Well, you could have Lucius make the decision to have his son wreak Tom Riddle's havoc as opposed to making it into a rather hamfisted attempt at killing an eleven year old girl to spite a wizard he already feels superior to in every way. His devotion to Voldemort would have to outweigh his love for his family in that situation, though.

if you want to go beyond that, you could emphasize Draco's alleged talent for potions (or add this to the first subplot), so that while the trio is brewing Polyjuice, Draco is somewhere trying to produce Felix Felicis.

Even without being possessed, he might take it upon himself to 'help' Slytherin's heir and start 'pranking' Muggleborns when no one is looking.

As to my own work:

How many Death Eaters were on the tower besides Draco and Snape the night Dumbledore died? I don't have my copy of HBP with me atm.

EDIT: Er . . . that question did belong in another thread.
My bad.

 

First thing that came to mind was from the film- Malfoy is sitting with Harry and Ron polyjuice'd as Crabbe and Goyle, and he pockets a wrapped gift that they find on a couch.

Maybe this is a gift from older boyfriend to girlfriend, but it's laced with love potion or has a nasty curse- the point is that the older boy is distressed by the girl not getting the gift and hears from Goyle that Draco took it. When he attempts to bully Draco, the weasel figures out that there's blackmail to be had- if he can bluff about knowing what the gift was and what was wrong with it. Meanwhile the older student is trying to use his allies to press Draco into (staying silent/returning the gift/covering for him with the girl). It becomes a war of allies, as Draco puts his place on the Quidditch squad to good use.

It may be too sophisticated for Draco at second year, but he is his father's son.

 

Well if you want Draco's actions to gel with the existing plot of the second book. We know from the book that Mr. Weasley had conducted a raid on Malfoy Manor that summer. We also know that Mr, Weasley missed several dark artifacts that were hidden under the drawing room floor.

What if Draco got a hold of one of those dark artifacts and tried to use it to get back at the Weasleys? Of course that would require Lucius Malfoy to be really stupid for letting his son make off with something dangerous.

As for how many Death Eaters were present when Dumbledore died there were six:

Draco
Snape
Both of the Carrows
Fenrir
One unnamed Death Eater described as "Brutal Faced."

 

I couldn't find a mention of it: why did Draco stay at Hogwarts for the Yule break in second year?

Perhaps he was told to stay at school but not told why- the trick would be for him to find out without asking his parents who normally help him with these insurmountable puzzles.

 

I have a scene where Snape forces Sirius to perform the Unbreakable Vow when the latter escapes during Harry's first year (it's a long story). But, as canon shows, you need a third person as a binder. Who from Hogwarts would agree to be such person? Assume Dumbledore and Hagrid are not available (plot).

I was thinking Flitwick, but I'm not sure if he would approve of such a vow.

 

If it's to favor Sirius at all, Aberforth or perhaps Madame Rosemerta would make some sense. However, if you need someone who would more likely favor Snape, you can bend the fanon that suggests Aurora Sinistra as being from Slytherin but not otherwise involved in Voldemort's gang.

 

It is to favor more Snape than Black, so yeah, I suspect Sinistra could work. Thank you.

 

@Cheddar

Sirius has no choice. He can either continue to be an outcast without allies and do things on his own, or play by Snape's rules (The Vow) and gain the trust of the Order + be able to see Harry etc.

Besides, the vow itself isn't that bad: Snape wants to force Sirius to tell him complete truth for a specified amount of time. Sure, knowing Severus, he will abuse it, but still nothing life-threatening.

 

I could see Lupin doing it, he does feel guilty about what he almost did to Snape.

 

I have not considered him. I may need to revise things, thanks for reminding me.

 

Crazy!Insane things Draco, the 12 year old might do:

- Figure out that Dobby is engaging in extra curricrular activities and use him to spy on Harry or Ginny or make Dobby break Harry's bones (after all Dobby was willing to after him with a bludger) or something more sinister.

- Frustrated at a Muggleborn beating him in grades, Draco buys copies of all the school exams and starts a little group that knows the answers to everything.

