So I've had this idea for a while but haven't been able to develop it into anything largely because I keep getting hung up on technical details. The story is told in three parts, roughly corresponding to Isaac Asimov's Three Types of Science Fiction. The basic premise is as follows:

Part I: The "Gadget" Story
After defeating Voldemort, Harry Potter is lost and adrift. He no longer wants to be an Auror — he's had enough of war, violence, and dark wizards to last a lifetime thank you very much — but he doesn't have a career to fall back on. He decides to reenroll at Hogwarts for his final year and while discussing potential classes with McGonagall decides on Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology and adds Care for Magical Creatures and Astronomy (being one of the least popular classes has resulted in widening the admissions criteria; he's dropped DADA and Potions because doesn't want to deal with fawning professors).

After a month or so of school where he remains indecisive about his future he hears Sinestra explain that no one had ever stepped on the moon — as the insular nature of the Wizarding World and their superiority in the field (they sell a model of the universe for a few galleons; it's like they solved the n-body problem without doing any math) has left them ignorant of muggle advances in the last half century. The class discussion gives him some direction and he decides what to do with his life.

What would follow is an exploration of magical transportation and why each had failed — portkeys and apparition could probably travel line-of-sight to LEO altitudes but would lack the velocity to make orbit and anyone using those methods would immediately begin a quick fall back to Earth; life support would be a problem (the bubblehead charm would probably expand until it burst in near perfect vacuum), etc. This would be interspersed with Harry's attempts — with lots of help — to solve the problem, first with a firewhiskey-NO2 rocket (probably the easiest fuel and oxidizer he could get his hands on) then moving into increasing complexity. It culminates with Harry in a capsule on a rocket making the first successful wizarding orbital shot. Think of this story as something like a cross between The Rocket Boys/October Sky and The Right Stuff.

Part II: The "Adventure" Story
I haven't really flushed out what the exact story would be, but I think the framing device would be something along the lines of the Wizarding World's reaction to Harry's endeavor in part one. A small fact-finding delegation is sent to see how he did it — probably consisting of some combination of McGonagall, Sinestra, Kingsley, Draco Malfoy, and Rita Skeeter (the last two acting as some sort of foil for Harry's demonstration). Harry is able to conclusively prove his story by taking the delegation to a small station he's put into orbit (cleverly concealed by a massive invisibility cloak).

Alternatively the story could be about a successful wizarding moonshot — though to be honest once you get into orbit and you have the insane advantages of a wizard, a moonshot wouldn't be terribly difficult. I think the only thing that would stop anyone from charging ahead is wondering whether magic is localized to Earth and if the dozens or hundreds of important charms on the craft would catastrophically fail mid-flight.

An even crazier idea would be a moonshot that ends up finding the Tycho Magnetic Anomaly (TMA-1) by the year 2001 and thus crossing over to the Space Odyssey series. A part of me really likes this actually, since that would explain some of the Monolith's more supernatural abilities (the ability to turn Jupiter into a new star makes a lot more sense if the Monoliths have a magically expanded interior filled with all the mass you could ever want; Bowman's weird fetal spirit form is actually a Horcrux — he murdered HAL 9000 after all ). The adventure then becomes figuring out how the monolith ticks and why it's sending such a massive transmission to the outer planets...

Part III: The "Social" Story
An older, wiser Harry leads an interstellar colony ship flying towards the nearest Earth-like planet orbiting a distant star. Here's the harder sci-fi stuff drops to the background as we see the massive changes wrought by Harry's space exploration: man (wizard and muggle) has colonized the solar system. Using a fantastic orbiting floo network the cost per tonne into space has dropped dramatically. There are now colonies across two planets (Venus and Mars are in the process of being terraformed; Venus regularly ships out large quantities of its CO2 atmosphere to Mars to enhance the latter planet's greenhouse effect and help naturally cool the Venusian surface) and dozens of moons (and even a dwarf planet or two). Exotic new plants and creatures are bred for the new environment. Perhaps the actual plot is dealing with going around the solar system to pick up crew/supplies for the mission, dealing with bureaucracies, etc. Maybe all this space activity has cost quite a lot, money that could have otherwise been spent on education or welfare; Harry's on the outs with Hermione who has become a major social justice campaigner and since he's not on Earth all that much he's growing distant from his friends in general. There's a lot of ideas that could be explored here, I just never grabbed on to an idea that would really stick.

And Harry is still there trying to reach for the stars.

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Anyway that's the idea. It's kind of silly and reflects my absolutely ridiculous enthusiasm about spaceflight. I've tried writing it about four times but usually give it up. Largely this is because I've yet to find a particularly good scifi Harry Potter fic — the closest to what I'd want would be Ynyr's The Voyage of the Starship Hedwig since that has the right world building and is about the same place on the Mohs Hardness scale. The major problem is that all the characters barely act human let alone in character and that kind of ruins what could have been an otherwise good fic.

