When I was in first grade, he took me shopping for new school clothes — which was huge because, as the youngest of six kids, I lived in hand-me-downs.
He bought me a little navy blue, polka dot dress with a Peter Pan collar and red alphabet buttons. But, on picture day, I lost one of the buttons on the playground. I had a total meltdown because my brother spent his own money to make sure I had this new dress and I ruined it. I was a mess, totally inconsolable.
My teacher was also the mom of one of my brother’s best friends. She told him, and he, my brother and the entire football team searched the playground after practice for my lost button. Which they actually found.
My brother sewed the button back on himself in the car all while trying to explain that he wouldn’t have been mad even if I did lose it.
It was just a button and a dress.
But I did have one of those little red alphabet buttons sewn into my wedding dress.
by far the best part of grocery shopping is the little babies. i was carefully selecting mushrooms when i felt upon me a piercing gaze and looked up to see a very chubby and very red-cheeked baby staring intently at me from a grocery cart with a slightly furrowed brow, hand clutching an apple for dear life. i wiggled a mushroom at her and she gasped and kept staring. i turned back to the mushrooms and heard a shriek. i turned around and the baby stared in anticipation. i wiggled another mushroom and she shrieked again in delight. she looked down at the apple in her hand, considering it for a moment. fair-minded as she was, she decided it would only be right to wiggle produce at me in return, and she held up the apple and shook it with all her might. i think i could live forever now
I didn't know you wore glasses and I'm thinking normal and platonic thoughts about you right now I swear
I'm going to take over the world and no one can stop me not even y- okay well if you ask nicely I guess
you say childish like it's a bad thing but I see you eyeing that life size Pokémon plush don't kid yourself
be honest are you crying about the commercial with the kitten in it
this marriage was supposed to be a scam but, but listen,
soooo *twirling hair and fluttering eyelashes* why does everyone think you're a freak
I know I'm your doctor and the horns growing in overnight was kind of a surprise but why do you want them removed those are sick as hell
babe. my love. song in my heart. are you purring
okay so if you want me to rescue you from up there you have to try to come with me--okay I guess I'm picking you up
I have never been this sick before I'm sorry did I, haha this is so weird, but did I confess my love for you? f- four times? yeah? haha oh
every time you taste my cooking you just say it's amazing does it need more salt or not I swan to John
oh it's nothing it's just. you sing when you're happy and the place has been so quiet for so long, and I heard you- nevermind,
you frost cookies like you're neither left or right handed but a third other hand that you don't actually possess and I can't stand it (affectionate)
I don't think you understand how much your good morning texts legitimately keep me from rotting in bed all day
you must be pretty down if me juggling your oranges doesn't even get a laugh out of you :( should I light them on fire?
no I see the super powers yeah I just, I'm not sure you got them from your medication, yeah, and would you say that's a negative side effect or
you bought me a SWORD? OH MAN IM GONNA BE SO DANGEROUS
ooh what's this potion do? coffee? that's a funny name. what happens if I press this button? humans are so fascinating this is the best I hope I never go home
you've been blinking SOS in Morse code at me for ten minutes honey this award ceremony is supposed to be honoring you
when we kiss I feel like I'm floating, like literally gravity stopped working on me please don't let go?? also another kiss wouldn't hurt just saying
so it was YOU who took a full bite out of that stick of butter!! please. please. why??
let's go on vacation somewhere cheesy and act like we're a couple wouldn't that be sooooo funny haha
okay so sleeping it off didn't work. let me consult my list. hypnotism, no. meditation, certainly not. well something has to work because I simply cannot be in love with them
I'm a spy. i can do unspeakable crimes under the morally bankrupt cover of night but I'm not sure I can pretend to look at real estate as a couple with you
my love is your arm stuck in the claw machine. you were going to steal that prize for me?? oh my gosh. let me rescue you and also show you how to actually do this
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Characters: Nico di Angelo, Will Solace, Gleeson Hedge, Leo Valdez
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Space, IN SPACE!
