Harry Potter Rewrite: Religion.

I know most people who write for HP don't like Peter Pettigrew but with your rewrite, could you not sideline him as the 'just there' Marauder? He was just as capable as them in Transfiguration and Potions. I may not like him but he wasn't the guy to just throw his friends under the bus at 11 years old for a corn chip like how some people write him as

I thought the same thing, actually. It’s why you’re going to see a lot of Peter in the rewrite. You’ll get to know about his home life, his hobbies, favorite colors, the songs he likes the same way you’ll know about the rest. He’s flawed, yes, but he also has a lot of good traits.

Thank you for the request, though, Anon. I like how you think.

Sirius Black Headcanons.

FAMILY.

Sirius Black is half French and half Japanese.

Walburga Black was the one born and raised in Japan. Orion, is the one that’s French.

The Japanese side of the family is suppressed, to be forgotten, as demanded by the Blacks.

Sirius only knows a little bit of Japanese thanks to the family outcast, Uncle Alphard. Regulus also learned, but he knows a little less.

Sirius and Regulus used to be the same reckless, bold child. They were always standing up for each other no matter the consequences. It was them against the world.

Sirius and Regulus were secretly close up until the winter holidays of Sirius’ fifth year. They were supposed to run away together, but Orion had held Regulus back. Sirius thought that his younger brother had simply changed his mind.

SCHOOL/FRIENDS/ENEMIES.

During his first year, Sirius refused to be associated with his own House. He didn’t want to further disappoint his parents, not to mention that a part of him believed the Black values.

It wasn’t until his second year that Sirius realized that perhaps his family was wrong.

By third year, slurs were eliminated completely from his mind and vocabulary and he was working hard to fully let go of everything he had grown up in.

DISABILITY + MENTAL HEALTH.

Sirius is completely deaf on his left ear. His family was embarrassed to have a son with a disability, so they instilled in his mind that it was something to hide.

During the first few years at Hogwarts, Sirius would exhaust himself while trying to read lips without people noticing.

It was frustrating and humiliating whenever he missed something and he was forced to asked the person to repeat what they’d said.

Even after his friends found out about it, Sirius refused to acknowledge it. He would not be known as a pitiful, disabled kid.

Classes were difficult, especially if the professor had the tendency of walking around the classroom. Sirius would sometimes copy the notes off of James without saying anything.

James always noticed but let him do it.

Later on, a fully deaf kid arrived at Hogwarts and managed to teach Sirius to somewhat embrace his deafness. (Kinda debating whether this should be a part of my fic or not, please let me know what you think).

Sirius also suffered from childhood PTSD, especially after he ran away.

He would wake up in the middle of the night in pure terror, but he didn’t scream because in his mind, he’s still at Grimmauld Place, and they would have his head if he screamed so late at night. He was all trembles and whimpers and sweat and tears.

Each of the Marauders would take turns consoling him.

When Sirius started dating Remus, it was always him who would come. Eventually, they would just cuddle up together on the same bed.

I am really tempted to come up with my own fantasy religion and chuck it into the Harry Potter rewrite but at the same time, I know it’s going to create a lot of plot holes and/or complications that can be avoided if I just follow the Pagan traditions and beliefs. Ugh.

Harry Potter Rewrite: Religion.

The original Harry Potter series was heavily influenced by the Christian religion. I never thought it made much sense, so I decided to make it so that the majority (especially purebloods and half-bloods) practice paganism. They’ll have their own traditions and festivals and holidays.

There will be other students who don’t practice paganism, but that enjoy some of their holidays. So far, some of the students (in the Marauders’ Era, since that’s what I’m working on at the moment) who aren’t Pagans are:

1. James Potter—Hinduism

2. Peter Pettigrew—Atheist

3. Severus Snape—Atheist, but has Catholic leanings due to his muggle father

4. Lily Evans—Atheist, family is Catholic

Of course, other religions such as Judaism, Islam, and many more, will be included. I’m just currently doing my research on these religions so that I can portray them well. Any help or suggestion is welcomed.

Any thoughts?

Thank you SO much! This helped me a lot, I’ll be sure to read the fanfics you recommended during the weekend.

Also, if anyone else has an idea please let me know regardless of what you think of Snape. I will do my best to be as neutral to him as possible while considering the suggestion. As I mentioned in the ask, I don’t want to represent him as wholly bad.

