A Harry Potter Au Where Potions Is Taught By Gordon Ramsay

There are many good reasons to be salty about Jewish representation in the HP universe but it actually does make sense, given 1991 UK population stats and Hogwarts’ implied size, for there to only be one Jewish Hogwarts student.

Probably James Sirius Studying

James : "Okay I'll start studying at 8:00."

*some time goes by*

*time is 8:01*

James : "Oh well, I missed it, I'll start at 9:00 then"

Books with Morally Ambiguous Characters

I thought I might share my personal favorite books with evil or morally ambiguous characters since you’ve all shared your favorites.

Vicious

(main character is awesome and very grey)

The golden compass

(really goes into detail what evil and good really mean and has a ton of morally questionable characters in the second book)

The Bartimaeus trilogy

(main character does a lot of bad shit for selfish reasons but you still love him anyways somehow?? And there’s a lot of themes involving systematic oppression and propaganda manipulation and ethics)

The curseworkers

(the main character is constantly put into situations where he has to choose the lesser of two evils. Not to mention mafia families)

Six of crows

(do I even have to say…?)

Howls moving castle

(howl is seen as morally ambiguous in the beginning because of his reputations, so this technically counts. Also I love this book to death)

I hunt killers

(so the main character is super psychopathic and manipulative and overall a creepy ass person. He’s always questioning whether or not he’s truly a good person or just pretends to be or is hiding something worse. This psychological thriller is fucking incredible and underrated.)

The name of the wind

(the main character is the most realistically human I’ve ever met. He’s so real I can touch him. He’s also very morally ambiguous in ways I can’t say because it’s all spoilerly)

Artemis Fowl

(greedy selfish 12 year old criminal mastermind kidnapps a fairy for ransom money. What I love about this series is that he grows throughout the books and his character is constantly developing. He is definitely morally ambiguous and has no problem embracing his cunniving and devious nature)

The Cruel Prince

( every character is an asshole. Every. Character. No excuses, no secrets, just pure assholes. And you’ll love them)

The lies of Locke Lamora

(one of my ALLTIME favorite books. Locke lamora is like a darker shade of grey. He’s selfish, slightly murderous, incredibley human and very handsome. This motherfucker is the leader of a group of conmen who steal money from the rich but keep it for themselves. They are grade A smart assess and they have to make actual hard choices that really determine their character. I’m not gonna say more because there’s no way I can fit this masterpiece into a small summery bye)

The wrath and the Dawn

(The Prince is such a morally grey character. As you read on you’ll question whether or not he actually kills his brides or if there’s another deeper mystery to him. His choices are very questionable and very….bad? I can’t describe how amazing these books are)

mythology family ♥︎ menthe for @221bcecil

in greek mythology, menthe was a cocythian nymph, and beloved by hades, was metamorphosed by persephone into a mint plant, or, according to others, she was changed into dust, from which Hades caused the mint plant to grow forth.

Jeddy headcanons (i need more of this ship in my life I'm)

(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.

Headcannon : ( Teddy Lupin)

Can we all agree that:

Seeing that Teddy Lupin is just like Tonks; being a metamorphmagus.

Teddy morphing into people who are having a hard time whether they should dye or cut their hair.

So in that way, they can see what they would look like if they did it, also helping them if it looked bad/good on them.

On Anthony Goldstein: Judaism in the Potterverse

[NOTE: I don’t know why I have been obsessed with this for like, the last week, but I have, so here you go. Also, I cannot believe an Anthony Goldstein tag actually exists on Tumblr. When I despair, I am reminded that no one quite obsesses over barely-extant characters like the HP fandom, and I love them for it.]

I find Anthony Goldstein a really fascinating way to think about the way that a Jewish character would fit into the wider spectrum of the magical world as realized by JK Rowling. On the surface, it shouldn’t matter. A Jew should’t be any different from any other minority culture shoved into Ravenclaw (which for what it’s worth seems to be the house that stereotypically high-achieving minorities get sorted into). And yet it’s a question worth thinking about, particularly because Rowling’s world is constructed on notions specifically Christian in character.