Series: Part 1 of Soldiers in Space: a Solangelo Story
Summary:
Nico had always wanted to prove himself. Prove himself to his father, to his sister. Prove that he was just as good as her, if not better. He and Bianca attended the Legion Academy on Earth together in middle school. Until Bianca was drafted into Legion, the military’s space branch, at fifteen. She then later made it into the Artemis project for pilots at seventeen. Nico swore he’d make it into Legion at fourteen. He studied. He trained. He bled for it. Anything to make Father see him as his sister’s equal.
He was drafted into Legion a week before his fifteenth birthday. He continued to train harder. He wanted to be in the pilot program. He needed to be a pilot. He made it into Cerberus instead. Not much was shared about Cerberus, he was told that it was the “elite of the elite” in terms of projects. Research was expanding what the human body could handle and these special operatives under Cerberus would spearhead the project.
Space is lonesome. You can feel infinity around you in every direction. And in a place as big as the Cerebus station, with small staff, it was hard to make friends and to find love….
summary: Will has a habit of rising with the sun, heading over to Nico’s, and going back to sleep.
word count: 1092
read on ao3
Will and Nico didn’t live together - they lived near each other, near enough that it made more sense to walk than to drive. They had also been dating for more than a few years, so really, it didn’t make much sense that they hadn’t made that step yet. The two of them rarely even had sleepovers, unless Will happened to fall asleep on the couch (or, more likely, Nico fell asleep on top of them, meaning that Will wasn’t able to leave).
Will was happy to wait to take that next step, however long Nico needed. They were happy to say goodbye to Nico every night with a kiss in the doorway before they walked home to their own apartment two blocks away. And they were more than happy to come back as soon as the sun was up.
"The Thin Red Line Between Love and Hate" - Solangelo - One-Shot
Summary: Nico & Will face each other as a battle rages around them. Written for the relationship milestones prompt for @solangeloweek !!
Notes: If you like this I also strongly encourage you to read my fic "Grief and Glory" because that's where this one-shot is based off of 😎
TW: Knives, violence, blood. Almost character death??
Word Count: 1632
Read on AO3
Nico presses the knife to Will’s throat, but the blond doesn’t even bother fighting him. Will’s fingertips press over the cold floor uselessly, and his body turns slack against Nico’s as he gives into him.
Nico expects Will to protest, to beg for his life, to do something. He almost wants Will to do something. But, instead, all he does is lay there in Nico’s arms, shutting his eyes tight against the misery around him.
“Just do it,” Will whispers, his voice shivering against the icy blade. “This war needs to end at some point, doesn’t it?”
A chill pours over Nico at Will’s words. Is he really going to give up this easily? Is he really going to give up all his hard work and let himself perish?
Is he really going to force Nico to kill him?
“No,” Nico hisses. He bends his face to Will’s neck and tugs his arm tighter against Will’s chest, if only searching for some grip on the world. “No, just- just surrender, Will. You don’t have to die. I don’t have to kill you. Just surrender, and you can end this.”
“Then why don’t you surrender?” snaps Will, daring to twist his head a little. Nico catches a glimpse of the sapphire of his irises, of the glassy film of tears over his eyes. “You could end this just as easily.”
Nico’s breath hitches as a frustrated sob tries to escape his chest. “I don’t have a choice,” he mutters. “I am supposed to protect the gods. I am supposed to be their savior. Do you know the consequences I’ll face if I give up now?”
Will dares to release a laugh. His throat grazes against the cold blade and he hisses as a line of red emerges from his golden skin. “You and I both know you’re just speaking bullshit. You want to get rid of Zeus just as much as I do. You’re just hiding behind your cowardice.”
Nico’s chest heaves as he inhales an angry breath. He pulls his hand closer, edging enough that the blade’s tip just barely touches Will’s neck. The blond shivers in his arms but doesn’t make a move to fight.
