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Working on a Slytherin!Harry story starting in first year

Discussion in 'Fanfic Discussion' started by Anarchy, Aug 16, 2017.

  1. Anarchy

    Anarchy Half-Blood Prince DLP Supporter

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    First off, I started to write this in the "questions about your fic that don't deserve their own thread" thread, but quickly realized that there's so much written here, and more than one question, that it probably did need its own thread.

    I'm working on another outline for another story that will likely never see the light of day. Slytherin!Harry, starting from year 1. If you know my style of writing, you know that I like canon rehashes, but I like having enough small divergences to make it different, but not enough so the overarching plot of the story fundamentally changes. I also like to simply or straighten out the plot, so it works smoother. This is all just theorycrafting at the moment.

    Of course, Slytherin!Harry has been written about quite a lot, but there's always a lot of traps that they fall in to. Like, there's a bunch of them where Harry still befriends Ron and Hermione despite being in Slytherin, Draco is still his rival, and stuff like that.

    I don't want bashing in my story, or a huge amount of cliches. So, Ron isn't going to be cursing Harry at every opportunity and frothing at the lips, just because Harry's a Slytherin. Truthfully, he shouldn't get much screen time at all, as I don't really desire simply having Ron be Draco's replacement as a rival (even though there are a lot of parallels that can be drawn between them).

    There is the big issue though. Harry's a Slytherin, so nothing should happen the same. How does Harry still get pushed along the path of figuring out about the Stone, and going after it?

    1) The obvious solution is that he doesn't. He does nothing in regards to the stone and either someone else figures it out, it gets successfully stolen, or the teachers succesfully defend it. The whole thing could be resolved without any input from Harry, without him even knowing anything is going. That brings up two things

    1A) What is Harry doing this year then? Most stories have some sort of plot to them, and this would just be Harry learning magic during an uneventful year. That's the most realistic perhaps, but the most boring. Year 1 stories intrinsically have this flaw where they're usually super boring, and that wouldn't help, and wouldn't even be worth the time to write. So, it is possible to come up with another plot for Harry to follow, while the Stone situation gets resolved offscreen.

    1B) Voldemort comes back. Quirrell successfully gets the stone, and brews whatever concoction will bring Voldemort back. This could be interesting, but would run into the similar problem of 1A, in what would Harry do next year? If Voldemort is back, the Chamber of Secrets incident would be completely different, and likely wouldn't involve the diary at all. Personally, I would do an "On the Wings of a Phoenix" style Voldemort, where nothing is black and white.

    2) Harry discovers the Plot, and decides to get involved. Firstly, why does he get involved?

    2A) Harry is in Slytherin, he craves magic, thirsts for knowledge. He wants to solve the mystery, or perhaps even use the Stone for himself.

    2B) Realizes that someone is trying to steal the Stone. No one believes him, especially when his prime candidate is his own Head of House. Takes matters in his own hands.

    The whole thing is a bit more tricky than just picking out a number from a list. So, perhaps we start with what we do know, stuff that doesn't change with the planned divergence, which is probably just the overdone "Draco gets to Harry's compartment on the train first" idea.

    3) Harry is with Hagrid when Hagrid get's the stone out of Gringotts. There's a few important things that are noted.

    3A) Hagrid has a letter from Dumbledore, giving him permission to access the vault.

    3B) Hagrid says the item is "very secret, Hogwart's business. Worth more than his job" to tell Harry what it is. Now, that doesn't actually put a physical value on what the object is, only that it's important to Dumbledore.

    3C) The item is physically small

    3D) Vault is protected enough that it has no keyhole, only a goblin can open it, but isn't deep enough to be guarded by dragons. Not guarded by dragon's doesn't actually mean anything.

    3E) Hagrid says the only place safer than Gringotts is "maybe" Hogwarts.

    That's a fair amount of information given. Of course, there are some things that don't make sense. If the item is so important, why is Hagrid picking it up? Hagrid was busy trying to get Harry his letter for like a week, he could have gone to Gringotts at any time during then. Did Hagrid have the orders to pick up the Stone the whole time? Very coincidental that Harry and Hagrid just happen to get to Gringotts before the robbery.

