life isn't fair.

Any adult x minor ship in general is weird even if it is just fiction because it makes people feel as though it may be okay- like imagine a child who just got a phone and has no idea how dangerous the internet is seeing fictional relationships with adults and children and thinking it’s normal- them not being worried when adults start being weird with them because it’s such a popular idea

As a minor in the Harry Potter fandom you all disgust me

If you have to age up a character or make a new au to make it not toxic, you shouldn’t be shipping it.

I completely disagree with this. Let's say for example, that I create a fictional character right now, named Bob. Bob is abusive to his partner Tyler.

Okay, now I am creating an AU where Bob and Tyler are in a loving relationship.

Why should the first fictional scenario hold any say whatsoever over what is allowed to happen in the second scenario? Why is canon any more valid than something I create, just because canon is the more popular, and created first?

The legends of King Arthur are entirely built on multiple people's ancient fanfictions which built the canon together. In some of the stories, Arthur and Morgana are related by blood. In others, they are not.

If I were to ship them, would it be weird because in some of the stories they're related?

It doesn't make any sense to me to artificially prioritize a fictional story like that. Especially when fanfiction, historically, was just as important to the canon as the "first" story.

And that's not even mentioning the whole "you can't ship it if it's toxic even when you make an AU" thing because dang. The Marauders were all canonically Snape's bullies (one of whom sexually assaulted him) and people ship the heck outta them. The most popular ship in the Harry Potter fandom is Drarry, and Draco Malfoy is canonically a bigoted blood purist.

Maybe it’s just the toxic ships you personally dislike that you think should be banned?

It is creepy to enter a relationship with someone 30 years older than them that they knew since they were 11.

You think it's creepy, and I think most people would agree with you honestly. But creepiness isn't a moral argument. And it especially isn't a moral argument when the relationship you're calling creepy doesn't even exist because it's fictional. Heck, canonically Voldemort is like 50 years old and Bellatrix is in her 30’s and yet Cursed Child is aimed at kids 😐

Wendy and Sandy are fictional characters I just made up. They are both adults in a consensual loving relationship, but have a 20 year age difference. Oh no!

Okay, now I just made an AU where they're the same age. Phew!

The internet does not have to cater to minors but it shouldn’t endanger them.

Tell that to porn sites?

There's a reason "Think of the children" has an entire Wikipedia article all to itself.

People have historically used "Think of the children" to justify a lot of censorship. So much so that it's become a logical fallacy. Everything to music with profanity/a heavy subject matter, to books and art depicting queer characters, to violent video games, etc have had people trying to ban them from existence because apparently everything can be justified by thinking of children lol.

In a perfect world minors wouldn't enter adult spaces which are clearly marked as adult spaces. But keeping minors from entering clearly marked adult spaces, again, is not the creator's job.

I wouldn’t say not posting adult x minor publicly is “to bend over backwards and be a parent”

And yet, it is. Because what you're proposing would be an infringement on their their self-expression. You're proposing silencing and censoring someone because you don't like what they're writing.

One last thing I'd like to mention is a truly surprising amount of people who create problematic content are people who've experienced problematic things in real life themselves.

Many people I know and have seen online write problematic content as a way to deal with their own trauma. They write about their experiences in a way which, by choosing to write it, they gain control over. I could go into detail but this post is already getting long.

Sometimes when you read the comments of these works, you'll see other survivors chiming in to say thank you. That reading this problematic, toxic story helped them with their own experiences. You’ll see those readers thanking the authors for posting their story because they don’t have the emotional capacity to write a story themselves. For these people, reading and writing that stuff can genuinely be therapeutic.

You censor that, you take that outlet away from those people who need it.

Not everything in fiction needs to be wholesome sunshine and rainbows. The purpose of art isn’t just to be beautiful.

TL;DR

- minor enters adult space which is clearly marked "for adults"

- minor sees adult content they personally dislike

- "this content should cater to me!"

OP. If there is something that you know you shouldn’t be interacting with. Don’t interact with it. I say this as gently as possible. It’s the best way to avoid conflict.

We can’t regulate what you do and don’t interact with. It’s not our job or our role to do so; all we can do is do our best to be good and decent people and not write messed up things.

If there are things on Tumblr you don’t want to see, turn on Parent Controls and filters so you don’t have to see it, and maybe don’t read fics that make you feel uncomfortable? 🌷

If you are a minor right now and there are likely many things you don’t understand. For example.

I am in a relationship with my partner, in real life. This is not a scenario, this is my actual life. My partner and I have a 24 year age gap. We knew each other for 2 years before we started dating and were dating for 1 year before we moved in together. I have passed through college and am gainfully employed and that should give you an idea of my potential age range. Although, if you’re a minor, that may not give you any idea of my age at all, because you’re not at a stage where you can comprehend what it’s like to be older and in an age-gap relationship between consenting legal adults. And that’s completely okay of course. You have time to learn about that stuff later on if that’s what your life has set up for you.

Anyway. Relationships with big age gaps exist. You may be too young at this stage to comprehend the fact that, once you reach 18 and above, people don’t really care who you get into a relationship with and how old they are as long as they are a decent, kind, respectful person and there are mutual feelings and the relationship is fully consensual.

Another person, a 14 year old on Tumblr, the other day said “ew you ship a 15 year old with an 17 year old??? Two years is a massive age gap and that’s disgusting and horrible and wrong how could you!” Which, in the context of your age range, I can 100% understand where you’re coming from. But it also shows your age, which again is completely fine. It does mean, however, that you might need to rethink what you’re consuming. If it’s upsetting you or confusing you, it may not be for you. Double check the filters and tags on everything. That may help 💌

If we, as writers, are aging up a character in order to make it work for a ship we love, we are doing it because we would NEVER write content where a character is still a minor during a relationship with someone who is not a minor and is in fact a whole fully grown adult. If we are aging up a character it is out of decency and respect and also because we have no desire to write content about minors being involved with legal adults. Because that would be wrong and as you say, inappropriate !

