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Spells in Silence (Harry Potter)

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Silently Watches said:
Pinpricks of bright green moss poked out of the mud in the shadow of her hand and swept over the stones and the shoreline and the lake water. Behind the moss were tiny plants that sprouted as well, thin trunks and blackened branches rising only a short distance before stopping and staying stunted and puny. A thin ribbon of water snaked its way from the lake and through the sea of moss, defying gravity as it crept up the shoreline even as it flowed down hills that did not exist.
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Yeah that's seeming more and more like exactly what Hazel doesn't want to hear but we've all kind of suspected from the start: there are no true Druids out there, not anymore, and what few do exist never train themselves in the druidic arts or barely do so before wizards find them and they start performing wanded magic instead.

Silently Watches said:
The spirit vanished without a trace, and then the sun streaked across the sky. Backwards.
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Oh no. Please tell me Hazel's not going to end up 100 years in the future and doomed to die if she opens her special fey box.

Silently Watches said:
It was most definitely not something Hazel was wearing when the other girl went off on her own after Herbology class.
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Phew. Bullet dodged, there. It was just a vision of the past.

Silently Watches said:
I have a whole theory about Harry and divination that I won't go into now, but suffice it to say I don't consider this to be giving Hazel a new ability.
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I mean given how you've set up Divination (and how most people who assume it's not something limited to just Seers set it up) it seems more like something that any sufficiently motivated wizard could do...if they cared enough to take up the proper meditative practice and also had a teacher who knew more about the art than, "sometimes visions come to me when I'm high on perfume or really drunk or just making an absentminded prediction about something mundane." In that way it seems similar to the druidic style of magic. It's something that anyone could do, but which most people don't realize they can and so never bother with. And the few who do dabble usually find some more convenient magic that also does what they wanted to accomplish and thus stop bothering.

Ashran said:
The world is very big and thats not counting expanded spaces, pocket dimensions and the like. It is highly unlikely that the global druid population is gone when people with clear heritage are still being born. Celtic culture goes as far down as Spain, for starters, crossing a very good chunk of France.
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The world is big, yes, but there's nevertheless only so many places in it where someone can hide from people that use magic to hunt you down. Given what happened here it seems like druids at least weren't hiding too well if at all most of the time, so very few would likely have survived any kind of systematic purge. The rest might have been able to preserve their traditions in secret, but over centuries and even millennia (assuming that it's Roman wizards who started druidic purges) they might have become indistinguishable from normal wizards, just with a few odd views on certain magical subjects that come from long traditions of disagreeing with the establishment of the wizarding world due to mostly-forgotten generations-old grudges.

Hell, the Lovegoods might well be what modern "druids" look like. Oddballs who most wizards think are crazy, and to be fair they kind of are, but there's slightly more substance to their oddities than most give them credit for. It's just that not even they really remember why that is. Or maybe they do, and just never share it with anyone because even if druidic purges aren't a thing anymore, a family tradition that remembers them isn't going to be terribly trusting of outsiders. And no one would believe them if they told the truth anyway, because the wizarding world is remarkably set in its ways for a society that literally alters the laws of physics on a whim.
 
PrognosticHannya said:
I hope Hazel stays at Hogwarts long enough to at least meet Luna, I think they'd be really good friends.
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She could meet Luna on one of the Lovegood expeditions. I think I'd prefer that.

feauxen said:
"sometimes visions come to me when I'm high on perfume or really drunk or just making an absentminded prediction about something mundane."
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You just described the 3 things Trelawney constantly does. Drink sherry, live in a haze of nonstop incense, and just rattle off random predictions. 😆
 
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Well... wizards originated from Rome and (based on the knot) the Druids seems to be somewhat Celtic. We kinda know how that story plays out when those two groups meet.

Wonderful chapter as always.
 
FictionPack said:
You just described the 3 things Trelawney constantly does. Drink sherry, live in a haze of nonstop incense, and just rattle off random predictions. 😆
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Well when you look back on things, she's also correct about most of the nonsense she spouts about the future. A lot of people cite the teacup Neville broke as a good example, particularly since Hermione's explanation that she could have guessed that just by knowing about Neville doesn't really strike me as the way that Trelawney would go about it. It's how a muggle fortune-teller would go about it, but Trelawney really believes she has the sight (and also actually does) so she probably just says what comes to her half the time and then turns out to be right.

