.

But the HP fandom will demonize a queer-coded, impoverished, mentally ill abuse victim who was manipulated into an extremist group as a vulnerable, isolated teenager (which, The Marauders directly contributed to said trauma and isolation) by Tom Riddle who at the time was not a snake-man that everyone knew to be evil but an extremely manipulative young “activist”. Because apparently spending the rest of his life putting himself in mortal danger, enduring torture, and choosing to sacrifice all his happiness to oppose that group he was manipulated into joining + fundemantally changing his beliefs “Don’t use that word (Mudblood)!” is “doing nothing for redemption” because it’s easier to write off characters that aren’t hot and fun. It’s easier to write off characters that make you think about uncomfortable things like privilege and abuse, and how these things twist potentially selfless and loving boys into angry men; how predators like Tom Riddle can warp these boys into their puppets, disrupting their lives forever.

john partridge as tugger is my absolute favourite tugger, just because of his facial expressions. he really REALLY goes all out

I 👏🏼 STILL 👏🏼 CANT 👏🏼 GET 👏🏼 OVER 👏🏼 THIS 👏🏼- it’s iconic to this day😪

Ben Solo singing Being Alive Thank you ladies and gentleman and goodnight!

OOH WE GOT IT

HOT HOT

YEAH WE GOT IT

HOT HOT

HEY WE GOT IT

The Tensorate Series - JY Yang: four fantasy novellas about the guild of Tensors, magic users who can control elemental forces known as the Slack. V political, v beautifully written. Gender is a key theme but also there are dragons (naga), so there’s something for everyone tbh. 

Love Beyond Body, Space And Time - anthology: a collection of indigenous sci-fi / spec fic stories with LGBTQ and two-spirit characters and themes. Stories include narratives of transition, love stories, and just good ol’ space romps. 

The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror - Daniel M. Lavery: a collection of fairytale retellings with a spooky and disturbing twist. Some of these are darkly comic, and others are just plain dark. All are beautifully written, because Lavery is just That Writer. 

The Spirits Series - Jordan L Hawk: a very spicy paranormal romance trilogy about Henry Strauss, an inventor, and Vincent Night, a psychic, whose differing approaches to communing with the dead cause (I’m so sorry) friction. These ones ain’t for the kiddies, but they’re so good and spooky.

The Mechanical Universe - EE Ottoman: a romance series (w a trans male protag!) set in a sort of steampunk universe, where spellcraft and mechanical animation are vying for equal respect. Tbh, everything by EE Ottoman is Very Good And Trans - The Doctor’s Discretion is my personal fave. Recommend 100%.

Peter Darling - Austin Chant: a trans retelling of Peter Pan, where Peter returns to Neverland to find that his place there is now much less certain than it was before, and he no longer belongs anywhere. There is also a romance with Captain Hook, but it works! I promise! 

The Danielle Cain series - Margaret Killjoy: a duology of novellas following Danielle Cain, a queer punk rock nomad, as she solves spooky mysteries. The first book is set in an anarchist settlement, and the theme of found family + community is prevalent throughout. 

An Unkindness of Ghosts - Rivers Solomon: on board the spaceship HSS Matilda, the last of humanity make their journey towards the Promised Land. Conditions on board are akin to the Antebellum South, and protagonist Aster is driven to find her way off the ship - if she can. 

I Wish You All the Best - Mason Deaver: a non binary teen, Ben, comes out to their parents and is kicked out. Their sister takes them in and they start a new school, where their life begins to change for the better. This one is v sweet and deals well with mental illness. 

Resilience - anthology: a collection of poetry and prose by trans women and amab trans people, featuring work by Casey Plett, KOKUMO, Magpie Leibowitz and many more. 

Small Beauty - jia qing wilson-yang: a mixed race Chinese trans woman returns to her small town Canada home after the death of her cousin, and she deals with her trauma and grief. Beautiful and sad, and absolutely honest about grief. 

Little Fish - Casey Plett: a trans woman begins to believe that her late Mennonite grandfather may have been trans, and while her own life starts to cave in, she attempts to connect with him through those who knew him. This one is A Lot but it’s phenomenal.

A Boy Called Cin - Cecil Wilde: a romance novel (so it’s SPICY) about Cin, a young trans man, and Tom, an older genderqueer billionaire. This is not your typical billionaire romance AT ALL; healthy relationships are depicted beautifully here alongside the reality of transition.

Confessions of the Fox - Jordy Rosenberg: a retelling of Jack Sheppard, the famous jailbreaker and thief. It’s told as though a trans man has discovered a manuscript about Jack (who is trans) and Jack’s story unfolds alongside the personal narrative of the manuscript discoverer. 

Nameless Woman - anthology: a collection of fiction by trans women of colour. There’s something for everyone here - romance, sci fi, personal narratives and more. A lot of the topics covered are very heavy but they’re treated honestly and sensitively. 

Maiden, Mother, Crone - anthology: a collection of fantasy stories about trans women and femmes. You want a story about a dread trans chthonic goddess? Of course you do. It’s right here. Enjoy. 

Caroline’s Heart - Austin Chant: a romance between a trans man (a COWBOY nonetheless) and a trans woman (a WITCH). Cecily has been trying to bring her lover, Caroline, back from the dead via magic, but when Roy gives his life to save her, she has a choice to make. 

The Queen of Cups - Ren Basel: a novelette about Theo, who’s about to set sail on their first voyage. As per their village’s custom, they ask the Oracle to bless their voyage, and she agrees - if she can come along. A great treatise on bravery, loyalty and independence. 

Amateur - Thomas Page McBee: not fiction, but OH WELL!! You gotta read it!! The autobiography of a trans man who learns to box and asks questions about what kind of man he wants to be; can he avoid repeating the toxic masculinity he fears? 

Trans Power - Juno Roche: also not fiction! Oops! Take me to court!! Roche interviews multiple trans people about their relationships with their transness, their sexuality and their bodies, and the result is a super empowering and beautiful book. 

The Shape of My Name - Nino Cipri: a novelette about time travel. I really can’t say much about this one because it’s better to go in without knowing a lot, but the main theme is self discovery and acceptance, especially within the context of a neglectful / abusive family. 

Pet - Akwaeke Emezi: the children in the city of Lucille know that there are no more monsters. They’ve been told so. So when Jam meets Pet, who definitely seems to be a monster, she has to face the problem of saving the world from something that it refuses to admit exists. 

There are obviously many more trans fiction authors out there, but these are the ones I’ve read and can call to mind immediately. On my to read list are Juno Dawson (who writes YA primarily), Kai Cheng Thom (whose story in Maiden, Mother, Crone was my favourite), Meredith Russo (also writes YA), Leslie Feinberg, and Sybil Lamb.

When you’re poor, one-meal-per-day-poor, at-least-we-have-a-roof-over-our-heads poor, everything that shines is gold to you. You want this uselessly complicated “exotic fruit, emerald flower, ivory soft” soap; you want the perfume in a shiny golden box that leaves glitter on your fingers; you want that too-rich food that swears it contains two dozen different types of carrot and has too much cream; and you absolutely don’t care if it’s tacky or unhealthy or actually cheap. You want what you imagine luxury is, and luxury is to have Everything.

The bigger the better. No time for subtlety. No time for refined shit. You want to swallow everything you can because you never have anything anyway – let me have this, let me have this.

Lup steals her first dress in a thrift shop: it’s covered in thirty different patterns, overly-saturated, obviously made in bad quality fabric, with too much ruffles and poorly painted wooden pearls and plastic sequins and loose golden threads. It’s the ugliest piece of shit, but it’s a lot, it looks like a lot. She wears it until she can’t anymore, and even then, she still keeps it because hey, who knows, maybe someday she’ll make a new dress out of it? You have to keep these things, they might get useful again someday. She says that of all the clothes she owns and never throws anything away. “You never know”, she says. You never know.

Taako loves these super cheap, way too bright to be true jewels you can buy dozens of at the local market: he pierces his ears himself, in dozens of places, just so he can wear more of these pseudo-gold plated hipster earrings with suns and stars and intricate patterns that leave green stuff on his skin and cause the holes to bleed and leak pus two times out of three. He still wears them, and still loves them. Who cares if it’s not an actual diamond? A shard of glass shines just as bright, with colourful tiny patches of light that dance on the palm of his hand whenever he holds it in front of a candle. Plus, it’s not like he could ever get an actual fucking diamond, so.

So.

The trick is not not-to-be-poor, but to look like you’re not.

(The first time Barry buys Lup an actual good dress, something made of silk, maybe, or comfortable velvet, something colourful and shiny but something nice, she straight-up refuses to wear it. It’s too much, too real. How much money did he put in this? Why didn’t he save it in case something happens? She just can’t have that. They argue until Lup can’t even find words to put on the gut-wrenching feeling she has and bites her lips until she tastes blood, incredibly frustrated and angry and afraid, so afraid, of this fucking real nice dress.)

(Kravitz looks nice, pretty boneboy, handsome faced reaper man, and like, Taako knew this, Kravitz’s a man with style – so he eyes his jewellery at the Chug N Squeeze, and sure, he’s not wearing much: two small earrings, a couple of bracelets, a broche with his goddess’ insignia on it. It’s a small round crow with a bright orange eye. It catches the light in a way Taako’s jewels don’t, and suddenly, something nasty turns his blood to ice when he realises it’s because it’s an actual fucking gem – and the rest is too solid and heavy to be gold-plated.

Kravitz is wearing solid gold jewellery, and for the first time in forever, Taako, bright, loud, pseudo-fashionable Taako feels cheap.)

shower. not a bath, a shower. use water as hot or cold as u like. u dont even need to wash. just get in under the water and let it run over you for a while. sit on the floor if you gotta.

moisturize everything. use whatever lotion u like. unscented? dollar store lotion? fancy ass 48 hour lotion that makes u smell like a field of wildflowers? use whatever you want, and use it all over. 

put on clean, comfortable clothes. 

put on ur favorite underwear. cute black lacy panties? those ridiculous boxers u bought last christmas with candy cane hearts on the butt? put em on.

drink cold water. use ice. if u want, add some mint or lemon for an extra boost.

clean something. doesn’t have to be anything big. organize one drawer of ur desk. wash five dirty dishes. do a load of laundry. scrub the bathroom sink. 

blast music. listen to something upbeat and dancey and loud, something that’s got lots of energy. sing to it, dance to it, even if you suck at both.

make food. don’t just grab a granola bar to munch. take the time and make food. even if it’s ramen. add something special to it, like a hard boiled egg or some veggies. prepare food, it tastes way better, and you’ll feel like you accomplished something. 

make something. write a short story or a poem, draw a picture, color a picture, fold origami, crochet or knit, sculpt something out of clay, anything artistic. even if you don’t think you’re good at it.

go outside. take a walk. sit in the grass. look at the clouds. smell flowers. put your hands in the dirt and feel the soil against your skin.

call someone. call a loved one, a friend, a family member, call a chat service if you have no one else to call. talk to a stranger on the street. have a conversation and listen to someone’s voice. if you can’t, text or email or whatever, just have some social interaction with another person. even if you don’t say much, listen to them.