"A drag path etched in the surface As evidence I left there on purpose A sad sack, laying on the surface (Yeah) Can you find me? I dug my heels into the gravel As evidence for you to unravel" - Drag Path (Twenty-One Pilots)
I've been thinking about this song and it's relationship with Cassandra. And I'm rewatching fantasy high and I got to the second episode and I couldn't stop thinking about how much people feared The Nightmare King/Cassandra. But she just wanted to be remembered. She lost her wife, brother, sister, and forced to be forgotten by humans and yet her identity wasn't completely erased. They couldn't completely erase her because the night will always bring doubt and mystery -- parts of space are unknown to us. The Nightmare King in some ways allows her to still be remembered and to be never forgotten.
I don't think Kristen's role in being the one to start the path of bringing back these deities back to their former selves was set from the beginning. Yet as I watch the second episode of the first season and I can help but think that it was always planned. [I also read a different theory about Kristen being Ankara's Chosen here] So to contiune on that idea I think it actual makes a lot of sense.
Kristen in the first season was the chosen one of Helio {Mainly Solace but you get the point], who got a bunch of domains from Ankara's as a way to gain more power, worshipped summer and the harvest and a sense of justice of doing the morally right thing (all domains of Ankara).
Instead she becomes Helio's chosen, dies, comes back to life confused and in doubt of her religion that the person who she believed in more than anything failed her. Her sense of justice and compassion fails her.
So isn't in poetic that someone who struggles the rest of their freshman year in doubt, no god, wondering what will happen next that she finds Cassandra. The wife of Ankara. The second Kristen dies she starts "the drag path" of finding these gods that maybe Kristen was always supposed to find and come back to.
Maybe I'll come back and do a better anylsis of these three but for now this is all I got!
....Is anyone suspicous of Kristen's "Chosen One of Helio" status now that we know Amkarna's domains?
Cause Kristen was seemingly always going to be a cleric of Cassandra, if we look back at Sophmore year. So what if Kristen was never Helio's chosen, but Ankarna's.
Ankarna's Chosen One to bring back Cassandra.
Which would further explain why Ankarna is so angry with Kristen, cause if it was just because Kristen wasn't doing her duties as Cassandra's Cleric I don't think there would be as many personal jabs towards Kristen. But if Kristen was literally chosen by Ankarna to be the one who saved Cassandra, then lines like "I'll give you a God you deserve" would have so many added layers to it. Imagine you have a chosen one that was taken by your replacement, who then finally saves your wife, only for that same chosen one to neglect her duties as a cleric and be part of the reason your wife is dying again.
I also do think that Junior Year is going to end with Cassandra and Ankarna being the type of deities that are usually worshiped together. Or at the very least their followers are heavily involved with each other.
Bucky was always a little jealous of the attention Kristen got, until she leaves.
After she leaves he realises, oh, she hasn't slept alone in bed since Bricker was five because either he or Cork would crawl into her bed when they had nightmares. And she had to hold off on healing herself sometimes because -3 dex runs in the family and she had save spell energy for if Cork tripped and fell down the stairs again. And wow did he never realise just how hard it was to take verses from the Corn Bible and use them to stop their parents going on and on until their shouting at Bricker for something Bucky knows he tried in the past and Kristen came to his defence.
Bucky was always a little jealous of the attention Kristen got, until she leaves.
After she leaves he realises, oh, she hasn't slept alone in bed since Bricker was five because either he or Cork would crawl into her bed when they had nightmares. And she had to hold off on healing herself sometimes because -3 dex runs in the family and she had save spell energy for if Cork tripped and fell down the stairs again. And wow did he never realise just how hard it was to take verses from the Corn Bible and use them to stop their parents going on and on until their shouting at Bricker for something Bucky knows he tried in the past and Kristen came to his defence.
