@bob3rt:To quote Blaise the Fabulous, maybe you should cry about it.

 

Are you being deliberately obtuse?

 

How come shit ideas get all the attention? =/

 

The argument that resulted got all the attention, not the idea. In fact nothing useful has been said about the idea yet.

 

Bobert, I get the feeling that you're just digging yourself a deeper whole, here. :facepalm

 

Let's get back to plot bunnies. This is an old one and not very good, but still has potential.

At the beginning of his sixth year Harry is rather depressed and not really sure what to do with himself, especially when there is murderous Dark Lord trying to kill him because of some Prophecy. Then one day, when he is walking around the lake, he meets a year older wizard from Ravenclaw - Jerry Answer.

Jerry quickly gains his trust. It's like for the first time in his life Harry has a friend who truly understand him and knows how to help him. He teaches him everything - magic that can help him fighting DE. How to not let other people manipulate him and use his fame for their own needs. Even how to get girls avoiding disasters like the one with Cho. Harry is slowly drifts apart from his other friends, but with Jerry at his side he doesn't feel like he needs anyone else.

But there is a catch. Jerry Answer doesn't exist. He is his second personality, influenced by a Horcrux he has in his head. And the longer Harry lets him guide his life, the closer Jerry is to gaining the complete control over his body.

 

Weird, but not necessarily bad. There are some holes in it though. How long will it take for Harry to understand that only he can see/hear this Jerry, and what will he do once he finds out? That also leads to the fact that he'll try to figure out how it got there, which would either lead to the discovery of the Horcrux or him buying Jerry's bullshit explanation.
That idea can work, I like it very much, but if Harry is manipulated all over it will fail.
What I'd like to see from this fic is Jerry at first guiding Harry by the hand, while Harry steadily grows more conscious and able, leading Jerry(aka, the Horcrux) to play a risky game in trying to subtly manipulate him. Harry must have some sort of control.

 

I was thinking that it could go Fight Club route. Every time he thinks that Jerry did something that the rest saw, it was him that did this.

And yes, the point is that Jerry is manipulating Harry by teaching him how to take control of his life, but at the same time it works against his own plans if he doesn't posses his body soon enough.

 

You lost me with the Fight Club reference.
Still, it wont work. If he drifts apart from his friends in favor of this Ravenclaw "Jerry", he'll expect people to notice. Sooner or later, even canon Harry would realize that "holy shit, why is this dude talking to me like we're alone here? Can't he see Jerry?" or "bloody hell, why is everyone congratulating me for fucking Parvati? Jerry did that"

What I think you should do, is having Jerry like a person during summer, but if realism is to be preserved Harry must have some sort of understanding after some time at Hogwarts and the unavoidable interactions with others.
Also, since Harry views Jerry as a guy roughly his age, he wont really follow his every advice like he would with Dumbledore. Sure, he'd follow his advice on girls, the occasional studying and a couple of spells here and there, but he'll expect equality in their relationship. He views him as a friend, does he not?

 

Well, I'd say watch Fight Club and you will get this idea, but I've just spoiled half of fun with this movie from you. Sorry.

 

Ok. Now back to your plot bunny.

 

There's also the nature of the 'Horcrux' within Harry's scar.

From the horcruxes that we know of, they're sentient: the Diary, the Locket, the amount of control Voldemort had over his Snake (but even then, it seemed like Nagini had more human like instincts than a true 'Voldemort' mind in control), etc. But, aside from having a connection to the primary part of Voldemort's soul, the soul fragment that's in Harry seems more instinctive than sentient, perhaps due to its accidental origin compared to the others, who were intentionally created.

JKRowling has said that the pain that Harry feels in his scar when Voldemort is near, is the soul fragment trying to rejoin the primary piece that's left.

If it was sentient, wouldn't it of tried to take over Harry or influence him, like the Diary or the Locket did? Unless there was something unsaid holding it in check from acting like a true horcrux (see below), it seems that the soul fragment is incapable of truly possessing Harry like the others due to it not having a proper sentience: the most it could do is probably either give him memories/instincts or/and influence him in some way. There's also when Voldemort tried to possess Harry in the Ministry: if the soul fragment was trying to rejoin with Voldemort's primary chunk of soul, wouldn't it of "left the building" when he did?

