Hermione Quest (HP)

Should Hermione Quest be rebooted?

  • No, pick up where it left off (more or less)

    Votes: 32 36.8%
  • No, skip ahead to third year

    Votes: 12 13.8%
  • Yes, restart at the begining of second year

    Votes: 10 11.5%
  • Yes, redo the whole thing

    Votes: 33 37.9%

  • Total voters
    87
  • Poll closed .
It's always bugged me when fic authors treat transfiguration as impermanent. Transfiguration in HP is permanent already, so much so that transfigurations can lead to entirely new species being created.
Transfiguration (and conjuration for that mater) being temporary is my excuse for why the wizarding world actually has anything resembling an economy and why the Weasleys being poor is actually a notable plot point in the early books of the series.

If you have a line in the series where its explicitly stated or directly implied that transfiguration is permanent please let me know where it is and I'll revise the quests metaphysics. Otherwise I'm going to stick with the inferred temporary nature so I can keep conservation of matter/energy as a universal law.
 
I do like the bandwagon, but I have to wonder if this is a Less Hands Up moment. Are we about to alienate our own House by being too academically inclined?

[] Write-in: Try to learn how to small-talk. That's a valuable life skill too, isn't it?
 
Transfiguration (and conjuration for that mater) being temporary is my excuse for why the wizarding world actually has anything resembling an economy and why the Weasleys being poor is actually a notable plot point in the early books of the series.

If you have a line in the series where its explicitly stated or directly implied that transfiguration is permanent please let me know where it is and I'll revise the quests metaphysics. Otherwise I'm going to stick with the inferred temporary nature so I can keep conservation of matter/energy as a universal law.
I'd run with the idea that valuable materials have metaphysical weight to them - it's harder to transfigure something into steel than it is into wood, it's harder to turn a mushroom into a metal pen than it is to turn it into a wooden doorknob*, and turning things into precious metals or gemstones is insanely difficult unless you're doing a minor upgrade, like turning silver into gold (in which case it's "just" the kind of thing you need multiple degrees to know how to do).

Likewise, Transfiguration was always portrayed as a form of magic that's unspeakably difficult to learn beyond a few parlor tricks. It's the quantum physics of magical degrees. McGonnagall could probably make a permanent bar of silver, but it'd take most of the day and give her a headache from all the calculations and diagrams she's having to hold in her head at once to make it happen properly, and to make it permanent.

People who try to game the system by figuring out how to permanently transfigure less "weighty" things like rubber or brass and make money that way either sign up with the Ministry and work under strict regulations, or the goblins eventually find out and then murder the absolute fuck out of them for mucking with the economy.


* The doorknob and the mushroom are about the same general shape and both made of vegetable matter, after all.
 
If you have a line in the series where its explicitly stated or directly implied that transfiguration is permanent please let me know where it is and I'll revise the quests metaphysics.
Magic in Harry Potter - Wikipedia
Relevant Portion said:
(Food) is the only exception mentioned explicitly in the series. However, Rowling herself has stated once in an interview that money is something wizards cannot simply materialise out of thin air,[8] or the economic system of the wizarding world would then be gravely flawed and disrupted. While the Philosopher's Stone does permit alchemy, this is portrayed as an extremely rare, even unique, object, whose owner does not exploit its powers.

Cannot be materialized.

I imagine that the goblins are interested in the economy being relatively stable and not yanked around by wizards. It is generally held to be permanent until the caster's death.
 
Transfiguration (and conjuration for that mater) being temporary is my excuse for why the wizarding world actually has anything resembling an economy and why the Weasleys being poor is actually a notable plot point in the early books of the series.

If you have a line in the series where its explicitly stated or directly implied that transfiguration is permanent please let me know where it is and I'll revise the quests metaphysics. Otherwise I'm going to stick with the inferred temporary nature so I can keep conservation of matter/energy as a universal law.
There's quintapeds, for one.

You can have the kind of economy we see in canon still exist alongside permanent transfiguration. Besides, most people aren't transfiguration savants, and you really need to be to abuse transfiguration in the way you're thinking. Most things can be transfigured, but not food, and conjured items explicitly fade...

