What stories could you tell within a no-horcruxes AU where Voldemort popped his clogs in 1981 when the Killing Curse rebounded?

If you stick to the idea that this is the only change within the AU, then I think years 1-3 are likely fairly easy to predict:

Year 1

Occurs almost exactly the same as canon, only without going down the trapdoor at the end. In the long run, the thing with the greatest long term effect is that without a troll being let into the castle, Harry and Ron don't become friends with Hermione.

The biggest immediate divergence is to Quidditch, as Gryffindor likely wins the Quidditch cup.

Hagrid never gets a dragon; Harry never goes into the forest or meets Firenze.

Year 2

The biggest choice the author has to make is whether to keep the Diary (as a non-horcrux item with the same properties as the canon diary) or ditch it entirely.

Keeping to the spirit of "no other changes other than no horcruxes", the diary does not exist so the mainline plot of CoS never happens. If there is any mystery to be solved by Harry and Ron, it would be uncovering Lockhart as a fraud - likely to Hermione's great consternation, as she adores him.

Alternatively you could just have this be an entirely uneventful year. Gryffindor probably win the Quidditch Cup again.

Dobby is never freed from the Malfoys' service.

Year 3

This would go largely the same as canon until the end, I think. The Weasleys still enter the Daily Prophet competition and still win the prize. Sirius still sees the photo of Peter on the cover and escapes.

The big difference is that Hermione is not friends with Harry and Ron. I don't think this has any real impact on the plot until the very end of the story - the time travel. This is where you get lots of divergence points.

If Hermione doesn't have the time-turner in this AU because she doesn't get special treatment as a friend of Harry, then Sirius just gets executed there and then.

If Hermione does have the time-turner, the question is whether Dumbledore brings her in to save Sirius. That could go either way. If he doesn't, then again, RIP Sirius. If he does, then you end up with more-or-less the canon outcome, and likely Harry and Hermione becoming friends as a result of the shared time travel experience.

Year 4

This is where canon completely comes off its rails. The Triwizard still occurs but Harry does not participate.

Barty Crouch Jr has still escaped Azkaban and still sets off the Dark Mark at the Quidditch World Cup, but without Voldemort's help never manages to permanently escape his father's Imperius Curse.

Peter Pettigrew is likely hiding in Albania.

From here on out, everything is up in the air. Obviously Voldemort is not returning. You could tell whatever story you like, and you have a few antagonists in circulation who could be used to tell those stories.

Personally my preference would be to use all this as backstory for a fic which picks up with Harry at age 18, having just left Hogwarts - namely, the premise inPerfecting the Independent Harry Genre.

 

There's really two ways you can go with this:

1. Immortality is truly impossible - Dumbledore knows that Voldemort is dead.
2. Immortality is possible, but Voldemort flubbed it (or some aspect of the rebound broke it) - Dumbledore suspects Voldemort might be alive.

This is important because it decides a number of different things. The first would be fairly obvious. If there's no Voldemort to go after the stone... why would it ever be moved from Gringotts? Dumbledore had some kind of indication, presumably, that the stone was in danger. With no Voldemort, assuming you don't insert some new antagonist to fill his role, surely Dumbledore does not see any such indications? If he moves the stone anyway because he suspects Voldemort's future return even in the absence of evidence, then we veer very close to the kind of 'literally just there as a test for Harry' kind of logic commonly used in the worst kind of manipulative Dumbledore stories.

However, while you could probably quibble details, the argument for protecting Harry from both Death Eaters seeking vengeance, and the simply influence of his own fame would still hold water when it comes to placing Harry with the Dursleys.

Depending on how much you want to keep the plot on rails, you could probably have Lucius still take some kind of action to delegitimise Arthur through his children. He has a number of dark artefacts which you could hand-wave up to create some kind of a plot. This could lead you to still freeing Dobby, but probably wouldn't result in any Basilisk-based shenanigans.

