#weasleys vs malfoys

[fanfic-lover-girl]

Double Standards: Malfoys vs Weasleys Edition

I'm on a roll, baby! TWO double standards today! All from book 4!

Nepotism/Favoritism

Moody’s magical eye spun around to stare at Ron; Ron looked extremely apprehensive, but after a moment Moody smiled – the first time Harry had seen him do so. ‘You’ll be Arthur Weasley’s son, eh?’ Moody said. ‘Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago …”

. . . my husband, Arthur, has just managed to get prime tickets through his connections at the Department of Magical Games and Sports.

Fudge, who wasn’t listening, said, “Lucius has just given a very generous contribution to St Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, Arthur. He’s here as my guest.”

Bonus from Book 5

Harry distinctly heard the gentle clinking of what sounded like a full pocket of gold. ‘Really, just because you are Dumbledore’s favourite boy, you must not expect the same indulgence from the rest of us … shall we go up to your office, then, Minister?’

What I find most notable here is the difference in nature between the scenarios. The Malfoys' nepotism is more quid pro quo. Charity donations and political bribery. Whereas Authur Weasley seems to have used his position to help people like the Bagmans skirt the law. A government official helps another official's relative with a sketchy situation and in return, he gets expensive, premier seats?! Sounds a bit corrupt to me.

But hardly anyone in HP fandom has an issue with nepotism when the Weasleys do it. Nope, it's only bad when the rich Malfoys do it, duh!

Discrimination

Mum’s writing to the Muggles to ask you to stay. We’re coming for you whether the Muggles like it or not, you can’t miss the World Cup, only Mum and Dad reckon it’s better if we pretend to ask their permission first. Ron, it’s all OK, the Muggles say I can come.

Mr Malfoy’s eyes had returned to Hermione, who went slightly pink, but stared determinedly back at him. Harry knew exactly what was making Mr Malfoy’s lip curl. The Malfoys prided themselves on being pure-bloods; in other words, they considered anyone of Muggle descent, like Hermione, second-class.

Bonus: Weasley hypocrisy

“That’s sick,” Ron muttered, watching the smallest Muggle child, who had begun to spin like a top, sixty feet above the ground, his head flopping limply from side to side. “That is really sick…”

What I found very fascinating is how the discrimination is presented. The Weasleys' disgusting prejudice towards muggles is very casual. It's treated as normal and acceptable: for heaven's sake, Harry (our wonderful hero) even participates in dehumanizing his relatives. I bet most HP readers don't even bat an eye - JKR has trained the reader to accept muggle dehumanization. Yet, what I find strange is that Harry has to literally spell out the Malfoy's distaste for Hermione. Why is JKR wasting her time with this? By book 4, we already know how the Malfoys feel about Hermione. I think it's another indicator of JKR's crappy writing.

Anyway, after we see the appalling way the Weasleys treat the Durselys and the Grangers, JKR expects her readers to swallow Ron acting as a moral compass when he sees the muggle family being tortured? Please.

People need to remember that we are the muggles. Would you prefer the Malfoys who hate all things muggle and mainly want their world to be separate from muggles and keep to themselves (which Draco said way back in book 1 when he met Harry)?? Or would you prefer the Weasleys who have little respect for muggles and have little qualms about invading your home and bodily autonomy?

As a black woman, I prefer a KKK racist who lives far away from me and who I will probably never see in my lifetime. Compared to a white liberal who causally asks me degrading questions every day like why my English is so good when I am from Jamaica. Or anyone else for that matter who makes me feel insecure about my culture and abilities. All under the guise of being a so-called ally.

Truly, between the Malfoys and Weasleys, who has caused muggles more harm on screen or on paper?? I don't know how many people Lucius hurt as a DE besides the poor Roberts family but given JKR treats muggles as NPCs in her books, I guess those rando people Lucius may have killed don't matter :(. And why were muggles there anyway?! At a wizarding event?! That poor Mr. Roberts being treated worse than a dog by people who are supposed to be pro-muggle leaning.

At that moment, a wizard in plus-fours appeared out of thin air next to Mr Roberts’s front door. “Obliviate!” he said sharply, pointing his wand at Mr Roberts. “Been having a lot of trouble with him. Needs a Memory Charm ten times a day to keep him happy.”

Sigh. Muggles deserved better. Forget Draco calling Hermione a mudblood. Like that slur means anything to Hermione anyway. Or has any meaningful impact. Muggles are the true victims in these books.

[shrimpalbuspotter]

Albus getting ready to dress up in the colours of whichever house is going against Gryffindor in whatever Quidditch game Scorpius has dragged him to (this was during the phase where Scorpius insisted Albus had to spend more time with his relatives and what's better than going to watch them play?) (This is purely to be petty) (he is currently glaring at James Sirius and Rose from atop the Slytherin benches, wearing more yellow than he has in his whole life) (He is going to get hexed so bad by his housemates after this) (it's totally worth it)

[adekalyn]

*Professor McGonagall assigning Draco and Ron together on a group project*

Professor McGonagall: What’s the matter between you two?

Draco: There’s a language barrier.

Professor McGonagall: What do you mean there’s a language barrier? He’s speaking English, Mr. Malfoy.

Draco: I know but he’s a blood traitor.

[simon-snowing]

remember when harry and george beat the shit out of malfoy after a quidditch match? yeeeaaa good soup good soup

[braveclementine]

Chapter 17

Warnings: None. However, future chapters will contain sexual content so readers that are under the age of 18 may have to skip those chapters (However they are very few so those under the age of 18 can still read a majority of this book. However please keep note of the warnings).

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

🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡

𝕴 𝖜𝖆𝖘 𝖘𝖙𝖎𝖑𝖑 a cat in the morning. A hand kept running over my head in soothing motions and I twitched an ear. "Morning." Severus whispered in my ear. I rolled over onto my back and stretched, my paws reaching up towards the ceiling and then I flopped onto my side, all four paws on the right side of my body and mewed, closing my eyes again.

He chuckled. "Tired?"

"Meow."

"Figures." He said, sounding amused. "You were up late last night."

I meowed again, standing up on his chest, and stretching. Then I walked across his chest and licked his cheek with my tiny tongue. Then I hopped off the bed and became human again.

"Oh good." He said, standing up too. He pushed me against the wall and kissed me roughly. I closed my eyes, welcoming everything.

He moved his lips to the side of my neck. "Careful." I whispered. "You already left one mark on me and Umbridge is still poking around." But I was shivering with excitement.

"You don't seem to want me to be careful." He whispered gently, his lips touching my neck. I could just barely fell the tip of his tongue.

"It's your head. . ." I muttered weakly.

He bit me gently and I let out a little moan of ecstasy, trembling with anticipation. I moved my hand so that I could lift his face to mine and I was so rough in my kiss that I accidentally bit his bottom lip- it really wasn't intentional. He wrapped his arms around me so tight I thought he was going to break something and I could feel my back pressed up against the wall.

I could feel his long hair against my face, I could feel one hand on the small of my back, the other wrapped underneath my ass. I could feel his lips and his tongue on mine. I felt everything. Goosebumps rose up on my arms and I tightened them around the back of his head.

"Fuck. . ." I muttered softly.

"How bad you are." he whispered, his lips a quarter of an inch above mine. I had another heart palpitation at those words. "You really should be good. . ." and he pressed his lips to mine again.

🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡

"𝕳𝖎 𝕳𝖆𝖗𝖗𝖞." 𝕴 said brightly, joining him and Ron in the Great Hall for lunch. He looked very downcast and kept shooting looks up at the teachers table. "What's wrong?"

"Umbridge went to the Minister again." Harry spat out. "Fred, George, and I still got the life time ban and she took our brooms."

"What!" I asked, my smile dropping off my face and I sat down. "She can't. . . I guess she can. . ."

"But the Minister said you did nothing wrong apparently." Hermione said soothingly to me. "So you're still Captain. She can't do anything about it."

"And Draco?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"Still on the Slytherin team." Ron said bitterly. "His father probably bribed the Minister or something."

Hagrid reappeared at the teacher's table at that moment. Fred, George, and Lee ran up the aisle, roaring with delight to shake Hagrid's hands. I saw other students, however, exchange gloomy glances, especially at the Ravenclaw table.

"Tuesdays going to be a nightmare for you guys." I muttered. "At least I get him tomorrow morning."

Monday morning I trooped down to Hagrid's cabin along with the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. Hagrid was waiting for us, a dead cow slung over his shoulders. Many of the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws exchanged nervous glances with each other.

"We're workin' in here today! Bit more sheltered! Anyway, they prefer the dark. Right, well, I've bin savin' a trip inter the forest fer yer fifth year. Though we'd go an' see these creatures in their natural habitat. Now, what we're studyin' today is pretty rare, I reckon I'm probably the on'y person in Britain whos' managed ter train 'em. Now then, if yer all ready, let's go an' see 'em."

