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the-last-concert · 3 months

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Prologue- Before Set

The chilled air reminded me of them. How it was filled with pure nostalgia of camping, walks, and drive-ins. Growing up in a small town like Mystique didn’t offer much. But I met both of my best friends there. And since then… we became the trinity of inseparable destiny.

That was 9 years ago.

I received a letter from one of them. He invited me to a Paramore concert from their reunion tour. I was so busy job hunting, I didn’t even know they got back together. They were our favorite band growing up.

It’s been a long time since we all were together. I was at the Four Seasons hotel near Madison Square Garden. Back when we all grew up together, I was happy. I felt proud to have known them at a young age. They were fearless. It only made me want to be ….just as shameless.

After graduation from the great Mystique High School, Home of the Boars. We went our separate ways. I relocated to New York and studied at Columbia. I wanted to go into Art History. And they had dreams they wanted to chase. We ended up separating from each other a little under a decade.

Back in grade school, we learned a lot from each other. I wondered… What's changed ? Who stayed the same ?

I only wrote letters to one of them. I haven’t heard anything from the other. It’s like he faded into the background with no trace, whatsoever. Maybe he just wanted a clean slate from the overwhelming fame of being a prodigy athlete to Mystique. Just 20 miles outside of Milwaukee, Mystique was a town that was ran by them. Two overly ambitious athletes got all the praise from our quiet little town. But they won games. Brought back trophies. Almost went to the championship. But we didn't go because our rivals had a better season.

Back then, I thought I could never entertain the idea of falling in love with them. I did love them. But it was strictly platonic. Though a lot of our fellow classmates thought otherwise. They were seen as my brothers. I was an only child so it was fitting. They’ve only seen me as their youngest sister. They protected me. I was never bullied.

They ran most of the popular hangouts. Rosie’s. The Mystique Drive-In. And so on. No kid could ever cross them. They weren’t brothers, though everyone thought they were. They just shared the same age and same birthday. I guess that’s why no one could ever tell them apart. They were smart, but most of all kind. Different from the guys I ever dated. I knew no one would ever want to meet them, personally. Their intimidation was powerful. I talked about them, and it was a threat. Like every guy handled envy a little differently. I tried to tell them, there was nothing ever to be envious about. It never rang out. I guess my lips spoke their names too much. They tried to do everything to tune them out. It was then that I accepted, maybe I would fall for one of them. It was just all a matter of when. No more doubts.

Now, I’m looking off into the distance in front of a clear, blackened view of an open road. It leads to the last concert I would see both of them at. And I was riddled with countless questions of my heart having to split into. I didn’t feel as close to them as I did back then, I was scared shitless of what opinions waved in. How would they view me now? Would they see me as just as mature? Would they have an evolutionary perspective of the woman I am ? Am I appealing? Oh, and most of all, would they honor my feelings too? It was still too early to tell which one gripped my heart more, however, I knew I would have an answer, seeing them together.

I put my tea down on the crystallized glass table. I gathered up my wool jacket and headed out. The black concrete road was were I was going to face them. I fished out my gloves in my pocket and the hand warmers seeped through the seams. It was the transition of autumn becoming winter. The awful chill in the New York air nipped every breath and turned it into a spoken image. I didn’t care how cold my lips were about to feel, I wasn’t turning down this invitation. I desperately needed to see them. For a while, they were home. I guess I just missed how comfortable I felt around them.

I look up from the concrete and see him at once. He was walking ahead of me, a bit lonely. His shoulders hung low and his black wool coat wrapped around his lengthy torso. He stood about 6’5” tall. Even slightly hunched over, I noticed he had a better chance of reaching heaven than I did. I only stood at 5’6”.

He wore tightly darker jeans and the low Nike 1s in orange and blue traces. It was the only thing that brightened against the darkened concrete. I could always tell him from the other.

The nickname I gave him was so long ago. It was a ringing joke from him always losing races the three of us competed in. And so, we settled with Speedy. It was a double entendre. There was nothing speedy about him, but he still accepted it.

The way he drove his 1990 Dodge Challenger, was a different story. When he finally got behind the wheel, his car made up for the lack of full speed he couldn’t carry.

“Speedy,” I called for him. He came to a shrieking halt before he whipped around. Best greeting yet. He looked like he just saw a ghost.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Speedy said as we stopped under the flickering streetlight. The scar was still there, right under his eye. His freckles were spread out from across his nose and landed on each side of his cheeks. His eyes shined the brightest of amber. I only had a minute to take him all in, but my heart knew. I knew Speedy more than myself. I knew all his shortcomings and with each breath, memories flooded between the both of us like a flowing creek. Walks by the rivers. Building tree fortresses in the middle of the woods. Late night camp session readings that were often crashed by his counterpart. The other him. Pepper. A name we didn’t give, but his family did. But he was never bothered with us taking it on. And to them- I was Moggie. Some days-Mog. Short for Mahogany.

“You always had perfect timing huh, Mog?” Speedy looks toward me, hopeful. I felt a warm feeling in my chest.

I smiled up at him. “I always knew where to be.”

“That’s for damn sure.” Speedy rushes me and lifts me in the air. “God, you barely grew Mog. But I guess your height was never your best factor.”

I scoffed, hitting his shoulder to put me down. “Like speed was ever yours?”

“Ouch,” Speedy replied after we continued our walk. “Still witty as a bat, man… I’ve missed that.” Then, he paused in the cold air. “I’ve… missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too.” I responded.

We made it towards the checkpoint and we met Pepper right near the front. Pepper was shorter than Speedy by a few inches. But it didn’t stop him from having the biggest ego between them. Tonight, he looked as I remembered him. Dreamless eyes that were multicolored. The left side was brown. The right side was blue. Freckles were brown and gathered across his nose. His hair was shorter now and faded out to fine coiled lines. He wore a dark brown jacket and a white shirt underneath. His pants were black and skinny. Combat boots he wore were very spiky. Typical rockstar look for someone who is the most witty.

“Moggie… wow. Still a sight for sore eyes.”

Pepper stretched his arms toward me and I piled right in. His embrace was warm enough. His arms wrapped around me tightly like a protective shield. I didn’t think he would ring so much affection in our returned encounter. I was taken aback, but then again Pep always did things to surprise me. That fact wasn’t too surprising.

“Hey, Pepper. How you been?” I asked after we broke apart.

“Alright. Did Speed mention we work together now?” He replied, then put the yellow VIP lanyard around my neck. I touched it to make sure it was a solid hold.

“No, but I assumed from the invitation. So how is it? Working with artists?”

“Oh man,” Speedy joined Pepper in a conjoined laugh. They both still laugh obnoxiously. Feeling it with their entire body. Slapping each other’s shoulders and arms. “It’s been a hellish ride. But the work is worth the scores.” He held up their seasonal VIP passes laminated from the company.

“Imma go ahead and make sure the band is ready,” Pepper said. Then his eyes lowered toward me before he tilted his head. “You should come backstage… once it’s all over.”

“Great,” I smiled.

Pepper exits and isn’t planning on looking back. He was a head-charged man. And feelings never wore on his sleeve. He couldn’t even bring up the fact when he last saw me. It wasn’t the best day. We had gotten into a petty fight over where I was going to college. He wanted me to go to UCLA for him and Speedy. I just couldn’t. New York already accepted me in their arts program and there was no way I would change to accommodate. I couldn’t follow them. It hurt like hell. But I think the distance did us some good. I know who I am as an artist. And time apart showed me how successful they became without me. They didn’t need me… hovering.

“Should we head over to the bar?” Speedy suggested, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I looked up at his whimsical expression. I matched it. “Sure.”

As we stood waiting for our orders, Speedy broke the silence first. “You know, I don’t think Pep ever got over it,” he started, before leaning against the counter, his back toward the bar. “You not coming with us ... broke up the band.”

I swigged down the beer that just came in front of me before answering, “I know.”

Speedy’s eyebrows collided. “Do you hate him now?”

He had to be referring to the 9-year silence Pepper put me through. Then just now, hugged me like no time had passed. Hate… wasn’t a term for what I was feeling. I felt defeated. I don’t think our relationship could ever go back to normal, ever again.

“No… I just wished he understood,” I sipped my beer again. “That’s all.”

“I was the one who had to convince him to let you come here… before he moved abroad,” Speedy explained. “He was going to leave without a trace. It ain’t right.”

“He has a right to choose what he wants,” I told him. “I’m not the little girl that is going to lick his wounds every time he can’t understand something.” I gulped the last cold one and slapped it on the counter.

“Still Mog- you need an honest convo with him. Air shit out before you know-,” Speedy tried to convince me. I appreciate how big his heart was and how much he cared about the both of us. He never liked when arguments broke out between me and Pepper. And this … was a long one. So much resentment had built a wall between us. Where could I even begin tearing a brick out? Pepper’s mask would fall, eventually. And it’ll be me and Speedy that would have to pick up the pieces, again. I was tired of it.

I said this out of spite, “I’m not his mom.”

Speedy raised his voice towards me. He matched how angry I was. “I never said you were Mahogany, but damn! When is this shit ever going to end?” He threw a few bills at the bar and stormed off.

I was wrong. I knew Pepper’s mom passed away from cancer not too long ago. In that moment, I became a shitty friend. But, it couldn’t be helped. He always brought it out of me. He always picked at my shadowy side. He knew what buttons to light my fuse. Speedy’s words rang me as I moved lifelessly through the raging crowd forming before the band played. I thought about just getting it over with and heading backstage. But I needed to cool off. My rising anger didn’t match his carefree attitude. It never has. Speedy ended up finding me again and stood by me, arms folded. Not making any room for eye contact.

I let out a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry Speed. That was really shitty.”

“Yeah, it was,” he responded, still looking forward. “You knew the death of his mom just happened.”

“I know,” I turned to him, pleading for him to look at me. “I know, I just- and it’s not an excuse- but I’m just tired of him using me as an emotionless punching bag.”

His amber eyes widened as his head turned to me, “That’s not what he is thinking at all, Mog. He was-,” Then he caught himself, like he was about to reveal something he shouldn’t.

“What is it?” I edged him on.

He shook his head violently and gripped my shoulder. “You really need to talk to him.”

I huffed, and now my arms were folded. I knew by the end of the concert that this would be one of the hardest conversations I ever had to face with him. I didn’t want to think about any of it now. Not when our favorite band was about to take the stage.

“Later,” I finally said. “Looks like Paramore is about to go on.”

#the last concert #love story #paramore #childhood friends #growing up #pepper #moggie #speedy #polyamory #lgbtq #Spotify

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eyeballtank · 1 year

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Swingable rope, portals, score counter and soccer ball "ammo"

I finally fixed the Companion's SWIM "movement" so they don't shake anymore. They also got a "SWIMRUN" state.

Companion climbing

They can also use ladders, though first they have to be on their "STANDSTILL" state and then you use a command for them to attach to the ladder. The system is technically there, even if it's a bit weird right now.

Said command is one that could be used for "special interactions" even if it should be developed more and done better.

Score counter

Now the screen has a counter for the coins you pick up.

"Ammo" for the soccer ball

Once you kick a ball, you lose it but a sports bag object will restore it, so you can kick it again.

The backpack is technically "infinite", so the placement of this object could be considered for the sake of it.

Both characters can use switches

And i also set up a basic "timer" for green switches, so when the 2 characters press them you don't have the stuff changing its state too quickly.

Rope/hook

Originally was going to be a grapple hook, but i dropped that idea because it'd probably be too complex for my current status as a novice dev.

So the result is a basic swingable rope that the player automatically attaches to and can jump from.

Portals

They can be a good way to extend "traversal" on levels and even useful for some behind-the-scenes stuff (Like in case i implement that Companion "pointer" UI idea i once mentioned and use portals to see if it works in the future).

Their "grid" design is because of some idea of them being magical portals and it's supposed to look like energy or something, but the placeholder art is very basic.

Fall-through platforms

An "inverse" to jump-through platforms, which could make levels challenging but also in case some "restrictiveness" can be helpful in some cases to avoid issues.

What else

Redid a section in the main Github page just because. Even with my case of getting overly ambitious, i like that i wrote the stuff that's done, because a "to do" list isn't enough, so a "done" list also helps (Though the section itself is not organized which could be fixed later i guess).

In the files, i added a "sheet" of character sprites that i may use since i'm getting a lot of "planned" mechanics/features for characters. The "grid" is of 16 rows and 13 columns but depending on how/when/if better art is added, i'll obviously redo these sprites.

