From what I remember of my Religions class, the actual phrase is in Aramaic - and it's literally "Execute traitors," with an implication of heretics (it was a theocratic society.) At the time, those who spoke against the state religion were considered treasonous.

When Christianity became the state religion, anyone who spoke against Christianity became traitors, and it carried the Death Penalty. Even when everyone became tolerant of most other religions, the people called "witch" were considered completely anathematic to "good people" - most religions derived from Judaism and Christianity.

Pope Peter, who founded the church, appears to have been highly misogynistic - and he put men in power who tended to agree with him. The attitude carried down the centuries and grew more intense over time. Thus, Wiccans (who worshipped a woman of all "unnatural and perverse things") were automatically considered evil.

 

Boy, you must have been bored...

Thanks for the link

 

Woah woah woah woah WOAH.

Let's hit the fucking brakes here before this degenerates into the whole Aramaic to English translation hey-doesn't-witch-translate-better-as-poisoner bullshit fest. It's been done a million and a half fucking times already, once more ain't going to help.

You don't have to be religious to use God or Jesus as a throwaway reference or minor blasphemy. See Monty Python and the Holy Grail circa: the French castle for a perfect example of the term "Jesus Christ" being used as an expression of shock.

Now, if they got down on their knees and started praying, then you'd have some grounds to say "wait, doesn't this kinda mean they're religious?" But not this minor crap. It seems wizards treat religion much like mainstream agnostics/atheists/mark-the-box Christians: a couple of nice holidays and some minor blasphemies to add to your mental dictionary.

 

Something on topic since I just read the first post They're great.

- No homosexuals
- No muggle weapons
- No training rooms or uber power levels
- No uber weapons in family vaults

Amen :banana:

(I might have wanted to make Ron a cool guy... A little).

 

Well take comfort in the fact that most H/D fics are written by stupid teenage fangirls. We're not dealing with reasonable people here....they are teenage girls after all.

 

Who wants to get back to Potter Law?

I feel like a hypocrite for saying this though, because I can't think of an even mediocre one...

 

I should have stated it more clearly I have no problems with casual mentions, for example, that 'Dumbledore swings that way' in a comical context. I just absolutely hate slash pairings. It think they're called 'slash', right

 

I feel like I should be offended.

 

Potter Law #?: The Potter Law thread is to be strictly for laws about the Potterverse. Any other subject has a different thread. (Looks up) Well this one is screwed already.

 

Okay, okay, here's one that's always annoyed me:

Potter Law ????

Despite Severus Snape's rants to the contrary, Harry is not bad at Potions. He did manage an E on his OWLs, and is therefore better than average. Neville is a walking disaster around a cauldron, not Harry. Fanon that says that Harry stinks at Potions is incorrect and probably written by idiot fanboys/fangirls who can't read.

 

Not necessarily true. Do we know what he had for an OWL?
Anyway, Neville is a disaster around a cauldron if Snape and other Slytherins are around to destroy his work.

 

If I remember correctly he didn't get to the potions class even after Slughorn began to teach. And this means it was clearly lower then E. Even without slitherins. And then did Snape spoil his work?

 

No, in HBP, American Edition, Chapter 5, Page 102, it says Harry got an E in the Potions OWL. He thought he didn't get into Potions because Snape required an O for acceptance, but when Slughorn started teaching, he lowered the requirement to E.

 

I don't remember which book, but Snape DID deliberately drop one of Harry's potions on the floor, shattering it and giving Harry a failure for the day. I *think* it was right after the Pensieve Incident.

 

If he hadn't got into the potion class, he would never have needed the Half-Blood Prince's book. After which, may I remind you, the book is actually titled.

Harry's okay at Potions. Not too bad, but he'll never be anything better than schoolish at it. I agree that Snape as a teacher was the worst thing that could've happened to him, too, since it made him hate the very idea of potion-making. No wonder he puts no effort into it.

 

Dasha and World were talking about Neville, actually, not Harry. We all know he got an E in Potions.

It's kind of obvious that Harry isn't horrible at Potions, Neville's the one who blows up cauldrons. Though, as World said, it's most likely because Snape and the Slytherins were there.

 

Illnill is right, I was talking about Neville. My English is not bad enough to miss the point of the whole book. I should have been more accurate.
People usually want to see characters they like to be great at everything.
And I only said this because I seen a lot of stories then authors take pity on Neville and make him good at potions when Snape is not around. He actually has no reason to antagonize him as he is not James's son. I think if the boy was any good at potions he would have been alright in the class. Look at Hermione as she is basically in the same position as Neville, but she manages. He after all didn't get in the transfiguration too, and nobody can accuse McGonagall of being prejudiced, right? Not only good teacher and confidence needed to be good at something.

Urgh.. thanks for the compliment

 

Erm.

...Oops?

Sorry. >_<