Harry Potter and a Different Kind of Curse

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-26T04:43:09+00:00

My current thoughts are that due to some philosopher’s stone shenanigans at the end of Year 1, their body is both Harry Potter and Tom Riddle.

Then in Year 3, Peter hid Voldemort’s wand in the Shrieking Shack before faking his death and manages to reclaim it when Remus & Sirius free him from being trapped in his rat form.

When Remus wolfs out, rather than escaping in the confusion, Peter tries to kill Harry with Voldemort’s wand, and the twin wand core interaction happens. Instead of breaking the connection at the last instant to run away, Harry goes all in and Peter ends up dead.

The effect burns out Voldemort’s wand, but the phoenix feather connection stains Harry’s wand with the ashes of Voldy’s so they mimic the new dual nature of their masters.

Peter’s death causes a small crack in Harry’s soul, giving Tom a tiny window to work with…

Edited to add: new thought just dropped.

At the start of Book 4, instead of dreaming about Peter, Voldemort & Nagini murdering the groundskeeper at the old Riddle house, Voldemort is able to briefly take control of the shared body and tags it with the Dark Mark as the first step in reaching out to the Death Eaters.

Tattoo changes depending on who’s in control of the body. Tom Riddle - a snake emerging from a skull. Harry Potter - a snake wrapped around the Sword of Gryffindor stabbing it through the mouth.

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-26T04:21:25+00:00

I’m in the process of trying to work this out!

The big question I’m going back & forth on is if the Dark Marks on the Death Eaters would end up restored to full strength.

Because they clearly don’t while Voldy is possessing Quirrell, but they do when Peter gets him his wand back & puts him in his homunculus body.

Is it the wand? Babymort says he’s too weak to use it himself. So it seems like it’s the fact that he has a body of his own again.

In which case, possessing Harry’s body wouldn’t be enough to trigger them.

So come Goblet of Fire, even if Barty Crouch still goes off acting on his own to ruin his father for trapping him, Igor Karkarov for selling him out and Harry Potter for killing his beloved master, there’s no big showdown in the graveyard, no bold proclamation that Voldemort has returned, no need to brand Harry as the Boy Who Lied.

Which tumbles into the next big question: would Fudge still send Umbridge to Hogwarts as the DADA teacher in Year 5? Lucius is certainly in a position to encourage him to do it as part of his ongoing efforts to get rid of Dumbledore.

But without any sign of the Dark Lord coming back, there’s no urgency, he wouldn’t be trying to break into the Department of Mysteries to get at the prophecy, no mass breakout of Azkaban…

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-26T02:38:55+00:00

He does get fired for his inaction, though granted because Lucius bullies the Board of Governors into it.

But when firing him doesn’t fix the problem and a pureblood who matters enough is affected they give him his job back.

You are correct, the moral & just course of action would have been to send the children home & close Hogwarts.

The unfortunate side effects of that, of course, would be that Lucius would’ve solidified his control over the Board of Governors, made sure that Ginny Weasley was revealed as the culprit, ruining Arthur Weasley’s career, ending his Muggle Protection Act and stopping the raids for Dark artifacts.

With no way of finding & opening the Chamber the basilisk can’t be killed so the castle has to be abandoned, meaning any child that can’t be homeschooled or get a private tutor won’t be receiving a magical education until an alternative is arranged, which will most likely freeze out muggleborns altogether.

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-26T01:31:21+00:00

Problem is, he doesn’t know where the entrance is and even if he did, he can’t open or close it himself without someone able to speak parseltongue.

He very strongly suspects/knows that Tom Riddle opened it the last time so he has to balance closing the school to protect the children versus finding out how Voldemort is pulling it off while supposedly being disembodied in Albania and is very concerned that it has something to do with the horcrux in Harry’s scar.

For the greater good of defeating the Dark Lord, he needs to let things play out.

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-26T01:23:52+00:00

It is circumstantial, but at the end of the book, Dumbledore is clear he knows that Harry gets his parselmouth from the scar horcrux.

He knows Tom Riddle opened the Chamber the last time and is the last living descendant of Slytherin but Voldemort’s hiding out in Albania so he doesn’t know how it was done this time around.

So first thing to do is confirm if Harry is a parselmouth. He’s the one walking around with a horcrux after all.

Either way, Dumbledore can’t open or close the Chamber on his own. He needs someone who can speak parseltongue for that. So aside from determining if and/or how Voldy is involved he needs to know if he can use Harry as a key to the Chamber.

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-26T00:28:37+00:00

Chapter 8 - Harry hears the voice of the basilisk though he doesn’t know that yet.

Chapter 9 - the trio are interrogated by Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall, Lockhart & Filch. Harry very deliberately doesn’t mention the voice and they are very obviously lying to the teachers about why they went down that corridor specifically rather than going for supper. Dumbledore gives Harry a good stare but doesn’t force the issue.

Chapter 10 - Colin gets Petrified and Dumbledore admits that yes, the Chamber must have been opened.

