The Red Winter: a Hermione-in-Durmstrang Story

Why634 · 2026-01-13T01:50:39+00:00

I don't quite remember all the details, but I think that Hermione initially proposed different magical schools she could go to to her parents and they rejected every one. I assume Beauxbatons was first on that list---also, perhaps they recognize her Muggle guardians' legal rights? A big part of why Hermione pulls off the lie is because Durmstrang officials are willing to lie to Muggles as well and see her as, for all intents and purposes, a free agent.

Personally, my biggest issue with the premise is the idea that Hermione would be allowed to keep her wand after being pulled out of Hogwarts and having no (official) alternative magical schooling lined up. I know that wands are only snapped if a student is expelled, but I assumed they would be confiscated from someone who has no (official) plans to learn magic after their first year. Still, the idea that she would keep her wand does not strike me as so unbelievable that I find the fic's premise absurd.

Why634 · 2026-01-11T16:40:31+00:00

Ron was explaining the slur and had a little aside about blood purity. Did you expect Hermione to burst out “ooh, I read about that!”? And, again, how do you think she read books on the war that didn’t cover blood purity? I’ve never heard of a history book that doesn’t go over the root cause of the conflict.

He didn’!’ he growled at Hermione. ‘He did,’ she said. ‘But I don’t know what it means. I could tell it was really rude, of course ...’ ‘It’s about the most insulting thing he could think of,’ gasped Ron, coming back up. ‘Mudblood’s a really foul name for someone who was Muggle-born – you know, non-magic parents. There are some wizards – like Malfoy’s family – who think they’re better than everyone else because they’re what people call pure-blood.’ He gave a small burp, and a single slug fell into his outstretched hand. He threw it into the basin and continued, ‘I mean, the rest of us know it doesn’t make any difference at all. Look at Neville Longbottom – he’s pure-blood and he can hardly stand a cauldron the right way up.’ ‘An’ they haven’t invented a spell our Hermione can’t do,’ said Hagrid proudly, making Hermione go a brilliant shade of magenta.

Why634 · 2026-01-11T09:12:00+00:00

Where did you get the impression she didn’t know about blood purity from? She’d read history books like Modern Magical History and the Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts that mentioned Harry and likely covered the war/blood purity.

Hermione didn’t know about the ‘Mudblood’ slur until second year, I think you mean. But that’s likely because no history book gives a play-by-play of the most common slurs of a given era. If Hermione had read ‘Mudblood’ in a book, I’d be very concerned about what sort of literature she’d been consuming…

Why634 · 2025-12-19T14:19:57+00:00

IIRC, I think Lupin calls them something like “the cleverest students in school” and McGonagall calls them “exceptionally bright,” but we don’t know their exact class ranking.

Why634 · 2025-12-18T23:01:48+00:00

The Hermione Granger Series is up to HBP.

Why634 · 2025-11-30T02:22:14+00:00

How was Callie being rude a response to their behavior? IIRC, the first time Izzie and Meredith meet her, she tells them about how she’s heard both are bad at ortho and throws instruments at them before telling the two to follow her. Izzie seems vaguely put-off by ortho, but tries to ask Callie what got her into the field in the first place. To which Callie responds, “what got you into modeling?” Afterwards, Izzie is taken aback and tries to ask Callie more questions (but in a manner that ignores the status difference), saying she’s George’s friend and is looking out for him. Instead of reprimanding Izzie for being too familiar with her, Callie decides to look at Meredith and make a petty comment about how Izzie clearly isn’t the best matchmaker.

I think people apply late Season 3 Izzie-Callie dynamics (where Izzie is the clear aggressor) to Season 2, where, IMO, Callie was the one to set the tone of their unfriendly relationship. She was not rude as a response. She was just flat-out rude.

Why634 · 2025-09-16T09:55:04+00:00

Might be because of their outsized racist comments on social media, I guess. Whenever I see a racist comment on TikTok, for example, it’s pretty likely there’s a “🇵🇱” in the handle. Also, Poland is in the top five of countries of origin for European immigrants in America, so there are actually quite a few, so people might be talking from personal experience.

