Fanfic / Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum

Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum by Mister Cynical, is a Harry Potter fic where Harry and his friends decide to start their Fourth Year at Hogwarts being more proactive about handling whatever is going to kill them this year, making new friends along the way.

It now has a sequel, ''The Princes of Hogwarts," which is also covered below.

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Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum contains examples of:

• Adults Are Useless: After all they have been through, the idea that there are actually adults willing and able to help the Golden Trio and Luna, is something they have trouble wrapping their heads around. Subverted in that for the finale of the first book, Voldemort and Pettigrew are handled without any real adult assistance despite the effort put into having them there. Instead the adult reinforcements spend most of their time being disturbed by these kids.
• Amazon Chaser: While Hermione's continuing development into becoming either a female Mad-Eye Moody or future overlord unnerves others, including Harry and Ron, Krum is increasingly attracted to her passionate personality and sheer danger level.
• Badass Bookworm: Viktor Krum, who is an international Quidditch prodigy, can defeat a dragon single-handedly, and considers all sports to be thinking man's sports in the end. A lot of his success is from analyzing the past plays of opposing teams to find patterns, and then uses them to dissect the abilities of the individual players so he can best them.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • As horrifying as Harry has become, and ready to resort to violence at the drop of a hat, he still takes the time to reassure scared Firsties in the hospital wing.
  • Dumbledore.
    • Just the look on his face when he learns of a dementor taking Dudley's soul, is to make everyone from Minivera to Harry and Co. take a quick step back.
    • While he is watching from his office Harry and other students having a study group way out down on the lawn, he is quite happy. Upon seeing Umbridge stomping towards them, he teleports himself and McGonagall down right behind Umbridge to jovially ask how she is doing. This is supposed to be impossible by the wards of Hogwarts, and is done silently, startling the woman so much with his pleasant greeting she falls flat on her face.
• Blood Knight: All of the main characters resort to violence as their first option, but Hermione genuinely enjoys it. Notably, one of the final omakes has her entering an amateur boxing competition and beating her much larger opponent senseless then "screaming like a banshee in triumph."
• Boring, but Practical: As far as Harry, Ron, and Hermione are concerned, any plan that gets them out of a situation alive and well is always the go-to plan. For example, when scouting the Chamber of Secrets to see if there's another Basilisk, Luna asks if they're going to fight it if there is one. The trio reply that if there is indeed a second Basilisk, then they're going to flee and report the Basilisk to Dumbledore. Unfortunately this also means that instead of trying to 'outwit' the challenges of the Triwizard Tournament, in the flashy manner advertised for the audience, they conclude that the short and brutal approach is best.
• Cassandra Truth: Nobody took Harry seriously when he said that instead of the Triwizard Tournament properly testing the students, it would just be a series of death traps. Because this is Hogwarts...
• Character Development: While the protagonists and their growing circle of friends go through this, Malfoy gets this surprisingly. He is forced to accept that his father's ways are actually shortsighted, and do not work nearly as well as Lucius has deluded himself into believing. Meanwhile Harry's friends ensure that no matter what happens to him, he always gets back up. So Draco works to encourage other Slytherins to befriend him, and starts spreading bad yet technically accurate rumours about Harry to make him appear even more violently unstable.
• Comically Inept Healing: Madam Pomfrey admits to being impressed by how Professor Lockhart managed to remove all the bones from Harry's arm when attempting to fix a fracture, but apparently the prize-winner is Harry's mother, who once rotated Sirius Black's head 180 degrees.
  Harry: What was she trying to fix?
  Pomfrey: A stubbed toe.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Harry and his friends fight McGonagall at her insistence and only get a good hit or two in while she thrashes them. Subverted when it turns out they very nearly won, and it's only her robes hiding her injuries that makes them think she completely crushed them. She barely makes it to Pomfrey in time before her legs give out.
• Cutting the Knot: For the First Task, the students were supposed to out-think the beasts and steal the Golden Egg. Instead, having being forewarned that they had to steal from the nest of a mother dragon, and on Harry's advice, the Champions concluded that the solution was extreme violence to take out the dragons.
• Cool Sword: Harry can now summon the Sword of Gryffindor whenever he needs it.
• Could Say It, But...: Once Shacklebolt confirms that Harry tends to get into life or death conflicts with his Defense professors, he tells Harry to "prepare for a normal year" regarding Umbridge being the current Defense professor.
• Deadpan Snarker: Harry and his friends.
  • Harry has his moments...
