I can see potions evolving, and not even beginning to be magical for quite a while.

The first step would be herbal teas and such, which aren't magical in the slightest. Then you get someone decides to see what happens if you prepare it differently.

Huh, turns out that adding chopped up apple leaves has a different end than adding them whole, or ripped up.

Wonder what happens if I try adding in leftover snakeskin. I mean, snakes get their skin back, and they don't die... Maybe it can be good for healing?

Well that didn't work, the skin just settled at the bottom.

What if I stir it, so that nothing settles?

And so on, and so forth. The stirring might not actually have any effect but stopping ingredients settling. Stirring in certain patterns merely gives the stir a rough length of time, so only a certain amount of settling occurs.

 

Post DH and pre-epilogue, Dudley Dursley becoming a policeman or god forbid a soldier.

 

I prefer the idea of potions being a very intuitive thing- while the instructions may call for exactly 15 scales of snakeskin, you may get the feeling that this snakeskin is a little grogser than normal so you add a bit more powdered bluefly than the recipe suggests to get it that much more anifickle. And stir it 6 times clockwise and once widdershins rather than 7 just to make sure.

 

When I sketched out magical development for a fic that went nowhere, I had potions grow out the primitive poultices and medicines shamans would make in Stone Age societies. The defining image would be a wild haired half madman who chews up a bunch of leaves and spits them on a wound. The results of this were weird and chaotic, more or less the accidental magic equivalent of potions. As time passed, wizarding castes emerged and now that the person you were trying to teach really was a wizard, things could start progressing properly. Certain plants were linked to certain effects, as were different ways of combining the ingredients. Over thousands of years this turned into modern potions, but the basics of magical potions have existed for a long time. Indeed, semi-controlled potions predate semi-controlled spells by a long time.

I've always like the interpretation that potions is just another way of doing magic. Spells are cast by waving bits of magical animal inside a bit of dried plant by saying a word. Potions are 'cast' by combining a weird collection of magical and non-magical ingredients in a proven pattern.

 

Dudley as a soldier actually works pretty well for me, based on the "You have a choice: jail, or military," concept that was quite real for a number of decades, if not centuries. Hell, people still join the military to get out of or stay out of trouble. On the other side, some also see it as a chance to bully something/kill something.

Both of which work pretty well for how Dudley is painted in canon.

 

I dare you to make less sense. :|

I could also see him looking at his job prospects, as a graduate who never took academics seriously compared to boxing, and lamenting that all his childhood and adolescence really prepared him for was how to do violence. Vernon constantly assuring him he could do no wrong didn't exactly prepare him for the possibility that he could become a big, fat, failure, either.

So, rather than entering a college he's certain he'll flunk right back out of, he joins the military, hoping he can get by on what he knows while he uses it as a chance at some secondary education.

Or, maybe the military is what he does after he goes to college on a boxing scholarship and still manages to completely stuff it up.

Of course, this somewhat overlooks that we're more or less past the days when military service was something you could do if you flunked out of school and constantly clashed with the law. They want smart people who follow the rules, not fuck-ups who are so impossible to deal with that they can't go five minutes without flouting the law or clashing with authority.

 

"Why not?!" It was out of control now, the fury spilling the words past all reason from the darkest places of resentment he hadn't even realized were there, but he couldn't stop it. "You abandoned all your other so-called 'friends!' Not a goddamned word, Potter, you didn't even ask about us when you had contact with the Order, much less – oh, I don't know – bother to send a message, send your precious Marauder's Map, anything to help us survive?! But no, because it didn't matter if the rest of the wizarding world was at war, you had your little personal quest from Dumbledore, and the rest of us could just wait for you to feel better about Rita Skeeter and her nasty little book that had you all upset!"

From one of Thanfiction's fics. Commander Neville ranting at Harry for not helping him and the DA survive against two incompetent Death Eaters (Carrows) and Snape. I found it completely hilarious.

 

That's true. Interestingly, it's not exactly the same for the British military, or so I found out. Age sixteen, no formal academic qualifications required, and as long as you've "lived down" your conviction, you're okay.

Of course, this probably varies per branch to some degree, and they have their version of the ASVAB that has to be passed, but it seems as though it'd be quite a viable escape for Dudley.

