That Cannot Be Science

I am so sorry that it took me three damn months to get to these prompts! (Thank goodness I’m more or less done with school now.) This one was fun–I love the idea of Mick running into Lewis in Iron Heights!)

Len and Mick’s marriage was hardly a state secret. The minute it became legal they were in line with countless others who had waited years or just days to declare their relationship official in the eyes of the law.

Not that Len and Mick cared much for the eyes of the law. But they already considered themselves married, and the benefits of making it legal far outweighed their distaste for doing things straight. (Pun definitely intended.)

Unfortunately for Mick, news traveled fast. Even though Lewis Snart was far from being involved in Len’s life, he was well-connected within the walls of Iron Heights. So when Mick found himself serving a short sentence after a job gone mildly wrong, he wasn’t surprised to find himself face to face with the Snarts’ sorry excuse for a father.

“Mick Rory. Or is it Mick Rory-Snart, now?” he asked, his sneer eerily similar to Len’s.

Mick’s expression remained impassive. “Just Rory. Lenny decided to take my name. Somethin’ about the name Snart being tainted.”

Lewis’s eye twitched, but he kept a smile plastered to his face. “Can’t argue with you there. Him and his sister were always a disappointment to the family name.”

In that moment Mick would have loved nothing more than to punch Lewis Snart in the goddamn gut. Instead he glanced over at the guards, who were chatting amiably in a small circle, and took a menacing step forward. Snart stood his ground, but there was definite fear in his eyes.

“Listen up, you goddamn piece of trash. I got a lot of buddies in here that will help me make it look like an accident if anything unfortunate happened to you. You stay the hell away from Lenny and Lisa.” He tilted his head to the side, stretching his neck until he heard it crack. “We clear?”

Lewis stared him down, and for a moment Mick thought he might try to pull something, but then he glanced to the side and caught sight of a group of inmates and two guards staring him down and he backed off.

And how the Time Masters found him?

And they turned Mick into a hunter?

And Mick wanted revenge on Len for leaving him behind?

But Len always planned to go back for Mick because Mick’s his partner?

But for some reason didn’t?

There are a lot of Harry Potter theories that have existed in the series’ fandom, such as Snape being a vampire or Sirius and Remus being secret lovers. Many of these theories have been contradicted by the books themselves, and others seem to have little evidence supporting them in canon.

One such theory, however, bears notice. Draco Malfoy is an annoying antagonist throughout all seven Harry Potter books, but noticeably less so in the sixth and seventh. Presumably, he stops his sophomoric pranks as a consequence of his highly stressful year-long assignment to play a key role in the assassination of Albus Dumbledore.

However, there may be an even more powerful reason for the trajectory of Draco’s character development in these latter books. This is that between the fifth and sixth books, directly after Lucius Malfoy has failed to retrieve the prophecy, Voldemort allows Fenrir Greyback to bite his son, Draco.

We’ve gone back through the 6th and 7th books, and compiled some of the most convincing evidence below:

