The trick to that is to pretend Warlocke is narrating the story to you at face value, and adjust your head fanon accordingly.

In this case, the person Harry is speaking to is predicting that Harry will soon see himself. Woah!

 

I'm sorry… what?

 

Joke fell flat. Warlocke's grammar posts tend to delve into what you meant to say, versus what you literally said.

Peeve: When adults tell Harry to just "call me [given name]". Especially when he's just met them and the younger he is the worse the Peeve.

Tangential peeve: Is Harry feeling genuine fear over "If u ever hurt my daughter..." I'm not talking a bit of anxiety about meeting the family, I'm taking fear that said brother or father could do him proper harm.

 

Yeah… no. Seems I'm few motions short of a spell today.

Good try though, vlad. Thanks for explaining

 

I hate the stereotypically overprotective father things so much.

 

Yep, this is definitely one of the things I hate most, it's so bad in every single way it possibly could be. Maybe one day I'll read something where the father threatens him and Harry just breaks his knees on the spot.

 

The prophecy says "Dark Lord" because prophecies are supposed to be vague and open to several interpretations.

The prophecy says "Dark Lord" because prophecies are supposed to sound ominous.

The prophecy says "Dark Lord" because prophecies are supposed to be somewhat poetic.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle A.K.A. Voldemort" is not vague and open to several interpretations.

"Evil wizard guy" is not ominous.

"That one guy who's attacking lots of people in Wizarding Britain right now" is not even remotely poetic.

And it would be weird to name Voldemort specifically in the prophecy and not specifically name Harry. To specifically name Harry ruins the "it could have been Neville" angle and removes the reason death eaters attacked the Longbottoms.

Also, implying Trelawney is responsible for what she says during a prophetic trance is like implying an epileptic is responsible for their thrashing during a tonic-clonic seizure.

---

On with the show...

Zap/Sap

No one and nothing has ever, nor will ever, "zap" your strength.

Zap: Onomatopoeia for the sound electricity or a gun makes, especially any futuristic laser weapon. "I've got a knife and you've got a stick; what're you gonna do, jackass, zap me with your 'magic wand?'" - A muggle about to hear the word 'Stupefy!'

It has also come to be used as an indication of something that happens instantaneously. "We were just having a normal conversation and then, 'zap,' she up and tells me I'm sleeping on the couch tonight."

Sap: As a noun, it is the fluid inside plants and trees, a gullible individual, or a weighted weapon used for bludgeoning (blackjack, cosh).

As a verb, to sap is 1) to hit someone with a sap/blackjack/cosh, 2) to literally undermine a fortification by digging underneath it (a job done by -wait for it- sappers), 3) to weaken, to gradually diminish, to drain of energy or vitality.

Unless your energy is being drained by a futuristic fucking Buck Rogers laser gun, no one is "zapping" your strength, so knock it off with your ignorant bedebedebede bullshit.

If you're still having trouble...

Spoiler

Zap = [sup]*pew pew*[/sup]

Sap = :facepalm [sup],.{ZZZZZ}[/sup]

--

Fleshing out/Flushing out

To "flesh out" is to further explain, to expand upon. To figuratively add more metaphorical meat to something's equally metaphorical skeleton.
"We have a pretty good idea of the main story arc, but we still need to flesh out the third act and the main antagonist's backstory."

To "flush out" is to force something out of hiding and into the open, or to remove something from a system.
"I'll flush the murderers out by claiming to have new evidence; when they try to silence me, they'll have exposed themselves."

--

Peek/Peak/Pique

Peek: A brief, tentative, or surreptitious look at something. "I wasn't staring... I just took a little peek." "He peeked around the corner."

Peak: The highest point of something. "She climbed to the mountain's peak." "You are about to witness what is the very peak of my accomplishments, to date."

Pique: As a noun, it is the state of having one's nose figuratively out of joint, behaving angrily because your ego has been bruised. "She stomped off in a fit of pique."

