His Own Man - Completing the Incomplete

Author's Note: All HP honors, rights and glory belong to JKR - I write in the Potterverse always and only for fun. His Own Man by Crunchysunrises starts with a lot of good ideas - but the author clearly loses steam - and hasn't worked on it for ELEVEN YEARS. It was Originally Published Oct 19, 2009 = Last Updated Jan 2, 2011. So here is a friendly timesaver synopsis, written by me May 27, 2022. It's kind of a one shot. Cuz I've lost any CREATIVE interest - just like the author who started the thing.

His Own Man - Completing the Incomplete

After he's died in the Forbidden Forest, Harry recognizes that Dumbledore hasn't been working for THE GOOD.

In The Train Station Between, Harry decides to return to the land of the living, but in a different time and place: Gringotts, a few weeks before he is to receive his Hogwarts letter. He cannot access his vaults, but with his Cousin Narcissa Malfoy's help, he does learn from the goblins just how much Dumbledore HASN'T been doing for Harry's benefit. He also begins to realize that he has an amazing second chance to make things better for his friends - and the entire Wizarding World.

More than one wand is happy to see him! Once they're together the phoenix-feather-and-holly and the Elder Wand seem to sing a duet that only Harry can hear. Dumbledore is NOT pleased - he keeps treacle tart from appearing on the tables at meals for months! - but Harry DID seize his wand during the Sorting feast.

Harry learns just how much he can accomplish with the help of a good solicitor. LOTS! Get recognized for having adult-level magical power. Pass most of his OWLs in his first year - in the first few months actually! (Outstandings and Exceeds.) EMANCIPATION. Keeping Dumbledore at arm's length with ongoing legal proceedings. Finding out he's Heir to just about everybody from Gryffindor to Gaunt! Getting Peter Pettigrew into Auror custody. And getting pictures of said sneaky rat to a certain animagus in Azkaban. Being able to blackmail a Quick-Quotes-Quill-bearing beetle into telling the truth. All with the ultimate objective of making sure that Sirius escapes. Because in what universe wouldn't Fudge have someone Kissed to avoid a scandal?

Friendly wrangling with the Sorting Hat. [It won't SORT Harry again. But Harry still goads it into shouting out GRYFFINDOR anyway. Don't worry they're still friends.] Disarming Snape - and not just his wand. "Did you like my mom? What was she like? Who was her best mate? Were you in her year?" Harry simply bludgers Snape with innocent comments and unwelcome kindnesses - during the inevitable detentions. And Harry simply gets accustomed to Hogwarts being HOME all over again.

Making friends with everyone - in every house - at every table. Studying and eating (new desserts!) with them. Knowing every charm and transfiguration trick. Wordless Magic. Wandless Magic. Dodging the Trace. Plenty of pranks. And too-advanced potions. (In hidden tunnels instead of bathrooms AND with Snape while preparing for NEWTs!) Early introduction to Dobby - and the Room of Requirement. Practically living in the library. Trouncing a troll. Dealing with Dementors.

Detente (at first anyway) with Draco Malfoy. And lots of deals and being pals with other Slytherins. Quidditch conversations with Cedric Diggory. Sharing the Marauder's Map with Messrs. Fred and George Weasley. Many new friends. And, of course, hugs with Hermione Granger. The usual with Ron and Neville. Though re-establishing a dogfatherly relationship with Padfoot is a little bumpier than Harry would like, it's the chief accomplishment of the first thirteen chapters of the story. But Sirius (in his Grim form, of course) ends up living and slobbering and healing (just as much as Harry) in the Gryffindor dormitory with his godson.

Many of the Hogwarts house elves are actually still bound to the Potter family! [ Good ole Albus gave them a home in which to be of service (at no cost) for a decade - what a great guy. ] So they are a very big help to the last of the Potters when it comes to pranks - and avoiding Dumbledore's scrutiny. Harry, Hermione, Ron and Neville (with a little help from Sirius) really outdo every group of pranksters that has come before with a combined hair-color-changing and house-animals-beating-the-crap-out-of-rats-hairdo prank (Weasley Red for Slytherin scalps). It's history-making: the elves go the extra mile by dosing all the teachers at the head table!