As it's not really primarily Voldemort centric, I agree that this year is probably the least affected by the removal of Voldemort. I wonder if there might be changes wrought on Snape's personality by the removal of Voldemort. It makes his decision to 'protect' Harry significantly less important, if indeed he feels it is important at all considering he is, presumably, fairly sure that the person responsible for killing Lily is dead. The loss of Hermione as a friend, however, should almost certainly result in Sirius' death or kissing.

Alternatively, it could be a method for bringing Hermione into the group. If you let her have Crookshanks, and follow the side-plot of Crookshanks going after Pettigrew/Scabbers, maybe you can wangle it that Hermione ends up in the Shack for the finale, potentially forging the friendship they missed out on in first year.

Agree. I imagine Pettigrew being who he is, he'd just try to hide himself away rather than take action. This leaves you with a whole lot of people sticking to the status quo. Barty Jr stays stuck, Lucius remains a twat, etc. Working out a story for this year that isn't Harry on the side-lines would probably require wholescale invention. Any attempt to get Harry to take part in the tournament would smell strongly of canon-rails.

Similarly, the primary plots of all the subsequent books are also nuked at that point.

 

If Voldemort truly dies and Dumbledore knows it, it bears wondering whether Harry remains at the Dursleys. It was also to protect him from other Death Eaters, fame and probably the Ministry's influence, but you could justify him being sent elsewhere, and then you're off the rails from start.

In Year 2, Malfoy would still have incentive to discredit Arthur and his new law, especially with Harry and Ron not taking the car. He might still slip a cursed object to Ginny, or do anything else really.

If he's not discovered, he also stays on the governor board, which would play a role during year 3, I think.

And without Chamber, Hagrid isn't cleared, so doesn't become professor, so Buck might not be available to rescue Sirius.

I think it could easily go the other way: without their existing friendship, the canon rift when Crookshanks hunts Scabbers and she doesn't care would be much worse. I'm not sure it would be enough on its own to make her refuse to help an innocent man if Dumbledore asks, but that could prevent any kind of positive relationship between her and Harry/Ron.

 

There really shouldn't be any reason for Harry to go back to the Dursleys after first year, assuming Dumbledore places him with them in the first place. You could have Harry living with the Weasleys during the summer, or staying at Hogwarts.

If Hermione isn't part of Harry's group, who are? Harry would likely be better friends with the Quidditch team if there's no Hermione pushing him to study and go chasing after adventure. Also the other boys in Harry's dorm would probably be closer friends with him, especially if there's no dragon to cause Harry to lose points in the first year of no basilisk to cause panic in the second year.

By the time you get to year 3 the changes would totally alter everything about the story. Would you have Harry with the Weasleys in Egypt in the photo that prompted Sirius to escape? At the very least the final confrontation with Sirius wouldn't go the same way, as that started with Harry, Ron and Hermione visiting Hagrid at night; if Hagrid isn't professor, Buckbeak won't attack Malfoy, and you won't have any of that plotline.

With no horcrux Harry's scar would presumably heal and fade more than in canon; would Harry decide at some point that being the Boy Who Lived is actually pretty cool, if it doesn't mean there's a madman trying to kill you and a prophecy saying you need to fight him?

 

Without Voldemort messing things up, Lucius Malfoy, who in canon already seemed to have Fudge by the balls, becomes more influential in the Ministry. As Barty Crouch Sr. isn't dead this time, he might find Lucius and Fudge's relations objectionable - causing him and Lucius to clash. This could have the effect of bringing Crouch Jr. out of his Imperius again, and escaping. He might try to break other Death Eaters from Azkaban, or just go against Harry himself (assuming he knows Voldemort is truly dead). Possibly, he'll attack Death Eaters like Malfoy who feinted innocence. Or even attempt bringing Voldemort's ghost back with necromancy.

The curse on the DADA position might be lifted, and Hogwarts will have a stable, competent DADA professor. Maybe Lupin, for the PoA plot to unfold normally.

Snape may not remain at Hogwarts. Without him, there's no one to find Harry and Sirius after the Dementor attack and tell Fudge about it. It's probable that Harry and Ron will become friends with Hermione anyway. But with no time-travel fuckery Harry might not get a Patronus to save him and Sirius from the Dementors. Harry wakes up to find Sirius Kissed beside him, feeling guilt for not being able to save him with the Patronus.