An ache of grief presses against Nico’s throat. Tears rise up to his eyes and push against the barricade that he’s built up, but Nico tries to swallow down his emotions.
There is no room for mercy in this war. All he has to do is kill Will, and it will all be over. His kingdom will surrender to Nico and they can return to peace.
A tear slips through Nico’s eye and rolls down his pale cheek. It drips from his chin onto Will’s golden armor, then slips away into some hidden crevice. Nico turns his gaze to the knife in his hand, to the silver blade against Will’s throat, and finally, to Will’s golden skin, which gleams brightly even under the cold shadows of the ruins.
Will shivers with fear against him. His eyes are shut tight again, trying to blind himself from whatever comes in the next few moments.
But nothing can protect him now. There is no mercy.
At the sight of him so beaten and battered, Nico’s heart swells with guilt. His mind aches with every memory that he’s shared with Will, with every touch and sight and smell of the blond’s presence. He remembers Will’s tender touches, his professions of admiration in his ears. He can still feel Will’s love, even now, underneath his fingers.
Nico’s arm tightens around Will’s chest, holding him in place. A strangled sound escapes Will’s lips and his hands try to crawl up to Nico’s arm, but he’s frozen in fear. One wrong move and he’ll get himself killed.
Slowly, Nico moves his blade. It grazes against Will’s throat once more, pressing lightly enough that only a mere string of blood slips through his golden skin. Will’s breathing turns shallow with fear and anticipation, and his tears become superfluous, traveling in thick packets over his bronze freckles and grief-stricken cheeks. His teeth grit together as hot pain blooms against his throat, but he simply lays in Nico’s arms, subjecting himself to the end.
A sob echoes in Nico’s chest; his hand shivers as it slides closer and closer. The air burns with anger and fear, with anticipation and grief. Nico and Will are frozen in time, waiting for something to happen, for something to end.
And Nico tries to finish him. He really does.
But he can’t do it.
The knife clatters to the ground, crimson blood still gleaming over the shining blade.
As another sob racks his body, Nico bows his head against Will’s, searching for comfort in the familiar crook between the blond’s head and neck.
Will’s chest heaves with short, heavy breaths, and his body erupts with goosebumps. He shivers in Nico’s arms, chilled by the fear and the knowledge that he could have killed him.
Will could have lost his life.
Nico pulls his other arm around Will’s chest. His sobs snap in the small spaces between them, filling the air around the boys with cold, hard grief, and Will wants to turn around and hold Nico, to tell him it will all be okay.
But it won’t be.
Nothing will ever be okay again.
Will’s own sobs bubble out of his chest. With every heave of Nico’s breath, Will’s heart lurches. He anxiously peels Nico’s arms away and breaks away from his prison of grief, surprised at how easily Nico’s letting him go.
In his newfound freedom, Will twists around, trying to face the child of Hades in his sorrow. Underneath the shadows, Nico seethes with anger and guilt, his emotions spilling out of him with every sob that cracks through his body. Tears glimmer against his porcelain face and his lips quiver as he gazes at Will.
For a brief second, Will glimpses his raging love. Nico’s obsidian eyes blaze with a passion he has never once seen from the cold king. At the sight of him, Will’s heart swells with a sudden hunger for Nico’s touch.
He starts to lean in, but Nico beats him to it. His body crashes into Will’s golden embrace and both of them fall to the ground, slamming against the cold, hard floor. Passion seethes in the air around them, and in a moment of pure adrenaline, Nico kisses Will.
Their lips spark against each other, fire licking at the edges of their chins. It’s been so long since they’ve held each other, since they’ve felt each other, that it almost feels unreal. They spill into each other's arms and drip into each other’s bodies, yearning for warmth, yearning for shelter in the chaos that surrounds them.
Will’s hand presses against Nico’s armor; Nico’s thumb grazes Will’s chin. They’re falling apart and building up, reforming again and again as they find each other underneath the crumbling ruins.
