I hear a lot about cliches involving Harry being an heir, or royalty, in the wizarding world almost non stop. Apparently, that shit never gets old (lie).

It piqued my interest anyway. After a few browses through the library, and a couple of stops over at FF.Net, I found that I may have an idea I could roll with.

Harry is nearly twelve, living with his relatives. Yes he is still treated like general shite (not abusive shite, but still, like the books, it's just as detrimental). Except he doesn't live in Surrey, because Vernon Dursley is actually of British royalty. I think I should change Dursley to ___-Dursley instead, because I think someone married 'under their station' within his family already once before.

It's not a Cinderella story. In fact, it's quite the opposite - Harry is more unfeeling towards his relatives, rather than upset and depressed. Sure it happened when he was younger, but he's matured rather quickly for a twelve year old. He's unhappy, sure, but he's certainly not going let them break him.

The punishments the Dursley's give out are usually chores, or no dinner. Their only unbreakable rule: that Harry be absent whenever they have guests. The servants of the household usually treat him with respect, and help him out when is family gets too difficult to deal with. They can't/aren't allowed to explicitly look after him, but they do it anyway.

Dudley (Master Dudley, of course) has private lessons with his tutors, which Harry always is included in. He does go to a regular school, but he sits in on the sessions because Dudley never pays enough attention to him to bully him - it's one of the few times he gets that chance. And the tutors certainly appreciate Harry's willingness to learn a few things. For a long while, this included fencing, until the teacher, noticing Harry's uninhibited interest, asked the Dursley's if he could teach Harry as well. They fired him not a few minutes afterward - but Harry still remembers.

Since last year, about late summer, Harry remembers that the servants appeared extra busy. This is because they were nearly commanded by the Dursley's to destroy every green-inked letter that arrived for them. It is really only by chance he finds one of the infamous letters; Hagrid had come last year, but security had taken him off the premises...meekly. But this time Dumbledore comes himself. And gives Harry a choice.

That's about as far as I've gotten, really.

And sorry this is long - but it's been in my head for at least a week now. Had to get it out somehow. I welcome anyone willing to give pointers - and feel free to rip it to shreds. At least, if the idea dies, I can move on with my life.

P.S. I hope this is in the right place. Yoink if it isn't.

 

Interesting idea, but I have no idea where you would go with this. Do the changes in future stories come from Harry's change in attitude? I see this Harry sort of drifting through life, wanting more, but then again, not passionate enough to pursue it himself. It's hard for me to imagine him fighting against Voldemort. More like him leaving it to pursue his time in semi-royalty, at least people wouldn't be trying to kill him

And there's no excuse that Dumbledore would come a year later either.

 

Why do you need Harry to skip first year?

Dumbledore left Harry at Privet Drive because he didn't want him to be arrogant from his fame. Would he take that chance, if the Dursleys were royalty?

Otherwise a really solid idea, much better than trying to connect the Potters with the Queen.

 

Without evaluating the idea itself - have you given any thought to how the story might continue after one or two set-up chapters? The ideas you have until now won't get you any father than that. Someone on DLP once mentioned that the reason why so many stories are abandoned is because the author didn't think about how they would continue after the first few chapters. Should you ever decide to turn this into a fic, make sure you have a whole lot more ideas up your sleeve.

As for Dumbledore coming a year later - why? Is he that slow that he cannot make the way to the Dursleys in under 12 months? How do you want to explain that?

 

Personally, right off the bat the most irritating thing to me is the political ramifications of their actions...

It's all well and good for fairy tales, but if a wealthy, high profile, mixes-with-royalty family were basically abusing a kid, it would cause such a delicious scandal. One of the servants would just go to The Sun and give a tell all interview. Much more likely, they'd just throw Harry off onto a nanny, and substitute having to have any interaction with him by throwing money at the 'problem'. In short, Harry's much more likely to end up like canon Malfoy than anything else.

And then, you don't really have a plot. You have a... change to Harry's family structure. But why? What does it do to the plot? Where are you going from here? Harry's family in canon is really nothing more than background. Such a change seems to indicate a much larger involvement than canon.

 

You'll see my thoughts progress through my responses.


@lulu42: I had the idea that Harry could possibly have that mentality for quite a while. Again, this is just a beginning - I wasn't sure how it would change - or why. But I was going to write it out, just to see how far I got. Something would eventually come to me, I'm pretty sure. I'd need to give it more time though.

And Harry isn't royalty - he just has to deal with them. He has none of the benefits of a royal upbringing outside of their home. So he's less interested in being with the Dursley's then anyone else, I would think.