    I reread book 1 recently, and there's a lot of things that are like there, where it seems like Harry is really lucky. It's no wonder why there's so many fics based around the idea that nearly every event was carefully manipulated by Dumbledore from the start. It's not even that hard to believe - heck, the idea is even mentioned at the end:

    "D'you think he meant you to do it?" said Ron. "Sending you your father's cloak and everything?"

    "He's a funny man, Dumbledore. I think he sort of wanted to give me a chance. I think he knows more or less everything that goes on here, you know. I reckon he had a pretty good idea we were going to try, and instead of stopping us, he just taught us enough to help. I don't think it was an accident he let me find out how the mirror worked. It's almost like he thought I had the right to face Voldemort if I could...."

    Anyways, this story isn't about conspiracy theories, or even how bad JKR is at number (so many examples in HP1). So, I kind of want to smooth out some of the oddities. Like, when you change Harry to Slytherin, there's no reason Harry should be lucking across all the answers that he did. Examples.

    4A) Harry just happens to gets a Dumbledore chocolate frog card that mentions Nicholas Flamel

    4B) Harry visits Hagrid and just happens to see a newspaper about the Gringotts break in and the date it happened

    4C) Harry and friends just happens to come across Fluffy

    4D) Harry and friends mention Fluffy to Hagrid, and he just happens to mention Nicholas Flamel. Hermione just happens to have a book at the ready that mentions Flamel after not being able to figure it out for months.

    4E) Harry just happens to see Snape getting his leg bandaged while talking about Fluffy to Filch (though Snape mentioning Fluffy to Filch should have been a sign that wasn't him, unless Harry seriously thought Snape would bring Filch in on the crime for some reason)

    4F) Harry just happens to see Snape running into the forest to browbeat Quirrell. Snape just casually mentions the Stone with Harry within hearing range.

    4G) Harry just happens to come across what sounds like someone threatening Quirrell in the room. Harry thinks it's Snape (with later context I think it's actually Voldemort? not sure.)

    4H) Harry just happens to come across the Mirror of Erised. Dumbledore just happens to mentions how it works "just in case he happens to run across it again."

    4I) Harry just happens to come across Quirrellmort drinking unicorn blood in the forbidden forest.

    As you can see, there's a lot of bullshit that happens to make sure Harry is in the right place at the right time, to get the information that is needed. My goal is to cut out the majority of the stuff and have the plot rely less on luck, on more on Harry's ability to solve a problem. Of course, that means it still has to be a plot Harry wants to solve. In that situation, point 2A is probably in the ballpark of what I'm going for. There's three subcomponents here that are important.

    5) Harry realizing something is even wrong at all.

    5A). Harry learns that Gringotts was broken in to. In canon, Ron tells Harry about the robbery before they even get to Hogwarts. It's not until later at Hagrid's that Harry learns the date. Learning that Gringotts was broken in to is really the catalyst for everything. It can be easily shifted to being a single event (learning about the break in, and the when it happened at the same time), and it can be done as easily is simply seeing a copy of the Daily Prophet at the first breakfast or something like that.

    5B) Harry has to place significance on the fact that Gringotts was robbed, and that they were there that day (side note, Malfoy was there that day as well). Something has to happen for Harry to think that him being there that day was more than just a coincidence.

    5C) Harry has to place all the facts together. The Article mentions how the vault was actually emptied that day. Harry realizes that Hagrid empties a vault that day. Hagrid says it was very important Hogwarts business, Dumbledore's orders. Hagrid says that the only place safer than Gringotts is Hogwarts.

    5D) Harry has to come across Fluffy somehow. And, he has to realize it's guarding a trapdoor. He then does some research on it, discovers that it's a Cerberus, and in the past, they've been used to guard stuff. Places two and two together.

    5DA) Harry gets his invisibility cloak, and is exploring the castle. Willing decides to have a look at what's on the third floor forbidden corridor

    5DB) Harry gets his invisibility cloak, and sneaks to the library to soak up as much knowledge as possible. Similar situation as what happens in canon, except instead of coming across the Mirror of Erised, he comes across Fluffy.

    6) Harry learning what the object is.

