The Best Freak He Could Be

The basic premise of this challenge comes from stories where the Dursley family doesn't hate Harry for being magical. My thought was what if Vernon was walking down the street and heard some wizards complaining that muggles wouldn't be able to raise that Potter kid to be a proper wizard and took offense to the statement.

This leads him to making sure he turns Harry Potter into the biggest freak of the lot of them. He ends up buying books written by the absolutely weirdest of the weird wizards resulting in Harry becoming weirder that Luna Lovegood.

Neville mistaken as BWL

This one is a bit different. Snape upon hearing the Lestrange comment that the Longbottoms weren't home he realizes that Voldemort has gone to the Potter's in an attempt to save Lily, but he gets there too late to save the Lily and James so he takes Harry to do his best to protect the boy in a way he failed to protect Lily so he goes underground never realizing that the burnt bodies are that of Frank and Alice as they were watching Harry while the Potters were out.

Neville is mistaken as the Boy Who Lived which Snape knows, but due to his own unwillingness to relive his failures he doesn't look up the information so he doesn't know that Lily and James lived. Dumbledore clears Snape in court when someone tries to name him by saying that Snape was his spy, but even he has no clue where Snape vanished to and he fears the worst that Snape was found out. They eventually come out of hiding an learn the truth of what happened that night when Harry is older and more mature after being raised by Snape.

I find the idea of Snape being forced to grow up and take care of himself i.e. actually put some effort into the way he looks and behaves so as to set an example for Harry to be another desirable outcome of this story. Perhaps, Snape enrolls Harry in Durmstrang under a different name and they eventually maybe 4th year find out the truth? Maybe even add in some Snape/Lily if you are into that sort of thing.


I'm not that concerned with rules in my challenges. Stick to the basic idea and toy around with a few things here and there if you are interested in either one of these ideas. Basically, I'd write them myself, but I'm working 12 to 14 hour days 5 days a week, and I'm too damn tired to write it and then go through the proper steps to make it decent.

 

Idea one = dumb. Vernon hates magic. That's like his whole character. You might as well have Harry adopted by the Lovegoods or some shit.

Idea two = superdumb. Severitus stories suck.

 

Rightfully so, since no one's going to respond to your challenges in the first place.

 

Well, I'll go against the grain here and say that idea number one may have some potential. The way I see it, Petunia hates magic and her sister due to jealousy, and hates magic more for causing her sister's death, in a twisted sibling-love sort of way. Vernon just plain hates magic because it's not normal.

However, Petunia does have some little, twisted affection left for her sister and Vernon is a very proud sort of man. Now, in canon, Vernon has a son to raise and focus attention on, and despite how poor a father he is, objectively, he does come off as a family man, in a way.

So, if there was no Dudley, due to any number of plot contrivances, it takes only a moderate suspension of disbelief to work the idea.

Not to mention that it would work as a fantastic humor fic.

Of course going with a no-Dudley, family man Vernon route, it'd be more likely that Harry grow up embracing Vernon and Petunia's prejudices and decline going to Hogwarts, or if he does go to Hogwarts, that starting the canon-friction between Harry and the Dursleys.

*Blinks*

OK, having written out in the defense of idea no. 1, I now realize that it's not really worth the effort it'll require and it'd be easier to do with driving Harry somewhat cracked in the head due to neglect and minor abuse evidenced in the canon. Which, I suppose is not a new idea, but I wouldn't mind reading a properly done version that actually gets past the fifth chapter...

Anyone interested?

 

That is actually why I came up with idea number one. It seemed like I saw too much of Harry just being screwed up in the head because of killing curse crap or because he knew some eccentric person. Most of these stories never get finished, but I still am rather turned off by the idea simply because I've read so many of them I feel like the first few chapters are always somewhat expected.

As for the people calling the ideas dumb, I, honestly, didn't expect the majority of people here to like them as they aren't really the typical types of stories that people like on dlp, but I do realize that there are some people here who do like them so I thought I'd throw the ideas out there.

 

I've gotten the image of fat!spoiled!Dudly!Harry in my head.

 

@Oneiros: Actually a story similar to your first challenge has been done.

Prophecies, Secrets and Lies

AU. Book 1: Harry Potter has a pretty good life; a loving family, a great group of friends, he's powerful, and he's about to go to Hogwarts. Unfortunately, Dark Wizards keep trying to kill him, and not everyone around him is quite what they seem...


Its a complete seven year AU series with Prophecies, Secrets and Lies being the first in the series. The author is currently writing the fifth year.

I haven't read the stories, but from what I understand, the basic premise of the story is that Harry is brought up by the Dursleys, who do not hate magic. He is already aware of magic and is already in touch with the wizards.

About your second challenge; most here dislike Snape and as far as I'm aware Silens is the only Snape/Lily shipper that I know about in DLP. So chances of someone picking a story where Snape plays the good, caring and adopted father is slim. Also, the idea itself is not quite that good.

 

As the author, I should point out that Harry's upbringing is only the basis of the story, but yes, the Dursleys are fine with magic, treat Harry as a son, and all three surviving Marauders are around (for awhile...) And thanks for the rec

OT: as The DarIm said, I can see some potential for a humour fic in idea one. It couldn't be done as a serious one though.
As for idea 2, it seems to change everything about Snape that makes him a good character. Although if you stuck to Snape's character, the result could be an interesting Harry... As it is though, it just seems like two fan genres spliced together.