Chapter 37...

[Shadow Knight]

Actually, the "big threat" is already arrived.

Interesting. I still haven't the faintest as to what already hinted at event this alludes to, but I do look forward to how you make it clear to the reader.

It probably has to due with Pettigrew's little trip to that Muggle bar to interact with some 'interesting' Muggles.

[VoiceoftheNephilim]

It probably has to due with Pettigrew's little trip to that Muggle bar to interact with some 'interesting' Muggles.

I agree completely, but that ties into my original point, in that Harry has no idea that this occurred, so it's not something that he can actively engage.

[ewuvi]

That actually makes it more difficult. Harry can't cut down the threat before it's big enough to bite him in the ass.

[VoiceoftheNephilim]

That actually makes it more difficult. Harry can't cut down the threat before it's big enough to bite him in the ass.

Oh, unquestionably. With Harry having no knowledge of Wormtail's actions, or plans, it sounds like it will make for a great reveal, when it does happen. My original point had been that I felt like there had been a distinct lack of tension and clear antagonist in year three.

Matt's reply rather allays my concerns with this, since it seems like the "third year crisis" is imminent.

[ashez2ashes]

Someone going around intentionally starting panics and killing students seems pretty antagonistic to me...

[VoiceoftheNephilim]

Someone going around intentionally starting panics and killing students seems pretty antagonistic to me...

While the action itself is, it doesn't present (in my opinion), a force that Harry can actively engage. It happened in chapter 34, where Harry swore to Millicent that he would eliminate whomever attacked her sister. It hasn't been mentioned since then, which is a space of 30,000 words. To me, that says Harry doesn't have a way to combat, or investigate the matter. While it will obviously have some sort of payoff down the road, in terms of plot development, it means that for now Harry is going to have to wait for them to make another move, as he can do nothing now. And that was my main point, that there hasn't been anything sort of antagonist that Harry could have actively moved against in the past 3 chapters, rather turning it into a "waiting game" of sorts. And while the idea of having an invisible enemy who is potentially several steps ahead is unnerving, I don't find that it has made for very compelling storytelling the past few chapters.

[Shadow Knight]

Someone going around intentionally starting panics and killing students seems pretty antagonistic to me...

While the action itself is, it doesn't present (in my opinion), a force that Harry can actively engage. It happened in chapter 34, where Harry swore to Millicent that he would eliminate whomever attacked her sister. It hasn't been mentioned since then, which is a space of 30,000 words. To me, that says Harry doesn't have a way to combat, or investigate the matter. While it will obviously have some sort of payoff down the road, in terms of plot development, it means that for now Harry is going to have to wait for them to make another move, as he can do nothing now. And that was my main point, that there hasn't been anything sort of antagonist that Harry could have actively moved against in the past 3 chapters, rather turning it into a "waiting game" of sorts. And while the idea of having an invisible enemy who is potentially several steps ahead is unnerving, I don't find that it has made for very compelling storytelling the past few chapters.

I actually find it to be more interesting and compelling given the premise of the story. For the past two years (in story terms) Harry has with almost assurance due to his foreknowledge been able to predict what was going to happen. Granted Sirius' escape and the uncertainty with that through him through a loop, but for all practical purposes only at the end of the second year (Draco's attack, the Chamber, etc.) did his future knowledge fail him. However his foreknowledge immediately gave him the way to solve it (save Ginny in the Chamber). Now in his third year things have dramatically changed to the point where his foreknowledge is for the most part compromised, and those forces acting against him have adapted to the new reality as it were. What this means for us is that from now on we are unlikely to be just getting a rehashing of the story retold just differently. Although I am inclined to believe the Triwizard Tournament is still going to happen and there will be some similarities.

Sometimes the calm before the storm is more fearful than the actual storm. Especially when you know for certain the storm is coming. I'm surprised that with Harry's deep paranoia he hasn't gone off the deep end with the not knowing what is going on.

