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brimtoast.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
alt_fen2008-12-04 07:26 pm
brimtoast.livejournal.com) wrote in alt_fen2008-12-04 07:26 pm
I show not your face but your heart's desire
Assuming alternity continues to incorporate big canon events, we should expect Harry to find the Mirror of Erised in a little under a month.
"It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts." -Dumbledore
What do you predict Harry Marvolo will see there?
"It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts." -Dumbledore
What do you predict Harry Marvolo will see there?
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You have just totally illuminated some thoughts I was having earlier.
I was thinking about the big events in canon, and how they might play out in Alternity. And because of Harry's role as they go on (like how he directly comes into conflict with Voldemort several times in climactic scenes), he will either eventually need to become estranged from his father and start fighting him, or he will need to be fighting someone else (like maybe Order members? Like, the same structures to conflicts but he's on the opposite side?).
But OH MY GOD your way makes so much sense. In fact, it would be so easy to stick close to canon if we sub in Neville for Harry. He's already Ron's best friend and a Gryffindor, and he has battled the troll and seen Fluffy. He has a much greater likelihood of becoming friends with Hermione. He is the brave and moral character that Harry was in canon. It seems like so far, it is completely ambiguous whether it will be Harry or Neville in that big Philosopher's Stone scene at the end of the year. But if it's Neville, it would make little stuff (like Slytherin winning the cup until Gryffindor gets those last-minute points) fit in with the book much more easily. And motivation-wise, I could much more easily see Neville going out to try to save the day by preventing whoever from getting the Philosopher's Stone than I could see Harry Marvolo doing so.
It seems so clear now that this ambiguity about who is going to fulfill the prophecy has been purposely set up, and I didn't even think about it until now! I wonder if it will start to more clearly differentiate as time goes by, or if Harry and Neville will just be together for most of the big events to keep the mystery going. Or take turns with them, so that they each have an equal chance of doing each big Harry-in-canon thing. I would think by fourth year, we'd have a big clue, if Voldemort mixes his blood with one of the boys.
OR MAYBE AT THE LAST MINUTE THEY'LL JUST KILL VOLDEMORT TOGETHER.
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But that's the thing, isn't it - all these things Voldemort does in canon, the LP may not have a reason to do in this universe. He may not need the Philosopher's Stone, because he's not a shade desperately clinging to life. He may not need the blood of Harry or Neville because he won't need to be reincorporated. (That sentence looks hilarious, but I trust you know what I really mean.) And I'm not sure Harry or Neville would do it at this point - he picked Harry in canon because Harry was his "greatest enemy." In Alternity, Harry's his son and Neville is a regular schoolboy. Unless Neville starts having confrontations with the LP that lead to him getting enemy status!
If Neville winds up being the Chosen One in this universe, I'm afraid he's going to have it even harder than Harry did in canon. Neville doesn't have a Dumbledore whispering to him and he doesn't have a sense of righteousness against Voldemort-the-villain; instead, he'll be on his own (with a Headmistress who has to pretend to be a Death Eater) and accused of sedition against the Lord Protector. I'm worried for him, if that's how this plays out.
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Or maybe Harry could grow to fill Neville's canon role, and eventually be a major voice in the Hogwarts student resistance and kill Nagini, but still not do the whole Chosen One thing, and take much longer to get there.
Or maybe this pattern where they hit the same beats as canon is more of a neat shout-out to AU-ness than a mission statement for the future, and as time goes on they'll abandon it.
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Boot and Hermione are shaping up to be really wonderful downtrodden heroes. What if they discover the Mirror?
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Genius! They are the ones with the greatest desires! Neville might miss his parents, but they're still alive and fine, you know? Hermione might see herself as a student, a prefect, Head Girl! Someone with friends and personhood and knowledge. Oh, Hermione. Everything you are supposed to have.
I'm afraid Terry is too beat down to recognize his own desires - unless he sees freedom, which we know he's thought about for his essay. (Which, by the way this: that you will be your own master and nobody else can tell you what to do. dont know who would give you that reward, exactly. or is it something you claim for yourself because no one can give it to you? kind of breaks my heart.)
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Which is exactly why the mirror would be so powerful for him.
Though I may be giving it too much credit. Dumbledore also says "However, this mirror will give us neither knowledge or truth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible."
Of course, Dumbledore doesn't actually know everything, nor does he always use precisely the correct words. So maybe it can give knowledge, if it's self-awareness type knowledge. And for several of the kids, I think that seeing the difference between what they actually desire and what they've been told they should desire could be pretty interesting.
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Yes! Definitely.
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