    Madam Pomfrey: Now, I have learned that your family is not the most...
    Harry: Lots of words could go there.
  • And again when discussing their "self-defense lessons".
    Luna: [Hermione] flew like a blibbering humdinger.
    Ron: How does a humdinger fly?
    Harry: Apparently, twenty feet through the air and headfirst into a wall.
• The Dreaded:
  • Harry and Hermione are increasingly becoming this for their fellow students. By their fifth year, even Hermione's friends are afraid of her, even if they also love her.
    • When Harry learns who the newest DADA teacher is in his fifth year and yells loudly enough for everyone to hear, everyone remembers what happened when his name came out of the Triwizard Cup. Cue how the Slytherins scatter for their lives, Malfoy erects a shield, and the Gryffindors hurry to give space to Harry.
  • Dementors are this, and in the second book Harry acknowledges they are something he actually fears.
• Establishing Character Moment: In-universe for Fleur and Viktor regarding Harry. Unlike canon where he is a nervous younger boy who is under suspicion of cheating to be included in the Tournament, he is the teenager who violently snapped when his name was called, nearly killed off over a quarter of the students in the Great Hall, and before a teacher intervened he had his entire House trying and failing to subdue him even after they broke his arm. So yes, that definitely shades their perspective of him even before he starts making pessimistic predictions of the Tournament they later realize to be accurate.
• Evil Laugh:
  • Hermione is prone to doing this more and more often, with Rita particularly being a trigger. Krum finds it highly attractive.
  • Now Harry is doing it whenever he thinks about Peter Pettigrew's inevitable fate. No longer laughing though after Peter's soul is sucked out.
• Exact Words: When McGonagall demands to know if Harry's been drinking, he replies he has and staying hydrated is very important.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: In the sequel, Draco, Gregory, and Vincent talk about how Harry is apparently going after the new Defense professor already. While talking, they note how Snape always wanted the position and that Harry "cleans it out yearly". Draco thinks on what that means before deciding he should go have a word with Snape before he suffers an "agonizing fate or an agonizing death".
• Fate Worse than Death: What the Dementor's Kiss is considered, and was used on Peter Pettigrew and Dudley.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Hermione's specialty. In an omake, she defeats a champion at a traveling boxing ring, cheering to the crowd with bloody gloves while her opponent lies senseless. Her father, whose brother had taught her, is less upset at the violence, and more that she fought as a berserker as opposed to using clean, surgical force.
• Head-in-the-Sand Management: Fudge here for sure, as he takes extreme steps to try and convince people everything is fine, and Voldemort is certainly not threatening to return.
  Shacklebolt: The man ordered a helpless prisoner kissed in a moment of panic at the thought of a disruption to his rule. It was low hanging fruit. All he had to do was roll with the evidence, announce Potter as the hero he already was, play the role of the wise leader and he would have secured a legacy for himself even amongst his detractors. Hell, he probably would have skated through elections based on this alone. He went with option B, which is deny everything uncomfortable no matter what and force everyone to agree with him.
• Heal It with Booze: Played a bit differently, but basically the best solution the finest medical minds of the Wizarding World can come up with to help Harry after his violent breakdown after being chosen by the Goblet of Fire, is providing him alcohol. While it 'does' work, Hermione still plans to take him to get proper drugs once they return to the Muggle World. By this point, they are all functional alcoholics though, and Harry never actually sees those professionals.
  • In chapter 28, Pomfrey clarifies that what she gives him was tincture, a medicine where medicinal herbs were seeped in alcohol, and said alcohol is only meant to be secondary.
  • Umbridge confiscates Harry's medicine as she believes it to be alcohol. In McGonagall's own words, that endangered Harry and the entirety of the school.
• Heroic BSoD: Upon learning some of his friends are tied up under a lake, instead of going on a violent rampage, Harry has a panic attack which horrifies his friends and the staff. Fleur snaps him out of it with her Allure.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Over the course of the story, Harry and his friends resort to increasingly disturbing amounts of violence as their first response to... pretty much any problem. For the most part, it's Played for Laughs, though occasionally someone notes that they all need serious professional help. Their concerns are partially alleviated by the fact that he still clearly cares for other people.
  • Best exemplified in an omake where Ron stops Harry from using magic to kill toddler Voldemort... by pointing out how toddlers are trying to kill themselves all the time, then picking up and shaking Voldemort until his neck breaks.
