Taure: sounds about right, except I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's not "rule-bound" - everything is rule-bound. Bound by rules that aren't very well understood, maybe.

 

Ah yes, forgot about him being recaptured after the world cup. It works out rather well, as he can just re-break the curse when needed.

 

Of course in JKR's mind the person who is able to count is evil.

 

Pity his approach to life in general is pretty much the opposite. Which, when it comes right down to it, only works if the subject you are being intelligent about the study of is everything you care about. From canon it is clear that ultimately for Voldemort magic is only a means to an end only deriving some worth from the fact it is the way he chose.

I mean if I was an amoral person dedicated to the study, understanding and use of magic I would have done things very differently. While what we know of his school years would be acceptable(he was young and didn't yet have the experience/knowledge required) the decision of creating horcrux was very much questionable and the afterwards just horrible, it was like he lost any semblance of following that go...al... Hum I suppose the theory of Horcrux-induced insanity just got more likely.

 

That's exactly it, perhaps more accurately phrased outside the context of music, and I agree. Voldemort understands, but does not appreciate.

He knows the ins and outs of magic, but he can't fully appreciate what he's learned the way Harry or Dumbledore could. Harry lacked the mechanistic, technical understanding you assigned to Voldemort, but Dumbledore did not, and he was the better wizard because he could appreciate the more esoteric aspects of magic that you mentioned and utilize them in tandem with his other skills.

Harry could never have gained the technical skill Voldemort possessed, but Voldemort sacrificed the emotional capacity to perceive magic as Harry did, and with the guidance of Dumbledore, Harry was able to use that deficiency, that refusal to see and appreciate, against him. Voldemort had all the technical skill in the world, and though he understood the nebulous facets of magic you mentioned, his failure to acknowledge them as (potentially) potent and useful kept him from ever being able to know (or defeat) his enemy.

I guess the point of all that is that Voldemort never saw magic as anything more than a kind of tool or weapon with which he might conquer the world if he had the skill ("why did my mother die if she was a witch?"). He went swinging away with his hammer expecting everything in his path to fall, without stopping to consider what he was hammering at, without considering that one day he might come upon an immovable object to counter his unstoppable force. He never stopped to know his enemies because he never thought they would be able to stop him or stand against the sheer magnitude of his designs. He never stopped to listen, even when he heard.

In some ways, Dumbledore and Harry's more "romantic" view is just a knowledge of the other forces in play, an awareness that individual desires, agency, and intentions can be affected by chaos, chance, or what have you - the best laid plans of mice and men, and all that.

Indeed, but those things can be vitally important, even outside storybooks. One in a million chances, forces that aren't easily controlled, and unpredictable events can get in anyone's way. I don't think Dumbledore favored or believed in those things to the exclusion of the technical skills Voldemort prized, but he could recognize and take advantage of them when they were relevant, and this is what he taught Harry.

 

In canon Krum is the Seeker for the Bulgarian National Team before he leaves school. With this in mind, is Harry as good a Seeker as everyone makes him out to be?

Before anyone says it, yes I am aware that Harry's situation was different (what with him being in the middle of a war) but I'd still like people's opinion.

 

While Harry had an impressive record he was never dominating player. All of his games come down to the last moment close calls. It's just done for plot, but if Harry is the best seeker ever, as fics like to portray him, the other seekers have to be numbers 2-5.

 

How bad is Snape, in canon, and does he ever give reasons that wouldn't stand up?

I ask because Meaning of One recently updated, after a two and half year hiatus, so I was re-reading, and came across this:

And my first thought was "There's no way that could fly. Snape's not even pretending to give a reason". Admittedly, it was because he couldn't prove Harry had caused quite a large disruption, but I would've thought Snape would be smart enough to do something more along the lines of "And detention tonight because you obviously need large amounts of practice dealing with ingredients".

 

That's not really true. In his first game he won despite his broom being jinxed, in his second game he got the snitch in like 5 minutes. In second year he destroyed Malfoy in one game the other games were all cancelled. The only person you could really argue is on par with him is Diggory, but they only played each other once and Harry fainted halfway through. In fifth and sixth year he easily caught the snitch in every game he played, bar when he got knocked out by McClaggen.

He was nowhere near Krum's level as a seeker, we see that from how in awe he is at the world cup. I think the difference between them is that while Harry was exceptional for a schoolboy, Krum was just exceptional.

 

At least the first three years I'm not sure it's all that minimal (assuming that the complaints about Wood's practices aren't just children being whiny, which is not entirely a safe assumption). Of course, after that he doesn't even play much for two years, much less practice hard.

 

Krum was described as graceful in the air, and seemingly clunky on the ground. Later in the Triwizard Tournament we learn that's not true, but it does seem as if he's more at home on his broom. Harry outflew everyone on his first flight.

Snape took points for "breathing loudly" at one point, obvious bullshit. I still like to think he didn't give detention for no reason, he doesn't want to spend time with dunderheads more then he has to either. So detentions are still a more or less viable disciplinary instrument.

 

Yep, in terms of some baseball scouting lingo, Harry Potter's ceiling at a seeker is immense. He has the makeup, the physical tools, and the willpower. We don't really know much about the makeup of professional quidditch, i.e. any possible minor league teams, training, etc., but I imagine that with a few years of professional conditioning, flying, and training, he'd be every bit as good of a seeker as Wood is a keeper in a similar time frame.

Viktor Krum is just the Mike Trout or Lebron James of his position. When you're already the best at your position in the world, comparing any fresh player coming up to you, or expecting even close to your levels of production is several steps beyond unfair, just like comparing a hotshot outfield prospect to Mike Trout or an up and coming a forward prospect to Lebron is unfair.

Way I see it anyway.

 

I'm puzzled on this. Let me clarify, what exactly I'm puzzled on.

If say Harry was bitten by Remus at the end of 3rd year, would he transform into a werewolf on that very night because the full moon has just came up when Remus transforms?

It's something that's plagued my thoughts over the past few days. Ever since I watched all 4 Underworld movies and saw how fast the Lycans transformed after being bitten.

 

Has it ever been stated whether or not House elves were somehow subjugated by wizards? or are they just a slave race that chose wizards to serve.

 

Dobby at Malfoys is clear example of slavery type situation, on the other hand elves at Hogwarts seems to be a different case.

 

Isn't Dobby basically just an insane house elf? He seems to be an exception.

 

This has been gone over a billion times. Making a claim that Dobby is a special case will get you called one of those people that thought escaping slaves had an illness. You can counter that elves are a different species so it doesn't apply. Than it can be said we don't have a complete taxonomy and magic appears to be anthropomorphism in action, when it comes to sentience creation. From there on it's just going in circles.

 

You're right but my point was if the house elves were a slave race whose purpose was to serve then Dobby according to those house elves would be considered to be insane. I am not saying its wrong for Dobby want freedom I was merely stating that in the perspective of his species he might be considered insane.

Also if the house elves were truly subjugated then, as we've seen from canon, could have revolted along time ago especially if we consider that all other sentient magical beings aren't slaves. Good examples would be goblins and centaurs who seem to have fought for their places in the magical society.

So yeah my question is if they aren't just a race whose purpose is to serve, that is no one forces them to they just chose which other species to serve, then does it mean that the wizards somehow found a way to condition an entire race to serve them?(especially since they don't really need them)