Harry realises that he lacks at least 50 years worth of experience to beat Voldemort and sees his only chance in the Deathly Hallows.




-The Harry of this story accepts his fate right after his confrontation with Quirrell and knows that Voldemort is still out there.

-He starts to apply himself in his education. At least the things he feels are necessary (Transfiguration,Charms,DADA---he is only 12).

-His teacher notice his sudden change and further encourage him to take things seriously.

-When he learns of Sirius Black and his apparent part in his parents' death, he begins to "tap" in the Dark Arts driven by revenge.

-During his stay at Hogwarts Harry researches his ancestry and concludes that his cloak MIGHT be the one out of the legend. His research leads him to Grindelwald and his quest to unite the Hallows

-After he witness the duel between Voldemort and Dumbledore, he knows he will never be able to win through skill alone and believes his only chance to be the Hollows.

-Harry vanishes from Nr.4 Privetdrive and "convinces" Viktor Krum to tell him the location of Durmstrang, because Harry knows that will lead him to Nurmengard and Grindelwald.

-During his unnoticed stay at Durmstrang (Invisibility Cloak + "Magic")he also learns more about the Dark Arts than he had ever had in Hogwarts.

-His plan to free Grindelwald resembles that of Crouch's (there he got his idea).He uses the Imperio Curse to let two guards lead him (invisible) to Grindelwald's cell. After using Polyjuice Potion to change Grindelwald in a guard and the guard in Grindelwald, he kills the fake Grindelwald and the two "guards" dispose of the corpse. At the end Harry uses a small Memory Charm to make everything believable.

This are some points, which I would like to see in a story. The rest is up to the writer.

Ps.
In my opinion the whole canon part before the "infiltration of the Ministry of Magic"is laughable. Instead of just going to Umbridge's office after his vision, to stun her, use her Floo, get his Firebolt, send Hedwig to Dumbledore and go alone he does this ridiculous Mission Impossible Parody with his little friends.

Pps.
Being an Animagus is always cool and I don't particularly care about pairings if they are well written.

Should there be any mistakes(grammar/spelling) please let me know.

 

This is absurd. If breaking him out of prison was this easy, it would have been done already.

 

@Stalin's Pipe Organs
Who would want to rescue Grindelwald (besides Harry) considering he's just a 120year old man, who used to be somebody over 50years ago ?

And if you don't like that idea feel free to change it.
These points are just a general direction, I want people to mull over this idea and add their own.

 

Fixed that for you.

 

Harry and Grindelwald is an interesting idea, but I don't think this is how it should get done. As it is, your idea stands like this:

- Harry hits the books, and learns magic properly
- Harry decides that a story is real, and bases his life around that
- Harry finds a powerful mentor with dark powers

And all of this leads up to after fourth year, with no real change but Harry having read a few more books than in canon.

A Grindelwald mentor could work, but this set-up to get there feels dull, stretched out, and completely lacking in any originality or hook for the reader besides Grindelwad himself. Characters are interesting, and drive the plot forward, but you still want an actual plot.

 

-After he witness the duel between Voldemort and Dumbledore, he knows he will never be able to win through skill alone and believes his only chance to be the Hollows. (after fifth year)

I know what you mean, but canon!Harry is ..."weak" in almost every sense.
And "simple" learning is the only way for him to get better without some deus ex machina-stuff.

A different approach could be, that Harry seeks help by his teachers, but that has to stretch, too, because you can't be great after one lesson.

 

Frankly this idea is pretty stupid.

You want my advice? Get rid of the entire Durmstrang arc. That seemed pretty contrived.

You should also skip right to the good stuff. Also unless your a very talented author, Harry studying and training is going to be very boring to read. One possibility to make it interesting is to start the story right after Harry unites the three hallows (if you plan for him to do so). Or at least start the story when he gets the Resurrection stone. It would be nice to read how he abuses its powers. Then show all what happened before through flashbacks.

 

I...actually like this idea. Very much so. >_>

May be its that part of me that wants to finally see a...err...well done indy!Harry story or maybe I'm just being weird. *shrugs*

But as I see it, the points the OP mentioned have a firm foothold for a, ahem, good indy!Harry story. Some of the points like him dissappearing from Privet Drive are a bit iffy, but the prospective author could allways change it to something more feasible. Harry going to a different school for a short period of time would actually act as a hook for me.

Either way, best of luck with this story. I'm keeping my eye on this thread. If someone adopts/answers this challenge, I'll definitely be reading it.

 

Since this thread doesn't attract enough attention, I want to try it with something less specific.


Why didn't Harry try to learn more about his ancestry.
He could have made easily the connection to Ignotus Peverell and the Hallows.

That's what irks me the most and is the greatest difference between Canon/Harry and Fanon. He lacks strive.
In every Fanfiction at some point he realises, that he hasn't got a chance against, well, anybody and strives to better himself. Be it some deus ex machina or a cliched/rocky balboa training, it doesn't matter.
Everything is better than to stumble in some shit and stumble out of it because of Ganger or Dumbledore like Canon.

That's my whole point:
Why didn't Harry try to learn more about his ancestry.

He's a f... orphan, who meets his parents the first time in some kind of mirror.
The only thing he knows about them, is that they are wizards and good people and that's it.

sry for the little rant...

 

For a story where Harry learns a bit about his ancestry and (a fanon version of) the Peverell's, I recommend Raining Ink's Out of the Night.

And of course, there's a right way and a wrong way to do a mentor!Grindelwald - here's my take on it, which in my own biased opinion, is a start in the direction of the right way :awesome

 

@kmfrank
Actualy, I'm already following both stories for quite some time now.
Yours is without question one of the best I've read in recent time, and I'm still enjoying every update despite my preference to a ?near-Canon/plot?

and Out of the Night...well this whole change in appearance and signs in your face stuff made me loose interest.
Plus that Harry/Draco fluff shit.


I'm looking for something like a young Tom Riddle.
Tom had his Parseltongue, wanted to know how he got it, learned about Salazar and opened the Champer.
Harry's got his cloak, knows next to nothing about his parents, wants to know his cloak's history (heirloom=special), belives the story about the Hallows and wants to reunite them as means to destroy Voldemort.

 

Well, I'm glad you enjoy my story - perhaps some time in the future I'll again attempt a "canon-rehash", or at least something where Harry's in school, but at the time (and still) I prefer something where I am more free to write as I please without canonical events getting in the way.

I still think Out in the Night is a worthwhile story to read, even if parts of it bug me, as well.

As far as Harry's cloak...well, he was already told by Dumbledore that it was his father's. He's known that since he had it. And via Ron, he learned what it is and that they are rare/expensive but not unheard of. Eliminating Ron as a limited source of information about the Cloak might be the best way to proceed from there...and really, that could be as easy as having Harry arrive earlier and thus not being stuck with Ron in the only compartment on the train that wasn't full. After all, being stuck with him for 6 hours or so probably led to the quick development of their friendship.

So its an easy fix for Harry to know virtually nothing about this gift, inspiring him to hit the library for a while - perhaps coming up with this book of children's tales (at Pince's recollection?) that mentions such a cloak.

 

I would like to see a fic where Dumbledore steals the cloak back from Harry after he acquires the resurrection stone from the Gaunt house. Dumbledore would have all three Hallows, and enough power to destroy Voldemort. But he would still sit back, eat lemon drops, and Harry would die since he forgot to carry around his back of lucky horseshoes.