Diana Nguyen Ghost Of // William Shakespeare The Tempest // 僕のヒーローアカデミア My Hero Academia cr. Kohei Horikoshi // unknown // unknown // @nathanielorion // Madds Buckley Brother // 僕のヒーローアカデミア My Hero Academia cr. Kohei Horikoshi // Jennifer Saint Ariadne // Leonard Cohen Famous Blue Raincoat // The Crane Wives Icarus // unknown // Clive Barker The Hellbound Heart // 僕のヒーローアカデミア My Hero Academia cr. Kohei Horikoshi // Natalie Diaz When My Brother Was an Aztec // Taylor Swift The Best Day // Joshua A. Krisch Brother, Sister, Rival, Friend: The Longstanding Effects of Sibling Relationships // 僕のヒーローアカデミア My Hero Academia cr. Kohei Horikoshi
Hello friends! I'm conducting a First Interest Check poll to see if anyone would be interested in a new kandreil zine!! Nothing is defined yet, we just wanna know if it'd be something people would like to see or be a part of!
“Actors are by nature volatile—alchemic creatures composed of incendiary elements, emotion and ego and envy. Heat them up, stir them together, and sometimes you get gold. Sometimes disaster.”
I often think about how james had chosen to "drown" himself. And how he used the Pericles quote to send out a call for help, and if you've read Pericles and know the context of that quote, you would know that Pericles was in fact alive when saying this and nowhere near death. He was calling for help. He was asking for help.
I think of how his life had seemingly begun when he and Oliver were at Del Norte, in the ocean, and how he wanted a dignified death in the water. "The wheel is come full circle; I am here." I think about how his last words to Oliver were "Hell. Del Norte. Nowhere" and how maybe James continues to live as a sort of retribution to Oliver taking the fall for him.
idk guys but i was like possessed with the need to redo my typeset for dripping fingers. so i did! bc i couldn’t think about anything else until it was done! so here plz enjoy:
so yeah i was really feeling the kinda gothic thing and i think i used the same font that is really associated with manacled (morpheus) but like it’s a hot font!! anyway i legit downloaded an entire alphabet of images to get the drop caps and then had to manually edit the wrap boundary on ALL of them and then here she is!
i was really torn on whether or not to gild these bc like oooh shiny but also i think the black really fit the gothic thing i had going on. and this typeset is set to 10.5, whereas the last one i made was size 8, which was like ok i can read it but the pages look so much better with the 10.5, you know? so it expanded the book size by about 200 pages, so it looks less like tom riddles diary from chunkiness but i mean ce la vie?
but yeah! idk i was really proud of my original typeset and casing, but there were many mistakes made in the process for that one, and this version feels much more mature, if that makes sense? idk but i hope u like it! and as always, it’s up in my typeset drive:)
i read this over christmas and was OBSESSED like was sneaking off to read it during family time obsessed. she came in at like 700 pages and i had to physically wedge her into my guillotine for trimming, but i’m so proud of her!! the covers didn’t come out perfect (but then they never do LMAO) but i’m pretty satisfied!!
bound in peel and stick green flocking, gilded with bronze toner foil and gold htv for the cover!
i did indeed mess up the title, cut it out, and then iron it on all without realizing. but let’s not talk about that LMAO. i swear to god i didn’t just decide to rename the fic i had one of the biggest brain farts ever known to man.
what's the one harry potter pairing u like that u mentioned in the tags of your hinny post?
Anonymous: Can I ask who that minor character you ship with Harry is? For some absurd reason my mind jumped to Stan Shunpike lol but it's probably not him.... Or is it?
Okay, so this is kind of a funny story. Like, my pipeline through hp pairings was a weird one. Like, I used to read a lot of Harry pairings, still do on occasion (some make more sense than others). None of them were ones I would point at and say: "that should've happened in the books"
One day, I was innocently writing a fic (canon divergence of GoF), and it was just for me, for funnsies, never posted it anywhere and not planning to. And I planned to pair Harry with someone there (honestly, I don't remember who because I didn't write the plan down) but when writing, Harry ended up with a different character. And it was so strange to me because that never happened.
Like, how do you write a ship accidentally?
But I did. I wrote Harry into a ship by accident. So I went back to the books to try and figure out why the hell would my subconscious decide that's the way to go.
I'll also preface it by all this being my subjective opinion and I do read other Harry ships in fics, this one just quickly became my favorite to write (and the only one I write). Also, I don't actually think this is a pairing that should've happened in the books, it's place is in fic and that's where I like it.
So, the character I accidentally shipped with Harry is... *drumroll*
Stan Shunpike!
