I think it is true that Dumbledore would go back before Ariana was killed, if given the chance. But I can't see him kill Gallert or Tom before they commit to darkness. Maybe he'll try to redeem Gallert Grindlewald like Harry did with Tom in Altered Destiny. Like it has been said before, Dumbledore is not a violent person. Shrewd, Machiavellian and exceedingly intelligent , but not cold and violent.

 

I'd like to see a Dumbledore who goes back before Ariana was killed. I think it'd be interesting to see how he deals with the loss of all of his political and fame-derived power.

I'm not sure how he'd handle Grindelwald - I think it could go either way - but as for Voldemort while I agree that he wouldn't kill someone who hasn't gone Dark, I think he might stop Merope from dosing Tom Sr with Love Potion, effectively stopping Tom being born.

 

I want to read an incompetent Dumbledore bumbling through everything getting lucky...

 

It was? Which post was that prompt/question in?

 

How about instead of Albus going back in time, Aberforth goes back in time? I haven't seen many stories where Aberforth plays a large part, and if done correctly, he could potentially save his sister, screw over Albus and Grindelwald and who knows what else. Maybe he starts out with good intentions and ends up getting as power hungry as Albus and then Albus takes the path he travelled.

That would be pretty dope actually. I just don't care enough to put the time into it and I only read Half Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows the once so I have very little to base it on.

 

We've always seen a main character (Dumbledore, Harry, Hermione - even Ginny and Ron) go back in time...but what about a secondary character, possibly one rarely used?

Fleur? Tonks? Katie Bell? Hell, even Pansy, who realized that the Dark Lord and his aims were all lies and deceit, could go back to pick up Harry; him being the 'last, great hope', and all that crap.

Especially if the character's characterization is different to what's expected.

I see a lot of potential with Katie Bell, there.

 

Didn't someone come up with an idea like that already, in this very thread? The general consensus was "They're not Harry Potter so why should I care?"

 

He's right you know.

 

That was primarily focused on fics that have just one main character, not two.

If the fic was, for example, just about Katie Bell going back and fucking around, I doubt there would be much interest.

If, however, it was about Katie Bell going back and it quickly involves Harry, who is the second main character, I reckon there'd be a lot of interest - especially if it's the pairing.

 

Jeram did it. Of course, it's almost a parody, but...

 

In that case, you should pick someone that's younger than Harry, so that when the other person goes back in time they aren't way older than him. Like Luna Lovegood, Gabrielle Delacour, Astoria Greengrass... not someone that is older than him in canon. There isn't a lot to choose from really, but with a little bit of thought you could work it out.

I think most (DLP) people hate stories that are written solely from someone other than Harry's perspective but don't mind if it switches back and forth from time to time. I personally like to have Harry as the main character but I still include passages where Ron, Hermione, Snape, Katie... etc. give you a closer look into what their character is thinking.

In a story like Jormungadr is proposing ^ this would be necessary or the story would most likely be doomed to failure.

 

I'd already read Blot's idea and that made me wonder about Dumbledore going back in time.

 

You didn't mention that, so, yeah. *shrug*

 

Does anyone have any killer ideas for crossover superhero!Harry fics? Particularly with the Avengers? Any ideas on the setup, significant waypoints in the plot, or potential conflict? Any inspirational possible titles?

I was trying to dig around in Wikipedia, but the thing is, Project M by Water Mage is so good. Too good, so as to overshadow anything with the Avengers and haunting efforts to write such a crossover. He set up the future conflict with the Voldemort from one of the other dimensions, he's made Harry a phoenix-themed superhero, he wrote that definitive scene with Thor, just a lot of defining scenes in his fic.

 

Unspeakable!Harry researching magical travel or maybe some random artifact leads to accidental travel through the Bifrost to Asgard or maybe just Marvel Universe Earth? Meh... I'm sure there is probably a better way to go about it, but that's all I have off the top of my head.

 

Try this: Luna convinces Harry that his mastery of the Hallows is more than just a title; that he might enter the Veil and possibly recover a loved one. He goes. His arrival into a similar earth catches the attention of Thanos, the mad Titan who is in love with Death. Thanos can sense Harry's attachment to Death; Harry escapes from Thanos by the graces of desperate spellwork and the impenetrable invisibility of Death's cloak. Somehow he finds his way into the protection of the Avengers and Warlock.

After talking with Warlock, Dr. Strange and Moondragon (or whomever else you favor), they question how Harry could possibly be powerful enough to be the Master of Death. Harry would protest that he wasn't trained or empowered for the role- he's just a wizard with an unfortunate tendency to attract trouble.

I have a few ideas where it would go from there, but this is just inspiration incubation, yeah?

 

Those both have promise.

I came up with one too:

Harry's in the States somewhere, endlessly trying to flee the letters in his wake. He received the first by owl years ago, inviting him to a place called Hogwarts, signed by someone named Headmaster Allorius Vilius (or something, it's designed to make the reader go WTF, not Dumbledore or McGonagall?)

