Sounds too much like MagicalTrunk! to me, which is an instant fail.

1. To sack Skeeter would be censorship, so wouldn't happen.
2. In GoF, the press was on Harry's side, it was just Skeeter that wasn't.
3. Why does it matter if the press is on Harry's side or not?

 

Is there any actual evidence for this? Nobody ever warns Harry about dropping crucios on people. The only really batshit crazy death eater is Bella, who was probably nuts for a long time; Volde's madness is far likelier to be due to splitting himself into little chunks. Malfoy and Snape appear to be perfectly sane after years and years using the dark arts. If they do anything they appear to make the user oily-looking. No wonder Draco never had a chance...

 

To the OP:

I think you're seeing this as a reader, rather than as a character within the books.

Why would anyone want to try to train Harry to defeat Voldemort? The mere idea is ridiculous. Come on - a child, being able to outclass the greatest Dark wizard in history? Not only that, but a child of Harry's mediocre talents? Yes, if you trained Harry he would be a good wizard, but nowhere near Voldemort. More like Auror level.

And even if you said that Harry was another Tom Riddle or Albus Dumbledore - a magical prodigy - it's still unlikely that training Harry would do any good, for two reasons.

Firstly because Voldemort would still have 50 years on Harry, and in magic experience means a lot. He'd be able to do everything Harry could do, and more.

Secondly because if Harry really was a magical prodigy then any training that anyone tried to give him would be redundant, as creativity and teaching yourself magic seem to be the mark of a magical prodigy (Tom Riddle had figured out how to control his accidental magic on his own, Dumbledore did things on his NEWTs no one had seen before).

No, the only way for Harry to realistically be able to defeat Voldemort is to make the fight unfair.

Another consideration is this: you say that if your godson was in danger, you'd do everything in your power to try and prepare him to face that threat. I say this is bullshit. You wouldn't train up a kid to take out the danger - you'd try and train yourself to take out the danger for him. Sirius training himself to try to take on Voldemort is something I can see, considering he was pretty talented at all areas of magic when at Hogwarts, and has a slightly reckless nature.

Despite all this, I do think you're right about the potential of Post-PoA fics. I just think that your focus is in the wrong place: the potential does not lie in what Sirius can do for Harry, but in the character of Sirius himself, which was done a great injustice by JKR after PoA. All through PoA we're told of how powerful Sirius is - second only to Voldemort, able to break into Hogwarts under Dumbledore's nose. Even after we discover that Sirius is innocent, much of this powerful and dark image of Sirius remains. And then JKR completely ruined his character in GoF and OotP. She made him weaker, make him stupid, sidelined him, changed his attitude to that of a prankster rather than that of a serious powerful wizard.

I think it's less about the magic and more about the actions. Anyone going around torturing and killing people is going to go a bit psychotic. Once you kill one person and get away with it you're far more likely to kill again.

 

That stuff about Sirius being being second to Voldemort was only due to rumors. Everyone believed that he was the Potter's secret keeper and his escape from Azkaban only fed fuel to fire. Despite all of this, I still believe that Sirius was a powerful wizard.

Also if your godson is in danger from a man who is near unbeatable and would stop at nothing to kill him, would you rather have him constantly on the run or would you give him a fighting chance? If you give him the skills needed to fight, he might be able to fight and get away. After all, there's no guarentee that Sirius was going to be around forever.

 

But you wouldn't do that if, no matter what skills you trained your godson with, you still believed that he wouldn't stand a chance.

Also, I think you're underestimating the parental instinct. No guardian is ever going to want to see their charge go into a fight, no matter what training they have. Molly Weasley isn't as much of a caricature as we like to think.

We're only fine with it because we know that this is a book and it's fantasy. If it were your child being chased by a murderous and extremely powerful man, I assure you "Hey, how about I teach my son some skillz and then send him off to fight" would be the last thought on your mind, and this is for a reason: the very idea is INSANE.

It was only revlealed to be due to rumours at the end of PoA.

If you'd stopped reading a few chapters from the end, you'd still think that Sirius was extremely powerful. It wouldn't be too much of a jump to make this so.

