The 'Well Enough' 'verse by Sandel

Headcanons, Fanfics and other stuff, mostly about the Next Generation

[wellenoughverse]

A Great Deal of Bravery

“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends,” Albus Dumbledore once said. He, more than anyone, knew the truth of that.

“Albus,” said Gellert, wild, defiant and beautiful even when cornered. “My friend. My lo…”

“Don’t,” Albus interrupted him, a golden shield shimmering in the air around him. “Lying never suited you.”

The two men were surrounded by a desolation they’d made for themselves, duelling. They were still young, hair still auburn, still golden. Yet Albus felt oh so very old.

Gellert was pressed up against a mountainside, his body Bound by Albus spell, Albus’ wand against his throat. And still he smiled.

“You’re quick to judge me a liar,” he said. “What might I do to change your mind?”

Nothing, thought Albus. The thought was visible in the way his younger self clenched his jaw, audible in his voice when he spoke.

“We both know that there is only one Curse that can let you win now. God knows you’ve used it often enough. If I ever meant to you a millionth of what you’ve meant to me, you won’t use that Curse now. That’s what I ask of you. Give up. Let me win. Let me have the wand.”

“Take it,” said Gellert. “It’s yours.”

A pause, a smirk, then;

“I’m yours.”

In silence Albus Dumbledore claimed the Elder wand. Then he turned away from the only man he’d ever let himself love.

[wellenoughverse]

San's Sorting Series 16: Lysander Scamander

“I’m sorry about Lorcan.”

“Huh? How do you… I didn’t accidentally speak out loud again, did I!? It’s been more than five hundred years since I did that last time!”

“No, no, don’t worry. I didn’t hear anything. I just know that Lorcan can be… trying.”

“Ah. No, he was all right. A bit impertinent, maybe. Er… Let’s just get on with your Sorting, shall we?”

“Sure! I’m very excited!”

“Yes, I can tell. Now let’s see… yes, yes, I can definitely see Ravenclaw for you. You’re not as filled with chaotic ideas as your brother, but you’ve got brains for sure. Less iconoclastic than him, too…”

“What does ‘iconoclastic’ mean?”

“And ready to learn, apparently. It means ‘willing to attack established systems’.”

“Oh. Yes, that’s Lorcan.”

“I’m sorry I’m putting your brother in focus in your own Sorting. I can tell that that’s something that often happens. Maybe you’d like me to put you somewhere else just so you could get out of his shadow?”

“Nah, I’ll go wherever you want to put me. But I have been thinking that I might do well in Hufflepuff, like our dad…”

“Oh, Hufflepuff? Yes, yes, I believe you would do well there, I can’t believe I didn’t see it immediately. You have integrity, loyalty, a readiness to work hard for your results, kindness… though ‘kindness’ isn’t, strictly speaking, a Hufflepuff trait. Anyone from any house can be kind, and I have seen my fair share of unkind Hufflepuffs too. But then again, any trait could be found in any house, it’s more about…

“Sorry to interrupt, but… you’re rambling.”

“Oh. Yes, I am. I guess your brother did put me a bit off balance. Well, here we are, then. I’m going to put you in HUFFLEPUFF!”

[wellenoughverse]

San's Sorting Series 15: Lorcan Scamander

“Mmm, here’s a ‘ready mind’ if I ever saw one. How do you keep all those ideas in your head without spilling?”

“Barely.”

“Ah, cheek. Or should I call it ‘wit’?”

“Just place me in Ravenclaw already.”

“I believe I will, in time. But there’s something that bothers you that we need to talk about first.”

“Why? What I want won’t make any difference in how Lys’ is sorted.”

“True. But I wonder; would you have followed him if he had been sorted first?”

“Well, we’ll never know about that, will we? I’ll just have to hope he goes to Ravenclaw too, all right. At least you’re not trying to make me a snake. Lys’s definitely no Slytherin.”

“You could do well in Slytherin too, you know.”

“I guess. But I want to be a Ravenclaw. I’ll do without Lys if I have to.”

“It saddens me how you young ones still see me as dividing you up when I sort. Hogwarts is meant to be a family, with the Houses as siblings. And Lysander will still be your brother no matter if you’re in the same House or not.”

“Yeah, yeah, blah, blah, just get this over with.”

“If you say so. RAVENCLAW!”

[wellenoughverse]

San's Sorting Series 14: Lily Potter II

“Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin! Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin! Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenc…”

“What on earth are you doing, child?”