As is often the case for a somewhat-Super!Harry, owl ordering is very much his secret weapon for keeping on top of things. How else would he have all the books that he could possibly need and be able to make arrangements for obtaining a ridiculous supply of dress robes? (With Narcissa's sense-of-style assistance, of course.)

Harry has quite a difficult time convincing the Gryffindor crowd that it's really Quirrell, rather than Snape, who's actually after the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone. But the (now) Quartet - Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville - manage to get past the challenges, starting with a rousing rendition of Row, Row, Row Your Boat to lull Fluffy to sleep - followed by slightly better handling of the keys, troll (it's there this time, because they've beaten QMort to the punch by months!), potions and Mirror of Erised. When it's all over and the four kids are in the infirmary under Poppy's (she-knows-they-were-up-to-SOMETHING-just-not-what) care, Padfoot does growl a bit that Harry put himself into a dangerous situation - but The Boy Who Didn't Want To Actually USE The Stone has it (!) - and no one else knows that he does. All done before Christmas!

A much-better Sirius makes the surprisingly mature decision to leave Harry at Hogwarts and move in with Remus Lupin on the moors - because, quite simply, while it's nice to be a part of Harry's life at school, Sirius doesn't just want to be Harry's dog. He wants to be his godfather. Harry accepts the painful truth that HE can't be the one to take care of Sirius, who needs more time to heal and be free - for a while.

During the Christmas hols at Hogwarts with the Weasleys (between cups of hot chocolate with Ron), Harry begins to learn about all the Estates that he has inherited when he starts to wade through the Gringotts paperwork. [Harry also goes to several parties. One. at the Diggory house, where he does the cha-cha (metaphorically speaking) with Narcissa while she teaches him how to deal with Draco in Slytherin fashion - to everyone's advantage, of course - even though the Malfoy Heir failed to deliver POTTER'S invitation to the Malfoy holiday bash. Oh well. Another party is at the LeStranges - where Harry finds himself under absolutely everyone's protection - even Snape's.] Harry's Christmas cards (especially the one to Professor Snape, a bullseye) - and gifts with amazing distinctly different wrapping papers - are a hit. Draco has made a major decision to be totally snotty - Harry's Rival! - because absolutely ANYONE can be his friend. But that happens only because (foreshadowing) Draco has started to "journal" in a certain blank book that just happened to be laying around at the manor. Narcissa has a vague spidey sense that something is wrong. Lucius is charmingly clueless about any possible danger.

It doesn't take long for genuine problems to arise.

Since Harry holds the record for the highest Outstanding DADA OWL in Hogwarts history, it's only natural for Jeremias LeStrange, a new friend and Slytherin prefect, to approach the more-qualified-than-Quirrell Harry for help. Snape (after a revealing Occlumency battle with Harry - in which they both end up on the floor) says that Potter's till-the-end-of-the-year detentions will be served with LeStrange - on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, at least. Naturally, Harry's teaching sessions increasingly open up to all - Dumbledore's Army, essentially, but four years early. On the evening of the first meeting - just after Harry (no surprise) has disarmed and stunned everyone [ they think Expelliarmus is too simple for them, so he teaches them an important lesson ] - he hears the basilisk, released from the Chamber of Secrets a year ahead of schedule. Harry rushes to the rescue, but he's too late - and two all new Ravenclaws (along with a gets-strung-up-in-all-universes Mrs. Norris - again, poor cat) are Petrified. Harry shifts into saving-thing overdrive and tells a core group (Jeremias, Fred and George) what is going on - that he is a Parselmouth and that Tom Marvolo Riddle Voldemort is the OTHER (the evil!) Heir of Slytherin who is actually behind all this horribleness - and he starts to deal with the problem of the monster being loose in the school. Harry's first concern: who has the Diary this time around?

