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soloorganaas · 1 year

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Sirius, bipolar disorder and 1981

I’ve held the headcanon for a while that Sirius being bipolar was a fundamental part of his breakdown in 1981, that led to him believing Remus was the spy and failing to prevent Lily and James’s deaths, as well as ultimately being the reason Remus was persuaded that Sirius (not entirely consciously) betrayed James and committed mass-murder. so I’ve laid out all my thoughts about this below

Sirius’s breakdown leading up to Oct 31, 1981

bipolar episodes of mania/depression are not responses to external events in the same way regular depression or anxiety are. they will inevitably happen at some point however stable your life is. however, a traumatic event can sometimes trigger a period of mania/depression that spirals beyond the actual event itself

there is no doubt that Sirius was experiencing compound trauma by 1981. there isn’t any specific canon as to when he became involved in the Order, but we know by this point he was deep in the fight and presumably had been for around a year or more. he was living with the constant, extreme stress of being in potentially fatal missions, as well as the risk of losing his loved ones who were doing the same

Sirius’s friendship with James and the impact the danger he faced had on Sirius during this period is fundamental to his breakdown. James was central to his conception of safety and stability. he rescued him emotionally and later physically from his abusive home, and gave him a new loving one. without James, Sirius doesn’t have a home - and therefore the world simply doesn’t make sense. there’s no doubt Sirius would have been living in absolute terror of having his world quite literally torn apart. this would have been magnified tenfold when the specific threat to Harry and therefore James and Lily became apparent, and Sirius had to watch as a war against a fascist terror group became a defense of his best friend’s family being hunted by an unimaginably powerful dark wizard

part of bipolar disorder is the subconscious knowledge that you will at some point crash. there is a sense of inevitability of your world falling apart, like constantly living in a movie waiting for the third act tragedy. for Sirius, watching his world quite literally fall apart, this would undoubtedly have triggered that underlying fear. he is expecting the worst, knowing that it’s going to happen, because it always has

Sirius believing Remus was the spy

Sirius’s struggle with bipolar disorder would lead to his seemingly irrational suspicion of Remus for two main reasons

first is that the chronic instability and tendency toward self-destruction that Sirius experiences as a part of bd is inseparable from his relationship with Remus. breaking up in the heat of manic or depressive episodes is a common bipolar symptom. Remus with his own trauma and mental health issues would never be capable of creating enough stability for the both of them as their relationship formed, and adding into that the struggles of being a gay man in the 70s/80s, they never developed a strong foundation as teens

so the second point is how putting this under the pressure cooker of war doomed them from the outset. without external support or stability, Sirius was always going to spiral down, and Remus would always be unable to cope. by 1981 Sirius is overwhelmed with fear over losing James and utterly unable to think rationally. he’s being pushed to the brink on Order missions. he’s convinced his the world is going to crash down around him. he’s lashing out at the people closest to him and destroying things just for the misguided feeling of control. Remus is watching this happen but is also swept up in his own chronic terror and mental instability, and is utterly unable to understand what Sirius is doing or going through, let alone try and stop it. they are both crashing down around each other, with the very fear they have of losing each other tearing them further apart

at some point I think Sirius simply convinces himself its Remus - because he’s the one hurting him so much with his own part in destroying their relationship, because if anyone is going to tear his world to pieces it would be the one he’s most vulnerable to, because if you want to bring about the destruction by yourself of course you’d pick the person you can hurt the most, because the world is stealing everything from him so of course it would still the one beautiful, tender, miraculous thing he has

Remus being persuaded Sirius betrayed James and Lily

I’m writing ‘persuaded’ deliberately, because there is no way that Remus would instantly believe Sirius could betray James or even murder Peter and a crowd of muggles. they had been friends for over ten years, living in each other’s pockets and they knew each other inside and out. they had built incredibly deep and meaningful bonds as a group. Remus would struggle to believe that Sirius could kill Peter, but he may in the end come to accept it. but he could never, ever have watched Sirius and James for ten years and believe he would consciously betray him

instead, I think Remus came to believe through the persuasion of others (Dumbledore specifically, particularly if you go with the idea he had an interest in keeping Sirius in Azkaban) that Sirius had a breakdown and acted with such reckless self-destruction he inadvertently brought about James and Lily’s deaths. Remus had been dragged down in Sirius’s spiral for a year or longer; if they were by that point together, he would have seen Sirius at his most vulnerable and raw, and understood better than anyone his capacity for manic, irrational self-destruction. he’d seen Sirius do similar things the entire time he’d known him - the prank, for example, which easily fits into a similar theme. Remus knows Sirius is capable of this, he knows he was truly out of his mind with fear

and I think that’s where the anger comes from (aside from fury over him murdering Peter and other innocent people) - that Sirius had spent so long causing harm and never ever learned, that he’d refused to confront his own demons and take responsibility for his destructive tendencies, and in the end it had torn their worlds apart. the fire that had made him so passionate, so full of life, so brave, so loving and so devoted had also made him uncontrollably deadly - it’s not hard to imagine that when Remus more than anyone experienced one side so intensely, he could imagine what the other could lead to

I, personally, don’t think even in a manic state Sirius would ever come close to betraying James. but I think that for Remus, a terrified, traumatised 21 year old who’d lost both his parents and his best friends, had spent three years caught up in a war between two sides that both wanted him dead, and had watched his relationship with the love of his life break down in front of him, it’s a realistic conclusion to come to

Conclusion

mental health issues are intrinsically wound up with Sirius’s story and the tragedies he experiences. i think it’s a disservice to his character to overlook them, especially when fic takes only a shallow look at the sadder, messier parts of his life because it has a tendency towards simply trauma porn. bipolar disorder is my particular headcanon, and I’ve detailed a strong argument for it, but there are plenty of other valid interpretations as well. whichever way Sirius is written, though, at least complying somewhat with canon, the impact of mental health on the complexity of his character and story can’t be overlooked

the other side of the coin to this tragedy is the beauty of Sirius’s escape, formation of his relationship with Harry, and his reunion and reconciliation with Remus. Sirius’s fiery mania is turned into a positive, enabling the incredible feats of breaking out of Azkaban, and living on the rough for two years whilst evading the Ministry’s hunt. it also of course sees older, wiser versions of Sirius and Remus who can look their own and each other’s demons in the eye, face up to them with honesty and courage, and build the relationship they should have had all along.

#i am Sad #and deep in my PoA feels #wolfstar #sirius black #remus lupin #bipolar disorder #bipolar sirius black #ch: we choose who we really are #hp #hp meta

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soup-of-the-daisies · 5 months

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i’m rereading ootp (to my own horror) and like. knowing what happens in that one and the next two books makes that intense, bubbling frustration of being a teenager whose worries are disregarded so much worse.

like, surprise?? the kid whose childhood you’re trying to preserve lost that innate innocence years ago. you want him to be a normal 15 yr old boy but if you keep quiet about the dangers he might not live to see his 16th birthday. and congrats on keeping him safe, i guess—you’ve accidentally ruined the last piece able to tether him to his childhood, but i’m sure those months of torture were worth the farce of normality you craved for him. i don’t think you know that your apologies are like sticking band aids on a fracture. i don’t think you’re aware of how you’re ignoring the breaks, but i’m certain you’re expecting them to heal on their own.

oh, they didn’t? and now you’re treating him like he’s a bubble made of glass, waiting to shatter? but you’re the one to have turned him into that bubble, aren’t you? you’re the one who’s holding him, and it’s not his time yet. not for another two years. and shards of glass dulled with time cannot fell a monster, can they? so please be careful. you still need him. he never asked to be a martyr but he’ll do it because you expect him to; you just need to watch your step because your hands are slicked with guilt, and he’s heavy. he’s struggling. he’ll fall as well, if you let him go now.

#harry potter meta #hp meta #hp ootp #harry’s my boy. my baby. his anger is so satisfying yet so frustrating because it’s deserved yet it doesn’t help him #the ‘you’ is not just dumbles it’s damn near every adult and teen looking to harry to solve this war #yet being convinced at the same time that he deserves to be kept small #like just tell him. he faced voldy at age 11. faced a shadow of voldy and killed a basilisk at 12 #faced voldy AGAIN at 14. was forced to be complicit in his resurrection. saw his friend die. almost died himself #he can handle it. good grief #harry james potter

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whinlatter · 1 year

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Harry’s thoughts of Ginny in the Forest: a meta

‘Nothing too big, because you wouldn't be able to take it with you... I wanted you to have something to remember me by.' - DH, p. 99 (UK edition)

Here I am, on a rainy Thursday, doing re-reads for some writing and thinking about the parallels between Harry and Ginny's kiss on his birthday, and Harry’s thoughts of Ginny as he goes to his death.

