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A Skirt's Not So Bad [Harry Potter]

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LittleFire said:
Has Voldemort just not been informed about Holly being trans — or is he actually transfriendly?
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He encountered Holly when she was still pre-transition, so he definitely knows about it. As for why he's respecting it... off the top of my head, I can see four possibilities.

First, it's purely a manipulation tactic; he's acting like he respects her identity because it increases the chances of Holly joining him, and because dismissing it increases the chances of her rejecting him.

Second, as someone who reinvented himself (though obviously in a completely different way), he does genuinely respect someone's right to express their identity. Going to an extreme, he might even see it as another parallel between them, and an additional reason to recruit Holly.

Third, he simply doesn't care one way or another, dismissing it as an irrelevant detail. Someone is trans? Why he should he care about that and make a point of misgendering them, when all that matters is their power and how useful they are to his cause?

Fourth, Holly's earned enough of his respect with her power and use of dark magic that Voldemort has decided that she's worthy of having her choices respected. He might not personally have a stake in Holly's situation, but she's shown herself as someone who has the right to determine such things about herself.

There's probably other explanations too, but these are the most immediately obvious and likely to me. Though which one it actually is... I'd guess one or three, though I'm not sure which is more likely.
 
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LittleFire said:
Has Voldemort just not been informed about Holly being trans — or is he actually transfriendly?
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Well this interation of Voldy seems to be capable of respecting Holly to some degree, if only because of their shared affinity for lethality.

Also if you're not going into a situation with the expressed intent to be an asshole it's pretty easy to address people as they present, so it could be simply that Holly pings as female to his eyes.

Another possibility is that as long as he's offering the recruitment pitch he figures he'd get a better shot at a decent minion if he plays ball with the target's stated preferences as long as it costs him nothing.

It could be that he's just really big on the whole reinventing yourself thing, and defaults to using other people's self chosen names and titles in an effort to have his respected in turn.
 
Well, I didn't see a second Voldemort resurrection coming. That's pretty new, as HP fanfic plot twists go. Wonder if we'll have Dracomort vs Voldemort sometime later?
 
Mizu said:
Well, I didn't see a second Voldemort resurrection coming. That's pretty new, as HP fanfic plot twists go. Wonder if we'll have Dracomort vs Voldemort sometime later?
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I've seen it... I think, twice before? It's pretty rare, regardless, and it's going to cause a whole host of changes down the line. Among other things, two Voldemorts fighting one another will make keeping his return quiet exponentially harder, to the point he might not even bother trying. And then there's the infighting between Death Eaters that's bound to occur...

Actually, thinking about it? It might bizarrely be a good thing for Britain to have two Voldemorts running around instead of one. With only one Voldemort his followers are united behind him and he can focus on one goal, but with two duking it out both of their attentions and forces are going to be split- and with his ego, you know they're both going to prioritise murdering their doppelganger over targeting the ministry and attacking civilians.
 
w34v3r said:
Also, does Dracomort benefit from Ritualmort's protection from Lily effect?
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Probably not, thinking on it. Ritualmort had an entire ritual which involved getting blood from a captured Holly in order to be immune, whereas Dracomort just possessed someone like Quirrelmort a few years earlier; this time without being a second face in their head.
 
Mizu said:
Probably not, thinking on it. Ritualmort had an entire ritual which involved getting blood from a captured Holly in order to be immune, whereas Dracomort just possessed someone like Quirrelmort a few years earlier; this time without being a second face in their head.
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Here's a question: does Voldemort have the benefits of Lily's protection against Dracomort?
 
Considering Bellatrix cared enough about Draco and Narcissa to explain the timing of her participation in Voldemort's little biology experiment (not that she'd have said no mind you); she's probably just become a wildcard
 
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Last Voldy saw "harry" he was one year old, so while he probably knew on some level she was assigned male, at that point Volemort probably just saw her as "flesh bag that needs to die" rather than particularly male. And aside from Quirrelmort, all the damage Holly's done to him was post-transition with the moniker "girl who lived" so Voldy's perhaps gotten used to the idea of his nemesis being a girl because that's all he hears of her.

