Thus Spoke the Raven:
Hi all, and sorry to say that this is NOT an update for this fanfic. I've put together some challenges, and the list is going to be at the end of each of my fics. Angst, humor, suspense, whatever I feel like writing a challenge on will be in here, and I'll be adding other challenges as I think of them, so be sure to keep checking back if you're interested. Also, most of these ideas are original, so I would like credit for them. If you've written one of these ideas already into a fanfic, and I've accidentally stolen it from you, e-mail me with a link to the fanfic, I'll check it out, apologize, and remove the challenge. For my original challenges, however, I would appreciate if credit is given to me for the initial idea. Have fun!
1. True Identities
We've all read about Harry getting adopted by Snape, or Snape being Harry's father, or Sirius coming to save Harry but then they get captured (my personal favorite ^_^), but I have a new proposition to make that I haven't seen appear in any fanfics I've read so far.
What if Harry Potter isn't really Harry Potter? What if James and Lily were watching someone else's kid on that night, along with their own child? If the real Harry Potter was killed with his parents, and his body lost in the debris, then who is the boy that the world calls Harry Potter? What's his real name? Who were his parents? Are his parents still alive? Why didn't anyone realize the truth before? If it wasn't James and Lily Harry saw in the mirror of Erised, who was it? And what about Voldemort? Does he know who Harry really is, or has he been chasing after an already dead person all these years?
2. "There Is No Good and Evil"
Do you remember when Voldemort said those words in book one? He said "There is no good and evil. Only power, and those too weak to seek it", or something like that. What if he was telling the truth? What if there is no good an evil after all? Could this whole ordeal just be a struggle for power between two forces? In this fic, Aurors are the "light" sides death eaters. If any one gets in the way, they're dealt with. Now that Harry has figured out that he's just been fed lies about light and dark, he needs to make a choice. Which power force does he want to join? Voldemort, who has been straightforward truthful to him, or Dumbldore, who has protected him, yet kept certain parts of his life a secret? And why did Voldemort kill Harry's parents?
3. The Lion's Serpent:
I've thought of three different ways this fic could turn out, so I'll list off the options after I'm done with the general summary.
Harry is still on summer break, trying to move on with his life and cope with what happened in the third task of the Triwizard Tournament. He keeps having dreams of Voldemort's actions; he's forced to watch what Voldemort does to his victims. Just when Harry thinks he can't stand to watch anymore, the dreams stop. Shortly after the dreams stop, a black haired orphan ends up on the Dursley's door step. He's five years old, and his name is Tom, but he can't remember anything else. Harry feels a pang of sympathy for the child, and lets him stay in his room. Harry becomes the parent image for Tom, and they grow quite close. When it's time for Harry to go to Hogwarts, he brings his "adopted son" with him and convinces the teachers to let him stay at the school so that Harry can take care of him.
A: Tom's memory suddenly comes back one day. Tom now knows who he is and what happened, but what will he do? Has his love for his new "father" changed him into a better person? Will he attempt to regain his former body? Will he still try to kill Harry? If he decides he wants things to remain the same, will he even tell Harry the truth?
B: Tom's memory doesn't appear to be coming back at all. One day, he says he thinks his last name is Riddle, however, and that catches Harry's attention immediately. Suddenly, Harry recognizes his "son" for being Tom Riddle, a younger Voldemort, and the murderer of his parents. What will Harry do? Will he try to kill him? Will he, like Tom's real father, abandon him? Will he hand him over to the Ministry? Or has Harry's love for his new "son" grown so deep, that he'll shelter Tom from his horrible past and work to give him a brighter future?
C: Harry and Tom suddenly realize, at the same moment, the truth about Tom. It happens suddenly, after months of Tom being five years old. Now that they both know the truth, what will happen? Will one of them reject the other? Will they go back to being enemies? Or will Tom's need for a parent and Harry's need for someone to love, and feel loved back from, intercede and keep them together?
This was not intended to be a slash, even though I'll leave that up to the author.