Hagrid turned and strode into the forest and I followed behind him quickly. The others came after me.

We walked for about ten minutes and we came to a place where the trees stood so closely together that it was almost as dark as though it was twilight. Hagrid dropped the cow on the ground and turned to face the class. His face was a mess but it was well hidden here.

"Gather roun', gather roun'. Now, they'll be attracted by the smell o' the meat but I'm goin' ter give 'em a call anyway, 'cause they'll like ter know it's me." He turned and cupped his hands around his mouth and made some sort of shrieking call. He did it twice more.

I saw them first. Their eyes were blank, white, and shiny. It was hard to see anymore of their body considering they were black in color. The class didn't see them though and from the looks of it, I was the only one who could see them.

"Oh, an' here comes another one!" Hagrid called out and with a shock, I realized that Hagrid could see them. It had never occurred to me before that he could. And I wondered briefly who he had seen die. His father perhaps? But I was sure he'd been at Hogwarts when that happened.

"An' another!" Hagrid said excitedly as a third showed up. "Now put yer hands up, who can see 'em?"

I was the only one in class who raised my hand. I saw some of the Ravenclaws murmuring.

"Yeah. . . I knew you'd be able ter, Elizabeth. Tha' it?" Hagrid asked, looking around. "So these creatures are called Thestrals. Hogwarts has got a whole herd of 'em here. Now, who knows why one of yeh can see it, and other's can't?"

I raised my hand again.

"Go on Elizabeth."

"Only people who have seen someone pass away can see Thestrals." I said, putting my hand down. "That's why people associate them with bad omens. But they aren't really a bad omen, it's only because of the death situation."

"Tha's exactly right." Hagrid said happily. "Ten points ter Hufflepuff. Now, Thestrals usually come as large herds. This particular herd started with five females and one male. This one, name o' Tenebrus, he's my special favorite, firs' one born here in the forest after the male mated with one of the females." He was putting his hand on one of the horses but to everyone else, it looked like it was floating in midair.

Hagrid continued to give us a rundown of the facts about Thestrals and when class was over, I eavesdropped on some of the Ravenclaws.

"That wasn't a horrible lesson." Terry was saying to Anthony, "In fact, as standards go, it was a very interesting lessons. I wonder who Kane watched die."

"It sounds horrible when you put it that way." Anthony said, frowning. "But her parents passed away when she was a baby, maybe it was them."

"Maybe it was Cedric." Terry said and looked over and saw me looking and blushed. I rolled my eyes as they sped up towards the castle.

The next day in Herbology, I saw that Hermione's face was absolutely livid and I assumed the worst.

"You were right." Hermione snapped before I could open my mouth to say anything. "She was absolutely horrible to him."

I kept my mouth shut because Hermione seemed very pissed at me though I wasn't sure why. Then she confronted me after class and I was quite aware about why now.

"You should've told him!" She said angrily as we headed back into the castle. "You should've told him what was going to happen."

"Bloody hell, I'm sorry." I muttered. "But I already tried warning him and you did too and he didn't listen."

There was so much to be done as we entered December too. Hufflepuff played Ravenclaw and though I had foreseen us losing, I caught the snitch in under 17 minutes. I checked the scores and saw that we had won. I wondered why that was but I wasn't going to complain.

There were things to be done as a prefect as well. We had to supervise Christmas decorating, watch first and second-years during their breaks inside classrooms, and also patrol the corridors more often.

I was going to be going home for Christmas. Well, not home home. I was going to Grimmauld place. I hadn't told Sirius but I assumed he'd be happy when I showed up on his doorstep regardless.

I was spending a lot of time in Severus' office when I wasn't doing anything else. I hadn't been back in the forest and I was getting angsty and liked to get rid of my pent up energy by wrestling with him.

"It's freezing in here." I said, my robes draped over the chair. I was sitting in the chair, my feet propped up on his desk while he graded homework and I graded tests. It was cold in the dungeons- I could see my breath misting in the air. "How do you stand it down here?"

"Practice." He said simply. "You get used to it after a while."

I shivered, marking an answer off on the test because it was wrong. My hands started grow numb with cold and I kept putting the quill down to rub my hands together to warm them up again.

Once I was done with the tests, I put them back on his desk and sat down on his bed, wrapping myself in his warm blankets and closed my eyes. I could hear the brief scratches of his quill on the parchment. I dozed briefly until I heard the quill scratches stop and the sound of shoes falling onto the floor.

The bed creaked and he pulled me down so that I was laying next to him. I pressed my feet up against his leg. Somehow, he was still very warm.

"You are cold." He said, sounding immensely surprised and I giggled.

"I did tell you." I said, amused.

"I think your lips are blue." He said seriously.

I pressed my face into his neck. He shivered now. I hesitated for a second and then, blushing, gently bit him. He jumped, not expecting it.

"Did I hurt you?" I asked, pulling away quickly, a worried expression on my face.

He looked at me like it was the first time he was seeing me. "Bloody hell Elizabeth." He said weakly. My hand was on his chest and I could feel his heart was pounding twice as fast as it normally did.

I grinned and lowered my lips back to the same spot, teasing him. He let out a shuddering breath, his hands on my waist. He wasn't pushing me away or pulling me to him, it was more like he was trying to steady himself.

I'd never done this before, but as his heart started to beat faster, I knew I must be doing something right as I ran my tongue down his neck slowly. Then my hands were on the front of his shirt, undoing the upper buttons. He had completely frozen as I finished unbuttoning the last button.

I'd often wondered what he looked like underneath. Sometimes I imagined abs. Sometimes I imagine a smooth stomach. I knew he wasn't fat. I was, however, incredibly impressed with what I saw. He had a full six pack of abs. They weren't the ridiculous kind either that body builders had. He was just. . . solid.

He started to laugh, a low laugh. "You look surprised."

I didn't answer, just trailed my fingers over his abs. I had a mental image of me running my tongue over his abs and blushed beet red. He put his hand on my face and asked, "What are you thinking about?"

I blushed even redder and shook my head, looking away. "Nothing." I said softly.

He cupped my chin in one hand so that I was looking at him. "Really?" He asked softly, amused.

I blushed darker. "Er-"

He pulled my face down lower so that our noses were touching. "Really?" He breathed, his breath tickling me.

"Um-"

He pulled me down so that our lips touched and I was filled with a sudden energy and gripped his waist with my legs, tightening them on either side of him. There was a sudden urgency within me that made me feel that if I didn't kiss him, I was going to die.

He received me eagerly and he rolled over so that he was on top of me, pressing himself down on me. My hands were in his hair, I didn't know where his hands were because all I could think about were his lips on mine.

"Stay for Christmas." He murmured suddenly against my cheek.

"I can't." I said. "I already said I was going home- well, not home- but you know. I don't want Sirius to be alone for Christmas."

He made a sound that might've been out of disgust in the back of his throat and I tried to resurface to glare at him. "Be nice." I stressed.

"I am nice." he murmured, his lips on the right side of my neck.

I giggled. "Besides, why would I stay? I'm at least able to escape Umbridge for a couple weeks."

He groaned. "Fair point, but you could spend Christmas with me."

I smiled at him. "I would but you're not going to be alone here. Sirius is."

He frowned down at me. I stuck my tongue out at him.

"What a child." He muttered, kissing me. I pouted. "Still being a child." he said, amused. I stuck my tongue out again, touching his lips, and he pressed his lips to mine again with renewed vigor.

⬅️➡️

[gryffindorkus]

CHALLENGE 2 - THE BRAINIAC

Summary:

This challenge was easy... too easy.... something else must be going on.

[justanerdygirl]

I haven't been able to post for a while but this hit me like a trainwreck...

Did no one else realize that the Malfoys are essentially just the mirror image to the Dursleys? I mean the Dursley's were all fat, with ruddy skin, dark hair, they hated the Potters (mostly Harry) and all things to do with magic, especially the father which was passed down to the son, but it was revealed towards the end that the son and mother actually kind of liked Harry, or at least regretted their actions, but during the rest of the movies we can see the son bullying Harry and inferiors relentlessly, and all the Dursley's being stuck up. The Malfoy's were all skinny as heck, paler than milk, abnormally blond hair, they hated the Potters (mostly Harry) and all things to do with muggles, especially the father which was passed down to the son, but it was revealed towards the end that the son and mother actually kind of liked Harry, or at least regretted their actions, but during the rest of the movies we can see the son bullying Harry and inferiors relentlessly, and all the Malfoy's being total and complete bigots. Well played Joanna Katherine Rowling, well played.

[pissfarmsblog]

since the The Top of the Pops Battle of 1995 was in full motion when the golden trio went to hogwarts i want to who you guys think is team oasis and who is team blur

[fanfic-lover-girl]

I love this sentiment in Malfoy-centric fics so much!!! That part of the reason why they hate the Weasleys is because of jealousy over the number of kids they have. So tragic :(. It would have been so cool for Draco to have older siblings. Or even younger siblings. I have so many fanfic daydreams about Draco having siblings. I need to write them down some time...

