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JonCon's Red Beard

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Although JKR later admitted she's bad at math. I mean, there are 8 Grynffidors on Harry's year, which means max 40 students per year. Multiply this by 7 years, and you get cca 280 students in Hogwarts overall. When asked about this, JKR said she envisioned more than that (IIRC, around 1000 students).

I also admit I'm a bit jealous of Weasleys, each having so many brothers and a sister.

If you figure Harry's year was at a low point because of the war and that in his third year you'd see kids from a baby boom start coming in you could probably comfortably say about 500 students. I can't see it being more than that though, the staff is too small even with what appears to be a really light course load for the students. (I could be remembering this wrong though)

I don't believe Salazar Slytherin to be the racist bigot people believed him to be. Having muggle-born students was indeed a danger, as it threatened the security of Hogwarts and the students and their families, even those who weren't wizards.

I agree with this, especially with the generally conflict driven time period Hogwarts was founded during.

I would love to agree if it wasnt for the fact that he built the fucking chamber of secrets with a basilisk inside!! :P

Salazar was an absolute maniac at best...

What good is it to have a monster inside your magic school for kids that kills anyone that looks it in the eyes?

Im sure his intentions were purely academic... ;)

You know, we never do get confirmation in anyway that it was actually Slytherin who created the Chamber. The closest thing we get it "Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four" line, but even someone with a massive ego probably wouldn't do that, and it's weird for anyone to build a statue of himself underground like that, if you've got that much of an ego your probably not going to build the statue were no one is going to see it.

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Could be, but I find it very unlikely. Entire scene just plays like classic bullying: bullies come, outnumber the victim and mistreat him. They behave casually, as if bullying Snape is the most normal thing in the world. You can just tell from their behaviour this is not their first time doing it, nor is it likely to be their last.

JP and his friends were indeed a bully, especially towards Snape at that time. But to be honest, did you never in your entire life bullied or at least gossiped by someone.

I have been in some way bullied (not really in a physical way) but they still gossiped about me, ... And I did once bullied someone (laughed with her and stuff like tjat) . Yeah, it has been six years ago but I still feel guilty about it.

I think you should never say who people are when they are 15/16 years.

And according Sirius and Remus, James did change. Lily married him in the end. And either because she didnt care anymore he was bully or because he changed. And I think the latter is more plausible.

And he was indeed a bully towards the Slytherins, ... but I believe he was in other ways even at his younger age a great kid. What the Marauders did for Remus is actually rather impressive.

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Snape is my favorite character. Freaking deal with it. I do not excuse his actions because to do so would diminish why hes my favorite in the first place. The dude is an asshole, but hes not so much of one as to not try to atone for his bullshit. Harry understood that. Harry grew to respect that. Im with Harry on that one.



Slytherins were a bit too unfairly portrayed. I find it hard to believe they were all a bunch of Death Eater larvae. Come on, Jo, you can do better than that.



I dont like the Marauders much outside of Lupin. Sirius has his moments of cool, and James did some bamf shit. But i dont really enjoy them that much.



Hermione does some shit in the series thats kinda gnarly. While i can forgive it, it bugs me when fandom gets on her ass about it.


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I think she is a pretty good storyteller. As the books combine very different types of story, some clashes are to be expected. Especially the first one is, despite the mystery and the ending, to a large extent a "school story" and Snape is needed as a main antagonist (and suspect in the mystery). Same with Malfoy and the Slytherins. The latter again work as a red herring in the second book but for most of the first 4 books the function of both the Slytherins and Snape is more like in-school-enemies and mean teachers of some Enid-Blyton-boarding-school-story.


This does not work so well in the later books when there are "real" antagonists, the Deatheaters and Lord V. We get Snape's backstory to understand some of his motivations but he still is presented ambiguously in book 6.



Sure, there might be some inconsistencies but as we are told almost everthing from Harry/Griffindor perspective, this is plausible to some extent. (There are also some nice foreshadowings that seem to show quite a bit was planned in advance or at least some parts of the later books were designed to mesh well with stuff from the earlier ones most readers had forgotten; take the scene when Harry eavesdrops on the Malfoys in Knockturn Alley in book 2.)


