It's based on the UK education system, right? So, when Rowling went through school there would have been O levels and A levels. You'd do eight to twelve O levels around 15/16 years old (just like you do eight to ten OWLs at 15/16) and then you either get a job or go into sixth form (leave Hogwarts or carry on into sixth year).

In Sixth form you do three or four A levels, taking the exams at 17/18 years old. So, I'd guess three or four NEWTS is normal- choosing four subjects in sixth year and possibly dropping one in seventh year. Some incredibly bright kids at my school did five A levels, so you may be able to get away with Dumbledore or Voldemort doing six since I seem to remember news stories about a couple of people nationwide that got six A levels.

EDIT: I forgot that Aurors are stated as needing 5 NEWTs. Depending on the university and course universities ask for a number of A levels, often 3 (e.g. I've seen them ask for 3 Bs at A level or two Bs and a C). So either Auror is the most difficult job possible or you take 5-7 NEWTs.

 

Well, seeing as Aurors need five N.E.W.T.s with a grade of Exceeds Expectations, it's probably okay to assume that Dumbledore, Voldemort, and Hermione all took at least 5 NEWT classes and got Outstandings in each.

As far as we know, Ron and Harry didn't take their tests.

 

Alright, ty!

 

I have a question on Dresden files but can't find a thread like this there so I am asking here I hope that is ok? Didn't wanted to create new threat so;

Any way my question about White Council, How does it works? Who heads the Wardens? Does he or she is on the council? And most importantly How does White Council makes money? I mean they pay the wardens right? where does that money comes from?

I only read first 6 books and that was some time ago so I might have missed some part where they explained it but I don't remember it.

 

The Wardens are led by someone with the rank of Captain.

Spoiler

At the start of the Dresden Files books this is a woman called Anastasia Luccio. However, after Dead Beat, where the Corpsetaker steals her body, Luccio is stuck in a new body whose potential for powerful magic is significantly diminished, as well as simply being different to her previous body. These problems with her new body mean that, though Luccio remains the Captain of the Wardens, Morgan was the de facto leader - until his death. Can't remember if we're told who his replacement is.

Remember that the White Council is all the wizards in the world (in theory). So of course the Captain is on the White Council. However, if you mean to ask if the Captain is on the Inner Council - no. It's not a position on the Inner Council like the Gatekeeper is (though actually, do we know if the Gatekeeper must be part of the Inner Council?). That said, there's nothing stopping the Captain of the Wardens becoming part of the Inner Council, if it's their turn. Remember the Inner Council is decided by seniority.

After the Captain of the Wardens, the next rank down are the Regional Commanders - of which Harry Dresden is one.

The White Council is rich. Not only are they are a very old institution (always helpful, as wealth tends to lead to more wealth) but there are also a number of ways to make money from magic. Butcher has indicated that Harry could be a very rich person, if he chose to use magic in a more self-interested way. Many of his peers do exactly that.

...incidentally...

Remember you only conjugate the verb in the present simple in the affirmative - not the question or negative forms.

He has a doughnut.
He doesn't have a doughnut.
Does he have a doughnut?

Same in the past simple.

He had a doughnut.
He didn't have a doughnut.
Did he have a doughnut?

I'm guessing you're from an Eastern European country. Or maybe Russia. Am I close?

 

Senior Council, Taure. Senior, and I suspect that the Gatekeeper is a position held only by Senior Council Members. After all, he deals exclusively with the Outer Gates, and it's against the Seventh Law to even look at those funny. The Blackstaff is off the books so it can go to anyone, but the Gatekeeper is a public position so it's my opinion that even if the option were there, no one would want to give the position to a Wizard not on the Senior Council.

 

Hrm. I wrote Senior Council at first but felt a bit of doubt and for some reason changed it to Inner. I even Googled it, lol. But I think maybe I Googled the wrong fandom XD

 

Very close, Turkey actually.
What did give me away?

Ps: I will be more careful next time. Thanks

 

The latest Pottercrapmore information sparked a question in my mind; Shacklebolt was on that list, right? Was Shacklebolt black in the books, or was it just the movies that had him portrayed by a black actor (like Nick Fury in the Avengers film? Or was it left ambigious in the books but confirmed in "other" non-movie sources, like Hestia Jones being half-white and half-black (Lego games, possible relation to Gwenagog Jones).

Because, as well as confirming that there's no real racism with wizards unlike muggles, it would also mean that a lot of those who are of pure-blood descent would have at least one black ancestor, like Homer Simpson has (on another note, Homer also has several Native American ancestors, too). Unless Shacklebolt's ancestors were white or even Asian or something, and African wizards married strongly into the family, or something.

That also makes me think about muggleborns' ancestors - didn't JKR said that they were squibs who "went muggle"? At least some of those squibs are bound to have been from a pure-blood line, right?

Ghetto!Harry and Hoe-mione, anyone?

I'm also sure that there's a historical fuck-up, there; until the slave trade (a dark time in history) started up, black people were very, very uncommon in Europe, especially Britain; if a black person walked down a city (say, London's) street back then, they would have been stared at.