Mind you, she's definitely not always right, particularly with how she keeps predicting that Harry's going to die. But if her "future vibes" are telling her that he's going to be in mortal danger and she's too high/drunk/moonbrained to differentiate between "in mortal danger" and "dead" then it would make sense that she keeps thinking he's going to die. I'm kind of reminded of the fortune teller in the first season of Avatar the last Airbender, someone who's definitely a shrewd cold reader but also probably has some genuine powers of fortune telling. When she told Aang's fortune the bone she was using to perform the reading literally exploded and she was all, "wow, you have a lot of strife and conflict in your future." Aang, of course, being the Avatar in a world where the Fire Nation rules, just said, "yeah I know that, but is there any romance?" Which is pretty much how Harry usually reacted to Trelawney's omens of death. "Yeah, there's a maniac out there who wants me dead. I didn't need a fortune teller to figure that out, he literally tried to murder me twice already." Harry, sadly, is lacking Aang's ability to enjoy the finer things in life and so doesn't really put much thought into romance until he's older.
 
feauxen said:
Well when you look back on things, she's also correct about most of the nonsense she spouts about the future. A lot of people cite the teacup Neville broke as a good example, particularly since Hermione's explanation that she could have guessed that just by knowing about Neville doesn't really strike me as the way that Trelawney would go about it. It's how a muggle fortune-teller would go about it, but Trelawney really believes she has the sight (and also actually does) so she probably just says what comes to her half the time and then turns out to be right.

Mind you, she's definitely not always right, particularly with how she keeps predicting that Harry's going to die. But if her "future vibes" are telling her that he's going to be in mortal danger and she's too high/drunk/moonbrained to differentiate between "in mortal danger" and "dead" then it would make sense that she keeps thinking he's going to die. I'm kind of reminded of the fortune teller in the first season of Avatar the last Airbender, someone who's definitely a shrewd cold reader but also probably has some genuine powers of fortune telling. When she told Aang's fortune the bone she was using to perform the reading literally exploded and she was all, "wow, you have a lot of strife and conflict in your future." Aang, of course, being the Avatar in a world where the Fire Nation rules, just said, "yeah I know that, but is there any romance?" Which is pretty much how Harry usually reacted to Trelawney's omens of death. "Yeah, there's a maniac out there who wants me dead. I didn't need a fortune teller to figure that out, he literally tried to murder me twice already." Harry, sadly, is lacking Aang's ability to enjoy the finer things in life and so doesn't really put much thought into romance until he's older.
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The reason why she constantly predicted Harry's death was because he did die. He just pulled a messiah and came back. She's actually right just about always.
 
Iridesce said:
The reason why she constantly predicted Harry's death was because he did die. He just pulled a messiah and came back. She's actually right just about always.
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She was a bit off on the timing though. She definitely predicted that he would die at the end of third year, and I'm pretty sure every year thereafter that he bothered to take her class as well, though those may not have all been explicitly stated in the text. You don't really get credit for saying, "it'll happen this year" every year until it actually does happen. Though I guess that could be explained away by wibbly wobbly time not always happening in the right order from a seer's perspective.
 
feauxen said:
She was a bit off on the timing though. She definitely predicted that he would die at the end of third year, and I'm pretty sure every year thereafter that he bothered to take her class as well, though those may not have all been explicitly stated in the text. You don't really get credit for saying, "it'll happen this year" every year until it actually does happen. Though I guess that could be explained away by wibbly wobbly time not always happening in the right order from a seer's perspective.
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It also probably doesn't help that half the time when she says stuff about Harry she seems to be reading that soul shard stuck in his scar. I kid you not, if she says something "wrong" about Harry it's correct about Voldemort. She called him a winter child once and described Tom's personally while Harry was born mid summer.
 
Iridesce said:
It also probably doesn't help that half the time when she says stuff about Harry she seems to be reading that soul shard stuck in his scar. I kid you not, if she says something "wrong" about Harry it's correct about Voldemort. She called him a winter child once and described Tom's personally while Harry was born mid summer.
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Yeah. While she wasn't so great at avoiding plotholes (no matter how well she tended to fill them in later) Rowling did like to have fun with long-term plans and hinting at stuff the readers wouldn't be able to notice until years later. Trelawney is one good example, but another is the whole language of flowers thing Snape was apparently doing all the way back in first year. Something that didn't really make sense until literally the end of book seven, and iirc wasn't noticed until well after even that.
 
