The story gets better as the chapters go on. And as for how this is different, Dumbledore is quite alive in this story. That counts for something since in PODK, the good guys couldn't even make a comeback from their defeat. Harry calling Snape 'dad' was a joke which explored the expression on Snape's face when Harry called him that.

I originally didn't want to post this in this thread. However, the latest chapter was quite explosive and held a lot of promise. Read on KGB, the duels were quite good and Harry doesn't become a super-wizard in one year. Also, Gellert Grindelwald is also alive and so is a teenage Tom Riddle. Makes this even more interesting.

The update rate is quite good too. 2 Chapters a week is quite a good update rate.

 

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5419713/1/Someone-to-Love

Got updated. The last chapter is considerably shorter than the rest but advances the plot... sorta. A lot more action than I expected, but it's good.

 

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8980451/1/Empire-Dawn

Summary: Magicals have always been persecuted, is it so wrong to wish for a magical utopia even if you have to engineer a war between two superpowers? H/Hr, OC, Extreme AU

More detailed author's note: This story is set in a very alternate universe. It assumes that the American Revolution failed and Napoleon was successful in invading the British Isles. It also assumes that, in 1906, HMS Dreadnought, was launched with the ability to fly. These events came to fruition through the assistance of magic, with the imperious curse preventing France from allying with Congress, goblins digging a tunnel under the English Channel allowing Napoleon to invade the British Isles, and runically-powered engines allowing for ships to fly. World history stems from there.


Personally I hated it, for a number of reasons:

1. He keeps switching between present and past tenses.

2. The state of the world really isn't clear. It takes quite a bit of guesswork to figure out the geopolitical situation.

3. Hated the magic-minimalisation world building. Sure, you have floating ships. But Harry's carrying a rifle.

4. Annoyingly prominent role for Draco Malfoy.

But maybe some of you can get some enjoyment from it.

 

I almost jumped to read it because I like Alternate History, but this bit prevented me from doing so.

There is no reason for wizards to have guns, ever.

A simple Protego can (at least in my opinion) stop any physical object and can only be damaged by magic.
If you cast it on yourself before battle, no bullet will harm you.
In fact, I even dare to say you would survive a direct hit by a bomb.

Anyway, enough with me complaining about muggles, I'm giving this story a thumbs down.

 

IT BURNS US! :fire

If the Shield Charm were the fire-and-forget panacea against harm you're implying, here, then there are a lot of dead witches and wizards in canon that were clearly far too dumb to live.

That's some fierce natural selection going on, there. "Oh, you never figured out how to use the standard Protego shield as a mobile body bunker? Please step into the queue on your left for your Darwin Award and informative funerary preparation packet. Do be sure to list relevant next of kin on the provided form and smile for the DA photographer; thank you."

 

Well we were shown that many wizards in the modern day struggled to cast the Protego or various spells similar to that one.
And after all, after the Statute of Secrecy was in effect, there was very little contact between the two worlds,
so it isn't unreasonable to say that most modern wizards don't even know that Protego could protect from muggle weapons.

 

I think it's more of a spectrum than a binary switch. In GoF Harry's shield charm was a flimsy thing that could barely stop a moth. In DH it was pretty darn solid, and he was capable of manipulating it in various ways.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong (and I damn well could be - it's been forever since I've read the books), but where in the series do they ever mention stuff like this? I always assumed this kind of stuff came from people just assuming that since it's magic, wizards can do whatever the hell they want.

 

Well, naturally the Anti-Bomb Protego is the one cast perfectly.

---------- Post automerged at 07:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:32 PM ----------

You're not exactly wrong here. I'm not either.
I don't recall any moment where a physical damage was done to the Protego.
Now granted, this doesn't prove that the Shield Charm is resistant to physical damage, but it doesn't disprove it either.
And it could be explained that one of the few reasons why someone didn't conjure up objects to attack the enemy with is because the shield would stop them.

 

The one situation that comes to people's mind is when Hermione casts protego in the tent to separate Harry and Ron, which in my opinion, is a bunch of horse-shit.

 

The argument is generally that magic breaks the laws of physics in such spectacular ways that it would be odd for a little kinetic energy to present a problem.

Also, Harry cast the charm to separate Ron and Hermione, not Hermione to separate Harry and Ron.

Edit: Wait, Hermione did one too, to separate Harry and Ron. Heh.

 

I believe the question is a little kinetic energy vs a shit ton of kinetic energy.

Protego doesn't stop the Killing Curse, so it obviously isn't able to stop every thing that it comes up against.

Is it really implausible that a bomb or bullet could get through even a properly cast protego? I could understand that it would be impossible, if a protego shield obliterated whatever came in contact with it, but it doesn't. So, for me, it just doesn't quite mesh that a bullet or bomb would just bounce off.

 

In the scale of things, there's not that much energy behind a bullet, or even a bomb. Certainly not as much as would be required for teleportation, creation of matter, etc etc

 

HP magic breaks the Laws of Physics. Not bends them, not even pays lip service to them. It has fire that never goes out. Do you know how utterly impossible that is?

If a magic system is able to completely ignore entropy in every single way, why shouldn't it be able to defend against a bomb? Hell, as far as I can see, a perfectly cast Protego should be able to defend against everything from a beesting to a supernova. Albeit you'd be pretty fucked after the latter no matter how well cast your spell was.

 

I'm not saying that I don't think that magic can defend against bombs and bullets. I just don't think that protego is the holy grail of defense.

