If they offer you a dog named Jack, it's all right if you're a peaceful man, just feed him when you can.
A Skirt's Not So Bad [Harry Potter]
- Thread starter Tekomandor
- Start date
Epsilon Rose
The King of Unrest
If you don't mind, what is that a reference to?
Strunkriidiisk
THE LEGEND
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The Weight, by The Band.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- She/They
The Wehrmacht in general made a lot of massive mistakes and don't really deserve their reputation of being unstoppable if only Hitler hadn't tried to make decisions.
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Didn't that myth come from the Western Allies allowing most of the Wehrmacht surviving ranked officers write the history books?
- Pronouns
- She/They
Sometimes history is written by the winners. Sometimes the people writing the histories make themselves the winners. And sometimes, the propaganda was supported by the actual winners because they needed those troops to do some more fighting right over here, please, don't worry, we'll make sure that only those nasty SS officers get thrown under the bus.
If anything, Hitler had a better idea of the strategic picture than his generals, which is why he wanted to prioritise the oil-fields and not Moscow. The generals thought that taking Moscow would break to Soviets which is laughable; Stalin was going to throw every man, woman and child at the Nazis. I'm not sure how this thread got on this topic though.
I think it was a comparison of the Death Eaters to the Nazis, I forget why though.
Year Four, Chapter Thirty Two
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Year Four, Chapter Thirty Two
"And what will I be learning tonight, Professor?" Holly asked Dumbledore. He had once more asked her to his office for a practical lesson, and as usual, Holly had no idea what it would be about.
"Oh, a bit of this and that," Dumbledore said, smiling a little as he held out an arm. She took it, and then Holly felt the unpleasant squeezing sensation of apparition. It felt like she was the last bit of toothpaste in the tube, being squeezed out by a particularly frugal person.
The sensation only lasted for the briefest of moments, however, and then she emerged onto a dark hilltop. It was covered in jagged stones, and Holly could hear waves lapping against rock somewhere nearby - they must be near the coast, and judging by the temperature they had gone all the way to England.
"Where are we, Professor?" Holly asked. She could see some distant lights - a small town or a large village, perhaps - but there didn't seem to be much of interest on this rocky hill or nearby.
"Oh, just a place I remembered from a misspent youth. An irresponsible young wizard once tested out a powerful curse here and rather completely killed off much of the plant life. So, with nothing that might upset anyone if it was destroyed for quite a distance, we may practice magic here without concern," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling in the moonlight.
"Didn't you pop out of the ground fully formed with a white beard?" Holly asked. She smelt something on the air, a faint scent of burnt ozone that seemed to permeate everything - the air, the rocks, the dry, crumbly soil.
"On the contrary, I was rather handsomely red-headed for many years. Tonight, Holly, we shall be learning about the air and the earth - about the magic inherent in the world, and how to use it to one's own advantage," Dumbledore said, withdrawing his long, odd-looking wand. Holly had never seen an Olivander wand quite like it, and she often found herself drawn to it - something about it seemed almost familiar to her.
"Like how? I thought you needed big runestones and arithmetic calculations and all that to tap a leyline?" Holly asked.
"One needs such precise and stabilising elements to set up the portkey network or anchor powerful wards. But if you merely wish to access that wild and uncontrolled power, then all you need is your wand - or some other suitable focus... such as an Animagus potion," Dumbledore said, and Holy looked away for a moment.
"Oh, cool. Wouldn't know about using one of those, but cool," Holly said, awkwardly.
"Of course. But the danger of an Animagus transformation is in the wild nature of the natural magic used to induce such a permanent change to one's own magic. So it is with all manipulation of leylines and natural magic," Dumbledore explained.
Dumbledore taught Holly a number of spells - curses to call down lightning from the sky, spells to cause the earth to rupture and shake, charms to find ways through wards with gusts of wind, and techniques to understand the flow of magic. It was, much like the Animagus transformation, very different from the sort of magic Holly had learnt in her classes at Hogwarts.
