Why yes, thank you. I had a feeling I had read something like that before, but that was a convenient way of being reminded where.

Jigokuno: If you want to see a story like that so much, I would suggest writing it. If done well, it could work, but I don't imagine the basis of Harry Potter and the Boy Who lived being a solid base for such a story.

 

When did I say anything about Harry joining Voldemort?

I just said Harry could be evil or whatnot. Maybe not Voldemort evil stupid, nor rape children evil, but still evil.

 

Agreed with everyone on the "he doesn't have to join Voldemort" point. In fact, I'd consider it rather odd if he does become a Voldemort lackey; it'd take a damn good explanation from Santi.

Beyond that, there's a bunch of options...

*Harry becomes a dark lord in his own right, and pretends to ally with Voldemort, only to betray him at a time he sees fit
*Harry turns self-serving neutral (as mentioned by other posters)

But I think I'd be happiest if he turns into a sort of anti-Voldemort monster. There are several ways that you can set this up. For instance, you could have Harry lose someone he cares about to Voldemort or his minions. You could have Calypso executed by Voldemort for daring to be a friend to Harry. You could have Victor Krum die in the Triwizard Tournament (taking the place of Cedric as 'the spare').

So then you'd have a Harry running around, killing Death Eaters in ways that make him feared and persecuted by normal people nearly as much as Voldemort - though not too much for the smartest good guys (Dumbledore) to occasionally hire out his services.

The nice thing about this route is that you'd end up with an interesting comparison between Harry and his brother, Nathan: two brothers with the same goal, and completely opposing methods for reaching that goal.

 

My question is how advanced will Harry be by the time of the Tri-Wizard Tournament? He's finished 3rd year transfiguration and charms, and now he'll probably test into 3rd year dark arts. We're looking at a scenario where he's almost done with most of his classes by the time he goes back to Hogwarts. And that's if he just goes at it one year at a time, and not if his rate of learning doesn't stay the same.

How pissed would Hermione be if Harry is finished with his NEWTs by the time they're taking their OWLs?

 

Well, all caught up. Typos aside, this is turning into quite the fun little Durmstrang story.

 

What's going to slow Harry down is Spell Creation, he is not advanced in the course at all. He is in fact behind Calypso.

What I am wondering about is Potions, I don't remember it being mentioned at all.

 

Wow, love the interest this story still has.

With all the different questions and ideas being thrown around, I really don't want to give anything away, but I will say that a lot, some, or one of you is on the right track. Just to narrow it down, I'll give you all a hint:

What Jigokuno suggested isn't going to happen. Sorry Jigo.

Jeram: I'm not just updating here. Chapter five has been with my beta for almost a month, but she's currently in the middle of a move between LA and Chicago right now so it's taking much longer than normal.

Necrule: Harry's above average in Potions, and he managed to test into his 2nd year at Durmstrang. It will be mentioned a bit more during his second year.

Garrus: Harry won't be jumping any more classes after this year. I tried to explain it in the scene where Calypso explains why Harry's 3rd year Charms class moves at a faster pace than Calypso's first year class. Basically, Durmstrang's classes grow much more demanding as you advance. Harry might be able to jump his 2nd year, but only b/c the pace isn't that strenuous. The difference between 1st and 2nd year isn't that dramatic, but there is a big gap between say 4th and 5th and 5th and 6th year.

Since I don't have the time now, I'll try to get on DLP more in the next few days to answer some other questions.

Oh, one last thing. I've edited back a lot of the manipulative!Calypso bit in my word document. When I post on FF.net, it should be a lot less overt. Thanks to everyone for pointing that out.

 

That line felt kind of weird to me. I'll let the grammar nazi's pick it over for you though.

Other than that good stuff! It's nice to see Harry lose it and act like an impulsive kid, makes him seem much more like the 11-12 year old that he actually is.

 

Interesting new chapter, it will be interesting to see how Harry comes to terms with Quirrel's *betrayal*.

