Remove ads

Spells in Silence (Harry Potter)

Reader mode
This is probably the creepiest sorting I've ever seen, and to have it end in Hufflepuff (the house oft-perceived as "the house of the duffers") is honestly hilarious. When I first read it I was surprised that Hufflepuff was where she ended up but after some further reflection (and reading of very insightful replies to this thread!) I've come to agree that it's the house that genuinely makes the most sense for Hazel, both in the sense of "where she belongs with her pre-existing personality" and "where she's most likely to flourish".

Silently Watches said:
It's kind of funny, but I realized while writing this chapter that although my mental image of Hazel has always been for her to be several inches shorter than the average for her age, I don't know that I've ever said that in-story. I think it's because she hasn't been around other kids her own age and so the comparison has never come up.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This has always been exactly the image I've had for her as well, so either you've done a fantastic job communicating that or we have the same implicit biases that connect other information you've shared about her with her height in some arcane way.
 
Silently Watches said:
Considering Merlin and Arthur died about half a millennium before the founding of Hogwarts? Chances are EXTREMELY low.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Feel free to do your own world building, but you know that Pottermore claims Merlin wqs a Slytherin.
It's a plot hole because the expanded universe also claims he died before Hogwarts was founded but its something I felt you should know.
 
RoninSword said:
Feel free to do your own world building, but you know that Pottermore claims Merlin wqs a Slytherin.
It's a plot hole because the expanded universe also claims he died before Hogwarts was founded but its something I felt you should know.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This is J.K.Rowling we are talking about.

Now I'm thinking about that whole 'Snape was followed by a horse at all times, it was just never brought up because it wasn't relevant.' What if that horse was actually some fey creature and only Snape(its victim) and Hazel(eyeglass) could see it.
 
Last edited:
The Game said:
Wh-what? What? Where is this from? What?
(I would like to know the context behind this sentence)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I remember some jokes awhile back something about Rowling making a tweet about it. I think it was in response to someone tweeting at her about a plothole at somepoint. Either that or it was a dream, the ones I have are very realistic.
 
Isiri Pudireach said:
I remember some jokes awhile back something about Rowling making a tweet about it. I think it was in response to someone tweeting at her about a plothole at somepoint. Either that or it was a dream, the ones I have are very realistic.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
For what's it worth, this is my new headcanon.

The only way it would have been better is if it was mentioned once in the first book, and wasn't mentioned again until the jorse had an important role in the final book.
 
RoninSword said:
Feel free to do your own world building, but you know that Pottermore claims Merlin wqs a Slytherin.
It's a plot hole because the expanded universe also claims he died before Hogwarts was founded but its something I felt you should know.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Pottermore is crappy "My Immortal"-quality fanfiction, and nothing can change my mind on the subject. It would make great evidence if someone wanted to claim that Harry Potter was written by a ghostwriter and JKR just took the credit.

I'm not claiming that, by the way. What I WILL claim is that by the time JKR started working on Pottermore it was solely about staying relevant several years later because nothing else she wrote after the main series was any good. Which, technically, includes Pottermore as well so that all checks out.
 
Last edited:
The mental image of a swirl of eyes, feathers, and talons picking hazel up by the scruff of her robes despite her waggling all her limbs is disturbingly kawaii...
 
very cool chapter and like everyone else said "I like the creepy sorting"
though something I'm confused about is what does the "Become the lightning that strikes the tower" mean, and why is huffelpuff the hard road that will reach the truth unlike ravenclaw that will give her easy knowledge but no truth.

