Tabitha's Diary - A Bewitched / HP cross

[lwf58]

I'm not going to post the story here, since I already have it on ff.net.

I've written two chapters of a crossover between Bewitched and Harry Potter and I'm working on a third. If anyone here remembers Bewitched, or has seen it on one of the retro cable channels, I would like very much to get some constructive criticism.

The story is based on the idea that Tabitha Stephens, who is twenty-nine in 1994, still looks like she's fourteen. She's attending a hidden side of Salem Institute as a post-doctoral student.

After a day walking among students from the Wizarding world in the wand side of Salem Institute, she decides that her people, who just call themselves Witches, do not know all that much about wand wizardry. She decides to write a thesis about Wizarding education to document the differences between their magic and her peoples'. She decides to infiltrate the best magical school in Europe for the job, and goes to Hogwarts during the events of the fourth Harry Potter book.

The first chapter of the story can be found here.

[Spokavriel]

So its Nose Twitchers/clickers Vs Stick Flickers? I'd be interested to see just what kind of magic education you have for Bewitched spells. Allot of it in series is solid Wish Craft.

[lwf58]

Because of confusion in terms, I refer to Bewitched magicals as Witches - note the capital w. HP magicals are Wizards. When talking about individuals, men are either warlocks or wizards, depending on series, and women are witches in both.

The Witches don't have a magical education like the Wizarding world does, and I touch on that. Their side of Salem teaches more traditional subjects, like reading, arithmetic and other practical classes to younger students. Older students get much the same as mortals do, but things like magical history, magical zoology, divination, magical anthropology - which mostly focuses on ancient civilizations, magical archeology, and other classes about things that concern their people. Tabitha earned her doctorate in magical anthropology and archeology, and she's mostly focused on ancient peoples. She's already written several papers about the daily lives of the denizens of prehistoric magical communities.

The thing that she noted while taking her walk was that Witches tend to ignore the Wizarding world, because its so backward. They spend most of their time among mortals doing whatever they please. She decided to go to Hogwarts instead of just investigating the Wizarding side of Salem because 1., the US Wizarding society is more advanced than the Wizards in other countries. Magicals who moved to America were looking to leave the old behind, just like their mortal counterparts. 2., She may not have been involved with the Wizarding side of the school, but she's recognized there and the students know she's older than she looks.

So you are right. Magic among Witches is more art than craft, and while each witch or warlock gets some grounding in magic from her or his parents, much of their "education" is through experimentation. It's notable that in canon, many of Samantha's spells still failed to work, even though she's over 300 years old (Best guess is that she was born between 1570 and 1580). Later in my story, I'm planning to explain that they have to learn what sounds and cadences work best for a given effect every time they try to do something new, and it takes a lot of time for them to build up a comprehensive library of reliable spells. When they have gotten a spell down pat, they get to the point where they can cast it wordlessly using only a gesture.

Unlike the Wizards, Witch society has a problem. They cannot pass on spells to each other. Each witch or warlock has to make up spells for their self. The only exception I'm making is that Tabitha's spells are meant to be a tribute to her mother, so they tend to follow the same framework, although the words and meters of the spells are different.

[Spokavriel]

I think the difference required in incantation is because no two people who are not identical twins have identical voices. And even identical twins might not share a needed inflection in common.

[Spokavriel]

I was just thinking about something on the Aging. Dumbledore is what 200? 250ish? And that is considered old even for Wizards if I follow correctly in HP.

Is there any chance that could create a hazard for Tabitha if they discover what kind of Witch she is? Such long life and wandless magic power inherent could boost the magical cores of a Pure blood line that is so weakened they are afraid of being declared squibs.

[lwf58]

I found out later that my idea about how they age is actually close to canon. People who have researched the series estimate that it takes about 100 years for a Witch to grow up based on things said in various episodes.

You have a good point. Since they are effectively immortal, I imagine that Wizards would be very interested in finding out why. Of course, even if they did, there are several diseases that can rob a Witch of magic, and so can disuse. If a Witch doesn't exercise magic for a long enough time, it goes dormant and a Witch Doctor is required to fix the problem. Would a Witch/Wizard crossbreed work differently? Who knows?

[Spokavriel]

Um You have Tabitha ignorant of the term Methuselan? I'm almost certain it gets used between Endora and Dr. Bombay in the same season where an attempt is made to convert Derwood into a Warlock.

Also a note on aging. While there is no evidence of one dieing of Old age Samantha's Great Aunt did have memory problems and I believe she was around 3800 by the end of the episode she had accidentally magicked herself back to 3500 in physical age and regained nearly her full magical skill. So while mortal death by aging is unknown accidents from senility after the age 3500 become more likely nearing 90% probability of death from ones own magic by the age of 4,000

Allot of aspects including being sky clad are things that were pointed out in Betwitched as something not even told to younger witches and warlocks until they are 400 or so. To avoid them getting overly superstitious if I remember correctly. Samantha's sister did allot of those the Wiccan way just for fun to see if they would have a chance of working. Just like getting involved in the beatnick counter culture.

Instead of having Adam being a complete mortal what about making it so that Salem discovers him as a Mortal Wizard, wand using kind? And that could help with building inter-relations between the magical societies.

[lwf58]

Um You have Tabitha ignorant of the term Methuselan? I'm almost certain it gets used between Endora and Dr. Bombay in the same season where an attempt is made to convert Derwood into a Warlock.

