There are some moments in the books which seem more apt than others for diverging from the plot of the books and taking things in a new direction. Moments of great decisions or times when the plot is open and multiple paths lie ahead.

The most popular divergence point has to be after the end of Order of the Phoenix. This is partly because of the wait for HBP, during which HP fanfiction experienced something of a popularity explosion, but also because of how open the plot is at that point.

But post-OotP isn't the only god divergence point.

Another one you see a lot is in Goblet of Fire, after Harry's name comes out of the goblet. You have Harrys who react differently, taking things a bit more seriously; Rons and Hermiones who react differently; and all the potential in Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students at Hogwarts. Plus the tasks.

A good, but less common divergence point - probably because Harry is rather young - is at the end of Chamber of Secrets, having a different result of the fight in the Chamber.

Something from the later books is Ron's walk out in DH. You can have Hermione leave too, making Harry survive on his own, or use it to set up Harry/Hermione.

The idea of this thread is to come up with other divergence points. Either:

1. Interesting divergence points you've seen in fics.
2. Interesting divergence points you've never seen but would like to.

Maybe we'll even manage to inspire a fic or two.

 

I have two very closely related divergence points.

Prisoner of Azkaban: When Harry has Wormtail at his mercy in the Shrieking Shack, I always thought he should've taken his revenge then and there. He should've killed the fuck who'd betrayed his parents and lead to the shitty situation of Harry's life.

Letting the rat run, is the part I'd like to see changed. Preferably with Pettigrew dead at Harry's hand.

Prisoner of Azkaban: Just before this situation, Harry has Sirius at hand and is ready to kill him. No one knows that Sirius is innocent, except Moony who's kept it to himself. If Harry had killed Sirius in righteous anger and never discovered that he was innocent of those crimes until later, it'd make for a very different Harry Potter.

Things could've turned out so differently at those two points. I've never read a fic using either of them.

 

Equal and Opposite - It uses a mid HBP divergence point. I think most of you know it.

Escape to Darkness - It uses the graveyard scene as a divergence point.

Couple of interesting diverging points.

I'd like to see a fic where Harry himself alone goes to huntdown Horcruxes after HBP or alone goes to the DOM or Cedric takes the portkey leaving Harry no means escape. I'd also like to see if a fic where the Death Eaters, Order and Ministry are after Harry and he by himself has to survive.

 

Good idea for a thread!

Mirror of Erised
Harry sees something other than his parents. Good potential for a point of divergence because he can realize an ambition and start to work towards it. If you want to write a terrible romance fic you could put a girl there, but there's also more interesting possibilities. He might see something similar to what Ron sees, or, even better, he sees himself exacting revenge on his uncle (or other enemies), and that scares him. Certainly a good point that can change his path, anyway.

Two Magical Weeks
"It took Harry several days to get used to his strange new freedom." Up until the beginning of PoA Harry has only been in Diagon Alley a couple of times, and apart from the Burrow he's spent all his time in the magical world at Hogwarts, with only other kids and teachers. Now he's getting a taste for the actual magical community, and there's plenty of potential for stories to start there.

Beware, though: I've seen this done, and it unfortunately tends to lead to overly long shopping trips and the acquisition of a magical trunk with X amount of compartments, as well as an extra wand or two, not to mention all the mandatory palling around with goblins. To me, this has the feel of a powergamer, smugly maxing out their character by getting all the great expensive equipment. And just as in an RPG I'd say that no one wants to hear about your inventory - we're here to tell stories, and that's not what storytelling is.

Still, I think it has potential as a point of divergence. He could meet many of the characters not introduced until later in the series, since the whole school is bound to come by Diagon in the weeks before September 1st. For example, kids from different houses might get along better now that they're not in their uniforms, and friendships and alliances could develop over those two weeks, which might change coming events completely.

End of PoA
I like yak's two ideas! The end of PoA is a good point to make changes, though I've rarely seen it done right. Feathers, Fangs and Flames (where Harry is bitten by Lupin) is good, but usually changes to the end of PoA have a wish-fulfilment vibe, where Peter is either caught or Sirius makes it out as a free man in some other way. That is boring.

Remember - there is god damn chaos at the end Prisoner of Azkaban. What with all the angry bitter men holding wands - as well as the temporal distortions and several wild beasts - it's a miracle that everyone makes it out alive! So... what if not everyone made it out alive?

Deathday Party
This last one is a bit of a stretch, but... Harry goes alone to the Deathday Party in CoS, and is forced to entertain himself by talking to ghosts. He learns a lot about the past (his past?) and returns to real life, as it were, with a different perspective. Possibly he develops friendships with various ghosts, and in the future he is able to call on them for help and junk.

 

You could have Voldemort trying to recruit Harry after having heard he murdered someone. Have Crouch teach him Dark Arts to Harry. He uses Dark Arts in the tasks. Rita Skeeter tarnishes his reputation. Everyone abandons him. In the Graveyard Voldemort manipulates him to joining him and becomes his spy. Though he has joined Voldemort he plots his own rise to power.

 

Quirrel vs. Harry: Whole set of possibilities with the philosopher's stone, the duel, the first encounter with Voldemort. A couple of old Dark!Harry used it.

