the concept for this list was: fifty books written by women about women, published within the past five years, (2017-now), that aren’t normal people and whatever else sally rooney just released. i also tried to avoid anything that gave explicitly rooney vibes. (here is why.) i stuck mostly with realism, though some have elements of fantasy or magic or horror. if you have questions about triggers for any particular book feel free to reach out.

a note: this list is obviously limited to books that i have either personally read or know a lot about.

* means the author has other good books that i know of, i just didn’t want to repeat any authors

One thing I will say about Spider's character in Netflix's 'Heartbreak High' is that his characterisation felt very, very real.

We are shown that Spider has had a crush on Amerie for a while; the way he looks at her at the festival and the denial attempt he makes when Harper calls him out for it is a very high school boy response. These are both evidence of that. From this, we see that he has feelings for the girl that's been in love with his best friend for years. To her, Spider is her crush's friend and nothing more.

This could make any young boy feel quite inferior, and we see Spider compensate for that insecurity through (very problematic, very misogynistic) humour. It is suggested that Spider is a virgin that compensates for that by lying about having loads of sex (Jay from the Inbetweeners, who?), for example.

When Spencer gets the opportunity to sleep with Amerie, we see he gets performance anxiety. This isn't uncommon. He gets nervous and struggles to get an erection, despite wanting to engage in sex.

Again, we go back to the fact that Spider already has insecurities when it comes to his crush on Amerie. From his perspective, he's messed up the opportunity to win over the girl he's been in love with for years. And, to make it worse, she's laughing at him. Amerie then adds further fuel to that insecurity when she says she doesn't want anyone to know about their connection - inferring she's embarrassed by him.

Because of this, Spider puts up a barrier. He pushes Amerie away in defence and he treats her horrifically to try to protect himself. He over-compensates for his insecurities by bullying Amerie. This is, again, not an uncommon response that men have to rejection/unrequited feelings.

We know he didn't treat Amerie badly before the bedroom incident, we see that he's collected and calming when he meets with her and she's panicking. We see him feel genuine concern about Harper being missing, and comforts her, telling her she can stay with him. We see him pining for her throughout the whole series, even getting jealous of the relationship she has established with Malakai.

(Malakai is another example of Spider's insecurities; in comes a brand new student that is just as good as him at basketball and is flirting with the girl he likes that rejected him).

Because of the rejection, we see that Spider becomes cold, unfeeling and avoident towards Amerie. It's something we see all too much as women. You never know how men are going to respond when you reject them. Spider was such a good representation of one response men may have.

Spider White is one of the most authentic portrayals of a teenage boy pretending not to be hurt by a girl rejecting them. If he does end up with Amerie (this is Netflix, the app that paired Eric with his literal school bully before giving Adam a redemption arc, so I wouldn't put it passed them), I really hope that he has a lot of redemption. And I mean a lot. Because, while she wasn't the best to him in some regards, she did not deserve the sh*t that he put her through.

Mr. "I'm a feminist" needs a reality check before he deserves our Amerie. And so many people on this app need to realise that his behaviour was not okay. I don't care how hurt you are, you don't get to slut-shame and bully the person that rejected you.

Anyway, there's potential for his character and he would be a really good example of this behaviour being held to account. I don't care about Dusty and his redemption arc, I want a Spider redemption because he would be such a perfect example of what healthy redemption looks like (if done right).

Video essays that make me go “oh, so you’re like smart smart”

Seguir leyendo

when kaz brekker said “i would come for you. and if i couldn't walk, i'd crawl to you, and no matter how broken we were, we'd fight our way out together- knives drawn, pistols blazing because that's what we do. we never stop fighting” the bar was raised so fucking high.

ambivalence - rafe cameron series maserlist

welcome to the ambivalence masterlist! please let me know what you think of this series!

warnings: swearing, underage drinking, mentions of drug use, drug addiction, sarah being a major bitch

Blurbs

Misc.

y/n's insta stories part 1

spent a couple of hours today reading through this. incredible.

LEIGH YOU ABSOLUTE FUCKING GENIUS

having to explain and defend belly and her actions to friends who have always been asked out and liked by boys their whole lives is fucking exhausting, bro. like yes, a girl’s life isn’t all about boys and her self worth doesn’t come from how many guys like her but it’s a huge part of being a girl and a woman and to invalidate that struggle just because you’ve never had trouble being pursued by men is unfair.

stranger things s04 vol. 1 + tumblr text posts

Want to learn something new in 2022??

Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)

40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)

Excellent basic crochet video series

Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)

Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)

How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)

Another drawing character faces video

Literally my favorite art pose hack

Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??

Introduction to flying small aircrafts

French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding

Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)

Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)

Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)

Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:

Calculus 1 (full semester class)

Learn basic statistics (free textbook)

Introduction to college physics (free textbook)

Introduction to accounting (free textbook)

Learn a language:

Ancient Greek

Latin

Spanish

German

Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)

French

Russian (pretty good cyrillic guide!)

Characters of the Story

Miles “Pudge” Halter

Miles—the narrator, the boy in love with the girl, the newbie at the Creek—is clearly the Man with a capital M. Or maybe not. He doesn’t necessarily mature a whole lot through the novel, but he does change in significant ways. Going to a new school, losing a close friend, and coming to terms with death and grief will do that to anyone. He’s the one we cry with, laugh with (and sometimes at), and root for as he tries to find his way beyond Alaska’s death.

Alaska Young

Alaska remains a perpetual mystery in this book, both to Miles and to us as readers. She’s also the most complex character, though her life ends in tragedy. So it’s fitting that the last words Alaska ever says to Miles refer to a complicated maze:

“How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!” (128before.120)

We may not be able to help Alaska with her problems, but we can definitely try to sort out the labyrinth of Alaska.

Chip “The Colonel” Martin

The Colonel is aptly named: although he’s short and stocky, he’s got a gift for leading others and a charisma that brings the entire social network at the Creek together at the end of the book.

Takumi Hikohito

Even though he isn’t in every scene of the book, Takumi plays a pretty important role in Miles’s life and in Alaska’s death, though we don’t find out about his participation in letting her go until the end.

Takumi serves as a sort of conscience for Miles somewhat regularly, especially when Miles finds out about Alaska snitching on her roommate and when Miles ignores Lara for, like, two months (46after.3). But other than this, Takumi is left a kind of two-dimensional character, and besides his mad rapping skills, we don’t really know much about him besides the things that come up in conversation within earshot of Miles. We know his grandmother died, and we know he’s not a virgin, but that’s not enough to make him really pop off the page.

We start to get more of a picture and less of a sketch of Takumi after Miles and the Colonel stop being jerks and cutting him out of their lives. Takumi is understandably annoyed by their standoffish actions and secretive behavior:

“I’m tired of you acting like you were the only guy who ever wanted her. Like you had some monopoly on liking her.” (29after.9)

And he’s got a point. Miles and the Colonel have been so consumed with their own guilt and own loss that they have ignored their other friends, effectively pushing them away and failing to recognize that there are other people struggling around them too.

Lara Buterskaya

Lara is a cutie, though unfortunately for her she doesn’t compare to Alaska in Miles’s mind. From Romania and with a cute accent to boot, Lara likes likes Miles. Alaska notices this when Lara tries to flirt with Miles while studying for precalc at McDonald’s (though Miles, of course, is oblivious to her affections), so Alaska arranges a triple-and-a-half-date to the next basketball game in order to bring Miles and Lara together. Unfortunately this is the same game where Miles gets hit in the head and blows chunks all over Lara’s shoes, but Lara is so stinking nice that she still accompanies him and Takumi to the hospital.

Lara’s not as verbose as Alaska, which becomes one of the markers of the pseudo-relationship Miles and Lara have: they don’t talk. So that emotional intimacy Miles craves? He and Lara just don’t have it. But Miles is willing to experiment sexually with her, and she totally digs that and even initiates some of it… okay, all of it. So they kiss a lot and do some, um, other stuff, (and seek out Alaska when they can’t figure the other stuff out), and then, because Lara is a little too much like Miles—introspective, nervous, shy, a follower—they do homework.

This is a key to understanding Lara: she, like Miles, is a thinker not a talker. Alaska, in contrast, is a talker and a thinker. Or at least, this is the perspective we’re led to see by Miles, who admittedly, is not incredibly reliable when it comes to girls.

