Never At All

Never at All

Remus sets his shoulders, staring forward at the cabinet. He can hear the faint rattling from inside, and he can feel his students’ eyes on his back. With a flick of his wand and a wordless incantation, the door swings open and a bang rings throughout the room. 

“Alright, Neville,” he says, just loud enough for the boy in question to hear. “Remember what I told you.” 

Neville nods, wincing as the boggart takes its form. Severus Snape stands before them, tall and foreboding with his oily hair and oilier smile. 

“Riddikulus.” 

A pause. Remus holds his breath as he waits—

Slightly louder this time. “Riddikulus!” 

The crack of magic. The smell of mothballs and the almost comical sight of his childhood enemy in an old woman’s clothes. 

“Next!” 

A snake. 

“Next!”

A mummy.

“Next!”

A corpse, fresh and bloodied. 

“Next!” 

A spider as tall as Remus himself. 

“Next—”

And he can picture what is to come: a frigid, pale, expressionless face; the billow of midnight-black robes; a quiet, rasping, wicked voice that Remus’s heart goes cold with fear even thinking about. 

He steps in front of the boy with the lightning scar, and he watches as the boggart flickers. He knows what is to come. He knows what he fears most—the daunting glow of the full moon and the loss of control that, inescapably, comes with it. 

How wrong he is. 

For Remus Lupin has not faced a boggart in almost thirteen years. A man changes a lot in thirteen years, and with him, his nightmares change, too. 

“Hullo, Moony,” says the haunted shell of Sirius Black. 

Remus freezes. He is caught, for a second—or maybe more; a minute; an hour—between love and hatred, between justice and mercy, between forgiveness and denial. He is trapped inside every emotion he has ever felt and some he never has and never will. 

His mouth opens slightly. Words, he needs words, but they will not come to him. He needs answers, he needs explanations. He needs revenge, he needs to leave, he needs—

“I killed them, ” 

Anything that his mind had conjured up abandons him. He cannot speak; he can only stare at the man in front of him, the man with the sunken eyes and the frail, gaunt hands, and the tattoo of the brilliant, almost-full moon on his wrist. He realizes, far too late, that there are tears beginning to pool in his eyes. 

“I killed them. I killed the Potters. I betrayed them and you and little Peter who never knew what was good for him. I never cared about you, not once.” 

Somewhere inside him, Remus knows it’s true. He knows he’s not worth love or compassion or anything else Sirius pretended to show him. 

Not-Sirius’s face twists itself into a sneer. “I never loved you. And you can lie all you want; you can tell yourself all you want that the war changed me, but the truth of it is that I never changed at all because I never had to. I’ve alway been this—I’ve always been like them, and you fell for a boy who lied and schemed and never ever existed at all.

“Poor, sorry Remus Lupin. In love with a murderer, even after all these years, because the only people who could ever love murderers are filthy, half-breed—”

Remus raises his arm, wand held out, ready to banish the man who stole his heart in one breath and shattered it into a hundred thousand pieces in the next. But he never gets the chance, never gets the oppurtunity, because Sirius—because the boggart—because Not-Sirius has his head tilted to one side and he’s studying Remus with a curious expression on his face. 

“No.

“No, I’ve got it all wrong, haven’t I? You don’t care if I say that I never cared, because you believe it’s true. If I’m going to hurt you, I have to dig a little… deeper.”

Riddikulus, everything in Remus’s body shouts. Say it. Save yourself from his poison and his lies and his mouth that gives forth the killing curse as easily as it used to give kisses. 

But the worst part—the sick, twisted reason that has let him get this far in the first place—is that somewhere, hidden inside him, Remus cares what Sirius has to say. 

“Forgotten about me so soon, have you?” says Not-Sirius, and the last of Remus’s courage is gone, because now that he thinks about it, it was Sirius that gave him every ounce of that courage in the first place and Sirius is gone and locked away and a loveless killer—

And he’s standing now, in front of him, asking him for something he cannot give. 

“Because I haven’t forgotten about you. I’ve been sitting there, in that godforsaken cell, wondering when you’re going to come and get me.” 

Remus takes a shaky breath. Or maybe it’s the boggart that’s breathing in uneven, panicked increments, because the boggart is Sirius and Remus never has been good at separating Sirius from himself. 

“But you’re not going to come and get me, are you? You never will. You knew, didn’t you? You knew all along I was innocent. But you didn’t care—you even welcomed it, glad for the excuse to leave me behind. Leave us behind. 

“Because you never cared at all.” 

It’s like an arrow to Remus’s heart. 

“Riddikulus,” Remus says far too late, and Not-Sirius seems to fold into himself until the last fragmented pieces of the boy Remus loved—loves, if he deigns to be honest with himself at all—is gone and gone and gone again. 

He’s somewhere out there. 

He’s asking to be found. 

If only Remus cared enough to find him. 

Thinking about how I would write an adult Scooby-Doo series, because I think it can be done.

The first thing I’d do is make the characters actually be adults.  Still young, but adults, in the mid to late 20s range.  Mystery Inc. is a private detective type business that they run together.  In this universe, the supernatural/ghosts/etc are real, but not necessarily common, so when they take on a case, the culprit might be a person disguised as a monster, or it might actually be a real ghost.  The stakes can be higher; sometimes a bad guy is legitimately trying to kill them.  Sometimes the mystery they’re trying to solve is a murder.  Sometimes they actually get hurt on their cases.