On the other hand, the closest Voldemort has had to any company before now was Lucius and other death eaters, and all of them aggressively deny Holly's identity, so it's surprising to me that Voldy didn't absorb those mannerisms.

On another note: Even with her recent habit of semi-accidentally channeling dark powers, suddenly being able to control the statues (wandlessly, too!) still feels like it came out of nowhere. Is there some basis for it in canon?
 
Sort of, canon makes it clear that magic is pretty much permission to make reality your bitch, but that you have to trade between speed, control, and power. Wands and specific spells buff your speed and control, allowing for better results, as does practicing specific effects (which also buffs power), so in theory you can nuke speed to get control and power.
 
General_Urist said:
Last Voldy saw "harry" he was one year old, so while he probably knew on some level she was assigned male, at that point Volemort probably just saw her as "flesh bag that needs to die" rather than particularly male. And aside from Quirrelmort, all the damage Holly's done to him was post-transition with the moniker "girl who lived" so Voldy's perhaps gotten used to the idea of his nemesis being a girl because that's all he hears of her.

On the other hand, the closest Voldemort has had to any company before now was Lucius and other death eaters, and all of them aggressively deny Holly's identity, so it's surprising to me that Voldy didn't absorb those mannerisms.

On another note: Even with her recent habit of semi-accidentally channeling dark powers, suddenly being able to control the statues (wandlessly, too!) still feels like it came out of nowhere. Is there some basis for it in canon?
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Minor correction, but since Holly didn't realise her identity until second year she would still have been 'Harry' and thus 'the boy who lived' when they had their confrontation in first year.

Also, do all the Death Eater aggressively deny Holly's identity? I think the only one we've actually seen address it on-screen other than Crouch (who was pretty blatant about his prejudices) is Lucius, and while I don't remember how any earlier interactions went he kept his attack relatively low-key in their most recent encounter ('accidentally' calling her Mr before 'correcting' himself). Granted, that probably was at least partly because of the setting being public, but so far I think we've only seen heavily aggressive prejudice from Crouch and at least some Death Eater-adjacent individuals (Dupont, for example, assuming she isn't actually one herself now) haven't actually shown any yet.
 
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There are number of twists in this chapter that I didn't see coming, and I'm honestly super excited to see where this Dracomort plotline goes.
 
General_Urist said:
On another note: Even with her recent habit of semi-accidentally channeling dark powers, suddenly being able to control the statues (wandlessly, too!) still feels like it came out of nowhere. Is there some basis for it in canon?
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In canon, not so much - but in this fic, Dumbledore taught her how to manipulate environmental magic (in high ley-line areas) and hinted it was something she could do because she's an animagus. ('Hinted' because while animagus was the example he used for what could let a wizard do it, he 'has no idea' she is one.)

It was his "pre-third task training that has nothing to do with the Tri-wizard cup."
 
JennyDracos said:
In canon, not so much - but in this fic, Dumbledore taught her how to manipulate environmental magic (in high ley-line areas) and hinted it was something she could do because she's an animagus. ('Hinted' because while animagus was the example he used for what could let a wizard do it, he 'has no idea' she is one.)

It was his "pre-third task training that has nothing to do with the Tri-wizard cup."
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I found the relevant quote:

Tekomandor said:
"Like how? I thought you needed big runestones and arithmetic calculations and all that to tap a leyline?" Holly asked.

"One needs such precise and stabilising elements to set up the portkey network or anchor powerful wards. But if you merely wish to access that wild and uncontrolled power, then all you need is your wand - or some other suitable focus... such as an Animagus potion," Dumbledore said, and Holy looked away for a moment.

"Oh, cool. Wouldn't know about using one of those, but cool," Holly said, awkwardly.

"Of course. But the danger of an Animagus transformation is in the wild nature of the natural magic used to induce such a permanent change to one's own magic. So it is with all manipulation of leylines and natural magic," Dumbledore explained.
Dumbledore taught Holly a number of spells - curses to call down lightning from the sky, spells to cause the earth to rupture and shake, charms to find ways through wards with gusts of wind, and techniques to understand the flow of magic. It was, much like the Animagus transformation, very different from the sort of magic Holly had learnt in her classes at Hogwarts.

