#wish Harry were a better person because honestly it’s so easy to mock him | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

wizkiddx · 4 years ago

Text

a friendly face

a lil one inspired from seeing the recent interviews abt cherry - yes im a couple days late but am very slow. This is basically stolen and adapted from another of my stories so I don't think there's any bits left over by my dyslexic proof reading isnt that great so apologies!!! very speech heavy so sorry am trying to balance my writing more

Summary: Tom is having a hard time filming Cherry and dealing with the emotional baggage of it, so Harry recruits someone to make everything that little bit better.

tomhollandxreader

fluff and a little angst I guess?

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Harry, Tom and their driver Sian where all sitting in the car having left the set 20 minutes ago, heading back to their accommodation. Or more precisely, Harry and Sian sat in the two front seats- Harry only in the front as to allow Tom to lie down across the three back seats. He was asleep, or at least looked asleep, but Harry knowing his brother so well knew he was just wishing he was. The day had been torturous for Tom, they’d been filming a hospital sequence in which his character was heart broken. The sequence had involved him being thrown onto the floor multiple times, by a heavy handed stunt double who was not nearly as precise as those he’d worked with at ‘marvel’. Furthermore, there was also multiple scenes of him having to properly cry on camera, which although it sounds tame, is one of the hardest things you can ever ask an actor to do. At least, someone who commits half as much as Tom. For him to show that emotion, he had to go back to a place in his life where he didn’t really ever want to venture again. But even then, this character was such a fuck up, he had to do deeper. He felt completely drained, emotionless and cold. But he couldn’t sleep, not for the guilt he felt for being short with everyone on set- he had never been like that before, he just felt like no one was respecting or understanding what he was going through. So instead he just lay on his side, facing the backs of the leather seats, arms folded in stubbornness- even if he had no idea why.

“Tom?…Tom, I know you’re awake… Look, we need to make a quick stop. You gotta come out.” Harry was actually slightly nervous his brother would just point blank refuse, even if he needed this so bad.

“I just need to get back to the apartment. Please Harry. Can’t we do it tommorrow?” The desperation dripping off Tom’s voice actually pained Harry to listen to. He knew Tom was having a crisis about how he treated everyone today, so chose to ignore his please in favour of some assurance.

“You know everyone understands… They just kept asking me if you were alright?” Harry could see the guilt radiating off Tom. It hurt him to see his big brother like this.

“Please… I just need to get back” His small voice barely made it to the front of the car, but Harry heard it all.

“It will take 2 minutes tops, I had a delivery but I need a hand carrying it, come on” Harry spoke as Sian turned on the indicator to pulled up next to the sidewalkpavement; the car slowing to a gentle halt. Tom didn’t reply, instead huffing as he used the head rest of the middle seat to pull himself up. Already out the car, Harry opened the door for him waiting patiently, because Harry knew he would be a hundred times better off in just a few moments.

“What the hell have you even ordered that’s so big?” Tom sighed while ducking through the door into the cold Cleveland air, keeping his eyes on the sidewalk as Harry motioned for him to follow his feet.

“Oh um don’t know, a good friend sent it actually” Harry tried to hide the grin that was spread over his face from showing in his voice, as he saw a very familiar head of hair running toward them.

“What friend?” Tom looked up sassily toward Harry, shortly questioning who would send Harry a parcel from England that was too big to be delivered or carried by himself. Only then, nearly 5 metres away from Sian in the car, did Tom look up to see where they were. It wasn’t the nearest post office or delivery warehouse - they were at the airport. “Harry what’s going on?” Tom questioned with a low and warning voice, skipping a step or two in order to catch up with his younger brother.

“We’re collecting her” Harry smiled as he nodded forward. Following his gaze with eyes wide open, Tom turned forward just in time to see Y/h/c flying over his face as he was engulfed by someones arms. Immediately sensing exactly who this was, Tom did not hesitate to wrap his arms around your waist and push his head into your neck. Smelling the familiar perfume, Tom couldn’t help but scoff, allowing a the jerky breath to leave his lungs as you arched away from the hug, cupping Tom’s face with both her hands.

“I’ve been reliably informed you could use a friendly face” you smiled, noticing his raw emotions threatening to overtake him, so swiftly pressing just pressing your lips onto his. Seemingly frightened to move, Tom barely reacted to the kiss, so you pushed and deepened into it a little more- till you felt him relaxing against you. With that, you arched away again and smiled massaging his stubbly hair behind his left ear.

“How are you here?” He croaked staring deeply at her, switching between her left and right eye as if that somehow would confirm that this was real, not some cruel dream he was having.

“Someone somewhere knew you were in need and bought me a plane ticket over… I’m coming home with you on monday” You grinned while watching Tom’s eyes light up, he leaned in again to your lips instead of replying.

“Er-cuh-huh” Harry loudly cleared his throat, causing the two to pull away from each other. “Sorry to interrupt, but Sian isn’t really allowed to stop there long sooo” They both nodded, before Tom lunged at his brother, holding him close and whispering thanks too. It was clear this was at least partly Harry’s doing, and he could never thank his brother enough.

“Umm.. as much as I’m enjoying this brotherly love we really do have to get back in the car” Harry awkwardly spoke as he almost pushed Tom off him.

“Awww my favourite little brother being all mature” You giggled, taking your turn to hug Harry, admittedly a little shorter than Tom’s, but still with lots of gratitude.

“Please get stop loving me and get back into the car!” Harry yelled as he stormed off to Sian, leaving both you and Tom in fits of laughter. Grasping each others hand simultaneously the laughter continued as you followed Harry down the street to the car.

Seeing you standing there; feeling your arms wrapped round his neck ; hearing your oh so sweet voice had Tom feeling…. Feeling lighter. It was as though your mere presence gave him the strength to carry all the things that were previously weighing him down like a truck. What was extraordinary though, was how it wasn’t just psychological. He literally felt his joints feel looser, he felt his body flood with warmth and he felt his heart calming down. When you’d first been getting close to each you’d had rather the opposite effect. Which was surprising because that was at the point Tom had never felt more confident - he had just returned form a avengers press tour, where naturally everyone had just loved him and played up to his every whim. He had legions of girls, some of them drop dead gorgeous where falling at his feet. And yet, when he met you it was as though he was transported back into his incredibly awkward teenage years. It was infuriating, he knew he could act cool and unbothered and smooth however as soon as you stood informant of his it was like his mind melted, filling it with utter gibberish and garble. In fact, he was plainly floored by you - how kind and pure hearted you were, how respectful and how you found hhis jilted flirting adorable and not to forget how drop dead gorgeous you are.

It had taken a while and a hell of a lot of opening up, but over time he found the opposite happening. Your presence became something else entirely, not one that would put him on his toes and have his heart racing - more of a comfort. He slept better when you were beside him, his nerves never got the better of him if you were there to cheer him on. He could relax completely without any fear of judgement, any worry at all with you. What you had done is change the definition of something so fudemental and a given in life. You’d changed home from a place to something much more intangible. A person; a feeling; a connection. You were his home.

“Sian are we close?” You asked, turning your attention away from the two brothers annecdotes from filming, realising Sian must’ve been driving for about 30 minutes.

“Yep just the next right I think” Sian replied gently while turning the wheel as the indicator clicked.

“Where are we going?” Tom asked, looking first at you then pleadingly at Harry- knowing he had more of a chance with his brother.

“Well” You started and he whipped his head back round “I know it’s late and you’ve been working all day, but you have alater 10 o’clock call time tomorrow instead of 6, so this is the best night to do something. We found a driving range-with heaters” which was a very important factor since Cleveland was bloody freezing “- that we thought you’d like to play a game or two?” The massive smile in response meant you’d hit the nail on the head.

“And soz but I’m crashing the game otherwise- and no offence, but you would win waayyyy toooo easy Tom” Harry butted in and sniggered as he interrupted the lovey-dovey stares. You gasped at that in mock offence, holding your hand over your chest.

“Oi you, Paddy has been teaching on the Holland boys days out you both missed- I’ll have you know I now am aware that you have to get the ball into the hole, not a goal as previously thought.”

The boys both groaned in unison and Y/n wiggled her eyebrow grinning, elbowing Tom slightly in the side. “Things might have changed since you left you know?��

Yet another thing Tom loved so completely about you, was how effortlessly you had fitted into his family. Honestly, none of the Hollands could imagine life without you anymore - especially Nikki, who had quite literally attempted adopting you so she officially wasnt the only female in the immediate family. Sam used you as an expert taster for all his marvellous culinary creations (even if your judgement was always the same, it was very good); Dom often ended up picking your brains about your work, he found you ‘actual proper’ job as a doctor simply amazing , where all his family had never been especially acadmeically gifted; and Paddy just plain saw you as his older sister. So it was hardly surprising at all that when two of their actual kids flew across the world , you’d been the obvious placeholder. Yes, golf was most definitely your forte - but you were enthusiastic, with a positive (if flightily misguided) give it a go attitude.

The try-try-and-try-again attitude that never really worked … until Paddy taught you how to hit a clean drive.

“I am not joking, I am asking the lady at the desk there’s no way!”

“Tom you are the worst looser I have ever met! I didn’t cheat, I’ve just taken up a new hobby”

“There is no way Tom… no way she can get that good” Harry huffed as he ran straight past you to catch up with Tom, making sure that you did see the harsh glare he shot him. The outrage that Y/n had beaten them both at the driving range was way worse than anything you could’ve predicted- now you sort of were wishing you’d let them win. Oh wait…. Of course you weren’t - this was priceless. Especially their faces when you’d launched your first ball super accurately inn the centre of the second furthest away target. They had reacted as if you had just stripped butt naked, you thought; standing their jaws hanging with a look of almost fear in their eyes.

“You could see the balls land with your own eyes! Practice makes perfect!”

“Thats not fair though! It took you like 8 weeks to be like that?”

“I mean you were obviously just taught by the wrong Holland, Paddy’s a pretty good teacher!” You smiled as your trio turned the corner and walked through reception, seeing Harry desperate to ask the receptionist but Tom just looking over his shoulder to give a hurt look to at you.

“I’m going to ban you from being closer to my brothers than me”

“I can’t help if he’s cuter then you alright?” You smirked and raised an eyebrow, as Tom stopped in his tracks and turned to face you.

“That’s it… your gonna get it” he spoke in a low voice, with a mischievous look in his eye, abruptly he launched himself at you - barely having time to swerve away from him and start a sprint towards the exit, giggling as you took a glance back to see Tom chasing you out, Harry quickly in tow too.

“Your not allowed to beat me at golf!” In a jokey voice, you heard Tom yell, just as you reached the sleek black 4x4 and hurdling yourself into it.

“I’m in the car it’s a no fight zone!” You cowered in the corner,back pressed up against the opposite door and arms crossed to make an ‘x’ sign in front of her body.

“That is not how it works” Tom and Harry grinned from the open door. As fast as lightning they both vaulted in and started tickling you, making you screech curses at the two of them.

“Alright alright kids, no fighting while I’m driving thats an order.” Sian calmly spoke, trying to hide the laughter from her voice, as the two men retreated and helped to pull you up from the position half on the floor that your squirming had gotten you to.

“Get off my leg Tom… arghhh… thanks Sian, I’m sorry they’re so moody, I just whipped their asses at golf”

“You’re here to make me feel better right? Not doing a good job so far” Tom’s snide remark meant you scrunched up your nose while plugging her seatbelt in, making sure to jab Tom’s side hard as you did so.

“How did I end up sandwiched in between you two twats then?” You grinned from the middle seat as Harry just rolled his eyes looking out the window, and Tom gave you a loving smile- not able to hide his relief of your presence.

“Think it’s about a 40 minute drive you gotta enjoy” Sian smiled looking at you via the rear view mirror, to which Tom couldn’t quite stifle the yawn that escaped.

After all he had done much more than the typical 9-5 hours work, and the golfing was an unexpected addition to the already long day. His excitement and just pure joy at having you here had made him forget about It all for a couple of hours - but now his exhaustion was catching up with him with a vengeance. Instinctively you wrapped you arm round Tom and in doing so pulled him into your side.

“Get some rest huh?” You whispered into his forehead, and all Tom could do was reply with a weary nod, letting his eyes slip close to the constant beat of Ally’s heart. You immediately sensed Tom was properly out of it, and contented yourself looking out his window for a few minutes, before you felt something heavy briefly whack your other shoulder. Jumping a little at the contact, you looked round to see Harry’s head bobbing side to side in a light slumber. In the midst of worry for Tom, you hadn’t realised the kid had been doing the same long hours as him. Plus dealing with Tom and being Tom’s support, which surely took it out of him. Harry had always been ‘the most important brother’ in your eyes. Just because Tom trusts him so implicitly and completely, they had an understanding only real brothers could get to but also extended far beyond blood. When you’d first been introduced Harry had been colder to you. It wasn’t personal though, he just wanted to be sure on you and your intentions with Tom because as he well knew often when people saw Tom they didn’t just see an opportunity for love. It was an opportunity for a lifestyle, for fame, for relevance. Harry took a while before he trusted you but now you were miles and miles beyond that point. So now, being at a stage with Harry where he was phoning you to come and fly out to save Tom (and him too). It was not to be taken lightly. Therefore, you gently pressed your hand to Harrys face and pushed him to lean against her other shoulder too- hoping to cure the dark circles under his eyes a little bit too.

You were quite content for the rest of the journey, feeling warmth radiate through your body as the two men breathed deeply and calmly either side of you. You sort of didn’t want the car journeyer to end - but sure enough it wasn’t long till Sian was pulling into the hotel entrance.

“Get you a girl that can do both, beat yo ass at golf and look after your family” Sian whispered as she handed the phone back to you, after having taken some of your favourite ever photos, the 2 boys asleep on your shoulders while you pulled a variety of different faces. Smiling back at Sian, you then sighed-knowing she had to wake the two up, given their exhaustion you didn’t really want to either.

“Boys…boys… hey let’s get you both into bed yeh?” You spoke softly, gently raising your shoulders in order to disturb them both. Harry’s head immediately shot up, his eyes puffy and half open, but a sheepish look on his face as he realised how he was sleeping. Just responding with a smile that said it was all okay, before you turned her attention to Tom- forever stubborn to wake up, at least nothing had changed there.

“Come on Tom, can’t have you sleeping in the car all night” You pushed again, this time lifting Tom’s head, earning a very deep groan as his eyes slid open and he pushed against the movement. It was at this point Harry slammed the car door shut, making Tom jump out of his skin, you loosing the hope of any serene wakeup call. Rubbing Toms arm, relaxing the tension now present in his body you encouraged him once again. “Come on lets get inside mister”

His hotel room was exactly what you’d expect for an a-lister and lead actor in a million pound film. Large, modern, squeaky clean and posh. It was almost too big to be filled by one person though, Tom had always found it a bit cold and just not cosy - why he opted to spend the majority of his down time either fast alseep or in somebody else’s company. Both of those also stopped him getting too much in his head - or more accurately in his characters head. Cherry was a weird character and from interviewing all the veterans and lengthy discussion of his past, Tom almost felt as if he had in some small way experienced what Cherry had. Felt what Cherry did. Thought like Cherry did.

And that was a sure fire way to fuck yourself up.

Now, with you here in his room haphazardly digging through your case, if felt warmer. The cold but brilliant white lights seemed to have softened to a gently warm glow that bounced off your skin and made your figure look almost angelic to Tom. You were his home.

“What are you waiting for?” You mused while turning away from your (now) inside out suitcase, proudly carrying her pyjamas which you had found hidden at the bottom the whole time- not the most practical packing in the world. All the while Tom sat on his bed, back leaning against the headboard and arm bent behind his head too.

“Just thinking that I need to go through all the scenes for tomorrow” A monotonous tone laced his voice, for he knew he couldn’t spend the night the way he really wanted to, safely wrapped up with you.

“Oh… well let’s go through it together then hey? We will be done in no time; but if you want we can go over them again tomorrow morning.” It was a practical suggestion, a helpful action you could implement - even if you had a feeling Tom wouldn’t just agree. Since his lines clearly weren’t the only thing on his mind this evening.

“Yeh but everyone on set is already sick of me after today… I can’t be being shit as well as horrid” his voice was small as the memory of how he snapped at some of the extras had him cringing inwardly at himself. He shouldn’t have been that rude, shouldn’t have blurted it out, should of offered a solution rather than just critiquing.

“Hey would you kindly shut it? No one is sick of you, everyone is just ready for christmas and missing their families. Now get changed” Your soft tone turning into an imperative order, as you threw his pyjama bottoms at the him, smashing into his face before falling into his lap.

“Oi” he shouted, but followed instructions and stood up reaching round to pull his hoodie off. Stood shirtless, his side was exposed to the now changed you, the sight making you gasp and clamber over the bed to gently touch Tom’s back. You followed the outline of an impressive patch of bruising, stretching from the bottom edge of his shoulder blade all the way to his hip.

“Tom, what the hell happened?” Whispering in fear, Tom turned round to face you, seeing your eyes watering up as you kept glancing at his back. He was littered in a variety of purple, yellow and slightly green marks on the whole of his left flank. It looked like a minor crush injury, not something a pampered actor gets after a day of filming infront of tens of people including an onset medic and health and safety risk assessor.

“What?” Tom asked before turning to the mirror and looking back over his shoulder to see the bruises for himself. He hadn’t expected the ache to look that bad. “oh - I - er… Today the scene, I get smashed to the floor by someone and I kept doing it wrong so we had to do it lots I guess.” He looked away and down at your feet, not being able to meet his girlfriends eyes suddenly. You just nodded, trying to blink back the tears- he had truly been broken by this role both physically and now mentally- he hadn’t even put a stop to the constant and clearly severe pain.

“Put your stuff on” your voice was muted, as you waited for Tom to get prepared. He turned around again and then replaced his trousers and quickly pulled a top on to hide the marks, suddenly embarrassed. In the silence the sound of his clothes dropping to the floor, then of him sitting on the bed again- throwing his legs over so now he mirrored your position - the sounds were pretty defeaning.

“I love you so much….” Barely whispering, you suddenly ripped the duvet out from under you both holding it over you as you swung a leg over Tom so you straddled him, slightly leaning over him and letting the blanket rest on top of your back.In your position you looked down in an almost scary way to his warm brown eyes. Tom swore you were literally reading his thoughts, your intense gaze absolutely crumbling any walls he thought he’d be able to hold up. Pressing a gentle peck to his lips you then whispered onto his lips, letting him feel your words as well as hear them. “ …So that’s why we are going to sleep right now and you can worry about all of that tomorrow”

“Y/n I-“

“Your safe with me.” You were not standing for his nexuses and arguments, as you slid down his body - ending with your head resting on his chest, you legs tangled with his. Once you’re properly rested you’ll learn them ten times faster than what you can now… Before you get ill I am telling you to take a break. I’m not going to let you not. So relax and-….Tom?” Ending with a whisper, you delicately lifted your head off his slowly rising chest to see your broken boyfriend already asleep; lips parted as soft snores crept through the silence. In reality as soon as you’d said that he was safe the exhaustion had completely over taken him. Desperately needing to recharge his batteries, no matter how much he had wanted to stay up and work late it could never really happen - at this point physically impossible.

“Sleep well Tom” she smiled, planting a kiss on his cheek with a sad smile.

///////////////////////////////////////////

The next day rolled around all too quickly, but the morning was much better than any of the past couple of months because you were together. Tom, having had a solid 7 hours of sleep compared to his normal 5, was for once ready for the day. He’d gone through the script with a certain someones help in record time, and now the three were just pulling up at the set.

“You’ve been awful quiet this car ride…” you grinned as she clasped Tom’s hand across the empty seat, making Harry turn around and give you a warning glance. Oops. In a moment where Tom went to the loo at breakfast, Harry had fully disclosed everything that had happened on set yesterday- especially the burst of anger. So naturally, Tom was feeling nervous and scared to face everyone.

“It will be fine I promise… and if not tell them I’m your personal body guard- no one will be rude to you if me and Harry are ready to attack” Tom let out a breathy nervous laugh, only then meeting your eyes.

“ A fly wouldn’t be threatened by you two. Harry would just take a photo while you’d check their pulse or something”

“Errrm” Harry furrowed his eyebrows as he contorted round from the front seat so Tom could see his disapproving look, meanwhile Tom was dodging your affectionate fake-slaps.

“Children we’re here” Sian sighed as she brought the car to a steady halt “and if you could get through the day without killing each other I’d appreciate it, otherwise I’m out of the job”

“Not promising anything when I’ve got these pair to deal with” Tom grinned as he opened the car door, before anyone else could retaliate.You laughed before quickly following suit, joining Tom at the front of the car and interlocking your fingers with Tom’s. Hesitating for a moment Harry took a second before unplugging and leaning for the door handle.

“You see what I mean?” Turning his head to look at Sian “It’s sickening how happy they are.”

“Yeh but your glad about it don’t lie” she grinned, before practically shooing the poor boy out her car.

“But dont tell them!” Shouting in reply, as the car was already pulling out.

Tom’s body seemed to tense more the closer you walked to the crew tent, you could feel the way he squeezed his shoulders back and his jaw tensed and untensed. There was little you could do apart from squeezing his hand that little bit tighter - further reiterating the fact you would always always be in his corner. Perhaps the most telling about Tom’s own character was how truly guilty he felt for the way he was with the crew. Normally, he was one of the most down to earth actors around - no trace of an ego or superiority complex. It didn’t matter if you were a cleaner or head of a multimillion dollar studio, Tom would pay both the same amount of respect. He always out that completely down to his upbringing and mum and dad, but even that was being humble. He was just a good person to the core, no one saw that more than you either. It’s part of love, you see the good and the bad parts of a person and promise to unashamedly love them all.

Just before you both had made it into the main tent, Tom was pulled away. “Oh Tom we wanted to talk to you about yesterday!” The familiar voice of Joe Russo called, as he and Anthony ran up to Tom from his left, giving a little nod of greeting to the actor, before falling in step with him.

“Morning, I-uh I wanted to apologise actually-“Tom was cut off while you hung back off to his right, not wanting to intrude on this conversation.

“No we should. The team were all being slow yesterday, and they were making some hard scenes harder on you. We really appreciate what you are putting yourself through for the sake of the film.”

“But still I acted like a brat and I’m sorry”

“Tom” Anthony spoke up for the first time. He was a man of limited words- but whenever he spoke everyone listened. “ You are one of the best, most-dedicated actors we’ve ever worked with. We’re all overtired, run down and ready for the holidays. You’re missing your family too. It’s already forgotten… So let’s just get on with the movie?” Tom smiled, pressing his lips together to stop their kindness overtaking his emotions. Tom always felt safe with the Russo’s. They’d dealt with him when he really just was a kid actor - overwhelmed and without a clue what was happening. They’d dealt with hiM adjusting to fame and the much bigger part Marvel seemed to want him to play in the future. They trusted him with this, most incredibly complex and also personal film for them. So when they spoke and they said it didn’t matter, Tom was much more likely to agree. Then proceeded the bro-hugs, as the men all showed they were good with each other.

“Well lets make a motherfucking movie!” Tom exclaimed once they broke the hug and the brothers laughed at him. “Oh where-d….” He muttered as he looked round before meeting your eyes, still standing rather awkwardly a couple of meters behind them. “ Joe, Anthony you remember Y/n?” Nodding and smiling the brothers beckoned you over; both greeting you with a warm handshake.

“Good to see you again!” You grinned and the directors responded nodding.

“We didn’t know you were coming! I would’ve made a list of all my doctor question for you.” Joe winked, knowing your pet-peeve was people asking you all their gory body questions as soon as they found out she was a doctor. You didn’t need to know about you dentists acid reflux issue, you didn’t need to know about your granny’s friend’s constipation, and you really really didn’t need to know about an old friends erectile dysfunction.

“Ha ha ha “ You rolled your eyes sarcastically “ and no it was a bit of a spontaneous trip, I just landed last night.” Throughout the whole of the exchange Anthony had taken an aloof stance, just observing you and Tom. Observing the bright smile Tom gave you, even when you were simply making small talk. The way he looked so much healthier, well rested and just happy, in the space of a single evening.

“I’m glad you’re here” Anthony basically interrupted the conversation, addressing you then immediately turning on his heel towards the set.

“Uhh right- get to make up we’ll call a cast meeting in a bit” Joe stammered, giving his brother a funny look before addressing Tom “ and we’ll have to have a proper catch up later.” You nodded in response, as Joe turned and did a half jog to catch up with his brother.

“That was weird!?” You frowned as you looked up at Tom. He explained the encounter in rather simplistic terms.

“That was Anthony.”

The morning was spent with Tom doing what he does best in front of the camera. They were shooting a larger scene for the army section of the movie, with at least 100 actual soldiers as extras, all geared up in full camo outfits. It was impressive, but also gave you a chance to meet Ciara - you’d been dying to meet her since Tom told you what a laugh she was. Fair to say you weren’t disappointed at all, you guys hitting it off instantly and you going as far as giving Ciara some embarrassing Tom stories that she could wind him up with in the future. Of course though, the main attraction was seeing Tom act first hand. Every time it astounded you, even though you knew that face so completely, in all his movies he fully had you believing he was someone else. It was mesmerising and you couldn’t be any prouder.

“You’re amazing! I seriously forgot how good you are!” You ran over as Joe Russo called cut to the end of the morning shoot.

“Well er thanks I guess” Tom furrowed his eyebrows as you wrapped him in a hug. He’d just canned a pretty hard scene and everyone was more than ready for a lunch break. You’s been watching from behind the cameras with Harry the whole time, after Tom gave you permission to sit in his special set chair.

“Seriously I’m very…. “ Her speech broken with an impressive yawn “….very proud of you.” In thanks Tom gave you a kiss first to your nose and then lips.

“I take it someones not adapting to jet lag?” He chuckled as he pulled away and cupped your face in his hands.

“Which I’m totally ashamed about considering I work night shifts… my body clocks supposed to be better than this” Angrily, you vented, frustrated at your own body when all you wanted to do was stays within reaching distance of Tom. Even if Tom had had the best sleep of this whole shoot last night, you’d been to over excited and enthralled just absorbing every little thing about him that you’d missed so much that you’d been wide awake the majority of the night. If you blamed you fatigue on jet lag alone, it would be an impressive lie.

“Go take a nap in my trailer… Harry can you take her?”

“Yes master” Harry bowed down and wobbled his head sarcastically, making you giggle.

“At least this way you get a break from him” You grinned to Tom’s brother, which Harry could only agree with. Giving Tom a parting kiss , you followed Harry away from set. It was at this point that Anthony excused himself from the monitors reviewing the footage, and approached Tom.

“Kid… that was great that scene.”

“Thanks mate, means a lot” Getting his directors approval forever reassured Tom, letting him relax his shoulders a bit as he nodded gratefully to Anthony.

“Well it’s just truth… so your girlfriend, Y/n right?”

“Yeh that’s her” Tom nodded, suddenly a little concerned as to where Anthony was going with this. You had met the Russo’s a number of times, and it never before seemed as though Anthony had an issue with you- at least to Tom’s knowledge.

“Right well um… you know how I don’t really get involved in all this stuff…” Tom nodded, folding his arms apprehensively. “But I just thought I should say that she’s really good for you.” Tom silently breathed a sigh of relief and waited for Anthony to get to the point. “Joe told me you had a rough patch at the beginning of the year so… I don’t know our industry is hard. And harder for you and her in the spotlight… Just seeing you with her today…Don’t be afraid to take the next steps with her…Don’t let her get away.” Tom was stunned to say the least. Anthony is the last person he had ever expected to get relationship advice from.

“I um yeh… I don’t know I hadn’t really thought about it. I mean we’ve been together for 2 and a bit years, well including the break… she means the world to me-“

“Well don’t waste it”

And that was the end of the conversation. Anthony turned to his trailer to get lunch and Tom just stood, replaying the conversation in his head. Weird to say the least.

