cmoneman

Latest Posts by cmoneman

controversial headcanon is that Sirius black didn’t play quidditch while at Hogwarts

Thinking of Lily who learned Potions under her mentor Slughorn who obviously adored her...yeah, it's a little weird that Slughorn operated the way he did, but Lily knew right from the start that half of Sev's complaints about him stemmed from pure envy

And even as Lily draws further and further away from Severus and their potions' discussions together, she still loves the subject and ol' Sluggie still believes in her despite her bloodstatus...she finds more of a mentor in strange Sluggie than even the stern Gryffindor head McGonagall

“You shouldn’t have favorites as a teacher, of course, but she was one of mine. Your mother, Lily Evans. One of the brightest I ever taught. Vivacious, you know. Charming girl. I used to tell her she ought to have been in my House. Very cheeky answers I used to get back too.”

“You liked her, didn’t you?”

“Liked her?” said Slughorn, his eyes brimming with tears once more. “I don’t imagine anyone who met her wouldn’t have liked her. Very brave. Very funny.”

Gonna get real close to the mic when I say this, but friends that disagree are not suddenly bad friends. It's weird to think that friends have to be on the same page at all times or they become toxic.

We all looked at Draco with Crabbe and Goyle and understood that them blindly following him as his "yes" men wasn't the same type of friendship that Harry had with Hermione and Ron. In fact, it wasn't a friendship at all because surrounding yourself with people who would never disagree with you is cowardly. It's a cop out.

Draco dug himself into a hole so that the only thing that could ever ricochet around in his head was his own thoughts. He wasn't truly confident in what he believed in, so he just settled for regurgitating the shit he heard at the dinner table. Like an echo chamber.

Meanwhile, the Wizarding World tossed little Harry headfirst into the "Chosen One" hole and the only reason he ever escaped that suffocating self-fulfilling prophecy was because Ron and Hermione reached their hands in and yanked his skinny ass out.

So, no, Ron isn't a bad friend because they got into a few petty arguments. And no, Harry doesn't secretly hate Hermione because she can annoy him sometimes. Harry isn't perfect, so don't expect Hermione or Ron to be.

thinking about how in gof, sirius says “ever since i found out snape was teaching here, i’ve wondered why dumbledore hired him” and goes onto explain how snape was famous for the dark arts at school and part of a slytherin gang that all turned out to be death eaters (who we later find out were attacking students with dark magic). so he’s one of the only people to immediately be like “why the fuck is dumbledore letting snape teach children”. then says that as far he knows snape was never even accused of being a death eater but many of them were never caught. but when ron keeps insisting that snape must be a death eater, sirius disagrees and reasons it out, because he doesn’t think it makes sense based on the facts, and also because: “there’s still the fact that dumbledore trusts snape, and i know dumbledore trusts where a lot of other people wouldn’t, but i just can’t see him letting snape teach at hogwarts if he’d ever worked for voldemort.” (so even while questioning dumbles, sirius clearly still has way too much faith in him. which makes everything in ootp extra infuriating). anyways, sirius was willing to give snape the benefit of the doubt on being a death eater, like, he’s perfectly capable of being rational about snape and not jumping to conclusions despite his hatred of him!

and then at the end of gof he finds out that snape WAS in fact a death eater, and sirius has no proof or reason to believe that snape has actually changed, all he has to work off of is that Dumbledore Trusts Snape, even though all sirius knows is that snape literally tried to hand him (and remus) to the fucking dementors and outed remus, and witnessed snape going unhinged at his godson and two other teenagers in the same scene.

and now he has to work alongside snape knowing that he apparently paid no consequences for his death eater past, wasn’t even so much as accused of being one (not unlike lucius malfoy and karkaroff and the others who did deals with the ministry and clearly haven’t changed their ways, who sirius shows bitterness towards in gof) while sirius was branded as one by the ministry and the whole wizarding world and unjustly imprisoned for it for 12 years without even getting a trial.

and snape is constantly taunting him about the fact that he can’t leave the house and help the order because of the world STILL thinking that sirius is a death eater and murderer because of that very same unjust imprisonment that the fascist hate group snape joined directly fucking caused, and snape the actual former death eater is able to do these things and live freely because he got away with it all. and he might complain about it but sirius still puts up with all of that for months along with all the other shit he has to deal with in ootp.

then he’s told that snape has to teach harry occlumency, and makes sure to sit with harry rather than letting snape talk to him alone, and is apparently the ONLY one to question this clearly terrible stupid ass decision and ask why dumbledore can’t teach him instead. yeah sirius starts off with a petty comment or two but harry even looks to sirius to intervene on his behalf, and sirius does. sirius calmly and firmly warns snape not to use occlumency lessons to give harry a hard time, to which snape responds by insulting not only his fifteen year old godson but his dead best friend, that voldemort, who snape WORKED FOR, literally murdered, to sirius’s face. OF COURSE SIRIUS IS GONNA LOSE IT. ANYONE WOULD. and the first thing sirius says is “i don’t care if dumbledore thinks you’ve reformed, i know better” and refers to snape being lucius malfoy’s lapdog bc he knows they were fellow death eater buddies at hogwarts and during the war, like wow i wonder why sirius would have doubts about snape’s loyalties, especially after what he just said??!? this is not an example of sirius’s supposed ~crazy uncontrollable temper~, any normal person would want to throw down at something like that, personally i think sirius showed an impressive amount of self control for managing to wait that long to try to hex snape. AND he makes sure to give harry the mirrors specifically so harry can contact him if snape treats him badly, because that’s all sirius can do at that point when he’s powerless and his input is being completely ignored.

anyways it’s truly a tragedy that sirius never even got to find out that snape was the death eater who told voldemort about the prophecy, i think sirius deserved to know and go completely unhinged at snape!!! as was his right!!!!!

Hi! First off. I love your blog and how you write about James and Sirius they are✨everything✨

But, I was wondering what your views and opinions are on each of their individual relationships with Remus and Peter.

Firstly thank you! It’s my mission to put more j/s out into the world so I’m glad my particular brand of it resonates with other enjoyers <3 I love this question but unfortunately various deadlines and then me just being a messy, inconcise writer have delayed it to the two months mark 💀 so hopefully you’re still interested & it was worth the wait! I’ve edited it to death and it’s still this long so buckle in & multiple apologies 

~

The little that we do know of James and Remus’ friendship gives the impression of a really genuine, nurturing, trusting one, and helps to bridge that gap between the arrogant bully we see in SWM and the good guy Sirius and Remus tell us that James becomes later. James supported Remus financially post-Hogwarts, became an Animagus for him, and then there’s the “furry little problem” comment that Remus bursts out laughing at and looks “slightly more cheerful” at the memory of. 

I think that one line says a lot about James and Remus and establishes a shared sense of humour. It’s a very “raised by older parents” thing of James to say, it’s weirdly gentle and tactful from someone who doesn’t show that in any of the memories we see of him but it’s also quite light and optimistic about Remus’ “little problem” as something they can solve together. James, like Remus, probably spent a lot of his childhood with his parents so I think they’d both have had quiet evenings in by the Wireless with biscuits and hot chocolate before bed and homemade jumpers and grandad slippers so despite James being very loud and Remus not knowing how to really interact with other kids despite wanting to, they would ‘get’ each other on a home life level that would bridge the difference in wealth and with the werewolf thing.

I think that James makes Remus feel more normal and his brand of carefree, casual, cocksure acceptance would make him Remus’ main source of support in terms of friends. The time that Remus knows James (meeting him in first year to James’ death) directly correlates with the happiest, most stable time in his life. When James dies he has lost all of his friends and James’ financial support so James is a literal stabilising force in his life, so James would have been Remus’ go-to when he wanted to talk serious werewolf stuff. I see James plopping down next to Remus on his bed being like “talk to me, I’m listening” and Remus finding it easy to open up that way. They’d be familiar enough to have little in-jokes that are just the two of them whereas I think Remus and Sirius wouldn’t have that closeness. (Not a j/s post but I also like to think of Remus just giving James this wry eye-contact re:Sirius like ‘lol u got it bad’ and James being all ???!!! back at him).

OTOH I see Sirius and Remus’ friendship as more distant and a friendship of two halves. On the one hand there’s a consistent mutual respect.  Remus includes Sirius in his praise of him - “your father and Sirius were the best in the school at whatever they did” - and Sirius evidently regards Remus more highly than Peter because he engages and jokes with him in SWM which shows a shared sense of humour. I think Sirius would respect Remus’ magical abilities as being close to his and James’ in the same way that he doesn’t respect Peter for his lack of relative magical ability. I think a lot of their discussions would about wizarding politics and the technical possibilities of magic so they’d probably get on quite well with the Marauder’s Map project (but also lol at Sirius being like “Remus, just let me do it, I know what I’m doing and I’m quicker” and taking over and Remus going all mutinous). However, Sirius also rebuffs Remus’ attempts to engage in SWM, showing an element of impatience and a sense of tension, instability and misunderstanding to their friendship (more on this in a separate post bc this one is Long).