A feature in the works is "CRAWL" states for the Companion. In theory i think i can make it work, but one thing to consider is the collision shapes being adjusted for their states and all.

Current issue: The Pause Menu shows up ABOVE the SceneManager's animation but it doesn't pause the animation: Therefore the scene changing animation still plays and changes the scene (And i only didn't make the Pause Menu AutoLoad because i don't know how to make it unavailable in certain scenes like the Main Menu).

As usual, project is here: https://github.com/EyeBallTank/PROJECT-NORTUBEL-main-ish

#gamedev #update #godot

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achirding · 5 years

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October 5th: Decoration (Making) Party!

Ms. Alphys’s class was helping out with the Halloween decorations in the gym! Some monsters were more helpful than others. C:

#utss halloween #deltarune #deltarune kris #deltarune noelle #deltarune susie #inktober 2019 #deltarune alphys #deltarune monster kid #deltarune temmie #idk who that worm/snake guy is uh #i tried to do a lineless style because I haven't done one in ages!!! its still not very much fun lol #its so much work!!! no lines as a guide so like how do you make some things pop??? i did my best but like... idk #idk it has some appeal i guess and im pretty proud of how suzy and kris came out but like... maybe its my color palatte??#ah well! a good learning experience :'D #achirping #in hindsight it was probably because i was overly ambitious again lol :'D #achirding arts seasonally

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canmom · 2 years

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less uh, overdramatically ha ha

Operation Don't Get Evicted This Month is an approach with prongs. how many prongs? like uh 4.

prong #1 is commission work. i have been very lucky that a number of friends have been interested in commissioning artwork and that definitely goes some of the way. however i need to work out how to attract interest from beyond that circle. i think this will be most likely if i make a lot of pictures, so I'm going to try to make as much as possible this month.

prong #2 is spinning up a patreon. I've done this! it's here, I'm going to properly announce it tomorrow. the idea is, if you like the various irons i have in various fires, you can give me "staying alive" money, and then my body will not give in to entropy and I'll make more things for you to enjoy! planning to post patreon exclusive WIPs, not sure what other incentives to offer. this also encourages making a lot of pictures. i would like to get a piece out every other day though that might prove overly ambitious.

prong #3 is to take some of my writing projects and release a zine of them. that will take a bit of work but it's hopefully a 'by next week' sort of thing.

prong #4 is to try and claim benefits. i adhd'd and fucked up the process last month but i may be able to unfuck it this month.

all of these seem... well, they seem like they'll fall short, though that depends on what commissions i get, and i have some not-sustainable emergency options.

rent is £800. believe me if I'd known that br*lliant would abruptly and without warning decide they had no more hours for me, I'd never have chosen to live in such an expensive room. trying to make a living from my creative efforts was to be a longer term plan and it's scary as hell to be suddenly in at the deep end but that's the proletarian condition that I've been insulated from i guess. I'll live here at least nine more months and i have no idea what the world will be like or where I'll be at with art by then. could be that everything comes together beautifully and I'm a successful artist by that point. could be i have a nice new day job. could be i crawl back to my parents in shame and defeat. could be I'm making a modest income and move somewhere cheaper outside London.

anyway. that's the situation. i hate to inject something as ugly as money into the playful zone i have going on here and i promise I'm not about to suddenly start paywalling stuff. still i would currently quite like to remain alive and living independently though so if anyone has ideas, i really am all ears at this point

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chemicalpink · 3 years

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JK's Birth time analysis

First and foremost, I’m just doing this to occupy my mind in something else while I go through some stuff, I will continue to use the general consensus of the community for my astrology readings, I’m just doing this for fun, remember that we as fans are in no way entitled to know JK’s exact birth time, these are just fun educated guesses on some alternative that has arisen.

Now, I must say, when I first started the astro part of my bts blog I immediately thought 1 pm for JK’s birth time, I don’t have any factual backup on this one, I’ve talked about it before, I am kind of a human tarot deck lmao things sometimes just come to me. So I started roaming around and I found that JK’s libra rising made sense to me, and it was a general consensus for his readings so I said sure let's go. You know that I endorse and adore having conversations with you guys, my craft isn’t perfect and no one else's is so it is great to hear every opinion to forge our own judgement. I do only present to you information that I can back up, which is why as much as I’d love to I won’t be taking into consideration my own personal hunch on the info I’m about to present you, although you can read it as subtext when it is in italics like this hello this is an inner thought of marinette’s.

SO the big deal: Is JK a libra rising or is JK a sagittarius rising? General consensus says 8:04 am as speculated time of birth, some others say 1-2 pm.

Either way, JK’s sect remains nocturnal so there’s not much to go from there.

When it comes to appearances, I’ll update what I said before.

Libra rising appearance:

Very youthful look that it seems like you don’t even age

Gentle smile

Charming demeanour that makes people obsessed with you

Very symmetrical features

Fit body

Contagious smile

Put together look/ clean look

Dimples

Dark hair and dark eyes

Tall

Oval/Round face

Think Harry Styles, Beyoncé, Niall, Britney Spears

Sagittarius rising appearance:

Bulky thighs

Horse like face

Big forehead

Incredibly tall or more than average tall

Gain weight easily

Not really athletic

Pretty full lips

Think Kim Kardashian, Elvis, Jennifer Lawrence, Paris Hilton

Evidently, other aspects in astrology and genetics can alter these, but it is mostly true.

Now, I am not that well versed in vedic astrology since I stopped studying it due to lack of time BUT the infamous thread that looks into the possibility of JK being a sag rising is pretty elaborate, although it does run more on intuitive processes and symbolism, which are of course, valid, and it really is up to both the analyst and the ones reading the analysis to determine the weight of it. My craft is more oriented towards intersectionality so I don’t like to go by what we are able to see about him as an axis, more like confirmation about it. Idk if it makes sense. I just don't trust seemingly scripted content that much to run my analysis based on it. Everything mentioned about JK Jyestha makes sense when looking at the content presented, and it will make even more sense once we take a look at some other non western astrology systems. Again, I am not well versed in vedic astrology so right off the bat I would fight the conversion system rather than the information presented.

Regarding that thread, some of the keywords used to conclude JK’s Jyestha are as follows:

King, Winning, Ambitious, Passionate, Skillful, Eldest, 1st, Seniority, Expertise, Sensory indulgence, Celebration, Bravery, Heroic, Dragon Slayer, Warrior, Rain, Thunder, Umbrella, Protector, Provider, Scandalous, Impulsive, Bunny, Deer, Earring, Eye.

In western astrology, a general comparison on placements would look something like this.

Sun in 8° 33' Virgo

Moon in 27° 20' Leo

Mercury in 7° 49' Virgo (r)

Venus in 16° 58' Libra

Mars in 11° 7' Scorpio

Jupiter in 14° 15' Aquarius (r)

Saturn in 19° 35' Aries (r)

Uranus in 5° 28' Aquarius (r)

Neptune in 27° 33' Capricorn (r)

Pluto in 2° 55' Sagittarius

North Node in 20° 11' Virgo (r)

Chiron in 29° 45' Libra

Ascendant in 4° 20' Libra

MC in 4° 46' Cancer

1st House starts at 4° Libra

2nd House starts at 1° Scorpio

3rd House starts at 2° Sagittarius

4th House starts at 4° Capricorn

5th House starts at 7° Aquarius

6th House starts at 7° Pisces

7th House starts at 4° Aries

8th House starts at 1° Taurus

9th House starts at 2° Gemini

10th House starts at 4° Cancer

11th House starts at 7° Leo

12th House starts at 7° Virgo

In here, the main aspect I can relate JK to is Cancer MC, MC represents your public self, as well as the success level you might experience. Cancer MC is all about taking care of others, yet it can also point towards a career in arts, especifically singing and writing, it also indicates a strong possibility of psychic abilities which have been widely discussed in JK with his readings and such all while having the main troubles of being an impatient person and sometimes getting self conscious which we have heard him say before when he refers to himself knowing how to do stuff yet he doesn’t think he’s good at any of them, or his letters to himself about having to love himself more.

Another pretty JK thing I’ve noticed is his Virgo Stellium in the 12th House, which shows struggles with identity JK has, once again, being vocal about him growing up within BTS and how that has shaped him and how he has constantly been looking for himself. They often absorb the struggles of people around them. Does anyone else remember him saying he’s okay as long as his hyungs are okay? Also, singing and dancing are very powerful manifestation tools for these people huh maybe that’s why he writes and sings love songs. This aspect also indicates him having the potential to amass a large amount of wealth, some astrologers think about this stellium as an extremely karmic one, which can be translated into the whole JK’s soulmate narrative.

When it comes to his 5th house, it indicates him being a hell of a creative person, especially in a somewhat rebellious sense which I interpret as him getting a sleeve tattoo It also talks about not being traditional in relationships which I believe has come out a few times in his tarot readings.

With Sag rising, his chart would look something like this:

Sun in 8° 45' Virgo

Moon in 29° 46' Leo

Mercury in 7° 37' Virgo (r)

Venus in 17° 12' Libra

Mars in 11° 15' Scorpio

Jupiter in 14° 13' Aquarius (r)

Saturn in 19° 35' Aries (r)

Uranus in 5° 27' Aquarius (r)

Neptune in 27° 33' Capricorn (r)

Pluto in 2° 55' Sagittarius

North Node in 20° 10' Virgo (r)

Chiron in 29° 46' Libra

Ascendant in 5° 28' Sagittarius

MC in 18° 28' Virgo

1st House starts at 5° Sagittarius

2nd House starts at 7° Capricorn

3rd House starts at 12° Aquarius

4th House starts at 18° Pisces

5th House starts at 19° Aries

6th House starts at 14° Taurus

7th House starts at 5° Gemini

8th House starts at 7° Cancer

9th House starts at 12° Leo

10th House starts at 18° Virgo

11th House starts at 19° Libra

12th House starts at 14° Scorpio

In this case, his MC is in Virgo, it mainly indicates a tactful and slow success in someone’s career, these MC Virgo people are often regarded as overly responsible and as people that like to get recognised as people to whom nothing is hard enough for them to call it quits. While they openly seek perfection which ofc JK has always talked about improving himself they often love to do the stuff that others despise to do like countinc, calculating and organising.

Evidently there's no 12th House stellium, he would have a 9th House Leo stellium, which is most of the times noticeable at first glance, the moment these people open their mouths, everything is just extraordinaire, there’s a longing to be loved and to be admired in this aspect. They’re inspirational people to be around which JK is, if I remember the members saying that they get inspired when watching him make efforts. They’re also overly curious about stuff around them big doe eyes anyone?

In this case he would have a 5th House aries, meaning that there’s a need to be physically active and being creative on top of that which I mean does check out. They do tend to be openly superficial people and big-headed when they are in a successful position tho.

So okay, let’s talk native astrology, JK’s Tzolkin is Tz’i-Oc, noted by their need of freedom and less traditional relationships, they work tirelessly and have an innate ability to be successful and accumulate a lot of wealth once again, JK’s position in BTS shows up HE’s in a basic need of having a strong foundation, which he will not like to lead but more take the role of a caregiver that can easily turn into the one receiving care. Here’s the thing, there are a lot of Libra themes in his Day Sign and his Trecana Sign, both of them talking about justice, fairness, helpfulness, as well as him being a nomad which I interpret as having a libra/virgo mix that is really hard to miss Now, this is where it gets funny, His galactic tone is 4, which while it talks about balance and calmness and tranquility libra like it also is represented by a warrior, which is part of the twitter thread as one of the symbolisms to think about sag rising

Last but not least, JK’s bazi, since his contextual situation is leaning more towards it. I did a comparion and it caught my eye the next part:

One of the widely talked about symbols in the sag rising thread is the element of water being consistent with JK, and in his bazi, ¾ Na Yin, the element of water came out, however, they came out when his birth time is 08:04 am.

In his 08:04 bazi, some keywords are:

virtue

star

travel

In his 13:00 bazi, some keywords are:

monetary loss

star of arts

heavenly doctor

So really it all boils down to: we do readings for fun, craft is personal and completely valid in any form as long as we aren’t hurting anyone. We do not know his actual birth time and we actually might never know it, each astrologer is free to work with the birth time they consider the best fitting unless a specific time is given. I myself, see a libra rising fitting, perhaps if we were to trial and error it, some other might come out but honestly, these readings are a hobby and while I dedicate myself to my craft, I certainly don’t have the time that it would require to analyze each placement so I can see for myself which I find the best fitting out of 12 signs. But hey, this was a fun educational opportunity to dive into other practices.

