Harry Potter and the Boy Who Lived
is a Harry Potter Alternate Universe Fic where Harry is NOT the Boy Who Lived. That's his brother, Nathan. Harry becomes a bookworm who embraces his pureblood heritage. Upon arriving at Hogwarts he ends up ostracized and becomes disillusioned with the school, opting to to transfer to Drumstrang Institute of Magic where he finds his place.
It subverts, and avoids the majority of generic tropes associated with this type of fanfic.
This fanfiction contains the following tropes:
- All the Other Reindeer: One of the reasons for why Harry transfers to Durmstrang is because of the treatment he got from his fellow Ravenclaws who alternated between fanboying over his brother and resenting Harry for making the rest of the House look bad with his studying, which makes even the normally studious Ravenclaws look like slackers (helped by the fact that Harry obsessively studied magic theory for years before actually getting his wand).
- The older students at Durmstrang aren't exactly thrilled with him either, and try to attack him several times, but this is seen as NORMAL at the intensly competitive school.
- Battleaxe Nurse: Unlike the motherly and doting Madame Pomfrey of Hogwarts, the Lady Shluga of Durmstrang is very strict and ill-tempered.
- Bilingual Bonus: Grausam is German for "cruel".
- Boarding School of Horrors: Durmstrang is a mild example, due to its focus on Dark Arts and grueling academic standards. It's a reflection of a pureblood wizard society (despite having a handful of half blood students and one teacher). The school also employs some VERY cruel forms of corporal punishments, somewhat justified in that it's one of the few types of punishments that the children of Death Eaters fear.
- The cliques are even worse than at Hogwarts and are divided by year rather than Houses. Younger students have to live in constant fear of getting hexed by older students, though the teachers will harshly punish anyone they actually catch attacking other students.
- Break the Haughty: Calypso's fathers cruel methods made her the strong person she is more recently they have started to break her.
- Break the Badass: Harry, Child Prodigy, and Badass Book Worm was physically and mentally broken as part of a punishment in one chapter.
- Child Prodigy: While Harry skips several grades, and is a very talented wizard he is still out-classed by much older students (during his first couple of years), and the professors. Exaggerated when Harry, after an enormous amount of effort, manages to break Grindewald's old school record by achieving a Masters rank in six different subjects during his second year (Grindewalds record was made in his fifth year), and in the process manages to make an important research discovery in Transfiguration that gets him published in several wizarding publications.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Not everyone who practices the Dark Arts are evil, however they aren't nice either.
- Evil Old Folks: Grindewald is still alive and locked up in the mainland version of Azkaban (ironically a prison he had himself designed during his reign as dark lord), but is very old and physically frail due to the toll the harsh prison has taken on him. Despite this, his mind and his magic is as sharp as ever, making him incredibly dangerous.
- Groin Attack: Calypso kicks Viktor right between the legs when he forcefully interogates her about her intentions towards Harry. Unusual for this trope, despite being in pain, Viktor doesnt go down or back off, presumably being used to pain from his Quidditch playing.
- I Am Not My Father: Calypso is a member of the Rosier family, which is considered so dark that it even makes the Lestrange and Black's pale in comparison. Calypso insists she isn't a reflection of her father.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Harry accidently walks in on Viktor and Kira making out in their underwear and almost gets hexed for it. Happens AGAIN in a later chapter, though this time, the door was actually unlocked and the two were still dressed.
- Official Couple: Viktor and Kira. And recently Harry and Calypso.
- My Greatest Failure: The reason for why Dumbledore decides to convince Lily and James to let Harry transfer is because Harry reminds him of Tom Riddle as a child, and he still blames himself for being unable to help Riddle overcome his demons.
- Sadist Teacher: Grausam, the Dark Arts teacher. Similar to Snape in the normal canon, Grausam resents Harry for a variety of factors, and takes it out on him in class.
- Stern Teacher: The rest of Durmstrang's faculty, the standards are incredibly high and the discipline harsh, but students who truly apply themselves are rewarded in turn.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Nathan and Harry
- Sink or Swim Mentor: The entire philosophy of Durmstrang. If you can't keep up with the schools heavy demands, you're out on your ass. In Calypso's words, Durmstrang would prefer to produce 5 exceptional wizards over 50 passable ones.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Lily and James never die in this timeline, as Voldemort's attack on the twins occured when they were being watched by their grandparents.
- Symbol Motif Clothing: A few Jerkass five-years show up to class wearing clothing with Grindewald's symbol on them (the equivalent of wearing a swastika shirt). Unlike Voldemort's cartoonish Dark Mark, Grindewald's symbol is a simple geometric shape; a straight line, inside a circle, inside a triangle.
- The Rival: Kira and Calypso to each other. It usually takes their respective boyfriends to keep them from killing each other when they are in the same room.
