Fanfic / To Walk the Narrow Path

To Walk the Narrow Path is a sequel to a Slash Fic written by Dragongirl16 in which The Old Gods return while the Wizarding World is torn apart by its war with Voldemort, while The Masquerade starts to unravel in the aftermath of the war.

The original fic, called Faith can be read here while TWNP can be read here.

---

This Work Has the Following Tropes:

• Accidental Pervert: Played with. While buying new clothes in Hogsmeade, Draco gets a peak at Harry's naked body but does not look away making this Not Accidental Pervert instead.
• Adaptational Heroism: Lucius, to the point that he was friends with Lily Evans, which flies in the face of his Fantastic Racism characterization.
• Adaptational Sexuality: All over the place.
• Adaptational Villainy: In canon, Narcissa loved her son very much and served as a Spanner in the Works by backstabbing Voldemort in the final book. Here she was a heartless Racist Grandma who had little to no contact with her own son, and Draco is largely indifferent to his parents' divorce if not actually relieved.
  • The Weasleys are even worse. They went from being Good Parents and a Family of Choice, whose matriarch sees Harry as Like a Son to Me, to Jerkass and actually believing the Ministry's slander campaign when in canon the Weasleys were aware Voldemort had returned. This is later taken up a notch when Ginny is disowned and later Percy calls her a whore amongst other insults.
• The Alcatraz: Azkaban. Severus Snape ends up there for a time for assault against Sirius.
• All Myths Are True: Even more so than in canon.
• Alternate Universe: The fic starts on Harry's fifth year and diverges from there. The divergence is that the rift between Percy and his family never rises and instead he feeds his family Ministry propaganda, which results in the Weasleys becoming The Fundamentalist.
  • A more subtle version is that divination actually works, as Dumbledore and Ginny often divine for clues.
• Apocalypse How: In the sequel, Crom Cruach's Time Crash causes a Class 1, nearning Class 2. The Time Crash causes time storms which tear apart both the wizarding and muggle worlds, with muggle technology going waywire such as nuclear weapons exploding.
• Armor-Piercing Question: When Griffindors petition to expel Harry from their House, Seamus ask what would happen if they were wrong and Harry was not evil. Hermione gives Insane Troll Logic about how a true Griffindor would forgive them because everyone makes mistakes.
• Asshole Victim: During the Battle of Hogwarts, Lucius Malfoy ties up and gags Bellatrix Lestrange and after snaping her wand, he leaves her to be found by the werewolves she abused.
• Awakening the Sleeping Giant: The awakening of The Old Gods.
• Bargain with Heaven: Harry makes one with Gwyn ap Nudd during The Siege of Hogwarts.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: Played With. Every time Harry goes into Voldemort's mind he seeks to ensure the dark wizard doesn't learn he's there. After a few visits, when Voldemort finally learns that Harry is in his own mind it turns into a Curb-Stomp Battle.
• Beneath the Mask: Slytherins use a public mask to hide their emotions but they let go when amongst friends.
• Big Fancy House: Malfoy Manor.
• Black-and-White Insanity: Ron.
• Blood Magic: The wards of Hogwarts were built with this, so to re-charge them the students and teachers had to use it.
• Body Horror: Tiberius Malfoy was the offspring of a pair of first cousins, whom were extensively related due to previous inbreeding. He was described as having twisted, useless legs, a harelip and other deformities along with being completely insane.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Harry, under the effects of the Vision Potion, sees Voldemort and the Death Eaters engage in this, including whipping people, rape or forcing to self-canibalize.
  • Wormtail's fate. The only recognizable part of his body was his face.
• Clear My Name: Sirius Black is finally acquitted when Peter's mangled body is delivered to the Ministry.
• Conspiracy Theorist: Hermione Granger who comes to a convulted conclusion that Harry must have willingly helped Voldemort being resurrected because how else would have Voldemort killed Cedric. She completely ignores the fact that Peter Pettigrew is still on the loose and that he allied himself with the Death Eaters in the past.
• Cruella to Animals: Fang is torn apart by Death Eaters in the weeks preceeding The Siege of Hogwarts.
• Culture Clash: Between purebloods and muggleborns. Religious conflict, differing views on magic and homosexuality create sore spots between the two. The return of the Old Gods only make the situation worse.
• Darker and Edgier: Yes, especially in the sequel in chapters centering on Crom Cruach.
• Darkest Hour: The week preceeding the Battle of Hogwarts is seen as this for the mortal characters, but the audience knows that the Old Gods are returning making this a Subverted Trope.
• Delivery Stork: Gwenn, as in the wife of Saint Fragan, is the celtic goddess of motherhood whose symbolic animal is the stork. She's the source of this trope in-universe.
