COS Chapter Nine: "The Writing on the Wall"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* Ooh, we’re half-way through the book! :)

 

* Lockhart’s looking “excited and important”, which is the sort of description usually reserved for Percy. Is this foreshadowing for Percy’s evilness in OOTP?

* I like the idea of Picture!Lockharts curling their hair so much that I won’t bother asking where they got the rollers from or why they needed them.

* I wonder why Snape’s trying not to smile. He doesn’t seem to have any particular grudge against Filch – in fact, he’d probably sympathise with him as a fellow outcast – so maybe it’s Lockhart’s behaviour he finds amusing?

* Harry feels sorry for Filch, but “not nearly as sorry as he felt for himself”, continuing the long tradition of self-pity in these books.

* Love Lockhart’s backtracking here, BTW. “Ah! I thought so!”

* Filch seems to be ashamed of the fact that he’s a Squib, whereas Hermione’s never been ashamed of her Mudblood status (and nor, as far as we know, have any Muggleborns), suggesting that Squibs have lower status than Muggleborns. Insulting people for being Squibs is still worse than insulting them for being Muggleborns, though.

* Harry’s sure that nothing Snape has to say will do him any good. Even though Snape’s spent most of last year saving Harry’s life.

* Snape’s logic may be leading him to the wrong conclusion, but at least he’s using logic, which is more than we can say for most characters in the books.

* Contrary to what Professor McGonagall says, there is evidence that Harry’s done something wrong. It may be circumstantial evidence, but it’s evidence nonetheless.

* So is Dumbledore reading Harry’s mind here? Because I have to say that the idea of the epitome of goodness going around violating people’s privacy like that seems a bit disturbing.

* “Hearing voices no-one else can hear isn’t a good sign, even in the wizarding world.” Erm, how do you know, Ron? This is, after all, a world with time travel, teleportation and transfiguration. For all you know, there might be some obscure bit of magic that only allows certain people to hear a sound.

* Ron’s laughing at Filch being a Squib, thereby teaching readers the value of tolerance.

* Ron seems happy that Filch is a Squib because Filch is such a bitter jerk. Apparently it doesn’t occur to him that Filch is such a bitter jerk because he’s a Squib, and that, if he were a normal wizard, he might be quite a nice person.

* No, Harry, Snape hasn’t tried to frame you for anything; he’s merely made a reasonable (if incorrect) deduction from the evidence available to him.

* I hope that at least one of the teachers tried to “Sourgify” the writing away before setting Filch on it with the mess remover.

* Aww, Filch’s portrayal here is so sad. :’(

* Ron doesn’t think Ginny should worry about Mrs. Norris being petrified, because she’s not very nice. Remember, kids, it’s OK for someone to be attacked if they annoy you in some way!

* As per usual, Ron’s is a few inches shorter than everyone else’s.

* Someone should tell Hermione that writing far more than you’re meant to is not a sign of intelligence. Learning to write briefly/choose only the most important points to include is a valuable skill to learn. If I’d handed in an essay that was ¼ over the word limit, my teachers would not have been happy.

* Hey, Hermione’s refusing to help Ron cheat with his homework. Maybe she should do this more often; he might actually learn something then.

* I don’t know what subject it was that JKR used to teach, but I’d be willing to bet it wasn’t History.

* So why is Dumbledore letting Binns teach? Hogwarts is, after all, the only wizard school in Britain; for DD to hire a bad teacher is, therefore, even worse than for a normal headmaster to hire one. He could well be putting literally every single wizarding child off studying history for life.

* Or maybe it’s just a cunning plan to stop them from investigating his own rather… interesting childhood.

* It seems that mediaeval wizarding society was so advanced, they all had surnames several centuries before they were introduced into Muggle society.

* I can’t help but wonder how Gryffindor and Slytherin managed to work together for so long; who to admit is, after all, a pretty fundamental disagreement. Perhaps Slytherin was initially OK with the idea of accepting Muggleborns, but them something happened (maybe one of them tried to betray the school?) that changed his mind.

* No, Ron, no-one’s said anything about Slytherin starting all this Pureblood stuff, simply that he agreed with it. There’s no evidence that this was a particularly rare view back in the tenth century.

