remember, everything’s tagged under the dogfather. part one is here, with links to the rest at the bottom. I’m also going to round up the story-so-far and post it to my AO3 once I get Harry past the Sorting Hat. if you’re waiting for the next installment and the anticipation’s killing you, go read a zine or a comic from my Gumroad page.
- on the train, Harry is a bit relieved to have a compartment nearly to himself. he’s in with Padfoot and the youngest of that big noisy family from the platform– Ron, who also seems quite glad for a bit of quiet and space to catch his breath. two of his brothers invite them to see someone’s giant tarantula, but Ron doesn’t seem to like spiders any better than Harry does.
- they subside, for a bit, into the slightly awkward silence of two strangers whose parents clearly expected them to befriend one another. Padfoot flops over onto his side, puts his head on Harry’s shoes, and goes to sleep.
- Ron makes the first overture. “are you allowed dogs at Hogwarts? I thought it was only cats, rats and toads.”
- “if anyone asks, I’m going to say he’s a very large cat,” Harry says.
Tag: the dogfather
dogfather in Diagon
part six! parts one, two, three, four, five. everything’s tagged with “the dogfather.”
- Harry knows that Padfoot and his parents are worried, but very little of it trickles down to him. it can’t: he’s too excited.
- his letter comes in the post, in July, a little after what he has started to think of as his old birthday.
- (technically it is the newer of the two, but he didn’t know his original birthday until Padfoot told him, so now he has the birthday he was used to, at the beginning or July, and the one he apparently had all along but didn’t know, at the end.)
- the letter is just like Padfoot said it would be: his name in bright green ink, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. please find enclosed–
- but now he needs all sorts of things! robes, and a cauldron, and books with titles that sound a lot like some of the books he already has, except those books are just stories and these ones will be real. and, best of all: a magic wand.
- so he and his mum and his dad and his Padfoot are going to Diagon Alley, in London, and they are meeting Moony in person, for real.
- Harry has been trying to act a little more grown up, now that he’s a wizard and nearly eleven, but it’s proving extremely difficult when he is this excited.
- he does his best, though.
Reblog for the morning crowd. soon: the train to Hogwarts.
This may be my favorite AU ever.
Imagine Sirius, well-groomed and sane, not trapped in his fucked-up childhood home.
Would Harry’s adoptive parents move in there when things became dangerous? Would Sirius make an aborted move to cover the screaming painting of his mother before watching numbly as Harry’s mother stepped forward and gave her a piece of her mind? They waited so long for children. So long, and to see parents who treat their children so abominably, well. Maybe they can’t help with the actual fight, but would they become caretakers/healers of Grimmauld place? Would it shine under their care, warm candlelight and laughter and the plushest of tea towels for Kreacher since they can’t technically buy him clothes?
Would Sirius insist on using cleaning charms because he can’t bear to see Harry’s mother (and possibly his own surrogate mother figure) exhaust herself trying to clean the place up? Maybe Kreacher would explain about Regulus when he was treated kindly. Maybe Sirius would take back the years stolen from him.
Harry’s loved and treasured and Draco is a screwed-up trust fund baby raised by an angry, thwarted Nazi who wouldn’t remind him of Dudley or Vernon at all because there’s no trauma to be re-triggered.
Just, dude, why are you so hostile and strange, and then he hears about Lucius Malfoy from Sirius and Harry’s parents reprimand Sirius for saying such terrible things about Draco because he’s a child, honestly, and look what Sirius grew up with.
This is such a lovely, hopeful AU and I adore it. I adore everything about it. Thank you for this this morning!!
reblogging for this lovely, lovely commentary. oh man. btw, I am officially in love with the idea of Tim and Caro tackling Grimmauld Place with the same DIY verve and spirit as they did their own house.
::flailing Kermit arms of joy::
I can’t stop thinking about an AU like this. What would Harry see in the Mirror of Erised, since he hasn’t been starving his whole life for loving parents?What happens when Tim and Caro meet Moony as a wolf the first time?
Since Harry hasn’t been isolated and abused, would Dumbledore have less of a hold on him?
Would Snape bother him as much? Would he have some hilariously well-adjusted response to Snape’s resentment while Sirius slinks in the shadows to avoid being recognized and make various plans to bite him?
“No, Padfoot, it’s not worth it. Mum says anyone who’s that angry is really sad deep down.” —Harry
“Sirius, you’re just going to get a mouthful of grease and regret.” —Remus
Is it weird to wanna write fan fiction of a not!fic?? 😂😂😂
“Mr. Black, I know exactly what you’re doing in my hallway and I do not approve in the slightest. That said, I expect I shall be quite engrossed in these papers for the next hour. Kindly keep the noise down.” —McGonagall
you should definitely write as much of this as you can manage.
(for the record: I think Harry still does see Lily and James in the Mirror. he doesn’t have a lot of extended family– Tim and Caro are both only children from small families– and he’s spent a lot of the last few years hearing stories about Lily and James. he *would* like to know them better, and once he knows the Weasleys he really loves the idea of a big, noisy, messy extended family.
so he sees Lily and James in the Mirror, and lots of his Potter relatives, as in canon. but also Petunia and Vernon– a version of them very unlike the real ones, not that he’d know– and various Evanses as well. And all the MacIntyre relatives he never got to meet, on top of that.
it’s a very crowded mirror.)
Question of Smoke 