Still in full Bondmode following No Time to Die. Bond crossovers have been tried before (including on this forum, by Lungs IIRC) but they are not common. So how would you merge these two franchises?

Option 1 is a straight crossover i.e. a universe where James Bond and Harry Potter both exist as characters and come into contact with each other. I don't think that concept has legs, however. Bond is very Muggley and techy and introducing wizards into it is not only a significant tonal clash, it's also pointless because the wizards render Bond redundant as their capabilities would so substantially outstrip his own.

So while others may disagree (feel free to voice your ideas of how to make that work) I think crossovers are not really viable.

Fusions, however, have a lot more going for them. By this I mean a story told in the HP universe but using Bond themes and conventions.

Such a story would presumably:

1. Involve a secret Ministry department which performs covert missions (alternatively, just use the Aurors but have them as substantially more glamorous/elite than most fics).

2. Have Harry be a (secret) member of that department. He will be in his 30s and top tier at this kind of work.

3. Involve an outlandish plot by a dark wizard to wreck havoc and destruction on the wizard and/or Muggle world, possibly also involving some element of international magical politics. In a way, this element of the Bond formula is even better in the HP universe than in real life, because magic makes the outlandish entirely viable.

4. Have Harry track down and investigate clues, solve the mystery of what this dark wizard is planning and then prevent the plot in a final action sequence.

5. Involve substantial international travel to exotic locales which can be used to flesh out the wider wizarding world.

6. Feature several beautiful women for Harry to sleep with, at least one of whom is probably working for the villain.

7. Hint at shadowy organisations working in the background of the wizarding world of which most wizards are unaware.

8. An incredibly racist, misogynistic, chauvinistic Harry who is casual about killing.

THOUGHTS?

My primary issue with the idea is how Harry could ever be a secret agent when he's so famous. But I suppose you would just have to use his fame as a cover for his intelligence work - one imagines that it would open doors which are closed to other wizards, which could be useful for his superiors.

Ideas for outlandish plots for international supervillains in the HP universe also welcome.

 

It's not like James Bond hides who he is. He often outright makes clear that he's a super spy and yet the villains can't stop him anyway which is how Harry should deal with it.

Or it could be that everyone believes that MI13 or something uses him as a distraction for others to do a spy work, but it's actually a double blef and he's the most dangerous agent.


Obligatory dialogue:

"Everybody needs a hobby," said Harry.

"What's yours?"

"Resurrection."

 

This is an idea that I toyed around with a fair bit after Skyfall. I feel like the potterverse is a perfect match for a Bond style story, so long as the writer remembers that there's a lot more to magic than wands. Rituals, potions, enchanted objects and magical creatures can easily serve as the various gadgets and plot devices typical of a Bond story. Fast travel makes using a huge number of settings a breeze. Legitimately so much untapped potential for a spy thriller.

Thing is, I don't think Harry is the best fit for Bond. That honor goes to... James. James Potter.

Jokes aside, he's a natural fit. You'll need to make some big changes to Harry to make him into an international man of mystery, whereas James comes pre packaged as a cocky, talented rich boy. The plot practically writes itself if you go for an AU of Voldemort's first rise. James never gets together with Lily and remains a bit of a dick before joining the <insert spy organization> out of Hogwarts. Ministry is more competent, so Death Eater's are less of a military threat and more of a secret cabal. The capabilities of magic still make this legitimately terrifying because you can be compromised so easily. There's been a murder, or terrorist attack or whatever and Auror 007 is assigned to the mission.

Okay, less on the nose but you get the idea. It's James trying to prevent Tom's rise to power while having no idea who he is with a completely different tone and style. You can use the adult cast instead of aging up the child cast, with the Marauders and co as supporting characters, and all the betrayal and drama that holds.

There's no prophecy 'cause I don't really feel like it fits this story, but my favorite ending is the schmaltzy one where James dies in the end after reconnecting with Lily Because Reasons and fathering Harry.

Now you get to write Harry as Eggzy in Kingsmen, which is notably less serious and has a younger cast. Less suave, more to prove, more fish out of water scenes due to being a muggleborn. Magic Spy School. Once again, it really writes itself.

 

By 'fusion' I'd probably only take Bond and his employer's general job descriptions and insert them into magical world.

