throughandthrough

“He's not your son," said Sirius quietly. "He's as good as," said Mrs Weasley fiercely. "Who else has he got?" "He's got me!" "Yes," said Mrs Weasley, her lip curling, "the thing is, it's been rather difficult for you to look after him while you've been locked up in Azkaban, hasn't it?" Sirius started to rise from his chair. "Molly, you're not the only person at this table who cares about Harry," said Lupin sharply.”

That whole conversation makes me hate all of them so much.

Even though her spare-the-children approach is completely wrong in this book, and Harry loses Sirius because of how many adults support and uphold that approach, it's still not right that Sirius dismisses her opinion and care entirely by saying he's not your son.

Harry isn't Sirius' son either.

It's not completely on Sirius—but due to the choice Sirius made to go after Peter immediately instead of clearing his name (which to be fair, he was under a lot of emotional turmoil, his best friends had just died, etc.), Harry didn't get to grow up away from that abusive home. Instead he had to survive despite the Dursleys, and then form a patchwork of partial parents in the years that followed, none of whom were quite a perfect fit.

“He's not your son," said Sirius quietly. "He's as good as," said Mrs Weasley fiercely. "Who else has he got?" "He's got me!" "Yes," said Mrs Weasley, her lip curling, "the thing is, it's been rather difficult for you to look after him while you've been locked up in Azkaban, hasn't it?" Sirius started to rise from his chair. "Molly, you're not the only person at this table who cares about Harry," said Lupin sharply.”

That whole conversation makes me hate all of them so much.

In canon Albus has power over Harry his entire life; he decides Harry's living situation during his childhood, he largely decides what information Harry gets (concerning Harry's own life) and beyond that, he has power over Harry emotionally (although I don't think he quite realises how much until very late in the game, maybe never)

While Harry has some power over Albus in the last category, Albus is fucking terrified of that fact. He only really let's himself be vulnerable in front of Harry when it's literally his last night on this earth (and at King's Cross if you count that as really being Albus). So he had to be at death's door or fucking beyond it to let himself be even a tiny bit vulnerable.

And here's where time travel (or deaged-albus) harrydore comes in.

Because this particular trope almost always straight up reverses that power dynamic.

Harry is often older than Albus (though not always sometimes they're about the same age). Sometimes Harry is even in a direct position of power over Albus (The Once and Future Headmaster, my beloved). But most importantly, he's always in possession of more knowledge than Albus, about his own life, the future and most importantly about Albus' life.

This tips their canon power dynamic on its head while at the same time giving both of them what they honestly need from each other, both as personal catharsis and to make any kind of relationship between them work.

For his own sake, Harry needs to be able to empower himself visavis Albus, as in he needs to be in a position where he is entirely in charge of his own life and decisions. (This is what already kind of happens in DH ... though honestly, i think due to the book ultimately validating Albus' approach it doesn't go far enough). And for their relationship to work for Harry, he needs to have Albus love him without any pretext. He needs to be sure that he's not just a tool, not just the boy whose destiny happens to be in Albus' hands. He needs Albus to love him for him.

And for Albus, by god, does that man fear vulnerability. And due to the afformentioned reversal of the power dynamic in time travel harrydore, as soon as Albus allows any kind of relationship with Harry, it forces him into it. Harry is the one with more knowledge, Harry is the one with the grand plan (as often this is tied to Harry going back to change the past). Harry is the one who knows Albus inside and out, while often actively concealing parts of himself. The reason why I think this is what Albus needs for personal catharsis, is because it's a continuation of his arch from the book (which was cut short by his death). Here's a man who hasn't allowed himself to be vulnerable, to be under anyone's power in a hundred years. Then comes along this boy who he's suddenly responsibile for. And though he doesn't plan to, he actively works against it in fact, he grows to love that boy. And suddenly there he is, vulnerable once more. It's a beautiful hail-mary and it becomes even more beautiful when, as is the case with timetravel harrydore, the queer undertones are made explicit (and with that I don't mean to imply that Albus' feelings towards Harry are anything other that fatherly in canon. I mean that Albus fear of love and vulnerability is directly tied to his very queer love story with Grindelwald and that him being the celibate elderly gay who is so deep in the closeted he's in Narnia fulfills a common homophobic trope).

