Applied Cultural Anthropology, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Cruciatus
by jacobk is a Harry Potter Alternate Universe Fanfic in which Hermione Granger is sorted into Slytherin instead of Gryffindor. Initially unwelcome due to her muggle heritage, she tries to prove that she belongs there.
This fanfiction contains the following tropes:
- Affably Evil: Tom Riddle is very polite and open when he appears in the Chamber, even laughing at Harry's snark
- Always Someone Better: Hermione (spell-casting) and Harry (Quidditch) are this to Draco
- Anti-Hero: Hermione seems to be slowly slipping into this category.
- Badass Bookworm:
- Hermione, to the point of learning spells before the appropriate grade.
- Surprisingly, Gilderoy Lockhart turns out to be much smarter, carrying a large amount of potions. He doesn't charm Harry's bones away this time, either.
- The Bully: Hermione, as her mastery over The Dark Arts increases, becomes this to Draco, not that he doesn't deserves it
- Bully Hunter: Snape, somewhat. When, during a dueling club session, Snape takes points from Slytherin and gives detention to Hermione, due to the fact that she tried to curse him after she already defeated him
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Played with. In the second year, a bludger is enchanted to go after Harry, everyone in Slytherin thinks that Draco did it but of course, it was Dobby who enchanted the bludger but Hermione still takes credit for helping the Slytherin team avoinding punishment by destroying, thus preventing the school staff from finding the source of tampering.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Magic is about intent, thus a trained wizard can bend spells to make them do something different, such as making a water-repeling charm to instead remove dirt and stains already present in clothes.
- Crazy-Prepared: Lockhart carries a surprising amount of potions on him, and also wears protective clothing that prevent most jinxes and spells from harming him
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Draco accepted a duel challenge from Hermione. A Foregone Conclusion, both times.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Hermione herself, who is a good person while still being a ruthless person with a thirst for power. This can also apply to all of Slytherin House, with the sincerely friendly, non-evil friends Hermione makes.
- Deadpan Snarker: Harry.
- Dissonant Serenity: In mild example of this, returning to Hogwarts after winter holidays in Chapter 3,Hermione felt a certain sense of homecoming when she cast the protective wards over her bedcurtains and tucked herself in to sleep.
- Either/Or Title: Applied Cultural Anthropology or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Cruciatus
- Evil Mentor: Diary Tom Riddle becomes this for Hermione.
- Fantastic Racism: In Slytherin, Hermione is exposed to a lot more overt racism than in Gryffindor. She wants power to force them to respect her.
- Hands Go Down: Lockhart to some students after his hair fell victim to the Weasley Twins' pranks. "Let me rephrase: Do you have any questions that aren't about the hair?" Hermione put down her hand, as did everybody else
- In Spite of a Nail: Harry and Ron still find themselves dragged into the mystery of the Philosopher's Stone in spite the fact that Hermione was not there to unlock the door to Fluffy
- Killed Off for Real: Lockhart gets killed by a Basilisk fang.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Snape seems much more reasonable than in the main series.
- Rivals Team Up: A subversion of sorts: Draco proposes that he and Hermione team up in the Potions class to earn some House Points for Slytherin. What could possibly go wrong?
- Significant Anagram: Of course, since Tom Marvolo Riddle himself makes an appearance
- Too Dumb to Live: After learning the Unlocking Charm, Harry and Ron decide to use it to open the locked door on the third floor corridor- the same corridor that Dumbledore warned (off-screen) students to stay away from unless they wanted to die...
- Tom the Dark Lord: Parodied. While discussing with Hermione in the Chamber, Tom Riddle wonders if he should use his real name this time around and teach the wizarding world to fear it.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Hermione's boggart is Tom Riddle. That is, she is terrified of going down the same path as Voldemort.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Gilderoy Lockhart, of all people, turns out to be much smarter person and effective fighter than his canon counterpart. Memory Charms remain his strong point.
- Villainous Breakdown: Draco suffers from this in the third year due to Hermione's bullying. It freaks her out to some extent.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Voldemort is (possibly) revealed to be this. Of course, this might also be him being a lying Manipulative Bastard
- Wizard Duel: In her first year, Hermione faces two. One against Pansy, in which she doesn't shows up as she knew it was a trap and another one after the final exams against Draco, whom she gloriously curbstomps. Though Draco swears vengeance...
