History WMG / HarryPotterMain

[[WMG: If Voldemort was such a practiced and prolific mass murderer of all men, women, children and all things great and small why didn't he have dozens or Horcruxes? Here's why:]]
The specific spell to make a Horcrux requires murder because a murder is heinous is tears a chunk from your own soul and then you can put that part of your soul into another object. This means it has to be a murder that you, yourself consider soul wrenchingly heinous that it repulses even yourself. Riddle committed his first cold blooded murder of his own father and was like 'shit I am a monster' and POW his soul ripped and he made another horcrux. This means to make his next horcrux he had to have committed a murder that he, a man who murdered his own father out of spite, would find repulsive. And so it went. Until finally the thought of murdering a good woman trying to save her innocent infant son in his crib was heinous even to Voldemort.
* Even more heinous than he himself had thought. He did not expect Harry to be a hrocrux because Voldemort couldn't have imagined that the site of Lilly Potter dying over her infant by his own hand would bother him. He had a little bit more of a soul left than even he knew.
* which is why in Order of the Phoenix when Harry said 'I feel sorry for you' it repeled Voldemort. That little bit of pity still touched him just a little bit, and that twinge of feeling repulsed Vodemmort because that little bit of pity made Voldemort repulsed at what he himself had become.

[[WMG: The Room of Requirement was responding to the needs of Neville Longbottom NOT Harry Potter.]]
Never once did the [=RoR=] reveal itself to Harry and the crew in all the capers they got into. Once Neville wanted to get involved the room reveals itself to him so that HE can train. Which is why the climactic moment in the training montage is when Neville finally learns how to stun someone. Once Neville joins Dumbeldore's Army the room now acts as their HQ, secret hiding place and hiding place of a Horcrux because by helping Harry succeed the room helps Dumbeldore's Army succeed so that Neville can have his dramatic moment and grow into the hero he NEEDS to be. It was all for Neville as for as the [=RoR=] was concerned.
* Harry's parents were killed, Sirius says that he thinks Alice and Frank suffered a fate worse than death. Harry gets all sorts of power of prophecy, fame, close friends, all the advantages of his parents being killed by Voldemort, Neville, who's parents suffered a worse fate than Harry's gets NOTHING, no fame he is in fact mocked, no power, no friends. Since Hogwarts helps those who deserve it, I can see the room figuring of all the people at Hogwarts Neville deserves the Rooms help more than anyone.
** hell Harry even, though dumb luck, got some freaking Felix Felisus! How lucky are you to luck up on some liquid luck! So yeah, destiny was hooking Harry Potter up. Poor Neville, he makes Charlie Brown look like Fonzy.

[[WMG: Peter Pettigrew is pulling a [[Literature/GameOfThrones Varys]].]]
He isn't a coward and he isn't a fool. We have seen that he is capable of killing several people, and he has proved his competence by bringing Voldemort back to power. My guess is that he puts on an act of always sniveling and being frightened so as to be underestimated, and that he keeps proving himself to Voldemort just through his deeds.

[[WMG: In the fourth movie, when Igor sneaks into the room where the goblet is kept, he is in fact there to manipulate things so that Krum will be chosen as a champion.]]

[[WMG: Harry moved to Godric's Hollow after the war]]
Yeah, why not? It's a nice, quiet place for him to have a home of his own, avoid the fame, eventually start a family, and I'm sure he had enough money left to rebuild the old house. And of course, that's without even addressing the emotional attachment.

[[WMG: Dementors can mate(and sometimes they even reproduce)and will offer human emotions(and human souls)to one another as part of a mating ritual.]]
It‘s a “giving food in order to have sex“ sort of thing.

[[WMG: In the Wizarding World, the British Empire never ended.]]
Put it this way. Voldemort takes over the U.K, which is treated as taking over the entire world, which implies that Britain's international standing in the Wizarding World is much greater than its standing in the Muggle one. Secondly, Grindelwald was "never powerful here", so presumably his reign of terror did not affect the UK too badly. Also, the Muggle British Empire fell due to two main reasons: Political awakening (both in terms of nationalism amongst the colonies and liberalism amongst the British) and UsefulNotes/WorldWarII causing economic hardship. World War Two (or its wizarding analogue, Grindelwald's insurgency) was not fought in Wizarding Britain, and political ideologies (especially with regard to human rights etc) as we understand them seem to be very different for wizards. So, as British muggles expanded across the globe, carving out their vast empire, wizards went with them, and, given the ascendancy of British muggles in the colonies, it was natural British wizards should rise to prominence. Ultimately, while the Muggles of India etc are no longer citizens of the Empire, the Wizards of these nations still are. Thus, Britain is the Wizarding World's superpower, and that is why Voldemort's takeover is treated as an act of world-conquering importance, rather than the oppression of a rainy island off Europe's coast.
** So wizarding Britain is [[Anime/CodeGeass Britannia]]? [[EvilEmpire Makes sense.]] Now I want a crossover where Harry and Lelouch take down the Ministry of Magic.
** So why were all those fans at the Quidditch World Cup displaying the Irish flag? If the wizards' culture still considers Britain to be an empire that rules over the Commonwealth nations, they'd surely still consider Ireland a British possession, not an independent country.
*** Ireland was not a colony but a dominion, like Canada, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, so it would have its own flag either way.
** What about Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Namibia, etc. - the countries that were parts of other empires and were mandated to the British Empire after World War I? And for that matter, what about other colonial empires?

[[WMG: The Sorting Hat is a Horcrux.]]
Like Riddle's Diary, the Sorting Hat belongs to that rare category of objects that can think for themselves. Nothing else in the series but a Horcrux has been shown to be capable of sentient thought (and personal creativity, as shown by its composition of circumstantially appropriate songs).
* Doubtful. The Sorting Hat has been almost consistently benevolent. Of course, Voldemort was beyond evil and one would expect his Horcruxes to be particularly nasty, but given what goes into making a Horcrux (at least a murder and that's heavily implied to only be the beginning), it's hard to imagine any Horcrux being a "nice" Horcrux, if you will. There is a chance that there's some sort of 'good' counterpart to a Horcrux - or, rather, that the Horcrux is a [[EvilCounterpart corrupted version]] of the original magic, which was meant to be more benevolent.
** Who said anything about it being one of Voldemort's Horcruxes? Also, didn't the hat itself say that Godric Gryffindor 'put some brains in' the sorting hat? And the books never say that Wizards with Horcruxes are 'Actually' immortal, Voldy just says that he's 'travelled further down the path of immortality than anyone else'.
** The Marauder's Map seemed capable of a certain degree of creativity, at least for the narrow purpose of insulting Snape.
** Nobody said that the Sorting Hat was one of Voldemort's Horcruxes- the second poster stated that Voldemort's Horcruxes were particularly nasty, and as they're the only ones we've seen, that's what we've got to go on. There was also mention of other Horcruxes that we haven't seen in-universe, and although we can't tell whether they would be as bad as Voldemort's, the idea of a "good" Horcrux is difficult to imagine. I don't think that the Sorting Hat is a Horcrux, although it did cross my mind after reading HBP for the first time- if it had been, it would have been addressed. And I agree- a Nice Horcrux, after the (undisclosed) ritual to put the thing together? Highly doubtful.

[[WMG: The Sorting Hat contains the ghost of Hogwarts' 'Fifth Founder.']]
It's obviously been there since the beginning of the school (and there's no way a hat made of anything stays together for a millennium except by some sort of magic). TT's theory is that there were originally five powerful wizards that set off into present-day Scotland to build the school, but one died on the way with his/her dream unfulfilled. So the other four founders, once they decided that they would accept students into their houses based on certain criteria, left it up to this wizard/witch (now a ghost) because (s)he would be the only one that would be completely impartial.

[[WMG: Over the next few years, the Statute of Secrecy and the Masquerade will fall apart due to the Muggle internet.]]
Now that most people have some form of digital cameras, something that used to be routinely Obliviate-able will be instantly uploaded to the internet. The resulting link on Youtube will go viral, and the Wizarding government will find it impossible to take down all the uploads/downloads of said video.
* Alternatively, someone will witness a breach of the Statute and upload it, but no one will believe the video and assume it was due to special effects.

[[WMG: The mascots and God are behind everything]]

Recall the Love Room? It is implied God lives there. Considering that the "forces of nature" are implied to exist as well, we have ourselves a pantheon:

- Love/God represents Spirit

- The Badger represents Earth

- The Snake represents Water

- The Eagle/Raven/whatever represents Air

- The Lion represents Fire

Thus, the Wizarding World, and the universe at large, is governed by {{Eldritch Abomination}}s following the classical esoteric theme, with four beasts subservient to the [[LightIsNotGood light]]. Those lovecraftian beings passively possessed four people, guiding them to build Hogwarts.

Obviously, GodIsEvil, and requires human sacrifice in order to [[PoweredByAForsakenChild operate]], and so the beasts have been tasked to make the Wizarding World as violently elitist as possible. Sometimes, they are more proactive, and evil beasties like the Dementors are shat into existence to make everyone's lives miserable.

As their master dwells in the Department of Mysteries (though he sometimes shows up to the nearly deceased to torment them as he takes the appearances of their loved ones; his conversation with Harry was an exception because he wanted to have the whole of Voldemort to eat and rape), the beasts are spread across the world, bringing misfortunes and evil. The Lion and the Snake were in Britain during the events of the series (although they were briefly in mainland Europe, specially when Grindelwald was active); contrary to popular belief, they're not enemies, but friends with benefits, and they thought the whole wars were not only funny, but sexually arousing. Meanwhile, the Raven/Eagle is in the USA and the Badger is in the Middle East, stirring conflicts among muggles and maybe also among the local wizard populations.

Cut to 2017, and their master will probably call them into direct action.

[[WMG: The reason Snape hates Neville so much]]
* Neville reminds Snape of Peter Pettigrew. Not the sharpest tool in the box, kinda quiet, follows the Gryffindor trio around, probably similar in appearance. Snape still hates Peter for Lily's death, and takes it out on Neville.
** But Snape seemed to dislike Neville ''before'' it came out that Pettigrew was the one who betrayed the Potters and he couldn't possibly have known the truth before if they didn't tell Lupin, who was James' other best friend and Snape had already fallen out with Lily and Dumbledore himself didn't even seem to know about the switch until the third book (he would have cleared Sirius' name if he did). Actually, if he saw any similarity to Pettigrew in Neville, you'd think he'd be ''nicer'' during years 1-3 because Pettigrew, as far as the world knew, had tried to avenge James and Lily's deaths.
** Possibly, but Peter also went around tormenting Snape throughout his childhood, and Severous probably assumed that he was just doing it for James, not Lily.
** Nah, it's because Neville could be the chosen one, and in that case he Lily wouldn't die. So every time Snape sees him he thinks about how Lily could still be alive if that little guy were chosen instead of Harry, and that makes him really bitter.
[[WMG: Snape asked to be sorted into Slytherin.]]

Come the end of Deathly Hallows, we are made aware of Snape's true loyalties, which actually marks him as more suited to any of the other three houses then Slytherin. He is found to be very brave, as a Gryffindor, smart (possibly to genus levels, if his old Potions book is any indication) as a Ravenclaw, and fiercely loyal as a Hufflepuff. He never shows the trademark ambition of a typical Slytherin, and it is known that he wanted very much to be in that House.
** I disagree. I think he does have Slytherin qualities, and they're very prominent. Gryffindors are brave on the upfront, in the reckless kind of way, not in the sneaky way of Slytherin. We've seen that Slytherins don't WANT credit for helping, so they do it from the shadows, shown with Malfoy and his cronies, and the other Slytherins who were mentioned via WordOfGod for coming back. Hufflepuffs aren't just loyal, they're ''hard-working''. Snape worked remarkably hard to keep where his true loyalties lie a secret, and worked hard as a spy for many years. I think Hufflepuffs are really just an extroverted Slytherin. Ambition is NOTHING without the hard-work and loyalty to whatever one is ambitious towards, and likewise, what is hard-work and loyalty without ambition? Pottermore's opening letter for Slytherin states that Slytherins look out for their own (unlike Ravenclaw), and are loyal to those they care about, just like Hufflepuff. And as for Ravenclaw, we do see that Slytherins aren't stupid. Not all of them. Look at Voldemort, at Slughorn, at Merlin! None of those wizards were stupid. Just because you're smart doesn't automatically mean you're a Ravenclaw. Hermione, [=McGonagall=], and Dumbledore weren't, and they're shown as being very, very bright. Snape belongs in Slytherin, he didn't ask. He would have asked for Gryffindor, to be with Lily, in the House he suits the ''least'', since he lack's that bull-headed, up-front bravery that lacks any sort of level-headed-ness. Snape thinks things through and is brave from the shadows. Gryffindors just dive right in without much thought, or completely lose their heads trying to think (like Hermione and Molly). Slytherins can remain calm in the face of danger and think things through. Snape embodies Slytherin House.
** In Snape's memory in Deathly Hallows, Dumbledore makes a comment that he thinks Hogwarts sorts their students too early. It's possible that Snape at age 11 was much more like a traditional Slytherin, but he's gone through a great deal of personal change, being affected by Dumbledore and [[spoiler: his guilt over Lily Potter's death.]]
** Yet all that -- even Dumbledore's view -- overlooks the key factor that would've overridden ''all'' young Severus's other aptitudes, placing him unquestionably into Slytherin no matter '''how''' brave, devoted, or intelligent he was. It's what made him the SpannerInTheWorks for Voldemort, and what gave him the strength to sacrifice everything he did throughout the series: the sole, driving ambition that never wavered, for all that bitterness and envy might've masked it. Namely, his ambition ''to become the sort of man Lily could've loved, and forgiven''. No matter what it cost him, no matter how long it took, no matter how much hatred he might incur along the way. ''That's'' what Snape had wanted as a child, what he twice betrayed in moments of weakness he'd never forgive himself for, and what he died to live up to in the end. Ambition -- pure, undiluted, Slytherin-calibre ambition -- but directed toward a purpose Voldemort and his ilk could neither comprehend nor anticipate.
*** Yes, you got Snape right in that he sought to redeem himself in the eyes of Lilly (or at least in his eye what would be in Lilly's eyes), but there is another motivation in him, that is still a very Slytherin motivation...revenge! He wants to get kill Voldemort for killing Lilly. Fortunately for him in his mind, killing Vldemort at all costs both redeems Snape in Lilly's eyes and grants him his revenge. The question is, deep down, which motivation is the stronger one? Revenge. While Snape's motivations have a noble effect, stopping a murderous dark lord, deep down his motivations are still selfish and about feeding his own need for revenge and unrequited love. I always liken Snape's morality to that of Noah Bennet from Heroes. Noah Bennet never had a change of heart, he was always an asshole, but he was an asshole who loved his family and would do anything for them. While that is a noble goal, he himself was a morally reprehensible man who just so happened to have a goal that would enable something noble to happen.

[[WMG: Hogwarts Houses of Adult Wizards.]]
* Hagrid: Hufflepuff- He is unfailingly loyal to Dumbledore and Very hard-working. The exact traits Hufflepuff values.
** WordofGod says Hagrid is in Gryffindor. [[http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2000/1000-livechat-barnesnoble.html]] Also, Hagrid is incredibly brave in the books.
* Cornelius Fudge: Slytherin- He displays a desire to keep his power as minister for magic and was always afraid that Dumbledore would take it.
* Tonks: Gryffindor- She displays enough courage to become an Auror and fight for the Order of the Phoenix at a young age.
** WordofGod says Hufflepuff [[http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/faq_view.cfm?id=117 link]]
* Scrimgeour: Gryffindor, pretty obviously. He's even compared to an "old lion" in the books.
* Kingsley: Probably Ravenclaw.
* Moody: Gryffindor.
** There's a school of thought that Moody is so hostile to Dark Magic and Death Eaters because he had witnessed it firsthand in Slytherin.
* Before I got on Pottermore, I assumed ([[spoiler: correctly]]) that Quirrell and Ollivander were Ravenclaws.
* [[FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem Newt Scamander]]: this troper assumed Ravenclaw, but Pottermore says Hufflepuff.
** And as Sorting tends to run in families, Rolf Scamander probably was in Hufflepuff.
* Dolores Umbridge: Slytherin, with the teensiest chance of Hufflepuff. She can be fanatically loyal when it suits her.
** The pottermore welcome letter for Slytherin says that they stick together and Umbridge is definitely keen on sticking together with her fellow Slytherins.
* Dedalus Diggle: Yes - Dedalus Diggle. For some reason, I imagine he was a Ravenclaw. Capable, yes, but came off as somewhat odd.
* Gilderoy Lockhart: You get the impression that Lockhart was a Gryffindor gone horribly wrong (cf. Peter Pettigrew, Cormac McLaggen) He's certainly got all of the bravado, but his actual courage and capabilities don't quite match up.
** There's a picture of him in Ravenclaw quidditch robes in the second movie but it's debatable on how canonical that is.
** I would say Slytherin, given how cunning and ambitious (in terms of fame) he is beneath that foppish exterior.
*** [[AllThereInTheManual Pottermore]] confirms he was a Ravenclaw.
* Pius Thicknesse: Slytherin. I imagine he was a pure-blood. However, he is also silver-tongued and is capable of putting on a good face for the masses - traits that Tom Riddle himself had in his early years and traits that Voldemort probably valued himself to the end.
* Barty Crouch Senior -- Slytherin. Not a bad dark wizard Slytherin, but the ambitious, political sort, akin to Horace Slughorn and the like.
* Barty Crouch Junior -- The hat *wanted* to put him in Hufflepuff, since his chief attribute is loyalty, but being a {{well done son guy}} he begged to be in Slytherin like dear old dad. Unluckily for him, he was placed in Slytherin around the time of Voldy's rise to power, made friends with future death eaters, and was swayed to the dark side. It's also possible that since his father never paid him much attention, he looked to Voldemort as a replacement father figure.
** Actually, the part about Barty and his dad is all but stated outright.
* (Madam) Rolanda Hooch -- Either Ravenclaw (she's connected with a bird AnimalMotif - eyes like a '''hawk''' and she flies a lot, albeit on a broomstick)...or Hufflepuff (fair play ----> referee)
* We can probably safely assume that any heads of houses were students of said houses during their time at Hogwarts.
** Likewise for the House ghosts.
* Aurora Sinistra: Ravenclaw. It would probably take a good brain for something specialized like the study of magic as it relates to stars.
* Ludo Bagman: Slytherin. His nature is a bit slippery, and one can imagine that his housing didn't help matters at his trial. His age isn't given, but it's fairly likely that he was contemporaries with at least some of the first-generation Death Eaters. Yet, somehow he managed to [[IncrediblyLamePun slither in]] to a Ministry position after that trial and worked his way to becoming the head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports.
* Rita Skeeter: Ravenclaw. Yes, her bitchy nature pretty much ''screams'' "Slytherin", but that seems a bit too easy. She seems to be a sucker for knowledge - or more specifically, knowing things that other people don't. (And then she twists that knowledge for her own ends, knowing that people also want to feel like they know things other's don't.)
* Professor Trelawney: Ravenclaw. Fits right in with being somewhat obsessed with knowledge (in her case, knowledge of the future), but weird and batty as all hell.
* Amos Diggory: Hufflepuff, pretty obviously.
* Charity Burbage: Hufflepuff. Hufflepuffs are usually described as being fair, and her job has been to teach Muggle Studies, which presumably includes discussion on the ways Muggles and Wizards are similar, and the fact that they share humanity. Also, Hufflepuffs are known as being a bit low-key and friendly. Rowling, being a linguist, never gets to be quite {{Anvilicious}} with the names of her characters, but also never names one by accident, so one can assume that someone with the name 'Charity' was probably friendly. Also, (and maybe this was unintentional) Charity Burbage isn't mentioned at all by name until Book 7, despite having taught Hermione in Muggle Studies in Book 3.
* Professor Vector: Ravenclaw. Someone would likely have to be pretty brainy to figure out exactly how math and magic fit together.

[[WMG: Bertha Jorkins was pregnant]]
Voldemort's new body resembles a baby or a fetus, which came from Bertha after they had no more use for her memories. Her mind was too broken to possess, but she was already pregnant when they found her so they used her baby instead. I'd say Wormtail raped her, but considering he'd only been around Voldemort for that summer, that would only be possible if the Volde-fetus was only a month or so old. Though it would explain the tail...
* Confirmed. This is canonically what happened.

[[WMG: Xenophilius Lovegood is the bastard child of Albus Dumbledore]]
They are both more than a bit odd, and this would of course mean that Luna herself is the direct descendant of Dumbledore.
* Hello, new God. Where would you like the temple for me to worship you at?
** There ''is'', however, the minor snag of Dumbledore... not liking women.
*** Well, first of all, being attracted to men doesn't preclude also being attracted to women. And, second of all, while [[WordOfGod JKRowling said that after Grindelwald, Dumbledore didn't love anyone romantically ever again,]] that doesn't mean that he never had sex ever again. Besides, there are ways around that. Artificial insemination, etc.
* Or he could be Aberforth's son, which would account for why Xenophilius and his daughter are both Cloudcuckoolanders. So Luna would be Albus's great-niece.

[[WMG: Aberforth Dumbledore is almost as powerful as Albus]]
Come on: he's the brother of ''the most powerful wizard in history''. It makes sense that he'd be extremely powerful too. The only reason he [[spoiler: couldn't defeat Grindelwald's]] was because he was caught completely off-gaurd by the unimaginable agony (Cruciatus) curse.
* [[http://www.redhen-publications.com/potterverse.html Red Hen]] suggests that all of the Dumbledore siblings are [[http://www.redhen-publications.com/dumblehome.html affected by various manifestations of autistic spectrum disorder]]. If Aberforth isn't as high-functioning as Albus, that could have affected his education and, in turn, how he publicly manifests his magic.
** Or Albus was simply an intellectual genius, which allowed him to learn the complexities of magic much faster than his brother, who was more or less an extremely powerful wizard with average (perhaps a bit below average) intellect and very little ambition. Or, in layman's terms, Aberforth was some combination of UnskilledButStrong and BrilliantButLazy. In any case, the fact that Aberforth is depicted in the films as wrecking an entire Dementor battalion with a ''nonverbal'' Patronus on steroids probably gives credence to the above theory.
[[WMG: Merope Gaunt's 'dying wish' was a final spell]]
Specifically, that he would look like Riddle Sr. Descriptions in the book state "He was his handsome father in miniature." Could be simple genetics, but with a bloodline as tangled as the Gaunts, magic seems more likely.

[[WMG: Dolores Umbridge WAS a Death Eater]]
We know Voldemort had many plants inside the Ministry, and he would be expected to keep some of these very close to his chest, their true loyalty only known to him and themselves. The only evidence that she wasn't a Death Eater was Sirius saying so, and he would have had no way of knowing for sure and I don't remember him even giving a reason. She's clearly compatible with the party line (hatred of "half-breeds", no hesitation in using the Cruciatus Curse) and rose through the ranks of the new Ministry uncomfortably quickly for the former Minister's second-in-command (being that she was supposedly loyal to the old order, you'd expect them to lock her up rather than giving her another position of power). She was clearly in the Ministry simply out of a desire for power and no ideological reason, and it's easy to imagine her having her fingers in many pies in this respect: why be a mere Ministerial official when you can be a Death Eater ''and'' a Ministerial official? If Voldemort returns you can take your place at his side and if he doesn't you still have your place in the Ministry.
** A Death Eater in the know would have behaved differently. Voldemort ''wanted'' Harry to try to contact Sirius via flue, and fail, so Umbridge making it where Harry couldn't use the flues for that almost resulted in Voldemort's plan failing. Likewise, once she realized Harry was using her flue, the sane thing to do would have been to let him hang up and dial the Ministry of Magic. Or, having caught him, to make some insinuation that she knew he was trying to contact Sirius, and he'd never see Sirius again. But what all this means is that Umbridge had no idea what Voldemort was doing, not that she wasn't a Death Eater. Voldemort doesn't seem to have told Snape either. (When you think about it, Voldemort's plan shows remarkable confidence in Harry's ability. Harry has done a lot of things, but he's never escaped the school by himself and made it halfway across the country!)

[[WMG: Ron is severely retarded due to inbreeding]]

It's pretty much canon that pure-blood wizards are all related, and the probably dumbest main character in
Rowling's universe happens to be one. Coincidence?
** Ron is sharp as a tack when he applies himself. Almost all of his grades are the same as Harry's and he is the champion chess player in the group.
*** Harry is hardly the sharpest tool in the book. Say Ron's grades match Harry's is hardly praise. Now if they matched Hermione's...
*** Assuming an O to be like an A* and an E an A, Harry's OWL results were pretty good. Two fails (one of which doesn't count and the other in a fairly useless subject) one C/B (again not really counting due to the distraction of Hagrid being attacked) A's in everything else, and an A* in DADA, which it's implied ''nobody'' else managed, as even Hermione didn't get one (probably due to no practical lessons and the DA not sticking to the syllabus). Not too shabby.
** Regardless, he's not actually dumb, just lazy and reliant on Hermione for school (which, by the way, Harry also is). You can't be an idiot and be as excellent at chess as he is, and he has more than a few brilliant moments throughout the books as well. Now, Crabbe and Goyle, on the other hand, that you can make an argument for.
** Also, the level of inbreeding seen in most of the wizarding families isn't really any higher than what you'd have seen in the average Muggle village for most of human history, when 95% of the population never traveled more than ten miles from home. Remember that the Blacks erased any branches they didn't approve of from their family tree, so if other self-proclaimed "purebloods" do the same, they've probably got plenty of Muggle ancestry themselves: they just write that part out of the clan history.

[[WMG: Snape had a good relationship with his mother.]]
He doesn't seem to have any hatred or resentment towards women in general; in fact, he appears to have had a great deal of respect for [=McGonagall=] (and not just because she could hand him his ass in a duel without breaking a sweat). This implies that he and Eileen were fairly close. (Maybe because Eileen knew a little something about [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer being bullied at school]], or they might have just stuck together because they didn't have anyone else to turn to.)
* It was probably more complicated than anything. He was placed in Slytherin, which probably helped convince him to become a Death Eater in the first place. For a while, he was convinced he was an abomination because he was a half blood. After his mother's death, he learned, with help from Dumbledore, to forgive himself and her, which converted him to being in the Order of the Phoenix.
** 'and not just because she could hand him his ass in a duel without breaking a sweat' Jossed in book 7. Snape faces her and two other teachers while defending and not really trying to hurt them. If she could do that then she would have killed him easily instead of having backup and SILL not being able to kill him or really hurt him.

[[WMG: Crookshanks is the Potters old cat.]]
* Since we do not get a description of the cat that the Potter's had it could have some how survived the house exploding which made it's face squashed and unrecognizable to anyone that was friends with the Potters EG Lupin, Sirius. It knew that Peter was a rat and tried to tell Sirius, not Lupin because he was a werewolf. Crookshanks was looking out for Harry in the following years, even jumping on his lap in a latter book despite being very anti social with everyone but Hermione and Sirius.
** Crookshanks ''didn't'' tell Remus because he was a werewolf?! That's one [[FantasticRacism racist]] cat!
*** Maybe Crookshanks was AFRAID of Remus because he could very easily be eaten.
** Are we forgetting that, whilst Remus was a wolf, Sirius was a dog? Why would Crookshanks prefer to tell either over the other, since Crookshanks could easily become the prey of either?
*** Have you ever even owned a dog? Dogs do not eat cats, and cats are not their "prey." But anyway, in the books, it says that Crookshanks could tell that Sirius was not actually a dog, which is why it was willing to work with him and help him find Scabbers.
** Moreover, if Crookshanks was once the Potters' cat, why didn't he present himself to Harry and beg like mad to be adopted by his former owners' child, rather than Hermione? If he'd been watching over Harry since their death, why didn't he accost Harry and Hagrid in Diagon Alley on their first visit and try to charm Harry into choosing him over Hedwig?
*** They didn't go into that shop.
* It's possible, but he'd have been pretty old by then. (Assuming that the cat was, say, a year old or a little less when the house was destroyed, he'd be thirteen-ish by the time Hermione takes him in. Which isn't to say it couldn't happen, since cats can live to be 20 or older.)
** Of course, he could be a human that transforms into a cat!
* He ''is'' half kneazle, which might explain its long lifespan.
* And the lady at the store said that he had been there for ages.
* So are we agreed that Crookshanks is an Animagus? Maybe even Prof. [=McGonagall=]? Crookshanks could look different from the [=McGonagall=] cat in the first movie either from [=McGonagall=] changing the Animagus spell on herself, or just from inconsistencies. It's more likely [=McGonagall=] changed the spell, because they would have recognized her from the first year by the time Hermione buys Crookshanks in the third year.
** He's ''not'' and Animagus. WordOfGod put an end to that rumor YEARS ago on 2/18/04 in the "Rumors" section of her website. Plus, an animagus doesn't get to choose which animal they turn into. It's a reflection of the witch or wizard, so [=McGonagall=] is a cat because of her intelligence and independence and she's described as having markings around her eyes that resemble her glasses. (To further prove this point, look at Sirius. He's a dog with long, matted fur, because he's extremely loyal and unkempt.) And if you actually read the books, you'd know that [=McGonagall=] never transformed into a cat in front of the class in Harry's first year. She did so in their ''third'' year, ''after'' Hermione bought Crookshanks.
* (same troper as above) It could also be Lily, Harry's mom. Considering that Sirius, Peter, and James were all Animagi, they might have shown her how to cast the spell. Then, when Voldemort "killed" her, she transformed into her cat form. She became trapped in that form, and waited 13 years before she eventually gained contact with Harry again. THIS EXPLAINS EVERYTHING!
** No, it doesn't. For the most part, it seems that someone's animagus form is the same as that of their patronus, unless there's a significant amount of emotional upheaval changes it, so Lily would've been a doe. Secondly, if Lily hadn't died, Harry wouldn't have gained the blood protection, and it kind of cheapens most of the emotional part of the series. And he wouldn't have been able to bring her back with the resurrection stone. Plus, Crookshanks is male.

[[WMG:Harry is killed soon after the epilogue]]
He has revealed to hundreds, if not thousands, of people that he is master of the Elder Wand. He may be a powerful wizard, but he's not the most powerful.
* Harry put the wand back in Dumbledore's tomb, without telling anyone besides Ron and Hermione, after the battle. Why would someone go through all the trouble to kill him for something he doesn't have?
* Because they BELIEVE he has the Elder Wand.
** Not only that, but WordOfGod has said that wands are semi-sentient, explaining how Harry's wand [[spoiler: defended him in the '7 Potters' battle at the beginning of the final book]]. Just because Harry doesn't physically have the wand on him doesn't mean that he is not still [[spoiler: the master of the Elder wand]]; it's the wand's decision. The history of the wand shows that it has to be 'won', but [[spoiler: as we see from Snape's death, the common belief seems to be that you must defeat the master of the wand. Voldemort kills Snape because Snape killed Dumbledore, believing that made him the master of the wand, and Voldemort is very likely to be well-versed in this particular legend as he's trying quite hard to get hold of the wand.]] But Draco disarmed Dumbledore before Snape killed him, so the wand itself recognizes [[spoiler:Draco as its master, not Snape]], due to the semi-sentient state Rowling has given it and the particular criteria the wand itself uses, which do not seem to line up with the common belief about how the wand is won. It does make sense that power-hungry people who want the wand might believe Harry still has the wand and go after him for it.
** It also seems that the wand doesn't need to be present for its allegiance to change. Draco becomes the wand's master by disarming Dumbledore from the Elder wand itself, but Harry becomes the master by disarming Draco from his own wand. This means that the wand recognizes the first duel defeat as the moment ownership shifts, regardless of whether it is the wand being used by the current master at the time. Therefore, if Harry is later defeated even though he is not using the wand, the victor will still become the master of the Elder wand. There are probably a lot of methods possible to reunite a wizard with his or her lost wand, as it is the most important tool for a magical person and there have probably been countless retrieval methods developed throughout history. Once a person becomes the master they could probably find the wand. So it would make sense for people to come after or try to kill Harry even though the wand isn't on him.
*** Try to kill the most famous wizard alive, someone even Voldemort failed to kill ([[spoiler:permanently]]) when disarming him would suffice?
* That'd be a tough out, to say the least. Keep in mind, by the epilogue, Harry is head of the Auror's Office. Obviously, he had some connections in the Ministry by that point and the fact that he's got, "Oh, by the way, I killed freaking Voldemort" on his resume didn't hurt him, but let's not kid ourselves. By the time he finally did kill Voldemort, Harry - mostly out of necessity - was a far more skilled duelist than the average 17-year-old. And in the 19 years following, he would have only gotten better with experience. And, of course, that's if you got to him. He would have no doubt been protected in the Ministry and in the field by a squadron of the Ministry's Top Aurors - most to all of whom probably also had some degree of experience in the Second Wizarding War. Then, ''if'' you got past the Auror Office's cream of the crop and beat Harry himself, then you'd have to get back out of the Ministry before anyone knows what happened, find some way to get to Hogwarts (which is protected) and to Dumbledore's Tomb (and nobody living but Ron and Hermione knows that the Elder Wand is indeed in the tomb), get back out of Hogwarts. All of that without being killed or disarmed or defeated in a duel at any point, because if you get killed, well, you're dead. If you're disarmed, then you're still alive, but all your previous actions are futile unless you somehow go back and beat the person that beat you. Long story short - pulling all of that off would probably require a Wizard to be just about as powerful as Voldemort, not to mention sneaky and a bit lucky. And even if someone succeeded, they'd have a target on their back like the last person that did it.
** Not just because of the Elder Wand; even before the many aurors he no doubt befriended in the ensuing years, the array of allies he already had at the end of the war would, to a would-be assassin, seem... daunting, to say the least. Basically, maybe you can kill Harry, but I hope you're prepared to deal with his extremely pissed-off wife...
* IDK, he defeated the most powerful dark wizard of all time in single combat as far as everyone knows. While I'm sure there are many former Voldy supporters who would hate him, they would also fear him. So I doubt if anybody would try a frontal assault on Harry Potter.
** Not only that, but as far as any other Death Eater knows, the Killing Curse (and not just Voldemort's Killing Curse) simply doesn't work on him. From what a good chunk of the other Death Eaters can tell, they're probably convinced that he ''can't'' be killed. And seeing as most of the Death Eaters defaulted to self-preservation (which could be anything from cowardice to just being smart enough to realize that some battles aren't worth getting yourself killed over)... The fact is, partly by Voldemort's own doing (i.e. being a 'boss' that inspires fear and loyalty to his power as opposed to being a 'leader' that could inspire loyalty to him personally a la Harry or Dumbledore) he had a long list of sympathizers (that grew shorter once everyone began to realize what an obvious dick he was) but a very short list of people willing to die for him. In fact, you could argue that the only two Death Eaters that were ''that'' fanatical were Bellatrix and Crouch, Jr.
* The fact that he's still alive at the Epilogue probably serves as evidence that nobody got to him. After all, he himself was right there in the field after the war as the new acting Minister of Magic [[spoiler:Kingsley Shacklebolt]] put into action a very aggressive mop-up campaign. And Harry was at the front line of that campaign, so the ''vast'' majority of remaining Death Eaters that wanted to take a shot at him wouldn't have had to do a lot of searching.

[[WMG: Harry avoided being killed for the Elder Wand by playing, and losing, one last game of Quidditch.]]
Realizing that it's possible to LoopholeAbuse one's way around the "your-beat-it-you-bought-it" rule for Elder Wand mastery, Harry reasoned that defeating someone ''at Quidditch'' is, like disarming them, a legitimate way to "defeat" the Wand's current master and claim it for one's self. He therefore signed on to play an exhibition round of Quidditch when Hogwarts re-opened next term, waited until the other team was ahead by 160 points, and then caught the Snitch so his team lost. Because he and his team were defeated by the collective actions of ''all seven'' of the other team's members, not by a single opponent, the Elder Wand couldn't single out any one of the opposing team as a master, so the chain of claimants to its power was broken forever, making it just an ordinary wand.
* While I find the above WMG kind of silly... in keeping its vein, it ''is'' noteworthy that Dumbledore isn't known to have played Quidditch.
** Not that silly. It would seem that everyone up to ''and including'' Voldemort took it for granted that killing its current master was the '''only''' way of transferring its rightful ownership. And the sorts of wizards who would kill someone to possess its power aren't likely to also be the sort to do something as frivolous as play Quidditch.

[[WMG: Harry Potter is a figment of Ron Weasley's imagination that Ron convinced certain people was real.]]

Harry Potter was created by Ron's subconscious as a perfect best friend that complements every trait of Ron. Harry is famous, an only child, rich, powerful, and adventurous; Ron is unpopular, is the sixth child of seven and youngest boy, poor, magically incompetent, and shy. Hermione, Ron's closest friend (other than Harry), was convinced that Harry is real. Harry is now a figment of both imaginations and is affected by this.

In their first year at Hogwarts, Ron and Hermione defeat the dark lord Voldemort. Since they are shy and don't want to jeopardize their families by the reputation of killing Voldy, they claim that it was Harry Potter who did it.

In their second year at Hogwarts, Ron's sister Ginevra is captured by a remnant of Voldemort, who magically wrecks her mind. Hermione stays in the hospital due to unrelated injuries. Ron goes alone to find his sister and helps her defeat Voldy. Sadly, Ginny is delusional and susceptible to suggestions. Because of this, she is convinced that Harry is real right around when Hermione comes back. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny make up a story about how Harry fought Voldy singlehandedly, rescued Ginny, and solved the mystery (which was related to his past). Now Harry has three believers and is affected by all of them.

Next year, Ginny spends most of her time at a hospital because of injuries both physical and mental. By the end of the year, she is healed and perfectly sane except for her belief in Harry Potter, who she has a crush on. During that year, Ron and Hermione are involved with an escaped prisoner called Sirius Black. To cover up the facts, they pretend that Harry fought Sirius not quite singlehandedly, rescued Sirius, and solved the mystery (which was related to his past).

In Hermione and Ron's fourth year at Hogwarts, Ron begins to feel some resentment towards Harry. He realizes that Harry is getting credit for stuff Ron (and Hermione) did. Ron begins to consciously reject Harry; Hermione and Ginny keep the Illusion alive. Hermione, Ginny, and Ron fight Voldy once again, but they fail to prevent the death of Cedric Diggory. The three project their survivor's guilt and sadness onto Harry. Since both Ron and Hermione are sick of Harry by now, they curse him to eternal whining and survivor's guilt. The illusion of Harry is kept alive only by Ginny. Ron and Hermione begin to feel some romantic feeling for each other.

Next year, Hermione, Ginny, and Ron have yet another adventure fighting Voldy and his minions, which they once again credit to Harry because of their failure to prevent the death of Sirius. Hermione and Ron further develop their relationship, and Ginny still has a crush on Harry.

The same scenario is repeated in Hermione and Ron's sixth year -- Hermione, Ron, and Ginny, after fighting Voldy's minions, fail to prevent the death of Dumbeldore. Once again, the three project their sadness and survivor's guilt onto Harry as a coping mechanism so that they can have adventures.

In Ron and Hermione's seventh year, a lot of people die. Ron, Hermione, and even Ginny are sick of Harry, so they hallucinate that Voldy killed him. Voldy's death is attributed to Harry. But when Ron brought his memories to J.K. Rowling, for publishing, she demanded that Harry survive. This is the series we now know.

[[WMG:Witches born in May will marry Muggles]]

So goes the folk wisdom Ron heard from his mother, and the reveal date of Helga Hufflepuff's Chocolate Frog card would indicate that she was born in May. So she married a Muggle man named Smith, and that's why Zacharias and Hephzibah have such a common surname.

[[WMG: We could have been killed. Or worse, expelled!]]
This isn't a case of SkewedPriorities. Hermione's studies of "Hogwarts, A History" have turned up some disturbing facts about the expulsion ritual...
* Alternatively, it may be that ''muggleborn'' wizards face tough time being expelled. This most likely includes memory modification to them and their relatives to prevent them from disclosing the magical world.
* Would it be worse for someone to be expelled and keep their memory but not be allowed to do magic or to forget all about it?
** Either way. One of two things could happen to Hermione: First, she could be forced to go back to her family and spend the rest of her life pretending that she doesn't realize there exists a whole magical world, never again performing magic or meeting with her friends, forced to never reveal the truth to any other Muggle by the threat of memory modification or worse. Second, she could have her memory wiped, which would probably be better in the long run, but which might compare unfavorably to death from Hermione's perspective. Both of these (especially the first) could arguably qualify as a FateWorseThanDeath.
* Note that Hagrid was expelled, and had no consequences except being forbidden to do magic; but then he is not muggleborn.
** Although this may be because Dumbledore went to bat for him, really knowing that Tom Riddle was the culprit.
* This troper always felt that the punishment for expulsion (having your wand snapped in half) was unrealistically steep, anyway, given the fact that attendance at Hogwarts isn't even mandatory to begin with.
** Wait, when does the book say that's the punishment for getting expelled? I may be forgetting something, but I thought it only happened to Hagrid because he was thought to have set an extremely dangerous magical creature on Muggle-born students. Which would probably have landed him in Azkaban if Dumbledore hadn't intervened.
*** Book 5 seems to lend credence to it. In [[spoiler:Harry's]] expulsion letter, it explicitly says that Ministry representatives would be arriving shortly to destroy his wand. Then again, the fact that this was [[spoiler:Harry Potter]] and the Ministry had it in for him at the time clouds this a bit. The fact is, there's no way of knowing if this is a universal thing, because [[spoiler:Harry]] and Hagrid were the only two people known to have been expelled from Hogwarts. (Grindelwald was expelled...from Durmstrang, IIRC. He doesn't seem to have lost his wand, but that may be because he escaped or no one had the balls to try and take it from him.)
*** Technically, they're both snapping his wand and expelling him, not snapping his wand because they're expelling him. Their first letter is unclear about this, but the second letter makes it clear they will not destroy his wand until after his hearing. And it says, 'following discussions' with DD, the question of his expulsion 'will be decided' at that time...because, as we later learn, the Ministry cannot actually expel students. This probably means DD agreed to expel Harry if Harry's wand was snapped, because without a wand, Harry can't actually attend Hogwarts anyway. Of course, this doesn't prove anything about what happens upon expulsion...it's just that expulsion isn't what Harry's being threatened with here, it's wand snapping by the Ministry, and, consequentially, expulsion from school. Not the other way around.

[[WMG: The Marauders Map Killed Fred And George]]

...Sort of. James/Sirius and Fred/George are so similar because the bits of consciousness in the map seeped into Fred and George, turning them into a reincarnation of the dead (or dying) marauders. This was probably unintentional on the part of the marauders, or done without considering the moral implications, but whoever Fred or George might have been was lost forever, tainted by a magical echo--an old joke.
** They shouldn't have trusted something with a mind when they couldn't see where it kept it's brain.
** ... Except they were pranksters already before they found the map.

[[WMG: Slughorn gave Snape's old textbook with the notes in it to Harry on purpose to give him an edge.]]
Slughorn prides himself on kingmaking - hand-picking and fostering up-and-coming young witches and wizards. He could have noticed that Snape had a gift for potions and a bad habit of writing in textbooks and put two and two together, giving Harry the old textbook with the brilliant notes in it so The-Boy-Who-Lived would excel in a subject he has no real talent for. Plus, it's been established that Slughorn was teaching at Hogwarts when Lily Evans was there, so it's hardly out of the question that Snape, who started the same year, would have been taught by Slughorn.
** The favoritism thing would be understandable, but his social networking skill relied more on finding already-talented people and giving them a leg up (tying a string of obligation and gratitude to them in the process). Harry had no talent in Potions outside of using Snape's notebook and, outside of possible Auror work, wasn't likely to use the subject at all, let alone achieve the kind of fame for it that Slughorn would be looking for.
*** Slughorn knew that Potter wouldn't be able to make it into Auror training without decent marks in Potions and suspected that becoming an Auror would make him that little bit more famous. And it would make Potter all the more grateful to Slughorn; Potter was already sufficiently famous to call in a few favors on Slughorn's behalf.
*** Harry needed more then decent potions marks to become an Auror. He needed better marks in everything else and face it, he was an average student at best on a good day but was manly unmotivated, lazy, and relied on Hermonie too much during homework. To become an Auror you need amazing marks in everything which Harry did not have. However the idea that Slughorn, like Minerva, was willing to help Harry out by cheating or making it easier for him is not such a bad idea. Slughorn is a whore for fame and favors and Harry has lots and would make more of both. This idea I am a fan of. I'm still bitter over Harry getting lucky and becoming an Auror after the war because they were short on people, instead of on his skills and marks like everyone else. But hey, it's Harry, he gets super lucky all the time.
*** I'm not sure how growing up with abusive guardians, people trying to kill him every year, unwanted attention from the media and government, and unreasonable teachers counts as "super lucky". On a good day, Harry is motivated and has genuine reason to trust the people around him. On a bad day, he's reeling both emotionally and physically from another attack.
** But Harry did have some potions talent. He had a pretty good O.W.L. score despite receiving no positive reinforcement, after all. As much as Snape was devoted to flunking him, Harry did more or less all right even with a clearly faulty (if Snape's notes are to be believed) textbook. Perhaps Slughorn noticed the latent talent and wanted to give him a better guide.
*** Snape just forgot it was there. Also Slughorn had no idea he was basically cheating, he was all head over heels with Harry and went on and on about his amazing potions skills that were a result of Snapes notes. Also the potions book isn't outdated. The thing is Snape is the Tony Stark of Potions. He made things better and easier but didn't tell anyone, that doesn't mean his book was outdated it only means he found short cuts and a better way to do things. Like how Tony does with Technology. Harry was average, that's it. The only reason he did so amazing is because of Snape. With Snape's notes ANYONE could become an instant talent and genius. If Potter had done such amazing things without the notes then I would say he's talented but as is he's only average and that's it. And if Slughorn did give him the book then that's completely unfair to the other students who have to get by using skill and their own talents. After all, it's easier to do amazing things with a genius whispering in your ear and walking you through things.
*** Snape was talented at potions, but that doesn't mean that Harry is incompetent at it. It was probably easier to focus now that Snape wasn't breathing down Harry's neck and randomly insulting him. Snape was very competent at the subject matter, but he was a terrible teacher. It's very plausible that all Harry needed was a boost. My college sells used books for class. They come highlighted in places and contain notes in the margins. This isn't much different.
*** Harry's not so much dumb. He's not even really lazy. He has patterns of a kinesthetic learner, which sometimes doesn't translate very well to the classroom. As mentioned before, he did manage to earn an 'E' on his Potions OWL despite a myriad of distractions going on that year. The Potions OWL was primarily practical, which plays to Harry's strength. But he also had a professor that was not only somewhat ineffective but would occasionally dock Harry's points out of pure spite in a way that most other professors would not have done. If it had been Slughorn, for example, that had taught him the entire time, he might have learned much better even managed an 'O' on that OWL. And to put things into perspective, "Exceeds Expectations" is probably roughly equivalent to a "B" in American grading parlance, which, all things considered, is actually pretty good.

** This was my suspicion at first, but why would Slughorn have done that? He knew that Snape was an excellent potion maker, but he didn't actually give the book to Harry, because Harry and Ron had the completely silent fight about who was to get each book, according to the book...Ron could have just as easily got it

[[WMG: The sixteenth-of-October prophecy? It totally came true]]
Even though Hermione used it as an example of Divination just being lucky guesswork, it actually does make sense, if you think that it was a self fulfilling prophecy! Think about it! Of course Lavender wouldn't be dreading Binky dying directly, as she would have no way to know. This is used by Hermione as evidence. But, the 'thing she was dreading' wasn't Binky dying, it was something bad happening on the sixteenth of October! She heard Trelawney's prophecy, and after that, started dreading something bad happening to her on that day, and something did. She got the news of her rabbit dying.

[[WMG: Grindelwald surrendered.]]
Rita got this much exactly right. Facing a duel against Dumbledore which could only end one way, Grindlewald allowed himself to be defeated. Perhaps there were a few minor sorties at the beginning, with both sides doing impressive looking but ultimately ineffective spells because of their unwillingness to strike the killing blow; in the end, Dumbledore backed Grindlewald into a corner and gave him no choice but to strike true or surrender, and Grindlewald folded. Cagey Dumbledore probably considered what his sacrifice would mean for the people of England: a win-win situation.
** But in this case the Elder Wand would not've pledged itself to Dumbledore - its previous owner must be forcibly defeated for it to swing allegience.
*** Define "forcibly." According to the fairy tale in-story, the brother with the wand had his throat cut at night- no magic duel or anything. So, the end result would be- if you lose in any way, you lose the wand. If Grindelwald surrendered, then he lost the battle. The fact that Dumbledore used psychology instead of magic or bullets seems irrelevant.
** The "rules" for transference of allegience seem [[GreenLanternRing sufficiently loose for almost any purpose]].
** For the Elder Wand to switch allegiance, its master needs to lose a confrontation ''against their will''. Antioch Peverell getting murdered in his sleep obviously counts as this.

