Do anyone think the story would have been more interesting if Harry, under the abuse he faced at the Dursleys, had turned into an Obscurial, and Dumbledore and the teaching staff spent some time in Harry's first year teaching him to harness and exercise his abilities in a more healthy manner? Would've been cool, and Ron and Hermione would have been even more important; Ron as a moral support, representing Harry's first ever encounter with someone who does not judge him and perhaps even could calm him down when things got out of hand and Hermione who, similarly would assist him, but also help him catch up in class when time came for him to attend usual classes.

I got this really nice image of Harry in the hospital wing after an accidental incident, worried that he'll never be a "proper/normal" wizard, and then Ron and Hermione pops by and encourages him and tells him how great it will be when he start in class with him, and tell him all sort of stuff about the castle in places to which he had yet to be granted access, which would only serve to make him even more determine to "beat this thing".

Also a sort of cool scene going through my head. With the general student body's safety in mind, Dumbledore informed Peeves about the Obscurus, and throughout the first half- two thirds of the book, there is a sort of these "WTF?!" moment where Peeves sort of freezes in mid-air and don't make a sound, but just kind of follow Harry as he pass by cautiously, to the bafflement of the other students who DON'T necessarily know the details of why Harry isn't in class/all their classes.

"Bloody hell, Harry, you are as good as the Bloody Baron, I reckon!" xD

How do you think the story would've been different? Any ideas coming to mind?

 

'Yer an Obscurus, Harry'

No but seriously, try not to consider such an obviously retconned feature like the Obscurials when it comes to the original series.

 

I didn't mean to impose anything. But - if Harry's introduction to the wizarding world had been more of a challenge than a joyride, if the whole process was one of healing as well as discovery, would it make for a more interesting story? The obscurus was the first to come to mind, I probably should have emphasized that.

Ariana comes from the original series, and Aberforth's descriptions of her bear resemblance to the Obscurus concept?

 

Basically, the Obscurials is a concept that did not exist when Rowling was writing the original series, and it is bound to conflict with something (or several). The retcon basically means that according to the movie, Obscurials have always existed, when that is clearly untrue since, if they did, we'd have at least heard mention of them in the original books, especially since the situations under which they manifest have been seen multiple times there.

 

There are worse ways to do retcons, to be fair. I mean, it's a pretty blatant one, but it doesn't really contradict anything that's already happened, and while people can and have point to Harry as being a prime candidate for an Obscurial there's an in-built handwave of him not being downtrodden/traumatised enough for it to happen.

More on topic, I don't really see this making that much of a difference to fanfiction really. It's just a canon basis for Super!Harry.

 

Ehhhh, perhaps not. The movie did mention that one has not been seen in hundreds of years and that is why they didn't believe Newt. I have a feeling they became more of a myth, or at least something that happened when 'muggles were even more violent'.

However, I think for Obscurials to develop, there has to be seriously repression of magic from the child. They have to completely loath both magic and themselves. It is a complete repression of their magical abilities. That would not apply to Harry Potter. He didn't hate himself nor did he even realize he had magic. He just thought some weird stuff happened around him sometime and his guardians hated him because they were stuck with him.

For Harry to become an Obscurial, Harry would of had to know he was magical and that magic was a sin and without it, the Dursley's would love him like their own.

I really wouldn't want to deal with that level of abuse and the main character having to overcome it. It would be depressing as hell and not make for a good children's book or fanfic.

edit:

Don't forget Ariana was beaten (and it's implied she was sexually assaulted) by whom she thought was friends and neighbors because she had magic at a very young age. Then she lost her father to prison and they were left in poverty. It would not be surprising if she had started to become an Obscurial as she probably felt if she didn't have magic, none of this would happen. Her younger life was a lot worse than Harry's ever was.

 

I was thinking more on the transition phase from the Muggle world to the wizarding community. Trauma aside, would it, in your opinion, in retrospect, be more interesting if the story included a Harry go from being unable to control his magic to handle it on his own?

 

Considering all we know about Obscurial powers at the moment is that they can turn into a giant blob of explody death smoke, it would probably wear out its 'cool' factor rather quickly compared to 7 years of learning new and unusual magic.

Also the requisite self-loathing would likely result in more angst than I'd enjoy reading.

On top of that there's everything Lindsey said.

 

The movie mentions that almost all Obscurials die before they become adults, and adults in the wizarding world is 17. Newt saw a child who died at age 10 because of this. This means almost all would die before reaching Hogwarts. Ariana would have been an exception because her family was wizards and could magically protect themselves and others.

If a child could survive until Hogwarts, the chances are they would not develop into an Obscurial because they would be taken away from the community of hatred.