4. In The Name of Merlin!:
Everyone in the wizarding world knows who Merlin is. Everyone also knows how the story of Merlin goes. Merlin, in the end, was defeated by being seduced by Vivien (aka the lady of the lake) He revealed his power to her, and she cast a spell on him forever trapping him within an oak tree (A/N: I did not make that up, that's how the original story of Merlin goes; I'm just using the background info to help with this idea). What no one knows is that Merlin indeed broke free again, years later, and is now using the name Albus Dumbledor. Now Harry has put all the facts together and has discovered Dumbledor's, or rather Merlin's, secret. Even more, Harry found out that he's related to Dumbledor! Does Voldemort know about Dumbledor's secret? Could that be why Voldemort was always so afraid of him? Will the rest of the Wizard community find out?
I decided to leave more room for creativity in this one. Basically, have fun with it. Once again, please leave a review with it if you plan to use it and I do like getting credit. Also, if you need more info on Merlin (His Animagus forms, powers, history, etc) just ask, and I'll give it.
5. Dying Angel
Severus Snape, feared potions master of Hogwarts, decides that midway through the summer holiday, he's going to take his fifth year Slytherins on an out of school field trip. This is no ordinary field trip, however. The assignment is to study a wizard that lives in a muggle family to observe the difference in this wizard's life style over the summer. The vote from the Slytherins was unanimous. Harry Potter. Snape casts an invisibility/ sound proof charm on his class and himself and they floo powdered themselves to the Dursley's. They were quite surprised at what they found. Harry Potter, the Golden Boy Who Lived, loved by good, feared by evil, teacher's pet, goody-goody, angel child, was in reality abused by his relatives. He's quite thin and tattered, covered in cuts and bruises. His eyes are dull, and his voice toneless. He is shy, timid, and skittish; he seems to be afraid of people. Even worse, the Dursley's enrolled him in a summer school, and Harry is back to being the small, skinny, pale kid that's easy to beat up and pick on. Snape realizes that Harry is dying a little every day with the combination of his nightmares in both a state of dormancy and consciousness. Snape is utterly horrified at watching the way Harry is treated. One day, as the class is still observing Harry, his uncle gives Harry the worst beating ever. Snape can no longer stand aside, and he comes to Harry's aid. Now Harry is in the care of Snape and the other Slytherins. Will this be the chance to break the ice between the Gryffindor and Slytherin house? Will Harry ever be the same person again? And when school starts again, will Snape be able to let Harry go?
This one wasn't my most original, but I still have yet to find a fic that matches this criteria.
6. The Truth About Voldemort
This one is supposed to be a humor fic. Basically, Harry is dragged to a Michael Jackson concert by Hermoine and some other muggles, ang lo and behold! Michael Jackson, in reality, is Voldemort! Harry doesn't know how he could have missed it before. . . the long fingers, the beyond white skin, the serpentine nose. . . What will happen when Harry delivers this news to the wizarding world??? That's all for now, I'll add new ideas as I think of them. If you want to use one of these, just leave the challenge's number or title in a chapter review (not the challenges review since the reviews would get deleted) Thanks again, and enjoy writing!
Free Post Section:
This is a section where I will post challenges from other people who wish to have them posted here. If you would like to post a challenge here, then let me know, and I'll post it and make sure you get credit for it. If you want to use any of these challenges, don't ask me, ask the person who came up with it. I'll leave their pen name or e-mail address so you can get persmission.
Pen name Fire Mage:
1. AU What if the Dursleys really /had/ done everything to stop Harry from learning magic? The Dursleys move to America as soon as they get Harry. They decide to treat him okay, since they don't want him knowing that there's anything special about him. They forbid the children to read fantasy books, or watch fantasy movies. So their kids fall in love with science fiction. They dream to fly in a space ship once, and save the universe from aliens. When Harry gets the letter he just throws it in the trash, and continues dreaming of a career as an astonaut or pilot of a spaceship. The wizards are really annoyed that their best man is a science fiction freak, when a Slytherin gets the idea to tell him that he's being recruted to fight an alien (Voldemort). This alien had gotten humans to follow him, and looked a little like a snake. They're rather surprised with how fast Harry agrees to fight the alien. He's told that wands are high- tech weapons, and he had to speak different words to get it to do different things. He's a really fast learner, and is soon ready to fight Voldemort. Everyone is really confused when he calls Voldemort an alien, and uses the wand like a gun. He wins, and finds out that Voldemort wasn't really an alien. He's so angry that he just goes back home, and becomes an astonaut. In the end he really encounters aliens, and destroys them. Then the muggles celebrate him, and the wizards just shake their heads. It's beyond their comprehension.
