I had one of those truly odd thoughts a while ago, and I was curious as to what a community of generally fairly literate HP writers/reviewers thought of it.

Revolutionary Girl Utena. Anime, released in Japan first quarter 1997, so it'd be possible for Hermione to see it bootleg subtitled without stretching credibility too much.

Pretty much all 'Soul' based magic - or magic based on intent and emotion - IE, Cruciatus and the Patronus in canon, the Killing curse and Imperius in fanon, is perceived as being 'dark.' This seems to me to be something of a misconception, but is acceptable when viewed through the rose lenses Rowling is using to reveal the Magical World as escapist fantasy. Love, for instance, is hailed as being the greatest force of good possible, and no thought seems to be given to the death and destruction caused by love, and passionate love in the Real World.

The magical system prevalent in Utena is composed almost solely of 'Soul' based magic, almost all of which, as seen in the show, would be seen as the darkest of magics when viewed through the filter of HP. The primary villain is, in many respects, a twisted reflection of Voldemort, as Utena is partial reflection of Harry Potter.

The majority of the magic in use is in the hands of a dark witch - and make no mistakes, for all of Anthy Himemiya's lightness and love, she is a dark witch. One of the rituals that is used commonly on the show is withdrawing the souls of combatants, which then takes the form of a bladed weapon, typically a sword. In a very literal sense, the soul of the warrior is extracted from their body and formed into a weapon of incredible power. In addition, at later points, the dark witch 'casts off her body' and projects her soul into/around the soul sword. If the sword, or weapon, is destroyed, the wielder is figuratively shattered - broken in mind. At a later point, it's revealed that the villain was once a good guy, but his soul was lost when his weapon was shattered, and he became twisted and evil.

This, to me, makes the swords seem very much like a horcrux of some kind.

In and of itself, in my mind, the Avada Kedavra (Let it be destroyed, if I remember correctly) does not actively harm the physical body of its target, but ejects the soul. It does this, so far as I can determine, by literally throwing the force of the caster's magic, along with a tiny bit of the caster's soul, against the the targets soul. This means that there are two requirements to casting the curse successfully. You have to have a intense, burning :will to kill: (Thanks, JBern! Love the story, can't wait for the sequel!) and enough power to overwhelm your targets passive defenses and eject their soul from their body.

However, if the soul has already been extracted from the body, via a Dementor's kiss or via conversion into a soulsword ala Utena, the Avada Kedavra would simply wash right over the target, possibly doing some incidental damage to the body and trapping the soul fragment inside of it, also incidentally potentially creating the same kind of curse scar Harry has - or, alternatively, the soul fragment would infect the body and create a warped reflection of the target with the caster's personality. Hmm...

Opinions?

 

This seems like a really really good idea. =D I would definitely read it. The anime is sooooo good. ANd with harry in it, it would be better. HARRY/UTENA FOREVER!!

 

I'm not that sanguine about Harry/Utena, for the sole reason that if it was a fusion between the two, taking place at the end of Utena, which would work fairly well, as I recall Utena should be 16 or nearly there at that point, it leaves Anthy rather at loose ends...and I'd really not have a complete raving maniac like her brother gain the power to grant the world a revolution in his image by the blade of his sword, because that's pretty much where the series leaves off.

Anthy leaves, it's true, to search for Utena. Utena who would, at that point, literally kill to save Anthy, even after she was forced to backstab Utena. Anthy finding Utena in the arm of a man, all the while Touga and the others are likely to be hunting her....that's a recipe for much badness.