#lmao im not tagging this

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carpetcat2 · 3 years

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shoutout to whoever made the early key art for shovel knight

I love love LOVE how loose everything is. I dunno if that accurately describes the vibe but its!!! The way the colors are just??? nice to look at!! Like a nice, dark, cloudy day. Its very relaxing. Anyways, I hope you enjoy what’s probably an essay’s worth of word vomit about how much I love the art down below.

This is going to be a common compliment but MAN I love how the art just radiates personality. I haven’t seen Bard in a while but WOW my adoration for this guy went off the charts bc of this pic alone. The way his clothes loosely hang off of him like they’re too big for him, and the difference between his big poofy sleeves and tiny little hands, and how the left sleeve is so low implying it might have slipped off his shoulder, and how his hat hangs off his head tilted by the weight of a feather nearly as tall as him (and apparently a quill, which is an amazing detail included in KoC) is so good. It gives off the impression he’s overly ambitious and very youthful in how he looks like a kid playing dress up despite being a whole adult.

I adore how the artist draws everyone having tiny little hands, and Bard is one of my favorites in that regard. I want to envelop his hands in mine.

The way the yellows have been greyed down gives a coolness to Bard’s otherwise very warm color palette. Not that big of a fan of the shading on the sleeves and hat, but over all, love!!!! I LOVE this so much!!!!!

The way Specter Knight looks so small in this pic is so cute!!! He’s just so swallowed up in fabric! Especially how the fabric of/ around his sleeve is all folded and stuff. He has to roll it all up so he can hold his scythe without all the cloth getting in the way. the tails of his cloak are so long! Like, much longer than he is tall! The big hood is so funny. how does he keep it on? The big leg armor with the super long spike on the calf part is an excellent touch. I bet he has a hard time walking with that. It’s a good thing his main form of movement seems to be flight. And the scythe? Good heavens, the scythe! Just what are you trying to make up for, Specter Knight?!

All of these details are so telling of his personality. I don’t know if you, the reader, have seen an owl all puffed up, but Specter Knight gives off those exact vibes. He’s just trying so hard to look all big and intimidating, but it’s just not... The skulls are NOT helping. What a nerd.

Here’s a picture of a puffed up owl btw.

I love mr. hat’s first artwork so much. The cool blue against the bronze??? The tinge of yellow/orange in his coat???? The pleasant burgundy of the muffin hat (i dunno what kind of hat it is actually this is just a guess) and the handle of the sword providing great contrast against the other colors!!!

The. The pose?? The way he’s holding so much in each of his hands??? The way he’s standing????? the folds of the sleeves!!!!!!!! The way the clothing obscures the shape of his body!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you look closely to this specific pic of Mr. hat, it looks like his helmet is empty. It’s like; rather than being fitted around his head, he wears it on top of it like a hat. he’s hiding his actual head under his coat and a capelet (i don’t know if that’s the best word to describe it)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i sjncnsd c sjdvnwhdnc sdcsjdnehnf wscdesjecn <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 Also, what’s going on with those shoelaces?

He’s like a cryptid. From a glance he almost looks like a normal guy. But looking closer, he just looks a little wrong. I initially thought he had freakishly long noodle arms because of the capelet, and the way the sleeve folds were drawn. To be honest, he just looks freakishly long in most aspects!

#Shovel Knight #rambling

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ratingtheframe · 3 years

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I Care A Lot, Malcolm & Marie, Capone, The Life Ahead and the News of the World: Everything I watched in February.

Newsflash ! The cinemas still aren’t open and I’m starting to lose hope in them ever opening. Despite the UK government drawing a step by step guide into lifting the UK out of lockdown (like its flat pack furniture and not a critical pandemic) with cinemas due to open in April, I wouldn’t hold my breath seeing as our own human biology and its resistance is the actual measure of when it is safe to go out and about, not what our government says. So until everyone is vaccinated and has sustained the first few months of vaccination symptom free, I’m having to sift through Netflix and Amazon for something to watch, like I’m looking through a charity shop sale; without much luck. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for these streaming services, I (my dad) pay for them for Christ’s sakes and I know that one day I’ll be eating my words when I’m offered a Netflix deal that I (in a Vito Corleone voice) “cannot refuse”. However, unlike some of the creators on Netflix, I’ll make the most of this opportunity and be incredibly anal about what I want to make, even if it kills me.

I feel like so many people are given the license to make whatever they want for Netflix and then I look at the trophy wall of Emmys that HBO has garnered over the years and consider their quality writers and casts. I would say most recently, shows like The Crown, Sex Education, Top Boy and Bridgerton are Netflix’s exceptions currently, being both of quality and giving us something we actually want to watch. And guess what all these shows have in common?! Not only are all the casts largely British but all productions of these shows are British too. The British quality of TV programmes for streaming services in the US is a win win for all; Americans get to watch our good quality TV and we get Golden Globes. Most notably, The Crown did exceptionally (as it always does) at this year’s Golden Globes, further proving the show's excellence despite controversy. I thoroughly praise Netflix's resistance to label the show “fiction” and the lengths it took in making the show as authentically as possible, despite the criticism. The awards speak for themselves and the Crown has scooped up several this year so far.

To conclude, I want the cinemas to open just as much as anyone, but I’m happy to comply with the stay-at-home-and-watch-Netflix-rule for now. For now...Here’s everything I watched this February.

Annihilation (2018) as seen on Netflix

Netflix’s Annihilation starring Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Lee, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson and Oscar Issac was a multitude of things that were difficult to comprehend. This is not me saying this is a bad film, in fact its me saying the complete opposite as the complexity drew a tangible beauty to the film from beginning to end. I reeeaaalllyyy liked the beginning and how the first scene sucked you into the crazy and fanatical story that later unfolded. Natalie Portman as always was wonderful in this role, playing a biologist who enters another world in search of her husband, who’s gone missing on a similar expedition to hers. Like with most sci fi films, it was difficult to gather the meaning of such a film, however this lack of meaning didn’t draw away from the story or how it was portrayed, in slow and enigmatic shots that told the story with a natural pace. If you’ve seen / liked Ex Machina (2014), Annihilation has the same director and I would thoroughly recommend you watch this too as the way Alex Garland merges sci fi with horror is incredibly seamless.

Score: 10/10

Eastern Promises (2007) as seen on Amazon Prime

This film starring Naomi Watts, Viggo Mortensen and Vincent Cassel was incredibly dark and gritty. Even though I’m not Russian, I found Mortensen and Cassel’s Russian personas to be rather good for a Dane and a Frenchman. Their on screen chemistry was also really good and its make me wonder why I haven’t seen a film with these two in it before. The story follows Anna (Naomi Watts) a nurse and her hunt for the true identity and life of a baby that was born to a 14 year old girl. Nikolai and Kirill (Mortensen and Cassel) are Russian gangsters living in London and set about covering up this obscene scandal and getting rid of the product of it, a baby girl belonging to the condemned and now deceased child. It's a difficult plot to wrap your head around and like I said, it's incredibly dark. Actor and director David Cronenberg (A History of Violence 2005) directed this film and helped Viggo Mortensen with a nomination for Best Actor at the 2008 Academy Awards.

Score: 8/10

Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) as seen on Netflix

So remember how I said I was DESPERATE for films this month...I watched Fifty Shades of Grey with zero expectations and I can say definitively that it was worse than I thought. It's a true miracle that both Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan still have careers 6 years after such a film was released and I personally wouldn’t rush to cast either acting in my film after seeing this. Harsh, I know but reputation is everything and when you sign onto something that instead of highlighting your acting abilities, highlights your body parts, what am I supposed to think... I’m all for body confidence and what not, but I feel like most of this film sort of abuses sexuality and sexual expressions. The fact is, the BDSM part of this film wasn’t even that bad, it was the characters that pissed me off the most and their LACK of character in fact. They were orchestrated in such a flat way and the only time where either one of them found any character was through the sex itself and the discussion of it, especially Anastasia’s character. The most profound and irritating thing about this film is that Anastasia’s life seemed to only have meaning when she met the so called handsome, charming, wonderful, drop dead gorgeous Christian Grey. What does that teach us about women people? I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, sexualising women in film and media shouldn’t be the only reason for them to be there. And the entirety of Fifty Shades of Grey is built upon that fact. Even though the novel was written by a woman, it definitely missed the point in giving us a strong female character who could both be into sex and taken seriously at the same time. Seems like a really hard thing to do in cinema as filmmakers either go for the over-hyped sexualised prostitute, the caring mother or the nun. Like female professionals have never had sex in their lives… think again. I like to wonder what it would’ve been like had it been Ms Grey and Christian as her submissive. Not only would that mix up the character dynamic and go against gender confirmation, it’d actually be interesting. But maybe I should just write that story altogether...To conclude, the characters in this film were flat and the entirety of the film hyped up sex and the act of it way too much. It's like making a film about walking or breathing.

Score: 1/10

Malcolm & Marie (2021) as seen on Netflix

Malcolm & Marie received a lot of attention in the media and sadly not for the right reasons. In fact, what’s so childish about the backlash is that hardly any of it had to do with the filmmaking techniques Sam Levinson (Euphoria’s creator) used or the story he wrote. More of it had to do with Levinson’s controversial ideas about how the media likes to view and prod film like a goldfish in a bowl, acting ostentatiously towards the art and appearing woke as opposed to just seeing film for how it is. I gather many film critic’s egos were bruised when Levinson used the lead character, Malcolm (John David Washington) as a butcher to film critics. He says things like “I’m choosing to make a film that’s fundamentally political, but not everything I do is political because I’m Black” in reference to the ignorance of some film critics who stamp politics onto any black directed film, attempting to brand the films with their own understanding of the film as opposed to its real message and story. Malcolm spends the majority of the night loathing a fictional “white LA reporter” and betting on her exact words for his own film, about an African American woman trying to get off drugs. What he says is funny, so funny it's true. White reporters DO do this and instead of embracing Levinson’s satricalism, the real LA white reporters of our media got overly offended and used the “lack of story” card as a backdrop to fuel their distaste at being called out. Had they known Levinson’s intentions with this film, they wouldn’t have reviewed it all together as I’m sure Levinson knew what he was getting himself into when mentioning the annoying “white LA reporter” and making the stereotype central to the lead's frustrations towards the industry. Levinson also graciously mentions that even though Malcolm has such hatred towards the critics, he is their fuel and by making his so-called “art” he only joins them in the argument . Levinson made his bed when he made the film and I think he’s sleeping rather comfortably. No one even bothered to praise both Zendaya’s and Washington’s performances, which were phenomenal considering the circumstances and the added pressure of having to carry a whole story in one room using only each other to fulfil that story. The cinematography was ambitious and overall, it was a simple yet well executed story. What are y’all complaining about?

Let's put egos aside and focus on the actual film for once, rather than how its perceived the articulation of your opinions towards it.

Score: 10/10

Coming to America (1988) as seen on Amazon Prime

At this moment I truly was becoming a slave to streaming services. I wasn’t particularly leaping at the opportunity to watch this film, however I chose to watch it as I heard that Eddie Murphy was releasing a sequel this year. As someone who doesn’t like comedy, I found this rather funny in places but it's hard to laugh at the black stereotypes portrayed in such a film even when those stereotypes were perpetuated by a black person. There was also a lot of misogyny, something else that I don’t call comedy but just misogyny. I found it hard overlook these moments and kinda saw this element as the downfall to the film which detracted from any of the other comedic moments.

Score: 5/10

Do the Right Thing (1989) as seen on Amazon Prime

One of Spike Lee’s earlier films, Do The Right Thing is a film I’ve been dying to watch for quite some time. The film is like a fascinating book, with chapters on each of the plights of living in Brooklyn in the 1980s. Though it takes one character’s perspective, there are a multitude of other stories that can be found in this film, with them interlinking seamlessly and coming together at the end. This isn’t a film about race but rather one about anger and its potential to divide people, especially when things become heated and fingers are pointed. It covered a variety of perspectives which I like, almost like an episodic series where each episode is different and takes on a different character. This structure added variety to the film and allowed it to cover a multitude of topics in a small space of time. The structure of this film was only successful because its characters, who were funny, three dimensional and above all, had something to say. Director and writer Spike Lee played Mookie, the lead, a pizza delivery man and quite the f**k up on the streets of Brooklyn, using his mouth more than his actions to get by in life. I really liked the balance of moments of comedy and severity which had me laughing in places and immediately stopping afterwards. Well written and I commend Spike Lee for having written, directed and starred in the same film.