[VoiceoftheNephilim]

I actually find it to be more interesting and compelling given the premise of the story. For the past two years (in story terms) Harry has with almost assurance due to his foreknowledge been able to predict what was going to happen. Granted Sirius' escape and the uncertainty with that through him through a loop, but for all practical purposes only at the end of the second year (Draco's attack, the Chamber, etc.) did his future knowledge fail him. However his foreknowledge immediately gave him the way to solve it (save Ginny in the Chamber). Now in his third year things have dramatically changed to the point where his foreknowledge is for the most part compromised, and those forces acting against him have adapted to the new reality as it were. What this means for us is that from now on we are unlikely to be just getting a rehashing of the story retold just differently. Although I am inclined to believe the Triwizard Tournament is still going to happen and there will be some similarities.

Sometimes the calm before the storm is more fearful than the actual storm. Especially when you know for certain the storm is coming. I'm surprised that with Harry's deep paranoia he hasn't gone off the deep end with the not knowing what is going on.

I agree with you on several of your points. Matt's story wouldn't be worth reading if he didn't start to deviate from the canon sequencing of events, and that major divergence seemed to occur at the end of the third year. If Harry could predict the entirety of every event that were to occur, there would certainly be no resemblance to conflict, as the outcome would almost be pre-ordained.

With Harry having been used to using his foreknowledge, I am sure that to him, the unknown is absolutely terrifying to him. And using that clearly would have been a great way to bridge the gap between the major turning points of year three, with chronic paranoia shading his world, as well as his imagination running rampant.

In my opinion, I believe that's one area where tension could have been forged in the chapters themselves. To me, it seems past 3 chapter have been mostly spent with Harry attempting to put to rest the fears of others (apart from his talks with Sirius). While that is definitely important, hugely important, it creates a narrative problem, because the viewpoint of the story is from Harry. Since the narrative voice of the story isn't really going into huge detail about his paranoia and his fear that things are starting to unravel about him, it hasn't really done much for the tension of the story, as of late.

[viridian]

...and his paranoia is failing him as his memories fade.

[Shadow Knight]

...and his paranoia is failing him as his memories fade.

Is that just his future driven paranoia that gets side lined as his future memories are dulled, or he just not really prone to paranoia himself but future events made him so?

[Lilcross]

Oh God, things are getting intence. I cant wait for next chapter. Harry's in some deep crap. I hope he doesnt let his guard down. Imagine if Peter used the controling curse on one of the Gryffindor six in front of Harry's face and orders one of them to kill Harry. That would be epic.

[MantisFA]

One flaw in this story, which unfortunately would require some fairly significant editing of earlier chapters to correct, is that Harry's memories of the dark future don't seem to include the difficulty of destroying a Horcrux, or how that difficulty can be overcome. It doesn't seem possible he could not know that, since he, Ron, and Hermione obviously succeeded in destroying the locket, the cup, the diadem (which hasn't even been mentioned so far in this story, but should be the easiest one for Harry to get at himself, being stored away in the Hall of the Hidden incarnation of the Room of Requirement), Nagini (who hasn't been turned into a Horcrux yet, as that happened after Voldemort's return to England, when he murdered the groundskeeper Frank Bryce at the old Riddle mansion), and the Sorting Hat.

The Hat apparently went down to a simple blasting charm in Chapter 1, though now I think of it, changing it to the "Singularis Nex!" quantum black hole curse Harry used on the boggart wouldn't be that big an edit, and that spell could have been a bit of original magic invented by Hermione in the other timeline for the precise purpose of annihilating Horcruxes without the inherent risks of using Fiendfyre or the difficulty of obtaining basilisk venom (I'd assume that when Voldemort destroyed Hogwarts, he took steps to ensure that basilisk's remains wouldn't be available to Harry for that purpose afterward).

Harry obviously wouldn't have wanted to cast "Singularis Nex" at the diary while on school grounds or at the Burrow, given how noisy and locally destructive it is, and he might not have been certain of his ability to cast it as a second-year, either, merger or no, but it still doesn't make sense that he wouldn't know that throwing the diary in the common room fire would be ineffective. If he'd been cleverer during Year 2, he should have entered the Chamber of Secrets, called forth the basilisk while hovering near the ceiling on his broom, safely out of its reach, used one of Hagrid's roosters to kill it, destroyed the diary, and collected a few fangs to use on the other Horcruxes.