I’m thinking differently about Ginny’s motivations for the kiss these days. I used to think about her words to Harry that morning, and the act of kissing him, as a promise she’ll wait for when he comes back. Lately, I’m wondering if it’s not something sadder, and more profound. I think what Ginny does on Harry’s seventeenth is the act of a person who is starting to process the fact that the person she loves is likely going to his death — that he might not be coming back. It's a scene of a person bracing for grief and thinking about love after death, and it will set the stage for how Harry meets his own death in the Forest.

So here’s a much-too-long meta to help me think through these ideas - about the kiss, Ginny’s suspicions about Harry’s fate, and what it means that Harry returns to the memory of Ginny at the end of his life. (Stick the kettle on for this one and if you worked this all out long ago before me, just give me an eye roll and forgive me).

I’ve always taken Ginny's words to Harry before their kiss at face value. I thought of it not quite as a fun scene - it’s certainly sad - but sweet, a little sexy, and sort of reckless, even a bit mischievous on Ginny’s part.

It’s the birthday of the boy Ginny loves. They’re not together anymore. She knows he's going away. She wants to give him a birthday present, but she doesn't want to give him something he has to haul around or might lose. She does want to let him know that, despite their separation, her feelings are still the same. She craves a moment with him before he goes. She is still in love with him, she is deeply attracted to him, and part of her still feels a bit possessive. Although she’s not really concerned Harry’s going to crack on with some Veela, she does want him to have a memento of their time together. She wants him to have a happy memory, of physical intimacy and emotional comfort, to keep him going while he's away, to feel less alone.

Most of all, I used to think of the kiss (and whatever Ginny imagined might come after the kiss) as a promise. I still love you. Even though we’re not together and I respect why you have to go, I’m still all in on this. I’ll wait for you for when you come back. I want you to have the memory of this, as proof.

Harry’s reveal

But the more I’ve thought about it, the more I think about the context of when this kiss happens, after Harry and Ginny's last conversation before his birthday. It's the one a few days before, when Harry and Ginny are laying the table for dinner, and Harry lets slip to Ginny what he, Ron and Hermione will be doing when they leave:

'‘And then what does she think’s going to happen?’ Harry muttered. ‘Someone else might kill off Voldemort while she’s holding us here making vol-au-vents?’ He had spoken without thinking, and saw Ginny’s face whiten.‘So it’s true?’ she said. ‘That’s what you’re trying to do? ‘I - not - I was joking,’ said Harry evasively. (DH, 78-9, UK edition)

This is a desperately sad scene, but it’s also an important moment. Harry, so used to having his guard down with Ginny, realises he’s accidentally confessed something big: that he’s going on the run to try and kill Voldemort himself, with Ron and Hermione’s help.

Ginny is shaken by this. As a character, she tends to either take things in her stride, or yells first, processes later. But this catches her off guard. Her words suggest there has been speculation about what it is the three of them are going off to do (‘So it’s true?’ suggests that Ginny, and perhaps other members of her family or the Order, have been speculating about this for some time). But both she and Harry realise here that he’s flippantly confirmed something huge that Ginny did not already know for sure. He’s spoken aloud the task is that Dumbledore has left him.

It is a sign of how close Harry feels to Ginny, how safe he feels in her company, and how difficult he finds managing keeping secrets from her, that he lets this slip. He won’t come as close to telling the truth to anyone else, even people he trusts. The scene before this, in his conversation with Mrs Weasley, he didn’t let on nearly as much (though he admits that he found affirming the importance of secrecy difficult when he looked at Mrs Weasley and saw Ginny’s eyes staring back at him):

‘Well, Dumbledore left me . . . stuff to do,’ mumbled Harry. ‘Ron and Hermione know about it, and they want to come too.’ ‘What sort of ‘stuff’?’ ‘I’m sorry, I can’t—’ ‘Well, frankly I think Arthur and I have a right to know, and I’m sure Mr. and Mrs. Granger would agree!’ said Mrs. Weasley. Harry had been afraid of the “concerned parent” attack. He forced himself to look directly into her eyes, noticing as he did that they were precisely the same shade of brown as Ginny’s. This did not help… ‘Dumbledore didn’t want anyone else to know, Mrs. Weasley (…) I didn’t misunderstand,’ said Harry flatly. ‘It’s got to be me.’ (DH, 77-8)

Later, he’ll also refuse to give any information to Lupin, for the same reason.

'‘Can you confide in me what the mission is?’ Harry looked into the prematurely lined face, framed in thick but greying hair, and wished that he could return a different answer. ‘I can’t, Remus, I’m sorry. If Dumbledore didn’t tell you I don’t think I can.’ ‘I thought you’d say that,’ said Lupin, looking disappointed.’ (DH, 173-4)

But with Ginny, he’s accidentally gone much further. He hasn’t said Horcruxes, but he’s as good as. The trio are setting off to try to kill Voldemort, the most dangerous task imaginable in this war. He tries, in vain, to undo it, but the damage is already done. Ginny knows more now than she did before: that the journey he’s about to go on is one that very likely will claim his life.

What does Ginny know about Harry’s fate before this moment?

It's clear from this interaction that Harry has never discussed any of this with Ginny before. In their breakup scene, Harry repeatedly said that he was breaking up with her for her own safety. He said he did not want her to be used as bait, as she already had been previously, and as Sirius was: 'Think how much danger you'll be in if we keep this up...' (HBP, 602). The focus was entirely on the risk to Ginny's life, a risk Harry says he cannot live with.

Ginny’s remarks at Dumbledore’s funeral told us something about how she, at that point, understood the path ahead for Harry. She made her half-joke that Harry was always busy saving the Wizarding World, and says she thinks he 'would never be happy', never fulfilled or satisfied, unless he were 'hunting Voldemort' (HBP, 603). She showed she interpreted his actions as choices being made by someone brave, determined, and personally committed to bringing about the end of Voldemort, not someone destined to. Harry’s motivations and reasons are ones she respects and empathises with. She knows the path ahead is dangerous. She doesn’t yet think of it as lethal.

Harry didn’t respond to her assessments at the funeral, neither correcting nor confirming them. He didn’t let her know, at that stage, exactly what it is he is going to set off to do. The closest Harry came to revealing the road ahead for him in the break-up scene was this:

'It’s been like… like something out of someone else’s life, these last few weeks with you,' said Harry. 'But I can’t… we can’t… I’ve got things to do alone now.' She did not cry, she simply looked at him.’ (HBP, 602)

This is a pattern throughout their relationship, both as friends and later as romantic partners. Ginny knows a little, but not a lot, about Harry’s path. She thinks of it almost entirely as a decision he has made himself. Conversations about Harry’s destiny - about the Prophecy, about being the Chosen One, and, eventually, about the Horcrux hunt - happen near Ginny, but never with her. She does not seem to believe that Harry is the Chosen One or in any way bound to Voldemort's own fate. At the start of HBP, on the train in Slughorn’s carriage, Ginny states publicly her belief that any speculation about Harry being the Chosen One is nonsense:

‘We never heard a prophecy,” said Neville, turning geranium pink as he said it. ‘That’s right,’ said Ginny staunchly. ‘Neville and I were both there too, and all this ‘Chosen One’ rubbish is just the Prophet making things up as usual.’ (HBP, 140)

Ultimately, before DH, Ginny has been given very little information. We can assume that she’s decided to respect Harry’s decision to keep any information from her and not to push for it. She has reason to fear he might be in danger, but she doesn’t yet know the full extent of it.

Ginny’s response

The immediate aftermath of Harry’s confession at the Burrow is very telling.

‘They stared at each other, and there was something more than shock in Ginny’s expression. Suddenly Harry became aware that this was the first time that he had been alone with her since their stolen hours in secluded corners of the Hogwarts grounds. He was sure she was remembering them too.’ - DH (79)

It’s important that, immediately after this confession, Harry’s mind immediately takes him to private time spent alone with Ginny at the end of HBP. His certainty that Ginny, too, is reminiscing about them is typical of their wordless displays of understanding. They both reach for memories. And the memories of the last time he was alone with her, when they were still together, suddenly trigger an intense emotional and sexual tension. They are soon interrupted, and the dinner afterwards is extremely awkward. Harry wishes he were further away from Ginny, and tries, with great difficulty, to avoid touching her at the dinner table. The energy between them is intense and charged, anticipatory and frustrated. There are lots of ‘unsaid things’ that have just passed between them, and both are aware of it (DH, 79).

