Nice try, non-Agent Hieronymus

Party Time? Plugging Time! by Hieronymus Graubart on 2015-08-12 08:00:00 UTC Reply

Since I joined the PPC two years ago,

I talked on the Board
I played with bad ideas in the badfic games
I began building my agents in writing exercises
I edited the Wiki
I beta read (not as often as I should)
I was shipped in the Shipfic Fest
I worked on the "Lost Tales" archive
I tried role-playing in Plort (and nearly talked my alter ego’s head off)

Guess what I never did?

Chat on the IRC? No, that’s not what I meant. I’m still waiting for the big Ypur feast in La Wunj.
Ask for Permission? It’s on my schedule, but it’s further down than "Retire from my job", and this may still take some time.
Sign the Constitution? Now that you remind me... procrastinate, procrastinate. Isn’t it sufficient that I signed the last two amendments? I may still need something to do for next years celebration...

I actually never wrote fanfiction. Of course I had to give it a try. Here it is, and concrit is welcome.
Continuum: Harry Potter.
Rating: Mostly harmless (if you could read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, you can read this).
Category: Drama? Angst? Fill-the-plothole? I don’t know. Tell me what it is.

Yes, that’s my way of celebrating two years on the Board; I’m terribly bad at throwing parties.

HG

Nice try, non-Agent Hieronymus by Galanthus nivalis on 2015-08-15 14:39:00 UTC Reply

But you may want to reconsider all the Death Eater’s spells registering on the Trace. Remember that Wormtail and Voldemort got away with casting Unforgivables in Harry’s presence on Little Hangleton’s graveyard in GOF. Apparently distance matters.

The Snowdrop, Head of Department, Uncanonical Department of Inaccuracies

-------------------

I did remember, and I theorized that they always kept enough distance from Harry, but I didn’t check until now. And now I may have caught JKR making a mistake, in GOF chapter 32:

It [the hooded figure who was Peter Pettigrew] stopped beside a towering marble headstone, only six feet from them [Cedric and Harry].

And yet, when Wormtail casted an unforgivable killing curse so close to Harry, no Aurors apparated to the graveyard to arrest the murderer? How did this not register on the Trace?

On the next page, Wormtail dragged Harry to the marble headstone on Tom Riddles grave and conjured tight cords around Harry, tying him from head to ankles to the headstone.

Well, using this spell near a kid on a graveyard may not be sufficiently suspicious to justify an immediate investigation.

Cedric’s body was lying some twenty feet away.

How did he move? Last page, he was six feet away from the marble headstone, lying spread-eagled on the ground beside [Harry].

So I’m not sure whether six feet or twenty feet from the nearest kid is sufficiently far away to escape being traced.

Anyway, the trio was near the other end of the time room – which is not small – when a Death Eater opened the door. This Alohomora should not be on the Trace’s report.

Also, Bellatrix and the other Death Eaters trying to stun Harry’s friends across the round room with twelve doors were probably too far away to be detected by the Trace.

But I believe that everything else is either sufficiently vague or justifiable.

And sorry for breaking the bad news to Ixi and Matt – apparently I’m the biggest Harry Potter nerd around.

HG

It's also entirely possible... by Iximaz on 2015-08-15 15:26:00 UTC Reply

That Voldefetus had set up wards around the graveyard so the Trace wouldn't be set off.

I mean, remember how the Order of the Phoenix used magic around Harry to get him out of Privet Drive and to Grimmauld Place, and there was no stink raised about that?

I'm guessing it's more just inconsistency on JKR's part.

Also, you really wanna go there again?

A wizard did it? by Hieronymus Graubart on 2015-08-16 09:03:00 UTC Reply

Sorry, this sounds too much like a hand-wavy "everything’s possible with magic", when the books clearly show that this isn’t true.

If you could point me to a hint that the trace can be fooled by powerful wizards, or that Dumbledore side-by-side-apparating with Harry could not be traced, or if characters in DH had talked about how easy it would be to get Harry out of 4PD again if Dumbledore were still there and jammed the Trace, then I would buy "Babymort set up wards around the graveyard" as JKR’s explanation.

But apparently only him being able to do this, when he wasn’t even on the height of his power, without any foreshadowing (or aftershadowing)? That’s not how JKR works.

On the other hand, the Trace obviously doesn’t trace everything, so there must be a maximal distance up to which magic performed in the vicinity of kids can be detected, and it should be possible to figure it out.

HG
Oh, another thing. by Iximaz on 2015-08-15 15:32:00 UTC Reply

Tom Riddle used underage magic to kill his Muggle relatives, and yet the Ministry blamed Morfin Gaunt for the murders. Apparently there was no Trace activated from the use of Unforgivables by an underage student.

No book is without its plotholes. Methinks you're just reading too much into this.

Biggest Harry Potter Fan out.

No, no, no! by Hieronymus Graubart on 2015-08-15 16:51:00 UTC Reply

This is one of the reasons why I assumed that the Trace doesn’t tell names. In CS, Mafalda Hopkirk didn’t know that the Hover Charm had been performed by Dobby. But the Trace may still have reported something like

Hover charm performed near Harry Potter at number four, Privet Drive, Little Whinging.

When Tom Riddle and his parents had been killed, nobody bothered to look for the – probably traumatized – under-aged witness who must have triggered the Trace. They had a suspect, and Morfin Gaunt confessed immediately, so they didn’t need the witness’s testimony.

I don’t like to imagine that they didn’t care although they knew the "witness’s" name and could guess that he was related to the victims, not just a passer-by. But even if the Trace reported

Three UNFORGIVABLE KILLING CURSES performed near Tom Marvolo Riddle at the Riddle House, Little Hangleton

nobody would have suspected that the supposed witness had actually been the murderer.

Concerning the Order of the Phoenix getting Harry out of Privet Drive to Grimauld Place, the Advance Guard had to wait for a specific time, four days after the Dementors’ attack. It seems quite obvious to me that, at this time, a member or associate of the Order was on duty at the Trace, determined to ignore any reports from Little Whinging (and possibly to destroy the printed evidence).

HG

I loved the uniqueness and creativity. by Silenthunder on 2015-08-12 15:19:00 UTC Reply

It was quite a fun read. Quick question: What format is used for the spell listings?

IÂ’m glad that you liked it by Hieronymus Graubart on 2015-08-12 15:58:00 UTC Reply

The format for the Trace’s output is <span style="font-family: Courier New;">Trace output text</span>.

HG

*applause* by Iximaz on 2015-08-12 14:12:00 UTC Reply

Very well-written! I loved the way you used the increasing lethality of the spells to highlight the growing tension. (Yes, I knew vaguely what was going to happen, but I still went OH S**T when the first Unforgivable got fired.

The idea of the Trace being connected to a physical item that lists underage spells and their location was a neat idea, and I loved the fact that it just straight-up exploded at the end.

BUT! I did notice one typo.

This early in the morning, most of the addressees would still be asleep, and half of them would probably not hear Dawlish's voice, but whoever got the massage would try to fetch others, and after a short period of chaos a counter-attack would be launched.

Massage should be message. ;)

Thank you! by Hieronymus Graubart on 2015-08-12 16:18:00 UTC Reply

The typo is corrected.

You are aware that the Trace doesn’t simply "list underage spells"? (I could write an essay about the assumptions I made, and their plausibility, and it would probably be longer than the ficlet.)

HG