A Harry Potter Page

i do not care what the trigger is

i will tag it for you

you have legitimate reasons to be triggered by it

and i am not one to question those reasons

so just send me an ask

anonymous if you’re scared

and i will tag it all the time in future

i might be on mobile

i might be dumb

i might have forgotten

just send me an ask

anon if you’re scared

i’ll correct it

I will tag it (as much as I can remember) because

Before the Hogwarts Express, some young wizards and witches made their way to Hogwarts on broomsticks and in enchanted carriages

There are other fractional platforms at King’s Cross station. Try 7 1/2 for a trip to wizard-only villages in Europe. 

It took five and a half minutes for the Sorting Hat to decide whether to place Minerva McGonagall in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw

Several Hogwarts students have caused mayhem at King’s Cross by dropping suitcases full of newt spleens or biting spellbooks all over the Muggle Station.

Peeves the poltergeist caused a three-day evacuation of Hogwarts in 1876 after escaping a trap set for him armed with several dangerous weapons. 

The one exception to the general magical aversion to Muggle technology is cars. Even the Ministry of Magic owns a fleet, modified with various useful charms. 

Many wizards were unhappy with the invention of the Muggle-like Knight Bus, and refused to use it when it first hit the streets. 

Headmasters and headmistresses of Hogwarts can teach their magical portrait to act and behave exactly like themselves. 

Sir Cadogan’s most famous encounter was with the Wyvern of Wye, a dragon-like creature, whom he accidentally killed with his broken wand. 

Only one non-magical person has ever managed to get as far as the Hogwarts Sorting Hat before being exposed as a Squib. 

Of the Eleven wizarding schools in the world, the African school of Uagadou is the only one to select pupils by Dream Messenger, leaving a token in the child’s hand whilst they sleep. 

The 1809 Quidditch World Cup final turned into a human versus tree battle when one of the players managed to jinx an entire forest to attack the stadium. 

The Hufflepuff ghost, the Fat Friar, was executed after senior churchman became suspicious of his ability to cure the pox by poking peasants with a stick. 

Every year St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries treats at least one injury caused by homemade Floo powder. 

Before she became a teacher at Hogwarts, Minerva McGonagall used to work for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the Ministry of Magic. 

Part of the process of becoming an Animagus requires you to carry a leaf from a Mandrake in your mouth for an entire month. 

A Dark wizard called Raczidian was devoured by maggots that appeared from his wand when he unsuccessfully attempted to cast the Patronus Charm.

Any part of a person’s body can be added to the Polyjuice Potion to allow the consumer to take their form, including hair, toenail clippings, dandruff or worse…

Remus Lupin’s father, Lyall, was a world-renowned authority on magical creatures like poltergeists and Boggarts. 

It took 167 Memory Charms and the largest mass Concelment Charm ever performed in Britain to modify a muggle steam engine and create the Hogwarts Express. 

Students from the Russian Wizarding school, Koldovstoretz, play a version of Quidditch where they fly on entire, uprooted trees instead of broomsticks. 

a squib who spent her childhood pretending to magically start accidental fires with the lighter up her sleeve; who got her bemused little sister to grow her hair long overnight after a bad trim; a squib who shook all through shopping at diagon alley and who was so relieved that her parents were almost suspicious when they said that there wasn’t enough money that year to get her a new wand from ollivander’s— she’d have to take great-aunt jenny’s hand-me-down, eight and a half inches of oak and unicorn hair;

a squib who made it to platform 9 3/4, who made friends with some shy kid in the back of the express, who made it across the lake and up the stairs and through the great hall doors and by the great long tables and onto the wobbly old stool—

until the hat drops over her eyes

well what do we have here?

she’s got a forged hogwarts letter with penmanship that’s perfect down to the ink splatter; she’s got a complicated string of owls, only half of them forged, from parents to administration to ministry that’s so complicated her name ended up on the first year roll call anyway. she’s got ten arguments, four pleas, and one smothered threat on the tip of her mental tongue for why the house that comes out of this hat’s brim better not be squib

she’s got a lighter up her sleeve and an eight and a half inch wand in her belt that will never, ever work for her. 

