Harry Potter Challenges
General Harry Potter Challenge Rules:
1: No manipulative! uncaring! or evil!Albus, no independent! or dark!Harry. The only exceptions are if I state, and if so I want to supervise.
2: Let me know when you start writing/posting, because I would love to read them! I may offer to beta, but only if I have time.
3: No OoC-ness or Mary Sues. The former can be compromised, the latter not. Sorry.
4: No HBP or DH unless otherwise stated.
1: Trial & Error Challenge
1: Post-GoF, but with some OotP elements. You can add as many as you want to the ones I give you.
2: Halfway through Harry’s fifth year, Sirius dies, and Harry’s mad at Albus for reasons you can do what you want with, as long as it conforms to the rest of the rules (see above also).
3: The Ministry are accusing Harry of murdering Cedric Diggory, and he has to run away from Hogwarts.
4: Albus is in serious trouble also, for opening proclaiming Voldemort’s return, and eventually he also has to go into hiding. He and Harry end up together, anywhere you want.
5: Harry has to get over his anger at Albus and the two have to work together to force Voldemort out into the open.
I’ve begun my response to this one: see See No Evil, Speak No Evil.
2: Body-Switch Challenge
1: Post-OotP or post-GoF, set in Harry’s 6th year
2: The new DADA teacher is Severus Snape’s wife. They’ve been married ten years.
3: An accident with a reversal spell switches Harry and Severus into each other’s bodies.
4: Ships: Harry/Ron and Severus/OFC (see above) Mrs Snape is NOT a Mary Sue!
5: Albus has to try and find an answer to the problem while Harry and Severus pretend to be each other, with some help from Ron, Hermione, Albus and Mrs Snape
3: Immortality Challenge
1: Albus and Minerva are together (don’t have to be married). One of them (doesn’t matter which) is immortal. (They could have a curse on them, they could be a magical creature like a vampire, elf or Veela, although I’d prefer you didn’t use one of the first two as I’m using them myself.) Be creative!
2: Write a fic detailing how they deal with their inevitable separation. Does it interfere with their current relationship or can they put it aside in everyday life? Does one never think about it while it dominates the other’s life?
3: A bad guy already knows or finds out, both that they’re together and that the one of your choice is immortal. It could be Voldemort, Grindelwald or some other Dark wizard from your imagination, or a name that’s just been mentioned in the books like Herpo the Foul. It doesn’t matter, as long as he (or she) is evil.
4: The immortal one is tempted by the bad guy’s offer to make the mortal one also immortal in return for something (e.g. handing Harry over). You decide whether the offer goes as far as a discussion. The story can end how you like, except:
5: Neither Albus nor Minerva are allowed to kill, maim, or otherwise do anything to Harry that goes against their character. That rules out handing him over to Voldie to get the immortality prize. Sorry!
4: Adoption Challenge
1: Harry is adopted. The scenario could be any of these three variations:
a) Lily and James adopted him at birth or sometime between birth and his first birthday
b) After Lily and James died, someone else took him in and adopted him. If this one is used you have to have a reasonable and logical way he could be raised away from the Dursleys’ that fits in with Dumbledore’s explanation about the blood magic. In other words, something that would have been easily overlooked in canon.
c) Harry is removed from the Dursleys’ and adopted by someone during the books.
2: If a) or c) then the fic must take place after GoF but take OotP into account (an exact AU from then on).
This challenge was made up by me simply as an excuse for all the adopted!Harry fics in my head. I’ve additionally challenged myself to write as many as possible, with different ships, not just AD/MM.
5: Age-Switch Challenge
1: Pick a ship. It can be any ship as long as they have an age gap of at least 15 years, but preferably 20+. The bigger the age gap, the more interesting the fic. Slash is fine but het is preferable as it’s more interesting to write for the challenge, unless they have very different personalities. It’s more effective if their “canon” relationship is teacher/student.
2: No incest. (In my book that’s closer than cousins. First cousin relationships are just about OK, but nothing closer than that.)
3: Switch their ages around. For example, if you were going to write Snape/Hermione, you’d have Hermione as the adult and Snape as the student.
4: Now write your story. It can be as small as a drabble or as big as a novel-length AU. Have a look at Try Me for an idea.
5: The only thing that’s changed is their ages. Their characters have to be the same. Of course, if Harry was twenty-odd years older, he may have had a different life, so therefore would be slightly different in character, and if Dumbledore had been born 80-odd years later he would be a bit less old-fashioned and talk differently. But they have to be naturally the same.
I finally have an idea for a novel-length response to this – AD/MM, of course.
6: OC-Free Family Tree Challenge
1: You have to write a fic about a wizarding family that have somehow been split up, and how they get back together. First, you need to choose your characters. Either:
a) Harry Potter, Bellatrix Lestrange nee Black, Poppy Pomfrey, Severus Snape, Tom Riddle
or
b) Hermione Granger, Alastor Moody, Lucius Malfoy, Prof. Sinistra (use either Stella as first name or whatever JKR has confirmed it as if she has), Molly Weasley nee Prewitt
2: Create a family tree using all the characters from a) or b) plus any other canon characters of your choice.
3: Something happened to split the family up – either one particular event or circumstance, or a mix of different ones which contributed to the split. You choose. Plan your back-story well.
4: No OCs. The only ones allowed have to be dead through the ENTIRE fic. No exceptions. They can be important to the plot, they just have to be dead. Minor characters mentioned only once in canon are not considered OCs for this challenge.
5: Slash or femmeslash is allowed but keep it to a maximum of one ship each.
6: The tree you use must have three living generations (i.e. Harry or Hermione, then parents, then grandparents). You must have AT LEAST THREE grandparents living. If you want to introduce a fourth (younger) generation keep it for the sequel, okay?
7: The story takes place during the Trio’s sixth year (NO HBP) – Harry or Hermione (depending on whether you chose a) or b)) finds out part of the secret and so the plot unravels how you like.
8: If you decide to take up the challenge, then email or PM me with the characters you want to use and any ideas you have for the back-story. I’m all ears with suggestions, and I think this one can have some very interesting ones.
And so, let the craziest plotlines commence!
I’ve begun my response to this one: see Blood Brothers
7: Win a Date With Dumbledore Challenge
1: Albus/Minerva challenge. Prompt is the title. Only four other rules:
2: Fic must be five chapters long
3: Albus and Minerva must be together at the end but not the beginning
4: Minerva must have competition
5: Don’t use “Win a Date With Dumbledore” as the fic title – I’ve bagged that!
Other than that, have fun!
8: CD Ship Song Fic Challenge
1: Pick your favourite CD, and a ship.
2: Write a songfic for the ship, for every track on the CD - i.e if the CD has 15 tracks then you'll eventually have 15 songfics
3: The stories in the songfics don't have to be set in the same universe, they are allowed to contradict each other. But they must all be the same ship.
Want to take up a challenge? Email alexharlequin-fanfictionchallenges@yahoo.com with the challenge title as the subject line
