have been unavoidably detained by the world

I'm in the middle of writing a post-Cursed Child fic and really, I'm just lovingly crafting a throwaway moment where a random Gryffindor is like "WTF are those two Slytherins doing here?" and when James points out Albus has two Gryffindor siblings the Jerk-indor says "yeah but what about the Malfoy?" And James is confused, because, like, "Um, it's Scorpius. You have Albus, you also have Scorpius. Duh."

This is one of the things I want out of Cursed Child fic. And like, I almost prefer it without Albus and Scorpius dating, or before they're dating. Because that's the kind of family acceptance Harry got very early on in the books and I LOVE IT SO MUCH. I love the found families element of Molly and Arthur just taking Harry into their large and warm family without a second thought (that Harry sees, at least). And it's not like the other kids were toting their own friends into the family that we saw! Harry and Ron were best friends, and Harry was clearly in need of some loving, so the Weasley crew scooped him up. Arthur even made sure to get World Cup tickets for Harry, who never would have even expected them or known what he was missing.* It's not even just Molly and Arthur; Fred and George pick up Harry at the beginning of the second book and they give Harry the Marauder's Map! This was long before Harry and Ginny were dating, so romance wasn't required. The Weasley's are just That Awesome and Welcoming.

*Arthur got a ticket for Hermione too, but I actually think it's safe to assume her parents paid him back. But while we're on that topic, Hermione is a great example of the Weasley's not caring that Hermione has a lovely home life - she's ALSO a best friend, of course she's invited along to everything!

And I want that for Scorpius, who grew up very loved but also very isolated and suddenly picked up this awkward, angry best friend of Albus on day one of Real Life. I want Scorpius who gets invited to every summer and every holiday because, well, Albus is coming, and you can't conceive of one without the other. I want James to bring them both sweets from Hogsmeade and Lily to grab Scorpius for her team in backyard Quidditch and I want everyone to know that when Albus isn't home during holidays he's at Malfoy Manner, where else would he be? Scorpius can't visit all the time, you know.

And it's ok that li'l James and Lily don't have bosom friends, because not everyone has super best friends, that's ok, Harry had two but frankly while Ginny had a bunch of super-close friends but Luna didn't hang out at the Burrow during the summers, you know?

I also understand that it seems like Harry ignored the deep friendship between Albus and Scorpius before Cursed Child, so this has to be happening after Year Four. I do think that James and Lily are both long over it by the time Harry grits his teeth and starts inviting Scorpius 'round for tea every second of every day. If they wanted to see Albus while they were at Hogwarts, they were going to also see Scorpius, so they're both very accustomed to the Albus and Scorpius BFF show. And if Harry could pull his head out of his butt faster, Albus probably wouldn't have been wound so tight at the end of the summer after not being able to see his best friend.

LISTEN I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS ON THIS. THIS COULD BE LONGER.

(crossposted to tumblr as an ~experiment~.)

Jack's background

By all rights, this post probably belongs in my meta community, and I might cross-post it there later. But this is rough and possibly, um, controversial? So I'm uncertain if I really want to deal with the unlikely but still possible fallout. (Torchwood is dead, but I have seen fandoms blow up over so much less. So much less.)

So,( click below for some discussion of possible future religions that may bear passing resemblance to present ones. )