* Also, in his haste to condemn Salazar as a “twisted old loony”, Ron seems not to have considered what it would say about Godric Gryffindor if he’d decided to start a school with such a man.

* Plus, of course, wishing to exclude Muggleborns is quite reasonable in an age when Muggles will literally kill you if they ever find out you’re a wizard.

* Maybe that explains all the Pureblood supremacy stuff: back in the old days, when Muggles were out to get magical people, wizards with Muggle relatives could well have divided loyalties, and so would naturally be seen as potential fifth columnists. The most trustworthy wizards would, therefore, be the ones with no Muggle relatives, and who would consequently be loyal only to the wizarding world. By the time Muggles stopped persecuting wizards and the danger of betrayal went away, the whole “Pureblood = best” thing was so heavily ingrained in wizarding culture that it is still present today.

* Considering Ron’s condescending attitude towards Muggles, I’d be a bit more cautious about getting on my high horse if I were him. He’s really a bit like a BNP member criticising a Nazi for being a racist.

* Am I the only one for whom “I wouldn’t be in his House if you paid me. Honestly, if the Sorting Hat had tried to put me in Slytherin, I’d’ve got the train straight back home…” brought flashbacks to “Imagine being in Hufflepuff. I think I’d leave, don’t you?”

* The sad thing is, all this “You could have been great in Slytherin” stuff could have been an excellent opportunity to show that “Slytherin” and “evil” are not synonymous. As it is, though, it comes across as a moral test that Harry has passed. The sign of true goodness = hating Slytherin House.

* Hermione’s really got a high opinion of old Dumbles, hasn’t he? Dumbledore couldn’t cure Mrs. Norris, ergo Mrs. Norris’ attacker can’t be human. What was it I said about elementary logic and the Hogwarts curriculum?

* Nice to see that Fred was already showing strong bullying tendencies by the age of five. And a remarkable control of magic, too, if he was able to turn a teddy bear into a spider without any training or a wand. Remind you of anyone?

* Hermione’s laughing at Ron’s obvious trauma, which, given what we now know about JKR’s views on love, is probably meant to be A Clue for their eventual marriage.

* So Hogwarts can buy golden plates for all its pupils, but not keep its toilets in good order. Clearly, Dumbledore’s been diverting funds from the sanitation department into the crockery-buying department.

* Percy’s noticed how upset Ginny is, whereas neither Ron, Harry nor Hermione have. Remember this when she tells everybody about Percy’s girlfriend.

* “You don’t care about Ginny,” says Ron, even though all the evidence in the books points to him being the only one of his family who actually cares about her.

* Given the rudeness of Ron’s remark, five points from Gryffindor is quite a mild punishment.

* Gosh, the Percy-hate’s really coming strong here, isn’t it? Now the trio are reluctant to even sit near him in the common room.

* “‘Let’s think,’ said Ron in mock puzzlement. ‘Who do we know who thinks Muggle-borns are scum?’” The correct answer is “No-one, because JKR can’t write a convincing racist.”

* It’s a bit like if, when Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson, instead of being a poor labourer, was a respected teacher or something like that. And instead of framing him for rape, Bob Ewell had called him a “nigger”. And instead of doing this pretty much every time he met him, Bob had used this insult maybe one or two times a year. And instead of doing this to every black person he met, Bob only insulted Tom. And if instead of being motivated by blind prejudice, Bob had a perfectly understandable reason for disliking him. And instead of agreeing with Bob’s insults, everyone just ignored him. And instead of being poor and oppressed, Maycomb’s black population were well-integrated and treated as equals with the town’s white people. And instead of being a common insult, “nigger” was rare enough that Tom had to ask one of his friends what it meant. And then the audience are expected to react as if Bob’s an evil bigot making Tom’s life hell, instead of just a minor irritant which any reasonably well-balanced person would ignore.

* Even if we accept for argument’s sake that Draco is a racist, that still isn’t very good evidence for him being Slytherin’s heir. There are, after all, lots of racists in the world; and besides, there’s always the possibility that Slytherin Jnr. would be hiding his racism so as not to draw suspicion on himself.