Hello! I’m rewriting the HP series, starting from the Marauders’ Era.

I’m an Anti-Snape, but I don’t want to portray him as wholly bad like most people who think like me tend to do. I want to have reasons for Lily to stick with him and defend him for so many years other than him just being her childhood best friend or something. Really, I’m asking for some headcanons? Little moments that Snape and Lily treasure? Little quirks that Snape might have (he likes spicy food, loves bugs, literally anything) to help me humanize him more? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

(To everyone who messages me or replies: if you’re respectful of my views on Snape, I’ll be sure to be respectful of yours!)

Thank you! @ottogatto suggested I come here for help, so I decided to give it a try.

Hello! First of all - best of luck! Rewriting the series from a specific era involves a lot of love and labour. ❤️🌻 Secondly, I appreciate you reaching out to humanise Snape a bit :) It's usually my pet peeves in Marauder fanfics that you really can't see what Lily was holding onto while her friend is being radicalised. There is something complex and dsyfunctional here and it says a lot about both of them. The fact that you want to put effort into characterising him instead of making him one note vessel to be bashed is commendable ❤️

Anyway - things I see Snape and Lily do that lends some complexity to the friendship:

1. Snape is the one who told Lily she is a witch and is the one giving her the background of wizarding world (Azkaban conversation, wondering how Dumbledore sent the letter to Petunia etc etc).

Lily, when we first see her, has fairly good amount of control over her magic and is also a bit reckless with it (jumping off swings to float in air). I can see both her and Snape experiment with magic a bit. They are also both very good at Potions - so I can imagine child Snape and Lily practising a lot of wandless magic together and also have Potions bonding time as they grow older.

A fic that does this wonderfully and I recommend with my whole heart is Check the Spindle by @copper-dust

Here is an exchange from the fic that captures how I see the dynamic between 9 year old Lily and Snape, and why I see teenage Lily having difficulty letting go of him:

'Being in a place isn’t playing,’ Lily laughed. ‘Playing is playing. You have to pretend to be something and that everything is something else, like you could be the conductor, even, and pretend the trains are still running.’

Severus bit his lip. ‘I don’t normally...do pretend things.’

‘Well, that’s silly.’

‘It’s not silly!’ His voice sharpened like a pencil tapered to a point. ‘Being silly is like… doing things that aren’t real. I can do real magic, so I don’t have to play pretend.’

‘Well, so can I!’ Lily was offended by the implication that her special gifts were in any way less real than his. ‘I make stuff move all the time without touching it. Just because I do make-believe doesn’t mean I can’t do…’ She lowered her voice, though there was no one around the deserted field. ‘Magic.’

‘I didn’t say you couldn’t...couldn’t do magic. I know you can. I was the one who told you!’

She followed him out into the wheaty grass, away from the rails. He had turned away from her to face the gingerbread-coloured bricks of the distant foundry. ‘Why don’t you want to play anything?!’ insisted Lily, to his back. ‘I thought you wanted to be friends!’

‘Because I don’t know how, alright?

2. I usually take the cue from Harry's relationship with the Half Blood Prince textbook as a mirror for Lily's own friendship with Snape. When Harry is shocked by Sectumsempra ("he felt like a beloved pet had gone savage"), I see a more intense version of this playing out between them. Harry thinks of the Prince as a "clever boy who had helped him" - and I definitely see Snape's cleverness as part of the draw for Lily.

The volatility and ambiguity of her friendship with Snape and when she loses him to his bigotry and radicalisation, in my head, plays a part of why she is drawn to James, who is so vocally militant about his progressive politics. She feels safe with James - James won't hurt her by something that is a part of her identity, in her head. There is a wound in Lily - with regard to both Snape and Petunia.

