What reason did Dumbledore have not to let Harry take advanced classes?

 

Tradition, and possibly Ministry regulations. Remember that neither Dumbledore nor Riddle did have any advanced classes and both of them were considered to be prodigies.

 

I'm thinking its a matter of precedent and the values of the school - its stated that Hogwarts is oriented towards the development of a larger number of average wizards rather than specially catering for individual talents, possibly to ensure that no talented youngster gets too cocky and starts lording it over others? Allowing Harry to grade jump would also set a precedent that other students (most likely half of Ravenclaw house though not apparent in this story) would apply for and then the teachers will have no time for mediocre students anymore as highly intellectual students do tend to occupy more teaching time and the school values would then start to resemble Durmstrang.

That and Dumbledore probably wants every small child to experience 7 years of whatever Hogwarts is meant to do to you rather than "cheat" them of the experience by allowing grade jumps.

 

@chuckdatruck: I agree that the comparison between Tom and Harry isn't perfect. It isn't meant to be. The main connection between Harry and Tom is their ability to control magic at a young age. I think that Dumbledore would instantly think back to the only other student he knew that could do what Harry is capable of, and that would cause him to compare Harry and Riddle. Harry's anger and isolation would worry Dumbledore as it was a trait he saw in Tom at one point. That doesn't mean Dumbledore thinks Harry is just like Tom, he knows that's not true.

@World: Thanks for that Durmstrang discussion link. I might have to move my location of Durmstrang if some of the stuff said in that thread are true.

@Trrnt: KrzaQ got it perfect. Read that.

Just to answer some reoccurring questions:

The Dark Arts:
Harry will not look like Voldemort for using the Dark Arts. I believe that it was Voldemort's multiple Horcruxes that made him look like that. If that's not the case why didn't all the other Death Eaters look serpentine?

On skipping ahead:
I will not be skipping ahead to the triwizard tournament. I think it's important that you see Harry's time at Durmstrang. The pace of the story will remain fast, and I will try to get through these next few years quickly. Expect the triwizard to probably take place around chapter 13. I plan on the entire story being between 30-35 chapters.

 

How are you going to handle the OCs? A minor role before you through Harry back into the thick of the story at hogwarts/england or whatever, or are you going to have some permanent OCs in main roles?

 

Alright. The first two chapters are solid. I'm taking a wait and see with this as the genre itself doesn't have a good history. However it may be possible to write a good story in this genre. I have read good slash and good H/G stories before. They are few and far between to be sure but anything is possible.

I also withhold a rating on the work until further updates.

 

I'm not sure that I could handle Harry being in the Triwizard Tournement without legit reason. The story already focuses too much on him, even though he is the brother of the Boy-Who-Lived.

If Harry is either in seventh year, or Karkaroff puts it in himself, then I guess I could believe it. Or something new and unthought so far happens.

 

Rape. Go with the Rape.:awesome

 

Really? The child's boredom in class is almost always the first thing teachers mention right before they move a student to accelerated learning programs or special classes for 'gifted' students.

Hell, in a prehistoric episode of the Simpsons, Bart switched test papers with the class egghead and was moved to a gifted school. What was one of the things they asked him before doing so? "Do you find classes boring."

His response should come as no surprise. Of course, his stay in gifted school was not a long one.

Who isn't bored, no matter what their age, when they have to sit and listen to someone lecture on things they already know? Is complaining about it so you can better your education a mark of immaturity, or advanced maturity?

 

I've come to the conclusion, as I skim through most of these posts trying to get to the next chapter, that wolfe3923817 is a fucking moron concerned about stupid shit.

Seriously, what? Are you fucking retarded? This isn't cosplay; you're not a Death Eater and you're not advocating Pureblood rights. Cut the anti-Dumbledore/"Dirty People" shit out of your discussion. Here's a test for you genius: where do you think that "New English" you're calling Middle English came from? Do you think some asshat popped up and said ditch Old English? By your logic - that language is stagnant over centuries - shouldn't they still be speaking latin or a language that existed thousands of years ago?

Why the hell would they adopt any language! They're dirty! Oh and I guess there's these magical fairies that introduce new words into society amongst us dirty Muggle folk - not people just saying random shit and our language evolving every second of every day of every month of every year. Nope - it's stagnant and we still use gay as a word to denote happiness.

God - talk about nitpicking over utter fucking bullshit. Get a fucking life. If the author is sensible, he'll not even translate into fucking German and leave it English and use the following:

"The cat is raping me," he said, speaking German/he said in German/he was fucking German and he used his fucking language, if you want to know about the different types of German, read a book other than this fucking one.

Jesus. God.