“…law, Slyhterin! I’m thinking just as much about all the Houses, of course! Al says you listen to what we think about the Houses and I don’t want to go into the wrong House just because I happened to think about it. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slyther…”

“Stop that right now! You’re giving me a hatache.”

“…sorry.”

“And in any case that’s not how it works. I’ve been doing this for close to a thousand years. If I sorted people wrong left and right they’d hardly have let me keep at it.”

“Sorry.”

“Yeah, yeah. Now let me do what I’m made for. Ah… This is a good head you have on your shoulders, that’s for sure. Lots of loyalty as well, dear me. I wouldn’t want to get between you and a loved one. A strong desire to do right and right wrongs… A lot of different aspirations… and a lot of follow through, too. I see why you’d not want to bias me – there are a lot of different ways you could go. But with your ultimately independent mindset and your disposition to play the daredevil, I know where I’ll put you, and I think it’ll secretly make you very pleased.”

“Oh! Is it Gryffindor? Is it Gryffindor? Oh, please…”

“Yes indeed, child. It is GRYFFINDOR!”

[wellenoughverse]

24) Rose Weasley grew up to become an investigative journalist.

She disdained the Prophet as biased and got most of her work at the Quibbler, by then the most reputable (if still occasionally fairly odd) scrutinizer of the powers that be in the Wizarding world. This grated a bit at her mother, but her aunt Ginny was very proud of her niece for following in her journalistic footsteps.

[wellenoughverse]

San's Sorting Series 13: Roxanne Weasley

“Hello there, old hat! I’ve been waiting to put you on ever since my ma’ told us about you after my da’ said I’d have to fight a troll to get into Hogwarts…”

“Er… Good day to you too, young lady.”

“I think I’ll be in Gryffindor, but I’m not sure. I mean, I thought all of us cousins would be when I was a kid, but we’re not. My brother’s in Hufflepuff, for example. But my fave coz is in Gryffindor…. Well, actually both of my favourite cousins, James and Rose. But I like Luce a lot too, and she’s a Hufflepuff like Fred…”

“Was your brother the Weasley who scolded me for rambling when I sorted him?”

“Yeah, I think he said something about that. I don’t think he really scolded, though, he’s like the nicest person ever; he never scolds me for going off on a… oh. Sorry. Please sort me now. I’ll try to keep quiet.”

“Well, you are actually quiet already, this is all in your… oh for Godric’s sake, now I’m doing it too! Let’s just get on with it, shall we? You mentioned Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, and that’s the two Houses that I’d consider for you. You certainly have a certain bravado of a very Gryffindorish flavour, but surface traits are not all there is to sorting. Your strong sense of sportsmanship and drive makes you a good candidate for Hufflepuff too, and you have something of that yearning for – how did I put it? – ‘siblinghood and cohesion’ that I recognised in one of your cousins last year. For him that meant Slytherin, but for you it could be one more thing to suggest Hufflepuff…”

“I’m not sure what ‘cohesion’ is but Professor Sinistra said your House is supposed to be like your family so shouldn’t there be ‘siblinghood’ in Gryffindor too?”

“Hm, perhaps one could say that, but not in the same manner. You said that you thought you’d be in Gryffindor. Why?”

“Well, I’m pretty brave if I say so myself, and Gryffindor sounds much, you know, funnier than Hufflepuff. Fred and Lucy always talk about how nice and kind and helpful and whatever their Housemates are, but, like, all the stories I’ve heard from Gryffindor are about hilarious shenanigans and I love hilarious shenanigans!”

“Well, you make a very compelling argument. I concur. GRYFFINDOR!”

[wellenoughverse]

San's Sorting Series 12: Hugo Weasley

“Ah, aren’t you an interesting puzzle? I see that you think that you’ll be in Gryffindor, but yet you don’t seem thrilled about it. And I can see why you would; you certainly fit the archetype, what with your mischievous streak together with a certain gallantry, none of the strict regard for rules that your sister possesses – and yet I put her in Gryffindor as late as last year – and a tendency to act without thinking every now and then.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“But your values are different, aren’t they? You value curiosity and conundrums and figuring out the perfect solution that makes something just work, do you not?”

“But I’m stupid! I can’t ever learn to spell right no matter how much mum tries to take me through it letter by letter and my sister learned to read by herself when she was four! Everybody thought she’d be sorted there but if even she didn’t I don’t have a chance. And I wouldn’t want to go there anyway, because everybody else would be so smart and laugh at me.”

