#fireandgoldposts

[firendgold]

I was listening to HBP in the car yesterday and I got to the end of the cave and it just hit me again. Harry reassuring Albus, telling him "It's going to be alright, I can get us back. Don't worry" (quoted from memory, so not word for word) feels so ... intimate. I remember reading this for the first time as a kid and being touched but also kind of cringing. Because that's not something you tell your teacher. It's something you tell your child or your sibling or a friend or maybe, eventually, your parent, in that moment when you habe to support them for the first time instead of the other way around. Because that's what this scene is, a son supporting his father for the first time.

And then I thought about it from Albus perspective and my heart broke all over again. Because when do you think did he last hear words like this? Maybe on can imagine him having such a relationship with the Flamels but I don't think it's likely. So it was probably his mother who last told him that things will turn out alright, that he doesn't have to worry. Just think about what that must have meant to Albus. On his last night on earth, to experience once more what it's like to be cared for emotionally like that, even if it was just for a few moments before he had to take charge once more.

I don't know man, I'm just emotional over Albus and Harry and their last night today :')

That is a really intimate moment for them!!

Harry is used to doing things himself but, paradoxically, also quick to rely on others once they've proven themselves to be reliable. And subconsciously, there are few he relies on more than Dumbledore. Dumbledore is always patient with him, always calm, in control, in the know. To have him be none of those things in the midst of a very terrifying mission must have done numbers on Harry's psyche.

ALSO you hurt me by reminding me that Albus has been the one people (the Ministry, his staff, his current and former students) lean on for ages! And Harry saying "lean on me, sir" was probably the first time he'd heard anything like that from anyone since childhood, maybe. And I would think it would be really early childhood. We (STILL SOMEHOW) do not know much about Kendra Dumbledore, but I could see her parentifying Albus at a really young age to keep things stable, even if that only took the form of "keep our family's secrets and make sure you only bring positive attention to our name". Aberforth is rough and honest but not really someone you can rely on in times of trouble, because the only person he never gives up on is Ariana. And once Gellert ran away from Godric's Hollow... yeah, I can see how Albus would have put up walls for decades because he was so used to not having anyone to depend on.

It's honestly a crime how there's not more meta pieces on how much the scales (at least TRY to) balance between Harry and Dumbledore in HBP. Even though they're at vastly different levels of power and influence, Dumbledore still treats Harry with respect, still listens to his thoughts, debates him, indulges him, and (finally) trusts him in a moment where he can no longer trust himself. That's huge for someone who's bottled themselves up for almost nine decades!

It may have been a tragic night for both of them, but Harry did gain something that few others ever had. It's what I try to think of whenever I (inevitably) have Sad HBP Thoughts.

[firendgold]

as appealingly angsty as Sad Albus Who Doesn't Date Anyone Else After Gellert might be, I think it would be just as funny to have Sad Albus Who Dates A Lot of Men, Actually, and gets more and more disappointed/disillusioned each time, until he finally hits gold with the hot time-traveler with the lightning scar

[firendgold]

[side note/request that's not fireandgold related incoming.]

Can we as a fandom please kill the idea that EVERYONE knew what the "Marauders" called themselves? That includes the name, the map, the nicknames, all of it. It was a secret. The whole mess with Sirius and Peter wasn't figured out for a REASON.

People like fellow students (who weren't as close to the four), or Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall, these kids' TEACHERS, did NOT know about their nicknames and nighttime wandering habits and Animagus forms. (The last is literally discussed by Dumbledore in Prisoner of Azkaban!!) That's HOW the Marauders were able to get away with so much stuff, because people a) didn't know what all they were up to and b) the Hogwarts of their time seemed plagued with infinite amounts of pranksters and mean girl behavior a la Fred-and-George Weasley, not just four boys and their Slytherin fascist-in-training counterparts. Kind of a "product of their time" moment for readers to make note of.

Even the name 'Marauders' isn't a set in stone thing. Go back to POA. The map is called the Marauder's Map. That's right: Marauder + apostrophe + s. So a Marauder was similar to the dictionary definition, any raider/chaos-causer. Anyone who saw themselves as a chaos agent or even minor mischief-maker might be worthy of using the infamous map. Fred and George were basically "Marauders" for the entire time they had the map.

James, Sirius, Remus and Peter can call themselves whatever in fanfics, but there's no canon evidence that they had a Team Name that they used for motivation or whatever. They were calling EACH OTHER their nicknames, and then only in private.

(MUST ADD: Of course, Snape's Worst Memory in OOTP is the notable exception to this "no one heard them calling each other nicknames" bit. And isn't that interesting? You have to wonder if Snape ACTUALLY overheard all of this stuff before the boys got to him (unlikely), or if he embellished this already-traumatizing memory as normal people do, but the major beats matched up enough with Sirius and Remus' recollections for them to not challenge Harry when he recounted it. And, of course, you must consider that even That Woman could make the mistake of too much exposition and not enough logical explanation.)

It's true that MWPP were very arrogant and may have been caught slipping out a Moony or two, but the average teenager or teacher who has their own life and problems would not likely hold on to knowledge of that nickname for twenty-plus years, to conveniently remember and drop as your fanfic plot demands.

No matter what the fandom is, fans have got to remember that we are the READER, and we are privileged with information as a whole in a way characters putting it together are not--because plot development requires characters actually sharing that information.