Score: 10/10

The Life Ahead (2020) as seen on Netflix

As an actress, Sophia Loren is one of my all time favourites. On seeing films such as A Special Day (1977) Two Women (1960) Marriage, Italian Style (1964), I began to appreciate the work of Sophia Loren and notice how much of an icon she still is today. Having picked up several awards over an expansive 71 YEAR career, she has been honoured many a time by the Golden Globes and Oscars as one of the finest actresses of all time. Her presence on screen is inspiring and she’s been often referred to as the Italian Marilyn Monroe for her beauty inside and out. Here at the age of 86, she plays a Holocaust survivor and foster mother who cares for a troubled boy in The Life Ahead. Loren’s character, Madame Rosa, eventually saving him from a miserable life thieving and selling drugs on the streets of Italian. Loren’s son, Edoardo Ponti directed this film for Netflix and was generous enough to give us Sophia Loren’s presence on screen once more by casting her in the film as the lead.

Score: 9/10

Gold (2016) as seen on Amazon Prime

I found Gold to be one of those talky, talky films that starts at the end and ends at the end (if that makes sense) which in my opinion isn’t the most courageous structure one could use, but is common in biopics. It either starts on the protagonist’s death bed or at the point where the police have just caught them and for Gold it was the latter. The appearance of women in this film was second to none and that’s not me saying the director should’ve added female characters for good measure or token but why make a film that only appeals to one demographic, despite the intensity of the story...film is universal after all and if a film appeals to one certain group then what’s the point of releasing it? This doesn’t detract from Matthew McConaughey’s performance though as a “prospector” looking for gold in Indonesia. Even saying this, the character was very typical of him and it didn’t truly stretch his ability as an actor, not like Dallas Buyer’s Club (2013), Killer Joe (2011) or Interstellar (2014) did. To sum up Gold into one word it’d be “meh”.

Score: 7/10

Creed (2015) as seen on Amazon Prime

This was one of the most surprising films of the month. I’m not crazy about the Rocky films nor see myself watching all of them anytime soon, but Creed appealed as a more modern take on the hit franchise. Michael B Jordan plays Adonis Creed, son of Apollo Creed, a champion boxer who died during a fight before Adonis was born. After being adopted by Apollo’s wife, Adonis Creed sets out to follow his father’s footsteps by becoming a champion heavyweight boxer himself, much to his maternal mother’s displeasure and his coach’s the one and only Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone). The story is similar to that of Rocky and if anything, is a complete revival, using the son of one of Rocky’s former fighter as a backdrop to tell the story. Director Ryan Coogler (Black Panther 2018, Fruitvale Station 2013 ) brought this story to life and a courageous performance out of Michael B. Jordan. Not only was I fascinated by boxing by the end of the film, but just the whole idea of Adonis Creed, a fighter and not a quitter who thoroughly believes in pursuing your goals until they are obtained. Not only is this film for boxing fans but for those who share that same universal message and refuse to give into their own inhibitions to achieve great things. We should look to athletes more often in this respect and consider the pursuit of our own desires as boxing matches and marathon races more often as it helps put our fight into perspective and teaches us never to give in.

Score: 11/10

Arrival (2016) as seen on DVD

Before anyone comes for me for not having seen Arrival, before I was a movie buff I had briefly come across the film several times but had never taken the time to sit it out and watch it from beginning to end. I’m glad I did as Denis Villeneuve is one of my favourite directors evah and along with Christopher Nolan, I consider him as the King of Sci Fi. Every single one of his films is incroyable (as the french say) and it's a mystery why he hasn’t been handed an Oscar yet. Arrival is this slow and beautiful story of a linguistics teacher (Amy Adams) who agrees to help on a mission to communicate with extraterrestrial life forms that have landed on planet earth in the form of twelve huge spaceships. Structure isn’t something we typically consider when watching a film, but it plays such an important part in Arrival for time and the manipulation of it is the main theme of this film. Essentially, the language in which Dr. Banks translates from the intelligent life form gives its readers the ability to see into the future, which is when we come to realize that she’ll have a child, who will die of an unnamed disease. Despite this fact, she decides to live the life fate intended for her. The reason why Arrival is a highly credible film is because of the coverage it has as a film in terms of what it's trying to say as a film. From someone who finds it hard to bring out the emotion of a screenplay, Arrival is a great example to me as a film that combines both a cinematic feeling and a strong emotional presence throughout the film. It doesn’t abandon emotions or relationships just because the film is about aliens, but instead embraces them into the story and intertwines them with the aliens who’ve come to planet earth. At the end of the day, we can have explosions, spaceships and aliens galore, but if we’re unable to connect with characters on an emotional level then the film becomes boring. Arrival is far from boring and may bring a tear or two to your eye by the end.

Score: 11/10

The News of the World (2020) as seen on Netflix

I feel like it's impossible to hate a film with Tom Hanks in it and The News of the World definitely fits into that. Five years after the US Civil War, Cpt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Tom Hanks) spends his days travelling around the US ‘reading the news’ to anyone who’s willing to listen. The majority of the US was illiterate in the 19th Century, meaning it was up to people like Jefferson to inform others of the ongoings in the world by reading them the paper. It’s a wondrous thing to think about, how information was once spread throughout the world in such an archaic format. Jefferson did this off his own back, not asking for much and finding fulfilment in the reactions to the news that he “broadcasted” to them. Whilst on his travels, Jefferson comes across a young girl (Golden Globe nominee Helena Zengal) who’s negro family had been killed by lynchers. The girl was originally from a Native American tribe but had been separated by them, leaving her to fend for herself. When Jefferson comes across her, he’s reluctant to take her in at first but decides to take her to some relatives across the country. It’s definitely the role you expect of Tom Hanks and his heart warming nature is captured for us in this film for Netflix.

Score: 9/10

The Mask (1994) as seen on Netflix

It's hard for me to label The Mask as a good film as that would mean shaking off the horrendous amount of misogyny it has and the lack of diversity within its characters. Films mean different things for people, but ultimately most of them reflect an element of humanity and explore it on screen with originality and authenticity. Cameron Diaz’s character was only there to fulfil the sexual appetites of the men around her, which is something I loathe in female characters. Originality The Mask has, authenticity, not so much. That's probably the reason why I hate comedies so much, most of them are written by men and are about men so it can get quite boring to watch at times. I liked the idea of The Mask but it definitely could’ve been executed in a less misogynistic way.

Score: 5/10

Jackie (2016) as seen on Amazon Prime

One word; perfection. This film was hands down one of the most beautiful, genuine and honest films I’ve seen in my entire life. It had me reminiscing Todd Haynes’ Carol (2015) in a number of ways, from the similar filmmaking techniques to the slow and melancholy atmosphere that was being created on screen. The AMAZING Natalie Portman plays Jackie Kennedy, wife of John F. Kennedy who was brutally assassinated on a visit to Dallas, Texas in 1963. The fact that I didn’t even KNOW that his poor wife was in the car with him at the point of the assassination is shocking. On watching the film, I learnt Jackie was a remarkable, brave and intelligent woman who after her husband's death put so much into preserving her husband’s legacy despite his lack of popularity. The way the film is shot and the music by the brilliant Mica Levi (Under the Skin 2013 , Monos 2019) just ties everything together into a enigmatic and wonderful film. Natalie Portman was nominated for Best Actress at the 2017 Academy Awards and rightly so. This film has further proven my thoughts on her as one of the greatest actresses of our time. I seriously cannot EXPRESS how much I love this film, directed by Chilean director Pablo Larraín, who’s also made another film that I can’t get enough of Ema, which was released 2 years ago.

Score: 12/10

Foxcatcher (2014) as seen on BBC iPlayer

When we first think of Steve Carell, our minds probably drift to his most notable performance as Michael Scott from The Office or even Gru in Despicable Me. It's rare for a so called “comedy” actor to find his way into films with a more dramatic substance and over the last few years, this is what Carell has been showing us on screen, with this role in Foxcatcher and more recently, in Felix van Groeningen’s Beautiful Boy (2018). Foxcatcher is the true story of a wrestler offered the opportunity to train with a private wrestling team owned by a huge chemical corporation. Channing Tatum plays Mark Schultz, a quiet and reserved wrestler who trains alongside his brother David (Mark Ruffalo), also a champion wrestler. What's sad to see in this twisted story is how validated Mark feels once the powerful and wealthy John Du Pont (Steve Carrell) begins to take an interest in him and takes him under his wing. This relationship drives a wedge between Mark and his brother David, but much to John’s displeasure, it doesn’t last long. This is definitely a story of power and how people can react in bad ways when they are owed too much of it. Every performance in this was astounding and the slow and subtle telling of the story was truly beautiful to watch. Foxcatcher is a film I’ve been dying to watch for some time and it DID NOT disappoint. Period. The film was also nominated for five Oscars back in 2015, including Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor.

Score: 11/10

In Fabric (2018) as seen on BBC iPlayer

Based on the current reviews of In Fabric, I deem the film a poncy experimental spectacle. Not only did it not say much, but what it was trying to say was rather disturbing and quite frankly bizarre. However, it's not a film I can necessarily hate on as it is experimental, meaning from the get go, I shouldn’t be expecting any sort of clear cut narrative, with relationships, protagonists, conflict or hierarchies. Experimental films are more about exploring a central idea and having all its “characters'' not essentially prove the idea, but just talk about it, like a debate but everyone agrees in the end. A debate where everyone agrees would be boring, which is why I find experimental films to be boring as most of the time they don’t have a meaning and sadly as humans, we’re obsessed with finding the meaning of things or else we’ll go crazy. And I would say this film definitely left me crazy at the end, proving the idea of man’s constant need to find meanings in things. In Fabric wasn’t really relatable, funny, clever or bold. It kinda just...was.

Score: 5/10

Delicatessen (1991) as seen on DVD

I love how the world likes to think that the American film market is the only film market when in actuality the French created the actual concept of cinema and the idea to project “movies” onto a large screen. With this has come a plethora of incredible movies from France that have gone onto to change the film industry forever. There’s a reason why the most prestigious and exclusive film festival in the entire world is held in the South of France and not LA. Jean-Pierre Jeunet is the auteur behind Amélie (2001) one of the most well known independent films ever to be made and before Amélie came Delicatessen. This film is Tim Burton meets Wes Anderson but in French and tells the story of a man working for a butcher and the crazy characters he meets in the same apartment as him. By the end it's clear that The Butcher is selling more than pork and beef down in his store and that the new tenant is due to be the next item on sale. I loved how weird and larger than life the characters were and the otherworldly set design used for this film. There were so many moments that are quite hard to explain the beauty of them and if you’ve seen Wes Anderson or Tim Burton’s work, you’ll notice the similarities between this film and their work, perhaps showing a french influence on the current American market.

Score: 10/10

Amélie (2001) as seen on DVD

Continuing on with the French theme, I was reminded this month of the beauty of Amélie. Every, single, shot in this film is pure perfection and I bet all my money that Wes Anderson was a mega fan of this film when it came out. It's truly a film like none other and it’s only this time around did I realise how much I RELATE to Amélie. The way she sacrifices herself for others and gets nothing in return, the lengths she goes to tell someone something instead of JUST SAYING IT, her lack of friends, I can definitively say that there isn’t a character on screen that I’ve related to more than Amélie (besides Elio from cmbyn). If you haven’t seen Amélie have a word with yourself.

Score: 11/10

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) as seen on Amazon Prime

Pan’s Labyrinth was a surprisingly amazing film and I wonder why I hadn’t seen it sooner. I was astounded to see it was in Spanish which I thought made the story somehow better. It's rare that we see such high budget and well known film that’s in a foreign language but I’m glad this film got the noise it did when it was released. Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water 2017) tells us the story of 10 year old Ofelia and her discovery of magical creatures in the woods that inhabit the outskirts of her new home. Not only that but it’s 1944. The Spanish Civil War has been over for five years but small groups of guerrilla rebels continue to fight against the new fascist dictatorship led by Francisco Franco. This is a well structured film that shows two strong worlds and combines them in a satisfying way, which isn’t an easy thing as sometimes films can get lost in the facts of history instead of the emotions and dynamic relationships. The set design in this was UNREAL as always and I really felt for the characters and their given circumstances. And that’s what we call a film.

