KenderCleric’s Challenge #9 – The Paradox of a Paradox

Summary:

Everyone knows time travel is dangerous. It is common knowledge that attempting to change the past can create a paradox. Unfortunately for the world there are two people who don’t really care what everyone knows.

When the Final Battle© finally arrived Harry and Voldemort began their duel while the forces of the Order and the Death Eaters began a chaotic and rather unproductive battle. At the key moment of the duel between Immortal Dark Lord and Precocious Hero arrived Harry revealed the destruction of the horcruxes in the hopes of tripping Voldemort up.

Stupid, stupid Hero.

It only took Tom Riddle Jr. a heartbeat’s worth of time to realize he was once again mortal and could very likely die in this battle. With a resounding crack the Dark Lord fled the battle. Harry and the Order were a bit annoyed at the failure of their grand plan and the Death Eaters suffered a humiliating defeat for it.

Unable to make another horcrux Voldemort settles on a desperate plan to travel to the past and put an end to Harry Potter once and for all. Unfortunately, Harry and the Order discover his intentions thanks to a scar-vision. Now, both Harry and Voldemort are planning to travel back in time to stop one another.

What happens when two wizards begin to meddle in time trying to counter one another’s changes? Chaos, a paradox within a paradox, or in the case of Luna Lovegood – perfect sense.

The effects of the changes in time begin to merge and multiple possibilities become reality. Half the people think Harry died as a baby and the other half say it was Voldemort. James is alive, but Lily seems to be a ghost now? No one can remember exactly what is supposed to be except the two people still mucking about in time.

Can Harry sort out the now royaly confused timeline and defeat Riddle once and for all?

Will Voldemort finally manage to get rid of that pesky Harry Potter and his little friends too?

The Challenge:

Write a comedy fic in which the timeline of Harry Potter has been wholey contorted into a confusing mass. Paradox rules the day as things that can’t have happened did, and then didn’t, as Harry and Voldemort battle through the various ages of the Harry Potter story. The ultimate conclusion should be either Harry or Voldemort making their version of time come out on top…with maybe an alteration or two for good measure.

The Rules:

• Every change made has a ripple effect into the future. If you have either Voldemort or Harry alter an event then consider the effect it will have and how it will interact with the other changes being made or unmade.
• Remember that the alternate timelines are bleeding over into one another and adding to the confusion of everyone. Only Voldemort and Harry know how the true timeline should occur.
• No matter what changes to the timeline are made or what paradox’s crop up because of them Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy should always come out the losers. Painful death, humiliation, or other unpleasant things are required.

This challenge is what happens when I read one too many bad time travel fics. I take no blame for this or any fics written as a result.

 

This challenge is... confusing.

 

I disagree, it makes a hell of a lot of sense. (Then again I've read so many time travel stories of the non-HP variety that I'm used to mental gymnastics.)

What if everyone else was right and it is "impossible" to change time or else the timeline corrects itself by killing the offending party. Harry and Voldemort however are a special case because of the prophecy. The only way they can die is "at the hands of the other" so time cannot auto-correct the paradoxes like it normally would.

Now the timeline is getting fucked and every change has more and more far reaching consequences. The ubiquitous "don't swat a mosquito" warning may become a very literal problem as the timeline deviates more and more from it's proscribed path. As the future is destroyed and the present becomes unlivable, the only refuge for our dueling time lords is the past which of course only increases the problem.

 

Good one, Kender. Definitely the kind of plot bunnies. I can see a really good fic made out of this if it is done as a comedy. I can see a very lame fic made out of this if it is done as anything else though. I liked the little Luna plug in. Luna goes around with her Lion hat chanting 'Harry's Time Line FTW!!'

 

Like your previous challenge, the idea is good, but damn hard to implement. There are VERY few FF writers capable of devising a plot that would fit into this challenge.