I was playing Tales of the Abyss the other day and I got this strange plot bunny…

Right, here’s my half-baked idea for a story.

The whole premise starts with this idea. What if Harry James Potter wasn’t Harry James Potter?

The events on Halloween 1981 still happened, but with a change to it. Remember what happened then? James and Lily Potter died to save their son Harry. Remember that? Yeah, that still happened. But what if they were clones? Clones meant to lure Voldemort away from the real Potters…

Flash-forward 16-17 years, the Golden trio are off on a quest to destroy the Horcruxes. Everything went fine, all the Horcruxes are gone. But, there’s a problem. Due to Clone Harry’s connection with Voldemort, the power inside the Horcruxes went into Clone Harry – who is a Horcrux himself – along with most of Voldemort’s own magic.

All According to Plan…

The clone turned out the way it was suppose to. He has a Griffindor-ish personality, with a bit of Slytherin to make him a survivor, above average in magic, but without any of the genius intellect or ability that you would expect from the “Chosen One”. They also made sure that he couldn’t access any of the power he siphoned off Voldemort. Essentially, the clone is perfectly flawed.

If I wrote this I would start the first chapter with Harry in the Hogwarts Infirmary, suffering from internal magical backlash from the amount of dark magic inside of him. Backlash that built during the trio’s quest for the Horcrux – every time they destroyed one, the magic would drain into Harry – who would be serious pain, pain that increased after every subsequent destruction of a Horcrux. While Harry is on the bed, in pain, Hermione and Ron hover around the bed – scared for their friend.

Next scene: The doors to the infirmary burst open, Aurors and DoM representatives come in forcefully to take the clone on the bed – behind them are the Real Harry James Potter along with his parents…and Dumbledore. Suffice to say, Ron and Hermione are rendered speechless. For all the Ginny-haters out there, you can add Ginny in that group – holding the real Harry’s hand.

The whole idea for using doubles was orchestrated by James, Lily, Dumbledore and the DoM. They planned the whole thing from the start – create a clone and have him weaken Voldemort to a point where the real thing, which has been battle-trained since childhood, could be able to kill Voldemort in a battle.

If there ever really was a prophesy to begin with. Voldemort was nigh invincible and gaining power everyday, they had a way to immediately kill him – but it wasn’t permanent. The only real plan they had was long-term, find what gave Tom Riddle Immortality and search for a way to negate his superior magical abilities.

The clone was put in the dursleys to help him build a sort of desperation for affection and acceptance in him, Ron was introduced to prevent Clone Harry from ever being too studious.

So, the clone was apprehended and the real Harry finally showed his face. As the clone had Voldemort’s power inside of him, they couldn’t really kill him as the risk of the power returning to Voldemort was too high.

And here’s another idea – between the years from Voldemort’s first ‘death’ and the start of the second war, Some Wizards and Witches have risen into positions that make the shadowy rulers of the whole world…

The Potters and Dumbledore among them, with some of their fellows not having angelic dispositions...

And this is where the real story begins…

Clone Harry escapes imprisonment (I have an idea how but I won’t write it here) and runs for his life. Everyone is against him, the Wizarding World wants to lock him up and the Death Eaters want him as well – to get their master back to power or to simply find a way to transfer the energies to them.

Everyone as an enemy, power inside him that he can’t access (Or can he? No cell is perfect after all)

How will it end?

Interested?

The whole idea behind the fic is a search for identity. How would you feel if you found out that nothing you knew about beginnings was real? That you're essentially a fake, a copy, a sacrifice. Keep in mind the fact that Harry is a Hero - nothing will change that.

This idea is still very rough, I’m sure there are plot holes that I haven’t filled in yet. Hell, did the stuff I write even make sense?

What I’m looking for from you are ideas to add and maybe for a good writer to adopt it. I rarely have time to write anything these days so it would be cool to see a concept I made fleshed out and put in proper writing.

 

That's... actually a pretty good bunny. I'd read it.

Especially if it heads where I hope it's heading and ends up with clone!Harry with a few loyal friends declaring war on the Dumbledore, the Ministry and Voldemort.

 

Ya, that actually is a good bunny. It would be a story featuring a refreshingly smart Dumbledore. I would read it as well, but the Ginny bit would be a little much.

It would take a pretty talented author to make it all seem plausible, but good luck to whoever takes it up.

 

I'd read it too. Seems very interesting. Still, If Ron and Hermione are still more or less 'canon' in your fic, wouldn't they side with the clone and help him (or at least Hermione)? It will be interesting to see how you play the whole "betrayal" device and the justification behind it.

Great idea.

 

Firstly,

They would need to keep it a secret. So only Dumbles, Lily, James and by extension, the real Harry would know.

