Pottermore Discussion

[Bill Door]

I don't think it's possible for there to be more shitty Draco/Hermione fics. There is only so much shit that can be written.

[Gabrinth]

That, good sir, is a lie. A bold-faced lie.

More shit can always be written. All the shit.

[Budding_Owl]

I am a Ravenclaw going by the name of EyeAuror30000 and the proud owner of a Cedar wand, 11 and 3/4 inches with a Dragon (heartstring?) core.

Since this is my first post on DLP after days of lurking, I guess that it is time to introduce myself. I am 16 years old and I have no hobbies of which to spoke for. I like reading good fanfic (who doesn't?) and that, pathetically, is all I have done all summer.

Favourite characters in HP are the marauders and flitwick. Pretty much hate the movies from Book 5 onwards.

I should probably warn you that English is my third language and my posts will have a lot of errors although all corrections are appreciated.

[Bill Door]

I just got an email saying that the fist few chapters of CoS are now open for everyone.

[Hero of Stupidity]

Dear PatronusQuaffle42,
We're pleased to announce that the second instalment of
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is now ready.
Fly back to Hogwarts; encounter the Whomping Willow; recapture escaped Cornish pixies; attend the Deathday Party and much more…
There's also more exclusive J.K. Rowling content waiting to be discovered.

Just got this email. Tally ho, adventure time.

[KHAAAAAAAAAAN!!]

Nothing worthwhile added to this set of chapters. The pure-blood 28 was mildly interesting, but it's basically just a list of names we already knew were associated with pure-blood ancestry.

Boring.

[Taure]

As said, nothing particularly amazing. Here it is, for those of you who don't want togo through the stuff (though the artwork is well worth it):

Originally Posted by Hogwarts Ghosts

Hogwarts is the most heavily haunted dwelling place in Britain (and this is against stiff competition, as there are more reported ghost sightings/sensings on these damp islands than anywhere else in the world). The castle is a congenial place for ghosts, because the living inhabitants treat their dead friends with tolerance and even affection, no matter how many times they have heard the same old reminiscences.

Each of the four Hogwarts houses has its own ghost. Slytherin boasts the Bloody Baron, who is covered in silver bloodstains. The least talkative of the house ghosts is the Grey Lady, who is long-haired and beautiful.

Hufflepuff house is haunted by the Fat Friar, who was executed because senior churchmen grew suspicious of his ability to cure the pox merely by poking peasants with a stick, and his ill-advised habit of pulling rabbits out of the communion cup. Though a genial character in general, the Fat Friar still resents the fact that he was never made a cardinal.

Gryffindor house is home to Nearly Headless Nick, who in life was Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington. Something of a snob, and a less accomplished wizard than he believed, Sir Nicholas lounged around the court of Henry VII in life, until his foolish attempt to beautify a lady-in-waiting by magic caused the unfortunate woman to sprout tusks. Sir Nicholas was stripped of his wand and inexpertly executed, leaving his head hanging off by a single flap of skin and sinew. He retains a feeling of inadequacy with regard to truly headless ghosts.

Another notable Hogwarts ghost is Moaning Myrtle, who haunts an unpopular girls’ toilet. Myrtle was a student at Hogwarts when she died, and she chose to return to school in perpetuity, with the short-term aim of haunting her arch-rival and bully, Olive Hornby. As the decades have rolled by, Myrtle has made a name for herself as the most miserable ghost in school, usually to be found lurking inside one of the toilets and filling the tiled space with her moans and howls.

Originally Posted by Peeves

The name ‘poltergeist’ is German in origin, and roughly translates as ‘noisy ghost’, although it is not, strictly speaking, a ghost at all. The poltergeist is an invisible entity that moves objects, slams doors and creates other audible, kinetic disturbances. It has been reported in many cultures and there is a strong association with the places where young people, especially adolescents, are living. Explanations for the phenomenon vary all the way from supernatural to scientific.

It was inevitable that, in a building bursting with teenage witches and wizards, a poltergeist would be generated; it was likewise to be expected that such a poltergeist would be noisier, more destructive and harder to expel than those that occasionally frequent Muggle houses. Sure enough, Peeves is the most notorious and troublesome poltergeist in British history. Unlike the overwhelming majority of his colleagues, Peeves has a physical form, though he is able to become invisible at will. His looks reflect his nature, which those who know him would agree is a seamless blend of humour and malice.

