Wow, I'd have been pissed if I hadn't seen it was syed who had replied instead of The Santi in the email.

Any great update. The duel was great. I'm expecting Harry to find some way through the age line but I wonder how Calypso will.

 

I don't think Harry will be skipping another year in the Dark Arts. He doesn't need anymore validation for how great of a wizard he is, or how he surpasses all before him. I think getting into 6th year Transfiguration and Charms is enough. Besides, in Grindelwald's case, he had an apparent skill in enchanting, perhaps the best in recent history; however, he wasn't placed in 3rd year Charms upon his arrival to Durmstrang, but in Dark Arts and Transfiguration. It's possible that the year level you're in won't always reflect the skill level you possess. Anyway, I don't think Calypso would be able to stand Harry showing her up again.

 

Cenares, the massive hole in your argument that people were trying to point out to you was this:

Which is simply not true. It wasn't true for the Nazis, it wasn't true for the Allies. It's not true for the Death Eaters.

There are many more things that can motivate people to perform large scale atrocities than ideology. You can be caught up in a cult of personality. You can be doing it out of lust for power or wealth. You can simply be a sadistic bastard. You can be angry (see: the bombing of Dresden by the allies, a completely over the top retaliation). You can simply be following the path of least resistance and be conforming to what others are doing. You can be doing it out of fear of your leader. You can be doing it out of a sense of duty/loyalty.

 

:awesome

 

The main point that I was trying to convey was that Rosier was not good a professor, who just happened to fight on the other side of the war, that has Harry's best interests at heart.

Your correct that there are other reasons that can allow men to commit various atrocities, but we cannot forget that the Death Eaters are not a controlling government or a political party that is masking its true intentions. There more in line with a terrorist group. They make there intentions very clear from the beginning. The group is ran by a "Dark Lord" whose goal is either subjugation or eradication of all muggleborns and muggles.

The main driving force to join such an organization is ideology, their strongly held set of beliefs are the main driving force. I would agree that there were some sick psychopaths and those with a over developed sense of ambition. That doesn't excluded them from have a very set beliefs about muggleborns and muggles.

I'm really not trying to say that humans need a strong ideology in order for them to commit atrocities . I'm just saying that the Death Eaters have a strong ideology that the majority of them believe. I don't think Rosier could just give up the beliefs that held when he was a Death Eater.

I'm trying to say that Rosier joined a radical terrorist organization full of fanatics and committed horrible crimes in the name of their ideology. I'm saying that he still holds firm in those beliefs. I'm also saying there is a big difference between the sides of this war. That there is a difference between joining up with a terrorist organization whose main goal is genocide and enslavement and a group whose goal is to stop the other group.

 

Taure, before you go and reply to that other post, I'd like your theory on if Jimmy will finally show up during the first task. Do you even remember Jimmy? He's the reason Harry is going to go dark. I think this is much more relevant than continuing the previous argument. In fact, I'd probably forget that he even replied to your previous post.

SO, does anyone have any interesting theories regarding why Harry's discovery in Transfiguration might be useful? I put one forth earlier that involved preservation charms and the walking dead. How about any ideas for Calypso's animagus form? I read an interesting theory on a ff.net review that said she was some sort of jackal.

 

I do remember him. In fact I made a post about him back on page 200, so pretty recently.

I've been having fun recently thinking of all the different ways Santi could throw us massive curveballs. So far the plot of the story has been very much progress upon expected lines. That's not a criticism - I've always wanted to see a story that follows a "normal" wizarding child through their education, focusing on what schooling is like outside of war situations.

However, I do feel that, at some point, this whole train is going to get derailed and Santi is going to surprise us with something unexpected. Just a few possible twists the plot could take:

- Following the way Harry is modelled after Grindelwald, he could be expelled from Durmstrang. Given his progress in magic this would really be something of a formality unless it happens very soon, as by the end of the next year or 2 he will have got everything out of Durmstrang that he needs. It would actually provide a nice excuse to get Harry out on that world tour.

- No Voldemort as the main antagonist. We're all presuming that there's going to be a significant Voldemort-oriented plotline. I think it'd be great if this were to get derailed in the near future. There are so many ways this could go that make for fun scenarios. One I particularly like is the idea of Grindelwald rising again. With Voldemort resurrected, Grindelwald rising and Harry quickly developing to meet their level, as well as Dumbledore still alive, there's great potential for a 4 way war, each faction led by a magical titan. Alternatively, Grindelwald could off Voldemort pretty quickly and then take the position of primary antagonist. Or Voldemort could kill Nathan and Harry could swear vengeance on Voldemort, teaming up with Dumbledore. Or there could be a Grindelwald mentors Harry plotline. So much potential.

