Fanfic / We Are Nothing

We Are Nothing is an incomplete crossover fanfic between Harry Potter and A Nightmare on Elm Street by Ruskbyte that was posted on FanFiction.Net in 2011.

The premise is that during Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, after Umbridge has shut down Dumbledore's Army and replaced Dumbledore as the headmaster of Hogwarts, Harry has his mental defenses shattered by Snape during their Occlumency lessons, creating an opening for Freddy Krueger to enter Harry's mind and use him as a vessel while he starts up a new child-killing spree at Hogwarts.

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This fic contains the following tropes:

• Adaptational Badass: This fic's version of Freddy Krueger lacks his canon counterpart's Ironic Fear and weakness to fire. This is made abundantly clear from the beginning when Harry tries to cast Inflamarae on Freddy during their first confrontation in the dream world... only for Freddy to calmly step through the magical flames without taking any damage and mock Harry for thinking that would work. The Freddy in this fic is also able to prevent people from leaving the dream world without outside help as seen when Snape tries to use Occlumency to force himself awake, only for Freddy to conjure a mental barrier that keeps him trapped in the dream. This is in contrast to the A Nightmare on Elm Street films where it is possible for a dreamer to make themselves wake up by burning themselves in the dream world.
• Always a Bigger Fish: Voldemort, the most dangerous dark wizard of all time, makes the mistake of trying to possess Harry while Freddy Krueger had already taken up residence in Harry's mindscape. Unwilling to risk Voldy potentially killing his only current anchor to the mortal realm, Freddy drags the Dark Lord into the dream world where he viciously curb-stomps him. Afterwards, Harry is flabbergasted to hear Freddy so casually mention how easy it to get rid of him.
• Analogy Backfire: When Harry and his friends realize that the Hogwarts rumor mill wrongly believes Harry is the culprit behind Draco and Snape's murders at the start of Chapter 4, Ron attempts to console Harry by assuring him it'll all blow over in a few months and compares it to the whole "Heir of Slytherin" debacle from Harry's second year. Harry unpleasantly responds "If memory serves, I had to climb into the mouth of a hundred-foot long basilisk before it blew over last time."
• Asshole Victim: Most of Freddy's victims in this fic were assholes who had it coming and whose deaths were unlikely to be mourned by Harry.
  • Draco, Pansy, and Crabbe are school bullies and aspiring Death Eaters who happily served on Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad.
  • Snape acted like a Sadist Teacher towards Harry for years and used his private Occlumency lessons as an excuse to mentally torture Harry repeatedly until he broke the latter's mental shields, allowing Freddy access to Harry's mind.
  • Voldemort attempts to possess and murder Harry while the latter is hospitalized, leading to Freddy intervening and pulling Voldemort into the dream world where he is tortured and possibly killed.
  • Freddy also horrifically murders Umbridge, who (in addition to her canon atrocities) nearly kills Harry while illegally interrogating him with Veritaserum.
  • Marietta Edgecombe indirectly caused this whole mess with Freddy Krueger when she sold out Dumbledore's Army to Umbridge. She becomes Freddy's final victim at Hogwarts and Freddy takes special care to rub it in her face how this is all her fault before slicing her body into meaty chunks.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Over the course of the story, Freddy permanently kills off most of Harry's enemies as part of his sadistic killing spree including Snape, the Inquisitorial Squad, Umbridge, possibly Voldemort, and Dudley. This winds up benefiting Harry in the long run as it means Umbridge's reign as headmistress of Hogwarts is abruptly cut short, the Death Eaters are once again presumably left headless, and the Ministry of Magic is forced to accept Voldemort's return much earlier than in canon. The death of Dudley also results in Harry being removed from the care of his abusive aunt and uncle for his own safety as they blame Harry for their son's death.
• Badass Boast: Freddy Krueger delivers one to Harry in Chapter 2 when Harry asks Freddy what he is if not a dark wizard.
  Freddy: I am master of all I survey! I am the king of dreams! The lord of nightmares! The son of a hundred maniacs! The Springwood Slasher! I – AM – FOREVER!
