#universe headcanon

   Lily Potter was twenty, prophecy in her belly, love in her whole being. At times, she was vain, willful, and prone to intrude, but a year later no one would remember those parts of her; only her kindness and love would survive her. Her kindness and love would end the war.

[ficlets by hpedit]

THE HOGWARTS UNDERGROUND CHESS SOCIETY

    Hogwarts castle morphed along with its inhabitants’ secrets. Whims and wars lay groundwork for hidden rooms and protection spells that trickled silently through the generations, forgotten until some intrepid student dared to push a little further into the shadows.
   Twenty years passed before the underground chambers were uncovered again. Their purpose fulfilled, the chambers protected little but rubble and rusted keys… and an impressively large chessboard that filled the fourth room, complete with life-sized pieces that sprang to life with a touch.
   But they would obey no commands until a player took the place of one of the pieces.
   Playing the board became a rite of passage for daring Wizard’s Chess enthusiasts. The best—and some say, the most merciless—of such students formed the Underground Chess Society, the school’s first secret society since the war. Ascension was bloody, for rising in their ranks required playing head-to-head games to completion, and a win no longer necessarily required felling a king; having a knight draw its sword on a classmate forced to stand in for the bishop would do just as well. And the more one played, the less one hesitated to make the move…

[ficlets by hpedit]

    Ginny learned of satellites when one was masquerading as the tip of Orion’s bow.
    "Are they like stars?“ she asked, and Professor Sinistra chuckled and explained how Muggles used them to study the world and the universe beyond.
    Ginny liked imagining them as pretenders still—false stars altering divinations and shooting across the sky to be wished upon. As if humanity was doing everything in its power to build their own fates.

[more ficlets by hpedit]

Rita Skeeter gets up close and personal with the Hufflepuffs who knew Harry Potter best. 

(The Slytherin Class of 1999 - Where are they Now? /Gryffindor’s Golden Graduates: How Gryffindor’s Class of 1999 are Shaping the World /Wit Beyond Measure: Ravenclaws in Profile)

[ficlets by hpedit]

     At school, Peter was Remus’ closest friend. Peter was his study partner most years, as neither Sirius nor James could behave for an hour straight in the library. They’d squander their afternoons together too, when they couldn’t find their friends soon enough to make the time before dinner useful.
     Sirius and James—they were exuberant. They would conquer the ground they walked on, mouths wide and cackling, as if they could swallow the world. Remus was ever grateful for their friendship—their acceptance had saved him and he would never speak a bad word about it—but he couldn’t say that Sirius and James truly understood like Peter did. Walking in their friends’ shadow together, taunted by the ease a few feet ahead. The envy of it. Sirius and James could swallow the world, but Remus could never swallow the moon and keep it dark forever. He could never wield that brightness with how it stirred his blood and how he craved for the nights when the moon was skinny.
     Peter knew the hopelessness of it, griping along instead of offering false encouragement, and they’d revel in their cynicism until the dinner bell tolled. Remus was just as grateful for that.

[ficlets by hpedit]

POSTWAR: DRACO MALFOY[ficlets by hpedit]
 He is dead. But no matter where you will go, you will still feel the pressure of his hand upon your shoulder, his claim upon your life, and the things you did in his name. And you will never be able to forget how it felt.