Character list for Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Future Past
Gryffindor 6
- True Companions: Very close indeed, even more so after Harry tells them that he's from the future.
Harry James Potter
- Abusive Parents: The Dursleys, obviously. Vernon grows worse and nearly kills Harry on his 12th birthday. Thankfully, Harry gets payback.
- Big Brother Mentor: Acts as this in the beginning for Ron, Hermione, and Neville. Luna and Ginny receive this treatment as well when they come to Hogwarts.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Justified, since one part of him came from a future where everyone he cared about was dead.
- Innocently Insensitive: When Harry suggests to Ron that Hermione likes him in the first year, he ends up hurting Neville's feelings and remembers that Neville had a crush on her in the original timeline too.
- In Spite of a Nail: Deconstructed. Harry is trying to do things differently, but some of his actions still have similar events occurring or someone else manipulates things right back. One example is during the Flying Lesson, where he makes sure that Neville doesn't start flying too soon, but still ends up getting him hurt by Goyle and Malfoy colliding into them, with worse injuries. Other events still occur, such as the Dementors guarding Hogwarts during Year 3. Just because he is trying to play things out differently doesn't mean that someone else won't alter things right back.
- The Leader: Not just of the Six - a good bunch of his classmates consider him such.
- Peggy Sue: Deconstructed. Harry is making changes in the past with the intention of a brighter future. However, each decision he makes ends up having both positive and negative consequences for him. One example would be attempting to clear Sirius's name by exposing Peter Pettigrew as the traitor, only for Dumbledore to act too slowly or too hesitantly with the information. The second attempt is more successful except that it results in Sirius being relocated to a cell with no food, no publishing of the new information, and the Aurors investigating the case, Kingsley Shacklebolt being "promoted and sent out of the country" and the warden of Azkaban being replaced. His attempts at putting Malfoy on a different path and trying to earn Snape's respect in the first Potions class result in a more antagonistic relationship between the two of them.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Big time. Harry went through the war with Voldemort the first time, a war that was orders of magnitude worse than it was in canon and has severe PTSD because of it.
Ginny Weasley
- Adaptational Badass: Ginny in canon doesn't start Taking A Level in Badass or stop being shy around Harry until the 5th book. Here, she still starts off as shy, but is revealed to know the Bat-Bogey Hex much earlier than usual.
- Replacement Goldfish: It seems like this, since Harry was in love with her in another timeline. However, this is not the real case, as Harry fears he might have an ideal vision of what she should be and seeks to know her personally.
- Textile Work Is Feminine: Subverted, as Ginny can't knit that well and even set some material on fire with accidental magic. However, she still makes Harry a green scarf to the best of her abilities, who loves it.
- Will They or Won't They?: With Harry , especially since he is reluctant to start a relationship with her due to the technical age difference, but even the revelation doesn't discourage Ginny that much.
Ron Weasley
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Ron is still jealous of Harry's fame and popularity, but he grows out of it when he pulls out the Sword of Gryffindor and kills a Dementor, getting more attention than he wants.
- Big Brother Instinct: Threaten either Ginny or Harry and he will end you.
- For Want Of A Nail: Adopts Crookshanks after Scabbers is exposed, particularly because of the half-Kneezle's ability to detect suspicious characters, also becomes more level-headed because Harry interacts with him differently.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Wen he knocks Hermione away from a Dementor about to Kiss her. Subverted when he pulls the Sword Of Gryffindor out of the Sorting Hat, kills the Dementor, and then taunts the other Dementors. His past version also went out this way by transforming himself into Harry and leading a party of Death Eaters away when the two were ambushed.
- Only Sane Man: More level-headed thanks to Harry. He shares this role with Hermione later on.
Hermione Granger
- Action Girl: Thanks to Harry's influence, she begins to hone her fighting abilities much sooner.
- Birds of a Feather: Bonds with Harry more easily as they're both intelligent, until she learns why and understands.
- Only Sane Man: Harry suffers from PTSD, Neville has confidence issues, Ginny is hot-blooded, and Luna is...well..., leaving Hermione and Ron as the most level-headed characters at times.
Neville Longbottom
- Calling the Old Man Out: Does this to his grandmother when she tries interfering with his growing relationship with Luna.
- My Beloved Smother: Or grandmother, since she forbids him from interacting with Luna, until he calls her out on it.
- Took a Level in Badass: Thanks to Harry's influence and training. His getting a wand that is actually attuned to him helps.
Luna Lovegood
- Ascended Extra: Meets Harry and the others in her first year rather than her fourth.
- For Want Of A Nail: Harry tells the Sorting Hat to place Luna in Gryffindor, allowing her to become friends with the others more quickly.
- Hidden Depths: She learned how to use Drunken Boxing moves from television, can make insights others might not and is not shy at all about her romantic interest in Neville.
- Psychic Static: For some reason, her mind appears to anyone trying to use Legillimency on her as a jumble, causing a headache if trying to delve too much. She weaponizes this to leave Snape with a hard case of migraine.
The Weasley Family
- They Really Do Love Each Other: The family may squabble, but they truly are a good family.