This might lead Harry to go on a crusade against Dementors, and looking for a way to destroy them. After all, they always scared him much more than Voldemort.

 

A "no Voldemort" AU would either be very dull or require a considerable amount of new world building and mysteries (if going by canon's formula). Honestly, I would prefer to skip Hogwarts altogether and just have an adult Harry with less baggage. An Enchanter!Harry story idea I had was going to go this way, maybe even as far as being a non-BWL to explore the world from as clean a slate as possible.

 

Interesting mind game!

A few thoughts that spring to mind (I know you state in the op that Voldemort's death is the only au bit, but I feel like, unless we change canon personalities, it would influence other peoples lives long before we get to Harry's Hogwarts years):


- I don't think Snape would remain a teacher. I'm sure he enjoyed powertripping as a professor but I think ultimately it's not enough to keep him there, he would either move on with his life (get work as a potioneer in Knockturn or more likely start afresh abroad) or he'd kill himself. Would he still be friendly with other old Death Eaters or not? I think his character could see quite a dramatic change from canon.

- Peter stayed with the Weasleys because it was an easy life for him, might even have been amusing to watch a large family if he's a bit of a people-watcher, which I think is implied. He's scared other Death Eaters will find him and kill him if he goes human, and we don't know how many DE knew he was the spy, but some of the ones in Azkaban did according to Sirius. So in this au, would he want to stay with Ron after Ron becomes friends with Harry Potter? If Peter knows Voldemort isn't coming back, then he has nothing particularly to gain from staying near Harry. And whatever else Pettigrew was, he didn't strike me as particularly proud or comfortable with his decision to hand his best friend over to Voldemort. So would he want to stay with Ron and see the constant reminder of what he did? I think he'd find another place to live around PS and Harry and co would never see him again.

- Alternatively, and more in the spirit of this, if we reckon Pettigrew is rather clever as well as a coward (the jury is still out methinks), he maybe wants his old life back now that Voldemort and the DE's lost. He could come up with a scheme to reveal his true identity to Harry and Ron, some kind of sob story akin to the one he used in canon. Sirius and (I think for this au) only very few dementor-brained Death Eaters in Azkaban can know the truth about Peter. Pettigrew figures out Harry can be manipulated and used by him to tug at the heartstrings of people like Lupin, make him forgive Peter for hiding away for all these years. Maybe the missing plot in CoS could feature this as its plot: Pettigrew succeeding (?) in making everyone believe that he has miraculously survived the assassination attempt 12 years ago, perhaps evil Black's curse made him lose his memories and then you could add Lockhart into the plot with the botched obliviate. This time, (sleight of hand), wand misfires and, miraculously Pettigrew's memories are 'restored' and he can get his life back, become Harry's friend and ally, respected by all, and he can sell his story to every wizarding newspaper. This'd give Sirius a pretty good reason to escape Azkaban, too.

- Sirius then. (What I actually think for the original premise of this au is that there's a chance he would have forced Bagnold or Fudge on one of their visits to Azkaban to give him a trial, or he would have never bothered, never escaped, and died there. He wouldn't have needed to be scared for Harry's life in the same way as canon, he would have been a bit freer to deal with his grief and his sense of betrayal, would have lived in his own head more, tipped one way or the other. He escapes in canon because he knows Voldemort is still after Harry and now has evidence that Peter is at Hogwarts, ready to act, but without Voldemort in the equation he wouldn't have feared Pettigrew would kill Harry even if they were both at Hogwarts. That's what I think anyway, Sirius would not have been the same person in this au.)

- Anyway Sirius for my twist of the au: He escapes in the same way after receiving a newspaper from Fudge, but this time it's a newspaper that features an in-depth article about Peter Pettigrew's tragic life and sensational resurrection. Pettigrew would remain at Hogwarts as a bit of a celebrity and mentor figure, maybe he could be the assistant to the new DADA teacher. (Could also make Pettigrew the new DADA teacher but I like it better this way). Pettigrew and Lupin reconnect, Harry helps out and a teary-eyed Lupin forgives Peter. Together, they teach Harry all sorts of things and he gets close to them both. The father figures he never had, etc. Dementors could still be placed outside, looking for Sirius.