 

But you don't have to train him to beat Voldemort. Given that every year he runs into Voldemort or death eaters (who he could beat), it would be obvious that teaching him how to protect himself until help arrives might be a good idea.

The whole thing is made rather more sinister by the book 7 revelation that Dumbledore planned for Harry to martyr himself all along. A Harry who can fight back with more than expelliarmus might be less willing to knowingly walk to his death...

 

Good point. It's like giving a kid a gun to fight his attackers, except that the attacker will win 99% of the time.

I see your other point about the rumors. Rumors, while false, usually have the tiniest bit of truth in them.

 

Hmm...Dumbledore's manipulations go a bit deeper than that I think.

He never intended to martyr Harry - he intended for Harry to die and come back, and thus be rid of the Horcrux and have created a sacrificial protection for the rest of Hogwarts/The Order.

However, in order for this to take place in the first place, Harry had to believe that he really was going to die. So Dumbledore laid down a double layer of manipulations - one to reach the desired result (Harry surviving), and one to fool Harry into a set of actions and attitudes that would allow the first set of manipulations to work, rather than Harry dying.

Dumbledore's intention was never for Harry to die (and stay dead). This can be seen clearly from the prophesy - one dies, one lives. If Harry is the one who dies, thus it must be Voldemort who lives. And Dumbledore wanted to defeat Voldemort.

Training Harry wouldn't have changed anything, because in the end the key to Voldemort's defeat was Harry not using magic and taking the hit, rather than trying to fight.

Until help arrives? What possible help is there that could take down Voldemort? None, otherwise he would have bee defeated long before he was.

 

I think you might be right there. As I recall after Harry fails to use it properly in OotP. Bellatrix states that for the Cruciatus Curse to work properly you have to enjoy inflicting torture on your target; I can certainly see why Sirius or any other "good" character who might be training Harry would not like the thought of him being a sadist.

 

That is my point. Using the Cruciatus a few times is one thing. The Aurors had authorization to use that and the other two. But delving deep in to the Dark Arts means getting to the point that you enjoy torturing people, that you can want to see someone destroyed.

I remember an interview with an Army MP who was talking about interrogation techniques. One thing he said that stuck with me was, "there is a very fine line between sadism and interrogation."

 

Except in the one duel we know they had, Dumbledore kicks Voldemort's ass handily even while protecting Harry at the same time. I don't necessarily agree that it was great for the plot, but that's the way she wrote it.

I am aware that it then it makes no sense that Dumbledore didn't defeat Tom before the prophesy came around. Blame JKR for a plot that lacks internal consistency.

 

Taure pretty much nailed it: no normal gaurdian would give their kid battle training of any kind. Sirius did what a normal gaurdian would do, and gave Harry an 'in case of emergency' item, the mirror, so that Sirius and THE ADULTS could handle it. However, because of the fact that Voldemort believed in the part of the prophecy he heard, Harry's situation is so unique that I don't think I'd rule out some bit of self defence.

It should be focused on getting the time to get the hell outta dodge and getting help: an emergency portkey, the Patronus messenger spell, MAYBE a headstart on apparation,his invincible invisibility cloak, a shrunken broom (one of the few things he does well is fly),some of that darkness powder, etc. Perhaps even the Cruciatus, which is the only canon spell I know that acts like a Stun gun. A few seconds under that curse, break the attacker's wand, stunner (I suppose), then Portkey the hell out. No supah battle training required.

Still, this is shit that he should realize on his own. Probably from day one, when he heard that he was famous for surviving a curse that may or may not have killed the caster.

 

I agree with Taure for the most part about a godfather wanting to protect rather than to train. But at the same time, you also have to realize that you can't always be there to protect him yourself.

Would you really expect Harry to gain Voldemort's competency with magic? No. Doesn't mean you wouldn't want him to be able to protect himself if he landed in other fucked up situations with Death Eaters or other Dark Creatures. Even just a conversation about Harry's first two years at school would lead Sirius to believe that Harry will always be caught up in some sort of danger. Can Sirius train him up to the Dumbledore-Voldemort skill level? Hell no. Would he know this? Probably.

I just think it's realistic that Sirius, Remus, and others would want to make sure Harry was a competent wizard so he could protect himself to the best of his abilities when the adults can't get there in time.

