Bunnies! Bunnies! It must be bunnies!

...or maybe midgets.

 

Was it ever revealed in which year Dumbledore became the Headmaster?

 

I don't think we're explicitly told. All we know is that it happens 1945<x<1992

 

Nevermind, found it. 1956, the same year Voldemort applied for the Defense position.

 

Was it ever explained how exactly did Voldemort cast the curse on the Defense position? And couldn't they go around it, i.e. disband the class and start up a completely new one with a different name?

 

I don't think changing the name would work. I suspect he cast the curse on the concept of the position designed for teaching defense (regardless if it is called defense or not). Changing it to something like 'Battle Magic' would not help at all.

--

Anyway, another thing I want to discuss:

We often wonder what might have been if Harry was sorted to a different house. Sometimes, Hermione is included in such what ifs, for example she's sorted to Slytherin in Applied Cultural Anthropology.

But what about other characters? Surely at least some of them would end up having a different role if they were put into a different house at Hogwarts.

I'm talking Slytherin Luna, Gryffindor Cedric, Ravenclaw Draco...etc.

 

Ravenclaw Draco? Sorting him there would require him to go ridiculously ooc. And who would be interested in this particular idea anyway?

I am more interested in aforementioned Hermione in Slytherin, or Ron in Slytherin.

 

It is not that diffucult. Simply have someone hoodwink the Sorting Hat. You could get away with it for sure. After all, the Goblet of Fire was said to be oh so very ancient and powerful and yet Barty Crouch Jr. was able to hoodwink it with a Confundus Charm.

 

Going with Xandrels idea - what would happend if Draco Malfoy got sorted into Gryffindor and everyone else according to canon?

 

I think there's a lot of stuff in canon that makes Ron lean towards Slytherin. He's a pureblood for one, very concerned with how poor his family is in regards to others like the Malfoy's and he's almost desperate to prove himself different from his brothers.

There's a shit ton of story there just waiting to be written. 6 sequels and an epilogue good. Especially if Ron and Harry are the two main characters.

 

His parents would support him anyway, because Lucius and Narcissa were proven in the books to care more about Draco and each other than their money or blood purity.

So, the family front is safe for Draco, he doesn't need to worry.

His friends (Pansy, Goyle, Crabbe) would be disappointed, but I highly doubt that they would turn their back on him. I suspect their ties are too strong.

Snape would not pick on Draco, because that would make Lucius angry.

For Draco himself this is a massive failure, but at least it's not Hufflepuff. Assuming that the Hat has been hoodwinked and Draco is still his canon self, then he will remain a racist dick until someone in Gryffindor grows tired of his shit and curses his ass.

Expect pranks from the twins and detentions from Percy. No points lost, because they would not want Gryffindor to lose the house cup. Eventually it would get out of hand, putting the teachers on Draco's side.

Harry probably does not become the Seeker in his first year, as the event which caused it (Neville's Remembrall) may end up being butterflied away.

Expect daily fights between Draco and Ron.

Draco may end up causing a lot of damage in the Quest for the Stone. He may steal Harry's cloak and put it in Ron's stuff, attempting to frame him for stealing.

All sorts of stuff may happen.

 

Did Romilda Vane ever get reprimanded/punished in any sort of way for trying to slip Harry some love potion-laced sweets?

And speaking of love potions, how come those things aren't illegal altogether? They're not exactly benign stuff, you could even say that they're akin to date-rape drugs, but with the potential to do far more damage, depending on how potent they are.

 

Personally, I prefer to pretend things like Love Potions don't exist. It's one of those things Rowling casually threw in without seriously thinking of the consequences.

 

Yet you can't pretend they didn't entirely exist, because they were after all, in part, responsible for the conceiving of Voldemort.

I just always thought it odd that after Dumbledore found out about this particular tidbit, he'd have those things banned, just in case that stuff had damaged him as much as the orphanage he was left in did.

Perhaps they remained in legal use for married couples, when arranged marriages were the norm for most witches and wizards in Britain, and these potions might have been used to simply smooth out a few bumps in the very beginning of the marriage, insuring it would not collapse at the very start.

Of course, that's just my own fanwank, nothing like that has ever been mentioned in the official books.

 

Romilda was never punished.

 

While this is a plausible explanation for why they're legal (Fred and George opened a whole line of love potion products and sold them openly), I don't believe there's any evidence for arranged marriages in HP canon. The closest I can recall is the tendency to marry one's cousins in the Houses of Black and Gaunt. (This could just be a consequence of indoctrination and upbringing, however.)

 

If you're a wizard and don't carry things like bezoar and other antidotes on you, then it is your fault if you are love potioned.

 

I'd like to say that a regular person shouldn't expect to be poisoned or love potion'd, but then again, the witches and wizards of HP books aren't exactly regular people.

Didn't Molly once talk with Hermione and Ginny about using love potions on her husband back at Hogwarts?

 

That's fanon, actually.

 

*Cue crowd of witches and wizards holding up placards that read, "Tell me I was asking for it."*

I'm not sure how bezoars and antidotes help if you don't know you've been slipped something... I'm sure "NO-Hypnol" would be a popular preventative measure in bars and at campus parties, though; add a little to your drink, just to be safe.

Ah, the line that launched a thousand fics...

She apparently never said who she used it on, or if she used it at all. The popular fanon take on this is that she used it to "get Arthur's attention."

Interestingly enough, Hermione (of all people) referred to love potions as neither dark nor dangerous; in true hidebound Hermione fashion, however, I think she was referring strictly to the fact that they aren't officially classified as such, rather than her own personal opinion on them.

Maybe.

Frankly, you can't take a single damn thing Hermione says in Half-Blood Prince seriously; she was on the fuckin' crazy sauce for that entire book, so taking what she says in it at face value will win you few points outside a canon fight.