Well, at least I hope it's somewhat original...

Now, we've all read fics about Harry going back in time to change the past. Whether it's by sending his memories/soul to his younger self, or simply popping back, Terminator style, the idea's been fairly beaten to death. So I started thinking (yes, that accounts for the strange burnt smell in the air).

What if things with Voldemort got so bad that Harry sent back not his memories or his, erm, essence, but a Horcrux? A Horcrux which would proceed to drain some poor innocent of life, diary-style, giving Horcrux!Harry a new body to deliver a swift kick to the past's ass.

Along with the typical action and intrigue that comes standard with any good time travel fic, you would have the added internal conflict of Horcrux!Harry still being the good guy (relatively speaking), and thus hating what he is, and the crimes he's been forced to commit to defeat Voldemort (i.e. one murder to create the Horcrux, and another to give Horcrux!Harry a body). *shrugs* Or he could just say 'fuck it' and go on a rampage. What do you guys think?

Oh, and my apologies if this idea isn't as new as I'd thought.

 

Well, I'd read it. Definitely. Time travel is awesome, but an original time travel story... :awesome

Do eet. I want to read eet.

 

It's definitely an interesting idea.

There is a story similar to what you're talking about here, with the use of a Horcrux-based Harry Potter, called Return on Patronus Charm, except it's essentially leaping forward into the future, not into the past.

I'm afraid, though, that even if it's sending Horcrux!Harry back, I'll still feel like it's going to be the character Harry, unless some type of character flaw or unique plot device is introduced, and more than just a "Oh no, I'm a Horcrux!". What's to stop it from devolving into the same old time travel story that we've come to categorize as being cliched?

 

You bring up a valid point, artenry, one that I've been puzzling over myself. I was thinking something along the lines of Horcrux!Harry being prone to sudden homicidal breakdowns (ya know, 'cause of his dark nature and such), leading to the whole "Oh noes! I is like Voldemorts!" conflict. I was thinking that he'd hold it together long enough for Voldemort to die, at which point he'd finally go bonkers and Regular!Harry would have to put him down (just like Old Yeller, but with more... homicidal rage involved) or die trying.

I dunno, it seems kinda weak to me as a cliche-breaker, but it's the best I've been able to come up with so far. Any suggestions?

 

Eh, there's nothing there if Harry helplessly becomes a maniac. You have to make so Harry is degenerating into a maniac (he's suffered so much at the hands of Voldemort that he cannot distinguish reality and fiction - his longing for peace, silence or love further making him manic-depressive), fighting homicidal tendencies while trying to rebuild his life and his future. Don't make him fail unless it really makes the story better. Pointless violence is lame.

With his soul cleaved, how will this Harry behave? You have to answer that question too, if all it is a Normal!Harry with the Hyde tendencies, then it's not as interesting as Harry with a mad twitch and a conflicting conscience telling him to kill or protect. Will this Harry be more clever? Less naieve? More impulsive and quick to anger? Or more cold and ruthless? Will he be devotedly-attached to his "friends" or will he see them all with paranoia and suspicion?

Also, next big question is: What body will Harry inhabit? To pique some more interest, I'd say, make it a female Hogwarts student. How about Lily? Harry would be filled with immense guilt if he realized he had taken over the body of one of his friends or loved ones. How delicious. Of course, that's the Vash in me saying that.

 

Shadowmage~

This is a good plot device. Unfortunately it doesn't include an original plot to go with it. Yes, yes, I know, people in glass houses...etc etc.

But that is the main flaw here. You have an original way of sending Harry back. What you need is a set of original things that happen afterward.

 

How about the fact that he's still going to be wearing someone else's body? Depending who it is, it could put a whole new spin on the plot. Some innocent little girl, he's going to be feeling guilty as hell and have the body of a little girl to boot. If he's someone in the Ministry, he could pretend to be that person and use his position as much as he can before his lack of knowledge gets him found out.

Hell, you could even write it as a series of oneshots, with each one the same plot up until the horcrux got sent back, and in each one a different person ended up getting leeched.

 

Why would he have the other person's body? In CoS, horcrux!Riddle didn't take Ginny's body. He just drained her life force to create his own.

 

Just because I enjoy twisting the entire happy-happy feel good aspect of canon, how about the following divergence point. Voldemort, for once living up to his rep as this brilliant dark wizard, decides that Harry and AK just don't mix right. So, instead of playing AK vs disarming charm, he does something completely different.

To borrow the pre-DH meme, rocks fall, everyone dies. Or, more seriously, he conjures a rock above Harry's head, puts the guy down like the punk he is, and then decides to drive home to the populace present why he's a Dark Lord to be feared.

He could also go for a more impressive psychologicial attack. The wizards might scoff at every other attack than an unforgivable, since they can just wave most things away with potions and healing spells, but having their hero bleed out right there in front of them, since he was skewered by Voldemort transfiguring the ground into a spike, should be a far more effective terror tool than AK.

What is worse, after all, dying to something that there is no defense against, or dying to something any competent witch or wizard could have reversed or avoided? This feeling of having no power whatsoever, since they can't rationalize their helplessness away with the excuse of there just being no stopping the spell used, should be far more deadly to morale than a thousand dead people.