But it did get the cogs turning. It did get Tom really seriously considering his future. Or rather considering your future together.

And that was for certain. It was you and him, always.

#tom holland #tom holland fluff #tom holland x reader #tomholland #Harry Holland #tom holland x y/n

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notsolong-pause · 4 years ago

Text

ship requests

“Hey 👋 . Can I get a male HP ship (from both eras if possible) pls . Thank u so much ! . So I m a Gryffindor (with a bit of Slytherin ) . In my free time , I would love to read fantasy or sci-fic novels or facts maybe , listen to music , research about anything I want to , do something my parents denied me off maybe . If my friends are available , I'll also go downstairs with them and play . I m not as such interested in sport but I love to play cricket and badminton . My hobbies are dancing , horseriding , reading , researching , cyber and swordfighting (I haven't done it yet tho). I love the trope of fake relationship or enemies to lovers

Next is my personality . Well , I can be shy if I m not comfortable with the person , but if I am then I am very talkative . I don't trust ppl at the beginning until they prove themselves . I m very reliable and trustworthy but I tend to hide my emotions . I like my privacy, I don't even share that with my bestie sometimes . I come off as a rebel and I can get annoyed very easily . I love to organise a room . Everyone comes to me for advice . I also have a very good sense of humour which comes out in front of ppl I'm comfortable (they say I never used to fail to surprise them with my hidden qualities) . I m also quite modest . I m a risk-taker and I always stand up to my friends , I also have their back sometimes . I can also be a bully to my enemies or my friend's enemies but only if they start it first . Idk what is it , but ppl tell me I carry a powerful aura and many boys get attracted to me . Also , the popular ones used to attract to me a lot because I could be seen as a quiet nerdy girl . I come off as very unique at first meeting . I m practical with my decisions but as said , I hide my emotions or else the emotions would have led me. I m also a human lie detector , or that's what my family tells me . The thing that stands out in me isy dressing style . I am very curious. I m also very much mysterious . I m loyal to a fault . Now my flaws are that sometimes I don't believe my friends at all and it hurts them since they ask me to be honest and I tell them the truth . I can be blunt and cold without realising it but I don't mean to . I am an extrovert so keeping me from doing something can make me insecure . I m sensitive to criticism . I can be super suspicious, like a looott . I hate when ppl try to control me, even my parents so I end up going against them or I follow their instructions half-heartedly . I can be very very stubborn . I also get many intuitions but I ignore them . I hate when ppl are unreliable , everyone's lazy but atleast they should do their work after some rest . I also hate arrogant boastful PPL . I hate when someone disrespects me and I immediately cut them off from my life . I hate lame excuses given by the ppl whom I expect something to do and they didn't. I am very patient but once they cross their lines , they wish they hadn't . I guess this is too much ? (Lol sorry but excited ) Thank u so much for ur time dear 💗”

a/n: Hi! Thank you for so many details!! It’s lovely. You also asked for TMR ship, so I’ve decided to do a HP form one era and one for TMR. Hopefully, you are okay with that:)

p.s.: sorry for being a Draco slaughter. i’m also doing all the other requests, thank you for them!! they are going to be trade in a day or two. sending love <3

Harry Potter:

I ship you with Fred Weasley

(so badly, you’re a perfect match)

First of all... being stubborn and taking risks is something that you probable have in common, which is going to create a perfect enemies to lovers dynamic. Maybe academic/prancing rivalry?

You constantly mocking each other, but not meaning any harm or anything, even though others might think that you hate one another

Him always helping you to break the rules if needed, but still making sure that everything is alright, and everyone is safe. And you would keep an eye on him back, supporting him when he doesn’t know what to do

He would be surprised when you started to open up, and crack jokes, but would love them so badly. And he definitely is very grateful whenever (and if) you chose to tell him something private, and wouldn’t tell anyone else even if he was tortured

You would always give amazing ideas for the shop products. And he would be like: “Where do you know that from?” “Don’t know, just thought it was interesting and decided to investigate”

You were walking in the dull lights of a corridor from the late detention in the Snape’s dungeons. You got this one for arguing with a certain Weasley. This was entirely his fault, though, but he didn’t get caught, and you could still see the stupid smirk on his stupid face when you were assigned to come down here after classes. The Slytherin do was just nearby, and you heard a couple of voices around the corner. You were hopping these were some of your friends from Slytherin, but as you listen closely you herald none other than Malfoy. “These Weaslebeeys are ignorant trash just like their father. Who’s would willingly study what muggles’ life’s are like? That’s just dumb”you didn’t know whether he was just showing off in front of his friends or if he was being serious, but you were furious at the moment.

“Malfoy!” - you energetically approached the group.

“Another gryffindor”, - he smirked. “Why don’t you spend an evening at your dorm or some other lame place?”

“Cut it. Take it back” - you face was almost stone cold. Eyes glimmering dangerously in the flickering light.

“Are you defending the Weaslebees?” - he grimaced, being so proud of himself for no reason.

“It’s not their name, and they don’t need any defense. You’re being an arrogant prick towards my friends, and I’m not going to tolerate that.” - you were stiff, your fists clenched in order to hold back the anger. How dared he speak in such diminishing manner about people 100 times better than him!

“What are you going to about it?” He replied cheekily, stepping forward.

“Well... I don’t know, how about TheLocomotor Wibbly!” - you were gripping tightly onto your wand, and Draco suddenly fell to the floor. His legs turned to jelly.

“You little...” one of his friends pointed your wand towards you, opening his mouth to jinx you back. Suddenly there was a loud bang, everything was covered with the thick smoke, and you were pulled to the corner. You instinctively pointed a wand on the person in front of you, still unable to see anything.

“Easy, lady” you recognized the voice. “Fred? What are doing here?” you were genuinely surprised, and started wondering how much has he heard. “Came to rescue you from the Snape’s claws” he smirked. “Why?” you didn’t understand a thing. “No fun being brilliant if you can’t see that and get jealous” - he cocked his eyebrows. You huffed back. “Well, thank you, I suppose.” “Oh good, I thought I’d never hear that”. You surprised a smile. “Let’s move already”.

“By the way”, he stopped you, “did I hear you calling me a friend?” You nudged his shoulder. “Don’t think too much of it, Weasley”.

The maze runner:

I ship you with Gally

He’s the one to understand you not opening up fully and immediately and keeping things to yourself for 110%. He’s mysterious himself, and he can give you every time in the world (sorry, i’m love him sm)

Again... the enemies to lovers dynamic, ESPECIALLY considering the whole thing with him killing Chuck (still hurts, though).

He can be very protective from time to time, so you can have “Because I care for you!!” arguments when you’re being reckless and decide to risk in order to save him.

He's honestly the sassy king of the show. Taking your sense of humour in account, I belive that he would really appreciate that you have it and can back him up. So you would exchange jokes back and forth

He's also absolutely giving you every freedom in the world not even attempting to control you or tell you what to do, he would only give out advices. And as far as he realises you're sensitive to crticizm, he starts to control himself in order not to hurt you.

"Please, never do that again". You and Gally were walking around the Last City, back to the shelter.

"Do what?" You asked, raising your head to the boy slightly ahead of you.

"You know what I'm talikng about". He turned his head to you, and stopped in the shaddow of the narrow street between the houses. His gaze was pretty serious, and both of you were extremely tired after yet another mission in attempt to undermine the existing regime.

"I don't think I do". You looked up at him with the confusion in your eyes.

"What you did back there was very risky, and you could have not make it. Don't risk like that ever again".

"But the cranks would've gotten you then". You protested. In your opinion, what you did was the only option.

"I appreciate the concern, but I could I handle it". He was starting to get stubborn, while you were getting angry.

"That's not true. One of them was hanging on your throat. That's not something people cal 'I handle it'". You threw your arms in the air, gesturing.

"I'm not letting them take me instead of you!" Gally was almost shouting at this point.

"Well, I'm not letting them take you either!"

"Great!"

You both went silent and were walking angrily towards your shelter, turning, sneaking, and hiding.

"Gally". You called in a few minutes. "It's just that I really care about you".

"I know". He told you, looking back again. "Just promise me, you're going to be careful".

"You know I really can't promise, but at least I'll try".

#ship requests #reader #reader insert #x reader #y/n #the maze runner #tmr #gally #gally x reader #the death cure #hp #harry potter #fred weasley x reader #fread weasley #weasley twins #fred and goerge weasley #golden era #hp x reader #submission

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halothenthehorns · 3 years ago

Text

THE DREAM

Before Harry could get started, Sirius turned pouting eyes on Lily, who was already excusing herself for the kitchen. She came back not too long later, with no food in sight.

"I set something to bake, it'll be done by the time we are with this chapter," she smiled pleasantly at the fact that she was clearly annoying Sirius. In truth, she'd made the heartiest meal she could think of, she still couldn't shake the image from her mind Sirius was losing weight by the minute.

Sirius didn't argue with her, but instead sat back in his seat with mutiny while Harry began.

Hermione was laying out the groundwork for the end results, ether Crouch attacked Krum, or someone attacked them both.

"So, I wonder what you guys are discussing." James chuckled in surprise.

"You know, I'm surprised at you though Harry," Remus turned to him. "Looking back, you sort of just ran off to do as you were told, didn't it occur to you to go to Hagrid first? He was closer?"*

Harry opened, then just as quickly closed his mouth, that was an obvious enough answer.

"Don't be like that Remus," Lily scolded at once with a sigh, "it's easy to think of those things after the fact, as you just did."

He shrugged in acknowledgment even if he was still puzzled at Harry for it. Clearly the act of doing what he was told by the Dursleys still hadn't really ever left him, or he trusted Dumbledore more than Hagrid, either way it was odd to him.

Ron was insisting Crouch was the true criminal here, he'd sent Harry to get Dumbledore so he could run.

"While I'd love for him to get sent to a very certain place for pulling a stunt like that," Sirius declared with a nasty look in place, "it fails me to see why he'd do that. Why come all the way up to the school just to pull a stunt like that?"

"You got me," Lily sighed, "the whole situation feels like something out of a murder mystery novel, and I always hate reading those."

Harry disagreed, saying Crouch had looked too weak to be pulling stunts like that, then offering himself a Disapparition.

Hermione said, for the umpteenth time, you couldn't do that on Hogwarts grounds!

"You might have to say it a few more times, just to make sure he got it," James smirked at Harry's eye roll.

Ron tackled a new theory, that Krum attacked Crouch, and then stunned himself.

Remus burst out laughing at this level of enthusiasm from him trying to figure this out, and though he could poke many holes in that, he couldn't deny Ron's spirit.

Hermione's cool response was to remind that Crouch had just evaporated then?

"How come we're not speculating on this?" Sirius pouted, "I've got a few ideas-"

"No Sirius," Lily said at once. "I want as little to do with that man as possible, and having to listen to what happened to him might satisfy you, but it'll only infuriate me more having to hear his name."

"It really won't bother you to at least try to guess what happened?" Remus asked her in surprise.

"I honestly couldn't care less what did, no matter what it was." She stated in no uncertain terms. "If you two want to chat about it later, leave me out of it."

Sirius grumbled at her being a killjoy, but James more than agreed with his wife on this one and waved Harry on.

It was the crack of dawn, and the three of them had never gone to bed. Instead they were on their way up to the Owlery to send a note of all this to Sirius.

"About time," Sirius' pouting increased, he couldn't believe how long it took Harry to get around to that, he should have used his cloak and done it without Dumbledore's say so!

Everyone disagreed with Sirius about that though, now that Harry was one hundred percent away from that, they didn't want Sirius anywhere near it either.

They were all puffy-eyed from exhaustion having stayed up all night discussing the events.

"Of all the fun, late night conversations you could have been having," James groaned. Would it kill his son to have a fun conversation once in a while like a normal kid?

Hermione was coaching Harry to give them a full account one more time.

When Harry got the part about Crouch saying everything was all his fault, he'd even brought up his own son, Hermione agreed that was Crouch's fault.

Harry made a testy noise of agreement along with everyone else, no one was cutting Crouch any slack in here.

Ron asked for a recount of the You-Know-Who part.

Harry repeated all the mention was, that he was getting stronger.

"Because that's always encouraging," James moaned, letting his head fall back against the cushions as the mention of Voldemort always caused such a horrid stirring in him lately even more than it had before his adult son fell into his living room. Now all he could picture was someone who was once a brother making that possible, when Voldemort was the reason he couldn't be there for his son! How on earth had Pettigrew ever worked out that this was okay, that he could continue going along with it? He tried to force himself to keep listening in on Harry, those kinds of questions kept plaguing him in what little time he actually spent asleep, he refused to dwell on it longer than he could.

Ron tried to force some confidence into his voice that this was the speaking's of a madman

"Here's to hope!" Sirius mock raised a glass, which he honestly wished was filled right now.

but Harry corrected he'd spoken of Voldemort when he was in his saner moments. Ron winced as always at the use of the real name.

"You been saying that nearly four years and he still flinches?" Remus asked in surprise.

"As well as Hermione," Harry agreed.

"I wish you'd start referring to him as Riddle," James muttered sullenly, this wasn't helping him feel any better, but he'd never miss an opportunity to mock either. "Be a nice knock to his ego and something everyone might catch on."

Harry honestly never thought about why he hadn't, he supposed the Riddle he met down in the Chamber had just seemed like such a wholly other person it was hard to put that together with the monster who had murdered his parents and so calling him Voldemort somehow made that make more sense.

Harry bitterly put in that if Snape hadn't held him up, they could know what had really happened.

"I absolutely believe that," Sirius snarled.

"Still can't believe anyone so cruel can be allowed in the school," James agreed bitterly.

Lily was still more pissed than anything Snape even still had his job after what he'd done to Remus last year, but this more than anything should have gotten him sacked! What if someone had really been hurt, and he'd just stood in the way and taunted Harry? What teacher could actually get away with that even if they had the audacity to do it?

Harry mockingly quoted Snape as he'd told of what rubbish his story was, and Harry followed up with demanding why Snape hadn't just moved.

"The man would murder his own child if he thought it would upset you," Sirius barked.

Remus gave him a sideways look for that disgusting metaphor, but Sirius raised a brow back to emphasize he wasn't taking it back. Not like anyone would get near that slimy little thing anyways to make it true.

Ron speculated that what if he'd done it all on purpose, what if he'd actually gotten down to the Forest before Harry and Dumbledore had made it?

"I really don't see how," James's face puckered with thought. "Dumbledore appeared and you two made a straight beeline there. Unless he jumped out the window and flew..." he trailed off with a shake of his head, still admiring Ron for keeping at this.

Harry said it wasn't possible unless he could turn into a bat.

"Would not put that past him," Sirius huffed.

Ron muttered he would not put that past him.

Sirius beamed and even Remus chuckled a bit at that one.

Hermione voiced that they needed to go see Moody, to see if he'd found Crouch or anything after they'd all left.

Harry agreed it should have been easy for him if he had the Map.

"Ture that," James nodded along.

"Hey, you think that's how he knew to come down in the first place?" Remus' eyes lit with understanding. "He was lying about Snape telling him, I can't believe otherwise, but maybe he hasn't told Dumbledore about the Map and he made that up on the spot."

"Why wouldn't he tell Dumbledore about the map?" Lily asked in surprise.

"It's on loan from Harry," Sirius reminded forcefully, he'd give that old auror hell if anything was said otherwise, "it's not his to tell about, Moody's respecting that while he's using it."

Nobody disagreed with him, though Harry could still feel a little niggle in him telling him that wasn't really everything.

Ron reminded it only showed up to the school's boundaries, so if-

He was cut off by Hermione shushing him as two more voices approached talking about blackmail.

"What on earth are these folks up to?" James couldn't help but smile in surprise.

"You lot spent way too much time getting blackmail on everyone in the castle," Lily grumbled.

"We did no such thing," Sirius said at once on reflex.

"We were merely keeping an ear out for certain rumors," James added on from old habits, his eyes flickering to Remus and away, "and just happened to come across other things on the way."

All of the boys felt an odd twitch possess them as they realized who should have finished that old joke, what his line would have been less than a week ago and how much they'd all missed having him around. Remus didn't know how he felt about it, he didn't know how the other two would feel about it, but the nasty lingering silence had to feel worse than him finishing instead, "and we only put it to good use."

James ruffled up his hair in unease and Sirius quickly forced a smile that looked almost painful, and Harry quickly read past the moment.

The other told that they'd tried the polite way, now it was time to play dirty unless their blackmailed target wanted them to get the Ministry involved.

The three Marauders had gotten so distracted by their own problem they'd almost forgotten what had started the mess, and weren't nearly as entertained as they knew they should have been by listening to this.

The first was still insisting it was the act of blackmail!

The second was just saying how the complaining would stop once they're payoff came in, when Fred and George walked into view.

"You said what now?" Lily balked, finally dragging worried eyes off her husband to land on Harry.

Harry was blinking down at the pages in shock, some wire in his brain going crazy as he knew he was finally getting to the bottom of how odd Fred and George had been acting all year!

Either the boys were still distracted by their own problem and were only half listening, or too stunned to speak, Harry quickly read out the exchange to silence.

Both parties stayed frozen, until Ron and Fred spoke at once of what the other was doing here?

"Oh lookie, now they're even mimicking each other in the books," Sirius said with a forced smile.

Harry and George responded in unison of sending a letter.

James honestly cracked a grin, egging Harry on and hoping this would continue.

While Hermione and Fred pointed out what time it was.

Now all five of them were giggling, there had never been a better timing for that release.

Fred broke the train first, forcing a smile and saying he wouldn't ask them, if they didn't ask.

He was holding a sealed letter, but whoever it was written for Harry didn't get a chance to read. Whether accidentally or not, George shifted just enough that the words were covered.

"On purpose," the other four said at once.

"Those boys have far too much experience by now to at least try otherwise," Lily told.

Fred tried to wave them out the door, but Ron asked who they were blackmailing?

"Blunt as a brick to the face," James beamed after his own laughing fit.

The twins smile vanished at once, before George played it off as a joke.

Ron insisted it hadn't sounded that way, then the twins exchanged a glance.

"These two are doing remarkably poor at this," Remus looked so disappointed.

"I know, you'd really think they'd learned diversionary tactics by now," Sirius nodded furiously, "change the topic to the most outlandish thing they can until they can slip away."

"You think that would work on their brother?" Lily asked, "Especially one as stubborn as Ron?"

"Worth a shot," James shrugged.

"Better than what they're doing, which is nothing," Remus agreed.

Fred abruptly switched to violence, telling Ron to let it go or he'd take his nose off.

"Oh, threats, that works much better," James rolled his eyes.

"Especially as we've never once seen them carry through on them," Sirius sighed in disappointment, he'd had such high hopes for these twins, yet they couldn't even evade their own brother.

"What are you lot trying to protect the twins for anyways," Harry grumbled in annoyance as a twitching continued just behind his eye. "You want to know what they're up to just as much as me."

"True," Lily instantly agreed.

"But we'd be remiss not to pass on our wisdom," James finished obviously.

Harry fought down the urge to point out the twins weren't here to be receiving this, nor did Harry have much use for it, but simply decided to ignore them.

Ron insisted this was his business if there was blackmail involved, this sounded like serious trouble.

"No one could be in as much trouble as I am," Sirius said instantly.

"That one was actually true," James nodded along, "I'm not even mad at you for that one."

"Miracles do happen," Remus smirked.

George insisted he'd been joking! Clearly thinking they'd argued long enough, he took the letter from his brother, tied it to the nearest owl, and told Ron he was starting to sound like Percy. If he kept acting this way, he was headed for a prefect.

The other's made noises of agitation that the twins were brushing this off, this really had carried on long enough it wasn't funny anymore and actually had verged into honest worry of what those two were up to. No one noticed a funny little smile on Harry's face for George's comment.

Ron snapped back that would never happen!

Harry couldn't stop a surprised bit of laughter even if he had no idea where it came from, though this did draw Remus' attention as he pouted, "and what's so funny? You going to stop hanging around Ron if he does become one?"

Harry rolled his eyes at the joke, shrugging and saying, "don't know, just imagining what the twins would really say if it did happen I guess."

George pitched the owl out of the tower as he concluded for Ron to stop poking his nose where it belonged then.

They left as quickly as they'd come.

Hermione whispered anyways if they could have any news to do with Crouch?

"Way," James drew the word out dramatically, "off topic. There's no way they should even have a clue Crouch was on school grounds unless you lot have mentioned it."

Harry shook his head no, it had gone without saying in his opinion that they hadn't exactly spread this story around.

"It does still boggle the mind what they are doing," Sirius sighed, "it's been going on for ages."

"And escalating," Lily agreed, fear still lacing her tones.

Harry said no at once, they'd never get into something so serious and not tell someone.

"Well of course you'd tell me," Sirius gave Harry as wide eyed a stare as he could, "why would you do anything else?"

It boggled all of their minds how Harry still laughed at this.

Ron didn't looked as convinced, sharing how they'd been going on about needing money for their joke shop, they'd talked about it all the time when, ah well-

Harry supplied for him, when he and Ron hadn't been talking.

"Much quieter and boring times," Harry added on when he saw how agitated they all got at the reminder. They'd clearly forgiven Ron for it, but it didn't stop them being annoyed when it was brought back up.

Hermione still wasn't convinced they'd go as far as blackmail.

Ron insisted they were really into this joke shop, whereas before Ron had just thought they were doing it to annoy their Mum.

"I never thought that for a second!" Sirius yelped indignantly.

They only had a year of school left and were really looking for some ways to make gold.

"But, they already have it, don't they?" James struggled to remember back, "I don't remember how much exactly, but they put a huge price up for that bet of the World Cup, and earned it back double. Bagman paid them back, so unless they've already wasted that away and are trying to get more..." he trailed off with a frown still in place.

"You think they're trying to blackmail Bagman?" Sirius asked in concern. "Trying to convince him to give them more so they can keep going?"

"It would explain why they keep hounding him as much as he is to Harry," Remus agreed uneasily.

Lily was biting at her lip, still wanting to believe the twins would never actually do this, but it was getting hard to come up with alternatives.

Harry was starting to look a little green around the edges, he was utterly convinced they were on the right track with this...but something was wrong, or backwards, or- he forced his mind to cut off before the ache in his head developed further.

Hermione still didn't think they'd do anything like break the law for gold.

None of them were any kind of happy that they couldn't one hundred percent say no to that. They wouldn't claim to know the twins well enough, and well, blackmail wasn't a happy start to the conversation.

Ron wasn't as convinced, saying they broke rules all the time.

"There's a difference between school rules and the actual law," Lily groaned, more for the Marauders benefit than anyone else's, who all blatantly ignored her.

Hermione insisted this was different! They could get a lot worse than detention for this! Maybe they should tell Percy-

"Ouch!" Sirius jumped like he'd been set aflame. "Merlin Hermione, have you no shame, setting those brothers against each other like that!"

"Leave the twins to do their own thing, and they're own consequences," Lily agreed, "Telling on them won't make anything better."

Harry was surprised at his mother actually agreeing with these boys, as often as she tried to scold them, but then he reflected how despite her disapproval of it, she hadn't gone and turned them in for their illegal animagus status either.

Ron told her she was mad telling Percy! He'd do a Crouch and turn them in.

"I, honestly think I believe that," James shivered, "and in no way want to dwell on it."

"Blackmail isn't bad enough to get you a stint in Azkaban," Lily barely got the word out without flushing in anger all over again and throwing a protective look to Sirius, "they'd be severely fined for it, maybe put on watch for a while to make sure they didn't try again."

"Moving on," Remus groaned, honestly still clinging to the hope that Percy wouldn't do any such thing at all.

There was a shifty silence for a moment before Ron insisted they go get breakfast.

Hermione tried to say they should go see Moody first, but Harry pointed out it would be bad to try at this hour, he'd probably attack them in his sleep.

"I believe that," Sirius instantly agreed, trying to force a smile in place at a topic switch. "Who wants to bet he's got his office booby trapped with trip wires to send people to Iceland if they so much as put a toe in there without his knowing."

"Stop exaggerating Sirius," Lily sighed, already growing weary of this chapter and looking forward to lunch just to get a momentary break from his commentary.

Instead he said they'd wait until their break.

History of Magic was usually torturously slow, but even though Harry kept checking Ron's watch to be sure, time seemed to move twice as slow as usual

"I'm sure Ron just loved sharing his arm with you all lesson," James chuckled.

All three of them were exhausted from their sleepless night and would have happily started snoozing,

"I see no reason why you didn't," Remus shrugged, "I know I was guilty of that on several occasions."

"And Binns never said a word, no matter how loud he snored," Sirius smirked.

even Hermione wasn't taking her usual notes, but was sitting with her head on her hand, gazing at Professor Binns with her eyes out of focus.

Sirius let out a wild gasp of shock, tearing the book away and holding it up to the light and declaring, "What nonsense is this! Say it ain't so, we've all been duped, there's no way this is real!"

Everyone was too busy laughing as Harry tried to wrestle the book back away with a grin in place to say anything.

When the bell did ring, they sprinted off to find Moody just leaving his office, and he looked in as bad a shape as them. His normal eye half sagging with sleep, giving his face an even more lopsided appearance than usual.

"I just realized, he literally always sleeps with one eye open," Remus raised a curious brow.

"He's an artist's nightmare to draw," Sirius chuckled, remembering a few of James rants when he tried to sketch someone and their eyes came out lopsided, "all those disproportionate features, no one would ever believe the drawing wasn't abstract."

James gave an agreeable laugh he didn't really feel, he was still very weirded out trying to picture the whole thing and had no want to take Sirius' joke as a challenge as he normally would have.

He stood back to let them into his empty classroom, limped in after them, and closed the door.

Harry called for his attention, and when Moody spotted them, he waited until the corridor was clear before inviting them inside.

"Well, we didn't transport to Iceland," Harry reminded Sirius.

"I said if you snuck in there," Sirius emphasized, "keep up Harry."

Harry asked if they'd found Crouch, and when receiving a no, asked if he'd used the Map?

Moody said of course he had, he'd summoned it to him on the grounds when Dumbledore sent him off looking.

"Well there goes our idea of how he even knew to come down," Remus groaned in frustration. "I can't believe he'd be so careless as to both be looking, and then not grabbing when he left. It's too much of an oversight to him."

"Maybe Harry will ask again how he knew to come down," Lily pacified.

Ron again suggested he Disapparated, only for Hermione to say in exasperation that wasn't possible!

Then she turned to Moody and said there are other ways he could have disappeared though.

Moody watched her steadily as he said she'd make quite the Auror,

"Nah, can't picture it," Sirius shook his head. "She still panics a little too easily."

"You're never going to let that troll thing go," Harry rolled his eyes at him.

"Or the Devil's Snare," James agreed.

with a mind like hers.

"I'll give that one though," Lily shook her head, "Hermione's going to go great places, wouldn't surprise me if she shot up the Ministry ladder faster than Percy, became the youngest head of whatever department she chose."

Harry had a kind smile in place, knowing he had no clue what the real answer was, but very assured his mother was right.

Hermione flushed with pleasure while Harry told Moody that the Map even showed those who were invisible, so Crouch must have left the grounds.

Hermione still questioned if he'd done it himself, or someone forced him to.

"He was acting to out of it for it to be the first, I can't believe anyone's that good an actor. I'm, going with the second?" Remus still managed to make it a question more than a statement, there was just too much weirdness around this and they had no clue what it could be connected to. Their top suspects would have been Snape or Karkaroff, but both had some pretty good alibis, so they had absolutely nothing to work with.

Ron gave the suggestion that someone could have pulled him onto a broom and flown away,

"Now that's a fair theory," James eyes lit with excitement. "Actually I quite like it, the more I'm thinking. Sneak attack on Krum who wouldn't have seen it coming, and the way Crouch was going on, did anyone else get the feeling he was being held against his will or something? I believe he mentioned the word escaped. This mystery person would have been pursuing him."

"So, who then?" Sirius insisted. "Must be a Death Eater," his face twitched with hatred but he kept going, "so is Voldemort still recruiting, and Crouch was one of his targets? Crouch would know where a ton of Death Eaters were, I'll bet he keeps a list of people he thinks are some and where they are from when they'd have gotten off at some point or another."

While this was looking promising, Harry was starting to feel a little sick to his stomach and didn't feel like indulging them as much as usual, so he asked if he could go on and they could keep speculating later.

looking hopefully at Moody as if he too wanted to be told he had the makings of an Auror.

"Poor Ron," James muttered absently.

Moody agreed they weren't ruling out a kidnaping.

Ron asked if it was possible he was somewhere in Hogsmeade?

"Don't go suggesting that!" James said so sharply it made everyone else jump. "Sirius is hanging around there, I don't want Moody anywhere closer to the area than he has to be."

"Alright, breathe Prongs," Sirius pacified at once, his eyes were still a little too dark. "You know Ron didn't mean anything by it, Moody doesn't know about Padfoot, and I want Crouch found, so it was sound enough."

James did not look appeased enough to take it back.

Moody agreed he could be anywhere that wasn't here.

Harry's stomach ache took a nasty turn, whether heading up or down he wasn't sure, but it didn't take much to figure out that meant something to him, something bad.

Moody switched then to telling he'd heard of their previous detective work, and he didn't want to hear of it this time. He and Dumbledore were working this, Harry needed to stay focused on his third task.

Harry asked what he meant.

"Do you have very many other numbered tasks we should be concerned about?" Lily asked in surprise.

"It kind of slipped my mind after the whole Crouch thing," Harry admitted sheepishly.

Then his mind caught up, and Harry realized he hadn't thought about that since he'd left the field with Krum.

"Honestly can't blame you though," James shrugged, "this was plenty distracting."

Moody told Harry that he'd heard of some of Potters previous exploits and this last task should be easy enough for him compared to those challenges about the Stone.

"I still swear on my wand that was too easy for a bunch of first years," Lily grumbled hatefully, that had been one of her first problems with Dumbledore, and it had only gotten worse.

"Moody's got a point though," Remus said fairly, "Harry does have some practice with this, this task sounds at least doable for him."

"Joyful," James deadpanned, "you'll excuse me if I'm not a bundle of glee he's still in there."

Remus rolled his eyes at them but stopped arguing.

Ron quickly said he and Hermione had helped him along.

"And there's that," Sirius nodded, "Harry did get help through the majority of those things, he really only caught that key from Flitwick."

"And stopped Voldemort," Harry reminded with some unease, the act of having second hand killed Quirrell still giving him nightmares sometimes.

"Not trying to forget that exactly," James promised, "but it's not exactly a fun reminder."

He pulled out his hip flask then and took a large swig of it as his magical eye kept on them.

Harry wondered why every time that hip flask was mentioned he felt his gut tightening up. Maybe he was regretting not having ever gotten one of his own?

Moody grinned at Ron, telling him to stick by that and Potter, could never have too many eyes on him.

"As normally I'm not out of their company," Harry rolled his eyes at this display of paranoia, "I don't see that being a problem."

Sirius sent their owl back the very next morning.

"So I'm guessing these caves are going to be a permanent thing," James was actually smiling in relief, while he'd been against the idea originally, he couldn't deny he liked the idea of Sirius' quick replies.

"Why did it still take you a whole day?" Remus asked in surprise, "should have been able to reply in hours."

"I'm probably not inside all that much," Sirius shrugged, he liked to imagine he was reliving old memories by snooping around Hogsmeade and the Forest.

Hermione only delayed his reading it by doing a quick search of her copy of the Daily Prophet and informing them there was no new information before Harry read out.

It did not start happy, with Sirius scolding Harry for going off with Krum.

"Wow Padfoot," James raised a brow at his friend that Sirius couldn't quite interpret. It made him uneasy, since he could usually read James in an instant and go along, but this time he honestly wasn't sure if he was being mocked, or if James was being jealous again that he was scolding Harry.

Sirius opened, then closed his mouth since he wasn't sure which way he was supposed to be talking, but Harry had mostly ignored the pair, reading on with an agitated look in place for how this had started.

He wanted a swear by return of this owl Harry would not be going out at night again.

"Yes sir," Harry told him tartly, some residual shock that anyone even cared that much to tell him to do otherwise not putting enough force behind the sarcasm.

Sirius was starting to look flustered now, he wasn't used to being so wrong-footed and now both of them were giving him a spin.

There was somebody at Hogwarts trying to hurt Harry, and it was obvious someone stopped Crouch from seeing Dumbledore feet away from Harry, he could have been killed.

"Aww," Lily couldn't help but coo, clearly fixing to follow that up with a thank you for Sirius acting like an adult, while Remus pantomimed while she wasn't looking about him being whipped; clearly getting his revenge for all the times Sirius had teased him of this advice previously.

"I'm going to strangle the lot of you!" Sirius threatened as he hit his wits end.

Harry's name had not been in that Goblet by accident, someone was trying to hurt him and this task was their last chance. Stay in the company of Ron and Hermione, and do not leave Gryffindor Tower after hours. Stay focused on the third task and start practicing Stunning and Disarming jinxes, as well as hexes. Keep his nose out of whatever Crouch was doing and keep his head down. He'd be waiting for that promise of not going out.

He didn't even sign off as Snuffles, but Sirius.

Harry finished and looked up at his Godfather expectantly, though Sirius had no clue what he was wanting. "What? You waiting for me to apologize? That was sound advice."

"You just agreed with me at the end of the last chapter Hagrid was overreacting," Harry rolled his eyes at him, "I figured you'd do it again for yourself."

"I'll apologize when you admit you weren't thinking," Sirius shot back. "It was foolhardy even if Krum wasn't the problem, you haven't once this year actually acted like your life's been threatened."

"That's rich coming from you," Harry scowled back, "since you won't admit for a second how stupid and dangerous it is to even be in the country."

"I'm getting scared," Lily whispered to Remus as the two kept sniping at each other.

"Harry's certainly growing more and more outspoken about being told what to do the longer this drags on," Remus nodded along, grimacing slightly as he reminded, "but to be fair, no one's ever really earned the right to tell him what to do. Aside from the teachers at Hogwarts, Harry's never exactly had a good role model for authority, Sirius included."

It hurt in the worst way for the mother to be reminded of this, but she conceded the point.

James had been watching on in honest bemusement as Harry and Sirius kept trying to tell each other what idiots the other was being, but finally he cut in, "alright, you're both idiots, can we move on."

"Hey!" Harry and Sirius yelped at the same time, but then they exchanged a grin for that and Harry decided to let it go.

Harry was instantly insulted that Sirius was telling him off for being out of bounds after everything he'd ever done.

Harry gave Sirius an extra look that his point had been said twice, which Sirius acknowledge in the most adult way possible, sticking his tongue out at him and muttering petulantly about how different that was.

Hermione reminded he was just worried, and Harry needed to listen to him.

Harry insisted no one had tried to attack him all year, no one had done anything.

"Which, if you think about it, is the weird part," Remus acknowledged.

He winced when he got some nasty looks for that, but Harry defended, "well he is right. So far it's just been the dragon and some grindylows. So unless someone is hoping I'd gone out with these tasks, it's not exactly been that bad." He finished with an absent minded frown on his face he didn't even seem to realize was there for his own saying this.

He did not get any pleased responses from anyone for pointing this out, nor did he himself feel much better for the reminder. Something about this third task, it was going to be a big game changer, the closer it got the more sure he was of that.

Hermione pointed out the Goblet of Fire, someone had put his name in there for a reason and maybe they'd just been biding their time till now.

They all shivered at that, Harry hardest of all as he heard some color of truth in what she'd said.

Harry insisted that even if Sirius was right,

"I can see how well you took to Snuffles," Sirius gave a half hearted smirk.

Harry did give a sheepish shrug for that, admitting he had been terrible about that one, Hermione and Ron were much better at remembering.

and the person who attacked attacked Crouch and Krum had been right by him, then clearly Harry wasn't the target. They'd waited until he'd left to do anything.

"I think that's giving the kidnappers too much credit," James shuddered at the thought. "They must have just caught up at the best opportune time when you weren't there."

"Still," Remus sighed, "the timing of it all really isn't feeling much better."

Hermione shot back they couldn't make it look like accidental murder in front of the forest.

"She's just sunshine and rainbows lately," Lily scowled in response to that statement.

Harry insisted it could have been done, someone could have made it look like he and Krum and dulled to death.

"You are making some great points," Sirius acknowledged, the only apology Harry was going to get for that letter.

Hermione was getting desperate as she agreed she didn't understand this, but Moody and Sirius were right,

"No one sticks with Snuffles for long," Remus forced a laugh.

"That's your fault Moony," Sirius smirked, "you need to come up with more obscure nicknames."

he needed to be prepared for this last task. And he needed to send that letter to Sirius promising he wasn't going to be sneaking around.

"Pretty sure that owl's flown off by now," James shrugged, "so you've already not done as told, and you'll have to grab a new one."

"You're just full of helpful advice," Harry grumbled.

The Hogwarts grounds never looked more inviting than when Harry had to stay indoors.

Harry looked all the more disgruntled at this happening to him at the end of the semester, again! He wanted to ask Sirius if he was happy with himself this time, but that comment just felt too vicious, he didn't want to bring up last year.

For the next few days he spent all of his free time either in the library with Hermione and Ron,

"At some point, I think you three forgot you were Gryffindor's," Remus looked on in pity for Harry, "and you're trying to convince Pince to let you start a new house in the library."

"You're certainly in there enough," James sighed.

looking up spells they could practice in empty classrooms.

Harry was practicing his Stunning Spell.

"You would think it would be easier than Petrificus Totalus," Harry sighed, "the body seizes up and then falls, Stupify just makes you fall on the spot."

"It takes much longer to wear off without Innervate though, so there's more power behind a Stunners magic," Remus told. "Petrificus Totalus will wear off in half the time."

"Trust him on this," Sirius muttered in disgust, "takes nearly an hour for a stunner to go away."

Harry sadly remembered Sirius telling him about the time Snape had managed to stun him and leave him behind a broom shed, so he didn't question the experience.

The trouble was that practicing it involved certain sacrifices on Ron and Hermione's part.

"Those poor kids," Lily winced in pity.

"There's really no other way to learn though," Remus shrugged without remorse, "sadly they just don't know about embedding cushioning charms on the floor for this particular lesson."

"There's no better way than to practice on a moving target," James agreed.

Ron suggested trying this on Mrs. Norris,

"I would not recommend it," Sirius said instantly. "Filch will know, and he will not wait for permission to gut you."

"Speaking from more experience?" Harry asked wearily.

"Thankfully not me," Sirius said with the height of innocence, "but I did hear a rumor of some Hufflepuff taking revenge on Filch out on his cat, poor kid was never seen alive again."

Harry had no clue how much truth was being put in this, but he was laughing at Sirius again and he didn't want to ask.

after his fifth time in a row landing on the floor. If they didn't want to use the cat, then Harry could at least try Dobby, he'd do it happily.

"Now why didn't I think of that?" Sirius theatrically clapped his forehead, "do you realize how much better I could have felt any number of times if I'd just summoned Kreacher to me and cursed him!"

"Let's just be thankful it never occurred to you," Remus said quickly as Lily gave him a nasty look for that.

He insisted he wasn't complaining,

"Well offering up alternatives isn't complaining per say," James agreed.

while rubbing at his side.

"But honestly I don't blame Ron for complaining," James smiled sadly, "at least he's being a trooper and allowing it to be done to him, I think that involves a little moaning when he lands."

Hermione pointed out he kept missing the pillows she'd laid out for him to land on. He should try falling backwards.

"Did she just try to tell a stunned person where to fall?" Lily giggled in surprise. "I don't think even Hermione could manage that."

Ron told her to take a try and see how she did.

Hermione decided it was time Harry moved on from that spell.

Causing them all to laugh, clearly Hermione wasn't up to taking her own advice.

There was no point practicing Disarming, he'd been able to do that one for a while.

"Always with impressive results," the boys laughter doubled even more as Lily said that, though taking a minute for her to realize the last time Harry had done that, and admitted a bit of a giggle escaped her as well.

Instead she wanted to try out this Impediment Curse, which slowed things down.

"I enjoyed the recreational uses of that spell," Sirius got a lazy grin. "It's the best thing to throw something at someone, using the Impediment Curse on it, and watch them freak out and dive for cover as something went towards them in slow motion."

"Thankfully that joke did wear off fast enough," James chuckled.

"But the looks on their faces were priceless," Remus snickered.

The bell rang before they could try, and Hermione promised to see them at dinner as she ran for her Arithmancy class while the boys went for Divination.

No one exactly looked excited for this, but they were hoping for a few more laughs to crop up so no one protested either. Harry was the only one who didn't seem to be looking forward to this, the ghost of his scar prickling across his forehead as foreboding as it could get.

The sun was still gleaming in the sky as they went up the spiral stairs, and Ron groaned how hot it was going to be in the room, Trelawney never put out that fire.

"Ergh," they winced in sympathy for that heat stroke waiting to happen.

Ron was right, the room was a sauna with the thick curtains and the fireplace crackling as high as ever. Harry took his usual seat next to the shadows and pried open a window while the teacher wasn't watching so that a nice breeze could at least blow in on him.

"There's my ingenuity shining through," James beamed at his son.

"Yes," Lily rolled her eyes at him, "I'm so sure only you could have the power of knowledge in opening a window on a hot day."

"Don't be jealous our son got everything from me," James teased back.

Trelawney called attention as she took her seat, saying today they would be focusing on the planet Mars.

"Ah the Roman god of war," Sirius rolled his eyes, "I'm not surprised that would be her second favorite one."

She pulled a planetarium up for all to see, and while she began dissecting the planets orbits in conjunction with each other, Harry felt his eyes drifting shut, the breeze blowing clean air into his face as an insect hummed somewhere nearby.

Harry wasn't remotely feeling sleepy now, on the contrary as some deep sense of warning was trying to go off in his head so loud, though he had no clue what the connection could be. Surely not to a bug, or even dozing off in class like he was clearly doing.

He was riding on the back of an eagle owl, soaring through the clear blue sky,

"Finally it sounds like one of your dreams is something normal," James smiled. "I can't count the number of times I've dreamed of flying, though normally for me it's on a broom, not a bird."

"I think he's subconsciously missing Buckbeak," Sirius chuckled.

Everyone was laughing happily around Harry, it was such a wonderful sound to him. Even after these days he spent with them, it was still always a happy feeling to realize he was just sitting around and listening to his family laugh...so why was he getting such a bad feeling about having to keep going?

He was going through the window of an ivy swarmed house, and landing in a high backed chair.

The longer Harry read, the tighter his voice was getting, like someone was slowly strangling him while he forced this out. The laughter had already died out, but no one bothered to interrupt him to ask why as they must be about to get an answer.

Two shapes were moving, one on the floor, the other writhing on the floor. It was a squat man with watery eyes and a pointed nose.

The growl that erupted from everyone was not unexpected the moment the description registered, and though Harry felt like he was reading past a nail spike driving through his brain as this was being returned to him, he was suddenly very grateful he was the one to be reading this. No one liked to hear more mention of this rat after all, but at least Harry could pretend to force past it without threatening murder every other word.

He was wheezing and sobbing on the hearth rug. . .

James wished this feeling would go away, this bleeding conflict he felt whenever he heard of Peter like this like he had the first time. He didn't know why the rat was acting like that, but he knew with everything in him he deserved it for giving him up, for causing his death and Lily's and what should have been Harry's. He wanted to just feel that murder pulsing through him, rather than anything else...

A voice like pure ice spoke of Wormtail's luck, how fortunate he was his blunder had been fixed and he was dead.

Harry was entirely concerned when no one in here rhetorically asked who that 'he' could be, but that was the kind of reaction mentioning this betrayer wrought in them, nowhere near their normal personalities.

The shadow on the floor gasped its pleasure for the news, and how sorry he still was for it all.

James felt like he was the only one paying attention to the actual words rather than the festering thoughts everyone else was harboring at the mention of him, so he was certain he was the only one trying to figure out what exactly he'd done to be apologizing for, not that he cared one bit, it could only be good news for them.

The cold voice continued ignoring him, instead telling Nagini she was out of luck, she would not be eating Wormtail,

"Here I am again, pitying a snake."

Harry never would have believed that was Sirius if he hadn't been keeping an uneasy eye on him.

but there was still Harry Potter.

Harry looked flummoxed that his being fed to a snake was part of any plan, but even if someone did want to voice their outrage at it, he was reading too fast to let them.

The snakes tongue flicked in the direction of the voice as it continued addressing Wormtail.

In between her mental tirade of wanting to rip every last one of his remaining fingers off, Lily was still trying to understand why Voldemort called him that. Her mind must have been working on it in her recess while she tried to ignore it, because now the only idea she could offer up was Voldemort using that as a derogatory on the rat. What had once been an affectionate nickname given to him by his friends for his rat animal was now being turned on its head by the very man he'd served those friends up to, the rat status still stood but now in the darkest way possible.

Saying he would be given one more reminder of his blunder.

Wormtail begged for mercy even as the shout of Crucio rang.

Sirius should have been far more concerned that he didn't feel a damn thing except disappointment that wasn't him using that curse. Crucio wasn't even the beginning of what he owed that rat, twelve years in Azkaban for starters, then he'd work his way up to other tortures from there.

Wormtail was screaming, every nerve in his body alight with pain, and Harry was screaming just as loud through the fire in his forehead,

If anything could snap them back to the actual purpose of this story rather than sucking on revenge, it was Harry, and him reading in a tight pain laced voice as he remembered this set all of them back on the opposite edge of how they felt for the rat.

he had to stop, or Voldemort would hear him.**

Harry was surprised when the walls didn't shake with them, they were all trembling by the end though for all very different reasons. Too many emotions raining too high to deeply question what needed to be asked, number one of which was: why was Harry still seeing this!? They'd by no means forgotten the first time, but as no new information had arisen from anyone regarding this, they had nothing new to go on, and too much of a chance of it dissolving into another break out attempt in their temper if they tried to dissect it.

Someone was shouting his name, and Harry came back to himself on Trelawney's floor, his hands covering his face as tears burned his eyes from the pain of his scar.

Harry was making sure to breathe slowly through his nose, concentrating on every word so that he wouldn't be thinking on that pain that he could all too vividly remember now. It helped nothing when he glanced up and saw all the scared white faces around him for what this could mean.

The whole class was hovering over him, Ron right by his head as he whispered if Harry was alright?

"Oh he's just spiffing, and you?" Remus got out, surprised when he tasted copper in his mouth after swallowing, he must have bitten his tongue at some point to stop himself screaming in outrage.

Trelawney told Ron of course he wasn't, while looking excitedly down at Harry.

Lily found something to break her temper on, and it wasn't pretty. "Are you kidding me? Is there not one bloody useful teacher in that school! First Snape now her, what in Merlin's sack is wrong with these people! He was on the floor, in pain, and she's excited! I swear if a student didn't take the initiative to run off to get Madam Pomfrey I'm going to curse every last one of them!"

In retrospect that was way too harsh for her, they knew if this had happened in say McGonagall's class or basically any other teacher except these two it would have gotten the proper response of the adult making sure Harry was okay, but no one could blame her heaving chest and wild eyed outrage.

Harry honestly felt in fear for his life if he actually tried to keep going while she was still like this, all for letting her get it all out now, but she seemed to have at least temporarily restrained herself and sat a look on him that said in no uncertain terms for him to keep going.

She demanded what Harry had been seeing, a premonition?

"And this is why no one was disagreeing with you Lily," James looked just as outraged as his wife at this lack of concern for their son, but he was more quietly scheming in the back of his head what exactly he planned to do to Trelawney as payback.

Harry instantly lied it was nothing while struggling to his feet, flinching at every shadow and sure he could still hear Voldemort uttering that curse.

Harry couldn't suppress another shiver for that, that terrible voice still echoing in the back of his mind. Thankfully no corner of this room was shadowed, the warm lights and cozy fireplace in exact opposite of Trelawney's eerie room, and he was surrounded on all sides feeling very safe.

Trelawney insisted it had been something, he'd been holding his scar, and insisted she had experience with this.

"You have as much experience as Lockhart you-" Remus forcibly cut himself off before he went on his own Lily like tangent which still wouldn't resolve anything.

Harry glared at her as he said he was going to the hospital wing for a headache.

"If only that's what it had been," Harry whispered to himself, as sickly looking as everyone else in fear and worry of what all this could mean for him.

Trelawney began to refuse, saying if he left the confines of her clairvoyant powers he'd lose his stimulated and extraordinary moment.

Lily looked ready to incite murder any second, her wand even appeared and she was glaring at every exit clearly wanting to take Trelawney's head off for actually putting her baby's pain on the powers of that bleeding room!

If he left now he may not get another opportunity to see-

"Then by all means, please leave Harry," Sirius ground out, at least mocking Trelawney felt better than thinking of rats.

Harry snapped he wasn't seeing anything but a headache cure, and left with a quick muttered goodbye to Ron.

Trelawney watched him go with a look saying she'd just been denied a treat.

Lily had to concentrate on each one of her fingers not to perform a strangling motion as she heard that, but at least he was finally leaving.

Harry did not go for Madam Pomfrey, instead his feet doing as Sirius had told,

Harry released a breathy laugh he didn't really feel, but any release would be savored as he picked back up his earlier argument with his godfather. "See Sirius, I do listen to some of your advice."

"Oh sure, when it involves Dumbledore," he said back, flipping his hair over his shoulder dramatically but there was still too much anger in his gray eyes for all the recent rat mentions lately for the joke to really be there.

and go tell Dumbledore. This time had been as vivid as the one in Privet Drive.

"Gathered that bit," James groaned, ruffling up his own hair in unease, the longer they sat and thought about it, the more worry they gained with no new ideas, but at least some of the blood lust was being forcibly pounded away as Harry got farther away from mentions of who all had been in the dream again.

He kept replaying the events over in his mind so as not to forget the details, how Voldemort had accused Wormtail of a blunder,

Nope, there it was! Harry was going to keep thinking on it until he got it all out to Dumbledore as well, so he decided now he may as well start trying to remove his finger nails, it would hurt less. The only coherent thought he had left was his prayer Harry wouldn't pass this along to Sirius again, the reaction he could have still terrified him as much as what was happening to Harry. He didn't need Sirius going off on a murder rampage and getting caught, that had to be his next step from going back to Harry's side from that first dream. Then again, Harry hadn't mentioned the rat in his first later, so there was still some hope he wouldn't this time, it wouldn't do Sirius any more good than it was them.

but Voldemort had received good new that someone was dead, and Wormtail was not going to be fed to the snake, that would be Harry.

Hearing it all a second time didn't make any of that more bearable, or comprehensible, if possible it was actually getting worse with Harry's rendition. Now they didn't have anger to cling onto while listening, now they were just a bubbling, twisting mess of worry of how much pain Harry had to go through to get to the age he was at now.

Harry had walked right past the stone gargoyle guarding the entrance to Dumbledore's office without noticing.

Remus forced out a laugh he didn't really feel, but at this point any actual noise besides Harry forcing himself to read through pain was a kindness.

Only when he traced back did he remember that he didn't know the password.

"Oh yeah," they all muttered, having been so lost in their own thoughts they hadn't recognized this problem either. Now what was Harry going to do?

"I swear if Snape shows up again, I'm getting a shovel and digging my way to his useless arse, the magic keeping me in here be damned," James vowed on the spot.

"You could always try what you were going to last time, go to the staff room and tell an actual useful teacher it's an emergency and need to talk to Dumbledore," Remus offered. "I'm sure they'd give you the password."

Harry gave a listless shrug, he had no clue what he was going to do, but managed a brave smile for all of them at even pretending at a joke and normal conversation again...at least he hoped his dad was joking.

He still tried sherbet lemon.

"T for effort," Sirius scolded, "you already knew that wouldn't work."

"Sirius, don't call my son a troll," Lily instantly snapped.

Sirius rolled his eyes at her.

Instead he started trying others, like Licorice Wand and Fizzing Whizbee,

"Upgraded to an A for this though," Remus smiled, "he knows Dumbledore has a sweet tooth, and going off the previous password is taking a good guess it could be more candy."

"He's most likely not wrong," James forced some tension out of his shoulders to try and smile along. It didn't at all work, but he no longer looked like he was sitting on Hickory anymore. "All the times we were there, it was some form of this."

Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans? Oh wait, he didn't like those.

"Who knows, maybe he's found one not earwax flavored since then," Sirius did his very best at a sincere tone, almost getting there.

When none of that worked, Harry told it was an emergency, but still the gargoyle didn't move.

"I'd be more concerned if it did move," Lily sighed.

Harry kicked it, achieving nothing but an excruciating pain in his big toe.

"Did you at least feel better?" James actually did manage a genuine laugh for that one.

Harry ignored the, in his opinion, stupid question.

Now shouting Chocolate Frog and standing on one leg.

"Is this a new game?" Sirius found honest laughter bubbling in his chest, though he wasn't surprised. If anything could make him smile again, it would be his godson. "Hop on one foot and shout treats until you run out, I like this."

Harry tried to keep being angry with them for laughing like this when he knew in the book he was still upset over what he'd seen, but he recognized as well as them that getting angry wasn't helping a thing, at least smiling gave the feeling that everything would turn out okay.

At last shouting Cockroach Cluster in anger, and the gargoyle sprang aside.

"Cockroach Cluster?" Remus crinkled his nose in disgust. "Really Dumbledore?"

"I've heard they actually taste rather like crispy chocolates," Lily offered with her own look of concern at this, she'd never believed the friend that had tried to convince her of this.

"I can't believe he went with that over the Beans!" Sirius gasped.

"I guess anyone who eats Peppermint Humbug has this kind of strange taste," Harry shrugged.

"At least it wasn't Jelly Slugs," James smirked, "I'm still hoping Dumbledore remembers that one personally."

"I do not want to know," Lily groaned at once. Harry was still too distracted thinking about his dream and what all it could mean for him to be to invested in asking for now.

Harry looked at the opening in surprise, admitting he'd been joking.

"Well don't tell it that!" Sirius said mock frantically.

Still he went inside and traveled up to the headmaster's office, but when he got near he heard voices and hesitated.

"You seem to do that quite a lot for someone who insists he's not a snooper," Remus snorted in surprise.

Harry was finally distracted from his own problem by that, looking up at Remus with the widest most innocent eyes he had.

Remus snorted again and shook his head in disbelief, jabbing a thumb at Sirius and saying, "try looking at me with literal puppy eyes and get back to me on that one."

Sirius cracked up laughing so hard he nearly missed Harry pouting but moving on.

The voice inside was telling Dumbledore he saw no connections, it was Fudge.

"Oh, because he's always a joy to have around," Lily said in contempt, not one of them forgetting how last year he'd happily sanctioned Sirius getting Kissed!

Sirius was too busy suppressing his giggles that Remus had admitted out loud that had worked to garner the hatred he should have felt.

He was still insisting that while Bertha was missing, it didn't mean foul play.

"I swear his head is as empty as the Shrieking Shack," James scowled. "What person actually goes missing this long without not being declared dead? It's been what, almost a year now?"

It was their insight that they knew she was dead, but James's logic was still sound that no one would have argued with him otherwise.

There was just no way it had anything to do with Crouch.

They all sat in puzzlement on that for a second, Lily saying slowly, "yes, alright, I can kind of put together how Dumbledore would think that. Harry did verbatim what Crouch had been rambling on about, and he did mention Bertha, but I still can't see how Crouch knew anything."

"Maybe Dumbledore sees a more clear line connection than just the passing along information Harry got?" Remus tried with no honest belief.

Moody's voice spoke up what he thought the Minister thought happened to Crouch?

Fudge said he had two ideas,

"Oh I'm going to love hearing this," James sneered.

the first was that Crouch had cracked and gone wandering off.

