Many fanfiction writers have made Deconstruction Fics that deconstructed both the original Harry Potter book series and its characters.
- 3 Months Later: Our Little Wilkins
deconstructs Hermione modifying her parents' memories to protect them during the war. In the book, she only mentions that she did it, and nothing more is said since she's Hermione, so of course she'd be able to do something so complicated. The fic goes into detail about exactly how much work such a plan would require and theorises that Hermione was eventually unable to go through with it and Tonks had to do it instead. And to make matters worse, when Hermione shows up in Australia thirteen months after Voldemort has been defeated, she finds that her parents now have a new baby daughter also named Hermione. - In Almost A Squib, Snape's Last Request to Harry is for him to take his memory-filled tear just like in canon. Unlike in canon, however, Harry feels he is under no such obligation to grant (and takes glee in refusing) the request of the man who has been verbally abusing him for several years (him killing Dumbledore, though unaware it was a Mercy Kill, was probably a major factor, too).
- The short story The Boy Who Died shows the consequences of making little Harry Potter a famous figure, an icon of the Light, and the enemy of dark wizards everywhere before he even knows how to talk, let alone protect himself... and then widely distributing photos of his appearance to the Wizarding World. A former Death Eater hiding out in the Muggle world, knowing the young boy's appearance and what his famous scar looks like, happens to spot Harry on the boy's first day of school and just shoots him in the head with a pistol and drives off.
- Brutal Harry deconstructs both Harry's abusive childhood and a few of the characters to an extent:
- In regard to Harry's abusive childhoodnote , here, he's a ruthlessly self-sufficient survivalist and utilitarian pragmatist who's much more mature than his peers (sometimes disturbingly so), has No Social Skills, views connections with others purely in terms of threat assessment and is extremely closed off from others (in fact, it takes him years before he's able to open up to anyone), and has an especially deep distrust of authority figures and incompetent people in general. When he finds out that Dumbledore was the one who brought him to the Dursleys in the first place, he is beyond furious and refuses to ever forgive Dumbledore even when he does genuinely apologize.
- Unlike other stories with similar elements, Dumbledore's far from a bad guy and he genuinely does mean well, but his tendency to make decisions based solely on the long-term has inadvertently caused him to not take other people's immediate needs or feelings into consideration. Moreover, the heavy workload from his three different time-consuming jobsnote has rendered him significantly out of touch and inattentive when it comes to several of his judgments, motivations, and actions, especially in regards to the staff and students under his employ and guard, which has caused multiple things to slip through the cracks. This, in turn, has led to said individuals to feel as though they can get away with their actions without fear of true, effective reprisal — i.e., Snape's blatant favoritism of the Slytherins, bullies getting away with antagonizing other students, etc. Once McGonagall becomes Headmistress of Hogwarts, Snape is ultimately fired from his teaching position and the bullying issues at the school are significantly reduced because unlike Dumbledore, she only has one time-consuming job and can focus all her attention on actually doing it.
- McGonagall's a Stern Teacher who genuinely wants to help her students learn and be safe while doing so. However, this aspect of her personality (as well as a somewhat blind faith in Dumbledore's reputation) makes her ignore extenuating circumstances regarding different students as individuals, or come off as obstinate when something falls outside of her perceptions. As a result, her students feel intimidated by her and don't feel that she can be turned to for help. When she realizes this thanks to the troll incident, she's not only horrified, but she genuinely attempts to be more open-minded and approachable. Her Character Development pays off, because between it and McGonagall immediately revealing the truth of the prophecy and its circumstances to Harry once she learns about it during Harry's second year, she becomes one of the few adults that Harry will trust.
- Draco Malfoy has primarily been an entitled bully via throwing around his father's name and relying on Snape's favoritism and Dumbledore's inattentiveness to get ahead in school, and thus assuming he's naturally the best in everything. However, between Harry curb-stomping him a few times (without using magic no less) and McGonagall bringing the hammer down and reforming the school after she becomes Headmistress, he not only loses his connections but is ultimately forced to realize that his individual skills are pathetic by comparison to actual hard-working students due to his over-reliance on his father's reputation. This realization kickstarts some positive Character Development and by the sequel, he loses many of his prejudiced views and becomes an ally of the heroes.
- Engorgement shows just how awkward and irritating actual MPreg would be, by having Harry get pregnant by accident. Cue media coverage, mood swings, fights, and strange food cravings. This sort of thing also apparently happens often enough for the Hogwarts rules to have a section on it.
