Chapter 1: Author's Note

A/N: I wished I owned Harry Potter. Alas, I do not. Ms. Rowling, I'd be happy to take it off your hands.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD, if you just want to get into the story based on the tags and description skip ahead

A/N: I am not a fan of long author's notes. However, I would be doing you a disservice by not giving you some heads up here. If you don't want my opinion on some of the characters or if you want the rest of this story to be a surprise (I will in no way be offended, what I wouldn't give to read some of my favorite books again for the first time), then feel free to skip ahead to chapter 2.

I did not think I would ever write a story. Kudos to my college creative writing class to forcing me to take chances in the past. That's why I'm giving this a go. I really value constructive criticism and will try to respond as much as possible, but unfortunately I do have a full time job that takes a lot of my time.

Knowledge necessary: A Basic understanding of Books 1-4. Or at least the first half of Book 4. Knowledge of the broader Harry Potter world based on the movies and/or books will serve you well, but I don't think it is necessary at the moment. Fair warning, I will drop a lot of names very quickly as the story picks up. Lots of the minor characters don't have real personalities in the movies, but hypothetically Lavender Brown might very different from how the movie portrays her (ok tbh that isn't a hypothetical. She will appear and will be different).

Since there will be a lot of time jumps, anytime the time changes in a chapter or there is a flashback, there will be an indicator. I will give little time headers.

Harry: God, he can so relentlessly negative. To be fair, he has a lot of dumped on him. If I was 14, I probably would break down the moment my first spell didn't work. He will be a bit happy and quippy in the first chapter. But that is where he is going, so if that turns you off I probably wouldn't keep going. He will have downswings and trouble with his emotions, it would be nearly impossible not to have them given the shit he has and will go through. He is a powerful wizard and his "extra" training will only make him more formidable so if you want a story with a regular powered Harry this is not for you. He has to beat Voldemort, and I won't have any kind priori incantatem.

Hermione: She is the absolute best. She has always been Harry's best friend and will be referred to and treated as such. When it comes to her relationships, while I am technically a Harmony shipper (SPOILER: This story will not be a Harmony Pairing so if you are looking for that I'd stop now-END SPOILER), the Harry in the books and movies doesn't deserve her. I don't know that a character in the Harry Potter Universe deserves her. But how Hermione chooses to marry the guy who would keep and use the elder wand I will never know. Speaking of the guy she would marry…

Ron Weasley: Ron and Harry do not work as a friendship, and I don't like him. I wouldn't call my plan Ron-Bashing, more like he will really not be around a lot. I stand by this decision. He does have some absolutely awful traits that are key to his character. Go back and read what the locket is telling Ron before they destroy it in the Deathly Hallows. Or if you prefer the films, the end of DH part 2 when Harry destroys the Elder wand, look at how Hermione reacts to both Harry's actions and Ron's desire to have the wand. And then go back and burn the Deathly Hallows and both films. I'd throw the ash from the epilogue in the nearest body of water to make sure it never comes back. I have not seen or engaged in any way with the Cursed Child, and I never will, despite the wonderful reviews.

Other Weasleys:

Charlie Weasley: Interesting character to mention, I know. But he is fascinating and, in my opinion, does not get nearly enough page or screen time. He will be around, and I will find a way to keep him in England, even if Romania is awesome.

Mr. and Ms. Weasley: They might be a little too deep in Dumbledore's camp, but they are genuinely nice people who really care about their kids and Harry

The Twins: The new marauders who are good friends to Harry

Ginny and Bill: Who?

Percy: Right prat, but even more of a who?…for now

Neville Longbottom: A much better heart than Ron. One of my favorite characters, and I think the truest Gryffindor. He will feature and may or may not become Harry's best mate.

Dumbledore (SPOILERS): A nasty manipulator who wants Harry to be a weapon, not a person. Too much never adds up. Ever since someone pointed out the inconsistency with the timeline and his supposed actions at Privet Drive, I have not been a fan. That's nitpicking, but if you don't that [and one of my beta's doesn't], too bad. But I think before GoF, Harry has complete trust in him. He did essentially tell him how to save Sirius. His version of the greater good sounds an awful lot like some dictators. I think he is almost as big a git as Snape. Though he will not be major for quite a while. None of this changes the fact that he is the most knowledgeable and powerful wizard in Europe and is the leader of the light, even if the light is his version. I think that he does care about Harry and regrets how he treated him at the end but is so committed to his cause and world view nothing else matters. (END SPOILERS)

Severus Snape: No redemption, huge dick.

Remus (Moony) Lupin: He clearly loves Harry, and I want him to distinguish Harry from James, and what better way to do that then include one of James's best friend.

Sirius: I like his relationship with Harry, and feel that if he gets cleared he could be a great mentor. Wouldn't it be great if that happened? But what would their relationship be like if he wasn't and we had a little different backstory from him?