Not really, it's:
Theodore Nott
Now, you might look at the name and go: "Who the fuck is that?"
And you'll be correct. Theo has 0 speaking lines in the entire book series. His name appears twice. He, himself, as a person, only appeared on page, like, 3 times in the background. The scene that gives the most information about him is other characters talking about him. He isn't even present.
That being said, I'm very good at extrapolating a lot of information from very little evidence. So allow me, to walk you through who is Theodore Nott and why I ship him with Harry.
Basic Information
So, let's start with the most basic overview before I pull out the quotes and go any deeper.
We know Theo is a Slytherin student in Harry's year. So he likely shares a dorm with Draco, Blaise, Crabbe, and Goyle.
Theo's father is both at the graveyard at the end of GoF and in the Department of Mysteries at the end of OotP, so we know he is a Death Eater. We also know Thoe's father was one of the first and closest Death Eaters to Voldemort, who waited for him during his interview with Dumbledore in 1967:
“Then if I were to go to the Hog’s Head tonight, I would not find
a group of them — Nott, Rosier, Mulciber, Dolohov — awaiting
your return? Devoted friends indeed...”
(HBP, page 444)
We also know the Nott family is "as pure-blooded as the Malfoys" according to JKR in an interview. We also know Theo's great-grandfather (maybe? the family relation isn't clear), Cantankerus Nott, is suspected to be the one who wrote the Pure-Blood Dictionary, the book that coined the term "Sacred 28" and made that list (which the Nott family are on).
The name Nott is potentially to be derived from the name Nótt, which is the personification of the night in Norse Mythology. So it has been theorized the Nott family have a Nordic origin. Possible, but it doesn't really matter for this post.
What does, is that he comes from a dark, Death Eater, blood-purist family similar to the Malfoys. Even so, Theo never took the Dark Mark and never joined Voldemort in the books.
Now, that we have the basic information out of the way, let's look at Theodore as a person.
All the details I could gather from the books
Alright, now we get to the fun part. That is, me going through all the relevant scenes that mention Theodore Nott and actually creating a character psychoanalysis out of basically nothing.
So, the quotes aren't organized in a particular order. I'm just going to explain Theo and then explain why all this makes me ship him with Harry.
“Well, I pity Slughorn’s taste. Maybe he’s going a bit senile. Shame, my father always said he was a good wizard in his day. My father used to be a bit of a favorite of his. Slughorn probably hasn’t heard I’m on the train, or —”
“I wouldn’t bank on an invitation,” said Zabini. “He asked me about Nott’s father when I first arrived. They used to be old friends, apparently, but when he heard he’d been caught at the Ministry he didn’t look happy, and Nott didn’t get an invitation, did he? I don’t think Slughorn’s interested in Death Eaters.”
Malfoy looked angry, but forced out a singularly humorless laugh.
(HBP, page 150)
This is a part of the conversation between Draco, Pansy, and Blaise, Harry overhears when he is hiding in their compartment at the beginning of HBP. I have a few things to note regarding this scene.
Firstly, throughout this conversation, Pansy, Blaise, and Draco all call each other by their first name. This shows closeness, they are all friendly and familiar enough to use their first names with each other. Theo, though, is referred to as "Nott" by all three in the compartment.
He doesn't actually sit in their compartment which is in itself a sign about how he isn't really friendly with Draco's group. Considering the group is most of his year from his house, Theo is likely very lonely, and it will be apparent from other scenes I bring up later.
Secondly, Theo's father is in Azkaban. We know Draco is bothered about his own father's predicament. He mentions it to Harry and bothers him over it, Theo doesn't though. Theo doesn't seem to be bothered by Harry or his father's incarceration.
The only conclusion I can draw from this is that the relationship between Theo and his father is not a good one.
(I know some fics like to have Lucius be abusive towards Draco, for some reason. But the books really don't back this up. Lucius loves Draco and Draco adores his father)
Theo, though, Theo seems to be the one with a very strained relationship with his father. Strained enough that he isn't bothered the man is in Azkaban. What I'm saying is that Theo's father likely abuses or mistreats him in some capacity.
