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latenightreadingpdf · 12 days ago

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Summer Nights - James Potter

₊‧⁺˖⋆ Masterlist ⋆˖⁺‧₊

Summary: Y/N and James Potter have been best friends since childhood. When Sirius and Remus decide to stay with him for the summer, James makes a pact to make it the most unforgettable one yet.

⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆

You and James had known each other since the very beginning. Growing up in the house next door, you were each other's first friend, practically inseparable from the start. Your parents were close friends, wizards who had known each other even before you were born, and they would often joke that the two of you had been “partners in crime” from the time you could crawl. There were countless photos scattered around your house: a tiny James, his glasses too big for his face, helping you attempt your first levitation spell, or the two of you on your broomsticks, flying low and wobbling slightly as you raced across the yard.

But when it came time for Hogwarts, your paths diverged. James got his letter, of course, but for reasons your parents never fully explained, they decided you wouldn't go. They reassured you that it wasn’t a reflection on you or your abilities, but rather a decision to keep you safe, especially with the state of the wizarding world. Instead, they’d teach you magic themselves while you went to a regular Muggle school.

James tried everything to convince them otherwise, insisting he’d look after you and make sure you were never in danger. He promised he wouldn’t let you out of his sight, that he'd stand by your side through every lesson and defend you from anything Hogwarts could throw your way. While your parents found his offer adorable, they held firm. So, when September came, you stayed behind, and James went off to Hogwarts. Since then, the school year had always meant time apart, and you’d count down the days until the holidays and summers, waiting for him to come home.

But you never let the distance stop you from being close. You and James had an unbreakable bond, kept alive through a flurry of letters every term.

During the school year, those letters became everything. James would write about all the things he was sure you’d love: his new friends, his latest Quidditch achievements, the clever pranks he pulled off with Sirius, and the way Remus could calm down even the rowdiest moments. He sent stories of sneaking around the castle at midnight, stumbling upon Peeves the Poltergeist, and even daring detours to the Forbidden Forest. Every letter was filled with a whirlwind of adventures, and he’d end each one by telling you how much better it would all be if you were there to experience it with him.

You wrote back just as often, sharing every small detail of your life that he was missing. The mundane lessons, the Muggle friends who couldn’t know anything about magic, and the spells your parents taught you at home—magic that felt incomplete without being able to share it with him. You’d complain about how ordinary your school was in comparison, with no magic staircases or enchanted ceilings. In each letter, you’d tell him how much you longed to be there, side by side, where you belonged.

James would read your letters with a broad grin, practically glowing as he opened each one. He didn’t care how confused it made his friends when they caught him smiling like a maniac at breakfast, owl perched on his shoulder. He'd be quick to tell them, “Oh, it's just Y/N,” and go on about you until Sirius and Remus couldn’t help but be curious about this friend he adored so much but whom they’d never met.

As the end of the school year approached, his excitement reached new heights, because this time, he wasn’t just coming home to you; he was bringing his friends with him. He wrote letters counting down the days, telling you everything about how thrilled he was to finally introduce you to Sirius and Remus, and how he was sure you’d love them. The train ride back was filled with his chatter about you, barely giving his friends a chance to ask questions before he’d start rambling about how you were practically family to him.

And then, after what felt like forever, the last day of term finally arrived.

James could hardly keep himself in check. The moment he got home, he was already dashing down the lane toward your house, his friends scrambling to keep up. By the time he reached your door, his heart was racing, his hands fidgeting with anticipation as he knocked, practically bouncing on his feet. He could hear footsteps approaching, and he barely managed to hold still as the door opened.

The second he saw you, there was no holding back. You both leapt forward, and suddenly, you were in his arms, squeezing each other in a hug that held all the months and miles you’d spent apart. After a moment, you pulled back just enough to look at him, grinning as you took in his taller frame, the confidence in his smile. You raised an eyebrow and gave his arm an appraising squeeze.

“Quidditch really suits you, Potter,” you teased, laughing as he flexed under your hands.

“Glad you noticed,” he replied, playfully striking a pose as if to impress you. He was clearly showing off, but you couldn’t help but laugh, feeling the easy familiarity slip right back into place.

Your gaze shifted, catching sight of the two boys standing behind him, watching you with curiosity. Your face lit up as you looked at them. “Oh, you must be Sirius and Remus! It’s so nice to finally meet you.”

You didn’t hesitate, stepping forward and pulling each of them into a quick hug. Sirius was momentarily stunned, his cheeks tinged with surprise, and Remus’s reserved smile softened at the warm gesture. “It’s nice to meet you too, Y/N,” they both murmured in turn, caught a little off guard by your immediate warmth.

James beamed, practically radiating joy as he looked between you all. “So, want to come over and hang out?” he asked, as though he hadn’t already decided you would.

“Sure,” you replied with a grin, and soon you were all walking together back to the Potters’ house, James at your side, talking your ear off about everything and nothing at all.

When you arrived, he showed Sirius and Remus to their rooms, practically ushering them inside before taking your hand and pulling you up to his own room. Once inside, he flopped down on his bed, stretching out his arms toward you. “I’ve missed you too much,” he said, a boyish grin spreading across his face. “I need you right here. Come on!”

You rolled your eyes, but you couldn’t help smiling as you climbed onto the bed, settling down with your head on his chest as his arms wrapped around you, familiar and comforting. For a moment, there was only a peaceful silence as you lay together, feeling the steady rhythm of his breathing beneath you.

Then, in a quiet voice, James whispered, “I wish you could go to Hogwarts with me. Every day. I just… I want to do this every night.”

You felt your heart sink a little as you looked up at him, seeing the longing in his eyes. You reached up and brushed a hand through his hair, giving him a soft smile. “I know, James,” you murmured, your voice gentle. “But it’s summer now. So, we’ll make every minute together count.”

His arms tightened around you, and in that moment, you knew he wasn’t going to let you out of his sight for even a second this summer. And somehow, that made all the distance during the school year melt away.

⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆

After settling into the house, James, Sirius, Remus, and you all gathered in the Potters' cozy living room, a comforting mix of excitement and ease settling over the group. Remus, carrying a well-loved book in his hands, took a seat on the couch beside you. His attention drifted to the cover as he cracked it open, and your eyes lit up when you noticed the title.

“Oh! I love that book, what chapter are you on?” you said, unable to hide your enthusiasm.

Remus’s face brightened, a genuine look of surprise and excitement sparking in his eyes. “Oh I’ve already finished it once, it was just so good I had to read it again,” he admitted, blushing a bit out of embarrassment.

“It’s honestly brilliant,” you replied. “Every time I read it, I find something new. I swear, it just gets better each time.”

“I feel the same way,” Remus said, smiling warmly as the two of you sat on the couch and dove into a deep discussion about characters, themes, and every twist that left an impression on you both. He seemed thrilled to find someone who understood the magic of getting lost in a book.

While you and Remus talked, Sirius claimed an armchair nearby, sprawled across it with the casual elegance only Sirius Black could pull off. James, of course, settled down directly in front of you on the floor, his back leaning against your legs. Without a second thought, your fingers found their way to his hair, gently playing with his messy curls. James hummed in contentment, tilting his head slightly to let you reach even more of his hair, his voice relaxed as he launched into a conversation with Sirius about Quidditch plays and Gryffindor’s prospects for the House Cup.

The topics bounced between everyone, shifting every few minutes—James told stories of his latest Quidditch victories, Sirius cracked jokes that had everyone laughing, and Remus shared bits of wizarding lore you hadn’t yet learned, each of you listening with fascination.

Hours slipped away, and before you knew it, exhaustion set in. The cozy warmth of the room and the quiet companionship felt like a dream as one by one, you all began to drift off. James fell asleep first, his head resting comfortably on your lap, breathing slow and steady as your hand gently rested in his hair. Sirius had curled up in the armchair, his long legs dangling off one side, his face relaxed and peaceful. You leaned into Remus, both of you resting against each other, his head lightly tilted onto yours, his book still clutched in his hand.

As you closed your eyes, a contented feeling settled over you. This was only the beginning of the summer, and you had a feeling it was going to be one you’d never forget.

⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆

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wysteria-bloom · 11 days ago

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↪"you're lucky I...adore you."

Bg3 companions if they've been affected by succubus magic

Bg3 x bard!reader

Warnings : nothing that I can think of.

Genre : fluff, just pure fluff

A/n : still haven't finished this damn game and it's nearly been a year. You don't want to know how many hours I've spent on it I'm genuinely so disappointed in myself 🥲

▢ lae'zel

Gone was her usual stern demeanour, this woman was huffing and puffing to try and hold herself back. Her mouth pulled into a grimace as the words tumbled out of her mouth against her will.

"Tav.... your battle prowess is... most pleasing to witness..." Her eyes were hazy as she leaned down slightly to your level, brows pulled tightly together despite the contrasting words coming from her mouth," Were you a githyanki, I might even consider... taking you as a mate."

You just sort of blink at her, string pulled taught against your finger as you were trying to fix your violin. A slow smile made its way to your lips," ... you're certainly direct." You cooed out, brows raised suggestively as you look her up and down," I'm flattered, really, but perhaps you should save the mating proposals for when you're not under the influence of succubus magic, hm?"

The githyanki huffs, embarrassed but still utterly bewitched, her nostrils flare," usually... a gith would take offense at such a vehement rejection..." Her forehead presses against yours as she frowns deeply," You're lucky I... adore you." She gritted out with much difficulty.

"It was a spell. Nothing more. Forget it happened unless you want to see your innards splattered across the dirt you stand on."

You smirk, pressing your forehead back in response," Lucky, indeed~"

"My pretty lips are sealed, milady."

▢ shadowheart

She leans casually against a nearby tree, watching you with that adoring green gaze of hers that she tried to hide underneath her awkwardly mysterious aura.

She listens to the soft tunes you play with your lovely fingers, humming slightly and almost drunkenly," You know.... your music isn't the only thing enchanting about you."

These strangely uncharacteristic words made you pause in your playing, raising a brow up at her in surprise.

She, herself, didn't know what she was saying but she just couldn't stop herself as her lips twitched into a smirk," perhaps we should compose a duet of our own?"

The blatant flirting amused you to no end and a hand shot to your mouth to suppress a laugh," a duet?" You repeated," As memorable of a performance that would be, I think it best for you to sleep off whatever magical nonsense that succubus casted on you."

Shadowheart gave you an incredulous look and tried to play it off, shrugging with a pout," Oh no, this is... all me." She tried, but the words trembled," totally natural."

"... Let's never talk about this again."

"What a ball of charisma you are."

"I've already got a tune decided for our duet. No backing out now, little cleric~"

▢ gale

The wizard approaches his dearest bard with his usual theatric flair, but the lines falling from his smart mouth were far more dramatic than usual as he tucked a strand of your hair behind your ear," your beauty... it's like the stars themselves - unreachable, radiant, and yet somehow, you make even the Weave seem mundane in comparison."

Your hand removes itself from your instrument to pinch the bridge of your nose. Despite your exasperation, you couldn't hide your amusement," Gale... that succubus has broken you. You don't need to keep... weaving poetry to me."

"Ah, but for you, my dear, no spell is required for me to express my-"

You cover his mouth with your hand and you swear you see hearts in his eyes," mhmm, let's talk about something else, okay?"

"Ahem... I maintain that my delivery was impeccable, spell or no."

"Didn't make me swoon, however. Maybe you should give it another try."

▢ karlach

You pause in analysing what spells you had when a shadow fell upon you, making you look up slowly to see Karlach's wry grin shining down upon you like the rays of Lathander himself.

Her infernal engine was humming a lot louder than usual, her enthusiasm palpable," look at you, soldier! All studious n' shit." She cooed as she crouched down, but she still towered over you. Her head canted to the side, hair falling wildly along with her," You're hotter than the hellfire burnin' in my chest... and that's saying something."

You burst into laughter, shaking your head with a flush rising to your cheeks. Whether it was because of Karlach's heat or her words? You couldn't tell. You didn't care either.

"That might be the most intense compliment I've ever received... did the spell possessing you come up with a list of pickup lines to read off of? Or is this all just you?"

Karlach's eyes glinted with affection and amusement as she shrugged," all me, babe." She lied before catching herself, looking up at the sky to think,"... or.... uh, the spell." She tapped her chin in thought, brows furrowed," maybe both?"

"Don't hurt yourself, love."

"Tav, you have to admit, the hellfire thing was pretty fuckin' good!"

"True... I'd like to hear you say it without slurring your words, this time."

▢ wyll

His confident strides never faltered despite the magic clearly affecting him, his usual charming demeanour was cracked up to tenfold as he leaned forwards to you, a soft little smile spread to his lips.

"You know... your voice could tame a dragon, and your smile could slay a Devil." He took your hand into his, pressing a gentle kiss to the back of your hand," let me be your Knight, forever at your side."

You giggle, reaching out to put a hand on his shoulder and you had to ignore the flip of your heart when he instantly leaned into your touch," Wyll, that's sweet, but I think you're laying it on a little thick here, sweetheart." The pet name made his head buzz," I'm impressed, honestly... did the spell teach you how to swoon like a bard?"

His hand moved to your one resting on his shoulder and squeezed with purpose, brows furrowed with a lovesick grin curled to his lips," no spells required, my love."

You snort," sure, and my lute plays itself."

"I... apologise for whatever nonsense spewed from my mouth. I was merely playing the part, you understand-"

"Hmm... nonsense, was it? And I was so looking forwards to you being my Knight. A shame, really."

▢ astarion

A finger twirled your hair as you strummed your instrument absentmindedly, trying to come up with a catchy bar tune.

Astarion was staring hazily, his usual smirk had actually fallen as his crimson eyes glinted,"... did you know your blood smells sweeter than the finest wine?"

You give him a deadpan look, pausing in your strumming to look up at him which immediately prompted for his hand to move to your chin," Astarion... did the spell make you forget how incredibly creepy that sounds?" You grimace.

He blanched at you, a hand pressing to his heart rather dramatically but his eyes were still infatuated with your every crevice and cranny," creepy?? No, no it's a compliment, I'll have you know!" Then he frowned as he thought of his words and quickly added on a," in a vampiric sort of way..."

You snort and grabbed his wrist, rubbing your thumb up and down it gently," let's revisit this topic when you're not spellbound... or thinking about my blood."

"But it's such lovely blood, darling!" He whined only to be interrupted.

"Nope. We're done here."

"Well, I regret absolutely nothing."

"That's because the things you said weren't anything out of the ordinary you freak."