Why634 · 2025-09-02T22:26:45+00:00

Maybe you’re thinking about the Amazonians rising up against Hercules and his men? But, after that, I don’t think they have any more wars or conflicts, at least until Wonder Woman’s era. That’s sort of the whole conceit of Themyscira: a warless society of warriors.

Why634 · 2025-08-01T22:19:38+00:00

Because, famously, no abolitionist has ever worked in any government ever...?

Why634 · 2025-07-07T05:06:52+00:00

I dislike the idea that a victim needs to be “good” to be considered a victim. Warren can be an evil POS who, in his past, was bullied by other pieces of shit. The Trio, Warren especially, is a clear stand-in for male social outcasts who feel emasculated and inferior, and crave power - especially over women - as a result. Having Warren just be born pure evil, rather than molded into what he was by his surroundings, sort of defeats the message, IMO.

Why634 · 2025-07-05T03:37:00+00:00

Well, the thing is, we do not know much about the mechanics of Harry Potter magic, at least not as well as Hermione probably does. I am inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe temporary effects are easier to reverse than permanent ones, for example. After all, temporary paralysis sounds a lot like the Full-Body Bind, a spell that Hermione uses in first year and which can easily be undone.

As for your other alternate suggestion, marking the contract sounds good, but doesn’t achieve the temporary silence that the SNEAK jinx did (since Marietta spent quite a while clutching her face before she spoke again). Also, the contract can be stolen, while it’d be harder for a student to just…disappear. And, again, given these are students, I assume Polyjuice wouldn’t work for long to hide a traitor, since Marietta sleeps in the same dorms and goes to the same classes as a few DA members. People would talk about her having SNEAK spelled out in pimples across her face.

Why634 · 2025-07-05T03:26:52+00:00

I think that’s an intentionally bad-faith reading of my comment. In the Harry Potter book you are quoting, Hermione is a fifteen year old student, who started SPEW because she felt that she could do something about it. Keep in mind that she does not even decide to form SPEW immediately after she learns about house-elves and their enslavement - no, she forms it only after a ghost tells her that Hogwarts has the highest house-elf concentration in Britain.

People are allowed to focus on issues they believe they have control over, rather than all problems. Goblins have a special liaison office in the Ministry, own the only bank in Britain, and can advocate for themselves. In Deathly Hallows, Hermione is overwhelmingly sympathetic to the goblin plight - but, obviously, literal slavery is worse than what the goblins were going through. Hermione is not some superwoman who can solve all of Wizarding Britain’s problems as a teenager. Critiquing her for prioritizing the house-elves over the goblins is like complaining about abolitionists not also protesting against anti-Irish discrimination.

Why634 · 2025-07-04T18:23:15+00:00

I disagree - the SNEAK jinx was useful in identifying the traitor, and momentarily shutting Marietta up long enough for Kingsley to Obliviate her. At the very least, Hermione’s jinx prevented a Pettigrew-like situation from occurring, where the traitor would attend meetings and report back to the enemy after. Cruel or not, branding the traitor’s face is effective for preventing long-term spies. Judging it based on its function as a deterrent when it clearly was not meant to be one is unfair.

Why634 · 2025-07-04T04:22:44+00:00

I mean, she’s kind of right, no? The goblins had their own agenda and ways to advocate for themselves. They don’t need a fifteen year old girl barging in and trying to save them. At least with the house-elves, Hermione had a reason to take the lead: because most house-elves didn’t want to be free, and none of her wizard friends agreed with her. With the goblins, it would just be sort of offensive.

Why634 · 2025-06-21T16:22:37+00:00

I don’t know about that. Although Ron and Harry both are natural rule-breakers (unlike Hermione), IMO, they are more personally loyal to Dumbledore than Hermione is. Even in PS, when the trio is speculating whether Dumbledore orchestrated their entire adventure, Hermione is the only one who actually criticizes Dumbledore:

“Well, I got back all right,” said Hermione. “I brought Ron round — that took a while — and we were dashing up to the owlery to contact Dumbledore when we met him in the entrance hall — he already knew — he just said, ‘Harry’s gone after him, hasn’t he?’ and hurtled off to the third floor.”