Excited by learning there are others like him, Harry is eager to respond. The letter instructs him to go to a chapel at midnight, and he will be fetched by a teacher from the school.

Another letter arrives moments after the first, delivered by a raven. Harry is perplexed, but opens it and reads it. It is a warning not to listen to the invitation to Hogwarts, signed by someone named Alfred Woden.

He is too eager to heed this cryptic message, and instead goes to find this chapel. He finds many children like himself, with budding signs of accidental magic who also received the letters. They gather in the palls while the attendant priests go about their rites. He can hardly contain his excitement, but a feeling of wrongness settles over him when he inquires about Woden, and none of the other children have been contacted by him. There is a storm that begins brewing, and the teacher comes in with a staff etched with the head of a serpent. He begins slaughtering the congregation and blasting the children with red light that make them fall unconscious.

He comes for Harry, malicious intent gleaming in his eyes.

Harry apparates for the first time, leaving his new friends to a fate he can't fathom.

Years later, Harry is traveling the countryside incognito, taking refuge in cities and towns as he slowly makes his way north along the East Coast, pursued by the letters. Among his meager possessions is a book - Der Ring des Nibelungen, something he stole from one of the great libraries. Hundreds of hours of reading, searching have given him a thread to follow: He believes it has the key to his secret benefactor - Woden being the name for Odin, and the ravens Memory and Thought being his heralds. He has held menial jobs and slept in cheap motels, or the occasional home of a gracious friend. He has never been able to relax or find a normal life as a child. If he stays in one place too long, hunters - sometimes dark-attired in robes, or as plainclothes in the crowds - catch up to him and attempt to seize him, never allowing him a moment of rest.

Harry has a chance meeting at a train station with someone named Thorlief Golmen, who is vague and says that his father has great plans for him, and that the herald that Harry met was Thought.

He arrives in New York, where he is finally cornered and he readies to make his last stand, when this time he is aided, by Jessica Drew, Spider-Woman, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The overarching plot: Harry learning to master his magic, and SHIELD not quite being sure what to make of him. His brand of magic is different in nature to that of the Marvel witches and sorcerers. Harry knows there were other children like him with similar powers so he's not as singular as say the Giant-Man. But oddly enough, when the Scarlet Witch tries teaching him her witchcraft, he shows aptitude and his powers grow.

His goals slowly gain definition in his mind as he grows and trains: find this place called Hogwarts, why he's been targeted, and discover the dark secrets it houses and whether the kids with him in that chapel live, and is drawn into the machinations of a Dark Lord entwined with those of dark Asgardian forces. All the while, Harry reads the libretto of Der Ring, his thoughts harried by the final act.

Götterdämmerung.

The Twilight of the Gods.

One day, Harry receives another letter. From a raven.

And this time it speaks.

The first messenger bird was his brother, it explains, Thought. Odin never sends both on the same errand.

This one is Memory, and he has a question to ask.

Are you ready to relearn what you have forgotten, Harry Potter?

 

I wouldn't start him in the US- the story can start there, but it isn't Harry if he isn't British. It might make the slaughter at the chapel more... intimate... if the other children at least superficially resemble characters we know- the blonde pig-tails of Hannah Abbott, a tall black boy that may be Dean Thomas; even if they aren't those characters, it would ground the story as deriving from the Potter world.

What's more, the U.K. is relatively quiet in the Marvel universe- sure they have Captain Britain, Meggan and the Cassidy cousins, but the gaudy superhero thing wasn't a long-term legacy otherwise.

After fleeing the scene, Harry might try to make it home only to find similar devastation. Following this, he'd make a point of never returning to the U.K., particularly if the letters don't find him for a few years after he leaves.

He might stow away on a cargo ship that lands him in New York or Toronto and slowly discover that his 'powers' allow him a better life than the average homeless 11 year old.

 

Part of it is the mystery of what occurred in Britain, and why Harry's in the U.S. He still has a British accent that he's kept as a way of holding onto what his identity was before his memories started.

If I were to actually write this thing, I know that it starting in the U.S. wouldn't make a difference. I'd be ruthlessly exploiting the fact that nothing is known about the U.K. or who the hell has taken over Hogwarts, or whether the whole damn wizarding worldl has fallen under the influence of Voldemort or something else? I'd make the fact that Harry isn't in the U.K. itself the grounding, with Harry never able to gather enough courage to get on a ship to Britain, not while he's young. But it'd be a prominent story element and source of mystery, magnified substantially by the allusions to the Ring of Nibelung by Wagner.

 

I'd have to agree with Word on this. Whilst seeing a chapel full of kids die would be bad, it would be worse if they were people we knew. As readers, we don't really care about NewCharacter#17, but we still hold affection, however mild it may be, for Hermione and Dean and so on.

Unless they need to be alive for later in the story?