2. What if Harry had run away from the Dursleys when he was four, and now living in the Scottish mountains. He hates humans, and is able to talk with the wild life. He uses his abilities to heal the plants and animals. Yes, he has to eat, but he only eats with permission, and even then he tries to make it as painless as possible. Then he weeps bitterly for the animal he had to kill to live. The animals always come to him and reasure him that he's just following the laws of nature. His home is paradise, and he enjoys it fully. His eleventh birthday comes, he gets the letter, and he sends back a note that he's content in being where he is. Everything is perfect for him, until his best friend, an eagle, is killed and a signiture, a green skull with a snake winding around it, is hoovering over his body. He lets his anger take hold of him, and sets out to destroy this person that killed his friend. With him come many of his other friends. They acidently find Hogwarts, where Harry finds out that it was Voldemort, and that he had also killed Harry's parents. He accepts the offered training, and the animals stay around. They have taken on the role of his bodguard, and the bigger ones that were resistant to magic guard the gates. The ones that couldn't really do either that well just lounged around. When Harry was ready he attacks and kills Voldemort. Then he returns to his mountain, and lives in harmony till the next time.
3. Harry Potter/Discworld crossover. Harry is actually Death, and a double has to jump in for him when he's off on his 'Death' duties. Then one day he has to kill Voldemort, and take his soul at the same time. How can he keep them from finding out?
4. In his fifth year Harry goes away from Hogwarts, and comes back under an other name, and other features. He basically looks the same except he'S got contacts that make his eyes look grey, and has died his hair green, then made it stick up straight with gel. No one recognises him. His name is Alexander Jameson. Voldemort is searching the country for him, while he is just enjoying a year at Hogwarts. The only thing is that he has to keep up his disguise, and let the hat put him in Slytherin this time, because he thought that this would make it even less likely that anyone would figure him out.
5. Ranma 1/2 and Harry Potter crossover. Harry goes to Japan to the Saotome family, because they still owe Dumbledore a favor. Ranma gets the brilliant idea to have Harry purposely fall into one of the springs, and get Voldemort off his trail like that. Well Harry turns into an oriental dragon, which are much more powerful than the European ones, because they're able to use magic most of the time. Well, the dragon tamers are trying to catch him, to keep him in check, and Voldemort wants to catch him too, because the dragons are so powerful. One question: how many more brilliant ideas will Ranma have, and will we survive them?
6. Ron, Fred and George are tripplets. Fred and George are in Slytherin with Harry, and Ron is in Ravenclaw. Ron thinks up the pranks, and the other three carry them out. Hermione is in Ravenclaw, and their main enemy. She's always trying to convince the house that Ron is involved in the pranking, but no one believes her.
7. AU fic where Petunia hast to work when the two are about two years old, and they need a nani. Marry Poppins shows up, and helps the Dursleys accept Harry, and in so doing changes the books, because Harry got along with the Dursleys since then. They moved to Canada and weren't heard of by the wizarding world since. Voldemort never got the stone, because of the Mirror of Erised, so he's still teaching there and no one knows. Well, the wizards in canada have been trying to track Harry down, and finally they find him and his family in a cottege in the woods. They're really happy, and they don't want to disturb them. They only say that they've been found, and tell their piers where. It's agreed to leave them alone unless dire circumstances call for it. One day Voldemort returns and they have to call on Harry. He reluctently follows the cry for help, and saves the world. All the while he just wants to return to the woods he loves so dearly. At the end he can, and he does. But by then a girl has fallen for him, and keeps on coming to visit him. Dudley isn't so fat, because he and Harry have always been playing in the woods. Harry is always gone when she comes, and that is no accident. He's afraid of girls, since he hasn't been around any other than his aunt. Their nany left when the wind changed. He does end up getting together with her, but half the time he's running away from her. The greatest dark lord ever can't scare him, but a simple girl scares the living daylights out of him.
I will repeat, these challenges belong to Fire Mage and I pasted them with the exact words. Therefore, contact Fire Mage if you want to use any of these seven challenges. If anyone else wants to post a challenge on this post page, just e-mail or IM me, and I'll post them with credit to you, right away.
