While I do enjoy stories when Harry Potter was a much more powerful and awesome character, I do get tired of reading this kind of stories at times.

What is so interesting about reading a story where Harry Potter is a much more powerful character? Why do you want to read such stories?

 

Mostly because the story becomes scene after scene of curb-stomping everyone. The best Super!Harry stories are the ones where he isn't the top dog; while he's better, more powerful, smarter, etc than other people, there are also others who are as good or even better, and can slam him into the ground. Stories like the Denarian Series are so good because they work this way. Super!Harry is fun to read, but it becomes annoying if he can beat any and everyone anytime.

 

Let's play MadLibs instead of replying to this random thread!!

While I do enjoy masturbation, I do get tired of eating ice cream at times.

What is so interesting about basting a turkey? Why do you want to murder my kittens?

 

Everyone enjoys an underdog. Nobody enjoys reading about an idiot.

 

People enjoy the idea of curbstomping everyone around them with mystic powers, but since nobody is going to write a story about Dave the accountant serial-killing his way about the office, they read Uber!Harry which makes for a good wank but a bad story.

As AlbusPHomeless pointed out, Shezza did it well by ramping up the challenges accordingly rather than just letting Harry wander around unchecked.

 

I suspect it's a matter of identification. Any DLPer, if thrown into the HP world, would be at least as obsessive as Hermione about learning everything about magic and becoming skilled in its use. Given that we want to identify with the main character, we thus are frustrated when he doesn't do that. So we write fics where he does.

That said, I am perhaps something of an outlier in that I'm not particularly interested in seeing Harry going around kicking ass in an action hero sort of way. My favourite fics are the ones where Harry is modeled on Dumbledore's kind of mindset, not Moody's. I like my Harry to be quietly understated, reserved, restrained, polite, intelligent, and completely capable of unleashing hell on his enemies with a gentle smile if they make him do so.

 

Why read such stories? Maybe we decided it was a little silly to see Death Eaters crumple before the wrath of fourth-year spells (or first-year, since in DH Harry seems to use Full-Body-Binds a lot more than stunners, for whatever reason.) Just a thought.

 

People write such stories because they are dissatisfied with canon.

 

Dave sat down heavily at his desk; he immediately fell to the floor, having forgotten he had destroyed his chair before the blood bath began. "God damnit," he yelled, punching the air aimlessly.

 

The name's Holmes. AlbusPHolmes. No pressure

 

I agree with this pretty much. There's a lot of unexplored potential with the HP universe. We know powerful spells like Fiendfyre exist, yet we never see them (or perhaps it's more accurate to say that we never see Harry doing them, Imperious Curse is the exception I suppose.)

I don't like Super!Harry just for the sake of being super. I don't like a mindless curbstomp where the solution to everything can just be found in the Hogwarts Library. I like super!Harry because the world actually requires him to be to face the challenges, and it can't just be an overnight transformation upon turning 17.

-Edit- I also should mention the usual argument. Riddle had achieved immortality through a Horcrux at 16, James, Sirius, and Peter were all Animagus by 15, and Dumbledore could do things with a wand that the OWL test proctor had never even seen. Harry learned how to do a Patronus charm, due to necessity really, and many months of practice, and it's a charm that many people end up learning eventually anyways, so not all that special as compared to the other's achievements.

 

I don't think Harry has the potential to be like that - at least not in a timeline close to canon. What stories are there with a Dumbledore!Harry?

No biggie, WalrusBHoles

 

You're right, there aren't many fics like that, and for that reason I'm very often annoyed at Harry while reading a fic and have to put it down.

There was a great fic ages ago, which never got very far, with Harry tutored by Ollivander. The great part of the fic was Ollivander hammering into Harry's head the difference between being a truly great wizard and a good fighter.

There are a few fics like this, though.

In Light of Silver Memories is the obvious, as it's literally Dumbledore!Harry.

Santi's Boy Who Lived is the other most obvious example of this type of characterisation.

Out of the Night has an unusually thoughtful Harry, though I wouldn't call him Dumbledorean.

MystShadow's Forging the Sword also had a Harry who grasped the difference between being a great wizard and a fighter.

The Weapon by QTuani7.

Also, Joe's An Unfound Door.

 

Why is that? Harry in canon is already quietly understated, reserved, restrained, polite and at least moderately intelligent; being able to fight isn't really all that hard.

Of course Harry wouldn't reach the level of omniscience Dumbledore has as that's mostly result of decades of academic work, but being able to kick ass if you really want to isn't impossible if you just put effort to it. Fighting is mostly about using what you've got intelligently, not about a massive amount of different tools you can use. There is a reason why military training doesn't take more than a year in most cases.