Cookiesndip said:
It was all a black ops framing conspiracy perpetuated by the true dark lord, Dumbledore, to cover up the truth behind his nefarious deeds (e.g. making a Horcrux), while defaming the sole man who might oppose him. Moldy Shorts is a goddamn hero fighting a running battle against the true dark lord. Dumbledore has been funneling funds from the Potter inheritance into his terrorist group and propaganda machine, the Order of the Phoenix, while claiming the cloak for himself, getting one step closer to the unlimited power he desires. At least, this is what fanfiction tells me.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
had me dying, fanfiction is so bad on Dumbledore
 
Orion_1M said:
though something I'm confused about is what does the "Become the lightning that strikes the tower" mean, and why is huffelpuff the hard road that will reach the truth unlike ravenclaw that will give her easy knowledge but no truth.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

From my understanding here it is refering to the Tower tarow card which depicts a tower being struck by lightning. I believe the Tower card represents upheaval, destruction and sudden change. By saying she will become the lightning she is essentially saying she wants to be become the catalyst or an embodiment of change in the wizarding world she feels is outdated and needs to be replaced with something new (and possibly better) whether they neccesarily approve of it or not. By accepting this she is accepting she is going to be going against the common sense and mentality of the wizarding world to seek her own path.

Well thats how i read it anyway.
 
Last edited:
Orion_1M said:
though something I'm confused about is what does the "Become the lightning that strikes the tower" mean,
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That's a reference to this scene in chapter 7: the circus where she decides to have her fortunes read by at a fair
Silently Watches said:
Madam Enigma stopped with a slight choking sound, her eyes glued to the last card. Hazel was not sure what was so special about it. It was more detailed than the others, showing a tall pillar against a dark sky. Lightning was striking the top, and it looked like someone had fallen or jumped off to get away from the bolt.

"The Tower," Madam Enigma finally said in a strangled voice, but her eyes were not on the card. They were on Hazel. "What the hell is wrong with this girl that she has the Tower as her future?! Change is coming, my dear. Something unlike anything you've ever known before. Yeah, change all right. Violent, chaotic, destructive change. I wouldn't wish this card on my worst enemy. But only you can make that change worth the cost."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
Tore through this in one insomnia-ridden night. I'm going to leave my impression of the story so far, up to the Hogwarts admission and not including it. It's too soon to tell whether this is a major shift or just another stop on the Hazel Potter World Tour, so please consider what follows commentary on the lead-up to the arc underway.

The writing is pretty good; even tired, I only glossed over a few segments when the narrative really dives into the weeds of how the protagonist is attempting magical whatsit #14. What strikes me as the story's fatal flaw is that everything seems disconnected. Hazel is given full agency to pop in and out of settings and to slowly expand her range of the world, but all the other characters are seemingly trapped in their lives, waiting for her next visit. Lots of time is invested in supporting cast that have apparently no use (in the first 160k words!) other than to transform her outlook and her attitudes. It's all very selfish and self-centered.

To an extent, this works. The protagonist is not a very convincing 10-year-old girl, but she's excellent as a vessel for the reader to indulge in their curiosity for the author's take on the setting, for this new and strange type of magic and the magical entities that live through it. That extent is, well, over-extended. I find myself asking, "is this going to come back, or does it exist for its own sake?" reflexively, after each new encounter. Every problem encountered so far has basically the same solution: our tragic orphan concentrates really hard and magics a new tool for her toolbox. It might feel more satisfying if other characters expressed agency more often. The most relatable non-Hazel characters provide exposition and facilitation, but rarely do they provide assistance or demonstrate courage. (I'm a real big fan of birb).

The other major flaw with the narrative is that Hazel's motivation is largely determined solely due to her whims. Consider the ghost-haunted castle. We have a chapter which is her noticing something mysterious, investigating it, escaping with her life, and deciding that it was best not to bother with it after all. Why? What does that add to the overall story? If there's something in Gilles de Rais's funtime kid killin' castle that warrants the risk or hints that she might go back, I missed it. If its only purpose is to introduce the ideas, "teleportation doesn't work everywhere," and "ghosts are problems," it's an unsatisfying and shallow way to do this. Hazel never seems invested in the misadventure, and gets away without any real investment or even a single character interaction. This would all make more sense if there was something other than her own curiosity driving her, even if it was simply something material and specific she was still curious about after retreating. As it is, the story of Hazel walking into then running out of a castle seems to exist for its own sake, and that isn't quite worth it. There's a difference between a story and retelling a series of things that happened.

