Butterfly Effect - Possible AU Plotine **Spoilers**

Reading the post about original AUs, I thought about a plotline...and ended up wasting two hours writing half of it.

If anyone I approve would like to write it, I would be happy to give the plot to them for them to write.

If no one does...well, I guess I could work on it in a year or so.

This is my interpretation of a change in the story line that would mimic the butterfly effect.

IMPORTANT: The story does not follow Harry 100% of the time like it does in canon. It has many POVs from the myriad of characters mentioned below that made specific events happen and their reasoning to do so. Even so, Harry will be the primary character and will have the most POV time.

***Spoilers***


1.) [Initial Change] Harry tells a competent teacher about the basilisk instead of attempting a rescue, and stuns Ron in the process to stop him from going too. Lockhart is not put on the spot, and is not totally disgraced. McGonnagal, seeing the urgency of the situation, attempts to rescue Ginny herself, but is unable. Sending for Dumbledore, the headmaster arrives quickly and goes in himself.

2.) Ginny dies when Dumbledore is unable to reach her in time.

3.) While Ginny dies, Dumbledore is still able to defeat the Basilisk. he is also able to subdue Tom and recapture him in his diary. The book is to be kept in his office in his private collections for later study.

4.) Ron and Harry become estranged due to Harry preventing them from helping Ginny. Hermione doesn't take a side when she is unpetrified, but leans more toward Harry as he was more levelheaded in his decision.

5.) Because of Ginny's death, the Weasleys do not go to Egypt and spend their prize money from the drawings for a funeral.

6.) The Daily Prophet does not put a picture of them on the front page and instead covers the first death of a Hogwarts student in fifty years, the last being a young girl named Myrtle Stevens.

7.) Cornelius Fudge, on his scheduled quarterly visit to Azkaban, carries the Daily Prophet and gives it to Sirius Black when he asks for it.

8.) Sirius does not see Peter Pettigrew on the front page and has nothing to remind him of the traitor. He does not escape.

9.) With the Weasleys devastated, Harry and Hermione are not invited to Diagon Alley to shop with them. Crookshanks is not bought.

10.) There are no dementors on the train as there is no convict to hunt.

11.) With Ron now actively disliking Harry, Hermione tries to defend Harry's stance on the train the following year. Ron breaks his friendship with Hermione as well.

12.) Harry and Hermione avoid Ron and therefore do not sit in the same compartment as Remus Lupin. They do not meet until school.

13.) Sad that Ron is no longer his friend, he is left with Hermione. Without Ron, he also makes use of a timeturner to spend more time with his only friend.

14.) Burdened with more classes and having Hermione to push him, Harry's grades skyrocket without Ron to distract him.

15.) Without Dementors, Harry does not learn the Patronus Charm.

16.) With no escaping convict, Hogwarts is relatively quiet. Harry also does not recieve a Firebolt, and his Nimbus 2000 remains intact as there are no Dementors to harass him during Quidditch.

17.) Harry does not recieve a Maruader's Map from Fred and George, who while not totally blaming Harry for their sister's death, have been cold to him.

18.) Peter Pettigrew is not harrassed by Crookshanks - the cat was never bought. He does not run away and sees no initiative to find Voldemort.

19.) Buckbeak still attacks Draco Malfoy - Malfoy's behavior changes little. He is, however, happy that a Weasley has died and constantly reminds Ron of this. Ron and Malfoy get into more fights, and the two have little to do with Harry nowadays.

20.) Buckbeak is still sentenced to death, but Harry and Hermione help him again with the Time Turner. More academically inclined, the two marvel at its possibilities.

21.) With no Ron to slow them down, Harry and Hermione make great strides in their classes, and continue the use of the Time Turners through the years.

22.) Snape does not go look for Sirius, and neither does Remus. Snape still dislikes Remus, and makes sure the world knows he is a werewolf. Remus resigns in shame. Not knowing Sirius is innocent and not having him around to cheer him up, he slips into a depression and is not seen for some time.

23.) Voldemort does not recieve Pettigrew's aid, and is still left as a spirit.

