Okay, so I can see two branched in this.

Either the protaganist could be a flawed Hero who takes the world upon his shoulders, always rushing off to save everyone and leaving his family in his wake. Maybe expand his zeal to other parts of the world and just have Grindelwald an occasional problem before possessing the son. Teddy would probably be Harry's partner, holding him up on a pedestal. (That would be shattered when he sees how Harry's family would fall apart.)

Harry sees his family spiral away from him, possible divorce and alienation of James. Albus goes dark and becomes the main antagonist, striking out against Harry and his friends from the shadows. (Targets would be Weasleys, Ron and Hermione, Teddy, Bill and Fleur, etc.) Eventual reveal of Albus would lead to a confrontation where Harry would be forced to kill his own son or not.

Second POV would be from Albus'. Incest and such would remain the same as from the original plot bunny. Up to him confronting his mother and fleeing the house to where Grindelwald would be waiting for him. At that point Albus the little whiny bitch would be supplanted by Grindelwald, someone colder and more manipulative.

From there he would work to undermine Harry emotionally. From Albus' memories he would realize Harry's greatest strength is his love. The plot would then resolve into a deconstruction of a Hero, from his own POV to those around him. It would then end with a confrontation. To win, Harry would have to kill his own son, which would be the point since that act would probably destroy him. (He would have no knowledge that the man possessing his son would be Grindalwald.)

You know what? Writing that, I could just combine them and have each POV. Hints from Albus' POV about some plan unfurling, to the reader switching to Harry's to learn what that was and Harry's reaction. Maybe a conversation Albus has with Lily would perpetuate some events that would leave the reader guessing what would happen, to be revealed in Harry's POV.

 

I was just reading the self insert/rtb thread in the story search sub-forum, and a story mentioned there just gave me a plot bunny idea. A typical time travel story where an old war hero's memories are put in his 11 year old body, except it's Neville. It'd be interesting because as he was never one of the main trio you'd have to figure out what he would know, and what he'd be able to change, and he'd have to deal with adjusting to being a much bigger player in the stories and the school.

 

is boring. Much as I like Neville, I wouldn't read a fic like that. I consider Neville similar to Harry in many ways, only a couple of notches behind. Thusly, I'd much rather Harry be awesome.
But that's just me.

 

and the Law.

 

I would read this, and I think it has some potential. The biggest problem is with Albus Severus. There needs to be something more extreme than absenteeism to make him hate his father.

Here's my idea for it: Harry and Ginny don't have the happy relationship that everyone thinks they do. After all the kids leave for Hogwarts, Ginny becomes increasingly emotionally distant, leading Harry to seek comfort with someone else (a hot, French Veela, maybe?). When Albus finds out, he doesn't realize that Ginny has been pushing his adulterous father away and immediately sides with his favorite parent. From there, it could progress the way you've already described.

I would also recommend minimizing Albus' role. No one wants to read too much about an angsty, incest-loving Albus Severus Potter. For that matter, no one wants to read about Albus Severus Potter.

tl;dr Write this, but be careful with Albus. He can break this story.

 

It sounds like yet-another-random-character Peggy Sue. We've had a billion Harrys that have gone back, along with several Harry + romantic interest (Hermione, typically--it's a staple of Harmonie wank). Ella/Deadwoodpecker did an excellent Harry + Ginny + Ron; kb0 has one with Ginny going back. There's a few Snapes making the trip. Sirius and Harry have together done it at least a couple times (Sarah's fic comes to mind) Hell, Dobby's done it. I've also seen Moody, Remus, the Weasley twins, and McGonagall go. Harry + Hermione + Susan Bones + Luna did it in one of Blot's. Dumbledore looped a gazillion times in one of BajaB's. I did one where it was Voldemort going back in time over and over again in order to counter the entropic aspects of his horcruxes and remain immortal.