Nico presses his forehead to Will’s and sighs shakily. A tear falls from his eye and bursts against Will’s nose, chilling his face with another drop of grief. Will wants to flick his sadness away, to hold him through all that’s going on, but he knows that isn’t possible.
After a moment of tense silence, Will decides he needs to say something. “I love you,” he whispers against Nico’s lips. “I- I never got to tell you that.”
He expects Nico to smile, to tell him that he loves him, too. But instead, only a sob cracks against his face, and Will’s chest swells with guilt.
Nico sits up again, his face crumbling as grief consumes him. He shakes his head and holds his face in his hands, hiding himself away from Will’s gaze. “Now you tell me,” he whispers. “The first time you tell me you love me and it’s in the middle of a war in which we’re on opposite sides.”
“We don’t have to be on opposite sides anymore,” Will urges. He sits up, too, and reaches out for Nico’s hand, only to catch empty air when Nico pulls his fingers away angrily. A crack erupts over his heart but he continues talking. “Join me. I know you don’t like Zeus. I have faith we can overthrow him together.”
Nico shakes his head, but his eyes blaze with anger and frustration. He knows Will’s right. Things have been looking wonderful for him, and there’s a high chance that the Rebellion really will win.
Silence pulses in the air. Each breath that Will takes burns his chest, as if he’s inhaling lava; each breath that Nico takes feels cold and harsh, like ice stabbing him through the lungs. They’re on two different sides, drifting on two different planes.
Were they ever meant to meet in the middle?
Finally, Nico’s shoulders slump. He takes a final breath, holding himself against the icy pain, and looks at Will again. A cold glaze comes over his obsidian eyes.
He leans in and kisses Will again, but there’s something different in this act of passion. He’s harsher, colder. Nico’s lips feel like needles.
But Will will take whatever admission of love he can take, even if it hurts him.
When Nico pulls away, his dark eyes blaze with hot anger. He grips Will’s armor and tugs him closer. In a painful, scratchy voice, he hisses, “I can’t decide whether I love you or hate you more.
His armor clanks as he rises shakily. Nico turns his back on Will, and in an instant, Will realizes this might be the last time Nico ever looks him in the eyes again. “You win. I hope you’re happy.”
And with that, he stumbles away, anger seething from every inch of his vulnerable body.
There was a post I wanted to reblog and respond to, but I'm not sure how op would have liked that so here's my in depth character analysis on Will and Nico (it's not actually that in depth):
It depends on how you headcanon the characters outside of that aspect as well though...
For example I do headcanon them with a decent height difference but if I'm extremely extremely oversimplifying my thoughts on them, Nico is the protector.
Will being so large gives him depth- he's going to be scared of being too strong and of breaking the things he loves. (Kind of like Frank?)
He's always been extremely kind, and not exactly the most masculine- he likes flowers, and cries when birds fall out of trees, those silly childhood "dog's life's" movies never failed to make him cry, he's canonically a worrier, he just wants to help people and save lives- he's the type of person who sometimes cries himself to sleep because the world is so twisted and cruel and he doesn't understand why people just can't be kind. Will "see's the world for what it could be rather than what it is" (if you want me to compare him to another YA character I would give you Dante Quintana)
Nico on the other hand, he was never allowed to cry or to show emotion- stiff that lip, don't let the tears fall- he was trained for war from the day he was born, his emotions can be shut off from the trauma of his life. He picks up that fallen bird and buries it out of a sense of duty and respect, but he doesn't cry any tears or think too hard about it. He doesn't spend much time thinking about "what ifs" unless they're necessary, he's worried about making sure everyone is safe and cared for rather than why people are cruel- he's accepted that people are generally cruel. Nico see's the world through tinted glasses, everything is a little messed up and he's got to fight so he doesn't end up messed up too.
Nico never had anyone to look out for him, and he was always perceived as small and weak- an easy defenseless target- he had to learn how to fight and how to fight good.