Everything is fiction, @ the comments. We are allowed to do anything we like within reason (provided we behave as much as possible, lol), because it’s not real. And the fact that we (for example, Snamione shippers or Snarry shippers or Snuna shippers) do everything possible to make our characters both legal adults at the time when they get into a relationship shows decency, respect and maturity. The fact that you’d assume that a whole group of people has bad intentions and would fail to protect people of your age group is extremely uncharitable. After all, we were minors once. Why would we do anything to make minors uncomfortable?

It is not up to us to make you feel comfortable if we have already done everything possible to make the ship decent — with a Time Turner event or something else. If you can’t separate the image of a character in canon from the one we have written then that is your issue to find solutions to and resolve, unfortunately. We can’t really help you there, as much as we would like to help.

If you can’t stop imagining Hermione for example as a 16 year old even if my fic says she’s 23 or 36, then maybe you should stop reading right then and there because you won’t be able to process the story and it will inevitably upset you if you can’t accept headcanons and you only can see one vision in your mind. 🌸

If you can’t visualize a character differently than their canon age even if the author of a fic is saying that the character is a legal adult in the fic, then maybe scroll past or X out of the page. And read something else.

so basically while harry is a literal teenager, having responsibilities even adults shouldnt have, and jake is a fully grown adult, acting like a child, i think in the end jake is more selfless than harry

Heathcliff loved Cathy in an obsessive way. Snape loved Lily. In both cases they were childhood friends, for a time it was them against the world and she was the one who saw goodness in him despite his pride and spite.

In both cases the girl’s sibling loathed the boy and the feelings were returned tenfold.

Heathcliff was discriminated because he was part gypsy, Snape lived in a Muggle community and under the roof of a father who hated magic and seems to have been abusive towards his mother.

Both characters have strong antagonism with a rich guy their age who has more prospects and who ends up marrying the girl.

Snape on the other hand, uses Lily’s death as inspiration to become a better person.  He fights for a side that actively tortured him personally in the past, but does it because it is right for the world as a whole.  This is the opposite of Heathcliff, who wallows in his own suffering and doesn’t care about the rest of the world at all.  Snape isn’t perfect; he’s a bully to Harry and to other Gryffindors, but he does care about them and the other kids at Hogwarts, arguably more than other teachers.  Snape is not well groomed and still lives in a shabby Muggle laborer house even though his salary allows him to live better.  He is not conventionally attractive.  This tells the reader that just because you don’t look nice and are socially awkward doesn’t mean that you will be a bad person, that you can’t be a prince.

1- He was one of the few teachers to never put a student in mortal danger.

2- He walked in a “twitchy manner” as a teenager

3- His patronus was of a different gender than him (i wanna say he’s the only character that has that but i’m not sure)

4- Hermione noted that he had feminine handwriting as a student

5- he resembled his mother, but got his hooked nose from his father

6- he’s the only character depicted wearing womens clothing (twice)

7- Unlike slughorn, he always pointed out his students mistakes and how to correct them (admittedly rather rudely) 

8- Throughout the series, we’ve never seen him laugh.ever.

9- if Voldemort was really the best legilimen in the world, then Severus is the best occlumen in the world

10- Aside from Voldemort, he was the only other character capable of unsupported flight 

11- In the first book, he was the only teacher who noticed that harrys broom was being cursed and did something about it

12- He was obviously good with riddles, both solving and writing them. and apparently making them rhyme (idk how significant  this is but it amuses me)

Severus Snape or McGonagall// Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade// Knockturn Alley or Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes// Marauders era or Golden Trio's era// Divination or Ancient Runes// Trolls or Giants// Dragon or Unicorn// Inferi or Dementors// Andromeda Black or Narcissa Malfoy// Romione or Hinny// Tom Riddle or Voldemort// Being Triwizard Tournament Participant or Being a participant of Quidditch World Cup

Severus Snape or McGonagall// Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade// Knockturn Alley or Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes// Marauders era or Golden Trio's era// Divination or Ancient Runes// Trolls or Giants// Dragon or Unicorn// Inferi or Dementors// Andromeda Black or Narcissa Malfoy// Romione or Hinny// Tom Riddle or Voldemort// Being Triwizard Tournament Participant or Being a participant of Quidditch World Cup

Severus Snape or McGonagall? // Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade? // Knockturn Alley or Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes? // Marauders era or Golden Trio's era? // Divination or Ancient Runes? // Trolls or Giants? (neither) // Dragon or Unicorn? // Inferi or Dementors? // Andromeda Black or Narcissa Malfoy? (they’re both badass.) // Romione or Hinny? // Tom Riddle or Voldemort? // Being Triwizard Tournament Participant or Being a participant of Quidditch World Cup? (neither. I’m not keen on potentially being knocked off my broom to my death, or having my loved ones unconscious at the bottom of a lake, not really the brave and impulsive type tbh.)

Tagging:

*@severussnapeswhore

*@severussnaddy

*@gertrudepetronella-blog

*@bunny-bopper

*@palatefor-strangeremedies

*@snapecentric

*@drsnapeslab

Severus Snape or McGonagall// Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade// Knockturn Alley or Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes// Marauders era or Golden Trio’s era// Divination or Ancient Runes (neither)// Trolls or Giants (neither) // Dragon or Unicorn (both!)// Inferi or Dementors// Andromeda Black or Narcissa Malfoy// Romione or Hinny// Tom Riddle or Voldemort (neither tbh)// Being Triwizard Tournament Participant or Being a participant of Quidditch World Cup (?? nope nope)