u/Cat_Intrigue

Set-up: Harry died multiple times in multiple different ways, over and over, until the final time he even was sent back with his memories from the life before the final one.

He failed again.

Now that Harry is gone. His soul wiped and recycled with a black mark- forever barred from any life where the soul will matter or have any impact on the world. Destined to never again have any role of importance.

That still leaves the Prophecy needing to be fulfilled and Voldemort stopped. So its time for a new soul to take on the job/role.

SI/new soul gets sent back (at any point of choice, from pre-first year, to any point later in the timeline, and not limited to canon- see below)

The new soul, not being familiar with magic, is sent back with the combination of all the memories of each of the previous lifetimes/timelines. None of them canon.

I'll repeat that: none of the previous lifetimes were Canon.

Some were in each of the different Hogwarts Houses, some had him leaving the country/trying to run from his destiny, some had him getting raised outside the country only to be found and dragged back away from the ones who raised him, some had things go horribly wrong (arrive to warn Hermione only to find the troll dragging her dead and broken body, getting knocked off his broom by Quirrel, surviving when the scarcrux got taken and medical aid was able to "revive" him, Ron refusing to go get treated for the dragon bite only to end up dying from the venom, only for him to then end up dying to the Devil's Snare), etc etc.

So the new soul/"Harry" has to figure out what to do when none of the memories of the past lives actually resembled Canon, and even the closest examples just showed him not having/being able to rely on luck/plot armor.

Perhaps its a Harry actually trained by Dumbledore/following his "Greater Good" philosophy, where he truly believes that for the greater good of Britain riddle must be stopped from returning and thus the sacrifice of Ginny while regrettable is justified.

Perhaps the Scarcrux influences/ is Harry and it is stopping the competition.

Perhaps Harry, after facing Quirrelmort, foolishly made a vow to stop Voldemort no matter the cost, and magic compels him to take the easiest/most ruthless/fastest path to accomplish that goal at every opportunity.

Perhaps getting left with the Dursleys turned Harry into a sociopath that only looks out for himself.

Etc etc.

Lily was desperate enough to make sure her son survived that she made a deal with the Fae.

The actual Harry Potter was taken to the fae court(s), and a changeling was left in his place.

The AK doesn't work on Fae: for the purposes of this prompt the AK severs a mortal soul from its physical shell and stops all bio electrical signals in the body shutting down the nervous system, brain, and heart. Fae don't have a soul/aren't a soul in a body/shell, fae are souls that physically manifest- their body is their soul, and their soul is their body (this also means they cannot have their soul sucked out by a dementor).

This is why the AK didn't work on baby "Harry". Voldemort had intended to use Harry's death to make his final horcrux, so the AK was part of the ritual. When the AK didn't work on "Harry" it caused the ritual to fail, the backlash is what blew up the house and destroyed Voldemort's body, and turned his own psuedo- "death" into the source for severing his soul.

Because fae bodies are their soul's made manifest the AK did leave a mark on the Changeling Harry's soul/body, thus the lightning bolt scar.

Furthermore, Lily used a thrice struck bargain- witnessed by a fae, to "no, kill me instead, not Harry" as a counter to Voldemort's demands for her to step aside/spare her. Voldemort's killing of her, instead of stunning her or otherwise disabling or incapacitating her and thus denying her counter proposal, was taken as a thrice witnessed bargain, killing her counted as accepting her counter offer. This then further added onto the problems Voldemort would face after trying to kill "Harry".

Not only did Voldemort's AK fail, and thus the horcrux ritual backlash destroy his own body, but by making the attempt to kill Harry he broke a fae witnessed thrice struck bargain. As such the changeling "harry", having their body, and thus soul, marked in the attempted murder, and breaking of the bargain, in turn lays claim to Voldemort's soul as the cost for breaking it.

Thus the changeling captured the severed portion of Voldemort's soul while the main consciousness and remainder fled the scene. The lightning bolt scar serves as a metaphysical "pocket"/prison within "Harry's soul"/body.

This "Harry" fully intends to hunt down and claim every last portion of Voldemort's soul.

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Bonus Ideas:

Fae/Changeling are the source of Metamorphmagus, this Harry is one.

The Goblet of Fire summons the actual Harry Potter when the name comes out. (Which one, or both, separately or jointly, of the "Harry Potters" has to compete is open for personal interpretation). This could eventually lead to the discovery of the one being a changeling or just cause confusion.