“I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the House you secretly yearn for.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me! Fundamental misunderstandings is my thing.”

“No, not like that. This has nothing to do with you being stupid – because you’re not. In fact I think you would do very well ‘there’. Your sister could have too, but that doesn’t mean you have to be like her to fit in. Your housemates will see your passion for invention, your ability to notice connections and your love of riddles, and they will cherish you for it. Especially the riddle solving, believe you me.

“You might never be the best at spelling spells, but I can tell that this mind I’m looking into will understand their construction on a constitutive level in a way few others do, and this is just one of the many reasons why I’m putting you in RAVENCLAW!”

[wellenoughverse]

The 10 Year Anniversary of Dumbledore’s Army - Epilogue

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

A little more than a month later a disgruntled owl arrived to The Leaky Cauldron with a huge stack of Witch Weeklys. Hannah paid the owl and offered it bowl of honeyed water by way of apology for its heavy load. As it drank she leafed idly through one of the magazines. As she turned a page she gave out a loud yelp. This startled the owl so much that it overturned the bowl as it took off to a rafter. Honey water was spilling out over the counter and the owl gave dismayed hoots up in the ceiling, but Hannah noticed neither. She was staring at a picture of herself in the magazine’s gossip section. A miniature Hannah laughed and touched picture-Neville’s arm as they walked down Diagon Alley together. Above them read the heading:

War Hero seen with blonde bombshell

“It seems a certain famous Auror has a thing for blondes! Two months ago Witch Weekly was the first to report on the break-up between Neville Longbottom and (blonde!) long-time girlfriend Luna Lovegood. Now Mr Longbottom has already been seen together with a new flame. Is our favourite snake beheader on the rebound, perhaps?

“According to our sources the blonde beauty in question is a certain Ms Hannah Abbott. Ms Aboott was present at the battle of Hogwarts, and like other participants who didn't particularly distinguish themselves, she received an Order of Merlin 3rd Class. (Mr Longbottom holds an OoM 1st Class.) After giving up on a promising Ministry career Ms Abbott now works as a barmaid at the Leaky Cauldron in London. Our readers may recognise her as the wench who poured their drink the last time they visited Diagon Alley.

“As the hook-up occurred so shortly after the end of an almost seven year old relationship we here at WW find it unlikely that it'll last. But it sure is good news for all single witches that eligible bachelor Mr Longbottom seems ready to ‘hunt the snitch’ once again. Maybe one of our blonde readers will be the next to grace the arm of the comely Mr. Longbottom?”

Hannah shook her head in disbelief as she read. She didn’t know if she should laugh or cry. What she did know was that Ernie would never let her live this down.

And indeed; one and a half year later Ernie, to much laughter, brought up the article in his speech at her and Neville’s wedding.

[wellenoughverse]

San's Sorting Series 11: Rose Weasley

“I know I might seem Ravenclaw but I also think I could do quite well in Gryffindor too… or even Hufflepuff maybe but Fred and Lucy say I’m too individualistic… Anyway I mean my mother is one of the smartest people ever and she was in Gryffindor, but everybody still thinks I’ll be in Ravenclaw…”

“Worried about ending up in Ravenclaw, are we?”

“No! I’m not worried, I’m sure I’d be perfectly fine there. Mini and Molly are very happy Ravenclaws, and all Houses… all Houses…”

“My dear child, are you crying?”

“No, no, I’m sorry, it’s just… I thought Al and I would be in the same House… I was worried I’d be in Ravenclaw and he wouldn’t, but now he’s in Slytherin and I’m…”

“Nothing like a Slytherin. No, indeed. I hope you understand that I can’t put you there just because your best friend was sorted there.”

“Yes, yes, I know. It’s just… We were supposed to be together! I’m so weird but Al doesn’t care and when I’m with him other people care less too. Everybody will hate me now!”

“Er… there, there.”

“I’m sorry. Now you think I’m weird too.”

“Well, you’re certainly interesting. And smart, and strong and brave. I could put you in Ravenclaw without batting an, er, seam, but I won’t. I can see that you value your bravery the most, and that’s what’ll get you through this.

“You might be sad right now, but you’ve made me happy; placing all these Weasleys all over the place have made me quite nervous. It feels comfortable to get to sort you into GRYFFINDOR!”

[wellenoughverse]

Submitted Headcanon 2) The teachers lost all control of the four houses for a week and a half.

