#bitingdownbehindthebio

Lucy loves her father, even if she’s closer to her mother.But that’s what her mother taught –your family is forever, even if there’s some disagreements. And there were a lotof disagreements. I think the hardest parts of Lucy’s life is mostly marked byMolly and Percy fighting, and Lucy being forced to pick a side. But she cares alot about her dad, even if she doesn’t necessarily agree. And Lucy, unlikeMolly, knows how to best handle Percy – and that’s just to leave him to his owndevices. I think that Lucy tends to be scaredof Percy, especially since she’s watched be on the receiving end of his wrath.

Everything Lucy loved about her dad is mostly in the pastthough – as a kid, he’d take time off to actually spend time with his family. A lot of that changed since the twosisters have gone to Hogwarts, and Percy was working his way up the Ministryladder. Percy, when he’s in a good mood, is tolerable, but that’s about it. Shedoesn’t talk to him much, even when Molly had moved out and she was the onlychild in the house, even when they’re together at the dinner table. But atleast he’s too busy with his career to really care about Lucy to pry into her business.

She doesn’t want to say that she hates her father – she’snot like Molly in that way, and shedoesn’t want to be like Molly in thatway. But there’s obviously somedislike there – like how he treats Molly when they argue, and how he’s justsuch – such a Bighead Boy on hisunwavering stances. Lucy is under the impression that Percy doesn’t give a shit about his family nowthat he’s on the fast track to Ministry success.

Percy’s influence as the strictdisciplinarian was evident from the day she was born. As a child she tendedto be shier, just because she didn’t want to anger her father – though a partof that was that it felt like there was no room for another boisterous child growing up with Molly, and all of her cousins were larger than lifepersonalities that she didn’t mindbeing in the sidelines. And I think she sort of empathized with Percy in thatway too, since he always seemed to be the sidelined sibling that no one reallyliked.

And obviously it was Percy’s expectations that forced Lucyto work harder than she really should have at school. She wasn’t the top student in her class – after all,there couldn’t possibly be another topstudent in the Weasleys, even if she had the potential to be – but that alsomeant that Lucy kept her artistic abilities to herself for a long time, untilshe decided that she was really not cut out to be a Healer. In a way Lucy had alwaysbeen prepared to be the disappointment as the second child, but perhaps that responsibilitywas a heavier weight to carry especially considering that Molly had failedfirst. And now Lucy had all of these expectations to uphold.

Is Lucy the favorite of the two? I’d like to say yes if Percy had a favorite. Even if Lucy was an artist instead of some groomed Ministry politician like Percy hadhoped for his daughters. (It was Audrey who had to talk Percy down when Lucyhad the courage to finally say that she wasn’t to become a Healer anymore. Lucysaid her two cents, then gritted her teeth for that fiery lecture, only for hermother to be the go-between.) At least Lucy still worked at the Ministry, andhe hopes that doing so might actually convince her to a job that was a littlebetter than painting in the lower courtrooms. And at least Lucy still listened to what he had to say.

His wand? I mean after you’ve lost something that important,you definitely value it much more. Ithink wands are the wizarding equivalent of a smartphone: it’s not impossible to live without one, but it’spretty difficult to do so. I imagine it’s pretty doable if you’re committed andyou’ve been working on wandlessmagic, but that’s pretty rare and that’s not something I think he’d be willingto explore. Rather, I think he’s starting to become more attuned to his Veelaside – the side that can charm unsuspecting people with a modicum of control isalso the side that throws fireballswhen they’re angry. He’s not gonna turn into full Azula, but he’s definitely beginningto realize that it’s something at his disposal, especially since everyonekeeps pissing off.

If I had to choose a non-wand item though, it’d probably bethis charm bracelet that he got Beatrice – one of his first gifts to her, obviouslyto remember her very fondly by. And now everyone will get a lecture on why Marius is ProblematicTM: just because he was betrothed to amuggleborn, just because he was friends with muggleborns, just because heworked for the Muggle Relations Office, doesn’t mean he’s actually woke to the issues surroundingmuggleborns.

Obviously, he was raised to think he was superior to muggleborns. (Hell, he thinks he’ssuperior to Avery.) He can go toschool and make friends with as many people as he could, since that was thewhole reason he went to Beauxbatonsand became a major priority to theFrench Lestranges. But that doesn’t mean he unlearnedany of his pureblood crap and he doesn’t actually know to check his privilege.

Even then, he’s not actually a true pureblood because of his part-veela background but since that makes him much moreattractive, I imagine that he doesn’t get as much flack for being a half-breedthan say, a half-giant would? And in a way he thinks that makes him less privileged than your normal pureblood,especially if the situation is in his favor to make people feel sorry for him,but Gabrielle made sure to make Marius feel specialabout his lineage.

