Let's say Voldemort doesn't return at the end of GoF. Let's say he doesn't regain a body until much later - say, 5 years after Harry finishes Hogwarts.

1. How do you see the remainder of Harry's Hogwarts years going? Are they completely uneventful? Or will there be some things which still happen, regardless of Voldemort's return?

2. Does Harry still become an Auror, post-Hogwarts? Or did that career path attract him because of his experiences fighting Voldemort?

3. When Voldemort does return, how do you see things going?

I suppose one early thing to decide is why Voldemort doesn't return. Does his resurrection fail because of something Harry does to foil it, or a fuck-up by Wormtail? Or do we set the point of divergence back earlier, such that Wormtail never stumbles across Voldemort to help him back to health?

That distinction will determine a lot - whether Harry is in the Triwizard at all, for starters. It also determines a lot in relation to Barty Crouch Jr. If Voldemort doesn't come and get him, then Barty is going to be under the Imperius for longer.

But potentially not forever. One interesting divergence would be is if Barty Jr manages to get free, even without Voldemort's assistance, and becomes a free agent antagonist.

Another thing to consider is Fudge and Umbridge vs. Dumbledore. Although Dumbledore declaring Voldemort's return is what precipitated their break in canon, it seems likely that eventually Fudge would want to move out from Dumbledore's shadow sooner or later - and given the tensions already present at the end of PoA, probably sooner. So even without Voldemort's return, I think there's some Dumbledore vs. Ministry tension which would occur.

Ultimately I do see Harry still wanting to be an Auror, even without Voldemort's return. It's just the kind of career that would appeal to him: adventurous, active, enabling him to utilise his natural curiosity, his tendency to butt his nose where it isn't wanted, and his talent at Defensive magic.

So then Voldemort returns when Harry is an adult and a trained (though junior) Auror. That would be an interesting story, I think. A great way to flesh out the Ministry too, and to detail the methods by which Voldemort attempts to take over and the ways the Ministry resists them.

I think it would work best as a series of independent, medium-length one-shots. Think BBC's Sherlock. Each "episode" could focus on a specific scheme launched by Voldemort and Harry's central role in foiling it. Indeed, this whole thread was inspired by the idea of a contained "episode" of Voldemort recruiting a Russian dark wizard to unleash a magical virus on the world which is designed to kill Muggleborns.

 

1. How do you see the remainder of Harry's Hogwarts years going? Are they completely uneventful? Or will there be some things which still happen, regardless of Voldemort's return?

I think they would be less eventful than as described by Rowling, but not completely mundane. In his seventh year, Dumbledore would begin training him, because he knows of the horcruxes.

2. Does Harry still become an Auror, post-Hogwarts? Or did that career path attract him because of his experiences fighting Voldemort?

Harry doesn't seem to have been exposed to many career options outside of joining the Ministry and becoming a Quidditch player. Without Umbridge's ban in fifth year it is possible he chooses to pursue what makes him happy rather than what he thinks he needs to do. However, as Dumbledore knows about the horcruxes, I think he'd start talking to Harry about them in his seventh year, which might push him back onto the path of Aurorhood.

3. When Voldemort does return, how do you see things going?

He's no longer a child. He's had years of peacetime to make connections. I don't think he'd be as willing to sacrifice himself to Voldemort, so the end of the horcrux in his scar would depend completely on how much Dumbledore figures out and decides to tell him. If he lives through Voldemort's eventual return, I think Harry would defeat him in a similar manner, save for the lives that were lost in the Battle of Hogwarts because he'd be more proactive in hunting Voldemort down, rather hiding in the shadows.

 

I'm pretty sure it was Voldemort's resurrection that had him interested in horcruxes. Before that he likely couldn't be sure Voldemort had any of them. As for the original prompt, I would think foiling Wormtail's plans would make a better story for GoF.
>Harry studies and tests well enough to get Hermione off his back
>Knows Voldemort is still alive and they only delayed his return, this was even discussed in PS
>His account still differs from the official story
>Official story has to deny Wormtail even exists, since it's a confession to being wrong about Sirius
>Harry's everything short of being wanted for murder
>Prophet's hit piece against him is even more effective, but he lets it go since Voldemort didn't come back
>Objects to the Ministry refusing to teach combative magic
>Only a few people join the DA, since he's tacitly being blamed for Cedric's death
>Voldemort's mental attacks aren't as bad
>Harry just lies about not having them; his friends buy it.
>Death Eaters don't really reassemble
>No need to break their friends out
>No need for prophecies
>If anything they'd get the idea to prevent Voldemort's return
>They know Voldemort would fuck them up if he ever came back
>Umbridge still gets removed because of the job curse
That's most of book five, which would set the stage for the rest of the series, presuming the mechanism of the delay.

