If Neville Had Been the Chosen One (Tumblr Discussion)

Not…really? Because wouldn’t the situations be flipped, then? Like, Alice and Frank were tortured to madness and ended up in St. Mungo’s and Neville went to live with Evil Grandma and the Uncle-Whose-Name-I-Forget-Who-Dropped-Him-Out-A-Window, right? And the Potters were murdered, minus Harry because Mom Magic, right? So wouldn’t it just flip around?

Frank would say, “Alice, it’s him, go, take Neville, I’ll hold him off” right? And Alice would sacrifice herself to save cute little Baby Neville and the house would explode like it apparently did in the book and Baby Neville would get shipped off to…

Well, actually, I don’t know where, because Evil Grandma is Frank’s mother and it would have to be someone related to Alice and we don’t know much about Alice’s fam, do we? 

But let’s for theory’s sake say he gets sent to Alice’s sister just like Harry got sent to Lily’s sister. And Alice and Frank are dead. Meanwhile, Lily and James are being tortured by Bellatrix and Barty Crouch Junior (as Alice and Frank were in the canon).

Which sort of reminds me, I’ve always wondered where Neville was when his parents were being tortured because I feel like anyone who would torture someone that much with a curse like that wouldn’t hesitate to torture a child the same way to hurt the parents…

Anyway, Lily and James tortured into madness, Alice and Frank dead, Harry living with…probably Sirius, because Sirius was Harry’s godfather and also wouldn’t have been the Longbottoms’ Secret Keeper (although possibly if Voldy had gone after the Longbottoms, they actually would’ve never died, because the only reason the Potters died was because Voldemort fished the Secret out of Peter Pettigrew, who wouldn’t have been the Keeper for the Longbottoms, and so the whole arc with Sirius in Azkaban and Remus being depressed and alone and James being dead and Peter being a traitor and posing as a rat probably wouldn’t have happened at all).

So, I doubt Snape would let Lily be tortured like that, just like he wouldn’t let her be killed. And since Voldemort himself wasn’t going after the Potters in the Neville-is-the-Chosen-One AU, Snape actually could’ve gone to the Potters’ house himself and killed whoever was there except maybe Bellatrix (say what you want, that b**** can duel) but I’m sure he could’ve fended her off long enough for Dumbledick and Hagrid to show up (and Sirius…I seem to recall that’s when Sirius gave Hagrid his motorcycle). And Dumbledick could’ve handled Bellatrix. Or our Madame McG, absolutely no question.

Anyway, the Longbottoms were tortured for hours. Which means in this AU, instead of dying in 10 minutes, the Potters would’ve been tortured for hours and the Longbottoms killed in 10 minutes. Which means probably someone could’ve popped up - Sirius, Remus, Dumbledick, Hagrid, Snape, or a combination of those five dudes.

Which actually means they probably could’ve saved the Potters from ending up like the Longbottoms in the first place because it seems like the reason the Death Eaters had time torture the Longbottoms for that long in the first place was because no one knew beforehand that they were going to be targeted (it seems like the Death Eaters did it for a lark rather than because they worried about the prophecy)?

But Dumbledore would’ve known who the Prophecy’s “target” would be and if it wasn’t Harry, Snape would’ve had Harry covered and the Order (the Old Order) would’ve had the Longbottoms covered and no traitorous Peter means no sold-off Secret which means no dead Longbottoms, and Snape running to Dumbledick about saving Lily and co. (as he does in the movie, so acted because JK Rowling herself said it made more sense than the book) would’ve meant a PTSD-ridden James and Lily because torture but still very much alive and probably not insane like canon Frank and Alice due to lack of torture time.

And also Bellatrix would be dead, which means no Cursed Child.