Sorry not sorry for the rant, but I've kind of had enough of this particular trend. The Marauders-Marauder's Map-honorary Marauder thing used to be a mild irritation, but (as with many other HP flanderizations) it has expanded into a way to erode at settled canon and characterization for not only the MWPP-era characters, but also all the other characters around them.

[firendgold]

"dumbledore wants to control--" hush

Thinking about how irritating it is that people still believe that Albus Dumbledore (the person people should argue is maybe too lenient with letting every teenager in his school become Sherlock Holmes or Harry Houdini as it suits them) wants to control every single move any teenager makes under his roof or relationship they have, especially Harry.

Y'all. Albus does not care. He sure will prod you in one intellectual direction or the other, help you along toward whatever conclusion he's already drawn about goings-on, but this man is not gnashing his teeth or doing disapproving frowns over his glasses because one of his students keeps their guardian informed of Hogwarts happenings or wants to visit their vault in the middle of the year for some reason or what-the-fuck-ever.

Equally irritating, the fanon idea that Albus wants Harry to only live the life the headmaster plans or wishes (and that's IF they clear the hurdle of even realizing Albus wanted Harry to live at all).

"oh, Dumbledore doesn't want Harry to have power!" HE DOESN'T??? the same guy who said that Harry was a better man than him and a worthy master of the Hallows?

"Dumbledore only wants Harry to do X/be a sacrificial lamb!" He did not want Harry to die. He had no other choice thanks to the actions consistently taken by y'all's problematic fave, Voldemort. It's only a twist of irony that Voldemort also unintentionally rescued Harry as well. If Dumbledore had taken some of the actions y'all wanted him to by pretending he had the power to override an age-old Goblet that Barty used to put Harry in the tournament, then Harry would have perma-died at any point where an otherwise-resurrected Voldemort got his hands on him.

And Albus never expresses any desire for Harry to do or be anything besides what he is. Harry decides he wants to be an Auror because a Death Eater in disguise told him he'd be good at it. He never challenges this career path even when he honestly should.

Albus' actual wishes for Harry's future boil down to this:

is he alive?

is he safe?

is he happy?

If these conditions are filled, the real Albus Dumbledore is ecstatic.

So no, there's no universe where Albus is trying to block Harry from meeting with Ministry officials (unless they're losers like Rufus Scrimgeour, who was actively more interested in arresting randoms and getting photo shoots with the teenager he should have been PROTECTING from Voldemort, not holding in front of himself like a human shield).

The real Albus does not even lift an eyebrow at your fanon Harrys deciding they must meet with The Heads of Prominent Magical Families who previously didn't give a single shit about them. (And fandom, why is this dumb idea STILL A THING two decades later?? Who gives a shit what the dude whose name you found on Pottermore and whose personality you made up has been doing during the Voldemort years, when it was likely just sitting around with a thumb up his ass twittering about Family Honor while fascist terrorists were murdering people across the country?)

Albus likes Harry more than anyone else. He wants Harry to live a fulfilling life. If Harry became Minister for Magic, Albus would be thrilled. It would give him an excuse to actually visit the Ministry more often.

If Albus could be said to have an endgame or desire for Harry's career at all, it would be making Harry a professor at Hogwarts. Did you see how much he teared up when he found out the resistance was named after him? Or how he spent the whole next year giving Harry 'lessons' he had to know were being passed right to Ron and Hermione? Albus' passion is teaching; it's the one thing he feels he hasn't completely screwed up or corrupted. He'd die happy if Harry became the Defense professor and they could share meals and classroom anecdotes every day.

[firendgold]

people are wild still accusing dumbledore of not caring that much about harry when the whole series is literally

harry: *does something reckless or with barely any forethought* albus, watching shit go down: yeah, but that is my blorbo and I love him

[firendgold]

it's August and I'm still salty about not knowing exactly what canon day Albus Dumbledore's birthday is

[firendgold]

you know that whole "do you think we are best friends in every universe?" shtick? personally not my thing but inverse! harry is so "do you not trust me in every universe/timeline?" to albus... if that makes sense?

that makes PERFECT sense tbh! It's arguably Harry's number one issue with Albus.

Whether Albus means to or not, he establishes a very distinct bond with Harry early on by giving him lots of information and encouragement, far more than he does with any other student or character.

People get hung up on "CAPSLOCK!Harry" or whatever, but it's so obviously part of why Harry blows up in OOTP and keeps worrying at the tooth that is "Dumbledore is avoiding me and not sharing critical information". Why would he care if he wasn't accustomed to that? Even after Dumbledore is gone, losing a chance to learn from him and be trusted absolutely by him is what Harry is mourning most.

all that buildup to say, yes, Inverse!Harry is definitely the type to feel like he just can't get past Albus' walls. He doesn't expect to meet Albus at all, but goes into their "reunion" constantly assuming that there's no way he can earn Albus' trust even if he tries to be as unthreatening and unsuspicious as possible.

Little does he know that he has a much better chance of becoming one of Albus' intimates now that he has the fun cheat codes, also known as "time traveler + talked to you in the afterlife and learned all your dirtiest secrets, while visibly Loving You Anyway".

[firendgold]

Harry's capacity for forgiveness and compassion was so wide and all-encompassing that it made that old man's bruised, caged, aching heart grow three sizes. if you even care