Whereas the standard wand-based magic she was familiar with used power channelled through the witch and then the wand, this sort of magic manipulated power that was already there. She could draw down bolts of lightning from the sky because there was magic in the air that wanted to be unleashed as wind or rain or lighting, she could examine wards and traps with gusts of magical wind because it already carried power with it.
"If this sort of magic is so powerful, why do wizards use wands and their own magic?" Holly asked.
"Wands were invented by the Romans - as you've heard from Professor Binns several times, no doubt - but the powerful modern wands we use today are much more recent. Roman wands lacked the strengthening runes modern wands have, and so they had in almost every case much weaker cores than any wand you'd find for sale in Olivander's. The synthesis of Norse runes, magical woodworking, and potion making required to create a wand as powerful as yours only predates the Statute of Secrecy by fifty years or so," Dumbledore explained, and Holly blinked.
"Really? So people used, um, ambient magic a lot more before that?" Holly asked.
"They did. Indeed, it is thought the earliest witches and wizards used this type of magic essentially exclusively. The unfiltered manipulation of natural magic is what most are referring to with whispers of powerful ancient magic. As powerful as it is, though, it is severely limited. It requires sufficient natural magic in the palace you wish to cast in, carries much greater risk than wanded magic, and is usually not nearly as rapid as wanded magic. It can, however, come in useful from time to time," Dumbledore said.
Holly was very glad to be exempt from end-of-year exams, because whilst her classmates were spending the last few weeks before the exams feverishly studying, she was able to prepare for the Third Task and get enough sleep. She wasn't skipping class or anything, but the homework had gradually fallen away and been replaced with revision.
Her friends could only help her sporadically as the exam season got closer and closer, but Holly had learnt well how to study magic on her own if she really needed to. She wasn't as fanatical as she'd been in her second year, but the situation wasn't nearly as serious - as full of traps, monsters and other champions as the maze was sure to be, it'd be nothing next to confronting the Heir of Slytherin and his Basilisk
"I can't believe we have to do crystal ball reading again this year," Ron said, one evening in the common room.
"Well, that's what happens when you stick with Divination," Hermione said.
"Don't knock it, Hermione. Just because it's the one subject you're rubbish at," Ron said.
"I didn't have an... inner eye, or whatever. What's your excuse for your predictions not coming true?"
"Plenty of my predictions come true," Ron said, although he looked a little uncomfortable.
"Oh yeah? Like what?" Ginny said, butting into the argument.
"My palm -" Ron began, but then he coughed violently, almost like he was choking. His eyes rolled back, and Holly rushed over to try and help him. Then his eyes returned with a fierce intensity, and he spoke in a low voice.
"At the end, to the left," Ron said, and it sounded as if there were a dozen Rons, all speaking in harmony. Then he seemed to deflate, almost, and Ron coughed again.
"What the fuck was that?" Holly said, and Hermione was so shocked she didn't even think to critique Holly's language.
"What do you mean? I must have swallowed something badly, it was just a little cough..." Ron said, looking very confused.
"I - I think that was a real prophecy," Holly said, her eyes wide.
"But what could it mean? 'At the end, to the left'?" Hermione asked.
"Maybe it's about the maze?" Ginny asked.
"I still don't know what you're talking about," Ron said.
In the end, nobody knew quite what to make of Ron's prophecy, if he had actually made one. Holly told Dumbledore about it, but he had no more insight into it than she or Hermione had been able to find.
Holly flew over the maze in her raven form at night several times, and there was no left turn to the top level - there were simply a pair of marble staircases leading up to it. The multi-layered construction meant she couldn't memories much of the route, but she did get a good look at several of the traps being installed.
Her friends were all progressing well with their own transformations - all of them had managed to get the full transformation down, and Ginny sometimes joined Holly on her nighttime flights. Holly had also learnt how to transform only her eyes, allowing her to see as well as she could in her raven form without fully transforming. They were rather disturbing to look at, though at least they were the right size.
The weekend before the Third Task, the final Duelling Competition was held in the Great Hall. Holly felt like she had wandered into the wrong class as she joined the other competitors in the little section. Everyone else there towered over her, and plenty of the boys had facial hair and moustaches. Some of them were even not laughably patchy.