They were all fighting and holed up in different parts of the castle common rooms had been taken over class rooms barricaded it was a capture the flag game gone wrong. The teachers were hoping to bring the houses back together but it all went wrong. Alliances were forged and broken, first years were taken hostage, and diplomats met; trading territory and hostages.

By: Anonymous

[sansigma]

My queer and trans headcanons

Ginny Weasley is bi, with a preference for men. Later in life she and Harry open their marriage into a triad with Luna (who has many other relationships outside this).

Luna Lovegood is non-binary and non-monosexual but doesn’t label either her gender or her sexuality. She also doesn’t draw a sharp line between friendship and romance, and is poly.

Seamus Finnegan is gay. He has a crush on his best friend Dean Thomas from when he’s, like, twelve but never dared dream that it’d be returned. They end up married.

Dean Thomas is heteroflexible, and probably wouldn’t have ever been with a man if it wasn’t for Seamus. He also has a simultaneous longstanding relationship with Luna, so neither of his partners is a woman. I bet he didn’t see that coming.

Susan Bones is bi. She and Ernie Macmillan dates for a while, but then they decide they’re better as friends. Several years later they decide to have a child and move in together. At about the same time Susan gets together with Katie Bell, and after a few years they marry and she moves in with Susan and Ernie too.

Katie Bell is bisexual but mainly homoromantic. She and Leanne Hollister are together for many years but ultimately she marries Susan Bones and raise a kid together with her and Ernie Macmillan.

Leanne Hollister is queer. She was born as Sally-Anne Perks. Her parents were Muggles and devout Christians of the homophobic persuasion. They were hesitant about letting her learn magic, and when she was outed by a stray letter from her girlfriend Katie Bell they threw her out. That’s when she decided to change her name. She and Katie stay close even after their break up, and she’s one of the godmothers of Katie’s, Susan’s and Ernie’s child (the other is Hannah Abbott). She ends up with a Muggle girl.

Bill Weasley is bi. He dated surprisingly few people before he and Fleur got together, but they were a bunch of different genders.

Fleur Delacour is pansexual but heteroromantic.

Gabrielle Delacour is a lesbian. Her attempts at flirting with Harry came from being star struck rather than actual attraction. She marries some French witch and they provide a second home for her nieces and nephews. Dominique Weasley choose her new middle name from her.

Percy Weasley is a femme demi-man.

Audrey Weasley is an intersex trans woman.

Charlie Weasley is asexual and aromantic and later in his life he starts a small dragon reservation in the UK with his friend Peti Kobak who he met in Romania.

Anthony Goldstein was a trans woman, but according to another, earlier headcanon she died in the battle of Hogwarts. Combined it means she died before she had a chance to come out to anyone or choose a name, poor girl. :(

Victoire Weasley is bi. She went on a few dates with people of different genders before marrying Teddy Lupin, but none of them ever got very serious. She might at some point have had a bit of a crush on her post-Hogwarts best friend Flavia Fortescue, but she never said anything about it.

Dominique Weasley is a pan trans woman. She has a lot of romantic and sexy escapades while she travels the world as an expert on magical artefacts. At one point she dates a full Veela, at another a Muggle museum curator.

Louis Weasley (who by the way changes his last name to Delacour) is homoflexible. He has a stormy on-again-off-again relationship with Cho Chang’s son Eugene Xu. When they’re broken up he dates a bunch of other people. When he and Eugene are about to enter their fifties they agree that their next break up will be their last. After that they stay together the rest of their life.

Lucy Weasley is aromantic. She prefers to live alone, but has loads of people she consider family – her biological family, people from her House, old Quidditch team mates, fellow artists... Her best friend is Scorpius Malfoy, who was in Hufflepuff with her at Hogwarts. (He’s not one of the friends she sleeps with, though.)

Roxanne Weasley is asexual and doesn’t know whether some of the love she feels towards people could be classified as “romantic” or not – in any case she doesn’t desire any traditionally romantic relationships. She lives in a small commune of close friends where the members raise their children together, one of which she bore.

Lily Luna Potter is a lesbian. She dates Jenna Thomas-Finnegan at Hogwarts but they break up because Jenna wants children and Lily doesn’t. Much later she marries Kanti-Mair Davies (who is the daughter of Roger Davies and Padma Patil) and steps up as a second parent to her child from a previous, abusive relationship.

Lorcan Scamander-Lovegood is a queer punk. He and his Muggleborn dmab genderfluid SO champion the reintegration of the Muggle and Magical worlds.

