#why ginny weasley deserves respect

[saintsenara]

Thoughts on Ron and Hermione as a ship?

thank you very much for the ask, @thesilverstarling!

i’ll state my position straight away: book ron and hermione are the best of the canon couples.

they will have a long and extremely happy marriage made rich by great and stalwart love, lust, fun, and faithfulness, rather than held together by duty and couples’ therapy like so many readers and authors (including jkr, who seems to have decided to spend the years since the conclusion of the series failing to understand anything about her own characters) tend to think.

i will state another position straight away: lest i seem like i’m just a fan with blinkers on, i think this even though hermione is, by far, my least favourite member of the trio. if she were real i would detest her, and i dislike how she is treated by the narrative as always justified in her negative characteristics. i like fanon hermione - perfect and preternaturally good - even less.

as a result, i think that it’s ridiculous that jkr has said that she thought ron needed to ‘become worthy’ of hermione. they belong together as equals - which is what they’re set up in the narrative as being from the off - and i hate seeing that undermined.

because ronald weasley? he’s an icon. and he doesn’t get anywhere near the respect he deserves in fandom.

there are multiple reasons for this - ron’s narrative purpose is to be the everyman sidekick, and so he is able to be less special than harry or hermione (the helper-figure); the amount of aristocracy wank in this fandom means that the weasleys’ ordinariness is less appealing to writers than making harry have twenty different lordships and call himself hadrian; the narrative interrogates ron’s flaws - especially his capacity for jealousy - much more intensively than it interrogates either hermione’s (cruel, inflexible, meddling) or harry’s (reckless, self-absorbed, judgemental) - but one i feel is particularly significant is that ron is such a british character that many of his traits are not understood as intended by non-british readers.

in particular - as is outlined in this excellent meta by @whinlatter - ron’s sense of humour isn’t indicative of immaturity or a lack of seriousness, but is, in fact, evidence that he’s the most emotionally aware of the trio.

ron is shown throughout the series to understand how both harry and hermione need to have their emotions approached - and i think there is no piece of writing which says this better than crocodile heart by @floreatcastellumposts:

That was what she liked most about Ron, she thought vaguely. He was very good at being suitably outraged on your behalf. For Harry, for her, for Neville. That sort of thing mattered, when you were hurt or embarrassed or wronged in some way. You needed to have someone else on your side, to be as emotional as you felt, maybe even more so, so that you might feel a bit more normal. It was very decent of him, and she was not sure he realised he did it.

ron’s inherent emotional awareness is an enormous source of comfort to other people. he does the work which isn’t flashy or special - he makes tea and tells jokes and is just there - but which is needed in healthy human relationships far more frequently than a willingness to fight to the death for the other person.

[as an aside, this normality - even though i think it is assumed rather than justified by the text - is also what ginny provides for harry. if you believe that hinny are a good couple but romione aren’t… i can’t help you.]

but let’s look at some specific reasons why ron and hermione belong together:

their communication styles mesh perfectly. ron is the only person hermione knows who feeds her love of being challenged and debated, and who is able to engage in this way of communicating without becoming irate when she refuses to back down. ron is good at picking his battles, but he’s also good at recognising that hermione’s tendency to argue isn’t intended to be confrontational a lot of the time - it’s just the way she works through feelings and problems. he’s far more easy-going about her tendency to nag, interrupt, try to provoke arguments, or speak condescendingly than he’s given credit for - and hermione evidently respects this, since when he does tell her not to push a situation (above all, when she’s trying to needle harry into talking about sirius), she listens to him.

that ron and hermione’s tendency to bicker is taken by fans to be a bad thing is because it’s something harry - from whose perspective the narrative is written - doesn’t understand. harry is extremely conflict-avoidant - he tends to take being pushed on views and opinions he has to be insulting; and he has a tendency to assume that he is right which is just as profound as hermione’s. he and ginny communicate not by debating, but by ginny having no time for his rigidity and refusing to indulge it - but ron and hermione bickering about everything is not a negative thing within their specific emotional dynamic.

[as another aside, this glaring chasm in communication styles is why harry and hermione would be a disaster as a couple.]

they each provide validation the other needs. it’s clear - reading between the lines - that hermione is a tremendously lonely person. the friendlessness of her initial few weeks at hogwarts seems to be a continuation of her experience as a child, and - outside of ron and harry - that friendlessness endures through her schooldays. i’m always struck, for example, by the fact that, when she falls out with ron in prisoner of azkaban, she has no-one else to spend time with, and that this is only avoided in half-blood prince because harry decides not to freeze her out. i don’t think her friendship with ginny is anywhere near as close as fanon seems to imply (ginny has no interest in being nagged either), nor do i think that she’s anywhere near as close to neville (not least because she is so condescending to him) as she’s often written to be.

and this loneliness seems to stretch beyond hogwarts. the absence of hermione’s parents’ from the narrative is - in a doylist sense - clearly just a device to maximise time with the trio all together, but the watsonian reading is that she doesn’t have a particularly good relationship with them. hermione’s obviously upper-middle-class background - the name! the skiing! the holidays in the south of france! - can be presumed, i think, to come with a series of expectations from her parents which she feels constantly that she’s not entirely meeting, particularly expectations attached to academic success.

[for example, the grangers - were she a muggle child - would undoubtedly have ambitions for her to attend an elite university and then go into a prestigious career. tertiary education of the type that they’re familiar with doesn’t seem to exist in the wizarding world - most careers seem to be taught by apprenticeship - and this, alongside all the other divides between the magical and muggle worlds which contribute to the distance between them, would be one very obvious area in which she felt the need to prove herself to them.]

ron, too, has quite a difficult relationship with his position in the family - voldemort’s locket is not wrong to point out that he seems to receive considerably less of his mother’s emotional attention than ginny or the rest of his brothers - and he too is constrained by expectations which he doesn’t know how to explain he has no interest in - above all, molly’s desire for her sons to achieve top grades and go into the ministry.

he also suffers while at hogwarts from being ‘harry potter’s best friend’, something which harry never appreciates. but hermione does. she recognises ron’s jealousy and never allows harry to minimise it (and she and ron are very much aligned on having no respect for harry’s saviour and martyr complexes). she appreciates ron’s strengths - above all his kindness and his sense of humour - and makes him feel as though he’s achieved things with them. and ron does the same for her; he is hugely observant when it comes to her, and he challenges and defends her.

the two of them clearly spend a lot of time together one-on-one while harry’s involved in his various shenanigans (including outside of school - hermione has often arrived at the burrow days or even weeks before harry, and they seem to write to each other frequently when apart). they do this within a relationship which is fundamentally equal. one issue with hinny is that, post-war, harry is going to have to get used to seeing ginny as a peer, rather than as someone he has to protect. but ron and hermione never have that issue - equality is baked into their relationship from the off.

because, to be quite frank, fandom overstates the role that jealousy plays in their relationship. it’s true that ron certainly doesn’t acquit himself brilliantly when it comes to hermione’s relationship with viktor krum (it’s because he’s bi and doesn’t know it yet), and a tendency to externalise his insecurity into trying to make others also feel insecure is one of his primary negative traits (hermione does this too, via her patented lofty voice when she’s trying to condescend to people). but this is often taken as the initial red flag for how the relationship would crash and burn, and ron’s toxic jealousy is often used in fan-fiction as the trigger for emotional and physical violence towards hermione which, frequently, seems to drive her into the arms of either draco malfoy or severus snape… who are, of course, the first people we think of when we hear the words ‘not prone to jealousy’...

but i think it’s important to point out several things in defence of ron’s jealousy over krum. firstly, hermione evidently regards his jealousy as ridiculous - she’s upset by it, yes, but her upset must be understood as being caused by the fact that she wanted him to ask her out. she doesn’t think he’s being possessive, she thinks he’s being stupid. secondly, hermione is equally as jealous over ron’s crush on fleur delacour and relationship with lavender brown. she behaves just as cruelly when it comes to lavender as ron does when it comes to krum - and the narrative only treats her actions as more sympathetic or justified both because harry dislikes lavender too, and because, by that point in the series, jkr has dispensed with any inclination to ever criticise her.

but, outside of this teenage pettiness, ron is never jealous of hermione over things which matter. he is never jealous of her intelligence or competence or ambition or success (indeed, he defends her constantly from attacks designed to undermine her in these areas). for someone who struggles with being overshadowed by harry, he is never upset at being overshadowed by her. he is clearly going to be happy to support her in any of the career ambitions she can be written as having post-war.

and, on this point, i think it’s worth interrogating why so many readers still seem to feel uncomfortable with the idea of ron and hermione having a dynamic where she is the more ‘powerful’ one. [it’s always a bit trite to say ‘but what if the genders were reversed?’, but actually that’s not irrelevant here]. if hermione ends up taking the ministry by storm and ron becomes a stay-at-home father or has a job which is just to pay the bills, what, precisely, is wrong with that? why, precisely, should hermione regard ron making that choice for himself as a negative thing? hermione so often seems to leave ron in fan-fiction because of a lack of ambition - something which seems to be particularly common in dramione - but, in canon, she is shown to not particularly care if ron and harry do the bare minimum when it comes to studying etc. she nags them to do their work so they don’t get in trouble. she doesn’t nag them to do it to the same standard that she would.

and, actually, i think that ron being less ambitious than hermione is something which is key to how well they work. because ron provides not only emotional support, but emotional clarity.

hermione is shown throughout canon to - just as harry does - have a tendency to become obsessive to the detriment of her own health. she is also often - as harry is - emotionally or intellectually inflexible, and finds it hard to move on when what she feels or believes is proven to be wrong. both she and harry are micro-thinkers, who lean towards knee-jerk assumptions and stubborn convictions (and, indeed, hermione has a remarkably hagrid-ish tendency towards blind loyalty).

ron is none of these things. ron is a big-picture thinker (it’s why he’s so good at chess). he’s a pragmatist. he’s the least righteous of the three. he understands that faith and loyalty are choices, and that sometimes these choices will lead to outcomes which are bad or hard. he is the one of the three most willing to own up to having made mistakes. he is the one least likely to act on gut instinct (and, therefore, the hardest to fool - i think it’s worth emphasising that he clocks that tom riddle is tricking harry immediately, the only one of the trio to do so). he understands that things are a marathon, not a sprint. he is the least obsessive.

and these traits contribute to aspects of his character which are underappreciated. ron worries about hermione making herself ill during exams, or when she is using the time-turner, and makes an effort to get her to set healthy boundaries and redirect her anxiety. ron stands on a broken leg in front of sirius or goes into the forest to fight aragog not out of righteousness, but out of choice. ron takes over the burden of preparing buckbeak’s defence when it is clear that hermione is approaching burnout. ron is completely right that harry hasn’t done any long-term planning for the horcrux hunt, and his anger does force harry to tighten up after he leaves the trio. ron has a clear head in the middle of battle. ron makes harry and hermione laugh. ron is unafraid of human emotion. ron arrests harry’s tendency to brood over the little things by looking at the bigger picture. ron will always come back.

ron is bringing his politician wife regular cups of tea and making sure she doesn’t work all night. he is helping his lawyer wife to feel less upset over losing one case by reminding her that she’s won ten others. he is noticing stress creeping in and whirling her off for a dirty weekend, or even just a takeaway on the sofa. he is teaching his daughter to be proud of her ambition and his son to treat women as equals and both of his children that all you can do when you fuck up is apologise and try to do better. he is making hermione smile on the worst days of her life. he is helping her strategise her long-term goals when she gets stuck on the short-term ones. he is telling her straight when she needs to get it together. he is seeing a misogynistic head of department call hermione a ‘silly little girl’ and choosing to tell him exactly what he thinks of that.

ron is the ultimate wife guy. hermione is a very, very lucky lady.

[moonlightdancer26]

I'd love to hear your thoughts about Percy! What is your opinion on him in general? Do you like how his character arc was handled by JKR? What are your thoughts on popular fandom takes about Percy (him being a terrible disgrace to the Weasley family for siding with the Ministry/Voldemort; him being a secret hero of the rebellion who deserved better; etc)? And your thoughts on Percy ships? Who, if anyone, do you ship him with?

I think he’s wicked awesome and way too hated, I will genuinely defend him with my life. If my family treated me that badly I’d tell them to fuck off too, he was literally so excluded from his family because he wasn’t some Quidditch-loving jock and actually preferred to study and stay indoors. And he got mocked consistently just because he wanted a bright future. Sure he may appear a bit stuck-up to those who don’t know him well, but his family?? Plus after he legitimately got the job of his dreams, his father’s immediate reaction was to tell him he didn’t actually earn it and that it was all just a ploy. I would actually be so hurt. Like sure Arthur did end up being right, BUT YOU COULD’VE SAID IT A BIT DIFFERENTLY?? A simple “you earned it anyway, son” or “I’m proud of you” would’ve sufficed, alongside an explanation of why Percy MIGHT have gotten the job. He went about it way too harshly, if I got shut down like that after getting the job I’ve been working for my whole life, I’d have done a lot worse.

And I totally get Percy’s resentment, he felt as though his father wasn’t reaching his full potential due to his proud showcase of Muggle-fangirling. And since he (Arthur) was basically the sole provider in a large family that lived in poverty, I can see why Percy would feel frustration towards his father. Plus why do people act as if Percy was always “so horrible” even before he “abandoned” his family? He literally went RUSHING to Ronald when he got out of the lake in GoF and refused to let go of him, and he loved Ginny to death. He was protective of his younger siblings and was pretty funny imo, it’s hard not to sympathise with him when he has siblings like Fred and George.

