Nah, she didn't.

Argentina, 18. Just another Harry Potter fan.

[cryskir]

Field notes

[provocative-envy]

rough draft

pairing: (eventual) scorpius malfoy x james sirius potter

setting: epilogue compliant, post-canon au

notes: epistolary. also draco malfoy was a really good dad, fight me

Dearest Father

Hello Dad

Cheers

To Whom It May Concern

Look, for your information, it was either Hufflepuff or this and I think we can both agree that I chose the lesser of two embarrassments

Dad,

You’ve probably heard already, but I was sorted into Gryffindor last night. As I’m sure you can imagine, I was quite surprised, and even more so by how cozy the tower common room is. You always said that Slytherin was a bit like a soggy crypt. Here, the house elves put little sprigs of lavender in our lamps to help us sleep at night. Did they do that for you in Slytherin? I bet not.

Your loving son,

Scorpius

Greetings

Sir

Papa

I’m thirteen years old you can’t even legally disinherit me yet, I looked it up

Dad,

In previous correspondence, you’ve expressed some concern over my potential inability to properly socialize with Gryffindor miscreants. I took this perfectly reasonable criticism to heart and can now happily report that I have found a loyal, reliable, and incredibly studious companion with which to spend my leisure time with. Her name is Rose Granger-Weasley. You might recoil in disgust at the sight of recognize her last name, but I can assure you that she takes after her mother in all the ways that matter, including but not limited to: brainpower, table manners, taste in formal-wear, and viciousness in the face of adversity.

Affectionately,

Scorpius

Salutations

What’s up buttercup

Father

I waited until I was really, really sure to write this because I didn’t want to have to do it twice, and you should keep that in mind before hexing the peacocks, it’s not their fault, Granddad really loves them

Dad,

I don’t like girls.

To be clear, this means that I like boys, and you were right to be suspicious of my newfound love for quidditch.

Sorry for the impending death of the Malfoy line, et cetera, but twelve hundred years of perpetual inbreeding really should’ve resulted in a lot more birth defects, according to Rose and her mum, so we had a pretty good run, in my opinion.

Your only heir,

Scorpius

Hey

How’s it going

I didn’t even like him before you let me go on holiday with his family, which, correct me if I’m wrong, makes this at least 25% your fault

Dad,

Italy was lovely, thank you for asking. The countryside was especially romantic—did you know that muggles practically have an entire genre of films centered around people falling in love there? In Italy? In the countryside? Funny, that. Rose’s mum had us all watch one of them, actually, before heading back. She cried. Rose’s mum, not Rose, although Rose did excuse herself towards the end so it’s entirely possible she cried, too, and just didn’t want any of us to see her.  

Anyway, Rose’s cousins were there with us; Albus and Lily and James Sirius Potter. James is nineteen. He plays quidditch. Professionally, I mean. He’s a bit of a prat, honestly, but in a sort of gentlemanly way, if that makes sense. He’s really excellent about holding open doors and paying for gelato and practicing his flying with his shirt off and finishing all my sentences before even I know what I’m going to say. He laughs a lot. I like that.

I’m dating James.

With endless filial devotion,

Scorpius

Sire,

This can’t possibly be surprising to you, not after what you walked in on at Christmas

Dad,

I received your suggested list of post-graduation residences, and while I appreciate how thorough your research was—the Venn diagrams were interesting, if not entirely helpful—I must, unfortunately, inform you of my decision to go in a slightly different direction. I’ll be working remotely, as you know, and James has spent much of the year having the basement of his house in Wimbourne outfitted with a rather spectacular fully-functional Potions laboratory. I’ll be moving in with him as soon as his season’s over.  

Respectfully,

Scorpius

Dad,

No offense, but considering our family’s history with James’s, having the wedding at the Manor is a horrifically bad idea. Granddad even pointed it out, I don’t know why you keep bringing up the new carpet in the drawing room. No one cares about the new carpet. Plus, James already learned how to say his vows in Italian, it would be cruel to take that away from him.

Love you, too, by the way.

Scorpius

[cupidsquilll]

[cupidsquilll]

[eidolonetchings]

Thinking about graduation allies in Scholomance- we're told that those alliances last beyond the school because you owe them your survival, and we see it briefly in The Golden Enclaves- you treat your kid's allies as honored guests, maybe even as if they're family themselves. If I remember correctly El implies she recognizes the word for ally even in languages she doesn't speak, so we can assume it's something other students know as well, even if they aren't language track.

And if you think about it a little- isn't every student in The Last Graduate part of one big graduation alliance? The whole senior class did practice runs and graduation projects together. The entire school trusted their survival and future to El and Orion and Liesel and Liu and every single other student who stayed in their line and group instead of running as every fucking mal in the world streamed past, holding their shields and sharing their healing. And even the class before theirs- the class in A Deadly Education who thought they were doomed and then got to run through an empty, freshly cleansed graduation hall- wouldn't all of them consider El and Orion and the others on the repair mission as allies?