- Sirius's plan would be to get either Harry or Lupin on their own I think, to explain. So book three would culminate in a kidnapping of some sort. A bit far-fetched, but maybe you could have the Crookshanks/Padfoot bromance happen again, and through this Sirius gets to know poor lonely Hermione, he eventually reveals himself to her in the same way Pettigrew did to Ron and Harry. She believes him. Hermione is the one who tricks Harry, Ron and Lupin into the Shrieking Shack. Sirius, with her aid, finally makes them all believe him, cue Pettigrew stepping out from behind the door like a bat in the shadows. Tbh, someone should probably die at this point, and since he's my fave I hate to say it but Sirius is the one who should die in this altercation. The others then overpower Pettigrew, and for shits and giggles we can have him escape in the exact same full moon-related kerfuffle as in canon. Harry becomes close to Hermione after this and he remains closer to Lupin than in canon. The hunt for Pettigrew would continue in the next book.

- Or, for a completely different take lets back up and say Sirius'd need something he could use as proof for what he says is true, since it's his word against Pettigrew's. Let's say this is where we bring Snape back into the story, make it an antagonistic clusterfuck. Snape knew all along who the real traitor was, but out of spite he was happy to let Sirius rot in jail, convinced that he had killed Pettigrew. But now he hears, from his lonely job as a botanist-cum-potioneer in a remote castle in Transylvania, that Pettigrew is alive and well. The two old enemies meet again, likely on a stormy night in a seedy bar (let's make Aberforth the mediator, he caught Padfoot tumbling in a field with one of his goats and they hit it off straight away, he eventually discovers Sirius's identity and believes him, then Snape shows up, fresh off the portkey) and the trio forge their plans. Lots of sarcasm and gallows humour. Sunken, sexy eyes burn with hatred. (I'll write a slash enemies to lovers one-shot to go along with the story for this otp, only let's make them three. Add Aberforth, not the goat.) They bond over fantasies of making rat paté and serving it as a side to a ploughman's lunch, but eventually decide they want the world to know the truth about Pettigrew rather than just kill him. The ensuing adventure (which I can't really see how we'd make it Harry's pov) would entail all three gentlemen getting caught by Professor McGonagall when breaking into the castle via the RoR (only secret passageway the Marauders didn't know about, but Aberforth does) and her taking them to the headmaster's office. It is simultaneously discovered that some students are missing from their beds. Then there's an explosion that shakes the very walls of the castle. Dun dun duuuun.....

- Pettigrew has slipped his old friend a sleeping draught and locked Lupin in his office. He has decided to take Harry hostage to, if needed, be able to barter his way out. He is the master of the imperius curse and Harry doesn't stand a chance (or does he?) Pettigrew has also created a diversion, possibly another gas leak explosion thingy, injured kids, all teachers rush to help. I think in this scene of events, Hermione has done some research and started doubting Pettigrew and his story, but when she goes to alert Harry and Ron she can only find Ron. The two take his cloak and map and go off to find Harry. Pettigrew will need to either apparate or escape on a flying animal or broom, and since it's PoA Buckbeak it is. Pettigrew makes his way out and towards Hagrid's hut, but at this point a howl is heard echoing across the grounds and a slightly sleepy, but still plenty agressive, werewolf bursts out of a window on the third floor of the castle. Pettigrew has forgotten what night it is, and because Lupin was drugged early on he never took his final dose of wolfsbane. Hermione and Ron who are following under the cloak end up in danger, while Pettigrew bows and bows despairingly to an unimpressed hippogriff. Harry throws off the yoke of the imperius, overpowers Pettigrew, and the adults arrive in the nick of time for Sirius to deal with Moony.

