#hogwarts meta

[teacup-gathering-itself]

Severus getting a prep cook job in Cokeworth one summer and picking up solid mf knife skills. Like those culinary school chopping videos. Just fast asf precise knife work and handling.

He gets back to Hogwarts and it’s just business as usual until he’s DEAD tired one day and is prepping ingredients in Slughorn’s class. He gets to something that needs to be sliced uniformly and is similar in shape/size to food he prepped at the restaurant and muscle memory just kicks into overdrive.

The whole classroom freezes and looks at him because idk if y’all know this but that shit is LOUD compared to hesitant knife work. It smacks the cutting board and has a way different rhythm than normal kitchen noise.

Yeah it’s a skill no one has encountered unless they have been back of house at a restaurant.

Severus is too exhausted to process that anyone is paying attention to him so he just keeps going. Ingredients? Prepped? Potion? Brewed with gusto, like he was born to do it. His brain isn’t online so he’s acting like it’s a dream and adds in some flourish and flair, a trick to catch a knife, a fancy stir to help aerate the brew, a crazy amount of multitasking just because he can.

Jaw dropping behavior.

Slughorn doesn’t know how to react honestly, and is spared needing to praise him considering Severus is half awake when he hands his potion to his head of house.

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

Not sure if this has been asked before, but what the heck, I'll ask anyway.

Why do you think most kids struggle with learning to use magic? It seems like most people who leave Hogwarts barely improve from when they started. Your average wizard isn't all that impressive while prodigies like Tom, Lily and Dumbledore are few and far between.

Even decently competent wizards like the Golden Trio seem like a uncommon occurence. So, what gives?

Is it like a Star Wars midichlorian thing? Do wizards all have different sized MP bars? Or is the Hogwarts curriculum really just that bad?

Bold of you to call the Golden Trio decently competent on this blog, but alright.

We see the Hogwarts curriculum, it's... I don't know if I should say bad but it is what it is. What is it? Students aren't there to learn magic, they're there to learn key spells. That's it.

All the classes we see are "memorize X spell" if you do it wrong, you're probably flicking your wand wrong or saying it wrong. Will a professor help you? Fuck you, no. Just keep practicing. Will you ever learn the phonetics of how you generally should be pronouncing spells? No, fuck you.

Hogwarts isn't about learning how magic works, how to use the toolset you have, it's just memorization which means if you go outside that box you're looking pretty fucking smart.

And we're talking learning spells where "turning a raccoon dog into rubbish" and "turning a chicken into a cup" are somehow completely different from one another and no one will tell you why.

The other time is spent on essays that seem to be mostly "name X thing" and write as many words about it as possible because inches == better.

So, you can be perfectly intelligent, but if you have a bad ear or coordination you're going to suck as a wizard. There's also weird shit that seems to go wrong such as a) your wand just isn't working for you (see Neville and Ron) b) you lack confidence apparently (see Neville).

Further, because Hogwarts is designed so that Crabbe and Goyle will never fall too far behind, that means the pace is fucking slow. And if you're average/not super motivated, you can cost and get along just fine. You don't need to be super awesome amazing wizard which means a lot of people are just going to settle for passing their classes.

[maxdibert]

Hi, I really like your blog. I have two questions. Why is Gryffindor supposedly "good" and Slytherin supposedly bad?

What about the other Hogwarts houses?

I think Rowling didn't anticipate that her saga would become so popular and probably had an idea of how she wanted to approach it at the beginning, which revolved around classic English children's literature, heavily inspired by Dickens or Dahl. We can see this in how the characters are initially presented in a completely one-dimensional way, with the magical world serving as a backdrop, a fantasy lacking depth, simply meant to make not only Harry but also the readers (who are children too) dream through Harry's eyes. The good characters are very good, and the bad characters are very bad—there's not much more to it. This is where Slytherin comes in as the rival house, the nemesis, the representation of the place where the bad guys go, like Voldemort, Draco (who is the typical character that irrationally antagonizes the protagonist, the rich bully), or Snape (the teacher that the protagonist hates because he has it out for him). It’s a concept that works for a children’s book because you don’t expect children’s literature to delve much deeper into the dichotomy between good and evil, as that’s how children’s literature is. This works in the second book as well, which maintains the tone, and even in the third. But starting from the fourth, this becomes quite problematic because Rowling begins to give her work, her world, and her characters a greater depth. Rowling transitions from children’s books to young adult books, and as the plot thickens, that complexity should also extend to the characters and worldbuilding. However, this is an area where Rowling fails miserably because she has laid down very solid foundations regarding the world she has created. Breaking those foundations and making them more complex would require a lot of work, and I simply believe she wanted to move forward, finish the saga more or less as she had conceived it, and that was it.

There are many things that fail, such as the fact that the dichotomy between good and evil is so present, with "gray" characters that are not fully developed, alongside the insistence on portraying characters who are not good or ethical (James, Dumbledore, Sirius) as if they are. This creates a constant cognitive dissonance. For example, I firmly believe that Rowling did not plan for James and Sirius to be so utterly unpleasant, disgusting, and violent at first, but she needed the reader to feel sympathy for Snape somehow or to understand where his hatred came from. So, she turns them into despicable bullies, the same ones she previously presented as examples. At the same time, we have to believe that Lily, who is the epitome of goodness and morality as presented at the beginning of the saga, ended up marrying a bully. These are plot holes; they don’t make sense at all. These are things she could have justified by giving those characters more nuances, more personality, and providing us with more references, but she chooses not to because that would break certain foundations she established in the early novels that she doesn’t want to touch. Thus, we are left without coherent explanations for certain events.

The same thing happens with the houses. I mean, it’s understandable that a child Harry would see Slytherin as the worst hole in the world, but a teenage Harry, a 15 or 16-year-old Harry, should have a broader perspective. Rowling doesn’t do this because she already had in mind who the bad guys would be from the start; including good characters in that house would mean having to change the very rules she established at the beginning of the story or even having to alter the course of some of her characters. While this is perfectly possible, attainable, and can be done, it requires a lot of work and development of the world and the characters, and we are talking about someone who doesn’t stop to complicate those things. She follows her narrative course to the end, even though there are issues that we have to accept despite their multiple inconsistencies.

