Molly Weasley, the Potion Mistress?
(a record of discussion about the topic on the Reddit thread
“Could Molly and the ‘Love Potion’ incident be a communications
misunderstanding?” started by u/varrsar; more discussion on
that thread)
The biggest problem with Molly Weasley and Love Potions is that
everybody seems to remember something completely different than
what actually is in the canon:
[Harry and Weasley boys] headed down to breakfast, where Mr.
Weasley was reading the front page of the Daily Prophet with
a furrowed brow and Mrs. Weasley was telling Hermione and
Ginny about a love potion she’d made as a young girl. All
three of them were rather giggly. (Chapter 5 of PoA, “The
Dementor”)
That’s it. There is nothing more on the topic. We don’t know what
kind of potion it was, we don’t know if she ever used it (and
certainly we don’t know that she used it on Arthur, who was,
mind you, sitting next to them), we don’t know whether she was
successful in making it, we don’t even know whether it was some
fun concoction she made even before Hogwarts (note that “a young
girl” doesn’t feel like a Hogwarts-age teenager). We know almost
nothing about it.
Huh, so it could well be a “look how dumb I was when I was
a kid” story. Possibly even in response to Hermione’s story
of the polyjuice potion brewing. This was, after all,
probably the first time Molly could get some more of the
details about what happened to Ginny the previous year from
other people’s perspectives. (u/HairyHorux)
Yup. I think there are more versions of love potions. Yes,
Amorentia is on the top as a rape drug, and it is quite horrible
(see “An Hour of Wolves” by solvskrift for a rather horrific
treatment of the matter; all trigger warnings apply!) to
something which the Weasley brothers were selling (which I would
expect could just persuade a girl to enjoy her date more or
something of that kind) to some complete nonsense. I am a bloke
so mysteries of young girls’ play are still mostly a mystery to
me (although, I have a daughter), but I know there are various
silly girly games about whether she will find a boyfriend or not
via kind-of-divination from flowers and such. Why shouldn’t there
be in the magical world something similarly silly for young
girls?
And yes, that giggling feels more like “we are all idiots
sometimes” than Amorentia.
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Broken Dumbledore
(my comments on “Anger and Albus Dumbledore” by u/HorseLaw14)
I think he doesn’t understand emotions at all. Yes, I will say,
he knows nothing about love. And, no, I don’t care whether he is
gay or straight, there is absolutely no evidence anywhere for
Dumbledore/Minerva (or …
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Soul bonds and arranged marriages
Comment on the Reddit thread “Soul bonding fics with depth?”
by ZappyFence discussing “Error of Soul” by Materia-Blade)
Can you elaborate? As someone who read it, I'm still not sure
what people mean when they say this.
In the end every soul-bond fanfiction story is a story of
imposed/unintended …
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On Technology of Horcrux creation
(my comments on “Diary Horcrux Murder” by berkeleyjake)
It may be possible that the result of the ritual sacrifice can be
somehow stored and the ritual creating Horcrux can be done later.
What’s more important is this:
“Well, you split your soul, you see,” said Slughorn, “and
hide part …
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HP fanfiction as sci-fi
(my comments on the Reddit thread “What if there's no magic gene?” by 15_Redstones)
Concerning your thoughts about “The magic system is so whimsical,
I don’t think it should be susceptible to manipulation by
scientists.”, I am a bit torn. The one thing I really like about
the HP …
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Why to drop fanfiction story immediately
pink-pipes asked on Reddit
What Tropes or Scenes Have Made You Drop a Fic Immediately?
I have prepared this list:
- harem, Ménage à trois, polygamy, fluid sexuality, PWP,
Alpha/Beta/Omega dynamic
- adult/child + Death Eater/normal romantic relationships (yes,
I am certain there are some exceptions, but I have …
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Historical Harry Potter stories
(my comments on the reddit thread “Fics like Starnlicht?” by
BallZealousideal2109)
It is strange how little fanfiction authors investigated the
whole area of the historical stories, a life of the magical
community outside (and before) the canonical storyline. Aside
from replants of the normal fanon stories to the past (“Prince …
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Horcruxes and Unhappy Dark Lord
Originally published as “Quest for Immortality by the Unhappy
Dark Lord” on Reddit.
