HP Fanfiction – Self Insert – What I Would Have Done

Chapter 1:

This is a self-insert fanfiction which takes place from the day that Dumbledore leaves Harry Potter on the doorstep of Number 4 Privet Drive. The idea is that my person would be able to take him into a nearby house instead and whilst close enough to be in the blood wards, raise him into someone who will understand love and have a better fighting chance, and be able to use better logic in certain scenarios. I will not have taken the books with me, so will sort of know the main plot points, will not remember everything that happened and thus can still be surprised. Unsure what to do about Sirius and Remus so far. Will be slightly Dumbledore bashing and I will never reveal the future to him, but in the end, he still is in the good. The horcrux will be removed from Harry's head by a ritual from the Goblins, that Dumbledore never considered due to his slight arrogance (which is part of his bashing), but Dumbledore will not have placed any blocks or limitations on Harry's magic as shown in other fanfics.

Also, whilst my character might have ideas as to who Harry should have gotten together with, the point is that he can make those decisions himself, and won't be afraid of having more friends than just the two he had in the books. ON TO THE STORY…

Disclaimer: This world in no way shape or form belongs to me. I am definitely not J.K. Rowling

There I was, an 18-year-old man ready to start off the next great adventure into university. A couple years ago I had decided to be a journalist, and I finished high school doing relatively well. I was by no means a genius, just an average but hard-working student. On my way to University of Edinburgh in Scotland by train, I was perusing through on my iPhone, looking at the latest Harry Potter fanfiction. My current obsession was the typical Harry and Hermione go back in time to prevent the love potion Weasley family from happening. Although I generally found those fanfics quite funny, I never thought that it would be likely that Harry would fall for such potions when he could fight the imperius curse.

Suddenly, I heard a bang towards the front of the train, and then there were screams as the people closer to the front of the train saw whatever the problem was. I looked around the seat in front of me to try and peek at what was going on in the other carriages, and immediately huge flame came through into our carriage. I stumbled away from the heat but fell hard onto the floor. Then I saw black.

As I slowly came around, I felt the bedsheets underneath me and a blanket over my lower body. I slowly got up and tried to remember what happened to me last. I remembered the heat and the flames from the train, so why was I here? And where exactly was here? I found my glasses on the bedside table, but I also found a wooden stick next to it, similar to my replica Harry Potter wand I had at home.

I looked around once again and saw a window show that the day had just begun. I could see people in strange clothing and weird hats roaming around. I saw owls during daytime flying about as if it were normal. I slowly stumbled back to my bed trying to wrap my mind around what exactly was going on. I looked at the mirror on the right of my bed and I saw that I definitely looked like myself, wearing dark blue jeans with a white t-shirt as if I was still on my way to university.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK! "You-know-who's dead, Mr. Stark! It's all over the front of the Daily Prophet! Apparently, Harry Potter, bless the kid, survived the killing curse and You-know-who died because of it. Don't ask me, I haven't a clue as to how it happened. Here, I'll toss you one of my Daily's, free courtesy of the Leaky of course." The man behind my door slipped the newspaper through the gap available.

I responded in the only way I knew how, "Thank you for the paper sir."

"Ah lad, I told you yesterday when you walked in, there's no need to call me sir, the name's Tom. Plain and simple really."

"All right Tom, thanks a ton!"

"No problem kid, let me know later if you are staying another night." Tom said as he moved away from my room's door.

I quickly jumped off the bed and picked up the paper, and all the people from the pictures were moving in it. The main headline read, "YOU-KNOW-WHO DEAD! Boy-who-lived saved us all!" And right at the top right of the page the date stamped on was 1st November 1981. I sat back down to contemplate exactly what was going on. It seemed like I had just been dumped into my favorite fantasy series, right at the beginning of the seven-book saga. Or I was simply hallucinating. I decided to do the stereotypical thing and pinch myself to see if this was real, and it seemed to be so.

Clearly something must have happened to me when the accident on the train occurred, but for whatever reason I was stuck at what appeared to be the Leaky Cauldron with nothing but the clothes I was wearing, my glasses and the stick on the bedside table. I then realized what the stick must be, because if I truly ended up in J.K. Rowling's universe then that stick would be my wand! I reached to pick up the wand and as soon as I did I was hit with a barrage of information about myself in this world.

Whilst my name was the same as my mundane life's one, Jack Stark, pretty much everything else I saw was different. Growing up in an orphanage rather than with parents, because they had died early in the magical version of my life. Being told about magic by Professor McGonagall when she came to visit after my eleventh birthday. Being happy to leave the orphanage where I really had no friends, I was sorted into Ravenclaw and became close with a few of the people in my dorm. I was three years behind the marauders and had very few glimpses of their time in school, except for the public date proposals of James Potter to Lily Evans.

I graduated with 6 N.E.W.T.s; Defence Against the Dark Arts, Arithmancy, Potions, Transfiguration, Charms and Herbology. For most of them I received O's and I was a generally magically proficient, yet reserved muggle-born. Alongside this information came the news that my magical self must have gathered yesterday. Due to the raid of Diagon Alley the previous week, my last friend from our group of students had been taken out by an anonymous death eater.

All this information flooded into my mind the second I touched the wand. What was odd was that I had memories of both lifetimes, but I felt more connected to my mundane 21st century memories than those of the magical world, and thus didn't really feel the need to grieve for Robert and John, my two recently deceased best friends. I realized that I had an opportunity of a life-time here, to help Harry Potter finally kill off Voldemort, and I needed to make a list of things to do. Before I could search for a pen and paper, or rather a quill and some parchment, a flutter of wings made me realize that an owl had entered the room. I quickly untied the parchment and read it to see that it was a summons from Gringotts for 11am that morning to go through Robert's will. I didn't have anything to offer the brown owl, and realizing that it took off and flew out of the small owl hole of the room and back presumably to the goblins.

I must have stopped for a few minutes to really digest the information I had just gotten. I was an actual person in this universe, with no real family and all most completely all dead friends. I really could do anything that I had dreamt of all those times I read fanfiction and the real books. I then decided to try out some of the magic I could now remember. "Wingardium Leviosa!" I said as I pointed to the bedside table, and as it raised up I could feel the energy coming through the wand I had. It was truly remarkable, I was giddy with happiness.

I also realized I could do so much to change the way the story occurred this time around. There was no way I was going to sit back and just let things happen the way they were. I ran downstairs and asked for some parchment and a quill, noting that I had to buy muggle equipment soon enough. I quickly made a list of things I could do to help Harry out.

See how much money I really had

Examine the wards around #4 Privet Drive to see if I could raise Harry instead

If I had to leave him at his aunt's place then I would look at being able to support him as a neighbour instead

Taking out some books on warding myself and any new property I might buy

Ask the Goblins about Horcruxes and if there was any method to remove one from a person

Sirius Black? Remus Lupin?

I was unsure about what to do about those two as for sure by now Sirius would already be in jail and be quite impossible to get a trial without finding Wormtail. And did I really think Remus deserved to be in Harry's life? Perhaps I should give him a chance and see if he came around to look out for him by himself.

As the morning was moving on, I walked down to the lobby of the Leaky Cauldron, asked for a quick meal, before making my way towards Gringotts in time for the will reading. I briefly thought about my mundane family, but decided to deal with those thoughts after today.