𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝐻𝑒𝓇𝑒𝓉𝒾𝒸

✨ Sirius ships ✨

Yup, it's me back again with my rarepairs bullshit. This year, the pair are even weirder than last. I mean, who would have thought that you could ship Sirius Black with Lily's bitter, horrible sister or his even more bitter rival. Just you wait though, because I have some recs for ya!

1. In the language of flowers by dwellingondreams (T, 78,183, Sirius Black/Petunia Evans Dursley)

(I am the one who says 'fuck you') - Benjamin Garcia, 'Ode to the Corpse Flower'. Petunia drips magic the way she drips anger. Sparingly. Subtly. Nothing overt or obnoxious. Nothing that attracts the stares of other children or the suspicion of adults. Just things that help her. Her dolls line back up after the football Lily was kicking about ruins their perfect symmetry. Her bed makes itself while she brushes her teeth meticulously. Tea that is slightly too hot or too cold settles to the perfect temperature. Magic maintains the realm of order she has built around herself. (A witch!Petunia and muggle!Lily AU, covering the Marauders' years at Hogwarts and the First Wizarding War).

To quote one of the bookmarks: A stunning magic-swap AU that sends Petunia to Hogwarts in place of Lily. Thoroughly spectacular in its attention to the teen girl world of the 1970s and the misfit neurotic who finds herself becoming a heroine. Is it the best Marauders-era story ever written?

As a neurodivergent gal, Petunia in this fic is so relatable. I could see too much of myself in Petunia's feelings and actions throughout the fic. She is messy, sometimes bitter and uncomfortable, but gradually grows into a determined and capable woman with such a sweet relationship with Lily, her Gryffindor girlfriends and the Marauders.

Honestly, Petunia's relationship with Sirius is just one of this fic's highlights. You could truly see how they could fit together as a couple. They're both headstrong and powerful, with sharp minds and even sharper tounges. They don't always get along, but when they do, they're unstoppable.

The writing is so insanely poetic with many memorable descriptions that stay with me long after I've finished it.

One of my best finds this year for sure!

2. Beyond The Veil by Adreamermusing and ashesashesshackles (M, 97,730, Sirius Black/Severus Snape)

In one world, Sirius Black ignored Severus Snape's warning and went to the Department of Mysteries to save his godson's life. He died and went beyond the veil. In another world, Sirius Black stayed back. This made all the difference. An AU where Sirius Black survived and now knew Severus Snape's deepest secret.

Hear me out, you won't regret reading this fic.

Reading this one makes me realize how similar both men are. Both try to run away from their family, both capable, smart yet so traumatised and starved for love and affection. The draw has been there since the beginning, and in a strange twist of fate, that seemingly hostile attraction has the chance to turn into something else when Sirius discover Snape's secret.

Honestly, bravo to the authors for whipping up a fic with such mind boggling emotional impacts. Both men are such a wreck, but once the connection is established, they couldn't let each other go. Yet, their journey is not smooth sailling at all, especially in the backdrop of the war where Snape needs to win a war and Sirius wants to protect Harry so badly.

This fic is so raw and angsty from time to time. The multiple POVs among Sirius, Snape and supporting cast lends this story a very strong voice with many heavy hitting scenes. Even though this fic is not canon compliant, I've gained better appreciation for canon characters and relationships through the authors' interpretation, particularly Sirius and Remus', Harry and Sirius', Remus and Nymphadora's, as well as Dumbledore and Severus'.

We even get the pleasure to see Harry slowly uncovers Snape's hidden aspects beyond their mutual loathing, which helps Harry to understand more about the man behind the notorious potion master.

All of this happen without any of the characters being OOC. The development between Sirius and Severus is slow yet lovely and believable. There was so much bad blood in their past, yet I'm genuinely in awe at the authors' ability to unpack and reconcile it, while showing how much comfort they've found in each other despite everything.

This is, without a doubt, one of the best Snack fic on ao3!

@hprecfest 2024 entries:

Day 3: a fic not on ao3

Day 6: fic for a ship you don't normally read

You're strong. You carry people. You carry me. You're becoming a man in a way your father never was

sorry in advance for this unstructured brain dump, but alas..

this has been in my head for the longest time and its consumed me and the world needs to know

to set the background for context (since my interpretation for what Percy did in the war is different for this au, and i like entertaining multiple scenarios!!)

Percy, during the war, was a bystander in the death eater’s ministry, trying to keep his head down and follow orders. Yes, he suffered under it, but he was much more unscathed in comparison. He signed innocent muggleborns’ lives away, even if he later tried to misplace muggleborn trial papers, and he feels an immense amount of guilt for his actions. This destroyed his personal relationships with people such as Penelope, Oliver and even his ex-colleagues. The entire time he was consumed by an immense amount of self hatred, and he hates that he still did it even when he knew it was wrong. This is something that weighs on him heavily. 

Post-war, there is an atmosphere of distrust towards people who stayed at the ministry, thus people are much colder towards him, some downright hostile. In the media, there is a focus on fear-mongering and slandering anyone viewed as  even remotely “compliant” with the death eater regime, ignoring the nuances and shades of grey, and jumping to accusations instead. After the war, if you’re known to be a death eater, or an associate, even if you aren’t carted off to Azkaban, you face various discriminatory behaviours such as harassment, denial of employment, denial of services etc etc.

