#i hope harry’s acting is well received in all his endeavors
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Clonetober- Day 9
Prompt: “This is it, isn’t it?”/batchmates/Wing AU
Prompt list by @ladysongmaster Divider by djarrex
Pyro had been trying to balance his fork on his finger for the past ten minutes and Flame had nearly had enough of his twin’s antics. He was surprised Chip hadn’t said anything, usually being the first one to snap when he found something annoying. Turning to face his squadmate, he discovered why he hadn’t said anything.
He was asleep.
Chip’s face rested on his hand, eyes drooped shut, and mouth hanging slightly open. He was in serious danger of drooling on the datapad that sat next to his breakfast tray. Flame reached over and pushed the tray back a little so if Chip’s hand slipped, he wouldn’t do a faceplant in his breakfast.
His moment of thoughtfulness seemed to be wasted when Sparx plopped his tray down loudly on the table, startling Chip out of his morning nap. He knocked his glass over, spilling water all over his food and datapad.
“Dank farrik,” Chip muttered, holding up the drenched pad that was now dead.
Howzer made a face as he sat down beside Flame. He took the datapad from Chip’s hands and turned it over to inspect it.
“Yeah, this thing is toast. You’ll have to ask Nala Se for a new one.”
Chip groaned and buried his face in his hands. Flame didn’t blame him for being upset, he wouldn’t want to have to ask Nala Se for anything either.
“Maybe you can ask Binti to ask her for you?” Pyro suggested, still not having abandoned his fork balancing act.
“Yeah, she’ll do it if you ask,” Sparx said. “Nala Se can’t do anything to her. Worst thing she’ll do is tell Venri and Venri will scold us all. Who are you more afraid of, Nala Se or Venri?”
“Honestly?” Chip asked. “Venri.”
The boys all laughed at Chip’s answer before going back to their breakfast. Flame reached over and snatched Pyro’s fork away from him, finally putting an end to his balancing attempts.
Several years later...
A knife flicked neatly across Pryo’s fingers as he listened to Howzer instruct the group on what their objective was when they reached their destination. Years of practice with any implement he could get his hands on had given him the ability to move and balance things precisely with his fingers.
Across from him, he saw Flame shaking his head at him, a sign that he wanted him to stop. His twin had never been supportive of his endeavors, saying that they were unnecessary and too showy. The other cadet he had met in the training room one day didn’t seem to think so. Maybe if he could remember his name, he could track him down and they could bond over the skill when they returned.
Harry? Henry? Gunner? What was it?
A kick to the ankle brought Pyro’s focus back to the situation at hand. He sent a glare in Flame’s direction. The look he received in return was murderous. Though they had long outgrew their twin mannerisms and near telepathy, Pyro knew what that look meant. He rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Howzer.
“We have no idea what we’re going to run into when we land, so be prepared for anything,” he said. “That includes you, Chip.”
“My medic training doesn’t cover everything,” Chip pointed out. “So everyone try to keep your injuries to the basics if you can.”
Pyro let out a barking laugh at Chip’s comment. That was the closest thing to a joke he had ever heard his brother make. He heard Sparx chuckle as well as he moved to place his helmet on his head.
“We’ll try our best, doc.”
Pyro nudged the medic sitting beside him in congratulations for his joke, but when he looked at his face, he couldn’t see any humor present.
“Hey, you good?”
Chip turned to look at him, fear hiding behind his usual stoic expression.
“This is it, isn’t it?” Chip asked. “We’re really going into battle?”
“Afraid so brother,” Pyro said as he imitated Sparx’s actions and pulled his helmet on. “Don’t worry too much. We’ve trained for this our whole lives.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
Pyro gave Chip another nudge with his elbow, hoping he would feel encouraged.
“We’re approaching the arena now,” Howzer said. “Everyone get ready!”
Pyro got to his feet, pulling Chip up with him. Flame held up his fist, waiting for the customary bump, which Pyro met with his own fist.
“Let’s go kill some bugs, boys!”
A/N: Hope you enjoyed this! Please reblog, like, and comment! Second clonetober post for today to get caught up! This piece is an honorary chapter for my fic "Rise of the Dragons".
#clonetober2023#star wars: the clone wars#star wars fanfiction#star wars#original characters#the clone wars#clone troopers#clone trooper oc
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lavender and velvet //part three
SUMMARY: she had her fathers eyes, his aristocratic looks, her grandmothers spite, her mothers heart, but the one thing she didn't have was the love of her father that her god brother received. juliet black finally meets her father who has already decided who his child is.
PAIRINGS: to be decided.
WARNINGS: mentions of drug use.
enjoy!
Juliet coughed loudly, pressing a hand to her chest. She shook her head as George laughed, taking the bong from her.
“Looks like Juliet’s the little bitch tonight,” he teased, nudging her with his knee.
She flipped him off, still coughing from the large hit she had taken. Fred laughed, sprawled out on the bed.
“Come on now Georgie, let’s not tease our princess,” chuckled Fred, a teasing grin on his face. “Let’s just be grateful she prefers this over lines.”
“I’m versatile, Freddie.” joked Juliet, taking a gulp of her glass of water.
The three continued passing around the bong, until their limbs were fuzzy and their eyes were red. Fred stayed on the bed, while George sat on the floor with Juliet, who was leaning against him. She had her eyes shut, relishing in the feeling she had missed.
Remus wasn’t fond of her smoking, but he never strictly forbade it. She supposed that would be hypocritical of him, considering he partok in it himself. Only after a full moon, he would claim, but she could smell it from his bedroom just about every other day. Either way, he wasn’t here now to chastise her.
“All I’m saying is, we should explore space ourselves,” blurted out George, startling Juliet and Fred, as it had been quiet for some time. “Could you imagine the properties of moon dust? Bet we could find a use for it. I bet it would make for a killer sleep potion.”
“Why’s that Georgie?” Fred questioned, rolling over so his head was hanging over the edge of the bed, his long red hair tickling Juliet’s arm. “You just assume it would make for a sleeping remedy just because it’s the moon?”
Juliet laughed as George turned to glare at Fred, his eyes wide. “Freddie. It’s the moon.”
“So with that line of thinking, venus would make for a love potion, right?” questioned Juliet, adjusting herself so she was lying on the floor, her head in George’s lap. “Because Venus is a goddess of love?”
George snapped his fingers, looking down at Juliet with a dopey grin on his face. “Someone gets it!”
“If anyone can figure out how to get to the moon it’ll be the two of you,” Juliet murmured, shutting her eyes as George lazily ran his fingers through her hair. “The smartest idiots I’ve ever met.”
“I would love to disagree with you, but I feel that compliment was high enough to overshadow the insult.” mused George, as Fred laughed.
A knock was heard on the door then, and George quickly pushed the bong under the bed, while Fred swished his wand, the haze and smell disappearing. Juliet sat up slowly, her mind foggy from her high. George and Fred had very high tolerances, she did not.
Ron poked his head through the door, his eyes narrowing. “What are you lot up to?”
Juliet couldn’t stop her laugh from tumbling out, a grin spreading across her face. George wrapped his arm around her, tucking her head into his chest. She inhaled deeply, loving the smell of fresh linen and cinnamon that seemed to be embedded in his clothes.
“Just discussing our future endeavors,” Fred grinned at Ron. “Care to join us?”
Ron shook his head, stepping away from the door. “Mum’s got dinner ready. She’s going to be right mad when she sees you lot.”
“Mum, mad at us?” George questioned innocently.
“Why would she ever be mad at us?” Fred finished, the twins glancing at each other in fake innocence.
“Blimey,” Ron rolled his eyes. “Your eyes are bloodshot. She isn’t stupid.”
“Well, ickle Ronniekins, you best run along now,” George shooed his brother away, waving one hand.
“We have to look presentable, don’t we?” Fred stood from the bed, walking over and shutting the door in Ron’s face.
“Molly’s made dinner?” questioned Juliet, suddenly ravenous. “I really hope there's mashed potatoes.”
“Your girlfriend’s going to blow our cover.” Fred muttered to George, smirking as he took a bite of a cream colored candy.
“Not my girlfriend, Freddie.” George reminded his brother, pulling out the same candy, handing one to Juliet.
She swallowed it whole, nearly choking as she did. Her eyes tingled for a moment, and her mind became slightly less hazy.
“You guys perfected your emergency chew?” Juliet asked as she stood, George giving her a hand.
“Had to, with the lack of privacy in our family.” Fred grinned, opening the door. “Ladies first, George.”
The three went down to dinner, which went fairly well. Ron, Hermione, and Harry kept giving the three of them funny looks, and Sirius also kept glancing at Juliet with an odd look as well. She found it bearable to get through dinner this time, ignoring how Sirius and Harry laughed with each other.
After dinner, everyone dispersed, Fred and George to go work on ideas for their joke shop, Ginny and Hermione to help Molly clean the foyer, Sirius to feed Buckbeak, Ron and Harry to do something. Juliet hadn’t paid much attention.
She found herself back in the Black family tree, sitting on the floor and writing a letter to Draco. It would be the first summer she hadn’t seen him or their friends, and she found herself missing them. Hopefully Draco was doing alright.
As she wrote the last line, she felt someone staring at her. She glanced up, brushing her hair behind her ear, to see Harry standing in the doorway looking as if he had made a mistake.
“Can you leave?” scowled Juliet, raising a brow.
“I wanted to talk to you,” Harry walked further in the room, glancing at the walls. “Are you still mad?”
“No,” Juliet scoffed, rolling her parchment up. “I just don’t want to talk to you.”
“You’re being dramatic.” Harry stated, crossing his arms as he looked down at her.
“Dramatic?” Juliet snapped, standing up from her spot on the floor.
“Yes,” insisted Harry. “Your dad loves you, he’s here, and you keep making this harder for him. For everyone.”
“Are you that much of a prat?” cried Juliet, throwing her arms out in frustration. “Do you even realize what you’ve done?”
Harry opened his mouth to respond, but Juliet cut him off, stepping closer to him, invading his personal space.
“I’ve been waiting, years, for my dad to come back,” she breathed, her voice catching in her throat. “Turns out, he only came back for you. He isn’t yours! You are taking away the one thing I’ve ever wanted in my entire life. I used to dream about him coming back, and grew up on stories about him. Guess that wasn’t enough. He wanted you.”
“He wants you too!” Harry exclaimed, becoming heated. “I’m sorry it feels like I’m taking him from you. I never had a father. You had Remus, the Weasleys. Although I would never take your father from you, I’m not going to act like he isn’t there for me.”
“Get out,” Juliet said quietly, balling her fists up at her sides. “Get out!”
Harry left quickly, striding down the halls. Juliet sank back down to the floor, wrapping her arms around her knees. She rested her head on them, her long hair falling around her like a curtain. Tears burned her eyes, but she didn’t let them fall. She kept them shut, sniffling quietly to herself.
“Hey kiddo.”
She looked up to see Remus enter the room, his hands in his pockets as he walked over to her. He knelt down by her, sitting down with a grunt. He put an arm around her, rubbing her back.
Juliet lifted her head, wiping her eyes. She crossed her legs, leaning her head against Remus’ shoulder. He rested his head against hers for a second, before digging around in his pocket.
He handed her a chocolate frog, smiling when she laughed. “Chocolate makes everything better, eh?”
“According to you,” Juliet pointed out, unwrapping the frog and taking a bite. She got Dumbledore on her card as usual. “Thank you.”
“I know it’s hard,” Remus paused, taking the card and packaging from her, slipping it into his robes.. “And I’m not going to defend your father. However, I wanted to give you my thoughts on it, if that’s alright.”
Juliet nodded, chewing her chocolate.
“As I’ve told you many times before,” Remus began, ruffling her hair. “Sirius and James were best friends. Your father lived with him for quite awhile, when he ran away from here. He spent twelve years in Azkaban, reliving his worst memories over and over again. He finally got out, and Harry saved him. He owes a great deal to Harry for saving his life. I think, sometimes, it’s difficult for him to separate James from Harry.”
“So you think he’s mental?” Juliet looked at him, doubtful.
“He spent a long time alone,” Remus shrugged, glancing down at her. “Dementors were his only company. I think that’s enough to make anyone a bit touched. Just.. try not to be so hostile.”
“It’s part of my charm, dad,” Juliet murmured, shrugging her shoulders. Remus smiled at her, ruffling her hair again. “It’s my Slytherin sparkle.”
“Not this again,” Remus groaned, standing up and holding a hand out to her. “That same Slytherin sparkle that had you charm every room in the house green? That had you attempt to keep a pet snake? And dye my hair green and silver?”
“The silver highlights looked dashing against the green,” she defended herself, taking his hand and letting him pull her up. “Also, Cornflake didn’t last long. How was I supposed to know garden snakes shouldn’t be house pets?”
“Garden snake,” Remus grumbled, shaking his head. “Thing was nearly an anaconda.”
“That’s just your memory going.” clarified Juliet, placing her parchment into the pocket of her robes.
Remus nudged her shoulder as they left the room, laughing. They walked into the living room, where the Weasley’s, Hermione, and Harry were busy attacking Doxies. Juliet raised an eyebrow at Fred when he slipped one into his pocket, slapping George’s hand.
“Brought you another helper, Molly,” Remus motioned towards Juliet, winking as she gave him a look.
“Thanks,” she muttered under her breath, pressing her letter into his hand. “Can you send this to Draco for me?”
Remus nodded, ruffling her hair once more before saying his goodbyes. Juliet joined the cleaning task, spraying the doxies until there was none left. They began taking the bags of various dead creatures out of the room, everyone filing out until Juliet and Harry were left behind to grab the final three bags.
“Harry,” Juliet addressed him, nodding his way. He paused, and looked at her warily. “I don’t want to keep fighting with you. I understand it’s not your fault. It’s just hard for me to see my father prefer you over me.”
Harry looked as if he were going to say something, thought better of it, and nodded. “I’d like it if we could spend more than five minutes together without going at it.”
Juliet scoffed, giving him a small grin. “I wouldn’t go that far, Potter. Can’t lose my edge, now, can I? Draco would absolutely die if we became friendly.”
“Is that a downside?” Harry quipped back, smiling to soften his words.
“Potter has jokes?” Juliet mused, taking a bag of dead rats. “Keep that up around Draco, it’ll keep him on his toes.”
Harry laughed, and they left the room with the last two bags, leaving a clean room behind them. Harry kept their conversation going, surprising the Weasleys and Hermione, who had been expecting the two to tear each other's throats out.
Perhaps, Juliet thought, Harry wasn’t so bad.
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#sirius black daughter#sirius black#sirius black imagine#george weasley#george wealsey imagine#Harry Potter#weasley#potter#hp#hp x reader#hp x oc#george weasley x y/n#george wealsey x oc#hogwarts#harry potter series#ron weasley#fred weasley#fred weasley imagine#ronald weasley#ron weasley imagine
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Harry opens up about the Dursley’s - to a point. Voldemort/Harry pre-slash, warnings for discussions of child abuse and captivity.
The door creaks open. Harry looks up from his book, stilling the restless tapping of his fingers on the page.
“Good afternoon,” he tells Voldemort cordially. Every time he’s angered the Dark Lord he has been left alone for days; Harry’s relative politeness seems to please him. Not that he, by any means, enjoys dining with the Death Eaters, but a change of scenery is always nice. One can only read for so long in a windowless room.
Voldemort does not, of course, return the nicety. Instead he conjures a chair and takes a seat in front of Harry, something strange gleaming in his red eyes. “You will tell me about your relatives,” he commands.
Harry is surprised, though perhaps he shouldn’t be. Voldemort has always shown great curiosity towards him, yet he readily believed that Harry had been, as Snape suggested, raised in the lap of luxury. “Will I?” he asks, more to stall than anything.
Voldemort glares. “You dare question me?”
“Someone needs to,” Harry mutters. Then he sighs, marking his place in the book and setting it aside. “You would like a story? Fine.”
“Once upon a time,” he says, completely ignoring the irritation he can feel buzzing in his forehead, “a baby was left on a doorstep. It was presumably cold, being November 1st, 1981, the morning after the child was orphaned. He was left in a blanket he would use for many years to come, with a letter.”
“His muggle aunt found him in the morning and read the letter. It told her that her sister and brother-in-law were dead, and she was responsible for taking care of their child. Presumably there would be dire consequences if she chose to discard him. The last thing she wanted was a freak in her household and she would have sooner dropped the baby in the gutter if not threatened.”
Voldemort’s gaze was intent and hot on Harry’s face, quick to process any emotions Harry revealed. Harry endeavored to push away his spite, his fear, his anger. He distanced himself from the tale, pretending that he was not speaking of himself.
“Her husband agreed that keeping the baby would be safer. They decided that they would beat the freakishness out of the child, mind you with no proof at that point that it was magical. They raised the boy, making it clear that he was unwanted. On what he would later learn to be his fourth birthday, he was set in front of the stove and taught to cook. This would become one of his many chores.”
“They didn’t hit him often,” Harry continued steadily, eyes looking somewhere far past Voldemort. His scar was burning. “Only when his magic acted up, or he prepared the food wrong, or when he was in their way. The boy learned very quickly that being in the Dursley’s way was a very stupid place to be.”
“When he was five, he learned his name. Harry Potter. He was surprised—he knew that Boy was not his name, but it, along with Freak, was all he had ever known. Now he had two names.” Harry smiled mirthlessly. “He treasured them. He was eager to escape the Dursley’s home, and school was a marvelous reprieve. The teachers were polite, even if he was odd. They did not hit him or yell at him at all. The children didn’t pay him very much attention. After all, Harry was good at fading into the background.”
Doubt brushed his senses, but Harry ignored it.
“Reports were quarterly, and Harry’s marks were rather good. Better than his cousins. The Dursely’s did not like that, and Harry did not like his punishment. Rumors spread, then, about how he was truly a very dim boy. That he must have cheated to have answered correctly. About how he picked on his older cousin constantly, and would rather talk with his fists than anything.”
“And the teachers, who had observed him for three months at this point, believed every word out of the Dursley’s mouth. So Harry learned not to do well in school.” Here, Harry closed his eyes. He could still feel his fear… his desperation… it was a familiar companion, even now. “He didn’t want to be hurt anymore. That was the only thing he wished for, in the years to come.”
Voldemort made a noise, deep in the back of his throat, but Harry paid it no mind. It was not worth deciphering the sneer or laugh; Harry did not need to know how Voldemort reveled in his miserable childhood.
“His bruises were seen, of course, but they were put down to childish roughhousing, especially as he gained a reputation as a bully. A rather funny thing to believe, considering that Harry was a great deal smaller than the rest of his classmates, and it was he who was chased. The game was creatively named ‘Harry Hunting’. He learned to run fast, though it made him dizzy and weak. He wasn’t allowed much to eat, you see.”
“His life continued that way for many years. He lived in the cupboard under the stairs with his spiders, sometimes smuggling food out of the rubbish bin when he thought he might starve. That cupboard was both his cage and his sanctuary, until a letter came. Realizing that they were being spied on, the Dursley’s moved him to their son's second bedroom of broken toys, but Harry was far more entranced to learn that he was accepted into Hogwarts. He was not a freak after all; or so he allowed himself to believe.”
Irritation and rage hissed along his and Voldemort’s link. Harry still carried on, paying his audience no mind.
“He learned shortly that his hope was misplaced. Hagrid showed him into Diagon Alley for the first time, and he was swarmed with people very interested in the scar on his forehead, left by his parents murderer. Harry discovered that he would never be allowed normalcy; that the reason he had a scar was because he apparently murdered a man as a babe.”
