Inspired by the Plot Bunny Thread.


Challenge #1 : Luna Lovegood is the Girl Who Lived.

Summary: When canon diverges in the 60s, the world of Harry Potter becomes more divided. Fault lines between Houses and allegiances deepen, as Barty Crouch Sr headlines a pro-Muggleborn but extremely fascist government in opposition to the Death Eaters. Eventually, Voldemort discovers a Prophecy which concerns two girls - Luna Lovegood or Ginny Weasley - and opts to attack the Lovegood family. Because of Mrs Lovegood's Blood Sacrifice, Voldemort is vanquished, and Luna becomes the Girl Who Lived.


Rules:
* Luna is the GWL; Mrs Lovegood is dead, while Xeno is still alive (but far more unhinged than in canon).
* Luna can be more rational/less zany than in canon, but should still maintain her characteristic serenity and light-hearted personality. Watch Happy-Go-Lucky for a hyperactive version of a character who is cheerful but not naive.
* Crouch has discredited Dumbledore in this world; Dumbledore and Luna have an interesting friendship over their shared whimsy.
* Luna, Ginny, and Colin form a tight friendship which mimics but doesn't directly emulate the H/R/Hr dynamic. Harry acts as a big older brother-type to this new trio.
*The Potters are alive and kicking.
* The First War ended far later than in canon, when Luna was seven; the Prophecy occurred later than in canon. Hence, the war was more brutal.
* Arthur Weasley was the Sirius-esque former Secret Keeper who was sent to Azkaban. Like with the Potters, the true traitor is somebody else.
* The Anti-Slytherin Crouch Administration implements strict curfews, stifling legislation, and blacklists/witch-hunts on Slytherins. The more chaotic and forgiving Luna opposes this orderly behaviour.
*The ruthless but competent Crouch Ministry arrests most Death Eaters, unlike like Bagnold's Ministry. Karakoff died earlier. However, Rookwood and Crouch Jr both avoid detection by masquerading as Anti-Pureblood and Pro-Muggleborn nutjobs.


As a guide, a potential timeline can be seen here. Essentially, the idea is to chuck somebody who isn't as angsty as Harry into his crappy life and see how they react.

Try to avoid making this a crack!fic. Once you overcome the hurdle of Luna's personality, this fic won't be difficult. Good luck.

 

On the first look, it seems to simply be a "shuffle things around a bit so we have a different Person-Who-Lived while switching canon characters around". The timeline you linked offers more variation and divergences, but it's still golden trio and incarcerated but innocent secret keeper.

Personally, I'd be more interested if it was about Harry befriending Luna the GWL.

 

Not necessarily a "golden trio". I'd personally put Luna in Ravenclaw, while putting Ginny and Colin in Gryffindor. It'd be interesting to see if her Ravenclaw dormmates treat her the same way as they did in canon. Indeed, how would Luna's life be whenever she's separate from Ginny and Colin (e.g. every night)?

And who said Harry wouldn't befriend Luna? He'd probably go to Ravenclaw, so he'd become close friends with her, I wager. Just not initially, because of the age gap. Perhaps they'd become very good friends when they're a bit older (when Luna is 14?), and just have a mentoring relationship until then.

 

You did mention Harry would be an older brother type - but not part of the tight friendship you mentioned for Ginny and Colin.

Luna's treatment by the Ravenclaws and part-time 'isolation' from Ginny&Colin (classes as well as nights) would make things different.

Although I can't really see Harry getting into Ravenclaw. Even if you define Lily as bookish, she also was a Gryffindor (as is Hermione), and I doubt being raised by his parents would have made Harry very "knowledge for knowledge's sake".

I could see Luna and Harry starting a friendship by chance, maybe beginning with a bit of tutoring.

 

All I can say right now is "Hell no". I wouldn't be interested in something like this. If you're keeping Harry and/or other characters the same, why in the 9 levels of hell would you write this shit? No thanks.

 

@RichardC
Why reply when you aren't interested? Honestly, is it that hard to just ignore a post?


@Solaceon
I may take the premise (different end of war, GWL!Luna) but go at it in a different combination. We had some different ideas anyway.

 

Could be interesting if a few of the dynamics were changes. I wouldn't want to write or read about a Colin/Ginny/Luna trio. Colin is such a bleeeehhhhh character in my opinion. The anti-Slytherin angle would be cool if Harry was Slytherin, and that would give Luna a legit reason to be against that stuff. It wouldn't matter to me if Harry seduced her to the dark side, or that Luna sees that not all Slytherins are 'bad'.

Also, I think it would be more interesting to have Amos Diggory as the secret keeper, and while he is sitting innocently in Azkaban, his son is off competing in the Tri-Wizard to prove himself and regain some of his family honor, and in the process getting himself killed. Whether or not he breaks out early and sees his son die, or learns of it while in prison, it could be fun.