Apparently, Harry's "power-he-knows-not" is Love, which makes sense: positive emotional spells like the Patronus charm rely on positive emotions, and despite his neglectful upbringing, he still has (or had?) a great capacity to try and make friends, and do risky things for the people he loves/who are important to him. Maybe this part of his personality/soul is what is keeping the possessing in check/keeping it inert?

When this is all taken into account, it seems that the soul fragment in Harry's scar is either inactive and incapable of achieving true sentience like the other horcruxes, or has never had a true sentience in the first place; only instinct. It also looks like that it is trapped/sealed away as it was unable to rejoin the primary soul chunk during Harry's possession, and that the only way to get rid of it is an AK, possibly from the original soul that created the horcrux.

Another thing that has also interested is what would happen if a horcrux did return to a corporeal body: would it rejoin/be reabsorbed by the primary chunk of soul, giving it back a physical body, or would the chunk be 'used up' like a fuel? Would the now corporeal soul fragment have an independent will from that of the original soul, even disagreeing with it/acting against it? If that's the case, it sounds like horcruxes are a double-edged sword: they keep you anchored to the world after death, but it also means that you've got a second version of you out there that, if it's activated, could very well take up arms against you/be independent of you.

(For example, imagine a Tom Riddle versus Voldemort scenario, for a moment).

 

Read the book, friend. You owe it to yourself. (Palahniuk is one of my favorite writers and Fight Club is a worthy read).

I could see this concept working, but it'd be tricky to set it at Hogwarts because of the closed, insular society. Pretty much everyone should recognize everyone else by sight, particularly those in the same year who they've had classes with for six years by that point, so a new guy just popping up in year 6 would stand out.

If it were set in an AU post-Hogwarts, though, where like in Fight Club Harry's in the impersonal, greater wizarding world, that'd make more sense. Also, in keeping with the Fight Club anarchist parallels, you could even make it post-Voldemort, with Harry acting out against the rigid constraints of society writ large. Answer could even be an echo/effect of the horcrux that lives beyond Tom's soul fragment's death, an alter-ego that can materialize only after Tom is gone.

 

To take your example: "bloody hell, why is everyone congratulating me for fucking Parvati? Jerry did that." In this moment Harry will saw people congratulating Jerry not him.

Or "holy shit, why is this dude talking to me like we're alone here? Can't he see Jerry?" It's not like Jerry can't say he need to go or simple not take part in a conversation. And when Harry asks him something, to other person will only see him thinking about something, not talking to invisible person.

It's all in subtle manipulation of how Harry see the world and not letting him know that everything Jerry does was done by him. That said, in the end he would realize that something is not right, but it will not be as quick as it would be without this misdirection created by Jerry.

EDIT:

Read it already. I mentioned movie, because it's more popular.

As for the rest, I didn't want to make it full HP/FC crossover with all its concepts, just borrow a little from the idea of Tyler Durden, but it could work.

 

So, if I understood it correctly, this Jerry is not simply the Horcrux manifesting itself, but it is actually a part of Harry, a partial second personality or something, adding to and being "controled" by the Horcrux? Or like, the Horcrux and Harry's suppressed emotions/experiences/instincts/whatever together formed this second personality?
And Celestin, I don't know, it would take something awfully powerful to so completely change perception of reality in so many angles, details and points for everyone.

 

Yes, it's not simple Horcrux. It's a part of Harry being influenced by it and let's assume that this Horcrux doesn't have its own personality.

Powerful? It's powerful enough to control Harry's perception on some level, at least when it comes to his own actions and how other people are reacting to them.

 

Hey, you're talking about two parties engaging in conversation, and both parties thinking the other is talking to someone they are not, and saying things they are not. Don't even get me started on actual physical interactions. That seems pretty complicated, even for magic. Something on the level of Voldy/Dumbles. Which does make sense, actually. But still, it must not be written off with naught but a two line bullshit explanation.

 

You can also have Jerry/Harry fuck Bellatrix in the story.

 

So something like Lasciel's interaction with Dresden as Shiela? In other words, something that falls apart pretty quickly, right?

 

Only if he calls her Marla.