Can't decide on whether to make this an original story and just build up some backstory to suit, or let it be fanfiction, and utterly destabilize some status quo.

Brief History: Grindelwald won, to a degree. He got his Hallows, and took the next step to make an invincible army, or so he'd lead everyone to believe. It was a smoke screen. His actual goal was to rip a portal into another plane, thereby irrefutably leaving a lasting mark and proof that magic was real, and needed. He felt destroying the Statutes to be the only way to 'save' magic, in a world he saw it failing in.

Enter Dumbledore, in a rage of vengeance (per Ariana's death), who kills him thereby destroying the only person who knew how to close the rift.

Brief Current: The EU has come together as a first-defense against the rift and the (demons? whatever) that pour out, and those that have built a foothold in the mainland. The Statutes are gone: magical creatures and people mostly work together, to counter the threat.

Some don't. There are factions that think the (demons?) are the fated future of our world, and work to further their aims by force or greed.

There is a very large portion of humanity that blames magic for this corruption, and hunts wizards and anything magical down, intending to fight a two-front war. They see anything magical as only 'yet to be recruited' by the (demons?).

Hogwarts and other schools are less civilian institutions, as war academies, training soldiers for the inevitable battles. The year and house systems have been adjusted to facilitate this. To keep the most resources available, 'incremental' graduations occur, as one completes their 7 years. Lowest talent/skills graduate after 2-3 years, the general public after 4-5, those qualified for masteries 6th. Working in parallel and integrated into that system is the War Academy ranks, encouraging (and saturating) students into the military lifestyle and mindset. 7th year blends in with Command School, which transitions students into active military.

You can see why I'm thinking original as opposed to fanfic on this one. The world history alone would alter so much as to make it an almost unidentifiable AU. Would it be worth it to plot out the characters and the changes they went through, to make this a HP AU? Not sure.

Still, think it would be a fun project, though I admit a lot of it is my desire to 'fix' the things that bother me with the canonverse.

 

I'd read that. Sounds interesting.

 

That plot sounds epic!

And another throw-away idea that I don't think has been posted before, sorta based on Mr. Black from Make A wish.

In a world where Horcruxes don't exist, Lord Voldemort became powerful through the Power of Legends. Wizards' believes drive the magic of the universe into making them a reality, so Voldemort made himself unnaturally strong threw his reputation.

The Killing Curse didn't kill Voldemort, because nobody truly thought he was gone for good. The Diary initially wasn't any more dangerous than the Sorting Hat, but Ginny Weasley accidentally made its personality real enough to suck out her life force by considering it a real friend.

Understanding what has happened, Dumbledore decides to create a legend that is even bigger than Voldemort's, the legend of Harry Potter.

 

Eh, that's not to say... I'm not working on it. Just not sure once I get a significant bulk down it'll see the light of day. You know how it goes. What you actually see on FFN is like an iceberg.

I do agree though, Enembee's Skitterleap world and this one would sit side by side nicely, and his take on action is certainly complementary. Well, somewhat. I almost wonder if this won't feel like a prequel to a point. Hum. Anyway.

I've got... house sortings, char profiles, year/school layouts, some complex history, 1/3 of an outline. I like the logistics - one of those people that read D&D books fanatically but didn't play, you see. At that point I started thinking "A tweak here and there, and this is practically original", which put it on the aside stack.

If you lot think it's an idea worth putting into the HPverse, I'll give it a whirl, and leave it open for others to play with too. Certainly would like to see more like this, now that I think on it.

 

Belleradh's challenge would be best if it wasn't done with demons, I think. Demons don't go with HP well, both in terms of the tone of the mythos and the inevitable divine implications.

Also, demons tend to be generally uninteresting antagonists, for two main reasons:

1. Human evil is often more interesting to read than a caricature of evil. In many ways Snape was a more interesting villain (when he was a villain) than Lord Voldemort.

