I hadn't thought of that. I guess the book making you speak in limericks was probably BS then. Maybe the other guy was right and she was just trying to get his attention.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if it was a case of partial truths - i.e., the book does curse the reader into speaking in limericks, but it's not permanent. Perhaps it can be cured with months of unpleasant treatment, or something like that. That would still make it an unusual addition to a school library, but no longer a terminally stupid one.

I liked that particular reference to canon, BTW (CoS ch. 13). I guess that supports the idea of it being a well-known book among purebloods, since Ron knew about it. I can see pureblood parents telling their kids about it as part of a cautionary tale about opening unfamiliar magic books.

 

Nice catch, didn't remember that. Ron knew about it because it's directly related to Mr. Weasley's work, but if it's in the library someone would have opened it at some point. Ergo the students all know about it, and there's a student somewhere who always sounds stupid. And I want to meet him.

 

The book was not BS. Canon says that it forces the reader to speak in limericks so it would have. Also, there is a reason that Harry didn't know about the book, and it will be mentioned later.

 

Folks aren't questioning the existence of the book. They're questioning its presence in a school library.

And I agree with them. As dark and hardcore as Durmstrang seems to be in your tale, a school is a school. Parents send their children there to learn, not to be cursed for the rest of their lives.

 

Howdy makes sense.

Now all we need is for him to update his stories and I can calm down this angry mob gathering because of how long it is taking for him to update!


~Jigokuno stirs up the angry mob while handing out pitchforks on a good faith loan basis hoping he gets all his pitchforks back in the end~

~leads the mob to The Playhouse where Howdy resides and burns it down~

~mob disperses~

~realizes no one gave back my darn pitchforks~

 

Pretty interesting. As if you care about my opinion, but I will be gone for a while, so I won't be able to review a lot. The only thing that I can find at fault from a quick read is that it hasn't gone back to Hogwarts. Maybe you could have an uneasy conversation between McGonagall and Dumbledore about how they're nervous about Harry being at Durmstrang. Anyhoo, I'll look this over more thoroughly when I get the time.

 

It's not a question of a useful, potentially dangerous book being made available to students, it's a question of a useless, undoubtedly dangerous (or at least severely annoying) book made to look harmless.

There's a plausible explanation about all of these things. The problem isn't that the book is dangerous - we know the wizarding world is dangerous, and Durmstrang could be expected to be more so than Hogwarts - it's that it doesn't seem to make sense yet.

Neville was dropped by accident; students were adequately warned about the Cerberus (though the passage could have been better locked); the worst a Bludger will do is send you a few days in the hospital wing. Maybe the limerick curse is reversible, maybe the author will expand on it. But right now it just seems unlikely.

 

Neville was not dropped by accident. His uncle threw him out of the window on purpose to test his magic. Wizarding world FTW. Worse than Indians.

 

I distinctly remember Harry asking Wood at his first ever Quidditch practice if the Bludgers had ever killed anyone. Wood replies, 'not at Hogwarts.' This implies that people have been killed by them, and that it just hasn't happened at Hogwarts yet.

 

I would agree with you if you weren't wrong.

Or it could simply imply that nobody has been killed by them at Hogwarts, and that over the hundreds of years Quidditch has been played at Hogwarts, the worse that happened are a few broken jaws. I don't care if some imbecilic wizard tried to swallow a Bludger in the 1800's, the fact is that they're not permanently damaging students.

 

Children book. JK is glossing over the true facts/Neville's been lied to. Seriously, someone can offer you a 3some, you still wont let go of a kid's ankle by accident.

Of course, Neville's family is pureblooded. For all we know, its usual to drop kids from a window if they turn out to be a squib. Heck, it worked for Sparta :awesome

Still, we are dealing with magic. If you can regrow your bones in a night, I cant see speaking in lymircs as a big medical challenge.

 

It depends who are the two others going to be in this threesome and whether the kid whines a lot.

Give me Megan Fox and that hot Russia tennis player who they never seem to name. Then again they probably just forgot to put her name on her shorts or shirt or I would have known it with a single glance.

~Jigokuno practices his baby-throwing-out-the-window skills~

 

I assume hes saying that it's ok that the book is harmful, because it is still useful, but not if it is worthless and made to look harmless, which is an...interesting viewpoint.

Still, I agree with Sesc that the wizarding world is just plain different on a mindset than the real world. I remember some story that I read, which said at one point that wizards and muggles literally have different patterns of thought and logic, which allows wizards to mentally grasp magic. While it probably isn't as extreme in typical stories as that one, the point remains that based on cannon, wizards do not take violence and injury as seriously as we would, probably to do with the fact that they can fix any problem short of death.

 

No restricted section sound awesome at first glance, so maybe have a section titled 'Don't touch these cursed books, idiot.' To me the restricted section has always came across with its main purpose to not only restrict dangerous knowledge, but also access to cursed books like the limerick one. By taking it out you have already come across one hurdle people are contesting.

I do not think a curse book would be so easily accessible in a school full of children as well. No matter what people say, the headmaster telling a powerful pureblood family "Sorry what happened to your child, but we did not think he/she would pick up a book that anyone could access in a public library, and you are pureblood so we thought you would of told your child about that book. Tough luck there, mate."

Maybe instead of a restricted section, have a privileged section where only the headmasters/teachers favorites can get access to?

As for that chick saying 'You owe me one', well as stated before, their eleven. It would be kind of annoying if they were as skillful as Dumbledore at manipulation. The fact that she is blunt about it, well it doesn't change the fact Harry owes her one. Harry owing her and knowing from the get-go could work to her advantage, seeing as Harry might look out for her interests trying to pay her back. Sometimes being blunt is far more beneficial then being silent and deadly.


To me personally, it does not matter much if you change it or not. Sure it would be nice to explain your idea behind the cursed book in a public library, but really it is not that big of a deal since we will not hear about it again. I am just throwing in my two cents with everyone else.

 

The point about explanations isn't to disprove that wizarding world is dangerous. We all agree on this. I just don't agree with the idea that you can explain anything with: "Wizards are weird, they do things for shits and giggles". Their mindset is different, but understandable if you take into account that they can cure or solve most things with magic. Wizards are careless about danger as long as the potential damage isn't irreversible. They are eccentric, but harmlessly so, as far as I can tell. So they wouldn't put the book there if no reversal to the limerick curse was possible.

The point about the book looking harmless is that it's apparently sitting on the same shelves as books that are meant to be read, but this one doesn't give useful information, it just curses people for life if were're to believe people who say Calypso saved Harry from eternal ridicule. It's not out of place for the book to be available, I'm just saying it should be on a separate shelf for dangerous books. If it's not it's being disguised as harmless.

 

Why would his uncle be holding him out of the window by his ankles if not to drop him?

 

Are you saying Micheal Jackson was trying to kill his kid by holding him out the window by his ankle? If so he should have been charged with attempted murder. I think like MJ, Neville's uncle was just practicing his stupidity.