#teddy lupin's origin story

[coffeedrgn87]

NEW FIC: The No Divorce Clause

Pairing: Drarry Rating: Explicit Word Count: 144K Characters: Harry Potter; Draco Malfoy; Charlie Weasley; Teddy Lupin; Ron Weasley; Hermione Granger; Luna Lovegood; Narcissa Black Malfoy; Andromeda Black Tonks; Original Characters Tags: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn, Some Angst, Fluff, Humour, Injury, Long-term Relationship, Married Life, Magical Marriage Bonds, Trials, Growing Apart Together, Finding Happiness, Long Chapters Summary: Haunted by the war’s aftermath, Harry Potter flees his old life, searching for peace in far-flung corners of Europe. But peace proves elusive when he unexpectedly crosses paths with Draco Malfoy. In a world where magic lingers just beneath the surface, their journey takes them through enchanted cities and ancient secrets, testing the boundaries between rivalry and something far deeper. With unresolved tension crackling between them, Harry and Draco face a slow-burning connection that neither can ignore. As they navigate heartbreak, danger, and the shadows of their past, they’ll discover that the hardest battle isn’t always against dark wizards—it’s against the walls they've built around their hearts.

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[greenerteacups]

If there was one major plot element that you could change in the original canon what would it be?

The Marauders' deaths. With the exception of James, I don't think any of the Marauders die in a way that's narratively suitable — or, to be more particular, they die in a way suitable for a narrative I don't like very much. James is an acceptable (though, obviously, tragic) death to me because it completes his arc: he's an obnoxious, arrogant bully who grows into a selfless soldier on the side of the light, and lays down his life as a final gesture of abnegation. It's not Proust, but it's good, right? His death represents a symbolic triumph over Voldemort because it's something Voldemort would never do.

None of the others make the same kind of sense for their subplots. Sirius dies at the Ministry because Harry fucks up and lets his abandonment issues override his judgment, and while that's a compelling moment for Harry — whose hamartia is a trauma-forged combination of hot-headedness and desperate fear of losing people — it's not for Sirius. Sirius's problem in Book 5 is that he's emotionally stunted by his years of imprisonment and refuses to grow up, because he's clinging to the life he thinks — rightly — he should have gotten to have. This is made painfully clear in the Department of Mysteries, wherein some of his last words to Harry are "Nice one, James!" He refuses to treat Harry like the child he is, and he keeps acting like he's this fun-uncle type, blowing off rules and pissing off Mom (Molly), because that's the dynamic he should have had with Harry if Lily and James had lived. Sirius doesn't want to be Harry's guardian and role model. He wants a brother and a nephew, and he's trying to force Harry to be both, because he's all he has left of that family. His death doesn't tie any of those threads; they're left dangling. That's a valid narrative move — every death cuts a story short, and you can't give everybody an arc — but I loved Sirius. Giving Harry the "grieving loss of a parent" arc that was originally meant for Ron (Arthur was the original Big Death of the OOTP, in JKR's drafts) also means that Ron spends a lot of Book 6 without anything to do, whereas Harry goes through what's essentially a more intense version of the grieving-and-recovery arc he did after Cedric's death.

Remus, on the other hand, is just — first off, a Mess, I agree with so few of the choices made with Remus in the later books, but let's say he's deep in the trauma, the grieving, and whatever living among werewolves as a spy does for your mental health. So he gets into this will-they-won't-they with Tonks, gets married, tries to abandon pregnant wife, then goes back and gets to be with his wife and son for about half a year before dying, with said wife, in battle. Okay. So like:

I think the Remus Weirdness in Book 7 is actually an attempt to close a plot hole, which is that the Horcrux Hunt happens completely without adult supervision, despite the fact that there are lots of adults the Golden Trio could and should ask for help. Harry's insistence that he doesn't want to risk anyone's life except for Ron and Hermione's is, while understandable as a character move, utterly ridiculous, because the other Order members are risking their lives anyway. One of the biggest holes is Remus and Tonks, who are (a) both already targets for Voldemort because of who they are, and so have nothing to lose, but also (b) both care for Harry on a personal level, and would never accept his reasons for pushing them away. So Teddy Lupin is conceived in order to bench Tonks, who's safely out of commission while pregnant. But that leaves Remus, who probably in fact would have super complicated torn-loyalty feelings about the situation, and who is scarred and traumatized and probably has enough abandonment issues to try and walk out, but — in my view — never resolves any of those things. He doesn't suddenly realize that he loves Tonks and wants to be with her, or feel a sense of duty to his son; when Harry's justly furious at Remus abandoning his kid in Harry's name, Remus gets pissy about it and goes "well, if you don't want my help, fine," and leaves. Which is, again, fine, a character flaw, it's childish, he's allowed to be, and he is, in fact, similar to Sirius and James — but it left a bad taste in my mouth, because that's one of the last conversations we get with Remus, and it's such an impoverished vision of his bonds with others. It doesn't delve deeply into why he loves Tonks or Harry, or the substance of his conflict between them; like always with the Marauders, he just invokes James, and Harry throws James's name right back at him, and it ends there.

And then he dies, so that baby Teddy Lupin can be an orphan, and we can do a parallel to baby Harry Potter. Even though we don't see Teddy Lupin on the page ever, so we have no idea what that comparison means, or how their experiences compliment or contrast one another, or literally anything more substantive than the series beginning and ending on the same event. Which: great. Okay. To quote a Roger Ebert review that I think about, on average, once every thirty-six hours:

"J.K. Rowling has learned from better novels that authors sometimes create narrative parallels, but she has not learned why."

[myriadparacosm]

You think Sirius Black would go crazy over James having child? Do you even imagine how he will be for REMUS' CHILD? He will lose his mind.

I personally do not like the original relationship of Remus and Tonks (love you queen but your author is shit) because it felt forced to me - though it gave us one little Edward "Teddy" Remus Lupin.

Anyhow, let's trash canon out of the window because what matters is how Sirius would absolutely go mad for Remus' child - be it from Tonks or anyone else (male wizards would definitely figure out a way to get pregnant through magic but that's another story). He is already over himself for Harry and he wouldn't truly play favourite but it's /Remus/ so Teddy has a very important spot that Sirius probably wouldn't know how to deal with.

Sirius will literally sleep as Padfoot in Teddy's room to be sure nothing happens to him and Remus wouldn't not catch him right away. Teddy would always remember a dog spying on him at school or even when he plays outside.

In the case of Remus being an only father/sharing custody (because come on Remus and Sirius are soulmates and they will end up together)

Sirius would always try to get involved and he naturally becomes the favourite of Teddy - who sometimes calls him papa (because Sirius would definitely teach him french swear words to mess with Remus but Teddy will ask how to say dad in french) and it's an embarrassing surprise to everyone. Teddy will even fuse Pad with Papa because Remus often call Sirius Pad.

Though Sirius would recover pretty fast and use it at his advantage and Teddy is the perfect partner in crime: "You shouldn't speak with that tone to the papa of your child!" "Yeah! Don't speak to Padpa like that!"

Remus is, of course, smitten and desperate over all of this because he already has enough feelings to deal with without adding up his son bonding with Sirius like it was meant to be.

The school, because it's important that Teddy learns from Muggles before going to Hogwarts, is convinced that Sirius is the actual father of Teddy up until Remus showed up to pick him up. (yes Sirius responded to Mister Lupin but no one was there to see him blush and Teddy kept the secret in exchange of candies). He had to fight with Sirius who has taken the habit to drop off/pick up Teddy without /asking/ to finally do it by himself and the first time this happened - Remus thought his child got kidnapped until he called Sirius: "what do you mean he disappeared? Teddy is with me-- bollocks, not the chocolate Teddy!"

Sirius will literally adopt Teddy the moment he sees him. Harry was also smothered with his love but James isn't the love of his life (rude he says) whilst Teddy feels like the future, present and past of Remus all in one and Sirius is a very possessive person, which he is aware of, but he can't stay away.

He isn't perfect at taking care of Teddy at first because he is too much like a friend rather than a parent to Teddy but he learns fast and tries to be better. No one really asked Sirius if he ever felt like having children or even if he felt like he would be any good at it - to which he would have replied with a depecrating laugh and 'are you mad?' because Sirius is afraid at the idea of being a parent.

The question isn't so much important right now, not when he tucked Teddy in, hugging him as Remus read the traditional bed time story to them. Sirius always falls asleep there, definitely after Teddy despite what Remus says after waking him up so they can sleep properly in their bed ever since Sirius moved in indefinitely.

[carewyncromwell]

"Let me tell you what I wish I'd known

When I was young and dreamed of glory --

You have no control

Who lives, who dies, who tells your story..."

~"History Has Its Eyes on You" from Hamilton

x~x~x~x

Hey, all! A while back, I asked you all which HPHM character you'd like me to do an art-centric spotlight on, and the winner at the last possible minute ended up being one of my very favorite game-original characters, Talbott Winger! So here, at long last, is the animated tribute I made to our favorite bird boy!