There are important themes being introduced here. Whenever Harry thinks about memories of his time with Ginny in DH, he does so consistently in two clear ways. To him, those times were private, intensely intimate moments which carried huge personal significance. It is strongly implied those were moments of sexual intimacy between the two of them, and where they shared an emotional closeness neither has found with any other character. But those moments with Ginny are also something Harry feels he was wrong to take. His relationship with her was something that, in retrospect, he embarked upon against his better judgement. He now feels it was something he was not entitled to, on account of his own burdens and obligations. Those were ‘stolen hours’ that were ‘something out of someone else’s life’. If we look to the wedding scene, we can see this most clearly:

‘‘Yes, my tiara sets off the whole thing nicely,’ said Auntie Muriel in a rather carrying whisper. ‘But I must say, Ginevra’s dress is far too low cut.’ Ginny glanced around, grinning, winked at Harry, then quickly faced the front again. Harry’s mind wandered a long way from the marquee, back to afternoons spent alone with Ginny in lonely parts of the school grounds. They seemed so long ago; they had always seemed too good to be true, as though he had been stealing shining hours from a normal person’s life, a person without a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead…’ (DH, 121)

There are certain tropes at play here, that will that recur again and again in Harry’s thoughts of Ginny until the point of his death: the memory of time alone, the feeling of shared emotional and physical intimacy, to an intense degree; the sense of their time together being something stolen, both in the sense of it being snatched from within darker times, but also being forbidden, given with Harry’s fate when it comes to Voldemort. That Harry recalls these moments at a moment as two other characters make lifelong vows of marriage to each other is not insignificant: all is set up to maximise the sense of tragedy.

Ginny processing Harry’s fate

Ginny is not naive. Harry’s confession seems to change something about how she thinks about what he’s about to do. She may once have dismissed the prophecy of Harry as the Chosen One as nonsense. But she now has reason to suspect that might not quite be true.

She may well re-trace what she does know. After all, she was at the Department of Mysteries two summers prior, where she learnt that Voldemort, at least, thinks there is a prophecy of significance that involves Harry directly. She knows Harry has been having one-on-one lessons with Dumbledore: she even gave him one of the invitations (HBP, 228). She also knows that Harry and Dumbledore left school for a secret mission alone on the night the Astronomy Tower was attacked and Dumbledore was killed. She observed how Harry saw Dumbledore’s death as a catalyst to prepare for a path that required him to step back from her. Above all, we also know that Ginny is a character who understands Tom Riddle intimately. She is one of the people who comes closest to understanding the stakes of your life being bound, in some way, to Voldemort.

It is also significant that Ginny is a character canonically intrigued, and touched, by death, and by powerful Dark magic. The diary, and her own near-death experience, is the most obvious example. But in the Department of Mysteries during OotP, we are told she is also one of the characters most drawn to the veil, despite having far less direct experience of loss and grief than Harry, Luna, or even Neville:

‘[Harry] took several paces back from the dais and wrenched his eyes from the veil. ‘Let’s go,’ he said. ‘That’s what I’ve been trying to — well, come on, then!’ said Hermione, and she led the way back around the dais. On the other side, Ginny and Neville were staring, apparently entranced, at the veil too. Without speaking, Hermione took hold of Ginny’s arm, Ron Neville’s, and they marched them firmly back to the lowest stone bench and clambered all the way back up to the door.’ (OotP, 775)

I don’t mean to suggest Ginny knew what was coming for Harry, that she foresaw him having to go to his death. She knows nothing of Horcruxes, she doesn’t know the contents of the Prophecy, and she certainly doesn’t know Harry himself is a Horcrux. Harry, of course, doesn’t yet know the certainty of him going to his own death, at this point in the text. But given the information she alone has been handed, inadvertently, by Harry, she has plenty of reason to begin to suspect the path Harry is on is one that might end in death, moreso for him than for an anyone else in this war.

Ginny doesn’t appear much in the following pages, other than in her role helping to prepare the house for the wedding. Over the next few days, she has lots of time to consider Harry’s words. We know she’s also sharing a bedroom with Hermione, who is actively preparing for their imminent departure, and watching the three of them try to sneak off together to make plans. This is time for Ginny to start to digest the information Harry has unwittingly divulged. She can now begin to think about how she ought to respond to the prospect of him leaving for a mission that will, likely, cost him his life.

The kiss itself

We can see Ginny has planned this interaction with Harry in her bedroom. The false casualness of how the scene opens - ‘Harry, can you come in here a moment?’ - and the actions of the bedroom’s other occupant, Hermione, suggests some level of premeditation and collaboration. For the first time, Ginny brings him into her bedroom, with the door closed. The setting is obviously intimate and suggestive.

Harry describes Ginny as seeming nervous, but purposeful, like she is readying herself for something - she ‘[takes] a deep breath’. She is looking at him ‘steadily’. Harry is nervous, too: he cannot bring himself to look at her, finding it almost painful, like ‘gazing into a brilliant light’ (DH, 98). Her trademark blazing look is in full force. She doesn’t entertain his attempts at small talk: she is serious about what she’s about to do.

‘‘I couldn’t think what to get you,’ she said. ‘You didn’t have to get me anything.’ She disregarded this too.’ (DH, 98-9)

Ginny opens by revealing how difficult it has been for her to work out what she could give him, under the circumstances. She is, in her own way, acknowledging how hard she is finding processing what it is he has to do now. She has been struggling with the prospect of Harry’s departure, and the possibility, even the likelihood, of his death. But she has decided she wants to make that path easier for him. Despite his reassurance, she insists she wanted to give him something.

‘‘I didn’t know what would be useful. Nothing too big, because you wouldn’t be able to take it with you.” He chanced a glance at her. She was not tearful...' (99)

These lines are so significant. The first two lines in particular are deeply profound. They read very differently to how I first thought of them, if seen in this light. I didn’t know what would be useful, she says, because she doesn't know what she can say that will be useful. What could possibly make this easier, to help Harry think about the enormity of his situation, or to help guide him on a path requiring him to accept his own likely death?

She doesn’t want what she gives to him now to be too heavy, too sad, or too serious, because she knows Harry will not be able to deal with it (‘nothing too big’). Anything too declaratory, too sentimental, or too enormous, would be impossible for him to leave with. In the last part of the sentence, her words are deliberately vague: because you wouldn’t be able to take it with you.

I think this is the most poignant part, and it suggests the part of Ginny's mind that believes in, and is curious about, what happens beyond, after death: the voices on the other side of the veil. I think there is some part of her that thinks Harry might be going somewhere she can’t reach him - what Dumbledore will later call going on. Ginny does not openly speculate about where Harry will be taking whatever she gives him. That it could be to his own grave, or beyond, is left unspoken. He looks at her, finally, after these words, because he seems to understand, on some level, what she is trying to say to him.

‘She took a step closer to him. ‘So then I thought, I’d like you to have something to remember me by, you know, if you meet some veela when you’re off doing whatever you’re doing.’’ (DH, 99)

Ginny has decided: the thing she will give him is a memory, one that he can take with him when they part. Something to remember me by. She wants the memory of her, of them, to be useful, to serve him in some way, and to be something that he might be able to take on with him after death. She tries to soften what she’s trying to convey, with the joke about the veela. But both seem to understand what she is really saying: that she isn’t really asking for his loyalty or fidelity. She doesn’t say she’s giving him ‘something to remember me by’ for when he comes back and they can be together again. Her words are very final. The joke is supposed to make it easier for him to hear what she is saying: she’s telling him, quietly, how to think about her when he leaves, whatever leaving might mean.

Harry, for his part, continues the joke. (‘I think dating opportunities are going to be pretty thin on the ground, to be honest.’) She plays along, sort of, in a very sad way (‘there’s the silver lining I’ve been looking for’). But both seem to know that there is no real silver lining to this.

And then there’s the kiss itself:

‘There’s the silver lining I’ve been looking for,’ she whispered, and then she was kissing him as she had never kissed him before, and Harry was kissing her back, and it was blissful oblivion, better than Firewhisky; she was the only real thing in the world, Ginny, the feel of her, one hand at her back and one in her long, sweet-smelling hair —’ (DH, 99)

It all comes to a head here. Harry recognises that this kiss feels exceptional, unlike any other they’ve ever shared - that Ginny has never put so much into a kiss before. It is ‘blissful oblivion’, this moment of extraordinary intensity, where she kisses him and allows him, for a moment, to think only about her and them together. It’s heady and sexual (‘the feel of her’). It’s a gift for Harry to be able to forget everything and let this moment be a vacuum, to focus only on her. The crescendo effect of the short causes and run-on sentences allows the moment to build and build, a crescendo effect that anticipates something to come.

Of course, their moment gets interrupted, again. Unlike when Ron interrupted her with Dean, Ginny doesn't rage at him this time: she is subdued, a response that is far more appropriate for her processing the fact that she may have just had her final kiss with the boy she loves. Harry suspects she has started to cry, something he notes is out of character. Ginny had imbued a lot of meaning into this interaction: this is a portrait of a character whose heart is breaking.

