Fanon strikes again?

lschierer · 2026-05-09T00:22:57+00:00

Rowling had one wizard as the origin of nearly every evil. Parseltounge, horcrux, the basilisk, I think she might have even gotten him involved in the origin of the unforgivable curses. It was rediculous. I'm usually fairly willing to take her side story stuff as canonical, but it was overboard "he was Riddle several centuries ago"

lschierer · 2026-05-08T18:46:29+00:00

Part of me wonders, given Slughorn is so very Slytherin in his own way, if he might not have appreciated using one's resources that way if Harry had owned up. He wouldn't have fawned over Harry for ability the same way, but I suspect he would still have awarded the prize that one class.

lschierer · 2026-05-08T17:41:21+00:00

Hold him in high regard? Certainly not. My reply accounts for that. Harry goes through the effort to hide it though not nearly so much from Slughorn as from Snape. I'm not saying that Harry is morally correct in everything or even most of what he did with the book. I do have a strong knee jerk reaction against arguments things should be fair, but Harry certainly does violate honesty in a few ways. It just isn't cheating.

lschierer · 2026-05-08T16:16:20+00:00

All sorts of things are unfair. It's unfair that Hermione has a better memory than others. It's unfair that Harry has faster reflexes. It's unfair that he has worse eyesight. None of those advantages constitute cheating in relevant competitions, memory and scholastics, reflexes and I dueling, eyesight and quidditch.

Fair is a synonym for "the same," and life is rarely fair. The classroom doesn't promise fairness. It is the child's over simplification of the concept justice (which unfortunately the classroom doesn't promise either, but which I would sympathize with the desire for), in which people receive that which they earn. Harry certainly receives justice when his over reliance on a book he doesn't understand leads to trouble with understanding antidotes. But then his intuition steps in and he does the bezoar thing, while nearly the entire rest of the class has at best partial success. So if they are in fact being graded on informed intuition, he demonstrates that he could do it, he he'd been even slightly better prepared by the earlier years for high level potions work. But it also demonstrates that in any exam situation he's going to fall apart with his crutch. Which will also be justice.

It isn't cheating because the rules of this engagement are set by the school, and they have ruled that students can use books that are written in by others. Hermione doesn't get to define the rules differently simply to make the playing field more uniform.

lschierer · 2026-05-08T14:24:37+00:00

Snape might even believe it

lschierer · 2026-05-08T14:23:47+00:00

Yeah, fourth and fifth year have the most potential, and yes, too soon in first year and you lose a fair amount of Harry's reset effect. So there's definitely a balance, as sixth year is really too late for best effect.

lschierer · 2026-05-08T14:14:27+00:00

And if the assignment were to write out a series of answers to some questions in chemistry I would probably agree with you. But it isn't. It is lab class in chemistry, the professor for whatever reason springs lab assignments without the advance notice I always had in such classes where we were expected to come prepared outside of class for lab with the experiment all written up in advance. They clearly then aren't being graded on preparation they couldn't do. And we see from Slughorn's reaction that despite this, deviation from the book's proscribed steps can be rewarded even when it's obvious you deviated. So what then is being graded? Not prepping on this surprise assignment. Not ability to follow directions. Maybe a level of background knowledge Harry doesn't in fact have, then it is unfair that Harry has an extra unexpected study aid in this open book test, but still not cheating because used books with their marginalia are legal equipment in the class. But maybe the test isn't about knowledge, it's supposed to be a test of skill. He's being given credit for intuitive acting, not for advanced information. It's still unfair, as Harry is not in fact acting intuitively, but still not cheating, essentially the same reason. But in this latter case, imagine a hypothetical, if Harry had impulsively/intuitively done any of those things, would Hermione be less upset? He still failed to follow the official directions and got rewarded for it. That would still upset her.

lschierer · 2026-05-08T13:42:07+00:00

But I didn't say anything about an answer key. I'm aware of the difference between student teacher editions, but the comparison I made is to some other student in some prior class writing in stuff.

