Hello Everyone,

I have looked into the abilities list and there is something that is not quite clear to me. For example the prodigy skill lines. They let you learn spells one year higher by yourself. But the question is, is it possible for a professor/higher student to teach you a higher year spell, as long as you have the necessary stats/qualifications? Even if you do not have the prodigy ability?

Another example would be the restricted section. You need an ability to have access to the restricted section. However, in the detention system it says that trying to sneak into the restricted section without having approval, is punishable. Which means that a student can attempt to do so and it is possible to succeed without getting caught. In case of a successful endeavor, and you manage to steal/acquire a spell from there, would you be able to learn it if you meet the criteria, even without having the restricted section ability?

Thank you all in advance,
Mikael

1) As far as I'm aware, you cannot learn spells from a higher year if you don't have the prodigal ability. If a system like the one you're describing was in place, teachers would be buried under requests to learn sixth- and seventh- year spells, and would be accused of favouritism when they inevitably had to turn some people away. It also wouldn't make much sense IC-wise, hence why Prodigal Learners can only learn spells which are from their year or from one year higher.

2) I'm fairly sure it says 'trying' because while you can certainly try, there's no way you'd succeed. Even Harry Potter only got in because of his invisibility cloak (which don't exist IC here, because they'd be a pain to moderate essentially), and he couldn't read any books any way. So you can't learn spells from the restricted section without the Restricted Section ability, either.

I hope that answered your question

I agree that teachers will not teach others unless it was important(part of the main story for example). But other higher students could still do this.

But we do have an invisibility cloak. There is even one in the shop on diagon alley. Hermione managed to trick the librarian to give her a book which taught her polyjuice potion. So in Harry Potter, it is possible to enter and get spells from the restricted section. But if it is impossible to sneak into the restricted section, I do not see the reason to even attempt it, or why it is put into the detention system.

Mikael Thanatos wrote: 8 Dec 2021, 08:50 I agree that teachers will not teach others unless it was important(part of the main story for example). But other higher students could still do this.

But we do have an invisibility cloak. There is even one in the shop on diagon alley. Hermione managed to trick the librarian to give her a book which taught her polyjuice potion. So in Harry Potter, it is possible to enter and get spells from the restricted section. But if it is impossible to sneak into the restricted section, I do not see the reason to even attempt it, or why it is put into the detention system.

You can only use spells that are in your trunk in your encyclopedia, which you can only get through doing ooc homework, if a higher student were to attempt to teach your character a spell, you still wouldn't be able to cast it, you may just be able to know the theoretical knowledge.

the invisible cloak in diagon alley has an ooc purpose, it stops people with the marauders map from being able to see what you are doing, that is its only purpose. Also, for trying to sneak in, some people want detentions or want to get in trouble ic because it fits their character.

What you've said about Hermione is partly true - she did manage to get into the restricted section, but she had full permission from a Prof, even if Slughorn didn't actually know what he was giving permission for. On the site, the equivalent of asking a prof for permission to get into the Restricted Section is applying for the Restricted Section ability, and without that there is no way for your character to enter the Restricted Section.

As Del said, it's mentioned in the detention for IC flavour. The detention list is IC, rather than OOC, and is something you could quote if you wanted to in RPG threads, for example, since all student have access to a copy of it as far as I'm aware. People whose characters are 'rebels' or 'rulebreakers' also do occasionally like to have threads where their character breaks a rule and gets a detention, because it fits there character. For example, I have a thread going on right now where Lucia breaks the curfew rule and will be getting detention for it. For entering the Restricted Section, what would likely happen in such a thread is that the student would go to the library, possibly after curfew (in which case they'd be breaking two rules, not just one), would go up to the restricted section, might get a toe past the boundary of they're lucky, and then they'll be caught by a staff member before they actually get inside.

Did that help?