I've seen a few HP/Lyrical Nanoha crossover stories in the past, some of which I've loved, and some not so much. I've recently had a plot bunny bite me though and its continued to build in my head and I feel the need to write the idea down. Unfortunately, while I enjoy writing, I've never succeeded in as ambitious a project as this would be, and don't feel it would be fair to post a few chapters and give up on it, leaving people hanging. With that in mind, I thought I'd offer it up here to see what people think. If anyone feels like going running with it, go right ahead, I'd be interested in seeing what others come up with. And maybe I'll try my hand at it myself at some point.
It opens with a simple enough concept. What if, instead of trying to deny Harry's existence and beat/abuse/train magic out of him, the Dursleys decided to try and get Harry so attached to the scientific world that he wouldn't be interested in joining the 'backward' magical world. Particularly encouraging his studies in maths and sciences. Pushed to study these fields, backed by conditional love based on his success, the young Potter proved exceedingly gifted in mathematics and the accompanying hard sciences (such as physics).
In the end, the Dursleys both succeed, and fail in their endeavor. After receiving his Hogwarts letter (after much effort, as the Dursleys still attempt to hide it) he decides to enter his parents world, but his interest in math and science remains. It shows itself in his first trip to Diagon Alley in Florish and Blotts as he insists on getting a few introductory books on Arithmancy and (at the recommendation of someone working/shopping there) Runes which he reads during the summer before school.
The Arithmancy introductory would mention the basis of Arithmancy (the study of the interaction of magic and numbers) and the various fields that grew from that such as numberology and spell creation, etc along with simple examples like an Arithmatic calculation on the likely sales of the book, and the Arithmatic calculations of the Lumos spell. In reading these, and seeing the math involved, he recognizes a lot of it from his own studies, and before going to Hogwarts decides to get a number of more advanced muggle books on math to continue studying what he's learned to love, and hoping it'll help with Arithmancy. The original idea called for a lot of the math seen in spell creation to match with the math you would see in studying high energy physics (drawn from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha as I understand the Mid-Childan Magic System, which I can no longer find reference to, huh. Maybe I remember wrong. *shrug*) though another post done by Schema brought the possible use of Matrices to my attention.
After getting to Hogwarts (and being sorted into whatever house) Harry finds that his hyper focus on math and science leads to the unexpected problem of his lacking skill with regards to art, because lets face it, most magical studies are closer to an art than a science, so while his powerful magic means he never does poorly, he isn't top the class either, particularly in Transfiguration where much of it is visualization. This of course leads him to dive even more into Arithmancy and (more reluctantly) Runes, where he doesn't feel as frustrated.
It would be second year that would lead him to a number of ideas. The first of these would ironically be the diary of T. M. Riddle. It's a book that is clearly able to store far more information than its page count would ordinarily limit it to that is capable of directly interacting with its reader and capable of a high degree of thought and response. In that way, it's like a computer (Dudley Dursley is mentioned in book 1 chapter 2 as getting a computer for his birthday, among other things, so Harry would know of them) with a highly advanced A.I. to assist the user. With something like that he could store in it the Arithmatic equations, Runic arrays, incantations and wand movements of every spell he studies in a single small book that can quickly bring up the information on any stored spell he inquires about, and even assist in working out complex mathematical equations. It would be the ultimate helper in working out the detailed equations for spell creation with a minimum of risk from human error. His final confrontation with the diary that gave him this wonderful idea, rather than making him shy away from the whole idea, would to him highlight the need to limit any personality of intelligence he might enchant the book with.
The second big idea to come from second year would only come near the end, in the chamber of secrets itself, from what to most would be a minor aspect of the encounter, but would bug Harry days later until the seeds bloomed. The spell used by Tom Riddle to write out his name in the air in fire, then re-arrange the letters. The simple seeming thing would work its way through his mind into something almost completely unrelated, leading to questions to both Hermoine (if they're friends/study partners in the story) and Professor Flitwick, on first if the spell can be modified, or a different spell used, to make the writing be simply thin, stable energy instead of fire, quickly followed by if it, or another similar spell, would be able to write out say a paragraph, or a page visualized in the caster's mind all out at once, instead of needing to write it out a symbol at a time.
