Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself.

 

But sometimes speaking the name summons snatchers?

 

Plot Bunny - Unprepared

What if Harry's years at Hogwarts were completely normal, he got average education, was never told the prophecy, nobody ever attacked him and nothing was out of ordinary?

And then, several weeks after he finishes his Hogwarts education, Voldemort returns in full force.

--

Year 1 - Quirell doesn't go to Albania and Voldemort does not learn about the Stone and does not possess Quirinus. No troll, no third-floor corridor traps, no dragon at Hagrid's. Harry and Ron don't become friends with Hermione (no adventures to bring them together).

Year 2 - Lucius Malfoy doesn't play with his Master's Horcruxes around and doesn't give away the Diary. Ginny is not possessed, the Chamber is not opened, Dobby remains with the Malfoys living a sad life. Dumbledore doesn't learn about the possibility of Voldemort making Horcruxes.

Year 3 - Sirius does not see Wormtail in the Daily Prophet and doesn't have a reason to escape Azkaban. No Dementors at school, no Lupin at school, Harry doesn't meet his godfather and Wormtail is still with the Weasleys.

Year 4 - Barty Crouch Jr. does not escape his father, Voldemort is not interested in the tournament and is gathering forces somewhere else. There is no Fourth Champion and Harry is not involved in any way.

Year 5 - Since Voldemort didn't return, Dumbledore doesn't talk about him and the Ministry does not interfere with the school. No Dumbledore's Army, no Order, no Grimmauld Place, no battles in the Ministry.

Year 6 - As Dumbledore never had any evidence of Voldemort making Horcruxes, he doesn't even start to search for them. Dumbledore's arm isn't cursed and he doesn't die, Draco is not a Death Eater, no Slughorn at school and Harry does not get into Snape's potions class. A completely normal year.

Year 7 - Once again, since Voldemort didn't return, nobody has a reason to worry and Harry spends his last year normally, nothing dangerous happens.


Then, a month after Harry finishes Hogwarts, without any warning, Voldemort returns with full fucking force, body restored, powers at 100% capacity, Azkaban is invaded and all Death Eaters freed. Snape is not summoned by Voldemort, apparently The Dark Lord doesn't trust him.

And Harry has nothing except average-at-best education. He isn't friends with Hermione, he didn't learn the Patronus, he never put a stronger effort into learning Defense (since he had no reason to do so).

He's in some deep shit now.

Hm, perhaps learning in a dangerous school with three-headed dogs wasn't so bad after all? :awesome

 

Sounds like he'd get the shit kicked out of him.

 

On the other hand - Dumbledore is alive, not under curse. And even Fudge will believe that Voldemort is not back.

 

Is it possible to have Lord Voldemort's shade not only share a body with Quirrel but directly absorb his soul in a battle of will, so LV "regenerates" his own and is whole again? This process doesn't affect his Horcruxes, and Quirrel's body changes to the one LV would have had if the transformations hadn't changed it.

 

Well, you would need a good reason why Voldemort didn't just do that before attempting to steal the PS or after being forced back into Wraith-form.

 

Good points. Before he met Quirrel he was alone, because he didn't want to go near wizards. He knew the Aurors were still abroad and searching for him (Canon, 4th book). But at the time Quirrel wandered near LV's home in the forest he could be an easy prey.

Quirrel was the first wizard he possessed in exile. But I'm not using the PS plot. I talk about a hypothetical situation where he doesn't share a body with Quirrel, it certainly happens that way at first, but once Voldemort is inside Quirrel he absorbs the teacher's souls and body to "regenerate" his own. And this happens in Albania, where with his new body he tries to retake the Wizarding World.

 

Well, if you want to write an AU, then you can do whatever you want.
But if you want to keep Voldemorts abilities canon compliant, I'd argue that he either didn't have the ability before GoF or it was connected to some kind of sacrifice that Voldemort wasn't ready to make. Something bigger than the cost of drinking Unicorn blood and the physical changes that the resurrection ritual brought. Perhaps the condition was an extremely limited lifetime with no way out after taking over the body.

Keep in mind that Voldemort was willing to inhabit the body of an homunculi - a creature unable to defend itself, dependent on regular potions fed to him by wormtail- in the beginning of book four. Maybe that was required for the resurrection ritual, but I can't imagine that Voldemort would consent reduce himself to something so pathetic while having the ability to take over a host and change the body.

 

Wouldn't Harry still have the blood protection though? All Harry would have to do is touch Voldemort and he wins. Of course he'd need to defend himself enough to get close to Voldemort enough to touch him. Also I think there are two problems with your nothing happens to Harry idea.