"If that is option one, I am terrified for my sanity what option two is," Lily looked dumbstruck anyone could reach that conclusion in these circumstances. Surely Dumbledore had given Harry's account of the matter, no one could be so stupid and blind as to draw that kind of conclusion from it!

Dumbledore simply answered he wandered extremely quickly then.

"Still got to love how Dumbledore kindly points out how dumb the people around him are," Sirius muttered to himself.

Fudge said he'd reserve judgement on the second idea until he saw the place for himself.

"What does that even mean?" Remus asked in surprise. "It was on the edge of the Forest, why do you need to be there to declare anything of it."

"I don't see why we're hearing his opinion on it at all," James's scowl kept deepening the longer this guy was around, "since I hold its weight on the same level as dragon dung."

Confirming this had happened right around the Beauxbatons carriage? Reminding Dumbledore of what she was.

"He did not!" Harry heard everyone bark in outrage. The way his lip curled in protest of having said that however left no one in doubts. No one currently liked Maxime for what she'd done to Hagrid, in all honesty they still blamed her for it even being out, but no one was accusing her of pulling this simply because she was like Hagrid! And the worst part was, no one had any doubts if Fudge was saying this about her, he could be thinking about Hagrid as well!

Dumbledore quietly returned he found her an able headmistress, and an excellent dancer.

"Thank you for that useful information," Remus muttered sullenly, wishing Dumbledore would take that a little more offensively like they had.

Fudge was getting angry now, saying Dumbledore may be acting a little blind for his trust in Hagrid. They didn't all turn out harmless, and Hagrid didn't even sound that with all his monsters.

"That's it, where's the nearest tiny box, I'm cramming his arse in it," Sirius followed that up with a few more swears just as the timer went off from the kitchen.

Lily was saved from having to listen to the rest no matter how much she agreed by going to let dinner cool, by the time she came back all of the boys were still in a temper like her for the slur of a comment but at least willing to let Harry finish as he fingered the last page.

Dumbledore forcefully replied he did not suspect either of them, and in fact flipped back on Fudge perhaps he was the one being blinded by prejudice.

"Least Dumbledore's saying that much," Remus muttered as he poked at a hole in his sleeve, his mind was starting to get a bit stung around the edges his old headmaster wasn't being a bit more vocally against this.

Moody suggested they wrap this up, and while Fudge agreed he wanted a look around the grounds, Moody instead pointed out that Potter must want a word because he was outside the door.

"Got to love Moody must have known he was there the whole time and waited this long to say something," James said.

"Chapter's over," Harry sighed as he gave the book an unfriendly toss onto the table and being the first to exit the room.

HPHPHPHP

Update on Cursed Child: If my review wasn't enough for you guys, I found a guy who emulates everything I ever could think to say. Mine is really puny small in comparison, and I can't disagree with a single thing he says. I left a lot out of mine, but he covers the whole thing! It's funny, go watch!

The Script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - The Dom Reviews

*nahte123456 pointed this out, and yeah, it's a really good point.

**If anybody remembers my rant from the second chapter about how much it bothered me they never explained these third person dreams Harry has, I thank you all for all the suggestions you gave, but I'm still not sold on why it happens. Just because Voldemort doesn't have his normal body shouldn't disrupt the horcrux connection that allows Harry to see inside Voldemort's mind of the body he's in, not from the window's perspective. This isn't from Nagini ...it's just information insert. I do acknowledge that it could well be Harry seeing through Voldemort and we're just getting the outside perspective, JK has done this in the past by switching between characters like in Harry's first Quidditch match, and that's basically the only running thing I can go with, but it still annoys me to no end it's never acknowledged in that way, it's just there.

#The Life That Never Lived #Harry Potter #fanfiction #GoF #reading the books #Marauders #Wolfstar #jilly #James Potter #Remus Lupin #sirius black #Peter Pettigrew #Lily Evans #alice smith #frank longbottom #Regulus Black

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nosferatchoo · 4 years ago

Text

George likes boys

3,700 words

After George Weasley is introduced to one of his younger brother’s male classmates, he begins questioning his sexuality. He can’t ignore his feelings anymore, after they find themselves alone in detention, having to clean the Herbology greenhouses together.

This is a He/him pronoun Y/N fic, mostly fluff and angst until the last chapter.

WARNING contains; 18+ smut, strong language, LGBT themes [if you’re not into that], gay angst and yearning [if you’re not in the mood for that]

Smut in part 10 if you want to skip to that part, because same.

Prologue

Y/N is a third-year student at Hogwarts in [Your house]. With the Dementors guarding the grounds, they’re unable to wander, so he’s meeting his friends after a class in the Great Hall before lunch. First out the door, satchel swung around his arm, he strides through the hallway towards the staircase that leads down to the hall, shoes clicking on each step.

1] Great Hall

Walking into the Great Hall, Y/N scans the tables, spotting his friends near the front. Strutting towards them he’s stopped by a familiar voice, “y/n, Y/N!” turning to see Ron gesturing towards him, Y/N lifts his eyebrow in query. “You’ve got the notes for Potions class, haven’t you?”

“From this morning or?” Y/N asks, taken aback by the arbitrary question.

“Yeah! can I copy it? Please? I’m desperate.” Ron pleads.

“Honestly Ron! maybe if you actually turned up to class, instead of sleeping in, you wouldn’t be in this predicament.” Hermione huffs.

“Maybe if you let me peak at your notes I wouldn’t be in this predicament.” Ron retorts.

Y/N sighs and rummages in his bag, bringing out a slightly battered leather notebook, “yeah mate, go wild.” He says tossing his notebook towards a thankful Ron.

“You shouldn’t pander to him” Hermione huffs, “He’ll never learn.”

“Shove off Mione!” Ron grumbles, as he hurriedly scribbles notes onto his parchment, his quill working with an impressive speed, although, no accuracy.

“You even going to be able to read that?” Y/N smirks, as he takes a seat on the opposite side of the table next to Harry, waiting for Ron to finish his scribing.

“Ah yeah, crystal clear.” Ron answers, eyes dashing between the parchment and the page.

Hermione stretches over to inspect Ron’s frantic lettering, “Is that even English?” she said before returning to her reading.

“Of course it is Hermione!” Fred appears behind Ron, “but it’s in code, nobody else can understand Ron’s writing but him”, he’s followed leisurely by Lee and George who adds, “That’s so none of the Professors can tell if he’s actually done the assignment or not.” snickering to Lee Jordan as they surround Ron who’s still frantically copying the notes, now somewhat more hurried, anticipating his older brother’s intervention.

2] George’s POV

Fred nudged George as they entered the hall, a panicked Ron was frantically scribbling, obviously trying to complete some last minuet assignment. Fred gleefully shuffles to Ron, “…It’s in code, nobody else can understand Ron’s writing but him” is what George hears Fred say as he saunters over to join him to taunt their little brother.

“That’s so none of the Professors can tell if he’s actually done the assignment or not.” He adds snickering to Lee, who joins in with the sniggering, but doesn’t add to their mocking. The three boys sit surrounding Ron, Fred shuffles in between him and Hermione, wrapping his arm around Ron before mockingly taking interest in his writing. “So, what have we got here?” he asks, leaning in for exaggerated dramatics.

“Ron’s been sleeping through class, and now he’s having to copy notes before Snape realises and gives him detention.” Hermione exclaims, securing a smirk from Fred.

“I’m sure Snape doesn’t mind Ron skipping classes, He probably prefers it.” George shares, earning a chuckle from the opposite side of the table. His gaze is diverted to the unfamiliar boy sitting with his brothers’ friends. Momentarily, George is entranced by the way the boys face beamed as he laughed, George’s stomach knotted as a warm smile grew on his captivated expression, luckily everyone was too busy coming up with jokes at Ron’s expense to notice that George had hardly taken a breath in several seconds. Although, the first person to look his way was the unfamiliar boy, who’s casual glance at George snapped him from his daze, and he quickly diverted his eyes to calm his heating cheeks from revealing his sudden odd need to stare at this [your house] boy.

They sat huddled around Ron for a few moments before he finished his notes and handed Y/N his book, thanking him as he left.

3] Gryffindor dorm and torment

Later that night George lay in bed unable to pull his thoughts away from the encounter with Y/N in the Great Hall. Flashes of his smile accompanied the echoes of his words in his mind. He hadn’t said anything particularly interesting that encouraged such contemplation, but the way he said them, the almost mumbled drone of his voice soothed George, calming his racing chest when he visualised the point on Y/N’s teeth when he laughed. He thought of how cute his smile was, before blushing that he thought to describe him as cute. He remembered the way Y/N’s hair fell, gripping his own red locks, wishing his hair didn’t fall into his eyes all the time, or that it looked as soft as his did. George spent several moments wondering how it would feel to run his hands through Y/N’s hair, before he realised, he was thinking about running his hands affectionately through another boys hair, and promptly removed all his thoughts with a heavy sigh.

What would it be like to… he stopped his thoughts before they started and rolled into his pillows, submerging himself under his blanket in an unproductive attempt to get to sleep.

4] Prank gone wrong

I have to talk to him, George thought as he and Fred set up the days prank. They stood one side of the hallway, gesturing to Lee on the other.

While they’re waiting for Flitch, George scans the adjoining courtyard for him or an equally vicious cat scoping the grounds. Instead, George spots a familiar [your house] walking towards them. Taking his opportunity George whispers a call to Fred, gesturing that he was going around the corner, before perching himself in the doorway, meeting Y/N with a mischievous smile. He couldn’t miss this opportunity to say hello to his new obsession, because although he won’t admit it to anyone, he hadn’t thought of much else but this moment, where they’d meet again, since their meeting yesterday. He seems cool, George thought, we could be friends. Although if he’d shared these thoughts with anyone, they might have enlightened him to him wanting to be more than friends, but George had never felt like this for a boy before and was uncharacteristically ignorant.

“Hey! You’re my brother’s friend?” George called to him, knowing exactly who he was.

“Yeah, kind of,” Y/N answered, slowing his pace to talk to the curious Gryffindor.

“You were helping him with class, right?” George proposed, unfortunately he didn’t know that much about him to have many avenues for conversations, without resorting to talking about the weather (but it was Scotland, so there was only so many times you could mention the rain).

“Yeah!” he answered with forced conviction, trying to remember the reason he’d sat briefly with the Gryffindors yesterday, “He’d missed potions.”

“If you’re good, maybe you could tutor me sometime?” George

“Are you that bad that you need help from a third year?” Y/N smirks. Eliciting a chuckle from George.

Although now oblivious to the prank, George hadn’t noticed when Professor Sprout had come around the corner after being caught in the prank. His brother and best friend had already fled, leaving him at the scene of the crime.Professor Sprout covered in the markings of a Weasley prank stood idly before the two boys noticed her there. “Weasley!” she bellowed.

“Professor…” he answered defeated, being all too familiar with the professors saying his name in that tone.

“And Mr [Y/L/N]?” She gasped, eyeing the two boys accusatorily.

“What, no?” they both replied in a harmony. Although, it was too late, Professor Sprout giving them both detention.

5] Detention

To George’s frustration Y/N left heatedly, with them not meeting again until the following evening, where they met to clean the Herbology Greenhouse’s. Y/N didn’t meet him in a particularly better mood, still irritated by the unwarranted detention.

Professor Sprout had left them to clean by themselves, so while alone together George tried to salvage the situation best he could. Although, any attempts at a casual conversation seemed to irritate Y/N further. On the bright side Y/N’s anger had them finish the work quicker than expected. But this meant that George had less time to try and smooth things over with Y/N. Unfortunately, his newest attempt to talk to Y/N ended with a pile of pots strewn across the floor and them both scrambling to pick them up.

“Look!” Y/N barked, “I’m not particularly interested in small talk for the sake of filling the silence, I just want to get this done, so I can leave!”

George’s expression dropped. This wasn’t how he wanted this to go.

6] Enemies to Lovers

“I didn’t mean to get you in trouble,” George bargained, “I just wanted to talk to you” he admitted

“You could have picked a better time to start a conversation with me.” Y/N sighs, he knew it wasn’t George’s fault, he’d just hated getting detention, obviously. But specifically, he took pride in not getting caught in his antics, so getting caught in somebody else’s shoddy work irritated him to a higher degree.

“Yeah, sorry.” George exhaled. It wasn’t the chat he wanted to have, but at least he wasn’t mad at him anymore.

“I’d have thought you’d be better at not getting detention at this point anyway,” Y/N declared, “Doing pranks is your thing isn’t it?” he clarified. “So, I imagined you wouldn’t be this easy to catch.” he says with a cocky grin at George, making his cheeks flush.

“Apparently not,” George answers, “I’ll have to work on it.”

“I can’t help you with Potions, but maybe I could give you tips on being more inconspicuous.” Y/N boasted.

“You? What do you know about not getting caught?” George tittered.

“You’ve never seen me in detention before, have you?” Y/N offered in response, “This one excluded, obviously…” he smiled bashfully.

“I knew there was something about you I liked” George expressed with a slight smile, as he picked up the plant pots.

“You like me?” Y/N jokes,

“I… uh!” George’s eyes grew large as the breath noticeably left his body.

Y/N stared at him for a moment, eyebrows raised at his reaction, “you like me?” he repeated, now with a completely different meaning.

“I mean… I thought… when I saw you yesterday-” George stumbled.

“I didn’t think you liked boys?” Y/N acknowledged.

George’s body stiffened at the admission, “I don’t I-”

“You doknow I’m a boy?” Y/N’s eye’s narrowed waiting for his response.

“Yeah, but you’re like… small and cute,” Y/N’s eyebrows rose at this admission as George hastily continued, “I mean, feminine, kind of, so it makes sense that I would find you attractive?” George stammers in a single breath.

“Or you just want to suck my dick mate, there’s no shame in that,” Y/N answered with the chuckle, his words catching George’s breath in a hitch. “Besides, I’m not small, you’re just a giant.” He says passively, choosing to ignore the feminine comment.

George stood quieter after that. He enjoyed seeing George flustered, it was a welcomed interaction with the boy that always annoyingly had some kind of sarcastic retort.

They sat in each other’s company for a while. The anticipation building in Y/N’s chest as he peeks over at the abnormally quiet red head, the thoughts racing behind his eyes. It usually wasn’t good when a Weasley was quiet for too long.

After a few moments of silence Y/N finished his task and began walking towards the door, “see you la-”

“Wait-” George calls. Before he realised, he’d moved, George was towering over Y/N, trapping him between his arms. “Are you going to leave before giving me a kiss,” George moved one of his hands to cup Y/N’s face, tracing up his body before holding his thumb under the shorter boys chin, lifting it to face him, as he hunched down to lessen the space between them.

Y/N stood breathless in George’s grasp, eliciting a smirk from the older boy, accompanied by a darkening gaze as he waited for a response. George moved his free hand, stroking Y/N’s back, before pushing their bodies closer together. Y/N’s hands grip George’s shirt as he falls into him. They both stare longingly, neither daring to close the space between them, but both drawing into each other.

“Georgie! You done yet?” a muffled shout calls from behind the door, the two boys jump apart before Fred strides in, “Me and Lee are going to-” the two boys heavy breaths distracting them from hearing Fred’s rambling. But stolen glances were the only indicators that they weren’t listening, as they both tried to regain composure.

*The twins leave*

Y/N’s head spinning, he feels the ghosted stain of George’s touch, the imprint of his fingers tracing his neck, his jawline, his thumb along his spine. He reminisces on the echo of his joke earlier, you just want to suck my dick mate, mortified, he sighs the air into his chest, he was definitely projecting earlier, but now the thought of Georges lips on his body, any part of his body, made his head spin.

7] Can I have him for Breakfast?

The next morning Y/N was dreading walking into the Great Hall for breakfast and facing the cause of his sleepless night. Y/N’s mind had been racing from the encounter with George, and with what (in an ideal world where he had an abundance of confidence, and no shame) he would do next time he saw him. He imagined the way he would go up to Weasley and fall into a passionate, clothes ripping, breathless embrace. These were the images that plagued his thoughts, all until the drole of students in the hall brought him out of his daydreams, the smell of toast waking his consciousness like smelling salts.

He cautiously walks to the [your house] table, scanning the room for a crowd of red hair, but he couldn’t see the red head he wanted. After uninterestedly biding his time with a selection of toast and wizard branded cereal, an echo of obnoxious laughter catches his attention to the group of mostly Gryffindor Quidditch players and Lee Jordan sauntering in. Y/N briefly caught the eye of one of their Beaters before quickly diverting his stare. It would seem he wasn’t going to be able to act on his fantasy’s if only a look from George made him blush this severely. He also in that moment questioned the affections of his friends, considering the extent of how he was going red, and that nobody had realised.

George sat at the Gryffindor table, within direct eyeline to Y/N, which didn’t help his distraction. Looking over at George, all Y/N could think was how he wanted to go over there and grab his stupid face into a kiss. This inclination was not reduced by the way George occasionally glanced over with a smirk, checking he was still getting the attention he wanted from Y/N. The two spent all Breakfast sneaking looks at each other from across the hall.

Y/N observed the Gryffindor boy in a way he hadn’t before. His smile as he laughed made Y/N cheeks heat up, and he couldn’t remove his eyes every time George brushed his hair out of his face, wishing those hands were touching him instead. He kept a fixated stare on the Gryffindor, daring him to take another look, to tease him with another smirk. Y/N’s gaze fell to his neck. His mind wandered through the ways he wanted to kiss it, taste it, to bite it, when George looked up suddenly. He meet Y/N’s stare before getting up and nodding his head ordering Y/N to follow him. George strode out by himself, not looking back, leaving Y/N’s heart racing as his mind raced trying to think of an inconspicuous reason to leave Breakfast early.

“Pee!” Is all he mustered before racing out of his chair to the door. In reflection, that was a great excuse for why he was in such a hurry to leave.

Y/N barely made a turn out of the door, before he bumped into Weasley, and by that, I mean literally, as the air slightly leaves him after his body falls into the towering red head. He looks up at the giggling Gryffindor, “Morning…” George smiles between hushed laughter.

“Hey.” Y/N answers, slightly off balance.

“Come with me?” George asks, Y/N nodding with a distant expression, still dazed from his daydreams of kissing Weasley’s neck that was now within his vantage point. But Y/N followed George as he walked seemingly aimlessly through the castle hallways.

8] Meet me in the corridor

The hallways were quiet as everyone was either sleeping in or having breakfast. Y/N and George walked through the empty corridors side by side, slightly diverting their eyes whenever their eyes met, but both desperately trying to catch a peak at the other. They both resisted the urge to touch the other, to lace their fingers together, or to entirely embrace.

The two boys turn a corner after walking through an empty courtyard, George finally takes the opportunity to grab Y/N, pressing him into one of the arched indents of the wall (which were prominent in the Hogwarts architecture). George hunches over to meet Y/N’s face, a slither of air caught between them, as they both place their hands around the other, embraced with a now familiar tension, they dared each other to close the space between them. Eyes locked in a stare, other than lustful glances at the other boy’s lips. Neither knew who moved first, but with a sudden motion their lips finally met, with them gripping each other’s jumpers, gasping for air in between forceful kisses. Y/N grasped George’s hair, pulling him closer, causing a whimpered moan to vibrate from George’s lips.

The clank of a door snapped them both into reality. Separating from the embrace, breathlessly laughing to each other in respite. Stealing a short kiss before continuing their stroll around the castle, one of many more stolen secret kisses in the corridors of Hogwarts.

9] Study buddy

[the smut starts here whores]

The two boys have been dating in secret, finding excuses to sneak off together, luckily George was familiar with the secret passageways in Hogwarts, and made sure to personally introduce Y/N to all of them.

After classes, George meet’s Y/N in the library under the guise of studying. It was safe to say George had been spending twice the more time studying than usual, so he had to confide his true motives to Fred, who was eagerly supportive.

Y/N sat in a fairly dark corner of the library, he’d taken off his jumper and tie shortly after sitting down and had a selection of books spread across an Oak table, passively taking notes in his beaten-up notebook.

George strolls through the library stacks, spotting his boyfriend down the end of the third row of the Herbology section. He studied him before approaching, admiring the way he scrunched his nose when reading. George ruffled Y/N’s hair to gain his attention, before draping his arms around him and slithered himself behind Y/N on his chair, enveloping him in an embrace.

George held Y/N in his grasp, arms wrapped around his centre, he nestled his face into Y/N’s neck, his hands along his torso restlessly playing with the buttons on his shirt.

“You missed me?” Y/N snickered, getting a muffled moan in agreement from George.

They sat peacefully for a while, Y/N reading and sporadically taking notes, as George held onto him. Peacefully until the long stokes of George’s fingers began to fall lower down his torso. One arm now wrapped around Y/N’s waist, holding him in place, George’s other hand gripped and stoked Y/N’s thigh.

As his breath began deepening, he scanned the room for anyone who could see them, luckily it was quiet where they were. “George…” is all Y/N could muster as his brain began to fog. George’s response was a strong kiss on his neck, then a smirk at the whimpered reaction it elicited from his boyfriend. Y/N melted into George’s hold. As the red head traced kisses along his neck, he also traced his fingers along the waistline of his boyfriend’s trousers, effortlessly unbuttoning and zipping his pant, opening it in a singular motion.

“George!” Y/N gasped.

George moaning a mumbled “yes?” in between increasingly tougher motions on his neck.

“We can’t here!” Y/N whimpered, “someone will-” he was cut off by a gasp, as George reached under his zip to pets his fingers over the growing bulge of his underwear. Y/N gulped down a moan as George motioned his long fingers around his growing distraction. “You’re not very good study partner,” Y/N asserts breathily.

“You were looking stressed…” George chuckles, as he begins stroking him. “…And I’m here as emotional support.” he smirked before returning to his neck. Y/N’s muffled moans sparked George’s own hardness. Through panted breath Y/N shifted, feeling George harden against him, he reached behind him to run his hand along him in a returned motion. George bit into Y/N’s neck as he gripped him, supressing a groan. The two boys battled to keep quiet, as the other relentlessly strove to elicit a whimper or a breathy swear from each other.

“George…” Y/N whimpered as quietly as he could manage. “I’m going to cuh-um” he said between hitched breaths. To Y/N’s distress, George completely stopped his motion and removed his hand from his trousers. “Georgie?” Y/N questioned with almost a betrayed expression.

George pulled away from the seat they shared, getting up, before falling to his knees and hunching himself under the table.

“Georgie?” Y/N exasperated, once again conscious that they were in the library. “What are you-?” he said scanning for onlookers.

George positioned himself between Y/N’s legs, fully releasing him from his underwear, exposing him before beginning to work his tongue along the shaft.

“Cum for me.” George orders, taking Y/N fully into his mouth.

Y/N muffled his moans and George’s eyes fluttered every time he choked on the length. It didn’t take long before that feeling in Y/N’s stomach returned, and he began whimpering George’s name. With a final groan Y/N released into George’s mouth, gasping for air as George gulped, his lips not leaving his shaft until he’d swallowed every last drop. Breathing heavily when he released, George gave him a final lick, before emerging from under the table, lifting to kiss his dazed boyfriend through a smug smile.

Fin

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clumsyclifford · 4 years ago

Note

I came across a list of "ridiculous sentence starters" that I decided were actually too ridiculous to use as prompts but there was one that had malum potential: "so I may have accidentally adopted 5 kittens"

absolutely inspired as usual, meghna

read it here on ao3

Michael’s text says NO BIG DEAL BUT CALL ME WHEN YOU CAN!!! X and the kiss is capitalized, so Calum decides it’s at least a little bit of a big deal and calls.

The first call goes to voicemail. Calum likes leaving annoying voicemails for Michael, so when the beep sounds, he says, “Mike, you absolute fucker, why should I call you if you’re just going to send me to voicemail? Do you love me or not? Am I going to have to break up with you? Is this the end? ‘Cause it feels like the end to me, Mike. Also, I’ll be home in about five—”

“Hello?”

“Hey,” Calum says, rolling his eyes and smiling. “You interrupted my cute voicemail I was leaving you.”

“Oh, cool,” Michael says, obviously having heard nothing of what Calum just said. “So, listen, you’re on your way home, right?”

“Yeah, I was saying I’m like five minutes away.”

“Brilliant,” Michael says. “Great. Um, well, before you get here there’s, uh, something that…has happened in the house. There’s a new addition that was not there before. That you should probably know about.”

“Did you buy another monitor? You don’t need more than two, Michael, honestly.”

“No, nope, not a monitor.” Michael mutters something that sounds like I wish and then he’s back on the line. “Look, don’t freak out, okay? There’s a perfectly decent explanation. I swear.”

It’s not that Calum doesn’t trust Michael, he does, but whenever the words “don’t freak out” come into play, there’s a small part of Calum that immediately begins freaking out.

“Okay?” he says hesitantly, slowing to a stop at a red light. “Well, you better tell me quick, because I’m about to turn into the neighborhood, so…”

“So,” Michael says, picking up the thread. He clears his throat. “So I may have accidentally adopted five kittens.”

At which point Calum really has to wonder how this became his life.

He blinks as the light turns green and makes the left into their neighborhood. “I’m really not sure which part of that sentence to start with. Accidentally?”

“Yes,” Michael says. A beat. “As in, I didn’t mean to but I did.”

“Yes, I’m familiar with the definition of an accident,” Calum says dryly. “I’d love to know how you accidentally adopted five kittens.”

“Well, you know how I’m kind of really bad at saying no?”

“For fuck’s sake,” Calum says, turning right. “Okay. I’m gonna hang up, process this, and when I get home in two minutes you can explain it to me.”

“Sorry,” Michael says, which somehow does not feel like the right thing for him to be saying. It’s followed by, “Love you,” which is a lot better, and after Calum echoes the sentiment, the call ends.

A minute later, Calum parks the car in the driveway, grabs the groceries from the backseat, and locks the car. He bustles through the front door, calling out for Michael as he does.

“Hi,” Michael says, smiling nervously at Calum like he thinks Calum’s really going to be cross about the kittens thing.

Calum rolls his eyes. “I don’t care about the kittens, babe, I’d just really like an explanation.”

Michael sighs in relief. “Okay. Well. That’s good.”

“Also, can I, like…meet them?” Calum glances around; the living room looks roughly the same. “Where are they?”

Michael nods. “They’re in the guest room for now. I don’t know, it felt like the right place for them?”

Calum sets the bag of groceries down, even though he really needs to get dinner started — hence the trip to the store — and follows Michael to the guest room, which is suspiciously silent.

“I think they’re asleep,” Michael tells him in a low voice, “so don’t be noisy.”

Inside, the kittens are all curled up in the corner of a big cage which Calum knows for a fact is a new purchase, considering they’ve never had any reason to own a cage. Two are white, one is grey, one is black, and one is black and white, and they’re all napping with various limbs tucked into or on top of or underneath each other. Calum has always considered himself a dog person, but at this sight his entire heart melts into liquid gold.

“Oh,” he whispers, slowly kneeling to get a better look. “Oh my God, they’re so cute. They’re so cute.”

“I know,” Michael whispers back. At the sound of speaking, one of the white kittens opens its eyes, casting a sleepy glance at Calum. It doesn’t seem terribly bothered to see him, because after a moment of Calum holding his breath it closes its eyes again and huffs quietly.

Calum is going to die. They’ll put cuteness overload on his cause of death and he’ll be mocked for years to come.

“We shouldn’t wake them,” Michael whispers, and Calum agrees. They back quietly away from the cage and exit the guest room. Michael shuts the door softly behind him.

“So we have five kittens in our custody,” Calum says. “Very adorable kittens, but kittens nonetheless.”

“Yes,” Michael says.

Calum raises his eyebrows. “Care to explain how?”

“Yes,” Michael says again. He bites his lip. “No. Well. Long story short, I am very bad at saying no to things, and the woman at the pet shop was extremely convincing. And also said that I seem like I would be a great cat owner, which I would, Calum!”

