Helloooo this might be outside your comfort zone so pls feel free to ignore this ask!! That being said, I’m curious if you have any headcannons for how wixen go abt having kids non-traditionally in BOTL verse?? Like does the average queer wixen couple blood adopt, do they do some transfiguration/alchemy, do they make an external magical incubator?? But if there are options, it makes me wonder why Lucius and Narcissa didn’t have another kid? And if there aren’t, I struggle to believe pure blood society would be so chill with queer couples if they can’t have bio kids given the obsession with carrying on the family line
my toxic trait is writing 10k words about the backstory/worldbuilding of BOTL so never fear, I would LOVE to answer this 💞🥰
👇 under the cut
General disclaimer: the worldbuilding for BOTL is not my opinion on the end-all, be-all way I think magic or social structure in HP should work. i enjoy all the many various takes, this is just my favorite way to imagine the world, thus i have put a lot of thought into it, but these are not fighting words.
Okay, so, children, family lines, and queer relationship in no particular order:
Queer Couples
My thesis: the wizarding world is queer. It always has been. It always will be.
I think I've mentioned this before in previous tumblr diatribes, but I believe that the concept of magic in general is a spiritual representation of the human condition - in that, it defies conformity. it is an expression of love, of hate, of boundless creativity and destruction.
in HP, magic exists not only in humans but in magical creatures that have their own unique society (merpeople, giants, centaurs). we also know that "interbreeding" (i feel icky calling it that but idk what else to call it) between humans and giants has happened on some level before, because Hagrid, which then can lead us to logically conclude that interbreeding is possible between almost any magical creature, because the thing that connects them is not necessarily biology (though that may be a strong piece of the puzzle!) but the magic within them.
then, when I try to apply a real-world historical lens to HP, what I like to imagine is that pieces of the lost cultures who were destroyed by colonialism survived in the magical community. and so, the wizarding world has always been a refuge, a secret society, and an affirming, diverse, multicultural world.
thus, the magical world blends the borders between different societies, practices, beliefs, ways of living, and gives you a slice of the world that can live exactly how they want however they want, and by god they will do it because they are magic and they know how delicate their existence is in the face of muggle empire, thus, queer relationships have the potential to abound.
this brings us to...
Family Lines / Blood Status
this may feel like a cop out, but genuinely in BOTL, this depends on the family you are looking at. The Blacks would not have been "pureblood" all the way back to the beginning of their line, because they were the first Magical House in England, created by the marriage of a Celtic Druid and a Roman Mage (or Wizard, unsure on this myself lol).
And for that matter, blood status (in BOTL) is just a made-up thing that didn't even exist all that long before the modern era. Sure, some families would have been extremely distrusting of muggleborns, but not to the point where they wouldn't have married a half-blood or an exceptionally accomplished muggleborn.
The kicker here is, Magical Houses in BOTL are not formed based on length of time a family name has been around. Magical Houses in BOTL can be formed - even in the modern day - by one of or a combination of these three things:
Unique Magical Accomplishment - through the invention of a new branch of magic, spell, potion, ward, etc.
Prowess and Dominance Against a Foe - this would have been the more ancient way of forming a House. Think - hero wizard on a quest slays a mighty evil dragon, and then wins acclaim. Their magical power would form a House through the respect of their peers.
Contribution to Magical Society - this is the "political" or "aristocratic" way, that would have been more 'modern' in the sense that the Houses that formed this way would have helped create the modern magical world as it works today. But also, this could be won by people who create public works (library, hospitals, schools).
Blood status nothing to the houses formed from the latter two methods. You could be adopted, you could marry in and take the name, you could connect yourself to the family name through a distant lineage and claim the name, and technically that would all be ways you could be from a "House" without having to be born into it.
Those who formed houses the first way, however (the Blacks, most notably) would be very attuned to the fact that their family magic needs some kind of blood connection. But blood connection can be formed through blood adoption or marriage, so you don't necessarily need a biological child to carry on the line, but some families would believe it's best if you do, just depending on their personal beliefs.
The House of Nott, for example, doesn't care about blood lines hardly at all! They were formed by a unity of different clans together under one name, and the only reason they exist is to protect and further the Library, thus, they really wouldn't care at all who was fucking who or married to who or who is asexual or whatever. Because ultimately, the person who carries on the mission of the House is selected by the Library.
