I agree with Dark Minion on the point 2, but there could also be an alternative way of looking at it. As Harry is the puppeteer he will take on a more dubious morality. He could be working to make sure things go for Neville as he experienced them. As time goes by and things change more and more he has to put in an extra effort to keep Neville on the "right path". Like make sure Wormtail escapes and help him find Voldemort, covert of corse. Or on the lighter side make sure nobody gets killed by the basilisk in the second year. This way we will get to see a new side of the story of The-Boy-Who-Lived and won´t get bored by everything repeating.

 

My apologies for not reading the entire thread, as the answer may have already been mentioned, but from the start;

Why doesn't Harry apparate to the graveyard and destroy Voldemort's fathers bones?

A typical problem in practically all time-travel fics. Nice work on putting so much thought and effort into this, by the way; it's also good to have a long outline and plan.

 

That is done quite a few times already. However with that you aren't able to finish Voldemort off, you just delay his resurrection. He still can use other rituals or methods to regain physical form.

And you can argue Voldemort has to have his body to be killed.

 

What Harry can do if he returns in time:

- He could destroy all Horcruxes right after the return and as they are the reason Voldemort's soul is still rooted to the living hope that this is enough and Voldemort dies because of this.

- If he is too afraid that destroying the Horcruxes doesn't work, he could keep one intact and with him. He leaves the bones of the father alone and probably place a few wards around it in case that the ritual takes place earlier because of any action he has taken until then...
When Voldemort has resurrected he could destroy the last Horcrux and kill Voldmort right in the graveyard. Even if he fails or (has to do the same as in DH) it would be possible to kill Voldemort quite easily.

--> War ends and everybody is happy.

PS: When you do take DH into account it gets a bit more complicated but not that much...

 

-Dumbledore would be the one to destroy all the Horcruxes
-You could speed things up more by letting Voldemort get the Stone

But, either one would ruin the story one by clishe and the other by.. well Voldemort winning.

 

Hmm - if this AU fic is DH compliant, then wouldn't Neville be the accidental Horcrux? Harry and Dumbledore will have to do some pretty fancy finagling to figure out how to con Voldemort into AKing his own Horcrux in Neville. Harry was willing to just straight up and die, but would Neville? I don't know.

 

The initial proposition is much better than the second (overly long) summary, which is just oozing cliche and boring.

To properly write a time travel fic you need ideas. You can't rewrite canon beyond the first couple chapters, and generally, having Harry know too much ruins the story. Or does it...

Actually I had an idea. For the method of "transport", just have Harry "remember the future" (something Stephen Hawking said once I think... "Why do we remember the past and not the future?") – "get unstuck in time" (Slaughterhouse IV). Have Harry become overloaded with a million possiblities. Let him see the future of a billion different Harry's. This not only makes it impossible for him to choose what to do (If I make friends with Hermione she could die as she did in probability 1091A! If I kiss Ginny I'll die!), but it also creates a big obstacle that prevents Harry from acting too soon. Harry can "remember the future" in anyway you want. He can just wake up after being hit with a spell, whatever.

But let's just pretend this happened when Harry was given his Hogwarts letter. Harry instantly sees all the futures at once, and is overloaded with spells (dark and light, forbidden and ancient), magical theory, memories of friends and lovers; memories of his own inner monologue. It's essential what authors do when they have Harry "send his spirit" back in time to merge with the younger Harry only, it's like a clusterfuck of this happening all at once. Harry cannot keep track of what happens, and he becomes mentally unstable.

But Harry is recourceful. We can't have him going crazy in the first chapter (well he can, but he can't be crazy forever, anyway). Harry calms himself down and thinks out loud to himself. Harry realizes that he needs to clear his mind and remain calm. So he does. He understands that Voldemort is a threat and his enemy. He knows about Sirius and Dumbledore and all the other pieces on the chessboard. He comes to a plan of action, plotting for weeks, determined to live a happy life, or something*– to protect people or something noble. Harry figures that the only way to kill Voldemort is to first gather him together, body, spirit and horcrux, and then destroy him all at once.

Because Harry can "see" the outcomes of so many futures (but not his own timeline, the one he lives in is still unknown to him), Harry often hesistates and refuses to make friends with certain people, et cetera. He's ostracized because he's unusually intelligent for his age, and has difficulty doing it all alone.

Anyway, that's where my plot bunny drops off, but the concept I think is far more interesting (if a bit tricky and convoluted) than "lulz imma go back in time 10 years, make some friends, and fall in love with X girl while killing Voldemort with X deus ex machina".

It may just be my preference, as I like my protagonists to be able to say interesting things (Harry would be incredibly cryptic when speaking to people), and Harry is far too narrow minded for my tastes.