    6A) This is difficult. Harry knows the object is small. He know's it's important to Dumbledore (though he might question why Dumbledore didn't pick it up himself). He know's it's probably valuable in some way. He knows that someone wants it enough to break into Gringotts to try and steal it, which Harry learned early on would be incredibly foolish to do. Honestly, there's not really enough information to go on unless Harry makes some huge assumptions, which would likely be quite heavy-handed. Other options are for him to come across it accidentally, either just researching magical items at random, or come across someone talking about the Stone, either just happenstance with nothing to do with the Stone at Hogwarts, or a teacher talking about it and Harry happens to hear. I don't like either of those, as the whole lucking into clues thing is what I'm trying to avoid. Perhaps Harry should just ask someone what is hidden, and come up with a situation where they would tell him the truth (such as Quirrell telling)

    6B) What happens if Harry doesn't learn what the item is? Would he still go after it?

    6BA) If he doesn't, what happens?

    6BB) If he does, why? Would he go down the trap door to simply solve the mystery of what the object actually is? It's not a terrible idea, but the thirst for knowledge has to be great, but for this to be believable, he'd have to be ignorant of someone else inside Hogwarts trying to steal the object, UNLESS the whole idea was that he wanted to steal the object before someone else did. After all, if someone is trying to steal it, it has to be important, right?

    7) Harry discovering that someone is trying to steal it

    7A) How does Harry come across this?

    7B) How does Harry correlate that someone tried to steal it from Gringotts, and is also now trying to steal it from Hogwarts? Is it the same person, a group of people acting together, or multiple people/groups unrelated to each other

    7C) What does he do with the information once he realizes that someone at Hogwarts is trying to steal whatever item it is. If he thinks with his head, he'd likely think that if he's aware of it, then the professors are aware of it. Would that be something that would stop him from pursuing the mystery?

    As you can see, there's a lot of things going on, a lot of pieces to the puzzle that have to be solved. There's a lot of questions here that are open to suggestion. There's also some other factors to worry about. Like, once all this is said and done, where does Harry learn that there's more than just Fluffy guarding the Stone? Perhaps the idea of Harry getting caught off guard by more traps is a decent idea. Or, maybe Harry can deduce that there's probably more protections somehow. Like, perhaps he wonder's why there's even a trapdoor at all, and why not just have 20 feet of solid stone with no entrance.

    I think number 5 is the most important point here that needs to be solved, and it kind of goes with number seven. I think it's doable, and I think it can be stretched over months. It would almost half to be, if I'm not having Harry randomly come across important clues by happenstance.

    Like, Harry can learn about the Gringotts robbery during the first week of school. He then needs to somehow correlate that the object being guarded by Fluffy is the same that Hagrid got from Gringotts. That can be done without a huge leap in logic, but it can't all be done in one sitting either. However, I want to avoid Hagrid giving any information away, but I still want Hagrid to be part of the story even though Harry in Slytherin (which shouldn't matter to Hagrid). Firstly, Harry has to discover Fluffy to begin with, which I think only really makes sense after Harry has the invis cloak, which happens at Christmas. Thats a few months for the story to simmer, and do other minor plot things.

    Perhaps at some point, Harry gets stumped. Somehow, this whole thing has to turn into a mystery for Harry, one that he wants to solve. Perhaps it's just a character quirk - he saw the Cerberus guarding a trapdoor, he read up on them and learned that they've been traditionally used to guard things, he knows Hagrid got a package from Gringotts that was nearly stolen. It's not a huge leap in logic to conclude that the item Hagrid took from Gringotts is what the Cerebus is guarding. Harry just has to do his due diligence to figure that out.

    Anyways, perhaps Harry gets stumped at some point. Perhaps Harry's curiosity gets the better of him. There's two ways this can happen. Perhaps Harry makes the leap of logic that if there's a Cerebus involved, Hagrid likely had something to do with it. As a reader we know that Kettleburn is actually the Care for Magic Teachers professor at this time, but Harry knows that Hagrid likes big scary monsters, so perhaps Harry goes to Hagrid to learn more about it. Perhaps Harry simply goes to Hagrid, because he's the only person he knows that has a connection to whatever the item is that is being hidden. Either way, he's lead to Hagrid somehow, and that can lead to Harry learning that all the teachers have protections set up, and that Fluffy is just the first. The whole Norbert thing can probably happen sometime during this as well, but that whole plot is just a setup in canon for Harry to discover Quirrellmort drinking unicorn blood in the forest. With how I see this playing out, I can see maybe Harry learning about something in the woods drinking unicorn blood, but Harry never actually getting a detention and coming across Quirrellmort.