At that point, I'd probably work in a Seer in the department that picks up on vague threats to magical Britain. Harry would then have to investigate the threat (to figure out what the nature of the threat even is) by following the incredibly small breadcrumbs to wherever they lead.

My enjoyment of such a story hinges entirely on the quality of the worldbuilding and the quality of the mystery/sleuthing.

And how well you work Daphne into the story, of course.

Is she his boss/on-again off-again lover? Is she some kind of femMoriarty that 'spars wits' with Harry throughout, the sexual tension palpable? These are very important questions literally every fanfic writer should consider before putting finder to keyboard.

 

It's an interesting question, because in general I think I'd agree with the assertion that a classic crossover has... issues when it comes to making the Bond side of the story in any way relevant.

On the other hand, however, I kinda don't really see a 'Harry as a magical version of Bond' story as being much of a crossover at all. There's already Auror investigation stories, and Unspeakable stories which can pretty much hit those notes without any connection to James Bond. It kinda makes the fusion elements little more than a pixie-dust which can be sprinkled over a completely Harry Potter story. It's a bit like making a wholly Potter murder mystery set on the Hogwarts Express and then claiming it's a Murder on the Orient Express crossover. You can, and with a charitable mindset you can see how it applies, but I feel like most people walking into a Bond/Potter crossover probably want a bit more Bond in there.

So I might try and figure out a way of keeping Bond in there somehow. How, I'm not really sure. My first thought is to effectively make Harry the Bond Girl (one of the modern ones which do more than get held hostage). Don't have Harry be an Auror etc, or even especially well trained, thus making the addition of someone with some spy-smarts valuable. Turning Harry into, effectively, 'the Chick' is unlikely to be all that popular, however.

I guess another option would be to make the bad guys dual-magic and muggle too, though you still run into the issue of what can Bond do which is actually valuable. You'd have to hobble wizards somehow to make it work which is something I'd generally not be in favour of.

Maybe something like the following: Harry has been researching some heavily frowned-upon magic when someone steals his research. Unwilling to let people know what he's done, he tries to hunt down the thief himself, after dusting off some of the skills of his misspent youth, and just so happens to run into Bond who is searching for some other bad guy. Perhaps they realise that their two targets are the same/working together, or perhaps that waits until they get to globe-trotting location two, either way, eventually they realise that they each have information that would help them in their search and decide to cooperate. The only issue is that Harry can't afford to add breaking the statute of secrecy to his possible list of felonies, and has to keep the magic in his pants during their search, breaking it out carefully only when the situation calls for it (and perhaps in the finale, right before obliviating Bond).

It's still far from perfect. It would still, necessarily, involve far less magic than might be preferred, and Bond's whole thing kinda stops working all that well when it's a two-man band.

I never say a crossover is impossible, but it's certainly one of the more difficult ones I've considered (with my self-imposed limitations, that is, the Harry-as-Bond fusion style is obviously relatively simple to pull off).

 

A fusion would probably be my preferred method - I did write the first couple of scenes of one such story ages ago, not sure if I've still got it anywhere; my main idea for it was the rather self-indulgent joke of Luna being the Q equivalent to explain the weird gadgets he might use.

If I was doing an actual crossover though, I'd have it primarily from Bond's POV, maybe even exclusively, and have him unaware of magic until the climax - specifically, I'd have him assigned to investigate the mysterious group that has infiltrated the highest levels of the government, that the PM seems to know about where everyone else is completely ignorant...

 

I'd like to read a story where magical Harry is one of muggle Bond's many and varied contacts. As far as Bond knows, Harry is this weird guy who can produce unlikely things and information for him and can always keep a secret. They don't know much about each other but they have a nice working relationship. It would be from Harry's PoV, and Bond would contact him once every few years, and at different stages of his life.

The story would be all the various requests that Bond has made occasionally over the years that Harry, as a dutiful and well-paid contact, fulfills. Harry himself catches glimpses of the shit Bond gets caught up in, his mind boggling at the ridiculousness and scale of them. He helps a tiny bit here and there (not so much that the reader attributes Bond's victories to Harry though). Maybe someone tries to get rid of Harry as a move against Bond; this obviously doesn't end well for them.

I'd read that.

 

I very, very rarely enjoy full fusion crossovers.

Generally, taking a character or idea from one fandom and putting it another just reads better to me. Gets messy otherwise.