Hi all, and sorry to say that this is NOT an update for this fanfic. I've put together some challenges, and the list is going to be at the end of each of my fics. Angst, humor, suspense, whatever I feel like writing a challenge on will be in here, and I'll be adding other challenges as I think of them, so be sure to keep checking back if you're interested. Also, most of these ideas are original, so I would like credit for them. If you've written one of these ideas already into a fanfic, and I've accidentally stolen it from you, e-mail me with a link to the fanfic, I'll check it out, apologize, and remove the challenge. For my original challenges, however, I would appreciate if credit is given to me for the initial idea. Have fun!
1. True Identities
We've all read about Harry getting adopted by Snape, or Snape being Harry's father, or Sirius coming to save Harry but then they get captured (my personal favorite ^_^), but I have a new proposition to make that I haven't seen appear in any fanfics I've read so far.
What if Harry Potter isn't really Harry Potter? What if James and Lily were watching someone else's kid on that night, along with their own child? If the real Harry Potter was killed with his parents, and his body lost in the debris, then who is the boy that the world calls Harry Potter? What's his real name? Who were his parents? Are his parents still alive? Why didn't anyone realize the truth before? If it wasn't James and Lily Harry saw in the mirror of Erised, who was it? And what about Voldemort? Does he know who Harry really is, or has he been chasing after an already dead person all these years?
2. "There Is No Good and Evil"
Do you remember when Voldemort said those words in book one? He said "There is no good and evil. Only power, and those too weak to seek it", or something like that. What if he was telling the truth? What if there is no good an evil after all? Could this whole ordeal just be a struggle for power between two forces? In this fic, Aurors are the "light" sides death eaters. If any one gets in the way, they're dealt with. Now that Harry has figured out that he's just been fed lies about light and dark, he needs to make a choice. Which power force does he want to join? Voldemort, who has been straightforward truthful to him, or Dumbldore, who has protected him, yet kept certain parts of his life a secret? And why did Voldemort kill Harry's parents?
3. The Lion's Serpent:
I've thought of three different ways this fic could turn out, so I'll list off the options after I'm done with the general summary.
Harry is still on summer break, trying to move on with his life and cope with what happened in the third task of the Triwizard Tournament. He keeps having dreams of Voldemort's actions; he's forced to watch what Voldemort does to his victims. Just when Harry thinks he can't stand to watch anymore, the dreams stop. Shortly after the dreams stop, a black haired orphan ends up on the Dursley's door step. He's five years old, and his name is Tom, but he can't remember anything else. Harry feels a pang of sympathy for the child, and lets him stay in his room. Harry becomes the parent image for Tom, and they grow quite close. When it's time for Harry to go to Hogwarts, he brings his "adopted son" with him and convinces the teachers to let him stay at the school so that Harry can take care of him.
A: Tom's memory suddenly comes back one day. Tom now knows who he is and what happened, but what will he do? Has his love for his new "father" changed him into a better person? Will he attempt to regain his former body? Will he still try to kill Harry? If he decides he wants things to remain the same, will he even tell Harry the truth?
B: Tom's memory doesn't appear to be coming back at all. One day, he says he thinks his last name is Riddle, however, and that catches Harry's attention immediately. Suddenly, Harry recognizes his "son" for being Tom Riddle, a younger Voldemort, and the murderer of his parents. What will Harry do? Will he try to kill him? Will he, like Tom's real father, abandon him? Will he hand him over to the Ministry? Or has Harry's love for his new "son" grown so deep, that he'll shelter Tom from his horrible past and work to give him a brighter future?
C: Harry and Tom suddenly realize, at the same moment, the truth about Tom. It happens suddenly, after months of Tom being five years old. Now that they both know the truth, what will happen? Will one of them reject the other? Will they go back to being enemies? Or will Tom's need for a parent and Harry's need for someone to love, and feel loved back from, intercede and keep them together?
This was not intended to be a slash, even though I'll leave that up to the author.
