Was curious, what are some fairly common ideas in HP fanlore you have encountered that you dislike?

One that I have almost universally encountered is how Dorea Black is Harry`s grandmother, which I dislike because of what it means for the events of canon.

If my memory serves me correctly; all Blacks with the exception of Sirius have been sorted in Slytherin. If Harry Potter`s grandmother was a witch from one of the most notorious dark families and sorted into Slytherin, I`m pretty sure Harry would have heard of it or somebody would have told him. Sirius would have jumped at the chance to tell them of their blood relation.

James Potter`s mother being a Black also does not seem to fit in with how we saw him as an 11 year old with a vicious hatred for Slytherin. Also, someone would have said something about Sirius Black and James Potter being cousins, and he would have been well-acquainted with Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa as children by virtue of being family. There is nothing of the sort of-course.

And making Harry Potter`s grandmother a Black and Slytherin would also mean everyone in the wizarding world would have been involved in a conspiracy to keep Harry ignorant of the fact, numerous people including Malfoy would have jumped at the chance to tell him that.

Not to mention Harry would have moaned about how he was related to Malfoy of all people, after someone would have bothered to mention the fact to him, and Dumbledore would have taken that as an opportunity to give him a grandfatherly lecture on how it was our choices that defined us and not the sliminess of the people that we were related to.

I can understand the Potter line inter-marrying with the Blacks a long time ago, and I don`t think Harry`s grandparents are mentioned in canon, but making Dorea Black as Harry`s grandma seems too big of a change, sort of like making Peter Pettigrew and James Potter cousins or something, events in canon would have been at least slightly different if that had been true.

Anyways that was mine, post anything you have encountered in more than one fic.

 

That one summer of studying can make up for multiple years of slacking.

"Quidditch toned body" doesn't make any sense to me. I'm sure flying on a broom makes you exercise your core a bit, but its not exactly going to be toning your arms, legs, or chest.

House elves need to bond to survive. I think they're much more interesting if their dependence is actually purely psychological. Giving it an understandable physical need is a cop out so the author doesn't have to deal with the morality of their enslavement.

 

I would not say spending a few months in a training montage is completely unsubstantiated by the books. In book 4, Harry, Ron, and Hermione basically crammed a ton of new spells so that he would be remotely able to contend with the Triwizard Tournament, and he did improve quite a bit in a short time. Harry was not exactly a slacker before that; there's nothing to indicate he did poorly in anything but Potions. His O.W.L's were really good, so he's probably a good bit ahead of most other students in his year. The way the books seem to represent magical education, Hogwarts gives students a basic understanding of most things, but if they want to go into anything that isn't covered, or get better than average at anything specific, they're going to have to study it themselves. One would think there would be books specifically for self-study, though they might be expensive/rare.
What I don't get is why the damn bank manages inheritance. Are there literally no law offices? How do you know if those contracts are real?

 

Very true, however I'd prefer an author dealt with that by either completely not bringing the issue up at all, or by in some way making the point that there is no enslavement. Rather than always just relying on the idea that its a symbiotic relationship.

 

Fred and George alternating every other word. To be fair though, that's mostly just shitty writing.

 

The idea that magic is solely intent in which case I contend that Luna Lovegood on drugs would be more powerful than Voldemort. Second hate is that Luna's quirkiness (or insanity) comes from some "magic vision".

 

The idea that old wizard families have titles of nobility , or that things like "Most Ancient and Noble House" are an official category, rather than just something that the Blacks dreamed up themselves for self-aggrandizement purposes.

Related to this, the idea that some families are officially Dark or Light aligned (or even worse, Neutral) or that children are expected to interact at school based on how their families stand in this.

If this comes up in a fic, it has to be really good otherwise for me not to instantly close it.

 

I honestly don't see the idea itself as entirely stupid. Nobility exists in the modern world (and was even more relevant in the past), and people from a "nice" family might expect their children to interact with other "nice" families. These families would have alliances, loyalties, interests and traditions that'd fall into the territory of dark/light/neutral from a certain point of view.

I feel like the main issue is that the moment anyone refers to a light/dark/neutral family it becomes really, really silly. Likewise, the titles and honours are usually heaped upon Harry so he'll be cool, get a lot of women, and generally fulfill the author's power fantasty, rather than as a part of expanding the worldbuilding and creating interesting power dynamics.

So in short... It's mostly about shit authors writing shit stories made up out of shit ideas.

 

The way that Phoenixes can teleport because Fawkes grabbed Dumbledore before they disappeared. Dumbledore wasn't hitching a ride with Fawkes, Fawkes was hitching a ride with Dumbledore.

 

That is something Phoenixes can do however, according to canon:

 

Again, Dumbledore sent the message, not Fawkes. The feather was sent to confirm it was Dumbledore who sent it.

This is so thoroughly fanon the masses have incorrectly added it to the wiki. We got a very thorough breakdown on what they can do in book two. Nowhere was this included.

 

Dumbledore wasn't the one who sent it, he himself received one such message from Fawkes.

Later the way they leave Hogwarts is described similarly.

 

@aAlouda makes it clear in that second quote that it isn't apparition. The "flash of fire" means it was definitely some other form of transportation. Now, was it Dumbledore using some weird magic rather than Fawkes? Maybe...but there's no reason to assume it was the magical fire bird using its magical fire powers to magically fire transport someone.

 

I forgot completely forgot about Dumbledore getting a warning from Fawkes, so I guess I am wrong here. More reasons to hate the way JKR treats magic as a plot device than a part of actual world building I guess.

I don't have a copy in front of me so I can't give you a direct quote atm, but when Harry visits Dumbledorea after Justin is attacked Albus give a speech about how Phoenixes are very useful because they are reborn when they die, have healing tears and can carry immensely heavy loads. Teleportation and sacrificing body parts to send messages wasn't mentioned. Then at the end of the book Fawkes carries Harry, Ron, Ginny and Lockhart in a giant human daisy chain through a twisting pipe rather than aparate them out like a sane teleporting bird would.

 

The old Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them book that JK published back in 2001 says:

The section on the Diricawl makes it clear this is teleportation, not invisibility.

 

You're referring to this,

Dumbledore was mearly describing the usefulness of his pet in a single sentence, I dont think that was meant to represent everything phoenixes are supposed to be capable of.

 

The "Mauraders" being a thing always bores me in fics set in Harry's parents generation. The term alludes only to the map, James wasnt in some lame gang. Its not a major complaint, but I always find it makes such stories just a little less intersting.

Edit: apparently wrong!

 

Rowling actually made that Canon by having Ron call them that in Half-Blood-Prince, I think thats the only time fanon ever actually became canon in Harry Potter.