* Oh, wait, silly me, that’s not the only evidence Ron has. Draco’s also ugly. Because ugliness is a sure sign of badness, obviously.

* Oh, and his father’s “evil” (bear in mind that, so far, about the worst he’s done is insult Mr. Weasley, which is unpleasant, certainly, but not evil). Because Slytherin was so evil, all his descendants would be, too.

* Not that blood’s important in any way, or anything like that.

* And upon this foundation of spurious conjecture, Ron goes on to build a whole edifice of even more spurious conjecture, suggesting that the Malfoys have been handing the key down, father to son, throughout the centuries.

* Yeah Ron, try presenting that evidence in court, and see how far it gets you.

* And by “court”, I mean a proper Muggle one with juries and presumptions of innocence and all the various other safeguards designed to prevent wrongful imprisonment, not one of the kangaroo courts that pass for justice in the wizarding world.

* It is, as Hermione says, “possible”. But, in the absence of any other evidence, it’s no more possible than any of the other thousands of possibilities. (Hey, perhaps it’s Lockhart, and that idiot façade is just a way to throw suspicion. Or perhaps it’s one of the other rich, Pureblood children whose ancestors have all been in Slytherin. Or perhaps the whole thing’s just a practical joke by Fred and George…)

* Ron and Hermione seem to be getting irritated at each other remarkably quickly. Cue Can You Feel the Love in the background.

* “But that’s impossible,” says Harry, apparently forgetting that he’s a wizard in a school of magic in a society that has magic for just about everything, so asking Draco questions without them realising who they are shouldn’t be impossible.

* A lot of people think that Malfoy would be unable to keep his mouth shut if he was the heir, but I disagree. He doesn’t tell anyone about Norbert in PS, after all, and in OOTP he doesn’t seem to blab about Harry’s “remedial Potions” lessons. He’s quite capable of keeping secrets when the plot requires it he wants to.

* “‘Oh come on, no teacher’s going to fall for that,’ said Ron. ‘They’d have to be really thick…’” Can you guess who it is yet? :)

 

Comments

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

I hope that at least one of the teachers tried to “Sourgify” the writing away before setting Filch on it with the mess remover.

I doubt it. Remember in GoF how Dumbles made Filch lug over this great wooden casket- and then he used his WAND to open the lid? Far be it for him to display some consideration by levitating the thing over! I guess it adds more atmosphere to have an old man wheezing and huffing as he carries it to him.

Hey, Hermione’s refusing to help Ron cheat with his homework. Maybe she should do this more often; he might actually learn something then.

IKR? If she really wanted to help, doing the work for him isn't the way to accomplish it. But then, what Hermione really wants is for the boys to be dependent on her, which gives her power and assures her they'll stick around. Remember how Harry was happy to be friends with Hermione in PS/SS because:

It was really lucky that Harry now had Hermlone as a friend. He didn't know how he'd have gotten through all his homework without her, what
with all the last-minute Quidditch practice Wood was making them do.

* So why is Dumbledore letting Binns teach? Hogwarts is, after all, the only wizard school in Britain; for DD to hire a bad teacher is, therefore, even worse than for a normal headmaster to hire one.

This is what bothers me. Hogwarts is a really crappy school. Not only are kids put in danger due to the political agenda of their rarely seen, aloof Headmaster (who is unavailable to the Muggle parents, kept in the dark about their child's welfare), but he doesn't even bother enforcing reasonable teaching standards! We have a drop-out with no experience and little concern for safety, a drunk seer who only ever made two prophecies in her life and the stuff she teaches is completely useless, a ghost who drones on unbearably and puts his students to sleep...yeah, teaching standards are high at this school!

I felt so ashamed in GoF, next to Durmstrang and Beauxbatons. (Especially win the movie, hen Hogwarts began singing their stupid, cringe-worthy song, wtf was that all about? *dies*)
* No, Ron, no-one’s said anything about Slytherin starting all this Pureblood stuff, simply that he agreed with it. There’s no evidence that this was a particularly rare view back in the tenth century.