24.) Barty Crouch Jr. is still under his father's imperius cuse and does not attack Moody and impersonate him. Bertha Jorkins, on her weekly report to Barty Crouch regarding the progress in planning for the Tri-Wizard Tournament, discovers the supposedly dead Barty Crouch Jr. Fearing discovery, Barty places a powerful memory charm on her and orders her to Transylvania as ambassador.

25.) Without a body or news of her arrivial, Voldemort does not capture and interrogate Bertha Jorkins. The Tri-Wizard Tournament is delayed - Ginny's death is still a widely controversial topic. Parents are fearful and Ministry officials are nervous. Plans to hold the Tournament are put on shelf for later.

26.) With events not taking a turn for the worse, Dumbledore sees no reason to hire the overzealous Alastor Moody. Gilderoy Lockhart, however, is not much of an option, so he hires Moody anyway to teach the more important fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh years. Moody is actually much more paranoid and frightening than the imposter, so he is unable to deal with younger, more immature students.

27.) Seeing as Lockhart did not totally disgrace himself, Dumbledore hires him again for the first, second, and third years, with a warning to go by standard books and not his own. While Lockhart is totally fraudulent in his exploits, his general knowledge about the creatures are quite diverse - he managed to fool thousands of readers. While you can make up your own powers, you can't change known facts about researched creatures. With the first three years being mostly about magical creatures, Lockhart does a mediocre job.

28.) With no relationship with the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione miss the Quidditch World Cup.

29.) Harry and Hermione return to school, and learn under Moody. Lockhart still tries to get Harry to be his 'protege'. More than once the Daily Prophet has photographed them together. Sirius asks for the paper on Fudge's next quarterly visit once again and sees his godson. Seeing the boy he had loved long ago gave him reason enough to attempt an escape.

30.) In a failed attempt to force Harry to accept his offer, Lockhart misses a memory charm cast to hide the attempt. Holding the knowledge against him, Harry blackmails Lockhart into teaching him the memory charm in an effort to learn.

31.) His fourth year goes by as normal, with Harry making good use of the memory charm to cover his purely academic interest in the curses Alastor Moody has demonstrated in class to protect oneself from the notorius Sirius Black, who has escaped prison. His hate for Sirius Black is all consuming, and he can only think about killing him. He scours for anything that can help him in this regard.

32.) Dementors arrive at Hogwarts Castle, and Harry is affected by one, triggering a memory of the words Avada Kedavra and his parents' death.

33.) Asking for information, Moody happily provides with a demonstration in class of the three unforgiveables. Being slightly insane, he does not provide Neville with any consolation. Harry is feeling more murderous than ever with the escape of Black and vows to use the curses on the man.

34.) Hermione is alarmed by her best friend's behavior.

35.) Knowing his actions disturb Hermione, he no longer shares everything with her and keep his weekly forays into the restricted section a total secret. Hermione starts becoming a victim of the memory charm as well.

36.) Being real, Moody shows Harry the picture of the original Order of the Phoenix much sooner. He sees his parents, poor Peter Pettigrew, and the wretched Sirius Black. His hate for Sirius, if possible, grows to a breaking point.

37.) Sirius is seen around Hogwarts. Peter Pettigrew is not harrased by Crookshanks and is not as terrified and pressured. He must take down Sirius lest his secret be revealed.

38.) Knowing the Marauder's Map is in the Weasley twins's possession, Peter takes it and hunts for Sirius. He intercepts a weak and haggard Sirius in the secet passage to Honeydukes and manages to corner him, much stronger. Utterly suprised to see Peter there, it is easy to disarm him of his stolen wand.

39.) Harry has returned from the library and sees a man moving the three eyed witch and entering the passage.

40.) Harry follows and finds Sirius Black being cornered by a supposedly dead Peter Pettigrew - the last known link to his parents. Suprised by the appearance of Harry, Peter is distracted. Sirius takes advantage and takes his wand. With a wand, Sirius is a much better fighter due to his superior dueling skills. He has recovered from the shock of seeing the man who put him in prison and is ready to kill Peter.