This would allow an 10 year old Harry, exploding and killing his Aunt and Uncle and only surviving because of the wards perhaps. But then you are just dealing with a broken 11 year old who is scared of magic, hates it, and just wants to be a normal muggle.

I don't know if you could make an exciting story on this angle. Obscurial are broken children, not necessarily a new way of magic.

 

Sounds like another good reason to assume our dear author died shortly after publishing book seven.

 

I don't like the idea that much, but the Obliviate could be used to handwave the abuse issues until a later date, where they could be explored without angst-dump. Even then, the Obscurus would still be hanging around Harry's body, and he could learn to harness it.

 

Personally I have always hated the idea of obliviating abuse or any traumatic memories away. My head canon has always told me that the obliviation spell can remove memories but not the feelings that coincide with them. While that would pretty much explain how Harry could become an obscurus it still reeks of manipulative evil Dumbledore and that turns me off.

 

I feel exactly the same about it, but the remaining trauma is the idea behind it. Harry would still be the person infected by the magical parasite, but without the memories that those feelings are associated with in the first place. This way, it'd be much easier for him to rebuild his life around new and less aversive memories and be stronger if the abuse issues ever come back.

Somewhere in his mind, there would be this nagging, maddening feeling that he shouldn't be doing magic, that it was wrong. Yet, after he goes to Hogwarts and sees the castle and magic in all their glory, makes some friends and have a few adventures, would those remain there? Children are far more adaptative than adults. Hell, you could go both ways; let Dumbledore give Harry the option of getting his old memories back and learn to live with them or just go on with his new, better life; unaware of the shit he used to go through.

Still dislike the idea, though.

 

Which chapter did this implication come from?

 

That would tie in nicely with what we saw of obliviated Lockhart, and the ending to Fantastic Beasts. Canon seems pretty clear that people who've been obliviated still have some subconscious memory, so I can buy the idea that trying to obliviate abuse doesn't magically fix everything. It might even make things worse, since the person would still have the scars, but lack the information to properly deal with what caused that damage.

 

"When my sister was six years old, she was attacked, by three Muggle boys. They'd seen her practising magic, spying through the back garden hedge: She was a kid, she couldn't control it, no witch or wizard can at that age. What they saw, scared them, I expect. They forced their way through the hedge, and when she couldn't show them the trick, they got a bit carried away trying to stop the little freak doing it." This was by Aberforth right before they met with Neville.

I always assumed it was more than just a beating or harassing as it drove their father in such a rage that he attacked the boys and ended up with over ten years in Azkaban, where he later died.

 

I can see where your coming from, but I always thought it just meant that they beat her severely. Either way I can see a girls father reacting violently to anyone harming their daughter sexually or otherwise.
I also thought the reason Mr. Dumbledore got such a harsh sentence was because he attacked muggles, and he also probably didn't properly explain what happened because he was afraid what would happen to Ariana in her condition. I'm sure if the attack had been on magical boys the charges would have bee less severe.

 

I have a strange idea. What if merope gaunt was a potential obscurial? She was a near squib when her father and brother were home, and she achieved some magical ability when they left. She died in child birth, so the seed of the obscrial might have inhabited tom but stayed dormant. They when he was destroyed by the lily sacrifice, the dormant obscrurial found a new host the baby, but due to the blood protection, it was keep contained.
A normal obscurial needs the host to suffer trauma, and self hate/loathing, apparently. But Harry was exposed to a lot of dark magic as a child, the horcrux, the killing curses that struck him and his parents and the detonation of a dark lords. Could that replace the usual requirements for an obscrial? Could that combined with the dursley said home be enough to produce the obscurial?
I made this comment once as a joke, but I am now curious. Say an obscurial be transferred safely, what would happen if planted in a squibs? It could offer them magical power potentially. Say they captured one, could they study it so breed it with out harming children?

 

I think her magical ability was more potions oriented than anything else. There wasn't any evidence (as far as I can remember) that she was capable of any real magic outside of the love potion she used on Tom Riddle Sr. and there was no mention of her using accidental/wandless magic.

I also can't see Harry or Voldemort being obscurials. There's no evidence that exposure to dark magic at a young age could result in an obsucrial. Also, Voldemort and Harry both loved magic. Voldemort believed it made him special and Harry saw it as an escape from his shitty childhood. I never saw either of them as the self-loathing type (which is why so many fics that feature a Harry that goes into a coma every time Voldemort kills someone piss me off so much).

As for your last point, I thought that was one of the reasons Grindelwald was so interested in obscurials in the first place. If he could find a way to safely transfer an obscurials power into a squib or breed it or use it somehow to give squibs magic, he would be able to recruits that would almost certainly be absolutely loyal to him.