I'm getting pretty tired of reading about horcrux hunts, and writing them. The characters have to figure out what they are, obtain the really inaccessible ones, and destroy them. The only part of it that's interesting at all anymore is the timing (for example, can they destroy the diary before it's put into use).

So I'm pondering alternative ways it would be difficult-but-possible to defeat Voldemort, if you remove horcruxes from the story. (Obviously this has to go AU from the end of OotP, if not earlier.)

What well-written methods of defeating Voldemort have you read, in a story where horcruxes do not appear?

 

Realistically, Harry has no chance of ever beating Voldemort in a straight up duel. He'd be annihilated.

If there were no Horcruxes (and therefore Harry could not come back from death), then only Dumbledore could defeat Voldemort.

And even that is doubtful as in the books Dumbledore admitted that Voldemort was the best student Hogwarts ever had. Since that includes Albus himself, then he must mean that Voldemort is better than him.

 

Harry might not be able to kill Voldemort in a duel but it would be possible to get him some other way. Poisoning or bombing for example. Basically any type of ambush.

 

I've seen a few creative ways to kill Voldemort over the years. I think my favourite (that I've seen about twice now?) was the idea that Voldemort's immortality actually came from marking his followers - thus if Voldemort were to die, one of his followers would die for him instead, effectively giving him immortality as long as he had the ability to mark more people. The interesting part of defeating him in those stories was turning the mark into a weakness: by finding a way to affect the mark, they were able to affect everyone connected to that mark.

I've got no idea what those stories were, though. But it's the kind of thinking I'd love to see more: by changing how Voldemort's immortality works, you can come up with some damn cool ways to defeat him.

Something that seems obvious (but I've really never seen) is to capture him and imprison him. It'd be quite a bit harder than just killing him, which is potentially an interesting spin on it - and then there's the question of keeping him contained.

 

The Horcruxes don't matter. Harry should just get Katana to watch his back. Her sword traps the souls of its victims.

 

Well, you could try playing with the idea that the Horcruxes alone don't necessarily guarantee Voldemort's survival. Think about it: he needed that unicorn blood for a reason, and his speech to the Death Eaters after his resurrection had him talking about struggling to maintain his existence at times, especially when he didn't have a body to possess. Maybe making multiple horcruxes was actually a bad move; the more you split your soul, the less of your soul remains in your body, and the less that's able to keep you together when you're disembodied. And because he was going further than others before him in trying for immortality, Riddle couldn't know that there would be hazards from his approach, as it'd apparently never been tried before. And so, in a story where he's come back only to be destroyed again, maybe Riddle just isn't able to maintain himself after getting disembodied for a second time, and his spirit just disintegrates and fades away.

Failing that, the Dementor's Kiss or getting thrown through the Veil should finish him.

 

What about a very liberal use of Fire and Explosive curses in a confined space? Said curses are booby traps.

Baring Horcruxs, could that kill Voldemort?

 

Palindrome, that's an interesting idea; I don't think I've seen that fic but I'd like to, if anyone remembers which one it is.

I think if it was simply a matter of assembling overwhelming firepower, he wouldn't have been so much trouble during the first war; there has to be some trick to it. In canon, the horcruxes are the trick, since you have to destroy them before he's vulnerable. But in an AU where horcruxes don't exist, there needs to be another trick.

I'm thinking of writing a story in which the "trick" is that Voldemort can only be killed by someone who has united the Hallows. I hit on this because the concept of the horcrux is similar to many fairy tale stories about a wizard who "hides his death" in an object (Koschei, for instance). Many other stories have people who can only be killed in specific ways ("neither during the day nor during the night") or by people meeting some criteria ("no man of woman born"), so I thought it would be plausible for Voldemort to have made it impossible for anyone save the Master of Death to slay him.

I'm still open to alternative ideas, and as I said above, I'd love to see any good stories that have taken non-horcrux approaches to the subject.

