Hi, What Are Your Thougths About Draco Malfoy? I Really Like Your Rewrite, But I Always Feel Like Draco

Rereading Harry Potter.

I can’t sleep, so I decided to pick up the first book of the HP series because it’s been a minute since I’ve read them and…doesn’t wandering around in cloaks and calling non-magical people “muggles” to their faces, and openly talking about You-Know-Who’s defeat break the Statute of Secrecy? Boy oh boy, three pages in and I’m already finding plot holes.

Can you explain why many people think Harry Potter is desi? Not hating just curious! That's so lovely!!

Tbh because there’s no good reason not to.

All the blood status in the hp universe is a metaphor for racism but you know what’s boring? Metaphors for racism that only involve white people. Harry is often described as “dark” and like if James Potter’s family was desi and Lily Evans’s was white, that would enhance Harry’s feelings of otherness while growing up with the Dursleys because lbr Vernon was probs a flaming racist.

“Potter” could easily be an anglicized version of a south Asian last name like Potdar or Potluri, and you could make an argument for a pure blood family like the Potters engaging in and profiting from cultural exchange through the British colonization of India so there was an opportunity to establish generational wealth there.

Also on the night he died, James was making pretty-colored lights for Harry. That was October 31st. In 1981, Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, started on October 27th. It lasts five days.

Were the Marauders really that popular?

NOTE: I can go more into spoil-free details on my headcanons for them, you just have to ask :)

TW:// contains brief mentions of abuse, mental health issues, mild swearing, smoking, brief mentions of homophobia, racism, ableism, transphobia. I think that’s about it. 

I’m writing this long-ass Wolfstar fan fiction and based on my personal headcanons, here’s the answer:

Yes and No. 

In my fanfic, and the way that I always see them in my head, we have an Indian (Gujarat) James Potter who’s stupidly in love with a plus-sized, snarky Lily Evans. 

We have a half-Japanese, genderqueer and gay Sirius Black who’s well known for being a blood-traitor ever since their second year, not to mention that they’ve been leaving people awe-struck every single time she feels like a girl and dresses in a feminine way. They’re also deaf in one ear. He suffers from panic attacks and childhood PTSD. NOTE: His family dynamic slightly changes to fit the story. They’re still from an abusive home, but there’s a lot more to it than just that. Sirius’ relationship with his parents - particularly her mother - will be brought up and explained.

We have a heavily-accented Welsh Remus Lupin, who’s scrawny and awkwardly tall that lowkey scares the shit out of everyone. He knits, but his scars and unpredictable aggressiveness that comes near full moons is enough to keep people away. He’s unlabebed but madly in love with Sirius. He’s also depressed, anxious, has low self-esteem, and daddy issues. Also, I made sure to bring up his relationship with his mother because I just love Hope Lupin and I just think she’d be an awesome mom. 

We also have Peter Pettigrew, who’s known for his fierce protectiveness for his younger sister, Jess (she’s a Slytherin, btw). He also probably has black lungs with the amount of cigarettes he smokes daily - he’s the reason why so many people even got cigarettes. He comes from a home where his parents are constantly at each other’s throats, so he’s never been able to see what love is supposed to look like when it’s healthy, but he’s working on that with a special Fem!OC. He’s depressed, has low self-esteem, and is constantly looking for someone to love him and prove himself to. 

As mentioned before, Lily Evans is a snarky, plus-sized queen. She’s also really fucking hilarious and has so many awesome prank ideas once she befriends the Marauders. She also befriends Regulus, and their dynamic is the absolute cutest. She likes the academic side of school, but it’s not the center of her world, leave that to James. She likes sneaking around with her friends at night just for the heck of it, she’s never been caught.

Marlene McKinnon is a trans woman who’s basically a lesbian version of Sirius Black. She was actually the fifth roommate of the Marauders’ until her third year. She’s always baking but Merlin save you if you piss her off or any of her friends. She’s one of the best Beaters and duelist Hogwarts has seen. She and Sirius are the definition of platonic soulmates. 

Dorcas Meadowes is a chaotic bisexual and also a raging feminist and activist that a lot of people don’t like because she’s “hard to talk to”. She’s loud, and bold, and constantly holding meetings with staffs so that they can improve the school to make it a safer environment for POCs students (and staff, too), LGBTQ+ folks, women, and literally every other minority. 