Lysander Lovegood-Scamander is agender and femme, but uses male pronouns out of habit. He becomes the next gamekeeper at Hogwarts and casually dates school nurse Frank Longbottom Jr, among others.

---

There are probably more but these are the ones I could think of right now.

[wellenoughverse]

San's Sorting Series 10: Albus Potter

“Oh, interesting. I can hear your ‘not Slytherin’ even though you try to suppress it, you know.”

“S-sorry.”

“It’s nothing to be sorry about. Plenty of people come in with preferences. Your own father…”

“Yes, I know, he told me. But isn't the whole point of you that we shouldn't choose our Houses ourselves?”

“The point of me is to put you where you fit best, and no one will ever fit well in a House they hate.”

“I don’t h-hate Slytherin.”

“No? Then let us see. You know what you want in life, that’s for sure. A strong ambition… it seems I have a future Unspeakable in my velvet folds.”

“Yeah, but Uncle Dennis is an Unspeakable and he was a Gryffindor.”

“Oh, he is? How delightful. And surprising. Gryffindor ambition is usually for fame and recognition. An Unspeakable is a keeper of secrets and a seeker of hidden knowledge, and that’s what draws you to them, isn't it? That makes Ravenclaw an option, but your desire for siblinghood and cohesion actually makes me want to go with... SLYTHERIN!”

[wellenoughverse]

The 10 Year Anniversary of Dumbledore’s Army - Part 3

Part 1, Part 2

Warning: Mention of depression and trauma

They finished their plates in silence. Then, out of nowhere, George Weasley jumped up on his chair with a playful smile.

George pointed with his wand towards the two large, unmarked boxes he and Angelina had brought with them. At this, the boxes opened, and cake ingredients cascaded out. Lots and lots of ingredients. Surrounding each box now floated about fifty different multicoloured blobs.

Further down the table Angelina stood up on her chair too. “We need test subjects, so we’re going to hold a cake-making competition,” she announced. “We’ve divided you into two teams.” She waved her wand, and two lists of names appeared in the air beside her. “The rules are as follows: Each team will make one cake. You can use anything from your box, but nothing else. We’ve enchanted everything to keep the shape you put it in. George and I will choose the winning cake based on both literal and figurative taste. You have twenty minutes.”

“Three… two… one… GO!” George and Angelina finished together.

The two teams rushed towards the boxes. George charmed a bunch of blankets in the room to work as a screen between them. Hannah’s team collected around their box. They put their fingers into the different blobs to taste them and brainstormed ideas. Lee Jordan suggested they build a cake shaped like HogwartsCastle. People started nodding, until Dean Thomas pointed out that it’d take more than twenty minutes to make. Ginny Potter then suggested they make a cake of Umbridge in Azkaban which drew laughter but wasn’t taken seriously.

Katie Bell brought their attention to a pearly white frosting. It tasted delicious and was enchanted to shimmer, so Susan Bones suggested that they should use it to make a Patronus cake. The idea impressed Hannah, who’d only thought about wedding cakes as she munched on the frosting. Harry’s famous stag Patronus was brought up by Ron, but they realised it’d be almost as complicated as the Hogwarts cake. Then Padma Davies proposed they made the Patronus a marten in honour of her twin’s speech, which everybody agreed to.

“But what would a Patronus taste like?” Hannah pondered aloud as she went through the different fillings. Katie Bell blurted “happy but serene” and Michael Corner translated it to “fresh, sweet and mild”. They mixed cream with vanilla ice cream and puréed pears with elder blossom and alternated the two. George and Angelina walked between the two teams, giving encouragement, compliments and suggestions. It was George’s idea to separate the layers with thin films of white chocolate.

With only a few minutes left, Dean Thomas shaped the cake into a curled up marten, and they put the frosting on. All together they carefully cut a pattern of hair into it. Ginny Potter charmed the cake to wave its tail slowly, heave like it breathed and blink every now and then. With only one minute Lee Jordan rushed up with silver hundreds and thousands that he’d grounded into a fine powder. He charmed the powder to form a small cloud around the cake.

At the very last second Hermione remembered a nifty old household spell she’d learned from Molly Weasley. It made the cake reform into a smaller version of itself every time a slice was cut from it. Hannah could kiss her with gratitude. She knew that was a spell she’d come to use a lot.

Parvati cried again when she saw the marten Patronus cake. Hermione promised to save the last of the cake for her so she could take it home under a preservation charm.

