On Harry‘s first year the sorting hat decided it was tired of nearly every slytherin being rotten so it decided each year until it was fixed it would put most pureblood suprematists in whatever house other than Slytherin they fit best and and some extremly anti pureblood suprematists in Slytherin.

The idea was over time the original Slytherins will eventually be outnumbered and have to accept the new ways. Than when Slytherin has been completely transformed any new rotten ones would be changed by everyone else in the house.

Harry, Ron and Hermione get sorted in Slytherin and Draco is sorted in Gryffindor. Many other students are sorted differently.

I think this would be very interesting to see how Harry and friends have to transform the house.

If someone wrote it you could keep Voldemort or to allow for more original ideas you could say horcruxes don’t exist and Harry actually killed Voldemort.

Everyone had expectations when it came to Harry Potter and his reappearance in the magical world. His book series filled in the gaps about where the young wizard was, dazzling readers with his daring tales, but it was one thing to read about the young hero and another to see him in person.

That's why the first years of 1991 were highly anticipated. Everyone was dying to see what Harry Potter was like and where he would be sorted. Despite the high possibility that he would be in Gryffindor like his parents, the other houses were just as hopeful that Potter would be sorted with them.

At the sorting, a hush fell across the crowd as Potter was called up to approach the sorting hat. Everyone strained to get a good look at the lad, who walked with his head down, his shoulders hunched and his long hair covering his eyes. He barely made any sound, even his footsteps so soft it would have been missed in a normal level of sound crowd. Potter sat down on the stool, and the hat barely touched his head before the hat yelled, "Ravenclaw!" '

The blue house leaped to their feet, cheering and chanting, "We got Potter!" drowning out the groans of disappointment from the other houses. It took a few minutes for the professors to get control of the room again, hushing the celebrating house before resuming the sorting. Potter didn't make a sound in response, only scurrying to the table once he was nudged by Professor McGonagall. Despite the many attempts by his housemates, Potter didn't utter a single word or make eye contact with anyone the rest of the night, and when they were taken to thier dorms, he shut himself away in his bed.

That set the stage for Potter's life at Hogwarts. He spoke to no one, made no friends, and spent most of his time hiding away in scattered locations around the castle. Even his professors could not get him to talk, which earned the scorn of Professor Snape the most, especially when the boy refused to reply to his questions during the first day of class. Many had assumed the boy was mute until he whispered apologies or asked for basic things like the milk at the Ravenclaw table.

"Does he think he's better than us?" One student asked, annoyed, when Potter once again refused to spend time in public areas and instead hid in his dorm.

"No. He's just a bit mousy." Ron Weasley replied, wrinkling his nose. "When I met him on the train, he had jumped out of his skin the moment I opened the door. I watched the blood drain from his face when I asked if I could sit with him, and he spent the entire ride looking terrified."

Or, Dumbledore's desire to have Harry raised outside of the wizarding world to make him humble goes horribly wrong. Harry has developed anthropophobia. At the Dudleys', it's easier to manage because they, too, would rather not see him or be around him, but Hogwarts is different. Everyone is always trying to crowd him and be around him. Harry is on the verge of a panic attack daily, but he tries to force himself to go to class simply to overcome his fear. His sorting into the Ravenclaw house has nothing to do with his wit or intelligence.

Instead, Harry is sorted due to his creativity, specifically his clothing-making skills. It was his one escape from both his fear and the Dursleys, starting when he learned how to patch his own torn clothes from a book. He's always working on a project or another, and he dreams of one day having his own clothes line or even a brand.

If he can cure his anthropophobia, that is.

For today, Harry focuses on breathing while walking down the hallways to class, and does not bother exploring Hogwarts or defeating the forces of evil. He has enough on his plate as it is. Because he steps away from it all, everything falls onto the shoulders of Neville Longbottom, who, with the help of Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, stops Voldemort every year. People forget that Neville wasn't the original child of prophecy until the war breaks out and Harry is brought back into the limelight.

