Recently saw the movie 'Limitless'. Found it quite an entertaining movie about how a low-life writer who was letting life kick him around managed to turn it all back up with a drug that allowed him access to 100 percent of his brain power.

A Limitless Harry fic would be a good read, considering the recent dearth of good stories.

Thoughts, anyone/

(btw, my question mark key is spoiled. Take the slash in place of it.)

 

Plot Bunny thread exists for it. As for the idea, I haven't seen the movie, but it sounds like another flimsy justification for Super!Harry.

 

The 'people only use ten percent of their brain' thing is an urban legend.

 

I suppose it would - if I were gunning for a Super Harry fic. I suppose I'm really just trying to have Harry achieve maximum potential. While Super Harry plays to that, I really just want to read about a HP fic where Harry doesn't just go into either/go through a

a.) Super occlumeny mode
b.) Super learning mode
c.) Uber life-changing mode

and thereby becomes super giga mega awesome.

A drug that can change him while carrying its own risks is much, much, much more believable.
Note that while an uber drug with life-threatening effects isn't that far off, the fact was that the existence of a 'wit-sharpening potion' in the cannon led me to extrapolate that it could be possible...

 

So, Harry on cocaine?

 

Hmmmm....unless cocaine can allow him to 'achieve maximum potential' - then no. But that's actually a good idea for a crack fic. Drug him high and let him loose. Although Ruskbyte already did that with Flying Without a Broom or something close.

 

Not to mention Zombie's "What's the Story, Morning Glory?".

 

I enjoyed limitless but frankly it wouldn't work on Harry.

There is a reason they chose the character to be a my-life-is-fucked-up-and-i-am-a-writer-with-no-ideas. He has a reason to try the drug. His sudden rise draws some suspicion as well and people come after him.

Harry Potter, at first, does not need the drug and hence is less likely to try it. When he does, you can not have any plausible enemies for him. He is protected at Hogwarts under Dumbledore's supervision. And frankly at Hogwarts the only thing he would use it for is getting laid, which leads us back to the idea of doing it as a crackfic.

(PS: Also, if you do decide to do it, or anyone else for that matter, don't be like, ZOMG my wind works 100% Imma finish Hogwarts library in two days HUR DUR)

 

Harry doesn't have a reason to take the drug? He's a above average wizard, that has to kill one of the strongest Dark wizards ever. He could use any advantage he's offered. The guy in the film only had to write a book.

Still sounds like a super!Harry though.

 

I still haven't figured out quite yet how to quote, but enembee, I would like a link to the story if possible. It would be a great read, if its coming from your recommendations...(unless I'm reading it wrong)

And as for DarkDeoxys, well, I agree with violent red. In fact, I have no idea why he WOULDN'T need any advantage he could get if Voldie is all all-powerful as he's cracked up to be in the HP universe.

As for Harry needing the drug...well, I kind of figured an opening to the story is one of Harry's/Neville's many categorically fucked up potions that end up being the baseline for the drug.

I remember a story about FEM!Blaise and Harry getting involved in a potions project with the pair as the main characters but can't exactly recall the story name. Nevertheless, it follows in that vein.

Inexperienced students making a new potion ---> fuck-up -----> NZT drug.

Or Harry could just want to bone up on exams like any other damned teenager, and tries to cheat with a half-baked wit sharpening potion that ends up working like NZT. Frankly, I could care less.

What I AM interested in, is to see how Harry at max potential would try to find a way around his troubles. We've seen Big D put an intelligent Harry down on writing, and it seemed plausible. This Limitless Harry is merely the means to an end.

 

There's two buttons at the bottom of every post. One that reads 'quote' and one that's just a little circle with a quotation mark in it. The first is used to quote a single post, the second is for 'multi-quote'.

As for the link, prepare to be disappointed. Although it was started in 2008 and shows great promise, Zombie is an asshat and will never finish it.

 

I already considered this idea and how it can be executed in the previous Plot Bunny Thread. I think it's an interesting setup, but the most important thing is what comes after.

 

If I were to do it, I wouldn't go down the increase in magical potential route. I would make it a more politcal/ social turn around. Almost like the scene were he manipulates slughorn with a little help from a certain golden potion. I would create a spiders web of manipulations with harry at the centre pulling the strings.
And as for him not needing it, well it would take little deviation from the canon storyline to put harry in a truly fucked postion.

 

@Celestin - Sorry if I stepped on your toes for the origins of the idea. If anyone disputes it, you're the man. And as for what comes after, I most definitely agree with you.

The set-up is cool and all, but without an end goal, Harry with smarts and no aim in sight does not a good story make.

@Enembee: the story seems okay so far, I kind of prefer Ruskbyte's, but given that BOTH of them have failed to update in abt a million years...I can't speak to their consistency. Still, an enjoyable tour of a drug-using Harry.

 

Funny thing, I've watched the movie two days ago, and I've thought about that - but in the end, it wouldn't really be feasible.

The movie was interesting because the average writer had many possibilities open to him because of that drug (NZT) - he could become a millionaire, he could become a president and change the world. That's what I liked about the movie.

Why wouldn't this work in the HP universe? Because every single wizard who has a wand has the same open doors. Why do you think there are dark wizards/dark lords in the HP verse? Because you just need a wand and you can be rich or rule a country. They don't need a super intelligence because a wand is much more effective and versatile.

 

@Hw97 - I concur. Harry's magically powerful enough in cannon. And the good old Harry is Merlin's next successor makes me puke and want to gorge my own eyes out. The social-political route is MUCH much more a fresh thing to dwell on. Something akin to Cosa Nosta.

In the movie Limitless, the main char does not have has just the simple goal of turning his life around. Sure he sleeps around with a couple of women. He gets rich. He gets back with his girlfriend.

But his more urgent goals skew towards getting more NZT, reducing or nullifying the side-effects of the drug, finding out who was trying to kill him and why, and of course, surviving the whole damn thing.

I figure if this is to be a Limitless!Harry spin-off, he would pretty much have the same goals, even if they're not as imaginative.

Don't take this as the end-all be-all of how Limitless Harry could be used, but I figure HBP has the perfect setting and situation for it. There's Snape's journal, the need to get a memory from Slughorn, the need to figure out the Horcruxes, among a million other things in cannon that could be affected by this.

@Link: Hmmm, I suppose if you go down the magic is might route, sure. But when I'm thinking of it, I can't imagine Voldemort, or Dumbledore(or the both of them together for good measure) out fighting every single witch and wizard in the British Isles. Sure, they can win ten, maybe twenty, but let's be realistic, they'll probably get cut down really quick if a manipulative, clever scheming Harry corners them.

Sorry if I'm rambling. Thoughts?(yay, my right hand side's shift key is the prob, left hand shift key for the qns mark still works.)

 

irony
:fire

 

Yay, seizures.

I don't know what you mean by 'maximum potential'. However, I do agree that HBP is a good time to try it; Harry's got a lot of stress, and if Snape wrote about a potion he made in the book (or an alteration to a current one, whatever). What effects it would have that would make it worth brewing multiple times and hiding, however, is where the story could shine. Sure, giving him the mind of Batman for a day would be fun, but then the story would be over in about two chapters.

 

Hmmm...what effects it would have is a tricky one.

Seizures aside, we need to know the benefits of the drug, how it works, and then we can derive its side effects.

Or we can just plain make them up, but I kinda feel someone/anyone writing with medical expertise could make it a lot more believable.