Hm... no, it's not that. I think it may be have been a child!Harry fic, but fuck if I can remember.

 

There's plenty of ways to go about that, actually - all it requires is a bit of research/knowledge and a lot of imagination. (Unfortunately, for the average fan fiction writer, they lack those two given the sheer amount of recycled plots/shit seen on ff.net).

Various world mythologies/folklores have a fuckton of potential, but JKR half-arsed a lot of what she used.

Her World just doesn't have that much depth - at least not as much as it could of had.

 

For an outside-the-box!mentor fic, try JBern's unfinished The Inner Eye of Harry Potter, which you can find here and at FFA. Trelawney is the mentoring figure, and the chapters are pretty damn funny with the wholesale changes made to Harry because of his mentor.

The humor doesn't always work, and a great example of what I saw as JBern trying too hard was

Spoiler

giving a giant rooster the name "Col. Sanders" in the Chamber of Secrets episode. Yes, the use of the Engorgio'd rooster itself was a masterstroke, but the stupid name broke my immersion pretty badly.

I found the changes in the fourth year were done quite well, and the fifth year installment, with

Spoiler

Padma and the Diadem, written as an homage to Flowers for Algernon

was especially nice, and handled well.

AFAIK, that's the last posted bit, and that was back in April of 2009.

 

JBern supposedly plans on finishing it, along with the sequel to TLIL.

Anyways, minor plot bunny that I had planned to write a while ago (back when I first started writing) but decided I had better ideas, but somebody might want to pick it up.

When Harry is hit by the Killing Curse in DH, he's sent back in time (*gasp*) but not into his own body. He arrives in the body of a young Tom Riddle, fresh from the creation of his horcrux (Diary or Ring, whichever interpretation you want). He acquires Tom Riddle's memories and knowledge, their personalities having undergone a fusion as well (though Harry's remains mildly dominant).

I didn't get much further than that, so it could go in a lot of different directions, but the general idea was Tom Riddle's intelligence and ambitiousness tempered by Harry's righteousness.

 

Sequel to Lie I've Lived?

AHHAHAHAHHAAH if only. D8

 

When I read that my mind immediately jumped to Emperor By Marquis Black.

In that an Ambitious, Intelligent, Cunning HP but still, underneath all that, a good man.

I love that sort of characterization for harry. And now you've given me a plot bunny of my own.

The very basic idea being that Harry achieves something similar. The intelligence and Ambitiousness of Tom Riddle through the encounter in the Chamber of Secrets. Something happens and he ends up absorbing the soul fragment in the diary. That, combined with the Horcrux in his head, forces the situation and a very T.M Riddle like Harry emerges. But still distinctly Harry.

If it's been done already, then.. oh well. I hope it was at least done well.

 

I knew of that story and have read it. What I'm suggesting though, is something more out there than Mentor!Trelawney.

And the sequel to TLIL is called The truth I'd die for. When that and Pers' Dagger and Rose sequel come out (I presume next year) I'd be very, very happy.

 

Has anyone tried to re-envision Seven Samurai/the Magnificent Seven with a Potterverse spin?

A village would be periodically assaulted and raided by Voldemort and his gang Los Comedores de la Muerte (google translate, sorry, I can't speak Spanish), and the villagers realise that to protect themselves, they need to hire wizards. They recruit the grizzled and experienced Harry Potter who sympathises with the villagers' plight and is willing to work for food (the only thing the villagers have to offer). Harry Potter seeks out his former second-in-command (either Ron or Neville) and starts to form his band of wizards to repel Voldemort and his bandits.

Naturally, it would be massively AU, but with enough Potterverse elements to be recognisable. The characters we know and love and hate would retain their most cherished traits and they would still be wizards, but the society would have to be very different. I think that it would be very fascinating in the hands of a good writer, since we can have a powerful and skilled Harry Potter that can fight Voldemort on a somewhat equal level. By necessity, the scale of the story would be very local: Voldemort would suffer from no delusions of omnipotence, nor would he harbour any ridiculous notions of world domination; there would be no magic to shatter the very foundations of reality; no time-travel or delving into ancient mysteries; and so on.

The most serious problem would be which characters would constitute the group of seven wizards. Harry is a given, and probably Ron and Neville too. Personally, I don't like Hermione, and I can't really imagine her character in any significant role. If we want to mirror Seven Samurai, we would also need a superb duellist; a cocky, strong wizard, who despite his pretensions of high ancestry admits to being a muggleborn at some pivotal moment in the story; a plucky comic-relief; and a starry-eyed, high-born wizard who wants to learn at the master's (Harry's) feet.

This wouldn't be Harry Potter in feudal Japan—oh, the horror and gnashing of teeth etc.—but would only make use of some concepts from the Seven Samurai (or the Magnificent Seven, if that is your preference).

Anyway, it was just a notion that struck me, and this thread seemed the likeliest place for it.

 

It's not a horrid notion, but I wouldn't include Voldemort.

The story of the Seven Samurai is of a frightened populace unable to stand up for themselves to fight off those that are pulling a Viking on them. Rather than use the resources they have, they look for mercenaries to fix things for them, but don't really trust them and in fact intend to betray them when the threat is ended. As they have done before.

This fits well with a 'new Dark Lord' style of story. Harry, Dean and Seamus are the veterans of the earlier conflict who have nothing better to do than throw their lives away for gold- this really requires that many of their potential love interests had died in the previous war, and their status in society be less than honorable. If the world shunned Harry afterwards, it would probably be due to a Pureblood backlash- 'Riddle was a half-blood! etc.'

