“He read the letter again, but could not take in any more meaning than he had done the first time, and was reduced to staring at the handwriting itself. She had made her “g”s the same way he did.”
Okay but like actually this is the most thoughtful gift IN THE WHOLE WORLD.
It might seem to make more sense to give Ron the precious family heirloom (remember that Molly’s brother Fabian died in the First Wizarding War; Molly has held onto his watch out of sentimentality since then). But Ron is the sixth son in his (canonically financially-struggling) family. He’s been forced into hand-me-downs his whole life. If he’d gotten the watch with a dent in the back, he wouldn’t have appreciated it; he’d only have seen the flaw. And if his mum bought Harry a new watch instead of getting Ron one, Ron would have resented that. A new watch was a worthwhile expense to get Ron a rare taste of the luxury and individual attention he has always craved.
Harry, though. Harry has money; Harry has new things. What Harry does not have is family. Harry is an orphan. Other than one photo album and the invisibility cloak, he doesn’t have anything that came with family history attached. What Molly does here is give him that; she makes him part of the family, symbolically, by giving him an emotionally significant if physically imperfect item. She gives him love in a tangible form.
This is why I will fight anyone who insults the Weasleys.
To celebrate The Boy Who Lived’s birthday this year—he’s 38 on July 31—we’re going to take a trip through five of the most wonderful wizarding homes Harry comes to know and sometimes love very much. To narrow it down, we selected homes showcased in the films that had some coveted real-world features (wizards love brick fireplaces!). We also factored in other elements like Harry’s experiences there, and the general demeanor of its owners. Sure, Malfoy Manor is sick AF, but it is also cold—both temperature wise and emotionally—plus people were tortured there, so you won’t find it amongst our top five (feel free to let your father hear about it, Draco).
one of the v. important things the movies missed about ron is just like, how down to fight he was at all times. like not even duel just he was always ready to physically beat the shit out of people who insulted his family or friends and WOULD if no one stopped him.
there are so many points in the books where its just casually dropped in ‘and so Harry and/or Hermione had to physically restrain Ron’ usually from Malfoy but if Harry or Hermione weren’t paying attention it became ‘and so Ron punched Malfoy in the face’.
Like, Ron cursing Malfoy for calling Hermione Mudblood wasnt just a one off thing like every time he did that in the future when Ron was there it was like ‘ron had to be stopped from ending Malfoy’s life’ just thrown in there. Same for any other severe insults.
My absolute favorite instance of this is in the first book when they’re just watching a Quidditch game and Malfoy just starts bothering Ron and Hermione during it and is finally like ‘man its pretty funny how the Gryffindor quidditch team is recruited based on pity like y’know Potter has no parents, Weasley’s brothers have no money they should include Longbottom for having no brains” and Ron just flings himself at Malfoy and starts punching him and rolling around under the bleachers and Neville is like “uh shit i guess i better fight CRABBE AND GOYLE BOTH AT ONCE so they don’t go after him” (very underrated moment of courage from Neville he knew he had no chance but he just went for it honestly almost more impressive than confronting Voldemort in book 7)
and they’re just fighting for like twenty minutes and Hermione doesn’t even notice because she was so focused on tuning Malfoy out and watching the game and when its over she looks around like “where’d ron go” and then later its mentioned “Harry sees Ron and his face is covered in blood and he’s like “GOOD JOB WINNING THE GAME HARRY I GAVE MALFOY A BLACK EYE SO WE BOTH DID GREAT THINGS TONIGHT oh btw i have detention for a week and neville’s unconcious but they say he’ll be fine”.
Ron is ride or die and will fight u for $0 y’all
that boy had too many brothers and no nifty wand to protect himself from their shenanigans, what did you expect?
Thank
you so much for your kind letter of the 17th. It is always a pleasure
to hear from you. I do appreciate your waiving the rules about
familiars to allow Wednesday to bring little Homer – she dotes on
that spider, and I don’t think she could consider Hogwarts home
without his company.
We
were delighted but completely unsurprised by the children’s Sorting.
