Harry Potter Just as Planned! Really? Me too!

[Takerial]

***********


Fudge sat in his office, amazed that he was currently sitting in this chair as he distinctly remembered not being Minister anymore.

It was amazing. He stretched out and looked at all the doodads and knickknacks he had congregated to his office over the years.

Had he gone back somehow? Maybe this was a blessing. Maybe he could now make a name for himself other than just being that one cowardly Minister!

His thought train was interrupted when a one Arthur Weasley burst into his office screaming something.

As the curse slammed into him, he thought it sounded like "I WON'T ALLOW YOU TO FUCK THINGS UP AGAIN!" Well fuck. He wasn't the only one who came back.

**********

 

[Chuckg]

What you've forgotten is that if Voldemort has time to change his instructions, then Dumbledore has time to move the stone himself.á I even pointed this out already, if you'd read the thread. The Dursley's avoid the letter issue for over a week. That's a week and a day Dumbledore has to move the stone before Harry and the stone show up in the same place at the same time.

But Dumbledore has no reason to change his instructions; he knows it worked the first time, and he has no knowledge that anyone else came back. Dumbledore's going to be spending his time trying to change things that he knows didn't work out the first time around, and all of those are eventual future things.

The problem here is that the people with long-range plans are going to be totally pre-empted by the people whose plans are zero-day exploits. And villains are the ones most likely to go 'I want it NOW', whenever possible.

 

[Lord Raine]

But Dumbledore has no reason to change his instructions

Yes he does. It was nearly stolen, which means it's not secure. Considering what's at stake, that's reason enough.

 

[Chuckg]

Yes he does. It was nearly stolen, which means it's not secure. Considering what's at stake, that's reason enough.

But it wasn't stolen. Dumbledore knows this with the certainty of foreknowledge from the future.

 

[zeebee1]

If I was a war veteran who was sent back in time for no explainable reason I'd assume someone else was sent back as well.

 

[Dark Abstraction]

I know it's been said, but while the idea itself is interesting and pretty original, I just can't see anyone capable of writing this, just because of the sheer scope of what would have to be addressed.

The set-up, explaining what happened with the Bad Ending that inspired the Epic Time Magic. Depending on the survivors and when the spell happens in the war(*), the ideals and methods they bring back will be running loops around each other. Canon conflicting with lopper plans, looper schemes changing canon; it all seems pretty confusing.

I fully support it if someone chooses to take up the challenge and write it, but even as Crack, the story seems so tremendous that the writer would probablybe reduced to :headbanger: :help: :headbanger: if it lasted longer than a one-shot.

*(I assume it happens either somewhere from the beginning of the 7th book up to around 20 years from then(after that long, war wouldve killed most out anyways)

 

[Lord Raine]

Yes he does. It was nearly stolen, which means it's not secure. Considering what's at stake, that's reason enough.

But it wasn't stolen. Dumbledore knows this with the certainty of foreknowledge from the future.

You're an idiot. The vault was broken into the very day Hagrid retrieved it. Unless you're trying to argue that Dumbledore, canonically stated to obsessively keep up-to-date on both magical and muggle newspapers, would miss that fact, then Dumbledore knows that the stone isn't secure.

 

[Chuckg]

The empty vault was broken into, yes. The successfully emptied vault.

Seriously, you're acting like you've never read a loop fic in your life. Dumbledore knows the item is at risk, but he also knows that in the original timeline, things all worked out for the best on that day. That would be his strongest possible motive to wait and not change the original timeline in any relevant way until after that day. Otherwise he has to worry about the butterfly effect biting him in the ass.(*) To the best of his knowledge, if Dumbledore simply sits back and does nothing, the Stone will safely make it to Hogwarts. Because that's how it worked the first time.

Loopers try to change things that didn't work, not things that did work. This would be especially true for Albus Dumbledore, the reigning grand champion of hoping it all works out for the best. Of course, its not going to work out this time, but that's for a reason Dumbledore cannot possibly see coming.

Remember, Dumbledore does not know he is not the only time traveler. He has no way of knowing that this early in the game, unless you want to give him out-of-character knowledge. And that's sloppy writing.

Not to mention that Dumbledore's canonical planning is totally all subtle steps and long waiting for big returns later and an unshakable optimism that things will all work out for the best if he doesn't meddle too much, not an immediate overhand smash and/or paranoia. Its in-character.