Non-Snape ask: Any favorite Malfoy family theories?

Lucius wanted a large family.

Narcissa wanted a large family.

They struggled to conceive, or to carry to term.

“Why us?” sobbed Narcissa, and Lucius had no answers.

Least, none he wanted to give.

They both knew, deep down, that hundreds of years of intermarriage between the pureblood families meant that pureblood children were becoming increasingly scarce.

When Draco was born, he was cherished and adored.

They didn’t stop trying.

But he remained an only child.

Lucius has never hated a family more than the Weasleys.

Pureblood Arthur Weasley and pureblood Molly Prewett.

Yet they had seven children.

Seven.

Far more than they could afford.

“How can it be fair that Draco grows up alone,” Lucius mused, watching sadly as his tiny blond boy became increasingly frustrated whilst playing with his mute imaginary friend, “when we have so much to give?”

[blueironywrites]

Title: Shades of Grey (M)

Summary: After a strange encounter, Hermione learns from the most unlikely source that, friend or foe, healing is never easy for anyone.

Fandom: Harry Potter

Word count: c.4,600

Healing after the war, dark vs. light

+ + +

This is not a Dramione fic. Instead, it shows that maybe Draco Malfoy was very damaged after the war, and explores how he was also hurting.

[fanfic-lover-girl]

Double Standards: Dramione vs Romione Edition

I am so sick of the double standards between the sexes when it comes to shipping.

That's perfectly valid...but why does this logic not apply to Ron??

Harry spun round to see Hermione pointing her wand at Ron, her expression wild: the little flock of birds was speeding like a hail of fat golden bullets towards Ron, who yelped and covered his face with his hands, but the birds attacked, pecking and clawing at every bit of flesh they could reach.

Why does Draco not deserve to be with Hermione but Hermione deserves Ron!? Draco has never even intentionally assaulted Hermione! I would say Draco calling her a slur or laughing about her potentially being sexually assaulted is a lesser offence than Hermione scarring Ron for life. Make it make sense! Doesn't Ron deserve better too then!? I guess I should be concerned for Romione shippers too.

Before Romione fans attack Dramione, they should probably check their own ship first because it's not exactly the beacon of healthy relationships either. Just because Dramione is worse, it does not make Romione good.

[fanfic-lover-girl]

I am not above shipping bullies with their victims sometimes, depending on the story and the writer. But yeah I agree!

It's the same with Dramione. Honestly, I sincerely believe Draco couldn't have cared less about Ron or Hermione if they weren't friends with Harry. You see it with Neville. He harasses Neville in book 1 but I don't think he torments him much or at all after that.

I mainly like Dron as a fanon guilty pleasure ship and not because of their canon interactions. I just like their personalities so I like picturing them together :)

HELLO! I am not sure how to phrase this ask but I will do my best so bare with me :)

I have an HP online acquaintance who joked that if Drarry shippers use how much Draco harasses Harry as a measure of his crush on him then it must be a sign of a strong Dron (Draco/Ron) romance. Because Draco harassed Ron almost or just as much as Harry.

What I find interesting about Draco's bullying of Ron is that it feels a tad more personal (similar to how Sirius' attacks on Snape felt a bit more emotionally abusive compared to James who was a normal bullying jock). Draco made badges for Ron and Harry...but he literally composed an entire song for Ron!!! Like...this is not a headcanon compared to Draco writing the valentine in book 2. That is canon. And he gets his entire house to sing along.

So I guess my question is how would you respond to my mutual's joke about harassment being a measure of love? Why would you say Drarry is a thing but not Dron?

Thanks for this question and for your patience - I wanted to have time to sit down and write a proper answer.

Before I get into this I want to say that I'm very much of a ship and let ship mindset. Just because I don't ship something or find it compelling doesn't mean I have anything against the ship or against people who like it. I also don't think that a ship needs to have any canonical "evidence" for people to ship it (and I've certainly shipped many such pairings). I happen to see a lot of canonical basis for drarry but I don't think a ship "needs" that by any means.

Ok. Now that's out of the way, onto "dron." To my mind Ron/Draco is a ship that, unlike drarry, does not have any particular canonical basis. Separately from that, I also don't find it very interesting or compelling and thus don't personally ship it.

I think the key here is context. And the context of Ron and Draco's enmity is still all about Harry. Draco and Harry's relationship is intense and personal and much more equal - it's more of a hostile rivalry than it is a bully and victim relationship. With Draco and Ron though, that's not the case. It feels much more like bullying. Draco really gets to Ron in a way he doesn't get to Harry (who's got a whole Thing TM with him) or Hermione (who just brushes it off and ignores him). Ron though is really hurt and bothered on multiple occasions and Ron doesn't give as good as he gets. He doesn't have a snappy retort when Draco comes after him usually. He's just upset/humiliated/angry.

And why does Draco bully Ron? Because of Harry. Because Harry chose Ron instead of Draco as his friend and Draco can't stand that. As Harry and Ron get closer Draco's bullying of Ron and attempts to point out to Harry how worthless and poor and pathetic Ron is escalate. In fifth year for example Draco has learned Harry spends holidays with Ron and is clearly upset (jealous?) over this fact. Also, Harry is generally pretty good at shrugging off Draco's attempts to get him to engage with him. One of the quickest ways to get a rise out of him is to go after his friends. So in addition to jealousy it's also an attention seeking behavior.

Yes Draco bullies Ron but he doesn't know every little detail of his life like he does with Harry. He doesn't deeply understand him or intuit things about him that few other people guess as he does with Harry (for example understanding Harry is actually uncomfortable with his fame or immediately knowing he would never hurt Muggleborns etc). He mostly just uses the same few insults - calling him and his family poor and unimportant and insulting his competence - because he doesn't really know or care about him. And Ron dislikes Draco but doesn't know details about his life either (unlike Harry who knows a ton about Draco) and wishes Draco wasn't in his life (unlike Harry who never wishes that). Draco also never expresses respect for Ron the way he does with Harry so it's just a very different dynamic. He also doesn't seek Ron's attention.

Ron and Draco aren't equals and opposites, aren't parallels, aren't drawn to each other, don't orbit around each other or complement each other's skills or express unwilling admiration for each other, don't deeply and intuitively understand each other or constantly watch about each other or instinctively help and save each other or spend 7 years learning every detail of the other's life because they can't look away.

They just don't like each other and have a bad relationship. So I see no canonical basis for shipping them. I also see nothing particularly interesting about a ship between them and thus don't like the pairing even setting aside canon.

[wisteria-lodge]

And now for a HP fandom question - do you have any thoughts on queercoding in the series and if JKR ever actually intended it, and then backtracked, or if it was always completely unintentional? I'm thinking specifically about Lupin and Tonks (as individuals, not as a ship) Inspired by your post about the intention vs how fans perceived Draco Malfoy. Thanks!

So the first thing I want to do is make a distinction between femme-coding and queer-coding. They're tropes with very similar histories, and a lot of works treat them as the same thing. But Harry Potter doesn’t, and I think we can chalk this one up to JK Rowling’s habit of grabbing aesthetics and visuals without really thinking through the history behind them. 

(Like - the goblins. She says she didn’t mean to write an antisemitic thing, and I actually do believe her. But did she use a lot of tropes and images with a long history of being tied to antisemitism? yes.)

So when I say “femme” I mean giving a male character traits stereotypically associated with femininity. Heightened sensitivity/emotionality, an interest in hair, clothes and being attractive, a love of lace/pink/frills, a dislike of violence and physical confrontation, and a preference for the soft power of manipulation, character assassination and poison - versus the hard power of direct confrontation and physical prowess. Are these things super stereotypical? Yes. But they’re ALSO traits you see all the time on male villains, especially ones that you don’t want to seem that threatening. Femme-coded villains show up a lot in children’s media, or as the Big Bad’s #2. They’re not meant to be heroic or sympathetic (since all these feminine traits are not desirable, especially for guys.) But they also aren’t scary, and you can pretty much always play them for comedy. 

For example: see almost every male Disney villain. And JKR was writing children’s literature in the 90s, so of course she’s pulling from the same zeitgeist as the Disney Renaissance. 

JKR loves herself a femme villain. The absolute gold standard is of course Lockhart - who wears pink, wants to start his own line of hair care products, is self-centered, vain, obsessed with popularity… but he sucks in a fight. His entire MO involves manipulating people into thinking he has these traditional masculine qualities when he just doesn’t. But there’s also fussy, prissy Percy wearing his prefect badge on his pajamas. Bitchy, emotional mean-girl poisoners Draco and Snape (especially early book Snape - which is Snape at his most villainous.) Draco, Percy and Snape are also unusual for being male characters who we see crying for reasons other than grief (apparently the only truly acceptable reason for masculine crying). 

