I was thinking of a slight spin off on the normal independent fics we get on FF.net. In most the fics you get post OoTp. Then of course the "Sirius died and i gotta train and go shopping" blah blah. Now to me this seems like a normal reaction, someone you love dies so you do something about it, or at least try and give up interest after a week. But in Harry's case he'd probably persist which gives this idea at least some merit even though its way overdone.

One thing that does get to me alt is that Dumbledore is always made out as stupid, manipulative, with the order being useless. I highly doubt an old revered leader is gunna get caught and beat out by a stupid school kid, after one month of reading law books and crap.

So i got the idea, what if the order or Dumbledore purposely set him up to control him? They could use the fact that hes gunna wanna train and rebel, and truly manipulate him. Steer him to certain areas of magic, make him think hes doing good. I even had the slight idea to toss Tonks in the picture, a permanent order guard to keep him on a leash, and here he thinks hes just getting some female attention and lapin it p. If they made him think he's getting somewhere and getting more powerful, why would he rebel against them? Thats like my dad buying me a house and setting me up for life in harry's case.

He would However eventually find how mislead he is, and that could be a TRUE catalyst to get his gears moving. None of this out of the blue Harry decides he can trust No one and dumbledores a old coot. If they truly did deceive him in such a way it would make him paranoid, untrusting, always checking for people true motives. It would effectively slytherinize him in my opinion. Or that at least how i predict i would act in a similar situation.

From there on its whatever. The challenge is just for that basic beggining or something similar. I thought it might be a better way to get him in the slytherin independent mindset. The main problem ive spotted so far is, why would they want to control him?
I are lots of reasons of course it could be done, but in my mind i would think the best way to get Harry ready is "get him the hell ready". Train him from a small to be ready for war. That however is to me a now boring plot line since its been done 100,000,000,000 times.

 

Why would Harry listen to what they say for training in magic if he's independant?

How does Dumbledore manipulate him by telling him how to train?

 

He means Dumbledore PRETENDING to be an old manipulating coot because he WANTS harry to be independant.

 

Ummm. No I'm sorry but your wrong.

Read it again, unless it's some language known only to cats...

 

Nonono, Dumbledore WANTS Harry to be independant, powerful, and mistrusting. The best way to do this is to alienate Harry from himself, and set him down the path to independant!Harry fics, with tonks acting as a safeguard incase he gets into trouble.

Edit: Never mind, I just read it again. You're right.

I think that is stupid and doesn't make sense. Sorry.

 

Well the point is hes NOT independent until he finally finds outs they are manipulating him. That is the action thats sends him into his new mindset of "independence". I find it more believable that you change and learn from your mistakes. This would be something you learn from that changes you.

On the other hand you have the normal independent series where generally OoTp was the action that sends Harry into independent mode. Its slightly beleiveable to me, however its been overdone so i proposed something new.


Second, it wasn't specifically that Dumbledore's training him thats manipulating. Its the fact that Dumbledore USES Harry's state of mind and emotional state to send him in specific directions. Training may be one of those things dumbledore uses, since i'de obviously wanna learn to fight better if im getting my ass handed to me by deatheaters, and having my godfathers murderer laughing in my face at my inability to hurt her.

In other examples, he might create "mock" order meetings that Harry can sit in on. Harry things he knows whats up and that hes an important player. Maybe Dumbledore might request some of Harry's fortune for the war, and order supplies. That way he's basically robbing Harry, but becuase Harry's still so naive he just has no idea. Harry thus far is shown as trusting. Why would you think that the man thats your mentor is trying to screw you over, when you already have a deep trust in him?

Something like this might replace the old boring cliche of Dumbledore being Harry's magical guardian and robbing him bluntly.

In essense this story is NOT independent, until my challenge is over. Its a slow realistic building of character to get him to the independent mindset. Instead of having a epiphany sitting on his bed that he needs to be independent and that order and dumbledore=bad, he actually learns it first hand. By example, like most other people in the world learn their lessons.

Its just a means of a different beggining, probly 7-10 chapters, then the story goes truly indnependent with whatever plot you have in mind. Or you could drag it out into some mind fuck story and have this plot be the full length i dunno.

Get it now?