Of course Wednesday is a Ravenclaw – she has always had a brilliant
mind, and it is rather traditional for the women in our
family. Slytherin might have been a possibility, with her cleverness
and ambition, but sadly (and quietly, between friends) I must admit
the wrong sort have rather taken over that House at the moment. Death
Eaters are so vulgar. Gomez, naturally, is over the moon about
our little Harry being a fellow Gryffindor – the world does need more
dashing, brave, and reckless men. They make life so interesting for
the rest of us, don’t you agree? And I am certain he will be safe
under your care, after his rather difficult start in life, poor
child. That aunt and uncle of his are just too terribly common to
protect him adequately – I am grateful Albus saw sense and left him
with us rather than her.
I
appreciate your bringing to my attention the small difficulty between
Harry and Draco – I shall have a word with Narcissa. (Lucius is still
being terribly silly about that little peacock incident, and refuses
to speak to Gomez at all. Men can be so ridiculously proud. And they
really did look so much better in black.) Really, though, Harry was
only defending his friend. I probably should warn you that Wednesday
writes that she is teaching young Longbottom a few of her more subtle
defenses – I sincerely doubt Draco will trouble him in future if he
uses those. I assure you, none of them cause permanent damage, only
temporary discomfort, and she is well aware that they are only for
self-defense, not mere childish aggression. Addamses do not start
fights, but we do finish them, and Wednesday has always looked out
for her brothers.
At
least that little incident allowed you to see Harry’s flying skills
in time to recruit him for the Quidditch team. I think he shall be an
excellent Seeker – he was always the best at bat-spotting on summer
evenings, and then there was the time he “borrowed” Gomez’s
broom to rescue Pugsley’s pet octopus Aristotle, who had developed an
unaccountable taste for tree-climbing, but had neglected to learn how
to climb down. It was a successful rescue, even though he was mildly hampered on his descent by Aristotle clinging to his face in terror.
Please
send my apologies to Severus for that unfortunate incident in Potions
class. I should have warned him that Wednesday was experimenting
with, shall we say, some variant recipes. I am quite certain,
however, that Miss Parkinson’s hair will grow back normally, and that
the snakes are only a temporary embellishment.
My
best regards, and do drop by for tea if you ever happen to be in the
neighborhood. Thing has perfected your favorite shortbread recipe – I
do believe he has a little crush on you. Or perhaps it is merely that
you are the only visitor we have had, outside of family, who is
sensible enough to shake hands with him without flinching.
(Thanks you talking-bird-jessie for suggesting this scene from Order of the Phoenix!)
Reblogging because this is beautiful and totally should’ve been in the movie
Why are moments like this not in the movies? 😥
I have this headcanon that after Neville proposed to Hannah Abbott, he went to his parents at St. Mungo’s and sat with them. Even though he was sure she wouldn’t understand or remember, he held his mother’s hands and told her, “I’m getting married, Mum. She’s great. You’ll really like her.” Alice just hummed and stared off into the distance. No reaction. Neville still stayed, telling his parents all about Hannah and their plans, and how she wanted so badly to come meet them and he would bring her next time.
Then, as he put his hand on the door handle to leave, he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Alice. She held out her hand as she had done so many times before. Expecting a candy wrapper, Neville held out his hand but felt something heavier drop into it.
When he looked down, there were two rings. And when he glanced to his mother’s hand, there was an indent where her wedding ring had once rested but was no longer there.
I wonder how Snape antis are able to connect with people in the real world.
One of the many reasons for which I like Severus Snape is because he is human. He has flaws, but ultimately, he is good.
Yes, he is a complete arse when it comes to his students, but wouldn’t you be?
Snape has a horrible childhood: his father was most likely abusive, his mother was probably too lost to help him or love him in any way, he was poor and neglected, and he had one friend. Wouldn’t you cling onto that friendship for dear life?
If your answer is no, and that it would be obsessive to do so, then evidently you have never felt lonely before. You have never experienced the lack of any display of human affection. Severus was starving for it, he was just a boy, and he didn’t even know how to behave in a normal way socially.
Then he has such ambitions, such hopes for a new life at Hogwarts, where he tells himself that everything will be better, but no, because he has to go through relentless bullying for the mere fact that he exists.
As he doesn’t know how to show love and he doesn’t know what people appreciate, he probably thinks that Lily will only like him when he likes himself. And how does he like himself? Powerful, strong, knowledgeable, respected. He sees that Lily likes James Potter, and thinks that she does because Potter is respected and popular (as in he holds power). He doesn’t understand how Lily could like him now, because he doesn’t like himself. So he starts his journey towards the only thing he knows will give him power, and because of this, he loses everything he has ever cared about.