Lucius Malfoy is an interesting case because he starts off quite masc. He’s threatening to curse people, the governors are scared of him, etc. But, as the books go on… and he gets less powerful… he also gets more femme. When we meet him in Book 5 he’s no longer threatening people, but bribing them, spreading rumors, and giving interviews to the Prophet casting Arthur Weasley in a negative light. He's also getting really into peacocks. In Book 2 he was a major threat, but as he gets recast as Voldemort’s #2 he becomes a more femme, soft-power villain. When he leads the attack on the Department of Mysteries, he absolutely bungles it, which defines his character (and relationship with Voldemort) for the rest of the series. And it makes sense that Lucius is given this kind of treatment! It’s a way of communicating that there's a new villain in town, a real villain. 

So, are any of these femme-coded villains additionally queer-coded? I’m actually going to say no. Queer-coding is (like it says on the tin) finding ways to imply that your character is specifically gay. Like maybe giving them a same-sex relationship that is written romantically, but not explicitly called out by the text. Or pairing up all of the characters except them. Maybe have other characters joke about them being gay, and use that as a way to talk about the subject with some plausible deniability. Or they could just play suggestively with a cigar, or a walking stick. There are different strategies.  

But Lockhart doesn't get any of that. Honestly, I think that if JKR actually thought of him as gay, she would have been a lot more wary about a scene where he keeps Harry alone with him in his office for way longer than he’s supposed to. And she might have skipped this joke: 

“Harry was hauled to the front of the class during their very next Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, this time acting a werewolf (...) “Nice loud howl, Harry — exactly — and then, if you’ll believe it, I pounced — like this — slammed him to the floor — thus — with one hand, I managed to hold him down — with my other, I put my wand to his throat (...) he let out a piteous moan — go on, Harry — higher than that — good —” 

Like. At least she would have picked a different word than “moan,” right? Which unfortunately has slightly sexual connotations. Especially if she wanted to keep Lockhart a buffoon, to properly set up the twist at the end. 

Slughorn also gets femme-coded in a similar way: he loves his candy, his parties, his smoking jackets, his lilac silk pajamas, his web of connections he can use to get stuff (Lucius style.) We are introduced to him squatting in specifically a “fussy old lady’s” house. He’s also unusually emotional, getting weepy at Aragog‘s funeral. But I don’t think we’re meant to read him as actually gay, or else his relationship with Tom Riddle might’ve read a little too close to Tom seducing/trying to seduce him. Which is a beat JKR does subtly play out with Hepzibah Smith, but idk. by that point at least Tom is a legal adult.

(As a side note - the Harry Potter series got so lucky that all of its adult characters are played by absolutely top-shelf actors who are aware of the connotations and history behind various symbols, and do consider these things in their performances. Kenneth Brannagh and Jim Broadbent are good enough to make sure there’s not even a hint of iffy subtext when they play Lockhart and Slughorn. Also, Emma Thompson took the potentially very problematic character of Trelawney and made her cute and sympathetic… and not Romani in the slightest.) 

Draco, Snape, and Percy all have a case of the not-gays. Percy has a girlfriend (we don’t really see her or anything, but we’re told she’s there.) Snape of course gets his whole thing with Lily, and Draco… after one too many beats where it’s clear that Pansy is into him, but he’s not into Pansy…  gets a scene where he’s talking to his buddies with his head in her lap. (JKR uses “no one‘s good enough for me” beats with Blaise, Draco and Sirius, and the idea there seems to be more that they have undeservedly high opinions of themselves, and less that they don’t like girls.)

But, I do agree that a lot of JKR's characters do come across as a little more queer than intended. It boils down, I think, to the general lack of any kind of romance in the Harry Potter books and JKR being generally bad at/uncomfortable with writing male attraction directed at women, BUT being perfectly happy writing attraction directed at pretty guys. And because of that… yeah, it can sometimes feel like maybe Harry has a thing for Cedric. Especially when Dudley goes on to tease him about Cedric being his boyfriend, which I believe is the only actual mention of gay people in the entire series.  

So is there any intentional queer-coding in the book? It’s really subtle, but yes. I think Dumbledore is queer-coded. He is unusually emotional/cries unusually often for a Rowling guy. He is also given a scene which emphasizes his “flamboyantly” cut plum-velvet suit, and his relationship with Grindelwald is implied to be romantic for one book and two movies before being actually confirmed in Fantastic Beasts 3. (With the line of dialogue “I was in love with you.” Big step up from “We were closer than brothers.” which is an odd thing to say about someone you are interested in romantically.) 

But you brought up Tonks and Lupin, two characters very commonly interpreted as queer. So let’s get into that. JKR has said that she considers Lupin’s lycanthropy to be a metaphor for stigmatized diseases like AIDS. And… as incredible as it is to say… I actually do not think that she made the jump from there to thinking that maybe the character suffering from AIDS should be gay.

Because the narrative places so much weight on Lupin being bitten young and then on maybe not being allowed to attend school, I’m pretty sure that he’s not intended to be queer so much as he’s meant to be Ryan White, the literal poster child for AIDS activism who got infected via blood transfusion when he was two. Tragic, absolutely. But not gay. Honestly, I hope JKR was thinking of ‘lycanthropy’ as a metaphor for stigmatized illness in the abstract and not as a comment on gay people specifically. Because otherwise, Greyback’s thing about biting children becomes a mash-up of two of the biggest homophobic boogeymen from the 80s: gay men infecting people with AIDS on purpose because… idk, they hate the world or something. And the influence of gay men somehow “turning” children gay. Both absolutely real, if ridiculous, moral panics.

On top of that, Remus and Sirius do get a pretty clear case of the not-gays early on (“He embraced Black like a brother.”) Buuuut Alfonso Cuarón did think through those implications for Movie 3, absolutely saw Lupin as gay, and directed David Thewlis to play him accordingly. No reports confirming or denying whether Alfonso Cuarón ships Wolfstar, but I think that if I’m an actor trying to make sense of Lupin’s motivations… and I know he didn’t show Dumbledore the Marauders’ Map and didn’t tell anyone Sirius was an animagus… and then I’m told my character is gay… well. Anyway, I think there are absolutely hints of Wolfstar in that performance. 

And there's Tonks. Tonks is introduced during a very spooky segment in Book 5: Harry has been going through it, been left alone at the Dursleys while having what sounds like a depressive episode. It’s dark, he hears intruders. It's a really good piece of writing. But JKR knows that it’s the good guys who are coming and thinks, okay. Let’s make that as clear as possible from the word go. And so the first thing Harry sees is Tonks' pink hair. And what kind of person has pink hair? A young adult. A punky young adult. And what power would a teenager think was cool? Well, the ability to change the color of their hair at will. That, by itself, would have worked perfectly fine for this character.

But then (for reasons best known to herself) JKR goes further. Even though Tonk’s hair changing color is easily 90% of the transformations we see and there is no plot reason her appearance needs to change more than that, we see her drastically change her age and body type. When you think about this power for more than five seconds, it becomes kind of OP. For worldbuilding reasons alone, my instinct would’ve been to tone it down a bit. 

But no, we have this counterculture character who seems interested in her career and not in a relationship, who can easily change anything about her body, and (if her ability works anything like Polyjuice) that means she should definitely be able to change her gender. Cool.

Then, in everyone’s least favorite romance, Tonks and Lupin are paired up. I have heard the argument that this was meant to walk back queer-coding, or to punish people who thought they were queer... but I don’t think that’s the case. I don’t think JKR expected these two to be fan favorites, and then was kind of surprised when everyone wanted to hear about their continuing adventures. 

(There are a handful of characters who JKR clearly really enjoys - and really enjoys writing - that fandom honestly could not care less about. Mundungus Fletcher and Ludo Bagman spring to mind. But the reverse is also true. She had one story for Lupin and people wanted to see more. Tonks is probably supposed to be her comment on immature young adults: she is loud, in your face, causes mild destruction and is “a little annoying at times.” But the fans fell in love with her.) 

So JKR has these two fan favorite characters and nothing for them to do. A romance is something for them to do. JKR also has a kind of weird pattern where good people need to either have kids or take care of kids. It’s not good to be a woman who isn’t involved with taking care of children in some fashion: see Rita Skeeter, Dolores Umbridge, Bellatrix Lestrange. This is also (I think) why Harry names his kids specifically after Severus, Sirius, and Albus. Since they’re good men, JKR had to find a way to give them kids after the fact. 

So yeah. I think we were meant to read Tonks and Lupin having a kid as kind of a reward, or at least as proof of their intrinsic goodness. There also just isn’t another guy in the right age range to ship Tonks with. The only other option is Sirius. 

(Harry in the books and Lupin on Pottermore both suspect that Tonks/Sirius is a thing. Completely forgetting, I guess, that they're cousins.)