I was thinking about this very unhappy adept for the Dark
Lordship, Tom Riddle:
- Hufflepuff’s Cup — while Tom Riddle was still travelling after
leaving Borgin and Burkes, and he considered dropping it into
The Mariana Trench …
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Overall post on “Breakfast in New York”
(cover letter for presenting my reviews of “Breakfast in New
York” by Radaslab; the first post and the second post)
I was rereading again “Breakfast in New York” by Radaslab and
I don’t know for certain why it aggravates me so much. Certainly
there is the conflict between generally …
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One more on “Breakfast in New York”
(second round of my comments on “Breakfast in New York” by
Radaslab; the first post)
There is this author’s note:
Eros Syndrome was not named or defined back then, but it was
there. Eros Syndrome was needed to explain certain things.
Namely, how could Hermione have let that happen …
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Working class Snape?
(my post “All Our Kin: Snape and Evanses flight from the urban poverty of early 1980s”)
Discussing the character of Severus Snape in other thread, I was
made to think about the class structure behind the story. We know
that Severus Snape was a son of a jobless worker in …
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Good Petunia Stories
(my Reddit post “LF: Petunia is a witch afterall”)
I know about these:
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How not to use your character as a mouthpiece
(my contribution on the thread “Using your character as a mouth
piece” by Snoo)
If you are interested in the theory of writing, then I have to
suggest to you two very obscure and old books (yes, old books are
quite often better than the new ones): “The Mind of …
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Foundations of The Dark Magic
(my comments on “The Light and the Dark” by Uncommonality)
One of the many issues with the universe of the Harry Potter
books, which has never been fully resolved in the books by Ms
Rowling is the true nature of the Dark Magic. It is really not
explained. Dark Magic …
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On Vampires
(my comment regarding vampires on AO3)
Technical question of the day. Would the Homonum Revelius
spell reveal a hiding vampire? I figure it will reveal
a hiding werewolf but they’re still sort of human. Aren’t
vampires supposed to be “dead” and so would such a spell
reveal them …
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On Faith after Witch-hunts
(my comments on “Doesn't it make sense for wizards to be
Christian? A Historical Perspective” by u/PhantomKeeperQazs)
Of course, all Europeans almost without an exceptions were
Christians well into the 19th century. It was traditionally
unacceptable (or perhaps only unfashionable) not to be Christian
in Europe well into the …
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Werewolf stories
(my entry on “What are you reading? Weekly Post for 2021-01-06”)
After the discussion on other
thread,
I was given reference to three Harmony+werewolves stories (Lupin bites
somebody in the end of the third year). I found them surprisingly good:
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Magicians’ Realism
(thoughts after listening to the episode “Victorian Realism”
of the BBC’s In Our Time, originally developed as a review of
“Strangers at Drakeshaugh” by Northumbrian and also a possible
commentary on “Everything Wrong With HARRY POTTER Fanfictions”
by Purplemist14, which is HIGHLY recommended reading for any
hopeful fanfiction writer …
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Micro review of “Grow Young with Me” by Taliesin19
(my reaction to the published review of “Grow Young with Me”
by Taliesin19)
Except the quality of this review is on par with those on the DVD
box. This is not a review, it is a promotion by a fan. There is
not one weakness found, and although I like …
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Muggles-centred Harry Potter fanfiction stories
(my comments during the thread “Stories where Ginny is actually
nice to Harry’s girlfriend?” by /u/AcerbicOrb)
Let me add here a dump of my “muggles” folder (for later
reference):
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One More Anti-Harmony
(my comments on the thread “why does almost everyone hate the
Harry/Hermione ship?” by patriot_man69420)
I don’t hate the ship, although I generally prefer Hinny,
I could admit that Ginny is extremely poorly written by JKR,
and fanfiction has to add a lot of her personality to make …
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No superheroes!
(my comments on “the thread on reddit”)
First of all, you should avoid the dark trap of all
adventure/fantasy stories: my story must be more dramatic than
the previous one, my heroes and my antagonist must be more
significant than the previous one. It is not enough to save …
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Live like you are not a Christian
(my comments on “Breakfast in New York” by Radaslab)
Finished reading the story and there are two overwhelming
thoughts in my head. The first is obvious and rather normal for
most of the fanfiction stories (and especially so-called romantic
ones): it should be cut to like one quarter or so …
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Ad “My theory on Christianity in the Wizarding World”
(my comments on “My theory on Christianity in the Wizarding
World” by LordMacragge)
I prefer the explanation in chapter 16 of Thou Shalt Not Suffer
by TheWizardsHarry: there are horrible problems with our
translations of the verse, because all Bible translators were
Muggles, and they just couldn’t grasp the …
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On bashing
Bashing and similar are not the cause of poor quality of their
stories, but they are just a symptom of the author being lead by
the poor design of his story into areas, which would be
impossible to resolve or it would be too difficult, so bashing is
then just …
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