He genuinely deserved so much better, he was constantly shut down for his accomplishments and cared so much for his siblings despite their mocking, plus he still came back to apologise to them and then proceeded to see his baby brother die in front of him????? How could you hate him after DH?? I don’t think he’s a disgrace to his family at all, sure he was shitty to Molly but, with what he must’ve been going through at the time, I get it. And any resentment he felt towards his family was completely and utterly justified. Plus he literally apologised, so even if you disagree with what I’m saying and think he’s scum or whatever, he legit still apologised to them? He still redeemed himself? Whatever he’s supposedly done that you hate him for, he redeemed himself for it. And I feel like people forget how young Percy was when all this happened? He’s only like 4 years older than Harry and was still 18/19 when all the family drama occurred, and he held a huge responsibility in the ministry. And having grown up as the lone middle child with the burden of knowing his family isn’t respected much must’ve had a tremendous influence on someone as ambitious as Perce. People should really see things from his perspective sometimes. Imo the only genuinely shitty things he’s done is 1. his treatment of Molly 2. his letter to Ron about Harry (but even then, I completely understand why Percy said what he said), anything other than that is usually just exaggerated by his haters.

One character he’s always reminded me of is Alex Dunphy from Modern Family (*tries to summon Modern Family fans*), she was also the odd one out in her family because she was super studious and introverted. And she had a desperate need to prove herself and was very ambitious, much like Perce. Her meltdowns and extreme studying was treated as a joke to the viewers and her sister Haley constantly made fun of her for it. She reminds me a lot of him tbh, which is why I love both characters so much.

lol this was supposed to be a quick short ask explaining why I love him and who I ship him with, and it resulted in a whole rant 😭 that’s usually how I get whenever his name gets brought up. Also Nonnie, I ship Percy with Oliver :D and I think he and Penelope Clearwater really deserved more screentime, they were such a delightful couple imo.

And thanks for the ask btw, I missed talking about him!!

[dreamcubed]

i forgot that you existed | harry potter x reader

song; i forgot that you existed [taylor swift] pairing; harry potter x gender neutral!muggle-born!reader genre; ex-lovers, light angst, bittersweet word count; 1k timeline; post-second wizarding war warnings; references to war summary; it's quite difficult to forget your ex when he's the infamous boy who lived, but somehow, some way, you were finally getting there

masterlist

"it isn't love, it isn't hate. it's just indifference."

——————————————

The Boy Who Lived was not a name you could escape in the wizarding world, no matter where you went or who you associated with. Especially after Voldemort's demise, his name popped up everywhere, since he was the one responsible. And, obviously, you would always respect and appreciate what the famous Harry Potter had done for everyone - muggles included.

But for so long had his name left a bad taste in your mouth.

It wasn't something that could be helped really: he was your ex-boyfriend, but not only that. He was your first love as well, so despite the fact you broke up on amicable terms, your heart ached to think of him. For years, you had put on a brave face when people mentioned him - friends careful to tiptoe around the subject, strangers oblivious to your history with the boy.

In a way, you had been forced into exposure therapy, which was certainly one way to get over someone. And it may have taken an awfully long time, but now, four years after your break up, you could safely say that you were at peace with the past.

Which is why it didn't hurt to bump into him in the bakery in Diagon Alley.

"Y/N?" his voice caught you by surprise, making you look up from the selection of sweet treats.

You were going to run into him sooner or later: after all, there weren't many wizard-only places. You were just relieved it was more on the later side.

"Harry," you smiled at him, "How have you been?"

Smiling at him felt foreign when you thought about the nights you spent crying through snot and sobs trying to get over him.

"Yeah, I've been good. I finally know peace," he chuckled awkwardly, "How have you been?"

"Good," the fact you were being honest warmed your own heart, "Yeah, I'm working at Mungo's now."

"Just like you always wanted to?"

You hummed, "You're an auror now, right?"

"Yeah, well, training to be one," he said, "Guess we're both where we wanted to be."

You gave a small grin to that sentiment, "How are the Weasleys? Hermione?"

"They're good, yeah, they're all good. Hermione and Ron are together, if you didn't know."

"Unlikely pair," you commented, thinking of your old friends. Your friendship with them had faded after you purposely distanced yourself to get over Harry.

"Yeah, quite."

"And you? How's your love life?" you ventured to ask.

"I'm with Ginny."

It didn't hurt to hear that, and that alone made you smile, "You suit each other." You meant it.

"Are you seeing anyone?"

You shook your head, "Too busy with work at the minute. It would be a bad idea to start anything now."

"Well, I hope you find someone deserving of you."

"Thank you, Harry, I hope everything between you and Ginny works out."

"Yeah, me too."

You stared at each other for a few moments, before you sighed gently and said, "Right, I should get going," you turned back to the counter and quickly made a decision about the pastry you wanted.

"Yeah, of course," Harry said as you moved towards the till, "I'll see you around, yeah?"

You nodded, "It's a small world, after all. Take care, Harry."

"You too, Y/N."

And then he was gone.

"You seem quite familiar with the Boy Who Lived," the bakery owner, who was accustomed to you as a regular, stated.

You shrugged, "We went to school together. Dated for a couple years, actually."

"Oh?"

You chuckled, "It's in the past, though. I hardly know him anymore. Truthfully, I forget he exists sometimes."

"How? He's so famous."

"It took an incredible amount of self-work, Aggie."

"Then have today's pastry on the house, in honour of such an impressive feat."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course."

You beamed, "Thank you, Aggie. See you tomorrow."

"Take care!"

"You too!"

***

As you entered the renowned wizarding hospital for the sick and injured, pastry in hand, you smiled a greeting at all your co-workers as you passed them. Not too long ago, the place had been overcrowded with war survivors, hurt in all sorts of ways. A few of them still remained (mostly the mentally scarred beyond repair ones), but as a whole the doctors, surgeons, nurses, potion masters, physiotherapists, etc. had managed to heal the vast majority of war patients. You hadn't worked here then, but due to your dreams of being a witch doctor, you had been one of the key medical aids at the Battle of Hogwarts. That experience had helped you secure a spot in Mungo's apprenticeship program.

And, you supposed, the defeat of Voldemort and the death eaters was one thing you would always have to thank your ex-boyfriend for. Without that, not only would you live in fear and desolation, but your life at Mungo's would be a hell of a lot more miserable. That would be if the death eaters even allowed muggle-borns to hold down a job in the wizarding world (let alone live).

So, no, you weren't angry at Harry Potter by any means. You still were sometimes saddened with regret and the possibility of what could have been, but not to the point of tears - not anymore. Harry Potter was simply a more significant part of your backstory than other people's. You didn't hate him, but you didn't love him.

And, as you changed into your scrubs, washed your hands, and headed in the direction of your first patient, you found yourself flustering at the warm smile that an attractive co-worker gave you on the way. The same way you flustered at Harry Potter all those years ago, but didn't today.

Because your interaction with the Boy Who Lived was... well, it wasn't love, it wasn't hate. It was just indifference.

—————————————————

masterlist

written; 10/04/2023 —> 15/04/2023 published; 16/04/2023 edited; —/—/——

taglist ; @iluvweasleys @workinatdapyramid

[therealdv]

During their third year Hermione keeps disappearing and reappearing at random times, acting like nothing's happened. Harry and Ron are starting to get kind of annoyed, Hermione is obviously keeping a secret and while Harry wants to let it go and respect her privacy, Ron has grown up with 5 brothers and has no intention of letting her get away with it. Everytime Hermione reappears Ron asks "Blimey! Where did you come from?" with the same exact tone. Everytime he does it Harry rolls his eyes.