• Batman Grabs a Gun: At the end of the fic, Harry does something his canonical counterpart never has done when he successfully casts Avada Kedavra on a depowered Freddy Krueger to finish him off after Harry drags him into the real world. For how big of a deal this is, remember that in canon, Harry's first attempt to use an Unforgivable Curse on Bellatrix in retaliation for murdering Sirius failed because he lacked true intent. So here, Freddy actually has driven Harry to a point where he is willing to murder him while genuinely meaning it.
• Big Bad: From start to finish, Freddy Krueger is the fic's main antagonist. His invasion of Harry's mind, and killing of Hogwarts' students and staff, is the center of the plot. Harry's main struggle in this fic is figuring out how to get rid of Krueger once and for all.
• Blasé Boast: When Freddy boasts to a shocked Harry about curb-stomping Voldemort, the most feared dark wizard of all time and the latter's immortal Arch-Enemy, he talks about it like a parent who had just delivered a stern talking-to to their child's preschool bully.
  Freddy: Don't worry about it, kid. I took care of that ugly little shitstain.
  Harry: You what?
  Freddy: Heh, I kicked his ass back to wherever he came from.
  Harry: [incredulous] You beat him?
  Freddy: It's almost embarrassing how easy it was.
• Bookshelf Dominoes: During Hermione's Nightmare Sequence where Freddy is chasing her through the Hogwarts library, she is hiding on the opposite end of the room from Freddy. Freddy catches her by knocking over a bookshelf, triggering a cascade of shelves falling over like dominoes until they land on top of Hermione and crush the lower half of her body.
• Break the Haughty: Crabbe's death (making him the fourth victim from Slytherin to be killed in addition to Draco, Snape, and Pansy) completely destroys whatever fighting spirit the arrogant and elitist Slytherins may have had. The realization that their house seems to be the preferred target of the mysterious murderer and that nowhere in Hogwarts is safe leaves the remaining Slytherin students too busy fearing for their own lives to pick fights or blame the other houses for the deaths.
• Brought Down to Badass: Downplayed. When Harry figures out how to drag Freddy into the real world, the latter goes from being a Nigh-Invulnerable Reality Warper to essentially a Muggle with low-level Super-Strength. Despite this, he more than holds his own against Harry, Ron, and several Order of the Phoenix members, all of whom are skilled wizards with their wands on them. He accomplishes this through a well-timed surprise attack and then capitalizing on his initial advantage with plenty of Combat Pragmatism.
• Call-Back:
  • Freddy uses his "I. AM. FOREVER!" line from Freddy's Dead as part of his Badass Boast while introducing himself to Harry.
  • When Harry points out to Freddy that Hogwarts isn't Springwood, Freddy responds with the same line from Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare about every town having an Elm Street.
• Call-Forward: The fic is set a couple of years before the events of Freddy vs. Jason and makes a few future nods to that film. While introducing himself to Harry, Freddy explains that he is stuck as an otherwise impotent spirit because the children of Springwood stopped believing in him, and intends to wait until they remember him again. Also near the end of the fic, Harry suspects that the Muggle authorities were covering up Freddy's existence based on the newspapers from Springwood that Hermione's parents were able to send over to him.
• Characters Dropping Like Flies: This trope was inevitable given the fic's entire premise has Freddy Krueger (an 80's slasher villain) murder at least one Hogwarts student each night. As the story progresses, numerous named Harry Potter characters become his victims.
• C-List Fodder: Aside from Harry Potter antagonists, Freddy's other victims at Hogwarts are minor supporting characters like Seamus Finnigan, Zacharias Smith, and Michael Corner.