Sadly, there are just too many things that Harry cannot share - CofS facts, time travel, future knowledge, etc - because none of his closest friends possess Occlumency skills. So being scared and suspicious of Harry becomes the order of the day for (almost) everyone at Hogwarts. Except for the other members of the Golden Quartet - Ron, Hermione and Neville. [So much for all the new, fresh friendships that Harry had been working on so hard.] But spiders are fleeing the hallways - and Harry is determined to stick with his long term plans: providing a "moderate" alternative to the Two Old Men, Voldemort and Dumbledore. And most of the Slytherin Fifth Years (who all happen to know Occlumency and so begin to provide support and assistance) get a lot of useful information from Harry as "Heir of Slytherin" fears continue to mount.

Even though there's really no genuine necessity this time around - because there's no REAL NEED for an overly complex, team-spirit-building quest (to find out who the Heir of Slytherin is) - the First Year Team of Golden Gryffs decide to make the polyjuice potion ANYWAY - cuz, hey, IT'S POLYJUICE, right?

There are other potions as well. Harry tells the kids how to make a first-year potion produce laughing gas as a byproduct. But Snape is affected - oops - and furious because of it, of course. So Harry gets to enjoy the Potions Master taking out his frustrations on "Potter!" by means of dangerous dueling during their one-on-one Double DADA sessions. "Was she a good duelist?" "Get out, Potter." Life can be good for a time traveler.

Dobby's "rogue bludger" plans are foiled by pretty much everyone - and there's no Lockhart in Year One to do any damage to Harry's bones. So The Boy Who Survived Elf Assistance ends up having a heart-to-heart with the tearful, tender Harry-torturing house elf. Dobby STILL very much wants to "protect" the Great (does-not-realize-how-important-he-is-to-everyone) Harry Potter - but he settles for "borrowing" the Sorting Hat for Harry - who decides to keep it, full time, till the next Sorting. But that doesn't stop three more students - Hufflepuffs (Cedric included this time around) - from being Petrified.

In the meantime, Harry starts up a regular correspondence with both little Luna and worried Narcissa - as well as weekly mirror talks with Sirius (who is happily chasing sheep and chopping firewood in the north of England). Oh. Yeh. There's lots of Quidditch and a student dueling tournament to fill the time till Easter. And then Hagrid's dragon egg. [ Because, of course, all climaxes of EVERY year MUST come early in the summer right? ]

Jeremias LeStrange and the Bloody Baron get themselves Petrified. Then a few more - including Penelope Clearwater and (gasp!) a mirror-toting, basilisk-explanation-paper-clutching Hermione. [ Suspend your disbelief. Suspend your disbelief. ] So - (only) NOW! - (highest OWLs ever?) Harry REMEMBERS about the value and power of cockerels (that is, young crowing roosters) - "how did he forget that?" indeed. And Ron (!) together with Neville stumbles through how everyone has (TRULY MIRACULOUSLY - guess it's just fate) SURVIVED.

FINALLY this (and next year's!) problems can begin to resolve themselves. Harry gets his (THE) Invisibility Cloak (forcibly) returned by Dumbledore - just as the plot REQUIRES that he really must have it. And Harry saves Hagrid from being shipped off to Askaban just in the nick of time. (Solicitors rock.) And the Potter House Elves are "liberated" to go off in a "freedom" frenzy of taking care of all Harry's new estates. Norbert (not yet known to be Norbertina) gets safely shipped off to somewhere - despite Draco's ineffective tattling. Which is not surprising - Draco is just OFF - and Harry CONTINUES to attribute it to just about everything possible EXCEPT possession by Riddle's Diary - even as everyone continues to hate and fear him for no good reason. [Sigh. Limitations of the genre.] But they manage to save the unicorn during their shared detention this time around - despite Draco's nerves and hostility - and his running off with Fang when Quirrelmort finally makes his appearance. Firenze makes his own fated entrance to (not) save Harry - who couldn't really kill his two-faced enemy anyway - not with all those horcruxes still undestroyed - so everything works out REALLY well again. [ Saving a dying unicorn by magically exhausting yourself with an overpowered Episky earns some INCREDIBLY GOOD PAYBACK (in the form of unicorn devotion, apparently) - and more than a little centaur angst about Harry's ability to CHANGE things to suit his preferences. But he makes it out of the infirmary - Sirius having set Harry some "respectable boundaries" - and normal Hogwarts life resumes. (Cuz it isn't June yet.) ]