This largely boils down to the struggle of Absolute Good vs Absolute Evil, with terms of morality used as alternative names for God and Satan, two independent forces in eternal opposition.  This dichotomy isn’t really a thing in Judaism (Satan is understood as an agent of God). The books are ultimately framed in the context of this struggle, from the world building to Harry’s personal coming of age and fight against Voldemort. It is the very foundation of British Wizarding culture, and to not proscribe to this view would leave someone like Anthony Goldstein permanently alienated.  

Culture clash would arise for Goldstein out of such things as the notion of ‘the Dark Arts.’ In traditional Potterverse, the Dark Arts are 'Dark’ because of some evil that seems inherent in the nature of the creature/spell. The reaction toward such magic is 'defense,’ by either learning how to beat the creatures, or counteract the spellwork. Judaism would not, arguably, make the distinction between good and evil magic in such terms. They would not be mutually exclusive. Magic would be considered evil in the context of its practitioner, not so much in the particulars of a spell or beast. Specifically, magic would be primarily understood as evil if the one who uses it does so to render himself a God-like figure. The ramifications of this would be subtle but significant. Voldemort, for instance, would be evil not because of the magic that he uses, but because he uses it with the intent to elevate himself above the condition of man, and exact powers that humanity should not possess.

This would give rise to the question of whether any sort of magical power is permissible for humans, a question that I could see being an ongoing concern for Goldstein, particularly as he presumably lacks the presence and affirmation of other Jewish wizards in Hogwarts. I could  see Goldstein as someone predisposed to disciplines that require an individual to not see himself or herself in inherent opposition with a type of magic, such as Care of Magical Creatures.

Jewish tradition has a history of magic different from that of medieval Britain, from which a lot of the stock images and sentiment in Potterverse arises. Rather than identifying with Merlin, or the Witches burned at the stake, a Jewish wizard might instead look instead to the 'miracles’ of certain medieval Rabbis, or Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel and the Golem of Prague, or King Solomon. Demons instead of Goblins as the morally ambiguous, humanoid figure. Dybbuks instead of Boggarts. Magic derived from Hebrew as opposed to Latin. There is the potential that Goldstein would find himself, or his family, identifying with a magical past and identity that would have very little to do with that adopted by British wizardry, and by extension Hogwarts as a community and educational establishment. 

Then of course there is the fun of parsing apart the whose and wheres of Anthony Goldstein. Is he a North London Jew?  The next generation of an old British family? Or apart of one of the twentieth century Jewish-immigration waves? Is there a wider Jewish Wizarding community, or is he an anomaly? The last of a tradition? Judaism’s rich tradition of fantasy storytelling and folktales were largely wiped out along with the rural European communities that fostered them, so it wouldn’t be far-fetched that if there was a larger Jewish Wizarding community, it had all but vanished after the Holocaust, and that people like Goldstein represent what remains of a nearly-extinct subculture. 

 Anti-Semitism was historically a feature of elite British boarding schools, and it would not be unreasonable to assume that it would extend to magical ones, especially seeing as there is even less of an established Jewish presence in the magical community than the muggle one.  

Anthony Goldstein would likely never have a place where he could realize himself fully, constantly requiring to either subdue his magic, or his Jewishness in turn. He would find himself alienated on a fundamental level with the British magical community, and would be plagued by doubt when it came to the practice of magic. He would be perceptive and capable at communicating with magical non-humans, and would not see magic as a source of darkness, but the human thirst for power. He would distrust magical assertions of authority, and would find himself burdened with a past that his education has not equipped him to fully understand. 

Ut Vidi, Ut Perii

Virgil, Eclogue VIII

“When I saw you, how I perished” 

(via megaerakles)

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*

of course i have a lot of pent-up rage you fool i’ve been the same height since i was 12