They all looked at Holly with a surprising amount of respect - nobody here seemed inclined to dismiss her based on her age. Perhaps it was her fame, or that they knew just how good she'd have to be to make it here from the Fourth Year Competition. Many of the people she'd face today had jobs lined up as Aurors or Hitwizards, and several of them were already competing on the professional circuit.
"My coach showed me an omniocular recording of your duel with Diggory. Very impressive, especially for your age," one of the boys from Beauxbatons said to Holly.
Fleur and Krum were also here, though Krum looked a little uncomfortable. Holly wasn't sure if he was as good as everyone else here, or if he'd thought he'd had to attend due to being a Champion. Fleur was rumoured to be very fierce, and Holly was hoping not to have to face off against her. Not as much as she was hoping not to encounter Thomas Avery, who also here, though she was sure she could win that duel.
Holly had to hand in a special permission slip to attend this final competition because the rules about spell use were much looser than the rest of the competitions. Sirius had signed it, of course, but he had told her to be careful. Holly wasn't all that worried - lose restrictions were good for her because she'd wager she knew more curses than most of these Seventh Years. Some of them were still too dangerous for a sporting duel, but she stood a real chance at being able to smash down shield charms in a reasonable timeframe under these rules.
The open question was how many of them were capable of occlumency. It was a rare art, but Holly knew that Aurors at least were trained in it. Maybe some of the Seventh Years had done a little extracurricular preparation, though she'd be surprised if many of them knew it. Legilimency, especially as powerful as hers, was rarer still.
Her first duel was against a boy from Durmstrang, Frederick Dahlberg. He had a thick beard and greasy hair that was pulled back and tied up with a ribbon, a common hairstyle amongst wizards, and Holly recognised his stance. A Swedish classicist, she thought. Not a common style these days, and one mostly passed down from master to apprentice.
Holly cast first, her disarming spell flying forwards only moments after Flitwick called the duel to start. Frederick deflected it easily, but that was enough for Holly. She followed it up by whipping lightning across his weak, nonverbal shield. It cracked and splintered, and he was forced to spend yet more time recasting it - time Holly spent extending her mind.
She found no mental defences, and just as easily as she had with Cedric she was able to listen to Frederick's instincts. She didn't need to shield herself or try to anticipate what spell he might cast next - Holly knew what he was going to cast before he did. Her blasting curses slammed into his shield charms, and the few offensive spells he did cast were unable to buy him any time.
Holly simply pushed him, attacking and attacking until eventual - perhaps a minute later - she broke his shields with a whip of bright blue-white lightning and disarmed him before he could cast another spell.
Frederick was very gracious in defeat, and Holly handed him back his wand with a smile. Then she returned to the waiting area, and felt her blood run cold as the next round came up - she was to face Thomas Avery in the second round, the boy whose father she had killed with his own curse during the attack on the Quidditch World Cup.
"And what will I be learning tonight, Professor?" Holly asked Dumbledore. He had once more asked her to his office for a practical lesson, and as usual, Holly had no idea what it would be about.
"Oh, a bit of this and that," Dumbledore said, smiling a little as he held out an arm. She took it, and then Holly felt the unpleasant squeezing sensation of apparition. It felt like she was the last bit of toothpaste in the tube, being squeezed out by a particularly frugal person.
The sensation only lasted for the briefest of moments, however, and then she emerged onto a dark hilltop. It was covered in jagged stones, and Holly could hear waves lapping against rock somewhere nearby - they must be near the coast, and judging by the temperature they had gone all the way to England.
"Where are we, Professor?" Holly asked. She could see some distant lights - a small town or a large village, perhaps - but there didn't seem to be much of interest on this rocky hill or nearby.
"Oh, just a place I remembered from a misspent youth. An irresponsible young wizard once tested out a powerful curse here and rather completely killed off much of the plant life. So, with nothing that might upset anyone if it was destroyed for quite a distance, we may practice magic here without concern," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling in the moonlight.
