If it was in Azkaban or some other fucked up/creepy location like Numenguard (sp?), then yeah, it would work pretty well given the 'shit-your-pants' sort of feel the games give off.

 

That's what I thought to start with, but then I started thinking about the nature of the malefactors... How many methods of execution could a wizarding prison be fucked to use? In canon, the only ones really mentioned are the Dementor's Kiss and the Vail in the DoM. It could be up to the author to come up with all the crazy monsters and general sadistic and malevolent nature of the prison, but still...

Another issue would be magic itself. Unless the malefactors were crazily overpowered, the ability to use magic would make it a pretty even fight, and that would take away fro the 'oh shit oh shit oh shit' feel. I could see that being dealt with by making Harry start off without a wand, and then slowly building up to basic wandless magic in a way similar to the insanity meter.

 

So you can ski in the DoM?

Vail

Veil

/facepalm

 

One day in Azkaban, the prisoners became the monsters. Demons had taken their sanity, then their souls, but the magic remained, adapting them to flourish in the closest thing to hell on earth known. The Death Eaters' Mark kept them sane (relative to Azkaban), so a noble wizard can sometimes be confronted with a fully intelligent opponent if they break through into the wrong cell. Too many Death Eaters escape and there'll be a breakout. Good for the unjustly imprisoned that retains a last shred of humanity, but bad for everyone else.

No one knew for quite a while. The aurors on duty never seemed to sleep and didn't bother talking to their visiting comrades, who would leave as soon as a new prisoner could be delivered. Occasionally they'd come back and say 'this prisoner's sentence is done'; the reply would come from a hollow voice. "Sorry. Dementors musta kissed 'im. Poor unlucky bastard."

Harry had been sent to investigate. Inspired by Hermione's collection of true crime novels and the biography of Nellie Bly, he has himself interred as an anonymous new prisoner, with arrangements for his wand to be smuggled in later in the day.

It never came.

 

Yes. Yes, you can. The entrance is that one locked door. Prisoners used to be thrown off the side of the mountain in order to test the laws of gravity and aerodynamics.

 

And thus the myth of "Banshees" was created.

Speaking of which, another bunny.

Magical kids, being brought up by Magical folk, who see unicorns, dragons n shit, as well as knowing a vast array of magical creatures lurk in the night.

How fucking scared shitless would magical kids be?
The boogyman or the monster under the bed, aint got shit on a Dementor, Lethifold, Werewolf or magically invisible pedo-wizards.

 

Admonkeyfucker, just fucking stop. The only thing they're afraid of is Candlejack, and that's bec

 

Seriously would people just stop using this tired old me

 

What myth? Banshees are canon. And Irish which, if I remember my geology right, is nowhere near Colorado.

They wouldn't be. Firstly, because every adult around has magical powers that let them chase shit off. Secondly, I doubt most in the wizarding world are paranoid about invisible pedos: If they were, no goddamn way would Albus 'can-I-offer-you-a-lemon-drop' Dumbledore be in charge of the only school around.

This. This. A thousand times, this.

Candlejack? Who the fuck is Candleja

 

You have to actually say Candlejack for it to work, dumba

 

God, this is just getting old. I know Candlejack used to be a fun

 

Stop it folks. I mean it. You're polluting my favorite threat in this section of forum. And because it's time to go back on the topic I will share a little idea of mine. I've got it after watching a movie last week (after reading it, you will know which one if you saw it).

In this story Harry, unlike his sixth year canon version, thinks that he should do something more with himself than just talk about Riddle with Dumbledore. He tells Albus about it, but the old wizard doesn't have time to train him. Instead he lets him to borrow few books from his personal library, if only to make the boy feel better about himself, because he doubts that Harry has skills to use anything from them.

Potter takes few books with flashy titles like "Transfiguration in a battle", but when he pick them up a little notebook feels on the floor. Not thinking about it, he takes it too and leaves.

For the next few days, it's as Albus predicted. Everything from these books is way beyond Harry's skills at this moment and probably for the next few years, if he did nothing but study them. Then he sees the notebook and starts reading it. As it turns out, it's about few experimental potions that Dumbledore was working with Flamel in the past. Most of them didn't even work and these that did, are completely useless for Harry. But one recipe looks interesting enough. It's about making wizard smarter and more in tune with magic, but it also didn't work. But once again Harry's luck reminds of itself and he knows why it didn't work, because he saw something about it in Half-Blood Prince book with an idea how it probably should be done.

Without anything to lose, Harry makes potion, takes it and it works better than he imagined. In one second everything makes sense to him. All these books he got from Albus? He can use every spell in them on his first try.

But nothing is perfect. One - the more time he takes the potion, the worse he is feeling when it stops working. Without it he starts to have problems with spells that were easy for him in the past. Two - it gradually changes his personality. In the beginning he feels more confident, but quickly becomes arrogant. He starts to pick pretty girls, but in the end is completely bastard to them (which angers Hermione). And the worst of all, he stops caring about Voldemort.

After some time, Albus discovers what happened and he faces a dilemma. Right now, without the potion Harry is a wreck, that has no chance to face Voldemort even with all help that Albus prepared for him. Maybe he will become better, but even then it will take time. But there is another option. They didn't make it work in the first place, but Albus and Nicolas had a few ideas how to make it even more efficient. Unfortunately, it'd also has a big chance to destroy a mind of wizard who takes it and Harry's brain is already weakened after using potion for so long.

Not sure, where I'd take it from there, so that's it.

 

Disregarding the rest of your bunny for a moment, I have a real issue with this. Flamel and Dumbledore were working on these potions in the bunny. These are two geniuses, Dumbledore is the greatest wizard of his time. But Severus Snape in his 6th year of Hogwarts was able to figure out how to make this potion that Dumbledore and Flamel failed at? Not buying it.