Pettigrew for one if going to realize at least late in Harry's school year, possibily fifth, sixth, or seventh, that Harry is going to leave Hogwarts soon and he's not going to be able to make his move. I believe it says in the third book that Pettigrew had been planning on either presenting Harry to Voldemort or killing him when he thought the time was right. Pettigrew may try if he feels Voldemort beginning to come back, and based on what you said of Harry being unaware of Voldemort until after Hogwarts, then Pettigrew will fail and maybe get caught. If this happens Sirius gets free and Harry might start to learn defense in order to make sure what happens with Pettigrew doesn't happen again.

The second problem is Hermione. While Ron and Hermione may never become friends, I think it's possible that at some point Harry, because of the nice person he is, will become friends with her because he might think their not too different(before Hogwarts Harry had no friends and if he see's Hermione in the same situation, he might decide to befriend her). I believe I remember Harry feeling bad for her during the feast when he heard she was crying in the bathroom. The thing is however I doubt in this situation Ron and Hermione will become friends and they is the possibility that in this alternate timeline, Harry and Hermione may just get together as a couple.

Still, it's a very interesting idea. I could also see it under the premise when canon Harry travels to this particular universe and has to lead the resistance against Voldemort and train his counterpart to defeat Voldemort. Might be a cliche idea, but it could easily work within the premise.

As for my own plot bunny which is kind of a BBC Merlin crossover, I tried once to imagine a premise where Lily rather than simply just sacrificing herself, conducts a ritual to bring back an ancient protection for Harry(or maybe a femHarry in this case, who we'll call Rose), and her death sacrifice results in the rituals completion. In turn the spirit of Morgana le Fay takes over Rose's body, there souls essentially merging, and Morgana basically completely alters the entire canon story as she attempts to bring back the Old Religion used by the Druids during the age of Arthur(basically magic from the Old Religion is much different from modern wizarding latin magic, which can be referred to as the New Religion). Morgana would grow up differently than canon Harry and uses her magic to invoke fear in the hearts of the Dursley's as well as learn everything she can of the modern muggle world in case she ever needs to use this knowledge. When Morgana goes to Hogwarts, she is sorted into Slytherin and befriends/manipulates Daphne Greengrass(who Morgana uses to enter pureblood politics) and Hermione Granger(who Morgana uses as to those in other houses and the muggleborn community as a whole.)

At the end of her first year, Voldemort discovers that Rose is the dark sorcoress Morgana le Fay, and Morgana, having learned of the prophecy at some point earlier(technically in BBC Merlin Morgana is a powerful seer so it's possible that she might have seen Voldemort's fall), tricks Voldemort by implying that he had in fact killed killed the original Rose, and she simply inhabits her body. Voldemort believes her and wants to learn from her knowledge of the Old Religion so that he can become more powerful than he is now and that she can join him. She declines but does not outright refuse making Voldemort believe she might accept somewhere down the line and is simply thinking it over. In truth Morgana opposes Voldemort because she believes all magical beings(muggleborns, purebloods, halfbloods, and magical creatures) are equal and that muggles are inferior. Morgana though hates Voldemorts racist views and believes him to be too blind with powerlust. However Voldemort escapes with the stone, which is later revealed to have been a fake.

Dumbledore later does discover Morgana's true identity, and heavily distrusts her. Yet she tells him the full truth that she is still Rose Potter and that the prophecy still applies to her. However they both agree that Voldemort must be destroyed. Around this time, Morgana also begins a search for Merlin who she realizes is both alive and had destroyed all knowledge of the Old Religion. He states that it was because Morgana was basically the first ever Dark Lord, or in her case, Dark Lady. After he death many began to follow in her footsteps and began to use much of the dark arts that Morgana helped invent. So basically Merlin destroyed all knowledge of the Old Religion for this reason, allowing the New Religion, which was less powerful and required the use of a wand, to take over. Before she leaves, Merlin advises her to stop her quest to bring back the Old Religion and instead use her magic to help others, and become good as she had been when she was younger.

I haven't really thought far enough after this however I do know what should at least happen. Morgana does find and learns he destroyed all knowledge of the Old Religion because it was too dangerous. Voldemort also starts targeting Neville, believing him to be the one of the prophecy, and Neville is put in the tri-wizard tournament. Morgana also encounters Bellatrix(who in this timeline is still a Death Eater, but Lucius had made sure to prevent her from being arrested and told everyone she was one of the victims of the Imperius curse for Narcissa's sake), who Morgana gets to join her and become her spy in Voldemort's inner circle. She is able able to get Sirius freed and get him a trial, becoming the Black heiress, something she uses to better her standing. Later on Morgana manipulates the ministry and gains power and either joins or defeats Voldemort.

This story won't either have Morgana paired with anyone or she has a kind of tragic former romance with Merlin who was her lover in her previous life. Truth be told, this story which I've envisioned in my head for a while would be a complex story that deals with manipulation and pureblood politics, and well as the history and division between old magic(druidish pagan magic) and new magic(latin magic). The sad thing is I'm really not as confident of myself as a writer to be able to properly write this story, so unless someone else decides to write it, it will likely never see the light of day and likely stay in my head and in this forum.

