the Godstiel part of Spn I've heard so much about, and pretty much our reaction was the same, just "oh sweety, no, what are you doing?)

Word count: 2,476

Pairings: Castiel x Reader

Warnings: Cussing, Demons being asshole, unknown claiming? Fluffly Cas, Angry Cas

Today's the day! The anniversary of when you first joined the Winchesters and their guardian angel one year ago. You had met when a coven in your town had started killing people, you were going to find out for yourself but...Well after all, if they wanted to do the dirty work of searching, why not let them?

Though you still did some digging of your own after you found a hex bag in your gutter, silly little girls, just a bunch of soccer moms who thought Harry Potter was real. Needless to say the demon they had sold their souls to at their little slumber party wasn't the type to give them back, and with a little help from one of your spells, the pieces fell right into place for the Winchesters to slay the demon...

Only problem was the bitch knew about you, and used her last breath to spill the beans, so you really weren't surprised when the trio came barging up to your house. The two boys seemed to want nothing more than your head on a platter as well, thinking you were linked to the coven, but the third, the third simply stared at you, seemingly trying to decipher you as well as commit you to memory. It wasn't hard to know what he was, the gift of sight as your grandmother called it, allowed you to see the large black wigs that rose behind him.

'Interesting' you had thought, remembering everything you had ever read about angels.

"Tell you what" you spoke, stopping the argument the boys were having.

"Have your little friend here read my mind, or memories, which ever he prefers, and see that I have never harmed anyone" the boys looked to the angel who seemed to have broken out of the trance he was under at the sound of your voice.

"Cas?" The shorter man asked, to which 'Cas' simply nodded and made his way over to you, he lifted his fingers, placing two on your forehead while closing his eyes, a moment later he opened them and nodded at the boys.

"She's telling the truth, she hasn't hurt anyone, she actually helps people, and was a target of the coven herself" he told them.

"See? I told you, now, would you care to join me for some tea?" You asked, eyes never leaving his blue ones, oh you could get lost in those babies.

"I even have pie" you added with a smile as you finally turned to the other two.

 That had been the first time you had a civil conversation with the trio; Sam and Dean, two orphan hunters following in Daddy's footsteps. And Castiel, the angel who decided to fight his own kind to protect humanity, interesting. You offered your services should the boys ever need it, figuring they would never take you up on it, but hoping to be able to see the stoic angel once more, and low and behold...

They called. For almost a year now you had been helping them, being a researcher, going with them on cases, even using your magic to take down baddies. The work made your feel alive, but not as alive as when Cas would come around. Something about the angel's presence alone makes your body feel electrified, and when his piercing blue orbs met yours you swore your heart stopped. Lately though, he started treating you like a child who was incapable of keeping herself safe.

The first time was while you were helping the boys with some demons, a reason for Cas to be present, and you hadn't thought much past trying to slow down your heart rate when he grabbed you and pulled you to his chest, shielding your eyes as he let out a blinding light that killed them all.

The second time though, you had been against a neat of vamps, one which you and the boys were handling just find, but just as you were about to drop the vamp that was advancing towards you, a silver blade pierced it's neck, quickly taking it's head, and when it fell it revealed Cas standing behind it. He stated that he needed to speak with Dean and Sam about something, so that is why he located you all, but you began to wonder when you were the first one he healed, and he stood extra close to you as he spoke.

The third time you started to grow annoyed. You were just fine by yourself, could handle yourself against the werewolf, and in your opinion, kicking ass. Sure you had taken a few scratches, and your arm hurt like hell from the deep claw marks, but you held your ground...And then right as you were about to give the killing blow with your magic, that all too familiar angel blade made an appearance once more.

"What the hell Cas that was my kill!" You told him, less angry about the fact that he finished the fight and more about the fact that he had done it so often recently. 

"You're injured" he simply stated.

"So? I was still kicking its ass!" You defended as he walked over to you and healed you, causing you to groan and walk away from the confused angel.

The final straw had been tonight, the whole day throughout the hunt for a pack of demons who had intel on Lucifer, the boys and you had been in a somewhat good mood after you had bought them breakfast and explained the anniversary. The hunt had gone well, you found the demons, killed all but one and was grilling it for information. It was a tough nut to crack, even an exorcism didn't scare it. 

"We're not getting anywhere, let me try" you told them, causing Dean to immediately shake his head.

"Hell no, I'm not letting you near that thing alone"

"Funny, you say that like you can stop me" you stated while looking over at him, there was a silent stare before you sighed

"Just five minutes Dean, I promise you I'll be fine" before Dean could even open his mouth Sam spoke in your defence

"She's right Dean, and besides, he's in the trap, what can he do?" 