[[WMG:Ariana Dumbledore was raped.]]
The nature of Ariana's attack is left deliberately ambiguous. If what happened had been anything besides rape, it would have been described or at least directly stated.
* Given the primary target audience of the books (older kids and teenagers), describing a rape scene wouldn't be nice to the readers. [[{{Squick}} It would be traumatizing]].
* The exact quote is "They got a bit carried away trying to stop the little freak doing it. (...) It destroyed her, what they did: She was never right again." There were three guys, and one girl. Normal beatings normally don't have such traumatizing effects on girls, so it definitely had to be something much stronger. Also, the father wouldn't have risked himself Azkaban just because some punks beat his daughter, but I bet he would if she had been raped.
** Anything JKR could write would pale in comparison to our sick imaginations.
** It doesn't stop people who aim for Newbery Medals.
* While this troper agrees it was suspiciously ambiguous (and I came to this conclusion myself), I can't fathom a 6 year old girl being raped just for doing magic, or even the implication of it being in a children's book. Picturing the Salem Witch Trials (movies/books, mind you), I can see them stoning her and yelling at her to the point where a 6 year old might be unstable. Or maybe I'm just in denial...
** If they were throwing stones at her, then they would have been standing far enough away from her that she could have run away. The fact that she didn't implies that she ''couldn't'', because they were forcibly holding her.
*** As this troper can attest, a sharp blow to the right (or rather, wrong) portion of the head by even a relatively small rock can instantly drop you and render you dazed for at least a minute, even if you are a twenty year old male in good health and the thrower was just tossing the rock aside fairly lightly. To a six year old girl who is being deliberately aimed at, I wouldn't be very surprised to find out that she suffered severe permanent trauma to her brain and enough temporary/permanent trauma to her limbs to keep her from running away. A thrown rock to the knee from a older teen/adult male would have a good chance of just cracking, or even outright breaking, her kneecap, for instance.
* Or maybe they just got scared of her, thought she could hurt them, and beat her up just a little ''too'' hard out of fear. (is it wrong that this troper is disturbed by the fact that people seem to want this theory to be true?)
** That's what I get out of the "They got a bit carried away trying to stop [her]" line above. That makes it sound like they were just scared and did something stupid in a panic. I don't see rape coming from that. The trauma could have been from her thinking they were going to kill her (near-death experiences really change people), or the event could have simply been the straw that broke the camel's back.
* I think most people who subscribe to this theory forget that the muggles who hurt Ariana were children who were only a little older than she was. Rape probably wouldn't have even occurred to them and it's disturbing enough as it is that they traumatized her that much simply through torture without them being capable of something like that at that age..
** Although in Brisbane in 2008 a 14 year old boy raped an older teenage girl. And there may have been adults involved that aren't specified. I don't think people "want" this to be true but applying RapeAsDrama - which can be therapeutic for people who have been raped, especially if they were children at the time. The fact that people won't talk about traumatic things like this is why childhood rape victims repress it for so long.
* Considering Ariana and her entire sad story is pretty much "My Sweet Audrina" dressed up as a backstory... Rape should really be assumed to be the case. Someone did a comparison:

The character's name is Audrina/The character's name is Ariana.
The character has "chameleon hair" of many shades that nevertheless looks blonde/The character is blonde.
The character is a small girl (aged nine)/The character is a small girl (aged six).
The character was attacked by three boys/The character was attacked by three boys.
The character was attacked in a forest near her home/The character was attacked in the back garden of her home.
The boys rape the character, in addition to beating her/The boys "got a bit carried away trying to stop the little freak."
The character is kept home and not allowed to go to school until she can function as a different girl from the one who was raped./The character is kept home and not allowed to go to school.
The character's father feels his daughter has been murdered by the beating and rape/The character's brother Aberforth says that the assault "destroyed her."
* Consider also that, when her father was caught, he refused to tell why he attacked those Muggles. Now, a nine-year-old kid beaten into insanity is horrible, but it's hardly something he would be ashamed of telling about. A rape is a different matter. The society in which Ariana's parents grew up and lived was probably still very patriarchal and traditional, and, if they told that their daughter was raped, this would probably ruin their reputation, even though she was nine-year-old. Case in point, in countries like Somalia and Pakistan, victims of rape, even children, are often condemned to stoning for adultery. We've seen that magical society is kind of frozen in time: they use archaic clothing and refuse to adapt Muggle technology, even though it clearly unconveniences them. Frankly, ostracising a child's family because of her being raped doesn't seem much of a stretch. That, of course, opens a whole different can of FridgeHorror, especially if you consider that Ariana could be sent to St. Mungo, where her mental condition could have been treated.
** I thought the book states her father refused to tell why he attacked them precisely so that she wouldn't be locked up at St. Mungo's.

[[WMG:Voldemort subconsciously sabotaged his own plans.]]
Yes, Voldemort is a bad, bad guy who does evil things, but he's also his own worst enemy. The overly complicated plans, the "Give him back his wand" thing, telepathically revealing the location of all the horcruxes. He even destroyed himself at the end... it's all a cry for help from his well-buried conscience.
* I honestly don't whether to glomp you or strangle you for that.
** Not to mention the whole thing about making Horcruxes out of extremely conspicuous items rather than a random pebble or something. Vanity? Or self-sabatoge?

[[WMG: Cornelius Fudge is a Death Eater.]]
Or he's sympathetic to them. Look at what he did. He killed literally the ''only'' person who could corroberate Harry's version of events at the end of ''Goblet of Fire''. Oh, he didn't do it directly; he let a Dementor do it, which conveniently allows him to plead stupidity (which Dumbledore no doubt believed). However, it would take utterly gross incompetence or negligence for someone to allow a witness to be killed in that fashion; it just makes more sense that it was intentional.
* The Dementor was under orders from Voldemort to waste any potential witnesses.
** If Fudge was willing to walk around with a Dementor, then he almost certainly knew how to cast a Patronus Charm. A flick of his wand could have saved Barty Crouch Jr.
* The explanation they offered seems pretty reasonable, Fudge was terrified of the idea of Voldemort rising to power again and would do anything to remove evidence of that, not only to keep society from finding out and freaking out but also to maintain his own denial.
** A boggart posing as a dementor was enough to stop Harry. The real dementors work by screwing with your mind. Fudge is hardly the most competent person around, AND he's dealing with an international crisis (somebody's been kidnapped at the Triwizard Tournament), so it's doubtful Fudge would have been able to do anything. The reason Dementors don't waste Ministry folk is because that's against the treaty. Plus, this is Barty Crouch, who tortured the Longbottoms to the point where they turned insane- Fudge isn't the sort to think anything through, so he might have even supported the Dementor. So, incompetence, not malice.

[[WMG: ''Nobody'' heard the full Prophecy]]
Trelawney went through her trance; partway through, Snape was found by Aberforth. Trelawney came out of her trance thinking merely that Snape had interrupted; in all the hubbub, nobody, not Snape, not Albus, not Aberforth, heard the Prophecy in its entirety. It was only after the fact, via the Pensieve where he could focus on Trelawney without distraction, that Dumbledore realized just ''what'' Trelawney had revealed.

[[WMG: Salazar Slytherin, no matter what his descendants might get up to, was not such a bad sort]]
The Big Evil Man always seemed less a proto-Death Eater than a Franchise/{{Batman}}-type - certainly not nice, but not evil either... just eminently practical. Considering the time period during which Hogwarts was founded, not trusting Muggle-borns was nothing less than common sense. "Let's see, you're (at least nominally) devout followers of a faith that comes right out and says in the source text, 'Thou shall not suffer a witch to live'? Why sure, come on in and hone your abilities! Maybe in ten years you can come back to destroy us at the head of a Crusading army, and say that your powers came from the Lord and allowed you to discover this den of wickedness that you might purify it!"

Plus, y'know... Slytherin's symbol is a ''snake''. Serpents say 'European-style dark/light-duality wisdom cult', which at that point in history says 'completely wiped out (with ''maybe'' a few discreet exceptions).' Logically, the man's fear and anger could have been driven by bitterness over injustice that he experienced (cue any combination of EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas, DeathByOriginStory / Death By KnightTemplar, AbusiveParents, ParentalAbandonment, and RapeAsBackstory) as opposed to the simple arrogant disdain of most Slytherins we meet throughout the series.

It doesn't excuse his actions, but it does explain them - hell, for all we know, the Basilisk might originally have been intended as a failsafe. If Muggles ever tried to storm the school, they'd be met by Sal's successor and a little surprise.

Because of the overwhelming atmosphere of DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything from Book 4 onwards (even if it derails a bit when you try to imagine Scrimgeour as Winston Churchill), this theory can be summed up as 'Salazar Slytherin Was Nietzsche Before It Was Cool.'
* Probably he was some sort of AntiHero and just like Severus Snape: willing to sacrifice allies to pull off a bigger defeating scheme against the enemy.
* Y'know, I'd buy this. It makes a lot of sense. For instance, Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor were supposed to be best friends before they had a falling-out and Slytherin left the school -- it wouldn't make much sense if Slytherin was "the evil founder". In fact, in this light their falling-out seems like a clash between progressive and reactionary where both sides have valid points: Gryffindor argues "These children are witches and wizards and deserve to be trained just as much as pure-bloods", and Slytherin argues "These children have been raised by Muggles and are a potential fifth column, and can't be trusted". Of course, a thousand years later when magic has been fully hidden from the Muggle world and wizards are no longer persecuted, Slytherin's viewpoint is no longer applicable and all you have left is prejudice.
* Plus, I bet Slytherin set up the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets as a secret weapon, fully expecting that within 20 or 40 years or so the school would be stormed by some kind of Muggle army, and Salazar or his kids would then get to tell all the other Founders that "I told you so." Right away, like, within a few years of the school's establishment, rather than centuries and centuries later and for completely different ends. It's a little on the paranoid side, maybe, but also pretty sensible given the times they lived in. If he had lived during Harry Potter's era (or the ones preceding it somewhat) and seen that Muggles were no longer a threat to wizards, he probably would have realized that all the anti-Muggle or Muggle-born prejudice had become a big, obsolete waste of time.
** And see the WMG 'The basilisk in the Chamber of Secret is not there to kill Muggle-borns.', which points out that the basilisk might just be there to kill ''Muggles'', not Muggle-''born''. Muggles are not supposed to be at Hogwarts ''at all'', and if they are, something has gone horrible wrong with security.
* Besides, Slytherin doesn't leave in a blaze of glory, knocking off the muggleborns. He just leaves. Which seems... reasonable. He was best mates with Gryffindor, who I'm sure, would have something to say if his mate was a murderer.
* I agree with all above. The Anti-Muggle movement Slytherin started was probably just a 'there's more of them than there are of us and they want us dead.' reaction. As proven by history, people justifiably freak out when people want you dead for something that's biological and you can't control. It's about 700 years LATER that the Statute of Secrecy comes out after the witch trials start; perhaps proving Slytherin had a VALID point for the first time and revived his movement. It's around that time that the anti-muggle movement went from 'they want to kill us all' to a 'we're better off without them' movement. By Riddle's time the social/political philosophy has transformed into 'we're BETTER than them' as expected of a culture that's been practicing isolationism for roughly 300 years. The Slytherin house probably did not become the home of 'dark/evil' wizards until Gindrelwald and Voldemort started recruiting. I mean I bet his house was heralded at some times in history as the house where all the 'good' wizards end up and the Griffyndor house was looked at as a mix of the well-meaning idiots that will get us all killed and the dark lords who are bold enough to be braze about it.
* Salazar might also have grown up in an essential muggle warzone. During the century of the founders, eastern England(where the majority of the fens are) was not only suffering from Viking raids, but at one point was even conquered. Wizards would likely need all their smarts to survive in such a hostile environments, and desire to rise above it. Salazar's formative years might very well have been in a surrounding were muggles did little but kill eachother. Quite understandable why he wouldn't want to arm such a crowd with magic. And this works in regards to Gryffindor too, as Godric was from the western region(which might not have been peaceful, but surely moreso than the areas were there were fights against vikings). Godric grew up around muggles that showed pleasant sides, while Salazar only saw the dark sides.

[[WMG: Riddle and his Death Eaters are the last part of a Dementor plot to collapse Wizarding society]]
This comes from [[http://www.redhen-publications.com/Premature.html here]] - and it makes sense.
* Why, exactly, would the [=MoM=] keep the Love door locked? Because that was part of the bargain that got the Dementors working for them. But the Dementors aren't satisfied with the morsels thrown to them, and they want more. They want a cold world, filled with fear and hate, that they can feed from. Hey, look at the Death Eaters' aims: inspiring fear and hate! And it's not like anybody was around to protect Riddle as a child. They found the perfect candidate for the job - a wizard baby who would be around Muggles until he was old enough to go to school, by which time their MindRape would be complete.
* Dementors feed off happiness. They merely leave despair behind.
** Then why does a ball of pure happiness chase them off? Shouldn't it be like candy for them?
*** The basic form of the Patronus Charm ''is'' like candy to them. What the basic form does is form a shield or decoy that the Dementor feeds off instead of the caster. Presumably, the attack form is like being bludgeoned over the head with a giant novelty chocolate bar.
** Dementors feed off of misery. That's why they start breeding when Voldemort comes into the open. They are repelled by happiness, and so as a defensive mechanism they suppress happiness in their victims and feed off of the depression that arises as a result.
*** If the Dementors ate misery, then after they left, their victims would be happier. They showed up at that Quidditch game in the third book because so many happy people were in one place. People feel like crap when they breed because the Dementors are eating all their happy thoughts.
*** Who said the people at the Quidditch match were happy? For starters, it was a sporting event; at any given time at least have the crowd at a sporting event are unhappy with the game's progression. It was between Hufflepuff and Gryfindor, so it wasn't an interesting inter-house rivalry match you'd get with Griffindor and Slytherin, so it didn't create that kind of rapid obssession. Slytherin and Ravenclaw didn't have a vested interest beyond who would play who in the next game, so they aren't creating any strong happy feeling. Added in to all this is the fact it was a thunderstorm and the entire crowd was being rained on. It wouldn't be impossible that many of them were not happy at all. The only people who would be genuinly happy are the sadists who want to see who got injured worst playing in these awful conditions, and the die hard Griffindor and Hufflepuff fans who wanted to see who beat who. Been a while since I read the book, but I'm fairly certain it was just "powerful" emotions.
*** Or the Dementors do eat misery, but the feeding process is similar to a mosquito that injects you with anticoagulant so the Dementors use an emotional equivalent of an anticoagulant to bring up successively worse and worse memories to feed off of until you drown in them.

[[WMG: Dumbledore had a magical duel in the London Underground.]]
Where did Dumbledore get a scar that looked a map of the London underground on his right knee? Perhaps during a fight (maybe with Grindelwald) in a London Underground station, his knee hit a map, and with melting bits of metal and plastic (or metal and metal) all over the place, his knee was scarred...
* That must have been a ''very'' small map.
** Or it had been shrunk with magic!

[[WMG: Neville was placed under a memory charm when he young.]]
Perhaps the reason Neville was so clumsy was because someone tried to make him forget something when he was a baby. Perhaps he had witnessed his parents being tortured, and then someone (like his Granny) placed a memory charm on him so he would forget about it. We have seen Gilderoy Lockhart having his memory modified, and he is clumsy and forgetful much like Neville was portrayed. Maybe something happened to him in Book 7 so that he recovered and became competent. Remember how his remembrall from Book 1 always glowed, trying to tell him he had forgotten something? (Though apparently severe magic damage like this is usually untreatable.)
* A fanfic series touches on this. In that 'verse Neville was partially memory charmed, having seen his parents being tortured as above, by Lockhart before Mad-Eye Moody stopped him from turning toddler Neville into a [[FateWorseThanDeath vegetable]]. In his 5th year Neville starts dosing himself with a memory enhancing potion and [[TookALevelInBadass takes a level in badass]], even defeating Harry in a duel. If only {{Canon}} Neville had the same potion, he might not have had to wait until the last book to do.....anything.
** His grandmother probably put the charm on him because infant Neville had been around when his parents were tortured (Bellatrix probably just ran out of time to kill or hurt him). In her own shock and horror, his grandmother overdid the charm, which would help explain her pressure on him to do well - she always felt guilty about having accidentally harmed him after what happened to his parents, and wanted to see him get over the damage already.
** Most likely Jossed. Nothing was ever mentioned of it in later books. Besides, wouldn't the attack have happened at a point when Neville was too young to remember?
** Not necessarily. Harry has brief flashbacks and vague memories of what happened to his parents (green light, laughter, voices, etc), Neville and Harry are the same age, and according to this troper's memory Bellatrix's attack on Neville's parents came after Voldemort's fall. Therefore Neville may well have some memories of the incident. And as Harry is negatively affected by his memories, especially when Dementors are around, and Neville doesn't seem to experience the same effects, the theory still holds water.

[[WMG: Kreacher fixed the Vanishing Cabinet.]]
When Harry Potter told Kreacher to keep an eye on Malfoy and to not let on to him that he was being followed, he didn't specify to Kreacher to not help Malfoy in whatever he was doing. So to help this relative of the Black family, Kreacher looked at the Vanishing Cabinet and fixed it without Malfoy knowing about it. (One of the dangers about trusting Kreacher not to twist around your orders when he doesn't like you.) Remember how surprised Malfoy was when it finally was fixed, as if he hadn't done it himself?

[[WMG: The Restriction of Underage Wizardy is an attempt to avert SchmuckBait laws in the face of the {{Masquerade}}.]]
It is shown that the Ministry neither knows nor cares if underage wizards and witches practice magic in a magic household or other such situation; but any underage wizard that uses magic in a non-wizatrding area is immediately busted. It is likely that the Ministry phrased this law as they did so that underage wizards can intentionally disobey in ways that don't break the secrecy thing and keep the muggle unawareness thing as a "more important law that shouldn't be broken" (as well as make it look like they aren't being unfair to muggle-borns).

[[WMG: Slytherin sorts for sociopathy]]
Ambition, guys, ambition... Ambition and sociopathy have a high correlation.

[[WMG: Lockhart was already under a memory charm]]
Think about it. He claimed that he tracked down these people who saved lots of lives, found out how they did what they did, and wiped their memories. But for no one to call him on it, he would also have to wipe the memories of those they saved, everyone in the chain of information that eventually led him there, and anyone else in the chain of information that led him there. It's much more logical to assume that he DID those things himself but, realizing that he could be a serious threat if he ever came after former death-eaters, the Death Eaters put him under a memory charm to make him forget his skills and become incompetent. He was always a braggart, but once he was at least an HONEST braggart.
* Jossed by WordOfGod; she wanted him as a joke character, as she knew a guy exactly like that.
** This sort of thing makes DeathOfTheAuthor tempting.
* What reason do we have to assume that Death Eaters would solve the problem of this dangerously talented wizard by Obliviating him instead of simply killing him like they do to every single other one of their enemies throughout the series?
** As a form of mockery. They're sociopaths, you must remember.
** Since when is Lockheart a "dangerously powerful wizard"?
*** [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower Since he obviously knows his way around a memory charm]], and can use it often to great effect, added on to the fact that he has no scruples in using it whenever. He would have gotten Harry and Ron, had it not been for Ron's broken wand, which didn't work right, and he ended up getting himself. He's just too much of a pompous idiot to think of using it for anything other than fame.
*** Alternatively, he's so dangerous ''because'' he isn't powerful. He is a huge narcissist, and he ''thinks'' he is a great wizard who can take care of it all, and thus he is a danger to everyone around him. In ''Chamber of Secrets'', he ends up removing all the bones in Harry's arm, trying to fix his (Harry's) broken arm, and thus necessitates an overnight hospital stay. He completely trashes his classroom when he brings in (and lets loose) the Cornish Pixies, and he is not a good D.A.D.A. teacher, to the point that the parts of his books he obviously expected students to pay attention to were the parts concerning him, and, had he stayed, students would have left his class about as unprepared to face the Dark Arts as they would be with Umbridge. He is a danger to everyone else around him, but through ''lack'' of power, and not his power itself.

[[WMG: The Sorting Hat takes into account family relation when sorting]]
* Thus explaining why a cowardly traitor like Pettigrew and a moronic lackey like Goyle got into Gryffindor (bravery/loyalty based) and Slytherin (cunning/ambition based) respectively. It's similar to Harry choosing to be in Gryffindor, in this case more like, because your family is so ingrained in the house that that ties of family will be a factor rather than one's personality.
** Pettigrew could conceivably fit under loyalty - his loyalty was to the strongest and was of the slavish kind. Goyle could easily still qualify for ambition - you don't have to have brains to be ambitious. But as is mentioned elsewhere, student's wishes can influence or change the hat's decisions.
* Hasn't Rowling said the Sorting Hat's consideration of Slytherin for Harry was due to the bit of Voldemort inside him?
** Really? Well, so much for the similarities between them. Harry's always been perfectly perfect and pure then, and one of the most interesting aspects of the series (that it's our choices that make us who we are) was never true at all.
*** I can't find a single piece of evidence that Rowling ever said that. Besides, Dumbledore very capably sums up why Harry would've done well in Slytherin in ''Chamber of Secrets'', and certainly doesn't say anything about the soul(which at ''no point'' in the series did Rowling show to effect Harry's actual personality) being a factor in all that.
* Well, think about the two Slytherins in the story who were shown to have had no business being in that House whatsoever: Regulus Black and Severus Snape. If the Hat really did Sort on personality alone, Regulus would have been put in Gryffindor and Snape would have ended up in Ravenclaw. [[note]] Courageous though he was, I just can't imagine Snape as a Gryffindor.[[/note]] But think about just how deeply ingrained both the Black and Prince families were in Slytherin House. Same thing with the Weasleys: Ron really didn't have enough courage to be in Gryffindor (running away and boo-hooing because ''he was hungry''? [[SarcasmMode Yeah, I want him on my team if I have to defeat a genocidal maniac!]]), but the Hat put him there anyway because the Weasleys are a Gryffindor family. If someone from a pure-blood family with a long history in one particular House doesn't want to be there, they have to specifically ask ''not'' to be Sorted into it (see: Sirius Black). So really, the only students who are Sorted by personality alone are Muggle-borns. It makes perfect sense.
** Snape, no business being in Slytherin? I don't know what you're thinking, but Snape seems pretty much the archetypal Slytherin - he's cunning enough to deceive Voldemort, ambitious enough to excel in Potions as he did, etc..
** Adding to this, Fred & George are Ravenclaws, Percy's totally a slytherin, and Ron would probably be Hufflepuff.
** Sorry, but anyone who says Ron wasn't brave clearly hasn't read the books properly ''at all''. Plus, there's the difference between Padma and Parvati, and the placement of Sirius, and the presence of all the Muggle-borns. The high correlation between families and houses is more likely due to the fact that the Sorting Hat honors choices -- students from old wizarding families would be placed into their preferred houses as long as they were reasonably suited and the reason for their preference was not petty. Perhaps Peter's placement could have been something like this: Peter sees the three friends who he met on the train get (alphabetically) sorted into Gryffindor. The Sorting Hat decides that since he wants to go there so much, there was a genuine chance that Peter could grow into a brave wizard if he had such good friends to guide him. A major theme Rowling writes into the books is that choices win out over abilities, and so the house system is more guiding students into whichever house would help them reach their potential and make these choices clearer, rather than sorting solely on the basis of ability.
*** Except Potter is AFTER Pettigrew alphabetically. Which raises the observation - Sirius was *that* sure James would be a Gryffindor, that he asked to be placed there before James was Sorted. Sirius must've really liked his new friend...
*** In Sirius' specific case, simply wanting to be in Gryffindor proved he had enough courage to qualify, since it involved going against the clear wishes and values of his family.
** We don't know that the Prince family was ingrained in Slytherin house, as we know next to nothing about them. In fact, the clues in the books imply that Eileen was not a pureblood witch (in particular something Bellatrix Lestrange said when visiting Spinner's End, saying they were probably the first pureblood witches to ever set foot in that place) and that perhaps the 'half-blood prince' nickname Snape chose for himself was an ironic one, because most members of his family were half-blooded. This doesn't mean the Prince family didn't have a history of being Slytherins, but it is less likely than it would be for a pureblood family like the Blacks, whom we're explicitly told have all been in Slytherin for generations until Sirius. We're not even told what house Eileen was in, it just seems likely it was Slytherin because Snape already wants to be placed there.
*** [[WordOfGod Eileen was a pure-blood and a Slytherin]]. Also, Bellatrix is an AxCrazy [[FantasticRacism pure-blood supremacist]], and was speaking like an AxCrazy pure-blood supremacist when she said "we must be the first [pure-bloods] to set foot here." (She didn't like or trust Snape, remember?) Then consider that many cities in Britain [including Yorkshire and Manchester, the two most likely locations for Spinner's End] are almost a thousand years old; there is ''no possible way'' that Bellatrix or Narcissa could set foot anywhere in the country and be the first pure-bloods in that area. And lastly, it was stated in the books that Snape nicknamed himself "the Half-Blood Prince" ''because he, himself, is a half-blood''.
** I always figured that Regulus went under the hat thinking 'Not Gryffindor, not Gryffindor' the way Harry thought 'Not Slytherin' simply because of how he saw his parents treat Sirius when ''he'' became a Gryffindor.

[[WMG: The Pureblood agenda is ironically the only thing that's kept wizards from dominating the Earth over Muggles.]]
The Wizardry genes are dominant, and they commonly occur as a mutation in the non-Wizarding population. Also, wizards can live 100 years longer than Muggles and have the opportunity to reproduce more. In a case like this, the population of wizards should be high in this world, about as common as brunettes. However, the Pureblood movement, which encouraged inbreeding and sticking to wizarding stock, has limited the spread of the genes. With Voldemort's influence gone and the movement losing favor, it's quite possible that in the next 1000 years, Wizards will outbreed Muggles.
* When Harry entered Hogwarts there were 39 other firstyears. According to WordOfGod, the average intake of muggleborn wizards is about 25%. That's about ten muggleborn per year out of the sixty ''million'' that make up the population of Great Britain, so it's not exactly common. And it's not clear whether all wizards live as long as Dumbledore (barring accidents) or if it's just the magically powerful ones. And a large population is much more difficult to hide. Hell, it's entirely plausible that over the next 100 years or so, the {{Masquerade}} will become untenable because muggle population increases squeeze the Wizarding World out of its hidey-holes. They're outnumbered by about five orders of magnitude; the planet would bust a seam before they made up that sort of difference.
** WordofGod thoroughly admits that she sucks at Math and that she imagined the population of the school at about 600~800 students, not the 280 that it would need to be if she had done the math. But yes, Wizardry is still quite uncommon, just not quite as bad as it seems. Also, the Hogwarts population does not take into account homeschooled kids, which no doubt some are in some of the more pureblood families. Also, in the 4th book, Malfoy says that he had intended to go to Durmstrang and that his Mother hadn't wanted him so far from home. So it is probable that a number of pure-blood and half-blood children study overseas. The sizes of Durmstrang and Beauxbatons are never mentioned; nor is it said that they are the only wizarding schools in their respective countries, although it is implied. Nor do we know how many other countries have wizarding schools.
** Counter-argument: Muggle population density is utterly irrelevant to wizards, who can magically expand space in a BagOfHolding manner. Moody's seven-compartment trunk could probably be used as a luxury apartment - or ''seven'' efficiency apartments. It wouldn't matter if the population of Britain were a million or a trillion.
*** Also, Harry and his classmates were born during a civil war. Its entirely possible that the birth rate was dramatically reduced, meaning that there was a far lower intake of students than usual that year.
*** And then there's the possibility of the majority of wizards and witches being home schooled instead of going to Hogwarts. Population at Hogwarts doesn't necessarily equal total wizarding population of the U.K.
** Regardless of the *wizarding* population at large, that doesn't change the fact that only, based on Rowling's vision of the Hogwarts population rather than her incredibly crappy math version, 28 new Muggleborns join British wizarding society every year. 700 million children are born in the UK every year. Since it's highly doubtful that there are more young Muggleborns being homeschooled, the likelihood of them rapidly growing the Wizarding population is slim at best. It's also likely based on the mass inbreeding of pureblood society that they have a low population as well. Most of magical society is probably Half-blood, meaning they bring with them a blend of modern muggle attitudes and wizarding traditionalism. As a result, they aren't going to go off any marry and have children with a much younger woman after the one they're with stops ovulating (note, it doesn't matter how old a wizard or witch can get, it doesn't mean they can have children later).
** "700 million children are born in the UK every year", er, don't think you meant the 700 million there mate, the UK population is only 60ish million to start with.
* Dominant does not equal common. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achondroplasia Dwarfism]] is also a dominant trait.

[[WMG: House-Elves have [[BagOfHolding hammerspace]] powers.]]
In the second film, it was supposed to look like Dobby had pulled the letters from his pillowcase; but the hole in the side for his arm was too high for when he removed the letters, and the edge of the hole for his sleeve was in the middle of where he disappeared the letters to.
** according to parodies, he pulled them out of his ass....

** Remember Hermione's {{Bag Of Holding}}, showing that {{Hammerspace}} is a common occurrence in the Potterverse. Now given that House-Elves imitate human magic with their own, wand-less variety, this is practically canon.

[[WMG: Mrs. Norris is an animagus.]]
Possibly failed partway through her unauthorized training, so she can't turn back. Not just a really smart animal owned by an obsessive lunatic. So... yeah, that's all.
* It's more probable that Mrs. Norris is part Kneazle, which are smarter than average cats (as Harry's CrazyCatLady squib neighbor can attest).
** Rowling says that Mrs. Norris is just a very unpleasant cat.

[[WMG: One thing the Arithmancy class teaches is how to divide by zero.]]
[[AWizardDidIt A Wizard Can Do It.]] There has to be some reason it's called Arith''mancy'' instead of Arith''metic''. (Alternately, it's controlling reality via numbers instead of CanisLatinicus, but while interesting, it leaves zero indivisible.)
* Uh...[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arithmancy Arithmancy]] is a real word. It's ''fortune-telling'' by numbers. Also called numerology. Since we never get a look inside Hermione's Arithmancy classes in the books, we don't know if it's the same thing, but if it is, it's obvious that someone like Hermione (who likes structure, which is kind of mandatory when it
comes to maths) would prefer it to something as woolly as Trelawney's Divination classes.
** That would be ''Divination''.
** Arithmancy is a specific form of divination.

[[WMG:Ron is a seer.]]
This is based on 2 things:
* 1: In ''Deathly Hallows'', Ron almost predicts the taboo on saying "Voldemort." The exact words were "It feels like a jinx or something."
* 2: His ability at Chess suggests that he has a well-developed sense of predicting moves.
** Also, his predictions for Divination in Goblet of Fire (and Prisoner of Azkaban) are extremely accurate. Specifically, he predicted that:
*** Harry would work for the Ministry of Magic. He decides to become an Auror starting in Goblet of Fire.
*** Harry would receive "a windfall, unexpected gold", to which Ron requested Harry lend him some of it. Harry later won a huge amount of gold in the Triwizard Tournament, and he gave it to Ron's brothers.
* He comes from a very old, powerful (the Prewetts) magical (hey, pureblood) family. Prophecy is apparently a genetic trait (as in Sybil being related to great seer Cassandra Trelaney) so it seems to be the sort of thing that would pop up most in families with a long history of magic, rather than muggle borns.
* The movies (and we know JKR does plant clues in them: Hogs' Head goat, anyone?) have this bit of dialouge that seems to point to this theory.
** Trelawney: Your aura is pulsing! Are you in the beyond? I think you are!
** Ron: Sure
* In the Chamber of secrets we get this: "Could've been anything," said Ron. "Maybe he [Tom Riddle] got thirty O.W.L.s or saved a teacher from the giant squid. Maybe he murdered Myrtle; that would've done everyone a favor..."
* Okay, so I thought this was interesting enough to google it. The first 3 results were all {{Slash Fic}}. Seriously, people?

[[WMG: Harry is a seer.]]
Similarly to the above WMG, Harry sometimes has [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment weird dreams]] that foreshadow future events. For example, in Prisoner of Azkaban he dreams about having to play a quidditch match against dragons and chasing a Patronus through the forest.

[[WMG: Dumbledore is senile.]]
Which is why he's such a CoolOldGuy in the first few books ("As long as they don't take me off the chocolate frog cards!") and such an IdiotBall-toting JerkAss in the last books. Same reason, different symptoms. He's not wise, he's just a SeeminglyProfoundFool. The times he was badass in battle was because he was lashing out with his coolest spells at someone who PO'd him, not because he's all that competent.

[[WMG: The Basilisk was actually a secret keeper]]
In his old age, Salazar Slytherin became more and more paranoid, Mad-Eye style. He had an understandable distrust of muggle-born wizards (there were witch-hangings in his lifetime), and so he built the chamber of secrets as a repository of knowledge and hid it under a proto-Fidelius with the basilisk as secret-keeper (and secret weapon in case Hogwarts would be overrun by hostile forces).
Sadly, the proto-Fidelius charm works differently from the modern version - when the basilisk died, the entirety of Slytherin's secret library was lost forever.
* Or, more likely, Tom Riddle took everything that was in Slytherin's library when he discovered the Chamber of Secrets during his time in school.
** Nevermind the bit about the basilisk dying locking them out, as they [[spoiler:go back in during Deathly Hallows]]. Anyway, this is FRIDGE BRILLIANCE as far as this troper is concerned, finally laying to rest the years of contention over how the Chamber could've gone undiscovered all those years and how its entrance was in a 20th century bathroom despite being built around 1000 A.D.. This troper assumed the castle morphing took care of it, but this clinches the method of how.
** The only real problem with that theory is that neither Ron nor Harry should know the secret, because the basilisk didn't tell him where it was. (Ron can't even hear the basilisk!) However, the solution to that is if we assume that the message on the wall was a way of revealing the secret, just like Dumbledore's note in Order of the Phoenix. The entire point of that is to get Harry to the Chamber, after all. But Ginny painted that, not the basilisk...except, recall, there's no more chicken blood to write with, like the first message. So what did she write it with? ''Basilisk blood''. Either the Fidelius charm in general, or just this version of it, allows revelation with voluntarily given blood of the secret keeper. So Ron and Harry, and everyone else who saw the message, became privy to the secret location of the chamber (While still not actually knowing where it was.), and then became Secret-Keepers when the basilisk died.
*** And this explains why Myrtle doesn't follow them, and seems to think if they died they'd share her toilet. Why would she think that, when they clearly went down a long tunnel somewhere else? Because, from her POV, they just vanished, and then reappeared, because she hadn't read the message and thus couldn't see the entrance. (Or maybe Fidelius charms just don't allow ghosts in at all.)
*** This even explains why Ron and Hermione ran out of the Room of Requirement without explaining where they were going...it's reasonable for Ron to not think of it and just say 'bathroom', but Hermione would probably give enough info that Harry could find them. However, she discovered she couldn't explain further, because she's not a Secret-Keeper, and there was someone there who didn't know the secret. (We don't know who, just some random student who didn't see the message.)

[[WMG: The post-Prizoner of Azkaban timeline is an alternate timeline.]]
If Herminoe hadn't gone back in time, Siruis and Buckbeak would've died, thus rendering all of Harry's Sirius related actions in the later books null and void.
* So [[YouAlreadyChangedThePast James Potter]] [[TrickedOutTime is alive]]?
* No because he died prior to the start of the story. I'm talking about everything past [=PoA=].
** The other poster was saying that if Harry and Hermione hadn't gone back in time, the trio, Sirius and Snape would all be dead (or rather soul-sucked) since the time-traveling Harry wasn't there to save them. Hence, Harry couldn't have gone back in time to save them without having already been saved, resulting in a paradox which can only work in a "there was no first time" universe. Therefore, alternate timelines are impossible in the Potterverse.
*** No, Harry, Hermione and Sirius would be dead or soul-sucked, as Ron and Snape were not present when the Dementors attacked, they were still up near the whomping willow. Also, being that they were both unconscious, it's unlikely the Dementors would have been able to detect them (the Dementors couldn't even identify Sirius when he was in dog-form because of his simpler mind, they probably wouldn't have been able to 'see' unconscious people unless they already knew they were there/were already in the process of feeding off them).
*** [petulant tone]''Actually''[/tone], I was saying the Harry wouldn't have been there to be seen on the first cycle, and it doesn't matter if he would have died or not (he would have, though), because if it wasn't a StableTimeLoop the 0th-cycle version of him would never have traveled to the first cycle, the first-cycle version would have had to have had a reason to behave the way he did (waiting by the lake, jumping out and using a full patronus) and the second and later cycles (which the canon version of [=PoA=] would necessarily have been) would have been functionally identical to a StableTimeLoop, with [[YouAlreadyChangedthePast no changing the past]].

[[WMG: Voldemort's rebirth potion.]]
The reason Voldemort went through that incredibly circuitous plan with regards to Harry and the Triwizard Tournament is because the rebirth potion can only be used (or used to its full effect) if brewed on certain significant days of the year. Those dates are likely ones that are connected to death, like Halloween, or the rise of darkness over light, such as the Summer Solstice. The Summer Solstice is when the length of the day starts to get shorter, most likely carries a magical significance on its own, and often falls on June 24, in the old Julian calendar. June 24 is also the date on which the third task of the Triwizard Tournament took place, and I don't have much trouble seeing the wizards refusing to adopt the new calendar.

As for why Voldemort didn't grab Harry earlier, well, he's still weak and Harry is under the protection of the only wizard Voldemort has ever feared, who likely has who knows how many tracking charms on Harry, and has a phoenix that can teleport through all known wards, including the those of the Ministry, Hogwarts, and the Chamber of Secrets.

[[WMG: The house-elves' "clothes" are cursed.]]
House elves being powerful magic users themselves -- perhaps even more powerful than wizards -- it's easy to see wizards wanting to do everything possible to keep elves from challenging their dominance. We know they denied them rights, treating them as animals despite having human-level intelligence; we know they didn't allow them to use wands, which would amplify their magical powers as it does for wizards. It's not too much of a stretch to imagine that they went as far as orchestrating the elves' magical enslavement, via forcing them to wear clothing which had a passive form of the Imperius Curse on it (the house-elves' enslavement resembles the Imperius Curse quite strongly -- compelled to obey one master, an inappropriate sense of happiness, some can fight it with effort). The cursed clothing is so unlike actual clothes so that wizards could tell the crucial difference between enslaved elves and ones who were still free agents.

[[WMG: Ron is immune to the Killing Curse.]]
In the seventh chapter of the second book, Malfoy calls Hermione a Mudblood for the first time, and Ron tries to cast a spell at him. This spell is described as a jet of green light. ''Avada Kedavra'' is also described as green light. Therefore, Ron ''obviously'' tried to murder Malfoy (who was ''very'' lucky that Ron tried to do it with a broken wand). When it rebounded on Ron, it merely caused him to vomit slugs. Thus, Ron bears inherent magical protection from the Killing Curse (and possibly other curses as well), turning it into something much more harmless when used on him.
* ...spells aside from Adava Kedavra can be green, y'know.
* Hey, it's a WMG; just go with it!
** That doesn't protect it from being outright stupid.
* So, a twelve-year-old wizard with no apparent interest in the Dark Arts and no special talent for duelling managed to cast a silenced Killing Curse? It's a damn shame he never got a chance to duel Voldy.
* Two problems with the theory: there's a specific name for the slug-vomiting curse in question, it's called Slugulus Eructo. Second, in the movie, Ron even says outright "eat slugs!"

[[WMG: The Potterverse will become an [[TheUnmasquedWorld Unmasqued World]] following Voldemort's fall]]
''Literature/TheTalesOfBeedleTheBard'' is clearly written for both a muggle and a wizarding audience, and was published after the events of DH. It was supposedly translated by a (presumably adult) Hermione Granger and makes several refrences to the "most recent wizarding war."
* The unmasque-ing will start when [[Series/TrueBlood the vampires reveal themselves]], although it'll apparently take a long, long time before all the other beings are believed.
* Actually, ''Literature/TheTalesOfBeedleTheBard'' are edited by Dumbledore, so he is referencing the first wizarding war.

[[WMG: Dumbledore is a phoenix animagus.]]
This was here before, a rather in-depth explanation too, before the DataVampires or someone who liked deleting things they thought weren't taking the [=WMGs=] seriously trust me, it was serious), but what I can remember was this: Mostly, the ability to teleport even on Hogwarts grounds, in a puff of fire in the books and fifth movie, as well as how he tends to take his time travelling (possibly flying places as a phoenix instead of going on a broomstick or apparating instantly?). There are at least four unregistered animagi in the books, and at least three of them figured it out during their early school years without detection, so why not the Greatest Wizard of All Time? There was more, so if anyone remembers it, could you please post it?
* Related WMG: Fawkes was Dumbledore's mate. In settings where there are more than one phoenix, they usually mate for life, and Fawkes headed away never to be heard from again once Dumbledore died. If it was human-level sentience, like the merpeople (which Dumbledore could speak the language of), then bestiality wouldn't be a concern, and the animagus ability would act as the [[MaleToFemaleUniversalAdaptor Male To Phoenix Universal Adaptor]], if they even did anythign like that. If phoenixes aren't human-level intelligence, Fawkes could have [[AllLoveIsUnrequited imprinted on Dumbledore]] in his phoenix form, and it just didn't [[WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone go away when he turned back into a human]].
** So does that mean that Fawkes is actually Grindlewand? He was searching for the Deathly Hallows as a way of cheating death and along the way discovered that he was a pheonix animagus that allowed him to be "reborn" as it were.
* Alternately, Dumbledore could be a ''demiguise'' animagus. He admits he has the means to become invisible without a cloak, and he has lots of long silvery hair. ''Fantastic Beasts'' describes the demiguise as having long silvery hair and the power of invisibility; indeed, most invisibility cloaks are woven from their hair.

[[WMG: Dumbledore did have an Animagus form, but chose not to use it.]]
* I think the reason why Dumbledore was never an Animagus despite certainly being talented enough in Transfiguration was that he ''was'', but had no use for it after the initial novelty. Why, you ask? Because his form was a cabbage head jellyfish. Its toxin is extremely weak, it can't really move without a current, and it obviously can't survive without water. Doesn't really jive with the image of the all-powerful wise old wizard. Despite this, Dumbledore did experiment with his transformation in the Hogwarts Lake - incidentally, that is how he developed an interest in Mermish language and culture. However, after a near-fatal incident where he was almost killed by a common turtle, he decided to use one of the many safer and more practical methods of exploring the water.
** Oh, and as additional point for the immature: Cabbage head jellyfish are mostly asexual, but when they do have sexual encounters it consists of ejecting sperm into the mouth cavity of other jellyfish.

[[WMG: Animagus are chosen by wizards as avatars of their personality.]]
* Prongs was too good a pun for the womanising James to pass up so he became a deer.
* Grindlewand was a pheonix (see above)
** Hang on why would Peter choose to be a rat, hmm? If I were only hanging out with Marauders (and later Death Eaters) because it was convinient for me I wouldn't blow my cover with a massive anvil like that.
*** My subtheory: Potter screwed him over, by convincing Sirius to help him keep Remus from stopping their prank to carefully guide Wormtail's transformation-activating sequence into him becoming a rat animagus. It's more likely, though, that they needed something wolflike (moddhey dhoog), something that can hold back a wolf without dying of blood loss (anything with large, branching antlers that stick up instead of out like an elk or forward like a caribou), and something that can deactivate the whomping willow in case it grows too big for them to use a stick (cat or [if sapient species count as the animal form, see phoenixes above] kneazel would have been better, but that's just my opinion, they may have wanted something that could crawl amongst the roots in exchange for a decrease in speed).
*** WordOfGod says that wizards have no control over their Animagus form (or what shape their Patronus will take); it reflects their deepest personality. [[FridgeLogic Which still doesn't explain why the rest of the Mauraders never suspected that Peter might betray them.]]
*** Maybe because they weren't following the idea that [[spoiler: rats]]=teh evil!!!!1!!!!, but rather other things about [[spoiler: rats]]? i.e. intelligence for example?
*** Agreed, domesticated rats are known for intelligence, cleanliness, and the strong bond they form with their owners.
*** FridgeBrilliance. Wormtail did 'rat' on the good guys.
*** Also consider the things on the Maurader's map - this includes not just classrooms, teachers offices, dorms, and other rooms that the boys might have been able to access in human form, but also presumably teachers private quarters which they would not have had access to and would have been in very very serious trouble if they were discovered in. Add that to the secret passageways - well, they had to find out about those somehow, right? And you can bet they didn't just happen to guess that the humpback witch was a secret tunnel, Peter probably discovered it in rat form. It's a crumbling tunnel underneath a statue, there are probably cracks or small holes that a rat could hide in but it's pretty damn hard to come up with a reason they'd have just happened across it.
*** In China, rats are known for shrewdness, cunning, and foresight- traits that could be positive or negative, depending on the person, so that sounds about right.
*** And it also seems that the animagus form is really a reflection of the core of the person - their biggest, best self - a potential that hasn't necessarily been realized yet. Sirius' animagus form is a dog because of his loyalty and capacity for love, but as a human being he has a lot of traits that don't reflect this - grudges, bitterness, and a willingness to hurt others (even those he loves, like Harry). Likewise, what we see of James does not reflect traits commonly associated with the symbolism of the stag. But they both have the potential to embody all of the good things about these animals, and the same is true for Peter - he COULD potentially have embodied the intelligence, craftiness, and loyalty that domestic rats display. But he didn't. The closest thing we see to a person really fully embodying their animagus form is in [=McGonagall=], which may have a lot to do with her maturity.

[[WMG: The Rule of Seven Voldemort was going for would have worked if [[spoiler: he'd made one more horcrux.]]]]
His soul was in seven pieces, but the way I misunderstood the first time I read book six was that he should have had seven ''horcruxes'', aside from the central soul that was powered-up by them. When he killed Harry's parents, not only ThePowerOfLove saved Harry, but the fact that Voldemort had completed six horcruxes and his spell was straining for a seventh was what caused him to [[spoiler: gain a fragment of Voldemort's soul]]. Because of this, instead of one soul in the human and seven fragments forming a metaphorical septagram around him, it was one soul in the human, six fragments looking for the seventh point, and after the lashback, became [[spoiler: two souls in a human body and six souls trying to protect the most significant one]]. The end of Book Four just confused things even more.

* [[spoiler:He did. He accidentally made Harry a Horcrux. This allows the WMG to be reversed. Perhaps it would have worked if he made six horcruxes, like he originally planned. In fact, the seventh horcrux coincided with his first fall from power, and resulted in the person who caused his second fall from power.]]
** When he went after Harry, he had made 5 of the intended 6 horcruxes: Diary, Ring, Diadem, Locket, Cup. He was going to kill Harry and make his 6th. Died [[spoiler: made Harry into the 6th accidentally]], without realising it. In ''Goblet of Fire'', he made Nagini into what he thought was his 6th Horcrux, and was actually his 7th. So really, he achieved the Rule of Seven simultaneously with his fall.

[[WMG: Horace Slughorn has dabbled in dark magic, and actually wanted Voldemort to become a dark wizard.]]
Consider Horace 'letting slip' the information about the horcruxes to Voldemort. We know he enjoys having famous students, so what about infamous students? 'All publicity is good publicity' may have been one of Slughorn's mottos, or perhaps a good student is one that can do magic well rather then where their morals go. He knew Voldemort was something dark, and predicted he would go far. He sorty of helped Voldemort along and expected to see a powerful yet questionably moral high ranked Wizard with slughorn to thank. What he didn't expect is Voldemort to get cult followers and declare a bloody war. Giving Slughorn still more to be ashamed of.

[[WMG: The canonical series ends on page 657 of Goblet of Fire]]
In a Hofstadterean way, Rowling decided to conceal the true end of the series and leave clues so that a sufficiently assiduous reader would be able to find it. The kinds of hints listed in GEB (403) are:
* A small but telltale feature that would signal the end
* Extraneous characters or events which are inconsistent with the spirit of the foregoing story
* A sudden shift in letter frequencies or word lengths
* Errors appearing immediately thereafter.
Now, Rowling said that Harry Potter would end on the word "scar". Furthermore, directly after this point we have the mixup of the order of Harry's parents coming out of the AK. The series also slides into being far darker and edgier with the next three books, and there are several new characters and odd non-sequitur plot points introduced. The final canonical sentence, then, is "It was pain beyond anything Harry had ever experienced; his very bones were on fire; his head was surely splitting along his scar", and everything after that is left as an exercise for the reader as a sort of Bolivian Army ending.
** The mixed up order of Harry's parents coming out of the wand was a publishing error that got fixed. this Tropers copy has Lilly coming out first and then James, which is the correct order.
** WordOfGod (I think) said the last chapter was written first, hence why it seems so "amaturish".
* Just a note on page number - the relevant page in my UK first hardback edition (with James emerging first frow Voldy's wand)is 570.

[[WMG: Salazar Slytherin put the basilisk it Hogwarts to protect wizards not hurt Muggle-borns.]]
He anticipated that Muggle weapons were becoming more dangerous a very fast rate and you feel a matter of time before they start attacking the wizards that were oppressing them.
* @/MacPhisto actually read a very good FanFic that used this theory (see the FanFicRecs page for Literature/HarryPotter). When we first learned of the basilisk, it is mentioned that "...spiders flee before it." Yet we never see anything more than a few house spiders leaving the castle. When Harry [[spoiler: along with Marietta Edgecombe & Bellatrix [[strike: Lestrange]] Black]] has to return to the Chamber to retrieve a Horcrux (LongStory), it has become overrun with Aracumentula (what Aragog was). Harry deduces that Slytherin placed the basilisk there to protect the castle from being overrun with giant spiders.

[[WMG: Arthur Weasley is more competent than he lets on.]]
HE works in the department that is basically MIB for wizards keeping the locals from drawing suspicion not to mention the study work and trying to create great feats in magic and technology combination.

[[WMG: The Mirror of Erised ''does'' tell the future, but in ''[[CassandraTruth exactly]]'' the way that makes it look like a Mirror of Desire.]]
Harry does bring his parents back to stand behind him both literally and metaphorically, even if they aren't actually alive, and Ron overshadows his brothers both as a Keeper and a hero and gives much help in winning the House Cup ''in his first year''. If someone wanted the Elixer of Life, they would likely see an image of them trying to find another way to make it and assume the potion they were drinking was a working Elixer, and people who don't have a future (through starvation or otherwise) would see, respectively, them seeing pretty images in the Mirror or heaven/and IronicHell (all that gold and nothing on which to spend it). If a perfectly content man looked in the mirror, he would see himself exactly as he was either because he was perfectly happy keeping his mind in the present (and thus not activate the mirror), or beecause the creator of the mirror thought that people with no aspirations have either no imagination, no future, or both. Harry sees himself with the Stone because ''[[SelfFulfillingProphecy he's about to have the stone]]'', and Quirrel sees himself about to present the Stone to the Dark Lord because he's about to present the stone to him (even if it is still in Harry's posession at the time), or because he's seeing a future production of ''Theatre/AVeryPotterMusical'' and is presenting a [[WithThisRing different kind of stone]].
* Jossed by Rowling stating that Voldemort would see himself all-powerful and eternal and Dumbledore would see his family alive and well.

[[WMG: Voldemort is Haploid]]

Did you expect him to use his filthly muggle father's genes forever? Before he could garner the loyalty of pureblood fanatics he had to purify his blood. He wanted to anyway. Unfortunately, this left him with only a single set of genes (and a rather inbred one). He patched over the worst bits with snake dna. What he couldn't replace was the Y chromosome. Ever since the transformation, he's had no testosterone. This is why his voice is so high pitched. It also partially explains his obsessions. He can't have children, so the Slytherin line ends with him, so he must live forever. He can't truly be a man, so he must conquer
the world and grind it under his heal.
* So, after he purged his father's DNA from himself, he became a biological female with Turner syndrome.
** Inheriting your mother's genes does not automatically make you female. Purging the DNA inherited from the father would not automatically female. As long as he retains his Y-Chromosome in his gamete, like what the OP mentioned, he would still be male

[[WMG: The creatures that Luna believes in are all Eldritch Abominations that only she can see]]

Her mother's experiments were attempts at seeing into the other dimensions and planes of the universe. When the experiment went awry, Luna was present and her mind was altered so that she is constantly seeing both our world and the various other layers and dimensions of the universe. Unfortunately, this has taken a toll on her mind and she has some difficulty differentiating between the reality of the creatures and such she sees and the fantasy of the various conspiracy theories her father comes up with.
* Alternatively, her father can see them too, its just that nobody other than the two of them can. Everything in the Quibbler is true... somewhere. The Lovegoods simply can't distinguish ''there'' from ''here'', since they see it all.
** Lovegood. Lovecraft. Allusion win? Then again, if poor Luna is seeing Shoggoths in the third floor bathroom...