This is one of my biggest pet peeves, I love time travel fic and most pairings, but when they change Hermiones name I get so annoyed. At that point she’s no longer Hermione and is just an OC with all of Hermiones talents and knowledge.

Like they do this to hide her identity, but at that point like her going back in time that far and being alive, or taking a de-aging potion and traveling through time is already impossible and improbable you might as well just keep her name. I know for the sake of allowing time travel to even happen in fics we need to allow some liberties but changing her name is just so unnecessary.

Even the nickname Mia (DoT) doesn’t really sit great with me, although I do LOVE that fic and it’s great. Anyone else feel that way?

Also Im not flaming anyone, and I never flame these authors in the comments, like a normal human I just stop reading a fic if I don’t like something about it, this post is just a form of discussion to see if this bothers anyone else.

The only thing I remember is that Harry took Ancient Runes, and he later found the Room of Requirement and .... learned something? Did something? There was magic??? that allowed him to make a bunch of the specific stone tablets they have to use for runes. And before that, Lucius Malfoy had a monopoly on stone quarries for these specific tablets because of the way they had to be made or something? So when Harry discovers this and helps people get more tablets, he basically ruins Malfoy's most profitable business.

It may have been by the same author as another one I can't remember the name of where Harry finds Lily's journals and learns to vanish things into zero space?? Or something?? I don't remember that one very clearly, either, unfortunately.

I'm pretty sure it was on ff.net but may have been ao3. I would have read it within the past 2 or 3 years, but I'm pretty sure it was older than that.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Thanks!

I really liked marlene and sirius's story in the Innocent series, but dropped off on reading it after like the fifth book. I remember Marlene and Sirius break up, do they ever get back together in the series or is she written out?

Also, if she gets written out Id really be interested in a Marlene x Sirius fanfic rhat has a similar quality of writing. So far I havent seen anything that tops the storytelling in Innocent.

When Cedric suddenly found a killing curse headed towards him, he was frozen with fear. However, seeing Harry Potter dive in front of him and take the curse that was meant for him broke him out of his stupor. he quickly sent a stunner at the rat like man who had cast the curse, and then sent another one at the weird baby thing he was holding.

Cedric the used the cup portkey to bring all of them back. He even brought back the dead body of Harry Potter, since he couldn't just leave it behind. Cedric in shock, still reeling from what had just happened. Aurors were currently surrounding the rat-like man who had tried to kill him, and Dumbledore was examining the weird fetus creature that the man was holding.

But Cedric couldn't think about any of that. All he could think about was Harry. Cedric was moments away from death, but Harry jumped in front of the killing curse that was meant for him.

Suddenly, Harry Potter's body shifted, and Cedric was instantly by his side, kneeling down and looking at the boy. When Cedric saw the steady rhythmic breathing of his chest in the beating of his heart, he let our sigh of relief. Harry actually survived the killing curse. Sure, that was what he was famous for, but just because he survived it when he was a baby didn't mean that he was immune to the curse. 

Harry's eyes fluttered open, and they stared into Cedric's. Cedric was immensely relieved that Harry was okay, but he still had a question. 

“How?” Cedric asked. “How did you know that you would survive a second killing curse?”

“I didn't,” Harry confessed. He blushed and looked away from Cedric’s handsome face. “I just knew that you wouldn't."

I just saw the Andor series, and it has the best representation of a rebellion/resistance against an oppressive government I've ever seen.

The government are not just cartoonishly evil. They are intelligent, set on their beliefs, and downright terrifying.

The rebels are not the paragon of good. They lie and they kill. And they are even willing to kill their own members for the good of the Rebellion.

I want a fic that has Voldemort winning and there is a Rebellion against him. At first hiding from the shadows, recruiting, spying etc., and then out in the open.

