Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Futures Past
By Viridian
I also agree with you that if starving the boy and locking him in a cupboard for days at a time, then the cat-flap, locks, and bars isn't abuse, I don't know what is. If all that was going on, the Dursleys--at least Vernon--were beating him, too. Dumbledore relied too much on his pretty toys, didn't he? I always had a problem with that and stationing Order members OUTSIDE to WATCH didn't constitute keeping an eye on Harry.
You and I must come from the same country, because all those things you listed as crimes are crimes where I come from too. I liked your description of the lot of the magical child--especially an orphan--is little better than that of a House-elf, because they were left with no real legal means of defending themselves without fear of Ministry reprisal.
Thank you for allowing Harry to get a clue. Forget worrying about messing with the continuum. Wasn't that the whole point in the time-travel exercise anyway? To change things to save lives? I have a feeling that Harry's about to go renegade in a way, and take his friends along for the ride. Look out, sheeple--all Hell's about to break loose.
Excellent story so far!
I also agree with you that if starving the boy and locking him in a cupboard for days at a time, then the cat-flap, locks, and bars isn't abuse, I don't know what is. If all that was going on, the Dursleys--at least Vernon--were beating him, too. Dumbledore relied too much on his pretty toys, didn't he? I always had a problem with that and stationing Order members OUTSIDE to WATCH didn't constitute keeping an eye on Harry.
You and I must come from the same country, because all those things you listed as crimes are crimes where I come from too. I liked your description of the lot of the magical child--especially an orphan--is little better than that of a House-elf, because they were left with no real legal means of defending themselves without fear of Ministry reprisal.
Thank you for allowing Harry to get a clue. Forget worrying about messing with the continuum. Wasn't that the whole point in the time-travel exercise anyway? To change things to save lives? I have a feeling that Harry's about to go renegade in a way, and take his friends along for the ride. Look out, sheeple--all Hell's about to break loose.
Excellent story so far!
I've had several reviews of my own work that complain about Harry getting away with rather a lot of underaged magic. I can't recall exactly where the monitoring method was described, but I know
that Ministry doesn't react to underaged magic use inside the Burrow, Diagon Alley, 12 Grimmauld Place, etc. In my story, I have Harry using it at three different locations, but all of them are what
you might term "magical territory," shrouded by various wards: a Quidditch Pitch, a cottage belonging to Walden Macnair and being used by a group of Death Eaters as a base for particularly nasty
little plot, and an Order safehouse protected by the Fidelius Charm.
You mentioned Sirius and the Two-Way Mirror in one of your notes; what really boggles me about that is that the *first* time Harry risked expulsion to sneak into Umbridge's office and Floo-talk to
Sirius, Sirius didn't think to ask, "Why didn't you just use the mirror?" Harry, of course, had never opened the present because he didn't want Sirius coming to Hogwarts to give Snape a talking-to,
but you'd think Sirius would wonder why Harry wasn't using the thing. One of the changes in my own AU is that Harry gets the mirror for his fifteenth birthday instead of at the end of Winter
Holidays, and knows what it is all along.
Okay, enough ancillary stuff, I'll comment on the actual chapter now. What Harry appears to have missed is the larger picture of Lucius Malfoy's plot: the thrust of it was to discredit Arthur Weasley
by implicating his daughter in attacks on Muggle-borns, to the end of defeating his new Muggle Protection Act. Given Harry's intensified rivalry with Draco and Lucius's consequent greater awareness
of Harry, it's not surprising that Lucius should pursue the same goal via an oblique strike at Harry, using Vernon Dursley as a cat's paw. Hence the lifting of Dumbledore's Memory Charm, and the box
of doxies. On to the next chapter to see if I've worked it out correctly.
Good chapter. Now maybe something will be done to correct things.
gunny
"Albus stared at him and Arthur felt a little guilty. He’d followed this Wizarding legend unquestioningly during the war, who was he to question the man’s judgment now?"
Is Dumbledore using Legilimency here to try and influence Arthur? As soon as Arthur shakes off his doubts, Dumbledore acts resigned. We know he's not above using Legilimency to his own ends, and
Harry believes that Snape might have been influencing Harry's actions in the first timeline, but what if it was Dumbledore?
Albus Dumbledore, Killing students by criminal negligence since 1943.
the more i read the better it is
I am very impressed with your Arthur Weasley - just great the way he stood up to Dumbledore. Not in canon but very possibly the canon red-headed patriarch.
This was very intense excellent writing.
This has been the best chapter yet....for the exact reason you said some people wouldn't like it :-)
Characters are at their most believable and raise the most empathy when they are fallible of flawed. Nicely done, I especially liked your portrayal of Arthur. I think you got the essence of the man
spot on with a lovely sparsity of words.
Your story is kinda like a great television show. a viewer/reader always has a line in their head drawn that they don't think the storywriter will cross, and when the storyteller does cross that line, we're shocked and hooked. i'm definitely hooked on this story as you tend to go in the direction that makes me go Ted "woah" and want to keep reading more. Thanks for keeping up with the writing.
it is not so much the abuse itself that we complain about it is the 15 page chapter (spread over two chapters i agree ) of misery , andd pain , and suffering , and injuries , and bleeding , and infections , and ....., i feel like i am reading dumbledore's army agaoin or refiner's fire , 1500 pages of never ending misery . still a great story though .
I agree with your A/N. And I also must say that this fic has been BRILLIANT so far.
I also agree with you that if starving the boy and locking him in a cupboard for days at a time, then the cat-flap, locks, and bars isn't abuse, I don't know what is. If all that was going on, the Dursleys--at least Vernon--were beating him, too. Dumbledore relied too much on his pretty toys, didn't he? I always had a problem with that and stationing Order members OUTSIDE to WATCH didn't constitute keeping an eye on Harry.
You and I must come from the same country, because all those things you listed as crimes are crimes where I come from too. I liked your description of the lot of the magical child--especially an orphan--is little better than that of a House-elf, because they were left with no real legal means of defending themselves without fear of Ministry reprisal.
Thank you for allowing Harry to get a clue. Forget worrying about messing with the continuum. Wasn't that the whole point in the time-travel exercise anyway? To change things to save lives? I have a feeling that Harry's about to go renegade in a way, and take his friends along for the ride. Look out, sheeple--all Hell's about to break loose.
Excellent story so far!