"Didn't you pop out of the ground fully formed with a white beard?" Holly asked. She smelt something on the air, a faint scent of burnt ozone that seemed to permeate everything - the air, the rocks, the dry, crumbly soil.
"On the contrary, I was rather handsomely red-headed for many years. Tonight, Holly, we shall be learning about the air and the earth - about the magic inherent in the world, and how to use it to one's own advantage," Dumbledore said, withdrawing his long, odd-looking wand. Holly had never seen an Olivander wand quite like it, and she often found herself drawn to it - something about it seemed almost familiar to her.
"Like how? I thought you needed big runestones and arithmetic calculations and all that to tap a leyline?" Holly asked.
"One needs such precise and stabilising elements to set up the portkey network or anchor powerful wards. But if you merely wish to access that wild and uncontrolled power, then all you need is your wand - or some other suitable focus... such as an Animagus potion," Dumbledore said, and Holy looked away for a moment.
"Oh, cool. Wouldn't know about using one of those, but cool," Holly said, awkwardly.
"Of course. But the danger of an Animagus transformation is in the wild nature of the natural magic used to induce such a permanent change to one's own magic. So it is with all manipulation of leylines and natural magic," Dumbledore explained.
Dumbledore taught Holly a number of spells - curses to call down lightning from the sky, spells to cause the earth to rupture and shake, charms to find ways through wards with gusts of wind, and techniques to understand the flow of magic. It was, much like the Animagus transformation, very different from the sort of magic Holly had learnt in her classes at Hogwarts.
Whereas the standard wand-based magic she was familiar with used power channelled through the witch and then the wand, this sort of magic manipulated power that was already there. She could draw down bolts of lightning from the sky because there was magic in the air that wanted to be unleashed as wind or rain or lighting, she could examine wards and traps with gusts of magical wind because it already carried power with it.
"If this sort of magic is so powerful, why do wizards use wands and their own magic?" Holly asked.
"Wands were invented by the Romans - as you've heard from Professor Binns several times, no doubt - but the powerful modern wands we use today are much more recent. Roman wands lacked the strengthening runes modern wands have, and so they had in almost every case much weaker cores than any wand you'd find for sale in Olivander's. The synthesis of Norse runes, magical woodworking, and potion making required to create a wand as powerful as yours only predates the Statute of Secrecy by fifty years or so," Dumbledore explained, and Holly blinked.
"Really? So people used, um, ambient magic a lot more before that?" Holly asked.
"They did. Indeed, it is thought the earliest witches and wizards used this type of magic essentially exclusively. The unfiltered manipulation of natural magic is what most are referring to with whispers of powerful ancient magic. As powerful as it is, though, it is severely limited. It requires sufficient natural magic in the palace you wish to cast in, carries much greater risk than wanded magic, and is usually not nearly as rapid as wanded magic. It can, however, come in useful from time to time," Dumbledore said.
Holly was very glad to be exempt from end-of-year exams, because whilst her classmates were spending the last few weeks before the exams feverishly studying, she was able to prepare for the Third Task and get enough sleep. She wasn't skipping class or anything, but the homework had gradually fallen away and been replaced with revision.
Her friends could only help her sporadically as the exam season got closer and closer, but Holly had learnt well how to study magic on her own if she really needed to. She wasn't as fanatical as she'd been in her second year, but the situation wasn't nearly as serious - as full of traps, monsters and other champions as the maze was sure to be, it'd be nothing next to confronting the Heir of Slytherin and his Basilisk
"I can't believe we have to do crystal ball reading again this year," Ron said, one evening in the common room.
"Well, that's what happens when you stick with Divination," Hermione said.
"Don't knock it, Hermione. Just because it's the one subject you're rubbish at," Ron said.
"I didn't have an... inner eye, or whatever. What's your excuse for your predictions not coming true?"
"Plenty of my predictions come true," Ron said, although he looked a little uncomfortable.
"Oh yeah? Like what?" Ginny said, butting into the argument.