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Yeah, Snape indeed atoned for his actions all those years when he was being a double-agent. Which makes him in my eyes next to an asshol also a real badass. Or in better terms, I started to respect him for that. I actually found it disgusting how Dumbles treated him in his memories.



They were actually a lot of foreshadowings. Al long time ago I used to argue on some forums in mother language that Snape was indeed on the light side and that he killed Dumbles on Dumbles orders. (Major clue: the talk in the forest between Snape and Dumbles which Hagrid overheard; Snape only acting on defense when Harry attacked him; ...)



@Florina. Snape can be your favorite while Sirius can be mine. The major problem with the Marauders is that you have only the moment of them in Snape's memory as a couple of arrogant brats. You don't know how they would be when they were older expect for Lupin. Yes, Sirius is still alive but in book 3 he was a bit insane and in book 5 he was a moody jerk because he was living in the worst place to him next to Azkaban. So I don't think you get a real good impression how Sirius was before Azkaban. I liked him in book 4.


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One thing I find unrealistic is the fact that Ollivander's wand shop was supposed to be established in, I think 372 b. C. I mean ... seriously? :dunno:






Wait ... there are people who don't like Ginny ? ;)




Yeah, she is not really popular from what I can gather from other threads about HP on this forum.





But only two houses are together in class, aren't they? I do not remember the details as it is all from Gryffindor perspective. But as e.g. Dumbledore apparently does not teach at all (although I always assumed he would probably teach some advanced "honours" classes in charms/transformation/whatever in the last two grades we do not get any information about) the teachers of the main subjects (like Flitwick and McGonagall) have a LOT of classes to teach. There is also stuff only Hermione takes like Ancient Runes and Arithmancy where we do not even know who the teachers are. And who teaches Muggle Studies?




Yes, but they have relatively small number of pupils in each class ... so they do not have that many essays to read and correct I guess.


I am sure those subjects have their own teachers (I think Hermione once mentions the name of the ancient runes one?), but they are just not important for Harry. About muggle studies, she is the one

Death Eaters laugh at and mock and torture and then they kill her in Malfoy's house.


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Yeah, she is not really popular from what I can gather from other threads about HP on this forum.

Oh you should absolutely read some FF.. ;D

horrible! She always is protrayed as a promiscuous bitch who only is with Harry because he is the "Chosen One"...

But honestly: I dont really care for her that much either...

Harry shouldve been with Hermionne (I think there is kind of an romantic undertone to their relationship in HP IV... at least there couldve been :P)

or Luna who is absoulutely adorable... but thats just me! ^^

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One thing I've wondered is how does combat system work in HP universe? Namely Avada Kevadra - killing curse which was said to be unstoppable and unblockable. If so, how can you ever defeat a single Death Eater who just spams the curse? How come duels between heroes and villains don't contain villain shouting the curse and good guy running for his life and praying not to get hit?

@Tijgy: Yeah, it's outright stated that James finally grew up, matured and stopped behaving like a jerkass jock (unlike e.g. Snape who remained petty bully through the rest of his life). I was just responding to what I received was relativisation of SIrius' and James' bad behavior.

@Buck: That's a surprise to me. I thought she'd be more popular.

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The thing about Sirius Black is that he survived twelve years in a prison with soul-sucking creatures and he kept his sanity, while he started to crack after spending one year in his former home that reminded him of his terrible childhood. He let that house because he got enough of their "muggles suck/purebloods rule" attitude and Dumbledore locked him in with all of those terrible memories. At least Snape had the freedom to come and go as he liked.

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Harry shouldve been with Hermionne (I think there is kind of an romantic undertone to their relationship in HP IV... at least there couldve been :P)

or Luna who is absoulutely adorable... but thats just me! ^^

Luna should have ended with Neville. :P

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Luna should have ended with Neville. :P

You just say that cause they did that in the movies kinda :P

I feel like Luna is too crazy for Neville though...she needs someone who can sort of channel her enthusiasm ;D

while we're on the topic of shipping:

I wish there was a more explicit version for all the HP books! ;)

Not to graphic though... just like in ASOIAF ;)

I mean srsly: several hundred horny teenagers and not ONE unwanted pregnancy?