Gryffindor is supposed to be the good house because they are brave, but the reality is that most characters who truly exemplify Gryffindor qualities are complete jerks. James and Sirius are bullies, Remus is a coward who goes around impregnating twenty-somethings and abandoning them, Peter is a traitor, Dumbledore is a manipulator who doesn’t give a damn about his students unless they serve a purpose in his plans, Hagrid is an irresponsible figure for his students, Ginny ends up being something like the popular girl, and in reality, she’s a resentful brat who martyrs everyone who says something she doesn’t like. I know you love the twins, but their pranks are terrible; I wouldn’t have tolerated people like that in my class, and many of them are dangerous.

In Western culture, there has always been that ideal of the hero, the knight who goes to war and either dies or triumphs, always wielding a sword. This is a bit like Gryffindor. I understand using that at the beginning of the saga because it was for children, but it ages very poorly. And it does because Rowling doesn’t want to step out of her dichotomy of good versus evil. There are Gryffindors who are just as bad or worse than many Slytherins, but their actions are never condemned, nor does the narrative treat them as something completely negative (because they make excuses or justifications) simply because Rowling established from the beginning that those characters were good, and therefore they had to remain good until the end, even though many of their actions are inconsistent with that discourse. On the other hand, Rowling herself was surprised when Draco Malfoy ended up having several fans because she had established that Draco was horrible, was bad, and had no redeeming qualities. But at the same time, she presents a 16-year-old boy terrified because a psychopath is threatening his family and he feels compelled to kill (something he doesn’t want to do) because otherwise, they will kill his parents, and Rowling expects us not to feel empathy? That we think that boy is a horrible monster? That’s what I mean by the cognitive dissonance with her own rules and characters; it simply doesn’t make sense.

The characters from other houses are merely extras or barely matter until almost the end of the saga (Luna doesn’t appear until the fifth book) because clearly, Rowling didn’t give importance to the other houses; they weren’t part of her good versus evil dichotomy; they were just part of the decoration. Then she realizes she has to give them something, so in the fourth book, we have Cedric, and in the fifth, we have Luna and Tonks, because, of course, the story is no longer for children; the story is no longer just about Gryffindor vs. Slytherin (although it still is), but she again fails because she is not able to turn around the established foundations, and her attempt remains just that: an attempt.

[hollowed-theory-hall]

my personal pet peeves in HP is whole second book, and medicine. especially medicine

starting with the sewers that Salazar invented about half a millennium before the Muggles and beyond. but these things have almost no effect on the overall effect, but hospitals do. the school infirmary and St. Mungus. it feels like jkr came up with Saint Mongoose only for book 5, because before when students suffered serious injuries (Basilisk and cat hair for polyjuice, I mean you) they were treated at school. the students literally waited half a year for the mandrakes to ripen! but for some reason the teachers are transferred to Mungos (McGonagall did not stay at the school after 4 spells).

either these are plot holes or I don't understand something

Like with many things in HP, you can read it as a plot hole, or you can read it as Dumbledore's manipulations at it again (which is what I always do).

If we're talking specifically about year 2, we know Dumbledore knows what the Chamber is and what the monster is. He was a professor the first time around 50 years ago when Myrtle died. He knew it was Tom back then so it's not that he has no clue.

I think he doesn't know for certain who Tom is possessing at first or how, and he lets it play out to both:

Learn more about Voldy

Test & teach Harry

Additionally, even if petrification isn't serious enough to be sent to St Mongos (playing devil's advocate a little), I refuse to believe mandrake leaves can't be imported year-round. I mean, they are a common enough potion ingredient and are used in sleeping potions and healing potions. So there must be a supplier for potioners from where they buy the specific parts of the mandrake they need.

So, I think there was a wee bit of a coverup going on so Harry could be the one to figure it out and face Voldemort. Like in first year:

“No, it isn’t,” said Harry thoughtfully. “He’s a funny man, Dumbledore. I think he sort of wanted to give me a chance. I think he knows more or less everything that goes on here, you know. I reckon he had a pretty good idea we were going to try, and instead of stopping us, he just taught us enough to help. I don’t think it was an accident he let me find out how the mirror worked. It’s almost like he thought I had the right to face Voldemort if I could. ...” “Yeah, Dumbledore’s off his rocker, all right,” said Ron proudly.

(PS)

“You see what you expect to see, Severus,” said Dumbledore, without raising his eyes from a copy of Transfiguration Today. “Other teachers report that the boy is modest, likable, and reasonably talented. Personally, I find him an engaging child.” Dumbledore turned a page, and said, without looking up, “Keep an eye on Quirrell, won’t you?”

(DH)

Dumbledore is testing Harry in his first 3 years. The first time Dumbledore isn't fully in on what's going on at Hogwarts and isn't aware of all of it is 4th year (and even then I'm pretty certain he knew Moody was an imposter, but I digress).

In general, I think, 2nd year is just another example of Dumbledore endangering students and sacrificing their education (by hiring Lockhart) to teach Harry a lesson and test if Harry is truly a Horcrux, which he suspected before:

“Couldn’t you do something about it, Dumbledore?” “Even if I could, I wouldn’t. Scars can come in handy...”

(PS) - when talking to McGonagall about Harry's lightning scar.

“I guessed, fifteen years ago,” said Dumbledore, “when I saw the scar upon your forehead, what it might mean. I guessed that it might be the sign of a connection forged between you and Voldemort.” “You’ve told me this before, Professor,” said Harry bluntly. He did not care about being rude. He did not care about anything very much anymore. “Yes,” said Dumbledore apologetically. “Yes, but you see — it is necessary to start with your scar. For it became apparent, shortly after you rejoined the magical world, that I was correct, and that your scar was giving you warnings when Voldemort was close to you, or else feeling powerful emotion.”

(OotP)

But second-year proved it to him:

“You can speak Parseltongue, Harry,” said Dumbledore calmly, “because Lord Voldemort — who is the last remaining descendant of Salazar Slytherin — can speak Parseltongue. Unless I’m much mistaken, he transferred some of his own powers to you the night he gave you that scar. Not something he intended to do, I’m sure. . . .”

(CoS)

It allowed him to test his Horcruxes theory (the diary) and also test Harry. It accomplished a lot of things Dumbledore needed anyway, so he probably thanked Lucius in his head as he let it all play out.