Dean was silent for a moment before his eyes met yours again.

"Fine, but five minutes is all you got" nodding, you made your way back into the room. 

"Ok buddy, here's how it's gonna go down" you started as you stood in front of him, but he only laughed while looking around.

"Boy toys now coming?" He asked

"Sorry pal, just you and me, now you're gonna-"

"You know I'm surprised your mate leaves you alone with them, he must trust you a lot, or he's an idiot"

"What the hell are you even talking about?" You asked, confused as to why he would state you have a "mate"

"Oh….Oh you don't know" he started laughing hysterically.

"Shut it!" You yelled watching as his laughter died down, but the smirk stayed.

"Sweety, you reek of him. His sent his all over you. Desperate protectiveness, longing, it's enough to make me gag, the best part is that he did this without you even knowing. A do not touch sign to anyone else, a claim on you, really that's horrible, and I'm a demon" he laughed again, while you digest the information, something had laid a claim on you? You felt like you needed a shower thinking that it could be any of the creatures you encountered in your year with the boys. 

"You know though, I'm not surprised you didn't know" it stated, causing you to look at it once more.

"You're such an idiot" and with that he lunged at you, knocking you back into the wall and knocking the air from your lungs. You were pretty sure you heard your shoulder pop while your vision blacked out for a moment. When you looked around you noticed the slow steady drip of water from a nearby pipe that had washed away part of the devil's trap, before your eyes were brought back to the demon's face as he straddled you, leaning in and taking a deep breath.

"I wonder how he would like it...If I laid my own claim to you" he smirked, and you tried to push him off as he leaned down, him somehow over powering your magic, but just as he was about to reach your neck, his weight disappeared from you and a crash was heard from the other side of the room. 

"W-wait I-I didn't know!" It started to plead as you watched Castiel slowly walk towards him.

"I didn't know she belonged to an angel I swear!" He pleaded again.

'Belonged to…' your mind started to remember little things that happened these past couple of months. Cas giving you his coat when you stood outside watching the boys do a salt and burn, Cas sitting next to your while you explained your favorite shows to him, by the end of the night you would be leaning against him and his arm would be on the back of the couch, fingers lightly resting on your shoulder. Cas listening to your music with you from your ipod in the back of the impala despite the fact he could easily poof to the location. And then there was Cas always swooping in when you were fighting things...did Cas...Lay claim to you?

You watched as he easily got the information and killed the demon, only then noticing that the boys had been pounding on the door trying to get in, upon the demon's death, it unlocked and they rushed into the room. 

"Y/N!" Dean started but Cas was quick to cut him off.

"Why were you not with her?" His voice rising slightly, the only indication besides the fire still burning in his eyes that he was pissed.

"We figured she" Sam started, but was also cut off by Cas.

"That she what? Was your bait to get information? You put her in danger!" A light blew out in the room.

"And we told her" Dean tried

"And you know she would not listen! You should have been in her presence at all times!" Another light, the bright flash momentarily illuminating the shadow of Cas's wings, oh, he was very pissed.

"Cas" you started

"This is exactly why I have to keep-"

"CAS!" You yelled, turning the room silent as you stood, grabbing your arm that you could clearly tell was broken.

"I came here alone of my own accord, they didn't want me to, but I did it anyways, it's not their fault"

"They should have protected you" he started, coming forward to heal your wounds, his eyes showed a different story, and in that moment you knew what he was really trying to say.

'I should have protected you'

"We need to talk by the way" you stated, looking at the boys then him.

"Alone" with a nod he grabbed your hand.

"I'll take her back to the hotel" he told the boys, and in a blink, you stood in your hotel room. You let go of his hand, making your way over to the bed and sat down, Cas didn't move as he stared at the carpet.

"Cas did you…."you started before realizing that this was going to be really embarrassing to ask.

"Did you ...Lay claim to me?" you asked, not meeting his gaze when you saw him look at you from the corner of your eye.

"...Not...Fully" he spoke after a moment, this caused you to look at him.

"What does that even mean?" You gave a short laughed and watched as he sighed before coming to sit next to you. 

"Y/N I...I have feeling for you...Ones that someone would only have in the presence of a potential mate" he states turning to look at you.

"Wow sweety we gotta get you into now days language" you said with a chuckle, before adding.

"So..You have feelings for me?"

"Yes, I thought it was wise to push them away at first, you would be in danger if anyone after me, found you. But as time went on I found them...Harder to repress, and I found myself claiming you before I even realized it" He states, looking down as if weighted by shame.