All of this would build up to the idea of pulling up the full array for a given spell as it would be needed for say a ward to cast the spell from his book, use that image and the writing spell to instantly create the array around himself, empower it and cast the spell. Now, really listing it out like this makes it sound like a long and complex process just to get around wand movements and incantations, but it could lead to so many possibilities. First off, having it all written out in (essentially) a spell circle like that would mean no chance of miss-pronunciation or bad wand work and the spell would be done precisely with no additional wasted energy, every time. I would say perfectly, but that depends on how perfect the calculations are, as the spell could be written in such a way as to be naturally wasteful. More than that though, if you're skilled in the math behind spell creation you could easily create and cast variations on spells that might otherwise be prohibitive due to the length of incantation, complex wand movements, or even requiring the mind to focus on too many separate details to be easily cast, especially while distracted. Examples could be taking the time to do the calculations and write out the array to make a blending of the levitation spell and blasting curse, allowing you to not just launch the curse, but direct its course mid flight. As most of the work would be done coming up with the array/circle before any actual confrontation, you could even adjust it further to instead create multiple blasting curses which you can direct as a group, or individually (the more you try to direct individually at a time, obviously the more complicated it gets) all from the creation and use of a single array. Taking it to such extremes and beyond (you can have a lot of fun with the idea really) suddenly make all the effort to create such a casting system worth it.
Now for any Nanoha fans, you might see the similarities beginning to really show here. Would I expect to see Nanoha and Fate in this story? No, probably not. After all, this concept right here, born in the mind of a boy skilled in mathematics, with a lot of magical power, but only 'average' in traditional spell casting, could very well be the early beginnings of what would one day become the Belkan and Mid-Childan Magical Systems, as well as the creation of the first "Intelligant Device", though really more of a Storage Device like Hayate's Tome of the Night Sky. Or it could be written that Belkan and Mid-Childan magic already exist elsewhere and this is the birth of a different, though similar magic on an un-administered world. If you go this route, obviously it becomes optional having MGLN show up, or not.
If you really want to run with it the thought had come to mind that arrays could be written up for something similar to leglimency and drawn directly into the cover of the book allowing Harry to link up the book mentally, thus silently directing it to find the array for a specific spell and draw it from the book directly to his mind in perfect detail instantly to make drawing the array out faster and simpler. I kind of foresee Harry creating many versions of the Book as ideas and experience come into play. While the original may be little more than a large hard drive, scientific calculator and basic written/verbal interface, I can see many ideas, both improvements and ones later scrapped for something better leading up to what could even be considered comparable to a Mid-Childan Intelligent Device with telepathic interface, automatic situational awareness and reactions, etc. Even the birth of Barrier Jackets would be possible, carefully writing out the array to transfigure/conjure a very specific set of combat robes and cast various protective enchantments on the cloths all simultaneously. It would likely take months to work out all the equations and write up what would undoubtedly be a massive array, but with such a magic system would require no more time to cast than most any other spell. It would be a good way to ensure that no matter what time or place, day or night he would have protective clothes available should he suddenly find himself attacked. I could see them being based on dueler's robes, or auror robes, or perhaps not robes at all.
I see this story being as much about the trials and difficulty Harry goes through essentially creating his own way of learning and using magic, including how others might react to his 'destroying thousands of years of tradition', etc., as I do this being about the war against Voldemort. I also imagine that, particularly later on as Harry gets better with his Magic System and continues to expand it out to various limits that you could have a lot of fun with combat scenes, such as Voldemort and Harry both flying without the aid of a broom over Hogwarts ground amidst the battle, Voldemort's power, ritual enhancements and experience against a young Harry able to send out barrages of blasting curses, blended spells of piercing and exploding hex intended to break even powerful shield spells, etc., each trying to both kill the other as well as position themselves so even if they miss their spells rain down over their opponents followers. You can also bring up things like with this spell system, would Harry find himself running into problems with the bigger spells later on with his wand not being able to handle channeling the amount of power needed, thus going back to old fasioned staffs? (which presumably can channel more power, but wouldn't offer the fine control you can get from wand movements.)
It will be interesting to see if anyone decides to toy with the idea, and I have to admit now that I've gotten all this written out, I'm both relieved of the burden a bit, as well as a bit more tempted to try it myself. Just don't know if I could really write a story spanning 7+ years of Hogwarts. Anyway, tell me what you all think of the idea. Where does it need work? What did you like/dislike about it? Does it sound interesting, or should I and others let it lie dead? I'm actually quite interested in everyone's thoughts on it.
