[[!meta title="Try Again"]] This is my take on the reptilia28's "Don't fear the reaper" challenge: > ## CHALLENGE OUTLINE > > * Harry is killed at 17 during a fight with Voldemort. He's sent to his > Death's office (explained later) and finds out that this isn't the first > time that this has happened. > > * Harry's Death (who can have a human name) is mad at his arrival. Apparently, > people dying before their time is a black mark on the various Deaths' > records, and Harry is getting perilously close to getting this particular > one fired. > > * When Harry asks what was supposed to have happened, Death goes off on a rant > saying how he was supposed to have killed Voldemort, found his soulmate > ("Some Granger girl...") and lived to be a centennial age. But since Harry > keeps getting into life-threatening situations for one reason or another, he > keeps dying before that happens. Harry is surprised about the soulmate part. > > * Death gives Harry a paper to sign that allows him to retain his memories > (the previous times, he wasn't given this option for some reason). Harry is > deposited to a previous time of the writer's choosing. > > * Eventually, Harry gets it right. He kills Voldemort, gets the girl, and > lives to a ripe old age of whatever. And Death doesn't get fired. > > ## MISC REQUIREMENTS > > * Harry had to have died at least three times before this one. > > * The memory keeping contract must be included. > > * Death must refer to Hermione as "some Granger girl" when Harry's soulmate > turns up in his rant. > > * Obviously, must be H/Hr. > > * Have fun. > > OPTIONAL: > > * Dumbledore's manipulations can be a factor in Harry's premature demises. Here's my outline so far: * Death has no idea who Voldemort or Tom Riddle are. They just aren't important. * Upon investigation, it turns out that Tom Riddle died while he was attending Hogwarts. Cause of death: Horcrux creation. What's left behind isn't really alive in any meaningful sense. * Because he's not alive, Voldemort can be permanently destroyed by a simple exorcism. On any fragment of himself. * The prophecy applies to some dark lord in Canada. He was vanquished, as per prophecy, in 1984 by someone else. * The dark lord Tom Jerry Aspheart. * Defeated by some kid named Avernus Seeps. * By poisoning him with Aconite. * Because I need a villain, this is going to be a manipulative Dumbledore story, will all the clichés that entails. * Dumbledore will never believe that Voldemort is gone. * Dumbledore is stealing Harry's money. * The Weasleys are in on it. * In large part I'm still going to keep Dumbledore/Harry interaction to a minimum. * Harry undoes manipulations as he discovers them. * Harry does everything he can to keep a low profile and prevent Dumbledore from noticing and raising the stakes. * Primary source of action is going to be unforeseen ramifications of Harry's actions. Turns out that the 90s are just a shitty time to be at Hogwarts, even without a Dark Lord out to kill you. * Return date: pre-Hogwarts; age 6 or 7? * Voldemort is defeated entirely pre-Hogwarts on this next go around for Harry. Mostly off-screen; I want it to be a completely minor obstacle. * Harry's first action upon getting reset: Find adult Wizard and steal wand. * Harry's second action upon getting reset: Cast single spell at scar; defeat Voldemort. * Harry doesn't leave the Dursley's, but without remorse he straight-up imperios them to be a loving family for him. * Dumbledore left charms to keep them mad, but they are overpowered by Harry's compultions. * Dumbledore never notices, as he never checked up on Harry anyway. * Harry puts on a show of pretending to dislike his living conditions for Dumbledore. * In the weeks prior to his Hogwarts letter, Harry moves into the cupboard ("for an adventure, like camping!") as part of the scam to keep Dumbledore in the dark. * Harry shows up to Hogwarts after some sort of permanent appearance alteration. * Metamorphagus? I'd rather not, to be honest. Permanent transfiguration appeals to me more, as metamorph Harry sort of wants to be its own huge plot point. * No scar. * No James-hair or other strong resemblance to his father. * Snape still hates him, but he's trying very hard to distance himself from the storybooks. * Harry does something about the storybooks; suing for damages seems appropriate. * Lots of money-revenge from Harry where he gets the Goblins on his side by letting them keep all the money they can get out of people. * Setting up for a Goblin revolution courtesy