I'm with you guys. That was the one question that was constantly on my mind since book one. Why does Harry not study harder? I don't think he's an idiot, acadamically as Ron is. He's got the smarts when he wants to. So why doesn't he apply it??

There was this one indie Harry fic that had Ron and Hermione chosen as his friends by Dumbles. It was only mentioned once but in that fic those two were the balance to keep Harry at a certain level. If Harry studied too hard Ron would distract him with Quidditch or chess or something. If he wasn't studying hard enough then Hermionie would nag him. I can't remember the fic though.

 

Magic

Hum... i agree with you there. Of course, friends *are* important: you have to enjoy your life after all, and if you don't learn to as a child, it gets harder and harder later on.

Now what i want to know is why do you all, who like powerfulandskilled!harry dislike hermione so much, seeing as she acts as harry should. Come on, by second year she was so far past the other students that being petrified for months doesn't change the fact that she is the most powerful (or skilled) student of the year. Skilled enough for mcgonagall pulling strings for hermione to get a time turner. In third year, she got more classes than normal, and spent an aweful amount of time helping hagrid, and is still so far in past the others in skill that she gets to do NEWT theory exam. Not much to say about fourth year, but we know that in fifth year, she was already ready to take on the newt practical part. And she did all that while helping harry stumbling and ron's stupidity.

Sorry for my Rant, it's just that out of all the characters in the book, hermione is the most slytherin one, the one who really doens't waste her time and so on. She may be plain, but she is able to do every spells she comes across, and most of them silently too. The reason she was in gryffondor is probably her origin, and also that she is a sucker for affection.

 

Hermione doesn't act as Harry should, because Harry shouldn't be a nagging person that thinks that he knows everything and does everything by the books. She wasn't the most powerful in second year, she was just more skilled because she studied. The reason that she got the time turner was because McGonagall was just playing favorites, nothing more than that.

 

I'm pretty sure her top grades, and responsibility also played a part in it.

 

Hum... Well, you agreed that she was the most skilled of the year even with her time in the infirmary: Mcgonagall had to pull strings to give her the time turner, and i don't think the ministry would have agreed to give such an item to a muggleborn if she wasn't the best.

Now for the power thing..."power" is a fanfiction cliche. When we have barty doing the imperius like 60 times in a row (the book siad he cast it more than one time for each student), or pettigrew using ak, or a random DE spitting the killing curse left and right, the whole power argument is void. There is skill and willpower.

Hermione "nags" harry because the stupid boy doesn't undestand what's at stake there. She is trying to help him. Maybe you wouldn't like harry helping thers when he learns? i would disagree with you there, but it's a matter of opinion.

"she was just more skilled because she studied" <== uh? i just said that she didn't have time to study while petrified. And iirc, the point was that she is like you would want harry to be *because* she studies. Voldemort was a bookworm too.

 

THANK YOU!

 

Having a limited amount of power is not a cliche...it's a good idea.

Not having a limit opens the story up to a billion plot holes.

Why would you use any cuse besides the Ak anymore?

It just doesn't seem right that people can just continously cast spells without getting tired.

Besides...maybe the AK is easy to cast, and costs little power? I mean, it's nothing special...just kill.

 

Power is not a fanfiction cliche. In the third book, Remus said that most adult wizards are not pwerful enough to cast the patronus charm. As for Hermione not having time to study when she was petrified, what about during the summer after? She probably always studies then, even though she goes somewhere else like every year. And I wouldn't want Harry to be exactly like Hermione, because Hermione is only book smart. as shown with her SPEW efforts, because she didn't fully understand the culture of the house elves.

 

As for Hermione being Petrified... what the hell are you talking about? She was the last one petrified, meaning she was out of the loop for only a week or two.

 

We went over the power business a few pages back.

Now, what i meant was not that Harry should be like Hermione. I would hardly read the books if Harry was perpetually saying "OH! You shouldn't go out after hours, you'll get in trouble!"

Fuck Hermione. She's an irritating little tramp. You can be studious without burying your nose in books all the time and lording your knowledge over others. How can you simply assume that Hermione is extremely intelligent? She hasn't made any earthshaking revelations in the books, and if she has/will, i wouldn't care anyhow. She isn't the main character.

All her knowledge comes from overworking herself. She sits buried inside old books all day to learn things. If Harry did that, he'd be just as 'intelligent' or as 'clever' as Hermione. The fact of the matter is: she is ridiculously annoying, and keeps nagging others to emulate her brown-nosing efforts, condescends on other people for not being as 'perfect' as her, and at the end of the day, she is simply JK Rowling's 'mother figure' for Harry during the school year.

And what about this: Arkeus, you made some decent points, but consider this...if, as you say, she is oh-so-intelligent, being soooo much smarter than all the others in her year, having knowledge in NEWT levels while only a Fifth Year, etc, why does she suck at spells? She HAS the knowledge, but she can't cast the spells. There...your 'power being dependent on effort' theory blown right out of the water. If she has all that knowledge, why rely on HARRY to teach the DA? Why doesn't she do it?

Sure, one reason is that Harry is the BWL, and people would rather learn from him than a stuck up girl like Hermione. But seeing her ego-complex concerning her knowledge, the more viable reason, IMO, is that she would be embarrassed by her inability to cast the curses and stuff that she's read so much about.

Okay...back to my point. I didn't mean Harry should be Hermione. What i meant is: Magic is fun. If you can READ about it in a story and think "Wow, that was a fucking awesome battle scene", then you should recognize this simple fact. The fact that you have the power to go against the rules of physics just by waving a piece of wood is incredible. Now, why the fuck would you NOT explore this power thoroughly?