Anyway, for all that the Weasleys are poor, they aren't exactly in poverty.

Edit: I forgot to add - While transfiguration is permanent, it's only permanent in the sense that it requires no additional magic from the caster to maintain the transfigured state. It can be transfigured back, if you know what it was originally, and, as Dumbledore said in Book 6, "Magic always leaves traces".

I could buy transmutation as the magical way of making a transfigured item "permanent" in the sense that it makes the transfigured item mundane.
 
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Edit: I forgot to add - While transfiguration is permanent, it's only permanent in the sense that it requires no additional magic from the caster to maintain the transfigured state. It can be transfigured back, if you know what it was originally, and, as Dumbledore said in Book 6, "Magic always leaves traces".
Which also means that if you start trying to get rich turning pebbles into gold in your basement, then eventually some of that gold gets into goblin hands, they immediately recognize that some/all of the gold in the object they're holding is "counterfeit", and then they go on the warpath.

It's my headcanon that the main thing keeping the economy intact is the sheer insane zeal and brutality of goblin society in their efforts to maintain it.
 
Dug through the thread to see if the issue of permanent transfiguration had been brought up before. Kind of hard to believe sometimes that this quest has been running on and off since 2014 and is only a couple months younger than Sufficient Velocity itself.
These are what I found.
Harry: What are you talking about Hermione? Of course transfigurations wear off if they didn't they would be transmutations. Sure you can make them last for a long time but you cant just ignore the law of equivalence.

Technically speaking a transmutation is just a transfiguration that is permanent. There is a good deal of overlap but transmutation have special requirements. The big ones are that you have to obey equivalence and cant produce precious metals, living things or some other stuff via transmutation unless you have a philosopher's stone.

I love FMA and there has to be some reason that wizards even have an economy instead of just transfiguring everything.

Yes though transfiguring something inanimate into a living thing takes a lot of power and tends to not last very long.

It varies. Some versions, namely the vanishing cabinet, are modified apparition and sends the target from point A to point B. If the target is a conjured object it cancels the conjuration. The final version makes the object disappear for a few minutes they then reappear exactly where they were before only to find the earth kept moving so its now in space.

Also Gamps Law is one of those bits that I'm dropping because it makes absolutely no sense. I will say that conjured food is nutritionally worthless and transfigured food can be dangerous but if you transmute a block of carbon into a cheeseburger you get a god damned cheeseburger. I'm basing this on scenes where Mrs. Weasley conjures food while Harry watches in the books. IIRC she only conjures sauces but that bypasses the nutritional worthlessness because the sauce is mainly for flavor anyway. SRSly Rowling stop contradicting yourself...

Conjuration isn't permanent and neither is transfiguration (some exceptions apply with transfiguration though). There's technically nothing stopping someone from conjuring up a five course meal but it would be nutritionally worthless.

Theoretically if you could meet the energy requirement for E=MC^2 you could preform a permanent conjuration but good luck with that. You can also cheat by using the Philosopher's Stone. This has been mentioned previously in the thread.

1- Yes. You can take something and divide it into chunks and/or reshape it as long as the total mass remains unchanged and of the original element. Theoretically she could mix materials via magic but, other than basic alloys, she doesn't have the control or knowledge to do so effectively.
There was also a point in 2015 when people were going on about transfiguring uranium and introducing Riddle Manor to instant sunshine. Good times those.

That said I'm open to reconsidering as it hasn't really become relevant yet. At a fundamental level a transfiguration can be dispelled while a transmutation cannot.
Adhoc vote count started by Wzd_JA on Sep 17, 2018 at 12:41 AM, finished with 20 posts and 12 votes.

Adhoc vote count started by Wzd_JA on Sep 17, 2018 at 1:48 PM, finished with 21 posts and 13 votes.
 
I've got a comment out waiting for review before I post it in here... I also thought about this as an omake, but I'd like to get the general thoughts of the group before I do so.

But, in the meantime, let's take some time and do some overall review of our strategy\goals for helping Hermione?