When Harry and Ron are discussing the kiss outside on the lawn, after the initial shock of being yelled at by Ron for going anywhere near Ginny, Harry has his own, shattering realisation of what all of this means for himself and Ginny:

‘Yeah, but you go snogging her now and she’s just going to get her hopes up again—’ ‘She’s not an idiot, she knows it can’t happen, she’s not expecting us to— to end up married, or—’ As he said it, a vivid picture formed in Harry’s mind of Ginny in a white dress, marrying a tall, faceless, and unpleasant stranger. In one spiralling moment it seemed to hit him: Her future was free and unencumbered, whereas his . . . he could see nothing but Voldemort ahead.’ (DH, 100)

Thinking aloud, Harry says it would be idiotic for he or Ginny to imagine they could be together, either now, or at any point in the future. He expects her to find someone else; he cannot even begin to imagine a future for himself after the task set out for him. He does not say his inevitable death - he has not yet embraced that reality - but he remains caught in the certainty of an existential battle with Voldemort that he knows he may well not survive.

Later that day, Harry will receive the snitch from Dumbledore’s will. Though he doesn’t know it yet, he now holds the resurrection stone, the item that will open at the close in the forest. It is a birthday that starts and ends with hints about what little time he has left: the stage is set for an arc that, now, has to end in his own death.

Foreshadowing Ginny and the Forest

Moments foreshadowing the significance of the forest are all over Deathly Hallows. Sometimes, they mirror the moment of his own death; often, they are related to Ginny. When they leave the Ministry, with Ron splinched, clutching the Horcrux locket, they arrive in a forest. For a moment Harry’s heart ‘leaped’ at the thought that they were back in Hogwarts’ grounds, the site of so much of his earlier happiness with Ginny (DH, 221). When the trio hear that Ginny, Neville and Luna tried to steal the sword of Gryffindor, it is the Forbidden Forest they are sent to by Snape as punishment (248-9). Harry does not fear the Forest, and is consoled by the thought of Ginny serving detention there rather than anywhere else.

In the Forest of Dean, the scene where Ron returns begins with Harry thinking of Ginny. He sits at the mouth of the tent, wanting to look for Ginny on the Marauders’ Map, until he remembers it’s Christmastime and she is at the Burrow (297). Later, in a moment that mirrors his later walk to his death, he follows his mother - Snape’s patronus, the doe - into the woods, in order to recover and destroy the Horcrux, inching Harry’s own life closer to its close:

Though the darkness had swallowed her whole, [the doe’s] burnished image was still imprinted on his retinas; it obscured his vision, brightening when he lowered his eyelids, disorienting him. Now fear came: Her presence had meant safety. “Lumos!” he whispered, and the wand-tip ignited. The imprint of the doe faded away with every blink of his eyes as he stood there, listening to the sounds of the forest, to distant crackles of twigs… He held the wand higher. Nobody ran out at him, no flash of green light burst from behind a tree. Why, then, had she led him to this spot?’ (DH, 299)

Foreshadowing Harry's end in the Forest means also foreshadowing Ginny's own appearance at the moment of his death.

Harry’s ‘death’ in the Forest

In the final battle, Ginny is the last person Harry sees before he begins his walk into the Forest. He takes the words she says to the child on the ground as her final act of comfort. Harry hears them as if they are being spoken to him:

‘He was feet away from her when he realised it was Ginny. He stopped in his tracks. She was crouching over a girl who was whispering for her mother. ‘It’s all right,’ Ginny was saying. ‘It’s okay. We’re going to get you inside.’ ‘But I want to go home,’ whispered the girl. ‘I don’t want to fight anymore!’ ‘I know,’ said Ginny, and her voice broke. ‘It’s going to be all right.’ Ripples of cold undulated over Harry’s skin. He wanted to shout out to the night, he wanted Ginny to know that he was there, he wanted her to know where he was going. He wanted to be stopped, to be dragged back, to be sent back home (...) Ginny was kneeling beside the injured girl now, holding her hand. With a huge effort Harry forced himself on. He thought he saw Ginny look around as he passed, and wondered whether she had seen someone walking nearby, but he did not speak, and he did not look back.’ (DH, 558-9)

Harry believes that this is his final moment with Ginny before he goes to die. A part of him wants her to know that it’s happening: he is leaving, at last. But he can't call to her, because he worries she will try and stop him, and he might let her. Instead, he walks on, and doesn’t look back. After watching Ginny comfort the girl crying for her mother, Harry then goes on to the Forest, and summons his own mother, his own family, to walk with him to his death.

‘His body and mind felt oddly disconnected now, his limbs working without conscious instruction, as if he were passenger, not driver, in the body he was about to leave. The dead who walked beside him through the forest were much more real to him now that the living back at the castle: Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and all the others were the ones who felt like ghosts as he stumbled and slipped toward the end of his life, toward Voldemort. . . .' (DH, 561-2)

Harry is already preparing to go on from this world: his living loved ones are the ones he now feels furthest from. He stands now with the dead he has summoned, who recognise him and seem to have memories of him. He doesn't fear the dead: he is going to join them.

It’s the death scene itself that I think has subtle, but important parallels with the kiss scene much earlier. In both imagery and in writing style, the scene recalls that earlier moment, where Harry found himself on the edge of another kind of oblivion. There is this mounting, febrile sense of anticipation. There is a tension that is almost sexual, a dynamic injected into the scene through descriptions of Bellatrix’s body language and behaviour towards Voldemort:

‘Bellatrix, who had leapt to her feet, was looking eagerly from Voldemort to Harry, her breast heaving. The only things that moved were the flames and the snake, coiling and uncoiling in the glittering cage behind Voldemort’s head.’ (DH, 564)

The ugly parallel of Bellatrix and Voldemort is not supposed to show the pair as the mirror image of Harry and Ginny. Rather, it is a theme that recurs throughout the series to demonstrate the gulf between Harry, with his immense capacity for love, and Voldemort, with none. Bellatrix and Ginny are memorably paralleled twice in the series: once, at the Department of Mysteries, where Bellatrix moves to ‘torture the little girl’, and Harry steps in to prevent her (OotP, 783), and again in the final battle:

'Bellatrix was still fighting too, fifty yards away from Voldemort, and like her master she dueled three at once: Hermione, Ginny, and Luna, all battling their hardest, but Bellatrix was equal to them, and Harry’s attention was diverted as a Killing Curse shot so close to Ginny that she missed death by an inch— He changed course, running at Bellatrix rather than Voldemort, but before he had gone a few steps he was knocked sideways…’ (DH, 589)

As Harry waits for the killing curse, we see the most direct parallel with Ginny's final kiss to him:

‘None of the Death Eaters moved. They were waiting: everything was waiting. Hagrid was struggling, and Bellatrix was panting, and Harry thought inexplicably of Ginny, and her blazing look, and the feel of her lips on his — ’ (DH, 564)

There's such an intense physicality and breathlessness to the whole scene, and an enduring pseudo-sexual tension, with Bellatrix audibly panting. Even the sentence structure even invokes the kissing scene: the run-on build up of clauses, the repetition of the present participle to actively hold the reader in one present moment, building and building and ending on a dash, the promise of something more.

At the end of his life, Harry returns to the memory Ginny gave him. She meant for it to be useful, if he was to go to his death. And at the close of his life he chooses to use it, as he prepares to leave her behind in this world and depart for the next. Just as the Resurrection Stone helped accept death, so too does the memory of Ginny. He feels the memory of her, the sensation of physical touch and of being kissed, the look she gives him that he knows as one of love and great courage. As he is killed, he remembers her last gift to him, the certainty of her love for him impressed upon him.

There's a line in OotP that I think is such an underrated line that sums up who Ginny is as a character. Harry is trying to get to Umbridge's fire to speak to Sirius when he thinks the latter is being tortured at the Ministry; Hermione suggests using Ginny and Luna as a distraction, despite Harry's objections:

'Though clearly struggling to understand what was going on, Ginny said immediately, ‘Yeah, we’ll do it,'... (OotP, 736)

This is who Ginny is. It's especially who she is to Harry, during the war. She doesn't fully know what's actually being asked of Harry (and, by extension, what is being asked of her, as the person who loves him, and who has most to lose if he is to die). But even when kept in the dark, she is enormously selfless, and her biggest act of bravery is extremely quiet. She keeps the secret Harry accidentally bestows on her, and she realises, in some sense, before he does, what it will likely mean for his life. She chooses to let him go on, knowing that he is loved, to make the path that he is on a little bit easier, even when she has realised that it will take him away from her for good.

#well that was longer that it needed to be #when in doubt write your way thru ur thoughts #pointing out foreshadowing and gasping is a full time job #justice for the birthday smooch basically #man said: blissful oblivion and also oblivion as in my DEATH #too deep in this to work out if this is even insight at this point #hp analysis #meta #harry/ginny #harry and ginny #hinny #harry x ginny #harry potter #ginny weasley #deathly hallows

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curlspen · 2 years

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I see Snape’s patronus as tragic, not because “unrequited love” or whatever, but because a friend who hastily judged Severus for being less socially able than her, who openly defended his abusers to his face, who abandoned him while he was being waterboarded and sexually abused because he, in direct response to his abuser’s goading, called her a term that also applies to himself - that girl was still the most kind person to him.

