#these aren't on my ao3 they're on my old wattpad account

[blue-thief]

i just realized during me free! phase i never even wrote any rinharu fics. the only free! fic i ever wrote was for natsurin and isugou 😭😭

[olderthannetfic]

I don't know if you're aware of this but the end of year AO3 stats posts are going around and one of the largest and longest running studies is extremely flawed (for example, reporting Dean/Cas had 2348 new works when they actually had 6456). Here's a post about it: https://www.tumblr.com/5ummit/738707388904898560/

--

Huh! I thought she was better at stats than this. We were on a panel together at one point, and she seems cool, but unfortunately, fandom stats are often not done all that well.

I know we all love graphs, but I want everyone to be critical of this stuff, including mine. I love Toast's work too, in addition to centreoftheselights, but I remember some old Wattpad stats where the methodology was to mark any work too incoherent to classify as gen... (LOL. Dude, have you seen Wattpad? Default gen, my ass!) There are tons of things wrong with every major fandom stats project or regular poster's work.

I haven't gotten on this soapbox lately, mostly because I've been too busy to run any of my own stats stuff heavily this year, but yeah... "Fandom stats" tend to consist of the same like... maaaaaaybe 4-5 fans, most of whom aren't statisticians.

I got invited to a con panel a few times based on... like... existing in public. And don't get me wrong: I do try to make sure shit I post is accurate and labeled as what it actually is, but I know I'm nothing hot when it comes to stats. I think I ask slightly smarter questions than usual and am willing to hand-count more things, but my actual "stats" are just "Here's the % of X. Here's the % of Y." and not a higher level analysis.

It's simply that the field is wide open with no competition. Aside from a tiny handful of repeat posters, it's just millions of randos grabbing the same few numbers from AO3 works search or filters and going "Gasp! Fandom has X% m/m!" (Ignoring that it's an AO3-only % and that everyone has access to this number and that it's a boring-ass thing to repost for the thousandth time.)

A new wrinkle is, of course, that if one uses one's personal account, one may have people muted. I suppose I'll have to get a new account if I want to be really accurate about stuff, though I think I currently only have 2 people muted and they're not prolific.

--

I don't want to put my own work down or that of the other people who post stats, but as audience members, we have got to get in the habit of reading the methodology section more carefully.

[thespacebetweenworlds]

Wattpad's Ban on Writing Underage Sex

Welcome to the post. First, let's get out of the way why I, a tumblr and ao3 user, care about Wattpad and why I think you should, too.

Wattpad has 2 major reasons why it is awesome. Language and accessibility. It's available and fully functional in 18 different display languages, and supports stories in even more languages. Without any knowledge of English, Wattpad is accessible and fully functional, even designed for use on a cellphone. There is no need for a browser, or a PC to store word files, or google docs. Wattpad allows users to draft and save ideas directly in the app. It is no suprise that the majority of Wattpad users are teenagers all around the world, who may not have access to a PC or laptop, who may not speak English and would have a much more difficult time writing on AO3, FFN, fictionpress, etc.

In recent years Wattpad has increased third party advertisements and added paid stories. In recent years Wattpad has also published and helped publish multiple young female writers globally. Wattpad is capitalist and for-profit, but that doesn't change that it has given voice, money and careers to its users. About 70% of Wattpad users are female, and most of us are millenials and gen z. As of september 2020, Wattpad had 90 million monthly users.

In 2024, Wattpad has changed their content guidelines, clarifying that while sexual content - the written, creative kind - is allowed, it is no longer allowed to be about characters under the age of 18. According to Canadian law, the age of consent is 18, so smut between fictional teens is no longer allowed. (An AI bot is going through Wattpad and randomly deletes works). Only weeks later, Wattpad has discontinued direct messaging between users, which caused a larger protest in the userbase.

Now here's my thesis:

Teenagers/under 18 year olds have sex, read about sex, and write about sex.

That's normal. It is the task of the adults in their life, be it parent, teacher, or social institution, to teach children about consent, safe sex, protection, and STDs. Disallowing, deleting and banning short stories, books, and other prose depicting sexual content is like preaching abstince: harmful.

The age requirement to create a Wattpad account is 13. Wattpad users who make an account are thus at least 13 years of age, and capable of reading. It's not an imposition to assume that users will be able to understand the meaning of a "mature" rating, and act according to their own wants and comforts.

What I mean to say it that saying "minors aren't allowed to read or write smut" is a nonsensical, puritanical, conservative statement. It is also wrong. By using it, you infantilise teenagers, you take away their agency, you say they're too young to know anything. When instead you should listen to them, and learn. Content ratings, tags, descriptions and warnings are important. It's also important that readers and writers can choose for themselves what content to engage with.