- As I said before, we could have a situation where Nathan beats Harry in the Triwizard tournament. I actually think this one is pretty possible. Likely, even. Canon Harry effectively won the tournament despite his lack of magical skills through a mixture of cheating and good tactics. BWL Harry is likely to perform some impressive magic to succeed. But the most impressive and technical magic isn't necessarily the best way to win - canon Harry showed us that. Further, there are problems with Harry winning the tournament relating to the Voldemort plot. Nathan needs to be in the graveyard, not Harry, otherwise Voldemort will retain a massive Achilles heel in his weakness to Nathan. Further, Harry duelling Voldemort at this point would be problematic. Either Harry loses, and dies, or wins, and the story loses a lot of conflict. I like the idea of Nathan beating Harry in the tournament and then Voldemort killing him.

Those are most of my thoughts about the future of the fic right now. My one other speculation is really just a question: what is the intended scope of this story, in terms of time? Is it meant to be a seven year AU? Or can we expect the story to continue long after Harry's graduation from Durmstrang? Perhaps a time-skip.

 

That's one is similar to what I was recently thinking about. Santi may follow the canon more or less (there will be changes, of course) to the point where Nathan defeats Voldemort in 7th year. Then we may have a time skip (or not, because why not see Harry traveling around the world) and the true story starts about the rise of the new Dark Lord. In other words - what we see is just one, big (and awesome) prologue to the main story.

What Achilles' heel? If I remember right, there is no love protection in this fic and it was Albus who saved Nathan in his first year. More so, I think this is a moment when Santi may truly surprise us and it will not be Harry, but Nathan that we will not see in the Tournament at all. That would be an interesting twist in what we predict and he can always use a different method of kidnapping later on.

 

Does anyone have any theories on how Voldemort is going to try and convince Harry to join his side or even how he plans to reconnect with Harry? To my knowledge, Harry is still unaware that Voldemort was possessing Quirrell. So in Harry's eyes his mentor is dead. For Voldemort to hold any sway with Harry he has to convince him that he really was his mentor and some how try to persuade him to his side. While I'm not doubting the Dark Lord's manipulative abilities I'm still wondering how he's going to go about this.

 

4 way war? Yummy! I don't remember any story involving Grindelwald get out of jail all the while most of the canon story still intact, so it would be rather original and the potential, hmm.

As for Nathan winning I agree with Taure that he should win or else the story would likely go flop, but in my opinion it would be harder to manage as in canon as Harry is a bit more competent then Victor~

 

Hmm. This is true. However, if it is the case that there is nothing special about Nathan and Voldemort's downfall was just a magical fluke, then there's no reason to not just use some random wizard to resurrect. Which means that Voldemort might actually already be resurrected.

When it comes to both Voldemort and Romulus I think some people are over-stressing the "try to convert people to the Dark side" theme. This isn't Star Wars. Dark magic isn't a religion. Voldemort and Romulus have no real reason to train up someone who would then threaten them. I highly doubt that Voldemort would have helped Harry in his first year if he had idea idea of the skill Harry would one day possess.

 

I agree that dark magic isn't a religion. The dark side isn't so much about dark magic and is more along the lines of an ideology that the ministry is trying to fight. It is firmly rooted in the superiority of purebloods and inferiority of muggles and muggleborns. An ideology that realizes that muggles are encroaching in on them and are becoming a valid threat to the wizarding world. The purebloods are seeing their culture being slowly eroded away by the ministry and muggleborns in general. Purebloods were already helplessly out numbered by muggles, but after the last couple of wars we can assume that the pureblood population has been greatly reduced and now muggleborns have more control than they ever had in the wizarding world.

Converting someone to the dark side is in essence making them see the values of the old ways and superiority of wizards over muggles and possibly making them sympathetic to those who are trying to change the status quo.

 

All of that has nothing to do with magic, though. And all these Dark wizards teaching Harry are teaching him magic, not lecturing him on social theories.

