Now hold on, nobody said that Britain is a dystopian shithole under Dumbledore's rule.

Arguably the place is better than in canon. House Elves are not enslaved, Goblins and other folks have equal rights to wizards including wand use, muggles know about magic and there is no blood purity.

Sure, anyone loudly disliking Dumbledore tends to disappear in the night, but overall people have a good quality of life. Maybe the muggles get shitty jobs, but at least nobody tries to kill them.

Sure, there are almost no muggles in the government, which is a dictatorship, but everyone has a voice, right?

And yes, Grindelwald has been defeated, allowing Dumbledore to take Britain for himself, but Voldemort returned and prevented Albus from conquering France as well.

 

Yeah. I wouldn't call it "everybody has a voice" when for expressing your opinions you got shot in the head. Also, your Britian is a dystopian shithole. Discrimination against people because of inborn traits - or their lack - is a staple of dystopia. Plus dictatorship.

 

I keep forgetting people are not in my head :facepalm

I was going for the whole "Person from in-universe trying to rationalize the things around him".

 

I kind of don't see why you don't just make it Grindelwald. Other than, of course, Dumbledore being centered around Britian. I would make it Grindelwald unless there is a good reason for it to be Dumbledore.

 

If Voldemort can "save" France, Grindelwald can take over Britain I think.

 

How does everyone have a voice if it's a dictatorship? Maybe a benevolent dictatorship, sure, but let's call things what they are.

So elves are free, but in what way exactly? Do they own property, run their own businesses, have representation among Dumbledore's advisors (I'm assuming he has those)? Or are they free like Dobby, where they still work the same job but with pay, benefits and wands? Why do they need wands? Canon suggests house elf magic doesn't rely on wands, seeing as they can perform wandless magic rather competently.

Same with centaurs. How do wands benefit them? Canon never even hints that centaurs could use wand magic like wizards can. Maybe they have their own magic and don't really give a shit about wands?

The dictator!Dumbledore has a strong Greater Good vibe. How is he different from Grindelwald? In other words, what makes Dumbledore more interesting in that position than Grindelwald? The primary difference between them in canon is that Dumbledore rejected the GG ideology.

 

Why don't you have James as Dumbledore's right hand man with Lily being undercover, working for Voldemort. After the prophecy Voldemort decides he can't have Harry live despite Lily's loyal service due to the threat he poses. Tries to kill the entire family. Lily escapes and Harry grows up wanting to overthrow both Dumbledore and Voldemort.

 

The prophecy is different in this AU.

 

I think you can still find reasons for Voldemort to betray Lily. Her having outlived her usefulness or being a liability ever since becoming a mother might be good reasons. That way you have a strong female character in Lily and a motivated Harry!

 

Different how?

 

The year: 11,995 AD. The rule of Lord Voldemort is absolute. For almost 10,000 years he has held dominion over every corner of the Earth. Immortal and all-powerful, more god than man, nothing escapes the Dark Lord's gaze. All trace of advanced technology has been removed from the world, and history has been rewritten to begin with Voldemort's rule.

Muggles exist as barely more than slaves, serving their wizarding masters. Their lives are often nasty, brutish and short. But for the wizards, there is no limit to their ambitions, their society thriving in a new golden age of wizardry. If you prove yourself you might even rise to become one of the Death Eaters, those most loyal servants gifted with immortality by their master. To each a kingdom is given, to rule as they will, so long as they serve Voldemort for all eternity. It is said that some of them are as old as the Dark Lord himself. The only way for a Death Eater to die is for another Death Eater to kill them in their near-constant struggles for position and power.

Sirius Black is born into a life of extreme privilege, one of the great families favoured by the Dark Lord. He is descended from the great Bellatrix Lestrange, the world's most fearsome Death Eater, whose fiefdom is renowned for its cruelty. His great-great-great-grandfather is himself a Death Eater, following in a long family tradition of service and power.

But when Sirius' family falls out of favour in a quarrel with another Death Eater, Sirius swears a vow of vengeance. Little does he know that this vow will lead him to soon defy the Dark Lord himself. For the first time in millennia, even as the Dark Lord prepares to celebrate the 10,000 year anniversary of his victory, his rule is challenged.

Sirius is forced to run, for suddenly the eyes of the world are upon him. His adventure will lead him to forgotten history, ancient secrets and an uneasy alliance with a dissatisfied Death Eater.

It is when all hope seems lost that the rumours begin. Whispers from the north speak a forbidden name, a name which has not been spoken within living memory.