Arthur Weasley
- Papa Wolf: Calls Dumbledore out when, even though Harry was nearly killed by the Dursleys, he is still planning to place Harry with them.
Molly Weasley
- Mama Bear: Fiercely protective of her children, biological AND adoptive.
Percy Weasley
- Badass Bureaucrat: After he loses his job for stunning Barty Crouch, he gets a much better one as Amelia Bones' aide.
- Big Brother Instinct: Despite his love for rules, Percy clearly cares about his younger siblings and even becomes protective of Ginny after her disappearance and reemergence from the Chamber of Secrets, and the students are asking for information.
- Honor Before Reason: Certainly has this mindset when his father offers him a position working in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office when Percy suspects losing his job for, justifiably, stunning Barty Crouch and ensuring his arrest. This is justified, however, as Percy, while touched, doesn't take the job offer as he wants to earn work because of his ability rather than because of connections.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He might be strict about rule-breaking and even give Harry a hard time at first, but he really does care about his parents and siblings.
- Took a Level in Kindness: After Harry calls him out on his behavior. Further reinforced when, to his shock, Harry and Ginny ran interference one time when the twins and Ron were heckling him.
Hogwarts Staff
Albus Dumbledore
- Anti-Villain: Harry acknowledges that Dumbledore is one of the good guys, and would probably like his support - the problem is that he sometimes makes choices that seem logical but can cause great damage on the long term, and there is no way to determine what his reaction to learning about Harry's Peggy Sue will be.
- Broken Pedestal: Some people lose part of the trust they have in Dumbledore as some of his actions (and their consequences) are revealed, such as him allowing Snape to use Legillimency on the students, his intention to send Harry back to the Dursleys after they nearly kill him or his punishing Harry after the Slytherins attack the Gryffindor Six at the end of his second year.
- Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: When Arthur Weasley tells Dumbledore that Harry was almost killed, his first instinct is to check his instruments monitoring the wards at the Dursley house, completely disbelieving that Harry's "family" could have been the ones to hurt him.
Minerva McGonagall
- Ascended Extra: Not that her role was minor in the books, but she has taken on the role of The Mentor for Harry in this timeline rather than Dumbledore.
- A Mother To Her Students: Clearly cares for her students and defends them on several occasions.
- The Mentor: Becomes this to Harry in this timeline, often there to give him guidance on certain actions and giving information and assistance when needed. Then Harry starts up the Defence Association and requires a teacher for the club to happen.
- Only Sane Man: Whenever she is around Dumbledore and Snape. Her relationship with Snape turns sour after the revelation that he was using Legilimency on her students. Dumbledore tests her patience because he allows Snape to do this. She is often the lone voice of reason in the school.
Severus Snape
- Adaptational Villainy: Justified, this story started before The Deathly Hallows revealed Snape's true nature, after he murdered Dumbledore in The Half-Blood Prince. He has a more antagonistic relationship with Harry and his friends in this timeline, even to the point that he helped Malfoy arrange an attack that nearly got Harry killed, and after Harry woke up, blamed him for the way he fell.
Filius Flitwick
Rubeus Hagrid
Gilderoy Lockhart
- Broken Pedestal: Quickly falls victim to this from the perspective of Hermione and Molly Weasley, as Harry draws their attention to Lockhart's flaws to the point that Molly burns all the Lockhart books she had in the house.
- It's All About Me: As in canon, Lockhart tries to use his time at Hogwarts more to boost his own reputation than actually teaching anyone anything, such as trying to arrange weekly lunches with Harry to give him 'advice'.
Gryffindor Students
Colin Creevey
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Despite all the measures Harry takes to prevent his name from being entered into the Goblet of Fire, and his explicit desire to not to take part in the Triwizard Tournament, Colin ends up doing it. Harry's obviously not pleased in the slightest.
Slytherin Students
Melissa Bulstrode
- Big Sister Instinct: Asks that any debt Harry has towards her be transferred to her sister.
- Original Character: A new character introduced as the big sister to the canon Millicent Bulstrode.
- Token Good Teammate: Probably one of the few decent Slytherin students Harry meets.
Millicent Bulstrode
- Took a Level in Kindness: Being sent to Beauxbatons does wonders to her character and presence.
Draco Malfoy
- Took a Level in Jerkass: He was already one in the books, but here, the change in circumstances lead to him nearly killing Harry by Stunning him from the back while he is walking up the stairs and stealing Harry's invisibility cloak and Tom Riddle's diary (which he then sent to Ginny, knowing what it was going to do).
Ravenclaw Students
Hufflepuff Students
Unknown House
The agent-in-place
A mysterious person who seems to be behind several events taking place in the background. Little is known about them - only that they are a Hogwarts student.- Make Wrong What Once Went Right: Their activities seem to be aimed at ensuring events happen in a certain way - or causing them if something has changed.
- The Spook: Almost nothing is known about them.
Non-Hogwarts Characters
Rita Skeeter
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Harry basically uses this to deal with Rita; by threatening to expose her Animagus ability if she goes against him, he will supply her exclusively with factual reports so long as she doesn't distort the story to tell it any way but the way Harry presents it to her, and in turn he will give her a yearly exclusive interview.