Luwinaforna24 - Secret Garden Of Poetry

I’m super depressed right now show me your favorite snail please

leptopoma perlucida- the lucid snail!

I’m rereading The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and I forgot how much fun it was! love Reepicheep and his constant longing for Aslan’s Country, to the point where he’s willing to die for it; his tendency to always want to do the honorable and knightly thing. (I find all the “bother Reepicheep” comments pretty hilarious, it’s like whenever he opens his mouth they’re forced to agree with him because he makes everyone else sound cowardly and dishonorable in comparison) And then there’s Caspian, always caught up between being king and being a boy, Lucy and Edmund enjoying everything in general and feeling so at home, Eustace annoying and being annoyed by everyone before Dragon Island—I specifically love his diary entries—and those little moments that you don’t get as much of in the other books because usually there’s some kind of important quest or war going on... like hearing them talk about what it will be like to fall over the world’s edge: Reep is thrilled by the idea, Eustace is understandably confused (“are these people flat earthers?” lol) and Caspian just wants to go to a “round like a ball” world which is apparently only a thing in fairytales.

I get harry that harry wanted to name his kids after people he loved and people who died protecting him. I totally get that feeling of gratitude but what bugs me is the choice of names.

Sirius, James and Lily? Justified.

But Albus Severus? Really? One of them literally protected him to kill him in the end and the other one bullied him and his friends. They may deserve some recognition but didn’t they already get a hell lot of recognition?!

What about the other people who actually gave away their lives to protect Harry without demanding anything in return. They just fought selflessly to protect their world and their loved ones and got no recognition what so ever.

17 year old Cedric Diggory trying to make his parents proud.

18 year old Regulus Black trying to right the wrong of his ways.

Alastor Moody trying to protect the only hope left in the world he’s grown old protecting.

Ted Tonks trying to protect his wife and daughter in a world where his kind are in grave danger.

20 year old Fred Weasley trying to protect his family, and fighting for what is right and for the kind messy haired boy who’s now become family.

38 year old Remus Lupin trying to protect his best friends’ (who he couldn’t protect) son and to make the world a better place for his own son.

25 year old NymphadoraTonks trying to make a world a better place for her son, fighting for her dad and against the unfair practice.

17 year old Lavender Brown doing what she felt is right.

16 year old Colin creevy trying to protect his childhood idol and not caring if he’s underage because this is what he feels is correct.

And 50 other people who we don’t even know the names of because  Harry doesn’t bother finding out. And Rebeus Hagrid? He made Harry a birthday cake and bought him an owl for his 11th birthday and he didn’t even know him. He loved everyone unconditionally and was extremely loyal even after all he’s gone through. That man deserves the world.  Hagrid deserves more recognition than he ever got by anyone (be it Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dmbledore and the whole wizarding community).

These people are the real heroes and they don’t deserve to be forgotten.

Animal of the Day!

Chinese Giant Salamander (Andrias davidianus)

(Photo from San Deigo Zoo)

Conservation Status- Critically Endangered

Habitat- China

Size (Weight/Length)- 25 kg; 115 cm

Diet- Fish; Insects; Crayfish; Frogs; Other salamanders; Crabs

Cool Facts- The Chinese giant salamander is both the largest and rarest amphibian in the world. Completely aquatic, these giant salamanders spend the majority of their time sleeping under rocks. When not sleeping, they eat practically anything. They prefer freshwater crabs but they have been reported to engage in cannibalism. Despite their near blind state, they are expert hunters by using vibrations sensed on nodes along their spine. Females and males only live together during the breeding season and until the eggs hatch. The male protects these eggs with his life while the female hunts for food. Due a mass decline in population from population, illegal hunting, and habitat destruction, zoos and breeding facilities around the world are working to save these massive salamanders.

Rating- 13/10 (Absolutely massive, friendly friend.)

Let’s talk about a cat who spent a whole day waiting on a wall, while everyone else was celebrating, because she had heard something and she couldn’t believe it. Because people were laughing for the first time in years, and all she wanted to do was cry.

Let’s talk about a teacher who was strict and severe, but fair and caring. A woman who fought for her students until the very end, with her green robes and stern look, three silver cats flying out of her wand. And they fought for her too.

