Remove ads

Harry Potter and the Skittering Spouse

Reader mode
Barghest Blue said:
I'm pretty sure I could make an argument for accidental magic implying it is in fact free-form reality warping, they just spend 7 years unlearning that in return for ease of use and being able to do it on command.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I believe there's a Harry Potter/The Gamer crossover where pre-Hogwarts Harry learns to use "accidental magic" as a skill, allowing him to basically use any spell castable with a wand (and many that are not, essentially allowing for free-form reality warping at will) with nothing but a flex of his power and a (rapidly vanishing) chance of a fizzle.

It's every bit as powerful and Game-breaking as you'd think.
 
@rdmcmains - Damn, I haven't reread that story of mine in a while. It was a fun one - and yeah, the spell is obvious when you think a little about it...
 
Lycanthromancer said:
I believe there's a Harry Potter/The Gamer crossover where pre-Hogwarts Harry learns to use "accidental magic" as a skill, allowing him to basically use any spell castable with a wand (and many that are not, essentially allowing for free-form reality warping at will) with nothing but a flex of his power and a (rapidly vanishing) chance of a fizzle.

It's every bit as powerful and Game-breaking as you'd think.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That reminds me of another story, one where the truth of magic is that it is SENTIENT, and entirely amoral, only interested in amusing itself, but the wizards have managed to put it to sleep by making it mundane and drudgery.
 
DestinyPlayer said:
That reminds me of another story, one where the truth of magic is that it is SENTIENT, and entirely amoral, only interested in amusing itself, but the wizards have managed to put it to sleep by making it mundane and drudgery.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Are you referring to this fanfic?

Because the sentient amoral aspect of magic is only one of several knocking around, its just that Harry managed to wake one up and had to figure out how to bind it/put it back to sleep like the others.
 
Midnighter13 said:
Are you referring to this fanfic?

Because the sentient amoral aspect of magic is only one of several knocking around, its just that Harry managed to wake one up and had to figure out how to bind it/put it back to sleep like the others.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It might have been after I stopped reading because, honestly, I kinda clocked out of that fic after a certain point due to the "And everything went even worse than canon" part.
 
Midnighter13 said:
You misunderstand. Its the 90's. Google doesn't exist yet. There's just not a lot of information online yet, or easy ways to find it even when it exists.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Sorry but were you using internet in the 90s?

There was definitely a lot on information online already and there were search engines to find it. What did not exist then was wikipedia.

It took a bit more time to get the information (esp if it was in the newsgroups) but you could get it rather easily then too (as compared to getting it from a book).

You might be confusing the 90s with the 80s.
 
Midnighter13 said:
You misunderstand. Its the 90's. Google doesn't exist yet. There's just not a lot of information online yet, or easy ways to find it even when it exists. Heck, this is before the dot com boom, let alone bust. So sure, she could theoretically go to a muggle library (assuming she can convince a wizard, most of whom are either contemptuous or dismissive of muggle ideas to take her there), but the sort of information you are talking about could take multiple days or even weeks to research. Its not as simple as going to Google and typing in a search query.

Also, Taylor didn't really do much research after she went out as a cape for the first time. I'm not sure why she would go research ideas in a muggle library, when she has the Black family library only a couple floors away full of magical secrets.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
On the other hand, it's Taylor. I wouldn't bet against it.
 
I mean. Taylor & Harry did just consummate the marriage, so she isn't stuck within 600 meters of Harry anymore. She could slip out of Grimmauld Place and visit a library on her own. Maybe even run into a few dementors roving around London in the process, either to find out she can control them or to find out she can at least see them (hinting at the ability to use magic?) or even confirming she can neither see nor control dementors. I doubt any Death Eaters could sneak up on her, even if they could recognize one dark-haired woman out of the entire city of London.
 
Two things: one, learning about FOOF or it's only-slightly-less-terrifying sibling ClF3 doesn't need a degree in chemistry - I certainly don't have one; only a moderate interest in the history of rocketry and/or WWII - as they were both developed to use as liquid oxidisers in place of cryogenic oxygen.

Two, blast-ended skrewts - I get the impression that Hagrid's "delightful" little pet lobstrocities are "bug" enough for Taylor to at least try getting a hook into. They'd definitely be good for the shell parts of her armour too, since they're highly spell resistant.
 
Last edited:
Barghest Blue said:
I'm pretty sure I could make an argument for accidental magic implying it is in fact free-form reality warping, they just spend 7 years unlearning that in return for ease of use and being able to do it on command.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Good point, well made, I forgot. In fact if I were to end up in that world, especially as a toddler or newborn, my main plan would be to figure out how to do 'accidental' magic intentionally and consistently, and then train that skill like I'm in Mother of Learning.

Trying to make a new structured magic spell (wand movement, incantation, intent) is difficult and dangerous if the warnings and rarity are anything to go by, though.
 