Unless, of course, magical migration was in full swing for some time before muggles began to spread around, a bit.

Yes, I know this post sounds sort of racist, but I'm pretty interested in what this information would have on possible wizarding genealogy and history.

 

Well, just because Shacklebolt is black doesn't mean all of his ancestors were too. If it's more of a recent addition to the family genes, it doesn't necessarily rule out racism in the wizarding world, considering how dated the list was. In fact, that seems a lot more likely to me considering 'Shacklebolt' sounds pretty English and like you said, immigration from Africa is a relatively recent development in comparison to the other families heritage.

 

Well, whatever the explanation is, because Kingsley is black, I'm still somehow positive that 'Ghetto!Harry and Hoe-mione' would be awful.

 

I kind of assumed wizards were fairly ethnically diverse due to British colonialism. If there were magical British imperialists that encouraged as many wizards possible to relocate to England from the colonies, it's not impossible that African or Indian magicals were allowed or encouraged to marry into prominent magic families.

(If anyone wants to use that idea in a fic feel free, I love time travel fics but don't think I could write one without sounding like an uneducated redneck)

 

I get the feeling magical travel and relocation would have been an altogether easier/friendlier process. It doesn't strike me as unreasonable to suggest the migration of foreign wizards to magical Britain, or really, any other place.

It makes sense for prejudices based in blood purity, magical ability, or anti-Muggle sentiment to have emerged in magical society, but things like sexism or racism may have seemed foolish or irrational to witches and wizards sharing some measure of magical knowledge, ability, or culture.

 

Two things with regard to Shacklebolt and black people in Britain. I'm of course no expert but it doesn't seem so out of the ordinary to me for the Shacklebolts to be included, since you need only go back to Othello to see Moorish peoples already present (if not wholly accepted) in European countries from way back, and not as slaves. It's never explicitly stated that he's black but the context clues are certainly clear.

Secondly, the list referenced is dubious anyway due to the sketchy origins, but it also never says 'British only,' does it? The Shacklebolts might've emigrated from whatever home country and assimilated into the UK pureblood or magical society and been accepted as 'pure,' which to me points more to a possible one-time anti-Muggle sentiment on the part of, Uncle Tom or Aunt Jemima Shacklebolt, LOL.


And I was listening yesterday to an oldish podcast of Things You Missed In History Class - about the Gunpowder Plot - when I heard that one of the conspirators was named Rookwood. Wonder if JKR got the name from there or somewhere else?

 

She gets names from all sorts of places. I used to live 10 miles away from Snape, in Suffolk, where she got his name.

 

Well, aside from Shacklebolt, there's Cho Chang, Dean Thomas and the Patil twins to consider. Even when Dean was on the run out in the English countryside he only complained about the discrimination being against halfbloods and muggleborns, not anything else.

It makes sense, really. When you can draw such a strong divide between yourself and another group, other divisions seem lesser in comparison. I imagine there are probably racists in the Wizarding World, but as it is the pureblood/muggleborn issue is clearly the larger of the two.

Also, there were Moorish traders that made a great deal of money selling spices and the likes from the Asia Minor region in western Europe. So while black people may not have been common in the region, they were still around (though less so the more in land you got). Hell, the southern half of Spain was owned by the Moors for more or less 300 years before Christopher Columbus was even born.

 

For the record, there is also a Shafiq family listed on Pottermore's "sacred twenty-eight." Shafiq seems to be an even better candidate for being magical Moorish immigrants.

I'd imagine that any of these immigrants would be recognized as pure-bloods, provided they can show that their magical lineage goes back far enough. So long as their home country has a long and respectable Wizarding history - and there's no reason to believe that there aren't many places with long magical histories in the HP universe - the proof of lineage should be recognized by even the most provincial British pure-bloods.

 

On this note, can we assume that the Dursleys aren't racist because of how much they liked Shacklebolt? That always made me laugh.

 

I never saw anyone actually comment on what the books had to say on this subject, so...

This scene where Harry is escorted from Privet Drive to Grimmauld Place, is also where he met a number of other 'blink-and-you-missed-them' Order members, including Tonks (sporting hair that was a "violent shade of violet", though hot pink seems more popular in the fandom, with black 'strongly reminiscent of Bellatrix' possibly coming in second, leaving the violet lagging in third place).

Really?

I've never played the HP Lego games, but looking at screenshots of her minifig, she's more or less as beige as the white characters.

Quite a while back, I had been working on a story where I actually made Hestia half-and-half, with a black auror father who'd died in the line of duty not long before Harry became The Boy Who Lived. I kept thinking to myself that since pretty much all we know of her from the books is that she's "A pink-cheeked, black-haired witch", people would point to that passage and say it made the notion of her having a dark-skinned parent rather unlikely...

I think an interesting fact about Hestia is that not only is she one of the few people to openly express disgust at how the Dursleys treat Harry, she's very nearly the only one to try and correct that behavior.

Is 'Gwenagog Jones' related to this guy?

 

I don't remember the exact words, but if not mistaken, I'm fairly sure that in OotP Shack is described as black and his clothing as what you saw in the movie. I will search in the book and edit later...

Edit