And thinking about it like that adds another layer to the end of The Golden Enclaves- where even in the middle of a fucking enclave war, everyone in her year walks away from their enclave to follow El, trusting and supporting her the same way that Liu and Aadhya do. Because, as the books say, graduation alliances can be the most important relationship of a wizard's entire life, and El is the one who got them out.

And if you think about it like that- that every wizard in a certain age range would see El and Orion that way, if they thought about it- then I think it's part of a minor arc in the series: El starts as someone who is welcome nowhere, and becomes someone who is welcomed everywhere. She isn't welcome in the commune that loves her mother, or her father's family, except for her mother there is nobody who will do anything to help her, even when she's an elementary schooler alone in a yurt screaming in terror- and then she is someone everyone welcomes but only because she's connected to Orion- and she ends the series as someone who people will do anything to help, even walking away from their enclave allies or going into a place in the void that's supposed to fall, who will be welcomed by anyone except for the people making mawmouths.

And also, all the other seniors count as allies to each other, because they all worked together on the plan to graduate- and the Scholomance made sure that all of them did the work- which means all of them have a lot of connections across the globe. Which makes it much harder for any of the new generation of wizards to take the easy but cruel choice, the choice the books are all about rejecting- "I can be safe and have all the things I want, if I do something that has horrible impacts on other people far away from here, outside my community, who I will never see." For the last graduates of scholomance, those far away people are your community, and you have seen them- and now you have other options to be safe, which don't require causing suffering for other people. So that's another way that the one big graduation alliance made the world a better place, in addition to all the other ways it did that, by choosing to reject the systems in place and help everyone, even though it was harder than only caring for yourself.

[freakcliff]

the scholomance series is like what if the person destined to save the world fell in love with the person destined to destroy it what if the person who everyone thought was going to destroy the world was the one to save it and what if the person everyone thought would save the world was the one to destroy it what if tearing down the world was the way to save it and what if high school really fucking sucked

[irrelevant-pseudonym]

Okay but if the Deadly Education movie does get made, it needs:

all the characters to be dressed in ragged gross overworn clothes. their shirts have holes and stains and their oversized drawstring pants have sloppily sewn extensions and patches

Make these kids look like Disney channel kids surviving a 90's zombie apocalypse

maybe it's just El's unreliable narration + denial about feelings for Orion, but please do not cast an airbrushed heartthrob

Orion is weird and needs a haircut and has a beaky nose, please let him look like a normal person

I would take it as a personal favor if El is permitted to snark via constant voiceover narration

Particularly if her narration directly contradicts what she's doing

'I was too busy with homework to think or do anything else' *staring across the cafeteria at Orion*

Plenty of scenes of El, Aadhya, and Liu hanging out!

Please let El call Orion an absolute aardvark on screen

[somethingoriginal127-deactivate]

I JUST SAID ALL OF THIS ABT THEM SHUT UP

[dailymola]

Eric talking about Mola in a new interview  ( ◠‿◠✿)

[gustingirl]

i thought these tweets were too sexy to be left behind

[ID: Series of tweets about the double standards between European teams versus third world teams in the World Cup. They are as follows:

@\RoyNemer: "If an English player fouls, they call it grit and heart. If an Argentine or a South American does it, they are called dirty. The Dutch talk all of that talk before the game and they are called confident. Argentina react and they're called disrespectful. Haters gonna hate. [Argentina flag emoji]". Attached is a picture of the Argentinian team celebrating their win.

@\beingmich: "And to add an example from the most hated rival (Brazil): if an European has an outgoing personality, he's just full of life. If a South American dances after scoring a wondergoal, he's being disrespectful and deserves to be fouled all game [rolling eyes emoji]"

@\resistance_sa: "Nothing burns more than when a "third world" country triumphs over the former European colonizer. As an African, we are here to enjoy every minute." End ID] (thanks for the ID @tothetrashwhereibelong)

[louisandthedagger]

the Italians 💘💫

[kinglionel]

i need this tattooed on my forehead

[waterlilyvioletfog]

I love how all the students at the Scholomance spend like eight months with no fucking clue why Mr Big Shot Hero Orion Lake is dating loner weirdo El and then halfway through The Last Graduate they’re like “oh I see. They’re both fucking bonkers in the exact same way”

[studentlifeproblems]

[maraudersalltheway]

48 + 2= 50.

50 + 25 =75

[tevaselmundogiraalreves]

Camila Bordonaba & Benjamin Rojas as Marizza Pia Andrade & Pablo Bustamante in Rebelde Way (2002 - 2003)

[handsomelydarkgreen]

𝐬𝐥𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬

They find things such as displaying emotions to be uncomfortable if they are not close with someone

They are thrill seekers. they love the feeling of adrenaline pulsing through their veins and will do anything to get that feeling (which is why they sometimes cause trouble and break the rules)

If insulted, they will act like it didn’t bother them, but internally it very much does

If someone says something nice to them they will never forget it

They need a pet. a lot of the time they don’t feel like talking to people (except Hufflepuffs because they won’t judge even if it is a punk/grunge puff)

They love theories or concepts. you will walk by a group of them and overhear them arguing over the multiverse or mythology

Sometimes they won’t eat anything all day if they have something important they’re working on or are distracted. This is where their Hufflepuff friends come in

Although Slytherins have a tendency to blame everyone else for things that have gone wrong, they often secretly feel as if things are their fault.

