Really, it can be anyone you would like (James/Lilly/Ancient first wizard who created the first horcrux), but I was thinking Grindelwald's horcrux.

Change the storyline so Albus kills him instead of having him imprisoned in Numengard for the rest of his life, and have your character of choice that is preferably not Harry find or be given the horcrux that the Dark Lord before Voldemort would have no doubt made.

The horcrux could be found at the DoM, a trinket Luna thought was pretty, a chain that made Neville brave, a book that helped Hermione remember.

It could be found in Grimmauld Place, put there as a result of the Black's habit of acquiring random Dark artifacts. They didn't know what it was, but they knew it was dark. A piece of Jewlery, or a Hat (heh) maybe?

Knockturn alley, at Borgon and Birks. The golden trio go there for some mundane reason in which ever year you'd like, and get caught up in some underworld business and end up in the crossfire. Maybe someone eats an AK, maybe not. Someone else, however, gets missed by a spell which slams into a glass display cabinet which just so happens to contain the horcrux. Shellshocked, cut by flying glass, enraged by dead golden trio member (maybe), they think to use it as a weapon on their approaching attacker, they grab it by it's chain (locket)/hilt (sword)/whatever tickles your fancy, and they end up keeping it with them after they escape or get tortured or Borgon flips his bitch at the triggerhappy motherfucker in his store. The horcrux makes them feel powerful and smart and special, and when they hold it they can actually focus, and their emotions drain away so they don't have to deal with the crippling losses of the war and whoever died in the store. If they died.

A vault in Gringots, willed posthumous to a Dark family (The Blacks, again), or, willed to a Light family as petty revenge. Imagine the Fred/George dynamic crumbling as one of them was slowly taken over by Grindelwald through the war.

Any of these, really.

Now, Grindelwald is not a nice man. I imagine his attitude being something like the monster in Concentric Wavelengths, by Voice of the Nephilim (16k words) ((Maybe a little dialed down from that...)).

Go, write away! A long story, a series of one shots. Whatever works.
This is my challenge.

 

Please don't call them the Golden Trio. It sucks >< Though the premise is interesting, you would have to change Albus's character somewhat if he killed Gellert.

 

I never really thought about giving it a shot.

I'v never written something before, and I don't know where to start.

 

I'll give outlining the Borgon and Birks scenario a shot later tonight.

But still, the challenge stands. I would like to see what DLP can do with this.

Oh, and Luckylee, I agree that Dumbledore would have to be a little different. I was thinking that he would be more emotional, more prone to outbursts. He lost his sister when he, Aberforth and Gellet were dueling, and none of them knew who cast the curse that left her dead. Perhaps he took that more personally than canon Dumbledore, and chose to execute his sisters murderer instead of imprisoning him for the rest of his life.

If Dumbledore were to be the same, it gives a tiny time window I just did a bit of quick searching around and from what I can tell, Grindelwald dies in April of 1998, around Easter. The battle of Hogwarts happens May 2nd.

That's 10-12 days for his horcrux to establish itself, to be relevant to the Harry Potter storyline. This could be the premise for the Fred/George story, I think. Maybe one of them has always had it, but now it starts working under the direct influence from Grindelwald, culminating with the other's twins death in the battle and the horcrux-wielding twin giving up to be possessed by Grindelwald. The Final battle after the Final Battle, maybe?

 

Harry then unites the Hallows and Grindelwald dies a long horrible death by the hands of the Master of Death.

Seriously though, would be an awesome story if done well.

 

Knockturn alley, at Borgon and Birks.

Second year: The golden trio go to Borgon and Birks and enter the store to look for books to help them describe what the monster roaming the halls could be.

At the same time, an illegal deal between Borgon and a dirty looking man is going on. The kids try to sneak by with the cloak and while sneaking through the middle of the store, 10 feet from the bickering men, the dirty looking man shouts at Borgon, displeased with the price Borgon listed. The shout startles all of them, and Ron knocks over a glass orb with he elbow. It spews a cloud of what looks like mist that hangs in the air. The man, with wide eyes, spins and shouts something about ‘aurors’ before sending a curse into the center of the mist. The curse is thicker than Harry’s arm, and looks like a moving sepia film, a blot of grey that sucks the colors out of things as it passes. It is a Dark banishing curse. It’s illegal.

The difference between a Light and Dark banishing curse is how it deals with the kinetic energy that is transferred. Light curses traditionally are traditionally elastic, while dark curses are totally inelastic. Light banishers move the object as a whole, weakening the spells power but throwing the object in its entirety, while dark banishers transfer all energy at point of contact, causing only the point of impact to be banished. Using a Dark banisher is not unlike using a sledgehammer on something.

