i agree.

Will add though that i don't think that Sirius himself was blaming Molly. He didn't like what she said that much is given.

But in that scene Sirius understands her. He gets that you lose people you love the most in war.

I mean with how much his mental state is in decline, I always feel the need to give a silent little applaud to Sirius for being so cordial and mature in that scene.

Yes Molly is not in a good place in that scene but Sirius is in the worst place throughout the ootp.

I mean claiming that he would rather have an encounter with soul sucking monster than to stay stuck in Grimmauld is pretty big call of help which no one heard. Obviously....

This scene for Harry and as a reader is a bit of a turning point.

We know that adults in Harry's life are useless but here are two adults both caring and loving Harry in their own ways. Both fighting each other to decide what is best for him.

It was very short lived obviously. Sirius died. Molly realised that Harry along with her son, Ron will be at the forefront whether she likes it or not.

This scene is beautiful that convey that Harry was loved by passionate people.

I don’t blame Molly for accusing Sirius of confusing Harry with James.

Molly is not in a good place in OOTP either and I think people forget that. We see her break down later that summer when faced with a Boggart. She lost her brothers in the first war. She has so many children and they are all (bar Percy) hell bent on fighting or helping the Order even at this point. She has already nearly lost her daughter at one point and her youngest son has done all sorts of dangerous stuff. And then there’s Percy who walked out on them just as she anticipates at least losing some of her family to this war.

Molly ALSO loves Harry. Her greatest fear, equal to losing her children, is losing Harry. Molly is flawed, but fundamentally a good person. She joins a war that she’s not sure they are going to win, and certainly believing some of her family will die, because it’s the right thing to do.

No I don’t agree with Molly, but damn I don’t blame her for losing it a bit. And remember for all the posts about how sad it was for George to lose Fred, spare a thought for Fred and George’s mother. She lost her son and has to watch the other suffer too. She has every right to be afraid earlier in this series. And when people are afraid, they say stupid shit.

I DO BLAME EVERYONE INVOLVED IN MAKING SIRIUS SAY: ‘NICE ONE, JAMES’ IN THE MOVIE!

I cannot find any excuse for this sin. It’s unforgivable.

when fanon remus fans are like, "remus is a 6'7 tall casanova who's super smooth. everyone's in love with him but he never reciprocates. he's got really bad anger issues, he's super smart and tops his class. he's the brains of the group and--" bro, that's literally tom riddle.

just say you like tom riddle.

headcanon that walburga would confiscate James’ letters to Sirius because she thought he was a bad influence. and one day during ootp, buckbeak was rustling around in her room and Sirius found a fat stack of yellowed, unopened twenty-year-old letters. for one afternoon, he wasn’t just remembering conversations with James. It was like he was having new ones.

~

~

And it was less a “friendly wave glimpsed from behind a veil” and more “a big dork with messy hair jumping up and down and making faces from behind a veil”

Do you guys really think that there is no adult willing to put some sense in this man.

There were people- his own wife, his parents in laws.

Hell, had he not just appeared at Grimmauld to run away like a coward and went to the Weasleys, Molly would have beaten him on the head with a frying pan to make him see the truth.

He didn't approach harry to seek guidance.

My guess is that either he just apparated at Grimmauld place thinking no one will be there. ( my book knowledge is a bit rusty on this topic)

Or if he knew that the golden trio was there, he went there to find an arguable excuse to give to his wife. -' dear dora, as the father I am responsible to be there for the kid that i helped in creating. But you see I have responsibility to my old friends James and Sirius, they would want me take care of Harry, even though I never did that all these years. But you know. '

This is his attempt at searching for a genuine reasoning against his cowardly act.

He didn't approach Harry to get ted talks from the kid. That is why he was so furious at the 17 year old kid. Like how dare you give me reasonable advice when i was gonna use you for my runaway stunt.

And I hate this narrative that people convinced him to marry tonks. Yes you have your right to be pro Or against a ship, canon Or fanon. But to say he was forced into marriage?