41.) Seeing what he thinks is the last good link to his parents being attacked by Sirius Black, he jumps in the foray, striking Sirius down with a curse he learned in his studies from the restricted section.

42.) Taking advantage of the situation, Peter acts jubiliant to see Harry. Sirius attempts to tell Harry the truth. The news falls on deaf ears.

43.) Harry kills Sirius Black with the Killing Curse, bolstered by Peter.

44.) Peter manages to convince Harry he's been hiding all along from what he calls the rest of Voldemort's men - who he claims are still at large and after him. He urges Harry to learn self-defense in an act to seem caring. The advice has a much more profound affect than Peter thought.

45.) Harry agrees to keep Peter's existence a secret. Peter tells him that if anyone knew he was alive, he would be hunted down. Peter escapes and Harry leaves Sirius Black to rot.

46.) The Dementors sense Sirius's death and move away. The Ministry take this as a victory and claim that Sirius was killed by the Dementors.

47.) No one knows about Sirius's innocence except Peter and Voldemort's forces.

48.) Telling no one about his actions, Harry is happy he has avenged his parents, but is conflicted about the fact he has used the Killing Curse. Fawkes no longer will tolerate his presence.

49.) Peter finds Voldemort and gives him a temporary body.

50.) Harry goes back to the Dursley's.

51.) Darker and increasingly cynical, Harry fights back Dudley when he makes fun of him.

52.) Lord Voldemort has heard about Harry's actions from Peter and is increasingly interested in his behavior. Seeing Harry's secret friendship with Peter useful, he encourages Peter to contact Harry more often throughout his school year and 'advise' him on the matters of his life. Voldemort isn't sure whether he wants Harry dead or at his feet, but he needs a body first. Unfortunately, he can't do much to Harry if he can't touch him. He would need to capture Harry for his blood.

53.) Knowing Remus Lupin could ruin Harry's relationship with Peter, Lord Voldemort has Peter bribe the Minister's secretary, Madam Umbridge, knowing of her hate for magical creatures and her strong influence over the Minister.

54.) Werewolf Detention Law, Act III comes into effect. Remus Lupin is soon found and captured. He is found dead days later. Harry is saddened, but isn't too put out - Peter has proved to be a better link to his parents and a superior 'Uncle'.

55.) Using Madam Umbridge as a source, Peter finds that Bertha Jorkins is in the area. Delaying their return to England, Lord Voldemort breaks the memory charm and tortures information out of her. He learns of the existence of Barty Crouch Jr. and the shelved plans for the Tri-Wizard tournament.

56.) Needing a competent person to carry out his will, Lord Voldemort has Peter free Barty Crouch Jr. from the Imperius curse.

57.) Free, Barty Crouch Jr. puts his father under the Imperius Curse as payback. Voldemort sets his plans into motion.

58.) Barty Crouch, head of the Department of International Magical Co-operation, announces the return of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. With a major victory on their side, there is very little protest. With Sirius Black dead, fears of dark times have subsided.

59.) Gilderoy Lockhart is murdered and replaced by Barty Crouch Jr. His fame will undoubtably give the Death Eater power, while his reputation as an idiot within the school will stop anyone from suspecting any foul play from his part. Impersonating Moody would be impossible after the entire school and Dumbledore has gotten seen his behavior the year before. The subtle changes would be seen.

60.) Moody's hip flask is laced with a potion form of a weakened confundus charm. Everyone thinks he has gotten better. His paranoia has subsided, allowing Crouch Jr. to do his work without detection.

61.) Harry returns to school for his fifth year.

62.) The announcement of the Tri-Wizard Tournament is made. Harry is a candidate. Eager to prove his worth and test his strength, he does not resent being picked. It is a chance to prove to the world and himself that he is much more than a name.


***Spoiler End***

That is what I have so far.

I have a little more planned out, but its not set in stone. Of course, the other three candidates would be all different, as Fleur, Viktor, and Cedric would have graduated. That is, unless, Beubaxtons and Durmstrang have eight years of schooling.

