By Aaran St Vines
Reviews
Evan Mayerle posted a comment on Sunday 18th March 2007 12:59pm
Oh, as to the number of students. Let's consider:
1000 students evenly distributed over 4 houses gives 250 students per house. Assuming relatively equal numbers for each year, that averages out to 35 or 36 per year per house. Assuming an even male-female ratio, that says there should be 17 or 18 in each dorm room. Since we don't see that in the case of Harry's year in Gryffindor, either there's more than one dorm room per sex per year, an uneven distribution of students per one or more of the above criteria, or a spot of innumerancy on the author's part.
Evan Mayerle posted a comment on Sunday 18th March 2007 12:52pm
An interesting chapter with much to chew on. The only real fanfics with a political dimension that I've read, besides yours, are Chrys', Dr. T's (esp. his set with Harry going back in time to fix things after winning a rather Pyrrhic victory), and "Harry Potter and the Winds of Change" on FFN (though this last adds another chamber that gives the Puerbloods extra control).
I like the way you're taking this and I look forward to seeing how things evolve.
Nyeshet posted a comment on Sunday 18th March 2007 12:38pm
Ancient peoples occasionally spoke of their elders having lived for hundreds of years. This was not necessarily literal (in fact, it could not have been literal). It was just a way of stating they lived for a very long time.
JKR says that there are about a thousand students at Hogwarts. This is not literal (in fact, it is not possible for it to be literal, considering the number of professors, among other factors), it is just a way of stating that there are a lot of students attending Hogwarts. In all likelihood there are only a few hundred students at Hogwarts. It has been suggested that Hogwarts once held more, but that the recent war depleted the population so severely that the number of students typical to a year has been approximately halved. That is the explanation I tend to believe. Were the number of students not halved, perhaps as many as 800 might attend (which could, in a figurative manner, be passed off / exaggerated as being about a thousand).
Nice chapter. I look forward to the next one.
amulder posted a comment on Sunday 18th March 2007 12:20pm
Re: Numbers of students.
JKR has also said that she's not good at math. To me, the number 450-500 makes much more sense for the student population. And it seems to fit more in with the way classes and meals and so on have been described in canon.
Aren't there some essays and speculation over on the hp-lexicon.org website about this? Those are probably more researched than the comments you'll find here. :-)
For one thing: There are subjects that Harry has not taken (ancient runes, etc) which have profs unknown. Also, perhaps not all profs live at the castle?
best,
...art
Viv posted a comment on Sunday 18th March 2007 10:27am
First things first: My review.
I've long loved your use of back-story. There are no edges to your universe, no fuzzy, gray areas where belief must be suspended for the sake of continuity. You blend real history with your own imagination to create a full-service world, in which Harry Potter is only one member, rather than the axis on which everything pivots. I always look forward to your chapters, and was delighted to find this latest installment available. You also managed to capture Harry’s character beautifully, as well as explain away superpowered!Harry with ease. Much thanks, and grand work.
As for your question about the size of the student at Hogwarts, I chose to resolve it one of two ways. The first is that JKR, who acknowledges her hatred of math, simply estimated a student body far larger than actually exists in her world. This creates problems, given the fact that a population estimate based of Hogwarts would not be self-sustaining, especially when pureblood prejudice against intermarriage with muggles is considered. It does, however, fit with the relative sizes of the Death Eaters and the Order, and the scale of the plans they carry out. It would also be more manageable for the premise that Hogwarts is a castle, the amount of time it would take to sort the incoming first years, the relative positioning of the Houses, the presence of so many handy and unused classrooms and hallways or floors, the special dimensions needed for housing and instruction, the number of clubs and activities available to students, the number of staff members and instruction, etc. Granted, all these problems could be made to go away with the singular argument of, "It's magic, anything is possible," but I for one believe that some limitations should be placed on the actual craft for it to hold any believability. (To me, this is where your explanations come in. The use of modern science as a conduit for magic tickles my fancy, so to speak.) Then again, we are talking about magic, so forgive me.
Regardless, there are pros and cons.
The other version is slightly more complex, but perhaps more believable. Each year within each House could be broken up into class groups, or pods, of five male students and five female students. So, within Harry's year in Gryffindor, Harry, Ron, Neville, Dean, and Seamus would make up the male students in pod A. Hermione, Lavender, Paravati, and two unknown characters would make up the girls in pod A. These students would be paired up with the other pod A students from the other Houses. The registrar would then deal with groups of students rather than individuals, thus making scheduling that much easier. (For third year electives and NEWT studies, presumably the pods would be intermixed according to individual preferences.)