IKR? Considering back in whatever age it was when they were fearing for their lives from the Muggles and pulled their society into hiding to keep safe from them, I don't imagine absolutely EVERYONE was thrilled when it was suggested they take in children of those barbarians that wanted to barbecue them at the stake. Talk about 'high risk-low reward' scenarios.

in his haste to condemn Salazar as a “twisted old loony”, Ron seems not to have considered what it would say about Godric Gryffindor if he’d decided to start a school with such a man

LMAO. Point!

of course, wishing to exclude Muggleborns is quite reasonable in an age when Muggles will literally kill you if they ever find out you’re a wizard.

Exactly what I said! (I typed my above statement before reading this, jsyk)

The most trustworthy wizards would, therefore, be the ones with no Muggle relatives, and who would consequently be loyal only to the wizarding world. By the time Muggles stopped persecuting wizards and the danger of betrayal went away, the whole “Pureblood = best” thing was so heavily ingrained in wizarding culture that it is still present today.

I really like this theory, it makes a lot of sense. Much more than the MUGGLEBORNS STEAL MAGIC idea that randomly turned up in DH. *shakes head*

Although, jeez, how hard would it be to put a silencing spell on anyone who tried to reveal the existence of the WW? Like a delayed thing that would be activated if they tried to betray them, a la Hermione's jinx on Marietta. If a fifth year can do it, surely the best and brightest of the WW should be able to sort something out.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Considering back in whatever age it was when they were fearing for their lives from the Muggles and pulled their society into hiding

That wasn't happening in the 10th century when the school was founded; the Inquisition didn't start until a couple of hundred years later, and even then it took another 100 years or so to get to England.

But we know History isn't particularly Rowling's forte'...

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Okay, so why the hell did the seclusion happen? Did someone make a prophecy and the higher-ups listened? Because if the persecution wasn't even happening yet, then IDEK. Nice one, JKR.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

Seclusion was later - late 1600s. The school though was supposedly founded I think 1200s. So that's the problem - Salazar couldn't have been reacting to historical persecution if it's supposed to be our world. (Alternative: persecution started way earlier in the Potterverse for, uh, unexplained reasons.....) But yeah, her calculation is often off.

[koi-no-soshan.livejournal.com]

Hmm... Well, Potterverse wizards are quite dangerous in their own way- a vast array of spells and very little in the way of respect for those who can't use magic right back at them. So in a magical world that made sense, I could see persecution starting due to justified wariness of them- would you want to be around people who could use magic to muck about in your mind and had little to no compunctions with doing so?

Unlike the more typical fantasy (and real world!) model in which magic-users are valued for the services they perform for the community, HP wizards were driven away from Muggles because they abused their power.

Well, if the way they behave in the modern day is any indication, it could be a possibility?

The Inquisition/Witch Hunts

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Okay, so why the hell did the seclusion happen? Did someone make a prophecy and the higher-ups listened? Because if the persecution wasn't even happening yet, then IDEK. Nice one, JKR.

Like I said, History isn't her forte'.

Like a lot of people, she just thinks, "Oh, witches were burned at the stake in the Middle Ages!"

But it didn't happen in the early Middle Ages; from Wikipedia:

The Medieval Inquisition is a series of Inquisitions (Catholic Church bodies charged with suppressing heresy) from around 1184, including the Episcopal Inquisition (1184-1230s) and later the Papal Inquisition (1230s). It was in response to large popular movements throughout Europe considered apostate or heretical to Christianity, in particular Catharism and Waldensians in southern France and northern Italy.

So you can see by the above, "The Inquisition" didn't officially start until 1184, some 200 years after the date Rowling gives for the founding of Hogwarts. And even then, these early Inquisitions were more military campaigns of ethnic cleansing against heretical Christians in southern Europe, and were not campaigns against so-called witches.

The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition, was a tribunal established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile...The Inquisition was originally intended in large part to ensure the orthodoxy of those who converted from Judaism and Islam.

Uhhh...still nothing about witches...

The Roman inquisition was a system of tribunals developed by the Holy See during the second half of the 16th century, responsible for prosecuting individuals accused of a wide array of crimes related to heresy, including sorcery, immorality, blasphemy, Judaizing and witchcraft...The tribunals covered most of the Italian peninsula as well as Malta and also existed in isolated pockets of papal jurisdiction in other parts of Europe, including Avignon, in France.