Then, Alaska dies, and Miles tells Lara that Alaska got drunk and drove off campus, which is a part of the truth. And Lara, big-hearted as she is, says:

“I’ll be een my room eef you want to come by.” I did not drop by. I didn’t know what to say to her—I was caught in a love triangle with one dead side. (2after.44)

And then Lara disappears from Miles’s narration. Not cool, Miles, not cool at all. Finally, months later and thanks to Takumi, Miles gets the wherewithal to approach Lara and they talk, which makes us wonder whether the inability to communicate was the fault of Miles, Lara, Alaska, or some weird combination of all three.

And Lara? She forgives Miles right away because she’s that big-hearted and understanding. This doesn’t stop her from being a little more than annoyed with Miles, though:

We talked—about Alaksa and about the past month, about how she had to miss me and miss Alaska, while I only had to miss Alaska. (46after.12)

We’re left wondering why it is Miles is obsessed with Alaska and not nice, dependable, Lara. Perhaps he thinks the forbidden fruit tastes sweeter, or the hurricane that was Alaska just pulled him in inexplicably. Regardless, we end up hoping that Lara has better luck with her next boyfriend.

I just realized how fucking disgusting it is that it’s considered healthy and normal for teenage boys to eat everything ever yet teenage girls are obviously also growing but are fucking dieting all the time and shamed for eating while they’re growing

Shit

That’s not even the half of it because

- often when a teenager (male or female) puts on some fat it’s in preparation for a growth spurt. Grownups know this. 

- teenagers grow in weird gawky ways, like a girl’s hips will spread out and look “fat” until her legs get longer, or they’ll shoot up super tall and then slowly put on muscle and fat. Grownups know this. 

- it’s very common for a women’s body weight to fluctuate plus or minus 5% with her menstrual cycle

but in the diet mentality all of these things are considered personal moral failures, a failure of control, when controlling it is literally impossible. I am so incredibly saddened by women who weigh themselves multiple times a week and fuss over ten freaking pounds when that’s well within the bounds of menstrual fluctuation + just-ate-lunch. It’s horrible.

“A culture fixated on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience. Dieting is the most potent political sedative in women’s history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one.” – Naomi Wolf

Grown ups really do not know this. I tell this to parents at least once a week, your child is sleeping/moody/putting on weight because their body is preparing to more or less jump the Grand Canyon of maturation stages. Hormone changes start a full YEAR before first menses.

My own mother, who works in the medical field and has worked solely for OB/GYN for the last 16 years, gave me grief about all of those things. And she knew about hormone level changes and weight distribution changes and she STILL did it. Don’t think hard facts will outweigh societal norms. Keep talking about it until they can’t ignore the facts

Eat!!! Food !!

*Screams* THANK YOU!!!

FEED YOUR FUCKING KIDS

The poignant, powerful beauty of rural England (@dpc_photography_ IG)

Can’t risk it

The duck of creativity. I waited so long for it.

*rotates you by 90 degrees in the 4th dimension thus causing you to be perpendicular to time as we understand it*

*rotates you again so now youre experiencing time upside down*

Please stop

pots esaelP

Just reading this has made me so fucking dizzy

When Zuko apologized to uncle Iroh in the tent cause he was so ashamed of his actions and what he’d done to the only person who unconditionally believed in his ability to do good >>>>>

So okay, I’ve given this rant before but this is another good time for it.

Structurally speaking, ATLA did something important with Zuko that, in a purely mechanistic sense of narrative development, I think a lot of people don’t notice immediately, and that even fewer people who want to emulate what was done with him get.

Which is Zuko is made a protagonist VERY early, and the show goes out of its way to continually place Zuko into situations where the audience empathizes and roots for him.

This happens in literally the second episode of the series, if we count the two-part premiere as a single episode, which I think we should. The A-plot of that episode, “The Southern Air Temple,” is Aang reckoning with the genocide of his people… but the B-plot?

The B-plot is the introduction of Zhao, and more specifically, his introduction in a way that is calculate to shift the audience, whose introduction to Zuko did NOT engender a ton of sympathy to him, directly and forcefully onto his side. They want Zuko to kick Zhao’s ass.

This continues all through book one and book two. Remember, Zuko is never, ever the main villain of this series. That’s initially Zhao, followed by Azula and Ozai. (Plus various temporary players like Long Feng.) Whenever Zuko isn’t placed into direct conflict with the other protagonists, he’s always written and presented in a way that is careful, VERY VERY careful, not to make him too monstrous, and to make us root for him. He’s placed right next to Iroh, who is designed for people to like, and that reflects back onto Zuko; we want Zuko to be better than he is because we want Iroh to have good things.