▢ halsin

The uncharacteristic sparkle in his eye is what made you pause as he approached with his usual gentle facial expression. He opened his mouth and you were enraptured with every word-

"I was missing you... and found a lily of the valley," he held out the flower cutely, the size of it compared to him made your heart clench. What a pure man he was," they truly remind me of you... delicate, radiant and captivating."

You reached out and gently took the flower from him, cradlingnit as your cheeks flush warmly," You adorable man." You then moved your hand and tucked a strand of his hair behind his ear, but before you could pull your hand away, he pressed it to his cheek," Halsin... this is lovely but I'd prefer if you did this whilst not being under the influence of a spell. It's turned you into a poet."

He hums, half-listening to you as he closed his eyes, trying to memorise the temperature and feeling of your hand," poet? Not quite... just a humble druid who's helplessly ensared by your otherworldly beauty."

You sigh and smile, shaking your head as you pinch his cheek, grin widening at the displeased groan that he emitted," helplessly ensared, hmm? Well, let's just hope this spell wears off before you start building me a shrine."

He seemed to lift his head at attention when you said that, moving your hand to his chest and pressing it against his beating heart. The serious look in his eyes sent a flutter through your entire body, his voice a low rumble as he leaned close to your face," would you prefer one of oak or stone?"

You grimace but your face was certainly burning," Oh no, it's definitely time for you to snap out of it."

"Tav... forgive me if my words earlier were... overzealous. It was the spell, of course, though they were not entirely untrue."

"Not entirely untrue, huh? I'll keep that in mind the next time you're waxing poetic about flowers and shrines."

▢ minthara

Minthara, usually composed and calculating, strides up to you with an intensity that borders on unsettling. However, her voice takes on an unusual softness that left you weak in the knees.

"I believe now is the chance for me to express this... you are a weapon forged by the gods themselves - sharp, striking and impossible to resist." Her deft fingers ran up and down your arms softly, soothingly, hypnotically," Were I to claim you..." Her eyelashes lowered," none would dare challenge us."

You could only blink with that shit eating grin you always took on when you irritate her," That's flattering, Minthara. But you should save this for when you're not enchanted."

Her voice lowered," I do not make declarations lightly, Tav. You belong at my side. Drenched in the blood of our enemies."

"Whoo... at your side, huh?" You liked the images she created," what, no throne or crown to sweeten the deal?"

God, the smirk that twitched to her lips was utterly mind boggling. You wished you could sew her mouth to permanently stay that way," Oh... there would be both. Gold and blood, in your honour."

You coughed out a reluctant," I'll pass for now, thanks."

"Whatever foolishness I said under the spell - forget it. I would not waste words on such sentimentality."

"Of course not, Minthara. The throne and crown offer was purely strategic, I'm sure."

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regal-bones · 1 year ago

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SWORDTEMBER DAY 2 : WIZARD

The Shrunken Sanctum, of chipped stone and drying laundry 🪄 "It is very hard to humiliate a wizard. When one’s career consists largely of wearing silly bespeckled robes, doing odd dances, and chanting what is academically referred to as “mumbo jumbo”, a wizards typical social standing is more of a social laying flat on the ground in comparison to the rest of their arcane peers. Although, a rare case of wizard embarrassment came at the bitter fruition of a rivalry between a certain Briny E. Cutforth and Jaques Mossfoot, two wizards who had been at each others throats for decades. It was the sort of feud that no one quite remembered how it had ever started, and ended with Mossfoot shrinking Cutforth’s entire home - wizard included - and reducing his rival to an ornate display piece for his own lopsided tower. Now, mounted on his own trusty sword, Cutforth still lives his days in his little tower. Conversations with the tiny Briny show he is actually quite fond of this predicament. Far less components are needed for spells when you’re the size of a matchstick, and less uninvited folk come banging on your door asking for cure alls, miracles and charms. Wizards - as anyone who has held a conversation with one for more than five minutes can attest to - are very odd creatures.”

Day 2! Really happy with how this one turned out hehe - this is for all my wizard buddies who follow me :3 back to drawing swords! So much to do :D

Yesterday’s sword!

You can support me on Patreon for £1 and help me make stuff like this!

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ahqkas · 3 months ago

Note

if you taking request can u make sumn with mattheo and the reader is just like Rory Gilmore studying all the time and he prod of her or sumn and thank you AND IM LOVE YOUR WRITING

NOTES! fem!reader, i’ve never watched gilmore girls in my life so that’s just my interpretation of rory gilmore from what i’ve seen on tiktok 🥹

THE LIBRARY AT HOGWARTS HAD ALWAYS BEEN YOUR SAFE PLACE. the quiet rustle of parchment, the soft scratch of quills, and the muted footsteps of other students as they moved between aisles — these were the sounds that surrounded you as you pored over your notes, your quill gliding smoothly across the page.

you had always been studious, a trait that had earned you more than a few comparisons to the infamous ravenclaw stereotype, but you didn’t mind. knowledge was your passion, your escape, and you dove into your studies with the same enthusiasm that others reserved for quidditch or wizard chess. you enjoyed the challenge of a difficult spell, the satisfaction of mastering a complex potion, and the thrill of discovering a new piece of magical / muggle theory.

and mattheo noticed.

he had been watching you for weeks now, his dark eyes often drifting toward your usual spot in the library when he was supposed to be focusing on his own work. it had become a habit, really — one that he found both endearing and a little worrying. while others were out enjoying the spring weather, laughing with friends, or practicing on the quidditch pitch, you were here, nose buried in a book, fingers ink-stained from hours of scribbling notes.

it wasn’t that mattheo didn’t understand your drive. on the contrary, he admired it. he had seen the way your eyes lit up when you finally understood a difficult concept, the way you would smile to yourself after writing an essay you were particularly proud of. it was one of the things he loved about you — how your passion for learning was as fierce and unyielding as any fire. but he also worried about you, about how much you pushed yourself, how often you skipped meals and sacrificed your sleep or lost track of time because you were so absorbed in your studies.

today was no different. as he approached the library, he wasn’t surprised to see you sitting in your usual spot by the window, the late afternoon light casting a golden glow over your figure. you were hunched over a particularly thick textbook, your brow furrowed in concentration as you chewed absentmindedly on the end of your quill, a cozy sweater enveloping your focused figure.

mattheo leaned against a bookshelf for a moment, just watching you. there was something about the way you worked, the quiet determination that radiated from you, that filled him with an odd sense of pride. you were relentless in your pursuit of knowledge, always pushing yourself to be better, to know more. it was inspiring, really — how someone could be so dedicated, so passionate. and though he wasn’t the best with words, he wanted you to know how much he appreciated that about you.

pushing off the doorframe, mattheo made his way over to your table, the soft sound of his footsteps alerting you to his presence. you looked up, surprised, your quill pausing mid-sentence as you took in the sight of him standing there, hands in his pockets, a small, affectionate smile playing on his lips.

“hey,” you greeted softly, setting your quill down as you stretched out your fingers that have been writing for hours now. “what brings you here?”

mattheo shrugged, his eyes flicking over the array of books spread out before you. “just wanted to see how you’re doing. you’ve been at it for hours.”

a sheepish smile tugged at your lips as you glanced at the library clock, realizing he was right. “i guess i lost track of time, sorry.”

“again,” the slytherin boy added, his tone teasing but laced with genuine concern. he pulled out the chair next to you and sat down, his knee brushing against yours under the table. “you know, it’s okay to take a break sometimes. the world won’t end if you don’t finish that chapter tonight. ”

you sighed, leaning back in your chair as you looked at him. “i know, but there’s just so much to do. exams are coming up, and i want to make sure i’m ready.”

mattheo reached out, taking one of your hands in his. his thumb brushed over the ink stains on your fingers, a small smile appearing on his lips. “you’re always ready. you’ve been studying harder than anyone else i know. but you don’t have to do it all at once, okay? you’re allowed to take care of yourself too.”

“who cares if i’m pretty if i fail my finals?”

“you’re so much more than that. and you’re not going to fail, love. but you need to listen to me.”

his words, though simple, hit you with a warmth that spread through your chest. it wasn’t that you didn’t know he cared — it was in the little things he did, the way he always brought you coffee when he knew you’d been up late, or the way he would sit with you in the library even if he had no work of his own, just to keep you company. but hearing it out loud, the way he expressed his concern for you, made your heart swell.

“okay,” glancing at the stack of book in front of you that still needed attention, you hesitated for a bit. but when you saw the expression on his face, you made up your mind. “let’s take a short brake.”

“that’s my clever girl.”

you let your boyfriend lead you out of the comfort of the school library, his slender fingers sneakily intertwining with yours to keep you close to him. the cool air hit your face the moment you stepped outside, and for the first time in hours, you felt like you could breathe again. the tension in your system began to slowly disappear as you leaned closer to mattheo’s side, his warmth enveloping you in a new kind of comfort.

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thebestofoneshots · 9 months ago

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Gilded Constellations | (wolfstar x reader)

Series Masterlist | Previous episode

Pairing: Wolfstar x Reader Word Count: 8.2 K Warnings: None Prompt: It's time to get back at Severus for being a constant ass... This IS a Wolfstar x reader fic, but it's incredibly slow burn. They won't start all dating each other until we're very deep into the story, but I promise the long wait will be worth it. Proofread by lovely: @aremuslupinsimp

Chapter 37: Gimme, Gimme, Gimme (A Man After Midnight)

You had retired to one of the tables alongside Remus to explain your plan. It was simple enough to execute, and it wouldn’t cause any harm. Well, as long as Ackley’s prank treats didn’t cause any harm, since your entire plan depended on those.

“You think it’ll work?” you asked him.

He bit his lip, a small frown adorning his handsome features as he thought about it, about 5 seconds later he nodded, a small smile spreading on his lips. “You’re a brilliant little witch, aren’t you?”

You beamed at his praise, standing just a bit straighter as he said it, and leaned in just a little closer to him, cheeks brushing against each other as you went over the plan by whispering into each other’s ear.

“Mister Lupin, Miss (Y/LN), pleasure to see you here,” a voice said from behind. You turned to your teacher with a smile.

“Professor Slughorn, we must thank you for the invitation.”

He nodded, “Oh no, the gratitude is mine, such a lovely presence adorning the party,” he said. “I see you’ve made an interesting choice,” he said, now turning straight to you, “How did Mister Black take it?”

Remus looked at you from the side, seeming weary at Slughorn’s question, you simply smiled at the teacher, “Sirius is more than okay with it,” you reassured. “In fact, he did mention he wasn’t a big fan of Christmas parties.”

Slughorn raised his eyebrows and nodded, you tightened your smile, then another wizard approached Slughorn. “Ah, Roan,” he said with a smile as he pulled the young man and placed a hand on his back, having him face the two of you, “These are some of my best students,” he said pointing at both you and Remus. “Exceptional Wizards,” he praised, “Remus is clever and strong, and this young lady here is brilliant at charms and hexes, I would know, she accidentally hexed one of my kids,” he said, hailing the way you had confringoed Evan. “Very advanced spells I tell you, they would both be brilliant additions to your department,” he said.

The man smiled, he was slightly shorter than Remus, but held his head high with a smile and a rather prideful look, not in a bad way though, Roan, reminded you a lot of Nightshade actually, that same regal look, thought his hair was a lighter brown and his skin was a lot more tan in comparison to her. He extended his hand to Remus. “Roan Elnore,” he said, “pleasure to meet you both.” Once he shook Remus’ hand, he extended it towards you. His hand was rough and strong, on the smaller side compared to your boys’ thought.

“Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Elnore,” you responded.

“Please, call me Roan,” he said with a laugh, “Mr. Elnore is my father.”

“Roan,” you said with a smile, you didn’t miss the way Remus stepped closer to you after that, as if protectively, or perhaps, possessively. Roan didn’t miss it either and he took a short step back, that’s when you noticed a sharp claw mark that shone from behind his ear to almost the front of his neck, it was outside of Remus’ field of vision, and you weren’t sure if Roan had purposely moved his head in such a way that’d you’d have to notice or if you had just perceived it that way.

But the scar almost made you lean closer, it was dreadfully similar to the ones that covered Remus’ body, and to the three –now healing– marks across your arm. You almost stepped closer to try and perceive it better but held back when you realised, again, that Remus’ shoulder was almost in front of yours, impeding you from walking any closer.

“Your department?” Remus asked.

Slughorn smiled as if he had been waiting for one of you to ask. “Ah yes, Roan here, works for the ministry, why don’t you tell them all about it while I go greet some more guests?” Slughorn said as he patted Roan on the back and moved to talk to some other students.

Roan laughed awkwardly, “Some things never change, do they?” he said with an awkward smile, “I work for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures,” he said with a smile, Remus tensed and it was you who stepped closer to him this time around.

“Oh, really?” you said, mustering a charming smile as you attempted to divert the attention from Remus, “And what do you do?”

“I oversee the Registry of Dangerous Creatures,” he said simply. “We basically have to make sure all creatures like goblins, giants, trolls, dragons, werewolves, etc. are identified and–”

You could feel Remus tense even further and you casually dragged your hand to his, taping your finger over his until he wrapped it around yours, you tightened it reassuringly. “Punished?” Remus offered.

“Salazar No!” Roan answered as he shook his head, “I know some people who despise dangerous magical creatures, yes, but while they are dangerous because it’s in their nature, it doesn’t mean they’re not either provoked or without the capacity to control themselves,” he explained. “Werewolves, for example, can be extremely dangerous, but only a few times a year.”

You smiled at that, “Yeah, I agree,” you responded. “Most ‘dangerous’ magical creatures are only such a thing because we have invaded their natural habitat and provoked them.”

“Exactly!” Roan said as he leaned onto you, clearly happy that you understood exactly what he meant. “It’s what I’ve been trying to convince the ministry of,” he explained, “It’s a tough battle, but I don’t plan on giving up.”

“We’d both be pleased to help,” you said with a smile, now paying a closer look to his scar, it most definitely looked werewolf-infringed.

“Roan, darling!” you heard a familiar voice approach and were slightly taken aback when you witnessed the way Seraphina wrapped her arms around the young man and pulled him into a hug. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”

“I wanted to surprise you,” he said with a smile, looking at her with adoration. You turned to Remus and he gave you an equally confused look.

Roan pressed a short kiss to her lips and then turned back to you, “Do you also teach this young couple? Slughorn was giving me all sorts of praises for the two of them.”

Remus pulled his hand away from you in an instant, feeling nervous after giving the man such an impression.

Seraphina, who had her hands on Roan’s arm turned to you, a kind of shine in her eyes you saw only when you cast the right spell on a duel, or when you got the answer to a question correct, “They’re not a couple darling,” she explained simply. “And yes, I do teach them, in fact, I’ve talked to you about her,” she said pointing at you, “She’s my star duelist.”

“It is her?” he asked with raised eyebrows and Seraphina smiled and nodded in return, you swallowed at that, “You’re Silas’ daughter?” he asked almost in disbelief.

You nodded in return. “And that’s Remus Lupin,” she said, emphasising his last name.

“Blimey, you’re the son of my boss,” he said with a gasp. Remus smiled awkwardly, he had never been the son of anyone’s boss before, and while he knew his father worked at the Ministry, he didn’t know of him having many people working directly for him at the department, but he had been working there for almost as many years his own age, so in a way, it made sense. Regardless, Remus felt like Roan was placing him on the same level as you, as if your father’s exceptional political career was equal to his own father’s. He had never felt like that before. Always failing to understand the weight on James’ or Sirius’ shoulders after coming from pureblood families.

“You’ve met Lyall?” you said curiously, “I’ve only ever heard from him. Hopefully, I’ll get to meet him soon.”

“He’ll be delighted by such a bright young witch, surely,” Roan replied.

“Certainly,” agreed Seraphina.

“You are married?” you asked, looking at the two of them with a charming smile, following along the conversation and changing the focus when you noticed Remus didn’t seem too comfortable with them speaking about his father or the registry. Remus, on the other hand, was absolutely impressed with how well you were handling the conversation. It’s not that he struggled to maintain conversations, but you managed to keep the talk flowing with a rather effortless approach.

And it wasn’t because you were particularly outgoing, but you had been to several political events with your parents, so you had kept a lot of conversations with older people before, you were awfully used to the politics, and you had developed a way to use your charm to veer conversations in whichever way you needed them to go, in this case, away from Remus and his father’s work.

Seraphina smiled at your boldness, “Not yet darling, we decided to wait a little bit more until things were less complicated and we could make a big party with no looming danger,” she said. “Roan here has a lot of family members, and they sure would be offended if we made a party without inviting them.”

“She says that, but it’s her family that would be really offended,” the man reproached. “And trust me, you do not want to cross the Nightshades,” he leaned a little closer. “They can be terrifying sometimes.”

You smiled at that, giving a small look at Nightshade before nodding in agreement, yes, she was stunning, but that didn’t take away her presence, she was delightful in a rather icy way, like an ice queen that could freeze you if you did something that could upset her, and yet, you still liked her very much.

Nightshade jokingly shoved Roan by the shoulder, it was rather interesting to see this side of her, a lot more playful and youthful in comparison to the much more stoic ballerina vibe she gave off as a teacher, it made you wonder how she might have been when she was just a student.

You had taken the moment Roan leaned closer to pay a little more attention to his scar, and then when he was shoved by Nightshade, you noticed there was another one peeking from his long-sleeved shirt, barely a the tail of a scar, but you had seen similar ones, on Remus’ hands.

“Are you planning anything tomorrow?” You asked the two of them. “I mean, I know it’s the last day of class and you must be rather busy with grading and such, but we were thinking of preparing a small dinner,” you said pointing at both you and Remus, “With the rest of our friends, of course. And if you’re still around, Roan, you’re more than welcome to come.”

Remus, whose hand had at some point travelled to your arm by crossing his behind you, squeezed as if trying to remind you what day tomorrow would be, but you being so calm with stating you would have a dinner had thrown him off guard too, since obviously you had planned no such thing. You didn’t pay much mind to it, almost completely focused on Nightshade who gave you a sharp look, almost telling you she had understood exactly what you were doing while narrowing her eyes. You gave her a soft look in return, even throwing in a bit of a tight-lipped smile.

Roan’s breath caught in his throat for only a second before he turned to you, “Oh, thank you for the invitation, but I must get back to London with Seraphina early in the morning, we still have some business in the ministry.”

“Of course, do not worry, I’m sure we’ll get more than enough time to meet again on a different day,” you said. “Anyway, Rem and I were just about to walk over to the food table when Slughorn came over,” you explained, “would you like us to bring you something?”

“No darling, we just ate,” Nightshade said as she sent a courteous nod to both you and Remus and started moving towards a different place.

“It was nice to meet you guys, if you’re ever over at the ministry, I’d love to see you,” he said as he followed his girlfriend along.

Both you and Remus walked over to the sweets table and then towards one of the corners of the room, “What was that about the party?”

You turned to him, almost peering through your lashes before raising your head, a small smile on your lips, Remus thought he’d never seen such an angelic look on someone with a smirk before. “You didn’t see Roan’s scars, did you?” Remus tilted his head. “He had one on his neck,” you whispered, bringing your hand up to his and tracing your finger over the same area but on his skin. Remus almost shivered at your touch, your hand was cold from the drink you had grabbed at the table, and you assumed that had been the reason for the way his breath hitched on his throat and pulled your hand back.

You then brought your hand up and traced your finger over it too, going first over the long sleeve of your dress near your upper arm and then just for a second touching your own skin. “He had another one there.”

“Well, he works with magical creatures, dad also has a few of those,” Remus said, missing your point, and perhaps a little annoyed at the fact that you had been paying such close attention to Roan.

“Yeah, but they didn’t look like just any scar, think of Alastor Moody, I’m sure you’ve seen at least a few pictures of him on the paper, his scars are different.”

“How come?”

You let your hand hover over your arm before deciding it would be a bad idea to remind Remus of the now-scarring tissue on your shoulder and decided to grab his hand instead. “They looked like this,” you said as you let your finger brush lightly over one of his scars. “The same depth, tones, tightness.”

“Are you implying that–”

“I thought I was imagining things, but I’ve gotten pretty used to the way they look, Remus, I’ve seen them up close,” you took a deep breath, as you moved your shoulder just slightly, almost involuntarily but Remus noticed. “They were the same.”

“So– whatever did it must have been–”

“Like you,” you concluded. “Roan said they were only dangerous at certain points of the year. He even said he was trying to persuade the ministry. That's a pretty solid stance on werewolves compared to the rest of the people.”

“He didn’t have as many of them,” Remus said, remembering some of the scars on his own face and the rest of his body, some you had seen, some you hadn’t. Even some already healing you had unwittingly caused the previous moon. It was silly really, how the two of you had scarred each other when you were the last people who would willingly hurt the other.

You nodded, “Threw me off guard too,” you admitted. “But he’s older, Remus, and some time ago Nightshade admitted she knew what you were when she got hired, that she was close to Dumbledore even before she was a teacher here, and I just thought… What if he hired her because she already knew how to deal with, well you know.”

“But the scars, it still doesn’t–”

“That’s why I invited them to dinner.”

“He said he had to work,” Remus said with a shrug. “He could have been telling the truth, although…”

“You smelled his nervousness, didn’t you? I wasn’t paying attention to their answers, but rather, to their reactions. Nightshade threw me a look I know well, a warning. I think she knows I was close to figuring it out… and then there was the way Roan was holding his breath, I mean I cannot smell nervousness, not when I’m not Vixen, but I can see it. And you? Tonight especially.”

Remus was frowning, looking at the floor and yet nowhere in particular as he bit his lip. He’s thinking, you realised. It was a look you had seen him make more than once when he was analysing situations, then he turned to you, his brown eyes could easily let you see how worried he was, “He smelled funny.”

“You think he’d notice the same about you?”

Remus sighed heavily, “I don’t know,” he admitted. “There’s a lot of people, I was paying close attention because-” he trailed off as if he didn’t know what exactly to say after that.

You looked at him, now analysing the situation at hand. The way he had stepped over you protectively, and how he had been looking at Roan rather intently. Roan was handsome. Not your type of handsome but attractive nonetheless. What if Remus was attracted to him…? You almost felt your cheeks warm at the thought crossed over your head. You couldn’t have drawn a more faulty conclusion. For someone who had identified a werewolf after one simple talk, you had, so far, been terrible at realising your friend’s feelings for you.

“You were curious,” you offered, giving Remus an easy way out, and he nodded. It was better for you to think that, than knowing that, in reality, he had actually been smelling the way you reacted to Roan. But most of all, he was trying to make sure that you still smelled like him. He almost couldn’t live without being able to feel his scent all over you and Sirius anymore. He sometimes wondered if that was the wolf, or if he was just possessive like that. More often than not it was hard for him to draw the line where Moony ended and Remus started.

“Yeah,” he added.

“He seems like a convenient friend to have,” you said.

“What if he’s evil though? What if he’s with the other werewolves, like Forrester or… Greyback?” You knew what a delicate subject Greyback was to Remus, he had told you the story of how he’d ended up being a werewolf. He had told you about Lyall and his prejudice and how Greyback had escaped and then taken revenge on him by using his child.

You placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, “He wouldn’t be with Nightshade,” you said, “She’s too sharp and perceptive. You know she was offered to work with Moody but rejected being an auror in favour of coming here?”

“Really?”

You nodded, “Dumbledore asked her to do it, and she was thrilled to teach DADA,” you told him. “If Roan was dodgy, she would have already sent him to Azkaban.”

“Maybe she’s blinded by love.”

You smiled at that, “You really think someone could be blind enough not to see a deatheater?”

Remus thought about it, if either you or Sirius were deatheaters, he for sure wouldn’t have noticed. “Would you ever suspect Sirius to be one?”

“Of course not,” you said honestly.

“You’re in love,” he said with a shrug.

“You wouldn’t suspect him either, and it’s not because you’re in love with him.” If only you knew. “It’s because you know him, because he’s your friend.”

“Maybe we’re blinded by the love we have for our friends too.” You looked at him with a smile and pushed with your shoulder just a little. “What?”

“I think we’re passed Pissy Moony and we have Sad Moony instead.”

He gasped, a smile playing on his lips regardless, “You think I’m saying that because of the moon?” You shrugged, mirroring his simile and raising one of your eyebrows as you did. “How would you feel if I said the same when you’re on your period?”

You snickered at that. “Well I do get a little pissy sometimes,” you said with a shrug.

“You’ll admit you get pissy on your period just to maintain your argument?”

You pretended to think about it for a second and then nodded. “You know, it’s kind of nice.”

“Getting pissy on your period?” he teased.

You shoved him in response, “No silly, having a friend who understands,” you said. “A male friend that understands,” you clarified. He raised an eyebrow at that and you shrugged. “You’ve always been more understanding, it’s probably why Lily had a crush on you in 3rd year.”

“She what?” Remus gaped.

“You’re telling me she never told you? She said she did!”

Remus thought back, and then remembered. Lily had said he liked him, in potions at some point when they were partners, but she had said it in such a casual way, Remus didn’t actually realise what she meant, he had been rather worried about other things he was discovering about himself back then, especially the kind of things that he couldn’t exactly talk about with other people. “I thought that was… I thought she meant it platonically.”

You responded to that with a simple incredulous look.

“I said thanks!” he said afterwards, you busted out into a laugh, looking at him as you bit your lip, he was slightly red, and looked adorable all flustered. You were looking at him fondly when you felt someone pushing you as they walked, forcing you to crash against his chest. You were a little stunned by such an unexpected fast movement and had grabbed onto his arms to keep yourself from falling, Remus had done the same to you, holding you just tight enough for you not to fall.

You stayed in Remus’ familiar embrace for just a couple of seconds before turning your head to look at the person who had pushed you, half expecting them to say they were sorry when you noticed who it had been. Fucking prick, you thought as you saw Severus walk towards Barty with his head held haughtily high.

You looked up at Remus, a determined look on your face he instantly identified as your need for payback. Severus had been a total prick all night and no matter how upset Lily had been with you, you were going to retaliate, and not with poisonous words this time around. You leaned back onto Remus, “You already know the plan.”

Remus only nodded with a smile, he wondered if that was what you did on your dates with Sirius too, be all over each other and plan sneaky pranks. Of course, he did it unconsciously, and almost felt bad for even thinking of it, but if that was how it was, he thought it would be splendid.

You walked over to Johnny Ackley as he kept an eye on the Slytherins. Once you reached the boy, you gave him your charming smile, to which he responded with a quirked eyebrow, “May I help you?”

“Indeed you may,” you responded, grin growing ever wider. “I’ve heard you’re an entrepreneur, great businessman too.”

He smiled at your use of words to describe him, “You’ve come for a bargain?”

“Indeed,” you replied with a smile. “Now I don’t want any Rumpelstiltskin tricks to be pulled under your sleeves. Tell me your exact price after I’ve made my request. How many of those trick treats do you have left in your tray.”

“I have only one safe one left,” he replied honestly. “But I’d give it to you for free.”

You let out a breathy laugh at his smile, he wasn’t half bad at this game, from what you’d heard you’d expected him to be a little less capable as a businessman, but he clearly knew that was not the reason you had approached. “Good, because I need that one out of the tray before we make a deal.”

He raised an eyebrow at that, “You cannot kill anyone with these,” he joked.

You scoffed playfully in response, “Why exactly would you think I– Actually, never mind,” you said, and then proceeded, “you said one of those gives bad breath?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, someone’s already taken that one,” he said with an apologetic look, “looking to get away from your date?”

“What?! Not at all! Remus is great!” You weren’t sure why the thought of someone implying you’d want to get away from Remus had upset you so much, but you choked it up to the fact that he was your best friend and that you had to defend his honour because of it. “I’m looking to get back at someone who has been pushing people around since they got here.”

“Ah, of course. Unfortunately, Severus didn’t want to have any of these,” he said as he pushed the tray up just a little, “I’ve offered a few times already.”

You huffed a laugh. “Of course, but you haven’t tempted, not in a way that matters to him,” you said with a smirk, the kind of expression someone who had a plan would make, “what other things do they do?”

Now it was his turn to smirk, and he pointed at one of the treats, “Makes your headache,” he turned his finger to a different one, “gives you the hiccups,” he hovered to another one, “makes you horny–”

“Wait, really?” you asked.

“Want to give it a try?” he teased.

You almost punched him. “That seemed like a terrible trick to play on someone. Could have some nasty uses. You sure you wouldn’t get expelled if they find you out?”

“Not that horny, jeez,” he said. “Belby helped me develop some of these, they are safe and recreational.” He then hovered his pointed finger back on the tray. “Gives you a terrible stomach ache, you can only get rid of it by dancing or kissing someone. And this one–” he said pointing at one with what looked like grey scales on top, “twists all your words so you say the exact opposite of what you mean.”

You smiled at that, instantly knowing which one would be useful for Severus and his nasty little mouth, “Green is the only one that’s good, right?” Ackley nodded in response. “And the price?”

“A piece of your hair.”

You frowned at that. You knew what people could do with hair, you did not want anyone going around with your face. “Hell no!”