There really isn't much of a connection between pro-Pureblood politics and Dark magic. Grindelwald: a Dark wizard, but he never had anything against Muggleborns and not really anything against Muggles either. He wanted to help the Muggles (by ruling them). And Dumbledore too. There's no doubt that he has a great knowledge and skill with Dark magic, though he no longer actively uses it. And his politics are pro-Muggleborn.

 

The direct opposition to that view point detests dark magic. One of the stigmas of learning about that view point is that it is associated with dark magic. By seducing Harry into dark magic Rosier is removing the stigma allowing Harry to be more malleable to that view point. It also has the benefit of possible driving a huge wedge between Harry and his family which can be used to gain further influence with Harry.

You don't usually change a person view point over night, it is a gradual process. Calypso started it when she convinced Harry that there is a difference between pureblood and muggleborn in terms of things like natural talents. We will probably see more of this type of conversation in the future.

 

There's no love protection, but there is something unusual afoot. Voldemort still died from a reflected killing curse; Albus didn't make it into the house in time to help. Voldemort might still believe that there's something special in Nathan's blood that's worth incorporating into his new body. And really, that might be true - it would just need a different "mechanism" than the canon love protection thing.

 

I disagree that there is no connection between pro-Pureblood politics and Dark magic. Dark magic is really just magic that Ministry has deemed dangerous and something that needs to be monitored and controlled. Purebloods no doubt don't like the idea of the ministry limiting the magic that can perform. I would put it kind of like how Republicans feel when the government tries to pass anti gun legislation. By practicing and learning the dark arts in some ways they are practicing what they consider their magical rights.

Voldemort had actually hatred toward muggles and played the part of a hate monger. The fact that Grindelwald believed that ruling over muggles was the best thing for them means either he had a really low opinion of muggles, or an extremely high view of himself, or both. Dumbledore changed his own opinions and eventual opposed Grindelwald and the magic and views that came with him.

 

So, Harry using dark magic will drive a wedge between him and his family you say?

This doesn't sound like parents who would disown their son because he uses dark magic. The fact that Lily is still friends with Snape when he makes no secret his fascination with the subject should be enough for the average person to figure this out already.

Personally, I think Harry holding back information on what he is being taught in Dart Arts is doing more harm than good. He thinks he is helping his cause, but his parents know him well enough to know that he isn't telling the whole truth. This probably leads to their imaginations making it worse than it is. IIRC, Dumbledore already knows the full curriculum for Dark Arts at Durmstrang, and he said it wasn't that bad.

 

While I don't think it will play out as such, there are many ways where Dark Magic can drive the wedge between this family. James and Lily not being irrational Dark magic haters seems to be referencing the former possibility of them hating Harry because he did well or even enjoyed his Dark Arts class. But what if they learn that his Dark Magic professor recommended him to try Ritual Magic (which Calypso says is viewed very poorly), or that his girlfriend sent him a book on how to create inferi, and he doesn't really see a problem with that, after all its just magic. Or that his professor is actually a former Death Eater, his girlfriends father, has taken a focus on his education, and is teaching his girlfriend to cast fiendfyre at 14 years of age. These are all things that are far removed from what can be viewed dispationetly as some old Dark Arts class that we, as parents, don't want to really think about what our son is learning in it.

 

Harry is learning more than the standard dark arts curriculum at Durmstrang. Rosier put a 6th grade pain spell on that list of dark arts. I'm betting sacrificial magic and fiendfyre isn't standard Durmstrang magic and yet he put it on the list and is teaching his daughter fiendfyre. It is only going to get worse the older Harry gets.

I doubt his parents are going to be very understanding on sacrificing small animals in the back yard. So yes, I thinking that this is going to put a strain on their relationship.

 

In case you misunderstood - I was talking about Albus saving Nathan in his first year at Hogwarts, not in his first year of life. I agree that Voldemort still may want Nathan's blood for his ritual, though it may not have anything to do with something special in it, but the fact it's blood of the enemy who destroyed his body.

Also, everyone try to predict what will drive a wedge between Harry and his family, so we see him slowly drifting apart from them. But what if he will stay on good terms with his family to the last moment before becoming the next Dark Lord in their eyes? It would be betrayal that both sides didn't see coming at all - for Potters and the Order, because they didn't expect Harry to follow whatever "wrong" philosophy he chose (though rather not kill a Muggle) and for Harry, because he thought that once he explains it they will understand his point of view.