(I also recommend work by acciosalmon - she captures the bittersweetness of the friendship without toning down any flaws. And although Snape only appears in a cameo, I thought @izzythehutt also captured the dynamic well in her Sirius-centric AU)

I also talk about a more flawed Lily here

3. Snape loves his mother, but hates his father. He identifies as half a "Prince" - his mother's maiden name. We also see him wearing her clothes - I read this as a defiance against his abusive father (and also the Snapes are dirt poor, so if Snape wants a hand me down, he will only take his mother's). I go back and forth on whether he takes Lily home at any point - but I personally see him as too ashamed of his home, compared to a more well off Lily. I do see Lily pushing a bit to understand her angry, sullen friend more. I talk about breakdown of their friendship here

4. I can see him hoard rare Potion ingredients and be super enthusiastic about Lucius Malfoy's dark objects collection in his manor. (he will think Lucius taste in peacocks is garish and kinda funny - which I think he will unthinkingly bitch about to Lily, and Lily won't like the implications of him hanging out with Malfoy). She may share his enthusiasm for rare Potion ingredients too. And yes, I think he will love bugs too. (btw, the Malfoys genuinely regard Snape as their friend and Snape reacts unconsciously when Harry names Lucius as a Death Eater, Narcissa knows where he lives and asks him to save her son's life - there is a relationship there, even though Snape is technically betraying their ideology by being in the Order)

5. He smokes ( he is self destructive, and doesn't take care of himself, so his habits are combination of depressive neglect and outright destruction). He enjoys reading - especially rare academic journals. If he wasn't radicalised and went down the path he did, I can see him turning into a reclusive researcher as an adult. So I tend to give him reclusive researcher interests. Snape hyper-identifies with magic and is very interested in expansion of his understanding and knowledge of it. I talk about Snape's draw towards powerful men with regard to his attachment trauma here

Also recommend The Atoners by @copper-dust for difficult teenage Snape interactions, but still in keeping with his humanity and guilt.

6. He is very, very aware of his social standing and class! @floreatcastellumposts captures this in a wonderful paragraph in her fic Phyrric:

She’d let Potter call the baby Harry, he’d heard, and he was sure, somehow, that it was Potter that had come up with the name. It felt like a Potter name - on the surface common and friendly and non-threatening, but when you stopped and thought about it, it was usually still just posh boys that were called things like James and Harry and Thomas and William and John and Richard and David and Edward. Kingly sort of names, princely - royal. Just as pretentious as Latin, but with the added sanctimony of an attempt at approachability or equality.

Also the quote that best sums him up is "a child weaned on poison considers harm comfort"

Feel free to chat with me in case you have any more questions. And good luck once again! ❤️

Why I especially hate Snape.

When I was in school, I got bullied horribly over something I had no control over (my deafness).

It got so bad, I had a full breakdown when, on my second day of 9th grade, one of my bullies arrived. I had to leave the school and could not leave the house for two months because I got physically ill at the mere thought of putting myself out there again.

The school was crap, too, they never listened whenever I asked for help and they always placed the blame of my bullying on me.

There was also the fact that they’re the reason I had so much internalized homophobia, I just loathed the fact that I liked girls.

On top of that, I had (still do) a lot of issues at home.

But I grew up. I held my head high and moved on because I just couldn’t waste my life away dwelling on the past.

Snape lived through somewhat similar situations and he came out to be such an asshole. He’s exactly who I feared I’d be if I didn’t get help.

And then there’s people who excuse his behavior, and they victimize him and all of that shit, as if it’s not meant to make you stronger.

I hate Snape because I see so much of myself in him, I hate him because I see so much of my bullies in him, I hate him because he reminds me of all the miserable adults I knew for a fact could’ve identified with me and still failed me.

I just hate him.

I have some advice for a way to portray the Marauders and Snape's relationship! They bullied him, but Snape was never defenseless (except for That Prank) and I think it started from some animosity on the train during their first year, them Snape continued to be a jerk. Snape seemed to be the only person that they were constantly picking on, so must've done something to earn their ire. They were pranksters, but not normally bullies. Most of the students and teachers had mostly good things to say about them.

I think a good way to portray it is that the Marauders and Snape constantly being at each other's throats in small, petty ways. The Marauders would only go after Snape when he deserved it or was being extra bloodcult-y. They were bullies because they all ganged up on him, but I don't think that was always the case.

I think they had some kind of moral code - they were Gryffindors after all, if nothing else, their honor would've stopped them from always going after him physically - so it was usually just one on one or two to one. The others would be the lookouts, or help them plan. They'd insult him and he'd fire right back.

Most of their pranks were harmless, I think, except for The Prank. Mostly cutting words and petty actions that didn't mean much at the time, but mounted up to he quite annoying.