As a verb, it is to excite or arouse by means of a challenge or provocation. "This offer should pique your interest."

Learn it. Live it. Love it.

 

God I hate the Peek/Peak mistake. The other one I loathe is Pour/Pore. If I'm reading a book and studying every minute detail in the words, I'm Poring over the book. If I Poured over a book I'd have an empty drink and a very angry Hermione.

Nothing gives you faith in an author's vision for a story than them straight out stating they have no vision for the story.

 

"Bugger," Ron swore as he inhaled the fumes of the Pus Producing Potion. "My pores are pouring!"

Hermione pored over the instructions, looking for a cure.

"Too poor to just purchase the antidote, Weasley," Malfoy snickered.

--

"Susan Bones sure has a nice set of peaks!" Seamus exclaimed in the Gryffindor common room.

"And how would you know?!" Hermione demanded, piqued.

Seamus's eyes flickered to Harry, and Hermione turned towards him, tapping her foot as she clearly insisted upon an answer.

"Err, well... I sort of sneaked into the prefects' bathroom, and I had my... you know, my thing," he stressed, not wanting to talk about his invisibility cloak in public.

"And Susan came in and well... I peeked."

"I bet he peaked not long after," Dean added unhelpfully.

---

I am going to do my best Trelawney:

Three months from now I will have a pet peeve of all the poorly written stories trying to turn Hermione into Belle. No doubt the ffnet will be clogged with Dramione where Malfoy lives in a mysterious castle or somesuch rubbish.

 

The goblins being helpful. It seems quite clear that they control the gold because the wizards LOST the latest goblin rebellions. Bins should be teaching about the recent failed wizard rebellions.

 

You've just hit one of my pet-peeves. The Death Eaters didn't attack the Longbottoms because Neville was a potential candidate for the prophecy, they did it in order to find information about Voldemort's whereabouts. It also happened some time after Voldemort fell, so it's not like he commanded them to kill the second prophecy boy or something.

I understand why someone would use that as a plot device (I'm guilty of that as well), but it has become way too entrenched in fanon.

 

Yeah but why would they think the Longbottoms of all people would know?

It's not unreasonable to assume that in the process of listing out who were the wizard children born at the end of July, the Longbottoms came up and the death eaters knew they were people of interest even if not knowing why.

 

You mean people haven't been doing that since she was cast to play Belle?

Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a team of FF writers devoted to writing FanFic ideas based entirely on the last thing any given HP actor was in.

 

They captured him because he was an Auror. According to Voldemort, the Aurors were searching for him. And Dumbledore makes it sound as if he was a particularly renown Auror. I doubt it has anything to do with Neville.

 

Of course the Longbottoms would have been a high value target anyway, because they opposed Voldemort and were aurors.

The main reason I mentioned it in conjunction with the prophecy, though, is that it narratively connects Harry and Neville in a way that you just don't get without it. It adds elements to the story which it would be poorer without.

Also, one of the aspects of the series is that these prophecies bring misery to anyone who puts their belief in them, and those they inflict that belief upon. Voldemort wrecked many lives, his own included, because he believed the prophecy. That the Longbottoms were attacked because of this adds to this aspect.

The death eaters, Bellatrix in particular, went after the Longbottoms to squeeze them for info on where Voldemort had disappeared to after Halloween of 1981. The death eaters knew Neville was one of Voldemort's two chief targets, which is why they thought that family might know something - it's the only reason to attack them for that info instead of literally any other prominent figure in Wizarding Britain.

Aaand Neville was a primary target precisely because of the prophecy. There is an undeniable and fairly direct connection between the prophecy and the attack on the Longbottoms, and it doesn't require any of those death eaters to have heard the prophecy or even be aware of its existence.

Were the Longbottoms already targets? Yes.
Would they have eventually been attacked, had Voldemort not been defeated? Sure.
Does that in any way make it inaccurate to state that the reason they were attacked at that particular moment was because Voldemort wanted to kill Neville due to he and Harry fitting the prophecy? Nope.