 

I wasn't thinking about a whole potion, more like a small part of it - like everyone is mixing something with something, but you will have a little better effect if you mix something with the other thing. And that's what, because of his big luck, Harry finds in Snape's book. Nothing that's breakthrough in potion making, but enough to make this one to work.

 

I think I get what he's after- like in the Fly, he links a few disparate advances together in a way the others hadn't, and came up with a revelation. It could even be the case that Harry was going off some early rant that Snape later ignored because it didn't jive with his later education, but which Harry applies to the concept.

Anyway, it's a whole lot of comic-book superscience to excuse a powers/smarts boost. If you're going to enact a 'power, but at a price' bargain, have the ingredients call for human blood or some such. Maybe Harry becomes addicted to a lesser formula before he discovers that the real deal requires sacrificing animals or stealing the gifts of others. Make it a hard choice.

"Hermione, remember when you said you'd do anything to help me win against Voldemort?"

 

I am pretty sure there are better ways to use that line...

 

"Hey, baby - want to see my magic wand?" :facepalm

Human blood and that avenue of thinking sorta feels like the direction Voldemort himself went in.

 

Here's one I'm actually working on. The Fall of the House of Potter.

While the name is a play on The Fall of the House of Usher by Poe it would have very little in common with that particular work. Its actually Inspired by the Ray Bradbury piece Usher II, which is named after The Fall of the House of Usher. Usher II is about a wronged mogul inviting a group of government censors over to his horror story inspired house shortly before they have it demolished for being obscene, then he kills them in creative ways.

The Fall of the House of Potter begins with several of Harry's friends being invited over to Grimuald(sp) for a reading of Harry's will. At which point he goes all saw on his "friends" every single invite has wronged Harry in some way that will come out during their chapter. I've already written the first one and will post it in WBA if anyone is interested but I'm having trouble with the second chapter, Ron.

 

Alarm bells are ringing here slightly from your phrasing 'has wronged Harry'. Indy Harry and dark Harry cliché often has it that everyone has wronged him, often ridiculous reasons like that they didn't write to him and so on, and most people are now sick of seeing that.

But your story could definitely work, so long as you avoid that. It could be pretty enjoyable if you make up some logical creative complaints, and you could certainly get away with more with a well-characterised crazy!Harry.

 

Here's one of my ideas. I was originally planning on writing it myself and not revealing it, but there's too many things I'm writing, and this is one of my... lesser plot bunnies, so I'll just put it out there.

Bear with me, as I like to reveal plot twists right at the end.

On the night when canon Harry became the BWL, this Harry doesn't, at least not in that sense. Lily and James die, Voldemort disappears, but Harry doesn't get a scar. The events following are largely similar to canon with few dissimilarities. Harry's first year at Hogwarts is quiet. Voldemort is not possessing Quirrel. Harry's second year at Hogwarts is when Voldemort successfully returns because of the diary, somewhere outside of Hogwarts. Obviously, practically nobody knows about it. Third year and fourth year would be similar to canon. At the end of fourth year, Harry duels with the already-revived Tom Riddle and manages to escape (because the Horcrux was the first one, when Voldemort was at his youngest and weakest). Fifth year is again, similar. Sixth year events would be similar to canon as well, including the death of Dumbledore (though not that random infatuation with Ginny).

As for Harry's characterization... he's much better at magic (around the top of his class instead of whatever canon Harry was), and a bit more ruthless than canon Harry. He's not obsessed with Quidditch, and he doesn't let himself be dragged down academically by Ron, nor does he let himself be bossed around by Hermione. The main driving factor behind this Harry is that he hates Voldemort with a passion. Even without the prophecy, he wants to kill Voldemort, and builds his life around that fact (but he doesn't ever tell anyone). He exceeds because of that.

Another difference to canon is a Dumbledore's reoccurring quiet and subtle insistence that perhaps Tom Riddle can be forgiven for what he's done.

Anyway, years 1 to 6 can be sort of skimmed through. It's meant to be a 7 or 8 chapter fic, with a chapter dedicated to each year.

Year 7 is the big one. Harry begins his goal for Voldemort's death. With the dead Dumbledore's guidance that was left behind, Harry hunts for the Horcruxes and the Deathly Hallows. A major difference between canon and this story is that the Horcruxes don't have any negative affects on Harry; all he feels from them is a slight pull.

Anyway, Harry destroys all the Horcruxes save for one which he doesn't figure out until the end. he concludes that he himself is a Horcrux, and sort of understands that he needs to voluntarily die by Voldemort's hand to get rid of it, like in canon.

So, like in canon, he takes the Resurrection Stone and before going to Voldemort, he wishes to see his family plus Sirius. Four figures come out.

Sirius, James, Lily... and Harry.

And the big truth revelation: the real Voldemort ended up taking the real Harry's form and existence, while baby Harry actually did die with his parents. Meaning that the current Voldemort is actually just his Horcrux (Harry/Tom didn't know about the existence of the diary; they thought it was the real Voldemort).

And of course, Dumbledore knew this from the beginning, which was why he was always so adamant that Voldemort could be forgiven.

This is obviously mindfuckery for HarryTom, because he built his life's goal around revenge against Voldemort (which is what I believe Tom Riddle would have done if put in Harry's position).

After that, I wasn't sure how to end it. Whether to just leave it at that cliffhangar (which would have been evil and awesome), whether to have Tom revert to being Voldemort (which isn't such a bad ending), or whether to have Tom continue being Harry and learn to forgive himself as Dumbledore always said (which is the happy/crappy ending).

Well, I have too many other, and in my opinion better, plots stirring in my head to really want to write this one anymore, so that's that.

Thoughts?