And Albus, similarly to Harry, needs this reversal of the power dynamic (in his case this forced vulnerability) for the relationship to work. Because like this, he doesn't have to bare himself, he's already bared. He doesn't have to reveal the worst of himself, the thing he thinks anyone would recoil from. Harry already knows all of it and loves him anyway.

(Yes yes, I'm absolutely imagining very tender dom-sub-sex at this point during which Albus cries his eyes out, while Harry marvels at the fact that he is the one making Albus Dumbledore fall to pieces in his arms)

"if you write for harry potter you are a transphobe" same as "if you write incest then you are an abuser"

"if you write for harry potter then don't be surprized that people call you names" same as "if you write incest then don't be surprized that people harass you"

"if you write for harry potter you keep the IP alive" same as "if you write incest you normalize incest"

It's the same words. The same approach. The same way of targetting. People will jump you if you so much as say "maybe focus on boycotting the HBO series instead of worrying about fic?" but we don't call them antis.

It's el camino largo (o, todo lo que alguna vez quise decir sobre Harry Potter) by mullu

and yes, it is in spanish. My own spanish is bad enough that i usually don't even mention it when i list the languages i know. I took two semesters about 10 years ago. But I still read this fic (while looking up words constantly) because it's just THAT good

The subheading "todo lo que alguna vez quise decir sobre Harry Potter" ("Everything I ever wanted to say about Harry Potte") Hits the nail on the head. This fic is obviously a direct reply to JKR's racism, misogyny and colonialist perspective but it is (at least in my eyes) never preachy about it. Instead it simply takes the many many plot strands through which those tooics could have been meaningfully confronted and explored and actually does exactly that.

And in doing so, the author also does these characters justice in a way the books never could, without ever white-washing them. Obviously there are interpretative angles here and some might think they are too kind to the characters. The author does adress the harm that these characters cause and doesn't completely disregard their personal responsibility. But the focus is clearly on the dysphunctional society we are presented with in HP and how it turns everyone into accomplices to some heinous injustices (to varying degrees ofc) and i much prefer that to chatacter bashing ^^

Anyway I haven't even introduced the premise yet even though it sounds batshit insane and then just goes and dares to actually work!

The fic starts between book 6 and 7 and features a ressurected Sirius (17 years old) and Albus Dumbledore (8 years old, at least in the beginning). There are some wonderful found family dynamics between these two (Sirius is legit the most wonderful big brother ever to Albus and it's ADORABLE), Remus and the golden trio (with the later addition of Draco). Also, it features some wonderful exploration of queerness (through Albus, Remus and Sirius) and otherness within the wizarding world in general (Hermione gets such a great plot connected to this I could cry!!)

It also features Wolfstar. This is really hit or miss with me. I'm particular about the ways i like my Wolfsburg, but this author mamages to hit the sweetspot. (I don't want to spoil too much but the tag slow burn is there for a reason. They're not exactly hogwarts sweethearts in this fic)

And drumroll... it also features Harrydore ( @firendgold ;)). No worries and spoilers again, Albus doesn't stay 8 years old ^^. Actually, it's a wip and harrydore shares responsibility for the slow burn tag with wolfstar but there's so much to love there already. And the author did tell me in a reply that there's more to come soon.

Harry and Albus are able to get to know each other through the phenomenon that brings Albus back. Early on, Sirius tells Albus that Harry is "his favorite person in the world", and nothing could be more true. (I was also locked in from the moment I read this line.)

Equally importantly, Harry is also able to grapple with Sirius as both a peer and as his godfather whom he didn't know all that much about in the end (so fans of Sirius and Harry's bond are also being fed).

Fans of expanding on the "Black family" and their lore will also find things to enjoy here, as recently there's been a lot of Draco-Narcissa-Tonks-Sirius-Andromeda interactions.

Most importantly, this fanfic manages to capture that kind of wacky humor that made the first few books so electric and charming. The increasing darkness of the later books has its place and advantages, but a big part of what makes HP interesting/unique to me is the whimsy. If we can't kill the Dark Lord with love and whimsy in the revolution, what are we doing here?

The work itself is superb, but even more essentially, they are doing the work of staying in the fandom and critiquing the work, without pretending there is nothing to appreciate within HP. mullu is doing the work without being "above" the work, or too cool for it (*looks at lots and lots of people who need to get on mullu's level*).