I wonder... what would he have even done if Voldemort had won, but the Potters, all of them, had been killed? Would he still try to take some kind vengeance against Voldemort for killing his waifu?

 

But, but he was bullied. Surely that entitles him to do whatever the hell he wants.

 

I wish someone had raised this point in one of the school shooting threads! LOL

 

I'm not sure if it was mentioned in the books or in an interview, but what would be Voldemort's skill level in transfiguration?

 

Extraordinary: he got highest marks in Hogwarts in all of his exams (Transfiguration is a core subject) and Dumbledore himself said that he was the most gifted student Hogwarts has ever seen; he was undoing Dumbledore's transfiguration in their duel; on a split-second notice he gave Pettigrew a magical silver hand while simultaneously embedding in it instruction to kill him if he betrays his master; he was known as one of the most powerful and skilled wizards in history and this mastery was mentioned not related to Dark Arts specifically, but at magic in general of which Transfiguration s a vital part.

 

Yeah I think it's fair to assume that Voldemort was a master of pretty much every area of magic.

 

Exactly what I wanted to see, thanks folks.

 

He also did some very impressive transfiguration in the duel with Albus at the MoM.

 

Dumbledore also mentioned to Harry that Voldemort could unravel any spell that he could conceivably do.

 

I guess he also must be very good at Potions, given the resurrection stuff in GoF. Pettigrew was probably just following Voldemort's instruction.

 

Was that potions? I think it might be alchemy.

 

I think the word potion was used when the grave yard scene was described.

 

I'm pretty sure the word was "Gumbo."

There may have been a line about how Harry would "roux the day..." My memory is a little foggy on the subject.

 

If I remember correctly it's described as a potion in Harry's head, probably because he didn't know any better.

 

This might sound weird, but I need a bit of help concerning the use of demonstratives. I try to weasel my way through with intuition and what sounds right, but as non-native speaker I fail more often than not.

I know that ‘this/these’ stands for relative proximity and ‘that/those’ for relative remoteness (either for one thing or for multiple things).

But it still happens that I mix them up, or that I’m unsure which one to use in certain situations. It's honestly driving me nuts that I can't seem to get this down in a way that I can use it with 100% accuracy.

Here's an example:

I'm unsure whether to refer to the losses with these or those, and I have the feeling that the answer is obvious, which irks me even more.

 

I don't think that this is a hard rule where one is right and the other is wrong. You could go with either term, and how the rest of the sentence plays out determines which one is more correct.

I've always gone with my gut on these sort of things though; I was never one to know the rules and laws off the top of my head.

 

TWT is right that in your case, it really could go either way. I'd default to distance of time here. Was it something that just finished happening immediately within your story? (A few minutes or hours, if the story covers a few days, or, if the story covers a few months, then immediate would be a few hours or days). If so, go with "these." If it was in the past, go with "those."

At least, that's how I'd go about it.

 

I feel like "those" works better in this case - it...I dunno, creates more distance between those losses and the potential loss of Sakura. As has been said though, "these" isn't wrong.

Totally unrelated, but should it be "at her sight"? Wouldn't "at the sight of her" be better? Or is that just personal preference?

 

Technically correct (I think), but there are 'better' ways to do it.

 

Gotcha.

It's really bugging me. Like, if it was something Sakura said, then him pausing 'at her speech' makes sense. It is her speech. But the image of her standing there...is that her sight? Wouldn't 'her sight' be what she sees, not what Naruto sees?