[hd-fan-fair]

Title: Five Times Draco Malfoy Used Muggle Things Incorrectly (and One Time He Didn’t) Creator: Anonymous Prompt: #205 Muggle Theme: Draco Malfoy is Clueless About Muggle things Rating: Teen Warnings/Content Notes: Auror Harry Potter, Parolee Draco Malfoy, POV Harry Potter, EWE, Supportive Ron Weasley, Weird Pureblood Customs, Domestic Boyfriends, Fluff and Humor, Minor Injuries Summary: Harry had never expected to arrest Draco Malfoy in a Tesco in Newham, London. He'd also never expected to fall in love with him. Word Count: 8,537 Creator’s Notes: Thank you @phoenixacid for a great prompt! I loved your ideas, and I hope you'll enjoy Draco's adventures in the Muggle world as much as I enjoyed writing them. Hugs and thanks go out to my lovely beta J., who did an amazing job as always, and of course to the mods for their hard work and dedication.

Original Prompt (205): Draco vs. the self-scanning machine at the Grocer: “Scan what!” Draco vs. public transport: He pulls out a big bag of gold, and the bus driver goes, ‘Oi, scan your card!’ Draco vs. the microwave: Draco leaving a metal spoon inside, Harry returns to a kitchen filled with smoke etc.

( Five Times Draco Malfoy Used Muggle Things Incorrectly (and One Time He Didn’t) )

[braveclementine]

Chapter 5

Warnings: None. However, future chapters will contain sexual content so readers that are under the age of 18 may have to skip those chapters (However they are very few so those under the age of 18 can still read a majority of this book. However please keep note of the warnings).

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

💙💙💙💙

𝕴 𝖜𝖔𝖐𝖊 𝖚𝖕 around dusk, Ginny shaking me. "Come on!" She said.

I got up and brushed out my hair and came back to where the others were standing and stretching outside. There were thousands of waiting wizards and all pretenses of being Muggles were gone.

It seemed as though the Ministry had given up trying to hide the magical components. Salesmen were apparating every couple of feet with trays, bags, and carts of magical items and merchandise. There were items with the green colors of Ireland and the red colors of Bulgaria. There were scarves and dancing shamrocks and washable tattoos and face paint and rosettes and collectible figures that would walk across your palm.

Trang was in love. I'd given her about 200 Galleons which was leftover from the shopping trip where I'd bought her broom. Pretty soon, she had all Ireland things. All seven Quidditch player figurines, a rosette, a scarf, and multiple other things.

I got both seeker's figurines from both teams. I had an Ireland scarf and Trang helped put an Irish flag tattoo on my left cheek.

I bought her and I Omnioculars and two programs before we met up with the others, completely decked out. Trang quickly put her figures back in her bag in the tent, zipping it closed as though she thought they were going to escape. (Maybe they would). I set my figurines up on the bedside table.

Bill, Charlie, and Ginny were wearing Green Rosettes and Mr. Weasley had an Irish flag. Since Fred and George had no souvenirs because they'd given Bagman all their gold, I got each of them a Rosette too, helping Fred pin his rosette onto his shirt, while Bill and Charlie shot us glances.

There was a deep, booming gong from somewhere beyond the woods and green and red lanterns blazed to life in the trees, lighting a path to the field. Trang was so excited, she was bouncing up and down on her toes and couldn't stand still.

"It's time!" Mr. Weasley said and he looked nearly as excited as the rest of us, though he kept it in better check than we did. "Come on, let's go!"

We walked briskly along the path, clutching our souvenirs tightly. My Omnioculars were around my neck and my program and wand were in my pocket. My scarf was also around my neck, both ends hanging loosely down my chest.

I couldn't stop grinning, and neither could anyone else. That's what an exciting atmosphere does to you. We walked for twenty minutes. There were snatches of singing and shouting in vast languages.

Finally, we came to a gigantic stadium made of gold walls. Or perhaps it was just bronze painted and shining to look like gold. Trang's mouth dropped and she said, "I wish I had a camera."

"Don't worry." I said, grinning and clapping her on the shoulder, "I don't think you are ever going to forget tonight."

"Seats a hundred thousand." Mr. Weasley called back to us. "Ministry task force of five hundred have been working on it all year. Muggle repelling Charms on every inch of it. Every time Muggles have got anywhere near here all year, they've suddenly remembered urgent appointments and had to dash away again. . . bless them."

"I'll be able to get in, won't I?" Trang asked in alarm.

"Oh yeah." I said, though I wasn't sure if it was true or not. "You know about the magical world and have already been exposed to it." But I held my breath until we entered the stadium and Trang came through with no problems.

"I will admit," She started, "I've never seen a football stadium- American football- that is this big."

"Told you we have the best sport." I said smugly.

We were in the top box which meant we were to go as high as possible. The stairs were carpeted in royal purple and Trang practically squealed with delight. We kept climbing and climbing. I wondered mildly how many floors the stadium had- 10? 50? 100?

Either way, we finally found ourselves on the very top floor and when I looked down, I quickly backed up from the edge. We were higher than the Quidditch hoops which were fifty feet in the air. Perhaps were were seventy-five feet in the air then.

The giant blackboard was level with us and gold writing kept dashing across it and wiping off again. Trang watched in fascination at all the ads that popped up. Bluebottle brooms, Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess, Gladrags Wizardwear, and more.

Trang leaned over to me and said, "When I grow up, I'm going to become a full fledge witch, clothes and all."

I smiled but didn't say anything. She'd never be able to be a witch. She could brew potions, sure, but she could never drink them. She'd also never cast a spell with a wand. Or could she? If she used enough willpower, could she do a simple spell? I pondered over this for a moment. If that was the case though, we wouldn't have squibs, but still. . .

I shook my head to clear my unhappy thoughts. She could be a Professor teaching Muggle studies. She could even work in the ministry as a Muggle representative. But that was about it. And she didn't want to be a Muggle, she wanted to be a witch.

"Dobby?" I heard Harry say incredulously. Hermione, Ron, and I all turned to look and see who Harry was talking too.

It was a tiny creature that I recognized as a House-Elf. I had met Dobby before and knew that this house-elf wasn't Dobby. It had enormous brown eyes instead of green ones and had a nose like a tomato.

"Did sir just call me Dobby?" The house-elf squeaked, her face hidden behind her hands. I realized she was scared of heights. Mr. Weasley looked around in interest.

"Sorry." Harry said quickly. "I just thought you were someone I knew."

"But I knows Dobby too, sir! My name is Winky , sir- and you, sir- You is surely Harry Potter!" She said, her large tennis ball like eyes even larger. Except, unlike Dobby, her eyes were brown.

"Yeah, I am." Harry said, turning a bit pink. Trang was looking now too, coming face to face with her first magical creature that could talk (unless you counted gnomes vulgar language).

"But Dobby talks of you all the time, sir!" She said and lowered her hands, looking a bit awestruck to meet him.

"How is he? How's freedom suiting him?"

"Ah, sir, ah sir, meaning no disrespect, sir, but I is not sure you did Dobby a favor, sir, when you is setting him free." She said sadly, shaking her large head.

"Free?" Trang whispered at me.

I raised my hand to shush her.

"Why?" Harry asked, a bit alarm, "What's wrong with him?"

"Freedom is going to Dobby's head, sir. Ideas above his station, sir. Can't get another position, sir."

"Why not?"

She lowered her voice so low, Trang, Hermione, and I all leaned forward to hear her say, "He is wanting paying for his work, sir."

"Paying?" Harry asked with a blank look. "Well- why shouldn't he be paid?"

Winky looked horrified and closed her fingers so that her face was hidden. "House-elves is not paid sir! No, no, no. I says to Dobby, I says, go find yourself a nice family and settle down, Dobby. He is getting up to all sorts of high jinks, sir, what is unbecoming to a house-elf. You goes racketing around like this, Dobby, I says, and next thing I hear you's up in front of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, like some common goblin." She squeaked.

"Well it's about time he had a bit of fun." Harry said with a smile. I looked on with a serious expression. There was an empty chair next to Winky and I observed it carefully, titling my head just slightly. It looked as though someone was sitting there, yes a bit of a black shoe moving back under the cloak! I looked up, an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach.

"House-elves is not supposed to have fun, Harry Potter. House-elves does what they is told. I is not liking heights at all, Harry Potter, but my master sends me to the Top Box and I comes, sir." Winky said, gulping as she looked down.

"Why's he sent you up here, if he knows you don't like heights?" Harry asked, frowning.

"Master- master wants me to save him a seat, Harry Potter. He is very busy. Winky is wishing she is back in master's tent, Harry Potter, but Winky does what she is told. Winky is a good house-elf."

"But Mr. Crouch won't be coming up at all." I said, in confusion, frowning, trying to pick out the lie.

Winky gave me a frightened look and I gave the empty seat another look, so sure that someone was in the seat.

I turned away.

Trang nudged me and asked about what Winky was talking about.