- Conpicious absence: Dumbledore. In both my au's, he'd have to play idiot ball quite a bit. Either Pettigrew is a surprise! expert occlumens or perhaps he's figured out a legitimate way to alter his memories so that Dumbledore can't tell he's lying. Hmm. And how would he and Harry interact now he isn't busy figuring out a way to kill Voldemort without also killing Harry? The thing their relationship was based on in canon is gone. Would they interact much at all? And what would Dumbledore be like now? The biggest worry he had lifted off his shoulders, what other things would occupy his time? I think he, too, would be a very different man without a bit of Voldemort in his life.

 

Frankly, if Voldemort is confirmed to not be around, I'd basically scrap all of canon and come up with a new antagonist. Maybe go the Wizard distopia angle where the ideas are still around, but instead of the bogeyman you have bureaucracy and civil war.

I'd also make the sides less black and white.

 

Is there any reason why Snape would even become a teacher in the first place? Wasn't that basically Dumbledore's ploy to keep him close so that when Voldemort inevitably came back he'd have a spy at hand? I'd sure hope that was the reason why Dumbledore hired a twenty-something highly unstable ex-Death Eater as a teacher.

 

While interesting character arcs, I am not sure that these really flow from the point of divergence.

The two problems are:

1. Knowledge. The divergence is that Voldemort died, not that Voldemort died and everyone knows about it. For an outside observer, exactly the same events took place at Godric's Hollow as in canon. It's just that Voldemort's spirit did not linger afterwards. So Dumbledore is presumably going to draw exactly the same conclusions as he did in canon and conclude Voldemort is still alive, and he will presumably inform Snape of this "fact". Dumbledore may well change his mind later, but I think it would be a slow change, over many years, as his searches for Voldemort's spirit consistently fail to turn up any clues. With Sirius and Pettigrew, it's not clear to me by what mechanism either one of them would come to believe something different to canon, as both live very isolated lives.

2. Almost everyone in canon believed that Voldemort was dead. So even if they did immediately know in 1981 that Voldemort was dead, for most people, their actions would be the same as canon.

 

Why would Dumbledore assume Voldemort didn't die? In canon Dumbledore _knew_ Voldemort was alive, presumably because the Dark Mark (that he had access to through Snape) didn't fade, and also because Voldemort was known to have boasted about having "conquered death". Without horcruxes both of those wouldn't happen.

Of course you could change "Voldmort dies" to "Voldemort is permanently reduced to a state where he can't return even as a parasite, but is still technically alive"; then you'd have more or less the same result until later in canon.

 

Of course, it was useful to Dumbledore as well. I think that once it's evident that the curse on the DADA position is lifted, Dumbledore might be more inclined to believe Voldemort is gone. He may have other ways to divine Voldemort's life status, like examining the Dark Mark.

 

Another way Dumbledore can guess Voldemort's status is Harry's scar. Actually, would it even scar without the Horcrux, since the Avada isn't meant to leave physical traces? At the very least, I think he would notice it is a 'normal' scar, removing his main clue for Voldemort's survival.
I suppose he could still consider the prophecy as unfulfilled, but he says himself not all prophecies are true so I'm not sure it'd would be enough without additional information.

I don't know what Peter would be doing in Albania, considering he went there specifically to follow rumours of little animals getting possessed in the forest.

And I don't think Sirius would react any differently. If his worry that Voldemort would go after Harry had been a deciding factor in canon, he would have escaped much sooner.

A possible plot for a Hogwarts year would be the Ministry election. Fudge was just elected in PS and Pottermore says he has to organise elections within 7 years, so there would be one during his Hogwarts year. Depending on when they happen, Fudge might very well ask for Harry's support or at least involvement (they'd meet each other after Sirius escapes). Or Harry might decide to involve himself depending on how Sirius' arc ended.

 

Oh right, yes I missed this in the op, sorry about that! I do agree with other commentors though that Dumbledore is a bit too clever for this au and he would know Voldemort's gone for real quite quickly. Lifting of the DA curse is exactly the sort of thing that would convince him. Do we know what happened with the dark mark tattoos after Voldemort died in Deathly Hallows? I agree that could be used as proof as well.