2 - It's an inhuman thing to do, so you need to continue their characters in the same vein. Smart, but cold. Analytical. Able to throw aside moral considerations.

Don't even think about letting the ministry of magic know. :| It won't be a secret otherwise.

Make sure the conspirators 'know' that Pettigrew is the traitor.

Make sure Ron And Hermione have no idea about it. The Conspirators want to keep this a secret from Voldemort and Harry.

I have a few more points, I'll post them later.

 

That is indeed a very good idea. I would most certainly read it if someone took it up, too.

 

I'd hit -Cough; I mean I'd read it.

(BTW, your avatar is win )

 

That's...excellent. Best idea I've heard in a long time, in fact.

I'd be willing to write it in a couple months or so. Can you send me a PM with what you have? An ending perhaps?

I'm not guaranteeing anything, but this sounds better than any future projects I have, so...

Repped as well.

 

Cool idea.

REALLY good, actually.

I think that's one of the best plot bunny ideas I've heard...Ever (And I've been reading HP fan fics for 3 1/2 years.)

Write it. Seriously.

PM when you do please. I'd like to read this.

EDIT: Repped. Amerison, PLEASE write this.

 

Wow... People actually responded to this. Nice.

Anyway, as I wrote before, I don't have a lot of time to write fanfiction these days. University is taking up most of my time. (Double Degree Communication and English! lol) So, if anyone is interested, go ahead.

Although, I'd like to look at the first chapter when that person is done writing it. Just something I want to do. (Unreasonable?)

Last note: Wow. Amerison actually liked my plot bunny!!! Woot!!! I thought up this idea and worked it out an hour before I made the post. So no, no chapters done. I have some plot ideas though. Just some stuff stuck in my head.

 

How exactly do you explain Voldemort's first death? It was all staged?

 

I'm guessing it was an accident...

Or was that when they first implemented the clone?

Either way, it's a kick-ass idea; refreshingly novel in comparison to all of the overused plot devices floating around the HP verse nowadays.

I might try my hand at it if I could ever get my other fics off the bench.

 

This does throw a bit of a wrench into the gears; how does the Clone have a connection with Voldemort since First Year if the true Harry Potter defeated Voldemort at age one, becoming The-Boy-Who-Lived. Also, if Harry's mother did not die for him, how did he survive the killing curse?

Of course, this can easily be side-stepped (the plot is good enough to make most forget this altogether), but it's still a bit of a stretch.

Perhaps HP was marked in a different way, then cloned (retaining the connection with Voldemort), and the clone was fed this lie that Lily and James are both dead, but wouldn't the reborn Voldemort recognize the conflicting connections?

The best way, I can see, to make this plausible, is to drop the connection between clone Harry and Voldemort, at least to start with. He doesn't have the visions or the pain from the scar. But as he destroys the Horcruxes, a connection grows deeper between he and Voldemort; one that he doesn't understand, worries Dumbledore, and throws both the real Harry Potter and Voldemort for a loop. Maybe it's a three-way connection now, and, as clone Harry (as well as Voldemort) has no idea what the fuck is going on, and Dumbledore most definitely isn't going to let him know he's a clone until the Horcruxes are gone, Harry just remains confused at the sometimes visions he receives of his own self training.

Regardless, this challenge is Hall of Fame material; I really hope Amerision picks this up. It would be even better if he used my idea as well

 

Since the diary was a horcrux you could start the visions at the end of his second year.

 

Hmmm....

The Idea in the first place was that there wasn't a prophecy to begin with. Clone!Harry was genetically engineered for the specific purpose of eventually trapping the majority, if not all, of Voldemort's power from the beginning.

Suffice to say it was a long term plan - one that took a lot of time and patience. I guess we can say that Clone!Harry and Clone!Lily's actions were pre-planned, the sacrifice and the backfire of the Killing curse were done so that the connection was formed between Clone!Harry and Voldemort. The Unique genetic and magical make-up of Clone!Harry did the rest and sucked up Voldemort's power. As for how they knew of the drain that Voldemort would get from the destruction of Horcruxes...they didn't. (Remember, they didn't know of the Horcrux's to begin with, that's why they started the plan in the first place.)

Some plans get strokes of good luck that weren't planned for in the beginning. The writer can say that they had a plan for how Voldemort was going to get drained...but the Horcruxes did it for them. Systematic destruction of each Horcrux drained a bit from Voldy...until Nagini was destroyed and the last Horcrux in Harry reacted to the destruction of the other six and started the chain-reaction that ended up with Voldemort weakened and Harry sick.

Another point, one that I didn't write in the original post. They couldn't start the siphoning of power until whatever was sustaining Voldemort - the Horcruxes - was either weakened for destroyed...