I mean, we see how little concern Dumbledore shows over Katie and Ron who got hurt by Draco trying to kill him:

“You gave me your word, Severus. And while we are talking about services you owe me, I thought you agreed to keep a close eye on our young Slytherin friend?” Snape looked angry, mutinous. Dumbledore sighed.

(DH) - this is all Dumbledore really says about Draco endangering students.

“You have had a busy time while I have been away,” Dumbledore said. “I believe you witnessed Katie’s accident.” “Yes, sir. How is she?” “Still very unwell, although she was relatively lucky. She appears to have brushed the necklace with the smallest possible amount of skin: There was a tiny hole in her glove. Had she put it on, had she even held it in her ungloved hand, she would have died, perhaps instantly.

(HBP) - even when talking to Harry he is incredibly cold about it.

And in book 2, the board of governors did get involved and removed Dumbledore from the school because they, quite reasonably, were concerned he wasn't dealing with the danger seriously. Like, I know it was Lucius Malfoy who engineered it and he's not supposed to be in the right, but he kinda accidentally was in this case. Dumbledore probably hid a lot of information from the board and was weird about the whole deal, I mean, Lucius can bribe to his heart's content but I don't think the board would remove Dumbledore so readily unless Dumbledore's behavior supported what Lucius was saying in some capacity.

We know Dumbledore is incredibly cold and calculated and we know it's not out of character for Dumbledore to endanger students if it advances his goals and doesn't hurt anyone too much by his standards. What's a few petrifications if it means he can be sure he can kill Voldemort and learn more about his connection to Harry?

(Regarding Hermione and the Polyjuice in year 2 is even easier. Because I don't believe Hermione told her parents and Hogwarts wouldn't tell muggles about what's going on at school, so it would be quite easy to hush down for the sake of the grander plan. Also, it protects her, Harry, and Ron since what they did is kinda illegal, so Dumbledore not sending Hermione to St Mongos protects them from punishment, which works well for them and him in this case)

[apparentlytheproblem]

hey, I’ve noticed you don’t have anything romantically for harry (and I’m a harry defender cause he’s underrated in his own movie, I love harry) SO harry x fem!reader fluffy oneshot (it can be 5th or 6th year you choose) just cuddling in the common room together being all cute yk kisses falling asleep together,etc so basically pure fluff. don’t feel pressured tho, if you don’t want to do this then don’t and I’ll understand. have a good day/night <3

t w i t t e r p a t e d

fandom- harry potter

pairing(s)-harry potter

a/n: so im gonna be honest, i did not love harry in his movies but the book owns my heart. its just that everything that has made him who he is just washed away in the screen time, but im going to try my best to deliver and tysm for requesting, it absolutley made my day. and i just wanna apologize why it took so long, there are hundreds of requests and im swamped but im really trying, i promise requests are open luv, tiya

requested- yes

warnings- tooth rotting fluff, finally proof read, a very soft harry

"darlin quit movin"

he was given a snicker for a response, a one that did'nt sound much like you at all

he opened an eye to see Fred Weasley cuddling up to him while his twin and Lee Jordan enjoying the sight with his girlfriend.

"can i get a kiss first arry?" fred droned leaving you tryin you to muffle your giggles.

harry rolled him of the sofa he was napping with and beckoned you to come back with an outstretched arm as he straightened himself.

"hoi"

"hi yourself"

he pulled you in gently by the hem of your skirt. your torso was lined to his face as his hands embraced the behind of your thighs, shoving his face into your white shirt.

"lets leave lover boy alone for a while, i need someone who reacts to tormentation." remarked George in what he disguised his sympathy for boredom of playing with the lot of you.

"call me tonight baby" winked Fred signaling to harry on his way out to the kitchens

the common room was almost empty when he pulled you on top of him, pushing your shoes off. you were upright on his abdomen as he helped you remove your robe.

you comfortably find yourself entangled to him as he peppered kisses from your shoulder to neck

externally, you've done this rodeo before, but internally you were screaming.

and he had the sweetest smile plastered on his lips

for when you saw him

for when you glanced at him, you fell in love

and he smiled because he knew

[seriousbrat]

gamp's law of elemental transfiguration

I was talking about this briefly in @fiendishfyre's replies but I love thinking about magical theory and expanding on it beyond what we're given in canon (honestly class scenes in fics are some of my favourite to write). So I'm going to take a stab at filling in the blanks of this tantalising (for me. lol) bit of lore we get from Hermione. Also I know the magic system in HP is silly and doesnt make sense, I just like thinking about it for fun.

So we don't actually know what the law is. We just know that there are five Principal Exceptions to it, one of these being food:

"Your mother can’t produce food out of thin air, no one can. Food is the first of the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfiguration... It’s impossible to make good food out of nothing! You can Summon it if you know where it is, you can transform it, you can increase the quantity if you’ve already got some..."

So what could the others be? These are my suggestions:

Food. the known exception, but there's more to it, as I'll explain next:

Life. True life. We see that animals can be conjured; however my belief is that this is more an 'illusion of life'- those aren't really animals that could run away and become one with nature, rather they're imitations that would quickly die. In keeping with the first exception, these animals also wouldn't provide nourishment if you ate them. This would also extend to plants- you could conjure a tomato plant but the tomatoes wouldn't actually nourish you if you ate them.* I think this is almost synonymous with the first law, or serves as the explanation for it. The reason they're separate exceptions is because technically food is dead, even though it comes from and provides life- perhaps instead of 'food' it's actually 'nourishment', and Hermione was just kind of oversimplifying. Maybe you can create something that looks like food but doesn't provide nutrition or satiety.

Sapience: you can't create a 'being', a human or a house-elf etc, not even the illusory kind as you can for lesser animals. Barty jr transfigures his dad into a bone which leads me to the kind of creepy idea that you could potentially make a bunch of body parts and put them together into some kind of frankenstein thing, then charm it to move around. But that's obviously not the same thing as creating a human, and it wouldn't be sapient. It's also possible that this 'sapience' might also be understood as 'a soul' which is something that exists in HP lore, as we know. Though perhaps animals have souls too, we don't know.