The other team had built a cake shaped like a Galleon, but instead of “Gringott’s Bank” it read “Dumbledore’s Army 10 Years!” at the top. Its serial number changed between the date of DA’s founding and today’s date. It was covered in a thin layer of actual gold. As she took her first bite Hannah discovered that its main filling was a golden jam with a rich, sweet taste. It had a lot of small stones in it that Hannah enjoyed chewing through. Hannah asked Terry, who had been in the other team, what sort of jam it was.

“The label said both ‘knotberry’ and ‘cloudberry’,” he answered. “We picked it for its colour. I’d never heard about it before.” Hannah hadn’t either. She thought the jam was a bit too rich to use as cake filling unmixed, but she couldn’t wait to experiment with it in her own cooking. She thought heating it might yield interesting results...

When Hannah left her jam fantasies she noticed Terry had started talking with Padma Davies. Hannah winced. She always felt inadequate around Padma. At Hogwarts Padma had just been another student that Hannah never spoke much too, even in the DA. But when Hannah became a secretary in the Ministry of Magic Public Information Services, Padma was already a member of the New Council. Now Padma occupied the prestigious Fifth Chair, and Hannah was a barmaid. And on top of that Padma was stunningly beautiful and married to the famous actor and male robe model Roger Davies.

Hannah didn’t want to embarrass herself, so she decided to speak with Dennis Creevey and Parvati Patil instead. Parvati was as beautiful as her sister, but much more approachable, especially now that her eyes were red from crying. She and Dennis told Hannah about a great theatre performance of The Witches of Avonwick they’d seen recently. Hannah wondered to herself if they were dating, but she didn’t ask. She was sick and tired of being asked the same about her and Ernie and if they were indeed “just” friends they probably were as well.

When they’d finished eating the cakes George and Angelina went off to conspire in a corner of the room. After only half a minute they came back again.

“We have an announcement to make,” George proclaimed. “Despite a consistent execution and the clearest link to the DA in the losing cake...”

“...the prize goes to a perfect marriage of taste and form – the Patronus Cake!” Angelina finished.

Hannah’s team erupted into cheers, and she felt a smile on her face. She even gave a small hoot of her own. The other team clapped good-naturedly and Angelina wolf-whistled.

“And now I have another important announcement to make,” George said as the cheering weakened. “As you may know, my brother Ron has left Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes to work full-time as an Auror again, the traitor.”

“That’s not true! I still help develop new products,” Ron interrupted, but Hannah saw that he was smiling.

“Sorry, I cannot hear you,” George yelled back, pointing to the earless side of his head. “Anyway. To replace him Angelina stepped up to a leading position in the business.”

Hannah didn’t follow Quidditch, but she knew Angelina had played for the Appelby Arrows until she suddenly fell pregnant. It had been quite a scandal, at least according to Witch Weekly. (There had been much speculation until George Weasley was revealed as the father. That brought headlines like “Quidditch Player Betrays Dead War Hero with His Own Twin Brother”. When they’d named their son after said dead war hero it seemed the papers didn’t know what to print. That had been some months ago.) Apparently Angelina wouldn’t be going back to the team.

“But then we realised that this means we have to rename the shop ‘Weasley’s and Johnson’s Wizard Wheezes’. We didn’t think that had quite the same ring to it, so we decided to solve the problem by making her a Weasley instead. So we’re getting married!”

The room filled with cheering again.

“Not to mention that we have a kid together since exactly five months ago!” Angelina added when the cheering had died down, which led to even more cheering and demands to see the baby.

Baby Fred was fetched, but Hannah sat down in one of the sofas instead of joining the crowd around him. There was only so much heart-wrenching yearning she could take in one day. She jealously watched the proud parents from afar, so she was among the first to see George’s eyes start to water. Soon he was crying silently with baby Fred in his arms. Hannah watched Angelina and Lee Jordan guide him to a chair when Alicia Spinnet sat down beside her.

“He’s like that since… you know,” she said. She sounded close to tears herself. “One moment he’s making a joke, the next he’s crying. At least he doesn’t disapparate away any more. He and Angie will probably go home soon, though.”

Ernie and Lee soon joined Hannah and Alicia in the sofa. They chatted amiably for a while, but when Ernie soared away to grab some cookies the conversation took a turn to the physical. Lee and Alicia had joked that they regretted not bringing their one year old when they saw how high the demand was for babies at the party. Now it was quickly made clear to Hannah that they in fact cherished the child free evening. Alicia was all but sitting in Lee’s lap, and he had his hand in her hair.

