So... what kind of awesome, freaky shit are you going to have Alex Potter doing her sixth and seventh years?

 

She's going to figure out how to change her gender.

 

Yeah. Grindelwald didn't finished his education. He was expelled by the time he was 16 if I remember correctly. He owned like a boss.

 

I kinda think an older Harry would fall closer to 3 as Head Auror. Just based on the title and it's predecessors though, but it could be argued his fame got him there.

 

To be honest all of the canon examples of "child prodigies" kind of fail after they graduate; Snape is creating effective enough spells to be routinely used by both sides of the war while doodling on his potions book and Voldemort bribes the secret of immortality out of a teacher with a box of candy, but what do they do after that? Snape becomes a useless bully and Voldemort's dueling repertoire consists of three spells... The marauders created a super awesome spying device while lazing around, but Dumbledore fails to notice possessed Quirrel, Pettigrew, Sirius and Crouch Jr. dancing right under his nose even while he knows there are serious security issues and is actively trying to find answers to them.

JKR put too much emphasis on what the characters did in Hogwarts at the cost of all adults looking hopelessly incompetent compared to what school kids are shown to be able to do. Especially with Voldemort the back-story would have been a lot more believable and menacing if he had learned most of his magic only after leaving Hogwarts when he was traipsing around the world before starting his reign of terror. A teenage Dark Lord is probably the worst idea of a villain there can be.

 

Well, the same is true of most real life "geniuses": most just have one "big idea", usually fairly early in their life.

It's just in the magical world, it happens a few years earlier.

 

Yeah! Stupid Voldemort! Bribing a teacher with candy and then coasting on that achievement ever since!

You know...until he took over British magical society, got the most powerful wizard of the age killed, took over Hogwarts, achieved immortality three ways to Sunday, tracked down the most legendary wand in history, then died to a plot device.

COASTING I SAY! COASTING!

 

The number of plot holes and uncertainties about the HP universe, if counted, would cause a singularity event due to their sheer volume.

That she never mentions advanced wizard training (wizard colleges?) is one of them. I mean, let's be real. Hogwarts is a high school, and high schoolers are clueless children who know only the absolute basics of the various paths of knowledge. In comparison to the knowledge of P.hDs, you'd wonder how high schoolers are intelligent enough to breath.

There's *got* to be some kind of advanced wizard training...

 

There is mentioned Auror training and it is safe to assume there are on the job training in other fields as well.

If your population is only a few tens of thousands you cant expect them to host a full blown university.

 

It's also worth pointing out that the reason we have so much training is that as a society we are extremely specialised so we need training to become more specialised.

Compare this to wizards. To create all the items we do we use thousands of different tools. The only tool a wizard needs is a wand and every wizard has one. Beyond basic training anything can be learned as and when required. No need for a university.

 

Agreed.

I'm not in disagreement that we may not have gotten the "whole story" about what constitutes a typical wizard's education, but I do believe N.E.W.T. level is the "advanced" training. Auror training would be advanced on-the-job training, as would Healer training.

We know that some jobs don't require N.E.W.T.s at all - Hit-Wizards only require O.W.L.s. And we know that if you're expelled from Hogwarts after taking your O.W.L.s you cannot have your wand snapped.

It would have behooved Rowling to demonstrate some dropout from 5th year to 6th. Perhaps of the nameless students she "always intended" for there to be but never inserted. Probably would have been awkward; and likely difficult to imagine students more incompetent than Ron and Neville (who, I know, turns into a badass).

I have some ideas for a Beauxbatons story - I mentioned a "Professor Potter"-inspired prompt - where they have 9 years of schooling. We know they get 6 pre-O.W.L.s, so another extra before N.E.W.T.S makes sense. This is in keeping with the "about half of the wizards are useless and drop out before N.E.W.T.s" idea, and also demonstrates that Hogwarts really is great, on an international scale, to do their advanced tests in 7 years.

 

Well if we address a Wizard's ability to fight right out of Hogwarts, then it's pretty safe to say that most graduates are better than the majority at defensive/combative spells; just like a recent high school grad is probably better at Chemistry than I am. This does not mean that recent grads are better or have peaked magically. I don't think that a N.E.W.T level student would automatically be qualified for most jobs out there just because they have a wand. Spells aren't that easy to learn for the vast majority of wizards, especially more complicated ones.