well, says the hat, better be slytherin then

she finds the room of requirement in her second week, because she has always been a hallway-pacer, her head always ringing with i want i want i need i need i will do this. the room of requirement gives her books of muggle magic tricks, sleight of hand, chemical ways to turn ‘water’ into ‘wine.’ 

she bribes another first-year slytherin to wingardium leviosa her feathers in flitwick’s class. her shy friend from the train, a hufflepuff and a muggleborn, buys her a new lighter for christmas without being asked. when a gryffindor finds her scrubbing at tears in the back of the library and guesses what’s the matter (he’s seen her classwork), she tells him the story, tells him what it’s like to be denied a whole world because they think different means broken— she expects him to tattle, but instead the gryff transfigures her needles for the rest of her academic career; and she whispers hints to him when his black thumb keeps making him fail herbology. 

(the first thing she’d said, when she realized he’d guessed her secret, had been ‘you should’ve been in ravenclaw’ and he had looked at her gravely until she apologized)

the room of requirement gives her books and books on potions, arithmancy, herbology— these things are not about magic. these things are not about power that lives in your bones. she knows power, knows the way sparks fly from her little sister’s wand when they take her to ollivanders, knows the way it flicks under her quill when she practices mcgonagall’s signature and sends home disciplinary letters to the parents of every student who ever bullied her friend from the train. 

she waters nightshade and re-pots mandrakes, can tell poisonous mushrooms from magical (…also poisonous) ones by a glance. she drops in just the right amount of unicorn horn powder in potions class (.025 g more than the instructions suggest) and when making sleeping draught stirs for half a stir extra. 

this is about power that you make. 

she studies and invents, schemes and lies and excels. she holds potions tutoring in the slytherin common room when her friend from the train suggests it, then moves it to the room of requirement after it gets too large and someone stains the green-and-silver upholstery. (her arithmancy sessions are much less well attended). 

she keeps her lighter, her little packets of carefully measured powder, her jokeshop tricks up her sleeve—she keeps the names of people who she can trust, who she can call on for distraction, for help, for a needed lie on the tip of her tongue—she keeps her gryffindor’s heavy wand and quick wit close at hand; keeps her hufflepuff’s steady patience closer; keeps her own bright improvisations at her fingertips. 

her bemused little sister ends up in ravenclaw, and they all eat at the hufflepuff table for breakfast because (she says) slytherins weren’t meant to follow rules and because (her sister says) how stupid is this seating thing and because (her shy friend says) didn’t you hear the hat? helga said she’d take them all, so hold your tongue, macmillian, scoot over, and pass my friends here the hashbrowns.

when she graduates, she heads for the ministry. she has plans, and she has brave, smart, true, cunning friends to back her up. 

As part of being a blood traitor Arthur chooses to work to advance Muggle safety. That work is both poorly compensated and poorly respected, despite its obvious value to wizard society, because of the social stigma attached to all things Muggle adjacent by the purerblood elite.

Not only are job opportunities cut off for the Weasleys because of their political positions, it’s also the case that as a political position Arthur chooses an area of work that is poorly compensated–because it’s a marginalized political position.

Also, to address the: if she’s such a great mom, why didn’t Molly work ???? (Which, first of all: ugh. Second of all: the real question is “why isn’t the ministry paying Arthur a living wage?” Third of all: uGH)

Ginny was still living at home during Harry’s first year. Years 5-7 were spent helping out the Order. Realistically, she could only be working for three years during that time.

All of the above reasons still apply to Molly. What makes you think she could find a better job if any?

Add to the fact that she’s a mom. And idk if people have noticed, but in the HP universe, being a mom and having a job are mutually exclusive. JKR really reinforced gender roles in her series. Conclusion: being a working mom is probably somewhat taboo, not common, and would probably make it harder to find a job

Molly doesn’t have previous work experience. I’m sure she could find a job immediately, right?

