For that matter, a lot of kid's bodies are still changing when they're sixteen. But I agree, there can't be many good reasons to make the reader swallow that.

And also, don't forget it's a magical cat... or, a cat that could do magic if it got it's hands on a wand. maybe.

 

The development of the body has jackshit to do with the animagus transformation; you're transforming your body into something completely different. Magic isn't about aging, it's about control - proven in canon by Tom Riddle.

That's like saying there's no way that a child at 7 could play a Rachmaninoff piano concerto at the same caliber of an adult pianist. We all know the truth of that statement.

Besides, everyone knows the most unbelievable aspect of the story is Harry playing the guitar. I fucking hate that, it's so unbelievably gay.

 

As much as I love defending this story, I got to agree... Can't he just talk to his mother? It's not important to the story and it's quite annoying.

 

Indeed, the story is fantastic but the guitar and quidditch should be removed from Harry's abilities. Its a bit to much.

 

For fucks sake people, the guitar is lame, we know it. There are fucking 30 pages devoted to how gay the guitar is. Stop fucking repeating it and find something else to bitch about.

 

You all take this story way too seriously. If you instead read it as an elaborate parody, it comes out "5.5 stars, darned hilarious." (That the author himself appears to take it seriously just makes it better).

Enjoy it for what it is: intentional or no, it's a decently written piece with an undercurrent of comedy far more sophisticated than any of us could manage.

Maybe it was all MrJoe's grand design? Maybe it was an accident? Who cares? It's fun either way.

 

You forget that the animagus transformation itself is extremely advanced and dangerous magic. It doesn't matter how much control you have over your magic, the animagus transformation is impossible for a kid of 6 because he would not have nearly enough knowledge of the theory (and even if he attempted to understand it, he would fail), and experience with magic. You can't just pick up a book, read the theory, and become an animagus. If it was that easy, everyone would be an animagus, and it wouldn't be such a big deal in the wizarding world. Don't be an apologist for this. No matter how you look at it, a child of 6 becoming an animagus is impossible from what we know of canon, and is an indicator of Super!*characterhere*. And no, it's not worse than the guitar because I was able to skip over the guitar part easily where the animagus issue pops up every now and then.

And your piano analogy is just wrong. A child of 7, even if possessing prodigious talent, would not be able to play an advanced piece such as your Rachmaninov, or a Liszt etude or a Chopin scherzo, on the same level as a similarly skilled adult pianist. A child may have the notes down and may not make many technical mistakes, but he/she isn't mature enough pianistically or otherwise, to play the piece with good dynamics and musicality. This is often the case with kids trying to play Mozart (who, while not as technically difficult as some romantic composers, requires great skill, experience, and maturity to play). I'm not claiming to be an expert on the subject, but I've been playing the piano for 8 years and have been to a ton of recitals, and I've talked to many teachers and professional pianists both on the internet and off, so I do know what I'm talking about.

 

On the whole I agree with DITN, but I do think that he is underestimating the level of talent that some child prodigies display. There is also a big implied assumption in your arguments: that you have to understand the theory in order to do the practical when it comes to magic, or more specifically the animagus transformation.

It's not clear on how complex the theory is (Peter Pettigrew achieved it at the age of 16 or so, after all), maybe a very clever 7 year old could understand it, maybe they couldn't.

But what we have seen in canon, and has indeed been discussed much already in this thread, is that some talented children have unusual talent with magic, even without knowing the theory behind it (whether this is controlled accidental magic or trained untrained magic makes no real difference in the end ).

Judging by some of the feats that young children have been able to perform, and the fact that creativity/flair for magic appears to be more important in magic than knowledge of the theory (all the best wizards are creative, whereas people like Hermione who excel at theory are merely good) I do not think it so impossible that an extremely talented young wizard could perform the animagus transformation.

 

I do think that with most magic you need to know how it works to be able to cast it to the best of your ability. There's a big difference between the small time controlled magic Tom Riddle was performing (the hanging of the bunny, TELL ME THE TRUTH, etc.) and a full fledged animagus transformation. I doubt a kid, even one of prodigious talent such as Tom, could just go "hey, I heard about wizards who can change into animals. Yeah, that's AWESOME, I'm so going to try that", and actually do it (either by transforming all at once, or the 'bit by bit' transformation which is featured in a lot of fics where you concentrate on changing one body part at a time). I don't like this.