Score: 11/10

I Care A Lot (2021) as seen on Amazon Prime

For a full review of I Care A Lot, follow the link: https://ratingtheframe.tumblr.com/post/643763403606867968/a-strong-performance-from-rosamund-pike-that-we

Score: 8/10

Interview with a Vampire (1994) as seen on BBC iPlayer

We were doing SO WELL until I made the costly decision to watch this waffle of a film, directed by Neil Jordan. Not only was the story all over the place, but the dialogue itself was incredibly on the nose and self explanatory throughout. It feels like there was more talking about the film instead of showing the film, which just made me switch off from early on in the film. I hated the casting of Tom Cruise in this and there were moments when I believed his character, but none of them outweighed the overarched and over bearing performance he was attempting to give. Brad Pitt was marginally better but the performance of Kirsten Dunst who was 12 years old at the time this film was released, outdid both actors. She was the only character that I truly felt for / cared about and her on screen presence was both enviable and wise beyond her years. Personally, I can’t explain what this film was even about because I truly didn’t get what was going on, however if you’re a fan of Kirsten Dunst’s work, this would be a suitable film to watch in that respect.

Score: 4/10

Fargo (1996) as seen on Amazon Prime

Fargo is probably most known as a Netflix series, but before that, it was originally a film directed by the Coen Brothers and starred the likes of Frances McDormand, Steve Buscemi, William H Macy and John Carroll Lynch. I’ve been meaning to watch Fargo for quite some time and I was not disappointed with the outcome of it. It's one of those good old fashioned crime films, with lots of twists and blood split throughout the film. The film won two Oscars in 1997; one for Best Actress which was handed to Frances McDormand playing a police officer investigating a string of murders in Minnesota and another for Best Original Screenplay. A really well constructed story with a fantastic cast and great cinematography work from Roger Deakins (1917 (2020), Blade Runner 2049 (2017) The Shawshank Redemption (1994).

Score: 10/10

The Darjeeling Limited (2007) as seen on Amazon Prime

The Darjeeling Limited further proves to us Wes Anderson’s ability to create entire new worlds and show us stories that take place all across the world. Three brothers, Peter (Adrien Brody), Jack (Jason Schwartzman) and Francis (Owen Wilson) have travelled to India in an attempt to bond with one another “spiritually” after the death of their father. Peter and Jack aren’t too keen on this little expedition, irritated at their brothers' intrusiveness over the trip. The majority of the film is set on this fanatical train travelling across India and yet again, we are blessed with some phenomenal production design to tell us a fun and uplifting story. What’s more is that the boys’ mother (Anjelica Huston) lives in India as a nun at the foot of the Himalayas. This becomes the real reason for their venture and such a thing changes the character dynamics between the three men. India is shown in all its beauty in this film using the backdrop of three men’s relationship with one another as a story.

Score: 9/10

The Life Aquatic of Steve Zissou (2004) as seen on DVD

Another one of Wes Anderson’s lesser known films but equally as good as the rest, this film follows a group of marine explorers travelling across the pacific to try and kill a shark that supposedly ate a member of Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) ’s crew. With an all star cast composed of Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum and Anjelica Huston this film was entertaining, enlightening and cinematographically ambitious. Steve Zissou is a fictional character who makes a living off of extreme and dangerous marine explorations. He makes films of his travels using his crew and after screening his latest film, he meets a young man (Owen Wilson) claiming to be his son. Evidently, Zissou is reluctant to accept that this man is his son and uses his presence as financial gain to the project. I appreciated all performances in this film and the set design (as always with Anderson’s films) was exceptional.

Score: 9/10

Life of Pi (2012) as seen on Amazon Prime

A highly visual and emotional film that carries beauty throughout in both performance and story, Life of Pi was directed by Brokeback Mountain (2005)’s Ang Lee and tells the story of Pi (Suraj Sharma and Irrfan Khan) a young boy alone in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a fully grown Bengal Tiger. Winner of 4 Academy Awards including Best Director at the 2013 Academy Awards, this film does a phenomenal job of reminding us why cinema is such a superior and infinite art form. Pi’s family are on their way from India to America, exporting a large number of their zoo animals in hope of selling them once they reach the other side of the world. After a horrendous storm ravages their cargo ship, Pi is left all alone in the ocean with what only appears to be a small dingy, but to his horror, he comes to find that the zoo’s tiger Richard Parker is keeping him company in the middle of the ocean. Now if that ain’t a viable story, then I don’t know what is. To make a film look like it was set in the middle of a Pacific and with a Bengal Tiger is no small feat. Suraj Sharma’s performance was both truthful and powerful, despite the film being mostly shot in a studio with nothing but animation for Richard Parker. This is one of very few films that does the original novel justice.

Score: 11/10

Capone (2021) as seen on Netflix

Yikes. Capone has not been getting a lot of love in the media since its release on Netflix on 24th February. Personally, it's not the most god awful, offensive film I’ve seen and yet I wouldn’t have been the one to have made such a film either. The film is supposed to depict the last year of the infamous and notorious Al Capone, who suffered from numerous illnesses at only the age of 48. Tom Hardy plays the blood thirsty gangster and I have to say, this was a thoughtless casting choice. Hardy doesn’t have an ounce of Italian in his face and he put on this larger than life caricature of an accent that had me feeling rather sorry for him at moments when I shouldn’t have been. The acting was exceptional, but believable and interesting? That’s another argument altogether. Cinematography and sound wise, I thought the film was excellent in those respects but again, those should be additions to the integral story of a film. I get why Hardy signed up though, what actor wouldn’t want to play a mob boss? Maybe the point of Al’s life in which this film was built upon was perhaps wrong for the screen and I’m sure most would have preferred Hardy to play Capone at his peak. This film is a clear example of people getting ahead of themselves when they first explore an idea for a film. This film could have easily been saved in the development stage had someone said let’s not do this.

Score: 5/10

Creed II (2018) as seen on Amazon Prime

Obviously a prequel will always outdo a sequel, however I found Creed II to be just as meaningful as the first film. Maybe even more so as Adonis Creed (Michael B Jordan) is becoming a father his responsibilities have shifted dramatically. He’s also desperate to fight Viktor Drago, a Ukrainian ruthless boxer whose father accidentally killed Creed’s father in a match decades before. Drago is tough, beyond what he and his coach Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) could ever imagine and because of this, it drives a wedge between Adonis’ relationship with his coach. Creed thinks Rocky doesn’t believe he can beat Drago but Rocky insists not fighting the bull of a boxer would benefit him greatly, after all, look what happened to his father. The character dynamics have shifted in this sequel, but the structure has remained largely the same. We kind of knew what we were being served at the end and the change in character was there for everyone.

Score: 10/10

...and that’s it! Everything I watched this February, you do not want to KNOW how long this list took to compile. Thanks for reading and see you next month!

ig: @ratingtheframe

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halothenthehorns · 3 years

Text

THE TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT

James took the book with a happy enough smile. He wanted to believe they were all being paranoid, that this was the year nothing bad was going to happen to his son and they'd get to have a rousing time laughing about whatever was to come, rather then going for more calming draughts.

Hogwarts loomed above them as magnificent as ever, not that they had time to appreciate much of anything as they went sprinting inside out of the rain. Ron was only just shaking some water out of his face as he said how the lake was likely to overflow, before roaring in shock.

Lily startled as James screamed like that, then scowled as all four boys started laughing at her expense. "I'm so glad you find people screaming funny," she told them pleasantly. "I'll make sure to remember that later, dear," she finished with flashing eyes at her husband.

He gulped, tried and failed for a smile, then went back to the book.

A water balloon had crashed onto his head, somehow managing to make him even more wet.

Sirius still couldn't wipe the smirk off his face as he stated, "well that's just lovely. A very welcome back to school present."

"I'm sure it gives students a chance to miss the rain outside," Remus agreed.

More were coming down as well, one landing at Harry's feet and drowning his socks in the icy liquid, another being lobbed at a group of girls who quickly dived into the Great Hall for cover. Above, Peeves was cackling in triumph

"Good to see the weather doesn't affect his mood," James snickered.

as he took aim for another. McGonagall came storming onto the scene, shouting his name, but hardly made it a few steps without sliding in the deluge and having to catch herself on Hermione's neck before they both crashed.

"Ouch," Lily winced in sympathy.

"For McGonagall and Hermione," Harry agreed with a sad frown for both women.

Hermione grimaced in pain and McGonagall apologized, Hermione quickly waved her off while massaging at her throat.

"Great, now we know who we can use to catch our falls from now on," Sirius snorted.

McGonagall turned her attention back on Peeves and demanded he stop, who paid her no mind as he tossed another set and exclaimed he wasn't doing anything!

"While technically he is doing something," Remus' smirk kept widening.

After all, they were already wet!

"He's not wrong," Sirius finished for him, causing all four boys to crack up laughing again. Lily sighed, wishing she could teleport someone sensible into the house at least.

McGonagall threatened she'd go and get the headmaster, and Peeves retaliated by dumping the rest of his load on them before zooming away. McGonagall sighed at all the dripping students, but instructed them all to get into the Hall.

"She couldn't have at least offered to dry them off?" James asked, a wicked grin still in place at his poor sons expense.

"Guess she was still too distracted glaring after Peeves to think about it," Harry chuckled, knowing he'd been no worse for wear of the extra cold.

The group went into the much warmer Great Hall where the set up was the same as last year with all the floating candles and golden plates on top of each of the four houses. Harry and his two friends took seats by Nearly Headless Nick, who wore his usual attire.

"Of course it's his usual," Sirius snorted, "he can't hardly change clothes."

He beamed at all of them and stated 'good evening', though Harry replied according to who, while draining the water from his shoes.

"Ah cheer up Harry," James said bracingly, "a little water never hurt anyone."

"Even when it's chucked at you from a balloon?" Harry asked simply, not bothering to keep the smirk off his face.

"Especially then," Remus pointed out, finally getting Lily to laugh at that one.

Then he muttered he hoped the sorting was fast, he was starving, while his internal dialogue noted this would be the first he'd be attending since his own.

"Thank you for that lovely reminder," Lily snorted.

Slightly down the row, a boy called down a greeting to Harry, Colin Creevey.

"Blimey, nearly forgot about this one," Sirius raised a brow in surprise.

"Be thankful it's only a hello," Harry sighed. "He didn't lose a drop of his enthusiasm for me, but at least he didn't memorize my schedule again."

"Well darn," Sirius snapped his fingers, his face giving a slight twitch as his tongue seemed to register he'd said the wrong thing, but quickly pushing past that. "I kind of liked your stalker. Did he and Ginny ever start up that fan club?"

Harry twitched like he wanted to mimic what he'd seen the others do and chuck a pillow at his godfather, but repressed the urge in the end, while James ignored the two and kept going.

He was a year below Harry and had always been deep in awe with him. Harry gave an exasperated hello back, and Colin quickly kept the conversation going by telling Harry that his little brother Dennis would be starting this year!

"Oh joy, we don't need Ginny anymore," Remus jumped in on this. "We've got our own club right there!"

"So glad you two are enjoying this," Harry sighed, which didn't help the fact that he was trying to ignore them both.

Harry faked some enthusiasm for this, while Colin eagerly hoped that his brother was in Gryffindor with them! Then Harry turned back to his friends and asked curiously if it was normal for siblings to get put into the same house, his mind on the Weasley's, all of whom were Gryffindors.

"Not necessarily," Sirius said at once with a happy smile. "I'm a Gryffindor, but my brother was a Slytherin."

"None of us have siblings, so we can't mark it," Remus shrugged, "but no, it's not standard," he finished agreeably.

Hermione said no, pointing out that a set of twins, one of whom had gone to Ravenclaw, the other in Gryffindor.

"Identical twins doesn't mean identical personalities," Lily shrugged. "I can just as easily picture Fred or George having wound up in Slytherin."

"You take that back!" Sirius said instantly, looking as affronted as if she'd cursed at him. "Those two are proud Gryffindors after me own heart."

"Oh hush Sirius," she waved him off, still addressing Harry, "they're both ambitious and clearly very cunning, it's not too hard to picture."

Harry nodded but decided against arguing the point, as he couldn't picture any of the Weasleys in such a house.

Harry was now looking up at the staff table where there were some empty chairs, Hagrid's as he was still out with the first years, McGonagall's who must have gone back out to dry up the Entrance Hall, but one extra seat Harry couldn't place.

"New teacher," the other four said as one.

"Can we please get someone normal this year," James sighed.

"Should I resent that?" Remus asked with a wane smile.

"You are far from normal Moony, but that's not what he meant and you know it," Sirius grumbled. They all wanted just one bloody year of peace, and so far every one of Harry's DADA teachers had somehow had a hand in spoiling it. Admittedly Remus was still the best by far, so hearing the position was open again stung more than they would have expected it to as they knew who they wanted there.