 

Just getting around to this thread but I had some fun plotting something out a while back. As said above, the Wizarding World is pretty ripe for this type of story given the sheer scope that we never actually see. My thoughts were for a post-canon!Harry as he'd be far more capable and confident in his skills.

Harry, some years post-Voldemort, has cut his teeth in the Auror department hunting down the last vestiges of the Dark Lord's followers. Between his natural aptitude for defense magic and willingness to stick his nose in places it doesn't belong, he's very good at his job. As a result, he's become Kingsley's 'fixer' of sorts. His reputation precedes him, so he's the natural liaison between Britain and the rest of magical Europe whenever anything with dark magic is happening.

There have even been rumors of Harry being recruited by the ICW, an independent organization of warlocks that, while historically more ceremonial than anything, have gained real power in the wake of two world shaking Dark Lords in one century. They've called for a more centralized wizarding governmental system, have pretty deep hooks into some continental governments, and even employ their own force of Aurors as a multi-national peacekeeping force against dark wizards.

This Harry, unattached and still trying to determine where he fits in a world not dictated by prophecy, is called in by Kingsley. Fleur and Garbielle's father has gone missing in France. He wasn't a high ranking official, but he was well known and his star was rising as a proponent of creature rights in recent years. It's the latest in a series of well-known wizards disappearing, and it's reminiscent of Voldemort's first rise so everyone is on their guard. Given the personal connection to a prominent British family, Kingsley dispatches Harry to look into it. After all, if it's happened in France, it can happen in Britain.

Harry's first stop is Paris and the French Ministry. He glad-hands some of the higher ups in a semi-official capacity, offering his services on behalf of the British Ministry to help with the investigation. The French politely rebuff him, unwilling to let a foreign entity stick their nose into what is, at the moment, a fairly embarrassing situation. They resent the implication that they can't protect their own.

Naturally, Harry isn't deterred. He pokes around and ends up asking some questions in France's version of Diagon Alley. All he gets is that Mr. Delacour was working on some large piece of legislation. Frustrated, Harry plans to return to Britain to regroup when he's caught up in an attack. Several masked wizards enter the public area and begin wreaking havoc. It's clearly an act of terrorism, one of a few that have occurred recently, and Harry immediately steps in.

The moment he does, it becomes apparent that the attackers are far more competent than they appear. They move in formations, their spells are coordinated, their equipment is top tier enchantment. He manages to undo the glamour of one of the wizards, revealing Antonin Dolohov; one of the few death eaters Harry's not managed to track down, and the killer of Remus and Tonks besides. Through some clever wandwork, Harry manages to force the wizards into retreat, and immediately goes to ground, properly spooked.

It's now personal. He calls in some backup in the form of Ron - a wizard he trusts implicitly and isn't affiliated with any government - and pays a visit to the Delacour residence. It's predictably empty, Apoline gone to England to be with her eldest, and Gabrielle long since moved out. He roots around for clues, finds a list of cities ending with Sofia circled and underlined, long enough for the sensory ward he'd set up to ping, and he dons his invisibility cloak to spy on whomever enters the residence.

It's Gabrielle, cloaked, hurried, and clearly worried. Harry reveals himself, deflecting a few spells in the process, and ends up learning that Gabrielle had taken up a position assisting her father at the ministry, and was rather instrumental to writing new legislation. Despite their history, Gabrielle clearly doesn't trust Harry. He leaves at her behest.

Meeting up with Ron, Harry brings his friend up to speed. Collectively, they decide to head to Sofia. The list of cities coincides with the recent series of attacks. Nothing has happened in Sofia yet, making it the likely target. Being in Bulgaria, Harry contacts his old friend Viktor Krum, and learns there's a charity ball happening the next night. Viktor is hosting and it's to be a veritable who's-who of the continent. Being a pal, Viktor gets Harry and Ron two tickets under assumed names.

Arriving at the ball, nothing seems amiss until Harry starts actively feeling for magic the way Dumbledore had started to teach him. His senses hone in on the feeling of Voldemort's magic - the Dark Mark. It's as good confirmation as Harry can get, and, with some help from Viktor and Ron, manages to get Dolohov alone with only a few masked men as backup.

Harry out-duels Dolohov and his backup, but the former death eater manages to flee by leaving the rest of his allies to Harry's mercy. Two of the faces are unrecognizable. The third is Gabrielle.

Thoroughly startled, Harry and Ron depart with the bound Gabrielle and leave Viktor to sort out the resulting mess.

In the ensuing interrogation, Gabrielle reveals her father ran afoul of the efforts of the ICW to create a more centralized wizarding government. Suspecting they were the ones to disappear him, and having been recruited by the ICW in the past herself, Gabrielle wasted little time ingratiating herself with them, ostensibly to help combat the rise in dark magic across the continent, but really to try to find her father. She'd been screened and given some menial tasks, but had managed to get the drop on and replace one of the ICW 'Aurors' on Dolohov's team, which is how she found herself an unwitting accomplice to terrorism. When Harry had found her in Paris, orders had just come down and Gabrielle was leaving behind a trail for her sister to follow should the worst happen.

Armed with minimal evidence outside of Gabrielle's testimony, and with Dolohov going to ground, Harry decides that the best course of action is to be direct. Sending Ron back to Britain to inform Kingsley and rally some semblance of cavalry, Harry and Gabrielle portkey to Rome, where the ICW is headquartered.

That was as far as I got.

 

I hate that you have three things I want to see update in WbA and then you hit us with this plot outline. You're a bastard in the best way possible.

 

Ok I 'll bite. James Bond as a wizard running missions is a pretty neat idea. I'd have auror Harry trying to solve a case related to one of Bond's missions. Maybe even seeing Bond as a suspect. A cat and mouse game ensues between the law-abiding Harry Potter and the chaotic, License to Kill wielding James Bond, eventually joining forces to take down the big bad and parting on ambiguous terms due to their polar opposite ways of trying to get the job done, but a grudging respect develops nevertheless.

Can see some serious potential here.

 

Personally I would go with James Bond dealing with magic.

Bond movies are defined by the villains, so I would propose a muggleborn wizard as the villain, using the "ten easy ways to get rich quick using magic in the muggle world" -route to gain wealth, influence and power, with the ultimate goal of wiping out all wizards from earth using a combination of technology and magic. Say, using some kind of satellite based system to deliver magic-targeting bioweapons all over the world at once. This would leave him and his closest supporters (who would be the only ones with access to the antidote) as the only magic users left, and as such pretty much god-kings of the planet. Basically his shtick is that Grindelwald was right about wizards ruling over muggles, but went about it the wrong way: wizards are also the ones who will stop that from ever happening, so they need to go first.

Think evil Elon Musk who's secretly a wizard.

Bond gets involved because that kind of powerful individual with a mysterious past and questionable way of getting rich is of interest to MI6 in any case, and discovers part of the plot; maybe the villain is experimenting with kidnapped muggleborn to develop his bioweapon, and Bond stumbles upon the secret facility where this is being done.

The second act would be finding more about the plot and the ultimate goal of the villain, and you could then involve Harry somehow as the wizard contact for Bond (say M is a squib and has contacts). Other plot points might include Bond getting obliviated and regaining some of his memories (and getting pissed and very trigger happy around wands), the bioweapon getting released somewhere in London with Harry's friends in danger and adding a sense of urgency to getting antidote from the villain, and maybe some arguments whether MI6 even should do anything to stop wizards from killing each other. Finally the end would involve some sort of final confrontation between Bond, SAS and the Aurors on one side and a mind controlled horde of muggle mercenaries and wizard bad guys on the other.

Spoiler: Edit with spoilers for the latest Bond movie

Edit: have to say that coming back from seeing the latest Bond movie, my idea for fanfic doesn't feel quite as original anymore...

 

Hermione Granger And The Boy Who Lived ( https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-30822 ) has been mentioned on DLP here before. It's a crossover between HP and the Bond universe, though James Bond himself doesn't appear since it is way past his time (in the Fleming novels, I think Bond was a WW2 vet). It's a Super Hermione story that replays the entire 7 year Rowling series in a non-magical (i.e. James Bond) AU. Hogwarts is a spy academy sort of like Kingsman from the TV show. It actually works pretty well, funny in places, very clever, and a much better take on "science genius Hermione" than certain other very long fics that I could name. James Bond is a past graduate of the school and his influence is still felt there.

It's part of a bigger multiverse framework where all the different AU and crossover universes actually exist. There are some other stories in the series where characters travel between universes, but that doesn't happen in this one.