In these terms, each pod would have a designated set of teachers. Snape, for example, would be responsible for teaching all students in pod A, regardless of House or year. On Monday, perhaps he teaches fourth year pod A Hufflepuff/Ravenclaws in the morning, and sixth year pod A students of all Houses in the afternoons. This again would likewise add ease for the poor Hogwarts registrar, and makes a certain amount of administrative sense.
This theory too has some definite negatives in terms of canon. How would all the Weasley students have managed to all land in pod A and thus have Snape as an instructor? In this case, one could easily say that pods are assigned by name within a House, but that argument has its own obvious detractors. For that matter, why all the difficulty in landing a Defense professor? Does this problem exist only for pod A, or all pods? There is also never any hint at the existence of additional staff in canon. The other arguments against this theory are too numerous to state here.
Given Occam's Razor, it may be most wise to simply accept JKR's version, no matter how flawed and counterintuitive it may seem. After all, it's magic. Anything is possible.
~Viv, who is slightly embarrassed to see how much she rambled here
Quizer posted a comment on Sunday 18th March 2007 9:40am
I'm reading 'The Granger Defense' as the main story, but I've found my interest in the Harry/Ginny version vastly improving over the last few chapters. Harry and Ginny shaking up the foundations of magic theory, with Ginny as an apprentice spell monger, is a very exciting thought. I should have known that you would not make the mistake of giving us the same bland Ginny that is so prevalent in fanfiction these days.
Quizer
CootiePatootie posted a comment on Sunday 18th March 2007 8:22am
Dear ASV & Cranky Kokopelli;
Point, set, match. Thanks.
Now, on to the serious review. Great chapter. The confrontation with the vamps/ministry delegates was masterful. Most excellently done; especially the nerves afterward. So very good.
Love the Spell-Mongery explanations, they are very interesting and provide a nice backdrop for what Harry is going to be doing as he turns magic on its head!
Your explanation of Dumbledore's madness is great - I've not seen anything that explained that facet of his personality quite so well before!
good job all around. As always, I look forward to more, and more, and more!!!
Cheers,
Cassie
KateHC posted a comment on Sunday 18th March 2007 7:42am
A very interesting chapter which adds greatly to the Magical Universe.
Frelling posted a comment on Wednesday 14th March 2007 4:27pm
I'm really enjoying this story, and as a diehard H/G shipper I'm glad to see that you've written this version because I likely wouldn't read the other one. I'm almost tempted to give it a read just because this is so well done, but forgive me if I don't get around to it.
As for criticism about Christianity in the story, I'll admit that it took me aback when it was first introduced but after about three seconds' reflection I realized that JKR has most definitely incorporated Christian themes and ideas into Harry Potter, not the least of which is that love is a more powerful force than evil. I dislike Christianity being forced down my throat, but I hardly think that's what you're doing here. Sirius is Harry's Godfather in canon, whatever that means in JKR's universe - your interpretation is hardly radical.
Ny posted a comment on Thursday 8th March 2007 10:01am
I have been working my way through the authors on this site and in the words of Gred and Forge (with appropriate salaam'ing) I am not worthy, I am not worthy. Not only is the story wonderful (and its sister story The Granger Defence,) but your Filch is the first since the Amazing Ozma that... I don't have the words. I love it. I adore it.
Thank you so much. Please tell me you're going to do more? Maybe even after these are completely finished a Filch fic? These fics now have a permanent slot in my pda. Thank you again for wonderful reading.
Professor Complexity posted a comment on Wednesday 14th February 2007 11:41am
I am most impressed with this story! I can see the links between Harry Potter and Religion, but I feel that the Catholic Church would object with the vampire covens, given what the Church is like (I know its teachings as I am part of the church).
This story is at excellance in literature, with no spelling or grammer errors that I can see, and I am a beta for Sink Into Your Eyes!
Please send me an email when you update this story! In the mean time I will read the Granger Defense, as recommended earlier in your story.
Joshua Bygate-Ralph
Email Address: joshua_bygate@btinternet.com
Fanfiction.net- King of Vaypouria
S.I.Y.E- Lord Ravenclaw
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Ivy_Snowe posted a comment on Wednesday 14th February 2007 10:05am
*chuckles* Please, use religion however you want. You have a wonderful grasp of the many concepts put into your fics. It would be a shame for me to not read it, I happen to enjoy everything you write. Personally, I find it intriguing when fanfic authors incorporate religion into their works. I believe that it has some part to play in the Harry Potter world that J.K has written. Now, I'm no religious fanatic, but I don't blast people for using it in their writing. To carry on with this review, I truly enjoy what you've done with the canon that we all know, and this chapter in particular kept my interest. Cheers.
