Perfectly Normal is a Harry Potter fanfiction written by Brilliantlady, who can be found here
on Archive of Our Own.
The fanfiction itself can be found here on Archive of Our Own.
Harry just wants to have a quiet life and get along with everyone. He wants to be normal, and accepted. Being “normal” for the Dursleys yielded great results in improving his standard of living, and as he heads off to Hogwarts he still retains that impulse to keep his head down and blend in. Of course, life isn’t as simple as that, and Harry is a magnet for trouble. And what does "normal" really mean, anyway? The pure-bloods in his group of friends think he should learn more about their culture and religion if he wants to fit in.
- Book 1 - The Definition of Normal
- Book 2 - A New Kind of Normal
- Book 3 - Parseltongue is Really Very Ordinary
- Book 4 - An Abnormal Godfather
- Book 5 - Extraordinary Summer
- Book 6 - Unprecedented Competition
This fic provides examples of:
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Reborn Tom Riddle/Voldemort. He still isn't quite has handsome as he was in his youth, but its a hell of alot better than his canon appearance. This is likely due to potion master, Severus Snape, making the regeneration potion rather than Peter Pettigrew.
- He was older now; a handsome, middle-aged man in black formal robes, he looked to be in his forties, with silver peppering his long black hair which was tied back in a ponytail. He didn’t look quite right, however, there were some small changes that pushed his appearance from ordinary into an unnerving visage. Things were just off a fraction, enough to jar. Human, but not quite normal. His skin too white – unnaturally pale like it had never known the sun. Too few wrinkles, but not because of youth but because the waxy skin looked stretched like bad plastic surgery. Most noticeable of all were his eyes; the whites looked so marred and bloodshot they were almost ruby red, giving a very an unnerving effect to his gaze.
- Adaptational Backstory Change: In canon Harry's grandparents are Fleamont and Euphemia Potter, whereas here they are Charlus Potter and Dorea Black.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Horace Slughorn takes over as Hogwarts' Potions professor during Harry's 3rd year rather than his 6th year.
- Adaptational Expansion: The series goes into greater details about the culture of the wizarding world and magical history.
- Adaptational Name Change: Harry's real name is Harold, but he prefers to go by Harry. His snake, Storm, is the only one who regularly calls him by his birth name.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Most of the Slytherin students are much nicer than their canon counterparts, including Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson, Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, and Millicent Bulstrode.
- Asshole Victim: Barty Crouch Jr. pretends to be Mad-Eye Moody for almost an entire year, in which he plays the role of DADA professor and attends many Order of the Phoenix meetings; absuing the trust of Nymphadora Tonks, and then laughing behind her back for it. He then kills Dumbledore and creates utter chaos at the final task of the Triwizard Tournament before finally being killed by Griselda Marchbanks from behind with a silent Reductor Curse.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Harry originally thinks that Marcus Flint seems like a relatively nice guy, until he then meets him when disguised as Antares Black, and he shows himself to be a blood purist who believes Sirius Black should've sided with Voldemort alongside the rest of his family. Its this meeting which leads Harry to stop taking people at face value.
- Canis Latinicus: It's not recomended to cast spells in one's mother tongue or oure language as doing so could cause magic to be accidentally drawn forth in the middle of a conversation. Thus most spells are latin-like but not actually cast in latin.
- Condescending Compassion: After going to dinner at the Weasleys right before the Quidditch Cup, both Dudley and Molly's Squib cousin express discomfort over the wizards treating them as simpletons.
- The Cutie: Peregrine Derrick's little sister, Flavia. She's a big fan of Harry, and is always sending him letters and pictures of him and his snake.
- Death by Adaptation: Kingsley Shacklebolt, Hestia Jones, Amos Diggory, Sybill Trelawney.
- Though Professor Cuthbert Binns is technically already dead, he passes on to the "other side" during Harry's 4th Year at Hogwarts.
- Disappointed in You: Most peoples (outside of those in Slytherin House) reaction after finding out about Harry's truce with Voldemort.
- Downer Ending: Book 6: "Unprecedented Competition", ends with Dumbledore being killed by Barty Crouch Jr. and his blood being used to resurrect Voldemort, who then manages to take over the Ministry of Magic, essentially making him the leader of Magical Britain. He then has Harry kidnapped from Platform 9¾ and taken to Riddle Manor, which is both surrounded by Death Eaters and under the Fidelius charm, making an escape or rescue attempt next to impossible. Harry is then blackmailed into officially being Voldemort's heir.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Peter Pettigrew (who unknown to the public is being possessed by diary Tom Riddle) has been dubbed both Pettyrat and Lord Missing Finger in the paper.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Bellatrix Lestrange is disgusted by "Pettigrew's" plan to kill Antares Black (a disguised Harry Potter), due to both Voldemort's order not to harm magical children, and because "Antares" has done nothing to warrant death.
- Fair Folk: Wizardkind is the basis for these tales in-universe, which is also invoked with the fact that some wizarding communities can create fairy mounds, a type of Pocket Dimension created with extensive runic magic.