• Horrifying the Horror:
  • For the First Task, Harry unintentionally taps into some childhood trauma for a mother dragon, and makes her abandon her nest to cower in fear in a corner. It only makes it more terrifying for people in how Harry initially admits he honestly has no idea how he pulled it off.
  • Flitwick, McGonagall the Inevitable, and Hermione manage to all still scare Harry.
  • As terrifying as people throughout the story find McGonagall, Dumbledore was terrifying before she was even born, and she knows when to back off with him.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Due to the stress he and his friends are under, it is getting increasingly rare when Harry and Co. are actually perfectly sober.
• I Was Never Here: In one of the epilogue omakes, McGonagall runs into Harry in a bar and she's very insistent that "this is not happening". Harry immediately agrees he never saw her but Sirius takes some convincing.
• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Parodied.
  "Fair enough," Harry admitted, resting a hand on Voldemort's back. "Well, see you next time Tom."
  "Wait!" Sal interrupted. "If you kill him, you'll be just like him."
  "I'll be just like him," Harry repeated. "I'll be just like a mass murderer if I kill the man who killed my family and continues to try to kill me."
  "Eh," Sal grunted with a shrug. "I don't get it either, but people always say something like that before your first kill. It's like a tradition.
• Implied Death Threat: Amalie jokingly threatens to alert the authorities about Sirius's location (not knowing how serious the situation is), only for Harry to warn her that doing so would "End badly for everyone" with Luna chipping in "Especially you."
• Man of Wealth and Taste: At the end of the story, Draco Malfoy starts wearing bespoke suits from Kingsman tailor due to being impressed by Harry's tuxedo. Even Lucius and Narcissa admit that, despite being muggle clothes, they do look very good.
• Mistaken for Badass: Mad-Eye Moody commends the Golden Trio for sitting with their backs to the wall and drawing their wands on him the moment he raised his voice. Ron wonders if they should mention that they sat there by chance and drew their wands due to being on pepper-up potions, but Hermione shuts him up.
• Muggles Do It Better: When it comes to clothing, even Lucius has to admit that bespoke suits look far more impressive than simply wearing more expensive robes.
• My Eyes Are Up Here: Sirius' girlfriend doesn't really mind how he notices her bouncing to her feet, but she does gently chide him, "Eyes up sweetie."
• Nice Guy: Despite how increasingly paranoid, ruthless, and prone to violence Harry has become, he remains this deep down. He helps out in the Infirmary even after his detention time there is over, and is good at reassuring the younger students, and also risks his life to help settle down the dragon he traumatized.
• Nice to the Waiter: Downplayed. Draco makes a point of showing respect to a tailor for Kingsman because "good servants are hard to come by" and thinks it'd be foolish to alienate one for no reason.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Due to the awful things Rita Skeeter has been writing about Hermione, she gets endless hate mail, to the point she is just burning it upon arrival. Unfortunately one of the letters had something reacted explosively to heat, and she had to be rushed to Saint Mungo's to be treated for both burn scars, and for new eyes. Afterwards, she proclaims she has decided Rita's fate, and starts to cackle maniacally. Later, Rita just... disappears. Director Bones orders a full investigation, but they cannot find anything suspicious to explain it, and all evidence points to her voluntarily leaving for a vacation. Except Hermione's friends know she disappeared with Krum at one point, and she keeps on laughing evilly at Rita's name... Later Rita returns, and when Amelia Bones pries, the reporter parrots everything her good friend Hermione had said about her, or had left behind in that note she had totally written. Oh, and she even has a detailed book telling the truth of Voldemort. When Amelia promises protection from Hermione, something flashes in Rita's eyes before laughing it off.
  • Krum claims it is actually worse to know what Hermione did.
• Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: While on vacation, and without her friends to help, Luna killed her second basilisk. She recounts it more as an afterthought.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Harry has only ever killed one Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, but even the Aurors tend to think Harry's killed every one he's had, even people who've met Remus since he taught Harry.
• Only Sane Man: Ron considers only himself and Luna to be this amongst the Golden Four, and for good reason given how Harry and Hermione can break out cackling in thoughts of revenge. It is all relative though, since others consider their behaviour rather atypical at best.
  • At one point they decide that Cedric has to be the Only Sane Man, because obviously the four have leapt off the precipice, Viktor is dating Hermione, and Fleur is... well, not crazy, but she's definitely not totally there. But then they point out that Cedric's earnestness in going along with the rest and his absolute lack of guile have basically made him just another one of the gang. At every stage, the sane one is Neville, who consciously decides not to have anything to do with any of it.