Will tries not to cry over little kids skinning their knee, and he grows angry when he hears about injustice across the globe, cries for all the poor children who will suffer and tries to give up his whole paycheck. His sole purpose in life is to build and repair, he couldn't destroy anything if he tried. Nico picks that little kid up, brushes off their knee and sends them off with a bandaid if they need one, he has to keep Will from spending his whole check and remind him that they'll be in a bad situation and won't have food for themselves if they give away their money- Nico is constantly shocked at how much Will tries to help others, because Nico accepted suffering as something that just happened.
In the face of adversity Will constantly rises to the struggle, and tries to just be good and kind (a real Patroclus type). Nico makes the right choice too, but he takes a more logical and calculating approach- Nico likes the element of suprise ("let's turn this tide!") he keeps his cards close to his chest so nobody knows what he's doing until the last minute. Will being tall is the perfect ploy in their relationship. People will expect Will to be dominat and commanding (he isn't at all unless someone is in danger), so when they see Nico they still don't expect anything- Will isn't paying attention and they think "huh- easy target?" only for Nico to swoop in at the last minute and save Will.
Nico is the one who has to wipe up Will's tears and wrap him in a weighted blanket because Will's worried about climate change, and that bill proposed by Congress, and how they're upping the price of insulin again- Will's lost everything and everyone and worries about it happening again. Nico doesn't worry about insulin prices or the famine in the same way Will does, he gives them money sure- he's got it and they need it- but that emotional connection never existed.. Nico lost everyone and when he thinks about loosing more people he does worry about it and it hurts, but he thinks "I've lived through worse"
They're too perfectly opposing ends of the same bridge- you can divide them any way and see equal parts similarities and differences. Their life experiences have led them to the same morals, same goals, and same wants- but the adversity in their life's have changed them to polar opposites in how they reach these conclusions and why.
Will is kind simply because he doesn't have a mean bone in his body, Nico is kind because he wants to be better than everyone who came before and said he couldn't. Both of them are the same level of kind but Nico had to learn that kindness because to him it wasn't a given, Nico had to choose to be the person nobody ever was for him. Will was kind the day he was born, and he works on the idea of self improvement- if he has a bad thought he analyzes it (and over analyzes it) until it is corrected and he knows the right and kind solution. Nico doesn't have to do this he just chooses the opposite of what people would expect a son of Hades to do, Nico chooses to be the person he wishes he would have had looking out for himself.
None of this means Will can't handle himself though- he lost two brothers and became cabin counselor and is still that kind when he got screwed over just as much as Luke- Will is strong too- just in a different way.
So yes, headcanoning one character as very tall and another as very small can bring up those concepts of "uwu protect me" but that's not everyone's interpretation of why two characters are the way they are- and that's not everyone's only understanding of a relationship model, and some people quite literally turn that concept on its head when they see two characters.
I get it, it was a vent post- that's why I'm not adding to it- because you deserve a space to vent, but you also can't sum up what someone thinks of a specific relationship dynamic just based on how vastly different they make character's heights.
If you want my other reason why Will is tall it's because he's closer to the sun, like Timothy Green or whatever the kids name was and I think it's a funny concept.
... Anyhow, I feel like this is written really poorly but I'm sure some people will enjoy this so I'm posting it anyhow lmao
what if public libraries were open late every night so that:
- children and teens who cant get home until a later time have a safe, warm, well lit, populated area to socialize, charge devices, rest, etc
- children and teens have a safe place to go to stay away from danger
- people who have jobs that take up most of the day would still have time ANY DAY OF THE WEEK to go use the libraries facilities (printing, computers, etc)
This is exactly what public libraries are trying to achieve - public libraries as a third place is a whole thing - it’s just that the funding isn’t there (yet).
I’m going to apologize if this post comes off as sounding very aggressive, but having just been through one of the most stressful experiences of my entire career in libraries:
if you want this, you need to be at your local community government meetings. you need to be talking to your representatives. you need to be out there Lobbying.