I could see a scenario such as this: Dudley's birthday it seems, is June 23rd, about the same time Hogwarts returns home. So Harry returns to London after his fifth year on Dudley's birthday. The Dursleys pick Harry up on their way to dinner (and are none too happy about it). However, he's been tagged with a tracking charm (malfoy?) and they are attacked while walking back to the car by Death Eaters. The parents are killed and Harry and Dudley are fighting, until some other wizards step in to help.

Without parents and nowhere else to go, he ends up drifting and causing trouble, until he gets a wake up call and realizes he has to get out of the area, and the only way he can do it, is through the military.

---------- Post automerged at 11:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:48 PM ----------

I wouldn't exactly call the Carrows incompetent in Thanfiction's DAYD universe, nor is Snape a weak character. In fact, he's pretty damn vicious, and Neville and the others get the hell kicked out of them more than once.

 

Yeah but still the DA outnumber them 10 to 1. Neville is simply blaming Harry for his own and DA's incompetence. I find the rant laughable and whats worse is Harry in the fic accepts all the blame.

 

Probably mentioned in one of the older threads but:

1- The phrase "For the greater good". I am getting tired of reading fics in which Harry refers to what Dumbledore does as being for the greater good, the phrase should mean nothing to him until after the man died and Rita's book came out. Even if it is a time travel fic it should mean nothing to people who are not Harry. You often see him saying as if it is the ultimate argument against following Dumbledore but to other characters it should mean the exact opposite. The second he says it should mean that he lost the argument since for everyone else it shows that the brat knows nothing about the man and is not worth following.

2-Indy!Harry saying that Albus is not a good leader and that people follow him just because he is a powerful wizard and then the same people who were following Dumbledore starts following Harry for exactly the same reason. Why would anyone declare a teen their leader when he has no experience in war? Facing Voldemort alone a couple of times doesn't mean that he has experience against guerrilla tactics, especially since DoM was more dumb luck than tactics.

 

Because Indy!Harry has Uber-wands, uber-other weapons, uber-trunk, uber houseelf/ goblins army, Snake/Phoenix-familair, uber-time turner,1000000000000 galleons, uber-mansions/castles, guns etc.

IN Y0 FACE Dumbledork/Moldyshorts

Indy!Harry pwns all.

 

*sigh*

Out of pure frustration over the blatant stupidity of offering Dumbledore the moniker "For the Greater Good", I'd like to point out, again, that Dumbledore, in fact, rejected that notion and that it shouldn't meen shit for neither Harry nor Dumbledore at any point, except for DH, where Harry doubts Dumbledore because of something Skeeter wrote.




This occasion has forced me to find all places where the phrase "Greater Good" is mentioned in the books.

There were nine times in the Deathly Hallows, where the phrase had come up.

It's the name of the chapter of Rita's Skeeter's Book.

For some reason, "Harry Potter's secret hearache" didn't become as popular of a phrase to be thrown about. I wonder if it was because of the fact that it was written by Skeeter?

Again, Skeeter, going for the dramatic.

()This is Hermione trying to make sense of the complex thing that was the relationship between Gellert and Albus. It might be true that Albus had created the theory, but bear in mind, that this speaks about the orgin of the idea, and not the one that carried the torch.

This is a good quote. This is in fact, Harry, trying to decide whether he should be tricking Griphook. And Harry Fucking Potter uses the watered down version of the Greater Good excuse to justify his course of action (I'll give him the sword later than he wants me to).

Mind, that in this case, Harry actually justifies the course of action first, and only then remembers the Greater Good excuse. And this is not him going "oh yeah, I decided to do the greater good in this situation", no. This is Harry Potter debating, whether it is the right thing, trying to find excuses for not keeping his word. As in, "Am I not doing the same thing as Grindewald?"
Mind that it's Grindewald and not Dumbledore, because Nurmenfard was built by Gellert and NOT Albus.

It's also part of the whole doubt in his former mentor sub-plot, so naturally, Harry is contrasted here with Dumbledore. But Harry always hopes that Dumbledore wasn't like that - and yet, he is himself slipping into finding justifications for the easy way.

This is Aberforth going on a rant about his brother. About the mistakes Albus made. About the turning point in question - about just where the path of the Greater Good had led Albus Dumbledore - at the stupid youth when he did, in fact believe in such a thing. You can tell this is the righteous anger -and knowing that your brother was wrong.

And to everyone who uses the Greater Good to justify the time before Ariana's death in conjunction to Dumbledore - keep it up, but don't forget where it had led the Dumbledore family.