After the first month Harry is honestly surprised Hermione hasn't caught on, either she's being oblivious on porpouse (Wich she isn't, she couldn't lie for her life) or she's so distracted that she actually hasn't noticed anything.

After the second month, and a week of Hermione's hair being even more impossible than usual and the bags under her eyes begin to show Harry and Ron start to actually worry. Ron starts adding food to Hermione's plate every chance he has (it's lots of chances, Hermione is always eating with her head in a book lately). Harry starts to send her to bed after ten o'clock every day, forcefully taking her away from her books to stop her from falling asleep in the common room. She gets a bit better for a while.

And then they fight over a broom.

Harry can understand where Hermione comes from, but he seriously doubts an escaped convict would have the means to buy a top of the line broom (Harry checked, he'd have to spend over half the money in his trust vault for it). Also he can't help but remember every time the Dursley show him new toys only to take them away and give them all to Dudley. He knows Hermione isn't like them, but those kind of scars are even more pronounced than the one on his forehead.

Ron just feels so angry. He doesn't know why exactly but it's been building up for a while now. Scabbers might not be the best pet ever, but he's still his pet, he's loved by the whole family in that kind of jokey but really strong way the Weasleys love each other. He knows Scabbers is old and his parents have already been open with him about the possibility of him dying. The last thing the poor thing needs is a cat trying to eat him every other day. And Hermione just doesn't care. The fight over the broom feels more like a spark igniting something that was already there. Ron is all too used to the idea of everything he owns belonging to everyone, but he's also fed up of feeling like every single thing could be take away from him by Ginny or the Twins and never seen again.

Hermione gets worse again after that.

Harry goes up to his dormitory every night wanting to first send Hermione to bed, but he's just so angry and hurt, and he deserves a "sorry" at least, doesn't he?

Ron sees her cheeks hollowing in the next few weeks and his hand itch to put some more toast on her plate, he wants to take away her books and tell her to eat, but he takes one look at Scabbers and Harry and he gets angry again.

Once the broom is given back to Harry the tension seems to abate a bit. They tether on the edge for a while: Hermione looks at them sometimes and starts to cry everytime; Harry feels awful about the whole thing but he's still hurt; Ron mostly tries to ignore the whole thing, he's still so angry.

Neville (bless his heart) is the first to take a step. He walks up to Harry one evening and stumbles his way trough what is obviously a reharsed speech about how Hermione is obviously more important than a broom. It misses the point entirely, Harry finds himself incredibly angry about it for a split second. Then her reminds himself that no one but him could know about the Dursleys. He hasn't really told anyone about them. Maybe he could try and explain it to Hermione. The idea of coming clan about the things he suffered sends his heart in a frenzy, but Neville is right about one thing at least: Hermione is important to him, her and Ron are like two pieces of his heart he never knew he was missing.

So Harry takes Hermione and Ron and finds them a secluded place in the castle. Somewhere no teachers or prefect are following him around in that suffocating way. He talks to them about the Dursleys then. He focuses on the way they never give him anything, on the way they taunt him everytime a gift is given.

Hermione and Ron are horrified. Hermione starts crying and sobs her way through an apology, she tells him she loves him and she's sorry about the broom, she just wants him safe. They hug it out and Harry feels a huge weight lift from his shoulders.

Ron is silent at first but Harry and Hermione would never just let him get out of this, so they coax his anger out. He shouts at them and kicks a chair away while he stalks the room. He lays it all out, about Scabbers and how scared he is that his pet might die at any moment. Hermione is crying again by the end of it. She heals the bruise on his shin from the chair and then hugs him too. She promises to keep Crookshanks at bay and apologizes for her callousness.

Then she takes a breath and comes clean too. She takes the Time Turner our of her shirt to show it ti them, explains what she's doing with it, how stressful it all is. How she feels like her head is underwater half the time now. She never gets enough sleep and never has enough time to study no matter how many hours she turn back. She's always so tired.

They work toghether from then on, they watch out for Scabbers, who gets lost over and over. They watch out for Hermione so she studies a bit less and sleeps a but more. They watch out for Harry so that he knows they love him and that he's never a burden.

They become so close that people start to whisper around them, but they don't care. There are more important things in the world.

Like friendship, and bravery, and love.

[thatintrovertedgryffindor]

Percy Weasley was taught to make his own way. He was told he was smart and was going to go places. He was the younger brother and the older brother, that sweet spot where he had power and people behind him. He had ideas that filled his head of how to better the world and a murky path where all his dreams would come true.

Imagine Percy's anger and betrayal when he finally got the respect he deserved and his parents wrote it off as someone else's achievement. All his life, he was under Bill's or Charlie's shadow. Now, when he got to do something he enjoyed, he was mocked. It would have been fine from Fred or George or Ginny but his Father? Who worked for the Ministry and found loopholes and worked as close to the walls of his jurisdiction as he could? Was that not what Percy was doing?

The stress from getting this job and his other not-so-legal job was getting to him. He felt dizzy and angry and why was Dad telling him that it was Harry who got him this job? That's absurd. All their problems lately have been because of Harry. Dragon in the school? Harry. Ginny got kidnapped by a ghost? Harry. The rat was actually a horrible person hiding from the Law? Harry. Ron gets kidnapped by merpeople? Harry.

And Percy made it very clear. He made it clear he didn't like Harry. He made it clear that Ginny's crush on him was stupid. And he made it clear that backing Harry was the dumbest thing his family could do, but he wasn't surprised. They never made the best decisions anyway. Oh, you want to know what kind of decisions? Turning down better jobs to work for a department that was bollocks and has no reputation, Dad, that was stupid. Picking fights with wealthy contributors to the community like Lucius Malfoy. Spending money on all the wrong things and perhaps having such a huge family was the worst decision of them all.

Ron was silent and Ginny looked like she was going to bite his ear again. Fred and George were looking at him like their next prank was going to be as painful as they could make it. Mother was red in the face and pointing her soup spoon in his face but Percy didn't care. He voiced his opinions finally. He got his words in and he was proud he did so.

"Percy." His Dad stood up but kept his head down. "Get out."

Percy frowned. "What?"

"Get OUT PERCY! You are no son of mine!"

After the initial shock, Percy grit his teeth. "Fine. You don't want me? I don't want you either."

He made sure to slam the door as hard as he could behind him to make some of the paintings fall off the walls.

[whinlatter]

Any headcanons about Fleur? I feel she’s very underrated…

Fleur is underrated, it's true! For me, what makes her interesting to think about, though, are all the ways in which she's flawed, complex, and elusive as a character and also, frankly, a bit of a dickhead with some room to grow. In some fandom spaces, there's a tendency to sanctify Fleur (coming particularly from the anti-Weasley sides of the fandom), and portray her as a victim of horrible bullying that she never deserved, which I don't agree with. Do Molly, Hermione and Ginny cover themselves in glory in their initial approach to Fleur? Of course not. But for all her many strengths, Fleur gets off on the wrong foot with Bill's family in part because she can be a bit of a rude and inconsiderate houseguest, thoughtless in her remarks, and occasionally vain in ways that make sense but that do demand a bit of introspection and self-improvement.