- Evil Mentor: Voldemort is this for Harry. Reluctantly so for the latter, at least for the most part.
- Fantastic Caste System: There are the categories of cives, peregrini and servi class. Cives are full citizens, while peregrini (which includes goblins and muggles) cannot vote or hold Ministry position, carry wands, inherit property and can face summary execution for serious crimes. Servi are slaves or servants as purebloods prefer, even though they can be sold.
- Floral Theme Naming: The Parkinson family always gives flower names to the daughters. It helps Harry to understand his maternal grandmother Heather Evans was a Squib, making him related to Pansy.
- Got Volunteered: Not only did Barty Crouch Jr. put Harry's name in the Goblet of Fire, but so did many of his friends, including the Weasley twins, and Colin Creevey (who bribed an older Slytherin student to do it for him) because they assumed he wanted to be a Triwizard Champion.
- Hufflepuff House: Played with. Harry admires the Hufflepuffs, seeing their House's values as worthy of imitation and is often annoyed when people put down the Hufflepuffs. However they play a minor role until the Triwizard Tournment.
- Internal Reveal: Harry doesn't find out that Professor Quirrell was being possessed by Voldemort until his 3rd Year at Hogwarts, when he finally pieces it together using information from their correspondence over the past year.
- Like Father, Unlike Son: Outside of their physical appearance and Hogwarts houses, James and Harry Potter are very different people; polar opposites in some ways.
- Mage Species: Wizard-kind. Their exact origins are shrowded in mystery though two origins are possible: one, that they are sort of Fair Folk from another realm that got stuck on Earth while another is that they were originally normal humans who were exposed to and mutated by magical energies.
- Muggle Born of Mages: Neville was thought to be a Squib by his relatives due to his lack of accidental magic, even after his uncle threw him out of a window. So he was enrolled in a muggle school where he had to get "remedial classes" for his lack of basic knowledge, and he was removed when he got his Hogwarts letter three months later.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Harry feels this way after saving the life of a dying Amycus Carrow during the Battle of Hogsmeade, since he then witnesses the man cutting off someone's hand simply for being a "muggle-lover", and can do nothing about it.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Harry's correspondence with Voldemort becomes friendlier as they discuss magical theory and medicine, but this has the downside of inspiring Voldemort to make experiments on werewolves, which also causes a new wave of attacks on wizards and muggles, including having an entire muggle town exterminated. Snape sends a letter berating Harry for his recklessness.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Harry acts this way due to his upbringing with the Dursley family. Whilst he doesn't act completely stupid, he does go out of his way to get lower grades then he's capable of getting. He stops doing this as the story progresses.
- Odd Friendship: Hermione Granger and Gregory Goyle build up a friendship as the story progresses, and even end up co-writing a book together meant for helping muggleborns adapt to the wizarding world.
- Original Character: We meet many more characters from both Beauxbatons and Durmstrang than simply Fleur Delacour and Viktor Krum when the foreign students come to Hogwarts for the Triwizard Tournament.
- Pocket Dimension: Referred to as Wizard Space, which is how places like Diagon Alley and possibly the Ministry can coexist in urban areas.
- Rejected Marriage Proposal: A 12 year old Harry receives a betrothal offer from the Farley family. Harry rejects the offer, and cannot even look the girl, Gemma Farley, in the eyes whenever they're around each other.
- Harry gets another offer from a Gabonese stall owner to marry his daughter after the man hears him speaking parseltongue, which Harry also rejects.
- Secret Identity:
- Using his metamorphmagus ability, Harry Potter has created one of these in the brown-haired, blue-eyed 'Antares Black'. This persona, along with his abilities gets publically revealed in Book 6.
- Ovid Mortalem, a man Harry meets for a book signing in Paris claiming to be his fan, is actually Voldemort in disguise. He uses this identity to keep in contact with Harry for the first few months of his 4th Year at Hogwarts. "Ovid Mortalem" is an anigram of "I Am Voldemort".
- Secret Legacy: Harry's maternal grandmother is Heather Parkinson: a squib from the Parkinson family. This makes Harry cousins with Pansy Parkinson.
- Though this is nothing compared to Harry's maternal grandfather, Darren Evans, who is a descendant of Isolt Sayre, whose mother was a member of the Gaunt family, who themselves are descendants of Salazar Slytherin, meaning that Harry actually is the Heir of Slytherin.
- Shout-Out: In Book 6, Ron asks new 1st year Gryffindor, Natalie Mcdonald, if she's related to "that bloke who owns all those restaurants".
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: A big part of the story is Harry desperately wanting to be accepted by the Dursley family, which goes as well as you'd expect. This ends with Petunia sending Harry a letter disowning him after Dudley gets injured by Death Eaters whilst on his way to watch the final Triwizard Tournament task, and Harry crying himself to sleep.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Amelia and Susan Bones leave Britain in Book 6. If the latter returns, she'll be thrown into Azkaban, or executed if she resists arrest for using a wand without permission whilst in Britain. We don't know exactly where they ended up, but Susan is going to school at Durmstrang, since werewolves are allowed to attend there.
