a concept: heavy rainfall when you’re tucked up in bed. like if u agree.
“God, how painful it is, being angry.”
— Simone de Beauvoir, tr. by Justin O’Brien, from “The Woman Destroyed,”
when u first read the secret history it’s like oh, what an elegant and deep piece of literature. and then ur like…………bunny steals a frozen cheesecake from someone on financial aid. charles gets high and kills a bee at the funeral of his friend, who he helped to murder. henry didn’t know that people landed on the moon. richard thinks he’s straight. francis is hesitant that their alibi is going to the theater because he doesn’t want people to think he went to see such terrible movies. “and as we leave donne and walton on the shores of metahemeralism, we wave a fond farewell to those famous chums of yore.“ what the hell is going on in this book
(This is in a universe where everything is legal and consensual and the age difference is not creepy at all just in case) — - Teddy is totally the little spoon - James’s favorite hair color on Teddy is actually pink. - Teddy’s favorite part of James’s body is his collarbones - James could spend hours watching Teddy studying, because when he focuses really hard his lower lip kind of juts out in the most adorable pout. - Teddy blushes and sucks in his lip every time James points this out. - At first they were so reluctant to tell their family they were together, but ended up unintentionally making out in the Potter’s backyard for the whole family to see. (The unintentional part was the audience, not the kissing. Obviously) - Teddy loved the way James had a tendency to fall asleep while he played with Teddy’s hair. One minute the hand was moving, the other James was snoring softly. - They rarely fought, but when they did, they didn’t speak to each other for at least a week, after which each of them was too drained without then other’s company, and got back together without a word. - Lily Luna was literally the biggest shipper. She loved her three gay brothers. - Teddy and James were prone to fall asleep in front of the muggle TV at the Potter’s, tangled up in each other. Everyone wonder how that could ever be comfortable but they never asked - James said ‘I love you’ first, to everyone’s surprised. -Teddy said it less than half a second after. - Their first kiss happened under the willow by the lake (no, not the whomping one), in autumn, when they were freezing to death but too immersed with each other to either notice or care. - Teddy cried a lot about his parents. James was always there, no matter how many times. - Like his dad, Teddy had a tendency to self-loath, something he and James often fought about. - James just couldn’t believe how such an amazing human being could hate himself so much. He tried to prove every one of Teddy’s arguments wrong every day. - They loved each other so much.
Padma sneaking Parvati into Ravenclaw Tower all the time and letting her stay in her dorm room because Parvati is allergic to Crookshanks.
Anthony and Terry arguing over which twin is who because they are known to switch ties all the time just to mess with everyone.
Cho organizing parties after every Quidditch match win or lose. Marietta taking care of food and drinks because she has “connections”.
“Connections” meaning she flirts with the Hufflepuffs because they have a secret easy access to the kitchens.
Luna’s things disappearing and then reappearing around the common room two months later. Her shoes tend to pop up elsewhere though.
Luna having thoughtful Saturday afternoon conversations with The Grey Lady about being dead.
Peeves bouncing around the common room for hours every single Tuesday night without fail and as a result the library stays open two hours longer than usual so the Ravenclaws can study.
Anthony spending more time doodling in his notebook than doing classwork and getting caught by McGonagall.
Su Li having an eagle owl that basically hates everyone and the entire Ravenclaw table knows to duck whenever they see it coming through the Great Hall because if you so much as look at it the wrong way it will go for your hair. Or your breakfast.
Terry never making it back to Ravenclaw Tower before curfew and getting into arguments with the Tower knocker because the questions become twice as difficult after curfew to discourage late night stragglers. Clearly it doesn’t work on him.
Every year after CoS, the Ravenclaws make bets on what sort of shit Harry Potter is going to get himself into. His fifth year Padma made a few Galleons off the fact that Loony Lovegood got mixed up in it.
