On magic and electronic devices.

I have got this idea... by James Shields on 2014-09-05 19:21:00 UTC Reply

I want to try my hand at writing Harry Potter fanfic again. I tried to before but trust it came out badly. I published just the first chapter, stopped and took it down. The beginning was too cliche, the main character's origin was a bit too close to Harry's and her powers were kind of Sue-ish.

I going to try something different this time. Basically, my main character is a young witch who knows her heritage, who comes from a Wizarding family that has mixed with Muggleborns and Half-Bloods in recent generations. As a result, she knows perfectly well about magic but lives in a Muggle neighborhood and has been going to school. The story would begin when she deduces that her best friend is a Muggleborn and thus reveals her true identity.

I have never read something similar to this, but if you have could recommend me a good story with a main character like this? It would give me a better idea of how to execute it. All OC stories I have read so far were of Muggleborns or of backstories similar to Harry's.

Hmm... by Anonymouse on 2014-09-05 19:39:00 UTC Reply

I can't say I have heard of any stories like that, but this is an interesting concept.

...

Dammit. Now I have a Potter-related plotbunny. A young muggle-born witch is born to muggle "Witches" (practitioners of Wicca) in Salem, and confusion flies on a broomstick when Wiccan witchcraft meets Potter wizardry. Working title, of course, would be "Witchcraft and Wizardry" or summat.

Can anyone point me to that one Potter goodfic that takes place in the United States, so I can have an example of how U.S. wizarding schools work?

I can! by James Shields on 2014-09-05 21:15:00 UTC Reply

Well, there is the Alexandra Quick series. Its not actually set in Salem, but in a place called Charmbridge Academy though. Its quite insteresting. You got a deeply flawed but believable main character, elements that are completely different from the Britanic Wizarding World... But, I got to warn you that this thing gets darker than most of HP pretty quickly.

On magic and electronic devices. by James Shields on 2014-09-06 23:29:00 UTC Reply

Fellow Potterheads, help me with something here. We know that electronics installing go haywire in Hogwarts. But Hogwarts is an institution where students and teachers have practice a lot of magic daily for a period of over a millennium.

So if you were to have a house were a Wizarding family has moved since only about five years old ago and where they don't use a lot of magic daily, since they live in a Muggle neighborhood and have Muggle relatives in both the parents' families, would things like electrodomestics work in that house or not?

"ThereÂ’s too much magic in the airÂ”" by Hieronymus Graubart on 2014-09-07 19:34:00 UTC Reply

probably applies only to places like Hogwarts, St. Mungo’s, the Ministry of Magic or the Quidditch World Cup campsite. But I would like to see some malfunctions, and the wizards complaining that the device doesn’t work as well as the Muggle salesperson had promised, and the Muggle repairperson not being able to find the problem. They may never realize that it only malfunctions when they use a lot of magic over a short time, because using magic is so normal to them that they don’t recognize this as a special condition. Did they ever read Hogwarts: A History?

HG

I think most people have never Hogwarts: A history by James Shields on 2014-09-07 19:50:00 UTC Reply

Those are some interesting ideas. But I was planning to start the story long after they have moved to the house.

Maybe I could incorporate it after my main character discover that the best friend she thought was a Muggle is going to Hogwarts.

Like a explanation of why a cell phone or a digital watch wouldn´t work at Hogwarts but do work at her house and then have one of the parents tell a funny story or have someone have a flashback to the time something like you described
happened.

Re: On magic and electronic devices. by AdmiralSakai on 2014-09-07 19:11:00 UTC Reply

I sort of always thought that Hogwarts's "jamming" properties were not so much just a result of a bunch of general magic having been practiced there as they were an intentional or unintentional effect of the absolutely ridiculous number of protective spells placed on the area. I don't really have anything to back that up, but I'd be surprised if jamming teleportation, scrying, certain types of flight, and a whole bunch of other things didn't also screw with electromagnetic fields.

That makes sense by James Shields on 2014-09-07 19:37:00 UTC Reply

Yeah, all the dozens of powerful Wards probably would screw them up. Of course, it could be one, the other or any combination of the two. Personally, I am just looking at the cummulative magic angle right now. The family in my fic wouldn´t have any sort of Wards as well after all.

I would say they do... by Iximaz on 2014-09-07 00:15:00 UTC Reply

...since Hogwarts is the only place specifically stated to be like that in canon.

I thought as much by James Shields on 2014-09-07 03:11:00 UTC Reply

I just wanted it clarified, that's all. It is bad just... I have seen some pretty bad stuff regarding this, where fanfic writers handwave things like four wizards living a house and using magic all the time but having a phone still work or even Glaurunging uncanonical abominations like magical laptops! Obviously I don't to become like that, so I am asking.