In class, some Slytherins are most likely to have all the answers but will not raise their hand incase it is wrong

Slytherins love to observe and analyze people. Sometimes they do it so they can know who the person is, sometimes because it simply fascinates them

Tiny hidden tattoos

They are brutally honest with their friends and others

The determination to prove themselves different to people’s ideas of them

Wary of too much affection

Hands are always cold

Having only one or two really close friends and liking it that way even though others might question it and try to change it

Not wanting to share the things that bring them happiness because their favourite things belong to them and it might ruin the joy

Being able to find loopholes in everything and using it to their advantage

Smug smiles when they know they’re right or the satisfaction of knowing someone is wrong and knowing they’re about to prove it

Doing things just because people say they can’t

They get crazy stressed over the littlest things and are  calm about the worst and stressful things

They harbour and push down their emotions for way too long and it’s unhealthy

Awful at communicating their feelings; they brush it off when they feel really sad, and ignore their emotions

There are bags under their eyes that have always been there 

Too hard on themselves; their expectations for themselves are far too high, and they beat themselves up after making even the tiniest mistake

[sirenlipgloss]

Booklist for all the Dark Academics:

[Dark Academia book recs of all the different kinds I could think of. It's a long journey. Buckle up.]

The Classic Dark Academic :

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Anything by the Brontë sisters

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (this book birthed Dark Academia)

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Short stories by Edgar Allan Poe

Bram Stokers Dracula

Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu

Maurice by EM Forster

Madam Bovary by Gustav Flaubert

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

A Good Man is Hard to Find

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Macbeth by Shakespeare

Othello by Shakespeare

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

The Poetry-lover Academic:

Poetry of Baudelaire

Odes of Keats (ALL OF THEM ARE A MUST READ)

Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe (especially The Raven)

Shelley's Alastor, Prometheus Unbound, Masque of Anarchy

Kubla Khan by Coleridge

T.S Elliott's Wasteland

all Emily Dickinson poetry but especially 'I felt a funeral in my brain', 'Because I could not stop for death' (read them a thousand times already)

Pablo Neruda's Nothing but Death

Langston Hughes Poems

Tennyson's Lotos eater (underrated gem)

Sylvia Plath poems but special mentions to Lady Lazarus and the Bell jar

Paradise Lost by Milton (if you want to include something about the Devil in your list)

Poems by Sappho

Poems of Charles Bukowski (especially Love Is a Dog from Hell)

The Contemporary Dark Academic:

A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee

The Secret History by Donna Tartt (the origin of Dark Academia)

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

Ace of Spades by Amanda Foody (could recommend it a hundred times)

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

If We Were Villains by ML Rio

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

The Temple House Vanishing by Rachel Donohue

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

The Girls are all so nice here by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

Heaven by Mieko Kawakami

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

The Likeness by Tana French

Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro

One of us is lying by Karen Mcmanus

Bunny by Mona Awad

The Plot by Jean Hanff

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

The Lessons by Naomi Alderman

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Conversion by Katherine Howe

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

Love is a Dog from Hell by Charles Bukowski

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

A Quaint and Curious Volume

We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen

The Little Friend by Donna Tartt

The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

The Lying Games by Ruth Ware

Black Chalk by Christopher J Yates

The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman

The Furies by Fernanda Eberstadt

The Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

Bad Habits by Charleigh Rose

Good Girls Lie by JT Ellison

Shadow of the wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

If We were Villains by M.L. Rio

Queer Dark Academic:

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (yes, yes, yes it's the gay shit)

Notes on a Scandal (What was she thinking?) by Zoë Heller

Hex by Rebecca Dinerstein Knight

Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu (lesbian vampire, hell yeah!)

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Maurice by EM Forster

Christabel by Coleridge

Poems by Sappho

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M Danforth

They Never Learn by Layne Fargo

Ace of Spades by Amanda Foody

The Dark Romantic Academic:

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M Danforth

The Lessons by Naomi Alderman

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Likeness by Tana French

The Temple House by Rachel Donohue

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Mythological Dark Academic:

(pardon me for my cluelessness)

I have not really read much about mythology but if Norse mythology is the area of your interest, Neil Gaiman is the God of it. (aka not only Good Omens and American Gods, but also the book 'Norse Mythology')

The Furies by Fernanda Eberstadt

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Circe by Madeline Miller

Ovid's Metamorphoses for Greek mythology enthusiasts

[Remember: Some of these books have dark academia as their major aspect but most of them have dark academia as their minor aspect, and many of them have been put into the list because I got a dark academia kind of vibe from them. Moreover these books have a lot more to offer than just Dark Academia, even if we ignore that aspect, these books are just great pieces of literature. This list is entirely created out of my own reading researches, friendly recommendations, and book recs from reddit, pinterest and the internet in general. If I have gone wrong somewhere or if you want me to add something new, feel free to drop an ask.]