If anything more was needed to complete Harry’s happiness, it was Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle’s reactions. He saw them with their heads together later that afternoon in the library, together with a weedy-looking boy Hermione whispered was called Theodore Nott. They looked around at Harry as he browsed the shelves for the book he needed on Partial Vanishment, and Goyle cracked his knuckles threateningly and Malfoy whispered something undoubtedly malevolent to Crabbe. Harry knew perfectly well why they were acting like this: He had named all of their fathers as Death Eaters
(OotP, page 583)
This is a scene at the end of OotP after Draco, Crabbe, Goyle and Theo's fathers were caught at the ministry and sent to Azkaban because they are Death Eaters. There are a few important notes about this scene.
The first, Hermione knows Theo, while Harry and Ron don't really. This means she likely knows him from the classes she takes and Harry and Ron don't — Arithmancy and/or Ancient Runes.
The second, he is sitting with other Death Eater children, but I don't think it's by choice. I mentioned in the previous quote how he isn't close to Draco and his crew. He sits with them here mostly because he doesn't have another choice. Theo doesn't seem to really have any friends, so he sits with the closest people he has to friends — kids he has known since he was young because their fathers were in the same circle.
The other note about this is that Crabbe, Goyle, and Draco are all mentioned as being threatening and malicious towards Harry because they don't like that their fathers are in Azkaban. Theo, though, Theo doesn't threaten Harry, he isn't part of their whisperings. As I mentioned above, he's likely happy his father is in Azkaban.
A pair of blank, white, shining eyes were growing larger through the gloom and a moment later the dragonish face, neck, and then skeletal body of a great, black, winged horse emerged from the darkness. It looked around at the class for a few seconds, swishing its long black tail, then bowed its head and began to tear flesh from the dead cow with its pointed fangs.
A great wave of relief broke over Harry. Here at last was proof that he had not imagined these creatures, that they were real: Hagrid knew about them too. He looked eagerly at Ron, but Ron was still staring around into the trees and after a few seconds he whispered, “Why doesn’t Hagrid call again?”
Most of the rest of the class were wearing expressions as confused and nervously expectant as Ron’s and were still gazing everywhere but at the horse standing feet from them. There were only two other people who seemed to be able to see them: a stringy Slytherin boy standing just behind Goyle was watching the horse eating with an expression of great distaste on his face, and Neville, whose eyes were following the swishing progress of the long black tail.
(OotP, page 445)
“The only people who can see thestrals,” she said, “are people who have seen death.”
(OotP, page 446)
The stringy Slytherin boy mentioned here is Theo. This scene proves that:
He takes Care of Magical Creatures
He saw someone die
Let's explore the second one for a moment. The fact Theo can see Thestrals means he watched someone die and was old enough to comprehend what he was seeing. We also know Theo's mother is dead. So it's likely the person he watched die was his mother.
I also want to draw attention to Theo's distaste towards Thestrals. He could likely see them carrying the carriages every year since 2nd year, it's not his first time seeing them. But it doesn't stop his displeasure with their sight from showing. Which says something about him. It means he likely recalls his mother and her death whenever he looks at the Thestrals. and these are memories Theo rather not experience.
We don't know how his mother died, but I'd hazard a guess it wasn't natural. After all, wizards have long life spans, they are more durable to illness and injury, and don't usually die from accidents unless very extreme or magical. And there was no epidemic of dragonpox (a disease that does tend to kill wizards) in the time since 1980 and the books. So, she was more likely killed at some point between 1985(ish) and 1991.
“No, I don’t think so, sir. I’m Muggle-born, you see.”
Harry saw Malfoy lean close to Nott and whisper something; both of them sniggered, but Slughorn showed no dismay; on the contrary, he beamed and looked from Hermione to Harry, who was sitting next to her.
(HBP, pages 185-186)
First, Theo is an O student in potions since he is in the potions NEWT class, and was probably meant to be there even if Snape was the teacher.
Second, again, Theo doesn't really have friends. He sits next to Draco as the only other Slytherin in the class. Also, they share the circumstances of being sons of Death Eaters currently in Azkaban. Although both of them seem to deal with it quite differently.