Although the game ultimately decided to have him become a Hitwizard post-Hogwarts, I personally headcanon Talbott becoming an Auror as he'd originally dreamed...specifically, I see him becoming Tonks's partner at the Auror Department, with Tonks acting as the spunky rookie cop in their dynamic while Talbott is the more methodical rookie detective. (To see some other stuff I've done for these two friends that explores their dynamic, click here and here!) I also see Talbott and Tonks becoming very close friends in that time, fighting Dark wizards side by side for the Ministry. Although I don't see Talbott joining the Order of the Phoenix, he -- like my MC, Carewyn -- still provided instrumental assistance to them during the Second Wizarding War, largely by smuggling helpful intelligence to Tonks and contributing to Potterwatch's efforts as a correspondent. Of course we all know that Talbott lost his parents during the First Wizarding War...and sadly, in the Second, he also lost both his mentor Mad-Eye Moody and his partner Tonks. One silver lining, however -- and the reason I just couldn't part with the Auror!Talbott image even after the game ultimately parted ways with it -- is that Talbott ended up becoming a mentor himself, this time to the newest up-and-coming recruit at the Auror Department, Harry Potter, who not only lost both of his parents to the Death Eaters during the First War like Talbott did, but is also the godfather of Teddy Lupin, Tonks's son.

And so yes, Talbott lived and Tonks died, but Harry will ultimately be the one to shoulder both of their legacies and tell their stories. 💙

Have a magical night, everyone! Much love! xoxo

[the-al-chemist]

On This Wild Night — Part Three

Notes: this story was originally conceived as a farce comedy. It’s evolved somewhat since then, but still has elements of that genre. For that reason, miscommunication reigns supreme in this chapter. A warning for mild injury description and mild angst played for laughs.

Previous — Masterlist — Next

Once the toasts were finished and the empty plates had been vanished, the red-headed ushers began levitating the tables to the sides of the marquee to create a dance floor in the centre. Or, rather, that was what they were supposed to be doing. Instead, the brothers had become distracted, and were now directing tables to knock into one another in what appeared to be a game that only they knew the rules of.

Across the room, Charlie made eye contact with Artemis before sending his table zooming into Bill’s. At Artemis’ side, their former Transfiguration professor was smiling through tight lips as she watched the scene.

“They never do grow up, do they?” said Professor McGonagall, with an almost imperceptible shake of her head.

“Boys, you mean?” Artemis asked her.

“I was going to say ‘men’, but I dare say that the terms could be used interchangeably.”

Artemis laughed, and looked back at the still-bantering brothers. From the looks of things, Bill had summoned one of Charlie’s shoes from his foot. He was now holding it high above his head, out of Charlie’s reach, whilst George held him back.

“I dare say so, too,” Artemis murmured sagely.

From the other side of the marquee, Fleur appeared, Dominique in her arms. She walked purposefully across the empty space that had minutes earlier been filled with tables and thrust the baby into the arms of her husband. She hissed something into his ear, and his face became suddenly serious. He nodded earnestly, returned his brother’s shoe, and kissed his wife on the cheek.

“Well,” said Professor McGonagall, raising her eyebrows and widening her eyes slightly. Artemis recognised her facial expression from years of lessons with her: she was impressed. “That one has been well-trained, at least.”

Artemis crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“I’ll have you know that my one is also very well-trained,” she informed her old teacher, who chuckled quietly.

“I do know, Miss Hexley. He has been for a long time.”

With that, Professor McGonagall gave Artemis another thin-lipped smile and walked away. Across the marquee, Charlie had replaced his shoe and was now fiddling with an old gramophone.

Figuring that he could probably do with her input, Artemis started to walk over to him, her high-heeled shoes clicking with each step she took across the dancefloor. The open space had already been commandeered by two of the only guests that were shorter than her: her goddaughter Victoire and Teddy Lupin the pageboy. Apparently inspired by Victoire’s father and uncles’ antics, the pair had begun to chase one another around the dancefloor at speed.

As the two of them ran past Artemis, Teddy dodged her, but at only three years old, Victoire was not so agile. She nearly collided with Artemis’ leg, and as Artemis stepped sideways to avoid her, she found herself falling.

Whether the floor was slippery, or uneven, or whether she was just out of practice when it came to wearing heels, she didn’t know. She didn’t have much time to think about what the reason was; she only had time to make the snap decision to put her arms out in front of her as she plummeted face first towards the ground, hitting it with an audible smack.

“Are you okay, Artemis?” said a gentle voice. Artemis looked up to see Arthur Weasley standing over her. He helped her back onto her feet, and she brushed herself off, and adjusted the front of her dress. Two more red-haired men rushed over to her, as well as Kingsley Shacklebolt.

“I’m fine, stop fussing.”

Artemis really was fine, but Kingsley and Arthur both looked unconvinced.

“Are you sure? That was a pretty impressive fall you had there, Tiny,” Kingsley said.

As Kingsley frowned deeply, Charlie began to examine Artemis’ scuffed palms. She rolled her eyes.

“For Merlin’s sake, I just tripped over. I’ve had much worse injuries playing bloody Quidditch, let alone in the rest of my life.” She tugged her hands away from Charlie’s and pulled out her wand. “Episkey!”

She healed the grazes on her hands, then the cut on her knee.

“There’s one on your chin, too,” Charlie told her, and she handed him her wand to do that one for her.

“See, I’m fine. Just my dignity that’s been damaged.”

“Understandable. I think that everyone has now seen entirely far too much of you today,” muttered Bill, half-hugging, half-restraining his oldest daughter.

“Well, at least I have knickers on.”

“Yes, Artemis, that’s exactly the most inappropriate thing you could say to this particular group of people.”

Artemis pulled a face at Bill. Charlie’s face was passive, but as her eyes met his, he raised his eyebrows fractionally. Their father cleared his throat.

“Why don’t you go and clean yourself up, Artemis?” he suggested. “If you go back inside the house, Ginny’s makeup might still be out. I’m sure she won’t mind you borrowing some.”

Having reassured the group of would-be knights in shining armour that she really didn’t require anyone’s help to walk the short distance to the house, Artemis went to clean herself up.

In the Weasleys’ bathroom mirror, she assessed the damage. There was very little, the cuts and grazes having already been healed, but there was still blood on her chin, her knee and the heels of her hands. She washed them all off, and padded into the room that used to be Ginny’s bedroom. The decor was largely unchanged, and Artemis found everything she needed in the drawer of the dressing table.

She touched up her makeup, and decided to return to the party. Hopefully, Charlie would have sorted out the music by now. She opened the door of Ginny’s old bedroom, to find Mrs Weasley on the other side of it.

“Merlin, Molly! What are you sneaking around for?”

“Sorry, dear,” said Mrs Weasley, frowning deeply at her. “Arthur said you’d fallen over, I just wanted to make sure that you were okay.”

“I’m fine. Thank you, though.”

“Are you sure you don’t need me to contact a Healer?”

“Really, Molly, there’s nothing to worry about.” Artemis almost laughed. Mrs Weasley had always known how to fuss over people. “They were all making a mountain out of a gnomehill, I swear.”

“Well, if you’re certain…”

“Positive.”

Molly shook her head and sighed deeply with her eyes closed. When they opened again, they had a peculiar expression in them. And… was she about to cry?

“Oh, Artemis,” she said, holding her arms out to her. “My beautiful, brave girl.”

“Um, thanks,” said Artemis. She took a step backwards. “Molly, is everything okay?”

“Everything is wonderful, Artemis. And I… I’m delighted.”

“That’s good. I’m, um… happy for you.”

“No, dear,” Mrs Weasley sniffed. “I’m happy for you.”

Before Artemis had a chance to do or say anything in response, Molly had thrown her arms around her and pulled her into a very tight hug, pressing Artemis’ face into her bosom. After a longer time than Artemis was strictly comfortable with, Mrs Weasley released her grip and held her at arm's length, still staring at her and blinking back tears.

“Oh, right.” Artemis nodded, though she had no idea what was happening to her. Perhaps Mrs Weasley had drunk too much champagne during the speeches. It was an emotional day for her, after all. “You know, Molly. That’s brilliant. I’m really glad that you’re so happy.”

“How could I not be? This is so wonderful. Sorry, dear, I’m just overjoyed. I think… you know, this might be the best day of my life.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

“Of course, it would be better if you and Charlie were married.”

Artemis blinked. “You what?”

“No, no. I’m not judging, I understand that it’s the twenty-first century now, and you’re both adults, and, let’s be honest, it would be rather hypocritical of me to — never mind that,” Mrs Weasley took her first breath in what might have been almost a minute. “But, really, Artemis, dear, you should be considering doing it as soon as possible. Really, I’m surprised you aren’t already. You’ve been together for a few years, and you are both thirty now, after all. Maybe this will be the push that both of you need. A blessing in disguise, if you will, not that it isn’t already a blessing.”

“Wait.” Artemis opened and closed her mouth a couple of times before she could form a full sentence. “You want us to get married?”

“I do think it would be the best course of action. We could do it here, a small ceremony, a little party. It wouldn’t take too much organising, I’m sure if Charlie’s work let him have the time off we could get everything sorted for a couple of months’ time.”

“A couple of months?”

“Maybe less if we really crack on, limit bits and bobs here and there.” Mrs Weasley patted Artemis on the cheek. “Don’t look so worried, dear. We’ll sort it all out.”