Okay, enough rambling about the starting point. We are talking about the Horcrux concept for time travel. Harry, having something very close to a Horcrux in Voldemort, thanks to the ritual back in Book 4, simply won't die again, even to such a fatal attack. As long as Voldemort is walking around with that body, Harry is going to just keep getting back up.

Voldemort, being fresh out of Horcruxes, can't really give up the body he is in at the moment. Having Harry stand back up again will bother him greatly, especially since he just massacred all the idiots trying to go up against him.

Not knowing what the hell is going on with the boy, he'll decide that some experiments are in order. The Department of Mysteries should work quite nicely for that, and also provide us with the final ingredient to send Harry on his way.

In short, during the experiments that can drive Harry as crazy as needed for the story, either the big time-turner, or the mysterious Room of Love can build up some kind of connection to Harry. Harry keeps on going discorporal around them, since the experiments will be rather fatal more often than not. When Voldemort finally does manage to extract the part of Harry stuck in his body, he'll get drawn into the whole Room of Love, before Voldemort can fry him for real.

Combined with the giant time-turner, that can be what sends Harry to the past. Now, why the involvement of the Room of Love? Because it should provide the perfect link for Harry's vessel.

Upon his arrival in the past, his essence will be sent to the one who loves him most. That can be one of his fangirls or whoever else is needed for the story. He can end up stuck in their body, like Chime?? and Tehan suggested, or he can just drain them dry and get a new body.

There are various directions the plot can take from there.

Regardless of the time period you dump Harry in, his devolvement into something dark and violent shouldn't be a done and sealed deal when he gets there. He knows about the locations of most of the Horcruxes, and he also knows that one of them essentially cost Dumbledore his life. Harry, being the self-sacrificing good type, won't be happy with letting that happen to anyone. That will lead to him starting to research the dark arts, since he knows what was killing Dumbledore.

The entire capture and experiment situation can provide a good helping of PTSD and guilt, to be applied sparingly as needed.

 

And if you stick exactly to canon, you get naught but canon. Riddle started out possessing Ginny, and ultimately intended to drain her entirely to build himself a new body. Perhaps that relies on a ritual or a spell or just knowledge that Harry lacks. Perhaps Harry doesn't want to kill his host, so just sticks to cohabitance. Perhaps he doesn't want to draw the attention that his host dying would bring. Perhaps he's of the opinion that he can get more done as whatever host he's in than he could get done as a person that by all logic shouldn't exist - an older, eviller version of the orphan that's supposed to be under Dumbledore's thumb.

And these are just the first ways around that issue that come to mind.

 

Hmm, perhaps it would be better if Horcrux!Harry doesn't get a body at all. When I was first cooking this idea up, the Horcrux from the future was going to act as a sort of mentor/confidant for regular Harry, without ever manifesting itself in a new body. It would be able to speak to Harry, and maybe even appear as an illusion that only Harry can see (much like Six from Battlestar Galactica, or Shezza's Meciel, for those who don't watch BSG). Perhaps that would be a better way to go, with the Horcrux guiding Harry through the various and sundry challenges he faces.

And of course, with the Horcrux using it's future knowledge to aid Harry, the plotline would have to differ pretty wildly from canon, making it unpredictable and just generally more interesting.

Thoughts?

 

Yet another 'Harry goes through canon with future knowledge' story. Yawn.

 

Lawl.

If Harry took over one of his old fangirls and the original fell in love with him, would that be selfcest?

Also, I'm much in favour of him taking over a different body and working from the shadows. Could even make it a predestination paradox by having all his meddling be the reason canon came out to be so crappy, or your story background at least.

 

Mmm, there's always the potential fun bit with Horcrux!Harry where he has to kill himself to get rid of the last one. Goes along slaughtering various Deatheaters (occasionally for funsies, since he's insane at this point), does what he needs to do to send Voldemort along, and then is either killed or offs himself because he's the last remaining bit.
Of course, I would be assuming at this point that the horcrux has melded with his soul, so extraction is out of the question.
Not-a-Horcrux!Harry can go on being the good boy, unaffected by the evil of his clone.

 

As far as I know, it's called masturbation.

 

Or, Not-a-Horcrux!Harry can't because he reacts to his "clone" in much the same manner as he reacts to Voldemort, seeing as how they are essentially the same soul. Harry from the future bleeding into Harry of the past, which neither of them want?

Or just the opposite...perhaps forcibly repelling each other because they come from different times.

How would Horcrux!Harry's magic deal? As only a piece of a soul, would he be weaker? Squib like without draining somebody?

 

There is a story using this idea. Its centered around Hermione and Sirius and a twotailer Out Of Time and Shatered Mouments from Rurouni Star. Basicaly Hermione created horcrux from her Timetrurner (the same she used in her 3rd year) and destroing it, it sends her horcrux back to time, when she first used the timeturner, her 3rd year ...

 

A twisted idea, Harry's horcrux is sent back in time to take over Umbrige or maybe fudge or malfoy sr.

This could even be done as a series of one shots, a different for for each character.

Then of course there is the plot twist where a boy-who-lived that was wronged by the public, Light and or Dumbledore, could send his horcrux back in time to take over a young Tom Riddle, or even further to take over another dark wizard.