Should the fact that "Changeling Harry" is in fact a changeling come out (with or without "real/fae-raised Harry" being present) then Changeling Harry may choose to change gender (fae being gender fluid as part of having no true set form, particularly those taking on the role of changelings where they have to assume the form of the replaced child, whichever gender it has, and thus changing to the opposite gender should they be discovered or choose to reveal their nature is common). Alternatively, should "Harry" be a metamorphmagus, they may simply take advantage of being in the magical world/at hogwarts to "explore their gender identity" and the capability of their Metamorphmagus power "without the Dursleys beating me and locking me in my cupboard" for doing so.

Fae and cold iron. Much lore has fae suffering from contact with (cold) iron in the same way werewolves do with regards to silver. How much this does or doesn't apply to "Harry" (perhaps the effects only apply to Changeling if they're using Metamorphmagus ability and the "base form" is protected, as one example) is open to interpretation and is honestly optional as far as the original concept of the prompt goes.

Changeling Harry can speak with more than just snakes (and maybe doesn't even use/speak Parseltongue to command the snake during the Dueling club/ for opening the way to the Chamber, fae magic letting him speak to animals lets him bypass the parseltongue passwords), but the fact that he could command the snake still gets him suspected of being the Heir of Slythern.

Harry immediately knows that Scabbers is an animagus on the train. What he does with this knowledge/how much this changes the story is open-ended.

Harry likes striking bargains and making deals.

The Goblins know immediately that "Harry" is a changeling (either having Fae blood themselves or otherwise just being "able to know" a fae upon sight, or they were informed by Lily that she was going to make the exchange to protect her son). This could effect the relationship of the bank/Goblins with "Harry" in multiple possible ways. They could be more helpful, or alternatively hostile, they could deny "Harry" access, or blackmail him, or offer up additional services, or treat every interaction as a Fae Bargain that must be negotiated, or any number of other possibilities.

Harry could be able to sense the presence of a portion of Voldemort's soul within the Bank upon his first visit. This can give added context/complication to his interactions with the Goblins, moreso if they know his nature as the above option suggests.

Harry isn't the only Changeling and/or Fae-touched/Fae-blooded student/individual at Hogwarts: Tonks as a Metamorphmagus, if said ability comes from Changelings, would be one. If Goblins are fae-related, the Flitwick could be. Luna could be fae-touched (or what killed her mother could have had something to do with the fae, and luna was changed in some way by it too) as a way to explain some aspects of her character. And others, particularly the ones not really shown in canon: Lily Moon, Sally-Anne Perks, Fay Dunbar, Daphne Greengrass, Blaise Zabini, etc, any of them could be portrayed with a fae aspect as well.

All Magic/magicals could have its origins with the Fae. Muggleborn could be the children of muggle Changeling (or a result of the exchanged mortals being returned, or they are the children of the mortals taken to the Fae-realm that are sent to muggles in the mortal realm to be born), the pureblood families could just be descended from such in the distant past. The presence of squibs could be due to modern magicals having forgotten (or outlawed) the practice of exchanging some of their children for Changeling to refresh their family magics.

Or, rather than a bunch of surnames, "Harry" learns he has a bunch of first names, none of which are *Actually* "Harry" though they all could have Harry as a nickname.

Mastermind Ron (Post-war Auror training really helped refine his tactical ability and operation planning/running skills)

Thief Luna (she never wanted to be trapped/imprisoned again, so she learned how to break out of anything/anywhere- which she quickly realized would let her break in anywhere too. So what if she happens to target those pureblood families who hurt her)

Hitter Hermione (because PoA Malfoy punch and to throw a curveball to expectations. She's the hitter and outsiders learn that first only to get surprised by how knowledgeable she is on many many topics)

Hacker Harry (whether he stepped back from the magical world and really got into computers after Hogwarts, or its "Runes are Magical Programming" and ward/enchantment 'hacks' are Harry's specialty, or even both)

and to throw a further curve, or not, Daphne Greengrass as the Grifter. (She uses Slytherin wiles and refined ability to portray a mask/personality she wants others to see her as, maybe she even got tips/training from Blaise Zabini's mom?)

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The Ministry/Wizengamot remain corrupt after the war and when some pureblood supremacists try to muscle in on WWW Ron drags in his friends to help take them down.

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Alternatively Harry still is the one to call in his friends, even though Ron is the one he taps to plan the operation, to help out someone he met while studying in the muggle world.

Its Lockhart. Its all Lockhart.

The message one the wall, the petrified students, the fact the victims always implicate or have a connection to Harry Potter.

Its all a set up for Lockharts next Book, and a crossover with the "Roy Locke" written series of Harry Potter Adventure books as well.