Put aside for the moment whether any specific character, including Zuko, deserves their redemption. If you’ve decided you’re going to do that, you have to erect the proper narrative scaffolding around them, and it extends to far more things than “did this person not do things that were too horrible” and “is this person genuinely sorry and is working really hard to atone.” There’s a difference between protagonist and white hat, but if you want someone to eventually wear that white hat, you REALLY need to establish them as a plausible protagonist early on.

Yeah, it was made obvious from the get go that Zuko is definitely nowhere near Zhao’s level of nasty, which in turn means he’s nowhere near Azula’s and nowhere in the scope of Ozai’s.

1.) 

He made a deal with Aang to leave the Southern Water Tribe alone if Aang went with him. When Aang escaped with help from two of those tribe members, Zuko didn’t demand they go back and destroy what was left of the tribe as revenge. He didn’t even think of it as an option. There was no split second where he went, should I/shouldn’t I?

2.) 

This is repeated. He corners the Avatar somewhere, causes some damage to the area in the ensuing fight, but does not stick around to raze the village/monastery to the ground and kill the people when he doesn’t get what he wants. Doesn’t consider this a necessary action even once.

3.) 

The Iroh&Zuko relationship is juxtaposed with the Zhao&Zuko relationship. Both older men have more power over him. Iroh is a retired War General and Prince who is not banished. Zhao is a Commander in favor of the Firelord, who is also not banished. We could tell early on that Iroh is wise and despite being on the bad side, seems to be pretty chill. We took a liking to him immediately. Zhao is the opposite. He is very much like early!Zuko. Impulsive, rude, loud, cocky, etc… But why is he more annoying? Why do we root for Zuko as opposed to him? 

Because we see what Zuko is like with his Uncle Iroh. Iroh does not rub in the fact that he’s banished. He doesn’t use that when reprimanding him for his attitude or his failings. That is a hot iron and he knows it. It’s to the point where Iroh can bend fire in Zuko’s face and Zuko is perfectly relaxed over it and doesn’t once believe his uncle will hurt him. There is a lot of faith in Iroh, from this angsty teenager, and it’s very obvious with their interactions.

Zhao is not trustworthy from the start. We’re shown this by how both Zuko and Iroh are hesitant to interact with him and don’t want to linger in areas he has control over, for too long. They even lie to him despite him obviously having more favor in the Firelord’s eyes than either of them do. Zhao’s personality opposes both Zuko and Iroh. And as we like Iroh, we want him to win and have nice things, as stated above. But Zuko&Iroh is a package deal. And as Zhao reveals himself more and more to be nasty even if it’s subtle, we want Zuko to win even harder.

And even when Zuko wins and he’s in the prime position to do to Zhao what Ozai did to Zuko for also ‘speaking out of turn’… he doesn’t do it. He walks away. He is the bigger man in that scenario. And Iroh further puts shame onto Zhao when he goes against the sacred rules of the Agni Kai because he can’t handle a loss to a banished teen. We are shown that Zuko follows rules and has honor, which is reinforced by Iroh’s, ‘even in exile, my nephew is more honorable than you’. Iroh’s Word is basically Law at this point. Sf he says it is so, then he must be right and the audience accepts that. He knows Zuko better than us and hopefully we’ll get to understand more as the story progresses.

Already by the 3rd episode, we’re shown that Zuko is in no way the worst person from the Fire Nation. In fact, we’re given a sort of scale now from the four major Fire Nation people we know of. Iroh–Zuko——-Zhao–Firelord.

We’re also hoping that Iroh rubs off on Zuko enough for him to also become wise and learn to chill out.

4.) 

When “The Storm” finally rolls around, we’re pretty invested by then in the Iroh&Zuko relationship and that episode gives us so much more info into Zuko’s character and we are shown that Iroh is right. He has honor and he cares for others. And yet it’s obvious the Firelord doesn’t because we see Zuko do the right thing(protesting the plan to treat new recruits as cannon fodder) in the wrong place, and then his face gets burned off by his father because of it. And further, he’s banished for refusing to fight his own father. What sane parent wants to do battle with their own child? What sane parent banishes their child for speaking out of turn at the defense of their own peoples’ lives? What the fuck is wrong with the Firelord?