“You will be,” Calum says. “You had better be, because you now own five cats.”

Michael grins. “I know! I know that’s fucking insane, but whatever! We’re adults. We can just have cats.”

“I don’t know anything about taking care of cats,” Calum warns him as he makes his way back to the kitchen. “I’ve only ever had dogs.”

“That’s okay, I’ve done lots of reading,” Michael says confidently. “Plus, we get to name them and I know you love to name things so I figured you could help.”

Calum shakes his head bemusedly. “Did you come up with all kinds of ways to sweet-talk me into letting you keep the cats? Why didn’t you think I’d just be okay with it?”

“Because I did it without consulting you first? Because we live together and I’ve just introduced five new living creatures to our environment?”

Calum sighs and pauses in the midst of putting away groceries. He turns to Michael. “Mikey, you’ve wanted a cat for, and this is a rough estimate here, about a hundred million years. This isn’t, like…how I expected it to go, but I’m not mad or anything.” After a moment, he adds, “I mean, you’re not wrong. It would have been better to talk about it first. And also to probably not end up with five rather than one. But.” He shrugs. “Whatever. They’re cats. They’re easy to love and easy to care for.”

Michael beams. The kitchen lights up with his smile. “This went so much better than I anticipated,” he says, grinning ear-to-ear. He throws his arms around Calum and presses a kiss to his cheek. “You’re gonna be a great cat dad. I know you say you’re a dog person but that’s just because you’ve never had a cat before.”

“I was never a dog person at the exclusion of cats,” Calum says in his defense. “What are we gonna name them? Do you have any ideas? How many girls and boys are there? Also could you cut these carrots?”

Michael obligingly does as he’s told. “They’re all boys. And.” He chews his lip. “I wanted to see if you had any ideas first.”

The face Michael’s making indicates that he very much has an idea, and Calum has only known about the kittens for like ten minutes, if that — hardly long enough to come up with any solid name ideas. He gestures. “Nah, I want to hear yours.”

“You sure?”

“It’s just an idea, it’s not set in stone. I want to know.”

“Okay, well, I thought we could name them after the One Direction boys.” Michael grins. “You know. ‘Cause there’s five of them, and…”

Calum laughs harder than he expects to. “Oh my fucking God we are absolutely doing that, yes. That’s incredible. That alone makes it all worth it. Who’s who? Liam and Louis are the white ones, right?”

“That’s what I was thinking!” Michael says, also laughing. “Then I thought the black one would be Harry, the grey one would be Niall — because he was always on the fence, remember, like a grey area? And then Zayn would be black and white.”

“I love it,” Calum says, snickering as he puts the last of the groceries in the fridge. “I fucking love it. It’s fantastic. And so fitting.”

“Thank you,” Michael says. “I was pretty proud of the idea.”

“Well,” Calum declares, grabbing the knife dangerously out of Michael’s grasp and pressing himself against Michael’s side to stand at the cutting board, “we are officially cat fathers, Mike. How does it feel?”

“Feels good, honestly,” Michael says. “I’m really glad you’re not cross.”

Calum gives Michael a smile. He can’t imagine being cross about something like this, not when it’s obviously making Michael the happiest man alive. The joy is radiating off him in waves. Far be it from Calum to stifle that.

“You get the eternal privilege of dealing with the litter box once we get one, though,” he informs Michael, who just nods solemnly, like this was a responsibility he’d expected to take on. Calum grins and kisses his cheek. “You’re going to make a fantastic cat dad, you know.”

“Oh, I know,” Michael says. “I’ll be the cool dad, and then you can be the dad who seems like he’s really strict but actually gives them treats when I’m not around.”

Calum just shakes his head, smiling fondly. He lets Michael chatter on about plans for where they’ll sleep and what kinds of toys to get them and which ones he suspects will be the most playful, and every second falls more in love with the idea of a lifetime of pets and shenanigans with Michael.

#michael clifford #calum hood #malum #malum fic #5sos #5sos fic #fic #my fic #no offense but UGHGHGNFHGJ that fucking trope of urghurughu boyfriend did One Thing without asking and now he's Afraid Of My Reaction #is SO STUPID #and i am done with it #sometimes relationships are actually built on trust you know!! and not everything is going to go according to plan and that cannot be a dea #anyway. not to get political in the tags of a malum fic #'political' she says #writing this was kind of a relief in a way #i just sunk right back into the mindset of bella from june #who was churning out prompt fics left and right #and did not care about the Universe any of them were set in #that bitch would write just to write #and i think that's really what i did with this #it is 1.6k yes but if it wasn't that length i wouldnt be me. so.#anyway this is going in the queue so i suspect it's gonna post the day after the rilex #and like i said in the tags of that one: the link will probably take you to an ao3 draft #unless i'm around when this posts. in which case i will Post The Draft asap #just in general nobody worry about anything okay? cool #q #reveriesofawriter #ask #answered

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breathinginthevapor · 5 years ago

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Falling

Summary: You miss Tom after your breakup. Based on falling by Harry Styles

A/N: Falling is my favourite on Harry’s amazing album, and I just had to write something based upon it!

Word count: 1400+

T/W: mentions of alcohol, hinting at cheating

Masterlist

The silky lining is cool against your skin, serving as yet another reminder of the missing presence beside you. You have gotten so used to the warmth of his body that no matter how many covers you lay under, there’s always a kiss of icy cold when he’s not there.

You bury your head in your pillow, but its rosy colour resembles the one on his cheeks when he blushes, and the images of his face wrapped up in despair becomes clearer when you close your eyes.

So, you sit up and lean against the bedframe, gazing out of the window to the dark streets of London where drunk girls who look all too young to be out at this time of the night stumbles home, the lucky ones clinging to each other while the less fortunate hugs their jackets closer to their bodies and tries not to fall because they know that nobody is there to catch them.

Hugging your knees to your chest, you look at one girl, illuminated by a flickering streetlight. Her shoulders shake, and it looks like she’s crying as she walks only a few steps behind a couple other girls laughing loudly. You wonder why they don’t turn around and ask her to join the conversation, or at least ask if she’s alright, if she needs anything.

But then again, you, of all people, would know why; It’s way too easy to get wrapped up in the thrill and excitement of the moment and forget about everything and everyone else.

The lonely girl takes a left turn and disappears out of your field of vision along with the chatty group that enters an apartment complex, and soon, the street is empty. Unusual for a Friday night in London, but you shouldn’t be surprised that even strangers avoid being near you.

And you don’t blame them, don’t blame your friends that have grown tired of you or Tom who has left you because of those terrible things you’ve done, this awful person you’ve become.

Truth be told, you are beginning to question whether you’d want yourself around.

You’ve always thought you were a good person. Not the rainbow-out-your-ass type of good, but a supportive friend, a caring daughter, a gentle lover.

But good persons don’t do what you’ve done.

Today was the second time you’ve seen him after the break-up. The first time, just a couple weeks after your split, he was standing outside your flat with a big cardboard box.

“Don’t want your stuff lying around anymore,” he said, coldly, his face in an emotionless expression, like cut in stone. He held the box out for you and waited for you to grab it, but you didn’t, you couldn’t, you just stared at him and soaked up every small thing about him, from the acne scars on his chin to the tilt of his eyebrow to the dark brown colour of his eyes.

He dropped the box to the floor and turned around, taking a few steps down the stairs.

“Stay, please, I- I haven’t slept since you left, I don’t know what to do without you, I’m so sorry, Tom, please, I-“ you begged him.

He paused, shoulders raised, before he ran down the remaining stairs, the door slamming behind him.

The box he handed you that day seems to be mocking you from its place beside your cabinet. It’s been months, and still, you can’t unpack it. You don’t want to know which things he has put in there, like whether or not he has kept the picture you painted together on your second anniversary or the Spiderman T-shirt you gave him for his last birthday.

Thankfully, he had been kinder today. Softer around the edges, forgiveness braided into his tone. He was doing good, he told you while you were standing in the line. Was working on a new film he was really excited about, something about royalty and a heist, and he had had this charming grin on his face and his eyes had lit up, hands gesturing wildly to mimic explosions.

And you think that it made it worse, that you would have preferred him to be mad, to still not have gotten over the what you had done because at least it would mean that he hadn’t gotten wholly over you either.

And you suppose that makes you selfish, and that you should want him to be happy, and you do, but you wish he could be happy with you again.

It hadn’t been your usual barista today, and maybe that was good because the small café close to his parents’ house already held too many memories.

You had sat at your usual table, and out of habit, he had ordered the usual for both of you. You were surprised he remembered, honestly, but when the barista came to your table with only one cinnamon bun, it had gotten quite awkward.

“Do you remember that first time?” you had asked him before thinking it through. “I thought it was so romantic that we shared.”

He had chuckled and broken the cake in half, just like he always did, giving you the bigger half.

“How could I forget. That was our thing.”

And he had nudged you gently with his shoulder and pushed his glasses up his nose, and you had hated yourself for hurting him.

Perhaps he had felt that, because he looked at you worriedly and asked you how you were doing.

“Do you care?” you had asked him.

“Of course I care, Y/N.”

And he had taken your hand, and you had tried to blink away tears, but to no use. Drying them off with the back of your hand, you had told him that you missed him.

“I miss you, too. Terribly so. But this is for the best.”

“Not for me,” you had sobbed.

You had immediately regretted saying it, but of course, there was no way to take it back. Still, you cursed yourself far away for continuing to be so damn selfish.

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too,” he had said, gently, and his gaze had pierced your eyes in what felt like a silent declaration of love.

And you had known right there that the two of you had run out of things to say. That everything beyond this point wouldn’t change a single thing or offer any of you more consolation.

Still, you had small-talked a bit, and he had told you a funny story about Sam, and you had laughed in that whole-hearted, head-tilted-back kind of way that you only did with him. And he had asked you about your job, and you had complained to him about your stupid boss, and the whole time you just sat there and thought that this was ok. That having him here beside you, not as a lover but maybe as a friend, was better than nothing, because gosh, you might not want yourself around anymore, but if it was up to you, he’d always be a constant figure in your life.

“What are you thinking about?” he had asked you.

“I think you’re the best person I know,” you had said, honestly, and watched conflicting emotions playing on his features.

“Thank you,” he had said, and it had sounded like he meant it. But then, he had smiled apologetically, “I have to go, sorry.”

He had stood up and shrugged on his jacket, blue denim sitting tight on his broad shoulders and a black beanie hiding his unruly curls. Giving you a quick hug, he had left a few bills to pay for the coffee and then turned around.

He had taken a few steps before turning back, crooked smile and sad eyes making it out for contrast on his face.

“Don’t be a stranger, ok?”

“Ok,” you had promised with a brittle voice.

But you wondered if you already were.

And now, lying in a bed meant for two under covers you never would have bought for yourself, it feels like falling, like a wake-up call. It’s time to be responsible, you figure, time to turn your life around and ensure that you can be someone you’d like. And the first step is unpacking that box from Tom.

You eye the cardboard as if it’s a dangerous animal, trying to figure out if it will go after you before you decide that unpacking is a task for another day.

You have to hit the ground first.

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staystreetly · 6 years ago

Text

Chris Evans Imagine #3

warnings: angsty at first, fluffy at the end

authors note: my longest oneshot so far! i hope you like it, we are almost at 300 followers, so exciting!! thank you so much for all the love you gave to the second imagine, it made me so happy!

*Based on the song Don’t You Wanna Stay by Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson

“I should probably get going,” you whispered sitting up in the bed, sheets covering your naked body.

Don’t go, Chris wanted to say, but he didn’t. He couldn’t. He never could ask you to stay and you couldn’t ever ask him to stay either. That wasn’t part of the deal. At least not at first.

Whenever the time came for you to leave, you always told him you were about to head home and you would always hesitate before getting out of bed for a few minutes, hoping he would ask you to stay.

But he never did. So, you got up from the bed and got dressed. Both of you hating this moment, the moment when the other had to leave, but you would never tell the other because you didn’t want to ruin what you had.

You and Chris were friends, who met through mutual friends and working on movies and songs together. One night you both were hanging out and one thing and a few drinks lead to another and you two hooked up. Somehow from that one night, you two both decided on being in sort of a friends with benefits relationship.

Both of you were single and weren’t really looking for a serious relationship, so it worked out. You both got the companionship both of you desired without having to deal with everything that came from a relationship. You two just had one rule, the other person couldn’t stay the night whenever you two slept together.

However, as time went on, you found yourself falling for him. You knew you shouldn’t because he didn’t feel the same way about you. Except he did, he had fallen hard for you, but due to the circumstances of your little arrangement, he had yet to find the courage to tell you how he really felt about you.

Chris watched you as you got dressed. Part of you hoped he didn’t notice how you slowly put on your clothes one item at a time waiting for something that would never happen. But the other part of you wished that he did and he would ask you to stay.

He bit his lip as he forced himself not to open his mouth to say anything because he couldn’t trust what might come out of it.

Once your boots were on, you got up from the bed and grabbed your bag.

“So, uh… I guess I’ll talk to you later?” You asked.

“Yeah, we’ll talk later,” he nodded.

“Well, uh… bye then,” you said waving a bit.

His lips turned into a small smile as he waved back to you. You walked out of his room and his house before getting into your car. You looked at yourself in the rearview mirror of your car. Your hair was a mess and your lipstick stained the skin around your lips. Tears welled up in your eyes as you realized you couldn’t keep doing this. You couldn’t keep putting yourself through this anymore.

As soon as you left, Chris found himself getting up from his bed and went straight to the door. His hand was on the doorknob, but he didn’t turn it. He pressed his forehead against the cool surface of his front door. His heart told him to open the door and stop you. Tell you how he felt and bring you back inside and show you just how he feels about you, but his head, his head was telling him to just let you go.

That night, his head won.

“I don’t want to just make love, I wanna make love last,” you softly sang to yourself, thinking about making a new song out of this. “When you’re up this high, it’s a sad goodbye.”

You sighed reaching over to grab your drink and downing the remains of it. It had been two days since you last saw Chris and it was driving you insane, but it was your own fault. You hadn’t returned his calls or texts because you couldn’t face him right now. Your heart was still calling for him. Still aching for him, but didn’t have the courage to tell him how you felt.

So, you were avoiding him. You just needed some time to yourself, a few days to get your head and heart on the same page, and then you could go back to the little arrangement you two had like nothing ever happened. Except, would that really be enough for you.

There would be one day when he’d find someone to not only share his bed with but also his heart… and he’d end what you two had with one another. Would you honestly be able to handle seeing him with someone else… being with someone else? You could tell yourself you’d be fine all you wanted, but deep down you knew you’d be broken inside.

Broken because you both had made a promise to each other that what you two had was just for fun. You both were single and it was just casual. You were friends first and foremost, who on multiple occasions ended up naked in each other’s beds. That was it.

That was what you always told yourself. But it didn’t matter because you were without a doubt in love with him.

Chris gripped his phone as the other line went straight to your voicemail.

“Fuck!” He shouted throwing his phone onto the couch in his living room.

Chris was beyond frustrated with you. You hadn’t answered any of his phone calls or his text messages in the last few days. That was like you. You always answered, okay, but not everytime the first time, but you could always call back or respond to him within a few hours… but now he had yet to get anything.

What if… what if you were with someone else? What if he lost you because he was too fucking stubborn and scared to tell you how he really felt about you. He had brought dinner, your favorite, in hopes you’d stop by, but it remained on the table where it was now cold after sitting there, untouched for over two hours.

He swallowed the lump in his throat as he stared at the food containers. It was almost like they were mocking him, rubbing it in his face that you stood him up. That you were avoiding him. He couldn’t take anymore, so he grabbed the trash bin and shoved all of the food inside of it.

Except he didn’t stop there, everything in his house reminded him of you. Your perfume still lingered in the air. It didn’t matter how many candles he had lit, he still smelled you. God, he wanted you more than anything, but he fucked up.

He should have gone after you that night. He should have told you to get out of your car and come back inside. He should have made you breakfast the next morning and told you he was in love with you.

But he didn’t.

And it was too late.

Your phone rang once again. You stared at the name lighting up across the screen. It had been a week now. You had ghosted him for almost over a week, and he was still trying to contact you. You felt bad not talking to him, but it better for you if you didn’t. If you were going to get over these feelings for him, you just had to walk away for a bit.

But Chris being Chris, you knew it wouldn’t that easy. Once you did start talking to him again, he would ask you what happened. What was wrong, what he did wrong. And you’d have to lie… and keep lying to him, to yourself. All because you were afraid of a little heartbreak.

Was ignoring one of your best friends, someone you could always turn to, really working out for you? Not really. You hated not seeing him. Not hearing his voice. But you were scared.

You were scared of letting your heart win and finally telling him how you felt. Scared of opening yourself up to all of that again. You had yet to have a healthy, stable relationship and you don’t know if you could go through having another relationship fail, especially with him.

That’s why you agreed to have the arrangement because it meant you two had a relationship, without actually having the relationship. And now you wanted more, but you were too scared to want it enough to tell him how you felt.

And you weren’t strong enough to stay away from him any longer.

Chris was shocked to see your name come across the screen of his iPhone.

Sorry, been working in the studio all week. If you don’t mind, I’ll be there in 10. I’ll even bring a pizza and ice cream.

As long as you get double cheese, I don’t mind.

Chris typed his response and quickly went around cleaning up his room and the living room. There were a few more wine and beer bottles than necessary, so he made sure to get rid of those before you walked in. He knew you well enough that you weren’t just working on the script. You had always made time to talk to him, to see him, to be with him regardless of how late it was or how tired you were.

So, he had a feeling that tonight would be your last night together and he didn’t want to screw it up.

When the doorbell rang, he quickly went over to answer it. He took a deep breath before opening it and see you standing there, with a pizza box in one hand, and few pints of ice cream in a bag in the other.

“One large veggie pizza with extra cheese,” you smiled. “And one pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream and another of chocolate chip cookie dough.”

He laughed, “Hm, good choices, so I guess I can let you in then.”

“You better because one hand is burning and the other is about to freeze itself off,” you laughed.

“Here, let me take one of those,” he said grabbing the pizza and walking inside.

You followed him in and put the ice cream in the freezer for when you two were ready for it. Harry grabbed two plates and glasses from the cabinet and put you both two slices a piece of the plate before handing it to you.

“Thanks,” you said.

“Do you want water, wine, or soda?” He asked.

“Water’s fine,” you said.

He nodded pouring you both some water and walking over to the couch, where you both ate your pizza in silence.

Chris took a sip of his water and looked over at you. “You said you’ve been working in the studio? Have you been writing on a new song?”

“Oh, uh, yeah, it’s particularly almost finished,” you said.

“Do you mind if I hear what you have so far?” He asked.

“Uh, sure, but um when I say it’s unfinished I mean, it’s unfinished,” you said. “I only really have like one verse and a bit of the chorus and maybe a little bit of a bridge.”

“I don’t mind… maybe I could help you out a bit,” he added.

You took a deep breath and put your plate of half eaten pizza on the coffee table and grabbed your phone out of your pocket. You picked the notes app and cleared your throat.

“Let’s take it slow, I don’t wanna move to fast. I don’t wanna just make love, I wanna make love last. When you’re up this high, it’s a sad goodbye,” you sang softly.

“Don’t you wanna stay here a little while? Oh, you feel so perfect, baby. Yeah, you feel so perfect,” You paused.

“Um, see it’s really botched up right now,” you laughed. “I don’t know. it’s just uh… missing something that I can’t get out out right now.”

“I might have something… if you want to hear it,” he said.

“Okay,” you nodded. “I’m all ears.”

“I really hate to let this moment go. Touching your skin and your hair falling slow. When a goodbye kiss feels like this…” he sang.

“Don’t you wanna stay here a little while? Don’t you wanna hold each other tight? Don’t you wanna fall asleep with me tonight?” He added.

“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to add to the chorus.”

“No, no it’s great… it’s actually better than what I had,” you said. “What if I…hold on… let me write along.”

You quickly started writing down the lyrics he sang.

“How about this… Don’t you wanna stay here a little while? Don’t you wanna hold each other tight? Don’t you wanna fall asleep with me tonight? Don’t you wanna stay here a little while? We could make forever feel this way… Don’t wanna stay?” You sang.

“What if we arranged your verse first, then add in the chorus next. Then my verse, and continue with the same chorus… but maybe added a “Hey, yeah, oh yeeah,” to it makes it a little different,” you said. “And then has like a bridge, we can use the, oh, you feel so perfect, baby and lead into a softer version of the chorus before building it up.”

“I think that could work,” he nodded. “Except for the bridge part, instead of us singing it together, what if we did like an echo effect. Where I sing and then you follow it up or vice versa.”

“Oh, you feel so perfect, baby,” He sang.

“Yeah, you feel so perfect, baaby,” you sang after him.

He smiled,”Why don’t we try putting it all together.”

“I really hate to let this moment go…” he sang softly looking at you, starting the song.

“Don’t you wanna staaaay,” you sang ending the song once you pieced it all together.

You both finished singing and the air was filled with silence and tension. Chris looked over at you. Your arms were sat upon a couch pillow and you looked back up at him. He leaned in, closing the distance between the two of you, pressing his lips against yours.

Chris took the pillow away from you as he kissed you. You wrapped your arms around his neck and he deepened the kiss. His hands were at your waist before wrapping them around you. He picked you up and carried you to his bedroom. He took your shirt off, while you pulled his shirt up and over his head.

He walked you two back towards his bed, laying you on top of his mattress.

When it was over a few hours later, you both laid on the bed, side by side. Yet again you two were silent and you sighed. It was getting late, which meant it was time for you to leave.

“I should probably get going,” you whispered sitting up and throwing your legs over the edge of the mattress.

The hardwood floor was chilly as your feet touched the ground. You reached down for your clothes when you felt a hand grab your own. You froze. This never happened. Once the deed was done, you two didn’t touch the other. Hell, you hardly spoke afterward other your goodbyes and get home safe.

“You can stay… um.. if you want,” he whispered.

You turned around, looking at him. He was holding your hand and staring up at you.

“Are… are you sure?” You whispered.

Chris sat up and moved closer to where you were sitting. “Y/N… I can’t… we can’t keep doing this,” he whispered. “I hate when you leave… or when I leave your place. I hated not talking to you this past week and I hate… I hate what we have right now. I want more with you. This arrangement… it was never… it was never just about fucking for me and while I definitely enjoy it, I don’t want only that anymore.”

“It was never just about fucking for me either,” you whispered. “And I lied when I said I was busy this week… I was avoiding you because… because I realized I’m in love with you and I was scared to te-”

Chris pressed his lips against yours interrupting you the moment you said you were in love with him. After pulling away, he pressed his forehead against yours.

“I’m in love with you, too,” he whispered.

You smiled putting your hand on his shoulder and pressing your lips to his in a kiss. He laughed holding you close to him.

“Does this mean you’re going to stay?” He whispered.

You smiled nodding. Chris smiled laying back on the bed and pulling you into his arms. He kissed your forehead as he both held each other tight.

“Just so you know, I really enjoy pancakes for breakfast,” you giggled.

“Good to know,” he laughed.

You smiled pressing a kiss to his shoulder before closing your eyes and falling asleep.

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mister-tom-a-dildo-lover · 6 years ago

Text

Strive Pt. 22

{PART 1} {PART 2} {PART 3} {PART 4} {PART 5} {PART 6} {PART 7} {PART 8} {PART 9} {PART 10} {PART 11} {PART 12} {PART 13} {PART 14} {PART 15} {PART 16} {PART 17} {PART 18} {PART 19} {PART 20} {PART 21}

Pair: Tomarry

Rating: M-E(depends)

Tags: Mild Language, Homosexuality, Sexism, Obsessed Tom, Time-Travel/Dimension-Travel, Teacher/Student, Eventual Romance, Teacher-Harry, Grey!Harry, MoD(sort of), Death!being,

"You know, I don't want to try to control the way you do things in your life, but if you go and get a Mastery in Magical Smithing, it'll look very good on any resume you decide to build in the future."

Tom's tea cup paused against his lips as he considered Harry's words. Applying for a Mastery was a free process. And he was very young. People his age didn't often get Masteries. Especially ones centered around dying arts that were rarely mentioned anymore since it usually took extra effort to find information about them and he had the benefit of Salazar's knowledge on his side.

"Technically, you could apply for a Mastery in many subjects. Magical Smithing, Runes, Arithmancy, Legilimency, Occlumency, Defence, Transfiguration, Charms, and Potions. And for a few of those, you were self-taught. Such notes would go over well with most people and even if you end up in another profession, your status as a Master would have you called upon often by others. Few people in our community are Masters in Legilimency or Occlumency for example and you could be called in to help the Unspeakables should they have need of your… abilities."

Suddenly the idea had become very appealing. "Having multiple Masteries would make me come across as more capable, yes?" Trustworthy. Hard-working. Dedicated. If someone was to see that he'd achieved Masteries in many subjects, they'd be impressed and more willing to put their faith in him. They'd most likely take him more seriously then, and consider everything he had to say as something valuable.

If he ever personally got into politics, that could greatly help with his ideas in moving forward. And it would draw his acquaintances even closer to him because it was in a Slytherin's nature to want to be near greatness.

"You're already Apprenticed to a Defence Master who will be going for a Runes Mastery soon. With a proper attitude, good support base, and necessary skills, you could probably obtain all those Masteries before you're thirty," Harry told him confidently.

It would be around twelve years until then, but at the same time that was such a short span of time for wizards. Nine Masteries in twelve years sounded impossible to the ear, but Tom did like challenges and he always came out on top eventually.

And he liked the benefits. If Tom was one of the very few Masters of a certain Art in Britain alone, he would be asked for assistance. Could probably charge outlandish prices simply because someone's desperation didn't let them think clearly. He very much liked the idea of it.

Also proving himself better than others by holding multiple Masteries at once sounded appealing. Tom was a narcissist first and foremost.

~.O.~

"We're going to explore my memories of the duels," said Harry as he held up a kit full of several vials of different colours, all bearing a different label on them. "Unaltered as promised. Choose which you wish to start with."

Tom squinted at the man's atrocious writing and plucked Duel 5 from the case.

According to Potter, they were borrowing the Headmaster's Pensieve for this lesson. He'd never seen one in person before, and committed the ornate markings in the bowl to memory. They looked like Runes, but unfamiliar ones, so mostly likely those from another culture.

"Pour the memory into the basin and dip your head inside."

The memory was silver as it poured out, but turned black the moment it hit the liquid within the Pensieve. Tom took a deep breath and followed Harry's order.

The Dueling Championship had been held in a massive outdoor stadium as large as Hogwarts' Quidditch Pitch. And the space where the duels took place was just like his and Harry's Room of Requirement training had been. Every element available to make things interesting.

The stands were filled with people holding up flags from different countries and cheering on their favourite competitors.

Said competitors were standing on the sidelines looking agitated as they had to wait for their turns.

A horn blew and a portly witch in bright yellow and black striped robes took center-field, her wand activating the Sonorous Charm. "We are ready to begin the Fifth Round! The first competitors up are Harry Potter of Great Britain and John Crawford of the United States!"

The cheers erupted from the stands.

Tom backed up until he was certain he was out of the way of the entire duel as the announcer shot off red sparks with her wand.

The four duels Harry had been through before this one were enough to make his opponent skeptical of him. He didn't rush in with his wand waving and spells flying. Instead, the blond man across the field stood perfectly still and waited, his blue eyes trained only on Harry in a manner that Tom did not appreciate.

Harry mimicked his opponent, stance casual and face passive. The two let the minutes pass them by, the silence rendering the crowd into a mass of confusion.

Eventually, it seemed that Crawford had lost whatever patience he'd been trying to show off, and whipped his wand out in an upward arc. A streak of flames followed the movement like a whip, and when the wand lashed out again, the whip snapped toward Harry's position.