I think another big thing with the Weasleys kids is the age breakdown. Percy is closer in age to Ginny than he is to Bill—that whole bottom five is squished together, and it creates some weird dynamics. When Harry meets the Weasleys, Percy Seems like the oldest. But he’s not *really.* He is very much a middle child. Even though he’s two years above the twins in School, their birthdays put them at closer to a year and a half…much closer than the almost four years between Percy and Charlie.
I always got the impression that Charlie and Bill were their own unit—and the rest of the kids were the babies. Now, Percy is kind of the leader of the babies, but he’s still a baby.
And that’s immediately apparent when Bill and Charlie come home in GoF. They are cool and sophisticated and looked up to…and Percy argues with his little brothers. He DOES get included with his big brothers in fighting the Death Eaters…but he drops back down quickly to the Kid Section as soon as the crisis is over.
It’s an awkward place for Percy to be, and I think it contributes to his Ugly Duckling syndrome. Because to his younger siblings, he vacillates wildly between being almost a peer to being Mum’s Second in Command. They don’t know what to make of him: will he play with them today, or is today a day where he’s writing a report to Mum? And his older brothers are just…too old growing up to really engage with him.
Percy’s in this spot where he needs to take a position of leadership and responsibility in the family—because Bill and Charlie leave for school and then work well before they stop being Needed at home—but Percy’s also so Young when that happens.
And Percy takes on that emotional burden. Sometimes smugly: “Ginny has Other Brothers to set an example for her,” sometimes with a temper that reveals how close in age he truly is to them (see: every interaction with the twins), but more often than not, it’s very sincere and poignant. Percy doesn’t ASK his siblings to like him. He seems pretty okay doing his own thing in life. But he Does constantly look to and move to protect them. He loves them in a way that’s really almost parental, when it’s all said it done. It’s flawed as a sibling relationship, and I hope that as they grow up, that weirdness in ages evens out and they can all relate to each other as peers. But it is something really interesting.
fleur delacour falling in love with bill weasley because he sees her. his youngest brother looked and went hair-eyes-teeth-legs, thought body, thought sex. her whole life, men have been looking and seeing a thing, not a girl. since she turned thirteen and bud-breasts pressed up against her shirts and boys at school wanted to sit close, men back home lingered too long in hugs.
until she was fifteen she dressed herself in shame before she put any clothes on at all. wore everything a few sizes too big, a few inches too long. draped herself in thick fabrics to hide the body beneath them. never learned that hot eyes on her were the fault of their owners, not her. took the uncomfortable stares and the endless flirtation as a fact of life. was fourteen the first time she dared to say “stop looking!” and met only laughter.
it’s not until she’s nearly sixteen and her sister is turning ten that she sees eyes begin to slide over her and to gabrielle. a friend of their father’s, not even that deep into a bottle of wine, caresses a child-round cheek and murmurs a line from lolita, eyes too bright and lips too dry. gabrielle flickers a panicked glance around the room. that look is so familiar. the same hour fleur switches her baggy sweatshirt for a crop top and rolls her skirt over two inches.
they will look at her. never at her sister.
at school, the same. at home, the same. slowly, she learns to be less ashamed of the looking. to play to the object they expect her to be. she comes to scotland and she’s the centre of attention. they hear her name pulled out of the goblet of fire and all anyone wants to talk about is her legs in that skirt. she defeats a dragon and boys whisper all the dirty things they want to do to her just moments after they finish comparing cedric’s charmwork to krum’s reflexes to harry’s flying. they watch her pass in the hallways and their eyes glaze over like she’s a thing put there for their pleasure.
fleur lifts her head high and lets the stares keep coming.
then she meets bill weasley, and not long after he asks her how she’s doing. asks it like he really means it, like it matters to him that she still gets nervous going around blind corners, that vines make her skin crawl and that the green flash of a hex makes her mind go too blank with fear to defend herself. he brings her a bottle of his favourite whiskey and sinks deep into it, tells her about his life and his job and asks about that night in the maze she doesn’t think about. he doesn’t look at her legs even once.