Draco is not a Death Eater At the beginning of the 6th book when Harry is hiding in Borgin and Burkes, Draco threatens Borgin, and shows him something on his arm. Harry thinks the thing on Draco’s arm is a Dark Mark, but we never see this. Harry always immediately assumes things and they turn out to be false. If Harry wakes up in the middle of the night months later it is usually right, or if he talks about it with Hermione and Hermione gets it, then it’s right. Hermione doesn’t think Draco is a Death Eater, so he probably isn’t. Another reason Draco probably doesn’t have a Dark Mark is that at the end of the sixth book there is a barrier to the Astronomy Tower that you can only pass through if you have a Dark Mark. This barrier goes up immediately after Draco goes up to the tower, and comes down just before he goes down. Additionally, Draco is never treated as a Death Eater (and there is no reason for Voldemort to give Draco a Dark Mark). So what is he? One ongoing arc in the 6th book is that Draco is sickly and stressed out. This is supposedly because of his quest, but Rowling does this misdirection a lot. Fenrir Greyback is introduced as a character who specifically punishes people who’ve messed up by biting their children. Remus Lupin is explicitly mentioned as an example of this. Why set this up if not to use it later? Relatedly, Lucius’s demonstrated punishments do not seem severe enough for his transgressions at the end of the 5th book, by the standards we are supposed to expect from Voldemort by this point in the series. It is also important to keep in mind that Lucius also mishandled Riddle’s Diary, resulting in the destruction of one seventh of Voldemort’s soul. It is likely that Lucius’s additional punishment was unspeakably terrible. Voldemort says, “Maybe you can babysit the cubs,” to Draco when the Death Eaters find out that Remus and Tonks are having a baby. This is a throwaway if he is not a werewolf. For us, the nail in the coffin is that, while showing Borgin the mark on his arm, Draco says that Fenrir Greyback is a close personal friend and he’d hate for him to have a to pay a visit. And if the thing on Draco’s arm in Borgin & Burkes’ was not a Dark Mark (which it’s not), what else could he have possibly shown Borgin to make him so frightened? Finally, Rowling has said in an interview that one scene in the third movie, there was a moment that foreshadowed something she knew was coming that gave her chills. In that movie, Draco impersonates a werewolf and does a wolf howl. This also works for the arc for the flipping of the Malfoy family, who take care of themselves instead of following Voldemort. It makes more sense for them to throw away decades of servitude if one of them has been turned into a half-blood, making them idealogically incompatible with Voldemort’s pure-blood regime. So why hide it? There is precedent for J.K. Rowling revealing only the tip of the iceberg in some of her characterizations. For example, Rowling was originally going to write a whole arc about Dean Thomas’s family, but instead she focused on Neville. Additionally, Dumbledore’s love of Grindelwald is never addressed during any of the books, and was only revealed by J.K. Rowling during a Q&A after all the books had been published. There are likely many other elements of the story that have been left behind the scenes for one reason or another. It may be entirely possible that Draco’s reveal was planned for the seventh book, for example, but got cut for pages. Rowling has new content being released by book, and could be saving this to reveal on Pottermore for the seventh book. One reason this would be really cool:  It makes Draco’s relationship with Snape even more interesting if Draco is relying on him for Wolfsbane potion.

the administration has determined that the designation of “sex” in Title IX protections also includes gender identity, which means that if public schools don’t comply with these protections, they lose federal funding

transgender students are only required to have their parent or guardian contact the school district to notify them that their identity differs from what is previously on record

these students do not need to provide a medical diagnosis, identification documents, or any other information regarding their transition

transgender students must be accommodated even when it makes others students uncomfortable

transgender students can be offered the use of single stall restrooms, but if other students are not required to use them, then they aren’t required, either, and specifically mentions that if a student is uncomfortable sharing a restroom with a transgender person they can be offered a single stall restroom

The student can notify the school themselves, without need for a parent/ guardian

The same clause that clarifies pronoun use also applies to the student’s chosen name.

In a situation where classes are split by sex (ie, healtg class), the student should be included in the class that fits their gender identity.

The bathroom thing also goes for locker rooms.

So I was rereading Harry Potter, when I came across this and thought- what if instead of Cedric Diggory, Cassius Warrington had been chosen to compete in the Triwizard Tournament?

Imagine Dumbledore calling out the name of the Hogwarts champion and it isn’t a Gryffindor, or a Ravenclaw, or even a Hufflepuff, but it’s a Slytherin. A student from a House most people hate.

Imagine Cassius Warrington getting up, and three out of four Houses are booing at him and shouting things like “NO!” or, “We can’t have a Slytherin champion!” or demanding a retry. But he’s a Slytherin- he’s been dealing with this shit since he got sorted, so he keeps his head high and joins the other champions.

Imagine Harry trying to catch Warrington alone because he doesn’t really want to associate with Slytherins (plus Malfoy has this tendency of being around the guy ALL THE TIME since he got chosen), but at the same time he’s also fair enough not to want him to walk into the first task unprepared.

Imagine Warrington walking over to Harry a few months later, and Ron and Hermione both jump into a protective stance, wands out, but instead of attacking Harry he just tells him to stick the egg underwater. (Because Slytherins don’t forget those who helped them out).

Imagine Warrington and Harry helping each other out in the labyrinth.

Imagine Harry being devastated when Peter kills Warrington- because Voldemort doesn’t care what house they’re form, a spare is a spare.

Imagine the uproar that causes among the Slytherins, because some of their parents really are Death Eaters and they know what really happened.

Imagine Slytherins reaching out, asking for help from classmates from other houses. They’re terrified, truly terrified because the being their parents claimed would never hurt them because they’re pureblood, they realize that he does not care.

