Okay but you know that if Sirius and Regulus had been alive/free and Harry’s guardians, they would have known that something was going on with Ginny almost immediately.
Like the Weasleys grew up in a household filled with Muggle items and rustic, charming, quirky, things. It makes sense that they wouldn’t have been able to detect the dark magic.
But Sirius and Regulus? Those two grew up in a household filled with all sorts of dark, twisted, objects. It’s pretty much a given that Walburga’s idea of interior decorating was using objects from Borgin and Burkes. They’d be able to sense dark magic from a mile away.
Like Ron and Ginny would visit Harry one day over the summer and Ginny would be like, “Look at my new diary; isn’t it nice?”
And Sirius and Regulus would just be like, “Yeah…we’re going to have to have a look at that.”
Not to mention the fact that Regulus would know what a horcrux is, so he would probably be able to recognize it. And there’s a 99% chance that they would recognize the name T. M. Riddle.
I can just imagine Sirius being like, “Okay, we’re going to invite Uncle Mad-Eye to this play date.”
Several minutes later, the house is filled with all sorts of Order members who are able to take the necessary measures to destroy the diary before it even becomes an issue.
Sirius and Regulus both buy Ginny a Muggle diary to make up for it.
I lowkey love that Regulus is described as being less handsome than Sirius.
I mean I couldn’t care less about his physical appearance I just really love how that’s the way Harry chose to describe him.
Imagine if all brothers were introduced that way. In a novelization of Gravity Falls, the author describes Ford as being less handsome than Stan. If, in the books, Mycroft was described as being less handsome than Sherlock. Prince of Egypt opens up with the beautiful song that leads Moses to Queen Tuya and she picks him up and says that Ramses is less handsome than he is.
It’s just such a passive aggressive compliment/insult.
On his thirteenth birthday, Regulus used the money that his parents had given him to purchase a beautiful black mamba.
It curled around his arm and would hiss at him throughout the day. Regulus would hiss back, occasionally giggling.
Sirius would often stomp around, grumbling. Of course Regulus was a damn Parselmouth and wait why are you laughing what did you just say about me? I know you’re talking about me, Reg! Stop. Laughing. Reg.
Truth is – Regulus was never a Parselmouth at all.
The thing I find most shocking of all was that at least according to book canon, Arthur and Molly never made a single attempt to invite Harry over during the summer of Prisoner of Azkaban??? Like this was after Ron directly told Molly that he was being starved with bars on his window! Molly knew this! There’s a reason this child lived with them for a whole month!
And then all of a sudden the next summer rolls around and the Weasleys were all like, “Lol nope we’re going on a vacation have fun with that convicted murderer who’s looking for you, here’s a photo of us having a good time without you.”
And of course Harry, my darling cinnamon roll of a child, is just sitting there half-starved with Dudley’s hand-me-downs hanging of of him, smiling like, “Oh wow, they had a lot of fun, I bet!”
And it’s like even when they came back, they still didn’t do a single thing to help Harry. Hang on, isn’t this also the summer of the telephone incident? Why would Ron even bother casually calling up Harry like he had to rescue him from his barred up bedroom! He should know that he can’t just call up Vernon and be like, “Hey, how’s it going, is Harry there?” No, Ron! He’s in his barred bedroom! ‘Sorry about that,’ he casually says in his note. His note! Why was his note, ‘Hey, look at how much fun we had’ and not ‘Hey, are you still alive?’
Why didn’t Arthur and Molly make an attempt to get him? Why didn’t Fred, George, and Ron show up to Privet Drive again?
Why were the Weasleys an amazing surrogate family to Harry except for this one time when they severely dropped the ball and nearly got the poor child expelled because he had to use magic to stand up to his abusive relatives?
Did Jo just think we would get tired of two similar summers? Because we wouldn’t have! If it meant that Harry was in a loving, household, I’d be fine if she had just copied and pasted the entire The Burrow chapter. Or hell, if you need something original, send Harry to Egypt with them. Don’t just have the entire Weasley family randomly forget about this boy! It’s so out-of-character!