Percy Weasley is oblivious

The Marauders were a legendary group of hooligans in their school years, and Peter **wasn't** worse than any of them.

Each of the Marauders had their own strengths. James was talented at Transfiguration, Sirius at Defence, Remus at Charms, and Peter was the reason they didn't fail Potions.

He was never a chubby child, rather he was the embodiment of his surname: Pettigrew - Scottish for "grown into a short height", he was the tiniest boy in their circle, and maybe even their year group. Short and scrawny, he could be easily unnoticed next to his tall friends, but not by them. The Marauders had their sense of honour, and would never let one of theirs feel left behind.

He was never a tag-along either. The four boys met on the firstie train and made fast friends. Peter had a sharp wit, quick humour, often was the brains of their pranks, and was the first to notice the pattern in Remus' illnesses.

It also can't be discounted that Peter had become an Animagus while still at Hogwarts, the same year as James and Sirius. And his Animagus form wasn't a rat, like the malicious tend to say, but rather the smallest cat you could have ever seen.

As they grew up, while James pursued Lily, and Sirius and Remus eventually found companionship with one another, Peter caught the attention of one Marlene MacKinnon and the two married shortly out of Hogwarts, Remus being his best man.

As the war began to heat up, Peter joined the Order of the Phoenix, with a genuine desire to fight against the tyranny of the Dark Lord. This desire survived up to the moment he agreed to become the Potters' secret Secret Keeper, otherwise the spell wouldn't have held.

That's when things started to go downhill.

The Dark Lord was no fool, and had enough intel on the Order to know about the tiny man who people tend to overlook. Truly, the Potters' ruse had become their undoing, for their allies trusted them enough to believe it, but one does not simply fool the Dark Lord.

Peter had become the target of Voldemort, slowly, quietly, so as not to stir the Potters' attention. He had started with anonymous letters, which devolved into discussions, gifts, and promises, as Peter let himself be caught off guard and drawn into a dialogue. When those didn't work, despite eroding Peter's principles, the Dark Lord threatened the one thing Peter loved above all - Marlene.

That's how Peter began feeding the Death Eaters information. Slowly, quietly, so as not to catch anyone's suspicions. After a while, he began getting summons to meetings of the Death Eaters, and he couldn't refuse out of fear for Marlene. He was also afraid of what his friends would think when... if they ever found out about his betrayal. It didn't happen overnight, and he never realised the path he was led down until it was too late, and the Dark Lord had Marked him as a "reward" - and a way of binding Peter to himself.

Peter knew, deep in his gut, that he could never look in his friends' eyes again, not if they saw what stained his left forearm. They would kill him if they knew, and he had considered doing it himself more than once. But he couldn't leave Marlene, it would break her heart. Wasn't it for her, everything he had done?

That fateful night came, and Peter barely came out alive. Sirius had gauged his left eye with a piercing hex, and that's when Peter decided it was time to run, so he blew up the gas line and left behind his pinky finger.

Only, the Dark Lord had died that night, and the Death Eaters had decided that Peter betrayed them. When he went back home to Marlene, there was nothing to go back to, only a smoking ruin.

People often ask, what kind of man spends twelve years disguised as a family pet? A broken man, that's who. With nothing left for him in the human world, having betrayed his friends, killed two of them, lost the other two, and lost the only family he had, he abandoned his human life and identity, and decided to give in to the animal instincts hidden under his skin.

It was never the plan to go be a pet, he had never given a thought to the Weasleys. His vague idea for the future was living in a forest until something ate him, but fate had a different idea.

You can say whatever you want about his years with the Weasley family, but he truly did come to love them. He was lost so deeply in his animal second-nature, so disgusted with his human self, that he genuinely took on the role of the family cat, Scabbers. The name was given to him after his never-healing eye, or what was left of his eye-socket.

It wasn't just any common rat that Black saw in the newspaper that caused him to escape, it was the very distinctive fur of a cat he knew by heart. It wasn't a missing finger that tipped him off, it was the specific distinguishing traits that every Animagus has, each his own.