Ah, so finally we get around to persecution of witchcraft after 1550! And even then, only in Italy, Malta, and parts of France.

(Due to posting size constraints, I will finish this in my next post)

Re: The Inquisition/Witch Hunts

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Okay, what does Wikipedia have to say specifically about "witch trials" and "witch burning"?

The classical period of witchhunts in Europe and North America falls into the Early Modern period or about 1480 to 1700, spanning the upheavals of the Reformation and the Thirty Years' War, resulting in an estimated 40,000 to 100,000 executions. The most common estimates are 40,000-60,000.

There you have it, boys and girls. The start of the witchhunt hysteria started some five hundred years after the founding of Hogwarts. And...

In the Kingdom of Great Britain, witchcraft ceased to be an act punishable by law with the Witchcraft Act of 1735.

And in addition:

The Council of Paderborn in 785 explicitly outlawed the very belief in witches, and Charlemagne later confirmed the law. The Council of Frankfurt in 794, called by Charlemagne, was also very explicit in condemning "the persecution of alleged witches and wizards", calling the belief in witchcraft "superstitious", and ordering the death penalty for those who presume to burn witches.

So in the 8th century, you actually had a law protecting witches! :-o


A century later:

There were also secular laws against witchcraft, such as that promulgated by King Athelstan (924-999)

And we have ordained respecting witch-crafts, and lybacs [read lyblac "sorcery"], and morthdaeds ["murder, mortal sin"]: if any one should be thereby killed, and he could not deny it, that he be liable in his life. But if he will deny it, and at threefold ordeal shall be guilty; that he be 120 days in prison: and after that let kindred take him out, and give to the king 120 shillings, and pay the wer to his kindred, and enter into borh for him, that he evermore desist from the like.

So even at this point, the worst that would happen to someone accused of being a witch or wizard, as long as they didn't kill someone, was 4 months in prison and a fine, and to promise to stop practicing witchcraft.

Perhaps that would be enough to inspire a group of wizards and witches to found an obscure wizardry school, and perhaps even generate a discussion about whether students from nonmagikal families should be allowed to attend...but it was hardly the "We have to separate ourselves from them to survive!" scenario we've been presented.

Re: The Inquisition/Witch Hunts

[oryx_leucoryx]

In the Kingdom of Great Britain, witchcraft ceased to be an act punishable by law with the Witchcraft Act of 1735.

Proving that seclusion in the late 17th century worked :P

So even at this point, the worst that would happen to someone accused of being a witch or wizard, as long as they didn't kill someone, was 4 months in prison and a fine, and to promise to stop practicing witchcraft.

Well, there is the matter of ordeals used to determine if someone was or wasn't a witch. I understand some of them were quite horrific.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/This is what bothers me. Hogwarts is a really crappy school. Not only are kids put in danger due to the political agenda of their rarely seen, aloof Headmaster (who is unavailable to the Muggle parents, kept in the dark about their child's welfare), but he doesn't even bother enforcing reasonable teaching standards! We have a drop-out with no experience and little concern for safety, a drunk seer who only ever made two prophecies in her life and the stuff she teaches is completely useless, a ghost who drones on unbearably and puts his students to sleep...yeah, teaching standards are high at this school!/

Not to mention a teacher with a dangerous condition (I do sympathize with Remus' circumstances, I really do, and I know that it isn't his fault, but in terms of his students' safety, he really is a risk to have around), a teacher who mutilates her students during detention (yes, I know that Albus didn't appoint her, but he should have done *something* to stop it while he was still in school), and a charlatan whose lessons are also useless. And what's worse is that the teachers don't receive any punishment from the administration for their behavior. They can hurt students or fail to teach them anything, and it won't matter.

I could understand if the teaching standards were low for the DADA position because it was cursed (although it still wouldn't be justification for Dumbledore never trying to get rid of the hex in the first place). But yes, maybe the wizarding world is just short on prospective teachers and that's why Dumbledore will accept anybody that he can get. That still doesn't say much about his experience as headmaster.