Fred: the core of Fred’s character should be that he’s incredibly kind.  Like, give a stranger the shirt off his back kind.  The “Fred can’t talk to potential clients because he might take a case for free and we need to eat” kind.  He’s an honest and good person and sometimes gets himself into trouble because he assumes other people are too.  While he’s not very good at reading people or noticing ulterior motives, he’s brilliant when it comes to mechanical or engineering type stuff, so he’s the one who keeps the mystery machine running, builds their gadgets, and of course, designs the traps.

Daphne: she comes from old money, and her parents absolutely despise her life choices, to the point where they haven’t officially disowned her, but they have basically cut her off, so she doesn’t actually have access to any family money.  Growing up wealthy has granted her a variety of skills, including speaking multiple languages, horseback riding, and fencing.  She’s very into fashion and jewelry (even if she can’t afford it anymore) and has extensive knowledge of both that can occasionally provide a vital clue in a case. And even though her parents have cut her off, Daphne still has a wide network of contacts she can ask for favors sometimes, because she’s personable, and people tend to like her.  Daphne is also very emotionally intelligent, and is usually the one who can spot when someone is lying to them.

Side note - I ship Fred and Daphne, so I think I would start them off as an established couple for this universe.  Dating, engaged, married, I don’t care.  They are stupidly in love, ride or die for each other.  There’s no will they, won’t they, no worries about cheating.  They are in a healthy, happy, loving relationship, and no one (not even Daphne’s disapproving parents) are going to mess that up for them.

Velma: she is the forensics nerd who sometimes gets super excited about the wrong thing at the wrong time (”He was mummified in seconds? That’s so cool!” “Velma!  His wife is standing right there!” “Oh.  Sorry.”).  She’s not purposely insensitive, she just gets laser focused on her work and forgets to filter herself sometimes.  She’s also the one who can get so fixated on solving whatever mystery they’re working on, she’s willing to bend or maybe break laws.  Is breaking and entering really so bad?  Not if it gets them answers.

Shaggy: he is still the comic relief, but he’s the comic relief by being the only person in the group that actually has common sense.  He manages the business’s finances, he’s the only one who knows how to cook, and the others tease him for being a coward sometimes, but Shaggy maintains that if a ghost with an axe is coming for you, running is the only sensible option.  He should also have a range of random knowledge that sounds useless, but sometimes saves the day (ex ventriloquism, origami, the history of spoons, etc).

Scooby: as this is a universe where supernatural creatures exist, Scooby is an ancient eldritch type being that took a shine to Shaggy when he was a kid, and took the form of a talking dog to befriend and hang out with him.  Aside from the talking dog bit and not aging, he never uses his powers in a way that anyone notices.  The audience is not told upfront that Scooby is an ancient eldritch being; it should slowly be hinted at throughout the series so the audience put it together, but the characters never realize it.  Scooby genuinely considers Shaggy to be his best friend, and cares about the rest of the gang too.

Every time i think of this i laugh so hard

R!LEO AND DONNIE, TRYING TO MAKE THEMSELVES LOOK BETTER IN FRONT OF 12!SPLINTER

*several back and forths later, increasing in severity*

R! Donnie: Leo blew up a restaurant!

R! Leo: Donnie robbed a bank!

R! Donnie: Leo has a sugar daddy!

12! Raph: *is so surprised he starts choking*

12! Leo: *hides his face out of second hand embarrassment*

R! Leo: oh you asked for it

R! Leo: Donnie's a actual dad! He's a teen dad of not one but two! And one of them-

R! Donnie: you leave my children out of this!

12! Everyone: *spit take*

Merlin remake where everyone’s a muppet except Leon

RISE HEADCANON

Science bros

Science bros

Since Draxum has a Lab He gave the Lab to the Twins. For me Leo likes Biology and is A chemist why because I said so I hc leo to read science stuff as a Kid so Donnie wouldn't get lonely when reading. He was really Good about it don't really show it. Leo is Dumb at math and Tech though.

Since Leo and Donnie are twins they must do twins thing they are both smart-ass in their own way.

Also Leo would Call the periodic table Different names like (Ca,Calcium Leo would Pronounced it as Caw-Caw) Ne,Neon Nae-Nae.) For legal reasons this is a joke-

In 'The Clothes Don't Make The Turtle':

Leo's just casually vibing with Don while Raph was stressing out.

when Raph asks Donnie (who's still vibing) after another transformation scene if he's got any ideas on what could be going on, you can see how confused Leo is too till Donnie says "less talky talk more groovie groove", and you see it hit him,

He swiftly turns to the speaker, the dots connecting,

Where they're all looking at the box confused, worried, or a mix of both, and then you have Leo there looking at it suspiciously before realization hits him,

This also told me a lot about his character the first time I watched it, because even though they were all catching on (and did at the end) Leo was the one who felt it first, and all because he noticed how the music kept distracting his genius of a brother, because that's all Donnie talked about the whole time they were under the musical spell, how the music was basically "taking control".

It just showed me then how, even though he does good a lot, smart Leon actually is, because he does the joking (his coping mechanism), and the one liners and such, anything to make his brothers laugh

How much attention he's actually paying to everything around them.