What worldbuilding would you add to canon, if you could? To be clear, I don't mean changing what is already there. I mean adding to what is there in a way that is factually and thematically consistent.

Basically, you're JKR, and you're writing something new set in the HP world. What worldbuilding do you do?

"Adding" can include clarifying that which is currently vague.

 

A story set in Beauxbatons would be awesome.

Also, a closer look at magical Eastern Europe.

Basically, I wish to know more about the magical world, not just Britain.

 

I was hoping for more specific items

Some of mine:

- The Dark Arts is a less standardised area of magic than, say, Charms or Transfiguration, and large parts of it consist of magic that isn't "wand magic". It's less modern, less sanitised, and more deeply embedded with symbolism. More like Brothers Grimm sort of dark fairy tale magic, with hints of the occult. Not all of it is about directly attacking people, but there's always some immoral or primal element.

- If you get good enough at casting a spell non-verbally, you don't have to annunciate the incantation mentally any more, you just have to think of the spell and it will cast (providing you want to cast it, of course).

- The global magical population is quite unevenly distributed.

- By the end of DH, Harry had become proficient in occlumency and legilimency.

- Wizards don't have a single power (magic), but rather a collection of powers (charms, transfiguration, apparition, etc). Over time, these powers have become a standardised set known as "witchcraft and wizardry". The powers are not completely independent, but are largely independent, like different limbs on the same body. Some people have additional limbs, such as being a parselmouth or metamorphmagus. Different magical species have different sets of powers, with some overlap. Wands are a magical tool that can be used in conjunction with any magical power, not just wizarding ones, but wizards have banned other species from owning them or sharing the secret of how to make them.

- Every active piece of magic is essentially a spell. A potion is basically a spell with a lasting physical presence. The ingredients and stirring etc are no different in principle to incantation and wand movements. You're just using a different set of external tools to cast the magic. That's why Muggles can't make potions: the wizard is still casting magic.

 

I always saw it as muggles being Humans 1.0, wizards being Humans 2.0 and Parselmouths/Metamorphs being from a new category Humans 3.0.

A new stage in human evolution, except there's more to it than genes and adaptability. There are also souls, magic and other unknown aspects.

Imagine a wizard who discovers an ability to talk to dragons, or a witch who doesn't have to eat.

 

The magical creatures of the world don't get a lot of screentime. Sure, we see some of them, but we get very little information. There are apparently vampires, but we don't get ANY stuff on their powers or place in society.

 

I like the sort of Dresden-fusion idea about the rest of the British world.

Maybe the Balkans are mostly ruled by some Goblin kingdom or whatever, just like the Red Court rule in South America. Its not necessary that there be a magical authority everywhere, but a few more places would be nice. That makes the rest of the world interesting, without making the Voldemort war ridiculous and provincial.

 

I think that this was already in one of those comments that are made outside the books by the author but just in case that I imagined it here it is:

- In order to cast magic, it is easier for a wizard to do it when having a focus. Wands are the most common and efficient but any similarly shaped object would do even if they don't have a magical wand core. As such, when without a wand, you can substitute with something like a branch or a flower or a pencil if you are skilled enough at magic and most instances of what one would call wandless magic or of a kid consciously using magic without a wand is because they were using one such object while aware of it or not.

 

More lore on apparition. How far can you go? How fast? Can anybody do the same distance? Do everybody have to do the silly twisting thing or is it just a learning tool? Can you somehow "master" it?

 

I FEEL LIKE THERE WAS A BETTER THREAD FOR THIS ALREADY, TAURE!

But anyway, I can add a few to the discussion.

- Diagon Alley. He pretty much goes every year, but we don't see the full scope of what's available. Some of my favorite Harry Potter AUs do a much better job of describing anything from the stores lining the streets to Gringotts itself. I'm not talking about 'my brand new trunk' here. I mean more along the lines of Harry walks into Madam Malkins, gets fitted, meets Draco, etc. There should be more interaction between Harry and the rest of his world.

- Sports. As much as Ron and Harry go on about Quidditch, you'd suspect some of it would have made it into JK's reckoning. They go to the QWC, which was an awesome opportunity to lay some of that on us. Ron's fascination with the league, knowing each of its players, managers and history, should have trickled through to Harry, who slowly becomes passionate about the sport, perhaps even considering it as a possiblity for life post-Voldemort.

- The relationship between Prophet and Ministry would be expanded upon. Rita Skeeter is one of the most interesting characters in canon, after all, so some backstory as to how she got in the position of being the Prophet's voice would be nice. We get tons of interesting stuff from her, but nothing about her personal life. (A little heads up on what makes Umbridge Umbridge would have been nice too, though we got that through Pottermore).

- Nearly everyone here will hate this, but Rowling should have had a few missteps between Hermione and Harry in sixth year (when they are both single and pining away from someone else) and seventh (before she starts dating Ron). Agreeing that those things are better left unsaid would have been great too -- Mr. Noble getting up to the hippedy-dippedy with his best friend's love interest would have been a great way to bring him down to Earth, making it known that Harry is just as capable of making bad decisions that hurt people as the rest (and they don't always result in people's deaths). Character GROWTH.