Zuko was punished severely for showing compassion and having a kind heart. And Iroh(and the ship crew even) is properly mortified by the punishments his nephew received for it, which in turn affects the audience’s perception of this situation. Iroh doesn’t like it, it’s especially bad then.

Now we start wondering why does Zuko wants to go back to the guy who burned his face off?! Iroh, talk some sense into him! PLEASE!

Halfway through S1, they got us to the point of wanting Zuko to have a redemption arc. 

Making the audience want a character to be redeemed is also very important in this. We were shown he has redeemable qualities. We want that pay off! Do it justice!

Fic Recs

* - Angst (prepare your hearts)

♡ - Personal Favourites.

Last Updated: 13/03/21

(this is still uncompleted and unedited, so some warnings may not be there yet. and apologies if i get any tags wrong! xx)

Harry Potter

Sirius Black

Remus Lupin

James Potter

The Marauders

George Weasley

Fred Weasley 

Draco Malfoy

Marvel

Steve Rodgers

Bucky Barnes

Peter Parker 

Tony Stark 

Supernatural

Dean Winchester

Random Loves

Harry Styles

Chris Evans

Kylo Ren

Ransom Drysdale

Spencer Reid

A Dangerous Bet — Chapter Two.

Plot: A big change can make a person do crazy things. Take on dangerous bets. And that’s exactly what Y/N and Sirius Black did. Can a random and thoughtless occasion completely change two people’s lives?

Pairing: Sirius Black x Fem!Reader.

Warnings: Sexual content.

A/N: Here is chapter two! Wrote it into late hours again, so sorry about any grammar mistakes! Hope you guys enjoy it.

As the week went by, Bentley and Clark weren’t exactly keeping a low profile and the entire school already knew they were having a fling. Your friends kept asking you how you were feeling, but you weren’t exactly sure. You did love Bentley during the time you were together, but part of the reason why you chose to break up with him, was because you didn’t love him like you used to. There was no spark anymore. No passion. It was just... boring.

“Guess that’s what happens when you grow apart and the feelings fade,” you thought by yourself as you were watching them kissing on a corner of the Gryffindor table at the Great Hall and realized it didn’t bother you at all.

“You’re staring,” Alice said into your year, startling you to the point you nearly dropped the mug you were holding and its entire content on yourself.

“I’m not,” you rolled your eyes annoyed.

“Yes, you were. Does it bother you? Seeing them snogging,” Marlene asked sympathetically.

Every pair of eyes belonging to your closest friends were on you, waiting for an answer. Each one studying you with persistence. Specially Sirius’.

“Do you still... love him?” He asked out of the blue, his brows furrowed and an unreadable expression on his face.

“I-“

“Why do you care?” Lily cut you off, sending him a threatening glare.

“I don’t,” he shrugged with a scrunched face. “I’m just worried, Y/N is one of my best mates after all.”

There. This definitely bothered you. Hearing Sirius saying he didn’t care did a lot more damage than seeing your ex’s tongue down the throat of another girl. You were one of his best friends and yet he didn’t care?

“How can you possibly not care if your best friend still loves a wanker like that?” James asked Sirius incredulously. “I know I do!” He added, looking at you and waiting for an answer.

“How about we just stop pressuring her and leave her be? I’m sure she’s got a lot on her plate already,” Lily said with an end-of-conversation tone.

Everyone slowly stopped staring at you and started chitchatting among them. Since no one was specifically talking to you, you started to get lost in your mind and your eyes once again wandered to Hogwarts’ newest happy couple. There was a time you truly believed Bentley was your soulmate and the two of you were meant to be. You used to think you were each other’s destiny. After crushing hard on Sirius Black for about a year without any sign of reciprocity, it was Bentley who had saved you from the hopeless feeling of seeing your best friend chasing girl after girl and breaking heart after heart and never noticing you were standing right there. It was him that helped you overcome this feeling. And now here you were, finding yourself uninterested in everything related to Bentley and playing with fire by having slept with Sirius. Six days ago you had your entire life planned out and now... now everything was just a mess.

Lily discreetly elbowed your ribs and motioned in Sirius’ direction. Turning your attention to him, you realized he had been observing you quite interested, not shying away from your inquisitive stare once caught red handed. You would keep staring back if it wasn’t from a dashing brunette Ravenclaw approaching him in a very flirty manner all of a sudden, causing him to break eye contact with you.

