Challenge #1: Slytherin Reborn

Summary:

First, some background facts. Following is the information obtained from HP-Lexicon:

Originally the pointed wizard's hat of Godric Gryffindor, the Sorting Hat was bewitched by all four of the founders of Hogwarts with brains and some amount of personality.

There is more to the Sorting Hat than one might think. In an interview JKR said:
"The character you might be most surprised to see evolve is none other than the Sorting Hat. There is more to the Sorting Hat than what you have read about in the first three books. Readers will find out what the Sorting Hat becomes as they get into future books."


We did find out that there was more to the hat than met the eye. There is one question that begs to be asked: Can the Sorting Hat be a Horcrux?

We do know that it has a brain and a personality. Will it be possible to extract this into a body?


The Challenge:

The founders did try to make the Hat in the way they had originally planned - all, except one.

Salazar Slytherin could see his that his friends would not agree with his ideas. So instead of just contributing a part of his brain and his personality, he did something more. He made it into a horcrux. Of course, we have to assume that being as dark as he was, he was well aware of them. He left instructions for someone of his line - with the ability to speak parseltongue, of course - to return him in case he died. But none of his descendents figured it out, or got the chance to do so.

Cut to the present. We can have either Harry or Voldemort be the cause of Slytherin's return.

- Voldemort can do it as he is damn intelligent. End of seventh year, Voldemort realises that all his horcruxes are gone and finds out that Slytherin has one. He tries to take it over somehow or merge it into his body so as to become more powerful, but fails and Slytherin is reborn. Voldemort dies at Harry's hands, or he may remain alive and you can have two Dark Lords. I won't recommend it though.

- Harry can do it, not because he is intelligent, but with his sheer dumb (bad) luck and without actually knowing what it may inadvertently lead to.

So now, we have an evil founder return from the dead. The rest of the story goes wherever the author wants it to go. Combatting the new Dark Lord mostly.


Rules:

* This shall most probably be a post-Voldemort fic, considering that Slytherin will be written as a dark character. It can be done in the Voldemort period too, but writing two Dark Lords would be stupid, IMO. Also, I don't think any one of them would like to be subordinate to the other.

* Slytherin is evil. He is twisted. Period. Bringing him back during Voldemort's reign and using him as Harry's instructor is dumb.

* Slytherin should be much worse than Voldemort. He sees the state than Hogwarts is in currently and is highly enraged. Remember that he was the pioneer of the whole anti-muggleborn agenda. He is not a cute puppy with small teeth. He is a Grim with a vicious bite.

Props to Void Sorcerer for helping out with this. Any suggestions will be welcome.

 

Step 1. "Oh no, Slytherin has returned!!!1!!1!" said Harry to Dumbledore.

Step 2. "Never fear Harry, I'll deal with it," replied Dumbledore.

Step 3. Dumbledore WTFpwns Slytherin, since there is no prophesy protecting him, and Dumbledore not only has 1000 years of extra magical knowledge on Slytherin but is also the most powerful wizard to ever live.

 

I like the idea of the Sorting Hat being Slytherin's Horcrux, but as the others had pointed out, there's not much appeal in the idea of post-DH Harry taking on a fresh generic dark lord, with (I presume) the exact same agenda and style of magic as Voldemort.

There are better ways to use this idea.

Maybe from the POV of Harry the Headmaster, who has to figure out which student is being controlled by dark forces and how (kind of reversed COS)?

Or a magical accident fuses the Hat with Hogwarts; the castle's enchantments turn bad and start attacking students with moving stairways, animated suits of armor, portraits, ghosts etc... Harry (and his friends?) are trapped inside and need to figure out what's going on, with Harry being the key because only he speaks Parseltongue.

Or use it in a completely unrelated way, as a side plot in a random story or maybe even as a source of an AU (Harry speaks to the Hat in COS a bit longer and learns there's a Horcrux lodged in his brain?)...

Possibilities are endless, much greater than a generic post-DH story...

 

I know everyone loves, Harry and all that rot, but why not have him and Voldemort be killed off in DH, but alter the plot so Dumbledore wasn't killed it HBP. Instead have him be terribly injured and dragged off by someone loyal (Perhaps a house-elf) how nurses him back to health.