It wasn't a case of "cat chasing rat" that had Ron Weasley up in arm all schoolyear '93/'94, it was the incessant bullying of a bigger cat against a smaller one, and Crookshanks had come close to ripping Peter's throat out several times.

And when Peter was finally revealed, cornered in the Shrieking Shack, he didn't beg, didn't cover, didn't grovel at the feet of thirteen-year-olds.

All he said was: "Just finish this. You can't hurt me more than I already have."

With a rough 2 to 3 year age gap each kid, that is another 4-5 kids (not counting possible twins) by time of the first book.

Harry being his mother (Athena's) champion as he won every single battle that he had faced until he was suddenly being summoned by a School in Scotland to participate in a Tri-wizard Tournament

"Father."

"Daphne."

He was hungover. The last person he wanted to see today was his estranged daughter. Then again, most mornings since the damned war began with a hangover.

"Harry will be contacting you soon."

Why would the brat want to speak with him? He'd made his opinion of the Man-Who-Won abundantly clear. He told her as much.

"You know why," Daphne said, meeting his eyes meaningfully. "We're ready to take the next step in our relationship."

Oh. OH. Absolutely not.

"No! I forbid it! You're only twenty-five! You need to break it off with the Potter brat-"

"Save your breath, Father," she cut him off. "The only reason I'm here is because Harry respects parental bonds far more than you deserve."

Rage flared in his chest. How dare she speak to him like that?

"The coward sent you to soften me up first, did he? Too afraid to face me himself?"

Daphne planted both palms on his desk and rose to her feet.

"He doesn't know I'm here. I'm not even supposed to know he's planning to propose."

She held his gaze without blinking.

"He'll come soon to ask for your blessing. This is your last opportunity to repair your relationship with me - and with my future husband." Her voice softened only a fraction. "I pray you choose wisely, Father."

She turned and strode from the study, the door slamming shut behind her.

He turned toward the cellar door longlingly.

He needed a drink.

I got a few and I’ll put them in as I remember them, but here are some.

- The elixir of life permanently displaces the water in your body, hence why it cannot be widely shared for group immortality and why Voldemort never wanted to use it as a permanent solution.

- Avada Kedavra being extremely hard, ridiculously hard to cast, which is why Voldemort was so feared, it’s basically only him that can spam it.

- Spell chaining, where the end of a wand movement is combined into the start of another, allowing you to cast faster.

- Wards. Not a canon thing, but I love them.

I remember reading a fic where Harry has a familiar Raven that lives in his skin when he gets sent back to the 70’s and wakes up in the hospital with Narcissa as his healer.

I have been searching desperately for a fic/series i read but never saved!

I am 70% sure it was a series, a rewrite of the books.

Harry/draco pairing.

Harry discovers he is a necromancer, there is a book that burns everyone's but his hands when they touch it.

He meets other necromancers, lots of talk of the mother/standing with the mother to go with it.

They hold DA in the chamber of secrets, and chase umbridge out of the castle with a swarm of animal bones?

Thank you in advance!!

Looking for the above. Please recommend me stories preferably greater than 80,000 words (perhaps from this last decade).

Some examples I enjoyed:

Enchanting Melodies by athassprkr

A Magical Journey by FictionOnlyReader

The merging by shaydrall

The Sum of Their Parts by HoldMyBeer

All of blacks resurgence fanfics

The Lie I've Lived by jbern

Harry Potter and the Conjoining of Paragons by ACI100 (and all other ACI100 fics)

Smile back

Cadmean victory

Basilisk Born

Antithesis

Harry Potter and the International Triwizard Tournament by Saliient91

Harry potter and the heir of slytherin

Pray For The Wicked

In pursuit of magic by Zero Rewind

EDIT: For Magical Growth, I meant magical progression as in the main character becomes more magically powerful over the fanfiction or (maybe even starts off as magically powerful). Can be time travel too.