    Like I said, I don't know any reasonable way fro Harry to discover what the object actually is, not without luck. Like, either he overhears Flamels name, and correlates it with the Stone, or he overhears Snape talking about the stone directly. I don't like either of those. Perhaps the better idea is that the fact he can't figure out what it is is what drives him to actually going down the trapdoor. Perhaps he sees the whole thing as some sort of challenge.

    Additionally how does Harry discover someone is trying to steal it? Unlike the idea of figuring out what the object is, I think it's probably possible for Harry to discover that someone is trying to steal the stone, without it being in some arbitrary manner. Firstly, if someone wasn't trying to steal the stone, there wouldn't be such an elaborate trap. That's not flawless logic by any means, but it's there. You can sort of assume that if someone went through great lengths to actually rob Gringotts despite the risks, then they might go through great lengths to try and steal from Hogwarts as well. Getting actual proof is a different story. He'd have to notice Snape limping or something like that. I'm not exactly sure.

    Lastly, what Harry actually does with this information. He's Slytherin!Harry, not Gryffindor!Harry, but regardless of label, he's still Harry. Everything has to line up for him to actually want to go through the trapdoor, as opposed to getting a teacher. Perhaps he simply can't find a teacher, and things have (somehow) lined up in such a way the he suspects Snape as a culprit so he can't go to him. That's if he thinks a thief is after it. If he wants it for himself, he'll simply go.

    The conclusion can have options as well. Things can go as canon. Harry prevents Voldemort from getting the stone, he black out, wakes up in the Hospital wing after burning Quirrell to death. Or perhaps, Harry gets the stone, keeps it for himself. Or, maybe Harry agrees to Voldemort's deal. Harry gives Voldemort the Stone, and Voldemort promises to give Harry his parents back. That's not to mention a very important question - why does Dumbledore even have the Stone? Does it take Flamel a year or more to renovate his house, and leaves it in Dumbledore's possession while that's going on? That's assuming that they have some elixir to hold them over during this whole time as well. Or perhaps I simply go with the common trope, of the entire thing being a trap to lure Voldemort out into the open, and that the stone is fake. I like that option the most. After all, in the first few books, plenty of witches and wizards still think that Voldemort is out there somewhere. It's only when they're present with that as an actual factual possibility where they decide to stick their heads in the sand and ignore it.

    Thoughts?
     
  2. James

    James Unspeakable

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    The most important question, I think, is this: why are you writing this? What's the endgame? Is it to have first year slytherin Harry planned/outlined/written to put stuff into when you're thinking about it, to write a sprawling seven year saga, to write a complete slytherin Harry - but in short, one book format?

    Because a lot of things could be based on that.
     
  3. Anarchy

    Anarchy Half-Blood Prince DLP Supporter

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    The purpose is to (theoretically) write a complete 7 year series with Slytherin Harry, that doesn't follow all the common tropes and other things I hate. So things I do in year 1 will lead to stuff in year 2. I don't want it to be one of those endless rehashes where everything just works out the same, despite everything suggesting it shouldn't. Being in Slytherin should have consequences. Smaller at first, but bigger and farther reaching down the line. I don't mean just the label of being a Slytherin, I mean the change in circumstances that will lead Harry down a different path. The title will be a shamelessly ripped quote like "Greatness, at any cost."
     
  4. arkkitehti

    arkkitehti High Inquisitor

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    A lot depends on what Harry's relationship with Snape and Quirrell is like. In canon Harry suspected Snape mostly because Snape is a dick, and because Harry believed Snape was trying to kill him during the quidditch match. Both of these are likely to change if Harry is in Slytherin: even if Snape is still a dick, he isn't that much of a dick against a Slytherin, and Harry is not getting to the Slytherin team on his first year, now matter how good he is. You could also get some kind of "Snape saves Harry from death" situation, that solidifies Harry's image of Snape as a dick but not a murderous dick: like some older Slytherin tricks Harry to go to Fluffy, and Snape arrives at the last moment to save Harry - and then gives Harry a dozen nights of detention for being stupid while the actual bullies get away with it.

    I'd go for Harry suspecting Quirrell from the start: the troll incident seems fishy as the troll isn't in the dungeons like Quirrell claims, Harry might hear other students remark how Quirrell has changed, Harry might connect meeting with Quirrell during his visit in Diagon Alley with the robbery in Gringotts, Harry hears Snape confronting Quirrell, etc.