 

fanfiction.net/s/3502969/1/On-the-Run

In the middle of POA Peter kidnaps Harry. This is a very interesting divergence point and the fic is a decent read.

 

There are a few other god divergence points, as I see it, considering I'm always thinking about time travel stuff.

Obviously serious injury or death at many, many points would be a change that would affect things. If Hermione dies or leaves or is incapacitated at any point, things would likely get worse quickly. But here's a few interesting ideas:

1. Snape killed by Fluffy. Obviously Harry might die without Snape's help, or perhaps Slughorn gets brought in or the Aurors (because someone died) or the school might get closed down. Harry would think that the evil guy after the Stone is gone and that it's safe.
2. Quirrell/Voldemort breaks the curse on the position (Riddle did it after all) after failing to get the Stone, thinking of a new plan and coming back the next year
3. At the end of the first book, Harry thinks that Dumbledore knew all about their search for the stone and thinks it was a way to help him (Harry) face Voldemort. What if he actually follows up on this thought?
4. SO MANY other Diary holders would change things. Forget Malfoy or Luna, that's old hat. What about Ron? That would be immediately more clear to Harry that Ron is acting odd and missing a lot. Or what if the shade actually succeeds and comes to life? It's been done, but rarely that well.

 

I'm not sure if this counts, as it is before the events of the books, but I'd like to see a well-developed world where not only Lily was a witch, but Petunia was one as well.

This is such a strong POD that it would have incredible influence on the magical world. Meeting Snape, Hogwarts years, the first war, everything!

I haven't read a fic with this premise, but I'm guessing that there are at least some like it.

 

I would really like to see a competently written story starting with a PoD at the end of PoA. What if Remus or any of the others on the scene would've thought to stun Wormtail, instead of binding him in a conscious state, resulting in an exonerated Sirius?

There are some fics out there using a plot on these lines, but nothing that captures how damaged Sirius is and how a much longer exposure to him and his suffering would change Harry.

EDIT:

Well, I know of one that's readable, if not exactly library material:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7270010/1/Petunia-joins-the-Club

 

PoD: The Sorting.

Surprised nobody mentioned it yet. It's like, to obvious, isn't?

 

Remember that these points don't have to be specifically about Harry.

1) Voldemort takes the Philosopher's Stone.
2) Horcrux Riddle is reanimated.
3) Sirius is captured/Kissed by the Dementors.
4) Cedric lives. Crouch is caught/Moody is found earlier. Fudge accepts that Voldemort is back.
5) Snape dies at Voldemort's hand.
6) Draco kills Dumbledore.
7) All Fucking Sorts of things happen.

 

Barty Crouch Jr. escapes his father years earlier and manages to find Voldemort just before Harry's first year. Now the Dark Lord has both Quirell and Barty serving him.

I'd like to see what happens.

 

In Chamber of Secrets, either the horcrux on Harry's forehead merges with the diary horcrux, making it stronger, or the basilisk fang destroys Harry's scar horcrux, breaking their connection(though would that mean Harry can no longer speak parseltounge?). If Riddle merges with the other horcrux, could result in Riddle either getting a new body without killing Ginny(which I've seen done in a femRiddle story) while having Voldemort's memories from 13 years prior, only in a younger body, or existing in Harry's head, while being able to speak to him, and there by corrupting him.

Another interesting idea is that Riddle in a desperate attempt to save himself, uses his connection to Ginny to transfer himself to her body, meaning the majority of his soul lives within Ginny, and the remaining bits that were left over from the diary are destroyed. It be interesting to see some type of Ginnymort coming into being.

An interesting idea is that Harry was treated worse after his name came out of the Goblet of Fire, potentially having him join Voldemort at his resurrection.

 

One of my fics (Shatterpoint) in WbA uses this premise.

I'm very much meh on the idea that Harry would ever join Voldemort. You know, because the man brutally murdered both his parents and is responsible for all the shit he had to endure growing up and more. Coupled with the fact that Voldemort just wants to see Harry dead. You could of course argue for a cunning Harry who joins Voldemort, but unless you aim on writing a dumb villain, Voldemort would see the plan from a mile away.

One cool divergence I can think of would be Dumbledore faking his death at the end of HBP, then working from the shadows to further his own agenda against Voldemort.

 

I'll have to check that out then.

 

Snape-Dumbledore body swap using polyjuice!

It was actually Snape who went with Harry to The Cave, Snape that Harry force fed the potion to. And then Dumbledore killed Snape in his body and infiltrated the Death Eaters.

Why?

WHY THE HELL NOT.

Edit: Wow, this was an incredibly lame 10,000th post.

 

Now a tiny part of me wants to write that. Just a tiny part.

 

Has anyone ever tried POD where the Stature of Secrecy never formed and Muggles know the existence of magic? Or maybe at some point in Voldemort's rise to power, he accidently caused the exposer of Magic to all muggles, causing Harry to grow up in a world where Magic is something recently, but now commonly known? I've seen fics where Muggles learn of magic, but never ones where they learn magic as Harry is growing up.