 

So, this idea would be a variation of the video game genre.

Beginning: Harry's death (if he dies, not entirely necessary but most of them begin this way) happens before he goes to Hogwarts. This is because a lot of the books is about solving mysteries, thus we should avoid this becoming a time travel fic in which he has all the answers. Plus, it would be interesting to compare the differences between his behavior in the books and the one influenced by the game.

Setting: Harry is one of many children selected to play "Wizard Hero: Britain, sub20demo", a system designed to prepare and select the champion of the wizardly world that will defend it in the troubling times ahead. As the name implies, only the first twenty years of the PC's life is available to them. In order to get the rest of the game (that is, the rest of their lives) they must purchase the complete version of the game with Wizard Points (WP). You can earn more WP by playing in higher levels of difficulty, completing the different origin stories, earning achievements and winning challenges. When they reach the necessary amount of WP, they can buy the complete version, select the origin story they liked the most, and continue living it from the point they left it.

Plot: Because having too many people with the experience gained through the game would be troublesome later on, there is only one complete version available, that is, only the first one to get the points to buy it can move on with his/her life. There are two players in each playthrough, Harry always being one of them since the story follows him and the other changing when Harry start a new game. When the other players are not in the same playthrough as Harry, they are competing between them in yet another one.

When a new game starts, the players don't know who the other one is. Once they discover him/her, they can either ignore them, ally with them to complete the story or try to 'defeat' them and steal part of their WP. What they choose would depend on the player's personality and how serious are about living.

Mechanics: Because the aim of the system is to prepare the players for the future and since it has the players competing against each other, the normal rules of this kind of story wouldn't quite cut it. Thus, I propose these as an alternative.

a)Lives & checkpoints: When they start a new game, each player has three lives. When one of them dies, he loses a life and they go back to the last checkpoint he/she reached. If a player loses all of his lives, the player loses that game and has to start a new game. Note that this means that a player can use death to undo what the other one did. More lives can be earned but the way is unknown and presumed to be difficult.

b)Skills & spells: They are leveled up by usage. When the player learns a new skill/spell, it starts at Beginner lvl 0, 0%. When the skill is used, its proficiency increases until the spell levels up, increasing its power. For example, the levitation charm would start by being able to move small things, increasing in size and weight as the spell levels up. Special increases are made when reachin Intermediate and Advanced levels (that is, Beginner 10 and Intermediate 10 respectively) like doing it non-verbally or levitating multiple targets. This is not only limited to spells but to all kind of skills like stealth, potion making (with secundary skills as measuring and heating), etc.

c)Stats: The system I am proposing here will work better if the game is set so that the characters earn many levels per school year. If that is not the case, another one might be better.

Basically, when the player levels up, the new stats are assigned automatically based on what he did on the previous level. If he did a lot of things that require physical strength, then strength would go up. If he performed intellectual tasks, Intelligence would go up and so on.

The stats I propose for this system would be:
Strenght: Self explanatory. It is necessary for things like fist fights, lifting, dealing with magical plants and creatures, playing quiditch, using certain equipment, etc.
Dextery: How good you are with your hands. It helps when performing wand movements, taking aim, crafting things, quiditch, etc.
Endurance: How long you can keep going. It determines how hard it is to knock you out, your stamina, resistance to magical effects, quiditch, etc.
Charisma: The ability to convince other people. It affects fame, appearance, flirting, conversation skills. How likely is that someone will agree with you.
Intelligence: A necessary stat so that this doesn't become a fighting game. I guess another stat can replace it as long as it has the same spirit.
Agility: Related to movement, speed, dodging, reflexes, quiditch, etc.
Luck: Self explanatory.

Also, depending on the actions of the player, new stats can be generated, like Fighting spirit, Art, Toughness, Magic (in the sense of developing unique magical traits and having special encounters), etc.

Since the character is expected to level up a lot, these stats are expected to get high. This is not to say the player will get a super human psyche as everyone is supposed to get stronger as they get older. Conversely, all characters level up as the the game progresses, even the NPC.