    Also the attempted murder during the first quidditch match was kind of an important turning point in canon; will Quirrell attempt something similar in different circumstances?
     
  5. Sey

    Sey Not Worth the Notice DLP Supporter

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    The real question is do you have the time/productivity/motivation to actually finish it?
     
  6. wordhammer

    wordhammer Dark Lord DLP Supporter

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    SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

    Give the Muse some time to breathe before you start shooting arrows into her, you feckless curmudgeon!

    [ahem]

    I'd recommend knitting together the first two books; there's the Stone and Voldemort in the background, but there's also Harry the Parselmouth placed in the House of Snakes. Depending on how unpopular he may get by being their Head of House's favorite chewtoy, Harry might strive to find a trait to get him some 'one-of-us' value. And, since you won't be constrained by the limits of a school year to tell the story, some plotlines can extend over the summer and into the next winter.
     
  7. TMD

    TMD High Inquisitor DLP Supporter

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    The other thing to consider is events that don't immediately surround Harry. For example, if Ron and Hermione are still sorted into Gryffindor then it's likely the same bullying on Halloween might occur. And if Quirrell goes ahead and tries to use the troll as a distraction, assuming Harry has no reason to go after her, Hermione could quite likely die in that bathroom. And what would the effect of that be on Hogwarts and the student population. If various members of Slytherin house openly laugh about it as a mudblood death being a good thing, what impact might that have on Harry? Would he keep his opinion to himself and say nothing, or be more openly critical of such mentalities? All the possibilities are interesting for sure.
     
  8. Anarchy

    Anarchy Half-Blood Prince DLP Supporter

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    Well, that's the thing, isn't it? On the Way to Greatness has the small problem that it's never going to be finished. So this story would be cute if this had the small problem of never getting started. Truthfully, some small part of this is going to get written. In fact, I'm already writing it. But whether or not I actually get enough written to post it, that's a different story. The trick is that it has to be interesting enough, at least for me, and that's really what I'm trying to figure out.
    --- Post automerged ---
    For sure. Hermione would most likely get rekt. I probably wouldn't kill her off though. That's a bit more agressive and darker than I'm willing to go year 1, and for as much as I hate fanfiction Hermione, it is a bit petty to just use that kind of thing as a minor plot point. If anything, it would be a plot point for her, where despite having no friends, and the near death-experience, she still wants to go to Hogwarts and learn.
     
  9. Andrela

    Andrela Plot Bunny DLP Supporter

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    Avoid canon rehash at all cost.

    On the Way to Greatness has failed in this regard and is a very mediocre fic.

    Were I writing this:

    1. You need a good reason for Harry to be in Slytherin. Is he fundamentally a different person? If yes, how? If not, what causes him to go to Slytherin?

    2. Yes, you should have Voldemort return. It is much more interesting and ensures a strong divergence that throws the canon plot completely off the rails.

    3. Don't involve Harry in the quest for the Stone. It smells of repeating the canon storyline. Better to write something fresh. For example, have Harry deal with Slytherins all year while trying his best to prove that he's not a shit wizard like Snape likes to claim.
     
  10. Anarchy

    Anarchy Half-Blood Prince DLP Supporter

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    I'm not a good enough writer to throw canon completely off the rails starting at year one and trying to figure out something new and original for the next 6 years.
     
  11. theimmortalhp

    theimmortalhp Third Year

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    This just came to me randomly, but you could have three Gryffindors (Hermione, Ron, ???) follow the canon timeline in the background with the stone and all while Harry deals with Slytherin and proving himself as a muggle-raised halfblood to his less open yearmates (with very little interaction between the groups other than Gryffindor/Slytherin classes).
     
  12. Blinker

    Blinker Seventh Year DLP Supporter

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    1. I'm not sure he needs too much of a deviation in character. He just needs Harry to be a bit more ignorant and therefore inclined to let the Hat put him where it intended. A little bit of fiddling around with pre-Hogwarts interactions (Hagrid, Draco, Ron) could sort this out.

    2. If Voldemort is brought back it might be tricky to maintain a 7- year plot, at least if the focus is going to remain on Hogwarts and especially if the author wants to maintain any of the feel of the story from the early books as one about a magical boarding school. Up to him of course but I got the feeling he was looking at the challenge of writing a Slytherin Harry that was true to the feel, but deviated from canon.