Voldemort and Dumbledore are in a league of their own, but no one else in the HP universe really shows any hugely exceptional skill in kicking ass. Bellatrix is eventually killed by Molly, Lucius is bested by Dobby, the Death Eaters aren't able to decimate Harry and friends in DoM (even if you go with the fanon notion that they weren't really trying their best). Having Harry kicking ass instead of hiding and using first year spells isn't really all that unreasonable.

Of course Super!Harry is a genre of it's own, and they usually end up with a curbstomp that might be enjoyable/funny to read but seldom has any plot to mention.

 

And here's the difference between super!Harry and Dumbledore!Harry. Being able to fight and packing a powerful punch is one thing, which many stories deliver, and learning that wouldn't be that hard, as you said.

But that level of omniscience is really what, in my mind, part of what makes Dumbledore Dumbledore. It isn't about being able to fight, although that is part of it - Dumbledore isn't just powerful because of his magical might, but also because of his political sway, the ability to understand and rally people. Voldemort is powerful because he has a score of devoted followers and he knows how to use his power to spread fear and discord. The fear of Voldemort doesn't merely spring from there being a powerful wizard who might kill you.

And the mentioned decades of academic work is the reason why I said what I said - canon Harry can become him, but not in the canon timeline.

Maybe my impression is too touched by OotP, but I don't really see Harry as very intelligent, and not understated because there isn't that much to understate (see Lord Anarchy's point about magical talent).

As Taure said, most DLPers would take a vastly different approach to learning magic than Harry who, to the academically minded, doesn't really care a lot about learning magic. His main magical talent is collecting things and not dieing where others would. Which, while impressive, is mostly the work of other people and fate.

In my mind, Dumbledore, despite his faults, is a simply brilliant person wielding massive powers that we hardly see in canon. Something that Harry is very far removed from.

 

Sure he is - except when he isn't. Let's face it, Harry's not that hard to rile up; Snape and Umbridge make an art of it in OOTP, and Malfoy's not half bad at it either. I wouldn't necessarily call Harry that polite, either. He's polite with friends (generally), sure, but just look at all the snark he gives to the Dursleys, even before he finds out about magic and therefore has no recourse to getting smacked down by Dudley if he goes too far with the insults.

One of Harry's bigger problems in canon (and by problem I mean an issue that actually gets him in trouble in the canon, not just something that would get him killed in real life) is that he's practically incapable of shutting up, even when doing so is in his best interests. Look at COS, where he reflexively defends Dumbledore from Malfoy even when he's supposed to be undercover. Or how about his impolitic treatment of Scrimgeour, someone who's at least trying to work with him? Not to defend the canon Ministry or anything, but canon Harry wouldn't know how to negotiate if you gave him a decade's worth of diplomatic training.

So with all that in mind, I think Harry's compulsion to always speak his mind is just too deeply ingrained to change. You could try doing so in an AU, I suppose, but there'd be so little left of Harry Potter's original personality I don't think it would be worth the effort. Like Potter Law I says, keep the Harry Potter, Harry Potter.

 

One of the things I like reading about in HP fanfiction is when characters expand the bounds of magic. This can be accomplished by showing something entirely new (that isn't absurd, or doesn't completely destroy existing HP magic), or by using the canon stuff in a new, innovative way.

Unfortunately, not many authors are capable of doing this. And as the previous posts mentioned, even fewer authors write a character who is both influential, and who convincingly earned his clout and influence rather than having it given to him.

To me, few things are more sad than writing a character with talent rivaling Dumbledore, yet the character is a dumbass in all the ways that count. Stories that don't fall into this trap are usually worth their weight in gold.

 

This. This is where fanfiction should evolve. This is why DLP is the vanguard when we're talking about writing. We can't read about a teenage Harry forever, that genre is, I think, exhausted (unless you're Joe, enembee, zennith, Taure, etc). We can read a plot revolving around a teen, with it's issues, a number of times before it becomes dull. And the possibilities granted by the canon world are vast enough to restrict yourself that way.
Sesc, Matt and enembee's work comes to mind regarding an adult Harry. And I still believe a fight with Voldemort reborn could be more intresting when the hero is in his 30's 40's. A lot of things to lose, you see? And it gives you the necessary time and background, if you like, to create an uber or Dumbledorean Harry.

 

Exactly this. No one is born wise. That takes time to develop. Normally you have to make mistakes first. We know Dumbledore made some pretty serious mistakes in his ambitious youth.

 

Wasn't all the time travel fics a way to get around this issue? Time travel fics ensures Harry have enough time to become a much more wiser and powerful man, while retaining the canon plot setting.

One thing that I notice in most awesome Harry stories is Harry Potter is often reinvented as a classic action hero. There is a lack of subtly when it comes to demonstrating Harry's feat as a wizard. Reinventing Harry as a Dumbledore-like figure would require the author to be more subtle in portraying him as a great wizard.