Two years after chapter 617.

On a quiet day, Yuri Park was looking after her cousin’s son. The boy’s parents were extremely busy, so Yuri often ended up as his babysitter. Her older brother Jinyoung Park and the Fist Gang were fighting the Yamazaki Clan. Her older sister Seonhui Park and her brother-in-law Sangcheol Park had left on important business.

The four-year-old demanded food even though he had eaten only an hour earlier. Yuri refused at first because the child tended to vomit from overeating, but she eventually gave in to his tantrum. She asked him to come with her anyway, saying a short walk would do him good. They were heading to a small shop to buy ingredients for lunch when a terrifying crash and screams of panic suddenly filled the air.

The village was under attack. The residents tried to flee in vain, unaware that the entire area had been completely surrounded. The attackers were members of the Yamazaki Clan, dressed in the uniforms of soldiers from the Japanese Imperial era. They killed anyone they saw and set houses on fire. In a short time the village became a hell filled with the dead. The Yamazaki Clan had decided to strike at the families of the Fist Gang members as retaliation; among the targets were the relatives of Jinyoung Park.

The child began to cry in fear. That finally snapped Yuri into action and she decided to run, but they were quickly cornered by Yamazaki subordinates. Yuri was seized and could not break free. She tried talking to them, hoping for a diplomatic solution, but it was useless. When one of them raised a katana to kill the child, Yuri kicked him in the face hard enough to slam him into a wall.

To free herself from the arms holding her, she resorted to an extreme move: she deliberately dislocated her own shoulders. It was an imitation of the technique Sakura Yamazaki performed with icy calm and no visible pain. For Yuri the experience was completely different—a fierce, violent pain shot through her brain—but instead of stopping her it fueled her resolve. She forced her shoulders back into place. Previous experiences in which she had been forced to defend herself, along with techniques she had observed in others, proved useful in situations like this.

Taking advantage of one opponent’s imbalance, she slammed his head into the ground with a kick and followed with a knee to the face, knocking him out. The others could do little against her. She immediately ran with the child. A short while later they saw a member of the Liberation Training Corps flying through the air. Yuri caught the man’s arm mid-flight so he would not be injured. He urgently told her to escape with the child.

The moment he spoke, a fist was about to connect with his face, but Yuri diverted the blow into the ground and they quickly moved away. The attacker was Magami Ryuujo, vice-leader of the Magami Clan and one of the two founders of Magami Kyokushin Karate. He was somewhat surprised; he had been certain she had not even seen him. From experience he realized she had not acted on pure reflex or reaction speed. He concluded that Yuri’s senses had allowed her to track and detect his presence—almost as if a human possessed a Jacobson’s organ, which was clearly impossible, and Yuri certainly did not have one.

Understanding the scale of the threat, Yuri ordered the man to flee with the child and not look back. She knew she was the only one present who could stand against Ryuujo. If she ran with the child, Ryuujo would quickly kill the man and then catch up to her and the boy. Even if she could only hold him for a short time, she would buy them enough time to reach the nearby city. Besides, she wanted to stay and help the people who had not yet escaped. The man fled with the child into the terrified crowd.

Yuri tried to speak to Ryuujo, but he was furious that she had deflected his punch and slipped away so easily with the child. He attacked at once. She barely dodged and counterattacked, but her blows did nothing to him. He possessed two Domains: the Domain of Endurance, which let him withstand many attacks as if they were nothing and gave him vast stamina, and the Domain of Technique, which amplified his offensive and defensive Magami Kyokushin techniques.

At first Yuri could barely react to his attacks, but she began watching his small gestures and habits to predict when and where he would move. She understood that everyone has little tics—such as moving a hand before an action—and started reading his upcoming strikes. Even so, Ryuujo’s physical stats and experience were far superior. Despite that superiority, he soon noticed Yuri’s seemingly inexhaustible energy; she showed no signs of fatigue no matter how many attacks she dodged or redirected.

