I feel the main danger to this would be making Harry and the Muggle world too good/powerful compared to the magical world. As long as you avoid that pitfall, this sounds like a really interesting idea.

 

That's part of the reason I'd have him working against magical creatures - vampires, werewolves, trolls etc - rather than actual Death Eaters. It avoids the muggle vs wizard argument and would let Harry impact on the main story (BWL vs Voldemort) without actually being part of it.

 

I never quite saw the appeal of squib!Harry. I mean, I do read this stuff because of the magic, after all, so taking that away from Harry just robs me of the incentive to read it.

 

I kind of agree with you which is why I'll probably never even try to write the story. However, there's something about the bunny that appeals to me.

 

I agree about the danger of using Muggle weapons to turn Harry into Gary Stue.
But Squib!Harry story could be well-written if he uses the tools from the Wizardling World that don't require magical core (Potions etc).

 

There is no such a thing as magical core in canon and I could be wrong, but ain't there potions, where you have to use the wand to stir them? So a squib would be restricted to only the part of portions, where you don't need a wand.

 

You have to be magical to create any potion.

 

That's the way I like to think of it. Creating a potion and casting a spell are just two ways wizards can do magic. When casting a spell, they wave a bit of magical animal encased in a bit of plant through a simple pattern and say a magic word. When creating a potion, they combine bits of magical animals and plants in a complex patter. A muggle could do both action sets but without magic they are just random actions.

 

I preferred to imagine that the magic is in the potion ingredients and that the only reason most squibs suck at potion making is that there isn't any formal potion-making education available to them due to long term prejudice.

 

Are you one of those guys who thinks that magical spells create physical effects on the object they're working on, as opposed to working by magic? Because that's where you are leading to if you think that magical creature's body parts, cut up and put into boiling water/assorted liquids makes the magic happen.

 

The idea that potions ingredients are all from magical creatures or plants is something of a fanon misconception - in fact the vast majority are bits of regular, "Muggle" animals and plants.

People often ask why it should be the case the Muggles could not make potions when they could perform all the same physical motions as a wizard with regards to preparing and mixing the ingredients. In doing so they forget that a Muggle can make all the same physical motions with regards to waving a wand and saying an incantation. There's no fundamental difference between the two, in my mind. To me, the process of making a potion is essentially that of casting a spell, it's just using different tools to do so.

 

Well, squibs are not muggles. They can't use a wand, but e.g. can see things that muggle can't but regular wizards can and are not repelled by muggle-repelling charms, AFAIK.

 

Well, no, they're not Muggles because they have magical parents. But magically they are identical to Muggles, in that they both have no magic.

JKR said as much on her old website, where she said:

a) Squibs have no magic
b) Figg did not see the Dementors, she only felt them. This can also be seen in OotP, where she describes them as running and the narrative mentions how her description sounds like she's just seen a picture in a book.
c) There's no evidence that Muggle-repelling charms don't repel squibs. The only thing that would suggest this is Filch, but we know that Muggles can be led to magical locations by wizards from the Grangers being in Diagon Alley. And Filch never seems to leave the castle, so he only needs to be led there once.

Unfortunately I can't quote the site for you anymore, because Wayback Machine appears to have deleted their jkrowling.com archive.

 

Canon debates with Taure. Lawyered.

 

Would like to see a story, even if crack, where Filch plays a significant role.

Filch was a member of a somewhat respectable wizarding family before they realized he was a Squib and his cruel parents sent him to a boarding school on the continent. They were supporters of Voldemort and, as a result, perished before the first war even started. In a letter left to him, he finds out that his parents loved him very much, they just believed that the Dark Lord would turn on them if he knew they had a Squib son.

From there, Filch continued to travel abroad, using his paltry inheritance to get the struggles of the world off his mind. The situation with Voldemort rapidly deteriorates, and he's forced to come home when his sister, also a supporter, dies in an Auror raid. The funeral is a silent affair, held on the outskirts of Hogsmeade, but when he leaves, he notices Albus Dumbledore waiting for him.

The Headmaster offers him a job doing odds and ends at Hogwarts. He firmly believes that there is a place in the wizarding world for squibs, and that those who lack magic shouldn't be mistreated. Unfortunately, Argus finds that very few of the students housed at Hogwarts feel the same way, and he eventually becomes a touch cruel, commonly scaring the students into respecting him by threatening them with punishment.


The years pile up. When Harry, Ron and Hermione start school, however, things begin to change. The Marauders Map, in Filch's possession, begins to show a name that it shouldn't: Peter Pettigrew. Argus remembers Peter as a boy, timid and unliked, except by the "Marauders", who apparently created the map. Fortunately, despite being a squib, the map reacts to his words, and he begins to question Peter's presence in Hogwarts' halls.

With his cat, he begins looking for the man, but he has no luck until he runs across a rat during Harry's third year. Worried that Peter may be trying to kill Harry by staying with Ron, Filch decides to handle the rat himself; unfortunately, he runs away as a result. Filch tracks him for the entire semester, though the situation with Remus still plays out mostly the same. Filch recognizes Sirius and realizes that he can't possibly be guilty; Pettigrew escapes into the night, but Filch recruits Sirius for the chase.

Canon would change from there. Sirius slowly regains his strength, travelling with Ms. Norris and Filch as company. They head for Eastern Europe, which Filch knows rather well from his stay abroad. They spend a year searching for Pettigrew and Voldemort and, eventually, Remus catches up with them.

Filch is inducted into the Order. After Pettigrew reveals himself and Harry escapes the grave yard, Filch kicks himself, realizing that he should have stayed at Hogwarts all along. Dumbledore is all too happy to give him his job back, but explains that Hogwarts is under watch by the Ministry, and any favoritism will be viewed in a negative light. Filch promises that the students, and especially Umbridge, won't know that he's on Harry's side.

Filch is to return before September, but when Harry returns to the Dursleys after fourth year, Filch is on watch when the Dementors attack. He's summoned by the Ministry to Harry's trial and questioned. Umbridge already has the cogs working, realizing that Filch is under Dumbledore's "control".

Filch/Figg ship. The overarching themes are exploring a Squib's contribution to the war effort, showing the way they are treated by a Pureblood and Muggleborn alike, and slowly developing Filch into something besides a cranky old janitor.

 

This sounds sick! I wish someone wrote it.

 

HP/LotR crossover.

Harry is killed by Voldemort in the forest in DH and arrives in Middle-Earth without his wand, about 40 years before the War of the Ring. The story will have Harry tackling his own unique plot as part of the war of the ring, only intersecting with the Fellowship three times (Council of Elrond, Lothlórien, Aragorn's coronation).

Harry's main antagonist will be Khamûl, one of the Nazgûl, who will be fleshed out considerably with his own history, and the main conflict of the setting will be that between Lothlórien and Dol Guldur (which Khamûl rules as Sauron's lieutenant during the war).

The focus of Harry's character arc is him coming to terms with his place in Middle Earth and developing his own brand of magic. Harry is a wizard, and so is of the same type of being as Gandalf -- a being of great magical strength bound to a human body. But unlike Gandalf he doesn't have thousands of years of knowledge and experience. He has to figure out how to harness his powers.

EDITED TO PREVENT SPOILERS

 

Here's a way to make squib!Harry work.

 

Do you plan on actually writing up that fic, Taure?

 

In the same way I plan to be a millionaire, yes.

Translation: talk to me in ten years.