Imagine Slytherins in the 5th book sneaking off to join Dumbledore’s Army, to learn more about who Voldemort is without their parents acting as a filter. 

Imagine the shock when they’re told what he’s really done.

Imagine that a few talented Slytherins went with Harry and the others into the Ministry of Magic. The others are a bit wary but they prove themselves as friends.

Imagine them being confronted by Lucius Malfoy in the the Hall of Prophecy, and when the Death Eaters descend, they know that any one of them could be their parents.

Imagine the shocked gasp of a Death Eater as they realize their own child, a pureblood, is standing defiantly with Harry Potter. They choke back a cry. They can’t let their child know that they were about to duel to the death.

Imagine a DA Slytherin facing off against their own Death Eater parent. That they make the decision to let their child defeat them, because in that moment, they realize that they love their child more than they fear Voldemort. They go down, mask unveiled, and the Slytherin kid has to be dragged from the fight before he gets killed.

Imagine Book 6 Slytherins getting more friendly and cooperative with the other houses. Two years of Voldemort terrorizing the muggle and Wizarding world, two years where their parents just up and leave some days, cringing from the pain in their arm, two years after the death of the first Slytherin pureblood, Cassius Warrington, killed by Voldemort’s right-hand man, and they’re slowly hitting the breaking point.

Imagine Slytherin kids keeping tabs on their parents, sending the information to Harry, who shares it with the Order of the Phoenix, and hoping that their parents won’t be killed.

Imagine Book 7 Slytherins low-key rebelling against the new oppressive Hogwarts staff.

Imagine the final siege on Hogwarts, where Slytherins stand proudly by their fellow houses, knowing full-well they could be fighting their own parents. Some Slytherins know their parents were in the fighting. They hope to find them first and sneak them away. Their fellow students understand. Professor McGonagall allows 7th Year Slytherin, Pansy Parkinson, to duel a death eater in her stead; her father is under that veil. She knows it.

Imagine the aftermath of the battle; every house suffered loses. Slytherin students crying over the deaths of friends they made in every house.

Imagine Harry staring over her head at everyone else until Hermione steps up–it doesn’t take long, but it takes long enough that when she does all eyes are on her as a source of motion–and says “we’re never going to forget this. They’re not going to get away with it” and the girlfriend just latches onto Hermione and everyone is in wands-out stance convinced she’s about to attack the shit out of Hermione, and then the girlfriend stares into her eyes and says “do you promise me” and Hermione just gives her this super-firm nod and says “I promise” and the girlfriend just collapses on her, sobbing. 

Imagine Dumbledore trying to give some flowery speech about inter-wizard solidarity while glossing over why, because Slytherins have always been a touchy subject, and Ron gets to his feet and says “Professor, I need to say something important” and Dumbledore is so surprised he just cedes the floor, and Ron–after that awkward moment when he realizes everyone is staring at him–says he didn’t know Warrington particularly, but he knows how Warrington and Harry played. That each was always cheering on the other. Both wanted to win, but neither was willing to undercut the other by underhanded means. He finishes up saying “I think–I think it’s important everyone should know he died being what a champion should be. Because he could have abandoned Harry and instead he stood up with him to play the game the honest way, and he died for it. And–and Slytherin House should be proud, and we should all be proud, because Warrington was a good bloke.” He sits back down all flustered because he didn’t actually stand up meaning to make a speech. And then Pansy Parkinson stands up before Dumbledore can take back control of the room and says “I want to tell Weasley thank you.” And all of Slytherin House raises a glass–to Warrington, to Weasley, to Potter–and the other houses follow suit. Many years later, Wizarding scholars will say that was the moment Voldemort truly lost.

Imagine later that summer. Harry gets several owls on his birthday, all unsigned. The birds are plump and pretentious and well-cared-for. He will never know which Slytherins sent him their treasures: parchments with hexes developed by the Death Eaters; a strange locket that will only open if he whispers a special spell but that always shows him the picture he most needs to see; a page torn from a potions book that, brewed properly, will allow him extra time to summon a Patronus by giving him a few crucial seconds not just of happiness but of bliss. It doesn’t matter. Harry knows these gifts not as birthday gifts but for what they really are, and he treasures the locket and copies out the potion to send to Hermione and Mrs. Weasley, and when first summoned by the Order of the Phoenix he marches straight up to Dumbledore with the hexes and says “I can’t tell you where I got these, Professor. But they’re in use by the Death Eaters and I think you should have them.” Months later, Sirius will recognize the spell Bellatrix shoots at him, and will dive out of the way just in the nick of time.

