Theoi As Aesthetics™ Cause I Feel Like It Ig

Ravenclaw headcanons because there's not enough Ravenclaw on my dash

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.

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. 

“Half gods are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood.”

— Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (via theclassicsreader)

Personally I love Ron as a character because he himself isn't exactly one-sided. Like he obviously isn't the most perfect character to ever he written, but I think that was kind of the point.

With Hermione, in most instances she wasn't my cup of tea because honestly our personalities conflict so much with each other, but she's still one of my favorites despite this. Yes, I think she deserved someone so much better than Ron, I mean Hermione freaking Granger deserved the world and instead she's stuck in this perpetual vortex of mundanity with and admittedly handsome redhead with more insecurity problems than cheese cake.

However, they definately have their amazingly cute moments.

But I do agree, Ron and Hermione just weren't compatible. Hermione needs someone who can match up to her emotional maturity level and just kind of take care of her even though we all know she can take care of herself. And Ron just needs anyone to give him attention I guess. Honestly I think Ron is just one of those people who works best single, you know?

Like they definately worked-ish for a bit but their marriage I can see going up in flames.

Why don't you ship Ron and Hermione ?

I don’t find that they have compatible personalities and I hate friends to lovers tropes when the guy doesn’t notice or treat the girl very nicely until someone else takes notice of her and then he gets mad about it.

I’m ok with them doing the “we dated in high school” thing but married with kids? Nah.

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.

tumblr: that thing you like is Problematic and you should feel bad for liking it

me, an adult capable of critical thinking and criticizing things while still wholeheartedly enjoying them: please get out of my living room

List of actual canonical things that Adam and Ronan are into and can be kinkshamed for, with textual evidence and sources cited in MLA format. All of these are 100% author confirmed:

Adam Parrish

Competency kink

“The two-minute disparity prematurely aged Adam Parrish. He liked it when people knew how to do their jobs.”

When Ronan gets his farmer chores done in an efficient matter? Oh boy. Adam cannot be more turned on. 

Adam Parrish, a known sapiosexual,

Derisively, Ronan said, “No. The ancient Greeks didn’t have a word for blue.” “What the hell, Ronan?” said Adam.

Ronan’s eyes followed the progress of the silent night horror. In a low voice, he said, “volat nullos strepitus facientibus.” “Fuck,” whispered Adam back, furiously. “Is that Ovid?”

Gets really hot and bothered when Ronan displays his knowledge about dead languages and Latin literature in a pretentious manner. Also when Ronan starts talking about the complexities of farming. 

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“God, how painful it is, being angry.”

— Simone de Beauvoir, tr. by Justin O’Brien, from “The Woman Destroyed,”

Slytherin Aesthetics:: Black

“ᴀɴᴅ ᴀʟʟ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴇᴏᴘʟᴇ sᴀʏ;

ʏᴏᴜ ᴄᴀɴ'ᴛ ᴡᴀᴋᴇ ᴜᴘ, ᴛʜɪs ɪs ɴᴏᴛ ᴀ ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍ”