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In This World and the Next is a Harry Potter Peggy Sue fic in which Harry and Hermione, having been sentenced to the Dementor’s Kiss for killing Evil!Ron, instead find themselves propelled back to the beginning of the first novel.

See also Knowledge is Power, written by the same author.


In This World and the Next contains examples of:

  • Alien Space Bats: The premise, which involves an exploding Dementor somehow allowing the nominally-adult Harry and Hermione to possess their past selves back in 1991: nothing about the established properties of Dementors or Potterverse time travel implies this to be possible.
  • All Abusers Are Male: Implied by the suggestion that making Ron female will stop him from becoming the rapist he is in the original timeline.
  • Artistic License – Medicine: invoked No, you can't change somebody’s gender identity with a Groin Attack. Although, to be fair, this could be a case of Science Marches On, that is, from 1991, when the story is set. There was an actual case where doctors performed a sex change on a boy whose genitals had been damaged; until the truth came out in the mid-1990s, the medical literature was full of accounts about how well this worked and what it "proved" about the flexibility of gender. It should be noted that we only have the healer’s word (which, again, reflected then-currently accepted science) as to Ron’s prognosis and how well he will adjust; we never actually see how well he actually adjusts.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: Ron’s characterization has become a medley of all the unpleasant traits the author could dump on him, with no regard to how they mesh together (see Informed Flaw).
  • Chickification: Hermione manages to be overpowered by "shit wizard" Ron twice for the sake of Rape as Backstory. That she doesn’t otherwise appear to be reduced in power constitutes a major Plot Hole.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: See Obligatory Swearing: the fic might as well be called In This Shit and the Fuck with how frequently those words crop up.
  • Contrived Coincidence: Any of the Weasleys would be perfectly justified in wanting revenge on Lord Potter; in any event, the one who decides to actually go through with it is Percy, whom Lord Potter just happens to want to kill anyway.
  • Crapsack World: The original timeline is so bad that letting Voldemort win would probably have improved matters. A prominent example is that it is perfectly legal for a pureblood to rape a Muggle-born (who ought to feel honored to get a pureblood’s attention) and it is illegal for a Muggle-born to get an abortion after such an encounter. Remember that Voldemort had nothing to do with this.
  • Damsel in Distress: Poor Hermione is turned into this just so Harry can rescue her from Ron’s clutches.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Though Ron’s sudden seizure of the Villain Ball and rape of Hermione is despicable, Harry and Hermione decide to exact revenge on his entire immediate family as well. Harry claims Molly is trying to kidnap him and gets her arrested at King’s Cross for trying to help him find Platform 9 3/4, assumes she and her family will attack him despite being unarmed and attacks them first when they walk into the Great Hall, and forces the Weasley family into destitution by suing them for damages despite Harry having greater financial worth than the entire family does hundreds of times over. As a result of Harry’s actions, Arthur and Bill lose their jobs and the whole family (save for Charlie) becomes homeless because Harry seizes their house to tear it down and replace it with a mansion.
  • Easy Sex Change: Ron isn’t even conscious while the decision is being made for him and he wakes up as his new gender.
  • Establishing Series Moment: The second paragraph mentions what is implied (and later confirmed) to be "Ronald Fucking Weasley" raping Hermione, while the third hastily and acrimoniously breaks up Harry and Ginny. Both of these say a great deal about how far the author is willing to go to set Harry and Hermione up together.
  • Exact Words: Dumbledore asks Harry if he could "have a quick word" and Harry says "velocity", an uncredited reference to a similar outburst by Scottish football manager (and legendary Deadpan Snarker) Gordon Strachan when he was faced with that question from a reporter.
  • Explosive Overclocking: Harry and Hermione have so much magical power that they cause the Dementor to explode when it consumes their life force, giving them a second chance at life.
  • "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: Hermione insults Ron one last time by saying to the Dementor, "C’mon big guy, I’ve been kissed by Ron Weasley so this should actually seem pleasant!"
  • Fantastic Racism: The canonical disregard for Muggle-born wizards is taken further and beyond. Bizarrely, once Harry and Hermione arrive in the past they find the Wizarding World to be somewhat enlightened on this matter. In that case, how on Earth did Umbridge get away with keeping Voldemort’s purity laws on the books?
  • Fate Worse than Death: The Dementor’s Kiss, which is intended for Harry and Hermione. However, this does not come to pass.
  • First-Episode Twist: Ron turning evil and raping Hermione, causing Hermione to abort the resultant pregnancy and Harry to kill Ron in revenge after Ron tries to rape Hermione again, resulting in both of them receiving the Dementor’s Kiss and being transported back to the past. It is impossible to describe anything else in the story without spoiling this.
  • For Want Of A Nail: After Harry and Hermione are sent back in time to the beginning of their first year at Hogwarts with information and magical ability from the future, the ensuing slew of changes results in Voldemort being defeated (and Dumbledore’s reputation getting destroyed) within two months.
  • Half the Man He Used to Be: Ron is practically blasted in half.
  • Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain:
    • Ron, who can’t even hex two Muggles properly, though the "sympathetic" is questionable.
    • A group of bullies from Hermione’s old school appear out of nowhere at one point, and although we’re told how miserable they made her back in the day, all we’re shown is how easy it is for her and Lord Potter to send them packing.
  • Informed Attribute: In the words of szaleniec1000:
    It’s tempting to say this author is bad at characterisation, but that’s not quite true. He’s very good at characterisation, but terrible at making it match his intentions. I have a good picture in my head of Lord Potter the self-righteous arrogant bastard, Hermione the submissive damsel, and now McGonagall as a Wormtail figure abandoning her friends when someone more apparently powerful comes along, but that’s obviously not what the author intended.
  • Informed Flaw: The Sorting Hat doesn’t put Ron in Gryffindor because of his cowardice; this is someone whose main contribution to the plot so far will be to attack a witch who’s provably more skilled and powerful than he is, twice, apparently just for the hell of it.
  • In Spite of a Nail: Harry is convinced that Teddy Lupin can be born in the new timeline, in spite of the multitude of changes that have been made. Considering that these changes include Tonks and Lupin getting married years before they do in canon and surviving, the likelihood that any child they have will have any similarities to the Teddy that Harry left behind in the old timeline is slim.
  • Just Plane Wrong: Jumbo jets are claimed to fly at fifty thousand feet. The standard cruising height for commercial aircraft is only thirty-five thousand feet.
  • Kangaroo Court:
    • Harry and Hermione, in their trial for killing Ron and aborting his baby, respectively. They know they have no hope of getting off, especially since the Dementor is already there, so they merely decide to taunt Ron and those who put them on trial before they go.
    • The court that rules in Harry’s favor and awards him all the Weasleys’ assets, considering that he very clearly attacks first and his victim is unarmed.
  • Kick the Dog:
    • Ron raping Hermione for no apparent reason sets the entire plot in motion.
    • Not only does the court quickly convict and sentence Harry and Hermione to death without anything resembling a fair trial, but when Harry snarkily says that he didn’t think the magical government was capable of organizing this, Umbridge decides to have Hermione’s sentence carried out first so that Harry can watch.
  • Men Act, Women Are: The events of the first chapter are driven entirely by the actions of Harry and evil!Ron, with Hermione serving only as a passive observer and victim.
  • Mythology Gag: Hermione’s parents are called Dan and Emma, a common piece of fanon.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Molly Weasley offers to help Harry get onto Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. Unfortunately, this Harry has just been sent back in time from a future where two of her children betrayed him, and he starts getting retribution by shouting that she's trying to abduct him while they're still in the Muggle portion of King's Cross. She, along with Percy and the twins, gets taken into police custody for her trouble.
  • Obligatory Swearing: That "Ronald Fucking Weasley" is a "shit wizard" is only the start.
  • Out of Character: At one point, Hermione describes herself as such in so many words—it’s hard to argue with her assessment.
  • Peggy Sue: The plot’s kicked off by Harry and Hermione unintentionally traveling back in time to the start of their first year at Hogwarts.
  • Perfect Solution Fallacy: The criticism of several of the canonical characters, especially Dumbledore, seems to be based on the idea that they are useless if not evil because they aren’t perfect and make mistakes, no matter that the entire plot hinges on Harry and Hermione abandoning wizarding Britain to be taken over by the remnants of Voldemort’s army.
  • Plot Hole: Hermione apparently has enough power to overload a Dementor, but can be overpowered by a "shit wizard". It could be an extreme case of Unskilled, but Strong, with emphasis on the former, but if so then this isn’t established at all.
  • Protagonist-Centred Morality: Not only is pureblood supremacy presented as being as evil as it is in canon, characters who aren’t pureblood supremacists in the books are in the fic for no reason but to show us how evil they are. However, Harry loves nothing more than exercising his privileges as "Lord Potter" and demanding that everyone address him as such. So claiming you’re better than other people because of the circumstances of your birth is bad, except when it isn’t. Admittedly, using aristocratic precedence to get yourself preferential treatment socially is still a far cry from using it to violate civil rights and get away with murdernote  so Harry can at least still claim some moral high ground.
  • Qurac: Egypt, which in real life is a modern secular state, is depicted this way, complete with locals who want to buy Molly for camels.
  • Rape as Backstory: Hermione is raped by Ron, thus causing her to get pregnant and have an abortion, which is the offense that leads to her being sentenced to the Dementor’s Kiss. Ron’s attempt to rape her a second time results in Harry killing him and getting the same punishment.
  • Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The reason "Ronald Fucking Weasley" is reviled enough for Harry and Hermione to kill him and be sentenced themselves to the Dementor’s Kiss.
  • Replacement Goldfish: Harry and Hermione seem to work under the assumption that a child born to Tonks and Lupin in the new timeline will be the same person as the Teddy Lupin they leave in the old timeline, despite being born under completely different circumstances into a completely different world.
  • Revenge Fic: Once Harry and Hermione go back in time, they take revenge on anyone the author doesn’t like—the Weasleys, Snape, Dumbledore, Umbridge—the list goes on and on.
  • Running Gag: After Fudge actually decides to do his job, people are kind of shocked. The general consensus is, "Wow. I may actually vote for the arse." Even Fudge himself is surprised that actually doing a good job is a better election pitch than his ineffective past.
  • Sanity Slippage: Watching Harry continually humiliate him, resist his plans and destroy his reputation has this effect on Dumbledore. His sanity starts to slip following Voldemort’s defeat, when he declares that Harry must have been possessed by Voldemort, and tries to kill him. By the end of the story, his mental state has deteriorated to the point that he’s seeing a baby Fawkes that isn’t there.
  • Scunthorpe Problem: That the title’s initials contain a profanitynote  has not been lost on reviewers, especially considering the tone of the story’s dialogue.
  • Secondhand Storytelling: So much of the actual story seems to take place offpage (see also Show, Don't Tell) that it would probably be twice as long as it already is otherwise.
  • Show, Don't Tell: Frequently averted, with lines such as "the love [Sirius] felt for this boy knew no bounds", and Harry repeatedly telling Hermione what a smart and strong witch she is.
  • Sophisticated as Hell:
    "I am Lord Harry James Potter, last scion of the Noble and Ancient House of Potter, banisher of the Dark Lord Voldemort. Who the fuck are you to call me boy?"
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: When Harry and Hermione meet with Dan and Emma over dinner, everyone forgets about dinner as Emma demands an explanation for Hermione's decision to erase her parents' memories. Dan remarks that the next time they meet, they'll "actually get to eat some food."
  • Title Drop: "I’ll love you forever Harry, in this world and the next."
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The only people who seem to notice anything strange about how two first-year students are married to each other are the Weasleys, who are also the only people to whom it occurs that there might be a problem with this.
  • Wanton Cruelty to the Common Comma: Almost every sentence contains a comma splice. Also, the author seems reluctant to capitalise proper nouns.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: Apparently, goblins have the power to destroy Horcruxes... by feeding them to pigs. (Or by doing something that transfers the soul fragment into a pig, it’s not made clear.) They then kill and eat the pig, which destroys the Horcrux. And Gringotts does this for a fee. It’s Hand Waved that Voldemort doesn’t know about this because he doesn’t care about any nonhuman magic, even though one would think he would do as much research as possible into how to destroy the only source of his immortality, especially when the service is openly advertised.

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