It opens with a simple enough concept. What if, instead of trying to deny Harry's existence and beat/abuse/train magic out of him, the Dursleys decided to try and get Harry so attached to the scientific world that he wouldn't be interested in joining the 'backward' magical world. Particularly encouraging his studies in maths and sciences. Pushed to study these fields, backed by conditional love based on his success, the young Potter proved exceedingly gifted in mathematics and the accompanying hard sciences (such as physics).
In the end, the Dursleys both succeed, and fail in their endeavor. After receiving his Hogwarts letter (after much effort, as the Dursleys still attempt to hide it) he decides to enter his parents world, but his interest in math and science remains. It shows itself in his first trip to Diagon Alley in Florish and Blotts as he insists on getting a few introductory books on Arithmancy and (at the recommendation of someone working/shopping there) Runes which he reads during the summer before school.
The Arithmancy introductory would mention the basis of Arithmancy (the study of the interaction of magic and numbers) and the various fields that grew from that such as numberology and spell creation, etc along with simple examples like an Arithmatic calculation on the likely sales of the book, and the Arithmatic calculations of the Lumos spell. In reading these, and seeing the math involved, he recognizes a lot of it from his own studies, and before going to Hogwarts decides to get a number of more advanced muggle books on math to continue studying what he's learned to love, and hoping it'll help with Arithmancy. The original idea called for a lot of the math seen in spell creation to match with the math you would see in studying high energy physics (drawn from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha as I understand the Mid-Childan Magic System, which I can no longer find reference to, huh. Maybe I remember wrong. *shrug*) though another post done by Schema brought the possible use of Matrices to my attention.
After getting to Hogwarts (and being sorted into whatever house) Harry finds that his hyper focus on math and science leads to the unexpected problem of his lacking skill with regards to art, because lets face it, most magical studies are closer to an art than a science, so while his powerful magic means he never does poorly, he isn't top the class either, particularly in Transfiguration where much of it is visualization. This of course leads him to dive even more into Arithmancy and (more reluctantly) Runes, where he doesn't feel as frustrated.
It would be second year that would lead him to a number of ideas. The first of these would ironically be the diary of T. M. Riddle. It's a book that is clearly able to store far more information than its page count would ordinarily limit it to that is capable of directly interacting with its reader and capable of a high degree of thought and response. In that way, it's like a computer (Dudley Dursley is mentioned in book 1 chapter 2 as getting a computer for his birthday, among other things, so Harry would know of them) with a highly advanced A.I. to assist the user. With something like that he could store in it the Arithmatic equations, Runic arrays, incantations and wand movements of every spell he studies in a single small book that can quickly bring up the information on any stored spell he inquires about, and even assist in working out complex mathematical equations. It would be the ultimate helper in working out the detailed equations for spell creation with a minimum of risk from human error. His final confrontation with the diary that gave him this wonderful idea, rather than making him shy away from the whole idea, would to him highlight the need to limit any personality of intelligence he might enchant the book with.
The second big idea to come from second year would only come near the end, in the chamber of secrets itself, from what to most would be a minor aspect of the encounter, but would bug Harry days later until the seeds bloomed. The spell used by Tom Riddle to write out his name in the air in fire, then re-arrange the letters. The simple seeming thing would work its way through his mind into something almost completely unrelated, leading to questions to both Hermoine (if they're friends/study partners in the story) and Professor Flitwick, on first if the spell can be modified, or a different spell used, to make the writing be simply thin, stable energy instead of fire, quickly followed by if it, or another similar spell, would be able to write out say a paragraph, or a page visualized in the caster's mind all out at once, instead of needing to write it out a symbol at a time.
All of this would build up to the idea of pulling up the full array for a given spell as it would be needed for say a ward to cast the spell from his book, use that image and the writing spell to instantly create the array around himself, empower it and cast the spell. Now, really listing it out like this makes it sound like a long and complex process just to get around wand movements and incantations, but it could lead to so many possibilities. First off, having it all written out in (essentially) a spell circle like that would mean no chance of miss-pronunciation or bad wand work and the spell would be done precisely with no additional wasted energy, every time. I would say perfectly, but that depends on how perfect the calculations are, as the spell could be written in such a way as to be naturally wasteful. More than that though, if you're skilled in the math behind spell creation you could easily create and cast variations on spells that might otherwise be prohibitive due to the length of incantation, complex wand movements, or even requiring the mind to focus on too many separate details to be easily cast, especially while distracted. Examples could be taking the time to do the calculations and write out the array to make a blending of the levitation spell and blasting curse, allowing you to not just launch the curse, but direct its course mid flight. As most of the work would be done coming up with the array/circle before any actual confrontation, you could even adjust it further to instead create multiple blasting curses which you can direct as a group, or individually (the more you try to direct individually at a time, obviously the more complicated it gets) all from the creation and use of a single array. Taking it to such extremes and beyond (you can have a lot of fun with the idea really) suddenly make all the effort to create such a casting system worth it.