Small wizarding community. I have no clue what the job market looks like. Probably not great. (Like, do you guys know how hard it is to find a job in general??? People spend months or even years sometimes looking and can’t find anything)

Say that Molly overcomes all that. All the taboo and the prejudice and the lack of work experience. It takes her a few months, but she finds one. Yay! But oh no now it’s winter time so she has to take time off to take care of her family. And again in Easter. And in the summer holidays. I’m sure her employers would love that

Being an adult is hard, okay? On top of having a job, you have to do household chores. You have to deal with banks and errands and a billion other tiny things. Oh and their livestock because they literally have a tiny farm. Oh and taking care of the land. Someone STILL has to do all of that. But lord forbid the Weasleys decide that Molly doesn’t work and takes care of all of that. That they decide that whatever small amount of money Molly could bring in isn’t worth the extra exhaustion. Lord forbid poor people get to decide to put their own health first

U G H

I’d like to see citations that Molly does not take odd jobs, especially while the kids are away at school. She doesn’t have a career, sure, but we don’t know more than that. (Knitting? Sewing? Selling fresh eggs or home-made pies at the wizard farmers’ market? Copy editing Xeno Lovegood’s stupid newspaper? Sorry, headcanon sneaking in.) Speaking of which–

Okay, the thing I love most about this is that this renders Harry incapable of introducing himself. (Unless they transfer the secret to him when he’s old enough, but that kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it.) Also renders the press entirely unable to locate him.

It’s like, Person: “Who are you?”

Harry: says something.

Person: I am certain I heard that, but I no longer remember… but asking again would be Rude, so I will 100% pretend to know this person’s name forever.

I mean, like.

By the time any authorities arrive there were the corpses of James, Lily, and presumably Voldemort in that house. Harry was gone. So it would have been plausible that there had been another party killing Voldemort and then taking the baby. Instead they know exactly that the last attempted spell cast was the killing curse on Harry.

So who was the poor sod to cast Priori Incantatem on LORD VOLDEMORT’S wand?

Caveat that it has been a while since I’ve read books 5, 6, and 7 of Harry Potter. I have a fantastic memory but some things may slip my mind. If I grievously offend anyone and it turns out the Order does actually do something, anything, of any vague importance then feel free to let me know and shame me on the internet.

With that, the story of why I think the Order of the Phoenix is a ridiculous organization that was mostly there because Dumbledore felt the need to have a guerilla resistance group (you’ve got to have a guerilla resistance group! Or, if Tom has a secret cult, I must have one too! BUT WITH BIRDS! COO COO KACHOO TOM RIDDLE!)

First, let’s look at our lineup.

Yes, we have a few aurors in the midst, but even with them the lineup is... worrying. In the first war we knew that key figures had presumably just graduated Hogwarts and joined the Order (James and Sirius). For all we know, they were recruited even before graduation. This makes sense as James’ is a big financial win for Dumbledore and was probably, perhaps with Longbottom, in charge of funding most of their operations. That and he and Longbottom give Dumbledore a voice in the Wizengamot (which so far as I can surmise is the only real governing body in the country, the ministry exists, but it all boils down to the Wizengamot). 

The point being, James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Lily are all barely squeaking out of Hogwarts not only when they join the Order but also even by the time they die. More, it could be because the books are from Harry’s point of view and he has a serious thing about worshipping James, but James in particular is made to sound very vital to the Order’s operations. A twenty-one-year-old who charged Voldemort without a wand (I really shouldn’t give James shit for this, it was a desperate situation, an attack they had not anticipated, he’s young, and panicking. I will still give James shit for this.)

Otherwise we have Mundungus Fletcher, who gives strong vibes of being an alcoholic and is just a generally unreliable, shady, dude who will steal your silverware and pawn it on the black market when you aren’t looking.

We have Molly and Arthur Weasley, whose only use I can possibly think of is being moral support and... I don’t know... providing safe houses maybe? Seriously, we have no indication they’re good at dueling (less so as Harry’s shocked when Molly takes on Bellatrix and miraculously wins). We know Arthur’s not a very intelligent guy. Arthur and Molly have no sense of... Well, suffice to say, if Dumbledore gave them any real information they’d run away screaming. They throw Percy out of the family for becoming Fudge’s secretary, I’m sure Dumbledore was just internally screaming and begging them not to do it so he can make Percy a spy. But he can never say as much as such a notion would horrify Molly and Arthur. Molly and Arthur are also presented as vital members of the Order by the way. Molly and Arthur. ARTHUR.

