IAmLegend!Neville.

Just finished the novel about a week ago, and I think it could work out with some modifications. Really, who's the most likely to realize the components of garlic/insert-plant-here to keep away the vampire/whathaveyou, if not him?

Imagine setting up Devil's Snare all along the perimeter in out-of-sight traps, strangling and mangling any one stupid enough to approach his house.

The primary downside here is if he still has a wand, which more or less means the situation won't have any true tension to it due to too many scenarios being easily resolved in short.

 

I remember there being a story with that premise. I can't remember the name though. I haven't seen any of Ranma 1/2 and I dislike fem!Harry.

 

Then keep him at his earlier levels of competence - a lot of fics seem to have him getting a new wand/nice words/courage and suddenly he becomes modern day Merlin. Keep his spells unreliable, so that he CAN'T cast his way out of danger, he has to pre-prepare everything, and even then, it isn't very good.

Of course, that could completely ruin WHY you wanted Neville in the first place.

 

I'm working on my fic right now, and Neville is starting out the same as canon, but he befriends Harry (as much as you can befriend a near sociopath) on the train, and by third year he becomes more self assured, insecure, but arrogant and extroverted enough to cover it. is turning Neville slowly into Snape's view of James Potter a bad thing? I like it but I wanted a little input from the community at large.

 

nearsociopath!Harry..

God damn it, invite me back into your group. I have to make sure you don't go full retard, OllieK :3

The transition is what you have to play up - little instances of change, the details are uber!important - a huge mistake I remember making was having small bits of foreshadowing in my action scenes, etc... and people were like "WTF CHARACTER CHANGE".

The main problem is that... we like Neville as he is - someone lacking confidence who pulls the (Gryffindor's) sword from the (stone) hat at the very end and cuts the head off of Nagini. Someone who is not very heroic with a crowning moment of awesome.

I don't think cocky!Neville would be readable, but it's completely your choice - do ask yourself, however, what do you gain, plotwise, from having jp!Neville? Will there be a scene in which his actions/inclinations are his or Harry's undoing? Will there be a reason to change his character? etc etc.

 

I think Neville should be the Heir of Slytherin.

 

There's a troll in the dungeons :|

 

Ruthless, anti-hero Harry would be good.

---

"Oh Harry, you saved me from the Troll!" Behind her, the dying troll twitched once, twice, and then was still.

Hermione was giving him the 'doe eyed' look, now - that alone was even more disturbing than the rancid troll guts, currently smeared upon both of their robes.

He gave her a dry look in return. "You're so paying for these robes to be dry-cleaned."

 

Harry Potter learns to control his emotions and takes a peaceful path only hurting others when necessary. Much like Dumbledore.

If you've seen the movie Shaolin, something like that but without the religiousness of it.

 

That's plucky, rogueish Harry.

Ruthless, anti-hero Harry would look more like;

"Oh Harry, you saved me from the Troll!" Behind her, the dying troll twitched once, twice, and then was still.

As she turned, her breathy gasp became a squeak of fright. Harry was calmly flaying the valuable hide from the still-warm cadaver, his young hands not making the cleanest job of it. He seemed to become aware of Hermione as she shrank away.

"Pardon?" he said, still on his knees, up to his elbows in thick brown blood. "Did you say something?"

She simply stared, the dust of the fight still descending slowly around her. Her practicality seemed to be battling her horror. Harry sighed, deciding he didn't have time for this - her screams would already have attracted professors.

"You have red on your neck," he said, turning back to his work.

 

Harry saves a girl before she gets overrun by a car.
In the after match it comes out that she is the daughter of an mafiaboss and as thanks he gets taken back to Italian to be trained as a bodyguard for the girl.

 

That's so bad that I am sure it has been written quite a few times already.

 

Words cannot describe the depression this inspires.

 

People assume that the magic within Hogwarts is benign, that it's given its power by such semi-mythical nonsense like 'Ley Lines', 'Ambient Magic' or 'Ward Stones'.

It is also widely known that Salazar Slytherin left the school due to his blood supremacy beliefs, that he left because he didn't want those new magicals of muggle birth to learn the magical arts.