Peeves is well-named, for he has been a pet peeve of every Hogwarts caretaker from Hankerton Humble (appointed by the four founders) onwards. Though many students and even teachers have a somewhat perverse fondness for Peeves (he undoubtedly adds a certain zest to school life), he is incurably disruptive, and it generally falls to the caretaker of the day to clean up his many deliberate messes: vases smashed, potions upended, bookcases toppled and so on. Those with weak nerves deplore Peeves’ fondness for suddenly materialising an inch from the end of their noses, hiding in suits of armour or dropping solid objects on their heads as they move between classes.

Several concerted efforts to remove Peeves from the castle have resulted in failure. The last and most disastrous was made in 1876 by caretaker Rancorous Carpe, who devised an elaborate trap, baited with an assortment of weapons he believed would be irresistible to Peeves, and a vast enchanted bell jar, reinforced by various Containment Charms, which he intended to drop over the poltergeist once he was in place. Not only did Peeves break easily through the giant bell jar, showering an entire corridor with broken glass, he also escaped the trap armed with several cutlasses, crossbows, a blunderbuss and a miniature cannon. The castle was evacuated while Peeves amused himself by firing randomly out of the windows and threatening all and sundry with death. A three-day standoff was ended when the Headmistress of the day, Eupraxia Mole, agreed to sign a contract allowing Peeves additional privileges, such as a once-weekly swim in the boys’ toilets on the ground floor, first refusal on stale bread from the kitchen for throwing purposes, and a new hat – to be custom-made by Madame Bonhabille of Paris. Rancorous Carpe took early retirement for health reasons, and no subsequent attempt has ever been made to rid the castle of its most ill-disciplined inhabitant.

Peeves does recognise authority of a sort. Though generally unimpressed by titles and badges, he is generally amenable to the strictures of the teachers, agreeing to stay out of their classrooms while they teach. He has also been known to show an affinity for rare students (notably Fred and George Weasley), and is certainly afraid of the ghost of Slytherin, the Bloody Baron.

Originally Posted by Pure-Blood

The term ‘pure-blood’ refers to a family or individual without Muggle (non-magic) blood. The concept is generally associated with Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, whose aversion to teaching anybody of Muggle parentage eventually led to a breach with his three fellow founders, and his resignation from the school.

Slytherin’s discrimination on the basis of parentage was considered an unusual and misguided view by the majority of wizards at the time. Contemporary literature suggests that Muggle-borns were not only accepted, but often considered to be particularly gifted. They went by the affectionate name of ‘Magbobs’ (there has been much debate about the origin of the term, but it seems most likely to be that in such a case, magic ‘bobbed up’ out of nowhere).

Magical opinion underwent something of a shift after the International Statute of Secrecy became effective in 1692, when the magical community went into voluntary hiding following persecution by Muggles. This was a traumatic time for witches and wizards, and marriages with Muggles dropped to their lowest level ever known, mainly because of fears that intermarriage would lead inevitably to discovery, and, consequently, to a serious infraction of wizarding law.*

Under such conditions of uncertainty, fear and resentment, the pure-blood doctrine began to gain followers. As a general rule, those who adopted it were also those who had most strenuously opposed the International Statute of Secrecy, advocating instead outright war on the Muggles. Increasing numbers of wizards now preached that marriage with a Muggle did not merely risk a possible breach of the new Statute, but that it was shameful, unnatural and would lead to ‘contamination’ of magical blood.**

As Muggle/wizard marriage had been common for centuries, those now self-describing as pure-bloods were unlikely to have any higher proportion of wizarding ancestors than those who did not. To call oneself a pure-blood was more accurately a declaration of political or social intent (‘I will not marry a Muggle and I consider Muggle/wizard marriage reprehensible’) than a statement of biological fact.

Several works of dubious scholarship, published around the early eighteenth century and drawing partly on the writings of Salazar Slytherin himself, make reference to supposed indicators of pure-blood status, aside from the family tree. The most commonly cited signs were: onset of magical ability before the age of three, early (before aged seven) prowess on a broomstick, dislike or fear of pigs and those who tend them (the pig is often considered a particularly non-magical animal and is notoriously difficult to charm), resistance to common childhood illnesses, outstanding physical attractiveness and an aversion to Muggles observable even in the pure-blood baby, which supposedly shows signs of fear and disgust in their presence.

