I wanted to see if anyone has interesting ideas for a Matrix-HP crossover they'd be willing to share with me. What I'm looking for are thoughts regarding these points:

A suitable hacker alias for Harry?

Any synergistic ideas regarding plotline and the Matrix mythology? How to incorporate magic, the Dark Lord, and the wizarding world (or what parts of it should be incorporated? I'll probably going to get rid of 99% of the characters on the HP side.) I was thinking an approach like a handful of magical locations being hidden in the Matrix as backdoors or modules, without wizarding society.

The setting? The Matrix takes place in a self-contained place called The Megacity, but presumably there is a United States, and also England, as was shown in the first film when Morpheus escaped from the Heathrow airport.

Posting here, or PM'ing me, I'll take it.

 

Hacker alias. Okay, off the top of my head;

I suppose Phoenix is a bit too cliche- he does survive and return from what should have been his death from the first Avada Kedavra as a baby, and then from the second later on as well.

In line with the first, Fawkes? Phoenix connections left right and center etc etc.

Myrddin from the old welsh(IIRC) for Merlin- perhaps a little better for the over-all magical connection presented by it.

Plot;

Magic was created somewhere around the second or third Matrix incarnation as a means to handle particularly troublesome programs. A kill-code 'spell', the Avada Kedavra, was developed and handed to trusted Wizards/Agents to hunt down and terminate programs that went on the run, and from there, various other base and official spells were created for similar purposes; stunning spell to cripple the mobility of a fleeing target and prevent them from escaping, such like that.

From there over the following cycles until the current, sixth Matrix, various hackers and freed humans hijacked the system to accept their own variances, such as the Impendiment jinx, Levicorpus, Locomotor (object), Leg-Locker Curse so on and so forth originating from the stunning spell. All spells originated from the ones first implemented by the machines.

Not sure what more to suggest for the moment.

 

Thestral.

Poetic, ironic, and it works well.

 

I don't know exactly what you want, so I'm giving you a plot bunny.

Since birth, Harry Potter had the ability to casually break the "real world emulation" rules without any training in programming. The Matrix took note of this, and in an effort to contain the threat and study the subject, it terminated the subject's parents, before taking nearly ten years in creating a whole new subworld called the Wizarding World.

It consisted of a host of new locations and programs such as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Hogsmeade, the Ministry of Magic, Diagon Alley, Albus Dumbledore, the Weasley Family and so on and so forth, taking the basics from Harry Potter's own subconscious wants and needs. The Dark Lord and his Death Eaters were created with two purposes - to explain the subject's parent's deaths and to keep the subject on his toes. The entire Wizarding World is set in the Dark Ages in order to keep Harry away from technology and the potential of learning about programming.

As the Chosen One awakens (i.e. Neo wakes up after being shot in the first movie), the program known as Agent Smith reroutes almost all of the "idle" computing power to deal with the elevated threat. But the program hadn't been updated in a long time, and as such, Smith doesn't know about the Wizarding World nor that the "idle" computing power is secretly employed in maintaining it. As such, when Agent Smith and Neo duke it out, Harry Potter experiences his first glitch in the Matrix as he walks down Diagon Alley. All of the programs (wizards and witches) flicker, and Harry realizes that something is very very wrong just as all the wizards and witches in the Alley suddenly level their wands at him.

He runs.

 

Since the matrix lore crawled up it's own ass with 'cleverness', everything was created by the machines for some convoluted control related reason. Magic could be an actual rogue program, a ghost in the machine type of deal.

Wizards and magic do not exist outside The Matrix, or if they do magic only works inside. There could be a three way conflict, where the wizards actually want to remain inside The Matrix in order to retain magic. The machines would surely object to that plan and Morpheus wants the Matrix destroyed, so there is that.

As for a hacker name, well since Neo is a christian circlejerk and Harry is the anti neo in this case something devily would fit. Helel, Meririm or some other obscure name for satan.

 

I think magic should be in the real world as well. I don't like it being just some fake thing that only exists in the Matrix -- makes it seem less, you know, magical.