"We have different versions of claiming"you laugh, thinking back to what the demon had said

"He said I smelled like you" Cas nodded, still not meeting your eyes.

"It's the first stage of claiming someone, we cover them in our scent, it's not perceivable to your senses, but to other beings it lets them know that you belong to someone" he explained, "So every time you sat next to me or gave me your coat?" He nodded, before adding.

"My grace also leaves behind a scent" he added.

"Your grace? Do you...Use it often?" You asked.

"To protect you yes" He nodded

"So this was why you have been jumping in front of monsters for me?" You asked, again he nodded.

"You know I can take care of myself" you smiled

"But it's my job to protect you" he stated, finally meeting your gaze.

"Because you're my mate?" You asked with a laugh, but noticed his cheeks darken at your words.

"I'm not your mate…"

"Yet" You smirked when he looked at you with wide eyes.

"I have feelings for you that someone would only have in the presence of a potential mate" you smiled, watching as he scanned your eyes for any sign that you were untruthful.

"But I can still take care of myself" to laughed.

"But It's my-"

"Job to protect me, tell you what, if it's your job to protect me, than it's my job to protect you" you told him as you leaned in, watching his confused expression as you pressed your lips against his, they were just as soft as you always imagined they would be, and your hand came up to cup his face, his stubble lightly scratching your palm as you felt his hand rest against your hip. You pulled away and looked into his eyes, the striking blue swallowed by black pupils. 

"As your mate" you smiled, watching as a smile spread across his lips.

"So...if putting your scent on me is the first stage...what are the other stages of..Laying claim to a mate?" You asked with a smirk, watching as his smile turned playful.

"There are a lot of stages, it could take all night" he replied.

"Well, guess we better get started" you spoke before pulling him down for another kiss, you were in for a long, blissful night with your new mate. Happy anniversary to you.

Hope everyone enjoyed it! Let me know what you think.

[tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors]

greenheart was absolutely delightful!! mayhaps thomas physically going into Protective Brother mode is going to make me cry, bug n berry the best bois. but also!! are you willing to talk more about double sight? i've never heard about it before. i could google it of course, but i do so much enjoy your fae lore infodumps. it has that spark of joy and genuine earnest passionate interest that a wikipedia page lacks. only if you want to of course!!

Hey Tulip in Greenheart You mentioned red hair, silver ring, some other stuff that gave Harley some kind of sight? Can you explain what’s up with that was, pretty please? (from @amtgurly)

I combined these since they were so similar but i am HAPPY to talk about Harley’s Double Sight -

so essentially, theres TONS of things that in folklore can be used to give yourself Double Sight (also called True Sight, Second Sight, or just The Sight), and lots of things that kids can be born with that supposedly grants it

the Born-That-Way ones i listed were red hair, seventh children -

(although usually this is recorded as the seventh child of a seventh child, and its almost always gender-locked, so a seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, or seventh son of a seventh son, but the youngest child of seven mixed-gender kids get nada - i think this is Sexist And Stupid and im full of SpiteTM so it’s not locked in laoft as far as im concerned

Also sometimes firstborn children are recorded as being Magically Special, but in contrast they’re usually cursed rather than blessed, so Logan didn’t mention it.)

- a child born after midnight but before 1 a.m (witching hour) and finally a child born with a caul. a caul is when a bit of amniotic sack is stuck to a kids head, and its said kids born with it (and the caul itself) have all kinds of magical abilities.

and THEN theres ways/charms to give yourself Double Sight - silver rings, four leaf clovers (though they only work once usually) and looking at reflections in silver-backed mirrors, to name a few

here’s the thing - the reason in laoft that everybody on the planet with a silver ring isn’t seeing All Kinda Shit, is because any one of these things usually isn’t enough to do it all by itself. it will give you definitely more awareness than average, but not Full On Sight

Harley has the ring, and Logan was right on two counts - the red hair obviously, and he was born between 12 and 1 AM. The third thing Harley has, which is not one of the things Logan rattled off, is that he has a x-shaped birthmark on his left hand.

