*while In London*

*while in London*

Franz: Why would you give a knife to Woodrow?!

Kanduu: Chill, he felt unsafe.

Franz: Now I feel unsafe!

Kanduu:

Kanduu: Would you like a knife

This is the stuff I signed for 🥺💕

happy end

We stan a damn legend

A moment of appreciation

…for the absolute balls of brass that teenage Severus Snape must’ve had to stand outside Gryffindor Tower on the evening of Snape’s Worst Memory.

A few hours earlier, he was attacked - without provocation - by a group of Gryffindor lads who routinely bullied him.  Yet, he stood outside their tower and begged to speak to his friend.

In the midst of the attack, he called one of their housemates an awful, terrible slur - and yet, that evening, he stood outside their tower and begged for the opportunity to make amends..

We don’t know if James did go as far as to strip Snape naked.  But when Snape went up to Gryffindor tower, he didn’t go to retaliate.  He didn’t get a gang of Slytherins to help him wreak revenge.  He went alone to face a house that hated him, and it wasn’t James or Sirius that he looked for - he went up there to apologise to Lily.

We know from what Lily says that he’s been pestering other students to get Lily to come out and talk to him, probably making a nuisance of himself; running the risk of James, or Sirius, or Peter feeling justified in going out and attacking him, just as they did a few hours earlier.

He threatened to sleep outside, which would see him breaking curfew, risking the teachers’ ire - and he meant it.  

His actions that afternoon were less than stellar, but surely it should’ve been apparent from his actions that evening that he would grow into the bravest man Harry ever knew.  

As an adult, he sought out Dumbledore whilst he was a Death Eater, and he repeatedly lied to the greatest Legilimens the wizarding world has ever seen.  

But the signs were already there when, as a teenager, he dared walk alone to the common room of a house full of students who despised him, who were furious at him - and, most terrifying of all, which contained the boys who had utterly humiliated him that afternoon…and he refused to go away until he’d had the opportunity to try and put things right.

I know you did this presentation a while back and I agree with quite everything you said! However, if you don't mind, I want to add some things.

Susan Reynolds was married three times. The first husband's name was Francis Wright, a young man who was described as "a rake without one decent trait". The two of them had an unknown daughter. The couple didn't get along and, with mutual consent, got divorced.

Later, while visiting with friends, Susan encountered Erasmus Philips, a Scottish merchant. The pair married on September 13th, 1811. It was described as being Susan's happiest marriage by Peter Grotjian, a great friend of Maria Lewis. The couple had one daughter named Josepha Philips. Erasmus died in either 1818 or 1813 from a brain tumor, leaving Susan widowed and Josepha orphaned.

Susan married another young man, however, he broke it off with her rather quickly.

Susan became unmanageable and Josepha was taken care of by Maria Lewis and Joseph Mathew, Maria's third husband. It is unknown to my knowledge what happened to baby girl wright (My nickname for Susan's first daughter).

Quite a tragic history Susan had...

Join the protect Maria Reynolds squad. Stop victimizing Alexander Hamilton. 

expectopatronuts:

queenofthedwarrows:

magicalwayswins:

liminy-lemony:

snapedefender:

listen idk why people always bring up neville’s parents being tortured when they’re talking about the boggart scene (e.g. “neville is more terrified of SNAPE even though his PARENTS were TORTURED” you know). like…. y’all. let’s list out why that’s Not Relevent to the Discussion, shall we?

a) we don’t know how much thirteen-year-old neville knows about his parents or their torture. nobody ever brings up how often they visit, when augusta told neville about it, how much detail she went into, and so on. i can assume that he probably does know, but we don’t know how much detail.

b) this is like saying “harry is scared of DEMENTORS even though his PARENTS were BRUTALLY MURDERED” shockingly enough even though something bad happens to you or a person you love, it doesn’t automatically mean it’s going to be the thing you fear most. some of those kids have probably lost family members to the war. hell, remus lupin’s entire friend group either died or went to azkaban and he’s still more scared of his lycanthropy. 