 

The talk about dark arts turning Harry into another serpent like creature. I would think that had to do with the way he gained a body, also i don't think it ever said he regained his old body just a new one. I thought it said before he lost his body he had normal features. But that could be FF as i have not read the the original books for sometime.

 

Exactly. Complaining so you can better your education is a sign of maturity. Complaining you're bored like a kid in the back seat of a car on a long drive is not. To me, Harry sounded like a whining kid in that scene.

If you think my critique is phrased too jarringly using in-world style, or that I'm nitpicking inconsequential details, say that. Personally, I think JKR messes up a lot of details in her world building, and fanfic authors, with some help, can do it much better. Remember: Fiction, unlike real life, has to make sense.

 

Yeah, I don't know if this is canon-factual or not, but I've always believed it had to do with the way he regained his body as well. Makes much more sense.

If I remember (don't quote me on this) didn't Naginia have something to do with the ritual of Voldemorts return? Or maybe when Voldemort was milking Nagina (dirty bastard) as a baby it somehow effected him and he started getting serpentine features.

Still either way, from all evidence in the canon simple Dark Arts does not change your features in any way.

 

He did not have normal features before he was de-bodied by the reflected killing curse.

We see through Dumbledore in HBP how Riddle's face has become wax-like and sallow, and that his eye's are 'tired' and have a reddish tint or whatever, when Voldemort goes to Hogwarts to apply for the DADA job sometime before he starts overtly killing people and makes his grab for power.

It's clear that making multiple horcruxes degenerates the body in some fashion.

My theory of why reborn!Voldemort is serpentine is that his homunculus/baby form was made with Nagini's venom...plus the fact that he used her as a horcrux. Those two factors could easily be the reason for the snake-like features of his new body.

 

Huh. For some reason I always just thought it was a cumulative thing, from years of dabbling and experimenting in arcane magic... you know, lose a nose here, lose pigmentation in your skin there...

Also, I'm embarrassed to say that I've been checking back to this thread *almost* obsessively to see if any more has been posted. Just so you know, mista The Santi, I don't usually do that. Keep up the frustratingly addictive work.

 

*glances at the 9 other people reading this thread*

I think a lot of people are doing that too.

 

Well what you say and what I have found is canon are two different things.

http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Dark_Arts

"The Dark Arts are generally regarded as corrupting those who use them. After engaging in them extensively for many years, even Tom Marvolo Riddle's appearance demonstrated his corruption — he lost his former handsomeness, eventually taking on serpentine physical qualities and red eyes[1]. Albus Dumbledore, in particular, suggested that engaging in the Dark Arts was damaging to the soul; for instance, he told Severus Snape that Draco Malfoy's soul was "not yet so damaged" that he would be capable of murder, and that if he did go through with murder, his soul would be "ripped apart"[1]. This suggests that using very Dark magic, such as the Killing Curse, damages an individual's soul. The Dark Art of creating a Horcrux involves literally splitting the soul for the unnatural purpose of achieving immortality. "

This is what is confusing me. This is the official Harry Potter Wiki and it is saying that the Dark Arts corrupts those who use them. It also says the Dark Arts(not specifically Hocruxes) are what corrupted Voldemorts features. It also says the Killing Curse rips apart the soul. The part about the Killing Curse ripping apart the soul seems to be the only thing that makes sense. Because if the Killing Curse rips apart your soul then all you would have to do to make a hocrux is put that piece of a soul into a object.

So I am really confused about what the author plans on doing. At first he said he was going with canon then he practically said that the Dark Arts weren't corrupting in canon which this wiki page clearly says is wrong.

The official Harry Potter Wiki seems to suggest your correct which confuses me because Lucius Malfoy is obviously a huge Dark Arts users yet his features never turned weird.

 

Keep in mind that the wiki is only peoples' opinion of cannon, not cannon itself. My opinion is that it was the horcruxes specifically that damaged Voldemort's appearance, since of all the descriptions of the other death eaters, who we can assume have participated in their own share of murder and dark arts, are not deformed. We know that Aurors in the first war were allowed to use unforgivables to apprehend death eaters, but there has been no mention of deformed Auror's wandering about. You could say that maybe it is the overuse of the dark arts that caused the deformity, something that only Voldemort is capable of, but then that next step of overuse would probably be creating horcruxes and using Nagini's venom to make yourself a new body.

Also, your quote of Dumbledore telling Snape that Malfoy's soul was not yet damaged enough to commit murder is more metaphorical than literal. If your soul needed to be damaged to commit murder or descend into the dark arts, then there would be no dark arts. It's more likely that Dumbledore is saying there that Malfoy is not yet evil enough to commit murder in the fashion that he expected to.

This is all my opinion though, feel free to defer to the exalted wiki instead.