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Be Careful is an offshoot of Anne B. Walsh's Dangerverse as well as a crossover with a version of the canon Harry Potter universe, Be Careful tells the story of Draco Malfoy, who, after witnessing the events of the first chapter of Deathly Hallows, begins to have second thoughts about the war and his part in it. Just before falling asleep, he makes a fateful wish... and wakes in a world very unlike the one he fell asleep in...

Has a Shout Out page.


This fanfic provides examples of:

  • Alternate Self: All over the place. Perhaps most notably, Draco interacts with an alternate version of Tom Riddle, who never became Voldemort, instead marrying Professor McGonagall and becoming the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Draco also interacts with his own alternate self, Reynard Beauvoi.
  • Alternate Universe: In mainline DV, it's explained that the Malfoy family is an offshoot of the Beauvoi family, who were Heirs of Slytherin. The Beauvoi line disappeared when one cousin (who was given the name "mal foi"—"bad faith") betrayed another. In the world Draco visits, this never took place and the House of Beauvoi is around even into the present day.
  • Animal Motifs: All over the place, much like in the Dangerverse proper
    • Draco's animagus form is a mongoose. The exact meaning of this is discussed in-universe, and is regarded as appropriate.
    • Canon-verse Snape's patronus is a doe. James Potter's animagus and patronus forms are both stags, so this makes sense. Lily berates him for it since her patronus is actually a tiger. Snape's patronus does match the animagus form of the woman he loves: Cecelia Black
  • Artificial Limbs: Available in the Beauvoi-verse, where such a limb is called a ferrecarne pronunciation 
  • Bawdy Song: The celebration of Teddy Lupin's birth features an excerpt from The Bastard King of England and at least one mention of The Ball of Kirriemuir.
  • Bigger Is Better in Bed: In his will Draco lets Neville know that he's heard Hufflepuff girls are attracted to men with "Huge...tracts of land". Yes, the ellipsis were in the original. He was speaking literally, but the double entendre was deliberate.
  • Brain Bleach: Draco feels the need of some after discovering that Tom Riddle is married to Professor McGonagall, which leads him to imagine Voldemort and McGonagall in bed together.
  • Bureaucratically Arranged Marriage: Not in place yet, but a minor subplot in the Beauvoi-verse is the threat of a marriage law which will make it illegal for wizards to marry anyone but Muggles.
  • Child by Rape: Discussed by Draco when he is "interrogating" Hermione in front of his parents. He puts forth enough convincing supposition to half-convince his mother that Hermione is Lucius' daughter. Even Lucius has a few moments when he's not sure about it.
  • Cool Old Guy: Beauvoi-verse Tom Riddle is like this, much to Draco's astonishment.
  • Crapsaccharine World: Inverted. The Beauvoi-verse is almost entirely overrun with Dementors, Lord Voldemort is teaching at Hogwarts and attacks on homes and cities are growing more common by the day. And yet, it's a refuge for Draco where wizards and Muggles have banded together in the face of a common enemy, blood prejudice is all but dead and Hogwarts holds regular theatrical performances to entertain the staff and students.
  • Death Seeker: Malfoy Manor. It's been host to so much evil over the centuries that it is looking for a way to die.
  • Does This Remind You Of Anything?: Discussed by Draco when he is blood-bonding with Hermione so he can give her a prosthetic replacement hand.
    Draco: Is it just me, or does that sound like I'm doing something that should make Weasley want to hex my balls to the moon?
  • Driven to Suicide: Malfoy Manor itself, as a result of having been home to generations of Dark wizards.
  • Elopement: Ron Weasley and Hermione Beauvoi, relatively early in the story, in order to get around the planned Marriage Law making it illegal for wizards to marry anyone who is not a Muggle.
  • Exact Words: "As dead as my own Mum." This statement is, literally, true. It just doesn't mean what almost everyone thinks it means.
  • Flipping the Bird: Draco has just reattached his prosthetic arm in front of the Golden Trio. He flexes the hand several times, forms a loose fist and then raises and lowers the thumb, followed by the index finger. When Harry makes a snarky remark about knowing his arm works, Draco raises the next finger.
  • For Want Of A Nail: Tom Riddle never becomes Voldemort in the world Draco visits.
  • Half-Identical Twins: The Beauvoi twins, Reynard and Hermione, are described this way. This is particularly notable as their canon counterparts, Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy are nothing alike and are, in fact, not even vaguely related.
  • Happily Ever After: In the end, Draco ends up a Happily Married actor living in the Beauvoi-verse with Luna, the canon-universe characters end up much the same as they did in canon, with the added benefit of Draco having left them what remains of the Malfoys' fortune with the exception of Snape, who suffers his canon fate, only for his soul to be caught and returned to the body of his Empty Shell Beauvoi-verse counterpart.
  • Heel–Face Turn: The whole fic is a slow-burning one for Draco Malfoy, as he comes to reject his original blood-purist ideology with exposure to the Beauvoi-verse and its occupants.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Happens several times, both in backstory and the story proper. Some of the canon ones are avoided, however
    • The Beauvoi-verse version of Peter Pettigrew sacrificed himself to save his friends.
    • Beauvoi-verse Snape lets a dementor take him so that Draco has a chance to kill it
    • Canon-verse Dobby survives
  • Heroic Suicide:
    • Narcissa had no way to know if Lucius was going to choose her to die instead of Draco, so she steps in front of her son to make sure he survives. This grants him the same protection from the killing curse as Harry.
    • Malfoy Manor just wants to die. That doesn't mean it won't help Draco use its death to bring down Voldemort.
  • I Cannot Self-Terminate: Malfoy Manor wants to die. As sentient as it is, it can't do it on its own. Luckily, Draco is willing to help.