• Continuity Nod: Freddy kills Zacharias in a near-identical way to how he killed Tina in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). He drags Zacharias's bloodied body across the ceiling of his dorm room and guts him. All the while, the reader is shown this happening from the horrified perspectives of Professor Sprout and Zacharias's Hufflepuff roommates in the real world, to whom it seems as though an invisible force is killing him.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Freddy Kruger to Lord Voldemort. Both are disfigured, psychopathic murderers with supernatural powers who are capable of invading Harry's mind. Voldemort is a Wicked Cultured dark wizard who speaks with a formal British Creepy High-Pitched Voice, leads his own army, and has a long history in the wizarding world. Freddy is a lone serial killer originating from the muggle world who talks with a deep and guttural American accent, uses crude language full of wordplay and dark puns, and is complete outsider to the wizarding world. Voldemort uses his wand and dark magic to kill from a distance, while Freddy prefers to kill up close and personally using his bladed gloves. Voldemort is depicted as a cold and serious antagonist, while Freddy is an over-the-top Laughably Evil villain. Voldemort is an Immortality Seeker with the grand goal of world domination, while Freddy is essentially an immortal Jerkass God in the dream world who is wholly content with his small-scale acts of pettily killing children For the Evulz. Voldemort has been Harry’s arch nemesis and haunted him since the latter was an infant, whereas Harry only knew Freddy for less than two weeks before expelling him from his mind and defeating him.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Freddy Krueger versus Lord Voldemort. Because this showdown occurs in the dream world (which Freddy is the Domain Holder of), his opponent is completely outclassed. The only reason Voldy was even able to put up a "fight" in the first place was because Freddy willingly let him keep his wand in the dream world, presumably to show off how none of his dark magic can save him from getting literally sliced and diced by the Lord of Nightmares.
• Dead Fic: Downplayed. The fic hasn't been updated since 2011, but it is almost complete and only missing an epilogue chapter.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • Draco Malfoy, Seamus Finnigan, Pansy Parkinson, Zacharias Smith, Michael Corner, and Marietta Edgecomb are all Hogwarts students who canonically survive the events of all seven books in the Harry Potter series. Here, they are all murdered in their sleep by Freddy Krueger during Harry's fifth year at Hogwarts.
  • In canon, Dolores Umbridge survives to the end of the Second Wizarding War and is eventually sentenced to Azkaban for her crimes against Muggleborns. In this fic, she is killed in the dream world by Freddy Krueger (who douses her in oil and immolates her in flames) during Harry's fifth year at Hogwarts shortly after nearly getting Harry killed through Veritaserum poisoning.
  • Dudley Dursley canonically survives the Harry Potter series, undergoes a Heel–Face Turn where he becomes less of a bully, and remains on amicable terms with Harry as adults. Here, he too is murdered in the dream world by Freddy Krueger, who roasts him alive like a pig while Dudley was sleeping in his dormitory at Smeltings.
• A Death in the Limelight: Each of Freddy's victims in this fic are usually given their own POV sections where the reader is shown their perspective in the dream world as Freddy attacks and turns their dreams into deadly nightmares.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation:
  • In canon, Snape is killed with a venomous bite to the neck by Nagini inside the Shrieking Shack under Voldemort's orders shortly before the Battle of Hogwarts. Here, he dies over a year earlier inside Hogwarts at Freddy Krueger's hands in the dream world.
  • In canon, Crabbe is killed by his own conjured Fiendfyre during the Battle of Hogwarts. Here, he is beaten to death in his sleep by Freddy Krueger, who forces Crabbe into a hopeless boxing match to the death in the dream world.
• Disproportionate Retribution: While some of the people targeted by Freddy in this fic were Asshole Victims who had it coming (especially Voldemort and Umbridge), there were those like Seamus and Zacharias for whom the worst they ever did was maybe act like a jerk to Harry in a few incidents. However, Freddy doesn't particularly care and subjects them all to the same Cruel And Unusual Deaths that he put his actually deserving victims through.
• Divided We Fall:
  • Since Freddy's early victims were members of Slytherin and Gryffindor, students from the two Houses accuse each other of being the murderer after Harry is proven innocent. So rather than unify against the common threat, tensions between Gryffindor and Slytherin only further deteriorate as the number of student deaths go up, nearly leading to a massive brawl breaking out in the Great Hall on one occasion.