    3. Agree, plucky schoolboy versus bullies and "evil" teacher is in keeping with the genre, and you can have a fun reveal at the end of the year when it turns out he's totally missed the actual important stuff going on.

    Also On the Way to Greatness is top-tier stuff, you be trippin
     
  13. Andrela

    Andrela Plot Bunny DLP Supporter

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    But then, what's the point of writing the same as canon? You might as well read the original books.

    And hey, I can always help. I have folders of plot bunnies.
     
  14. guestreader

    guestreader First Year

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    Anarchy, I think something that I can't remember reading in your post is Dumbledore's opinion of Harry if he gets sorted into Slytherin. There have always been parallels to be drawn between Tom Riddle and Harry. Tom describes some of them in the second book, Dumbledore counters this with the idea that our choices define us and Harry chose Gryffindor over the promise of greatness. If your Harry tried to keep his head down and work hard, not offend anyone or give anyone a reason to dislike him then would Dumbledore see him as the second coming of Riddle? Perhaps not overly helpful when you're planning your first year but I love the idea of a mentor Dumbledore. One who is concerned about Harry and makes time to guide him in a way the ideals of Gryffindor did in the books. As a generalization, Slytherins should be more pragmatic and self-centred. Ambition doesn't go far if you've died for someone else's cause. I'm not trying to push the Dumbledore raises Harry as a lamb to the slaughter trope but Harry does have a 'destiny' that Dumbledore is aware of. A Harry that shows little interest in doing what is right over what is easy doesn't help anyone other than Harry.

    If Harry and Dumbledore were closer then they might work together to solve the Chamber of Secrets. Dumbledore must have some suspicions that we are just never told. Harry just needs to ask obvious and dumb questions without appearing to have hindsight. The whole Sirius and PoA ark is different if Ron isn't mentioned as Harry's friend or is it? Would Peter being at Hogwarts be enough to motivate Sirius. How does Sirius attacking the Gryffindor common room tie into the well known fact of Harry being a Slytherin. Would saying he's mad be enough?

    In fourth year the headteachers aren't allowed to help from what I remember. Obviously the others find ways around this rule or outright ignore it but Dumbledore wouldn't. Who fills that gap? Sirius breaking out might well be enough to send Pettigrew running so no need to deviate too far from canon here.

    Fifth year, if Harry is known to be close with Dumbledore this is when things get interesting. He'd be under more suspicion but Harry shouldn't be as dense. He might have that wonderful thing called subtlety and I suspect that would go a long way in the Harry Potter world. You also have to work out Harry's summer situations and if Dumbledore is okay with it. Being closer to Harry and seeing how much he hates returning might trump what he feels he should do. Harry might even win if he frames it in the right vs easy way. If Harry spends summers with Dumbledore or at Hogwarts generally then is he there to prevent the withering curse on the ring? A not dying Dumbledore changes the whole way sixth year works. Especially as I don't know if Snape knew about Dumbledore's injure before or after he swore the vow. I know Snape knew of Dumbledore's condition after he knew of Draco's mission but I don't know the timing of the Vow. How does that resolve itself? A living Dumbledore could change so much.

    With regards to your first year ideas, in my opinion Harry should notice something is strange then shrug it off to keep his head down. Let the mirror be a trap that tries to ensnare Voldemort and holds him long enough that it leads to Dumbledore driving him away. Harry might even blame older students for an 'accidents' that Quirrelmort causes around him. Harry has no reason to involve himself unless he thinks its to save lives. Unless he knows that he's potentially handing Voldemort immortality then what does it matter to him?
     
  15. Wolfking57

    Wolfking57 Muggle

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    A very thorough brainstorm you've got there, well done. Regarding "1B" you could probably spin the Stone as being just a temporary measure, able to grant him some semblance of life for just a limited time, much as it only grants 'temporary' immortality for the Flamels. That would allow him to lay low during second year, and potentially try to cause havoc at Hogwarts by unleashing the diary. I'm not the most prolific reader on here, but I haven't seen too many, if any fics, which have gone the route of having Voldemort actually manage to get the stone, so that would be an interesting divergence.
     
  16. Anarchy

    Anarchy Half-Blood Prince DLP Supporter

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    If that's the attitude, then what's the point of reading/writing fanfiction at all? 98% of the stories out there are rehashes in some form.