We have what remains of the Marauders in the second go around: Remus and Sirius. Remus, while a competent wizard, nobody can quite trust for the reason they couldn’t quite trust him last time: he’s still a werewolf and has no reason to support the current government. Sirius is recovering from ten years in hell and is in no condition to do anything, knows it, loathes it, and is clawing at the walls of the safehouse he was pretty much forced to provide the Order.

We then have the aurors. Kingsly seems competent enough but more than him we have Moody and we have Tonks. Tonks is young and seems very very green, she was a good enough duelist to get into the auror corps but we know she’s dreadfully clumsy and often seems to treat Order business as this very exciting super secret mission she’s on. Moody, is a paranoid wreck who is almost comical for his utterly ridiculous skepticism of everything and seems incapable of making any true plans or taking any real action.

Looking at the Order of the Phoenix is kind of like watching “Dodgeball”, you just have this really weird collection of people who try to dodge wrenches, only the Death Eaters aren’t much better, so it kind of evens out. 

But onto why I think they do nothing... It’s because we see them do nothing.

We don’t get much information on the first war but at best it seems like there were a few minor skirmishes in the street now and then. I always imagine something like the Sharks and the Jets in Westside Story. They’re walking along the streets, spot each other, dramatic music ensues and a rumble begins, then they scamper away when the aurors come in.

Remember that these guys aren’t a legitimate organization and really don’t have the structure of one. Back in the day they were probably, essentially, a street gang.

We get a little more evidence of what we see them get up to in the later books. And it’s all just kind of sad.

Remus is sent on the world’s most ridiculous and hopeless quest to recruit werewolves. Why do I say ridiculous and hopeless, what the hell does Remus have to offer these guys? Werewolves are ridiculously oppressed by the current government, they cannot obtain an education, they cannot hold jobs, they’re desperately unemployed and people routinely talk about wiping them out. Remus comes up to them and says, “Hey guys, come support the guerilla movement that supports the government that talks about killing you all the time! It’ll be great!” They’ll either put Remus’ head on a pike or if they’re nice just laugh at him until he leaves. I’d say it’d be worth it, except that it’s an exceedingly dangerous task that probably would end with Remus’ head on a pike. As it is, it ends in embarrassing failure. And this is one of the more legitimate Order missions.

Hagrid, similarly, is sent to talk to the giants and it ends in equally embarrassing failure for the same reasons (why would the giants ever support the ministry and or Dumbledore who promises them nothing). Also, sending Hagrid to talk diplomacy, with anyone, ever. Surely, there’s no way that could possibly go wrong.

Otherwise their big task seems to be to babysit Harry and transfer him from the Dursleys to the Burrow/Grimmuald Place. The first, they fail at, Mundungus gets put on the job the one day something actually happens and it’s a complete disaster. The second, they also fail at, as I never understood why they couldn’t just portkey him where they needed him to go or at least closer by. The polyjuice flight across the sky was... really unecessary. 

You can tell by the seriousness with which most Order members, i.e. Tonks, take the babysitting Harry duty that this is a very serious task for very serious people. Given this, Tom’s lack of overt action in the fifth and sixth books, the fact that we don’t seem to see them do anything even in the seventh book... Yeah, this and keeping an eye out for that prophecy are their most exciting jobs.

Remember that rescuing Harry from the Department of Mysteries wasn’t really Dumbledore’s idea. That was an emergency situation where he had to pull out the stops, more, I suspect Sirius went “CHAAAAAARGE” and gleefully rushed out into glorious battle with the Order directly behind him and Dumbledore going, “Well, shit.”

I guess the last thing I’ll say is that we also see that Dumbledore has very little confidence in the Order. He gives them nothing important to do and, more, gives them virtually no intelligence.

