You know, I was actually thinking of Harry getting hit with the Killing Curse at age 14. I don't want to redo the graveyard scene, so I have Harry either getting kidnapped from the Quidditch world cup over the summer or Barty Crouch kidnapping him sometime during the year. Then he takes the curse after giving his blood to Tom.

If he did die at age 17 in the forest, I wonder how long that wizarding Britain would hold up without both Harry and Dumbledore? I want to write about him coming back and helping in the ongoing war effort rather than him coming back to a world where Voldemort has won and everyone he loves has met some horrible fate.

 

Edit: Just saw the last post. Never mind


No, I wouldn't read that. Too many plot holes. What happens to the body when he dies? How long is he buried? Why now? so on and so forth. It seems as though the entire set up has to be handwaved away.

 

Well, maybe, and a very big maybe at that, it could work if Harry came back as a wraith because of the connection between him and Voldemort, but then finds that his old body unusable because of the decay. Then the first part of the story could be wraith!Harry trying to regain his body (how? Fuck if I know, maybe he'll haunt Voldemort in the toilet for shits and giggles and shack up with Myrtle).

Or Zombie!Harry. I dunno.

 

I figure that wizards have a way to preserve the body with charms, and the obviously wouldn't need to drain the blood and pump it full of embalming fluid.

Dumbledore didn't rot in his tomb. So either the tomb was enchanted or his body was. I assume Harry's body would get the same treatment.

 

I'm trying to come up with a satisfying way for Harry to become an Occlumens. Is it only possible to teach Occlumency if you are a Legilimens? If so, this limits the teaching pool, and I don't really want him to learn it from Snape, Dumbledore, or Voldemort.

I don't want it to boil down to Harry just reading a book, but I'm curious if anyone has any thoughts. Could a non-Legilimens teach Harry the principles or does that come off as too easy?

 

We only see it taught with Legilimency in canon. As you're writing fanfiction, you could bend the "rules" a bit, but I'd say don't. Doing so would be a bit like trying to learn how to be a goalie without anyone kicking the ball at you. You kind of need that person. Or at least a machine that does it, which makes me think about Harry using something like the Locket or Diadem Horcrux to teach himself Occlumency. A dangerous way of doing it though.

 

How do you find the idea of Harry hiring a tutor? The bare bones premise of my story is that Harry is not in Britain; rather he is spending time on the continent, around the Mediterranean, Middle East, North Africa etc, so learning from the horcruxes is out because he has no knowledge of them.

I guess I picture it like Snapes lessons, just without the animosity and personal baggage. So it would still be hard, and he couldn't just drop 1000 galleons and learn to be a master in a few weeks.

Sidebar, how much should Occlumency lessons actually cost if you had to pay out of pocket?

 

Snapes method has always struck me as 'slash open a wound untill it makes a scab, ' I always felt this couldn't be the best way of learning, though perhaps it mirrors how he learnt (getting his mind repeatedly violated by Voldemort?) Or perhaps it is, but in a far more measured and less emotionally fraught way.

Now I'm imagining Harry lounging around a villa on the Mediterranean coast, getting taught by some equivalent of Arya's 'dance instructor.'

I'd say lessons are stinkingly expensive.

 

The real cost of being taught Occlumency by a paid tutor would be exposing his mind to that person, and that their mind might be exposed to him. It seems like the only people who have learned Occlumency in canon (to the point that they can teach it) are untrustworthy at best.

If you're going to 'outsource' it, Harry should lose something valuable that he wasn't aware he'd be risking - like the tutor insists that Harry bring them into the Chamber of Secrets to recover the Basilisk remains, or Harry discovers at the end of the last lesson that his Cloak of Invisibility was taken while he was collecting that last sack of coins.

[Or maybe, because he learned Occlumency he wasn't aware of Nagini attacking Arthur Weasley on guard duty and thus Arthur dies]

 

Plotting out a flight of fancy fic, at least for the moment. The idea is that it's a 7th year redo fic, or I guess an 8th year fic, depending on how you look at it. Honestly, I know they exist, but it's been forever since I've actually read one, and I don't think I've read one that wasn't Harry/Ginny. So two questions:

one - who would make the best new DADA teacher? Perhaps not necessarily the best, but the most competent. Honestly, I don't really know who is usually picked for this kind of thing, since it's been a really long time since I read this kind of fic. But, the first person that comes to mind is Bill Weasley. He works in a specialized DADA field, that of cursebreaking and did so for like 10 years, so he knows his shit. He was Head Boy, so he knows the system. He's young enough to connect with the students and he was there at the battle of Hogwarts. Being a teacher would keep him closer to his wife, especially if he plans to start a family, instead of being in egypt for long periods of time. The only con i can think of is that he doesn't have any teaching experience, but going by previous canon, I'm not sure how much that matters. I will also say that the Aurors are likely far too busy to be able to spare even a single one to teach, especially if their loyalties are uncertain.