[[WMG: Gilderoy Lockheart is a Muggleborn.]]
At the end of Chamber of Secrets, after his memory is erased and Fawkes is getting them out of the Chamber, he screams something to the effect of "Amazing! It's just like real magic!" Except that if he'd grown up knowing about magic, he'd assume it WAS magic. He still knows how to talk, and presumably he'd been exposed to magic before learning to speak enough times that it was an accepted part of life by then, so you'd think that if he'd grown up in a magic household, he'd remember the existance of magic. Since he didn't, it can be assumed that he was a muggle-born.
-This could explain his whole bragging schtick-he has an inferiority complex. He was teased mercilessly while at Hogwarts as a student, especially if he was a Slytherin, so he grew up with a need to prove those people wrong. He wasn't sure how to go about doing that so he just ripped off stories from a bunch of other people instead.
* I'd assume he was a Squib. It's not accidental that we are introduced to the Magic Course for Squibs (or whatever it's called) in the very same book Lockheart appears.
** But the original argument still stands because squibs are born into magical families and raised around magic and if he were a squib, he'd never have been able to do all those memory charms, especially not the one so powerful that when it backfired, he lost all memory of who he was but could still sort of function. If that's what he was intending to do to Harry and Ron, that'd have taken some finesse.

[[WMG:The evil plot in ''The Goblet of Fire'' made sense...if you're Voldemort.]]
Voldemort needed "blood of the enemy, forcibly taken." That means the victim had to be conscious and resisting. Any adult wizard would be likely to know a way to disrupt the ritual, and Voldemort couldn't take that risk. So it had to be someone young. Voldemort is '''proud''', and insisted that the blood that resurrected him, that would henceforth be flowing in his own veins, must be that of the most worthy young wizard in Europe. Hence, kidnap the winner of the Triwizard Cup. Now, Harry sort of gets "points" for being his archnemesis and having blood with special properties, so Crouch was instructed to give him enough help to ensure he at least made it to the final challenge. At the last minute, Voldemort investigated the contenders and decided he didn't want Fleur or Viktor to win: no filthy mongrel part-Veela blood for him, and Viktor's loyalties were in question: if he turned out not to be Voldemort's enemy, the spell wouldn't work! Crouch was instructed to take the two of them out, but leave in Cedric[[note]] his blood makes you sparkle![[/note]] as the "spare" in case Harry proved unworthy in the maze.
** [[Theatre/AVeryPotterMusical "Kill the spare!"]]

[[WMG: Fang was adopted when he was more than a puppy.]]
Fluffy: Got him when he was a small pup (emphasis on "small", considering Fluffy is a Cerberoid). Cutesy {{Glurge}} name. Norbert: Got him when he was an egg. Moderately cutesy name. Aragog: Got him when he was an egg, but 'e named 'imself, didn't 'e? Fang: Acquisition undocumented. Most specific reference leads only to "not full grown". Chompy name. Conclusion: Fang was already named when Hagrid got him.
* That or Hagrid has a bit of self-awareness with his ironic nicknames, and gives the most intimidating name to his least intimidating pet.

[[WMG: Only the cool families, like the Blacks, Prewetts (hence the Weasleys), and [[labelnote:spoiler]] Peverell[[/labelnote]]s get vaults at Gringott's.]]
Everyone else just has to make do with the usual "give the goblins your money, get credit for an equal amount" deal, but since you have to be physically present to withdraw from your account, there's no inconvenience of having it in a vault along with your other valuables instead of opening a checking account (beyond personal [=IOUs=] to people who know you're good for it, of course).

[[WMG: Ariana Dumbledore received brain damage from the beatings.]]
That's why she was "never the same" afterwards. I don't really remember the rest of the situation, but based on comments further up the page, don't you think someone breaking his daughter's skull when trying to stone her to death would be a sufficiently Azkaban-worthy reason for vengeance for Dumbledore Sr.? Especially if she had a shield like Neville, when he fell out the window and bounced, so they'd probably keep going bigger and bigger with the intent to inflict pain and/or injury until something broke through as she showed more magical effects.
* While I do like this explanation, I think that the wizards could have fixed it. Brain damage is physical, not psychological. It does influence a humans behaviour, but in this case, a physical wound would have been the cause. I'm pretty sure a wizard could reverse a lobotomy, for example.
** We went through this with the glasses thing. Brains, [[Headscratchers/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone like]] [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire eyes]], could be "[[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer difficult]]".

[[WMG: Fred and George are Fabian and Gideon reincarnated]]
Shortly after Fabian and Gideon were killed in battle, Molly found out that she was pregnant. Before they were truly inhabiting their new bodies, their souls inspired her to sorta, kinda, partially name the babies after them, by giving them the same initials. Many a fan has postulated that Fabian and Gideon were spiritual predecessors to Fred and George (i.e. massive pranksters during their Hogwarts years), this is just taking it a step further.

[[WMG: Snape is Voldemort's son]]
Actually, the more you think about this the more sense it makes: Voldemort raped Eileen Prince during his "absence" from the Wizarding World. Eileen then married Tobias Snape to save face and pretended that her child wasn't the spawn of Evil Incarnate. Tobias, who was never sympathetic anyway, convinced himself that his wife was a slut and hated Severus for being another man's child. Tobias's hatred of Severus also explains adult Severus's jealousy issues with Harry and Lily. In addition, Severus Snape is shown to be an extremely powerful wizard, on a level with both Dumbledore and Voldemort in the last two books; he showed a knowledge of, and talent for, the Dark Arts by the age of eleven, he's intelligent enough to invent his own spells, he's the most accomplished Occlumens of his time (to counter-act his real father's aptitude with Legilimency), and in the seventh book, he uses spells that are described by other wizards as being the type "only Voldemort" would use. In book seven, Voldemort figures out that not only is Severus his son, but is also a more powerful wizard than he is, and kills him out of fear, rather than a desire to conquer the Elder Wand. ...You're still squicked out by the idea of Voldemort naked, aren't you?
** [[Theatre/AVeryPotterMusical Depends on which Voldemort you're talking about]].
** [=Book!Voldie=].
** To be fair, he would not have been a snake monster at the time.
* who says Voldemort would have had to rape her? He was a seductive and charming man.
[[WMG: Snape picked on Neville because...]]
Lily died.

The rationale is simple: Snape knew that the prophecy had two possible candidates for the
"Chosen One": The Potters and the Longbottoms. If Voldemort had chosen the Longbottoms first and been brought down, Lily doesn't die sacrificing herself to save her child. So Snape hates Harry for being Mini!James and Neville for living while his Lily had to die.

We'll ignore the parts about this meaning James is still around as well or that this means Bellatrix goes after the Potters instead of the Longbottoms. Snape isn't the most emotionally logical person around.
* ...Are you sure that's not canon? Because it should be.
** Just because a theory is on this page doesn't mean it might not be proven right eventually. Yes, a lot of the ones on here are purposefully silly in nature but a few seem pretty serious, and this one is one of the more logical and likely ones. Though I might just be sticking up for this one since I believed it, too...
* Snape may have also had a grudge against Neville's parents, who were aurors. They may have met in battle, or they may have interrogated him with traumatizing intimidation tactics.

[[WMG: Harry was secretly working with Quirrell.]]
The events of the first book are FakeMemories (although very close to the truth). Harry, bearing as he did a little bit of Voldemort's soul, was an evil little bastard, hence why he was locked in a cupboard and abused growing up. Shortly before Hagrid's visit, Quirrell showed up, told him about his link to the Dark Lord, and asked him to be a sleeper agent, to which Harry agreed in exchange for a promise of power. He insisted on being placed anywhere other than Slytherin, and befriended people he knew he could manipulate. Harry and Quirrell each went after the Stone separately as a failsafe (with Harry persuading his friends to help by claiming Snape was after it.) Once they met up at the Mirror, they realized they needed a MemoryGambit in order to get past Dumbledore's spell. Quirrell memory-charmed Harry into thinking that events had occurred as in the book, which allowed Harry to get the Stone. The ''plan'' was for Quirrell to undo the charm as soon as he got it, but then Dumbledore showed up. Now, thanks to the charm, Harry was a good guy. The only person who ever knew otherwise was Voldemort, and without Quirrell's wand he couldn't undo the spell. Well, and the Dursleys, but their behavior is completely consistent with Harry being a devil child who once bit off the mailman's ear, and is now unaccountably acting nice.
** There's no reason he'd need to have Quirrell's wand to undo a memory charm, though, and if they'd been working together for a year it's likely that they'd at least notice the love protection on Harry and realise what that would do to their plan and adjust accordingly. It also doesn't explain why everyone else's memories match up with Harry's. Nice idea though...
*** Nobody else's memories would have to be changed to match up with Harry's. From everyone else's perspective, the book version of events would be indistinguishable from what it would look like if Harry had been secretly working with Quirrell, since if he had, he would have done all the same things in order to get to the Stone and be perceived as good.

[[WMG: On the Life-Cycle of Dementors and Lethifold.]]
As the dementor (the adult of its species) feeds on more and more fear and emotion, its cloak gets thicker and thicker, until the dementor preforms the Dementor's Kiss the outer layer of cloak (now imbued with the life force of the victim) sloughs off like a snake's skin at the next dark or secluded area. The part of the cloak that separated becomes a lethifold, which creeps into human homes while they sleep and eats them, deconstructing them and eventually (after the escape of the sated lethifold) reconstituting it into a sort of humanoid form within its body. It is possibly that the lethifold requires more than one average adult human to become a dementor, but based on the rarity of lethifold attacks that have not been proven to be hoaxes and the lack of density of a dementor's body, this is unlikely. While the increase in lethifold attacks in recent centuries may be due to an increase in the human population, and thus an increase in faked lethifold attacks, it is also quite possible that the increase in attacks is due to the constant feeding the dementors get at Azkaban, and the adoption of the Dementor's Kiss by the Wizard's Council and Ministry of Magic as legal punishment.
* At least one problem of this is that Lethifolds are only found in tropical areas, needing warmth and humidity. Although I suppose you can just alter this theory to say that, like a snake with skin, a Dementor needs a warm, humid area to shed the Lethifold and can carry it around (uncomfortably) for awhile before that. A Dementor who has performed the kiss needs to head South as soon as possible.

[[WMG: The snake that escaped from the zoo at the beginning of Philosopher's Stone was actually Voldemort]]
Think about it. Voldemort had the ability to turn into a snake. After he killed James and Lily (and turned Harry into a human horcrux) he went into hiding as a snake and ended up at the zoo. The day Harry was there, Voldemort recognized him. He decided he'd been in hiding long enough and escaped. Harry didn't actually set him free, he just thought he did. After Voldemort escaped, he found Quirrell and took up residence on the back of his head.
* Word of God said it was Nagini, if this troper remembers correctly.
* No. Word of God never said that... that snake was just a snake. It was a pretty non-evil one as well.
** On the other hand, snakes can't wink (they can't even close their eyes), so it's anyone's guess what this one was.

[[WMG: The points awarded to Gryffindor at the end of the first year were exactly equal to point spread taken away from Griffindor and given to Slytherin, in Dumbledore's opinion, unfair reasons.]]
Taking points off for Potter being a Potter, Granger being a know-it-all, and Neville being easily panicked, and giving points to/not taking points from the Slytherins for [[ParentalFavoritism being Slytherins]] and [[AlwaysChaoticEvil being Slytherins]] respectively really adds up over nine months.
* Jossed. Snape didn't take that many points from Gryffindor. Plus you also have to figure in the amount of points the Gryffindors were given from the other teachers.

[[WMG: Bellatrix Lestrange has a daughter]]
She was married, probably for a significant amount of time, and, when Narcissa is whining about Draco being made a Death Eater, she specifically says "If I had 'sons'..."
* [[NightmareFuel Thanks, I wasn't planning on sleeping for the next thirty years anyway...]] (Sorry, but I can't be the only person who is utterly terrified of the idea that someone like Bellatrix Lestrange would reproduce.)
** [[NightmareFetishist Nope, you're alone on that one.]]
** Hold it. I can make all of this worse. We never meet Bellatrix's husband. But who do we see her acting romantically around the most . . . ? (Hint: His name rhymes with Moldemort, and I have just given you nightmares.)
*** Sorry, but we do meet her husband - Rodolphus. in the "Goblet of Fire" Harry travels to Dumbledore's memories and sees Bellatrix and two other men appearing before the court. Later in the graveyard Voldemort says that Bellatrix and her husband are in Azkaban. And in "Order of Phoenix" during the battle in MoM we hear Death Eaters calling Rodolphus' name - apparently, he's among them.
*** I think what they meant is we never really "meet" Rodolphus in the books besides some brief mentions and he does nothing of import but Bellatrix is a fairly large character for the series and spends her time being infatuated with Voldemort instead of ever interacting with her husband ever.
** Helena Bonham Carter in the act of reproduction, and you ''don't'' want to see that?
*** Let's not confuse the actors with their characters, mmkay? See the very top of the page for the distinctions.
** For all that's worth, when Romilda Vane, the girl who kept hitting on Harry in ''The Half-Blood Prince'' and gave him a box of chocolates with love potion in it, showed up, I thought that her description (dark skin, dark thick silky hair, pointy chin) eerily matched that of Bellatrix, and, to be honest, half-expected to learn they are related.
** THIS MAKES SO MUCH SENSE. Romilda Vane was Bellatrix and Rodulphus' daughter (not saying Bellatrix wouldn't have WANTED her to be Voldemort's but if she's a forth-year she was born two years after Harry, so during the time Voldemort was on the run, and he was pretty much asexual by that point anyway). Voldemort already forced one Death Eater child to be an inside agent for him during that year (Draco) and Bellatrix specifically mentions wishing that if she had sons they could have the same honour. Not children, mind you - SONS. Implication, she has kids (or one, at least) but not sons. What's to say she didn't go home and have a little chat with her daughter by way of 'See if you can't distract, sabotage, poison or murder the Boy Who Lived this year, hmmm?' Or even persuaded Voldemort to use Romilda as well, as a kind of back-up to Draco. And considering we don't hear from Romilda before or after...
*** Sorry, no. Bellatrix was in Azkaban at the time.
*** Her being Voldemort's works perfectly, actually. Harry Potter defeated V when he was one year and three months old. If V had gotten Bellatrix pregnant the day he'd been killed, Romilda would be exactly two years younger than Harry, obviously putting her two grades below. On top of that, Harry is very young for his grade, so Romilda could have been conceived all the way up to ten months before V was killed (I.e., born slightly before V's fall.) and ''still'' be two grades below. It's people ''three'' years below Harry that can't be V's kid. (Sorry, everyone itching to write the 'Dennis Creevy is the son of Voldemort' fanfic.)
*** Except for the little detail that Romilda is a Gryffindor.
*** Proves nothing. Maybe the fact that we never hear anything about Romilda in relation to the Lestranges (and why she goes by a different surname in school) is because she is a BlackSheep who, after being sorted into Gryffindor was all but cut off by her family. Given how Sirius was treated I wouldn't put it past them. Bellatrix could have seen this as a unique opportunity to make use of her otherwise shameful daughter, who of course was desperate to gain her mother's approval/love. This would also explain why Romilda only attempted to use a love potion on Harry to sabotage him, rather than poison to murder him.
*** Okay, YMMV on this one, but perhaps (and I realize I'm stretching it here) Vane is Romilda's middle name- Romilda Vane Lestrange. As in Vain. Vanity.
[[WMG: James Potter got some CharacterDevelopment [[note]]This is mostly because, due to what J.K.Rowling herself has said about Lily, I find it hard to believe that Harry is a rape baby, or that James 'tricked' her or whatever. YMMV[[/note]] ]]
That's why Lily fell for him. At first he ''was'' a JerkJock, but stuff happened and he grew as a person. Lily genuinly fell for the person James became, and he fell for her as well. She didn't fall for Snape because Snape had CharacterDevelopment, but it was in the "wrong" direction. (Calling her names, using the Dark Arts etc.)
* I love this theory for two reasons: One, people's personalities are never set in concrete, and if James wanted Lily badly enough, he would have changed and improved himself for her; and two, what if Voldemort had gone after the Longbottoms instead of the Potters? Snape wouldn't have had any motive to stop being a Death Eater or turn to Dumbledore, and probably would have ended up in Azkaban with Bellatrix, et al.
* Uh, isn't this canon? That's what Remus and Sirius told Harry via flue in Order of the Phoenix when he asked them about it, that in his sixth and seventh year James stopped being such a jerkass. Possibly due to him reconsidering and stopping Sirius's 'prank' on Snape. (Sirius, OTOH, never seemed to change, at least not before Azkaban.)
* Confirmed

[[WMG: Love potions are [[OneDrinkWillKillTheBaby like any other drug when taken during pregnancy]].]]
Only in the case of love potions, either because of the magical personality changer or some side effect involving it messing with the genes or developmental hormones, they turn the baby into a psychopath with strong risk of [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer really wanting to be a snake demon]] (''[[{{Crossover}} There's]]'' a WMG for you...).
** J.K did confirm that being concieved under the effect of a love potion did affect his ability to love.
*** The pregnant person in question wasn't the one taking the love potion, her husband was.
*** Actually, intake of alcohol and other drugs can deteriorate sperm quality on the part of the sperm donor.

[[WMG: Durmstrang is located in Russia.]]
It's in "the north". The only reason it remained (at least with its original name) through WWII was the adult Grindelwald's direct influence. Krum got in because his family was rich enough to send him there instead of a lesser school closer to home or a government-funded school like Hogwarts, and partly because he showed wicked promise as a Seeker even when he was ten (he was on the Bulgarian national team when he was underage! It's not much of a stretch), and they're sort of the Slughorn of wizarding schools (not necessarily in a bad way, though).
* I have always sort of assumed that Durmstrang was in Bulgaria, since Viktor Krum went there and he's Bulgarian. But there is nothing that says you can't go to school in another country than the one you were born in (IIRC, Lucius Malfoy wanted to send Draco to Durmstrand even though they're British), so it could just as well be in Russia, I guess.
* Seamus Finnigan is from the Republic of Ireland and attends Hogwarts, so wizarding schools don't seem to restrict entrants based on nationality. Durmstrang being in "the North" rules out Bulgaria though, which is quite considerably south (borders with Greece and Turkey!): the only Slavic country north of Hogwarts's Scottish home would be Russia. Add the year-round fur coats and the fact that the only other named students have Russian names and there's a strong case.
* The name "Durmstrang" doesn't sound Russian (or Slavonic, for that matter) at all to me. Looks more like a German (or Germanic) name. It could be located in Scandinavia or Greenland (former part of Denmark).

[[WMG: In addition to dark magic, Durmstrang is an academy of Modern Dance.]]
* This explains their beautifully choreographed introduction in the [=GoF=] movie. It's in Eastern Europe, well known for producing fantastic ballet dancers. And the total control of one's body developed by a dancer would probably to wonders for a person's wandwork.
** I think you've gotten that mixed up with Beauxbatons, which is in France. Durmstrang comes out and does some stuff with staff. I've always wondered what Hogwarts would do. A perfectly-choreographed pantomime of a student being put in mortal danger due to whatever dark secret's lurking around the place that year?
*** Maybe Hogwarts is just the ghetto school.
* Or maybe they teach magical martial arts. Kind of odd for a school most likely located somewhere in Russia, I know, but perhaps someone from a border town near China brought it over?
** The Harry Potter universe is the future of the ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' world, and Harry is the most recent incarnation of the Avatar.

[[WMG: In the films, Voldemort customized his wand]]
There's simply no way Ollivander would create the overtly evil looking wand Voldemort wields in the films, let alone put it in the hands of a ten year old. The only explanation is that movie Voldemort customized his wand, or that it was altered by the nature of the magic he performed with it.
* That is entirely plausible, actually. IIRC, at one point Ollivander says something about Lily's "first wand", which seems to imply that people generally replace their wands from time to time. A lot of things can happen to a wand, they are after all made of a thin piece of wood, and their owners usually keep them on their person at all times. It wouldn't be that far fetched to imagine that Voldemort lost his first wand (especially since he spent quite a long time without a body) and had to get new one, which also makes it easy to belive that he customized it.
** It's plausible he customized it, mainly the handle, but the idea that he lost it completely and replaced it with the macabre-looking one from the films contradicts the ''priori incantatem'' factor which becomes a huge, plot-revolving point in the fourth and especially seventh books. Whatever the handle looked like over the years, the wand Voldemort uses to after being resurrected is outright proven to be the same wand he killed the Potters with and was sold to by Ollivander, with a two-of-a-kind phoenix-feather core, as a child in 1938.
* The "Tom Riddle's Wand" page on [[TheWikiRule the Harry Potter wiki]] says that the wand riddle got from Ollivander's before he joined Hogwarts explicitly had a handle that appeared to be made of bone. Then again, the page also looks like a SelfInsertFic with the wand as some sort of MarySue that keeps turning up every freaking time something related to Voldemort happens ("used his wand to create [a horcrux] using his childhood diary through the use of his earlier indirect murder of fellow student Myrtle by means of the Basilisk of the Chamber of Secrets", "continued to [[MarySue perfect]] his use of the Ollivander wand until he graduated from Hogwarts in 1945"), so I doubt [[WordOfDante its]] [[AssPull veracity]].
* I never doubted that this was the case. Lucius also has the metal snake-head wand handle and pimp cane sheath. I always assumed that you could go to Ollivander (or lesser wandmakers/wand-customizers) and have your wand fitted with a new handle, strained, carved, bent, or other various cosmetic differences we see in the film.

[[WMG: Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, "stupid fat rat" was turned yellow.]]
...in the sense of cowardly, rather than the sense of a 570-580 nanometer wavelength. This is why Pettigrew was so cowardly and weasely (instead of merely a brave yet wrong-sided double agent) despite having been accepted into Griffindor; He had been turned "yellow" by the spell Fred and George gave to Ron.
* Another possibility is that the spell only works on real rats.

[[WMG: Harry and Voldemort are related.]]
Harry's a descendant of Ignotus Peverell. Marvolo Gaunt had the ring, which he claimed was passed down in his family. The ring belonged to the brother of Ignotus (Cadmus Peverell). Ergo, Harry and Voldy share an ancestor.
* ...Yeah? That's how genealogy works. However, see next guess...
** Well, yeah, I know it's kinda obvious, but since it's never really been mentioned anywhere else, I just assumed that most people didn't make the connection. So here I am, clearing it up.

[[WMG: Harry is descended from Salazar Slytherin.]]
Salazar was an ancestor of Harry's and Voldemort's common ancestor. James Potter, Tom Riddle, and Harry Potter were the last living descendants of Salazar Slytherin until 1981, which makes Harry's lack of wizarding relatives a plot point for the second book. This is part of why the Sorting Hat was so adamant about Harry going into Slytherin, because it Wouldn't Do to have the Heir of Slytherin (who was only coincidentally a Parselmouth) in [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg Gruffleclaw]].
* Well, it is pretty much solid fact now that the last common ancestor of all Europeans lived 1,000-1,500 years ago. So...
** I think that they had the same ancestor, but it was through the Peverell brothers. I also thought that Godric Griffindor was the descendant of Ignotus Peverell, and James (later Harry) was a descendant of Griffindor; meanwhile, Voldemort is confirmed to be a descendant of Salazar Slytherin, who I think is also a Peverell descendant.
** WordofGod: Harry could not speak Parseltongue [[spoiler: after the Horcrux was removed from him]]. Therefore, he cannot be a descendant of Slytherin. He is still related to Voldemort through the Peverell family, because the second brother's descendents married into the Slytherin line, and the third brothers descendents married into the Potter family.

[[WMG: The Dark Lord his Eternal Somethingness Lord Voldemort found the Chamber of Secrets because he was being a pervy little... [[ShapedLikeItself perv]], as a kid.]]
One day, while spying in the girls' bathroom and using his pet snake as a sort of makeshift periscope/lookout, or as part of a prank, he told it (in Parseltongue, so it could understand him and any girls in the room couldn't hear him) "Open the door". As soon as he said "open", the Chamber opened.
* This seems unlikely because of the impression given in the books that Voldemort was celibate.
** Bellatrix's behavior towards Voldemort ''does'' reek of UnresolvedSexualTension.
* It seems more likely that Tom Riddle discovered the chamber because of his Parseltongue, not that he discovered it by chance as a happy coincidence. It is unclear how parseltongue works, exactly; Harry can hear the basilisk speaking when he's in its general proximity, but it doesn't seem to rely on actually HEARING the snake. Other people with Harry don't hear any hissing or spitting when he hears it speak, on top of which it is traveling through the pipes so is separated from Harry by both a stone wall and a metal casing. This implies there is a mental or telepathic component to the skill, which Harry doesn't know about because he doesn't research the parameters of the ability nor does he try to develop his own ability any farther than what comes naturally. He relies on verbal communication with snakes in the same way he relies on verbal spellcasting even though it is possible to use magic without speaking. Tom Riddle was much older than Harry when the chamber opened for him, and he was also much more studious and interested in Dark talents which would be associated with Parseltongue even though the ability itself is not Dark. When Tom discovered he could talk to snakes he would probably have done all the study necessary to take full advantage of it, likely expanding the range in which he could detect snakes and potentially developing the ability to communicate with them nonverbally, allowing him to communicate with it through the walls. It must hunt sometimes and it seems it is only let out of the chamber in order to actually confront students, not just to access the pipes. Tom must have heard it at some point and realized what it was, and taking the opportunity to ask the basilisk itself how to get into the chamber. Of course, that would bring up the question of why Harry didn't hear the snake in his first year, as it was already there then.
** The basilisk wasn't in the pipes until the Chamber was opened.
*** That we know of. There must be some method for the Basilisk to move about on its own without the help of the wizard controlling it. Eventually prey animals would stop going into the chamber area and it would need to be able to feed elsewhere. There may have been pipes built specifically for the Basilisk by Salazar Slytherin himself to allow it to move around, especially since most normal plumbing wouldn't be large enough to accommodate an animal of that size. Ginny Weasley opened the chamber which allowed the Basilisk OUT of the pipes and into the school, which is how it was able to see its victims face-to-face. It also seems to have been able to return to the chamber without her assistance, suggesting a direct connection between the pipes and the chamber somewhere. It's also possible that the Basilisk typically hunts at night, which would be why Harry may not have heard it until it began breaking habit in order to attack students on Ginnymort's command.

[[WMG: The American School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has been somehow sealed away by the Men in Black, SCP Foundation or some other equivalent]]
This explains why no American wizards/witches turn up in the course of the stories; they can't escape from the containment.

* Two American witches are seen at the Quidditch World Cup in [=GoF=]. It's blink-and-you-miss-it, but they do appear.

* There are no Kenyan wizards/witches in the books either; doesn't mean they don't exist.

[[WMG: Fewer magical children than usual were born in 1980.]]
[[WordOfGod Word of God]] states that there are approximately a thousand students attending Hogwarts at any given time. If all years has about as many students as Harry's does (namely eight Gryffindors, nine Slytherins, ten Ravenclaws, seven Hufflepuffs and three students whose houses are unknown), that would only make give or take 260 students all together.
However, Harry was born in 1980, when the First Wizarding War peaked and Voldemort was more powerful than ever. Maybe the number of children born into magical families decreased drastically during those last few years of the war, because wizards who under different circumstances would have wanted children chose not to have any. They were, after all, practically living in terror by then, and the future of the wizarding world was uncertain at best.
* WordOfGod also has admitted that [[WritersCannotDoMath math is not her best subject]], and later said that only about 600 students are at Hogwarts in any year.
** Which still doesn't add up. A total of 600 students would make about 21 students per House and year. Even [[{{Kathadrion}} I]], who can freely admit that math is not my thing, figured that out without any problems.

[[WMG: Snape lives!]]
"I can teach you to bottle fame, brew glory, even ''stopper death''."
* Except the word is stopper, not stop. To stopper death is to put a stopper in it--like a cork in a bottle. I always saw that phrase as his saying he'd teach his students to make poisons.
* In fact, the Nagini's venom was one of the last ingredients needed for his resurrection potion, and he'd planned it from the start.
** Unfortunately, it isn't without flaws, and he spends the next book in a mindless frenzy "[[VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis Aurors!]]"
* Literature/HarryPotter 8: [[Franchise/MetalGear Snape's Revenge]]!
* As has been pointed out in a few fanfics, if there's ''anyone'' who would walk around with an anti-venom, it's the Potions double-agent expert who hangs around with a guy commanding a giant poisonous snake. And we know anti-vemon for Nagini exists thanks to Arthur, and Snape knows it too. And there is a fairly suspicious bit of time after the bite, when Harry jumps back into his own head and thus can't see what Snape is doing (Ingesting the anti-venom?) until he moves the crate out of the way.
[[WMG:There are a disproportionately high number of Muggleborns and Squibs in Ukraine]]
One word: Chernobyl.
* Mind....blown...
** Like Chernobyl.
* And, by extension, Belarus. Heck, the whole area might be lacking in wizards.
* No. Basically the entire area where radiation went significantly above normal background was evacuated after the meltdown. There just isn't enough radiation past a 50-mile circle to make a difference.

[[WMG: The Salem Witches' Institute organized the pressings and witch dunkings in and around the original Salem.]]
What better way to cast suspicion off of yourself than to get people riled up about someone with your group's name but a different description, and take care of the Muggles with Muskets coalition once and for all?

[[WMG: The Salem Witches' Institute was the magical equivalent of a battered womens' shelter.]]
To allow recovery from physical and emotional abuse while working to prevent stalking from being an issue, as well as recovery from such things as love potion detox.

[[WMG: The Salem Witches' Institute is an American all-witches school with campuses in both Massachusetts and Oregon.]]

[[WMG: Snape deliberately burned his bridges with Lily, as the first step in establishing his [[TheMole cover]]]]
Hey, he was willing to kill his (maybe friend) and handler, the only one who could or would testify to his [[TheMole mole-status]].
* It does seem [[IdiotBall uncharacteristically...stupid]], for [[strike: Creator/AlanRickman]] a schemer like Snape to let rip with a racial slur.
** This... Is not a WMG; it's just plain stupid. Let me count the ways: When he called Lily "Mudblood", did it not occur to the OP that ''he'd just been humiliated in front of the entire school and, being an angry and insecure teenager, was speaking like someone who was angry and humiliated''? AllThereInTheManual, dude. Second, Snape is not a Seer; he had no idea he'd turn spy for Dumbledore within five years. For that matter, he didn't know he'd be Voldemort's spy and apply for a teaching position at Hogwarts in that timespan. Again, AllThereInTheManual. Third: '''Alan Rickman is not Severus Snape, and Severus Snape is not Alan Rickman.''' Just because ''Rickman'' wouldn't do something doesn't mean that ''Snape'' wouldn't. One is a fictional character, the other is an actor ''playing'' a fictional character. This doesn't need to be in the manual; it's just common fucking sense.
*** Unless, of course, becoming a spy was his plan all along. We only know what Dumbledore claims are his reasons for turning against Voldemort. Maybe he had others.
*** [[CompletelyMissingThePoint You're not getting it.]] He planned on becoming a ''Death Eater'', that was it. Death Eaters are {{mooks}}; they do whatever Voldemort tells them to. Whether or not Snape ''wanted'' to become a spy is beside the point (and he very likely ''didn't''; a spy would have been the single deadliest position for any Death Eater if they didn't know Occlumency, and the only reason Snape did was because Dumbledore taught him). As for turning against Voldemort for other reasons... Like what? [[SarcasmMode His boundless, burning passion for teaching all those wonderful, beautiful little children at Hogwarts how to brew potions?]] Also, this guess is based on the idea that "Snape is a schemer". He ''isn't''. He's intelligent, but as our IdiotBall-toting BigBad could tell you, an intelligent person isn't guaranteed to be a master planner (and it doesn't take intelligence ''or'' a master plan to want to stay alive; that's called "survival instinct" and ''all'' living things act upon it). As for Snape being "willing" to kill Dumbledore? What the hell book did you read?! Dumbledore had to force Snape to do it by telling him he needed to make an Unbreakable Vow and all but making sure Draco failed to kill him! And please keep in mind that if Snape had just said "Fuck you, Dumby, I'm ''not doing it''" and Draco ultimately failed to kill him, ''he would have died'' (again, that pesky survival instinct comes into play). He was right when he accused Dumbledore of using him; in the end, Snape was just as much Dumbledore's pawn as Harry.
** He would have called Lily a mudblood because a Slytherin (and, as he hoped to be, future Death Eater) being defended by a Muggle-born after being humiliated by Griffindors...well, yeah.
* Jossed

[[WMG: Had Harry died before Voldemort at or after the end of the fourth book, Voldemort would have eventually gotten Harry's body without the need for a resurrection spell.]]
Assuming [[spoiler: [[{{Fanon}} Harry is an accidental horcrux]]]] (rather than or in addition to whatever technicality WordOfGod seems to say is the case), his corpse would have had the same inherent protection as [[spoiler: the other horcruxes]] and been immune to decomposition (Harry's life was the only reason he kept growing and possibly was able to become ill). Under the premise of the guess, [[spoiler: Voldemort uses spells to form a temporary body around or from the item or transfer its piece of soul to a new vessel like Quirrel's head, and the item is then used up in the creation of a new body]]. On a related note, see the next guess:

[[WMG: Two of the [[labelnote:spoiler]] horcruxes[[/labelnote]] had already been used up by the time Tom Riddle's diary was destroyed.]]
The first two were used up the nights Voldemort and Quirrel died, and all that remained was the protective charms that Voldemort had placed on them rather than any inherent protection. I'm thinking the ring was one of them, and the locket or an earlier snake was another, either because Voldemort put them back because they were important anyway and he wanted to get some use out of the traps, or because he thought they could still be used. If the second one was the locket, he might have been rescued by Pettigrew before getting a temporary body and was told to put the locket back (without specifying where it should have been) or got a blind piggy-back-ride inside Pettigrew (like Quirrel, but patched together instead of with added benefits like senses and external speech) before getting his temporary body.
* I don't have a source on this, but horcruxes are not "used up" like extra lives in a video game. They way they work is simply that ''their very existence'' prevents the maker's (remaining) soul from leaving this world. Even if the person's body is destroyed, the soul remains — but the other horcruxes remain as well.

[[WMG: Tom Riddle Sr had a Muggle child.]]
When Merope was looking out the window at Tom Riddle, we hear him talking to his beloved, a Muggle girl by the name of Cecelia. Soon afterwards, Marvolo and Morfin are imprisoned and Merope gives Tom a love potion and runs off with him.

What we weren't told in the book is this: Cecelia was pregnant with Tom's child when he left her for Merope. When Tom broke free of the spell and returned to Cecelia, she was unwilling to accept him, as she still felt hurt and betrayed by his abandonment. She elected to raise the child herself, which is why the child was never heard from in the books. The child was a girl. Let's just call her Jane.

Jane grew up and married a man. Let's call him John Evans. John and Jane had two children: Lily and Petunia...

That's right. Voldemort is the half-uncle of Petunia and Lily Evans, and the half-granduncle of Dudley Dursley and Harry Potter. This also explains the physical resemblance between Harry and Riddle, which was mentioned by the latter in the Chamber of Secrets. Incidentally this theory means that Harry was tied to the gravestone of his own great-grandfather in Goblet of Fire.

* The child would have been born about 1926, (Same as Voldy,) and that gives 34 years to have Lily who was born 1960. So the math works.
** The math works? That's as good as Jossed. If that was the intention, the ages would be [[WritersCannotDoMath way off]].

[[WMG: Salazar Slytherin's wife and/or family were burned at the stake by Muggle witch-hunters.]]
Hence, his anti-Muggle bias is not just bias, it is a personal grudge. Slytherin could not have been massively prejudiced all his life if he were best friends with Godric, the Muggle-Lover, and he would not have abandoned his best friend and his beloved school over a simple clash of ideologies unless the ideology was immensely important to him. Therefore, his anti-Muggle prejudice had to have sprung up sometime after he became friends with Godric and built Hogwarts. The huge fight between Godric and Salazar could have been Godric, fed up with Salazar's personal vendetta, telling him to stop being so obsessive, and that just because some Muggles killed the Slytherins, not all Muggles and Muggleborns were evil. Salazar would have countered that Godric was being naive to assume that Muggleborns would be loyal to wizards, and also lash out at his friend for supposedly betraying him/not caring about him, unable to be reasonable because of his grief over his family.

[[WMG: The Flame-Freezing Charm was a huge humanitarian achievement.]]
Fire is generally accepted as being powerful in a magical way, therefore, it would stand to reason that it was not always controllable by magic. Witch-burnings persisted because they used to work -- fire being one of the few things that witches and wizards could not defeat. The Flame-Freezing charm was invented sometime around the 1300's (hence the title of Harry's essay "Witch Burnings in the 14th century were completely pointless", not just "Witch-Burnings were completely pointless") and was hailed as a massive step towards ending persecution of wizards by Muggles.

[[WMG: The Weasleys are descendants of Godric Gryffindor.]]
Think about it -- the Weasleys are a very old family, and according to the Blacks, one of, or possibly ''the'' biggest family of blood traitors alive. Also, the Weasleys are extremely well-known, and held in uniform derision by both dark-leaning pureblood families like the Malfoys, and high-ranking Ministry officials like Fudge, who spend their entire lives getting through one headache after another, all caused by Muggles. Godric Gryffindor was evidently a Muggle-Lover, probably something of an Arthur Weasley type, and it's likely that Slytherin's descendants, pupils, and veterans of his house would hold animosity towards Gryffindor. Plus, Gryffindor was portrayed as red-haired on Rowling's website, and was described as being from the moor -- possibly Ireland. Finally, the Weasleys are perhaps the most perfect textbook examples of Gryffindors. "...where dwell the brave at heart. Their daring, nerve and chivalry set Gryffindors apart." They all have bravery, nerve and daring in spades -- Arthur's crusading on the part of Muggles despite ridicule, Bill's willingness to work in his dangerous job, ditto with Charlie, as well as his athletic prowess, Percy's going against his family (brave, even if not honorable), Fred and George's daring with their pranks, Ron's various acts of bravery that are beyond his years, Ginny's ability to defy Tom Riddle, even temporarily. They have chivalry too -- like Ron's continuous defense of Hermione and all the brothers' relationship with Ginny. All the Weasleys also have a general lack of concern about what others think of them or their choices -- hence "nerve". And they have all the attendant negative characteristics that goes with bravery in varying degrees -- recklessness, impulsiveness, stubbornness, bluntness, rudeness, sensitivity to slights, etc. In short, they do not lack ''any'' of the traits attributed to Gryffindor, nor do they have ''any'' very prominent traits that are ''not'' in-sync with what is attributed to Gryffindor. They are the perfect Gryffindors, perhaps not just by house, but by family line as well.
** Good theory, but no way was Godric Gryffindor from Ireland. We don't have very many moors, and isn't Godric an old English/Saxon name?
** Maybe he was half-Irish? And anyway, you don't have to be Irish to be a ginger.
*** PEOPLE. Scotland. Moors - ''lots'' of them. The BraveScot trope, which fits Gryffs to a tee. Scottish clans, particularly the Highlanders, were ''heavily'' influenced by Norse raiders, especially in the far north. Hogwarts is in Scotland. ''Scotland has the highest population of redheads per capita in the world.'' Not only is this theory true, but Godric Gryffindor is Scottish. Hell, Godric Gryffindor may have provided the land and possibly ''the castle'' for the school!! (Yes, he was born in Godric's Hollow in the West Country, but both Scotland and Cornwall are easily accessed from the Irish sea, and it's no great stretch to imagine that his parents or grandparents were Scottish stock.)
*** Alternatively, he was Cornish. Cornwall is also noted for its moors, and is noted as one of the last bastions of Celtic culture.
*** Alternatively, you're ''all'' reading into it wrong, and the poem meant Gryffindor [[Theatre/{{Othello}} had an African parent]]. He was the [[DarkSkinnedRedhead darkest-skinned, reddest-haired Dark-Skinned Readhead]] of all time!

[[WMG: House elves and goblins are of the same species.]]
House elves are simply a seperate, more timid/friendly variety of goblin; or, alternatively, goblins are simply house elves born outside of slavery. Physical and mental differences between them (speech, thickness of frame, etc.) are a result of nutritional deficiencies on the part of the house elves. All of those goblin rebellions were house-elf rebellions, though most of them failed. From these extremely bloody failures, house elf culture has been built around their continued enslavement despite hardship and misery. While born free, goblins possess an extreme hate towards humans due to their continued mistreatment of their fellow whatever-their-collective-species-is. The goblin's notion of ownership reeks of this counter-culture: that the "maker" of something, not the "purchaser", can really possess an item.

[[WMG: J.K. Rowling works for the Daily Prophet, and Michael Gerber (author of the spoof series "Barry Trotter") works for the Quibbler.]]
Both "Harry Potter" and it's spoof, "Barry Trotter," were originally written for Wizarding audiences. Rowling is a witch, either a half-blood or a muggle-born. She originally wrote "Harry Potter" as a biography, after interviewing Harry and agreeing to help him set the record strait, after Rita Skeeter wrote her version of the events. The book wound up in Muggle stores by mistake, but no harm was done; everyone thought it was just another fantasy story. Rowling took advantage of this, and now markets "Harry Potter" both to muggles as fiction, and to wizards as non-fiction.
* Alternately, Harry Potter was an AUTObiography - Harry was created to protect Rowling's identity.

Comical Writer Michael Gerber, meanwhile, is also a wizard with some muggle relations. As such, he writes for a number of humor magazines, both muggle and magical--including the Quibbler. He wrote "Barry Trotter" to spoof Pottermania, but his muggle readers only get half the joke. His wizarding readers understand that he is spoofing not just Harry's biography, but also the way it became popular among muggles. But of course, the only wizards who even read "Barry Trotter" are the Slytherins, and Fred and George Weasley.
* But... if the books were intended for a wizard audience, why do they spend so much time explaining the wizarding world and none whatsoever explaining any of the Muggle concepts so familiar to Harry? Especially in the first book, the wizarding world is meticulously introduced to the reader, explaining all the concepts that wizards would know anyway -- but when the narrative mentions TV or computers or shotguns, things wizard would ''need'' an explanation for, no explanation is given.
** Because it's spoofing the Muggles' perspectives of Harry Potter and the wizarding world. Note that the wizarding world Gerber describes is nothing like the real one; it's much sillier, and raunchier. The Muggle world, he doesn't have to change much, because Muggles are already hillariously pathetic to wizards.
* Or, perhaps she accidentally sent it to a muggle editor, who wrote her back saying that the book had great promise, and he thought she could make a lot of money off of it, but he was puzzled as to why she was taking so much time to explain the functions of video games and electric kettles while leaving out so much about this fascinating magical world. JK figured it would be good reverse psychology (as per an example far above): propose to the muggles a world of wizards right under their noses, and tell them about ridiculously famous war hero Harry Potter as if he was a fictional character, which had the added bonus in that, if questioned about him, a wizard could always state they were talking about a book character. So she re wrote parts of the book to explain the magic instead of the muggle world, and voila!
* Or maybe she always ''intended'' Harry Potter for muggle audiences. At least since ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'', witches have been portrayed as forces for good, and not someone you should burn at the stake. So the HP books were made to test the waters: a primer on Wizarding Britain, written for Muggles, disguised as an UrbanFantasy series. Depending on the reaction recieved, the wizards may have come out of the broom closet, so to speak. However, while the main characters are adored, the general opinion of the Ministry of Magic is that it is filled with incompetent {{Jerkass}}es. Reform needs to happen before they join Muggle Society.

[[WMG: Dumbledore used the Elder Wand to secretly repair Hagrid's wand]]
Hagrid seems to be able to do some simple spells without problems. as we have seen with ron's broken wand he would have had difficulty doing even simple magic without his wand pieces malfunctioning. It's mainly Hagrid's limited knowlege of spells that gives him trouble as he try's to turn Dudley into a pig which would have gone horribly wrong if he had a broken wand instead based on his limited abilities he's only bale to give Dudley a tail.

[[WMG: As a Horcrux, Harry couldn't have died at all except to things that can destroy Horcruxes (Basilisk venom, Fiendfyre, etc).]]
As Hermione says when she talks about Horcruxes, they're virtually indestructible. Any damage to a Horcrux will be repaired; the only way to destroy a Horcrux and render it inoperable is to damage it beyond repair with an incredibly destructive force. That's why Riddle's Diary was perfectly fine after being flushed down a toilet. So Harry, being a Horcrux, should have theoretically been invincible during the time when he had Voldy's soul in him, meaning that the only things that could have killed him were Basilisk venom, fiendfyre, and potentially the Killing Curse (technically, it doesn't destroy things beyond repair, since it doesn't do any physical damage, so it probably shouldn't be capable of destroying a Horcrux).
* This troper got the sudden image of Harry dying of Avada Kedavra, and his body then becoming possessed by the fragment of Voldemort soul on him.
** And ''that'' subguess has already been guessed above, including of course that it was Harry's body and not Harry himself that was the horcrux.
* This might explain why (aside from being the main character, therefore unable to die or there'd be much less story to tell) he can survive so many attacks.
* But wouldn't that mean the Horcrux part of Harry should have died in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Chamber of Secrets]]'', after he was bitten by the Basilisk? All evidence points to the destruction being instantaneous, so the Horcrux could've still been destroyed before Fawkes came along and saved Harry, the host.
** WordOGod states that Harry was not a true Horcrux as he was not created by the traditional processes needed to create one so he would not be subject to the same magic of it. there for he could die any ordinary way and as or the basilisk venom in 'Secrets' Rowling has stated that Harry had to be killed for it to die as he was "the container."

[[WMG: A Horcrux does not require one murder, but one murder and one rape (no requirement for any connection between the two.]]
JK Rowling said that "something nauseating" was required beyond just a murder to create a Horcrux. Perhaps Voldemort just did this a lot of times so he could make as many as he wanted, which is why Harry turned into an unplanned one.
* This troper thought that that other thing was never get any sort of remorse for the murder, as remorse would re-unify the divided soul, preventing the making of a Horcrux
* I thought that creating a horcrux needed a special dark ritual, murder alone not being enough.
** It's confirmed that it involves a ritual and a spell, and that Rowling knows exactly what that entails. If and when the HP Encyclopedia is published, it will be documented, and whatever it was, Rowling's editor said he "felt like vomiting" when she related it to him.
* Maybe cannibalism? The term 'Death Eaters' makes one wonder...
** Like eating the flesh of the person that's just been murdered? Yeah, that sounds nauseating enough.
* Okay, seriously: does someone that regularly contributes to this page have a rape fetish or something? Because this is like the 30th mention of rape on a page of a series where there are exactly zero rapes shown.

[[WMG: There are ways other than murder to split the soul.]]
Mostly [[RapeAsDrama the sort of thing]] that can cause {{Angst Coma}}s (when the functional majority of the soul flees the body) or even trauma-induced [[SplitPersonality dissociative identity disorder]] (when both fragments of soul remain in the body and are each sufficient to have at least recognizably human motor skills and thinking capacity). It's just that nobody happened to realize this because nobody bothered to put a soul catcher on a person before they became the subject of [[NightmareFuel/SCPFoundation Procedure 110-Montauk]] ([[{{Squick}} etc.]]), nor has any wizard with [[ByTheEyesOfTheBlind Sight]] viewed such an occurence without [[MadOracle going mad]] [[GoMadFromTheRevelation from the revelation]] or [[HeroicBSOD experience]].

[[WMG: The age line in ''Goblet of Fire'' was part of a SecretTestOfCharacter.]]
If a student was under the age minimum and could find a sufficiently sneaky way to enter their name (or even any way, if the teachers weren't to stop someone tipping it in with an [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons eleven-foot pole]]), they would be allowed to enter. It was only Harry's unconventional and illegal entry that caused the school heads to bring up his age, and they would not have complained (nay, they may have smirked with joy) had the small fourteen-year-old been Hogwarts' only champion. The age line simply acted as a pre-test for younger students, to prevent every immature student who thought the idea of being Champion was cool from dropping in their names. Of course, this follows my original assumption from the first time experiencing the story that the beards on Fred, George, and Katie (along with being expelled from the circle) were a result of Dumbledore adding an "insult-to-injury" clause to the age line's programming that punished anyone who attempted such an un-innovative technique as age alteration.

[[WMG: Ghost are a type of pensive or patronus.]]
Ghost are silverish in color, like removed memories, and patronuses which are made of happy memories. When a wizard dies unhappy they can leave all their memories behind so that the soul can move on unburdened, or be reincarnated. The coldness a ghost produce is from the feelings of depression left behind the same way dementors suck out all the warmth.

[[WMG: Wizards and Witches are descended from [[TheFairFolk Fae]].]]
This explains where their magic comes from. They appear as full human because the Fae blood has been diluted for centuries. They can have special abilities, such as metamorphmagi and animagi, because a few individuals have inherited more Fae blood as a genetic throwback to their ancestors. This explains why not everyone can become animagi. This also explains the wizarding world's rather skewed morals. The Fair Folk are known to be rather [[BlueAndOrangeMorality amoral]].
* So muggle-born wizards are changelings?

[[WMG: Only Horcruxes in living Objects work.]]
Otherwise we'd be up to our ears in dead egyptians.
** So, what you're saying is that none of Voldemort's Horcruxes apart from Nagini and Harry actually worked, and that Harry needn't have bothered going on that Horcrux hunt because the other Horcruxes, neither of which were in a living object, were actally useless? Well, that is an idea, but it means we need to find an alternate explanation for Riddle's diary and Slytherin's locket, ''especially'' the diary. And for the fact that Voldemort grew more and more monstrous-looking over the years before he'd even made his first working Horcrux (Harry, which was an accident anyway). The canon explanation is that splitting his soul so many times made him more and more monstrous, but if all the Horcruxes up to that point were duds, why does ol' Tommy still end up looking like Mumm-Ra's ugly brother?
*** I think the theory is not that those Horcruxes did not contain part of Voldemort's soul. It is that they did, but such a thing does not actually anchor someone to the world. I.e., all Voldemort was doing was wasting parts of his soul.
** All in all, I think a better explanation for why we're not up top our ears in dead Egyptians is because Egyptians did not make Horcruxes...
* The real objection to this is that, if Voldemort had no working Horcruxes when he attacked Harry, getting hit with a backfiring killing curse should have ''immediately'' killed him for realsies, with no time for parts of his soul to do anything. Even if broke his soul into two pieces, that wouldn't give either piece of him the ability to hang around. If getting killed via the killing curse means your soul (or part of it) could just wander over and decide to live inside someone else instead of dying, we'd probably see that more often.
** We could perhaps postulate that getting hit by a backfiring killing curse has different results than a normal one, or that a killing curse attacks the soul so doesn't work entirely correctly against a fractured one, but at the end of the last book Voldemort is hit by exactly that, with his soul still completely screwed up, and he dies.