He never tells the Order about the horcruxes (their existence or Harry, Hermione, and Ron’s super serial mission to track them down and destroy them). He never relays to them that Harry himself is a horcrux. He never reveals the suicide ploy with Snape or that he was in fact dying before that point. He never reveals Malfoy’s assassination attempts. Dumbledore doesn’t tell them jack shit.

If he relies on anyone, usually when he’s forced to, it’s Severus Snape. This I think is not only because Snape is forced in a way to be loyal thanks to the life debt to Harry as well as his own overwhelming sense of guilt but also because he’s the only really intelligent and competent one there.

As usual, I’m going to give a very controversial answer.

I don’t think he hates them, at least, not more than he necessarily hates anyone else.

To me, Tom Riddle is very Henry Higgins in his hatred of mankind, in which he claims that his manners are fine because he’d treat a Duchess as if she were a flower game. The same for everybody. (And damn YouTube for not sensing my need to have this clip available)

Because you see, I think Tom Riddle loathes the Wizarding World. Oh, the muggle world wasn’t great either. He had no prospects, was nearly blown up in a war that had nothing to do with him, was abandoned (from his perspective) by his socialite elitist muggle father. I’m sure he’s very contemptuous of the muggle world.

But the Wizarding World, well, now that’s personal. The Wizarding World has spat on him every day of his life, denied him any form of legitimate gainful employment, literally sent him back to his death several summers in a row, and is an utterly stagnant society. 

Basically, I can’t see him loathing muggles any more than he does wizards. In fact, I think he’d have a higher opinion of them than he does wizards. Say what you like about their lack of magic, but at least muggles do something. Oh, they nearly blow themselves to pieces (not that wizards don’t by the way), but they invent and they change and they grow. 

You have countries that try, at least, to enact good policies and improve upon themselves. Tom Riddle at least had an orphanage to go to in the muggle world, in the wizarding world orphanages are a strictly muggle concept. There are such things as higher education in the muggle world, universities. In the wizarding world you have to get someone to take you as an apprentice where they might teach you something.

In the wizarding world the same families have been writing the same textbooks for generations and essentially control all of research in those fields. Given the population size, the field is ten people. 

The wizarding world is built upon hubris, utterly dismissive of any internal or external threat, and ruled by an ogliarchy of pompous assholes who have been ruling the country for over a thousand years.

They steal muggle infrastructure, muggle technology (though an important note that they’re usually very behind the times and have not even discovered the wonders of fountain pens let alone ballpoint pens), muggle ideology (though an important note, and probably worthy of its own post, that Wizarding Britain at least is very not democratic as the modern west understands it for all it claims to be a democracy) and yet still consider muggles to be their lessers.

When many wizards, frankly, given their level of competence might as well be muggles.

Regulus being cool uncle Reg and being the kind of parent who gives the kids ice cream before dinner.

Sirius teaching Harry and Regulus to swim

Regulus having nightmares about Walburaga, and Sirius going in to comfort him. Then Harry wonders in and gives him small kisses like he'd seen Sirius do.

Remus coming over every week, and Regulus eventually hooking him and Sirius up because they're so obviously meant for each other.

When Harrys older, he finds Regulus' old diaries and finds out that Reg had a huge crush on his dad in his sixth year.

Regulus being able to help Harry with finding horcruxes.

Tonks and Reg being best cousins ever™ (apart from Andy and Sirius)

Sirius for once seeming like the mature one, in comparison to Reg who definitely died his hair every colour of the rainbow, and also allowing their 7 year old son to do it.

The daily prophet bugging them all with questions and Sirius telling them all to get fucked.

Both of them teasing Harry if he's ever got a crush on someone.

Harry and Draco already knowing each other when they get to Hogwarts, and already hating each other.

"ugh, forgot you'd be here black. why don't you go find another pureblood family to ruin?"

"why don't you piss off malfoy or I'll have to hex you like my uncle did to your dad."

Harry knowing what love and a healthy family is.

Sirius and Regulus telling dumbledore off when he fucks up.

