#thelearningcat hp

[thelearningcat]

Everyone's mysterious discussion of the Mauraders(3rd book)

Is extremely confusing. Lupin and Snape, in particular, make comments that don't really make sense, but Jkr seems to have been trying to make their comments as mysterious as possible.

Now, I don't really remember reading this book for the first time. I read it a very long time ago, if I had to guess after the fourth or fifth book had come out. I don't think I knew what was happening, but I can't say for sure. I can only speak in hindsight about the words that are spoken leading up to the reveal of the Mauraders.

Lupin says "Snape's Grudge", "these mapmakers would have wanted to lure you out of school. They'd think it extremely entertaining."

Now, we know the Mauraders had a vicious trick streak and could be very mean with their pranks and jokes. Granted, we only see the worst of it focused on Snape, but I find it difficult to believe anyone could only be that cruel to one person. Maybe Snape got the brunt of it and was a specific target, but I get the idea that the Mauraders didnt often think about the consequences of their actions.

So it is possible Lupin simply thinks that the idea of a boy who was not supposed to go outside the castle doing so would be fun for them, because they simply just liked causing trouble. But the way its phrased, "lure", makes me feel this doesn't quite fit the bill. Before I go on to my next theory, I will say that Sirius luring Snape through the willow may be fresh on Lupin's mind, so perhaps that's where his choice of words came from.

However, even that I think lends to a different theory, that the strangeness of this comment comes more from Lupin thinking *Sirius* would like to lure Harry straight to him and think it very funny that Harry walked to his own death.

This actually makes a lot of sense on all stages. Lupin wouldn't want to say only one Maurader would find it amusing, that is more telling than Lupin was trying to be. But he also would use the word lure specifically because of its menacing connotations.

It never actually gets directly explained though, which I think delves into this larger narrative of vague mentions of James and Sirius being terrors and mean without any real evidence that they were anything but. Which maybe they weren't but they are examples of characters I feel I need a little more of, besides often vague statements about them.

[thelearningcat]

Do not all the professors know Hermione has a Time Turner? I guess they would have to not. Or at least, no one would tell Snape Hermione had one, because he'd automatically assume Hermione would use it to help Harry get into trouble.

Which really, doesnt that say all you need to know about their trust of Snape and children?

[thelearningcat]

Pets at Hogwarts appear to be a free for all

Or in other words, wherein J.k. uses them when convenient.

Even though the Hogwarts letter clearly states only three animals are allowed, other animals appear to commonly end up in the castle, including Ron's rat and Lee's spider.

Where those animals go and live is a real big question. Owls have a specific place but what about the cats and toads? Hermione implies Crookshanks will live in her dormitory. But in the 3rd book, Neville straight up has Trever the toad in Potions (which just seems like a terrible idea for a toad known for disappearing. I agree with the general fanfic headcanon that Trever is a magical toad that goes invisible at random). Is it common to take pets to class? Pets appear to have a little bit of a familar style relationship for wizards, as it appears very common for smaller pets like rats and toads to really go nearly everywhere with their owners. So is there always a couple animals in any room? If students regularly go outside the three animalsallotted, what other weird pets are wandering around classrooms?

How about the sheer number of possible animals? If there's around 70 students sharing a dormitory,... well Hagrid said toads are unpopular and he only said cats made him sneeze. So does that mean there's just a dozen or so cats wandering around the dormitory at any given time? I can't believe that only 1 in 70 students would own a cat. Even taking into account owls would be more common sense they were useful for other reasons... let's say around 10 students maybe at least have their own owl, probably mainly the ones that are muggle born and dont have family owls. That's still only 1 in 60 that have a cat. I'm just saying. I'm pretty sure every dormitory looks like a crazy cat lady house with floofers snoozing all over the place.

[thelearningcat]

Pre- Troll Hermione just all around makes more sense if she's black.

Now, I admit, I don't know a lot about British Black culture, but I know a ridiculous amount about American black culture. I do not think it'd be wrong to believe that at least some aspects would be similar, though if it comforts anyone who knows Black British history and culture, you can just assume that I'm assuming she is actually an American Black who moved to Britian shortly before receiving her letter.

