Death of Author?

Death of Author.

 

And yet before our counterpoint you somehow felt her signing off on the casting was acceptable?

 

Not only that, your argument is based on movies supported by author's opinion.

 

They're Harry Potter media created in large part by Rowling, thus Death of Author doesn't apply.

Random statements made by Rowling to journalists in an interview? Yeah, Death of Author applies to that.

If she'd commissioned a series of illustrations to go with the books then Death of Author wouldn't apply to that, but when Rowling is outright contradicting the evidence that exists both in the books and the movies of Hermione being stunning (see: the reaction of Ron and Harry to her at the Yule Ball) then Death of Author certainly applies.

 

Yes, news flash, women can use makeup to make themselves look pretty.

 

I would assume magical makeup would make every girl hot unless they have really terrible bone structure or are extremely overweight. You can probably spell hunger away so there really shouldn't be any excuses for any of them to be fat either.

 

Yeah, but people who are breathtaking with makeup are generally pretty damned attractive without it anyway. You can't take a pig, put makeup on it and expect it to look like anything other than a pig after all.

Though the point bellow you about magical makeup is valid though. You'd still need pretty decent raw materials to work with, but any and all surface issues wouldn't be a problem post-makeup.

 

She is described as average throughout the books.

Books > Movies

 

Except people aren't pigs, and makeup can do an awful lot. And I mean awful lot — like completely transform a person.

Nobody quite believes his/her eyes that it's Hermione.

But whatever. If you want to believe that book Hermione is beautiful, do that — it's your interpretation, after all. But this bullshit arguments, cherry picking what counts and what doesn't count doesn't really convince anyone.

For me, Hermione was text book intelligent next door type of girl.

 

Who gives a fuck about Hermione? This is the Fleur thread.

 

True. Fleur is awesome, and I love this pairing, if only in hopes that Harry will be made equally awesome for the relationship to work.

Go Harry&Fleur!

 

I've seen stories where Harry goes Beauxabations, where Harry is aged/Fleur is deaged and stories where they keep their ages. Has anyone ever done a story where instead of Beauxabatons, Fleur goes to Hogwarts for her education instead? You could even keep the French accent since 11 years of speaking a language are hardly going to go away.

The problem of course is that no 14 year old wuld go out with an 11 year old and building even a friendship between them would be hard, especially if you were to retain both their canon personalities. One possible solution could be saying that because of a large amount of absences (Since Fleur may be given preferential treatment for whatever reason in France) she is in danger of failing unless she does some extra credit. This may be done in the form of Potions tutoring for the worst student in first year: Harry.

Of course, to maintain everyone's canon personalities you'll have to do a bit of juggling. Snape would keep making snide comments no matter what (Though I've found myself strangely hesitant to read anything resemblign Severus bashing recently), Fleur would get annoyed since she'd think that Harry was just incompetent and doing SOMETHING wrong in class and if he fails then she fails.

There would of course be no hint of a romace until Fourth year and even then all he does is take her to the Yule ball and the most that happens is a kiss on the cheek. It's not until after Sirius dies that Harry starts to realise his feelings for her and vic versa.

All of this of course should be secondary to the plot and more or less background (Preferably in a style similar to that of Percy Jackson).

 

What a strange moment of selective blindness for me

 

The main thing I'm getting from this thread is that Rowling should have made Fleur the same age as Harry.

 

You don't really need to do that. You have loads of ways to get them together. If she is actually there, she would be around for all of his adventures and hear all of the rumors related to them. Then he is more than just the hero that did the impossible as a kid. He actively has crazy rumors floating around about him for why he won a special services to the school award and why he gets a rather large amount of points awarded to him.

Of course, you could make it even easier on yourself. Fleur breaks up with her boyfriend or has a fight with her friend on Halloween and ends up in the same bathroom Hermione was in crying. Harry comes in an jumps on a troll's back. From there, you build a friendship that later becomes something more.

 

It seems the wizarding world is Always lagging somewhat behind the modern world (by a couple of Thousand years or so). I picture the chinese wizarding world to be still set in a isolationist mindset, closed of from the rest of the wizarding world, not partaking in any international body.

Likewise I see the japanese wizarding world to still consist of various ninja clans that still practice the fine art of magical assassination (wizard children are either 'taken' and 'tought', or 'removed' -- read: abducted, brainwashed or killed). The clans are probably hired by some nefarious folks in the ICW but they would certainly not have an 'official' representative.

The Afrikan Tribes would mainly use rituals and Voodoo (they are a part of ICW, so Voodoo would probably be highly 'regulated' -- read: mostly forbidden)

Mongolians and other traditionally nomadic folk would mainly adhere to Shamanistic magic. Etc. Etc.

Thats just my mind going off on all sorts of tangents again

P.S. I am well aware China practiced isolationalism only during certain periods of it's history, and wasn't truly one China either (Manchu, Ming, Tibet, Zhou, jada jada jada). But the mind makes up what the mind wishes to make up

 

Which house would Fleur be sorted into though?

 

Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, I'd say.

 

So, doing some reading on various cultures and their myths concerning Veela or Veela-type entities, I came upon this: Leanhaun Shee; the celtic counterpart (more or less).

Wikipedia had an interesting take: The Leanhaun Shee (fairy mistress) seeks the love of mortals. If they refuse, she must be their slave; if they consent, they are hers, and can only escape by finding another to take their place. The fairy lives on their life, and they waste away. Death is no escape from her. She is the Gaelic muse, for she gives inspiration to those she persecutes. The Gaelic poets die young, for she is restless, and will not let them remain long on earth—this malignant phantom. (Wiki quoted it from elsewhere).

While the first part may sound a little too much like magical contracts or magical bonding, it's the latter part that interests me. Fleur becomes Harry's muse not for writing or poetry, but for fighting, for creating spells, for victory over Voldemort. But, she's also playful to the point of persecution, dangerous both to Harry's sanity and his heart. And somehow, she draws life from him even as he fights Voldemort.

One of the big problems I see, however, is how to give Fleur any kind of redeeming traits in this type of setup besides "Oh my god she's beautiful!" I'm not talking a full-on feminist makeover, but something that the reader can identify with and understand her and somehow, despite themselves, root for the relationship even while they want to root against it. And, more importantly, doing so without ruining the character setup stated by the wikiquote.

 

I very much like the idea of Fleur as a tangible inspiration that sparks Harry's own genius at the cost of his sanity.

For a narrative I could see a changing double-pov with Fleur coming to despise what will eventually happen to Harry because of her. She grew to like him and doesn't want to see him die, but at the same time - even though she tries - she can't fight against her nature (which might or might not be a rare and random occurence in Veela).

At which point Harry will involve himself in a search for something to keep himself alive and sane. Fraying sanity makes for wonderful ticking bombs to ratchet up the tension. He can't keep her hands off her (and vice versa), yet being with her and holding his mind together at the same time becomes harder and harder.

That's, of course, just a rough plot. But thanks for unearthing that particular bit of mythology. Love it.