I do think it's clear that Fleur's experience coming of age in a world that sexualised her from a young age was both formative and deeply harmful in ways I think she would have to unpack and unlearn as an adult. Patriarchy conditions Fleur's worldview: it also shapes how other female characters respond to her. Everyone's losing. Whenever I've written Fleur, I've tried to give her lines that portray her as someone disarmingly honest, rarely meaning to wound, but certainly a bit tactless and bearing the unexamined scars of a childhood and adolescence that sexualised her young, hardened her and made her feel like appearance and looks are a currency. In Orchards, it's the line about Fleur giving Ginny her an expensive-looking French conditioner for her birthday. (‘It will help with – how do you say - ah, split-ends' - like, kind to give Ginny a present, but comes off as patronising and a criticism of Ginny's appearance, especially to an already unimpressed and unforgiving audience). The bit I just put in Beasts is me trying to flag this sense I work with her of her as a character: ''You are very pretty, even if you do not try,’ Fleur had said, that afternoon. (Her sister-in-law always did like her compliments backhanded.)' ‘Boys will like your ’air, if you do it nicely. Remember, if you take care of your looks, zey will take care of you.’'

A only have a couple of headcanons for ya, none of which are very ground-breaking, forgive me!

I think of Fleur as a solitary person, with a strong sense of self and little interest in explaining her inner life to others. I think Bill and Fleur's relationship is the meeting of two similarly self-sufficient people who find a sort of calm together, but that isn't defined by emotional co-dependency.

I like to think Fleur moved back to England for work as an adult because the Triwizard Tournament was both emotionally and politically formative for her. The circumstances in which the tournament ended struck at her own strong sense of justice, but she also felt drawn to a place where she had been changed, in some way. I think there's something in going back to places that changed you but that you feel you have unfinished business with. Her crush on Bill was secondary to her pursuing that more elusive feeling, following up on a question mark

I like to think Fleur benefits a lot from her relationship with her sisters-in-law as an adult, albeit slowly and quietly. While I love the idea of her and Ginny being able to talk about why they clashed years later, I don't ever really imagine Fleur as being best mates with Ginny, but I think both come to a place of mutual respect, unspoken but deeply felt, and that they admire each other as parents a great deal. I think a more mature and reflective adult Fleur would be intensely sympathetic to the ways Ginny was almost certainly harassed and sexualised in the wizarding press as a figure in the public eye.

[seriouslysam8]

I am sorry that I made you justify for something that was your opinion❤️ (I am the one that asked you ages ago about your hate/dislike)

Normally, I don’t read Hermione bashing because people make her a real bitch that is after Harrys money and that doesn’t care about him, which I think is weirdly non-canon. So reading the MiT was kind of a suprise to me. It didn’t have the tag bashing and you were definitely NOT bashing her, but wrote her pretty boring, distant and cold.

I shouldn’t have asked you… like you said! Its YOUR story and YOU decide who has more „page time“ and who deserves to be written about. But instead of being an asshole and ignoring my ask you were so respectful and said so many reasonable points that I understood and accepted your opinion!

I don’t agree with all, but I understood and tbh I still read through all those one shots and multi chapters 😅 You write too good, to just stop reading your stories 😅

The only thing that I can suggest so people stop asking about Hermione is to write a post or just a disclaimer that this blog is an anti!Hermione blog without bashing

Because you really don’t bash Hermione, you just don’t write about her more.

I am so Sorry that you needed to write this rant, because you felt like justifying your opinion and hate again and again and again! But I am also glad you wrote it and didn’t shut up about it. Because nobody cares if someone hates Drarry, Wolfstar, a feminin Sirius(which is so weird.) a skirt wearing Sirius (I- wtf), those blogs that post about TOMARRY don’t need to justify their ships, people don’t ask about why someone hates Ron or Ginny or the whole Weasley clan (seriously noone). So you should have the right too, to hate a FICTIONAL character that is not REAL

Again I apologize for my noisy self!❤️

———

And just to annoy you, bc I really do love this blog snd the person behind it:

Why do you dislike percy Weasley?💀😭

(Pls take it as a joke, I rarely care about him😂💀)

I don’t want you to feel bad. Some people are genuinely curious, and those people (like you) bother me a lot less. Because I get it. She’s not normally a disliked character. But there are those of us who just don’t have any interest in her or don’t like her.

It’s just a question I get asked often.

You are so right. Nobody goes to an anti-Ron or Ginny or Weasley tumblr or story and ask why or to shit on the author. Or if Ron is put in the background as a friend and Hermione is portrayed as the bestie, nobody bats an eye. I think that’s what bugs me the most.

I had someone who would rant on my page anytime I said something even remotely negative about Hermione. I blocked their account and their second account so I don’t have to deal with it. Most times, people don’t really argue. But I get a lot of reviews and asks asking questions or people who are upset that I underutilize her. A lot of the time I just delete and ignore, not giving it any attention.

I just got a shitty anon review today that I ended up deleting ranting and raving at me because of Hermione in Brumous and saying my portrayal of Harry and Ron was awful. And I just had enough. And I needed to vent.

But honestly, I remember your ask and you were kind and respectful. I don’t mind questions. It just gets exhausting sometimes. More often than not, they’re not respectful.

I am just trying to establish some good boundaries. Some people in the fandom need to learn how to respect boundaries. That’s very, very important.

So, friends?!?

….

But

Don’t get me started on Percy!!

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[number-onekidqueen]

𝓴𝓲𝓼𝓼 𝓶𝓮 𝓲𝓷 𝓪 𝔀𝓪𝔂 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽'𝓼 𝓰𝓸𝓷𝓷𝓪 𝓼𝓬𝓻𝓮𝔀 𝓶𝓮 𝓾𝓹 𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻

Ron Weasley x Hermione Granger

Angst

Warnings: underage drinking, brief mentions of panic, angst.

Wc: 1.0

“Punch?”

Hermione shook her head, attempting a smile.

She may have adored and respected Mrs Weasley’s cooking, but she had her doubts about the punch after she saw its effects on Ginny. After only three glasses, she was already ogling Harry and cracking jokes with an equally drunk Fred and George that made no sense whatsoever.

She’d rather have her wits about her. Especially with a drunk Ron here, and her emotions so on high this evening.

Her attention flashed back to Ron as he ambled his way towards her, only slightly clumsy, his nose and cheeks pink,.

“If you’re not drinking, you’re coming outside to watch the fireworks with me.” Ron demanded, pulling her up from the sofa.

Hermione thought about protesting, as she scanned around the room for an excuse.

Ginny and Harry moving closer together inch by inch, both chortling like fools and stealing obvious glances at each other in between loud conversations with the twins.

The twins being… well, the twins.

And Mr and Mrs Weasley settling down on a sofa in each other’s arms, a woollen blanket wrapped around them.

 She sighed, beginning to follow Ron as he led her through the kitchen and then the rickety screen door. After a quick pause, they sat at the edge of the cold veranda.

