Not how would you write an HP SI fic, where your job as the author is to make it entertaining.

If it actually happened to you, what would you actually do?

I am on team “tell Dumbledore everything and let him win the war for you before it even starts”.

Though I do have a slight concern he would view me as some sort of possession of Harry Potter and use some magic to exorcise me.

 

My plan would be to delay telling Dumbledore until the end of First Year, even if it were me in Harry's position. The time when we'd talk about the prophecy would be a good time to reveal.

My response could change depending on a few things happening the way they did in canon. Not getting the Holly and phoenix core wand would persuade me to turn in early, because I'd then know that I am too different from Harry Potter to maintain the importance of my knowledge, and the lack of protection from brother wand effect.

Changing houses would not change my timeline, funnily enough. This change, while important to later, doesn't affect the story much in first year. Hermione would still probably be friends after I rescue her. She's frankly good at magic early, and played a large part in keeping Harry alive in canon.

I'd fold early if Snape seemed to cotton onto me and starts showing changes in behavior from (presumably) reading my mind.

 

I would also be on team tell Dumbledore everything. Voldemort would be very easy to defeat if you knew where all of his horcruxes were in the first book. The power he knows not would just be your bizarre knowledge of the future. I don't know how I would present my information to Dumbledore though. Would I pretend to have some special insight because of the scar, masquerade as an older Harry, or just fully come clean. He would probably find out one way or another.

One thing that has always bothered me a bit about peggy sue fics is that the Harry often makes friends who are his physical age, while being anywhere from 17 to 100 in reality. I can't see myself actually befriending children if I went back in time. I would probably seek out friendships with professors/older students, learn as much about magic as I possibly could, high tail it out of Privet Drive as soon as it was safe to do so, buy a nice house at 1991 prices with some of my mountain of gold and put a fidelius on it so that I wouldn't have to pay any property taxes for security. I hope that Dumbledore would have no problem endorsing and or facilitating something like that if he knew some or all of the truth. If not, polyjuice potion, or some sort of non wand based disguise might let me bluff my way into legally buying a house as a child from a muggle estate agent without triggering the trace. I'm not 100% sure how that would actually work legally speaking.

In the long run, with Harry's famous name and resources, I'd probably try and get into politics.

 

I am reasonably certain that there is no way I could convince Dumbledore that I know everything because his universe is all a work of fiction. If he read my mind, he would think the whole thing was a false memory charm, somehow, not that I'd blame him. Then, I'm under quarantine while an investigation into my background seeks out who could have cast a false memory charm, which must not count as harming me. I know I don't trust myself to handle the horcruces and not go insane, so the first step is to be a cute little academic genius and get handed a time turner as soon as possible, which I assume does not actually change the past, but at least gives me a few chances at most things. It can't be that hard to dig up Riddle's bones and burn them over Christmas holiday; I'm sure the Dursley family would not have a problem with my 'running away'.
"Can I have your rat, Ron?"
"Oh, did you not know it was common to eat rats in Muggle families? I only bit the head off; you can have the rest if you like. No? Oh, well, more for me."

 

I think the real question would be how to get the horocrux out of my head. That means that I would have to survive the resurrection in year 4 and then sacrifice myself. Is there a better solution than to let events play out and try to keep Sirius, Remus, Tonks, and others alive?

 

Go with the flow for as long as possible. If you do anything to change stuff, your predictive powers deteriorate rapidly.

That being said, I also dont remember the books that well these days, and would prob go have a chat to Dumbledore before things got too serious with the philosopher's stone.

 

Honestly, wouldn't Dumbledore view the your risk of a broken memory charm be a risk one worth taking? Even if he thought you were taken advantage of with your some view of the future, do you think he would ignore what you said completely?

He definitely wouldn't use you like Bertha Jorkins. The Dark Lord broke her mind trying to undo the memory charm that Barty Sr. used, as it was.

 

The whole being a horcrux thing sucks. Not sure how you realistically get out of that. The deus ex machina bullshit that was required is...wild. Curious if dumbledore could come up with a way to take care of it that doesn't require I die.

 

Definitely tell Dumbledore, with the easy proof of Scabbers=Pettigrew. The whole "being a horcrux" thing would definitely be sticky.

 

The only way to solve being a Horcrux is presumably to die. This isn't necessarily a problem though.