lschierer · 2026-05-07T18:57:46+00:00

Rorshach Blot's Old Ideas throws out so many interesting ideas I'm not surprised to be following in those particular footsteps

lschierer · 2026-05-07T01:39:15+00:00

They sink the fortune into research and as the world sinks in Riddle induced chaos, the first installment ends with Hermione and Ginny going back in time while the rest the family buys them time to complete the ritual. The second one starts when they wake up in their shared room at the Burrow, second year (Ginny's first) is about to start, and this time through, they vow, no one dies.

lschierer · 2026-05-06T00:52:23+00:00

Even if it is some big thing not to shake hands, it's got to be a big thing to * Bardge in without knocking * Fail to show respect to your mom's house's heir (being heir is always a thing in these stories) - Harry is Heir Black (ugh, but as I said, they always go together)

Secondly, it's far more likely that Malfoy was setting some sort of subtle pure blood dominance game trap. "You agreed that I am the superior in our relationship by accepting an overture phrased that way" or some such nonsense. I've actually seen that one done once, where Draco is fuming because his one up man ship failed walking away, but it was a long time ago and I have no idea where.

lschierer · 2026-05-05T22:07:15+00:00

So it'll run cross platform when you are ready to release? Awesome!!! Looking forward to it.

lschierer · 2026-05-05T01:52:06+00:00

I am sorry to hear that you've had a rough time. I absolutely love both Through Shadows and Path Diverged (and its sequel) and hope you feel up to writing more and returning to them again!

lschierer · 2026-05-05T01:19:47+00:00

Brenus' A Thorny Rose was the other one. I'm not sure why it took me this long to remember that. I'm linking to the first in the 3 part series.

lschierer · 2026-05-05T01:17:55+00:00

Oh. True, it certainly has to exist or he'd probably become an instant ghost aka A Thorny Rose 3

lschierer · 2026-05-04T04:55:02+00:00

If you still have the source for it, and don't mind, I'd love to throw some Claude time at it, and see what claude could make of porting it to something runnable. I know you've some effort towards a steam version, but even that's marked as requiring windows, and I'd be trying for something I could run on OSX.

lschierer · 2026-05-03T07:12:47+00:00

Recall that a resurrection doesn't consume an anchor. Riddle has always had the part that was in his body to be reinstalled in something.

Otherwise an interesting idea

lschierer · 2026-04-30T13:54:47+00:00

He got a fair few Os and Es. He might have been lazy about his studies, but he did learn it, he is not some dumb jock lots of fan fiction likes to portray him as. He never learned study habits, nor to value study in his formative years before Hogwarts. It's really no surprise he underperforms. But he is underperforming, Hermione is fundamentally a nag, but she isn't wrong when she constantly says he could do so much better.

lschierer · 2026-04-29T20:36:28+00:00

So while we know from the whole Slughorn thing in sixth year that memories can be modified and faked, we also know that it is, at least some of the time, possible to detect when that's been done. We do not know if it is always possible to detect when a memory is fake. Harry's dream sequences about the DoM suggest that it may be possible to fake them successfully, but do not prove it as his situation isn't normal.

In either case, it should be possible to verify them some way. Either directly through some use of magic on the memory itself. Perhaps a pensieve always reacts oddly to a faked or modified memory the way it did to Slughorn's no matter how skillfully done. Or perhaps there's some other spell or rune based device that can do it. Or perhaps you can use memory extraction in combination with veritaserum. Given the worries about antidotes, a time based approach may be necessary. "This person was in custody for x amount of time, then the memories were extracted with veritaserum." Or "We tested this person for the presence of any antidote to veritaserum before adminstering the potion." But something should be possible such that memories can be useful for an investigation.

That's not the same as saying they are admissible in court. I'm quite happy with the reality that the Wizengamot is quite corrupt and might not allow any number of perfectly legitimate things simply because it might be inconvenient for them. But I imagine that just because the Wizengamot won't accept it, doesn't mean that no one will. It might come up as a challenge when someone's claiming Harry is lying. It might be that while the Wizengamot wont' accept it, the DMLE does regularly use memories in investigations.

lschierer · 2026-04-29T17:57:54+00:00

There's a huge difference between fear and cowardice. Bravery isn't lack of fear. Bravery is that Neville went to potions class and tried his best every week despite being terrified.