That’s how low the bar in Severus’ experiences was. And that’s not unusual, there are many abused kids for whom imperfect childhood friendships were the closest thing to love they had because they didn’t have unconditional love or protection from parents.

And, no, this isn’t a Lily bashing post btw. She was a sheltered and immature child who saw the world in black and white. She’s not a bad person for that, but she wasn’t a beacon of unprecedented kindness either - Lily was just decent and that alone was so foreign to Severus that it reshaped his soul.

#severus snape #pro snape #snape and lily #pro severus snape #not gonna tag her because the j*lys may find it #hp meta #my texts #my meta

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bluethepineapple · 10 months

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Reconciling Kindness and Callousness: A Discussion on Hermione and Emotions

One of the aspects that people struggle a lot with when it comes to Hermione is how she deals with emotions. This is a struggle that I, personally, find to be fair because she is quite complex in this regard.

Hermione can analyze people's emotional states well and is often shown manipulating emotions to get what she wants. We can see this as early as Philosopher's Stone where she, for example, flatters Hagrid to get him to reveal more information about the Stone.

“Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on round here,” said Hermione in a warm, flattering voice. Hagrid’s beard twitched and they could tell he was smiling. “We only wondered who had done the guarding, really.” Hermione went on. “We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you.”

As the series goes on, we will find more and more examples of Hermione perceiving, analyzing, responding, and even using other people's emotions with great accuracy and sensitivity. Most notable perhaps is her explaining Cho's emotional state to Harry and Ron in OotP, but several smaller examples are littered all over the books like her being the first to notice Neville's distress in GoF, correctly reading Harry's feelings about the Goblet of Fire, and giving a similar analysis for Tonks in HBP among other.

For as many examples as we can give of her perceptiveness and sensitivity to emotions, it also cannot be denied that Hermione commits massive social blunders over the series, many of which are attributable to emotional stupidity or failing to read the room. Most notable perhaps is her reaction to the death of Lavender's bunny where she uses it as a jumping point to try and convince her of the bogusness of Divination. There are many other examples of course, ranging from her haranguing Harry and Ron early in PS, to her approach with the house-elves, to insisting Harry teach them DADA in OotP despite his obvious discomfort.

How does one then reconcile Hermione's great sensitivity to people's emotions with her just as great callousness, both being prominent and consistent aspects of her character all throughout the series.

To me the answer is three-fold.

First, Hermione is incredibly cerebral even when it comes to emotions.

It is worth noting that Hermione's assessments of people aren't actually instinctive or even very empathetic. Rather, they are often profiles she builds about people based on observation and inference.

Let us take a look at the way she dissects Cho's feelings for example:

“Well, obviously, she’s feeling very sad, because of Cedric dying. Then I expect she’s feeling confused because she liked Cedric and now she likes Harry, and she can’t work out who she likes best. Then she’ll be feeling guilty, thinking it’s an insult to Cedric’s memory to be kissing Harry at all, and she’ll be worrying about what everyone else might say about her if she starts going out with Harry. And she probably can’t work out what her feelings toward Harry are anyway, because he was the one who was with Cedric when Cedric died, so that’s all very mixed up and painful. Oh, and she’s afraid she’s going to be thrown off the Ravenclaw Quidditch team because she’s been flying so badly.”

Hermione says what Cho's feeling and then follows it up with the circumstances that might have created those feelings plus her evidence for them. She lays everything out in a clean and methodical manner very reminiscent to when she's lecturing the boys about some sort of fact in their missions.

While certainly not cold or emotionless, it does become readily apparent that Hermione processes the emotions of people around her the same way she processes most other forms of information. She "studies" people around her, and from there, builds a baseline of information against which she infers what they are feeling and decides how to respond accordingly. In many ways, people's emotions to her are information just like any other.

Secondly, as kind and as warm as Hermione is, she prioritizes problem-solving over caretaking and is amazing at compartmentalizing emotions away if that's what it takes to get things done.

The fact that she understands what someone else is going through does not always mean she prioritizes these feelings. As mentioned above, what she understands of other people's emotions is just another bit of information she holds - and how she uses these facts vary wildly depending on whichever problem she was trying to solve at the time. Whenever she makes a social blunder, it is almost always traceable to her needing to solve some problem first and insisting on solutions that require significant emotional costs from the people around her.

The most extreme version of this is probably her insisting that Ron focus on their mission right after Fred dies.

They seemed to be wrestling together, and for one mad second Harry thought that they were embracing again; then he saw that Hermione was trying to restrain Ron, to stop him running after Percy. “Listen to me—LISTEN RON!” “I wanna help—I wanna kill Death Eaters—” His face was contorted, smeared with dust and smoke, and he was shaking with rage and grief. “Ron, we’re the only ones who can end it! Please—Ron—we need the snake, we’ve got to kill the snake!” said Hermione. But Harry knew how Ron felt: Pursuing another Horcrux could not bring the satisfaction of revenge; he too wanted to fight, to punish them, the people who had killed Fred, and he wanted to find the other Weasleys, and above all make sure, make quite sure, that Ginny was not—but he could not permit that idea to form in his mind— “We will fight!” Hermione said. “We’ll have to, to reach the snake! But let’s not lose sight now of what we’re supposed to be d-doing! We’re the only ones who can end it!” She was crying too, and she wiped her face on her torn and singed sleeve as she spoke, but she took great heaving breaths to calm herself as, still keeping a tight hold on Ron, she turned to Harry. "You need to find out where Voldemort is, because he’ll have the snake with him, won’t he? Do it, Harry—look inside him!”

From the section I bolded, it is obvious that Hermione knows that Ron is grieving and that she too is feeling the horror of Fred's death as well. It is worth noting though that she doesn't actually spare any words to comfort Ron. She doesn't stop to talk him through his feelings - rather she is telling him over and over that their mission has to come first. They both watched Fred die, but her focus even now is seeing the mission through.

This leads us to the final aspect:

Hermione projects this ability to compartmentalize to the people around her, especially when she believes them to be working together.

It is noteworthy that not only did Hermione set her own emotions aside, she asked that Ron do so too. And when Ron finally calms down, she then asks Harry to go and look into Voldemort's head. Not only is she compartmentalizing her own emotions away, she expects both boys to do so too.

Once more, there are many smaller instances like the above that cropped up all over the series. The Lavender problem, her campaign with the house-elves, her insistence that Harry teaches them DADA, her many many arguments with Harry - all of these are traceable to her insistence on setting emotion aside to solve a problem.

Doing the right thing holds primacy over people's feelings - both her own and those of the people around her.

Conclusion:

Hermione is a sensitive individual who reads people's emotions well and has many times reacted with great kindness and empathy to distress. This ability to read emotions however happens in line with her very cerebral personality, and while she can be sweet and caring, when push comes to shove Hermione focuses on problem-solving. This oftens leads to a disregard for other people's feelings and a consistent streak of callousness.

All in all, I find Hermione's relationship with emotions to be utterly fascinating. It is complex and dynamic, something that we see grow with her over time. Her reactions and tendencies are not clear-cut nor easy to map. Not only does Hermione defy the false dichotomy of book intelligence versus emotional intelligence, both are integral in the way she processes and reacts to emotion.

#hermione granger #hp meta #hermione meta #my metas

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sevengraces · 9 months

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I love that throughout the series Murderbot is both:

- one of the most spiteful beings I’ve ever had the pleasure of being the narrator in a book I read,

- and also so immensely compassionate 24/7 towards its companions and acquaintances regardless of personal opinions

———

Like yes,

-it’s internal monologue through almost every fight is I wanna win and if I have to die to take down this fucker I will, it just doesn’t deserve to win

-While also, addressing every single bot kind of entity with this level of respect, comradery, and attachment, regardless of so-called sentience or sapience. Even going through extra steps to protect Guarthin and free the comfortunit despite how harsh it behaves towards the both of them.

———

The only notable exceptions I can recall to this sort of inherent respect it has is with the other bot/human constructs (ie comfortunits/combatunits/occasionally other secunits), which I imagine is the self-loathing talking,,, and that is something that improves measurably throughout the series at least in regards to comfort and sec units- which does imply possible change in regard for combatunits !!!

———

Like I know, this is like the point of the book or whatever but there’s not like a lotta moments in which I go

“man murderbot, You just kind of disregarded the like personhood (for lack of a better term) of that being.”

because like, there are a lot of books, in which,, despite the overarching moral being something to the effect of

[treat people well,] or

[everyone deserves respect]

there’s almost always exceptions to that rule that are implied or stated within the text despite the inherent contradictions it makes to what the author is trying to teach you (think hp w the supposed moral being found family but the plot being utterly reliant on blood ties above all else)

It’s just ridiculously refreshing to read something and not have to watch the author backpedal on their thesis once they get to the world building,,,,,

#murderbot #the murderbot diaries #grace is talking #don’t take my opinions of HP seriously cause I don’t give a shit #meta analysis #literature #theory

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iamnmbr3 · 2 months

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When Harry witnesses Draco being forced to torture Rowle, he is extremely upset. Much more so than he typically is about these visions. There are a lot of very drarry implications. Let's break it down.