So if Neville had been Voldy’s target instead of Harry, we could’ve had:

- Living Potter Parents
- Not crazy Longbottoms
- No abusive Dursleys
- No treacherous Peter
- No incarcerated Sirius
- No abusive grandma
- Possibly a more confident, self-assured Neville
- No dead Sirius (he was killed by Bellatrix)
- Reconciliation between Snape, James, and Lily (honestly, them dudes need to just become friends and let the past go because after this, the Death Eater thing wouldn’t be an issue anymore)
- No dick teachers at Hogwarts (except Umbridge…and does Lockhart count?)
- Possibly less viciousness between Harry and Draco
- Quirrel wouldn’t be possessed
- Harry would’ve grown up knowing Tonks (since Andromeda is Sirius’s favorite cousin)
- No Cursed Child
- Also no Umbridge actually because there would be none of this “Voldy’s dead, Potter’s a nut, be good little children and eat your waffles” because either Voldemort would still be alive or he would’ve been killed via Horcrux doom and not Mom Magic
- Neville would actually be kind of a badass because he’d be like John Conner, ever hunted, trained from babyhood to kick magical butt (I think one of the reasons he was so Squib-ish is because he was so traumatized by the thing with his parents, which wouldn’t have happened in this world)

- Still alive Voldemort though

I feel like this would’ve made for a very interesting alternate history, though. Like, I realize the whole point of this was “Snape sucks,” and I feel you because the man’s a dick (…was a dick…now he’s dead) but actually this turned into a whole thing where I realized it would’ve been so much better for literally everyone except Voldemort if he’d picked Neville.

Not Always and Not Until the End - The Defining Quote of Harry Potter

Quote wasn’t creepy. The quote was sad and awful but ridiculously fitting. Especially since the context was more of “I will always be unhappy for the rest of my life because of the horrible things I did” versus the “I still love Lily” because yeah, he loved Lily, but the fact that his Patronus is still a doe means that he’s never had a good thing happen to him that didn’t involve her - all of the memories he uses to fuel that Patronus are of her.

Which is really sad but also kind of fitting. Like, he did it to himself…you know? Yeah, it’s sad that he’s miserable and stuff but it’s his own fault (doubly so because it seems like he was never nice to any of the teachers or anything so he has like, absolutely no friends even now) and he knows it’s his own fault which makes it so much worse and even when he’s conjuring a creature that’s supposed to represent pure joy he’s reminded of how he f***ed up his own life and ruined everything in a way that could never, ever be fixed.

And the whole point of HP really (the series) is that everything is f***ed up in ways that have yet to be fixed (Slytherins still “evil,” the Ministry really not cleaned up, nothing major has happened to fix all the issues with the government; like yeah, Wizard Hitler be dead, but what about Wizard Mengela? Wizard Himmler? And all the other Wizard Nazis who escaped prison?) or can’t ever be fixed (Lupin/Tonks, Fred, Dobby, Collin). 

And Cursed Child didn’t really help and Fantastic Beasts is set way back before that so basically, yeah, Wizard Hitler is dead but the Nazis are still in power and yet apparently “all was well,” or as well as could be expected, which is about as well as “my ex-friend who’s the only person I ever loved and who ever loved me not only married the guy who tortured me for years, but I ruined it all by getting her and him killed, I’ve realized what a dick I was but it’s too late, so I’mma try to help fight the evil I’ve created…and then f*** it all up again because Dumbledore, but hey, if I hadn’t been an ass, this wouldn’t have happened…oh, and now I’ve died the same death as my childhood enemies. Ergh, blegh.”

And then we just…start the series all over again. Infant being dropped off on a doorstep in the middle of the night by a decrepit old sociopath, dead parents, blown up house, abusive guardians, and a talking snake, and somehow we expect it not to end with Harry being betrayed by a decrepit old sociopath, a dead Wizard Hitler and dead Hog-baes, abandoned abusive fam, and a hacked up snake.

After all this time, do we still keep coming back to Hogwarts hoping McG takes that baby and pops it off to someone else? Hoping somehow it’ll be less painful? Always. And we always, always, always get stabbed in the heart with Winky’s alcoholism, Sirius blasted through the mirror, Draco blackmailed into trying to kill Dumbledick, Ron abandoning Hermione and Harry because Horcrux, Dobby dying to save Harry and company, Luna’s dad having to do bad things to protect his daughter, Fred dying with his last laugh ringing in Percy’s ears, Baby Teddy never seeing his parents again, Collin’s corpse on the ground, the Slytherins as a group turning evil because Slyther-slither mofos, and then randomly Harry and Ginny shacked up and had three kids which makes everything better.