Aberforth again. This is the defining moment. The pinacle of the mentor sub-plot. Is Harry going to trust Dumbledore. Had Albus been actually lying to him? This is not a rational fear - it's just a fear born from not being informed. And Harry here is all but believing, that yes, Dumbledore was like the man he had defieted, exactly like Grindewald.

And it brings us directly to this:

This here, is Harry talking about the greater good. But there is a difference. A whole world of difference, actually. Harry is not talking about "Let's sacrifice everything we can to get something different." No, what he means here is a simple "I could sacrifice a lot myself if it meant the greater good."
It is not justification of the means, but rather the touching point of the Right vs Easy choice. He could have hidden, he could have forgotten everything. But he is fighting. Call it Greater Good, call it freedom, call it simple heroism - but Harry isn't putting anyone over himself here. He isn't bowing to a concept. he is talking about making a right choice.
Not the previous meaning of the Greater Good at all.

This was not what Grindewald had meant to be written upon Nurmengard. This is, to put simply, an idea about what sacrifices can a single person make for others.

And thus, it all leads to the final discussion in the King's Cross.

This is Dumbledore talking about his regrets. "I did this," he is saying. "I made a mistake."

Just read that scene, how it goes further on - there's not much to add to it:

Just see how much regret is there. It's about the young Dumbledore, the one part of himself Albus still regrets after all this time.

A fun thing to not is also this:

Albus Dumbledore believed in the Greater Good for the whole two months. And he regretted it for all the rest of his life. One hundred fifty, was it?

Ariana died. Dumbledore is devastated.

He had believed that seeking power, with which he could shape and protect the world (by paying a price, of course) would bring him what he wanted. Yet, he suddenly understood the price for everything.

He returned to being a teacher.

He only stepped up to stop Gellert - because he had to. Personal sacrifice - to sacrifice his feelings and endanger his own life, while trying to save others. His new way of life was shaping then - he was putting himself at risk, while working for others. Not the kind of greater good Gellert had been speaking about, but one entirely different. The one we had seen Harry use in the 8th quote.

He won the Elder Wand. Power incarnate.

He put it away. He didn't go off and try to mould the world for the better. He was afraid to pay the price. To not die himself, but for the fact that he could pay with someone's else Ariana.

He had been offered positions of power because of it. He refused as many as he could, taking those he could not refuse.

He was offered to become the Minister of Magic.

He must have had the ghosts of a distant past Haunt him with memories. "Take all this power. Sit at the front seat of the Ministry of Magic. Take the most powerful wand in the world, remake the universe in your image."

But he didn't.


Instead, he carried on as he was. Headmaster. He never really forced his way on the school. Even the choice to leave Snape alone was made out of choosing the hard way - giving the potion's master time to heal the wounds. But Snape is a bitter person, and giving him space didn't help. But Dumbledore could have forced numerous vows, could have had Severus in his back pocket. He had promised to do everything, anything. But Dumbledore left him alone. Let him make his own choices.

He could have chosen to train Harry, to mold him into a weapon, but he put the needs of an individual before some abstract Greater Good and let Harry have his childhood. Yes, he made mistakes. But he didn't make others he could have made. He didn't give in to temptation.

Thus, the way of Albus Dumbledore. If he followed the Greater Good, he did it in a sense of looking what was the best for the individual - always individual before the masses.

He did believe that giving up choices and freedoms of an individual to improve the overall society would be a mistake. He even left Tom to make his own choices.

Because, as he had said once,

tl;dr "Choosing what is right, not what is easy" in place of the "for the Greater Good" were the words of Albus Dumbledore - for the whole of his life since the death of Ariana, and even up to the King's Cross station.

 

This is a peeve that actually rose up while reading Funny Thing, Magic. It's a story where the Dursleys are, contain your shock, a family to Harry.

The peeve itself is the age-old and oft-complained of abusive!Dursleys. Now, never mind the fact that it's probable that Dumbledore would have protections set up to prevent such things, or alert him if such a thing were happening. Never mind the fact that accidental magic is a thing, and to the best of our knowledge lashes out to protect the witch or wizard. No, let's get down to the very basics, to what we are shown of the Dursleys, and their "abuses" of Harry.

