Sure Things Fall

Alaskan, Heartland fan, champion organizer and list writer,

[style-and-stuffs]

[hellsofaseason-blog]

One of my grandmothers hated my mom's silverware, and would throw it away whenever we had holidays - right into the trash. It took years to figure out where it was all going.

[hellsofaseason-blog]

The animals are not going to care that I was up late trying to sort out paperwork. They are going to insist on being fed and watered, and given the rain, getting fresh straw in the morning.

...I think that’s a sign I need to step away and go back at it in the morning.

[confessions-heartland]

“Why doesn’t Lou try to create a life with Peter? They never got their own house like they were supposed to. Peter never felt quite at home there. A married couple should start their lives together and not with other family members in tow. Lou should have just moved to Vancouver where Peter’s job is. She just can’t let go. She knows that Peter was driven when she first met him. None of them are budging. But typical families move to the job where the husband is. And couples don’t live with their in-laws as a long-term situation.”

[confessions-heartland]

[hellsofaseason-blog]

Lou did try to create a life with Peter. Peter didn’t try to create a life with Lou.

One word: Dubai (where Peter and Lou were there, and Peter didn’t have time for her - she was with him, and alone).

Two words: House fire. (Wherein they attempted to not live with her relatives, and that dream went up in smoke)

Four words: Masters of Business Administration (wherein Lou possessing a degree and running a dude ranch proved prior to marrying Peter that she’s not a decorative trophy wife and ought not be treated as such - TL;DR she’s an ambitious lady)

Also, I think the stat is over 40% of all households have a female breadwinner, not male. So. STFU with that sexist “typically” nonsense. The stats are fairly close male vs. female, at this point, and Lou’s been the one doing the heavy lifting in that department for a while.

[confessions-heartland]

[hellsofaseason-blog]

Oh, right, season eight. I forget season eight. I actually haven’t properly watched it yet, what with it not being out here. Sorry!

[hellsofaseason-blog]

Have you ever stopped to think about how your body works?  Or even just your hands - hands are incredible, and you have TWO of them. There are ligaments in your hands, light tight strings, and with a mere thought you puppet them about, pulling the strings like it was nothing. Do you know how much goes in to just one single finger functioning? It’s incredible! And you don’t just have one hand - you have TWO! 

And don’t get me started on your feet, your legs, your balance - your bipedal motion.

Your body is SO COOL.

[confessions-heartland]

“Why doesn’t Lou try to create a life with Peter? They never got their own house like they were supposed to. Peter never felt quite at home there. A married couple should start their lives together and not with other family members in tow. Lou should have just moved to Vancouver where Peter’s job is. She just can’t let go. She knows that Peter was driven when she first met him. None of them are budging. But typical families move to the job where the husband is. And couples don’t live with their in-laws as a long-term situation.”

[confessions-heartland]

[hellsofaseason-blog]

Lou did try to create a life with Peter. Peter didn’t try to create a life with Lou.

One word: Dubai (where Peter and Lou were there, and Peter didn’t have time for her - she was with him, and alone).

Two words: House fire. (Wherein they attempted to not live with her relatives, and that dream went up in smoke)

Four words: Masters of Business Administration (wherein Lou possessing a degree and running a dude ranch proved prior to marrying Peter that she’s not a decorative trophy wife and ought not be treated as such - TL;DR she’s an ambitious lady)

Also, I think the stat is over 40% of all households have a female breadwinner, not male. So. STFU with that sexist “typically” nonsense. The stats are fairly close male vs. female, at this point, and Lou’s been the one doing the heavy lifting in that department for a while.

[in-love-with-movies]

It Takes Two (USA, 1995)

[cheia]

   that time i was 6 years old and my kirstie alley situation was out of control

[thebadwolf]

I try to scream out my love, it makes this ｈａｒｄｅｒ

[hellsofaseason-blog]

Convinced my BFF to watch Heartland with me.

[hellsofaseason-blog]

I am supposed to be going to The City in an hour. Well, it’s going to take a while to get there, but I depart for a real genuine city-place in an hour!

Why am I on Tumblr instead of putting on pants?

[confessions-heartland]

“How come Lou and Scott didn’t get together, when I read a while back that they didn’t cast Scott because he had other film or show commitments. Even though this would have been faithful to the book series. Also Scott was a better match for Lou because he could calm her down. So they put Lou with Peter, but we hardly see him either! Peter doesn’t really know how to handle Lou as well as Scott did.”

[confessions-heartland]

[hellsofaseason-blog]

....had to think about this one, but actually, Scott totally does.

