Hey so I'm working on the beginning of my new 6th year fic, Harry Potter and the Rise of the Amphiptere, and I realized that the way I start the story, which I was quite proud of when I first thought of it, is actually a horrid cliche that has been used probably a million times.

Originally, I had Harry awake, depressed over the loss of Sirius, to an owl from Gringotts telling him to come to the bank for Sirius' will reading. Harry goes via a Portkey the goblins provide, and, after inheriting Sirius' stuff, returns to Privet Drive to find it destroyed. Dumbledore, knowing that Harry will wallow in grief if left at Grimmauld Place, sends him to Hogwarts to stay, and the rest of the plot picks up from there.

Its been done more times than Ginny Weasley, but it truly is (and this is very sad and embarrassing for me to admit) the best way I can think of to get Harry to Hogwarts for the summer. And so, I turn to the esteemed DLP community for help. Does anyone have any ideas? Just so you know, both the inheritance and Harry getting to Hogwarts early in the summer are essential to the plot of the story, and its an Independent!Harry and Darkbutlightsided!Harry fic. I don't know, I may have to bite the bullet and succumb to the forces of my own lack of creativity, but I'd really rather not, so any ideas are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

Ya thats what I was already thinking, while at Hogwarts, Harry is going to study the darker side of magic in both the Restricted Section and Slytherin's Library. In the process of doing this he will realize the manipulations of Dumbledore and will turn into Independent!Harry. I'm also thinking that it would be wise to have Moody teach him some of the finer points of dueling and minor Dark Arts...he needs someone to train him...but maybe Shacklebolt? I dunno, I'm really excited about the plot of this thing, but getting to the juicy stuff is difficult.

 

At the end of year 5, Petunia suffers a stroke. She is in hospital, brain-dead on machines. Dumbledore realizes that Vernon want's her unplugged (to save money), which would kill her, thus breaking the love shield. Dumbledore replaces her with transfigured copy (so Muggles think she'd died in her sleep) and spirit real Petunia away to Hogwarts.

In a secret room at Hogwarts, he utilizes various (dark?) spells to attach her to the Hogwarts wards, thus transfering Lily's love shield from Private Drive to Hogwarts.

So, as Harry is leaving for the train, Dumbledore plays a good grandpa and for Harry's sake, (against his better judgement) allows Harry to stay at Hogwarts during summer (as a first step in mending their relationship yada yada...).

You can actually do a lot of stuff with this:

- Petunia's spirit transfering to Hogwarts wards and her gaining control over Hogwarts, like a possesed inteligent castle with Petunia's shrill disembodied voice (that would be funny, what with her voayer/noisy personality).

- Harry discovers Petunia in Frankeinstein-like room and looses faith in Headmaster.

- Lily's spirit that powers up the love shield is supressed when Voldemort tries to break through the love shield using his blood connection with Harry. With nowhere else to go, she posseses Petunia's despirited body. You can have Lily in Petunia kinda character (with Dumbledore possibly trying to hide her from Harry).

- Magic fixes Petunia. She wakes up.
a) Dumbledore don't allow that and keeps her locked up/in artificial coma. Harry discovers that and he's not happy. He frees Petunia...
b) Dumbledore says to her that she's considered dead in Muggle world. He offers her to fix things up if she accepts to stay at Hogwarts for another year. She accepts and takes the job of caretaker/Muggle teacher.

... just a little creative rant..

As for Gringotts, that's truly overdone. I suggest you gloss over that inheritence part and move on to the fun stuff...

 

IP's suggestion sounds interesting. It's original and helps you get Harry where you need him.

 

one thing you could do to make the inheritance thing a bit more original is have it that instead of it being for Sirius's will, its that Sirius's death has meant that the potter will becomes active, meanign he gets his inheritence and shit, I would personally have thought that ebing on the run Sirius couldn't have changed his will, so I would think it would leave stuff to the otehr Maurauders.

Thus, the stuff he leaves to James goes to harry through the potter will, and perhaps since Wormtail is considered dead the stuff left to him would be split between remus and the potter will,so harry would get Sirius's stuff, as would Remus, he would also get the Potter stuff, and maybe the Pettigrew stuff. Perhaps Pettigrew, being a sneaky spy for the darkside, was entrusted to keep a priceless collection of artifacts, or perhaps books in his vault, or a vault at Gringotts, and harry inherits the key.

Just a thought.

I am also not very keen on the idea of Petunia being in a coma, it just doesn't rub me very well.

 

maybe the horcrux thing could be used for that?

A reverse horcrux spell kind of thing could be used to split someone else's soul from their body, so maybe Dumbles (or whoever, really) uses it on petunia?

Of course, it'll probably be too dark for him to use tho...

 

Wow very interesting thoughts, thanks a lot. Thanks for reaffirming my belief that I'm not crazy, Mordecai, I was thinking that Harry would inherit the title Lord Black from Sirius (along with a shipping company, a magical zoo, and a bit of cash), and the Black title would cause him to be a legal adult, giving him the Potter inheritance, too.

The reverse horcrux idea is very intriguing, but leaving the issue of Dumbles using Dark Magic aside, I'm not sure he knows quite enough about regular Horcruxes to even consider creating a specialized one (I mean, come on, how are you going to lose your hand trying to destroy one?!?!) Something like that might be good, though, maybe Pissed!Harry kills Dudley when he tries to start some shit, and draws all the blood out of him and puts it in a jar that he takes to Hogwarts (Since Dudley would have Lily's blood, too, right? He is her nephew), or maybe the Marauders Menage Mansion, on the outskirts of Hogsmeade, where the Marauders would take their various conquests while they were at school (its more comfortable than a broom closet). I dunno that might be dumb or it might be a good starting point for Harry's travails on the Dark Side. Thoughts?