(*) After all, on the day Hagrid goes to fetch the Stone, Diagon Alley is crowded with everyone picking up their back-to-school supplies. What if sending Hagrid earlier, during a low-traffic period, means that he's more easily able to be followed and mugged?

 

[Prince Charon]

Dumbledore and Snape are both Legilimencers, yes? Its strongly implied that Snape can do low-level Legilimency wandlessly, with eye-contact. If true, then Dumbles most likely can, as well.

Most of the people who went back are very probably not Occlumencers, so Snape and Dumbles have a pretty good chance of figuring out who was brought back, fairly quickly.

 

[Chuckg]

True, true... as soon as the kids actually get to Hogwarts. The relevant period in question is the beginning of August.

As for staff... Dumbledore and Snape probably don't use legilimency on each other due to them both having the occlumency up hardcore. If McGonagall is one of the returnees, tho, or Flitwick, or etc., Dumbledore is likely to pick that up, I will admit.

If so, then its a scramble.

 

[Shiakou]

*le sigh

It's perfectly sensible for Dumbledore to remove the stone earlier even if he knew that a break-in wouldn't occur until later, butterfly effect or not. He's not the type to be tactically conservative.

He would think "Transferring the stone early was good but close, transferring the stone earlier should be better. While I'm at it, try to convince Nicholas to destroy it earlier. Hmmm . . . is it possible to be immortal in the afterlife?"

Also:

"Milord, I'm sorry but I just can't catch that unicorn!"

"Bah!" rasped the voice from the back of Quirrel's head. "You're just not trying hard enough. We caught it easily the last time!"

"But we've been at it for hours and it's nearly daybreak. We have to-"

The argument was interrupted by Quirrel stumbling over some roots. By the time he got up, Quirrel was a mess of leaves, twigs, mud and. . .

"Shite?! Unicorn shite?! Milord, this. . . this. . ."

"I get it! We. . . We'll come back tomorrow."

The Dark Lord, thoroughly gutted about another night without unicorn blood, slowly limped back to Hogwarts.

The unicorn watched him go and shook it's head. One more day of life. One day longer than the last time. It supposed that was better than nothing.

 

[Chuckg]

It's perfectly sensible for Dumbledore to remove the stone earlier even if he knew that a break-in wouldn't occur until later, butterfly effect or not. He's not the type to be tactically conservative.

Que?

Dumbledore is exactly the type to let sleeping dragons lie and rely on hoping it all works out for the best rather than CONSTANT VILIGANCE. He spent seven books doing exactly that.

Although now that I'm reminded, there is someone on the Light side who is into massive paranoia, and I just used his catch phrase. If Mad-Eye is one of the people looping, he'll be in Dumbledore's office half a day after he wakes up (hey, it takes time to examine yourself to make sure it isn't memory charms, bad potions, etc!), insisting that Albus take all sorts of immediate action on all sorts of issues. He won't be mentioning why, but Dumbledore will soon figure out he ain't the only one looping. Either that or Moody'll be at Privet Drive trying to drag Harry away early for some training and toughening up, which brings Dumbledore right back into things again.

So yes, scenario will indeed likely to be leaving the rails early, if not for the same reasons.

 

[nuclear death frog]

I lean to the side of this being more difficult than it's worth. Yes, it *could* be awesome, but it would be more likely (vastly more likely IMO) to fail not just hard, but brutally hard, spectacularly hard. And also IMO but the more people who are sent back, the odds of it being a cataclysmic failure increase dramatically, perhaps even exponentially.

This is not to say it can't be done but it would require an utterly brilliant writer with ocean-sized tanks and reserve tanks of good luck. How many of *those* are out there?

 

[zerohour]

Another way to try and pull it off would be to start a RP thread, which each player playing someone who was sent back. It does run the risk of collaboration between the players, but it could be interesting.

One way to play would be to have one GM/Author who gets PMed what each player intends to do and then writes a chapter based on that.

I'd play.

 

[Shiakou]

Another way to try and pull it off would be to start a RP thread, which each player playing someone who was sent back.á It does run the risk of collaboration between the players, but it could be interesting.

One way to play would be to have one GM/Author who gets PMed what each player intends to do and then writes a chapter based on that.

I'd play.

IMO that runs another risk: players who can't/won't role-play. Or to be clearer, players who would do what they want, and not what the character in question would do. Or worse, players who would choose a character they don't like simply to bash them.