The trio are in a line, with Ron on the left, Hermione in the middle and Harry on the right, all under the cloak. Ron is missed by the banisher. Harry sees the banisher moving for the center, straight at Hermione, and the only thing he can think of doing is to raise his left arm in front of her, as if to somehow stop the spell. The spell smashes into his hand, which along with the rest of the spell, smashes into Hermione’s chest. Harry is thrown diagonally into a display case, breaking the glass, which lacerates most of his back, as well as having his left hand smashed into a bloody mess. Hermione is hit full on by the rest of the curse, along with Harry’s arm. The curse, aided by the added mass of his arm, dents her chest, as well as sending her over a glass display and out through the window into Knockturn alley. There are screams in the alley outside.

Stunned, Ron stands mutely and watches the man approach Harry, turning to watch. The man, Micheal Diwater, realizes just exactly who he cursed as he stands over Harry’s body and begins to chuckle, which steadily progresses into a great whooping laugh, his body bent double in mirth. The laughter stoppes suddenly and he murmers something like “Should of taken the bloody mark if I had known what I’d be doin’ today.”

Borgon is screaming at the man to stop. He can not see through the mist, and is too slow to move past the counter.

Something in Ron snaps, and he can move again, as he watches the man raise his wand towards Harry who is struggling to breath, a shard of glass puncturing his left lung. Ron, strangely detached from his actions, grabs a dagger from a display and tries to stab the man standing over Harry. As he gets within three feet of the man, Ron’s steps on a shard of glass, sending it through the thin sole of his shoe and into his foot. It breaks through the fog in his mind and he topples with a shriek. The man whirls and ducks, a second grey bolt leaping from his wand.
Ron’s fall saves his life, as the spell passes over his head and kisses the top of the mist to slam into the ceiling. Ron hits the ground, and the cloak slips off the bottom half of him. As the man readjusts his aim, a bolt of green light shoots through the mist, hitting the man directly in his face. He topples, dead.

Borgon had his wand out as he moved forward towards the mist, screaming at the man to stop. The spell that missed Ron passes over his head to hit the ceiling. Being a fair hand in dueling, he aims at where the spell came from and murmurs avarda kedavra quietly. A body hits the ground, and Borgon strides through the mist.


Borgon freaks out. Yells at Ron. Ron yells back, but remembers Harry and goes to check on him. They hear yells of aurors. Borgon quickly arranges the mans body to look as if he died differently. He steals the cloak. Aurors arrive. They call for medics. Borgon spins a convincing lie about the man attacking the store, and the children. Ron is too busy trying to convince Harry to stay alive to notice anything else. Harry has fallen on his face, an attempt by him to not push the glass in further. Ron, being a dumbass, starts picking the glass out of his back to help Harry. Also lodged into his back is a small stone. He just manages to yank it free before the Healers pull him off Harry and start trying to stop the blood. He’s hysterical at this point, and someone stuns him.

This’ll be the end of the first chapter. Of course, it needs actual dialogue and tweaking and to be written like a story, but this is the gist of it. I'll do that soon.

Any suggestions on how to make it... better?

 

Don't call it Borgon and Birks, for one.

 

It could be a decent scene, but you might want to try starting with a bit of action, as "let's go to Knockturn Alley to find a book" is a weak narrative hook. Also, it's a bit unbelievable that events could play out as you're describing--there's no way the Weasley matron would ever allow three doe-eyed twelve-year-olds to go off on their own down such a dodgy street. Moreover, the only time they were outside of Hogwarts during CoS was prior to the school year, when Slytherin's monster was not yet released. You'll have sown confusion in the readers' minds (which will lessen the impact of your opening scene) if you don't find some way to explain this away.

 

I see your point, Perspicacity. I just jumped into thinking Second year because it was the first time Harry went to Borgin and Burkes.

Third year could work.
Harry knows how to get to Hogsmead, via the passageway to the candy shop. The Three Broomsticks has a floo, I think, and Harry ends up in Borgin and Burkes in the Second book because he got off a stop too early when he was floo'ing to Diagon Alley.

So Ron and Hermione go to Hogsmead on a weekend, Harry meets them with the cloak and they use the floo in the Three Broomsticks to get to Diagon Alley (Why, I don't know), but say Hermione trips as they enter the floo and they go through the fire already off balance, and they fall out a stop early into the middle of an illegal deal in Borgin and Burkes, all while under the cloak.

 

Ack. Phonetics have failed me again...