SUDDENLY Harry connects all the dots, realizing (somehow) that Draco's (current daily) pain-in-the-arse-ness is ACTUALLY because he's terrified of being kidnapped [ on the very same day (of the academic year?) that Ginny was/would be/whatever ] by Diary Tom. He makes a mad dash for his room - everyone is supposed to be escorted through the halls - to make sure that he has everything that he'll need to save Draco - Elder Wand, Sorting Hat (complete with hidden Sword of Gryffindor) and Cloak of Invisibility - then he storms the Chamber of Secrets. But the Sword of Gryffindor bounces off the Diary! Cuz Harry forgets (?) that he needs to kill the basilisk first - no basilisk blood, no horcrux-killing-glory - Silly!Harry so it seems.

Even with the clumsy start, Harry DOES manage to de-eye the basilisk (with Victor Krum's dragon-blinding curse from the now-past-future's TriWizard Tournament) and to win the day. It was a little easier this time around because Teenage Tom had to deal with a hellbent-on-possessing-him Old Man Quirrelmort. [ That's what happens when the bad guy from both years finds himselves in the same scene. ] Young Tom AKs the older (gross, ugly, two-faced) him, but Harry still manages to kill the Diary Horcrux fuzzy-almost-alive-shade with a basilisk tooth AGAIN - with just as much strength and determination as ever - cuz when you're healed by a grateful unicorn, you are definitely HEALED! So Harry gets TWO really cool scars out of the deal. (For all their magical miraculousness, unicorn horns DO hurt while they're piercing you through to heal you, apparently.) [ And gee but VoldyTom screams like a little girl an awful lot when he's defeated. smile ] Also - it seems that even a Sock-wrapped, De-Inked Dead Diary can still free a house elf. Whoda thunk?

The only glitch in the whole Chamber of Secrets adventure - other than a rather territorial Moaning Myrtle - is that (even with QM's body dead and barely-there-Tom no longer sucking out life force) Draco doesn't wake up. Hmm. He's taken to the infirmary where he ends up getting himself possessed again by a particularly (inexplicably) extra-entitled Voldemort wraith - which Mom and Dad Malfoy have a REALLY BIG PROBLEM with! So. More Avada Kedavras to save Draco. [?] And Harry finds himself back in the King's Cross Station between Life and Death again. Which is a very good thing - cuz he stops Draco from getting on the Moving-On-To-The-Next-Great-Adventure Hogwarts Express.

Harry AND Draco head back to their LIVES. (Still in the infirmary.) Draco gives Harry credit. Narcissa has an I'm-so-grateful-meltdown. Sirius and Remus are called in to be supportive. Harry writes some letters. Everything's back to normal. [ Except Harry and Draco REALLY are friends now. And they're going to fix Slytherin House. The True (Good!) Heir of Slytherin - and everyone's favorite ferret. Together. Narcissa never saw THAT coming. ] Two years down in less than one. Hurrah.