Why would Tonks be so sad to the point that oblivious guy like Harry noticed during HBP. Remus must be full on flirting with her and giving her ideas that he was interested. So why was he leading her on if he was so against relationship???? (We are talking about mid 90s where dating was a serious business and casual dating was not a big thing in Britain. )

People could see that he wanted her but was just running away like is his default. So they just gave him a much needed push. Which came a bit earlier and wrong timed because of Dumbledore's untimely death.

I too hate remadora because it poor tonks deserves so much more than what she got. She just took Remus at face value. But deep down he such a rag tag of a guy that she saw his true face much later when it was already too late....

just saw a tiktok claiming both harry and remus were in the wrong during the “it’s what your father would’ve wanted”-scene in DH, because harry was arguing from the perspective of a nuclear family dynamic (which supposedly doesn’t make sense because “he should believe those are lies with his experiences”) and because remus was only thinking about himself (with the arguably good reminder that tonks was in danger being pregnant in general; like the harm was done, and running away wouldn’t have helped). though i vaguely agree, i think the tiktoker missed one point: it takes two to tango.

remus is the one who knocked tonks up. they had sex and she got pregnant, and that half-werewolf child is half-werewolf because a werewolf (remus lupin) gave the foetus half his dna. he’s the father. they got in that highly dangerous situation together (what with bellatrix thinking about killing tonks and still-cooking teddy) because they had sex and that resulted in a pregnancy. like i cannot stress this enough, remus did half of the work for the conception.

and that’s where i only vaguely agree with the video, because harry wasn’t arguing from a corner of romanticising the nuclear family—he was arguing with his parents and sirius in mind, that a parent should only abandon their child when they’re dead. because it’s not abandonment at that point, it’s death. and remus decided to run until he got the sense knocked into him by a 17 year old kid who didn’t have any parents because his parents died while actively being parents.

harry was in the right actually. a parent (biologically related or not) shouldn’t abandon their child unless they have no other choice.

Prompt - Possesive James Potter.

Sirius has non verbally expressed his not so platonic feelings for James. Everyone can see it clear as day. But. James wanted to fulfill his parent's wish of getting settled. Lily seemed the most Sirius like in her personality, so he developed a crush on her in school days.

They begin dating and become order members.

A few days before marriage, a drunken Sirius declares his undying love to James but James knows it's too late with how he is to be married in a few days. He can't do that to lily, despite how his heart aches at the prospect of the future that Sirius pictures for them.

Just the next day, Sirius is kidnapped by DE's. Order tries to bring him back but since it is too much effort only for a member they think is not much efforts, a Black, they stop searching for him.

The marriage day comes and goes with Lily insisting that they should get married, even if it is not with much fanfare but James won't marry without Sirius at his side.

Lily, though a bit concerned for Sirius herself, feels wronged at James totally ignoring her and their relationship in his single-minded goal to search for Sirius. When she confronts him, he tells her that the only reason he had crush on her was because she seemed the most Sirius like but now he knows that she is nothing in his comparison, for Sirius is selfless and loyal when it comes to his loved ones and would never question James like this and make him feel bad for doing the bare minimum for the only person who will happily die for him.

This leads to break up and James deciding to enter the enemy's place all alone as a last resort. He is helped by the longbottom couple though, who were friendly with Sirius and thinks that order is wrong fkor stopping the search. His own friends, the marauders don't turn out much helpful, like the self centred people they both are. Peter is a coward and Remus is a pet of Dumbledore and if Dumbledore said the search is not worth it then of course it is not. Remus also throws barbed words at James about how he shouldn't have let lily go for Sirius who is most probably dead. As remus has unrequited feelings for her. . .

When James brings a hurt Sirius back. He feels himself on the opposite end of spectrum. Fir it was Sirius who always took care if him and babied him in hogwarts away from his parents. It was Sirius who was loyal to a fault to him with James knowing his feelings but never giving Sirius what he so desired when he himself was not too far off.

This guilt eats at him. As he nurtures Sirius back to health.

But the event has left a deep primal part if him unearthed forever. Now he want to give Sirius anything he wants. And now he wants Sirius in all the ways he can have him.

He doesn't care about any if his friends kr his ex girlfriend. His devotion to Sirius now equals the devotion Sirius gave him freely all this time.

But all is not well and done. Because Sirius now thinks James is either pitying him or wants him because lily left him and Sirius is his second best option...

James's journey to earning Sirius's effection as someone more than a bff.

Ps- make it as angsty as possible.

Also i felt that I wrote an entire thesis with how long this went on and on. I didnt even realised I wrote this whole plot instead of a prompt.

Oh well, do as you please with this. I am not a writer and after reading a recent short story of yours I felt that you could do justice to this idea of mine. It is totally alright if you don't feel like it though.

From- a fellow prongsfoot fan who wants to see James on the pinning side for once and being denied like Sirius is in most fics on the pair. To see Sirius being wooed by a possesive James Potter.

Hello, fellow Prongsfoot fan! You wrote an amazing plot and I thank you for it! I meant to write a drabble focusing on the last part of the prompt but – you know what? I ended up writing a one-shot. :D You can read it on AO3.

I tried to include as much of the plot in there as I could, and I wrote it like a drabble, with short scenes and some moments where you have to read in between the lines. I took some liberties with the timeline, so this happens around 1980 though I know Jily wedding in canon happened before that. Anyway, I hope you like it!

Unpopular opinion but...

Had voldamort chosen a different house elf and targeted the Longbottoms both snape and regulus would've been his most loyal death eaters

i wish all my beloved followers and mutuals a very “you find a fic that has the exact premise and characterization you’ve always wanted to see but never had the energy to write yourself and it’s really good and just as long as you want to read”

"Can't wait to see where you take this story" well I can't wait to see where this story takes me either

"harry is a regulus variant" WRONG! he's a severus one, goddammit. and if you want to be that way, he'd be a sirius one before he comes close to being regulus. regulus black is a blood supremacist percy weasley that played quidditch. thats all there is to it, really.

the single worst fanon creation is sirius and james not being clever, naturally intelligent, and creative

Hmmm. Sirius and James pranking each other.

Well i will add my two cents. -

Sirius mixing something with james's beer making james irritate lily even more. This serves dual purpose. One is Sirius being fed with james's puppy crush on Lily. And he wants lily's annoying self to be given taste of her own medicine. With how she listed james's arguably bad qualities in swm, James says something about how self righteous she is.

When James retaliates with turning Sirius's clothes into uniforms for girls. But the joke is on him because Sirius literally slays the style making James see him as more than his bff.

Also Peter just clapping for both parties from the corner.

ALSO - Remus being jealous of being kept out of this fun little game. But showing that he is busy and has no time for such childish shenanigans.... While being passive aggressive with the ring leaders of his gang. J and s simply ignore his moody self thinking it is that time of rhe month. Lol...

writing a prongsfoot prank war au for my @marauderswithpalestineproject prompt.

lmk if theres any specific pranks you want to see

(creative juices are running low)

(@lostwriter--xx3)

Controversial Opinion:

Sirius is the most responsible and mature of the marauders

ohhhh look yeah this is an interesting one 👀

so like, do i think that sirius is the most mature and responsible one? yes. but mainly because the bar is on the floor during the canon events, what with peter’s betrayal and constant fear, james being dead, and remus having completely retreated into himself.

i suppose it can be argued that remus is the more mature and responsible one (disapproving of sirius and james bullying severus, telling sirius to sit down in OotP, trying to deescalate fights, disliking the childish hostility between sirius and severus), but his maturity & responsibility is imo more akin to that of a child being obedient to authority figures. it banks on sirius’ and james’ explicit arrogance and loud confidence in SWM, sirius’ depression and mood swings during OotP, and his own position of authority + sirius’ singular focus on revenge and protection during PoA. after sirius dies the sense of maturity and responsibility we get from him lessens, in a way: he’s more “mature” than the trio, but only because he’s older; and he somehow isn’t as responsible, because he keeps running.

his maturity is in his demureness, in how much he turns into himself. the one time he genuinely appears immature and irresponsible is when the idea of “lupin, the authority figure” entirely drops: when harry, 20 years remus’ junior and still a teenager, has to tell remus to get a hold of himself and remain with his growing family, because the damage has already been done and running away is not going to help. it’s the moment remus’ fear and hatred of himself wholly takes hold of him during the events of canon, and it establishes his sense of maturity and responsibility as nothing more than a thin veneer. he doesn’t know what he’s doing just as much as the trio. he just has more life experience.

sirius’ maturity and responsibility is based on how he acts around and towards harry. like for remus, with him it’s a thin veneer: he’s messed up and covers that up with trying to be there for harry, by trying to protect him in the way he deems best, and by being harry’s soundboard. azkaban damaged him beyond repair, but he tries to be responsible rather than appear responsible. he admits he was a massive prick during school, that his arrogance caused him to make horrible mistakes—he tries in any way he can to keep harry safe and prepared, and also relatively happy. and in that case, i think responsibility and maturity go hand in hand: being willing to admit fault is far more mature than, say, admonishing someone for arguing a bit too harshly about a sensitive topic. similarly, judging that the best way to protect an irate teenager in mortal peril is to prepare him by being honest is more mature than trying to keep the wool over said teenager’s eyes. sirius sees the reality of situations and acts accordingly, not always sensitive to the emotions of others, and when that’s in regards to harry’s safety… well, his responsibility and maturity is higher in that way.

i’m not going to pretend that sirius was the paragon of maturity and responsibility at hogwarts, but i think that it’s likely he was the ‘more’ responsible and mature one of the group—purely through his willingness to admit fault. he’s not pretending not to be an aggressor. he’s not scared of his own cruelty and accepts it. he hasn’t been raised in a cushiony environment and was, i think, very quick to absorb and process the gravity of the burgeoning war. even The Prank (which i think is FAR less serious (forgive the pun) than fandom likes to pretend for drama’s sake) is likely to be a small slip-up in the grand scheme of Sirius’ Seven Years At Hogwarts, a situation swiftly rectified by james. remus pretending that he totally disapproved of all the bullying the marauders did but also being an active and trusted participant in their shenanigans doesn’t mean shit on the maturity and responsibility front, nor does him being appointed as prefect.

neither peter nor james were the responsible mature ones, obviously, just based on the way they acted: peter’s obvious adoration (and later, utter betrayal), and james appearing forcibly (and purposefully) oblivious to Not Being Liked. james takes responsibility later, when he and lily start dating, marry, and have harry; when he gives up the cloak temporarily because he knows himself, and knows he’ll be tempted to take it for a spin; when he’s slightly panicked in the photograph about harry’s sudden skill on his first broom and chases after him. at that point, briefly, james would’ve been the most mature and responsible one—but he died too soon to keep and relish in that title.

you: always.

me, an intellectual: lily, take harry and go.

So… if we’re talking canon Harry Potter do you think James and Sirius had the best friendship in the story? (I think so) Where they the closest friends? How do they compare to the golden trio? Do they just top everybody? (Again I think they and with relative ease.) You write about them so beautifully and explain your thoughts and points well. I hope you don’t mind be asking

Hello! Thanks for your ask & kind words! 

I completely agree, it’s not even a contest for me, they’re the best friendship in the series. ‘Best’ is obviously subjective, but in terms of trust, loyalty, intensity and unconditionality they top everyone. Even outsiders (McGonagall, Fudge, Hagrid, Rosmerta), with the (incorrect) context of Sirius being the traitor, emphasise the intensity of their friendship, the extreme loyalty and trust - “Potter trusted Black above all his other friends” - and their closeness as a pair. For me, they outdo everyone else in terms of how far they’re willing to go together and for each other, the endurance of their friendship - absolutely zero signs of growing distance or mistrust, and in terms of the absoluteness of their trust and loyalty. It’s unconditional love, basically, lmao.

The golden trio have a different dynamic as a threesome. Because of their centrality in the series we see more of their ups and downs, their bickering, their fall-outs, so it’s easier to find those points of “weakness”. They’re teenagers and there’s the pressurised environment of the war later on so I don’t think that should undermine their friendship. Even so, I do think it highlights James and Sirius’ high levels of tolerance for each other and the exceptionality of their friendship. I don’t see them having any meaningful, lasting conflict, I don’t think they’re competitive with each other, whereas with Harry and Ron there’s a sort of two-way jealousy that crops up (again, Harry doesn’t have a typical childhood so it’s exceptional circumstances) but I just don’t see that coming between James and Sirius.

