What’s so funny is like….I read the first three books in college, and my reaction was “Well, they’re fun books in the Boarding School trope – gosh, it’s nice she included a gay couple in the third book!”
Like. I in my naievete just assumed she had done it on purpose and that it was rather sweet of her to have done so.
i want to know more about charlie weasley’s friends. who the hell agrees to SMUGGLE A DRAGON across international borders on two days notice? who are these people that are willing to accept a dragon in a crate from a couple of small children, no questions asked? i need to know more, tell me about the antics of these mysterious flying dragon smugglers.
ESPCAD.
European Society for the Prevention of Cruelty Against Dragons.
Like PETA but with less grossness and more punk activism. And fire breathing dragons so like no one really fux with ‘em.
speaking as a biologist, i can guarantee i would show up without question to smuggle an endangered species that would otherwise be destroyed across national borders to a sanctuary on two days’ notice.
like. if a small child showed me a box containing a juvenile alligator snapping turtle and was like “you need to smuggle this across the continent to kansas or else it will be destroyed” i would be like “sure, would you like me to send you a postcard, small child”
I cannot help but feel that if Albus Dumbledore had known about this freelance dragon-smuggling association things might have gone very differently for Harry Potter.
“I want you to basically move this child across national borders to somewhere where they’ve never even heard of Lord Voldemort and keep him until I need him.”
“No. That’s kidnapping.”
“He’s an unwanted orphan who’ll be hunted mercilessly by Voldemort’s associates and to make it worth your while I’ll give you these very rare eggs I happen to have come across in my –
“HOW THE HELL DID THOSE GET OUT OF NORWAY okay fine. Gimme. I’ll send a card.”
The smugglers take the eggs and the kid, dropping off the kid with someone’s sister who’s already got a couple and seems to know how to manage them. They check in, though, and it turns out the kid is mega into reptiles. Can even talk to them, which makes him *very* helpful…
Ten years later everyone but Albus Dumbledore is a little puzzled as to why a kid allegedly named ‘Nils Johansson’ has come all the way from Sweden to go to Hogwarts. Nils wears glasses, has a collection of interesting scars including one on his forehead, has two pet snakes that are almost always on his person, knows everything there is to know about dragons and introduces himself to Ron on the train with “You must be Ron, your brother Charlie told me to look you up. He works with my uncle William, visits a lot.”
Hagrid recognizes him instantly, of course, but it’s when he finds out how much Nils knows about dragons that his heart is won forever.
HUFFLEPUFF: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” – Fred Rogers
It’s the year 2030. They’re making a Harry Potter remake, not a modern adaptation but set in the original era. And it’s fucking indulgent in 90s nostalgia. Someone’s got a butterfly clip, Ron is wearing a choker, there’s muggles playing with pogs, Spice Girls is playing in the background. Voldemort is wearing a crop top.
It’s simultaneously the worst and fucking best thing you’ve ever seen.
Harry James Potter, head of the DA and protégé of Albus Dumbledore himself, did not become a career Auror.
-Sure, he worked with them after the war-everyone did.
-Harry and Ron led the charge in rounding up old Death Eaters and Hermione researched and wrote crazily, making sure no stone was left unturned in their hunt and no memories were lost of the new history they’d made (her writings were eventually compiled into what is largely considered the most comprehensive history of Voldemort and his attacks ever written. Madame Prince has three copies in the school library).
-Even Neville and Luna lent their respective plant and animal (however strange) based abilities towards getting past old defenses and remaking allies.
-These children were born and raised in the midst of war, and it took a while for most of them to learn the ways of peace. But once they figured it out (sort of) they settled into their new roles.
-Hermione rose rapidly amongst Ministry ranks, Ron returned to family, the only truth he’d ever been sure of, and Harry went back to his first (real, remembered) home.
-The Defense Against the Dark Arts position had been rid of its curse for two years by the time Harry applied for the job, and the teacher who held it for those years was only temporary anyways. McGonagall had been hoping Harry would return to Hogwarts, and return he did.
-Harry Potter’s Defense lessons were notorious for their seemingly random schedule, where one day the class would be practicing spells normally, the next running obstacle courses in the Forbidden Forest, and the day after that having a class wide discussion on the power of emotions and their use in spells
-His first lesson of every year was on the power of chocolate and conversation to comfort, just as he had learned from Remus Lupin years ago. Like his old professor, Harry rewarded students with chocolate for good deeds and correct answers.
-Seventh Years got to choose personal research projects, ranging from meticulous dioramas of various battles to the best way to make a pile of dung explode
-Sixth Years learned more complicated traditional spells, including the Patronus and healing charms (Harry’s stag never failed to draw gasps the first time he showed it to a group)
-Fifth Years combined lessons from all their other classes to find ways to fight without traditional spell work, including stories from Harry about using Wingardium Leviosa to fight a troll his first year and Neville using his plants during the Battle of Hogwarts. (Often, Harry would bring in Hermione, Ron, and Neville to assist in the telling of these tales and the teaching of their techniques.)
-Fourth Years got lessons in love and death and ancient theories and stories, along with turns for everyone to go under the Invisibility Cloak on the day devoted to the Deathly Hallows
-Third Years learned defense against other species with a final like an obstacle course similar to the one given to Harry by Professor Lupin
-Second Year was for most traditional dueling spells, started with Expelliarmus. (Any students that complained about the “boring” spell would have him reply calmly, “this is what saved my life against Lord Voldemort” and shut right up)
-First Years started with basic theories, and continued to shielding and camouflaging charms (because Harry never really signed up to fight, and would rather his students never have to)
-every year ended with huge tournaments between the years, which he used to help houses bond with each other and to assess skills. They changed between magical paintball or laser tag, scavenger hunts, or temporary prank wars (the other professors’ least favorite), and the winners got to camp on the grounds for a night for s’mores, swimming, and a midnight Quidditch game
-His first students were mostly old enough to have been his classmates, just like those of the DA had been, and so his first years of teaching were to war-torn children like himself, who had gaps in their normal seating arrangements that their friends, now dead, had sat in, and the occasional blank stare that Harry was never offended by, as he was accustomed to seeing them on his friends and himself when they were revisiting horrors they’d witnessed
-as he continued teaching though, his students came in excited to learn from the famed Harry Potter, and he had to persuade them early on that to them, he was just a teacher who’d show them a trick on the Quidditch field or the location of a secret passageway, nothing more and nothing less
-eventually, students would get more excited when Harry announced that Hermione, the Minister of Magic, was coming to visit and chat with them about research, or Ginny, his Quidditch star wife, was arriving soon to show off her Bat Bogey hex than when he mentioned his own history
-and as time went on, Madame Pince’s copies of Hermione’s history book stayed on the shelves because students realized Harry was more likely to engage in a snowball fight than a duel and was happiest tucked into a Weasley sweater with a cup of tea, chatting with friends about anything other than defeating Dark Lords; and he was recognized in Diagon Alley less by adults wishing to shake his hand and more by children wanting to say hello to their favorite professor
-and students came to love him, not for his fame as the Boy Who Lived, but as a professor who cared, and sought to teach in a way that everyone could learn from, and Harry wouldn’t have it any other way
This pic has taken ages but it’s finally finished. Not perfect, but finished.
You can’t even imagine how hard it’s been to draw anything lately. I do not only have had to deal with my own insecurities, but I now have a hoe who personally enjoys letting me know my art fucking sucks because she needs to feel better about herslef (╯°▽°)╯ ┻━┻
Plot Designing 