"House-elves are servants of wizarding families." I said. "It's in their generation and blood to serve until the last member dies or until a member sets them free. The way they are set free is by giving them clothes. Most house-elves actually love their work and they love their families and their families almost nearly love them as well. Kind've like a pet, you see. Of course, sometimes there are horrible families and house-elves that want to escape like Dobby."

Trang frowned, looking uncomfortable. "So even though they're slaves. . . they like it?"

"Yes." I said. "It does sound weird, I know, and as a Muggle, the concept is hard." I paused and tried to figure out the framing of my next words, "Most house-elves actually think it a punishment if they're set free."

"Really?" Trang seemed amazed at this concept.

I nodded, "There's been cases where the family frees an elf, whether they don't want the elf anymore or because the elf failed them in some way etc. where house-elves will actually die of shock."

Trang looked even more amazed.

Hermione meanwhile, was reading from her pamphlet saying, "A display from the team mascots will precede the match."

"Oh that's always worth watching." Mr. Weasley said. "National teams bring creatures from their native land, you know, to put on a bit of a show."

We had been the first in our box and over the next half hour or so, the box started to slowly fill up.

There were many important wizards filling the thirty or so seats up here. Mr. Weasley was shaking hands left and right and Percy kept sitting down and jumping up he looked like an old cartoon animation.

The Minister of Magic came up and Percy actually bowed, which made his glasses fall off and shatter. He fixed them himself and sat down, embarrassed and threw jealous looks at Harry who Fudge greeted like a grandson. He asked him how his summer had been and introduced him to the many wizards around him.

"Harry Potter, you know. Harry Potter. . . oh come on now, you know who he is. . . the boy who survived you-know-who. . . you do know who he is-" Fudge seemed to be trying to explain English to the Bulgarian minister. He was wearing splendid robes of black velvet with gold trimming.

The Bulgarian wizard suddenly started pointing at Harry's forehead and gibbering loudly in another language.

"Knew we'd get there in the end." Fudge said wearily to Harry. "I'm no great shakes at languages; I need Barty Crouch for this sort of thing. Ah, I see his house-elf's saving him a seat. . . Good job too, these Bulgarian bludgers have been trying to cadge all the best places. . . ah, Miss Kane, good to see you too." The minister said, coming over and shaking my hand as well. "And how was your summer."

"It was good, how was yours? Busy I expect?" I asked politely. Minister Fudge wasn't my favorite person but being recognized by the Minister of Magic was a big deal nevertheless. But I still held a grudge against him for trying to separate my father and I last year.

"Extremely busy. I suppose you already know what's happening at Hogwarts this year?" He asked with a weary sigh.

I smiled. "Foresaw it about a week and a half ago. I also know who's going to win tonight but I won't spoil that."

"Surely you made a bet then?" Fudge asked, smiling.

I shook my head. "I don't gamble."

"Well you should." Fudge said, almost incredulously, and then said, "This is the Bulgarian Minister. Minister, this is Elizabeth Kane, she's a seer."

I blushed and shook hands with the Bulgarian minister and said in rough Bulgarian, "Znam, che znaesh angliĭski." (Знам, че знаеш английски) [I know you speak English]

The Bulgarian Minister gave me a look of surprise and I winked at him. He smiled and I put a finger to my lips.

Fudge wasn't paying attention to our interaction as he had his back to us and then said, "Ah, and here's Lucius."

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I spun around to see Lucius Malfoy, his son Draco, and a woman who must've been his mother coming up the stairs.

Draco was Harry's enemy and my arch-nemesis (yes, there is a difference. An enemy is someone you hate. An arch-nemesis is someone you fight all the time and tried to destroy). I grabbed Trang's arm, drawing her partially behind me. Draco, a pale boy with no color complexion and white-blond hair was walking up behind his father. Some of the girls at Hogwarts thought he was hot. I could see there point. He was thin and tall and and not exactly ugly.

His father's blond hair was about shoulder length, perhaps a few inches longer. It was parted neatly and his robes were black and neat. His mother, I thought, was a very pretty woman with half black, half blond hair- obviously dyed- with a nice face and thin eyebrows, but she looked as though she was smelling something bad. Maybe it was her husband's cologne.

"Ah, Fudge." Mr. Malfoy said, holding out his hand. "How are you? I don't think you've met my wife, Narcissa? Or our son, Draco?"

"How do you do, how do you do?" Fudge said, smiling and bowing slightly to Mrs. Malfoy. "and allow me to introduce you to Mr. Oblansk- Obalonsk- Mr.- well he's the Bulgarian Minister of Magic, and he can't understand a word I'm saying anyway, so never mind. And let's see who else- you know Arthur Weasley, I daresay?"

The two men stared at each other for a moment and my grip on Trang's hand tightened. I suppose I expected them to break out in a brawl at that moment.

"Good lord, Arthur." He whispered softly, glancing down at all of us. "What did you have to sell to get seats in the Top Box? Surely your house wouldn't have fetched this much."

I let go of Trang's hand, my hands balling up into fists.

"Lucius has just given a very generous contribution to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, Arthur. He's here as my guest." Fudge said, not listening.

Mr. Weasley said, "How- how nice," while Trang whispered in my ear, "This is the man who's supposed to be in jail, right? Azkaban? The one who got away with the money?" I nodded a rough nod but didn't turn to look at her.

Mr. Malfoy's eyes landed on Hermione who went pink. His lips curled but she stared determinedly at him. His eyes moved over to me and they narrowed. I clenched my jaw and smirked back. I was sure he was remembering the time when I tripped him in the bookstore after his fight with Mr. Weasley.

Then his eyes flicked to Trang who was half-hidden behind me and she came out, looking at him with disgust. His expression was even more horrible for her, perhaps because she was disgusted with him. Despite the fact that I had broken one of the biggest wizarding laws letting Trang know about the magical world, Trang was a near avid rule follower. The fact that Lucius Malfoy was out of Azkaban even though he was a follower of the killer of her best friend's parents disgusted her. And since Malfoy was disgusted that she was a muggle like Hermione (or assumed she was), she was disgusted with him, a pureblood, and that annoyed him.

"Ah yes! Lucius, this is Elizabeth Kane. She's a seer." Fudge said, trying to introduce Lucius to me.

I smirked, holding out my hand, cocking an eyebrow at the man, ". . . Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Malfoy." 

Lucius slipped his large, rough hand and shook it firmly. "Yes. . . a pleasure Miss Kane." I caught a whiff of his cologne and was taken aback. He smelled. . . delicious.

Malfoy raised his cane higher up into his hands and walked past us. Draco shot Ron, Hermione, and Harry a contemptuous look and shot me a glare. I smiled, raising my eyebrows.

"Ooooh." Trang said, fists clenched, fire in her eyes. "I hate him."

"All right tiger, sit down before you get in a fight." I said. I sat back down between Hermione and Trang.

Ludo Bagman charged up the stairs and skidded to a stop and said, "Everyone ready? Minister- ready to go?"

"Ready when you are, Ludo." The Minister said, seated between the Bulgarian Minister and the Irish Minister.

Ludo pointed his wand to his throat and said "Sonorus!"

His voice echoed all over the stadium as he said, "Ladies and gentlemen... welcome! Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!"

There were cheers from the crowd and waving of their flags which played the national anthem of the country while being waved. The two anthems clashed but it was all part of the excitement. Trang had already forgotten her anger and was sitting on the edge of her seat in excitement. She was squinting down at the field. I reached over and tapped her Omnioculars. The blackboard now read BULGARIA: 0, IRELAND: 0.

"And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce. . . the Bulgarian National Team Mascots!" Ludo announced enthusiastically.

The right-hand side of the stadiums, completely red, roared.

"I wonder what they've brought." I heard Mr. Weasley ask and then suddenly he whipped his glasses off and polished them in a hurried way and said, "Aahh! Veela!"

"What are Veela?" Trang whispered.

I giggled and said, "Enchanters of men, look!" I pointed at Mr. Weasley who was polishing his glasses and putting them on. Trang giggled too and then leaned forward to get a good look at the Veela.

I could see the beautiful aspects of them through the Omnioculars. They had smooth skin, I couldn't see a single blemish and they were very pale. Their hair was white-gold and flowed out behind them. I supposed it was probably as long as their knees maybe.

"Are they human?" Trang asked me, puzzled, her Omnioculars pressed so tightly her glasses were cutting into the bridge of her nose.

"No." I answered simply as the music started. I stared through my own Omnioculars and watched the Veela dance. The men in the stadium were starting to do really stupid things. Women were holding them back from jumping off the stadium walls. I dropped my glasses to look left and right. Charlie and Percy were both leaning over the edge, but weren't jumping yet. Mr. Weasley had an odd look on his face but he was still seated. Fred and George had fingers in their ears and Bill looked interested, but not affected.

Ron meanwhile, looked as though he might jump off his chair like a springboard at a pool. Harry on the other hand was standing up with one of his legs was on the wall. I jumped to my feet as Hermione whispered, "Harry what are you doing?"