“Do you even know how precious it could be? I know people who would pay so much for it!” he tried to reason. “We could even split the profits.”

“For my hair?”

“Hey! A lot of people have a crush on the new quidditch player,” he stated. “I’m sure they’d have a kick with polyjuice and someone willing to help.”

“Ugh, gross!” You said, honestly horrified at that.

“And people also like Sirius,” he said thoughtfully, “would you consider it cheating if someone had polyjuiced themselves onto you?”

You looked positively scandalized by the idea, “Well of fucking course it would be!”

Ackley shook his head as he tsked, “It’s a million-dollar idea, I’m telling you! You lack vision!”

“You wouldn’t sell your hair if you knew they were gonna use it to satisfy some weird as fuck kink!” He gave you the kind of look that clearly said he would and you scoffed.

“Okay, I assume Remus, Sirius and James’ hair is also off the question? What about Lily’s? Or Tom’s?”

“Ackley, I’m not giving you the hair of any of my friends.”

“Your loss,” he said with a shrug. In truth, Ackley did not expect you to agree to either of those requests, but he also knew he wouldn’t lose anything by trying, especially not when you had come to him for help, “If it’s not hair then… would you be willing to brew a potion for me?”

“What potion?”

“I overheard you talking with McGonagall after the game, I reckon she’ll give you the recipe for a contraceptive potion. Think you’ll be able to brew it?”

Fucking hell, now it wasn’t only McGonagall who thought you and Sirius were nothing but horny teenagers. “Yeah, of course, I can brew a batch.”

“Fantastic, they sell incredibly well,” he said with a smile. “But I lost my dealer last year.”

“It will only be one batch though!” you added, a little more vocalised this time around, trying to make it clear.

“Of course, of course. That’s fine though, the scarcity will make it more expensive. I’m terrible at brewing, but I’ll get you all the ingredients you need once you send me an owl with the list, does that sound fair?”

You smiled, “Looks like you’ve got yourself a deal, Johnny.”

He gave you a short wink and nodded at that, “And a good one indeed.” He then looked over your shoulder, at the Slytherin boys. “What’s the plan?”

“Just show up near us and offer some treats in a few minutes, play along if necessary. Remus and I will do the heavy lifting.”

“Easy enough,” he said with a nod and disappeared in the crowd.

You smiled and walked back to Remus, he was a lot closer to the boys and you started a casual conversation with him, telling him about some of the homework you were supposed to do over the break and asking, subtly –according to you– what he’d like to get on Christmas. Now it’s not that Remus realised you were asking him for your own sake either, he was rather enthralled by your talking to pay much attention to your not-so-subtle questions.

“What did you ask Father Christmas to bring over?” you asked him. He quirked an eyebrow giving you an incredulous look, “Aw come on! You cannot tell me you’re too old for presents.”

He shrugged in response. “I’m not sure, back in the house my parents always got me rather practical things, well except for mom, she always got me muggle toys.”

“Really? Were they fun?”

“Some of them, for sure. I once got a small broom horse that my father enchanted so I could use it to fly! It only allowed me to go up a few feet, but it was incredible!”

You gasped at that. “Really?”

He nodded, “And at some point, they even got me a muggle hamster, he was horrified of me though, had to give the poor thing away.”

You gave him a pitiful look. “At least our children like us both equally,” you said, thinking of Pyro and Nummie. You and Remus had already developed a whole system that would keep them fed while you were out on vacation, they had already gotten wide enough to be dangerous when transporting them home. Remus chuckled at that, letting his mind wander just for a second, he could never have children, not with his condition. What if his child ended up like him? The fantasy was nice, though. You looked to the side, Ackley still wasn’t close. “But… what would you like to get now?”

He shrugged, “I’m not sure, to be honest. Maybe a jumper or something. You keep stealing those.”

You gasped at that, swatting him playfully on the shoulder. “For the scent thing.”

“Nah, you’ve been stealing them even before the scent thing,” he said, and it was true, not that he minded it much, he loved it when he got them back and they smelled like you and Sirius. You shook your head in response.

“But what do you actually want, though?” and then you gave him a look. “Don’t think practical, be delusional about it if you need to.”

Delusional? I’d like to have you and Sirius… at the same time, he thought. “Haven’t really thought about it, maybe something comforting? Or a cool band T, like the ones Sirius has…” alternatively one from him. “What about you? What do you want to get for Christmas?”

It was your turn to shrug now, “Not sure either,” you answered sincerely. “I was thinking of getting a muggle gaming console, but I highly doubt it will work with the magical fields here in Hogwarts, so getting it on the summer break might be better.” Remus agreed with a simple humm. “If I do get something muggle it will be like Sirius’ cube.”

“He hates it,” he told you. “He’s been struggling to solve the puzzle since he got it. I think he’ll end up transfigurating it or something.”

You giggled, the image of Sirius struggling with the cube diverting you more than it should. Sirius was always very capable, so thinking that a muggle puzzle would frustrate him, was rather amusing. You could almost picture him throwing the cube to the wall in a very child-like tantrum after trying for very long and not achieving much with it. Perhaps that’s why he was already rather cranky back when you had worn Minho’s sweater. “I feel like Dromeda gave it to him on purpose.”

“Oh, she must definitely did,” Remus agreed with a smile. “We should write her a letter, telling her that her gift was an absolute success.”

“You think she wouldn’t mind? I mean, us writing her even though I don’t actually know her personally?”

“I’m sure she’s heard lots about you, bet she’d be more than thrilled to hear from her new cousin.”

You pushed Remus lightly after that, he knew Andromeda had heard about you already, she had sent him a letter a little after Sirius sent her one mentioning you were now in Hogwarts too. She wanted to know every single thing about you. Of course, Remus, who already considered you wonderful, ended up sending her a rather short and concise story telling her just that, but that if she needed any more information she was to ask Sirius instead because he was not about to meddle in his best friend’s business anymore.

“Treats?” Johnny said as he approached, offering them to some other students but moving rather fast before they even got to dig their hands inside the platter. He passed by you and moved towards the Slytherins.

“Hold up, wait!” you said as he looked your way, the platter on display right in front of the Slytherins. You turned to Remus and called his attention by tapping the back of your hand softly on his chest, “I tried the pink one earlier,” you said. “It was delicious, you should try it,” you said then as you approached Johnny.

Severus gave you a look, at both you and Remus approaching and then turned to the platter, there was one pink one left. So, naturally, and with the intention to piss you off, he took a hold of it and plopped it onto his mouth.

Jonathan Ackley turned to him shocked, but managed to keep it together and hold the snigger threatening to leave his mouth. He had tried to get Severus to eat one of his trick treats so many times and it wasn’t until you and Remus intervened that he managed to do it.

“Oh, you wanted that one?” he asked with a clearly fake concerned expression. “I’m very sorry, I’m sure there are many others you could take instead.”

You looked at him with an annoyed expression, of course, he had just done exactly what you wanted him to do, but the way he had responded, the fact that he really thought he had taken the treat you wanted, it made your bIood boil. If there was anyone that could make the worst side of you flare up, it was Severus Snape. Exactly like it had happened earlier and with equally disastrous results –Lily was probably still angry at you.

“Well, that’s all right, Severus,” you said with the most neutral tone you could have mustered, “I can still take the purple one, I heard Imogen say it was good,” you said simply.

“Which one?” Barty said as he turned. “This one?” he asked as he plopped it into his mouth.

“Okay, that’s enough,” Ackley said, pretending to move the tray to the side, but Evan intervened and grabbed him by the arm. Softly, but firmly.

“What? Do you only give treats to the Gryffindors? I’m sure Slughorn wouldn’t be too happy you’re neglecting his own house,” he said as he grabbed onto one of the leftover treats and popped it into his mouth.

“Reggie, would you like one?” he asked, Regulus, who was a few steps behind, and talking to someone else, turned around, slightly oblivious to the situation at hand and nodded. You gave him a warning look and sneezed when he hovered his hand over some of the treats. He gave you a pointed look and hovered his hand over a different one, you sneezed again.

“Bless you,” Ackley said as he turned to you, eventually Regulus took hold of the one with the green mousse on top.

You breathed out calmly and then turned to him, “Thank you, Johnny.”

While Regulus savoured his treat, you realised Barty blinked a few times and left to the other side of the room. The headache treat he had taken, had been of fast action apparently.

Then James approached, placed an arm over Ackley’s shoulder and leaned over the tray. The Slytherins could not know of the involvement of either you or Remus in the little prank, so it’s not like you could actually stop James from taking one of the treats, but he already had one on his hands.

Fuck it’s that one, you thought as you looked, there was still one on the tray. It’s the stomach ache one, well getting a kiss will not be that hard for James, will it? Besides, it was a lot better than the alternative… You moved quickly, taking hold of the one that was left on the tray and turning to James. “Switch with me?” You asked politely. “I really want to try that one, yeah?”

“I don’t know, Vix,” James teased, Did he have no idea? He probably didn’t.

“James mate,” Remus intervened. “Be a gentleman, would you?” James gave him a look. “Follow the Marauder’s code.”

James narrowed his eyes at Remus but nodded, you quickly switched with him and James left with the treat on his hand.

You gave the small cookie one last look before plopping it in your mouth. Downing it all before Remus even got the idea of eating it instead of you, which you knew he would, but you also knew he’d be in a lot more trouble than you would be if he did take that particular treat.

“Delicious,” you said honestly.

“Of course it would be, you sensible girl,” Severus said.

You gave him an amused look, “I’m sorry, what?”

“I said you, sensible girl! What the heaven?” Severus looked genuinely confused. “BIood loyalist! What in the Godric Gryffindor have you not done to me?”

“Me?” you asked confused, “Whatever could I have done to you, Severus? I was just getting my own treat.”

Evan started to hiccup on the back, he looked uncomfortable more than anything, so he left to search for Barty a little later. Regulus was still standing there, looking like he was just understanding what was happening.

He gave you a complicit smile and turned to Severus with a rather confused stance, “I ate a treat too, and nothing’s happened to me.” He then proceeded to place his hand on Severus’ head, as if to check for temperature. Who would have thought Reggie could be so brazen?

Should have known, he’s Sirius’ little brother, after all.

“Put your hands on me, Regulus,” Severus spat, desperately, although his words didn’t match his tone.

Regulus pulled back with a frown, instantly recoiling after hearing Severus’ words, not because his tone had been imperious –that was always the case– but because of what he had demanded.

“Sev–�� he asked cautiously, but he was interrupted by the boy whose name was uttered.

“It was that angel! She did not do this to me. Godric cherished heaves! This is exactly what I’m trying to say!”

You broke into a giggle then, “Well, Sev, I never thought you’d be giving me so many compliments in one go, but thank you very much.”

“You and you’re clever –cherished–”“ he looked genuinely frustrated, “–cherished heavens– your handsome fiend.”

“My handsome fiend?” you asked as if surprised. “I have no such thing,” you added with a devious smile. “You are my only fiend, Severus.”

Ackley had already bolted, but Remus and Regulus were still standing there, Remus looked like he was about to break into a laugh. Severus had turned red, “You stunning lady!”

“Woah, Severus, I have a boyfriend,” you teased further, just to spite him. It was almost funny that he was saying such nice things now, it really put into perspective how nasty he was on a daily basis.

“Sev, perhaps we should take you to the infirmary, you don’t look all right,” Regulus intervened again.

“Yes! I mean YES! Godric bless it! Cherished heavens, this is exhilarating.”

“Regulus is not wrong,” Remus said, in his always conciliating tone, “You should probably go to the infirmary.”

“You WILL go unharmed after this,” Severus said as he turned to you with a threatening finger.

You waved him a polite goodbye as Regulus took him away and got him to sit down at a nearby table while trying to calm him down.

“Didn’t you mention there was only one good treat left?” Remus asked once the two of you managed to catch your breath. You nodded in response, “Who took it? James? Reggie?”

“Could have been the one I ate…” you said defensively.

“Yeah sure, like I didn’t see you sneezing so Reg didn’t take the one that James took and you ended up chowing down in the end.”

“Reggie took the good one,” you admitted. “Saved James by giving one that wouldn’t affect him much.” Remus frowned when he saw James dancing next to Lily, he had been dancing before he went for the treats too, he probably wouldn’t even feel the effects of the potion. “Johnny said that one gave you a stomachache that could only be cured by dancing or kissing someone, I figured James would have obliged either one without giving it a second thought. Especially if he got yet another excuse to kiss Lily.

Remus gave you a long look and wondered what would have happened if you had taken that one. Would she have asked me to dance? To kiss her? Of course not, she has Sirius.

But what if Sirius wasn’t around, what if I was the last resort… would she kiss me then? “And the one you saved him from?”

You took a deep breath at that, thinking of the treat you had taken, red, the colour of lust, you thought, Ackley must have thought things through when he asked Kless for help.

“Nothing to worry about,” you said with a shrug, you weren’t sure how exactly the red treat would affect you, but you knew it would 100% be a lot worse on a man. “Trust me, I’d be worried if I was a boy.”

Remus frowned at that, “What do you mean you would be worried if– What on earth did you eat?!?!”

“Shhhhh,” you said, a little stressed. “It’s okay, Remus. Don’t stress about it, I won’t stress about it, and things will be alright,” you said as you turned to him, you hadn’t quite noticed how broad Remus’ shoulders were until they were right in front of your face. Actually, you might have noticed how broad they were before but you had never found them so attractive, had you?

Fuck, it’s taking effect, you thought as you looked at your friend and bit your lip, fucking hell. At least you could use curse words without them getting all twisted.

“You can’t just ignore feelings until they disappear,” he said, hypocrite, his own inner dialogue shouted back at him.

“Remus,” you whined, dragging out “e” from his name. “Please, please, let’s not talk about the potion I took and do something else instead?”

“Like what?”

Kissing in a broom closet, your brain shouted at you, you shoved the thought to the back of your head, “Dance?” you offered.

“Do the effects also go away with dancing?”

You looked to the side and thought about it. You guessed, in a way, they could. “Yes.”

The rest of the night went in an instant, between dancing and trying to focus on anything other than the fact that Remus looked damn good that day. From the moment he took off his suit coat and kept only his navy shirt, that was just the right amount of tight on him. Or the way the pants were also a little too tight and let you see his toned legs.

Warmth crept up your cheeks each time your gaze lingered a second too long on Remus, the guilt gnawing at you whenever your head started objectifying him, and the potion wasn’t half as bad as it could be, you weren’t needy or anything like that, but fucking hell did it make you insanely aware of how attractive your best friend was. It wasn’t torturous, except for the fact that you kept thinking that: that night, you’d be sleeping with him and Sirius.