4. In The Name of Merlin!:
Everyone in the wizarding world knows who Merlin is. Everyone also knows how the story of Merlin goes. Merlin, in the end, was defeated by being seduced by Vivien (aka the lady of the lake) He revealed his power to her, and she cast a spell on him forever trapping him within an oak tree (A/N: I did not make that up, that's how the original story of Merlin goes; I'm just using the background info to help with this idea). What no one knows is that Merlin indeed broke free again, years later, and is now using the name Albus Dumbledor. Now Harry has put all the facts together and has discovered Dumbledor's, or rather Merlin's, secret. Even more, Harry found out that he's related to Dumbledor! Does Voldemort know about Dumbledor's secret? Could that be why Voldemort was always so afraid of him? Will the rest of the Wizard community find out?
I decided to leave more room for creativity in this one. Basically, have fun with it. Once again, please leave a review with it if you plan to use it and I do like getting credit. Also, if you need more info on Merlin (His Animagus forms, powers, history, etc) just ask, and I'll give it.
5. Dying Angel
Severus Snape, feared potions master of Hogwarts, decides that midway through the summer holiday, he's going to take his fifth year Slytherins on an out of school field trip. This is no ordinary field trip, however. The assignment is to study a wizard that lives in a muggle family to observe the difference in this wizard's life style over the summer. The vote from the Slytherins was unanimous. Harry Potter. Snape casts an invisibility/ sound proof charm on his class and himself and they floo powdered themselves to the Dursley's. They were quite surprised at what they found. Harry Potter, the Golden Boy Who Lived, loved by good, feared by evil, teacher's pet, goody-goody, angel child, was in reality abused by his relatives. He's quite thin and tattered, covered in cuts and bruises. His eyes are dull, and his voice toneless. He is shy, timid, and skittish; he seems to be afraid of people. Even worse, the Dursley's enrolled him in a summer school, and Harry is back to being the small, skinny, pale kid that's easy to beat up and pick on. Snape realizes that Harry is dying a little every day with the combination of his nightmares in both a state of dormancy and consciousness. Snape is utterly horrified at watching the way Harry is treated. One day, as the class is still observing Harry, his uncle gives Harry the worst beating ever. Snape can no longer stand aside, and he comes to Harry's aid. Now Harry is in the care of Snape and the other Slytherins. Will this be the chance to break the ice between the Gryffindor and Slytherin house? Will Harry ever be the same person again? And when school starts again, will Snape be able to let Harry go?
This one wasn't my most original, but I still have yet to find a fic that matches this criteria.
6. The Truth About Voldemort
This one is supposed to be a humor fic. Basically, Harry is dragged to a Michael Jackson concert by Hermoine and some other muggles, ang lo and behold! Michael Jackson, in reality, is Voldemort! Harry doesn't know how he could have missed it before. . . the long fingers, the beyond white skin, the serpentine nose. . . What will happen when Harry delivers this news to the wizarding world??? That's all for now, I'll add new ideas as I think of them. If you want to use one of these, just leave the challenge's number or title in a chapter review (not the challenges review since the reviews would get deleted) Thanks again, and enjoy writing!
Free Post Section:
This is a section where I will post challenges from other people who wish to have them posted here. If you would like to post a challenge here, then let me know, and I'll post it and make sure you get credit for it. If you want to use any of these challenges, don't ask me, ask the person who came up with it. I'll leave their pen name or e-mail address so you can get persmission.
Pen name Fire Mage:
1. AU What if the Dursleys really /had/ done everything to stop Harry from learning magic? The Dursleys move to America as soon as they get Harry. They decide to treat him okay, since they don't want him knowing that there's anything special about him. They forbid the children to read fantasy books, or watch fantasy movies. So their kids fall in love with science fiction. They dream to fly in a space ship once, and save the universe from aliens. When Harry gets the letter he just throws it in the trash, and continues dreaming of a career as an astonaut or pilot of a spaceship. The wizards are really annoyed that their best man is a science fiction freak, when a Slytherin gets the idea to tell him that he's being recruted to fight an alien (Voldemort). This alien had gotten humans to follow him, and looked a little like a snake. They're rather surprised with how fast Harry agrees to fight the alien. He's told that wands are high- tech weapons, and he had to speak different words to get it to do different things. He's a really fast learner, and is soon ready to fight Voldemort. Everyone is really confused when he calls Voldemort an alien, and uses the wand like a gun. He wins, and finds out that Voldemort wasn't really an alien. He's so angry that he just goes back home, and becomes an astonaut. In the end he really encounters aliens, and destroys them. Then the muggles celebrate him, and the wizards just shake their heads. It's beyond their comprehension.
