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

i always really liked the theory that gryffindors were chosen partly based on if they wanted to be in that house. like i don't know if it happened in the books but there's a whole scene in the first movie where harry's supposed to be slytherin but begs to be gryffindor. arguably, hermione could've easily been ravenclaw, and neville could've been hufflepuff but both could've asked for gryffindor like harry. like they were "brave" enough to ask, since that seems to be a defining feature associated with gryffindors.

 

That's totally what happened in the book too. He asked to be a Gryffindor :) I'm not sure I would be brave enough to ask though.
Though I have been told by a new friend I made recently that something that she really likes about me is that I am always myself. Apparently I project a confident exterior, even when I am not XD

 

Raaaaaaavenclaaaaaaaaw and have always been :D

My mom was suspicious/wary of the HP books when they first came out (liberal Christian with experience/wariness of witchcraft etc), but then my aunt bought us the first three as a Christmas present and I wanted to read them ('cause my friends were) so she said she would read them first.

She promptly devoured them and shoved them at me and said READ THESE. That would have been...2001, I think. I got GoF from my aunt again, then badgered my parents into taking me to get the fifth at midnight when it released, got the sixth on preorder, and was third in line at midnight to get Deathly Hallows (and then stayed up until 5 am reading it cover to cover). I even cosplayed:


mom and I had many a conversation while waiting for the last books to come out - mostly about Snape. and a few about Trelawney, and a few about Regulus. And eventually some about Dumbledore. i also had good fun LARPing playing Harry Potter with my best friend in elementary school - I was a Mary Sue called Lilya Luetts. Fun times, man.

a couple of my fave HP tumblrs:
The Lethifold Witch
The Post-Modern Potter Compendium

 

I'm a slytherclaw.
Though at my school freshmen physics sections are named after the four houses and I'm hufflepuff there.
(We sadly lost the house cup. Because the slytherins bought the teacher a living hampster)

I've seen a lot of those "Hogwarts education is terrible compared to muggle" posts and I'm like-
We know the classes at hogwarts through the eyes of Harry Potter, an equivalent 6th grader who attending the school in the generation after the adult and therefore child population of Wizarding England has been decimated.
Most of the classes that aren't potions and dada are skimmed over or barely focused on for the whole series, and Harry is sort of a slacker since he follows Ron's lead more than hermione.
Also "holy crap a foot of parchment is so easy" did you write massive papers in 6th grade? And often these are considered extra assignments, given as punishment or something.
I dunno. Maybe I'm being too defensive. There are a lot of issues in the world of harry potter (racism, isolationism, an incompetent government, fear of the Other) but I feel hogwarts isn't actually a horrible place to learn.

 

Hufflepuff here, probably kinda ravenclaw too, but eh

I agree with the limited viewpoint of the system. It is blatently said that harry slept for history of Magic. Like, if we followed hermione through the books we would have learned history of magic.. ie more background a world info. *shrug*

 

Weighing in on the education thing: my husband and I are both products of the Scottish school system in the 1990s and s1/s2 students were definitely expected to regularly produce 4-5 page essays on a variety of subjects (s1 students at the time studied english, maths, a foreign language, modern studies, science, home economics, history, art, PE & religious education as a minimum standard), so yeah, a foot of parchment sounds like easy street to us, but probably not to graduates of a different education system. (Also what were Hogwarts teachers on, letting students sleep in class? Considering the reamings I got for doodling in the margins!)

 

I think it was mostly professor binns

 

Part of the appeal of any boarding school novels for people my age was that the structured lessons and prep seemed so much fairer than having to take home hours-worth of work from several different hassled teachers every day. Plus Harry Potter came out when I was in Sixth Year, writing 10,500 word dissertations on the feminist comment present in post-apocalyptic novels with female leads, so yeah. Bias.

 

Another Ravenclaw. GIVE ME ALL THE META *heart eyes*

 

'cloudcuckoolander nerd house' is so accurate.

I like your point about the effect of the war on the adult population, @peripheral - I never thought of that. As for the lack of education, I always dealt with it mentally by making up elaborate AU headcanons to 'fix it', but 'Harry is really oblivious' is another great explanation.

@Kaylotta, that photo is adorable!

Spoiler: Only semi on topic, regarding what hellfirelover said about the appeal of boarding school novels

I fantasised endlessly about being at boarding school when I was a kid. Not just being spirited away to magic school, but like, any boarding school. To the point where I used to look them up in my free time and imagine being there. I also fantasised about being sent away somewhere, going to live with my aunt and uncle in England while my family still lived in the US; running away from home; and even becoming legally emancipated. IIRC 11-year-old Elph was absolutely dead set on becoming legally emancipated as soon as I reached 16.

In retrospect, this seems like a really fucking massive red flag about my home situation, but I guess hindsight is 20/20.

 

IT'S SEPTEMBER 1st!
Questions for today: What are your favourite treats found on the Hogwarts Express? Which ones would you try?

 

Um, I'd probably try near everything except the every flavor beans, cause I don't like jelly beans.

 

I'm a sucker for chocolate, so I might try the chocolate frogs, but I don't know if I'd be squicked by them being "alive"

 

Have your seating partner stun them first?

 

Probably the pumpkin cake things. I love pumpkin bread, anyways.

 

anything really. They all sound good

(but I probably wouldnt buy www stuff. the cons outweigh the pros for me *shudderr*)

 

I want pumpkin pasties. I fucking love pasties.

 

All the things. All the candy

 

Somewhere in an au where Kintsugi is all going to Hogwarts, this thread is all squished together and consuming ALL OF THE CANDY.

 

IF YOU STEAL MY TREACLE TARTS I WILL FUCKING HEX YOU