"My palm -" Ron began, but then he coughed violently, almost like he was choking. His eyes rolled back, and Holly rushed over to try and help him. Then his eyes returned with a fierce intensity, and he spoke in a low voice.
"At the end, to the left," Ron said, and it sounded as if there were a dozen Rons, all speaking in harmony. Then he seemed to deflate, almost, and Ron coughed again.
"What the fuck was that?" Holly said, and Hermione was so shocked she didn't even think to critique Holly's language.
"What do you mean? I must have swallowed something badly, it was just a little cough..." Ron said, looking very confused.
"I - I think that was a real prophecy," Holly said, her eyes wide.
"But what could it mean? 'At the end, to the left'?" Hermione asked.
"Maybe it's about the maze?" Ginny asked.
"I still don't know what you're talking about," Ron said.
In the end, nobody knew quite what to make of Ron's prophecy, if he had actually made one. Holly told Dumbledore about it, but he had no more insight into it than she or Hermione had been able to find.
Holly flew over the maze in her raven form at night several times, and there was no left turn to the top level - there were simply a pair of marble staircases leading up to it. The multi-layered construction meant she couldn't memories much of the route, but she did get a good look at several of the traps being installed.
Her friends were all progressing well with their own transformations - all of them had managed to get the full transformation down, and Ginny sometimes joined Holly on her nighttime flights. Holly had also learnt how to transform only her eyes, allowing her to see as well as she could in her raven form without fully transforming. They were rather disturbing to look at, though at least they were the right size.
The weekend before the Third Task, the final Duelling Competition was held in the Great Hall. Holly felt like she had wandered into the wrong class as she joined the other competitors in the little section. Everyone else there towered over her, and plenty of the boys had facial hair and moustaches. Some of them were even not laughably patchy.
They all looked at Holly with a surprising amount of respect - nobody here seemed inclined to dismiss her based on her age. Perhaps it was her fame, or that they knew just how good she'd have to be to make it here from the Fourth Year Competition. Many of the people she'd face today had jobs lined up as Aurors or Hitwizards, and several of them were already competing on the professional circuit.
"My coach showed me an omniocular recording of your duel with Diggory. Very impressive, especially for your age," one of the boys from Beauxbatons said to Holly.
Fleur and Krum were also here, though Krum looked a little uncomfortable. Holly wasn't sure if he was as good as everyone else here, or if he'd thought he'd had to attend due to being a Champion. Fleur was rumoured to be very fierce, and Holly was hoping not to have to face off against her. Not as much as she was hoping not to encounter Thomas Avery, who also here, though she was sure she could win that duel.
Holly had to hand in a special permission slip to attend this final competition because the rules about spell use were much looser than the rest of the competitions. Sirius had signed it, of course, but he had told her to be careful. Holly wasn't all that worried - lose restrictions were good for her because she'd wager she knew more curses than most of these Seventh Years. Some of them were still too dangerous for a sporting duel, but she stood a real chance at being able to smash down shield charms in a reasonable timeframe under these rules.
The open question was how many of them were capable of occlumency. It was a rare art, but Holly knew that Aurors at least were trained in it. Maybe some of the Seventh Years had done a little extracurricular preparation, though she'd be surprised if many of them knew it. Legilimency, especially as powerful as hers, was rarer still.
Her first duel was against a boy from Durmstrang, Frederick Dahlberg. He had a thick beard and greasy hair that was pulled back and tied up with a ribbon, a common hairstyle amongst wizards, and Holly recognised his stance. A Swedish classicist, she thought. Not a common style these days, and one mostly passed down from master to apprentice.
Holly cast first, her disarming spell flying forwards only moments after Flitwick called the duel to start. Frederick deflected it easily, but that was enough for Holly. She followed it up by whipping lightning across his weak, nonverbal shield. It cracked and splintered, and he was forced to spend yet more time recasting it - time Holly spent extending her mind.
She found no mental defences, and just as easily as she had with Cedric she was able to listen to Frederick's instincts. She didn't need to shield herself or try to anticipate what spell he might cast next - Holly knew what he was going to cast before he did. Her blasting curses slammed into his shield charms, and the few offensive spells he did cast were unable to buy him any time.