[[WMG: Severus Snape's cloak is a lethifold.]]
This is why it billows the way it does. And since only a patronus charm can dispel it, it would make good armor.
* More likely a lethifold's skin, as the guess said before the original author changed the wording, since it doesn't try to eat him. It could be a tame lethifold, though.

[[WMG: Death Eaters]]
Voldemort came up with the name because he tought his followers some dark magic to steal the energy released from decomposing corpses. So they gain a power boost and the surrounding earth does not get fertilized. Eating Death in a literal sense.

[[WMG: Wizarding England was in a severe cultural depression during the First Wizarding War. It stayed that way through Harry's time because Voldemort and the Death Eaters did a ''really'' good job of shutting the artists up.]]
Building on [[WordOfGod what JK said]], there's no way that Wizarding England can be a mismanaged cesspool all the time or they wouldn't have had museums, a [[Literature/QuidditchThroughTheAges Snidget Reserve, a clearly-thriving sports industry,]] and a [[Literature/TheTalesOfBeedleTheBard Wizarding Academy of Dramatic Arts]]. I expect that in any other time, Fudge would have been considered [[SoOkayItsAverage mediocre but bearable]] instead of LawfulStupid and corrupt.

In many historical wars the first thing to be attacked was, in fact, the losing side's art. Literature, music, records, fashion/architecture, sometimes even ''sacred sites''--you name it, the winners will either control it or destroy it. Why? Because [[WrittenByTheWinners among]] [[PropagandaMachine other]] [[CulturePolice things]], ''art encourages independence''. The Death Eaters would have killed everyone who didn't agree with them or wasn't scared shitless of them, which meant killing the artists who were protesting them ([[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill and their families]]), which meant that the surviving artists had to stop because they wanted to stay safe. The Death Eaters must have done such a good job of [[ColdBloodedTorture beating all the artists]] [[MindRape into submission]] that by the time Harry came around, [[DownerEnding the people who]] ''[[DownerEnding should]]'' [[DownerEnding have been the first to help his cause had become the most cripplingly terrified of Voldemort]].

[[WMG: Half of Hogwarts' teachers were spies, which is why there are so few of them in Harry's time.]]
This ties in with the previous WMG and what everyone else has been implying about Hogwarts' bare-bones curriculum--that they [[InferredHolocaust lost half the teachers]] in the first war. They can't have been solely coincidental deaths (there are ''way'' too many conveniently empty classrooms), so it must have been because those teachers were the Order's/Dumbledore's spies. That they were all the artistic ones (drawing/sculpting/painting, music, language, etc) makes sense because artists are smart, observational, creative, and ''extremely likely to protest what they know is wrong''. The art teacher would have been a huge [[PalantirPloy help]] [[SpyVersusSpy with]] [[TheInfiltration infiltration]] [[TrojanPrisoner plans]]. The music and language teachers would have been the ones who actually went in for the job, and possibly helped [[SpySpeak with]] [[NeuroVault other]] [[ReadingTheEnemysMail things]]. Unfortunately when they lost a lot of teachers to Death Eaters, Dumbledore couldn't find replacements for them because all the ''other'' candidates had been killed off, mind-raped, or terrified at the thought of the first two. Hence Hogwarts had to go on a skeleton-crew, which was remedied a few years after Voldemort's final defeat.

[[WMG: The apparently nauseating act one needs to commit along with a murder in order to create a Horcrux is possibly...]]
Necrophilia, or something close to it.
* It wouldn't be anything before the killing, or Moaning Myrtle would have remembered it. She's so gossipy I'm sure she would have included every detail when Harry asked her how she died.
** If necrophilia is part of the ritual for creating a Horcrux, it would have to include oral sex as well as vaginal intercourse, as Voldemort created Horcruxes after murdering male victims. Also, the witch or wizard would have to be able to clean up their mess because Voldemort didn't do anything to the Riddles that had any physical evidence left for the police to find.
* [[ImAHumanitarian Maybe biting/eating the body?]]
** Nope. Voldemort created his first Horcrux with the murder of his father and paternal grandparents and in the first chapter of Goblet of Fire, it is said that the police were baffled by the fact that all of the Riddles were unharmed except for the fact that they were dead. If he bit or ate part of anyone's body as part of creating a Horcrux, that wouldn't fit with the villagers' account of the Riddles' deaths.
* The account of Rowling's editor feeling like vomiting when she told him triggered this troper to start imagining increasingly elaborate and disgusting UrbanDictionary-esque rituals involving individual sex acts with names like "Herpo The Foul". Move over [[Series/TheColbertReport Canada's History]]
* Perhaps the person creating the Horcrux must murder a person, then replace part of his or her body with the victim's. This has nice parallels with the Horcrux's purpose: requiring one to fragment their body to fragment their soul. Also, it's pretty darn squicky to think of someone going all [[VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment Nameless One]] and tearing out their own eye, liver, ulna, or what-have-you and replacing it with that of a corpse's.
* I always got the impression it was a rather unpleasant ritual (something akin to how Pettrigrew brought Voldemort back to life in book 4, only with a lot more blood, or something like that).

[[WMG:Wizardkind doesn't recognize national borders as the muggles do.]]
There is an offhand reference to either the Transylvanian Quidditch team, or the local Minister of Magic in Goblet of Fire, and in Order of the Phoenix, Neville mentions the plant he got was from Assyria. Transylvania is a region of Romania, and Assyria is the historical name for what is mostly Iraq these days. Wizards are so far removed of the muggle culture that they in areas, disregard these petty wars and national thoughts (but not entirely, as the Quiddich championships proved). That's why Durmstrang is vaguely {{Ruritania}}n. Hermiones book about European wizarding schools would suggest there might be more than just the three, but there can't be all that many.
* Not to mention that Wizarding Britain and Ireland seem to be unified. Seamus, who's Irish, goes to a British school and is never indicated to be foreign; plus, in the fourth book the characters all support the Irish Quidditch team but treat it as a home team, and no Northern Irish Quidditch team is ever mentioned.
** Couldn't that just mean that there's only one Wizarding school in the British Isles? It seems that England consists of England, Wales and Scotland, but Ireland is independent. They support Ireland, but there's no mention of Wales or Scotland. Or I might be wrong, and Ireland ''does'' have a wizard school, but Hogwarts is held in higher regard. Seamus is the only Irish student ever mentioned.
** If one goes by the film portrayals, Cho Chang and [=McGonagall=] are both Scots. The latter probably makes more sense, given the name. As for the Quidditch teams, England's team was mentioned in passing. A lot of times, when there are a wide selection of teams from which to choose in a general area, casual fans will gravitate toward the most successful team. The implication in the mention of England's national team was that they weren't all that good.
*** BTW, also, WordOfGod states that the school itself is located in Scotland as opposed to "England" proper.
** ''Quidditch Through The Ages'' does include a Northern Irish team among its roster of UK league teams.

[[WMG:Umbridge was not fired after Kingsley Shacklebolt became Minister]]
Instead, she was made the sole staff member of the Centaur Liaison Office. It is well known that that office is the absolute worst job in the Ministry, since no centaur has ever shown the slightest desire to liaise with the Ministry of Magic. That, combined with Umbridge's phobia of centaurs, makes it, in this troper's opinion, the perfect job to keep her in, one she couldn't even resign from, so powerful is her need to hold on to whatever power she had left.
* I love you. That would be LaserGuidedKarma for the evil pink one ...

[[WMG: Severus Snape is multiracial.]]
This could be an explanation for his black hair and eyes.
* JK Rowling said that Alan Rickman was pretty much perfect as Snape, and this comes across in later books. So no.
** The books say nothing against it.
*** The books also say nothing against Hermione being related to Jennifer Lopez. Does that mean THAT is true?
*** My mental picture of Hermione wouldn't suffer from a little J-Lo family resemblance... (Nothing against Emma Watson, of course)
* White people don't always have light hair and eyes. And I never thought his eyes were literally black, in fact I've always imagined them a dark shade of brown.

[[WMG: Severus Snape has magical creature ancestry.]]
This could be an explanation for his black hair and eyes. I have read {{Fanfics}} where he is/has the blood of a/an elf, vampire, werewolf, incubus, veela (shudder), dementer, and (my favorite) selkie.
* Would these fics happen to include {{PossessionSue}}s?
** Some of them, but there are a few that are actually good.

[[WMG: Severus Snape is a white half-blood Wizard.]]
Because this theory is ''just'' crazy enough for Wild Mass Guessing.
* This belongs on the DarthWiki/DarthWiki.

[[WMG: {{Area 51}} is the location of the American wizarding school (which still doesn't play Quidditch).]]
I mean, what would be a better place?
* And there's also a small annex of the American equivalent of the British Department of Magical Transportation where they test brooms and flying carpets, which aren't banned in America. This is mainly why the airspace is restricted.
* I am so glad I'm not the only person who has thought of that! I also imagine the American magical government would have to be the ''Department'' of Magic, rather than "Ministry", of course.
* Everyone uses Floo powder to get to school and home, every day. American public schools usually aren't live-in. I also suspect American Wizards blend with muggles better than their English counterparts.


[[WMG: Dumbledore played Seeker for Gryffindor]]
Eleven-year-old Harry, we are reminded a few times, is the "youngest Seeker in a century". Exactly 100 years prior to Harry's joining the team would be 1891, when Dumbledore was ten. Of course, he wouldn't normally have been eligible to enter Hogwarts at that age, but perhaps an exception was made for the young genius, or maybe "a century" is a casual term for 99 years. Since no mention is made of Dumbledore's Quidditch career in the books, perhaps he simply wasn't very good despite early promise, and quit after a couple years.
* With what a big deal Quiddich is at Hogwarts, I doubt Harry and everyone else wouldn't be aware of this. I personally always viewed Dumbledore as more of a spectator or someone who picked up the interest later in life, but there's no reason he couldn't have played though.
* Incorrect. Dumbledore was 150 in the mid-90s. That means he was middle-aged (by Muggle standards) in 1891.
** According to [[http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/wotm.cfm JKR]], Dumbledore was born in 1881, making him 110 years old in 1991, when Harry entered Hogwarts. Therefore, Dumbledore was 10 years old in 1891. That said, I don't think for a second that he was the seeker. Chances are, the "youngest seeker in a century" before Harry was a second-year at best.
*** The youngest seeker would have to be first year cause even Malfoy was able to buy his way onto a team in his second year.
*** In the sixth book, Katie Bell is shown to be the only original member of Harry's first-year team. Since she was not sorted with Harry's classmates, she must have been a second-year.

[[WMG: Why was James was so horrible to Snape?]]
He thought Snape was in an emotionally abusive relationship with Lily. Think about it. A creepy guy who knows an unhealthy amount of the Dark Arts and who is a member of the wizarding equivalent of the skinheads or neo-nazis (face it, fangirls, he was) is constantly hanging aroung the wizarding equivalent of insert-oppressed-minority-here. She, who is normally a smart intellegent person capable of seeing people for who they are, constantly makes excuses for him and defends him even when he ruthlessly insults other muggleborns. This might not have been true, as Snape clearly loved Lily enough to switch sides later on, but James doesn't know that. All he sees is a ManipulativeBastard taking advantage and breaking down a woman he sees as smart, intellegent, and whom he is slowly beginning to respect and even love. So when Snape calls her a mudblood, that is it. He's unforgivable. Although Lily might have told him to back off of Snape later when they began dating, he can't. Her asking him to lay off Snape actually cements in his head that Snape was mentally breaking her down and as such hates him even more. Of course Snape wasn't, but all James can see is that bad side of him, just as all Snape (and 90% of the fandom) can see is James's bad side.
* Since they were eleven years old, though? That's rather dubious. (Unless you mean "emotionally abusive platonic relationship".) But even then, James began sniping at Snape and vice versa on the train to Hogwarts before James had even met Lily. It could be a motivation for the ''escalation'' of hostilities between James & Snape, but not for everything.
** James had a crush on Lily according to JK. This fueled his dislike of Snape because he most likely figured out that Snape had a crush on her or something. Anyways Snape had what James wanted and he acted accordingly. So Jossed. James just was a dick and didn't like Snape and wanted Lily.
[[WMG: The Downfall of Voldemort was orchestrated by Rodolphus Lestrange.]]
It all makes sense. He has a motive (Bellatrix loves Voldemort and not him). He somehow gains knowledge of the prophecy (he could have been around at the time), and decides to lend all of his energy to making sure Voldemort dies. He gets imprisoned in Azkaban, waiting for Voldemort to make his move, and escapes. From there, he slowly assists everyone from behind the scenes, possibly letting Snape in on it (He's not a double agent, he's on his own side). Then, during the battle, he allows himself to be captured. The only thing that goes wrong is that Bellatrix dies, while he only wanted Voldemort dead.

[[WMG: Wands]]
A list of wands that were not mentioned in canon. Feel free to come up with your own choices.
* Molly Weasley: Oak with bugbear claw
** Fig with bugbear claw
* Arthur Weasley: Apple
* Bill Weasley: Wild Plum
* Charlie Weasley: Hickory with dragon heartstring
** Ash, since Ron's first wand was inherited from him and it was ash.
*** This is his second wand.
* Crabbe: Redwood with your mom.
* Percy Weasley: Mountain Laurel
* Fred Weasley: Cherry wood with jarvey fur or pixie wing core. Reason: Cherry wood is a focus of will, of getting things done, while the jarvey or pixie core is symbolic of Fred's prankish humor. [[spoiler: Also, cherry trees are symbolic of early death in some countries.]]
* George Weasley: Cherry wood with pixie wing or jarvey fur core. Reason: Cherry wood is a focus of will, of getting things done, while the pixie or jarvey core is symbolic of George's prankish humor. [[spoiler: Also, I just added this spoiler tag to make things a bit less uneven.]]
* Ginny Weasley: Pine
** Larch with dragon heartstring
* Sirius Black: Birch with crup muscle
** Or rather, hamstring/tendon.
* Remus Lupin: Fig with mooncalf tendon
** Aspen with mooncalf tendon
* Severus Snape: Ebony with unicorn tail hair
* Horace Slughorn: Beech
* Minerva [=McGonagall=]: Elm with braided kneazle wiskers
* Pomona Sprout: Eucalypt
* Filius Flitwick: Walnut
* Luna Lovegood: Hazel with thestral tail hair
** Hazel, I think fits. Rowan (from its connection to the moon and power-working capabilities) would be a close second, though, or even primary considering how strongly Rowling pushed the lunar themes. The core, though... Mooncalf tendon (for obvious reasons) or demiguise hair (because... it fits the seeing things that other people don't theme, and...matches her hair... I don't know) might work better.
*** Thestral tail hair because she has an affinity for them.
*** As far as I can tell, she doesn't have an affinity for them so much as that she's one of five or so named people who can see them, and is one of the few students to not assume they're evil just because they look ominous and vaguely skeletal. Point taken, though.
* Gellert Grindelwald: Rosewood with dragon heartstring. Reasoning: Rosewood (especially true rosewoods) are strong, beautiful, and resilient, and their mystical properties are considered dark and sometimes mysterious. Dragon heartstring just sounds right.
* Albus Dumbledore: Phoenix feather core. Reasoning: What else. Alder (mostly known for its protection against death, and conveniently being red on the inside which kind of goes with the phoenix and Gryffindor themes) might work for the wood. The Alder tree also tends to have a bit of a metaphorical anchor or solid foundation symbolism to it, mystically.
* Kingsley Shacklebolt: Teak with Pegasus feather. Reasoning: Teak represents his steadfastness. The pegasus feather represents his destiny to take down a metaphorical chimera- the Ministry (a lion) in its combined form with a snake (Voldemort).
* Godric Gryffindor: Oak with griffin feather
* Helga Hufflepuff: Cedar
* Rowena Ravenclaw: Rowan with spinx hair
* Salazar Slytherin: Acacia with basilisk venom
** Acacia with runespoor skin or ashwinder... stuff. The [[BuffySpeak ash-corpse-thing]] a first-generation ashwinder leaves when it dies. This is mostly because there are only three magical types of snake mentioned in canon, not counting mystically enhanced or unidentified snakes, and the basilisk is very rare (unlike ashwinders) and has no specific regional territory from which to (carefully!) gather shed skins (unlike runespoors). I think runespoor skin is most likely between them, since the runespoor's heads are planning (ambition and cunning), dreaming (ambition), and criticism (being a {{Jerkass}}), and I'm not sure what the minimum solidity is for wand cores (ashwinder corpse may or may not be too powdery).
*** He owns a basilisk remember.
* Merlin: Hawthorn with incubus hair
* Hagrid: Oak with acromantula silk
** I like the wood choices, but wouldn't most of these people have bought their wands from Ollivander? I'm pretty sure it's plainly stated that Ollivander ''only'' works with phoenix feathers, unicorn hairs and dragon heartstrings as cores.

[[WMG:Draco had asked Dobby to hex those Bludgers]]
It was his first game against Harry and he was willing to do anything for the glory of victory. Using his family elf to cheat seemed like a good idea. After he asked Dobby to make the Snitch biased to fly towards him, the elf (secretly seeing a way to accompolish his own objectives) pointed out that this might be too obvious, so they agreed on a trick that would be harder to trace back to them ''and'' could seriously injure Harry, a bonus for them both, but for completely different reasons.
* Come to think of it… the Malfoys could have asked Dobby to do almost everything he did to keep Harry out of Hogwarts, but for completely different reasons than Dobby's. Draco just wanted to make his [[TheRival rival]]'s life miserable, while Lucius didn't want [[YouMeddlingKids that meddling kid]] to get in the way of the plan to kill the Muggle-borns and bring back Voldemort.
** It's stated in book 6 that Lucius had no idea that the diary was a horcrux. Bringing Voldemort back wasn't part of the plan. His only goal was to to disgrace the Weasley family.
*** Although the only source for that was Dumbledore's deductions.

[[WMG: Voldemort's Horcruxes can manipulate the RedStringOfFate]]
In [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Book 7]], the locket Horcrux implies to Ron that it can help him get together with Hermione ("''All you desire is possible…''"). Because the pair's mutual feelings had already developed by then, such help wasn't necessary. But perhaps Tom Riddle's diary-Horcrux made promises to Ginny regarding a then-uninterested Harry, to help win her trust and allegience. (Remember, she didn't know the kind of evil she was dealing with, and in her culture {{Love Potion}}s are considered acceptable.) Four years later, Harry finally got StrangledByTheRedString. That's why his affection for Ginny arrives as the infamous chest-monster. Maybe it's even his ''own'' Horcrux at work. Lord Voldemort, matchmaker…
* Text from the penultimate chapter of [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Book 2]]: ''"Little Ginny’s been writing in it for months and months, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes… how she didn’t think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ''ever'' like her…" All the time he spoke, Riddle’s eyes never left Harry’s face. There was an almost hungry look in them.'' Hmm…
** Yeah, but...that means that Diary!Riddle must have found something attractive about Ginny. A 'spiritual' imprint in the body of a teenage boy leading an eleven- or twelve-year-old girl into a place called the "Chamber of Secrets"? [[FridgeHorror Wrong...on...so...many...levels...]]
** Hmm? To clarify (original poster) I wasn't pointing to the "hungry look" as implying Riddle's love for Ginny, but rather interpretable as "I know something you don't about this". Of course I don't think there's anything to this one, I just thought it could be an interesting premise for a fantasy romance: What if you discovered that you and your one true love had been manipulated into that situation by sinister forces?

[[WMG: If Snape's life hadn't sucked so much, he'd have been at least as powerful as Voldemort.]]
As we see from Tonks and Merope, depression drains a witch or wizard's magic. Snape's life sucks far more than Tonks' but he's possibly the third most powerful wizard in the books. Therefore, if he hadn't had an abusive home life, driven away the girl he loved, and been partially responsible for her death, he'd be feted as a prodigy and potentially hailed as the next Dumbledore.
* An observant and clever WMG if I've ever read one. I'd be interested to see what Rowling would have to say.

[[WMG: Why Harry passes out 12 times every book...]]
All of his drinks have roofies in 'em. And just his and no one else's.
* [[Theatre/AVeryPotterMusical They spiked the squirt. Everyone knows that only Harry likes squirt.]]

[[WMG: Voldemort had no plan to take over the ''whole'' world.]]
He only cared about England.
* Voldemort only cared about immortality. But for all we know he had intentions of conquering the rest of the planet once he'd secured Britain.
** JKR has explicitly said Voldemort's deepest desire is to be "all-powerful and eternal". Literally not dying was only most of his ambition. Control and ongoing influence are vital to him as well.

[[WMG: Students use a magical telescope during the Astronomy section of the O.W.L. exams.]]
The book has Harry looking for Orion in June at midnight ([[ArtisticLicenseAstronomy It's behind the sun in June, so you can't see it even if you wanted to]]), and also looking for Venus ([[ArtisticLicenseAstronomy which being the next planet near the sun is always close to the sun in the sky and therefore never visible at midnight]]). The students use a magical telescope which when pointed at the ground can see through anything blocking to the stars (the sun excluded) that would be there.
* Well, Harry did get 'Acceptable' on the OWL, so he might have gotten those ones wrong...

[[WMG: Wizards are brain damaged.]]
It isn't clear how much wine the students drink, but they do give the 11-year old students wine. Their thought processes are impaired because they suffered brain damage from getting drunk on a regular basis as children.
* What the --? When did this happen?!
* Except that Europe isn't as crazy about the whole "Underage children must never drink or be near any alcoholic substance ever!!!" thing. I don't remember anything about them drinking, but even supposing that they did, that's probably more of a cultural thing.
* The Potterverse seems to mostly use [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pewter pewter]] cauldrons; perhaps people who grow up in the wizarding world are exposed to significant amounts of lead or other neurotoxic chemicals at especially sensitive ages.

[[WMG: The real reason Hermione was given the time turner.]]
Hermione says that Professor [=McGonagall=] wrote to the ministry requesting a time turner for her so that she can take more classes. But is that ''really'' a good enough reason to give a 14-year-old girl (an exceptionally bright and responsible one, but ''still'') a time machine? The real reason she was given it was for the one scene in which we see it being used: the one at the end of the book where Harry and Hermione use it to save themselves and Sirius. [=McGonagall=] kept the time-turner after Hermione turned it back in, and some time after the events of the fourth book (likely after the events of the seventh) she traveled back to summer of 1993 and told herself (and likely Dumbledore) that in order for Harry Potter to survive the end of the year, he has to have access to a time turner. She doesn't tell her past self anything else because no one really knows what happens if you alter the timeline, and for all they know it could be more dangerous than Voldemort. They obtain a time turner from the Department of Mysteries and give it to Hermione, who of the trio has the most believable excuse for being given one.
* And is, of course, far more level-headed and responsible than either of her friends.
* She'd also missed a substantial part of the previous term because of basilisk-paralysis, so needed a way to catch up on her missed classroom-hours.

[[WMG: The 1993 Daily Prophet Grand Prize Galleon Draw was rigged as part of a BatmanGambit]]
Although it seems minor, [[ArmedWithCanon it was actually]] the inciting incident for the series' central StoryArc of Voldemort's return (and thus his eventual downfall). In Azkaban, Sirius read an issue of the ''Prophet'' featuring a photo of the prize-winning Weasley family, including Scabbers/Wormtail with his [[DistinguishingMark iconic missing toe]]. Realizing that [[TheMole The Rat]] was living in proximity to Harry, Sirius was inspired to escape. This in turn inspired ''Womtail'' to "escape" and seek Voldemort.

The mastermind behind this could have been any one of the characters who, however briefly, benefited from the ensuing events: a villain ''or'' a good guy. However, a Death Eater perpetrator seems likelier because s/he would have to know that Peter Pettigrew was both a rat Animagus and the traitor, and among the good guys, only Sirius himself did (so far as we know). Alternatively, perhaps the Galleon Draw is determined by a semi-sentient object like the Goblet of Fire or the Sorting Hat, and it chose to initiate this particular chain of events for its own inscrutable reasons.
* Better yet, it was rigged for the simple reason that everyone wanted the Weasley to win after what happened to Ginny the previous year. This makes Lucius giving Riddle's diary to Ginny the inciting event for the whole series.

[[WMG: The first book was a BatmanGambit by Dumbledore, and Harry [[SpannerInTheWorks ruined it]]]]
It seems to convenient that all the "defenses" to the stone were simple to by pass except for the last one, and that Dumbledore mysteriously had to go to the ministry, and then came right back, on the day that Quirrel went to steal the stone. Dumbledore faked an absence from the school to lull Quirrel into a false sense of security, and waited for Quirrel to take the bait. However, Harry also took the bait, and Dumbledore had to focus more on saving Harry rather than capturing Voldemort.
* I actually had a similar idea (currently trying to work it into a fanfic): The entire thing was a trap for Voldemort, which shows why the obstacles were easy enough that three first-years could get past them. The obstacles had to ''appear'' to be difficult, so as not to arouse Voldemort's attention, but possible to get past without too much trouble.

* However, my theory goes a little further: ''The Stone hidden in the Mirror of Esired was a fake.'' In reality, when Hagrid got the real Philosopher's Stone to Dumbledore at the beginning of the year, Dumbledore and Flamel had already agreed to destroy it. Dumbledore knew that Voldemort had infiltrated Hogwarts (whether he knew about the situation with Quirrel or not is uncertain; he did know that ''something'' was up but may or may not have had all the details). And so, Dumbledore and Flamel make a decoy stone while destroying the real one -- Flamel and his wife have enough elixir left to keep up appearances for a year or so, and so only those three people know that the Stone has been destroyed.

* Over the course of the year, Dumbledore subtly let's Voldemort find out how to get past the obstacles, and then pretends to be called away from Hogwarts on urgent business. However, he had not counted on Harry getting to the same conclusions... and so the entire thing takes a slightly different turn than he'd planned, but the end result ''is'' that Voldemort is effectively purged from Hogwarts.

* And so when Harry is in the hospital wing and the first thing he does when waking up is ask whether the Philosopher's Stone is safe, Dumbledore (impressed with Harry's bravery and knowing that the boy will have to face Voldemort again sometime in the future) just doesn't have the heart to tell him that the entire ordeal was completely unnecessary and that the Stone Harry saves was a worthless decoy. So he lies just a teensy bit, pretending that he and Flamel have just now decided that the Stone should be destroyed -- when in reality, it had already been destroyed several months ago.

[[WMG:Lily contributed to the tips written by Snape in the Half-Blood Prince's Advanced Potion-Making textbook.]]
Lily and Snape were close friends until the end of their fifth year and may have been in the same Potions class. Slughorn frequently praises Lily as one of the best Potions students he ever had. It's possible that Lily and Snape worked together to discover the various tips and techniques found in the textbook. Hermione even remarks that she thinks the handwriting looks like a girl's.

** Jossed. This has already been disproven. Furthermore Just because the writing looks female does not mean it was written by a girl. There are men out there who have feminine handwriting.

[[WMG: Being chosen as a Triwizard champion by the Goblet of Fire forms an Unbreakable Vow]]
Dumbledore mentions that the Triwizard Tournament was discontinued when the death toll became too high to ignore, which could be from younger students dying (through breaking the Unbreakable Vow) when they try to chicken out if they only signed up for the Tournament because of Eternal Glory!!1! and found themselves way over their heads. The age limit was imposed not only because of the advanced level of magic, but to prevent younger, egotistical students from being locked into such a dangerous tournament, attempting to back out, and die.
* That would surely be illegal, unless the information had been lost after the Tournament being discontinued for so long.

[[WMG: Fiendfyre ''was'' introduced prior to Deathly Hallows.... just not in the books.]]
It was, however, introduced in the films. ''Half-Blood Prince'' specifically. Whenever the Death Eaters [[spoiler: attack and put the Burrow on fire]], this is what Bellatrix (nonverbally) casts. Think about it. The screenwriters ''did'' say that ''Deathly Hallows'' influenced how they wrote the script for the sixth film; maybe this was their own way of somewhat rectifying the rather [[DeusExMachina Deus Ex Machina]] nature of it in the books, as well as keeping with Rowling's grand tradition of [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Guns]]. As a matter of fact, Fiendfyre may have even been introduced in the ''Order of the Phoenix'' film (not sure about the book; I haven't reached it yet): Wikipedia says Fiendfyre is a "Dangerous, uncontrollable and extremely powerful fire which can take the form of beasts such as '''serpents''', Chimaeras and dragons". In Voldemort's battle with Dumbledore at the Ministry of Magic, he nonverbally summons an enormous flame which then takes the form of a snake. Granted, it says Fiendfyre is uncontrollable and Voldemort ''was'' controlling it (somewhat), but still. I mean, he is one of the most powerful wizards of all time. Who's to say he couldn't control a Fiendfyre spell?
* Voldemort would be the kind of a-moral a-hole who would release an uncontrollable destructive force in a fight. Being that he knows he is immortal, f-it, in a pinch, just burn the whole place down knowing you'll live through it.

Also, I wasn't quite sure where to put this WMG as the WMG page for the films says "WMG about the actors in the movies, the directors, the screenwriters, all go here", and this doesn't really relate to those save for just barely the screenwriters. If anybody thinks this should be removed and put in the film's WMG, I will gladly do so.

[[WMG: The snake that was released in the zoo was Nagini]]
Not sure how to totally work it out.... but it seems.... plausible?
* But Nagini is venomous, and the snake at the zoo was a boa constrictor.
* Ahhh, but, in both the book and the movie, Nagini is large enough to consume a human, which no nonmagical poisonous snake is capable of, but anacondas are. So ... snake escaped, Voldie got his hands on it, magicked it up and slapped a horcrux in it. Or maybe putting the horcrux in it lent it poison and the relevant fangs?
** Nagini was venomous in Book 4, ''before'' she was made into a Horcrux. And the voice of the boa was male in the film version.

[[WMG: Gilderoy Lockhart is a sociopath]]
He has no empathy for anyone but himself and yet convinces everyone else he's absolutely charming. Plus he's very ambitious.

* I think what you mean is Psychopath. Sociopaths are the result of a terrible environment. Furthermore they are not charming what so ever. Psychopaths are charming and manipulative. Since Lockhart was charming and able to fool many many people into believing and loving him I would put him as a psychopath or just a narcissist.
** You've got the two terms mixed up. They're both the result of terrible environments, but sociopaths are the ones who are usually charming and manipulative. Some psychopaths ''can'' have some sociopathic symptoms, but they're the ones who most likely turn out to be serial killers. Sociopaths are the ones who can charm and connive their way into positions of power because their best ability is manipulating people to their own advantage.
*** He's a psychopath, not a high-functioning sociopath! ''[[Series/{{Sherlock}} Do your research!!]]''

[[WMG: House elves used to be the dominant species in the wizarding world]]
They have been enslaved by human wizards for centuries, but when freed appear to be almost as powerful naturally as an expertly trained wizard. All civilizations must start somewhere, so at one point humans must not have had very strong magical powers, while elves did - one's magic requiring spells and learning, the other's nothing at all. Elves probably acted like TheFairFolk, and were the supernatural entities of most myths which predate written language. However, as writing started to become more well-spread, functional magic could be passed on between generations more efficiently. Human wizards started to become more powerful, and overthrew the house elves and bound them in servitude, since they were too useful to kill, but too threatening to keep at full strength. Since the elves no longer caused people to believe the old myths, gods changed from beings which were not impossible to be found bathing in your local pond[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actaeon]] into gods as we know them today - acting more like a magical council of elders (which might well be the magical organization at the time).

[[WMG: Muggles don't have souls.]]
Wizards assume that muggles don't make ghosts because they're lack of magic prevents their souls from staying in this world, but it could be that they just don't have souls. I'm surprised Death Eaters never made that point.
** The dementor wouldn't have tried to "kiss" Dudley if muggles didn't have souls.
** Jossed. Dudley is the perfect example of muggles having souls.

[[WMG: Snape hated Neville because the Longbottoms weren't targeted instead of the Potters.]]

I always did wonder why he picks on Neville so much. While it's true that he's awful at Potions there seemed to be a certain vindictiveness that was normally only reserved for Harry and friends, which he directed towards Neville even before he actually became friends with Harry (Generally bullying him and doing things like the time he threatened to test Neville's antidote on Trevor as incentive to force him to get the potion right in fourth year). He's excessively cruel to Neville for no real reason other possibly being a Gryfindor and I always thought it was weird even for Snape, until this occured to me.

Think about it. Voldemort had a choice between two families the prophecy could have applied to, the Potters and the Longbottoms. In the end he chose the Potters, but if he'd chosen the Longbottoms, Lilly would still be alive. It might be unfair to Neville, but with the way Snape projects his hatred of James onto Harry, it would make perfect sense to Snape.

[[WMG: Santa Claus is a wizard.]]

So tell me, what magical creature exists in the Harry Potter universe that has to serve their master no matter what? House Elves. What does floo powder do in order to teleport you? Puts you in the fireplace. The Reindeer? Their sleighbells are enchanted, enabling Santa to fly at super speeds just like Mr. Weasley's car. He used to use reindeer before he was aware of the existance of floo powder and had a smaller rout than he does now.
* And he has a time turner, allowing him to visit several houses at once. That's how he manages to visit the world's entire population of kids (except those who don't celebrate Christmas or believe in Santa) in one night.
** Love this WMG! Maybe there's a Chocolate Frog card for Nicholas of Myra. Could be a lot of "Saints" were actually magic users.

[[WMG: Those times where they make note of a wizard being a FishOutOfWater are the exception, not the rule, and they get reprimanded for it later.]]
Because if all wizards were so ignorant of Muggle culture, they would be living in an UnMasquedWorld by now. There are very few places you could live that are all wizard (school grounds, Hogsmeade, maybe a few apartments above the shops in Diagon Alley), so using Muggle infrastructure without drawing attention to yourself is really a basic skill that they need to keep up the {{Masquerade}}. At least one point a wizard mentioning that he didn't know muggle men wore trousers, which implies he has never been on streets inhabited by muggles which, by the way, are most of them.

[[WMG: House elves are descended from forest elves, or something of that nature.]]
This is mostly based upon their name; calling them House Elves instead of just Elves implies that there are or were elves which were not House Elves.

[[WMG: Lily's parents were stage magicians.]]
Petunia said that her parents were ecstatic over having a witch in the family. This might be because they themselves were "magicians" but of the Houdini variety and loved that Lily's magic was "real."
* Stealing for fanfiction. [[ColonThree :3]]

[[WMG: James Potter and Sirius Black were mild sociopaths.]]
I'm a little flaky on how sociopathy works - can you ''have'' a "mild" sociopath? But if you can . . . James and Sirius showed ''definite'' sociopathic tendencies in Snape's worst memory. It certainly wasn't what I would call a casual incident, but the Marauders went about it casually and it was certainly implied that this horrific bullying was pretty normal for them. James and Sirius did it because they were bored and showed no remorse later (sociopaths don't have much of a conscience,) and after Lily told James what she thought of him and stormed off, instead of letting it go and leaving, which is what most bullies I know would do, James actually ups the ante. The only problem with this theory is that James goes on to have a pretty normal relationship with Lily, which sociopaths can't do . . . But Sirius doesn't have many close relationships, and his relationship with Harry was subject to mood swings, and he showed bad judgment . . . hmm.
* Then again, what Harry saw of his fathers childhood was through Snape's memories. It's possible they might have been caricatures of their actual personalities, warped through Snape's eyes (I'm not saying that they never bullied him, or had at least some of the personality traits Snape remembers them having - merely that his mind turned it UpToEleven).
** {{Jossed}} because JKR says that Pensieve memories are completely third-person, so the memories were not warped in the slightest - they weren't affected by Snape's mind at all.
* Possibly this applies to Sirius, who not only declined to show remorse (and remember, he actually willingly sent Snape into the habitat of a werewolf!) but also still acted like a bully towards Snape. Can't be sure about James though, considering we don't really know how he acted as an adult, and also remember he didn't agree on the whole "kill the unhygienic emo kid" thing to be a very funny joke. A cruel kid, sure, but I'm pretty sure we all know people who were jerks in school and grew up to be completely normal people.
** Not really, but I'm sure they exist. From personal experience I mostly know of people who were cruel as teens and grew up to be criminals. I keep an open mind though . . . As for Sirius, yeah; I don't think he even had a particularly healthy relationship with ''anyone'' - not even Harry; he seems able to show affection but he's extremely irresponsible and careless as an authority figure, and I don't view his relationship with Harry as particularly healthy from his side anyway.
* So, is "such-and-such is a sociopath" the new "such-and-such has Asperger's"? Because it certainly seems like it.
** Haha, I don't know - is the Asperger's thing some kind of meme? I hadn't heard of it . . . But in my case I don't actually think that James, at least, was an actual sociopath. Sirius *is* a bit dodgy though . . .
* Jossed

[[WMG: The Marauder's Map was a horcrux]]
* A piece of writing that retains the memories and character of its creators, and is able to communicate with the reader. Remind you of anything?

[[WMG: Barty Crouch Jr. was under the Imperuis Curse when he tortured the Longbottoms.]]
* He says at the end of the book he hates nothing more than a Death Eater who walked free, so why was he trying to get off of a crime at his trial? He didn't know what he was doing. Kid grew up being the WellDoneSonGuy, and getting no love from his father. His mother who loved him died, and he was left into a family with a man who hated his very existence, even more since he tarnished his reputation forever, and a house elf who did what she could. Its possible that the Imperius Curse, if used for too long, might give its victim severe brain damage or cause insanity, he's the only character we know was under one for many, many years. He may have joined willingly to spite his father, or out of the lack of love he received from his father, whom he quite possibly admired, and was fairly loyal, but did not torture the Longbottoms of his own free will, since Voldemort calls him his most loyal servant. Or he was Imperiused by another Death Eater, and not Voldemort. His insanity from being under the Imperius for so long drove him to become a loyal member of the Death Eaters by the time Voldemort came calling. Due to his father being the one who imprisoned him, he grew to hate him, and hate him for putting him in prison, so he grew closer and closer to the Dark side, because in his eyes, the good side was made up of jerkasses like his father and the court who put him in prison, and Voldemort and his Death Eaters were far more accepting than his own father was.

[[WMG: Wizards are ImmuneToBullets.]]
* Obviously a gun could beat a wand in direct combat, as guns fire much faster than spells, so there is the obvious question of why wizards don't use them. I think that for some reason, bullets do not work in the wizarding world or against wizards.
** [[Jossed]]. [[WordofGod J.K.]] said that if it came down to a wizard and a muggle with a gun, you'd have a dead wizard.
*** Okay, can someone provide a source for that WordOfGod? I keep seeing it ''everywhere'', but no one ''ever'' gives a citation for it. Is it just another rumor/misquote?
*** Probably. Also see Hagrid's outraged response to the suggestion that the Potters might have died in a car crash -- which would also happen too quickly for casting spells. There clearly ''is'' some kind of automatic protection to at least some forms of mundane damage.

[[WMG: Neville witnessed his parents being tortured.]]
* At least, this troper was under the impression that Frank and Alice were at their home when Crouch and Co. showed up. The reason Neville himself was not tortured was either because there was no point in torturing a young child, or [[WouldntHurtAChild Wouldn't Hurt a Child]] (back then, anyway, though Death Eaters are known for wiping out families with young children), or Neville was well-hidden. Something about his reaction to the spiders being tortured by Crouch!Moody (book and movie) just makes me wonder... that would be ''quite'' traumatizing to a 5 year old (how old Neville was when his parents were tortured, or maybe I need to read ''Goblet of Fire'' again...) and would explain why he never, ever actually says this (the scene in [=OotP=] does not count as mentioning it, as Harry and Co. run into him) until the sixth or seventh book when Harry already knows.
** I get the impression the attack on the Longbottoms happened just a few weeks or so after Voldemort's fall, which would make Neville a baby, but I can't think of anywhere this is stated affirmatively in the books.
*** The time is never stated, but Barty Crouch Jr. is described as 'in his late teens'. Presuming that he would have to be of age to join the Death Eaters in the first place (Otherwise The Trace would be recording everything the Death Eaters did), and that no one would be stupid enough to join the Death Eaters ''after'' Voldemort was killed, it can't be that long. If we read 'late teens' as 19, and assume he joined right when he came of age, that's less than three years.
** We know that Harry remembers his parents being killed, even if those memories are only brought out by Dementors. Who's to say the same thing didn't happen to Neville? Even if the memories are unconscious, he was fifteen months old by then, not an infant. No ''wonder'' the poor kid was so affected by the Cruciatus!

[[WMG: Suffering the Dementors Kiss while having a Horcrux is a fate WORSE than a fate worse than death]]
This idea spooked me. We all know that you can't die when you have a horcrux right? And when somebody is 'kissed' by a dementor they lose their soul. So what would happen if you had a horcrux because part of your soul would be away from your body.

This becomes FridgeHorror when you realise that not only would you become a living vegetable but ... you would never die of old age or get killed and thus be able to move on. You'd be trapped in a state of nothingness for ETERNITY. The only way out would be if somebody destroyed your horcrux ... but if you didn't tell them during your life then you would never be able to tell them after being kissed. And even if they knew, how many people have the skill to cast fiendfyre or have a basalisk fang present? Brrrr...
** . . . AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

[[WMG: Wizards with Horcruxes have a degree of immunity to the Dementor's Kiss.]]

As an alternative to the theory above. Dementors, like any other sentient creatures that feed, will go for the most plentiful food source more often than not. Not only does a wizard who has made a Horcrux (let alone a handful like Voldemort did) have less than 100% of their soul inside their body by definition, but one must also consider the sort of condition of that soul in the first place, to commit the murder and then go through the Horcrux ritual. Since the Dementors favor (one could assume, whole) souls filled with a lot of positive emotions, a soul split several ways that's there in name only wouldn't exactly be gourmet eating to a Dementor.
* Plausible. On the other hand, leaving one's Horcrux anyplace where a Dementor might stumble over it is probably not a good idea. Prepackaged snack food?


[[WMG: Ginny's cessation of her Quidditch career has nothing to do with CareerVersusFamily.]]

WordOfGod confirms that Ginny played Quidditch for the Holyhead Harpies from her graduation from Hogwarts (probably captained the team in 1998-1999 and was picked up right out of school like Oliver Wood was) until she found out that she was pregnant with [[DeadGuyJunior James]] [[DeadGuyJunior Sirius.]] At the same time, Harry Potter is an Auror, probably in command of his own squad and tasked with the job of mopping up remnant pockets and/or splinter groups of the Death Eaters - something which happens often after a war and can often be as dangerous as the war itself. Either way, as an Auror, Harry likely spent long periods of time away from home, which would presumably be true as well for Ginny if she was playing in Quidditch matches all over England. So when she found out she was pregnant with James Sirius, she had to take a year or two off from Quidditch anyway and probably realized that both she and Harry couldn't be away from home for long periods of time if J.S. was to grow up in a stable home environment. So she did what many retired athletes do and became the magical equivalent of a sportswriter.

[[WMG: Armando Dippet's lack of awareness of the times in the Muggle World led to problems for the wizarding world later.]]

Dippet may have been, like many wizards, something of an isolationist. Brought up in the wizard world and dealing with wizard world issues, the problem of a muggle World War being right on Britain's doorstep might not have occurred to him. Harry Potter proved that one could spend his early childhood in an environment that was not very nurturing and recover from it if good family figures (in his cases, people like Sirius and the Weasleys) were put around him. There may have been several teenagers brought up in similar environments - wizards raised by muggles that may or may not have been killed during World War Two. Naturally, most of these children would end up in British muggle orphanages, exposing them further to the horrors of the war, but also cutting them off from nurturing contact from other, older wizards. And it's possible that it was this group of children that became the original Death Eaters. WordOfGod says that Voldemort was brought into the world in a one-sided act of passion (his father was under the effects of a Love Potion, which, despite its name, only causes strong infatuation - as mentioned by Slughorn in HBP) and raised in an environment where people felt obligated to take care of him...and that he would have turned differently if brought up in a loving environment. It seems strange that there were no families that would want to take in a seemingly bright, talented, and upstanding young man like Tom Riddle - or that there was nowhere in wizarding Britain where orphaned young wizards could live during the summer holidays. Dippet's and the Ministry's failure to make provision for these children, especially during [=WW2=], might have had a hand in creating the monster that was Voldemort (and by extension, the Death Eaters.)
* The fanfic trilogy I'm working on about Minerva [=McGonagall=] schooldays and early post-Hogwarts life works on this very premise -- that the magical world ignored WWII at their peril, and were almost completely unprepared for its effects. I'm glad I'm not the only one who's thought this!

[[WMG: Harry eventually becomes Hogwarts' Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher.]]
I know that he became an Auror and head of the Auror Department, but afterwards, when there is less of a threat from Dark Wizards, you'd think he'd consider this option. Because of Voldemort's jinx on the job for a few decades, there must still be a shortage of suitable DADA teachers, and, provided the jinx was lifted after Voldemort's demise, he'd be an obvious option. He's very skilled at fighting the Dark Arts as was shown in the books, and he's had experience with teaching defensive spells to students back in Year Five with Dumbledore's Army. You don't get much better than having Harry Freaking Potter as a DADA teacher. Also, Hogwarts is his home, he's said so himself; he'd miss it eventually, and might consider going back there as a teacher once his Auror days are over.
* Jossed. Harry occasionally gave lectures at Hogwarts according to Word of God, but a job in academics "just isn't in him".

[[WMG: 'Ambition' is a nice of saying 'wizard supremicist']]
Ambition can make people evil, but it shouldn't turn them into a mudblood hating Nazi-wizard. We know that Salazar Slytherin disliked muggle borns and had the ideal of Voldemort long before Voldemort was even born. Now, the teachers didn't want to come out and say this is the house for future wizard-Nazis, so they came up with the most politically correct term for people who want to wipe out all the mudbloods, enslave the muggles and glorify the purebloods - ambitious.
* Alternatively, Slytherin's original qualities (ambition, drive, natural leadership) were [[{{Flanderization}} flanderized]] into this, either by the passage of time, or maybe even by J.K. herself.
** Jossed in Pottermore. In Pottermore we find out that there are dark wizards from every Hogwarts house.
* Every house can have dark witches and wizards in them, Slytherin just SEEMS more so because Slytherin sorts for ambition, so you get dark w/w with ambition which would make them stick out more as they try to accomplish more.

[[WMG: All the best wand-makers are some form of immortal.]]
Gregorovitch really ''is'' Father Christmas (which sadly implies that [[WMG/PoisonOakEpilepticTrees Santa is dead]], or at least the Eurpoean version is), and Ollivander has been operating his own shop since 390-whatever BC. In fact, Ollivander in the first movie looks oddly like the [[WMG/TimeLord Second or]] [[DependingOnTheAuthor (sometimes)]] [[Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures Eighth Doctor]]... The reason it seemed like just yesterday that Lily (and James?) got her (their?)wand(s) could have been that for him, it literally ''was'' yesterday, because he works long hours and skips all of the time that a customer is not being seen (and that he is not being asked to do something else, like officiate for the Triwizard Tournament).
** So wandmakers are Time Lords? I can agree to this.

[[WMG: Hedwig is a Hufflepuff.]]
Her defining attribute is loyalty (to the point that, at least in the movies, she'd [[spoiler: sacrifice herself to protect Harry over following orders that caused him danger]]- i.e., loyalty over obedience). Additionally, she's a [[Theatre/AVeryPotterMusical particularly good finder]]; she can find Sirius even when he's in hiding and she doesn't know where to start looking.

[[WMG: The reason Luna has AttentionDeficitOohShiny tendencies is because she actually has ADHD.]]
In the Muggle world, she'd probably be diagnosed. This explains why she's so easily distracted when she's meant to be doing other things (like commentate a Quidditch match).
* I myself assumed this to be the case. She definitely seems like someone with diagnosable attention difficulties. She's also absent-minded enough that people steal her stuff and hide it from her.
* I always assumed she had Aspergers and ADD. Then again, it might be because I have those disorders, and I'm quite Luna-like.

[[WMG: Luna has Schizotypal personality disorder.]]
To quote Wikipedia:
Schizotypal personality disorder is a personality disorder characterized by a need for social isolation, anxiety in social situations, odd behavior and thinking, and often unconventional beliefs. People with this disorder feel extreme discomfort with maintaining close relationships with people, and therefore they often do not. People who have this disorder may display peculiar manners of talking and dressing and often have difficulty in forming relationships. In some cases, they may react oddly in conversations, not respond or talk to themselves. They frequently misinterpret situations as being strange or having unusual meaning for them; paranormal and superstitious beliefs are not uncommon.

The possible traits of this are:
Inappropriate or constricted affect - the individual appears cold and aloof; (Not really, although she does seem unconcerned about danger during actual battles.)
Behavior or appearance that is odd, eccentric or peculiar; (Yes.)
Poor rapport with others and a tendency to withdraw socially; (Very yes.)
Odd beliefs or magical thinking, influencing behavior and inconsistent with subcultural norms; (Yup.)
Suspiciousness or paranoid ideas; (Oh yes.)
Obsessive ruminations without inner resistance, often with dysmorphophobic, sexual or aggressive contents; (?!)
Unusual perceptual experiences including somatosensory (bodily) or other illusions, depersonalization or derealization; (Not that we know of, although her strange dancing might be a sign of somatosensory issues.)
Vague, circumstantial, metaphorical, over-elaborate or stereotyped thinking, manifested by odd speech or in other ways, without gross incoherence; (Oh yes. Not just in her weird metaphors to things that don't exist, but she seems completely unable to actually mention thestrals by name when trying to convince people they can ride them.)
Occasional transient quasi-psychotic episodes with intense illusions, auditory or other hallucinations and delusion-like ideas, usually occurring without external provocation. (Perhaps she actually does see wrackspurts, sometimes?)

It is worth mentioning that 'early separation' and 'parenting styles' including 'neglect' are suspected as factors in this. Like, uh, her dead mother and weird father.

[[WMG: The process of creating a Horcrux requires unicorn blood.]]
Each will save your life, but results in a FateWorseThanDeath. Horcruxes are a more extreme version, due to the other elements involved in Horcrux creation.