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You just say that cause they did that in the movies kinda :P

I feel like Luna is too crazy for Neville though...she needs someone who can sort of channel her enthusiasm ;D

while we're on the topic of shipping:

I wish there was a more explicit version for all the HP books! ;)

Not to graphic though... just like in ASOIAF ;)

I mean srsly: several hundred horny teenagers and not ONE unwanted pregnancy?

:lmao:

@ JCRB

I actually think those 12 years still left some scars but yeah that year in that house really messed him up a lot. Another reason why I hate Dumbles. I can understand Sirius could not go without any concealment walking on the streets but still were there not ways he could leave the house. They are wizards. There could be a lot of ways to hide him. Was there really a reason Sirius should have stayed in that particular house?

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You just say that cause they did that in the movies kinda :P

I feel like Luna is too crazy for Neville though...she needs someone who can sort of channel her enthusiasm ;D

Nope, the books are more important to me than the movies, and I still say that.

I think they would fit together quite well.

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Here's one, I dislike how people call Harry "emo" in the Fifth and Sixth books. He goes through shit recently that would emotionally destroy a lot of people, and he comes through it fine. Hell he's most emotionally stable than a lot of teenagers are just in general at this point. But no, he's kind of depressed and angry after seeing people he know's die and being tortured repeatedly so "emo".


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Oh come, the scene was pretty unambiguous. Two jocks came, ganged up on one guy, misused magic and publicly humiliated him until Lily intervened. I don't see how can this be anything other than petty bullying: even Lupin and Sirius himself admitted as much.

Because Snape was already a conniving white supremacist dark arts supporter Death Eater? He was as Slytherin. As others have said, it's a weakness of JKR, but it is what it is. I don't exactly trust Snape's memory 100% either. Plus, what do you call every Snape interaction with Neville and any other kid who isn't Draco? That's petty bullying and child abuse by an adult.

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Here's one, I dislike how people call Harry "emo" in the Fifth and Sixth books. He goes through shit recently that would emotionally destroy a lot of people, and he comes through it fine. Hell he's most emotionally stable than a lot of teenagers are just in general at this point. But no, he's kind of depressed and angry after seeing people he know's die and being tortured repeatedly so "emo".

:agree: :agree: :agree: :agree:

Plus, wasn't he himself tortured at the graveyard? Mix all the trauma and stress from Goblet of Fire with Voldemort possessing him and book five is actually a lot more complex than people give it credit for. But a large amount of the HP fanbase are not exactly the most mature people, so they're just going to see the "emo" parts.

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Because Snape was already a conniving white supremacist dark arts supporter Death Eater? He was as Slytherin. As others have said, it's a weakness of JKR, but it is what it is. I don't exactly trust Snape's memory 100% either. Plus, what do you call every Snape interaction with Neville and any other kid who isn't Draco? That's petty bullying and child abuse by an adult.

By the time of that scene, he had already invented Sectusempra and used it against James. While both actions are wrong, it's like pulling down a kid's pants and getting shot in return.

Looks like Levicorpus was also ironically invented by Snape.

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I always struggled with Harry shouting at Ron/Hermione in Order of the Phoenix. As TrueMetis says, his behaviour is obviously predicated on the pain he's going through...I just found it super awkward, it's not at all like me. He's a much more emotional character. Again though, I haven't been through what he had.

I think that was just him being a teenager: annoying.

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My issue with him in the beginning of OOTP was actually with how quickly he let's things drop. Okay I can kind of see him forgiving his friends despite the useless letters, and then proceeding to give him nothing that couldn't have been put into one of those letter when he gets there. But him just going along with being given fuck all information by the adults? And what they do give, despite being useless, they seem to act like it was a big deal. Harry's fought off Voldemort multiple times by this point and is someone Voldemort is after specifically. He needs information more than anyone, because even if he wasn't the type to jump into these situation he's going to be dragged into them. But they act like he doesn't need this information, while a fucking housewife apparently does.


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