I like this idea. One could even keep the story nearly completely canon by simply visiting the lexicon and using wizards from history that are listed there.

 

I've been kicking around the idea of a series of one shots detailing Harry Potter, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, and his struggle to avoid the ICW at all costs often involving overly elaborate plots endangering himself and others just to avoid going to meetings.

The idea stemmed from the definition of mugwump as a person who tries to stay away from controversial issues. It lead me to seeing the position as one forced upon the most powerful wizard currently living, and the eternal struggle of said wizards to avoid the ICW. Notable past members include Albus Dumbledore, the only Supreme Mugwump in history to succeed in his quest to get fired from the position, and Slazar Slytherin who created the whole pureblood movement in hopes of getting fired from the ICW sadly it backfired and resulted in a 50 year ban of mudbloods from the ICW effectively dooming him as the worst Supreme Mugwump in history as his is the only one who has ever managed to create any change while in office.

I like the idea of a series of one shots as it doesn't require the commitment of a long story, but humor is hard to write plus I'm not sure the idea would be that good outside of my head.

 

Sounds like an interesting premise and I reckon I'd give it a read if you posted some of it up. I can really imagine the Salazar Slytherin one in my mind. It sounds quite hilarious .

 

Funny; I've been toying with the same idea in one of several post-DH stories I'm haphazardly working on and will likely never finish. Oh well, it's fun to putz around with, and if all the pieces come together I might even finish one of them.

One hang-up for me is that I always hated the idea of the Resurrection Stone in general, that you could bring someone's spirit back from the afterlife (whatever that is) and talk to them. In my mind, the idea of you're either completely dead and gone or you're still around as a ghost is a good either-or scenario.

I even went so far as to think through how to refute the Stone having that power at all. Think about it. When Harry recalls the spirits of Mum and Dad, Sirius and Remus, what do they tell him? "It's okay, we're here for you, we love you, it'll be quick and painless," blah blah blah. Nothing new, nothing extraordinary, and nothing that Harry didn't want to hear. When Harry speaks to Dumbledore's "spirit" about the Deathly Hallows, D'dore hedges on whether the items were mystical in origin or just "extraordinary magical artifacts made by extraordinary wizards", or something to that effect.

I think the case can be made (especially if your fic or plot needed it) that the Deathly Hallows aren't anything related to Death at all, and especially that the Stone does not actually call back the spirits of the dead, but only conjures up your mind's vision or version of that person. I think of it along the same lines as the way the Mirror of Erised would need to work, in that the Mirror would have to access the viewer's mind to be able to show him or her their greatest desire. Perhaps the Stone can only show the user what they themselves imagine the dead person to look like or sound like, etc. After all, Sirius as a young man was something Harry had seen in his photo albums, so it's not much of a stretch to think a dead Sirius would have reverted to look like he did when he was happy, back before Azkaban.

My thoughts, anyway.

 

Yeah! Yeah!

All this 'Master of Death' bullshit is just PR!

The Invisibility Cloak is only unusual in that it was made well enough to be an heirloom artifact.

The Elder Wand is like the whore of wand designs- it works well for anyone, unlike the typical wand that uses components appropriate only to certain mixes of biology, astrology and magical talent.

The Resurrection Stone is nothing more than a method to call back your own thoughts and memories about a person- it's nothing more than a complicated illusion based upon memory, not unlike how a Pensieve can call up details that the memory-originator wouldn't normally have been able to see.
[Ancient Geek reference] It reminds me of the 'holempathic matrix crystal' that Lilandra gave to the Greys in X-Men #138, back when Jean Grey was just... y'know... dead.[/Ancient Geek reference]

Of course this invalidates my other bunny suggestion, but this is much more fun.

 

lol, thanks.
well, using the stone would be less lame than other methods. A limited amount of people know what it is, and secondly T.R. had it, and used it "wrongly". He could have done the same thing, and learned more than anyone else, but perverted it with a piece of his own soul.

All of them are flawed, Moody and DD can see Harry under the cloak, you can "loose" the elder wand, or how else would an unbeatable wand transfer. A stone that that brings back the spirits of the dead, but they are usually not happy with being brought back.

 

Most fanon works that deal with the hallows in any way that acknowledges their supposed greatness usually conjectures that Albus used the Elder Wand to enchant his spectacles and Moody's eye to see through the Cloak. Usually the Elder Wand gets stolen or lost in a gamble, though that's typically glossed over when it comes to Albus' takedown of Grindelwald.

An alternative if you need the smart ideas to enter into the story sooner is to leverage Phineas Black's portrait. This idea came to me while I was reading the early chapters of Silens Cursor's Renegade Cause. At one point in the story Harry looks to be stuck at Grimmauld with Padfoot for his 5th year. Assuming he could impress PNB's portrait (maybe even resolve a Black family curse somehow), Phineas should be able to help him truly leverage the treasures of the Black library. Even better if you stretch the portrait concept- Phineas might be able to 'guest' other Headmasters in his portrait at Grimmauld since they all seem connected somehow. Assuming the headmasters had to achieve greatness in their time to be given the position, they would make an interesting collection of trainers. This doesn't give Harry access to any new magic (at least compared to Dumbledore) but the combination of the Black books and guidance from past All-Stars might provide a eureka or two.

 

Another little idea I have - Illusionist Harry Potter.

As a little kid Harry met this old illusionist who taught him his tricks. Now enter eleven years old Harry who discovers that magic is real. One would think that you can't be magician in wizard world, but would be wrong. Being magician is not about doing magic, it's about doing impossible for everybody else. So Apparation from Hogwarts can't be done? Nothing is impossible for Harry.

Of course I don't meant it like Harry should be doing stage performance but that using his skills and real magic (why shouldn't he be making his work easier?) he would making other wizard believed he is more powerful that them. Even more I thought that of course he wasn't first to think of that. What if Nicolas Flamel didn't discovered Philosopher's Stone. What if he is great-graet-great... grandson of real Nicolas who is carrying on the greatest hoax in wizards world history?

I think it could be done as series of humor one-shots.

 

Wordhammer, I think I'm going to tie in the cave that Sirius was hiding in. That Harry goes back there to hide for some reason, and discovers some cave drawings that are magical. For muggles they are static, but for wizards they move, but don't talk. The drawings are a moving depiction of a ritual that allows one to get in touch their "magic", he thinks it's a personal thing, but once it starts he finds out that it is much much more than that.
It's plausible, not cliche, and allows for some freedom to explore something that hasn't been done to death.
If I'm missing something, or any one thinks this a terrible idea, please chime in.

 

Canon disagrees with this. In DH, while they're hiding in the tent, Harry asks the painting of Phineas if he could talk to Dumbledore, and Phineas tells him that paintings in Hogwarts can't leave the castle, except to visit other portaits of themselves.

 

Two concerns- why would no one else have found it and why didn't Padfoot learn the Cro-Magnon moon dance when he was hanging there for months?

Darn canon! I suppose it didn't occur to Harry that he could play 'telephone' with Phineas and just ask him to ask Dumbledore the questions and come back with a reponse. That would have required the cunning of a third grader and two ounces of trust. Personally I'm impressed that the portrait even worked after being removed from Grimmauld place- I would think that without an avenue to retain the connection to Hogwarts (like the floo downstairs) that Phineas would be trapped in whichever one of the portraits he was last sitting.
This now seems like a huge security hole worth exploiting. I wonder if any of the other pureblood families have ancestors with matching portraits in both the Headmaster's office and their personal library?

 

An idea that just came to me, though I have no idea whether or not it's been done before.

Near the end of DH, Harry goes all Jesus on us and willingly dies. What if that mattered, like Lily sacrificing herself for Harry did?

I am aware that THE POWER OF LURV is one of the most cliche things ever, but we're also talking about something that Dumbledore himself has stated is the most powerful energy ever.

 

Now I'm not entirely sure (I didn't remember it from DH) but someone on this forum (possible Taure) said in one thread I read not so long ago that it mattered and after Harry's sacrifice no one from the good side died in the battle.

 

This. It was also why three average wizarding adults could fight the greatest wizard alive.

 

Sirius was more concerned with eating and finding newspapers to stay up to date than exploring the cave. As for others, ummmm. It would be plausible that others may have, as long as it's not T.R. ..... or to limit the possible people that could have viewed this, its a sealed off part that Harry stumbles into...that quality that he possesses to find out things when he needs them....at least throw me a bone on originality..lol

 

This line made me think of that movie Lord of Illusions. "Death is the greatest illusion." That movie is most decidedly not a comedy. IIRC it is based off of a short story (or a book?) written by Clive Barker.

I don't know about the comedy aspect of your idea, but the whole idea of a wizard utilizing misdirection to compensate for his lack of knowledge/experience sounds pretty interesting.

 

Dwarf Fortress x HP cross over.

I've been writing it, got the first few chapters down, but eh, I'll probably give up on it. It's tough explaining the existence of another goblin-like race, especially since goblins aren't bankers in DF lol.

The plot was that there was an ancient artifact in the ruins of boatmurdered and Harry learns of it in his quest to defeat Voldemort. Legends supplied by books and other sources suggest it could defeat Voldemort without having to collect his Cruxes. He takes Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, and joins a dwarf caravan. On the way there, they're attacked by hordes of necrotic elephants, crazed goblins, swarms of other creepy shit and the dwarves of boatmurdered centuries ago. Under the stress, everyone but Harry goes insane (in a very slow manner, climaxing when Harry finally arrives at boatmurdered).

The idea of madness is explored, especially in conjunction with the dwarves, who are biologically prone to madness.

It was going to be hilarious, too bad I don't have the will to complete it. The major problem is that I feel like I have to explain the existence of dwarves and their culture, which takes way too much writing to get the story going. Plus, how many people have even played DF? Or know about boatmurdered? It would just be silly. And how am I going to explain boatmurdered? Oh yeah, in UK there's a place where elephants roam and wild goblins attack you, and there's an ancient ruin... pff.

On the engraving there is a wizard. The wizard is holding a crooked wand. Piles of corpses surround the wizard. The wizard is laughing.

 

I'm not saying it doesn't have merit- just that you need to address the logistics. It may even make more sense to say that Sirius directs him to investigate the paintings, but that his own exposure to the ego-crushing effects of Dementors prevented him from leveraging the insights. Alternately, Sirius may already be in contact with his primal self (being an animagus) and didn't see the point of exploring it further.

However you choose to use it, I would caution you to make it seem 'primal'- not more advanced or more elegant in any way. It may be as simple as enabling Harry to leverage personal transfiguration to become any mundane creature he's seen. The stealth possibilities alone might serve to deliver Harry a victory no one could anticipate.

Even better if Harry ends the war only to leave society altogether and just be a bear in Yakutsk.

 

Y'know, if I could be any mundane animal at a whim, I'd probably start off as a dolphin or an orca. I'd be really hard to find and I could completely ditch those greedy, whiney leeches and brats in the Wizarding world. Head for the deep blue for a year or ten, and periodically come on land when I absolutely needed human companionship. Magic up clothes and stuff to barter for cash, and be a completely anonymous face in a tourist trap...


I'd bury my tears in the rolling, restless, endless and everchanging sea.