So the question then would be what Dumbledore does with this knowledge. Like you said, most witches and wizards believe he's gone anyway, but there's people like Moody, maybe other aurors. Hagrid and Lupin (Arthur and Molly?) and Snape, although as established Snape might already know. So would Dumbledore feel like he needs to make a public statement to calm the last paranoid people down, does he look them up individually to reassure them, or does he let them live with a bit of paranoia?

 

I don't think there's anything concrete on that, but we do know that the Dark Mark got cleared the stronger Voldemort got in GoF. So it's clearly somehow linked to Voldemort's status.

 

One important question is if Voldemort's most loyal followers react the same way.

In canon Barty, Bellatrix and the Lestrange Brothers believed Voldemort to still be alive and were capture after they tortured the Longbottoms in an attempt to find out information about his location.

If they assume that he's dead(potentially as a result of the dark mark fully fading), they would probably react differently. It doesen't really matter if they continue fighting for his cause or just want to take revenge, the important thing is that if Barty Crouch Jr isn't caught, his father would likely become Minister, still trying to expand his own hold on the ministry. Hell, he may even encourage rumors about Voldemort's survival, since that would make him staying in power seem even more important. While at the same time his son is still close at his sight, with nobody suspecting anything about him.

Canonically this was the time when most Death Eaters were caught, but in this scenario his son is in the right opportunity to take control of his father and prevent this from happening, hell they could probably reorganize and attempt to more subtly take over the ministry from within.

Harry would enter a wizarding world that celebrates him as a saviour, while at the same time being much more rotten.

 

Really interesting idea about the Crouches, I wonder how that would play out! If Jr is very, very cunning, he could maybe do an imperius takeover of Sr, wonder if he'd try it alone or if he could get a group of Death Eaters organized enough to do it as a group effort? Jr must've been very young in 1981, so I doubt he would have the authority to get others to go along with him? And is there anyone who would take over as the leader of the firm? Do we think any of them carries enough clout to step into Voldemorts shoes? Malfoy?

I feel like Bellatrix would go mad with grief when she realises and that in the wake of that there's a risk of a lot more casualties right after Voldemort's defeated than we see in canon.

And I think this answers my question too, Dumbledore would be forced to act. Snape is presumably still his spy and would be able to pass along information, so I think it's likely the Death Eaters would get defeated eventually.

 

I don't think Crouch jr. could stay out of Azkaban, as someone (Karkaroff? Snape?) would rat him out. Crouch sr. would see it as his sworn duty to catch his death eating son, if only to keep up with the "tough on crime" facade. Anyway the aftermath of Voldemort's fall would likely play a bit differently if some of the key players would know that Voldemort is dead instead of believing him to be alive. Would some of the Death Eaters who claimed to have been under imperius try to get even better deal in the trials by selling out their compatriots, if they knew there was no danger of retaliation from Voldemort?

 

But what about Quirrell? This is exactly what isn't easy to predict, because we don't really know how it would've turned out without Voldemort. Would he still have been hired? Depends on how you think the curse on the position works, but I personally think it's got to have some influence on events, because every single DADA Professor was prevented by things out of his control to stay at Hogwarts (except Snape, but this was under Voldemort's reign, so doesn't count). Moody also doesn't count, because the actual teacher definitely was physically unable to continue teaching.

That said, what do you do with that position? If he isn't there, someone else has got to be DADA teacher, and something's got to happen to him.

Or do we presume that the curse is conditional on Voldemort's spirit's continued existence? Why though?

If we do, then how does Lockhart get to be at the school? Who's actually going to be the teacher then, and does that influence the outcomes of the year?

You can of course swish this aside by just appointing some beige non-character as professor and make it a non-issue (especially if you want to do your independent Harry AU), but that's the boring way.

 

IIRC Rowling said that the curse ended after Voldemort's death. Though some theorize that it may be tied to the Diadem Horcrux (which may not even exist this time).

As to Lockhart, he was a shitty enough addition in the original books, there's no need to shove him in.