So I'm about to write a new fic from which I have taken several ideas from the other two stories I have written. However, I need to know if the premise of the story is believable.

Remember, the question concerns a pre-Azkaban Bellatrix. So while she is likely to be mentally unstable, she is perhaps not as deragned as she was in canon.

Question: Under the hypothetical scenario that Voldemort had taken one (perhaps two) of his most trusted followers to the Potter hideout on halloween night, which scenario is more likely?

(This story will not be full of the typical clichés you see in a number of other fanfictions, but Harry will be raised on pureblood ideals and I see Bellatrix as a perfect character in this)

A - Bellatrix kills Harry and finishes her master's work.

B - Bellatrix becomes infatuated with the boy due to his potential and her inability to produce children and takes the child.

It seems that A is the more reasonable choice here, but I'm not sure if B is wholly unreasonable either. I think she is a more complex character than many give her credit for being, so your opinion would be greatly valued. Thanks

 

A

Anyone who thinks B is an idiot

 

If it is well written it will be believable, that's what "suspension of disbelief" is.
Anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot.

 

Bellatrix LeStrange is a loon. She would definitely kill of Harry without a second thought.

 

Maybe, but given this guy's track record already I wouldn't hold my breath on it being well-written.

I don't see Bellatrix taking Harry in after witnessing Voldemort die in front of her. I think it's more likely that she'd be so enraged that she'd slowly tear baby Harry to pieces. As for it being Bellatrix before she went to Azkaban, she was plenty crazy in the flashback of her trial in Goblet of Fire.

I think for Bellatrix to take Harry in it would have to be on Voldemort's orders. I suppose that's plausible, if Voldemort decided it was a better strategy to keep your enemies close rather than just kill them, or if he had some sort of foresight about what would happen should he kill Harry.

I'm not advocating the idea however. I'm just indulging in the idea a bit. I think there are better stories to be told than "What if Harry was raised by a psychopath? Let's see how many sadistic torture fantasies we can dredge up!"

 

I have two stories, both written before I went to college several years ago while in high school...so not much of a "track record" to speak of. Your insult is both unprovoked and childish.

But yes, as I thought...option B would be pretty unreasonable.

---------- Post automerged at 04:54 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:45 AM ----------

True... But no matter the rhetorical flourishes an author uses, it is unlikely that the author will convince you that pigs fly.

Unfortunately, I think my scenario is too unreasonable no matter how well it is written. Even before Azkaban, she was sadistic, loyal to a fault, and quite insane (evidenced by the Longbottom attack). After thinking about it some more, option B is not in the realm of reality within this fantasy...unless someone could share creative circumstances that might encourage her to take the child. Other than "Voldemort ordered her to," which any idiot could think of.

 

Make her somehow realize that there's a part of Voldemort in Harry. There.

 

If you want to see what B looks like here you go.

 

I had thought about Voldemort bringing his familiar along, which might somehow allow Harry to display his parselmouth abilities...but he is too young to speak. Though if Bella realized Harry was a parselmouth, she might possibly see Harry as her last remaining connection to Voldemort. But still, I'm not sure that would cut it or be much more realistic. Thanks for the input though.

 

The thing about Bellatrix is that one of the main personality quirks that define her as character is her unwavering loyalty to Voldemort - not just her cause, but Voldemort. It's almost to the point of infatuation (or well beyond in my opinion, but to be impartial...). And while you could claim that Azkaban did a lot of damage to Bellatrix, you can't get around that sort of devotion. Her devotion to Voldemort was there long before she ever entered Azkaban. As we saw in her trial in GoF, where unlike many of her comrades, she proudly claimed Voldemort's banner and went to Azkaban with her head held high and assured faith that her master would return one day and free her.

The entire premise of your story, while plausible, becomes implausible the moment you try to use Bellatrix to give Harry a pureblood raising. She wouldn't just kill Harry on the spot, she'd obliterate him.

Yes, she might be unable to have children and blah, blah, blah... But, honestly, I don't think she would care all that much about having children, let alone being unable to have them. In fact, I'm pretty sure her marriage to Lestrange was arranged or was one of convenience, as I'm fairly certain that there was no love lost between her and her 'husband'. As stated above, Voldemort was her obsession.