I think that Trelawney suffers from Imposter syndrome. She has made some some incredible prophecies, but she cannot remember them and they happen with decades of nothing. She cannot control anything about them. So she comes from a line of famous seers and she supposedly did an important one regarding Voldemort, but nothing of import since then.

So I think she is a bit desperate and is throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.
 
Silently Watches said:
Yeah, it's important to remember that according to McG, Trelawney predicts the death of a student every single year. Harry isn't special in that regard.
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Hogwarts also isn't the safest place though.
Weird thing happens every year in this story.
Sally Anne disappears in canon.
Myrtle died in her year.

It wouldn't be too surprising if a student did die every year.
 
FictionPack said:
It wouldn't be too surprising if a student did die every year.
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Dumbledore to Sally-Anne Perks who's chained to a blood altar in the deepest of Hogwart's dungeons.

"I hereby honor the yearly covenant. The Castle demands a Sacrifice..."

Note, while this is meant as humor and satire, it is also about as dark as you can get.
 
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Silently Watches said:
A pause, then Hazel wrote, 'I already finished. I thought that was what he wanted us to base our explanation on.'
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Ooh, that's going to be an interesting reaction. It's been a while, was this Snape sympathetic?
If not, whether or not he knows the theory he's not going to be happy to be shown up.
Silently Watches said:
They raised their wands and siphoned away the flames from the now-intact homes. Several of the men walked backwards into those same homes and soon after ran back out with far more haste.
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This may be a typo. It was hard to follow, but putting this back in the correct chronology seems to say:
  1. The druids ran into their homes
  2. walked out ... slowly?
  3. The wizards then set the homes on fire
I struggle to understand why they wouldn't be moving at the same speed either way. If this was some sort of attack, walking out slowly seems unwise. If it was some sort of censureship, then why would they run to their homes but, again, walk out slowly? It just seems like either a taunt or a good way to also end up on fire.

I guess it doesn't matter too much since they were all killed anyway, but it seems weird.
 
Iridesce said:
Yes but all of those students also died by the end of the books.
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FictionPack said:
It wouldn't be too surprising if a student did die every year.
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This was poking at something in the back of my brain, and I finally remembered what it was.
Prisoner of Azkaban said:
"Please, Professor, we've just had our first Divination class, and we were reading the tea leaves, and —"

"Ah, of course," said Professor McGonagall, suddenly frowning. "There is no need to say any more, Miss Granger. Tell me, which of you will be dying this year?"

Everyone stared at her.

"Me," said Harry, finally.

"I see," said Professor McGonagall, fixing Harry with her beady eyes. "Then you should know, Potter, that Sibyll Trelawney has predicted the death of one student a year since she arrived at this school. None of them has died yet. Seeing death omens is her favorite way of greeting a new class. If it were not for the fact that I never speak ill of my colleagues —"
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What Trelawney is like in this story is something we'll have to wait and see. But canonically, none of her death predictions ever came true, and who those kids were and whether they died during the Battle of Hogwarts is a complete unknown.

LostArchivist said:
It's been a while, was this Snape sympathetic?
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Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! Oh hell no he wasn't sympathetic.
LostArchivist said:
This may be a typo. It was hard to follow, but putting this back in the correct chronology seems to say:
  1. The druids ran into their homes
  2. walked out ... slowly?
  3. The wizards then set the homes on fire
I struggle to understand why they wouldn't be moving at the same speed either way. If this was some sort of attack, walking out slowly seems unwise. If it was some sort of censureship, then why would they run to their homes but, again, walk out slowly? It just seems like either a taunt or a good way to also end up on fire.

I guess it doesn't matter too much since they were all killed anyway, but it seems weird.
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It wasn't a typo; you just lost the thread a bit. The wizards ran into the houses and then walked back out at a normal pace, then set fire to the houses.