Not to mention that the students don't learn half of the subjects that Muggle children do: there's no mention of any foreign language classes (apparently Crouch Sr. and Dumbledore became polyglots all by themselves), there aren't even English literature/writing classes where students learn how to write and analyze novels and texts, there's no mention of any regular science classes (Potions and Astronomy were probably supposed to be the stand-ins for science, but what about natural sciences like anatomy and biology?), the only math class that we hear of is Arithmancy (which isn't even a requirement, given that we never see Harry and Ron taking it), and there are no physical education classes (no, I would not count a one-time flying lesson in first year as a gym class). Sure, the kids learn about the history of magic, but does that include the general history of England as a whole? Does that include World History? Or is the "Muggle side" of history specifically excluded to Muggle Studies? The whole time that I was reading the series, I was wondering if maybe pureblood wizarding children are home-schooled before Hogwarts and that's how they learn how to read and write, as well as other basic educational skills.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

there aren't even English literature/writing classes where students learn how to write and analyze novels and texts

Heck, what about classes in basic English Grammar? Like learning basic vocabulary words, proper sentence structure, proper punctuation.

Sorry, that is a particular sore point with me because I'm a product of a school system where I went thru 12 years of public school and never was taught basic grammar! What passed for "English Class" was getting vocabulary words back in primary grades, and then in junior and senior high school getting one book to read after another, on which we were tested for reading comprehension.

But how to properly compose a sentence! Phfffft!


but what about natural sciences like anatomy and biology?

Or physics?

And all of the fine arts -- theater, poetry, painting (how does one learn to make oil paintings that move?), sculpture, music, dance -- seem to be blatantly missing from Rowling's wizarding world.

And what about Vo-Tech subjects? Just who is designing, and then constructing, all the buildings that wizards and witches live and work in?

Hogwarts has toilets -- where do magikal children learn to become plumbers? Stone masons? Glaziers? Who manufactures all that parchment, quills, and ink that they use, and where did they learn those skills?

How does one learn how to make a magikal cauldron? One would have to at least have a basic understanding of metalurgy...

[koi-no-soshan.livejournal.com]

I've seen fan theories in which the students don't receive full educations from Hogwarts- after their seventh year, students all take up apprenticeships for their particular intended careers. While I prefer it for fanfic, certainly, it doesn't seem to match up to canon.

If the students are really only receiving education in the magical basics, seven years at boarding school seems a great deal of time for what they learn, which is...not very much. They don't seem to learn anything behind the theory of magic- how do these spells work, in what other ways can magic be applied, what are the costs of performing magic (and damn it, there should be a cost- with a very few exceptions, Rowling's spells require nothing more than memorization, and given how Godmoding they can be...these wizards would be sickeningly overpowered if not for their incompetence). I don't accept 'the Harry filter' as an excuse- that's just bad writing. All I can assume is that the magic system has no logic behind it, which doesn't particularly surprise me, given that Rowling doesn't appear to have any familiarity with the fantasy genre. One doesn't need to be familiar with the genre to write fantasy, not necessarily, but if one wants to present a world with complex magical rules and convince us that so-and-so magical rule allowed the hero to scrape through in this plotline or that... Then an understanding of how magical worlds are typically arranged would be very helpful.

The few magical laws Rowling takes a stab at scarcely make sense, and are never in enough detail for us to actually have an idea of how they tie into the magic system.

It's awful enough that they're not receiving broader educations, but on top of that, they aren't even receiving good narrow educations in magic.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

They don't seem to learn anything behind the theory of magic- how do these spells work, in what other ways can magic be applied

Indeed. Snape is the only one we see actually capable of creating brand new spells and potions, we don't see anyone else doing that...altho I guess in some manner the Weasley twins did show some creativity.

But one would think that when students advanced to NEWT levels, that they all would have had to at least learned the basics of how to create a new spell/potions because, as you point out, they should have had more instruction in magikal theory.

I mean, Hogwarts shouldn't necessarily be churning out wand and magikal cauldron makers -- but its graduates should at least know what the necessary processes are to create such objects. Someone shouldn't be arriving at some wandmaker's doorstep to be an apprentice, and have absolutely no knowledge of the basic theory behind making such wands.