[[WMG: Bellatrix is responsible for Moody losing his eye.]]
Moody still had two normal eyes at Karkaroff's trial, which takes place after the end of the war. So how did he lose the eye? Well, when the Lestranges and Crouch Jr. were being captured by the Aurors, Bellatrix threw her knife at Moody out of spite and it hit him in the eye. You'll notice that Moody isn't mentioned being present when Harry sees the trial of the Lestranges and Crouch Jr. That's because Moody was in St. Mungo's at the time.
* Seems like a reasonable theory, but I feel like that would have to be one hell of a lucky shot with a knife, especially from straight on enough to hit Moody right in the face without him reacting at least reflexively to turn his head or to knock the knife away with magic. He also had several scars around his face and a missing leg. TT always thought he got caught too close to some sort of explosion. Blasting curse, maybe? For what it's worth, Evan Rosier is given 'credit' for taking the chunk out of Moody's face, and although both of his eyes were there, maybe one of them was wounded and losing function and eventually got to the point where Moody said, "Screw it, I'm not going to be able to duel properly with one of my eyes messed up," ''had the bad eye taken out himself'' and replaced it with the magical one.

[[WMG: The Cruciatus Curse was originally designed as a tool for righteous retribution.]]
The curse was designed to be cast by only people who felt that they were really, truly justified in casting a torture spell, because it would be giving back what their tormentor cast upon them, or them by proxy of their family and/or friends. However, since magic isn't a perfect test system that can be written and rewritten before the final product is released, dark wizards noticed that the spell is actually looking for whether or not you really, really ''want'' it to work (presumably, nobody good would ''really'' want to torture someone unless it was in the name of truly righteous "justice" [or at the very least, retribution]). This is shown in the name of the curse: It (translating roughly to "the tormented" or "tormented one") refers to the people who were originally meant to use it, not the people at whom it would be aimed.

[[WMG:A part of the ritual for creating a Horcrux is a spell that endows the Horcrux as TheAgeless]]
That is, a living creature that is a Horcrux will be immortal, but it will not die unless it's harmed beyond repair. If a living Horcrux could die of natural causes, why would Voldemort have chosen a living creature to be one of his Horcruxes? This scenario would be one where the living Horcrux is CursedWithAwesome: you're essentially immortal unless you're physically harmed beyond repair, but you're the receptacle for a mangled part of some evil, fucked up person's soul.

[[WMG: The Sorting used to be a magical selection system, but centuries of tradition have turned it into self-fulfilling prophecy.]]
Simply put, since the Sorting Hat associates, say, Gryffindor, with courage and chivalry, the desire every child has to fit in with his/her peers will eventually bring out those qualities.

[[WMG: Blaise Zabini's mother's character is a StealthPun.]]
Despite previous fandom portrayals to the contrary, Blaise Zabini is black - almost certainly through both parents. His mother was/is famous because she was a witch who had married several rich husbands, each of whom died not long afterward and left her and Blaise a rather large sum of money. The implications here are pretty obvious. In any case, Mama Zabini is a Black widow - paralleling the namesake spider, whose females kill (eat?) a male shortly after mating with him.
* [[FridgeBrilliance Okay, how the hell did no one notice this before?]]
* I'm pretty sure he's only black in the movies, and the books say nothing about his race. Which means, if it's a pun, it wasn't Rowling but Casting Agency who came up with it.
** No, Zabini was described as being black in his only proper appearance in the series (on the train to Hogwarts in book 6).

[[WMG: Cho Chang's parents are from Hong Kong and emigrated to the British Isles (possibly Scotland) at some point during Cho's early childhood.]]
It would certainly be a very good explanation for a girl of obvious Asian descent to be attending a wizarding school in Britain. Also, one of the probable linguistic origins for Chang's name is Cantonese, which is the official dialect of Chinese spoken in Hong Kong. And, since the series takes place in the 1990s, Hong Kong would have still been under British control. As for why they moved, it's not hard to imagine that there wouldn't be a particularly large wizarding network in Hong Kong - or at least not a Wizarding School that had English as a first language. So, when they realized that Cho was a witch, they may have wanted to be able to bring her up around other wizards and witches. One or both of her parents probably would have found jobs, then, on the strength of a chance encounter with Dolores Umbridge, which would explain why they would be reluctant to get on her bad side. In the books, it's probable that Cho grew up in or near Tutshill, given her support of the local Quidditch Team (which would seem very random were she not from there). In the films, on the other hand, she has a very obvious Scottish accent. Make of that what you will.
** [[TheMoreYouKnow Rowling is actually from Tutshill]]. I don't really see how this would be a "wild" mass guess, though, most Asians in Northern Europe are immigrants.
** There are lots of Chinese living in Britain, many come from Hong Kong region. This is more like a '''regular''' guess than a '''wild''' guess except for your insistence that Cho was born in China and her family moved to Scotland when she was age 3. I see no problem with Cho being born in Scotland because her family moved here before she was born,

[[WMG: Percy Weasley "chose" his house, just like Harry did. Or, alternatively, the Sorting Hat chose one for him for his own long-term benefit.]]
* Percy would have obviously come into Hogwarts on the very tail end of Bill and/or Charlie's time there. And, obviously, given the fact that both of his parents and older brothers (whom Percy probably looked up to as a young boy) were in Gryffindor, he probably felt a bit of direct or indirect pressure to become a Gryffindor as well. However, most of the second half of the series displays that he probably should have been put in another house. '''More than likely, Percy Weasley should have been in Slytherin.''' He was very ambitious and, on top of that, the Weasleys are a pure-blood family (it says nowhere that being a pureblood supremacist is a trait associated with Slytherin - simply being pure-blooded in and of itself. The Weasleys may not have acted like most pure-blood families, but they were pure-blood.) And the Sorting Hat probably reasoned that Percy would have been a good fit for Slytherin. From there, one of two things happened.
** '''1:''' 11-year-old Percy started muttering, "Not Slytherin, anything but Slytherin" or something to that effect, and the hat decided to put him in with his family in Gryffindor.
** '''2:''' The hat recognized that the Slytherin influence might cause his ambition to grow out of control and separate him even further from his essentially good-hearted parents and siblings, and thus put him in Gryffindor anyway, knowing he could "climb the ladder" as a Gryffindor without being tainted by Slytherin's potential negative influence.
** '''3''': The Hat could have looked into Percy's head, seen that Sorting the kid into Slytherin was ''not'' going to go over well with his family, and Sorted him into Gryffindor instead.

[[WMG: Mrs. Norris is more than Filch's magical familiar.]]
* Filch likely had Mrs. Norris since he became caretaker of the school, if not longer. If Filch had been there for a while before Harry's first year, that would have made Mrs. Norris a very old cat. On top of that, Mrs. Norris had to have been living at Hogwarts for an ''extremely'' long time to memorize nearly every passageway in the castle. Not to mention the fact that she seems to know where Filch is at all times is a bit strange. Also, while some people can certainly be ridiculous about their pets, Filch and Mrs. Norris always seemed a bit ''too'' close. Like the scene in [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire the fourth movie]] where's he's dancing with her at the Christmas party? Creepy. Not to mention his over-the-top reaction to seeing Mrs. Norris petrified in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Chamber of Secrets]]''. In the book, he yells that he wants to see some "punishment." And, given the methods of punishment Filch would have really liked to use if he could have gotten away with it, he might as well have said "I want to see some ''torture!''" In the movie, [[IllKillYou he was a bit less ambiguous.]] As mentioned before, some people can get really ridiculous about their pets, but Filch seemed especially emotional. The answer? Mrs. Norris is really a witch - or, more specifically, an unregistered Animagus. She and Filch fell in love at some point during their younger days, but since he was a Squib, her parents didn't approve and she ended up marrying Mr. Norris instead. Then, if she wasn't already an Animagus beforehand, she became one, faked her own kidnapping and/or death to get away from her husband, and ran off with Filch to become his 'assistant.' But she has to stay in her cat form so no one ever figures out her identity. (Or alternatively, she somehow botched the transformation process and can't turn back, and Filch can't/won't tell anyone for fear of her being exposed.)

[[WMG: Some species of animals (not counting Magical Creatures such as hippogriffs and the like) have their own 'wizarding' gene.]]
* Only a select several species of animals are allowed at Hogwarts. Yes, this is partially for practicality purposes (the mess would be unbelievable if, say, dogs were allowed), but it seems strange that, out of so many small animals that could be practical to keep as pets in Hogwarts, only a handful are actually allowed, and all of them (except perhaps the toad) are animals that would not be or are not allowed to be kept as pets in the Muggle World. This suggests that the three selected animals, as well as the domesticated housecat (which seems to be a favored animal by witches) may have deeper connections to magic, despite not falling into the category of 'magical creatures.'

[[WMG: One of the members of the D.A. became the Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher by the Epilogue.]]
* This would have been more likely to be a member who, unlike the Trio and others, may have been too severely injured at the end of the battle to take part in full-time Auror work, and settled down to teach instead.
** This theory is supported by WordOfGod stating that Harry was brought in as a guest lecturer fairly often, indicating that the full-time prof was somebody that knew Harry knew his stuff.

[[WMG: Professor [=McGonagall=] and Augusta Longbottom were fellow Gryffindors, perhaps old friends and/or roommates in the same year]]
* [=McGonagall=] certainly had a good memory when it came to the fact that Augusta failed her Charms O.W.L. So, unless [=McGonagall=] tested Augusta (which seems unlikely, given that they were about the same age), she probably found out when the two compared test results as students. Also, [=McGonagall=] had to be fairly confident in her relationship with Augusta to write her a letter essentially telling off Augusta for not appreciating Neville as he was. Not to mention that she was a bit more warm with Neville - not so much as she was with the Trio, but also a bit more than other students.
** Additionally, her harsh punishment on Neville for dropping the long list of passwords (which, despite his bad memory, he likely wouldn't have needed if Sir Cadogan wasn't being an ass) was a BatmanGambit. She hadn't heard from Augusta in a while and wanted to talk to her, and knew Augusta would probably send a letter to the school after Neville told her what had happened.

[[WMG: Scorpius Malfoy, much to the shock of the Potter/Weasley children, is sorted into Gryffindor.]]
* Why not? WordOfGod says that Draco raised Scorpius to be a better person than he had been in his younger years. And presumably, part of that involved telling Scorpius about some of, if not all of, the mistakes he (Draco) had made during his school years. He probably got a bit of this (although probably not as much) from his grandparents as well. In the end, he might have wound up with the same bad taste in his mouth about Slytherin that a lot of the main characters had in their first year at Hogwarts.

[[WMG: Albus Severus does not get his wish. He is put in Slytherin by the Sorting Hat, who has no choice...]]
* ...because, in the years since the war, Slytherin House has been teetering on the brink of nonexistence. The war brought its reputation down to an all-time low and people began to wonder if the house itself was cursed. Long story short, the hat HAS to put some kids in Slytherin because hardly anyone wants to go willingly.
* The Albus Severus will be in Slytherin theory never made sense to me because Albus is resistant to the idea of being in Slytherin. He is worried that he will be arbitarily placed in Slytherin because his elder brother is trying to scare him. From what we see, it doesn't seem as though he has much Slytherin in him, personality-wise.
** Why do people ''insist'' that Slytherin is a bad House? There are people who fit there NATURALLY. It wouldn't become non-existent because nobody wants to go there because of it's reputation, it would continue to have the same amount of kids, because there ARE people who have Slytherin qualities. Slytherin isn't evil, and there actually are people who would still want to go there. Your theory makes absolutely no sense. There are people who belong there, it wouldn't become extinct just because there are no more Death Eaters. The hat is very forceful, and if it thinks you belong there, well, tough luck. Neville was begging to be a Hufflepuff, but was Gryffindor because that's the House he fits. In fact your theory actually contradicts itself. If the hat will force Albus, it can force other people. Ergo, Slytherin would never be "teetering on the brink of nonexistence". The hat won't just stick people where they don't belong. Harry could have gone anywhere, and the hat debated on Slytherin because Harry does have it's ambition, and, more importantly, part of Voldemort's SLYTHERIN soul in him. Harry as a person never shows much in the way of Slytherin qualities. It put him in Gryffindor because it knows Harry is a true Gryffindor. The Hat doesn't put people wherever just because the House is lacking. Albus would go wherever he belonged, just like everyone else.
*** OP here. That's exactly my point. Slytherin =/= evil, but in-universe, it wouldn't be so far-fetched for it to have a reputation as such after so many Death Eaters went through it. This was ''certainly'' the case in the first book, with sweeping generalizations such as "There isn't a witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin" - which was, of course, disproven by the appearance of Peter Pettigrew (who was sorted into Gryffindor.) Of course Slytherin House wasn't evil by default, but its reputation in the Wizarding World would have to take a hit considering that most of the top Death Eaters and Voldemort himself came from Slytherin House. And in the Wizarding World, many more of people's superstitions (like the suggestion that someone had cursed the D.A.D.A. Professor position at Hogwarts) turn out to be true. And as for suddenly ''forcing'' students to enter certain houses, there are some hints toward the hat being somewhat sentient...
** Alternatively, Albus is automatically sorted into Slytherin for having the ''ambition'' to make a name for himself that doesn't automatically make everyone think 'Harry Potter'.
*** ''Just'' Harry Potter? That might be understating things a bit. Try Harry Potter, Severus Snape (who was probably VindicatedByHistory), AND Albus freaking Dumbledore.
*** He wasn't. [[WordofGod]] says that even though Harry tried to clear Snape's name, everyone remembers him as the asshole who killed Dumbledore.
*** 'Snape's name everyone remembers him as the asshole who killed Dumbledore' where did you hear that? his portrait was placed with the Headmasters in Hogwarts. Source please.

[[WMG: Tonks is so [[CuteClumsyGirl clumsy]] because she's a metamorphmagus.]]
It must be tricky keeping everything symmetrical if you can give yourself a pig snout at will, right? And that's likely to make you a little uncoordinated; "two left feet" means "clumsy" for a reason. Not to mention that if she decides she feels like being 5' one day and 5'10" the next, she's likely to forget exactly how tall she is and, again, that's likely to throw you off balance. If she changes the shape of her eyes, she might see things differently and expect her field of vision to be different than it is, and not see something out the corner of her eye that she's about to whack into. So she's a little bit BlessedWithSuck.

[[WMG: The only way to produce a Patronus is if you're accepting of Muggles, Muggle-Borns, Squibs, and/or Blood-Traitors]]
* WordOfGod says that the only Death Eater who could produce a Patronus was Snape. Snape was (at least somewhat) accepting of Muggleborns, Muggles, and Squibs, because he fell in love/lust (there is really no denying that his relationship with her wasn't at least part-lust.) with one. None of the other Death Eaters could, because they were all for the slaughter of people with Muggle-blood, Squibs, and those who supported both. Snape, though it's made VERY CLEAR that he doesn't care about any other Muggleborns, Muggles, or Squibs apart from Lily, since he is stated to be very rude towards them (Lily says he calls everyone but her of Muggle birth that dirty M-word), and he is extremely rude to her sister ''specifically because she is a Muggle''. After she died, though, he wanted to protect her memory, and he still at least, supported those of Muggle-birth, as he is shown to hate the "dirty-blood" slurs (calling out Phineas Nigellus). Umbridge is a strange exception.
** Reputedly, Umbridge was only able to while she held the locket Horcrux. Personally, this troper thinks that Snape was able to because, despite all his flaws, what he did during the events of the books was out of ''love'' rather than of hate, which is how most Death Eaters operated.
** Or Umbridge actually got her jollies from having the existence of others in the palm of her hands. It actually crosses over into FridgeHorror territory when you think of it like that.

[[WMG: The {{Power of Love}} DID save Harry - just not Lily's Power of Love.]]
* I always thought that was kind of dodgy, surely Lily wasn't the first mother to sacrifice herself out of love for her child? An explanation recently hit me: Snape managed to get Voldemort to make an Unbreakable Vow to not kill Lily. When Lily threw herself in the way of the Killing Curse, Voldemort accidentally broke the Vow causing him to die. Harry's scar is a side-effect of the accidental Horocrux creation.
** Voldemort isn't nearly foolish enough to try to kill someone he has made an Unbreakable Vow not to kill. He did try to persuade Lily to walk away, perhaps because he knew how Snape felt and didn't want to alienate a powerful servant. But if he did make an Unbreakable Vow, there are lots of magical ways for someone as powerful as Voldemort to leave her alive while still getting her out of the way.
** I once saw a fanfic that used that exact explanation with the further explanation that Voldie was so pleased with Snape for his spy work that when he promised he'd spare Lily he well and truly meant it at the time when he gave his word to spare her life-and he had meant it so strongly his magic reacted. In other words it was an Unbreakable Vow created by accidental magic so he didn't ''know'' he'd made an Unbreakable Vow...

[[WMG: An expression of electrical technology that is as or more powerful (and/or as or more simplistic) as a given work of magic, yet simplistic enough to survive from startup to the point where it surpasses the magic, is in fact able to cause magic to malfunction in the same way that magic causes technology to malfunction, and thus the industrial and technological revolutions have affected wizarding society.]]
As we have so far seen, the likelihood of technology malfunctioning in the presence of magic has a direct correlation between the power and complexity of the magic and technology (respectively) and the probability of both a malfunction in general and how catastrophic said malfunction will be. My guess is that the inverse applies: If extremely powerful technology is "practiced" around sufficiently complex magic, that probability that said magic will fail tends toward 1. Magic, warping reality at a level similar to [[UsefulNotes/SchrodingersCat the absurdity experiments used to describe the hypothetically stupid effects of quantum physics at a macroscopic level]], is automatically much, ''much'' stronger than any technology available today, but also amazingly more complex in its spells' inner workings.\\
For example, if a wizard had attempted to turn a teapot into a wheelbarrow ''while'' the protagonists of the ''Film/OceansEleven'' remake set off the EMP bomb nearby, the transfiguration would have failed catastrophically and resulted in, say, a large, lopsided stone washbasin with a spout. However, if someone in the vicinity had attempted a simple candle-lighting charm moments later (during the blackout), using the typical amount of effort for such a spell, the candle would have flared up and taken their eyebrows with it.\\
Thus, technology has not only sent wizards into hiding because it allows muggles to better observe the world around them, but it has also become more difficult for wizards in muggle communities to practice magic. This is not to say that wizards in muggle communities are less ''adept'' at practicing magic; on the contrary, they would likely tend to develop stronger baseline magical ability, such as can be seen with Hermione Granger (one of the most powerful witches of her generation) and Harry Potter (a very, ''very'' promising wizard who neglects his ability and rarely bothers with practicing finesse in his work), who both spent most of their first seventeen years in modern muggle communities.\\
An additional and significant example of technology affecting wizarding society, and the primary drive behind this guess, is that the most complicated spells have died out ''because of technology''. As spells fall higher on the scale of power, the ratio of power to complexity reaches a point of diminishing returns, and thus they are more easily toppled by technology even though they are more powerful. Creating a basilisk, for example, would now only be possible in certain parts of Africa or the oceans (and other places where satellite coverage is less dense or nonexistent and ground-level technology is lacking), and even then only by being ''very'' careful in making sure every step went right, more careful than Salazar Slytherin would have had to have been. If the wizarding community had developed less complex versions of these powerful, complex spells, such as those which might have been discovered or developed by Voldemort, they might have still been able to complete such spells of staggeringly mighty result even to this day. As it is, they just collectively decided that the true means of recreating the effects of these spells had been lost, or that something prevented these old spells from being learned from books without knowledge of the theory behind them (being-transmitted knowledge, in the case of [[FanFic/HarryPotterAndtheMethodsOfRationality the Interdict of Merlin]]).\\
[[TooLongDidntRead To sum up]]: Technology interferes with magic if the magic is weaker or much more complex. This resulted in wizards being stronger, but the spells they can still cast being weaker.

[[WMG: If Harry had an animagus form, it would be...]]
* A spiny mud dauber (a ''hairy potter''), based on the theme naming from other animagi.
* An [[MemeticMutation otter]].
* A dog, but a more domesticated breed than Sirius' form. He's very loyal (almost unquestioningly so until Book 7), even if it ''has'' been trained into him by Dumbledore since age eleven, and he tends to go off half-cocked every time someone throws a (metaphorical) ball or tells him to do or not do something. Also, dogs are extremely normal, and the intense normality of Harry's full name is why the author chose it.
* A peregrine falcon, or ''possibly'' an osprey. What other animal form would be available to a seeker who could perform a Wronski Feint during his early puberty?
* A James' flamingo because it refers to his father's name and is named after ''Harry'' Berkeley ''James''. I also read a fanfic that had this as his animagus form.

[[WMG:The Bertie Bott's corporation has a promotional sponsorship deal with Hogwarts.]]
This is why Bertie Bott's Beans are used as a currency in the video games. They also set up the Bean Bonus Room as part of their promotional campaign.

Hogwarts was cash-strapped enough to have to accept corporate sponsorships during Harry's first few years there. After the whole Chamber of Secrets disaster, the school ended up with even less money for the next year, so they had to accept additional sponsorships from the Pumpkin Pasties and Cauldron Cakes companies. Eventually, the Triwizard Tournament made enough money for the school to do away with corporate sponsorships for the remainder of Harry's time at Hogwarts. They'll be back in a big way the year after ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]'', as the school rebuilds from the Battle of Hogwarts.

[[WMG: Wolfsbane Potion]]
For a while I thought the Wolfsbane Potion acted as a suppressant. But after some more consideration, it seems more likely to act as a tranquilizer. When Lupin is on the potion in werewolf form, he does little more then fall asleep. In the shrieking shack, the potion does nothing to suppress the werewolf mind, even though he HAD taken it many nights previous. Is the dosage taken on the night of the full moon the only important one? If so, why bother taking it on previous nights? It would probably take a very high dosage for a tranquilizer to knockout a werewolf, which further supports this theory.
* Lupin wasn't teaching class for periods of a week at a time. In many werewolf stories, werewolves will turn when the moon is "full enough". I've seen periods of a week, as well as periods of three nights. I also don't recall any indication that the night of the shrieking shack was anything other than the first night of the week of the full moon. And presumably, it has to be taken daily.

[[WMG: Arthur Weasley was put under the Imperius Curse during the First Wizarding War]]
During Fake-Moody's demonstration, he used two of the three Unforgivable Curses to screw with particular students. The Cruciatus to affect Neville, and Avada Kedavra to get Harry. When Ron mentions the Imperius curse, Fake-Moody says "You're father would know all about that one," implying first-hand experience. He then used the Imperious Curse, hoping to get at Ron, who likely doesn't know this part of his father's story. Consider that Arthur is held in high regard, seemingly almost as high as the Potters and the Longbottoms, yet is shown to be working a dead-end job and have little-to-no money. The high regard comes likely from his actions during the war. At some point, he was captured and placed under the Imperious Curse. Given his connections to the Order, especially the Prewitt family and Dumbledore, his mission would likely have been killing the Prewitts or even Dumbledore. However, in an extraordinary display of will, he broke free of the curse. Hoever, the strain of breaking free left him somewhat...damaged. This is why he is held in such regard.
* Arthur Weasley was familiar with the curse because members of the ministry were put under the curse, or so they claimed, which is what Moody said (at least in the movies, I can't recall what he said in the book). Although that doesn't disprove that Arthur might have been put under the curse, it wasn't the impetus in Moody's comment either.
* Alternate mission: It seems obvious that the Aurors had Voldemort's wand at some point, because everyone knows that Voldemort was killed via his own backfiring curse, which is easy knowledge to explain if they have his wand, but nearly impossible otherwise. And it doesn't seem like body-less Voldemort could have kept his wand with him anyway, so it should have been laying on the floor of the Potter house. But, at some point, Peter Pettigrew ended up with it...and we all know where he was living. So: Arthur was Imperioused, stole the wand from the Ministry, and was caught post-Obliviation with no memory of this. He was eventually released, but no one ever figured out what Death Eater he gave it to. (Because he actually just took it home and gave it to Peter, which would be nearly impossible for anyone to figure out, considering Peter isn't known to be a Death Eater and is known to be dead.)
* As a bonus, ''actually'' being under the Imperious Curse and getting caught while under it explains why Arthur is pissed at people like Lucius who ''lied'' about that.

[[WMG:Other ways to destroy a Horcrux.]]

* Dementors: Creatures that easily pull souls from a resisting human body - seems that they could easily take the fraction of a soul weakly tied to a Horcrux.

* Throwing through the Veil: Any object that has gone through the veil, living or inanimate, does not come out the other side. If the veil doesn't "kill" the portion of the soul thrown through the veil, it will leave it in a place where the soul cannot be reached by any means.

* "Touch this Object and You DIE" Curses: We do know of at least one object in the Potterverse that has been cursed to kill by a mere touch. However, none of the Horcruxes has this feature, even though Voldermort would have the ability to do so. Since he wasn't above a softer version, that killed anyone slowly if he put on the ring, it would explain this oversight if the soul is killed or the object can't be made into a Horcrux if it kills anything it touches.
** Dumbledore explicitly said that Voldemort wouldn't want to kill anyone who found his horcruxes immediately; he'd want to find out how they knew about his horcruxes. It also explains why the ring was killing Dumbledore slowly, rather than immediately.

* Poisons about as deadly as Basilisk Venom: If any magical poison is as strong as or stronger then the one found in the fangs of the chicken snake, one should assume it would hold true to any poison equal or greater in strength.

* NukeEm: The shockwave that crumbles buildings, the intense radiation, and mostly the heat that would vaporize just about anything seems like it would satisfy the "beyond magical repair" threshold needed to destroy a Horcrux.

[[WMG: The hocrux inside the locket and Ron]]
The locket seemingly works on Ron's self-esteem, at least that's what I got out of it, but what if that's wrong... What if the hocrux/locket streamed into Ron's memories every single Harmonian fic ever written. The ones where he's not good enough, where he's too stupid, where he's considered worthless.

[[RonTheDeathEater The ones where he's abusive, or a rapist, or a Death Eater]].

Not only would he have the feelings of inadequacy, but also the idea that, if he ''was'' with Hermione, he'd just make her miserable, and hurt her, and with that, he left them. Not only does he feel inadequate, he also is afraid that he'll hurt his friends, not realizing that him leaving hurt more than he would.

When he left the locket's influence, though, he realized that he had the choice to hurt those he loved or not, and he doesn't want to, so he went back.

[[WMG: The Ministry of Magic is a horribly run government]]

This is partially canon, with it being know that the Ministry of Magic is horribly corrupt, but it is worse then what was explored in the books. We already know that the Malfoys basically own the ministry, along with a handful of powerful pureblood families, likely what remains of an old nobility system. We also know that the ministry was putting up a face of inter species equality, but in effect is incredibly... would it be racism or speciesism? against other sentient beings. The only position that appears to be a matter of any kind of vote (with how much the vote counts seams to be somewhere between "minimal" and none), thus unpopular and very bad people have been able to hold all sorts of power, such as Umbirge. What would seam like very important parts such as random tampering of Muggles objects (just think of how badly that could go?) is both horribly understaffed, but also run by a man who tampers with muggles things himself, that have lead directly to at least one serious breach of wizarding secrecy. They also have few to none good international relations, unable to get any assistance against Voldermort period, with no signs of embassies or departments related to international affairs.

Rebellions have been a constant problem (at least twice over QUIDDITCH), yet they let the economy by the ones who have rebelled most, Goblins. The ministry has been overthrown by a group of less then 50 dark wizards using mind control curses. Their appears to be no form of either soft or hard constitution, nor any form of government oversight, which allows them to make one of the two newspapers run what ever they want, able to call full scale tribunals on the cases of underage magic, and make horribly laws that allow the termination of a large percent of the magical population on clearly false information.

[[WMG: Helena Ravenclaw is an illegitimate child]]
This is mostly to do with her surname. She bears her mother's surname, implying that her mother was not legitimately married to whoever the father was.
* But if Rowena were married a man with the last name Ravenclaw, it wouldn't be an issue for her daughter to have the same last name. I have my mother's surname because she took my father's when they got married. That's generally how things work. Plus, it explains why the symbol for Ravenclaw is an eagle, not a raven. Maybe her maiden name had something to do with eagles.
** By that logic, Godric Gryffindor changed his name to fit his wife's, since his symbol is a lion. Slytherin is the only one with a clear connection between his name and his symbol.
* Or it's possible that Rowena married 'down' - that is, fell in love with a man of lower social class. In which case, he took her surname instead of the other way around. It wasn't completely unheard of.
** And by 'down', we could mean 'muggle'. Which would also explain Helena's apparent inferiority complex. The truth is that exceptional skills at magic in general have nothing to do with 'blood purity', and do not seem to run in families anyway, as neither Dumbledore or Voldemort's magical family members seem very powerful. However, it seems reasonable for Helena to ''think'' her 'averageness' is due to being half-blood, which would explain her issues with her mother.
** Alternately, of course, she might not have married the Muggle at all, or married him in a Muggle marriage the Wizarding world didn't recognize.
* Alternately, the four founders were only given those surnames retroactively. The founding of the school would have been sometime in the ninth or tenth century, and family names did not come into use in the British Isles until several hundred years later.
* There's more evidence for this theory than the surname, or at least evidence for ''something'' odd. The books state that Rowena was desperate to find her daughter before she died, but not a single mention is made of the father, either helping look for Helena or being with Rowena as she died, which seems a rather glaring oversight in the history unless this was a subject you Don't Talk About. Even Helena doesn't talk about him! (It's possible, though, that he was dead at the time and thus completely irrelevant to the story.)

[[WMG:Eileen Prince was bullied by Gryffindors during her time at Hogwarts.]]
* It's a known fact that Gryffindors not mature in their traits could be quite brutal to people they disliked. One would imagine that being captain of the Gobstones team at Hogwarts was somewhat analogous on a social totem pole to being the leader of the Chess club at your local muggle high school because Gobstones is, essentially, wizarding marbles. It seems strange that Snape, on his first train ride to Hogwarts, shows almost immediate contempt for Gryffindor unless there was some prior experience there.

[[WMG:Neville took the herbology professor job because he had a kid]]
* Word of God says that Neville was an auror for awhile before he became a herbology teacher. Although he was shown to be good at both, it seems like a strange jump in careers. However, if he found out his wife was pregnant, he might not have wanted to be in such a dangerous field, not because he was worried for his own safety, but because he didn't want his kids to grow up without a father, the way he had to.

[[WMG:General Winter is the codename of a line of Russian Wizards that make use of weather control against invaders]]
Isn't it a bit strange that both Napoleon and Hitler got the worst possible weather for their invasions?
** They didn't get "the worst possible weather." They got ''Russian'' weather. Their mistake was trying to campaign too long and (in Hitler's case) invading Russia too late. If Hitler and Napoleon had stopped, dug in and consolidated lines of supply, they would have had intact campaign forces for the summer of campaigning. They didn't bother, and got stomped.

[[WMG:The previous Prime Minister tried to kill Fudge on purpose, and was Margareth Thatcher]]
This is due a previous WMG that supposed a crossover. In this one, Margaret Thatcher already knew of magic for eleven years, and when Fudge announced he was the new one she proved herself a wonderful judge of character and tried to help Wizarding Britain by killing him. Sadly, Fudge wasn't so easy to kill, and survived, with the results we all know. On why Fudge called her a 'he'... Guys, smarter people than Fudge mistook Margaret Thatcher for a man...
** Alternatively, the two abrasive personalities in the same room, well, one thing led to another...

[[WMG: [=McGonagall=] found Moaning Myrtle's body in the toilet...]]
...when she was a student herself in the 1940s. Olive Hornby was the last person to see her alive, but we're not sure who found her ''dead''. [=McGonagall=]'s the right age, she ''knows'' things about this and...mostly it's just for symmetry with the "Claude's ghost is haunting the bathroom" WMG on the ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'' page.
** {{Jossed}}. [=McGonagall=] ''was'' a student in the 1940s, but she started in 1946 (birth date was 1935). Myrtle died in 1942 - [=McGonagall=] would have been about 7.

[[WMG: Death Eaters Killed Mr. and Mrs. Evans]]
Lily and Petunia's parents were killed by death eaters, either as part of random muggle killings or directly because of Lily's involvement in the Order. Either way, this explains why Harry has no maternal grandparents, and also explain why Petunia, in addition to jealousy of Lily's powers, has such a fervent hatred of the magical world -- she, like Harry, lost her entire family to Voldemort. But instead of blaming Voldemort, she blames the entire existence of magic and prefers to deny its existence and live a "normal" life.
* Jossed. Jo says there is "nothing sinister" about either their or James' parents' deaths.

[[WMG: Mark Evans was in fact a distant relation of Harry.]]
Yes, "Evans" is a fairly common name, but it's not impossible that both Mark and Harry share a common Evans ancestor. It's not that uncommon for descendants of one family to live in the same general vicinity, while at the same time the various branches often do lose touch with one another over the generations, especially if one side starts displaying more magical tendencies than the rest. Mark Evans and his people may have been a third cousin once removed or the like in regards to Harry; they may have heard of Lily's death as a family tragedy, but it had no immediate effect on them other than general condolences, and the overly proper Dursleys saw no need to pursue any further connections.

[[WMG: No magical creature in the wizarding world existed before the myth or myths attributed toward it.]]
* Herpo the Foul was inspired by Pliny the Elder's description of the King of Serpents, and "invented" the Basilisk via a spell-laced ritual.
* Some Saxon wizard, wanting to safeguard his riches, created a fire-breathing reptile in line with local tales, and others capitalized on it.
* Several ancient Greek wizards, in jest at first, recreated various monsters from tales told to them at a young age.
* Several sentient beings were made in model with several old tales, but they ended up rebelling, and became races in their own right.
* A few witches and wizards, feeling malicious, recreated mythic diseases from Muggle ghost stories, which rebounded horrifically.
* Of course, many magical creatures were made that had no connection to myths; in fact, a lot were made to satisfy a particular wizard's need, or on a whim.
* Naturally, each and pretty much every one of these creatures, magical as they were, went mostly wild.

[[WMG: Salazar Slytherin was descended from snakes.]]
Or was himself a snake, made into a man. There seems to be little other explanation as to why or how he'd be able to pass the gift of Parseltongue to his distant descendants, when it can be learned just as well. Some other ancient wizards might've once been serpents as well, such as Herpo the Foul.

[[WMG: "Avada Kedavra" was one of the first spells.]]
While many spells have roots in [[CanisLatinicus Latin]] or English, the Killing Curse [[WordOfGod (according to J.K. Rowling)]] stems from an old Aramaic charm, used to cure illnesses. Given etymology, the Killing Curse could very well have been discovered by accident. "Alohomora", hailing from the Sidiki of West Africa, might also be quite older than most spells.

[[WMG: The "green flash" people see sometimes at sunset is actually wizards far far away on the horizon trying to kill each other.]]
Just because.

[[WMG: All the Horcruxes (except Harry and possibly Nagini) had malicious magic placed on them]]
* The ring is obvious, that was a normal curse plus probably some sort of compulsion to put it on.
* The diary included some of Voldemort's memories in addition to his soul (Remember, memory embedding is done all the time with paintings and whatnot. Presumably that's a spell.), and a spell to suck someone's soul into the Horcrux and let the memories and Voldemort's soul back out.
* The locket is interesting. Many people assume that was purely the effects of being around Voldemort's soul...but that clearly doesn't make sense, as Harry's been around Voldemort's soul his entire life. Also it seems strange that a soul could rear up and attack people like that. So there seems to be a specific spell on it causing it to put horrible thoughts in people's ears.
* The one on the Diadem of Ravenclaw? It's the DADA position curse! Assuming that Voldemort hid it on his way down after being rejected for the position, it makes perfect sense. And explains why he hide it in Hogwarts...perhaps it has to be located there to work. And yet a check for malicious magic won't find it, hidden as it was in the Room of Requirement.
* The cup is unknown, it didn't show up long enough, but would possibly attempt to make people drink from it at some point, perhaps poisoning them. Although that's a retread of the ring.

[[WMG: Voldemort did not hide the Diadem of Ravenclaw in the Room of Lost Things]]
There's no possible way to think 'No one has ever found this room before' when looking the Room of Lost Things, which is full of a thousand years of junk. Clearly, people are in and out all the time. (In fact, there's a real question of just how much stuff got there, even with house elves using it as a trash can.)

But instead, let's look at the other way: You get the Room of Lost Thing by asking for somewhere to hide things. Perhaps the Room of Requirement is very unoriginal, so it can't think of anything to fill such a room with. So when you ask for that, it goes and gets ''everything anyone ever left behind'' in the Room of Requirement, and piles it up.

It puts the junk in the same location each time because people inevitable want to find their stuff again, creating the illusion that each thing has a 'place' and the Room of Lost Things exists all the time and has that stuff in it. But it's just recreating it from the stuff that house elves threw away and other people left behind in the DA room and stuff like that.

In other words, if someone leaves a textbook in the DA room, it would show up in the Room of Lost Things somewhere next time someone called that up. And, obviously, it would show back up in the DA room also if someone recreated that. When no room is active, it's in Hammerspace somewhere. (For some Fridge Horror, imagine what happens when you come out of a Vanishing Cabinet in Hammerspace.)

So basically Voldemort thought he found ''some other'' room, and never realized the Room of Requirement was anything other than that specific room. He hide the Diadem in 'that' Room, never realizing that he had entirely created the place out of thin air. And it got used the next time someone created a room filled with unspecified stuff.

This raises some interesting questions of what room Voldemort thought he found. Considering he spent years looking for the Chamber of Secrets, perhaps he first found 'The Room to Show The Heir of Slytherin Where the Chamber of Secrets Was' or something like that, and the Room, in fact, showed him. Or perhaps he was also looking for a secret room to have to do with Ravenclaw, which is why he left the Diadem there.

* Or maybe it wound up in the Room of Lost Things because, y'know, Voldemort ''actually did'' lose the darn thing.
* Or perhaps because there's so many things in the Room of Lost Things, it would be inconspicuous unless you're actively looking for it.

[[WMG: The wizard in the portrait in the muggle prime minister's office is an ancestor of Dolores Umbridge]]
Well, the only description we get of him is that he's small, ugly, and frog-like, and he announces himself with a distinctive cough...

[[WMG: The horcruxes have progressively smaller soul fragments]]
The first time Voldemort made a horcrux, his soul probably split directly in half. So half went into the first horcrux (the diary?) and half stayed in Voldy. Well, that means each horcrux has less and less soul -- the next would only have 1/4 of a soul, the one after that only 1/8, and so forth. The earliest horcrux, the diary, was sentient in its own right and could possess people. The ring, which was the second, was able to effectively kill Dumbledore. The third, the locket, was able to exert evil influence on Ron but couldn't act directly. So Harry, being the last horcrux, has a very small soul fragment, which is able to talk to snakes and has flashes into the mind of the original, but isn't very powerful on its own. Of course, by extension Voldy himself would have the same size of soul fragment as Harry, but perhaps because it's in the original body / has access to the others, it's more potent?
** Since he planned from the beginning to make seven, it's more logical that he would put 1/7 in each (in so far as it makes sense to talk about actual amounts of soul, that is....)

[[WMG: A Duckbilled Platypus is a magical creature]]
But the magical government of Australia managed to screw things up so badly the ICW has given up on ever getting their existence back under the Statute of Secrecy. It helps that they are rather hostile and don't do anything that is obviously magical from a distance.

[[WMG:The Fat Friar is the ghost of the RealLife "Grey Friar"]]
* The term ''eminence grise'', essentially meaning TheManBehindTheMan, comes from an influential advisor to Cardinal Richelieu who was known as the "Grey Friar" -- basically a figure who organised The Terror from the back room. HufflepuffHouse, as the trope they gave their name to implies, are never in the spotlight and nobody knows what they're supposed to be good at, and the mascot of their house is similarly obscure. So, what are Hufflepuffs good at? Getting stuff done without drawing attention to themselves. Keeping a low profile, and encouraging people to think of them as {{Living Prop}}s, if they think of them at all. Getting their powerful friends to do their dirty work. Kind of a change of image from the [[Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook "bumbling badger of mediocrity"]], no? Suddenly, I find myself wondering what shadowy intrigues they managed to orchestrate while Harry and Voldemort were causing all that noisy commotion... -JohnNye
** So they're something that looks cute and harmless while secretly being totally badass? Makes [[FridgeBrilliance even more damn sense]] if you know anything of the true nature [[http://www.badassoftheweek.com/honeybadger.html of the honey badger.]]
** Looks cute and harmless while secretly being totally badass? Sounds like Nymphadora Tonks to me! (Who incidentally, is a Hufflepuff)

[[WMG: A LOT of Muggleborns from the 80s can see Thestrals]]
The ability to see Thestrals is caused when you see someone die and understand exactly what death is. [[FatalMethodActing Magician Tommy Cooper died on live television of a heart attack, and his death was announced later]]. Now, [[FridgeHorror who's to say that quite a lot of young Muggleborns were watching?]] The reason Harry didn't, you may ask? He was 2-3 and the Dursleys are bastards. I'd expect someone Percy's age to see them, however.

[[WMG: Harry did end up getting [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince that tattoo of a Hungarian Horntail on his chest]].]]
And how? Completely unintentionally! Voldemort's first Avada Kedavra to Harry hit him in the forehead and gave him his lightning scar. The second AK, however, which Voldemort cast in the forest, hit Harry in the chest, and in the process carved the macho Hungarian Horntail with his spell.

[[WMG: The wizarding community allied with the Dementors in Roman times.]]
It fit with the Roman view of punishment. It would also explain how medieval Muggles confused the innate, neutral abilities of the wizarding community with the dealings with evil spirits that people traditionally referred to as witches had.

[[WMG:The basilisk in the Chamber of Secret is not there to kill Muggle-borns.]]
Why? Because it ''somehow'' manages to kill only one of them in dozen times it is let loose. Either that's some really crazy coincidences, or it's deliberately petrifying people instead of killing them. And the one time it does kill a witch that witch appears to have accidentally opened a door and looked straight at it, so that might have been an accident, or perhaps Riddle deliberately had it to kill that one time, as he was making a Horcrux.

Now, yes, it is apparently roaming around talking about killing people...but then fails essentially to kill any wizards, which raises an interesting question: Maybe this is all a horrible misunderstanding, or deliberately distorted history, and Salazar Slytherin put there to kill ''Muggles'', not Muggle-born wizards, in case they invaded? And, for safety, it reversibly petrifies any Muggle-born wizards until which side they are on can be determined.
* This fits in with a theory above, that the Basilisk is Salazar's nasty surprise for any invading Muggle army. It also seemed suspiciously convenient to me that the Basilisk, which is essentially designed to kill anything it looks at, would somehow manage to not kill so many students. At the time, I thought it was just Rowling not wanting her book to get too dark (what happened to that sentiment?), but I like the idea that the Basilisk was deliberately holding off on the use of lethal force on muggle-borns. The only confirmed kill by the Basilisk is Myrtle, when it was coming out of the entrance to the chamber, and may not have known she was there. That may have been an accident, or Riddle may have gotten tired of the Basilisk being so much of a softie, and deliberately brought it out into the bathroom specifically to kill Myrtle. We do know that Slytherin enchanted the Basilisk to obey the orders of any descendant of himself, presumably so they could defend Hogwarts if he had died. Presumably, he also left enough clues to his descendants that they would be able to find the Chamber in the event of an emergency, and Hogwarts needed to be defended.


[[WMG:Lily and Petunia Evans' '''parents''' were Squibs.]]
Which is why they were so extremely happy that Lily was a witch,and may explain why
Lily was allowed to use magic at home (they knew how the tracking system actually worked).

[[WMG:Lily and Petunia are actually the same person.]]
In some of of literal split personality way.Maybe it was from spontaneous magic,or
maybe Snape did it deliberately, but this is why Lily is all good and Petunia is all bad.
* There are a few issues with this. 1, it's not fair to say that Lily is all good (we only see idealized images of her from Harry and Snape's memories) and that Petunia is all bad (she'll never win Aunt of the Year, but she loves her immediate family and took Harry in when she didn't have to); 2, it would have had to happen when they were younger than 11 because Petunia has hated (or at least been jealous of) Lily's magic since she found out about it and both existed separately when they were in school and both shortly thereafter got married and had sons; 3, Mr & Mrs Evans would probably have noticed that they used to have one daughter but suddenly have two and, being muggles, thought that was a bit off; and 4, how would that even work? If it were intentional magic, it'd have to be some ancient, forbidden, dark magic (you can't just create a person out of thin air and you'd have to make up at least half a person twice to do it and would splitting someone into two involve splitting the soul? Would that make one or both of them a horcrux? I don't think Snape killed anyone in his childhood and the way Voldemort's soul going into Harry's body let him speak parseltongue seems to imply that the non-magical half would at least have ''some'' magic which Petunia definitely does not) and splitting a person into two people does not seem like the type of magic that can happen accidentally because it would be pretty common if wizarding babies could do it and splitting someone seems like it would take a lot of effort, power and concentration.


[[WMG: Harry and Ginny moved to Ottery St. Catchpole to start their family.]]
* Harry obviously inherited 12 Grimmauld Place from Sirius, but he likely wouldn't have wanted to stay and raise a family there, given all the bad memories - to say nothing of the portrait of Walburga Black and the fact that the house itself was creepy and depressing anyway, even ''before'' the War. Not to mention that, in Ottery, Harry would have had the room and the funds to build a much nicer house, where he could also be close to his in-laws and bring the children up around wizards instead of in a wizarding house shoehorned into a Muggle neighborhood. Also, the factor of Ginny being a former professional athlete and Harry being, well, Harry, living in London would have gotten them way more attention than either one of them would have wanted. So they moved out to the country. As for Grimmauld Place? Harry would use it as a rest stop of sorts if necessary if his work required him to stay in London for any period of time.

[[WMG: At one point in his life Ollivander picked up a muggle pencil...]]
...and immediately said "Ah, 7.5 inches, firm, balsa wood with a graphite core."
* Alternatively, "Cedar with a graphite core, 7 3/8 inches."
* In fact (in a WMG sense of the word fact) witches/wizards can't use pencils, or pens for that matter, because in their hands they act as crappy out of control wands.
* But somewhere out there is that one wizard who picks up a pencil and since the wand chooses the wizard, his wand is a number 2 pencil.

[[WMG: Snape is the Heir of Grindelwald.]]
Grindelwald raped a British pure-blood woman sometime during his reign of terror. This woman was engaged to a guy from the Prince family, whom she eventually married. She gave birth to Grindelwald's child, naming her Eileen. Eileen went on to marry Tobias Snape, and then they gave birth to Severus.
* Jossed.
[[LukeIAmYourFather That's right. Gellert Grindelwald is actually Snape's great-grandfather.]] It would explain Sirius's comment that Snape "knew more curses when he arrived at Hogwarts than half the kids in seventh year" (assuming he wasn't bullshitting to make Snape look bad), since he inherited it from dear old great-grandpa Gellert.

[[EvilIsCool Stop looking at me like that. You all think it's cool, I'm just saying it.]]

[[WMG: Blaise Zabini's mother is a master potioneer and/or very adept with the Imperius Charm.]]
* This might go a long way toward explaining Zabini's presence in the "Slug Club" in Half-Blood Prince. Even for Slughorn it seems a bit dubious to associate oneself with a guy whose claim to fame is that his mom keeps coming up with money after her rich husband mysteriously snuffs it. On the other end of that, at about the sixth husband, someone had to have gotten a clue and thought, "But the first five guys this lady married all wound up dead..." Which indicates that, in order to keep doing the same thing over and over again without getting caught, there was likely some spellwork involved. Which dives ''right'' into FridgeHorror if you consider that Blaise himself [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything might have been conceived under the effects of a Love Potion.]]

[[WMG: Ariana Dumbledore's eyes were green.]]
* That's why Dumbledore frequently tells Harry that 'he has his mother's eyes' (namely green eyes)-because looking at Harry reminds him of Ariana.
** [[http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Ariana_Dumbledore HPWiki sez]] Ariana's eyes were bright blue/dark.

[[WMG: The Statute of Secrecy was due to the Enlightenment]]
The fact that Wizards are hiding because 'muggles would expect us to solve all their problems' was explicitly stated at one point, despite the fact that various other people seem to think it had to do with witch burnings, although it's also pointed out that this is mostly wrong. So let's supposed the first is true. The Statute of Secrecy was first created in 1689 and signed into law in 1692. Let's check what happened in 1689 to see if we can pinpoint it.

''Isaac Newton was elected to English Parliament in 1689''.

So he then spent his entire time there demanding that Wizards work for the Crown, specifically demonstrate how magic worked, so that everyone eventually could have magic. Until he could get everyone magic, he proposed some sort of draft for wizards where they had to work for the government. This eventually reached the point that the Wizards had to Obliviate the entire English government (Which resulted in history remembering Isaac Newton as doing exactly nothing in Parliament, as every single thing he did was connected to magic.), and forming their own government and a sort of 'treaty' with the Muggles three years later.
** Several of the published "text" books (such as Quidditch Through the Ages) noted that wizards had been keeping themselves to themselves since at very least the Middle Ages, with the witch burning (which, I admit, didn't really work) and Muggle's hatred of them. Also, remember it was the INTERNATIONAL Statute of Secrecy, signed into law by all the magical governments of the world.
** 'Wizards were keeping to themselves' actually helps the theory. If the two worlds have reached a sort of agreement where they each kept to themselves, the Enlightenment was exactly the thing to blow the peace wide open, as scientists not only stop fearing wizards, but kept making demands of them.
** And the 'international' part is rather hard to explain no matter what. It makes no sense for the entire magical world to have felt persecuted either (Wizards in India were persecuted? Wizards in China? Native American wizards? How did the history books miss those witch burnings?), which is the ''other'' explanation. The best explanation is that the date of 1689/1692 is when ''England'' started secrecy and other countries agreed later. Probably Europe first, and then forced onto colonies, and finally the entire world. This would also explain why the ICW, who is in charge of enforcing it, is based in England.

[[WMG: [[HumanoidAbomination Dementors]] are TheCorruption.]]