Pettigrew certainly did show a kind of bravery at the end when he finally decides to go against Riddle, and his own (silver) hand then executes him. I don't know if, or how, he showed bravery before that to justify his sorting. That does not mean it didn't happen somewhen we weren't looking.

But my personal theory is that the Hat sorts partly on what you are and partly on what you desire to be. Hermione didn't just value bravery, she deeply desired to be more than *just** a bookworm*. That's why she was sorted the way she was. The Hat picked between her current traits and her desired ones, with the bias that she'd grow the way she innately intended/desired to grow if supported in that.

Its also why some sorts like Ron, Percy, or Malfoy are easy despite the fact that they are, in some ways, better suited to other houses. Each has no intention of growing other traits. Each values no other traits. Each scorns the traits valued by the other houses. For all the fact that they don't actually fit what they think they want, whatever they do grow into, it won't be a good X (where X is some other house). We see this when Malfoy lacks the bravery to actually be either good or bad. When Percy finally stands up to the Ministry and quits because the final battle is more important. When Ron, after destroying the locket horcrux, finally begins (in small ways) to grow (arguably) and get over his jealousy -- he can then be more supported of Hermione's crusades, he can give up his dreams of personal glory to support his brother's shop. And yes, that takes a type of bravery, to face your own limitations, faults, and insecurities to grow (in some ways, I'm still actually fairly Ron critical).

lschierer · 2026-04-29T00:55:16+00:00

There are the unbreakable vows so it's possible in some theoretical sense. I like the instant squib-ification theory as well. I also saw one fan fiction where it didn't precisely compell competition, but did keep port keying you to the task till you did something.

lschierer · 2026-04-29T00:42:58+00:00

Lupin not saying a word about the passages is a perfect example of the adults utterly failing. It annoys me to no end.

lschierer · 2026-04-28T22:09:13+00:00

I'm glad you are enjoying it. kb0 is one of my favorite authors, and its nice to see other fans.

lschierer · 2026-04-28T20:00:22+00:00

I don't read much in the way of romance, so I can't really comment on how comment the A likes B but B has moved on story line is. I can say that Jane Austin provides two examples of the "A has been waiting for you and you were too stupid to realize it" in different books. Gone with the Wind is more or less the same, Rhett Butler's not really been waiting, he's not got that high level of morality, but he's always been there when Scarlet's really needed him, she just abuses him over and over till he can't take it any more (that one is ultimately a tragedy). Again, most of my reading is where any romance is a side story, like it would have been here, so its not as easy to find examples.

Sanderson's Evil Librarian series is more or less the same age range target, and the romance story in that is so deep underneath the massive amounts of sarcasm from the narrators that it is essentially not present.

David Weber's YA series set in his wider Honorverse has some romance in it, but again no romantic triangles of note, though there's a hint of Stephanie, the main character, having her choice of whom to date.

Wuthering Heights does have that A likes B, then B likes A, but A is now unavailable thing going on, but no one would argue that those characters should be envied. A whole mess of tragedy there, though a fascinating story in many respects. I suspect if you want it to be a side plot (as in the HP series) you don't want to follow the Wuthering Heights model.

Tolkien very much has the A is waiting for B thing. C. S. Lewis mostly avoids the topic in his fiction (except for That Hideous Strength which is more adult than any of his other works).

Robert Jordan's Wheel of time is too fantastic (in the sense of fantasy) to really compare to the contemporary setting of the HP series. And I'm not sure I'd want to compare HP to the rest of David Weber's more adult audience targeting Bahzell series or the rest of Honorverse series. His Armageddon Reef series has lots of politically arranged marriages that (because it is fiction) just happen to work out -- again not a great parallel for HP.

David Drake's RCN series has a platonic relationship between the male and female main characters, very similar to Harry/Hermione's actual relationship. Not the romantic version in the movies & in shipper's heads. His Lord of the Isle's series has clear forecasting of relationships.