 

If the first shield charm you learned at Hogwarts could protect you from everything, wizards would be a lot more prevalent in the world, and what would be the point in learning anything more than five spells and living for over 100 years? Sure, you can point at Harry Potter and say he did exactly that, but he's not exactly the epitome of a wizard. There are many wizards who know less than him, and he doesn't know much at all. And then there are the Voldemorts and Dumbledores. What's the purpose of knowing 500 different ways to kill someone when a protego can stop everything? It's illogical from a plot perspective, and not even logical for a character to just stand still and shield charm all day. What's the point of tactics if all you have to do is shield charm indefinitely and dodge killing curses?

Also, 'protecting against bombs' is pretty ambiguous. Does it protect you from the heat that will burn you to a crisp? I didn't realize it was a flame-freezing charm as well. What about the fact that the explosion will use up all the oxygen? Is the shield charm a bubblehead charm as well? Or are we talking about getting hit by a 5000 lb dumb bomb directly in the head and having the protego charm completely negate that impact, without you even flinching.

Magic has limits. When it doesn't, you get shitty stories by Bobmin.

Personally, I think it's a matter of willpower, skill and concentration, and obviously intent - you know, the stuff that's never actually mentioned in canon, but heavily implied in pretty much everything. You'd have to be focused completely on stopping a bullet with your charm, and nothing else, since if your concentration slips for just one second, the shield will just shatter and you'll get hit. And since bullets are so fast, you'll never get a shield up in time. The only time that will ever happen is if you see a guy drawing his gun. You'll never stop a sniper round since you'll be dead before you even hear the shot.

So, to stop a bomb with a shield charm could technically be possible within the bounds of the HP magic system, I just don't think it would ever happen in a logical way that makes sense. First, you'd have to know the bomb is coming. Sure, that's plausible. Then, you have to be immensely powerful, perhaps Dumbledore's level. Then, you have to be retarded. Once that's accomplished, instead of using all your prep time to channel 'aresto momentum', you're going to let the bomb smack in to you. Then, you have to know what it's like to catch 5,000 lbs falling at terminal velocity. If you don't know what that's like, how could you hope to stop it? Belief is everything, after all, just look at Neville. You have to know that feeling, otherwise the instant it hits, your concentration is going to be broken, the spell will collapse, and you'll die

I don't buy that HP magics breaks the laws of physics. It has limits. If you say you can stop a bomb, who's to say you can't levitate a locomotive with a levitating charm? What's 100,000 pounds when magic is concerned? It doesn't matter if it's true, it's a shit idea.

 

That is bad logic. Both the laws of magic and physics can be compared to relativity and quantum mechanics, we separate them not because they are actually separate but simply because we don't know any better.

The whole argument "Magic A is Magic A" can be used both ways, why should a shield created to defend against magic defend against anything else? Pretty much all magic in canon has very specific effects why should this shield charm be any different, indeed it is canon that people alter the incantation to either augment or give different properties to the shield.

Magic does not break the laws of physics anymore than someone using a rocket to get something to orbit or beyond breaks the laws of gravity.

EDIT: Hate when people posting while I am doing so, oh well not reply to the direct above post in case anyone gets confused.

 

Anyways, let's just put it this way - if you don't know you're about to get shot, I'm pretty sure a bullet is going to blow your brains out a lot quicker than you can say Protego.

Even wandless magic would require you to cast the spell before the shot is fired, and that, in itself would require you to see it coming. Also, pretty sure there's no spell in canon that is a "precast" protego. If you're going to make up a spell like that, then really you can just make any fucking thing up. Hell, a spell that splits the universe in half, or a spell that makes you the size of a skyscraper, or a spell that kills everyone in two thousand yards of you... It's just stupid, IMO. If you make magic infinite and with no rules then there's no point to even argue about things. You can't have any plot conflicts, because magic can solve all your problems.

I think Sanderson said it best when he talked about creating magic systems: "Hard" vs. "soft" magic. http://brandonsanderson.com/article/40/Sandersons-First-Law

I agree with him completely and I think it's why I thought the Mistborn system was incredible. It's so well thought out. Powerful but limited by very real rules. It made for characters that really had to think their way out of dilemmas - no deus ex machina crap (at least in the first book). You knew exactly what they were capable of, and it was the author's genius in how he had characters use their abilities in inventive ways to eliminate obstacles that made the story shine.

In HP, all we know is that some people are more powerful than others, and some are more learned than others. It leaves too much room for magic to solve all your problems with a convenient:

"Harry, how come you weren't blown to bits by that nuclear blast during WWIII?"

"Oh...yeah...you see, it's sort of awkward -"

"Hmm?"

"Dumbledore taught me this anti-nuclear blast spell. It's a flick and a swish, instead of a swish and flick. Yeah...who knew, eh?"

* granted, I know that for a lot of people, soft magic is what gives you that awe inspiring feel - that magic should feel likes its unlimited. So yeah, I guess I'm just not one of those people.

 

I personally am always awed more by magic like Dresdenverse or Nasuverse than HP. The first we see humans, just like us, that can wield the power known as magic. In the latter we see 'humans' that we can't really think of as humans like us because we can't really relate in terms of society or individual(Harry for example for the first books is either someone who can lie to himself so well to make everyone believe in it or he is insane, given later books I would say someone who managed to effectively bring himself into the lie). Off course there are those like LoTR that pull it off pretty well but those are very rare.

 

Before we get into yet another magic vs modern technology...

The fact that the author dislikes slash and a darker HP... We may want to snag her into this community and make her develop into a better writer. Perhaps, we can improve this story.

edit: Holy shit. This author is only 13. 13! She is an amazing writer for being 13. We must get her now. My faith in the younger generations have been restored!