2. A 3D antagonist with reason, with limits, with a personality, as part of a greater societal backdrop, is more interesting than what is effectively a hoard of powerful ravenous animals. A fully realised alternate civilisation would be a more interesting antagonist, I think, than a hoard of hungry demons.

(Also, as a plot bunny, it would totally work as a HP/HDM crossover).

Edit: HDM = His Dark Materials, starting with Northern Lights (The Golden Compass in US).

 

HDM? Unfamiliar (Yet again...) Ah! Gotcha. Thanks for the clarify!

Bah! I'm talking about this more like a WIP than a bunny now. Blast it.

I waffled on demons too, hence the (?) bits. Honestly, they're more a background point that anything proper and forward for the bulk of what I've gotten down. You have more coverage versus Diabolists (those assisting the ??? lot), and the Purifiers (Post WWII Vatican equivalent. Magic is bad, mmkay!) than any actual demons.

And I totally agree with the potential to cross up the divine thing. I just... couldn't really bend my head around many other reasons for Grindelwald to want the Hallows, and how that would break the Statutes like he wanted. How would it build an army? What could he do, apparently 'deathproof' as one interpretation went, that would need the Hallows as a masterstroke?

So, I used demons. They ARE one dimensional, which gives one apparent and obvious enemy. However, the magicals in what I've planned out at least, fight a two-front war, sometimes three, when the Diabolists get a little too willful. Lots of human enemies to play with, while there's this looming, unreasoning, relentless threat in the background that no one's focusing on as a group. Because people r smart.

Now, that isn't to say my demons are superpowerful. I've yet to decide how that's going to work out, but a magically gifted, resilient, but fully mortal and limited extraplanar race of whatevers works just fine. Hell, he could have rifted up a gate to heaven for all anyone knows, really.

Also, there's the propaganda issue, and I'm realizing that this is becoming very much Ender's Game Meets Hogwarts... huh. Demons = Buggers, at least in that regard.

It could definitely use some work. I'm not married to the idea. Maybe someone else could spin it differently, but I think for the depth of my current outlines, I may keep demons. I have other reasons as well, but frankly very little actual Theology comes into it all, despite a clear open port for it. Purifiers for instance, simply blame everything bad on magic, and are obviously the next incarnation of the Inquisitions and Church, but that aspect may not even be covered. Remember Evangelion's Angels? Same thing. They're not from 'round here, and they like to eat people; they gotta be demons!

 

Interesting. Sounds somewhat like what I have in the works for the second part of Skitterleap. I think the obvious oversight that you're making is that what a story needs most of all is a story. Not a backdrop.

Who is your main character? I assume Harry if you keep it as fanfiction, but who is he, what is his motivation, where do you want the journey to take him?

What you've got is an idea, now you need to take it somewhere.

As to the question of divinity in Harry Potter, I see no reasons why they can't co-exist.

 

No worries, there, and you've got a valid point. But that's all I wanted in the Bunny thread - let other people build the direction. I know where I'm going, let them pick their way, y'know? No point doing all the work~

Also, I'm probably going to shut up about this one, and post anything further in WIP for anything else, provided I drag my lazy ass over there.

I think the best thing I can do at this point, is hammer out a few intro, initial, and direction briefs, and let those stew and get picked at.

Also: *waves frantically at enembee* Hi! I really like your work!

 

Before anyone start reading this be warned that it will be written in poor English but I will try my best.

I've got this little idea. After events of third year at Hogwarts Harry decided that if they could used Time-Turner to save Sirius why not try save his parents? So he stole TT from Hermione. What he didn't know was that you can go back more than 3 days or you risk that TT will blow up. And of course it's what happened.

Next thing Harry woke up in about 1400 year in body of creator of Time-Turners who was just killed. The idea is for Harry to travel forward in time from body to body of every person who died from AK wearing TT. To make it more interesting in his first stop he meets granddaughter of TT creator - Elle (age about 14) who realized that something was wrong with her grandpa and in the end helped Harry. After Harry was killed (maybe by the same people who killed TT creator in first place) he landed in 20 years in future. There he met Elle again and discovered that her full name was Perenelle and she's now wife of Nicolas Flamel.