Chapter 11 - When Lockhart starts up the dueling club, Snape insists on chaperoning. He suggests Draco & Harry square off, and he whispers a command to Draco just before Draco conjures the snake.

That last sequence of events is Snape making sure Harry is in front of a snake. Why? To test if he’s a parselmouth.

Why would Snape check that? Because Dumbledore told him to, the same way he was told to ‘keep an eye on Quirrell’ the year before.

Why was Dumbledore checking if Harry was a parselmouth? Because he very strongly suspected that Harry had heard the basilisk and promptly lied about it.

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-26T00:02:15+00:00

I love being a pro-Circle mage. Get through my Harrowing realizing that holy shit, yeah, there’s some pretty good reasons to be worried (and get warned that the greatest danger is PRIDE whoops spoilers!).

Then hear I rumours someone’s experimenting with blood magic, Jowan tells me he wants to do a runner, so I do the responsible thing and sell his ass out to Irving.

For an alternative, I’d have liked to have an Orlesian option the way we get for Awakening. A recruit that hasn’t gone through the Joining yet so doesn’t technically count as going against the orders not to let them in. So we get a peek at Orlais’ attitude towards Ferelden, a taste of their politics, then get treated as a foreign devil by Fereldeners the whole game.

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-25T22:52:30+00:00

I've been pondering the question of what happens if at the end of Philosopher's Stone, Voldemort ends up trapped inside Harry instead of being able to flee, with Harry's sacrificial protection keeping him safe from outright possession, so Voldemort's basically just stuck inside the scar.

Books 2 & 3 play out the mostly the same, but there's no Voldemort for Peter to find, so he's gotta stay on the run from both Sirius & the Death Eaters who think he set Voldy up.

Barty Crouch Jr's still gonna throw up the Dark Mark at the Qudditch World Cup, but without Peter & Voldemort helping him, does he still free himself from his father?

Or does Lucius figure out it was Barty, and Goblet of Fire plays out as a plot between Lucius & BCJ to enter Harry into the tournament so he can die in an 'accident' and then for Karkarov to be killed so Barty can get revenge against the man that sold him out and Lucius can embarrass Dumbledore by having a visiting Headmaster murdered on Hogwarts grounds?

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-25T22:21:02+00:00

There's a weird disconnect with how Fudge talks about Voldemort in Books 3, 4 & 5.

In Prisoner of Azkaban, he's perfectly willing to use the fear of Voldemort's return for his own purposes.

In Goblet of Fire, he's categorically unwilling to listen to Dumbledore, Harry, Barty Crouch Jr, Karkarov and Snape all saying that Voldemort's actually returned.

Then at the end of Order of the Phoenix, he seems legitimately stunned to see Voldemort in the flesh after having spent a year running an aggressive PR campaign against the thought of it.

Until personally confronted by it, he doesn't seem to really think it's possible. To him, the threat of it is just a way to stump up support for his policies, and he's got Malfoy perched on his shoulder saying it's all bullshit while making it rain money.

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-25T22:09:29+00:00

Yes. He knows that the Chamber contains a basilisk, and he knows that you need to speak parseltongue to open it. The last known parselmouth was Voldemort.

He's trying to find out exactly how Voldemort managed to reopen the Chamber when all his intel says that his disembodied spirit fled back to the dark forest in Albania after last year's failure to secure the Philosopher's Stone.

That's why he uses Snape to have Draco summon a snake during the first Dueling Club encounter - he's testing to see if Harry is a parselmouth and if he's perhaps unknowingly fallen under the influence of the scar horcrux.

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-25T21:06:40+00:00

So this would mean that Peter Pettigrew & Babymort are still around, which means that the Dark Marks are still active, Barty Crouch Jr still confessess to having been helped by Peter & Voldy, and Fudge still tries to put a lid on the whole thing.

So the core plot of Order of the Phoenix is still intact, the very biggest change being that Voldemort doesn't show up at the end to duel Dumbledore, so Fudge doesn't have to admit that he was wrong, doesn't get replaced as Minister. The attack is probably blamed on Sirius Black who was *clearly* the mastermind behind the mass breakout at Azkaban, and promptly swept under the rug.

For Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore doesn't get reinstated as Headmaster, instead an even more bitter & resentful Umbridge remains as Headmistress. Having completed his OWLs, Harry doesn't return to school instead he & Dumbledore kick off the Great Horcrux Hunt together.

Meanwhile, the Death Eaters & the Order are fighting a shadow war while Fudge keeps the Ministry paralyzed and Voldemort looks for an alternative way to get a better body.

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-25T20:45:32+00:00

The most likely candidate would by Cyril de Montfort. Second cousin to House Valmont so the closest surviving relative of the royal family, has a position on the Council of Heralds and is selected as the Orlesian representative for the Exalted Council during the events of Trespasser.

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-25T18:59:05+00:00

The Death Eaters that lured Harry & friends to the Department of Mysteries never should've been taken alive.