Successive studies produced by the Department of Mysteries have proven that these supposed hallmarks of pure-blood status have no basis in fact. Nevertheless, many pure-bloods continue to cite them as evidence of their own higher status within the wizarding community.

In the early 1930s, a ‘Pure-Blood Directory’ was published anonymously in Britain, which listed the twenty-eight truly pure-blood families, as judged by the unknown authority who had written the book***, with ‘the aim of helping such families maintain the purity of their bloodlines’. The so-called ‘Sacred Twenty-Eight’ comprised the families of:

Abbott
Avery
Black
Bulstrode
Burke
Carrow
Crouch
Fawley
Flint
Gaunt
Greengrass
Lestrange
Longbottom
Macmillan
Malfoy
Nott
Ollivander
Parkinson
Prewett
Rosier
Rowle
Selwyn
Shacklebolt
Shafiq
Slughorn
Travers
Weasley
Yaxley

A minority of these families publicly deplored their inclusion on the list, declaring that their ancestors certainly included Muggles, a fact of which they were not ashamed. Most vocally indignant was the numerous Weasley family, which, in spite of its connections with almost every old wizarding family in Britain, was proud of its ancestral ties to many interesting Muggles. Their protests earned these families the opprobrium of advocates of the pure-blood doctrine, and the epithet ‘blood traitor’. Meanwhile, a larger number of families were protesting that they were not on the pure-blood list.

* Over subsequent decades and centuries, the number of mixed marriages began to climb again until the healthy levels of today, and this has not led to widespread discovery of the hidden magical community. Professor Mordicus Egg, author of The Philosophy of the Mundane: Why the Muggles Prefer Not to Know, points out that Muggles in love generally do not betray their husbands or wives, and Muggles who fall out of love are jeered at by their own community when they assert that their estranged partner is a witch or wizard.

** In fact, the reverse appears to be true. Where families adhered consistently to the practice of marrying within a very small group of fellow witches and wizards, mental and physical instability and weakness seems to result.

*** Widely believed to be Cantankerus Nott.

Originally Posted by King's Cross

When Ottaline Gambol commandeered a Muggle train to serve as the new mode of transport for Hogwarts students, she also had constructed a small station in the wizarding village of Hogsmeade: a necessary adjunct to the train. The Ministry of Magic felt strongly, however, that to construct an additional wizarding station in the middle of London would stretch even the Muggles’ notorious determination not to notice magic when it was exploding in front of their faces.

It was Evangeline Orpington, Minister from 1849-1855, who hit upon the solution of adding a concealed platform at the newly (Muggle) built King’s Cross station, which would be accessible only to witches and wizards. On the whole, this has worked well, although there have been minor problems over the ensuing years, such as witches and wizards who have dropped suitcases full of biting spellbooks or newt spleens all over the polished station floor, or else disappeared through the solid barrier a little too loudly. There are usually a number of plain-clothed Ministry of Magic employees on hand to deal with any inconvenient Muggle memories that may need altering at the start and end of each Hogwarts term.

There was a bit on Draco Malfoy too, but it was basically a summary of what we already know about him and his character.

[Taure]

Double post.

[Glimmervoid]

I thought it very interesting. The fact that Shacklebolt family is on the ‘Sacred Twenty-Eight' list really drives home what various people have been saying for awhile: The wizarding world has it's own prejudices and they are not muggle ones.

[Taure]

As I was just saying to Sesc in IRC, I'm not a fan of the 28. The list seems too short.

Firstly, there are some families that you'd think would be there (the Potters? They married with the highly exclusive Blacks, at least) but aren't.

That can be explained away by the nature of the book, at least: it was written by one guy who was interested in making his own bloodline more prestigious. If he wasn't related to the Potters, no reason to include them. The info says that many families were upset at their exclusion, after all.

However, there's a more fundamental problem with the list: it's populated by families that are almost all pulled from two groups: people at Hogwarts at the same time as Harry, and named Death Eaters. And of those who don't fill that list, there are only a couple Harry has never met at least one member of. Are we to believe that almost all the most Pure families have children of the exact same age as Harry? What about all the other year groups? What about people who are too young for Hogwarts, or recently graduated? It makes no sense (well, it makes sense out of story: JKR didn't want to come upwith new names).