Stats not only determine the normal limitations of the player but, on special occasions, a stat check will occur. The higher the stat, the higher the chance of the check and action being successful. Regardless of the success of the check, a certain amount of the stat will be deducted until the player has had a proper rest. This is to simulate the effect of being physically and mentally tired that piles up with each action. Endurance helps to reduce the dropped amount and in certain occasions one stat can help in the check of another.

d)House points: House points are earned by performing well in class, completing challenges and doing quests for teachers and prefects. House points are necessary to win the House cup, which not only grants a lot of experience to the members of the winning house but it also grants buffs and other benefits to them until the end of the next school year. On the other hand, the player can also trade the points he earned in exchange of special equipment or new spells (note that this is one of the three ways of learning spells, along with classwork and special quests) so he must balance between spending and keeping his house points. Said points are reset to zero once the school year ends.

e)Origin stories: These are the alternative lives the player can have when starting a new game. Each player has a default origin story with which they start and can unlock the others by performing quests or earning achievements. Harry would start with the story "Boy-who-lived (default)" which I imagine he would like to change, perhaps for another one in which his parents are alive or at least one in which he doesn't have to live with the Dursleys. Example:

1-Heir of Potter: Harry grows up in the wizardly world, raised by his father James as one of the elite. In this storyline, Neville is the boy who lived. What the description doesn't say, however, is that James Potter was a Slytherin and a Death Eater who married Bellatrix Black and avoided Azkaban along with Lucius by accusing her of performing the imperius curse on them.
2-Fireborn: After a big fire in Hogsmeade, Harry is the only survivor though he has no memory of what happened before waking up in St. Mungo. He is adopted by Albus and takes his surname, being raised at Hogwarts. Harry is not the BWL. What the description doesn't say and Harry must discover by himself is who his parents are and why did Dumbledore adopt him. Turns out that the real reason of the Aberforth-Albus-Gellert duel is that Grindewald took advantage of Ariadna and knocked her up. Either Ariadna or the child survives but Aberforth fakes their death and raises the baby in secret in the basement of the Hogshead inn (leaving Hogwarts and his home to do so). He goes insane, pulls a Craster for a few generations killing the children that show accidental magic so that they are not detected when they turn eleven and when Harry's turn comes he starts the fire in self defense, killing everyone but him. Albus realizes what happened and adopts harry, keeping his past from him.

And so on.

f)Speed origin: The game allows the option of a speed origin story. This is, instead of living years of childhood before going to Hogwarts, the player can opt to live ten significant days of those years and have his backstory created based on his reactions to the events that happen there.
Example: If Harry chooses to speed origin his stay at the Dursleys (very likely) and he spends the ten days running from Dudley and sneaking around, by the time he starts the game he would have the stealth skill at a higher level and the "Craven" personality trait, which wouldn't really affect how he acts but would reduce his charisma and change the way people see him. Alternatively, he could gain different stats, skills or traits (violent, pacifist, etc) depending of what he does or what he makes up about his past. Personality traits could also appear or disappear depending of his actions later in the game.

Not sure if speed origin should be always on or if he should be able to turn it of though.

 

Not so sure about this. The way I see it, Harry in his original form (because of his fucked up childhood) is a follower, guy who goes with the tide. His adventures made him a leader and helped him become his own man. So, yes he would feel sorry for her but I don't think he would do anything about it for fear of jeopardize his relationship with Ron and the others. Not without life threatening situation involved at least.

Actually, without this whole crazy-mass-murderer-is-trying-to-kill-me-every-June thing, combind with his fame and quidditch skills and especially without Hermione's influence, I imagine Harry would eventualy become James-like character (as seen in Snape's memories). Gryffindor's Golden boy. One of the cool kids.

On the other hand, Hermione (after she finished with crying in girls' toilet) would probably bury herself in books. She was already ostracized by the others and with her social skills I doubt that would change for some time. Eventually, she would probably gravitate toward the other outcasts like Luna and maybe Neville.

 

Note that in canon he did nothing before life threatening situation. Maybe he would do something small after situation escalated to extreme (like it happened in canon with Luna).

 

Albus Dumbledore and Female Gellert Grindelwald.

Albus/Gellerta OTP.

 

...

Albus/Gellert OTP. Cause that's, you know. Canon.

 

Who knows, maybe they were Albus and Gellerta in private.

 

I maintain my stance that it's power that dictated Dumbledore's sexuality. If Grindelwald was a girl, he would have been straight and since Grindelwald is a 'he', Albus was gay.

Just no.........

 

I ship Albus/Gellert, it's actually a really interesting dynamic, and I happen to think Dumbledore is really gay. It's a little weird what you say about him being only attracted to power, because how it comes across is "This person I look up to does not fit my standard perception of a role model, maybe it's because they just like power, that'd be okay"

Maybe you aren't in the closet about him being gay, but it looks like it.

 

Albus Dumbledore has always been asexual in my mind. I have difficulty imagining him with anyone ... gay or straight.

 

I think power was the wrong choice of words there - rather it would be more accurate to say Dumbledore was attracted to Gellert's intellect and talent considering he was probably the only person on an equal level with him that he'd ever met.

There's nothing in canon to back that up, but I'd say it's an interesting idea nonetheless. From what we know it doesn't seem like Dumbledore had many relationships other than Grindelwald so the idea makes sense.