A big thing for me that inhibits me from reading Sirius and Remus as particularly close is the mutual distrust and suspicion of the other as a traitor. I have always thought that this was a gradual thing that built up over years. To suspect a friend of ten years of being a spy is huge so I think the prank intensified and maybe accelerated it but it wasn’t the origin of the breakdown in trust. Notably it was a spy in the Order, not a spy just out of the Marauders, yet both Sirius and Remus suspected each other out of everyone else. I think that the tension would be unspoken but mutually felt and it would come from fundamental differences like their different backgrounds, and on Remus’ end a resentment of Sirius’ freedom to be reckless and impulsive and get nothing more than a detention for it when Remus being reckless could lead to dangerous consequnces (even though that didn’t really stop him being reckless on several occasions). 

I also feel like Sirius would have a more clinical, less tactful, though still very supportive, approach to Remus’ lycanthropy and he’d discuss werewolf issues from an intellectual/social/political perspective rather than really engaging with Remus’ experience (at least until he actually sees him transform) which might seem dismissive to Remus. I also think that Remus would question Sirius’ support because of the Black family’s reputation, enough so that when the prank happens that background suspicion would be vindicated. It’s said a lot that Sirius would never have sent Snape to the Shack if it was James who were the werewolf, and that’s an important distinction between James and Sirius’ close relationship & Sirius and Remus’ more neutral and separated friendship.

At the same time there must be genuine friendship there somewhere because they reunite very easily in the Shrieking Shack, hugging like brothers and calling each other “old friend” and they sense/assume capability to kill Peter and the desire for revenge in each other which suggests that they know each other well. I do think that a lot of that comes from the adrenaline of the situation, and that the combination of relief, familiarity, nostalgia, revenge, desperation, grief, etc, would heighten that joy at being reunited. I think that they experience those emotions alongside each other rather than because of each other, routed through James and their experience of knowing and losing him rather than an especial attachment to each other specifically, though. Their joint venture of avenging James positions him as a central touchstone in their friendship. When Harry goes to them for reassurance after SWM, they’re both just remembering James and Sirius’ acknowledgement of Remus is all about separating him from himself and James. The main thing they have in common is James, imo. The discovery of Peter as the traitor removes the main internal conflict of their friendship, as well as external conflicts (i.e. impending war, Harry’s chaotic life) superceding any personality differences or annoyances. 

Convenience also plays a big part in their post-PoA friendship. They’re a mutually beneficial, easily accessible source of familiarity and nostalgia for each other, a parallel reminder of James and their youth when they were both happier. Things like “lie low at Lupin’s” and Remus living at Grimmauld Place are measures of convenience rather than closeness when scrutinised. Grimmauld Place is Order HQ and Remus is single and unemployed, obviously he’s going to choose to be around people and have free food and shelter (plus Tonks is there a lot). Before that Sirius that lives in a cave eating rats even though he probably could live with Remus because at this point it’s not widely known that he’s an Animagus but he doesn’t. (Would Remus even want him there?)

It doesn’t seem like they’re in touch at all until then either? Dangerous, etc etc, but these are supposedly the kids who snuck around school as animals undetected for years and one of them has escaped Azkaban so it would have been feasible to be in contact if they’d wanted to. It’s also significant to me that Sirius didn’t leave Remus anything in his will despite him struggling financially (vs James actively helping Remus out) and Remus is like..fine after he dies. It’s understandable because they were separated for longer than they initially knew each other. They were obviously friends, but different and more distant in comparison to their individual friendships with James. It all culminates for me in a friendship that is based on a shared youth, on the memory of freedom, on love for a mutual friend, on existing in the same place at the same time, on mutual respect for magical ability, on curiosity for the constraints of magic, on holding the same values but still being fundamentally different people.

I don’t think that the Marauders were a particularly equal group anyway but with Peter specifically I think it was more an illusion of equality and inclusion that James and Sirius think is ‘enough’ for Peter but that Peter finds it lacking. James and Sirius definitely don’t view him as equal with Remus, but they also spare him from the kind of bullying we see Snape get, despite Snape being more capable and logically worthy of their respect (were he not interested in dark magic or ugly, I guess).

I think that James and Peter’s friendship was the most mutually transactional. Peter’s inclusion in the group was social security for him first and foremost and James’ ego also got stroked a lot from having Peter around. James would pat himself on the back for being friends with someone like Peter lmao. All we see of James and Peter’s dynamic is James saying to Peter: “How thick are you, Wormtail?” and Peter openly adoring James when he plays with the Snitch and James lapping it up. Despite the derision and harshness, Peter actively feeds James’ ego, which isn’t a sustainable dynamic for a genuine friendship and it clearly irritates Sirius. I think that’s more Peter performing a role for his own continued benefit rather than him being stupid enough to not notice that James is being a dick though.

The combination of Peter’s capabilities being underestimated by his friends and James’ sense of duty and love towards his friends would foster a lowkey mentor/pupil, big brother/little brother dynamic but it would boost James’ ego while treating Peter as less intelligent than he actually was. I’m sure Peter benefited from it (Animagus transformations) but I can see James playing into it more heavily than necessary. However James and Peter are the two with the most typical childhoods and upbringings, so I think it would be an easy casual one-on-one dynamic, they’d have a lot of common experiences, a lot of the same reference points that Remus missed out on and Sirius’ family didn’t approve of that would make them feel close but they’re just opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of confidence, wit, popularity that beyond that I don’t think they’d have a lot in common except their shared high opinion of James (!) and there would be a lot of James talking at Peter and Peter agreeing. I don’t think Peter would be that into Quidditch beyond maybe the glory of it and James overlooks this with Sirius and understands why Remus isn’t into it but with Peter he’s like how what why ?? 

Ultimately unequal but I think James has that ability to make you feel like you’re the only person in the world when it’s a one-on-one thing and that would be something that Peter would strive for all the time but never quite get. I definitely think that James thinks he loves Wormtail but whether he actually does or treats him like he does is an entirely different thing.

With Sirius, we only see him treat Peter with contempt and I don’t think it’s oversimplification to accept this basically at surface level. I don’t think Sirius ever really respected Peter and generally regarded him as weak. Even Sirius’ irritation at James showing off with the Snitch is diverted through Peter in a way designed to humiliate Peter and relieve James of responsibility and to distance James from Sirius' reproach whilst giving Peter the full force of it and I think that shows how disposable and irrelevant he was to Sirius. (It’s not that far off some of the comments he makes about Snape and Kreacher.) 

This is a relationship Sirius would have had to work really hard at. Peter is the friend he is always irritated at and is mentally like "god just go away just fuck off". Sometimes he'd be like "aw he's not that bad I should be easier on him" but he mostly never is. Sirius likes Peter most as a rat, unironically, because for Sirius that’s probably when he sees the most potential in Peter. The way Peter works so hard to please James (and James’ acceptance of his attention) would irritate Sirius. Sirius loves James and makes a lot of allowances for him but he would find Peter’s sucking up degrading and embarrassing and think less of him for it, like “I like James more than you but you don’t see me pissing myself over him”. 

Peter I think was scared of Sirius, because of Sirius just being openly hostile but also because of his family. Peter would suck up to Sirius in the same way he did James but it doesn’t work on Sirius and Peter is like “well idk how to act then” so he’s constantly trying to find ways to get Sirius to like him and falling short so eventually he plays into Sirius’ underestimation of him (very successfully, clearly). I think Sirius’ whole “nobody would suspect him because he’s so stupid” sentiment grew in hindsight but existed somewhat at the time of choosing Peter as Secret Keeper. Sirius would never knowingly do something that he thought would even slightly risk James' safety so I completely believe that he trusted Peter and believed in a vague mutual understanding of friendship despite his lack of patience and respect for him. 

(Sorry this is SO FUCKING LONG, esp the Sirius & Remus bit bc I always feel I have to justify that one more, plus there’s way more in-text stuff for them. Once again ty for the ask! <3 Loved answering it, hate myself for being inarticulate but oh well)

Voldemort feared the halfblood boy more than the pureblood boy because only a halfblood straddles the line between inexcusable weakness and birthright power. Only a halfblood boy would have the hunger to rise up against him, especially since Voldemort had positioned himself to be aligned with the pureblood upperclass.