Which brings me to my final point - family magic for certain magical houses is somewhat sentient. The Black family magic, for example, recognized Sirius right away. It likes him. And, and! it likes Narcissa, too! It wants Narcissa to be Lady of the House because she is so closely attuned to the magic. The magic of most houses wants a Lord and Lady, but often there aren't wixen strong enough to embody both at the same time. Also, you do not need to fit a biological definition of sex to assume either title, the House Magic decides for you based on your attunement.
This is hinted at in Ch32 of BOTL, "Dogs and Men", when Magnus mentions that he has seen Houses go dormant because of weak heirs. Sometimes, the stock of living wixen is so weak in their magic/character/attunement to their families that a House may go dormant and lose its power, even though there are living heirs and, in fact, a Lord or Lady of the House. They would just be Lord or Lady in name alone, but they wouldn't have any real meaningful magic behind them.
So, all that to say, despite the fact that in reality magic just shows up where it wants and bloodlines don't matter much, lots of families don't know that, necessarily. I'm the God of the world so I know (heheheh) but they all have stupid human ideas about what makes magic strong, or families strong, or whatever, and they are influenced by the muggle world. That's why there's many fractured ideologies represented in BOTL. I did not want a systematized social structure for the Magical World - that just doesn't make sense to me and doesn't feel very human. Those in power ascribe to certain ideaologies, and certain ideologies are more popular and palateable, but there's no one way that society has worked, and even the way it's working now is relatively untested and new.
Children
If wixen are unable to have biological children - yes, they can blood-adopt a child. I won't say easily, though, because there's always a chance that the child's own magic will reject the magic of the family they're adopted into, despite all best efforts to bring them into the fold. So it's not a foolproof method of continuing your family line.
Marriage or some kind of familial bond/covenant is a more practicable way to ensure a family line is carried on in the case of no children being available.
You asked about the Malfoys - Abraxas and Lucius had far more intolerant views on blood adoption than someone like Narcissa would have had. Don't get me wrong, she grew up believing biological continuation was the only "right" option too, but Narcissa herself wouldn't have been against it, it's just that she knew Lucius wouldn't have tolerated the idea. So, for them, Draco was quite literally their only hope of carrying on.
As an aside, Draco's sexuality has never been outrightly discussed in BOTL (though will one day be much ribbed on by Theo and Blaise in a loving way) because I think he might be asexual. I...don't know for sure. He's under a lot of pressure that he puts on himself so that may be crushing any sexual desire he has, but so far in all the journeys we've gone on together in my mind, he's developing that way. So. He potentially will have a lot of hangups about marriage, sex, relationships, and children - none of which he wants but all of which he feels like he has to do in order to live up to his family's expectations. Poor Draco 🥲
As far as the mechanics available in BOTL to have children if you are a queer couple (is this a sneaky way of asking me about Theo and Harry's future children? if not too bad, i will talk about that last lmao)
Alchemy/Transfiguration
Yes, this is a definitely a possibility available! Wow, this would be such a serious undertaking by the one who wants to carry, and also potentially extremely dangerous biologically to maintain over the course of an entire pregnancy (just thinking about how much magic and potions that go into it that might not be good for baby or parent). Thus, this would be the least popular and most risky way of having a child.
2. Surrogates
This would be the most common way for queer couples to have a biological child (sorry if this is boring as this is also the real world answer lol).
3. Magical Incubator / An Egg
Y'all this is how the fae reproduce, so.....I am not knocking that this could genuinely happen. I say an egg in jest. Really what I mean is, a child could be born of a wish, like in a fairy tale. A child could be gifted to a couple who cannot have one themselves through a faerie gate. Their child may be a bit odd, but that's okay.
4. Blood Adoptions and The Rythms of Life
In the world of BOTL, magic leads folk of all kind exactly where they need to be when they need to be. Blood adoptions would be the tried and true way to bring new children/blood into the family because magic essentially deposit children/orphans/those who need a home into the laps of those who most need someone to love and care for - if only they are wise enough to recognize the gift before them.
Bonus: Harry and Theo's Future Kids
I have never thought about this until this moment to be totally honest (my mind is still locked at the future part of botl where Theo and Harry do batshit crazy necromancy shit together that y'all ain't ready for) but here's my off-the-cuff imagining of their future kids:
They would absolutely totally adopt. Because of Harry's experiences with the Dursleys, and Theo's mother's - er - generational trauma - they'd ideally like to adopt a muggleborn who was born into a family that seems to hate them. So, like an older child adoption.