Of course Harry quickly proved why the majority of Slytherin was looking to him to defeat Grindelwald. Instead of pulling up a barrier of any sort to protect himself, Harry quite literally took two steps to his right, allowing the fire whip to pass his left shoulder without a backwards glance. He didn't even blink.

The whip retracted and then lashed out once again, and once again, Harry manoeuvered himself around it, avoiding what would no doubt be a painful feeling if he had been unfortunate enough to get wrapped up in it.

There wasn't even a magical application to this, it was simply Harry being observant enough to predict where the whip would go specifically and simply moving to a position away from the targeted area.

Crawford didn't seem to appreciate Harry's treatment of his skills. Perhaps to a fool it looked as if Harry was mocking him, but if Harry was honestly good enough to avoid damage without having to use magic, then why tire himself out of he didn't have to? It would be pointless otherwise.

Common sense should be a thing utilised by everyone in Tom's opinion. It could honestly save one's life one day.

"Fight back, damn you!" Crawford eventually yelled.

Harry cocked an arched, perfectly plucked brow, and flicked his Holly wand once. Nothing seemed to happen and Crawford cackled. "Not so talented, are you? That's why you keep running away!"

And then Crawford's entire body jerked out of nowhere, and his hands rushed to his face to rub at his nose. He seemed to forget that he was holding a literal whip of fire and with his wand suddenly in his face again, the whip snapped back the way it came and Crawford got a face full of burns as punishment for his boasting.

The stadium erupted in applause and cheering, the astounded faces hanging out so openly. It was because Harry wasn't very intimidating in figure and didn't look like someone capable of much beyond looking pretty. But he'd proved their assumptions wrong so effortlessly!

Harry had won using only a tickling charm. Honestly, Tom shouldn't be surprised by his strange approach to magic.

~.O.~

"What did you observe?" Harry asked pensively the moment he was freed from the memory.

Tom shook himself in order to center his thoughts and stop the mild vertigo he was feeling. "He was very cocksure, but mostly in an attempt to hide that he was actually unnerved by you. You got that far so you had to be a threat in some way and when you didn't use magic to fight back and just kept avoiding his attacks, he became even more frustrated and attempted to goad you into fighting."

It was a pathetic attempt. Crawford was not so good with words as to manipulate anyone into anything. He would be a poor public speaker.

"He also knew how to use a whip," Tom added. "Very well. The flickings of his wrist spoke of experience." Tom was very well aware of how a whip was used. It took a lot of time to acclimate oneself to the proper motions if one wanted the best results.

"Correct. Anything else?"

He had to think for a moment. "He was impatient but also lacked common sense. He should have tried something else when you dodged the whip for the third time. Simply relying on the same technique for several minutes was foolish of him, and it rendered his arm tired after a certain amount of time elapsed. His form became sloppy and slow and even more predictable than before."

"Exactly. In essence, nothing particularly impressive. What would you have done differently?"

Against Harry? Tom already knew Harry. He'd been dueling Harry for weeks. Compared to Crawford, Tom already had a bit over him in terms of 'knowing his enemy'. He could formulate better ideas easily, though whether they'd actually work against Harry was an entirely different thing altogether.

Still…

"I would have learned a better version of the spell. A single whip is relatively easy to dodge because it is thin and can only go in one direction, but a cat o' nine tails is not. You aren't fast enough to dodge nine individual strips of flame no matter how talented you are."

Harry nodded, seemingly envisioning the very scenario and twirling his wand experimentally. "And if that failed?"

"Probably something involving animals. I've very good at controlling animals and most people are very hesitant to harm an animal, especially if they think it looks cute." He could capitalise off their hesitancy and then take them down.

"Interesting."

~.O.~

Dinner with the Malfoy family. It hadn't been since Yule that Tom had visited the Malfoys and he honestly found himself bored of them. Though it was incredibly useful that they felt indebted to him(and that was only because of Harry) he just didn't find them as interesting as he had before.

It was so strange how his way of thinking had changed so much.

During dinner, Tom had been asked a simple question. "How have things been for you, Tom?"

And he had to think about it for a moment.

"Considerably well if I ignore Dumbledore stalking my every movement," he'd answered. "I am Apprenticed to Harry Potter now."

Abraxas beamed, looking as if he had a million questions that he was only barely keeping himself from asking. His father however, merely looked politely interested.

"Our son told us you seemed less enthused the last time you met up for lunch," Lord Malfoy said calmly, not even looking up from his plate. "Are you well?"

An interesting place to insert this information. "I am am merely conflicted after I learned some sensitive information about the Slytherin family."

All three Malfoy's stiffened and turned to look at him with full interest.

"Oh?" Lady Malfoy asked.

"Indeed. Professor Potter is actually also related to the Gaunts and he is also a Parselmouth. As such he has managed to acquire many tomes about both the Slytherins and the Gaunts and has allowed me to study them. They are in Parselscript however, so it took time. I have learned that the enmity between Salazar and Godric had nothing to do with Mundanes, and everything to do with Godric's wife's younger sister starting a fight with Salazar's son over his pet snake."

"Mundanes?" Abraxas repeated with obvious confusion.

"Their older term for Muggles," Tom clarified. "Salazar sent his son away because Godric overreacted and when he found out he was in the wrong, he refused to take anything he'd done and said back, which lead to Salazar leaving as well after a time because he was too frustrated with Godric's childish behaviour."

"Ho-how did the story change then?" asked Abraxas, looking a good mix between horrified and baffled. "How could a fight over a snake escalate into him being pure evil?"

"It seems we've allowed the other Houses to dictate our Founder to us," said Tom plainly. "The whole story about the his monster is a lie. The Basilisk exists but not to cleanse the school of Muggleborns. All the Founders had a 'monster' that served to protect the school. Godric had a dragon that fell in battle, Helga had a Phoenix that still lingers around the property when it wants to be seen, Rowena had a Sphinx that was sold off centuries ago, and Salazar had a Basilisk that fell alongside Godric's dragon. So Salazar bred another to protect the children and left it there for any of his blood to make use of should the school need its greatest defence again."

The looks of shock and minor outrage on their faces was somewhat amusing and also sad at the same time. This went against everything they had ever learned about their House Founder after all.

"Essentially, we've been lead astray by the very people who hate us for the House we're Sorted into." If Tom was going to change something, he'd at least make certain proper blame was placed.

~.O.~

A knock on door of his rooms made Tom frown. No one ever visited him because there was no one around that would need or want to. And it was always him going to see Harry.

When he opened the door, he was greeted by the sight of one Ella Potter smiling up at him with mischief all over her face. "Hello, Tom. Care to come on a walk with this old woman?"

And the first thing out of his mouth was an offended, "You are not old. Dumbledore is old. Ancient even." He added last bit just to be petty.

Ella snorted behind her hand in a very unladylike fashion and nodded. "Such a charmer, Tom. He's only seven years older than me."

Briefly he had to wonder what happened because she looked so young and Dumbledore didn't.

Tom held his hand out and his cloak laid itself over his arm a second later. He didn't know why Elle was there at all but he wouldn't pass up the opportunity to speak with her if she really wanted to talk to him. He actually liked her company.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked as he stepped into the third floor corridor swinging his cloak over his shoulders.

"Not really. I'm merely going to have lunch with Harry and I thought you'd like to join us. You're always so alone down here. It's not healthy, you know."

"I'm not alone. I spend a lot of time with Harry," he defended since it was the literal truth. He spent so much time with Harry and still managed to not be bored of seeing his beautiful face.

She sent him an unimpressed look, left brow angled down to give the look more character. "All this time with him and you still haven't made a move. You need help."

Oh Merlin! He was getting courtship assistance from Harry's aunt. He didn't know if he should be embarrassed that his interest was so obvious to her, or grateful that she was in full support of it and wanted to see it blossom into something more.

Ella linked arms with him and gave his shoulder a fond by pitying pat. "It's really not that difficult. Harry is a bit dense but once things are more clear he will be more than receptive."

The entire afternoon was filled with Ella making certain to drag complements out of the both of them for each other. She also managed to get Tom to blush, which was a feat no other but Harry had managed. It was obvious she'd been a Slytherin. She was devious and single-minded in her purpose and didn't bat a single lash at her nephew's mortified sputtering.

And yet it was all worth it in the end just to see Harry so carefree and happy. While he hadn't been sad or dispassionate while teaching, he held a personal belief on how teachers should act when around their students. So the familiarity and fun behaviour he had shown all afternoon, was something new.

Tom felt privileged that he even got to witness it. Seeing sides of Harry Potter that others didn't get to, made him float.

Literally.

Sometimes he got so excited about Harry that he'd lose his connection to the Earth for a few seconds. It was embarrassing. Thankfully no one had noticed it yet.

~.O.~

"The school year is starting next week," remarked Harry that evening at dinner. They'd had a long day of training in dueling and this was the time they could indulge. Harry was eying up the platter of treacle tart the House Elves had brought for after supper.

"It'll be interesting to see the Great hall from a different angle." They took their meals together for the most part. Or Tom went to the kitchens personally in an effort to avoid Dumbledore. He hadn't stepped foot in the Great hall once that summer, and it had been marvelous!

Harry snorted. "You'll realise just how big it is then. It can almost feel overwhelming at times. So many students. So many faces. You can't even see them all perfectly near the double doors at the far end."

To Tom it sounded spectacular. Of course it could just be his happiness over getting to be in Hogwarts still. Not having to leave his true home behind could be blinding him.

"Have you already worked out your schedules?" Harry asked him, setting his plate aside and pulled the entire platter of treacle tart closer. As they were for him to begin with, Tom wasn't offended by the the gluttonous reaction.

They'd already discussed it. Tom would be taking over the classes for the first through third years. Harry had deemed him prepared enough to handle that much work, and had already bestowed much wisdom on how to handle assignments and such. And he had Harry's own example to base his own teaching style off of. Despite him originally being incensed in regards to it, Harry's method truly worked. He raised the grade average of the entire school simply because his class touched upon applications from nearly every other class in the school and his Dueling Club had been a great help.

With Tom taking on some classes, Harry's schedule would be freed up so he could dedicate the proper time to his Deputy duties. And there were so many to see to! Every day he had something to do, even in the summer!

"I have everything set up," he told the man confidently. "Though I wouldn't mind if you'd like to look over what I've come up with."

Harry's smile could make him believe in angels, it was just that fetching. That innocent. How had he existed this long and manage to be so untarnished?

"You've come a long way, Tom. I'm proud of your progress."

Tom was not blushing he was simply a little overheated still from the intense workout Harry had put him through. His clothes were hot and there was even still sweat on his brow!

There was sweat on Harry too. It made his hair shine and his skin glisten just a bit in the candlelight. And Tom's mouth felt dry suddenly.

"Are you okay, Tom?"

"Fine! Just fine."

He was not fine.

A/N: This chapter was finished months ago, for the most part. It was long enough and everything, but I chose to hold off on posting because it didn't feel right to me. Last night I got a review and decided to re-read the whole fic, plus this chap to see what was missing. I found it too. It was just detail. Some of the writing was just bland. I fixed it while I added 1,000 words!

#Strive #Fanfiction #Tomarry #Watermelonsmellinfellon

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letspretendfictionpressworks · 4 years ago

Text

bachelor chap 3

Three

Adam tilted his head this way and that, staring at his reflection in the full body mirror in his private room. He had to admit, he felt a bit like a doll with the various layers of foundation and blush the helpful attendants had lathered onto his face. One of them—Bertha, her name was and what a lovely name that was—had informed him that the cosmetics were necessary, as the cameras would bleach his “lovely skin of all its color and make him look like a mongrel zombie.”

“It’d be such a shame,” Bertha had sighed. “Almost as much a shame as it is you have to cover up your lovely skin. Your face is so smooth! Do you use any products?”

Adam had laughed and explained no, he was just born this way. She had expressed surprise and recommended some of her favorite products if he ever wanted to try a facial moisturizer.

“Not that you need it,” she had added with a wink. “But you never know when your skin may need an extra pick-me-up.”

His stomach had growled at one point and the kindly ladies had finished powdering his nose to dash off. Now, they returned, politely knocking on his door and coming in, arms loaded with gifts.

“We didn’t know what you might like,” Bertha admitted.

“We got you a bit of everything,” the other lovely attendant, Gretel, added.

“This is too much,” Adam proclaimed, looking between the two. Bertha held two cup holders, each tray filled to capacity with hot beverages. Gretel held two large boxes, one stacked upon the other.

“We didn’t know what you might like,” Bertha repeated sheepishly, listing off her offerings. One of the drink holders several flavors of coffee—caramel, toffee, and mocha—as well as a cup of unflavored black with several sugar and cream packets to go with it. The other tray held much the same, except various flavors of tea—sugar cookie, peach, and raspberry—as well as a simple green.

“And I have pastries and donuts!” Gretel added, rattling off her various assortments of danishes, croissants, bagels, and donuts.

“This is too much,” Adam repeated weakly, guilty that they had spent a small fortune to wrestle together a late breakfast for him.

Bertha shook her head and tried to shrug in a dismissive gesture. She nearly dropped her various drinks and Adam rushed forth to help her place them on a table.

“It wasn’t a problem,” she told him firmly. “A sweet thing like you could use some doting.”

Adam took the boxes from Gretel and likewise placed them on the table.

“Well,” he said helplessly. “I couldn’t possibly finish all this by myself. Why don’t you two lovely ladies join me?”

They melted and agreed.

“What’s your favorite flavor?” he asked them, gesturing at the drinks.

“Oh, no—” Bertha started.

“We couldn’t possibly—” Gretel tried.

“We got those for you,” they both said at the same time. They glanced at one another, chuckled.

“You pick first,” Bertha insisted. “We’re fine with what you don’t want.”

Adam plucked the black coffee from the lot and added a few packets of the cream and sugar. “I’ve always preferred simple things,” he admitted.

Which was true, he supposed, but he also thought that Bertha and Gretel seemed the type to prefer the sweeter options. He was right. Bertha chose the caramel iced latte and sipped happily as Gretel selected the peach tea and did likewise.

He chattered with them happily as they nibbled at their late breakfast. Gretel, it turned out, had an excellent sense of humor and had Adam chuckling more than once with her stories and impressions of some of her coworkers and their ridiculous escapades. Bertha struck Adam as the protective type, sweet to a fault until someone threatened or mocked someone she loved. Then, she had a righteous streak a mile wide, more than willing to call down her wrathful fury on the person who was foolish enough to hurt her loved ones.

They were such pleasant company, but all too-soon there was another knock at the door and a man with a headset and a clipboard poked his head in to say, “Five-minute warning. Time to head out to the stage.”

Adam sighed. “I don’t suppose we could continue this after the interview?”

Both women beamed at him.

“I wish I had auditioned for this season of the show,” Bertha sighed.

“I know,” Gretel agreed. “Honestly, I don’t like the idea behind the show. I kinda think it’s gross, ya know? All those people stripping off clothes and using their looks and body to get the attention of the bachelor. But something tells me that doesn’t impress you,” she added, glancing at Adam. “You’re one in a billion.”

“One in a lifetime,” Bertha corrected, wrinkling her nose. “Have you met the other bachelor yet?”

Bertha and Gretel grimaced in unison. Adam glanced between them. “Something wrong with him?”

“He’s a bit…” Gretel drifted off, trying to find the right word.

“Arrogant,” Bertha chimed in loudly. Gretel nodded in fervent agreement.

Adam considered that, tried to think of what to ask to understand their insult. But before he could utter a word, Gretel put her pastry down and jumped to her feet.

“Enough of that!” she declared. “We prattle on any longer and you’ll be late, and it’ll be our fault you get in trouble.”

Adam felt a twist of guilt. “I don’t mean to run out on you like this.”

Gretel smiled softly at him. “We’re just doing our jobs.”

“You do them very well,” Adam assured them both. “I couldn’t have asked for better attendants.”

“Get going,” Bertha said, not unkindly.

Adam must’ve left his confidence behind him in the room. As soon as the door shut behind him, his stomach twisted into knots. The coffee, it seemed, was a bad idea. It felt like hot acid splashing at his insides. The pain au chocolat didn’t help matters anyway.

You’re excited for this, he reminded himself yet again as he followed the signs on the walls that pointed him towards the stage.

And he was. He really was. Perhaps it was because he was excited that his nerves so often rattled when he thought about the fact that he was going to have his own season on The Bachelor—he was going to be the cause of a heartache on the part of twenty-nine people. The only silver lining to possibly creating such upset was the idea that he might walk away holding the hand of the person he wanted to marry, the person he wanted to grow old with, the person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. It was a silly romantic notion, but Adam had always been the hopeless romantic.

But still—twenty-nine people he had to let down. Twenty-nine people he had to look in the face and tell them “you’re not who I’m looking for.”

Maybe he was going to puke up that coffee and pastry, after all.

“There you are!” a now-harried looking young man with a headset and clipboard said as he turned a corner—the same young man who had given him his five-minute warning a few moments ago. “You were due on stage thirty seconds ago—let’s go, let’s go! They’re waiting for you!”

No time to puke, then. He was nudged non-too-gently onto a stage, the young man with the clipboard expertly remaining in the shadows and off camera as Adam worked hard not to stumble as the cameras made an obvious sudden arc in his direction. He lifted a hand and waved at the crowd of mostly women before the stage, smiling pleasantly. A few ladies tried to shout something to him, but it was impossible to hear over the applause, and most women wound up yelling over one another, their words a muddle of sound and excited syllables.

He took a seat in the empty armchair to the left of a lovely brunette woman. On her other side sat a blond man with honey-gold eyes. Adam recognized him as Hunter Henderson, the other bachelor with his own season of the show that was to run in tandem with Adam’s.

Arrogant, Bertha had said.

And yet when he offered his hand to Hunter, Hunter was quick to accept with a strong shake, a friendly smile tugging at his lips. Adam was not one to call anyone a liar. It was easy to perceive and even misperceive things. He had a feeling that whatever Hunter had done to rile Bertha and Gretel, it had been nothing more than a misunderstanding.

Adam took his seat and the brunette lady—the host of the interview—looked between the two men with a beaming smile. “It’s so good to see you two getting along! You know, there was a lot of speculation that you two may have winded up as unfriendly competitors, given that your shows are going to air at the same time, and you’ll be competing for viewers.”

“That sounds like nonsense to me,” Hunter told her. “Whoever the viewers decide to watch is their business, and I respect their choice. At the end of the day, they’ll tune into the show they think is the most interesting, and there isn’t anything we can do or say to change that fact.”

Adam had to admit, he felt similarly. “And,” he added when Hunter finished, “it’s unprofessional and childish to toss hateful comments at someone just because of something as trivial as a TV show meant for public entertainment.”

The interviewer looked between the two men with a touched smile. “Well, there you have it, folks! I’m sitting live with Adam Antonsson and Hunter Henderson! I’m your host, Alex Bell!”

There was a round of cheers, applause, and whistles. Hunter had the sort of smile a wolf may give a sheep before devouring it. Adam’s was more subdued, polite, the smile of a shy school boy.

“I have a few questions to ask each of you. Our audience at home wants to get to know both of you better—”

Alex was interrupted from someone from the audience shrieking, “Adam, I love you!” and a chorus of “yes!” from other audience members.

The host laughed. “Looks like they’re eager to get to know you,” she said to Adam.

“I’m sure there are just as many who are excited to hear about Hunter,” he assured her with a smile.

“Ohhhh,” Alex cooed, winking at the audience. “This one is a keeper. Cute and polite.”

“Well, I know I want to hear about Hunter,” Adam pressed with another smile. “I think he should answer the first question.”

“As the gentleman insists.” Alex shifted to look at Hunter. “How would you describe yourself in one word?”

Hunter’s golden eyebrows drew together in contemplation. “I don’t suppose I could request a phrase instead of a word.”

Alex laughed. “I think I’ll allow it.”

Hunter’s smile shifted into a smirk. “Too hot to handle.”

There were a few whistles from the crowd. Alex used her pile of index cards to fan herself theatrically. “I’ll say! And you, Adam, same question: how would you describe yourself in one word?”

Adam considered that. He wasn’t very good at summing himself up. There had only ever been one thing people used to describe him…

“May I also use a phrase?” he asked.

The host smiled at him. “Oh, why not? It’s only fair.”

He laughed, a little embarrassed to admit, “I would probably say I’m a happy pill.”

“As in, you take happy pills or you are the happy pill?” Alex asked.

“I suppose both?” he admitted, shrugging sheepishly. “I’m the positive sort of person, and a lot of people have told me I’m like a happy pill.”

Alex’s eyes gleamed. “Seems accurate.” She turned back towards the audience, “Now, we know what The Bachelor is all about. A single man tries to find that lucky someone he wants to spend the rest of his life with, and we learn all about the contestants and what they offer our bachelors. But I’m curious to know what these handsome men have to offer. We all want a working partner who is willing to help out with finances. I’d like to know: what do each of you do for a living, and what would you say the hardest part of your job is?”

Her eyes fell on Adam. “And since we heard from Hunter first with our last question, this time we’ll hear from you first, if you please.”

“I was actually a professional athlete for a while,” Adam admitted. “I received a minor ankle injury and had to take some time off and thought it might be time to figure out my romantic life. A romantic partner takes a lot of time and energy, and I wanted to be able to dedicate myself fully to my relationship before I open the next chapter of my life. I have a business major, though, and I do enjoy using social media as an influencer in my free time.”

Alex clucked sympathetically and Adam continued, “The hardest part of my job, though? Probably the hours. It doesn’t get to me too badly, though, because whenever I’m overworked and tired, I just start laughing. A lot of people think I’m crazy for it, but I just get the giggles. I can’t even look anyone in the eye without laughing.” Just thinking about it, Adam felt himself chuckle. “I guess it’s better than getting grumpy, though!”

“A happy pill, indeed,” Alex commented before turning the question on Hunter.

Hunter cleared his throat, “Well, like Adam, I’m sort of taking a bit of a break. I just finished getting a history degree and thought that before I start a career, I wanted to take some time to find the perfect partner so I can start a new chapter together with them.”

Alex examined her notes. “We spoke before this interview, and you admitted to me that you were quite the heavy partier in college.”

“Oh, definitely,” Hunter said with a sheepish laugh. “There were some nights I drank so much, I didn’t remember taking tests in class the next day. Always managed to get good scores on them, though.” “I’m assuming you’re ready to put those days behind you, if you’re thinking about finding someone to start a family with?” Alex quirked an eyebrow in playful challenge.

Hunter sobered. “Yeah, I am. Those days were fun, but I consider it to be part of my college experience. I’m definitely ready to settle down and find that special somebody.”

Alex moved through the questions as quickly as possible, trying to pose the most commonly asked questions that had been collected from various social medias. The crowd offered a round of hoots and laughter when Alex asked Adam, “If you could do or be anything, what would you do?”

“Become a human sponge!” he enthusiastically squawked. “I’d love to absorb every bit of knowledge possible. Everyone has something to offer to someone else. We never really stop learning!”

Hunter earned several blushes—and even Alex fanned herself dramatically—when she asked him what his greatest feature or quality was, and he had to work to keep his wording appropriate for the PG-13 rating.

Finally, she wrapped up with the question everybody was wondering: “This is another question for both of you. Describe your ideal partner.”

She paused dramatically to allow them time to collect their thoughts before turning to Adam to answer first.

“I’ve always been a hard worker,” Adam told her earnestly, “and I’d want to see that in my partner. I want someone who not only appreciates how much effort I put into things, but also reciprocates. I want someone who’s ready to fight for what they want in life, who isn’t a pushover, but who knows it’s also okay to hit the brakes and take the time to offer someone kindness.”

“Someone who’s driven but kind,” Alex summarized, “but who doesn’t let people push them around. When you find that person, let me know.” She winked theatrically before turning to Hunter.

“I’ve been thinking about that for a while,” Hunter admitted. “I want someone who I can say is my equal in every way. I want to meet someone who admires me for who I am and what I do, but who I can admire in turn. Not necessarily because they’re clever, but because there’s something about them that draws me to them—something unique about them, I guess you could say.”

“Oh,” Alex joked, “so you aren’t only after someone for their looks?”

Hunter’s smile was roguish. “I had hoped that was a given.”

The crowd, which seemed to have warmed up to Hunter’s odd sense of humor, chuckled at him.

“And there you have it, folks!” Alex declared, holding her hands up to gesture at Adam and Hunter, listing off the dates and times their seasons were to begin. “Our two bachelors. Which one has caught your interest?”

One of the cameramen gestured that the live recording had come to an end, and Adam turned towards Alex. “Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure being here with you.”

“Aw,” she joked, “the cameras aren’t rolling anymore. You don’t have to offer me flattery like that.”

Adam’s smile took on a quizzical edge. “I wouldn’t lie about that. It’s always a treat to talk to lovely and intelligent women like you.”

She laughed, even as her cheeks flushed. “I hope you find someone who appreciates you on the show. I really mean that.”

“We both deserve that,” Hunter chimed in with a polite smile at Adam. “I wish you luck. Hopefully, the casting team did us justice in the candidates they picked.” He glanced at Alex. “If they’re anything like you, I’m sure I’ll be blown away.”

“Gentlemen,” she said with a choked noise, “you’re going to make me combust from all these compliments!”

“Alex,” a crewman called, “next guest on in three.”

“I think that’s his way of saying we’re overstaying our welcome without actually yelling at us,” Adam joked to Hunter.

Hunter gave him a weak smile. Alex said, “Well, hopefully I’ll see you again after your season of the show comes to an end, and neither of you will be alone.”

“We’ll always have each other,” Adam told Hunter mock-conspiratorially with a wink.

Hunter laughed like he wasn’t sure what the joke was, and Adam supposed he should have worded his jest better. As they walked off the stage in opposite directions, Adam was hit with a thought that niggled at him, burrowing deeper into his brain until he couldn’t ignore it.

Bertha and Gretel had wandered away from his room, but he managed to track them down and insist they return to their breakfast with him. They were nice enough to offer to clean his face of its layers of foundation and rouge before sitting down with him. As they continued to munch on pastries and sip at lukewarm drinks, he finally couldn’t ignore his idea anymore.

“Do you know where Hunter’s room is?” he asked the two.

They traded looks.

“Well, yes,” Bertha admitted. “We did try to do his makeup for the set earlier.”

Adam caught the weird wording. “Try?”

Gretel’s nose crinkled. “He said we were unqualified or something like that.”

Adam paused mid-chew. “Something like that?”

He considered the gentleman he had met on stage. Hunter had seemed confident, but not rude. Adam didn’t think there was anything wrong with confidence. It was true that over-confidence could lead to disaster. It was better to always look at things with a lens of humility, but he hadn’t gotten any sort of sinister or arrogant vibes from the other contestant.

“Why do you ask, anyway?” Bertha said warily.

“I was hoping to stay in touch with him.”

Both women looked as though they were trying to merge their eyebrows with their hairlines.

“I thought we might make good friends,” he continued.

Both ladies’ eyebrows seemed to disappear into their hair.

“I’m not—”

“I can’t say that’s—”

They paused and looked at one another. It was an uncomfortable, tense look.

“I can tell you how to get to his room,” Bertha finally admitted with a frown. “But I really think you should reconsider this whole ‘friend’ thing.”

Adam’s tense expression turned relieved. “Thank you.”

He wasn’t sure what Hunter had done to so greatly offend the two women, but he decided he’d rather judge Hunter’s character himself. Sometimes, those who made the worst first impression turned out to be the very type of person who proved invaluable, the sort you wanted to keep at your side, always.

#hunter #adam #huntix #markam #bach au #bachelor au #bach #au

0 notes

ohscorbus · 8 years ago

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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Sunday 9th July, 2017.

This was a really fun show! The audience seemed to be full of first timers who had no idea about the plot. I love when that happens. I get what the cast say now when they talk about the energy inside the theatre. I never realised how much of an impact the audience has on my enjoyment of the show too? Well, to some extent anyway. I always enjoy the show of course :p But a responsive audience really adds to it. Although saying that, the cast are so good sometimes I honestly forget there are other people in the room...