1: Verbal abuse. Calling him 'freak' to his face, allowing Marge to say whatever she wanted about him and his parents, and so forth.
2: Emotional abuse. Harry grew up not knowing what love was, because he never experienced it. The Dursleys were, at best, cold and indifferent to him, though they still made sure that he ate, that he had clothes on his back, and that he had any other needs fulfilled (Petunia took Harry to get glasses. The frames, as I recall, fit badly, but the lenses themselves were fine).
3: Work. They put him to work, doing what amounted to chores. He didn't cook as soon as he was able, to my knowledge, this is a fabrication. The closest he comes to cooking is when Petunia has him watch the bacon in the first movie. So what if he does Petunia's gardening for her? Obviously he doesn't mind it, if it got him interested in Herbology. Furthermore, it is highly unlikely they'd allow him to get heat-stroke, Petunia would let him to come inside and get something to drink.

And that's about it. They didn't like it when he drew attention to himself - and by extension, them - because they just wanted to be normal. Harry was abnormal, thus a freak, and anything he did that unbalanced that normalcy was not tolerated. Also, this whole thing about being locked in his cupboard for days? Also no. To the best of our knowledge, he slept in the cupboard until he was too big for it, likely because Petunia put him there when he was old enough to take care of himself, and any accidental magic he performed would be out of sight, out of mind. Being sent to his cupboard amounted to being sent to his room, nothing more. He was never locked inside of it, he came and went more or less as he pleased.

This also applies to Naruto, where we have the abusive and sometimes murderous villagers, along with the indifferent ANBU. Here, we have a group of Ninja sworn to protect the village, its people, and its interests, and they're just going to stand there and let the Jinchuuriki - a very valuable weapon for the village, if nothing else - be almost killed? Yeah, no.

 

I'm pretty sure a lot of the abuse comes from a scene in CoS where Petunia throws an iron skillet at Harry's head.

 

Right book, wrong scene. Pretty sure the whole locking Harry into his room, installing a dog flap to get food to him without opening the door and how they blocked the windows is the origin.

Unless my memory is a lot worse than it normally is that happened in the books.

And I suppose how much Dudley bullied Harry might have some weight too.

 

Also allowing Ripper to chase him up a tree.

 

I'm pretty sure constantly calling a child "freak" (along with the other stuff) counts as legitimate abuse. Just because it's (mostly) verbal or emotional doesn't mean it's not real abuse.

Harry was treated more like a prisoner than a member of the family. This has been exaggerated, yes, but to say it's not really abuse, especially for a child who's known nothing else from infancy to prepubescence, is too far in the other direction.

To the best of our knowledge, he did not. He admits to knowing that Harry would be resented and neglected. He mentions seeing Harry in his first year, "a little thinner than expected." That implies he didn't really know what was happening in that house.

So what happened to Ariana?

Since when is it not abusive to allow drunken relatives to rant at a child? How is it not abusive to let that woman viciously insult him and the dead parents he never even knew to his face without saying anything? He was twelve.

Which can be detrimental to any child's development . . . *cough* Voldemort.

lol, This is abuse. I don't care what they wanted, treating a child like that is abusive. You don't call a kid a freak when he has no control over or knowledge of what the fuck you even mean. He was totally ignorant of magic at that point, and it's not like they would explain it. As far as he knew, they were just being cunts for no reason.

Actually happened. I don't have my books with me, but Pottermore's summary makes it clear that he was "usually punished with long stretches of confinement in his cupboard" when odd things happened, and having seen CoS, we know how those probably would have been.

He was being fed cold soup, stale bread, and hunks of cheese through a fucking cat-flap after Vernon's dinner party. Being treated like an animal...pretty sure that's abuse.

. . . No. Just no. They gave him a new room because they were afraid of the fact that Harry was about to learn he was a wizard, informed of his talents and potential allies.

 

Sure it is but anyone who doesn't consider it so is a lost cause to try to argue. That is, after all, the reason fanfiction writers up the abuse so much. They can't conceive abuse doesn't have to be glaringly obvious.

 

By todays standards, yes, most definitely. The 1990's? I sincerely doubt that anyone would bat an eye or make a huge deal out of it as fanfic authors tend to (even when they don't over dramatize the abuse).

 

I'm not talking about cultural standards though. When parents were beating their children in centuries past, it was still abuse, even if it wasn't acknowledged. Emotional abuse is the same. What matters is the well-being of the child (which is being harmed by the emotional or physical abuse), not how the abuse is perceived.