 

GreenGecko's Resonance series does involve Horcruxes, but Harry never goes out to find and destroy them. His way of defeating Voldemort was just to render his current incarnation harmless and then leave him in jail. If you don't kill Voldemort and just contain the threat, the rest of the Horcruxes can just do whatever they were doing for the past fifty years....nothing. At least, that's the approach this fic took.

 

Pretty certain the unicorn's blood was to stop Quirrel's body from dying.

 

This could be cool, but I'd obfuscate the trick asking for exactly the master of death - pile on those other requirements and create a web of requirements that at first glance seems impossible to overcome, and the Hallows are the final piece of that puzzle.

An interesting clause, in a story where you keep the Horcruxes or something similar as an element, might be 'The only person who can kill Voldemort is himself'.

 

The italicized part seems like canon already. Just like Dumbledore killed himself through foolishness that Voldemort had no way to anticipate since he knew jack about the Deathly Hallows.

 

It is shown when he basically died for 10 years that he can be hurt. My question is why they did not just AK him again? In the ritual they used things like bone of the father in order to revive him. Even if they had more bones or found a different ritual why was it that noone ever tried just killing him again?

 

Killing him isn't exactly easy, you know. He's one of the most feared Dark wizards ever for a good reason. I'm not entirely sure, but I remember him taking on three wizards/witches at the same time at the final battle in DH.

 

I was thinking about a Scion crossover where Harry would handle Voldemort same way Gods handle Titans. By locking him up in the Underworld.

 

I've always hated the horcruxes. Ever since they were first introduced they felt like a quest from some Final Fantasy game or something like that. Plus they make for repetitive storytelling, even in the books. I too wish more fics found a way around them or ignored them entirely.

 

Even without the horcruxes there is still a need to research Voldemort's immortality. How did he survive? Whatever method he used you must still stop him repeating the same stunt a second time. Often fanfiction sidestep this problem, defeating Voldemort without killing him with complete memory loss/temporal stasis.

 

Really have to disagree with this Dumbledore was probably just humble in this scene downplaying himself like in Philosophers Stone when McGonagall said he easily could do anything Voldemort could do if he weren't so noble.

It is basically common consense that Dumbledore was the most powerful wizard of modern times and every character basically agrees and says that Voldemort didn't attack Hogwarts because he was scared of him. Even the Chapter with their fight in the DOM was called The Only One He Ever Feared and Dumbledore undeniably won the duell and was just generally more creative and skilled.

It's true that he had Fawkes and the Elder Wand but we know that the Elder Wand isn't unbeatable with his victory over Grindelwald. I actually doubt that it would be much superior to a regular wand for top tier wizards who are able to push a spell to it's limits, it's certainly a boon for average wizards like Harry but it's probably just a really well made wand.

As for Fawkes pretty sure he would have been able to deflect/apparate away from the AK but why should he if Fawkes could also get the job done? He also had to protect Harry and kick Bellatrix ass while fighting and was not duelling to kill so there is that.

Not to mention that Dumbledores academic performance completely outshines Voldemorts he was published in basically every magic paper won every possible award corresponded with the most skilled wizards of his time, was declared the most gifted student who ever walked Hogwarts after finishing first year and did things with a wand his NEWT examiner has not even seen before.

Not saying that Voldemort wasn't accomplished he did after all create a Horcrux but no one did as much a fuss about Tom Riddle and if he was as accomplished as Dumbledore I think more people would ask questions about what the hell happend with him.

Even Narcissa who is obiously biased sayed how unfair it was that Voldemort requested that Draco has to accomplish something even Voldemort himself is not capable to do.

We also don't know how old age is affecting magical power at this point so we don't even know if Dumbledore was in his prime (hopefully Fantastic beasts will shed some light on this)

While they are certainly on the same level and Voldemort does have more knowledge in certain areas of magic (dark arts) and it would be a challenging duell I think it really is undeniably that Dumbledore is all around the superior wizard knowledge and duelling wise.

Besides Dumbledore just has more awesome in his beard alone than Voldemort in his bald body