• Plausible Deniability: All of Gryffindor house ignores absolutely everything Harry and his friends get up to so they don't have to get involved or be interrogated about it.
  Ron: Okay, so, you know how the ministry is apparently trying to kill you?
  Katie: What?
  Neville: Katie!
  Katie: I heard nothing. I know nothing. What is even happening?
  Seamus: This is the way.
  All of Gryffindor: The way.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Once Draco realizes that his only "friends" Crabbe and Goyle would abandon him the moment his father lost his influence and/or money, he starts going out of his way to act friendly towards younger students, especially the first two years who have minimal exposure to him. Over the course of months, he gains support from people who genuinely like him, or at least believe he can help them with their problems. His growth is best characterized when his father rages about Fudge blackmailing everyone bribing him. Lucius wants to have Fudge killed and believes the other lords would support him. Draco knows that doing so to a minister gearing up for a war against dark wizards would make the man a martyr and the other lords would throw Lucius to the bloodthirsty crowds in order to save themselves.
• Properly Paranoid:
  • To the dismay of the teachers, there are many reasons why Harry and his friends should be afraid of people trying to kill them. Neither they nor the kids are happy about it either. Gets worse when the other Champions realize just what they signed up for, and start to think he's right. When the adults try and convince Fleur, Cedric, and Viktor there is no reason to, Fleur explicitly point out how they have been made to fight dragons.
  • Neville does not want to know what Harry and the rest are up to, and he has good reason to. The rest of Gryffindor House follows him in ignoring Harry and Co. so they have plausible deniability.
  • Harry and Co. have acknowledged the pattern of how the DADA teacher inevitably tries to kill him. By the end of their fourth year they are already planning to curse first, ask questions later. Indeed, everyone is just waiting for Umbridge to die somehow, and keep asking Harry if she is dead.
• Rage Breaking Point: Harry had so been looking forward to his first year without anyone threatening his life, so when his name comes out of the Goblet of Fire, he snaps. Ron throws off his aim when he tries to destroy the Goblet of Fire (which looks like he is aiming at the teachers and headmasters), and the backlash of his spell still nearly kills off the entirety of the Slytherins and Durmstrang representatives. Harry remains so utterly insane with fury that basically his whole House has him pinned down, Luna broke one of his arms, and he is still dangerously close to grabbing his wand with his other hand before Madam Pomfrey stuns him.
  • As he learns more and more about Harry's past life, Cedric is frankly amazed Harry did not snap sooner.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • Dumbledore.
    • When his students are hospitalized because of hate mail, he calmly keeps his head, and finds out ways to legally make things worse for the perpetrator.
    • While he is unaware to the full extent of what Harry and Co. are up to, and rather enjoys his plausible deniability, in chapter 31 when Harry comes to him about his vision, he calmly listens, asks productive questions, and provides useful advice. While he regrets the necessity, he also intimidates the teenagers into not causing an international incident.
    • The Triwizard Tournament was genuinely intended to foster international friendship, and he is overjoyed that the Champions, who he knows will all grow into influential people when they graduate, have all become close, lifelong friends.
    • He manipulates the Board of Governors into being this, passing a change in policy so physical punishment is no longer acceptable, which leads to them also coming up with a new policy about withholding medicine which a very pleased Dumbeldore had not even considered.
  • Amelia Bones. She is highly offended at the sort of hate mail a teenage girl received, to say nothing of how she is currently hospitalized, and pushes for the harshest sentences she can manage. Upon meeting Harry and Co., she quickly realizes how dangerous they are, and instinctively knows they are responsible for more than they are admitting, for all that she fails to find the proper evidence. Finally, throughout her career she works to follow the letter of the law, and ensure others are doing so, but when it becomes clear the legal system is breaking down, she prepares to take extra-legal means to safeguard Britain.
  • Amos Diggory, who in true Hufflepuff fashion comes to Harry's aid after the Triwizard Tournament as his solicitor. Throwing his full support behind his son's friend. Later he loses his job over it, going back to work as a solicter.
• Red Baron:
  • Near the end of the first story, Harry and his friends start calling McGonagall "The Inevitable" because "You can't escape the inevitable". The following year, others have started referring to her as such too.
  • In the second book, Malfoy refers to Harry as: The Boy Who Lived, The Heir of Slytherin, The False Champion, The Madman of Hogwarts, and The Dragon Spooker.