Term ends. (Harry takes over the administration of the scholarships that Dumbledore has been paying for with Potter funds.) Summer starts. Hogwarts Express arrives in London. Dumbledore meddles. Again. So Sirius and Remus (not very bright OR determined it seems) don't pick Harry up at the station. The (VERY upset!) Dursleys, however, DO. But it works out. Cuz Harry gets - and gives - impressive light show Magical Oaths from both Petunia and Dudley that Harry will be the TOTAL GUARDIAN of any magical Dursley child ever - and that he will never involve either of them in magical anything ever again.

All free for the summer with nowhere to go, Harry heads to Grimmauld Place where Kreacher promptly falls in love with him because he fulfills the final order from Regulus: Harry destroys the Slytherin Locket Horcrux. Kreacher gives Harry Regulus's clean and lemony fresh old room and feeds him delicious food - like a good house elf. Meanwhile, Dumbledore questions Petunia about Harry's failure to arrive, learns about the oaths and dispatches Moody to find the scarpered Harry.

Draco comes home to a welcome but confusing, all out anti-Lord-Voldermort/pro-Harry-Potter revolution-in-the-making amongst the portraits of Malfoy Manor. And a lot of research is going on amongst the living too. Draco owes Harry a Life Debt, so Narcissa and Lucius want to know EVERYTHING that there is to know about Harry Potter. And Auror Raids at wand point aren't helping matters at all! (They're ostensibly looking for Dark Objects. Nothing like that will be found though - because Narcissa has already destroyed every Dark, questionable or even-a-little-bit-odd object in the house - as well as any and allfurniture that Voldemort might have ever sat snaky butt on.) Even so, Dumbledore's determination to find Harry - even though he is a Legal and Magical Adult who can spend the summer wherever he pleases - generates all kinds of trouble - for the Malfoys as well as for Remus and Sirius.

The portraits of Grimmauld Place adore Harry even more than Kreacher does. Sirius's mum (furious with Voldemort about the death of Regulus) is remarkably helpful and determines to keep Phineas Nigellus (a former headmaster and bound to help Dumbledore) out of the house. Grandmother Elladora (born Black but married into the family) Potter (has quite a temper and keeps the snottiest of the old purebloods in line with a slap!) is Harry's escort and tutor about all things Family Black. And poor mistreated halfblood young Tom Riddle in Slytherin House as well.

Well-fed, well-dressed and well-liked by the painted people - and with no one able to find him - Harry (naturally) goes in search of the Flamels, spends the night at their place (without telling anyone at home) and returns to Grimmauld Place - and a bunch of very upset portraits! (Cuz they wuvs him.) Harry, for his own part, is extremely upset with DumblePleasing Remus (burns one of the werewolf's letters to ashes) - and he's still not too happy with Sirius either. He takes out his frustrations cursing the Venomous Tentacula, Viperous Vines and Raging Roses in the Black townhouse's quaint back garden when he isn't eating Kreacher's fine food and reading Regulus's old Occlumency books.

The Flamels had recommended rendering the conquered basilisk for potion ingredients, so Harry heads to Gringotts to make the arrangements. While he's in hiring mode, Bill Weasley gets put on retainer as a curse breaker. This is when Alastor Mad-Eye Moody, the Auror, arrives looking for the Boy Who Ditched His Order Guards - though not in an official capacity as he possesses no warrant or writ that can compel Harry to do anything - though Harry invites him in for a meeting simply to keep the goblins of Gringotts from any troubles with the Ministry of Magic. Harry explains (non-Dumble-centric) REALITY to Moody, who goes away altogether impressed with the Boy Who Shouts CONSTANT VIGILANCE. But neither Moody nor Dumbledore nor Remus really know where Harry Potter is actually STAYING.

The Hogwarts teaching staff (sans Albus) get together to discuss EVERYTHING that they know about Harry Potter. They conclude - mostly with the help of Severus, who has spent more time with him than any other teacher - that Harry is truly amazing (though passing his OWLs in the way that he did was STILL impossible) and that he nonetheless requires their help and guidance. Filius Flitwick, however, is also nearing the disturbing conclusion that Harry is TOO MUCH MORE than meets the eye! (So he camps in the library, researching relevant-to-Harry's-strangeness charms till the plot requires him again.)