I don't think he intentionally thought of Harry as an equal over Neville. I don't recall whether or not he heard that portion of the prophecy from snape. But we do know that both the Potters and the Longbottoms 'defied' him thrice. I'd always understood the Longbottoms as older, old enough to be well established and known aurors. Perhaps they fought for years during this 11-year-long First Wizarding War, perhaps neville was a conscious choice that may have seemed like an act of defiance but certainly wasn't an act of defiance to Voldemort himself. The Longbottoms no doubt had ample opportunities to clash with Voldemort's plots and plans. The Potters on the other hand joined the Order as teenagers with nothing more than some vicious schoolyard scrapping to their resume. I'd always liked the theory that their choice to marry and keep the baby (that became Harry) in that political climate when they were only 20 years old was itself an act of defiance. But the other two instances during which the Potters 'defied' him must have resonated. Lily must have said something that stuck with him, that forced him to forever associate her with his weakness, with muggles, even though she was not a muggle but a mudblood. A talented witch that even he noticed enough to consider snape's plea to spare her but also unforgettably "muggle". And James must have made enough of an impact for Voldemort to memorize his countenance years to come -- voldemort doesn't usually remember all his murders unless they meant something personal to his journey to immortal power. Yet somehow Voldemort recognizes the need to turn Peter so thoroughly and somehow Voldemort remembers James standing tall and formidable enough to try to taunt Harry with it at the graveyard.

Both Lily and James Potter had been living rent-free in Voldemort’s mind for enough time that their halfblood child was the first kid to pop into his mind at the news of the prophecy.

Also, Voldemort believes in pureblood supremacy the way Jordan Peterson is a Christian who believes in Christianity as salvation...aka, its largely a cloak for the pursuit of power, gets him the connections with the right people, he's conviced enough people with his narrative that it almost seems like he's convinced himself, but there’ll always be signs.

I wasn’t sure how to incorporate this into the options, but add in the tags if you think he also hated purebloods!

The Death Eaters: a contradictory anti-State narrative in the HP universe

From Prisoner of Azkaban onward, the Death Eaters (formally introduced in Goblet of Fire) emerge as a violent, prejudiced force; primarily against the Ministry of Magic. However, instead of being an anti-state organization, as initially presented, the Death Eaters are more concerned with maintaining existing power structures, albeit with a more extreme, blood-supremacist agenda (that's basically Deathly Hallows). Indeed, the Ministry of Magic itself is already prejudiced and violent, even before Voldemort.

I will explore key instances that highlight the contradictory nature of the Death Eaters and their relationship with the wizarding state’s power structures.

1. The conflict in DEs’ aims and their misrepresentation through real-world historical parallels

The Death Eaters' role as villans is evident in their modus operandi and in their belief system, particularly blood supremacy. This is why, while their ideology resembles Nazism, they operate as a terrorist organization.

For clarity: terrorist organizations operate outside the framework of a formal state structure, relying on violence, fear; their focus: undermining established power, creating instability, mistrust, etc. This is essentially the First Wizarding War:

"...this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too — some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. " - Rubeus Hagrid, PS "You don't know who his supporters are, you don't know who's working for him and who isn't; (...) Every week, news comes of more deaths, more disappearances, more torturing... The Ministry of Magic's in disarray, they don't know what to do, (...). Terror everywhere... panic... confusion... that's how it used to be." - Sirius Black, GoF "...You-Know-Who and his followers sent the Dark Mark into the air whenever they killed. The terror it inspired... you have no idea, you're too young. Just picture coming home and finding the Dark Mark hovering over your house, and knowing what you're about to find inside... Everyone's worst fear... the very worst." - Arthur Weasley, GoF

On the contrary, institutionalized authoritarian regimes align more closely with the description we have of the Ministry of Magic (although I don’t believe it is a totalitarian regime in the FWW). However, if one thinks about it, in a completely corrupted Ministry of Magic, power is concentrated in the hands of a small elite (purebloods) that controls state institutions, including the military (Aurors), law enforcement (The Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Hitwizards), and the legal system (Wizengamot), enabling them to enforce their policies (e.g., the Statue of Secrecy), maintain order, etc. Voldemort and the Death Eaters are far more dangerous in such a structure (see DH).

(Had Hitler remained the leader of a violent terrorist group and never risen to power as the dictator of a nation, he could never have been responsible for the deaths of six million people in CC, nor would his expansionist war have led to the deaths of over 30 million.)

That being said, while most authors base their world-building on a singular historical event (e.g., the rise of Fascism in Italy) or comparable historical events (e.g., the rise of totalitarisms), JKR mixes terrorist organizations with institutionalized authoritarian regimes. This blend leads to a disjointed narrative, and it is deeply problematic.

The IRA parallel

i. Historical accuracy (for historical background, check here):

Voldemort’s rise to power in the late 1960s, his decline in the late 1980s, and his resurgence in the 1990s closely parallel the timeline of The Troubles—a complex conflict between factions in the Republic of Ireland and the big island. To put it very, very simply, this period of unrest stemmed from centuries of English colonialism, during which the English conquered and subjugated Northern Ireland. This colonization led to widespread violence, cultural destruction, and systemic repression of the Irish people. As a result of the poverty, exclusion, and repression, a reprehensible terrorist organization rose: the IRA (Irish Republican Army).

Mirroring the timeline of the First Wizarding War, the conflict in the 1970s was marked by street fighting, bombings, kidnappings, and the assassination of both civilians and high-ranking figures. The arguments about the Ministry becoming nearly as vicious as the terrorists they were fighting—using torture and murder (Aurors casting Unforgivable Curses) and internment without trial (as seen with Sirius Black)—parallel real-life arguments about the British security services' brutal response to the IRA.

ii. Contrasting ideologies

The IRA emerged from decades of oppression faced by Irish Catholics, aiming to challenge a discriminatory system, while the Death Eaters seek to reinforce and perpetuate existing power structures. By positioning the Death Eaters as anti-state, it obscures the fact that they are objectively fighting to preserve and enforce the status quo. The parallel with the IRA oversimplifies, and arguably dangerously misrepresents, political movements and conflicts.

The Hitler parallel

i. Convergence in worldview

There are several reasons why many people, JKR included, associate DEs with Nazism, one of which is the unambiguous nature of their ideology. Both Nazism and the DEs' ideology are grounded in notions of racial supremacy and purity, with the premise that a person’s worth is determined by their ancestry. For the Death Eaters, this belief is reflected in their conviction that pure-blood wizards are inherently superior to Muggle-borns and Muggles. But DEs are not terrorists because of their belief system; they are blood supremacists who carry out terrorism to impose their belief system. If you want to impose your belief system, institutions are the answer, as true dominance is easely maintained through ideological control, which is exactly how wizarding society already operates. Here, DEs modus operandi fails.

ii. Historical inaccurancy

A key distinction between the DEs and the Nazis lies in the structural dynamics of their respective rises to power. Hitler's ascent was marked by the systematic institutionalization of mass violence and control. Once in power, Hitler's government passed laws (e.g., Nuremberg Laws) and engaged in legal political moves (e.g., Munich Agreement). The Nazi leadership was public and institutional, with high-ranking officials known to the public (Göring, Himmler, Goebbels, etc.). The DEs never sought or achieved official political power in the same way. They never formed party, they operated in secrecy (using masks) and they kept their membership a secret within their own ranks. As the terrorists they are.

In Deathly Hallows, when the they take formal control of the Ministry of Magic, they maintain this secretive approach. The coup is swift and quiet, with Voldemort not openly declaring himself as Minister. He imperiused key figures (like Pius Thicknesse) to create distrust and prevent some form of rebellion (this doen't make sense btw, rebellion from who, at this point? Only the Order would have continued its resistance activities.... but whatever....).

When, in HBP, Slughorn says, "I confidently expect you to rise to Minister for Magic within twenty years," and Tom Riddle responds, "I don't know that politics would suit me, sir. I don't have the right kind of background, for one thing," it's clear that Riddle has his own agenda (which sometimes conflicts with the DEs' aim, but that's a different discussion). However, this alone doesn’t explain why pure-blood supremacists like Lucius Malfoy don’t leverage their influence to establish a more radicalized and enduring power structure (such as totalitarianism), especially given the entrenchment of their ideology within society. Again, why would Lucius Malfoy act like a terrorist, risking his reputation, life, and endangering his family, when he could already do whatever he pleases? It's still not clear.

KKK paralel (I swear is the last one, here for historical background)

While the DE' ideology echoes Nazism, it also resembles many other supremacist and bigoted ideologies. Our final group (which also inspired the aesthetics of Goblet of Fire) is the violent, white supremacist terrorist group called Ku Klux Klan.

i. Historical context and differences with DE

The KKK expanded into almost every southern state by 1870 and became a vehicle for white southern “resistance” (forgive the word) to the Reconstruction-era policies, which aimed at establishing political and economic equality for Black Americans. While some leaders later attributed KKK violence to poorer southern white people, the group did attract people from across the socioeconomic spectrum.

By comparison, the DEs were not a response to a period of social progress or societal change (but more on that later). It is also arguable that the Death Eaters were not a heterogeneous group. Aside from Snape, who was a half-blood with a working-class background (though he obviously repudiated his origins, that's the bloody point of HBP), the rest were rich purebloods— one might even say the purest of purebloods, as many of them were Sacred 28, (part of what seems to be) an aristocracy akin to feudalism.

The KKK never started a civil war (basically FWW and SWW), and in terms of proportion, it never had the numbers that the Death Eaters did. (However, KKK violence is real and it did contribute to an ongoing racial conflict, so it’s hard for me to say that DEs were “bigger”). One can only imagine what would have happened if it had reached a 50/50, or one could think that a more domesticated version it's currently seated in the White House (see: the point made earlier about institutions...).

2. DEs and the inconsistency of their portrayal as anti-State

The Death Eaters do not fit neatly into any real-world ideological or political framework. They don’t represent a subversive anti-state movement, as they seek to reinforce and uphold the existing power structures within the canon, making them both ideologically and narratively inconsistent with the groups they are meant to represent. Their violence and blood-supremacist ideology do not stem from institutionalised oppression or inequality, nor are they based on misinformation. This mess is rooted in JKR’s limited understanding of politics and discrimination (I will never forgive her for having Hermione shout "I'm proud to be Muggle-born" and stop, as pride is the problem when it comes to discrimination and racism).

3. Adjusting mess with extra-canon

I firmly believe that, unless you delve into supplementary materials, there is little to prevent these lunatics from operating in board daylight. DEs make sense in a political climate where their power feels threatened, even if it's made up. That's why...

What happened when HP ended: Pottermore

...at some point, JKR (or her team) must have realized these inconsistencies. On Pottermore, new information surfaced that contradicted the canon. When woman, gays, Black people and other marginalized groups gain greater social equality, those who have traditionally held power by birthright see their unjust dominance begin to crumble, and suddenly they have to do something. This aligns with Rowling’s portrayal of Muggle persecution, suggesting that historical anti-Muggle sentiment was largely unfounded (Fantastic Beasts movies). Again, by what is implied in the tale of The Wizard and the Hopping Pot, she suggests that wizarding society had little to fear from Muggles, thus minimizing the historical violence and oppression wizards may have faced. Other examples that come from extra-canon are Nobby Leach and hints of progressivenes. In 1962, Leach became the first Muggle-born to be appointed Minister for Magic (in canon, this would be absurd. Is there a Muggle-born working in the Ministry? Is there any Muggle-born working at all?). Then, there were Squib Rights marches in 1968-1969 (a parallel to the Civil Rights marches in the real world).

Conclusion

It's absurd for me to write something like this, but it's obviously NOT pointless to examine the motivations of prejudiced groups that seek power through violence. Take that moment in Order of the Phoenix, where Harry and Sirius talk about Dolores Umbridge:

"I know [Umbridge] by reputation and I’m sure she’s no Death Eater—" "She's foul enough to be one…" "Yes, but the world isn’t split into good people and Death Eaters," said Sirius with a wry smile. "I know she’s a nasty piece of work though."

Someone like Umbridge, though not a literal Death Eater (for now, but it's not the point), exhibits similar traits—prejudice, abuse of power—which can be just as damaging. But Sirius isn't suggesting that she occupies some middle ground between good and evil (I blame the movies for this shit). Rather, he’s acknowledging that Evil takes many forms and expresses itself in different ways. This is the core difference between prejudice and terrorism: the latter is a violent, organized force, whereas the former usually manifests in a less overt, everyday bitch. While racial slurs or internalized discriminatory tendencies are undeniably harmful—the cancer of our society, if you ask me—these groups actively unite to fight. People risk their lives, they believe themselves heroes of a greater cause.

If you oversimplify the rationale behind why a bigoted terrorist group holds such views and acts on them, thinking it's not as complicated as it truly is, you're part of the problem. History repeats itself because we often dismiss the importance of understanding our past. We rely on our moral superiority, believing that others are or were easily manipulated by forces we are too righteous to fall victim to. But this is exactly why they thrive.

Anyway thank you @artemisia-black and @tedwardremus, you'll find some of your words here.

I think Remus was a tiny bit inlove with Lily.

It was safer for him to have cruches on unavailable ppl. That's why he was so surprised when Tonks fell in love with him and was able to reciprocate his feelings. In his mind, she was too young, free and vivacious to notice him.

(I'm not a wolfstar believer in Canon)

Ooh I think it is totally in character for him to pick safe crushes he never thought would like him back

What a shame Tonks actually reciprocated lol

tell me lily and Snape didn't invent new magical drug potions while smoking (gilly)weed in moaning myrtle's bathroom and I won't believe you

McGonagall and Trelawny anything but deep disdain is making me laugh, but ..reblogging for the intrigue

the official lesbian hogwarts professor relationship chart

this ups the ante quite a bit. a change in perspective

What are your biggest pet peeves in fics

My biggest pet peeve is, hands down, fandom’s portrayal of the first war, which is almost never portrayed as violent and terrible as the details we get about it in canon. Most importantly:

The First War started in 1970.

Not 1975 or 1976. Certainly not 1978. 1970. This means the war was raging the entire time the Marauders were at Hogwarts, and that they entered Hogwarts a year into the war. It lasted 11 whole years. The whole point is that the First War was much worse than the Second War.

I’ve seen people say things like “The Marauders era is boring because nothing really happens until their later years until the war starts and/or heats up” and say it like it’s complete fact and not something fans completely made up. The idea that the war only “heats up” after Snape’s Worst Memory is so universally accepted despite all evidence to the contrary.

(I’ve also seen claims that the only murders/war crimes committed during the first war were the few explicitly named in the text, which is, again… truly embarrassing analysis.)

The reason fandom has come up with this narrative is entirely to fit the Snape vs. Marauders “bullying” angle. It usually goes like this: Sirius and James were bullies for 5 years, until - conveniently and magically - the war started to “heat up” and get more serious 6th year or sometimes 7th year and therefore they matured (especially James, though the idea of Sirius maturing after the Prank is also common in fic). It provides a neat little coming of age arc for the Marauders, one that does not actually exist in canon.

Because, believe it or not, Voldemort was not going to adjust the trajectory of his war to fit this narrative.

On the pro-Marauders side who still see them as bullies, the fandom can’t reconcile the idea of the war being serious and the Marauders not being serious about it and instead spending their time bullying others. But the war was already heated up, and the Marauders were already serious about the war by SWM - because the Marauders attacks on Snape and others was them being serious about the war, because it wasn’t bullying, it was vigilante justice.

On the Snape fan side, to portray Snape as a victim of bullying, they have to pretend that he's the only person capable of being victimized in the whole entire wizarding world, and people actually being murdered and tortured conflicts with that narrative.

I can buy that the war took a few years to heat up, I doubt it went to daily murders and tortures immediately, but I think a war would not take 6-7 years to escalate. I would guess it heated up sometime the Marauders 2nd year or 3rd year, at latest.

(I often see so many Order deaths happening in late war, per Moody, used at evidence that the war only escalated then, but the Order is tiny and doesn’t represent the casualties in the rest of the population)

Evidence towards the fact that the war was very heated up already by the time of SWM is that Lily calls Voldemort “You Know Who” in her conversation with Snape outside the Gryffindor common room - which means that by that time Voldemort has spread enough terror that people are afraid to say his name.

Also, remember this is already a very violent society. The fact that some pureblood families murder Muggles for fun (Muggle hunting) is apparently an open secret, they murder house elves, and I’ve said before that I think pureblood society practices honor killings which are at least somewhat legally sanctioned (i.e. Merope’s situation).

So a few occasional murders is not going to shake them and is not what this society is going to consider a war.

More evidence is how much the violence has escalated at Hogwarts. Death Eater students are regularly and openly torturing students with Dark Magic "for a laugh" and not being expelled, which is something that doesn't even happen in canon era - the closest we get is Draco cursing Katie Bell by accident, during a specific secret mission, and unlike with Mulciber and Mary Macdonald, no one knows who the culprit even is, so they don’t have the option to expel him. Similarly we have Snape using Sectumsempra so often at Hogwarts that it became known as his specialty and not being expelled, despite it being a near-fatal torture curse.

This fic captures what the atmosphere at Hogwarts would’ve been like really well:

"Did that kind of thing happen a lot in Hogwarts?" Hermione asked, tone oddly flat. "In the seventies?"

“Yes," Sirius said after a long moment. "It did. There were times when it was pretty much open warfare in the halls and on the grounds, between the students everyone knew were on Voldemort's side and the ones who opposed him, or whose families did... I was talking to Pomfrey about it the other day, she says you lot get yourself hexed as often in a few months as our generation used to in a week. And people attacked pets or destroyed belongings all the time. It was one reason a lot of students hid being muggleborn."

There’s the inability to extrapolate from canon details, fandom often portraying the First War like it’s just 30 Death Eaters on one side and 20 Order members on the other.

For example, if a mere ~30 Death Eaters are already committing daily murders in HBP during the Second War, how much violence do you think an army of ~500+ DEs (Sirius says the DEs that came back in GoF is literally nothing to how large Voldemort’s armies were in the First War; Remus says the Order was outnumbered 20 to 1) was committing? Similarly, based on the statistics given in HBP (by February Ron says he’s literally lost count of how many students have lost relatives), by SWM a substantial amount of the student body would’ve had families murdered by Death Eaters (and therefore the students cheering James and Sirius on in SWM is obviously because they hate Snape for being a proto-Death Eater and not for being poor 🙄). There may have even been students themselves that were killed over breaks.