the next time she brings him her favourite wine and they share it. she’s giggling and silly by the end of the evening and he laughs with her, laughs at her like an equal and not like a thing he wants to fuck. he takes her to her door and leaves her in the care of her friends and he doesn’t do it because he thinks it’ll make scoring easier next time. doesn’t decide his actions based on which will result in sex the fastest.
he doesn’t ask her out until he’s laid himself bare for her, doesn’t even touch her until she reaches down and presses her fingers into his. the first night she feels brave enough to go home with him he keeps her up at the kitchen table until three am telling her all the things he likes about her. her physical appearance doesn’t even make the top one hundred. he says, how much you love your sister. how fierce you look when i take the last croissant. that funny french way you roll your ‘r’s. how you try to tell me jokes but laugh too much to finish them. how you know exactly how many children you want, and the precise shade of blue you’ll use to decorate your nursery. the bravery of you. the way your mind moves so fast sometimes i can’t keep up with it. the fact that i think you could do my job ten times as effectively as i can. they fall asleep on top of his covers, fully clothed, and the next morning fleur has to say yes i want this i am sure that i want this ten times before he starts to undress her.
his family call her all the things she’s heard a million times before. fleur lifts her head high and lets the insults keep coming. his brothers still sometimes look at her like they’ve forgotten to see a person, his mother mutters under her breath about fleur’s lack of suitability, his sister takes every opportunity to express her dislike. they see her beauty and they think they know her. they watch her move and they think she’s nothing more than her body and face.
but bill weasley sees her. and fleur will not let anything—not a war, not lycanthropy, not a disapproving family—take him away from her.
Me: *wants to get over a book*
Also Me: *rereads favorite scenes over and over, tracks the tag, reblog everything to do with the book*
Random Teddy/James headcanons….
James won’t let anyone call him anything except James, except for Teddy who has about 100 different nicknames and terms of endearment for him and is the only one who would ever get away with it
Teddy always has chocolate in his pockets, and sometimes he forgets about it until after things have gotten a bit hot and heavy with James and he finds the melted sweets. James always laughs at him, taking Teddy’s fingers with a wicked smile and licking it off.
James loves Teddy’s appearance, loves his piercings and tattoos and his wild hair. It’s so unaffectedly Teddy; its bold and unforgettable. But his favorite is when Teddy is sleeping, when everything sort of slips away and he’s so relaxed, his hair its natural plain brown and his face so relaxed. James loves him like this the most not because he’s less of anything, but because James knows he is the only one who gets to see him like this.
No matter how old James get, or how long they date, he never seems to get tired of broomstick innuendo, sliding up behind Teddy at family dinners and gleefully whispering “Wanna go for a ride on my broom, Lupin?”
James has no shame. At all. It isn’t long before the family stops looking for them when they go missing on holidays or celebrations because they already know what they’re likely to stumble upon.
No matter how much James pretends not to be sappy or sentimental, Teddy knows it isn’t true. Teddy knows he keeps a box hidden under the bed with cards and travel tickets and little things Teddy has given him.
Teddy isn’t sentimental, not the way James is. He doesn’t need bold romantic declarations and he doesn’t keep cards and letters. All he needs is James, right beside him, all he needs is one touch or kiss to remember everything.
And, like, maybe a few movies too
The Secret History By Donna Tartt (Obviously!)
Dead Poets Society (Movie and Book)
If We Were Villians by M.L. Rio (Very similiar to TSH, also a personal favorite)
The History Boys by Alan Bennett (A play)
Vicious by V.E. Schwab (I think more superhero oriented? Ive never read it)
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Black Chalk by Christopher J. Yates
The Lessons by Naomi Alderman
The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis
Kill your Darlings (Movie, I hated it)
More Female oriented Academia books
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler
The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
Sleepwalking by Meg Wolizter
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (okay, only vaguely academic but still a good book)
The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman
I heard the movie Mona Lisa Smile is good too
A list of some other academic school books
Feel free to add on to this post.