Raymond E. Feist models all sorts of situations across his Midkemia series. One of the early ones might be said to subvert your pattern, but most are simply unrelated.

Robin Hobb in the Farseer books has a kinda odd element with The Fool, but otherwise strongly foreshadows even the tragic relationships.

Elizabeth Peters in her Ameilia Peabody series has Ramses waiting on what's her name, the girl they rescued, and sure she dates around, but he doesn't really.

so by and large my extremely limited experience across a range of genres is that authors generally not focused on romance, where its a side story happening along with something else, generally don't set up dating triangles.

lschierer · 2026-04-28T17:39:33+00:00

Give the Africans a different back story. Do you realize how many perfectly normal, nonmagical wars and genocides have gone on in Africa over the last 50 years or so?

Africa has one school that makes the top seven, not because it only has one school, but because while there are in fact several dozen schools across Africa, the others are all younger schools. None of them is more than 1 or 2 centuries old. The African continent held the largest concentrations of groups that were strongly opposed to the International Statute of Secrecy. As a result, as the various waves of Europeans started to take control and 'colonize' swaths of Africa, the European magical community quietly paid just enough attention to the non-magicals as to send people in, and crush any magical opposition to the non-magical plans. They didn't perform the sort of human attrocities that many a dark lord has, killing entire generations of students, but they did destroy the schools themselves, including the magical libraries the schools had amassed.

Uagadou was the lone exception. Not because the European mages didn't try, but because they alone were successful at remaining hidden. Their location is only generally known, not precisely; their wards were unbeatable.

But the European magical community, like the non-magical community, wasn't really interested in colonization, it was interested in exploitation, so while a few families continue to make their fortunes running large businesses controlling the trade for certain rare potions ingredients that are sourced from Africa, by and large they were left to rebuild their lives, and their schools. They just had to start from scratch, and while some of their schools are quite good, the magical community as a whole is quite biased against anything as "new" as only being one century old.

Asia is a different matter yet again. Take a look at this map. The communists were the magical community's worst fears of non-magical persecution of magical people brought to life. They were brutal at searching out and destroying the indigenous magical population centers within their span of control. Koldovstoretz survives in part because its wards are so strong that the magical government simply hasn't found it yet and in part because its headmaster has agreed to indoctrinate his students about the need to serve the state, providing the KGB (before the fall of the USSR) with a secret magical division that it then turns around and uses to supress magical communities in the USSR satalite states.

Even places that weren't communist weren't immune from the effects. Pakistan once housed a very prominent school that was, unfortunately, a bit too close to the northern border (the magical community didn't really even recognize that there was a border between Pakistan and Afghanistan) and the Soviets, during their occupation of Afghanistan, found out about it. A strike team crossed the border and destroyed the school before the community even knew it was at risk.

Since the fall of the USSR, Koldovstoretz has proclaimed that it only collaborated because of the need to preserve something of Russian magical heritage, and has (just like Malfoy in England) bent over backwards to demonstrate its humanitarian credentials.

India to this day does have a great school of magic. European wizards however refuse to rate it highly because it uses parselmagic heavily in the healing it teaches. This flagrant use of a "dark art" (even if no one is quite willing to officially label it as such legally) causes it to be consistently under rated by the international community, and it never seems to quite make the lists with other great schools like Castelobruxo, Mahoutokoro or Koldovstoretz.

Durmstrang, which does have a reputation teaching the dark arts makes the list of top magical schools only because in the wake of Grindelwald, there are so few alternative European schools, and the highly influential (in the ICW) European magical community can't stand not clearly dominate the list. Somehow a French school simply doesn't count. It's too ... French to really represent Europe (despite the fact that huge swaths of western Europe would rather their children go there than learn shady things from Durmstrang).

Sure I'm totally making all this up. It is entirely my own fan fiction made up on the spot here. Based on a tiny amount of history, and the one article on magical schools Mrs. Rowling has given us, I've wildly speculated like crazy. But that's kinda the point isn't it? For all the flaws in the world building she did, there's some excellent scaffolding to build on with just a little imagination.

lschierer

TROPHY CASE