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

Someone shouldn't be arriving at some wandmaker's doorstep to be an apprentice, and have absolutely no knowledge of the basic theory behind making such wands.

I'm starting to suspect that no one knows the basic theory behind wands, and wandmakers just come up with Star Trekian (or worse, Doctor Who-ish) technobabble whenever anyone asks them.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Exactly, this is what annoys me- JKR has absolutely zero magical theory. All the kids do is point their wand and say some nonsense Latin words and there you go. No effort, no strain (they can cast endlessly without any physical toll, it seems), and yet when JKR needs to inject tension, she has Harry arbitrarily having trouble with a spell- it was okay with the patronus, 'coz he's facing a Dementor (boggart!Dementor, which...okay, let's just go with that) but when he struggles with 'accio' for like, ten chapters, it's infuriating!

Because it doesn't make sense! How can anyone have trouble with spells? It's not a problem of drawing on or channeling their magic, because that's what wands are for, it's not to do with concentrating on visualizing what they want and being precise in the detail, because no, none of that, just the word is all that's required- okay, so maybe there's some initial difficulty in the PRONUNCIATION of the world (wingardium levi-OH-sa, not levio-SAH), but then after that, what's the difficulty?

And yeah, apprenticeships are usually the answer in fanfic (quick question- what's the usual length of time for an apprenticeship? I'm trying to work out details for a fanfic and I'm not sure how long it should be. Also, fics often have the apprentice teaching classes, how soon do you think that would take place?) but I have a hard time seeing how anything they learned in school would be of any help in any career.

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

but what about natural sciences like anatomy and biology?

Or physics?

I'd imagine Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, and their textbooks on magical theory (do they have classes on that or are they just given a textbook and only get taught whatever comes up in the other classes?) are meant to count as sciences - and only one of them is known to be competently taught.

There's also whatever training Healers go through, so I suppose that's something.

(how does one learn to make oil paintings that move?)

Magic. Your silly Muggle mind can't comprehend how much more intrinsic worth that gives the paintings. Why, they have to memorise some words in badly-understood fake Latin!

And what about Vo-Tech subjects? Just who is designing, and then constructing, all the buildings that wizards and witches live and work in?

Hogwarts has toilets -- where do magikal children learn to become plumbers? Stone masons? Glaziers? Who manufactures all that parchment, quills, and ink that they use, and where did they learn those skills?

How does one learn how to make a magikal cauldron? One would have to at least have a basic understanding of metalurgy...

Magic and/or elves, and probably goblins for anything metallurgy-related. And the non-goblin-made stuff is almost certainly based on Muggle techniques. Frelling parasites.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

I guess the only possible answer to your questions is- IT'S ALL MAGIC. They have charms for everything! Even when it doesn't seem practical or efficient or logical, it's all done by magic! Or house-elves!

Actually, maybe that's why they were enslaved. Wizards didn't want to have to deal with gross stuff like toilets and whatnot, enter house-elf slaves.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Actually, maybe that's why they were enslaved. Wizards didn't want to have to deal with gross stuff like toilets and whatnot, enter house-elf slaves.

The elves clean the toilets, but they're hardly master plumbers designing and installing complete plumbing systems.

And if the MoM has to come up with regulations regarding the correct manufacture of magikal cauldrons, then that implies something more than a wave of a wand and a wiggle of the nose in their creation....

[oryx_leucoryx]

We know that several of Albus' appointments were 'political' - ie served his other agenda rather than his role as head of the country's sole school: Sybil, Severus, Hagrid, Remus, Alastor and Horace, at the very least. IMO so is Binns (in that he is an excuse to not hire Bathilda Bagshot), maybe some of the others as well. Which means he will find a way to keep them there for the expected time regardless of suitability.

Even if the children receive some kind of general education before Hogwarts, 11 is too young to stop it.

Dumbledore's appointments

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Like your idea on Binns!

We don't know a "political" reason behind Quirrell and Lockhart, but they certainly weren't chosen for competence in their field or teaching ability.... Of, course, DADA was hard to fill.

Other staff DD was apparently responsible for choosing: Filch as Pringle's replacement and Hagrid as Ogg's as groundskeeper.