Let’s talk about Minerva McGonagall.

When Minerva McGonagall saw Harry for the first time, she didn’t see his mother living in his green eyes, like Severus would. She didn’t see James’ ghost in his shy smile, like Sirius; or a hero to be shaped by manipulative hands, like Albus. She didn’t even see an orphan, like the rest of the world did. She didn’t see the boy who lived. She just saw a boy, her student, and for her, that was enough.

Minerva McGonagall survived a war and all that came after. The funerals and the sorrow, but also the laughter that was back. She survived the ghosts and the mourning. She let her heart break over Lily’s death, her hands shaking because James would never make another joke; a sharp, disappointed pain over Sirius’ betrayal (they had been her students. They had been her children) and then she collected the pieces and moved on. It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, Albus said once. And she didn’t dwell on dreams. She was stone and she would not shatter.

She survived a war, and, when she had already buried the dead and forgotten the nightmares, another one came. And she survived it too. She was a rock, and rocks may be weathered, but they don’t break.

When Fred and George Weasley abandoned the school, leaving behind a trail of cheers, admirers and laughter, and a petition (give her hell for us, Peeves), Minerva saw Umbridge’s fury and Peeves’ bow, and hid a smile in the corner of her lips. When Neville Longbottom came to her office, asking for advice, with his clumsy hands and a respectful fear in his eyes, she offered him a biscuit and some tea, and she gave him reassurance with her stern frown and her steady voice.

When Remus Lupin became the DADA teacher, she invited him to her office. She offered him biscuits too, some chocolate this time. They talked for a long time, about old times and forgotten joys, about four friends and their mischiefs and pranks. They looked back on their bets and their antics, their hopes and their dreams. They didn’t talk about death, not that evening, and the Marauders came back to life in that room, their voices rising and stealing pieces of a future they hadn’t gotten to live. They also talked about their students, homework and assignments, because they were teachers after all, and that was something worth remembering.

She gave him a knitted jumper for Christmas. He gave her a box of chocolates. Years later, she would stand by his grave and leave a single flower on it. A flower for the boy she’d known and the man he’d become. The man who was kind and quiet and healing. The man she’d like to have gotten to know better.

Albus died then, a shout and a blaze of green light. A fall, and it was all over. It felt like the end of an age. “Are the rumours true?”, she had asked, once upon a time. Now she wanted to ask Harry the same thing, trying to keep her voice from shaking, because Albus Dumbledore couldn’t be dead, could he? But then again, James and Lily couldn’t have been, either, and yet they had been, they were.

When the Second Wizarding War began, she stayed at the school. She kept teaching, because she was a teacher and she would not let them take that from her. Because her students were there, and she wouldn’t leave them alone. She wouldn’t let them die, all those brave children, if she could do something to save them. She wasn’t like Albus, who had prepared himself to sacrifize a boy in the name of the greater good. A boy’s life for the sake of the world.

After the Battle of Hogwarts, there was a destroyed castle and ashes. Minerva stumbled when she saw George’s desperation and Fred’s frozen smile. She wanted to cry when she came across Lavender’s body. She finally collapsed to her knees, when she found Colin Creevey. She had seen him this still, once before. But there were no mandrake leaves to save him, not this time. He was too young. He shouldn’t have been fighting a war, the brave and naïve boy.

Pomona Sprout kneeled next to her then, and Minerva sobbed on her shoulder.

“A boy”, she cried. “He was a boy, he was a child. Children, they were children.”

Pomona let her weep, and then she said,

“There are children here still. They are alive, and they need you, and more will come, and you’ll be there. And you’ll be fine.”

And she was right. Minerva collected the pieces once again, and she moved on. She sent a box of chocolates to Dennis Creevey, as Remus would have done, because he was so much better at being kind than her. Than any of them, really. Dennis sent her a photograph, an old picture of Albus and her, the Weasley twins laughing in the background. She met Molly Weasley for tea, and they shared anecdotes. And she went back to Hogwarts and she kept teaching, because she was a teacher before anything else. She became the new headmaster. The best one of them all.

