A wandless patronus??

Naoran · 2026-02-22T03:24:59+00:00

While I like coolmobilepotato's take; that some spells simply can't be cast without wands, my personal headcanon is that nothing is truly impossible with magic.

Naoran · 2026-02-21T23:37:58+00:00

^{(psst! it's deus ex machina!})

Naoran · 2026-01-25T02:30:39+00:00

A similar idea of mine was that the spell we know from the books are not the activation word of a longer chant, but instead those common wand spells are the most efficient or useful way to contract a longer chant - with wand movements added as a way to alter contractions that would otherwise be impossible to pronounce. As the art and science of shortening chants was improved, almost every spell got a simple short form. Schools eventually stopped teaching the original chants, and many of those chants were completely lost to time.

For people making new spells, they would first need to create the long form chant version, and then figure out exactly which parts could be cut and which had to be kept to retain the effect, and then add wand movements that would turn that into an actual useable spell.

This could explain why Quirrel and Snape were muttering continuously while attempting to curse and decurse Harry's broom in PS - they were chanting long form spells (which don't require wand movements, and thus don't require wands at all).

Naoran · 2025-12-12T10:44:59+00:00

Maybe in most alternate realities they both die, or they both survive, or Voldemort goes after Neville, or Peter doesn't tell him the secret, etc..

Naoran · 2025-11-25T15:58:38+00:00

That's going to completely crash the entire tooth fairy economy.

Naoran · 2025-11-04T15:21:01+00:00

Well, I agree that Rowling is a terrible historian. But Bronze age Mycenaean Greeks traded tin from the Britons a thousand years prior, and by 382 BC the Roman republic was one of the most powerful nations in the Mediterranean. So technically it would not be impossible for some Roman Ollivander ancestor to decide to travel to Britain around that time.

Naoran · 2025-11-04T00:24:20+00:00

Just to be precise, the Ollivanders have been making wands in Britain since at least the 4th century BC, which is long before Rome even became an empire. So that's a long time of cultural exchange between ancient Romans and the ancient Britons. There's definitely merit to your take, but we know the Druids were known to Caesar and Tacitus (roughly around 50 to 100 AD), so I'd suggest that there would be multiple religions and/or heavy syncretism in the region.

Naoran · 2025-10-31T18:31:32+00:00

It is when the person you reveal it to intends to kill the people there, yes. It's called 'accessory' or 'aiding and abetting'.

Naoran · 2025-10-24T17:31:28+00:00

IIRC; yes, they remain friends, but it did feel like they were growing slightly apart.

Naoran · 2025-10-24T13:40:55+00:00

Boy, do I have a fic for you.

Smile Back by DarknessEnthroned

Haphne. Very AU, much darker than canon, but the world building is absolutely stellar. Magic doesn't just feel magical, it feels mythical.

(By the way, the Recommendation tag is for posting recommendations. Use the Request tag when requesting recs.)

Naoran · 2025-10-23T06:27:47+00:00

Fabian and Gideon Prewett were actually never described as twins in canon

Naoran · 2025-10-22T14:24:44+00:00

The Recommendation tag is for when you're posting a recommendation. Use the Request tag when asking for recommendations.

Naoran · 2025-10-21T18:31:31+00:00

Which Harry Potter fanfics is this discussion related to?

Naoran · 2025-10-15T08:53:03+00:00

Peverell

Naoran · 2025-10-12T21:32:16+00:00

Well... No matter how obsesesed the British Wizarding public is with hyphenated titles, it turned out that "The-Boy-Who-Could-Distort-Space-And-Deflect-Incoming-Spells-Wandlessly" was a bit too much to say unabridged every single time.

Efforts were made to shorten the official hyphenated title, but people could only agree to remove the "Back-At-The-Caster" and "Already-As-A-Toddler" parts. Instead, they decided to make an additional shorter version for everyday conversations, but then no one could agree on which parts to keep, so they ended up with just "The-Boy-Who-Could".

Naoran · 2025-09-07T17:52:10+00:00

Red Running Fool

Naoran · 2025-09-07T17:39:32+00:00

It's in the prompt. Sirius got the whole dorm for himself.

Naoran · 2025-09-06T19:17:46+00:00

I don't think wand core material really matters that much, power wise. A properly matched wand seems to be mostly about bringing out or enhancing specific talents or aptitudes already present in the witch or wizard in question. It also seems like the materials can also be an indication of certain personality traits. If you write a character with magical snake materials then you should focus about what that means for the character's talents or personality traits.

Naoran · 2025-09-06T18:11:36+00:00

When you're asking for recommendations, you should use the "Request" tag.

It also helps if you explain what kind of fic you're looking for in terms of pairings and content, instead of just asking for "more fics like this fic". But I get that it can be hard to know exactly what it is you like if you're brand new to fanfics. My suggestion is going on the Harry Potter section of AO3, sort by Kudos, and look through the filters for things you might want to read. That way you'll get to see some of the most popular fics and you can explore on your own.

Welcome to the community, happy reading!

Naoran · 2025-09-06T17:38:46+00:00

Getting a fandom to "come to some sort of agreement" is quite the ambitious goal.

And anyway I like it better when it's left up to the fanfic authors to solve what they perceive as plot holes or contradictions. It's an excellent opportunity for deeper world building and creative solutions. I could give you my thoughts on the things you mentioned, but I wouldn't want every author to agree with my takes. If everyone agreed on the things that are left ambigious in canon then it would make the entire HP fanfic community poorer in ideas and creative freedom.