But Wattpad is a global community. Local laws hold power over online websites and apps. The age of consent, internet regulations for children, and youth protections are different in different countries; the definitions of words like "minor" and "adult" aren't universal. Now Wattpad is enforcing Canadian law. Wattpad is owned by the South Korean company Naver. Wattpad could decide to abide by different national laws at any time. What do we do when Wattpad announces that if characters have sex, they need to be married? What do we do when Wattpad announces that queer stories are now illegal? What do we do when Wattpad bans all sexual content?

Wattpad has always been a home to teenage writers. It has given creative voice to a generation and inspired millions of young people to write and read. With Wattpad's options for multimedia storytelling, it is challenging old ideas of literature. Wattpad may be host to some shitty works, but it is also host to astounding and profound works. That is true for every place where you find this much art.

Wattpad declared that with this new content guideline, this ban on fictional underage sex, they're building a safe space. Bullshit. If Wattpad wanted to do that, they would provide quality sex education on the website in all supported languages. Whatever Wattpad thinks it's doing, it's not protecting youth. It's discimination based on age, and censorship.

I don't know how to end this post. Maybe by saying that freedom of press is important. Maybe by saying that banning books isn't helpful. Maybe by reminding everyone that reading or writing smut is not shameful, never shameful. It can be empowering. It can be catharsis.

[roonilwazlibimagines]

the bet ch.1 - r.b x female reader

Blurb: reader is known for her strong type a personality and regulus and evan have been making fun of her for it since their first year at hogwarts, and they're still making fun of her for it almost three years out of high school when she shows up to their work place as the new potions maker Word Count: 6.1k A/N: this is the soft launch of my new regulus series - i think there is 9 chapters and they are all written (only the last two aren't edited) so really i could release them all in one go but idk if that is annoying so please tell me whether you want like daily updates or for me to just send it and upload them all - or if you want to read this on wattpad or ao3 this will be uploaded on their as well and the links to my accounts are in the post before this - anyways, let me know your thoughts or if you want to be tagged in upcoming chapters, i hope you like it ! Warnings - regulus and evan are a little misogynistic

Masterlist | ch.2 | ch.3 | ch.4 | ch.5 | ch.6 | ch.7 | ch.8 | ch.9 | ch.10 | FINISHED

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“Oi,” Evan Rosier snickered, nudging his friend with his elbow, “look who the new girl is.” His words caught the attention of the intended friend and Regulus Black lifted his head from his work to see who had got Evan winking in their direction. 

“No way,” Regulus chuckled, seeing the way her eyes squinted and the lines on her face etched into a look of disgust at his friend's action. 

Regulus hadn’t seen her since Hogwarts. 

She had quite the reputation. Which wasn’t a surprise considering she came from one of the oldest and therefore noblest wizarding families. She was in Slytherin, of course, and in the same year as Regulus and Evan. She was Quidditch Captain, Head Girl, and she was the top of every subject she took, much to Regulus’ annoyance. 

“Good to see you again,” Evan smirked as she made her way over to her new desk and Regulus found it odd to hear her actual name fall from his friends’ lips considering all of the nicknames they had been calling her since they were eleven years old. 

They never said it to her face, of course. They weren’t cruel. Nor did they ever want to offend the only daughter of one of the most powerful families in the wizarding world. But behind her back, they were pretty ruthless. 

It started a couple of months into their first year when all the Slytherins in their year were planning to go to the Black Lake Friday night after dinner. Sure, it was breaking almost every rule Hogwarts possibly had, but there was no more effective way to bond with a bunch of kids your own age than to go see if the legend of the Giant Squid was real. 

“Do you want to come with us?” Regulus asked her as Evan explained where everyone was going. She was sitting on one of the tables in the Common Room, doing her homework and she gave them a confused look. 

“No.” They were taken aback by her abruptness, but tried not to let it show. “Are you stupid? You’re breaking almost every rule, it’s freezing, and we have a Charms essay due on Monday.” 

“It was just a question,” Evan murmured under his breath while Regulus tried to muster up a smile and hope she didn’t hear his idiotic best friend. 

“No worries,” Regulus said, “good luck with your essay.” And they walked out of the Common Room. They shared a look as soon as the door shut behind them and they couldn’t help but burst out laughing. 

It was Regulus who began shushing Evan, suddenly remembering that it was way past curfew and if the Prefects found them, they’d have detention for the rest of the year. 

“She’s uptight, isn���t she?” Evan scoffed as they made their way to the Great Hall. 

“Was just trying to be nice,” Regulus said. 

“Exactly!” Evan exclaimed. “We didn’t have to invite her, it’s not like anyone else in the year wants her there.” 