Classes:
  • Potions - We've got a side quest from Snape here, which will help us fairly significantly. Not only will it help get our potions skills up (currently at a D+. C is average adult skill level. Personally, I'd like us to be at B (experienced professional) by the end of Fourth Year), it will also give us access\proficiency with more non-standard Potion Recipes, Improved Status (Respect) from Snape, possible upgrade of our limited access pass to the Restricted Section in the Library to a full pass. It will also likely let us get into the NEWT level Potions class which is NOT a guarantee.
  • Transfiguration - Although this is subject to change once @Wzd_JA responds to my note, in my mind, Transfiguration is very much an excellent way to build tools and workspaces that we're going to need soon. It also is a very useful combat skillset, but we're going to have to get it up a ways to be able to use it that way. This will also likely unlock Animagus quest chain.
  • DADA - This will be where we're getting some of our offensive and defensive casting and knowledge of spells\counterspells. We're at D on both of those. We should keep working through our Advanced Techniques Spellbook as well. Also, feeling magic as we have started being able to do is a MAJOR capability. Possible Idea to look into: Point Defense Shields, Angled\Reflective\Deflective Shields,
  • Charms - This is where the rest of our combat capabilities and possibly short duration buffs\debuffs are going to come from.
  • Runes (not technically a class yet, but we're working ahead) - This is a major component of ritual magic, enchanting and long term buffs. Also significant for curses\cursebreaking.
  • Astronomy - We need to get this up so be able to have the baseline knowledge for Rituals, Enchanting, etc. Plus, it's a class and an OWL, so we need to get it up from it's current E- (shameful) up to, say a D+ by the end of next school year, with a B by the end of the Fourth Year. At that point, we can probably slack off a little bit. Additionally, it's a specialized class\knowledge set, so it SHOULD be fairly easy to knock out.
  • Herbology - Also been slacking off on this, although we do have our garden space at home, so it's potentially easier to work on over the summers, which means that we can focus our time during the school year more on things which could get us in trouble with the Statute of Secrecy... Think about maybe inviting Harry and Neville over... Maybe put a proper greenhouse in?
Non-Class Stuff
  • First Aid - We've been told that we need to either be at OWL Level or having passed our OWLs by Madame Pomfrey. As such, as much as I do NOT want to push this off, I think we need to have Charms, Transfiguration, Spellcasting at C level before we talk to her about the medical side. I WILL say that I think that understanding human anatomy and physiology makes breaking people (making them combat ineffective) easier, and will also help us heal the body as well, so maybe we study Mundane A&P to help with this. (ToDo: Study Mundane Biology, Anatomy and Physiology (Grey's Anatomy for example) but ONLY during the summers. We don't want those books at school because they're more likely to freak people out or get back to Pomfrey)
  • Exercise - Ongoing exercise -
    • Yoga - Helps with flexibility, health, stamina etc.
    • Martial Arts - We need to be able to learn to take a hit, how to HIT. Most wizards aren't going to handle their wand being broken very well... Or having their arm snapped or being punched in the throat.
    • Parkour - Keep moving, react on the fly, make it hard to hit, use your surroundings to YOUR advantage
  • Mind Arts
    • Meditation - Necessary to unlock Occulmancy (or rank it up to F), plus, potentially more communication with THEM.
    • Occulmency - We've started work on this, but need to keep it up. We're not quite to the point of having actual Occulmency as a skill, but we have to be getting fairly close.
  • Flying - Mobility. Gramps made sure Hermione knew about the Battle for Britain, and how important controlling the airspace is.
  • Ritual Casting
  • Private Hangout \ Base
    • Ongoing work on improved security
      • Upgrade Ideas
        • 'Video' and Audio of the hallways and outside the door
        • Continue work on access control (I think we're getting close on this)
        • Configurable SEP field (in process)
        • Token Based Access Control
        • Blood Based Access Control
        • Password Based Access Control
        • 2-3 Factor Access Control
    • Sealed Door - Leave this concealed until we've got our security increased even better
    • Workout Equipment and Track -
      • Ideas for upgrades: Runes? Increased gravity?
    • Study Area\Materials
  • Gringott's Box
  • Enchanting \ Item Creation (Full Enchanting Requires Charms: Rank B(@C-), Runes: Rank C(@D), Arthimancy: Rank D(@Null))
    • Gen 1 Wand Holster - DONE (Runecrafting Project)
      • Concealment Effect (Rune based)
      • Shield Spell (Rune Based)
      • Adhesive Effect
    • Gen 2 Wand Holster (planning phase)
      • All functions from Gen 1 Wand
      • Third Rune from Junk Store Holster (trying to find if this was identified)
      • Color Adjustment Effect
      • Recall\Summon (wandless? silent?)
      • Anti-Summoning effect for everybody else
    • Expandable Bag: Conceptual
    • Emergency Kit - Like Gramp's EDC kit or GetHomeBag
    • Improved Med Kit
    • Listening Bugs: Conceptual
    • Sensor Pods (aka Gen 2 'Bugs'): Conceptual
    • Potion Dispenser Pod - aka Potion Mines: Conceptual
    • Stealth Shoes\Boots - Silence, improved grip, all features activeatable
    • Tracking\Alerting Bugs
    • Remote Activation Control (when I press the button, something will be initiated)
    • Secure Communications - Notepad, mirror, glasses, contacts
    • Helmet Hairband\bow\scrunchy - Serves as head protection from falls\impacts
  • Warding
  • Dowsing Missions - Walk in the Park!
  • Maurader Membership
    • Stealth
    • Pranking
  • Animagus - way down the road, not worrying about this right now
Proposed Next Turn
  1. Finish Snape Side Quest
  2. Work with Twins on Stealth Training
  3. Propose Prank to the Twins - Great Hall - Reset the ceiling (or floor) to show a different viewpoint... Thinking Deep Space, from a 'feed\recording' from a telescope. If not practical\achievable, random section of hallway showing something else (this is also an intermediate step for 'real time video') - This is a PLANNING and Prep only activity
  4. Healing Tonic ("Herbal Supplement") for Mom, Dad and Grams - General Health and Wellness potion

