If I was Harry I'd probably manage to destroy the world by being too lazy/afraid to actually do anything about Voldemort. I think pretty much all of us would, to be honest.

Honestly I'd probably spend most of my days trying to find ways to use magic to jerk myself off.

 

>Be Harry Potter
>Know Voldemort is trying to kill you
>Still spend your days playing with your 'wand'.

:fire

I have to wonder, has self preservation tapered off in mankind these last few years?
If someone is dedicated to murdering me and no one else is arresting that guy, I'm going to do my best to kill him or her, even if the chances of me actually succeeding are infinitesimal.
Because by doing something, you still stand a chance of not being worm basilisk food.

 

I have to agree that it would be frightening to become HP. Think about second year. I would not want any part of that snake, and I would be frightened to tell Dumbledore because then he'd question why I knew about it and Obliviate the sh*t out of me.

 

So you wouldn't shit your pants if you met a twelve feet tall monster when you were eleven?

People always think they're tougher than they actually are in these kind of scenarios.

Also, running/hiding from Voldemort is probably a more useful act of self preservation than attempting to kill him before he kills you.

 

I'd be scared, sure. Not enough to curl down in fetal position and let myself get eaten, though. I kinda prefer living.

Implying you can hide from him forever. Unless you spend your life under the invisibility cloak -and even then-, he's going to find you eventually.

 

I'm not implying you could hide from him forever, I'm saying you'd probably survive for longer and have a bigger chance of surviving if you're hiding/running than when you're going headlong into battle with Voldemort.

And let's be real, the only reason canon Harry beat Voldemort is dumb shit ass fucking luck and plot armour.

So I guess it really all just boils down to whether plot armour is included in the deal or not.

Because there's no way no way you'd survive Voldemort without plot armour.

 

I can agree with that. Without a metric shitload of luck, anyone's -not named Dumbledore- chances of surviving an encounter with Voldemort are virtually nil.

 

While what you say is true, and Voldemort is extremely dangerous, do remember that both Harry's parents and the Longbottoms defied Voldemort thrice each. While the word defied might be a bit tricky, I don't think it refers to just passively resisting Voldemort's efforts. Tons of people did that (Order of the Phoenix, Ministry of Magic, etc). The "defiance" meant something more, a direct opposition to Voldemort (at least in my headcanon ).

This was a reason why Voldemort was able to identify the two babies (Harry and Neville) who had the power to vanquish the Dark Lord. There probably were many more babies born as the month of July ended. But Voldemort was able to specifically track these two babies because he remembered their parents, who defied him directly, thrice each.

So, I wouldn't necessarily say that surviving an encounter with Voldemort is impossible. Extremely dangerous, yes, but not impossible.

 

There's two big ways to think about this:

1. I retain all my memory and basically am just recreating a timetravel fic except without HP's memories of actually learning almost any of the magic.

2. I don't retain my memories in which case I go through canon.

Why does any of that sound good?

 

Hell no.

I'm fucking awesome. I love myself. Why would I want to be anyone else.

If I could be myself and get a Hogwarts letter at age 11, now that would be a tricky question.

 

In the final battle Voldemort was fighting McGonagall, Shacklebolt and Slughorn, and holding his own. Three of the most talented characters in the books and he could fight them all at once, and likely win if they hadn't had Harry's protection.

 

And don't forget that he was fighting with a wand that technically didn't recognize him as the official Master.

Incidentally, I just came up with a Crack where someone gets the chance to go to the HP world... and keeps dying in every ridiculous way imaginable. I doubt I would ever write it, but it's fun to think about, and reminds me why Hogwarts is an extremely dangerous place without a handy dandy piece of Plot-Armor.

 

On the one hand, magic. As in, by waving a stick and saying some words, one can casually ignore the laws of physics. Kind of a hard proposition to turn down. On the other hand, if one thinks about the kind of difficulties that Harry Potter runs into... even with foreknowledge, that can be a tough sell IMO.