Regulus thought his friend was being a bit harsh, but really, he couldn’t say he was wrong. She had friends in their year, but Regulus was willing to bet that most of them only stuck around with her for status. To be fair, it was the main reason he and Evan had asked her in the first place. They were sure no one had asked her and they were sure she’d be super grateful to them for inviting her, and maybe, they wouldn’t mind being on her good side. 

Obviously they were wrong. 

“Wish I could say the same.” She gave them both a sarcastic smile and took her seat opposite Regulus.

The old guy who used to sit in front of Regulus was his and Evan’s favourite coworker. He could barely hear the two friends chatting about anything but work all day, and he was always happy to be included in the joke whenever they decided to have a bit of fun with him. 

They had a feeling that she wouldn’t feel the same way. 

They were sad to see the old man go, but they couldn’t lie and say they weren’t interested in who was going to replace him. 

“Maybe it’ll be some hot chick,” Evan said, swinging around in his chair to face Regulus. Sure, it was a pain for them to be seated with their backs to the other, but at least they were in close proximity. 

“What? Like you’d have a chance with a hot chick?” Regulus chuckled, also swinging around in his chair. 

“I’d have more of a chance than you,” Evan teased, bringing the end of his quill to his mouth. 

Unfortunately, it was not some hot chick. 

“What brings you here?” Regulus inquired, raising his eyebrow as she brought out a bunch of stuff to place on her desk. Evan was kicking the back of his chair and he tried to ignore it as she gave them another tight lipped smile. 

“A job.” 

Evan gave his chair a harsh kick and Regulus smirked. 

“There’s our ice queen.” Evan leaned forward to murmur in Regulus’ ear, covering it up with a horrible cough that earned him an eye roll from the girl opposite Regulus. 

She earnt that nickname not even a week after the invitation episode. 

Evan and Regulus had practically been friends since birth, so it was no surprise that they spent most of their time together, and really, they couldn’t help it that they often got loud when they were together. 

“It doesn’t surprise me that neither of you know how a library works considering you haven’t done a minute of work since we got here, but it’s a common rule that you’re quiet.” She seathed, standing over their desk, causing their laughter to die down. 

“Excuse me?” Evan said, a dry laugh forming in his throat. It was late at night so it was only them and a few seventh years left at the tables. 

“Sorry, I’ll dumb it down for you,” she said sarcasticaly. “Shut up.” Regulus couldn’t help the laugh that spilled out of his mouth and Evan wasn’t much better and soon, their laughter was louder than it originally was. 

She scoffed at them and rolled her eyes, before walking back to her desk and collecting her things. She stormed out of the library but before she did, she made an effort to stop by their desk and send them the iciest glare she could muster. 

“What’s up her ass?” Evan scoffed once she was out of earshot. 

“Did you see that glare she gave us?” Regulus laughed and Evan’s laughter picked up again. 

“Might start calling her ice queen, Merlin.” Evan shook his head and leant back in his chair. 

The name stuck. Because neither of them really understood why she was so icy. And stuck up. But they knew she was arrogant, and spoiled, and rude, and uptight, and therefore, an ice queen. 

If Regulus was being honest, he wasn’t sure how he felt about her coming to work at his dream job. 

She had taken Quidditch Captain from him, she beat him at being top of the grade, and she got Head Girl when Regulus didn’t get Head Boy, and now, here she was, sitting across from him at the one thing that kept him going throughout all of that, acting as a constant reminder of all of this. 

Regulus knew since he was in his third year that he wanted to be a potions maker. Sure, when he had this in mind, he never pictured he would be sitting at a desk for most of the day, writing new recipes and notes for future potion ideas, but he was enjoying every second of it. And it only got better when his best friend told him that he would be organising the supplies for the same company. 

They had been doing this for 2 years now, almost three, and it had been two of the best years of his life. Up Until now. 

“So you’re making potions?” Regulus already knew the answer, but he needed to confirm that he would be partnered with her. 

“Is that a problem?” She raised an eyebrow at him as she placed her bag next to her desk. She had placed a small plant on the corner of her desk next to her drink bottle, some parchment on the other side along with her quill that would have cost a fortune with the way her name was engraved on the side, as well as a small clock that's tick was already getting on the two boys’ nerves. 

“Not at all,” Regulus shrugged, folding his arms across his chest and leaning back in his chair hoping that his demeanour looked like one that confirmed his lie. 

Sure, maybe the old guy kept messing up the potions because his eyesight was so bad he would get powdered bicorn horn confused with mint, but he let Regulus take the lead and Regulus had a pretty strong feeling that she wouldn't feel the same. 

While maybe she was Head Girl and Regulus wasn’t Head Boy, they had been Prefects together in their fifth and sixth year and she had been his Quidditch Captain for three years, so Regulus was all too familiar with her control issues. 