Luna Lovegood: Is she Loony, or is she genius? I do know she is one of the best and most loyal friends you could care about. It is tragic that the movie never shows the picture on Luna's ceiling.

Cedric Diggory: (MAJOR SPOILERS (SKIP THIS DESCRIPTION IF YOU DO NOT WANT SPOILERS, THIS IS BY FAR MY BIGGEST SPOILER) The death that upset me most, though there is a case for Dobby. I will keep him alive, I can promise that right now. He will not have a chance to be a sparkly vampire. Why will become apparent sooner rather than later. (END SPOILERS)

The Hayashi family and Nambung: I will keep the O/C to a minimum, but I expect one or two other ones to pop up as well even if they won't be as prominent as our resident Asian Wizards. I also understand that Asian Wizards with martial arts are a bit cliché and could even be construed as typecasting and conforming to stereotypes, but I learned all my martial arts from my Korean friends so bite me.

Other Characters: The reason I made this is because everyone above could probably be characterized as major in both books and films, so you deserve to know ahead of time if you don't like one of my springboard ideas. I guarantee other characters will appear, and quite a few will be critical to the story, but these characters are mostly blank checks that I will fill in how I so please.

Canon- Outside of a few important scenes from GoF (you can probably guess), near instant divergence.

Writing Style: As you might guess from my character profiles, I hide a lot of information. Things will be revealed over time, and I will use flashbacks if I do long time skips, one of which will be right at the beginning. This is not for everyone, but if you like the characters and the general plot I think the flashbacks will be fun.

Relationships: This story is from Harry's perspective at the beginning. Eventually the writing will become a narrative style when you can see everyone thoughts because of the amount of characters. The relationships that the characters, specifically Harry builds, both philia and romantic are key to the story. I figure that this will be both romance and friendship, a little light on the action and conflict. I'll give it my best shot of trying to balance it all. As of writing this, I have not determined who Harry will be with yet. Odds are, when it is settled it won't be clear. At the beginning I will be focusing on building a wide friend group around Harry, especially when some characters who I do not mention in this author's note arrive. I'm sure Harry will develop a relationship with a significant other, but he is 14 during the GoF, so it will take time. And last I checked, very few 14-year olds marry their first significant others, even if people in the magical world seem to marry insanely early. But whoever it is, Harry seems like a guy who will knuckle under to keep his significant other happy in real life. That's no fun, so that won't happen. Guess the other note on relationships is ratings based, and while I don't expect this to become M rated from relationships (it might be M based on other factors), I can't make any promises. I'll probably set it to M to be safe, thought it probably rates as a T. Final relationship info is that I am going to keep this monogamous. While there a bunch of relationships that I think can work with the idealized version I will use of Harry, I don't know if I love the non-monogamy angle. It occasionally works for me in other stories, especially if Sirius dies, it makes a little more sense, but if Sirius sticks around then I don't really follow, so one partner per character at a time.

Story: I think there are certain things that absolutely need to happen, and I think I would be doing Ms. Rowling a disservice if I did not use GoF as a basic framework. Voldemort is an excellent villain, to give credit where credit is due. But especially if you start in GoF, there is no concrete villain besides the challenges Harry faces as he grows up. Outside of a few limited events and the backstory of books 1-3, I will obviously do different things and ignore minor details I simply don't care about.

Power: Harry will certainly develop powers related to magic. But one of the key ideas in this story is that there a lot of ways to fight that Harry doesn't need a wand to do. His power will grow a lot every year, but he will learn some unique skills, magical and otherwise.

My grammar has not gotten better since I failed a test in 9th grade. I will make typos. I'm not perfect, and I don't think life would be all that fun if I was. If you want to point something out, that's totally fine, and I appreciate it. If I get multiple comments about something really screwing up comprehension, I will try and go back and change it. I understand the community etiquette of and while spellcheck is fairly easy (not always for terms that J.K. Rowling created), grammar is a little harder. I may have extra commas but I am trying my best.

I should also divulge that my chapters will not vary dramatically in length, and I expect most of them to best defined as "not short", but "not long". The amount of important name characters will be a bit of a name dump at the beginning with familiar names, and then will slow down but by the later chapters there will be a lot of familiar faces, though very few OCs. Compared to Fanfics of similar length, there will be much shorter but more chapters to allow for faster updates.

I wrote this with a story and outline in mind, but as I post this I am a little more than halfway done, so while this is mostly correct, there will be slight deviations. I am a big fan of writing outlines, but also a big fan of ignoring them and going in new directions which strike my fancy.

Sorry for all that, but I wouldn't want you to waste your time and if something bugs you better to know now rather than chapter 10. There is so much wonderful Harry Potter fanfiction out there no matter what you prefer (I won't even pretend to understand Dramione, but whatever floats your boat). Anyways, hope you managed to get through that. Unless I forced to address something major, I will keep my author's notes as brief as possible, but I do like dropping small stuff in fairly often. Hope you all enjoy the first real chapter.