Inherent magic: while you can create animals, you can't create creatures with inherent magical properties of their own. So you can't transfigure something into a bowtruckle, or summon a phoenix. if this happens in canon at some point then idk lol, but as far as I can recall it never does. It's possible this could also extend to magical objects; right now I can't remember if there's a clear example of this happening in canon either. Probably easier to conjure an item and then charm it, anyway.

Gold: and I mean the metal. Gold is the most magically powerful metal, the 'purest' metal; what alchemists are trying to produce. We know there are alchemists in canon and presumably if it was as easy as transfiguring things into gold it wouldn't be a job lol. My belief is that gold has some inherent magical quality that makes it impossible to produce through magic, which is why it's highly prized by wizards and goblins and used as currency, and why poor families like the Weasleys can't 'conjure more money'.** I'd say that sickles and knuts have trace amounts of gold in them, basically being alloys, and that goblins can tell just by looking at them whether they're real or not. The philosopher's stone breaks this rule, but that's fine imo because that's what alchemists are trying to do, circumvent the rule- and these rules were written by humans trying to understand the nature of magic, so they're not infallible.

All that being said, what could the law itself be?

Another tantalising bit of lore is the question the Ravenclaw door asks McGonagall, and her answer: "Where do Vanished objects go?" / "Into nothingness; that is to say, everything." That line has fascinated me so much that I have it memorised lol, I always imagined there was some big swirly void thing that contained the essence of everything vanished and anything conjured was taken from that pool. It's possible it's just a metaphysical question with no real meaning.

However, I kind of like the idea that all things, all matter, is part of the same mega-thing. So the essence of everything is present in everything else, therefore transfiguration is kind of just shifting the nature of one object through that into another object. I always saw transfiguration as wizard physics and I imagine there are complex algorithms involved lol. Obviously it's magic so there's no way I can fully make sense of it but within this theory, conjuring something would be 'taking' from 'the essence of everything' and Vanishing something would be 'returning' it to 'the essence of everything'. Here's my attempt:

Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration: the essence of everything is present in all things; all things are present in the essence of everything.

Basically, that's saying that all things share the same essential nature and transfiguration is just altering them physically/superficially. even when you seemingly conjure something out of nothing, it's still coming from that 'everything' that McGonagall references, literally out of thin air.

Hence, the exceptions- things like life (which relates to food), sapience/souls, magic (which relates to gold) exist outside of this 'essence of everything' and therefore can't be created.

ANYWAY, this got very metaphysical lol. Perhaps that helps someone with fic-writing or, if you're like me, provides a potential answer to something you've been desperately curious about in the HP lore.

*re: plants, I think there are ways around this to create more permanent plant situations- basically if there is any live plant matter in the vicinity, which is generally likely, one could transfigure those into different plants. in this case you wouldn't be creating life, just changing the nature of the life that's already there. similarly it could be that animals transfigured into other animals would actually exist as those animals.

however, being as how you can't create nourishment, a blade of grass transfigured into a tomato plant would still have the nutritional value of the grass.

** hermione does say that food can be increased in quantity if you already have some. obv if this applies to gold that makes no sense but it doesn't necessarily apply; it could be that multiplying gold, as we see in the Lestrange vault with Geminio, creates 'fool's gold' similar to what Leprechauns produce and that, again, goblins can tell the difference. The explanation being that gold is too magical and pure and special to be multiplied or even magically altered, being the 'purest' metal and the 'final stage' of metal in alchemy. I'm obsessed with alchemy and could write a whole post about this and how it relates to goblins. so i'll stop.

[teacup-gathering-itself]

Give me muggleborn students trolling eachother via howlers and voice changers but they accidentally use muggle jokes that the pureblood kids don’t understand (think Nigerian Prince scams) so it spirals out of control.

“I didn’t know your family had ties to nobility? Why didn’t you mention it?”

“Pardon?”

“You’re familiar with African nobility? Enough that they send you howlers? And you didn’t care to mention that?”

“Oh… oh yeah that’s… my bad?”

Queue every muggle raised child realizing this opportunity and making eyes that scream “do NOT fuck this up for all of us” at each other before the gossip network does its work.

Anyways I just wanna see Goncharov level of unity because they absolutely would stick to the bit if someone fell for it.

Professor Snape would die over this silently, while all the pureblood teachers are like “???? Are you well, Severus?”

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

How did the Gaunts dodge sending their kids to Hogwarts? It’s not like the Ministry doesn’t know their address and with the book of admittance they should be enrolled automatically. We even see what happens when the guardians ignore school letters; granted Harry is a Special Boy but were there just no truancy checks done?

Because Hogwarts isn't mandatory for magical households and Harry was a very special boy.

First, it's unclear if any of the Gaunts passed the bar for admissions and got a letter in the first place. We don't know, it's not clarified. While they use wands, could be they just went to purchase them/inherited them. Could be none of them got a letter.

Second, even if they did get said letter, we know that, at least for magical households, students can withdraw. We see many of Harry's classmates choose not to attend Hogwarts when things were getting spicy. The Ministry doesn't seem to care how or why someone says no to school, they'll let you do it...

If you really want to go to Hogwarts it's on you to figure out how to say "yes" and get there.

Unless you're Harry Potter and then they care very much.

[tedwardremus]

I really do love the headcanon that Hogwarts isn't the only wizarding school in the UK, it's just the largest/most well-known

I like the idea that there are smaller schools around the country and their schooling system makes more sense

Like muggle studies is required (because hey we do share this world and knowing how to avoid getting hit by a car while using a zebra crossing or whatever might be useful) (also helps ensure the statute of secrecy is followed if you know basic muggle laws/customs/technology)

As well as History of Magic students take government and economics classes

They have more than one teacher per subject because one teacher writing lesson plans for 7 different grade levels is insane

and all the students at the smaller schools think Hogwarts is outdated and stuffy and are frustrated that every minister of magic and high-level official at the ministry has been a graduate of Hogwarts.

It is difficult for recent graduates to get good jobs because the internship model of the wizarding world favors networking and Hogwarts has the best pipeline for mentorships in high positions

Reform of the wizarding world in the UK will not come from Hogwarts students but from graduates of Madam Morgana's Magic School which is located in an old monastery in Wales.