“What are you eating?” She had asked when he pulled out a muffin he had wrapped in a napkin and stuffed into his robe for tonight, specifically.  

“A muffin,” he shrugged, pulling the wrapper down and taking a bite. It was their first round as Prefects and Regulus wasn’t sure how he was going to survive another two years of her. 

“You can’t do that.” She stopped in the middle of the hallway and folded her arms. 

“Who says?” Regulus shrugged his shoulders and took another bite as he stopped in front of her. She scoffed. 

“We’re Prefects, we need to set an example.”

“I’m pretty sure students are allowed to eat the muffins the House Elves make for them.” He rolled his eyes. 

“Not when dinner is over.”

“It’s a muffin, relax.” Regulus exclaimed, taking the last bite and stuffing the wrapper back into his pocket. 

“I can’t believe I have to spend the next two years doing this with you.” She grumbled, hitting him with her shoulder as she pushed past him and kept walking. 

“Me neither,” he grumbled, following behind her and pushing down the urge to say something mean to her. It would only lead to a fight and like she said, they’d have to spend the next two years together doing this, there were plenty of future opportunities for fights. 

Besides, Regulus would never hear the end of it if his mother ever found out he was mean to the only daughter of one of the most noblest families in the wizarding community. 

That night when Evan asked how it went and Regulus recalled the muffin episode Evan laughed and exclaimed exactly where he’d like to shove that muffin and Regulus was glad he at least had Evan to understand the pain of spending that much time with her. 

“Why’d you have to get a job here?” Evan queried, and Regulus’ lips tugged upwards at his friend's lack of a filter. 

“Well I didn’t know you two would be working here otherwise I wouldn’t have applied.” She sighed, as if this was the worst thing to happen to her. 

“And if I knew you were applying here, I would have resigned,” Evan mumbled under his breath with the intention of only Regulus hearing, but her head snapped up at him and he was suddenly on the end of one of her icy glares and Regulus couldn’t help but chuckle. 

It wasn’t that they wanted to be mean to her. They were constantly balancing the thin line between being their usual arrogant selves and actually being mean to her.  

Their lives would be over if they ever actually offended her and this they were sure of. If she didn’t end it for them, her parents would be right there, ready to finish the job. They had seen it happen in their fifth year.

They only ever heard it from a friend of a friend, but the story went that the Ravenclaw Prefect had asked her out on a date and when she said no, his ego was bruised and he kept pestering her until finally, he got so annoyed that he hexed her. The hex he cast depended on who you asked. Some said it was the twitchy ears hex and some said it was the stickfast hex, but Regulus and Evan had a bet it was the horn tongue hex because she probably sounded just as annoying as a horn when she no doubt repeated ‘no’ over and over again. 

But while this was all speculation, it was a fact that after her parents came to Hogwarts to speak to Dumbledore about the incident, no one saw the Ravenclaw Prefect again. 

His friends couldn’t contact him and someone else was elected the new Ravenclaw Prefect. 

“Evan,” the boss called out, “I need our order for next month.” Evan turned around and got up, his parchment in hand as he brought it over to their boss.

“Good luck,” he murmured to Regulus before walking away and Regulus raised his eyebrows at him in contempt at the situation. 

She was watching them, a bored look on her face as she crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her fingers on her forearm, seemingly waiting for what Regulus wasn’t sure. 

He looked at her expectantly and she sighed. 

“So, what are we doing?” The way the office was set out was that their desks were touching each other, forcing them to face the other. Evan had his own desk that was facing another coworker who dealt with sales meaning his and Regulus’ chairs were back to back.  The other coworker wasn’t often in due to the nature of his role and Regulus was feeling a little envious of Evan right now.

On one side of the room were two doors, one that led to the boss’ office and one that led to the safety manager's office. On the other side, was the Potion brewing room, Regulus’ favourite room, and the break room, Regulus’ second favourite room.

It was only a small building, but there weren’t many people to occupy it and really, Regulus couldn’t complain. He was working with his best friend doing the job of his dreams and she was not going to ruin this. 

“I know what I’m doing, shouldn’t you know what you’re doing?” He gave her a cheeky grin and she grimaced back

“When I arrived she said Mr Black would tell me what I’d need to do, so I can always go and tell her that you don’t know how to do your job, if that’s what you want?” She gave him an innocent look and Regulus’ grin dropped. He sighed dramatically, swivelling in his chair and tapping the end of his quill on his desk. 

“Fine,” he huffed, “I’m working on a potion that can cure general symptoms of sickness. Muggles have a drug for it, but it doesn’t work for all illnesses, but we’re sure we can make it better.” 

“So why haven’t you?” She asked, leaning forward so her elbows were resting on her desk. Regulus resisted the urge to roll his eyes. 

“Well we think we have all the ingredients right, but as soon as we add billywig sting slime it starts to burn.”