Artemis screwed her eyes tight and opened them again. Mrs Weasley was still in front of her. She pinched herself. It hurt. She really wasn’t dreaming, then.

“I don’t need it sorted out, Molly,” she said, her heart starting to pound wildly. “I don’t want to get married!”

“Don’t you want to be a proper family?”

“I… I thought…” Artemis felt her chest tighten, a pain settling between her ribs. “Am I not already family?”

“Well, I just meant that it would be good idea to make it official. Really be a part of the family.”

The room started to spin around Artemis. At least, that’s what it felt like. Maybe she had hit her head too many times today. Maybe Molly had, too.

Mrs Weasley sighed, and reached a hand out to hers.

“I know this is all a lot to deal with. Trust me, I’ve been there,” she said kindly, patting Artemis on the wrist. “I think Charlie would say the same as me, though. What has he said to you about it?”

“He… Nothing. We never… We haven’t—”

“Oh,” Mrs Weasley’s eyes widened and her eyebrows shot upwards. “Oh, Artemis. You’ve not spoken about this with Charlie yet, have you?”

“No,” replied Artemis.

“So, he has no idea what’s going on right now?”

Artemis had to laugh at that. “Molly, I have no idea what’s going on right now!”

“That’s perfectly normal, dear. Everyone feels like that to start with, but you’ll figure it out eventually.”

“Thank Godric for that,” Artemis muttered under her breath.

“It’s much easier if you aren’t doing it alone, though. You really should talk to Charlie,” Molly nodded. She sighed again, and let out a small giggle. “Although, I’m surprised he hasn’t noticed. That’s boys for you, I suppose. It’s just that it’s so obvious.”

“Is it?” Artemis wrinkled her nose. She didn’t think that anything about this was obvious.

“I’d say so. I mean, we can all see that your breasts have gotten bigger.” At Molly’s observation, Artemis instinctively put a hand in front of her chest. She should never have listened to Charlie about the dress. “And then, at the toast, I saw that you didn’t drink the champagne—”

Suddenly, Artemis realised what Molly meant. She grimaced. This conversation was about to become even less fun.

“— and there’s just this glow about you. I noticed it when you came in just before the speeches,” Molly chuckled, completely oblivious to the fact that Artemis’ face had turned a spectacular shade of beetroot. “Of course, I was looking out for it then, because Charlie had just made that comment about your morning sickness.”

“Hang on.” Artemis held up a hand. “Charlie made a what about my what, now?”

“He told me that you were vomiting this morning.”

“Did he really?” said Artemis, her voice a low growl.

“Like I said, I’m surprised he’s not worked it all out,” Mrs Weasley shook her head. “I know he’s not as academic as Bill or Percy—”

“Molly!”

“— but he’s clever in other ways, and normally very observant, especially when it comes to, well… you.”

Artemis softened slightly, despite her rapidly increasing anger. Mrs Weasley was Charlie’s mum, and she was trying to be kind to her, even if she apparently didn’t think that she counted as family.

“Look, Molly, I think that Charlie might—”

“I agree. You need to talk to Charlie before we do anything else.”

“The thing is, Molly, there’s nothing to talk—”

“Once you’ve spoken to each other, we can all decide what to do about the wedding.”

“I don’t want—”

“You two are coming back in the morning to help take down the marquee, we can discuss it then. Unless you don’t want to tell him until tomorrow, that’s understandable, there’s a lot going on today, after all.”

“No, listen—”

“Don’t fret, dear. I won’t go spilling the beans,” Mrs Weasley said, and she started to back away through the door, tapping her nose with her forefinger. “Your secret’s safe with me.”

“There’s no secret!”

Mrs Weasley said nothing, but as she walked away Artemis heard her make a high pitched squeaking noise.

“Molly, wait. Molly. Molly.”

But Mrs Weasley had already left. Artemis exhaled loudly, before exiting Ginny’s old room and bellowing down the darkened staircase:

“MOLLY!”

There was no answer. Mrs Weasley was gone. Artemis slammed her hands to her forehead and made a strangled sound somewhere between a scream and a growl. Moving her hands away from her face, she clenched her fists and sighed. What kind of ridiculous mess of a situation was this? How did this even happen?

Well, the answer to that question was simple enough: Charlie. Bloody Charlie. She shook her head, fuming.

Forget marrying him. She was going to murder him.

Charlie had managed to bewitch the gramophone to play music for the rest of the night. It was a shame that Artemis hadn’t been able to help him pick the songs to play, really. It just meant that he was probably going to have to redo it at some point after she came back.

The music was surprisingly loud, and so Bill had said that he was going to take Dominique out for a walk around the garden to try and get her back to sleep. In need of some fresh air and a break from the crowded marquee, Charlie offered to join him. They had walked and talked until Dominique fell back to sleep, at which point they had taken a seat on a pair of old deckchairs, facing the marquee.

The sun was rapidly setting in the sky behind the rolling hills of the Devonshire countryside, and the scents of grass and honeysuckle mingled in the air. Charlie smiled to himself. It didn’t matter how far he travelled; this would always be home.

“Can you believe it?” Bill asked him, nodding his head at the marquee. “Little Ginny, married.”

“Bill, I still can’t believe that you’re married, and I was your best man.”

“Can’t blame you for that, I can’t believe it sometimes, either,” grinned Bill. “How did we get to be so lucky?”

“It must be something about the red hair,” Charlie said, and he leaned forward to peer at the baby in Bill’s arms. He held out his little finger to stroke her tiny hands — they might have been the smallest he’d ever seen — and in her sleep, Dominique closed her fist, holding onto his little finger. “Do you think she’s inherited that?”

“Too early to tell. Victoire’s hair was almost black when she was born, and look at her now.”

“True. She looks so much like Fleur, it’s scary.”

“She does, but she came out in freckles for the first time this summer,” Bill laughed. “So it looks like she is one of us, after all.”

Charlie chuckled, and looked down at his sleeping niece. It was difficult to tell in the dimming light, but there might well have been a reddish tinge to her hair.

“Bill?”

“Yes?”

“If I take my finger back, will she carry on sleeping?” he asked his brother. “Or am I just stuck here, now?”

Bill conjured a small blanket. He placed the corner against Dominique’s hand and she let go of Charlie to cling onto that instead.

“See? Easy,” said Bill, with a smirk that rapidly disappeared as the sound of a door slamming in the house caused Dominique to stir.

A second later, a flash of burgundy fabric and dark hair shot across the garden in the direction of the marquee. Bill and Charlie exchanged glances.

“Is that…”

“Artemis? Yeah.”

“Is it just me, or does she look…”

“Really angry? Yeah.”

“Should we do something?” asked Bill, frowning at the marquee as Artemis stormed inside.

“Yeah, we should probably stay out of the way,” Charlie half-smiled. “At least until she’s had a chance to stomp about and shout a bit. She’ll be easier to calm down once she’s got the worst of it out of her system.”

“You make me look like an amateur,” Bill said, and Charlie shrugged. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to not be inside a marquee.”

“I just feel sorry for whoever ends up on the receiving end,” said Charlie, shaking his head. “Poor sod doesn’t know what’s coming to them.”

A moment later, a small shadow appeared in the entrance of the marquee.

“Look who’s back,” Bill muttered. “Oh, great. She’s seen us.”

Bill was right. Artemis had definitely seen them. Her hazel eyes locked on Charlie’s, and the expression in them made his heart start to race. Not in a good way, either. She wasn’t just angry. She was livid.

He was rapidly becoming filled with a sense of impending doom, which only grew stronger as she raised a finger and pointed it at him.

“Charlie, I think you’re in trouble,” said his brother.

“Trouble? Mate, I’m in danger.” Charlie’s eyes scanned around the garden, looking for any kind of escape route or anything that he could hide behind. There was only one thing within easy reach. “Bill, pass me the baby.”

“What? No!”

“She can’t kill me if I’m holding a baby!”

“You can’t use my child as a shield!”

“Yes, I can,” Charlie told him, and held his arms out. “Quick, give it here.”

“It?” Bill exclaimed. He looked indignant, but he nevertheless handed his infant daughter to Charlie, who immediately started to coo over her in what he thought was a fairly uncle-ish way.

“Charlie!” said Artemis, marching towards him with a face like thunder.

“Shh,” he replied, smiling at Dominique. “The baby’s sleeping.”

“You know, I really don’t care,” she hissed at him. “I need to talk to you.”

“Can it wait? I’m spending quality time with my niece right now.”

“No, you’re trying to avoid an argument,” Artemis told him. “Well, tough luck. You can’t avoid this, so give that back to your brother.”

“That?”

Artemis ignored Bill, and glared at Charlie, who reluctantly handed the baby back to her father. He steeled himself, ready for whatever Artemis was about to throw at him — either figuratively or literally — but instead, she rounded on Bill.

“This is a private conversation. Leave.”

“No, stay,” Charlie said quickly. Both Artemis and Bill stared at him, and he shrugged. “I mean, whatever you have to say, you can say in front of Bill, right?”

“Fine.” Artemis spat out the word. “Charlie, what the hell have you been saying to your mother?”

“What? When?”

“Today!”