[hollowed-theory-hall]

hi! how common do you think students having time turners actually was, as we're only given a handful of examples? and do you think there was an ulterior motive to hermione being given the time turner? i really value your insights and this is a question that's been annoying me for years.

hi!

I don't think it's common at all. I was always under the impression Hermione was literally the only student who ever received a time-turner. I believe it had to do with Sirius Black being on the loose and Hermione being friends with Harry and not just about her schedule.

Even though the time turner Hermione receives is very limited:

According to Professor Saul Croaker, who has spent his entire career in the Department of Mysteries studying time-magic: ‘As our investigations currently stand, the longest period that may be relived without the possibility of serious harm to the traveller or to time itself is around five hours. We have been able to encase single Hour-Reversal Charms, which are unstable and benefit from containment, in small, enchanted hour-glasses that may be worn around a witch or wizard’s neck and revolved according to the number of hours the user wishes to relive. ‘All attempts to travel back further than a few hours have resulted in catastrophic harm to the witch or wizard involved.

(From Pottermore)

It doesn't seem like a common procedure:

“It’s called a Time-Turner,” Hermione whispered, “and I got it from Professor McGonagall on our first day back. I’ve been using it all year to get to all my lessons. Professor McGonagall made me swear I wouldn’t tell anyone. She had to write all sorts of letters to the Ministry of Magic so I could have one. She had to tell them that I was a model student, and that I’d never, ever use it for anything except my studies. ... I’ve been turning it back so I could do hours over again, that’s how I’ve been doing several lessons at once, see? But ...

(PoA)

Considering how McGonagall had to send multiple letters back and forth and not just the one usual form for student time turners, it makes me believe Hermione was a special case.

JKR wrote her as a special case, according to her:

Secondly, I had Hermione give back the only Time-Turner ever to enter Hogwarts.

(From Pottermore)

Now, JKR basically wrote herself into a problem. The problem was why was Hermione the only student given a time turner and how could other students who achieved 12 NEWTs (Tom Riddle, Bill & Percy Weasley, and Barty Crouch Jr) could've done so without the use of time travel?

Let's start with the second question. How they could accomplish 12 NEWTs without a time turner? Honestly, it's kinda easy to explain. Like, I have sat over scheduling classes at Hogwarts for a while, knowing the amount of teachers and such. How classes seem to work is that between 1-5 years the students are divided into groups of two houses for different subjects.

For example, Potions & DADA are a joint class of Gryffindor and Slytherin, meaning that Hufflepuff & Ravenclaw take these classes together. Herbology is a joint class of Gryffindor & Ravenclaw (meaning Slytherin & Ravenclaw likely have Herbology together) and so on for other classes.

In the first 5 years, we see the elective subjects are similarly split. We see Gryffindor and Slytherin take their electives together (only Gryffindors in Divination and Malfoy and other Slytherins are at Care with the main characters). Later, in the NEWT classes in the final two years, many students seem to drop out and you have classes with all the students in the year for all 4 houses. (I might make a full post explaining all of this and the evidence for it in more detail, this is just an overview).

But basically, it means that for OWLs at least, it's very possible to take electives at another time with the other half of your year. Also, considering the number of students, over 5 years split in 2 plus 2 less split apart years and 11 teachers, each student is likely to have a few free blocks in their schedule due to there being only one teacher per subject. This would allow to schedule subjects so a student could take 12 NEWTs without any scheduling issues.

Now why Hermione's case was special. I think it's a combination of multiple things happening together.

First, It's very likely that with the complicated scheduling at Hogwarts Hermione fell on a year where her schedule really was impossible. We know Ancient Runes doesn't happen at the same time as Care or Arithmancy as she keeps taking it so it's possible they had a real scheduling problem that specific year for electives.

Second, I mentioned in the past I believe Dumbledore was aware Sirius was innocent and he was the one who told Harry and Hermione to use the time turner to help him and Buckbeek. When they go back in time, the past Dumbledore (who shouldn't know they went back in time yet) actively helps them with the plan to release Buckbeek:

They were still ten feet away from the forest, in plain view of Hagrid’s back door. “One moment, please, Macnair,” came Dumbledore’s voice. “You need to sign too.” The footsteps stopped.

[...]

“Where is it?” said the reedy voice of the Committee member. “Where is the beast?” “It was tied here!” said the executioner furiously. “I saw it! Just here!” “How extraordinary,” said Dumbledore. There was a note of amusement in his voice.

(PoA, 401-402)

I don't think Dumbledore knew exactly what the circumstances would be at the end of the year, but I think he and McGonagall agreed Hermione's scheduling issue was a good excuse to get someone near Harry with a time turner that just might save his life if the worst came to it. Or, at least something along these lines.

So, basically, a schedule that was unluckily impossible that year added to Harry's unique circumstances and I think it explains why Dumbledore and McGonagall would go out of their way to make her an exception. Or at least the best explanation I could come up with.

[blorger]

Re: the pet situation at Hogwarts

this is extremely important and I can't believe there aren't millions of words written on this subject already but: where did Peter Pettigrew shit&piss whilst he was cosplaying as scabbers??

Like, rats are not on the accepted pet list (philosopher's stone states "an owl OR a cat OR a toad") so there's no system in place for rats, no feeding stations, no cages etc... are you telling me Ronald Bilius Weasley, age 11, was carefully tending to his rat's every need, scooping poops left and right? Did the poor poor Hogwarts house elves have to do overtime because of scabbers?

Also, since toads ARE approved pets, how are they being kept in the castle? Are there terrariums in every dorm? Who feeds the toads? Are we really trusting children on the cusp of teenagerdom to diligently care for their pets? Where is cat litter stored in a dorm? Is Madame Pomfrey qualified to diagnose and treat pet maladies or is that Hagrid's job?

[slitheringghost]

Hermione As Teacher And Connections To Lily

An interesting narrative thread is how often Hermione's magic and teaching influences other characters' and how often it goes unrecognized, and particularly how it parallels a lot of Lily's own magic saving Harry from Voldemort. (Read on Ao3)

1. Triwizard Tournament

Summoning Charm

he did so badly at Summoning Charms in Professor Flitwick’s class that he was given extra homework — the only person to get any, apart from Neville. “It’s really not that difficult, Harry,” Hermione tried to reassure him [...] — she had been making objects zoom across the room to her all lesson, as though she were some sort of weird magnet [...] “You just weren’t concentrating properly —” (Ch 18, GoF)

Harry still hadn’t mastered Summoning Charms, he seemed to have developed something of a block about them, and Hermione insisted that learning the theory would help. They consequently spent a lot of time poring over books during their lunchtimes (Ch 19, GoF)

“Hermione, I need to learn how to do a Summoning Charm properly by tomorrow afternoon.” And so they practiced. They didn’t have lunch, but headed for a free classroom [...] At two o’clock in the morning, Harry stood near the fireplace, surrounded by heaps of objects [...] Only in the last hour had Harry really got the hang of the Summoning Charm. “That’s better, Harry, that’s loads better,” Hermione said, looking exhausted but very pleased. (Ch 20, GoF)

Flitwick then spends most of a lesson "talking to Harry about the perfect Summoning Charm Harry had used during the First Task".

1.2 Shield Charm

(Full analysis of the Shield Charm and how it's textually linked to Lily is in my meta When Lily Cast Her Life As A Shield)

He was still having trouble with the Shield Charm, though. This was supposed to cast a temporary, invisible wall around himself that deflected minor curses [...] “You’re still doing really well, though,” Hermione said encouragingly, looking down her list and crossing off those spells they had already learned. “Some of these are bound to come in handy.” [...] Come on, Harry,” she added briskly [...] “let’s try that Shield Charm again.” (Ch 31, GoF)

Which Harry then teaches the DA:

He was improving so fast it was quite unnerving and when Harry taught them the Shield Charm, [...] only Hermione mastered the charm faster than Neville. (Ch 25, OoTP)

Then, what Fred and George say makes the real money in the joke shop:

“We’ve just developed this more serious line,” said Fred. “Funny how it happened...” “You wouldn’t believe how many people, even people who work at the Ministry, can’t do a decent Shield Charm,” said George. “’Course, they didn’t have you teaching them, Harry.” “That’s right... Well, we thought Shield Hats were a bit of a laugh, you know, challenge your mate to jinx you while wearing it and watch his face when the jinx just bounces off. But the Ministry bought five hundred for all its support staff! And we’re still getting massive orders!” “So we’ve expanded into a range of Shield Cloaks, Shield Gloves...” “...I mean, they wouldn’t help much against the Unforgivable Curses, but for minor to moderate hexes or jinxes...” (Ch 6, HBP) Although Snape did not know it, Harry had taught at least half the class (everyone who had been a member of the D.A.) how to perform a Shield Charm the previous year. None of them had ever cast the charm without speaking, however. A reasonable amount of cheating ensued [...] Typically, ten minutes into the lesson Hermione managed to repel Neville’s muttered Jelly-Legs Jinx without uttering a single word (Ch 9, HBP)

I love that Harry is then the one to teach Hermione the Patronus Charm - which Remus tells Harry is "a kind of anti-dementor - a guardian that acts as a shield between you and the dementor".

1.3 Four-Point Spell

and the Four-Point Spell, a useful discovery of Hermione’s that would make his wand point due north, therefore enabling him to check whether he was going in the right direction within the maze. (Ch 31, GoF)

“Point Me,” he whispered to his wand, holding it flat in his palm. The wand spun around once and pointed toward his right, into solid hedge. (Ch 31, GoF)

It's reasonable to extrapolate that the spell is Hermione's invention, given that it's the only spell with an English incantation, and inventions are referred to as "discoveries" several times - Remus wrt the Wolfsbane Potion in PoA, Dumbledore's work ("the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon’s blood", "does Skeeter deny the brilliance that led to Dumbledore’s many magical discoveries?"), Harry has to "memorize the dates of magical discoveries and goblin rebellions" and mentions books titled "Important Modern Magical Discoveries and A Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry", Fred says they "spent six months developing" the Ton-Tongue Toffees, etc.

Hermione inventing this is particularly compelling given that it's similar to what Harry's wand does in DH (related to Lily's spellwork deflecting the Killing Curse), and Harry's conflict with her after she breaks his wand.

[...] his wand acted of its own accord. He felt it drag his hand around like some great magnet, saw a spurt of golden fire through his half-closed eyelids, heard a crack and a scream of fury. (Ch 4, DH) He knew exactly what Hermione would say if he expressed any of this: The wand is only as good as the wizard. But she was wrong, his case was different. She had not felt the wand spin like the needle of a compass and shoot golden flames at his enemy. (Ch 18, DH)

Also notable is Hermione solving Snape's Potions riddle, and Harry echoing this with solving the Sphinx riddle during the Third Task (Harry thinking “it was Hermione who was good at this sort of thing, not him” and then “amazed at his own brilliance” when he solves it).

2. Other examples

2.1 Impervius Charm

“I’ve got no chance with these on,” Harry said exasperatedly, waving his glasses. At that very moment, Hermione appeared at his shoulder; she was holding her cloak over her head and was, inexplicably, beaming. “I’ve had an idea, Harry! Give me your glasses, quick!” He handed them to her, and as the team watched in amazement, Hermione tapped them with her wand and said, “Impervius!” “There!” she said [...] “They’ll repel water!” Wood looked as though he could have kissed her. “Brilliant!” he called hoarsely after her [...] Hermione’s spell had done the trick. (Ch 9, PoA) "Harry, didn’t you do something to your glasses to stop the rain fogging them up when we played Hufflepuff in that storm?” “Hermione did it,” said Harry. He pulled out his wand, tapped his glasses and said, “Impervius!” “I think we all ought to try that,” said Angelina. “[...] all together, come on — Impervius!" (Ch 18, OoTP)

Additionally, when Padfoot comes to watch during that PoA match and dementors swarm the field, making Harry hear Lily's murder for the first time, Harry falls from his broom, his Nimbus crashes into the Whomping Willow, others say they thought he was dead and "Lucky the ground was so soft" - of course, it wasn't luck, it was Dumbledore; Hermione then repeats these actions in DH - during the waterfall in the Thief's Downfall (evokes the drowning feeling from dementors; and Hermione additionally uses the Shield Charm there) and immediately after they escape LV in Godric’s Hollow and Harry finally gets the full memory of Lily's death (Hermione’s eyes being emphasized):