But anyway, on with the recap!

Act One, Scene Three

Can we talk about how crushed Scorpius looks when Karl walks into his compartment first but then leaves when he realises he’s a Malfoy? He put his book down and he was reaching for his bag of sweets inside his robes, all ready to share but then he left. Without so much as a goodbye or an excuse : ( It takes him a second but you see him pull himself back up and he reaches for his book again.

Scorpius jumped right up when Albus walked in. He looked completely flabbergasted. It meant Albus, who had his hand out ready, had to wait for Scorpius to regain some composure before he could shake it.

“Sweets, they always help you make friends” - Samuel doesn’t sing the first word, it’s said… enthusiastically loud instead. The rest of the line isn’t sung either but said in his singsong voice.

“Easy. I’ve always regarded the Pepper Imp as the king of the confectionery bag.” - I loved his delivery of this line today. I can’t remember exactly why though… sorry! (I loved it so much I forgot to make notes about it *rolls eyes at herself*)

“And it’s just like my father’s!” - He looked so happy as he listed his similarities to his father. That dropped quite quickly of course, but that first line had him beaming as he told them about his dad.

“I’m okay. You go on…” - He sat down on that seat with a tiny bounce as he said this and didn’t look away from Scorpius once. He’s made up his mind. He’s staying right here.

“I stayed for your sweets” - Albus imitates Scorpius’s singsong voice to say this line. Not to mock him, but because he’s just as awkward and nervous about this whole thing and probably thinks it’ll make Scorpius feel less embarrassed and like him more. Aww.

Act One, Scene Four

“Slythering Slytherin, stop with your dithering” - James jumped him from behind and really pulled him down today. I thought Albus was going to fall : /

“And I’m pleased to announce Gryffindor’s newest member of the Quidditch team” - During this speech, Scorpius gave Rose an excited double thumbs up. He soon stopped when he saw just how unhappy Albus was about it. The two of them were then discussing something for the rest of McGonagall’s speech.

“Leave him and Voldemort’s child to it, I say” - I hope you know there’s going to be an obligatory ‘Mackley is brilliant’ bullet point for every Karl line :’)

“And be my good friend” - They usually put their arms around each other as they walk off here but today Albus went straight in to comfort Scorpius while they were both still sat down. My boys. Albus with his heart of gold and Scorpius looking so utterly lost :’(

“Potters don’t belong in Slytherin” - Scorpius making Harry glasses with his hands is still a thing and I’m very happy about that!

*screams into the night* I WISH PEOPLE WOULD ARRIVE AT THE THEATRE ON TIME. There’s always latecomers and they nearly always bring them in during the very end of this scene. The Albus wand dance (fandom - do we have a better name for it?) is one of my absolute favourites to watch and yet again I missed it because an entire row in the front of me had to be walked in. Ughhhh.

Act One, Scene Seven

Albus is sat cross legged on his bed with his arms wrapped around himself and I’m 100% not prepared for the pain.

Jamie G really raised his voice today, more so than I’ve ever heard him do.

Theo was giving it back just as much.

Despite all that anger, that line really knocks him. He looked shocked and took a step back away from his dad. All that energy he was directing at his dad disappeared in a flash.

“Albus, please…”- Harry stepped forward with his arms out, clearly ready and wanting to hug Albus. Albus was having none of that. He stepped back again and dodged him before throwing the blanket onto the bed. He paused for a second as he watched the love potion destroy the blanket which I really liked. Both Sam and Theo say the “no luck or love for me then” line as they’re walking out and to me, I felt like it was always spoken too soon? I get that Albus just wants out of the room and away from his dad, but it makes no sense to say that if you haven’t even seen the blanket start smoking yet? So seeing Theo pause and watch it the blanket being destroyed made me really happy. It’s the little thing, you know.

Act One, Scene Ten

Albus goes into Scorpius’s compartment and Rose follows him as they’re still having a conversation and she walks in and stands riiiight in the middle of them. Directly in front of Scorpius with her back to him so she’s facing Albus. She’s having the rest of that conversation whether he likes it or not.

“What do you smell of?” - Both Rose and Albus stop and look at Scorpius here like he’s lost his mind. Poor Scorpius looked so panicked as he tried to save himself.

So when the train starts moving, everyone on the trains sways forward and then backwards before righting themselves again. As they do this, Scorpius and Albus automatically reached out and held onto each other for support. With them it’s all ‘awwww’ but if it were anyone else it would look like a ‘if I’m going down then you’re coming with me’ situation. Although really, that suits them too…

“Albus Severus Potter, get that strange look out of your eye” - Albus was actually looking up (presumably) where the train window would be and I haven’t noticed him do that before? He probably has... Anyway, he looked up, around, focused on something, and then looked back at Scorpius with a smile on his face. That boy had a plan.

“I’ll entirely mess it up if you don’t come with me. Come on” - As Albus was climbing up onto the roof of the train, Scorpius was being a Dramatic Malfoy™ behind his back. Frustrated by his friends stubbornness and idiocy, he threw his arms in the arm and shook them in mock angry. Like, ‘I could strangle this boy sometimes’ kinda way, before giving up and following him. I feel like it’s something that happens a lot.

Act One, Scene Thirteen

There’s only one person I want to talk about here and that’s Archie. Martin in his purple dress is something no one should be deprived of seeing. Also, his book actually caught fire today! Yay! I’m still not over how excited he gets over the guy who works there. Honestly, his clapping as the now trouserless guy dances back towards him??? The grabby hands at his ass??? I miss Albus and Scorpius walking on stage in this scene every single time because of it :’)

Act One, Scene Fourteen

“No, you need to listen to me” - There was definite ‘power and strength’ with this line today. YES, ALBUS! *punches the air* THAT’S MY BOY!

“I know what it is to be the spare” - Theo utterly destroyed me and it’s not even a sad scene :’( No but the sadness in his voice here. He sounded so small. *whispers* I’m not okay.

Act One, Scene Sixteen

Samuel couldn’t get one of his arms out of his robe and he was really trying to find the bloody arm hole before the transformation. He got there in the end. There was a slight delay while they waited for him... it was very Scorpius though! Cleverest in their year but still struggles with the basics :’)

‘The two look at each other’ - The way they stood still and faced forward before both slooowly turning to look at each other at the same time was A+. I wanted more of a pause there though. He went straight in there with the “go straight to your room” line. I like a pause because then it’s like Scorpius saw the opportunity to wind Albus up and took it. But I guess without the pause you could argue it’s like Scorpius had pre-planned saying it and couldn’t wait any longer. That does sound like him too… :’)

Albus/Ron’s full body wiggle as he mentions Ron’s gut is excellent. I still can’t imagine Theo’s Albus ever doing it though? But then again, it’s more believable than the belly bumps so you know, there’s that.

Act One, Scene Eighteen

This was without a doubt the best I’ve ever seen this cast do this scene. It was in stitches the entire time.

Rakie kept using a singsong voice, Jamie G was being OTT with his squeaky Scorpius voice, and Tom was… well Tom was just brilliant because that’s just what Tom is.

Albus/Ron paused a smidge after the real Hermione asked what he was doing there and then he looked so determined as he walked forwards and kissed her. It was still a really innocent kiss, like how a kid would kiss another kid? A barely there peck on the lips. Afterwards she looked at him like he’d lost the plot and then turned back to face Harry and continued their conversation. Meanwhile, Albus/Ron had the most disgusted look on his face as he wiped (frantically and repeatedly) his mouth with his sleeves and on the back of his hands.

While real Hermione is threatening him about the stink pallets, Albus/Ron is holding her from behind and kissing his way up one arm before doing the same on the other. Again, the second she’s not looking, he’s sticking his tongue out and trying to wipe it all away. He’s SO grossed out by the kissing. I’m sure it’s because he’s his aunt but I also love the idea of him still being in that ‘girls are gross’ stage. It could work, he doesn’t particularly flirt with Delphi... If it wasn’t for the fact he specifically admits to fancying her, I’d say the interest he has for her is purely platonic. She’s like the older, cooler person he desperately wants to be friends with. That’s all.

“My puckish sense of fun” - The little skip/dance he does while he holds up his robes like they’re a long dress or something. Honestly.

Act One, Scene Nineteen

“This is all too weird” - I really ‘saw’ fourteen year old Albus with this line. He stormed in and he got all tangled in his robe trying to get it off because he was trying to be dramatic about it.

Jamie G’s voice kept breaking and going super high pitched and squeaky. I know Scorpius’s voice does do this, but it doesn’t do it that much. The audience loved it though. We were definitely laughing along!

“We beat it! We beat the liiiibraaaaaary!”

“This is going to be gooo-ooo-ooo-oooo-oooood”

Act Two, Scene Four

THEO CAUGHT DELPHI’S WAND. BOTH TIMES. I’ve never seen him manage this before and I was beaming with pride for the rest of the scene.

“Let’s do this” - Yes and let us run off with our arms round each other because… because… well why not. (I don’t know why I felt the need to mention this here because this is how they leave the stage 90% of the time.)

Act Two, Scene Five

More important information. You couldn’t see the back end of Bane today! Yay! Another first for this cast for me.

Act Two, Scene Six

So! They start this right at the back of the stage and walk forward. While they were still at the back today, looking up at Hogwarts, Albus turned to look at Scorpius. Except Scorpius didn’t notice and kept looking forward so Albus looked away again. Then a second later, it was Scorpius’s turn to look over at Albus and it was like he sensed it as Albus looked back at Scorpius again and then they both shared a smile (and what looked like a shoulder nudge) before both looking back up at Hogwarts again. Bless.

Can we talk about Scorpius checking the Daily Prophet every morning as a kid? About how he knew what the rumours about him were? How heart breaking is it that he had to read these awful things about himself when all he wanted was updates on something he was really excited about : ( Do you think Draco would try to intercept the delivery and flick through it first to make sure it was ’safe’ for Scorpius? Oooh no. Imagine Draco and/or Astoria finding a young Scorpius all curled up, upset, and hiding away somewhere after reading something horrible about himself. God it must have killed Draco seeing his son in pain like that. To suffer for something he played no part in : (

“You’re my best friend too” - I loooove how strongly Albus says this line. He really grabs Scorpius’s arms and leans in. He wants- no, needs for Scorpius to know that.

Act Two, Scene Seven

Alright, this is where Mackley Watch™ kicks in again and that boy never fails me. I was watching him, then turned to look over at Albus and Scorpius for a second, but then I looked back and all I could see were his feet??? Someone (presumably Josh) had lifted him up into the air :’)

They used to be so sweet with their ‘I love Krum’ song but they really went for it today. Except they’re both so adorable so they kinda looked like aggressive kittens. Bless their hearts.

Act Two, Scene Eight

Harry fixing the covers on the bed to make sure his precious boy is covered and safe ♥︎

“I can’t, okay?” - Albus couldn’t even look Scorpius in the eyes : (

“We’ll be better off without each other, okay?” - Albus had turned his back to Scorpius and was staring down at Harry as he said this and it broke my heart. He could not bear to see the confusion and hurt on Scorpius’s face. So instead he made sure his dad could see his.

Act Two, Scene Eleven

Mackley Watch™: He put his leg up onto the desk and lounged back. Brave, considering who his professor is. Hermione noticed as she was shouting at Albus and she did a sort of double take and then after she’d finished chewing Albus out, she smacked Mackley’s leg down. Loved it!

….I literally have no notes on Albus here but I’m sure Theo was A+.

Harry Potter and the Mackley Distraction

Harry Potter and the Scene Stealer

Harry Potter and the- okay I’m stopping :p

Act Two, Scene Twelve

I reeeally loved this scene! I felt their hurt and saw their tears through my own. Albus lingers, clearly hoping to catch a glimpse of Scorpius. Yet when Scorpius does appear he’s so quick to run off. It happens over and over again and then when the two staircases finally meet and they’re right in front of each other, Albus can’t look his friend in the face again. The poor boy is torn and hurting and Scorpius is so lost by it all. There’s a bit where Scorpius is sat cross legged on top of the staircase and Albus walks underneath it and as he passes, Scorpius leans over and he gave him this tiny wave. It made Albus pause for a second but then he quickly ran off again. That last bit of him that was holding him together broke. Honestly, boys.

Act Two, Scene Fourteen

When Scorpius ‘hides’ Delphi from view from the passing Hogwarts student, he literally picked up his robes and draped them over her to hide her. He could not have been any more obvious if he’d tried.

Act Two, Scene Fifteen

We need to talk about James Howard because that man is destroying me.

“Especially since - Astoria has gone” - He was looking down at his hand, fingers all splayed out, focusing on his wedding ring as he said this. ALL THE FEELS.

Act Two, Scene Sixteen

This always has and always will be one of those scenes I REALLY look forward to seeing. It’s in this scene in particular where I think Samuel really surpasses he’s predecessors.

‘A librarian enters at the back of the room’ - So when this happened, they both shut up and pretend to be working. As you do. Albus shoves a book at Scorpius and Scorpius quickly grabbed it and flicked through the pages before finding a place to start reading from while the librarian watched them. The funny thing is, even once the librarian has left, Scorpius was still reading the book. Albus had already given up the pretence and he looked at Scorpius presuming he would have done the same thing but nooope. That boy has lost himself in his book and it took all of 0.3 seconds. Well he is in a library and this is a conversation dealing with some very difficult emotional issues, what were you expecting Albus?! It took Albus snatching the book back out of Scorpius’s hands and dropping it back onto his desk for him to get his attention back.

Samuel is an absolute gift as he literally cries in these emotional scenes. They’re seemed to be less tears today but this was without a doubt the angriest I’ve seen his Scorpius in this scene. He was not holding back as he exploded at Albus. I couldn’t see Theo’s face during this bit (always a shame) but I’m sure the look on his face would have been the final nail in my coffin.

“Scorpius, look at me’ - I love this line because I never know whether he’s saying it to make sure Scorpius is really taking in his words. Or if it’s because he knows Scorpius is so completely distracted by the super important historical object in his hands. Either way, that’s the second time this scene he’s had to re-focus Scorpius’s attention. Again, I’m sure it’s a regular thing...

“That’s a nice thing to say” - He was all watery eyed and so very touched by the comment. It makes the audience both laugh or awww because Samuel makes you feel all the things at once.

“Have we been having the same conversation?” - Dramatic Malfoy made another appearance here. After all that, he’s still talking about it?! Scorpius was so done :’)

At the end of this scene, Albus grabs his books and his bag and the two of them run off stage. However today, Albus’s bag strap got caught on the desk but Theo hadn’t realised until he’d already started to run off. It meant he was unexpectedly yanked backwards but luckily he didn’t fall!

Act Two, Scene Seventeen

I was shipping Ron and Hermione before I even knew what shipping was, so although I don’t talk about them a lot in these recaps, I love seeing them happy and together all these years later. Then there’s still scene. I don’t know what it was about today but this was the best I’ve ever seen this scene. It had me laughing and crying. I mean, I’ve laughed before but never cried during this scene so it meant a lot. This cast really are something special.

Act Two, Scene Nineteen

“Consider me engorgimpressed” - It took him a second but that embarrassment did hit Scorpius. Albus didn’t react to it, he carried on. How often do you embarrass yourself if you’re best friend isn’t even going to tease you about it, Scorpius???

“I was moderately partial to a Malfoy too” - She said this with such a growl to her voice and with an actual growl at the end. Poor Scorpius. It was like watching a tiger getting ready to pounce on an ickle kitten.

Act Two, Scene Twenty

Scorpius in the lake was A+ today. He kept waving to everyone. To Cedric, Albus, the other champions… :’) There was even a thumbs up too. I particularly liked how he imitated an expanding Cedric (he was all starfished out).

This goes without saying but he looked so distraught when Albus didn’t emerge :’(

Act Three, Scene Three

The chin grab happened again today and it was a little more aggressive this time.

You could hear Scorpius whimpering so presumably he was crying : (

I was rudely attacked by feels during the ‘she said it was the bravest thing she’d ever seen’ bit. It made me realise that Scorpius and Astoria have privately spoken about Draco and their relationship, and she’d told him all these wonder things about him. About how he did everything for her. He defied family for her and family means everything to the Malfoys. It makes you wonder what was running through Scorpius’s head when Albus ignores Rose and sits with him anyway. The first friend he gains is someone who defied family for him. Oh I bet he really gushed about Albus in that first letter to his mum. (Sorry to turn this angsty but I’m glad she knew he had someone special, in whatever sense, before she died. Her son is so precious to her and knowing someone else sees how amazing he is must have brought her some ease.)

Act Three, Scene Seven

“Great. I expect their mother is hot” - I don’t know if this has already been pointed out but Anthony would always nod and agree with Ron until he realised what he was doing because Hermione was right there. But Samuel just looks uncomfortable. The script says he’s blushing. He is, and then some. Poor boy.

“I’m dead, presumably” - Someone in the audience, a single person, went ‘awwww’ really quite loud and I think they were being sincere but it sounded so sarcastic. It instantly became one of those things you shouldn’t laugh at but couldn’t stop laughing at.

Act Three, Scene Eight

I’ve always wondered what’s running through Scorpius’s head here when he’s looking at Albus. Albus had been gone for days by this point and now he’s so close but he can’t do or say anything to him. I know he knows if he succeeds then time will be reset and he’ll have Albus back but still… it must have been hard to not do anything at all. What if he’d failed and that was the last time he’d ever see him??? (Distracted by feels while watching the play is the best/worst thing.)

Act Three, Scene Nine

Scorpius running and hiding behind the tree from Umbridge is still 10/10.

Oh and he slipped on one of the dementors. I can’t remember if it was here in this scene or the next. But he nearly went flying.

Dramatic Malfoy was at his highest level of dramatics for the rest of this scene by the way. Samuel, you truly are a gift.

So the script says there’s a silence as the two emerge and look at each other. HA. When Albus surfaced, Scorpius turned to look at him and legit screamed. I’ve never seen anyone looked as shocked and terrified in my entire life. It was quite remarkable. He just kept going ‘ahhhhh!’ and staring at Albus and the audience were in stitches. While Albus was talking (’Did you see that Merman? They guy with the -’), Scorpius reached forward as if to touch him to make sure he was real but he stopped himself.

“Harry! It’s Harry Potter! And Ginny. And Professor McGonagall. And Dad. My dad. Hi. Dad.” - I missed the middle bit of this because the audience were laughing that loudly! I do know that for Professor McGonagall, he had his arms up in the air above his head and was bouncing from one foot to another. I think ‘overjoyed’ as it’s stated in the script is an understatement. Then when he gets to his dad he throws his arms out to the side and runs in for a hug but Draco is having none of it. Scorpius is absolutely soaking wet and it’s not happening :’)

Act Three, Scene Ten

“And it does sound as if you were brave, Scorpius” - Draco looked up and across at Scorpius as she said this and the look on his face… it was like he was seeing him for the first time and that’s not okay. JAMES HOWARD *shakes fist*

“Seems fair” - I love how Draco steps forward and raises his finger in the air as he says this. But what I love even more is the look he gives Harry after he’s done it. They’re all grown up now but not enough for them to fall back into old habits.

Act Three, Scene Eleven

With every ‘I know’, Albus was breaking more and more. THEO.

He was crying and wrapping his arms around himself and pulling on his sleeves and.. and… THEOOOO :’(

Albus’s last ‘no’... I don’t even want to talk about it... *glares* t h e o

Act Three, Scene Fourteen

Scorpius: ”Alboooos” ♥︎

Albus jumped straight up and instantly reached for his pillow to smack Scorpius. The first hit was poor, he barely brushed him. The second one was a solid hit.

“I am - Malfoy the Unanxious” - SAMUEL. Bless him. He stumbled over his words here and instead said, “Malfoy, Malfoy, Malfoy, *noise*, Malfoy the Unanxious”. Trust Scorpius to struggle saying his own name :p But anyway, that noise. I felt bad for laughing but it was the second greatest Samuel fuck up I’ve witnessed. Right, so what’s the ‘noise’? So you know that thing you do when you’ve fluffed up a word, like it’s a tongue twister and you can’t say it so you do the human equivalent of a keyboard smash? Like you’re unravelling your tongue and getting rid of all the words so you can start again? He did that. It was perfect and so very Scorpius. If anyone is going to speak too fast for their tongue not to keep up, it’s him. I said this the first time I saw him and I’ll say it again, Samuel handles mistakes brilliantly. Not that he makes more than anyone else! I don’t want you misunderstanding me. I’m just saying when the worst happens, he’s got it under control.

“Apart from the Polly Chapman fancying you bits” - Albus always laughs at this but Scorpius doesn’t react at all. It’s so irrelveant to him. He jumps straight into the conversation about Cedric. He barely waits for Albus to finish his sentence.

“Been working on it all day” - This sentence has always bothered me because they’ve just woken up, so ‘all day’??? Really, Scorpius? Except Samuel’s Scorpius is wide awake and clearly thinking about something when their beds are wheeled on stage so now, to me at least, it makes sense. Even if a tad bit of an exaggeration. But again, it’s very Scorpius so...

Act Three, Scene Sixteen

Albus was sat with his legs dangling off the edge but Scorpius was sat cross legged and facing the other way while looking up and around at the owls above him. So easily distracted.

“Albus. Run!” - He didn’t even attempt to run, he was confused and shocked and staring down at Scorpius in a panic.

Delphi slapped violently tapped Albus’s cheek as she spoke to him.

Act Three, Scene Nineteen

“Stop. Please” - Albus dropped to his knees and pretty much begged her. My poor, poor broken boy. Delphi must be Voldemort’s because anyone else would have caved.

“Hogwarts looks the same” - Albus started to walk towards Hogwarts as he looked up at it for this line. He was cut short by Scorpius, who quickly caught up with him and grabbed him back against him to stop him.

Act Four, Scene Three

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet but Scorpius was extra bouncy today. I mean, he was literally bouncing. That boy can jump quite high when excited. Just so you know.

Also, you know when Lily, James, and baby Harry come out the door in GH? Well they grabbed each other and ran to hide by one of the doors and they kept ahold of each other as they watched them. (Like, hands on each others arms and waists, you know, as you do.) A few seconds later, they both looked down at their hands at the same time and then looked back up at each other before quickly letting go. They untangled so fast but they didn't step away. What a glorious show.

Act Four, Scene Four

*sigh* James Howard. So first of all, Draco is openingly upset while he talks about Astoria. His voices cracks and he’s wiping his eyes and I’m as far from fine as you can be.

He also did this thing where he’d spit out words like ‘pureblood’, ‘glory’, but then completely soften his voice for ’Scorpius’ and ‘Astoria’ and it killed me. He even looked up to the sky as he said her name too. You know, just to make it hurt a little bit more.

Shame on you James Howard for making a girl cry so many times in public. I’m almost glad you had to eat that scotch egg :p

Act Four, Scene Five

More snow than usual seemed to land in Albus’s hair today. This might seem irrelevant to you but to me, it was everything.

“As pleasurable as it will be to hide in a hole with you for the next forty years…” - Albus putting his arm round Scorpius as he said this and bumping him with his shoulder. Really now.

“No offense, but I’d choose someone massive and really good at magic” - He said this with such a straight face. Deadpan Albus is A+.

Albus’s awkward wave to Lily is still incredibly awkward.

“I think I’d like to tell him that I’m occasionally capable of more bravery than he might think I am” - *thinks about that look on Draco’s face back in McGonagall’s office* HE KNOWS SCORPIUS, HE KNOWS.

Scorpius jumped up in the air once he’d managed to open Bathilda’s door. Dork.

Act Four, Scene Six

This was probably my favourite Harry and Ginny scene I’ve seen from Jamie G and Emma yet. Lots of emotion and tears from them both.

Act Four, Scene Eight

Albus kept ahold of his mum’s hand for a while after their hug which is just the sweetest thing.

Scorpius had his arms up before he’d even started to run towards his dad. That boy was beyond excited.

There were a lot of ‘awww’s from the audience for the Malfoy hug today ♥︎

Act Four, Scene Ten

I’m sure I’ve said this before but Samuel is my favourite cast member ever when it comes to the transition scenes. He isn’t just moving around, he tells a story. It’s so, so brilliant.

“There’s plenty you’re good at, Albus” - This was the first time I’d really heard the audience react the way the used to with this line!

“Zap her?” - Draco put his two index fingers together as he said this, like he was imitating a zapping.

As the adults readied themselves to transfigure Harry, Draco’s first move was to make sure Scorpius and Albus were stood back, a safe distance away. Protective dad Draco giving me all the feels. He was protecting both his sons too *cries forever*. (I’ll fight you if you think Draco doesn’t take Albus under his wing. I think those two really get along quite well. I’m absolutely positive about it.)

Act Four, Scene Eleven

Let me tell you about those Malfoys!

Draco came over to stand behind Scorpius in the doorway, like he always does, and again he put his hand on Scorpius’s shoulder. Scorpius responded by carefully putting his hand on his dad’s. It’s such a tiiiiiny background moment but it shows us a little more of what their relationship is like and I live for it.

(One day I’ll actually pay attention to Ginny and Albus in the beginning of this scene. Sorry!)

Albus threw his dad his wand while his legs were still in the grate. Does he usually do that? I’m sure Albus is usually standing before he throws the wand… anyway.

Harry left Albus completely exposed while he unlocked the doors and I’m not happy about that at all. Whenever this happens I instantly get flashbacks to @torestoreamends fic. You know, that fic. I am honestly holding my breath until Harry is holding him behind his back.

Scorpius checking on Albus after they’ve brought down Delphi is everything.

Omg Voldemort walks so fast through the audience?!!! I’ve never sat this far back in the stalls so I haven’t seen it before but it’s the most hilarious thing.

Act Four, Scene Fourteen

“Or allowing her to pursue me” - Scorpius stuck his leg out and pushed his robes aside as he gestured up and down at his body. I’ve seen him do this before but it’s so brilliant it needs mentioning again.

So yeah, the lap sitting that happens after Rose says hi. Scorpius, in a panic, fell back onto Albus (who’s lounging back on the steps) and instead of getting up he just got comfortable on his lap??? He was being all awkward and flaily, like he didn't know what to do but he knew he had to do something. So the 'something' his brain decided on was for him to throw his leg over Albus's thigh and Albus was so confused :’) He pushed it off but barely a second later Scorpius tried to put it back. Albus pushed it off again and gave Scorpius a 'what the hell?' gesture. He didn't push him off his lap though... just pointing that out. It’s also worth noting that Albus was laughing throughout the ENTIRE thing. A flustered, awkward Scorpius amuses him so much.

The funniest part? Rose was stood watching the whole thing but they were paying no attention to her. They were too busy with each other *giggles*

“I think I might make the team eventually.” - Albus full on laughs at this. He lounges back onto the steps again and belly laughs. Nice.

“I’ll see you at dinner” - Albus followed Scorpius down the stairs and then he seemed to hesitate, like he was thinking about skipping out on his dad and going with Scorpius instead. He doesn’t, of course, but he watched as he walked away. Like he didn’t want to say goodbye... *sigh*

Act Four, Scene Fifteen

Albus looks so giddly when he says he’s going into pigeon racing.

My faaaavourite part about this scene is at the very end. Harry puts his arm around Albus and Albus looks down at the hand on his shoulder and smiles. I mean, really beams with happiness. He looks up and across at his dad and then he somehow manages to smile even more. I can’t. My boy is so happy *wipes away all the tears*

#I wrote this over a week ago but forgot to post it ooooops #TCCleanne

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chimomo · 7 years ago

Note

I'm going to give you the chance to rant and ask for your opinions on Snape even though I already know them. >:D

Ohhhh boy. Alright.

First of all – this is not aninvitation to debate or anything, please. My opinions are just that –my opinions. You may see differently, and that's FINE, but pleasedon't try to debate with me. I'm a very anxious person who willprobably just combust.

Warning: NOT SNAPE FRIENDLY. If youlike Snape, this is not a post for you.

So, Severus Snape.