This takes about 10 years, and everyone thinks Dumbledore is dead. In that time period SS has come back and taken over wizarding Britain. This could be Albus's war, but Albus could have actually recreate his power structure. It would be nice to see Dumbledore challenged.

 

I actually like the thought of the Hat merging with the castle, but it assumes authority over its enchantments. When the castle is invaded, it can lead intruders in circles by shifting its staircases accordingly, direct the suits of armor, etc.

 

I would just like to see a story where Slytherin comes back to life and is promptly wtfpwned by Harry and his modern spells.

With a flick of a wand, Harry destroys Slytherin with a powerful blasting curse that took minutes of chanting from Slytherin's time.

 

Lol, good one Amerision. Could make a nice one-shot. Big baaad Slytherin appears in midst of the Great Hall, laughing maniacally and declaring the new era of the Wizarding World... and Neville Longbottom kicks his ass with a few spells.

 

No. Make it the Creevy brothers kicking his ass since they're Muggleborn. Sounds like a job for Nonjon!

Jim

 

What if the hat is not a horcrux but something similar, it holds vast amounts of magical information most of which is locked away, waiting for Salazar Slitherin's reborn soul. What if Harry had that soul (yeah it has been done before) and that is where his parseltongue comes from. From first year to the end of fifth there is some kind of magical interference which prevents the sorting hat from recognizing Harry's soul.

Each founder could have left an artifact within the hat, from the Cos we know about Godric's sword, but what about the other founders? Slytherin could have left a magical construct containing all he knew up to the point that he last worn the hat. In this way it is technically not the sorting hat itself that has the information. The construct could also store a large reserve of Slytherin's magic as well.

Considering that Slytherin was a dark wizard and one of legendary power, he could have known and performed many rituals, so that once he died the remainder of his magic would relocate to his artifact.

Maybe Tom Riddle really was not the Heir to Slytherin, just that the Gaunt family always thought they were part of that family due to many of them having the parseltongue ability. Who knows we are talking a thousand years, perhaps they are part of that family, descended from some relation to Salazar. Maybe Slytherin hated muggles due to them killing off his wife and kids and or parent(s). Could be he just did not want to teach muggleborns at hogwarts. What if he did not hate muggleborns so much as just being a noble that looked down upon those that were common, poor, dumb and dirty. For Noble's back then and for centuries that kind of attitude could have been fairly normal. Sure there were Noble's that involved themselves in charities and cared about their subjects.

Also back then muggle's and muggleborn's would not be named as such, considering they likely used Old English, Latin or another such language. Maybe the closest translation for what term they used, could end up as Primoris Ingenero Veneficus.

If one were to base wizarding Nobility off of something similar to the muggle's. Just with added magical traditions, rituals and such. Then for the most part much of the upper class and Lords would unlikely care what the lower classes did such as intermarry with anything less that purebloods or even magical halfbreeds.

Also while from Voldemort's associating himself as Slytherin's heir and the events concerning his chamber of secrets. Maybe Slytherin's reputation has been seriously tainted. Just because he is a dark wizard does not make him evil. Of course for many modern wizards dark equals evil due to them living in a simple black and white mindset. There is much prejudice and hate in the wizarding world.

As we see with Harry and his public image problems through out various years both before and during his time at hogwarts, the public and history books are hardly accurate at least towards those that are famous or noteworthy.

 

I like this idea the best. Harry as Headmaster stories are something we rarely get to see done properly.

What I picture is a sort of mystery fic where, a few weeks after the start of Harry's first year as Headmaster, Harry finds that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened again. Yet, instead of it being Voldemort's diary controlling the student, when the student placed the Sorting Hat on it's head during the Opening Feast (this would mean a First Year student) its ties to Slytherin were recognized and the Horcrux possessed him (or her). With Slytherin's overwhelming knowledge of how the school works, he would be able to attack Muggleborn students relentlessly, using Hogwarts itself against them. A moving staircase that attempts to crush students, classrooms that disappear with students still inside them, suits of armor attacking random children when they least expect it: it would make for a decent action story.

You could also implement one of Harry's children, or perhaps a prodigy child in the mold of Harry (or young Albus for that matter) that would work together with the elder Harry to minimize the threat.

However, there are many different things you can do with a Sorting Hat horcrux; still, the fact of the matter remains that most stories with "such and such is a horcrux" are garbage. Without a skilled author, this would probably follow the same path.

 

Or you could just have Harry during his second or third year find the hat and have Slytherin being a voice in his head giving advice.

 

Slytherin as Harry's Mentor has been done. Something with Slytherin possessing Harry while he's fighting the Basilisk. It would then be Slytherin posing as Harry and making plans to replace is Heir as Dark Lord.

 

That could be the start of a nice insane Harry story the likes of Omagic's Dark respite. When Harry is sorted, Slytherins Horcrux chooses Harry and gets into fighting with Voldemorts soulpiece. Dumbledore intervenes to help Harry in his Fight and puts somthing of himself into the mix. Harry's sanity finally breaks and Voila! That would be an interesting time at Hogwarts, when he has insane Harry making up scenarios to torture Snape for example. Dumbledore's part tries to keep Harry out of trouble, Riddle does the actual deed and Slytherin denies it all later.

 

Personally I like IP82s idea with the hat fusing with hogwarts. It has potential for a good horror/humor story, with Voldemort and his Death Eaters attacking Hogwarts and the castle attacking everything in sight, so that Aurors, Death Eaters and Hogwarts students have to work together so they won´t get killed.

One scene that´s going through my mind right now:

The scene before him reminded Harry of an American Horror-Movie he had watched at the impressionable age of seven years old. A bunch of people crowded together in a little room, waiting to be killed by ghosts and other things only seen in fantasy novels.

The Lestranges had been killed by a moving staircase that descended upon them with the neckbreaking speed of 100 km/h, while several of the Professors were cut down by the knights patrolling the corridors. Oh, and Dumbledore that had gotten an concussion because he walked against the door to the Medical Wing, was playing gobstones with a stoned Wormtail. Well, at least they had some hope left, as long as Voldemort was still alive, or so Harry thought.

Speak of the Devil, where was the guy, thought Harry as someone was frantically pounding and screaming from the other side of the door, connecting them to the World of the batshit-crazy gone castle. As it was a quite girlish scream, they just knew it was Lucius Malfoy, because the Malfoy heir had gotten killed in the first few moments of the attack.

They opened the door and Malfoy senior stumbled in. A lance was imbedded in his gut and lots of blood was running down his body.

"What happened Lucius", asked Snape in his No-Nonsense voice, while slugging him once, to keep the older Malfoy awake.

"Those animated knights got to us", answered Lucius in a weak voice. "So we had to take the long way to get here. Then the impossible happened ..." Here he trailed off.

"What happened?", asked Snape further.

"What happened?", asked Hermione, always curious.

"What happened?", asked a first year Hufflepuff just out of spite.

It seemed Lucius had already drifted off to the land of the dead, so Snape tried to slug him again. But the last Malfoy stirred once again. "I ain´t dead yet, you jealous bastard, so stop hitting me", the man exclaimed infuriated. "But our Lord, the Dark Lord ... he got sucked into the portrait of Sir Cadogan and was killed by him."

Well, Harry thought. Now we are fucked.

 

I think an interesting idea might be something like yes Slytherin did put part of his soul into the Hat as a horcrux but it was so many hundreds of years ago that the magic started to degrade with out Slytherin to power it any longer.

When Harry put the hat on the magic around the Horcrux assumed him to be Slytherin because of the parseltounge and transferred the little bits and pieces of what was left in the hat to him. Now he doesnt have any of Slytherins power or skills but he has little fragments of his memories and personality swimming around in his head. These fragments give him little flashes of memories maybe a spell here and there but it could start influencing his personality and maybe make a decent start to a dark Harry fic.

 

How about Slytherin does come back through the Sorting Hat Horcrux idea, and instead of him having any effect on Harry's mental status...you get rival Dark Lords of near equal skill and ruthlessness...

Order of the Phoenix vs. Voldemort and the Death Eaters vs. Slytherin and whoever his followers may be. Two rival Dark factions knocking each other off, and Harry caught up in the crossfire of a three way war.

Of course, that would probably work better as an alternative 6th Year fic, instead of a post DH fic. Plus you could have Salazar finish the job Riddle's horcrux started on Gin-slut...full circle through Slytherin blood.