“Harry wondered,” he said very softly, “if that meant he could murder another man. His uncle, perhaps. That too was a cause to be celebrated, he thought. But he did not know the rules or reasons of why he was being congratulated, did not know if murder was actually acceptable in the wizarding world. He asked Hagrid; the man did not think the question odd. He said that of course murder was not okay, but this was You-Know-Who. Different rules applied.”
“The wizarding world was far more complex than the Dursley’s. There were many unspoken rules. Harry did not know half of the unspoken rules of the muggle world, and yet he was expected to know everything about a brand new culture. People had opinions on who he was and how he should act. And Harry’s talent of fading into the background was useless. Wasted.”
Harry’s magic fluctuated around him, and he closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. His thoughts settled in his mind. His words slowed to the tempo they had been at the start of his tale.
“But of course, that has nothing to do with my relatives, and I believe you have received your answer. So I suppose I should say: The End.”
“So you have not stayed with them from the time you entered Hogwarts?”
Harry’s eyes snapped open. Voldemort’s gaze was dark, and Harry gritted his teeth at the painful pulsing of his scar. “I have, actually,” he said tightly. “I’ve already told you more than anybody else knows, and it’s quite enough. Yes, I’ve suffered outside of your hands—boo hoo, muggles can torture children too! This is the part where you storm off and leave me locked in this bloody room for the next week, proving yourself little better!”
Ah. His temper. He had been doing so well, but grief could only mute his rage for so long. Voldemort just didn’t know when to quit.
Red eyes flared, and Voldemort stood, taking a step closer. “Have I laid a hand on you, Harry?” the Dark Lord demanded. “Have I raised my wand? You are in this room, a room in my Wing, because otherwise you would be in the dungeons where my followers could torture you at leisure. Would you prefer those accommodations? Would you say I, who feed you and give you books and never once pretend you are stupid, are worse than your muggles?”
Harry was taken aback. He had been here for over a month, and waiting to be tortured all the time—but he hadn’t been. The one time somebody cast in his direction, they writhed under the cruciatus while Harry watched on.
He sighed, emotionally exhausted by both his story and the entire situation. Voldemort’s outrage pulsed in his temples. He raised his eyes to meet red, not bothering to stand. “Do I think you’re worse than the Dursley’s? No. But then again, I never have. And while I appreciate the lack of torture and being left alive well enough, a prison is still a prison. And this is mine.”
#pre-slash#Harry/Voldemort#Voldemort/Harry#harrymort#Voldemort knows Harry is a horcrux#post-OoTP#Depressed Harry Potter#the Dursley's#captivity#oops my keyboard slipped#my stories#more like my snippets#I can't guys
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THE DARK MARK
"Here you go Padfoot," James finally handed over his prize, the widest most stupid smirk still happily planted on his face.
Sirius eyed it, before stretching leisurely and saying, "nah, I'm good, I think I like being skipped. It's technically Harry's turn, have at it pup."
Harry didn't argue the point as he flipped to his chapter, ignoring that stupid little bubble that was trying to burst his good mood and inform him that nothing would be pleasant for much longer now that the Cup had ended.
Mr. Weasley was cautioning the twins not to go telling their mother they'd been gambling as they headed back to the stairwell.
"Oh that's nice," Lily muttered, "encourage them to lie to their mother."
"It's not lying," Remus said at once.
Even not having heard what Lily had said, Sirius agreed with him at once, "it's just keeping information from those who don't need it, a rather kind endeavor really, you should be thanking us."
"I'm sure that was your motto at school," she snorted at him.
"No," James smirked, "it was 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.'"
Harry burst out laughing, even Lily couldn't stop a little smile as she shook her head at the lot of these boys.
Fred promised that wouldn't be a problem, as they both had big plans for this gold and didn't want it being confiscated. Mr. Weasley hesitated for a moment, like he wanted to ask for details, but seemed to decide against it.
"I want to know," Sirius pouted, still happily bouncing in place in hopes they were going full throttle with that joke shop idea.
They were soon back in the crowds, heading back to the tents through the lantern path once again, leprechauns commonly cruising by above still happily laughing.
"That's going to be happening the rest of the night," James snickered.
They reached their tent and as no one was ready to settle down, they all got some cocoa ready, and were happily still arguing about the game.
"What kind of arguments were these?" Sirius demanded at once.
Harry opened his mouth to start saying the many spiraling conversations that had been going on, but Lily quickly elbowed her way in saying, "not now boys. How many times do I have to tell you, we are not spending hours just sitting around talking about Quidditch, I want to hear this."
"But, Quidditch," James turned pleading eyes on his wife.
"And the World Cup at that," Sirius nodded fervently.
Lily didn't budge though, so Harry turned back to his chapter.
It wasn't until Ginny fell asleep at the table did Arthur cut in it was time for them to get some sleep.
"Well that's not fair," Remus smiled lightly, "making all of them go to bed just because one fell asleep."
"They might have to get up early again," Lily offered.
As Hermione roused Ginny and they went to their own tent, they heard a small bang from the Irish side of the campsite, and Mr. Weasley happily said how he was pleased not to be on duty tonight, he didn't envy those who had the task of telling the Irish to settle down.
"I can only picture the bravest of souls taking up the challenge," James said solemnly.
"And the beautiful responses said Ministry employees will receive," Sirius cackled.
Harry lay in his bunk, watching the tent ceiling which occasionally still had a flash of color flying overhead. He was fantasizing about flying his own Firebolt when he got back to the Burrow, wanting to try out that Wronski Feint.
Lily groaned, placing her face in her hands and cursing his Quidditch father, broom giving godfather, and whatever else felt the need to encourage her son to continue with that insane sport.
Remus gave her a light pat on the shoulder in comfort, trying his hardest not to burst out laughing at the boys on the couch who were all laughing lightly at what they felt was an overreaction from her.
Harry was surprised Wood have never told him of this technique.
"Well it is rather advanced," Sirius nodded sagely. "I can understand if he hadn't even shown it to you yet."
"With the broom and experience you've got though," James hadn't thought it was possible for his mood to keep soaring, but speaking of this was doing so! "I wouldn't be surprised if you pulled it off first try."
"You are literally encouraging our son to ram himself into the ground as hard as he can until he pulls that off," Lily got out, her face still buried in her fingers.
"Ah, it won't cause any permanent damage," Remus snickered, "James seems mostly intact after his many attempts."
"Mostly?" James demanded with a challenging brow but, still snickering lightly, Harry decided to keep going himself now.
His daydream continued to morph, so that he was now performing that move in front of the stadium they'd just left, with Ludo Bagman calling out the name Potter to the cheering crowd.
"So now you actually want the attention?" Remus laughed.
"It's for Quidditch," Sirius said like it was obvious. "If Harry goes on to remember he joined the professionals, I wouldn't be surprised one little bit. That's the kind of fame I'd never be worried about him getting."
"You're all fired from giving him advice," Lily said stoutly, finally pulling her face out of her hands so they could see her rolling her eyes.
Harry wasn't sure if his mind's eye changed to actual dreams,
Harry was trying very hard now to force himself to relax. He'd gone to sleep after all, surely whatever was trying to creep up and ruin his mood wasn't going to happen...
but the next thing he heard was Arthur shouting at the lot of them to get up, this was an emergency!
The four who weren't reading felt terrible little twists inside of them, but at once tried to convince themselves they were being paranoid. They'd had an excellent run thus far, there was no way something to bad could be happening...
Harry sat upright and was lucky not to hit something harder than canvas above him as he muttered what was going on? He could still hear in the background some banging noises, but somehow they felt different, and he could hear people screaming now.
Lily began gnawing on her lip again at once, picturing all sorts of terrible things like a fire breaking out. In that kind of crowd it could cause a stampede and get someone hurt. Or worse the rival team and someone had started a riot, one drunk thing had gone too far, or...her mind kept offering up one worst thing after the other, and judging by the boy's faces, she wasn't the only one.
Harry slipped out of his bed and began trying to find a change of clothes, but at Arthur's insistence there was no time, he simply bolted out of the tent after Ron, and ran into a nightmare.
There were several camp fires still burning, now lighting his surroundings with ghostly shadows, and loud noises like gunshots coming closer.
"What on earth?" Remus muttered, his mind spinning to try and understand what Harry's half-awake mind couldn't process yet.
Harry couldn't answer, even if he wanted to. There was a hard knot of dread forming up inside of him, making it hard for him to concentrate on the words and keep going.
There seemed to be a large ring of people, all looking up and laughing at something, then there was another flash of light, and Harry could see that there was something hovering in the air above the crowd...people. Directly below them was a condensed group all wearing masks.
"Oh, oh no. Oh no, no, no, no," Lily was shaking her head so furiously to insist upon her brain she hadn't just heard the worst implication, that her hair was flying into her face and she didn't care.
"It doesn't necessarily mean," Sirius tried, but even his voice failed him and he couldn't keep it going.
"What, what's going on?" Harry demanded, as clearly they understood something.
"It, they-" James tried furiously to get the words out, but he'd switched from cloud nine to the worst form of agitated fear so quickly, he was having trouble processing anything.
"They're called Death Eater's,"* Remus was the first to get out, new worry lines appearing around his suddenly dark eyes. "They're what Voldemort calls his followers. Horrid people who do whatever their master commands-"
"Often while enjoying doing it," Sirius added on.
Harry was looking between all of them, now wishing more than anything they could just go back to talking of Quidditch. He'd sadly worked this out for himself, this wasn't the first time they'd mentioned Death Eaters, but only in passing. He'd long guessed for himself what they must be referring to, but now he was getting a firsthand account of their work, and he did not appreciate it.
When the silence dragged on though, Harry knew he may as well keep going, to get through this chapter and this terrible event and just hope nothing like it came up again. They may even be wrong after all, then again, how many groups of people wore masks and would be doing a thing like this?
High above them, floating along in midair, four struggling figures were being contorted into grotesque shapes.
Lily gasped, her hand coming up to cover her mouth to muffle a scream at who those people must be. Muggles, or Muggle-born, being put on display, and- she realized she was shaking then, but not in fear as Remus throwing her a concerned look suggested, but in rage. In her last few years at school it had been made more clear than ever that her parentage made her stand out, and while there were those who couldn't care less, there were those who only cared about that. Those second groups were most likely the current Death Eaters, in her own time and in Harry's. She'd stepped in many a time to stop terrible fights breaking out, now she was having to listen to her son witness such a thing happening!
The other boys looked just as outraged at hearing this, and Lily was almost sad to see Harry was as well, because she'd have rather seen him confused. She wanted to shield him from that terrible knowledge that people would act this way towards each other, but then she realized she was feeling all the more proud for the reaction she was seeing. If she couldn't protect him from this, at least she was warmed that he knew how terrible this was, how much worse her son could have turned out if he'd been under the influence of someone like the Malfoy's.
Harry did not want to keep going one little bit, but as always he knew he may as well get the experience over with and just hope they turned out okay.
It seemed the masked people below were holding their limbs in invisible magic, and two of the four were very small.
"They've, got, children, up, there," Remus said slowly and dangerously, his hands curling into such tight fists the tendons were showing.
Harry wanted more than anything just to deny that one thing, but the words failed in his throat as he turned morosely back to the book.
More wizards were joining the marching group, laughing and pointing up at the floating bodies.
"How is that funny?" James seethed. "I, just, you don't-" his temper kept tampering off his words, leaving him a spluttering mess, while his face slowly grew more and more red from outrage.
Tents were being smashed to pieces as the group grew closer, either blasted out of the way or being trampled by the ever growing cheering crowd. The ones that did remain standing were caught on fire, and the screaming kept growing louder.
While Sirius deeply regretted forcing Harry to read this, and was fighting back the impulse to wrench the book away from him to prevent it continuing, he recognized he may not have been able to get these words out himself as his throat kept vibrating with repulsion, forever unable to kick away the mental image of his little brother, and now someone he'd once called a brother, joining in on this group.
The people above were suddenly illuminated as they passed over a burning tent and Harry recognized one of them, Mr. Roberts.
There were many times in the past where Harry actually regretted understanding why he'd felt a missing memory and did not appreciate having it returned, and this was definitely one of them. His feelings went beyond just pity for poor Mr. Roberts and his family, who had done nothing to deserve this treatment, but a righteous fury was quickly coming in as well, making him want to draw his wand, his body acting without his conscious mind telling him to go and help those people, you had the experience. He forced himself to shake that off though, blinking until the words below him came back into focus, and recognized that however he felt now, he could only deal with the then.
The others were most likely his wife and two children, all were receiving the same vile treatment. Mrs. Roberts was suddenly hung upside down, unable to stop her dress falling with her, leaving her flashing the crowd below.
Harry wasn't entirely sure he'd gotten through all of that and been completely understood, but he was sure they all got the gist of it by the murderous looks on their faces somehow increasing.
Ron managed to spit out how sick that was as his eyes followed one of the children being spun on his head like a top.
"Please be asleep, please let that poor thing be asleep," Lily murmured to herself, her nails digging into her own palm she was wringing her hands so hard.
Hermione and Ginny came out of their tents then, and Mr. Weasley then instructed all of the underage kids to get into the forest, while Percy, Bill, and Charlie were already running towards the mass with their wands out.
Each of them felt torn in half at that news. Of course they wanted Harry to get out of there, but they wanted Mr. Weasley to stay with him incase things somehow got worse, which seemed impossible at this point but as they'd all thought that before and it still somehow happened they weren't putting it past anymore. Then the other side, which was grateful relief that Arthur and his boys would blow those bloody Death Eater's sky high for what they were doing and make sure Mr. Robert's family was fine.
Harry reluctantly turned away as Fred and George each took one of Ginny's hands, and Ron and his two friends quickly followed them into the path where most of the other bystanders were running. Harry took one last glance behind and saw several ministry people were trying to muscle their way through the crowd to get to the masked people,clearly not wanting to curse anyone in fear it would make the Roberts family fall.
"Understandable that, can't apparate to their side either without risking getting blasted to smithereens, have to be a group effort," Remus was muttering under his breath, tapping away an insane rhythm on his knee in pure agitation he couldn't be helping.
The lanterns from before had been put out, the people shoving into one another along the dark path was causing just as much mayhem inside the trees, children could still be heard crying and still more anxious people were screaming into the night.
James and Sirius remembered their earlier joke about how they'd wanted to start a riot between the two rival Quidditch teams, and how that had somehow been turned on its head into this catastrophe, and now they just wanted to hear that everyone made it out of this night alive!
Harry felt himself being pushed hither and thither by people whose faces he could not see. Then he heard Ron yell with pain.
Lily yelped so painfully, she sounded like she'd been sat on, but she couldn't even pretend to be okay when they all gave her anxious looks. She was picturing those Death Eater's catching up to her son, gagging and dragging him back to that decrepit Voldemort, or any other number of terrible things all because Ron had somehow gotten hurt!
Harry wanted to reassure her, he may feel dread for this night but he wanted to calm them all down that nothing too bad was going to happen to him, but that felt like he was dismissing what had happened to Mr. Robert's family, and he wasn't even sure if he was completely right, so he decided to keep going instead.
Hermione cried out for him, and when he didn't immediately respond she lit her wand to find Ron just a bit off the path lying in the dirt.
"He's going to get trampled like that," Sirius muttered, still jittering in a wholly different way than he had been in just the previous chapter.
He grumbled that he'd just tripped as he got back to his feet.
That was such a mundane thing compared to what they'd been afraid of, it almost caused them to laugh in surprise. Almost. They still felt wound up and wretched, but at least it was a breath of fresh air reminding that everything must turn out okay.
Someone began laughing at this misfortune, and Harry didn't have to look hard to find Draco Malfoy,
"Of course," James spat, his hazel eyes lighting furiously. "Why am I not surprised, it was probably his parents idea to do all of that!"
"Won't find anyone in here disagreeing," Harry muttered with such a vicious flip of the page he nearly tore it out.
leaning against a tree in the most casual of manners, clearly watching the show back on the campsite.
"Oh he's being real subtle," Remus sneered. "May as well go out and wave a sign around."
"Please have Hermione punch him again, please," Lily growled.
Ron told Malfoy to do something that Harry knew he would never have dared say in front of Mrs. Weasley.
"I don't know," Sirius rubbed his jaw thoughtfully, though his tone wasn't up to its normal teasing levels even in appreciation of that statement. "I think she might just turn a deaf ear in light of what's going on."
Malfoy hardly reacted, saying they'd better keep running before Hermione was seen.
Harry felt himself stiffen up in even further disgust, the thought of Hermione up there with Mr. Robert's family making him want to retch, but he drew on every last drop of confidence he could muster that wasn't going to happen to his sister.
At that moment the loudest bang of all went off, green light flooding their surroundings.
Lily shuddered in renewed horror, the color green taking on a whole new light with what could be going on back there.
Hermione snapped back she demanded to know what he was on about, and Malfoy just laughed that those people out there were after Muggles. So unless she wanted to show off her knickers next, which would be pretty funny.
"You can't spot a Muggle just by looking at them!" James ground out through gritted teeth.
"Though I wouldn't put it past Malfoy, either of them, to shout it out," Remus seethed.
Harry snarled back that Hermione was a witch! Malfoy's smirk just widened, saying that if they wanted to test how well someone could spot a Mudblood, they should stick around.
Harry felt an acrid taste burning his tongue as he said that for the first time in his life, now knowing how his father felt. Even when you didn't mean it, it would always feel wrong to say.
Ron shouted at him to watch his own language!
"Do the slug curse again," Sirius suggested viciously, "you've got a proper wand now!"
"That's being kind, but a nice start," Remus nodded.
Hermione didn't seem to care too much, as she grabbed the back of Ron's shirt and began pulling him away.
"Or just punch him," James smirked, "I'll take either."
There was another bang, getting closer every time, and even more people screaming. Malfoy just continued to laugh.
It did not surprise them this was his reaction, not after everything he'd said and done previously, it was just all the more loathsome to continually hear about it.
He mocked the people around him for scarring so easily, then demanded of Ron if his dad was one of the idiots trying to save those Muggles? Ron shot back that Malfoy's dad was probably one of those keeping the Muggles up in the air.
"So proud of you, that's exactly what I was going to say," James sighed.
Malfoy's smug expression didn't even twitch as he said if his dad was out there, he wouldn't be telling them.
"Just put a big ol' sign up to say he was right why don't you, it would be much subtler," Remus hissed.
Hermione was really trying to get the two boys to walk away now, saying they'd gotten too far away from Ron's siblings. Malfoy laughed as she convinced them to start leaving, mockingly tossing back to keep her head down.
"Can't believe Hermione actually did manage to pull you both out of the way after all of that," Lily sighed in honest disappointment. Harry couldn't be out there helping Arthur, but he could at least get his own payback on this pompous child.
"We really did want to get Hermione out of there after that though," Harry muttered darkly.
Ron was still muttering about how he was sure Lucius was one under those hoods.
"Am not taking that bet," Sirius agreed.
Hermione was trying to sooth that the Ministry would most likely catch them, while still looking around desperately for the other three, who'd vanished.
"Of course you got separated from them," James groaned, rubbing furiously at the ridge of his nose and nearly knocking his glasses off he was already so upset by this set up. Nothing good had ever came of these three getting separated!