Fae egg. They would absolutely have a little changeling child. Maybe a literal changeling, a shapeshifter that imprints on their family and, as it is a child itself, turns into a human baby and then grows up with them.
Not to bum anyone out, but I could see them easily taking in the orphaned child of one of their friends. Not that I want to kill off any of their friends, but I just think that if I were to look that far ahead in the story, I could see someone like Daphne or Millie willing their child to Harry and Theo.
Unofficial runaway child - I could see one of the future Weasley children might not fit in with their parents/family and run away to the Nott/Potter house all the time.
I don't see either of them choosing transfiguration or alchemy to have their own child. I do lean toward surrogacy. I would have to really think on who amongst the female cast would be most comfortable carrying a child for them. Luna, perhaps. Although, LOL, Luna would probably be like a queer platonic third in their house. I could see her getting adopted into the House of Nott to be quite honest. She would happily be their surrogate twice over if they both wanted to have a "biological" child, but I also don't think Theo or Harry is totally invested in the idea of needing a biological child. Theo might feel more strongly about that than Harry does.
There will eventually be a much longer and much better thought out post about this but one of the things I’ve really been thinking about going through Stormlight is the fundamental Christian underpinnings of the stock western fantasy story being “mortals attack and dethrone “false” god”
Especially when writers try to apply monotheistic definitions of deity to a polytheistic system and just fundamentally miss the entire point
But the funniest thing about it has to be a combination of how many self avowed atheists have taken absolutely ALL of those Christian underpinnings, completely failed to look at where they came from, and aggressively apply them to thinly veiled stories about killing the Christian god
(Not Sanderson specifically he’s not got The Vibe but listen we all know the ones)
And I think those atheists might be very upset to confront how foundational Christianity remains in their worldview and concept of deity
But I hope they can find the same deep and sincere joy in the realization that yes, they are using a profoundly Christian template with centuries of church propaganda to dethrone and destroy… Christianity
Massive “I trained the panthers to eat peoples faces but now they want to eat my face?!?!?!” energy
You mentioned something about becoming human/taur being spells in the tags, what's stopping non-taur humans from learning it?
Thanks for the question! Same thing with Waterspeak, nothing really! In fact I think Sirpa was born as a two-legged human, but spends and has spent considerable amounts of time in the water as a mermaid because her mother is a mermaid. I guess you could consider her “half mermaid” as a result! She could’ve very well been born as a mermaid but her parents had to think long and hard about what form would be easier for her to live in as her original form, given their location and fears about water pollution it was undeniably two-legged
Sirpa tangent aside, anyone at all can learn the spell that makes you a mermaid, or the spell that makes you a terrestrial taur, or the spell that makes you a taur that can fly, so on so on! However, it can be seen as really weird if someone who was born as a two-legged human to a family that’s pretty much always been only two-legged humans to suddenly start living life as a taur. Taurness is not only just a body shape, after all, but a culture. Several cultures! Even if taurs are humans with human sensibilities, they’re shaped so different, they wear clothes that are different, they move differently, they can do things that two-legged humans can’t and can’t do things that two-legged humans can, they specifically have had many many stories about how they could’ve come to be (two-leggeds not so much), they need their own furniture, sometimes they’ve even lived separately from other types of humans. Merfolk are the most extreme cases, since they quite literally live where terrestrial humans can’t go naturally and every bit of their life has been adapted to an aquatic environment. Even if it would be very cool to live as a taur in theory, it’s fundamentally a very different experience, a more difficult experience sometimes, and people would probably give one many glances if they decided to become a taur one day for no other reason than “just cuz”. You may have the shape of a taur, but are you really even a taur if you’ve never experienced the culture?
Nuance exists, of course, like if you have a lot of taurs in your family and ever since you were a kid you’ve lived your life as many forms that are all equally “you”, or if your taur friend was like “lol wanna see what your true animal form would be” one night and you tried it out once and that was it, or if you have lived for a while now with many taurs — usually taurs are a minority on land but there are exceptions, for example in a very mountainous, difficult-to-traverse region a good bit of people might just be taurs for their better balance — and eventually decided to become a taur to fit the customs of the community better, or if you paid one billiam dollars at an exotic recreational center where they “Let [You] Feel the Wilderness Inside You (TM)” by having folks explore like a wildlife area as taurs, then like, yeah lol those are some random examples where no one would bat an eye! Also ironically, even though merfolk are definitely the most removed from terrestrial humans as a whole, it would be most acceptable to become a merm if you have an extended stay underwater (work, vacation, whatever) and need accommodations for breathing and moving in the water and things like that. It’s simply seen as the easiest way to do things, however true that may be! Similarly merfolk on land have a lot of pressure to “simply become two-legged” even though accommodations like wheelchairs for merms exist (and all merfolk can already breathe air). It’s a little… sad. A lot of merfolk don’t really like that their own selves are treated as unimportant and disposable and that the “best way” to go about moving in a foreign environment is to literally ditch your own body away to become something else. Many taurs never become two-legged because it would remove a big part of themselves, so why are merfolk any different? These are unfortunately some societal problems of the Sirpaverse.