On top of that, the Gaunts shouldn't be there. If it was written in 1930 then the Gaunts are penniless and obscure. Morfin is the only one left by that time, and he lives alone in a shack in the middle of nowhere, with apparently no contact with the outside world.

[One armed boxer]

2 different accounts and both of them end up in gryffindor


I'm considering whether creating a third account and having to go through those tedious first chapters again is worth it

[Xandrel]

Originally Posted by One armed boxer

2 different accounts and both of them end up in gryffindor


I'm considering whether creating a third account and having to go through those tedious first chapters again is worth it

Wow, you hate Gryffindor. You're so edgy and cool.

[One armed boxer]

Originally Posted by Xandrel

Wow, you hate Gryffindor. You're so edgy and cool.

yes because me wanting to be in another house means I hate gryffindor and am trying to come off as an edgy and cool poster (which sounds retarded btw)

maybe try not drawing wild conclusions off one post

[Taure]

yes because me wanting to be in another house means I hate gryffindor and am trying to come off as an edgy and cool poster (which sounds retarded btw)

maybe try not drawing wild conclusions off one post

While sticking up for yourself is laudable, doing so while using capital letters would be more so.

[One armed boxer]

Originally Posted by Taure

While sticking up for yourself is laudable, doing so while using capital letters would be more so.

I'm sure this is the point where the forum does a nice little pile on, but could you find something better to start off with than nitpicking capitalization?

[Dark-Stallion]

Originally Posted by One armed boxer

I'm sure this is the point where the forum does a nice little pile on, but could you find something better to start off with than nitpicking capitalization?

Who, us? Nahhh...

[Rehio]

Originally Posted by One armed boxer

I'm sure this is the point where the forum does a nice little pile on, but could you find something better to start off with than nitpicking capitalization?

You've been here since December, 2008. You should know how this place operates by now.

[One armed boxer]

Originally Posted by Rehio

You've been here since December, 2008. You should know how this place operates by now.

I haven't posted here for years and even when I registered it was sporadic.

Its an internet forum that discusses Harry Potter fanfiction, that's about as informal as it gets. And its not even like I came in typing like it was facebook, I didn't capitalize sentences and Taure set his grammar-nazi phaser on stun.

[Celestin]

Originally Posted by One armed boxer

Its an internet forum that discusses Harry Potter fanfiction, that's about as informal as it gets. And its not even like I came in typing like it was facebook, I didn't capitalize sentences and Taure set his grammar-nazi phaser on stun.

Not capitalizing sentences is not being informal. It's just being lazy and deliberately wanting to give other people headaches while they try to read your posts.

Well, unless in your language you don't use capitalization or periods and because of that you have trouble with them. Then just do your best and I'm sure people on DLP will be a lot more understanding while you learn how to do it properly. They sure are with my poor English even after all these years of posting here.

[Lord Raine]

Some random anonymous publisher anointed a bunch of families "pureblood" out of nowhere, probably by either rolling dice or looking through his own family tree and masturbating, and everyone just went with it because yeah. Also, Slytherin was stupid and evil.

I know it is not, and will never be, canon, but if it's fine with the rest of you, I'm just going to go with the "Slytherin's message was caution during a time of magical persecution, which was distorted and misinterpreted over time," because as old and full of holes as that fanon is, I think I prefer it to Slytherin being inexplicably evil suddenly for no reason, and some random guy randomly pulling the entire purest family thing out his ass to make his own family look better, and then everybody just agrees with it except for the Weasleys.

And yeah. It's pretty damn convenient that every "pure" family was in Harry's year or a Death Eater, or both. Except for, like, two of them, that were obviously invented on the spot. Shafiq? Really? That. . . what even is that? That's not Irish, English, or Scottish, and doesn't sound Welsh either. Are they from Narnia?

Houses

I like Gryffindor. I'm annoyed that all of the Houses got shafted, but that doesn't stop me from liking Gryffindor.

Though I will admit that it's not hard to like them when it could alternatively be called The House For People With Character Development. Maybe if we actually knew something about Daphne Greengrass or Hannah Abbot or the Patils, I'd feel different.

I do know, though, that regardless of what House had more people with character development and likable personalities, I would not give a shit about where Pottermore's RNG Sorted me. Really? You made two different accounts just over your House? You do realize that this isn't an MMO or something, right? This barely qualifies as a Text Quest-style game. It's more like a bunch of gated infodumps. It doesn't actually matter. Why do you even care?