The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (a thread for Potterheads)

Discussion in 'Fan Town' started by Soul, Aug 27, 2015.

  1. turtleDove

    turtleDove Well-Known Member

    I feel like it'd be math that lets you figure out how to build spells. But that's primarily because Hermione was Very Done with divination after Trelawney, and I'm not sure she'd willingly pick up another divination-related class, even if it is math-oriented.
     
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  2. latitans

    latitans zounds, scoob

    yeah, on the one hand, Hermione did seem extremely suspicious of anything having to do with telling the future in 3rd year, so it would make sense that she would avoid any other forms of divination. but on the other hand, she did often pit Trelawney against Professor Vector, which could suggest that their classes deal with related subjects and Hermione just vastly prefers the arithmancy methodologies, based in pattern recognition and, i dunno, primes or something. magic numbers. that would also continue the delightful trend, established in the potions puzzle in book 1, of Hermione being The Only Wizard Who Can Do Math

    I also love the idea of it being math that lets you build spells, though. maybe something like magic squares ?
     
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  3. latitans

    latitans zounds, scoob

    sorry for the double post but i am extremely enamored of the idea of arithmancy being all about magic squares now. i had never looked closely at the wikipedia page before, i didn't realize that there were hard-core math people still figuring out magic squares

    (i only knew about them vaguely and from a completely historical perspective, as a thing that some scholars got into in baghdad in the 10th century)

    arithmancy class is just a bunch of students sitting around reading about something called the Birkhoff–von Neumann theorem, spending a whole semester balancing one perfect square that just does, like, a first year-level charm
     
    Last edited: Jan 14, 2020
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  4. Aondeug

    Aondeug Cringe Annoying Ass Female Lobster

    My other idea would be it involves using number correspondences and like crazy geometric arrays for...purposes. Like if we need the protective what the fuck that not even the gods themselves could break you cover shit in fancy ass magic geometry patterns based around the number 3 or some shit. Like the geometry art done for God in mosques but like...Harry Potterified. Like this is the geometric array of INSERT MAGICAL PEST HERE fuck off.
     
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  5. latitans

    latitans zounds, scoob

    not gonna lie the reason i was thinking about Wizard Math came from browsing some FMA/HP crossover fics that try to take seriously the idea of two different...what could we call them...ways of manipulating the world? and the ways of thinking bound up in that coming into contact with each other. so magic geometry arrays is very very good. also i love the protection thing--i think there's evidence of magic squares being used in the medieval islamic world as protection charms, so that would be a fun real-world tie in
     
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  6. latitans

    latitans zounds, scoob

    More Questions:

    how do kids get home from Hogwarts for the holidays? In Book 6, Harry and the Weasleys go back via Floo, for "security reasons" iirc. But what about Muggle Born kids, whose fireplaces aren't supposed to be connected to the Floo Network? Do they take the train? Is it ever mentioned?

    I always wish for more on the lives of muggle borns--in an interview JK said she didn't really care about, for example, the Grangers, because they were just dentists and not very interesting. But I find them so interesting.
     
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  7. latitans

    latitans zounds, scoob

    all of these questions are inspired by a hermione-focused fic that i'm writing, where i keep running into the issues like not knowing where her parents live

    i've decided on london, specifically ealing, based on 1) the comment that she used to go to shaftesbury avenue with her parents in book 7, 2) the fact that both her parents are dentists, which i think is a well-paying profession but still distinctly (in UK terms, as I understand them) middle class, and 3) it's really pretty and i like the idea of hermione growing up somewhere pretty

    if anyone has input though i welcome it!
     
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  8. KingStarscream

    KingStarscream watch_dogs walking advertisement

    I think (though obviously this isn't confirmed in canon since Harry never goes back to the Dursleys for the holidays and he has the observational skills of a brick) that the students typically take the train back for the holidays, then come over it again - which would help preserve the illusion of the school being mostly normal. Was book 6 the one where Hermione erased her parents memories? Or was that book 5? I'm not sure how the muggleborns that aren't her would be handled in that situation.
     
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  9. latitans

    latitans zounds, scoob

    in book 5 hermione's meant to go skiing with her parents but decides to head to grimmauld place, where harry, the weasleys, etc. are camped out, on christmas so they can all go visit mr. weasley in the hospital. she takes the knight bus. then when they're all headed back to hogwarts they also take the knight bus, but that seems to be a special case--there aren't any other hogwarts students on the bus, and mrs. weasley had to harangue the driver a bit to get him to drop them off at hogsmeade quickly.

    in book 6 hermione and ron are in a fight, so she spends the holidays with her parents. not much info on how she gets to school or back.

    train does make the most sense, certainly. book 5 does sort of throw everything off, although it seems like what happens then is abnormal.

    (i had to look this up lol, i didn't just know this off the top of my head. researching wizard shit has been my break from trying to do my actual research in my apartment, which has been a pain in the ass)
     
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  10. Elph

    Elph capuchin hacker fucker

    I still find it deeply annoying that there's no mention of how the whole train thing applies to kids who already live in Scotland. Do they have to schlep all the way down to London for it? What about kids from Hogsmeade? Please tell me they can just meet everyone else at the platform when the train arrives...
     
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  11. latitans

    latitans zounds, scoob

    wait I had never before considered the existence of Hogwarts Townies before, that’s glorious
     
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  12. turtleDove

    turtleDove Well-Known Member

    I think it's in book 7 where Hermione tells Harry that she erased her parents' memories. There's fan theories that she actually did it as far back as book 5, explaining this as why she's at Grimmauld rather than skiing with her parents (the skiing trip being an excuse she gives the rest, who apparently don't bat an eyelash at the idea that her parents would just go off skiing and leave their daughter alone during the holidays to manage by herself).

    Mind you, there's also fan theories that Hermione just completely lied to Harry about having wiped her parents' memories and sent them off to Australia, because she knew he was still absolute crap at keeping Voldemort out of his head and she wasn't about to trust that Voldemort wouldn't send someone after her parents just to hurt her if he thought they were within easy reach. (I theorize that she, instead, put them into witness protection and sent them off to Canada with the promise that if it was safe for them to come back, she would come get them herself.)

    I mean, common sense would suggest that Scottish train stations could just as easily have been set up to transport wizards there to Platform 9 3/4 by portkey or gate. But that means applying common sense to the wizarding world, which...well. But the wall between 9 3/4 and the rest of King's Cross is basically just a permanent (stationary) portkey of sorts, so there's no reason it can't be replicated for other train stations. You could even make the argument that it's less noticeable for people to use their local train stations, rather than make the trip all the way to London if they don't have to!

    I could imagine kids from Hogsmeade being subject to a rule that first years have to take the train, as part of the tradition, but after that no one's really going to notice or care how you got to the platform as long as you're there when it's time to head up to the castle.
     
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  13. TheMockingCrows

    TheMockingCrows Resident Bisexual Lich

    :knocks on this thread to bring it back to life:

    hiss hiss motherfuckers
    ahem
    i recently invested in used hardbacks of all the books. i'm waiting for the rest of them to turn up in the mail, and I'm very excited.
    I haven't read a word of the series since finishing the last book the day after it came out, and donated my copies during a move not long afterward to save space in the car.
    hell, i've only ever seen one and a half of the movies.
    i'm so excited though. i've got so many fond memories i'd forgotten about entirely that i want to reexperience.
    like... yeah there's issues with the series, and JKR is personally invited to kiss the fattest chunk of my ass at any time, but i refuse to let her sour my memories anymore.
    :rubs my queer little hands all over the series out of spite:
     
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