Disclaimers
This is a nonprofit work of fiction. The Harry Potter Universe, in its entirety, belongs to the wonderful and exceedingly talented J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros, and other affiliates. No infringement is intended.
The views and opinions expressed in this story are solely those of the characters being portrayed and do not necessarily express the views and opinions of the writer.
Summary
After the Battle of Hogwarts, Hermione Granger and the wizarding world are recovering from war. As reconstruction of the school comes to an end and people move on to rebuild their lives, Hermione is presented with a photograph of a woman from the 70s who looks shockingly like herself. From there, things rapidly progress. She finds herself in a whirlwind of chaos, featuring time-turners, Death Eaters, romance, and enough mental instability to fill a psychiatric hospital.
Introduction
Yes, You Should Read This Part
It is generally accepted that nurture plays a significant role in the development of human beings. It is highly unlikely that a person be born with inherently evil nature. All creatures are capable of both good and bad, yet most remain somewhere in the gray areas. This is demonstrated by the ruthless Hermione Granger, a generally accepted 'good' person, who sacrifices Umbridge to the centaurs, no doubt knowing their brutal folklore, who holds Rita Skeeter captive in a jar, then subsequently blackmails the journalist into doing her bidding, and who permanently disfigures a sixteen year old girl for reporting rule-breaking activity.
Severus Snape and Albus Dumbledore also work in the shades of gray, though whether they were, in the end, 'good' men is still a matter of controversy.
With that established, we must ask ourselves, what has happened to the villains in our story to make them, in our eyes, evil? Was Tom Riddle a sociopath? Did the effects of a parent under the influence of Amortentia during conception make him incapable of feeling love? Or was he a product of abandonment, social outcasting, and racism? Was the insanity of Bellatrix Black due to inbreeding, Azkaban, or something else? What circumstances drove Peter Pettigrew to taking the Dark Mark?
This tale will take us down an emotional rollercoaster, full of betrayals, domestic abuse, genetic instability, neglect, bullying, and ignorance. We will explore the childhood of Severus Snape, the paradoxes of time travel, the connotations of bigotry, and the medieval mindset of the 1970s pureblood movement. And we will observe human nature vs. societal nurture.
Warnings
This fanfiction deals with mental illness, including, but not limited to: clinical depression, post traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, narcissism, anxiety disorder, and eating disorders.
Later chapters may contain explicit accounts and/or detailed depictions of: homosexuality, drug abuse, violence, self harm, suicide, torture, child abuse, pedophilia, rape, incest, and more.
Ideologies (religious and otherwise) will be dissected; Abrahamic and Judeo-Christian beliefs, in particular, will be heavily debated, and at times vilified.
Seeing as this story focuses on the brutalities of war and the complexity of human beings, dark content will be relatively frequent. Please be aware of the fact that I will not be posting any other warnings. Proceed with caution.
Author's Notes
New Readers: Welcome to The Complexities of Human Nature, formerly known as The Life and Lies of Hermione Granger. Please be aware that this fanfiction is written in drabble form. Chapters will be extremely short. No, I will not make them longer. This format makes updating less daunting for me. This fic will mostly be from the POV of Hermione Granger, but I will be posting several companion fics for other characters. Keep an eye out for these. I'm particularly looking forward to posting the perspectives of Bellatrix Black and Peter Pettigrew.
Followers: If you started reading this before the revamp on June 1st, 2017, you'll notice that the chapters have been majorly rearranged. Whereas they were typically 3k words, they're now under 1k. This is because I've been struggling with finishing chapters, which seems to result in writer's block.
All Readers: At the bottom of each chapter there will now be an interactive section, which will ask for your opinions. If possible, please be sure to answer this in your review, because it will impact how the story progresses.