To preface further, I have always struggled with the simple idea that after fighting the troll Hermione simply became friends with Harry and Ron. I have always wanted to know more about Hermione during that time besides she's just a rule following, know-it-all. I find thinking of Hermione with a similar history to Black Americans makes the transition a bit smoother. So:

1. The rule following makes sense if she's black. She has probably been raised to feel that she can have everything taken due to the color of her skin (it's a bit more complex in reality, but I'm not trying to write a full book right this second). She's used to harsher punishments. She's used to things being pinned on her even when she had no involvement. Her skin put a target on her, so she had to play it all very carefully.

2. Hermione is smart. Really smart for her age and period. She may have internalized following the rules but consciously she would be infuriated that these boys would keep flaunting them. If we then head canon Harry as a POC (I like some middle eastern heritage myself), then we can see Harry's attitude to rules as the other possible outcome for a POC, which is an utter distrust of authority figures and a general belief that you have to fight your own battles if you want something to be done. Hermione however would see this little boy of color and be worried internally but externalize it with anger and shaming, because that likely was how she had elders condition her.

3. Hermione would have dealt with bias leading up, she probably thought the Wizarding World was exempt as no one looked at her and acted differently. No, in the wizarding world, the burn would probably be slower for muggle borns to realize the prejudice. Some of them might get unlucky early on, but most of them probably don't encounter it first hand until Hogwarts. Then it's a luck of the draw to what house they are in and who they have classes with. She had learned prior to the wizarding world to use her intelligence as armor. People didn't judge a smart black girl as harshly. Even if she was a know it all, better that then to be judged for being too black. However, the wizarding worlds prejudices are more complicated. Intelligence protects against a lot of muggle born bias (although "for a muggle born" still gets added on to most compliments), but in a house like Gryffindor, where many blood traitors and half blood reside, that same behavior would only turn the impulsive Gryffindors against you. So what was armor would have turned into her own crucifix in the house that valued bravery over intellect.

4. Hermione would have a hard time figuring out why people hated her. She wouldn't analyze every interaction. Now, was it a question of blood, race, or abrasive attitudes. The last would be the hardest to self reflect on.

5. What Ron said was not actually that extreme, not to warrant a hideaway in a bathroom, unless you believe Hermione had been trying for awhile to make friends in the way she knew how to in the racist muggleworld. Those same techniques backfired on her. She would have gone into the wizarding world expecting a new chance, and Ron's statement only reinforced that, if anything, it was worse here then in the muggle world.

6. The troll attack would have clicked some things into place for Hermione.

First, she would have been struggling to figure out how Harry had gotten away with so much. Not consciously, but subconsciously, it would take staring into the professors with a troll behind her for it to click that she would not be judged harshly here (with these individuals) for her race. Rather, there was another metric they measured trouble on, and it seemed to be one largely of whether you were successful and had achieved justice. She didn't know in that moment why Harry and Ron had come, she didn't even know if they had known she was away from the table (I actually suspect she thought they had done exactly what she lies and said she had done, minus the reading part). So she made a calculated risk, thinking this would be judged heroic enough to save the lot of them from the worst punishments (later when she is caught out after sending Norbert out, she cannot find the same feeling of heroism so she reverts to her old habits).

Second, even if she didn't know why Harry and Ron had turned up, the simple matter is they came to save her. Having been bullied and harassed by adults and children alike for her race growing up, watching friends and supposed allies stand by as it happened, them running to help her mattered. I think if they had immediately said something to save themselves or indicate in any way they were doing this simply for glory, she would have never been friends after the troll incident. However, they stumbled and hesitated, and something told her they were trying to save her, not gain glory for fighting a troll.

Third, Ron was teachable if he could get that stupid spell down. Sure, he was insufferable and riffed on her all the time, but Hermione would value a friend who didn't allow any harm to come to her or anyone else to talk shit about her. She could shape him eventually.

[thelearningcat]

Hogwarts Uniforms

It's always a bit bothered me the way wizarding clothing was taken in the movie and art. I feel like Jkr started with one idea then got tired of figuring it out pretty quickly.

Here's what we know, wizards have sometimes no idea how to wear muggle clothes. Particularly older wizards. This seems logical as adults in general struggle to keep up with the fashion times as once you stop growing, you have less reason to spend money buying new clothes.