Regulus and Remus being there to comfort Harry when Sirius dies in ootp.

Harry having a parental figure that doesn't fucking die. (for this au, Reg obviously wouldn't die and he could freaking live)

Cho and Chang are both last names

One's Korean, the other's Chinese (no I dont remeber which is which)

She got sorted into the Smart House

Her only interactions are following 2 white boys around like a lovesick puppy

Cho Chang sounds suspiciously like "ching chang" a term used to mock asians (This has been used multiple times against my family and other asian friends)

The only person East Asians can identify with, one of the 4 asians in the entire series (Patil twins, Nagini)

All of the Asian characters are only seen in relation to white men.

Honestly, we wouldn't be as mad if there was other East Asians that DIDN'T conform to that stereotype, but Cho is the only one we got. Thanks Joanne.

Also JK Rowling said the Voldemort's snake used to be an asian women named Nagini... who is now in service to him... and is basically his pet...

JK Rowling is a transphobic, homophobic, TERF, anti-semitic, and racist.

The only Irish kid blows shit up (ira) (Seamus Finnigan)

The most prominent black character doesnt have a dad. (Dean Thomas)

The other black Hogwarts students, (Blaise Zabini) his mom is implied to be a gold digger.

(Angelina Johnson) is good at sports (stereotype, but she's still badass)

The bankers are described as hook nose goblins... yeah.

Apparently she made aids/HIV a comparison to werewolves... where it was unwillingly given to Lupin by a man who targets children...

The only jewish character is a dude named Anthony Goldstein, who is never specified to be jewish in the books or movies, and I actually have no idea if he was actually in either.

Rita Skeeter literally described with manly hands, a strong jaw, and other traditionally masculine features... painting her as a trans women, and someone who is a liar, and is hated by everyone... and oh yeah, changes form to spy on kids.

The house elves love to be enslaved

The american wizard society, where she just shits on everything. Implying that the indigenous people had to be colonized so they could be taught "proper magic", mishandling of native cultures, and incorrectly grouping them into one entity

Saying later that Dumbledore was gay, but not putting it in the story, or into Fantastic Beasts 2, where the storyline is LITERALLY about his former lover.

I'm tired of JK Rowling. I'm tired of "it wasn't relevant to Harry's story, so I didnt include it" I'm tired of people outside of these communities telling us that we're overreacting, and that we shouldn't be offended by what we see.

so the very least you could do is educate yourself on the subject. below are links that everyone who makes or consumes any kind of hp content should read.

i won’t get political on my blog very often, but this is the exception. harry potter is a safe space for a lot of us, but the fact is, supporting harry potter is a political statement when a transphobe, racist, antisemite and misogynist wrote it.

“Your reputation as a Quidditch star is utter rubbish, if you ask me,” she stated baldly.

Harry let out a bark of laughter, pulling his broom lazily to float along next to hers. “How do you reckon that?”

“Think about it, Potter,” she said, putting on a burst of speed to get ahead of him and whipping around so that she faced him. “Your first year you missed the final because you were in the hospital wing. Got in a fight with some evil wizard or something, it isn’t important.” She waved her hand airily.

“I was in the hospital wing–”

“Your second year,” she continued as though she didn’t hear him, “the Quidditch final was cancelled for reasons we don’t need to talk about. So you obviously didn’t pull off anything spectacular then.”

“Well you can’t really count that against me, can—”

“Your third year, yes, I mean you won the Cup and all that, but it was after a load of rubbish with dementors, wasn’t it? Plus, your broom was destroyed by a bloody tree, that has to be factored in.”

“The Whomping Willow is more than just a—”

“Your fourth year, Quidditch was cancelled completely. No chance for you to do anything impressive at all.”

“Except fight a bloody dragon–“

“And we all know you received a lifetime ban from Quidditch last year, Mr. Potter,” she persisted, hauling out her dusty Umbridge impression. “A ban you have been completely ignoring.”

“It’s scary how much you sound like her when you do that,” he commented admiringly.

“And this year, you go and get yourself banned from the final again!” she concluded dramatically. “Six years and only one Quidditch final. Not exactly an impressive record, is it?”