There's a version of this story that's very good, and I honestly don't think it's too far from what's written. If the protagonist were given problems to solve exterior to her own concerns, attachments to the world she's discovering, something that was at risk which required her inventiveness and her connections to other people, you'd have much tighter narrative arcs. Setting exposition by way of romping about a magical world makes for an excellent staple crop in serial fiction, but you need to fill out the meal with something meatier.

Consider giving your protagonist something to do other than merely survive and explore in the settings we've seen so far. Both werewolf town and hag shack are weaker for just how little they needed Hazel, in the end. The most exciting conflicts we have in both werewolf town and the hag shack (the boar and the wizard) lack any real foreshadowing or buildup, there's nothing to build anticipation before "suddenly, X is a problem, and Hazel helps their new friend kill it." An emotional or social conflict which lasts the whole of the setting arc would tie things together better, especially if it concludes in a way that leaves Hazel richer for the experience.

I've already gone on too long and I don't want to try driving this story from the backseat, but a concrete example comes to mind. Hazel's staff comes from a magical tree that she happens to encounter in between the werewolves and the hags, and her encounter with it is self-contained, isolated from the rest of the story. If it's going to take place between these two arcs, why not make the magical tree something the werewolf community shares with Hazel? The existence of something like this near their community could be what lures her into their neighborhood in the first place. Hiding a local magical miracle from the government, or even from other werewolves like Fenrir, could make for a longer term conflict arc. If the tree is somehow dying or ailing, that generates secondary conflict within the community, as some members of the secondary cast argue against others that they'll lose the tree unless they tell wizards about it. This gives Hazel more to do, and the werewolves more to express, in her chapters with them. Should she help them heal the tree or keep it secret or whatever, the staff she receives as a result becomes more than just another coincidence. At that point, it's a tie to the people who won't come with her to Hogwarts or other future locales.

Phew. That was a lot more than I intended. Please forgive me if it's a tad too much. On the whole, good work! I hope you keep at it.
 
Orion_1M said:
though something I'm confused about is what does the "Become the lightning that strikes the tower" mean, and why is huffelpuff the hard road that will reach the truth unlike ravenclaw that will give her easy knowledge but no truth.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
As @Solacen and @punster lv1 mentioned, this was a reference to her tarot reading back in chapter 7, where the card that represented her future was the Tower. The Tower card is part of the Major Arcana, unlike the rest of the cards in her fortune spread, and as such is the big impressive "look at me, I'm important" part of her reading. It represents huge, earth-shaking change and isn't necessarily one of the happier cards in the Major Arcana. What the Sorting Hat means is that she has the potential not to be the subject or victim of the change but rather the vehicle of the change, that she will cause and create the change.

As for why Hufflepuff rather than Ravenclaw will serve her better for her knowledge, it is because to reach the "Truth" that the Hat is talking about will require more effort and more exploration than Ravenclaw will foster. A Ravenclaw would read all the books available on the subject and call their knowledge complete; a Hufflepuff like Hazel will dig deeper, past the point that the books talk about and discover facts and history that no one else knows or even had a hint existed.
 
What did Author Weasly tell his children? "Never trust something that you don't know where it's brain is" or something like that. No one knows where the sorting hat keeps its brain..
 
Miri said:
What did Author Weasly tell his children? "Never trust something that you don't know where it's brain is" or something like that. No one knows where the sorting hat keeps its brain..
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Somehow I don't think that's what he meant, but yeah, basically.
I suspect though, that Arthur was one of those people who were sorted almost immediately (like Malfoy) and thus has no reason to suspect the hat is sentient enough to hold a conversation like that.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top