Hermione noticed as well, asking where the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher could be? Harry's internal dialogue kicked in as he remembered they'd yet to have one two years in a row, his personal favorite being Professor Lupin,

Remus couldn't help beaming, still somehow doubting that he'd done any real good in the position, but when no one else looked remotely surprised but instead just happy to hear it, Remus decided against bringing up the argument it was best he had left, he'd only cause more trouble.

who'd left last year. One quick look at all the staff again confirmed there were no new faces though to mark who it could be this year. Hermione was getting worried as she asked what if they hadn't gotten anyone this year?

Lily let out a surprised snort of laughter, saying, "that would honestly be kind of interesting. Wonder what they'd do?"

"With any luck, call it a permanent free study period," Sirius sighed wistfully.

"I imagine Dumbledore did appoint someone," Remus shrugged, "there must be someone out there who's still willing to try."

"I know someone who quit too soon," James grumbled under his breath, still giving his friend the stank eye before continuing.

Harry was still watching all of the other teachers, his least favorite sticking out being Snape.

"The feeling is mutual," Sirius hissed, to no one's protest. They all wished they were more surprised that he was even still there. It didn't seem fair, that he could do that to Remus and he hadn't suffered his own job as payment.

The feeling was mutual, and had somehow grown since last year when Harry helped Sirius to escape under his overly large nose.

James only got a moment to laugh before saying on reflex, "Harry thought that, I swear!"

Lily wasn't paying him any attention, her eyes were vacant and still managed to look more angry than sad at everything Severus had done last year, so James quickly hurried on and managed to ignore Harry grumbling, "thanks for the bus dad."

As Sirius and Snape had been old school enemies, the animosity could only have grown.

The ceiling above still showed the storm outside, while on his other side Ron groaned he was so hungry he could eat a hippogriff.

"Buckbeak resents that," Sirius smirked.

"You're speaking for a hippogriff that hasn't even been born yet," Remus laughed.

"I'm sure many hippogriffs resent that," Sirius' smirk widened, "he's just the first by name I thought of. I'm sure-"

"Oh bloody hell you two," Lily cut them off with a pointed look. "It's just an expression as you well know, let James finish this before midnight will you."

"She's in a bad mood," Sirius mumbled into Harry's ear, low enough that he was sure she hadn't heard.

Not moments later, the doors opened and the new set of first years came filing in, who were so wet they looked more like they swam here, and were all shaking from either cold or nerves.

"Those poor dears," Lily crooned, switching back to motherly anxious at once. "I wish someone had at least taken to drying them."

One in particular stood out to Harry, a tiny little mousey haired boy who was wearing Hagrid's coat, which was ten times as large as him. Despite his half terrified expression, he caught Colin's eye and gave him a thumbs-up, mouthing that he'd fallen in the lake.

Causing a burst of laughter in the room. They really hoped he got sorted into Gryffindor now just to hear that!

He looked positively delighted about it.

"I love this kid," Sirius said at once.

"Considering at least once a week you begged us to go take a swim in that lake with you, I'm not surprised," James chuckled.

McGonagall escorted them to the staff table and then set out the stool with the Sorting Hat on top of that. The Hall went silent, and they all waited as the song began:

James looked deliriously happy, not quite being able to believe his luck! He'd been dying to sing along with the hat!

A thousand years or more ago, when I was newly sewn, there lived four wizards of renown, whose names are still well known:

Bold Gryffindor, from wild moor, Fair Ravenclaw, from glen, Sweet Hufflepuff, from valley broad, Shrewd Slytherin, from fin.

They shared a wish, a hope, a dream, they hatched a daring plan, to educate young sorcerers thus Hogwarts School began.

Now each of these four founders formed their own house, for each did value different virtues in the ones they had to teach.

By Gryffindor, the bravest were prized far beyond the rest; For Ravenclaw, the cleverest would always be the best; For Hufflepuff, hard workers were most worthy of admission; And power-hungry Slytherin Loved those of great ambition.

While still alive they did divide their favorites from the throng, yet how to pick the worthy ones when they were dead and gone?

'Twas Gryffindor who found the way, he whipped me off his head. The founders put some brains in me so I could choose instead!

Now slip me snug about your ears, I've never yet been wrong, I'll have a look inside your mind and tell where you belong!

James finished with gusto, then looked around expectantly like he was awaiting his applause. What he instead received was laughter from three of them for what they considered far too much enthusiasm, and one actual person clapping which was Sirius with a straight face.

"Lovely performance," his best friend nodded with a critical smirk. "Could have used a bit more volume, but you are out of practice so I'll let it slide."

"Thank you," James nodded seriously, only giving the others another reason to laugh. He ignored them and turned proudly back to this book without a trace of remorse.

Every person present applauded the performance, as Harry leaned over and mentioned that hadn't been the song the Hat had sang to them.

"Sad that it took you till your fourth year to know that," Sirius sighed.

Ron told that it sang a new one every year, then guessed that it must need something to do with all its free time.

Lily snickered in appreciation and agreement.

Professor McGonagall was now undoing a large sheaf of parchment, and began calling out the new students by their last name in alphabetical order, who would come up and put on the Hat, then go to their new table.

"It's a good thing they applaud," Remus snorted, "because it's not as if they have them labeled."

She began with Ackerley Stewart, who joined Ravenclaw. Harry spotted Cho clapping along with the rest of her house,

"Now why would you notice a thing like that?" James asked with too wide eyes.

"Can't be because of her Quidditch ability, Harry did beat her last game," Sirius nodded along with an undeserved smile in Harry's opinion.

He tried desperately to ignore them both, but his growing redder by the second face wasn't leaving much room for that farce.

Lily wanted just as much to hear more about Harry's first crush, but she pitied her son too much in that moment and instead said, "get on with it James, no need to pick on him when it took you three years to even admit you had a crush on me."

James flushed and quickly turned away.

and for a moment Harry had the want of getting up to join that house as well.

"A moment I'd have liked to see him act on," Remus murmured, causing Lily to at least giggle at that. James and Sirius pouted at them, as they'd just been told off for this, but James decided against arguing the point.

Then Baddock, Malcolm joined the Slytherin's, and Harry watched that boy join his new house, wondering if he knew that Slytherin was known for turning out the most Dark wizards.

Lily sighed, her earlier amusement soured. She wished Harry would stop thinking of that particular stereotype.

After a few more students were called, it was Creevey, Dennis' turn, and after stumbling over Hagrid's too large jacket he made his way to the Hat and was quickly announced as a Gryffindor.

"Yes," Sirius cheered, "I wanted to hear about his experience in the lake!"

"Not so good for Harry," Remus chuckled, "as we might have another Collin this year."

Harry sighed without comment, dearly hoping against that.

Dennis quickly replaced the hat and ran over to his brother.

"Did he keep the jacket?" James asked.

"No, he gave it back to Hagrid," Harry chuckled.

Squealing about how he'd fallen in the lake, but something had grabbed him and put him back in the boat.

"The giant squid I presume," Lily smiled.

"I love this kid," Sirius cackled, anyone who had this brilliant reaction was okay with him.

Colin was just as excited as his brother as he exclaimed how cool that was!

"The concern for his brother is touching," James snickered.

Explaining for him it was probably the giant squid who had done him the favor. Dennis' expression somehow grew more delighted, as if no one could ask for more from life.

"Well when you put it like that it sounds like a bad thing," Lily giggled.

Then Colin drew attention to Harry sitting not too far away,

"As if you don't have a million pictures of him hanging up in your room," Sirius said with a pointed look at Harry.

Harry was still trying his very best to ignore all of this teasing, hoping they could change topics soon!

Harry quickly turned his attention back to the sorting, where they'd only made it to the L's and Ron was complaining about his stomach. Nick reprimanded him, saying the sorting was more important than food, and Ron snapped back it sure was if you were dead.

"Should have eaten more on the train instead of ruining your snacks," Sirius shrugged.

Nick ignored the snap, saying he hoped this new crop of Gryffindors helped to keep up their running streak, their house had won the past three years now.

"All three thanks to my boy," James added on with undisguised pride.

Harry flushed again, though this time for a different embarrassment. Only his last year would he actually claim some credibility for, and his whole team deserved the praise. His first two years had really been more of a fluke in his opinion, he hadn't asked or earned those points just for doing the right thing.

Finally the sorting was completed, and Dumbledore stood up to welcome them all, before offering the simple advice to 'tuck in.' Food magically appeared onto the plates, and they all dug in as Nick watched.

"Why does he attend the start of term feasts if he's just going to watch us like that?" Sirius asked with a roll of his eyes.

"I thought they greeted the first years in the antechamber," Harry asked in surprise as he first realized this. "Nick and the others were with us the whole time this year."

"Your first year seemed to have been some kind of occurrence," Lily shrugged, "where they were having a meeting about Peeves and were running late. They usually wait in the Great Hall with everyone else."

Ron sighed with his mouth still full of food how much better he already felt. Nick was watching him with mild disgust as he told that they were lucky to have a feast this year, as there had been a problem in the kitchen earlier. Harry tried to ask what had happened around a mouth full of steak.

Lily had to fight back the impulse to scold him for talking with his mouth full, she found no sense in doing it for how many years ago.

Nick said it was Peeves obviously,

"Of course," Sirius began laughing at once. He always enjoyed hearing what that Poltergeist got up to.

he'd had his usual argument of wanting to attend the feast, but of course everyone said no. The Poltergeist couldn't look at a plate of food without throwing it.

"I'm glad Nick mentioned that instance in particular," Remus gave a fond smile. "I was worried someone would forget about it."

"Let me guess," Harry began with a happy smile.

"Right in one," Sirius nodded without remorse. "We caused a distraction and let him into the Great Hall, where he started the most epic food fight in Hogwarts history between all of the houses."

"I had to attend potions with mash still in my hair," Lily sniffed, but her shoulders were shaking with repressed laughter as she finished, "but it was worth it when I nailed you with that whole bowl of pudding." She finished with a loving smile at her then boyfriend.

"I knew you did that on purpose," James said, swinging his finger wildly in her face.

Lily had an unrepentant smirk on her face, and still grumbling a bit with a fond smile of his own, James turned back to the book for now.

Ron agreed Peeves had seemed in a particularly bad mood today, asking what he'd done to the kitchens in particular?

"Cause mayhem," Remus said at once with a casual shrug.

"That is a good idea though," Sirius nodded along. "How come we never thought of getting him into the kitchens."

"Because you valued your meals more than your life," Lily snorted. "You never would have jeopardized such a thing after McGonagall threatened to ban you from the Great Hall after you let Peeves in there."

Sirius nodded in agreement with that.

Nick shrugged as he said the usual, making everything fly around and breaking whatever he could, giving the house-elves quite a fright- clang!

"Timing," James said with mild disappointment, he'd wanted Nick to keep going.

Hermione had knocked over her drink, staining the tablecloth below orange for several feet, but clearly paying that no mind.

"What's with her?" Remus asked in surprise.

"Oh that's right, she wouldn't know anymore then Harry that there were house-elves at Hogwarts," Sirius shrugged.

"And judging by the way she was acting about it over the summer, this might not go down well," Lily sighed solemnly. She now felt bad for her earlier outburst at Sirius, and she'd already seen evidence that Ron and Hermione might rehash the argument they'd just had.

She demanded that there were house-elves in this castle?

"Where did she think all that food came from?" James snorted in surprise. "She knows the only staff there are the teachers."

"Guess it just never occurred to her to question it," Lily shrugged, she'd been the same way for the longest time.

Nick agreed of course there were, one of the largest dwellings of them in Britain. Hermione gasped that she'd never seen one, and Nick laughed of course not, it was a good mark to never see them. Hermione was still half gaping in shock as she demanded that they got paid, and were treated as proper employees, yes? Nick laughed so hard his head fell off as much as it could.

"I just love that you and your friends don't even try what we strived for," Sirius sighed. "It took me ages to get him to laugh so hard his head fell off."

He fixed it before telling her that elf's didn't want such things. Hermione set down her silverware and pushed her plate away. Ron began laughing at her, but she shot back that slave labor had made this meal, and refused to take anything more.

All five of them looked worriedly surprised at that, was she going to refuse to eat her whole stay there? Only Lily felt sympathy for the girl rather than wanting to laugh at the display like clearly the Marauders wanted to, at least she understood why Hermione was behaving like this.

Ron kept trying, offering up her favorite foods, but then Hermione gave him such a severe look McGonagall would have been proud, and he let it go.

