I agree with yak
This thread has become quite lame
Hope he updates soon

 

Awesome haiku is awesome

 

Excellent haiku.

 

As Justblaise and Banner said, great haiku

 

Haikus are easy
But sometimes they don't make sense
Refridgerator

 

Five replies. Nukular's was pretty neat.

I wrote the haiku to point out the useless wad of posts that preceded it. I didn't expect it to generate another useless wad of posts itself.

@Robojesus: It makes sense in context.

 

So, with Ruskbyte's update I have a question for all ya'll.

Is the Culture series solely benefiting from Rusk's excellent x-over talent, or is this a series a should be picking up?

 

I enjoyed the Culture series, but I'm into that broad genre of science fiction (dystopia, Charlie Stross, post-singularity, etc.) Your mileage may vary.

Good update. The sorting was everything I'd hoped it would be, though it was a bit vexing that the hat would start talking aloud about what he saw in Harry's mind, even if in Marain. This is a slight plot hole, since it proved the hat to be lying about its inability to share a child's secrets.

 

It can still be considered to be keeping Harry's secret as they both knew no one else understands Marain.

That was the point of the Hat speaking in that language in the first place.

 

It was confident that no one could understand them (at the time) and there weren't really any "secrets" discussed. Remember that the Culture doesn't terribly care about things like Star Trek's Prime Directive, they have their ways but there aren't laws or secrets so much as things other people don't know and may eventually.

Somehow I doubt they (The Minds, Sma) would particularly care if Harry's connection to the Culture was revealed. Earth is a minute minority, and what goes on there is nearly useless knowledge for them. The only exception is Harry (and the Minds to an extent) learning magic, and its already been made pretty clear that Dumbles will bend over backwards to keep Harry at Hogwarts.

 

My issue is not with the damage to Harry, but rather the hat's proving itself to be a liar. It's splitting hairs, granted, but it really doesn't matter whether nobody but Harry can speak Marain. The fact that the hat uttered things aloud means that any student or teacher present could, in principle, enter a pensieve memory with someone who can, thereby revealing Harry's secrets. The hat has no way of knowing that this cannot happen in the future even if it could somehow know that nobody within earshot could speak Marain.

It's a minor plot hole, that's all; I've made more of it than it deserves.

 

Marain, if I understand correctly, is a alien language. No one can translate anyway.

Great chapter, Great comeback. I especially liked the ending.

 

I also found the Hat's blabbing of supposedly it'd-be-suicide-to-reveal secrets to be a WTF moment. I can ignore it easily enough though. What's harder to ignore are the parallels between this Hat's attitude and Jbern's Hat from The Lie I Lived. They're a long way from being identical, but there are certainly similarities in their characterisations.

The rest of this chapter was much better than the previous one. Chapter 6 felt forced, as though the author was trying to stuff Harry into a Harry/Hermione relationship. I'm thankful that there was little mention of The Beaver in this chapter. I don't want her filthy claws pawing at Harry unless she's an antagonist in this piece. Unfortunately, it seems likely that she's going to be a potential love interest, or at least a loyal friend.

It's the way that Hermione is written in this fic that annoys me. The author obviously wants us to sympathise with her when she doesn't seem to be deserving of it. If she's been made an outcast by her peers, then she's an outcast for a reason. At least Harry didn't seem to care about her at all beyond saving her life, but the same thing happened between Harry and Ginny in canon as well - he saves her life in Book 2 and then ignores her until book 6 when his animal fetish comes to the fore; doggy style indeed.

I'd prefer it if we were supposed to like Hermione based on her own merits rather than feeling sorry for her. Getting epic revenge on Ron Weasley and/or working herself back into Gryffindor's good graces would be a marked improvement.

Harry's actions to stop the troll were retarded. He doesn't seem to realise it though. He's still shaken up from the incident, but he really should have been churning it over in his mind seeing what he would change, how he would do it better next time. That's how we learn from our mistakes, but this Harry doesn't even know that he messed up. I'm pretty sure that Sma knows though.

At the end of chapter 7, Sma and Harry part ways. I hope this isn't a break of Sma's involvement in the story. I have doubts about how well Harry and the cast of Hogwarts can carry the story on their own without interaction with the Minds, Sma and Skaffen-Amtiskaw. We'll see how it works in the next chapter.

I liked Harry stealing a kiss from Sma, and I especially enjoyed McGonagall's flustered reactions to Harry and Sma's behaviour throughout the day. Her observing them holding hands for too long, drinking from the same milkshake glass, etc. was hilarious. I hope to see more of her. It'd be lulzy if she started encouraging him to get into a relationship with a girl more his own age in an attempt to redirect his romantic feelings away from Sma... provided that said girl isn't sooky-Hermione of course.

If Hermione does begin to play more of a role in this story, then she'd better be fleshed out into a three dimensional character, because I quite dislike what I've seen so far. I especially don't want to see a broken or isolated Hermione whom Harry 'fixes'.

Alright, that's enough ragging on Hermione. Chapter 7 > Chapter 6. It seems that more care was taken with writing this one too.

Harry's verbal duel with the Hat seemed mis-handled though. Why bother arguing with it when you can just set it on fire for raping your mind? Goddam peacenik Culture. What were Harry's pets up to during this event? I also couldn't see the reason for Sma revealing that she'd bugged Dumbledore's office. To be revealed later I hope.

 

The only similarity I saw was that both hats talk much more than in canon, besides that, nothing. One is homicidal and funny, the other is an erection killer, "I'll burn myself before I'll reveal your secrets" kind of hat. I mostly agree with you on the rest, though.

 

Harry and Sma's kiss was amazin'. I wish to see more disturbed!McGonagall.

 

Not everybody has the strength to break out of their given roles. I've seen Hermione painted lots of different ways. Either she's become introverted because no one likes her, or she becomes anal rule-hugging prefect/head girl because she never had fun with anyone.

Remember, she's 11. It's kinda crappy being alone at the bottom of the ladder.

 

I have a strong aversion to emo-Anybody. I'm also concerned about characterisation. Emo-characters are often placed in hurt-comfort relationships that are an author's crutch to doing any real character and relationship building. Hermione's near worshipful response to Harry (under admittedly extreme circumstances) was distasteful, and strongly reminiscient of the utter fail characters that inhabit 99% of harem fics.

I don't particularly dislike Hermione, but this Hermione is throwing up all of the warning flags that her character usually presents in poor fanfics. I also don't want to see Harry with a wallflower (unless she rocks, which would make it difficult for her to be a wallflower) or an emotional welcome mat.

It is easy to forget that she's only eleven, and I suppose I'm getting carried away with my fears of her pairing up with Harry at such a young age. Harry is physically and emotionally mature enough to desire such a relationship though. Here's hoping that Hermione is too much of a kid for him to be interested, and that she stays in Griffindor. We haven't seen Cho yet. Harry's in Ravenclaw now, and in canon he never looked at Beaver twice.

The author's been careful to sexualise Harry during the story so far. He's probably being prepped for some kind of relationship.

 

The only thing I didn't like about this chapter is everyone saying that Harry looks 13. I mean, for fuck's sake, couldn't someone call him a tall 12 year-old or a runty 14?

 

I don't think anyone had an exact number, just the vague "third year." If I'm wrong about that, flame me.

 

Ok, I flame you.

But that's the only line mentioning his age, the rest is vague.

I liked it, though I agree with a lot of points mentioned by Yak. Especially the sorting scene was overdone.

Concerning Hermione (12 years old), she - like Harry - is also still suffering from the troll incident and her character might develop later on. By the way: If I recall correctly Ruskbyte usually writes H/Hr.