Strategic Plan till the End of Year
  1. Potions to C (currently at D+, so this shouldn't take too long)
  2. Charms to B (Currently at C-, so probably one or two of the special projects to boost it)
  3. Flying to C
  4. Astronomy to D
  5. Parkour OR Yoga to C
  6. Meditation
  7. Occulmency to F
  8. Two purely Social Actions
  9. Special Project - Wandless\Silent Point Defense Shield
  10. Special Project - Token Based Access Control
  11. Special Project - Password\Keypad Based Access Control
 
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I'm on a Train 6
[] Stay here and wait for Olivia to prep some more materials

While part of you wants to go find Harry and Neville, arithmancy has you intrigued. So you settle down and wait for Olivia to come back. You're tempted to try some of the "small talk" you keep hearing about but your attempt just leads to Mandy yelling at you for interrupting her concentration.

You take the hint and spend the next few minutes mentally comparing what you've learned so far to the algebra you needed for you A levels. You've just about come to the conclusion that it's pretty much the same thing with the serial numbers filed off and a base 7 system when Olivia arrives to show you just how wrong you were. By the time the Express makes it to London you're convinced that half of arithmancy's rules were made by Captain Kirk to defeat a sufficiently advanced alien. And that's just the basic material...

You catch up with Harry and Neville as you collect your trunk from the baggage car. Their trip was significantly more interesting, in the Chinese sense, than yours what with the running into Malfoy and the twins. You're telling them about the wonders of arithmancy and how two plus two equals eleven on alternate Thursdays when you cross through the barrier back to the mundane part of the station and see your mother... She looks stressed and worried...

Event Complete.

+ Arithmancy
+ Vague Sense of Unease
Christmas event should be in the next couple of days.
 
There's quintapeds, for one.

You can have the kind of economy we see in canon still exist alongside permanent transfiguration. Besides, most people aren't transfiguration savants, and you really need to be to abuse transfiguration in the way you're thinking. Most things can be transfigured, but not food, and conjured items explicitly fade...

Anyway, for all that the Weasleys are poor, they aren't exactly in poverty.