“Hey, you lush!” She said, licking her lips teasingly at him. You had to refrain yourself from rolling your eyes at the pathetic scene.

“Hello, you fit, fit woman,” he took her hand in his and placed a kiss on her knuckles ever so gently.

“Missed you at the last Gryffindor party, you were nowhere to be found when I arrived,” she started to play with his curls as she said so, a little pout on her lips.

Sirius’ eyes flickered with a devilishly mischievousness at her words as his eyes crashed into yours and a small smile quickly creeped on his lips. You had to look away abruptly to prevent your cheeks from heating up.

“Yeah, about that... I got heavily distracted,” he answered her, his eyes still on you.

“It must have been quite a distraction huh Pad!” James tapped on his shoulder in a congratulatory way. “You disappeared until the next morning.”

“So now ‘m a distraction,” you thought at yourself, feeling your blood boil inside your veins. Sure, you didn’t expect anything from him, but you surely expected a little more respect, you being his best friend and everything.

“Oh,” the brunette gasped, clearly unpleased at the boys’ remarks.

“Don’t worry, hun! He tosses his distractions away the next morning, you’ll still have your shot,” you shrugged sarcastically, entirely focused on the pudding you were eating.

Lily and Sirius stared at you mouth-widened as you calmly finished eating your dessert, completely unlikely the others, whom had exploded into a laughter, all assuming you were joking and teasing your friend as always, oblivious to what had happened between the two of you.

“Well, excuse me,” you said casually as you stood up and grabbed your bag after finishing your lunch.

Lily hinted to follow you, but you discreetly squeezed her shoulder, letting her now you needed some time alone to cool off. You could feel Sirius’ eyes burning holes in your back as you exited the table and, a few seconds later, the Great Hall.

You only stopped walking when you reached the clock tower courtyard, which was completely empty due to lunch time. You plopped yourself down on the edge of the antique fountain surrounded by statues of eagles and rested your elbows on your knees, your head still pounding of furiousness at Sirius’ words.

“Mind if I join you?” His voice echoed from beside you.

“Piss off, Sirius. I don’t have the energy to deal with you right now,” you said whilst closing your eyes and placing your fingers in the bridge of your nose.

“Shouldn’t I be the one mad here since you basically called me a rightful prick?” He chuckled.

“Right, because it’s always all about you,” you sang annoyed and looked to the opposite side that he was standing.

Sirius sighed heavily before making his way to you, bending down until he was on your level and resting a hand on your waist and another on your chin. He then gently turned your head so you could face him.

“What’s wrong?” He asked tenderly. “Talk to me.”

“A distraction? Really? I know I said I didn’t expect anything from you but I did expect a little bit of respect, you know, since I’m your so-called best friend,” you huffed after a while.

A shadow of an unreadable emotion run through Sirius’ eyes before he looked down and shook his head in disbelief.

“That’s what James said, not me. I said I got heavily distracted, which I did, because when we were together you and that moment were all I could think about,” he said, lifting his head a little so he could look you in the eyes. “I’m sorry i misspoke and made you feel that way. I do care about you, too much to ever hurt you on purpose.”

“Damn, you really know how to fool a woman, don’t you Black?” You joked harshly.

“I mean it,” he frowned.

“Well, then learn how to use your words, you daft!” You bumped your fist into his shoulder rather strongly, causing him to lost his balance and fall on his back, pulling you with him.

You stared at each other for a second before the sound of a loud laughter echoed through the empty courtyard. After what felt like ages of a hearty laugh, you rested your face breathless in the crook of his neck. Sirius took a hand out of your waist and started caressing your hair as you laid on top of him, a hand on his cheek and the other placed on his chest.

“Does it mean I’m forgiven?” He whispered into your ear with a giggle.

You lifted your head and stared into his eyes with a smile before nodding. Sirius smiled back at you and took a strand of your hair behind your ear, resting his hand on your cheek after, caressing it with his thumb. You could feel the warmth of his breath as your faces were dangerously close, both of you starting to lean in without even realizing you were doing so. Your nose was brushing against his, lips almost locked.

However, a sudden clear of a throat ruined the moment and caused you to jump on your feet quickly, meeting Remus’ shocked eyes.

“Hi, Rem!” You greeted him before grabbing your bag recklessly and taking off completely embarrassed, not bothering to wait for an answer.