I also don't like the idea of making all the people Harry knows into fake programs. It seems like that would be extremely and unnecessarily traumatic for him. I mean, he discovers a wondrous new world and forms powerful friendships after eleven years with absolutely nothing good in his life, only to discover that it's all a lie to cover up a cruel and hellish existence? I'd think he'd just snap. Morpheus said that there are people who just can't accept the truth, and I think Harry might be one of those who'd want to stay in the Matrix.

 

Why not go with Harry being an (unknowing) AI program? Thinks that he's human, and what-not, and then plot-twist half-way through.

 

There's a perfect spot in canon as to where to diverge this, and although it's one of the most used divergence spots, it would be perfect for this.

Naturally, I'm talking about the King's Cross scene in book 7. He dies, meets 'Albus Dumbledore' and then awakens in the real world. And since he's the lolchosen one, a lot of his abilities are retained, like Neo.

 

I think 'Scar' would be a decent hacker alias.

Not only does it fit, it coheres with the other short names: Tank, Dozer, Switch, Mouse, Cypher, Apoc, Link, etc.

And if you decide to make him a program, you could totally call him 'The Seeker' which would go hand in hand with 'The Oracle', 'The Merovingian', 'The Keymaker', and 'The Architect'.

 

I don't think that being programs necessarily makes them fake. Sure it would raise the mother of all existential crisis, but at the end they have still lived, loved, lost, etc. They are more than they are programed to be, they have broken the system parameters and experienced true sentience. Also questions about trans-humanism can be raised, if they are real people. Their lives are better inside the matrix, real life misses the spark that the artificial provides them. So they fight for the life they have created within the system. Harry and /or others can emerge from the matrix to try and negotiate a separate system for themselves, something similar to how the movies ended.

Magic being byproduct of their mastery/whateveryouwanttocallit over The Matrix fits in nicely. The human drive to explain away to mysterious through conceptualization and imagination, has given us the mysteries we imagined. Losing that would be devastating and therefor worth fighting for.

Anyways my vision for a good HP/Matrix x-over has been heavily influenced by the story Harry Potter & The Borg (Don't let the name fool you that story had more to do with the matrix than ST:TNG) a story that has been deleted from ffn and a cursory google search couldn't find another site that hosts it. I'm not saying that it was a good story, as when it was posted here it received a sound trashing and might even reside in the trash bin. But i think people didn't give it a fair shot as the beginning was iffy. It had Harry/Ginny, a Hermione that seemed to boss Harry around, a deus ex machina spell that seemed to solve all problem, etc. But around half way through where the borg were revealed to be a part of the matrix it got better, having some dalliances with brilliance. In the end it only stood up as a whole. If it can be found than a read of it for inspiration, if for nothing else, is worth while.

 

Hacker name ideas:
Hexfire - if he's young and/or just unsubtle

Gremlin - for the magical hacker fond of making the machines break inexplicably

If you include Hermione, she could be named 'MissFrizz'.

I'm all for the idea of the Matrix design including 'magic' as a way to redirect those who see the flaws, making them fall for a different secret society than the Zion folks. With the Statute of Secrecy in effect, these magical types would be busy self-policing the errors in the Matrix, with Agents tracking use of 'wands' to document where errors were found and how they were addressed.

The only problem with this is that it has nothing to do with hacking- Harry would have been introduced to 'magical' society when his personality construct had bent the rules enough times to be more than a fluke. He might find the Zion folk (or they find him) after he pulls a typical Super!Harry wandless upgrade.

The funny part is after they liberate his mind and he returns to the Matrix. Voldemort or Dumbledore would be a piece of cake to handle. The Matrix probably wasn't too bent out of shape that Voldemort was killing other magicals. They were already identified as a threat. It's only when the magical world starts encroaching on the muggles that Agents get involved.

 

Thanks guys, this is enough material for me to work with. Several great ideas here. I indeed like Thestral.

I like wordhammer's idea in particular, I might have that be the impetus for the creation of the wizarding world. But within the present-time of the storyline, I think I'll make it ambiguous at first, with the wizarding world having been destroyed as a civilization by the Dark Lord, with Harry finding slivers of it and trying to piece together its history and purpose, and striving to find the survivors who've withdrawn into hiding.

 

Nobody thought of the hacker name... The Wizard? Or just Wizard?

 

^Totally stole my (obvious) idea.

 

This needs to be written.

 

I have to admit, it has a certain charm... but it seems just a tiny bit too short.