Just a few weeks ago, my library, me, my coworkers, we had to write letters, send emails, make phone calls, speak at council meetings, just to beg our aldermen to give us our usual funding. Which they didn’t even give to us last year. Losing last year’s funding forced us to cut staff, hours, and all of our databases. If we’d lost this year’s funding? two positions would have been gone and we would have likely had to close on Saturdays. On Saturdays. The day of the week most of y’all working M-F jobs actually have time to go to the fucking library.
And do you want to know how much money we were asking? We were asking for an increase of approximately 13 cents a person.
13.
Fucking.
Cents.
ACROSS AN ENTIRE YEAR.
No one seems to understand how libraries are funded. It’s not just Free Stuff. It’s your tax dollars being paid back into your community. It’s crowdfunding. The highest cost anyone in my community pays for the library a year is approximately $250. Divide that up. That’s just $4 a week. That’s less than a coffee. It’s the equivalent of purchasing about 10 hardcover books a year. For that price, you could have access to every book that has ever been written, a place to go that’s not a bar, programs for kids, teens, and adults, educated staff that can help you find the answers to your questions, and so much more.
You want these late-night libraries? You want all this stuff? Start fighting for it. Start showing up. Start making phone calls. It’s not going to come out of thin air. Start fighting to erase the idea that taxes = evil. Start fighting to spread the understanding that taxes are what help us build a better society.
Make sure the people who represent you know that you want this. That this is where you want your tax dollars to go. That this is what you want them to support. That you are willing to see your tax bill go up a few more dollars for this.
Because otherwise? None of this is going to happen. Libraries are going to keep cutting their opening hours. Keep cutting staff. Keep cutting programs and databases and collections.
We NEED your support, and we need more than just a post on Tumblr. We need to see people show up and speak out.
Blogging this tweet because this explains SO MUCH about the mindset of pretty much all the folks I’ve known who’re against single-payer, it’s not even funny…
This never occurred to me. Not once. That Americans are against Health Care because they think it actually costs tens of thousands of dollars for a broken arm, hundreds of thousands for a complicated birth, millions for cancer treatment.
Because they’ve never known anything different. The idea that a broken arm is only a couple hundred bucks; a complicated birth a couple thousand; cancer treatment only tens of thousands; all easily covered by existing tax structures.
This explains a lot. And it’s a good example of what I was talking about in my post on scarcity being used to prop up ableism – always question the idea that a resource is genuinely scarce. Even if it seems obvious that it is, quite often that’s the result of careful manipulation and misconceptions that you’re not even aware of.
And never think you’re too smart to be fooled by that kind of thing, it doesn’t work like that. Similarly, don’t think people who are fooled by something are stupid. Nobody can have all the information about everything, and nobody has the time and energy to investigate and put together conscious conclusions about every piece of information they’re given. It doesn’t take being stupid, or even just gullible, to believe something like this.
I currently live in a country without free medical care and still, it’s enormously cheap compared to the USA. An American expat wrote a piece for our English language paper about how she paid more for parking at the hospital than giving birth to her baby that’s pretty interesting:
Yesterday I had to go to the hospital cause I injured my eye, I’m frankly dreading what the bill is going to be, but what made me balk was being told in the pharmacy that my insurance was denied for the antibiotic eye drops and it’d be over $100 out of pocket. So I didn’t get my eyedrops.
I’ve had these same drops before living in the UK. They cost me seven GBP.
It’s the exact same drug, same steroid, same strain of antibiotic. But somehow the US gets away with charging $100 for a generic non brand version of a drug which is easy to create and widely used. It’s downright robbery, but also a form of eugenics through poverty and class warfare. You keep the poor poor by making sure basic necessities remain unattainable and then you make it seem like the norm so no one fights it.
The US is expected to spend about $3.8 Trillion on health care this year. The UK paid £129B, total, for healthcare costs in 2018/2019, which is roughly $170B. The UK’s population is 66.4 million; the US’s population is 327 million. That’s a little less than five times the population of the UK. $170B times 5 — rounding UP at every stage — is $855B. Less than health care spending as it currently stands. In fact, we’re currently paying 440% more than that, out of pocket, and that’s with 20% of us currently going WITHOUT health care.