@True, it would give them a better ability to keep Harry out of the know. However, I thought that, instead of isolation, Harry would be surrounded by other adults who didn't treat him the same way. It's a different sort of influence. I thought I could play with that. Also, different sources of knowledge at his disposal, but I don't know if Harry would use them.

Yeah, I know - it is a 'this sounds cool' kind of idea, and I totally understand for keeping the Dursley's normal, fat, and in general, canon. I'll see what happens after I toy with the idea and writing some more.


@Memory King: I thought it would be more interesting for him to come in during the Chamber of Secrets plot line - just because I have the feeling that the situation with the Philosopher's Stone would have been resolved without him. It would also change his relationship with Ron and Hermione - perhaps even his house.

Or perhaps not. Still, it is an idea I'd like to continue with. The more questions are asked here, the more ideas come up that are actually solid.


@Sophie: Working on it. I do have a few more ideas in my head. Most of them have to do with coming into the CoS, behind people, and still trying to understand everything around him. But with the comments about why Dumbledore wouldn't wait a year...I'm thinking that's gonna change. There is no real reason why Dumbledore would wait - I was full of wishful, fanciful thinking.

@vlad_the_inhaler: I definitely see your point; and I'm still unsure how to reconcile that occurrence. Especially because of the whole Blood Magic deal with Petunia. Perhaps, instead of royalty, Dursley's could simply be rich. Same difference to the press, really, however.

Trust me, I'm thinking about it - though at the moment, the light is dimming. Still gonna try it out - sketching out bits and pieces, but if it doesn't work, the idea is going to the trash bin.

Thanks all.

 

I have to wonder about what the point of this story is?

Is it about Harry having a different life at the Dursleys, which therefore shapes his worldview and his Hogwart's experiences?

Or is it a fic about Harry's experiences living with and growing up with the Dursleys?

In other words is it Hogwarts centric or is it Dursley centric? I think that might be why Sesc dislikes the idea so, a Dursley centric growth story, where the Dursleys remain neglective if not abusive and are super-rich certainly doesn't appeal all that much. However, as an alternative means of establishing a new and different Harry Potter in his experiences at Hogwarts, that might prove a more interesting beginning concept.

The Harry grows up different genre is packed with potential cliches, no matter what you do, you're almost certain to walk into some either way. Stories that focus on Harry's childhood often end up exhausting themselves and my patience because they often times gift Harry with too many abilities and too much intelligence. On the other hand reading stories about children growing up is really not all that interesting and can be aptly summarized in one chapter, two at most.

If you use that royal Dursleys as a platform to launch a different Harry at Hogwarts motif and story then I'd be much more interested. Those stories while overdone, if done well are ones that I can still find fascinating. If you used a Harry grows up with the von-Dursleys life story well Sesc said what needs to be said about that.

 

Yes! Sorry that I might have not explained myself well enough - but yes. I wanted to launch the 'different Harry at Hogwarts' fanfic. That's what I was trying to say - but I see now that I wasn't very clear on that point.

I am aware of cliches, and I am sure that I'll run into them often; but I think sometimes the only thing you can do with those stereotypes is to make them your own. Better than succumbing to them anyway.

And this idea still has plenty of holes already - but I'll keep it in mind and develop it further. Hopefully, I'll fix it well enough to write it. Thanks.

 

I know some things you just have to swallow as 'given' with a story, and if you want us to believe Dumbledore went through a whole year of Hogwarts before checking on Harry, then fine. Usually that kind of thing would need a very non-canon like explanation but whatever.

Mainly though, your entire idea here just feels like another thing we're going to accept as given. Yes, Harry grew up around royalty but not as royalty and the Dursleys were a bit different. Lovely. But unless your fic starts from infancy and ends with him going off to Hogwarts at age 12, that's not a story. It's a block. Or a lego. It's not a lego I've seen before and it's not one that's captured my interest in the slightest. But it could be an essential building block to a very interesting story if you got a good story.

A twist and tweak to Harry's attitude pre-Hogwarts and then telling his Hogwarts years with this slightly different Harry? Fucking yawn. Figure out a plot for the story before you dig into specifics and details like this (e.g., he remembers the fired fencing teacher).

If your plot is simply Harry vs. Voldemort and Harry's Hogwarts years then I think we've all read that one a few thousand times. Growing up secondhand royalty isn't going to polish that turd on its own. There are hundreds of "Harry raised by..." stories where they just keep trying to twist and retell canon over and over again. It's not just because those stories suck that they rarely get far. It's that they don't have an original plot and they run out of ways to polish the retelling-canon turd.

You're suggesting using a few green legos instead of blue ones. Fine. I'll take that as a given. But if we're building the exact same damn castle that's on the box it came in, then I don't want to play.

(Yes, I know. I'm in metaphor-overkill-land. I like it here.)