"He thinks jumping from this box is going to impress the Veela." I said in an amused voice, pulling Harry back into his seat and slapping him across the face. He jerked as though waking from a dream.

"What was that for?" He asked. I noticed Harry's wand was poking out from his pocket. He really ought to shove it in deeper so it didn't fall out. Boys were so careless.

"You were going to do something extremely stupid." I said, going and sitting back down.

I glanced over at the other side. Bill was grinning at me and then got up and everyone scooted down so he could sit between Hermione and me. Fred shot us a glance. Charlie was still recovering from the Veela.

"Way to take control." Bill's voice was amused.

"He's like a brother to me." I said as Mr. Weasley took Ron's hat from him. "Wasn't going to let him make a fool of himself jumping off the stadium- not to mention saving him from impending death."

Bill didn't say anything else as a green and gold comet shot down towards the stadium and did one circuit around the stadium before splitting into two comets and shooting in opposite directions toward Ireland's goal post. A rainbow connected both the comets and then they exploded and rose up to make a shamrock.

Gold things started to fall from the sky. Trang pried her eyes away from the sky to turn to me and say, "Elizabeth, they're Leprechauns."

I giggled, "I can't wait until you meet a unicorn."

Trang turned back to looking at the sky. I grabbed a piece of gold out of the air. Leprechaun gold disappeared, but it was still cool.

"Charlie doesn't seem to be happy." Bill muttered suddenly.

I looked down at Charlie who quickly looked away. I frowned, "I don't know why." '

I looked at Bill and quickly away. I fancied Fred of course, but Bill was very good-looking too. I wondered if good-looking just ran in the family. I had fancied Percy for a long time as well. Not Ron though. And even though everyone got mixed up between George and Fred, there really were some differences between the two of them, making Fred more desirable than George. But really, they were both quite good looking. Yes, Ron was the only one I didn't like- romantically. I got along with Ron in a friendship. . . when he got along with Hermione.

And Bill was much different from the others. Bill had shoulder length hair like Malfoy or Snape, but it was red and lovely. His face was thin and and handsome. His earring was cool as well, and none of the other brothers had an ear piercing.

I wondered what Dad would think of Bill. I quickly pushed the thought away. Bill didn't like me and even if he did, I wouldn't hurt Fred like that.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, kindly welcome- the Bulgarian National Quidditch Team! I give you- Dimitrov! Ivanova! Zograf! Levski! Vulchanov! Volkov! Aaaaaand- Krum!" Bagman was saying.

"That's him, that's him!" Ron was saying. I looked through the Omnioculars to see the thin, dark, sallow-skinned boy. Because at seventeen he had only just become a man and the difference was amazing. He had thick eyebrows and a hooked nose and he looked a bit like a hawk or an eagle maybe. I supposed if someone asked me if he was good-looking I could say yes, but he wasn't my type and he wasn't the cutest boy I had ever met.

Yeesh, what was with me and eyeing every boy as a potential mate?

"And now," Ludo continued over the roaring approval of the Bulgarians and those supporting Bulgaria, "please greet- the Irish National Quidditch Team! Presenting- Connolly! Ryan! Troy! Mullet! Moran! Quigley! Aaaaand- Lynch!"

I cheered at Lynch's name. He was my favorite player on the Irish team and I had a poster of him in my bedroom. Blond, tall, thin, extremely hot. Deep forest green eyes. Bloody hell.

"And here, all the way from Egypt, our referee, acclaimed Chairwizard of the International Association of Quidditch, Hassan Mostafa!"

Hassan Mostafa was a short skinny wizard with a bald head. However, to make up for having no hair on his head was a very large, very busy mustache. Trang giggled quietly in her seat.

"Theeeeeeey're OFF!" Bagman yelled so loudly I nearly jumped. "And it's Mullet! Troy! Moran! Dimitrov! Back to Mullet! Troy! Levski! Moran!"

The Chasers threw the Quaffle so fast that Bagman had only time to say their names before it was in the hands of another player. I wondered suddenly how Lee Jordan would've had time to make any jokes if he'd been commentating. Knowing Jordan, he would've managed.

"TROY SCORES!" Bagman declared as Troy threw the Quaffle into the hoop, the Bulgarian Keeper missed. "Ten zero to Ireland."

"What?" Harry yelled stupidly. "But Levski's got the Quaffle."

I laughed and Hermione scolded him for watching the game in slow motion.

The Irish Seekers worked as a seamless team. I wondered if any of this stuff could be implemented for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team this year. Cedric would be watching and he was our captain so. . . there wouldn't be Quidditch this year because of the tournament. . . so never mind.

The two beaters on the Bulgarian side- Volkov and Vulchanov- were whacking bludgers left and right at the Irish Chasers as they had scored twice more. Finally, Ivanova scored the first Bulgarian goal.

Harry screwed his eyes up and stuck his fingers in his ears as the Veela began to dance again. I watched him amused.

"They don't affect you?" I asked Bill.

"Oh?" Bill said, "They could if I let them, but I'm used to women trying to charm me."

I would've laughed, but instead, I rolled my eyes, tugged on a lock of his hair, and turned my head away, shaking it in amazement.

I watched the Irish Chasers again and then the whole crowd gasped as both Krum and Lynch were zooming down towards the ground. I looked through my Omnioculars, but I didn't see any snitch.

"They're going to crash!" Hermione screamed.

Krum pulled up out of the dive at the last second, making my jaw drop. I hadn't thought it possible. Lynch, to my disappointment, crashed instead. There was a huge groan from the Irish side.

"Fool! Krum was feinting!" Mr. Weasley groaned.

I sighed with disappointment. Ginny meanwhile, was hanging over the side of the box, looking horror struck. "He'll be okay, he only got ploughed, which was what Krum was after, of course." Charlie said, reassuring her. He looked up and met my eyes. I gave him a thumbs up and looked away.

How horrible! I couldn't stand it if Charlie liked me too! It'd be hard enough if it was between Bill and Fred. I didn't need Charlie involved either. Or maybe I was just being. . . was that word? Self-absorbed? Full of myself? The word was on the tip of my tongue and I couldn't grasp it! Basically thinking that every guy was into me just because they looked at me. . .vain? No, that wasn't it either. Stupid English words!

"That move was called the Wronkski Defensive Feint." I told Trang who looked horrified. She had red eyes from keeping them open to much. "Maybe you should close your eyes for a moment." I suggested.

She took of her glasses and rubbed her eyes and kept them closed until Bagman started back up the commentary. Lynch's recovery seemed to give Ireland more heart. When they began to play again, the Irish Chasers played with such skill I didn't believe it could be rivaled.

Mullet shot toward the goal posts yet again and the Bulgarian keeper rushed out to meet her. I watched in slow motion for this part as he used his elbows against her chest and head and she dropped the Quaffle. Most other people didn't see the entire thing but the Irish shouted out, enraged.

"And Mostafa takes the Bulgarian Keeper to task for cobbing- excessive use of elbows! And- yes it's a penalty to Ireland!"

The leprechauns rose in the air spelling out the words HA HA HA! The Veela became angry and started to dance in a ferocious manner. The Weasley boys and Harry had all stuck their fingers in their ears, even Bill.

I pulled his fingers out his ears, giggling, and said, "Look at the referee!"

Hassan Mostafa had landed in front of the dancing Veela and was flexing his muscles and his mustache in an excited manner. Trang and I collapsed into giggles and I banged my head on Bill's shoulder and winced. Bill laughed too, though I was more certain he was laughing at me as I grabbed my head.

"Now, we can't have that!" Ludo Bagman said though he sounded on the verge of laughing himself. "Somebody slap the referee!"

A mediwizard came running across the field, fingers in his own ears and kicked Mostafa hard in the shins. Mostafa seemed to become extremely embarrassed and pointed off the field for the Veela. They stopped dancing, looking mutinous.

"And unless I'm much mistaken, Mostafa is actually attempting to send off the Bulgarian team mascots! Now there's something we haven't seen before. . . Oh this could turn nasty."

The two Bulgarian beaters landed on either side of Mostafa and began arguing with him furiously. However, Mostafa was no longer in a good mood and kept jabbing his finger in the air. When neither beater got in the air he gave two short blasts with his whistle and the Bulgarians roared in anger.

"Two penalties for Ireland! And Volkov and Vulchanov had better get back on those brooms. . . yes. . . there they go. . . and Troy takes the Quaffle. . ." Bagman was saying.

Play now reached the ferocity point. Volkov and Vulchanov were at the point where they didn't care if they hit a bludger or person and were swing their bats fast and hard.

Dimitrov shot straight up at Moran who had the Quaffle and nearly knocked her off her broom though she managed to keep her hold on the broom.

"Foul!" The Irish supporters roared as one, I had roared so along with them.

"Foul!" Bagman agreed, "Dimitrov skins Moran- deliberately flying to collide there- and it's got to be another penalty- yes, there' the whistle!"