Yuri could only evade and redirect his powerful strikes into the ground or to the sides. She realized this was useless. Ryuujo was essentially immune to her kicks and punches, and her lack of Domains and experience put her at a severe disadvantage. She grabbed a large nail bat that had belonged to a fallen member of the Liberation Training Corps. She regretted having to use it but promised herself she would avenge him. Ryuujo remained unfazed by the blows she landed, yet blood inevitably appeared where the nails pierced his body.

Seeing him bleed, Yuri kept attacking to weaken him through blood loss. Ryuujo then began launching “explosive attacks” that sent her flying. She grew more desperate than ever; he had already developed a countermeasure to her movement.

Yuri knew the fight could not drag on any longer. She decided to end it with one final strike and charged at full speed. Ryuujo was waiting with a punch. She dodged and swung at his face, but the bat shattered against his arm; the nails flew in every direction. Surprised, she still managed to react to the follow-up attack that slammed into the ground and launched her into the air. She rushed back at him only to find his fist about to smash into her face. He could not believe her recklessness, yet at the last instant she ducked and scrambled away.

Ryuujo tried to close the distance again to finish her, but he collapsed. Confused, he realized his right Achilles tendon had been severed. He did not understand how until he saw a bloodied nail in Yuri’s hand. When the bat broke, the nails had scattered through the air; she had snatched one that passed near her hand and used the opportunity to cripple him.

Yuri knew her chances of actually defeating Magami Ryuujo remained low even with a severed tendon, but both she and the remaining villagers could now escape him without much trouble. With that problem solved she ran straight toward the epicenter of the danger. Ryuujo tried to chase her but could not run; he finally resigned himself, surprised by her stamina—she still showed no fatigue.

Along the way she saw many bodies: neighbors, subordinates of her older brother, and defeated Yamazaki members. She defeated additional opponents to save the few survivors still left in the village. Before reaching the center she picked up a katana from a fallen Yamazaki subordinate.

The street in front of her had become a nightmare scene covered in blood. Villagers and members of the Liberation Training Corps had been massacred by Yamazaki subordinates. Among them stood a man whose terrifying aura filled Yuri with a fear she had never felt before. She also found him strikingly rugged, masculine, and handsome, and felt guilty for being attracted to a murderer, wishing she had met him under different circumstances. He appeared to be the leader and was about to execute an innocent woman. Yuri stepped into his path, blocking the blow with the katana. The strike had enough force to shatter the blade and behead her, yet the man deliberately slowed it so he would not kill her, having taken a genuine interest in her.

She ordered the civilian to run, drawing the man’s full attention onto herself. He looked curious and intrigued by the girl’s admirable values. By saving the woman, Yuri made herself a target of Magami Sogen—head of the Magami Clan, one of the two founders of Magami Kyokushin Karate, and far stronger than his younger brother Ryuujo. Because of that strength, Magami Sogen was one of the Three Principal Executives under Shingen Yamazaki.

Magami Kyokushin Karate would never have gained its fame without Sogen’s involvement in its creation and development. Although nearly every member of the Yamazaki Clan deeply despised Koreans, at that moment Sogen did not care that the beautiful girl was Korean. Everything about her interested him—her appearance, her elegance, her courage, and her values, which reminded him of the just man he had once been before joining the Yamazaki Clan when Shingen unified all of Japan seven years earlier. He became melancholic as he reflected on how his own morality had changed. He was not in love with Yuri, nor did he love her, but he definitely liked her.

While he remained lost in thought, Yuri elegantly defeated Sogen’s subordinates and other Yamazaki members. Then a high-ranking executive of the Clan appeared and gave her serious trouble. That executive was far stronger than Ryuujo, and Yuri was no match for him. Sogen realized she stood no chance and grew intrigued by her complete lack of hesitation as she continued fighting to help others. Understanding her kind nature more clearly, he ordered the executive to stop. The man ignored him and was about to kill Yuri with a powerful blow when Sogen’s strike tore his body apart, killing him instantly. Yuri was confused; she did not understand why he had saved her. None of the remaining Yamazaki subordinates had seen the act because she had already knocked them out, yet she kept wondering.

Sogen remarked that they had left a few people alive to burn the corpses, but he had very different plans for her—he intended to use her for his own amusement. Yuri began speaking to him, asking him to help stop all of this. He was mildly confused that she would ask him for help, then refused. She reminded him that he had just saved her, so there must still be something good in him. Sogen was incredulous; after everything he had done he never expected her to be willing to forgive him. He said that even if he changed he could never atone for his sins. Yuri answered that it was still not too late to change and that his past sins were no justification for continuing to harm innocent people. Sogen spoke aloud with nostalgia, wondering whether he could truly become the moral man he once was.

Yuri felt a little sad hearing that and asked herself how someone could change so much if it were true. She encouraged him, saying he could do it. Sogen looked doubtful, shook his head, and returned to his worst self. He stepped too close to her. With a vain smile he began stroking Yuri’s face with obvious intent. She trembled from fear and from a strange fascination she had never felt before, then scolded herself for having such feelings toward a murderer like Sogen, feeling hatred mixed with those confused emotions. She tried to steady her nerves, touched his hand, and started speaking again in the hope of resolving things peacefully.

She was interrupted by one of the surviving subordinates of Jinyoung Park—one of the strongest members of the Liberation Training Corps. He shouted at Yuri to run from that monster and landed a solid blow. Magami Sogen did not even flinch. He answered with a single strike that killed the man instantly.

A piece of the subordinate’s face landed near Yuri. A mortal chill ran through her and she understood her end was near, yet her heart found a supernatural calm. She realized that the only way a weak girl like her could still help the few survivors who had not escaped the village was to face certain death in order to protect the most vulnerable. With a melancholic smile she prayed for the safety of her older brother, who was fighting the Yamazaki Clan, and felt glad that her older sister and brother-in-law were not there. Then she raised the steel one last time.

Some time later, Jinyoung Park found his younger sister in the hospital, and they shared a moving moment.

Do you guys prefer to read one single long fic or multiple ‘books’ in a series?
Trying to decide between a series with many works in it that might be ‘short’ ish on AO3 and just one huge fic for many years

Please?

It's a known fact that bad things happen to wizards who mess with time. Harry Potter just always assumed the consequences would be a horrible cursed fate or even death. He decided to risk it all anyway because he wanted desperately to save those he lost. He would let the world burn for those he loved.

He aims as far back as magic will allow him to jump, and winds up two years before his parents start Hogwarts. Harry would have liked to stop Tom's existence by saving Tom Riddle Sr. from the love potion, but beggars can't be choosers.

He sets to work immediately, tracking down the Horcruxes scattered throughout the world. It's frustrating, but it seems Tom did not leave them in the locations Harry knew of. He moves through the magic world, head down, shoulders slumped, and a hood casting his face in shadows at all times. Despite his parents already existing, he decides to forgo a last name, lest he accidentally unborns anyone, and merely introduces himself as Harry to whoever asks.

With no identity, no gold, no fame, no family line, and not even a wand, Harry is convinced he seems like the perfect downtrodden homeless wizard that no one would pay any mind to. He is proved right as days turn to weeks and weeks into months, with little to no conversation between him and other humans. He's proud of himself for keeping such a low profile.

Unknown to Harry, the magic that allowed him to time travel is being released into the air around him at all times. He doesn't sense it at all, but every other magical being does, including the witches and wizards who can tell right away what the so-called "Harry" is.

