Reverse Potter

Alternate Universe in which personalities and back stories of various characters have been switched.

Below is a list of the more important characters which have been affected.

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Albus Dumbledore - Gellert Grindelwald

Albus was expelled from Hogwarts for performing dark magic. He attempted to convince Grindelwald to conquer the world but was ultimately defeated and put in Azkaban. Grindelwald now is the Headmaster of Durmstrang while Dumbledore's brother Aberforth is the Headmaster of Hogwarts.



Harry Potter - Diary Tom Marvolo Riddle

Tom Marvolo Riddle was a kind-hearted and friendly student with an unusual amount of magical talent. After noticing the boy's abilities Dumbledore attempted to recruit him, but Tom rejected the offer. Albus then used a dark ritual to split Tom's soul in two and sealed away the piece with Tom's humanity in a simple diary and hid the object somewhere in Hogwarts. Without his humanity Tom became Lord Voldemort, an emotionless monster completely devoted to Dumbledore's vision of world domination.

After Dumbledore was defeated by Grindelwald Voldemort continued the war for many decades until he heard a prophecy about a Chosen One destined to vanquish him. He discovered it to be a recently born boy named Harry Potter. The Dark Lord then attacked the Potters and attempted to kill the child. However, Harry's mother Lily sacrificed herself which caused Voldemort's curse to rebound and destroy the monster instead. With his parents dead and no living relatives, Harry was put in a muggle orphanage.

The boy's childhood was not a good one, although the worst thing about the orphanage was Harry himself. Perhaps it was the influence of the killing curse, perhaps he was always meant to be that way. He bullied other children, stole from them, hurt their pets and frequently used his developing magical abilities to manipulate people around him. In short, Harry was growing up to be a monster himself. Only after Headmaster Aberforth reintroduced Harry to the wizarding world did the boy learn to mask his true self. Hogwarts would have to prepare for Harry Potter, because he had grand plans for it.

Meanwhile in the Room of Requirement, a lonely boy was trapped in a diary.



Arthur, Molly - Lucius, Narcissa

The Weasleys are an influential and wealthy family of pureblood supremacists who despise muggleborns and muggles. Arthur was a Death Eater during Voldemort's long war of conquest. However, he evaded justice by claiming to have been under the influence of the Imperius curse. Molly is a cold and cruel woman though she genuinely loves her children and would do anything for them. All of the Weasley children are spoiled rotten.

The Malfoys are not as poor as canon Weasleys, having managed to save money due to only having one child. However, Lucius still has to work in the Ministry in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office chosen mostly due to his fascination with muggles and their inventions. Narcissa is a kind-hearted and warm mother and made sure that Draco would grow up to be a good man in the future.



Ron - Draco

Ron Weasley is a selfish, spoiled brat and the youngest son of the wealthy Weasley family. Like his parents and siblings Ron supports pureblood supremacy and despises those he views as being of inferior blood status. He always tries to intimidate others to get his way and threatens other children with his father.

Draco Malfoy however is a much better boy, a little insecure but always ready to defend those he sees as oppressed and always ready to share whatever he has even if sometimes that's very little. Having been raised in a household where money was sometimes a problem, Draco grew to be very modest though sometimes jealous of others.



Fred and George - Umbridge

In this world, Dolores Umbridge is a mischievous but very fun old lady who owns a famous joke shop in Diagon Alley.

The Weasley twins however, are creepy sadists, have aspirations for power in the Ministry of Magic and very few people in Hogwarts dare crossing them.



Percy - Lockhart

Unlike his more talented brothers, Percy never really focused on studying. Instead, he always wanted fame and fortune, even more than his wealthy family already provided him. In order to achieve this, he attempted many things. Quidditch, dueling, wizarding chess, all ended in failure. Until one day he discovered that he is really good at memory charms. A devious plan formed in his head as suddenly his dreams of fame could become a reality.

Gilderoy Lockhart was a very dedicated boy when he attended Hogwarts. He received the highest marks on his OWLs and NEWTs and after he graduated he immediately started working for the Ministry, quickly becoming a rising star. Eventually, his hard work and dedication was rewarded when he was elected the Minister for Magic.



Other possibilities:


Ginny - Pansy

Ginny would be this AU's Harry fangirl, though for different reasons. Same with Pansy being Draco's fangirl.


Hermione - Lavender

Lavender a bookworm know-it-all and Hermione the typical girly girl.