I suppose maybe it's Neville's turn, though I could swear I've read one where he's done it--can't put my finger on it at the moment. At some point, though, "random character x goes back" gets a little boring without more of a hook than that. Merely seeing the world through Neville's eyes as he coaches Harry through Hogwarts doesn't do it for me.

 

Okay, can see that. However, Harry cheating would breakdown him being a true untarnished Hero. If ASP's role is minimized, then him lusting after parent has to go out the window. Him hating his father for how he treated the family would then make a hell of a lot more sense. He'd be around sixteen or seventeen, or maybe just out of Hogwarts so him being angsty would be ideal.

However, take away the incest and mommy lusting leaves little motivation for him to take in Grindelwald into himself, since he only resents his father and not fullblown hate. His hate for his father would be enough, but I'm lacking any ideas to make Albus go over the edge and let Grindelwald in. (To reinterate, Harry cheating is probably not an option.)

 

You make a good point as always, Pers. I must admit that after discovering and gorging myself on the more acclaimed time travel stories, S'tarkans and so on, a while back I didn't retain too much interest in the genre due it's lack of variety. However, that Voldemort fic sounded interesting as did the Dumbledore one, if you'd recommend either could you link them?

Just to defend my plotbunny a little, I think J.K really gave the true hero's journey from underdog to hero against a superior enemy to Neville in canon; seeing him have to deal with the shit he got in his earlier years could be interesting characterwise and would be interesting to me because I'd have liked to have seen more of him in the last three novels. That said, character driven stories can easily be boring when the main is not engaging, I wouldn't write it myself, and it would hardly be an epic story.

 

BajaB's story is Relive. (He's an underrated, very clever author in general--you really should read his stuff if you haven't yet. Dark Marauder, The Substitute, and Harry the Hufflepuff are three of my favorites).

My own story, Yule Time, was posted a week or so ago and illustrates the kind of time travel "arms race" that ensues when more than one person gets access to time travel and the space of dimensions "touching" the present one is limited. (Truefact: I abandoned an original fiction novel concept 40k words in because I couldn't make the economics work in a world with time travel; this story was pretty much all that came out of my planning for the failstory).

Both are longish one-shots.

 

An idle thought which could be used as a plot/sub-plot...

Hmm...people always have the 'soul-bond' cliche as this big, romantic and -although extremely rare- known occurence (usually through some ancient tome or book hidden away somewhere), accompanied with a smooth, "Oh look, Hermione's now in Harry's head and can now communicate telepathically!" cliche...so what if it wasn't?

What if such an occurence had practically a one-in-a-billion shot of actually happening, and because of the rarity of both the odds and the circumstances surrounding their formation, it's never actually happened before, so no one knows what the Hell is going on? And what if the forging of such a bond was so traumatic and physically wounding (eg, the body attempting to regurgitate its spleen/ejecting the brain through the ears and nose), that there was a good chance of death/'a fate worse than death' occurring to not just one, but both of the 'participants'?

Turning the cliche upon its own head, what if a 'soul-bond' is damn right dangerous and practically unheard of in the wizarding world - the very concept of a wizard and witch sharing something (life, soul, and magic) so personal and unique to the self being completely abhorrent and terrifying as a concept?

As well as the emotional/psychological aspect of such a FUBAR'ed bond (having someone nearly permanently routing around in your mind and vice versa), with it being so demanding and taxing, there could of been other psychological 'side-effects' to its formation: personalities being changed/altered, etc, causing echoes/stigmas that crumble the relationships that the participants have with other people (particularly, romantic interests).

 

If you're coming up with an idea, and all you've got is some kind of reversal of a cliche/fandom element. You're doing it wrong. Any good story that you see using these sort of plots is an exception. It's a sure way to write a fail story that isn't engaging at all.

 

Why? There are some decent TimeTravel!Failure stories out there, so I'm sure a decent writer could make it work as either a longish one-shot or a full story.

 

Well, sure. The story obviously has to have something meaningful beyond the initial change: either plot or character exploration (most likely for this kind of fic) or both.