I think the problem with canon is that we rarely see examples of magic used by adults. Just because the most frequent/memorable examples of use are household charms or a stunner here and there, doesn't mean that is the only thing they do with their wands all day.

That makes me wonder though, what kind of "Jobs" and what types of magic accompany those jobs in the magical world? Obviously there are careers in fields, but I'm talking about entry/mid level jobs.

Of course there are the various Ministry jobs, with most being related to some field of magic that would require you to remain at least somewhat studied in. I doubt there are many jobs in the wizarding world that is the equivalent of "Data Entry" or some other mundane entry level position in the HP Verse. There would be a ton of grunt work though. Business owners don't have the time to apply the proper magics to all of their products by themselves.

What about industry specific magics? What kind of potion work or freezing/storage charms go into Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream or Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans? What kind of magic does The Daily Prophet use to print and edit their papers? Then all the various jobs out there for enchanting objects. I would imagine different broom companies would staff plenty of people that meet varying standards to enchant their brooms, much like car companies have multiple positions to help produce and improve their cars.

This would also mean that a wizard's resume would have to include the types of spells they can competently cast or have had experience using before applying for a certain job. You want to be an enchanter at my company? Chances are I'm not going to hire a 17 year-old, still wet behind the ears. unless the level of enchantments I need are relatively simple and easy to learn. I don't have time to teach a teenager how to enchant, show me how much time you've actually spent enchanting objects. Even management positions, I would want my staff to be well versed in the magic they are going to be supervising and managing.

TL;DR - I think there are ample opportunities for adults to practice and refine their magic to higher levels in their daily lives outside of household charms. You may not be a great duelist, but you are bound to be much better at magic as an adult when compared to your 17 year-old self.

 

Well, simply by going evidence from the book we can conclude that the members of the DA are pretty among the top in terms of duelling skills so I suppose I agree with the opening post's conclusion even if the logic has it's flaws. Just recall that it is mentioned in the book that the average adult wizard does not know how to cast Protego, the most basic shielding charm.

Oh sure magic is magic and all that but still there is no such a thing as free ride. Just coasting through life doing the bare minimum and refusing to do anything more even to save your own life and that of your loved ones is not going to increase your abilities by much. Case in point, the Quidditch World Cup in the fourth book. That showscase pretty well that those DEs are among the elite since all the important people(which should have bodyguards) there plus all the public together can't scrap a dozen or so people to fight them off.

It is somewhat interesting to note that in a nation of tens of thousands only a few hundred are more than cannon fodder for anyone with basic abilities. I suppose that is why Voldemort was winning, just the DE we know of in canon would make a lot of those numbers. Take out a few more of those numbers due to not wanting to get involved for whatever reason and then suddenly DEs have the numerical advantage.

 

Why do the vast majority need to remember defense though? If they come into any danger that they didn't willingly venture into, they can just dissappear and contact the authorities. The act of defence seems reserved for those who willingly enter danger rather than have it forced upon them, aka the combatants of the world.

I just don't think that capable knowledge of how to use protego should be used to extrapolate a wizard's overall abilties like some here are trying to do.

 

If the vast majority can't cast a Shield Charm - as evidenced by the sales of Fred and George's cloaks, hats, gloves, etc. - Why would you assume they can Apparate?

 

Because Apparition is probably pretty useful for everyday living? Not to mention the "cool factor".

 

Apparation is really convenient and useful for things other than fighting? Even with Voldemort around it wouldn't be impossible for an unimportant pureblood to make it through life without ever needing to cast a shield charm, while being able to teleport is the sort of thing that's relevant on a daily basis.

 

But the vast majority are shown to Floo. You can splinch while Apparating.

 

Yes, it can be dangerous, but I still think its something most people would learn to do anyway. I mean, driving is dangerous, but I know very few people without a driving licence.

 

In many places in America there are not convenient alternatives. In cities like New York, however, I have friends who may have licenses but don't drive because they don't have cars.

In Europe I know people who've never gotten their license because they don't need it (I can't comment as to how common this is, though).