And Flitwick was right. Harry really his awesome. He makes his way, alone, to the ruins of the old, snake-infested Gaunt shack - to retrieve the Ring Horcrux. He has more trouble with the Knight Bus on the way home to Grimmauld Place than he had getting a hold of the Ring at the Gaunt Place. NOW it's lost! AND he can't go back home - Kreacher brings all of Harry's things to him and tells him that he must stay away - though without any explanation. We soon learn, however, that it is because Sirius has returned to his childhood home - and loyal Kreacher is actually trying to defend Harry from Sirius! [ A perfectly understandable misunderstanding. ] Sirius ORDERS Kreacher to take him to Harry's last location - because Kreacher has triumphantly declared that he doesn't know where the Boy is NOW. But Padfoot sniffs Harry out - and the two have an almost happy reunion. Meanwhile, Kingsley Shacklebolt (on Dumbledore's orders) tracks Harry's movements in the Muggle World - and determines that the Black Residence is Harry's most likely location - but Kreacher isn't making it even remotely easy to confirm that suspicion.

AND - apparently Dumbledore didn't send that helpful, explanatory letter to Harry that would have made Sirius and Remus not being at the train station (almost) okay. It becomes clear that Harry's disappearance has been VERY hard on Sirius. There's no sense in staying ANGRY - no matter how justified it is - so Harry and Sirius go to dinner! They are working on their godson/godfather relationship and sharing a meal together is a good start. Afterwards, Harry heads to the Longbottoms - and Sirius (he shouldn't go as Harry's dog, so he can't go at all) heads to Grimmauld Place so that he's there when Harry is finished with his visit to Neville. It's SUPPOSED to be for a few days.

It doesn't take Neville long to be of genuine assistance! Shortly after a well-mannered introduction of Harry to Mrs. Callidora Longbottom (she has more than vultures as trophies), Neville informs Harry that the damage to his backpack isn't a tear. It was caused by a severing charm. The Resurrection Stone that Harry lost as he was getting on the Knight Bus - was stolen!

Harry is furious - and apparates to Grimmauld Place - taking Neville with him. It's quite a shock for poor Neville: his robes get caught in the front door (that Harry has to open with a hiss) and he meets both Kreacher and Sirius. But he handles it bravely. For Neville. He's in growth too. Thanks to Harry being a friend.

Sirius and Neville sit on the garden steps and have a chat while Harry takes out his frustrations with a fire whip - and the deadly plants learn a lesson - that Harry REALLY wants them to stay in their flowerbeds.

Grandmum Potter is gtandmotherly to Harry, scolds Sirius for running off after Peter - and Neville comes to the conclusion that BOTH of them NEED each other as FAMILY. But he DOESN'T like the House of Black - it's creepy (ESPECIALLY the house elf). Neville invites Sirius to join him and Harry back at the Longbottom home - though it's without his grandmother's knowledge.

Mad-Eye Moody is about to get sent on a Resurrection Stone / Horcrux Hunt by Harry - at Sirius's suggestion - because Harry just can't do the job alone.

His Own Man - Completing the Incomplete

Author's Note:

Quite literally JUST as I was finishing up reading the 31st Chapter (of the original) for this synopsis, I saw on that author's profile page a very, VERY strong opposition to having the story completed - THOUGH IT'S BEEN UNTOUCHED FOR ELEVEN YEARS! But I won't be ADDING anything more - it's just a (more fun, I think) Cliffs-Notes-ish version of the original. A real timesaver. LOL. And it's more because I've lost interest than because of any "prohibition" - cuz the only person who has any RIGHTS to say what can and cannot be written about Harry James Potter is J.K. Rowling - who's the furthest thing from possessive, small-minded and entitled about her characters and world as anyone could be.

His Own Man - Completing the Incomplete