In any case, I'm a little puzzled by the implication in this chapter that he and Sirius would hold off on destroying the three Horcruxes Sirius has collected. "We can use it when we destroy our little collection of keepsakes," not "we can use it to destroy our little collection of keepsakes," suggests they're waiting for something, but what? Canonically, Voldemort has no way of knowing a Horcrux has been destroyed unless he checks up on it, so there's no good reason not to go ahead and destroy the ones they have as soon as possible; in Voldemort's current state, there's damned little he could do about them destroying the Horcruxes even if he did feel it when it happened. For that matter, if they destroy them all while he's still disembodied, it might finish him off before he has the chance to rise again.

I'm pretty sure you're planning on bringing Voldemort back in this story, and I doubt anything could persuade you to make a change that huge to your outline, but I think this might be a more interesting story overall if Harry thwarted Voldemort's return altogether -- only to discover that the blood purist faction is actually more dangerous without his dictatorial, mentally and emotionally unstable leadership than they were with it, and that a new war between that faction and the more egalitarian elements of British wizarding society is inevitable regardless of Voldemort's survival.

"Lily's eyebrow" is a nice touch -- goes with Lily's eyes, of course.

Ron actually being thoughtful about his relationship with Hermione is a really welcome change; canon!Ron could be hard to like at times, especially when he was being rude to Hermione, which happened a lot in book 3 because of Crookshanks' pursuit of Scabbers/Pettigrew.

Harry and his friends working on building alliances through the Slug Club and Augusta Longbottom's circle of friends seems like a very positive development; if they keep at it, the Light will be much better organized and ready to respond effectively if and when the second war breaks out. It's interesting that both you and Less Wrong, my other favorite HP fan-fic writer, portray Augusta as one of the central figures in the pureblood political faction opposed to Lucius Malfoy and the once and future Death Eaters. I don't think that was really clear in canon, but it was implied the Longbottoms are a prominent, influential family, and given what happened to Frank and Alice it makes sense Augusta would be in the forefront of the opposition to Voldemort and his followers.

[runsamok]

Hello,

I'm sure that harry remembers that the horcruxes are difficult to destroy. He may not mention in specifically. Regarding Harry arranging them to be destroyed immediately, he is trying to keep his future knowledge a secret and going around destroying things he has no business knowing about yet would be a bit difficult. Not to mention, even if Voldemort doesn't know when a Horcrux is destroyed, he may have protections on the place it's currently housed or periodically check up on it. Yes, the horcruxes are dangerous, but only in the presence of magical people interested in interacting with them. If they are not currently harming anyone in their current location, why not leave them there? Also, perhaps Harry doesn't want to subject someone to the mental anguish that is sometimes involved with destroying them until he is stronger magically and wiser/older.

Exploring that the pureblood faction is more dangerous without Voldemort around could be done after he is destroyed. It's an interesting topic, but some of the story themes include "things Harry tries to change that still don't change". Perhaps Voldemort's return to the flesh is one of those things.

[MantisFA]

I'm sure that harry remembers that the horcruxes are difficult to destroy. He may not mention in specifically.

He tried to destroy the diary by burning it in the Gryffindor common room fire, though, which doesn't seem like a plausible mistake for someone experienced with Horcruxes' durability.

Regarding Harry arranging them to be destroyed immediately, he is trying to keep his future knowledge a secret and going around destroying things he has no business knowing about yet would be a bit difficult. Not to mention, even if Voldemort doesn't know when a Horcrux is destroyed, he may have protections on the place it's currently housed or periodically check up on it.

In that case, Harry shouldn't have had Sirius remove the ring and the cup from their hiding-places, but he apparently didn't expect that to be a problem. (Actually, he did expect it to be a problem with the Cup specifically, based on past/future experience, but Sirius was clever enough to get around the alarm Voldemort had placed on it.) The locket, of course, had already been moved from the sea cave where Voldemort hid it to Number 12 Grimmauld Place by Regulus back before Voldemort's mishap at Godric's Hollow, and Voldemort apparently never noticed.

