KenderCleric's Challenge #17 - A Life Lived in Reverse

This challenge was inspired by Caitiff's comments over in this thread.


Summary:

In the days following the Battle of the Ministry in Harry's fifth year the Boy-Who-Lived made a shocking discovery. Trapped within the folds of his now tattered robes a time-turner had traveled with Harry back to Hogwarts. Still in shock over the loss of Sirius and the revelation of the Prophecy Harry believes his luck has finally turned for the better.

Rushing to use the time-turner he turns over the device too many times. The magical stress on the device builds and it explodes in a shower of magical energy and the Sands of Time. Harry is thrown across his dorm room and knocked unconscious; the Sands of Time and magical energies settle over Harry like a thick blanket.

When Harry wakes up again he makes a shocking discovery: he had gone back in time one day. Thinking his attempt to time travel had mostly failed Harry realizes he'll have to hide away until the day passes so as to not run into himself. He spends the day in the Room of Requirement moping and destroying a few dummies.

The next morning when Harry wakes up he receives a nasty shock. Rather than being back to the present he is now two days in the past. Again he hides away in the Room of Requirement attempting to figure out what happened. Each night when he goes to sleep he wakes up another day further into the past.

Harry is living his life in reverse now.

Soon Harry realizes he can not risk staying at Hogwarts as the time of the DA's using the Room of Requirement is quickly approaching again. While considering what to do he realizes the opportunity he has been given.

Harry uses the RoR to create an unfindable suite of rooms for himself. The RoR will still work for anyone that wishes to use it, but he will be safe within his own little portion of it.

Days turn into months, months into years, and Harry plans his actions. He realizes that when he finally sets his plans into action he will run the risk of creating a paradox, but he no longer cares. He has a chance to save everyone he loves and cares about.

Harry spends years in his private little world within the RoR learning and secretly watching the inhabitants of the school. He becomes disconnected from people and human interaction. His obsession with "fixing time" dominates his personality so he no longer cares about living among others. He also discovers that his aging has been slowed to an incredible level.

Finally, the day comes that Harry has anticipated for nearly sixty years. He slips out of the RoR on September First and lurks in the dungeons; waiting for his target.

When the eleven year old Tom Riddle enters the dungeons, following his classmates to the Slytherin dorms, Harry acts. A single curse ends Tom Riddle's life before he can end so many others.

Harry waits for time's retribution, but it never comes. He had anticipated for so long to simply cease to exist after killing Voldemort, but it had not happened. He continues to awake another day in the past each morning.

Eventually Harry lost track of how long he had lived by himself in the RoR. Time had lost meaning to him and he often wondered what had become of the future with no Tom Riddle to destroy so many lives. Yet, he lived on into the past.

One day he awakes to discover his private little world has reverted to a plain stone room. Voices from outside the chamber alert Harry to a startling reality: He had now lived over a thousand years into the past. The Founders had not yet created the RoR, but were coming to do so at that moment.

Harry manages to gather what little real possessions he had and slip past the Founders with his invisibility cloak. Harry must now live in the real world for the first time in ages.

In time a series of events leads Harry to make the most shocking discovery in his now incredibly long life: the Legend of Merlin living life in reverse was true, and he was Merlin.


The Challenge:

Write a fic that details Harry's long life and experiences as both Harry Potter and Merlin.

The Rules:

• Must explain how Harry comes to his plan to Kill Riddle rather than attempt to just save Sirius, the Potters, etc.
• Detail Harry's life in the RoR: what he does, what he learns, etc. etc.
• Must detail out how Harry discovers that he is in fact Merlin.

This challenge can either turn out really good, or really crappy. If you decide to take up the challenge be careful.

 

When I first saw the idea of Harry living his life in reverse, I loved it. It's just has so many possilities. What with Tom Riddle, the marauders, the founders, and even Merlin.

It would be a good twist and finally a story where Harry being Merlin Makes sense.

The Lord of Plot Bunnies has spoken again, nice one.

This bunny kinda reminds me of the one from Monty Python......

 

There are certain things that could be confusing or hard to work out.

It reminds me of the sitcom Red Dwarf and the book of it called Backwards.
However, in it, when the characters are in a dimension where time runs backwards they don't age normally, they get younger.

 

This is definitely a great concept, but it might need to be fleshed out some more. You gave us what would probably be just a few of the chapters in a very long fic then left us to the rest. Do you have a specific Arthurian Legend you want us to write on or is that just up to the author to decide? How slow is Harry's aging because Merlin grew old after only a portion of the years Harry was in the RoR. Did the room influence his age? Should we change some of the events of Arthurian Legend, maybe have Harry/Merlin's utopian society actually work?

 

That's all up to the author and whatever plot they develope. Since the story is such a huge one I tried to be as vague in details as possible.

 

Is this any way to live, Kender? Going from challenge to challenge, never settling down? Wasting your life?

You ought to be ashamed, young man.

Why, in my day we were happy to have one challenge and stick with it. Yes siree bob, kids these days, they don't know what they've got going for...





Ahem.






This is an interesting one. Like you say - it could be horrible - but if done well it would be really good.

The only thing it lacks is a goal. It would be nice to see Harry's life through time, but what's the hook?

I know you wanted it to be open ended, but it would really help if there was a goal, an event or action to work toward that would keep things interesting - keep the reader hooked. A payoff.

It just doesn't seem very exciting. An epic needs an epic reason.






...You know, now that I think of it, you could do a lot with this.

You could attach it to a particular legend that must be carried out, or an enemy to stop/defeat - maybe Morgan La Faye had the same problem as Harry, but came from the altered future? (Can anyone say Girl!Harry?) Two peerless wizards fighting on a primordial Earth? Awesome.

Or maybe he's looking to end his miserable existence with the Holy Grail.

Or maybe make the establishment of the Knights of the Round Table done for a reason. Instead of creating a paradox, Harry has been slowly destabilizing magic, and the Knights were created to combat what this was causing. But would that work due to the time travel?

Or attach it to Stargate.


Or...


...


Goddamnit. Damn you Kender!

 

Ahh there we go. That's the payoff right there.

 

Wait, how can one live life in reverse and have Harry know anyone. The first day he talks to the founders will be the last day Harry talks to them. They will know Harry while Harry would just meet them... Well I think it could work, but it would be confusing after a while.

 

The legend is that Merlin was living his life backwards, which gave him detailed knowledge of the future, and what needed to occur. And besides...its magic.