(there’s a HELL of a lot of lore on birthmarks, enough to fill a book all by itself - shapes, placement, color, on and on. tbh theres SO much i could have used just about any birthmark to at least somewhat justify Harley’s Double Sight, but i did have a reason for this one)

So with the birthmark, the hair, and the birth hour, the ring was just enough to tip Harley over that last bit, (though it did take a minute for it to kick in mostly because Harley had no clue what he ought to be looking for) and he saw Logan as What He Is - a creature of the Light and Air

NOW another thing that helps - the ring only works on that hand. He can just switch to the other one if he’s not interested in getting spooked.

this comes in handy later, when Harley actually comes to Wickhills, because yes, Double Sight is very useful in a place like that, but there can be you know, Too Much Of A Good Thing

(Thomas loves Virgil, would even if Virgil wasn’t married to his brother - but he looked at Virgil through a hag stone exactly one time, and he will never deliberately do it again. his only response to Harley asking him to elaborate is a very firm You Do Not Want To Know)

as for my actual reasoning for using that birthmark specifically - it’s a rune; Gebo - “Gift.” May and Roman think its very neat

[goddessguru-blog1]

Snakes in Tow

I've spent the entire day letting musings roll through my mind and feeling the insistent pull to put them out into the universe to be known but I have a problem sticking to one subject. I honestly don't even know where to start but here the hell it is anyway. I had a dream last night about a boy I've been heart broken over for on and off about a year now. We are kindred spirits. Also, we're both conveniently Scorpios if that tells you anything. Always hot or cold, no in-between. My dreams have always been super vivid and like little memos to me from the universe. I get major deja vu but not just like "hey I think I've done this before" but legit I think I see the future in my sleep type stuff. Ever heard of Akashic Records? Look it up, neat stuff. I'll be doing everyday activities when this happens. Last week for example, I was sweating bullets outside under the sun that no matter how many times I moved away from kept following me and driving nails out of a massive stack of cypress. Don't even ask, this season of my life is called manual labor. So as I was doing this and cursing the heck out of these boards the universe literally spoke to me through Hotel California on the radio and I got that deja vu feeling. I knew deep in the core of my soul that I'd dreamt of this exact moment before. Sometimes you just know things, ya know? Intuition. That's how the universe speaks to me and I know that I am exactly where I'm supposed to be no matter how hot and sweaty the moment may be. Hopefully Mama Earth will send me a much more appreciated hot and sweaty moment later on if ya know what I mean. Anyway, with that being said, when I am shown something in a dream I listen. I don't always remember every important detail but in the gist of this one the aforementioned boy went to the moon for whatever reason and while he was there I was informed that he died. I mourned in my dream. Like gut wrenching, heart shattering emotions spewed out of me and I hit the ground screaming. Knowing that time doesn't actually exist in my subconsciousness I can't tell you how long that lasted but in the next scene I could feel my heart healing. I was recovering through music much like I used to do as a child. I was writing a song for him that I am currently kicking myself for not waking up and writing down because it was damn good. As I was writing this song in my dream I felt so anxious. People kept coming around while I was working and I got the feeling they were trying to steal my lyrics to use as their own. Then I woke up. What does this mean? It feels fairly simple to me really. Him going to the moon, an unreachable place, much like I feel that I cant reach him now. His emotions are completely shut down and walled off to me. I miss him as if I missed a dead loved one. I also feel like my subconscious was giving me and my inner self the chance to mourn that I haven't even allowed my conscious self to do. I've done everything I can not to think about it. Hence the manual labor. The last part I didn't understand until just now as I'm writing this but I think the anxiety I felt from the people around me was just exactly that. I'm afraid someone will steal my joy. It's as simple as a friend texting me out of the blue informing me of his affairs or him texting me himself while I'm writing about the dreams I'm having. Get the hint? His particular text went along the lines of "I'm so sorry. I'm just fucked up and dead inside."

I've been thinking about snakes a lot lately. Mostly because I'm tapping into my divine feminine and snakes are very similar to women in the way that we shed our skins(women shed eggs, snakes shed skin) but I just feel like they are seriously misunderstood beings. They get a bad rep with the whole Garden of Eden thing. Honestly snakes are beautiful and enticing in a sort of seductive, evil way. Yeesh. Now, with that being said I would like to invite you to take a look at some of the snakes in your life. Alluring, toxic, dangerous. Ringing any bells? So while I do have empathy for this beautiful, misunderstood creature. I mean really they cant help it. But I sure as hell would never stick my hand out for one knowing I'm going to get bit. Don't put yourself in the line of fire and stop getting bit. Don't get me wrong sometimes I do envision myself as this bad ass gypsy goddess with snakes always in tow but for the sake of this analogy lets just say that I would never let one within my vicinity which is probably actually true as hell. Funny how I sat down to write this with no idea where it was going but it all fell into place as it was supposed to. Always in the flow.

goodnight, don't let the snakes bite

xoxo

-S