When she’s babysitting and he rescues her/uses his new-found baby wrangling skills. When she’s aggressively cleaning the dude ranch cabins and he spots her, he goes over, knowing this means something is WRONG, and talks her around.  When she’s aggressively cleaning in the kitchen, in one of the earlier episodes - don’t remember which - he does the same thing.  The more I think on it, the more examples I can come up with, so I’m going to stop before I’ve written an essay.

Peter, I think, had a one-sided view of Lou. He had to have - to think she’d be at all happy in Dubai, for example. He saw the control freak, the perfectionist, but he missed the hard worker part completely. Saw the flashy side, and thought that was who she was to the core, and she’s really not. She is that - she’s New York, designer gloves, and she’s also a hard worker who grew up on a farm, values her family, and even more values her work.

Peter repeatedly showed a complete lack of respect for Lou’s work, acted like Lou should just be able to walk away from it at the drop of a hat. Scott wanted her to value him above her work, and she wanted the same of him - and neither were able/willing at the time to actually do that, because both of them very much valued their work.

Much as it smacked of lazily/hastily written , scenes because it’s likely schedule-related plot contrivances, Scott as a character wasn’t ENTIRELY wrong. Lou was, at that time, not capable of putting him - or anyone, anything - above her job.

Then there’s the whole race end of things. I think the idea of being a real Indian tour guide or however they phrased it has this whole other implication that is just terrible, and Lou never once even thought about it (I can’t recall if she heard it, mind you). That’s not Lou’s fault, entirely, but it is an issue I’d have loved to see them address, at some point. I’ve seen/heard some terrible things said to our Native Alaskan staff members  because of their race, and I can’t imagine Canada is entirely without any sort of bias,  as well, given how many Indigenous people (I’m so sorry - I don’t know the preferred term here)  flat-up vanish, any given year.

Ah, heck, I’ve gone and written another essay.

[princess-bel]

So I was rereading Harry Potter, when I came across this and thought- what if instead of Cedric Diggory, Cassius Warrington had been chosen to compete in the Triwizard Tournament?

Imagine Dumbledore calling out the name of the Hogwarts champion and it isn’t a Gryffindor, or a Ravenclaw, or even a Hufflepuff, but it’s a Slytherin. A student from a House most people hate.

Imagine Cassius Warrington getting up, and three out of four Houses are booing at him and shouting things like “NO!” or, “We can’t have a Slytherin champion!” or demanding a retry. But he’s a Slytherin- he’s been dealing with this shit since he got sorted, so he keeps his head high and joins the other champions.

Imagine Harry trying to catch Warrington alone because he doesn’t really want to associate with Slytherins (plus Malfoy has this tendency of being around the guy ALL THE TIME since he got chosen), but at the same time he’s also fair enough not to want him to walk into the first task unprepared.

Imagine Warrington walking over to Harry a few months later, and Ron and Hermione both jump into a protective stance, wands out, but instead of attacking Harry he just tells him to stick the egg underwater. (Because Slytherins don’t forget those who helped them out).

Imagine Warrington and Harry helping each other out in the labyrinth.

Imagine Harry being devastated when Peter kills Warrington- because Voldemort doesn’t care what house they’re form, a spare is a spare.

Imagine the uproar that causes among the Slytherins, because some of their parents really are Death Eaters and they know what really happened.

Imagine Slytherins fighting in the Battle of Hogwarts and shouting “This is for Cassius!”

[aplatonicjacuzzi]

Imagine Harry returning with Warrington’s body, and the crowd realizes what’s happened, but Warrington’s parents don’t show up. There’s no one to mourn him, to cradle him in their arms and cry for their son. The Slytherins know why. His parents were Death Eaters, too.

Imagine Slytherins reaching out, asking for help from classmates from other houses. They’re terrified, truly terrified because the being their parents claimed would never hurt them because they’re pureblood, they realize that he does not care.

Imagine Slytherins in the 5th book sneaking off to join Dumbledore’s Army, to learn more about who Voldemort is without their parents acting as a filter. 

Imagine the shock when they’re told what he’s really done.

Imagine that a few talented Slytherins went with Harry and the others into the Ministry of Magic. The others are a bit wary but they prove themselves as friends.

Imagine them being confronted by Lucius Malfoy in the the Hall of Prophecy, and when the Death Eaters descend, they know that any one of them could be their parents.

Imagine the shocked gasp of a Death Eater as they realize their own child, a pureblood, is standing defiantly with Harry Potter. They choke back a cry. They can’t let their child know that they were about to duel to the death.

Imagine a DA Slytherin facing off against their own Death Eater parent. That they make the decision to let their child defeat them, because in that moment, they realize that they love their child more than they fear Voldemort. They go down, mask unveiled, and the Slytherin kid has to be dragged from the fight before he gets killed.