ForestGardener said:
Good point, well made, I forgot. In fact if I were to end up in that world, especially as a toddler or newborn, my main plan would be to figure out how to do 'accidental' magic intentionally and consistently, and then train that skill like I'm in Mother of Learning.

Trying to make a new structured magic spell (wand movement, incantation, intent) is difficult and dangerous if the warnings and rarity are anything to go by, though.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It might be worth keeping in mind that accidental magic may not be safe either. Sure all the character we see survived it... But it is hardly like we'd see the ones that didn't. It could be that the Ministry is spending a decent amount of effort on covering up grumpy toddlers that end up blowing themselves up.

In the end there probably is a reason why the magical world isn't doing what you are suggesting. And it probably isn't that nobody saw some accidental magic and thought "Hey I'd also like to be able to do magic without a wand or spell". Odds are they have a reason why they don't do that.
 
FullNothingness said:
It might be worth keeping in mind that accidental magic may not be safe either. Sure all the character we see survived it... But it is hardly like we'd see the ones that didn't. It could be that the Ministry is spending a decent amount of effort on covering up grumpy toddlers that end up blowing themselves up.

In the end there probably is a reason why the magical world isn't doing what you are suggesting. And it probably isn't that nobody saw some accidental magic and thought "Hey I'd also like to be able to do magic without a wand or spell". Odds are they have a reason why they don't do that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
To be fair, it has now actually become quasi-canon that wands are a mostly-European thing.
 
FullNothingness said:
In the end there probably is a reason why the magical world isn't doing what you are suggesting. And it probably isn't that nobody saw some accidental magic and thought "Hey I'd also like to be able to do magic without a wand or spell". Odds are they have a reason why they don't do that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The 'assume that people in the setting aren't morons for doing things as they do' approach has merits, but you have to get quite creative to apply it successfully to the Harry Potter property.
 
Also, wandless magic was a thing even in the original seven books. Wandless and wordless, at that. Not common or easy, but far from impossible.
 
Yeah, saying that the people we see in canon must not be doing something for a reason rings kinda hollow when we rarely see people that most would call intelligent or logical. They're mostly also lazy, so that must be taken into account.
 
DestinyPlayer said:
To be fair, it has now actually become quasi-canon that wands are a mostly-European thing.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Aineko said:
The 'assume that people in the setting aren't morons for doing things as they do' approach has merits, but you have to get quite creative to apply it successfully to the Harry Potter property.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Barghest Blue said:
Yeah, saying that the people we see in canon must not be doing something for a reason rings kinda hollow when we rarely see people that most would call intelligent or logical. They're mostly also lazy, so that must be taken into account.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

People doing dumb things happens. And Harry Potter isn't worldbuilt to the highest standards... But on the whole for a society to consistently fail to realize that safe, freeform reality warping was possible is a pretty big ask. Because anyone who did think of that would be massively advantaged over those that didn't. So there should be a reason why nobody did and succeeded. And if Rowling failed to provide one one should be invented.
 
FullNothingness said:
People doing dumb things happens. And Harry Potter isn't worldbuilt to the highest standards... But on the whole for a society to consistently fail to realize that safe, freeform reality warping was possible is a pretty big ask. Because anyone who did think of that would be massively advantaged over those that didn't. So there should be a reason why nobody did and succeeded. And if Rowling failed to provide one one should be invented.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Except, they already do know (they call it accidental magic), and still don't do it, because the way they're doing things is easier for them, and requires less effort to get to the level they're at.

Yes it would be a massive advantage to anyone who can get it working, but it's also so much more effort than most of them are willing to put in when wands work "just fine".
 
One thing about Wizarding Society that makes it irrevocably different to our expectations is that it is absolutely TINY. If I'm not mistaken, there might be less Wizards in the entire world than there are people in an average country.

As a result, it's perfectly possible that there just... aren't even close to enough people willing to do stuff like that.
 
DestinyPlayer said:
One thing about Wizarding Society that makes it irrevocably different to our expectations is that it is absolutely TINY. If I'm not mistaken, there might be less Wizards in the entire world than there are people in an average country.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
As I understand it, and I may be wrong, the entire worldwide magical population is less than London's.
 
I believe it is commonly accepted that given the class size of Harry's year is treated as the smallest year (40), that gives an average Hogwarts student population of around 500 (give or take a maximum of about 175 at any one time), and that gets extrapolated to around 10,000 wizards and witches living in the British Isles (30 at most but at least 5).
 
Should also keep in mind that Britain, and Europe for that matter, do not have typical populations. Grindelwald and Voldemort both happened more or less back to back and both would have badly damaged the magical population. It is likely that European Magicals make up the smallest magical population out of all of them. And that doesn't factor the various anti-magic actions by muggles which would have damaged the population even before the recent dark lords.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top