Maybe Fawkes couldn't bring Dumbledore into the Chamber with him. After all, only Riddle and Harry can enter, with Ginny able to enter because she's possessed by the Diary Horcrux.

 

Didn't Ron go to the Chamber in 7th book for basilisk's venom? I recall something about him faking Parseltongue to open it (which I didn't like, because what is a point of magical ability to speak this language if anyone can learn it?). So I don't think we can assume that there is anything special in this place that would make it impossible for Albus to enter.

 

Fuck me; you're right. Damn, how could I forget such a lame-ass plot device, when I mentioned it myself in another thread just today. :-//

 

Then I suppose that in the end, we can all agree that Rowling didn't know what the fuck she was doing by the end of the books, and every plot-hole is left open to interpretation.

Phoenix bonds and soul bonds are still dumb ideas though.

 

It's now 6 in the morning and this damn plot bunny has kept me up all night, even though I know I haven't got the talent to write this.

Harry defeats Voldemort, not by killing him but by transfiguring him into a harmless object. In a moment of inspiration, he transfigures V into a pair of socks with the intention of giving him to Dumbledore as an incredibly ironic gift. Unfortunately Dobby somehow manages to get his hands on the socks first and upon trying them on (they are just so irresistably cute) is swiftly and not quite completely possessed by Voldemort.

Thus begins the horrifying and clean rise of Dobbymort!

 

No, just... no.

 

Here's one plot bunny that annoys me. I can't stop thinking about it. I know I don't have the writing skills to put it down on the paper (screen? Keyboard?) so I'm hopeful that someone can make something out of it.

No Hallows. No Horcrux. No priori-incanti brother wands. No "following canon storyline with few changes" bullshit.

Evil Plot Bunny:

Voldemort attacks the Potters and kills everyone, including Harry. However, due to a old ritual called Rite of Death Invocation (ritual that trades someone's death for their own -- or random deux ex machina!story that explains why the AK was rebounded) invoked by Lily, the AK rebounded from Harry, but not without leaving it's mark.

The AK rebounded and left a mark -- Harry now exists in a perpetual state of half-life. He sees into the world of the dead as if he was dead -- and can communicate with the dead as easily as he can with the living.

However, this comes with severe consequences: Harry literally exists in a state of half-life, meaning anything that is considered to be "healthy" for a normal human is halved. For example: his heart beats at ~35 bpm instead of the normal ~70. He requires less food to survive. He is frail, more than likely to break bones, rupture muscles and become sick. He no longer has the capacity for any sort of emotional response -- the most he can dredge up is mild amusement/disdain. He is barely above a squib in terms of magical strength, requiring a great amount of work in order to appreciate any significant gain.

Petunia/Vernon/Dudley do not treat him badly. They are apprehensive of him. They rationalize Harry's state to a rare form of autistic savant (called ASD, autism spectrum disorder) and more or less leave him alone.

It takes Harry a long time to separate the world of the living and the world of the dead. During this time, Harry becomes cold, as many spirits hound him to pass on messages to their loved ones in the world of living. He learns to develop a system of quid pro quo, trading favors for information or things (like useful items or bank accounts or scouting ahead) that make life easier for him. All this happens before the Hogwarts letter.

He is sorted into Slytherin. He has to use his wit and cunning in order to prevent himself from being reduced to a plushy mess. He develops alliances with others. He becomes good in subjects that do not require wands, such as runes or arithmetic or potions. In wanded subjects, he's usually on the verge of passing, with very few EE.

Dumbledore is an absent-minded Headmaster with far too much on his plate, and thusly, makes a few bad decisions (P. Stone in Hogwarts, for one). He does have the capacity to become a manipulative!Dumbledore, but he is old, so he rarely meddles into Harry's affairs. He is a reactive leader, so he rarely takes the initiative with regards to Voldemort or Fudge unless someone prods him into action.

-----

That's the basis I've managed to dredge up for the moment. The reason why I thought this up was because I was thinking about how similar HP and TMR were, and how TMR eventually created an alias that meant "Flight from Death". So, if Voldemort has to mark someone as his "equal" as the term of prophecy dictates, then who better than someone who's half-dead? Voldemort doesn't want to die, so every action he takes is for the eventual goal of becoming a true immortal. And the only person standing in front of that goal would be the half-dead Harry, who can obtain help from spirits to stop him.

I really would like this to become a realistic political story, with Dumbledore/Harry/Voldemort acting and reacting to each other in a twisted 3-way chess game, where every action is taken to maximize benefit and damage.

There will be no grandstand monologuing, timetravel training in mansion sized trunk, omni-service goblins (they're a bank, not CIA), no title inheritance or super!anything.

....there, now hopefully I can put this stupid thing out of my mind. Thoughts?

 

I actually like that idea a lot, although I don't see any reason why Harry being half-dead would make his magic weak. Maybe make it really hard for him to use magic that promotes life (non-living to living transfiguration, animal/human transfiguration, conjuring living things, healing magics, herbology if you consider that magic, etc.) but weak magic overall?

 

It's not a bad idea in theory, but the problem would be that Harry is rather emotionless, leading to a rather dull read.

 

Just have his spells as 'tainted'/'contaminated' by death/rot/decay in some form.

For example; vanishing charm? Instead of just vanishing, everything rapidly decays and crumbles until it's nothing but dust, and then blows away as its vanished, all within a second or two.

Cutting charm? Instead of having a neat, 'hack' into a target, eg, a block of wood, the same area that would of been hacked away rapidly rots away, leaving more of less the same result.

 

I agree that if you attempt to write this you should change some things:

Harry's magic really should not be almost non-existent as he would become quite useless in any real battle (and he will have to fight because of the damn prophecy and Voldemort) and manipulations and schemes only work if you can do them from the background.

Don't put him in Slytherin, that is just asking for him to be killed. It is a simple sad fact that he would be stabbed in the back before the first week would be over. Not to mention the fact that it is cliched and usually leads to too much Ferret-appearances. Considering his ailment he would be better off in Ravenclaw considering how much he might have to study because of his magic behaving oddly.

manipulative!Dumbledore, don't. Just don't. Those stories hardly ever work out and turn out crap unless they are total tongue in cheek -stories.

Also Voldemort's name means "Flight of Death", please don't mangle it into that stupid over used cliche. It's just that bad, which is an understatement.

As for the corrupted magic, it is an interesting effect, but I fear that something like that would actually make him fail most of the classes. The teachers would be able to tell if the spell worked correctly or not and I doubt that they would be very accepting about different effects. I shudder to think what such corruption would cause in transfiguration -classes.

 

Oh yes, because the little kids in Slytherin kill each other constantly, don't they? Those bastards can't even talk to each other without having some sort of plot behind it, amirite?

@X2: Your idea makes me feel bad because I'm writing a story right now where the main character is stuck between life and death in a similar way to how you described. :<

 

I hate reading about sick characters. It just feels annoying and unnecessary a lot of the time. There's no reason that his "half-life"-ness can't be shown physically without him being genuinely ill.

 

:facepalm

/filler

 

Well, this isn't really set in stone. My idea of magic was that it's a semi-sentient entity, and it's very strong in beings that are considered to be long lived (full of life, so to speak) -- ie. phoenixes capable of great healing capacity, or basilisks capable of killing with a stare). Therefore, the fact that Harry's half-dead would mean that his magical potency would diminish by that much, so to speak.

Not quite. I understand what you mean, but it can set the stage for unusual conversations.

I don't know, this has the potential to be real fun.

It's an option, for sure. But I really didn't want to make Harry powerful. Way I see it, Harry should become great on his own merit and intelligence, not because he's a dueling god with preternatural reflexes.

This isn't set in stone -- it's more or less a guideline of what Harry should be capable of.

About the magic part: I wouldn't say "quite useless". I was thinking that instead of full on battle, Harry would have to learn to use his environment to maximum effect. Sure, he may not be able to cast anything stronger than -- say, a cutting charm -- but he can use the environment to great effect. Say Voldemort is about to step toward Harry. Harry transfigures the rock immediately in front of Voldemort into a pincushion. Voldemort steps on it, stumbles, and leaves himself open to any other variety of annoying spells, like summoning the cauldron that's behind Voldemort.

After all, he spent all that time studying and practicing spells that are damn near useless (transfiguring a matchstick into a needle? cheering charm?) has to come to use sometimes.

Ok, maybe not Slytherin. I was thinking Slytherin because of the fact that Harry had to develop a system of quid pro quo with the dead spirits, so...

About manipulative!Dumbledore, I said he has the option of becoming one, but doesn't. Com'on, don't tell me Dumbledore can somehow manipulate Harry from behind the scene where he holds a half-dozen positions and has to work on them? Supreme Mugwump sounds like some important position where he has to field a lot of questions from people. He's also the head of ICW, meaning he has to go to meetings for international convention. He's also the Headmaster, meaning he has to work on keeping the school running smoothly.

Plus, he's a old bugger. His days of glory is long gone.

Really? I'd like to read it.

Hmm. Not quite what I was thinking. For example, Harry won't become the 'youngest seeker in a century' -- every bludger has a chance to break his bones. He'll get a cold in cold season -- you know, like normal people -- and be genetically predisposed to other diseases/disorders, like heart problems or high blood pressure some other medical bullshit.

I was more thinking of showing his 'half-ness' in a different manner.

How about that, eh?

 

That.. sounds pretty cool. Why don't you give it a go? It seems like you can make it work, actually. If you want to bounce ideas of somebody, go ahead and pm me.

 

That sounds alright in theory, but I don't think it'll work in a serious setting. Because when you think about it, Voldemort stepping onto a pincushion and tripping... no.

 

You ever tried stepping on a pincusion? Hell, a lego block is fucking agonising.

 

Yeah, actually... distracting somebody with constant spellfire and transfiguring the ground around them into various booby traps seems like a good duelling strategy for somebody lacking in power/repertoire.

 

Unless you've made Harry into Data from ST:TNG, this is terrible.

No, never mind; it's terrible dialogue no matter what.

Write the story with any plot you like, but I can't help thinking any character interaction with *that* kind of Harry is going to crash and burn.