You know what? Screw it. James, Sirius, Snape, and Dumbledick were all douches. Pick a Dobby quote. Didn’t he have that nice thing about being with friends or something before he died?

Why Do You Hate the Marauders!? (Comment-Question)

*sigh*

Okay, most of Booklr who’s seen any of my posts about the Marauders-era young people probably already know this…but.

Now, when I say Marauders-era peeps, I’m not talking about the Weasley parents (I feel like they’re a bit older than James & Lily were?) or Tonks (she’s quite a bit younger). I specifically mean James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Snape, and Lily. And we’ll throw in Dumbledouche for kicks because he was headmaster at the time, right? I seem to recall he was.

So that’s…7 people. Why do I hate those 7 people?

Do we really need to ask about Peter, Snape, or Dumbledore? Nah. So that leaves me with four - Sirius, James, Remus, and Lily.

Sirius: a bully and an unrepentant thief, a little creep who picked on other kids (including his so-called friend, Peter, and on Lily), who tried to murder someone for funsies.

James: add the the first 3 things I mentioned for Sirius.

Remus: allowed the first 3 things to happen. Also abandoned his child to go fight in a war (twice) because “oh poor me, I’m a werewolf, my self-loathing and cowardice is more important than being a decent father and husband”

Lily: shacked up with the douche-nozzle mentioned previously. And okay, supposedly she waited until James got his head on straight, but what does that say? Sexually harass a girl for 6 years, profess you’ve had a change of heart in 3 months, and she’ll have your babies, even after you tortured her best friend for years. People say Snape was a lousy friend, and the older he got, it becomes truer and truer. But that b**** was a lousy friend, too.

And yeah, she dies sacrificing herself to protect Harry, but you know who else has sacrificed their lives for their children? Malcolm Merlin, who’s massacred hundreds of people. Marissa Coulter, who helped murdered dozens upon dozens of kids all under the age of 12. Darth Vader risked his life to save Luke. Risking your life to save your child does not make you a hero, because plenty of villains have done it.

Oh, well, they fought Voldemort. So? Regulus Black was a racist little turkey but he gave Voldemort the ultimate f*** you (and good on him, too). You know who else fought Voldemort? Narcissa Malfoy, who would’ve let Harry die if he hadn’t been key to saving her child. The goblins of Gringotts, who torture animals and loathe all wizards to ever exist ever. Fighting Voldemort doesn’t make you a good person, either. Fudge and Scrimgeour would’ve fought Voldy if they could’ve and they are both evil little men.

So yeah, I’m posting this slightly long and hissy answer so that the next time someone asks, I can just link it because I realized I’d never gone into much detail about why I dislike the Marauders so much - because they’re bad people, who are lauded as good people because they were heroes. James, Sirius, and Lupin? They’re just as bad as Snape and Peter. Lily’s not as bad, but she’s still a cutthroat b****. And I know there’s that whole “strong girls are often called b****es,” well yes, they are. So are treacherous ones.

This is why Gen 2 is better. Harry and Ron and Draco, Neville and Ginny and Luna and Hermione, are better people than James, Sirius, Snape, Peter, Lily, and Remus. I love them. Their predecessors suck. All of them.

For the record: if you like the Marauders, fine. I don’t care/mind, I’m not gonna hate you or say you should be ashamed of yourself. People can like what they like. I have a very admittedly critical view of Harry Potter the series anyway. But this is why I don’t like the Marauders and why I wish Lily had stayed single and someone else could’ve been Harry’s mom and Tonks could’ve hooked up with someone better than Lupin who could love her like she deserved.\

People Have Asked What I Think of JK Rowling

Oh, goodness, I’m afraid. O.O

Okay, but in seriousness…this is gonna take me a minute. Because my feelings for the author herself are a bit complicated. And this is going to be a bit long, too. Sorry.

So…I know a bit about JK Rowling’s personal life before she published HP1. I know she had an abusive signif and at one point I think she was on food stamps or something and she basically overcame a lot of hardships. I know she’s a big supporter of LGBT+ rights and is very open about that on her social media. I know she’s also very responsive in a positive way to her fans, which is great, because some celebs can be just awful to their fans. I know that this woman is wildly creative and it took a lot of imagination to come up with the first Harry Potter book. I know that she is very dedicated to her series and the world of Harry Potter. None of these are bad things and are, in fact, really good things that impress me a lot. I think she tries to be a genuinely nice lady.