“Just put some wartcap powder in it then.” Regulus wouldn’t admit it, but he was impressed she had thought of that straight away. He didn’t think of it until a week after his potion had burst into flames right in front of him. But then again, there was a reason she was top of their grade, and now he knew it wasn’t because her parents paid the school. 

“Yes, but that counteracts the effects of the fluxweed.”

“Oh.” She hummed, trying to think. 

“Do you have a list of the ingredients and methods you’ve tried?”

Regulus passed over his parchment and watched as she tried to make out his scribbles that held all of the work he had done in the last three weeks condensed into one page. 

She took her time reading over it so Regulus took this chance to go over to the bookshelf behind her and get one of the textbooks to figure out what ingredient he could try next. 

“Use vervain infusion instead of fluxweed, it still has the same healing properties, and wartcap powder won’t affect it.” 

Standing behind her, Regulus slammed the book shut, put it away, and grabbed the piece of paper out of her hand. He wasn’t sure why. He pretended to read it over, but he already knew she was right. 

How could he be so stupid? Of course. Vervain infusion. They learnt that in their second year. This was basic knowledge. 

“Well I won’t be able to test it until Friday.” It was Monday. Brewing days were on Friday. If they were exceptionally busy, they could do it on Thursday as well, but they needed time to prepare all of the ingredients, do a risk assessment and get permission from their boss. 

“Okay,” she dragged out the last syllable, “now what?” 

“Think of your own potion.” He gave her a small smile and she nodded, standing up to grab a book and flick through it for some inspiration. 

Regulus spent the rest of the morning filling out the forms for his trial on Friday. A part of him wanted the vervain to work because he had been working on this potion for too long, but another part of him didn’t want her to be right. 

How embarrassing. Regulus had been doing this for two years and it barely took her twenty seconds to solve his issue for him, he’d never live it down. 

She spent the rest of the morning flicking through her book, occasionally scribbling and occasionally sighing. Regulus couldn’t help but look up every few minutes or so. Mostly out of spite. 

She was here, ruining his dream job and she didn’t even know it or even care. 

And then there was the ticking from her stupid clock. Regulus wanted to grab it and smash it on the ground, but if he didn’t get suspended for that, he’d be fired and he wasn’t willing to get fired because of her. 

“Oi.” He was brought out of his thoughts by a kick to his chair and he swivelled around to face Evan. “Are we going to the game on Saturday?”

“Can’t, it’s my brother's birthday.” 

“And since when do you care?”

“My mother’s making him come over for dinner, I don’t know.”

“But it’s the semifinals.”

“I know, but I-” he was cut off by a scoff. “Are you alright there?” He queried, turning his neck to watch her look up from her book. 

“I’m fine.” She smiled up at him sweetly and he rolled his eyes as he turned to face his friend and widened his eyes in annoyance. 

“We’ll talk on our break,” Evan murmured and they both turned back around to their work. 

So Regulus continued filling out the forms and when he was finished, he tried to think of a new potion idea that he could work on after he succeeded with this one. 

His last one had been a medical related one as well, one that got rid of a stomach ache, and he was beginning to think that his mind was becoming fuzzy with doing the same thing over again and therefore needed a change. 

This was probably the reason she had solved the issue immediately. She had new eyes, Regulus did not. 

“What about an anti-acne potion?” She asked and Regulus looked up to make sure she was speaking to him. 

“What, like ten second pimple vanisher, or blemish blitzer?”

“Yeah, but they always leave scars,” she argued and Regulus made an effort to keep eye contact with her. 

“Well then there’s bubotuber pus and scar diminishing serum.” She huffed and Regulus was glad that he had this over her. 

“It’s hard thinking of a new potion,” he said, unsure why he was trying to console her, “sometimes it takes me weeks.” He also wasn’t sure why he let her in on that piece of information, but she turned back to her book and Regulus turned back to his parchment, hoping that she wouldn’t talk to him again. 

At twelve on the dot she looked up at him and Regulus could see out of the corner of his eye that she was trying to muster up the courage to say something. 

After a few seconds, she did. 

“When’s lunch?”

“Twelve,” he said, without taking his eyes off his parchment. 

“Do we all have lunch at twelve?”

“Yes.” 

“Do we have to go to the breakroom?” 

“No.” 

She wanted to roll her eyes at him, she wanted to thank him sarcastically for helping her, but she didn’t want to make things worse between them. 

It wasn’t that things were bad between her and these two boys specifically, it was that things were bad between her and pretty much everyone. 

She had always had trouble making friends and she knew most of that was her fault. If they weren’t too scared to make eye contact with her because of her status, they were annoyed with her because she was stuck up and had an overwhelming type a personality. 