It's stated (I think in the books but maybe it came from pottermore or jkr) that wizards largely stagnated in fashion in the 17th century (I looked up the century for this post and found it on pottermore, so who knows if its proper book canon, but I think it is).

However, the largest inconsistency with this general idea is the imagined Hogwarts uniforms and what children wear. Now to some extent, one would expect that children would dress differently.

Plus, robes would be wholly inconvenient and ultimately I believe most wizards would wear clothing that wouldn't flash their underwear, so they are always wearing trousers and a shirt underwear. So theres something there that might be able to pass as muggle.

Or is there?

17th century does not translate well to modern clothing.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit b & c:

In other words, the idea that it stagnated is somewhat hard to believe.

Granted, wizards and witches do live for a longer time then normal. We know Dumbledore to be 150 or so at the time of his death, and he died from a cursed object. So if we instead believe that wizards largely stop keeping up with muggle fashion when they go to Hogwarts, assuming they aren't from a wizarding family, then we are probably instead looking at wizarding fashion being stuck in the 19th century at the earliest for the vast majority of wizards. (Alternatively, I've discussed the fact I think the first Wizarding War took a massive death toll on the wizarding community and wiped out the vast majority of grandparents off the map, despite the fact evidence indicates wizards live to be over 150-given that Dumbledore is still spry-see my other post on wizarding age. While wizarding fashion stagnated in the 17th century to fall behind muggles, I think there maybe have been a revival or change in fashion during or after the first Wizarding War simply due to a mixture of more people hiding in the muggle world and the oldest people that survived and now control things are now Dumbledore's age at oldest (though I tend to believe most are closer to 100, the first Wizarding World really did a number on the population's average age).

19th century:

This is a bit closer(but not really all that muc to how wizarding fashion is often imagined in both movies and art. It's a bit more practical as well, then the fancy weirdness of 17th century fashion.

Ultimately, wizards wouldn't need a lot of the fashion conveniences of mass production and zippers that muggles do. They have magic to make clothing fit and while certainly everyone wouldn't be good at doing so, that's why they have professionals to do so for them.

On top of that, women and men would wear some form of trousers for broomstick riding and other magical reasons. Colors are often loud and played with, as we hear many professors wearing a wide range of colored robes, as I imagine that most of the clothes underneath are simple colors and simple all around. Female robes may have frills, ruffles, and bows. Men and women may wear a bow tie(or whatever they called those things in 19th century fashion) which may explain references to ties (or is that only in the movie? Who knows). I think it's highly plausible robes may have cuts similar to the Jackets above where it is shorter in the front and longer in the back. But I imagine that more for someone like Lockhart. Most people would use robes which covered their whole body.

Needless to reiterate, I don't like how modern fashion tends to be depicted or how similar to muggle. I think wizarding fashion is largely simple, where colors tend to be how they individualize clothing, if canon is to be trusted. If anyone knows anyone who does fanart with some more unique fashion choices, I'd love to see it, as I know little about fashion (if my Google images didn't make that evident) so I'd love to know what other people imagine that is different from what the illustrated books and movies depict.

Note: I AM NOT saying that fanart which depicts the world with modern clothing is not legitimate or beautiful. I merely want to see some examples that I feel are canon compliant because I feel I just never have. I love all of you who do fanart, whatever your chosen clothing options <3

[thelearningcat]

When trying to answer the question of how the other school founders did not know how to find the Chamber of Secrets,

I like to imagine that it's a simple matter of how Hogwarts was built.

We know that Hogwarts is supposed to be as impenetrable from the inside as the out (at least, I think that's stated in canon and is not just something I picked up somewhere. Either way, it's clearly true), and that is why it's so confusing to get around and has so many secret passageways. Why, in the first book alone, Harry describes doors that aren't doors, doors that require specific action or words to get through, etc. Along with stairs that move and disappear.

Why would anyone ever build a castle like that for children? Well, to be impenetrable by muggles and wizard folk alike.