The first two tasks would be probably be the same - the plans are just put to motion an other date. It would be hard to have a logical basis for changing the entire thing besides having the entire tournament hosted at Durmstrang instead. This would be incredibly difficult to write of course.

The story would probably be a Harry/Hermione, but it could be others as well. H/Hr just makes the most sense in the situations presented. Hermione would also be a logical choice as his date to the Yule Ball.

Instead of Sirius advising him at the fire it would be Peter, and Lockhart would also give 'lessons' to Harry in some forms of darker magic, being Couch Jr. How Lockhart would convince Harry he isn't an imposter is in the air, but it can be done.

Voldemort would return like before, after the third task. I think the third task can't be changed for the better. The scenary provided and the sense of enclosure is very important. This story would have to focus on the third task much more than canon, however.

Harry would also attack the other candidates in the third task, seeing himself lose to their superior knowledge of magic would make him angry and resort to curses and memory charms to hide his actions. Peter would have had to encourage this.

Moody would be murdered halfway through the year as he discovers that his flask has been tampered with. 'Lockhart' would kill him and hide the body.

Voldemort offers Harry the choice of joining him, but he declines. Harry is assured that he would change his mind later. Duelling him a little to test his strength, Voldemort keeps asking Harry to join him, spewing all the advantages. The Priori Incantatem coming into play, Harry would run for the chance.

Voldemort would stand there and let him go, stopping the others. This act would haunt Harry for awhile, knowing he escaped only because Voldemort wanted him alive.



I have some plans for the rest, and will post them only if I find any interest.

Criticism, Subliminal Messages, and Deragatory Comments are all welcome.

If anyone would like the story, PM me and I'll give it to you.

 

I have a question about this bit. Why would Harry need to know the memory charm at that point, or would it be for purely academic purposes at the point in time? Still, if you are going to write it I wouldn't mind reading it.

 

Well...I'm glad to know that I've helped spawn such a fantastic idea, even though it is much superior to my original. That being said, I think that this could be both very fun to read and to write. This story introduces so many unused and underdeveloped characters (Pettigrew, for example) that authors could just go wild with them, and not suffer criticism for having Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu's. Great challenge Amerision...but I still like the Identity challenge better.

 

Nice workout of the Butterfly effect. Two illogical points, though...

- Why would Sirius be motivated to escape Azkaban? Just because of seeing Harry getting chummy with Lockheart? The only reason he escaped and came to Hogwarts in the first place was because he suspected Peter was there.

- Why would Harry start using memory charm? I understand that his contact with Hermione would make him more eager to learn, but wouldn't he also be more inclined to follow the rules. His whole downfall to darkness seems unmotivated to me.

Other then that, I suppose this idea lacks some more character interaction. I mean, it seems to me that at the point where this reaches 5th year, Harry doesn't have any human interactions left; he spends all his time in browsing through the library and learning dark arts, without any reason to do so.

 

Wrote some more and fixed some plot holes.

As for Harry wanting to learn the memory charm: Wouldn't you want to know how to change people's memories?

Also, Harry isn't really learning the Dark Arts to learn the Dark Arts. He's motivated purely for self-defense and hate to kill Sirius Black. After he kills him, its the warning from Peter and hsi continual push for Harry to learn specific magics.

There is no "I need to learn the Dark Arts because they're so cool and powerful."

If you haven't noticed already, the story isn't a Camera!Harry story. It will follow different characters throughout the story.

While Harry will get the majority of the fic, a good portion will be dedicated to Ministry Workers, Bertha Jorkins, Voldemort, Peter, Sirius, Dumbledore, Crouch Sr, Couch Jr. and all the other smaller characters that made everything happen.

 

Yeah, know-how is one thing, using it on daily basis is entirely different.

 

You could go really AU and have Harry come down with some form of psychosis, and have that as the reason that he wants to gain power, be it studying in the restricted section or learning the memory charm or whatever. I don't know enough about mental problems to say what exactly would make him do this, but im sure a little bit of research on the authors part would yield that.

I would actually say have Hermione go down the slope with Harry. Maybe not to the same extent, but have her do some research in the restricted section with him and such like. It would allow you to have Dark!Hermione, something I am partial to. Maybe even, have Harry manipulate her into learning and practicing the Dark Arts with him, and then have him blackmail her into being his 'slave', however the author wants to take that. It could be interesting.

 

Why not have Harry in a mental institution and the whole ideas of wizards and Hogwarts are figments of Harry's psychotic delusions.

Or are they?

I know it may be cliched but I haven't come across any fics like this yet.

 

Im not sure really what that plot line would accomplish. How would it turn into a story. A comedy one shot perhaps, but nothign else.

 

You never know, if it was Voldemorts plan all along to confuse Harry or put him out of action for a while, make him believe he was insane. I'm just thinking on my feet.

 

It would personally just annoy me, as it would be a very angsty fic, with Harry always worrying about whether everything was real or not.

Actually now that I think about it I remember reading that in a fic at one point. Voldemort used the mind link to put Harry in a trance and make him belive everything he remembered was a delusion, and that the characters in the delusion were those around him in the mental institution. His doctor was called Tom Riddle, Hermione was a patient with severe OCD and Ron had severe schizophrenic hallucinations involving spiders, or something like that.

it was interesting enough, though only a minor part of the plot line over all. I can't remember the fic though.

 

You could have it that Peter starts to poison Harry's mind about Lupin, make him think that Lupin was working with Sirius and such like. That may make it more realistic.

 

I've changed that bit about Lupin around. He's saddened, but isn't too put out. Remus didn't talk to him much at all besides classes.

Though I would think that Peter would try and subtly poison Harry's mind against Lupin, as Mordecai said.

I do want to write this, but I'm not about to abandon my other stories. *Looks at several well known authors*

 

Interesting idea, and fairly well thought out, although it does need some tweaking. And yeah, you should have Hermione go down the spiral with him, maybe eventually become his version of Bellatrix. I just want to see Hermione fanatically loyal to Harry (rather than the other way around) and used as an attack dog.

"Hermione! Sic 'em!"
"Hey, Weasley! Crucio!"

 

Nice plot!

As for Memory Charms: Harry could learn them at first for their academic value. Messing with other people's minds? That must be some magic! Maybe there's a connection to other forms of magic that deal with the mind ...
Anyway, of course Harry has no possibility to try out those charms, so they are only theoretical at first. For him to use them a first time he would have to be desperate, trying to hide something.

E.g. he has a look into the restricted section, maybe even took a dark book from there (curiosity et al). Hermione discovers this and, being the by-the-book person she is, immediately talks about how that is against the rulse and that he could be expelled and she would have to report him even if she didn't want to, but rules are rules ...
Horrified at the prospect of losing his only friend and having to go back to the Dursleys never being able to do magic again, Harry does the only thing he can think of: wiping her mind.

Of course, it doesn't really work at first. Hermione is a bit confused, but remembers. Maybe she even gives him pointers how to do the wand motion, having read about the spell... And so, after a bit of practice, he manages to make her forget. She's still a bit confused, but as her only good friend, he manages to keep her from suspecting too much.

As for Hermione, I can't really see her as a Bellatrix... she'd have to delve deep and long into the Dark Arts before she'd be anything like what we see Bellatrix as...

 

Once again Amerision, i am simply amazed by your briliance in both writing and challenges, this has to be one of the best i have ever seen alongside the ones on your profile. I think you should write this one but wait finish across the mirror first.

 

I do believe it was Walking through Fire, where Harry becomes an elemental and Voldemort traps Harry in his own mind. It's sequel (Swimming against the Tide) hasn't been updated in a while because she's on a writing course I believe.

And World's excuse for Harry using the Memory charm is good, but maybe Hermione shold find out before he learns it. Thenm she threatens him that if he does it again, she'll report him. Then he learns the charm, and decides he canot take the risk and wipes her mind.

 

I think you're right about WTF, it was that methinks, not a bad fic, if a bit cliche now.

I like your idea for Hermione and the Memory Charm as well.