They kept pushing through though, running into a few random people along the way. One girl caught sight of them and ran up, asking them something in pure French, only the name Madame Maxime coming through.
Harry successfully butchered that so well, it took Remus a moment to ask, "was that French?"
"Err, yes," Harry muttered with a slight blush.
Whether he'd done it on purpose or not, probably not, that actually managed to cause genuine smiles back on all of them for at least this small and funny little distraction.
When they responded back in English, the girl muttered an apology and walked back to her group, muttering something about 'Ogwarts. Hermione said Beauxbatons as they kept walking,
After the last chapter he'd heard about involving several of the foreign schools, Harry didn't need much to put together that must be the French equivalent of Hogwarts.
explaining for the boys that was the French Academy of Magic. She'd read about it in An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe.
"Of course she did," Remus gave a soft snort of delight, remembering how both he and Harry had thought earlier that's how Hermione would come across that information.
Harry agreed with disinterest, while Ron lit his own wand and rose it above his head to look for his siblings. Harry went digging for his own to help, when he realized he couldn't find it.
"It what!" James squaked in alarm.
Harry was gaping down at the book like a fish out of water, patting his own pocket now and feeling comforted his wand was at least there now!
"You, you left it in the tent, or," Sirius began stammering, eyeing Harry like he'd instead said he'd left his glasses behind. Even that would have made more sense.
"I, no I don't think so, the last time I remember having it-" he struggled, his mind floundering because he never used it on his summer holiday, but he always kept it in his pocket, so it was an unconscious feeling. He hadn't used it his whole time while at the Burrow, but he'd brought it along to the Cup. He hadn't used it there either, but it had always been in his pocket. There was an alarm bell going off in the base of his skull, something painful telling him he should know quite well where it had gone, but that was missing like any other important thing he tried to remember!
His frustration was clearly growing on his face, so James quickly jumped in by placing a calming hand on his shoulder and soothing, "relax Harry, I know you find it, and I also know you didn't just leave it lying around." He struggled for a moment, trying to understand what could have happened to it, as a wizard's wand was akin to an extra finger, you were never without it. He couldn't fathom what could be going on, but still persisted, "so let's get to that part where everything gets better again."
Harry nodded without any enthusiasm, but at least appreciated they weren't all badgering him about losing it.
The only thing on him was his Omnioculars. Harry exclaimed in fear it wasn't there, and Ron and Hermione froze as they looked on the ground for it now. Harry kept patting himself down, but it was nowhere around.
"Be a little worried if it was just randomly lying around," Remus muttered, as wands weren't know for just randomly falling out of pockets. If it had been him who'd tripped over a root, that would have been one thing, but no, he was sure something else besides dropping it was going on, that Chamber must have taught Harry about throwing his wand any old place.
Ron suggested it had been left in the tent, while Hermione offered he may have dropped it while they'd been running.
They shifted uncomfortably, finding these fair enough answers, but still as unusual as it could get, and just as unlikely coming from those two as themselves.
Harry absently agreed, suddenly feeling naked. He never went anywhere without his wand, and now felt ten times more vulnerable.
"Glad you agree," Lily murmured, those horrible visions from before still twisting away behind her mind's eye, now more terrible than ever that her son couldn't magically defend himself.
There was a rustling noise to their left, and then Winky came stumbling out. She was moving odd, like she was trying to run forward but something was pulling her backwards.
Harry choked as he got that out, going incredibly wide eyed all over again, but whatever he felt for that description was gone in a flash and his mind was back to gnawing on what had happened to his wand, something that was causing him an equal amount of pain in his head, no need to add more. Then why was something trying to warn him these two things were connected...
She was muttering to herself about how bad wizards were around, people being lifted in the air, and how she wanted to get out of there! She managed to struggle into another clump of bushes and vanish again. Ron asked why she'd been acting like that, and Harry offered it was probably because she'd been doing something without permission.
Even as Harry said that...(again...this time travel thing made that annoying,) he could feel something wasn't right, this was the wrong answer, and still he couldn't grasp hold of it for any reason and instead forced himself to concentrate on the print, much less painful.
His mind was on Dobby, who often acted the same way when he disobeyed a Malfoy order. Hermione was frowning after the little thing indignantly as she said how bad house-elves had it.
Harry nearly sobbed in relief at finally something much lighter for his conclusions to settle on, though he did wonder what about Hermione speaking of house-elves would lead to. He greedily latched onto it though, as he'd nearly developed a second pulse behind his eyes he'd been thinking so much about things he should know better of by now.
Speaking of how that was slavery. Mr. Crouch had forced her to go up to the stadium even though she'd been terrified to do so,
"Did he even show up?" Lily muttered randomly, that never having been noted at all. It was quite rude of him to force his house-elf to go up there and never even bother to show. Surely nothing so important could be going on during the actual cup.
and now she couldn't even run when all the tents were being trampled.
"She's not bewitched," Sirius snorted. "She didn't get permission, and was probably told not to leave the tent for some reason. That's just part of how they are."
"So you're okay with Winky getting hurt, just because Crouch didn't release her from that command before he ran off?" Lily demanded of him in blistering tones.
Sirius threw his hands in defeat at once, saying, "hey, I'm just saying he didn't do it on purpose."
Lily still had her eyes narrowed at him, and while Harry would have been more than happy at this rate watching them bicker about this, he also noticed Remus quickly trying to wave him on before the argument could escalate as well, so he sighed and kept at it.
Demanding of nobody why hadn't this been stopped long before now. Ron just shrugged that the elves were happy the way they were, but Hermione turned on him at once that it was people like him who were too lazy-
"Lazy?" James raised a brow in surprise. "He's just saying it like it's always been for thousands of years. I really don't see what Hermione's so strung up about either."
Lily ground her teeth together, but shook her head in furious silence. She understood completely where Hermione was coming from, after watching poor Dobby for a whole year and now this, she was really regretting her own life that she hadn't looked into this more. All she'd ever known were the house-elves at Hogwarts, treated perfectly well and never a care, and she'd naively believed that all were treated the same. She now realized how ignorant that was, and quite agreed with where she was positive Hermione was heading, there should be a standard for their living as much as anybody's.
There was another bang from behind them cutting off the rest of her words, and Ron suggested they keep moving with a worried look at Hermione. Harry couldn't help but agree, maybe there had been some truth to what Malfoy had said and Hermione was in more danger than them.
Sadly, that really was true. Honestly all three made wonderful targets for any Death Eater. The son of a blood traitor, who readily stood by his father and family. The Muggleborn, though not obvious Malfoy at least could point out. And the Boy Who Lived, which went without saying, and wandless! All three of them really needed to keep their heads down.
They set off again, Harry still searching his pockets, even though he knew his wand wasn't there.
Sadly that pain popped right back into Harry's temple the moment he was reminded of that, somehow doubling since it had gone away in its persistence he should be remembering something.
They continued down the dark winding path still keeping an eye out for more Weasley's, but all they passed were some goblins laughing over a sack of gold,
In his current mindset, he didn't even notice the light flutter he felt that this detail may have been important later.
and then a large group of veela,
"Guess they're not worried about anything," Lily rolled her eyes.
surrounded by a gaggle of young wizards, all of whom were talking very loudly.
"Well that'll make you forget what's going on behind you," Sirius snorted with derision. Even he had to admit this was a terrible time to be flirting.
They were all shouting nonsense at the veela, one saying how he made a hundred Galleons a year!
"Congratulations," James rolled his eyes, "you should be richer than the richest by next month."
Another was yelling how he was a dragon killer!
"Not everyone appreciates that kind of boasting," Lily sniffed, finding that far more sad that this was a needed job then brave or whatever that numbskull was going for. She wasn't even the biggest fan of dragons and she wasn't fond of the idea of killing them.
A boy right beside him called him out on that lie, shouting that he was a dishwasher at the Leaky Cauldron, but then boasted his own that he was a vampire hunter!
"Right, and you happen to be friends with a dishwasher. Good of you to keep the company," Remus muttered.
One who stuck out to Harry who had pimples all over his face shouted next that he was slated to be the youngest ever Minister of Magic.
"I'm sure he'll do a better job than the current one," Sirius snorted, while Harry randomly thought he should find that funny, giving a slight snort as he recognized this young man, and finding irony that he in fact would do better.
Harry snorted with laughter as he recognized him, Stan Shunpike, a conductor on the Knight Bus.
"Oh that's brilliant," Lily snickered. She understood it was the magic of the Veela forcing them to want to impress making them act like fools, but she still found it sad that the way they went about it was lying. At least James never resorted to that in his mad attempts to gain her favor. Not that she was dumb enough to believe half of this bullocks, so it was a moot point.
Harry meant to tell Ron this, but then Ron chose that moment to begin shouting that he'd just invented a broom that could make it all the way to Jupiter.
"Now that I'd like to see," James laughed. "What's the brand you're calling it then, the Zeus model?"
"I'll let you know if he does," Harry promised with an easy smile, thanking once again this lighthearted switch for the reprieve he was getting, no matter how short.
Hermione sniffed as she and Harry grabbed hold of Ron's arms and dragged him away.
"I noticed you weren't affected that time," Remus pointed out.
Harry just shrugged, muttering, "wasn't really paying attention till I heard Stan speak up, then I was too busy laughing."
By the time all of that yelling had faded away, they were now mostly alone in the dark forest, things seemed to have gotten quieter.
Lily felt like goosebumps were smothering her as she said, "well, then perhaps you should go back and laugh at the Veela's admirers a bit more. It's not good for you to be so far out by yourself. Plus, you never caught up to Ron's siblings, I'm sure they're worried about you."
Harry wanted to agree, to voice that he had gone back into the more populated areas of the forest, but the words wouldn't come, something he knew he'd regret.
Harry was looking around as he said they should just wait where they were, they could hear anyone coming.
The four of them sighed in disappointment. Why did Harry have to be the one to suggest that? Was he trying to make their life more miserable by seeming to go out of his way in his younger self to cause these situations?!
He'd hardly got done saying that when Bagman burst from the trees, looking quite disheveled.
Sirius was frowning in concern for someone he'd almost call an idol, wondering what on earth could have happened to him. He hadn't been mugged had he, he'd been carrying around an awful lot of gold for his betting. Had he perhaps run into a not happy customer about a big loss? He really hoped he was okay, or had Bludgeoned whoever it was, causing that other person to look far more than strained.
He caught sight of them and asked what they were doing out here? Ron pointed back towards the campsite and said they were hiding from the riot. Bagman blinked in shock before demanding 'what?'
"So, he didn't know?" Lily raised a brow in surprise.
"What's he been doing this whole time, it's hardly been subtle," Remus agreed.
"Maybe he found an old friend and brought her along for some privacy," James smirked, thinking there were plenty of reasons he could be looking tossed around.
They began to explain, but once they were done Bagman swore in surprise,
"A very appropriate reaction honestly," Sirius huffed.
said 'damn them',
"Them?" They all asked in surprise, Sirius now thinking he may have been closer than he thought, but hopefully Bagman would file a report of it later and get back whatever he deserved.
and then Disapparated away. Hermione was frowning where he'd just been, saying how he wasn't on top of things much.
"You can't blame him for not being on high alert twenty four seven," Sirius muttered, grains of pity still lingering for him.
Ron just shrugged and said that he'd been a great Beater,
"Because that just made everything better," Lily snorted.
his old team the Wimbourne Wasps won the league three times when he'd been playing for them.
Sirius was more than happy to make a triumphant noise in delight at this news, hoping Harry and Ron would whittle away the boring hours until Arthur found them with Quidditch talk.
He took his figurine of Krum out of his pocket, set it down on the ground, and watched it walk around.
Giving all of them a nice laugh as well. They were still tense and uneasy, they couldn't help it until Harry was back out of that forest and safely back at the Burrow, but it was nice that he had Ron and Hermione there in the meantime to keep up distractions like this from the worst of their thoughts.
Ron sat down in the leaves to watch it pace around, and silence lingered for a few more moments before Hermione again voiced that she hoped the others were okay. Ron assured they were all fine, and Harry voiced that he hoped Arthur caught Lucius in the act.
"This whole ordeal will be worth it if that's true," Sirius nodded.
Ron agreed that would make his life, while Hermione whispered how bad those poor Muggles had it, wondering if they would get down okay?
"They will," Remus said at once at the uneasy look on Harry's face. "Then they'll make sure they're okay, before most likely giving them a powerful memory charm to erase this terrible instance from their mind."
"A kindness honestly," Lily sighed, "otherwise they may have gone mad from this."
Ron once again assured her everything would be fine. Hermione then changed to pointing out how mad those masked people were to have pulled this with so many Ministry people around.
"While true-" Lily sighed.
"They don't care," James finished for her with an ugly look in place. "It's all about making a statement with that lot, so long as there were more of them then the Ministry who would help, with a nice loud distraction which I'm sure they easily got, they'd keep at it till they had no other choice."
Harry was frowning sadly out the window, now wondering just how often events like this occurred in their time.
Neither boy got a chance to respond as they heard someone in the nearby blackness stumbling around.
They all went ramrod straight, their hands going instinctively towards their wands, a stupid but involuntary reaction as they heard some stranger was around Harry at this time.
Then the footsteps stopped, and Harry called out if anyone was there? **
James looked like he was visibly restraining himself from snapping as he said, "Harry, did you really just ask that! You're supposed to be quiet and stay out of sight at this time, not go yelling 'hey I'm over here!"
Harry was frowning at him, half feeling chastised that it probably had been a bad idea in retrospect, but also wanting to defend himself that at the time he hadn't seen himself in that much danger. He suppressed it though, they were tense enough and he really didn't want to pick at this.
Another long beat of silence, then a voice shouted out the spell 'Morsmordre.'
"Don't recognize that," Sirius muttered to himself, not that this made anyone feel any better. There were plenty of terrible curses out there these people had never heard of because they wouldn't go out looking for them.
Something vast, green,
Lily felt a scream rearing up in her throat at the thought of any green spell being set off around her baby, again!
and glittering erupted from the patch of darkness Harry's eyes had been struggling to penetrate; it flew up over the treetops and into the sky.
Then she felt foolish and embarrassed when he finished, sounding more puzzled than anything. She was being jumpy and paranoid, he was sitting there reading it, of course he hadn't had the killing curse set on him. It still wasn't helping her nerves one bit though. Maybe she'd made more a noise then she'd intended to, maybe Sirius was just getting to fidgety with all of this built up angst and he knew he was upsetting his charge, but the next thing Lily knew she had her baby in her lap which quickly calmed her down far better than anything else could.
Ron gaped in shock as it continued to rise above the treetops, looking much like the leprechaun formations from before. It transformed itself into a skull, with a serpent coming out of the mouth.
Harry was blinking in puzzlement as he finished the description, just knowing he should know what this was called, but when he looked up expectantly in hopes someone would tell him, he instead found all of them with sickly pale skin and gaping at him like he'd just turned into a corpse.
"Y-You're within shouting distance of a Death Eater!?" Sirius' throat couldn't seem to decide if it was going to fail him or release a rumbling growl as he got that out.
"That's what you got out of that?" Harry asked in surprise. "From some snake in the sky?"
"Th-that's, the Da-Dark Mark. Voldemort's symbol!" James managed to stutter out, wondering far too often for his liking how his son had survived to his current age. "Only a Death Eater knows how to produce it, so yes. That is understandably the first thing he, and the rest of us, grasped on."
"Oh," Harry simply muttered, unable to think of anything else to add to that. None of this explained what his ever growing agitation was, something building in the back of his mind that was quite insistently saying he should know this particular Death Eater, but that must be ridiculous. Hopefully he never got any closer to one of Voldemort's henchmen then he was in that moment, otherwise his family really might have a stress heart-attack.
Deciding to keep reading rather than watching them gasp for air, Harry forged on.
It seemed to grow brighter, like a new constellation forming, and then the screaming began again, louder than ever. Harry had no idea why, though he linked it to the glowing image in the sky. His eyes went back down to where it had been cast, and he again called out for who was out there.
"Harry James Potter, you stop that before you give me a heart attack!" Lily half screeched, only able to strangle off the full volume because even that scolding of her elder son made his younger counterpart begin crying in protest.
Harry was watching her with severe worry, remembering the last time she'd told him off for something he'd done in the past. At least then the other boys had helped her to laugh it off, as it had already happened long enough ago her snapping wouldn't do any good. Looking around now though, he saw they were quite in agreement with her exclamation, which wasn't making him feel any better. Desperately hoping now he had stopped shouting out or he'd probably regret it in this time, Harry tried to keep going in as calm a voice as possible to remind them all he was perfectly fine.
Hermione was trying to get them to move again, tugging on his shirt and begging him to run.
"Least one of you lot has some bleeding sense," Remus hissed, now wishing more than anything Harry hadn't been split off from Arthur, or Sirius had come, or if he'd bothered to keep in contact, anything then this constant mess that was Harry's life seeming to find the most danger when he was at his most vulnerable.
Harry asked what her problem was, as she'd gone white faced with fear.
"Does she know what that is?" Sirius asked in surprise, at least that distracted him from picturing that thing being cast right over his little pup's body while he was on the opposite side of the world.
"I guess I can see how," James muttered through almost chattering teeth as he was picturing much the same thing. "Wouldn't surprise me if the marks shown up in a book or two about Voldemort's reign."
Hermione told that it was the Dark Mark, You-Know-Who's sign!
"Right in one Prongs," Remus muttered, shifting his weight with continuing agitation, no matter how much it aggravated his injuries, that flare of pain was a constant reminder he was in the hear in now, listening to Harry read this rather than picturing it go a more gruesome way.
Harry tried to ask for more, but Hermione just begged them to start walking. Ron paused to pick up his Krum,
"Priorities," Lily mumbled, bouncing her infant in her arms to keep them both calm.
but the three of them only made it a few steps before there were about twenty pops of wizard's apparating into their space, surrounding the three.
Harry hadn't believed they could be more upset than they had in just the last book, but when he read that and their first thought was to jump to the fact that Harry was now surrounded on all sides by Death Eaters like that had been a calling, he was pretty sure his dad having vomited back during the Chamber would be a kind look back.
Harry recognized all wands were pointing at them,
Harry was quite glad he was the one reading, as when he glanced up all he saw was a mask of shocked faces on convulsing throats like they were all fighting back the urge to scream some more, most likely their own voices would have failed them at this point. All Harry remembered feeling at the time was shock, and the urge to hit the deck.
and he reacted first by seizing his friends necks and pulling them to the ground, screaming 'Duck!'
"Anaticula!" Sirius suddenly yelped at his side.
Harry looked at him with great concern, like he thought his godfather had finally lost his bleeding mind, but it had the desired effect of causing James and Remus to snap out of their comas and burst out laughing.
Lily looked just as confused as he felt, but Harry still had more sense about him as he demanded, "what's that mean?"
Sirius had to shake his head a couple of times to make sure his head was on straight and clear, before putting on a farce of his carefree nature and explaining, "it's a curse that makes your wand only able to produce ducks for the next few spells. Great laugh while you're running away." He managed to say all of that with only a few minor spasms of shock still wearing off from picturing all of this being directed at Harry.
"Remus used it on us once," James added on when it seemed Lily was finally calming back down as well, and hoping to keep them all breathing on this subject for as long as possible he turned mock angry eyes on Remus and finished in a 'huffy' tone, "in the middle of dinner. McGonagall wouldn't believe we hadn't done it on purpose, gave us detention that night, forcing me to reschedule one of my Quidditch practices."
"You two deserved it," Remus shot back, an old satisfied smirk in place his friends hadn't seen in awhile. "It was one of you lots fault I got strung up by my foot and missed my Care of Magical Creatures class that day, and since neither of you would tell me who did it, you both deserved it."
Lily was watching between the three with an actual smile in place now, unable to believe she could hold the expression in light of what was happening to her son, but had actually quite enjoyed during school watching the Marauders pick on each other much more than watching them go after their prank victims, so hearing retellings like this were always a treat.
The distraction had worked, they were all much more grounded and feeling at least less likely to have heart failure as Harry continued.
They slammed into the ground,
"Thank Merlin for those Quidditch reflexes," James murmured.
just as all the voices shouted as one 'Stupefy!'
At least that made them all feel better at the situation Harry was in. Certainly not content, but it was nicer to hear he only would have been stunned then something far worse.
Beams of red light went whizzing above their head, ricocheting off of trees and going every which way, and only ceasing when one voice called out above the rest for them to stop, that was his son!
"Arthur," Lily nearly sobbed in relief, knowing that couldn't refer to anyone else.
"So it was the Ministry who went there," James agreed, still looking fairly faint but at least some color returned to his face as he realized that.
Mr. Weasley came stumbling towards them, looking more terrified than Harry had ever seen him as he asked if they were alright?
"I can imagine," Remus nodded, knowing Arthur would have felt the same way they just had of finding his son under that mark.
Someone snapped at Arthur to move,
"Bite me!" James snapped at once, riling up at anyone trying to get in Arthur's way as he checked on those kids.
which turned out to be Mr. Crouch.
"I'll second that," Sirius agreed with a nasty look still in place, wanting to crack all twenty of those ministry fools over the head for shooting at his pup.
He and the other Ministry people were coming in closer as Harry got to his feet, facing Mr. Crouch who had his face drawn with fury. His wand was pointing at all three intermittently as he demanded which of them had done it.
"He actually just looked you in the face and demanded that?" Lily growled, her eyes narrowing furiously. "You? The bleeding Boy Who Lived."
"Plus a Weasley and a Muggleborn, the only ones they caught sight of, oh yeah it's hard to tell who has more motive in that group," Remus snarked.
"I'm just hoping they did manage to stun, incompetently but still, the one who did do it," James grumbled, hoping at least some good came of their heart attack moment.
Harry frowned in confusion as he said they hadn't done that while gesturing up above. Ron agreed they hadn't done a thing while looking indignantly at his father.
"He's the one defending you," Sirius snorted. "What's he glaring at him for?"
"Mr. Weasley looked just as shocked as anyone else," Harry shrugged, "maybe to Ron it looked more acquisitory."
While demanding to know why they'd been attacked.
Crouch snapped at Ron not to lie, while adding on a sir.
"At some point you can drop the manners," Remus muttered with an eye roll.
His wand now pointed right in Ron's face, his eyes popping with fury.
All of them scowled heavily at that, finding it completely uncalled for to be pointing a wand in Ron's face, when he hadn't even drawn his own to defend himself!
A witch in the back reminded Crouch that these were just kids, they couldn't have done that. Arthur turned on his charges and asked them where had the Mark come from?
"At least there are some sensible adults around," Lily sniffed.
Hermione pointed to the space, saying an incantation had been shouted. Crouch turned on her now, shouting about how she seemed well aware of how to make the Mark appear.
"Oh goodness me, you use an incantation to summon a magical image in the sky, who would have thunk it!" Remus snapped, not being able to press any more sarcasm into that if he'd tried.
No one else paid Hermione a second glance though, instead all wands turned to where the kids had pointed.
"Great, good to know it's only one out of twenty we should be really worried about," Sirius grumbled.
The same witch from before sighed it was no good, that person would have Disapparated by now.
"Probably at the exact same time they appeared, so you wouldn't have even heard it," James sighed, mostly in relief whoever that was, wasn't around his son anymore.
Then another spoke up saying he didn't think so, and Harry recognized Amos Diggory,
"Oh great, now I get two people in one clearing to piss me off," Sirius mock cheered, making Harry already long for the carefree chapter they'd just had and see them really happy again.
saying how they may have got a lucky shot with their stunners, they had gone through those trees. He walked off to go check himself, with several people behind him calling out warnings to be careful.
"Or, you know, at least a few of you could go with him!" Lily snapped, taking every last bit of her self-restraint not to facepalm in exasperation. They outnumbered that one lone person who was back there, and even if there were more, it was still more safe than just sending one person.
Mr. Diggory shouted back a few moments later that they'd caught someone,
"Finally, some good news," Remus sighed, actually sagging back in relief, thinking that was one less problem they had to worry about.
Harry though, was wondering why his first reaction was to think Mr. Diggory was wrong, they hadn't gotten anyone that night... but the thought flew away almost at once and he simply agreed with Remus instead.
but then he trailed off in surprise as he seemed to recognize whoever it was.
"That didn't seem like a good reaction though," Sirius frowned in concern.
Crouch did not sound convinced as he demanded who,
"He really still thinks it's those three kids?!" James snapped in disbelief, wanting more than anything to smack Crouch a good one.
as Diggory walked back in, with Winky in his arms.
"What?" All five of them yelped at once.
"There's no way that little elf did that," Sirius snorted in disbelief.
"The voice didn't even match," Harry agreed, still frowning deeply as he gently tried to understand why his earlier feeling was clearly right now.
"What was Winky even doing in that area though?" Lily's frown kept deepening the longer she thought about this. "We heard a Death Eater's voice in that direction, it's impossible Winky would be following them around as she belongs to Crouch."
Harry opened his mouth to reply, then thought better of it and quickly shut it before he vomited instead from the stress of repressing his response. The truth was, none of them had any idea what was going on, and absolutely none of them wanted to find out. They didn't care about this mystery, didn't want to sit on the idea any longer then they had to, because they didn't want it to have anything to do with Harry. They kept hoping any second now Arthur would jump in and say that these kids were no longer needed and take them away back to the Burrow for some actual peace!
Crouch froze as Diggory placed Winky at his feet. Crouch muttered this must be some mistake as he walked off to that same area, going out of sight but could still be heard searching the bushes for another culprit. Diggory called back that he'd checked, Winky was the only one there.
Harry had to blink hard a few times to keep some bright spots out of his eyes, but then kept on after a moment, now working harder than ever to ignore whatever feeling that gave him for whatever reason.
Diggory was shaking his head sadly as he muttered what a surprise this was, for Crouch's elf to have done this.
"They can't really think she did it?" James raised an even more disbelieving brow, somehow managing to find this more ridiculous than them thinking it was Harry. "She's a house-elf!"
While Lily agreed with him it was every kind of ludicrous, she didn't much like his tone of saying it.
Mr. Weasley scolded this was ridiculous, he couldn't really be serious in saying it was an elf to have done this.
"Now why would he think it was me helping the elf?" Sirius quickly inserted, ignoring all accompanied groans. "I like to think mine's gone off and died by this point."
Harry gave him a smile, still not having grown tired of that joke yet, but didn't linger on it either.
Reminding you had to have a wand to summon the Dark Mark, and Diggory agreed she'd had one.
"Had a what now?" Lily demanded, sure she'd heard that wrong.
They all turned surprised eyes at that, as Diggory said she'd had one in her hand, in direct violation to a code stating that non-human creatures weren't allowed to carry such a thing. Ludo Bagman Apparated onto the scene just then, gasping about the Dark Mark!
"Thank you, I hadn't noticed," Lily rolled her eyes.
"Where's he been this whole time?" Sirius asked in confusion, some of the misty eyed awe of a Quidditch star starting to wear off. "I thought the last time he Disapparated away was to go help with the riot. He should have seen it at the same time as the rest of these twenty people and come then."
"Search us," Remus sighed, thinking they'd had more questions from this chapter alone already building up, and it was clearly driving Harry mad as he once again went cross eyed in pain at being unable to answer them. He, along with everyone else, really wanted this chapter to be done with already.
His eyes flickered to Barty, who was coming back into sight, but then he added on another question of why he hadn't been at the match?
"So he never did show up," James murmured.
"That's incredibly odd for him," Lily explained to Harry, who was watching all of the boys holding a puzzled expression. "He was a big hand in putting this event together, he was expected to show up for it. Crouch does not miss that type of thing, it wouldn't look good," she finished with a sniff of distaste.
Harry felt like he was getting a little tick at the base of his skull, a muscle that just kept spasming every other sentence now as more and more of what he was hearing he was sure would come to bite him in the arse later, but for now he thanked his mum and kept going.
Reminding that his elf had been saving him a seat, but then Bagman caught sight of Winky and yelped in surprise what had happened to her? Crouch explained that she'd been stunned, and it took a moment for Bagman's eyes to flicker to her, then up to the Mark, before understanding took him and he gasped in surprise she couldn't have done that! She'd need a wand! Diggory repeated she'd had one, then asked Crouch if it was okay they unstun her to get some answers.
All four of them mumbled something about how it was bleeding obvious from the start she hadn't a thing to do with this and they should be out looking for who really did, but none of it was articulate enough Harry stopped.
When the spell 'Enervate' was used on her and she sat up, Winky burst into tears instantly. Diggory snapped at her to look at him, reminding of his position as a member of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.
"Is he trying to scare her?" Remus' scowl deepened at this, finding this more than uncalled for of the clearly innocent creature.
"He's certainly not going out of his way to pretend otherwise," Lily nodded in agreement.
Then he demanded an explanation of what she'd been doing. Winky sobbed she hadn't done anything, while Diggory flashed the wand for all to see and snapped at her to explain where she'd found this. Harry caught sight of it properly for the first time, and exclaimed that was his!
"What?" They all yelped, finding that all too common an occurrence recently!
"How in Merlin's underpants did your wand end up in the same clearing as Winky, and a Death Eater!?" James gasped out first.
"That sounds like the bad start to a joke," Sirius moaned, rubbing furiously at his forehead to stave away a growing sense of doom.
"I-but-you-when-" Lily could not get out more than one word before her voice failed her and she just kept looking at her gobsmacked son, but he shook off the shock quicker than she did and continued in a hurry now.
Everyone turned startled eyes back to him.
"Guess that wasn't the best time to go shouting that when they all think it's you," Remus muttered.
"There really isn't a good time to say that in this circumstance," Sirius reminded.
Harry repeated that was his wand, that he'd dropped it. Diggory repeated that back in absolute disbelief. Demanding of Harry if that was a confession, that he'd thrown it aside after he'd conjured the Mark?
"Yeah, that's what he said," Remus snorted, his eyes darkening more and more every second the longer he heard about Diggory. His jumping to conclusions attitude along with his no good character was making Remus edgier the longer this carried on.
Arthur jumped in angrily then, demanding Amos think about what he'd just said to Harry Potter. Diggory agreed he'd gotten carried away.
"Damn right you did," James snapped, happy at least Arthur was keeping that man in check.
Harry then explained he hadn't dropped it anywhere around there, he'd only noticed it was missing when he came into the woods.
"But," Lily finally managed to collect herself to get out a real question, "does that mean Winky did take it from you in the Top Box? She's the only other person outside of your group who had the means to do it. I just cannot for the life of me imagine why."
"If not, then it's a really big fat coincidence," James sighed, running his hand through his hair in agitation. Of all the people who could be suspected of taking Harry's wand, as the more they heard of this the more they believed Harry hadn't simply dropped it, and it simply wound up in the grip of a Death Eater to use in the conjuration of the Dark Mark, this was beyond words unbelievable.
Diggory instead turned back on Winky, demanding of the elf that she'd found it and decided to have some fun.
"No one's going to question that she just, found it!" Sirius scowled, knowing the elf probably didn't have a better answer than that, but he wanted one anyways.
Winky wailed that she hadn't done anything!
Lily began wriggling around in displeasure now, feeling bad she'd thrown out a question regarding Winky herself now, and she wasn't even there. The elf clearly had no more to do with this then Harry, couldn't they lay off her?
She'd just picked it up!
Hermione jumped in then, going pink in shock when all eyes turned to her, yet still insisting it wasn't Winky.
"Can't say I'm surprised," Remus gave a small smile, "she's shown time and again she'll do and say what she thinks is right."
"In this case, I'm grateful for it," Lily nodded in agreement.
Explaining that Winky's voice was high pitched and squeaky, and the person they'd heard summon the Mark was definitely male. Diggory did not look impressed as he said there was a way to check and see what the last spell was used on a wand, directing this at the elf.
"That doesn't prove anything," James snorted. "She just said she found it, and she's got witnesses proving it wasn't her who used it last. It's been established Harry's wand was the one to use that spell, showing that off doesn't mean a thing."
Diggory then placed his wand tip to Harry's and used the spell 'Prior Incantato.'
Harry's heart gave a very hard twist when he read that, for some reason leaning just slightly closer to his dad and glancing up at his mother for a moment, but only had a moment to wonder why before he kept going.
Both parents were still so wound up over the situation at hand, neither noticed Harry's second of hesitation.
Sprouting from Harry's wand came a smaller resemblance of the glowing mark in the sky, which Diggory seemed to think proved his point as he shouted in triumph Winky had been caught in the act!
"I am going to punch him." Sirius scowled, beginning to tense up on the spot the longer he kept going. "I don't even like elves and I don't talk to them like that. Use some brains man, she's obviously not got a thing to do with this."
"Thinking he doesn't need to be working with Magical Creatures much," James agreed with a serious nod. "He clearly looks down on them too much."
"He's much too quick to blame as well," Lily added on in the same tones as them.
Remus couldn't help but give them a light smile they hopefully didn't see, he knew for a fact they could get overly touchy about this without even realizing it.
Arthur cut in then though, reminding how few wizards knew how to summon such a spell, where on earth could Winky have learned to do so? Crouch snapped that Diggory was implying he'd taught his elf this?
"Ooh, snappy," Sirius raised an imperious brow, feeling his point had been made quite well, and he didn't even like the man who'd done it.
Diggory went horrified with shock, stammering out of course that wasn't it to Crouch.
"Little late for backtracking you hobnocker," James huffed.
Crouch pressed in though, telling off Diggory for now having accused the two people in this clearing least likely to have done this, Harry Potter and himself! Surely Diggory knew of who Harry Potter was? Diggory agreed in uncomfortable tones everyone knew that.
"Glad someone put him down," Lily gave a soft laugh, not having thought she'd be rooting for Crouch any time soon, but at least she found he was useful for something.
Then Crouch also reminded he'd shown time and again the lengths he'd gone to prove how against Dark Magic he was!
Harry felt a stirring in him again, like earlier when he'd felt something was off about Crouch speaking of his perfect unbreakable vows about rules. There was something there that Harry knew he should have a puzzle piece to, but it faded through his conscious like his brain was filled with cracks.
Diggory tried to protest, saying he'd never meant to accuse Crouch.
"You suggested his elf did," Remus smirked, "and that's as good as."
Crouch shouted back that to accuse his elf was to accuse him!
Diggory tried to say she could have picked it up somewhere else,
"Oh yes, I'm sure Death Eaters pop by all the time selling cookies and just give a friendly tutoring session of how to do that in the meantime," Sirius snorted.
but then Arthur agreed Diggory had spoken true on that one. He turned his own attention on Winky, the first person to call her by name and kindly meet her eyes, but Winky still flinched away from him like all the rest,
Lily couldn't help cooing again, wanting to do something to help the poor dear relax, as she knew there was no way she would be getting in trouble for anything, or at least she shouldn't be.
as Arthur asked where she'd found the wand? Winky's voice still came out watery as she said she'd just found it lying there in the leaves. Arthur stood back up to face Diggory, saying clearly what had happened was that the person who'd cast the Dark Mark had simply used Harry's own wand then Disapparated away. It was actually clever not to have used their own wand. It was just Winky's misfortune to come across it moments later.
"While I don't think he's wrong," James's frown just got deeper as Arthur drew the same conclusions they'd been forced to come to.
"That hardly explains anything," Sirius grumbled.
"It actually just raises more questions," Remus sighed.
Diggory gasped that this must mean that Winky had seen the person who had done all of this!
"That," Lily struggled for a moment before grudgingly admitting, "is a really good point."
"Wish she'd started with that," Sirius huffed, "this could have been going a lot better."
Then he turned on Winky and demanded of the elf if she'd seen anyone!
Winky's eyes flickered to her masters as she whispered she hadn't seen anyone.
Harry had a mad desire to laugh, like he knew Winky was telling the truth in that moment...but leaving something off...
Crouch seemed to decide that was enough, as he addressed Diggory by telling him that he was aware the normal course of events would be Diggory to take her into his department, but if he'd allow him to take his elf home? Amos clearly didn't want to agree, but clearly Crouch was such an important person he wasn't going to argue.
"I'm truly shocked at how pleased I am," Remus frowned in pity for the poor thing, finding just a grain of irony that the very thing she'd feared would happen to Dobby was in fact being hung over her head this very same night, but at least her own master would be a better option.
Crouch added on though that she would be punished for this night.
"Ouch," Lily winced. After hearing about what the Malfoys had done to Dobby, she was actually quite afraid for Winky and what might become of her now.
Winky began sobbing in shock, begging her master to reconsider, but Crouch's face was like stone as he snapped at her that he'd commanded she stay in the tent, and she'd disobeyed! This meant clothes!
"Wow," James blinked spastically like Crouch had just started swearing in Mermish. "That was harsh."
"Yeah," Sirius had his head cocked to the side, his eyes narrowed like he was trying to study Crouch in person. "She did disobey, but it's hardly so grievous she should be sacked like that."
Remus and Lily exchanged a surprised look, considering their usual attitude towards elf's they would have honestly expected those two to agree with Crouch, but for all their laughing at the creatures, they clearly weren't as hard on them as they would lead.
Harry may have input his opinion on them, but he was too busy fighting back word vomit. There it was again, something involving Crouch and Winky that made him want to spew out something like a huge silent chunk of conversation had been taken place right in front of him, but he had nothing to offer except to read what was in front of him.
Winky wailed, crawling to Crouch's feet and begging for anything but that! Crouch shook her off in disgust, but then Hermione jumped in by trying to defend the elf! Saying she'd been frightened, and shouldn't be blamed for running!
Lily looked very much like she would get up and hug Hermione now, as well as shield her, for standing up to Crouch like that in front of everyone.
Crouch did not remove his disgusted eyes from the elf as he told Hermione off to, saying he had no use for a servant who didn't listen, who ruined his reputation!
"Oh I get it," Remus gave an ugly sneer now as his eyes flashed. "He's not getting rid of her because she didn't listen to him, she's getting the boot because she got caught and dragged Crouch into this."
"This is terrible," Lily scowled. "I don't even understand why he's reacting like this, no one's going to look twice at him now that everything's out in the open. Everyone there knows he's nothing to do with the dark arts, he shouldn't be taking all of this out on his elf like this!"
"While we agree," James sighed, feeling like they were hearing about a Dobby all over again, how often were these other house-elves treated like this? "It's no good shouting about it now dear."
She shot him the stank eye, but didn't pursue the point.
Hermione may have kept going, but Arthur put himself back in then, saying Harry should have his wand back, which Diggory did, and then began escorting the kids away. He had to call twice before Hermione would follow, and the moment they were out of sight she began rampaging about the lot of them and how they'd been treating Winky! Everyone just referring to her as 'elf!'
Sirius and James shared a surprised look, they hadn't even noticed that part.
How dare Crouch do that to her, treating her like she wasn't even human! Ron did point out that technically she wasn't.
Sirius closed his mouth sheepishly, he'd actually been about to say the same thing, but was now happy he hadn't gotten it out at the flashing look Lily gave the book for Ron's comment.
Hermione turned on him and began shouting he wasn't acting any better than those- but Arthur cut her off by saying she could go on about elf rights later. Then he asked where the rest of his kids were? Ron said they'd gotten separated, then asked what that skull thing had been?
"I'm actually a little more surprised Ron didn't know," James quirked a brow. "Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful he's never seen it, but still. You'd think his parents would have mentioned it."
"Not necessarily," Remus shrugged. "In the same concept as Ron not saying Voldemort's name, Ron and the kids of his generation would have been told as little as possible of what would have been a common occurrence to their parents, err us, whatever. The next generation of kids would have been shielded and told as little as possible of the horrors of this war."
James pondered that for a moment, not really in agreement as he didn't think this should just be glossed over, but couldn't argue the point much either. They were only fourteen, James wasn't even happy Harry was so involved with this at that age, so he let the matter slide.
Mr. Weasley didn't relax one little bit as they made it back out of the forest, but were bombarded almost at once by a group of people demanding questions of Arthur, asking if anyone had been caught, who'd done that Mark, and was it Him? Arthur snapped back of course it wasn't You-Know-Who, and the perpetrator had Disapparated away, then he escorted himself and his kids off to bed.
"Snappy," Sirius gave a small smirk.
"Probably still worried about the rest of his kids," Lily added, thinking that as soon as Ron was back at the tent Arthur would probably go looking for the twins and Ginny, most likely as his eldest three were now doing.
Arthur escorted the three to the tent, but upon their approach Charlie poked his head back and called out to his dad that the other three had gotten back, but he didn't know where the others were.
They all released a sigh of relief. They hadn't exactly been worried for their safety, but it was good nothing had happened none the less.
Arthur sighed in relief as he entered the tent, and Harry spotted all three of the eldest Weasley's sporting bloody injuries.
Harry's tone was already pitching in surprise, but he read out;
Bill had a sheet to his arm where it was quickly turning red, Charlie had a large tear in his shirt, and Percy was trying to stop a bloody nose.
before he asked, "what could have happened to them?"
"Probably some of the Death Eaters shot some spells back," Remus sighed. "Either that or the riot got a little more hands on then wands."
The twins and Ginny weren't harmed, but looked white with shock. Bill asked if his Dad had caught whoever had done the Mark?
"Well Bill at least knows what it is," James muttered to himself, thankful that it clearly wasn't going to be erased from history what was going on now. He'd be satisfied if only the older type of kids knew about it then.
Arthur said they hadn't, but instead explained that they'd found Crouch's elf holding Harry's wand, which had been used to make the Dark Mark. They still had no idea who'd done it.
"That about summed it all up, yeah," Lily sighed, running a hand through her hair in agitation.
"Was a lot more bloody traumatizing to hear about it," James grumbled.
All of them yelped in surprise, Fred repeating the part about Harry's wand, while Percy in response to Crouch's elf.
"I can't decide who more deserved what was caught on," Remus snorted.
"Fred," Sirius said instantly, knowing he'd happily side with the twins then their immediate older brother any day.
The four who were present explained more fully the entire situation, and when they were done, Percy swelled with indignation.
"I'll agree with you now," Remus rolled his eyes.
Saying Crouch had been perfectly correct in his actions! Hermione snapped at him at once, causing Percy to take a step back in surprise. She and Percy usually got along pretty well, better than with his own brothers most days.
"Well that's just sad," Lily frowned slightly, always having suspected Percy didn't get along with his brothers very well, but for an outsider of the family like Hermione to so obviously be doing a better job, really got to her in that moment.
He pulled himself together quickly though and said that Crouch couldn't be seen going easy on an elf running amok with a wand.
"Run amok?" Sirius repeated in disbelief. "I'm still confounded what Crouch did, blowing that out of proportion. Though I guess I'm not that surprised Percy's agreeing with his boyfriend," he finished with a rude little curl of his nose.
Hermione shouted back that Winky hadn't done anything, but Ron butted in saying that he still wanted that Mark explained. Hermione turned on him and said that was You-Know-Who's symbol, something she'd read about in a book.
"Of course she did," Lily snorted, that felt like Hermione's answer to everything.
Arthur quietly added on it hadn't been seen in over thirteen years, it made perfect sense why people had panicked, it felt like seeing You-Know-Who back. Ron was still frowning though, saying it was just a symbol. Arthur tried again, telling that this mark was left over people who You-Know-Who had killed.
Causing the four around Harry to shiver, leading him to wonder and smother the question all at once who they'd found this mark hovering over. He decided he didn't want to know.
Trying to explain how much fear it instilled in people, coming home to your house and seeing that, knowing the very worst was inside...
Lily paled to the color of new snow, cuddling her baby all the closer to her.
Remus and James winced like they'd just been socked in the gut, but Sirius had the worst reaction. He'd lived that nightmare vividly in his dreams the previous night, coming over to find James and Lily...the only reason that mark had been absent was because no one was left alive to cast it...coupled together with the one responsible for it. He made a keening noise, shaking his head violently to get rid of that. He kept seeing it every time he closed his eyes, no need to dwell on it when he could give an unconvincing smirk to them now that he was just fine and could play this off as long as he dared.
it was everyone's worst fear.
"Okay, I'm appeased, Ron and Harry get it now," James murmured, deciding he'd never complain again about something Harry didn't know involving this type of thing.
There was a thick silence in the tent before Bill finally spoke up again, saying that whoever had cast it tonight had done them at least one favor. It scared the Death Eaters away, they all Disapparated the moment they saw it, and they'd only just caught the Roberts in time.
Giving them all a sigh of relief again. They had not forgotten what had started this whole mess, and it was a very good thing that Bill hadn't mentioned they'd been injured.
Explaining they were having their memories fixed now.
"Best thing that can happen to them," Remus gave a sad shake to his head, wanting to strangle every last one of those Death Eaters all over again at the thought of those poor Muggles suffering through that.
Harry repeated back the term Death Eaters in surprise, and Bill said that's what You-Know-Who's followers had called themselves. The ones they'd seen tonight were those who'd wriggled themselves out of Azkaban. Arthur tried to say there wasn't any proof it was them,
"Who else would it be?" Sirius asked, wishing to mock, but the tone wouldn't come as he would have been glad for an alternate answer.
but then relented it probably was. Ron perked up then, telling everyone what Malfoy had said to them about his Dad being out there. Harry then asked what was the point of doing that to those Muggles.
'Please stay that naive forever' Lily mentally sighed, brushing her baby's hair from his forehead for just a moment, as a reminder that scar wasn't there yet. While she never wanted it to, it was clear how much fiction that dream was since Harry hadn't even asked this now. He hadn't questioned this terrible act, even at his regrowing pace of learning he was already so much more aware of the crueler side of the world then Lily would ever wish her child to know.
Arthur looked sadly at Harry as he said the point had been for fun. What those Death Eaters had done tonight was their idea of entertainment. Ron then asked if those were You-Know-Who's supporters, why would they run at the sight of You-Know-Who's symbol? Shouldn't they have been happy? Bill told Ron to use his head,
"I thought it was a fair question," Harry said with a shrug, as he'd been wanting to ask it as well, but wondering if Ron would for him since he'd had a similar face to what Harry was feeling at the time.
explaining those Death Eaters were the ones who'd gone out of their way to denounce and say You-Know-Who had forced them to do all of that. They'd be as afraid as anyone if You-Know-Who came back, they'd have some retribution to pay.
Sirius gave a twisted little smirk that honestly scared the others, they didn't really want to know what his mind had jumped to, but it wasn't hard to picture either. One Death Eater in particular stuck out to all of them now, picturing that pathetic little rat and his hatred of being returned to his master. Those other loose Death Eaters would probably get much the same treatment if they ever found out any remnant of Voldemort existed. Not that they hoped this at all, the less people out helping Voldemort, willingly or not, the better.
Hermione then asked of the person who had shown the Dark Mark tonight, had they done it in support, or to scare off those Death Eaters?
"My guess is a combination of the two," Lily offered with a small frown, still hating to linger on this subject, but that was a good question. "They'd be showing off that they were winning, but warning it was time to go as well."
"I'm still trying to shake the feeling it wasn't left over a dead body," Remus shuddered, "and that individual wasn't doing some old time celebrating of his own."
"Thank you Sunshine," James groaned.
"That one was terrible," Sirius snorted in true amusement again. "I never understood why you tried to pitch an opposite of our nicknames that day."
"Thought it added an extra layer of mystery," James shrugged, managing to return the smile.
Arthur sighed her guess was as good as anyone's. Then he ushered they should all try to get some shuteye before they went out soon to grab a Portkey. Harry crawled back into his bed, but this time no Quidditch fantasies came to mind to help him relax. He instead let his mind spin back, to three days ago when his scar had awoken him with a burning pain. Now tonight, Voldemort's mark had appeared again. What did it all mean?
Lily's teeth started chattering as she huddled into herself, keeping her baby wrapped protectively in her arms and never wanting to let go. None of them had put those two things together until just now, but Harry was right, and they couldn't have felt worse about it.
'Nothing good' was the one thought that ran through all of their minds for his thought, and yet none of them could bear to say it in hopes they were wrong.
He thought of the letter he had written to Sirius, would he have gotten it yet?
For the first time since this had started, James felt no spike of jealousy in hearing Harry's first thought of help flit to Sirius. He'd happily take the idea Sirius was out there worrying about Harry like this.
James decided right then he wanted more than anything for Harry to work out with Dumbledore and the Weasleys that he'd in fact gotten a new dog and it would be with him at all times now! He'd take every minor annoyance in the world from his brother if he could have some more reassurances Harry would just be that little more safe.
Harry hoped he'd get a reply soon, and was left wondering on these things the rest of the night.
Harry gave one last deep sigh of discontent, already longing for that happy mood of the last chapter as he gave the book to Remus.
HPHPHPHPHP
*I recognized Harry should have questioned this long before now, it has been mentioned many times before, but even I forget sometimes Harry shouldn't have some knowledge that seems obvious. Can't go back and fix it now, just put all previous mentions of them not being questioned by Harry down to the fact that he worked it out himself considering the light they were being discussed in.
**No, really though, did anyone else besides me read this moment and think 'Horror movie alert' Harry is officially the dumb blonde of the series.
#Harry Potter#reading the books#fanfiction#GoF#marauders#james Potter#Remus lupin#Sirius black#lily Potter
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When Shawn Met Willow
We’ve worked on this beginning piece for a while now, and we are SO excited to introduce you to the family we’ve been dreaming up for months! Because we wanted to give you the whole picture in terms of how these two started, this one is extra long - we plan on writing shorter blurbs to continue this Family!Shawn theme, and will probably go back and elaborate on other parts of their life together… stay tuned, but for now: enjoy!
WORD COUNT: 6.1K
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“Large Americano, ready at the bar!”
The coffee shop was as busy as could be expected of a rainy Monday morning.
Willow hated the pushing and shoving that was absolutely unavoidable, as every person in the building waited for their drink. The artisan coffee house hadn’t caught onto the mobile ordering system, and she hated them for it.
She managed to make her way to the counter, but just as her hand reached for the paper cup, someone else beat her to it. Turning her head to face the person obstructing her saviour, she let out an “excuse me, sorry...” and withdrew, slightly in embarrassment.
“No, no, you’re good. It might be yours anyway… why aren’t they calling these out by name?” the man joked. She looked up, noticing the kind smile on his face (clearly not local, you’ve not known anyone to smile in this part of the city, especially not on Wall Street) and mustered a chuckle.
For a moment neither of them said anything, as if time froze - just a second - allowing their eyes to meet. As the barista impatiently called out the next drink, the man cleared his throat. His eyes wandered for a moment, then widened at something behind her - “fuck, it’s eight already? Uh - here, you can take this…” he said, ushering the cup toward her.
And with that, he was off.
Her eyes followed his rushing figure before rolling her eyes and taking the drink, nodding her thanks at the barista. Willow maneuvered her way out of the overly crowded place and took a long awaited drink, not yet ready to face another tedious day at her internship. As she lowered her cup, she noticed a scribble on the sleeve: “Sean,” next to a single “A” for Americano.
“Damn it,” she muttered with her shoulders slumping, wishing she had checked before he’d vanished into the crowd. For a tall guy, he blended in quickly.
Back upstairs in her little cubicle of hell, Willow was met with another day’s supply of merger and acquisition paperwork.
She let out an exasperated sigh.
“Dude, it’s not even nine yet. Lighten up!” Claudia pulled a pencil out of her hair, throwing it in Willow’s direction.
“Ow! Jesus, Claud.” she said, turning around to reach for the pencil. As she did, she glanced out the window and caught sight of a small crowd forming under the building.
“Huh. Do you know what that’s about?” Willow asked, motioning towards the group.
“If it’s not one of the Obamas, I’m not interested.” Typical Claudia, Willow thought and rolling her eyes at her colleague.
As the hour went by, the crowd continued to grow into a pretty substantial mob of mostly teenage girls. Maybe Harry Styles was in the building.
Willow refocused for a few hours, paying little attention to the happenings outside of her field of vision. At around noon, she got up to fetch her egg salad from the fridge when she noticed something - or rather, someone - downstairs with the mob. Was it that guy from this morning? He was leaning in every few seconds with each girl, taking… selfies? He definitely wasn't so lost in the crowd now.
-- one year later
A failed relationship with the top investment firm in New York City drove Willow as far away from the industry as she could go. Something about the harrowing reality of corporate America sent her running to the West Coast: she was not cut out to be a tycoon, no matter what her Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration & Economics said about her.
Sitting in her favourite coffee shop in Los Angeles, Willow intently studied her laptop with her camera sitting on one side of the table, and her freshly delivered Americano steaming on the other. The screen receiving her whole attention as she edits her photos from last nights Panic! At the Disco show at the Forum. She’d chosen a quieter area this time, wanting a little privacy and quiet as she worked, a change she’d needed from previous endeavors that hadn’t worked out the way she had planned.
“Panic! At the Disco? Is that from yesterday?” Willow turned around as someone clearly took notice of her work.
“Uh, yeah.”
“I was there!” Fuck. Why did he look so familiar?
“Amazing, wasn’t it?!” Willow tried not to stare, but tried to place him in her head. She swore she’d seen him before.
“Yeah, they always put on a good show! That’s an awesome picture! You work for the venue?” Leaning forward to observe her screen, in a slight awe.
“I do, I’m practically a part of the furniture at this point.” The man laughs, and with a small smile on his face comments “I know the feeling.”
“You work there too? I’m sure I’ve seen you somewhere.” Her curiosity getting the better of her.
The man leaned back again as his smile widened a little, humbled by her question. “Mhm, I guess you could say that,” he replied.
The flash from a camera nearby interrupted the moment; it was coming from outside of the shop, the glare intensifying through the window.
“Shawn, we gotta go!” a desperate voice called out, and her new acquaintance turned to respond.
Then it clicked.
Shawn.
“I remember now! New York City last year. I owe you an Americano!” Willow was reminded of that day, and the pieces of the puzzle starting to fall together.
Shawn looks surprised, that was the last response he was expecting, when his eyes flash with a newfound recognition.
“Oh! That was you? Wow, that’s, wow. I did not expect that at all.” Shaking his head and pointing to the screen, “what brings you to-” Another flash through the window and the imposing man calls Shawn’s name again.
“You better go before he drags you out of here, he looks like he’s seriously contemplating that option,” she suggested, hyper-aware now of the men with large cameras relentlessly snapping pics of… Shawn?
“Wait, can I get your Insta? I'd love to see other things you've posted. You're clearly talented at this, and I live for live shows!”
“Uumm, ok, yeah, but I don’t always follow back though… it’s @actuallywillow, pretty simple really!”
“Thank you! I gotta go, if you're working the show at the forum on Friday, I might see you there!” And with that, Shawn turns and makes his way out the door and out into the hoard of men with intruding cameras.
“Um, okay?” Willow spoke in the direction of where Shawn once stood, slowly turning back to her laptop and shaking her head. This was not how she had expected today to turn out.
Iwishiplayedbass started following actuallywillow
Iwishiplayedbass liked your post
Iwishiplayedbass liked your post
Iwishiplayedbass liked your post
Iwishiplayedbass liked your post
Iwishiplayedbass sent you a message
Hey! Its Shawn, you have some serious talent in photography! I hope I see you again soon!
Hi! Thank you. There seems to be a trend growing with us, so I’m sure I’ll see you again soon.
Actuallywillow started following iwishiplayedbass
Anticipation for the show had Willow in quite a state. She was usually a calm young woman, but she had really worked herself into a fit of nerves over this. What were the chances of her even seeing Shawn anyway? In an arena that holds 17,500 people, ha! She checked over her equipment one last time before entering the familiar building through the side.
Once inside, she was greeted by posters and cardboard cut-outs of Shawn Mendes everywhere, complete with a fanbase of mostly 13 to 18 year old girls.
Willow’s contract with the Forum was unlike her past experiences on Wall Street; they let her do pretty much whatever she wanted as long as she consistently got great content during events. Not a problem, since she was a natural behind the camera. She roamed around for a while before the opening acts took their place, silently observing the crowd.
Was she really this out of touch with pop culture? How had she so gravely misunderstood this guy’s stardom? Probably because he seemed so down to earth during both of their coffee shop interactions - hell, she was surprised that a man this famous still bought his own coffee himself!
A few quick Google searches confirmed that Willow was not a dinosaur - Shawn’s career seemed to have exploded overnight. These Google searches also absolutely confirmed her growing interest in this handsome young man; there was just something about his smile. And his eyes, those eyes look special.
The house lights dimmed and the hollow sound of an electric guitar filled the indoor venue, tearing through her mental haze. Shit, she had a job to do.
Camera held against her body with one hand and her Forum Employee ID in the other, she flashed the security guards as she weaved her way to the front. Pure joy and excitement was pulsing through the walls of the arena, and the audience nearly went insane when a tall, unmistakable shadow appeared behind a layer of fog. While her heart was undoubtedly racing at the sight of him, Willow quickly aimed her Nikon at him, determined to snap some good shots.
Aside from the fact that Shawn was a total heartthrob, the concert ran smoothly. She noted that he was a great performer, high energy and clearly loving every bit of it. As the show was winding down, she felt the temperature of her body spike up as he bounded down the metal stairs leading down to the level of the crowd.
Fuck. He was right there. And coming closer. Fuck. Get your camera! Don’t mess this up! C’mon Willow! GET IT TOGETHER!
He was feet away from her, so close that she could see the sweat glistening off his dark curls in a beautiful, messy, well-entertained heap. She took the opportunity to click away at her camera, capturing his interactions with fans in the front rows as he hugged, smiled, and thanked each person individually. Willow watched and realized he had the it factor. He had the power to make every girl feel special. The sincerity that radiated off him was like a sharp blow to the fantasies that she had subconsciously been entertaining all night - the ones where she magically ends up with this rockstar, too much like a fanfiction written online. While a little voice in her head wanted to believe he was flirting with her yesterday, asking about her photography… she realized that was just the nature of his personality. It had to be.
Suddenly numb from the thoughts, the pictures became easier to take; the fire that was building in her chest a few minutes ago had been put out. He was inches away when she lowered the camera from her face. Another great image for the books. Wait, is he talking to her?
