Because its a good thing. Magical nations should have different borders than muggle ones. Why shouldn't they?

I have a different question here for you. In your setting, who truly rules these new empires? Are muggles the leaders, or a wizards the true power?

 

I like to imagine the MoM still runs the magical side of the Republic of Ireland.

 

In China the wizarding emperor is definitely in charge. When he took control of the country he murdered all potential muggle leaders. Wizards occupy all important positions. Muggles are basically farmers and cannon fodder.

In Britain there're two legislative system - the Wizengamot and Parliament. Issues that affect all citizens - defence, basic laws etc - come under the purview of a House of Lords (different name pending) that's made up of select members of both systems. The monarchy also plays a greater role.

In the Commonwealth a magical monarchy rules but muggles occupy key positions.

 

So it is a mixture of both, I guess that's a reasonable solution.

Tell us about Harry though. Describe his changed backstory and childhood.

 

He grew up privileged in a wealthy family. He was an only child. His father did two stints in the army (one conscript, one volunteer). He was killed in action when Harry was five, serving in Southern Africa under Tom Riddle's command. Lily a leading light in the Empire's Potions community.

He attended Hogwarts and completed his compulsory service in the King's African Legion (his father's old regiment and the unit in which Tom is the honorary commander - I'm not in love with the name. I like describing the the unit as a Legion but I also like the term Borderers).

The story would start when he's 23, nearing the end of a second voluntary term of service. He's young, experienced and well-liked by his men and being courted by the army to become a lifer and by the Aurors. He's somewhat antagonistic towards Tom who personally commanded the mission in which his father was killed, the details of which are still classified.

His characteristics would be pretty similar to canon - brave, self-less, loyal. He'd be talented, duty-bound and patriotic. Ruthless as well.

 

Are you going to play with the AR circumstances of your fight club short? Bring canon characters back to the AU with Riddle?

 

If I wrote the story I'd do it like Skitterleap - drop the reader into a completely different world.

I might drop canon characters in as an omake but they wouldn't have the same type of relevance in the much expanded universe as they do in canon unless they fell into the middle of some serious events, something that is much easier to manage with characters born in that world.

 

What if Canon was the result of time travel?

In a lot of time-travel fics, we have Harry or someone else going back to prevent the horrors made by the war against Lord Voldemort.

They eventually succeed and it results in a happy-fun AU present.

But what if the world shown in Canon is actually the best of the options?

What if the original history was so terrible that at some point someone went back in time and decided "Yes, Voldemort seems like the lesser evil".

Some possibilities may include a Grindelwald victory, perhaps a world where Dumbledore remained his ally.

Another may see a Goblin supremacy, or perhaps a world overrun with Dementors, or maybe something else entirely.

Do you guys have any ideas about the possible "original" present and how it may have been worse than canon?

 

Here's an interesting take on that concept where there's a world with Neville Longbottom as the Boy-Who-Lived and the war went really poorly, so they make a plan to go back in time to make the war more favorable which leads to canon.

Mutable Reality

 

I like this. The idea that Harry goes back and defeats Voldemort with future knowledge, only to find that The Dark Lords actions are the only thing stopping something even worse happening is pretty awesome.

It would actually make some sense- the Dementors were getting restless and planning something, but thankfully Voldemort started up again and got them to let off some steam (or something, I'm sure there's some cool mythological Fanon that could be used.)

 

That's like the perfect opportunity to make Voldemort a hero. Let's say that in the OTL Tom Riddle was really a good guy; an earlier, more talented version of Harry Potter. But then everything went somehow to hell and he travelled back to his childhood, knowing that he has to become the villain to keep the world from ending. We'd have his slow transformation from hero to villain. It could become quite Revan-esque.

 

I could see this being interesting. Maybe as a story where Aberforth travels back in time to save Ariana, resulting in Dumbledore siding with Grindelwald, causing the world to go to shit. It could work really well as a time loop story - with Aberforth desperately trying to create a future where both his sister is alive, and his brother isn't evil. Eventually he would have to accept Ariana's fate, and allow events to occur as they did originally.

 

I feel like that'd be even better the other way around. Original timeline has Ariana surviving and Albus siding with Grindelwald, and Aberforth goes through dozens of timelines trying to stop it until he realizes that the only way is to banish Grindelwald's influence before Albus can commit fully, and the only way to do that is for his beloved little sister to die.

 

And that he (in his teenage body) was the one who cast the spell that killed her. AND he gave Albus the impression that Albus was the one who accidentally killed Ariana. And he had to watch young Tom Riddle fall, and Harry Potter suffer (the best of two generations) because that was the best possible of all the myriad futures.

End (or start) the story three days after the final battle in DH. Alberforth is found dead (suicide) in the Hog's Head and Harry decided to investigate in between his work and slowly discover this.

 

You seem to be missing both American continents there, friend.

 

<smartass>
There are three (North, Central and South).
</smartass>

 

I didn't know central America was its own continent. This is news to me.


God, I bet when I first started snarking I did stuff like this all the time. I'm getting old and jaded.

 

Is Greenland part of North America?

 

http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/gl.htm

Post in the right thread. If there is a thread for questions like these.

 

Building on from this old plot, the fourth arc would lead Harry on alone, seeing Ron recovering in St. Mungos after the defeat of the Baron in South America. Auror Potter's next destination deposits him in Siberia, on the trail of an eclectic group of vampires seeking to raise old Mother Russia's finest madman; Rasputin, chiefly, to become a new Czar. Harry has to contend with Russian wizardry impeding him at every turn, including corruption within the government from factions invested in the success of the dark ritual, and find clues that are being snatched away as soon as he begins to make inroads.

The Russians hope that with Rasputin's return from the grave, they can reestablish their culture as a superpower in the wider world once more, and come out of the shadows that have hidden magical superiority for so long.

Eventually Harry stumbles his way into the heart of the ceremony, but too late to do anything about it. Rasputin returns to life thanks to the mystery man tugging on the strings here the same as everywhere else, and Harry is left to fight an immortal and the horde of ravening vampires and wizards willing to fight and die to see Mother Russia dominant again. All he manages are a few terse words with the unknown antagonist before he's in for the fight of his life.

After bringing down most of the surrounding area in the calamity and making an escape across the border on the heels of the antagonist, Harry is reaching his breaking point. He's been labeled a war criminal for crimes against the Russian state and the magical government. He's exhausted, and in for far more than he'd initially bargained for. But he cannot stop. He knows for a certainty now that someone is out there, orchestrating this song and dance across the world. With Ron still out for the long haul and not willing to endanger any more Weasley's, Harry continues into the fifth arc more alone than ever, now being hunted down by the equivalent to KGB Hit Wizards and local policing forces across central China.

I'm not sure exactly where to go from there. I'd like to dive into the mythology of the land, but what exactly would the conflict be about? Peasant uprisings? Seeking out Shangri-la closer to Tibet, to prevent the antagonist from corrupting the sacred land and unleashing local demons into the world again? I think that however it goes, by the end, the identity of the antagonist would have to be exposed. Which then raises the question of who is it? And I don't yet know.