Silence followed, in which Hermione pulled her jumper tighter around her and admired the old oaks surrounding the Burrow, their branches still dusted with a light layer of snow. It was times like these, when the moon’s silvery glow illuminated the pure powder of snow, creating a winter wonderland that she knew for certain that magic wasn’t a long, complex dream, but a reality.

“Do you still use Sleekeasy’s Hair Potion?” Ron asked.

After the initial shock at how random this question was, Hermione let her annoyance flood through her.

“No,” she said irritably, “Why, do you find it hard to believe my hair can look neat and good without products?”

“Your hair always looks good,” he replied, as if he were ridiculously obvious, “and so soft, and shiny. Sort of like the fireworks because it sticks out all frizzily.”

She tried to shove down her own fireworks those words gave her.

“I don’t think that’s a word, Ronald.”

“Here,” he said, passing the glass over her way, “honestly, it’s New Year’s Eve. You deserve to have some fun.”

“I’m having a perfect amount of fun sitting here and being sober. Besides, I thought we were here to watch the fireworks, not consume alcohol underage,” she responded frostily.

The look he gave her communicated exactly how much fun he knew she was having.

“Fine,” she said, rolling her eyes, “it’s unlikely to be fun, anyway.”

She snatched the glass from him, and downed it in a second, pursing her lips as she felt the fruity warmth travel down her throat.

More frosty silence ensued, until eventually, the alcohol kicked in, and dizzy warmth filled Hermione and she couldn’t find it within herself to remember why she was giving him the cold shoulder.

“Ron….” She began, confused, “Why am I angry at you?”

And then he began laughing and she joined in, and they began chattering and teasing each other as if everything was normal again.

As if he didn’t have a girlfriend, or she wasn’t angry at him for having one.

Or they both hadn’t said and done things last year that ‘friends’ don’t say and do.

And before long, as it was bound to, it happened.

They kissed.

It was long and soft, and full of all the emotions, words and thoughts that Hermione knew they were both too stubborn to say aloud.

And as the booming signified the beginning of the fireworks, it also signified the end of their kiss.

As she pulled apart and looked into his eyes, which suddenly seemed so serious, so sober, as if he were about to pronounce something essential, panic flooded through her.

She couldn’t be here. She couldn’t allow herself to be hurt again.

“Mione, I--”

She ran.

This couldn’t be happening. How could she have let herself kiss the boy she knew she liked, while he was dating someone else?

To be fair, she didn’t even think she liked him. She loved him.

And he kissed her and didn’t even mean it.

 It didn’t matter if his eyes were sober, or in this state he thought he loved her, she knew he was drunk to his core, the memory of empty glasses filling her mind.

Hermione sank to the frosty, freezing grass, burying her head into her palms, as she replayed the moments over and over, again and again.

No, this couldn’t have happened.

As much as Lavender irritated her, she knew it wasn’t fair, and most of all, she knew that Ron didn’t feel anything for her, and it was simply the effects of too much alcohol that caused him to show such false affections.

She probably just looked like Lavender, and that was why it occurred.

She had to forget this and act like it never happened. She couldn’t judge his actions as anything he actually felt while he was intoxicated.

That, she supposed, was the reason she decided what she did.

Seven minutes after what happened, Ron saw Hermione emerging from the darkness, her hair glimmering in the pale light, every strand seemingly flowing a different way as she walked.

He was so distracted by its curly, tawny radiance, he didn’t notice the pale complexion of her face, or her umber wand being silently drawn from the pocket of her jeans.

He didn’t even notice the single tear gliding down her cheek until it was too late, and as he opened his mouth to ask, concerned, the incantation had already been muttered.

The last few fireworks burst across the sky, as if a painter was rapidly streaking slashes of colours across a black canvas, just as Ron opened his eyes.

His eyes lit up in excitement as he watched the last one fade, before his brows furrowed in disappointment as he realised it was the last.

“Did we miss them?” he asked, turning to her in confusion.

“Yeah, we must’ve,” she replied, biting her lip and looking away as she felt tears flood her eyes.

Somehow, they must’ve.

[starlingflight]

Luna/Harry?

I'm afraid I don't ship it...

1. Why don't you ship it?

Because I don't think Harry treats Luna with enough respect to be with her.

He finds her whole world view bizarre at best and embarrassing at worst. When he goes to meet her for Slughorn's party he hopes she looks normal.

Luna deserves someone who is proud of all her eccentricities and, unfortunately, that's not Harry.

2. What would have made you like it?

Any indication that Harry's affection for Luna exists because of her quirks and not despite them.

3. Anything positive to say about it?

I think Luna is a really great friend for Harry and as he gets older and isn't in that teenage mindset where anything that makes you different is objectively terrible, something could maybe develop (if not for the presence of love of my life, Ginny Weasley).

[breaniebree]

Hi bree it's not any question or any review for your fics it's a big thank you note I could have written it in reviews but I thought this would be better a very big thanks to you on behalf of hinny shippers just like many hinny shippers I couldn't forgive harry potter makers for brutally butchering their characters in movie and I still couldn't digest that harry and ginny didn’t exchange a word in 19years later epilogue a i still have that question that why did they do this to my favorite character why did they steal their moments I was very very angry those days after couple of years I came to know about fanfictions and found this website and I have read many fanfictions I had many favorite fanfictions which I thought did justice harry and ginnys love some where filmy and over dramatic some fics where at the point but left unfinished that was kind of depressing And one fine day I found your diamond A Second chance which definitely did justice to my favorite couple not only to hinny to Remus and Nymphodora Nevile Hannah to bill fluer and many more you gave a pair to Sirius and you made us to love and adore her you created a perfect world which had no logical loophole with the perfect negative characters and their way of operating the politics the hostory of the that world seriously i had no idea about wizengamot and how they operatec the way you named each and every departments the acronyms everything was perfect i was literally blown away by the passion you had to build this one i don't know whether you did this alone or with group i can literally see how much research you had done this fic you deserve a big applause dude and also the you normalized LGBT characters which wad kind of new to me (as I am from india) thank you for this fic bree if they are gonna reboot harry potter I would say WB should choose your story to make as this gen could easily relate this one I had been following ur account right from the beginning series which was my favorite before ASC which was kind of over dramatic but ASC was in the correct wavelength nothing more nothing less and the way u were also faithful to some of the Canon events it was perfect and not to mention the cherry on the top the way you gave lead to ttc I was like wait what and I grew more rest less knowing that I have to wait for this world to have closure I was literally banging my head u had even recommended and made my friend to read this fic and many fell in love wityour story and final thank you for this beautiful and passionate love story of harry potter and ginny weasley you gave us which even a film giant had failed thank you and lots of love for you bree not only for Kismet triology but also for your all of your fics love and respect for passion and commitment u had for this Lots of love ❤️ from India

Hi, @mukeshtonystark97

Thank you very much! It means so much to me to know that people enjoy my writing! As to things i made up or incorporated, if someone helped me it's in the author's note of that chapter, otherwise it was all me. Thank you!