Yes, the horcruxes are dangerous, but only in the presence of magical people interested in interacting with them. If they are not currently harming anyone in their current location, why not leave them there?

The present location of three of them is Arthur Weasley's shed behind The Burrow. Granted, the Burrow is nearly impregnable now, but "nearly" isn't the same as "perfectly," and the Horcruxes make it even more of a target whether Harry is home or not. They're unlikely to be able to ensnare Sirius or any of the Weasleys, but given their function and the ultimate reasons why Harry needs to destroy them all, I don't really see a persuasive argument for waiting until after Voldemort rises again to dispose of the things.

Also, perhaps Harry doesn't want to subject someone to the mental anguish that is sometimes involved with destroying them until he is stronger magically and wiser/older.

Now that could be a good reason, although I doubt Sirius would find it convincing (he survived twelve years of the mental anguish that comes with unshielded exposure to Dementors, after all). I think it would be worth mentioning it in the text at some point if that's why they're waiting, though.

Exploring that the pureblood faction is more dangerous without Voldemort around could be done after he is destroyed. It's an interesting topic, but some of the story themes include "things Harry tries to change that still don't change". Perhaps Voldemort's return to the flesh is one of those things

I suspect it is, but I'm unconvinced it should be. Ah well; it's not like I'm going to stop reading, and loving, every new chapter the Authorlord puts out -- however long it takes (if I can wait on George R. R. Martin, I can wait on Viridian as well).

[viridian]

what Harry is not sure about is whether Voldemort is more sensitive to the destruction of a Horcrux when he is in wraith form. Since those connections are the only thing holding him in life at the moment, three being severed at once might be quite a jolt. When he has a body, that is stabilizing his spirit.

[MantisFA]

I was just looking back at old posts I made with my previous account (which I found impossible to log into for some reason when I returned to NoFP and this community last week), and was reminded of this:

Can I ask a little question Viridian, do you have the story line roughed out, do you have the ending already thought out in a draft form?

Yes to both. Worse, the climax is stuck in my head in music video form, with the Matrix Revolutions soundtrack (track #16, Neo's final battle with Smith) playing in the background. Every time I hear that music, the scene replays in my head. Makes it very hard to drive...

If this climactic fight is indeed Harry against Voldemort, then I'm hoping it takes place at the end of Fourth Year, and results in Voldemort's second life being measured in minutes instead of years. If Voldemort is able to return and wage war on Wizarding Britain for even two or three years, Harry will have failed rather pathetically, given the advantages his time trip and merger have given him in his quest to avert that outcome. Alternately, I suppose, he could avert Voldie's resurrection at the end of fourth year, have it happen in a totally new and unexpected way at the end of his sixth or seventh year, and still ensure the Dark Tosser dies forever the same night he rises again.

[MantisFA]

So I just reached this passage in my re-reading of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, which seems highly relevant the present discussion:

Professor Quirrell ... had, if you stepped back and blurred out the details, just proposed turning the country into a magical dictatorship.

And it was also possible that ... Professor Quirrell had been sincerely trying to fight the Dark Mark in kind, and prevent the repetition of a performance he saw as pathetic. Trying to make sure that Harry didn't end up fighting the Dark Lord alone, while everyone else hid, frightened, trying to stay out of the line of fire, waiting for Harry to save them.

But the truth was...

Well...

Harry was sort of okay with that.

It was, he knew, the kind of thing that was supposed to make heroes resentful and bitter.

To heck with that. Harry was very much in favor of everyone else staying out of danger while the Boy-Who-Lived took down the Dark Lord by himself, plus or minus a small number of companions. If the next conflict with the Dark Lord got to the point of a Second Wizarding War that killed lots of people and embroiled a whole country, that would mean Harry had already failed.

On this point, I can't imagine that merged!Harry would not be in absolute, whole-hearted agreement with rationalist!Harry. (The elisions in the quote above are to remove material irrelevant to the point I'm making and which could spoil the solution to one of the story's minor mysteries for those who haven't read it yet.)