Dumbledore is exactly the type to let sleeping dragons lie and rely on hoping it all works out for the best rather than CONSTANT VILIGANCE. He spent seven books doing exactly that.

Except for Book 6 where he changed tactics and took Harry along on The Quest to Destroy the Horcruxes. Hooray for character development!

And Book 7 where he was, y'know, dead.

 

[kestrel404]

IMO that runs another risk: players who can't/won't role-play. Or to be clearer, players who would do what they want, and not what the character in question would do. Or worse, players who would choose a character they don't like simply to bash them.

I wouldn't call that a risk, so much as a gaurantee. Finding three people who can role-play at that kind of level (here's your character from fiction, here's a new situation, write a believable set of actions) and who are willing to do so would be nigh impossible. Finding a dozen is not gonna happen.

I say, just go for it. Either it's a trainwreck or it's not. Either way, it should be fun to watch (y'know, like all the other fics on this board).

 

[zerohour]

So, should we play this game of madness? Should I start a thread probing for interest in the HP talk section, the Rants section, or the TFF RPG section?

 

[zeebee1]

Think about this first. Define the roles. Decide who will be there, and who will play each role. And make sure that no one will jump ship like the last time.

I forgive, but I never forget.

 

[A Curious Stranger]

I would play, but I could probably only do so on Sundays.

The other times I post here, I do whenever I have a few minutes free and I don't have to study.

 

[kestrel404]

Well, first, how much interest do we have? Either we have as many loopers as we do players, or we get a 'pool' of extra loopers who aren't played but are useable to foil plans/cause interesting plot. I vote for the latter, for two reasons. First, it gives you an excuse you can use for not being omnipotent when unopposed by another player, and two because there aren't going to be all that many people in the 'game' to start with. This is probably going to end up a lot like the loop threads with people popping in and out as they please - have a bunch of 'less used' characters for people who want to pop in and post something, and the thread should last a lot longer.

Still, there should be a finite limit - if there are no characters who are 'out of the loop' so to speak, it'll make for a useless mess.

We need to:
Choose a starting point - at what point in the series are people looping back from? AU or canon? Etc.
Choose a cast - which characters are looping back? Obviously it's going to need to be a mix of good guys and bad guys, or else there's not a lot of story here (except maybe tenchi-style romantic comedy).

We have a start point - when Harry gets his first letter.

Anything I'm missing?

Also, for reference: <a href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Harry_Potter_characters' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Harry_Potter_characters</a>

 

[zerohour]

The way I'm thinking, there will be three types of participants
A: The players
B: The Router
C: The Writer/Editor

1: The players PM the Router what they plan to do. They have a certain timeframe to do so, or its assumed they aren't doing anything obvious/acting normal, so they don't disrupt the space-time continuum, or so they don't change events before they happen.

2: The Router sends all of the actions to the Writer, who then turns it into a chapter.

3: If there are multiple writers, who are switching off, they might send it to the Editor, who will make sure that everything is written in a similar style.

4: Rinse and repeat.

This has the advantage of eliminating any advantage you might have for posting later, as well as making it easier to keep the story coherent. The downside is that it requires someone to act as the DM and put in a lot of effort to keep track of everything. That's part of the reason it would be better to have a few writers so no one burns out, or screws us over by dropping out.

B and C could be the same thing, but I didn't want to marry the two of them together.

@Stranger: one of the benefits of this style is you can just PM "I do X, Y, and Z" and sit back and wait. Very little effort is required from the players.

 

[mandrke]

Okay... Sounds good!

 

[Drawde]

If you do end up doing this make sure you define, at least in general, the characters and genre. That way you can try to avoid some plots if you can. Especially cliched ones.

I can see, for example, most of you trying for a serious fic only to have a few try to turn it into a harem fic. Or something like "Bellatrix fell madly in love with Harry".

While I know you're going to role play, it can help prevent the story from falling apart right away.

 

[Ninsaneja]

Maybe a very quick derailment and ending a la mirai nikki paradox would be better.

People just fix shit/fuck shit up so fast that god intervenes and hits the reset key.


On that note, a replacement fic a la mirai nikki paradox would be funny, too... the only question is who replaces harry?

 

[Lord Raine]

It's nice to know so many people are eager to help make this piece of fan fiction work.