 

Thanks to someone in this thread I also have plans for the moon, but it's a bit more Gundamish in it's plot, insofar as it's about tensions between those wizards who have colonized space, and those who look down upon them and wish to oppress their rights and standing within the culture.

 

Oh, I like that idea, Rents.

You could have it be where the planets were traveled to magically, or you could simply have wizards travel there on technology. You would come to some very different stories that way.

A few things to consider:
1. Do magic spells work the same on other planets? (a redlibertyx mentioned) Would there be a different magical "matrix" to work with? Would wand motions change, for instance, to re-align with the planet's ley lines (or whatever)? Would incantations change to match the colonists' known languages? Would the availability (or lack) of different elements create differences in how spells work? For example would "auguamenti" fail on a planet with almost no natural supply of water?

2. How much of a planet's magical supplies would need to be imported from Earth? For example, on a near barren planet with no indigenous magical animals, how would you get wands? Would wizards need a different focus? On "Pandora-style" planets with their own ecosystem, would there be new possibilities for spell casting?

3. Are there aliens? Do some or all of them have magic?

 

I sort of want to create a worldbuilding thread dedicated to Wizarding Poland. Show how it might look, what the government is like, if and how many vampires are around etc. But I'm not sure if many people would participate.

 

I would love repeat of the recent worldbuilding thread, inventing worlds is one of my favorite activities (and I have no ability to produce a story from it).

 

@Xandrel & Bulwersator - you could easily start the worldbuilding thread in our social group, and when it will have a sufficient size post it on the forum.

Oh, and I would also like to take part in this project.

 

Something I would really like to see is a Captain Marvel!Harry Potter. Or SHAZAM!Harry. Actually it has nothing to do with Shazam at all, but old wizard gives young boy powers

Now here me out. JebidiahofCanaan!Dumbledore. He would be called the Champion of Peverell, or maybe Merlin. And Dumbledore would reveal that Harry's parents had been killed by the Champion of Slytherin, Voldemort, because Dumbledore wanted to pass off the wizarding powers to James.

So first he would hand off the Invisibility Cloak, while trying to teach him the ways of the Elder Wand. Maybe a Champion of Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff/Gryffindor in Hermione/Neville/Ron. All the champions would need their power ring/object in order to do anything. The power ring would be the Locket, Diadem, Cup, and Sword. Harry's would maybe just be the Ring of Gaunt, which Voldemort is trying to take back in order to rise to his previous power.

In the story, they would have conflicts/interactions with the vampire or vampire/magical hunter Quirrell, alchemist Nicholas Flamel and his former apprentice Snape, Bulgarian Pirates, a clan of Veela from France, an odd forest elf named Dobby who kind of hero-worships the Champions, an outcast giant and his half-brother -along with their pet Hippogriff, three headed dog, and dragon- who were raised by giant spiders, merpeople stealing his love interest, a poltergeist who has possessed Ron's brothers, having to recover Atlantis/Harry's hometown/other place from Dementors, a nation of goblins, a shapeshifter/controller of dogs and his werewolf friend, a friendly man-horse, and so much more.

Harry would probably come across Dumbledore on his 11th birthday when he was exploring the island that his uncle had taken him to. Dumbledore would explain how he had been training James and had already given him the Invisibility Cloak, inadvertently causing his death at the hands of Voldemort. Dumbledore decided to start a lot earlier this time because he was dying/Voldemort might target Harry.

Dumbledore would leave Harry on business for his friend Flamel, but would grant him with a talking hat, an invisibility cloak, and an owl. Or leave the owl for later from Hagrid, and Fawkes would stay to protect him.

Now Harry wouldn't just sit idly with the Sorting Hat begging him for adventure since he hadn't been awake in centuries. He would go off to find a boy in a small village, the only one who recognized the hat was talking. Fawkes would swoop down to take the hat off Harry and onto Ron, and the sword would slide out, giving Ron his Champion status and powers. Harry would keep the hat and Ron would keep the sword, but it comes with a nearly headless ghosting following you around.

They would head off to more adventure in the mountains when Sir Nick told them of a famous power-giving diadem. What they would find is an ordinary man, already making the trek in order to rescue his daughter from the infamous troll. They would go confront the outcast troll and his hostage under the cloak, but the troll's partner, a vampire, would smell them. The turban wearing vampire would have just retrieved the diadem for his master, but would be unable to use it because of his vampire-ness. Vampire Quirrell would then recognize Harry's artifacts and try to steal them for the evil duo's master, Voldemort. Mr. Granger would try to kill Quirrel with his sword, but the vampire would be too fast for him and would ultimately end up stabbing Mr. G in the stomach with G's sword, while Hermione watched her father die and Harry and Ron watched the friend they had just journeyed through perilous mountains with die (so they'd be pretty upset as well). Ron would find his first supernatural ability, Gryffindor's (or Phoenix/Whatever) Fury, and go on a Quirrell destroying rampage, using the Sword and Mr. G's shield. He would incapacitate Quirrell, and then turn on to the troll. Nick would possess it momentarily, Harry would trip it, and Ron would cut its throat.