Uncomfortable with this development, Hannah looked around the room. Lee and Alicia weren’t the only couple on the verge of making out. In another sofa Susan Bones was leaning far into Luna Lovegood’s personal space. She had her hand on the other woman’s knee. It didn’t look like Luna would be sleeping at Seamus and Dean’s after all. Just as when Luna had kissed Dean, Hannah’s eyes involuntarily searched out Neville Longbottom. He and Ginny Potter had dragged two chairs into a corner. Eager to get out of her awkward situation, Hannah went up to them.

“Oh, good!” said Ginny when she arrived. “You take care of Neville for me, will you? I have to find Harry and Albus so we can go home and sleep.” When she rose from her chair it was clear that she wasn’t even close to recovered from her pregnancy yet. She limped away with a look at Neville that Hannah could only describe as “meaningful”. It made her blush.

Now that she was alone with Neville in the corner. Hannah resisted an urge to see how far along Susan and Luna had gotten in their sofa. She sat down in Ginny’s vacated chair. The silence stretched between them until Neville said “I like your braids” with a sideways nod towards one of them. “Just like old times.”

“Yeah, they really bring out the nervous eleven-year-old in me, don’t they?” Hannah replied with a jittery laugh. She was twirling one of said braids between her fingers. She was indeed nervous. ‘I’m being ridiculous,’ she thought to herself.

Hannah and Neville had always been friendly at Hogwarts. They shared an interest in Herbology, and DA turned them into friends. Neville was one of the people she’d lost contact with due to her depression after the War. But Neville wasn’t just another lost friend. She’d in love with Justin, but she’d also had a quite serious crush on Neville in that fateful seventh year. She hadn’t been the only one, of course. It wouldn’t surprise Hannah if most of the students had been at least a little in love with one of the DA leaders. But Neville and Hannah were too close for her to idolise him from afar. There had been times in their shared misery when she’d even thought her crush could have become something more. But when Hannah finally accepted that Justin was dead, she felt terribly guilty that she’d had a crush on someone else. It took her years to get over that guilt. By then the Prophet had already reported that “War Heroes Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood are Dating”.

“So, I hear you work at the Leaky Cauldron now...” said Neville. Hannah realised they’d been silent for too long again.

“Yeah,” Hannah answered tentatively. This was a touchy subject for her.

“Why?” Neville asked bluntly. “You worked very hard to get that job at the Ministry. I thought it was your dream.”

“It was my dad’s dream,” Hannah said bitterly. “Or really my mum’s... She was muggle-born, you know, and no matter what she did she’d always be ‘the upstart mudblood’ to some people at the Ministry. She wanted me to follow in her footsteps and beyond. When she was murdered my dad became obsessed with the idea of me working at the Ministry.”

“Oh,” said Neville. Hannah was surprised by how easy it was for her to tell him about it. Maybe it was because she knew Neville had his own heartaches to deal with. Or maybe she was finally getting over it.

“Dad stopped working when mum died,” she continued, unprompted. “When I had to go back to Hogwarts during Voldemort’s rule he moved to Hogsmeade. He wanted to be close to me. So we lived there after the War. I couldn’t make myself go back to Hogwarts immediately, so I started working for Madam Rosmerta to have something to do. Dad went on and on about how ‘this isn’t what your mother would have wanted’ and I let him talk me into getting my NEWTs and my Ministry job. I did very well.” Hannah fell silent. Just thinking about her time at the Ministry made her feel like she couldn’t breathe.

“But then you just left?” Neville asked. There was an oddly hopeful tone in his voice.

“Well, no... One day I just couldn’t get out of bed. The healers couldn’t find what was wrong with me, but I didn’t eat unless they forced me. I thought ‘I’m going to die’ a thousand times, but then I got up and went to the Three Broomsticks to beg Madam Rosmerta to take me back. I hadn’t spoken for a week, so my voice just cracked and I cried a lot. She made me tea and told me she’d recommend me to Tom at The Leaky Cauldron. She said it’d do me good to not live with my father for a while. And now here I am.”

“What did your dad say?”

“He didn’t say anything. I didn’t let him. I told him he was going to lose me one way or another unless he kept his mouth shut. And then he cried and I cried and now we’re really polite to each other and only talk about the weather when I visit.” Hannah had only told Ernie about this before.

“You’re very brave,” said Neville. Hannah stared at him. Brave? Hadn’t he heard a word she was saying?