 

@Ichor. In the published world there is a series called the Recluse series that realistically deals with a mental-bond between lovers. (Several over the course of the series.) It's not instant I love you, either. Both people have to deal with the other in their head and how they are viewed. It might be worth checking out if you're interested in that idea. You should read the series anyway, the books are quite good.

 

That sounds pretty interesting, and it sounds like the series itself would be a good source of inspiration for such a 'wrong-bond' fic'...

Thanks for telling me, mate: I'll look 'em up online.

 

For those interested the story's magic system in set in a basic Chaos/Order. Choas wizards break things down, and Order wizards build them up. It's an interesting reversal since White is chaos, the typical good color, and black order. At first Order are the good guys, but White is shown some love in later novels.

Each book is a self-contained story featuring a set of characters, sometimes in two books. And each book builds on a mythos and is set at one pivotal point in the world's history. Plus, the characterizations are pretty fucking deep compared to most fantasy.

 

I read the first one and it was slow as fuck and denser than the Manhattan phone book. I enjoyed reading the wikipedia summary more than the actual novel.

That said, I love the magic system.

If I read reviews that say it improved as the series went on, I'll give it a spin.

 

I came up with this idea a while ago... let's see what DLP thinks of it.

The idea is based on "The Departed", a must-see movie where the police has a mole in the mob and the mob has a mole in the police -- minds are blown and whatever.

I thought this theme could possibly work in the HP universe like this:

Set after the sixth book, Harry sends Neville to infiltrate the Death Eaters. His cover is that he wants to join so that Voldemort will heal his parents, and is willing to do anything for it. Up till then, Dumbledore supposedly promised him that he will find a cure for them, making the cover more believable.

Another option for the good guys spy is Draco being the informant. I like him less as a main character, but it might fit the story better and be more believable (there are plenty of ways of making him betraying the dark side, as I see it, so that wouldn't be a problem).

Either Harry or Luna will be his handler. If Harry is his handler, the story will be very focused on the espionage theme, and focus less on any "larger picture" that might be in play. On the other hand, if Luna is his handler, the spies on both sides will be a side-plot on a more strategic-based story where we mostly see Harry as the effective leader of the DA.

On the other side of the coin, I see either Daphne or someone like Hannah Abbot. Daphne is much more obvious, though it wouldn't be hard to find a cover for her (the cliched abused child, perhaps). If you go the Hufflepuff Girl route though, you'd have to make a very convincing back-story for the betrayal. A third option is Ginny being the mole -- playing to the Diary influence. It is more surprising, though maybe less convincing.

On the larger scale of things, this could go 2 ways (as mentioned): Spy-centered or Strategy-centered. The spy route is cool, but the Strategy approach has the potential for an epic story.

I feel that like in the movie, most everybody should die at the end, as you don't see it enough if fanfiction and there is no other acceptable ending to such a story, imo.

Tl;dr Neville infiltrating the DE for the DA, Draco doing the same in reverse, lots of death. Not that original or innovative, but I don't think it's been done before, at least not the way I envision it in my head.

So... what do you think?

 

Before you set out writing it, you should know that Soul Bonds have been fucked with in a few stories (and I'm not just talking about Worldmaker's spurious claims). One of the most notable such stores was by Sorvan, who portrayed both the upsides and downsides of the Bond fairly well. While Harry/Ginny, it's competent writing; the author went to a fair bit of trouble in thinking out the consequences of the Bond, both good and bad. (For example, Harry and Ginny can't even eat meals together without the flavors of their foods clashing horribly).

I also did a farcical Soul Bond thing (Harry finds himself Soul Bonded with Molly Weasley, all the while lusting after Ginny).

Quite a few others have twisted the Bond around as well and it'd be worth spending a bit of time running down the stories. It's worth noting what's out there before setting out on such a "turn the fandom on its ear" tale, if only to avoid being repetitive.