Imagine Book 6 Slytherins getting more friendly and cooperative with the other houses. Two years of Voldemort terrorizing the muggle and Wizarding world, two years where their parents just up and leave some days, cringing from the pain in their arm, two years after the death of the first Slytherin pureblood, Cassius Warrington, killed by Voldemort’s right-hand man, and they’re slowly hitting the breaking point.

Imagine Slytherin kids keeping tabs on their parents, sending the information to Harry, who shares it with the Order of the Phoenix, and hoping that their parents won’t be killed.

Imagine Book 7 Slytherins low-key rebelling against the new oppressive Hogwarts staff.

Imagine the final siege on Hogwarts, where Slytherins stand proudly by their fellow houses, knowing full-well they could be fighting their own parents. Some Slytherins know their parents were in the fighting. They hope to find them first and sneak them away. Their fellow students understand. Professor McGonagall allows 7th Year Slytherin, Pansy Parkinson, to duel a death eater in her stead; her father is under that veil. She knows it.

Imagine the aftermath of the battle; every house suffered loses. Slytherin students crying over the deaths of friends they made in every house.

Imagine a Cassius Warrington statue made in his honor, the first Slytherin to fight and die nobly with Harry Potter, the boy who lived, in the face of ultimate evil. He was a true Slytherin, and it’s in his name that Slytherin children and their families have cut all ties with the Death Eaters, denounced Voldemort, and are finally living in peace.

[cinematicnomad]

#i do enjoy cedric #but this would have been immensely wonderful in many ways (via batty4u)

[prismatic-bell]

Imagine a story in which Harry wasn’t in love with his fellow champion’s girlfriend, but after her boyfriend’s death just hugs her so long, so hard, and says “he wanted to win for you. You should know–you should know he won, he did it for you” and gives her the best hug and shoulder he knows how to be because her parents aren’t there either and she must know why.

Imagine Harry staring over her head at everyone else until Hermione steps up–it doesn’t take long, but it takes long enough that when she does all eyes are on her as a source of motion–and says “we’re never going to forget this. They’re not going to get away with it” and the girlfriend just latches onto Hermione and everyone is in wands-out stance convinced she’s about to attack the shit out of Hermione, and then the girlfriend stares into her eyes and says “do you promise me” and Hermione just gives her this super-firm nod and says “I promise” and the girlfriend just collapses on her, sobbing. 

Imagine Dumbledore trying to give some flowery speech about inter-wizard solidarity while glossing over why, because Slytherins have always been a touchy subject, and Ron gets to his feet and says “Professor, I need to say something important” and Dumbledore is so surprised he just cedes the floor, and Ron–after that awkward moment when he realizes everyone is staring at him–says he didn’t know Warrington particularly, but he knows how Warrington and Harry played. That each was always cheering on the other. Both wanted to win, but neither was willing to undercut the other by underhanded means. He finishes up saying “I think–I think it’s important everyone should know he died being what a champion should be. Because he could have abandoned Harry and instead he stood up with him to play the game the honest way, and he died for it. And–and Slytherin House should be proud, and we should all be proud, because Warrington was a good bloke.” He sits back down all flustered because he didn’t actually stand up meaning to make a speech. And then Pansy Parkinson stands up before Dumbledore can take back control of the room and says “I want to tell Weasley thank you.” And all of Slytherin House raises a glass–to Warrington, to Weasley, to Potter–and the other houses follow suit. Many years later, Wizarding scholars will say that was the moment Voldemort truly lost.

Imagine later that summer. Harry gets several owls on his birthday, all unsigned. The birds are plump and pretentious and well-cared-for. He will never know which Slytherins sent him their treasures: parchments with hexes developed by the Death Eaters; a strange locket that will only open if he whispers a special spell but that always shows him the picture he most needs to see; a page torn from a potions book that, brewed properly, will allow him extra time to summon a Patronus by giving him a few crucial seconds not just of happiness but of bliss. It doesn’t matter. Harry knows these gifts not as birthday gifts but for what they really are, and he treasures the locket and copies out the potion to send to Hermione and Mrs. Weasley, and when first summoned by the Order of the Phoenix he marches straight up to Dumbledore with the hexes and says “I can’t tell you where I got these, Professor. But they’re in use by the Death Eaters and I think you should have them.” Months later, Sirius will recognize the spell Bellatrix shoots at him, and will dive out of the way just in the nick of time.