Now for any Nanoha fans, you might see the similarities beginning to really show here. Would I expect to see Nanoha and Fate in this story? No, probably not. After all, this concept right here, born in the mind of a boy skilled in mathematics, with a lot of magical power, but only 'average' in traditional spell casting, could very well be the early beginnings of what would one day become the Belkan and Mid-Childan Magical Systems, as well as the creation of the first "Intelligant Device", though really more of a Storage Device like Hayate's Tome of the Night Sky. Or it could be written that Belkan and Mid-Childan magic already exist elsewhere and this is the birth of a different, though similar magic on an un-administered world. If you go this route, obviously it becomes optional having MGLN show up, or not.
If you really want to run with it the thought had come to mind that arrays could be written up for something similar to leglimency and drawn directly into the cover of the book allowing Harry to link up the book mentally, thus silently directing it to find the array for a specific spell and draw it from the book directly to his mind in perfect detail instantly to make drawing the array out faster and simpler. I kind of foresee Harry creating many versions of the Book as ideas and experience come into play. While the original may be little more than a large hard drive, scientific calculator and basic written/verbal interface, I can see many ideas, both improvements and ones later scrapped for something better leading up to what could even be considered comparable to a Mid-Childan Intelligent Device with telepathic interface, automatic situational awareness and reactions, etc. Even the birth of Barrier Jackets would be possible, carefully writing out the array to transfigure/conjure a very specific set of combat robes and cast various protective enchantments on the cloths all simultaneously. It would likely take months to work out all the equations and write up what would undoubtedly be a massive array, but with such a magic system would require no more time to cast than most any other spell. It would be a good way to ensure that no matter what time or place, day or night he would have protective clothes available should he suddenly find himself attacked. I could see them being based on dueler's robes, or auror robes, or perhaps not robes at all.
I see this story being as much about the trials and difficulty Harry goes through essentially creating his own way of learning and using magic, including how others might react to his 'destroying thousands of years of tradition', etc., as I do this being about the war against Voldemort. I also imagine that, particularly later on as Harry gets better with his Magic System and continues to expand it out to various limits that you could have a lot of fun with combat scenes, such as Voldemort and Harry both flying without the aid of a broom over Hogwarts ground amidst the battle, Voldemort's power, ritual enhancements and experience against a young Harry able to send out barrages of blasting curses, blended spells of piercing and exploding hex intended to break even powerful shield spells, etc., each trying to both kill the other as well as position themselves so even if they miss their spells rain down over their opponents followers. You can also bring up things like with this spell system, would Harry find himself running into problems with the bigger spells later on with his wand not being able to handle channeling the amount of power needed, thus going back to old fasioned staffs? (which presumably can channel more power, but wouldn't offer the fine control you can get from wand movements.)
It will be interesting to see if anyone decides to toy with the idea, and I have to admit now that I've gotten all this written out, I'm both relieved of the burden a bit, as well as a bit more tempted to try it myself. Just don't know if I could really write a story spanning 7+ years of Hogwarts. Anyway, tell me what you all think of the idea. Where does it need work? What did you like/dislike about it? Does it sound interesting, or should I and others let it lie dead? I'm actually quite interested in everyone's thoughts on it.
I guess I can simple it down even more to simply: The Dursleys use a different tactic to try and break Harry away from the wizarding world, he ends up both skilled and interested in math and science, does mediocre in most magic classes, ends up using Arithmancy and Runes to create the beginnings of something similar to the Mid-Childan and Belkan Magic Systems you will find in Magical Girls Lyrical Nanoha, over all story is as much about the trials and tribulations of trying to essentially create your own magical casting style from within the heart of a heavily traditional land as it is about the war against Voldemort.