The reason the Tournament was canceled was related to the number of times the Judges died and, over the last half-dozen tournaments held, the increasing death toll of Spectators as well. The last Tournament caused the death of every judge and a number of very influential people amongst the spectators.

When they say they made the trials safer, they mean safer for the Judges and spectators, not the Champions.

Instead of Dumbledore deciding to protect Harry via Security in Obscurity, he chooses the Security in Audacity route.

Harry's entire life is publicized and broadcast to the wizarding public. (Dumbledore was even able to stop the attempts by the wizengamot to block magical TV from Britain when he brought up that doing so would allow other countries to watch Harry grow up and the british public wouldn't.)

Whether his childhood is the same as canon, perhaps with the dark faction blocking any attempts of magicals to interfere with the muggles using the Light's own muggle protection laws, or if Dumbledore didn't put Harry with the Dursleys, perhaps using Petunia/Harry's blood to blood adopt the others/actors in order for the entire artifical town Harry is raised in to be a massive blood ward protected town.

Maybe they got young muggleborn and/or magical children to be on the show. Maybe put Hermione in a kind of Sylvia role and Ginny as Meryl.

To veer away from Truman Show plot a bit, perhaps a plot point could be that Harry thinks he has to keep the existence of magic away from everyone in town, and is trained "in secret" either by a "secret wizard" as an apprentice, or as part of a small secret society that poses as some type of club (which could be where other muggleborn get brought in, they're sent there by the purebloods to keep them out of hogwarts[?], and how Hermione meets Harry and tries to help him discover the secret of the town without breaking whatever magical contract/geas she and the other kids are under to not tell Harry the truth).

When "Harry Potter" comes out of the Goblet, with no listed school, and thus no limitations on which Harry was meant, the Ministry quickly realized they had a problem.

From the British Ministry's own middle aged file clerk in the archives, Harold "Harry" Evanston Potter, a muggleborn Hogwarts graduate from 1956. To the three other "Harry Potters" at Hogwarts itself (one unrelated 16 year old sixth year muggleborn that just happens to have been given the same exact name of Harry James Potter, and who's father was also named Harry Potter- his father having the middle name of Elrich, the James came from his mother's father's name. The second was named Harold "Harry" Charlus Potter and descends from Charlus Potter and Dorea Black Potter and was born on January 30th 1981 and is a third year. The third is actually a girl named Harry Ette Potter who's mother was a witch who married a muggle Potter to have a kid she could name Harry Potter and try to claim the Boy Who Lived's vaults.. said witch did not survive the attempt.) And that doesn't include the number of other kids born since that Halloween who have Harry Potter, or variants there of, as their first and middle names (heck Minister Fudge himself has a six year old son named Harry Potter Fudge).

Then there is the Beauxbatons seventh year student Henri Potter who gained the nickname "Harry" from his friends teasing him about being secretly the in-disguise boy who lived because he also has green eyes and black hair. Even Durmstrang has a couple Harry Potters back at their school that were too young to be brought along to the tournament.

Then there is the whole major Potter family that is spread throughout America and Canada from Nova Scotia to San Diego, California. There's roughly a dozen "Harry"s in that family from one Harry "Hank" Potter who teaches potions at Ilvermorny, to a young "Hari(ette)/Harry" Potter who publicly pushes for the non-binary term Wix as well as trans rights as a Senator for MACUSA, and many more of their cousins and family members.

There was even that notice from Australia recently about their new magical Chief Magistrate being named Harry Potter.

Yes, Harry Potter coming out from the Goblet of Fire is the worst thing to ever happen to Britain.

It's quite simple, I am the Harry Potter that is a Student of Hogwarts. The Hogwarts Champion is Cedric Diggory. If the Goblet wanted the Harry Potter of Hogwarts then Cedric wouldn't have been the one chosen for the Hogwarts. The Goblet has obviously chosen some Harry Potter at another school. Unless you're saying I am not a student at Hogwarts? Of course if it is some other Harry Potter they don't have to worry, their school isn't part of the contract for the Triwizard Tournament so the contract does not apply to that school's students. And similarly if you're saying that I am not a student of Hogwarts, which again would have to be true for the Goblet to actually select me, then I am not bound and you cannot make me compete as I am not your student. Beyond that as a part of the contract All judges are magically bound to not interfere with Champions of another school, and the ministry as a whole is not allowed to interfere with any of the Champions. So if I forced to act as if I am the one selected, and thus not a Hogwarts Student, then Neither you nor the British Ministry have any authority or control over me.

Han Solo not as a disreputable smuggler, but as a space/star wars flavored Professor/Archaeologist/adventurer. Where the Galactic Empire is even more Nazi inspired.

