Ok, so I was thinking right (don't be shocked), about those little things Rowling drops us during the books, and I remembered one that sparked my interest. Unless I'm mistaken, in one of the books someone said that Dumbledore had been offered the position of Minister several times but had always declined. I think it was Hagrid.

So I was thinking, I've never seen or heard of a fic where Dumbledore accepted the offer. Before Harry's introduction to the magical world of course. I could be wrong, but I've certainly never seen it.

I reckon, this could be done one of two important ways:

1) Dumbledore becomes Minister before the rise of Voldemort

The key reason for this option would be around Riddle's application to the DADA post. I would assume that it is the Headmaster's authority, and the Headmaster's only to decide who may teach and who may not. Without Dumbledore there (because I would think he kept his suspicions about Riddle secret) to deny Riddle's application, surely he would have been accepted. The man was an extraordinary wizard after all.

What would go from here I'm not sure, this is just a tiny little idea that irks me. Perhaps Riddle drops his immediate plans of taking over the magical world and sets his sights instead on 'recruiting' so to say. Making the children more open the Dark side.

From here, whatever can happen. Riddle wins the war because he gathers loads more supporters, and the end of the war occurs much later than in canon. Voldemort loses due to the prophecy, but does not mark Harry until he is older, because he would not see a need to if he's got so many supporters and he feels much more confident.



2) Dumbledore accepts after the war.

Here we have a scenario in which Harry is not placed directly under the influence of Dumbledore. I'd think he would still go to the Dursleys as I doubt Dumbledore would change his mind on that. Perhaps even, he could go to Sirius. With Dumbledore being Minister, I'd imagine Sirius would get a fair trial and thus, be proven innocent.

Harry would be thrown much more into the world of political manipulations if this route is taken I would think. Dumledore would know the prophecy and still want to keep an eye on Harry, but he knows he can't be headmaster as being Minister is a much more important position for him to be in.

Harry could be more Ministry-trained and possibly not placed in Gryffindor without Hargrid to influence him. I doubt the Philosopher’s Stone would be placed in Hogwarts without Dumbledore to guard it. The Ministry would react a lot quicker to Voldemort's rebirth. Or perhaps not.



I was thinking about it and it seemed like a fresh idea to me. If I'm wrong just correct me. But it looks as though there’s a lot of possibilities for an AU story.

Whadd'ya think?

 

Well, the first scenario leaves too many open questions. With Riddle as the teacher (and eventually becoming headmaster) and Dumbledore at the ministry, the whole relevant history of Potterverse would have to be written from scratch. Would there even be a prophecy without a real dark lord?

IMO trying to write something like this is a fool's errand. If some brave soul wants to rewrite the entire Potterverse, I'm sure there are better ideas for that floating around than Dumbledore becoming the Minister.

The second option, on the other hand, changes too little. What would change if Dumbledore became the Minister after Voldemort's fall? IMO absolutely nothing.

Unless you change Dumbledore's character drastically, he would still want Harry raised outside the wizarding world and conditioned to sacrifice himself to Voldemort. He may use a bit more direct control, as opposed to working from shadows like in canon, but I don't see him making any fundamental changes in Harry's upbringing.

 

If you were to go the first route, with a couple of changes, then it might make an interesting, if rather AU story.

Dumbledore becomes minister...say a few years after Riddle graduates from Hogwarts. Those few years Riddle spends traveling round the world, learning, researching, finding lost knowledge etc etc etc. Now, the way I see it, it was during this journey that he became really dark and evil. What if the first great wizardy person he goes to to learn from isn't a Dark Lord or Master of Ancient and Evil Magicks but is a very sort of wizarding equivalent of a Buddhist monk. At this point in time Riddle is not overly twisted with evil, and is still more the genius level intellect than the fairly clever and overly cliche evil guy. So he learns from the wise guy and realises that whilst true immortality is not possible without giving up that which makes him him he could attain a measure of immortality by becoming the next Dumbledore, being a great teacher etc etc.

Its up to the author if by this point he has already made at least 1 horcrux, or if you miss those out entirely, but basically he learns all this wise guy is willing to teach him, and continues on his journey, but with a new goal. Rather than searching for immortality, he searches for knowledge that will allow him to gain one of the most influential positions in Wizarding Britain - Headmaster of Hogwarts.

So, basically rather than having Dark Lord Voldemort, you have a Tom Riddle who is definitely on the Dark side of Light so to speak, but is not directly evil. He is the epitome of Slytherin values, he is incredibly ambitious but is hiding the true extent of it under a veneer of wanting to help teach the next generation.

Now, for a fic to work you have to have conflict. The way I see this fic panning out, you would have two areas of conflict for Harry to be involved in. One is between Tom Riddle, now Headmaster of Hogwarts, and Dumbledore, Minister for Magic. Dumbledore still suspects Tom of being evil and Dark and responsible for the Chamber of Secrets etc, but he still has no proof. Tom has reached the position he was aiming for, but Dumbledore works against him as much as possible, trying to take as much control of the school as he can away from Tom, like Fudge did in the books. So the conflict is there, but if there is also a Dark Lord in existence. The way I see it, Tom prepared a number of followers whilst in school to become his Death Eaters. Once he gave up on World Domination through violence, they were left in the cold. What if one of them rose up to take control, and become the Dark Lord. His identity is secret, maybe Dumbledore suspects that Tom is actually the Dark Lord, especially since perhaps Tom doesn't do overly much to fight the Dark Lord, except what is necessary to maintain a good public image.

The prophesy could still be in effect, except it would be Tom that heard it, not Dumbledore, however Tom could not control Harry as Dumbledore did because of the way the Minister works against him. So Harry is probably raised in a wizarding household, perhaps given some training, perhaps not (but probably better for the fic if he was). Another area for conflict in the fic would be Riddle and Dumbledore fighting over control of the Chosen One.

Aye, so with these changes, the fic might work, but it would be a big fic, and would take a lot of work to make happen in such a way that it worked.

 

I think the idea leads to many different crossroads that the author would have to create .

In one hand if he becomes minister before Voldemort's reign where is the story going to go in terms of action and plot .When will Voldy eventually decide that he is evil and go on some sort of megalomaniac war in which he will fight Harry or will he choose Neville ? ...

There is a lot of open ends to this 'what if' idea ...

It could become a very good story if the author has some good ideas in where he/she is going to take the story so yeah I think that it could be quite good plot idea

(Though I ain't a good author so I won't even consider taking up the challenge)

 

Just to throw a wrench in everyone's Plotting, Why would tom or Albus control both of the possible BWL's? Tom goes for the Physically marked one, Albus goes for the emotionally marked one. A battle of the Avatar's so to speak.

 

That's similiar to a Grindelwald/Harry vs. Dumbledore/Tom plot bunny...can't remember who came up with it though.