two - how should I actually handle retaking classes? The logical thing for me is to just have all the teachers be super accommodating. But obviously, the last year of schooling was ranged from non-existent, to barely adequate. So there is an argument to be made to just have everyone redo the year. Not really fair to be forced into that, so perhaps it could be optional. But, on the other hand, society as a whole should be understanding of it considering the circumstances, and they could just accept that they will be in the history books for the first 8th year class(es). Another option is to just try and play catchup. The teachers are going to be super busy as is, but every single year could have a new curriculum made specifically to help catch everyone up on what was missed the previous year, while still teaching the current year stuff. For early years, it could even be spread out over multiple years. There's a few things I'm trying to accomplish. First, I don't want there to be a massive first year (incoming first years combined with the first years that should be second years). Secondly, I don't want Ginny and Harry to end up in the same year and taking classes together. Thirdly, of course, I want Daphne in the story, and there needs to be a plausible reason for her (and potentially others who werent targeted by the Callows) to want to retake their final year. If retaking a year is optional, very few people will actually chose it as opposed to some catch-up tutoring. And, if they don't plan on taking NEWTS, some students should just be allowed to graduate with an incomplete final year, given the circumstances.

Thoughts? Am I overthinking it? I've already got Daphne's (and Harry's) character more-or-less mapped out in my mind, but making the world fit around the circumstances is like a giant puzzle. Everything needs to make sense.

 

If you don’t want to use an Auror or go with the most prominent/obvious choice in Bill, I’d say Hestia Jones is a possibility as DADA teacher. She’s an order member, was part of the 5th year escort and helped to transfer the Dursleys away from Privet Drive, so she’s presumably somewhat competent at the very least.

As far as excuses to bring everyone back for an extra year of schooling go, my solution would be to just make attendance mandatory for OWL and NEWT qualification at the end of the year, and make everyone retake their classes as well – it could be Ministry policy, one of Minister Shacklebolt’s first major controversies, and hark back to the lingering question of Minostry influence over Hogwarts affairs. Spread out the curriculum, give everyone time to review what they learned in the previous year and, towards the spring, introduce topics for the 7th-years that perhaps wouldn’t have been taught in previous years for a lack of time. Special charms, advanced human transfiguration, something like that.

 

I think the simplest thing would be to say that everyone in Harry's year never took the NEWT and the material that was being presented to them by the fraudulently installed Death Eaters didn't reflect what was on the Ministry test. Hogwarts simply grows a bit to accommodate the extra year of students, though obviously a few things would be off balance and it's not easy for the same amount of teachers to be teaching more people, especially not with some amount of conflict between the students still brewing.

 

NEWTs were definitely my first thought. But, I don't think there's an actual requirement that you need to attend Hogwarts in order to take them. I'm not sure how typical English schooling works in that regards, like, what about homeschooled kids? Anyways, the point is that given the choice to retake a whole year (a year in which you actually attended school and weren't persecuted), or get a few months worth of tutoring to fill in all the gaps, taking an extra year seems a bit weird. Or maybe I'm just overthinking it. It's Hogwarts after all - who wouldn't want to go for as long as possible?

 

It's true that the NEWTs and OWLs weren't given during Snape's headmastership. The Battle of Hogwarts was in May and little of the school was left afterwards to continue classes.

In that situation, I could see McGonagall arranging for returning 8th years to be sharing classes with 6th and 7th years or performing independent studies to prep for a special pre-Yule exam. The 8th years may also be shanghai'd into helping the ongoing efforts to rebuild the castle, leading to sneaky sorts trying to include their own back doors or searching for special items among the wreckage that would 'never be recovered'.

I'd probably have the 8th years build and occupy an offsite dorm in Hogsmeade to keep them separate from the traditional final year students.

 

I will start by saying that this story hasn't actually left the planning stages yet. Not sure if it ever will, but that doesn't mean it's not worth thinking about.