  • Relations between the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws also break down after students from both houses argue over whether the unsolved murders are going to continue at Hogwarts with the increased Auror presence. The Hufflepuffs believe that the Aurors won't be able to stop the murders and joke that a Ravenclaw student will be the next victim because Ravenclaw is the only house to not have had a student killed yet. When Freddy actually does murder a Ravenclaw the following night, this leads to the Ravenclaws blaming the Hufflepuffs for being responsible.
• Do Not Go Gentle: Crabbe doesn't panic or react with fear when Freddy comes for him in his dreams. Instead, he stands his ground and gets into a prolonged no-holds-barred boxing match against Krueger. He knows he's pretty much already dead, but decides that if he's going to die, he might as well die fighting on his feet rather than cowering or pleading for mercy like all of Freddy's other victims.
• Dog-Kicking Excuse: Justified. Freddy's a sadistic child killer who has been depraved of victims for too long and is desperate to get his fix, but due to the limits imposed on him from using Harry as his anchor to the mortal world, he can only attack those Harry feels angry at. This means that all of his victims were usually people who had antagonized Harry in the past and their flamboyantly gruesome deaths are treated as a form of Disproportionate Retribution from Freddy on behalf of Harry. However, Freddy makes it clear to Harry that he personally doesn't care if he's killing Asshole Victims, and that he would've murdered them regardless of how pleasant or unpleasant they were.
• Dream Sue: Seamus likes to dream that he is a heroic sheriff in the American Old West who has the badass nickname "Quick-Draw Finnigan", rides around on a majestic black horse named Midnight, and goes around effortlessly killing dangerous outlaws (who are stand-ins for his school bullies) in gunslinging duels, all while the local townspeople (who look identical to his classmates at Hogwarts) shower him with praise.
• Dream Within a Dream: How Michael Corner ends up gettin' got by Freddy. The night following Zacharias's murder, Michael is woken up in his dorm by his friend Anthony, who tells him one of the Ravenclaws have been killed and that he needs to come down to the Ravenclaw common room immediately. When Michael reaches the common room, it's empty save for Professor Flitwick, who informs him that all the other students are asleep. A confused Michael asks how the rest of his house could have slept through one of their own being killed. Flitwick replies it's because they haven't heard Michael screaming yet as Michael notices his head of house is wearing bladed gloves and a stripped sweater, revealing that this was all a dream and Michael was still asleep the entire time.
• Epigraph: Each chapter opens with the same quote taken from Charles Lamb's essay "Dream Children", which begins with a Title Drop.
  "We are nothing; less than nothing and dreams. We are only what might have been, and must wait upon the tedious shores of Lethe millions of ages before we have existence, and a name."
• Erotic Dream: When Freddy murders Draco, he interrupts Draco having an erotic dream featuring himself, Daphne Greengrass, and Tracey Davis sharing a bath as they engage in a threesome... and turns that into a nightmare with blood staining the bath water, Daphne being suddenly replaced with a decapitated head, and Tracey transforming into Freddy.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Per canon, Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy still deeply love Draco despite being prominent Death Eaters who fully believe in Voldemort's ideals of pureblood supremacy. When they receive news of their son's grisly murder at Hogwarts, Lucius is described as having a look of despair frozen on his face while Narcissa is in tears and can barely walk without her husband's assistance.
• Everyone Has Standards
  • The two Aurors who accompany Umbridge when she interrogates Harry for multiple murders initially had no issue allowing her to illegally administrate Veritaserum to Harry despite him still being underage. However, they only did so because they genuinely thought Harry was the culprit. Once Harry is able to confirm his innocence (as well as that he wasn't delusional when he claimed Voldemort was back), they are no longer comfortable continuing the interrogation and are horrified when Umbridge takes things too far by overdosing Harry with potentially lethal amounts of Veritaserum. One of the Aurors flat out refuses to follow any more of Umbridge's orders after this, and later is seen doing their best to ensure a drugged-up Harry is given proper medical treatment in Hogwarts' hospital wing.
  • Amelia Bones may have initially been willing to put up with Fudge's denial of Voldemort's return and his smear campaign against Harry, but once Harry confirms that Voldemort is indeed back under Veritaserum (not to mention the recent series of unsolved murders at Hogwarts which are wrongly believed to be Voldemort’s doing), she is fed up with Fudge's Head-in-the-Sand Management and browbeats him into admitting the truth about Voldemort’s resurrection to the public.