Neville - Zabini

Neville's mother is a black widow and had many husbands, while Zabini's parents are in St. Mungo's.

 

Yeah, nah, this is horrible.

 

The problem I have with this thread sometimes is the plot bunny fail to answer the original writing question: "So what?"

These characters are swapped, okay and? Harry being different could be compelling since he is the main character, but Ron doesn't have to be rich to be a jerk, nor does Draco have to be poor or middle class to be nice, or have supportive parents. What elements of the plot are being driven by these characteristics, and why couldn't the same elements be driven by the character remaining true to their canon origin?

 

He doesn't have to be, in my humble opinion. I get that the books are called Harry Potter and all and that there's this funny Potter Law meme, but I don't really mind having someone else be the protagonist.

 

I think what makes it bad is that everything is swapped (except Harry/Tom, which is intriguing because it actually incorporates elements of each character). Why on earth does Lucius need to work in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office? Why does Umbridge need to have a joke shop? Why does Percy need to pull the same stunt as Lockhart? Etc, etc.

 

I could see this as a parody of some sort. Or a series of short snippets. But not more than that. It would be a big challenge to get the humor right though. I mean, this looks like you could just write a straightforward story and then change the names.
How about you flip the circumstances (Rich Weasleys, Poor Malfoys) but keep the characters the same? Then you would have a story where a rich, influential Weasley family is advocating for Muggle and Muggle born rights whereas the poor and incompetent Malfoys froth in their mouths.
The problem with this interpretation is that in the HP novels, the good characters are mostly underdogs who face terrible odds. So if you flip the circumstances, this tension vanishes.
How about you add another flip? Make it so that the Malfoys are correct in their stance of Pureblood supremacy but everyone calls them bigoted. Now that would take some serious skill to get right but it could be interesting, couldn't it? Now you are flipping up the rules of this universe and the themes that JKR promoted.
I read a story once, Anything But Slytherin, that sort of flipped the light and the dark. As it is, I feel the plot bunny is too straightforward.

 

I've got an idea that can go down in flames in so many different ways. Being gay and being magical are synonymous. So most witches and wizards have non-magical parents (perhaps the malfoys have a lavender marriage). This adds a double reason for the witch hunts and statute of secrecy (there is an interesting parallel between the buggery act and the witchcraft acts).
Vernon and Petunia would be very worried about any signs of unnaturalness.
One sticking point is how I should handle Harry's parents. The easiest way would be to have James and Lilly as good friends, with Lilly going to James for sperm donation, but I'm not sure how well that works.

 

I realize we have way too many fem Harry fics, but I remember reading a fic where Harry(male) ends up in a world where all the male characters from canon are female. While the fic I read was pretty sub par I think a fic where Harry ends up in an all female universe could be interesting.

 

What would that accomplish? I can't think of many good plots that can arise from that scenario but I can think of many terrible ones.

In that world, either males have never existed or were wiped out.
If males were wiped out, then either there was a systematic genocide or a natural calamity.
If it was a calamity, then either society has already regained stability or not.

In all four cases (non-existence, genocide, calamity and stability, calamity and chaos) Harry would need to hide who he is.

In non-existence, the secret services would be out to experiment on this new alien species. He would not be a human as he literally has a different chromosome.
In genocide, well they'll literally kill him.
In stability, secret services would love to find out why he survived. They would of course, experiment on him. Maybe he would be able to live a normal life.
In chaos, well, the secret services would need to experiment on him to find out a way to continue the human race.

So all four scenarios only lead to one type of story. Harry hides who he is as he tries to get back to his world. If his secret gets out then he is on the run from all the agencies in the world.
And really, to get this premise you don't need an all female world. Simply make him a secret agent.

 

Dumbledore died in the first war, and Voldemort won. After the war James agreed to join the Death Eaters and marry a pureblood in exchange for Lilly receiving safe passage to France. Harry’s true parentage becomes a secret known only to James, his new wife, Voldemort and Lilly.

James advances through the ranks of the ministry eventually becoming the Head of the DMLE. He tries to do good from within the Ministry, but his need to appear as loyal often makes that impossible. Lilly becomes a professor at Beauxbatons, and acts as a mentor to Fleur. Sirius and Remus become freedom fighters, but over time slowly morph into terrorists willing to attack civilian and foreign targets in their quest for victory.