Harry is NOT coming in with any prior knowledge of magic. He really shouldn't give a shit that the wizards around him seem to be waiting for magical knowledge to imprint itself in their minds. In Harry's place, can you honestly say that you WOULDN'T do your damndest to learn awesome, powerful spells?

No one says that wanting to learn makes you a brown-nosing, frizzy haired, egotistical tramp. It makes you studious. And in this case, where you're learning MAGIC, not something boring like fucking math or whatever, it also makes you the only realistic and intelligent person in your entire school.

Its admirable that Hermione works so hard, and Harry should really pay attention, especially after seeing that Voldemort wants to kill him in his first year, and buckle down and do some fucking learning.

 

Gawd, if I could do magic, I'd so study myself out of here. I mean, how much better can it get? You don't like your couch anymore? Transfigure the fuck out of it. Need some fresh coffee? Conjure the shit. Need someone killed without a trace? Waive your fucking wang and it's done.

 

Same, I'd be all over the fucking Library looking for something interesting to learn. Of course, afer a while, I'd learn that just because I'm a wizard doesn't mean that I can do any fucking thing I want on a whim, and then start building up from the basics. But, it'd probably take a while for that to happen.

 

Hermione doesn't nag people to be as brown nosing as herself, she nags people so they can get some shit done. I mean if it were up to Ron he'd play chess all day just so he can be better than Harry at something. Harry being the dumbass that he is would play with his "Weezey" not even realising the dick is just boosting his ego. Hermione does get shit done, she figures out the puzzle in the first book, she figured out the basilisk, she helps Harry with his task in the fourth book, she marks the X's on the doors in the DoM and bunch of other crap. She also doesn't lord her knowledge over people Harry and Ron never get that people can't apparate in Hogwarts and yet they keep suggesting it, she corrects people that doesn't mean she throws her knowledge around like party gifts. And how exactly is she a tramp?

 

Very true, Harpy. I just used tramp in place of bitch, i didn't mean she's a whore. But she does sniff haughtily and say "Honestly, i's as if you've never read a book!"

Hermione as a character annoys me for her bossiness. That's it. I entirely respect the fact that she's the only person in Harry's eyar to do what would be expected...learn as much magic as you can get your hands on.

One thing that nagged me is this: They see that roosters are being killed, and spiders are fleeing. Harry, found to be a parseltongue, is eharing voices.

WTF?

How hard is it to come up with the idea that the party responsible is a fucking Basilisk? The symptoms hardly match an invasion of bloodthirsty doormice. Plus, it's Slytherin's Monster...what are the chances that he'd use a rabbit?

Roosers serve no purpose apart from crowing....that should have clued Dumbledore on.

 

While the trio may not have had the information to combine their facts, some of the administration should have noticed something. I mean, it's not like they go "Oh, all the roosters have been slaughtered gruesomely. ... Now we have to get new ones."

Another topic: Money. A wand, the primary tool for any magic person, bought once in a life, costs seven galleons, in numbers: 7. The Weasleys couldn't buy Ron a new fucking wand, because, apparently, they don't have seven fucking galleons to spare. What does that say about the worth of a galleon?
And now, what does that say about the idea of a fucking trunk costing thousand thingamajillion Galleons, which is a millionth of what Harry has. I mean, really.

 

We covered this a while ago. And wands should be fucking free, no matter what materials are used in the process. Its what enables the wizards to do their shit, so let them have the wands for free. It makes more sense to me that way...

 

Not to mention that in GOF Ron spends 10 galleons on Viktor Krum doll, while it took his family 3 years to gather that much for a wand...

 

I always thought wizards should cherish and love their wand to unbelievable levels.

I always thought they should have this bond to the wand.

Instead, you have them treated like stick that shoot magic.

 

Yeah, but then the Ministry would have to pay Ollivander for his services, Link...i'd guess that a wand is harder to make than most fics show.

And i doubt Fudge would pay >_<

 

I think the money for your wand is a symbolistic thing.
It's the same as crossing a palm with silver, or throwing money in wells for wishes.

The idea behind it is to remove all claims the previous owners had on the object. A wand is the most important thing to wizards/witches so they'd want no one to have a previous claim on it.

With Ron's wand I think it's because they wanted to show his claim of the Weasley family.

About Herman. (here comes a rant).
I hate her because she only believes in things she reads from books.
My favorite saying is an ounce of experience is worth a ton of theory.
The reason is you can read and learn all the magic you want, it wont make you good at duelling etc.

Also Voldemort travelled after Hogwarts where he received all the experience he needed. Not to mention that Dumbledore experimented and travelled too. Also even Snape updated his potions book because books aren't always right.

Remember Professor Quirrel, he went travelling to gain experience and found Voldemort.

Harry couldn't read up as much as Herman because when he's at Durzkaban he's always working.
At school he has psychos and murderers dogging him.
Herman has none of that and is cherished by loving normal parents.

If you are raised in a nurturing enviroment, and don't have to fucking fight for your life of course you'll study.

Also she is too fucking arrogant I mean look at the half baked piss. At the end where Harry is wrecked over Dumbledore's death she fucking says 'I told you so'. I mean what a fucking bitch. I would fucking torture her within an inch of her life for bloody saying that.
I was so pissed I still haven't been able to fucking read the pile of shit again.
I would burn the fucking book if it hadn't cost me £15.

I think I'd better finish or I'll start foaming.

Litha

P.s I don't mean to offend anyone but I really hate Herman.