By next few stops Harry gain knowledge and skills to survive his journey and Elle more times that not was here to help him. But then Harry landed in 1945 in Grindelwald's castle as one of his most trusted servants. There he saved young yewish girl and gave her invisible cloak he found in "his" lab to hide her. When she asked who he was, he joked that he's just "Töpfer". Next Harry toke party in attack on Grindelwald's castle and helped Dumbledore found way inside but was killed in process. After fight Albus found yewish girl, which name was Minevra. She's adopted by Dumbledore friends form McGonagall clan and many years after she gave cloak as birthdays gift for Jacob Potter father of James Potter, joking that it's from fellow potter.

As for Harry his next stop was year 1980 two months before his birth. First thing which he saw was concerned face of Sirius Black asking him: "Harry? Are you alright?" For a moment Harry thought that he come back to his time but then realized that Sirus looked to young and they were in middle of battle with Death Eaters. After fight he discovered that he was now Harry Right, one of Order of Phoenix members. In the end he's killed in this time after saving his mother live from Voldemort and for that she named her son after him.

After that Harry would at least end up in his time just in time to say farewell to Elle who was dieing without Stone.

I think this could be quite nice prologue for adventures of experienced (he was traveling in time for lets say 3-4 years, usually being killed helping other people) but not to powerful Harry (Voldemort in 1980 doesn't have to much trouble with killing him, yet Harry could learn few tricks that Dark Lord knows not, when he end in body of hmmm some african wizard or something). I was thinking also about some tragic romans for Harry and Elle, how they couldn't be together but rater in subtle context, not Romeo & Julie style.

 

Sounds pretty cool. I'd read it.

 

Interesting idea, though it could do away with the romance. But then again, I'm not the greatest fan of it in general.

 

I disagree. Romance always gives stories a little something extra.

 

What she said. When done well, a romance subplot, no matter how small, can really give a story that extra "oomph." Besides, Celestin made it sound like a real small part, so maybe we can be assured that the story doesn't have a romantic plot tumour.

That said, I like the idea. I've used Harry's soul/consciousness jump into another body via time turner before, but it was his past body when he previously used one back in his third year. Your idea is an interesting take on that - for one thing, how awkward would all those bodies be that Harry cycles through?

I'd read it.

 

The problem with Romance, is that it can ruin a story sooo easily. While I would prefer to have romance, as opposed to not, I am more than happy to make do without it, if it keeps the story quality high.

Take Shezza for example, the Denarian series did just fine without proper romance. Frankly, the way it should be anyway.

 

Sometimes when romance is involved, authors loose touch with their characters, to build specific scenarios. As long as it's a natural flow, then fine. If the romance breaks the story, in that it denatures the players, then it's not fine.

I think the real challenge lies in letting there be romance, without it becoming a romance.

 

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4385420/1/Serpens_Armarum

Here's a creature!Harry fic where he turns into some kind of hybrid. It's decent, but not all that great. (edit: just saw that it is labeled pre-slash, and the sequel is slash, so never fucking mind)

And if I recall correctly, The Blood Tipped Feather (by some guy who posts on this forum) features different!Harry because he constantly has basilisk venom and phoenix tears in his bloodstream from the CoS ordeal. I forget exactly how it affected Harry, but I thought the concept was interesting and original at the time.

I like the idea; I only wish someone could do it well. Usually creature!Harry fics fail spectacularly (mostly Vampire and Warewolf!Harry stories), but I think that's more indicative of the utterly average level of writing on ff.net (at best) rather than the difficulty of implementing the idea itself.

 

I would say that the Denarian series had a lot of romance going on. Not actively, perhaps, but there was a hell of a lot of teasing about this paring and that paring etc.

I guess it's not romance that adds something extra to a fic, but rather the potential for shipping.

(Harry/Amanda 4evah)