So, Percy is essentially allowed a lower position in the ministry, on probation. He’s one of the few “collaborators” that returned, let alone actually be allowed to. It would be something mainly insignificant, and Percy would be relegated to a smaller office.

Although, note that Percy’s relationships with coworkers are a bit more complex, there are coworkers who genuinely seem to want to connect with Percy in spite of their mistrust, but Percy among his self loathing is unable to acknowledge that.

There are multiple reasons Percy takes up the job.

He sees it as his responsibility to do what he can to fix the Ministry he was part of.

He believes that it’s what he deserves, a low paying job with long hours and unsympathetic coworkers. He almost yearns to be scorned, and the silence eats at him in his office more than the cutting words.

It’s structure, and it’s something he’s used to. Something he’s good at.

Employment would be difficult to get elsewhere, and Percy doesn’t want to move out of the country, especially since he’s trying to reconnect with his family.

It’s what everyone expects him to do, and to be. People in Percy’s life constantly box him into specific roles/categories, and get angry at him for both embodying that and attempting to step outside of it. Percy cannot reasonably trust his family (or even other people) with his true self, because it’s treated as offensive and disgusting. At least if Percy hides parts of who he is, the mockery does not cut as deeply if it cuts into a facsimile of who Percy is.

As for the relationship with his family, it’s not something I’ve fully hashed out, but it’s pretty strained. The Weasleys are slightly dysfunctional, war-torn and traumatised but are trying to stitch themselves back together. If I had to say whom out of the Weasleys had the best view, I’d say probably Charlie, as the distance from not being there during the break of the family allows him to view Percy’s actions through less personal bias.

ANYWAYS TIME FOR THE INTERESTING BITS!!

Sometime during the war, or maybe after the war, since either could work, Percy ends up participating in some raid where he comes into contact with a mysterious artefact.

He touches it, and it’s basically imbued with an amphitheater of voices who thirst for blood.

Basically, think Technoblade’s chat and the “Blood for the blood God” trope, because that’s the inspiration. Essentially, Percy has a live twitch chat in his head, whom happens to be extremely bloodthirsty.

Percy’s relationship with the voices is an interesting element to explore, and I don’t really have a particular one that I favour!! Like, it’s super interesting to make them serious and cryptic, but also super fun to have them be annoying as hell and say extremely out of pocket things and bicker with each other, or have them gossip and comment on just about everyone in which they’ve all got unique opinions!! it’s endless!

Essentially, if Percy denies the voices violence for too long, he goes into a haze, in which he may end up hurting innocents without remembering it, or attacking things.

Percy goes to experts (cursebreakers, healers, st. mungos, obscure witches etc..) and basically is told “yeah uh good luck lol, it’s bound to your soul”. Basically get rid of voices = get rid of Percy.

(TW SH) Percy tries self-mutilation at first, because he is still very guilty over the second-hand violence he has inflicted, and he doesn’t want to hurt others.

This isn’t very sustainable, so Percy is basically just about holding on, when he somehow stumbles into the criminal-esque side of London. Egged on by the voices, Percy finds himself going further, despite his own horror. Percy follows a man into a suspicious building, which turns out to be an illegal muggle fight ring. He sees the fight, and suddenly it clicks, this is the cure. 

So..

-> Percy deliberately hunts down the worst of the worst to fight, and the voices sharing details would be super fun!! like developing the fighters, the usual crowd, the people behind their crimes and sins 

-> percy almost finding camaraderie with people who are also just as condemned as he is, being a bit more himself

-> Percy doing research so he can fight more effectively, or the voices helping him by talking strategy.

-> Percy fighting with the dubious morality and his own guilt

-> Percy training arc!!

-> It would be super fun to deconstruct the moral greys of the underground criminal scene (and expanding the world-building beyond just the fighting ring and it’s people), in which while Percy knows moral greys exist, it’s different when acknowledging much more complex ones. It would be super interesting for a range of clientele, fighters, people who aren’t so black and white, with different intentions (desperation, coercion, a need for community, self-hatred, pleasure and so on..) and forcing Percy to confront that. Evil, good and what lies in between is still shockingly human. 

-> Like, I would wanna expand on the different dynamics and people in the different facets of Percy’s life — Ministry (and the complex dynamics, the politics, the coworkers, the past..), Family (strained yet complex dynamics where the Weasleys arent one sided squares and instead actual human beings with conflicting thoughts and emotions and biases), The Underground (the ring, it’s fighters, it’s people, morals, ethics, the lines between the victims and the perpetrators, being forced to acknowledge them as more than their evil and as actual people ect..)

-> Would be interesting as well to have Percy play a bit of a Red-Hood esque kind of character, in which he also looks out for the street kids and working girls (because you cannot tell me unraveling the muggle criminal world in London with its people, systems, victims etc would not be so interesting?! it leaves so much room for good plots and interesting relationships and dynamics, as well as percy confronting structures he’s adhered to for a lot of his life.)

-> ALSO ALSO, one of my favourite things is when we get the perspectives of the Weasleys, and their actions contradict Percy’s bias to the way his family perceived him (percy being mocked all his life, the family split, the years lost..)

-> like yes the Weasleys feel a certain way but theyre also allowed to care for him while having those complex feelings and Percy forgets that

-> ALSO I FORGOT, exploring Percy’s fallout in relationships with other people as a result of the war would be interesting!!

okok last thing in my unstructured yap i promise

BUT PERCY IN THE RING! so many options..