And maybe, Evan and Regulus liked to get under her skin and she knew she only gave them exactly what they wanted when she reacted the way she did, but they were adults now, working together in a proper job and she wasn’t going to be the reason this was ruined. 

It wasn’t even as if they were mean to her. She was probably meaner to them. They always made sure their comments were just sly enough that hearing them without the tone they used could make them sound nice and she knew this probably had more to do with her last name than it ever did about feelings, but she knew the true intentions behind their words and she knew that they probably spoke horribly of her behind her back. She wasn’t stupid. 

Nor did she care. She knew how she came across and she wasn’t trying to make herself pleasant for anyone’s likeness. 

She didn’t want to be the first person to move for lunch, but she was starving and she needed to use her hour wisely. It’s scary starting a new job and even if she acted like she was confident coming in this morning, she had spent half an hour this morning debating on whether or not to bring a homemade lunch, or go buy it. 

In the end she decided to bring a homemade lunch but was prepared to leave to buy lunch just in case that was what everyone did. 

She wasn’t sure what Regulus and Evan were doing, but she knew she did not want to be with them in the breakroom. Alone. 

She wasn’t sure if the boss would come in, but she had a strong feeling she wouldn’t. She had only met the safety manager once and she hadn’t made a move for the breakroom either so her chances weren’t looking good. 

“Well, I’m going to buy my lunch.” 

“Okay,” Regulus responded, still no one making a move for lunch. 

“It’s twelve, so I’m going to leave now.” She grabbed her bag and stood up. 

“Goodbye.” He heard her sigh, but he still refused to look up from his parchment until he heard the door click. Immediately he sat up and turned to face Evan. 

“Cannot believe the ice queen is here, in our place of work, what are the chances?” Regulus was glad Evan was finding the humour in this situation. 

“How long do you think she’ll last?” Regulus asked, as they stood up, went into the break room, and got their lunch out of the fridge.  

“I don’t know mate, she’s pretty stubborn,” Evan chuckled as he placed his food in the microwave and set the timer. The low hum of the microwave was drowned out by Regulus’ laugh. 

It was odd. They barely spoke to her at Hogwarts. They only spoke when they were forced to and probably more Regulus than Evan considering they were both Prefects, but somehow, Regulus and Evan were very involved in her life. 

Not literally. She was just that one person that their conversations always drifted back to. It was probably because of her last name. She was practically royalty, or maybe more of a celebrity, so it was easy to detach the person from the body, especially when she acted the way she did. 

When she’d sit by herself in the corner of the front row and sit by herself in the Common Room on the weekends, away from the rest of the people in their year who were happy to mingle. When they’d heard her say ‘no’ more times than they’d ever heard her say anything else and when rumours about her seemed to spread like wildfire in the school because it seemed everyone else had the same problem as Regulus and Evan. 

It wasn’t to be cruel, it was just funny to them. She was so uptight and rigid and it was easy to get a reaction out of her. Besides, she always fought back just as strongly, so they didn’t see the harm in it. 

When she was Head Girl and used to break up their Saturday night parties at 1am Evan would try to send her a glare as icy as hers while Regulus kept trying to get her to join. 

“Maybe you’d be a little less stressed if you had some fun.” 

“I will get Slughorn if you do not end this within the next half hour.” 

And Evan and Regulus would roll their eyes and make some funny faces to the other while she turned her back, but they always ended the party.

“Just ask the Ravenclaw Prefect,” Regulus joked and Evan chuckled as they both rested their backs on the bench. 

“I’d still pay a lot of money to know what happened to him.” 

“I feel like the only way to know is to receive the same fate as him.” 

“I’m surprised they didn’t obliviate our memory of him just to really seal the deal of craziness.” They stood there for a few beats of silence before Evan broke it again. “Oh well, at least she’s hot. She’s gotta be better to stare at than our old mate who left us.” Regulus made a considered movement with his head. 

“I guess so.”

“C’mon,” Evan whined, “you don’t think she’s attractive?” Regulus hummed. 

“I guess.”

“You guess?” Evan shot him an incredulous look. “She’s a pain but I’d do anything to get just one night with her.” He let out a mix of a moan and a groan that had Regulus giving him a funny look. 

“She’d probably make you wash your hands before you ever got to touch her.”

“She’d probably watch me to make sure I cleared them right, but I’d happily do it,” Evan said as the microwave beeped and he took his container out. He mixed it around with his fork while Regulus turned to put his lunch in. 

“And you really think she’d even agree to this?” He shut the microwave door and turned back around, the hum of the microwave once more filling the room. 

“No way,” he scoffed, his mouth full of food, “but a man can dream.” 

“I’m sure you do.” Regulus gave him a grimace and Evan nodded. 

“I definitely do,” he confirmed. “I seriously can’t believe you don’t find her attractive, though.”

“I mean, if the offer was there, I guess I’d also take the opportunity to have a night with her.” 

“That’s my boy,” Evan chuckled, moving to sit down at the small table, while Regulus stayed leaning against the bench with the microwave on it. “You know what though, I feel like you’d have a pretty good chance. More of a chance than me.” It was hard to take Evan seriously when he was stuffing his mouth with leftovers and so Regulus chuckled. 

“What makes you say that?” 

“You’re from a pretty noble family, you’re not unattractive and you’re pretty good at getting in girls’ pants,” Evan was pointing his fork at Regulus and Regulus shook his head as both of them recalled just how successful Regulus had been at getting into girls pants both in and out of Hogwarts. 

“I don’t know, she’s like a whole other creature, she’s barely human.” 

“Don’t doubt yourself Reggie,” Evan tsked, “I bet if you tried hard enough you could get in her pants in a month's time.” 

“You bet, do you?” Regulus asked, the corners of his lips tugging into a smirk. 

“Yep, I’m even willing to put money on it.” 

“How much?” 

“A hundred galleons.” 

“Is that all? I’m pretty sure she’s going to hex me as soon as I go within five feet of her.” 

“Fine, three hundred galleons.” 

“Make it five hundred and you have a deal.” Evan shook his head, grateful that while he had a well paying job, he also came from a very well off family where this amount of money wasn’t a big deal to him. 

“Really?” Regulus shrugged. 

“Why not? Might make sitting across from her interesting.” 

“Alright, if you get in her pants in a month's time then I’ll give you five hundred galleons and if you don’t, you give it to me.”

“Last condition,” Regulus said as the microwave beeped and he took his food out and brought it over to sit next to his friend. “Make it three months.” Evan gave him a look. “Come on, you know what she’s like. She’s not going to warm up to me after almost ten years of being the ice queen.” Evan sighed. “And besides, there’s Christmas and New Years in between that and we won’t be at work.”

“I feel like you’re setting me up to lose.”

“And you’re setting me to get my dick bit off, are you in?” Evan chuckled. 

“I’m in.” 

Regulus put his hand out and Evan reached out to shake it. 

“Maybe her coming here wasn’t that bad after all,” Evan smirked, suddenly excited for lunch to be over. 

Her break was spent a little differently. She had gone to the park across the street and sat at one of the benches eating the squished sandwich she had hurriedly put together this morning. When she walked in early this morning to meet her boss and some of the first words that left her mouth were, “You’ll be working closely with Regulus Black, I think you would have gone to school with him.” She knew this was going to be a shit show. 

She had heard a rumour that Regulus and Evan worked together and she knew they were horrible together, she’d spent seven years of her life learning this. 

She knew they didn’t like her and she knew they’d never admit it, but she also knew that she never had time for them and their foolish ways so it never really bothered her.

“He’s the other potions maker here and Evan Rosier looks after our orders and supplies, so at least you have some familiar faces.” She smiled at her boss thankfully as if those two boys would actually help her if she needed it. “So if you have any questions, get them to Regulus, he’ll be there to help you.” Sure, she thought, but she smiled and made her way out to see Evan already looking up at her and nudging Regulus. She knew when she applied that she would be working with someone else, it was marketed as a position in a team, but she never would have imagined who else would be in that team. 

She spent the hour at the park, sitting on the bench and watching some of the children play in the park and she didn’t leave until a quarter to one, even if the walk back to the office was barely five minutes. 

She didn’t want to spend any more seconds with those two boys than she had to, so when she finally got back to the office and put her bag back down by her desk, she started working again, even if she still had ten minutes left. 

Evan and Regulus were still in the break room and she could hear them laughing and chatting, but as soon as her clock turned to one, the laughter stopped and they made their way out quietly of the breakroom and back to their desks. 

She didn’t give them the satisfaction of looking up, but after barely a minute of silence, she felt Regulus lean over his desk so his head was closer to hers. 

“Thought of any ideas yet?” She couldn’t help but squint her eyes up at him, why did he care? 

“Not yet.” Was all she said and Regulus lent back in his chair. 

“Well let me know if you need any help,” he said, before bringing out the applications he was working on before lunch. 

“Okay,” she said, a hint of unsureness in her tone. They were weird words coming from the boy who just over an hour ago was reluctant to help her. Maybe the boss had spoken to him?

She raised her eyebrows and shook her head before going back to work, but she could feel Regulus’ eyes on her every few minutes. She wanted to scream at him and ask what his problem was, but she didn’t think it would be a good look on her first day. 

No more significant exchanges were passed between them and her for the rest of the day. Occasionally Evan would kick the back of Regulus’ chair and they’d turn around and have a conversation. She wanted to roll her eyes and tell them that it seemed nothing had changed since Hogwarts, but she was trying to make a good impression. 