However. I think she has a few problems.

I think when Harry Potter started with book 1, despite her claims that she had literally everything plotted out, I don’t think HP was originally intended to be as dark and adult as it became. The reason I bring this up in relationship to how I feel about the author is this - I don’t think, as the books got darker, that she really knew what she was doing in all aspects of the story and where it was going. I think she set up a world in book 1 and 2 that wasn’t really sustainable at the level she was pushing it to as the series went on, and she didn’t realize this somehow.

And she still doesn’t realize it. She doesn’t consider Merope Gaunt to be a rapist. She doesn’t consider James, Lily, Remus, and Sirius to be bad people at any point (”a bit of a prat” isn’t the same as a legit bad person). She doesn’t acknowledge the severely abusive nature of Ron and Hermione’s early romantic relationship before they acknowledged they were in love. She doesn’t consider Neville’s grandmother to be abusive or a bad person. She doesn’t show Dumbledore to be a bad person in any way (he comes across more as “complicated” and as an older version of the somewhat bad boy doing bad things for good reasons trope). The inherent evilness of all the Slytherin kids. And while this impacts my ability to enjoy the books as much as I used to when I try to reread them, it also informs me quite a bit about the kind of person JK Rowling is herself.

Then we have things like the lack of racial diversity in the original books, what she did with Newt Scamander being a racist dirtbag, Ilvermorny, her appropriation of sacred topics, complete lack of understanding of American culture, the whitewashing/cultural erasure of characters like the Patil twins and Cho Chang, her blatantly impossible idea that racism based on skin color doesn’t exist in the Wizarding World…things she doesn’t acknowledge are an issue. She’s been notoriously silent any time anyone brings this stuff up.

So…what do I think of JK Rowling? She reminds me of my mother-in-law. My mother-in-law tries to be nice to everyone. She tries to be very loving and friendly and she’s generally sweet-tempered. But she’s also very ignorant, very non-aggressively racist, very non-aggressively against various demographics (one of those sweet, little ladies who stays in her house and knits socks for homeless people while murmuring, “Oh, my goodness gracious, well, all lives matter, especially the blue ones, and transgender bathroom laws are to prevent child molesters from taking advantage, everyone knows that”).

And that’s what I think of JK Rowling. I think she’s just ignorant of certain things. I think, for whatever reason, she doesn’t notice the fallout from things. She doesn’t see rape sometimes when it’s right there in front of her (or she does and just didn’t handle it right at all). She doesn’t see abuse every time it’s right there in front of her. Institutionalized racism seems to be a thing she is unaware of as it applies to British minorities like Indians and the Chinese. And she seems to be unaware of writer resources that are now available called sensitivity readers that can help her to avoid the pitfalls she’s already tripped and fallen into…

Unless she does know about them but is too set in her ways to change now. After all, she’s like 50 or something, and she used to be a billionaire, and Harry Potter is still one of the biggest money-making franchises in the book world to ever happen.

And the thing is, I don’t know her personally. So I’m not going to say she’s a racist evil witch who hates gay people or whatever because I don’t know that. And I’m not going to say she’s deliberately trying to hurt marginalized people because I don’t know that either. But she seems to be doing most of what is hurtful in ignorance. And she is a strong advocate for the oppressed in many, many ways. So I’m not going to say she’s all bad or mostly bad or even half bad. And she has accomplished a great deal that she has every right to be proud of, and overcome things that I don’t know I ever could. But she’s also made mistakes and so far, she hasn’t acknowledged or fixed any of them.

So that’s what I think about JK Rowling. It’s a 50-50 thing, basically. I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, even when they muck up something beneath the umbrella of a cause or causes I’m violently passionate about…which she did. And even though sometimes I see a thing and I kind of want to throw something (I have a bad temper; it’s no reflection on her, to be honest. More on me). Still gonna give her the benefit of the doubt, though. Just not going to be rereading HP anytime soon because I just can’t and I’m not buying The Cursed Child because it sounds ridiculous.