Snape is full of spite, there is no denying. But it is only understandable when one thinks about everything he has had to endure because of other people’s cruelty or because of his own mistakes.
So I cannot fathom how antis relate to normal people in life. It is impossible to find a flawless person, and if you can’t forgive Snape after eighteen years of the deepest remorse, then why would you forgive anyone who has ever made a mistake in real life?
It brings me to think that you only relate to human angels who do nothing wrong, and that is so shallow that I can’t even begin to imagine life lived that way.
Everyone makes mistakes. Severus Snape has made many mistakes. James Potter has made many mistakes. Harry Potter has made many mistakes. Every well written character, as every human being, makes mistakes.
But being able to see past them and understand the motives behind them, being able to understand the consequences that bring people to seek redemption is what, ultimately, makes people capable of love.
So when I see how antis slander Severus Snape and demonise him, ignoring every good thing he has ever done in his life, I wonder how they come to accept people in the real world.
It’s a good point and basically what bothers me most about all of the rabid hatred toward pro-snappers on here
especially for me, as someone who’s life story aligns eerily in many ways with snape’s (minus the membership in a magical supremacy cult but there’s always tomorrow!) i am always left wondering, “If you hate a fictional abused character who has made some mistakes in life and tries to atone for it but doesn’t fully recover from his past and doesn’t come out kinder for it and remains bitter and mistrustful… what do you think of REAL LIFE people who were abused and have made some mistakes in life and try to be basically good people but never fully recovered and retain their bitterness?” Because those people are not outliers or statistical anomalies… as much as the media would LOVE to convince you that all victims of abuse rise above it and come out “the bigger person” in the end and learn the ~true value~ of kindness and compassion… that’s not the universal experience. It happens, sure, but I wouldn’t even say it’s the most common result. I’ve met far more abuse survivors who still deal with trauma years after the fact than ones that are rainbows and sunshine. So if all it takes for a snater to condemn someone as subhuman is a little bit of assholery and bitterness… yikes. I’ve got that in spades, and at the end of the day, I’M not a war hero, so what have I got going for me, yeah?
but also i have literally drawn parallels between myself thoughtlessly using slurs when I was 15 and snape using “mudblood” when he was 15, and you would not fucking believe a snater honestly told me that *I* could be forgiven because “surely you didn’t know any better back then and you realize your mistake” and in the same sentence condemned snape because “well it’s just unforgivable that was his best friend and he was old enough to understand all of the socio/political implications involved in the use of hateful language” like holy hell, and i told them at the end of the day I hurt real people with real slurs used against real minorities and Harry Potter is made up, blood status doesn’t exist, and “mudblood” is a functionally meaningless word. And yet.
So idk maybe they’re all hypocritical and suffer from cranial-rectal inversion.
…unpopular take, apparently, but this looks a lot like the same old “if you have a reaction to X in fiction you must necessarily have the same reaction to X irl,” only repackaged and cast in the other direction. And I thought the whole point of saying “it’s fiction” was to point out that people don’t treat and react to fictional characters/actions/situations the way they treat and react to real people/actions/situations, and that they shouldn’t be expected to because the idea that you can predict how a person will behave, or deduce what they have gone through, from their fictional tastes is fundamentally fallacious. Not just fallacious because it comes from the wrong side – inherently so. And I mean, there are perfectly nice people out there (far better people than me) who absolutely detest Snape — I know quite a few of them. And they all seem perfectly capable of understanding that no one is harmed when you hate a fictional character and gleefully bash them when the topic comes up. And they also understand that real people are hurt when you do that to actual human beings. I don’t think that’s a very complicated thought process to follow, and most people are actually capable of instinctively grasping it. (Not to say there aren’t also assholes, but, unfortunately, their assholery would remain undiminished regardless of the nature of their feelings for Severus Snape). I mean, we call foul when people say, “You like someone who mistreated children in a book so you obviously like people who mistreat children irl” so I don’t think it’s fair to consider “You hate an abuse victim in fiction so you must obviously be vile to abuse victims irl” a valid statement.
CaptainBubblebath 