of Harry. * Death told him he needs to stay alive because his purpose in life is to "play a pivotal role with regard to the last Goblin rebellion". Harry takes this to mean he is either meant to prevent it, or meant to minimize the bloodshed. * Harry spends the whole story trying to keep the Goblins happy, giving them more ways to make money, fighting for equal rights, etc. * The whole reason he goes to Hogwarts this time around instead of fleeing the country is because he wants to stay near the Goblins and try to keep them appeased. * Punchline of the story: The Goblins rebel, which they wouldn't have been able to do without Harry's monetary and political support, and proceed to brutally conquer Wizarding Britain with Harry as their posterchild. * Harry is not amused when this happens. Fortunately, the Goblins have already recognized him as a citizen of the Goblin nation, so he's safe, and his friends and the small proportion of Wizards who aren't wholly prejudiced are allowed to integrate peacefully under the new Goblin regime. * Harry sorts into Ravenclaw along with Hermione. * On the train, Harry convinces Hermione that Gryffindor is the "bully house" because he doesn't want her to get trolled again. * Harry does everything he can to avoid animosity with Draco, but it doesn't work. * They meet in Diagon Alley, and Harry tries to ask about why blood would be more important than magic, but Draco immediately writes him off as an uppity mudblood and leaves. * They meet on the train and Draco insults Hermione. Harry asks him politely to not insult his friend, and offers his hand. Draco refuses it. * Draco is essentially jealous of Boy-Who-Lived political capital, especially because this Harry is going out of his way to make friends other than Ron, and takes it as an insult that Harry associates with nonpurebloods and is rejecting his place in society as the hero. * Quirrell isn't possessed, but still tries to steal the stone. Let's face it, he was evil to begin with, or else Voldemort wouldn't have been able to talk him into the possession scheme. * Turns out being possessed by an insane and technically dead spirit isn't really all that good for you. Unpossessed Quirrell is competent. * Halloween still has a troll. * Hermione was insulted by Ron in charms class, and ran off crying. Harry immediately rushed after her. * Harry is able to convince her to leave the bathroom before the feast begins. * They bump into Snape in the hallways on their way from the bathroom, and both get detention removing broken bristles from brooms. * Troll interrupts detention. Harry rescues Hermione by flying them out the window on a broom. * Harry has to intervene. * Steals the stone himself very early on, but Quirrell and Dumbledore don't know this. * Quirrell eventually takes some students hostage as part of his bid for the stone, including Harry. * Harry defeats him, while trying very hard to not make himself look dangerous or Horcrux-possessed to Dumbledore. * Harry does not get on the Quidditch team his first year. * The flying class incident happens, but Harry is in the other class because he's a Ravenclaw, so he isn't present. We only hear about it happening off-camera; Ron and Draco both got detention and banned from further flying lessons. * Hermione does not like flying at all, and basically refuses to leave the ground during the lessons. * In the troll incident above, Harry rescues Hermione by flying a broom. He is seen by teachers. * Hermione gains a new appreciation for flying, and agrees to let Harry take her flying again sometime. * Flitwick and Hooch recommend that Harry try our for Quidditch in 3rd year, when some spots will open up. * Harry gets the cloak first year, but realizes it has tracking charms and such on it courtesy of Dumbledore. * He gets the Goblins to fix it. * And leaves it in their care. * And tells Dumbledore he sold it to them, just to fuck with him. * Pettigrew is dealt with first year. * Harry captures him, mails him to French DMLE, figuring that Britain is too corrupt. * France determines that Black is innocent, publishes this everywhere, parades Pettigrew around in the ICW. * As a result, Dumbledore loses his ICW position, and France takes over leadership of the European magical states. * Sirius is freed, and immediately co-opted by Harry into helping him bring down the British Ministry politically. * The Black fortune was largely exhausted, but there are lots of properties out for rent that haven't been paid for properly. Sirius, on