That sounds terrible, you thought as you winced. Vixen and Padfoot would be sleeping with Remus because of the moon– yeah, that’s better.

“You all right?” Remus asked concerned as he saw the expressions you weren’t quite managing to hide appear on your face, winces, smiles, frowns, whatever was going on in your head, including a rather large inner monologue. Perhaps the potions were making you overthink stuff?

And boy were you most definitely overthinking stuff, way too much stuff, and all at the same time. If anything, you’d say the potion had made your mind work 10,000 kilometres an hour –you were doing that on your own– rather than making you exceptionally sensitive to teenage hormones –that was the actual potion’s work.

In fact, the potion wasn’t some frivolous “horny” concoction, like Ackley had described. Kless had tried to describe it to Ackley, to narrow down exactly what would be going on –chemically– on the person that took the potion, but Johnny had given up about halfway through and decided to call it a horny potion. That was nothing close to what the potion actually was. If anything, it was meant to reveal truths obscured by your own defences, a lot closer to what love potions did than it was to aphrodisiacs. In Kless’ own words, it was more “akin to a mirror for the soul rather than an instigator of base desires.”

The potion was a carefully elaborated brew that Kless had designed with slightly selfish purposes, he wanted to use it on himself. Now that sounds terrible when you think of it as a horny potion, but it was never that. In fact, Kless’ intention was just to make himself a little more sensible to his very own feelings. You see, what we know of love, is actually a series of rather complex chemical processes that happen in our brain, things involving neurotransmitters: dopamine –involves pleasure, rewards and motivation–, serotonin –which regulates the mood–, oxytocin –also known as the love hormone–, Norepinephrine –yeah, the same one that’s related to adrenaline–, endorphins and a myriad of other chemicals that would take much more dedication to explore, but Kless did it anyway.

Now his investigation had a reason –no he did not want to make a love potion– he wanted to know if he really liked someone in particular, and he knew that, while there were probably easier ways to tell if you liked someone (like those quizzes on Witch Weekly, and doing a bit of introspection) he also knew that a potion that allowed you see your own true feelings for someone could be really useful. So he gathered some interesting ingredients, that according to his research would help: Moonlit Petals (to enhance receptivity), Tears of a Siren (to increase the sensibility to pheromones), Crystalized Honeydew and a few other things that he thought would make an effective potion. He was about ready to present it to Slughron when he discovered his werewolf obsession and forgot about it altogether. That was until Johny had gone to him and revised his notes.

On the top page, he had written “HARNi” (Heightened Awareness Recreational Brew –Ni was a stand-in for things he didn’t have a proper name for yet), but Kless didn’t have the best handwriting and Johny read horny instead. And we already know how the story goes, Kless tried to explain and Johnny decided to keep the other name instead, he thought the results were similar enough to the meaning of the word anyway. So no, you had never taken a horny potion, what the potion was doing was only letting you see some things you had never been quite aware of before –or not as aware as you were in that particular moment, at least–. Not that you knew any of it, the potion had been presented to you as a “horny” potion and you had eaten the treat as if it had been just that. And whatever it was you were feeling for Remus at that moment, you had –as anyone would– set it down to the potion.

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A/N: Well, did Sev get what he deserved? Honestly, he brought it onto himself... Upon some requests, we have a DISCORD server now and you can all join in and chat about marauders and/or GC with other lovely people. If you wanna discuss a new oneshot or even the new chapters of GC this is your place to go. Lastly, you guys were asking for a new Q&A so I'm working on it at the moment, send all the questions you may want to be added here, or directly on asks. Love, Lils xx

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leiflitter · 1 year ago

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So, Mystra-

The more I think about her, the more I want to egg all of her statues, because I am honestly convinced that she's likely way more embroiled in Gale's fall from favour than she seems- and that she likely never cared for him in any meaningful sense.

This is gonna be long, gang.

Also I am 1000% up for screaming about Gale/forming an anti-Mystra union so y'know let's be pals

My thoughts are thus:

She has likely always known about his potential and capability of power. He was a child prodigy, after all- and she's a GODDESS. From the first time he truly used the weave, he was on her radar.

This also makes Gale's relationship with Elminster seem too convenient. As much potential as Gale demonstrates, it's also important to remember that Elminster is Mystra's chosen- and Mystra's chosen are often tasked with upholding and protecting balance in the weave. There are countless wizards that Elminster could mentor- so why Gale specifically?

The same is true of Gale's magical education. I've seen plenty of speculation about his possible potential as a sorcerer, and there's a lot of questions around the circumstances of him entering the Blackstaff Academy- as well as a confirmation of his power when he, a little baby trainee wizard, uses The Actual Blackstaff to cast a spell.

As an aside, Gale's little story about his misadventure with The Blackstaff is especially scary when taking into account that the staff is very devious, and it's primary purpose is to protect Waterdeep- although this is again speculation, I don't think the portal to limbo was just the spell going very, very wonky. I think the Staff, sensing Gale's ability and (through the very clear context clues of him using the fucking staff that you normally would need to attune to and that belongs to the top fancy wizard in waterdeep) his ambition, decided that he was clearly a potential threat that might be better off being quietly removed via Death Slaad.

We also know of at least one story of a young, powerful wizard who, y'know, led to the death of Mystryl and the loss of all magic- in part because he lacked the discipline that he should have learned at Wizard School.

So Gale comes along. Karsus 2.0- he's back, he's human and- most importantly- he's lonely.

How better to neutralise him as a threat than to make him loyal to her? Why would she cast aside a possible asset when she could use him?

The main problem with her plan is Gale himself. She can get him into wizard school. She can get Elminster to mentor him. She can make sure that Gale gets the best magical education, so hopefully he will be content and settle for being an archmage.

She can't, however, account for Gale's brain. Let's be honest, Gale is neurodivergent as fuck, and magic is his number one special interest. He was never going to be content to enjoy magic a "normal" amount, so no matter how many hours he may spend being taught about how great Mystra is and how the limits she sets are to be respected... he won't stop learning, growing more powerful, becoming more and more of a threat to her.

So how does she cement his loyalty? By getting personal. This is why him being isolated is important- it gives her an advantage. She can be number one without any effort. If he has an actual bond to her, not just the concept of her, then he won't be dangerous. Except, again, she's assuming that he'll be like so many other mortals and be so awed by her presence that he'll finally be satisfied. But he isn't.

Why the fuck would a goddess take someone so clearly, deeply intense about magic into her personal realm? Why would she show him all the power he would never be able to access?

Because, to her, he's just a mortal. There has to be a point in which he'll either be sated or he'll realise his limits and give up, because he's just an extremely powerful ant in comparison to her. Mystra has never considered getting to know Gale. If she had, she'd have realised that doing the grand tour of All The Magic You Can't Ever Do was a huge mistake. That making herself the focal point of his entire existence was an absolutely dogshit move.

Gale throws himself so hard into Being Mystra's Best Boy because he has nothing outside of magic other than his mother. He summoned his best friend, and he admits that he has colleagues and acquaintances, but nothing much else. He and Elminster clearly care for each other, but it's clear that Mystra's placed barriers between them- and even if they were able to be best buds and make friendship bracelets, together, they're at vastly different stages of life.

It's also likely that Mystra's interest in him led to his isolation. He has been marked as Special- the old gifted child problem where him being So Smart So Magic meant he bypassed the social side of things.

So of course he wants to prove himself, to impress her- his entire metric for his self-worth is Being A Wizard. He says he's bumped uglies with mortals before- but he doesn't mention anyone specifically. And, let's be frank, the man has a case of foot-in-mouth syndrome- if he had any meaningful romantic experience before Mystra, you know he'd have brought it up at least once. "Ah, autumncrocus- back in my apprentice days I picked a bunch for the object of my youthful affections. Unfortunately I hadn't realised they were allergic- but they certainly appreciated the gesture, if you catch my implication... Once they stopped sneezing, of course."

She becomes his whole world. He wants so desperately to be on her level, to be what he thinks she deserves- and yes, it was incredibly stupid of him. However, what the fuck was Mystra doing?

Throughout BG3, high approval Gale is actually incredibly receptive if you tell him not to persue power. Yes, his earlier mistakes may play into this, but I find it hard to believe that he'd be any less receptive to Mystra.

To quote- "I pouted. I pleaded. I swore my ambition was only to serve her better. But she only smiled and told me to be contented."

So, then, why did Mystra not actually engage with Gale on this?

Because she never cared about him.

She tried all the options she thought would work on a mortal, and when they were done she didn't consider trying anything else. She never knew him well enough to understand his motivations- he should have been satisfied with Magic Sex because surely any mortal would be. She couldn't even consider that his love wasn't just him liking the company and getting laid, that he'd still want to prove himself to her. To be worthy of the Mystra she'd let him believe in.

And when he fucked up- if she had helped him, even in a tiny way, then she'd have achieved her goal. Imagine if he'd come to her, agonised by the dark magic within him, and she'd been merciful. The way you would be, if you loved someone. If she had actually known Gale? She'd have done it.

But Mystra doesn't see it as an act of love gone wrong. To Mystra, it's proof that she can't control him, that his potential isn't worth whatever effort she'd need to put in.

She abandons him to die- expects him to go on a pilgramage into the wilderness and just go boom.

When he doesn't? She decides that, fine, she'll deal with it- by sending Elminster to tell Gale the good news! She'll "forgive" him if he detonates himself, honest! He trusts Elminster, Elminster's a father figure to him, he'll do what Elminster tells him. Except that's another example of her not understanding Gale in the slightest. Instead of hope, she's rubbing salt in his wounds- she's flexing her power and showing Gale that his bond with Elminster was always conditional on Mystra's approval, and that Elminster's loyalty lies with her.

No wonder Elminster sent a construct- it's the closest thing he can do that isn't abject refusal.

I am gonna stop rambling now but in conclusion:

Mystra, you absolutely suck. Get wrecked. I hope Bhaal shits in your pocket dimension.

#leiflitter rambles #mystra #gale of waterdeep #am i dwelling on this? absolutely #she's lucky gale goes there alone or els would absolutely bite her #baldurs gate gale #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate theories #mystra bg3

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literaryvein-reblogs · 4 months ago

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more literary & character tropes

Tropes - themes, motifs, plot devices, plot points, and storylines that have become familiar genre conventions

All writers manipulate language to create certain effects. At the level of individual phrases and sentences, the skillful use of tropes is key to creating writing that’s fresh, memorable, and persuasive.

Artifical Script - found mainly in fantasy settings, this trope is about fictional scripts invented by the author.

Busman's Vocabulary - when a character in a certain profession isn't on the job, they're going to still use jargon from that profession, basically to let us know what they do for a living. Mafia guys will use "whacked" and the like, chefs will use culinary language, and so forth.

Classical Tongue - a language that isn't typically known or used by the common man. It may be dead and mostly forgotten, or only spoken by educated elites such as nobility, scholars, clergy, or mages. A few words from it might be used to denote something special, or it is used for something or someone's name, or someone who knows it might drop a phrase here and there in an attempt to sound clever, but don't expect the common masses to use it (anymore). It's often an Expy of Latin, if it isn't Latin itself.

Dissimile - when you attempt to make a comparison between two things that can't be usefully compared, realize your problem, and then throw more words at the argument in an attempt to salvage it. This just undermines your comparison even further, to the amusement of anyone listening. ["Boxing is a lot like ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other." — Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey]

Enslaved Tongue - certain types of monsters, wizards, and other supernatural or alien beings are able to control your voice, or otherwise replace your communications with those around you. They will use your voice to lie to teammates, friends and loved ones, or to deliver warnings or threats.

False Prophet - someone comes along and preaches a message about how they're going to make everyone's lives better. People will flock to them out of hope, or because they see an opportunity to increase their own power by aligning with the prophet. If they don't already have it, this figure will request assistance—physically, monetarily, or in some other way—so that their goals can be achieved.

The Grotesque - a character that induces both fear and pity in viewers because his deformities belie a perfectly normal — if not noble — personality. The pathos associated with The Grotesque is the implication that he could easily have been a well-adjusted member of society if not for the hideousness that he is powerless to remedy.

Higher Self - the aspect of a character which "knows better". More specifically, however, the Higher Self is the aspect which rises above whatever is going on in the plot and can see the situation in a way that's removed from emotional or melodramatic entanglement.

Inconsistent Spelling - when names and other terms are not spelled consistently in officially published materials (and not fan-made translations), usually because of transliteration issues.

Jeanne d'Archétype - a fictional character inspired by Saint Joan of Arc. This can incorporate various elements of the historical Joan's story. This character is Always Female, usually young, often an Action Girl, and often of humble origin. Her devotion to a religion, her country, or simply a desire to protect her loved ones causes her to assume an active role in liberating the oppressed from an overbearing force, eventually becoming not only a respected leader, but also a living symbol and a reminder of just how unjust the oppressors are if they bring out the warrior in the most unlikely of people. Therefore, her example directly inspires many otherwise ordinary people to follow in her footsteps and join the same cause.

If these writing notes helped with your poem/story, please tag me. Or leave a link in the replies. I'd love to read them!

More: Literary & Character Tropes

#writing prompt #writeblr #writers on tumblr #poets on tumblr #literary tropes #character development #literature #poetry #writing #fiction #lit #words #writing reference #writing notes #langblr #studyblr #dark academia #tropes #writing resources

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becausesure · 6 months ago

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Adaine has like 44 spells know with the 10 learned in school and the 2 learned by Ayda and then the 32 known from base wizard

For comparison

Riz has 10 spells known

Fabian has 11 spells known

Fig has 16 spells known

However

Gorgug has 61 Known

Fig has an additional 16 Known

Kristen has 119 Spells Known

This is because their spell casting classes work by preparing spells directly from their spell list

#dimension 20 #fantasy high #fantasy high junior year #fantasy high sophomore year #adaine abernant #kristen applebees #fabian seacaster #gorgug thistlespring #riz gukgak #fig feath

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hp-hcs · 1 year ago

Note

Yandere Theo & Enzo x male muggle reader

Where they both go out one night to see what the outside of the wizarding world is like and bump into a muggle (the reader) who lets them stay at his house and shows them around, thinking they’re tourists.

But they fall madly in love with him and now when they have to go back to hogwarts they kidnap him and take him with them.

The reader is stuck in their room, a spell cast where he can’t leave and he’s freaking out.