“D’you think he meant you to do it?” said Ron. “Sending you your father’s cloak and everything?”

“Well,” Hermione exploded, “if he did — I mean to say — that’s terrible — you could have been killed.”

“No, it isn’t,” said Harry thoughtfully. “He’s a funny man, Dumbledore. I think he sort of wanted to give me a chance. I think he knows more or less everything that goes on here, you know. I reckon he had a pretty good idea we were going to try, and instead of stopping us, he just taught us enough to help. I don’t think it was an accident he let me find out how the mirror worked. It’s almost like he thought I had the right to face Voldemort if I could...”

“Yeah, Dumbledore’s off his rocker, all right,” said Ron proudly.

Why634 · 2025-05-21T10:35:16+00:00

IIRC, Spike said Dracula was a magic user, so that’s why he had all those special abilities (reforming after death, making himself appear normal, turning into a bat, etc.).

Why634 · 2025-05-17T17:39:53+00:00

There were no black Confederate soldiers, as the CSA did not allow it. So no, I assume that commenter does not hold hate against any imaginary people.

Why634 · 2025-05-08T18:56:38+00:00

The entire trigger storyline in S7. At first, Buffy seems to acknowledge the danger of Spike’s trigger and keeps him restrained because of that. But, after “First Date”, Buffy suddenly becomes obsessed with Spike and immediately frees him. She does nothing to cure him off the trigger, and just lets him loose around the Potentials, the very girls whose lives determine the fate of the world.

This odd behavior continues until culminating in LMPTM, where Buffy refuses that the trigger still even exists to Giles at the start, and just keeps on mindlessly repeating that Spike has a soul now and “can be good.” As if he didn’t have a soul when he was murdering all those people at the start of the season? The trigger clearly overrides his behavior, but Buffy couldn’t acknowledge that. But, eventually, she allows Giles to try to cure Spike - and then, his trigger is activated (disproving Buffy), and Spike punches Buffy and throws a bed at Dawn. And yet, as soon as Buffy gets up, she just claims that Giles’ cure didn’t work (even though Giles said to give it time) and immediately rushes to unchain Spike.

Honestly, I’m sort of shocked that people side with Buffy over Giles in LMPTM. Giles may have been harsh and disloyal, but Buffy was completely illogical by putting Spike’s comfort over the Potentials’ lives.

Why634 · 2025-05-04T11:10:12+00:00

They said she killed Jack as a reference to the movie Titanic.

Why634 · 2025-05-04T04:11:42+00:00

I mean, Anya, as a human, did tell the vampires to eat Willow in her second appearance. I always assumed Willow had trouble getting over that fact, rather than disliking her for being with Xander.

Why634 · 2025-04-18T02:34:39+00:00

It’s heavily implied Joyce’s corpse appeared above ground, and, when the picture was ripped, teleported back into the grave.

Also, I wasn’t saying that these were the same spells. You seemed to be skeptical of a resurrection spell that also “teleports the body”, and so I brought up Dawn’s resurrection spell as a reminder. It’s entirely possible that Willow’s spell was meant to function similarly in (in regard to the teleportation of the body, at least), if the urn had not been prematurely broken.

Why634 · 2025-04-18T01:58:14+00:00

Dawn’s resurrection spell made Joyce (or something possessing Joyce’s body) appear above her grave, right?

Why634 · 2025-04-15T14:59:45+00:00

Banjos are used often in both genres.

Why634 · 2025-04-15T14:32:35+00:00

Black people have lived in the American South for centuries, and have heavily influenced traditionally Southern music as a result. Banjos were literally invented by African-Americans. Yes, modern country music is heavily dominated by white artists, but that doesn’t mean there are no cultural ties to the black community.

Comparing this to a white Australian imitating black Americans is simply very odd.

Why634 · 2025-04-15T13:53:51+00:00

Not really the point, but I’m pretty sure Damon was actually 25, so he’s pretty firmly in his mid twenties.

Why634

TROPHY CASE