- Goldstein: The focus of fic is Yehuda Goldstein, an Orthodox Jew, attending Hogwarts. The story deconstructs how religious customs and norms interact with the wizarding world. Even without religious bigotry, there is still a bit of friction over Yehuda trying to hold onto his traditions while upholding the norms of Hogwarts.
- Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. With a Harry hoping to invoke Sufficiently Analyzed Magic, how can it not be? Less Wrong ends up deconstructing canon by attending to details Rowling didn't, and then some.
- Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Futures Past is one of the Peggy Sue genre. While Harry manages to use his future knowledge to make things better, his actions end up causing unintended changes, both for good and bad.
- Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin deconstructs a lot of clichés common in Harry Potter fanfics. Notably that Social Services Does Not Exist; they do in both the muggle and wizarding worlds. Because Harry is under the effects of a Curse that triggers a Hate Plague amongst muggles, all the abuse is never reported while the wizarding world is controlled by aristocrats, and as such, Child Services do not seek to prosecute wealthy families for child abuse. Likewise, the idea that being sorted into Slytherin if your entire family is historically Gryffindor would make your family turn against you is mocked when Ginny is sorted into Slytherin and her brothers spend the next day assuring her they are still family.
- The Incredible and Angsty Journey of Rose Weasley, Girl Slasher! takes most of the tropes associated with Slash Fic in general, and Real-Person Fic in particular, by showing what havoc — what hilarious, hilarious havoc — would ensue if a character in-universe ran around accusing men of secretly being in love with each other, occasionally insisting that their marriages are a sham, despite protests from all involved. She even has the idealized portrayal of gay love often seen in the fandom.
- The Lion's Pride:
- The fic is a P.O.V. Sequel to the scene where Rufus Scrimgeour tries and fails to recruit Harry to his side, when Scrimgeour talks to Harry on Christmas and Harry declares he "hasn't forgotten" while showing the scars on his hand, Scrimgeour has no idea what Harry's raised fist is supposed to mean. The cold winter air along with how tightly Harry's fist is clenched makes the scars basically invisible.
- Also, Harry's remark of Scrimgeour being "just like Crouch" doesn't mean the same to Scrimgeour as it does to Harry. Harry's talking about Crouch throwing the innocent Sirius in Azkaban without a trial. Scrimgeour, who has no idea about Sirius being innocent or not getting a trial, thinks Harry's talking about Crouch's motions that (among other things) allowed Aurors to kill Death Eaters instead of capturing them, something that prevented numerous deaths among the Auror corps.
- No Curiosity deconstructs the abusive childhood Harry receives at the hands of the Dursleys. While Harry grew up relatively well-adjusted in canon, this fanfic wastes no time demonstrating that in real life, all the crap the Dursleys would have done to him would lead to tons of psychological problems. Harry becomes an Extreme Doormat and because the Dursleys would punish him for asking questions, his curiosity (one of his most prominent traits in canon) is completely subdued and he doesn't dare to do any of the cool stuff he did in the books because he fears punishment.
- The fandom's love of Peggy Sue plots have also given us two very different deconstructions to compare. Sisyphus takes a hammer to Peggy Sue, Groundhog Peggy Sue, and Set Right What Once Went Wrong. Meanwhile, Oh God, Not Again! is an affectionate, Deconstructive Parody using the Peggy Sue framework. Lampshades are hung, inconsistencies trounced flat, and characters attacked at angles that reveal new aspects. And it has a ball doing it.
- In The Perils of Innocence, the Wizarding World's statute of secrecy is understandable, but their lack of communication with the families of Muggleborn children has caused problems for many of these people and some (particularly the Grangers) state that they could've been saved a whole lot of grief if they'd been told of their kids' powers sooner. There are also many jabs at the fact that the Wizarding World (particularly Pureblood society) is completely ignorant of the muggle world and its own accomplishments (Draco at one point even accuses Dean of lying when the latter tells him about the moon landing), to the point that they're being condescending at best and incredibly high-and-mighty at worst, something which the kids and their parents call the Purebloods out on.