TL;DR: Any non-taur can learn the spells that make you a taur, however there are societal and cultural implications of doing that and it might not be very appropriate in all situations.
artfight for sureeee im excited esp bc i should have my dnd character designed by then and i am planning to draw her so i will finally have a non-cat character up there LOL also i went camping with my lab partner and co in august and we have vaguely talked abt doing that again this year which would be fun
19. What’re you excited about for next year?
answered here but for some other stuff i am Tentatively excited about the shakespeare class i have scheduled this upcoming semester… i have been waiting to take it ever since declaring my english minor But i fear i might have too much on my plate this semester and will just wind up resenting it on account of it taking up time when it’s not for my actual degree 😭 bc i am currently scheduled for 17 credits 6 of which are master’s level…which wouldn’t really be a big concern but obv there is the musical as well for which i will be on production team too this year not just cast so i am a little uhhhhhh abt that. but also some of the classes are online so maybe it won’t be too bad idkidk anyway im getting off topic here. also excited for art markets to start opening back up <3
20. What’s something you learned this year?
i learned that i 100% could have finished les mis in like 2-3 weeks if i had literally ever fully committed to it other than the past few days 🫡 💀 LOL but for something more serious umm. i am learning to trust that at least two of my friends actually genuinely like me and want to spend time with me i think haha
I saw quite a while ago you mentioned that you were considering doing something like hatafat dam brit, so I'm just wondering, did you end up doing that? Of course no pressure to share if you don't want to, I'm not trying to make you defend your Jewishness or anything, I'm just curious because that's something I might do.
I'm the same anon that originally asked you if trans men do brit milah
I want to clarify that I thought about doing something symbolic, and to be clear (and as far as I'm aware), no movement requires you to do the brit or hatafat dam brit if you're a man (or otherwise) of trans experience. My rabbi was hesitant to force me into doing brit, but when I actually told him I'm trans, he was like, "yup, that checks out, good on you for having the privilege of being about check out of that obligation." It's not a big deal at all if you do not or are not able to fulfill this mitzvah. I just opted out of that and carried on, it is not deep at all. I cannot speak on other trans experiences, so you have to remember that this isn't universal.
While I didn't need to do it, I still have knowledge about how it would have went down for me if I did, and from what I know, this is pretty similar in many places. I'll take the time to outline it here because I think there are some anxieties people have about all of this, and I don't think it needs to be a stressful or humiliating experience. Always be sure to ask your rabbi about the particulars, though. I'm speaking in generalities.
So, first, they would have exposed about a square centimeter of skin - they do not want to see your business, truly. Any skin that doesn't need to be exposed will be covered up. When they go to prick the skin, it is with a very small needle because you really only need a tiny amount for a valid hatafat dam brit. I can assure anyone reading this now that it won't hurt unless your pain tolerance is abnormally low. They don't use a big gauge at all because it isn't necessary, and I can tell you right now for a fact that it is going to be the least problematic part of the entire process. For me, they'd've done it a little before the mikvah, but I think it's common for it to be done prior to that moment.
The things that seem the scariest to people converting (hatafat dam brit and the full immersion with a witness) are often very, very unintimidating when you actually experience it. I was a bit nervous to do my immersion, but my rabbi witnessed it and there was a railing I hung my robe over for modesty. We don't want you to feel humiliated or embarrassed over these things, but I do think it's a very powerful, very human experience. For me going in the mikvah, I felt very human, if that makes sense. We want you to have that experience. We want you to know what it feels like, to have thousands of years of people - of lives - surrounding you all at once. That's what we are about.
[Laying dead on the floor] i would say i have a task complexity impairment which is that i can do things but if you put too many steps i will just give up no matter what. But i would like to say i used. MULTIPLE problem solving skills. And talked to two whole ppl. With general inquires and sounded so so normal and natural and casual yeah okay no worries. Its just the system that has fucked me.
