A Song For A Heart So Big, God Wouldn’t Let It Live.

James: Lily you are truly beautiful-

Lily: Oh screw beautiful, I’m brilliant! You want to appease me, compliment my brain!

Walburga: Fortunately, the Black women age gracefully

Sirius: Well you've always been a rebel

Don’t sleep on Charlotte Branwell

This woman. This fucking woman. She was the head of one of the most important institutes. At the age of 18. In 1878. She dealt with the sexism that came from the men in the Clave and sometimes even from women who should have backed her up. She dealt with the shitty way Will treated her, but she never gave up her hope for him because she knew deep inside that he was a good person. She dealt with the knowledge that Jem, a boy she loved like a brother, was going to die soon and there was nothing she could do about it. She dealt with Jessamine’s crap and she still always tried her best to make her happy. She dealt with Tessa who did not even know what she was, Charlotte always tried to help her and keep her safe despite the fact that she was only a stranger. She dealt with thought that her husband, the man she loved, did not love her back for five years. All while running the London Institute and being only 23 years old, but she never let that discourage her. Seriously, there is no way in hell a normal 23 year old woman would be able to do this (no offense to the normal 23 year old women reading this).

She was never scared to be the head of the London Institute, despite the fact that that was the most likely place Mortmain would attack because Tessa was there. She didn’t even for a second think of kicking Tessa out in order to secure her safety. She was such a beautiful human being. She sealed with Jessamine’s betrayal like a queen, and then she FORGIVED her, and let her come back into the Institute because she knew Jessamine had nowhere to go. Her love for her husband never wavered when he lost his ability to walk, she never let the comments people made about him change her feelings for him. She is super wise??? She is so wise that Gabriel ( who used to hate her) wanted her approval and wanted her to be proud of him! She fought in an extremely dangerous battle while being pregnant???SHE WAS THE FIRST WOMAN CONSUL!!! And her accomplishments don’t stop there. She raised another wonderful human being! Why does nobody give Charlotte any credit for Matthew Fairchild??? He wouldn’t be the person he is if he had had another mother!!! And still there are people who have the audacity to disrespect her! They make rumors about her not being faithful to her husband!

Just how ignored Charlotte is is insane. Many people don’t realize that strong women like her in YA are super rare. Most strong women in YA are viewed as extremely beautiful, are always surrounded by a ton of men who love them, they are usually heartless, and would kill you for looking at them the wrong way. Guess what? Charlotte is not like that at all that. She is such a brave, caring, and strong human being who deserves more respect and love, she is the type of person I can only dream of being one day, she is a role model. She is one of the most badass women in TSC, so please stop sleeping on her.

A love that never tires

The Train

The last train out of Newcastle was almost empty. It rattled across the large bridges over the black water of the Tyne, and for the most part was quiet, just one or two people per carriage, snoozing in their seats or tapping away on laptops, ignoring the ping of the intercom and the Geordie-accented voice announcing the stops.

The exception to this was the very last carriage, where a large family was making a lot of noise indeed. Dressed head to toe in green and draped in scarves and flags and badges with words like 'Harpies rangers!' and 'These witches have talons!', they stretched across two table seats and the aisles behind too, the tables themselves laden with drinks and tubs of food bought last minute from the M&S in the station.

'-And then I can't believe you just openly told me it's rude to stare!' Albus was bursting out furiously at his father. The rest of the family was roaring with laughter, and Al was occasionally laughing too, though his face was as red as his mother's hair.

'It is rude to stare!' Harry replied, holding out his hands helplessly.

'I wasn't staring!'

'You WERE!' several people shouted back at him, pink faced with laughter.

Scorpius adopted a vacant, dreamy sort of expression, staring into the middle distance. 'H...ello,' he croaked, which only made the rest of the family laugh even more. Teddy's stomach ached from it, and he could see Lily wiping tears from her eyes.

'I didn't say it like that!'

'You DID!'

'I said it normally! A normal hello!'

'You absolutely did not, and you stared for so long - I have never seen you look more like your mother,' said Harry. 'I was transported back to my first visit to the Burrow.'

'Oh!' said Ginny, with mock crossness, and she leaned over the table to place a protective hand on her son's shoulder. 'Ignore them, Al, they don't know what it's like to meet your heroes-'

Albus rested his forehead on the table, between the tub of flapjacks and bottles of butterbeer, his shoulders shaking in despairing laughter. 'Mum, it's your fault, springing that on me... Can't believe I just stared at him... Why didn't you warn me he was their coach?'