Third, Theo joins Draco in making fun of Hermione's blood status, but he does not initiate it. Considering the environment he was raised in and is in, it makes sense he would make fun of it. Whether he's a blood-purist or not, he would want to keep his image considering he doesn't have many allies. Hanging out with Draco is survival, not friendship. They aren't even on a first-name basis with each other.
“Amortentia doesn’t really create love, of course. It is impossible to manufacture or imitate love. No, this will simply cause a powerful infatuation or obsession. It is probably the most dangerous and powerful potion in this room — oh yes,” he said, nodding gravely at Malfoy and Nott, both of whom were smirking skeptically. “When you have seen as much of life as I have, you will not underestimate the power of obsessive love. . . .
(HBP, page 186)
The final quote I have about Theo is from the same potions class as above. Both he and Draco are portrayed here as underestimating amortentia and its potential damage. It makes sense for their upbringing in the Wizarding World, which has no real laws or regulations regarding love potions that are seen as harmless fun more often than not.
I'll add Theo likely didn't witness a healthy romantic relationship. Considering his father is a Death Eater who is likely abusive and may or may not have killed his mother. With this as his reference to a marriage, it's clear why he'd look down on love and love potions.
Why I think Theo and Harry have potential
Okay, so now that we know who Theodore Nott is, let's talk about why I ship him with Harry.
I think Harry, in general, would get along best with a clever partner with the ability to be ruthless (Slytherins or Ron fall into this category). Because Harry isn't some golden savior; he casts unforgivables, and is very willing to poison Umbridge or Crocio Snape if he could get away with it. He needs a partner that won't be horrified by these thoughts.
Also, Theo literally never speaks on page. Even when spoken to, his reactions are silent. I think this quiet and no need to talk, the ability to be comfortable in silence, is something that would be comfortable for Harry. Harry in the books finds himself annoyed with Ron and Hermione's constant banter on occasion, so I think it fits well.
Theo would also be comfortable around Harry without a need to play a certain part. Because Harry wouldn't care about that. He would honestly rather Theo forgo the pure-blood Slytherin act.
I feel like Harry and Theo, have a good potential to understand each other. Theo lost his mother and likely experiences abuse from his father. It makes them very likely to trauma bond over their crap life and shared experience. Two out of three only ones who could see the Thestrals in the entire class.
The other thing I feel they could connect over is being lonely. Harry spent all his childhood until Hogwarts basically being on his own. Theo stayed on his own. Draco at least has his parents, he has other students he's closer to, not that he shares everything with them, but he has some support network. Theo has none. And this is something Harry knows well.
Theo, I think, wouldn't expect anything specific from Harry. He doesn't even interact with him, not to mock him, and not to idolize him, he doesn't care at all. And we know how much Harry appreciates being thought of as Harry and not as the Boy-Who-Lived. Theo would allow Harry to be himself without some mold he wants him to fit in.
The fact Theo never becomes a Death Eater, even though he was in Draco's year and his father was a Death Eater before Lucius (and in better standing than Lucius with Voldemort) is so interesting. It's somewhat surprising Theo wasn't marked. It means he didn't want to be. It means that Theo Nott didn't want to torture and kill muggleborns or blood traitors, or anyone really. And he didn't want to swear his allegiance to Voldemort. This is just a fascinating fact to me and something I enjoy considering. What life experience made him come to that conclusion? Was it just his dislike of his father that pushed him away? Could he have been another Sirius Black (Gryffindor in a Slytherin family) under slightly different circumstances? I mean, Voldemort likely wouldn't force him to become a Death Eater, but would his father? I don't know what at all went down there, but I like that potential story.
We also know he wasn't part of Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad, even though some minor Slytherins were mentioned to be part of it. He just seems to be an actually decent guy (I don't care what Cursed Child says about him, I know he's there but I avoided almost anything to do with Cursed Child so I barely know the plot).
Finally, this is a character Harry doesn't have as much drama to get over with. Yes, sometimes I want to read overcoming drama between characters before it becomes a romance, but sometimes I want something chiller than that. And Theo is a really chill, safe, Slytherin option for Harry.
"Whatever we did—or, more crucially, did not do—it seemed that so long as we did it together, our individual sins might be abated. There is no comfort like complicity."
Had to make a presentation for my creative writing class and I liked these slides enough to post them ehe :)
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