"You know she's really making a point when she ignores the desserts," Remus said solemnly.

Once the feast was over for everyone else, Dumbledore took to his feet again. First he praised the good food, to which Hermione huffed at,

"Is she going to be like that every meal now?" James sighed.

"It'll be a miracle if she even attends another meal," Sirius shrugged.

but no one noticed as Dumbledore began speaking of other things, such as the list of forbidden items at this school which had been updated to including Screaming Yo-yos,

"Killjoy," Remus pouted.

Fanged Frisbees,

"Can't believe it took him that long to add those," Sirius snickered.

and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs.

"My personal favorite," James cackled.

The full list of four hundred and thirty-seven items

"And he's memorized every one of them," Lily said with chipper.

could be found on Filch's door.

"There'll be a line out the door for that," Harry muttered under his breath, which James and Sirius still heard, and exchanged indulgent smiles, more than happy Harry was playing along.

The corners of Dumbledore's mouth twitched.

"Cannot imagine why," Remus said with an almost straight face.

He still continued with the warnings, stating that the Forbidden forest was also out-of-bounds,

"At least I didn't have to deal with that last year," Harry sighed, that was one thing he could be grateful for at least.

as well as the Hogsmeade village to all below third year. He added on something extra this year, which was that there would be no Quidditch tournament.

James had been happily reading for so long, that this bombshell didn't quite register until he heard Sirius gasp so wildly you'd think he'd been stabbed in the chest.

"You must be bleeding joking!" Remus demanded, watching James like he wasn't sure who he was staring at anymore. "Tell me that was a terrible joke."

"I'd never joke about something like this!" James yelped, staring down at the print like it had just whacked him over the head with his own broom.

"I, I don't understand," Sirius' lower lip was starting to wobble, like he was going to start crying any second. "He can't, Dumbledore can't-"

"Oh come on you lot," Lily sighed, finally cutting in, "read on now, and let the man give an explanation as to why, you know he will."

Harry gasped in outrage,

"A completely appropriate reaction," Remus nodded, ignoring Lily rolling her eyes at him, though Harry still looked as stunned at the news as the rest of the boys.

and glanced around to see Fred and George mouthing wordlessly at the headmaster, to appalled to yell out yet.

"They weren't the only ones," Harry sighed, somehow getting the feeling he would have preferred Quidditch to whatever was going on this year.

"It's a good thing Wood hadn't come back this year, or he would have had heart failure," Lily couldn't help but point out with a light giggle.

Dumbledore had to speak over a growing protest to state that instead, starting in October,

"Unless you plan on cancelling all classes this year and giving everyone a free year, I cannot see in what way taking out Quidditch is alright," Sirius huffed.

but was cut off by the doors opening.

"Oh bloody hell!" James groused.

"The timing of whoever interrupted this should get an award," Lily snorted.

"So the reason they canceled Quidditch has something to do with this big secret," Remus' eyes glowed with curiosity now.

"Must be really big," Sirius ran his hand through his hair in frustration.

The man who came in was one that made the whole hall fall silent. His features were striking, and not in a pleasant way. As he walked towards the staff table, you could distinctly hear a clunk every other step. Then a strike of lightning threw his face into sharp relief, and Hermione gasped.

Harry let out a strangled noise as well, his eyes going wide as he got his first remembered look.

"Who on earth-" Lily began with confusion, but James shrugged, clearly indicating none of them had any idea so kept going.

Harry couldn't blame her, as this stranger's face was like nothing he'd seen before. Every inch of the lined face seemed to bear a scar, half of his nose was missing, and his mouth looked more like a wound as well, then there was the eye.

James couldn't help a little shiver for this man, wondering what on earth he'd been through to get like this.

One was normal sized, but the other was wide as a pound, the iris of which was bright blue. It seemed to have a life of its own as it roved over every inch of the place, never settling, and at one point rolling right into the back of the man's head. It never blinked.

Sirius' mouth was stretching wide, the idea of that thing a combination of creepy and kind of cool leaving him unsure how he was supposed to be reacting.

He reached Dumbledore, who shook his hand and offered him the seat beside him.

"No way," Remus demanded, his eyes narrowed shrewdly at the book. "That's your new DADA teacher?"

"Unless he's there for some other reason, which I can't think of," Lily agreed.

"Why can't you just have one normal teacher?" James sighed.

"Hey," Remus yelped, giving a halfhearted glare at him. "You saying I'm not normal?"

"Moony, I know you're not," Sirius snorted, waving James on amidst the others giggling.

As the man took his seat, his coat rose up enough you could make out his legs, one of which was simply a peg.

Dumbledore gave him the introduction of the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Moody.

"What!?"

Harry just nodded absently though, like the news didn't surprise him. What he was thinking on though was this odd little feeling, like he shouldn't trust this man one little bit. It was so at odds with his first impression of him though, a trustworthy man, why would he have such conflicting feelings about this?

"That's, that's not-" Sirius shook his head wildly as he tried to line up the Auror in his prime now with this misshapen thing.

"No way that's Alastor Moody," James was going nearly green in shock as he reread that almost terrifying description. "Sure he's been pretty badly marked, but the eye, leg and nose? Who on Earth managed to get him?!" His head was reeling as he tried to wrap his mind around that. Moody was like his idol, he couldn't imagine a more fearsome and undefeated Auror, and to hear something like this had happened to him was crushing!

Lily felt terrible for him of course, but suddenly she was looking at her husband with a whole new fear as well. She had never argued with him when he said he wanted to be an Auror, in the type of life they lead fighting a war it almost made sense this was where he'd been leading, but for the first time she truly reflected what it would feel like if her husband didn't come home one day because he hadn't lived through one of those injuries. She was already facing a terrifying future where her and James were set to die, but what if they somehow managed to fix it, and James only got a few more years left of life but still died because of this? Her heart felt like it was shriveling up in her as she so desperately wanted to throw this at James, for the first time try and convince him of something else, but wondering if she even should. Was it right to try and force him to change careers just because she was getting a little spooked?

Still stuttering slightly from 'this future sucks' overload, James had to blink hard a few times before forcing himself to go on. He hated sitting here thinking about this happening, but glancing over at Harry was a good reminder it wasn't the most important thing in his life right now.

He and the rest of the staff began applauding the new appointment, but no one else moved.

"I'd be too shocked to as well," Lily murmured, still shifting her weight around with unease.

The noise died quickly, and Harry hissed into Ron's ear if this was the same Mad-Eye Moody?

"Guess now we get the name," Remus grumbled to himself, his brow still furrowed up in worry for this future. It was honestly beginning to feel like no one in their future from the Order lived a decent life, which wasn't exactly encouraging.

The same Arthur had gone out to help this morning?

"Just, Alastor Moody, as a teacher," Sirius' eyes still hadn't gone back down to their normal size. "I can't decide what's blowing me more, the thought of him doing that, or him with half his nose missing! Or that eye, or-"

James reached around Harry and gave his best friend a pat on the shoulder in commiseration, he was still fairly in shock himself.

Ron agreed it had to be the same guy, and Hermione asked what had happened to him. Ron said he wasn't sure,

"Wish Ron did know when that happened to him," Sirius shivered, wondering if there was an ambush somewhere in their future, or if this happened after Voldemort's downfall?

Moody didn't seem to notice the attention on him, now eating some sausages and drinking from a hip flask from his coat. When he lifted his arm to drink, Harry got a better view of the wood, which was carved to be shaped like a foot.

The four of them couldn't help another shiver. It's not as if they'd never met someone with a prosthetic, but the idea of it happening to the head of the Auror department like that still wouldn't sit right in their mind, not the man who seemed thicker than stone.

Dumbledore had to clear his throat to reclaim attention, and then continued as if he hadn't been interrupted, going back to say that this year Hogwarts would be hosting the Triwizard Tournament.

James had still been reading on autopilot from the shock of Moody's appearance in this timeline, that he'd almost read right past this without realizing it. Then his brain caught up with his tongue, and he nearly bit the muscle off as he shouted, "what?"

"You did not just say that!" Sirius demanded, reaching over and yanking the book away, though the second his eyes landed on the words they still managed to double in size.

"That's what all this fuss has been about?" Lily snorted. "I think I'd have preferred to hear about the Quidditch matches."

"Well that's a little harsh," Remus laughed. "I've heard all about these things, and they sound like a blast."

"Clearly we haven't heard about the same thing," Lily snorted, several events that ended in deaths first coming to her mind.

Harry did not join in the celebration of whatever this meant, but instead felt a cold chill break out over him. This was going to be terrible, of that he had no doubts. Yet his fourteen year old mind was just sort of confused on the topic, and as trying to think on reasons why he wouldn't like this for any time gave him a headache, he instead inserted, "what's that?"

"Oh you're going to love this pup," Sirius smirked. "It's this event where they take students from different schools and pin them against each other in these crazy matches. One year they had hippoi athanatoi-"

Harry interrupted like Sirius had just spoken Greek.

"Fire breathing horses," he waved off, "and they raced them around this swamp filled with-"

"Please stop," Lily moaned, pressing her hands to her ears.

Sirius rolled his eyes at her but said, "anyways, the point is, it's like this huge game to prove your school's the best."

"Sounds like fun honestly," Harry laughed, he couldn't help it with all the enthusiasm Sirius was showing, and his attitude had successfully pushed away any negative feelings Harry originally had.

"Well, it was canceled a long time ago," Remus added on with a smirk. "They seemed to have problems controlling, ah, certain aspects of it, and well-"

"Almost every year a contestant died," Lily finished bluntly.

"You're a worry wart," James scoffed. "That was years ago, and you think the same thing about Quidditch."

"Rogue bludger," she said bluntly, causing all four boys to sigh, and Harry to try and defend:

"But Dobby-"

"Bucking broom, dementors, do I need to keep going?" she threatened, causing him to wince and admit defeat.

"What are you being such a baby for?" James groaned at her. "Didn't Molly say something about an age limit? I'd think she'd have told her kids about this ages ago, so that she could tell them not to join, if they were old enough."

"Yeah, you probably have to be of age or something," Remus agreed. "Honestly, that makes sense anyways, you'd think they'd have thought of that in the first place."

Lily at least looked mildly appeased, but his dad's offhand comment brought something back to almost the forefront of Harry's brain. Like his mother should stay worried about this...

James didn't notice Harry's lingering worry though, as he'd admit that this almost did make up for the no Quidditch this year. Harry was going to have a blast watching whatever the schools had cooked up! He quickly snatched the book back from Sirius now so he could keep going.

Fred shouted in shock that Dumbledore must be joking!

"I cannot imagine Dumbledore joking about something like this," Remus laughed.

The tension upon Moody's arrival broke as the whole hall burst into excited muttering, and Dumbledore let it continue for a moment before chuckling and saying he was not joking, though he had heard a funny one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who had gone into a bar- McGonagall cleared her throat loudly to cut him off.

"Ah, why'd she interrupt?" James snickered. "That was a good one."

"I've never heard it," Harry said in surprise.

Even Lily couldn't find it in herself to groan this time as Sirius lit up like a kid with a new toy as he said, "alright, then listen good. A leprechaun, a troll, and a hag all went into a bar."

Sirius put on a false voice as he cried out:

"Benny!" said the bartender to the leprechaun, "I warned you three not to come back here after the last time. Took me weeks to clean up after all the mischief you caused."

He changed voices again to that of his best impression of an Irish man:

"Oh but it's Floss's birthday," said Benny pointing to the hag. Who smiled and showed off her one good tooth. "Give us a quick pint and let Troll and me sing to her. Then we'll be on our way. Cross me heart an' hope ta die."

Sirius then switched back to his normal, though slightly louder then was called for, voice as he continued:

The bartender was a soft-hearted, and rather soft-headed man, and so he did as Benny asked.

No sooner had they finished their drinks when a fight broke out over who should be allowed to give Floss a birthday kiss.

The troll and the leprechaun wrestled like they were caught in Devil's Snare and broke a remarkable amount of glassware. The bartender tried every spell he knew to stop them, but nothing worked. Truth to tell, he was not a very good wizard.

Meanwhile Floss the Hag stood by, grinning and looking quite pleased with the celebration in her honor.

After a lengthy brawl, the troll had the advantage. He towered over the quaking leprechaun, ready to smash an enormous beer barrel over the poor fellow's head."

Then Sirius switched to his best feminine voice, his impression of Lily though he'd never admit that aloud, and said:

"Oh for pity's sake," said Floss who was also an accomplished witch. "Alohomora!"

Sirius continued the pattern of switching between each voice as he finished off the joke.

"With a wave her wand, Floss opened the sealed barrel, dumping a lovely, golden brew over the troll, and quite possibly saving the leprechaun's life.

"Floss!" cried the leprechaun. "Let me thank ye with a wee kiss." But the hag shook her tangled tresses of hair and refused him.

"Yeh see! I'm the one she likes!" shouted Troll. He somersaulted to his lady love and tried to gather her in his great arms, but in a blink of a Cyclops' eye, the hag disapparated and her companions fled.

Once again, the bartender was left with a dreadful mess to clean up. His wife, who had witnessed the whole affair, heaved a sighed and began to mop up the ale."

In this voice he actually tried at Madam Rosmerta, to which he would admit to if anyone had bothered to ask.

"Well, my dear," she said. "At least we've learned two important lessons."

"What's that?" said her grumpy husband. He was in no mood for philosophical musing.

"Obviously," the wise and alarmingly cheerful woman continued, "A Benny saved is a Benny spurned. And a rolling troll gathers no Floss."*

Harry let out a surprised burst of laughter, even the others joined in though they'd heard the joke before. Sirius just had this magical way about him of being able to retell any joke and still making it funny, the one and only exception being his serious/ Sirius joke, but he was still working on that.

Dumbledore agreed now wasn't the time for that joke, and went back to speaking of the Tournament. He knew that some students already knew what this was, so he encouraged them to let their minds wander while he informed the others.

"The only ones who wouldn't know about it are the Muggleborns," Lily snorted, "and even then you're likely to hear about it at least once before you leave school. The stories about this thing still get thrown around some nights."

"How many times has Hogwarts hosted it?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Well the first one was held sometime during the 12th or 13th century," Remus shrugged, "but it officially ended in 1792."

"It was held every five years by each school in turn," James shrugged.

"So Merlin knows how many times exactly," Sirius snorted, not up for doing the math at the moment, but Harry seemed to get the gist of it and nodded.

He began by saying that the Triwizard Tournament was founded over seven hundred years ago, as a competition between the three largest European schools, Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. A student was selected from each school and set to compete in three tasks. Each school took turns hosting it every five years, but the event ended when the death toll became too high.

Hermione repeated the word death toll in shock, but she was of a minority. Everyone else seemed to be muttering excitedly to their friends about this, not much of a care for people who had died hundreds of years ago.

"You see Lily, you and Hermione worry too much," Remus nodded along.

Lily just sighed, recognizing she was outvoted and it wasn't worth the argument.

When Dumbledore continued, everyone quickly fell silent to listen as he comforted that they'd taken great measures this year to ensure no one would die.

"I'm sure that's what they said last time," Lily muttered to herself, her eye still lingering a moment too long on her son with worry, so she was the only one who noticed him flinch at that statement. She frowned, but didn't call him out on it as he quickly tried to smooth out his face and pretend otherwise.

The heads of the other two schools would be arriving in October, and the selection process would begin on Halloween night.

"Uroh," James couldn't help but mutter, considering nothing good had ever happened on that date!

"I'll agree with you on that one," Harry sighed, rubbing in high agitation at his temple now. He just knew the more he heard about this, the less he was liking it, no matter how persistent his fourteen year old mind was trying to butt in and say this sounded like a blast.

There would be an impartial judge who decided the champions, and the reward was the Triwizard Cup, the glory for their school, and a thousand Galleons prize money.

"Impartial judge?" Harry asked with only the vaguest of interest now, though he tried to hide it for the sake of the men who still looked enthralled by the idea.

"Not happening pup," Sirius said at once, "this is going to be a surprise."

Harry gave him a good natured pout, but didn't argue the point, almost relieved to let it go and hoping Dumbledore would soon as well.

Fred at once said he was going to try.

"Cannot blame him," James cackled, knowing he'd be first in line if this had happened while he'd been there.

He was not the only one, as all around the hall people were nodding along with deep interest at all of this. Dumbledore quickly nipped that in the butt, as he said that there would be an age restriction,

They may have already worked this out, but none of them could honestly bring themselves to groan about it too much. Harry had enough life and death situations the past three years to last them a lifetime. Despite how much of a riot it would be for them to hear about this going on, none of them could even pretend they weren't a little happy Harry wouldn't even get an opportunity.

you had to be of age, seventeen, to enter. There was an uproar at once, the Weasley twins in particular looked murderous.

"I can see why they'd be a little ticked," Remus winced in sympathy. "They are turning seventeen soon enough, it's so close they must feel personally affronted."

"Can't wait to see what they do about it," James said with an old mischievous smirk, which Sirius happily adopted moments later.

Lily chuckled lightly at them, but wasn't going to hold out any real hope either of them got away with anything.

Dumbledore didn't seem to notice as he explained this tournament was dangerous no matter how many safety measures were in place, and anyone underage wouldn't be up for the task.

"Well he's just being a right ol' killjoy," Sirius shook his head in mock scolding.

He looked almost stern now as he asked the students who could not compete, not to waste their time trying.

"Right," James drew the word out in disbelief, "as if half the students in that school aren't going to try anyways."

"It'll be a hoot to hear," Remus snickered.

He rounded the discussion up by saying it was getting late, and they all had to get to class in the morning, and to chop chop off to bed.

"You cannot announce something like that, and actually expect them to chop chop anywhere, let alone bed," Lily said deadpan.

"Least we're in agreement on that," James chuckled.

Dumbledore retook his seat and began speaking quietly to Moody, while the rest of the students began filing out. Fred and George kept their places in mutiny, grumbling to each other how they'd be seventeen in April, they should get their shot.

"And if they'd bumped it down to sixteen, every fifteen year old close enough would be complaining," Remus rolled his eyes. "There really is no happy median."

Fred was saying they couldn't stop him, that the champions would get to have all kinds of fun!

"Right, fun," Lily rolled her eyes, thinking the twins needed to hear some of the stories she had, maybe they'd change that word.

"Can't deny the glory of that," Sirius nodded simply, like his best friend unable to bat away his own desire to see his name tossed into this.

With a thousand Galleons for prize money.

"A lure to any," Remus laughed, not particularly wanting himself to go out and do this, but knowing he'd back either of his friends if they wanted their go.

Ron gave a dreamy agreement to that, but Hermione convinced them all to start heading upstairs. Harry asked who this impartial judge could be?

The others were fighting hard to keep a straight face as Harry eyed them all critically for a clue. It probably wasn't fair of them, but they wanted to see the surprise on his face when he came to realize that answer.

They didn't have any idea, but Fred was certain that a few drops of Aging Potion would get them in.

"Not a bad idea actually," James nodded at once.

"Much more subtle then I would have given them credit for," Remus agreed.

"Sometimes the subtlest things make the biggest impacts," Sirius said with one to many crinkles around his eyes, giving Harry the strong impression he spoke from experience.

Ron reminded that the school knew they weren't of age.

"Well there's that," Harry said, still watching those around him and looking for a crack. "Couldn't Dumbledore saying something to this judge, get them out of it?"

"Nuhu," James wagged his finger, "you're not getting it out of us, you'll just have to wait."

Harry grumbled at them, but had no way to argue the point.

Fred shot back that wouldn't matter, it's this judge who decided, and once he did that was that. Hermione voiced her concern though that people had died in this before. Fred waved that off, saying that was years ago, and what was life without risk?

"And here I used to agree with them," Remus sighed, his smile slipping slightly as he remembered one to many times of the risks of Harry's life.

James and Sirius exchanged put out looks, knowing they would have agreed with the twins before they started these books, but now wishing for nothing more exciting to happen to Harry this year than watching some older students do something stupid and maybe a paper cut from his homework.

Then he turned his attention on his brother, asking if they figured this out would he want in? Ron tried to play it off, saying they hadn't learned enough,

"It's not always what you learned," Sirius shrugged, "it's the ingenuity it takes to win the game."

"I'm glad you're not encouraging him or anything," Lily snorted.

then Neville's voice came from behind them saying that he knew he couldn't do it, but his gran would probably have told him to try anyways and actually bring some honor to the family for once.

"That woman is agitating me the more I hear about her," Lily's scowl deepened, hating to hear about Neville speaking of her the more this carried on. "What woman would say that to a child? It's not his job!"

"Agreed, I've heard Frank go on about her," Remus sighed with pity. "He's about as lovely on the discussion as you are about Petunia."

Lily pursed her lips so tight they went almost white, but all they could really do was feel pity for the poor boy. It was so sad that Neville's life hadn't seemed to turn out much better then Harry's, but sitting here griping about it wasn't going to fix anything.

He was cut off from saying anything else by falling into a trip step.

Sirius went an ugly gray color, remembering his and someone's old gag of trying to push each other into these. It was a terrible blow to the gut at such a random reminder, and he'd already been in such a down mood at the thought of Neville's life he looked pretty bad in that moment.

The others hadn't really noticed though as they all avoided each other's eye in that moment because they'd all thought on the exact same person, and James quickly read past the sticky moment.

Most of the older students knew by now which of these to jump, but Neville had a notorious bad memory and sank up to his knee in the step. Harry and Ron quickly stepped back to pull him out, and as they passed a piece of armor that was laughing at the display, Ron told it to shut it while slamming its helmet shut for it.

"Ron's such a sweet friend, even to someone who's not a best friend," Lily said with a little too much pitch, but it at least made the boys smile again.

They made it up to Gryffindor tower where George gave the password of Balderdash to the Fat Lady, saying a prefect had told him already.

"He's literally been with you the whole time," Remus snorted, "when did this happen?"

"Before they sat down to eat," Harry shrugged.

The common room was as cozy and warm as ever, but Hermione took one look at the glowing fireplace and muttered something about slave labor,

"Glory, in all the fuss I've nearly forgotten about her little problem," James snorted in surprise.

Lily gave him a sharp look, mostly for referring to it as a 'little problem' but wasn't going to have a go at her husband for something she'd already had out with Sirius.

before marching up the stairs. Harry, Ron, and Neville went up to their own dorm, where their other two roommates were already getting ready for bed. Seamus had pinned up his Ireland rosette to his headboard, while Dean had a poster of Viktor Krum above his.

Sirius let out a surprised bark of laughter, thinking that those two who were clearly best friends doing that to each other was pretty hilarious.

They all settled into bed not long after, and Ron whispered sleepily to Harry that if the twins did pull it off, well that tournament you know? He might just go for it.

"I don't think I could stand listening to Ron go through that anymore then Harry," Lily sighed, running her hand through her hair at the thought.

"Thankfully the age rule applies to him to," Remus said peacefully.

Harry half agreed as he rolled over in his sleep, a dream already forming in his mind's eye as he pictured convincing this judge he was seventeen,

"Sorry pup," Sirius smirked, "you could be seventeen and still not pass for it, you're too scrawny."

"Oi," Harry yelped, giving him the stank eye, but the others were too busy laughing to think he meant it.

He'd been picked for Hogwarts champion, and being risen above the crowd with the Triwizard Tournament Cup in hand.

"So not only would you go for it," Remus chuckled, "you have no doubts you'd win eh?"

"Every person in that school is having a similar dream at that moment," James laughed.

"And Harry's actually got some experience to back up the delusion he could," Sirius smirked.

"Delusion?" Harry pouted, choosing to stay in this conversation and ignore the terrible ache he was getting from this daydream...it's not as if it had any meaning at all...right?

"You sure sound confident Harry could win," Lily shot back at Sirius.

"Hey, I'm happy he can't," Sirius threw his hands up in surrender, "I'm just saying, he's lived through some stuff that would give him an edge."

"You should stop talking now," James butted in with a snicker, knowing Sirius didn't mean it, but Lily was giving him the stank eye meaning she was thinking otherwise.

Cho's face in particular stood out, glowing with admiration.

Causing all four of them to smile at Harry's expense, who rather wished his mum and Sirius would start going at it again to save him from this.

Harry grinned into his pillow, exceptionally glad that Ron couldn't see what he could.

"As if Ron wasn't thinking the exact same thing," James snorted as he passed Sirius the book.

"Except possibly with some other girl then Cho," Sirius nodded in agreement.

HPHPHPHPHP

Two big reveals this chapter back to back, hope I did them justice...

* At least, that's Mugglenets version of the joke, the whole of it was taken from there and I claim no originality in that. My personal favorite punchline is something else, but I'm saving that for another book, so just consider this a warning this joke may crop up again.

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #reading the books #Marauders #GoF #James Potter #Lily Potter #Remus Lupin #Sirius Black

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