Some years later, Neville Longbottom knocked at her door, asking for a job. She remembered all the times he had come, asking for advice with his stammering voice. She remembered the way he had led the resistance, the way he had stood up and defied the ones who had made his parents lose their minds. The way he had worked hard and stubborn, never giving up. She offered him a biscuit and some tea. She had never felt so proud.

When he left, she went through some papers. She looked up and the portrait of Albus Dumbledore winked at her. She smiled and went back to work.

When Teddy Lupin arrived at Hogwarts for the first time, expectation in his eyes and bright colours in his hair, he was nothing like the other orphan who had stared at her once upon a time, the one who had had skinny elbows and broken glasses. Teddy Lupin wasn’t looking for a family, he already had one. But, as she had done before, she saw another student, and for her, that was enough.

She was a teacher. Students were her children. And she was their rock.

In every wood in every spring there is a different green.

hmmm

on the pevensies’ names

SO there’s something that always bothered me about Susan, and that was: why is she called Susan??? Peter, Edmund and Lucy’s names all have clear significance, but I never could see what about the name ‘Susan’ was important for her character 

UNTIL my last reread of the Chronicles, when I spotted something in VoDT that I couldn’t BELIEVE I’d never noticed before. It’s a HUGE pointer towards what happens with whether Susan eventually returns to her belief or not, and although I’m sure I’m not the first person to have seen it, I can’t remember reading about it in any Susan’s-fate discussions before, so here goes.

Peter, Edmund and Lucy all have names with deep significance. ‘Peter’ means ‘rock’, which is clearly well suited to his role as the ‘rock’ of the family, but perhaps more importantly he’s named after Saint Peter, who in the Bible is something like the rock upon which my church is founded. The Pope sits on ‘the throne of Saint Peter’ as God’s representative on earth (for the catholic church at least), and Peter’s throne is that of the High King (CS Lewis did a little power in Narnia flowchart thing and Peter sits right below Aslan on it I think). plus the whole Peter-and-the-gate-of-heaven thing in LB. 

‘Edmund’ is a two-part name, translating to ‘prosperity’ and ‘protector’. Sure, ‘protector’ is applicable because of his actions against the Witch, but his name is mostly significant because of its use in Shakespeare - in King Lear, Edmund is the name of the Duke of Gloucester’s bastard younger son, who betrays his family to gain power. Shakespeare’s Edmund is never completely redeemed, but he is an ambiguous character who can be played as really awful or quite sympathetic or a bit of both, and he’s got lots of parallels to Narnia’s Edmund.

‘Lucy’ means ‘light’ and hers is pretty straightforward - she shines the light onto the path to Narnia and to Aslan for her family.

But Susan? ‘Susan’ means ‘lily’, and for the longest time I could not for the life of me figure out why that was important. CS Lewis wouldn’t give all the others such significant names and then come to Susan and be like oh well I guess that will do, but I couldn’t find what it was. Sure, lilies are flowers traditionally used at funerals, which is a bleak bit of foreshadowing, but it didn’t seem like enough. 

AND THEN

I was reading VoDT and at the end, when they get close to Aslan’s country, what do they find? A SEA OF

LILIES

and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed this - that the flower on the path to Aslan’s country is the flower Susan is named for. which, combined with the foreshadowing in PC about her returning to Aslan, is a pretty strong hint about her eventual path.

If we also take a look at a compass - the sea of lilies is in the utter east. it’s heavily implied in the Narnia books that Susan’s path away from Narnia starts when she goes to America, which - from England - is a journey west, the opposite way. so Lewis is definitely paying attention to direction here. and to the east, on the pathway to Aslan’s country, he filled it with Susan’s flowers.  

my whole standpoint on the problem of Susan is a bit more complicated, but I think this is a lovely whisper from Lewis about her eventually getting to rejoin her family

Meghan Markle on losing her voice during her time with the Royal Family, but finding her voice again with her freedom.

At breakfast table

Ravenclaw: I need someone to borrow their homework for me to copy

Gryffindor: You? Homework? I'm confused why haven't you done yours?

Ravenclaw: I got busy last night with a research on the European monarchs and tracked their families down until 1576 or so and forgot the homework

Hufflepuff: Why on Earth would you -

Slytherin: Don't you dare to get them started. *hands over the homework*