“Dumbledore was really angry,” Hermione said in a quaking voice. “I’ve never seen him like that before. He ran onto the field as you fell, waved his wand, and you sort of slowed down before you hit the ground. Then he whirled his wand at the dementors. Shot silver stuff at them. They left the stadium right away [...]" “Then he magicked you onto a stretcher,” said Ron. “And walked up to school with you floating on it. Everyone thought you were...” (Ch 9, PoA) “Yes,” said Hermione. “I had to use a Hover Charm to get you into your bunk, I couldn't lift you [...]" There were purple shadows under her brown eyes and he noticed a small sponge in her hand: She had been wiping his face. (Ch 17, DH) Water filled Harry’s eyes and mouth: He could not see or breathe: [...] Harry heard the cart smash into pieces against the passage wall, heard Hermione shriek something, and felt himself glide back toward the ground as though weightless, landing painlessly on the rocky passage floor. “C-Cushioning Charm,” Hermione spluttered (Ch 26, DH)

2.2 Murtlap Essence

During that PoA practice, Fred and George were debating using Fever Fudge to get out of flying:

“— but you get these massive pus-filled boils too,” said George, “and we haven’t worked out how to get rid of them yet.” “I can’t see any boils,” said Ron, staring at the twins. “No, well, you wouldn’t,” said Fred darkly, “they’re not in a place we generally display to the public —” “— but they make sitting on a broom a right pain in the —” (Ch 18, OoTP)

The knowledge Hermione uses to heal the I must not tell lies scar on Harry's hand helps the twins finish the Snackboxes:

“Here,” she said anxiously, pushing a small bowl of yellow liquid toward him, “soak your hand in that, it’s a solution of strained and pickled murtlap tentacles, it should help.” Harry placed his bleeding, aching hand into the bowl and experienced a wonderful feeling of relief. (Ch 15, OoTP) When Harry next saw Lee, the back of his hand was bleeding rather badly. Harry recommended essence of murtlap. (Ch 25, OoTP) Hermione cast him a stern look. “You’ve got exams coming!” “Told you already, we’re not fussed about N.E.W.T.s,” said Fred. “The Snackboxes are ready to roll, we found out how to get rid of those boils, just a couple of drops of murtlap essence sorts them, Lee put us onto it...” (Ch 26, OoTP)

2.3 Magical Eavesdropping Methods

Harry frankly marveled at the fact that Hermione could research magical methods of eavesdropping as well as everything else they had to do. (Ch 28, GoF)

People have theorized that Hermione’s research while she was taking revenge against Rita Skeeter may have aided Fred and George develop the Extendable Ears, esp. since she was staying at 12GP that summer.

2.4 DA Galleons

Hermione's inspired by Voldemort's magic to invent the DA's communication method; Draco then gets the idea from that to carry out his Death Eater mission, enchanting his own coins to secretly communicate with Rosmerta, and also gets the idea to poison the mead from Hermione, having "heard her talking in the library about Filch not recognizing potions".

“You know what these remind me of?” “No, what’s that?” “The Death Eaters’ scars. Voldemort touches one of them, and all their scars burn, and they know they’ve got to join him.” “Well... yes,” said Hermione quietly. “That is where I got the idea... but you’ll notice I decided to engrave the date on bits of metal rather than on our members’ skin...” “Yeah... I prefer your way,” said Harry, grinning, as he slipped his Galleon into his pocket. (Ch 19, OoTP)

Notably, Lily's blood magic - unlike Hermione's and very like Voldemort's - does burn Voldemort's skin.

Similarly significant is Hermione's invention of the SNEAK curse - where the DA members all sign the binding contract in the Hog's Head, the same establishment where Trelawney gave the prophecy, and the binding contract incorporated in Lily's magic. Hermione enchants ~28 coins for the whole DA and creates the curse within the span of ~a month.

2.5 O.W.L. exam

Three rows to his right and four seats ahead, Hermione was already scribbling… He lowered his eyes to the first question: a) Give the incantation, and b) describe the wand movement required to make objects fly... Harry had a fleeting memory of a club soaring high into the air and landing loudly on the thick skull of a troll... Smiling slightly, he bent over the paper and began to write

On the whole Harry thought it went rather well; his Levitation Charm was certainly much better than Malfoy’s had been, though he wished he had not mixed up the incantations for Color-Change and Growth Charms (Ch 31, OoTP) the exam to which Harry was looking forward least and which he was sure would be the one that would be the downfall of his ambitions to become an Auror. Sure enough, he found the written exam difficult, though he thought he might have got full marks on the question about Polyjuice Potion: He could describe its effects extremely accurately, having taken it illegally in his second year. (Ch 31, OoTP)

Hermione is linked to Harry's Charms and Potions exams, the subjects most directly tied to Lily. Important to note that Professor Marchbanks praises Dumbledore for having “done things with a wand I’d never seen before” during his Charms and Transfiguration N.E.W.T.s - which Hermione didn't get to take 'cause of the war; and Harry and Neville are acknowledged as doing better in Potions without Snape's presence - clearly true of Hermione's potential too as her best accomplishment was brewing a N.E.W.T. level potion second year, outside Snape's supervision (which took a month, and then she spent 2 months in the hospital due to petrification/Polyjuice turning her into a cat).

2.6 Body Bind Curse

Harry turned to Hermione. “Do something,” he said desperately. [...] “Neville,” she said, “I’m really, really sorry about this.” “Petrificus Totalus!” she cried [...] Neville’s arms snapped to his sides. His legs sprang together. His whole body rigid, he swayed where he stood and then fell flat on his face, stiff as a board. [...] “What’ve you done to him?” Harry whispered. “It’s the full Body-Bind,” said Hermione miserably. (PS)

Interestingly, Harry instinctively copies what he saw of Sirius in SWM during the DoM sequence, using the full Body Bind for the first time (at least, that we see on screen). Hermione compliments Harry on it, calling back to her being the first one to show him first year - and her being cursed right after echoes the description of Sirius falling through the veil: "the second jet of light hit him squarely on the chest", his eyes widening in shock and the "look of mingled fear and surprise".

Sirius said, “Petrificus Totalus!” and Snape keeled over again at once, rigid as a board. “LEAVE HIM ALONE!” Lily shouted. She had her own wand out now. James and Sirius eyed it warily. (Ch 28, OoTP) “Petrificus Totalus!” shouted Harry, as the second Death Eater raised his wand [...] “Well done, Ha —” But the Death Eater Hermione had just struck dumb made a sudden slashing movement with his wand from which flew a streak of what looked like purple flame. It passed right across Hermione’s chest; she gave a tiny “oh!” as though of surprise and then crumpled onto the floor (Ch 35, OoTP) Harry seized his chance: “PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!” The spell hit Dolohov before he could block it, and he toppled forward across his comrade, both of them rigid as boards and unable to move an inch. (Ch 35, OoTP) Springing up, Harry yelled, “Petrificus Totalus!” Once again, Dolohov’s arms and legs snapped together and he keeled over backward, landing with a crash on his back. “Nice one!” shouted Sirius, forcing Harry’s head down [...] (Ch 35, OoTP)

2.7 Unbreakable Charm

Not something Hermione specifically taught, but also interesting is Hermione mirroring Barty Crouch Jr. during his Unforgivables lesson (and saying Harry gave her the idea when he mentioned "bugging").

Moody got heavily to his mismatched feet, opened his desk drawer, and took out a glass jar. Three large black spiders were scuttling around inside it. (Ch 14, GoF)

“Oh not electronic bugs [...] Rita Skeeter [...] is an unregistered Animagus. She can turn —” Hermione pulled a small sealed glass jar out of her bag. “— into a beetle.” [...] Inside were a few twigs and leaves and one large, fat beetle [...] Hermione took the glass jar back from Ron and smiled at the beetle, which buzzed angrily against the glass. [...] “I’ve put an Unbreakable Charm on the jar, you see, so she can’t transform. And I’ve told her she’s to keep her quill to herself for a whole year. See if she can’t break the habit of writing horrible lies about people.” (Ch 37, GoF)

Hermione imprisoning Rita Skeeter in a jar vaguely references Lily and Harry's actions in 1981 leading to an "imprisoned" LV in Albania; this also happens a few chapters after Priori Incantatem, and Harry and LV under the web of light evokes insects trapped underneath glass:

The golden thread connecting Harry and Voldemort splintered; though the wands remained connected, a thousand more beams arced high over Harry and Voldemort, crisscrossing all around them, until they were enclosed in a golden, dome-shaped web, a cage of light, beyond which the Death Eaters circled like jackals, their cries strangely muffled now... “Do nothing!” Voldemort shrieked to the Death Eaters, and Harry saw his red eyes wide with astonishment at what was happening, saw him fighting to break the thread of light [...] and the golden thread remained unbroken. “Do nothing unless I command you!” (Ch 34, GoF)

Then the phoenix song comes from "every thread of the light-spun web vibrating around Harry and Voldemort", and a voice saying Don't break the connection (elaborated here).

3.0 Blasting Curse

All this comes full circle in the Godric's Hollow graveyard in DH (a deeper analysis also for another post), where Hermione mirrors what Harry did because of Lily as a baby (and also Harry's actions at the start of DH while flying during the Battle of the Seven Potters): blows up the house (“Confringo") and enrages Voldemort as she and Harry fly out the window - fly from death - together.

[maxdibert]

What is your Hogwarts house?

As a teenager and in my early 20s, I would have said Slytherin with a lot, a lot of Ravenclaw. But nowadays, I’ve set aside ambition and no longer aspire to earn 50k a year like I did in my early 20s. Instead, I’m content with feeling fulfilled in my work and being able to pay rent. So, I’d say Ravenclaw with a lot, a lot of Slytherin. But I don’t think I fully identify with just one of the two either. Choosing just one house has always seemed very one-dimensional to me, considering the complexity of human psychology, but oh well, let’s leave it at that and call it a day.

[kirain]

What evidence do you have that Sharp is in physical pain?

I mean, not much. If he wasn't in physical pain he would still limp, since it seems to be a muscular/tissue issue. That said, if he didn't feel any pain at all he probably wouldn't wince when he stands up, slowly lower himself when he sits down, or gasp and grit his teeth when he walks.

He'd also have no reason to sit like this.

Or stand like this.

He wouldn't instinctively do these things if he was numb. And honestly, his entire walk looks exhausting. His back probably hurts, too. As well as his right leg for depending on it so much. My grandmother walks with a limp and it seriously wears her out.

[act-more-like-a-dog-sirius]

Real talk tho Moaning Myrtle is so miserable and sensitive about the fact that she’s dead (even though none of the other ghosts are so touchy/bothered by being dead) because she’s the ghost of a child. She’s still a child. She was a kid when she died. She never matured or grew up and her life was cut short. She never got to grow up or do anything fun or anything she wanted to. She’s depressed about that.

Also. Literally all of the other ghosts are adults. She never reached emotional maturity of adulthood so obvs being dead is a super touchy subject.

Imagine being stuck as a 13/14 year old for all of eternity. I’d be fucking pissy as hell and sensitive about that too

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

The one thing I don't get about Hogwarts is the house point system. Like, I get what it's supposed to do on paper, but what exactly do the kids get out of it? A cup at the end of the year? And they don't even get the cup, the head of house does. Are kids really competing for which teacher gets to have a cup in their office for a year?

There's lots of that in school and work places in general.

Schools (especially elementary) often have gold star systems. You don't actually get anything if you get a gold star, you just get a gold star, but damn if some people don't love racking up stars.

At work and later schooling there will be awards for good grades and other things that don't actually affect your future in any real way but you can still get them.

People get a lot out of intrinsic motivation/rewards that don't necessarily mean anything or have any influence (e.g. get you money/opportunities for the future) but let you know 'hey you did a good thing and are valued and recognized'. This actually motivates people a fuck ton and sometimes more than extrinsic rewards.

The house points are right in that alley of gamification of good behavior for the group of students as a whole.

You bet your ass there are students there obsessed with earning house points and really deeply care about getting the house cup. (See actually Hermione and even Harry in terms of the house cup and being very upset if Slytherin is close to winning.)

The hilarious bit is that Dumbledore sabotages this system multiple times at the end of the year which sort of undermines the entire point and teaches Slytherins never to work hard because Dumbledore will just yank it away.