'I thought it would be a nice surprise!' said Ginny. 'I thought you'd always wanted to meet Gonçalo Flores!'

'He did,' said Scorpius, 'but I bet he always imagined he'd be very suave and witty, not just... "H...ello...", didn't you, Al?'

'I hate you all, I hate Quidditch, I hate Gonçalo Flores-'

'No, you don't.'

'No, I don't,' admitted Albus, still hilariously red in the face. 'He was so nice about it... just makes it worse...'

'Al,' said James above the family's laughter. He was grinning evilly. 'Is he on your list, Al?'

'Oh my God, shut up-'

'He is!' said James gleefully, as amused 'ooh's' filled the carriage and Scorpius nodded enthusiastically, looking positively elated. 'He is on your list!'

'You know, I was worried for about half a second when I saw him,' said Scorpius. 'But fair's fair, you gave it your best shot, Al, I'm happy for him to stay on the list.'

'What list?' asked Harry, frowning. 'I don't get it.'

'Oh, sweetheart, you're so innocent,' said Ginny sympathetically, leaning back to squeeze Harry's knee. 'You're probably on loads of lists.'

'What lists?' he asked, apparently entirely flummoxed. 'What for?'

'No one tell him,' said Teddy quickly. 'No one explain.'

'Is it a list of people to kill? If someone's on your list you want to kill them?'

'Oh my God, Dad, get more mind healing,' said Lily, which made Ted snort with laughter.

'Al definitely doesn't want to kill Gonçalo Flores...' said James, with a grin that looked eerily like Uncle George.

'Stop it; I don't want to discuss this with my parents-' hissed Al.

'Who else is on your list?' asked Ginny. She looked at Scorpius. 'Who else is on it?'

'Well...'

‘You know who’s on mine?’ said Rowan, who seemed drunker than Ted had ever seen him, ‘Cerys Twycross. That actress from that play we saw last year.’

Lily snorted. ‘In your dreams, love.’

‘Well, yes, precisely,’ said Rowan, which earned him a shriek of laughter from Ginny.

‘You know what,’ said Scorpius, with a brief smirk at Lily. ‘I could arrange that for you. I know a guy who knows her.’

‘Shut up!’ said Lily, sitting up so fast in her seat that the pack of crisps in her lap went flying. ‘You don’t, you’re winding me up, you’re as bad as James sometimes.’

‘Tell me more,’ said Rowan, leaning forward.

‘Yeah, good luck, Ro…’

'Hazel,' said Harry, leaning across the aisle.

'No,' she said at once, shaking her head frantically. The others laughed.

'What does it mean?' he asked. 'You'll tell me.'

'Don't tell him, Haze!'

'I - ask your son-' she babbled.

'Tell me, I'm your boss-'

'Not any more...'

'I'm good friends with your boss, come on-'

'Hazel, don-'

'It's a list of people you're allowed to sleep with,' she blurted out, and then her cheeks flushed pink too.

'Ahh,' said Harry, leaning back. He turned to Ginny with a grin that Teddy did not like at all. 'Like our agreement about Madeleine Marlborough?'

'I beg your pardon?' spluttered James, as Al and Lily both howled in revulsion and the others burst into renewed laughter.

'The Australian singer.'

'Yes, I know who she is, I wish I didn't.'

'Horrible,' Teddy said. 'She's my age. You're both horrible. Who - no I don't want to know.'

'It's not serious,' Harry assured them.

'Excuse me, speak for yourself,' said Ginny.

'Stop!' pleaded Albus, burying his face in his hands. 'The pair of you... I am about to leap off this train.'

'This is terrible,' James agreed. 'This is... deeply traumatising.'

'It's all right for you,' said Ted. 'You'll forget it in about five minutes.'

'Well, that's five minutes too long.'

'You all need to toughen up,' said Harry with a shrug. 'Scorpius, Rowan and Hazel don't mind.' Indeed, they were all spluttering with laughter, Hazel and Rowan exchanging shocked but amused glances.

'They're not related to you!'

'And anyway, sadly I can't imagine we'll ever meet her, our concert days are over and I don’t think we run in the same circles.'

'I think this whole experience demonstrates that just because someone is on your list, doesn't mean that you'll actually enjoy meeting them,' said Albus flatly.

'Oh, Ally, you poor thing, no wonder you were so star-struck,' said Ginny. 'You should have told me he was on your list-'

'GOD-!'

'Back in the day, when-'

'Yes - we know - you met Dad and you couldn't speak in front of him, but you were a little girl, I'm a fully grown man-'

'So's Gonçalo Flores,' said Scorpius, with an exaggerated wink.

Albus screamed into the tub of brownie bites.

The shrieks of laughter and jeers continued as the train snaked through the darkness, swaying slightly as it turned corners. Teddy liked travelling this way; they had known that several of them would be too drunk to apparate after the match, and the Knight Bus and Portkey points would likely be too full of journalists and people staring to be worth it. But Teddy liked the slowness of muggle transport, he liked the conversations that arose from lack of anything else to do, the way that they were cramped in together. He blew across the top of his butterbeer bottle to make the funny hooting noise before remembering his young daughters were not there with him, but at home with Vic, but Lily laughed and seemed to appreciate it anyway.

'If I get an emptier one,' she said, 'and someone else gets another - we should try and make the theme tune to the Bowmans.'

'Ooh, yes, let me help,' said Ginny, seizing a bottle. 'Hazel, you take this one - if we get good enough, we can save some money on the wedding band.'

'Did we book a band?' James blurted out suddenly, and he seized his notebook and began rifling through the pages. 'Did we-?'

'Yes,' said Hazel soothingly. 'It's all arranged.'

'Which one, I don't remember-'

'It's all right,' said Harry patiently, for James was starting to look a little frantic. 'No one expects you to remember everything involved in planning a wedding.'

'OK, I've found it - I wrote here that I booked them - but I don't remember doing it-'

Teddy exchanged a dark glance with Ginny, who picked up a tub of caramelized peanuts and shook them at James in offering. ‘That’s what you write things down for, isn’t it? Grab a handful of these before they’re all gone, I can’t stop picking at them.’

He must have known he was being distracted, for he gave her an irritable sort of look, but he did take a handful and returned to looking through his notebook in a much calmer sort of way.

‘Is your list in there?’ Ted asked, nodding at the full pages. ‘So you don’t forget?’

James’s brown eyes flicked up at him a narrowed slightly. ‘No,’ he said firmly.

‘You said that pretty quickly,’ said Al.

‘Almost too quickly.’

‘I don’t have a list,’ said James. ‘I’m not a pervert like the rest of you.’

‘Everyone’s got a list, Jim,’ said Scorpius. ‘Even if they don’t realise.’

‘Your father and I aren’t perverts!’ exclaimed Ginny.

‘You are, and I won’t hear any more about it-’

‘Hazel -’ began Harry, ‘obviously you both have lists, don’t you? I’m your boss-’

‘I am absolutely not talking to you about it,’ said Hazel.

There was a great, rhythmic ‘ooh’ from the amused family, and James grinned broadly at her, but Harry was also grinning, unfazed and unoffended. ‘So there is a list, then?’

There was another round of whooping, howling laughter, Rowan clapping his hands in delight. ‘He’s got you there!’

Hazel was laughing, her head in her hands, but James, still amused, was leaping to her defence. ‘Don’t twist her words - thank God you’re not an auror now, that wouldn’t hold up in court, would it? Don’t-’

‘He’s so defensive - I bet it’s because their lists are filthy!’ insisted Al.

‘Absolutely not, there’s no list!’

The train began to rattle and sway even more, slipping between towering concrete covered in graffiti. The tannoy chimed and the Geordie accent from before announced that they would soon be arriving into Kings Cross.

‘Excellent,’ said Harry happily, although Teddy felt oddly glum that their journey had come to an end.

They staggered off the train together into the almost empty station, still bedecked in green, still laughing and shouting loudly at one another, their voices echoing off the grubby white tiles. Harry, though Lily had not permitted him to drink much at all, threw open his arms and looked up at the great glass ceiling as he walked. ‘Isn’t it good to be back here, kids?’ he called loudly. Then he span and pointed at Teddy. ‘A few more years and you’ll be here every September again too!’

Ted grinned at him, though the prospect of Dora and Celeste starting school mildly terrified him. He kept walking, and as he reached Harry, his godfather slung his arm around his shoulders. ‘Watch out,’ he told Ted, ‘it goes by in a flash.’

‘Already is.’

‘Bring the girls next time, it was lovely having everyone together. They’d love it - you know it’s no problem getting tickets.’

‘I told you - it’s well past their bed time.’

‘Ah, who cares - the odd late night never hurt anyone.’

‘Easy to say when you don’t have to deal with them the next day!’ said Ted, laughing.

The ticket gates were wide open; the family walked through without reaching into their pockets for the little orange cards. ‘Right,’ Ginny was saying briskly, ‘who’s coming to Ron and Hermione’s with us? Al and Scorpius - are you still going with Ted to Grimmauld Place? Or - no, Lily, was that you two?’

But Lily was ignoring her, pulling urgently on Rowan’s hand and gesturing frantically at the others. ‘Hurry - the night tube isn’t running tonight!’

‘Ah, we’ll get a cab-’

‘Thank you,’ said Harry’s voice, much quieter now. Ted stopped watching the rest of the family chaotically argue over getting the tube or taxis, and looked at Harry. He was watching his son and Hazel; James was pointing at the barrier between platform’s nine and ten, recounting some story. ‘For joking about it all with him, for keeping it light.’

‘Of course,’ said Ted. ‘Wasn’t that what we all agreed?’

‘Yes, but I know it isn’t easy, but you always find the right words.’

‘Sort of my job,’ mumbled Ted awkwardly. ‘He seems to be doing so much better though, so it is getting easier, isn’t it?’

‘It is. It’ll be a good wedding.’

‘TED!’ Lily bellowed. ‘Come ON! We’re going back to yours!’

‘Chill out!’ he shouted back to her, and then looked once more at Harry with great exasperation. ‘What’s she like?’

Harry smiled, though it seemed slightly strained. ‘I mean it. Thank you.’

‘You don’t need to thank me for looking after my brother.’

Harry hugged him, one hand gripping at the silky Harpies flag draped round Ted’s shoulders, the other at the back of his head in his emerald green hair. ‘Good luck with writing the speech,’ he said. ‘Send my love to Vic and the girls.’

‘Will do. See you Sunday.’

They broke apart. ‘Jim! Hazel!’ Harry called across the wide expanse of the station. ‘Let’s go, if we’re too late back Hermione’ll tell us off.’

Beneath the great glass ceiling of Kings Cross, the family hugged, and made their hasty, happy farewells.

I would love to lose focus and have a consensual workplace relationship with hugh grant

You have been generous answering many prompts, including mine. If you have more headcannon about Remus teaching Harry, and having more moments where he’s struck by memories of James/ Lily, I’d love to read it :)

The classroom was in such chaos when he entered (a few minutes late, as usual), that none of his students noticed him come in. Above the noise and chatter, one drawling voice in particular caught Remus’s attention thanks to its sheer unpleasantness. 

‘For me to consider a woman she must have certain attributes,’ Malfoy was saying loudly, leaning back on his chair and smirking. ‘I won’t consider anything less. Slim, attractive, athletic, good at cooking-’

‘If she’s got all that going for her, why would she go out with you?’ Harry interrupted savagely. 

Remus had to pretend he hadn’t heard so he could turn away and busy himself in the stationery cupboard so no one could see him biting back laughter. 

It was so Lily. Not just the quick-wittedness of the put down, but the grimacing, exasperated, withering expression that had crossed his face as he said it. For a second he didn’t look like James at all - everything about the way he held his face was Lily, everything about his tone, everything about the bluntness. ‘God, she’s brutal,’ he remembered James saying admiringly one day.  

‘Oh, come back when you get some parents, Potter-’

‘Well I’ve been talking to your mum a lot lately-’

Deciding that the argument was getting a little too serious for him to continue to ignore, Remus grabbed an old textbook from the stationary cupboard and dumped it on his desk loudly, so that they would realise he was in the room.

This seemed to do the trick; the deep ‘oohs’ and sniggers of the rest of the class died away in an instant - Harry immediately adopted the sheepish expression James used to get sometimes, and Malfoy scowled and reluctantly planted all four legs of his chair on the floor. 

‘Thank you all for settling down so quickly,’ Remus told them pleasantly, ‘though I would appreciate coming into a quieter classroom in the first place. Now, if you would all gather around this tank…’ 

It was tempting to have a quiet word with Malfoy about respecting women, Remus thought, as the chairs scraped and the children eagerly gathered around the Grindylow. But then, he’d probably have to have a word with Harry, too, about the inappropriateness of ‘your mum’ jokes.