Now, as much as I hate the idea of Malfoy!Harry, I could see Lucius taking a step back and contemplating the advantages and disadvantages of raising Harry Potter among a 'proper' wizarding family. Yet, I still have a problem with this, as he doesn't seem the type to tolerate nuisances without a guaranteed payoff and the Malfoys have always been good minimizing the repercussions of their action upon themselves by engineering things so that blame could easily be passed off onto someone else. It's more likely that he'd delegate the task to someone who could tolerate the wailing of a half-blood babe.

tl;dr: Bellatrix would never work as Harry's pure-blood mentor, neither would Lucius Malfoy. The idea is workable, but the author needs to get creative. There are many ways to give Harry a pure-blood raising and no need for this same old song and dance.

 

I see...thank you. Perhaps I should scrap this idea. I feel like Harry was already too drawn in by Dumbledore, Granger, and the Weasleys to turn dark later in the series. I have always felt the most realistic scenario would be if Harry was raised by purebloods.

There could be several twists to make it more unique, but I feel like those stories are now cliche and no longer carry much attraction.

 

Come on. You can easily bullshit your way to her realization, especially if it's just meant to be the premise of the story. It doesn't need to be anything Harry does, like speaking to a snake. If she sees what happens at the Potters, and she sees her Master disappearing instead of lying dead somewhere, she could guess that something weird is going on. If she sees the scar and sense that there's dark magic in there, she could connect it to the similar feeling she experienced when Voldemort handed her Helga's cup.

Or whatever, you know.

 

My idea regarding Bellatrix would be for Harry to somehow display his parselmouth abilities (via Voldemort's familiar) before she decides to kill him. Might that render the boy as Bellatrix's last connection to Voldemort...at least through her eyes? Or perhaps Voldemort didn't die Ina split second and had a few last words, or a last wish...but that would be too OOC for Voldemort it seems.

The Malfoy Harry could certainly be done, but I'd rather not as I have already ventured into that territory.

Perhaps another member of the Black family?

 

The thing is that nearly everything written to date has been written a dozen times before, and not just in fanfiction. Original fiction, fanfiction: it all builds from one well warn premise or another, as genres have been defined and reader expectations have been molded. Anymore, it's all about the unique spin that you put on your story and the quality of your execution upon delivery. You bring to the table a good hook and intelligent writing to back it up, you'll gain an audience.

There is a way to write this. You've just got to sit down and find a way.

 

True... But would that be enough to convince Bellatrix to not only refrain from killing Harry but to raise him? I think she would more likely take him to some other death eater to get an opinion on what might have happened. Although...that might be a good idea for the story actually. Perhaps parselmouth Potter as a one year old is totally unnecessary.

 

I think it would be fun if she though that Harry was Voldemort re-incarnated. She can raise him on stories of death eater exploits to try and get him to remember.

 

I suppose so. The more I think about it the more discouraging a Bella/Harry story becomes. But I guess it is a challenge worth pursuing. Hopefully I will get a chapter up soon.

---------- Post automerged at 05:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:43 AM ----------

That could definitely work! It would be somewhat comical... A deranged and passionate Bellatrix trying to get Harry to remember his days as Lord Voldemort.

It might be better if she viewed Harry as somewhere in between the heir of the dark lord and the dark lord reincarnated. He would definitely need to resemble the last legitimate connection to Voldemort regardless.

 

If you're going for making Harry a Black, let's back it up and allow event to play out at Godric's Hollow as they did in the books.

At that point in time the living members of the Black family (caring the family name) are: Arcturus Black, Walburga Black, Cassiopeia Black, Pollux Black, and Sirius Black.

Imagine if you will that Harry's custody becomes a debated subject and Dumbledore isn't able to just take Harry and do what he wants with him. Even with all the Potters dead outside of Harry himself, Harry still has plenty of family in the wizarding world, as most pure-blood families are interrelated. Take that idea and use the concept of Harry's grandparents being Charlus Potter and Dorea Potter nee Black and the Black's become Harry's closest kin. Add in that Sirius Black is Harry's godfather, the case becomes even more compelling.

Arcturus would be the head of house at the current time and looking for and heir, as the family is growing old and Sirius is locked up indefinitely. Harry is prime for the picking, supposedly powerful, and with how young he is, he can be molded into what Arcturus wants him to be.