I don’t see Sirius being annoyed that James has doting parents or holding it against him (whereas Harry is a bit bitter about Ron’s “easy” life as he sees it at times). There doesn’t seem to be any lingering fallout from the prank between James and Sirius either: SWM is post-prank but they target Snape without any apparent concern that doing so might encourage him to spread the information about Remus’ condition in revenge and they don’t seem to have considered that maybe their pursuit of Snape has gone too far (“Shit Snape nearly died, maybe we shouldn’t push our luck anymore!”). James has no concern that encouraging Sirius to pursue Snape might be a bad idea. The consequences for James and Sirius are negligible in a way that I don’t think they would be had it negatively impacted their friendship, even momentarily.

Sirius brings up James wherever he can, so I really feel like he would have mentioned any effect that the prank had on his friendship with James (especially in PoA where he expresses feeling responsible for James and Lily’s deaths) - just something like “James gave me a hard time about it” or “I nearly lost my friendship with your father over it” but there’s nothing like that. I also feel like Sirius would feel more ashamed of it if James had expressed any disapproval but he’s still just like “it served [Snape] right”. Remus was supposedly the more morally concerned one at school so if he’s largely letting it go, I can’t see James coming down any harder than that (could be a priority thing with Remus there considering he and Sirius are in the middle of trying to kill Peter but I feel that that just assists my point if anything). 

In terms of other pairs in the series, I would say that as readers we’re supposed to see James and Sirius & Fred and George as almost parallel double acts: they’re both involved in pushing boundaries, lax interpretations of rules, magical inventiveness and creativity, etc. I also think this is where the Marauders as pranksters thing comes from but they don’t strike me as “lol let’s slime the corridor!!!!!” kids, more “let’s show everyone how clever we are” in a superior way, hence the power play with Snape. 

I would say that J/S and F+G stand either side of the same line though, Fred and George are a bit more fun and J/S are a bit more risky, a bit darker imo. Fred and George aren’t totally harmless - stealing the car, putting boil powder in people’s pants, giving Dudley the Ton-Tongue Toffee all strike a similar note to James and Sirius blowing someone’s head up twice its normal size - but I don’t think they take themselves as seriously as James and Sirius do. I can’t see J/S opening a joke shop, for example, and Fred and George don’t actively pursue one person and torment them for sport.

So there’s a distinction there, there’s a boundary for Fred and George, and a big part of James and Sirius’ bond is the boundlessness of their friendship. There’s no limit to their trust for each other, they’re willing to die for each other, they keep the switch secret from Dumbledore because they have complete trust. But they also have similar boundaries (or lack of) in terms of what they find acceptable re: Snape and their more unsavoury activities. It’s their joint willingness to indulge in extremes, to push boundaries, their lack of limits re: themselves and each other, that suggests to me an intensity and unconditionality that brings them closer than other pairings we see. 

It’s also different because Fred and George are related, they haven’t known anything but each other, they’ve grown up together but James and Sirius forge their bond as separate people coming together. They have different upbringings yet have similar spirits and it’s essentially love at first sight on the train to school which kicks off a lifelong bond involving being prepared to die for each other. Again, unfair to expect to see Fred and George as teenagers to mirror that intensity, I’m sure Fred and George would die for each other, but I still just think it’s different.

Lily and Snape also meet as children, they call themselves “best friends”, but where James and Sirius are bonded in their beliefs, Lily and Snape’s friendship is broken apart by ideology, by one not being able to trust the other, by a fundamental disconnect in values. Ultimately they don’t have each other’s backs - Snape calls Lily a slur, Lily believes the worst in Snape even before Hogwarts, blames him for her problems with Petunia, etc. The “they’re kids and can’t be expected to always act fairly and logically” disclaimer applies here but in comparison James and Sirius are backing each other up vs Snape when the train’s barely even started moving, which sets them apart again. Outdoing friendships that predate them, I’m crying.

The descriptions of Dumbledore and Grindelwald - “the boys took to each other at once”, “both such brilliant young boys, they got on like a cauldron on fire” - mirror“your father and Sirius here were the cleverest students in the school” and “never saw one without the other” but Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s shared boundaries of ideology are broken and their friendship starts and ends within a matter of months. Again, James and Sirius endure - through school, through Sirius leaving home, through the prank, through a war. 