Well, he thought, as the girls squealed in exhilarated disgust at the grindylow’s slime, he certainly wasn’t going to admonish Harry. Not when his parents would have been so proud.

The Way Ahead

A/N: Asked @floreatcastellumposts to give me a prompt to get me out of my writer’s block (If anyone else wants to send me a prompt, then please do!). She gave me ‘McGonagall finds out that Harry is an Auror’ and this was the result: 

Minerva sighed as she fell heavily into the chair behind her new desk. Her bones ached from weariness; she took a sip of her tea in order to suppress the yawn threatening to escape her. There was no time for rest. 

The parchment in front of her was so long the end of it snaked off the edge of the desk and trailed onto the rich carpet, the list of chores upon it stretching across the office. 

Minerva took her quill and began searching down the list, ticking off items which had been dealt with. Hagrid had managed to secure the Thestral herd this morning. Minerva tried not to think about how much longer that particular task may have taken if not for the increased number of volunteers who could now see the winged horses roaming the battle-scarred grounds of Hogwarts. 

She scratched her quill across the parchment, and scanned down the rest of the never ending list. The repairs of the castle were taking longer than expected, due in part, to the ancient magic holding much of the structure up. And creating a definitive list of which students would and would not be returning in the Autumn was proving rather difficult. Nobody, it appeared, was quite ready to think about the future just three short weeks after the fall of Voldemort. 

“I’m getting too old for this,” Minerva whispered, lifting her cup to take another sip. 

“Nonsense,” came a voice from behind her. Minerva jumped slightly, having forgotten once again that her new office came with an audience. “I should think there’s still a few decades in you yet.” 

She did not bother responding to Albus’ remark, his portrait, it seemed, would be just as taxing as the man himself had been. 

Never mind that his tenure of the school had not started with the most devastating battle Hogwarts had seen in its long history, never mind that she would have to oversee a cohort of students who would be unable to walk the corridors without replaying scenes from said battle, never mind that a vast number of them were dealing with the loss of loved ones to Voldemort’s tyranny. 

Minerva was pulled from her morose thoughts by a soft knock on the door. She bit back another sigh, mentally steeling herself for the next in a long line of problems she was sure was about to walk through her door.

“Enter.” 

The door opened slowly, almost tentatively, and a shock of untidy black hair appeared around it. 

“Good evening, Professor,” Harry Potter said politely. “Do you have a moment for me and Neville?” 

Minerva pressed her lips together, attempting to hold back a smile. She doubted there was a single witch or wizard in the country that couldn’t spare a minute for Harry these days. 

Keep reading

‘You ran away from home?’ ‘When I was about sixteen,’ said Sirius. ‘I’d had enough.’ ‘Where did you go?’ said Harry, staring at him. ‘Your dad’s place,’ said Sirius. ‘Your grandparents were really good about it; they sort of adopted me as a second son.’

(and I know this set will probably be confusing to some people since a lot of people like Kristin Scott Thomas as Walburga but she’s always been Mrs. Potter to me)

Next Generation Headcanons

- Scorpius was Lilys very first crush, she gave him up after figuring out that he’s into Albus

- Lily is super empathic but also very manipulative. She can get everyone to do whatever she wants. Most of the time they don’t even notice.

- Lily’s Gryffindor. No one understands it, they suspect that she somehow managed to trick the hat into putting her to Gryffindor

- Lily and James have a bet about who Scorpius will date. Lily says Albus and James thinks it’ll be Rose

- There’s actually a lot betting going on in the Weasley/Potter family. They literally bet about everything. “Which team will win Quidditch game?” “When will Teddy and Victoire finally get together?” “Who gets the next detention?”

- The loser punishment is always the same. They have to be the winners servant for a whole day. Any day.

- They love to win against Teddy, most of the time he has to go to detention for them.

- Everyone quickly learnes that Lily and Rose always win. Well, everyone except James.

- James and Fred (jr.) are in the same year. They’re probably worse than the marauders and the twins together.

- George secretly provides them with whatever they need for pranks, he’s very proud of his son

- Of course Angelina knows what George is doing, but she pretends not to notice

- James and Fred are the masterminds of their pranks but they’re only successful because they have friends or family in every single Hogwarts house who are more than willing to help them execute their plans

Note: English isn’t my first language, I’m sorry for any mistake I made