It seems that Voldemort is very reliant on one of his followers helping him to regain a body. With my knowledge of the books I should be able to stop him from getting Wormtail and Barty Crouch Jr.

All of his devoted followers are in Azkaban and the ones who aren't prefer the status quo without him.

So the plan of tell Dumbledore everything and trust he can handle it seems like the one most likely to succeed.

From that point I just have to hope I'm good at magic, but money shouldn't be a problem either way.

Eventually I'll die, hopefully of old age and Voldemort will go with me.

 

I think the biggest issue of any peggy sue/isekai/I-Woke-Up-As-Harry-Potter-Age-11 scenario, is the assumption that you can faithfully recreate the timeline.

I don't think that's as easy as people think. Because it's not 'just don't do anything' and it'll happen. Harry doesn't return to default settings if you don't assume direct control to change something. You have to actually do the same thing, cultivate the same relationships, learn the same things and leave the same impressions.

Frankly, not mangling the timeline would be the miracle. Even on the every day life stuff, you are not Harry Potter. You don't think, act and react like him. DIfferences will accumulate.

I'd probably get him fat af if I lived in Hogwarts, for one.

 

Yep, def this. I figure you can maybe keep things similar enough for like 6 months. And maybe a few big events. Rest of it will just spiral.

 

You tell Dumbledore...and then it turns out you isekaied into a fanfic world with manipulative!Dumbles!

 

I don't even think that. Those first three books skimmed over so much daily (not interesting stuff). They were anorexic with the minutia of daily living there, so it would go off the rails pretty much from the first few days. You won't be Harry Potter. You'll just be wearing his body and you'd have to tell Dumbledore before he or Snape reads it from your mind unless you're Master Occlumens from the start. So make one of your purchases a "Very Rare" book on Occlumency.

 

If I wake up as Harry would I even have the horcrux? Would I be a muggle? Am I sure this is canon? Am I sure I'm not dreaming? Is this some sort of a time-share situation? Am I a part of JKR's "inner narrative", and hence stuck in an eternal struggle against JKR's rational wishes?

Ignore the last two and let's assume this is a "memory transfer" and all my muggle instincts replace Harry's muggle instincts, and the souls attached to Harry (his and voldy's) still exist, and mine does not. So I have some untrained wizard reflexes, but nothing I can control. Worse than Harry's, but I'm going to school pretty soon. But there's no way for me to know my own limits, so I'd probably try to stab myself or something (the Dursleys' abuse is a good alibi). If things heal super-quick, I'd have a yardstick for my ability to control magic, and would be somewhat certain that this isn't a dream. I don't know if the reality I'm in is Canon, and the way the Dursleys act towards me would be something I'd use to calibrate my expectations.

I'd be very depressed about never getting to meet the people I love again, and would be somewhat reckless and never fully give in to the notion of this being my new reality. This feeling will hopefully fade over time as Harry's soul-incarnation-innate behavior and my memories meld together.

This is my Eleventh birthday, so assume I wake up a minute before Hagrid breaks in. I look around, go "oh fuck" and waste the minute and end up playing a passable imitation of a eleven-year-old kid witnessing magic for the first time.

At Diagon Alley, I probably end up with a different wand, but try my best to cheese wand selection until Ollivander (hopefully) hands me the Holly-Phoenix Feather wand. I try very hard not to look experienced wizards in the eye, I don't know how Legilimency works or how "wizard vibes" function. Ollivander does want Harry's wand to choose me. And even if it doesn't , no biggie. Wands choosing wizards isn't commonplace anyway. A "good match" is considered good enough.

Now, I know that Canon is quite sparse on details, so I'd get to see a lot more variety and possibilities than what was presented in the books. So, like Harry, I try and save my money while buying just the essentials, and get owl-order forms for everything that I think I might need.

JKR kept pretty mum about the innards of magic use, and I'm expecting the next three years of my life to be very difficult. My grasp on magic is weak. However, I have no friends or family to speak of (in Canon... RIP my original family ) and Hogwarts presents a blank slate, so that's one good aspect of this situation. I don't have to make up lies or act like someone else -- I can just wing it and hope for the best.

How many students will be in the school? Let's assume ~400, 7 boys and 7 girls per house per year. 7 is a significant number in Canon.