“There were some impressive bits in between all of that, though,” he pointed out.

She dismissed this with a wave of her hand, circling around him again with her broom. “Overrated.”

He laughed again, his green eyes sparkling in the way that she loved so much, running a hand through his messy hair. “I’m the youngest Seeker in—”

“A century, yes, we’ve all heard it before. Well, I’m sorry to be the one to have to tell you, Harry, but you peaked too early.”

“Did I?”

“Yes, you peaked at age eleven. How completely tragic for you.”

“I always thought I peaked at age one.”

Ginny snorted. He was always joking about things like that. Hermione would have probably reprimanded him, called it unhealthy or something. But Ginny thought maybe he needed to joke about it. “I’m talking about your Quidditch peak, Harry,” she admonished instead.

“Ah,” he said in mock understanding. “I didn’t realize.”

“Yes, so you see, my point is you’ve gotten a reputation for Quidditch brilliance that you don’t deserve.”

“I can’t imagine what it’s like to get a reputation for something I don’t deserve,” he deadpanned.

She laughed, swooping lazily around so that they were flying together side by side again in easy laps around the pitch. “All I’m saying is, people have been banging on about your Quidditch skills all this time, but they’ve got it wrong.”

They had drifted closer to one another in the air, their gazes lingering on one another. He looked quite fit, she thought, with the wind blowing his hair around like that. “Have they?” he asked, his voice lower than before.

We were different tribes and tribal cultures. Which I personally think was way cooler than my brother’s school which had the different elements for their houses. The colours were a bit different though, with white being one we had instead of blue. (While my brother’s school had white instead of yellow).

We did have house points, which were logged electronically. They weren’t just a house only thing like in the books, but there was also an individual tally where you could buy things with your points throughout the year. You only really got one or two at a time though - and teachers could only give out 100 a day I think. The prizes ranged from House themed water bottles to USB sticks to money off prom or trip tickets to entry to an movie night the school would host.

We were in different houses based on which tutor group we were in, and there were tutor group competitions where we competed against all the groups in our year but also competed with those in our house against the others. These were in all sorts of competitions that would be competed during tutorial each week - making a sports day banner, comic relief music videos, poetry and art competitons, as well as having house sports competitions for hockey, football, rugby (where teams were made up of girls and boys in the same house and year).

There were House assemblies where the competitions were announced, and you voted for a house rep in tutorial who would show up to events sometimes with the house flag. And we all identified ourselves by these metal badges with the tribal flag or symbol on it. Which was a school uniform requirement (on the left side of our blazers) but if you lost them or it broke you just got given a new one. Some of us would find or swap badges - I have one of each somewhere.

It was kid of fun. If you were in a titor group where most of your classmates didn’t really put ib a effort you basically had no chance of beingg included in winning the tutor competitions, but you could still win stuff when it came to the house competitions because you were working with a quater of the school. And even then you had a chance of spending house points that you earnt on something.

There was a trophy that got passed around as the House Trophy as well. And sometimes one of the head’s of house that didn’t win it would steal it and keep it in their tutor room and we’d have to investigate and steal it back.

We also had award ceremonies specific to houses. I remeber getting a certificate for something but I can’t remember what it was. They were given out in front of the rest of the house in assembly though, which wasn’t quite as interesting as the award ceremony for my brother’s school because I got to go and watch him get an award with our parents for that.

I’m bothered by the tendency in fanfiction to give Lily a fiery temper for which she is notorious. Fanon!Lily will hex people for doing the slightest thing to upset her, and everyone knows this. Often, she throws punches and small objects at those who incur her legendary wrath. The Marauders live in fear of crossing her, for hell hath no fury like a Lily Evans Potter who has been mildly displeased. 

So, um, guys, in canon… Lily doesn’t actually do that.

Hermione sends attack birds after Ron. Molly’s disapproving rage frightens her children and her husband. Ginny has a reputation for hexes. Maybe you’re thinking of one of them?

Here’s what Lily does when faced with something that might or does make her angry: