Wow... Fanon did the mindfuck really well.

 

Fawkes only gives one feather.

 

Harry dies in the Graveyard, because there shouldn't be any perceptible change from him having a different wand up to that point.

 

A good POD, prophecy by Sybill is fake since she is trying to get into Hogwarts.

 

Irrelevant, since it was mostly self-fulfilling anyway. It wouldn't make a difference.

 

Point of Divergence: Voldemort does not believe in Prophecies.

And there goes cannon.

 

I've always wanted to write a fic about Remus being sent to watch over Harry instead of Figg.

Off the top of my head I can think of a few things that would change. You'd have a more scholarly, aware Harry due to his exposure to Remus who he clings to in the face of the benign neglect from his relatives (that means no beatings, cupboards etc). He'd be big on loyalty after hearing how Sirius betrayed his parents (I'm thinking he'd be in Hufflepuff which opens up further room for changes).

Writing this post really makes me wish I had the time to write, edit and post an actual story.

 

It would make a difference because Harry wouldnt have Power of Love which he mainly dependend on in canon

 

Except for the fact that the Lily's sacrifice would have happened regardless of the prophecy's authenticity, so the 'Power of Love' would have still been in full force.

 

The power of love wasn't Lily's sacrifice. It was Harry's ability to love people, to care for anyone other than himself. It's what makes him stand up and fight rather than run away. It's his saving people thing. It's what makes him a hero.

This kind of love isn't some special super power. Far too many people read the 'power the Dark Lord knows not' and immediately think 'laser eye beams Voldemort hasn't seen yet'. But that isn't what it means. It's more poetic than that. It means love, a force Voldemort literately Knows Not: has never experienced, is incapable of understanding and unable to show.

The prophecy didn't make Harry a hero. Harry made Harry a hero and Dumbledore would punch anyone who said otherwise in the face.

 

To be honest, I assumed that sunkarapk was referring to Lily's sacrifice as the 'Power of Love', because I couldn't see why someone would think that the prophecy was the cause of (or in anyway related to) Harry's good nature, whereas I can see some logic between the connecting of the prophecy and Lily's sacrifice, simply because they're both murky and mysterious branches of magic we know very little about.

 

Yes, this is what I believe. But I always wonder how a child who had never known love do this. So, I use Power of Love as the explanation.

No prophecy? No Power of Love. We get Harry who is more similar to Tom Riddle. The prophecy is what differentiates their characters in my mind.

 

Well we'll just have to agree to disagree because I can't say how much I dislike this idea. It cheapens the entirely story.

Oh, and watch out for Dumbledore. He might want to punch you in the face.

 

I never actually believed Lily just gave a sacrifice with the power of love. I was always under the assumption that Lily did some type of ritual and to complete it, her sacrifice was required. Then 18 years later, when Harry sacrificed himself, the power of love in his veins simply reactivated the ritual on a much larger scale. There likely isn't any canon truth to that explanation, but I always thought it made the most sense and felt it explained why it never happened every time a mother gave her life for her child.

I feel that even if Voldemort never believed in the prophecy, Lily might still do the ritual just in case, even if it meant sacrificing herself in order to complete it.

As for the prophecy magically being the reason why Harry never turned bad, I can't help but not agree. Harry could have turned bad with the right experiences. If Vernon was physically abusive rather than just emotionally abusive, you have the potential for Harry to turn out like Voldemort, prophecy or not.

 

I can't say I necessarily agree with nerdman, but there is enough of a description of Lily's abilities per canon to make the assumption she may have performed a spell/ritual or made a potion that somehow gave Harry a leg up on Voldemort. If nothing else, she's capable of a world-breaking magical feat, and even James was particularly clever, so he might have gone above and beyond as well. You could even make the case that it was James and Lily's combined sacrifice that gave Harry a form of protection -- a notion that I've never seen in fanon.

Doesn't exactly change things though. They are still dead, and Harry's alive inexplicably.

 

Harry did know love. He knew the love of his peers (Hermione and Ron), love of his teachers (Remus, Dumbledore, etc.), love of his family (Remus and Sirius, if you aren't including the Weasley's), and even the love of strangers (Depending on the prophet).

 

If one wanted to be specific about the so called "Power of Love", love is really just a chemical illusion and hence Voldemort might have been able to feel it given the right impetus. Love is actually just "happy" neurotransmitters which we then associate with a relevant object, be it a person or not, and become addicted to through positive reinforcement.

What Harry shows in fighting for others is Selflessness. So arguably it isn't the "Power of Love" at all, it is the "Power of Selflessness". Love is actually quite selfish when you look at it carefully.

Lily's sacrifice: Logic dictates that it was probably some ancient or personal devised ritual. JKR wanted to send a message about selflessness and made of bullshit about the "Power of Love".

Prophecy: Regardless of who believes it or not, HP is a world of Magic. Prophecies are cosmic in scope. They can't be escaped, maybe twisted, but not broken. Unless one had the power to rewrite Fate. Think of them as a picture of a scene that occurs later in a movie. You might be able to change how it is viewed or how it is displayed but you can't go back and film it differently.

PoD:

1. What if Harry wasn't done with the bouillabaisse when Fleur asks him for it? Would it provoke a longer conversation between them? How might it affect Fleur's later reactions to Harry become a champion if she knew as more than just a name, even if only a little bit?
   
2. What if Harry's Cruciatus actually had worked and Bellatrix suffered under it longer than a second?
   

 

There was an uncompleted story with Figg getting more proactive and involving Remus and some interesting OC. Figg in that story was still a squib but selling potions and the OC guy wasn't really friendly with Dumbledore.
I thought it had a lot promise. Can't remember the name atm.

 

Unrelated comment: If the "point of divergence" is before Harry's birth, and Harry still exists in the story (barring time travel or other such irregularities), then it's not a POD story and is just a garden variety AU. /useless pedantry

 

That gave me an idea for a divergence. In this it's James who sacrifices himself for Harry that night instead of Lily. I would assume that magically there would be little difference. Harry would still be able to talk to snakes but would gain no significant power boosts. Just the power of the sacrifice would come through his Potter blood instead.

So, if Harry can't live with the Dursley's for protection who could he be put with to power the blood wards? Given the connection purebloods have with each other I imagine that there would be a few candidates. His grandmother was a Black, right? If Sirius is sent to prison then the only workable Black would be Andromeda I think.

Which also brings to question if the wards will even work with someone who isn't exactly immediate family or a Potter.