They would never…
*sing song voice* fucking thANK YOU
Except I bet you anything it was fucking Dumbledore. How much do you want to bet that Molly and Arthur were LIVID, ready to haze Privet Drive to the ground, and he’d cut them off with bullshit about how sorry he was about it, but “no matter how much you love the boy Molly, he’s not blood, and Lily’s sacrifice and blood magic is the only thing that can TRULY protect him.”
And then probably rigged it that they’d win the money as a distraction.
Ugh, I mean, yea, I know there are legitimate Reasons they couldn’t do that, and as @dorkosaurus-prime points out, the Weasley’s do have their life outside of Harry and his ordeals. It’s not fair to expect that of them, but the narrative just felt so jarring between books now with hindsight, which is less a “the Weasley’s are questionable” and more a “with hindsight JK Rowling has the narrative cohesion of a chocolate tea kettle”.
You’re also super angry because I’m pretty sure you got those two things mixed up. The messed up phone call came in book 2, didn’t it? Which is part of the reason he couldn’t manage to contact the Weasleys for help. And then presumably they were told over the school year that Harry *had* to go home to the Dursley’s the next summer, and then by book 4 they were able to start coming up with excuses to have him over every summer as early and for as long as possible.
The thing I find most shocking of all was that at least according to book canon, Arthur and Molly never made a single attempt to invite Harry over during the summer of Prisoner of Azkaban??? Like this was after Ron directly told Molly that he was being starved with bars on his window! Molly knew this! There’s a reason this child lived with them for a whole month!
And then all of a sudden the next summer rolls around and the Weasleys were all like, “Lol nope we’re going on a vacation have fun with that convicted murderer who’s looking for you, here’s a photo of us having a good time without you.”
And of course Harry, my darling cinnamon roll of a child, is just sitting there half-starved with Dudley’s hand-me-downs hanging of of him, smiling like, “Oh wow, they had a lot of fun, I bet!”
And it’s like even when they came back, they still didn’t do a single thing to help Harry. Hang on, isn’t this also the summer of the telephone incident? Why would Ron even bother casually calling up Harry like he had to rescue him from his barred up bedroom! He should know that he can’t just call up Vernon and be like, “Hey, how’s it going, is Harry there?” No, Ron! He’s in his barred bedroom! ‘Sorry about that,’ he casually says in his note. His note! Why was his note, ‘Hey, look at how much fun we had’ and not ‘Hey, are you still alive?’
Why didn’t Arthur and Molly make an attempt to get him? Why didn’t Fred, George, and Ron show up to Privet Drive again?
Why were the Weasleys an amazing surrogate family to Harry except for this one time when they severely dropped the ball and nearly got the poor child expelled because he had to use magic to stand up to his abusive relatives?
Did Jo just think we would get tired of two similar summers? Because we wouldn’t have! If it meant that Harry was in a loving, household, I’d be fine if she had just copied and pasted the entire The Burrow chapter. Or hell, if you need something original, send Harry to Egypt with them. Don’t just have the entire Weasley family randomly forget about this boy! It’s so out-of-character!
They would never…
*sing song voice* fucking thANK YOU
Except I bet you anything it was fucking Dumbledore. How much do you want to bet that Molly and Arthur were LIVID, ready to haze Privet Drive to the ground, and he’d cut them off with bullshit about how sorry he was about it, but “no matter how much you love the boy Molly, he’s not blood, and Lily’s sacrifice and blood magic is the only thing that can TRULY protect him.”
And then probably rigged it that they’d win the money as a distraction.
Ugh, I mean, yea, I know there are legitimate Reasons they couldn’t do that, and as @dorkosaurus-prime points out, the Weasley’s do have their life outside of Harry and his ordeals. It’s not fair to expect that of them, but the narrative just felt so jarring between books now with hindsight, which is less a “the Weasley’s are questionable” and more a “with hindsight JK Rowling has the narrative cohesion of a chocolate tea kettle”.