- Get a girlfriend to one up Harry on something

- Goes to Knockturn Alley and ends up at a seedy whorehouse

- Have his daddy hire someone to teach him how to prank so he can get at the Weasleys

- Run away from home and get lost in Muggle London

 

-Pranking the first years by lying to them about the magical world. Example: tell a muggleborn that the people of the portraits are actually the souls of previous students that were trapped by a magical feature of the school and tell them that if they don't believe him they could try walking three times in front of some part of the seven floor (which would in theory show them where did they store the bodies of said students). To test if it is true, one of them is dared to try by the others and Gilderoy Lockhart, who happens to overhear, decides to tag along. Since they walk thinking they want to find where the bodies are hidden, they find the room of requirement, store room version. Lockhart obliviates the students since he thinks he is the first to find it and decides to explore it. Maybe he even finds a lost relic and he begins to wonder how is that Malfoy knew of said room (unbeknown to him, the blond kid told said instructions at random so he has no idea about it)

-Charm the suits of armor so that they call someone's name when he/she is walking alone in the hallways.

-Discover that whomever has the diary is behaving oddly and try to blackmail him/her, ending petrified in the process which points in Harry's direction.

-Trying to make the other candidates to the seeker position look bad since people is questioning him after his disastrous performance in the match against gryfindor

-Hex Mrs. Norris as a stress reliever since it can't tell people that he did it (as far as he knows). One night in which he is extremely frustrated, he thinks he sees a cat walking around the corner and curses it, thinking that the caretaker's pet is the only one at Hogwarts.

-Try to convince the kitchen's elves to send his breakfast to his bed (or alternatively, use them to smuggle prank items into the Gryfindor dorms by telling them they are gifts for a friend due to his birthday and then watch his enemies blame each other for the prank)

-Try to steal the answers for one of the test. Or go with a classic: Trying to retrieve an obscene picture he gave a professor by accident instead of an essay.

-Revenge on Peeves for something that happened at the begining of the year.

-Obtain the Weasley car that was lost at the beginning of the year.

 

This is a subplot that I am thinking of running through a fourth-year story and was wondering if it was enough of a twist on a cliche to make it interesting. If not, I'll drop it.

A little background first: end of third year, on the way back through the tunnel to Hogwarts, Snape wakes up. A few minutes later when Lupin steps out into the moonlight and changes, Snape has the wherewithal to hit Pettigrew with an Immobulus as he changes. The consequence are that Sirius is now a free man, and is asked to come back as the DADA professor the next year.

Now for the cliche: among the summer globetrotting that Sirius takes Harry and Ron on, they stop at Gringotts and find out that Dumbledore has been messing with Harry's vaults.

And the twist: Dumbledore explains that he's been shuffling money around and spending it to counter a small group of former Death Eaters that's bent on stealing Harry's money through any legal/illegal means possible. The deeper he got, the more he realized that the Death Eaters were trying to consolidate financial power in the hopes that they could economically drive Muggle-borns out of the Wizarding world, and they were trying to steal the Potters' money to help. (Potter's aren't filthy rich, but well situated). Dumbledore was countering with help from the Goblins both to keep the Potter vaults/investments safe, and also to stymie advancement of their agenda.

Some of the changes included moving money into an account for Harry with Dumbledore as trustee, so that he would have legal representation of the money in court; blocking certain moves in the Wizengamot to seize "unclaimed" funds after ten years; etc.

At least that's the backstory, and when the activity ramps up during the summer leading to the fourth year, it makes Dumbledore and the others a lot more aware of what might be happening, changing the outcome of the year.

So, is that enough of a twist on the trope to keep it out of the world of cliches?

 

Well, it's both well-intentioned and seems to have good results, so it's a plus from both relativist and consequentialist viewpoints. I think that makes it differ enough from most Manipulative!Dumbledore actions.

 

It's a subversion of the cliché, I guess, but as usual I feel like anything involving Gringotts might as well be dropped. Whenever I read a paragraph about Dumbledore and Gringotts my brain just shuts down.