Not only did she want to put the past behind them in this very adult job, she also wouldn't put it past the two of them to dob on her like they were school children again, so she was trying to be on her best behaviour. 

At three on the dot, Regulus sighed and started packing away his parchment. He had filled out the forms for his trial on Friday and walked over to hand it over to his boss. When he came back, everyone was starting to pack up and so she followed suit. 

She put her water bottle, parchment and pen back in her bag and turned around to put her book back on the shelf. When she turned back around, Regulus was standing in front of his desk, packed to go home, and facing her. 

She tried to cover the funny look she went to give him by looking down to push her chair in, but she wasn’t sure she had been successful when she looked back up to see Regulus smirking at her. 

“Did you think of an idea yet?” 

“No,” she said, giving a curt shake of her head. 

“That’s okay, like I said, sometimes it takes me weeks. Maybe we’ll get a request during the week anyway, so I wouldn’t stress about it too much.”

“Okay.”

“Are you going home now?”

“Yes,” she said, they were still standing in front of their desks. “Are you?”

“Yeah,” Regulus said, finally making a move to leave the office. Evan had already left which she found odd considering she was sure they were inseparable, but she moved to follow him regardless. “Well, apparate safely,” he said when they got to the door, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

What a strange boy, she thought when he apparated away without giving her a chance to say goodbye. She shook her head and sighed before doing the same. 

She wasn’t sure what was going to come out of this job, but she had a feeling that it was going to be nothing less than interesting with those two beside her.

[errorcode582]

ff.net has been in complete shambles for the past several years and is a notorious hive for plagiarism. The mods also nuked thousands of fics from the platform for reasons ranging from justified to incredibly questionable, and the site has had two of these mass purges in its lifetime. It's also been on the decline for years with constant outages, unresponsive mods, and a piss-poor tagging and search function. The owners of the site do not seem keen on even really giving the base code a spit shine, and I'd really question the security of it overall. I would not be surprised if they have a major data breach in the years to come. Don't get me wrong, I love it to death in a nostalgic way, but I can see why it's not exactly a great place to post fic these days.

Wattpad, usually the second site mentioned in these discussions, hosts tagged erotica alongside the rest of its content with no filter by default. This means you can find erotica in any search query you use unless you specifically exclude the tag. It's also a notorious hive for rpf, and allows rpf erotica. It also allows sexual content of 16 year olds, as it states in its code of conduct that, quote, "the age of consent is 16+ on Wattpad".

And really, those are the only notable contenders against ao3. Any other website you could list would fall into "niche" territory, and most writers do want their work to be seen so they can gain traction and potentially a clientele later on if they want to enter writing professionally. Plus, blogging sites like Tumblr tend to not be very conducive to posting fic as they aren't designed with a book format in mind, so word limits are tighter, you have to manually stitch a sort of chapter browser together by yourself as you post the fic, readers will encounter your fic in reverse chronological order, and honestly I could go on. Plus, Tumblr's tagging system is also complete garb, and if people don't reblog your fic, you're SOL. So, while I've heard of Fanfiction Online and have seen some promise in Quotev (I've made an account there recently, so consider that a "to be continued"), sadly, in terms of usability and popularity, all alternatives are overshadowed to the point of complete obscurity by the behemoth that is ao3.

Trust me, I hate that website and the cesspool it plays host to. Ever since I learned just how bad it was over there, I haven't spent a single second of my time on it. However, I can't blame aspiring writers for using it in the same way I can't blame other content creators for using YouTube rather than Dailymotion or Vimeo, despite YouTube's openly predatory practices towards their artists and child audiences (the Elsagate stuff never stopped, they're just using Mickey and Sonic now). The site holds a soft monopoly over the realm of fanfiction publication, and it's going to take a website that directly outclasses it in terms of user-friendliness to even really start giving it trouble and to convince the majority of the audience to switch over.

I'm all for taking as much of an audience away from that hellhole as possible though, so I'll gladly vouch for any alternative website that directly outclasses ao3 purely by design. Hell, ao3's code is completely open-source. If anyone manages to literally make a better ao3 (maybe even implementing those lofty promises of multimedia support that they've been harping on for years, hm?), I'll make an account on there the moment I hear of it and spread the word of it as far as I can manage.

Honestly, I think it really speaks to the state of fan culture overall that the best place to view and post fanfiction online is a csem hive, and I really want to change that message if I can. Unfortunately though, as much as I want a viable alternative, we're stuck between YouTube and Dailymotion, and I cannot blame anyone for wanting to stay away from Dailymotion.

Also @proship-blocklist since it was your post that was involved in this, feel free to add your input as an author/reader if you feel so inclined.