This lines up with Sirius's description of the war:

“You’re scared for yourself, and your family, and your friends. Every week, news comes of more deaths, more disappearances, more torturing... the Ministry of Magic’s in disarray, they don’t know what to do, they’re trying to keep everything hidden from the Muggles, but meanwhile, Muggles are dying too. Terror everywhere... panic... confusion... that’s how it used to be."

There are lots of similar passages about the war, I’m not going to quote all of them, but I suggest people actually pay attention to those details, as well as stuff during the Second War that would apply to the first.

The same thing applies as fandom portraying teenage Death Eaters as only joining once they graduate, when canon indicates they would be Marked at 16, but that’s for another meta.

fascinating! I can imagine teenagers who grow up in a confusing political environment having a coming-of-age nonetheless, "choosing sides"..

What are your biggest pet peeves in fics

My biggest pet peeve is, hands down, fandom’s portrayal of the first war, which is almost never portrayed as violent and terrible as the details we get about it in canon. Most importantly:

The First War started in 1970.

Not 1975 or 1976. Certainly not 1978. 1970. This means the war was raging the entire time the Marauders were at Hogwarts, and that they entered Hogwarts a year into the war. It lasted 11 whole years. The whole point is that the First War was much worse than the Second War.

I’ve seen people say things like “The Marauders era is boring because nothing really happens until their later years until the war starts and/or heats up” and say it like it’s complete fact and not something fans completely made up. The idea that the war only “heats up” after Snape’s Worst Memory is so universally accepted despite all evidence to the contrary.

(I’ve also seen claims that the only murders/war crimes committed during the first war were the few explicitly named in the text, which is, again… truly embarrassing analysis.)

The reason fandom has come up with this narrative is entirely to fit the Snape vs. Marauders “bullying” angle. It usually goes like this: Sirius and James were bullies for 5 years, until - conveniently and magically - the war started to “heat up” and get more serious 6th year or sometimes 7th year and therefore they matured (especially James, though the idea of Sirius maturing after the Prank is also common in fic). It provides a neat little coming of age arc for the Marauders, one that does not actually exist in canon.

Because, believe it or not, Voldemort was not going to adjust the trajectory of his war to fit this narrative.

On the pro-Marauders side who still see them as bullies, the fandom can’t reconcile the idea of the war being serious and the Marauders not being serious about it and instead spending their time bullying others. But the war was already heated up, and the Marauders were already serious about the war by SWM - because the Marauders attacks on Snape and others was them being serious about the war, because it wasn’t bullying, it was vigilante justice.

On the Snape fan side, to portray Snape as a victim of bullying, they have to pretend that he's the only person capable of being victimized in the whole entire wizarding world, and people actually being murdered and tortured conflicts with that narrative.

I can buy that the war took a few years to heat up, I doubt it went to daily murders and tortures immediately, but I think a war would not take 6-7 years to escalate. I would guess it heated up sometime the Marauders 2nd year or 3rd year, at latest.

(I often see so many Order deaths happening in late war, per Moody, used at evidence that the war only escalated then, but the Order is tiny and doesn’t represent the casualties in the rest of the population)

Evidence towards the fact that the war was very heated up already by the time of SWM is that Lily calls Voldemort “You Know Who” in her conversation with Snape outside the Gryffindor common room - which means that by that time Voldemort has spread enough terror that people are afraid to say his name.

Also, remember this is already a very violent society. The fact that some pureblood families murder Muggles for fun (Muggle hunting) is apparently an open secret, they murder house elves, and I’ve said before that I think pureblood society practices honor killings which are at least somewhat legally sanctioned (i.e. Merope’s situation).

So a few occasional murders is not going to shake them and is not what this society is going to consider a war.

More evidence is how much the violence has escalated at Hogwarts. Death Eater students are regularly and openly torturing students with Dark Magic "for a laugh" and not being expelled, which is something that doesn't even happen in canon era - the closest we get is Draco cursing Katie Bell by accident, during a specific secret mission, and unlike with Mulciber and Mary Macdonald, no one knows who the culprit even is, so they don’t have the option to expel him. Similarly we have Snape using Sectumsempra so often at Hogwarts that it became known as his specialty and not being expelled, despite it being a near-fatal torture curse.

This fic captures what the atmosphere at Hogwarts would’ve been like really well:

"Did that kind of thing happen a lot in Hogwarts?" Hermione asked, tone oddly flat. "In the seventies?"

“Yes," Sirius said after a long moment. "It did. There were times when it was pretty much open warfare in the halls and on the grounds, between the students everyone knew were on Voldemort's side and the ones who opposed him, or whose families did... I was talking to Pomfrey about it the other day, she says you lot get yourself hexed as often in a few months as our generation used to in a week. And people attacked pets or destroyed belongings all the time. It was one reason a lot of students hid being muggleborn."

There’s the inability to extrapolate from canon details, fandom often portraying the First War like it’s just 30 Death Eaters on one side and 20 Order members on the other.

For example, if a mere ~30 Death Eaters are already committing daily murders in HBP during the Second War, how much violence do you think an army of ~500+ DEs (Sirius says the DEs that came back in GoF is literally nothing to how large Voldemort’s armies were in the First War; Remus says the Order was outnumbered 20 to 1) was committing? Similarly, based on the statistics given in HBP (by February Ron says he’s literally lost count of how many students have lost relatives), by SWM a substantial amount of the student body would’ve had families murdered by Death Eaters (and therefore the students cheering James and Sirius on in SWM is obviously because they hate Snape for being a proto-Death Eater and not for being poor 🙄). There may have even been students themselves that were killed over breaks.

This lines up with Sirius's description of the war:

“You’re scared for yourself, and your family, and your friends. Every week, news comes of more deaths, more disappearances, more torturing... the Ministry of Magic’s in disarray, they don’t know what to do, they’re trying to keep everything hidden from the Muggles, but meanwhile, Muggles are dying too. Terror everywhere... panic... confusion... that’s how it used to be."

There are lots of similar passages about the war, I’m not going to quote all of them, but I suggest people actually pay attention to those details, as well as stuff during the Second War that would apply to the first.

The same thing applies as fandom portraying teenage Death Eaters as only joining once they graduate, when canon indicates they would be Marked at 16, but that’s for another meta. ETA: That meta is posted here.

Fic Rec: Post-War Canon

There are so many long epics that deal with the fallout of post-war canon. This exact moment, right after the war stops, is for me not something I read often. Believe me, there are many wonderful stories, but I prefer stories on the shorter side here apparently. 

The Grown Up Driver by Pocketfullof

Ugh, oh man, this story. This story. It’s so well written, full of beautiful lyrical prose. It gives Harry and Ginny the break from everything and everyone, just leaving the two of them to find themselves, find each other, and heal. Yes in all the ways possible. It makes my ache for the two of them in the best ways.

as the morning steals upon the night by @could-have-beens

I still cannot believe could-have-beens wrote me this story because I was going through a tough time at work. It is so heart-wrenchingly beautiful. This is my favorite canon reuniting after the battle story, and I am not just saying that because she wrote it for me. Read it, love it. Cry tears of joy that it exists.

Too Good To Be True by @remedial-potions

Askjdsdfghj ugh the feels I get from this amazing story! Ginny’s not feeling well, and Harry can’t stop thinking the worst. Harry is so in character, it hurts (in a good way). Wonderful combination of angst and fluff.

Romania by @clarensjoy

The first piece from Clarensjoy I read. It made my heart sing. After the war, Charlie keeps watching Harry and Ginny; it makes Harry nervous. The descriptions of the earth, the way Harry and Ginny are curled into one another, the way Ginny addresses the problem head-on, and Charlie’s musings on what he sees. It’s delightful, as is her continue-on piece.

There Your Heart Also Lies by @deadwoodpecker

Harry and Ginny need to work through an unforeseen relationship issue. I love how true this story feels, both the residual feelings that Ginny grapples with, and Harry’s response, showing how they’ve grown as a couple and a team.

Echoes by agreatwave

I love when we get outsider views of Harry and Ginny being their glorious selves, where they emit sunlit days, even to those who have long been stuck in the shade.

Compromise: A Love Story by femmenerd

Ginny needs to be more than the Boy Who Lived’s girlfriend. I like the messiness of this, the hard edges of their relationship. They’re nowhere near perfect, certainly not Ginny, but they wouldn’t have it any other way.

Homerun by @fightfortherightsofhouseelves

An amazing story of how Harry and Ginny makes it through each of the bases until they make it all the way to home. Wonderfully passionate and innocent at the same time.

Now You’re Mine by tosca1390

So, so beautiful… The tone, the feel, the way the two are together. A short, lovely piece that makes me feel safe and warm in the glow of Harry and Ginny’s love.