I mean like Harry had quite a bit of gold in his vault, I know their pride meant he didn’t buy stuff for them or pay for his food at theirs or anything, but they could have said, hey we’re going to Egypt, come with us, I can take you to the wizarding travel agent and we’ll take care of everything else in the country. I mean the whole blood magic thing worked so long as Harry considered it home but that’s a pile of crock shit because Hogwarts was his home as soon as he got there, so really he should have just camped out there a week and pissed off.
The thing I find most shocking of all was that at least according to book canon, Arthur and Molly never made a single attempt to invite Harry over during the summer of Prisoner of Azkaban??? Like this was after Ron directly told Molly that he was being starved with bars on his window! Molly knew this! There’s a reason this child lived with them for a whole month!
And then all of a sudden the next summer rolls around and the Weasleys were all like, “Lol nope we’re going on a vacation have fun with that convicted murderer who’s looking for you, here’s a photo of us having a good time without you.”
And of course Harry, my darling cinnamon roll of a child, is just sitting there half-starved with Dudley’s hand-me-downs hanging of of him, smiling like, “Oh wow, they had a lot of fun, I bet!”
And it’s like even when they came back, they still didn’t do a single thing to help Harry. Hang on, isn’t this also the summer of the telephone incident? Why would Ron even bother casually calling up Harry like he had to rescue him from his barred up bedroom! He should know that he can’t just call up Vernon and be like, “Hey, how’s it going, is Harry there?” No, Ron! He’s in his barred bedroom! ‘Sorry about that,’ he casually says in his note. His note! Why was his note, ‘Hey, look at how much fun we had’ and not ‘Hey, are you still alive?’
Why didn’t Arthur and Molly make an attempt to get him? Why didn’t Fred, George, and Ron show up to Privet Drive again?
Why were the Weasleys an amazing surrogate family to Harry except for this one time when they severely dropped the ball and nearly got the poor child expelled because he had to use magic to stand up to his abusive relatives?
Did Jo just think we would get tired of two similar summers? Because we wouldn’t have! If it meant that Harry was in a loving, household, I’d be fine if she had just copied and pasted the entire The Burrow chapter. Or hell, if you need something original, send Harry to Egypt with them. Don’t just have the entire Weasley family randomly forget about this boy! It’s so out-of-character!
They would never…
*sing song voice* fucking thANK YOU
Except I bet you anything it was fucking Dumbledore. How much do you want to bet that Molly and Arthur were LIVID, ready to haze Privet Drive to the ground, and he’d cut them off with bullshit about how sorry he was about it, but “no matter how much you love the boy Molly, he’s not blood, and Lily’s sacrifice and blood magic is the only thing that can TRULY protect him.”
And then probably rigged it that they’d win the money as a distraction.
Ugh, I mean, yea, I know there are legitimate Reasons they couldn’t do that, and as @dorkosaurus-prime points out, the Weasley’s do have their life outside of Harry and his ordeals. It’s not fair to expect that of them, but the narrative just felt so jarring between books now with hindsight, which is less a “the Weasley’s are questionable” and more a “with hindsight JK Rowling has the narrative cohesion of a chocolate tea kettle”.
I feel like this is especially poignant because literal months ago the boy fought a basilisk to the death, saved their daughter, and proceeded to become a hero again after being a pariah for almost a whole year. (Never even minding the ptsd following that and having dealt with a professor who actively tried to sell his soul for some gold. Trustworthy adults who? Harry doesn’t know her.)
In which Harry was slightly faster in killing the basilisk
and isn’t bitten.
HP, basically gen (sorry anon! there’s Tom and Harry but it’s not really romantic), crack written seriously, second year.
Harry sucked in a deep breath as the basilisk’s great head
fell to the ground, its scratched-out, unseeing eyes blank with death. He was
bruised and scratched from falling and his hands felt raw from clenching the
heavy Gryffindor sword, but otherwise he was uninjured, while his mythical
opponent lay dead on the stone floor of the chamber. I’m alive, Harry
thought with deep gulps of breath as he took a few shaky steps and snatched the
diary from the ground. He held it over one of the basilisk’s fangs, prepared to
destroy it and erase Tom’s presence from this world. He only wished he could do
the same with Voldemort.