Willow leaned in - the deafening noise of the cheering and instruments was drowning everything out, even her own thoughts.
“WHAT???”
“Can you send me that picture?”
She smiled and nodded: he recognized her. Did he know she was there this entire time?
Shawn smiled back at her, eyes alight with excitement before turning back to the deafening crown. Willow needed a moment to breathe, how had this even happened? How had she not even known? Someone brushed past her, bringing her back to reality. She would have time to analyze later, and bought her camera up before he got too far away. She knew she was just given the photograph of a lifetime, how many other venue photographers got that close to someone like that, someone who she hadn’t even recognised!
With the show coming to a rapid close, Willow planned for a quick escape. She wasn’t sure she would be able to face him again, not in her slightly overwhelmed state. She snapped some final shots, his final moments on stage with his hands in the air and beaming smile on his face, the perfect set up for the perfect shot.
The house lights come up and Willow feels like she can breathe again. The air is stuffy and the energy is still electric, alive with adrenaline mixed with raw emotion that you just can’t find anywhere else. She takes her time heading back to her area, praying he had done the usual ‘leg it to the bus before the band was finished so they could leave the arena without having to maneuver through thousands of people’ thing the majority of stars do following a show and safely make it back to her area. What she didn’t expect was to find a message on her phone from the rockstar himself.
Iwishiplayedbass sent you a message
Hey! I’m really glad i saw you! That sounds creepier than it is, i’m sorry. But, what are you doing now? I’d love to see those photos, and I’d really love to see you. Please say yes? We could have some In n Out???? And just get to know each other?
-- 2 years later
Willow could tell Shawn was nervous. She could tell in the way his palm was sweating in hers, and the way he continuously muttered under his breath. It was also in the way he deflect everytime she asked ‘what’s wrong’ and ‘are you ok?’ with a tight smile that doesn't reach his eyes smile and a “yeah, I’m just ready to be home” before lifting the hand that is holding yours to kiss the back of it and dropping it to swing back and forth between the two of you.
Leaving the airport in Toronto was a hassle, Willow still couldn’t wrap her head around particular fans obsessive need to see Shawn for the few moments between the arrivals gate and the black car ready to pick him up right out front. Shawn’s on edge attitude was not helping the situation at all. The two were maneuvered through to the car with the help of some airport security and Shawn ushers Willow in first before sliding in next to her and taking her hand again. Shawn seemed less tense now, the only sign was his leg bouncing occasionally as he was chatting about random things he loved about tour but how happy he was to have some time off with her.
Pulling up to their condo, Shawn gets out of the car and pauses, pulling out his phone and fires off a quick text before helping Willow out of the car. Making it to the condo was a feat within itself, and Willow kind of hates just how much Shawn takes on tour when it time to bring it all home. Its mid-afternoon when they finally haul it all into their condo and all Willow wants is some food, a nap and cuddles with her favourite man on the couch and absolutely zero contact with the outside world for at least 3 solid days.
“Shall we order something? I’m starving and craving a pizza!” Willow called out from the bedroom, having changed into her Harry Potter PJ’s, only to not receive a response from Shawn at all. She makes her way to the living room calling out for Shawn again, confused.
“Shawn? Shawn! Are you ok? Please tell me you have not fallen asleep on the couch, you know what that does to your neck-”
Willow stopped suddenly and gasped at the sight before her. Many candles and fairy lights softly illuminated the open living room and an easel propped up against in front of the window overlooking the Toronto skyline with a large canvas filled with many photographs and memories leaning delicately against it. Looking around, Shawn was nowhere to be found as she stepped closer to the easel. Upon closer inspection, she found the page filled with an array of pictures and lyrics Shawn had written about you scrawled across various parts of the page. Willow raised her hand to touch her favourite lyrics with a soft smile on her face, before turning to find the man behind all of this. As she turned, she’s met with the sight of Shawn on one knee with a nervous smile gracing his face and a ring box resting closed in his hands.
Willow stepped forward to stand in front of him, tears gathering in her eyes and she raises her hand to cover her mouth.
“Hi, honey" Shawn says and inhales deeply and lets out a deep breath, letting his shoulders relax a little before continuing.
"I uh, I've been thinking about doing this for a while, and I know we've talked about it a few times, but I couldn't wait anymore and I've had the ring for a while - I'm rambling, sorry-” Shawn cut himself off, closing his eyes and taking another deep breath.
“I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, I want everything with you, absolutely everything. Please, will you spend the rest of your life with me? Willow, will you marry me?"
And Willow, with a wide smile and teary eyes, reaches to take his head in her hands and smoothing her thumbs over his cheeks.
"Yes. Yes of course I will. I would love nothing more. Oh my lord Shawn." And she kneels to his level, and kisses him deeply, putting as much love and happiness she could possibly muster into it.
Shawn pulls back first and opened his eyes, looking at her in utter adoration, almost unable to fathom the fact she had said yes. His right hand finding her left one that was still resting on his cheek and turning his face slightly to kiss her palm, before pulling it away to place the ring he'd bought her months ago on her finger, where it would sit for as long as they both shall live.
-- 1 year later
The warm summer air swept between the concrete pillars that lined the breezeway. Any moment now, Shawn and Willow would emerge from either side of the outdoor hall for their ‘First Look’ and exchange a few moments with each other alone, before the day’s ceremony. The rented estate stood still on the cliff of a La Jolla suburb, away from the hustle and bustle of the main beaches.
Shawn was standing exactly halfway down the stairs that lead to the building, facing the cliffs and awaiting his bride-to-be, hands folding and unfolding as the reality of the day set in. Connor and Josiah were there with him, all set up and ready to go for the photo-op.
“How are you feeling, Shawn?” Connor asks and focuses the camera on Shawn.
Shawn takes a deep breath and smiles, looking up from his feet and his hands pausing their nervous motions. “I’m nervous, but so happy. I’m getting emotional already. I can’t wait to see her though, she’s going to look so beautiful and I know I’m gonna cry. It’s funny, I go away for months at a time, yet I can barely stand to be away from her for 24 hours. Makes it easier though, knowing what we were apart for. Makes it that much more exciting.”
The white double doors on the south end slowly opened, and Willow stepped out adorning a pure white gown. The floral-embroidered bodice canopied over her chest, its leaf detailing working up to her collar bones as if they were straps. She picked up the vintage dress a few months earlier, while vacationing in Italy - err, while visiting Shawn during his last Europe tour.
Willow timidly walked out to a set of stairs facing the eastern courtyard, where her husband-to-be awaited, his broad shoulders facing her. He was acutely aware of her existence; he could feel Willow’s energy in the gravity of the atmosphere at any given moment - maybe this was a good indicator that they were meant to be. The gentle graze of her small hands cupping his eyes from behind eased his nerves instantly. The second her hands were on him, Shawn let out a sigh, and he felt as if he could breathe again. He knew he was being completely irrational, but all the thoughts of ‘she’s gonna leave’ and ‘what if she changed her mind’ were replaced with feeling her, right there behind him.
This part they had talked about a lot. The pair were almost more excited for this intimate briefing than the actual wedding. They knew exactly how they wanted it to play out, knowing everything was in safe hands with Connor and Josiah around to capture every special moment. Willow wanted to keep Shawn in suspense for a short amount of time while she posed behind him. After a few moments, she gave him the cue by gently tapping his shoulders.
“Okay lovely, you can turn around now.”
His heart rate spiked as he felt the well-anticipated tap, a feeling halfway between anxiety and euphoria coming over him as he dipped his head to turn behind him, shifting his body to match. All the air in his lungs escaped as he laid his eyes on the woman he was convinced was a goddess.
“Oh honey…” he let out under his breath as he bought his hands to his face after gazing lovingly at her, rubbing his eyes as if to make sure he was seeing correctly and to wipe the already welling tears in his eyes before he reached for Willow’s hands, carefully pulling her closer. “You are so beautiful” he finished, as if that wasn’t obvious enough already. He never wanted to look away from her; he was convinced that there was nothing else in the galaxy that he would rather look at. Ever. This was it. He wanted to continue standing there for all of eternity, taking in the sight of his bride - the most striking person on the planet. He took a few moments to study the soft curls tucked behind her ear, the beaming smile he fell in love with lighting her whole face up. Shawn closed the small gap between them and wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, pulling her into a hug, and kissing her square on the lips.
“Shawn! You can’t kiss me yet!” Willow exclaims with a laugh, indicating she wasn’t really mad at him.
“I can’t help it! You just look so gorgeous,” he defended himself, not ashamed in the slightest. He carefully steps back, wanting to take all of her in.
The delicate bouquet rested in Willow’s hands, small with pretty pink and white flowers and vibrant green leaves tied with a white ribbon and finished with a neat bow. A matching boutonniere adorned Shawn’s suit jacket, right above his heart.
“Shawn, you look…” and Willow paused, contemplating for a moment as she took all of him and raised her hand to his cheek “... perfect.” She sucked in a small breath before letting go into a lighthearted chuckle. “Hubba-hubba, handsome. How did I get so lucky?”
She let go of his face for a moment to dramatically fan herself with her free hand, not once breaking eye contact. “Seriously, you are a freaking stud. I’m so nervous Shawn, can you tell? Phew. I’m freaking smitten with you though.” She laughed, feeling her body tingle with buzz as she internalized the moment. Her candor and humor in the most serious of moments reminded him why he wanted her to be his partner for life. For better or for worse, they would get through it together in high spirits.
Willow was absolutely correct: what a stud he was. Dressed in a sleek black suit that fitted him just right, a nicely pressed white shirt, black vest, a pale pink bowtie and finished off with a silver handkerchief tucked neatly into his top pocket. His hair was longer, curlier than ever having soaked up plenty of vitamin D from the summer sun. Willow fought the childish urge to run her hands through it. His cheeks were shaded pink, a lovely contrast to the sleek black and white look he had going on and his eyes were wide and bright, looking directly at her, not wanting to miss a single moment.
“Do you love it?” Willow asked, gesturing to her dress.
“I love it, I love it, I love it. You look so beautiful, you’re gorgeous. I’m so glad you said yes, I’m so glad I met you. You mean the world to me. And I never want you to take this dress off. It highlights everything I love about you.” Shawn nearly choked, his throat closing up and tears pooling in his eyes and he pulled Willow to him again, head nuzzled into her neck, placing light kisses and whispering softly to each other as Willow’s arms make their way over his shoulders, sharing a moment of solitude as the overwhelming feeling of love washed over them. Neither of them could truly believe this was happening.
“This is our wedding day! We’re getting married!”
“I’m so excited!”
“So am I!” Willow giggled, her hands running up and down his arms, completely unable to resist touching him.
“Do you wanna go get married?” Willow asked her husband-to-be.
“Yeah, let’s marry the heck out of each other.”
-- 1 year later
There’s something special about Saturday morning. Nothing exquisite, nothing especially extraordinary - yet every Saturday morning with Shawn and Willow was still special. Late breakfast, usually involving the two of them in the kitchen fixing up a new dish they scrolled past on a nutritional instagram account during the week. Granted, their attempts usually took three times the amount of time as suggested by the minute long clips, and never turned out quite as colorful or delicious. Nevertheless, the routine was comfortable; Saturday mornings felt like the embodiment of home.
This particular Saturday morning in early spring was special-special… Willow had left out a stack of insurance pamphlets that she had been looking into. The pair had gone over this sort of thing before, earthquake and flood insurance for their abode in California, top-tier health and dental insurance overall.
“Honey, what is this about? Life insurance? I know I’m not like, the greatest… adult ever, but aren’t we a little young to be thinking about this? I mean really, who is going to benefit from life insurance if we die in some freak accident? Buddy?” Shawn questioned, motioning toward the cocker spaniel sitting on the floor under him.
“Well, our family is growing, Shawn. We’ve gotta be prepared! Plus, why not do it now? Saves us doing it in the future, don’t you think?” Willow throws out casually, knowing exactly what she implied. She looks up at him from her position across from him at the kitchen island to see him sitting rigid and staring straight at her, mouth slightly agape, mid-bite of his cereal. He looked comical, and Willow couldn’t help but laugh.
“Are you, are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“What do you think I’m saying, Shawn?”
“That- that you’re…” Shawn pauses, and Willow raises her eyebrow and smiles, examining his face “...pregnant?” Shawn mumbles the word, his mind still not fully comprehending the concept.
Willow nods her head and brings one shaking hand up to her mouth, and the other squeezed her abdomen a little. She’d know for a little over a week now and had this moment planned. Now she was here, finally telling him and watching his reaction. It was real now. So, so real.
Shawn moved suddenly, dropping his spoon on the marble. He raced over to her, picking her up and swinging her around, tears falling from his eyes, his face twisted up in happiness.
“I CAN’T BELIEVE IT, ARE YOU SERIOUS? Honey are you serious? We’re having a baby?”
“Well, I’m having a baby, but yeah, you’re gonna be a daddy.”
The looks of pure joy were all over their faces, Shawn still holding her at his eye level and Willows hands found his cheeks, her thumbs moving to wipe the tears away. The overwhelming emotions shared between them needed no more words, their eyes saying more than could possibly be said out loud. Shawn slowly moved to the couch in the conjoining living room and gently placed her down, using more caution than ever before. He knelt in front of her, moving his hands to her belly and resting his head against her thighs, shoulders shaking as he let out a few more tears as Willow’s hands find his hair, softly massaging his scalp and laughing. A beautiful moment between the parents-to-be.
-- 8 months later
‘Baaaaby! Come stretch me out!” Willow was laying on the floor of the new nursery, her belly so big she couldn’t see her feet. Shawn appeared in the doorway a few minutes later, walking over to pick her swollen feet up like clockwork. Especially in the last 10 weeks or so, Shawn’s main role in Willow’s life was as none other than her resident massage therapist and yoga partner - she was already amassing a list of pregnancy superstitions and quirks to ensure that her pregnancy would be as easy as possible. Shawn tried to point out that most of the things on her list were not rooted in any kind of science, but he knew not to do that again. He learned that it was best to just go with it.
With both her legs now in the air, as high as her body would allow her to go, Shawn stood in between them, pulling and pushing them in different directions. Willow was sure that flexibility was the key to a flawless natural birth. She tried to convince her husband to entertain the idea of a home birth, complete with a doula and everything… but Shawn was visibly uncomfortable with the idea. She wanted to be able to say she’d done it the old-fashioned way, but this was her first go around. She finally agreed that an epidural would probably be nice.
Suddenly, Willow could see a crinkle appear between Shawn’s eyebrows, as if he was squinting at something. Panic came over her as he continued to knead at the bottom of her feet, still in the air. “Wait, what is it? What’s the matter?” She questioned.
His intention was not to cause her any undue anxiety, but Shawn had noticed a growing darker spot in Willow’s lavender maternity leggings. It looked… damp. Did her water break? But… if that was the case, surely she would’ve noticed by now, right?
“Um… I’m sure it’s nothing. Are you feeling… different at all, love?” Then it hit. The first contraction.
Just as he asked the question, Willow rolled her head up and back into the carpeting, squeezing her eyes as tightly as she could. “Oh my god. I think that was a contraction!” she squealed, enduring what almost felt like a reverse-period cramp for a few seconds.
As she steadied her breathing, Shawn’s eyes widened and he set Willow’s legs down. “ACTIVE LABOR. CONTRACTIONS MEAN WE’RE IN ACTIVE LABOR!” He had studied four books on the whole birthing situation alone, and Willow couldn’t help but giggle to herself as she was sure that his last sentence came directly from the text. Shawn was so calculating, so methodical about the whole thing.
“Okay, not to alarm you or anything sweetie, but I think your water just broke - STAY THERE. I’m going to call the hospital and get your overnight bag. DON’T GO ANYWHERE, PLEASE.” He was rambling on at 100 words a minute, scrambling to find hospital records, the checklists he had prepared for this moment, and his phone. Willow laid out on the floor, surprisingly calm. Did he just tell me not to go anywhere? Where the hell would I even go? How the hell am I supposed to even get up and off the floor by myself? Willow rolled her eyes, deciding to move when Shawn was ready to leave. She had a feeling it would be a long day.
The drive to the hospital was short, Shawn having mapped out the shortest and most effective route months ago. At the time, Willow had thought it was slightly overdoing it, but she was suddenly very appreciative that he’d put the effort into it. Willow was hunched over her belly, rubbing circles with her hands in an attempt to soothe the pain. Shawn had both hands on the wheel, focusing on getting there as safely as possible while instructing her to breathe.
“Breathe, honey, we’re nearly there, I promise we’re nearly there.”
“Shawn, please, I am breathing, I need you to breathe, ok? Breathe.”
“Ok ok. Honey?”
“Yes, Shawn?”
“I’m kinda freaking out.” Shawn mumbles, brain going crazy over the fact that their little baby would be here soon.
“I know, I can tell. I am too. UGH-” Willow exclaims, hunching over again.
“We’re here, we’re here, we made it, its ok honey.” Shawn pulls into the hospital car park, pulling into the closest available spot.
Shawn legs it to the passenger side, unbuckling her seatbelt and helping her stand, one arm around her middle, the other shutting the door and grabbing her hand, cautiously guiding her forward.
Willow rests sleepily on the hospital bed, sweaty and exhausted after 10 long hours of labour the first Mendes child had arrived. The new parents had been given a brief chance to see their newborn, Willow holding their lil bug for just a minute, before the nurses insist they clean the newborn up.
Willow looks tiredly up at Shawn, who had held her hand and talked to her the entire time, letting out a quiet “We have a baby.”
“We do. We have a baby. Oh, you were so amazing, I swear, you just, you had a baby. I love you, I’m so proud of you. You only nearly broke my hand like, 7 times!” Shawn giggles lightly, and leans down to kiss her nose, then her lips, resting there and squeezing her hand.
“Oh, could you ever forgive me?” Willow asks dramatically with a grin, when her expression becomes wistful. “... so small, I miss my bug already.”
“I know honey, they’ll be back in a minute. I love you.”
“I love you too Shawn. We’ll have to call our parents soon. Surprise them with the news their first grandchild is finally here.”
“My mum is gonna yell at me for not calling sooner.” A mischievous smile crosses his face at the thought, so grateful they hadn’t been spotted entering the hospital, allowing for a complete surprise on their behalf.
“They’re all going to be so mad, but we’ll show them a picture and they’ll forget all about it. They’ll be so distracted and excited that we’ll be the last thing on their minds!”
At that moment, the nurse walked back into the room holding their little bundle.
“Here you go, all clean and healthy. Who wants the first hold?” the nurse spoke, looking expectantly between the pair. Shawn and Willow shared a look, before Willow gestured to Shawn.
“You’re up first, daddy.”
Shawns eyes glass over, squeezing Willows hand once more quietly asking “are you sure?”
“Yeah handsome, go”
And with that, Shawn stepped forward to take their baby in his arms. The nurse carefully guiding him, positioning the baby into his arms, and letting their bug nestle into his arms. Shawn stared, absolutely enchanted and unable to look anywhere else. He needed to sit down. Beginning to walk slowly to the bedside chair, Willow softly stopped him, and gestured to the gap on the bed beside her. Taking a seat beside her as delicately as possible to not disturb the resting baby.
“So pure, we made that. I can't believe we made this… life." Shawn was smitten already, he knew he'd do literally anything for his baby. Their baby.
"I- I know. We were talking about how big my belly was, but look how small bubs is. I'm in love all over again." Willow was just as enamored as Shawn, resting her head on his shoulder, giving her a perfect view. "I'm so happy. I love you."
Shawn kissed her forehead, murmuring "I love you too, you're so strong. Do you, do you wanna hold?"
Willow hummed in response, shuffling slightly so she could lie back comfortably before carefully taking the bubs in her arms, resting her on her chest, then, with Shawn's help, slowly lowering to the bed. Willow had one hand resting on the bubs' back, her other holding the small hand, gently soothing her thumb backwards and forwards across the soft skin as Shawn's hand comes up to cup his baby girls face.
"Welcome to the world, Harlow Mendes."
#Shawn Mendes#Shawn Mendes Blurb#Shawn Mendes Fanfiction#Shawn Mendes Dad#Shawn Mendes Fluff#Shawn Mendes Soft#Shawn Mendes Fic#Shawn Mendes FanFic#Shawn Mendes Imagine#Shawn Mendes OneShot#Dad!Shawn#Family!Shawn#Husband!Shawn
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That’s right! It’s been far too long, and I need to do another discussion of, what remains to this day, my #1 anime: Fate/Zero. Oh darling, how I’ve missed talking about you.
First off, I’m probably one of the few people on the planet who, for the most part, doesn’t take too much issue with the concept of prequels. I get why such stories are flawed and inherently so. Going into that kind of detail on something that was only mentioned in passing as a previous event in an original work can be detrimental to that work, punching in plot holes and whatnot. Plus, it takes away the mystery that some find more appealing about the “story before”: giving a detailed account of that takes away that mystery.
Speaking for me personally though, I kinda like it. I mean, I’m the kind of person who squees on the inside at stuff like Thranduil at the end of the third Hobbit film telling his son Legolas that he might want to look into finding a Dunedain ranger named “Strider”, a.k.a. Aragorn, son of Arathorn, a.k.a. the once and future king of Lord of the Rings, timeline consistency be damned! I love Easter Eggs in all their forms.
Which means perhaps I’m biased on this opinion, and to a degree, I am. But, I still think objectively as well as subjectively that Fate/Zero really does work well as a prequel.
Why?
A few reasons, but:
The short answer? It’s a tragedy.
In both the classical and the emotional gut-punching sense.
In the classical sense, we’re talking about actions that have consequences that are inevitable. In the emotional gut-punching sense, it’s that those consequences utterly destroy our heroes and heroines in their feels.
Anyone who’s experienced the original Fate/Stay Night, either in anime or visual novel form, or both, already knows that the consequences to many of the actions taken by the characters in Zero are inevitable. At the same time, for anyone who’s watching it before watching any of the other Fate material as a stepping off point for the franchise, it still works as a strong story of characters who sabotage their own goals through their own flaws, made tragic by how earnest they are in endeavoring to overcome them. Not to mention the sheer number of feels and brutal deaths and OMG this anime. (They didn’t give its original light novel writer, Gen Urobuchi, the sobriquet of “Urobutcher” for nothing.)
Sure, in the end, some plot threads are left frayed and fluttering in the breeze because the main Stay Night plot points are all set up here at Zero‘s conclusion (though that does produce the disadvantage of no longer making the story twists in Stay Night…well…twists). Despite that though, there is still a completeness to the ending.
Somehow the loose ends are written so they don’t feel loose. Sure we find out in the Heaven’s Feel route of Stay Night that Illya is Kiritsugu’s precious daughter that he was unable to save. Sure, in the Unlimited Blade Works route, Kirei gets his just-desserts for that little infraction of killing Rin’s father, Tokiomi Tohsaka. Sure, in the Fate route, the revelations that Saber was a gender-bent King Arthur and was Kiritsugu’s servant in the previous Grail War come to light.
And knowing those things, or lack thereof, can affect how you watch Zero. Knowing them can fill you with excitement when you see these addressed in the prequel (at least for me, since again, this is something I actually like about prequels). Not knowing them gives them their own fresh and engaging life in the flow of the narrative.
When watching Zero, we last see Illya waiting hopefully in the snowy Einzberns’ castle for her beloved father Kiritsugu to come back to her, only to learn that because he’d tried to destroy the Grail (because it’s corrupted), the Einzberns considered him a traitor and shut him out, preventing him from seeing her ever again.
We last see Rin at her father’s funeral. Kirei (who presided over that funeral no less) gives her the ceremonial dagger that her father himself had gifted to him for being his pupil in magic, only to immediately use it to literally stab him in the back. It’s only upon receiving the knife and learning that it was her father’s, that Rin finally allows herself to cry, Kirei secretly relishing her tears and the knowledge that he just gave her the weapon he’d used to murder her father as a present, and she’s none the wiser.
We see Sakura resigned to her fate as a future vessel for the Grail while carrying the weight of the Matou Family crestworms inside slowly killing her, despite her “uncle” Kariya Matou’s efforts to save her by winning the Grail for his wicked father. Efforts that were, for lack of better term, “ill-fated“.
We see Saber summoned at the conclusion of the first episode, with Kiritsugu believing that King Arthur was well a King, only to learn right off the bat that she was a woman in disguise the whole time (and that becomes a thing).
Regardless of knowing these things prior, the writing itself gives the scenes that are meant to allude to these later plot points a gravitas of their own worthy of praise. I am in a bit of a weird position where I started watching Fate/Stay Night (2006), which followed the first story route, the Fate route, with Saber (Arturia) as the heroine. Then I dropped it about a quarter of the way and bypassed straight to Zero. I was just too excited to wade through the lackluster production values of F/SN ’06. So I both knew and did not know things going into Zero. I had the opportunity to see certain things with a well-crafted setup in Zero, and still be engaged by both them and by things that were new to me in the sense that I wasn’t aware of their relevance not only to the Fate route, but to Unlimited Bladeworks, and Heaven’s Feel routes respectively.
Though I knew that it was going to come up that Kiritsugu was Saber Arturia’s Master in the Fourth War, I was still jarred by how frigid their relationship was pretty much from the word go. And it was interesting seeing someone as openly passionate about justice as Saber was getting stonewalled by someone like Kiritsugu, seeing as how his own passion for justice turned out to have been just as great. It’s just that he’s already let “reality” turn all that into a cold, calculating fire that’s compelling to watch burn so slowly, that struggle between that BBC Sherlockian sense of “Will caring about them [people] help save them?” and caring too much being the whole reason for what he does. That idea of wanting to bring the world salvation through an end to conflict, weighed movingly against how much he cares for his own family. It’s something that craftedly underpins his whole character. And anything like that will never be boring for me.
Rin meanwhile, even at a tender age, shows great potential as a mage, having started her education in magecraft in Zero. There’s an entire episode in there dedicated to how far she’s come and how far she still has to go. And it’s still exciting for those who already know that she’s going to be the capable Master of Archer in the Fifth Holy Grail War of Stay Night because of how well those parts showing such are executed in Zero, as equally exciting as it is to see it as someone going in blind.
Kariya Matou is motivated by the purest of things, love, to save Sakura Matou (formerly Tohsaka as Rin’s little sister) after she’s adopted into the Matou family simply to be used and abused in the worst ways. But for all that, it isn’t enough for him to succeed and failure is one of the most brutal things to watch.
Just about one of the most precious things I’ve seen in anything, never mind anime, is the scene of the walnut-finding game Kiritsugu and his daughter Illya would often play, because we see them play it one last time before Kiritsugu leaves for the Grail War at the beginning of the show. Even without being aware that this is the last time that they will ever see each other again, the hug goodbye that Kiritsugu gives Illya is still bittersweet because of how Kiritsugu’s character has been set up as this sober and reserved man carrying the heavy burden of his wife’s inevitable death, the cost for his wish to save the world, beautifully and poignantly juxtaposed against him acting playful, happy even, with their only child. (That, and well, there’s me who’s outed herself as a sucker for daddy-daughter relationships in fiction.)
Being a tragedy then, not only are all of the characters’ fates inevitable, and consequences of their own flaws, but they all end up spiraling apart into ultimate despair, with just the tiniest ray of hope at the end (which is the tease for Stay Night‘s continuation of the story, all three story routes accounted for). So what we’re left with is characters who either died broken, or survived broken, and for those who survived broken, we see that despite that, they find some reason to go on living (even if not for very much longer, and or even if not for the best of reasons). Just the same, it’s inspiring. Very Bluthian, actually. Despite all the trauma, it’s given worth of its own in that very last scene with Kiritsugu and his adopted son, Shirou, the protagonist of Stay Night, promising that things can be turned around for the better. That always gets me. From the very first time I watched it, I knew I had watched something incredible. An unduplicatable experience in the vein of finishing Harry Potter or Avatar: the Last Airbender.
It’s also something of a reset button where the anime adaptations of the Fate franchise are concerned. Somewhat ironically, the anime was produced so that the later adaptation of the Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven’s Feel story routes from the visual novel would work as sequels. Sequels to the prequel, as it were.
Then there’s the bottom line. It’s just a damn good show. Beautiful animation, beautiful music, beautiful character writing. Of all of the adaptations, it’s the one that works best as a standalone as probably Fate fans are ever going to get, given the nature of the source material. And with it being so good, it also has considerable rewatch value, which means that those “twists” that get “spoiled” are worth watching in the same regard that anything that has a known twist going in it is still worth watching.
And that…is why Fate/Zero actually works as a prequel.
Keeping this link up!
Why Fate/Zero Works As A Prequel That's right! It's been far too long, and I need to do another discussion of, what remains to this day, my #1…
#anime#avatar#bbc sherlock#don bluth#easter eggs#fate series#fate stay night#fate zero#gen urobuchi#harry potter#harry potter films#heaven&039;s feel#light novel#lord of the rings#prequels#sherlockian#sobriquet#the hobbit#the last airbender#tragedy#type-moon#unlimited bladeworks#urobutcher
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BnHA Chapter 115: Hard-Boiled Villain Antics
Previously on BnHA: The provisional license exam concluded. Everyone from class 1-A passed except Todoroki and Bakugou. The exam committee announced there would be a special training course for the ones who failed, and they would then receive their licenses as well. They want all the students who made it to phase two of the exam to ultimately succeed because with All Might gone, the world needs as many quality heroes as it can get. The U.A. kids said their farewells to the other schools and prepared to board the bus home. Deku inquired about the weird girl from Shiketsu Academy and was told she had already left, and that furthermore she’d been acting strange for the last few days. We then learned that the girl, Camie, had actually been Toga in disguise, and that she has a shapeshifting quirk which allows her to take on others’ appearances once she drinks their blood. Oh, and. Now she has Deku’s.
Today on BnHA: We take a break from our intrepid hero hatchlings to check in with Twice from the League of Villains. He stares broodingly out the window like a noir character, listens to the news talk shit about Endeavor, watches a group of Tarantino tribute villains rob a store, and gets a phone call from the villain broker Giran. We learn that the League has temporarily split up and are recruiting to expand their organization. We also learn that Twice has more than a few screws loose, the reason being that when he was younger he used his duplication quirk to clone himself, only to have the clones all murder each other one by one until he was the last one standing. If that isn’t fucked up enough for you, perhaps I can interest you in the new villain introduced in this chapter, who goes by “Overhaul” and has a penchant for dismembering peeps. Or perhaps you’re more a fan of the classic villain, in which case the chapter ends with All Might meeting up with our old friend All for One, so, you know. Enjoy that.
(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 151 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)
who the fuck is this
he’s staring darkly out of his window and hating all the people he sees walking past
but also there’s a black speech bubble thinking the exact opposite. “I think it’s fantastic”
is this that Twice guy, maybe
I was wondering what you were up to, yes. good catch there
“THIS MAN STARTS HIS MORNINGS A LITTLE MORE HARD-BOILED THAN MOST.” yes, the really hardcore way to start your day is to hate people from windows
holy shit this ominous fucking chapter! right from the get go!
“unleashed.” and the text underneath: “a world where All Might is not coming”
I’m thinking it’s safe to say the villains are winding down from their little break
I’m so curious how Tomura is doing. prediction: still crazy
the narration is saying that the news networks and Internet are constantly buzzing with “idle chatter fanning the flames of anxiety”
jesus christ this is so similar to the real-world climate in the last few years. anxiety and fear-mongering
oh shit the newspeople are talking about Endeavor
depends on whether you’re the type who can accept assholes who beat their wife and kid
(I personally am not)
they’re being really polite about it, but they’re saying that you can’t help but contrast him against All Might
he’s “coarse”
“he just looks like an ordinary person pretending to be a superhuman” I’ll take it a step further; he looks like an asshole not even trying particularly hard to pretend he’s a nice guy. and yeah, he’s strong, but not even in the same realm that All Might was
oh my god it’s a list of top “Moogle” searches for Endeavor. this is the most 2010s shit I’ve ever seen in a manga omggggg
yeahhhh, public opinion is just not on this guy’s side. and good riddance
basically he’s become “the symbol of weakening heroes.” exactly. I feel like all these people must just be like, “is this really the best we can do now omg”
is Endeavor Donald fucking Trump
this is one of the best chapter openers I can recall reading in a long time. there’s something fascinating about watching a well-established fictional world get shaken up and seeing how the people of that world respond. it’s reminding me a little of the post-Goblet of Fire Harry Potter universe. and why do I have a feeling that by the time this series ends, we’ll have progressed all the way to Deathly Hallows in terms of grittiness
the narration is continuing and saying that just as All Might brought hope to everyday citizens, his presence was a curse to villains
and now that curse has been lifted, so “it’s no surprise at all that it’d turn out this way”
and it’s showing some guy robbing an ATM or something. not sure what he’s carrying, but anyways he’s busting through a wall looking happy and deranged
now a pro hero is showing up to stop him
but another villain is cracking the back of the hero’s head with a huge metal pipe
and two more villains are waiting over by their getaway truck
nice Tarantino reference there. bold and unsubtle and in-your-face
and the narration is talking about how villains are feeling more emboldened and more free to run around without fear of consequence. and that the more daring they get, the more villains they inspire in turn, and it goes on and on. “running a red light isn’t scary if everyone does it with you”
we’re seeing the exact same thing happen irl nowadays with racists and nazis and the alt-right and such, aren’t we. my escapist manga is really starting to hit close to home here
now Twice is getting a call from someone
isn’t this the guy who introduced Toga and Dabi to Tomura
damn, manga, you’re really going to make me go all the way back to like chapter sixty-something to check this. fine
yep, it is. chapter 68
he says that in the past two weeks there’s been a surge of black market requests for things like suits and related items
he says it’s all thanks to the League of Villains
really it’s thanks to one specific villain that did all the work and is now imprisoned though. just saying. though no doubt he won’t mind Tomura getting the credit
anyway so Twice is asking why the broker guy called him
probably cuz Toga got Deku’s blood, so now the gang is getting back together to hatch some more schemes
yep
so Twice is like yeah of course I heard, and the broker dude is like okay catch you later then
gotta say, I was already fond of Twice just as a funny and eccentric (you have no idea how much my brain struggled to find an adjective to use in place of “quirky” there, but needless to say I wouldn’t have been able to keep a straight face otherwise) character. but it’s pretty damn fascinating to witness his psyche on display now as well
apparently the League has been separated and scattered for a little while, both to lie low and to scout for more people to join the group
and now we’re cutting to Dabi and he’s just roasting some poor dudes alive
damn son
oh shit what’s happening to Twice
this guy is soooo weird
he says his quirk is “doubling.” “I make one into two”
okay. I don’t get it at all, but
-- WHOA
IS THIS THE FUCKING PRESTIGE OR WHAT. AND WASN’T THIS ALSO A PLOTLINE IN FUCKING CALVIN AND HOBBES
he says each of the clones claimed to be the real one (by “real” I assume “original”) and they started arguing and eventually they all killed each other
and he’s not sure even now whether he’s actually the “real” him
holy shit I would read an entire book about this guy. I want David Fincher to direct a movie about him
it seems like he’s not even really that evil, it’s just that he’s so crazy that the league was the only place he could find that would accept him. “what I was searching for were others who are just as crazy as I am”
I would read a spinoff manga about Twice and his existential nightmare of an existence, trufax. this is so compelling I almost forgot about the fact that we’re thirteen pages into this chapter and so far it’s been all villains and no U.A. kids
-- what the fuck
IS THAT THE GUY FROM EARLIER?? WHO ROBBED THE ATM???
(answer: yes, I just went back and looked)
WHY IS HIS FUCKING HEAD HERE?? IS THIS HIS QUIRK OR SOMETHING MORE HORRIFYING THAN THAT
farewell Reservoir Dogs. you had a brief and uneventful run culminating in THE MOST HORRIFYINGLY GRUESOME SCENE I’VE EVER SEEN SHOUNEN JUMP ALLOW IN THEIR FUCKING MAGAZINE. NOT ONLY WAS IT INDEED HIS FUCKING HEAD, I COUNT LIKE SEVEN OF HIS AND HIS FRIENDS’ OTHER BODY PARTS MORBIDLY STREWN ABOUT AND ROASTING ON THIS OPEN FUCKING FLAME. dude what the fuck
oh boy here we go
now his buddy in a raincoat -- and they all have the same plague doctor masks on btw -- is saying he took the money and let’s get out of here
he’s calling the “YOU GUYS HAVE AN ILLNESS” dude “Overhaul.” okay I’ll admit that’s a pretty badass villain name
and Twice is watching them all like, “oh. more maniacs”
so I’m guessing he’s going to recruit these guys lol
the narration says that both the heroes and villains’ sides have begun to undergo changes in appearance. well, we’ve seen a lot of the heroes’ side of things so far so I guess it’s nice to take a break from that and see what the villains have been up to
is this the prison??
OH SHIT!!!!!
WHAT IS HE DOING COMING OVER THERE TO TALK TO HIM OH MY GOD
“THE DISCUSSION WITH THE BIG BOSS IS ABOUT TO BEGIN” [FRANTICALLY CLICKS TO THE NEXT CHAPTER!!!]
-- except no, damn it, because I gotta check out the bonus page first :/
bonus
...actually the bonus page is just Horikoshi being excited that there are now two spinoff series. apparently he’s a fan of Illegals. I do want to check that out (especially since he just said Eraserhead has a cameo in it omgggg), but like hell if you think I’m clicking away from this main story just yet. I still have 85 chapters to go and it’s not like things are exactly getting boring omg
#bnha#boku no hero academia#bubaigawara jin#twice (bnha)#dabi#chisaki kai#overhaul (bnha)#all for one#makeste reads bnha#merry christmas everyone#please enjoy this surprisingly violent and disturbing chapter and its dystopian ambiance#I found it surprisingly enjoyable myself#mostly because I love twice so fucking much#I know he's a fucking villain but dammit I can't help rooting for him#he's just so great
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Notes on Shane Archer Reed
Shane Archer Reed is from Oneida, NY. I first heard of him when going to see Bluprint in Syracuse. Shane has unique vocals that you don’t hear a lot in todays world of music, and it’s refreshing. It’s almost like watching a rock musical, and it’s thoroughly enjoyable.
Upon meeting Shane in Syracuse at The Lost Horizon, I immediately knew I wanted to do a feature on here and share his music with all of you. Shane took some time to answer some questions. So, take a few to get to know a bit more about him, his music, and his other talents.
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NON: Who are all the members of the band? What drew you all together, and when did you all start playing together?