The leprechauns had risen in anger, forming a hand with the middle finger pointed upwards at the Veela. The Veela lost control of them. They launched themselves across the field, throwing fire at the leprechauns. Their faces had transformed into bird-like faces and scaly wings were bursting out of their backs.

Trang lowered her Omnioculars and stared at me in amazement and said, "I take everything I said back. I don't care how many sports Muggles have, this is the best sport there is."

I laughed. "Told you."

"And that boys." Mr. Weasley shouted so that even Harry on the far end could hear him. "Is why you should never go for looks alone!"

Trang, Hermione, Ginny, and I laughed as one. Then I muttered, "But all guys do that anyways."

Beside me, Bill laughed.

"Levski- Dimitrov- Moran- Troy- Mullet- Ivanova- Moran again- Moran- MORAN SCORES!" Bagman announced.

The Irish cheers were drowned out by the shrieks of the Veela and the Ministry wizards trying to get them under control. There were also furious roars from the Bulgarian supporters. I was bouncing up and down in my seat, the end was coming, I knew.

Quigley, the Irish Beater, swung his bat at a bludger which went zooming toward Krum. "Duck!" I shrieked, but Krum did not get out of the way in time. I gripped Bill's arm hard as the bludger hit him full in the face. I was sure that his nose was broken. I quickly let go of Bill's arm so that I could hold the Omnioculars in both hands. Despite the four-second hold on his arm, he still had nail marks imprinted there and I blushed and muttered a sorry.

However, Mostafa didn't blow the whistle for Krum to get medical attention because his broom had been lit on fire by the Veela.

I moved the glasses back up to Krum. Blood was spraying out of his nose in every direction. Bloody hell.

"Look at Lynch!" I heard Harry shout from my right.

Lynch had gone into a dive. This was the real thing. I jumped from my seat. "He's seen the snitch!" I shouted excitedly.

I could see the snitch too, a gold blur down near the bottom of the field. Krum had dove now too. I wasn't sure how he could see as blood was flying up past his face but he had managed it somehow.

"They're going to crash!" Hermione shrieked.

"No they're not!" Ron yelled.

"Lynch is!" Harry and I said together.

I watched as Lynch crashed into the ground for the second time and winced. Charlie was out of his seat too and was saying, "The Snitch, where's the snitch!" He bellowed.

"He's got it!" I screamed with delight, jumping up and down, "Krum's got the snitch."

The scoreboard now read BULGARIA: 160, IRELAND: 170

"You guys won!" I said, turning to Fred and George, "You guys won your bet!"

Fred and George looked at each other and roared with delight, bumping fists and Fred pulled me into a tight hug.

There had been a silence in the crowd for a split second and then the Irish roared with happiness.

"IRELAND WINS!" Ludo Bagman cried a few seconds later, just as surprised as the Irish it seemed by this turn of events. "KRUM GETS THE SNITCH- BUT IRELAND WINS- good lord, I don't think any of us were expecting that!"

"What did he catch the snitch for?" Ron bellowed though he was jumping up and down like everyone else that Ireland had won. "He ended it when Ireland were a hundred and sixty points ahead, the idiot!"

"He knew they were never going to catch up!" Harry shouted back. "The Irish Chasers were too good. . . He wanted to end it on his terms, that's all. . ."

"He was very brave, wasn't he?" Hermione asked, leaning forward. Trang and her were watching the Ministry wizards blast a path through the battling leprechauns and Veela so that the mediwizards could get to Krum. Charlie and I were hugging now, completely ecstatic with Ireland's win.

"This is amazing!" Trang said, looking more at the battling creatures than the Quidditch players. The Veela were reverting back to their beautiful selves but looked dispirited and sad.

Bill picked me up now, swinging me around in a semi circle before kissing my cheek and setting me down. I stumbled for a second, putting a hand to my cheek, feeling quite red.

"Vell, ve fought bravely." A gloomy voice said behind us and we turned to see who was talking. It was the Bulgarian Minister.

"You can speak English!" Fudge said angrily. "And you've been letting me mime everything all day!"

"Vell, it vos very funny." The Bulgarian minister, said shrugging and looked over at me and smiled, "You speak very good Bulgarian."

I blushed with pride as the Bulgarian minister stepped back with his fellow Bulgarians.(It was actually the only sentence I knew in Bulgarian. I'd practiced it when I saw that the Bulgarian Minister would be coming up to the box). I supposed both teams would be coming up into the Top Box.

"And as the Irish team performs a lap of honor, flanked by their mascots, the Quidditch World cup itself is brought into the Top Box!" Bagman was saying.

My eyes were suddenly blinded by a dazzling white light. The Top Box was being magically illuminated so that everyone could see and we all quickly sat down so that we didn't get in the way.

"Let's have a round of applause for the gallant losers- Bulgaria!" Ludo said. The Bulgarian team came up the stairs and into the box. The crowd below was applauding appreciatively.

Krum came up last, looking like a real mess. He had two black eyes forming and his entire face was bloody. He was still holding the Snitch. He was slightly duck-footed on the ground and his shoulders were rounded. His eyes roved over us and then at Bagman. When his name was announced, the entire stadium- Irish and Bulgarian- roared with approval.

Then the Irish team came up the stairs. Lynch was being supported by Moran and Connolly. His eyes were a bit unfocused. I wished I could've asked for an autograph, but the Irish team left to do another lap around the stadium. Lynch rode on the back of Connolly's broom and I laughed. I too, wished I had a camera.

"Quietus." Bagman said, pointing his wand at his throat and climbing down from the pedestal. "They'll be talking about this one for years, a really unexpected twist, that. . . shame it couldn't have lasted longer. . . Ah yes, yes, I owe you. . . how much?" He asked as Fred and Weasley climbed over their seats to collect their money.

I walked over to where Harry was standing. I noticed his wand wasn't sticking out of his pocket anymore. I frowned. Well, perhaps he'd shoved it deeper into his pocket? I looked at where Winky was sitting, her eyes still covered and then the empty chair and pondered the invisible person. Perhaps they were sick? I bit my lip. Mr. Crouch had no wife, she'd died and I didn't think he had children. I supposed I could ask Mr. Weasley later.

I gripped the wand in my pocket as though someone might try to take it. I supposed that was a sign for something. . .

"Elizabeth, are you coming?" Trang called from down the aisle.

I jerked my head away from the empty, but not empty chair, and said, "Oh, yeah, coming." and I hurried after them, leaving the mystery behind.

⬅️➡️

[sundrop-writes]

Help me decide between these WIPs - Sept/Oct 2024

If you want more info about ideas, look below the poll, but I know most people judge very quickly for polls without reading the ideas first. It's just nature lmao (also, this is basically just a contest of smut vs fluff, so I am interested to see if people who claim they 'need more fluff' actually show up for this one or if just smut wins again like it usually does)

A Halloween Date In Hogsmeade - this is more of an idea then a full blown WIP (an idea I just got). This would be pure fluff. If this one won, then I would do another poll to decide who the date would be with. I want to do something Halloween themed this year - I do have something else secret up my sleeve, but since I am writing for Harry Potter right now, this would be fun. This would probably be for GN Reader, and just based on the old Quizilla style of fics - old, fluffy fics where Reader is the center of attention and gets a lot of romance from whatever love interest is chosen. Because this one would take another poll, I would work on whatever is the runner up of this poll in the meantime. 

Untitled Lust Potion Fic (Requested) - Ron Weasley x Fem!Ravenclaw!Reader. Friends to Friends with Benefits. Sex Pollen. Smut/PWP. This one is very basic, what it says on the tin - you are making a ‘lust’ potion as a bonus extra credit project for Slughorn’s class, and Ron accidentally messes it up, leading to him being the main person affected by it. His uncontrollable lust caused by the potion is then directed towards you. Glorious smut ensues. This one is about halfway finished in my drafts. 

Untitled Fluff Fic (Requested) - Ron Weasley x Fem!Slytherin!Reader. Pining Acquaintances to Lovers. Fluff. You are in Slytherin, but you have a crush on Gryffindor’s ‘King’ - Ron Weasley. This makes things complicated when your housemates constantly tease you for it. One day, after a rival Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin, things come to a head, and you just might end up on the winning side of things, even if your house lost the match. 

Water Fountain aka the ‘Love Triangle’ Fic (Requested) - Harry Potter x Fem!Slytherin!Reader (Background Draco Malfoy x Fem!Reader). Love Triangle, Anger, Pining. Emotional Angst, Smut (Hate Sex). Despite being in Slytherin, you have always had a close relationship with the Golden Trio, and you’ve always harbored a secret crush on the famous Harry Potter. However, he has made it very clear that despite being your best friend, he has no romantic interest in you. So, you find yourself free to pursue other romantic flames - like Draco Malfoy. This particular choice of yours drives Harry insane, and he can’t keep this anger to himself when you bring Draco as your date to the SlugClub Christmas party.