And if all it boils down to is a simple semantic argument, why argue against the side that benefits the story's narrative and the readers' enjoyment, especially when that position is eminently logical?

 

I would like to deny this undeniable connection. You are leaping a bit here because you want to see a connection that MIGHT exist. Another easy thing, they targeted the Longbottoms because they are aurors and it is a conincidende that they are also part of the prophecie. (Of course concidence in so far that Rowling wanted it too be, but in universe, it was no greater reason for them than attacking prominent aurors who might have a clue.)

 

@Warlocke, if you'd read my previous post, I gave a direct example of why the Lestranges went after the Longbottoms. The official version according to Crouch (which may be a cover, but probably isn't) is that it was because they were respected Aurors and the Lestranges wanted information about Voldemort. There might be more to it, but Rowling never points to that. We also don't have any evidence that Voldemort ever told his followers he was interested in Neville, that Death Eaters ever viewed Neville as anyone significant, or that he Voldemort persecuted the Longbottoms because of the Prophecy - according to Snape, he just decided on the Potters, not went "I'll simply kill them both just to be sure".

Why argue about it? simply because I don't like to see fanon concepts discussed as canon.

 

I guess we've found the overused cliché you do like.
Since I addressed those reasons in my previous post, I must have read it. Didn't agree ≠ didn't read.

Ahem...

The original comment you made didn't mention anyone putting the idea forward as canon; you complained about how often the idea is used as a plot device in fan fiction. No fair moving the goalposts on me, sir.

I shouldn't have to tell you that fanon and canon are two different things. If your complaint is that people think this is one-hundred percent canon, fair enough -they can't make that assertion, but we can see from the quote above that's not what you said, so that's not how I replied.

My position wasn't that it is canon. I'm not even trying to tell you your opinion is wrong; if you don't like that it is, in your opinion, overused in fan fiction, then that's fine. This is the peeves thread, after all. It's an emotional response and doesn't need to have any basis in rationality or fact. Such is often the nature of likes and dislikes.

My argument was simply that it's a very sound idea that isn't even remotely reaching toward a far-fetched conclusion, so its frequent inclusion in fan fiction is logical and harmless (especially when compared to other popular fan tropes). In short, all I did was expand upon the first part of your own statement.

Don't blame me for fleshing out your vague stance for you. :mrgreen:

Now, just to be fair, I'll assume your original intention was, in fact, to dispute what you perceived as an assertion by me that it was canon and respond thus...

Yes, I recognize that your original reply was to my comment that:

...which could have been construed as a statement on my part that 'Prophecy = Attack on Longbottoms' is canon. I probably could have been clearer myself and said 'the most compelling reason,' because any other motivation turns the attack into coincidence, which isn't as narratively satisfying for several reasons (mainly because it takes a number of richly thematic or at least relevant story elements present in her work and tosses them in the bin instead of utilizing them). The whole point of that post was why the prophecy used the title "Dark Lord" instead of naming Voldemort, which I said boils down to the fact that prophecy in fiction just doesn't work that way, and the reason it doesn't is narrative, stylistic.

Dramatic flavor, if you will.

My comments about the attack on the Longbottoms were part of that statement and made in the same spirit: Flavor versus blandness. So, again, not an endorsement of 'Prophecy = Attack on Longbottoms' as canon fact, but as the more narratively satisfying reason (and one which still fits nicely within canon without contradicting it in the slightest), as opposed to the attack being pure coincidence.

tl;dr: You're looking at my philosophy essay and telling me my trigonometry is wrong.

--
Just in case, I guess I should add something to my peeves: People who think "fanon" means "Concepts fans honestly believe to be canon but actually aren't," when it actually means, "Concepts that are popular enough among the fans to be widely accepted as good or attractive ideas, but which are not canon nor believed to officially be so."

 

Let's just agree that nothing truly good ever came out of fanon.

 

Can't agree with that.