These beliefs, this history is wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong.

The truth is that Hogwarts is a monster, an unnatural abomination of stone and timber.

Salazar and the others did try to stop her, you know - first by reason, blackmail and then finally...force.

But they failed.

The three were defeated, their memories, perceptions, and even personalities altered, and blame was placed upon the innocent Salazar.

He was cast from the school, a good man made bitter by implanted perceptions, falsified memories and beliefs.

She broke the proud Godric, and took him as her lover, her husband...and Helga, poor sweet Helga was reduced to nothing but a glorified housekeeper.

And now free from possible interference, She continued her work, deep within the grip of obsession and delusion, and finally she achieved her twisted dream.

Her Room, Hogwarts' dark heart, began to beat, began to cater to the fantastic and seemingly impossible desires of those living within its halls, so long as its dark hunger was fed once a century.

And how do I know this, you ask?

My name is Sally-Anne Perks. I was born in 1980, and I am twelve years old...and I am to be its next meal.

 

An intriguing idea that's been running around in my skull for a while.

====

In so many universes, Harry is descended from Godric Gryffindor, founder of Hogwarts. But in one little universe, tucked away in the darkest reaches of all creation, Harry is descended from someone...something different.

Gilgamesh, God-King of ancient Uruk, or Babylon. Born from a female goddess and mortal man, he was the first to wield the ancient Black Art.

Necromancy.

With this, he conquered and slaughtered, drowned his enemies in blood and raised them as his own.

And then he died but his blood continued on, from Babylon to Egypt where the Potter's first took their name. Makers of containers, they followed their ancient progenitor's life and teachings. In the day and the light of the sun, they crafted empty vessels. But in the night, on the banks of the Nile and watched over by Osiris...they wielded the Black Art.

And then came Godric Gryffindor. And he purged the entire Potter family except for those who followed in his foot-steps, shunned the Black Art and embraced the light.

And now, for a millennium, no Potter has broken free from the ancient binding Godric placed on his bloodline. Until now.

Touched by Death itself and having denied it, Harry Potter has had the ancient binding shattered and now, for the first time in ten centuries...the Black Art is stirring.

====

Now, I know there's a hell of a lot of Necromancer!Harry fanfics out there, but this one idea had a few differences.

First, Hermione is Harry's first resurrection. She died when the Basilisk stared at her directly and Harry, in his grief, ripped her soul back from the Reaper himself and bound the soul within her body. Making her an eternal vassal of House Potter and able to disengage from her own body and possess others.

Secondly, the Black Art includes several other magics besides Necromancy. The first has to do with ice and freezing. Stasis, prevention of death, slowing down decay.

Thirdly, Harry won't come into his powers until fourth year, or at least be able to control them. Like all other wizards, he has bouts of accidental Black Art but nothing major. Hermione is his first major case of power until Fourth Year.

Fourth, he wields a sickle. Not a scythe or anything like that but a small sickle designed to kill very quick. The faster and cleaner a death is, the easier it is to bind a soul to the body.

Grave-Desecrating!Harry ftw!

 

A moderately interesting idea. With only a little more work you could write it up as a full on challenge, rather than just a plot bunny. Where do you see it going? How would different characters be affected by it?

And finally...why would he use a sickle to kill people? He has magic for a reason.

 

Yeah, the sickle is what sort of put me off of it.

I like the idea. God knows there's enough terribad Necromancer!Harry fics out there... I think a large part in making it good would be the exploration of the changes to Harry's psyche, and not just cool descriptions of people rising from the grave, or arcane magics of resurrection, etc...

 

Suppose it could be a vorpal sickle, or some such. But if you want some symbolism to be involved, then pulling something from Babylonian culture and religion would be a better fit than a European Renaissance symbol of death.

 

Tenhauser, why would making the sickle vorpal make it any more useful? He has magic...

 

Death, rot and decay contaminated spells.

Levitation charm? Anything lifted gradually rots and decays, like a feather.

Imperius? Literally begins to turn the victim's brain to soup, after an extended period.

Aguamenti? Water is stagnant.

Etc...