Snakes speak through vibrations, I believe. So I would argue that Harry bypasses the necessary vibrations through a magical gift - because it's a trait he was gifted with. Sort of like people who are good at Charms or Transfiguration innately, he has an ability that you can't just learn through two meetings with a parseltongue. Lily was good at charms and James was good at transfiguration; Lily would have to try at transfiguration whereas James could slack off and vice versa for Charms.

But this bypasses the argument entirely - Rowling is under the delusion in her own world that it is not a magical gift but instead an actual physical ability that any person can replicate (ala the aforementioned cursewords/greetings learning curve) with a few minutes spent in non-magic related practice. I think it undercuts the Voldemort connection, for one; it was not imparted onto him through Voldemort actually teaching him or planting knowledge of speaking it into his mind. Instead, it speaks of something innately etched into the very soul of Voldemort; not his knowledge or his beliefs but something that is irrevocably tied to his being through blood and soul.

Add into that that Harry must actually concentrate on snakes before he can begin speaking and it only leads me to believe more strongly that it is in fact a magical gift - not just a Star Wars-esque massacring of how our non-legged J-sliding scaly friends work in the name of good storytelling (which it wouldn't be regardless).

Now - can someone perhaps learn it through transfiguring ones voice or masking it through magic? Sure why not. But I sort of just shake my head at the idea that Ron can waltz up to a door and speak open and have it work. As also previously mentioned, out of book, Rowling says Dumbledore can speak Parseltongue - and it's shown to some extent in HBP that he understands what's going on in the Gaunt House - but this requires another retcon. Dumbledore would have heard it in Chamber of Secrets.

So Rowling is pulling it out of her ass and Parseltongue is a magical ability passed on by blood and can be apart of your very soul.

Otherwise, it doesn't make sense. Then again, she had snakes blink in SS/PS.

 

Alright, I'd seen this one several times while trolling ff.net but including Dudley scared me off a little until I saw some favorable reviews for it tonight. I was pretty pleasantly surprised.

The few errors I saw were easy to overlook and didn't take anything away from the story. I like some changes, like Harry being more studious and the Dursleys not being total pricks and whatnot (barring Petunia). The little of Lupin I've seen so far in this fic may actually be my favorite portrayal of him. There really aren't many downsides to this one at all.

Except for the big one. It's been almost exactly 4 months (minus a week) since it was updated. Maybe the author will get her shit together, and we'll have more to read soon. The story could be a 4/5 upon completion, but I'm knocking it down to 3/5 for likely being abandoned.

 

Although I should agree with most - it is a well written fic, I simply couldn't get into it.

Changing the Dursleys' behavior, showing that Slytherins are normal kids totally unaffected by the way they've been rised and taught (purebloods, traditionalists, the day Malfoy stays in the company of Granger is the day HP takes down the path of becoming fag and takes a liking to Snape)... It all sums up to creating a character of another normal boy, not a hero.

All the ordeals Harry goes through in his years at Hogwarts and life at Number 4, build up to his character. Making a person burn to death with his own hands before the age of 12, having to make a decision which might just cost a girl's life while under the pressure of the danger for his own, again at the tender age of around 13... Take all that away and you've got... well nothing special, just an ordinary boy going through his years at a magical school...

I have two more chapters to read but I doubt that anything would happen to change my mind and view of the fic.

... and on the Parseltongue topic - it is a magic ability not an effing language... you can go swimming in the sea and try to reproduce the dolphin's signals and sounds they make... observe the reactions and eventually imitate some parts but not actually try to figure out which 'eep' is their "word" for food and then write down a dictionary and learn it. So while Ron might have imitated it (cough bollocks... cough cough) it would be next to impossible to teach it by any conventual means...

3.5/5 - score based on how much I liked to story rather than the technical implementation...

 

As previously mentioned, JK said Dumbledore could speak it. It kinds messes up Book 2 though, surely?

 

I agree with this, and I don't think it was undercut by Ron's ability to mimic the language well enough to open the Chamber.

When I speak German, I don't say the English "What's up" and expect the German "Was gibt's" to come out of my mouth just because I'm speaking to a German, or focused on the German language. Relating that to parseltongue, I think the hereditary "gift" is the ability to not actually hear parseltongue the way a non-speaker does; that is, when a parselmouth speaks the language, they hear their native language, and not the hissing a non-speaker would hear. This inherited ability doesn't prevent non-parselmouths from learning the language.

I dunno...a relatively simplistic way of understanding it would be to think of it as the difference between having a British accent from being born in England, versus an American actor imitating a British accent.

/thread derail

 

The only gripe I had with the story is that they never went to the teachers for the Basilisk, which was extremely retarded.

"Hey, there's a giant man eating snake running loose in the school! Let's not tell the trained expert professionals who can deal with this kind of shit!"

 

The story is well written but I really couldnt get into it at all. I guess I just dont like the way the characters are written.

3/5

 

Just been confirmed by the author that she is not going to go with a slash pairing

 

The story's boring me the past two or three chapters.

 

Hey! I just wanted to say that I checked this story out and started reading it. Sounds very interesting. It'll take me a while to get used to third POV's. I usually read Twilight fanfics. I just decided to branch out and read other fanfics. Besides, I do like the Harry Potter series. I had the first three books before.

Anyhow, my point is that I believe I'll enjoy this fanfic.

 

inb4ban
thatisall

Apart from the fact that I actually enjoyed this fic. But I think i've already mentioned that back a bit. Either way, I recently picked it up again. I hadn't read the last 15 or so chapters, and they definitely didn't get any worse.

This fic isn't anything special at all, its just a highly readable rehash of canon events, with a few major changes such as Harry being in Slytherin, and friends with Draco. I have no issues with either of those points, and the whole light hearted tone is nice to read.

Will keep following it, even though it will highly likely end up abandoned.

 

5/5
Intelligent, creative, *sane* retelling of the books. Evansentranced has turned canon on its ear, and made a story that a grownup can love.

 

It's pleasant enough, but nothing much happens. The whole redeemed!Dursley angle is novel, but the story lacks either overpowered!Harry lolzyness or death!defying!Harry action. He just sort of lives his life and solves his problems. I finished the first two years last night before the story put me to sleep (it isn't bad for that).

3/5