~Ivy
Emily Ann posted a comment on Monday 12th February 2007 10:31am
Nice author's note! It was masterfully handled-a perfectly stinging response to stinging reprimands. I must confess, I may be in the category of those 'prejudiced against Christianity.' When I was a baby, a Christian fundamentalist tried to kill me and my mother, because we were 'serving the Devil.' Also, much of my other experience with Christians have been in reference to hateful tendencies, like gay-bashing. I consider these perversions of God's true word, and it is my wariness of these perversions that inspire my 'prejudicial' tendencies. I don't agree with everything you've put in your story, but I think that without the controversial elements, your story would be much degraded. I'm very liberal in my beliefs, though conservative in my behavior. While I don't think that the world view depicted in your story is necessarily realistic, even I can't deny that your story is masterfully crafted and well-written.
Where do you live? I'm pretty sure you're an American, maybe even a Wisconsinite like myself, but I'm not sure. Your conservative politics are nearly as clear in this story as your Christian beliefs. Perhaps we will meet sometime in real life, on opposite sides of the campaign road.
I'm toying with the idea that what has always been called 'faith' in conventional religon could better be called 'love.' You can be faithful to your wife without really loving her. But love of a woman/man/God compells faith. This could serve to nip the more extreem, hateful forms of Christianity in the bud, while helping to make it easier to understand by those on the outside. Speaking as one on the outside, some of the extreme 'Christians' are more frightening than Satanists, and the 'language' of Christianity seems like a barrier between those who are on the inside and those who are on the outside.
Oh, and one more response to those who believe that God doesn't belong in literature--since for generations religon has been what people have built their lives on, it can be said that religon is life. To exclude religon from literature is impossible.
That quirky, overly-philosophical, fanfiction-fiending college kid,
Emily Ann
leonard posted a comment on Friday 9th February 2007 11:18pm
eu sunt fanu tau nr.1 harry potter!
sanghamitra posted a comment on Thursday 8th February 2007 3:34pm
God You've been bitten bad. Don't worry I think people who come to this site come for the authors present, as each have proven themselves in some other site. You have quality enough to write what ever you please. Magic, Myth & religion have alway been intertwined and would always remains so. You cannot swim without getting wet. So go ahead and write whatever you want whichever way you want.
My opinion : Both ( rather all) religions are extremely well thought and structured but the proponents of Islam/Christianity have been a race of expansionists Arabs/Romans and a bit of their bloodthirst and the syndrome of "Chinese whisper" along with "Who knows God Better" have almost ruined what they (the religions) could have done for humans in general.
That said it has become common to mistake God for religion and vice versa. God is a divine being, religion is a protocol at best, recorded history at most. NOT the same thing.
So, in a age of where being Politically Correct is "Cool", people might suddenly make such inane demands of You and YOUR story but so long as you know what is right,( not what you believe or think might be right), you can very well write it and put it to public notice.
Rebel Goddess posted a comment on Wednesday 7th February 2007 1:34am
I absolutely adored the scene with the vampires. Superb chapter. I especially liked poor Harry's breakdown at the very end since it seemed so very natural. Not quite 100% sure of Ginny being as smart as Hermione but it works within the context of the story and is good character development. More please. Excellent story.
Finally I wanted to express my solidarity with you on the subject of religion in HP. The ONLY time I've ever thought that a fanfiction went too far in the introduction of Christian themes in to an otherwise secular world was one I read based around Smallville in ff.net and that was only because the author made it central to Superman's development that he prayed every day. JKR is very definite about the subject of souls, dark rites (which are virtually Satanic) and afterlife - they exist and are an integral part of her world. I hope you never have reason to need another ranting author's / beta's note at the end of a chapter on the subject of religious nuts (both atheistic and theistic).
Wolf550e posted a comment on Saturday 3rd February 2007 9:57pm
review here:
http://templateworks.blogspot.com/2007/02/harry-finds-jesus.html
Asad posted a comment on Saturday 3rd February 2007 6:05am
I just finished reading this fic from start to the current chapter and must say I love it! This is a wonderful tale you are telling and while there were admittedly some places where I was a bit annoyed, overall, this is on par with some of the best fics I have read.
The pace of the relationships with regard to Harry is wonderful; no jumping and kissing the living daylights out of each other right from the first chapter.
Furthermore, I enjoy your portrayal of Dumbledore, particularly the reasons behind his actions. While I generally like Dumbledore-bashing fics, I enjoyed your portrayal of him quite a bit.
On thing I noticed is that reading the last two chapters, there hasn't been much mention of Steph Granger or the lessons Harry has with him. I would like that to be written too if it fits in nicely with your plot.
I eagerly look forward to an update. You have me hooked to this fic.
amulder posted a comment on Thursday 1st February 2007 3:43am
Still amazed that you can write two diverging stories at once without confusing them...
love the vampire scene and the "dismissing" of Fudge...
hptrump posted a comment on Sunday 18th March 2007 3:12pm