c) even if neville knows the details, that doesn’t mean he’s FRIGHTENED per se. nothing about him suggests that he sees (or has ever seen) bellatrix lestrange as a boogeyman. (possibly similar to the way harry isn’t ever really frightened of voldemort….?) esp at thirteen, he’s probably pretty removed from the actual thing that happened - he lives with the aftereffects, but the actual torture isn’t something that’s necessarily going to be clear or real to him. 

d) snape is literally right there. right there! he’s in the room TWO SECONDS before remus asks neville what he’s frightened of. of course he’s the first thing that pops into neville’s head! (followed closely by his grandma who treats him pretty terribly too lmao)

d.5) what’s neville going to say instead? “well actually professor, i’m terrified of the woman who tortured my parents into insanity?”

e) i’ve said this before, but neville dispels the boggart in two tries. boggarts! do not show! your ultimate greatest fear! they show A fear. and the deeper the fear, the harder it is to banish. which is why harry can’t banish his boggart with anything less than the actual spell to get rid of dementors and molly weasley can’t banish her boggart on her own either. those are deep fears. neville’s (and all the other children in here) is a childish fear - that doesn’t make it less real, but it also doesn’t make it traumatic and soul-scarring. 

i just… feel like this is another “gotcha!” argument that people try, but it doesn’t make sense to me. fears aren’t cut and dry and logical? just bc the boggart is snape doesn’t mean that snape is more deeply traumatizing than neville’s parents’ torture? the entire thing is meant to be read as a joke so when will the antis let me live and stop using this scene to “prove” that snape abuses children….?

F) neville: pls don’t turn into my nan either she’s scary af

G) Neville was a sensitive child and it totally makes sense to be afraid of someone like Snape when you are insecure.

H) Why is that we never talk about the fact that Neville doesnt want it to turn into his Grandmother? Cause I feel like that is a lot more telling than him being afraid of a scary teacher. Like there is a high chance had Snape not had just been there the Boggart could have also taken McGonagalls shape as well since she is equally as intimidating & scary to Neville as well.

I) You know that super widely accepted theory that Hermione’s boggart isn’t really her failing her third year exams, but a deeper fear of failure and/or a fear of not fitting into the wizarding world?

It’s 100% fanon, but it makes a lot of sense a) because that’s human psychology for you, and b) because the boggart has to represent the fear somehow, it has to “embody” it.

So now, let’s take a look at Neville. His family treated him pretty terribly to try to squeeze magic out of him when they thought he was a squib, right? I mean, they put him in danger of death to get his magic to manifest itself. So, in Neville’s experience, being useless at magic is about the worst you can be. Your own family would rather see you dead than see you turn out a squib. Being useless at magic means your uncle Algie dangles you upside down from a window (and drops you accidentally, but never mind that).

And then Neville goes to Hogwarts and meets the harsh, abrasive teacher that is Professor Snape. Professor Snape, who points out all his faults and shortcomings. Mind you, so does McGonagall, but while she can be strict, Snape is the one who’s nasty about it.

I think it’s more than plausible that, same as McGonagall telling her she failed represents Hermione’s fear of failing as a witch, Snape’s blunt criticisms represent for Neville a real threat of being rejected by his family and/or being put in threat of death. Again.

And so, the boggart takes on Snape’s form to represent Neville’s deeper fears, and not because Snape is actually so dreadful that he is the main fear-trigger to a boy whose parents were tortured into insanity and who was threatened and outright abused by his own family for not being to produce magic early enough.

You have to admit - that’s a more plaubisble fear for Neville, especially since Snape has never actually done anything to him (I can’t say this loud enough) in the two years and a bit he’s been his teacher, whereas failing at magic has already had unpleasant consequences.

J) Ok, I know this is already long, but I think we also have to look at this scene from outside canon. We can ignore all this psycho-babble about fears and whatnot, and take a look at what JKR wanted to show her readers.

I think the main point of the boggart scene, apart from giving an early clue regarding Lupin’s lycanthropy, is to show how Harry is not like other kids.

