I always thought it was really sad how she instead of explaining the wizarding war to her parents she just wipes their memories and sends them on their way. She's really that detached from her parents?

 

You wouldn't be? Also I believe she wiped their memories and sent them away so that if they did happen to lose the war they might survive. They wouldn't have survived if they'd stayed in Britain with their memories.

 

She could have just asked them to leave the country.

 

Not if she wanted to know they wouldn't worry or come back.

 

I have a small pet peeve. I dislike it whenever authors make names of spells bold or italicized. It is a little distracting.

 

Italic incantations are canon lol.

 

I was thinking that but didn't want to say in case I was wrong

 

Description of assimilation by a different culture is one of things that was done really well by Rowling. Not sure whatever it was done intentionally.

 

But italic spell names are not.

 

Whether they're canon or not takes a back seat to proper English in this case. All foreign language words not found in an exhaustive English Dictionary are to be italicized in writing. That's one of the few things that APA, MLA, Turabian, Chicago Manual of Style, etc. all agree on.

Granted, most of them state that you should italicize it the first time only. But because it is fiction and because italicizing also works to emphasize (and at this point, the canon argument also comes into play) it is best to always italicize them.

The caveat, to which you might be referring to, is when a spell has a purely English name.

"Crucio!"
The Cruciatus Curse.
vs.

"Avada Kedavra!"
The Killing Curse.

 

Does anyone else have certain phrases that are so common in fanfic they make you cringe when you read them when they aren't being said ironically?
Dumbledore saying "I'm the leader of the light!" or something to that effect makes me cringe horribly. It just makes me think of a whiny petulant child.

 

Slightly paraphrased - you have no idea what it means to be the boy-who-lived [insert rant]...

Many authors play this up to create sympathy between Harry and another character. Often, that's another famous person, or one they perceive as being famous (e.g. fanon Fleur). My sphincter clenches every time I read a dialog moving in that direction.

 

Yeah Harry being a whiny little bitch about being famous is really...really old. Just once I'd like to see him not care so much about it. It's who he is and he has to deal with that. But don't be a loser about it holy shit.

 

I remember reading a next-gen fic where teenager Teddy was whining about how hard it is when everyone but you knows your parents and when everybody is looking at you in the hallways because of something you have no control about (his metamorph abilities).

Too bad he was complaining to Harry.

 

Written by Opalish, if I'm not mistaken. Just can't pinpoint it right now.

But to add to the thread, I think the best possible portrayal of Harry's fame is exactly how it's done in canon. For the most part, it's how the prophecy affects him and not the fame, except for the little reminders here and there (in the latter books, at least).

 

I really do think evil!Hermione is an interesting concept because of how fucking terrifying she could be. There are good ones out there; usually when she takes the mad scientist route and tries to kill or corrupt Harry. I hate when she allies with Death Eaters though. If Hermione is going to be evil, she's going to do it on her own terms.

Oh yes, and referring to a spell by its incantation annoys the shit out of me in pretty much any context. If we're talking about an original spell or one where the spell name is nearly the same as the incantation (Sonorus, Muffliato) it's not so jarring, but hearing characters mention an "AK" or getting "Crucioed" is cringe-worthy for me.

 

I can deal with AK, for the sake of brevity. But 'Crucioed' annoys the fuck out of me.

 

You seem to have some fanon Hermione stuck in your post Nocturne. Hermione has never been all that excellent in combat magics, she would make a shitty antagonist because she gets out-dueled by, well, almost everyone. If Molly Weasley (who is by and large a house wife) can outduel a veteran death eater (if that means anything) when she is defending her family... Well it's hard to buy that no one else would be as motivated when defending themselves against a relatively combat weak 'dark lady'.

 

I don't like AK, don't know why. "Crucioed I'm pretty okay with because of the Indo-European proclivity to turn nouns into verbs. And, in all honesty, the way it's used, it operates almost as an imperative. So further verbalizing it in English really does make sense.

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And that leads to another question that is largely ignored in the fanfiction world: just how powerful was Molly Weasley, and what kind of stuff did she do in the first war?

Not much, according to canon. But there's a story with a young badass Molly and Arthur Weasley fighting secretive battles where after the war, he decides to play Ministry dolt to keep an eye on everything, just waiting to be written.

I'm sure it wouldn't be well reviewed since it cuts against sacred fanfiction cliches, but if it was written well enough, it'd be a hell of a story IMO.

 

Shouldn't it be 'cruciated' though?