• Deus ex Machina: Voldemort's army breached the walls of Hogwarts, the bloodied defenders are falling back and Harry is about to be killed by a pair of Hell Hound. Then Gwyn ap Nudd appears, calls off the hounds and curbstomps Voldemort.
• Disappointed in You: Sirius, who believes the Seer powers are a lie, to Harry.
• Disproportionate Retribution: When Ginny is Re-sorted into Slytherin, she's disowned and thus become homeless, family-less and pennyless.
• Downer Ending: The first fic ends with Harry having to return to the Dursleys.
• Dramatic Irony: Sirius doesn't believe Harry is a Seer so he wants the boy wizard to be normal, much like the Dursleys wanted him to be a muggle.
• Dreaming of Things to Come / Dreaming of Times Gone By: Harry.
• Easily Forgiven: Subverted. Hermione is mostly tolerated by the Slytherins because of a pragmatic need for her expertise in research.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Played for Drama. Sirius is lead to believe by his family healer, Fondorn, that Harry's ability to visit the Otherworld is a lie created by the Malfoys, so when he brings Harry to Black Manor, their relationship deteriorates.
• Everybody Hates Hades: Subverted with Gwyn ap Nudd who is not only the Lord of the Dead but also the god of vengeance. He's awaken by Harry's desire for vengeance over Voldemort's numerous crimes with Cho's death serving as catalyst.
• Eye Scream: Voldemort does this to a muggleborn woman.
• Fainting Seer: Harry, as one of the effects of the Vision Potion.
• Fake Relationship: Neville, who is actually gay, and Ginny in order to throw off the Griffindors' attention and allowing them to contact Harry.
• Fisher King: The Otherworld was in ruins after the Old Gods went to sleep but as they wake, the realm is slowly restored to former brilliance.
• Frame-Up: Maddie Silver, a fourth year Slytherin, is framed for Lavender's murder at Voldemort's hand. She's punished with the Dementor's Kiss.
• The Fundamentalist: The entire Weasley family, with the exception of Ginny.
  • In the sequel, christian wizards have a very hostile reaction to the return of the Old Gods.
• God: He doesn't show up but He's mentioned, often by the Old Gods who complain about how He is a jealous god.
• A God Am I: Voldemort.
• God of Evil: Crom Cruach.
• Gods Need Prayer Badly: As the faith of the One God swept the land, the Old Gods started to weaken as they lost power base, eventually falling into darkness forgotten and then they went to sleep until they were needed again.
• Green-Eyed Monster: The reason why Lavender Brown becomes The Mole is that she's jealous of Harry not appreciating enough his vision abilities and that she wants to become a Seer.
• Happily Adopted: Sirius adopts Ginny and Bill into the family and the magical ritual that does it makes them develop traits associated with the Black family, such as their dark hair.
• Heel–Face Turn: Hermione after she breaks up with Ron.
• Hell Hound: The Cwn Annwn, which belong to Gwyn ap Nudd the ruler of Annwn, the Celtic underworld. Voldemort conjures them with the help of Book of Living Dead.
• Heroic BSoD: Harry has a minor one when using the Vision Potion for the first time.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Cho Chang sacrifices herself to distract Voldemort from his Battle in the Center of the Mind with Harry allowing the later to escape.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Discussed. After Ginny is publicaly disowned after being re-sorted into Slytherin, Harry wonders if they're under the Imperius but Ginny claims that they're doing this out of their own free will.
• Human Sacrifice: Crom Cruach demands this from his followers, with a particular focus on first-born children.
• Humiliation Conga: Harry, who suffers constant harassment from Griffindors. From breaking off their friendship with him, ignoring him, expelling him from the Quidditch team and eventually Griffindor itself, things turn nasty for The Chosen One.
• Idiot Ball: The entire Griffindor House grabs one and runs with it, as they wholeheartdly believe the Ministry's slander campaign while in canon it was more divisive.
  • This is particularly egregious with Hermione, considering that she views divination as a farce and she was the target of a vicious slander campaign by Rita Skeeter in the previous book.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: As Draco and Harry start to become friends, Ginny threatens to kill him if Draco ever hurt Harry.
• I Have No Son!: Ginny is publicaly disowned after being re-sorted into Slytherin. This public disownment is not just an humiliating formality, but actually ritual magic which causes the target to lose all traits associated with the family, such as losing blood status or special family gifts.
• Insane Troll Logic: The Griffindors and particularly Ron and Hermione's attempts to paint Harry as some dark lord to be.
• Irony: Seamus Finnigan is skeptical of the Ministry's slander campaign when in canon he was one of the few Griffindors who believed in it.
• Just Between You and Me: Michael Corner simply can't resist to gloat to Ron about how wrong he was about everything.
• Loophole Abuse: Dumbledore tricks Severus and Lucius into an oath of silence to not speak about the Vision Potion, but it doesn't prevent them from writing about it.
