lullabyknell:

Some more things that came up while answering comments for FDITH’s Ch14: The Marvelous Madam Marlene that I feel like sharing: 

1) I actually headcanon canon!Regulus fairly differently to FDITH!Regulus. Admittedly, part of this is because I’m still developing most and FDITH!Regulus gets to survive and face situations that canon!Regulus didn’t (and there are still sides of FDITH!Regulus we haven’t seen yet), but… yeah… FDITH!Regulus is partly shaped to suit the story I’m trying to write. 

2) I was nervous introducing Marlene and I’m honestly still a little nervous about continuing with her, since female characters, especially powerful or talented ones, can get the “Mary Sue” accusations. I’m delighted that people are liking her so far. She’s been developing for quite some time in unposted fics and McKinnon headcanons. If I was going to give Lily Evans a friend, I decided, then she was going to be as interestingly independent as Lily and independently interesting from Lily. A person of her own with strengths and flaws of her own. (Like I’m trying to do with every canon or barely canon character in the story.) 

3) I actually headcanon that Divination is a much wider field of magic than just gazing into crystal balls and can actually be intensely practical when approached a certain way by an accomplished/inventive magic-user. So the McKinnons are less… Seers who have visions of the future thrust upon them and more like… people who have to put a lot of work into looking for visions of the future and often don’t find much. There’s a whole lot of past and present world to divine, after all. 

4) For example, any sort of tracking spell or scanning spell is part of Divination in my mind. Divination can be and is really useful. It’s just that “pure” Divination gets a lot of flack for being something for drunks and quacks. (I’m trying to decide whether or not to have a headcanon that this is part of some massive, ancient “Cassandra Curse”. I already have a slight headcanon that Divination is a female-dominated field and there’s sexism involved.) 

5) One of my all-time favorite personal headcanons (as far as I know, I came up with this on my own) is that Divination is how the Liquid Luck potion works. Liquid Luck temporarily opens a person’s “Inner Eye” to give them a subconscious ability to see the future and decide the path towards the best / most desirable future for them. So a person is having an extended subconscious vision (secondary small headcanon that a lot of Divination involves getting/seeming high) and gets “feelings” that they should just do certain things apparently apropos of nothing. 

6) If I make the McKinnons people who practice Divination and can sometimes see the future, then I have to recognize that not a one of them (there’s five of them in total) managed to foresee or prevent their entire family’s murder at the hands of Death Eaters. This horrible irony is going to come up in the fic and I’m looking forward to it.

7) I’m doing my utmost right now to figure out how to put Harry in a reasonable in-story situation for summoning his Patronus. Just for the James & Harry feels. Prongs. (Just thinking about it makes me wanna cry.) 

roachpatrol:

prokopetz:

Random Headcanon: The reason the Wizarding World in Harry Potter uses such arse-backwards technology isn’t cultural elitism. (Well, not entirely.) Rather, it’s because if you enchant anything more complicated than a screwdriver, it tends to become sentient over time. Devices that use electricity are particularly bad for this, and almost always “wake up” eventually. Arthur Weasley’s car going rogue and running off to live in a forest is actually a fairly favourable outcome; the students still tell horror stories about what happened to the guy who smuggled in (and subsequently enchanted) a digital wristwatch.

this is the best answer to this plot hole i’ve ever heard

flutish:

So I’ve been seeing this post floating around Tumblr about how Harry should have retrieved the Resurrection Stone and imagine how wonderful it would have been for the characters to have closure with their loved ones and how beautiful and emotionally satisfying and and and… heart-wrenching stuff.

But… that’s completely not what the Resurrection Stone does.

The Stone is a liar, designed by Death to draw people away from life. The Second Brother literally goes insane from the image of his lost love, and kills himself to join her in death. And if you don’t believe the fairy tale (heh), look at what happens when Harry uses the Stone: Yes, his mother, father, Sirius and Remus appear, but they lure him to death. They literally encourage him to walk to his supposed grave. What does StoneLily say? “You’ve been so brave”. Compare that to the urgency of Goblet of Fire’s ShadowLily. Do they seem quite the same? Does it seem quite like Remus to be so passive in the face of dying before getting to know his son? Or for Sirius to encourage anyone to simply accept their death lying down?

Time and again, J. K. Rowling has emphasized the importance of “moving on” in the context of death. Think about it. Harry has another experience with the memories of his parents which nearly derails him –  the Mirror of Erised. The Stone – which creates a far more tangible memory and far more dangerous allure – is devastating by nature. It’s not heartwarming or romantic or sweet. Frankly, I’m baffled that we would forget such a critical part of the Stone’s mythology. It is no less a murder weapon than the Elder Wand. It simply kills in a more roundabout way.

femprincess:

marauders4evr:

Do you think Ginny came up with her Valentine’s Day poem on her own?

Or do you think she had help?

Like

Say from

I don’t know

A magical diary or something

That she always confided in

And would probably do whatever she asked

Like help her write a poem

OKAY BUT – 

“I wish he were mine, he’s really divine – the hero who conquered the Dark Lord.”

Only Death Eaters called Voldemort the Dark Lord.

Ginny did NOT write that.

VOLDEMORT WROTE HARRY POTTER A LOVE POEM: CONFIRMED.

padwoofoot:

I get harry that harry wanted to name his kids after people he
loved and people who died protecting him. I totally get that feeling of
gratitude but what bugs me is the choice of names.

Sirius, James and Lily? Justified.

But Albus Severus? Really? One of them literally protected him
to kill him in the end and the other one bullied him and his friends. They may deserve some recognition but didn’t they already
get a hell lot of recognition?!

What about the other people who actually gave away their lives
to protect Harry without demanding anything in return. They just fought selflessly
to protect their world and their loved ones and got no recognition what so
ever.

17 year old Cedric Diggory trying to make his parents proud.

18
year old Regulus Black trying to right the wrong of his ways.

Alastor
Moody trying to protect the only hope left in the world he’s grown old
protecting.

Ted
Tonks trying to protect his wife and daughter in a world where his kind are in
grave danger.

20
year old Fred Weasley trying to protect his family, and fighting for what is
right and for the kind messy haired boy who’s now become family.

38
year old Remus Lupin trying to protect his best friends’ (who he couldn’t
protect) son and to make the world a better place for his own son.

25
year old NymphadoraTonks trying to make a world a better place for her son,
fighting for her dad and against the unfair practice.

17
year old Lavender Brown doing what she felt is right.

16
year old Colin creevy trying to protect his childhood idol and not caring if
he’s underage because this is what he feels is correct.

And 50 other people who we don’t even know the names of
because 
Harry doesn’t bother finding out.

And Rebeus Hagrid? He made Harry a birthday cake and bought him an owl for his
11th birthday and he didn’t even know him. He loved everyone unconditionally
and was extremely loyal even after all he’s gone through. That man deserves the
world.  Hagrid deserves more recognition than
he ever got by anyone (be it Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dmbledore and the whole
wizarding community).

These people are the real heroes and they don’t deserve to be
forgotten.