Harry's advice, turns debt collection over to the Goblins and allow them to keep most of the profits. * Many purebloods, notably Malfoy, lose quite a lot of money and power. * It comes out that Harry is Sirius' heir, and so Draco hates Harry even more now. * Second year we still get basilisk attacks. * The diary is already dead, but Lucius had communicated with it beforehand. * Draco is instructed to release the basilisk. * It doesn't help that he isn't a parceltongue and has no real control over it. * Students die. So does Lockhart. * Hagrid still arrested without due process. * Dumbledore essentially refuses to do anything, as per original timeline. * Harry, being a parceltongue, manages to assume control of the basilisk and divert it from its rampage. * He doesn't want to kill it, but it can't stay in the school. * Harry doesn't know the spells used by Slytherin and Riddle to put it back to sleep. * Harry gives it to the Goblins, who assure him that they have access to parceltongue Goblins and will use it for bank security. * The Goblins issue a statement (at Harry's request) saying they were paid to defeat the basilisk and have done so. * This lets Harry stay somewhat anonymous, which he greatly desires. * Also good press for the Goblins. * And we know why Hogwarts stays open. * Dobby, basically the same as canon. * Over the summer, Dobby has been stealing mail. * Hermione and Harry were communicating using the phone, and in person. Hermione had not realized there was a problem. * Harry had noticed the missing mail, because he was expecting statements from the Goblins and remembered the past timeline. * So he contacted the Goblins and arranged for Dobby's magical signature to be registered as a criminal elf with them. * Harry and Hermione arrive at the train station, and are delayed by Dobby blocking the portal to the platform. * The Weasleys arrive at about the same time. Ron is blocked with them. * Because Dumbledore is still hoping to setup Harry with his pet light side family. * Ron immediately overreacts and steals his family's car to fly to Hogwarts. * Harry and Hermione call the aurors. They are apparated onto the platform by one. * The aurors also record Dobby's magical signature and register it as a likely criminal. * Ron arrives at Hogwarts in exactly the same way as canon. * Harry is studying in the library with Hermione during the Quidditch match. Dobby still attacks him with a bludger. * Turns out that Irma Pince is a hell of a lot better at healing charms than Lockhart is. Also, she's **really** mad about a bludger somehow making its way into the library. * So she gets Quidditch cancelled until the problem can be identified. * Of course, Draco had bought his way on to the team this year. So now Draco hates Harry even more. * When the Goblins capture the Basilisk, they identify Dobby by magical signature. * Dobby is repossessed and forcibly freed, as supported by law regarding elves used in criminal acts. * Harry and Hermione get this whole lecture from the Goblins about how "some races need someone to rule them, or they devolve into chaos and violence." * Dobby goes to work for the Goblins. * Hermione does not start S.P.E.W., but instead asks if there's any way to help the Goblins with their situation. * This whole thing forshadows the Goblins taking over Britain, but of course Harry can't see it coming. * And, of course, Draco just lost his elf and blames Harry. * Also second year, we need some political movements in the background. * Sirius has taken his seat on the Wizengamot, and is doing his best to get revenge on those who wronged him. * Goblin rights are supported by Sirius because hey, they helped him get revenge, and it's something that would've pissed off his parents. * Along with international pressure from the ICW, he successfully campaigns to have Dementors removed from Azkaban. * Third year, the Dementors are running amok. * Turns out that forcing the immortal soulless killing machines to leave the island full of food may have been a bad plan. * No Dementors near Hogwarts to begin with, but there is talk about them in the background. * Harry signs up for runes, arithmancy, and care. Flitwick does not allow Hermione to sign up for everything, so she takes the same as Harry. * Dumbledore tries to force Harry to sign up for Divination. * Harry eventually just settles on the plan "I'll show up for Arithmancy, and I'll do the work for Arithmancy, and I won't show up or do the homework for Divination, and I'd like to see them punish me