Yeah, maybe a scene showing Dumbledore reading the Transfiguration Today article and facepalming.

 

I'd be willing to be that Santi already has the various reactions planned out. Personally, I'd like to see the reaction among his Ravenclaw former classmates.

 

"I knew that I should said the other one was the Boy Who Lived."

 

I can wait till Harry’s fourth year to see the reactions of his former housemates; I can already hear Krakaroff warming up his “Durmstrang will bring it’s best students not just it’s oldest” argument for Dumbledore.

 

I love every time this updates. You really put out some quality writing. No real complaints, I agree with the others about wanting to see the Hogwarts reaction to Harry's clear genius. Particularly McGonnagal and Dumbledore's reactions reading the article in Transfiguring news.

 

I agree that it will be interesting to see Hogwarts reaction to Harry's genius, assuming that Harry actually beats Grindlewald's record & its the kind of big news we think it will be. As far as his former peers I think they will have the same reaction to him as before...a stupid one. Dumbledore's reaction could be interesting depending on how Harry progresses, at the moment Harry is not showing too much of an interest in the Dark Arts beyond making sure he does well in the class. Should that start to change, it really just depends on how much of his former best friend he starts to see in Harry & what he might try to do about it.

 

Been reading this story for a while, great work Santi.

If you're going where I think you am, it should be fun to see Harry and Nathan compete against one another in the Triwizard tournament.

 

I see no point - the protagonist would trash the boy who lived, unless the BWL gets a lot of help from teachers or Death Eaters.

 

And if Nathan=Canon!Harry then it's exactly what will happen. But it still could be fun. Let's not forget that in original books everyone were more amazed by Harry's attempts because he was 14 years old boy being in Tournament for 17 years old. But in this story there would be second 14 years old and with skills that would make these tasks looks easy (unless Santi will change them).

So how is that the Boy Who Lived is worse that his peer, even if it's his brother? ("I knew I should chose the other one. It's the last time I leave so important decision to a coin" - Dumbledore just after Fist Task).

 

Much like Harry did in GoF?

 

Well, Harry had help, yes, but though Harry was lazy he had enough talent to be impressive in his own way. Plus, with the way Santi has this story mapped out, I'd want to see some balance in the family tree. Harry is a especially beast at Charms, Transfiguration, and the Dark Arts, but if Nathan is going to continue to somewhat mirror canon!Harry it'd be awesome to see how the Santi fleshes out Nathan's aptitude for Defensive magic (if any).

Canon!Harry had his own gifts. The interesting thing is that the Santi has given Nathan some of what Harry would have needed as a child. Nathan is like canon!Harry, but infinitely more well-adjusted, more confident and secure in the fact that he has a family and people who love him. Those are arguably things that would have helped Harry's talents thrive in canon, not even counting the things a competitive sibling rivalry could have done for his ambition. Maybe Nathan, unlike Harry, will have a better combination of circumstances in which to hone the magical skills he does have, rather than letting them fester in mediocrity like canon!Harry.

 

It's a good idea in principle, but (and I'm probably in the minority in this) I don't see what's so impressive about this "discovery." If it's as easy as just casting the spells, surely wizards would have been playing similar, obvious games since switching spells were invented. I think something more must be added to this to make Harry's discovery substantial enough to justify the excitement and Master ranking.

For example, I'd propose a starting point of universally accepted Transfiguration theory (the definitive work having been written by Dumbledore or McGonagall, perhaps) averring that such a switch wouldn't work. Harry then finds a clever, non-obvious way around the restriction to make it work. I think that would justify the excitement.

 

I get what Pers is saying with that. The experiment also seems to lack any practical implication or use. Perhaps if this were the first step in engineering some groundbreaking medical discovery (prosthetics, organ donation, organ creation or replacement, etc.). The fact that transfigured organs or limbs can be switched with genuine organs or limbs would be pretty cool. It could even lend a little credence to Taure's 'wizards live forever by way of transfiguration' idea, or at the very least it could serve to even further broaden the capabilities of medical magic for wizards, making them live even longer.

They haven't even gotten to humans, or that level of spellwork, yet, but successful animal testing for innovative medical transfiguration sounds like M work to me.

 

Like the fact that Harry is twelve? For a kid of that age, coming up with the idea and understanding its significance is not a small feat.

But yeah, someone should have discovered it ages ago...

 

How about we assume someone did, but his work was lost in random fire before someone published it. And then again someone else did but he did this with wrong animals and was killed by sheep with dragon teeth. And let's not forget about this genius wizard who just thought that there is no way someone did not do this before him and without checking, abandoned this idea.

 

lol, Dumbledore once tried a similar project with animals, but failed miserably and blamed it on his brother, who thenceforth was known as an infamous goat-defiler.

 

I am not knocking the idea of Harry making a fundamental discovery, but I do think there needs to be more on why this was overlooked by the established wisdom of the times. Once The Santi provides that, I think it's an excellent scene. Age isn't enough, to be honest. As given, it makes Harry at best a precocious Hermione-clone, clever in context of age, but no great shakes compared with the greatest wizard minds who have come before (who couldn't have been that great if they missed something so simple).

So as not to be just a critic, I'll offer a train of thought that might lead to a resolution:

"Why couldn't such a switching work?" is the operative question. Let's say it is because the inanimate->animate creation misses something essential, that the nonliving->living transfig leaves just an echo of life, not enough to sustain the illusion of being living once the composition is messed up.

But Harry also can do self-transfiguration of body parts. How about the following: Harry switches one of his self-transfigured (into an identical animal) limbs for one on the inanimate->animate creature, an act which gives the creature just enough of the essence of life to enable further switching of other parts. This is still "obvious," and has been tried (and failed) by wizards in the past.

What makes this time different is Harry's ability to implant part of his "self" into the limbs, enhanced by a dark magic potion he has brewed and imbibed, one that makes one's soul malleable. (Said potion is part of horcrux creation and possession magic, which is part of why it's so closely guarded and obscure; I'm thinking maybe Harry got the recipe in the book he got from Calypso for his birthday). The combination of dark magic + obscure potion + switch a self-transfigured part onto critter before switching other parts may well have been missed in the past, whereas simple switching almost certainly wouldn't have.

It's just a thought, but an example of the kind of thing I'd have expected Harry to uncover.

 

Santi could say switching spells were recently invented. Nobody has thought of it because the spell is only 15 years old. Or the spell wasn't popular until recently. I think complicating the process will make his discovery less monumental. It's genius because it's simple.

 

Switching spells seem to be one of the basic arts of transfiguration. Having them invented fifteen years prior is a bit fucked.