Harry is raised as a loyal pureblood under the watchful eye of his stepmother, and befriends Draco Malfoy in his first year at Hogwarts. Despite leading a privileged life Harry often finds himself horrified at the daily realities of Voldemort’s reign. He takes great care never to show this however as he fears that his friends or even his own father would gladly turn him in if they had reason to suspect his disloyalty.

The story opens in Harry’s fourth year with the Tri-Wizard tournament taking place. The French and the Bulgarians hope that the Tournament will showcase the strength of the free nations of Europe, while the British ministry hopes it will be an opportunity to prove the superiority of purebloods. But the tournament is thrown into chaos when the Goblet of Fire names two champions from Hogwarts; Harry Potter, and Neville Longbottom.

 

It's Lily. Not Lilly, for fuck's sake.

Also, I think part of that premise was used by Halt in his The Magnate.

 

Also what's with everything being different but also the same?

 

Why doesn't Lily take Harry with her? Would she consider it better for her son to be as far as possible from the Dark Lord?
And there have to be people, who know who's child is Harry. I mean... He was born before Lily left, wasn't he?

 

Yeah that whole Lilly-Lily thing is my bad. And I haven’t actually read Magnate, my inspiration is one part a Harry Turtledove novel about Jews living in the third Reich and one part Jesse Owens at the Munich Olympics.

As for why Lily didn’t take Harry with her, she wasn’t allowed to. The “obvious,” reason is that Voldemort knows about Harry and wants him to stay in Britain so that he would have a means of insuring James’ loyalty.

Too make a long story short James factors heavily into Voldemort’s plans for a post-war Britain. For reasons that are explained later on in the story Voldemort withdraws from the day-to-day job of running Britain and leaves the government in the hands of a Triumvirate.

Lucius Malfoy serves as Minister for Magic, and controls the government’s wealth and propaganda machine. Bellatrix Lestrange controls the Department of Genetic Purity, and a large faction of the Death Eaters. While James is left in charge of the DMLE.

He chose those three to lead the government because he knew that they would be acceptable figureheads for the various factions; Lucius would represent the rich and powerful, Bellatrix the blood fanatics, and James the people who had originally fought against Voldemort. He intentionally keeps all these various groups fighting each other so that they won’t ever join forces and take him out. I based this off how Hitler ran Germany; specifically how he would have the SS compete with the SA, and the Luftwaffe compete with the Wehrmacht, so that all the various factions would depend on him to smooth out the differences.

In this scenario Harry is the ultimate leverage, if James were to actually become disloyal to Voldemort his son would face the consequences. Harry’s blood status is considered pure, because James and Lily were in hiding for much of her pregnancy and therefore not a lot of people knew. Some people certainly suspect the truth but Voldemort personally attested to Harry’s blood status which protects him. The only people who as of the story date know for a fact that Harry is Lily’s son are; James, His new wife, Lily, Voldemort, Pettigrew, Sirius and Remus. All these people have either an active interest in keeping the secret or nothing to gain by exposing it.

Now the “Unobvious,” answer and one that is a secret to everyone but Voldemort is that the prophecy is still valid. I wouldn’t want to go into details about why Voldemort didn’t just kill Harry when he was a child, but suffice to say immortality no longer interests him.

 

Does Harry also know? You don't mention him, so I assume not. Does he know Lily is his mother or does he believes he is James's new wife's son? Telling someone "You are only half-wizard and your real mother was forced to fly - and by the way we despise her existence" can destroy someone's loyalty. Wouldn't terrorists want that?

 

Harry doesn't know, James doesn't tell him because at first he's too young to keep a secret. Later on James comes to believe that Harry is completely brainwashed and that telling him would be too dangerous. The two ships passing in the night relationship James and Harry have forms an important part of the plot.

James' wife treats him as her own son, partially to avoid societal embarrassment, and partially because Voldemort wanted him to be raised as a loyal subject.

Sirius and Remus haven't told him because he doesn't have anything to offer the resistance yet. Once he becomes champion however, all bets are off.

 

Is there an actual reason why Hogwarts does not in fact have a real Champion?

 

Voldemort killed him.

 

...we're talking about kjp's plot bunny, but okay

 

Geralt from Witcher series and Harry Potter are same person. It's just Harry had an unfortunate accident falling into veil during 5th book which caused serious amnesia. 200 years later, after Blood and Wine expansion, Geralt opens the portal back to his home universe. Only 2 years pass in original universe. Geralt now has to remember who he was and defeat Voldemort using his signs and swords against a magic user. (Geralt can't cast spells due to mutation or something of same sort)