I actually wonder if the origins of Magic actually come from Greek or Roman mythology, like the goddess Hectate? Maybe Atlantis once existed in the Harry Potter world and magic was some type of manmade thing that spread across the world...or something. I'd love to see something that explores how magic came to be.

 

...I feel like I've already read a story with that concept. Hmm.

 

The only thing I recall being Greek-related is that one ancient wizard from Chocolate Frog Cards who could create a Patronus the size of a giant.

 

I remember one where the boggart takes the form of an evil Harry, but it doesn't know how to change between forms at all. However, no idea who wrote it, or when.

EDIT

At which point it goes around, setting fire to everything and being a bit of a tosser.

 

So...random question here but, uh, is "tosser" British slang for "salad tosser" as in someone who tosses the salad so to speak? I've never really understood the fascination with calling Voldemort the Dark Tosser.

 

It means wanker, you tosser.

 

I always imagined that it was slang for salad tosser which in the states is a gay man who engages in some unique sexual habits and thus it annoyed me that people would say Voldemort did such, usually it was found in those cliche'd indyHarry crapfests that are a guilty pleasure at times.

 

The first google result for tosser explains it....

 

Meh, I was not a bright teenager and I'm still not always that smart as an adult.

 

Technically speaking, how would the Cloak of Invisibility affect the stare of a basilisk? If Harry was under the cloak and the basilisk looked at him, would Harry be petrified or killed?

 

Neither.

He would be petrified until someone stubbed their toe on him, or the end of the universe... whichever came first.

Because he's invisible. The devil is in the details.

 

I'm sure Dumbledore would see through the cloak. Especially if Harry was missing for a longer time. But still, if looking though something prevents death and only causes petrification, then by that logic the Cloak should apply.

 

Wait did Dumbledore actually see through invisibility cloaks? I always assumed his comment to mean that there is more to remaining hidden than being invisible.

 

IIRC, JKR mentioned somewhere that he used that human revealing spell; the one that Hermione used in Grimmauld Place in DH.

 

Bah. My answer is much more fun.

Or soul-crushingly sad... depending on how much you actually think about it.

 

Well given how badly canon ends up not sure it is sad at all...

Considering he uses the Elder Wand to do that it is not necessarily the spell that matters.

 

Basilisk? I'll be more afraid if one turn into a Weeping Angel.

 

Unlikely, the HP world is supposed to be the same history as ours and as such Doctor Who also exists there which means no risk of an image becoming the actual Weeping Angel...

Or maybe our world is a breeding pit for Weeping Angels so they don't do anything here so maintain it as such.

 

By that logic though, Harry should have been able to survive looking at it directly, because he wears glasses. Which raises another question to me: how did Colin Creevey survive? IIRC, he looked at it through his camera, which I believe was just a normal if old-fashioned camera that he used with special paper/development process, although I could be wrong about that. Most of the petrifications were through looking at reflections somehow - water, mirror, off the top of my head. Am I just being thick?

 

You forgot the ghost one. Don't remember who it was but the ghost was Nick.

And yes Harry could probably survive only being petrified though off course considering how much glasses tend to cover and move with sudden actions, which Harry was doing a lot of, I seriously doubt that at any given point they were actually covering all of the basilisk's eyes in his field of vision.

For a personal example I use glasses all day(and have done so for over a decade) and despite being one of those that likes his glasses as close as humanly possible there is still a clear part that isn't covered by them, would take very little for me to get killed specially if I knew it was a basilisk since I would be in the process of turning away from it...