for attending class." * After a few faceoffs, Dumbledore eventually has to cave in the face of objections from over half his staff. * Harry, feeling like this is going to finally be a calm year, decides to sign up for Quidditch. * He plays Beater. * He's OK, but not spectacular. * Hermione decides to try out as well, having enjoyed flying with Harry. Turns out that she's rubbish. * Dementor attacks! * Hogsmeade weekend, resulting in evacuation interrupting Harry's first date with Hermione. * Quidditch match, resulting in serious injury to some players. * Harry isn't involved (it's not a Ravenclaw game). * Harry, fearing for student safety, petitions the school and gets Quidditch cancelled until the Dementors can be removed. * Draco, of course, is angered by this because he's now unable to play Quidditch *again*, and it's once more Harry's fault. * Harry isn't the one to solve the problem this time; ICW authorities step in and contain the Dementors. * They're shipped off to Canada, where they hunt their natural prey: Bigfoots. * The British populace starts to become more polarized. * A faction bemoaning the incompetence of the British Ministry. * A faction blaming the foreigners for creating the problem to begin with. * Lupin, as per original timeline, does not introduce himself to Harry as a friend of the family. * Harry knows that Lupin is in Dumbledore's pocket, and had already soured Sirius to him on the grounds that "he should have looked into your situation" and "why did he never try to find me as a child" and such. * Hermione decides to ask Lupin for Patronus training. He agrees, in the face of the Dementor attack at the Quidditch match. * Hermione "trains" Harry to cast the Patronus. * Snape outs Lupin at the end of the year. * Hermione, having liked Lupin, is incensed. * Harry agrees with Hermione that it's stupid that werewolves have no job prospects, especially as in this timeline Lupin technically never did anything wrong. * As a way to make Hermione happy, and keep Lupin from being a resource for Dumbledore, Harry arranges for Lupin to get a job with the Goblins. * This leads the Goblins to eventually hiring essentially all of Britain's werewolf population as guards and cursebreakers. * These werewolves eventually form a core of the army that the Goblins use to invade. * Over the summer, Harry attends the Quidditch World Cup with Sirius. * Ireland is not playing. Harry recognizes this as just an example of how the timelines are becoming more and more different. * Hermione is incensed that the Veela are being objectified. * Bulgaria wins this time. * No deatheater attack. * So, as the post-game celebrations are not interrupted this time, Harry and Hermione have time to track down the Veela and talk to them about how they are also being treated as second-class citizens. * The Veela are put in contact with the Goblins, who at this point are starting to organize quite a large collection of "undesirable" magicals. * Fourth year: Dumbledore has organized the Triwizard Tournament, primarily as a mechanism to restore some of Britain's fading glory. * The defense teacher actually is Moody this time. He's too paranoid to do a particularly good job, but he's better than Lockhart. * Crouch Jr. escaped, but didn't go after Moody. We hear about the murder of Crouch Sr. in a newspaper. * Harry, having put a lot of thought over the years into how bad the security around the cup was, gives the twins a laundry list of ways to get names into the cup. * He is expecting them to enter themselves, which he thinks would be a laugh. * They decide to enter his name, which they think would be a laugh... * ...as well as the names of several dozen other students... * ...and Snape... * ...and Fudge. * Obviously, every one of these names comes out of the cup. * Harry takes the opportunity to "research", primarily to create an excuse for his superior spellcasting abilities. * More events, in order to better differentiate between the contestants. * Harry very carefully arranges to get through the first events unhurt and in the bottom half of the contestants. * Harry sells his egg to the Goblins. * Fudge does a terrible job, only marginally better than... * Snape completely fails at every event, having literally every single Hogwarts contestant independently sabotage him. * Harry takes Hermione to the ball, and they have a good time. * Harry does not summon anything from outside the field until the last event. * When he summons a paid-for Goblin bodyguard... * Who proceeds to