The final battle. Everyone is there. Sirius somehow ends up herding a group of Slytherins. They all stare at him and he at them, across a centuries-old divide Voldemort has only succeeded in deepening. Then he remembers the hexes. Harry’s locket, now tucked under Sirius’ shirt because Harry’s friends are with him in this battle but most of Sirius’ are dead. The moment that happiness potion saved Remus’ life, his very soul. Snape’s final words to Harry, finally seen not as mockery but real true advice. What Harry said Voldemort said–his first words in his new form. They are kids, and they are sharing the same kind of hurt he once wouldn’t admit to, watching his mother burn his name off the family tree. “When we go in there, it’s going to be hell,” he tells the Slytherins. “Some of you are probably going to die. I might go down too, and if I do I want your best curser in the front. But I want you all to remember one thing. There are no spares.”  Later retellings of the battle never fail to mention the moment a group of angry, screaming teens burst into the Great Hall, wearing their green and silver as the badge of honor it should be, shouting NO SPARES, NO SPARES at the tops of their voices in between hexes and curses and the occasional physical punch. When Hermione is present, she always interrupts the storyteller to be sure everyone knows about the moment Blaise Zabini shoved her to the floor, dropped on top of her, fired off three curses in rapid succession and said “stay alive, Granger, we need you” before jumping back to his feet and vanishing into the melee–how, for all anyone knows, those may have been his last words, and she will not let his sacrifice go unnoted. 

The aftermath. Malfoy holds out a hand to Sirius, badly injured on the floor. Sirius asks how Malfoy is willing to trust him. Malfoy nods at his chest. “You’ve got my godfather’s locket,” he says, and when Sirius and Harry finally speak after the battle Harry gives his full agreement to the very first thing out of  Sirius’ mouth. They give the locket to Malfoy. Sirius grits his teeth and closes his eyes and opens them and says “He probably saved my life, giving Harry that.” He doesn’t say thank you. Malfoy hears it anyway.

The school reopens under a single banner: the four Houses united. The House rivalry is reduced to just that–a competition in fun–with those deep divides slowly healing to scars, and eventually away to nothing at all.

Imagine it.

[foodsforus]

Double Chocolate Hot Cocoa Cookies 

[hellsofaseason-blog]

Tonight is a back to school night, and my mother a teacher. Along with homemade spaghetti, I’ll be making up a plate of these to celebrate.

I guess food is a language most people understand.

[hellsofaseason-blog]

The downside to being the dutiful daughter is that it’s not yet 9:30 and I’ve accomplished a great many things, and not one of those things is “caffeinate.”

[kerryjamesfans-blog]

317 - Ring of Fire

[hellsofaseason-blog]

Roaarrrrr. The raspberry bush has NETTLES in it. LOW nettles. SO I reach into the bush and.... zap! sting! Ow!

My fingers are cursing my lack of gloves.

[heartlandians]

I don't really like the idea of Lou dating someone new. Things are still so messed up with Peter. Even if they never came back together their story needs different kind of ending Not just jumping from man to man. How does that even look in everybody else's eyes? Usually I think that this kind of things ain't nobody else's business but in Lou and Peter's case it kind of is. They owe to try for their daughters sake.

I’m kind of interested to see how Lou and Peter will be around each other when the season starts, because they’ve been together for years, they have kids together etc. so it’s a big deal. I hope they won’t just ignore that and have them move on like it wouldn’t phase them at all.

[hellsofaseason-blog]

We all know (hope) Lou/Scott is endgame, anyway... but you’re right.

I don’t think it should be an easy move on sort of thing. It’s super awkward going on your first post-divorce/separation date, and it’s super awkward finding out they’ve already gone on a date and you haven’t, and there’s pressure to be the one moving on BETTER, especially if you’re the one that was (emotionally or literally) left, to be okay with everything instead of the emotional mess.

I could see Lou going on dates in the “I am aggressively moving on, too!” sort of way, only to end up hating it and having it all go disastrous (since just about everything she does ends up disastrously). I imagine the storyline would include the backlash from the family (or their encouragement if Lou isn’t taking the step to do that on her own - whichever way she goes you just know it’ll be the wrong one).

Alternately, Lou/Scott not-dating (as in, doing things together that aren’t dates, but heck, it’s dates, or will be retrospectively) would somewhat be legit since they already have a history, and I could totally see that being a thing. They’re friends, sometimes, right? It wouldn’t be totally unusual for them to do things together, or, if they happen to be in the same place at the same time, simultaneously, anyway.

Actually, not gonna lie, I really think they’ll back-burner Lou for more exciting Amy/Georgie plotlines, and we’ll have blips in the background of her aggressively cleaning things in that “this is coping, really!” way she does, while Amy/Georgie/etc. do big things and feel big feels.