Harry Potter and the New Life, Harry Potter and the Girl Who Lived, Doing It All Over Again...

A somewhat more recent but common AU plot where Harry, after defeating Voldemort but losing too much in the process or something along those lines, transfers his soul into an alternate dimension or gets sent their by some unknown force. He either keeps his body or ends up taking over his alternate self, the alternate self never being heard from again.

Now, here's my idea.

We've got Harry Potter. Pretty normal wizard kid. Likes Quidditch, loves his family, sometimes gets embarassed/annoyed by his parents and siblings, hates doing homework but is fairly skilled in the practical department.

Then we've got Harry Potter; traumatized, violent, questionably sane, war veteran from an alternate universe who took up residence in his younger, alternate self's head for reasons he isn't coughing up in their entirety.

While Neville Longbottom, the resident Boy Who Lived, has his hands full with Voldemort and whatnot, Harry has a whole mess of his own troubles, all of which seem to be connected to his mysterious tenant.

Bottom Line: The "Alternate" Harry that normally gets booted by the badass spellslinging Harry is our protagonist and ends up getting mentored by a badass, gritty, and knowledgable voice in his head from an alternate universe when shit starts going down.

I don't really plan on writing this anytime soon, but I thought I'd pitch it here to see if you guys had any ideas.

 

Seems like that's been done. Can't remember where from, but it seems highly familiar.

 

I don't know where you're trying to go with this. You seem to want to have the true protagonist as the "normal" Harry Potter. What conflicts would he face? I think you need to think this over a little bit more.

 

Meaning, I was throwing the general idea out there to see if anyone was interested and had any ideas.

If you want my ideas...

(Young, normal Harry is just called Harry. Older, alternate Harry shall be Alt!Harry)

Alt!Harry showed up in Harry's head sometime in his 1st, 2nd, or 3rd year. He comes from a post-apocalyptic alternate reality. Voldemort is asserting his hold over what's left of human civilization, muggle and magical. His powers have grown and he has started meddling in summoning and controlling demons and similar otherworldly nasties. Alt!Harry, hoping to cheat death, sets up a reactionary spell that will send his soul to an alternate reality should he die. After a bloody, carnage filled last stand against various Death Eaters and demons, he ends up in Harry's mind.

After settling in, Alt!Harry starts talking to Harry and trying to get him to take his studies more seriously and basically forcing him to train in various spells and such that Alt!Harry knows. Kind of difficult to be lazy when you have a voice in your head that won't shut up about it. He doesn't tell Harry the real reason he's doing this, since he figured Harry would cave in or something. Harry caught a glimpse of Alt!Harry's last stand in a dream, but doesn't have much of an idea of what's going on his Alt!Harry's world.

Now, Alt!Voldemort (from Alt!Harry's world) realizes that Alt!Harry is still alive at some point after examining his remains. He isn't able to precisely pinpoint where he went, but with some experimentation he starts sending Death Eaters/demons/other minions to alternate universes to search for him as well as make contact with alternate versions of himself and set up the foundation of an interdimensional empire of sorts, or at the very least bring himself even closer to true, eternal immortality.

The conflict for Harry would be the intrusion of other beings from this alternate reality. Demons, Death Eaters, whatever, take up residence in some poor saps and act covertly to A) Search for Alt!Harry and B) set up foundations for their master.

Demons are particularly dangerous in this regard, as they can transform their host bodies in Nihei-style-body-horror monsters.

As for Neville and Voldemort in Harry's reality, things go more or less similarly to what happened in the books... until Alt!Voldemort's agents contact Voldemort.

 

Thing is though, hardly anyone cares about young!Harry anymore. I can't stand reading any story that involves significant time in Hogwarts, teenage romance, or puberty.

It's just not appealing as it once was.

I'd rather read about post-Hogwarts Harry after he's done getting his first kill, kiss, and lay.

 

Yeah, the way it's playing out in my head is looking a bit like a young-adult adventure story. Alt!Harry would provide darker elements, but it'll be from a teenagers point of view.

 

I like the general idea, but I have a few complaints:

1) Demons; Voldemort doesn't need demons. He needs a lack of Deus ex machina on the good-guy side. Just let him win the bloody war, without any demons... They will make your story fail, I promise.