“I’ve been thinking about leaving the Ministry myself, actually,” he continued. “I think I might be ready for something new...” His voice trailed off as his eyes locked on something in the room behind Hannah. She turned around, and realised that he’d seen Susan and Luna at last. The two women had risen from the sofa with their arms around each other and were stumbling toward the mantelpiece, giggling and kissing.

“Oh, that,” said Hannah. “And here I was hoping to catch up with Susan today... I don’t think that’ll happen.”

It was an attempt at a joke, and Neville answered with an attempt at a smile. It was so heartbreaking that Hannah reached out and took his hand in hers with a sympathetic smile of her own.

“Life never happens the way you think it will,” she said. She sounded less bitter than she thought she would. “I’m so sorry about you and Luna.”

“Thank you,” replied Neville. He was looking down into his lap. “I’m sad too, of course, but I think both of us knew it’d never work in the long run. We were too different. I wanted to settle down, and she always says she won’t even think of marriage or kids until she’s at least thirty. She wants to see the world and have adventures every day. I want someone who wants to be with me every day...  That doesn’t mean our romance was a failure. But as I said, I think I’m ready for something new.”

He lifted his eyes to hers, and the moment became unbearably intense. Hannah dropped his hand and looked away, but she was still smiling. Maybe she too was ready for something new.

Epilogue

[wellenoughverse]

San's Sorting Series 9: Scorpius Malfoy

“Aah, a Malfoy. That usually doesn’t take much deliberation, and I see in this head of yours that you do indeed think I’ll put you in Slytherin. But I’m not so sure. There are points speaking for it, absolutely – you have a willingness to disregard the rules you don’t like which is very Slytherin, or even Gryffindor, for that matter.”

“I don’t think I’d like being in Gryffindor.”

“No, no, definitely not! It’s just the one trait. Other than that you’re group oriented in both work and play, with a wish for a strong community. You have loads of determination which can be seen as Slytherin ambition, but can also point in another direction, especially considering the fact that you only break rules as long as no one else is put at a disadvantage by it. Can you guess where I’m considering putting you?”

“…Hufflepuff.”

“Ah, so this possibility too has struck you before, I take it.”

“Yeah… But it seemed too weird. Isn’t Hufflepuff and Slytherin, like, opposites?”

“No, actually, not at all. This is a much more common difficulty than people seem to think. It’s usually resolved by the sortee being dead set against one of the Houses. You have an admirably open mind for someone who isn’t Muggleborn.”

“Er… thanks? That’s not really a compliment where I come from.”

“It should be. Having an open mind is always a good thing. And more Hufflepuff than Slytherin, now that I think about it.”

“Just put me where you think I’ll fit best.”

“All right. It’s good that you’re steeling yourself for the reactions, then, because in that case I’m going to go with HUFFLEPUFF!”

[sansigma]

Did you know that you can make a comic telling the whole locket scene from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince using just the cover art of different editions?

[wellenoughverse]

We now interrupt the very much irregular posting for something a bit different. I thought this might go as well here as on my main blog.

[wellenoughverse]

San’s Sorting Series 8: Lucy Weasley

“Helpful, loyal, and very concerned about fair play – this one is easy, you’re a H–”

“Wait! Aren’t you even going to consider Gryffindor?”

“Gryffindor? Oh, yeah, you are a Weasley after all, but I just put one of you in Hufflepuff so I don’t see why you’d think you couldn’t go there… Would you prefer Gryffindor?”

“…maybe? But it’s more that I just didn’t think I was such a clear Hufflepuff.”

“Well, there is bravery and a certain feistiness to you, and you have a clear will to stand up for yourself and others, but that goes quite well with Hufflepuff too, especially as you unite it with a strong work ethic, trustworthiness, an enjoyment of working together with others and loads of other Hufflepuff traits.”

“I guess I see your point. And you’re sure I wouldn’t do… better in Gryffindor?”

“Better? Where most people prefer to work alone and you’d have to put work into proving yourself instead of improving yourself? No, I’m sure you’d do ‘better’, as you put it, in Hufflepuff by far. So… Hufflepuff?”

“Hufflepuff.”

“HUFFLEPUFF!”

[wellenoughverse]

23) Newt Scamander was part of what made Gilderoy Lockhart's supposed feats believable.

Every time someone said something along the lines of "Things dosen't add up! No one could possibly defeat a werewolf merely two days after nearly being killed by a vampire.", someone else would counter with "Well, Professor Scamander did after all beat off an Occamy with only a kettle while recovering from an Acromantula bite."