Whereas the standard wand-based magic she was familiar with used power channelled through the witch and then the wand, this sort of magic manipulated power that was already there. She could draw down bolts of lightning from the sky because there was magic in the air that wanted to be unleashed as wind or rain or lighting, she could examine wards and traps with gusts of magical wind because it already carried power with it.
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So lightning, wind & earth control are explicitly mentioned. As for animating the statues I expect it's because the local magic was already aligned that way, as one was animated already and used to grab her.
 
Avernus said:
I found the relevant quote:


So lightning, wind & earth control are explicitly mentioned. As for animating the statues I expect it's because the local magic was already aligned that way, as one was animated already and used to grab her.
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It probably also helps that the battle is taking place at a Leyline convergence; that's doubtlessly vastly increasing the amount of natural magic on hand, and letting her do stuff beyond the normal scope (though not skill) of her abilities.
 
Absolutely spectacular, that's all I can say.

Bravo, for a twist done incredibly!
 
Thinking about it, this scene does remind me of a pretty well known Pratchett quote.

Men at Arms said:
"Something Vimes had learned as a young guard drifted up from memory. If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you're going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat.

They'll watch you squirm. They'll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar.

So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word."
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Holly even noted it in the story.

She needed to escape, to tell Dumbledore what had happened. She channelled more power through the leylines, working magic without word or gesture - only will. Such put magic into the storm above, the ground below, and the many statues of the graveyard. She could never use magic like that in a fight, but she was lucky that Voldemort loved to hear himself talk - and that he'd gotten distracted by Malfoy.
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If Voldemort had been more efficient and just killed her right off, that would be that. But instead he just had to waste time playing Evil Overlord (which he is!); right down to the "join me" speech to the heroine, the gloating, and killing an underling that failed him. And in the process giving Holly the chance to pull this off.
 
Alright, I retract my complaint about this being too close to canon. The graveyard scene itself may still be following all the original beats, but the revelations that have been added are a huge deal. Draco dead and two Voldemorts running around means canon is probably done for.

Also, I kinda like Voldemort being unexpectedly accepting of Holly's identity, especially since his followers have been pretty consistently transphobic. It shows that he really doesn't care what his followers think of him, they're just useful idiots, while also making clear that the Death Eaters don't know him as well as they think they do. They've largely just been guessing at his desires or using him as a symbol for the past decade, and now that he's actually here in the flesh it really shows.
 
I bet Thomas Avery has joined up with Draco!Voldemort. And Draco!Voldemort will spring Bellatrix before Graveyard!Voldemort gets the chance.

I have another theory. Regulus Black was supposed to destroy the locket-horcrux… perhaps he did so. But what if he survived the attempt long enough to stick his own horcrux in the locket? That way he could be the "undying rival" needed to take down the immortal Voldemort. And now Regulus is pulling a con- he's taken over Draco in some fashion, and he's tricked anyone else in the know into thinking Voldemort has possessed Draco with a simple paper note.
 
Clear Heart said:
... I really don't like where this is going. Even if Dumbledor believes her, nobody else is going to.
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It is a more believable way for people to, ironically, not believe Holly.

Voldemort's return is a horrifying possiblility but with the evidence, that death eaters are sighted actively so recently, the Malfoy family is dead, the Crouchs are dead, and DuPont vanishes around the same time as Holly goes missing? Something is afoot, and Voldemort might be back or at least someone doing a revivalist movement.

Two though, Horcrux's are not only so forgotten to begin with that the actual spell work to do them isn't even recorded in the texts that mention that murder is the core ingredient, but the idea that someone made more than one that is powerful enough to revive itself?

Holly would have a better time saying that there is a Death Eater revivalist group that centered around the "Pureblood Elite" which schismed after the World Cup with the hard core accelerationists creating two distinct Death Eater groups.

But even then Voldemort canonically waited a full year, so that even people on guard would now to stretched thin looking for his influence. Sure it let the Order rebuild, but nothing was happening and a society can only be on tinterhooks for so long before it has to relax.
 
Voldemort gets resurrected the same way with the same ritual: I slep

Draco also gets possessed by a horcrux, leading to two competing Voldemorts: I A W A K E N
 
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