2) Voldemort doesn't share, so his interdimensional empire fails. Maybe you could have him kill just that other Voldemort, on the sly, and take his place. So Harry (the two of them) will have to fight the alt!Voldemort from alt!dimension. You could have that make Harry underestimate the other Voldemort, thinking he hadn't done any of his other powers.

3) Why would he go after Harry? How can he? Maybe if he finds Harry's notes...? Just not demon portals!

EDIT: 4) Perhaps, to get around the kiddie bullshit, you can make it so alt!Harry goes into the body of Harry the Quidditch star, and they're the same age; in his world, Neville has been losing, but alt!Harry (being a bit like Seamus or Dean [like Ron would be without Canon!Harry]) doesn't have any clue, because he's a lazy newb who only did good in school because daddy made him.

Sorry, it just seems like a waste of a story to make everything rely on a foundation of demon summoning. There is enough cool shit in canon to use it or extrapolate on it. If you aren't going to make a crossover, don't add demons.

 

1) The demons would just be extra mooks. They're not particularly important, plot-wise. I see your point, though.

2) You're absolutely right, and having the Harrys go up against an interdimensional evil empire is a bit over the top. Also, Voldemort probably doesn't have much interest in ruling over a pile of rubble when he could just pop on over to another reality and have another go with a head start.

3) Now that I think about it some more, I could reverse it. Alt!Harry steals the notes on interdimensional soul travel from Voldemort and his Death Eaters, modifying it just a wee bit for his own use. Voldemort would recognize what he did after Alt!Harry's last stand where he uses the Death Eater's deaths to fuel the spell. This would allow him to figure out where Alt!Harry is.

 

Somewhat OT, but how about sending Harry from an Alternate Boy-Who-Lived universe into the canon time-line? I think the perspective might be interesting.

Back to the original idea, I quite like it. Though I agree about excluding demons, and am a bit unsure on Voldemort following him. But that's probably just me.

ETA: How about sending an inner circle member after Harry instead? Someone who doesn't know about Horcruxes, or at least hasn't made one yet, would be likely to make the same precautions as Harry. Ending in the same universe could be explained by letting Harry's presence push the worlds closer together or something, if the authors wants this twist to be coincidental.

The one who goes back may have access to some rituals or new magic Voldemort has come up with. He might share some stuff with others, or try to use his abilities to become Voldemort's most trusted servant.

Having another unknown manipulator changing events and trying to guide the Dark Side toward victory could add intrigue to the story if done right IMO.

 

I have read a fic where Harry has a possible bad future self, a possible good future self come into his mind and give him their knowledge because neither of their paths had resulted in happiness. I have also seen a fic where there is just an older Harry riding around in his younger self, while younger self does things with his advice. Neither really worked out too well tbh.

I am with Amer on this one, really.

The general idea is okayish, demons and interdimensional possessions by everyone means this has the danger of becoming a clusterfuck. You would have to curb the body hopping somehow otherwise it would just get too complicated to be entertaining.

 

Neither can live while the other survives.

Just have Voldemort worried about his existence and deciding to follow Harry towards his new dimension.

Plus, demons fail 99,9% of the time, and really, reading about a cannon non-boy-who-lived- Harry following a voice inside his head will suck.

Either have Harry take over completely (He crossed dimensions for fuck's sake, why would he give a damn about the other one?) or have the little kiddie one start performing exorcism rituals on himself. Because, seriously, the only idiotic person to trust a voice inside her head / talking diary was Ginny, and she fails.

 

Alt!Voldemort and demons make an idea fail. The whole point of an AU fic is to leave the old universe.

Anyway, my twist:

As in the OP, but with the following: alt!Harry (following Zed's notation) is as nasty as he would have to be to defeat Voldemort in his home dimension, and actually doesn't give a shit about Harry. Him helping Harry is actually just a plot to gain his trust so that he can steal his body. We watch the plot unfold to either its success (ending in the effective death of our protagonist), or Harry foiling it.

OR

Pull a switchero. and say we have canon Harry with war-veteran alt!Harry being the one in canon Harry's head, while alt!Harry has the plot to steal his body.

OR

Either of the above but with Voldemort being the traveller stuck in Harry's body, pretending to be an alt!Harry.