I appreciate the effort you're putting into providing a plausible series of events that will precipitate what I assume will be Harry's alienation from the "light" side, or at least his brother. As much as Nathan trusts Harry, he'll probably become understandably more suspicious if neither Hermione nor Ron like Harry.

 

“Yes. I was stuck spinning like a top for over five minutes. It’s a good thing I didn't eat beforehand or else I would have lost my lunch someone somewhere over Central Europe.”

Snape took a moment to consider his words before he said, “All the gold you could desire and eternal life is enough to tempt any man. The fact that Quirrell was aware of what the other protections guarding the stone were perhaps made it too tempting an opportunity to pass up. Your brother simply got in his way, and he was very fortunate Dumbledore returned when he did.”

“No, that is not rare at all, Mr. Potter, but what is unusual is that you continued to increase the complexity of your curses as the chain drew to a close. Most people like to have a balanced chain so that they don't overexert themselves at any point. By increasing the difficulty of your spells, you allow yourself a greater decrease your margin for error that many would find too risky while in a duel. In fact, I could count on one hand the number of people actually capable of maintaining such a tactic when it is applied to the highest level of dueling,” Snape said as they arrived outside of the hospital wing.

Harry's anger at Ron just didn't seem right to me. Nathan's letters were filled with his curiosity and suspicion that the stone was in danger. It would seem natural to me to assume that Nathan, not Ron was the ringleader behind everything. Harry already knows that Nathan flies by the seat of his pants and is obsessed with the stone, so why is it all Ron's fault. Or did you just want to weasly bash at the expense of your story.

 

To me it seemed more like he wanted someone to blame, like most kids do.

 

I would like to see you repeat the grade system somewhere in your story as I think the average reader, me, dont remember it after only one mention.Maybe you already planned to put it in again when Harry gets his grades in that case just ignore me.

 

"failed rather miraculously" - bad word choice. Maybe "spectacularly"?

"only reason hewas still" - missing space

"Then tell me what happened?" - this is an exclamation, not a question.

"What caused this!" - this is a question, not an exclamation.

"answered without missing hesitation." - "without hesitation" or "without missing a beat".

"made it to tempting" - too

 

Why was Harry still in his Durmstrang uniform? I get how it might help with the dramatic "Durmstrang" whispers but considering that he had to wait three days before being allowed into Hogwarts, he would have changed his clothes.

 

He has undoubtedly grown a few inches during the school year and he might not have any other robes that fit.

 

Yeah but Lily is supposed to be awesome at charms. She probably could have enlarged his old clothes easily.

<-- wanted to use this.

 

I took it as a requirement for a Durmstrang student to enter Hogwarts. If the Board of Governors are worried he will steal Hogwarts secrets, they will want him easily identified as not belonging so he is easier to keep an eye on. Otherwise he is liable to be wearing black robes and blend in with the other students.

It has occurred to me that making a receptacle is probably the first step in making a Horcrux. I wonder if Harry will know about Horcruxes by year's end or will hearing about the diary cause Harry to look for how it was made.

Is Spell Creation a seven year course? If it is, Harry would have a course load of at most three in his seventh year (including his third year electives).

 

I think Harry's mother reacted a bit strongly towards Harry's magic attempts at Durmstrang were a little strong towards the end, but not much otherwise in the way of nitpicking. As a story mostly about character interaction, this is doing very well; I haven't been bored yet.

Only thing about Harry that annoys me slightly is that he thinks so fast for an eleven year old. When I was thirteen I doubt I could've changed my story mid-sentence and made it sound plausible, but Harry did it as if it was what he was raised with. Maybe mention him getting his story straight as he walks off into the floo, or something; it gets to be boring reading about a character who is smart and a smooth talker at a fairly young age.

 

I agree with this, her reaction seemed way over the top, it was the only bit of the update that I wanted to skip over.

Other than that it was good, and it was nice to see an update.

Edit:On rereading I spotted this:

There's nothing risky about allowing yourself a greater margin for error, as you have the spells becoming increasingly difficult I suspect you mean LESS margin for error.