- Potters Stand United deconstructs the Fandom-Specific Plot of a Wrong-Boy-Who-Lived, where Harry has a twin who is wrongly named the Boy-Who-Lived. On the night of Voldemort's attack on the Potters, both James and Lily were incapacitated (James was knocked unconscious while Lily was killed, but Death was merciful and brought her back) when Voldemort attempted to kill the twins, and since both twins bear scars from the attack, James and Lily have no idea which one of their sons deflected the killing curse and defeated the Dark Lord. After the attack, both parents decide to keep what happened that night a secret as to not give their sons unwanted fame, and even after that fails and everyone is led to believe that Gary (the twin) is the Boy-Who-Lived due to the machinations of Dumbledore, they don't become Abusive Parents and show Parental Favoritism; they treat each boy equally and with as much love as they can give.
- Cracked's very own Cody Johnston wrote The Silliest Harry Potter F**k Fiction Ever (NSFW). It is the funniest criticism of the results of Rule 34 that you'll ever read.
- Spirited Away, a crossover with Danny Phantom, deconstructs not only the Harry Potter series, but also themes found in a number of other DP/HP crossovers, to the point of it being a Deconstructor Fleet. Danny does not want to go to Hogwarts, wishing instead to stay and protect Amity Park. The idea of Danny staying at the Order of the Pheonix's headquarters is shot down by the author, the Order being a top-secret organization and all, and Danny being a civilian. The idea that Danny would reveal his secret to wizards, who don't exactly have a history of tolerance towards non-humans and half-humans, is shot down hard (especially because wizards dislike the fact that Ghost Zone ghosts don't even try and keep Muggles from noticing them). Once Danny is at Hogwarts, the idea of the Sorting Hat is dissected, with Danny comparing the idea to Mind Rape. Danny plans to sue the school for kidnapping him and enrolling him against his will. Additionally, it is made very clear that the Hogwarts students are tired of the instructors who are either Sadist Teachers or so boring they can't stay awake in class (with Danny noting that Snape would have been sacked a long time ago at a normal school) and the monsters roaming the school and grounds, and form a protest group about it upon Danny's prodding; within a few chapters, about 80% of the students have signed at least one of their petitions.
- What Was Your Plan deconstructs the Manipulative Bastard Dumbledore and how Harry somehow foils him the moment he's aware of Dumbledore's plans. Harry gets special training over the summer and read about wandless magic from a book? Tonks tailed him while he was training and the book was written by someone who knew very little about the subject. Furthermore, Harry learned dueling which is only good for dueling tournaments. Dumbledore refers to it as a glorified play, citing how Flitwick is a duelling champion who's almost useless in combat. When Harry confronts Dumbledore over his suspicious, Dumbledore calmly explains the flaws in Harry's argument before moving on to the flaws in his plan, specifically noting that if his only goal was Harry's death, he could simply wait until Harry's plans get him killed. Finally, if Dumbledore really has been manipulating Harry almost from birth, he'd have laid contingencies for Harry finding out, which he did.
- Where Is Hermione? breaks down the idea of Hermione running away to Australia after the final battle and staying there until she decides to "return on her own terms", all while Harry searches endlessly for her. By the time Hermione returns to England eleven years later, Harry has long since moved on and is now married with a son. While he'd certainly like to meet his daughter, he wants nothing to do with the woman who abandoned him for over a decade for no reason. When Hermione tries to bring up that she "waited for him", Harry counters that he waited for her for eight years but she abandoned him and stole his child from him. Harry finishes it off by saying he wishes she'd never returned because he'd be happier thinking she was still dead.
- Wish Carefully takes a chainsaw to the Death Eater agenda, from the perspective of one of its own proponents, Lucius Malfoy. It diverges from canon after Dumbledore's death, where Harry makes a deal with Voldemort, removing every Muggleborn and their supporters from England, allowing Voldemort to create the Pureblood paradise the Death Eaters always wanted. It's only then that the gaping flaws come to the surface: their inbreeding starts to produce nothing but squibs, the majority of those who produced the goods that the Purebloods used were Muggleborns or their supporters, leaving them to import the majority of their goods and food, and now that everyone in the Wizarding World knows they're being led by a torture-happy immortal psycho, nobody wants to travel there, further exacerbating the previous issues.
- With Strength of Steel Wings deconstructs not only the Urban Fantasy of the Harry Potter series, but also its very premise. Taking a zig-zag approach to Perspective Flip, the fic shows how destructive The Masquerade is for both muggles and wizards alike, especially with all the mind-wipes, children disappearing and how forcing muggleborns to remain in the wizarding world and abandon their families is a Sadistic Choice. It has also resulted in a massive backlash amongst muggles with a secret Monster Hunter Organization composed of online Witch Hunters who are determined to bring about The Unmasqued World being created and a major driver in the plot.
