I made a map of the village in my fic, "here and where you are", which is an AU where Albus loses his magic and runs away from home. Heronswood is a beautiful country town, surrounded by forest and rolling hills and farmland. At its centre is a crystal clear lake, which is opposite the main street where you can find herbs and produce from local farms, buy a book from Sassafras Bookshop, or take an art class with the mysterious green eyed boy who came to town years ago.

This map was made using the Maps Everywhere map creator pack, by eliza's workshop on Creative Market! Check out their other gorgeous designs via their store.

you’re telling me these three kids are gonna be important public officials??

been reading Magyk again and I’m really enjoying it after so long/

Saw a purple dress and immediately thought of her so I had to

sunrise at keeper’s cottage

:-P

Here's the full version: Marcia for anon💜

i haven’t posted on here in a hot minute but i was recently rereading one of my favourite childhood books, magyk by angie sage, and i had to make a character poster mockup of my fave, marcia overstrand. i really connected with her as a kid and i think thandiwe newton would be my dream fancast- she definitely has the warmth and authority to pull it off! anyway, how do i find more septimus heap mituals? (:

ive been meaning to draw this forever

It really bothers me that Astoria is often either dead or on the verge of dying in fanfiction. I know she dies in the play, and I know it was written that way for a lot of reasons. They didn’t have room for her, they wanted a single event to pull Draco and Scorpius apart. They wanted an emotional through line for the two of them - something for Draco to talk about in Harry’s office, and something to isolate Scorpius further from his peers and his dad. She dies because the writers couldn’t give her enough life in the play. There wasn’t space for her and, by letting her go, they were able to add another narrative to the play about family and loss. I’m not unreasonable. She’s my favourite character, yet I understand why they didn’t give her a voice in the play. It makes narrative sense, given the trajectory of the story. And I doubt they would have been able to do her justice, especially considering the treatment of other female characters in the play. She would have just been another loose definition of womanhood, written within a series that has always had a problem with women.* She deserves a lot better than that.

But sometimes… I wish she was alive in the play. Because then, maybe, she wouldn’t be dead or dying in almost all the fanfiction I read. There’s been plenty of characters in pop culture that have died, much to the upset of the fans. But they come to life in fanfiction and fanart. Because we don’t want them to be dead. We don’t want Sirius and Remus to die in the books. We want to see them alive and happy and together. So why is Astoria almost always dead in fanfiction? Why is the reason she was written off in the play used as a reason to write her off in fanworks? Is it the love for writing and reading angst? Is it a fear of trying to redefine and write a character who’s only real canon representation is through other characters, all men, talking about her in the play? It could be any number of things, and I’m not here to police people who do let her die in their fanfics. 

But we live in a world where “Women in Refrigerators” and “Disposable Women” are both tropes we’re all too familiar with. We live in a world where most Disney characters don’t have mums, a world where fictional women are disposable and have plots happen to them rather than around them. Even female characters that don’t die are still written into situations that their male counterparts would never be put into. Even revolutionary characters like Dana Scully were given problematic narratives - her cancer and her pregnancy both used as plot devices, with the latter constantly brought up in obsessive and sickening ways by Chris Carter. Because even female characters that inspired a generation of women to pursue careers in STEM are still subject to plots where their lives and bodies aren’t their own.

When we look at Lily Potter, it’s impossible not to draw comparisons between her and Astoria. She died before the main story, a story about her son and his long fight against the wizard who killed her. She died and gave motivation to Severus Snape, a character who’s entire life is defined by his unrequited love turned obsession for her. We don’t know anything about her beyond what she means to Harry, to Snape, and to James. But, where Harry constantly asks about his father, and learns a lot about him through Snape’s memories, we don’t really see as much time given to Lily. We know that she was skilled in potions, we know that Harry has her eyes. We know that she was friends with Snape for a while, and that he loved her. We know that she sacrificed herself for Harry and, through her, he was able to survive Voldemort’s killing curse.

In the play, Draco says that Astoria wanted him to “have someone” when she died, and that’s part of why she was so determined to have a child in spite of her illness. This is a piece of dialogue that everyone seems to single out in their fanfiction and headcanons, even ignoring something Draco said in the same scene (“She didn’t want a baby for the Malfoy name, for pure blood or glory, but for us”). Because Astoria sacrificing herself so that Draco would have companionship is more tragic, more romantic. Like Lily giving her life for Harry, it gives her martyr status, but it also diminishes all her other reasons for wanting to have Scorpius. It dismisses the bravery and strength it would have taken for her to unlearn all the damaging, evil rhetoric that she grew up with - the exact same rhetoric that Draco experienced throughout his life. It reduces her to her illness and death, removing her agency and making her entire narrative about the two men she left behind. Edgar Allen Poe wrote that “the death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical thing in the world.” There’s a fascination and love for women in fiction who die tragically, or sacrifice themselves for others. Fiction is littered with these women. Imagery in 2005 of Padme’s body lying in repose with flowers in her hair seemed a conspicuous callback to Ophelia with her garlands and her daisies. And I won’t say that their stories shouldn’t be written. It just worries me how prevalent this narrative is. In countless forms, in countless works of fiction - there are always women who exist only to suffer.

The problem isn’t just that Astoria died, or that Astoria had a debilitating illness. The problem is that her illness and her death don’t belong to her - they belong to Scorpius and Draco. They belong to the many, many fanfics where the sole plot is both of them trying to come to terms with her death. They belong to a history of fictional women who died or suffered for a man’s angst, or for his motivation moving forward in the narrative. It’s a trope that continuously sidelines female characters, removing their agency and reducing them to what they mean to the men in their lives. And I guess I’m just tired of seeing it.

*This is something I might consider covering in another post, because there isn’t really room for it here. Astoria is just one female character in a list of many that did not fare well at the hands of Rowling, Thorne, Tiffany, and co.

Edible Flowers by littlerose13

My contribution to @scorbusfest 2020!

Title: Edible Flowers

Author: littlerose13

Rating: T

Warnings/Content Notes: some swearing, getting together

Summary: Albus Potter has grown up in the wizarding world, has been around magic all his life and is used to the eccentricities being a teenage wizard can bring. But when he’s struck down with muggle flu, he wakes up in a world that seems to have turned upside down.

His sister is a bully, Polly Chapman is his friend and, weirdest of all, his best friend Scorpius suddenly seems to be his boyfriend. Albus would quite like to get back to normality in time for the fifth year Summer Ball if that’s not too much to ask.

AU: alternate reality

Word Count: 21,008

A/N: Thank you so much @fidgetyweirdo​ and @violetclarity​ for organising the fest! And thanks to @trolleybitch​ for all the support during writing :)

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26143639

day 1 of sketching good concepts that people tweet

I really wanted to finish my Kiki’s Delivery Service AU in time for Scorbusfest, but I’ve had horrible writer’s block for the past month, so here’s some art of Scorpius and Albus meeting for the first time in the fic. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to share it with you all 🧡

I can’t find my tablet and don’t wanna draw on my phone which means I’m back to my 2014 ways of making pixel art in ms paint with my mouse 

Just two small portraits of Scorpius and Albus today! Another name for forget-me-nots is “scorpion grass”, while sunflowers are my favourite flower and I was so inspired when I saw @gobstoneswithhector‘s beautiful art of Albus with a backdrop of sunflowers 🌻 ❤️️

albus and scorpius spending time in the slytherin common room

Hadestown - Wedding Song

(This was done with minimal reference and no idea of how the scene actually goes, but I’ve been obsessed with the soundtrack these past few days so I had to make something for it 💖)