• MacGuffin: The Vision Potion. Played for Drama though because the potion creates great amount of pain on the drinker and the liquid will remain in their body for months, giving them nightmares and horrible visions. Drinking the potion too many times can insanity or death.
• Malicious Slander: The Ministry's campaign to slander Harry as crazy in order to cover up Voldemort's return takes a nastier turn as most Griffindors come to believe it.
• The Mole: Lavender Brown and Michael Corner. Ironically, Slytherin is the only House withou moles because all the Death Eater supporters transferred to Durmstrang. Percy Weasley takes the cake, as he stabs the Order of the Phoenix in the midst of the Battle of Hogwarts by blasting the main door, allowing Voldemort's army to enter the castle.
• Monumental Damage: As the Old Gods awaken, they destroy all churches and cathedrals which were built in the location of ancient pagan temples.
• More than Mind Control: Fondorn uses a curse that causes certain negative traits in person to become exagerated. However Ginny claims this is not different from the Imperius.
• Mister Seahorse: There were experiments to bring about male pregnancy as a way to repopulate the wizarding world but as the results were not pretty the Wizengamot banned it.
• Must Not Die a Virgin: Sasha when the Apocalypse How sweeps the Earth, decides to have sex with Seamus.
• Nice to the Waiter: Subverted. Lucius Malfoy still tries to order to Dobby around and is spitfully rebutted for it.
  Dobby: You can't order Dobby around!
  Lucius: Now!
  Dobby: (spitefully knocks over Lucius' cup and spills the merlot on his lap) Fine then! But only for Master Harry Potter's sake!
  Lucius: Ungrateful beast.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The initially indifferent and later hostile behavior towards Harry by Sirius, Ginny and Remus foreshadow The Reveal.
• The Old Gods: Their return is a major plot point. They went to sleep with the arrival of the Christian God, whose church erradicated the Old Ways.
• Original Character: Instead of Umbridge, the Defense teacher is Jasmine Montevay, a distant cousin of Snape. However she only exists out of necessity and is not supposed to have a greater role in the overall.
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Adverted with the Malfoys, where there was no lost love between them. Narcissa quickly divorces Lucius when he decides to no longer support Voldemort.
• Police Brutality: When a riot breaks out in Diagon Alley, the Unspeakables use lethal spells against the crowd.
• Prayer Is a Last Resort: After a vicious confrontation with the whole Griffindor House which eventually to a fist fight, a desperate Harry prayers for help.
• Precision F-Strike: Sirius, when Harry ends up in the Hospital Wing after a nasty vision.
• The Problem with Fighting Death: A villainous version. Voldemort, obsessed with immortality and god-like power, inevitably earns the hatred of the Celtic death god. The result is obvious.
• Real Men Love The Old Gods: Salazar Slytherin was a member of the old religion and saw the mosty muggle Christianity as a threat to his faith. This was the reason why was so opposed to muggleborns.
• Redemption Equals Death: Peter Pettigrew.
• Red Sky, Take Warning: As the Time Crash progresses, the sky turns a reddish haze.
• Saintly Church: As the Apocalypse How sweeps the Earth, the only safe places are religious building, pagan, Christian, muslim, Jewish or any other.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Lucius and a few other purebloods do this, turning towards the Order of the Phoenix when they realize Voldemort is insane.
• The Siege: The Battle of Hogwarts which, umlike the books and movies, actually resembles an actual siege.
• Slash Fic: The main pairing is Harry/Draco.
• The Sociopath: Voldemort and his Death Eaters.
• Survival Mantra: Harry continously says "I'm back" after coming out the trance induced by the Vision Potion.
• Survivor Guilt: Harry is suffering from this at the beginning, regarding Cedric's death. His isolation from the Wizarding World and being stuck with the Dursleys doesn't help.
• Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Book of Living Dead. It's a book made of skin and blood which can give the knowledge to open portals to other realm, tear the veil between life and death and necromancy.
• Time Crash: Crom Cruach plans to cause the unraveling of time to prevent his re-imprisionment by killing all the prophets, oracles and deities of destiny and fate.
• The Unmasked World: Happens in the sequel.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Bill Weasley to his family after finding out that Ginny was disowned.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The epilogue shows what happened to the various characters.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Ginny Weasley, due to have her innocence robbed by Tom Riddle's diary.
• That Woman Is Dead: Ginny to her Weasley self. She's Ginevra Black now.
• Would Hit a Girl: Ron slaps Hermione and that causes the end of their relationship.
• Would Hurt a Child: The priests of Crom Cruach.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: Gwyn ap Nudd does the "Killed Too" variation to Voldemort.