Mary MacDonald is a Korean ballerina who’s been on a violent streak ever since that group of Slytherins cornered her and...did some...things to her (it’ll be explained in the story, don’t worry). 

SO. Yes they were popular, but not in the way this fandom usually portrays them. They’re very well-known because they’re such an odd group filled with every possible outcast you could think of. Some of them (James, Lily, Peter, and Mary) are liked, but the rest are either feared or hated. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of people who genuinely like all of them and think them fun to be around, but Sirius, Remus, Marlene, and Dorcas are walking Change-That-They’re-Not-Ready-For and for a school that has so many homophobics, racists, ableists, and transphobics, it’s a struggle. 

BONUS:

Regulus is a half-Japanese, Hemophiliac Slytherin baby. (For those who don’t know, Hemophilia is a blood clot disorder that causes spontaneous bleeding and also excessive bleeding when injured - a lot of European royals have historically had this as a result of inbreeding). He would meet his brother and friends in secret just so that they could preserve their relationship. Regulus actually loved the Marauders & Co. and vice versa. There’s more but I don’t wanna spoil too much. I just love him. 

Do you actually understand what radfems believe? I don't think you do (and no, vague callout posts don't count)

*record scratch*

This is the point where you benevolently instruct me on what radical feminism "really" is, invoking a no-true-scotsman fallacy for the vast majority of radical feminists I have encountered, educating me into a benevolent version of radical feminism that is "just" about recognizing women as an oppressed class, "just" acknowledging biology, "just" about protecting the lesbians that are under imminent threat of being raped by men that use trans inclusive legislation to "access women's spaces."

At which point I am supposed to go, "Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, and I guess the whole TERF thing is piggybacking on a long trend of people hating feminism for no reason!"

Unfortunately for you, you're not the first person to try this, nor am I unfamiliar with the so called Radical Feminists, and I know that what probably appears and feels like innocent and important critical thought is the mouth of a deep pit with hateful bigotry, batshit assumptions, and oppressive, restrictive bio-essentialism at the bottom of it.

You possess only benevolent concern for trans men, until you start calling recipients of mastectomies and hysterectomies "ruined" and "mutilated." You just want to stop abuse, until a woman is alleged to be an abuser, and this doesn't seem possible to you. You just want to acknowledge the reality of biology, until a person born with two X chromosomes and a vagina and labia who also has facial hair and a deep voice wants to use the bathroom, and it feels to you like she shouldn't.

The radfem understanding of "biology" and its importance is wrong. There is no need to "affirm" or "deny" biology. It just is. No matter what your opinion on the nature of intersex conditions, a strict biological sex binary in human bodies objectively does not exist. We are talking about science. There is no "should."

To consider the conditions necessary for reproduction, or anything that is evolutionarily advantageous, as a moral imperative is bonkers. It is not "better" to conform more to a sex binary. God is not watching. My uterus does not "make" me a woman because it's not "for" anything. I potentially CAN become pregnant but biology does not "want" me to, evolution has not made me "for" being a woman, evolution does not think or want or intend ANYTHING. Categorizing people based on which size gametes they could produce under ideal circumstances is 100% a choice.

To judge human reproductive biology as a moral ideal is survivorship bias; yes, we "have to" have "biological sexes" (which really doesnt mean anything outside of having differentiated gametes) to cOnTiNuE aS a SpEcIeS. No, this does not mean that everyone does fall into one of two categories, or that everyone should, or that we should care about the consequences if we don't. "Humans have two sexes except for disorders" is not the objective statement you think it is. On a cosmological scale, life itself is an anomalous disruption of equilibrium. We are disorder.

Y'all are like 4% away from being far-right evangelicals in MANY of your ideas. When you assert that trans men only "identify" as men because they're unhappy and you're only benevolently concerned about them, you're repeating something that homophobic fundamentalists very much do say about lesbians (and the most threatening thing about lesbians to these fundamentalists is their gender non-conformity!) The same group of people cites human reproductive biology as evidence that no one is "really" gay.

And of course, if you take producing eggs as both the fundamental defining quality of a woman and as more sacred or defining than anything else, and you feel entitled to the bodies of trans men to the extent that you think you have any say at all in what medical procedures they do or don't have, you fundamentally don't support reproductive rights. You don't support the rights of women to their own bodies, you don't support the rights of men to their own bodies, and there are indeed many self-identifying "pro-life radfems," who have taken this idea to its logical conclusion.

