Plot bunny bit me today and it left me with this rabid thought: What if the blood protection was a Dark ritual that sent Lily's soul to Hell in exchange for Harry's life? Interesting enough but I can't do anything with it, until it hit me: What if she came back?

A one way ticket to Hell turns out to be round trip; a battered and very much damaged Lily is once again among the living. Where could I go with this to be interesting?

So far I have Dumbledore/Harry conflicts, after all he's been telling Harry for years that his "mother's love" saved him and not a Dark ritual, and a potentially psychopathic Lily Potter on the loose.

 

Could make her fanatically interested in her son, to the point where she would do absolutely anything for him because he is the thing that kept her (mostly) sane on her trip through eternity. Taking his safety to be paramount in any situation, and preparing him for whatever circumstances he may encounter.

I'd be thinking she'd be like Bellatrix in a way. Harry's version of a rabid attack dog and (since this is DLP ) possible lover too. Gotta love that Oedipus Complex. Have her researching all the spells she could teach to Harry, regardless of them being the dark arts or not, and slowly dragging him down into insanity and darkness that way.

Harry would be unaware of that for the most part, if you go the route of Lily not actually telling him they're dark arts spells. Then once you're suitably far into the plot, Harry finds out how illegal and immoral these spells are and you have a source of conflict between them before the inevitable make up and willful descent.

More and more that started sounding like another generic Indy!Harry story as I typed it >_>. Might want to think of some ideas yourself...

 

So... either hell sends her insane a la Bellatrix, or it makes her super damaged goods, a la River Tam.

Or maybe there's fine print on the whole sent to hell bit, and she got herself a body more suited to her new environs. Dig yourself up some demonology books and go nuts, whether it's traditional Christian stuff or attached to a fantasy series or a tabletop game. And if you go this way, the spell doesn't have to be a return ticket - she just built up enough power or influence to get back the hard way.

Minus points if you make her a succubus, though. That's far too easy.

 

Seconded.

A newer interpretation of "damaged," would be more appealing too. Bellatrix!Lily or Forehead Girl AKA River Tam!Lily are sort of cop outs. You would be copying some other character's madness.

Question is, who performed the dark ritual?

I know jbern in his "Lily cheated on James" fic implied heavily that she was doing dark magic to protect Harry.

 

Snape? He's enough of an obssessive pervert that he'd be willing to do anything for Lily, not to mention he knows enough dark Magic to pull it off. Or you could have a near O.C do it, like Aberfoth Dumbeldore or Augusta Longbottom.

 

She could've researched/invented it all by herself, she was charms mistress after all, and most of dark arts are nothing but charms with malicious intent.

 

Although if Snape knew he was responsible for sending Lily to hell, he'd be even more of a broken wreck than he was in DH. Having her come back would likely send him over the edge.

If you're looking for ideas about demons/devils, you should take a look at Fiend Folio, Monster Manual, and the Book of Vile Darkness, and Tyrants of the Nine Hells has some decent stuff too. These are all 3rd edition D&D sourcebooks, and they've got loads of good material besides the gaming material.

Frankly, it would be pretty scary to see Lily come back as a succubus or erinyes and seduce Harry (if that doesn't drive Snape or Dumbledore or the Marauders left alive around the bend, I don't know what would).

EDIT: posts above taken into consideration, making her a succubus WOULD be too easy. It would be more entertaining if she came back as one of the more deformed demons or devils and managed to win Harry that way...

 

Yeah...not as hot though. Which, considering this is DLP and a H/L fic, Lily essentially HAS to be hot.

 

Insert incredibly lazy pun here.

 

I'm mad that I LOL'd, even though there was no corny pun to lol at...

On topic: plot bunny seems weak. Even though it doesn't really matter in the realm of fanfiction, the dead in HP stayed dead, period. Dead Wizards/witches either manifested as (somewhat) cognizent ghosts, annoying portraits, or mindless inferi.

The "hell and back" thing just seems cheesy. If you want a crazy Lily, just have her do the sacrfice after having made her own horcrux(es) or something. Write about her personal "hell" living life as a wraith, having her soul torn, etc.