Harry Potter.

 

Yeah, I'd most definitely read something like this. And this line...

God damnit LOTR opening is so deeply etched in my brain. Could almost hear Cate Blanchett speaking those words.

 

Cool premise, but I'm unsure if 10k years of Voldemort's rule isn't too long and just 1000 wouldn't suffice depending on what is your goal. If you want to focus on discovering a forgotten history then there should be something to be discovered. After 10k I wouldn't be surprised if Voldemort himself forgot that there was a time when he wasn't the absolute ruler of the world. Not to mention that he and his Death Eaters would live long enough to hardly be considered a humans because of how different they would perceive the passing of time. And just how different would be a world and its culture after 10k of being shaped by just one person?

1000 years is a long period of time too, but one that can at least be somehow compared to 1000 of our own history.

 

This always gets on my tits a bit in these type of stories. What exactly would a wizard need muggle slaves for? Especially a HP wizard. It makes a bit of sense in settings that borrow heavily from LOTR, but in HP verse wizards have spells for every little thing imaginable, not to mention house elves. So keeping a muggle slave around would be just another mouth to feed with little benefit.

 

You're reading stuff into it that isn't there.

Wizards don't need Muggles. Muggles don't serve any particular use. Wizards could get on just fine without them, just like they could get on just fine without House Elves.

But:

a) Being a ruler without anything to rule is unsatisfying.

b) Even if you can clean something with a spell, getting a small army of Muggle servants to keep it clean so that you never need to use a spell is equally as effective.

c) Muggles are great entertainment. These Death Eaters have to do something with their time, after all, and Lord Voldemort enjoys watching his Death Eaters jostle for position. But the Death Eaters don't want to expose themselves to risk, nor do the other wizards. So you raise Muggle armies and have them fight against each other as proxies. Like a game.

 

Those reasons are a bit mustache twirling.

a)Surely after 10,000 years Riddle would have developed some other goal than just to rule over everyone. As in progressing the human race towards everyone having magic, as in completing the leap in evolution that wizards are. But that might me just projecting my idea of a reasonable Voldemort onto this.

b)Why keep an army of muggles when you can have a single blood traitor cast that spell that you don't want to. After all is it not better to lord yourself over someone that could be an equal instead of some "animal".

c) That would result in muggles trained in combat and presumably strategy. If this jostling actually might endanger a Death Eaters position he might take to the field himself, or send wizards. So the muggles would learn how to fight wizards. This could result in rebellions and considering that time frame is 10,000 years more than a few. So the muggles would pose a security risk.

 

While I find the premise cool, I gave it a bit of thought. So...

After 10000 years of ruling the entire planet I imagine things would start to get a bit dull. Voldemort, practically a god, wasn't the least bit interested in space? Seems like the natural next step to me. After such a long time even holding the world in your hand could become a routine, boring even.

And if there is someone or something to spread rumors about Harry (who, I presume, is supposed to be a kind of ancient enemy), then there's obviously some kind of resistance movement/underground opposition, what have you. If no one and nothing was able to defeat Voldemort for 10000 years, then it seems to me that Voldemort can only lose if he fucks up, not because of outside influence.

What has Harry been doing for all this time? Either he did fuck all, which is ridiculous, or he wasn't able to do anything, in which case he has to catch up to an enemy with 10000 years of experience under his belt.

Seems to me like Voldemort will goomba stomp any opponents. Where's the story here? Unless it's not so much standing up to Voldemort as fighting other Death Eaters. But they must also be unbelievably badass, if they've lived for hundreds or thousands of years. And I imagine Voldemort would interfere at some point if the conflict got too big.

 

I think you're humanising Voldemort too much. At this point he's a Sauron-like entity of pure evil who derives satisfaction from dominion and cruelty. He isn't interested in development or progress, he's interested solely in his own power. He doesn't want to expand, he doesn't want things to change. He wants the world fixed in this eternal moment of (to him) perfection. Trivial surface details change (Death Eater power balance) but the world is going to remain unchanged forever. That's why I prefer 10,000 years over 1000. It demonstrates that is a world in which history has essentially come to an end.

The idea with Harry is that he's returned from the dead/limbo via some Hallows shenanigans + traitor Death Eater, not that he's been alive all along.

 

Instead of telling of the one who has the power to stop the Dark Lord, it tells of the one who will end tyranny in the world.

As for your question regarding House Elves and Centaurs, yes they have wands and all the rights humans have. All of them can attend Hogwarts too.

 

Pity that it's never going to be written, Taure.