Of course, it wouldn't be exactly that simple and you'd have to hash out why Arcturus would accept a half-blood and what Harry would eventually learn of his parents, but the gist of the idea is more workable, no?

If you do go the Black route though, I'd suggest ditching the name Cyrus for a constellation or star name, as is Black tradition.

 

Off topic real quick..I posted an original fic under WAB (something that I wrote more recently), if anyone would care to give me their opinion on the first chapter I would be grateful.

Anyway...I think I have a better idea on where I might go with this story now. Thank you to all, let me know if you have any more ideas.

---------- Post automerged at 06:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:53 AM ----------

Very clever and a rather realistic way of writing this. Who gave Dumbledore automatic permission to do whatever he wished with the child anyway?

I don't think they would accept a half blood as bigoted as they were. However, I do remember in the series that Lily was supposed to be quite powerful. Perhaps something simple like her not having any official ministry record of her blood status would encourage Arcturus to optimistically hope that the child was indeed pureblood. Or perhaps something else?

It would also be hard for the Black family to adopt the slayer of Voldemort among their social circles. Would it not? They would either have to adopt him in secret and conceal his identity or have a damn good reason for former death eaters that avoided Azkaban...something other than the fact that they needed a suitable heir.

 

Coming late to the party, I apologize if this has been said:

While A is the obvious path, it's also the least interesting unless you're setting up a Harry-free AU. Bellatrix has no function here, save as executioner. (She's basically Vernon Dursley in the worst of the child-abuse stories, albeit with a shaplier arse.) I suspect, based on what you've written in the past, that you're leaning toward B, but that's been done in fanfiction quite a lot--occasionally well, mostly badly. I don't think that there's much new ground if you play it straight.

Why not consider a C, an alternative that turns the trope on its head? Points of note:

• Canon Bellatrix is a zealot, completely enamoured of the Dark Lord.
• If she's present as the Dark Lord attacks the Potters, she may know of the importance of Harry and Neville to her Lord. She may even know of their possessing "the power to vanquish."
• Bellatrix is in possession of one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.
• She was raised in the Black family tradition, so it's plausible that she knows the importance of the item.
• She likely has heard him comment that he's gone farther than anyone to protect himself from death. In other words, it's also plausible that she knows he'll return and knows how he's anchored to the world.
• If Bellatrix were present at the Dark Lord's demise, she'd have his wand (a powerful magical item with connection to the Dark Lord--arguably the way Pettigrew was able to locate Voldemort after fleeing in PoA).
• She'd also have seen his shade depart a la Philosopher's Stone. In other words, he's still on Earth somewhere, not completely vanquished.
• Possession is possible in canon Harry Potter and occurs on several occasions. While it can be damaging to the host, a willing host apparently allows for a longer period of possession. What about a host, prepared from a young age with proper rituals and the like, a host who desires above anything to afford a vessel to his Lord for indefinite possession?

Why not have her look at the magical child lying before her and think, "Vessel?" She takes Harry in, training him from early on to be a sacrificial lamb. She raises him in a hard, loveless fashion, employing all manner of rituals and rites to enable the container to survive without abominations such as Unicorn blood. She trains him in the Dark Arts like no other, burning into muscle and magical memory what the Dark Lord will need. She raises him to be aware that his fate is to offer his body to the Dark Lord, yet she's brainwashed him into wanting to sacrifice himself in this fashion for the "greater good" (thus turning Harry's canon self-sacrifice on its head).

Hell, give him a brother-in-arms (Neville), raised in the same way, stolen from the Longbottoms, heir and a spare. Harry is the favored son, but knows the he is (ultimately) expendable. You could even let Voldemort's shade be a continual presence in Harry's life, befriending the boy, becoming the sole kindness in a life of pain.

Set Harry up in this way, then find a means of exacting an existential crisis, something that crumbles his perfect world and makes him doubt his very purpose, setting him on a path to avoid his fate. You could also set Bellatrix up for change as well, perhaps beginning to care for Harry at some twisted level. Age and experience do have a tendency to mellow one's youthful convictions, after all, and she could begin to feel some doubt, a crisis of conscience that injects conflict among her various responsibilities. While it may not be enough to cause her to abandon the Dark Lord, it could be a growing source of tension for her throughout the story.