However, for those of you who keep pointing out what you don't like about just the few quick ideas I originally posted...what would you do instead?

 

You're supposing that Sirius is going to act like a rational adult, and not like the...what was he 19-21 year old that went into Azkaban and hasn't had a chance to emotionally mature since then, and was rather emotionally immature before hand.

 

Even if Sirius was irrational, he still has no motivation to train Harry really. After all, no-one knew the prophesy but for Dumbledore.

Says who? The books that came after PoA, that's where. Which is what I meant about the rape of Sirius' character after PoA. If you're writing a post-PoA fic, then all information released since then can be changed. Including Sirius' character.

 

Why didn't they use trunks in the Horcrux Hunt? Possibly because they aren't as convenient as the greater part of fandom believes. This is just a case of using something supported by canon, instead of relying on overused clichés. Super trunks are also probably ridiculously hard to make, must be easier getting tents to work in the desired way. Just my opinion, feel free to disagree.

1. Rita wasn't exactly careful of what see wrote in canon. It wouldn't be hard at all to find some ulterior motive, encouraging someone to bring charges against her does not seem beneath Fudge at all. And I urge you to think of the events of OoTP a little. Are you completely sure the Ministry doesn't practise censorship?

2. Not supported in canon at all, we only get to see Rita's articles in GoF. The Muggle Press, at least, is awfully quick in ridiculing famous people if they supposedly take one step out of line. Why should it be different in the WW?

3. You obviously underestimate the power of the media.

Most GoF and CoS AUs I've read put the press firmly in the camp against Harry, I'm interested in reading something different for a change.

Back to the discussion at hand.

I agree with Taure on all counts. Sirius could still take a more active role in Harry's life and magical education though, without actually training him in the traditional sense.

Would also be interesting to see a darker Sirius become an assassin, taking the DEs down one by one before the Dark Lord returns.

 

What I want to see is the press against Harry as usual but him actually taking them to court for libel. This would work especially during CoS, since the Ministry is firmly on Harry's side at this point.

To be sure. It's not like there is some force stopping Sirius from teaching Harry anything. I just don't think it would be training in any meaning of the word. He'd be more interested in making Harry like James - so this means stuff like the animagus transformation, tips on silent casting, fun spells that are more suited to a school bully than a serious duel (e.g. Levicorpus) and useful spells that people who have been surrounded by magic all their life would get to know, but people like Harry wouldn't.

Teaching Harry stuff that is illegal would probably give Sirius thrills too, so again, the animagus transformation, and maybe apparition. He would almost certainly give Harry tips on how to avoid the Trace and still use magic (i.e. if he's in an area with other adults in - the Burrow, Grimmauld Place - he can use magic to his heart's content).

This opinion of what, if anything, Sirius would want to teach Harry is of course influences by our knowledge of his character from books post-PoA.

 

He already did, to the best of his abilities at least. He gave him that mirror so that (a) he could have an extra bit of oversight on Harry's lessons with Snape, and (b) so that he could call Sirius (and the adults) to handle something so that he doesn't do something stupid. Those aren't the actions of an irresponsible or even half-insane gaurdian IMO. In a world where the basic standard of communication is owl post, the more advanced method is the complicated Patronus charm, and the high level is having your own damn phoenix on hand, the mirrors were ingenious; like I said earlier, it's not Sirius' fault that Harry's a dumbass. Any more 'training' would be, as I said before, focused on Harry learning to GTFO, and quickly.

It would, if he decided to take that route before running off to kill Pettigrew. But if we're talking about the time after PoA, it wouldn't happen since we've established that he's more or less obsessed with his godson. Assuming he still had fugitive status, no one's going to reward him (if caught) for killing a bunch of people that were not in Azkaban, and therefore considered innocent.

 

Has anyone ever read an AU PoA where Sirius was able to kill Pettigrew? I'm just wondering how it would affect the story-line if it was done.

Btw:

I wasn't suggesting that they use magical trunks, just that the idea of tents seemed too much like it for my liking.

I didn't even know that they used them in the Hunt, I don't remember much of DH.

 

Forget that, I seem to recall Harry being very angry at Sirius and wanting to kill him in the shrieking shack, what if Harry killed him? THAT would be interesting.