After the Leaves Have Fallen by tosca1390

Harry being his usual overprotective self, and Ginny having none of it. The passion, the description, such a lovely piece by tosca!

i just really need you here right now by @annerbhp

Harry misses things from sometimes, but that doesn’t mean he stops trying. No surprise here that I love Annerb’s beautiful one-shot about how Harry and Ginny, like all couples, have things they need to work on. That doesn’t mean they give up. Annerb is such a fantastic writer. I never knew I could feel so much about something like a towel. 

—-

Want more recommendations? Check out my:

All-time Favorite recs

Muggle AU / Coffee AU recs

I’m SO curious... how DO you think gender plays a role in Harry and Ginny’s respective interactions with Voldemort? I’d never thought of it, and now I’m fully invested🤩

i honestly wanna write a fucking academic paper with like, sources™, on this some day because there’s so much there. but i’m thrilled you asked so here are some thoughts to get us started:

(cw for gendered violence and abuse, nothing graphic)

so i picked out harry and ginny specifically because many of their peers only know voldemort as this far-away, larger-than-life villain: like, he’s the wizard fascist they read about in the daily prophet, whose goals and views they’re opposed to and which they might be personally affected by, yes (losing loved ones to fighting him, directly suffering under voldemort’s regime because they’re muggleborn etc.), but they don’t know that guy personally, and he doesn’t know them either. it’s been pointed out before, and it bears repeating here, that even ron and hermione don’t even lay eyes on the guy until book 7.

harry, being our protagonist, gets personally singled out thanks to the prophecy and the ensuing boy who lived / chosen one shenanigans. he gets to have his very own hero’s journey™, gets personally antagonised by voldemort and ultimately tasked with his defeat. this makes a larger-than-life figure out of harry as well, a symbol of hope and resistance, an opposing force to voldemort’s evil.

ginny also encounters voldemort as a personal evil, but that experience differs from harry and voldemort in some significant ways: that dynamic is well-known and witnessed by the public: he’s famous for his part in this ultimate fight of good vs evil, and he literally defeats voldemort in front of an audience and then goes down in history for it. the struggle of ginny vs tom goes almost entirely unnoticed and unwitnessed, except for a few close friends and family members, if it all. (yada yada yada lucky you.) we’re around for harry’s fight against voldemort from start to finish, the books are constructed around it, and hardly witness ginny’s. most of the diary stuff happens off-page and we don’t even find out until it’s too late to prevent it, and then again, too late to give her some sort of company in the aftermath.

(not to go on a whole tangent on the gendered dichotomy of (feminine) private and (masculine) public spheres in (for example) victorian literature but that's part of what i’m getting at here.)

(if it wasn’t glaringly obvious from this and also everything else i have ever posted on this blog, i’m a million times more interested in reading harry and ginny as two sides of the same coin than i am harry and malfoy. fuck that guy and get me more ginny meta)

ginny’s own villain actually isn’t voldemort: it’s very specifically a memory of riddle, and while voldemort makes no secret out of antagonising harry, the riddle in the diary uses ginny by pretending to be her friend. so ginny’s dynamic with riddle is full of themes of gaslighting, manipulation and loss of bodily autonomy (when she’s being possessed), and while none of that is exclusive to women, of course, being gaslit or manipulated by abusive or violent men, especially trusted men, is a familiar experience to a lot of women and often appears in tandem with patriarchal structures and misogyny. think about how women murdered by men tend to die at the hands of their partners or ex-partners, for example. even given that he isn’t one, riddle shares a lot of characteristics with a textbook abusive ex-boyfriend.

that’s not even getting into the gendered horror tropes, specifically, that surround ginny! like literally getting possessed! like the accusations of insanity that likely followed! oh my god! and that part is very interesting because harry actually also experiences that starting in ootp. let me comb through a dozen papers on the topic and get back to you later with conclusions, i’m just going to leave that here for now. separate dissertation on ginny as a horror protagonist, yes i absolutely have thoughts on that, will be saved for another time.

there’s absolutely more, but i’m leaving it at that for now and if i can’t help myself i’ll make a part two, but i’m also supposed to be writing a whole multichapter fic exploring all of this, so we’ll talk about this more in 2029, probably.

ginny weasley is as loyal as ron, as cool as bill, as funny as the twins, as fiery and protective as mrs weasley, as understanding and indifferent to other peoples’ opinions as mr weasley, as much of an animal lover as charlie, as stubborn as percy and they STILL gave her the personality of a wet rag in the films

phenomenal

a set if hp bookmarks i’ll have for melbourne supanova next weekend! one (1) boy for each book 

It’s Mother’s Day coming up, so I’m thinking of all the women in my life and all the awesome roles they play (mothers, non-mothers, and never-mothers alike).

http://everythingisgoingtobeokcomic.com/well-behaved-women

this 12 year old describes a girl as “glowing like the setting sun” when she blushes and people wonder why they ended up married [x]

Which hp book is your favorite and why?

personal favourite is probably ootp. because it’s just so long and messy and filled with teen angst. you get harry at his most vulnerable, and you also get so much of the school life like exams and harry’s first dalliance with romance on top of all the actual story (the order, voldemort’s rise, dumbledore’s army, the ministry propaganda etc).

but i think hbp is probably a PERFECT book, and the BEST book in the series. it’s got mystery, comedy, romance, teen angst / drama, coming of age, action, lots of backstory and explanation. it’s just perfect. it’s got a little bit of everything.

Basically agree with it all, but damn a 13 inch height difference is mad!

Canon Couples and the Random Heights I Assigned Them

Just because I recently re-read this post and it's on my mind. Here's what I think these canon couples' final heights came to be and some justifications behind my thought process, as well as some headcanons. Let's start with my OTP -

Harry (6'1") and Ginny (5'0")

I'm kinda obsessed with the idea that 17yo Harry being the same height as his 21yo deceased father would grow just a couple more inches

Ginny being 5ft fits with her being the noticeably "smallest one" in the DoM during OOTP and with Harry being able to easily look over her head during the infamous First Kiss scene in HBP, putting her head at chest height of Harry (as of HBP)

Ginny is the only one who knows about Harry's petty satisfaction when he ran into Draco Malfoy some years after the war and realized he had continued to grow and Malfoy hadn't

James (5'11") and Lily (5'8")

Because they're both tall enough to be considered "tall", but not the kind of tall that is shocking

Lily being 5'8" makes her tall enough to have to look down at 14yo Harry in the graveyard scene of GOF

Ron (6'5") and Hermione (5'8")

In order for Fred and George to be "shorter and stockier" than 14yo Ron, but still slightly over 6ft so as to shrink to 5'11" in DH, I have to assume Ron's final height came to be one that most people would put in the "Holy shit you're tall" category

I know I'm going to get shouted at for Hermione's height, because she's never described as particularly tall in the books HOWEVER she's never described as particularly short either, just shorter than Harry

This 9 inch height difference give Ron & Hermione the perfect height difference for Ron to comfortably rest his chin on her head without having to hunch over awkwardly like Harry does with Ginny, so I'm sticking to it

Arthur (5'11") and Molly (4'11")

I know the movies made Arthur short and round, but he was described as thin in the books and all the Weasley boys wind up being pretty tall, so they had to get that from somewhere.

Molly is consistently described as short and dumpy throughout the series, and while Ginny is often compared to Molly physically, I just like the idea that Ginny managed to grow that extra inch that Molly never did.

Draco (6'0") and Astoria (5'11")

we know in DH Draco was slightly taller than Harry at the Malfoy Manor scene (p.457, U.S. edition of DH), so if we assume the like linked post above that Harry was 5'11" during DH, then I'd put Draco at 6 foot.

we literally know nothing about Astoria (CC doesn't count), but I picked 5'11" because it is the curse of all tall women to wind up with men roughly the same height

Lucius (5'10") and Narcissa (5'10")

we know Harry and Narcissa are the same height in HBP, so I put her at 5'10"

correct me if I'm wrong, but Lucius is never described as particularly tall, while Narcissa is. And of course, tall for a woman is average for a man. I put Lucius to be around around the same height as Narcissa because I just don't see Lucius' personality allowing him to be with a woman taller than himself.

also, see the curse of tall women above

Basically agree with all of this but damn, a 13 inch height difference is mad!

Canon Couples and the Random Heights I Assigned Them

Just because I recently re-read this post and it's on my mind. Here's what I think these canon couples' final heights came to be and some justifications behind my thought process, as well as some headcanons. Let's start with my OTP -

Harry (6'1") and Ginny (5'0")

I'm kinda obsessed with the idea that 17yo Harry being the same height as his 21yo deceased father would grow just a couple more inches

Ginny being 5ft fits with her being the noticeably "smallest one" in the DoM during OOTP and with Harry being able to easily look over her head during the infamous First Kiss scene in HBP, putting her head at chest height of Harry (as of HBP)

Ginny is the only one who knows about Harry's petty satisfaction when he ran into Draco Malfoy some years after the war and realized he had continued to grow and Malfoy hadn't

James (5'11") and Lily (5'8")

Because they're both tall enough to be considered "tall", but not the kind of tall that is shocking

Lily being 5'8" makes her tall enough to have to look down at 14yo Harry in the graveyard scene of GOF

Ron (6'5") and Hermione (5'8")

In order for Fred and George to be "shorter and stockier" than 14yo Ron, but still slightly over 6ft so as to shrink to 5'11" in DH, I have to assume Ron's final height came to be one that most people would put in the "Holy shit you're tall" category

I know I'm going to get shouted at for Hermione's height, because she's never described as particularly tall in the books HOWEVER she's never described as particularly short either, just shorter than Harry

This 9 inch height difference give Ron & Hermione the perfect height difference for Ron to comfortably rest his chin on her head without having to hunch over awkwardly like Harry does with Ginny, so I'm sticking to it

Arthur (5'11") and Molly (4'11")

I know the movies made Arthur short and round, but he was described as thin in the books and all the Weasley boys wind up being pretty tall, so they had to get that from somewhere.

Molly is consistently described as short and dumpy throughout the series, and while Ginny is often compared to Molly physically, I just like the idea that Ginny managed to grow that extra inch that Molly never did.

Draco (6'0") and Astoria (5'11")

we know in DH Draco was slightly taller than Harry at the Malfoy Manor scene (p.457, U.S. edition of DH), so if we assume the like linked post above that Harry was 5'11" during DH, then I'd put Draco at 6 foot.

we literally know nothing about Astoria (CC doesn't count), but I picked 5'11" because it is the curse of all tall women to wind up with men roughly the same height

Lucius (5'10") and Narcissa (5'10")

we know Harry and Narcissa are the same height in HBP, so I put her at 5'10"

correct me if I'm wrong, but Lucius is never described as particularly tall, while Narcissa is. And of course, tall for a woman is average for a man. I put Lucius to be around around the same height as Narcissa because I just don't see Lucius' personality allowing him to be with a woman taller than himself.

also, see the curse of tall women above

Potter Children Headcanons

JAMES

James is Ginny with black hair. Her eyes, her nose , the only out of the three to get her extreme freckles. I imagine him to be mid height but Albus is taller.

Ginny is his best friend. Absolute mammas boy yes James is the rebel child but so is Ginny. They have the same humor have the same interest they are very close. He made her a mum and they will always have that bond.

James is also very protective of Lily and Albus. Yes he had very caring and present parents but they are busy people so James stepped in a lot as he got older to be there for the other two. James and teddy are incredibly close James was Tedds first brother and they spend a lot of time together once James graduates, they even lived together at a point.

ALBUS

Everything about Albus looks like Harry. But, Albus has a warmness in his face that came from his mama. He has Harry’s wider shoulders but Albus got Ron’s height. Something James will forever be jelous of.

Albus was closer to Ginny as a toddler because he was so shy but moving through adolescence he noticed how similar he is to his father. They are both people watchers, don’t like big crowds, crave the quiet. He always goes to Harry when he has questions or concerns. Don’t get me wrong they fight a lot and when they do it’s bad but Harry is his favorite parent and deep down he would never admit it Albus is Harry’s favorite child.

Albus’s family mate is Rose she does all the talking for him and they get along very well. Teddy has always looked out for Albus as well always making sure he had eaten dinner and including him in things with the other cousins.

LILY

Everyone says lily looks like Ginny at first but, Ginny and Harry both agree she looks more like her father. She has her mums fair skin, her brown eyes, and a light dusting of freckles not like James and Ginny have. But if you look closer she has Harry’s eye shape. His check bones, his nose, his jaw. Her eyebrows her lips that’s all from her dad. When she’s standing right next to Harry that really shines through how much she looks like her father. She is also crazy petite like Ginny very small in stature.

She’s the baby so obviously she gets away with everything. If James and Albus want something then they make Lily go ask for it. She’s close with Ginny because they enjoy doing stuff together like getting nails done going shopping talking about boys all the usual mother daughter things. But just like Ginny and Molly holy hell those two could row if they fight the whole neighborhood will know. But that’s where Harry comes in if Lily runs to her room crying after a fight with her mom Harry will be the one to comfort her till she falls asleep.

Lily wasn’t that close to the boys growing up especially not James because she was so much younger but when they all got older they started to bond more. She always admired Aunt Angelina Lily could always tell her things she could never tell her mom.

Yeah, I've always had the headcanon that Romilda covered for Ginny this way -- we know she's clever, cunning and then got sorted into Gryffindor. I also always imagined Snape easily leaning into the story with half-remembered James-hatred. I mean, the kindling was already set by ol' Rita Skeeter back in GoF, wasn't it? I like how everyone here piles on to corroborate, painting a picture of Harry as an absolute slag.

I've always wanted to write a scene of mutual agreement and support (friendship is a strong word) between Ginny and Romilda Vane, so here's around 1600 words of something that might have happened during Year 7.

*****

They wait until after dinner to round on her.

Ginny is mildly surprised; she'd guessed they would question her as soon as she got off the train, but perhaps they thought that Snape's speech—not the Headmaster's, she'd never consider him so—might terrify her enough to make her betray everything she has ever believed on. If so, they were very mistaken; seeing Snape in the middle of the staff table, with Death Eaters by his side, only infused her Gryffindor spirit.

"Weasley," calls Alecto Carrow. She has a mind to pretend to ignore her, but the mass of students climbing the stairs seems to freeze with that call, and Ginny has no choice but to answer it, all eyes on her as she walks to Alecto Carrow.

"Yes, Professor." She puts as much spite in that word as she can. Neville and Luna suddenly materialize next to her, and Ginny almost wishes they would stay away, as if there is any protection to be found this year.

Alecto looks her up and down. "That's it?" Her voice is mocking. "That's Potter's girlfriend?"

By her side, Crabble and Goyle nod; their gazes are not as unappreciative as Alecto's. With a shudder, Ginny thinks she will favour disdain any day.

"I thought Potter had better taste."

She buries her nails into her palm. Don't answer, she tells herself, and tries to keep a look of disinterest.

"Where is your boyfriend?"

Her rehearsed answer comes in a bored tone. "I would know if I had any." It feels more than ever that everyone is staring at her.

Alecto doesn't seem convinced, nor do her cronies.

"They were dating," says Goyle, in a whisper that everyone can hear. "Everyone saw it, they were snogging all around the place."

"It's what happens when you are dating someone," snaps Ginny. "We've broken up." She hesitates for a tiny beat. "He dumped me."

This time her rehearsed line doesn't sound credible, despite being the truth. Everyone's gaze seems to burn, evaluating her answer, and, for a moment, Ginny waits for someone to question this, to raise the absurdity of her words: they were in love. As Goyle had noted, anyone could see how they felt about each other; Harry had been beaming the whole time they were together, all those few weeks of sunshine and happiness and hope. Harry wouldn't just dump her—

And then Alecto Carrow laughs.

"I guess Potter already got what he was after, then?" She mocks. "Blood traitors aren't a good value if..."

"Perhaps the girl is lying," another voice pops in, and Ginny turns to see Amycus Carrow joining his sister. His gaze upon her makes Ginny shiver; she remembers all too well duelling him. "Perhaps she knows more than she's letting on—"

"I wouldn't think so," Luna says, her voice as dreaming as ever. "If she knew, she wouldn't be here."

"Harry always kept his secrets," Neville adds, crossing his arms.

Amycus and Alecto share a look before Amycus takes a step forward.

"I will be the judge of that. If we have Potter's precious girlfriend—"

"I am not even his girlfriend anymore!"

It doesn't seem to matter, though. Terror floods her, not so much for herself; there isn't anything that she can share with them, but if somehow Harry finds out that they've got her—their breakup will be for nothing—he is too stupid and too noble to do something reckless—

Amycus grabs her arm; Ginny dives her hand into her pocket, but before she can take out her wand, many things happen. Professor McGonagall appears, Neville points his wand at Amycus, and Romilda Vane laughs nervously.

"Please," she says. "Weasley was his girlfriend, so what?”

That makes everyone draw their eyes to her. Romilda tosses her hair out of her face, seemingly enjoying the attention, but Ginny can see a thin layer of sweat breaking through the girl's careful makeup.

"Harry was always smiling at me, flirting unashamedly, even when he was dating her. I wasn’t the only one either. Everyone knew he wasn't good business. A ladies' man, that one."

Ginny blinks; she is not alone. The year before, when Harry was at the height of his popularity at Hogwarts, everyone's favourite Chosen One, he had drawn many eyes. Ginny had found it bothersome, but she could understand what everyone was seeing: that gorgeous young man with messy dark hair and green eyes, tall and fit, with the added benefit of seeming oblivious to his own charm, almost shy. It had been endearing.

That also was one of the reasons why, when Harry and Ginny started dating, everyone wanted to talk about it. It had been huge news for Hogwarts' standard.

There was no way anyone would believe that Romilda was telling the truth.

"Potter never had any other girlfriend," Crabbe mumbles.

Romilda laughs derisively. "I wasn't his girlfriend, haven't you heard what I just said? He just liked to flirt." She nudges her friend. "Do you remember, Lisa? I told you Harry never took his eyes off me."

Lisa looks terrified, but she nods. "Yes," she confirms in a small voice. "And you—you shared chocolate once."

"Harry dated Cho," someone from the Ravenclaw crowd says, and there's a murmur of agreement.

"I went with Harry to a Christmas party last year," notes Luna. She skips the part where they went as friends.

"I think I saw him snogging a girl behind the greenhouses," Hannah Abbott says.

At her side, a boy nods. "I saw something in the library once."

People start adding comments, their voices mingling in a cacophony. The weirdest part is that Ginny knows no one is lying; people are telling about the times they saw Harry with a girl — only she was this girl, this only girl, but no one specifies that.

"Quiet, quiet!" Alecto sounds annoyed. She looks at Crabbe and Goyle. "Is this true?"

They shrug, lost.

"I saw Potter with Chang at Madam Puddifoot's," Pansy Parkinson confirms, distasteful. "And he went with Loony Lovegood to Slughorn's party."

"That would be Professor Slughorn, Miss Parkinson," chides Professor McGonagall, taking a definite step ahead and placing herself between the Carrows and Ginny. She raises her arm and, almost without a second glance, lowers Neville's still extended arm. "I do not see why a student's romantic life is under scrutiny at this hour of the night, especially a student who is not even here at the moment, but the others have class tomorrow morning."

"This is more important than classes," Amycus spats.

"I remind you this is still a school," Professor McGonagall says coldly.

Amycus' answer is cut by a bored voice. "What is this?" Snape walks, easily opening his way between the students gathered at the door.

"We are trying to interrogate the Weasley girl," Alecto says. "To find out the whereabouts of Potter. She was his girlfriend."

Snape rolls his eyes. "You heard the others. Potter was a lover-boy; that is not surprising considering how his father behaved with his fans." He regards Ginny coldly. "Weasley is not special. I doubted Potter ever shared anything more than a snog with her."

There's an underlying truth in his words that stung her, but before she can react, Snape is already addressing Professor McGonagall.

"Take your students to bed, Minerva. It would not be advisable to be out of the bed at this hour."

Professor McGonagall, who had been frowning at Snape as if trying to figure out something, bristles; there's nothing but repulse in her eyes as she nods.

"Of course, Severus." She turns to Ginny and the others. "Go to the Common Room, now."

And she casts a warning glance at Ginny, who runs to meddle between the other Gryffindor students climbing up the stairs. Her heart doesn't stop beating painfully until she enters the Common Room, and only then she looks back; the Carrows aren't in sight. She doubts this is the last time they will try to question her, but for now, she can breathe easily and give Neville a feeble smile when he looks at her.

"We will watch your back," he whispers.

"It will be fine," she says, with a confidence she doesn't feel. Nothing about her experience at Hogwarts so far gives her any faith that things will turn out well.

And then she catches a mop of black hair.

"Romilda," she calls. Romilda pauses on her way to the stairs.

"Yeah?"

Ginny waits until they are alone to whisper: "Thank you."

Romilda nods. There’s a moment of silence, during which Romilda eyes the stairs as if considering fleeing the scene before she asks: "Did he really break up with you?"

Ginny gulps. "Yeah."

"Oh, I thought—"

"No, it was true."

She waits for some remark; Romilda was truly determined to get Harry the year before, and she had pestered Ginny when she was dating Harry.

"He never actually flirted with me," Romilda says in a rushed whisper. "And you were special to him, I—I spent a lot of time watching him and trying to get his attention, but he never glanced at me... because he was too busy ogling at you."

Warmth spreads inside Ginny; she cannot help her smile. "Harry didn't ogle."

"Yes, all the time. He had it hard for you. Still has, I'd bet." Romilda smiles awkwardly. "Not very womanizer of him."

Ginny's eyes wide. "About that—if anyone finds out that you were exaggerating—"

"I'll talk to my friends. No one is going to say anything."

"I know. I trust you." They look at each other; it suddenly occurs to Ginny that Romilda has no idea, not really, of what could happen if anyone suspects her lie. Romilda never faced a Death Eater. Ginny hopes she never does. "It will be fine."

It's the same thing she told Neville before, but now there's a promise in her voice.

Romilda nods one last time. "Night, Ginny."

"Night, Romilda."

Pleaseee do Hinny art soon. I would love to see them in your style.

i’ve drawn hinny before hehe enjoy this doodle i did while listening to the audiobook of hbp:

i find them so cute sometimes

i love this bit sm in deathly hallows bc they were all so sad and yk scared that seeing hermione being "back to normal" in a way made them both smile at the normality.

ps. a little before this harry points out that hermione was so focused in what was happening in the moment and debating with ron that she forgot she was mad at ron and harry also was relieved by that lmao by boi loves them both sm i wanna cry.

this book has so many tiny moments like this that i love sm.

At the risk of sounding anti-intellectual, I think that college should be free and also not a requirement for employment outside of highly specialized career fields

really enjoying all the videos Muslims have been posting of their cats looking like this

when the humans are up at 4 am for suhoor

"who radicalized you" ever since i was a child i wanted other people to be treated nicely and fairly because i didnt understand why theyd deserve otherwise and it fills me with disgust seeing how people treat their fellow human beings sometimes

I've always liked the idea of magic working in whimsical and mysterious ways, more than the school of thought that makes magic more 'technical'. The way Harry Potter's story is, I feel like I've been conditioned to enjoy the interplay between "magic" and "luck".

This to say, I'd always imagined Peter as a powerful wizard that few recognized until Voldemort. I imagine Dumbledore never had a clue-- he makes mistakes, he misses things. I like to imagine either James or Lily had a subconscious inkling, but never really thought about it. James just knew Peter was a self-conscious little fool at times, when he didn't need to be, really, see Peter! you became a freakin animagus! idk why you doubt yourself...

Voldemort canonically sought out the Potters at first (the motivations of which, is a whole other topic to whcih I want insight). Peter was a last resort, a means to end, but I imagine Voldemort was clever enough to realize that Peter was meant for the inner circle. Of course, anyone close to his plans for immortality automatically were held close out of necessity. No doubt, Snape initially entered that inner circle not for his Sectumsempra, but because he had been attracted to 'prophecy'/'destiny'. Both Voldie and Harry gradually develop a "sixth sense" for these things.

I personally subscribe to the headcanon of Peter deliberately blasting a nearby gas plant that fateful Nov day. Not only does that theory satisfy my personal belief that Peter was the creative escape-artist of the Marauders (james was most creative at inventing problems, sirius at getting into problems, remus at avoiding problems, peter at getting out of problems), but also allows the Muggles a shred of truth. It's both logical and 'lucky'. (Did Peter set the location of their confrontation deliberately, or was he drawn near to a gas plant through magic?)

Anyway, great Peter meta. Yes to Voldemort negging Peter. GoF Peter is a disgusting pitiful mess. It's fascinating to imagine a 'toxic relationship' there

Voldemort constantly belittling Peter throughout GoF is so interesting because he, Voldemort, is probably the person who best knows Peter's abilities at this point. He expresses surprise at Peter being able to convince Bertha Jorkins to go with him. And like...dude, you of all people KNOW how much of a manipulative snake Peter is, you Know how he convinced Lily and James and Sirius to trust him...why are you acting so surprised? Like Voldemort is the last person who should underestimate Peter. But he does: I think because he knows full well Peter is actually competent but belittles him to keep him loyal. Ohhhh the psychology of these two. It's so fascinating.

(....petermort? someone stop me.)

I'm in love, your honor

8 for Quidditch is for Losers <3

Did any real people or events inspire any part of Quidditch is for Losers?

One time, when my daughter was young and I was sleep-deprived, I watched her play in a mirror. She was delighted. She gazed at her hands, flipped them back and forth. She giggled at the way her fingers wriggled. She made faces, laughed, danced around, played hide-and-seek. She marveled at the way her legs moved, running in place. She was enchanted with her own being. She looked at herself and loved what she saw, not because of comparison or achievement – just because being alive and being her was marvelous. That’s where Ginny is at the beginning of QifL: Ginny loves being Ginny. She has no doubt, no fear, there’s nothing self-conscious about her. She has goals and dreams - it never occurs to her those might be out of reach. Sure, she’s failed before. But failure’s not the finish, it’s just a mile marker in a race she’s only halfway through. “Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve” isn’t a motto yet, because life hasn’t put a condition on “possible.” At this point, she’s more “anything’s possible…duh." As we get older, we lose that sense of marvel, sense of self-as-miracle. We start to believe there’s something wrong with us. And that’s pretty much the story: Ginny’s purest self, Ginny’s fall, Ginny’s fear, and Ginny’s slow climb back to “Anything’s possible.”