Other kids have fears typical of kids. Sticking to canon, without interpreting anything, we’re shown a mummy, a banshee, a rat, a snake, a bloodshot eye (wtf), an amputated hand (again, wtf), a spider, a nasty teacher (Snape), and failing every subject. Honestly, these sound either like specific phobias that could happen to anyone given certain circumstances, or terrors from stories or films (actually, Hermione’s fear is the one that shows the most maturity).

But not Harry. Harry’s worst fears are the dementors. Fear itself, as Lupin says. And all this goes to show is that Harry isn’t like others. He has a tragic past. He has a shabby childhood. He has already had two near-death experiences while at school. Harry’s boggart shows that he’s been forced into a maturity that doesn’t correspond to his age, and that he’s been able to step up to the situation. He can no longer afford childish fears like teachers or grades, because there are very real threats both in his past and in his future.

This is a point that can’t be made if instead of Snape you show Neville’s uncle threatening to drop him from a window, or his parents dribbling down their chins in St. Mungo’s, or if instead of McGonagall you show Hermione’s friends and teachers spitting at her as she leaves Hogwarts in shame, with her wand snapped, or if instead of spiders you show Ginny’s lifeless body lying in the Chamber, or even if instead of the bloodshot eye you show say, Lavender’s uncle with bloodshot eyes, a bottle of vodka, and an erection. 

[reverting back to in-canon analysis, what the fuck was Lupin thinking? He shields Harry from the boggart, but what about all the other kids? What if the boggart had really become Lavender’s uncle with an erection in front of the whole class?]

So I think there’s definitely an element of downplaying other kids’ fears to show just how horrible Harry’s situation really is. Neville’s boggart, from a story telling point of view, is part of that, and not so much a point about Snape.

And honestly, all of Harry’s character growth in the first two books is basically lost if all you get from this scene is “asdflglkw the greasy git omg he tortured neville in class, RIP in Pieces greaseball”.

i love you so much honestly this is the greatest addition i’ve ever gotten on a neville’s boggart post 

because!!! i’ve never actually considered that the boggart might show fear representations. which is sad, because the text literally tells us that it does (harry’s fear is “fear itself” not just dementors… lupin’s fear is not the moon but his lycanthropy which it represents). so it’s such an excellent point that neville’s fear isn’t snape himself, but what snape represents to him - failure and lack of magical talent, which snape is always mean to neville about. but! neville didn’t get that fear of failure and lack of magical talent from snape - he got it from his family (his uncle! throws him from a window! his grandma says over and over that he’s not as talented as his parents). which so easily explains! why snape and neville’s grandma are so linked together for him that his mind immediately jumps to augusta when talking about being afraid of snape. they both represent failure/lack of talent to him…. and the difference between them is that while snape may reinforce those fears, augusta (and the rest of neville’s family) is the one who gave him those fears. 

(you could carry on to discuss how neville fears lack of talent potentially bc of his parents even - if they’re so proficient, as augusta always says, and they still end up tortured and mad…. or connect it to neville being afraid that his family won’t love him or care about him if he’s not proficient in magic e.g. “like his parents”…. which connects really nicely thematically back to how harry is always tied to the memory of his parents, but for harry it’s in a really positive way.)

anyway the point, as all of this extremely lovely analysis is saying, is that when you leave the reading solely at “snape is neville’s greatest fear, snape traumatized neville so much” you’re a) ignoring and/or passing over a lot of neville’s kind of shitty backstory which explains why he’s so nervous and timid to begin with and b) failing to understand the entire point of the scene itself, which is really more about harry’s connection to fear and maturity than about neville. neville is another kid in this scene, with another kid fear. his fear of snape is not unusual or dramatic even in the context of the scene itself (everyone laughs about it, even neville. lupin doesn’t seem concerned at all about it - wouldn’t he, if neville is deeply traumatized?). harry’s fear is meant to be the unusual/dramatic one in this scene…. because harry has been through more shit than all of these kids and thus has more mature fears.

anyway. i bolded the parts i especially loved but really i loved all of it bc what a great thoughtful careful reading of this scene!!!!! that’s what critical analysis looks like people.