  • I Never Said It Was Poison: canon-verse Snape never told his dream woman really Beauvoi-verse Cecelia Black Draco's name and he couldn't possibly have told her what Draco's wand was made out of, since he, himself, didn't know.
  • In Spite of a Nail: Despite the divergence in the timeline being centuries in the past, alternate versions of Harry, Neville, Luna, and so on still exist.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: Memory charms. Per canon, this is how a properly cast Obliviate spell works.
    • Their potential use in psychological torture and manipulation is discussed at one point by Draco as he lays out how he could use memory charms to eventually make Hermione reach the conclusion that they're siblings and she was stolen from the Malfoys by the Evil Granger Muggles. Bellatrix is impressed.
    • The possibility is also posited that memory charms can be used to make a muggle woman forget that she was raped.
  • Lineage Comes from the Father: Discussed. First Hermione Grangernote  escapes from the Malfoy Manor dungeon. Several chapters later she is re-captured and publicly "interrogated" by Draco, who antagonizes her to the point that she flips out and Malfoy Manor is magically destroyed. Narcissa comes to the perfectly reasonable conclusion that Hermione made her escape from Malfoy Manor and caused the collapse using Malfoy family magic, which she would only have if she were Lucius' daughter. Both the escape and the collapse were caused by Malfoy family magic, but wielded by Draco.
  • Loving a Shadow: Lily Evans calls canon-verse Snape out on this.
  • Mama Bear: Pick a mother who has more than a few lines in the text and you'll find an example.
    • Special mentions go to canon-verse Andromeda and Narcissa, the two non-psychotic Black sisters. The latter willingly dies in place of her son, while the former uses some dark family magic to kill members of her own family who are threatening her daughter. She did warn them.
  • Mercy Kill: Malfoy Manor. Shortly after contacting it, Draco agrees it's better off dead. He promises to help, and follows through on that promise.
  • Miles to Go Before I Sleep: Malfoy Manor again. It has longed for death for centuries. It is willing to forego eternal rest long enough to help Draco bring down Voldemort for good.
  • My Own Private "I Do": Beauvoi-verse Hermione and Ron elope to Gretna Green immediately after Hermione's coming-of-age ceremony.
  • Our Werewolves Are Different: Canon-verse werewolves, while not overly fecund, can have children with no mystical or medical intervention. Beauvoi-verse werewolves are infertile, or at least they were until Remus and Danger came along.
  • Prosthetic Limb Reveal:
    • Done by Draco. Two thirds of the Golden Trio are accusing him of using his dark mark to call Voldemort. Draco reveals his amputated arm. Reattaching that arm squicks Ron and Harry out, and Draco plays that for all it's worth.
    • An invocation is planned by Hermione. She wants to wait and see how long it takes everyone else to notice her hand reappearing.
  • Sadistic Choice: Lucius Malfoy is told by Voldemort that he "has too many Malfoys" and that Lucius has to kill one. Thinking he has to choose between his wife and his son, Lucius chooses Narcissa. He didn't even think of killing himself until Draco mentions it towards the end of the story. After pointing out the Lucius never even considered it, Draco points out that—not only was it an option—it was the best choice he could've made for his family.
  • Scheherezade Gambit: Hermione and Ron are caught by snatchers and taken to Malfoy Manor. Draco hatches a plan to get them out, with Luna's aid. So he makes his way to the ground floor to "interrogate" Hermione. He convinces most of the people there that he's serious when he uses fiendfyre to burn off Hermione's wand hand. She'd been cut with a Goblin blade impregnated with Basilisk venom. If he hadn't burnt her hand off, she would have died, painfully, but nobody in the room apart from Draco and Hermione knows that. He then proceeds to stall for time by spouting half-formed supposition and much bullshit until the plan can be put into action.
  • Second Love: Cecilia Black for canon-verse Severus Snape.
  • Silly Will: Draco has some fun at the expense of the residents of the canon-verse at the end.
  • Stab the Scorpion: In the Quidditch game near the beginning of the story, Draco is about to catch the Snitch when B!Harry grabs his broom and starts trying to physically pull him back. Draco assumes Harry has lost his head and is cheating. Draco didn't realize that he was about to fly outside the lights, and didn't know what lurked beyond them.
  • Stockholm Syndrome: Discussed by the Golden Trio in reference to Luna when they receive a message from her, as they know she's been captured and is being held at Malfoy Manor. Subverted as it's not Luna who has started to identify with the Death Eaters, but Draco who now identifies with the good guys.
  • Troll: Draco, numerous times.
    • He teaches Peeves the SPAM song just to see how pissed off some of the Death Eater professors get.
    • He uses his will to have a bit of fun at the expense of much of the canon-verse.
  • Trust Password: A couple times
    • Theo Nott and Daphne Greengrass approach Neville with wands out and tell him the Boss wants to see him. They then tell him that if he doesn't come with them, they'll do to him what they did in first year and that, this time, it won't win him the House Cup. Everyone with Neville sees this as a threat, except Neville, who realizes it's a polyjuiced Ron and Hermione.
    • After Harry "dies" at the hands of Voldemort, Hagrid is carrying him back to the castle, when the group runs in to Neville. Draco Loudly and proudly tells Neville that Harry is "as dead as my own mum." Everyone there knows Narcissa is dead, except Neville; Draco had informed him in a conversation several chapters previously that his mum was alive and safe. This works because, while Narcissa was his mother, he never called her "mum." That title is reserved for Cecelia Black, who is very much alive. Draco just never told anyone (except Luna) about the distinction.

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