More of a fanon question, but inspired by the discussion in Almost Recommended:

Which story first used the fanon concept of magical cores? Which one popularized them, making them ubiquitous in the fandom?

I'm thinking S'TarKan's Nightmares of Futures Past is responsible for the latter (he and Jeconais seem to have invented half the fanon concepts we see today), but I'm drawing a blank on whether he invented them back in 2005 or merely adopted them for his tale.

 

I think magical cores predate that. I remember, back in my very early days of fanfic, reading shitty Harry/Ginny soul bond stories which involved them.

I think this might be a bit of a Newton-Leibniz issue, actually. So much fantasy involves similar ideas - RPGs with MP, a lot of books like the Magicians Trilogy - that it was almost inevitable that people would use the idea. HP really is the exception in the genre for magic being more analogous to language or music than to physical exertion.

 

I don't really mind magical cores in and of themselves(especially given you not only can but should go all metaphorical with it) but by this point their fame is so bad that people who could do a good job don't use them so they only show up in fics that are bad anyway.

 

I agree that "magical cores", if fully developed, could be done in a good way.

It has occurred to me several times that in the years post-Newton a multitude of gravity-like forces were posited by natural philosophers to explain all sorts of phenomena. One such force was the "vital force", which was supposed to animate living things.

I think it would be interesting if wizards had a "vital system" - a non-physical system analogous to the other systems of the human body - which was the source of their ability to use magic. They key here would be that said system would be as equally complex as the biological systems of the body, with analogies for organs, etc. (Maybe the soul is an organ of the vital system?). I imagine such a thing would be studied in Saint Mungo's and the Department of Mysteries, and that you could have diseases of the vital system and make potions and spells which affect it in specific ways.

This is an example of what I'd consider a well-done magical core idea: it's taking the idea of magic being something generated by a human being in some quantifiable sense and expanding upon it in detail. Most importantly, it avoids the two main issues I have with magical cores as done traditionally: how incredibly simple they are, and how they go against the rest of the HP magic system, both thematically and in terms of explaining the way we see magic used in canon.

 

Risking a nuclear explosion of rage, I ask this:

Is it possible to clone a wizard with muggle means and will the clone also have magic?

My guess/theory is NO. While it may be possible to create a clone, it will be a squib with no magic.

 

As long as magic is genetic (which it apparently is) I don't see why you wouldn't be able to. Certainly the genes that allow someone to perform magic might themselves by magical and act in ways that seem odd insofar as inheritance, but as long as you're creating a clone using the same exact genetics as someone who is magical shouldn't the clone themselves have exactly the same genes that resulted in the original being able to perform magic?

Does the magical gene just suddenly become a regular muggle gene the moment the cell you're taking separates from the body of the person? I suppose it could, but it seems a little contrived.

 

My guess is based of the idea that the magical gene is, well, magical. It cannot be copied through muggle means and becomes non-functional if attempts are made to replicate it.

 

Well, it's not like cloning is really replication is the issue. Well, it's replication of a being, but not of a gene. Not really. If cloning counted for that in a literal sense then anything past the original zygote wouldn't have a magical gene.

Still given how much magic seem to be symbolic and somewhat intelligent I can see your point.

 

Well the closest thing we see to a clone in canon is probably Diary!Riddle and he was able to use magic. But that's kind of magical cloning so not really applicable. I suppose it comes down to your interpretation of what magic is, whether it's some abstract force that can never be truly explained and replicated or if it's something that can be studied and recreated through science. Canon was always ambiguous on the topic.

 

Perhaps there is a multi-component aspect that goes beyond genetics; a clone made from a wizard would be magic-ready, but if the soul that inhabits it isn't empowered, all you end up with is a squib.

Magical-muggle parent combinations result in magical children as much for the process of the two getting it on, triggering the magical parent to bestow the Gift to the resulting baby, entirely subconsciously. If two magicals are put together in a loveless arranged marriage, they might subconsciously not follow the instinct and end up with squibs. If one of them is still whole-heartedly committed to the process, the kid will come out alright, but it's possible that the ones just doing their duty will fail because each thought the other 'was taking care of it this time' and they get a squib. [I'm not sure on this part- I'm still working on the theory]

 

A question that's bothered me of late, having encountered another "bail on Divination and start up Arithmancy and/or Runes in sixth year" tale (and I'm afraid the only good answer is likely to be authorial fiat):

Why ever would the heads of houses wait until 5th year to offer career counseling to their students; why not do so after 2nd year, when a student's choice of his or her electives already predetermines many of his or her options?

 

Because most kids don't know what they want. Would you trust a twelve year old to make a decision that is going to have an impact on his entire life?

 

Because how many 13 year olds have any idea whatsoever about what they want to do in the future, and those that do normally change their mind in the future. Admittedly, not many 15/16 year olds do either but most people don't even think of it before then.

 

I think his point is more that even if they only had a vague idea of what they might want to do, giving them the counseling then as opposed to 2 years later would let them pick the classes with a more educated perspective, and some classes are probably more useful than others. Did Harry even know what would happen in divination?

Pers is trying to point out that it would save the students up to 2 years of their time (or a significant amount of work catching up) if they did it earlier.

 

In this matter it mirrors exactly the Muggle school system (as the structure of Hogwarts generally does).

At the age of 14 English students select 10 or so subjects to focus on (from a pool of maybe 20-30, depending on the school). Generally this happens without much in the way of career advice.

 

Why doesn't Hogwarts teach most things adults are expected to know but eleven year olds are not expected to know? Because JKR didn't do any concious world building.

EDIT: But here, Taure's answer is much better.

 

IRL a student's parents are generally responsible for making sure that they choose appropriate classes, and students without engaged parents are mostly just fucked in general. Harry's perspective as an orphan with neglectful guardians is not a typical one.

 

One thing that did surprise me was the you chose to TAKE electives for third year.

I don't know about anyone else on here, but I asked a few friends, and everyone agreed that the first time we took electives (going into GCSEs) we dropped subjects - you could choose one out of RE/History/Geography. You could choose French or German.

We didn't get to choose to add classes we hadn't taken, instead of dropping ones we didn't want, until A level.

 

From a writing perspective, the motivation is obvious: JKR wanted to avoid too much of an info-dump with respect to classes in PS. Even as it is, a lot of the classes are mostly ignored. We still don't really know the magical relevance of astronomy. Originally JKR wanted alchemy to be one of their classes in PS, which would have been cool. But I guess it would have ruined the mystery somewhat.

On the other hand, it might be a Scottish thing. The English and Scottish education systems are similar, but not the same.

 

It's actually something of a mix of the English system. You drop certain subjects for GCSE, but can then choose from a wide selection of courses at A-Level, many of which aren't taught below that level. At Hogwarts, you pick up subjects from third year onwards, but are only allowed to go further in them past OWL if you're good enough.