Plot bunny I've had for a couple of days, seems suited to a 15K-ish oneshot:

Harry Potter has killed Voldemort, and wizarding Europe has rejoiced and started to rebuild. But the Order of the Phoenix is still active because not all the Horcruxes are gone. Hufflepuff's cup was stolen from the Lestrange vault before Harry et al could get to it; he's destroyed all the others save himself, but doesn't want to off himself until he's tracked down the cup and finished Voldemort off once and for all.

The cup resurfaces when a rich South American collector dies and it is inherited by his son, a gambler and organiser of wizard blood sports. The cup is announced as the prize for the next competition, a team elimination tournament. The Order enters, and so do the Death Eaters led by Bellatrix Lestrange, desperate to retrieve the cup and somehow resurrect their fallen Lord.

The stage is set for three days of to-the-death magical combat, punctuated by the Order and the Death Eaters trying to pierce the security around the cup and make off with it. I'm imagining the first day each team fights another team, on the second day they fight a magical beast of some kind, and on the third day it's Order vs. Death Eaters with both sides cheating as much as possible.

The idea is really growing on me...suggestions for magical beasts to fight? Dragons are bleh. What's some cool mythical beasties from outside the HP canon?

 

It's good up till this part.

I'm not sure why Harry would tolerate the Horcrux being held by some South American prick. I don't see any imagining of Harry playing along instead of fucking over the cup's possessor as fast as possible and snatching the cup.

The team deathmatch plot is excruciatingly thin. With the initial setup you could make the first great Ludlum-esque HP spy thriller - Harry tracking the Hocrux, charting its course as it changes hands - don't squander it on a team deathmatch tournament that half of every manga and anime falls prey to.

 

I think Lockhart is a severely underused character. I'd love to see Lockhart recover and somehow end up hanging around an older Harry.

Perhaps by chance, perhaps by design, the author could prod Harry toward the more utilitarian, Machiavellian ways of Lockhart, while simultaneously growing Lockhart something to believe in other than his fantabulous smile.

Possibly humor, or maybe even an adventure if done correctly - explore clever ways to do battle with memory rather than Avada Kedavra, finesse and infiltration rather than blowing stuff up.

Another way to get him involved - you could do a heavily legilmency based story a la Inception in which some exploring of the mindscape is necessary. Someone skilled in memory charms by definition would be fairly skilled in making up memories (sort of like the architect). The mindscapes in these worlds should probably be more fantastical due to the presence of magic, perhaps something akin to the Nevernever rather than mundane cities as in the movie.

These things might involve somewhat of a heelturn for Lockhart's character, so you'd have to do some pretty solid writing to back this up, maybe even a somewhat sympathetic backstory to justify him turning his wand on a 12 year old Ron Weasley. Or maybe just use him as the 'consultant', assuming he's ever back to his normal stature in society upon getting better.

--

Also, despite the massive discussions on the topic through the years, nobody's ever really approached a good Harry in the Muggle World story. Having him live among muggles while fighting mystery, death eaters, and/or a new antagonist would be fairly interesting, especially if the authors makes good use of the opportunity to introduce some fresh scenery into fanfiction.

We've been stuck with 'Harry arrived at Hogwarts/Diagon Alley/etc' for awhile, and I think people have sort of forgotten the neccessity to sell the reader the atmosphere and the location at hand, having simply used prior memories of these locations to fill up the mental image.

And I don't mean 'appearing in New York City, kicking ass, now going to Peru'. Actually living among muggles, having muggle characters involved, with muggle problems intertwined with magical issues from canon or imagination.

Maybe I'm just hankering for some decent Harry/Muggle. One where Harry gets pulled into the muggle world, not the hapless muggle into the magical world.

 

Fixed that for you.

Use him all you want, but don't forget to beat the ever lovin' shit out of him when his time is up. He's at his most entertaining when his ass is getting kicked in by Harry and his friends.

 

Nah, done well a competent Lockhart is one of my favourite characters. He's got the charm and the charisma, but in canon he has nothing to back it up. A competent Lockhart is... the Ace Rimmer of the HP World. He could be awesome.

 

Ace Rimmer?

 

You know what the solution is, Amer?

Write more Sam Teto.

 

What a guy.

 

Gooooooooogle.

 

So true, so true.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_Dungeons_&_Dragons_monsters

I'd like to see em have to try and sneak past a Beholder

 

There's a cool scene in Volkhov where a Dragon and a Cerberus rip shit up. At least I thought it cool at the time. I'd often wondered why we never saw more than the one Cerberus in fanon or canon.

 

One head each for each of the "Golden Trio"...
It would be my kill-off of choice, should I ever write a wrong bwl fic.

 

I've always wondered why the third floor corridor was never mentioned after Philosopher's Stone. Fanon uses the Chamber of Secrets in every other fanfic, yet no one ever takes advantage the trapdoor. If I knew about a secret area that didn't involve crawling through pipes, rat bones, and snakeskin, I'd sure as hell use it for some sort of nefarious purpose.

On that topic, Hogwarts is suppose to be huge, yet most of it's uninhabited and unexplored in canon. Besides the RoR and Chamber, it's all untouched by fanfic writers. So much potential going to waste.

:/

 

You could probably make a thread for brainstorming what kind of rooms could be found in Hogwarts.

 

Forging the Sword takes advantage of that, but for the most part you two are correct.

 

You actually bring up a good point there, JM.

I hope you don't mind if I steal that line of thought for usage in a fic' I'm planning: more originality, and all.

 

What do you mean untouched? Every other fic has tons of "unused" classrooms that students use. Many aside the Chamber and RoR have Founders' Rooms. And the movie will have a boathouse. See? No unexplored places at Hogwarts.

 

Go right ahead, it'll be refreshing.

 

Equal and Opposite makes good use of the mysterious uninhabited areas of Hogwarts.