 

You just gave me the idea of having Lily's horcrux haunt Harry. Not sure if I'll run with it, but the idea of writing introspective psychobabble scares the shit out of me. My idea of madness was Lily being haunted by a "herself" and being very zealous in undermining "her" plans. Trusting absolutely no one but Harry (the only one who isn't prone to morphing into "her"), phantom pains/paralysis, stuff like that.

Succubus!Lily also struck me as too easy. TentacleMonster!Lily struck me as too Vash. Do not ask me where that idea came from. Zombie!Lily is also a fun idea. All concepts, and no plot beyond the arbitrary kick asses and take names.

Fail bunny has failed. I'll keep thinking.

 

No it hasn't. NO IT FUCKING HASN'T.

The Horcrux haunting Harry is brilliant. Someone think of a plot to build around it.

 

I'd let her drain my life force, if you know what I mean.

The plot becomes self-apparent once you decide on what to centre your story around. If need be, pick something that sounds least shit to you and plonk it down for the DLP collective to hammer out a plot for.

 

How about, when Voldemort's spell kills Lily, her soul is split as well as she intended for him to kill her and then Harry thus killing himself, meaning she in effect murdered him. Then I don't know, his spell on Harry could knock out half her fractured soul, and the rest would flee and return later?

I know its cliche to use post OotP, but I think it'd fit, unless you wanted to have a guardianship struggle between Lily and Sirius.

 

So far the only thing I got is this idea:

Souls are like atoms. In the same way that breaking atomic bonds supplies energy, the splitting of a soul can power many Dark and powerful rituals. A Horcrux, the imbuing of an item with a soul fragment, is not the only thing that can be done with a splintered soul.

Lily Potter knew this and in an act of desperate love, killed an innocent and on October 31st, saved her son. For as long as her blood flows through his veins, Harry's mother will watch over him. Literally.

How's that? Gives me some interesting things to play with when Voldemort then uses Harry's blood to revive himself. It could kick into effect after he burns Quirrell's face off or when Voldemort possesses him.

 

You could make it work, I suppose, but the "act of desperate love" kind of ruins the whole purpose of killing an innocent. It "taints" her crime with something that's too pure not to interfere with the ritual -- think of it as a mitigating circumstance.

 

See, I had something very similar going on at one time and got about 16k words into it when, as always, I simply started doing something else.

Whenever I think up a bit for it I open the file and add on to it. It involved a series of accidental events which culminated in Lily's unexpected return from dirt-nap city. Part of the reason was that she was (unknown to her but very much known to bastard!Dumbledore) part demon.

Although the religious connotations of that were removed, so not really part demon but part 'something-from-beyond-our-world', though with abilities and proclivities that the Church would certainly frown upon.

I remember mentioning it here (in an oblique manner) way back in the day when I joked that I could always combine my Harry/Girl!Harry idea with my Harry/Lily idea to make a way too DLP-friendly Girl!Harry/Harry/Lily story.

What madness hath we wrought?

Anyway... she and Harry spent a lot of time bonding and putting their enemies in the hurt locker. In a move that was, for its time, quite original, Remus was a total dick. My Lily had a strong dislike of him because she thought he was too complacent about his lot in life and didn't like how he spent so much time figuratively (and sometimes literally) sniffing around after her.

I got bored with it though. I gag when people update fics with a non-chapter apologizing for how their 'muse' isn't cooperating, but the fact is, sometimes the ideas (and thus enthusiasm) for your project dry up, or you simply get more enthused about a different idea, which pretty much has the same impact on your first project: It kills it.

 

You could attempt it to be a Dresden crossover, and Lily being in the Outer Gates. Perhaps she owes a favor to Summer or Winter for the dark ritual mentioned....

 

That's interesting. I simply thought the requirement to want something enough to kill "an innocent" (or in this case, someone who has done nothing to provoke you) but now that you mention it, I could easily have a mitigating circumstance.

Imagine how many people Lily would have to kill in order to figure out that she has to do it for her and not for Harry, before it will work.

Warlocke, that sounds frustrating. I don't have a problem with inspiration, I have a problem with being content. I am a literary perfectionist and it may take months of tweaking for me to be happy with a chapter enough to post it.