#hp magic

[briarpotter]

A World of Magic and Wonder!

[danpuff-ao3]

Most of my current YouTube bingeing is about disasters/tragedies from caving, diving, mountain climbing, etc. Me being me, I'm also thinking about how these extreme/dangerous activities would work in the magical world, and applying my enjoyment of "magical flaws" to them. [See: Flaws in Fiction: Magical Edition]

Sure, we can pretend magic makes everything super easy, but isn't that boring?? Think of all the magical supplies they'd need, or spellwork, potions, etc. And the options! Maybe some wixen are more skilled in Transfiguration and opt for more sharkhead type diving (a la Krum) or using gillyweed (hello Harry.) Maybe some options are better than others, such as potions versus a sequence of spells. And the fact that magic will wear off eventually.

Also: what if you cast wrong? My idea for "why do magical folk wear glasses?" is: well the eyes are a sensitive area, do you really wanna risk worsening your eyesight, or worse?? What if the magic went awry and caused brain damage?? Do you think every magical person ever casts perfect spells every time???? No mistakes ever???? Gotta look at that cost-benefit analysis! Why risk your eyesight when you can just wear glasses? Glasses aren't that bad, I promise.

But now take that further. Imagine using spells to supplement your oxygen. What if you blew up your lungs or something? Or the spell tampered with your blood? Our bodies are very intricate machines, you know. I'd imagine one would need very precise spellwork to not do worse damage trying to fix a problem.

Like...what if you shrunk yourself to explore a tight cave tunnel? Then...the spell wore off at the worst time? You just expand back to your normal size in a very tight area?? What do you think that would do to a person?

All of that before we even introduce "what dangerous magical creatures are lurking on the mountaintops?" question!

One day I'm going to have to write some good established snarry to focus more on worldbuilding and magical theory and put this stuff to the test!

What are your thoughts on ways in which magic could be dangerous, or go wrong? Ways that magic might not be such a perfect and easy fix for things?

[jonquilandlace]

Okay I have a hot take about the writing in Harry Potter

Like, for the context of this post, we're ignoring every shitty and stupid thing JKR has done, okay; there are now trans people at Hogwarts, Harry's bi, and most of the main cast is POC in this universe, but this problem still exists:

THE KILLING CURSE IS A FUCKING NARRATIVE COP-OUT.

Sincerely, nothing will ever annoy me more than the ease by which someone just up and dies in this universe. Like, yes, I get not wanting to torture someone to death or something, but just by having a single curse that "whoop you're dead"-s whoever you want it to is literally ridiculously world-breaking. Like, you make it illegal; sure, murder is illegal. Except, while yeah they could probably still find a way to creatively lock you up for it, it's more important that the Forbidden curses are Forbidden than the actions they actually do? There are spells that can disappear things; disappear someone's heart straight out of their chest, then! Spells that can disarm could arguably be overpowered enough to literally disarm people. Idk I'm not creative at the moment point being there are a LOT of ways you could kill someone with magic, but then instead all anyone ever does is use the designated killing curse!!! It undermines the whole point!!! Like, yeah, it's like giving someone a gun arguably and then they're trying to disarm them, but the whole issue is that you can't disarm people because it's just a WORD and they also need the actual mechanism for casting for literally everything else they do???? Like. If I was JK, worldbuilding this shit. No killing curse. If you want to show how people are monstrous, let them find creative ways to be fucked up. Instead of having a thought gun, make them have to use friendly things and warp them until they're no longer recognizable. Mirror Voldemort's snake-ification or whatever, mirror his splitting of his soul and loss of humanity not with an easy way to kill everything, but show him warping magic, too. Anyway rant over, the killing curse is a cop-out, enjoy.

[podcastnineandthreequarters]

Our new episode is here! Reeah and Jem talk about Australian cultural archetypes, what the magical government, bank and prison are like, and what Australian wizards are doing in their spare time. Listen now!

[dragonsandwolvesohmy]

Lost! Help!

Harry goes to Diagon Alley and buys a box of broken doorways that lead into expanded spaces via runework. He's going to play around with them, fix/alter the rune work. He has an expanded trunk that he stays in too. He sets his trunk up by the road at one point, near a field or forest.

Also what is the fic where Harry creates a ritual/spell to pull lost money from Digon Alley and gets Gringots drafts too?!?!? This is also Auror's Boys... woops...

Or that fic where Moody raises Sirius, Remus and Harry after going through this witness protection thing with the unspeakables, where they get de aged. I FOUND THIS ONE!!! It's The Auror's Boys by lindajenner. (part of a great series)

Another where Harry's staying in the back room of the Leaky Cauldron, works as a cook? Gets work in the alley. GOT IT!!! Realizations by wishweaver on ff.net. don't know their name on ao3 but know it's there too!

What's the one where Ginny is cheating on Harry with Dean when they're married, and she kills him, only for him to go back in time? Found this one!!! The only sound is the overflow by cartonsofcartoons.

The one where he misses a year because of pirates is Venom Peddler.

[your-lost-mind]

“You'll stay with me?" “Until the very end.” (-J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows)

[sunshine-tattoo]

jk Rowling might have done some pretty fucked up shit over the years, but I think the thing that messed me up the most was her reasoning as to why Harry had to live with the Dursleys all those years.

like she could have set up this major tragedy of a childhood to have the audience learn about the power of a found family.

maybe the Weasleys find out about all the horrors this boy went through by his biological family and adopt him into theirs. with Molly definitely murdering Vernon Dursley with her bare hands.

or sirius takes him in like he wanted to in book 3. Or Remus. Or hagrid. Or McGonagall. Literally anybody other than his abusers.

instead she literally just keeps this poor kid trapped for seven books for some poorly done plot device centered around the power of blood magic to ensure that every book started and ended with Harry at his terrible relatives' house.

this really gave kids of my generation the message that even if your family is awful, you still have to just stick it out. even if your dead parents left you a trust fund and there's a big ass family of gingers ready to immediately adopt you. 'blood is more powerful blah blah blah'.