Do not do this. Stop. Your ideas about trans people are repugnant, don't get me wrong, but fundamentally this stuff hurts everyone. I would not be a "radfem" even if it wasn't for the bigotry toward trans people. The whole ideology is ass backwards. And it is stuffed to the brim with people who are willing to hurt anyone, even those they are supposedly defending, in order to hurt the people they hate.

I think Percy was a quite child - I love the older two, but I don't connect with their stories as much - because of the war. And nobody minded. Being quiet meant he could hide, being quiet meant he wasn't a liability. But then the war ended, and people saw him as weird.

Honestly, I agree. Being quiet isn’t a flaw or a liability. However, from what I understand, Percy was already thought of as weird since way before the war. There’s a lot of moments in the books where people mock him (mostly the twins). I think it wasn’t until after the war that people started trying to understand him.

okay guys send my any pairing and ill answer

ps. i tried to tag all the main fandoms im in but you can send ships that arent in the tags

Gujarati Anon again!

For Euphemia's lastname perhaps Upadhyay would suit, Thanya Upadhyay has a nice ring to it.

And as a Gujarati I think I'd like to see something with Navratri, and perhaps the Marauders trying Gujarati food. (Also Remus trying Khichdi)

I like Upadhyay, sounds quite nice, actually. I’ll use that for Thanya (Euphemia).

I’ve briefly read about Navratri, and it sounds like so much fun! It was quite shocking to me, I remember, because I’m Latinx and I thought we knew how to party. But you guys really outdo everyone by partying for nine days straight. I’d love to write about how the Marauders & Co will react and what they would do when the Potters invite them to celebrate with them.

Finally, I just googled what Khichdi was and oh my goodness…it looks so good! I want to try it now, let’s see if I can manage to find a place nearby or maybe even try to make it myself (although unlikely considering I’d burn the dorms down).

I love hearing from you as well as any other reader/follower of the story, please send as many as you’d like! Thank you!

Your feminism isn’t worth shit if it doesn’t defend trans women

Thank you SO much! This helped me a lot, I’ll be sure to read the fanfics you recommended during the weekend.

Also, if anyone else has an idea please let me know regardless of what you think of Snape. I will do my best to be as neutral to him as possible while considering the suggestion. As I mentioned in the ask, I don’t want to represent him as wholly bad.

Hello! I’m rewriting the HP series, starting from the Marauders’ Era.

I’m an Anti-Snape, but I don’t want to portray him as wholly bad like most people who think like me tend to do. I want to have reasons for Lily to stick with him and defend him for so many years other than him just being her childhood best friend or something. Really, I’m asking for some headcanons? Little moments that Snape and Lily treasure? Little quirks that Snape might have (he likes spicy food, loves bugs, literally anything) to help me humanize him more? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

(To everyone who messages me or replies: if you’re respectful of my views on Snape, I’ll be sure to be respectful of yours!)

Thank you! @ottogatto suggested I come here for help, so I decided to give it a try.

Hello! First of all - best of luck! Rewriting the series from a specific era involves a lot of love and labour. ❤️🌻 Secondly, I appreciate you reaching out to humanise Snape a bit :) It's usually my pet peeves in Marauder fanfics that you really can't see what Lily was holding onto while her friend is being radicalised. There is something complex and dsyfunctional here and it says a lot about both of them. The fact that you want to put effort into characterising him instead of making him one note vessel to be bashed is commendable ❤️

Anyway - things I see Snape and Lily do that lends some complexity to the friendship:

1. Snape is the one who told Lily she is a witch and is the one giving her the background of wizarding world (Azkaban conversation, wondering how Dumbledore sent the letter to Petunia etc etc).

Lily, when we first see her, has fairly good amount of control over her magic and is also a bit reckless with it (jumping off swings to float in air). I can see both her and Snape experiment with magic a bit. They are also both very good at Potions - so I can imagine child Snape and Lily practising a lot of wandless magic together and also have Potions bonding time as they grow older.

A fic that does this wonderfully and I recommend with my whole heart is Check the Spindle by @copper-dust

Here is an exchange from the fic that captures how I see the dynamic between 9 year old Lily and Snape, and why I see teenage Lily having difficulty letting go of him:

'Being in a place isn’t playing,’ Lily laughed. ‘Playing is playing. You have to pretend to be something and that everything is something else, like you could be the conductor, even, and pretend the trains are still running.’