The term was borrowed from Robert Heinlein's "Future History" series, which began with the book "Methuselah's Children". The Howard Families were called "Methuselahs" as a slang term. If the name was ever mentioned in Bewitched, I don't know about it.

Also a note on aging. While there is no evidence of one dieing of Old age Samantha's Great Aunt did have memory problems and I believe she was around 3800 by the end of the episode she had accidentally magicked herself back to 3500 in physical age and regained nearly her full magical skill. So while mortal death by aging is unknown accidents from senility after the age 3500 become more likely nearing 90% probability of death from ones own magic by the age of 4,000

Endora and Maurice are about as old, and neither show the same signs of senility as Clara. It's more likely that she simply suffers from a mental disorder that causes her mind to be foggy and forgetful. Since I can find nothing documenting an average age of death for Witches, I am going with functional immortality as the viable option.

Allot of aspects including being sky clad are things that were pointed out in Bewitched as something not even told to younger witches and warlocks until they are 400 or so. To avoid them getting overly superstitious if I remember correctly. Samantha's sister did a lot of those the Wiccan way just for fun to see if they would have a chance of working. Just like getting involved in the beatnik counter culture.

That may well be. Of course, that changes nothing as far as my story goes, since it means that they wouldn't talk to Tabitha about it for another three hundred and seventy-one years.

At this time, I have no intention of bringing Serena into this. That may change, but not now.

Instead of having Adam being a complete mortal what about making it so that Salem discovers him as a Mortal Wizard, wand using kind? And that could help with building inter-relations between the magical societies.

The sources I've been reading to research what I'm writing say that Adam had no magic. He took after his father, rather than Samantha. My take is that it's the magic that makes them immortal, so if he was born without it, he'd probably have a normal lifespan too. Or that's the assumption I'm making, anyway.

For the purposes of this story, I've decided that he would have grown up resenting the fact that he's mortal, and would have left the family as soon as he could to make his own way in life.

For this story, off camera Adam is married with a couple of young children. He sends cards for his mother and sister's birthdays and for Christmas, but otherwise stays away and insists they do the same. It saddens the rest of the family that they aren't allowed contact with his children, but since they are all mortal, the immortals honor his wish for them to stay out of his family's lives.

While he will definitely not have a part in this story, I may mention him in a diary entry sometime.

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

The term was borrowed from Robert Heinlein's "Future History" series, which began with the book "Methuselah's Children". The Howard Families were called "Methuselahs" as a slang term. If the name was ever mentioned in Bewitched, I don't know about it.

The story of Methusalah goes back to the Bible (Genesis 5:21-27). The term is in common use for anything that reaches astounding age - e.g. the bristlecone pine or some of the older Galapagos tortoises.

I don't know if they'd keep Tabitha away from the Bible, but they'd certainly have no reason to keep her from the wonderful world of tortoises.

[lwf58]

Of course she's aware of who Methuselah was. Even if she weren't Christian (or Jewish or Muslim, for that matter), she'd know because it comes up in expressions like "as old as Methuselah". It was just my memories of Heinlein's books that made me choose the word for Luna to use.

Thinking of magic and longevity, I just remembered that not every child borne to Witches are magical. When Tabitha and Adam each were born, the Witches Council sent representatives to test them. That suggests that they have to because they have a large number of children born without magic. I don't recall if they ever said what happens to mortal children born to a witch and warlock, and that's a question I'd like to have an answer to.

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

Thinking of magic and longevity, I just remembered that not every child borne to Witches are magical. When Tabitha and Adam each were born, the Witches Council sent representatives to test them. That suggests that they have to because they have a large number of children born without magic. I don't recall if they ever said what happens to mortal children born to a witch and warlock, and that's a question I'd like to have an answer to.

They probably are very understanding about squibs.

[Spokavriel]

And the crossover you have going also presents another possibility. After all didn't they think Neville was likely a squib before his relative tossed him out a window?

[lwf58]

Yes, but Wizards do not seem to have a formal and reliable test of magic like the Witches did in that episode. Neville's uncle was attempting to provoke accidental magic, and succeeded. That Neville would have died if he hadn't seems to be a non-issue.

It's kind of strange. Bewitched had many ways that a Witch could lose his or her magic, but they could test for magic in infancy. HP parents couldn't tell if their child had magic until he or she performed accidental magic, but once it manifested, they had it for life. I'm kind of amazed at how the two are almost polar opposites.

[Spokavriel]

I'm thinking about how you have Tabitha describing Wands and Wand magic. I agree with it attenuating their magic so that they can learn uniformly and all perform the same magic.

But I also have some ideas for ways to prove it. When someone is trying a wand in Olivanders boxes fly off shelves. That does not happen anywhere else when someone uses a wand that is not there. Or there is no reaction at all. Here is my theory. In the wand shop there is an energy field that amplifies reactions between the wand components and a magic user. In addition when someone uses a wand that doesn't make a proper match the wands that would work with the newly amplified wrong signal have their physical reaction. Complete lack of reaction comes from a frequency not known to happen naturally.

The goal of the whole process is to get the correct magic signal. And really that signal will cause a lesser harmonic to all the wands because that is the intended output for each and every one of them. So you get the glow of approval in the store magic.

[lwf58]

So you don't think that poor harmonics would account for it? If by the test wave they are unconsciously channeling magic into the wand, I can see a bad fit causing unexpected results. Plus, not every witch or wizard would have such strong reactions in wand-fitting that Harry had.