Whether the other four mercenaries are drawn from the existing characters or derived from 'Susan's nephew' or some idly mentioned firsties from their Sixth year, the real conflict is who could lure them back to deal with the situation and still turn on them later. Having it be Draco as Minister begging for their help makes a certain poetic fit.

For it to truly fit the model, the feared opponent should be completely foreign- worse than having the half-bloods and mudbloods back amongst them. For this, I'd recommend the goblins. Regular wizarding society is out of practice when it comes to goblin warfare. They'd want the heartless heroes of the last war to teach them how to fight this new/old threat.

It could be cool, but probably should be limited to a longish one-shot or five chapters, paced as acts.

 

Now that sounds pretty awesome.

 

Curse me for a fool- I got inspired.

Okay, so the lineup is-

Harry the veteran (Kanbei the leader)
Orla Quirke the hero-worshipping wannabee (Okamoto)
Dean Thomas his shrewd buddy (Gorobei the archer/tactician)
Seamus Finnegan (Heihachi the happy)
Dennis Creevey (Shichiroji, Kanbei's lieutenant)
Cormac McLaggan the blustering ass with the BIG wand (Kikuchiyo)
Luna Lovegood (Miyaguchi the stone-faced)

Act 1 - Draco realizes his huge mistake in trying to bluff the goblin clan. He sends Astoria and Daphne to lure Potter back to Britain in order to help

Act 2 - The Greengrasses find Harry solving a tricky situation by giving up his wand and taking down a possessed/dark wizard using Gryffindor's blade. Also witnessing the fight are Dean and Orla. Everyone meets. Harry agrees, despite protests. They find Dennis at the transit station and he shucks his uniform and says 'So, where are we going?' They bump into McLaggan while looking for Seamus in Ireland.

Act 3 - They meet with Draco and a few advisers. Draco insists that they operate anonymously, so that his Ministry can take credit if they win and blame poor hiring choices if they lose but survive. Harry accedes. He leads them to Luna, seeking guidance on how to win this fight. She tells them it is unwinnable. So, she'll come along and see if she's right. Retraining the Aurors, LEDs and militia to fight goblins takes time and stealth. When the first cadre gets rambunctious, they fight a sally force of goblins. While the force is decimated, the goblins weren't expecting any resistance at all. This will trigger the full invasion.

Act 4 - Luna sneaks into Gringott's to steal their plans. McLaggan tries something similar but gets his lieutenant killed. Orla falls in love with an amiable wizard who gets killed. The veterans console her by mentioning their own lost loves (Hermione; Ginny; the Patils; Susan Bones; Natalie McDonald)

Act 5 - using Luna's captured plans, they stage ambushes to handle each of the goblin armies that rise from the depths to invade. The battlegrounds are shopping malls, zoos, museums, low grade housing and King's Cross station; each commander handles their force as they will. In the end, the goblins sue for peace and the return of Gryffindor's sword. Just as Draco is ready to accede, Harry walks out with the survivors and the blade, saying 'only the worthy can handle this sword'.

If you've seen the original, you should know who survives.

 

Very cool. Would there be an adaptation of the duel that Kyuzo (Luna/Miyagushi?) fights in his introductory scene?

 

Never seen the Magnificent Seven but I wouldn't say no to this fic.

 

Want. Don't know if you read my fic, but I'll trade you words for words if you do.

 

using this U an planning a Nine year fic, Hufflepuff Harry, non humorous.
While Voldemort is conflict I think I will have each three years have a different antagonist, Voldemort as either the second or the third. Within every year there will be a relic that Harry uses or acquires that relates to one of the nine people as well as a loose focus on the chosen person.

I'm not sure exactly how to work in the people as the focus but it'll happen

Right now I'm thinking Dumbledore is the one who introduces them as role models for Harry.

If there is interest I'll post it soon in the WbA.

 

If Daidalos is cool with it, I'm going to take a shot at it.

Kyuzo/Luna will have her moment to shine in order to establish her story status as BAMF, and I have a few other twists in mind. I'll post in WbA when Act 1 comes into focus.

And Knight- see the original Seven Samurai first. You'll appreciate the western more after seeing the original.

 

Certainly, go right ahead; I posted the idea here because I didn't feel quite up to the challenge of writing it. You've made the plot bunny your own and I look forward to reading your treatment.

 

The only potential problem I'm really wary of is plot diffraction - it's going to splinter off into nine-of-whatever-the-fucks that would end up diverting attention away from character, etc... Either it'll feel really rushed, or it'll be tl;dr infodumps.

I don't dislike the idea, as I'm sure some DLP would (the relics and stuff), but... *shrugs* if you can make it work...

 

Sweet, I'm going to have the infodumps hopefully spaced, have you ever read Scrivenings of Slytherin? I read it a couple years back, and IIRC lots of information was given but it was spread out and through flashbacks and other ways of showing as well as telling.

I'm considering revisiting some cliches and perhaps doing them right, mainly auras, as I've seen other books where they are well done.

As for artifacts, I've always loved them as far as things to use as plot devices, and as aids to the main character or others.

I'm not entirely sure by what you mean when you say

Thanks for the input.

 

D'ya mean that Harry and crew end up going on nine different artifact hunts, which just ends up as nine different horcrux hunts camping trips?

@Oliver - I wouldn't have any searching for the artifacts/whatevers. Dumbledore/ICW/Robert Paulson down the street/The Weasleys already have them. The problem is, the artifacts are completely unresponsive to those who are 'unworthy'. How Harry has to prove his worthiness nine different times could be interesting. One way of doing it could be (rapidly bashed out short scenes here, don't mock):

This allows you to have Harry expressing a different facet of Herohood each time - self sacrifice, lack of a plan, whatever.