 

*writes note* Must...have...plot.

Again, I have a ton of ideas. I can't implement them, however, if this block (to re-iterate your metaphor) isn't completely solid. I'm going to focus on creating a backstory, but - as you very smartly pointed out - I can have all the damn backstory I want, but it won't matter if I have a shitty/nonexistant plot to work with it later.

Actually, this is a bad habit of mine anyway - with non-fanfic. If I'm going to fix that, I might as well start somewhere.

 

One of the main weaknesses of this idea that no one has brought up is the whole idea of the Dursleys somehow ending up as royalty.

Er...how?

It would work better if you had them as an aristocratic family than royal.

 

The thing is, there is no way the Royal Family could get away with mistreating one of their own, nor would they.

 

Definitely something I've been thinking about - ever since someone previously mentioned the scandal it would cause within the royal family, and a possible inclination for the staff to act on that kind of situation. I mentioned possibly just making them rich (still iffy on it) instead; however, aristocracy is a better choice.

*chuckles* I know you can, in fact, buy a title (obviously not King or Queen, or anything hereditary) - people have been known to purchase lord/ladyship. Perhaps someone in the Dursley line thought of it as good way to up their social status - and the many other things that come with having a title to throw around. I mean, it's weak, but it IS an RL type thing to do. I'm still looking for a better explanation though.

@Randeemy: Which makes the idea of them being royalty (rather than rich/famous/aristocratic) even less feasible - yes.

 

No, you cannot buy a title. This is a scam.

You CAN (and I think it's still illegal in Britain) pay to have your name changed to 'Lord' and then try and scam people into giving you favors (which they won't.)

You CAN buy a Lord of a manor, which basically says 'I am x and I own land'. It has no further implications, and again, serves no purpose other than to con very stupid people.

You CAN buy a Coat of Arms. Again, it won't mean anything, or have any value.

You cannot buy a lordship, an honor (well... I suppose you can, but that's another story entirely) or anything else. You cannot buy a Knightship, or a Dukedom, or be a Baron on the bang of your buck. Royalty - It's seruz business - you don't just buy it.

After all, the whole point of royalty and lordships and all the rest of it is you have something that cannot be bought. If all the johnny jump-ups in the new rich could just shell over some money (wretched stuff that it is) and then suddenly expect Sirs and My Lord... well they've got another thing coming.

So... no. You'd have an impossible time getting a better seat at a resturaunt with a fake lordship (and a real Lord is certainly not going to wait till he arrives to reserve the best seat - he's already paid for it), you certainly aren't going to get in well with the old blood because one of your relatives purchased a 'title'. If you ever do manage to mingle with them, you'll be held in jest at best at utter contempt at worst.

TL/DR: You can't buy blue blood. You can however, buy into a scam.

 

Hmm...what Vlad says is legally true, but if you donate enough money to the political party in power for long enough you may just end up with a nice shiny title anyway.

 

You could just go the route of having one of the Dursley's ancestors doing some great deed in the distant past. Or just have one of them marry into royalty instead. Say... After WWII one of the royal bodyguards fell in love with his charge and they ended up getting married, and from there the Dursleys were part of the family, so to speak.

It would fit well with the Dursley's attitude in general as they are new to high society (as a family) and let it go to their heads, leading to Vernon (the grandson of the original bodyguard) having a big head about it and treating 'commoners', such as Harry, like shit because of it. After all, abuse isn't acceptable but arrogance is.

It also means you can warp the abuse the Dursleys gave Harry in canon a bit and turn it into simple neglect so that the only people he really knows are the servants, who treat him as a superior. Vernon and Petunia are always off on holiday or doing 'charitable' work to keep up appearances while Dudley is tutored or mingling with other high society children. Harry's seclusion as a commoner among them would give him a parallel upbringing to the one in canon, the only difference being that Vernon/Petunia are never there and he's not sleeping in a cupboard under the stairs.

 

Taure, hence the (well, I suppose you can... but that's another story entirely).

Sadly, the modern times have taken the noble out of nobility, to the point where singing a few songs or making a silly face is considered a great asset to the Empire. Nonetheless, the point still stands - Vernon Dursley will not be having tea with the queen any time soon.

 

Just make him really rich, say Harry's accidental magic made Vernon pick the right lotto numbers or something, so he wouldn't be such a financial burden.

I suspect a fair amount of Weasel bashing will be going on, as far as Ron is concerned....and it's the CoS year you start him at hogwarts too.

However the warning siren is going off in my head - if this turns out to be a Harry/Draco friendship or slash fic......

 

You could change the Dursleys with someone else and get this:

The happy red prince by LT2000

And BAM, you have royal!harry.