The final battle. Everyone is there. Sirius somehow ends up herding a group of Slytherins. They all stare at him and he at them, across a centuries-old divide Voldemort has only succeeded in deepening. Then he remembers the hexes. Harry’s locket, now tucked under Sirius’ shirt because Harry’s friends are with him in this battle but most of Sirius’ are dead. The moment that happiness potion saved Remus’ life, his very soul. Snape’s final words to Harry, finally seen not as mockery but real true advice. What Harry said Voldemort said–his first words in his new form. They are kids, and they are sharing the same kind of hurt he once wouldn’t admit to, watching his mother burn his name off the family tree. “When we go in there, it’s going to be hell,” he tells the Slytherins. “Some of you are probably going to die. I might go down too, and if I do I want your best curser in the front. But I want you all to remember one thing. There are no spares.”  Later retellings of the battle never fail to mention the moment a group of angry, screaming teens burst into the Great Hall, wearing their green and silver as the badge of honor it should be, shouting NO SPARES, NO SPARES at the tops of their voices in between hexes and curses and the occasional physical punch. When Hermione is present, she always interrupts the storyteller to be sure everyone knows about the moment Blaise Zabini shoved her to the floor, dropped on top of her, fired off three curses in rapid succession and said “stay alive, Granger, we need you” before jumping back to his feet and vanishing into the melee–how, for all anyone knows, those may have been his last words, and she will not let his sacrifice go unnoted. 

The aftermath. Malfoy holds out a hand to Sirius, badly injured on the floor. Sirius asks how Malfoy is willing to trust him. Malfoy nods at his chest. “You’ve got my godfather’s locket,” he says, and when Sirius and Harry finally speak after the battle Harry gives his full agreement to the very first thing out of  Sirius’ mouth. They give the locket to Malfoy. Sirius grits his teeth and closes his eyes and opens them and says “He probably saved my life, giving Harry that.” He doesn’t say thank you. Malfoy hears it anyway.

The school reopens under a single banner: the four Houses united. The House rivalry is reduced to just that–a competition in fun–with those deep divides slowly healing to scars, and eventually away to nothing at all.

Fic: No Place Like Home (AO3 link)Fandom: DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, FlashPairing: Jax & Len & Mick (friendship); Mick Rory/Leonard Snart (Coldwave)

Summary: In which being in the same family as a wanted criminal mastermind makes things a little more complicated, but not really.

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Jax is maybe six or seven years old when he meets his infamous cousin Lenny. Old enough to know what it means when the kids at school make fun of him for not having a dad or when Mom says they’re having some “money trouble” and she’s going to be working double shifts again, young enough to still spend most of his time playing with the other boys out in the street and think he needs little else.

He goes inside for a drink – Central City is having a heat wave and it’s blistering outside – and hears his mom crying in the kitchen.

Jax immediately beelines straight there, ready to fight anyone who upset his momma, but then pauses when he sees that Mom’s smiling and shaking her head while Grandma’s in about the same state, patting her hands and smiling through her tears. The guy sitting in front of her is pretty big, bigger than she is and either white or close enough to pass, but his shoulders are up by his ears and he’s ducking his head in the exact same way Jax and everyone else he knows always does when confronted by the combined forces of his mother and Grandma Louise, so Jax figures he can’t be that much of a threat.

“I can’t,” his Mom is saying, wiping the tears off her face. “Really, Lenny, this is too much.”

“It really isn’t,” the guy says firmly. Jax has got to respect that; no one stands up to Mom and Grandma Louise, except maybe Great-Aunt Josephine but that’s because it’s Great-Aunt Josephine and she could make sharks flee in terror. “You were the only people in the family that stuck around after Mom refused to divorce Dad,” the guy continues. “You were the ones who paid for Lisa to go away to summer camp so she wouldn’t be home alone when I got stuck in juvie that year, and I know that didn’t come cheap at a time when you already had too many bills to pay. This is just my way of repaying that.”

Mom bursts into tears again.