"Malfoy’s gaunt, petrified face seemed branded on the inside of his eyes. Harry felt sickened by what he had seen, by the use to which Draco was now being put by Voldemort.”

Notable points from this passage:

1) Harry understands Draco so well that he immediately takes for granted that he doesn't want to be using the Cruciatus curse. It never even crosses his mind to take this as evidence that Draco is now a willing torturer who enjoys cruelty or that he deserves to be in this situation for having chosen the wrong side and for his role in Dumbledore's death.

Nor does Harry think Draco is just scared and upset because he's afraid Voldemort might lash out at him too - which is what Harry would think if he saw any other Death Eater acting afraid around Voldemort. He clearly sees that Draco is horrified by the acts he is being forced to commit. And he also completely accepts that it is Voldemort forcing Draco to commit these acts, thus absolving Draco of responsibility.

2) Harry is DEEPLY upset by seeing Draco in this position. More upset than he ever is about seeing any other Death Eater being terrorized or hurt by Voldemort (Harry doesn't even spare one thought for Rowle for example!) Not only that. He's also more upset than he is about seeing Ollivander tortured. Or about seeing Voldemort murder a woman and her children later on while searching for information about Gregorovitch. He finds those visions alarming but he shakes them off pretty quickly.

The only comparable strong reactions are how he responds to his visions of Arthur Weasley and Sirius in book 5 - i.e. visions of people he knows and cares about in danger and suffering. And it's not even the scene as a whole that upsets him. It's specifically Draco - whose frightened face seems "branded" on the inside of Harry's eyes. Harry can't get the vision out of his head, feels sickened, and fights to keep his voice casual afterward. Even though Draco wasn't even actively being hurt.

So canonically Draco matters to Harry in a way that almost all other people don't. It's not generic nobility that gives Harry sympathy even for an enemy - because he doesn't feel this way about other Death Eaters. And it's not general pity that Harry would feel for any innocent hurt by Voldemort - because he doesn't feel that way about victims like Ollivander or the children Voldemort killed. It's the type of reaction Harry ONLY has to people he deeply cares about suffering or being in danger. Harry may not think of it that way on an intellectual level. But his heart knows it even if his brain doesn't. He cares about Draco Malfoy. A lot. He cares about him more than he cares about almost anyone else.

3) Also notable. Harry starts out referring to him as Malfoy but then switches to thinking of him as Draco as he starts worrying about him. (Yes. The drarry trope of Harry switching from "Malfoy" to "Draco" literally happens. IN CANON.) And he keeps thinking of him as Draco after that point. The next time Draco is referred to is during the whole sequence where the Golden Trio are prisoners at the Manor. Harry refers to Lucius by his full name multiple times, but consistently refers to Draco as "Draco" rather than "Malfoy" in his internal narration.

4) (Also the fact that Draco's face is described as "gaunt" hits me right in the feels. It seems that he's in worse shape even than he was when Harry last saw him at the end of 6th year. Sad but not surprising given the guilt that is probably eating at him over his role in Dumbledore's death, what he is now being forced to do as a Death Eater, and the very tangible dangers and suffering that come with being out of favor with Voldemort while having him in your house.)

Tldr: I don't need my ships to be canon but drarry is. jkr who? ;)

#drarry in canon #drarry #Harry Potter #Harry Potter meta #meta #my meta #drarry meta #Draco Malfoy #hpdm #harry/draco #draco/harry #hp reread #harry potter and the deathly hallows #my post #drarry g

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annabtg · 10 months

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Headcanon post: the Sirius & James friendship

It is a well-known and irrefutable fact that James was Sirius's favourite person in the world. However, this sometimes leads people to think that Sirius treated James the way he later treats his new favourite person in the world, Harry - which I completely disagree with.

Sirius is very protective towards Harry, of course he is. Harry is a child, an orphan who was/should have been placed in his care. And at that point in his life, Sirius is a broken and disillusioned man with no other purpose than to care for the person dearest in his heart and at the same time atone for his best friend's death, which he still feels responsible for. Of course he drops everything, fights everyone, risks his life and freedom for Harry. But his relationship with James wasn't - can't have been like that.

Sirius and James are equals. Sirius sees James as a partner in crime, he appreciates his mind and skills; and James sees Sirius the exact same way. They've got each other's back; it's not one protecting the other at all costs. They both have lives at that point, even if one has a family and the other doesn't. (Single people are just as worthy of life as people with families! Follow me for more tips.)

I've said before that I see Sirius and James having an older brother/younger brother dynamic. Sirius has power over James that no one else does, as we see in SWM ("put that away, will you" - "if it bothers you"). He will die for him, but he *will* give him shit before he does. Oldest siblings will know what I'm talking about: you can make your sibling suffer if you feel like it, but Merlin help anyone else who think they can touch them.

Meanwhile, James adores Sirius and looks up to him. He is spoiled and attention-seeking, like a little brother would be, full of himself and stubborn. He won't admit to his faults or ask for help; and Sirius, who grew up under constant pressure and hated every minute of it, would never step up on his own "because he knows better". He is smart enough to know better, but he will never step in front of someone and tell them they're being an idiot. He is the type to let people suffer the consequences of their own actions (see: The Prank).

I think it's telling that, when the Potters are in hiding, it's Lily who asks Sirius to visit James. Sirius shouldn't need to be told to visit James; nobody doubts that Sirius loved James, that he was very concerned about the Potters' situation and he had them in his mind constantly. Yet he steps back and stays away - possibly on Dumbledore's orders (too many visits might draw attention) - while at the same time, James refuses to admit he can't deal with it. Sirius hadn't guessed James would suffer in lockdown? He's known him for ten years at this point, I'm pretty sure he did. And I'm pretty sure they talk often and exchange letters. This, imo, shows that Sirius, where James is concerned (or at this point in his life) is more logical than sentimental. He puts safety and the Order first, and James's feelings (and probably his own too) second.

Tl;dr: while Sirius was utterly devoted to James, I don't agree with the view that his actions always put James's wishes first and foremost. However, he'd do anything to keep him safe; which is why he was so devastated when James died, why he took it personally, and why he took such pains to take care of Harry and keep him safe afterwards.

#sirius black #james potter #james & sirius #hp meta #my headcanons

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celestemagnoliathewriter · 4 months

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Catholic Worldbuilding and the Wizarding World - Headcanons and More

If you've read All That Remains, my Regulus-Black centric work, you'll know I've incorporated Catholicism into my fics since then. The inspiration to incorporate Catholicism came from both @artemisia-black's Lacrimosa and Fiat justitia and her world building in D&D and Pietas, and @green-and-grey-kenaz's And he Drank.

Some caveats before I go on:

These are just headcanons of mine and things I've put into my fics. They work with the world but you don't need to accept them as canon or canon-compliant. Nor am I asking you to do so. I'm just excited to have this list put together of what I've done and the research that went into it.

There are other religions and faiths in the wizarding world. As Britain became more multicultural and diverse, it meant the purebloods and wizarding population did too.

This list is specifically for certain old-school Catholic families, particularly ones like the Blacks.

Catholic HCs and world building in my works:

Old-world pureblood families were Catholic. As the Roman Empire spread, witches and wizards from other areas hopped into Britain and converted Muggles and purebloods alike from paganism to Christianity. Wizarding world Jesus was a wizard; the Resurrection can still hold up as a miracle because no magic can reverse death.

When Hogwarts was founded in about 1000 AD, a chapel was installed inside the school. In my Regulus Black-centric work, I have the chapel and its tabernacle being a personal gift from Pope John XV to Salazar Slytherin in honor of the new school being built.

Magical Catholic Mass isn’t terribly different from Muggle Catholic Mass. The key difference is that since purebloods/wizarding society tends to be more old-school than Muggles, purebloods never bothered to implement the vernacular changes of Vatican II. They still celebrate Mass in Latin.

The Pope is always aware of magical Catholics, not unlike the Prime Minister knowing about wizards. There are wizarding bishops and cardinals buried in the catacombs in the Vatican.

Magical Catholics have their own dioceses; they’re bigger, geographically speaking, because there’s a much smaller wizarding population than the general population.

Pureblood Squibs are sent to monasteries or convents.

I’ve created several locations like St. Mungo’s to accommodate various parts of wizarding society. St. Mungo was a real Britonnic saint, so all these saints below are also Anglo-Saxon/British and I’ve incorporated them into my worldbuilding, particularly in my current longfic, Supernova. Again, these are all my creations - not actual canon.