So eventually he meets Beatrice, and she’s a really good listener, because Marius wasjust sort of used to sitting on the sidelines and letting everyone else stealthe show – especially since the family’s expectations of him were low to beginwith. Avery has the Allomancy to deal with and Vivienne had to marry – there wasn’treally much for Marius to do asidefrom just… try to make the Lestranges look good. And the way he did that was tomake good with muggleborns. He was probably more obsessed with improving thefamily name than he was with helping muggleborns. His mother didn’t agree with the way he went about getting shit done, but that was discussed on another question that someone else asked so I won’t answer that here. Deep down he does still think they’re clueless,though not for any fault aside from being bornto muggles.

Once they start dating he showers her with gifts – gifts that no one from a pureblood familycould actually afford – and he thinks they’re perfect for each other, but really he only thinks this because he’ssort of living a fairy tale as that dashing prince saving the pauper andraising Beatrice’s station because she sure as hell wasn’t living the lifewithout him. He thinks that she needshim, and he was very much prepared to wait on her hand and foot for no otherreason other than to say that yes he’ssuch a good person because he lovedsomeone so much despite all of the trouble his marriage would have causedand all of the awful things everyone’ssaid about the Lestranges. 

LOL so many questions in one ask so everyone has to suffer through1500 words about Julian’s personal life

I’m surprised that there isa question about Julian’s family, especially since between me, Ally, and Kyle,we kind of beat Oliver and Heidi to death already, though I suppose those discussionshaven’t been on the dash. Oliver is still Quidditch obsessed as we’ve seen himin the books, though our interpretation of Oliver is a little darker than whatJKR wrote. It’s fine that he’s demanding early morning practices from hisfriends, but his kids were younger thanten and he’s already building them up to have these really successfulcareers. Oliver is so focused on the game that whatever other needs his kidsmay have needed were never really addressed – that’s always sort of been Heidi’shalf of the parenting.

In contrast, Heidi was more logical of the pair; she’susually described as quicker and cleverer than Oliver (at one point I think I’vewritten that Heidi was the only one who could out-score Oliver). So despite thebad press and the rocky divorce, she’s going to recover quickly – especially becauseshe had been working on her passion projects for a while already, which is fashiondesign. Even though Julian dresses like he hasn’t had a wardrobe update in adecade because his self-sufficiency is more important to him than dressingproperly for a good first impression.

Speaking of the divorce though, I don’t think Oliver andHeidi had a relationship like Marcus and AnaJoy, where they only marriedbecause they ran out of luck. Oliver was damn impressed with her, but Ienvision the two to have rushed into their marriage. I think Heidi might havefigured out that Oliver was in the closet for a while so I doubt that she wouldhave been surprised at the fact thathe was gay. No, I think what caught her off guard was the fact that MarcusFlint basically gave Rita Skeeter an exclusive.

Then you have Ethan. As the second child, he’s probablyJulian’s favorite brother. My absolute favorite headcanon was that Ethanlearned to fly before he learned to walk. Julian was learning how to flyhimself for the first time but baby E just wouldn’t have it and would cry everytime Julie flew too high, so Julian pulled his brother onto the broomstick withhim and let him hover. There’s another one that you can read on Julian’s andEthan’s bio where Ethan broke his leg and Oliver told him to walk it off – and that’swhen Julian begins to question that Oliver’s making decisions that are actuallyfor the best.

Aidan never got to play Quidditch with Julian at school, sinceJulian had quit the team to become Gryffindor Prefect in his fifth year whenAidan tried out for the team during his second. The two aren’t as close, especially since Julian hadthree years at school before Aidan had come, and Aidan was making friends backhome while his brothers are gone (and btw for anyone reading this, Aidan’s beenpractically begging for someone tofill his best friend connection). Plus by the time Aidan had come to school,Julian was already in silent treatment mode as since that was the year he quitQuidditch.

The issue with the Woods is that no one knows how to talk to anyone because Oliver just made everyonedeal with their shit in silence. A lot of the problems Julian had, he broughtupon himself because he didn’t know howto solve them, because he never learned that talking about his feelings isn’t a bad thing? Literally, here’s howit would go, if Julian had just talked to Ethan and Aidan in his fourth year:

Julian is feeling stressed about the attention he’s gettingfrom Gryffindor House during Quidditch matches. He expresses this anxiety tohis younger brothers, and while Ethan wouldn’t totally empathize, he cares about Julian enough to try to find asolution. That solution would probably involve yelling at people to leave himalone, or at the very least, attracting more attention in the common room andin the pitch so that Julian can keep his mind on the game. Aidan would insiston practicing with just the three of them even though he wasn’t allowed to havea broom yet because fuck the rules and we all know that they’d probably use the‘oh you let Harry Potter have a broom in his first year’ excuse because Oliverwould use that excuse to make his kids tryout for Quidditch in the first year. 

Julian wouldn’t have felt the need to quit Quidditch especially since hisbrothers are his hype men and would eventually become Quidditch Captain insteadof Head Boy since he’s pretty good at making strategies and leadership suitshim when he’s doing something he’s actually passionate about. And he probablywould have ended up on Puddlemere, which obviously gets Ethan and Aidan intoPuddlemere, and you now have the Unstoppable Chaser Team™ that Oliver alwayswanted. They would literally be the Quidditch version of the Jonas Brothers andhave a really strong fan following but Julian is Kevin and retires intoobscurity as a strategist for Puddlemere while his brothers pursue much moreoutrageous careers.

Julian surrounds himself with academics because his currentoccupation is basically the one-to-one mapping of a college professor to a Hogwartsteacher. He’s kind of just stuck withthe people he works with, so there’s not really a choice with who he surroundshimself with. I could say that when he first started teaching though, he spenta lot of time with Roxanne because she was also teaching at the time while shetried to figure her shit out too.

Now that we have a lot of the Ministry people at the schoolthough, Julian most often talks to people who are intellectual – after all, a lot of what he wants to do is make learning easier for students (despite the factthat he’s aware that it’s a lot of thankless work that he’ll probably neverquit because no one else would do it right), so it obviously helps if he’strying to learn a lot about how other subjects work, not just his own. Probablythe main reason he eventually got along with Roxanne was because they were bothstarting to become more interested in each other’s subject matter. Finley focuseson charms, but Julian can make suggestions based on what he knows. Julianhelped Talia with her Animagus, even though her primary subject is magicalcreatures.

Unfortunately for Julian though he’s not really close with anyone; he was best friends with Roxannefor a few years after they both finished their formal schooling, but Mr. I Can’t Talk About My Feelings overhere threw a temper tantrum when she decided to leave to pursue her Cursebreakercareer somewhere else. So I think he hasn’t really tried to reach out to anyonein a while, except for Valentina who happened to be around and Pippa who was just as passionate about Potions as he was about Transfiguration, because he doesn’t think he needs anyone and he’s obnoxious arrogant loudmouth bother.  But he does realize that he’s talking too loud, he gets overexcited and shoots off at the mouth, and he’s never had a group of friends before so he’ll promise that he’ll make them proud -- 

He does wish hewere closer to Roxanne though, because they really had a nice friendship goingon and despite all of these awful situations they’re thrown into, theirfriendship is still a salvageable raft in a never-ending storm. Julian thinkshe’s also really getting somewhere with Finley, though he’s fucked that up by totallyembarrassing him in front of Vivienne – but she seems nice, and Finley didn’tseem too incised by Julian’s accusationthat he’s forgetful especially if he offered to have Julian chat with Kingsley.It also helps that Finley is just as eager to keep Julian a friend as well, butJulian’s not aware that they’re on both sides of the same coin. I suppose there’sroom in the future to be close to his brothers again, but none of them are gonnabudge on that silent treatment. Here’s how it would go, if Julian ever gotalong with his brothers again:

Once Julian has a new curriculum in place, Ethan and Aidanwould probably ask him for advice on how to get good press – especially since Julian’s made some front-page news whileshaking Kingsley’s hand. So Julian makes them donate shit tons of galleons tothe school and makes them sit down and watch Gryffindor Quidditch matches. Ritaeats it up, especially when Julian gets his brothers to do some demonstrationsfor the first years. Maybe it wouldhelp them behave knowing that they’ve got eleven year olds looking up to them? Whoknows. 

Julian also gives some tidbits on how to play other teams because Julianreligiously follows the teams to the point where a lot of them are reallypredictable. Eventually Ethan and Aidan become scouts and/or coaches and atthat point I’m sure Julian’s gonna end up being headmaster, so obviously theyget first pick of the lot coming out of Hogwarts every season. Julian nevergets punched in the face ever again and they all live long happy cooperative lives.The end.

Danny is pretty rarely angry– it’s hard to think of a situation in which he’s actually been pissed off,since out of all of my characters, he’s the one that lingers on certainsituations the least. That’s probably because he’s pretty excitable, easily distracted,and very deep down, he’s a lot wiser than what people probably take him for.That isn’t to say he doesn’t feelanything; his need to move forward is just stronger than most people – whichprobably makes him the best friend during a breakup or a job loss or something.

When he is upsetthough, possibly dealing with loss or some very deep sadness, he likes to swim.In the event that he’s actually angry, it’ll calm him down. But in most cases,Danny himself is an escapist – he doesn’t have to deal with his problems onland when he’s underwater. It’s quieter underwater for him, and he goes intothis meditative state when he’s swimming.

It was convenient for him to just go swimming in open oceanwhen he lived in California with his mom. I think that some part of Dannybecoming more and more clingy to whichever apartment he happens to be staying atis because he feels like a fish out of water in London – in both the literaland the metaphorical sense. His homehas always been the water, and it’s so strange for him not to have thatconnection.

I think that he doesgo swimming in the lakes in Scotland, especially since he does do some collectionof magical ingredients for the apothecary in Diagon Alley, but it’s not quite thesame – the water feels a little toocalm, almost like how someone would go into a haunted house, and the languagesthey speak are a little too differentfrom the ones he’s familiar with.

He hasn’t gone swimming in the open in a while either –sure, the UK has beaches – but Danny can barely go out nowadays because it’sfreezing and since the travel ban’s been placed, he’s always felt like he’sbeing watched. Not just by Phoebe, but by any wizarding authority out there.