[humandisorderincarnatedean]

I am exactly where you're at with tending to prefer upstanding kind 'good' characters, particularly over popular 'darker' characters. I like characters who want to and try to do the right thing! that's why even though I've never seen a marvel movie or read a single comic, I have spent some time in love with steve rogers just because of what fandom stuff I knew about him. while I haven't seen almost all of the shows you list characters of, I recognise a good few of them by reputation as well, and chidi anagonye was my favourite tgp character as well!! king of the dorky goody-two-shoes nerds! (and percy is, after ron and ginny of course, my favourite weasley family member)

I think characters who are good people tend to be underrated. maybe it's because people underestimate how hard it is and how much effort can go into it. I love characters who put in that effort, I love kindness and a strong sense of morality as character traits, just people who do their best and want to do what is right. I've always found it very admirable and likable. good doesn't mean boring and never has

and I also tend to choose the main character as my favourite! I find they're often overlooked by fans for interesting side characters, which is fair but I love how well you usually get to know a main character. really get into their heads, when reading a book the main character usually becomes my favourite too. it's why harry james potter is still one of the loml, and the doctor is the best character in doctor who (obviously) (maybe it's also a little bit of a pattern of me thinking a character should get more love/doesn't deserve the disdain)

& you know you're right and it has been said before but it bears repeating. because it is remarkable that dean and sam seem to embody so perfectly those 'character types' you lay out; respectively, the prankster/bad boy/comedic relief/lothario type, and the kind/moral/nerdy/sweet/shy/dorky/earnest type. but of course those labels do not even come close to encapsulating them. sam isn't a moral centre, he's not shy and he has a temper and he's horny but repressed about it and of course, dean himself often displays many of the traits of the second type; he’s dorky, he’s kind, and of course he always tries to do what’s right. it's one of the reasons I adore him SO much <3

as for me knowing dean would be my favourite character going into the show, well I'd been scrolling through supernatural blogs for months just to follow the drama and get the content and through that I'd received the gist of dean's character. I knew 1. he was an oldest sibling, who was very protective of his younger sibling (I love sibling relationship stories and I am myself an oldest sister, so I was bound to imprint) 2. he's bisexual (all the best characters are) even if they never have him say it 3. that he was a big tough badass who was constantly put into situations that made him confront his vulnerability (I love characters being put into situations which make them vulnerable, it’s a good story mechanic) 4. that he hates himself but is loved immensely by everyone around him (it's called staying humble) 5. that he was a tall gorgeous man (hubba hubba) 6. that there was a quote about him going around saying how he was the most caring and loving human being and he did everything he did the good and bad for love. now you try not falling for that before you've even seen the pilot episode!

other characters that I love more than any other I've already mentioned, hjp and the doctor together with dean fill out the top of the podium. other faves are hermione granger, the baudelaire children from asoue, the pines twins from gravity falls, most of these are childhood faves but recently I'm also falling all over again for shawn spencer from psych (who at first seems like the most pure embodiment of that prankster/lothario archetype but he too has more going on than that)

a lot of my favourites tend to be deancoded, at least to me. and then I get to make comparisons and parallels <3 which is fun!

So I went through the last page of your blog and am now making it my own little personal dash by going through it all because I really like your spn opinions and Dean-loving and it’s really funny bc it seems a couple years ago you were like “Awww look at those two they are my babies love The Brothers™️ show” and mow it’s evolved into “if anyone looks at dean wrong I’ll claw their eyes out - Idk abt Tall One™️ ” (very very valid of you)

(I’m kidding ok but also those are very much the moods I swing between when watching this terrible, incredible show so I wanted to bring it up lol)

aw 🥹 I'm flattered love that you like my posting so much <3 I try my best you know!

and lol whenever I look back on my older posts that's the exact same impression I get 😆 I used to be a little more of a bibro before I grew into my bitter deangirliness. even though honestly I still love sam a lot!!! yeah, he used to be my second favourite character, and he's not really anymore, but he's still definitely top 10!!! I loved posting about sam and dean being brothers tm so much, I still really love their relationship- but over the years the need has arisen for me to defend my best boy from all of the terrible opinions, and that's taken priority for a long time, you get it, you know how it is. they ARE indeed our babies, you are exactly right about that- but also: protecting dean takes precedence.

thank you for the message, love <3

[saintsenara]

a new week and more @hprecfest!

day nine: a work in progress

beasts by @whinlatter harry potter/ginny weasley teen 

why i recommend it:

because it's the only post-war hinny fic i've ever encountered which actually feels plausible.

it's rare to find a canon ship fic which examines its endgame couple so critically and deeply. one of the reasons i don't otherwise read a lot - or, really, any - hinny is because i find the standard race towards all was well quite trite, and often involving a fairly dismissive approach to ginny's character, which flattens her into somebody whose only goal in life is to be harry's bang maid. but i also think there can be a fair amount of overcorrection in the opposite direction, turning these two into something toxic and unsatisfactory.

beasts actually thinks about the tension which their massively divergent experiences of the war and its aftermath, and the attendant differences in how they'd think about things like justice, resistance, and grief, would cause in harry and ginny's relationship - and it does so by showing two fundamentally imperfect and human people doing their best to deal with that fact.

it's also - because molly weasley bashing is something i must say i have complete contempt for - one of the best manifestos for why she deserves much more respect from the fandom than she gets.

[zayray030]

When I go into the Ginny Weasley tag on Wattpad I don't want to have to waddle through a shit ton of Drarry or fic's to do with Hermione.

Jesus fuck I do not care about Granger and don't tag Ginny in drarry works if all you're going to do is bash her.

[percydarling]

The Worst Weasley

Percy Weasley who cheers on his brother when he won the chess tournament

Percy Weasley forgetting his dignity and saying 'that's my brother' to the other prefects while jumping.

Percy Weasley never retaliating back at the twins for all the shit they do to embarrass him.

Percy Weasley being the butt of all the twins joke having everyone. including his father, excluding his mother laughing at him, not with him

Percy Weasley playing chess with Harry against Ron and losing miserably.

Percy Weasley along with Harry and Ron having a snowball fight against the twins.

Percy Weasley letting himself be dragged by his twin brothers for Christmas wearing Weasley sweaters

Percy Weasley trying to be a good prefect.

Percy Weasley taking care of Ginny and being a worrywort.

Percy Weasley being Hermione's friend

Percy Weasley having a secret girlfriend.

Percy locking himself in his room as he writes a letter to his parents about a dead(presumably) Ginny.

Percy Weasley asking Ron why he's in the girls bathroom and Ron calling him a traitor yet Percy doesn't insult Ron.

Percy keeping a close eye on Harry to ensure his safety.

Percy Weasley gambling money he doesn't have on a match and winning

Percy Weasley running out during the Quidditch tournament along with his older brothers to protect Muggles and ending up with a bloody nose.

Percy Weasley being embarrassed by his boss calling him 'Weatherby' and still doesn't say shit back at him.

Percy Weasley running into the water, once again forgetting his dignity to ensure his brother is safe.

Percy Weasley being accused of not knowing his boss is a Deatheater and having to go through that alone.

Percy Weasley once again being accused of being a Ministry Spy by his father.

Percy Weasley whose family doesn't bother to reach out to him, the only way they do so is through hate mail.