There is a privately-funded pureblood hospital called St. Teilo’s. It’s where purebloods go to avoid being treated by Muggleborn Healers or associating with Muggleborns in general. St. Teilo’s bio page.

I created a day school for pureblood girls called St. Leoba’s. In the context of my fic, Supernova, it’s where a lot of pureblood girls go to school before they go to Hogwarts, whose parents aren’t keen to educate them themselves. St. Leoba’s bio page.

There is a long-term care home called St. Hugh’s Home for Hopeless Cases. It’s a poorly funded Ministry facility for wizards with long-term illnesses and inmates from Azkaban who have been Kissed. St. Hugh of Lincoln’s bio page.

Purebloods worship at St. Aelred’s Cathedral. St. Aelred of Rievaulx was a real monastic whose abbey is now in ruins in Northumbria. I weave that into my stories by having Muggles see the abbey in ruins, but purebloods can see a proper cathedral and that’s where they have Mass. St. Aelred’s bio page.

St. Aelred also has an extensive graveyard, complete with private mausoleums for individual families. The Blacks have one of the grandest mausoleums.

The stained glass windows and art in St. Aelred’s move like photographs and portraits. The crucifix appears to be ‘living’ with blood shining on Christ’s wounds. Purebloods think it’s neat.

The Statute of Secrecy and the creation of the Church of England were tied together. The CoE was founded in the early 1500s. The Statute of Secrecy went into effect in the late 1600s. The rise in persecution against witches and wizards, particularly from Muggles associating Catholic practices with witchcraft in general, was one of the reasons why the Statute went into effect. As a result, this is one of the other reasons why purebloods are so resentful towards Muggles and Muggleborns, as most of them are Anglicans.

Most pureblood families aren’t necessarily devout. Cultural Christianity/Catholicism is fairly common, but even when it’s cultural, it’s still very much a way for purebloods to wield power, influence, and control.

Like many Catholics, old-school purebloods really like their relics and/or more ‘gory’ mementos. You may be aware that Catholics venerate (not worship, not adore, more like honoring) relics of dead saints, such as fragments of bone, skin, blood, etc. Given the Black family’s cool collection of blood and other unusual items, it makes sense to me that pureblood Catholics are fully on board with collecting pieces of dead bodies and having their own reliquaries at home.

The splitting of one’s soul is an act of violence against the sacred. I wrote a meta on Horcruxes and Soul-Splitting; I imagine that the most zealous purebloods would find horcruxes to be outright offensive, not because of the murders involved, but because of the disintegration of the soul. I would also like to highlight this meta written by @artemisia-black and @ashesandhackles, the Importance of the Soul.

#hp meta #hp headcanons #catholicism #catholic #catholicism in my fics #the black family #st teilo #st aelred #st leoba #st hugh of lincoln

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remus-poopin · 2 years

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HP META MASTERLISTS

Hey! Here is a huge master list of all my favorite Harry Potter character analyses and Metas!

I DID NOT write these! Please do yourself a favor and check out some of the wonderful and intelligent writers of these metas as they deserve all the praise for their hard and impressive work!

If anyone of the writers for whatever reason wants me to remove their meta from this list just tell me and it will be done!

Some of these may be contradictory to each other but that is because I like to hear other interpretations. These may not line up exactly with your view of the characters (not all of them line up with mine) but please try to be respectful.

*Almost all of these are from Tumblr except one from reddit and one from a outside blog.

Enjoy!

REMUS LUPIN META:

General analysis/meta/thoughts:

Gentleman Monster: How Remus’s Marginalization and Comparative Privilege Made Who He Is

The Marauders Map scene in POA: Verbal Fencing Between Snape and Lupin

Prisoner of Azkaban: When Hostility Meets Passive Aggression

Remus Lupin: in depth analysis

“And I haven’t changed...”

Lupin as a manipulator

Remus would rather categorize himself with his oppressor than validate his own experiences.

Harry, Snape and Lupin: morality and “the greater good”

Lupin and his failure to think ahead - the boggart scene

Remus Lupin: ENFJ

Remus lupin: Repentance vs Regret

Lupin and Language

Remus And His Use of Language + Sirius' Dark Humor

Lupin and his use of pauses and “ers”

Lupin and language - “glimpse”

Neither Likes Not Dislikes Severus…

Lupin appreciation: How he speaks

Debunking Fanon:

Fanon vs. Canon: Remus Lupin Edition (reddit)

Relationships/dynamics/parallels:

Harry and Remus’ dynamic

Snape and Lupin parallels

The Great Pretenders: Remus and Regulus

Nearly Always Right: Remus and Harry

Remus and what his friendships represent

Power game that goes on between Lupin and Snape in POA

Lovable Except for that Terrible Period: The Upbringing of Remus Lupin

Theories and headcanons:

Remus’ “unmistakable signs of trying to live among wizards”

Remus did a lot of “growing up” during the lost years

If Lupin and Tonks had survived the battle?

Miscellaneous:

Lupin isn't the middle ground in Mrs Weasley vs Sirius argument

Remus with his own special brand of comforting logic

Lupin and how he presents in front of others

Remus Lupin is so detached from things

Remus Lupin at his most dangerous

Lupin lying to himself and others

Lupin is a gold standard for for the male manipulator trope

Bonus thoughts on werewolves as sexual predators, and Lupins' response to this.

SIRIUS BLACK META:

General analysis/meta/thoughts:

Part one: Sirius and the shadow of being a Black.

Part two: Sirius Black: the victim of the system he was born to rule

Grimmauld Place: Azkaban by a different name

Sirius Black and Complex trauma

Sirius's core need for family

Sirius's views on Death-Eaters: The world isn't split into good people and Death-eaters.

Padfoot and the Liminal Space

Arrested Development – Sirius, Snape, Obsessions and Blind Spots

Sirius Black, Mental Health and Masculinity

Part one

Part two

Part three

Part four

Debunking Fanon:

Sirius is not as explosive as he is often characterized.

Sirius was not an immature man -child

Sirius is both emotionally and academically intelligent

Relationships/dynamics/parallels:

Someone Like A Parent: The Beginning of Bond in POA

Padfoot and Prongs: an analysis of the friendship

Why Sirius hated Snape so much

Sirius and Walburga: the passive-aggressive Sticking Charm

Sirius and Walburga's similarities

Regulus and Sirius's relationship

Sirius and Lily

Sirius and Orion Black

Sirius and Regulus’s relationship is Kreacher

Snape parallels:

The Hogwarts Express scene in Prince’s Tale: A Sirius and Snape analysis

Sirius and Snape as foils

Sirius and Snape both want to be part of a world that they will never truly understand.

Snape, Sirius, and revenge

Sirius and Snape parallels: rule breaking

More Snape and Sirius parallels

Sirius/Snape parallels - Gender coding

Miscellaneous:

Sirius’ sense of humor

Shame of My Flesh: Reading into Sirius’ Thoughts on Crouch Family

Sirius and Molly Argument in OOTP

James, Sirius and Snape: privilege and intelligence

JAMES POTTER META:

General analysis/meta/thoughts:

Ashes’ thoughts on James

“the marauders’ is essentially just three people wanting to be James’ best friend but only one of them actually achieving it”

Too Deep for the Healing

Debunking Fanon:

“golden retriever” James Potter

Relationships/dynamics/parallels:

James and Sirius had the best friendship in the story

Mine!: James Potter and Regulus Black

James Didn’t Suspect Remus - First War edition

James/Sirius

Theories and headcanons:

How does growing up with elderly parents affect James’s personality?

Miscellaneous:

James inner sense of nobility prevents him from killing

PETER PETTIGREW META:

General analysis/meta/thoughts:

Peter Pettigrew is emotionally intelligent and uses it in a strategic manner.

Peter is a Beautiful Scum Bag

Relationships/dynamics/parallels:

Where is the Loyalty? Regulus and Peter

Peter and Remus

Theories and headcanons:

Peter Pettigrew and the Werewolf Incident (Not as Much of a Key Event for Him)

MARAUDER META:

General analysis/meta/thoughts:

Reading Marauders Dynamics in SWM

An Analysis of the Snape’s Worst Memory Pensieve scene

SWM occurring after The Prank is neither a plot hole nor inconsistent

The rifts that made it possible for the Marauders to fall apart were evident even as far back as Hogwarts.

Fallout of the “prank”

Debunking Fanon:

J/S vs F/G: different types of troublemakers

Relationships/dynamics/parallels:

The marauders individual relationships

Remus with Sirius and James?