    I didn't talk about that kind of thing because I was mostly focused on the main plot thread. It is an interesting thing to think about. I'm not sure if I would go for an outright mentor role, or perhaps Dumbledore just trying to act as an anti-corrupting influence but without being seen as manipulative. Right now, I'm toying with the idea of Draco seeing Harry as essentially a blank slate, in regards to the Wizarding world. Harry knows nothing, so someone like Draco could be the first to exploit Harry's ignorance. There is the whole issue of them being only 11, so Draco's ambitions will only be so large, and then there's the concept of "everyone is the hero of their own story" so it's not like Draco would actively be thinking that he's corrupting Harry, just that he's doing the whole "some wizarding families are better than others, I can help you" thing.

    As for the Sirius thing, I do believe that whole thing would still happen even if the plot did change to Voldemort successfully getting the Stone. As for Sirius still attacking the Gryffindor tower despite Harry being in Slytherin, the narrative can be that Sirius is deranged, or he simply assumed that Harry would be Gryffindor and didn't actually consider the possibility of him being anywhere else.
     
  17. guestreader

    guestreader First Year

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    With regards to the Draco thing, how much do you think he would hold the grudge from what happened on the train (assuming you keep that the same), when Harry snubs Draco that has to hurt?

    Would Draco rather be seen as better than The-Boy-Who-lived, or as his best friend? To rise above or share the spot light?

    I can't see Draco not being smug that Harry ended up in Slytherin and away from Ron. It might be validation to him that they weren't meant to mix with people like Ron. From there however I couldn't say if he'd rub it in Harry's face to be spiteful like a child or if he'd leave it at I told you so. I think even at 11 he's too proud to ask Harry to be his friend again, he'd leave it open to Harry or he'd take every opportunity to remind Harry of his offer and let Harry crawl back to him. This could either drive Harry into isolation, possibly leading to the ideas I suggested earlier, or he'd get chummy with Draco which I imagine would lead to Dumbledore being even more worried. Snape would be the tool employed then to assess Harry I'd guess. What their interactions would look like I couldn't predict especially since I have my own biases against Snape.
     
  18. Anarchy

    Anarchy Half-Blood Prince DLP Supporter

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    I've already wrote the train scene and I simply have it where Harry doesn't snub Draco (out loud), and Harry isn't in a compartment with Ron. Worked out fine.
     
  19. Andrela

    Andrela Plot Bunny DLP Supporter

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    Yeah, they are, which is why I don't read them. I only read stories that are at least semi-original.
     
  20. guestreader

    guestreader First Year

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    Do you mind me asking what plans you have for the troll scene? If Hermione is injured would that make Harry more curious as to what is happening around him or would it serve as a warning against wandering around and sticking your head in places it doesn't belong? If Harry is confronted by the troll that could have him discover Fluffy as he flees from the troll. Potentially having Fluffy eat the troll. If Hermione dies, would the Ministry make an appearance and all mentions of the Stone and the third floor corridor disappear? If it doesn't happen at all then you might need to create a whole new scene that shows someone making an attempt on the stone.

    If Harry is in Slytherin, a house that is expected to have few muggleborns would there be a larger number of Daily Prophets around or would students from well connected families receive different news? In my mind Slytherin as a house would have a wait and see attitude to Harry. They don't know what he knows or exactly who raised him. Its rumoured that he was raised by muggles but that doesn't tell them what he's been told. Information would be a form of currency and if Harry picked up on this then he'd say little in order to reveal little. He might have learnt from the Dursleys his own version of 'better to be thought a fool than open your mouth and prove it.'

    If he's trying not to appear ignorant he would be actively searching for information to reduce his ignorance so there is scope for him to find out about Flamel in a tale of legends of the Wizarding world or something. Background might be as important to Harry as current affairs so he can fit in. If you wanted to force the stone on the plot of course.

    I can see Harry being too busy in the cold war arms race of knowledge to care about strange packages and the goings on at Gringotts. He has to forge his own place. People expect great things of Harry and he has to work out what greatness means to him. At eleven that might be that he's expected to be really clever and good with magic and so all his efforts might go into that. He's waiting for people to work out he knows very little and its a race against time before people will start bullying him knowing he doesn't know how to fight back nor does he have anyone on his side. He doesn't want Harry Hunting at Hogwarts and so is desperate to not appear weak.
     
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