• Refuge in Audacity: Cornelius Fudge, and surprisingly entirely of his own initiative. He panics with Peter Pettigrew being presented alive at the end of the Third Task, proclaiming Sirius Black is innocent, so has him subjected to the Dementor's Kiss. To maintain his power, he gets Wizengot to pass a law which essentially gives him dictatorial powers to hunt down dark wizards which threaten his administration, or cover up evidence which might in turn endanger it. He manages this in good point by blackmailing those who have been bribing him, by leveraging how giving bribes is illegal as well. Lucius Malfoy is absolutely furious at this turn of events.
• Scars Are Forever: Not just Harry's infamous scar. As a result of the incredibly intensive training he and his friends do, the fact they cannot go to Madam Pomfrey for medical help, and the fact that Harry is simply not as talented at medical magic as her, the faces of him and his friend are covered in scars to the point they look like thugs. He actually appreciates it, since wizards keep fixating on a scar he cares nothing for, while now they just pay attention to a maze of scars he considers useful lessons. It is honestly getting to the point his signature scar is hard to see.
• Scare 'Em Straight: Sophie scares her sister off from entering the Triwizard Tournament by telling her how dangerous Hogwarts is, using Harry, Ron, and Hermione as examples. Each of the three have notable facial scars and Ron admits to missing the days when his nose was straight. Afterwards, Sophie admits she knows full well their scars are all from learning to fight for the past two months, but thought they'd serve as good visual examples.
• She Cleans Up Nicely:
  • Or rather he cleans up nicely, as Harry gets a male makeover thanks to Sirius, and attracts the eye of all the female students with his new handsome, roguish appearance. Pity he later gets his face all scarred up…
  • Despite said scars, after he is shown shirtless for the Second Task, he becomes a national teenage heartthrob when pictures of him are posted across all the newspapers. Witch Weekly has descriptions like: "Toned, tanned, tattooed and occasionally tuxedo clad. Harry Potter has a style all his own." Personally Harry finds it rather disturbing.
• Spit Take: Amalie pressures Harry into eating at least some eggs and toast, then as he's swallowing, blithely tells him that they're a good choice because if he vomits from nervousness, they won't taste too bad coming back up. Luna has to rescue him from a combination of laughing and choking.
• The Talk: Harry ends up receiving this from Madam Pomfrey.
• True Companions:
  • Harry, Ron, Hermione, Luna, Amalie, Victor Krum, and now Cedric. Noteworthy how due to acknowledging early on what kind of dangerous life Harry has lived, Ron's jealously and insecurities do not lead him to push his friends away.
  • As the story progresses, it becomes increasingly clear how much Hufflepuff is this, and why you should not provoke them. Ever.
• Verbal Backspace: A psychiatrist unofficially diagnosis Harry with Bipolar Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, paranoia, and possibly schizophrenia. When she's told Harry's "conspiracy theories" about fighting Voldemort multiple times and teachers trying to kill him actually happened, she revises her diagnosis to claiming he's a well-adjusted young man.
• Violence Really Is the Answer: The conclusion of Harry, his friends, and now the Champions come to. The adults despair at this, but unfortunately they have yet to come up with any convincing arguments against it, given not only the threats the kids face, but also the fact Harry's enemies really are horrible people. Also, the fact that the adults are making children face dragons hardly helps their case. For the Second Task, Dumbledore makes a point of emphasizing to the Champions beforehand that they will not need to use violence against the Mermish.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Subverted a bit, as Sophie is being protective of Sirius by threatening to be violent to him, if he does something so foolish as to return to England where he is a wanted criminal who would be killed/Kissed on sight.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Luna all become increasingly violent with each other while still being the best of friends. When Sirius's girlfriend comments on Harry's nose "bending the other way now," all he states is that "someone was a little angrier than he expected", to which Hermione claims her ribs state he's already gotten his revenge.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Ron isn't a fan of killing in general, but for acromantula he draws the line.
  Ron: Just because acromantulas are as smart as people doesn't mean they shouldn't all be burned alive. They're as smart as people, but they aren't people and they want to eat people, so they should be slaughtered on sight... by people. Their screams are my new lullabies.
• You Didn't Ask: Apparently Hermione learned boxing, and is rather good at it.
• You Didn't See That: The Gryffindors take it to another level, by actively ignoring whatever Harry and Co. are doing as much as possible, so that whenever McGonagall comes barreling into the Common Room demanding information on Harry and Co. (particularly where they have disappeared to this time), they can honestly say they know absolutely nothing. They do not want to get involved in the madness, and this prevents the Professor from intensely interrogating them for the slightest details.

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