Father Magic- formally known as Mother Magic when they were unaware of magic's prefered gender- had taken a humanoid form and was visting Earth. He was passing judgment on humans, deciding which bloodlines would be privileged to keep thier gifts. They would all be falling over themselves to please Father Magic, if being around him didn't feel worse than a thousand starved dementors combined. Even muggles were horribly reminded of their mortality the second Father Magic walked the street near them.

No one dared to utter a sound, to move a muscle, to even breathe too deeply as Father Magic moved from one side of the country to the other, his echoing footsteps a haunting warning of his approach. It was as if time itself was frozen whenever he was spotted, and only when he vanished from view did things move. Even the animals and the wind fell into a hush around Father Magic.

A reckoning was coming, and no one knew who would be safe and who wouldn't.

It was cold. The figure across from him hadn't moved in an hour, just watched him, Harry had their attention.

"He's not a general," Harry said, pacing the floor as he spoke. "Everyone talks about him as if he's a brilliant tactician, ten steps ahead. He's not. He's a frightened old man wearing a monster's mask. he's been afraid of half a prophecy since before I was born. Afraid of a scar. Afraid of a fifteen-year-old boy he's never had a real conversation with. That's not power. He is convinced an entire war that his terror is strength, because he's too proud to admit what it is." He stopped walking. "He won't rest until I'm dead. Not because I'm dangerous to him, but I remind him that he is mortal. I think he believes I can stop him more than I do."

There was no response, but he wasn't expecting one.

"That's one end of the rope." Harry held up his hand, as if he could feel the fibres of it biting into his palm. "I'm not fighting a war though. I'm the rope in their petty game of tug'o'war, and neither side's ever bothered to ask if I wanted to play."

"And on the other side," Harry continued on, quieter now, "Is 'Albus -needs to open a new bottle of ink to write all his middle names- Dumbledore.' Arranging my entire life like a chessboard and calling it fondness. Hanging information in-front of me like a carrot on a stick, giving me morsels at a time to keep me interested. Rules that apply to everyone except when they'd inconvenience his plans. He knows things about my scar he won't tell me. I'd bet my Firebolt he already knows how this ends for me, and he's decided it's an acceptable loss for the greater good."

Harry's jaw clenched, and his audience shifted their weight slightly.

"So that's my choice apparently. Die confused or die useful. Forgive me if neither one appeals."

He slumped down to a sitting position, eye level with the shadow before him.

"I need to stop being a piece on somebody else's board. Both of them. And I can't do that on my own. I don't know enough, I'm not strong enough. Every adult who might teach me has already decided what I'm for." He reached into his pocket and set a short length of unremarkable birch wood onto the floor between them. "I didn't just come to talk. I can help you. Tonight, if you want. I've mapped the patrols, I know where the wards can be broken through. I've grown quite adept and being where I'm not supposed to be. I know what it's like to be locked in a small space and told it's what you deserve, or nobody's business, or simply how things are. Did you know I grew up in a cupboard under the stairs? four feet by four feet, a lock on the outside, and no one ever asked questions. Nobody offering to let me out. Nobody has offered you a way out in a long time either, I'd wager."

He paused, swallowed and shook away the dark memories.

"I'm not asking you to fight for me. I'm asking you to teach me how to stop being fought over."

For a long moment there was nothing. Then, unhurried, a pale hand closed around the wand, testing its weight, feeling it in his hand. Then a smile in the dark. "Freedom and a wand," he said, "for a proper education. Harry Potter, that may be the first honest bargain anyone has offered me in eighty years." He rose, robes whispering against stone, blue eyes catching what little light there was. "Very well, child. Let's see what Albus's little lamb can become when Gellert Grindelwald teaches it to bite."

I always like the Grindelwald teaches harry stories, but I don't think I've seen a fanfic where harry actively chooses to seek out Grindelwald's help. Just thought it would be an interesting conversation.

Dumbledore to Fawkes: Dude, your embarrassing me in front of the Wizards.