Assuming one does receive foreknowledge, it is safer to have the opportunity to have access to magic -- as well as the potential to hook up with some awesome magical people. (Ginny, Fleur, Luna, Tonks anyone?) But, even with foreknowledge all is not sunshine and roses though.

Acquistion of the Diary Horcrux and the Diadem Horcrux should occur soon enough. The Ring can be eventually gotten, as well as the Locket. The Cup will probably be the most difficult, being as it is in Gringotts. Destroying them safely is a different matter. Basilisk don't grow on trees and risking taking on a massive eye-gaze=death snake is a nigh-suicidal proposition even with the Sword of Gryffindor. The best you might hope for is trying to convince Dumbledore to dispose of the Horcruces somehow with Fiendfyre or something, while also keeping him from Memory Charming you into oblivion. (Canonical Dumbledore is somewhat manipulative but ultimately good, but no indication of just how manipulative: given how causally wizards treat Memory Charms, he might have no moral objection to using them)

A lot of the responses in this thread seem to be missing the elephant in the room: if you swap places with 11-year old Harry Potter, you have to deal with the fact that Harry is a Horcrux. Yes, maybe you can get rid of all of the Horcruces in the First Year. Maybe you can get all the Death Eaters arrested and killed. But just how the hell are you going to get rid of the Horcrux in Harry? It's going to be super tricky of neutralizing Voldemort for good without killing yourself, even if you manage to take out the other five Horcruces within the first year.

Harry had to take a Killing Curse from Voldemort in canon and only survived due to some really improbable circumstances in the abstract -- like Voldemort resurrecting using Harry's blood and Harry going to his death with the intention of dying for good. The latter option is probably closed because one's foreknowledge would leave you walking up to the Killing Curse expecting to probably survive. And the former part requires participating in the Triwizard Tournament -- meaning Year Three needs to proceed largely as per canon -- and you have to risk fighting various Death Eaters and Voldemort himself. As well as getting Cruciated a few times... (And this is all assuming you get the holly and phoenix wand to begin with to survive)

Maybe you could have Dumbledore trap Voldemort in a homunculus and dose him up with every debilitating potion known to wizardkind and just forget about trying to remove the Horcrux in Harry's head. Then Voldemort truly does get stuck with a fate worse than death. Any other option likely ends with you dying.

Without foreknowledge though... there's a good probability of dying within the First Year, realistically. Even the troll at Halloween has a good chance of killing you and if you consider the rest of the stuff that Harry takes on... sans plot armor, it'll be difficult to keep a cool head and survive.

It'll be hard to survive even with foreknowledge. It'll be all but impossible without it.

 

It does. WoG.

 

I agree with you. As you said, Voldemort is extremely powerful, almost godlike in a magical sense, along with Dumbledore. I'm not saying that Voldemort isn't dangerous. I'm just stating that there has been precedents of which people survived Voldemort's rage, and thus, surviving Voldemort is not technically impossible (6 precedents at least, to be exact, not counting all of Harry's escapades).

 

I'd love to be an 11 year old me going to Hogwarts. An 11 year old Harry would be a much harder sell. Especially considering a rather crippling fear I have of both spiders and snakes, his second year would be hell on earth for me.

 

To answer that question we have to figure out whether or not it was ever really possible for Harry to rise to the level of Dumbledore and Voldemort.

If so, then yes. Simply because I'd go in with the knowledge that I'd have to work extremely hard and buy a dimensional trunk.

 

Realistically, hell no. Even if I travelled back with my own memories, there's no version of the future where I don't lose people close to me. Having people die is terrible on its own, but to also hold yourself responsible for it? Harry is a far, far stronger man than I am.

 

Pretty much this. Me going to Hogwarts would have been fantastic. But why would I want to be Harry Potter? Why would I want to be the guy who gets shat on from all sides, who's the target of murderers and terrorists? Why would I want to be the guy who has absolutely no control over his life?

But would I exchange my current life to have to Hogwarts at the age of 11? Yes. Without a heartbeat of hesitation.