+ can they be like super touchy with him and affectionate and possessive and he’s just thinking that it’s like a normal thing from “whatever country they’re from”

T h a n k s (:

OH i wish i had a tenth of the imagination y’all have i mean cmon y’all be out here bringing the most well thought out ideas and my fics are all just like “l i ght hu ose 👍🥰👍”

oh also i don’t speak italian so if i fucked up that’s why lmfao i took fucking latin in high school, not anything actually useful 🥲

requests open!

BIC — yandere! enzo berkshire x male! muggle! reader x yandere! theodore nott

warnings: kidnapping/abduction, infatuation (?), implied tobacco use

(also ik they wouldn’t be using US dollars but shhhh)

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

“Oh, Merlin, my father is going to kill me-”

“Relax,” Theo rolled his eyes, a bit winded from Apparating. “Think of it as just a… fifteen minute excursion. Tops.”

“Right, tops,” Enzo mumbled anxiously, rubbing his freezing hands together as another gust of snow blew past.

As he stamped his feet in an attempt to get feeling back into his frigid lower limbs, Enzo looked through the windows of the damned store Theo just had to show him. (There’s this one boy there, Enz, and he’s just gorgeous. You gotta see him.)

Large posters dominated most of the windows, advertising things Enzo had never heard of before, like whatever a ‘Monster Java’ and ‘Geekvape’ was. Stacked outside the store was an entire shelving unit of something called ‘propane’.

Through the windows, Enz could see rows upon rows of candy, chips, snacks, sodas, all in obnoxiously saturated colored packaging. A buzzing neon sign that hurt to look at flashed the word OPEN in blue and red.

This store was awesome.

Lorenzo looked up at the half burnt-out sign above the door that proclaimed this magically wonderful place to be the shop of ‘Jacksons’.

A small bell chimed when Theo pulled open the door, startling Enzo. He followed his much more confident friend inside the store, looking around with wide eyes.

Theodore stopped him with a hand on his shoulder, leaning in to whisper into his ear.

“Okay, the guy I was telling you about? He’s kind of under the impression that I’m like, a tourist from out of the country, and that’s why we’re so unfamiliar with their wares. If he asks, we’re Italian exchange students and only speak shitty English, got it?”

Enzo nodded. As if on cue, a ‘Jacksons’ employee popped up out of seemingly nowhere, startling the fuck out of him.

“Hiya, Theodore!”

The employee—a boy around their age, maybe seventeen at the most—was unusually chipper for 10PM on a Sunday.

This must be the guy.

“Who’s your friend here, Theodore?” You asked, smiling.

“Hello, Y/N! This is Lorenzo.”

“Hello,” Enzo greeted softly, his cheeks flushed pink from the snowstorm outside (and that’s the only reason, Theo, stop laughing.)

“Can I help you boys find anything or’re y’all just looking around?”

Enzo couldn’t look away from you. How small you seemed in comparison to his awkwardly lanky height, the way the harsh fluorescents cast dramatic shadows of your eyelashes across your cheekbones, the light blush on the tips of your ears as you looked at Theodore.

Theodore.

He’d said your name. You’d said his name. You knew each other?

How often does he fucking come here? Enzo wondered, a sharp stab of jealousy running through him.

“Cigarettes,” Theo said immediately, exaggerating his usually undetectable accent to an honestly ridiculous amount. Enzo bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing at his friend’s ridiculousness.

You just smiled and ducked behind the counter. “Same as last time, or’re you trying something new?”

“Same, please. And un accendino, please,” Theo made a clicking motion with his thumb, indicating a lighter.

You nod, easily pulling down a pack of Marlboro Red without a second thought.

How often does he come here? Enzo wondered for a second time. Enough that you know his favorite kind of cigarette.

“Cheap lighter or d’you wanna go fancy?”

“Cheap, please.”

“Alrighty, one BIC lighter coming up for ya,” you grabbed a lighter off the back wall behind the counter, setting it down by the cash register.

Enzo couldn’t help himself as he stared at the bright blue chunk of… what did Muggles call it again? Plastic.

“Bic?”

You glanced up at his timid voice, shooting him a grin that was just a bit friendlier than the classic customer-service smile. “BIC. It’s just the brand. They make cheap lighters and also pens, for some reason.”

Enzo wanted to ask what a ‘pen’ was, but he had a feeling that that was a terrible idea.

“$7.98. Cash, I assume?”

Theo, for the first time, genuinely faltered, cringing apologetically as he laid down the mess of all-identical green papers on the countertop.

You smiled patiently, plucking one paper out of the spread and pushing a few buttons on the cash register, then returning two papers and a handful of coins to a baffled Theo.

Fucking Muggles, with their impossible-to-memorize currency.

“Damn. It’s really coming down out there,” you shook your head as you peered out the front window of the store, waiting for the long white piece of paper to stop moving from the odd humming machine that sat next to the cash register. “Where’re y’all staying? I don’t think you guys should try to drive home in this.”

They follow your gaze, eyes widening when they see how high the snow has risen. The storm had gotten much, much worse.

“Hey- where is your car, anyway? The parking lot’s empty,” your eyebrows furrowed as you turned back to them with a quizzical face.

Enzo mentally panicked. He knew the word ‘car’—he probably heard it while only half-paying attention in Muggle Studies—but he couldn’t for the life of him remember what a ‘car’ was.

“We walked,” Theo said quickly, jumping in and taking hold of the conversation.

“You walked?” You asked, clearly horrified. “No, no. I can’t in good conscience let you two walk back in this. Haven’t you seen the weather? It’s supposed to be like, nearly a blizzard! Worst snowstorm of the decade!”

Lorenzo’s eyes widened.

Muggles could predict the weather? Holy Salazar, his parents might’ve been wrong about Muggles’ intelligence.

You misinterpreted the way his eyes widened. “Listen, this sounds crazy, but would you guys like, consider crashing at my apartment? Just for the night? Maybe the snow’ll clear up overnight.”

Theo opened his mouth to protest, no, really, we couldn’t take advantage of such hospitality, Y/N, but Lorenzo interrupted.

“We would much like that,” he said firmly. “If it is no problem for you.”

Staying at this hot guy’s apartment for the night? Duh, that’s an obvious yes.

“It’s no problem,” you wave off his concern. “‘sides, wouldn’t want a pair of pretty boys such as yourselves to freeze to death, now would I?”

Theo stiffened and blushed bright red at that, a dopey smile spreading across his face.

Oh Merlin, were you two flirting with each other? Enzo felt that sharp spark of jealousy flare up again in his chest, dampered only by the fact that it was Theo, and not anyone else.

“It’s just right across the street. Lemme close up shop for the night, and we can make a run for it,” you say with finality, ignore Theo’s weak protests.

They watched as you lock the cash register and counter with the practiced ease of someone who had done so many, many times.

You pulled the grate down over the cigarette shelves on the back wall, flicking off the overhead lights and tugging a tiny metal string that made the painfully bright OPEN sign go dark.

“Alright, let’s go,” you said, shooing them out onto the sidewalk, buttoning up your heavy winter coat, and locking the front door.

As you stuffed the keys back into your jeans pocket, Theodore rested his hand on the small of your back.

“Lead the way, bello,” he said with a charming grin. You nodded, smiling at the difference in cultures, wow! and motioning for them to follow you.

The boys followed you in a comfortable silence, shoulders hunched up as they braced themselves against the furiously icy wind.

You all crossed the street, Theodore and Enzo both baffled when a tiny light that looked like a person indicated it was safe to cross.

Your boots clanged on the shaky metal stairs up to the third floor of your apartment building, and your boys followed resolutely.

When they reached the landing, they were met by the image of your rather quaint front door, a tiny, clearly homemade wreath hanging on the center.

“This is it. Not much, I’m afraid,” you sighed, your freezing fingers fumbling with the key as you twisted it in the lock, opening the door for them. You flicked on the lights, illuminating the interior of the small apartment. “Do you guys want tea? Hot chocolate? Coffee, if y’all are psychopaths?”

“Perhaps it is a bit late for coffee,” Theo snickered at your dry humor as he stepped inside. “Tea, if it is not a hassle?”

“‘Course not. Make yourselves at home. My mother won’t be back for hours,” you chatted happily, setting a kettle of water on the stove to boil.

Theodore tentatively sat down at one of the kitchen chairs, looking around the small apartment in surprise. At your reassuring smile, Enzo sat down too, drumming his fingers against the table anxiously.

The kettle whistled after a few minutes, and you poured three mugs of tea, setting them on the table and settling down in one of the empty seats.

Theo reached for one, purposefully brushing his fingers against yours.