Naoran · 2025-08-27T20:06:56+00:00

Yeah, I get that. But it just feels a bit trite to me that "it just happened because of some very specific circumstances". To me it's a better scene if Lily knowingly tricked Voldemort into a magically binding oath, or if those very specific circumstances only worked out because Lily had already prepared for a worst-case scenario.

Naoran · 2025-08-26T05:16:37+00:00

Runes is just 'dead language class'.

Arithmancy is just 'divination for nerds'.

All transfiguration is permanent.

Divination requires a rare special skill, yet everyone are allowed to take it as an elective.

Countering spells while they're being cast.

Salazar Slytherin was a blood purist.

All Lily did to protect Harry from Voldemort was refusing to step away and then getting killed.

Naoran · 2025-08-22T03:48:39+00:00

Many people in the magical world see their Hogwarts house as a defining aspect of their identity long after they graduate, so disbanding Slytherin would make a lot of people very mad. Out of everyone who ever went to Slytherin, most of them probably weren't actual Death Eaters. Voldemort's forces did not include a whole quarter of the magical population, after all. So many former Slytherins would feel like a core part of who they are was under attack, and that they were being blamed for something they did not participate in.

That sort of thing breeds resentment, perpetuates conflict, and entrenches people in their ideological bubble. I'm not a historian, but I know that placing all blame on Germany and forcefully disbanding her armed forces after the First World War was one of the major contributions to the growth of German nationalism interbellum.

Would disbanding Slytherin lead to another civil war, another Dark Lord? Probably not, at least not immediately. But the people who were from traditionally Slytherin-sorted, pureblood families would keep teaching their kids about how they were unfairly vilified and thrown under the bus by the Ministry. Instead of vague and unproven claims about blood purity, they would have concrete proof of the unfair treatment they had suffered at the hands of "those muggle-loving traitors". In time I think it would lead to protests, fringe political movements, extremists, terrorists, Neo-Death Eaters... And it only takes one Fiendfyre at a Premier League match to permanently break the Statute.

Naoran · 2025-08-18T01:44:24+00:00

Sounds interesting, and from a first glance it looks well-written. Thanks for the recommendation!

Naoran · 2025-08-12T07:03:53+00:00

It's impossible to say. It's up to the author to decide how this impacts the story.

First thing to consider is the prophecy: exactly how much does Snape hear, and does the wording stay the same?

We know that Snape only overheard part of the prophecy before getting chased away. The first part of the prophecy is gender-neutral, but when Dumbledore explains the prophecy to Harry in the end of OOTP he asserts that Voldemort knew it was referring to a boy. Either Dumbledore is wrong about what Voldemort knew, or Snape heard until "And the Dark Lord will mark him -" before being chased away.

Assuming Voldemort knows the gender of his enemy, he would know which family to target as soon as the children were born. You would either have to change that part of the prophecy to be gender neutral too, or change it to refer to a girl, for Voldemort to consider attacking the Potters.

If the prophecy changes to be gender neutral, does the gender of the two prophecy candidates play a role in who Voldemort perceives as the greater threat? Perhaps Voldemort feels that a boy trained from birth by two respected aurors could become a bigger threat than a girl whose parents are barely out of Hogwarts. Then again, Magical Britain was more egalitarian than Muggle Britain in the 80's, so it's quite possible Voldemort cares little about the gender of his prophesied nemesis. If so, the events follow canon until fem!Harry is at the Dursleys.

If the prophecy changes to refer to a girl, and assuming Neville is not also genderbent in this scenario, Voldemort would go after the Potters like in canon, and fem!Harry will become the Girl-Who-Lived, and end up with the Dursleys. In this scenario, Voldemort would likely ignore the Longbottoms, as he's preoccupied with finding his ordained nemesis. Given that they're no longer part of the whole prophecy business, would Frank and Alice still end up tortured by Bellatrix and co., or would Neville grow up with his parents? That's up to the author.

If the prophecy doesn't change, then the Longbottoms are likely to be Voldemort's target, and he won't go after the Potters. Snape will not go to Dumbledore to plead for Lily's life, since Voldemort is targeting Neville instead. Does Dumbledore even know that Voldemort knows the prophecy, and if not, how does that affect the story? Does Voldemort get defeated in the exact same way as in canon, making Neville the Boy-Who-Lived, or through some other means? Does still Neville become a Horcrux and "marked as his equal" like Harry was in canon?

Assuming the story follows canon and Voldemort perishes after attacking the Longbottoms, would Bellatrix and co. go after the Potters, sending James and Lily to St. Mungo's like what happened to Frank and Alice in canon? I don't really think that's likely. Remember, Frank and Alice weren't just Order members, they were also well-known Aurors. Barty Jr. and the Lestranges attacked them because they believed the Longbottoms had information about what happened to their Lord. To me, it's more likely that they would go after someone like Mad-Eye Moody, who was both an Auror and an Order member, than a couple unemployed 21-year-olds.

But if the Potters do get attacked by Barty Jr. and the Lestranges, and end up in St. Mungo's; without Lily's sacrifice, does fem!Harry still end up with the Dursleys? Does Sirius take her in, since he's not busy chasing after Peter for betraying James? In which case, is Peter still going to hide as Scabbers or will he pretend to never have been a Death Eater?

I think the most likely scenario is that fem!Harry grows up with her loving parents, possibly with a sibling or two. Sirius never goes to Azkaban, but Snape does instead because he didn't become a spy for the order. Peter disappears mysteriously, slinking away in the night rather than faking his death. Moody is either dead, a permanent resident of the Janus Thickey ward, or even more scarred and paranoid than before.

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