cut a bloody swath through the maze, allowing Harry to easily win the tournament. * Harry uses this to further prop up the Goblins, by giving them the publicity and the prize money. * Fifth year, Fudge is now convinced that last year was a setup by Dumbledore to humiliate him and drive him out of office. * He sends Umbridge in to keep an eye on Dumbledore. * This time there's no particular animosity between Umbridge and Harry. * Harry swallows his distaste and sucks up to her. * Harry manages to trick Ron into starting Dumbledore's Army, then turns him in. * Umbridge foolishly targets Susan Bones with the blood quill this time. Amelia Bones finds out, and things do not end well for Umbridge. * Now halfway through the year and without a defense teacher, Harry decides to try more Goblin integration and gets them to send a defense teacher. * Dumbledore is disgraced and desperate at this point, so he latches on to the idea. * What follows is one of the bloodiest and most effective defense classes Hogwarts has ever had. * At the end of the year, parents and the board absolutely *demand* that Dumbledore find someone else. * Harry and friends do well on their O.W.L.s. * Sixth year: without the Dementors policing Azkaban, several prisoners escape with the help of Crouch Jr. * Lestranges, Carrows, possibly one or two others? * Snape teaches defense, and is predictably shitty. * Slughorn is teaching potions; without the looming threat of Voldemort, Harry was not required to convince him to return. * The escaped prisoners have Dumbledore keeping Harry confined to the castle, except when he sneaks out. * Encounter in Hogsmeade; the escapees really do blame Harry for the death of their Lord. * Once it becomes clear that Crouch Jr. is alive and acting as a mastermind, the aurors begin to ramp up for Blood Purity War Part Two: The Bloodening. * Dumbledore becomes really loud about insisting that this means Voldemort is back. * Harry really does start a defense organization this year. * Hermione insists he calls it the "Student-run Magically Useful Training" sessions. This probably helps attract members, to be honest. * Gets some sort of special allowance from the Ministry. Off-duty aurors help with training. * This year is spent with Harry preparing for what he sees as the final battle to end the blood supremicists. * Harry learns that the Malfoys are in contact with the escapees. * Harry manages to plant the clue about the vanishing cabinet for Draco to find. * Harry contacts the Goblins about what is going on, and pays them to help. * Some interaction with the younger Weasleys? Love potions, perhaps. * Over the year and the following summer, there are attacks by the escapees. * The international community takes notice and officially quarantines Britain "to prevent the escape of unsavory elements of society". * Year 7. Harry is only barely involved; this is pretty much the end result of his actions so far, and it comes together too quickly for him to realize what's happening. * Immediately after the sorting feast, Draco activates the vanishing cabinet and signals to the escapees. * The Goblins have been prepared for this, and have a way to intercept the vanishing cabinet's traffic. * Purebloods meet basilisk. Basilisk wins. * A great many Wizengamot representatives were part of the planned attack. There is a huge power vacuum, paralyzing government. * The Goblins immediately place armed guards throughout Wizarding society, taking the place of the (confused, panicing) aurors. * Goblins apply for recognition with the ICW as an interim British government. * As soon as the ICW approves, the Goblins start interrogating *everybody*, holding them to the standard "are you as tolerant and unbigoted as Harry Potter?" * Needless to say, a great many people fail, and are slated for "reeducation". * The Goblins introduce themselves to the Muggle government, painting the Wizards in the worst possible light and arranging for assistance in the reeducation and integration of the Wizards. * Hogwarts is shut down as "a hotbed of bigotry and intolerance". * Harry and close friends are vetted and named the first Human citizens of the "Reformed British Magical Empire". * We end the story with Harry, horrified at what he's done, making motions towards fleeing to Australia with Hermione and a few others. * He is discretely notified that the Goblins are fine with this, but don't really realize that he's fleeing. * The Goblins want to know if he would like to be named their ambassador to Australia.