Percy Weasley trying to ensure his brother's safety once again even though Percy doesn't talk to anyone else.

Percy Weasley who is insulted once again in front of THE Minister by his twin brothers and sister who decide to throw mashed parsnips and never apologised for that shit because you know it's 'funny'

Percy Weasley who is at the heart of the WAR because THE MINISTER is a Death Eater who prob killed his colleagues.

Percy Weasley who was not contacted by his brother but by his mother for his wedding.

Percy Weasley who decides to do the right thing and come back to fight in the war.

Percy Weasley who has to apologise for being a fool when all he did was follow everyone else and is always at fault and doesn't receive an apology back by any of his family members.

Percy Weasley who is then blamed for Fred's death.

Percy Weasley who refuses to leave Fred's body that it scares Harry.

Percy Weasley, who is definitely the worst Weasley.ley who never put anyone in a coma. Percy Weasley who didn't hex people just because they wanted to. Percy Weasley who never called people names(you know who), Percy Weasley who never insulted his family(except his father), Percy Weasley who never backbitched about his siblings to his friends ,Percy Weasley who never emotionally manipulated anyone, Percy Weasley who did not join the Death Eaters or spill family secrets. Percy Weasley who never hurt anyone unless they deserved it, Percy Weasley who never threw food at anyone, Percy Weasley who has haters who say that he never cared about his family and never reply when I ask what about the other Weasleys? Percy Weasley who tries to be better but cannot because no one respects him.

Percy Weasley, who is definitely the worst Weasley

[zayray030]

What we could have had in the movies!

neverending list of awesomesauce female characters ☛ ginny weasley

“Excuse me, but I care what happens to Sirius as much as you do!” said Ginny, her jaw set so that her resemblance to Fred and George was suddenly striking. “You’re too -” Harry began, but Ginny said fiercely, “I’m three years older than you were when you fought You-Know-Who over the Philosopher’s Stone, and it’s because of me that Malfoy’s stuck back in Umbridge’s office with giant flying bogies attacking him -“

[existingtm]

Dumbledore and House Favoritism (Or Lack Thereof)

Contrary to popular belief, Dumbledore doesn’t actually seem to have much bias for Gryffindor over Slytherin and the other two houses. At least not to the point of affecting his major decisions regarding students. Let me give some examples of why popular arguments to the contrary are flawed.

---

House Cup: “Gryffindors have never gone so long without winning. Slytherins have got the cup six years in a row!” - Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, pg. 99

In all the years Harry attended Hogwarts, we only know of Gryffindor winning the cup in books one, two, and three. That means that in the text, Slytherin is confirmed to have won the house cup more times than Gryffindor has been confirmed to (in recent years). Before Harry came along, Slytherin was having the time of its life.

And while Dumbledore’s decision to change the winner so abruptly at the end of book one is a dick move, it was one more for the benefit of story payoff than serious character development, and it wasn’t because of house favoritism. I mean, if a group of kids got through a dangerous set of security measures, and one of them ended up having to kill their evil teacher who was hosting a dark lord, I too would give them a lot of points regardless of house. Especially if I knew that one of them, currently eleven, was going to die soon. Also, Neville deserved the recognition he got.

The largest number of points Dumbledore awards to Gryffindor are 200 points each to Harry and Ron after they rescue Ginny from the Chamber of Secrets. I mean seriously, that amount of points has nothing to do with house affiliation. If a couple of twelve-year-olds took out a gross con artist teacher, saved an eleven-year-old’s life, killed a basilisk, destroyed a dark object, and nearly DIED, I would also have given them a lot of points.

---

Sirius Black’s “Prank” Involving Lupin and Snape: All the text says about Dumbledore’s handling of it is, “[Snape] was forbidden by Dumbledore to tell anybody,” - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, pg. 229.

There’s no mention of house favoritism playing into this. The most likely reason for why Snape was forbidden from telling anyone, was to protect Lupin. Lupin had no voluntary part in this situation. He should not have had to fear being exposed as a werewolf because Sirius decided to do something fucked up as a joke.

The text never says if/how Sirius was disciplined for his behavior, so I can’t make any judgements on Dumbledore’s actions in that regard.

It feels weird that this incident is used as an example of house favoritism since it seems to be more about the individuals in question. There’s not really enough information about the Marauders Era to determine what kind of biases Dumbledore did or did not have back then.

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Gryffindor Characters Getting Away with Stuff in General: They do. However, other houses, including Slytherin, get away with stuff they shouldn’t as well. It’s less of a house problem and more of a this-school-is-under-regulated problem. I mean, think of all the shit Malfoy gets away with for one. The Wizarding World has ridiculous safety standards. It’s good for plot reasons, just not for practical reasons, lol.

In addition, most of the examples of letting Gryffindor students get away with things center around Harry. It’s kind of necessary to let him get away with some stuff considering the role he has to play in the story and in defeating Voldemort. These instances are personal issues rather than house issues.

We don’t see Dumbledore dish out punishments to students very often; that’s more the role of McGonagall and Snape when it comes to their respective houses. So, again, it’s hard to tell if Dumbledore has a general house bias in this area.

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Influencing Harry to have House Bias: I would like to remind everyone that Hagrid is the first to impart a biased perspective about Hogwarts houses and the Weasleys continue to reinforce these beliefs. Dumbledore, on the other hand, encourages the houses to stand together against evil. He advocates for house unity. He shows compassion to Slytherin students, most notably wanting to save Malfoy from a terrible fate, regardless of any wrong he’s done, because he recognizes that Malfoy is a child who should have the chance to turn away from evil.

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Tom Riddle: I can’t recall Dumbledore acting out of any malicious intent toward Slytherin students either. Even with Tom Riddle, their beef is about each other, and Dumbledore doesn't act out of cruelty.

Dumbledore made honest mistakes with handling Tom’s mentality, which a lot of people would have made, and dare I say, he was more patient than a lot of people would be when someone displays the traits that Tom did. Regarding not letting Tom stay over the summer, there are two main things: 1) Dumbledore wasn’t headmaster and wouldn’t have been able to make that choice. 2) We don’t know whether or not he approached Dippet regarding the matter. Again, there’s not enough information to make a call on this.

Tom’s parseltongue unsettling Dumbledore isn’t because of the Slytherin house, it’s because of the Slytherin family lineage and their history. That’s more of a personal bias, and yes, Dumbledore did have some bias toward Tom. Again, I would say that he was remarkably patient with Tom, though, and he let his bias influence him far less negatively than it would influence other people. Sadly, we know how that patience paid off (it didn’t). The main thing is that Dumbledore didn’t let that bias carry over to the entire house of Slytherin.

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The only bits of Gryffindor favoritism I can think of are regarding competitions such as quidditch, which Dumbledore isn’t involved in regulating or scheduling, nor does he allow those biases to influence any decisions. It’s all friendly competition to him because he has no serious stake in it.

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In summary, Dumbledore seems to have slight biases for specific characters rather than houses as a whole. The magical world is horribly underregulated (for fun plot reasons rather than anything realistic). And Dumbledore is all for house unity rather than tearing one house down when it comes to anything important.