Hermione would offer the diadem to them for saving her life, but they would refuse because of Mr. G wanting her to have it and all that. Plus she would need the enhanced speed and stealth of it if she was going to partake in their awesomesauce adventures. After the bury Mr. G and leave the mountain to find Dumbledore, Quirrell would reveal to be alive because Ron hadn't driven wood through his heart.

That's about as far as I've planned, but it would be a classic rogue/mage/knight set up with the trio. I imagine they'd then go run into Hagrid on the way to Dumbledore Island. He'd give them their familiars in a snowy white owl, a rat big enough to ride, and an orange cat. They'd do some stuff with Flamel and Dumbles that would lead to them befriending a shy boy in Flamel's town. He would try to stop them from going off on dangerous quests, but they would ignore him and so he would apprentice to Flamel in order to help them out. He'd stumble on Flamel's secret VAULT of magical doohickeys. And being the clumsy boy he is, Neville trips and his lips touch a gold cup, granting him powers I haven't decided yet. Plant control? I don't know.

So Quirrell tries to steal Stone, Harry kills him with stake, Voldemort shows up, Dumbles shows up with Hagrid and his beasts. Proceed to Voldemort getting his ass kicked by Dumbles, Fluffy, and a small-ish Norberta (probably size of a bike). Fluffy bites his finger off with ring on it, Voldemort dissolves into wisp, Dumbles gives it to Harry, all is well.

Then Harry stumbles into a Chamber.

 

It is done, I created the discussion there.

 

Had a plot bunny where Voldemort actually died at Godric's Hollow when he tried to kill Harry, but his Horcruxes are still active and able to possess people like the diary did to Ginny Weasley.

For example the diary would possess Ginny as normal. Maybe with Harry finding out that the soul anchors are still out there from Riddle and feeling some kind of responsibility to try and hunt them down.

The Locket would possess Kreacher perhaps and pass itself onto some adult wizard down the line.

Diadem, maybe a Ravenclaw student who came across it in the Room of Requirement.

Etc etc. Could potentially end up with 3 or 4 different Voldemorts running around all with different plot to kill Harry. Not sure if it's been down already or anything like that.

Thoughts?

 

I feel like there's an actual story out there with that plot. Instead of a Ravenclaw, the Diadem possess Trelawney or something and she travels the country being insane? I can't remember much about the specifics of the story though.

Regardless the idea of multiple Voldemorts running around has merit. I would specifically like to see each Horcrux with a different characterization based on (1) Voldemort's age when he created it and/or (2) qualities of the object in question. For instance, with the Diary the part of Voldemort's soul represented there should act like Tom Riddle in Hogwarts (infinitely sure of himself, that his future has untapped potential, or something like that) while the Cup Horcrux might represent Tom while he was working at Borgin and Burke's (more suave maybe, more manipulative but less sure about his future as he's stuck in a dead-end retail job). Or how the Diary was meant as practically a weapon while the locket was hidden away; in RTS-terms the Diary!Voldemort would (perhaps suicidally) rush while the Locket!Voldemort would turtle and be over cautious.

 

I think it was this one: Souls Abound, by Robst.

 

So... does the horcrux change the dummy in any way?

 

It turns it into a wizarding world's bastardization of Chucky, just take away the hatchet and replace it with killing curses. You could even add more of Chucky's scars to the marionette as the series goes on.

 

Yeah, its eyes go all reptilian, it loses its nose, and can actually pronounce an "S" sound, instead of faking it.

 

No, not Chucky. It will be the equivalent of the Scarface doll from Batman, forcing people to do its deeds for it.

 

Something that's been running around in my head here - basically muggles die off, and a faction of wizards takes the opportunity to restore nature to a state less maimed by mankind, developing a form of nature based magic to grow plants, reshape landscapes, and manipulate water, as well as various kinds of beast magic. When Voldemort returns, Harry Potter is one of the foremost wizards to warp these peaceful new skills into weapons.

 

Would read the shit out of that.

 

I think that would be better as Original universe. After all what exactly does the protagonist being Harry add to this story? A central conflict with Voldemort coming back? You can have that anyways, it's a common enough trope that no one would call you out for copying.

 

Name Bro, you got to do this, do it fucking Original Fiction man.