Severus bit his lip. ‘I don’t normally...do pretend things.’

‘Well, that’s silly.’

‘It’s not silly!’ His voice sharpened like a pencil tapered to a point. ‘Being silly is like… doing things that aren’t real. I can do real magic, so I don’t have to play pretend.’

‘Well, so can I!’ Lily was offended by the implication that her special gifts were in any way less real than his. ‘I make stuff move all the time without touching it. Just because I do make-believe doesn’t mean I can’t do…’ She lowered her voice, though there was no one around the deserted field. ‘Magic.’

‘I didn’t say you couldn’t...couldn’t do magic. I know you can. I was the one who told you!’

She followed him out into the wheaty grass, away from the rails. He had turned away from her to face the gingerbread-coloured bricks of the distant foundry. ‘Why don’t you want to play anything?!’ insisted Lily, to his back. ‘I thought you wanted to be friends!’

‘Because I don’t know how, alright?

2. I usually take the cue from Harry's relationship with the Half Blood Prince textbook as a mirror for Lily's own friendship with Snape. When Harry is shocked by Sectumsempra ("he felt like a beloved pet had gone savage"), I see a more intense version of this playing out between them. Harry thinks of the Prince as a "clever boy who had helped him" - and I definitely see Snape's cleverness as part of the draw for Lily.

The volatility and ambiguity of her friendship with Snape and when she loses him to his bigotry and radicalisation, in my head, plays a part of why she is drawn to James, who is so vocally militant about his progressive politics. She feels safe with James - James won't hurt her by something that is a part of her identity, in her head. There is a wound in Lily - with regard to both Snape and Petunia.

(I also recommend work by acciosalmon - she captures the bittersweetness of the friendship without toning down any flaws. And although Snape only appears in a cameo, I thought @izzythehutt also captured the dynamic well in her Sirius-centric AU)

I also talk about a more flawed Lily here

3. Snape loves his mother, but hates his father. He identifies as half a "Prince" - his mother's maiden name. We also see him wearing her clothes - I read this as a defiance against his abusive father (and also the Snapes are dirt poor, so if Snape wants a hand me down, he will only take his mother's). I go back and forth on whether he takes Lily home at any point - but I personally see him as too ashamed of his home, compared to a more well off Lily. I do see Lily pushing a bit to understand her angry, sullen friend more. I talk about breakdown of their friendship here

4. I can see him hoard rare Potion ingredients and be super enthusiastic about Lucius Malfoy's dark objects collection in his manor. (he will think Lucius taste in peacocks is garish and kinda funny - which I think he will unthinkingly bitch about to Lily, and Lily won't like the implications of him hanging out with Malfoy). She may share his enthusiasm for rare Potion ingredients too. And yes, I think he will love bugs too. (btw, the Malfoys genuinely regard Snape as their friend and Snape reacts unconsciously when Harry names Lucius as a Death Eater, Narcissa knows where he lives and asks him to save her son's life - there is a relationship there, even though Snape is technically betraying their ideology by being in the Order)

5. He smokes ( he is self destructive, and doesn't take care of himself, so his habits are combination of depressive neglect and outright destruction). He enjoys reading - especially rare academic journals. If he wasn't radicalised and went down the path he did, I can see him turning into a reclusive researcher as an adult. So I tend to give him reclusive researcher interests. Snape hyper-identifies with magic and is very interested in expansion of his understanding and knowledge of it. I talk about Snape's draw towards powerful men with regard to his attachment trauma here

Also recommend The Atoners by @copper-dust for difficult teenage Snape interactions, but still in keeping with his humanity and guilt.

6. He is very, very aware of his social standing and class! @floreatcastellumposts captures this in a wonderful paragraph in her fic Phyrric:

She’d let Potter call the baby Harry, he’d heard, and he was sure, somehow, that it was Potter that had come up with the name. It felt like a Potter name - on the surface common and friendly and non-threatening, but when you stopped and thought about it, it was usually still just posh boys that were called things like James and Harry and Thomas and William and John and Richard and David and Edward. Kingly sort of names, princely - royal. Just as pretentious as Latin, but with the added sanctimony of an attempt at approachability or equality.

Also the quote that best sums him up is "a child weaned on poison considers harm comfort"

Feel free to chat with me in case you have any more questions. And good luck once again! ❤️

who was gonna tell me that writing takes longer than i thought and part of my emotional stability?