I’m mainly going off friendship pairs because of how closely James and Sirius are aligned as a twosome and because it makes for clear contrast where James and Sirius have the endurance that the others don’t - “Nothing changed when they left school”. We also don’t really see codependence like the use of two-way mirrors in any other friendships - the Golden Trio have individual activities, Lily and Snape have other friends. Even if you consider Dumbledore and Grindelwald codependent, their mutual obsession crashes and burns. At the prospect of an hour or two apart, James and Sirius are like no no no absolutely impossible which in my opinion at least gives them the title of closest friendship in the series. (Sidenote: how much easier would like, an audio device have been to use in a detention? Sorry, not good enough, they need to look into each other’s eyes or whatever.)

The main thing for me is the trust, I just don’t see any instance where James or Sirius’ trust in the other falters given James’ insistence on Sirius being secret keeper, his agreement to go along with the switch when Sirius suggests it. We see a lot of friendships/relationships struggle in the series, particularly pre-second war: Dumbledore and Grindelwald, Lily and Snape, Sirius and Remus, Sirius and Regulus, Peter & the other Marauders (though covertly rather than openly until PoA) - James and Sirius survive all of it.

If you’re looking for a super healthy friendship - potentially not, because I think they bring out the best and worst in each other (which I love!!!!), but in terms of unconditionality and loyalty, imo they embody that in its most concentrated form in the series - which I think is saying a lot considering how little they actually feature together.

I will again stress that I’m obviously biassed when it comes to James and Sirius and if anyone disagrees or interprets anything differently I’d love to hear it. Also talk to me about comparative friendships I’ve overlooked! I’ve really loved answering this (apologies it took a while), thank you so much! 

Has anyone read a fic where James Potter's parents weren't...perfect parents?

I'd like to see more complicated depictions of them. For example, they were pure-bloods who clearly supported Muggle rights, but maybe they were the "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" type of parents. Maybe they had complicated feelings about James dating Lily Evans, a Muggleborn. Maybe they found out about Remus and had to reconcile with that. I love the trope of wealthy progressive/liberal parents being forced to understand how teaching their son about acceptance and "we're all the same" can force them to face their lingering bigotry as James continually brings home people who are marginalized in magical society.

Alternatively, I sort of like the idea that they might be wary of Sirius. Maybe for the reasons above.

What if Sirius came to live with them, but they had really particular expectations? I can see James being really sheltered AND spoiled. They might be incredibly soft and gentle people, something that Sirius isn't used to. Maybe James's parents are VERY polite company, and Sirius finds it difficult discern through their true intentions (his family is passive aggressive, but not the soft kind). Do they like him? Do they disapprove of him? Meanwhile, James insists that his parents LOVE Sirius, but Sirius just isn't sure.

I don't mind at all if James's parents are that "loving parents that Sirius always wanted" but also... I like a juicy story.

Funny how the man who is the embodiment of a literal dog has less votes. Yes he doubted Remus but that doesn't mean his loyalty was any less. It means his brain told him that Remus is appearing suspicious. And the person he is most loyal to can suffer due to Remus. Sirius never promised to give his loyalty to any of his 'general' friends. It was only to the guy who earned it. To James Potter. His best friend forever.

THE ONLY PERSON WHO DESERVED HIS DEVOTION. HIS FEALTY.

In the end he did right in not trusting Remus because Remus did let him rot in Azkaban instead of becoming a whistle blower.

Yes his werewolf status would not have lent him any credibility but we are forgetting that Dumbledore had a special place in his heart for Remus with all the favors he did for this guy.

I am dead sure that Dumbledore must have just compared Sirius to Grindelwald and just thought of similarities and lost cases.

But if even a single person had approached him and made him see an alternate version, advocated Sirius's case, begged for a fair trial, he would have been agreeable. And Dumbledore did have the power after the first war. But to Dumbledore Sirius was just about an ex student and a turn coat order members.

To Remus, Sirius was the guy he had so many memories with. The man with whom he shared a past.

But Remus was dead sure that Sirius is responsible for all the crimes daily prophet claims.