Remus watched you leave for a few seconds before offering his and to Sirius, who was still laid down on the floor.

“What was that?” The boy with warmly kind chocolate eyes asked with a scrunched face.

“We were fooling around when I fell on my back and she landed on top of me,” he shrugged before taking Remus’ hand and standing up.

“I meant the obvious tension and the almost kissing, Padfoot,” he lifted both of his brows.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, my dear friend Moony,” he wrapped his arm on his friend’s shoulder and started to lead him back into the castle.

Remus got out of Sirius’ embrace and grabbed his arm gently.

“Padfoot, she’s your best friend...” he started, concern clear in his voice. “You can’t gamble your friendship like that.”

“Do you think I’d ever do something like that to her?” He asked a little hurt. “We’re just... i don’t know.”

“Merlin, do you fancy Y/N?” He asked a little shocked. Remus had always been suspicious that Sirius had a crush on you but since he never made a move, he never paid much thought to it.

“What- No!” Sirius denied quickly with a scrunch of a face. “I’m not capable of such thing, and by such thing I mean feelings.”

“If I didn’t know you better I’d say you were lying,” Remus smirked. “About the first half of your sentence at least.”

“I’m not!” He exclaimed exasperatedly. “Besides, she deserves a lot better than me.”

Noticing a sad smile on his friend’s face, Remus squeezed his shoulder sympathetically.

“You could be a good man to her if you tried.”

“I’m too much of a fuck-up to ever commit to anyone, Moony, specially her,” he leant against the nearest rock-wall and looked at his friend with a side smirk.

“When will you start getting yourself more credit, you filthy dog?” Remus said with a grin.

“Oh, come on now, Moony! I do think I’m devilishly irresistible and a real catch already! How much more of a credit from myself do I need?” He joked, getting inside the castle and motioning for his friend to follow him.

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“Oi! Y/N! Come join us!” James waved for you from the stuffed armchair he was occupying as soon as you scrambled through the round hole concealed by the Fat Lady portrait.

Remus, Sirius and Peter looked over their shoulders at the sound of your name. You could see a knowing grin plastered on Remus’ face and your cheeks started heating up as you made your way to them.

“Hello, Y/N,” Remus widened his grin once you were inside his line of sight, your cheeks already burning by now.

“Why do you look so flustered, L/N?” James asked suspiciously with a furrowed brow.

“She turned pink as soon as she saw Remus, maybe she fancies him,” Peter nodded at James.

“Or maybe she fancies someone else...” Remus teased.

Sirius were studying your face quite amused and his eyes flickered with lust at his friend’s words, his piercing look flustering you even more.

“So Moony wants to tease, huh? Well, two can play a game,” you thought to yourself, plotting quickly a little prank to pull on your friend.

“Rem... I don’t think they’re gonna buy it...” you started, a play pretend anguish frown on your face.

“What do you...” he started to ask you, clearly confused.

“OH, REMUS JOHN LUPIN! I’M READY TO LET THE WORLD KNOW WE’RE IN LOVE!” You shouted, cutting him off and grabbing the attention of all of your fellow Gryffindors that were scattered along the Common Room. And then, without a warning, you gave him an intense and long peck on the lips.

Remus turned as red as a tomato, his eyes widened in shock, whilst Sirius had tears on his eyes due to how hard he was laughing. James and Peter just stared at you with a dumbfounded look on their faces, as well as the rest of the students.

“Merlin, Moony... that was like kissing my bloody brother! Sorry but I don’t think we have the chemistry to engage on a relationship,” you said mockingly, reaching for his hand with a condescending look on your face. “But we’ll always, always be friends.”

Pulling Remus aside as soon as you were done talking, you drove him to the quieter and inhabited corner of the room, looking into his eyes.

“Please, don’t do that again! Don’t tease me in public about... well, that!”

“I wasn’t gonna tell James, you know that,” he retorted offended.

“I do, Rem, but he’s not as much of a daft as he seems, he’d realize you were holding information and his annoying self would torture you until you had to no way out but tell him what you saw!”

“Good point,” he shrugged. “‘M sorry, I won’t tease any of you about that again. Not in public at least.”

Remus grinned amused at your annoyed eye-roll, hugging you and leading you back to the fireplace with the other Marauders. He would definitely be teasing both you and Sirius for as long as he could.

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