Still, like Indy, a sceptic about the supernatural yet gets caught up with Luke (and possibly Leia, should you want to make her legacy more prevalent too) and the Force.

Have multiple Jedi/Sith/Force artifacts getting found.

Is this a prophecy regarding Newt Scamander related to the Fantastic Beasts movies/plot lines?

Is this an AU where Tom Riddle is supposed to defeat Grindelwald? (And a manipulative Dumbledore controlling the young Tom?)

Is this a time traveling Harry (MoD or not) and its about Harry arriving in that time (and is the Dark Lord going to be Grindelwald or is it still Riddle? And will Dumbledore be pushing Harry to deal with Grindelwald because he misinterprets the prophecy- possibly leading to Dumbledore not defeating Grindelwald while Harry is still going after riddle?)?

Does Dumbledore think the prophecy applies to him some how?

Particularly set in The Old Republic (just to have more sith to shoot with their "slugthrowers" and have the said sith getting wrecked by the molten slag still going through their lightsabers.)

But in general any good ongoing/complete fics (or abandoned ones that don't have too annoying of a cliffhanger/cut-off)

Especially if things are set up such that the star wars galaxy (with its deep lore of the .. Celestials I think they call them, the ancient species that went around terraforming a whole bunch of planets and seeded basic life forms/that are why humanity and near humans are so wide spread) is also one where the Ancients/Alterans had a hand in the ancient past (to be clear, the Celestials as the same race as the Ancients. Particularly with how the Ancients were supposed to have some kind of abilities/powers, which could be linked to the origins of the Force/Jedaii?) And you could even have Yoda's species be the Furlings or something, as they're never covered/shown in stargate.

Force ghosts and the Ascended from Stargate.

Intergalactic stargate travel is shown (the Asgard are in a separate galaxy from the Milky way, not to mention the whole Pegasus Dwarf Galaxy setting for Atlantis), and there is The Ori/Origin galaxy, and the Alteran flight away from them in the distant past before arriving in the Milky Way(though they called it Avalon I think?), and the whole Stargate Universe ship.

There just seems to be a lot of room for the two franchises to mesh together, and before I start trying to slog through search results on FFN or AO3 I thought I would ask if anyone had any recommendations. (I did think about trying to write a prompt but I don't have any specific hook to base one on, just the above mentioned possible world/setting similarities that could be used in a crossover).

An AU where Harry Sorts into Ravenclaw.

Harry's thirst for knowledge is his most defining trait, its just that his approach to attaining that knowledge is a more hands-on method. Or even, you could say, a very Gryffindor-ish approach.

The rest of his house cannot make up their minds if he is more or less annoying because the questions he tries to find answers for are ones that do not have answers in books/cannot be answered by research.

Yes he is asking new questions, and even finding ways to look for answers to "unknowable mysteries" that have never been tried before.

But he's also thrown out entire centuries of "known" magical Laws:

creating a spell to shield from/cleanse *Radiation* and then showing that using it first allows for tranfiguring actual permanent Gold, and simply shrugging it off with a "I just figured all the people who tried kept dying and the few reports of how sounded like the reports of nuclear scientists and researchers dying to radiation poisoning. So I got curious if magic could shield and/or cleanse radiation- after all the muggles starting a nuclear war is a distinct possibility, so we really should have ways to deal with that- and when I made my spell I was curious and just decided to use it to keep me safe while trying one of the old attempts to transfigure gold. It worked. I think the old-timers just got hit with too much radiation and died before they could complete their spell. Seems like it was less an impossibility to make a spell and more an example of not being able to survive the secondary effects of the energy released during the transformation."

Like, who just does that with a brand new spell.

And his theory that the Philosopher's stone doesn't actually have anything directly to do with transmuting gold, instead just being a healing item that Allows Flamel to Survive doing so, with the argument that the reason Flamel doesn't flood the market with gold/that goblins don't take Flamels gold is because Flamel's gold is irradiated and hazardous.

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So basically a kind of mad scientist/crazy genius/experimenter Harry in Ravenclaw (who in second year gets a Lab Assistant in Luna who makes sure he uses safety procedures/takes precautions so that Harry doesn't kill himself like her mom did).

Pair it with a "Ravenclaw in Red" researcher Hermione that clashes with him until he goes to save her from the troll and then the two, with drastically different approaches learning how to work together.

Harry going after the Philosopher's stone, not to save it but to study it/see if his theory about it and the Flamel's is correct.

Also, the magical law: pretty sure one of the Gamp's Laws was that you can't make gold (or can't make permanent gold?) If that wasn't clear.