After that, it all goes blank.

~~~

Your eyes slowly cracked open, your head pounding and your stomach twisting and turning. You blinked away sleep, rubbing your eyes and yawning as you sat up in bed.

What happened last night?

You startled when your brain finally registers that you’re not in your apartment.

You sat up in a panic, looking around horrified when you don’t recognize your surroundings. The room itself was decorated with an honestly abhorrent amount of green and shiny silver. There were three other beds, identical to the one you were laying in, set up intermittently around the room.

A dorm? You wondered.

A huge window dominated the wall adjacent to the bed you were in, the view on the other side of it oddly distorted and warped.

You leaned in closer, confused, when a tiny yellow fish swam by.

You gasped, and put your hand on the glass to peer out even further.

Were you underwater?

Your amazement was interrupted by a large unidentifiable shadow filling the window. You frowned, your hand drawing back from the glass, when the shadowy shape moved, opening.

A giant fucking eye.

“Jesus fucking-”

You scrambled backwards, falling off of the bed with a yelp. While you fought with the blankets that seemed hell-bent on getting tangled around your legs, the giant eye slowly blinked before the shadowy form started moving again.

A giant squid, you thought with astonishment. There was a giant fucking squid outside of this dorm room’s window.

Finally wrenching yourself free of your blanket prison, you scrambled to your feet and sprinted towards the only door in the room. You jiggled the handle, cursing when it didn’t open.

There wasn’t even a lock, a keyhole, nothing.

How the hell was this door so firmly locked shut then?

Something tacked to the door- actually, there wasn’t a tack either. How was it stuck there?

But what caught your eye was a small scrap of… paper? Parchment? It looked like the paper your art teacher once showed you how to stain with tea.

Who the fuck still writes on parchment? You wondered, scrunching your eyebrows up in confusion as you examined the perfect swoops of calligraphy on the page.

Darling – We’re really sorry for taking you with us (please don’t hate us) and we'll be back here around noon Xoxo, Theo & Enzo (those actually are our real names we promise!!)

((we also might’ve made your mother forget about your existence so she doesn’t try to find you. you’re safe though, don’t worry!))

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

wow! people actually like my stuff enough that i now have a taglist??? (some of y’all weren’t showing up, so lmk if i need to troubleshoot 😭)

@gayaristocrat @slytherinboysappreciation @lemonaderiddle @h-------n @yournogoodalone @knave-hearts @schaebickel @lexacantsleep @big-brother-problems @darkcharmx @cyberbl4de @amandajonhsson @megannxn @catz-80 @ghostiesen @fruityfrog505 @coysa @fruitypebblesstuff @mildlyuninformative @glittervame @cayaevans1 @lizeylavender @cloudydaysinmydreams @ironickarkatlover @ahead-fullofdreams @tachyon-girl @jaythes1mp @lovelyfandomqueen @ashisgreedy

#harry potter #fuck jkr #hp x male reader #hp #x male reader #x reader #theodore nott #theodore nott x reader #theo nott x reader #male reader #theo nott #yandere theodore nott #enzo berkshire #enzo berkshire x reader #lorenzo berkshire x reader #lorenzo berkshire #slytherin boys

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talenlee · 8 months ago

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Why Is Druid?

Say that like ‘where is Wizard Hut?‘

I love the 4e Druid. This is a marked change from how much I liked the 3e druid, or how often you might see me playing a druid in a Baldur’s Gate game. Back in 3rd edition, the druid, despite being very powerful, never really engaged me, in part perhaps because I was always trying to find something exploitative and powerful rather than merely accepting the juggernaut of a toolkit the game just left in the Player’s Handbook. You couldn’t get clever with the Druid, you just had to pick it up and use it, like some sort of society of creative anachronisms where one of the anachronisms available to the players was has gun. Valid, but hardly sporting.

The Druid in 4th edition is different. Wildly different. Weirdly different, and different in one of those ways that shows what I think of as a seam in the design between 4th and 3rd editions of D&D.

The Druid was one of 3rd edition’s great mistakes, a full spellcasting class with healer capacity to serve as a pinch-hitter healer in a group that wanted things a little more varied, addressing an enormously complex potential build from its earlier edition, 2e, and all in the process, resulting in some deeply confused mash up of abilities that attempted to address confusion with volume. The druid of 2e had a special unique set of rules compared to the Cleric — for example, at a certain level, you passed into a specific category of Druidic ability and now you were technically a Hierophant, and Hierophants had seven extra spells of every level. Of course there was a limited supply of Hierophants in the world, so there was a question of if you could level up if another one existed, and maybe there’s a one-in, one-out policy? First in, first fired?

Anyway, I can’t speak to how it played, but I am at least aware, on the edges of it, that the 2e druid was odd. It had a lot of things it could do, but much of how it worked, reading the books, seemed to be interesting but challenging to manage. You could wild shape, you could heal, you could cast utility spells, you could even fight with some melee weapons — personally, I didn’t see any of it worth it, because none of the things it could do it could do very well.

3e addressed this seeming difficulty by instead taking all those different options and bringing them all up to the same level. Wild Shape worked by checking traits of monster units, which meant that you weren’t limited to specific reinterpretations of animals and instead could do what a druid feels like it should do — you know, turn into an animal. The spells were rebalanced and shared across different classes, which meant that they tended to work in a more standardised way. Armour rules were aggregated, and weapons were made less terrible.

The result was that the 3e druid went from being ‘decent’ at a bunch of things to ‘good’ at everything it wanted to do. The problem of the druid then became about picking the thing you wanted to at every opportunity, and doing a good job of it — you’d have druids carrying wands of healing so they could dedicate their spell slots to more important tasks, like Flame Striking opponents, or messing up the battlefield with roots. You’d also see druids keeping the ‘best’ list of animals on hand, and every new monster book presented a new chance for druids to develop a new best form.

It also created the strange question of What does the druid do?

The answer was ‘everything.’

The 4e Druid, in comparison and contrast to these designs is something very different that touches, at best, on the periphery of what the 3e Druid could be. I mean it stands to reason, you can only ever touch on doing everything when something you’re working from is so powerful. 4e with its role system of Defender, Striker, Leader and Controller, and its reliable, reusable balance math suddenly was confronted with fitting an elephant into a shoebox.

How do you represent something busted that could do everything in the context of a new system that sought to explicitly prevent that? I joked when the game was new that the four roles were Defender, Striker, Leader and Miscellaneous. That any class too powerful, with too much stuff it could potentially do, got thrown to the Controller role as suggested by the first Controller we ever saw being the Wizard. Oh and back in Player’s Handbook 1, the Wizard had a few builds that were pretty ridiculously pushed — the pinball wizard, I’ll talk about it sometime — and that meant that it was easy to feel like the Controller Does Everything.

That impression diluted through experience, of course, and eventually it came to that while yes, the Controller sure has some Miscellaneous vibes, the core of what the Controller was there to do was to attack the enemy action economy. Nice and obvious to a non giga-nerd, right? Okay, how about this: The leader lets you do more things, the controller stops them from doing more things?

And into this space, they poured the druid.

It works beautifully, for my tastes; the druid needs to do lots of things to feel properly druidy, but you need to make sure the doing lots of things doesn’t unbalance the game. Controllers have the widest variety of things they can do and ways they can do them – inflicting status conditions, changing enemy position, preventing specific action types, making areas on the battlefield inaccessible, these are all ‘controllery’ things, and that means there’s a lot of different ways you can flavour them. The Invoker is most famous for making zones in the play space hard to deal with, the Wizard has a build that slides things all over the place, and the psion controls people with immense penalties to their damage rolls.

Obligatory pause where, while reading this aloud, for either Fox or I to comment on how amazing it is that Dishearten is an AOE power.

Anyway, the druid was designed to be a mode switcher class. That is, there are two ways a druid can do things. One is a melee controller that makes a single target’s life harder, the other is a ranged controller that makes a large group of enemies’ lives harder. This mode switching then adds a new element to the class that your powers can interact with, where you now have control powers that can add a mode switching element to them as well. This is your Wild Shape – you transform into some kind of nonspecific beast, which can use your Wild Shape powers. Each form has fewer powers to manage, and you can build your druid to specialise in one or the other or do a mix.

This lets the druid do the ‘a lot’ without letting them actually do everything. You have a lot of choices and a lot of ways to play with those pieces, but even just how often you use the mode switch is part of what the druid does to control the battlefield. When I first played a druid, it was not uncommon to start a fight out of wild shape, use the first turn to make some kind of area control power, then shift into wild shape for the rest of the fight kicking people into that area control power. There are druids builds that work like wizards and only ever shapeshift to get away from problems, and make a hit while scuttling away, or to sit on a specific type of problem. There were druids who focused on summoning monsters and using them as kind of turrets on the battlefield, positioning allies in a way that benefitted them around those summons.

Lone artillery combat encounters, where you have a bunch of stuff in front of a long-ranged attacker? Druids love those. Even at level 1, that artillery is spending their days completely stuck underneath a Fire Hawk power.

Problem is, of course, that if you want to do Everything doing a Lot is going to miss something. That was what led to the subclasses of the druid, the ones that added healer elements to the druid, because the druid back in 3e could do that. It added animal companions, because the druid back in 3e could do that. Now I don’t worry too much about these things because if I wanted an animal companion on my Druid, I’d take a theme for that, but also because these changes were introduced in an Essentials book.

Which is to say, they’re crap.

They’re not crap crap, like I try to defend Essentials as giving players a choice for simplified character builds, but in the specific case of the Essentials Druids, in order to work with the simplified choices, these Essentials druids with their animal companions and their healing powers have to look at all other Druid powers and not use them. The only use they get out of their animal companion is using the specific subset of powers that make them work, and that makes combat more samey. But again: That’s a thing you probably want if you want a simplified build.

Still, it gives rise to my favourite joke – I mean like, funny thing, not really a joke, there’s no subversion of reality or anything here – about the Healer Druid. See, every Leader in the game gets an encounter power, usable twice a combat at level 1, that heals an ally with a bonus. Every class gets their own version that lets them distinguish their class specifically and add some interesting detail that shows how this Leader differs from other Leaders.

The Healer druid build gets Healing Word.

The Cleric power.

Literally, the same power, same name, listed as a Cleric power.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#DnD 4e #Dungeons &amp; Dragons #Games

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keldae · 4 months ago

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Art done by the incomparable @aevari, and I could not be more delighted with this! They do such amazing work!! <3

---

Mother wasn’t joking when she said that Waterdhavians like an excuse for a party, Devi mused as she stood back, watching the ongoing chaos in the expansive room. It was still so surreal that all these people in the room had gathered to witness her wedding to Gale. Laughter echoed through the building as Devi smiled, playing with the ring on her left hand – a match to the one that Gale wore.

She felt a hand on her lower back, and knew without looking that it was her husband – her husband! – standing at her side. “Ahh, look at it all,” Gale chuckled as he gazed out over the room. “So many people who’ve come to witness our union, my love.”

“I never thought this day would happen,” Devi confessed, shifting to lean against Gale’s side. “If I did ever get married, I had expected that it would just be an exchange of vows before some overworked priest in the Stormshore Tabernacle, maybe with a couple of friends to witness it… and it probably would have ended poorly.” She looked away from the gathering of friends and family to smile up at Gale. “I never could have imagined a day like today, with everyone we know and love here.”

Gale smiled and leaned down to nuzzle her nose with his own. “Today has been perfect,” he murmured. “I got to stand before our friends and family, and profess my undying devotion to the woman I love… my wife.” He breathed out the last words, as if still awestruck at the realisation that Devi was married to him now.

“My husband,” she whispered with a fond smile, reaching to set her hand on his chest, over his heart. In the peek of his chest that his elegant robes offered, there was no sign of the cursed Netherese orb that had nearly killed him – Mystra had cleansed Gale of the damned thing as she’d promised. Gale was whole and healthy again, and Devi couldn’t be more grateful.

His eyes full of love, Gale set his hand on top of Devi’s, keeping her still against his chest. His other hand came up to caress her cheek. “My beautiful Devi, who stole my heart and gave me back my will to live…” he murmured. “How did I get so lucky as to be loved by you?”

Devi smiled as Gale tilted her face upwards. “I’m still trying to figure out how I was so fortunate as to find you and be loved by you,” she softly answered. “My wise, intelligent wizard. You cast a spell on me without even trying.”

“You saw me at my lowest point, and you still chose to love me,” Gale whispered. “You gave me hope where I had none.”

“You saw the parts of me that I tried to keep hidden,” Devi responded. “You gave me a reason to trust again.”

With a fond smile, Gale bent his head to gently kiss Devi’s lips before he pulled back to look at her. “You would have been beautiful even in rags, my love,” he murmured. “But in this… you are a vision of beauty and grace, Devi. And I am the luckiest man on Toril, to call you my wife.”

Smiling, Devi reached her hand up to gently tuck a stray lock of hair behind Gale’s ear. “And you, my breathtaking wizard… you are magnificent. You were gorgeous even covered in mud and blood on our adventure, but today… you make a work of art pale in comparison.”

Gale chuckled and kissed her again. “My perfect, beautiful wife…” he murmured. He looked up as Alfira, who had volunteered her services as a bard for the celebration, started strumming a song on her lyre. “Ah, one of our favourites,” he said with a smile. “May I have this dance, Mrs. Dekarios?”

“You absolutely may,” Devi answered, laughing as Gale took her hand and led her to the floor to dance in his arms.

This, she thought to herself as she let Gale lead her in one of the Waterdhavian dances that he had taught her, was indeed a perfect day. She had been made to feel more beautiful than she ever had in her life, and she was celebrating with everyone she loved, and she could finally call the man she adored her husband.

Today was the first day of the rest of her life. And she was eagerly looking forward to it, with Gale at her side.

#bg3 fic #bg3 art #aevari #gale x tav #gale/tav #tav x gale #kel writes #deviali #wedding day #post-game #go check this artist out!#aevari is amazing!!#Gale/Devi

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thecreaturecodex · 3 months ago

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Kami, Oxter

Image accessed at the Ultraman Wiki here

[I'm back! It's the start of a new school year, so I've been busy busy busy. I do hope to return to my summer schedule of one new monster a week.

And what a monster we start with! Oxter is one of the weirder designs in Return of Ultraman, but has connections to Ultra kaiju before and after. The plot of the episode, and Oxter's acidic powers, feels a lot like Stegon, who I've already statted up here. And the same author who wrote this episode wrote an episode of Ultraman Ace with another bovine kaiju, Cowra. The Cowra episode is notable not for the powers or appearance of the kaiju, which are fairly sedate by the standards of Ultraman Ace. But the way a character turns slowly into Cowra feels like it started out as transformation fetish porn, and then was repurposed into a kid's show about a giant silver alien/angel who punches monsters. The "writer's barely disguised fetish" trope goes way back.]

Kami, Oxter CR 19 N Outsider (native) This creature’s head resembles that of a cow, but its anatomy otherwise bears little resemblance to ordinary animals. It is bipedal, with a thick slug-like tail and stumpy legs. Its back has a high bony hump, and its head is set low on its shoulders. Instead of arms, it has large red horns, which articulate on jointed stumps. Its ears stick out at a wide angle, and a ribbon-like tongue flickers in its tusked mouth

An oxter is a bizarre kami that guards a site of mass animal death and protects their remains from desecration and disrespect. They can be found in any natural environment, from tar pits and volcanic craters to water holes that had dried up at an inopportune time. Oxters do not care much for the reasons their ward might be disturbed and respond to any disturbances with violence. From wizards seeking out supplies for necromancy or golem construction, to scientists studying the natural processes that occurred at the site, all are likely to find themselves subject to the oxter’s destructive scrutiny.

Oxters are slow and cumbersome on land, but they are surprisingly mobile in the water. As such, they often remain stationary and probe out disturbances using their supernaturally long tongues, which can extend for hundreds of feet. These tongues are coated in corrosive saliva, and anyone who gets close to an oxter will be sprayed by a torrent of acid. An oxter’s melee weapons are its horns, which are capable of surprising mobility and can strike repeatedly at multiple targets as if they were swords. Oxters have few spell-like abilities in comparison to other kami, but can use magic to move through impeding terrain or to smite interlopers in a particularly desperate battle. An oxter will fight to the death to protect their ward.

Because of their association with mass mortality events, oxters and stegons can be found in association with each other. Stegons are the only undead creatures oxters will tolerate, and the kami see such assemblages as a natural consequence of particularly serious disturbances. Oxters will permit other creatures to live in their wards, even sapient ones, as long as they respect the peace of the dead who lie there. They rarely associate with other kami unless their wards overlap, but in such cases the oxters tend to defer to their more intelligent kin, even if they are much physically weaker.

Kami, Oxter CR 19 XP 204,800 N Colossal outsider (kami, native) Init +9; Senses blindsense 60 ft., darkvision 60 ft., Perception +26

Defense AC 34, touch 7, flat-footed 29(-8 size, +5 Dex, +27 natural) hp 330 (20d10+220); fast healing 15 Fort +19, Ref +19, Will +17 DR 15/cold iron and magic; Immune acid,bleed, mind-influencing effects, petrifaction, polymorph; Resist electricity 10, fire 10; SR 30