Peter Pettigrew's skill is underrated. As you said, he managed the transformation along with the other marauders, and he did kill 12 muggles with a single curse, which we haven't seen anyone else do, including other DE's and Voldemort. He deserves more credit than he gets.

As I said above, there's a big difference between the small time controlled magic Riddle was doing, and a full fledged animagus transformation. Seeing as how Riddle was the most skilled wizard in the past 150 years along with Dumbledore, the author of KiP, in one fell swoop, made Harry more skilled/powerful/whatever than Voldemort and Dumbledore. Gee, I wonder how this fic is going to turn out . I'm not a fan of Super!Harry, and this fic goes about it shamelessly and doesn't make any apologies about it.


edit: I didn't mention this above, but another reason why a 7 year old couldn't play Rachmaninov as well as an adult is simply because their hands aren't big enough. Most 7 year olds can't even reach an octave (an 8th). Rachmaninov had huge hands for a pianist, and is said to have had a reach of a 13th. It is impossible for some adult pianists to play Rachmaninov due to lack of hand size, and it's even more so for kids. A lot of chords in Rachmaninovs music are impossible for me (I can barely reach a 10th), so you can imagine just how unlikely it is for a kid to be able to play Rachmaninov.

 

lol

As Taure says, I think you're underestimating child prodigies. The author meant Harry to be superior to Dumbledore and Voldemort, which I agree is stupid and does make it super!Harry, but it doesn't change the fact that the most gifted children have been recorded to teach themselves Latin or discover difficult mathmatical propositions before their teens. Animagus is understood to be difficult in canon, but not above three smart teenagers. Harry would also have all the access he wanted to the theory.

 

I hear you, but I still disagree.

I don't think he just picked up a book, read the theory, and became an animagus - for I doubt that that was how any animagus went through the process. He grew up with Remus, who most likely knew about what his friends were trying to attempt, and thus had someone to watch over him as he went through with the process. Besides, canon-proven "facts" were challenged within canon time and again: Harry's full-proof cloak, 7 horcruxes vs. the expected one, surviving the basilisk glare because of a mirror (a mirror!), surviving the killing curse, a room that becomes anything you want with a mere thought...the only real limits to learning magic seem to be focus and previously constructed spells, so I don't completely rule it out as impossible for a 6 yr old animagus to exist.

The biggest deterrent is probably fear of what could go wrong, added with giving a child a completely unpredictable ability for causing trouble. What if s/he stays trapped in their form? What if their form is a bug that could accidentally be smashed? What if they turn into an animal where it's natural enemy/predator is in abundance? What the child turns into the predator, and starts bearing teeth and claws when s/he can't get that kiddy Nimbus for his birthday? Even at that, with Luna's mom practicing with volatile potions at home, and Neville's uncle throwing babies out of windows, I sincerely doubt that the dangers of the transformation are the biggest concern when barring children from such advanced magic.

It's like this family of stuntmen that I read about, who let their kids run around the neighborhood on dirtbikes missing the front wheel (to learn how to wheelie properly), jump off the roof onto hay bales, and took turns setting each other on fire. Would your average family let a child do that? No. Would they be capable of doing it? Obviously, you can't rule it out.

No, it's not. If a child of 7 is hitting the notes, he's playing the piece, full stop. I'll concede your points about articulation and style, but if the bare minimal notes and tempo are there, he's playing the piece.

What does this means for the animagus transformation ? The 7 year old's transformation is probably slower, jerkier perhaps - or like someone who's been out of practice (Wormtail), as opposed to McGonagall's desk-leaping smoothness.

My point is, we don't know enough to rule it out as impossible.

(And the guitar fucking sucks a big floppy donkey cock)

 

Whose personality? CanonRemus' personality? I doubt I have to point out again that this is AU. CanonRemus was devastated with the incident with his friends, and generally became a miserable man because of it. KIPRemus had a kid to raise, there was no room for such an attitude.

All your arguments about the animagus transformation at such a young age are, what was the word you used? 'fail', in my opinion. It's magic, get over it, stop trying to make sense of it. There is supposed to be no limitations when it comes to magic, and so long as you are willing to work for it, one is able to achieve anything with it (as I've tried to show on numerous occasions during the story.)

Yeah, you don't like the guitar, I get it. You want me to apologize? It's not happening. Harry needs something in common with Lily so they can bond, eventually. I just see her being a guitar kind of person. Honestly though, I had originally intended for it to be a Piano or a Violin. The Piano would be a little much to have on him at all times, while the Violin (though an amazing instrument) adds a little too much 'angstyness' to the hospital scenes where he spends time with his mother - it does in my mind's eye, anyway.

I told you it was going to be a Super!Harry form the start, complaining about it and asking yourself why you continue reading half way through serves no purpose whatsoever. Everyone who bothered to read the intro knows its a super!Harry, I know its a super!Harry, and you obviously do too. If you're so against the idea, why did you read in the first place? That was the point of the intro, you know? To warn people ahead of time that my fic will contain elements you may not like in a story, and ultimately save you time.

Worry not though, I hate stories in which Voldemort and Dumbledore are underpowered as much as the next guy. I also hate stories that make Voldemort and Dumbledore the epitome of both 'evil' and 'good'. Riddle needs to have some charming characteristics, otherwise it wouldn't be so easy to woo people to his side, and Dumbledore, like every other being on the planet, is still human, and subject to the darker side of human nature.

That, of course, doesn't mean Riddle is 'good', or even close to it; The same goes for Dumbledore in terms of 'evil' or 'bad'.

I better watch out, posting a response like this, because Taure may make some more assumptions about me not taking criticism well (I lol'd at that btw, and it was quite the hearty chuckle).

If you're so adverse to the Super!Harry, but like my writing style, fear not! I have ideas for two other HP stories after I'm done with this one, which i've mentioned one of a few times already.

One of them is a Warcraft/HP crossover, which will take place in the WC world and will feature, most likely, only Harry and Sirius (not much of a HP story when you look at it that way, I suppose . . .). Harry will be modeled after another one of my favourite characters in this story - Jack Sparrow.

The other story is one of those 'what ifs' I suppose. Post GoF. What if witnessing the death of Cedric, and the birth of Voldemort, caused Harry to mature much earlier than many would have liked? It's not one of those 'im-a-super-politician-and-will-assume-the-seats-of-several-ancient-houses-in-the-wizengamot' stories though. He'll mature in a way similar to his father did during his seventh year and have a lot of Sirius-Harry bonding - mainly because I love Sirius and he's my favourite character. In the interest of promoting underused pairings, I'll probably make this a Harry/Padma story.

Finally, I would like to apologize for the lack of updates recently. You've got to understand that I'm in the best University in my country, and to transfer from one course to another from within is hard as fuck. I'm currenty doing five subjects this semester:

Informatics
Organizational Analysis and Change
Principals of Business Law
Critical Thinking
Tools of Analysis

I pretty much have to get over 90% in each of these to have any hopes in transferring over to a Bachelor of Arts . . . and as I pose this, I have my last two exams for the semester tomorrow. As you can imagine, I've had a lot of studying to do.

Bare with me, I guess. I'll be back to writing within the next few days and hopefully (keyword there) getting out five chapters within the month to make up for it.

No promises.

P.S. Don't let me stop you form debating about Animagus transformations, wandless magic and whatever on this thread - it's fun as hell to read.

P.P.S. I'm not proofreading this post, it's four in the morning and I have an exams in six hours, I get to sleep for two, go to work, then to school, so lick my balls

 

The "other" fic idea sounds win. Or that may just be my inner harry/padma fanboy...

 

First off let me say that overall I do enjoy this story. In any fandom the SuperMainCharacter genre has almost always been done wrong. Here that is not the case, most of Harry's prodigious skill has sound reasoning & he works very hard for it. I generally like the idea of having Dumbledore, Voldemort & then Harry as prodigies of successive generations.

You do a very good job of sticking close enough to the canon story to seem familiar & at the same time being different enough to not reach the same overall resolutions.

Also the idea of there being something lurking in the shadows beyond Voldemort is very intriguing.

However some of your characters can be quite static: Harry for one seems to have not changed much personality wise as of yet. Not to mention your man-whore Sirius who has not changed at all. Obviously he can't fill thefather-like role he did in the books, but I'd say it is time to have him do something more significant then spend all day talking about girls he's banged, girls he wants to bang, etc.

And the way the characters interact: the constant dirty talk, gay jokes, sarcasm & hitting each other in the balls...it's all very Americanized. It feels like the story is taking place in a typical American high school. Also what real purpose does having the story take place in modern times serve? Does he really need to be hacking government satelite images while on his iBook?

In the grand scheme of things I suppose my final concern isn't really major (not to mention it's something that isn't going to change at this point). But I think adding depth to Sirius' character is eomthing to think about, because to coin a phrase from Hermione...Sirius has, "the emotional range of a teaspoon.'

Anyways, I look forward to this getting picked back up...because no matter what everyone is wondering if Cedric will live or die.

 

@Hail: Intro post, por fa-fukkin-vor

EDIT: I hadn't bothered to read your post - all I had seen was that it was your only post - but for fuck's sake, did you read any part of this thread? Your post was one long mess of shit already discussed in earler posts. Or utter tripe - as no one cares about the fate of Cedric, or Sirius' emotional range.

Moral of the story: post an intro, don't say dumbshit, and lurk moar.

And you used this (&) piece of punctuation incorrectly, dickhead.

 

Now this is a fail argument.

I'm honestly surprised anyone bothers reading this fic anymore, and even more surprised that people review given how you respond to criticism.

 

Oh cry more 'Darius', honestly.

Oh wah, I have an opinion, people make unrelated remarks about the theory behind magic in my story, I respond in a way you don't approve of, I'm a terrible person.

Grow a pair, jesus christ. You talk about how I can't take criticism, I find it funny when I really don't care either way with what people think of my story. I respond in kind to what people have to say, and I've yet to fail to respond to any PM, or query directly posted at me in regards to the story. I don't outright flame anybody, I respond in kind, and if you think the way in which I speak to everybody can be seen as me not taking criticism well, well gg, what can I do about that?

To the other dude, who apparently didn't post an intro.

Sirius isn't going to be filling any 'father-like' figure role in this story, Remus is there for that, regardless of how reluctant he is to assume any post in regards to Harry with that title.

Yes, Sirius needs to be developed a little more, and he will. He just hasn't got much of a reason to be put into the story yet, given that Harry doesn't really depend on his wisdom and support, like he does in canon. I do agree with your point that he seems rather shallow right now, but people change, given the correct circumstances. It's the 'how' people change I find to always be intriguing.

The same goes for Harry, and his personality.

As for the very 'americanized' view on teenagers, I honestly wouldn't know. I'm not American. This is how my friends and I, not to mention the majority of teens in Australia, act with their friends. I also think that the Australian and British cultures are rather close knitted anyway, so its rather safe to assume that one culture would be similar to the other anyway.

I've never been to Britain either, like JK obviously has, to know otherwise.

As for the modernized features, and current era based timeline - yes, it's important. It's rather obvious by this point, I think, that Harry will be venturing into other cultures around the world when he leaves Britain - and not all of these cultures will be magical.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, unless I use it for a joke, it's safe to say that most things I put in the story, covertly or not, are future references to what one can expect in future chapters.

P.S. I wonder if replying to your queries will just fuel the 'Fettucini doesn't take criticism well' fire even more . . .

 

@Joe: An ambitious study program mate...wish you luck with it.
Personally, I'd really like to see the 'Jack Sparrow like' Harry story...

Well, responding to those 'doesn't take criticism well' comments the way you do certainly will stoke the fire even more. Still, if you are amused by it...to each his own I guess.

 

It will. And this sentence shows your stance perfectly.

"Queries".

You seem to think that the criticism is in fact questioning. We're not asking you about your story. We're not asking for clarification on plot points. We're telling you that X is bad, and that you should change it to Y if you wish to improve the story.

I don't think there's a single part of this thread in which you've said "Yeah, that part of the story wasn't the best, your idea would have been better". It's always, "your criticism X is wrong because Y".

 

I see where you're coming from, but don't you think by saying 'x is bad, you should change it to y' is rather pretentious of you, especially given the fact that you don't know where the story is going, or what I'm doing with certain plot devices?

Also, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but there's very little 'suggesting' going here as to how to improve the story, and more 'I don't like this/ MrJoe is the biggest douchebag ever/ The guitar is bad/ I hate this story because . . .'

I could just ignore what people say, but where's the fun in that? I like defending my position and opinions on matters regarding my story, and I like it even more when people want to debate.

It's you who takes that as me not taking criticism well.

Does me disagreeing with you mean I'm not taking criticism with you?

That's what I'm trying to ask, I suppose, and if you're answer is yes, then I guess I don't take criticism well, because I have an opinion of my own.

P.S. not everyone reacts like I posted above, people actually do PM me with actual 'suggestions' and 'queries' that I am more than happy to answer, and I'm glad that they do so.