 

I could foresee a few minor emergencies cropping up in Harry's later Hogwarts years, bu iirc, pretty much every major conflict arc after book 3 was driven by Voldemort's return, and nothing much else exciting seemed to be happening on the sidelines.

Obviously, w/o Voldemort and Crouch Jr. fucking with things, Harry would have no part to play in the Tri-Wizard tournament. If the tournament goes off without a hitch, maybe the various Ministries would agree to holding the next one a few years later, when Harry could compete legitimately.

Spoiler: Plot Bunny Digression

I had a rabid plot-bunny once about this very idea where Harry gets close with one of his competitors during a 7th Year Beauxbatons Tri-Wizard Tournament who drives Harry to succeed and excel, and gives him a cause to strive toward (since Voldemort is mostly out of the picture). Eventually this person becomes his version of what Grindelwald was to Dumbledore, including the bit where her (I always picture this person as female) well-intentioned extremism turns them into mortal enemies.

Bonus points if, instead of a Tri-Wizard competitor, this Grindelwald-analogue is Hermione, who, without Voldemort to act as a focus for her resentment of the Wizarding World's problems, starts leaning toward a more burn-it-all-down revolutionary philosophy as she gets older.

I don't see Harry becoming an Auror. I always got the impression that he was only interested in that line of work because of how Voldemort kept fucking with him. Remember how cool he thought Charlie and Bill were? Without the constant threat of death hanging over him during those teenage years, I think he'd be more interested in pursuing something similar to what the oldest Weasley brothers were doing, assuming of course that he wasn't good enough to play professional Quidditch.

There's also the question of what Dumbledore gets up to. Seeing as how Dumbledore already knew that Voldemort was still around in some unnatural spirit form well before the resurrection scene at the end of GoF, I think the Horcrux investigation would happen fairly similarly to canon. I mean, he'd already have all the pieces of the puzzle that he had in canon. So I wouldn't be surprised if Dumbledore was killed off before Harry's out of school, either by the withering curse, or by Snape (for the same general reasons as in canon). If Dumbledore has been dead for years by the time Voldemort returns, I think the war would be a whole lot shorter. After all, there's no need to pussyfoot around the ministry for so long when Voldemort could crush it without fear of reprisal from an equally-capable wizard.

The resurrection would still have to involve Harry somehow. I mean, the whole elaborate Tri-Wizard scheme existed for the sole purpose of ensuring that it was Harry's blood that brought him back.

Spoiler: Another AU Bunny

The irony is that if Voldemort had just shrugged and decided to accept the risk of Harry keeping his blood protection, Voldemort could have returned a whole year earlier than canon, since the ritual they used only required the blood of an enemy, not that of a specific enemy. This would have the additional benefit of being less alarming to the general public than Harry popping up injured, dragging Cedric's murdered body behind him. The resurrection could have been handled nice and neatly, where only marked Death Eaters would know, and the only evidence would be the disappearance of whatever random light-side mook they used for the blood portion.

Past that, who knows? *shrug*

 

1st plot bunny would make for an incredible story.

 

As far as I know Dumbledore wasn't at all sure that Voldemort had multiple horcruxes until after the resurrection. If Voldemort put off his return for a number of years, and Harry never told Dumbledore about any strange visions that he had received, then it might be assumed that the diary, being Voldemort's only horcux, had ended the Dark Lord's immortality when destroyed. This could be seen as a fulfillment of the prophecy, with the sword of Gryffindor representing the power he knows not.
So if Voldemort was to return unexpectedly a number of years later, then there might be no organised resistance to his return, which would make defeating him infinitely more challenging.

 

I think it matters less why he doesn't return & more who knows - we know the changes to the Dark Mark were noticed by Snape & Karkaroff.

At the very least you have an unknown number of people who know the Dark Lord was active again for a brief period. Knowing your old boss doesn't have the decency to stay dead, would you bury your head in the sand or dust off your old mask?

There is scope for an author to play with the size of Voldemort's marked followers & allow them to come out of the wood work. Similiarly I'm sure there are some Malfoy like non-supporters who would like nothing more than to change sides & prevent a second rise.

Uneventful? Ha!

On the flip side, we also know Dumbledore isn't above testing Harry & a failed return is the perfect excuse to throw him into the deep end repeatedly... for his own good of course.

I've always thought the Auror career was a bit naff for Harry, a bit like wanting to be a bin man when you are young. The role of Auror is never really defined in canon but I find it hard to believe that after living through your childhood always having someone trying to kill you, you would grow up wanting to be a policeman or join the army.

I see the Aurors as more policemen than Soldiers. We know they are controlled by the Ministry & even by GoF Harry knows the Ministry is fickle.

I find myself thinking more along the lines of Arya Stark & her little list in GOT.

I'd like to see a school boy grow into a man & fight a war with something more than luck & expelliarmus!