in my garden

I’ve seen a few comments about Jude, readers who say they don’t like her because she’s too “ambitious” and “power-hungry” and it really makes me face palm because — duh! Of course not. Jude has a very poc, specifically Black struggle. Without a large dollop of empathy, white audiences are going to have a problem fully understanding her POV. They definitely won’t find it sympathetic. 

She’s stolen from her home and the only world she knows, and brought into a society where she’s the unmistakably The Other (her ears). Her father gives her a home, and treats her just as well as her faerie sister — but Jude still gets tortured by one of his servants. She gets picked on and tormented at a party. She is bullied at school, physically tormented and sexually assaulted. And for all the power that Madoc has, Jude knows that she cannot wield his power to protect her. 

She has an older faerie sister, who is supposed to protect them — but doesn’t always remember to. OMG, where do I start with all the poc-sibling-living-with-prejudice/ white sibling-oblivious-in-privilege parallels between Vivienne and her sisters? 

To paraphrase  (I don’t have the book with me): It’s partly our (Taryn and Jude’s) fault that Vivi doesn’t think of how to protect her human girlfriend. We kept most of worst of our treatment from her.

And why won’t they? It’s Vivi who doesn’t always remember to pull her sisters out from enchanted dances. Who’s friends with the royal siblings, and yet somehow ignorant/oblivious of the fact that her sisters are bullied by the royal clique. She’s the one who has the privilege to hate Madoc, and has the self-righteousness to resent her human sisters for not antagonizing the man who murdered their parents, and trying to find happiness in the home they were forced into. With her magic, she has the privilege to come and go from Faerie land as she pleases, to not fear Madoc attacking her, and to think that she can escape it and thrive in the human world when the twins have been crippled from surviving there. She has the privilege to get with a human girlfriend, and be completely oblivious of the ramifications of bringing her to a faerie revel. (And don’t let me even touch the “glamour” scene because I’ll just start foaming with rage at all the parallels of so-called “white allies” shutting down poc voices when they start being uncomfortable). 

Technically, it’s past midnight where I am so I’m indulging myself and posting chapters 1 & 2…

If you like cosy autumn vibes, oblivious idiots in love, and magic gone awry then you can find the first 2 chapters of Bewitched on AO3:

When Luna suggests, after Ginny suffers through the latest in a long line of comically bad dates, that the solution to all of her problems lies in brewing a love potion, she thinks it's all a big joke.

Obviously, magic isn't real. Luna's potion recipe is nothing more than a novelty, sold to tourists enamoured with the legends surrounding their historical hometown of Godric's Hollow.

Of course, Ginny really should've learned by now that her plans have a tendency to go awry. So it really shouldn't come as that much of a surprise to her when, the very next day, half the town seems to find her utterly...bewitching

Harry was never happier that Ron left his phone unattended.

Modern, everyone lives, no magic, college AU.

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Second kudos: <img src="https://i.ibb.co/tHMjbb6/second-kudos.png" alt="second kudos">

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september 2 1996  at approximately 10 am. y’all know what i’m talking about

kissed his crush in front of their entire goddamn house (including her brother/his best friend) because fuck it why not

freed dobby and majorly pissed off lucius malfoy at the same time

got the sword of gryffindor to appear in cos by jamming the sorting hat on his head and asking for help. the sword appeared and just bonked him on the head WHY WASN’T IT LIKE THAT IN THE MOVIE–

yelled at several of his classmates for being assholes. king

went OFF on dumbledore for not telling him jackshit. KING

was totally ready to Fight Voldemort at the tender age of ELEVEN

called young tom riddle attractive on multiple occasions

“oi! there’s a war going on!”

it’s not in the books but THE PINCERS

completely fucking roasted voldemort for a few minutes before killing him

literally constantly offered money to the weasleys because he had way more than he needed

also gave the twins his triwizard winnings

ALSO OFFERED HIS TRIWIZARD WINNINGS TO THE DIGGORYS

DUMBLEDORE’S MAN THROUGH AND THROUGH

that random moment in gof where he and ron are swordfighting with fred and george’s fake wands in the back of mcgonagall’s class

hid under his aunt and uncle’s window just to hear the news. 

also not in the books, but “i’m sorry professor but i must not tell lies” is deeply iconic

was mostly motivated by angering dolores umbridge in ootp (as he should)

told cedric about the dragons so everyone would have an even playing field for the first task

was completely and utterly confused about girls. at all times

forgave ron within like five seconds in gof because he loves him and also the fight was stupid

“yeah, you can have a word. goodbye”

hung out a florean fortescue’s ice cream parlor literally every day when he was staying in diagon alley in poa and florean liked him so much that he’d just give him free sundaes every half an hour

named hedwig after a random person in one of his schoolbooks. NERD