“Artemis,” Charlie tried to sound diplomatic, “I’m sorry, but you’re really going to have to be more specific than that.”

“Oh, you want me to be more specific, do you? Okay, how about what you said to her just before we had sex up against the wall in the kitchen?”

Charlie grimaced. There was no way Bill was going to stay with him now. Sure enough, he heard his brother make a soft urging sound.

“I actually cannot think of anything I want less than to be a part of this conversation right now,” said Bill, standing up. “So, I’m going to go and take my sleeping baby into a very loud room. I have stuff I need to do, anyway. You know: drink, mingle, find my children some new godparents, that sort of thing.” He patted Charlie’s arm with the hand that wasn’t holding his daughter. “Good luck, Charlie.”

“Thanks,” muttered Charlie. He looked up at Artemis, still bearing down on him with her hands on her hips, and sighed. “Alright, what’s brought this on?”

“You. You did.”

“Yeah, but how? Because I’m struggling to see why you’re suddenly so angry about a throwaway comment I made to my mum several hours ago. What happened?”

“What’s happened is that I’ve just had the weirdest conversation of my life with your mother, about how I’m now pregnant.”

Charlie had never known his throat to dry so quickly before. He blinked.

“I’m sorry… You’re pregnant?”

“No, obviously not, but your mum thinks I am.”

“Wh-why… Why? Why would she think that?”

Artemis fixed him with a hard and meaningful stare, and he shrunk back from her, frowning. What had he done? Charlie thought about it, and realised how he might have caused this confusion.

“Oh. Oh, no…”

“Oh, yeah,” said Artemis. Charlie bit his bottom lip and looked at her apologetically.

“Was she angry? Did she have a go at you? I’m really sorry if she shouted at you.”

“She didn’t shout at me.”

“She didn’t?” Charlie asked, and Artemis rolled her eyes.

“No, if anything, she’s thrilled.”

“But you’re not thrilled…”

“No, Charlie, I am not thrilled. I am the opposite of thrilled, I am…” She paused for a moment, obviously thinking, before giving up. “I’m un-thrilled.”

Charlie knew better than to laugh at her new word. He nodded silently in lieu of saying anything.

“Oh,” Artemis continued without his input, “and we are also getting married.”

“Are we?”

“According to Molly, we are.”

“Right.” Charlie frowned. “When?”

“Two months. Maybe sooner, depending on your work shifts.”

“Does that mean we don’t need to help take down the marquee tomorrow?”

Charlie’s question was met with flaring nostrils. He put his hands in the air.

“I’m joking. That was a joke, Artemis.”

Artemis did not so much as smile, let alone laugh. That was a bad sign. Charlie swallowed hard, before standing up and walking towards her.

“Alright,” he said in a low, level voice, “so my mum thinks you're pregnant. Just tell her that you aren’t.”

“Do you honestly think that I didn’t try that? Because I did, it was just hard when she wouldn’t let me get a word in edgeways because she was too busy planning a wedding.”

“What wedding?”

“Our wedding. Do keep up,” Artemis snapped at him.

“I meant, there isn’t going to be a wedding.” Charlie shrugged. “You can just tell her again that you aren’t pregnant and that we aren’t getting married.”

“No. You can tell her that I’m not pregnant and that we’re not getting married.”

Charlie felt his heart sink and race, both at the same time.

“Why me?” he asked.

“Because she’s your mother and you’re the one who put the idea in her head in the first place!”

Annoyingly, that was a fairly good reason. After a moment’s hesitation, Charlie nodded.

“Yeah, okay. I’ll tell her tomorrow,” he said. He made to put his arm around Artemis’ shoulder, but she pushed him away, glowering at him.

“No, you will tell her tonight.”

“But—”

“Charlie, if you don’t tell her tonight, she’s going to keep acting all… weird around me, and keep telling me that’s it about time we got married and settled down because we are thirty, and we’ve been together a while, and apparently that means we should be married by now. Oh, and you know she is not going to let me drink, and right now, I could really do with a drink.”

“I just think—”

“I don’t give a Knarl’s arse what you think,” Artemis hissed. “You know bloody well if you don’t tell her tonight, she’ll mention it to me tomorrow and then I’ll end up telling her and you won’t have to.”

“No, that’s not… I just think that today is a really stressful day for her — yeah, I know it’s happy, but it’s stressful, too — and it’s probably better to wait until tomorrow because she is very emotional right now.”

“I’m very emotional right now!”

“That’s probably the pregnancy hormones,” Charlie muttered, before he could stop himself.

As Artemis’ face hardened even more, he immediately regretted opening his mouth. He ran one hand through his hair before trying to reason with her.

“Look, I don’t want to be the one to upset mum tonight. You just said how happy and excited she is, and I don’t want to ruin that for her when she’s already a bit… Well, you know how she gets, especially at weddings. And I’m going to have to tell her that I lied to her, and she’s not going to be happy about that, and I don’t want her to cry or shout, or start nagging me.”

Artemis raised her eyebrows, and Charlie took a step backwards.

“And,” he continued, unable to look Artemis in the eye anymore, “there has got to be a better way to solve this, one that doesn’t involve me crushing her dreams and telling her that I lied to her. Maybe we should think about other options.”

“What other options?”

On the spot, Charlie shrugged.

“Well… I mean, we could get married in two months,” he suggested. Every muscle in Artemis’ body seemed to tense, and he quickly backtracked. “I’m not saying that it’s the best option, but it is still an option.” He exhaled, adding under his breath darkly, “Personally, I think the best solution here would be to emigrate.”

“Emigrate? Charlie, you already live abroad!”

“I know, but I could see myself living in New Zealand.”

“That’s ridiculous. You can’t move to New Zealand to avoid having an awkward conversation with your mum.”

“You could come with me.”

Artemis was not appeased by this half-serious proposition.

“I don’t want to go to New Zealand with you! I don’t want to go anywhere with you!” she exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. “You know, I don’t even want to be near you at the moment. Not until you’ve sorted out this mess you’ve made.”

“Alright!” Charlie replied, louder than he meant to. He sighed, and scratched his temple with one finger awkwardly. “This is probably a bad time to mention that I’ve got two Galleons riding on you catching the bouquet later, isn’t it?”

In response to his question, Artemis made a sinister guttural noise that Charlie had never heard a human make before.

“Okay, yeah. Bad time. Really bad time,” he said. “So, what exactly do you want me to say to her?”

“You tell her that you lied to her, that I’m not pregnant, that we aren’t getting married, and that she needs to back off.”

“And if she asks me why I lied to her?”

“I don’t know! You’re the one with all the excuses, make something up!”

Charlie closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Artemis was angrier tonight than he’d seen her in a while, especially with that anger directed at him. Knowing Artemis — which, by now, he could say with absolute certainty that he did — there was probably something else that was bothering her, it was just a matter of what. The problem was, to find out what it was that was really upsetting her, he had to calm her down. And that meant doing what she was asking of him, which meant…

“Alright,” he said gently, stepping towards Artemis with his head lowered. “I‘ll talk to her. I promise.”

“Tonight.”

It wasn’t a question. Charlie sighed, and reached out to stroke Artemis’ arm. She stiffened, but didn’t push him away.

“Yeah. Tonight, if I can. If not, I’ll come down early tomorrow to do it.”

“Tomorrow’s not good enough,” Artemis told him, whipping her arm away from him and crossing them both in front of her chest. “I want you to tell her now.”

“I’m going to do it as soon as possible, it’s just busy here tonight, so I might not get the chance. But I will try, alright?”

“No, it’s not alright. You tell her before we leave tonight, or I will tell her tomorrow, just before you have to spend the whole day with her, and when she asks me why you lied to her, I’ll tell her exactly why you did it.”

Charlie felt the blood drain from his face.

“You wouldn’t dare,” he said, his eyes wide with horror.

“Really? Try me.”

Artemis raised her eyebrows, her entire face still. She wasn’t bluffing. Of course she wasn’t. There wasn’t anything she wouldn’t dare do. That was one of the things Charlie loved the most about her — or, at least, it had been until this precise moment in time.

He gulped, and Artemis narrowed her eyes as she leaned in and hissed at him once more.

“You’ve got until the end of the night to buck up, Charlie.”

With that, she turned on her heel and marched back across the garden, leaving Charlie to watch her storm off and away, the loose tendrils of her dark hair blowing wildly in the breeze behind her.

[squibstress]

HP Rec Fest - Day 29

Prompt: An post-canon fic @hprecfest

A Toxic and Tender Time

Pairings: Millicent/Viktor, Minerva/Severus

Creator: psyfic

Rating: MA/NC-17

Word Count: 19,021

Summary: Minerva tends to Severus after his encounter with Nagini.

Why You Should Check It Out:

This fic finds Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape in a somewhat awkward (ahem) arrangement after the war. Psyfic manages to make Snape both vulnerable and in-character, and I love that they don't shy away from the age difference between the two characters. The awkwardness and tenderness of their "first-time" story is mirrored by one concerning the surprising duo of Millicent Bulstrode and Viktor Crumb, which just works.

Witness

Characters: Minerva McGonagall, Original Character, Severus Snape

Pairing: Minerva/Severus

Creator: @kellychambliss

Rating: M/R

Word Count: 7,668

Summary: Many years after Voldemort is finally overthrown, a Bulgarian former refugee comes forward to help answer one of the great mysteries of the wars: what happened to Snape and McGonagall. AU after the Battle of Hogwarts

Why You Should Check It Out:

"Witness" is an unusual post-war AU that finds Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape in a refugee camp. The POV is unusual: a now-elderly former student is looking back on the relationship while relating his story to a callow academic. It allows for a narrative that is at once distant and tremendously personal, and it draws a subtle, compelling portrait of a complex relationship observed in snatches. The post-war setting is particularly well done and adds a depth and poignancy to the HP world that I've seldom encountered elsewhere.

Winter Bloom

Characters: Bill Weasley, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minerva McGonagall, Severus Snape

Pairing: Kingsley/Severus

Creator: titc

Rating: T/PG-13

Word Count: 16,000

Summary: After the war, not everything is ideal, and discrimination is still there - the wrong family members or blood status still matter, somehow.

Minister Shacklebolt and Professor Snape both work on improving what they can... and may develop more than a working relationship on the way.

Why You Should Check It Out:

This gorgeous, optimistic fic is achingly lovely.

Snape is so perfectly drawn–grudgingly caring, finding some meaning to a life he never expected to live after the war. It’s a rich portrait of a man trying desperately to find a way to live a different kind of life, while dragging all of his demons behind him.

And the sweetness of Kingsley is a perfect gift, to Snape and to the reader.

Highland Fling

Pairing: Rosemerta/Severus

Creator: delphipsmith

Rating: K/G

Word Count: 4,300

Summary: It's not about the destination, it's about the journey.

Why You Should Check It Out:

This fic is a vicarious thrill for yours truly, who has fantasized about traveling on the Royal Scotsman since she was a wee slip of a lass.

This is cashmere cardigan of a fic, luxurious and comforting, with a short foray into the darkness of the war, via a painful description of the aftermath of being Imperioed.

The easy relationship between Rosmerta and Snape is beautifully drawn, and perfect way to usher in a new year that we can all only hope will be filled with a bit more comfort and joy.

Seared with Scars

Characters: Draco Malfoy, Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom, Remus Lupin, Severus Snape, Teddy Lupin

Pairing: Luna/Neville

Creator: tjs_whatnot

Rating: K+/PG

Word Count: 8,000

Summary: Luna and Neville are having a tough time moving on from what they went through in the War when they are visited by a ghost of their past.

Why You Should Check It Out:

This is such a beautiful and painful story! It's a thoughtful exploration of the emotional costs of war and how these wonderful characters try to deal with their scars and their anger.

[dhr-ao3]

The Sins of the Grandfather

The Sins of the Grandfather https://ift.tt/GSVR9jb by ummltu83 This is the 3rd story of a series and features the events of 'A Collection of Malfoy Children's Letters' from Scorpius Malfoy's POV. Mostly epistolary. AU Words: 259, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Series: Part 3 of Healers Granger and Malfoy Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Categories: F/M Characters: Hermione Granger's Father, Hermione Granger's Mother, Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy, Narcissa Black Malfoy, Andromeda Black Tonks, Teddy Lupin, Original Hogwarts Professors, Pansy Parkinson, Theodore Nott, Blaise Zabini, Luna Lovegood Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, Theodore Nott/Pansy Parkinson, Scorpius Malfoy/Other(s) Additional Tags: Epistolary, Domestic Fluff, Family Fluff, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Good Lucius Malfoy, Good Narcissa Black Malfoy, Hogwarts, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Ron Weasley Bashing, No Smut, Rita Skeeter Being an Asshole, Paparazzi, Sibling Love, Protective Siblings via AO3 works tagged 'Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy' https://ift.tt/CjNM6s5 August 12, 2024 at 06:06AM

[celestemagnoliathewriter]

New WIP Game

Rules: share your unpublished WIPs. No updates to ongoing fics, just new shenanigans : )

Thank you for the tag, @merlins-sequined-hotpants!

Titled WIPs:

Andromeda Rising - the first part of a longfic centering on Andromeda's life. I posted a chunk of the first chapter awhile back. While I get other WIPs out of the way, this one's on hold.

Dear Aunt Petunia - a crack fic (I'm full of these). Harry writes his Aunt Petunia a letter and the story goes very differently.

The Death of Fred Weasley - exactly what it sounds like, with a wizarding afterlife. I've got a series on this - the only one up is Teddy Lupin's. It is very emotionally taxing to write these types of fics. After Fred, I've got a few others in the outline stage: Molly and Harry.

Lord Voldemort's Tea Party - yes, another crack fic. It answers the question that no one asked: how does Lord Voldemort take his tea?

This is Getting Ridiculous - an self-insert (sort of)/original character (sort of) crack fic in which a fictionalized version of me and my long-suffering husband @rawr-gorg-smash become Ron and Hermione (somehow, blame it on *magic*). I have a snippet of it here, in this other WIP game.

Arthur's Favorite Sitcom - this was written initially for a competition but never saw the light of day because I couldn't find a good ending. Maybe I'll revisit it.

Untitled/Tentatively Titled WIPs:

Pride and Prejudice fic (title undecided): Lizzy/Darcy forced marriage. 'Twill be sexy.

Regulus Black fic: I can't say much about this one yet.

Tonks as a Marauder: this is set as Tonks growing up alongside the Marauders, not as time travel, but with Andromeda as Walburga's sister.

Let's see, I'll tag @takearisk-ao3, @passionatewrites, @messrmoonyy, @ventoserenowrites, and @whinlatter

[evesaintyves]

I really disagree with the post about Teddy. You really think he’d be mad at his parents for not staying at home while all their friends and fellow Order members go and give their lives for the future of their world? Especially when he grows up around Harry and the rest. Children fought and died but they shouldn’t have because they had him? I actually hate the whole Lupin asking Tonks to stay at home. They met as part of the Order, and she was an auror. Becoming a mother doesn’t change that.

hi anon! i'm sorry you felt you had to send this anonymously, because i'd be happy to have this conversation with you in a way that isn't quite so one-sided.

first, let me make something clear: i'm fine with whatever your take on Teddy Lupin's psychology is. i am 100% not interested in pinning down some kind of absolute truth about Teddy, Tonks, Lupin, or any other character. i think that's a limiting approach to writing about people. human behavior is a complex, multifactorial, emergent process that's sometimes difficult to predict or explain. this is one reason why i rarely post or talk about "headcanons" - i'm open to the idea of multiple, even contradictory, interpretations that are equally valid, equally compatible with the information available in canon.

my interest in is storytelling. i want to read and write stories about what it's like to be a person. all these characters - especially remadora and teddy, about whom there is limited and sometimes unreliable information in canon - are full of possibilities and opportunities for extrapolating what we do know about them into a story about what being human was like for them.

being angry with your parents for doing things they thought were entirely justifiable at the time is, for many people, an aspect of the human condition.

but let's talk specifics. the truth is that we don't know, canonically, how teddy lupin feels about being orphaned. to me, that means it's fair game for all kinds of interpretations. now, i did not write the original post (gonna tag @jilylicious to chime in on this if they want since it's their work and i'm sure they have their own ideas) but i'd like to address your points and tell you why i think it's a perfectly valid interpretation of Teddy and his relationship with his parents' memory.

You really think he’d be mad at his parents for not staying at home while all their friends and fellow Order members go and give their lives for the future of their world?

sure, why not? Teddy isn't a Remadora fan on tumblr, he isn't necessarily familiar with and sympathetic to his parents' story in the way we are. he's a kid who has to come to terms with the fact that his parents left him with his grandma as a tiny baby and went to fight in a battle that killed them. that's fucking unfair to him. he's allowed to feel all kinds of ways about that.

what do we think an abstract concept like "the future of their world" means to teddy? as a young child, probably not much, right? the capacity to even understand something like that - as a vague abstraction mostly concerning the well-being of a bunch of other people - probably wouldn't even develop in teddy until at least around the time he went to hogwarts (and i am not about to make this shit even longer by citing child development theories, but you're welcome to look it up). meanwhile, his whole childhood, he's dealing with the consequences of his parents' choice, forming an identity that includes "my parents left me with my grandmother one night so they could fight in a war and never came back," and probably developing all kind of feelings about that, right? abandonment, whatever the circumstances and mechanics behind it, is hard on kids and has knock-on effects that can be lifelong: issues with trust and attachment to other people, feelings of worthlessness, fear of intimacy and commitment. those things can be forged in early childhood and it's not as simple as being talked out of them with some explanation of why it had to be that way.

is Teddy's life actually even better than if his parents hadn't gone off to die? maybe. Teddy might or might not feel that it is. we don't really have any evidence that Lupin and Tonks's participation in the battle had much of an effect on the outcome. one or both of them might have stayed home and the battle might have been won anyway and he'd be chilling with them right now. the idea of his life if the battle had been lost is another abstraction based on political and social developments that mostly happened before he was born. understandable for young Teddy, and even adult Teddy, not to really grasp all the could-have-beens there. even with the war won, Teddy may have grown up experiencing the social stigma of being the child of a famous werewolf who's not even around to help him through it. reasonable and okay to be angry about that, and understandable to still resent your parents for putting you in that situation even if you agree that it had to be that way.

i would argue that, however childlike, irrational, or self-absorbed Teddy's early feelings about his own trauma are, they're probably going to inform his ideas about his parents for a long time. like, have you come to a rational, all-perspectives understanding of all the ideas you developed in childhood? about your earliest sense that life was unfair? i don't think everyone does, at least not without a lot of difficult work. maybe he comes to a fuller understanding later in life. maybe he decides that he agrees that it had to happen but he is still plagued by this anger and hurt that won't be argued with. i think this is a pretty relatable idea. things can be true but not feel true. things can make sense but you're still sad and mad about them.

Especially when he grows up around Harry and the rest.

he does grow up around Harry! and Harry lost his parents too, so maybe he's in a unique position to counsel teddy about that - but Harry's situation is markedly different from Teddy's, isn't it?

Harry's parents went into hiding as a family to protect him. they didn't leave him with a relative in a safe house and carry on with their Order duties. James didn't send Lily into hiding with Harry while he kept fighting. the fact that they stood their ground together and died there to protect him is central not just to Harry's story but to the entire HP universe.

how might Teddy feel about the differences between their two stories? maybe fine. maybe it wouldn't even occur to him. maybe he'd feel cheated and abandoned by his parents who left him and went off to fight instead - yes, Teddy was one reason they felt they had to fight, but might Teddy not see it as them going to lay their lives down for Harry and for a cause? imagine how that might inform the way he feels about Harry. Teddy isn't required, especially as a kid, to think about this in a way that we feel is rational or sympathetic to his parents.

even if Harry does his best to present the story to Teddy in a way that's sympathetic to Teddy and his parents, Harry probably isn't the only source from which Teddy is going to hear this stuff. it's gonna be in history books, periodicals, fictionalized retellings, everyone's personal Where Were You On May 2nd story - and those accounts are likely to frame what happened as a bunch of people dying for Harry Potter and the fate of the wizarding world. not Teddy being able to live a happier life. that might be difficult for a kid to grapple with, no?

finally, Harry didn't raise Teddy. Andromeda Tonks did. how do you imagine SHE feels about what Teddy's parents did? what Lupin did? she might very well have seen leaving to fight in the battle as another attempt by Lupin to go redeem himself with a hero's death instead of facing his responsibility for Tonks and Teddy (and, honestly, i think that's a possibility worth exploring in fiction about Lupin and his motivations). how might that have filtered down to Teddy and his understanding of his parents? Andromeda is grieving while she raises her orphaned grandbaby, and i bet she has her own anger and resentment and despair to deal with there - that's understandable whether you agree with her conclusions or not. it's not hard to imagine Teddy overhearing some bitter asides from Andromeda, or picking up on the tension when she answers his questions about his parents.

Children fought and died but they shouldn’t have because they had him?

i mean, you're not going to catch me arguing that children should have died instead of Lupin and Tonks. i have mixed feelings about the choice they made that could be its own whole long post, but they're irrelevant here.

Teddy doesn't have to feel that way to be mad that his parents left him to go die. he also doesn't really have to give a shit about those long-dead children - another possibly hard-to-understand abstraction. he doesn't even have to think his parents should have stayed in order to be justifiably angry that they left! even if Teddy agrees they had no choice he can still be fucking pissed off at them! the dissonance between these ideas is probably pretty distressing, in fact!

feelings are like that sometimes. relationships with parents are like that sometimes. grief and feelings of abandonment don't always listen to logical arguments. that's what makes this take interesting and relatable, to me. being a person is fucking messy as shit. i'm sure there's an interesting story to be told about Teddy... being fine with his parents' deaths or whatever, but it's not any more representative of the spectrum of human emotions and trauma responses than the ideas the OP wrote about Teddy.

I actually hate the whole Lupin asking Tonks to stay at home. They met as part of the Order, and she was an auror. Becoming a mother doesn’t change that.

i think that's valid! i totally understand it. i think the way the situation was written reveals a lot about JKR's ideas about gender roles and parenting. i have different ideas about those things, which is at least partially down to the generation i belong to and my status as a queer person and a non-parent. i also really like interpretations of Tonks as a soldier who's as committed to the cause as any of her male contemporaries.

but this is one of those times where, you know, there isn't necessarily a wrong answer. just to play the devils advocate, i could argue that Lupin asking Tonks to stay makes as much sense in-universe as any alternative interpretation: we're we're talking about two people in a pretty heteronormatively-written universe set in the 1990s. Lupin was born in the 60s and might have had the same kind of internalized sexist background noise as, you know, everybody else. Tonks already, canonically, put her career on the line by marrying Lupin and having his baby. they've both been hiding from the fighting for most of her pregnancy. (which, if you want to go down a rabbit hole, might be another reason for Teddy not to understand their choice - it was okay to abstain from the world-bettering while he was a fetus but once he was born they changed their minds?) if one of them is going to stay and be the surviving parent of a three-week-old baby i guess it might as well be the one that's breastfeeding him. we don't get to see a lot of Tonks being an auror and resistance fighter or hear a lot of her feelings about it in canon, especially after Teddy is conceived. whatever we may surmise about her identity as an auror vs her identity as a mother and all the other factors that would play into how that situation went down - it's just surmising, it's subjective interpretation, and there are so many different storytelling paths to follow from it!

maybe you should write an AU where that conversation goes down differently, or a post-war Tonks-in-wizard-heaven monologue about how she felt about it, or just a gritty breakdown of how it might have actually happened in the light of your thoughts about Tonks's character! if you disagree with all of my conjecture here, maybe you should write a deep dive into Teddy's process of grieving and understanding his parents! fascinating! this is what i mean when i say it's not about the truth, it's about storytelling: there is so much more art and wonder and discovery in exploring all these possibilities than in haggling over which possibility is Correct.

Edit: read the original anon's very thoughtful responses here:

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6

[greenerteacups]

That reminds me of why I really dislike that the epilogue exists.... other than the fact that it's totally unnecessary and adds nothing of importance to the story, it actually portrays, in my opinion, a strangely stagnant and therefore bitter (imo) ending for these characters I truly loved through my childhood and teens... Like, the fact that they just...stayed the same... married the person they started dating in school (regardless of actual compatibility)...the same friendships and enmities.... I just remember reading that epilogue and immediately rejecting it cause I found it weirdly depressing and it also kinda felt like the author was kinda forcing the characters into a certain destiny beyond what was necessary, which sounds really weird but I do think there's a point where, as a writer, you have to let the story go and leave 'what happens next' to the readers' imaginations.

there's a reason for this, i think. i actually happen to like a lot of the endgame couples — i think that harry and ginny being straight-out-of-school/married-young-in-wartime sweethearts is cute, and makes sense for their characters. i like the idea of them naming the kids after harry's parents, Sirius, and Luna (Obvious Exception Notwithstanding!!!) because it ties in with the themes of family/love transcending death and also happens to be a real-life phenomenon that young couples do to commemorate the wartime dead! i think it's great that neville's a herbology professor — it's an ultimate triumph over Snape to become the exact opposite kind of teacher, one who offers support and understanding to slow-learning children — and although i hate what happened to Lupin and Tonks, the idea of Harry raising Teddy as his own son/nephew/younger brother/Unidentified But Beloved Family Member in the same way Sirius probably would have raised Harry, if he had the chance. it ties in very well with "healing past wrongs" as an underlying motif for the next generation.

and you know what, fuck it, i'm not ashamed to say it: I like the Third Gen kids. they are good character concepts and they have hints of interesting story arcs! I like the idea of harry's oldest son being this ridiculously high-energy, sociable, nosy-ass Fred Weasley type popular kid, because — yeah, that's what both of your parents are! of course you're like that! and I really like the idea of [REDACTED MIDDLE CHILD NAME] being a Slytherin with strong moral values, because that's an arc that frankly should have happened in the original books, and it reads like a graceful acknowledgement of how the author mishandled Slytherin House (even if it's kind of dissonant with their behavior in the Battle of Hogwarts, but whatever). Lily we don't have much to go on, but she reads a bit like a young Ginny if she were less shy. but none of that quality changes the fact that these characters shouldn't exist.

authors coming to the end of their first work have trouble letting go of it, especially when that work is long. (even though it was her seventh book, Deathly Hallows was the first time JKR ever had to actually end a "story" as such). they're scared of leaving something out, and I think these long-range time jumps are a reaction to the desire to hold onto these characters as long as possible — to delay the inevitable goodbye, and claim authorship of as much of their characters' lives as possible. the problem is that you don't want to undo the happy ending they've just earned, so you can't realistically portray the tensions and breakups and conflicts that would happen if the characters were left to develop naturally for nineteen years. which is why the epilogue feels false to me.

and the funny thing is, for fans of the "canon" epilogue ships, ending it after the Battle of Hogwarts wouldn't change anything! it's ironic, because in theory you'd want an author to confirm that your pairing gets a big happy wedding, but when a ship is endgame, it's assumed that they have a "happy ever after" anyways. we don't read Percy Jackson and assume that he and Annabeth have an acrimonious divorce in their 40's. we don't wonder (at least, not as serious analysts of the text) if Arwen and Aragorn need to get couples counseling. maybe they do, and maybe they would, but that's not relevant to the story that's being told, and the way the narrative frames it, the "ending" of their story is itself the end of the line for their pairing. the moment you stop writing, they exist in perpetuity as a loving relationship, and you don't need to tell us they get married! they have been immortalized as lovers! harry and ginny would be THE endgame couple of the series whether or not we knew their children's names. they are each others' destiny.

and the end of the day, the problem with the epilogue boils down to this: either their story ends at the battle of hogwarts, or it didn't. if it didn't, then it looks like you have another book to write. and if it did, then it's time to take your hands off the wheel.

[rosie-love98]

A Discussion On The Snape-Harbroom-Hobbes Relation:

CONTEXT: Before the “Harry Potter” films and the 1998 “Worst Witch” series, Snape and Hardbroom had secretly married and divorced. Their son, the future Nicholas Hobbes (of the “Worst Witch” spin-off, “Weirdsister College”), was a product of that union and given to another family to raise as their own. Fortunately, the family of three would reunite in 2006 under supernatural means. Long story short, members of R/The Cabal (of “Hogwarts Mystery”), had managed to resurrect Snape through a potion made with the Resurrection Stone. Snape would be revived and escape but would struggle to get his new life together. That’s when Constance Hardbroom renters his life...

Anyway, the (much older) Golden Trio and the Malfoys would be a part of the story. The Golden Trio due to investigating the murders/assault of Nicholas’s adopted parents (not sure if I should kill them off or not). The Malfoys thanks to Rita Skeeter’s scandalized rendition of Severus and Constance’s love story. This brings the question on how each of the characters would/should react to the revelation. Not only that but Severus Snape being revived and living in seclusion for years with them being completely unaware. 

Would they all be mad? Would be in shock? Would any of these characters try to reach out to Severus, Constance or Nicholas? Would Lucius want to kill Severus out of revenge for either going against Voldemort? Would he hate Severus for leaving the likes of Lucius to be thrown under the bus after the Second Wizarding War? Would they all want to help protect Nicholas Hobbes from the likes of R/The Cabal in the R/Cabal’s efforts to track Snape down? Would any of the Golden Trio or the Malfoys even continue to keep in touch with Snape at the end of the story? And what about the Weasleys? How would they react?

I can see the Golden Trio being a bit apprehensive when finding out Hobbes’s origins and would comfort him. Though, would Harry take the role of a big-brother figure/Godfather like how he would be with Teddy Lupin (which could be a way to reconcile the Snape and Lupin families)? Or would those brotherly/Godfather roles be more fitted with Draco Malfoy as he and Hobbes would give a good parrellel to Harry and Teddy?

As for the staff of Hogwarts and Cackle’s Academy, the only people who knew of Nicholas Hobbes prior to the events of the fic would’ve been Amelia Cackle, Minerva McGonagall, Madame Pomfrey and Albus Dumbledore. There was also Minerva’s husband, Elphinstone Urquart (who offieciated snape and Hardbroom’s elopement, divorce and gave baby Nicholas to his new family), Nicolas Flamel and his wife, Perenelle (thanks to Dumbledore, they allowed Constance and Severus to hide at the Flamel House when their son was born). However, Elphinstone and the Flamels had been long gone. So this kinda makes me wonder if Hagrid, Neville Longbottom, and the other professors should have a part in the story.

Then there’s the public. There’s no doubt the reveal of Snape fathering a secret child would cause excitement. But, in my fic, the “Worst Witch” wizards are of a sect called “Ex-Codice” with the “Harry Potter” wizards being known as “Estne” “Stultus” or “Stultum” (can’t decide which). For their strict following of tradition and the ancient Witches Code, the Ex-Codice are dubbed as “The Inmates” by the Estne. In turn, the Ex-Codice would call their rivals, “The Barmy Ones” for their tendency to show off their magical ways. Bascially, the Estne are Protestants while Ex-Codice are Catholics. So with the Estne Wizard, Severus Snape being found to have married and having a child with the Ex-Codice Witch, Constance Hardbroom, a scandal could arise. But, to what extent? Was the hatred just a rivalry or a hatred as bad as the hate towards Muggles? Would it be like the Troubles War (Catholic vs. Protestants) in the UK?

What are your thoughts?

@yaviae @hrstories1234 @mamiferoaquaticoprehistorico @thecrazycackle 

[potentiallypotter]

Marauders Band Au (Positions + Songs)

James (Lead Vocals + Bassist) — Classically trained in several string instruments such as cello and violin. Originally was going to be a second guitarist but decided against it.

Sirius (Vocals + Drummer) — Says he loves the ‘Boom boom bang’ of the drums. Also a classically trained pianist. Was going to be on keyboard but he hates anything related to pianos.

Remus (Guitarist + Songwriter) — Owned an acoustic for years and wrote poems that turned into songs. Writes most but not all their songs.

Peter (Keyboard + Guitarist) — Probably plays the most instruments out of everyone, some of these include piano, guitar, french horn, tuba, and a two or three more. Band kid at heart.

Songs + Progress

They started off as a cover band that played small gigs at parties, night clubs, and pubs. The song they played that got them some buzz was ‘I Believe in a Thing Called Love’ by The Darkness, this was Sirius’ favorite band at the time. After that, more people started showing up to see them and they got a bit of a fan base. The first original song they ever performed was written by Remus and called ‘Dead or Alive’ They started uploading a mixture of covers and original songs to a YouTube page they created entitled ‘The Marauders’. James believed they had potential to go big and the internet was a great way to get started. Their content wasn’t limited to the band, sometimes they posted small videos of them just chatting, answering questions, individual singing/playing, and complete randomness. They were discovered by opening for a more popular band at a nightclub and began to slowly fade away from covers and only record original content. Songwriting became a group effort instead of being left solely to Remus though he wasn’t complaining. They continued to post some content on YouTube when they had time but only covers and talking videos. It was a creative decision that lead them to using their childhood nicknames as stage names and have it be their “thing”. Their debut album was simply titled ‘The Marauders’ despite major pushback from James and Sirius who claimed it to be unoriginal and unlike them. This album included 10 songs plus and intro, the cover art was a recreated picture of them from their days at Hogwarts with the original hanging behind them. As of now they have 2 albums, 4 singles, and a total of 27 songs (16 written by Remus, 5 written by James, 4 written by Peter, and 2 written by Sirius) Their albums and songs are listed below.

‘The Marauders’ (2015)

1. ‘Intro’ (57 Secs)

2. ‘What Lies Under The Bed’ (2:31, Written by Remus Lupin)

3. ‘House of Mirrors’ (2:43, Written by Remus Lupin)

4. ‘Dead or Alive’ (2:17, Written by Remus Lupin)

5. ‘Finish Him’ (3:12, Written by Remus Lupin)

6. ‘The Ticket [Hope’s Song] (4:19, Written by Remus Lupin)

7. ‘Astroid Heart’ (2:33, Written by Peter Pettigrew)

8. ‘Red Walls’ (3:14, Written by Remus Lupin)

9. ‘Crush’ (2:19, Written by James Potter)

10. ‘Friendly Flame’ (3:10, Written by James Potter)

11. ‘Written’ (2:57, Written by Sirius Black)

Total — 30:12

‘Rocket Science’ (2015 Single)

1. ‘Rocket Science’ (4:12, Written by Sirius Black)

‘Coffin Ready’ (2016 Single)

1. ‘Coffin Ready’ (3:42, Written by Peter Pettigrew)

‘Cabinet of Fools’ (2017)

1. ‘Invitation’ (2:13, Written by Peter Pettigrew)

2. ‘In The Nude’ (3:17, Written by James Potter)

3. ‘The Long Tragic Story Of A Teddy Bear’ (5:36, Written by Remus Lupin)

4. ‘Can You Fly’ (4:22, Written by Peter Pettigrew)

5. ‘Classic’ (3:20, Written by Remus Lupin)

6. ‘I Don’t Have. A Title For This’ (2:55, Written by James Potter)

7. ‘PMO’ (3:46, Written by Remus Lupin)

8. ‘My Name’ (4:06, Written by Remus Lupin)

9. ‘Soldier’s Lament’ (5:36, Written by Remus Lupin)

10. ‘Speak Of The Devil’ (2:43, Written by Remus Lupin)

11. ‘Kill The Party’ (3:04, Written by Remus Lupin)

12. ‘It Shall Appear’ (3:18, Written by Remus Lupin)

13. ‘Sorry (Translates to Fuck You)’ (3:09, Written by Remus Lupin)

Total — 47:25

‘Lion’s Heart’ (2019 Single)

1. ‘Lion’s Heart’ (5:32, Written by James Potter)

Unreleased (2022 Single)

‘Unreleased’ (3:47, Written by Remus Lupin)

[thegirlwhowrites642]

I’m going to keep this post Anon because of the amount of hate I got previously. I use to write fanfics but because I didn’t pair the following: Wolfstar, Drarry, Linny, Jegulus, Scorbus, and Snarry I’m apparently homophonic. Even though none of those ships are canon and I stated I like canon pairings on my page. I stopped writing for almost over a year and a half now because when I defended myself I got more and more hate and negative comments. I did have representation of LGBQT in my stories but because I’m not pairing the above I’m labeled as a homophobe. If I made a gay character straight for example Dumbledore, yes they could call me a homophobe, but I didn’t. This one reviewer said it was ok to turn straight people gay and but it wasn’t ok to turn gay people straight (which I never did in my stories), and I should have at least 40-50% of LGBQT representation in my story. I just got frustrated because there was no winning with these guys so I deleted all my stories for good. Honestly, fandom and TikTok has ruined HP for me.

I'm so sorry this happened to you. This is absolutely awful and honestly, the way the people who claim to care about the issues of the LGBTQ+ community in this fandom just carelessly throw around such accusations is disgusting and detrimental to the cause they preach to defend.

Writing straight characters as straight definitely doesn't make you a homophobe.

It's also interesting that, apparently, it's so important for these people to write no-sense against canon pairings just because they are homosexual that it's better than writing about healthy relationships. And let's remember how a great part of these pairings comes with the bashing of female characters. But as usual, misogyny is the last thing people care about.

I personally headcanon Albus as gay because I think it's hilarious that the only child of Harry and Ginny that is named after a Slytherin and a gay man is the one everybody decided is in Slytherin and gay. But I don't ship him with Scorpius. And you are not obliged to write Albus as a Slytherin or gay.

The only thing you need to worry about is if the character who is offering the point of view for the story knows about the sexualities of an enough large number of characters that it would be unrealistic to not have a certain percentage of characters who belong to the LGBTQ+ community (which is definitely not the 40%). Honestly, even in the original series, the only characters Harry had any business knowing the sexuality of are himself, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. It's not unrealistic for four characters to be straight. There certainly wasn't an agenda on the author's part about having that kind of representation in her story (and the social and historical context in which the books were published should be taken into consideration here) but there's nothing unrealistic about the lack of openly gay characters (I do still think she could've hinted at the Dumbledore/Grindelwald business in DH).

And mind you, I say this as someone who once wrote a book where the main character was the only straight person in her family.

Personally, I am a firm believer in buying, reading and discussing books that have actual representation instead of trying to change already well-established characters, because you are always going to mess up. Case in point: Tonks is a surrogate for Remus and Sirius, because apparently, Teddy Lupin needs to exist, even without his mother.

The majority of the books I read don't have romance, they are mostly obscure pieces of Scandinavian crime literature, but in the series Red Queen my favourite character is bisexual and my favourite ship is an f|f one (and the bisexual character is not part of the ship just to clarify). And all that stuff is canon. Because I've actually read other things besides Harry Potter in my life.

I'm really sorry about what happened to you. I hope you keep writing, because it's a beautiful, even if at times frustrating, art. Regardless of if that writing is original or fanfiction. Regardless of if you'll go back to publishing it or you'll keep it to yourself. That book I was talking to you about? It took me six years to write it, I'm the only one who has ever read it but I had the best time writing it and it was a beloved companion throughout most of my teenagehood.

[breaniebree]

Hello, Bree! This chapter is just mind blowing and truly amazing. I am ready to say goodbye to Sirius again but you made him alive!! Can't believe after all this time that we lose him , you found a way to bring him back alive and whole. You evil women!! If it is what cost other characters life , it is totally worth it (except Zee!!) But I just got a feeling that you will somehow also bring Zee back.

And finally seeing Harry break down is kind of a relieve, he really need to get it all out. I really hope Sirius can have his happy ending , he life is such a tragedy. Please bring Zee back to us all. Please, also keep Remus , Tonks and Teddy save. Bellatrix and Crouch are still a great danger now they target the Lupin's family .

I am so thankful that you have create this story, can't image it is going to end soon. I hope you will come back to continue the story in the future. Because reading Kismet Trilogy became my daily habit already. You don't know how much this story mean to me, really thank you for your work.(A tight hug!) Can't wait to read the next chapter!!

One question: Is it your original plan to bring back Sirius alive and whole in the fist place? If not, what change your mind?

Hi, @catherine0621

Thank you very much for saying the chapter was mind-blowing and amazing. I did find a way to keep Sirius which was so fun and made me so very happy.

Yes, Harry having his breakdown was a bit of a relief -- it was much needed.

Thank you very much for your kind words.

Was it my original plan to bring back Sirius? Yes and no. I wanted to and I knew I wanted him to return but I hadn't worked out every detail of how it was going to be possible or if I could pull it off. The amazingly talented @serioulysam8 helped me organize my thoughts in that sense and work out what I wanted to do. Then the wonderful @celtics534 helped me even more with the rest. Sometimes you need a writer friend to help make sense of your own brain LOL.

Thank you very much for reading!

[ao3feed-scorbus]

In Bloom

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/j1FMvil

by thestaircaseballet

"And thinking back upon those days, Way way back when I was young, I was such a little shit, Cos I was always on the run, Well you know just what they say, 'Just like father then like son', Don't delude me with your sympathy, Cos I can do this on my own."

A coming-of-age story exploring friendship amongst loneliness, learning to understand yourself and others, and learning how to grow. A story following Scorpius and Albus' friendship throughout their seven years at Hogwarts and what that entails.

Words: 1544, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Underage

Categories: M/M

Characters: Scorpius Malfoy, Albus Severus Potter, Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley, Dudley Dursley, Dudley Dursley's Children, James Sirius Potter, Lily Luna Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Rose Weasley, Hugo Weasley, George Weasley, Angelina Johnson, Fred Weasley II, Roxanne Weasley, Percy Weasley, Audrey Weasley, Molly Weasley II, Lucy Weasley, Charlie Weasley, Bill Weasley, Fleur Delacour, Victoire Weasley, Dominique Weasley, Louis Weasley, Molly Weasley, Arthur Weasley, Draco Malfoy, Astoria Greengrass, Daphne Greengrass, Delphi (Harry Potter), Yann Fredericks, Craig Bowker Jr., Karl Jenkins, Polly Chapman, Teddy Lupin, Neville Longbottom, Hannah Abbott, Original Characters

Relationships: Scorpius Malfoy/Albus Severus Potter

Additional Tags: Canon Compliant, Slow Burn, Friends to Lovers, Best Friends to Lovers, long fic, Cursed Child compliant, mental health, PTSD, Angst, Fluff, autistic! scorpius, adhd! James Sirius Potter, Slytherin! Albus, tags added as we go

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/j1FMvil

[velvethopewrites]

Ten Lines Tag Game

Thanks for the tag @startanewdream! Are these from posted works or WIPs? Hmm. This made me realize I haven’t posted a damn thing in an entire year (almost) so I’ll do both. 😬

Rules: Share the first lines of your ten most recent fics (or as many as you like if you don't have 10) and then tag some people.

From Crossroads:

The one thing about grief, Harry thought, was that it had no time limit. No rhyme nor reason, either. Indeed, it seemed to thrive on showing up and popping in whenever it felt like it.

From Loving is A Journey:

Ginny weeps at the funerals only.

She cries so hard for Fred - gut-wrenching, body-sobbing tears that she is embarrassed to think about. Then she cries for Tonks, knowing she will never see her friend's funny faces again. And finally, for Professor Lupin and his short, painful life. Ginny even cries a little bit for Teddy, who is of course, not dead, but now an orphan. His is a life that has barely begun but is already filled with so much pain. And it is pain that will wait for him until he is old enough to comprehend it.

From my unpublished first destiel, Accidentally On Purpose:

Sleeping together. Literally sleeping. (One half of them, at any rate)

Together.

The first time it happened, it happened sort of by accident. (Dean hated to think it had happened on purpose, but then again who knew about these things…)

(I admit I am not happy with the start of this fic at all and it has been re-worked 10,000 times until I wept and gave up, hence the ‘unpublished’, and me not posting for a year)

And from my other unpublished destiel, Two Guys & Some Pie:

Ah, yes. Early morning. That time of day that poets loved to wax…well, poetical about.  From the “fresh” start of the day, and the cherished alone time, to singing the praises of that sweet indulgence of the first cup of coffee. Not to mention the stanzas dedicated to the quiet, yet somehow musical sounds of the city just waking up, and the near ethereal sight of the sunrise breaking across the sky in various hues of purple and pink as the image warmed your soul and let you know your place in the world.

Dean, however, was not a poet.  He knew that all of that was complete bullshit.

From my unpublished (probably forever) original mystery story, simply going by the working title ‘Canyon Mystery’. (Great title, I know)

Hi. I’m Disney Jacobs. No, I don’t go by ‘Diz’ or anything else even resembling a nickname. Just Disney. And that’s enough. Yes, my parents were Disneyland freaks. Well, my mom was. She’d take us every year, until she got too sick to travel, but that’s another story. And the us refers to me, my older sister, and my younger brother. Yep, that’s right, I’m the trouble making middle child. The middle child with the weird name. My two siblings were given normal, run of the mill names. Heather and Aaron, to be precise. I’ve often wondered about the private bet my parents clearly had running and why Dad only lost it that one time (he got to name Heather and Aaron; me, not so much).

And I tag whomever wants to do it since no one does my tags, anyway, lol well, okay I’ll tag @late-to-the-fandom but I am fairly sure they’ve done it already, lol