Remember what Lupin said about dementors? They turn you into "''something like itself.''" What if that was literal? It's mentioned that they breed... what if the [[YourSoulIsMine Kiss]], if extended, could turn you into a dementor?
* Holy crap this theory makes [[NightmareFuel WAY too much sense.]] Dementors seem to have some form of sentience and independence, as they seemed quite content to serve as the ministry's enforcers before Voldemort came along. What if a dementor is a person that has had their own soul sucked out and in turn becomes a soul-sucker in the attempt to fill the void of their own soul not being there? That seems to fall in line with the FateWorseThanDeath wizards say that the Dementor's Kiss is. After all, wouldn't it be more efficient (and actually somewhat more humane) to execute the most severe criminals by Avada Kedavra or something? But forcing them to live the rest of their existences as a Dementor that (up until post-war) does the Ministry's bidding? No wonder the lot of them turned against wizardkind the first chance they got.
** Jossed. As cool as it sounds it's wrong. What happens is that in book 3 it was mentioned, for a brief moment, that dementors breed (They breed off the grounds but still) So unless the Ministry brought some prisoners along... Also when you have the kiss you loose your soul but you still live. The reason why it's a fate worse then death is because 1. You can't go to heaven or where ever people go when they die and 2.You just exist. You feel no emotions, you have no want or hate, you just exist. You basically turn into a doll. So it's a way, a very cruel way, of dealing with the worst criminals without killing them. You just wait for them to die. Also if you tell a soulless person to do something, they do it. Eat, sleep, walk. They can do the basics.
** Do the basics? Really? [[WordOfGod Rowling]] says that the effects of the Kiss put a person into a Persistent Vegetative State. Otherwise, the kissing of Barty Crouch Jr. wouldn't have been such a big problem. The fact that Barty Crouch Jr. couldn't talk about Voldemort's return is pretty much the one event (even more than Voldemort's return itself) that sets off the main plot of Book 5.

[[WMG: The Dementors were already under orders from Voldemort to kiss Barty Crouch Jr. if he got captured in his mission at Hogwarts.]]
* It was all part of Voldemort's plan. And would have had several benefits. First off, the only thing that could trump Veritaserum was Crouch not being able to talk at all. Second, Voldemort knew there would come a point where Fudge, as idiotic and power-hungry as he was, could no longer ignore the obvious signs. At the time, Voldemort's army was not nearly enough to take on the full weight of Wizarding Britain. Thus, he was able to divert the attention of much of Wizarding Britain by manufacturing a power struggle between Dumbledore and Fudge. This not only served to destabilize Dumbledore, but also fractured the relationship between The Ministry and Harry to the point that Harry would never again seek their aid. It obviously would have made for a less compelling story, but things might have turned out a bit differently if the Ministry had spent Harry's fifth year looking for Death Eaters instead of running a smear campaign against Harry and Albus Dumbledore. That eleven months or so of stall time was enough for Voldemort to build his army to the point where he could bring the war back into the open.

[[WMG: ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Chamber of Secrets]]'' had rape overtones in its narrative that may have been intentional.]]
Think about it. Young girl forms a trusting/confidant relationship with an older male 'friend' she doesn't know much about - a 'friend' who gets his jollies on domination and sociopathic behavior, by the way, and is willing to humor this little girl for as long as it suits his needs. After some of her encounters with him, she blacks out and wakes up not knowing what happened. She feels dirty inside and can't really explain why. And at the end of it all, she ends up being kidnapped and lured by this 'boy' into a place called The Chamber of Secrets, where she is meant to be used for his ends. For God's sake, the entire thing plays out like something straight out of ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''.

Note, I am ''not'' saying that Ginny was physically raped by Diary!Tom Riddle, although I certainly would not have put it past him. After all, Riddle was said to have done something to one of the orphanage girls that was extremely traumatic and [[NoodleIncident about which we readers can only speculate.]] But the interaction between Riddle and Ginny plays out like an allegorical rape. Which also explains Ginny's reaction to the Dementors in book 3. By then, she'd had about two or three months to process the gravity of what had happened to her, which is enough time to realize how bad it was but not enough time to start healing. She's also DemotedToExtra in books 3 and 4, which may indicate that it took her a couple of years to get over her own personal demons even ''before'' Harry started having some real issues in books 4 and 5. Then Harry falls in love with her because she's the only person he knows that has gone through nearly as much interaction with Voldemort as he has.

J.K. came out on record as saying that Ginny was Harry's 'ideal girl', and, as she also said that Harry, by his mid-teens, had less sexual experience than other boys his age - make of that what you will. What this troper makes of it is that Harry didn't have a 'type.' He didn't have nearly enough experience with girls to have a 'type' that he liked in particular. He was physically attracted to Cho, but the relationship didn't work once it got rollingbecause he was seeking from her what he eventually found in Ginny - someone who had a small understanding of his burden. Note how he gets over Cho rather quickly; he knew that she didn't - and couldn't - get it. But Ginny did because of the above experience, and that's why she and Harry ended up together.

[[WMG: The Resurrection Stone works]]
But not in a very useful way. It pierces the veil, allowing someone to pull someone they love back from death...but sends the user towards death, because there is EquivalentExchange. You can't 'create' life using magic, but you can 'swap' life. (Which is demonstrated in the similar example of Ginny and the diary. And note the Resurrection Stone returnees in Deathly Hallows are explicitly compared to the Riddle from the Diary.)

So if both people love each other equally, they're each pulling each other to life, so they both end up in a sort of half-life. Which, as we were told back in the first book, is not a state that normal people can stand. Hence the suicide in the Beedle the Bard tale, although it's been a bit simplified and didn't say the user of the Stone was also 'sad and cold'.

Harry brought four people across, which resulted in five people sharing one 'life', so we're probably pretty lucky he only did it for a few minutes, or he would have become fairly sad and cold and suicidal...hey, wait a second. 'He felt a chilly breeze...his body and mind felt oddly disconnected...'

Meanwhile, there is one circumstance where the resurrection stone does work. If someone tried to bring back someone they loved, but who didn't love them back, the stone would work perfectly. They'd succeed in pulling that person to the side of life, while trapping themselves in death.

[[WMG: The Philosopher's Stone was purposefully easy to get]]
The teachers didn't want everybody to die (which tends to happen to people who don't have access to the stone) but realized to pointlessness of trying to talk Flamel or Dumbledore into releasing it, so they made the obstacles purposefully easy to pass. Also, I notice that potion room only looks stupid because we all know that the potion pointed to is the one that works. Dumbledore presumably didn't check, and either assumed or was told that it was there on the off chance that it could get someone to drink one of the potions.

[[WMG: Aberforth did not get in trouble for screwing a goat, but for cursing a Muggle sports team.]]
In fall 1945 he was visiting a friend who had moved to the States, and said friend (in the Muggle Liason department) talked him into going to a baseball game. He tried to bring a goat along, and was told to leave. He jinxed the Chicago Cubs in his anger. It just so happened that there was a local Muggle tavern keeper who had goats, a few Muggles escaped the Memory Charm, and so [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_the_Billy_Goat a legend formed around the Muggle tavern keeper]].

[[WMG: The Dusleys were tongue-tied into keeping the truth from Harry.]]
In "Philosopher's Stone", when Hagrid lashes out at the Dursleys for not telling Harry anything, Vernon Dursley whisper "something that sounded like 'Mimblewimble'". Mimble Wimble is the incantation for the tongue-tying spell and in a later book Dumbledore tells Harry that he wanted Harry to grow up as normal and happy as possible, which is why telling him the whole Horrible Truth was stretched out over seven books.

[[WMG: The Marauder's stole the "Half-Blood Prince" potion book at one point, which led to the confrontation in the flashback.]]
In the flashback in Book 5, James is shown to know the "Levicorpus" spell - which was created, of course, by Snape. Lupin mentioned once in passing that the spell enjoyed a "vogue" at one point during their Hogwarts days, which could indicate that James and Sirius, who were explicitly said ''by Hogwarts professors'' as being precursors to Fred and George Weasley, showed people the spell ("Hey, look what I can do!") in an effort to garner more popularity. While, of course, Snape stewed in some corner because James and Sirius were getting kudos for the spell ''he'' created. In any case, at some point, they perused Snape's book and saw the note for the "Sectumsempra" spell. ("For enemies.") They likely didn't know what it did, but James at least knew that Snape had some weird company and was way too fascinated with the Dark Arts. It would be tantamount to looking inside the journal of the weird kid at school and finding gun schematics. So James and Sirius might have had it at the back of their head that Snape may snap and go on a killing spree one day, which may have had something to do with why James eventually left Snape alone after a while.
* Part of the problem with this theory is that Snape's potion's book is the 6th year book, and thus student's wouldn't have normally had it in 5th year or before, so couldn't have been stolen before the incident we saw. However, we know the book was second hand, and the logical theory is that the book was originally his mother's. And thus Snape, being a Potions Nerd, could conceivable have started reading it and making notes in it well before his sixth year...and could have it stolen before then. (Hey, Snivellus, can't think of anything better to do with your time than read NEWT-level potion books?)
** That last parenthetical sentence is probably ''exactly'' what happened. Snape was a TeenGenius. Sirius explicitly says that Snape knew more curses and hexes when he got on the first train to Hogwarts than a lot of seventh years. And Snape clearly had possession of that book before his sixth year. Since it was his mother's, I daresay it was even a keepsake of his. He inscribed the notes for Levicorpus and Sectumsempra into it, and those spells were perfected and being used by him and the Marauders during OWL year at the very latest. I mean, Hermione was studying NEWT-level charms in her spare time during her OWL year, so that shouldn't be thoroughly unbelievable.
* Either that, or Snape taught it to someone. I mean, if someone saw him use some sort of spell they'd never seen before, perhaps an older or popular Slytherin, I imagine that person would be interested in learning the spell. A bit of flattery on the weird loner kid, and a bit of acting impressed with his ability to create magic would probably be enough to get him to share any and all new magic he's been developing.

[[WMG: Hagrid is an Occulmens]]
Obviously he is, or Quirrel wouldn't have bothered risking breaking his cover accidentally whilst playing cards with Hagrid. Either that or Legillimency leaves traces that another like Snape could notice. But it would have solved Quirrel's problem right away, zap the eye contact then leave to get the stone.
* No. Occlumency is a very rare and forbidden craft. Hagrid does not possess the emotional control that is needed to become an Occlumens. And occlumencers are rare. Hagrid is also a half giant (some magic doesn't work against him or does less then intended) and not too bright. He's very trusting and fun to be around and he's also a bit of a drunk. Quirrel probably just thought that Hagird was safe to be around and that he wouldn't be suspicious. He was right if I am correct. So I guess I'm saying it's jossed but maybe word of god will prove me wrong.
** Legilimency is also a pretty rare craft, though I don't know how "forbidden" Occlumency is. Quirrel was presumably competent, but the only people we see who can actually perform Legilimency are Dumbledore, Voldemort, and Snape. Quirrel may not have a high enough level to use it.
** Maybe because Hagrid is a [[HalfHumanHybrid half-giant]] he has some protection against Legilimency attacks because his mind is "too alien to read."

[[WMG: Umbridge was literally soulless.]]
Like how Voldemort was magically and possibly biologically missing something, Umbridge was missing something that makes humans (and emotionally human-like beasts and beings), well, human, at least in the figurative sense. The thing she was missing was or was part of or encompassed that which dementors eat during the Kiss, and which kills your mind, spirit, and (if you're lucky) autonomic processes if it or something to which it is attacked is removed. The last thing we saw of Umbridge, she was unconscious in a room full of hungry dementors with no patronus. The last thing we hear of her? WordOfGod that she's in Azkaban. Not St. Mungo's, not a cemetery, ''Azkaban''. The most [[FridgeHorror disturbing]] part of this is that not only are they absolute worse and most literally inhuman dregs of the human species immune to wizardry's greatest punishment, but that the punishment is practically the only reason some inhabitants of Azkaban ''stay'' in Azkaban (since the walls and doors seem to be just concrete, wood, and steel, and the crippling depression has been counteracted multiple times in canon), and ''they know it''. If Umbridge figures out how to get out of Azkaban's physical location without attracting the attention of the Aurors on the top floor (not difficult if her cell is anywhere near an outside wall), all she'd need to do would be to tread water or swim until reaching land (even if that land is a tiny island covered in quintapeds) and wait until her magic began to recover.\\
In one small comment, possibly one she hadn't even thought about before the question was asked, Rowling accidentally confirmed that there are people potentially more dangerous than Voldemort, and the only thing keeping them in line is the only thing that can't kill them which is deadly to a normal wizard or muggle.\\
(Oh, and yes, I know Umbridge is most likely quite out of shape based on descriptions of her stature and her personality type. She's just a case study that proves the possibility. Imagine Ted Bundy as a wizard: Charismatic, healthy, a confirmed psycho- and sociopath... Now imagine him having spent two years scraping through a wall and swimming/floating to mainland Europe, then trying his hand at becoming the next Hitler/Grindelwald/Voldemort with wizards as the Jews/Muggles. A bit scarier than the idea of an acharismatic, overweight toad escaping, neh?)
* Alternatively, she has a soul. Just a soul so bleak and horrid that the [[TooSpicyForYogSothoth Dementors didn't want to touch it]].

[[WMG: Dumbledore is a [[PlayingWithFire Pyromancer]].]]
Probably the most telling evidence that can be provided for this is Dumbledore's bond to Fawkes, a phoenix. He is also able to conjure Gubraithian Fire, which can only be crafted by extremely powerful wizards. He repeatedly makes a show of lighting and extinguishing candles and braziers. He also seems to favor the Incendio spell: he mentions setting his curtains on fire in his fourth year, he demonstrated his magical ability to Tom Riddle by setting his wardrobe ablaze, and he created a firestorm to drive back the Inferi while escaping the Horcrux cave. It also helps that Dumbledore was a Gryffindor, which seems to be the closest to the element of fire.
* Adding to this, Seamus Finnigan is showing signs of a budding Pyromancer, given that many of his spells tend to [[IncendiaryExponent explode in his face]].
** Or, as Professor [=McGonagall=] put it, he has a [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal "particular proclivity for pyrotechnics."]]

[[WMG: Nagini was half basilisk.]]

There are no venomous snakes large enough to swallow a human being, as only pythons grow that large. Voldemort wanted a ''big'' poisonous snake to be his RightHandAttackDog, so he had Quirrell smuggle a blinded python of the opposite sex into the Chamber of Secrets during Harry's first year, then sneak the resulting hybrid eggs out after they'd mated. Voldemort possessed one of the hatchling python/basilisk hybrids after he abandoned Quirrell, using her to sneak away from Hogwarts, and made sure she survived to grow into a healthy adult by the time we see them in Book 4. That's why Nagini's venom had magical properties useful to facilitate Voldemort's resurrection, why Arthur's bite wounds took so terribly-long to heal, and why she was both smarter and hefter than any normal venomous snake. It's also why Voldemort was willing to risk making her a Horcrux, despite non-magical pythons' living less than 30 years: she'd inherited her basilisk parent's centuries-long lifespan.
* HOLY CRAP BALLS THIS IS BRILLIANT.
* This would also clear up the discrepancy between the 20-foot snake skin and the size of the basilisk's head when it's fighting Harry: the basilisk didn't shed that skin, its python ''mate'' did.

[[WMG: Snitch don't all have the same speed]]

If the Snitch wasn't fast enough, it wouldn't be an interesting match, since it would be both easy to see and catch. Too fast, and the games will go on for too long, or infinitely if neither of the seekers can actually catch up to it. So Hogwarts snitch is a LOT slower than those of the professional games, since students don't have nearly as good of brooms or skill. This could apply to bludgers as well.
* Jossed. The same Quidditch rules apply to the school as they do everywhere else. The game will go on for months if it has to, until the snitch is caught. And same thing with the bludgers, same hardness, same speed as everywhere else.
* Well, given that it's ''students'' who play Quidditch at Hogwarts, the refs probably ''do'' have the option to impose a time limit if the game runs so long they'd be missing a bunch of classes. It's not like they're part of a professional sports league, after all: they're there for an education.
** Time limit sure but the snitch, bludger, and other equipment are all the same as the pros use. Did you know that when the games go for months they switch out players. And being a reff takes great skill and mutiple qualifications. Snape is an amazing flyer because everyone, school or not, has to take the reff exam. Also did you know that once a reff was transported to the saraha desert? the players really hate the ref so it's a dangerous job. Not to mention you have to keep an eye on all the players at once. Lol just some quidditch facts for you.
** ''Quidditch Through The Ages'' establishes that a Quidditch match can also end by mutual agreement of the opposing Captains. Presumably if a Hogwarts game ran so long that the players were about to miss their O.W.L.s or the train home or something, the captains would have to agree to end it then.

[[WMG: The Department of Mysteries isn't just studying the weird things of magic, it is containing it]]

The few objects we see in the department are notable in two ways. First is that they are poorly understood, second is that they are dangerous. Brains that can do horrible things to people, time machines, a portal to the dead, and a room filled with the [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking power of love]]. Leave these things for the general public is only begging for trouble, and worse if these things get loose to an unprepared one. They are not just studying the gate of death, they are making sure nothing comes out.

So yeah, basically the Wiki/SCPFoundation.

[[WMG: The Weasley kids are what Tom Riddle would have been had his mother lived.]]
JK Rowling said it was because Tom was consived under a Love Potion made him a sociopath and Mrs. Weasley says in book 3 she doesed Mr. Weasly so he would love her asuming she never stoped it would explain a lot including why the twins never see a problem with selling love potions to kids.
** ...[[FlatWhat what.]] Mrs. Weasley never says that she gave her husband a Love Potion in book 3, it's mentioned that she, Hermione, and Ginny are giggling over some story about a Love Potion she apparently made as a young girl and it's never brought up again. And how on earth does the twins' selling Love Potions go back to their mother having dosed their father with one? By your logic, if all the Weasley children were conceived by a long-going Love Potion, then they're all as [[RonTheDeathEater sociopathic as Voldemort.]]

[[WMG: Lily stole Snape's textbook when she found out what was in it]]
With Sectumsempra and other spells and potions with "for my eniemys" Lily might have thought Snape was going to pull the magic vertion of a school shooting starting with James and Sirius. So Lily swiped the book when Snape wasn't looking and gave it to Professer Slughorn and this would explain why James knew Levacorpus, a spell Snape also made.

[[WMG: Why Voldermort was much more successful in the second war than the first.]]
First off, the First War lasted 11 years. Thats many sons and daughters were sent to the "front lines" as they got out of Hogwarts were killed by Death Eaters, leading to far fewer younger people in the ranks of the ministry and fewer able or willing to fight Voldermort the second time around, and the ones that were left were much older and all had the scars of war. Conversely, while unforgivables were allowed to be used against Death Eaters by Aurors, a lot more of the Death Eaters were still alive by the second war, many of them never jailed, and had caused the Ministry to burn bridges with potential allies in the post war era.

Also, because of the war, the Ministry of Magic and the Wizarding world in general became very reactionary, unable or willing to act first, and wanting to do anything to avoid another war. The side of the light was left very weak, and very easy to exploit.
* The key difference in capabilities don't change between Wizarding Wars. During the first year or so of the Second War, Voldemort wasn't trying to do very much, as he was keeping quiet. The one major operation we see the Death Eaters pull is botched by a bunch of 15 and 16 year olds. The Order shows up and saves them, but by smashing the prophecy, the mission was essentially a failure already. The order made it a bigger failure by making it impossible for Voldemort to operate in secrecy any longer. Voldie and company start doing well as soon as Dumbledore dies. And, naturally, Dumbledore didn't die because Voldemort actually came up with a plan that would kill him. Dumbledore knew exactly what he was doing, but decided he was dying anyway.

[[WMG: Dumbledore killed Ariana.]]
This has been cited before, but all other members of the fight was otherwise occupied- Aberforth was crucio-ed, Grindelwald was using Crucio. Dumbledore was the one to launch the killing spell.
* And he knows this. Which is why he grabbed at the Resurrection Stone, to ask for an apology.
* Aberforth, meanwhile, was disoriented enough to only suspect it was Albus.

[[WMG: Snape's animagus form would be...]]
A small lap dog. They often get attached to one person, to whom they are extremely devoted. Many can be quite vicious towards people they don't like, and at one point Sirius calls Snape "Lucius Malfoy's lap dog."

[[WMG: The Elder Wand itself had a HeelFaceTurn]]
''Deathly Hallows'' conclusively shows wands are sentient, and the Elder Wand seems to be moreso. Throughout the Elder Wand's history, it had been used as a tool for murder and people routinely murdered to get ahold of it. That came to an end once the wand came into the possession of Dumbledore, who we can reasonably assume was different from every single previous wielder of the Elder Wand. Dumbledore never used the Elder Wand for killing if he could help it. He kept his ownership of the wand hidden and used like any average wizard would use their wand with the intent that no other wizard be able to use the Elder Wand as a tool of death ever again. After its exposure to Dumbledore, the Elder Wand wanted this too. It didn't want to be a weapon any longer and was content to let Dumbledore break its power. When Dumbledore failed, it leaped at the chance to do the same thing when Harry came along and gave it the opportunity to get away from Voldemort.
* And let's not forget it was owned by Draco, during which time Draco found himself to be unable to kill DD, and refused to identify Harry. So it had an example in Draco also.

[[WMG: Grindlewald's twisted experiments involved necromancy]]
Could Grindlewald's obsession with death be due to the death of a close relative? Maybe he was expelled for experimenting with death. Are Grindlewald's parents mentioned? Could it be that they died? Or maybe I am thinking of Doctor Doom. But if Grindlewald lost a parent that would give more connection to Dumbledore.

[[WMG: Koschei was a Dark Wizard that created a Horcrux]]
Koschei is a Slavic Fairy Tale villain described as having his soul separate from his body and hidden. When his SoulJar was destroyed he died. This may be exaggeration, he was simply killed after this happened.

[[WMG: Grindlewald was a descendant of Koschei]]
They seem to have come from the same area and were both powerful Dark Wizards. However Grindlewald decided not to create a Horcrux because of what happened to his ancestor.

[[WMG: Lavender Brown was either a girl or a composite of several girls that JK Rowling disliked from her teenage years.]]
Lavender's honestly treated as a bit of an idiot in the book series despite being in the House known for bravery. Most mentions of her (beside in passing with Parvati), something or other is happening at her expense - either a slightly dirty joke directed her way by Ron, or getting her throat chewed out by a quasi-werewolf man-beast. For a long time, the book was ambiguous about her fate. The movie [[KilledByTheAdaptation solved that problem]], but the books themselves (which most sensible people will uphold as the final word on canon) still leave the fate ambiguous. Up until the point where someone asks JKR about it, and her basic response is, "Yeah, let's go with that." Not only does she apparently die in the book, but she dies more slowly than in the movie, where it's obvious that she died instantly or close to it - or might have been dead already via killing curse before Greyback started biting her. All of this adds up to: JK didn't like Lavender very much at all.

[[WMG:Sirius really was the secret keeper.]]
He betrayed James and Lily, then used the False Memory Charm on Peter and
himself (probably in conjunction with other spells.
* And then Peter went running off to Voldemort, who was cunning enough to realize what had happened, and that he could use Pettigrew? It doesn't explain how Peter found Voldemort in the first place, although that was always left rather ambiguous. Presumably, Voldemort didn't tell him he'd be hiding out in Albania in the event he was "killed". I know he was supposed to be good at finding out secrets, but the idea that he'd locate Voldemort over the course of a summer when Dumbledore couldn't do it in 11 years seems a stretch.

[[WMG:The parents of Muggleborns always die shortly after the Mugglebborns are of age.]]
As a direct result of being murdered.
* So Hermione murdered her parents after sending them to Australia ''so that they would be safe?'' [[SarcasmMode Yeah, that makes sense.]]

[[WMG: Durmstrang is actually Scholomance]]
Magic school with reputation "dark arts" classes? Check. Located in Eastern Europe near a lake -hence the boat-? Check. So we found Durmstrang's location, guys, it's actually in Romania. And if Bram Stoker's Dracula is canon in Potterverse, Count Drac could have been a headmaster in the past.

[[WMG: The Tale of the Three Brothers and the Deathly Hallows is a prophecy, not a legend; Harry Potter dies as the end of TDH, and Dumbledore is Death.]]
The Tale of the Three Brothers is put forth as an origin story for the Deathly Hallows. Here's the gist of it; three brothers use magic to avoid dying, and Death, mad that they lived when they should have died, pretends to be their friend and rewards them with the Deathly Hallows. The three brothers then die after (a) one brother puts down the Wand and becomes defenseless, (b) one brother uses the Stone to see his dead loved ones, and (c) one brother dies after coming out of hiding.

I contend this is not a story, but a prophecy about Harry Potter. In my theory, Harry represents all three brothers, and Dumbledore is Death.

It starts like this - Dumbledore is the embodiment of death, and kills Harry's parents because his servant, Voldemorte, asked him to. In return, Voldemorte is asked to conquer the world and subject everyone to his master, Death. Remember - Dumbledore was the one who suggested the Fidelius Charm to keep Harry's family "safe". Dumbledore tried to kill Harry, but because his mother cast a spell (similar to the bridge in TTB story), Harry survived and cheated Death.

Fast forward. Dumbledore, having failed to kill Harry, begins to act like his friend. Throughout the story, Dumbledore actually gives Harry the three Deathly Hallows (in a roundabout way sometimes, but still). The story moves forward, and it's time for Harry to face Voldemorte in the woods. Before Voldemorte kills Harry, Harry does the following: comes out of hiding, uses the Stone to see his dead loved ones, and puts down the Wand. These are exact parallels to TTB's deaths.

And who does Harry see when he "moves on"? The same thing you might expect to see; Death. Only, Harry sees him as he knew him, as Dumbledore. Harry then gets the option of going back or moving on. This is a completely unprecidented offer - what's dead is dead, despite if it has a Horcrux inside of it. Otherwise, we would have seen Nagini come back to life, Horcrux-free! I contend that Harry really moves on to "the next life", but to him, he sees "Heaven" as the "real world" where he easily (almost stupidly) defeats Voldemorte, none of his friends die, he marries his sweetheart, and everyone lives happily ever after. And he thinks it's real life to make it feel that much better.

The reality is that Voldemorte killed Harry, and Dumbledore takes him to the "beyond" (from TTB's story: "And they walked together as equals"). Meanwhile, in the real world, Voldemorte brutally conquers the earth, and all of humanity becomes subject to the true master; Death.

[[WMG: Voldemort made a eight Horucrux.]]
By the time he was in the forest, he knew by then he only had 1 Horucrux(to his knowledge): Nagani. So he made The Elder Wand his eight horucrux.

Now all he needs is someone who is loyal to him, to accept him, like what Quirell did...

[[WMG: The Room Of Requirement is used or mentioned in some form in every one of the books.]]
My cousin had this theory. In Sorcerer's/Philisopher's Stone, it's where the Mirror of Erised is kept. In Prisoner of Azkaban, Sirius hides there while they search the castle. In Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore mentions coming across it and using it as a bathroom. In Order of the Phoenix, it's used as headquarters for Dumbledore's Army. In Half Blood Prince, it's where Harry hides the potion book. And in Deathly Hallows, it's both the hiding place of many Hogwarts students and the location of Ravenclaw's diadem. I don't remember if there was an explanation for Chamber of Secrets and I forgot it, or he didn't give one and hope I wouldn't ask.

[[WMG: Molly Weasley is behind everything.]]
''This fellow has lost all of his marbles,'' you say. Surely such a loving mother figure would never attempt anything even remotely obscene, am I right? Wrong. See, I found it rather unsettling when Molly mercilessly shattered Bellatrix into pieces, then followed it up with a Slasher Smile that even The Joker would 'WOW' at. Now, here's the thing. Molly has a fetish for seeing people suffer, which is why she enjoyed killing Bella so much. The fetish doesn't apply to only her enemies; it applies to everyone. She likes seeing suffering even if it comes from her family members. Therefore, she orchestrated all of the events in the Potterverse to fuel that fetish. How'd she do it, you ask? Wonder no more, here is my theory.

As we saw in one of the movies, (Chamber of Secrets, I think), when Molly is pissed at Ron, she sends him a nice Howler as a present. Clearly she must be experienced with them, seeing as it was quite effective on him. This is the same way she started the plot; see, Tom Riddle was never evil. Forget what Rowling wrote - he was a sweet boy, at least until Molly stepped in. She sent the poor boy a brainwashing Howler telling him to go and become the greatest dark wizard of all time and go kill a random family to begin his reign of terror. After some eenie meenie minie mo, Voldy chose the Potter house. No choice involved, it was purely random. While in there, he murdered Harry's parents, and the famous killing curse rebounding took place. You know the drill. And Molly was watching all of it in a corner, where she could not be seen. Afterwards, she used another kind of magic which she excelled at: Clay-o-mancy. This is where it starts making less sense, but believe me, it's true. Now, Clay-o-mancy is the art of making stuff out of clay. Molly, being an expert at it, created a man. The man's name? Quirinus Quirrell. Yes, that Quirrell from Philsopher's Stone. This is why he burnt when Harry touched him; that's what happens to clay people. She helped Voldy stay alive by stitching him to the back of Quirrell's head using invisible thread (which makes sense, as most housekeeper ladies can sew), and that's how the first movie took place.

Next year, after enjoying the suffering of Harry and friends in their first year in school, she opened the Chamber of Secrets, and, after events far too elaborate for me to explain, she made it look like Ginny was being controlled by a diary. This was, in fact, a carefully concocted plan by Voldemort and Molly.

The NEXT year, she sent a brainwashing Howler to Remus Lupin, telling him to go teach at Hogwarts. Also, she tortured Fred and George with the Cruciatus Curse, telling them to give Harry the Marauder's Map or there will be plenty more where that came from. That is how Harry, and eventually Lupin, go hold of the map, and that is how Harry met Sirius for the first time.

Then, another brainwashing Howler (I know, these things sure can get the job done) was sent to whoever arranged the Triwizard Tournament, telling them go ahead and do it this year. She brewed a Super Polyjuice Potion for her buddy, Barty Crouch Jr., which allowed him to masquerade as Moody. Moody himself then proceeded to do the stuff we all know about, helping Harry get through Year 4, and eventually all the stuff happened with Edwa---I mean Cedric dying, Voldemort returning, and whatnot.

For Order of the Phoenix, a brainwashing Howler for Umbridge, who was a very nice lady beforehand, turned her into the monster we know her as today. She then did Molly's dirty work for her, basically.

In Year 6, yet another brainwashing Howler reached Dumbledore, telling him to go find Slughorn. This led to the events of Half-Blood Prince, which Molly cites as her favorite year, as everyone suffered a good amount of pain on this one.

In Deathly Hallows, Molly finally snaps out of her strange state, and stops liking suffering; but it is too late, and Voldemort's assault is in full swing. We all know what happens then.

So basically, Molly is omnipresent; she was everywhere to witness people's pain and enjoy it immensely. And that is that.

What? You say that my theory has more holes in it than a slice of cheese? Well...*runs away*

[[WMG: Dudley's Worst Memory is the night when Harry learned he was a wizard.]]

Not because his whipping boy finally got some happiness. Not because he had to live with a potentially dangerous freak. Not even because he had to go to the hospital to get a pig's tail removed from his behind. Because, for all of his parents' talk of normalcy, Dudley really did want to be special. His parents made him feel special by spoiling him. When he got desensitized to that, he made himself feel special by leading gangs of bullies. But that night, Dudley learned that there were special people out there, and he wasn't one of them.

[[WMG:The Mirror of Erised was created as a soul-searching tool.]]
Look in the mirror to see just what you want more than anything else. If it's not something you want to desire, or it's something you know you shouldn't desire, you know. The next steps depend on your character.

[[WMG: The [[MugglePower British Army]] turned the tide in Voldemort's first insurrection. This allowed for British economic recovery in the following years]]
According to the Harry Potter Wiki, Voldemort was winning hands down until most Giant tribes were wiped out and the survivors ran away. By coincidence, the height of Voldemort's power in his first insurrection is said to be around 1979/1980, and Margaret Thatcher (known as Iron Lady for a reason) became Prime Minister in 1979, and the economic crisis stopped worsening in 1980.
Knowing that giants are extremely resistant to magic but seem to be normal (for their size) in resisting more conventional attacks, it could be that Margaret Thatcher reacted to the news of Voldemort's insurrection and the Giants' attacks by deploying the British Army to shell Giant camps into oblivion, neutralizing Voldemort's heavier hitters.

[[WMG: Voldemort never believed in the prophecy, and acted on it only due to propaganda needs]]
Trelawney's prophecy was given in a pub, and Snape wasn't the only one to overhear the first part. At first Voldemort didn't care, but then noticed that people started resisting more due the coming of the Chosen One to defeat him, and, after a quick check at the register of births, decided to go after Neville and Harry to make it an HopeSpot. Then Lily made that Avada Kedavra backfire on him, and he was stuck with the need to prove himself stronger than Harry to quash any hope of resistance.

[[WMG: The disgusting thing you need to do to make a horcrux:]]
You need to place the Horcrux object fully within the corpse of the murder victim. I've thought about this, and it makes a surprising amount of sense.
* How about "while the victim is still living". That'd be even creepier. Of course Myrtle says she died immediately, but maybe she just blocked the horcrux part out.

[[WMG: Even if Voldermort succeeded, he was doomed for failure in the long run.]]
Harry dies at the final battle. Voldermort is both headmaster and Minister of the Ministry of Magic. TheBadGuyWins, the heroes fail. This is the end...

Well, no. He has to face two fights. The rest of the world's wizards are not going to be happy with the obviously evil actions. If nothing else, muggle hunting, or sending creatures that eat happiness fly through the sky is the greatest threat to the international treaty of wizardy secrecy. Whatever isolationists kept other wizard nations out of the war cannot stand by, particularly if Voldermorts ambitions are not contained by the British Isles.

Also, remember, the Prime Minister knows wizarding world exists. Once all sources of news with the wizarding world are severed, and his favorite guard, who he knows is a wizard, disappears, he may put two and two together. The further things go to @#$^ in Britain, the more and more he may screw the secrecy and take [i]direct[/i] action, and show Voldermort just how powerful [[MugglesDoitBetter muggles]] really are.

* Voldemort actually wouldn't have made it out of the room. As far as we can tell, all his Death Eaters were down, and he was surrounded by people who, thanks to Harry's sacrifice, had protection from Voldemort. And that mean they literally could grab his skin and burn him, like Harry did to Quirrell, while he could not hurt them at all. And he's at Hogwarts so he can't apparate away, and he has no Horcruxes so can't just leave his body behind. He could use the Elder Wand to throw up protections or fly out a window or something, but it would look pretty stupid for him to defeat his 'ultimate enemy' and then have to run away in full view of everyone, so he'd probably egotistically try to keep fighting.

[[WMG: Kingsley Shacklebolt created a new security force for Azkaban after the war.]]
* WordOfGod says that many Death Eaters and Death Eater sympathizers that weren't killed in the final battle were carted off to Azkaban. Only problem is that Azkaban is specifically stated by Sirius in Book 3 to have had (or needed) no extra enchantments or security forces except the Dementors. Since the Dementors were outed during the war as creatures of pure evil that didn't really answer to humans at all (and since long-term exposure to them is something of an inhumane punishment anyway) Kingsley needed several Aurors to serve as Azkaban's security. (This may have been used as a punishment-by-way-of-transfer to the Aurors that served the puppet regime of Pius Thicknesse. It's hard to imagine anyone volunteering for that job.)

[[WMG: The deluminator is Dumbledore's horcrux.]]
It's far too sentient in "guiding" Ron to be just an object.
* One problem with that theory is that this means Dumbledore murdered someone, and anyone who knows Dumbledore knows that that would never happen. Also the Deluminator is no more sentient than the Marauder's Map or the sorting hat.
** Well, we know, thanks to the death of Myrtle by the basilisk, that 'giving an order to kill someone and having them do it' counts as 'murdering them' for the purpose of a horcrux. And Dumbledore did, in fact, tell Snape to kill someone, and Snape did. Has anyone ever ''checked'' to see if you can make a Horcrux via suicide?

[[WMG: Barty Crouch Jr. knew Occlumency]]
Or some similar way to intrude on, and copy Moody's personality. Because seriously, there is no way he could hang around people who knew Moody for a year without anyone noticing, unless he had right-out supernatural imitation skills.

[[WMG: Margaret Thatcher was Confunded out of her mind whenever Fudge dealt with her]]
Like her or hate her, can ''anyone'' see her as putting up with the Wizarding World's shennanigans? The fact that she let TheMasquerade, driven by convenience for them and not for Muggles as it is, stand is somewhat suspect, for starters.

[[WMG: Snape planned to kill his father, Tobias, and may have done so.]]
It seems strange that Snape would have such an interest in Dark magic at such a young age. Also, Tobias Snape was abusive toward his wife and toward Snape himself. It's interesting that, while most of Snape's memories recorded in the series focus on Lily, there's the one fleeting glimpse of his home life. Also, maybe Snape would have found it oddly fitting as a teenager to start his own life as a Dark wizard the same way Voldemort started - by returning home with his new power and murdering his bastard of a dad.

[[WMG: Vernon was a Squib from a pureblooded family]]
When his parents realized that he had not inherited any magical abilities, they felt betrayed that magic had not been passed to their son and, rather than endure the scorn of their pure-blooded associates, chose to leave that lifestyle behind them. They destroyed their wands and tried to shield their son from anything having to due with magic, leaving Vernon with an intense aversion to anything "unnatural".

[[WMG: The forewords to ''Quidditch Through the Ages'' and ''Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'' were dictated by Dumbledore's portrait in the headmaster's office.]]
This ties into the "J.K. Rowling is a witch who wrote the books as both non-fiction for a magical audience and as 'fiction' for Muggles" theory. If you look at the timeline, you'll realize that by the time ''Philosopher's Stone'' came out, Dumbledore was already dead, or at least close to it. It's not very likely that Dumbledore would have known that the books would be popular enough with Muggles that they'd end up resulting in books from the Hogwarts library being reprinted for Muggles as part of a charity drive- Divination's not that clear after all! So, he can't have written those forewords himself before his death. More likely, they were dictated by his portrait, and since he was a man who liked a good story (witness his delving into literary criticism with ''Beedle the Bard''), he phrased everything as if he were still alive in order to avoid spoiling his death for the Muggle audience. Alternatively, if you think the portrait wouldn't have been capable of that, they were just written by somebody else using his name, also to avoid spoilers.

[[WMG: London's Millennium Bridge is a rebuild.]]
Destroyed in Half Blood Prince - though that's supposed to have occured in 1997 and the bridge itself wasn't started until 1998? AnachronismStew, eh? Well you just don't remember the obliviators modifying the memories of us muggles to make us think that bridge was built for the millenium and not simply "Repairoed", either.

[[WMG: The magical world isn't "ignored by stupid muggles".. there's a blanket muggle-repelling charm on it cast so long ago, wizards have forgotten about it.]]
Muggles don't notice wizard things because of the charm. Muggle parents of wizarding children, over the years, will find themselves forgetting their children do magic. Not that they ''have'' children, but just the whole magic thing. Eventually the muggleborn just stops doing magic in front of their parents, because they're tired of explaining every time. Halfblood's parents remember because they are still connected to the world and see the magic every day, but the longer you're away from it the more it drifts out of mind. So in short, muggles aren't stupid or ignorant, they just are being slowly repelled.

[[WMG: Harry is a ghost]]
We know that ghosts are ghosts because they were wizards who died and faced a choice to continue into death or stay put, and that those who stayed put always wonder what would have happened if they'd continued on. Well, Harry was hit with a killing curse and entered limbo as represented by King's Cross. Dumbledore invited him onwards, but Harry declined. Harry is now a ghost who can never travel onwards into the veil. His apparently living body can be explained as the result of serving as a Horcrux host. Having someone's soul inside you makes you more lively.

[[WMG: Tom Riddle used a crude Cruciatus Curse on Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop]]
[[FridgeHorror Who]] ''[[FridgeHorror else]]'' [[FridgeHorror do we know that's been shocked into silence as a result of magic]]? That's right: Neville's parents, who were driven insane by Bella's ''Crucio''. Tom did something similar, but, being only 11 or so, couldn't drive them crazy (but ''did'' mute them).

[[WMG: Not ALL Muggle-borns go to Hogwarts/the wizarding world]]
Similar to how Jedi locate force sensitives in Star Wars. The parents are the ones who decide whether their child will become a Jedi, and in many cases they decide against it.
In the Harry Potter universe, their parents can simply refuse to let their children attend a wizarding school.
* They certainly ''could'' forbid it - heck, Hogwarts attendance in general is only made compulsory in Book 7, which indicates that all parents of young wizards in Britain, whether muggle ''or'' wizard themselves, had the option not to let their children attend Hogwarts. The only problem with that is that magic power doesn't suddenly disappear just because a kid's not allowed to attend Hogwarts. In most cases with wizards that aren't raised in the wizard community (Harry's an example, obviously), magic power will show itself in times of crisis or emotional distress without being called upon by the user. In the case of Muggle-borns, if left unchecked, this is bound to cause some Statute of Secrecy/Reasonable-Restriction-whatsits issues. Also, it's implied in the books that the Hogwarts staffers that deliver these announcements will take measures to soften the Muggle caretaker(s)' stance on the issue. [[note]]Dumbledore, for example, got the orphanage matron ''really drunk'' in the process of explaining the situation, and Hagrid simply scared the hell out of the Dursleys so much that they didn't dare try to keep resisting him.[[/note]]

[[WMG: Pure-blood families steal from muggles to get their wealth]]
It's not much of a stretch to suggest that prejudiced pure-bloods would use their magic to easily steal vast amounts of wealth from muggles. James' family could also have become rich in this way, but perhaps his commitment to good came out of [[TheAtoner atonement]] for his ancestors' transgressions. This also explains why the Weasleys are so poor, as they would object to such thievery.

[[WMG: The number of werewolves Lupin speaks about living among actually numbers about 10-20.]]
There can't be that many werewolves out there, or they would unite against the ministry for their rights.

[[WMG: Godric Gryffindor is both the Giant Squid and Herpo the Foul.]]
Because it would be more interesting if the creator of the Horcrux was the founder of the house that's famed for goodness.

[[WMG: Ariana was [[spoiler:also]] in love with (or at least infatuated with Grindelwald.]]
* The way the account of her death was written would make it seem like she got caught in the middle of a spell aimed for one of her brothers... but if [[spoiler: Albus Dumbledore was the one that killed her,]] it might have been a result of her jumping in front of a spell to save Grindelwald. She would have been in her early- to mid-teens when it happened, and it's probable that Grindelwald was the first young male wizard she'd met outside of her own family. She could have very well been taken with him and, confused at what was going on, jumped between them in an effort to stop the fighting.

[[WMG: The Trio and Neville are younger counterparts of the Marauders.]]
* Harry would be James, Ron would be Sirius, Hermione would be Lupin and Neville would be Peter. This emphasizes how choices are important because Neville was loyal to his friends and did not become like Peter.

[[WMG: Salazar Slytherin never objected to Muggles or Muggleborns at all.]]
* Rather than an anti-Muggle elitist, he was an anti-''commoner'' elitist. The "pure blood" referred to in the Sorting Hat's lines about him wasn't wizard blood, but that of the British noble classes: the only ones who, a thousand years ago, were likely to be educated in ''any'' respect, either magical or mundane. It was superstitious peasant folk who'd been so very hostile to witches and wizards in his day, and Salazar disliked such people because they were lower-class and ignorant, not because they were Muggles. This explains why so many of the ghosts have noble or knightly titles, even though the wizarding world doesn't have such ranks: Salazar was actively recruiting students from the noble classes, in a time when Muggles still knew about magic and such open recruitment was an option. The whole business of "pureblood = wizard-only ancestry" arose generations after Salazar's death, after wizards' society had cut itself off from that of Muggles, altogether, and more or less forgot there'd ever ''been'' a difference between noble and commoner within their own social ranks.

[[WMG: The spell Molly Weasley used in Deathly Hallows to kill Bellatrix was ''not'' Avada Kedavra, but rather something much more powerful and fitting.]]
* It's never shown that Avada Kedavra can actually be cast nonverbally. Voldemort, as powerful and as skilled a wizard as he was, at that spell in particular, is never shown doing it. Second, Bellatrix alluded to there being a certain level of inherent sadism required to cast the Cruciatus curse and the righteous anger wasn't enough. The same is likely true of the Killing Curse. Third, one of the telltale characteristics of a Killing Curse is that there ''are'' no telltale characteristic. A victim looks as they normally wood - except they're dead. Bellatrix was petrified, actually a bit like the victims of the Basilisk in ''Chamber of Secrets''. Of course, Molly's defining characteristic throughout all seven books is her motherly love for her children, be it by blood or otherwise. So TT postulates that the spell Molly used to kill Bellatrix actually didn't have a name - that it was the same magic that (at least initially) protected Harry Potter from the touch of a Voldemort-possessed Quirrell, repurposed and focused into offensive form... which may be even more awesome than a nonverbal killing curse.

[[WMG: The Sorting Hat is the diabolical chess master behind it all.]]
* Then so was Fawkes. The Phoenix gave two tail feathers, one to make Voldemort's wand, the other to make Harry's, and Fawkes then became Dumbeldore's familiar. What the hell was their agenda?!

[[WMG: Slughorn keeps an eye on his hourglass]]
* During the dinner at Slughorn's where he was throwing out seemingly random, banal, small talk topics he would keep an eye on his hourglass that told you how interesting the topic was. If it wasn't he would change it. When he asked Hiermony what her parents did and she said dentist, and he kept listening, was because he noticed his hourglass slowed a bit. This proves that just because the conversation topic may be more interesting that doesn't mean that people have the conversational skill to really get into it.

[[WMG: Abraxas Malfoy was a Death Eater]]
* While we know almost nothing about Draco Malfoy's grandfather Abraxas, he may have been a Death Eater like his son. According to J.K. Rowling, Abraxas was involved in some kind of shady plot to force the first muggle-born Minister of Magic to resign early in 1968. This was only a few years before the First Wizarding War officially began and naturally Lord Voldemort would not want a muggle-born minister. This could also explain why Lucius was so high ranked as a Death Eater despite being only in his mid-late twenties when Voldemort was first defeated, it was due to his father's role before the war. It's possible that he was dead by the time Voldemort was revived (We know he's dead a year later) which would explain why he wasn't called forward at the graveyard or why Slughorn didn't seem bothered by Draco's mentioning of his name.

[[WMG: Abraxas Malfoy was not a Death Eater, he was a Knight of Walpurgis]]
This started off as part of the previous WMG, but is too convoluted to be there.

Rowling has said Death Eaters used to be called called the Knights of Walpurgis at some point. And we know that Abraxas Malfoy was possibly part of a plot to overthrow the Muggle-born Minster for Magic in early 1968. And we know that, during the flashback of Voldemort applying to Hogwarts in the mid-60s, that he had a gang of people following him around, and a 'Malfoy' does not seem to be one of them. We also know that V started to gain power near the end of the 1960s, and the 1970s 'got progressively more dangerous and violent'.

We assume that's all part of a single story, but what if it's two stories that join together?

Imagine the pre-Voldemort Knights of Walpurgis as a sort of pure-blood wizarding secret society. Somewhat like the Skull and Bones, existing for hundreds of years. They are pro-pureblood, and anti-Muggle and Muggle-born, but they're not attempting to overthrow society...they ''are'' society. Abraxas Malfoy is, like all Malfoys, a member of the Knights.

Imagine Tom Riddle making his way into that group. There are a lot of references that talk about him 'gaining power', but that makes very little sense for someone leading a terrorist organization. But him climbing his way up to the top of a secret society makes sense, as he slowly becomes one of the society's 'important people' without most people understanding why or how that's happening.

With this premise, it seems likely that the first Muggle-Born Minister for Magic offended the Knights. Either the Knights on their own, or with V's urging, decided to remove him. Abraxas might have been involved in that process, or with suspected Knight involvement, he (As a known member of the Knights) could have been 'linked' to that despite not really having anything to do with it.

Voldemort, if he was involved in pushing for that, might have had a more sinister purpose. We know that, during the 1970s, the Death Eaters arose as a terrorist force, and we've somehow never been told who was the Minister between 1968 and 1980. So perhaps it was one of Voldemort's men, allowing them free reign. Or perhaps not one of his men, but just someone very ineffectual on purpose.

There's always been the odd problem of how exactly Voldemort was able to collect thugs and the cream of society. Well, the Knights are where he recruits the cream of society from, but they are not automatically Death Eaters. The Death Eaters are a conspiracy ''inside'' a secret society.

There are a lot of possibilities from this point.
* Perhaps Voldemort is 'Lord' Voldemort because 'Lord' is a title within the Knights. (Steal one Muggle title, steal more than one? And how does 'Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy' fit in this? Someone check if the author is a Knight.)
* Did Abraxas ever join the DE, or was he even ever asked? Did Lucius get recruited out from under his nose?
* Did the Knights of Walpurgis ever figure out what going on? Did they get entirely taken over by Voldemort? Do they still exist? We see no sign of them by the books, did the Ministry crack down on them?

[[WMG: Regulus and Bellatrix weren't the only Blacks to be Death Eaters]]
* Just a thought I've always had. Sirius said that Orion and Walburga (his parents) were not Death Eaters, despite seeming like the types, but strongly supported Lord Voldemort's ideologies at first until around the time when Regulus died. He never says anything about any other members of his family however. It's possible that the parants of Bellatrix, Andromeda, and Narcissa could've been Death Eaters, Cygnus and Druella Black are their names. Cygnus was around Tom Riddle's age so he may have been a member of his gang at Hogwarts. Druella was born a Rosier, the Rosiers are known to be Death Eaters with one member of the family being a friend of Tom Riddle, and another, Evan Rosier, being a friend of Snape. It's likely that thefamily in general were strong Voldemort supporters.

* Another Black that may have been a Death Eater was Araminta Meliflua Black, who according to Sirius tried to pass a bill at the Ministry to make muggle hunting legal. Sounds like something a Death Eater would want.

[[WMG: Herpo the Foul is an ancestor of Salazar Slytherin]]
* Makes sense when you think about it. Both were powerful dark wizards who knew how to breed basilisks. Plus both were parcelmouths which is generally associated with the Slytherin/Gaunt family line. Also the two both look very similar.

[[WMG: Maybe the setting never was all that shiny to begin with]]
* The earlier films (namely the first two) were vibrant and colorful, while the visual look in later films was more faded and subdued. However, maybe this was more than the result of directorial shifts in the series. Maybe Hogwarts and the entire wizarding world always looked that way, but in the eyes of a young and optimistic eleven year-old boy, everything appeared to be more full of life and color. This can all be viewed as a symbolic or literal representation.
** Maybe the setting is neither as shiny and colorful as it's depicted in the first film, nor as dark and bleak as it appeared in the last. [[FridgeBrilliance And maybe that's the whole lesson.]]

[[WMG: Dumbledore and Flitwick made themselves look younger.]]
Between the second and third films, they used a spell that would make them look younger, hence their change in physical appearances. This would explain why Dumbledore is portrayed by Michael Gambon when he first meets Tom Riddle.

[[WMG: There are magic radios that can pick of frequencies from various points in time.]]
Hence why the 2004 Nick Cave song "O'Children" is heard in a scene that takes place in 1998.