When talking about Snape, I've reallygot to divide this into three parts: him as a character, him as aperson within the universe, and his fans. Yes, they get their ownsection.

First up: Him as a character. Snape's agood character. I consider all of the central characters in HarryPotter to be good characters. They're well-rounded, interesting, havetheir own motivations and voices. Each one of them is worth includingin the story, and that includes Snape. That... is all I have to sayon that.

Snape as a person within the universe?This is where things get messy. Snape is not a good man. Snape is nota kind man. Snape is not a hero. Did he do good things? Yes. Did hedo them for the right reasons? Absolutely not, and that's thedifference. You really have to look at Snape's motivations, beginningfrom when he was a child. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt andsay that as a child, he really WAS Lily's friend just forfriendship's sake. They were two wizard children in theirneighbourhood, things were perfectly innocent. However, when he gotto Hogwarts – when he was sorted into Slytherin – that's whenthings changed.

I'd also just like to point out that Idon't hate kids in Slytherin. Not at all! IRL, my sister's one. Someof my friends are. And in universe, look at Andromeda, Slughorn, orthe dozens of Slytherin kids we never hear about because they're justliving normal lives. However, at the time when Snape was sorted intoSlytherin, it was probably at the House's most toxic point inhistory. Voldemort was actively recruiting, and Slytherin House wasripe for the picking. Many older students would already have beenswayed to join the cause, like Lucius, the Black children alreadythere (except for Andromeda, of course), etc. That is the environmentSnape was put into. And Snape bought into it. He wanted to fit in, sohe bought into this idea of purity and being better than muggleborns.And that's where everything went downhill.

James and co bullied Snape (and, asAllison pointed out to me, other characters agree it was really arivalry). This is true. But Snape was not a nice boy. Lilysays it herself – he called other students mudbloods all the time,and with the people he hung around with, you think he wasn't doingsome serious bullying himself? He was literally longing for the daywhen he could join the Death Eaters, a terrorist group, and spent hisdays – when he was not with Lily, which I'll get to in a moment –with other young people who also wished to be Voldemort's lackeys.That is not a good group of children. The kid was obsessed with DarkMagic – with hurting and killing people. He literally inventedSectumsempra, and we've seen what that spell does. THIS WAS A BOY WHOSPENT HIS DAYS COMING UP WITH SPELLS TO SLICE INTO PEOPLE AND KILLTHEM.

“But he changed becauseof his love for Lily!” But... was it love? Look, I'mdemiromantic, so I'm not the BEST person to talk to about romance.But I've been infatuated with people before. It's not romance. It'snot love. It's obsession. And that's what Snape's “love” for Lilysays to me. Snape clearly did not get a lot of attention as a child.Lily was most likely his first friend. To an 11 year old who hasnever had friends, that's important.As he told her about her new world, she must have looked at him likehe was giving her the sun. And he'd never felt that sort of attentionbefore. And of coursehe liked it. And that's when his obsession with Lily began, I think.To him, she is a prize – this beautiful intelligent witchwho gave him attention andlikes him and wantsto be his friend. And then weget into issues of friend-zoning, both within the universe and infandom. “Snape deserved Lily, he was a better friend toher!” “I'm a better person than James Potter, why doesn't Lilylove ME?”

Then,of course, we get to the Mudblood incident. Snape literally calledher a racist slur. He used themost offensive term for a witch possible. Did he do it withoutthinking? Yes, he did. But to me, that proves the sort of person heis. If he has to actively think about not calling her a mudblood,that is very, very telling. If it just slipped out because he didn'tcensor himself in time, that is very, very telling. And let me justsay – I'm queer. If someone I considered a friend evercalled me by a slur because ofmy identity, you can bet I'd drop them faster than I'd drop a giantspider.

Lilydid for herself the best thing she ever did on that day – ended it.Permanently. She cut herself off from a toxic friend and from thatpoint on was able to change and grow without this tumour of a“friend” hanging onto her by a thread – until, of course, heset it up so that her husband and son would die.

Petersold the Potters out to Voldemort. But Snape planted the idea in hismind. He told Voldemort of the prophecy, and only changed his mindwhen he realized Voldemort was going to kill Lily. But he did notcare about James. He did not care about Harry – this“good man” did not care that a toddler and his father were goingto be killed. He was so bitterabout James Potter and Lily Evans falling in love – of James“stealing” Lily – that he genuinely did not care about thedeath of a small child and his father. And that also PROVES that hedoes not love Lily. I've been in love with two people, and God doesnothing make me happier than seeing them happy, even if it's withsomeone else. It's a bittersweet happiness, but I would never, NEVERwish death upon the boys that the people I love have loved. Becausethat's what love is – letting go, and wanting someone to be happy.For a beautiful example of that, look at the character Tomoyo in themanga Cardcaptor Sakura. Now that isunrequited love.

I'msorry, but that's not a good person. Just.... not. Yes, he went toDumbledore. Yes, he switched sides because of it. But the factremains that he never wanted James to survive – and he never wantedHarry to, either. And that's really what sums up Snape for the restof his life – bitterness.

Snape,from that moment on, could no longer be considered truly evil– he was, yes, now fightingfor good. But he is still not a good person. He is not a kind person.And nothing is more telling of that than his interactions withstudents.

SeverusSnape is as much of a bully in his adult life as James Potter everwas from the ages of 11-16. The difference is that Snape bullieschildren. He is in a position of power over these children. Ofauthority. And he uses that power to bully, shame, and hurt children.Whether it's him sneering at Hermione and mocking her appearance (“Isee no difference”), threatening to feed Neville's toad poison(he's literally threatening to kill a child's pet),or knocking points off of innocent kids for absoltely no reason, he'sa horrible, horrible teacher. Not to mention a biiig, big fact – heis Neville Longbottom's worst fear in Prisoner of Azkaban. I want totalk about that.

NevilleLongbottom has not had an easy life. His parents, of course, weretortured when he was a small child and are now in the hospital,permanently, unable to care for him, love him, or even recognize him.Neville was thought to be a squib for years. He no doubt considershimself barely a wizard. That has left his self-confidence so, so cutup, and Snape just preys onthat. So by the time Neville is in third year, Snape is genuinely hisworst fear. But let's take a moment and think about something – inPrisoner of Azkaban, the entire Wizarding Britain is terrified of awizard who has escaped Azkaban. We know that Neville knows theidentities of the wizards who tortured his parents – and that they,too, are in Azkaban. This is an anxious 13 year old boy. He'sprobably fretting over the though of someone like Bellatrix escapingtoo – not to mention just the general fear of Sirius being out andabout. Yet, despite that, his worst fear is Severus Snape. BecauseNeville is at Hogwarts. Hogwarts, a place of safety and comfort,learning and laughter, a place that is supposed to be so incrediblyuntouchable. And Snape has taken this place that should be a havenand twisted it forNeville. He's made him scared to do things in his own home, and assomeone with an abusive parent, I know how awful that is.Neville can reassure himself about being safe from the Death Eaters.But not from Snape. Snape is not only at Hogwarts, but has genuineauthority over Neville. Authority he uses in the worst possible way.

Andthen there's his treatment of Harry. Was he technically protectinghim? I guess. But honestly? It's a very good thing Harry has a thickskin and just loathed Snape rather than feared him, because Snape wasAWFUL to him. He was unfair, bitter, and nasty to a kid who, in firstyear, really did come in with a clean slate and wanting to dowell/get along with teachers. Snape is the only regular teacher Harryhas an issue with. He gets along well with pretty much everyone else– not counting Umbridge, etc – and his marks are fine. But Snapedespises Harry – DESPISES this innocent kid. That's. That's sochildish and petty and bitter oh my god. I have people I dislike butif one day I meet their kids of course I'm going to be nice to them,because children are not their parents. Harry was not James JR orLily JR, he was Harry, an empathetic, kind, sarcastic boy with hisown personality and life. I still don't like the fact that Harrybasically reacted the way fandom did re: Snape (“Bravest man Iknew” my ASS I can feel all the people Harry's ever met rolling intheir graves when he says that).

Icould go on and on about Snape in universe, I really could. But I'mgoing to wrap it up by saying that Severus Snape is, by all accountsin the Harry Potter books, not a kind person. No amount of fanfictionor gifs of the movies will change that.

Andthat brings me to my last opinion of Snape. Snape within the fanbase.The glorification of Snape makes me sick. If you like his character?Great! We all have our favourites and least favourites. But please,please please PLEASE do not pretend he is something he is not. Andthat's what many, many people I have seen do. These are, typically,people who have not read the books in years. Maybe not at all. Theysaw the movie, and felt their hearts ache at the sight of Snapecradling Lily's body and weeping over her. They turned to fanfiction.And fanfiction, in the Harry Potter fandom, is where canon goes todie. Fanfiction is where the tropes “Ron the Death Eater” and“Draco in Leather Pants” became popular.

Andthe Snape adoration begins.

TheSnily. Oh, the Snily. But that's not even the worst. The Snarry. TheSnamione. The Snape/any studentin Harry's generation (excuse me while I actually go and vomit). Thewank over “Oh, Snape, he was such a good person, did you know Lilyand James were going to forgive him and make him their second child'sgodfather because Lily was pregnant when she died and alsoCrookshanks was the Potters' cat blah blah blah” (reread the booksholy shit reread the books and learn the difference between canon andfanon PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE).

Andyou can't escape it. This Snape adoration, this hero worship, isEVERYWHERE. I honestly categorize the HP fans I meet into “Snape”and “No Snape” - and am far more willing to discuss HP with the“No Snape” category. I just get this huge sense of relief whensomeone says “Oh, I hate Snape”.

Look,I could keep going, but I'm over 2000 words and I'm tired. I'm sotired. If you read this whole thing and hate Snape too, I love you.Come talk to me.

Andplease, please, please – if you disagree, you do. Not. Have toreply. My opinions will not change. I'm just posting this ask as aresponse to my friend sending me in the question.

#theybecameanimagi #answered

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penelope1730 · 8 years ago

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I Want To Break Free: Or How Sherlock got his groove back.

So, did anyone else think that Jim Moriarty's playlist song - Queen's "I Want To Break Free" - might have been intentionally introduced as one of the metaphors for The Final Problem? As well as Sherlock and Molly? Honest to God, I never thought, in a bazillion years, I'd end up writing a song meta. I love music, surrounded by musicians & music - but a meta? Who woulda thunk....

There's some spectacular metas floating around that go into incredible detail about the Sherlock and Molly set-up (excellent reading, btw), but this song, more or less, sums it up in a nutshell. It truly is a mixture of fears, thoughts and feelings that have been exchanged between these two characters since the very beginning, including within themselves. It couldn't have been more perfectly and surreptitiously placed in this episode. Especially as it's introduced by a crazy mofo.

The focus of love, unacknowledged and unrequited, has always zeroed in on Molly. As she's pretty much the only 'real life' relatable character in this fictional world (aside from Lestrade), one of her functions has been to humanize everyone in the story, although primarily Sherlock. Yes, I know John's important, but this isn't about John, so let's just save focusing on him for another meta.

From the first episode to the last, Molly's scenes and dialogue are 99.9999% with Sherlock. And the two scenes that weren't with Sherlock were directly about him. One of those scenes was to purposely inform the other characters regarding his deeply emotional nature and to pay attention (TSoT). The other scene was to inform the viewing audience on the expanded intimacy of their relationship (HLV). Intimacy, in this particular case, is not demonstrated via romantic attachment, but that of evolved trust and friendship.

Love, romantic or otherwise, can't exist in a vacuum. At least not forever. That's not the nature of Love. Eventually it has to be set free and this is something we've directly seen Molly struggle with. We've witnessed her feelings mocked; we've witnessed her innocence broken along with her trust shaken and shattered; we witnessed her attempt to focus her heart elsewhere and when that failed, we even witnessed her use of distancing by focusing on the practical, yet unconditional, elements of love. She has always found a way to pick herself up and move on in the healthiest possible way. Always. But, and this is a big BUT, in our distraction of focusing on Molly, many never really saw (shipper goggles set aside), that Sherlock was stuck in the same vacuum.

Both characters, Molly and Sherlock, have needed to set themselves free. Not only from their respective 'prisons' that have prevented free expression with one another, but the lies they've told themselves, and each other, which sustained emotional bondage.

I really dig this passage from the book, A Course In Miracles:

"The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love's presence, which is your natural inheritance. The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite."

Fear, in this case, has been the gatekeeper of the biggest lie. It truly is the final problem. Breaking down all those barriers to love's presence. But, it's also the message behind Queen's "I Want To Break Free." It can be so easy to look upon another and see their lies, game playing or self-denial. Not so easy with ourselves, however. Life has sorta trained us to look outside of ourselves for the causation of pain, leaving us beret of personal accountability and culpability of our choices.

I could make this strictly about romantic love, but it's more than that. Romance is just one of the many avenues in which love can be expressed. Love, itself, is profound and indelible. Choosing to allow, express and receive love with another being is so much more than flowers, kisses, midnight pillow talk, and sex. It requires not only the ability to be vulnerable and authentic, but understanding of the Self. Truly, we cannot hope to extend love to another if we have no concept of who we are, what we're about, or capable of.

Criminally insane and batshit crazy Jim Moriarty gave us two bold clues about the very long game that was being played out via his soundtrack.

The first was about himself: Staying Alive (Bee Gees, 1977). It was tough for him. Suicide has never been a shy theme in the SHERLOCK series and Jim Moriarty sought what he believed was the ultimate freedom: Death.

The second was about Sherlock's life: I Want To Break Free (Queen, 1984) from lies. The Final Problem showed us that Sherlock, from a very early age (4 yrs old), chose a revisionist history over acceptance and allowance. If he didn't like something personal to him, he'd re-write the story. In many respects, this is actually a really healthy thing to do. If we want to change a condition or circumstance in our life for the better - telling a new story is a good way to begin. However, when it involves suppression and self-denial - even when it's roots were justifiably based in trauma or self-protection - it will eventually erode into attrition. Cognitively, the use of this application, over time, will create a sort of dissonance. With Sherlock, it no longer protected him from trauma - the event had long passed. Instead, it created a different kind of trauma by emotional crippling.

Honestly, all of this has been said before, and more eloquently, in other meta's (go read 'em), but the 'I Love You' and 'coffin' scene are clearly represented in 'I Want To Break Free.'

"But life still goes on; I can't get used to, living without, living without, Living without you by my side, I don't want to live alone, hey God knows, got to make it on my own, So baby can't you see I've got to break free."

In ASiP, Mycroft told John Watson that his therapist got it wrong. He instructed John to fire her. John wasn't traumatized by the war, he missed it. For as brilliant and remarkable as Mycroft is, unfortunately, he got it wrong by misunderstanding the intention and meaning of "I Love You." It's perfectly understandable that he would. Love is something he denies himself, even though it's something he desires. Mycroft thought 'I love you' was about someone who loves Sherlock. And, in one respect he was right - it was the clue that Sherlock knew would bust open a fixed decision. And what this particular test was about. If you recall, it was "Vivisection" - the opening of Sherlock so he would recognize, as well as those present, how he really works... and expose what's going on behind that immutable facade he wears. Ouch! Bet he didn't wake up that morning thinking, "Today's the day!" No. He was laid bare and vulnerable - all his arrogance and superiority crushed with three little words - because the I Love You wasn't about who loves him, it was about who he loves. Ironic how he foretold us this in The Lying Detective:

Your life, once it's over, it's not you who'll miss it. Your own death is something that happens to everybody else. Your life is not your own.

Of course, he was talking about suicide (and Mary's death, which he's grieving), but the point he makes remains valid. Our death is a long term event that will be experienced through loss and grief by those who love us and miss our physical presence. It will be experienced through memories, possessions shared, voids where our life used to stand - but it will also be missed through - "So many days not lived, so many words unsaid, etc, etc, etc." It might be a difficult fact to face, but when we're dead, we're no longer concerned with all the earthly, mundane affairs. We're soaring through the clouds, re-emerged with non-physical energy and the Conscious Mind. It's those we leave behind who will be thinking about all the things they never said, but wished they had. They will be thinking about all the things they wished they did, but never got around to. They will think about all the lost moments, never to be retrieved. That's what grief is relative to death. Irretrievable loss. It's what my neighbor is currently going through right now...his wife of 35 years passed away on Christmas day.

As a counselor, I speak with thousands of people - directly and through workshops. The primary questions people ask about their loved ones who've re-emerged into non-physical are not about "Why didn't they leave a will?" Or, "I hope they rot in hell." Instead, they are always about, "Are they okay? I never got to say good-bye. Do they know how much I love them? I never said I Love You. I never said it enough. I always thought we'd have more time. How do I move on? I don't think I'll ever be okay. This isn't happening, it doesn't feel real." These are actual concerns the grieving confront upon the death of someone they love, especially as they move through despondency and depression. The dead don't place a golden plaque on a coffin that says 'I Love You.' That's what their beloved does.

If you've ever read Harry Potter, Dumbledore sums it up pretty cool, too:

"Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all those who live without love."

We'll never actually know exactly how Sherlock and Molly went about resolving this whole thing. That's what imagination and fanfic is for. But, like Sherlock, Moffat and Gatiss don't have a problem saying: "We'll leave you to your own deductions." Since clues are like gold in this show, Molly's effervescent smile at the end sums it up nicely: They Broke Free.

#sherlolly #molly and sherlock #mollock #sherlock #music #Queen #meta #sherlock meta #love #grieving

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halothenthehorns · 3 years ago

Text

All in the Family

Chapter 105: Luna Lovegood

Last co-authored with Tiffiny Smith, thanks for all your help!

HPHPHPHP

Regulus found himself tangled in something - the branches of a tree? After a moment of panic making sure it wasn't the Whomping Willow, he disentangled himself and peeked out at the ground below, where the other seven were getting their bearings.

What caught his attention, however, was the giant tower not ten yards away. Despite its forbidding appearance, it had some wide, decent-sized steps leading up to a door with an eagle-shaped knocker, the whole affair had some pretty windows, and there was a well-maintained path with a sign (or maybe three) on it leading to the road some distance away. Regulus couldn't read the sign (it was facing the road), but Potter made a beeline for it.

Then he stopped and stared.

"Well?" Sirius hollered. "What's it say? Where are we?"

"Whose place is this?" Alice asked, staring at the tower.

"The Quibbler," said Potter. "Editor, X. Lovegood. Anybody heard of him?" The pureblood name rang an old bell in his head, but he'd never met one personally.

"Lovegood?" said Frank, furrowing his brow in confusion, the same running through his own mind. Had his mum ever mentioned an oddball named Lovegood in school?

"Don't ask me!" Potter said back. "Listen to this: pick your own mistletoe. And Keep Off the... dir..igg...ibble plums."

Sirius darted over to a bush with radish-like fruits on them and threw one at Potter, who caught it and looked confused.

Regulus decided watching them was a waste of time and set about searching for the book, which was wedged in a windowsill just barely out of reach. He Accio'd it and started reading. Well, Luna was either the wife or kid of this X., and judging by the fact Harry was back off to school, either were likely. Either a student Harry was about to meet or the new DADA teacher.

It wasn't as if he was anxious to be away from here, at least he was finally in a respectable pureblood home again, only the second since all this madness had started counting his own. Yet, for the first time in his life, he didn't care. He had no inclination to get to know these people just because his parents would have wanted him too, not knowing who else they wanted him to befriend, Bellatrix at the top of his list he may start avoiding right along with Sirius now. Best to focus on the part of getting them out of here instead.

Right off the bat Harry was having bizarre dreams. His parents were mentioned, and Potter came back from the sign to join the others. Sirius's mouth was wagging noiselessly at the notion that Mrs. Weasley would cry over Kreacher's dead body. Out of it all, Ron and Hermione wearing crowns was about the most normal part of Harry's dreams, and the dark corridor with a door at the end stood out only because of how irrelevant it was.

Harry woke up, and everyone brightened immediately at the prospect of going to Hogwarts.

"Nothing too bad can happen there, right?" said Potter cheerily, and Regulus rolled his eyes at him. He wasn't the only one. Had he been listening to the past four books?

The hustle and bustle of getting ready to leave was a sharp contrast to the tranquility of the garden. Mother's shrieking, which nobody was bothering to silence, and which Regulus winced slightly at having to read aloud, only added to the distinction.

Then Sirius showed up in dog form, managed to insist his way into Mad-Eye Moody's guard (which was one short) and Molly worried on and on about everything (which Regulus was beginning to understand she thought of as her solemn duty, surpassed only perhaps by Mad-Eye) and causing Harry to liken her to Aunt Petunia, which raised instant protest from Lily.

"Mrs. Weasley is nothing like that vile woman!" the redhead fumed. "Their attitudes may be similar, but they spring from polar opposite motivations."

No one had the death sentence in them to argue with her even if they disagreed, which none did.

The group proceeded to the train until it was time to depart, and Padfoot said his goodbyes to Harry in far too human-like fashion, but it was absolutely ruined by Mrs. Weasley using his real name instead of Padfoot, or even Snuffles. Regulus still couldn't help pausing over the scene regardless as his mind wrapped around every oddity of it. Sirius, as a dog, which he still wasn't used to the idea of. Sirius giving a fond farewell to a godson he'd arguably spent more time worrying about than his own brother. He wanted to talk to him, the urge growing more desperate with every page, but there was a streak of pride deep in him that made the idea loathsome. Sirius would only listen to him now because he was starting to agree with him rather than just wanting to talk to his brother again, Regulus would just have to figure this out for himself.

Once on the train, at least Harry's problems took an easy center stage, Ron and Hermione mock-abandoning him for their prefect duties and leaving him in the company of Ginny, Neville, and the pre-acclaimed 'Loony' Lovegood, per Ginny's introduction.

She certainly did start off a sight, and only got more interesting the longer she talked. Loony did seem to support her, between the butterbeer cork necklace and wearing vegetation as jewelry. This odd paper, the Quibbler, was once again referenced in Luna's own hands, but rather than finally getting a peek at that article mentioning Sirius, Harry instead turned to Neville and they began chatting about some plant.

He admittedly would have grown rather bored with that very fast, if it didn't send some slime all over the whole compartment just as Cho Chang walked in.

Regulus nearly fell out of the tree laughing at the mental image, and even as he caught his breath back and glanced down he saw he wasn't the only one. Peter had been scaling the tree, to join him presumably, but was now only halfway up and clutching a branch precariously for support. Sirius had fallen into the dirigible plum bush and looked covered in them like he was trying to add to Luna's fashion statement.

Literally all of them had gotten a laugh out of it, even that Muggleborn Evans. He smiled to himself and reached down to offer Peter a hand to help him the rest of the way up, watching patiently as he got himself a more steady branch before continuing.

Regulus listened with some unfamiliar dread in his stomach as the two prefects returned to the carriage and explained their new duties, as well as explaining Malfoy was the Slytherin one, to no one's surprise. His parents were already talking about the party they'd be throwing when he got that badge come next summer, and they'd given Sirius a whole new level of shit when he hadn't gotten one. Neither boy had even thought that was possible until they'd seen it in action. Sirius had acted as if he hadn't even cared, and for the first time Regulus squirmed at his fate pressing in on him even sooner than he'd imagined. Now it was next summer that would be the real test instead of even waiting until he was of age and letting his parents down he didn't necessarily want what they did. He certainly had no desire to be a prefect, how would they take that news?

"Hey, you alright?" Peter asked quietly. He'd been picking off leaves and shredding them for his own amusement, he'd even been considering moving a branch over into a patch of sun and maybe closing his eyes and really enjoy this brief respite of anything horrifying happening to them or Harry, but he couldn't very well do that when Regulus started chewing on the inside of his cheek over something as silly as the prefect badges.

Regulus met his eyes in surprise for several moments, before smiling kindly and answering honestly, "I've been better." He glanced down at his brother though and kept reading instead of elaborating, and Peter nodded to himself, Sirius did feel like the problem and the answer on most given situations.

Sirius was too busy still laughing to even notice Peter had ditched them again, let alone Regulus was trying to catch his eye from ten feet above him. Luna Lovegood was a hoot, he wished she was alive and in school with them now! She'd be as much fun to pull pranks on as Evans, this blonde may even laugh along at them!

James was listing against him for support as they all heard the article about Sirius presumably being some singing sensation. "Well go on then Stubby!" James wheezed. "Give us a tune and I'm sure the Ministry will never look twice at you again!"

"Don't encourage him," Remus rolled his eyes, but far too late, Sirius began singing the last Sorting Hat song they'd heard verbatim.

Lily, Alice, and Frank didn't think he could make the next top charts or anything, but they were reasonably impressed he even remembered the thing from the beginning of their year.

Regulus seemed to be ignoring them above anyways and didn't let them have any more fun with it, predictably, as he kept reading the next article as well, something about Fudge murdering goblins into pies, it was just too funny! Sirius still hadn't climbed out of the bush.

"Oh stop you idiots," Lily finally had enough, her temper snapping, they literally could not take anything seriously! "In case you've forgotten, Sirius is a wanted man for multiple murders! How is laughing at this poor girl helping that?"

"Haven't forgotten," Remus scowled at her, instantly insulted she seemed to think otherwise.

"No harm in laughing off this drivel in the meantime," James finished, completely unrepentant as he grinned at her.

Lily glanced down and saw Sirius Black was still smiling, the first time she knew of he'd done so in the face of this bleak future ahead of him, and hesitated saying anything back.

Regulus hadn't really thought much of the article, no sane person would believe that long enough to hear anyone out, and yet the real story was just as convoluted. Instead he'd kept going, now killing any pretense of a good mood as Malfoy barged into the compartment. His blood chilled at the parting words he left, not in fact more arrogance, but a sly observation of apparently having noticed Sirius on the platform!

His idiot brother was already safe back at Grimmauld place though, he quickly soothed himself, whether he wanted to be or not. Malfoy, Lucius or Draco, were no match for him even if he wasn't.

His mouth was still much more dry than usual though as he forced himself to keep going, but Sirius' snort of disbelief echoing up below wasn't as comforting as he would have thought.

Things only got more grim as Harry got off the train, and Hagrid of all people was absent from his usual post. None of them could even imagine it, the giant of a man had been there every year for the lake ride, now even that was changing. Would nothing in this future remain the same?

Clearly not, as even the carriages were now being pulled by beasts! What was happening to this school?

Peter saw Regulus's disturbed look as he read about the description of those ghastly horse-like things, and shouted loud enough that Stoatshead Hill had likely heard. "Ha! Take that you arseholes, I wasn't making them up!"

"Huh," was all James and Sirius could manage to say to that, while Remus's eyes widened with just as much excitement as if he were hearing about Blast-Ended Skrewts all over again.

"Fascinating, I'm so f'ing sorry Peter! What do you think they even are? Why can only you see them?"

"I can too," Frank frowned at the lot, but even Alice gave him a look of shock for the declaration.

He shrugged and looked just a bit shy at all attention suddenly on him. "What? Hadn't come up."

"How about all the ruddy times the 'horseless carriages' were mentioned!" Lily accused. "What on Earth are they?"

"Don't know," he frowned and tensed his shoulders as still everyone was looking at him now. "I've tried looking them up, but as Harry's said himself, it's a pretty big library when you don't know what you're looking for."

"What kind of Ravenclaw are you?" Sirius scowled.

Peter just smiled that finally his friends didn't think he was playing some weirdly elaborate prank on them any longer. It was no wonder to him his dormmates often thought he was soft in the head, seeing things they couldn't. Now the next time he swore he saw one in the forest, they'd actually believe him!

"What does it say that this Loony girl can see them too though," Sirius grinned and looked up at Peter obviously. He flipped him off, and Sirius laughed.

James and Remus released a breath both of them had been holding for a painfully long time, things really were going back to normal.

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #reading the books #HP #Marauders #wolfstar #Jilly #Ootp #James Potter #Remus Lupin #Sirius Black #Peter Pettigrew #Regulus Black #Lily Evans #Frank Longbottom #Alice Smith

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