The chain of events in proper chronological order:

1. Lead wizard and lead druid argue about something.
2. Lead wizard kills lead druid.
3. Other wizards kill the other two druids.
4. Wizards kill the rest of the (possibly non-magical) villagers.
5. Wizards run into the houses for reasons unclear to Hazel and then walk back out.
6. Houses get set on fire.
7. Wizards leave.

It being kind of hard to follow is intentional because Hazel watching time run backwards and having to interpret the events she sees just felt appropriate for how a spirit would tell the story.
 
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Silently Watches said:
What Trelawney is like in this story is something we'll have to wait and see. But canonically, none of her death predictions ever came true, and who those kids were and whether they died during the Battle of Hogwarts is a complete unknown.
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Yeah this is the problem with the whole, "Trelawney is actually a really talented and accurate seer," thing. She very clearly isn't. But with how many things she said would happen eventually did in some form or fashion there's definitely something going on, whether or not that's just Rowling highlighting a few things for Hermione to pick at and the rest just kind of happening because the author forgot that she'd even made someone predict those events in the first place, but the things she'd written were nevertheless knocking around in the back of her head as things that might happen and so came to pass as the narrative progressed.
 
Silently Watches said:
What Trelawney is like in this story is something we'll have to wait and see. But canonically, none of her death predictions ever came true, and who those kids were and whether they died during the Battle of Hogwarts is a complete unknown.
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That's from McGonagall kinda off hand. So I wouldn't put much stock in it. Anyway, supposedly everyone who we know she made death predictions about died at the battle of Hogwarts. We don't actually know what those predictions were. But every prediction she made on screen so to say came true.
 
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Hazel is basically only going to charms, potions, herbology and probably astrology (or was it astronomy) right now isn't she? I'd be surprised if she had more then 1 class with Hermione right now unless I'm misremembering badly.
 
Events like what happened in this here chapter are what make this one of my favorite HP fics on the net. This really feels magical and Hazel being what she is, her sense of wonder remains alive and well to make the early whimsy of the series feel very natural.

Of course, the more she interacts with wizards and the world at large, she's gotten more jaded, but she's remained herself throghout very admirably. I think that Sally will keep being an important grounding element for Hazel as she dives deeper and deeper into her magic; the girl not only provides human contact for Hazel that she hasn't really had (many, many of her companions and friends have been good, intelligent and interesting people but by my reckoning, aside from that sandwich shop owner very early on in the story, they have not been human at all), Sally's also playing the very important role of straight man girl to Hazel's neverending parade of weirdness :p

I do wonder though, what Elfriede and the hags will think of some elements of the Brewing making it to the wizards. They had to be aware that teaching Hazel and then packing her off to wizard school would mean that some of their knowledge would be divulged.

I wonder if they banked on the wizard's pride discounting the ramblings of a runaway girl's ramblings (we all know that actual proven results do not affect the wizard's ability to ignore what's right in front of them) or if that slight breach in their secrecy was an acceptable price for first hand knowledge of wand magic and all the other tidbits that Hazel would pick up (and bring back) from Hogwarts.

Great chapter once more, thanks for writing!
 
Everdusk said:
Of course, the more she interacts with wizards and the world at large, she's gotten more jaded, but she's remained herself throghout very admirably. I think that Sally will keep being an important grounding element for Hazel as she dives deeper and deeper into her magic; the girl not only provides human contact for Hazel that she hasn't really had (many, many of her companions and friends have been good, intelligent and interesting people but by my reckoning, aside from that sandwich shop owner very early on in the story, they have not been human at all), Sally's also playing the very important role of straight man girl to Hazel's neverending parade of weirdness :p
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She's also an example of a sympathetic witch with whom Hazel has a personal relationship with. The latter part is important, as without it, her existing would be a lot easier for Hazel to ignore.

Basically, she, by existing, is liable to stop Hazel from developing more.... ....extreme opinions on 'wand-wavers'.
 
The divination was for the last druids that were around, was what I got out of it. These were the last ones following whatever was considered Druid tradition, rather than wizard tradition.

Obviously, the rational thing to do is to get the Resurrection Stone and call up a Druid teacher! Or maybe just go to Ireland. They may have survived there? Road trip to places that might have surviving shamanistic practices? They may share some similarities.

This story continues to make me so excited about the cool magical stuff, and so incredibly frustrated with every adult. Even more so than the adults in a HP story usually make me.
 
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