So how would the founders go about building Hogwarts? This is where the Chamber of Secrets question gets answered. They would each start building separately. They would add in tricks and secrets. Their house dormitories were likely where they started and then they moved away. Sometimes they weaved around one another. Sometimes they edited what someone else built. Hufflepuff needed a stairway to the landing they just built, but Slytherin had already built some, so she just enchanted them to move between landings.

So in this way, even the founders didn't know the full scope of the castle. One of them built the Room of Requirement, and none of the other three knew about it. They stumbled upon it occasionally but didn't actually know what it did.

Slytherin took it upon himself to assure pipes flowed through the whole castle, though he never admitted why. He claimed that he refused to let students live like common muggles without indoor plumbing.

(this is one invention I believe wizards invented, no matter what jkr says about them pooping while standing up. It may even be that the founders invented it to assure the castle was kept clean while students were still learning vanishing spells or so they wouldn't have to get even more house elves to mind the chamber pots. Google says Hogwarts was built in 900 a.d. and indoor plumbing invented in the 1800s. I do not believe for a second all those pipes were built after the fact. So, wizards invented indoor plumbing)

I would even go so far as to say the founders kept building the day they each left the school to a headmaster. The building of actual rooms slowed and eventually stalled but then they added magical paintings, suits of armors, and other artifacts. That's the task they left each Headmaster, keep adding on to Hogwarts. Never let Hogwarts stay too much the same over time.

So no one knew where Slytherin built his chamber of Secrets, and the process for building Hogwarts got lost in time as did the task of changing Hogwarts to assure it stayed impenetrable.

[thelearningcat]

I know we've talked about this before, but sometimes, I think we need to be reminded of this:

The mauraders made a map that could see through the invisibility cloak.

I mean, okay, so if we take all of the things we hear about the hallows, then they are not actually these invincible weapons. In fact, the story of death really seems to be somewhat exaggerated. If the wand was really that powerful, then in a straight on duel, then no other wand should be able to defeat it, and no one else would ever conquer the wand except by sneaky means. If the cloak was that strong, maps made by teenagers should not be able to see through it, or it wouldn't be easy to touched, or the person shouldn't be able to be hit by spells while wearing it. So at best, they are very good at a specific thing, and maybe that's something that in modern wizarding world has been lost in time. Though regardless, they are very strong magical artifacts, but are not actually something that's infallible all put together. Though, the story of the Hallows itself seems to say so much.

However, even with that in mind, this is a strong magical artifact and it would not be easy to spell this map to identify people under it.

These boys were geniuses, and I feel that's underappreciated most of the time. Maybe it was just a good team where all their skills built off each other, but it still seems that if they hadn't been broken apart, they would be ruling half the wizarding world themselves.

[thelearningcat]

Me watching the Crimes of Grindelwald:

WHERE ARE THE FANTASTIC BEASTS??? GIVE ME MORE FANTASTIC BEASTS AND LESS DRAMATIC INTRIGUE

Why is everyone wearing clothes that can fit into muggle society? J.K. established book 1 that this is not a thing. You can't change your mind now.

A love triangle bullshit really? This is so unnecessary. You have quirky characters already with some established drama (e.g. the inability of muggles and witches to marry and Newts tendency to search for beasts that destroy muggle cities). You don't need this stupidity.

This story would be way more interesting if you just took Grindlewald out of the story. Still have our hurt teenager and Newt antics. That's all you need.

Gratuitous name drops is so boring.

Well, at least that got manipulative Dumbledore down.

Dumbledore's actions would make a lot more sense if they had actually built into the story what J.K. claims- i.e. Dumbledore is a gay boy who loved another gay boy named Grindlewald.

Grindlewalds actions would also be way more compelling if he was openly gay. He not only had reasons to want to let wizards live in the open but to be allowed to live in the open with his love. We don't know how well pure bloods and wizarding society accept homosexuality, but at worst, we can assume that its Loras Tyrell GOT style existence, where pure bloods accept sometimes that some people have "peculiarities" but as long as they produce heirs it's not a big controversy on it's own.

It's been way too long since I've seen fantastic beasts.

Seriously, someone should time the amount of time that fantastic beasts are actually on screen.

I fucking hate the love triangle trope. So dumb. So unnecessary.

I'm happy that the women in this movie have truly been relegated to love interests and side characters. So happy. >:[