Your first date was at the arcade
He thought you would complain but oh boy was he wrong
Once you stood in that damn arcade, you let your inner nerd out
“Oh my god! This is from like the 50s! This is amazing!”
He’d be amazed about how much you know about games. He fell for you hard that night.
Date nights would be really chill with him
You’d go to Hongdae, get some food, buy some weird things you don’t even need.
He’d insist to pay for everything
One time you paid for your food and he got upset and didn’t talk to you for 10 minutes
When you feet hurt, he’d either carry you or give you his shoes even though they’re too big
He’d end up giving you a piggy back ride or throw you over his shoulders
Dates would be filled with teasing and making fun of your Korean, because you sometimes pronounce things weirdly
You’d make fun of him if his satoori came out
This boy is too shy to even look at you if you’re in public
Nevertheless, he’d hold your waist if it starts to get too crowded
When you’re alone, that’s when he can’t keep his hands off you
He’d be grabbing your butt constantly, squeezing and pinching it
He loved your reaction to it so it became a habit of his
LOVES touching your boobs while you’re cuddling
He’d just cup one of your boobs lazily as you’re watching tv
I can imagine Jungkook showing his affection in a really cheesy way
Like he’d get you flowers once in a while
Buy you random jewelry because he thought it would look good on you
LOVES HUGGING OH MY DAYS
Loves kissing you on your shoulder and cheek because your skin just feels so soft
The boys would tease him whenever he’d call you “jagi” “nae sarang” or “my princess”
He’d blush really hard and hide his face in the crook of your neck which just made you giggle uncontrollably.
You reached the state in which he called you a “bitch” and you called him “bastard” or “Asshole”
But if someone else insulted you… OH SHIT BOI RUN
You were his first and he was your first
Both of you were just so awkward and didn’t know what to do at first
Of course he had everything planned out perfectly but when it came to actually doing the dirty, he was freaking out
He didn’t even know how to take your bra off
Your first time was slow and careful. Both of you needed to get used to the new feeling. (it was great tbh)
Now, when he’s in the bedroom with you, he’s even more confident than ever before
Loooooooves teasing the fuck out of you until you beg for him to stop
The room would be filled with a mixture of giggles and moans
Can be a dom but also a sub. Depends on his mood, and yours of course.
Since he’s so young he’d be up to trying new things
He always wanted to try to handcuff you to the bed while he takes you from behind
Just the thought of it drove him insane
So when you said yes to his idea he didn’t know how to react (404 Jungkook error)
“How about we try this position?”
“Are you on a kama sutra website?”
“….yes”
Honestly, your fights would be about him playing hIS GOD DAMN GAMES TOO MUCH
Of course you didn’t mind him playing, you were actually quite supportive of his hobby, but his health was getting affected by it
“Babe your posture is so fucking bad. You look like Quasimodo”
“You look like Ursula, that’s not better”
After you kind of calmed down, he’d start to tease you in a loving way just to hear you laugh again
He’d be the first to apologize
He hated seeing you upset and all he wanted was to make you happy again
You can’t stay mad at him for long, especially when he flashes you one of his precious bunny smiles.
He’d be so dramatic about him having to leave
Like you HAD TO DRAG HIM OUT OF THE HOUSE SO HE WOULDN’T MISS HIS FLIGHT
He’d pretend like he’s going off for war but his dramatic ass just made you laugh so much
But seriously though, he’d practically die without you
“You don’t know how to cook a god damn egg?” Jin would ask him angrily
“(Y/N) always cooks them for me”
He’d annoy his hyungs about how much he misses you and especially your cuddles
You were quite busy yourself so you couldn’t talk a lot
but when you did, calls would last for hours
And of course, he’d tease you about the way your messy hair looked and how you looked without makeup
You missed it so much
He wouldn’t necessarily do dirty talk while being on the phone or FaceTime because he didn’t want anyone to hear
But be prepared to get a lot of sexting when he missed you tad bit too much.
All his calls and texts would end with “I love you my princess” or “Don’t you dare dream about anyone else but me you bitch”