Holly simply pushed him, attacking and attacking until eventual - perhaps a minute later - she broke his shields with a whip of bright blue-white lightning and disarmed him before he could cast another spell.
Frederick was very gracious in defeat, and Holly handed him back his wand with a smile. Then she returned to the waiting area, and felt her blood run cold as the next round came up - she was to face Thomas Avery in the second round, the boy whose father she had killed with his own curse during the attack on the Quidditch World Cup.
- Location
- ferreries
Now, is this an actual Prophecy, or is someone trying to manipulate Holly by messing with Ron's head?
If it is an actual Prophecy, I expect that it will not be as obvious as it seems at first glance. Maybe it will be about one of her duels?
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Finagle007
[Verified Great Old One]
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Oh, that won't end well. Avery will be going for the kill, no matter what the rules - or even Voldemort - might have to say about it.
JennyDracos
Eccentric Hugging Lady
- Location
- Chicago
I have no earthly idea why Dumbledore would be prepping Holly to use magic when she doesn't have access to her wand. No earthly idea at all. Not even with two people successfully managing to insert her name into the Contest, Voldemort being more and more active, and at least one fellow student who would absolutely try to kill her if he could get away with it.
Holy crap, that was unexpected.
It's kinda funny. She thought earlier in the segment that she was sure she could take him. Now she's faced with the reality of it, though, and that's a little more nerve-wracking.
Finagle007
[Verified Great Old One]
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Oh, she can definitely take him. The problem is taking him down without killing him, because he will be trying his best to kill her and won't give up till he's incapacitated... or dead.
Also, she's still (unfairly to herself) guilty about his father being killed, and no doubt somewhat conflicted over the fact that he hates her for killing his father rather than a more "evil" reason.
NSMS
Probably evil, unfortunately.
- Location
- A rapidly widening tear in the fabric of reality
...well, Ron apparently being a genuine seer isn't something I've ever seen before. Interesting decision, and I wonder where it'll lead.
As for the upcoming duel... well, I suspect that Holly will struggle hard against Thomas. Not due to him being better than her, but because it'll be hard for her to consciously bring her best efforts to bear on the boy who's father she killed (regardless of the circumstances). And if he has enough skill and power to be even close to her level, things could turn very nasty for her in a hurry.
As for the upcoming duel... well, I suspect that Holly will struggle hard against Thomas. Not due to him being better than her, but because it'll be hard for her to consciously bring her best efforts to bear on the boy who's father she killed (regardless of the circumstances). And if he has enough skill and power to be even close to her level, things could turn very nasty for her in a hurry.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- She/They
It's ooc but using fire here would be hilarious.
Dopplerdee
Accident Prone(Yes the caps are necessary)
- Location
- Happy Place
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Considering the brother wands thing, being able to fight Tom without her wand may be useful
Epsilon Rose
The King of Unrest
Using ambient magic seems like the sort of esoteric, but powerful, trick he'd know. Then again, with the number of prophecies Holly is getting, Magic may have decided Riddle needs to get his teeth kicked in, at which point that natural energy might not be available to him.
Considering Dumbledore has worked out what Voldemort did to the Riddles, and his love of trophies*, it's Not unreasonable that he'd be thinking of any ambient magic in a graveyard
* which actually explains why he never deleted his Inferi
* which actually explains why he never deleted his Inferi
NSMS
Probably evil, unfortunately.
- Location
- A rapidly widening tear in the fabric of reality
...a question. If Holly uses legilimancy against Thomas, how badly is it likely to hit her? Because it's one thing to know that your opponent hates you personally, but it's quite another thing to actually feel it firsthand. And of course, there's then question of whether she'll work this out in advance and shy away from trying it.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
If anything, my concerns are in the opposite direction -- if anybody is likely to have some basic legilimency/occlumency going on, it's gonna be a soon-to-be Death Eater
- Location
- Ylisse
In canon all his 'made-up' predictions for divination homework ended up coming true in some way, but very few people ever do anything with the idea.