Lupin within the marauder dynamic

Miscellaneous:

The marauders recklessness

LILY EVANS META:

General analysis/meta/thoughts:

Lily and Altruism

Lily and insecurity

Slughorn’s favorite student

Lily’s weakness is her fondness for being the exception

Debunking Fanon:

Lily’s cold anger

“Friendzoned”

Relationships/dynamics/parallels:

Lily as a friend

Interpretation of Lily’s blush

Lily Evans’ letter to Sirius Black

Lily Evans is attracted to James Potter in Snape's Worst Memory.

Lily intended to break off her friendship with Severus before SWM

Harry’s relationship to the Prince as a blueprint for Lily’s friendship with Snape

Lily’s feelings for Snape are more complex than fandom gives them credit for.

Lily and her friendships

Lily never hated Petunia

What’s Up with Petunia’s Resentment of Lily?

Theories and headcanons:

Mulciber, Mary Macdonald and why Lily almost smiled in Snape’s Worst Memory

Miscellaneous:

Lily is blind to the flaws of people she admires/loves unless it explodes in her face.

SEVERUS SNAPE META:

General analysis/meta/thoughts:

Snape and the importance of his memories

Snape and Class

How Dumbledore’s death speaks to Snape’s moral evolution

Snape: class and power

Two up, two down

Spinner's End (white hound)

Why does Spinners End matter?

Snape, Lupin and the trolley problem

a matter of perspective

Snape and wizarding privilege?

Snape as a guardian

Debunking Fanon:

“Rivalries”

James and Snape were rivals? Nah.

Snape was not upset over the lost of the order of merlin

Snape doesn't want revenge

Snape and textbooks

Obsession or Love?

Relationships/dynamics/parallels:

Lily and Sev

“Lily Potter’s Son”

Feminist reading of lily/James/snape

Snape and lily’s shared spirit

The extremely dysfunctional friendship of Snape and Lily

Dumbledore, Snape and the werewolf incident.

Snape was his own man

Snape and Lupin

Theories and headcanons:

Snape and the Order confrontation of the Dursley's

Snape and the prince nickname

Miscellaneous:

“Said Snape”

Snape as a “bad victim”

Snape, tropes, and classic English literature

On Rage and Kindness

Snape’s use of language

Severus Snape or the Importance of Body Language

Snape being female coded

Snape had to practice being a person

Snape and queer coding

Snape loving the “goodness in lily”

Snape was really traumatized by SWM

HERMIONE GRANGER META:

General analysis/meta/thoughts:

Reconciling Kindness and Callousness: A Discussion on Hermione and Emotions

A Discussion on Hermione and Leadership

Hermione was born a leader and diplomat

Hermione “character growth” with SPEW

Debunking Fanon:

Hermione IS soft

Relationships/dynamics/parallels:

Mr. and Mrs. Wilkins: A Closer Look into Hermione’s Modification of Her Parents’ Memories

Harry and Hermione understand each other

Harry is in awe of Hermione

Ron/Hermione

Theories and headcanons:

Hermione wouldn't like fiction

Miscellaneous:

Cool Hermione Things: Magic Under Pressure

Hermione and internalized misogyny

Hermione can be very ruthless

Book Hermione

On Grandness: A Hermione Granger Appreciation Post

HARRY JAMES POTTER META:

General analysis/meta/thoughts:

Deconstructing Harry: The boy we meet in Philosopher’s Stone to the man in Deathly Hallows

The Resurrection Stone Scene: Culmination Of Harry’s Emotional Arc

The Dementors and Harry's Complex grief

Harry’s inherent tendency towards fairness

Harry, Hermione and the prince

'Be brave like my mother, Professor'

The Lightning-Struck Tower: “It is My Mercy, Not Yours That Matters Now”

Relationships/dynamics/parallels:

Harry And Personal Conflict: A Meta On Evolving Dynamic With Ron and Hermione

Harry identified with and reluctantly admired Snape even before ‘The Prince’s Tale’

Harry and Hermione in The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore

Harry and The Dursleys: Examining His Response to his Abusers

Harry-Hermione Friendship

On Harry and the adults in his life

The Mirthless Laugh: Sirius and Harry

Harry and Tom: Parents, Love and Death

A Cold Blooded Walk to Destruction: The Deaths of Harry and Dumbledore

Harry and the Dursleys: (Companion Piece to Deconstructing Harry)

Miscellaneous:

Harry's intuitive, empathy related approach to morality

Harry and intellectual curiosity

The Potters and class

Harry and masculinity

Harry’s quirks

RON WEASLEY META:

General analysis/meta/thoughts:

I Have Seen Your Heart: Exploring Ron's arc through the Mirror of Erised and the Locket

Ron isn't a strategist, he's the heart

Debunking Fanon:

Ron’s humor and emotional intelligence

Relationships/dynamics/parallels:

Harry and Ron’s friendship

Miscellaneous:

Ron and the Horcrux: An Alternate Reading

GOLDEN TRIO META:

General analysis/meta/thoughts:

Gender Dynamics in the Trio, Part One: Gender and Subordination

Debunking Fanon:

Hermione and Ron don't blindly trust harry

Relationships/dynamics/parallels:

Harry and Hermione: Balancing Acts, Effort, and Compromise

GINNY WEASLEY META:

General analysis/meta/thoughts:

“Lucky you”

On the veil

Relationships/dynamics/parallels:

Does gender plays a role in Harry and Ginny’s respective interactions with Voldemort?

Ginny and dean

Ginny and Neville during DH

Did the Weasley’s know about Harry and Ginny?

Ginny, the diary, and her family’s reaction

Ginny and Luna's Relationship

Harry’s thoughts of Ginny in the Forest

Harry and Ginny's shared experience of going to their deaths

Harry and Ginny at Shell Cottage

Miscellaneous:

Ginny and writing failures

Ginny is a chad

WEASLEY META:

General analysis/meta/thoughts:

Weasley siblings reacting to the expectations put upon them

Percy Weasley and the Gryffindor narrative

Percy fell through a big crack

Debunking Fanon:

Percy actually wasn’t Molly’s favorite

Relationships/dynamics/parallels:

Weasley Family Dynamics as a quidditch team

Percy with F&G and Bill

Percy, Fred, and George

Ginny and Molly

The relationship between Percy & Arthur

Percy and Arthur were close without actually knowing each other's true selves

Miscellaneous:

The Weasleys Aren’t Evil, Or Anything, But They’re Not Saints Either

OTHER CHARACTERS META

Dumbledore:

Dumbledore as a Mentor

Dumbledore and Reflections of Himself

Albus Dumbledore is not only respected and feared, but also loved

Albus Dumbledore Has Done Great, Generous, Things for People (Though He Also Uses These People as Pawns Later)

The Blacks:

Walburga Black: the madwoman in the attic

General Thoughts on the Black Family

Bellatrix: Mental health and the feminist lens

The Black family and pureblood ideology

The Blacks are a family in decline

Regulus: unrepentant bigot

The Blacks family system is abusive

The Malfoys:

Draco & Blaise: frenemies, not friends

“This is Crabbe and this is Goyle”: friends on last name basis?

“all draco wanted was to be loved” debunked

“Said Malfoy”

Draco and Lucius are the magical equivalent of Dudley and Vernon?

Tom Riddle:

The Abandoned Boy And His Problematic Fathers: Snape with Voldemort & Dumbledore

Neville:

Trevor and Neville’s Boggart

Neville’s Boggart

The Dursleys:

Petunia: “it does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live”

Pansy:

Pansy, the girly mean girl

WORLD BUILDING

Wizarding World Magic:

HP magic system

What the Patronus charm represents

The Importance of Soul in HP verse

Wizarding World Politics:

Wizarding UK and democracy

Wizarding World Culture:

Chamber of Secrets- an insight into intersecting identities.

Why the Wizarding World Didn’t Oppose Voldemort

House Elves Are Slaves

The Wizarding World and Its Profound Ignorance of Muggles

A History of Magic Brought to You By The Carnivorous Muffin

The Wizarding World Lacks a Key Understanding of Magic

Hogwarts:

Hogwarts School Uniform

Hogwarts Houses by Muffin

How Old is the Bias Against Slytherin?

No, Really, the Hogwarts Houses Are Awful

Misc.

The Order of the Phoenix is a Useless Joke

Wandlore: Remus, Slughorn, and Lily

MISC. META

Harry Potter as a colonial fantasy

Death as one of HP’s themes

The “not like other girls” syndrome in the Harry Potter books.

HP series being ‘ethically mean spirited’

Marauders era and the 70s aesthetic?

JKR and chirstianity

Harry potter series and how american readers can understand classism a little better

Slytherin and Eton: A Primer on the British School System.

JKR’s absolutist way of seeing the world: gryffindor and slytherin

Hogwarts teachers and our modern muggle lens

Questioning the marauders map and the narrative surrounding it

Interesting debates/conversations/thought experiments/ideas:

If Harry had told Ron and Hermione about Snape's Worst Memory?

Bellatrix and feminism?

Snape and Stalking?

Best DADA teacher?

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