I show not your face but your heart's desire

[brimtoast.livejournal.com]

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?

Comments

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

I couldn't decide where to append this comment in the thread, but I think that Neville-as-Chosen-One is a red herring because the hp_alternity is focused very explicitly on Harry:

ALTERNITY is a Harry Potter roleplaying game, set in an alternate universe where Lord Voldemort has the upper hand.

As a result of one tiny change back when it all started, Harry Potter has been raised as Harry Marvolo, the Dark Lord's adoptive son and heir apparent. He simultaneously loathes and is intrigued by the Mudbloods and Muggles that are interned in work camps throughout Great Britain. He knows nothing of the world beyond the United Kingdom's seemingly impenetrable wards. And he is about to start attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry... where he will encounter truths about his past, present, and future that he has never known before.

It's too early for Harry to have had many encounters yet with the hidden truths that are lurking to ambush him, but we've got seven years to spread that out over. (I'm having a bit of trouble adjusting my plot expectations to that time line because I keep over-reading or expecting plot events to mean more than they do. I keep thinking in terms of a long, chaptered fic not in terms of a game that's plotted to last for seven years. We're not close to ANY resolutions yet. However, we can look forward to yearly progress and to one big plot chunk developing and resolving in each of those years, so there is significant stuff afoot, including very likely some stuff that will happen during the Christmas holidays.

My personal speculation... (I hesitate to put this in print - not because I fear being crazy wrong - that'd be okay - but because I almost hate to burden players with this sort of plot speculation - what if it's close? what if it sounds like a fen demand? what if they grow to wish they could just play without having us guessing what they're about to do?) ... my personal speculation is that there is going to be some event that will demand the LP and Lucius Malfoy (and other Death Eaters) to be absent over the holidays. Perhaps they'll think they have caught Sirius or Dumbledore (we haven't heard from Dumbledore for a long time, have we?*) or Kingsley Shacklebolt will start a really major uprising in the camps and the DE sprogs will get sent back to Hogwarts early.

I'm inclined to read Draco's most recent post not only as a contribution to the Hogwarts environmental illness mystery but also as a set up for Draco's suffering a massive disappointment when something comes up and he can't go home for the holidays as he's so eager to do.

*Re. Dumbledore's absence: it's only just occurred to me how completely canonical that is -- and that we should be expecting to hear something of him over the holidays because that parallels one of his appearances in the Book One narrative.

[brimtoast.livejournal.com]

(I hesitate to put this in print - not because I fear being crazy wrong - that'd be okay - but because I almost hate to burden players with this sort of plot speculation - what if it's close? what if it sounds like a fen demand? what if they grow to wish they could just play without having us guessing what they're about to do?)

I've had similar thoughts as well. On one hand, I think players probably enjoy being able to read our thoughts. But on the other, what if we actually get close to a future twist, or figure it out entirely, and they're stuck in the situation of playing something like a twist when they actually know the readers already know about it?

If it does make them uncomfortable, they could ask us to back off speculating about the future and stick to analyzing the current happenings, which would still give us plenty to talk about. I would definitely honor that request.

(I am going to respond to the rest of your comment too, but I wanted to address that first.)

[queenbookwench.livejournal.com]

I can only speak for myself but I certainly don't mind!

[nmalfoy.livejournal.com]

I don't mind either! I love reading what y'all have to say. I will say that sometimes you guys are scary smart.

[brimtoast.livejournal.com]

Okay, in response to the rest.

1. I hope you're right about Harry vs. Neville. I hadn't thought to look to the official description, but it's true that it does seem to point in that direction. Though do we assume that they already had the main plot figured out when they wrote that?

2. If Sirius got caught eventually and went to Azkaban, that *would* help set up the year 3 plot to go somewhat similarly to the books. I wonder if he would be allowed to keep his journal in Azkaban.

3. Poor Draco :(

4. Since Dumbledore and Harry have no relationship, and Harry's probably never even heard of Dumbledore, I wouldn't be surprised if Dumbledore's important parts, at least for now, got passed to someone else. Most likely McGonagall as the person who gives him the invisibility cloak, but maybe Lucius or Voldemort could take on some of the wisdom-giving role as well, especially when it comes to things like explaining the nature of the mirror to Harry.