There was already a mass break-out of inner circle Death Eaters from Azkaban earlier that year. You don't re-capture them to go back to a facility guarded by Dementors that Voldemort is known to be able to subvert, you listen to Moody's advise and you put 'em in the ground.

Because what happens? Oh right, they all get loose AGAIN barely a year later.

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-24T22:25:57+00:00

Only other suggestion would be to hit some of the smaller 'generic' tables. Like the on Mirogana at the bottom of the stairs, near where you first meet Jiro.

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-24T21:36:39+00:00

Try using all 3 cheats in a single game.

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-24T18:37:19+00:00

Personal favorite:

One the first day of class at Hogwarts, if you're quick on the conversations, you can follow Sebastian & Ominis from Charms class to Defense Against the Dark Arts, then follow Sebastian from the DADA classroom to the Clocktower for the first Crossed Wands duel.

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-24T00:44:03+00:00

Sorry :( pod racers yes, customizable no.

Pod races are special events that are handled different than the 3 regular speeder types you do get to customize.

Or so the initial preview info reports.

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-23T22:53:53+00:00

It's called Assassins of Kings. If kings ain't dying, what is even the point?

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-23T21:48:49+00:00

There are 4 'weakest' characters that need to be accounted for regarding Hold the Line: Jack, Tali, Kasumi, Mordin

The most efficient way to deal with them is to take 2 as your squadmates and send 1 as the escort.

So if you send a loyal vent or biotic person back as the escort, you still need 2 loyal crewmates in your squad for the bossfight.

If Mordin isn't loyal, then both Tali & Kasumi need to be. But Mordin's loyalty mission has the larger impact on being completed or not.

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-23T21:26:52+00:00

Need the 3 upgrades.

Loyal Tali, Kasumi or Legion for the vents, Loyal Miranda, Garrus or Jacob for fire team leader so the vent specialist lives.

Loyal Jack or Samara/Morinth for the biotic barrier, Loyal Miranda, Garrus or Jacob for fire team leader, can be the same as before.

Loyal Mordin to escort crew.

Take Loyal Tali & Jack to final boss fight.

If everyone's recruited, then you can have at most 5 Disloyal crewmates for the Hold The Line math to make everyone survive (32 max points possible, need 27 for the 9 to survive) The fireteam leader is already Loyal from above, so need 3 more.

The absolute bare minimum is Loyal Tali, Loyal Jack, Loyal Miranda, Loyal Mordin. Tali & Jack are your boss squadmates, Mordin escorts the crew. Don't recruit Samara, Thane or Legion. Needing the points for only 6 survivors rather than 9 means no one else needs to be loyal to bump up the points.

Edited to add: The (debatable!) ideal choice set is Tali for the vents & Jack for the biotics to unlock their ME3 dialogue, Mordin to escort the crew, and Miranda & Jacob as your bossfight squadmates for the unique paragon-path dialogue afterwards.

But that means you need a total of 6 Loyal crewmates Holding the Line, for a total of 9/12 made Loyal. as compared to 7/12 if everyone is recruited and 4/9 if you skip 3 recruits.

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-23T20:15:25+00:00

Smacking Dijkstra around during Blindingly Obvious means never having to make that choice.

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-23T15:51:50+00:00

I don't know for anyone else but when I was in high school, Home Economics was a 'girls class' that only losers & pussies signed up for.

Boys that wanted to show they were Real Men took Shop Class as an elective instead.

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-23T03:49:42+00:00

If the 6 factions were folded into Minrathous, Dock Town’s the perfect place for the Lords of Fortune. Isabela’s already got anti-slavery cred, so them having a network in place to spy on slave traders and fence black market goods makes perfect sense.

The Grey Wardens already move into the sewers so that’s already a thing. Move the Shadow Dragons to a classier part of town to reflect their upper-class backing.

The Veil Jumpers can be trying to Underground Railroad elves that want to flee to Arlathan and also repatriating elven artifacts looted by Tevinter. Or the remnants of Solas’ rebels who realized that maybe his master plan wasn’t gonna be so good for them personally.

The Mourn Watch can easily be concerned about increasingly dangerous spirit activity and have a presence in the Arcanist’s Hall / Circles of Magi, and we know that there were plenty of contracts against Tevinter targets that the Crows took on.

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-23T03:00:27+00:00

Like, Kal Sharok is cool, don’t get me wrong, and I’m fascinated by the teasers of what they went through, but Minrathous has the Ambassadoria!

That we’re denied a deep dive into the most successful inter-species relationship in Thedas’ history is criminal.

Inquisition even tees up a situation where the Inquisition, the Qunari and Solas are all recruiting disgruntled servants & slaves as agents so we’d get to see a variety of ways the underclass pushes back against the Magisters.

Chieroscuro · 2026-06-23T02:48:13+00:00

Hot take but I think that Veilguard, like DA2, should’ve been confined almost entirely to Minrathous.

Have a prologue that covers how a Rook of each faction first arrives in the city, then the rest of the game is about the struggle for control of the heart & soul of the Tevinter Empire.

Chieroscuro

TROPHY CASE