This is not strictly speaking an idea for a fic, but just some musings that might be turned into a starting point for a fic. It just needs a plot...
The idea comes from reading a lot of Philip K. Dick stories (which will always do funny things to your head) and "The Big Con" by David Maurer (The non-fiction book that the Movie "The Sting" was based on) and then thinking about Harry Potter. In the books Harry suddenly finds out that he is not a freak, but a rich and famous wizard destined to be hero. That is awful convenient isn't it?
What if the entire Wizarding World as Harry knows it was fake?
Obviously magic or something indistinguishable from it exist, but it does not really have to follow the rules that Harry has been told. With the ones who are faking Harry's magical experience having the abilities to shapeshift etc. They could easily set up Diagon Alley as a Big Store just for Harry's visit.
It wouldn't take a lot of man power to fake everything. The same actor that plays Draco Malfoy might also play the role of Stan Shunpike or Griphook the Goblin. All the poeple that Harry never interacts with don't even have to be really real. Su Li and Daphne Greengrass not to mention most of everyone not in Harry's year are just animated props of some sort or another. Harry doesn't have any classes with more than 20 students in it and he doesn't seem to talk with half of them.
A group of 2 dozen 'wizards' and 'witches' could probably fake everything that Harry experiences in the magical world.
Of course all this doesn't answer the question: Why go through all that trouble? Or: If Harry's reality is fake what is the underlying reality?
Perhaps there is a real magical society out there and Harry actually is someone rich and they are trying to trick him out of his fortune, but that would have to be quite a fortune to be worth that much effort. Maybe it is all just a giant set-up to trick Harry into performing a willing self-sacrifice, by making him believe into Horocruxces.
Maybe Harry is really powerful and they are performing the charade to keep him from realizing his true potential. He might be some sort of godling with amnesia and a bunch of human magic users who really are more like John Constantine than Gandalf are engaging in an elaborate charade in an effort to gain power or something.
Maybe there is no magics and it is really just psionics on a reality bending scale and the powers that be think that this is the safest way to channel his talents. Maybe Harry is a weapon groomed in a virtual reality to be eventually unleashed on the enemy.
Or maybe it is all real and someone just puts these ideas in Harry's head to make him doubt himself.
The idea comes from reading a lot of Philip K. Dick stories (which will always do funny things to your head) and "The Big Con" by David Maurer (The non-fiction book that the Movie "The Sting" was based on) and then thinking about Harry Potter. In the books Harry suddenly finds out that he is not a freak, but a rich and famous wizard destined to be hero. That is awful convenient isn't it?
What if the entire Wizarding World as Harry knows it was fake?
Obviously magic or something indistinguishable from it exist, but it does not really have to follow the rules that Harry has been told. With the ones who are faking Harry's magical experience having the abilities to shapeshift etc. They could easily set up Diagon Alley as a Big Store just for Harry's visit.
It wouldn't take a lot of man power to fake everything. The same actor that plays Draco Malfoy might also play the role of Stan Shunpike or Griphook the Goblin. All the poeple that Harry never interacts with don't even have to be really real. Su Li and Daphne Greengrass not to mention most of everyone not in Harry's year are just animated props of some sort or another. Harry doesn't have any classes with more than 20 students in it and he doesn't seem to talk with half of them.
A group of 2 dozen 'wizards' and 'witches' could probably fake everything that Harry experiences in the magical world.
Of course all this doesn't answer the question: Why go through all that trouble? Or: If Harry's reality is fake what is the underlying reality?
Perhaps there is a real magical society out there and Harry actually is someone rich and they are trying to trick him out of his fortune, but that would have to be quite a fortune to be worth that much effort. Maybe it is all just a giant set-up to trick Harry into performing a willing self-sacrifice, by making him believe into Horocruxces.
Maybe Harry is really powerful and they are performing the charade to keep him from realizing his true potential. He might be some sort of godling with amnesia and a bunch of human magic users who really are more like John Constantine than Gandalf are engaging in an elaborate charade in an effort to gain power or something.
Maybe there is no magics and it is really just psionics on a reality bending scale and the powers that be think that this is the safest way to channel his talents. Maybe Harry is a weapon groomed in a virtual reality to be eventually unleashed on the enemy.
Or maybe it is all real and someone just puts these ideas in Harry's head to make him doubt himself.
