A muggleborn/muggleraised wizard would probably be aware of radiation, or at least be able to look it up on wikipedia.

 

Pretty sure Wikipedia didn't exist back in canon times. Since it's set in 1991 and all.

 

@Ellisande: 1991 would make Harry 10 or 11 years old, so I doubt he would be up to the task of space travel.

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If anyone does "Harry goes into space", please, don't make Hermione the "creator" of the ship.

I may be derailing here, but with good reason, seeing as everyone thinks Hermione is this ubersmart genius, when in fact she's not. All she has is the ability to retain huge amounts of information and follow instructions to the letter. However, that a genius does not make.

Genius is when you have glue, matchsticks and a few springs, and you make an automatic rifle. What she does is just follow instructions, repeating the feats of others. She never made anything new in the books, and thus, even though she is intelligent and all that, she remains nothing more than an exemplary student. Even the protean charms on the fake galleons was an idea she ripped off Voldemort's dark mark.

In short, she's not creative. Unlike Snape, for example, who created a few spells of his own and modified most of the potion recipes in his potions textbook, even when he was in school, she has nothing to her name. If she was on a project like that, the best position she could have is supervising the spellcasting/enchanting.

To get back on topic, I don't think this is a two-three man job, seeing as the slightest mistake could lead said two-three men to their untimely death. So I'd suggest not doing that, unless of course, you're doing a crackfic.

Making it a governmental project, with more (competent) people involved would be much more believable, and I even have a plot bunny for it.

 

Which is, I admit, more or less the role I gave her.

Her access to spells and information she's memorized, and her willingness to bang on a problem until it is solved, make her an ideal person to go to when Harry hands her an idea for something and says, "What would it take to make this happen? ... Do it."

And she proceeds to help make it happen, earning more than a few "I couldn't have done it without you, Hermione"s, which is a lot less trite than it sounds, and possibly more satisfying for her than it should be.

I do wish JKR had been a bit more generous handing out achievements to Harry's generation. Sirius and James are painted as transfiguration geniuses (so much so that they can even help a schmuck like Peter become an animagus); Lily is smart, beautiful, loved by all, and most believe she found a way to defy death; Snape invented spells and improved potions before he was a legal adult; and Tom Riddle...

Harry and his crew basically have determination and luck in vast amounts (though Ron's supply of the former is woefully short compared to his comrades). That's about it.

Not their fault, really, what with the horribly shitty teachers they had (plus adults like Neville's relatives dragging their progeny down at every turn), and the fact that they are as their creator made them. I think JKR's desire to make her heroes be "everyman" types, easily related to by the generation that is currently sitting on its ass watching the members of the "greatest generation" die, while they have fun with their Swiss-army-like cell phones, went a little too far toward creating mediocre protagonists.

Then she had to pull back their idiot quotient in the last book, creating the inequity of "still schlubs" Ron and Harry, with "always prepared and thinking ahead" super!Hermione.

But that's enough of that tangent.

 

That's true for most of their generation, and certainly so for the main trio. But Fred and George shouldn't be forgotten as probable exceptions, IMO. Yes, most of their creations are "worthless" jokes, but that's only because jokes are what they love best. Take a good look at what they do and you realize that creative genius isn't entirely dead in Harry's generation.

Of course, they're also portrayed as having minimal interest in the Hogwarts curriculum, so perhaps Rowling would be forced to agree with you, re: shitty teachers. Even if she doesn't realize it.