Whereas the other older staff we see in canon(Flitwick, Sprout, McGonagall, Hooch, Slughorn, Pince, and Pomfrey) may all have been appointed by one of Dumbledore's predecessors in office. All are competent; all but one deal well with children.

Which is to say we have no canon evidence that Dumbles ever, even once, considered competence in a subject or ability to work with childen when making a hiring decision.

Although he may, of course: we know of nothing to the discredit of Sinistra, Burbage, or Vector.

Oh, sorry, we do know of one exception: Hagrid's substitute, Grubbly-Plank, was a teacher of ordinary competence. And Dumbles picked Hagrid over her for the CMC position.

Re: Dumbledore's appointments

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

We don't know a "political" reason behind Quirrell and Lockhart, but they certainly weren't chosen for competence in their field or teaching ability.... Of, course, DADA was hard to fill.

My theory on Lockhart is that Snape, Moody, and Dumbledore's other anti-Dark-specialist friends had been complaining about him for some time, and Dumbledore decided to give him an entertaining comeuppance. I never had the impression Quirrel was incompetent - his lessons weren't as exciting as the first-year Gryffindors had hoped but that says nothing, and he was good enough to break into Gringotts on his own.

Re: Dumbledore's appointments

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Do you think he knew Quirrel was possessed from the start? Because I read a convincing theory about how the maze thing was meant to be a trap for Voldy (which would've worked just fine without Harry's interference, damn it)so perhaps Dumbles only hired him because he knew the spirit of Voldy was riding around in his body. I mean, the timing of the Philosopher's stone being moved to Hogwarts, something that Voldy would not be able to pass up and would be obsessed with obtaining, it's pretty suss...

And yes, I'm really pissed off- Dumbles' nepotism is so evident. Grubbly-Plank was a competent teacher but got passed over for the guy who can't teach properly, who creates his own species and gets the kids to care for them even though it doesn't teach them anything and WOULDN'T BE ON EXAMS and takes glee in creatures that burn/sting/bite them. ASSHAT. *hates him forever*

Re: Dumbledore's appointments

[oryx_leucoryx]

Like your idea on Binns!

For a more crack-AU, Binns teaches his subject because as a ghost he doesn't need to be paid. This leaves more money to support Twinkly's sweets habit.

Whereas the other older staff we see in canon(Flitwick, Sprout, McGonagall, Hooch, Slughorn, Pince, and Pomfrey) may all have been appointed by one of Dumbledore's predecessors in office. All are competent; all but one deal well with children.

If Minerva was hired to fill the spot left when Twinkles was made headmaster (assuming he went directly from Transfiguration teacher to headmaster) then wouldn't she have been among his first hiring decisions?

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

served his other agenda rather than his role as head of the country's sole school

Jeez, what a role call! It makes me angry when people claim Dumbles was the best headmaster ever because he never once thought about the best interests of the school, it was always about his political agenda.

And I can't get over needing a PASSWORD to get to his office. Every headmaster I've ever had kept an open-door policy, every kid was entitled to go see them if they had trouble, but Dumbles is too ~speshul~ to be bothered with mundanes.

And yeah, seems like they learn crap-all in seven years, certainly not enough to qualify them for any sort of real job.

[oryx_leucoryx]

In comparison, open door policies never made it to any of the schools I attended. In my high school you could write a letter to the principal. But you could access any of your class teachers. Typically personal problems got addressed to your homeroom teacher, the head teacher of your year or the guidance counselor.

[oryx_leucoryx]

a drunk seer who only ever made two prophecies in her life and the stuff she teaches is completely useless,/i>

She actually made more predictions - her card reading in HBP is spot on, but she doesn't realize it. Her problem is lack of confidence combined with a need to prove herself. And of course, the general problem with prophecies - even in a magical world where one can have insight into the future, without knowing what a prophecy means it is next to useless.

Not to mention a teacher with a dangerous condition (I do sympathize with Remus' circumstances, I really do, and I know that it isn't his fault, but in terms of his students' safety, he really is a risk to have around),

Especially when he isn't completely cooperative in managing his condition.