 

I don't see Alt!Harry or Alt!Voldemort on this list. Perhaps canon!Harry could be possessed by the horny, chain-smoking spirit or Alt!Carol_Alt?

 

This idea is based on playing with the AU Plot, so going against some of its typical features is kind of the point.

 

Except there are a great many "travel to AU" fics in which Voldemort follows Harry, and they all fail.

So it's hardly revolutionary. Just bad.

 

Well forgive me for my ignorance. I lack such fanfic omniscience.

The main conflict of the story coming from Alt!Harry plotting to take over Harry's body just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. As nasty as he gets, he's still a hero (or at least that's how I would write it).

If we don't have some other conflict, all that's left is a rehash of Harry Potter and the Girl Who Lived except Harry doesn't have his own body and less squick.

 

My point is that unless you're getting something new out of going to an AU then there's no reason to go to an AU. If you're going to have Harry vs. Voldemort conflict, you can have that without dimension travel. If you're going to use dimension travel then it has to have a purpose that cannot be achieved by simpler, more elegant, means.

Harry vs. Voldemort can be found in any genre. Harry vs. alternate reality self is unique to the dimension travel genre, and has never been done properly (the Stranger trilogy was heading that way, before it was abandoned).

 

I would read this story if it was written well. If I were the normal Harry, I would be more concerned about the voice in my head than some dark wizard who is going after Neville's head rather than mine.

The problem with this story is that it would be hard to write. This is almost the same thing as Naruto with the Kyuubi inside of his head, and the majority fail. Actually, I have yet to read a story that has implemented it well.

 

Your idea sounds like a pretty interesting one if done properly, though I agree with the others who've said that demons should probably just be left out of it.

Maybe the alternate dimension Harry (the younger one) doesn't even realize that the voice in his head is even anything besides his own internal conscience or something at first... the older Harry might start off innocently enough, just planting a suggestion here and there like, 'No, maybe I should finish that essay first' or 'I bet I could learn to do that invisibility spell thing like Dumbledore, since dad refuses to give me his invisibility cloak... then I could sneak off to the kitchens whenever I want too. Ron would certainly be happy, at least, especially after he got caught by Filch trying to sneak out last week'" You know, small enough stuff that younger Harry doesn't even realize he's being manipulated, and thinks that they're his own thoughts. Younger Harry doesn't realize that he's being prepared for war for at least a couple years (strange reactions to his parents, seeing people that the other Harry knew to be dead in his original dimension, and his supposed 'conscience' attempting to get him to learn some of the Darker spells will probably be what makes him suspicious in the first place), but by then he's changed so much he's barely recognizable from the child that he was at age 11/12, before the older Harry came into the picture.

Meanwhile, have Voldemort from the older-Harry's universe finally figures out how to follow Harry, not realizing that Harry had traveled to another universe. Voldemort, upon arriving in the alternate dimension and realizing what has happened, kills the alternate version of himself, and assumes command of the weaker Voldemorts' forces and starts plotting to take over the new reality he find himself in. This Voldemort would have already won the War once (although he destroyed almost the entire world in the process) and is immensely more powerful that the Voldemort who was original from the dimension that has Neville as the BWL. The light side is unprepared for this new Voldemort, and eventually the story'll end with some epic battle between Harry and Voldemort, with older-Harry (who had become somewhat of a mentor to young-Harry, who was unable to exorcise what was essentially himself from his body, despite numerous attempts when he first found out that his 'conscience' wasn't really a conscience at all, but an actual person) ending up sacrificing himself, playing a role similar to that which the Horcrux did in DH, enabling younger-Harry to defeat Voldemort once and for all.

Neville being thought to be the Boy-Who-Lived in this alternate universe would be somewhat of a moot point, as the Voldemort in question marked the older-Harry - who resided in younger-Harry and basically engineered Voldemorts' death at the hands of the alternate version of himself.

 

That's pretty much how I planned to go about it, more or less. Alt!Harry, being the mentor, would of course have to sacrifice him self at some point so that Harry can stand on his own. He transferred his soul, as opposed to his whole body, because the plans for the ritual were incomplete and he had little time, unlike Voldemort.

Neville being the BWL would have some importance to it, though, basically speeding up his development as a wizard and a fighter against Voldemort (even if it's not the Voldemort he or Dumbledore had in mind).