I like the cultist idea and want to see it done.

Summary:

Petunia refuses to take Harry under her roof, much to Dumbledore's displeasure. Harry is then put in a muggle foster family. Unknown to Albus, these folks turn out to be insane cultists worshiping a made up god and a bunch of absolute nonsense. Harry grows up thinking himself to be the messiah.

When Harry enters the magical world with his beliefs, some people smell a business opportunity. Given Harry's status as the Boy Who Lived, they figure selling his religion will be easy. Lucius Malfoy does it for the money, Gilderoy Lockhart does it for the fame and Horace Slughorn does it for his own, obvious reasons.

Rules:

* Whether Harry's religion turns out to be true or not is entirely up to the author.
* The genre is for the author to decide. Crack, Horror, anything goes.

 

The Boy who lived with his own religion? Oh man, the possibilities.

But even still, own religion is taking it a bit too far.

Harry Charles Manson Potter.

I think there is a fic where he's got a cult, though. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7932457/1/Harry-Potter-and-the-Long-Fall-Into-Darkness

Well, sort of.

 

I really like this idea, very creative.

I think one of the main difficulties in this would be remaining canon compliant regarding how much magic (accidental or not) Harry could control at such a young age and without a wand.

We do know Lily was able to control some of her magical outbursts at a young age, but I don't recall Harry ever being in control of his magic pre-Hogwarts.

 

Remember that Tom Riddle also could control his magic. As Harry is a Horcrux, perhaps this shall aid him.

 

Occultism would not work for children. Their attention span is not very high, so they would not be able to metitate, or anything else. Researching Magick takes a lot of time and a lot of work and dedication. Maybe, Harry's parents would manage to impart into him most important philosophy, but not much else. That would come later, when Harry would be older.

 

At first Harry would be a mouthpiece for his new parents. He'd just repeat what they told him to.

 

If Harry displayed a prowess for wandless, intentional magic at a young age, and Dumbledore didn't check on him often, I could see him gaining a small following at school and such, but the only way for him to progress into a cult leader was if he used magic against the Dursley's to defend himself and they never knew that wizardry existed. Add in a bit of reading the Bible whilst being tortured/neglected, and I could see him thinking that he was a Messiah rather than a wizard. Maybe he heals someone at school (remember the scene in Man of Steel where Superman, as a boy, saves his bully from drowning? something similar) and the parents run with the idea that he's the second coming of Jesus.

To me, you'd have to take away his ability to reason properly to make it work, otherwise he'd see Hogwarts and its witches and wizards and realize he was just part of a hidden society and that he was removed from it at an early age due to his parents death. If he actually thought he was the only one since Jesus, and no one was there to contradict him with any well-reasoned arguments, then I could see it making sense.

The conflict would then become his willingness to believe himself a messiah versus the truth staring him in his face -- there are others with abilities like him, and some are good and some are bad. Of course, if he was Christlike, he'd defeat Voldemort through the power of he knows not -- love, forgiveness, charity, etc. -- just the same as in canon.

In the end, is it all that interesting to read about it? I don't find it very appealing, but maybe if it was written with the right tone...

 

Harry still is special, in ways others aren't.

1. He is still the Boy Who Lived, the only one to ever survive the killing curse.
2. He can speak to snakes, a thing only very few could.

I think someone is forgetting that Harry Potter died for our sins and came back from the dead several moments later.

 

I can see some potential in that idea though. If that cult would be like that one in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, it would be interesting for sure. I have yet to see a good story where is Harry summoning demons and sacrificing humans.

 

Think there was a recent discussion about this in another thread. The gist of it was that it's not that interesting to read about Harry inanely killing/raping/destroying everything in sight because none of us would react that way in his position, and he'd obviously have no redeeming qualities. Not that Harry can't be a bad guy flat out, but world domination, human sacrifice and such...

I was going for a version of an Indiana Jones style adventure with my story Gone, No Goodbyes, but I never quite did get into the temple outright. I had Harry go to Africa, climb into a cave with a guide, meet up with a team, meet a hot nurse, save the hot nurse, fight off some spiders, fall off a water fall, break his leg, fight a goblin warlord and walk out of it alive... and it still never made it to the temple.

 

You don't have to identify with the protagonist. The protagonist can be a bad guy while the antagonists are the good guys who win in the end (or not).

After all, it could be written as a tragedy.