This is bad and you should feel bad.

 

This is bad and you should feel bad.
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I don't know if this is done before, but

What if Voldemort never found out about his Slytherin heritage and aliied himself with the Muggleborns? I mean, Slytherin must be pretty bad for someone people thought to be Muggleborn, right. So, Tom allies himself with the MBs and becomes their leader.

 

That doesn't even make sense. Maybe you should stop posting plot bunnies.

 

While it isn't exactly a terrible one, I don't see this going over well. For starters, even without learning about his Slytherin heritage, Tom Riddle was already pretty warped before Dumbledore found him at the orphanage. That kind of mentality I feel would not lend itself well to allying with muggleborns, and while I don't remember when exactly he did learn about his past, it seemed to be later in his school years than sooner, so whether the rest of the Slytherins would turn against him in this case seems highly unlikely without you as the author bending canon so that they do find reasons to pick him apart. And frankly even then I don't see him joining muggleborns and such so much as determining to grind those fuckers from his own House under his heel at the nearest opportunity.

Bruh, I get it that we're piling on Rico and to some degree that isn't exactly unearned, but seriously? Ease up some. It's not criminal to have bad ideas, I'm sure I thought of shit like that when I first joined up and started writing. Give him time to learn and progress.

 

It would be like Mrs Hudson leaving Baker Street

 

A small idea for a short fic à la John Wick.

After a short few years as an Auror Harry managed to become one of the best duelists and generally one of the most competent individuals in the ministry. He knows it and he's proud of it.
Without the weight of the world on his shoulders, he can progress at his own pace.
Being a regular Hogwarts visitor (Hagrid, McGonagall, Slughorn etc.) he even managed to get Flitwick as a sparring partner.

After witnessing a few very unpleasant crimes and having to deal with upstarts, who feel the need to challenge him he starts to become more decisive and ruthless while handling rogue wizards. This gives him a reputation.

He becomes the go-to-guy for the British ministry to send when the International Confederation of Wizards deems someone too dangerous to handle for local authorities. He learns, that there's an entire division with similar individuals working for the ICW, that neutralize dangerous wizards all over the world. What he also learns, is that these people unbeknownst to the ICW are also part of an organization, that deal in assassinations. Becoming a member by default (He can't just leave, because he knows too much and it was made clear, that he would be dealt with.) he learns to deal with these new arrangements and even appreciates some of the perks that his membership brings him. (Finding his targets given by the ICW)


Things are going well.

Ginny had a long Chaser-career and they decide now is the time for kids and real family.
Harry managed to restore his dream car with the help of Arthur and they live in a nice house.

Spoiler

Then everything comes crashing down and Harry is on a revenge trip through the international crime-underworld for wizards.

 

I mean, considering I wasn't seriously telling him to never post again, I think I'm alright. My apologies anyway. It wasn't meant to be taken seriously.

 

Only One Point of divergence: Instead of Tom Riddle being born in 1926, he is born in 1980.

 

Ah man.

I actually think this could be really interesting (as a point of divergence to create a plot bunny) .

Harry growing up with a family has been done a lot, but a lot of the rest here could be really interesting.

I'm imagining:

The world is prosperous, the gaunt family still live on in part of the world, Dumbledore is slightly less renowned but slightly more energetic, perhaps slightly less political. There was never a first war, nor a troubling student and dark rumours in his years as a teacher then as headmaster. He's a more involved headmaster and even more academic therefore, turning his full attention to invention rather than diplomacy and peace.

It's perhaps a bit over the top, but maybe the general state of wizarding education for Harry could be better as a result and a few novel spells be available that weren't in canon - the flight spell or some transfiguration limit breaking equivalent - conjuring sweets, or retaining sapience in human transfiguration, whatever, just to show what the wars cost in terms of magical progression.

Tom and Harry arrive at Hogwarts. With a different Professor introducing Tom, he'd have more freedoms in his early years than he did in canon, without the watchful eyes of a youthful post-war Dumbledore.

There'd be two ways to take Harry - the Santi way and have him be Toms Equal and Opposite, or perhaps more interestingly have him be relatively close to canon.

Tom hates those who have his name, so how would he feel about someone who looks so similar to him and has so much of what he lacks. I think he'd be envious and Slytherin wouldn't start off supportive in quite the same way as it did in Harry's canon. It's not stained by Voldemort's legacy and association.

Harry and Tom would interact initially like Draco and Harry did. Except, where Draco was a moron playing a part he wasn't aware enough to reflect on, Tom is malice and hatred. It'd be a good example in conduct disorder, a building rivalry and escalating feud - where many adults dismiss it as the new James and Snape, or childhood squabbles - until they're skilled enough in magic that dangerous and permanent consequences are at hand, and the despair of Harry as Tom pulls ahead inexorably and becomes more and more difficult to predict or contain.

I think it'd have to be a time skipping style thing and not a mystery per year thing. And the plot would be the rise of Voldemort where Harry grows up along side him rather than learning about him post hoc. Voldemort is one of a kind, but while he's not 'out' he'd have to deal with Harry's dogged attempts to expose him and Harry would be in a lot of peril because of it.

I think you could build quite a thriller out of this premise. And youthful Voldemort making ill considered mistakes and having to judge risk and secrecy against his violence would be good. It'd possibly work better as a Voldemort POV, but it'd be difficult to make the voice compelling to the reader but also convey his psychopathy well.

 

Story where Harry buys a new trunk then goes to Harrod's. He gets six new tees, four button down shirts (one red, one black, one dark green that matches his eyes, one offwhite), three pairs of pants, two suits, fourteen pairs of socks, and three pairs of shoes but of a brand and style not developed until the early naughts.

The commission-based sales girl teaches Harry how to flirt.

This roughly goes on for 200k words. The story ends abruptly about two weeks before returning to Hogwarts.

What think?

 

Pretty sure I got the skillz to write this one by myself, tyvm!

 

False!

1. We finished book one. I bowed out of book two at the beginning which probably killed it tbh as it at that stage the collaboration point falls flat and everyone went back to their own works. But a complete work was completed.

2. The story I have suggested is designed to be abandoned midway through. It's called playing to one's strengths.

 

I was thinking about what sort of social backlash could exist due to blood purity. What sort of things could happen to spite and distance themselves from such an agenda? Like some sort of thing where people opposing Voldemort try to insult his ideology by messing with magic that allows people to take certain traits from magical animals. In addition to spite it grants unusual abilities like affinities to certain types of magic (i.e. fire from phoenixes and dragons), or straight up abilities (parsel from snakes, invisibility from demiguises etc). A cultural movement.

Such a thing would be illegal for various reasons. I was thinking in addition to abilities you might gain some animal features, which would risk the SoS. It could also be illegal because of some sort of laws that prohibit any sort of "breeding" with non-humans (even though it's not technically). But because this happens as the Ministry is collapsing under Voldemort's pressure the DMLE doesn't have the time or resources to follow up cases like this.

I was thinking this would be more of a cultural examination with some war themes thrown in than the usual Harry Potter story.

 

Wouldn't transfiguration work? Most people wouldn't be good enough to get magical traits like parseltongue, but it'd also require a lot less dedication to body modification. Transfiguring yourself a tail or feathers or whatever for a while can be a fashion statement with political meaning that anyone could make, but going further into permanent changes would mean far few people are willing to participate. If the changes are permanent, then it's less a cultural movement and more a weird fringe thing for people that are fanatically anti purist.

 

That defeats the point. The point is gaining new abilities.

 

Dumbledore Peggy Sue, in Fourth Year, after the names are announced.

 

From his death? That'd be interesting. I'm a bit of a sucker for time travel in any case.