“Wait!” the shade of the young man yelled when the
diary was only a few hairs away from being pierced.
Against all odds, Harry stopped. Maybe it was the shaking of
his tired arms, maybe it was the fear in Tom’s voice, but Harry let him have
his final words before death. He continued to hold the diary above the
basilisk’s venomous fang, but met Tom’s eyes as the shade glanced furtively
between Harry and the diary. “Before you decide to murder me, let me
explain.”
“It’s not murder,” Harry said. If this had been any less
stressful of a situation, he would’ve rolled his eyes. “What you were going to
do to Ginny—that’s murder. I’m just getting rid of an outdated old book.”
It’s
surreal, the way Harry can just enter it with his wand in his pocket, no care
for any dangers that might lurk within. The Death Eaters had driven the
creatures out of the forest by having the students practice unforgiveables on
any animal unlucky to be caught. His ears catch no sounds, his eyes no
movement. Harry stumbles past the clearing where he died only a few days
before. He doesn’t stop.
It’s
getting late, but he’s too tired to sleep. It feels like a pepper-up
crash. A bone-deep exhaustion has settled into his bones, one he can’t seem to shake long enough
to close his eyes. His mortal enemy is gone; the man who’d bestowed upon Harry
the worst moments of his life, the other half of Trelawney’s prophecy, the man
whose soul Harry housed for sixteen years. Harry doesn’t grieve him, but he
cannot bring himself to celebrate, either.
Harry’s
life has finally turned right-side up. This is the way it should be, he keeps telling himself, his heart
pounding and his scar silent. This is Harry Potter without Voldemort. In a just
world, their fates never would’ve
crossed in the first place.
And yet, Harry keeps walking through the forest. The trees
grow taller and thicker the further he travels. Somewhere up ahead, a bird
faintly chirps. Harry feels numb to the cold evening air and the stinging of
his feet. I’m myself
again. I’m Harry Potter. He can no longer speak to snakes and the
area around his scar feels different. What else is gone, changed? Take one
soul, subtract a longterm parasite. Is it still the same soul? Harry has never
been one for deep questions about the nature of humanity, but finding out you’ve been a horcrux changes
you.
A rumbling sound begins to echo through the forest. Harry
scrambles for his wand before his brain can register the fact that it isn’t the growl of an animal.
It’s too cyclical, mechanical. Familiar. Harry keeps his wand raised, but his
shoulders loosen when he sees the headlights through the trees. It’s a little
late, but there it is, the Ford Anglia helping him out of a tough spot once
again. Harry hadn’t been looking forward to walking all the way back to the
castle.
Half of the car’s
blue paint has peeled away, creating a patchwork of blues and yellows and
greens on its surface. Some vines have managed to wedge through the windows,
contentedly nestled into the body of the car. From the driver’s seat, a young
woman with radish earrings smiles at him.
Harry huffs a short, strangled laugh. If there’s anyone who can tame the
Ford Anglia, it’s Luna.
“Hop
in!” Luna calls, reaching over to wedge open the passenger side door. Luna
looks closer to the way she used to be before the war, but there’s still something brittle in
her bright eyes. “We’re going to find a heliopath herd.”
Harry gets inside, but he doesn’t stay in the passenger’s seat. He climbs into the backseat
instead. It’s surprisingly clean for a car that’s been roaming wild through the
Forbidden Forest for six years. Harry curls up on the leather seats and rests
his head on his arms. “We’re picking up the others, right?”
“Of
course,” Luna says.
And that’s
enough for him.
She holds the steering wheel like a horse rein. Harry nods
off to the sound of her voice as she asks the car about its adventures in the
forest. Harry must be asleep because he could’ve sworn it answered.
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.)
Cheloneuniverse 