Secret Magic Moon base (Bonus; Magical Moon Creatures, also hidden by their magic)

Perhaps the Order bases itself out of their moon base created by Dumbledore, once Voldemort conquers almost everything else.

Perhaps a hocrux is buried on the moon.

Or maybe it's just an Unspeakable research outpost, to study the local Flora and fauna.

Lots of possibilities..

As far as logistics go, water is magically replenishable, soil can be transported and probably magically fertilized. Air of course is easy, as the bubble head charm shows.

Transportation can be done through some specialised portkey variant. Also, if you have magically hidden or underground moon creatures, moon farms.
With appropriate effort, you could probably create a bunker under the moon's surface which is indistinguishable from a room on earth without windows.

Honestly it would be pretty cool to see, for example, Grindelwald having a secret underground cache of supplies and artefacts hidden on his moon base,with it being his safe apparation point, and hiding place for his hocrux.. ready to posses the first fool to step on the lunar surface..

 

I think it would be great for one of the competition themes to be silly. Not necessarily 'crack humor' as a genre, but a topic that would encourage people to embrace the ridiculous. It could be hilarious if DLP writers were forced to write about something we traditionally dislike. Harry/Draco slash, for instance. Or soul bonds. Or magical cores.

Everybody might boycott in outrage, but I would love to see people try to (a) treat a ridiculous concept seriously, or (b) go all in with the ridiculousness. The results might be entertaining.

EDIT: I didn't mean the post to be a prompt, just a spur for discussion. A decent possibility for competition is: 'A humorous take on Soul Bonds' or 'WTF do you mean we have a soul bond?!'

 

Duelling.

We know Flitwick was a duelling champion. We know The Silver Spears was a very secretive duelling club that only accepted members with an aspen wand. We see Lockhart's trash attempt at one. We see what it looks like when two masters of the craft try to throw down in A. Dumbledore vs L. Voldemort (OoTP) and M. McGonagall vs S. Snape (TDH).

Show us what your take on duelling in the Wizarding World looks like:

A standard Triwizard dueling task? A Saudi Arabian princess-witch, whose seven brothers won't let any suitor near her until he/her can outduel all 7 of them. Organised duelling circuit televised to all of the magical world like the Olympics, or perhaps something far more illicit, a world where the most powerful organization in the land is ruled by the fiercest wand, and a ascension must be earned in blood?

Let your imagination fly wild.

Edit: God, where are these ideas when I'm actually dying to write and can't think of anything more complex than a Tom-and-Jerry episode.

 

Living life in reverse.
Its said that Merlin lived his life backward, and after Ron and Harry knock over the time turners in the ministry atrium, they get that curse. What can they change, what can they do, knowing that they will continue to get younger and know the future that they will never see?

 

There is a running theme in the Harry Potter books that is more powerful than magic. It is what kept Harry Potter alive, defeated Voldemort, and kept Snape loyal. And when devoid of it, led to the rise of Voldemort. It is something that can be tragic, or help someone overcome all obstacles.

Love.

I believe this could be an interesting prompt as it goes against a lot of the old 'teenage' DLP beliefs. That love shouldn't have been what saved the day, but hard work, determination and power. I felt the same way as a teenager, that the power of love was a cheap plot device, and Harry should have been more proactive, stronger, darker. As I've gotten older, and re-read the books, I have grown to appreciate the running theme in the books. It fits the tone of the stories and makes it seem more fairy-tale like. This prompt can go several ways too, it doesn't have to be the love between two people, but love of a family, of a friendship, or even something darker. What lengths would you go through for love? I'd be interested to see where people would take this prompt.

 

And, as I know the previous prompt is very open-ended, I came up with a slightly narrower prompt for those who want a little more direction.

Love in a time of war.

 

The Hospital wing was overflowing after the Quidditch match.

 

In hindsight, destroying Dementors after Voldemort's downfalls was worse than hunting his Horcruxes...

 

"Eighths times a charm" Ron sighed as he started to dig the next grave.

 

Another Prompt that is a bit odd:

The Diary of Dumbledore.

So we are getting Dumbledore's narration of an event(s) of books 1-6.

 

Prompt: the underground resistance against Voldemort's rule

We know that 'Potter Watch' existed as an underground radio broadcast. It was a way to give people supposed updates on Harry, and to pass secret messages. What else was going on? You could write a good story that focused on how minor characters resisted. Maybe there was an underground railroad to rescue muggleborns. Were they staging raids on camps? Were there spies in the Ministry undermining Umbridge, the snatchers, etc.? The non-trio POV alone could be fun.

 

Peace treaty.

The war has gone on to long, no side gaining the upper hand. Voldemort and the ministry sign a treaty to end the war.

 

In hindsight, it was no surprise that Hermione Granger brought the world to its knees.

 

Alien (invasion/encounter).

Surely the Department of Mysteries would have documented something among the greater stars while the muggles played at their exploratory games. Whether this strange discovery is a hostile species bent on annihilating the (from its perspective, alien and terrifying) wizards, or rather more benign curious to elevate these strangers through discourse.

 

What if Dumbledore had talked about Horcruxes with Harry in his fourth year? What if Ron and Hermione didn't ignore Harry during Ootp's summer? If they were more loyal friends? What if they both worried about the lack of news from Harry and went to the Dursleys to find out what they were doing with Harry? What if the three decide to drop out and escape from school to train for war?