2. What if Harry had run away from the Dursleys when he was four, and now living in the Scottish mountains. He hates humans, and is able to talk with the wild life. He uses his abilities to heal the plants and animals. Yes, he has to eat, but he only eats with permission, and even then he tries to make it as painless as possible. Then he weeps bitterly for the animal he had to kill to live. The animals always come to him and reasure him that he's just following the laws of nature. His home is paradise, and he enjoys it fully. His eleventh birthday comes, he gets the letter, and he sends back a note that he's content in being where he is. Everything is perfect for him, until his best friend, an eagle, is killed and a signiture, a green skull with a snake winding around it, is hoovering over his body. He lets his anger take hold of him, and sets out to destroy this person that killed his friend. With him come many of his other friends. They acidently find Hogwarts, where Harry finds out that it was Voldemort, and that he had also killed Harry's parents. He accepts the offered training, and the animals stay around. They have taken on the role of his bodguard, and the bigger ones that were resistant to magic guard the gates. The ones that couldn't really do either that well just lounged around. When Harry was ready he attacks and kills Voldemort. Then he returns to his mountain, and lives in harmony till the next time.
3. Harry Potter/Discworld crossover. Harry is actually Death, and a double has to jump in for him when he's off on his 'Death' duties. Then one day he has to kill Voldemort, and take his soul at the same time. How can he keep them from finding out?
4. In his fifth year Harry goes away from Hogwarts, and comes back under an other name, and other features. He basically looks the same except he'S got contacts that make his eyes look grey, and has died his hair green, then made it stick up straight with gel. No one recognises him. His name is Alexander Jameson. Voldemort is searching the country for him, while he is just enjoying a year at Hogwarts. The only thing is that he has to keep up his disguise, and let the hat put him in Slytherin this time, because he thought that this would make it even less likely that anyone would figure him out.
5. Ranma 1/2 and Harry Potter crossover. Harry goes to Japan to the Saotome family, because they still owe Dumbledore a favor. Ranma gets the brilliant idea to have Harry purposely fall into one of the springs, and get Voldemort off his trail like that. Well Harry turns into an oriental dragon, which are much more powerful than the European ones, because they're able to use magic most of the time. Well, the dragon tamers are trying to catch him, to keep him in check, and Voldemort wants to catch him too, because the dragons are so powerful. One question: how many more brilliant ideas will Ranma have, and will we survive them?
6. Ron, Fred and George are tripplets. Fred and George are in Slytherin with Harry, and Ron is in Ravenclaw. Ron thinks up the pranks, and the other three carry them out. Hermione is in Ravenclaw, and their main enemy. She's always trying to convince the house that Ron is involved in the pranking, but no one believes her.
7. AU fic where Petunia hast to work when the two are about two years old, and they need a nani. Marry Poppins shows up, and helps the Dursleys accept Harry, and in so doing changes the books, because Harry got along with the Dursleys since then. They moved to Canada and weren't heard of by the wizarding world since. Voldemort never got the stone, because of the Mirror of Erised, so he's still teaching there and no one knows. Well, the wizards in canada have been trying to track Harry down, and finally they find him and his family in a cottege in the woods. They're really happy, and they don't want to disturb them. They only say that they've been found, and tell their piers where. It's agreed to leave them alone unless dire circumstances call for it. One day Voldemort returns and they have to call on Harry. He reluctently follows the cry for help, and saves the world. All the while he just wants to return to the woods he loves so dearly. At the end he can, and he does. But by then a girl has fallen for him, and keeps on coming to visit him. Dudley isn't so fat, because he and Harry have always been playing in the woods. Harry is always gone when she comes, and that is no accident. He's afraid of girls, since he hasn't been around any other than his aunt. Their nany left when the wind changed. He does end up getting together with her, but half the time he's running away from her. The greatest dark lord ever can't scare him, but a simple girl scares the living daylights out of him.
I will repeat, these challenges belong to Fire Mage and I pasted them with the exact words. Therefore, contact Fire Mage if you want to use any of these seven challenges. If anyone else wants to post a challenge on this post page, just e-mail or IM me, and I'll post them with credit to you, right away.