Hope this helps!

Hey Anon!

Firstly, thank you for the advice. I really appreciate it.

Secondly, I've been interacting with some Snape stans because I wanted him to be humanized. Snape, as well as the Marauders, are going to have a lot of flaws, but also a lot of good traits. There are going to be times in which the Marauders prank Snape unprovoked. There are going to be other times where it is going to be Snape who's going after them.

We're going to see a lot of Snape's softer side during their fifth and sixth years, after his relationship with Lily ends. Lily will be grieving for their lost friendship, and will sometimes talk about fond memories with Snape. I don't want to spoil it too much, that is all you'll be getting.

Now, Snape is not going to be defenseless. He will lash out and get his revenge when he feels is needed. But neither will the Marauders. For the majority of the story, it's going to be a mutual rivalry, until the moment they humiliated him in front of the school - this incident is going to shift something within a lot of people, for the better or for the worst.

You think you could add Fleur as a trans woman? Saw some fanart about her and Bill by @upthehillart years ago and it was beautiful!

Here the link if you didn't saw it: https://upthehillart.tumblr.com/post/619185927484522496/part-veela-trans-woman-fleur-and-her-completely

Or here

Sorry I took a hot minute to get to this, but I just started college this semester and I’m a little overwhelmed. Thank the spirits for spring break.

Anyway, having Fleur as a trans woman is something I’ve been debating for quite some time since I kinda had the idea of her being something else. So far, in the Golden Era, we’re going to have two other trans characters.

Actually, now that I think about it, I don’t have any trans men characters. Any ideas on that one?

Also thank you for the idea! I promise I’m still considering it, I just need to work out how it’ll work for my story.

PS!! The artwork is insanely pretty, @upthehillart. I’ve been following them for years now and they never cease to amaze me.

Have a new blog dedicated to my own mythical creatures that I have invented for the sake of enriching the worldbuilding in my HP rewrite. Please show some love 💕

Verosui.

[ veros: “genuine” (Greek); sui: “self” (Latin). ]

OFFICIAL NAME. Verosui

ALSO KNOWN AS. The Holy Messenger OR The Amender

SIZE. 14.5 in

DIET. They eat berries, but they also enjoy eating arthropods and small invertebrates such as spiders, scorpions, centipedes and such.

ABOUT THEM. There used to be an ancient ceremony where whenever someone announced that they were born in the wrong body, they would contact the Goddess via a song so that She would send her beloved pet, the Verosui, to right her wrong. The Amender would arrive a week after the song, to perform its magic. During this week, the village or family would gather around in prayer so that the Amender will show its holy compassion as a sign of compassion towards the sufferer.

Once the Amender arrives, they shall see if a person’s true self would be what they claim. If they deem it necessary, they shall begin the performance of sex reassignment, which really involves powerful magic being used while they fly in circles around their target. It is said that the experience is a mixture of thrilling and painful, so it would really depend on who the person is.

Unfortunately, this ceremony was banned in 1903 by the Minister of Magic at the time — K. Rowl. Ever since then, the wixes were forced to forget about this ceremony since they would be persecuted if they attempted to relieve a sufferer’s pain. Sufferers were soon scorned and mocked if they came out.

Questions? Send an Ask!

Gujarati Anon again!

For Euphemia's lastname perhaps Upadhyay would suit, Thanya Upadhyay has a nice ring to it.

And as a Gujarati I think I'd like to see something with Navratri, and perhaps the Marauders trying Gujarati food. (Also Remus trying Khichdi)

I like Upadhyay, sounds quite nice, actually. I’ll use that for Thanya (Euphemia).

I’ve briefly read about Navratri, and it sounds like so much fun! It was quite shocking to me, I remember, because I’m Latinx and I thought we knew how to party. But you guys really outdo everyone by partying for nine days straight. I’d love to write about how the Marauders & Co will react and what they would do when the Potters invite them to celebrate with them.

Finally, I just googled what Khichdi was and oh my goodness…it looks so good! I want to try it now, let’s see if I can manage to find a place nearby or maybe even try to make it myself (although unlikely considering I’d burn the dorms down).

I love hearing from you as well as any other reader/follower of the story, please send as many as you’d like! Thank you!