The idea I'm leaning towards is that retaking the year is completely voluntary. Some students might opt for private tutoring at a later date, some might retake the year immediately, some might just say fuck it. I am leaning towards the idea of it being more of an "8th year" thing, so they still wouldn't be taking courses with the previous year, yet their actual classes would be more of a year 7.5 than 8, so it redoes some of what they learned while also going over new material not necessarily in the 7th year curriculum. Anyways, the idea is the Harry chooses to go back to school. And since it's his choice, it would be kinda weird for Bill to just go easy on him, since why would Harry bother going back if he didn't actually learn anything. I think Harry would be the type of person to think that all because he killed the Dark Lord doesn't mean he's actually qualified to do anything, though others might thing otherwise.

As for who actually takes the 8th year, I've got a rough idea. I'm picturing a lot of muggleborns and others who simply did not attend Hogwarts during that year. How many muggleborns there actually are is a whole different argument, as we only see a handful actually named in canon. There's also Hannah Abbott, who left in 6th year and didn't return until the Battle of Hogwarts. I assume there's others like that. Only a handful of Slytherins - I imagine there has to be some sort of vetting process, or investigation (and to be fair, I wouldn't just aim it at them). Neville should be there as well. Overall, I think it's going to be a fairly small amount of people who take the 8th year. I tentatively have Ron and Hermione not going. The cliche is to send them off to Australia to find her parents after several months of funerals and volunteering to help rebuild Hogwarts, and I think that works here. Also, Harry going back to school means he has a ready-made excuse for not being paraded around ministry events and such once it starts, and I suspect he did a lot of those during the summer when he wasn't attending funerals or trials.

Anyways, the story is not so much about going to class and learning. It's about dealing with the aftermath of the battle, and Harry trying to figure out his place in life, now that he has a future. He's adrift. People are still trying to saddle him with more responsibility that he doesn't want. He can make a difference, but he hates how it has to be him. He's seen the failure of the Ministry first hand, and doesn't want to just become another cog in that.

Ultimately, the 8th year is just a setup to the actual story, and that's Harry reviving the old tradition of travelling the world post-Hogwarts.

 

I've run into a complete dead end on one of my stories, so here goes. The story's In Cold Blood and I'll start with a quick summary for those who need it. Obviously, spoilers ahead.

In book four, Summer Knight, Dresden thinks to call for Titania when Aurora lays dying. As a result, Titania saves her daughter and realises what's wrong with her. Consequently, so does Mab. Maeve's purged of Nemesis. Time passes and one day Dresden finds Mab and Maeve in his apartment and they've a job for him. He's asked to go to a little town called Innsmouth and with Maeve investigate what's going on there. They've vague rapports, but nothing certain, so off they go.

The place has a Midsommer Murders kind of a vibe and everyone's super friendly. Dresden eventually learns of a couple whose child have gone missing, which is the first warning bell. Maeve later learns of a group of college students who are back in town to celebrate the memory of one of their friends who they think drowned there. Skulking about, Dresden and Maeve find a group of people in hoods and cowls, having a spooky meeting, but before they can find out who they are, someone approaches and they're forced to book it out of there.

All along, there are mentions of an upcoming harvest festival. Oh, and some of the villagers are subtly trying to persuade Maeve and Dresden that the town may be a nice place to stay.

***

Now, what is happening here is that several of the central OCs are have lived in the village for a long time and yet have not aged. They're trading in sacrifices for eternal life. The missing kid and the supposed drowned college student are both such sacrifices, given to a Naga (I think that's what I was going with, but at this point that's not super important.)

The problem I run into is as follows: How do I have Dresden and Maeve clue into the cult, who they're taking, why, etc

I had Dresden follow Maeve, suspecting she may be up to something, and they find those cult dudes in robes, which was meant to establish that there was a spooky group doing something. The main problem with this is: How the hell did Maeve know this group was gathering?

The goal is to tie this all into the reveal where there's not just one person (again this is sorta undermined by the dudes in robes) whodunnit, but everyone's frickin' dunnit. The cute old lady whose hotel you've been staying at, who you thought was frail friendly? Yeah, she's going to jump over the counter and charge at you. The idea for the climax was a mad dash out of the city, followed by a regrouping and then killing shit.

I'm not sure if any of this made any sense. It barely makes sense to me. If anyone has any idea on how to fix it all smoothly, that'd be awesome. I'm perfectly happy to kill a few darlings to make it work.

 

Thanks. They're all old people, so any sporting would be extra gross... And yeah, you wouldn't like this story, I think. Maeve does go pretty hard on the seduction, which may be in character but which also kind of distracts and detracts from actual plot.

I suppose she could've run into them by pure coincidence, but even in a village that small it feels a tad contrived. I may just be better of cutting that part out of the story entirely in the end.