Edit: Wow so i got alot more replies before i actually got this post done for the first guy lol. The second guys idea with the Dumbledore setting Harry on this path on purpose could work. Iv'e thought of doing something similar before, but that wasnt the intent for this idea. It could work, but i think it would be a bit of a risk on dumbledores part. Doing something like that, especially with this specific means could have alot of different results, some possibly negative to dumbledore. The point was in this challenge we know the result will be independence.

The whole thing with Tonks (which was just a random idea mind you not really part of the challenge) Is that she would be a girlfriend, or maybe just lead Harry into thinking it could happen. That way she easily weasels her way into Harry's life and can further "manipulate" him for Dumbledore, and since theyd obviously spend alot of time together it would give Dumbledore or the order better control over Harry's actions full time. Kinda like a different kinda spin off on the Ron/Hermione spying on him. A girlfriend interest however would probly be closer to his heart and might be able to string him along better, rather then just spying.

 

I can see it. After all that would be true manipulation, not the sly bs that most author's write. If you can see the person's motivations a mile a way it isn't manipulation. I'll just stream of concusness this for a minute.

Harry starts off mopping around in his room like all Post OOTP fics. Then he gets a letter from some law firm requesting that he appear at the will reading of Sirius Black, aside Gringotts is a bank, they wouldn't be responsible for the reading and execution of a will.

As Dumbledore probably can control Harry's mail he's sure to send a letter forbidding Harry to go for security reasons. Harry being a rebellious teen does exactly that, easily dodging the incompetent Order guard, Dung. All the while a professional Auror, Tonks and or Kingsley trails him and make sure he doesn't get into trouble. Harry, no skill at all in this department never notices them.

Harry reaches the law firm and attends the reading, that unknown to him Dumbledore has tampered with. Providing Harry with a highly warded property that Dumbledore owns and Sirius wills to Harry, along with a collection of books that Dumbledore wan'ts him to read. Part of the will emancipates Harry and Dumbledore moves to stop him, a big fight and falling out insures and guarantees that Harry will move out of the Duresly's and into Dumbledore's secret training camp.

So we have a pissed off Harry going to Dumbledore's private training camp with Dumbledore's selected reading. An attempt by Dumbledore to force him to return to the Duresly's would force him to use the portkey that is the only way to get to the camp and prevent him from going shopping for those random "how to kick major ass" books that Borgin has on sale. At some point before that Tonks or whoever Dumbledore's insider is can speak to Harry about how unfair this all is and ask to help him. Harry of course being lonely by himself training acepts her help after a few days.

As to why Dumbledore would take the time to do all of this instead of offering to teach him? Perhaps Dumbledore has a foolproof method of killing Voldemort that doesn't involve beating him in a duel. But it requires the willing sacrifice of the caster. Knowing Harry would never agree to that if Dumbledore just out and said it, he could include the book on the spell in the collection of "random" books that Sirius willed to Harry. Harry discovers and learns the spell of last resort on his own and when faced with just how strong Voldemort is, and his new found love of Tonks, whoever. Remember 16 year old boy's equate any form of intimacy with love, so Harry would willing sacrifice himself to save her.

No we actually have a motive, which most manipulative Dumbledore stories lack, and a valid reason for Harry to doubt everything that anyone say's once he learns of this plot.

Wow. I thought of that in five minutes. If someone would write it I would definitely read it.

 

It would work well in a series. First part is this challenge, and it ends with him figuring out whats going on. Second part he truly breaks free and there is indi!stuff with a Harry who is already trained. Final part is the blah blah shit. Its better in trilogy form.

 

You know, this challenge reminded me of IP's Yin and Yang fic. Just saying.

But, it's a fair challenge. The premise is just using a new method to achieve the same thing; in effect, a new dog doing old tricks.

 

Sounds quite interesting, and could lead to a good fic.The author would have to be careful to plan out exactly how they were going to write it, because it could easily get very convoluted.

 

You explained it much better than before. I like, hope you take it up.

 

Hmm maybe i should read that fic then. I hope this challenge wasnt a copy of something already done.

Any thats exactly what i was aiming for, a new dog doing old tricks. I jsut got so bored of reading the same old beginings to indi fics.

 

The idea I wrote out above kept nagging me so I sat down today and wrote out the first few chapters of my take on it. Its in the work by author section. As I said there I won't update if for a while, at least until I finish the next chapter of my current opus. Link