SAR: The band's line up has changed over the 3 years we've been active. Currently i have Jordan Kobo on bass/backing vocals and Brandon Caporale on drums. Jordan will move to guitar and Chase Cowen will join in on bass after the tour is over. (The guitarist we had for the tour was my friend Molly who filled in to help us out). We're even considering adding a 3rd guitarist. This particular lineup came together not long before the tour, but we became very tight very quickly and I love these guys and enjoy performing with them so much.
NON: Can you describe your style a bit?
SAR: The best way I can think of to describe it is Theatrical Alternative Rock. Most of my influences come from my love of rock music from the mid 70′s onward and my background in musical theatre.
NON: You act as well, right? What has been your favorite performance?
SAR: It’s a toss up between 3. My first time as a leading man was when i played the title role in "Jekyll and Hyde" in 2017 and it was a life-changing experience. A year ago I played my dream role being Roger Davis in "Rent" which of course was a dream,come true, and a few months ago I played Eddie Birdlace in a production of "Dogfight", a show I hadn't heard of but ended up loving because of how wonderful everyone in that production was.
NON: Who are some of your influences?
SAR: My influences are all over the place. For starters I have a background in musical theatre so I love performers like Jeremy Jordan, Adam Pascal, and Ramin Karimloo as well as composers like Jason Robert Brown, Stephen Sondheim, and Jonathan Larson. As a songwriter I loved bands and artists that push their limits while still being able to tell a good story in their music. Favorite bands include Queen, Alter Bridge, Panic at the Disco, and My Chemical Romance. Solo artists include Jeff Buckley, Billy Joel, David Bowie, and Paul McCartney.
NON: What is your dream venue?
SAR: I honestly just wanna tour and play as many venues as possible, both with music and theatre. Its a bit lofty and across the country, but one day it would be cool to play the Royal Albert Hall
NON: What has been your favorite venue to date?
SAR: My 2 favorite venues I've played so far are Exit/In in Nashville TN, and most recently at The Lost Horizon in. Syracuse NY.
NON: You released your full length album in July of this year, and had your CD release party on August 21st. Could you describe your writing process a bit? And how do you feel it's been received so far?
SAR: I’d say its been pretty well received so far, a lot more so than my first full length album from 2016. The summer tour was the first time a lot of these songs were played live so its been nice to hear positive reactions from those listening.
NON: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
SAR: I see myself continuing to tour but on a more professional level. I hope to make a living being a singer so I hope to make more records and tour with my band in support of them, hopefully in larger venues in front of more people. I’d also love to have a lead role in a national touring musical, maybe even get a chance to play dream roles like Jean Valjean in "Les Miserables" or Roger in "Rent" again. Singing is the thing I love to do most, and to make a career out of it is the endgame for me.
SHOUT OUTS
SAR: There are far too many people to name that I wanna thank for all the love and support they have given me throughout the years I've been doing this. First, to anyone who is, or ever was a part of my band, I thank for helping me bring these songs to life and for being my dearest friends. Second, to those others I have performed alongside in their projects, like John Harris and Jordan Kobo, thank you for supporting me in my endeavors the same way i do for yours. Finally, to my friends, family, and loved ones who continually support my choice to pursue a singing career and put up with me through the ups and downs of it all, I cannot thank you enough for being there for me even in my darkest times. I love you all so much and will never be able to repay you.
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Back to the Future with Bill Cosby and Ta-Nehisi Coates
Coates, from 2009...
“...[T]he shift in focus from white racism to black culture is not as new as some social commentators make it out to be. Standing in St. Paul Church on that July evening listening to Cosby, I remembered the last time The Street felt like this: in the summer of 1994, after Louis Farrakhan announced the Million Man March. Farrakhan barnstormed the country holding “men only” meetings (but much larger). I saw him in my native Baltimore, while home from Howard University on vacation. The march itself was cathartic. I walked with four or five other black men, and all along the way black women stood on porches or out on the street, shouting, clapping, cheering. For us, Farrakhan’s opinions on the Jews mostly seemed beside the point; what stuck was the chance to assert our humanity and our manhood by marching on the Mall, and not acting like we were all fresh out of San Quentin. We lived in the shadow of the ’80s crack era. So many of us had been jailed or were on our way. So many of us were fathers in biology only. We believed ourselves disgraced and clung to the march as a public statement: the time had come to grow up.
Black conservatives have been dipping into this well of lost black honor since the turn of the 20th century. On the one hand, vintage black nationalists have harked back to a golden age of black Africa, where mighty empires sprawled and everyone was a king. Meanwhile, populist black conservatives like Cosby point to pre-1968 black America as an era when blacks were united in the struggle: men were men, and a girl who got pregnant without getting married would find herself bundled off to Grandpa’s farm.
What both visions share is a sense that black culture in its present form is bastardized and pathological. What they also share is a foundation in myth. Black people are not the descendants of kings. We are—and I say this with big pride—the progeny of slaves. If there’s any majesty in our struggle, it lies not in fairy tales but in those humble origins and the great distance we’ve traveled since. Ditto for the dreams of a separate but noble past. Cosby’s, and much of black America’s, conservative analysis flattens history and smooths over the wrinkles that have characterized black America since its inception.
Indeed, a century ago, the black brain trust was pushing the same rhetoric that Cosby is pushing today. It was concerned that slavery had essentially destroyed the black family and was obsessed with seemingly the same issues—crime, wanton sexuality, and general moral turpitude—that Cosby claims are recent developments. “The early effort of middle-class blacks to respond to segregation was, aside from a political agenda, focused on a social-reform agenda,” says Khalil G. Muhammad, a professor of American history at Indiana University. “The National Association of Colored Women, Du Bois in The Philadelphia Negro, all shared a sense of anxiety that African Americans were not presenting their best selves to the world. There was the sense that they were committing crimes and needed to keep their sexuality in check.” Adds William Jelani Cobb, a professor of American history at Spelman College: “The same kind of people who were advocating for social reform were denigrating people because they didn’t play piano. They often saw themselves as reluctant caretakers of the less enlightened.”
In particular, Cosby’s argument—that much of what haunts young black men originates in post-segregation black culture—doesn’t square with history. As early as the 1930s, sociologists were concerned that black men were falling behind black women. In his classic study, The Negro Family in the United States, published in 1939, E. Franklin Frazier argued that urbanization was undermining the ability of men to provide for their families. In 1965—at the height of the civil-rights movement—Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s milestone report, “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action,” picked up the same theme.
At times, Cosby seems willfully blind to the parallels between his arguments and those made in the presumably glorious past. Consider his problems with rap. How could an avowed jazz fanatic be oblivious to the similar plaints once sparked by the music of his youth? “The tired longshoreman, the porter, the housemaid and the poor elevator boy in search of recreation, seeking in jazz the tonic for weary nerves and muscles,” wrote the lay historian J. A. Rogers, “are only too apt to find the bootlegger, the gambler and the demi-monde who have come there for victims and to escape the eyes of the police.”
Beyond the apocryphal notion that black culture was once a fount of virtue, there’s still the charge that culture is indeed the problem. But to reach that conclusion, you’d have to stand on some rickety legs. The hip-hop argument, again, is particularly creaky. Ronald Ferguson, a Harvard social scientist, has highlighted that an increase in hip-hop’s popularity during the early 1990s corresponded with a declining amount of time spent reading among black kids. But gangsta rap can be correlated with other phenomena, too—many of them positive. During the 1990s, as gangsta rap exploded, teen pregnancy and the murder rate among black men declined. Should we give the blue ribbon in citizenship to Dr. Dre?
“I don’t know how to measure culture. I don’t know how to test its effects, and I’m not sure anyone else does,” says the Georgetown economist Harry Holzer. “There’s a liberal story that limited opportunities, and barriers, lead to employment problems and criminal records, but then there’s another story that has to do with norms, behaviors, and oppositional culture. You can’t prove the latter statistically, but it still might be true.” Holzer thinks that both arguments contain truth and that one doesn’t preclude the other. Fair enough. Suffice it to say, though, that the evidence supporting structural inequality is compelling. In 2001, a researcher sent out black and white job applicants in Milwaukee, randomly assigning them a criminal record. The researcher concluded that a white man with a criminal record had about the same chance of getting a job as a black man without one. Three years later, researchers produced the same results in New York under more-rigorous conditions.The accepted wisdom is that such studies are a comfort to black people, allowing them to wallow in their misery. In fact, the opposite is true—the liberal notion that blacks are still, after a century of struggle, victims of pervasive discrimination is the ultimate collective buzz-kill. It effectively means that African Americans must, on some level, accept that their children will be “less than” until some point in the future when white racism miraculously abates. That’s not the sort of future that any black person eagerly awaits, nor does it make for particularly motivating talking points.
Last summer, I watched Cosby give a moving commencement speech to a group of Connecticut inmates who’d just received their GEDs. Before the speech, at eight in the morning, Cosby quizzed correctional officials on the conditions and characteristics of their inmate population. I wished, then, that my 7-year-old son could have seen Cosby there, to take in the same basic message that I endeavor to serve him every day—that manhood means more than virility and strut, that it calls for discipline and dutiful stewardship. That the ultimate fate of black people lies in their own hands, not in the hands of their antagonists. That as an African American, he has a duty to his family, his community, and his ancestors.
If Cosby’s call-outs simply ended at that—a personal and communal creed—there’d be little to oppose. But Cosby often pits the rhetoric of personal responsibility against the legitimate claims of American citizens for their rights. He chides activists for pushing to reform the criminal-justice system, despite solid evidence that the criminal-justice system needs reform. His historical amnesia—his assertion that many of the problems that pervade black America are of a recent vintage—is simply wrong, as is his contention that today’s young African Americans are somehow weaker, that they’ve dropped the ball. And for all its positive energy, his language of uplift has its limitations. After the Million Man March, black men embraced a sense of hope and promise. We were supposed to return to our communities and families inspired by a new feeling of responsibility. Yet here we are again, almost 15 years later, with seemingly little tangible change. I’d take my son to see Bill Cosby, to hear his message, to revel in its promise and optimism. But afterward, he and I would have a very long talk.
On the day last summer when Cosby met me for lunch in the West Village, it was raining, as it had been all week, and New York was experiencing a record-cold August. Cosby had just come from Max Roach’s funeral and was dressed in a natty three-piece suit. Despite the weather, the occasion, and the oddly empty dining room, Cosby was energized. He had spent the previous day in Philadelphia, where he spoke to a group in a housing project, met with state health officials, and participated in a community march against crime. Grassroots black activists in his hometown were embracing his call. He planned, over the coming year, to continue his call-outs and release a hip-hop album. (He has also noted, however, that there won’t be any profanity on it.)
Cosby was feeling warm and nostalgic. He asked why I had not brought my son, and I instantly regretted dropping him off at my partner’s workplace for a couple of hours. He talked about breaking his shoulder playing school football, after his grandfather had tried to get him to quit. “Granddad Cosby got on the trolley and came over to the apartment,” he recalled. “I was so embarrassed. I was laid out on the sofa. He was talking to my parents, and I was waiting for the moment when he would say, ‘See, I told you, Junior.’ He came back and reached in his pocket and gave me a quarter. He said, ‘Go to the corner and get some ice cream. It has calcium in it.’”
Much pop psychology has been devoted to Cosby’s transformation into such a high-octane, high-profile activist. His nemesis Dyson says that Cosby, in his later years, is following in the dishonorable tradition of upper-class African Americans who denounce their less fortunate brethren. Others have suggested more-sinister motivations—that Cosby is covering for his own alleged transgressions. (In 2006, Cosby settled a civil lawsuit filed by a woman who claimed that he had sexually assaulted her; other women have come forward with similar allegations that have not gone to court.) But the depth of his commitment would seem to belie such suspicions, and in any case, they do not seem to have affected his hold on his audience: in the November Pew survey, 85 percent of all African American respondents considered him a “good influence” on the black community, above Obama (76 percent) and second only to Oprah Winfrey (87 percent).
Part of what drives Cosby’s activism, and reinforces his message, is the rage that lives in all African Americans, a collective feeling of disgrace that borders on self-hatred. As the comedian Chris Rock put it in one of his infamous routines, “Everything white people don’t like about black people, black people really don’t like about black people … It’s like a civil war going on with black people, and it’s two sides—there’s black people and there’s niggas, and niggas have got to go … Boy, I wish they’d let me join the Ku Klux Klan. Shit, I’d do a drive-by from here to Brooklyn.” (Rock stopped performing the routine when he noticed that his white fans were laughing a little too hard.) Liberalism, with its pat logic and focus on structural inequities, offers no balm for this sort of raw pain. Like the people he preaches to, Cosby has grown tired of hanging his head.
This disquiet spans generations, but it is most acute among those of the civil-rights era. “I don’t know a better term than angst,” says Johnnetta Cole. “I refuse to categorize every young African American with the same language, but there are some ‘young’uns’—and some of us who are not ‘young’uns’—who must turn around and look at where we are, because where we’re headed isn’t pretty.” Like many of the stars of the civil-rights movement, Cole has gifts that go beyond social activism. She rose out of the segregated South and went to college at age 15, eventually earning a bachelor’s from Oberlin and a doctorate in anthropology from Northwestern.
That same sort of dynamism exists today among many younger blacks, but what troubles the older generation is that their energy seems directed at other pursuits besides social uplift.Cosby is fond of saying that sacrifices of the ’60s weren’t made so that rappers and young people could repeatedly use the word nigger. But that’s exactly why they were made. After all, chief among all individual rights awarded Americans is the right to be mediocre, crass, and juvenile—in other words, the right to be human. But Cosby is aiming for something superhuman—twice as good, as the elders used to say—and his homily to a hazy black past seems like an effort to redeem something more than the present...”
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9 Signs of Low Self-Esteem in a Woman and How to Deal With Them
The Self Improvement Blog | Self Esteem | Self Confidence
Psychologists have presented a mountain of facts which display that women have a stronger intuition than men. However, there are signs of low self-esteem, which pose a threat to their happiness, personal expression and especially decision-making.
Out of social pressure, disgust with themselves, or to dodge the judgmental arrows thrown at them, they prefer to bury that pain inside.
We try to lay out these tendencies in the open and chew everything down to the last bone. Although, hoping for a full-scale mindset alteration is too optimistic, steady and gradual refinement can give every woman the edge to find herself on the top of the world.
Here are a few indications that you should pay attention to:
1. Social Isolation
In most cases, hard work represents the backbone of success, but in some severe scenarios, it’s hard to work your way up the ladder because of social unacceptance. Courage rarely comes out of a clear blue sky, and you need to cultivate good habits to allow it to flourish.
Social withdrawal often stands in the way of such endeavors. If you are a policeman looking for clues, this is the first one you need to keep an eye on. Facing the fear of having the status of an underdog requires the presence of a family member or friend who understands your situation.
Daniel Goleman: The biological influence passing from person to person suggests a new dimension of a life well lived: conducting ourselves in ways that are beneficial even at this subtle level for those with whom we connect.
2. Firm Belief in Luck
No, you don’t need to take midnight strolls with a deck of cards, to showcase your unshakable faith in fortunate occasions. Moreover, people who rely on luck, as a strong external factor are less likely to take action because they bet the bottom dollar on other mysterious processes.
This tendency is inherent in women, who are superstitious and the idea of self-controlled life fills them with dread. If you can’t cope with this impulse, the least you can do is sit on the fence, and disregard any notion of taking sides.
3. Oscillation in decision-making
Ask yourself – Do I often change my mind at the last minute? If that’s the case, you have to do something to strengthen your willpower and eliminate the sense of uncertainty. As with most other things, that’s easier said than done!
You can try not to deviate from your plans, and face the consequences regardless of how fearful they seem at first glance. By doing so, you’ll reduce the urges to get back to the drawing board over and over again.
José N. Harris: Waiting hurts. Forgetting hurts. But not knowing which decision to take can sometimes be the most painful.
4. Overly Critical Attitude
Many people are thrown off balance by the revelation that being judgmental towards your actions is not a sign of humbleness. Don’t be deceived by these mind tricks, and draw the line between your restricted beliefs and the actual reality.
Self-confident persons compensate for whatever they lack in skill with tenacity. Likewise, your analytical perspective is not doing you any favors.
Remove this perception from your head, and start appreciating your efforts no matter how “shallow” they appear to you. Scanning through a few life changing books can help you shift your mindset.
5. Unhealthy Habits
Mens Sana in Corpore Sano or Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body – Do we need to say more? Tackling these routines requires a mental readiness to put your whole belief-system on the line in order to go the extra mile.
If you are fed up with all the excuses, it’s time to take concrete actions by enforcing a new set of habits, which can make a difference.
Aristotle: Good habits formed at youth make all the difference.
6. Not offering Your Opinion
Regardless of the surroundings, remember that you are entitled to your opinion. Don’t just stay in the shadows, waiting for someone to give you the respect you are due. Unfortunately, the stigma attached to gender equality is still underway, but that mustn’t be an alibi for presenting a series of facts.
To put it simply, in life, you have to take what’s rightfully yours. People have a habit of taking advantage of underachievers and individuals who succumb to pressure.
Fighting these “trends” and securing your position should be your number one priority as a woman.
An extra gem from Bette Davis to get you all fired up: When a man gives his opinion, he’s a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she’s a bit*h.
7. Comparison is Your Best Friend
It’s some strange twist of development in human nature that we love to draw conclusions and compare our lives with others. This stage is most definitely not specific to women, but also men.
Putting your uniqueness into a basket of 7 billion eggs should be construed as a personal insult to you. The truth is, low self-esteem is on the receiving end of such impulses. If you have failed to come to grips with this social issue, you may end up feeling just like a drop in the ocean.
Evoke that sense of individuality and fight to preserve it!
Coco Chanel: The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.
8. Mood Swings
Are you ready to face the music? Although the definition of mood swing is irrelevant at this moment, it’s vital to understand its triggers. Often persons who can’t thrive on flexibility and problem-solving can easily be dazed and used.
Bipolar disorders are gaining momentum in the digital age. According to the Mental Health Organization, approximately 4 million British are experiencing these tendencies.
The bottom line is, many external elements can initiate a change and affect your current state. If you want to stay on the right side and not be on the verge of an emotional breakdown, you should be on alert for anything that can provoke an inner reaction.
Adaptability is critical to keep your morale up and ensure a steady transition from one stage to the next.
9. The Earth is too Small
Yes, there’s not enough room for everyone to fit in! Or, that may be just another self-imposed idea that keeps us locked in a cage of claustrophobic chains.
Sometimes you feel like you want to get out of this planet and build a house on Mars. Nonetheless our friends at NASA, still haven’t found a permanent solution to this issue. All joking aside, you must remain with both feet on the ground (literally speaking) and take a deep breath.
Such a simple trick can boost your confidence and help you endure the hardship of any day.
Defeat These Signs of Low Self-Esteem Once and For All
When it comes to tackling all these signals, all you need to do is to become aware of them. That’s the most critical step without any doubt.
Afterward, you should cast doubt on the habits which fuel these tendencies. Taking away their source of energy can signify the end of everything that ever caused you pain and suffering.
About the Author
Emir Zecovic likes to be perceived as the go-to guy for new ideas. A real poster boy for finding the right words which can be put into action. Momentarily, he offers his time, energy and heart to 12 Min. Blogging about productivity, self-help and personal development is his unquenchable passion; you can follow him on Facebook and Medium.
9 Signs of Low Self-Esteem in a Woman and How to Deal With Them published first on https://bitspiritspace.tumblr.com/
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