[[WMG: In defense of the Dursleys.]]
So the Dursleys were horrible to Harry, unforgivably so...but there is reasonable perspective for some of their abusive attitudes.
1- They know that magical children can be dangerous, sometimes even despite themselves. It's like having a sentient 55 gallon barrel of nitro glycerin. They have to keep Harry because his parents were killed by wizarding people who are now looking to possibly kill him...and anyone who gets in their way. They were FORCED to take him in by a bunch of other wizards. So they are basically being blackmailed/threatened by wizards into keeping this utterly dangerous child, marked for death by other wizards. They fear that if Harry develops magical ability he may become dangerous on his own and/or attract the attention of the other wizards, which to them there are no good wizards and bad wizards, only dangerous wizards. So they want to do EVERYTHING they can to make sure he does not develop magical abilities, I mean, they are willing to run far the fuck away and live alone in a lighthouse rather than let Harry learn the truth. Even if his magical nature is suppressed they still know he is being hunted, so they, at all costs, want to hide him away from the public view.
Now they also spoil Dudley and let him run rough shod all over Harry. There's 2 reasons for this. For one, they fear that if Harry's magical nature becomes known then Dudley will feel un-special like Petunia herself. So they just lavish the spoiling on him to let him know that he is special, in an effort in their minds to balance out the inferiority complex that Harry being a wizard will give him. Also, I imagine a lot of their spoiling of him comes from the fact that they fear for his life. As far as they know any second now their son could be murdered by forces they can't comprehend, and there's not a damn thing they can do about it. While an a-hole Dudley does go through some traumatizing events; he gets trapped in an animal cage at the zoo, he gets a pig tail which I imagine they had to have removed OR he's still got a mutant pig tail, and he needs who knows what therapy after getting hit by a Dementor. On that note, Aunt Marge does get blown up and floats away and a bizarre creature ruins the best deal of Vernon's career. And in the end, they do have to go into hiding.
And hell the wizards treat their own kids in fucked up ways. The Slytherins live IN A DUNGEON. Child endangerment is standard operating procedure. The kids live with ghosts and learn to make poisons. Hell, compared to daily life in the wizard world, living in a cupboard under the steps is cush.
The Dursley's live under duress in constant fear of death, the threat both within their home in the form of Harry, from without their home in the form of the dark wizards looking to murder Harry and all around him, and all under threat from the GOOD wizards as well, basically being held hostage and used as human shields in their own home, their own child a target. These poor, poor, traumatized people.
* Alternately, even though their attitude toward Harry is treated as extreme, it may not be that much. RealLife history is a sad account of how human beings are capable of treating other human beings that are different than they are.


[[WMG: The Malfoys (at least, Lucius and Draco) have trace Veela ancestry, and may be distantly related to the Delacours.]]
* Both good-looking, unnaturally silvery-blond hair, and they're of partial French descent. (Their name is etymologically French, and WordOfGod says a Malfoy ancestor immigrated to Britain from France.) The only other people described as such in the books are the Delacours, who established that Veela will sometimes couple with humans. It also seems that Veela genes run very strong (both Delacour girls are implied to look almost exactly like their mother and next to nothing like their father.) This goes for the Malfoys as well, as Draco is a carbon copy of Lucius, and then later Scorpius is a carbon copy of Draco. The silver-blond hair, which one would think would be hard to duplicate three generations in a row, actually does. Both the Veela ancestry and the French in the Malfoys would seem to lend themselves to them coming off much more aristocratic and snobbish than even the majority of the other pure-blood families. Excepting [[spoiler: [[AllThereInTheManual Louis Weasley, who would be 1/8 veela through his mother's side]]]], we're not shown any male part-veela in the Potterverse, although that one example is enough to establish that every veela-human pairing hasn't resulted in a daughter. So with all of that, Lucius and Draco Malfoy (not counting Narcissa, who obviously married into the family) could very well have a Veela in their family tree.

[[WMG: Professor Trelawney is ObfuscatingStupidity.]]
Well, not stupidity per se, but she knows more than she seems. No one except Parvati and Lavender take her seriously, but all of her predictions come true at one point in the book, often not in the way we expected. Since Professor Trelawnry was the author of [[[spoiler: Harry's prophecy]], the Death Eaters must be after her. Therefore she, being already somewhat extravagant, decideed to exaggerate this so she would not attract attention.

[[WMG: The Sorting Hat is TheChessmaster, but in a good way.]]
Some people have a very strong ambition, or loyalty, or intelligence, or braveness. But on most cases these qualities overlap. WordofGod said in Pottermore that sometimes the hat can spend 5 minutes or more in the decision. This is called a hatstall.

My theory is that, during this time, the Hat is outweighing the outcomes of sorting a person in each house. So, sometimes, the hat doesn't sort someone according to their personality, but according to what it thinks it's best for them. This is why Percy got sorted into Gryffindor instead of Slytherin: Percy was very ambitious, but not by any means a bad person. He had a kind heart and, at least in the earlier books, a special softness for young children. In Slytherin, he would probably have drifted appart from his family and his ambition gotten out of coontrol; in Gryffindor, he would be reminded of who he is. In addition, he has been well educated and does not show one bit of the prejudice Malfoy or the others have, but this would likely have changed had he been on Slytherin.

The hat probably did the same thing with the Marauders. Sirius, the first one to be sorted, was brave, but his braveness comes out of loyalty, since he would die rather than betray his friends. Sirius is so loyal that his animagus is a dog. However, he wanted to be on Gryffindor to annoy his mother, and this was the only thought in his mind at the moment of the sorting. This was brave enough, in the hat's opinion, to be a Gryffindor. Lupin was next. He was intelligent and studious enough to be a Ravenclaw, but he needed to accept himself which he would learn to do in Gryffindor, with a friend like Black. The Hat had already seen Sirius' mind and knew they would be good friends. Then came Peter, very ambitious, but he was the kind of guy who would become the mook of future Death Eaters. So it send him to Gryffindor to encourage him to become a better person (this went [[GoneHorriblyWrong Horribly Wrong]]). And lastly, James, very brave, he would die to protect his family. So he was a Gryffindor.

The last case is Neville Longbottom. Neville is as loyal and hardworking as he is brave and noble. WordofGod said he was almost a hatstall: the hat was hesitating between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. Neville asked to be put in Hufflepuff because we didn't think he was brave enough for Gryffindor, but the hat eventually put him in Gryffindor. Neville was one of the bravest characters in the book and was destined to do great things, [[MemeticBadass as we know]]. He just needed to believe in himself.

[[WMG: Dumbledore was at least partially banking on the Dursleys' less than stellar treatment of Harry during his early childhood.]]
* Why? To ease his transition back into the wizarding world when the time came. Think about if the Dursleys had been halfway decent to him. He probably would have ended up much like them, even down to being much more obstinate in doubting the existence and merits of magic. Of course, when the whole secret comes out, Harry doubts it for a little bit, but by the next morning, he's on board enough to follow a strange, giant man to points completely unknown. ''Philosopher's Stone'' itself says when he leaves for Hogwarts that he "didn't know what he was going to, but it had to be better than what he was leaving behind.'' He may not have taken such a risk if not for the fact that things at the Dursleys were so bad that going somewhere else couldn't have possibly made things worse.

[[WMG: The Trilogy Prequel.]]
1-The First Years -
This movie starts with Dumbeldore being instated as Headmaster. We don't meet Professor Riddle in this movie but we hear the controversy that Dumbeldore denied him the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts and this has caused some ripples in Hogwarts and the ministry. Then the new First Years arrive. We are introduced to Snape and Lilly, focusing on them as the main characters. They both really hope to get into Huffelpuff. The 1st years walk up. James Potter is sorted into Gryffindor which doesn't surprise anyone. Peter Pettigrew steps up, the Sorting Hat is confused but decides Gryffindor. Syrius Black steps up...and the hat says Gryffindor...this gets surprised gasps from everyone! The Blacks have long been Slytherins, Sirius is worried to death as to what his parents will think. right after him, his cousin Bellatrix Lestrange is sorted into Slytherin. Lilly steps up and is sorted into Gryffindor, she and Snape are aghast. Then he steps up and whispers to himself for Gryffindor, Gryffindor, Gryffindor...nope the Hat immediately decides Slytherin! Lilly and Snape give each other long looks. James Potter welcomes her to Gryffindor. In Slytherin some of the older students grouse the Dumbeldore screwed over Riddle on purpose because he favors Gryffindor, the Slytherins hate Gryffindor's. In fact some whisper that Dumbeldore may be stacking Gryffindor as a prelude to building up his own army to take over the Ministry. Also...everyone noticed Snape wish aloud to get into Gryffindor over Slytherin, and everyone knows he did it because he has a crush on Lilly, so they bully the hell out of him.
I don't know what the exact plot is, but it focuses on Snape as the main character, and we see the Marauders form, but they are dickhead jocks, basically cast as the bad guys in nerd/jock movie. Snape comes to figure out that a werewolf is hunting in one of the wizarding towns but no one believes him. He convinces Lilly to go with him and see. They scooby do around and find the werewolf, or rather the werewolf finds them. The werewolf mentions that s/he works for a Lord Voldemort. Snape and Lilly wonder who that is. As the werewolf stalks in on them, suddenly James Potter and Remus Lupin jump out of nowehere and attacks the werewolf. During the fight James said he followed them because he was worried about what stupid antics Snape would get them in. While doing some damage to the werewold James gets his ass kicked. Then Snape steps up and actually kicks the werewolf's ass because being so bullied he has learned all sorts of spells. However Remus was bitten by the werewolf, but they don't tell Snape. Still the Marauders do genuinely congratulate and thank and accolade Snape for his bravery, saying he could have been a Gryffindor. Even though he led them to victory in this adventure they can't make him a Marauduer because he's in Slytherin. The end of the school year we see Snape and Lilly happy to be going back home together.

2- The Marauders -
Snape, Lilly and the Marauders are now seniors. James and Snape are both prefects. We hear that there is a new wizard named Voldemort who lectures in Daigon Alley. Snape and Lilly talk about this Voldemort and his anti-muggle stance which Snape is starting to believe in. Lilly points out that he has muggle blood and so does she, so it's offensive and stupid for him to believe in this. She talks to James about it, being that he and his best friend Sirius are both Purebloods she is impressed that they think blood mania is stupid. However as this Voldemort guys teachings get around more blood mania takes hold, and Snape is teased for being a Half Blood, the Half Blood Prince.
During dueling practice we see that James and Snape are the top rivals, however James squeeks out a victory. Snape fumes that it's just dumb luck that this dickhead, pure blood jock scamming on Lilly just has a lot of raw magical power, whereas Snape has training, and study and discipline. He wonders if the wand has something to do with it. Snape steals James' wand sub-plot runs through the movie.
Dumbeldore has a candid talk with James and Lilly. He is telling them his suspicions about this Voldemort, that they should be wary and found out more about him. Dumbeldore says he thinks that the Defense Against the Dark Arts position has been cursed, possibly as a way of making sure that students aren't taught how to defend themselves against the dark arts. He is even beginning to worry about the ministry.
I don't know what the plot is, but the Marauders now have the map. Also they can all change into animals, having been taught how on the sly by professor [=McGonagall=]. Using the map they outsmart Snape and solve the plot before he does. Taking what he considers to be his victory. Unleashing his own anger over his blood purity teasing, combined with the frustration that though she says she doesn't care about blood purity she's ditching him for a pureblood, and calls Lilly a mud blood. She runs to James for comfort and they kiss. Snape finds out and gets pissed. He swears he'll show them all what true power is.
The movie ends with a montage of James and Lilly kissing, Sirius being thrown out of his House at the age of 16 and the Night Bus showing up to get him, Snape sitting amid a dark congregation, we see someone out of focus, presumably this Voldemort, speaking over the crowd and firing up their anger, and finally Dumbeldore in his office looking up into the distance...as if sensing a dark disturbance, behind his Phoenix flares it wings and caws.

3- The First Wizarding War -
The Marauders and such are all graduated. Siriius stands up as the best man at the wedding of James and Lilly. After the wedding they talk about how they are worried by these 'dissapearances'.
Bellatrix approaches Sirius and tries to convince him to come listen to Lord Voldemort. He declines, she freaks out on him. They get into a small magic fight. Sirius tells the Marauders, and they tell Dumbeldore. Dumbeldore reveals the existence of the Order of the Phoenix, [=McGonagall=] is a member, as is Alastor Moody, an Auror who suspects the Aurors office is being infiltrated as is the Ministry. The Marauders all join the Order of the Phoenix.
The Minister of Magic publicly swears fealty to Lord Voldemort, and calls for all members of the Ministry to do the same. Those who don't are fired. Voldemort announces that the Death Eaters will now be enforcing wizarding law. We see the 1st Wizard War unfold...ending with the murder of James and Lilly and destruction of Voldemort. Snape finds Lilly's body.


[[WMG: Bellatrix was an apprentice to Voldemort during the First Wizarding War]]
* Think about it, she seems to already be a high ranking Death Eater despite having been one of the younger ones by the end of the First Wizarding War, and she mentioned once that Voldemort taught dark magic. Soon after she graduated from Hogwarts (or even during her last years) Voldemort would've noticed her prodigious skill and pure-blood background and taken her under his wing, probably using his charm. He taught her how to be a great dark witch, and may have even been the one to teach her occlumency and legilimency. This would explain why she is so fanatically loyal to him. Barty Crouch Jr. may have also been an apprentice as he showed similar levels of loyalty.

[[WMG: The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black has muggle ancestry.]]
That's how they got such a common surname. With their habit of erasing the members of the family they don't like, it's not unlikely.

[[WMG: The House of Black originally obtained their fame and fortune through breakthroughs in Astronomy.]]
That would go a ''long'' way toward explaining the family tradition of naming all of their children after stars. Originally, it was a pride thing - their way of reminding the wizard world of their achievement. It had the added effect of also ensuring that other British wizards would have a good way of being able to tell who had Black blood even if that person was a married daughter or the descendant of one. But, of course, that was years ago. Now that everyone's forgotten what made the Black family famous other than being pure-blood, it just sounds ridiculous.

[[WMG: Argus Filch reads Jane Austen]]
The proof is Mrs. Norris's name: Mrs. Norris is an important character in Mansfield Park, Austen's third novel.

[[WMG: The Marauders' Map has a back-door feature to prevent the Marauders from showing up on it]]

Facts: The Marauders made the Map and used it until it was somehow confiscated by Filch. It is known that the Map has security features in case it falls into the wrong hands (the activation and deactivation passwords). The map remained in Filch's office until the twins discovered it in their first year (which was Percy's third year and two years before Harry and Ron started). Percy kept Scabbers as a pet from before he started Hogwarts until the end of his fourth year, after which he got his owl, Hermes, and Scabbers became Ron's pet. This means that the twins had the map for nearly two years while Scabbers belonged to Percy and for more than two years while he belonged to Ron.

During this time, it is unlikely that the inquisitive and mischievous twins would not have spied on Ron (or especially Percy), in the course of planning pranks or gathering blackmail material. Yet, at no time did they apparently observe that either of their brothers shared close quarters, including a bed, with a supposedly dead war hero (or, at least, a stranger).

Conclusion: The map had additional security features that the books did not explicitly discuss. Specifically, to prevent the Map from being used against them, the Marauders included a feature that, when activated, would prevent them from showing up. This feature had been left activated when Filch confiscated the Map, and the twins, once they found it and ''thought'' they uncovered all its secrets, didn't think to look further. However, once Lupin confiscated the Map, he instantly recognized it for what it was and realized it would be a good way to look for Sirius (whom he then believed to be guilty). Being one of the Marauders, he was well aware of the Map's Marauder-concealing feature and was able to override it for that purpose. (Of course, at this time, Scabbers had gone missing, and the truth did not become apparent until the incident in the Shrieking Shack.)
* Alternately, the map just might only show Marauders when being operated by a Marauder. Harry does later see Sirius and Remus on it, but possibly the map counts him as a Marauder.

[[WMG: Snape's Slytherin gang supported his friendship with Lily]]
* Or at least they pretended to. After all, if they were vocally against it I doubt Snape would've been able to hang around them. My guess is that they used his friendship with Lily as a way to gain his trust, maybe tell other Slytherins off if they bothered him about it. This would bring him closer to them (especially since Lily seemed vocal about her disapproval toward his friendship to the gang) and once the differences became too much for their friendship, Snape would come crawling to them as his only other friends.

[[WMG: Ron was never fully treated after being bitten by Norbert(a) in first year]]
* Norberta was venomous, and quite obviously that venom got into Ron's bloodstream. Putting aside the fact that this is essentially magic venom from a fire breathing lizard with venomous fangs, didn't he tell Pomfrey that a dog bit him? In fact, wouldn't a school nurse rely on testimony in order to know what to treat? Got hit by a bludger during Quidditch practice? Check that no bones broke, there's no concussion, fix any bruising and scratches, etc. You wouldn't look for signs of lead poisoning. That might also provide a reason Pomfrey never freaked the fuck out about Harry being abused, neglected at the least, what reason would she have to look for subtle abuse if it's not obvious like she would no doubt expect? (this is assuming a lot of things, just bare with me here). The second part of the theory is that any "left over" venom might react with hormones Ron would produce as he got older, like, say, testosterone during puberty? Severe bouts of jealousy, irrationality, etc.

[[WMG: Horcruxes can be made by accident, and Ghosts are the result of those who didn't realize they made a horcrux.]]
* Harry's scar horcrux was obviously not intentional. Apparently a wizard can walk up to someone intending to murder them and just accidentally create a horcrux.
* Pretty much all ghosts in the book have some kind of bloody history - Nick and the Baron speak for themselves, and we find out about the Grey Lady eventually. The Friar remains a mystery, but perfectly possible to have committed murder. Myrtle seems to be the only exception, but she acts more like a poltergeist than a ghost - she can affect physical objects, like Peeves does.

[[WMG: "You're joking, Perce! I don't think I've heard you joke since-"]]
* Probably Chamber of Secrets, five years ago, where his being clearly in love with Penelope Clearwater resulted in quite a few [[OutOfCharacterMoment Out-of-Character Moments]] from Percy.

[[WMG: Blaise Zabini graduated from Hogwarts and went into robe modeling for ads in the ''Daily Prophet.'']]
* It stands to reason he inherited some of his mother's good looks, and he was also "so talented... at posing..."

[[WMG: Wizards do not live longer than muggles.]]
Some can live a very long time, but most probably live about 50 or 60 years. Maybe even less. They think they live longer than muggles because they haven't been paying attention to current events in the muggle world for the past 1000 years or so and think that the average muggle's life is like it was in 998 or so.
The evidence for this claim:
* Grandparents are rarely mentioned. Even with the recent wizarding wars, you wouldn't expect that much loss of the cohort.
* There is no evidence of anything like a wizarding college, much less graduate school existing. You graduate Hogwarts and go to work. At 17.
* People tend to marry right out of high school. Again, at 17. And divorce is apparently rare.
* Ron's great aunt at Bill and Fleur's wedding brags about being 100 and something. If wizards really live longer than muggles, say, 30 years longer (i.e. about 110 years on average), then that would be like bragging about being 70. Seventy year olds don't brag about their age, 90+ year olds do. So 100+ must be an extraordinary age for a wizard. Bragging also makes more sense if longevity implies not just "I had good genes and the sense not to smoke" but "I can make an immortality potion the right way."
* [=McGonagall=] is described as "old". If she was born in the 1930s, then she'd be in her 50s or 60s during the 1990s when the book is set. Again, not consistent with a longer life expectancy, though one might allow some for the viewpoint (i.e. the viewpoint characters are 11-17.)
** She's not really described as 'old' past the first book, when she's 58 (her birth year is stated as 1935) and comes off as very uptight when Harry (who, keep in mind, is barely 11 at the time) is just getting to know her. So she'd obviously come off likely as much older than she really was. And, to be fair, nearing 60 ''is'' probably pretty old to a little kid.
* This might also partially account for the apparent slow rate of progress in the wizarding world: not enough people have the time to really develop their understanding of magic and how to manipulate it more effectively so new spells, etc, are rare.
* Although this ''may'' have less to do with there ''not'' being any old people and more to do with the fact that Rowling, for all her literary gifts, [[WritersCannotDoMath wasn't all that great at keeping her numbers sensible]]. One of the things you see with the films was an attempt to correct that by depicting some of the adult wizards as closer to the age JKR would have had them at the beginning if given a chance to do it over. Harry's parents' generation are in their mid-late 30s in the books and probably depicted as in their mid-40s or so in the films. [=McGonagall=], according to a description JKR once gave, was supposed to be a 'sprightly seventy-year-old' around the time of the book series, so she, too, is aged accordingly in the films. God only knows how old Flitwick is, especially with goblin genetics. His depiction in the first couple of films implies that he was ancient, and then subsequent films seem to backtrack a bit - although if goblins' aging genetics are anything similar to those of giants (where Hagrid is in his sixties by the time the series starts and, even in the series, looks about twenty years younger), Flitwick could indeed be [[OlderThanTheyLook older than he looks.]] As for the grandparents or lack thereof, most major characters' grandparents are either explicitly dead or minor enough as not to warrant a mention. For all we know, for example, at least one of Arthur's or Molly's parents (who would likely be in their 70s) could have been at the wedding and simply not been recognized by or introduced to Harry. There seem to be enough old people in the books to indicate that wizards that survive war or illness live ''at least'' as long as Muggles. They certainly seem to stay active longer than muggles at the same age. In fact, so few wizards in the series are mentioned explicitly as having died of old age that it almost makes you wonder [[ShaggyDogStory why the hell a young adult Voldemort was so afraid of death in the first place...]]

[[WMG: Dumbledore is dosing the Slytherin house's food with Veritaserum]]
Whenever we see the Slytherins outwith Hogwarts, or whenever Dumbledore is restricted as Headmaster, they always seem to be so much better at information management and the cunning that is their house characteristic. Yet whenever they arrive at Hogwarts, and when Dumbledore is operating unrestricted, they blurt out secrets and are generally indiscreet about just about everything. The logical conclusion is that Albus "for the greater good" Dumbledore is just dosing the food for Slytherin house's consumption with Veratiserum to make sure than anything their parents talk about in front of them quickly reaches his ears.
* Unlikely that Dumbledore would dose an entire house with the most powerful truth serum on a consistent basis, he probably used a weaker one
[[WMG: The Malfoy family descend from the Normans.]]
I'm not sure if that's even a WMG or straight-up canon, but here you go: the family name is sorta French ("mal foi") and they're blond, because Scandinavia.

[[WMG: Harry was conceived while under the effects of Polyjuice Poition]]
No rape just consentual antics between James and Lilly. It would explain why his Polyjuice is abnormal compared to otheres and make a counterpoint to Tom Riddle who was conceived from a love potion

[[WMG: There are more Marauders' Maps]]
Why? Well, first, because there were four Marauders, so it seems obvious there could be four maps.

Assuming that whoever lost their map to Finch didn't recreate it, let's ask where those three other maps might be, and whose map Harry might have.
* James: If he 'still has' his map, it's sitting the Potter's destroyed house.
* Sirius: All of his personal belongings were lost when he was arrested, and Aurors presumably cleaned out his apartment or wherever he was living. (Which we know wasn't Grimmauld Place.)
* Peter: He may still has his map as of PoA. (Remember, Animagus shapeshift with all their possession.) He seems very sure that Sirius is after him.
** However, this would introduce odd story complications between Barty Crouch Jr. and Peter, and Barty surely would have mentioned Peter's map under interrogation.
** Or Peter might just have chosen to not take his map with him when he 'died'. He had no idea that he was going to end up back at Hogwarts, and it's not like he can use the map while in rat form.
* Remus: He's the person who had the least 'life complications' (First time anyone's ever said that about him.) and thus seems most likely to have held on to his map. And he ''certainly'' would have brought it to Hogwarts with him, is Remus. Yet we know for a fact didn't he have it. Ergo, it seems mostly likely that the map Harry is carrying around is actually's Remus's map, which was taken away from him before school ended.
** On the other hand, he ''has'' been forced to move a lot, so could have lost it that way.
Of course, it's entirely possible that whoever lost Harry's map recreated it, so there might actually be four other maps floating around out there, none of which (except possibly Peter's) are in the hands of the original owners. (And we have no way of figuring out who originally owned Harry's.)

[[WMG: Remus Lupin is a Legilimens.]]
More information found [[http://www.mugglenet.com/2005/06/lupin-the-legilimens/ here]]. In Prisoner of Azkaban, Remus is awfully quick to believe that Sirius wasn't the Secret Keeper after all. Also, as pointed out on the HoYay page, Remus stares at Sirius for like 40 lines. I seem to recall Legilimency working best with eye contact. The phrase "as if he could read minds" is also dropped a few times with Lupin--just as it is for Snape, who is canonically a Legilimens.

[[WMG: Harry was going to be used in the creation of a Horcrux.]]
What better time to create your last Horcrux than with the murder of the one prophesied to defeat you? So Voldemort, when ready to kill Harry, did ''in advance'' whatever horrible ritual is required to create a Horcrux. This ritual makes your soul ready to split apart.

Then, and only then, did he head over to the Potter's house, with an object ready to put part of his soul in.

When he got there he murdered James, perhaps weakening his soul even more, but he could keep conscious control and not fragment his soul then. Then he killed Lily, and the same. As long as he's aware he's going to kill someone, he can keep from that act from making a Horcrux. (Perhaps this even explains why he was willing to not kill Lily...killing people while holding back from making a Horcrux after doing the Horcrux ritual requires actual effort, and he frankly didn't want to deal with it.)

And then he tried to kill Harry, ran up against Lily's magic, and, bam, disintegrated. He fell apart, and the part of his soul that he had carefully prepared to split off, that he had consciously held on to...left. And as he wasn't aware at the time, he couldn't force it into whatever object he carrying. (Possibly he had Nagini at this time, or possibly there's still some random object is sitting on the floor in the ruined nursery.) So it went, randomly, into the most suitable container, which was Harry.

He didn't ever realize this, or if he had suspected he had lost that part of his soul, assumed it had vanished forever.

* Isn't this canon?

[[WMG: Snape deliberately burned his bridges with Lily, as the first step in establishing his [[ReverseMole cover]]]]
Hey, he was willing to kill his (maybe friend) and handler, the only one who could or would testify to his [[ReverseMole mole-status]].

* Related WMG: Fawkes was Dumbledore's mate. In settings where there are more than one phoenix, they usually mate for life, and Fawkes headed away never to be heard from again once Dumbledore died. If it was human-level sentience, like the merpeople (which Dumbledore could speak the language of), then bestiality wouldn't be a concern, and the animagus ability would act as the [[MaleToFemaleUniversalAdaptor Male To Phoenix Universal Adaptor]], if they even did anythign like that. If phoenixes aren't human-level intelligence, Fawkes could have [[AllLoveIsUnrequited imprinted on Dumbledore]] in his phoenix form, and it just didn't [[Disney/TheSwordInTheStone go away when he turned back into a human]].

* That'd be a tough out, to say the least. Keep in mind, by the epilogue, Harry is head of the Auror's Office. Obviously, he had some connections in the Ministry by that point and the fact that he's got, "Oh, by the way, I killed freaking Voldemort" on his resume didn't hurt him, but let's not kid ourselves. By the time he finally did kill Voldemort, Harry - mostly out of necessity - was a far more skilled duelist than the average 17-year-old. And in the 19 years following, he would have only gotten better with experience. And, of course, that's if you got to him. He would have no doubt been protected in the Ministry and in the field by a squadron of the Ministry's Top Aurors - most to all of whom probably also had some degree of experience in the Second Wizarding War. Then, ''if'' you got past the Auror Office's cream of the crop and beat Harry himself, then you'd have to get back out of the Ministry before anyone knows what happened, find some way to get to Hogwarts (which is protected) and to Dumbledore's Tomb (and nobody living but Ron and Hermione knows that the Elder Wand is indeed in the tomb), get back out of Hogwarts. All of that without being killed or disarmed or defeated in a duel at any point, because if you get killed, well, [[CaptainObvious you're dead.]] If you're disarmed, then you're still alive, but all your previous actions are futile unless you somehow go back and beat the person that beat you. Long story short - pulling all of that off would probably require a Wizard to be just about as powerful as Voldemort, not to mention sneaky and a bit lucky. And even if someone succeeded, they'd have a target on their back like the last person that did it.

** Although in Brisbane in 2008 a 14 year old boy raped an older teenage girl. And there may have been adults involved that aren't specified. I don't think people "want" this to be true (CaptainObvious) but applying RapeAsDrama - which can be therapeutic for people who have been raped, especially if they were children at the time. The fact that people won't talk about traumatic things like this is why childhood rape victims repress it for so long.

Gregorovitch really ''is'' Father Christmas (which sadly implies that [[PoisonOakEpilepticTrees Santa is dead]], or at least the Eurpoean version is), and Ollivander has been operating his own shop since 390-whatever BC. In fact, Ollivander in the first movie looks oddly like the [[WMG/TimeLord Second or]] [[DependingOnTheAuthor (sometimes)]] [[Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures Eighth Doctor]]... The reason it seemed like just yesterday that Lily (and James?) got her (their?)wand(s) could have been that for him, it literally ''was'' yesterday, because he works long hours and skips all of the time that a customer is not being seen (and that he is not being asked to do something else, like officiate for the Triwizard Tournament).

* This belongs on the {{Darth Wiki}}.

[[WMG:The Ministry of Magic is purposely keeping the Wizarding World ignorant of how the muggle world ''really'' is to prevent conquest-happy wizards from becoming unstoppable threats and to keep them under their rule.]]
Supposedly, the Wizarding World is purposely kept separate from the Muggle World to prevent the latter from decimating the former in a war and (presumably) prevent the latter from exploiting the former as a cure-all resource. While this may be true, there's also the added, underlying threat of what would happen if a wizard or witch suddenly came into possession and full knowledge of Muggle weapons and technology.

They say that against a wizard with a Killing Curse, a Muggle with a shotgun would win every time; imagine if said shotgun was enchanted and wielded by a deranged wizard. With the magic world completely inept in the ways of the non-magical folk, it ensures that they can't combine the best of both worlds and create an unstoppable weapon of mass destruction or invincible army to conquer ''both'' worlds. Plus, if wizards knew the ins and outs of Muggle society, technology, culture, etc., it's likely they'll pull an "Amish in the City" and abandon the old traditions for a more technomantic life, thus throwing the Ministry's carefully balanced iron grip on Wizarding society into jeopardy. Alternatively...
* There's no way a muggle with a gun would beat a wizard with a wand. A quick Expelliarmus would disarm him sraight away. Or if you don't feel like disarming him, which would be easy as hell, you could send a stunning spell or Perificus Totalus to knock him down. Or blast the gun out of his hands with Reducto. Or you could transfigure it into a rubber chicken. There must be some sort of spell that blocks physical objects, the shield charm for example. All relatively simple spells. Seriously, the muggle wouldn't stand a chance.
** Compare the length of time it takes to finish pronouncing a five-syllable pseudo-Latin word to the time it takes to pull a trigger. Also consider that wands only work at pistol range, and firearms can work at sniper rifle range. And this is all before we get into grenades, bombs, artillery...
*** Wandless magic. Once CallingYourAttacks is out, all bets are off. Also, the Weasley's "weapons-grade jokes": conventional smokescreen vs. pitch-black Peruvian Darkness Powder; hypnotism vs. extra-stregnth Daydream Charms; complicated disguise makeup vs. ''a hat that instantly makes your head invisible''. In terms of pre-packaged magic, wizards are at an advantage... after a pair of ''joke-loving teenagers'' put some thought into it. That ''no one'' thought to create some sort of "magic-bullet-proof vest" before probably falls into the WMG below.
*** Although most of those items are joke items, actual wizard combat powers doesn't seem to involve anything more powerful. Human (Muggle) science and technology is adaptive. Magic stagnates to the point that simple logic problems are considered drastic security measures.
*** Yeah, but at the same time the premise here isn't a muggle with a Gun. It's a wizard. With an enchanted gun. If a muggle with a gun is at a slight disadvantage (At best), a crazed wizard with a gun will have a significant advantage. If, some how, said wizard managed to avoid falling into the 'All important wizards are certifably insane' aspect of the Potterverse setting, well, Wizards are screwed.
*** Speaking of wandless magic, uncontrolled wandless "accidental magic" seems to protect young wizards from mundane accidents (Neville bouncing like a rubber ball when dropped out a window, etc.). Perhaps this isn't restricted to the young. If Hagrid thought it ludicrous that a car crash could have killed Lily and James Potter, the same might hold true for a bullet or a bomb.
*** If that's the case, then why do people banish things at eachother in duels?
*** Shield charms work to protect against moderate ''magic'', not physical impact. Furthermore, wizards have and have used swords. If a SWORD could work on a wizard, there is no reason to assume a gun wouldn't.
*** Only on magical creatures, and it was a highly magical goblin-made sword.
*** When Ron comes back in book 7, Harry uses a shield charm to keep Hermione from attacking him. If it works on humans, why wouldn't it work on bullets?
*** Because humans dont break the speed of sound? The most likely conclusion is that a strong enough shield charm would stop a bullet from a highpowered gun. And that enough bullets would break the shield, just like Magic does in the books.
*** A shield charm can save you from falling hundreds of feet. Bullets don't actually have all that much energy; they are merely pointed, thus exert a lot of pressure.
*** Isn't it mentioned somewhere that the threat of uncontrolled magic is virtually zero once a wizard's been fully trained? Neville, Harry et al. had no idea how to use their powers, hence all the involuntary magic. Once they know how to use it, the threat goes down.
* The same badass fanfic as last entry posited that the Ministry purposely censored all wizarding knowledge of technological process, starting sometime between World War I and the rise of Grindelwald. Effectively, this boils down to ''bitches don't know 'bout my atom bomb'' in later chapters. Wait...is the person writing these the author of that fic?
* It's worth noting, in all this FanWank, that there's something not taken into account, and that's that, while a Wizard might be more than a match for a muggle with a gun, a muggle with a highpowered sniper rifle firing on a wizard who doesn't know he's even around is probably going to come out on top. Even if a shield charm stopped every bullet ever, and you could get it up before someone could shoot, you're not going to be able to stop a bullet from someone you don't even know exists.
** This also goes the other way around; the Muggle with the high-powered sniper rifle is equally defenseless against a wizard who's scouted the area (magic would probably help a lot in finding a hidden sniper if you think it's a good precaution to check) and sneaks up behind him. This actually works against the WMG, however; all the wizards who would want to counquer the muggle world don't have this sense, they're too busy feeling superior to think about doing anything about the muggle with a gun than stand in front of him. The kind of wizard that's of the right mind to learn how the muggle world ticks and make this situation work for him would have no interest in doing so.
*** According to the epilogue, there is a Supersensory Charm.
*** Magic in Literature/HarryPotter actually has a hard time detecting non-magical objects. But this discussion is CompletelyMissingThePoint: There are about 10000 muggles for one wizard and those are '''definitely''' not the odds the Wizarding World wants to face. A wizard with a wand will not win over 10000 muggles with guns. A HP wizard is definitely not strong enough for that, so they defer to secrecy.
*** Mind you, ''all'' wizards can use magic, when all muggles are not soldiers...
*** Also, remember Moody's Foe-Glass? It seems actually quite ''simple'' to detect threats and enemies. It never says that the glass only detects wizards, and why would it? And this kind of magic surely can exist in spell form, or at least in more portable form.
** A related idea: A wizard builds his wand into a shotgun, thus enchanting every shot fired with a spell. An Avada Kedavra blast would mean that every little piece of buckshot carries an instant-death curse. This would be bad.
*** Yep. But it would be much harder for him to cast lots of other stuff. Even the darkest wizard wouldn't deprive himself of a shield charm.
* I'm imagining an shotgun that fires bullets enchanted with different spells. A shotgun shell that fires fiendfyre, a shotgun shell that fires the killing curse, or reducto. That's be awesome, someone should make that movie!

[[WMG: Avada Kadavra is pure magic.]]

Magic interferes with electrical machines like an EMP. Humans also have many electric signals keeping us alive, but we are far more resilient and will survive an EMP blast as all our electronics are fried. However, given enough, even humans will die, although it takes a LOT. Avada Kedavra is just a bolt of pure magic. It doesn't have an intended purpose, it just is a green blob in it's purest form. It takes a lot of will to cast it, with the only piece of will strong enough is the desire to kill. In theory, a wizard could make it appear if they tried hard enough, but no wizard know it's true nature, and no one is testing it.

[[WMG: Magic is fueled by calories.]]
This explains why the students of Hogwarts eat three enormous feasts every day, and none of them, in fact no wizard that we see, is severely obese. A great many wizards are skinny, and those few who are somewhat overweight are not using their powers to their full potential, resulting in a buildup of magic and resultant fat. Such people include Molly Weasley (kills Bellatrix with relative ease when she gets serious) and Neville Longbottom (whether he's actually overweight is a matter of interpretation, but he's definitely not meeting his potential in the early books).
* Jossed. The reason the students are so thin (not all of them) is because in Hogwarts most of the classes are so far apart. You have children running across the castle from one class to the next and if you are running from the dungeons to the top tower then you will go through calories very quickly. I would think that a lot of magic would consume energy and using too much in one go would make you faint. Also some people are just bigger then others no matter how much exercise they do (my friend is a great example of this. She's more active and does more sports then most people and she's still considered 'fat').
[[WMG:If any Death Eater splinched when summoned by Riddle, s/he got AK'ed.]]
"What? Not determined enough to get here?"
* Voldemort was not the worst boss, as far as villains go. If anything, he didn't like killing those that he felt could be the slightest use to him. (Which may explain why he tried to recruit James and Lily as well as Neville before deciding to kill them outright.) He was probably more likely to torture or humiliate someone he felt had failed him. Hence, Crucio when a person had already left pieces behind. Yeeeeowch.

[[WMG: Magic is nothing but a misunderstood remnant of ancient alien technology.]]
The phenomenon called "magic" is all that remains of the technology from an alien race visiting the earth thousands of years ago. The aliens, much more advanced then even modern men, set up a quantum manipulation field, with which they could alter the environment and, given enough energy, even create things seemingly out of nothing. The energy sources of this field are scattered all through the world, in the form of strange artifacts or even geological formations, such as hills, seas or old rocks. A lot of those sources diminished in power or even disappeared, but the biggest source still remains: the Moon, which had its core altered to relay and power the alien technology.

After the aliens disappeared, human beings very gradually managed to tap into this quantum manipulation field. They did this using trial and error, inventing incantations that resemble the old auditory commands given by the aliens. Human beings generally need wands to focus their own life force to make the field aware of them. Also, not all people have this ability, only the descendants of those the aliens experimented with. The centaurs could also be the result of an experiment gone haywire, involving combining human beings with horses.

Certain combinations of chemicals can also cause interactions with the field, which is the cause of potions. Lastly, most of the strange creatures are the descendants of animals the aliens altered for their purposes.

[[WMG: Adva Kadavra is just a spell that stops hearts]]
In the books they they reaptly say that Adva Kadavra leaves no burn marks and to muggles it just looks like someones heart stops but it dose just stop it basically uses magic to stop the heart somehow.
* Probably not. Heart stoppage =/= instant death. You actually have a few minutes, and a wizard would have likely lucked into some magical method of re-starting the heart by this point. Not to mention that a heart attack (which is essentially what this is) would show up on a Muggle autopsy as a cause of death. It's more than likely that AK causes actual ''brain'' death.
* I think it stops all activity in the central nervous system instantly. The way magic disrupts electricity this focused spell just zaps the entire electrical signals of the entire central nervous system, like hitting a computer with an EMP. POW, brain, heart, all muscles, all of it just stops.

* Isn't this canon?

[[WMG:Galleons represent the actual amount of quantified magic in the world.]]
* Galleons are not created per se. The Goblins were able to cast a spell that created 1 galleon per calorie of magical energy in the world. Galleons can probably be physically counterfeited, however a casual magical scan would reveal that counterfeit was not an original. No new galleons can be created because there is only so much magic in the world. Now, having a galleon doesn't control any magic in the world, but the fact that the total galleons equals to the total magic in the world is why they are used as currency for purchasing magical items.However much magical energy was used that is how many galleons the thing costs...or at least that is the theory, of course black market trades are made all the time where the magical value of items is inflated or deflated for one reason or another.
* I always figured that there is a small circle of goblins who run Gringotts who each cast a spell that makes galleons. You can make a physical counterfeit galleon but no one wants to because doing so would get you cursed by the Goblins.

[[WMG: Prophecies are in fact very powerful spells that manipulate the future, not tell it.]]

However they harness an even greater power than magic...they harness the power of self fulfilling prophecy. In other words 'prophets' are like people who understand psychohistory and every once in awhile they see how to control future events by saying certain cryptic things to certain people at certain times, and through that those people self fulfill the prophecy.

[[WMG: It's not incompatible with known physics.]]
A wand is a cold fusion reactor, with the "magical" core sustaining the reaction. Magic works by manipulating electric and magnetic fields, which is why advanced Muggle technology doesn't work near a lot of it - the constant changes in flux are the same as an EMP. And there are ways to do everything that we see a spell doing, with ''very'' precise manipulation of those fields. Apparition is traveling through higher dimensions - the crushing sensation is your cells suddenly having a much higher ratio of volume to surface area than they are supposed to. Time Turners use wormholes, and Divination is just the same effect the other way working differently.

[[WMG: Wizards are less powerful than other magical creatures because humanity isn't magic as a whole.]]

[[WMG: Arithmancy is the art of creating new spells]]
Which an only be done by incredibly dangerous experiemtation, eg: shouting random words , or an incredibly complex combination of maths and etymology.
*Jossed. Arithmancy is a magical discipline that studies the magical properties of numbers, including predicting the future with numbers and numerology.

[[WMG: The spell that Dumbledore cast at Voldemort at the end of [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]] was an Elder Wand-level Petrificus Totalus.]]
It's effects are never revealed, and it's listed under {{fate worse than death}}, so, it could be a Petrificus Totalus so powerful it trapped Voldemort for all eternity.
* [[AndIMustScream Holy shit...]]

[[WMG:Ambient magic has no effect on modern electronics on its own; [[Main/ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve the mental aspect of magic and the perpetuation of the myth that it does]] makes it so.]]
Electricity is a primal, elemental force, just like fire, light, earth, etc.; there are spells and incantations and potions that allow a witch or wizard to create or manipulate ''them'', so electricity should be no different. (Light and electricity are very similar forces...) Plus, the effect of ambient magic on electronics has been displayed rather unevenly throughout the book series; sometimes it shuts them down altogether, and sometimes it leaves them entirely unfazed. Supposedly, a laptop or cell phone won't work on the Hogwarts grounds, but a motorcycle or car would; why would lead-acid batteries be more resistant that lithium-ion batteries? And there's a department in the Ministry of Magic created specifically for the discovery and confiscation of magicked Muggle items.

Given that much of whether magic works a certain way is in the ''belief'' that it'll work that way, the only reason ambient magic in an area would affect electronics is because the wizarding world ''believes'' that it does; otherwise, like anything else not intended as the direct target, the effect of magic on such items is negligible at best.
** If magic truly stopped electricity from working, then the portion of London that contains the Ministry of Magic should be dealing with an irreversible blackout. It isn't. It's TOO MUCH magic which overwhelms electricity. This also means that too much electricity should cancel out magic. But if you keep them balanced, both should work fine.
*** One badass fanfic assumes that lots of magic can cancel out technology ''and vice versa'' and goes on from there - it's why satellites don't pick up Hogwarts. Long story short, there's a squib with a grudge trying to expose the magical world; to protect herself from the wizard manhunt she's started, she hides out on a tech college campus (it might have been MIT), where there's so much engineering and technology that ''magic doesn't work.'' It's much less goofy than it sounds.
** Whats it called?
* This Troper assumed that electronics didn't work on Hogwarts Grounds because they'd included anti-electronics spells in the wards around the school, intentionally so that muggle-borns get fully involved in the Magical world. They can make exceptions for teachers and lower the barrier during the summer, while the students are away. They made the wards, after all.
** I figured that they make electronics not work so that the muggleborn children are even more disconnected with their home lives. Not even a payphone anywhere, means they will not be speaking to their parents for months at a time, except through owl(and how many kids like writing letters), and never to their friends, it's not like they can send their muggle friends an owl. This also weans them off technology tv, computers etc, making them technologically illiterate, more embracing of a witch/ wizards lifestyle. Also making sure demonstrations of interesting tech will not be available to purebloods, thus not challenging their assumed betterness over muggles. this was probably cooked up by headmaster Black...
* Or it's simply that all that magic -which we know can make light and whatnot, ie. ''electromagnetic interference'', overwhelm electronic circuits and fry'em. A lead-based battery, with relatively short cables (compared to their diameter) connecting to the ignition wouldn't be affected, but the oh-so-delicate electronics just give up and spout the magic smoke of doom.
* Alternatively, Magic has no impact on Electronics. It's simply a myth that it causes them to cease functioning because Wizards lag so far behind the mundane world. Notably, we never see anyone TRY to get it to work in the stories other than Arthur Weasley.
* Alternatively alternatively, magic doesn't cancel out magic... ''when it's being used correctly''. Hogwarts is full of students struggling to master spells, potions, etc; the concentrated misuse of magic in a small enough area is enough to disable electronics.
** Triple alternatively, it's all a lie to keep students focused on the whole "learning" aspect of school instead of the "goofing off during class" one, like mundane schools banning cell phone usage, mp3 players, etc during school hours.
* Both the motorbike and the car that operated on Hogwart Grounds had been magically modified. They likely didn't run on electricity any more, the ignition system was probably magical after Sirius' and Arthur's tampering respectively.
** And there's also the Knight Bus, which also, clearly, has been magically modified, what which incredible acceleration, and the whole, things jumping out of its path trick.

[[WMG: Unconscious Magic is Much More Effective Against Muggles.]]
We only ever see this kind of magic used against Muggles i.e. Harry Apparates away from bullies. However, this never happened against a wizard - Neville didn't do magic to save his parents, Harry doesn't Apparate away from Voldemort, etc. This would also tie in with the Muggle vs. Wizard scenario. Assume that a wizard can detect Muggle threats as they can the traces of magic, and a Muggle's a goner. Plus, a wizard world vs. Muggle world war would be a curbstomp battle in a wizard's favor: Apparate into the Heads of States' homes and capture them, break up supply lines, hide in Muggle-impenetrable areas, Transfigure armies' guns... the possibilities are endless. Finally, enchanted bulletproof vests, anyone?
* You do know that Harry and Neville were babies and didn't understand what was going on at the time right? Unconscious magic happens when the user is angry or scared, besides, who says Neville was even with his parents at the time? If he had been, the death eaters would probably have tortured him to insanity as well. It'd probably be far more effective in making the Longbottoms talk. Besides, wizards who use unconscious magic aren't going to be more effective as trained wizards, because trained wizards can direct their magic in a more effective manner.
* No, this makes perfect sense. If wizards have an instinctive use for magic that can leak out unconsciously, then it makes sense to assume they also have instinctive defenses against magic. So those little random bits of unconscious magic would be automatically and unconsciously blocked by wizards as well. Muggles having no magic would not be able to defend against these. So like all those times Hermione yelled at Ron, if he had been a muggle hey would have gotten zapped. This would also explain even more the need for the separation between the wizarding world and the muggle world, wizards are just inherently dangerous to muggles.