Here’s what’s even more wild, conservatives and centrist Democrats love to talk about how Medicare for All would cost $34 trillion over 10 years (assuming costs don’t go down and that we’re still charged hyper-inflated prices), but what they fail to mention is that if we keep our private for-profit system Americans will spend $52 trillion over that same time period.
But since the it’s not called taxes, it’s automatically better.
Slytherins working with Dumbledore’s Army. They spread false rumors about where they’ve sighted students. They join Umbridge’s close circle so that they can learn the moves and plans of the Inquisitorial Squad so that they can warn the DA of when it’s safe to hold practice. They rotate in shifts, some lead the IS on a wild goose chase while their housemates practice with the rest of the army. Sometimes they charm their robes to look like another houses and lead the IS far away from the Room of Requirement as they can before turning a corner and de-charming their robes. They make up stories about chasing students who mysteriously disappear without a trace. Umbridge sends students to search areas of the castle nowhere near the actual Room of Requirement.
As Umbridge tightens her hold on the school, slytherin students try to protect their DA friends. They pass messages of encouragement and support to their friends, veiled in threats and taunts. They bully the loudest, but do the least damage; their housemates think that they’re being cruel, their friends know that they’re shielding them from actual harm.
Slytherin students passing information to the Order while the Golden Trio is hunting for horcruxes, tracking the moves of Death Eaters to the best of their ability. They withstand the dark days in Hogwarts, helping their friends the best they can without looking suspicious. Charmed plastic rats run through the castle hallway, passing messages between the houses. Children of Death Eaters eavesdrop in dark hallways of their homes, holding their breath and straining their ears. When slytherin students suddenly disappear, go home and don’t come back, everyone knew what had happened. They mourned privately and quietly.
DA members and the Order housing slytherin students who can’t go home. Many have to run away, for their own safety. As Voldemort grew in power, it was harder and harder to keep their true intentions a secret. Children of Death Eaters were being pressured to take the Dark Mark, were being drafted to fight for Voldemort, were being told that their friends deserved to die. The students that said no were threatened with death or kicked out of their homes, branded as disgraced traitors. Those who couldn’t stand up to their families slipped away in the night. Some died, at the hands of Death Eaters, at the hands of their own parents.
Slytherin students fighting during the final battle at Hogwarts, standing up against family and friends to protect their home. Staring across the courtyard at their mothers, fathers, siblings, childhood friends. People screaming at them; ‘blood traitors’ ringing through the air of the courtyard, hurled at slytherins who had their shoulders squared and their chins up. Slytherins having to throw charms and jinxes and curses at familiar faces, people they had trusted. Slytherin students killing their loved ones, being given no other choice. Slytherin students dying while standing up for what they believe in.
Slytherin students being more than a stereotype. Slytherins being more than one dimensional villains. Slytherin students being shown as diverse, fully developed characters with a variety of motivations and beliefs. Slytherins being slytherins; proud, ambitious, and cunning. And proving that those things don’t mean being evil.
Older bookstores and libraries tend to hold more power. Be aware of this.
It is very important to treat all the books with care and respect.
Put all books back where they go. This may not be where you found them or even where the signs say the book goes, but you’ll know where.
If you see a series out of order, take the time to properly arrange the books. This kindness will be remembered.
You may stay and read as long as you’d like. Take your time.
Always say thank you after you’ve finished reading a book. Even if it was only a few pages.
If you feel a strong pull to a specific book, listen to it.
Never take a book unless you’ve properly checked it out or bought it. As a visitor, you only have permission to read the books while there or if you go through the proper steps to leave with one. Defying this will have consequences.
If a book is gifted to you, you may also leave with it. Never turn down a book offered to you as a gift.
Listen to the staff. They know more about this place than you, but remember, in the end, they are just keepers. They have no authority over the books.
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