#i also wanted to subvert the 'ron is a dickhead' trope

[fallowsthorn]

🌹

<3

From a Harry Potter/Venom fusion I started working on several years ago and kind of lost steam with:

Some cultural remnant of public safety announcements (the sort delivered by overly sincere adults who believed childhood was an unfortunate developmental disorder) echoed in Harry's head, warning him that if a stranger offered to take him somewhere else and buy him ice cream, he should say no and run in the opposite direction screaming at the top of his lungs.

(The stranger in question is Arthur Weasley, don't worry.) It's not obvious here, but the basic idea was that the soul shard in Harry's Horcrux "woke up" (minus some memories) and functioned as an ersatz symbiote, though since it's magic it doesn't need to eat brains. There was a lot of sass. I hadn't quite decided on whether I wanted the Horcrux's loyalty to swap to Harry against Voldemort and thus have a more classic good vs evil story, or if Voldemort would change plans on learning about the... symbicrux? and make it more of a philosophy-and-snark fic.

I don't know if I'll ever pick this back up, given jkr's extremely public tire fire, the fact that it would be ridiculously long, and my other more pressing projects that I have neglected for the past three years jesus christ

Other highlights after the cut, this got long:

the symbicrux gets named Riddle, much to its consternation, after Hermione comments that it's an enigma and then has to define the word to Ron and Harry; it eventually warms up to the name

if the plot doesn't get derailed before the big dungeon showdown, Riddle does the Venom body-suit thing for the first time, tanks/dodges Quirrellmort's spells, and straight up eats him alive - undecided on what that would do to spirit!Voldie, rip Quirrell, I can't ever remember how many double letters your name has

the Halloween troll incident is how Hermione and Ron find out about Riddle, who Harry is just calling "the voice" at the time; they are mostly grateful but very worried, since it kills the troll in like 2.5 seconds via tentacle-spike to the skull

Riddle thinks Dumbledore is sus but can't explain why (its amnesia is of the "memories no, random helpful trivia yes" type); Harry gets to be the common sense character for once in not immediately bailing (but he does avoid eye contact)

Harry wants to stay at Hogwarts over the summer; Riddle is extremely pessimistic about getting permission from Dumbledore; they pretend to get on the train and instead fuck off into the Forbidden Forest, possibly making friends with the centaurs, possibly clearing out some of the spiders, also possibly making Hagrid think there's some kind of extremely intelligent freaky monster in the woods (he's not wrong, per se)

since the black symbiote goo is explicitly magic and not handwavey alien biology, Riddle can hold things it absorbs in a small pocket dimension. things like a certain diary. something something this seems to be going vaguely into the realm of "Harry reconstitutes Voldemort's soul by eating all the Horcruxes" which could be... interesting

no idea how dementors affect the symbicrux. it's OP but it's still just a soul, and a partial one at that. possibly it tries to protect Harry and they both learn a valuable and unnerving lesson about invulnerability, i.e., they're not

Harry ran away from the Dursleys several months before getting his letter and has been surviving with "the voice" as a protector and hunter; thus, he gives zero fucks about social customs and is very defensive about the voice, to the point that Ron and Hermione covering for Riddle killing the troll is the memory he uses to power his Patronus (not sure on the animal, probably not a stag - Riddle can't cast spells on its own (or maybe it can but it's very draining?) so gets no input on the memory/animal)

Riddle thinks Snape teaching is hysterically funny but can't explain that either; as such, it and Harry are not as vigilant as they should be and Snape gets a few puzzle pieces (which he keeps to himself, because Snape)

the Sorting Hat flat-out says that it's already sorted Riddle and won't do it again, thus Harry goes to Gryffindor and Riddle whines about it forever (or at least until it gets some character development)

Draco is still a little bitch but gets smacked down by Riddle at his Slytherin best; from the outside this looks like Harry's had an abrupt and very jarring personality transplant, which does not help his reputation issues early on