It's worth remembering that Harry was not a horcrux. A horcrux is a receptacle which has been prepared for that role with many enchantments. Harry is just a person with a bit of soul accidentally latched onto him. No preparation, no enchantments.

 

Which is the fastest magical creature?

 

Severus Snape confronted with shampoo, why do you ask?

 

Probably a dragons or thestrals, because they can fly.

 

This does open up a minor puzzle: I would be glad if anyone has any additional information on the matter, as I have a small story that involves the Riddle murders, and what might have happened to the house in the interim.

It is clear from the context that the Muggle villagers who discuss the matter in Little Hangleton don't actually know whether tax is actually a plausible explanation for the owner's actions. It is also significant that, when Voldemort occupies the house with Wormtail & Nagini, he does not appear to expect any interference from the owner.

Some of the potential explanations I have been playing with for the purposes of my story are:

- Voldemort could have cursed any occupant of the House in the same way as he cursed the DADA position. This would explain why no one stays for long, and why an owner interested in non-occupancy only is unaffected.

- Voldemort himself has established title to the House as Tom Riddle (or possibly another Muggle identity of his), either by obtaining significant Muggle wealth in one way or another, and vesting the house in a trust which has sufficient income to pay Frank Bryce's wages, or simply by Confounding the relevant official and legal authorities.

- One of Voldemort's wealthier supporters (the Malfoys are obvious candidates) has acquired the House on his behalf.

I would be interested if there is anything in canon which rules out any of these possibilities.

 

I have a question. Is there a thread where I can find a beta reader? And if not is there a good site to go to that will recommend beta readers? I have a story I'm working on, and I'm unclear whether I can post it on WBA without beta-ing.

 

Thanks! Thats really helpful, and I might post in WbA once I feel it won't be immediately torn apart.

 

The best advice would be two-fold:

One, once you've finished writing, do your edits or whatever your process is and then stop before publishing. Don't upload it hot off the press if there's no urgency to, beyond your own natural excitement, rather, give it a day or two before your final review to lend yourself some objectivity.

Secondly, after a while (yeah, lets say forty-eight hours), look over your work and read it out loud, verbally. This makes you go slowly and pick out stray commas and odd expressions much more easily than reading in your head, and you can then fix it up..

After that, if there's no glaring problem that you've identified yourself and you think it's ready then put it in WBA and you might have things that you don't know/recognise pointed out to you. This means it'll be the stuff you actually want help with rather than stuff you can solve by yourself and it'll be super helpful. We can be critical and say we don't like a premise but that doesn't get in the way of pointing out good stuff to improve on and it should be useful.

Also, check out Halt's writing thread for the sort of stuff to expect, more generally.

 

Fastest as in move from A to B? House Elves, since they have some elf version of apparition.

Does Fawkes ever do the flash teleport thing in the books or is that just the movie? If so, then they get there too.

Thestrals did the trip from Hogwarts to London at a fairly good clip.

Magical Owls though might outdo Thestrals, do we ever have any indicators as to how fast Hedwig goes from Surrey to the Burrow or Number 10?

Fastest as in most likely to move on from A to B? Cho Chang.

 

Jesus, vlad she doesn't even have a danger rating in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

 

Fantastic Breasts and Where to Find Them, otoh...

 

It's done in the books too.

 

Rowling recently revealed that Wizards simply shat themselves where they stood. However the vanishing spell is not taught until 5th year on Hogwarts.

Does it mean that everyone at the age of 11 or even younger was taught the vanishing spell first before anything or the parents/teachers simply vanished the "evidence"?

 

Presumably yes, to both questions. Alternatively, the restrictions on wand usage were different then as well.

Better question: what was the response when, after plumbing was adopted, people lost the right to use magic outside school? Because either that's only been in place since the 18th century, or wizards and witches had to rely on family members to clean up their mess until they were 17.

 

Could a 'halfblood' like Harry, Snape, or Voldemort ever be considered 'pureblood', or will they always be 'halfbloods' because of thier Muggle ancestry?

 

I'm tinkering how different outcomes to various events in the first book will effect Harry future.

Point of divergence is Harry being more cautious, he won't attempt to chase Malfoy in their first flying lesson.
So no Seeker Harry, he is just regular first year albeit quite famous.

Trying to figure out, how second year will go down, if Harry isn't on the Quidditch team.
The Weasley twins and other members didn't have a chance to get to know him.
How heir of Slytherin will play out? (the reaction of Gryffindor to his revealed skill).

Note: Harry and Ron will be still good friends, maybe even Hermione (not sure how the Troll incident will play out)

 

@Methos: This thread is for canon facts, not speculation.

@everyone: Is there a canon source for the length of time spent in Shell Cottage by the trio in DH ? I can't find anything precise (not even date of birth for Teddy or death for Peter) or any real clue in the books, but I had "two weeks" in my head for whatever reason.

 

It says it's March when they get caught and brought to the Malfoys. Narcissa also says Draco is home for Easter holidays, and Easter can happen late March at the earliest, so presumably it was the last week of March they ended up at the Malfoys and thereafter Shell Cottage. And they leave on May 1.

So they spent 4-5 weeks at Shell's Cottage.