Edit: I forgot to add - While transfiguration is permanent, it's only permanent in the sense that it requires no additional magic from the caster to maintain the transfigured state. It can be transfigured back, if you know what it was originally, and, as Dumbledore said in Book 6, "Magic always leaves traces".

I could buy transmutation as the magical way of making a transfigured item "permanent" in the sense that it makes the transfigured item mundane.
Hrm, consider the Wizarding economy.

Transfiguring food is either not possible/nutritionally usless so agriculture and restaurant businesses are completely viable.

Potions ingredients might likewise count as edible enough to fall under Gamp's law. And even if they didn't, there's the possibility that you need the real deal for the magical properties given how small mistakes tend to melt and/or explode one's cauldron.
Likewise, magic leaves traces, transfigured cauldrons might contaminate the potion.

Can transfigure paper and ink, can't conjure knowledge from thin air, therefore there's a book industry.

Everybody needs a wand, it's important that the wizard is well suited to said wand, you need the right kind of wood(bowtruckles are a good indication) and the other components(Feathers, hairs, heartstrings) might have similar problems as Potions ingredients. Therefore, people generally buy their wands from skilled craftsmen so their spells don't randomly rebound from a misalignment and cause a curse to strike the caster.

Brooms? Racing Brooms are made by companies who invested time and effort into making a product with superior turning, acceleration and maximum speed and non-racing brooms come with things like a height limit for little kids or built-in cushioning charms for long flights. Once again a skill issue, this time for a luxury product. With legal issues keeping magical carpets out and the other examples of the flying charm being Sirius Black's motorcycle and Arthur Weasley's car.

The pet store sells magical creatures in addition to medicine(and regular animals I suppose). But given that there's a ban on experimental breeding(e,g, fire-breathing chicken), most law-abiding citizens go to them if they want something exotic. Especially since the other option is transfiguration, which is hard and going off the beaten track when casting spells might kill you.

The Owl Emporium is the only oddity. But I suppose it sells edible owl treats and their owls might've been bred to a level of intelligence superior to the average owl(or charmed to be able to deliver letters).

And what's left is a pawn shop for heirlooms and obscure curios away from the main street, a bank, joke shops and random vendors.
You're tempted to try some of the "small talk" you keep hearing about but your attempt just leads to Mandy yelling at you for interrupting her concentration.

You take the hint
Still bad at social situations but getting better.
You're telling them about the wonders of arithmancy and how two plus two equals eleven on alternate Thursdays when you cross through the barrier back to the mundane part of the station and see your mother... She looks stressed and worried...
So now for a different social challenge.
 
Announcement
*Taps mike* Is this thing on... does it even work anymore? I guess it does so here we go...

Its been over 2 years since I've done anything with this thread. I wish I could say that was because I got a job with NASA and was busy with space stuff or even just doing things to improve my writing skills. Unfortunately the truth is the last two years were pretty much the worst of my life so far. I'm not going to go into details but suffice to say just about everything in my life was turned upside down and it nearly broke me.

But enough negativity for now. Since there's a new me with a new apartment (and my notes were lost or destroyed) I've decided that I'll be resuming this in a new thread. I make no promises about an update schedule and a number of existing plot threads will be altered or dropped since I have to recreate pretty much everything from memory.

With that in mind I'm leaving the choice to anyone who's still interested in this quest. When the new thread opens will we pick up where I left off or did Hermione's terrible luck with exercise lead to her spending a couple months as a statue in a slight twist on canon. Alternately do we want to do a full or partial reboot? If you're interested or just have an opinion please vote in the poll and maybe leave a comment.
 
You have my attention, sir, and interest in going forward, and as much as I would hate to lose what we have done before, because it was a lot of fun, I would go for almost anything.
 
I'm up for the resumption, but I honestly don't remember enough about the state the quest was in to say which option to go with.

I'm sure I could refresh my memory decently quickly, but I don't remember much off the top of my head.
 
As a reader my experience is that restarts/reboots kill 9/10 fics, so my vote is that we continue like nothing happened.
 
Yeah, better (usually) to do a review episode and continue as is.

Unless of course there is something causing writer's block or something was written into a corner...
 
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