[[WMG: Magic makes wizards dumber.]]
Throughout the series, there are examples of wizards doing things that range from offbeat to wacky to downright mind-bogglingly dumb. And they show a remarkable lack of knowledge of anything Muggle -- Arthur Weasley has no concept of how a bus route would work, or how to work a telephone even though one entry into the Ministry of Magic building involves one! -- despite a sizable fraction of them having at least one Muggle parent or grandparent. This has to make you wonder. And then it turns out that electronics in the presence of ambient magic tend to have (in the best of cases) [[WalkingTechbane little glitches and skips]] ... and what is the human brain but a great big meat-based gadget passing a lot of electronic signals between its parts and pieces? It's only to be expected that a brain might not work quite as smoothly as it should when there's a lot of magic around. (The survival value thus conferred on magic blindness through improved brain function may explain why the magic gene hasn't made itself ubiquitous in the population at large.)
* The average wizard's ineptitude and insularity in regards to the muggle world that surrounds them may be [[TruthInTelevision Truth In Literature]]. Have you ever been to Quebec? In spite of being surrounded in their nation and all over its subcontinent by the two largest English-speaking nations on earth, not to mention being isolated from other francophones by an ocean, many Québecois go all the way through adulthood without knowing more than a lick of English. Modern-day speakers of various archaic British languages (Gælic, Cymric, Armoric, Manx, Cornish, etc…) might be even more precisely what Rowling was referring to.
** By "Cymric", do you mean Cymraeg? Like, Welsh? Sorry, nitpicky Welsh person speaking.
** It's an alternate term, or a general term for things having to do with Wales. (/also Welsh, for the record.)
* Maybe so many of the older, male wizards have beards because they don't trust themselves with big sharp razors? That is, they are too dumb not to cut themselves.
* Alternatively, given the size of the wizarding population and the number of pure-blood families still in existence, maybe it's just all the in-breeding.
* Further support comes from almost every muggle-born wizard being smarter. Hermione, Harry (a half-blood), even Tom Riddle (another half-blood despite what he tells people) - they all had a break every summer from magic brain-frying, in addition to having their important childhood brain development outside of wizard interference. The children of Purebloods are educated by wizards because of the Masquerade, and wizards are already dumber than muggles for environmental reasons; thus, the Pureblooded wizarding world is in a vicious cycle which is making it dumber and dumber every generation.
** Going even further, Dumbledore knows this, which is why he spends so much time in Muggle society and why he sent Harry to live in Muggle-world.
** This explains why Ron got progressively stupider and goofier as the series went on.
*** And that Brain-sucking jellyfish thing was beneficial in the long run, reversing the process to a degree by book 7.
* It's not necessarily magic that makes wizards dumber; it's the overemphasis and over-reliance on magic to wizards. To wizards, magic is pretty much everything (fear of muggles, discrimination of squibs and those with muggle parentage, etc.); as a result, they exclude such things as muggle sciences and a lot of the arts from their education. All they teach in Hogwarts is magic: no English, no live foreign languages, no art, no theatrics, no psychology, no humanities in general, no courses on ethics. The only mathematics is Arithmancy; the only history taught is Wizard history, and that is taught very badly. Not an intellectual group for a race that reads a lot. If they were, many pure-blood supremacists would be against the concept of the Hogwarts Express because the steam engine and railroad system are a muggle invention; but none of them have seemed to realise that.
** Reminds me of the "instinct vs. technology" aesop in ''{{Twister}}''. Also, maybe in the HP 'verse, wizards invented steam power, but it took muggles to get it going, so to speak.
** The children are taught those basic things until they were eleven, and it wasn't needed anymore once they went to a Wizard school. Maybe their brains developed quicker in Muggle studies, but then again that contradicts the whole theory.
*** Again, where do the children of Purebloods and other assimilated wizards learn these things?
*** And having a collective education level of an eleven-year-old about anything other than magic still explains a lot...
** We only know what Harry knows, so maybe courses like "Magical Art History" exist.
*** It's highly likely that "Magical Art" and/or "Magical Art History" exists in particular, given the unusual nature of the paintings at Hogwarts (which must require magic paint, canvases, brushes, and a vivid imagination in order to create). A "Magical Photography" class is also probable. There are Wizard rock bands, who presumably use magical abilities in their music-making, although it's never explained precisely how (is magical music "better" somehow?). There don't appear to be any music or art teachers at Hogwarts, though. Based on statistics, there are probably not many Wizard musicians/artists in Britain, and so young wizards interested in studying music or art would probably have to become someone's apprentice.
*** {{Word of God}} via The Marauder's Map (which Rowling supposedly drew herself) shows rooms like "music room" and things like "charms club" are mentioned, so it's possible they exist, just as extra-curricular activities. [[http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/collectibles/e83e/?pfm=Search&t=marauder%26%2339%3Bs%20map Here's a link to a replica on ThinkGeek.]] And in the movies, it's implied that Flitwick is the choir teacher.
** This troper recalls how much worse his ability to do simple calculations got since being given his first calculator in middle school...
*** Precisely. How badly did your ability to spell decrease once you stopped getting assessed on it? Unless the teachers also correct any spelling, punctuation or grammer errors (unlikely), then the average wizard is going to write like a muggle sending a text. Their should be ''some'' class where wizards learn basic english and mathematics, just to get their heads above water.
* Or perhaps many wizards lack a decent capacity for critical thought due to their education at Hogwarts. Boarding school is a conformist place where standing out or thinking for yourself is a definite no-no. With no university or third level education to speak of, wizards and witches aren't going to be thinking outside the box. Consider the following points:
## Everyone was afraid of Voldemort when the Death Eaters did all the leg work.
## Some Death Eaters would have continued Voldemort's reign of terror when Voldemort disappeared, with it being business as usual.
## Being a Death Eater would be a lot harder, with many people going for the Dark Arts, homemade explosives, costly last stands, hit-and-run attacks, and vigilante work to make them pay, even using the same tactics they use.
## No one seemed to realise that a lot of Death Eaters attended Hogwarts when Dumbledore was teacher or headmaster, and aside from a few speeches, he and his staff did almost nothing to stamp out the rampant pure-blood supremacy or prevent students going to the Dark Side.
* You have a very good point there, especially if you consider that both Hogwarts and the ministry are keen on proclaiming their opinions on young ones.
* In the first book Hermionie even says 'Most wizards don't have an ounce of logic.' when faced with Snape's potion puzzle, which supports this theory.
* This is pretty much canon if you look at what Hogwarts actually teaches. They have a lot of pratical, technical, and vocational classes, but there's nothing in the way of culture or literature or language or critical thinking, or anything else that most modern places teach. And, when you get down to it, they were complaining about things like writing four inches of an assignment or by the end 'Two Feet'. That's... two pages. Hand written. With a quill. 3-5 pages, Typed, is pretty much the norm in most Highschool Level courses these days.
* ouch no wonder they were complaining their hands must have ached
* Yeah, it's much more likely that the wizarding worlds complete lack of common sense is more of a cultural thing- they aren't going to know things that are exclusive to a culture they deliberately segregate themselves from. Their way of life is different, and it seems normal to ''them'', the right way to go about things (sort of like how people in dysfunctional families sometimes have no idea they're actually dysfunctional, and don't know there's another way of going about things, which also means that the cycle can get repeated when the children grow up and start their own families... Not the most precise analogy, but good enough.) Although to add to the theory, I actually recently wondered myself whether or not magic ''does'' affect people's brains. Specifically, I wondered how wizards could be so stupid yet have such good memory. They learn all these spells, and seem to have to know how to brew all these potions by heart and so on, and it makes you wonder whether or not magic enlarges the parts of the brain involved in memory, and perhaps leads to other parts of the brain shrinking in response (maybe the part responsible for logic and decision making or something like that). I'm not sure whether of not their memory is only specialized in regards to ''spells'', but I think it makes sense. Hermione is renowned for brains and excellent memory- maybe she developed it and treasured it because among muggles such good memory is extraordinary and those around her likely praised her and encouraged her to capitalize on that gift, wheareas with wizards such a thing is normal and nothing out of the ordinary, and as such they weren't really encouraged in the same way Hermione was. Thus, ordinary grades. On the other end of the spectrum, we have Neville. Neville who was at first suspected to be a squib by his family- maybe his terrible memory is one of the reasons they thought he wasn't magical? (Even then, as far as I can remember, Neville doesn't seem to have trouble remembering spells and plant names- just other things.)
** It doesn't necessarily take magic to make the brain favor memorization over, say, logic. Mental skills reflect useage even under perfectly mundane circumstances, sometimes to a surprising extent.
* It's not stupidity, but a lack of logic and critical thinking skills. Classes seem to be teaching how to do things (cast spells, make potions, ect.) without explaining how things work. Combine the follow-the-leader educational system with a belief that the best way to solve a problem is to magically get rid of it. This also may explain why the wizarding world has such a static class structure: new and innovative ideas (like Fred and George's snackboxes) are not encouraged, and all education is standard, so most witches and wizards have no way to move up the socioeconomic ladder.
** By this logic then Snape, Dumbledore, the Flamels, and Minerva are all dumb when in fact they are all extremely smart or brilliant people. Snape is very logical and so is Dumbledore. You have to remember that the books are from Harry's point of view and as such we are not given the whole picture. Also, it's not that they are dumb it's they are dumb by our definition. Some people are technology dumb, like my 50+ year old mother for example. She's not an idiot or dumb by any means it's just that she is not very 'smart' when it comes to things I consider easy. Also Snape created spells, made his potions book better and his manner of speech are all show of an intelligent and creative man. He might not be able to use photoshop or use a computer very well but he's still not dumb, he's just dumb in my culture. Also culture plays into this too. They don't need computers, guns, etc. They use magic and what ever else so of course they will be un educated and confused by our muggle stuff. Just like I would be confused by how their wizarding world works. Also Harry himself isn't that intelligent. Harry constantly blames the same person for a few books, relies too much on Hermonie to figure things out and runs right into traps and such. Being half-blood (like Snape) or muggleborn means nothing it's just some are smarter then others. So I'm going to say Jossed since there are intelligent pure bloods and dumb Half-bloods/Muggle borns.

[[WMG: Magic is a public utility]]
Just like water or the electrics. You pay your utility bill, the Ministry pipes magic to you. That's why the Weasley's being poor matters; they can't afford the magic. Harry has a trust fund (the Gringrots vault) paying the bills, or maybe Hogwarts foots the bill for its own magic (as is likely the case for Muggle students).
* And there's a limited (either total or slowly regenerating) supply, which is why the Wizards want to keep the whole thing secret.
** Imagine the "Magic Crisis" and "The War on Voldemort:Is it just for Magic" headlines.
* It exists naturally at low levels as a kind of background radiation; this is not enough to power an adult witch or wizard, but it is enough to get an untrained kid started. The ability to use magic is inborn but must be reinforced at an early age. This would help explain several things about both muggle-borns and squibs:
** The presence of muggle-born witches and wizards - no adult magic-users to monopolize the magic supply, which allows the kids with magical potential to develop. Also, muggle-born and muggle-raised kids seem to be stronger, on average, than wizard-raised kids, possibly because they learned early on to do more with less.
** Squibs tend to show up in pureblood families - wizarding children with naturally low sensitivity to magic may have trouble getting any at all if they're surrounded by a large family of magic-using adults. This explains why Ron and Neville both seemed to have trouble in their early years at Hogwarts but ended up being fully capable wizarding adults - both came from large families (Ron's immediate family was large, and it sounds as if Neville spent a lot of time with large amounts of his extended family as a small child), which lessened the amount of magic available to them.
* The idea of their always being little magic to use could explain the small global population of wizard and witches
* Can't be the Ministry controlling the supply though, otherwise how could condemned criminals (like Sirius, not to mention Voldemort himself) use magic if the Ministry could just cut them off?
* I don't know. In one of the books it mentions magical food doesn't actually provide nourishment, and we've all seen spells eventually wear off. Perhaps the Weasleys house is built from regular construction materials, and the magic keeping it up has to be periodically topped up. And isn't the currency gold-based? If so, that also explains why poor wizards exist: it's the only element that can't be transfigured. (Well, it ''can'' be, but not everyone has a Philosopher's Stone.)

[[WMG: Dumbledore's unidentified spell in The Order of the Phoenix was meant to destroy or remove Voldemort's soul]]
The spell is only performed once, never connects, and is described rather impressively. Voldemort retorts that it is foolish that Dumbledore not seek to kill him, to which Dumbledore responds that there are other ways to destroy a man. When "destroy" is used in reference to people, and death itself can be referred to, "destroy" implies something horrible such as complete mental breakdowns or worse. Given the stories' emphasis on the Soul, destroying Voldie's soul makes the most sense. Include that the prophecy indicates that Dumbledore can't kill Voldemort (although the sixth book {{Josses}} how accuracte prophecies are), and ''destroying'' Voldemort to leave Harry to finish off seems reasonable.
* But then, if this spell connected, Dumbledore would probably become a Dementor by doing the same thing they do.
** There are so many alternatives... To say, the spell could have worked by forcing Voldemort to feel remorse for his (many) sins. Comicbook/GhostRider uses it a lot, and works.
** That's what this troper thought as well. Hasn't it been said that forcing Voldemort to feel remorse would kill him or cause extreme pain, or something to that effect?
* Bearing in mind that Voldemort's body contained only 1/7 of his soul (so the spell wouldn't have done anything except dely his rise further) and Dumbledore's hatred of Dementors, this seems unlikely. Something to do with love, or the remorse idea above, seem far more useful and in character.
** Technically, Voldemort only had 1/128 of his soul left in him...
*** You forgot [[spoiler: Harry, the accidental horcrux. That makes 8 horcruxes, hence he only has 1/256th of a soul left]].
*** Actually, it is 1/128.[[spoiler: If there are 8 horcruxes, the last two would both be 1/128 or half of the 6th horcrux (1/64) in order to add up to a whole soul]].
** Nowhere is it etched in stone that every single successive horcrux split leaves the soul in an even, neat division by perfect mathematical fractions. In fact, probably the split is uneven ''in favor of'' the part of his soul left in his body, since this is explicitly said to be the central part of him now.

[[WMG: The amout of magic in the world is finite and will eventully be used up]]
the world population of wizards is small because there would not be enough magic to fuel the community if it was larger. The difficault to use spells are only difficault because wizards have to gather a lot of magic for their use. Also squibs; like in another WMG are low sensitivity individauls who can't store enough magic to use their abilities.

[[WMG: Squibs are a little more magical than Muggles]]
Muggles can't enter Hogwarts. Filch, who is a Squib, works there, so he obviously can. Squibs are probably able to see things Muggles don't see. They may also have some sort of ability to communicate with animals, especially cats.
* Wasn't this um confirmed in the books? And even so this doesn't seen like WMG so much as stating the obvious

[[WMG: Hogwarts is somewhat sentient.]]
The castle has over time used the enormous amount of magic inside it to form some sort of consciousness. It would explain why Dumbledore always seems to know everything that's going on there. The castle obviously does, and he - as the headmaster - is tied to the castle to the point where he knows what the castle knows.
* I think this has been all but verified by Rowling.
* I believe this theory, because if Hogwarts is sentient, who knows, it could an {{Eldritch Abomination}}, which make the story creepier, and [[NightmareFetishist I love creepy things]].
* At the least, the Room of Requirement is definitely intelligent.
* You guys are gonna love this [[http://www.toplessrobot.com/2009/08/fan_fiction_friday_hogwarts_and_a_giant_squid_in_f.php one...]]
* In the Prisoner Azkaban Harry does note that Professor Flitwick is teaching the doors to recognize a photo of Sirius meaning that this theory is very likely.
* It probably doesn't even realize its sentience. It's alive, but more like an animal than a thinking being.

[[WMG: Hogwarts magically ''seems'' to have a larger student population than it actually has.]]
A thousand years of magical classes have come through its halls, leaving a good bit of residual magic. Hence though the actual student population may vary from year to year, there always ''seems'' to be students around the corner, behind you, everywhere - though if you actually forced yourself to look there would be nothing. This varies by time of day - the halls are crowded and noisy when they are expected to be crowded and noisy, but it doesn't get noisy in the middle of the night. So when the book mentions ''throngs'' of students it's actually just some students and the ''feeling'' that there are many more around. This residue reacts to emotions, so when Harry ''feels'' like the school hates him, most of the real students really don't take a side but the phantom throngs reflect Harry's feelings about how everyone else feels about him.

[[WMG: Hogwarts is bewitched so that all students are confronted with a mystery to solve each year.]]
This happens the same way the DADA teaching spot is cursed -- it guarantees the teacher ''will'' be forced to leave after a year, but from completely external, logical reasons. In the same way, a completely accounted for and external mystery will present itself to every student. For example, a fellow student has a problem that he is hiding, and his friends spend the year figuring it out what it is. The books detail Harry, Ron and Hermione's particular mystery. All the other students are investigating similar, but much less consequential ones. This is why no seems to think it remarkable, bizarre, or huge news that the trio have these massive adventures every year -- they're just wowed by the ''type'' of adventure, because their's are always more mundane. Possibly, one of James, Sirius, and Peter's was figuring out that Remus was a werewolf.
* I suppose Ginny certainly had a mystery of her own in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Chamber of Secrets]]''. And what Malfoy went through in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Half-Blood Prince]]'' might loosely count as a mystery.
** This is my favorite WMG ever, and [[FridgeBrilliance makes perfect sense]].
** If the school came up with Cedric's and Myrtle's mysteries, it's more Fridge Horror...
*** Those two failed to solve their mystery.
* Percy was assigned the exact same mystery as the Trio in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Chamber of Secrets]]'', with the same clues and connections to the main players (It was his sister, and his girlfriend was petrified), but failed to solve it. Possibly he was supposed to work with the Trio.
* And a student named Tom Riddle once took a year to learn his heritage, another year to find the Chamber of Secrets, another year to learn how to become immortal...
* And obviously a large group of students had several offscreen in the last book, namely, what the heck Harry was doing, how do we stop the insane people who are running our school, and whose side is Snape really on? Possibly different students got assigned different mysteries, and perhaps there's an untold story about some third-year Hufflepuffs who figured out Snape was a good guy.

[[WMG: Just like a wizard can do magic without saying the spell, they can also simply think the wand movements.]]
In the first book and movie, Flitwick tells them to "swish and flick" for wingardium leviosa. More complicated spells you would assume would require more complicated movements, but you never see anyone ever actually doing them.
* It could be that they are just never mentioned, and Rowling does mention several times people "flourishing their wands" in heated duels, suggesting that they are flicking wands about in complicated fashions.
** Confirmed. It's called Wandless magic and it's been done several times in the series by only the most powerful of wizards. Snape, for example, has done some Wandless magic through out the book. The thing is that Wandless magic is so difficult because you have to be powerful and it takes LOTS of practice. No everyone can do it and it extremely rare. To do it without the wand and speaking is called: Wandless Wordless magic. Snape can do that too. As can Albus Dumbledore.

[[WMG: Slytherin isn't always the "evil" house.]]
It depends largely on the student body at the time. There are phases where the rash and jock-ish Gryffindors are the most antagonistic, same with the Ravenclaws, who would mock the other houses for being stupid. Hufflepuff probably does this the least.
* Except Hufflepuff would be the most likely to gang up on an individual. Remember, 'Puffs stick together.

[[WMG: The Ministry of Magic is a dictatorship]]
There are no elections - new ministers are picked from the Ministry elite. The mainstream media (The Daily Prophet and the Wizarding Wireless Network) pretty much say whatever the Ministry says. People are arrested and held without trial (see Stan Shunpike).
* Good theory. However, in ''Deathly Hallows"", durind the Potterwatch scene; Lee tells Kingsly he has his vote for Minister.
** Which, if not a joke, would make Wizarding Britain ''more'' directly democratic than the U.K., in which the Prime Minister is appointed by the monarch from within the dominant party in the (elected) House of Commons.

[[WMG: Slytherin House was much 'worse' than usual during Harry Potter's school days for a very simple reason.]]
A large portion of Slytherin House were probably not just children/grandchildren of Slytherins, but (grand)children of the first generation of Death Eaters, who obviously had all of the pureblood supremacy, except cranked UpToEleven. This is obviously confirmed with [[GenerationXerox Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle,]] so it would probably follow with many of the Slytherin children, to an even greater degree than other generations.

[[WMG: Hogwarts is a House Elf sanctuary.]]
* When Hogwarts was founded, one of the Founders, most likely Helga Hufflepuff, decreed that any house elves who were "freed" and had no where else to go could come to hogwarts for work and the headmaster of the time had to welcome them. It explains why Hogwarts has so many, why they like it there so much, and why both Dobby and Winky both ended up there after being freed by their respective masters (other than Dumbledore's tendency to pick up strays). This means that if Hermione wants to fight for Elf rights, she's starting in the wrong place.

[[WMG: The House Cup point values are deliberately skewed to give and take points in greater amounts as students age.]]
A first year is expected to have a bit of leeway, so they get a few points taken off when they get in trouble. However, older students have gotten used to that sort of point reduction and should know better, so they get more points taken away for infractions, and are given more points (when they ''are'' given points) for having supposedly had to use more ingenuity/luck to stand out instead of simply getting points for following the rules.

[[WMG: There were many other traits - not all of them positive - associated with each house that factored into the Sorting process. The Sorting Hat and staff just didn't talk about them.]]
* Gryffindors were known for being brave and chivalrous, but also were capable of being brash, stubborn, and even cocky at times. James and Sirius are prime examples. Even characters like Fred and George were brash in a sort of endearing way.
* Ravenclaws have a reputation for being knowledgeable and quick-witted, but seemed to have a tendency toward mental and emotional problems - not to mention they had little luck in maintaining relationships (romantic or otherwise) with people. Luna was obviously presented in a sympathetic light, but it's very possible she wasn't all there in the head. Cho had obvious problems handling her emotional issues, and even Roger Davies, a minor character, had hints of being a bit too obsessed with dating girls for his own good (was Fleur's date in ''Goblet of Fire'', asked Cho out but was turned down, and then was seen not long afterward with a new girlfriend in ''Order of the Phoenix''). It's also notable that it took both Cho and Luna (if you're following the movie canon as well) more time to find husbands than it did for anyone else.
* Hufflepuffs are seen as hardworking, trustworthy, loyal, and fair, but they tended not to stand out without extra effort. That may indicate a lack of luck, a lack of charisma, or both. This may or may not have been part of Cedric's reason for entering the Triwizard Tournament, but that's a completely different WMG.
* And then you have Slytherin. Cunning, strategic, and ambitious - in other words, people that knew what they wanted and also tended to know how to get it. Let's forget the reputation for turning out dark wizards for a second and observe some of the personality traits. Yes, Slytherins tended to be more willing than others to step on people in order to get what they wanted; but Slytherins valued more than anything their connections - whether it was with their pure-blood ancestry or great wizards and witches around them. As a result, though, they seemed to be an even more closed social circle than the other three houses. Occasionally you would see Gryffindors interacting socially with Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, and vice versa. But Slytherins only interacted positively with other Slytherins.

[[WMG: Hogwarts Castle was initially build as a refuge for wizards and witches.]]
The year 1000 AD, the year of the school's founding, was mainly dominated in Britain by the blood-soaked battles between the Saxons, Britons, Vikings, and anyone else who cared to join. Naturally, the wizarding folk of Britain would want to avoid this, and they did so by hiding in the spacious, well-fortified, spell-soaked castle of Hogwarts. In time, the refuge that was Hogwarts Castle saw the arrival of children, and they needed to be taught the magical arts. The founders themselves began giving lessons to some of the children, and once things in the mainland calmed down, Hogwarts morphed from a stronghold to a school.

[[WMG: The giant squid in the lake at Hogwarts is there for a reason.]]
It might be guarding something within the lake, or was made to keep the violent aquatic residents of the lake in line. [[EpilepticTrees Or maybe it really is Godric Gryffindor, who's a giant squid Animagus, and returns to his former self on the eleventh hour of every night.]]
* It could be a [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Tentacruel]]. Not sure what a Japanese magical creature would be doing in Britain, though.
* Since I don't think they there are freshwater squids it might be another gaint Kelpie that likes to think it's a squid

[[WMG: Hogwarts had several "upgrades" throughout it existence.]]

In the year 1000 A.D. there were no stone castles anywhere in Europe, nor did they have any of the fully metal armors we read about and see in the castle. What they had was wooden castles and only chain male armor. However, many of these simple wooden forts were constantly upgraded and rebuilt throughout the middle ages as new siege technology demanded better walls and fortifications. It would stand to reason that wizards would do the same to their "fortress," adding towers and thicker walls. Sometimes in the late middle ages, the castle stopped having it's physical defenses increased, since England was becoming a much more peaceful country and the school was confusing enough to navigate without constantly adding to it, so the castles remained in the form we see it today, with only minor magical upgrades to the schools defenses done by powerful headmasters when they were bored or times of war.
* Alternately, it was ''because'' of magic that magical castles already had access to these upgrades.
* This is of course absolutely TruthInTelevision for a school building. Finding one more than, say, 50 years old that ''hasn't'' been added on to, renovated and/or modernized is the exception, not the norm.
* Not to mention it's heavily implied if not stated outright that the Burrow was similarly built in stages as the Weasley family's needs changed (i.e. as they had more children and the children they had grew up).

[[WMG: The layout of Hogwarts is enchanted by the same magic fueling the Room of Requirement.]]

Think about it. We know now that there seems to be a mode of five students of each gender to a year, per house. We know now, for example, that the five boys that entered Gryffindor house in 1991 were Harry himself, Ron, Neville, Dean Thomas, and Seamus Finnigan. It's also implied that students stay in the same room their entire school careers, barring any special circumstances. But there's no way there could be exactly five wizards and five witches for each new year across the board. TT is prepared to bet that, like in most post-bellum situations, there were [[GladToBeAliveSex baby booms]] in the wizarding population right after Voldemort's first (1981) and second (1998) falls, which would have presumably produced larger wizarding classes being accepted into Hogwarts. In short, '''''there had to be at least one instance where more or less than 5 boys or 5 girls entered the same house at Hogwarts in one year.''''' How would the school prepare for this except for dormitories magically altering themselves to fit the needs of the student populace? Otherwise there would probably be letters sent out that sound a lot like, "Congratulations on being a wizard/witch, but you're S.O.L. because Hogwarts doesn't have the space for you this year."

[[WMG: Wizarding Britain is North Korea for Wizards.]]

[[WMG:The Statute of Secrecy is the work of exactly 1 wizard (or possibly witch)]]
The Statute was imposed by a single wizard who used False Memory Charm to
mind control other wizards into believing the necessity of secrecy and of mind controlling
others to believe the necessity etc, by completely rewriting their personalities.
This sets off an exponential cascade, and explains
why, say Qing Dynasty and Tokugawa Shogunate wizards would bother with what foreign wizards wanted.
For clarity:1 wizard becomes say,10 then 100 then 1000 etc. up to "All wizards who didn't realize what was
happening and hide"

[[WMG: The Chamber of Secrets wasn't originally in the girl's bathroom.]]
Originally, maybe it was just some secluded area or a lounge for say, Slytherins. Or maybe a public bath or something. The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was a fountain. Sometime in the early 20th century or late 19th century a couple liberal wizards decided that Indoor Plumbing was a ''good'' thing and that it was a necessary change to Hogwarts. (Or maybe it was directly or indirectly ''invented'' by wizards.) During this process, a couple lounges or worthless rooms were changed into bathrooms and connected to the sewers. Unknowingly, the fountain that later became a sink became the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.
* This still doesn't explain why the sink was a fake, with a mechanism to explicitly open the passage, why it was a passage in the first place and not a 5cm diameter pipe....
*** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanitation_in_ancient_Rome The ancient Romans had potable water and ways to remove waste]] I imagine the castle's upgraded itself since then, to modern toilets and sinks as opposed to latrines and dug sewers with stone pipes.

[[WMG: Voldemort also jinxed the Griffindor/Slitheryn relationship]]
Just like how he jinxed the Defense Against Dark Arts position. That's why the two get along better after the end of the series.

[[WMG: In defense of the incompetence and unethical nature of the Ministry of Magic]]
* So, the series does not portray the Ministry in a good light and leads one to realize how fucked up and corrupt the wizardings world is. However in it's defense, let's not forget that about 10 years ago Voldemort's coup-de-tat effectively destroyed the Ministry. What we are seeing is not the Ministry of Magic and the Wizarding World as it has been for thousands of years but more of a post-apocalyptic, or more like, post-mad max Wizarding World that is still in the throes of recovery from Voldemort's facist rule. The Courts were corrupt because the old courts had been eradicated and replaced by Voldemort's fascist courts, when he was overthrown they had to throw together a policing and court system to try and incarcerate all the Death Eater's still running around AND maintain the masquerade. That thrown together court system is still the foundation for the modern wizarding world court system which as we saw is easily corrupted, because it was formed to be a swift justice machine. The Daily Prophet is the obvious political media tool of the government because under voldemort ALL media was suppressed, not just suppressed utterly destroyed. After Voldemort's overthrow the Ministry wanted to get the media built again and created, or re-started the Prophet. The Ministry seems to be interfering in Hogwarts because the Ministry has had to rebuild the curriculum and the entire educational system away from one designed to produce oppressed fascists. What we see in the time frame of the Harry Poter universe is what has happened when what were once emergency recovery governmental systems that were right for the time are now becoming corrupted government systems. Even so it is still caught in the throes of conspiracy fueled paranoia, a paranoia fueled by the fact that the worst case scenario did in fact happen. The Death Eaters were a conspiracy, and they were overthrown or at least resisted by the Order of the Phoenix which was itself a secret society and probably the subject of several pro-voldemort conspiracy theories, "No, I swear to you, Dumbeldore's forming a secret army to overthrow the government", was probably once scoffed at by some Death Eaters as paranoid nonsense once and we see how that turned out. "I think Tom Riddle may be the Heir Slytherin" was probably scoffed at as well. So the adults in this world have reason to still be paranoid, and routinely engaged in shady behind the scenes movements seeking to exert control over the government while trying to pretend that all is well in an effort to make it be so.
* Basically what we're looking at is not a weak and corrupt government per se, but rather a government that has been severely, nearly fatally damaged and is still recovering.
* And it still retains some medieval ethics in their as well, which maybe were falling out of vogue but re-gained a foothold during the rise of Voldemort. Things such as using children in blood sports like Quidditch or the Tri Wizard Tournament, which is why this was the first year you had to be 17 to enter, openly having house elf slaves, etc.
* And as we see a significant portion of the Ministry and of the wealthy were and really still are Death Eaters. Even though they can't use their facist tactics anymore they are still now members of the legitimate government, and can still use legal means to uphold their underlying agenda of racism and facism.
* And though still allowing house elf slavery shows some despicable practices still allowed in the wizarding community, but the rest of their near outright oppression of other species such as dementors, centaurs, giants, dragon preserves, etc is necessary to maintain the masquerade. But in the hands of Voldemort this necessary evil of the masquerade was united with out right oppression and racism, and that legacy is still with them.

[[WMG: The REAL reason Slytherin is so prejudiced]]
* Voldemort attended Hogwarts in the 1940s. In real life at the time, many or most people held racist views. This may have been the case in the Wizarding World as well, with most people being at least somewhat prejudiced against Muggles and Muggleborns. This was the case in all four houses. However, since Tom Riddle created his pureblood supremacy movement, most of his recruits were Slytherins, simply because most of Riddles associates at the time were Slytherins. Therefore, just as racist views gradually faded away through generations in real life, the same happened in the Wizarding World for the other three houses. But while the members of the other houses simply held those views, many of the Slytherins were members of an organisation who actively enforced them, and so while these views faded away for the other houses, the Death Eaters made sure they were preserved in their own children. Perhaps any of the early Death Eaters who were not in Slytherin encouraged their children to get in there in order to socialize with likely future allies.

* So that would mean the best defense against magic would be a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage Faraday Cage.]]

[[WMG: Peter Pettigrew is pulling a [[GameOfThrones Varys]].]]

** The other poster was saying that if Harry and Hermione hadn't gone back in time, the trio, Sirius and Snape would all be dead (or rather soul-sucked) since the time-traveling Harry wasn't there to save them. Hence, Harry couldn't have gone back in time to save them without having already been saved, resulting in a paradox which can only work in a "there was no first time" universe. Therefore, alternate timelines are impossible in the PotterVerse.

[[WMG: The PotterVerse will become an [[TheUnmasquedWorld Unmasqued World]] following Voldemort's fall]]

[[WMG: Wizards are [[ImmuneToBullets Immune to Bullets]].]]

So yeah, basically the SCPFoundation.

[[WMG: Tom Riddle used a [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal crude Cruciatus Curse]] on Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop]]

[[WMG: It's not incompatible with known physics.]]
A wand is a cold fusion reactor, with the "magical" core sustaining the reaction. Magic works by manipulating electric and magnetic fields, which is why advanced Muggle technology doesn't work near a lot of it - the constant changes in flux are the same as an EMP. And there are ways to do everything that we see a spell doing, with ''very'' precise manipulation of those fields. Apparition is traveling through higher dimensions - the crushing sensation is your cells suddenly having a much higher ratio of volume to surface area than they are supposed to. Time Turners use wormholes, and Divination is just the same effect the other way working differently.

[[WMG: Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff houses produce fewer significant wizards because Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin rigged the Sorting Hat.]]
It's stated that the Sorting Hat originally belonged to Gryffindor, that the sorting system was his design, and that he was close friends with Salazar Slytherin, while Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff had a separate friendship on their own. Sorting people by personality was actually a ruse concocted by Gryffindor and Slytherin, designed to screw over Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff by having the Sorting Hat sort most children with the greatest potential for influence and power to Gryffindor and Slytherin, leaving Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw with the stooges and the oddballs. Occasionally the Sorting Hat will put someone of relevance in the other two houses or an unworthy in Slytherin or Gryffindor to divert attention from the hoarding that the two male founders were doing in order to extend their influence over the future ruling classes of wizarding Britain.

[[WMG: Bravery itself is not the defining value of Gryffindor House.]]
One of the sorting hat's songs includes the line: Said Gryffindor, "We'll teach all those / With brave deeds to their name." Notice how this line specifies that those taught by Gryffindor have brave deeds to their name. But why specify “with brave deeds to their name”? Why not just say those who are brave? It could just be poetic license, not meant to be thought about too much, or it could be the key to explaining why certain characters do belong in Gryffindor, while others, that people often think should have been, do not. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that this line was a deliberate word choice that reveals something about Gryffindor values. This line makes a very subtle distinction which seems to imply that Gryffindor values the fame and glory of bravery more than bravery itself. Or, to put it another way, the appearance of bravery seems more important than the bravery itself.
* This explains why Pettigrew, though he was quite cowardly in actuality, truly did belong in Gryffindor. In fact, Pettigrew did become “known for his brave deeds”; ie: his renown for confronting Sirius Black and dying nobly trying to avenge his friends. It doesn’t even matter that it was all a sham; the loophole in the Gryffindor house is that it values the appearance and glory of bravery even more than actual bravery.
* This also explains why Severus and Regulus though they were both extremely brave, belonged in Slytherin. They didn’t seek honor and glory for their bravery. In fact, they deliberately tried to cover up and hide their bravery Theirs was the type of bravery that is subtle and hidden, the opposite of the Gryffindor’s showy bravery. To them, glory and recognition were subservient to achieving their ultimate goals, which makes them perfectly Slytherin at heart, which is not such a bad thing after all.
* As a last bit of evidence, consider how Gryffindor seems the most boisterous and extroverted of all the houses, indicating that it tends to attract the kind of people who like attention as typified by characters like Fred, George, James, and Sirius.
* Just to be clear, I am not claiming that bravery isn’t important in Gryffindor, but that Gryffindor seems to especially value the type of bravery that is ornate and that gets noticed. Consequently, those who appear brave, or want to appear brave for the fame and glory, can also find a place in Gryffindor.
* This brings up the perspective of each House having it's "light side" and "dark side" aspects. For example some people would ask why make a House of evil, Slytherin. It's not that Slytherin House is inherently evil, it's that it was taken over by the dark side. While we see Gryffindor as a 'good' house, from the stories we hear about James and the Marauders we can see an aspect of what the dark side of Gryffindor could look like. So perhaps a deeper part of the backstory is that Voldemort wasn't just infiltrating the wizarding world at large, but his teachings and dark influence were entering Hogwarts as well, and bringing out the dark side in the student houses where it could. Dumbeldore was able to form the Order of the Phoenix and brings the Gryffindor's back into the light.
** The fight between Dumbeldore and Voldemort would have, in the beginning, been a very 'cold war' sort of conflict between the two of them as the each try to subtely out influence the other in Hogwarts.

[[WMG:Slytherin house was only kept open so that the sociopathic wizard children aren't mixed with the general population. It's the "special ed" section of the school.]]
Of course, it backfired; by now, it's become tradition, and nobody remembers the real purpose of the House.
* Maybe the "special ed" class was made into Hufflepuff since there's not much mention of it or what the common room is like in the books and the Sorting Hat said they'd take anyone who dosen't fit the other three houses' qualities.
* There are more qualities than courage, ambition, and wisdom, though. And given that later interviews suggest Hufflepuff's fairly comfortable as opposed to Slytherin's dungeons, well...

[[WMG: Slytherin doesn't have more evil people than the other houses; it's evil members are just more ambitious.]]
There are immoral people in all four houses. But, only a really ambitious immoral person would rise to become a murderer, or a dark lord, like Voldemort. In real life, most sociopaths are not violent, because nothing is motivating them to do anything violent, though they will do smaller cruel things to others. There are Hufflepuffs, Gryffindors and Ravenclaws who would sell their mothers into slavery if they thought it would benifit themselves. But they don't try to take over the world or kill anyone, because they aren't ambitious enough.
* Looking out for yourself above others is specifically said to be, a Slytherin trait, as much as ambition is. I generally agree with your logic overall, though.
** Except looking out for yourself above others is not really a Slytherin trait. Slytherins take care of each other, ''Ravenclaws'' are the backstabbing ones.
* This is probably canon; I mean, look at Wormtail--clearly an evil person, but can't stand up for himself to save his life and always follows around the bigger, more powerful people. And he's a Gryffindor.
* The Slytherin house probably wasn't ALWAYS the dark wizard house. Or at least considered such. In the years shortly following the founding of Hogwarts it was probably know as the conservative/isolationist house. Considering the traits associated with being Slytherin, the house probably became known as the house for future politicans, spies, and aristocrats - and who likes them? (JK) It's probably not until the Wizarding Wars start that Slytherin starts to become known as the 'dark/evil' house. Give the Harry Potter world enough time and a lack of dark lords and I'm sure the stigma against the house will fade back to the usual.

[[WMG: Gryffindors and Slytherins normally leave each other alone.]]
The two houses have a long history of being completely awful to one another; because of this, members of the two houses tend to avoid each other. In each house are a few complete jerks who go out of the way to screw with members of the other house, becoming representative of it in the process. As a result, each House seems to the other to consist only of the most evil students to the other.
** To clarify this a bit: as observed in [[TheMovie the movies]], Slytherins and Griffindors will happily associate with everyone ''except'' each other.
** There are several things that could explain why this is true: for one thing, the obvious fact of the books being from Harry's perspective means we see the Slytherins at their worst, because he commands such a high profile that he attracts excessive attention anyway, both good and bad. Also, the Malfoy wields a great deal of influence, and given the way Harry snubbed him, some of his year-mates probably found it easier to fall in line. (This ties in with a related argument that less Slytherins are Death Eaters than it appears, for similar reasons: the ones who aren't feel less reason to antagonize Harry, and so simply don't interact with him much and get little screen time.)
*** Probably an even better explanation - Slytherin has as many "evil" or unsavory characters as it does because it is filled with the children of Death Eaters, a wave of kids loyal to their parents and/or bent on revenge. If Harry had joined Hogwarts in any other generation (besides the one immediately before his), he probably wouldn't have found so many antagonistic Slytherins. This may or may not extend to his kids' terms, as some of the children of Death Eaters may have held grudges to adulthood, while others did not (I.E, Malfoy's lack of antagonism).

[[WMG: HufflepuffHouse is actually the most dangerous one.]]
According to the Sorting Hat, Hufflepuff gets the students that are the most hard-working, loyal, and ''trustworthy.'' It would stand to reason that they'd be taught magic that's too dark to be entrusted to a Slytherin. They're tailor-made to be the black ops of the Ministry of Magic, and if one in a million of them do go bad, ''they never get caught.'' After all, who would suspect a Hufflepuff?
* So while Aurors are like a cross between the CIA and Green Berets, and mostly come from Gryffindor, there's an even ''more'' secretive group of back ops members (possibly related to the Unknowables) comprised almost soleley of Hufflepuffs? Cool.
* Tonks was a Hufflepuff. Hmmm.
** So was Hogwart's champion, Cedric.
* Also, their mascot is a flippin' badger: They SEEM all cute and cuddly and harmless... until they rip your face off. The honey badger is the most fearless creature on the planet, and can take bites from a friggin' ''cobra'' and all that happens is it takes a freaking nap, and goes ''right back to eating the cobra'' like nothing happened. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg Honey badger don't give a shit indeed]]. Nothing can stop them. Fear the Hufflepuffs. Fear them.
* Alternately, they could make up the majority of the Unspeakables. If Aurors are the Black Ops of the wizarding world, then the Department of Mysteries' 'Unspeakables' would have to be something like Area 51. As Book 5 clearly shows, the Department of Mysteries deals with stuff that's [[UpToEleven abnormal even by wizarding standards]], and they are ''sworn to secrecy.'' Note how Hufflepuffs are often the 'forgotten' house among the four. Not to say that a Gryffindor couldn't do the job, but Gryffs would probably tend toward being more on the frontlines. Additionally, one of the apparent 'weaknesses' of Gryffindor is that some of its members have a tendency to be brash, bullish, or even outright cocky.
* Or, instead, ask yourself who exactly they are 'loyal' to? They're loyal to Hufflepuff. Nothing more, nothing less. It's obvious...they're the ''wizard mafia''.

[[WMG: The reason for all of those empty classrooms and that there are maybe eight teachers for the entire school, ten or twelve if the AP classes get their own specialist?]]
There used to be a lot more teachers, and probably but not necessarily a lot more students, but most of the teachers would have been involved with the wars against Grindlewald and Voldemort. Especially since they and the best students would be most likely to join the Order of the Phoenix or the Aurors, who had the highest death rates during the last war, many of Hogwart's faculty ended up dead during the forties and seventies. There are so many spare rooms, not just because of fluctuations in population over the thousands of years Hogwarts was probably planned to run (ChaosArchitecture could have solved for that, and probably did), but also because many of the classrooms were places to hold other advanced and optional classes, and split up the houses into their own classes instead of having doubles classes all the time. In another few decades (or more, since wizards live so much longer than nonmagical humans and thus require longer to be considered a master of a craft), they might be able to hire up more teachers, split up the doubles classes (or put doubles classes on a rotating schedule, since it probably encourages inter-house fraternization), and go to having a Defense Against the Dark Arts curriculum with multiple specialists who teach shorter terms instead of a single teacher giving completely different aspects of the [=DAtDA=] lessons each year.

* That completely makes sense, when you think about it: comparable to the "lost generation" in post-WWI France (an enourmous hole in the population where all the young men who should have been starting families were dead); considering that the books suggest the first war went on a lot longer than the second, the entire Wizarding population might be a lot smaller than it ought to be (which would explain a lot in and of itself, like how almost every adult seems to know one another).

Or they're not classrooms. Don't forget, Hogwarts was founded when witchburnings were a reality. So given that Hogwarts is a CASTLE which are typically built to hold off invading armies, which magically defenses, it's entirely possible that it was built to fit as many people as possible just in case. If you're gonna hide in magical castle from the crazies wanting to burn you alive, you would want some room and not be crammed into very limited space. Or it could both this possiblity and the one above. Who says there can only be one explanation?


[[WMG: There is no curse on the [=DAtDA=] professorial post, it was planned that way.]]
The reason that no teacher has held the job for more than a single year in a row since Tom Riddle asked for it is because no teacher has held the job for more than a single year in a row since the class was founded. Instead of trying to find one, decent, well-rounded teacher and teach a little bit about lots of things each year, they hire a new specialist each year and work on a five to seven year cycle of subjects ([=GenEd=], Specific Spell Defense and Charmbreaking, Mythical Creatures above level 3 [and thus not suited for Care of magical Creatures], Paranoia [defense against general spells and scrying]...) Maybe there was a Poison and [=Mind/Body=] Altering Substances Defense subclass, but it got absorbed into Potions and Snape got locked out of the job he became potions master to get to. Lockhart not doing his job and the war and job snatchings going on from book five onwards probably screwed up the curriculum a bit.

* Probably Chamber of Secrets, five years ago, where his being clearly in love with Penelope Clearwater resulted in quite a few OutOfCharacterMoments from Percy.

Never once did the RoR reveal itself to Harry and the crew in all the capers they got into. Once Neville wanted to get involved the room reveals itself to him so that HE can train. Which is why the climactic moment in the training montage is when Neville finally learns how to stun someone. Once Neville joins Dumbeldore's Army the room now acts as their HQ, secret hiding place and hiding place of a Horcrux because by helping Harry succeed the room helps Dumbeldore's Army succeed so that Neville can have his dramatic moment and grow into the hero he NEEDS to be. It was all for Neville as for as the RoR was concerned.

* [[AndNowIMustScream Holy shit...]]

The few objects we see in the department are notable in two ways. First is that they are poorly understood, second is that they are dangerous. Brains that can do horrible things to people, time machines, a portal to the dead, and a room filled with the [[ArsonMurderJaywalking power of love]]. Leave these things for the general public is only begging for trouble, and worse if these things get loose to an unprepared one. They are not just studying the gate of death, they are making sure nothing comes out.

The hat probably did the same thing with the Marauders. Sirius, the first one to be sorted, was brave, but his braveness comes out of loyalty, since he would die rather than betray his friends. Sirius is so loyal that his animagus is a dog. However, he wanted to be on Gryffindor to annoy his mother, and this was the only thought in his mind at the moment of the sorting. This was brave enough, in the hat's opinion, to be a Gryffindor. Lupin was next. He was intelligent and studious enough to be a Ravenclaw, but he needed to accept himself which he would learn to do in Gryffindor, with a friend like Black. The Hat had already seen Sirius' mind and knew they would be good friends. Then came Peter, very ambitious, but he was the kind of guy who would become the mook of future Death Eaters. So it send him to Gryffindor to encourage him to become a better person (this went [[GoneHorriblyWrong Horribly Wrong). And lastly, James, very brave, he would die to protect his family. So he was a Gryffindor.

* Isn't this canon?

As we have so far seen, the likelihood of technology malfunctioning in the presence of magic has a direct correlation between the power and complexity of the magic and technology (respectively) and the probability of both a malfunction in general and how catastrophic said malfunction will be. My guess is that the inverse applies: If extremely powerful technology is "practiced" around sufficiently complex magic, that probability that said magic will fail tends toward 1. Magic, warping reality at a level similar to [[SchrodingersCat the absurdity experiments used to describe the hypothetically stupid effects of quantum physics at a macroscopic level]], is automatically much, ''much'' stronger than any technology available today, but also amazingly more complex in its spells' inner workings.\\

Dippet may have been, like many wizards, something of an isolationist. Brought up in the wizard world and dealing with wizard world issues, the problem of a muggle World War being right on Britain's doorstep might not have occurred to him. Harry Potter proved that one could spend his early childhood in an environment that was not very nurturing and recover from it if good family figures (in his cases, people like Sirius and the Weasleys) were put around him. There may have been several teenagers brought up in similar environments - wizards raised by muggles that may or may not have been killed during World War Two. Naturally, most of these children would end up in British muggle orphanages, exposing them further to the horrors of the war, but also cutting them off from nurturing contact from other, older wizards. And it's possible that it was this group of children that became the original Death Eaters. WordOfGod says that Voldemort was brought into the world in a one-sided act of passion (his father was under the effects of a Love Potion, which, despite its name, only causes strong infatuation - as mentioned by Slughorn in HBP) and raised in an environment where people felt obligated to take care of him...and that he would have turned differently if brought up in a loving environment. It seems strange that there were no families that would want to take in a seemingly bright, talented, and upstanding young man like Tom Riddle - or that there was nowhere in wizarding Britain where orphaned young wizards could live during the summer holidays. Dippet's and the Ministry's failure to make provision for these children, especially during WW2, might have had a hand in creating the monster that was Voldemort (and by extension, the Death Eaters.)

Put it this way. Voldemort takes over the U.K, which is treated as taking over the entire world, which implies that Britain's international standing in the Wizarding World is much greater than its standing in the Muggle one. Secondly, Grindelwald was "never powerful here", so presumably his reign of terror did not affect the UK too badly. Also, the Muggle British Empire fell due to two main reasons: Political awakening (both in terms of nationalism amongst the colonies and liberalism amongst the British) and WorldWarTwo causing economic harship. World War Two (or its wizarding analogue, Grindelwald's insurgency) was not fought in Wizarding Britain, and political ideologies (especially with regard to human rights etc) as we understand them seem to be very different for wizards. So, as British muggles expanded across the globe, carving out their vast empire, wizards went with them, and, given the ascendancy of British muggles in the colonies, it was natural British wizards should rise to prominence. Ultimately, while the Muggles of India etc are no longer citizens of the Empire, the Wizards of these nations still are. Thus, Britain is the Wizarding World's superpower, and that is why Voldemort's takeover is treated as an act of world-conquering importance, rather than the oppression of a rainy island off Europe's coast.

Harry does bring his parents back to stand behind him both literally and metaphorically, even if they aren't actually alive, and Ron overshadows his brothers both as a Keeper and a hero and gives much help in winning the House Cup ''in his first year''. If someone wanted the Elixer of Life, they would likely see an image of them trying to find another way to make it and assume the potion they were drinking was a working Elixer, and people who don't have a future (through starvation or otherwise) would see, respectively, them seeing pretty images in the Mirror or heaven/and IronicHell (all that gold and nothing on which to spend it). If a perfectly content man looked in the mirror, he would see himself exactly as he was either because he was perfectly happy keeping his mind in the present (and thus not activate the mirror), or beecause the creator of the mirror thought that people with no aspirations have either no imagination, no future, or both. Harry sees himself with the Stone because ''[[SelfFulfillingProphecy he's about to have the stone]]'', and Quirrel sees himself about to present the Stone to the Dark Lord because he's about to present the stone to him (even if it is still in Harry's posession at the time), or because he's seeing a future production of AVeryPotterMusical and is presenting a [[WithThisRing different kind of stone]].

** [[AVeryPotterMusical "Kill the spare!"]]

** [[AVeryPotterMusical Depends on which Voldemort you're talking about]].

* [[AVeryPotterMusical They spiked the squirt. Everyone knows that only Harry likes squirt.]]

Her defining attribute is loyalty (to the point that, at least in the movies, she'd [[spoiler: sacrifice herself to protect Harry over following orders that caused him danger]]- i.e., loyalty over obedience). Additionally, she's a [[AVeryPotterMusical particularly good finder]]; she can find Sirius even when he's in hiding and she doesn't know where to start looking.

[[WMG: The PotterVerse will become an [[{{TheUnmasquedWorld}} Unmasqued World]] following Voldemort's fall]]

* The unmasque-ing will start when [[TrueBlood the vampires reveal themselves]], although it'll apparently take a long, long time before all the other beings are believed.

* Perhaps the person creating the Horcrux must murder a person, then replace part of his or her body with the victim's. This has nice parallels with the Horcrux's purpose: requiring one to fragment their body to fragment their soul. Also, it's pretty darn squicky to think of someone going all [[PlanescapeTorment Nameless One]] and tearing out their own eye, liver, ulna, or what-have-you and replacing it with that of a corpse's.

For example, if a wizard had attempted to turn a teapot into a wheelbarrow ''while'' the protagonists of the ''OceansEleven'' remake set off the EMP bomb nearby, the transfiguration would have failed catastrophically and resulted in, say, a large, lopsided stone washbasin with a spout. However, if someone in the vicinity had attempted a simple candle-lighting charm moments later (during the blackout), using the typical amount of effort for such a spell, the candle would have flared up and taken their eyebrows with it.\\

* Okay, so I thought this was interesting enough to google it. The first 3 results were all {{Slash Fic}}. [[FreudWasRight Seriously, people?]]

Which is why he's such a CoolOldGuy in the first few books ("As long as they don't take me off the chocolate frog cards!") and such an IdiotBall-toting JerkAss in the last books. Same reason, different symptoms. He's not wise, he's just a SeeminglyProfoundFool. The times he was BadAss in battle was because he was lashing out with his coolest spells at someone who PO'd him, not because he's all that competent.

* The term ''eminence grise'', essentially meaning TheManBehindTheMan, comes from an influential advisor to Cardinal Richelieu who was known as the "Grey Friar" -- basically a figure who organised The Terror from the back room. HufflepuffHouse, as the trope they gave their name to implies, are never in the spotlight and nobody knows what they're supposed to be good at, and the mascot of their house is similarly obscure. So, what are Hufflepuffs good at? Getting stuff done without drawing attention to themselves. Keeping a low profile, and encouraging people to think of them as {{Living Prop}}s, if they think of them at all. Getting their powerful friends to do their dirty work. Kind of a change of image from the [[ThatMitchellAndWebbLook "bumbling badger of mediocrity"]], no? Suddenly, I find myself wondering what shadowy intrigues they managed to orchestrate while Harry and Voldemort were causing all that noisy commotion... -JohnNye

Think about it. Young girl forms a trusting/confidant relationship with an older male 'friend' she doesn't know much about - a 'friend' who gets his jollies on domination and sociopathic behavior, by the way, and is willing to humor this little girl for as long as it suits his needs. After some of her encounters with him, she blacks out and wakes up not knowing what happened. She feels dirty inside and can't really explain why. And at the end of it all, she ends up being kidnapped and lured by this 'boy' into a place called The Chamber of Secrets, where she is meant to be used for his ends. For God's sake, the entire thing plays out like something straight out of LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit.