I thought i would post up my idea, and i wish for advise and criticism please...

Title: Those not busy being born…
Summary: Fear is a great motivator. Exposed to the knowledge of his own mortality, Harry is not ignorant of it, but scared by it. After all, those not busy being born are busy dieing.

I'm thinking about creating a Harry that starts having a very unhealthy fear of dieing. Faced with knowing that his death means the doom of the wizarding and muggle world, he starts going to desperate lengths to protect himself against Voldermort. As a result he turns to the dark arts, in a move to be more ‘pro-active’ about his defense.

If i did it, it would probably cover 6th and 7th year, with the typical hunt for the horcrux in the last. I want the death of Sirius Black to break Harry, allow the dark arts to put him back together, and watch as the flimsy work falls apart.

edit: i originally had a small scene apart of this post, but on advise from JWH, realized it probably shouldn't have been posted here.

 

@MissOddity : this is where you should post this.

The thread here's just for bouncing ideas, not commenting on actual written work.

 

Sorry, i was following wordhammer's example on page 30; he posted a little bit of his written work on the idea, and i thought that was what you where meant to do. If not, can this then please be taken down so I can post it in the correct area?

edit: ok, problem solved.

 

The idea isn't bad. The question is whether or not you can pull it off convincingly. Really, it is up to you. I've seen lots of authors try similar ideas and fail due to their writing and where they decided to take the story. If you are willing to work at this story then I see no reason why it couldn't work.

 

I'll say it before anyone else jumps on- it's probably not wise to follow my example in anything around here (unless you have nifty naked women pics to share), though I'm flattered to have been briefly considered an example.

My bunny was posted just because it was funny (to me) and the concept was interesting- I may never pursue it so I posted it here for adoption by anyone inspired by the idea.

Your idea sounds intriguing- I'll probably add comment for the WbA thread.

 

Would Harry go the same way Voldemort went?

Horcuxes and Elixer of Life.

 

I'm guessing by WbA thread you mean the work by authors, right? My problem with the idea is that I have seen other authors do it, but how they go about introducing the dark arts to harry always seems illogical. He's a good, golden, gullible goofy guy who shows no interest in the dark arts other than to annihilate it (curse you JKR!). Thats the problem.

 

A few thoughts:

This could be an interesting story, but as others have said, much will ride on the execution.

You've provided a premise so far, but haven't shared with us the essential conflicts, since they will be what frames the story. Harry v. Dumbledore is a natural one, as the latter recognizes signs of what he's doing; Harry v. his friends is also easy. The big one, perhaps, is Harry v. his own essential nature.

Canon Harry is a selfless hero, sacrificing himself at the end of DH for the world in a throwback Christ move. It weighed heavily on him in canon that others were suffering while he was on the horcrux camping trip.

The Harry you are describing is one who may start along the road of self-preservation for the good of humanity, yet realizes in time that sacrificing essentially anyone and any aspect of his soul for the cause of his own preservation and triumph is indeed for the good of the world. Guilt that it's also good for him should weigh on his soul until, perhaps, he's so jaded that it no longer matters. This transition requires a substantial change in his character and will require care in how you bring it about in your story.

 

harry v's his own nature would be my best bet. I could show how harry first tries to bend around his beliefs by deliberately misinterpreting things to try and make him feel better about doing the wrong thing. There is only so far a thing can bend before it snaps....

 

I did mean Work by Author, as JWH referenced [@MissOddity : this is where you should post this.], though I'm not sure you were wrong to begin with.

Perspicacity has you covered on theme, so I'll just add my thoughts on logistics.

There's Harry, seeing himself destined to be stuck at Privet Drive like last year when no one would talk to him, when he realizes that 'Order headquarters is under a Fidelius! Wouldn't that be safer? I wouldn't be alone, I could talk to Remus about Sirius and maybe actually find out what's happening as it happens.'

Whether you characterize Albus as evil and manipulative or just inconsiderate and foolishly optimistic, it will come down to an argument. For Harry, staying in Surrey = death, in the same way Sirius slowly died in Grimmauld.

Anyway, once he's maneuvered his way to living there, he has the Black library to tempt him. Interesting people to guide him poorly include Kreature, Dung Fletcher, Phineas Nigellus' portrait and even a hateful wretch like Snape might say the exact wrong thing to set him to panicking, looking for an 'out'. Extra props if Sirius' death and Harry's descent drags Remus into a depression that prevents him from suckering Tonks into their marriage (personal gripe, sorry).

 

its funny you should say that; I had the exact same idea in terms of harry being tempted by the Black library, although i like the idea of Snape being the catalyst. That's definitely something to write down...

---------- Post automerged at 01:59 ---------- Previous post was at 01:56 ----------

And i have, fortunately, got an idea on how I want Harry to end up at headquarters, but if i'm ever going to write this up, i'd rather keep how i do it a secret.

 

It it happens after OOTP then Harry would be the only one at the house. Alone, with a library full of dark arts books, dark artifacts, and a crazed elf not to mention the freedom to practice magic. Who knows how long it would be before anyone thought to look for him there or even noticed him missing.....

 

your forgetting motivation; why would he willingly go to the house whose previous owner was his deceased godfather? I think he would be in more emotional turmoil if he where forced to stay their for his own protection, and due to this (and other triggers) run towards the darkest of magical arts. It would also be a handy way for Harry to start disliking Dumbledore.

 

Motivation is already covered with the whole trying to save the world at any cost bit. As for why he would want to go there? I don't know maybe to try and learn more about his godfather, to be able to use the library to work towards his goals, try to find out more info (he still thinks the order is there), be with his friends (also still thinks they are there), etc.

I can't see Dumbledore forcing Harry to stay there for his own protection. The old man makes mistakes, but they aren't generally on such an obvious scale which is why Harry didn't go back there in the 6th book even though they proved Harry had indeed gained possession of the house.

 

I thought the idea was to portray a 'noble is one thing but I wanna LIVE!' Harry. His motivation is much more immediate (as is appropriate to his age)- the Dursleys suck.

As Oneiros pointed out, Grimmauld (which Harry assumes is still HQ) has people he likes. He's mourning Sirius, but Harry has never run from the truth. When Cedric died all he had was time and torture to handle the grieving. He barely knows Sirius and all that he was is left in that house. What Harry misses most about Sirius, other than a feeling of family, is an accurate source of information. Everything Sirius was to Harry is in that oubliette in London.

Also, Albus would accept Grimmauld as the only alternative to Privet Drive or Hogwarts, and then only if Harry promises to allow the Order to keep squatting there. He'll never give over control of the Fidelius willingly, so Harry is being kept in one of the few places Albus considers safe for him- that's the mistake.

So long as the Weasleys are kept out of it for a good length of time, Harry can appear to be behaving while getting up to no good. Dobby and Kreacher would cover for any chores assigned by busybody adults.

The longer Harry stays there, the more corrupt his influences become. No one else spends as much time there, so he's forced to become Walburga Black's handler. Kreacher only listens to Harry, so anything needed of him by the Order goes through Harry. He might even start having to cook again. "Oh, but you do it so much better than that elf, and we know you won't poison us."

'Really? Now there's a notion. Dr. Ubbly's Oblivious Unction is available over the counter...'

 

I think you skipped a step in your logic here. As I'll see it, I'll summarize what you said.

Harry, the foolish Gryffindor, manipulates Albus Dumbledore himself to let him stay at Grimmauld Place, where he'll surely suffer emotionally and possibly harm himself (be it intentionally or not). Then, Harry would be so emotionally traumatized that he would begin studying the worst dark magics.

Think about that for a second; there was no real motivation there, just emotional trauma. Harry's had that all his life, a sudden bout of it won't change his whole belief system. Practically, this should be where Harry cries and writes tear-stained letters to his friends before slashing his wrists with a Black family knife.

I think you'll need a bigger change if you want Harry to suddenly believe that the dark arts are the way to go. Not even just Ron or Hermione dieing would be enough to change this, although they could start him into the soft stuff I guess (if you were to put things like that in). Remember, you want the cause to logically lead to whatever you want to happen, not just seem like something you thought up as a deus ex machina.

In canon, Harry is so completely opposed to dark arts because those are what Voldemort used to murder his parents and indirectly ruin his life. That's a huge belief to beat, and it needs something more earth-shattering than magic itself to overcome that without chapter upon chapter of confused angst (because dark arts were revealed to be so completely horrible to Harry around the same time as magic was, his understanding of the world is built upon this combined base).

/armchair psychologist

 

Perhaps Sirius, as Head of the Family, and as the owner of Grimmauld Place, makes some sort of unequivocal invitation for Harry? Sirius tells Harry flatly that the house will always be open to him. Sirius might even say something like, "If I don't make it through this little war, I *want* you to take the house. Tear it down or completely rebuild it, but it's completely free of all entailments when I die. I hate it, but it's worth a lot. Make it into something good."

Sirius could have given Harry a portkey to the Black house with the two-way mirror, and a journal detailing "fun" stuff like the Marauder's notes on becoming animagi. But Harry, realizing that it would take years to complete the animagus transformation, gets distracted by other notes in the book, referencing books or mentioning items that Sirius used or knew about.

Sirius might have been the white (or red and gold) sheep in the family, but he lived at Grimmauld Place most of his life. I bet the Blacks have quite a few minor illegal things that they keep hidden from outsiders. Small stuff, but there are a few things that increase your chances in an emergency. Or perhaps a way to tell if you are under any spells, like trackers or compulsions (I've always thought that Snape wouldn't have missed a chance to mess with Harry's mind while he was torturing him during Occlumency.)

And if some of that information proves itself in combat, Harry would be likely to keep searching. Perhaps there is some darkish ritual that would help with occlumency. It could involve something like, I don't know, something that *Harry* wouldn't consider evil (maybe his own blood, or that of someone who would give it to him willingly.) Harry would really go for that, if it kept Snape out of his head, and he'd feel that if it's given willingly or only involves his own pain, then it isn't *actually* evil, just some knee-jerk Ministry regulation.

The problem is that you'd have to make it a slow slide down the slippery slope. Since he doesn't have a pusher *telling* him that it's really ok, and the first one's free, etc., the corruption would take a long time to lead him into black magic. AD or his friends might well notice long before Harry realises that something is wrong.



Edited to add: Of course, you'd have to figure out why Sirius would leave the house to Harry instead of Remus...

 

Of course, this is all assuming that both Sirius Black somehow gained the foresight of mind to offer his house to his only remaining relative after his own death. I imagine that if Harry had said even one word of wanting the house before OotP, Sirius would've given it to him in a heartbeat.

It also assumes that Harry would even want to go to the house. Surely Albus Dumbledore wouldn't want Harry there, and if Harry becomes such a crazy paranoid person, he'd trust Dumbledore with his life (if Moody does, what could be wrong?). I don't think it would work like that, unless there were some other factors that fit in to make it smoothen out (like Dumbledore losing Harry's faith to a huge extent without knowing it).

 

Even in canon, Sirius stayed sober long enough to will Harry the house. Whether Albus wants him there is sorta irrelevant- it's his house. Half the reason for this Harry to go batshit is from realizing that Albus is planning for Harry to die. Harry likes other people and stuff, but c'mon!
Albus already lost Harry's faith from their argument in his office. It wouldn't take but a nudge away from canon for Harry to travel this path.

 

Ok- I've copied all of this down, and at a later date i'm going to go through it properly. Currently though, i have too much real life work to do. Thank you for everyones thoughts.