Point taken, Averis. There's always going to be a certain amount of contrivance in a fic like this. But I think it can be done without flying off the rails. Grindelwald, let's say, is an old and dying man; maybe they let him send and receive letters because he's no longer a threat. They could always check the letters for anything magical, and it's not like real-life prisoners aren't allowed to send letters.

I think the angry Harry of post-OotP and early sixth year would at least open the letter and consider its contents, particularly if Grindelwald wasn't actively trying to corrupt him in his first letter.

 

I'm reluctant to say that I've already started writing this fic, though I don't plan on writing it past the first chapter.

My premise for the correspondence is this:

The warden at Nurmengard makes a point of interacting, however slightly, with Grindelwald. Perhaps he plays chess with the old man, lording it over him that he can match wits with a Dark Lord. It doesn't really matter.

Grindelwald asks the warden, who knows for a fact that Grindelwald is powerless, to allow him to borrow his owl with which to settle his affairs. The warden agrees, seeing no harm in allowing Grindelwald - who has no sway any longer - to send some simple post.

The owl, who is used to navigating the complex wards protecting Nurmengard, manages to make it through the wards around Privet Drive, mostly because neither it nor Grindelwald's letter offers any malice towards Harry. It's also a very clever owl.

 

Cool. I'd be interested to read it. But why wouldn't you plan on writing past the first chapter?

This kind of fic could explore Grindelwald's personality in an interesting way, maybe even have some cool flashbacks to his Dark Lord era. As long as you didn't include any Albus/Gellert man love.

 

Because I have other stories that I need to write.

 

Ooh, sounds cool. Careful you don't ensnare yourself in the exciting new story, though. That happened to me, and I have yet to get back to my first fic.

 

Think Napoleon.

 

Not a Harry Potter story, but I thought I'd pitch it here. I was talking about it last night in IRC, but was hoping to see what the rest of you think about it.

Pre-Angel Not Fade Away, the demon army has been defeated/disappeared/taken care of.

Because of the activation on all the Slayers in the last episode of Buffy, Chosen, the demon who's essence the Shadow Men used empower the first Slayer has gathered enough influence/power to awaken. The first thing it does is take control of it's own personal girl power army and wage war on it's enemies, ei. Illyria and by extension Angel and his lot, and take over the world once again.

Would have Evil!Slayers, and I don't mean one or two. I mean all of the Slayers, including Buffy and Faith.

Angel, Spike, Illyria, Connor and my OC try to drum up enough support or power to stop the rising of this new/old and powerful adversary.

What do you think?

 

You know those cliche' Azkaban fics where Harry is betrayed by everyone and is subsequently vindicated when Voldemort reveals Harry's innocence during the even more cliche Azkaban raid?

Why does everyone always take Voldemort's word for it? What if Harry really became Voldemort's follower and together they planned out the scenario. So now DeathEater!Harry is now out free, rejoins Hogwarts and begans systematically killing off others. And even though the evidence seems to point to Harry, no one is willing to believe his guilt seeing as they had wrongly convicted him before.

Or alternatively, Harry after rejoining Hogwarts could resume life as before while being on some mission for the Dark Lord. Killing Dumbledore, perhaps? Or a spy?

Anyway, thats all.

 

Point of order: Gay wizards never lose their sway.

 

I’m going to go out on a limb and post an idea that’s been jumping around in my head. FYI it’s half-baked and deserves to be critiqued/flamed and I’m honestly not sure about the originality of this idea.
The entire premise of the story is that on the night that the original prophesy was made, the Order had conducted a raid in which Dumbledore was struck by a concussive/deafening/loud curse, resulting in a temporary loss of hearing. Upon his return, Trelawney seeks him out and without knowing that he can’t hear her, she gives the prophesy. Hell, maybe she came in when he had his back turned and he didn’t even know she was there at all. Also, Snape did not hear it. And…I can’t get much farther than that.
The purpose of this bunny is to explore the whole ‘if a tree falls in the forest…’ thing. If something must be perceived to exist, then how does this apply to a prophesy? Of course, this leads to the question of what drives a prophesy: is it a space/time bending force of nature, or is it completely self-fulfilling? I guess that remains to be seen.

 

That seems really interesting. Why not give it a go?

 

I'm really rather lazy...I'm creative enough, but i just can't seem to get my ideas down well enough that it would turn into something amazing or even decent.

 

well, if snape also doesn't hear it, then voldemort won't attack potters and we will see a fic harry raised by his parents and first war still going on which is done many times.

i am rather interested about what would happen if albus didnt hear the prophecy but snape did. how would albus's attitude towards harry be after james and lily got killed. of course this time they will die without all the fuss of peter and fidelius and the like. harry would probably grow up with sirius as sirius wont be pursuing peter...

i dont know, many possibilities...

 

The concept was used a couple of times - can't remember the name of those fanfictions on the top of my head - but it's nothing new.

Using a plot device like Dumbledore losing (temporarily) hearing or similar ideas is completely retarded.

Occam's Razor - If you want the best solution, usually stick to the simplest. In this case, either kill Trelawney, or remove the simple fact that she ever made that prophecy.

Oh, and please use capitalisation. It's a pain to read your posts.

 

Something like this has been done at least once before, Minerva Gets the Prophecy.

 

Sounds a bit like the premise to kmfrank's Escape to Darkness, although I admit I haven't yet read that, even though it's been highly recced.

More to the point, though. I know Rowling opened her cock-cleaner and said Dumbledore was gay, and looking back at all the flamboyant outfits and D'dore's letters to Gellert, etc., one could conceivably say it makes sense, whatever, whatever. But canon never says Dumbledore was gay, and it certainly never says Grindelwald was gay. My point is that even if Dumbledore was gay, that doesn't mean there was a relationship between him and Grindelwald. It could have been unrequited, unknown to Grindelwald, or perhaps if Grindelwald was the inspiration for Dumbledore's being so good at subtle manipulation, maybe sweet young Gellert Grindelwald, with his blond locks and good looks, just twisted the love-struck Albus Dumbledore to his way of thinking?

Maybe Albus was just young, dumb and full of cum? Perhaps in more ways than one?

 

Well I don't imagine that Grindelwald would be detailing his romantic relationship with Dumbledore to Harry through his letters, regardless.

 

Random plot bunny that occured to me just now:

The Marauder's Secret. Ever thought the Marauder's Map similar to Tom Riddle's Diary? What if the Marauder's Map was a joint horcrux for Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs?

 

it is a little far stretch. 4 different souls stored in one? then when they are draining somebody's soul like the diary, 4 minds in one body? i dont see it is possible but it is true that the map is working somewhat like the diary does. May be it can be speculated that those 4 souls intertwined and formed a unique one but then the map was answering in 4 comments instead of one.

still one can argue that 4 souls possessing a body and from there on they split and form 4 different individuals but i don't think it would be interesting to read marauders in Harry's time. It would be like those shitty stories where Marauders and Lily doesn't go back but forward in time to Harry's timeline.

 

That's just silly.