When Fawkes learns he can't just keep Harry in the Headmaster's office for any length of time he starts branching out.

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First to other Professor's offices (which in time has them start teaching the growing boy bits of their fields), the House Elves, Hagrid (even Mrs. Norris enjoys curling up in a basket with the young toddler).

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Then when the school isn't enough/Dumbledore starts reacting too fast Fawkes starts bringing the boy around to various other families. Weasleys, Tonks, Greengrasses, Patil, Brown, Bones etc etc..

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It gets such that Harry rarely spends more than an afternoon or a weekend at a time with the Dursleys, when Dumbledore can return him, before Fawkes comes in and flames away with Harry.

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Dumbledore spends more and more time trying to track down where "that blasted bird" has gotten off to with Harry.

Like similar fics where Harry gets cold and transforms/finds his animagus form, but this time he doesn't wander off.

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The Dursleys find kitten Harry in a basket on their porch along with a letter saying something vague like "Your Sister and her husband are dead, this is Harry, keeping him and giving him a good home will give your family protection from dark wizards that may want to harm you as well."

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There is nothing in the letter saying that Harry is Petunia's nephew, nor the Potter's son. Nothing saying he should be a human boy.

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Petunia's estranged relationship with her sister is such that she never even opened the wedding invitation, just saw it was something from her sister and threw it away. She didn't know her sister had gotten married, let alone that Harry was the name of her nephew and not just her sister's cat (perhaps they'd had a cat named "David, or Rebecca, or some other 'human' name as kids, so the cat being named Harry seems normal).

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So the Dursleys go about a completely normal life, and perhaps they even spoil Dudley slightly less because they aren't overcompensating to give him a drastically more spoiled life than Harry.

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And Harry is raised as a spoiled housecat. Though, he still gets chased up a tree by Ripper.

The schools involved in the Triwizard Tournament all agreed, and it was made a part of the Tournament contract, that the Champions would not have to take their N.E.W.T. exams. The way this was implemented was that each champion would automatically get passing grades from participating. (Maybe have potions brewing/usage and etc other courses incorporated into the tasks/preparing for them)

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This combined with the champions being required to be "of age" means that Madam Bones brings up that legally Harry has his NEWTs, and is Of Age, and thus fully legally allowed to do magic, and considered to have graduated from Hogwarts as of the previous year.

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The only remaining aspect to the charges is that Harry performed magic in front of a muggle. Since the said muggle is his cousin who already knows of magic and with whom Harry lives, then he didn't break any laws in doing so on that charge either.

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This came about because the Grangers live down the street from the Tonks family, and Hermione caught, and used to "blackmail" her, Tonks using her Metamorphagus ability to prank/scold some of Hermione's bullies.

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Tonks told Hermione about magic, about how it has to be kept a secret, and about how she intervened with the bullies because she's seen Hermione do accidental magic before.

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So Hermione grows up with a "big sis" figure in Tonks.

Take the boats, the ones firsties use to go to the castle their first night, do a tour of the lake/picnic on the water.

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Have the library include cosy reading nooks and squashy armchairs and fiction works, and just cuddle up and read together.

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Everyone has the Astronomy Tower, since its in the name, for star gazing, but what about using the Quidditch Pitch stands instead?

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Get a bit adventurous and fly or climb onto the rooftops around the castle, there's surely plenty of different nooks and hidden niches, maybe a decorative balcony with no access from inside the school, and maybe even some old sections of the castle that have ended up walled off that might be accessible from windows.

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Hogwarts is in the highlands, and often shown to be in a valley/against a mountain. The Forbidden forest is off limits, but there's never anything said about going for a hike, or even rock climbing in the mountains.

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There are magical classes and disciplines that have fallen out of the curriculum, but the classrooms/facilities could remain: music rooms, perhaps pottery/crafting hall, enchanting workshop, maybe a small ballroom (for etiquette/dance classes?), maybe a kitchen for learning household/cooking charms. Have the date set in one of these or similar rooms rather than a generic "an abandoned classroom". Make the room an integral part of the date.

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Explore the castle and actively have them find places from the above suggestions, and then can have them go back to them in future dates as a callback.

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Use a "generic abandoned classroom" but have a wizarding tent set up inside it for a more "homey" feel.

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Have the greenhouses also include a flower garden like the gardens of fancy manor houses. Going for a stroll, or a picnic, or touring the greenhouses themselves if there are various flowers in bloom (in areas beyond the normal class-room type spaces).

This is why so many books and texts are seemingly written by suspiciously and/or amusingly appropriately named authors for their subject matters.

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