Now, I'm more of a Ravenclaw than anything, but I'm not evil and not a slick schemer, which means if I get into Slytherin I'd have a VERY difficult time. I don't want the horcrux's influence over the hat surpassing my influence. So I spend the few days I have at the Dursleys' home (this is home! this is home! this is home!) being as rambunctious as possible and channeling a younger Sirius Black, annoying the snot out of the Dursleys so I can put myself in a Gryffindorian mindset until the sorting. I don't know if this will work... but it doesn't hurt to try. If anything dangerous happens I know that 1) I have innate magic 2) Arabella Figg lives right next door.

I want Ron and Hermione (and Neville) on my side because the other students don't have the Mandate of Heaven. Let's be honest, they're dumb NPCs. Nobody cares about Terry Boot or Michael Corner or Ernie MacMillan. I want to explore. These nerds don't.

Hermione is smart and can be nerd-sniped. A friendship with Ron comes with a free pass into the Weasley household, full of accomplished wizards and kind people who all liked me in Canon enough to consider me family. Neville is a good person and a True Gryffindor and a good follower.

I of course present my best "where pwatfowm" puppy dog eyes impression to Mrs. Weasley and enjoy the train to Hogwarts with Ron. Hopefully I convince the hat that I belong in Gryffindor.

I don't see why I would tell Dumbledore any of this -- he's not some perfect specimen (even though JK tried to clumsily throw in a God allegory in there). I stay the fuck away from Snape and resolve to pull a OOTP!Dumbledore against both Snape and Dumbledore until my muggle-magic halves and my memory is stable (that is, I have forgotten everything except the broad strokes of my previous muggle, ur-Canon life) (this will likely take a year or more). I don't want them gleaning any info from my mind.

My two big goals (apart from staying alive) are:

1) get back to my own reality
2) neutralizing the big bad that wants to kill me - Voldemort

Now, 1 is a goal that I value highly right now. As lack of daily reinforcement slowly erases my muggle memories, and as I integrate into the magic world and form new emotional connections, this goal will weaken and I expect that I will stop caring about it over time. The chances of me returning to my reality while I am still "myself" are slim: I either become accomplished enough to figure out / invent very advanced magic very quickly, or I am (hopefully!) pulled out of this new reality back into my old reality.

I subscribe to the butterfly-effect theory of causality, so I know trying to force Canon would be a mistake. I know enough to plan a few ways to excise the Horcrux, but nothing's set in stone. All it would take is the involvement of a new kind of magic to throw the plan off. However, the details I do know are important. And so I write them down (one copy only!) and stash them somewhere safe, likely in my trunk (or in my Gringotts vault, if I remember to do so on the first day). If I do end up keeping my parchment with canon details in my trunk, I try and visit the library as soon as possible to learn about and implement some sort of encryption spell on it.

I don't care about paving the road to a Canon-compliant ending. I'm thinking smaller. I want to be safe. I want my friends (and especially Ron, Hermione and Neville) to be safe. I know that a lot of dumb luck keeps characters alive in the books. Even if it is not dumb luck, the butterfly effect makes sure that all the tiny details that led to that event (whose JKR only highlighted the importants bits of) have been altered and so this is not the way one would try for safety. So as soon as I can, I try to establish beneficial relationships.

The first day, I go to the library with Ron and find Hermione. Then Ron and I make a ruckus and I try and get Hermione to complain and have Madam Pince shove us all out. So I try and convince Ron that being friends with Hermione is useful and so prevent her from feeling left out.

And after this, I'd expect the future to branch out so wildly that it would make little sense to micromanage anything.

 

Watch this resolve start to crumble the first time Terry says a funny joke, or Michael helps you pick up some dropped stuff, or Ernie passes you some pie at breakfast and you think 'Huh, this guy is kinda cool actually'.

Because these would be real people with real personalities that you might vibe with, regardless of whether you had written them off as 'NPCs' when they were just names in a book.

 

If I woke up as Harry on his 11th birthday, I am already fucked when it comes to keeping the timeline intact.

First, chances are imma be a Slytherin, so goooodbyeee canon.

Second, I'm a grown ass woman suddenly in the body of an 11 year boy. Holy shit, it is going to be awkward as fuck, and I don't like it. Moreover, I'm surrounded by awkward 11 year olds. I'd probably last ten minutes before wanting to shoot myself.

I'd end up telling Dumbledore everything. I'm going to need some adult friends if I am not going to go crazy being surrounded by literal children.

 

First thing I'm doing? Figuring out the cheering charm, so I can actually *want* to live in this setting and feel excitement again.