Offense Speed 40 ft., swim 80 ft. Melee gore +26/+21/+16/+11 (4d6+13), bite +24 (4d6+6 plus 2d6 acid) or gore +24/+24/+19/+19/+14/+14/+9 (4d6+13), bite +24 (4d6+6 plus 2d6 acid) or tongue +26 (2d8+13 plus 4d6 acid plus grab) Space 30 ft.; Reach 30 ft. (20 ft. with bite, 60 ft. with tongue) Special Attacks breath weapon (120 ft. cone, 20d6 acid, Ref DC 31, 1d4 rounds), constrict (2d8+19 plus 4d6 acid), extensible tongue (AC 23, 33 hp), trample (2d8+19, Ref DC 33) Spell-like Abilities CL 19th, concentration +23 3/day—commune with nature, freedom of movement, undeath to death (DC 21) 1/day—quickened divine power

Statistics Str 36, Dex 21, Con 32, Int 9, Wis 20, Cha 21Base Atk +20; CMB +41 (+45 grab); CMD 56 Feats Blind Fight, Double Slice, Great Fortitude, Greater Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Initiative, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Multiattack, Quicken SLA (divine power), Two-Weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus (gore) Skills Knowledge (nature) +16, Perception +26, Sense Motive +22, Survival +22, Swim +37; Racial Bonuses +4 Perception, +4 Swim Languages Senzar, telepathy 100 ft. SQ articulated horns, merge with ward, ward (animal graveyard of 4 square km or less)

Ecology Environment any Organization solitary Treasure incidental

Special Abilities Horns (Ex) The horns of an oxter are capable of making iterative attacks as if they were manufactured weapons. An oxter can fight with both horns in the same turn as if using two manufactured weapons (and most oxters take Two Weapon Fighting and other feats for this purpose). In any round in which an oxter makes a melee attack with its articulated horns, it treats its other natural weapons as secondary natural attacks. Extensible Tongue (Ex/Su) An oxter treats its tongue as a primary natural attack that deals bludgeoning damage. It can make attacks with a reach of 60 feet ordinarily, but if the oxter spends a move action, it can extend its tongue 60 feet. It can continue to spend move actions to keep extending its tongue at a rate of 60 feet per round to a maximum of 1200 feet long. The tongue can attack around corners and even enter buildings; if the oxter cannot see what it’s attacking, the tongue can use the oxter’s blindsense. An oxter cannot use its tongue as a weapon in a round where it attacks with other natural weapons. The oxter’s tongue has hit points equal to 1/10 the oxter, and an AC of 10 + ½ the oxter’s natural armor bonus. It uses the oxter’s saving throws, resistances and immunities if attacked separately. The oxter’s tongue can make Stealth checks as a Medium creature, and is five feet in diameter. If an oxter’s tongue is reduced to 0 hp, it is shed, and the oxter grows a new tongue over the course of the next 24 hours.

#pathfinder 1e #kami #oxter #native outsider #ultraman #return of ultraman #kaiju #bovine

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anomalyaly · 19 days ago

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Treacle Trouble

Summary: Takes place the summer after Elsie’s fifth year/before her sixth year. Canon to 'Secrets' but can be read on its own. Elsie attempts to bake treats for Sebastian to cheer him up. Her brother, Benjamin, doesn't understand.

Or: Elsie is very bad at baking. AO3/Wattpad

SFW, Fluff with a hint of the sads. Written for a November 2024 discord server event.

2.9k words

Canon divergence: Fifth-years are sixteen when they begin, which means Elsie is seventeen by the time this story occurs and can perform magic outside of school since she is “of age” in the Wizarding World. Also, her family is all Muggles (except her sister) and in my story, the rule of “not performing magic in front of Muggles” doesn’t apply when they live with them (ie. family/guardians) and already know of magic’s existence.

Elsie stared at the array of ingredients in front of her contemplatively, her sleeves rolled up past her elbows and an old apron tied around her waist. She thumbed through the pages of her grandmother's old recipe book looking for the perfect treat. She may not have been the most confident in the kitchen, but surely a basic treacle tart couldn't be that difficult to prepare.

Ever since she had run into Sebastian in Diagon Alley, she couldn't help but find herself constantly obsessing over ways to cheer him up. Life hadn't been particularly easy for either of them the past year, but seeing the melancholic look in his eyes behind the smile he forcibly plastered on made her want to do anything in her power to change it.

"Alright," she huffed as she leaned over the kitchen table, "What first?"

Prepare the crust.

She pulled the bowl out and promptly added the ingredients one by one in the order stated, groaning in frustration. Between prepping the crust and mixing the filling, the recipe would take her ages to do by hand. It was important to her to provide a homemade baked good as a gift, but how to speed up the process?

She glanced over at her wand that she had gingerly placed on the table away from the food.

"Of course!" She smiled to herself proudly as she picked it up. With a flick of her wrist, she levitated the measured-out ingredients into the bowl and commanded the spoon to stir while she began to work on the filling.

She hummed as, with another swift wand movement, she heated the stovetop for the syrup, preemptively patting herself on the back at her ability to use magic to multitask. She was certain she would have been better in the kitchen growing up had she known how to properly execute a spell to aid her.

In her overconfidence, Elsie didn't notice as the wooden spoon began stirring vigorously faster to compensate for the thickening dough until it was too late. A scream could be heard from the kitchen, causing her brother, Benjamin to come bursting into the room, a horrified look on his face at the sight before him.

Elsie stood behind the table covered in flour and half-mixed dough, grinning stupidly at him. Suddenly, Professor Sharp's comparison of her to Garreth and his chaos in Potions class made perfect sense in her mind.

"What on earth were you trying to do?!" Benjamin exclaimed, furrowing his brows at the mess. "Are you...baking?!"

Elsie wiped the sticky dough off her face and feigned nonchalance. "I, uh...was trying to make treacle tarts for a - a friend."

"By blowing up the kitchen?"

She tucked her wand behind her back. "No..."

Benjamin narrowed his eyes at her and tentatively stepped into the room as if afraid another spell was going to pop out of nowhere and strike him. He took a seat nearby and crossed his arms, scrutinizing her. Elsie shifted on her feet, growing increasingly uncomfortable with each passing minute. "What?"

"Go on, then," he said smugly. "I want to see how they teach you to do these things in magic school."

She rolled her eyes. It seemed that all her brother knew how to do these days was act completely insufferable. She harrumphed and haughtily waved her wand, muttering a cleaning charm to straighten up the kitchen.

He raised his eyebrows. "Impressive. Keep that up, and you could be a magical scullery maid."

She ignored his comment as she fixed the dough and continued to work on the filling for the tarts, tapping a finger along the ingredients list and making sure she had everything included before stirring.

Sugar, water, lemon zest, and lemon juice – sounded easy enough. She murmured a summoning charm, wand still in hand as she retrieved the remainder of the ingredients, prepped them, and mixed them into the saucepan over the heated stove.

"Can't you just...conjure up some treacle tarts?" Benjamin asked condescendingly. "Instead of going through all this trouble?"

"No." Elsie continued humming to herself while stirring.

"Why?"

"Because of Gamp's Law."

Benjamin snorted. "Is that some made-up magic thing?"

She let out a huff and faced him, her tone laced with irritation. "It's not made up. It's Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration. You can summon it," She demonstrated by summoning the dough from the bowl and placing it onto the floured surface while still yammering on. "But you can't conjure it out of thin air. Technically, there are exceptions, and you can – are you even listening?!"

"Psh." He seemed disinterested, grumbling about how magic is useless as he pulled out a book from the nearby shelf and began to read. She let out a frustrated groan, roughly tugged on her sleeves once more, and kneaded the dough flat before cutting it into smaller pieces to make miniature pie crusts for the tarts and placing each of them into a small pie tin.

Once that task was completed, Elsie finished preparing the filling with fresh breadcrumbs, cream, and an egg, stirring gently into the sugar as the recipe book directed her. She grinned to herself, excited to see how the tasty treats would turn out. She couldn't wait to give them to Sebastian.

She poured the sticky mixture into each of the crusts and popped them in the oven. Elsie dusted her hands off and glanced at Benjamin as she turned the kitchen timer and placed it on the table. "And now, we wait."

Her brother peeked up from his book. "Can't make time go faster either? Or wave your wand and have the tarts finished already?

Elsie frowned. "I'm trying to do it as homemade as possible."

He narrowed his eyes at her, clearly suspicious of her intentions. "Is your 'friend' a boy?"

"It's –" She toed at a spot on the floor, fighting the blush that crept up her neck. "That's – that's none of your concern!"

Benjamin sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, not deigning her with a response as he returned to his book. Elsie sat at the table across from him and flipped through the rest of the recipes while she waited for the tarts to finish baking.

Twenty minutes passed, and Benjamin perked up, sniffing the air. "Something's burning."

"What?!" Elsie jumped up and ran to the oven with Benjamin following close behind. When she opened it, plumes of smoke came pouring out, causing them to choke and sputter. She blindly grabbed for her wand and cast an Extinguishing Charm to smother the fire that was starting to build in the oven. It let out a soft pop, and she cast an instinctive shield charm to be safe. Her brother's eyes were wide and bewildered.

"What did you do?" He asked after the smoke had died down. Elsie leaned over the counter to open the window. "How in God's name did you manage to muck it up that badly?!"

She levitated the pan out of the oven, used a cooling charm, and placed it on the countertop. The would-be golden tarts instead appeared as crispy, blackened discs. Elsie stared at them in horror. "That's definitely not what they're supposed to look like."

Benjamin tentatively grabbed one and raised it to his nose, sniffing it before taking a small, apprehensive bite and immediately reeling back in disgust. "Jesus bloody Christ, Els!" He spat out the little bit that had managed to graze his taste buds and searched the cabinets for anything, anything to be able to wash down the monstrosity that she had created.

Elsie picked at her apron awkwardly and tried to make light of the situation. "Wow. Don't let Mum hear you talking like that." She brushed off her hands. "Come on, it can't be that bad, can it?"

He gave her a weary look. "It's not only bad. It's horrendous. It's a sin to mankind. Are you trying to charm this boy or poison him?!"

"Neither!" She threw up her hands exasperatedly. "I'm trying to cheer him up!"

"Oh, you'll cheer him alright," he said, still trying to wipe off the residue of the destroyed tart from his tongue. "Cheer him straight to his grave."

Elsie stiffened at his words, her eyes turning downcast. "Don't say that."

She could feel her brother's gaze on her as she moved to clean up the mess she had made in the kitchen, the retching noises he had been previously making finally subsided.

"What...happened last year?" he asked quietly.

What a loaded question. Elsie didn't bother responding. He probably wouldn't understand or care if she had put any effort into telling the entire story anyway – not that she would have. Though he was the younger of the two of them, he often played the part of 'older brother' simply because of the hierarchy her parents had created within their family dynamic. But he couldn't comprehend magic, no matter how many times she had tried to explain, and it only served to widen the already large rift between them.

Benjamin sighed, and she looked up at him long enough to see his face soften slightly. "What did you put in the tarts?"

She ticked off a finger as she listed them. "Flour, water, salt, confectioner's sugar –"

"Confectioner's sugar?" He gaped at her. "You're supposed to use granulated sugar!"

"We were out!"

He smacked his lips together. "The crust is ridiculously salty –"

"I...didn't have the right measuring spoon."

" – and you over-stirred it, which made it tough and chewy." He tapped one of the pastries for emphasis. "Confectioner's sugar. No wonder it burned!"

Elsie groaned and plopped down in a nearby chair, burying her face in her hands. "Merlin's beard. I can't give this to Sebastian."

"Merlin's what?" Benjamin sat down next to her, looking like his head had been spun like a top. "Hold on – Sebastian? This is for that wizard boy?"

She shushed him. "He's just a friend! Wizards aren't as worried about all the –"

"Does Mum know?" He pressed. "Does Dad? You're going to get in so much trouble –"

"They –"

"And you're baking. For a wizard boy. Like a commoner."

"Alright!" Elsie snapped. "If you have nothing better to do than stand there and insult me, at least help me clean this up before anyone else comes home and sees it!"

Benjamin scoffed. "It certainly says a lot about your cooking skills when I could bake a better treacle tart than that."

She was about to clean up her sad excuse for baked goods when she paused and turned to him, surprised. "Wait, what? You can bake?"

"I –" He snapped his mouth shut, realizing what he had just given away. "No."

"Benji." Elsie grabbed him by the arm, and he flinched at her touch. "Can you bake?!"

Benjamin yanked his arm away from her and took a step back. He refused to look at her, which was all she needed as a confirmation. "How in Merlin's – I-I mean, how in the world did you learn to bake?"

He bit the inside of his cheek, and she thought he wasn't going to answer her until he let out another long sigh. "When Mum and Dad weren't home, I would sit in the kitchen and watch the cooks. Even ask them questions and such. Sometimes, they would let me help."

It was interesting information to her, seeing a softer side of her brother that she hadn't realized had ever been there. Benjamin had always been the more closed-off, adventurous type, roaming outside and exploring to his heart's content with the amount of freedom he was given compared to her and Lydia. But she would have never suspected that he was interested in culinary arts.

He seemed to be trying to read her reaction, and his expression turned defensive. "Don't tell Dad."

Elsie smiled slyly. "Why not? Certainly, this information could come in handy."

"Elsie..." he warned dangerously. "I'm serious."

"How about this?" She tapped her wand on the table, gesturing to the tarts. "I won't tell anyone about your interests in the kitchen if you don't tell anyone about Sebastian."

"Fine." He let out a soft huff.

"And," she continued, "you have to help me make new tarts."

Benjamin ran his hands through his neatly parted hair in irritation, but he nodded in agreement at her proposal. "Deal."

Elsie grinned. "Deal."

Diagon Alley was a bustling hub of witches and wizards, tucked away inconspicuously in downtown London behind a pub called the Leaky Cauldron. When her parents would drag her to another one of their uneventful shopping trips, she had often noticed how out of place the building appeared, but never once had thought to go in until the day Professor Fig brought her to the Alley to buy supplies.

It all seemed so long ago.

She sat at one of the tables with her box of treats waiting expectantly for a certain Slytherin boy to show up, and her heart nearly burst out of her chest when he walked through the door. She met his eyes and saw that the spark in them still simmered below the surface, and she was determined to bring it back in full if it was the last thing she did.

"Sebastian!" Elsie stood up from her seat as he approached her table, a gentle smile on his face. "It's good to see you again. I brought you something."

Before he could open his mouth in greeting, she excitedly pulled out the pastry box and popped open the lid, displaying the most delectable-looking treacle tarts anyone had ever seen. The scent of them wafted into the air, and Elsie's mouth watered as she inhaled their citrusy fragrance – much different from the stench of burning sugar that she had produced with her earlier attempt to bake.

Sebastian looked at the pastries, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape. "Did...did you make all these? By yourself?"

She considered lying to him and taking credit for it, then worried that he would try to persuade her to continue baking for him. After all, the way to a man's heart was through his stomach, or whatever her mother had often said. She couldn't keep up the charade for very long, lest she inadvertently poison him if she attempted to bake again.

"No," Elsie admitted as they sat down at the table. "I mean, I did try. But...my brother ended up having to, er, fix my...kitchen mishap. He actually made these." She held the box closer to him. "Try one. They're quite good."

Sebastian picked out one of the treacle tarts, a smirk crossing his face. "Kitchen mishap? Can't wait to hear that story." He took a bite out of the tart and let out a sinful moan that had her blushing. "Merlin's pants, that's good."

"Yeah?" She smiled brightly. "I'll have to let Benji know."

He licked the bits of tart off of his fingers and hummed. "I'm sure yours couldn't have been that bad."

Elsie pulled out one of the less burnt discs from her bag and held it out to him. "Are you sure? I saved a few as treats for the puffskeins because I'm fairly certain they're the only ones that can stomach this abomination. I didn't want it to go to waste."

"Maybe – maybe it looks worse than it tastes?"

She leaned back in her chair and sighed. "No, it tastes pretty bad. Ben already gave me an earful after trying one." She plopped the sad little tart down, tucked her chin in her hand, and rested her elbow on the table. "I suppose I'll just have to accept that, even with practice, I don't have the knack for preparing food."

It was infuriating, wanting to learn something so badly and simply be unable to execute it properly. At least with school, if she studied hard enough and pushed herself beyond her limits to perfection, she could perform well in almost everything, it seemed – except for cooking. It was hard to hide her disappointment in herself.

She was startled when she saw Sebastian staring at her, his gaze intense, and she stiffened, worried that he had somehow been reading her rambling thoughts. She opened her mouth to question him and brush off the glum expression that had inevitably been on her face when he did the thing that she least expected him to do.

He snatched the burnt treacle tart from off the table top and took a large bite.

Elsie gaped at him completely horrified. "Sebastian! Spit that out this instant!"

She could see his look of revulsion that he struggled to hide, and she mentally recited any charms and spells she could think of in case he was poisoned from her disaster of a recipe.

"No — no, it's – it's good!" He choked out, adding to her alarm. She grabbed him by the arm and shook him fiercely.

"Sebastian, I swear to Merlin –"

He finally decided that he had enough of the torment, ran to the nearest waste bin, and dramatically spat out the piece of the tart he had insisted on trying. Once he returned to the table, breathing heavily and with a forced grin on his face, Elsie let out a long, tired sigh.

"I did warn you."

Sebastian seemed to be trying his best to avoid scraping the remnants of the horrible tart off of his tongue. The sight of him biting his tongue, squirming in his chair to avoid saying something that he might regret, sent her into uncontrollable fits of giggles. His eyes went wide before he, too, descended into laughter alongside her.

It may not have been exactly how she had wanted to cheer him up, with a failed experiment and a replacement treat from her brother. But that day, the laughter that resulted from it had been the comfort that both of them had needed for so long. And Elsie was more than happy to have been the one to put a genuine smile back on his face, mistake and all.

Burning a few treacle tarts was a small price to pay for bringing some light back into Sebastian's life. It was certainly well worth it.

#hogwarts legacy #sebastian sallow #hogwarts legacy mc #elsie corvin #sebastian sallow x fmc #hl mc #fanfic #hl fanfic #hl fanfiction

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