(Yes, I know many will say: Why the Ron hate, Don? And I do not care.)

- Animagus!Harry. This is 100% something I would have learned if I knew my dad and his best friends could do it.

- Legilimens!Harry. Struggling to not use it on people and then having a damned good reason to use it on people and using it would have been a good way to talk about the morality of using magic on others, especially if he was forced to do it on someone that explicitly told him not to/knew what was going on.

- At least one Slytherin character that actually gets along with the trio. For all of that not-all-Slytherins-are-evil shit, I can't recall a single one that ends up on the good side. (This includes Snape, Malfoy and Regulus, who aren't really redeemable despite Harry's words/thoughts to the contrary)

- Harry actually helping Ginny become a more confident, vivacious person. It bothers me that Ginny went from almost dead in the chamber, barely appeared during third year, and then was trying to help Harry in fourth. How did she get better? Why did Harry never hear anything about Ginny struggling w/ the CoS experience?

- More veelas.

 

It's said in canon on several occasions that certain individuals specialize in different fields of magic.

Dumbledore was a master of pretty much everything, but he still relied on Snape for his Potions and Dark Arts expertise. Mulciber is mentioned to specialize in Imperius, unless I'm remembering it incorrectly. Lots of different things like that, not always a "hard" specialization in a specific area of magic, like Greyback being a particularly savage werewolf, or the twins being good at tinkering.

I would explore that. We know that it most likely isn't just a reflection of the muggle world (as in, specialists in different fields, engineers, doctors, historians, linguists, etc) but rather something more... well, magical. At least I like to think so. I mean that individuals are naturally predisposed to certain pursuits. That is somewhat analogous to muggles, but I think you know what I mean. Yes, studying is always the groundwork, but there are prodigies.

Fred and George sold their Shield Charm clothes to the Ministry. Maybe some people just aren't good at Charms or Defense, but excel in Transfiguration? Neville had a knack for Herbology, got pretty good at Defense, but was crap at Potions no matter what he did. And of course there's Harry, who could pick up spells deemed too difficult for his age (Patronus), in a matter of hours after struggling with something previously because he knew he had to get it right (Summoning Charm), or just out of the blue (Sectumsempra).

And Taure, dude, lately you're spitting out threads like a drunk machine gun.

 

I wonder... if you put together all the words Taure's written about canon/fanon/headcanon/magical theory, how many chapters of The One He Feared would that be?

 

Umm... Slughorn??

 

I would like Hogwarts or the amount of children taught to be larger, it didn't bug me when I read the books but now I have a hard time with the wizarding world supporting multiple professional teams on such a tiny population base. Just offhand mentions of other schools, so that there are enough people to make the larger world possible.

 

I'd provide exposition on three missing details in the original series:

1. Souls. How do they work? (And what is a religious concept doing in a world that could easily explain them away with a simple 'Yer a wizard, Jesus.')

2. Who was the first magic user? Was it the canon Merlin who lived two hundred years after Geoffrey of Monmouth said he did (obviously not)? Or Myrddin Emrys who lived eight hundred years before Slytherin!Merlin? Someone else entirely?

3. What determines if someone is magical or not? Why are there squibs or Muggleborns? Is it just because she failed to research even basic Mendelian inheritance traits or is there an actual explanation?

 

It may not seem like much, but I would like to know why students take pets to Hogwarts. Sure, owls are useful. But rats? Cats? Toads? Can I take a dog as well? A snake? Am I even forced to have one? Are they supposed to become familiars and help wizards channel their magic? Or are they there just so that a lonely kid can have friends?

 

Add to that all his threads in WbA that were updated once and then forgotten and we'd have a Lords of Magic trilogy.

Though, tbh, I'm guilty of the same thing. I have like five dead threads.

But things are expected of Taure, so he should feel bad.

 

To be fair, dude first appears in book six and just didn't want to be a Death Eater. He's not exactly a nice guy, more of a socialite that wants to use Harry (and gets used by Harry instead). I was thinking more along the lines of a character in Slytherin that's depicted as a good friend to someone.

 

Well you asked for a Slytherin on the good side and Slughorn for all his faults does classify as one. He is selfish but he doesn't hurt people... he hates it as a matter of fact and at the end was willing to go against his nature and defy Voldemort openly by bringing reinforcements. I'd say he qualifies.

 

Yeah, well, Snape and Regulus redeemed themselves but I don't think they qualify as

Rowling could have done a lot with the cast of Slytherins in Harry's year range, from Daphne to Astoria to Millicent, but she made everyone of them either a footnote or a dick. Even Draco, her pet Slytherin, only gets redeemed in the background.

Technically, Slughorn is a good friend to have, but I don't think Harry would consider him an outright friend by the end of canon. Someone he has to put up with that doesn't necessarily wish him or his friends ill-will, but not a homie of his. I just mean that with Rowling's 'not every Slytherin is a Dark Lord, it's your choices that make you "theme", perhaps she could have made a likeable Slytherin that breaks the conventions of the house.

 

Does Andromeda Tonks qualify?