• Eviler than Thou: Upon invading Harry's mind and deciding to make Hogwarts his newest killing ground, Freddy Krueger quickly proves himself to be more deadly and depraved than any foe Harry has previously encountered. This is demonstrated by how many of Harry's usual enemies become the Victim of the Week due to how Krueger is 'limited' to attacking those Harry either already held feelings of anger at or posed an immediate threat to Harry's wellbeing.
  • Draco, Crabbe, Pansy, and Dudley are essentially just teenage bullies who rely on adults being useless in order to get away with their behavior. Freddy is an immortal serial killer with a high body count who specifically targets teens. Obviously, the former are completely out of their depth and wind up being sitting ducks for the Springwood Slasher.
  • When you boil it down, Dolores Umbridge is a petty pencil pusher with no combat prowess who wastes her time antagonizing a boarding school, and is only really a threat because she works for a corrupt government willing to turn a blind eye to her abusive practices. When brought face-to-face with a homicidal maniac like Freddy who isn't intimidated by her fancy titles or political connections, she's a total pushover whose Bullying a Dragon behavior ensures her rapid demise.
  • Even Voldemort isn't safe from being on the receiving end of this. When Voldemort possesses Harry much like he did during the Battle at the Department of Mysteries in canon, Freddy intervenes and pulls him into the dream world where he subjects the dark wizard to the worst Curb-Stomp Battle he's ever experienced before sending him packing out of Harry's mind.
• Exact Words: Comes up when Harry is being interrogated by Umbridge under veritaserum, with Professor McGonagall and two Aurors present. While Harry is only able to give truthful answers under the potion's influence, he has enough self-awareness that he gives accurate answers that don't give away his connection to Freddy early on while still confirming he didn't kill any of the victims so far. While Umbridge tries to use some of Harry's answers against him, McGonagall reminds all concerned that there's a difference between Harry wanting to kill Snape and him actually doing so, and also points out that it's not against the law to hate someone when Harry admits to hating Snape and Malfoy after their deaths.
• Expecting Someone Taller: During Snape's first Nightmare Sequence, when Freddy introduces himself to him by proclaiming "Speak of the devil and I shall appear", Snape replies by dryly snarking that he imaged the devil would be taller.
• Fantastically Indifferent: Freddy Krueger, who originates from a Muggle town in America and has never encountered magic before, takes learning about the existence of the Wizarding World in stride, treating the Hogwarts students no differently from the mundane suburban teenagers that he usually preys on.
• Final Boss Preview: Harry's first "battle" with Freddy Krueger actually occurs as early as Chapter 1 during their very first meeting in Dream Land. It consists of Harry using his wand to cast every offensive spell he knows at Freddy with increasing desperation as Freddy casually shrugs off each spell's effects while continuing to mock Harry, before eventually knocking Harry down with a single shockwave.
• From Bad to Worse: The fic already starts out on a Downer Beginning as Harry is at his darkest and lowest point in Order of the Phoenix with Harry lashing out at his friends, Umbridge being the headmistress of Hogwarts and torturing Harry during their detentions, Snape repeatedly mentally tormenting Harry during his private Occlumency lessons, and Harry being haunted by visions of Voldemort every night. Then Harry has his mind invaded by Freddy Krueger, who uses him to murder his classmates.
• Fusion Fic: This fic has the Potterverse exist in a Shared Universe with the A Nightmare on Elm Street films as Hermione is able to get her parents to use their connections in Muggle society to obtain newspapers from America describing Freddy's killing sprees in Springwood, Ohio. It's also explained that whenever Freddy is vanquished in the real world or forgotten by Springwood's children, he gets sent back to the same white Limbo dimension where Harry met Dumbledore near the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
• Genre Savvy: Argus Filch strongly suspects that Harry is somehow involved in Freddy's murders at Hogwarts, citing how whenever something strange happens at the school, Harry and his friends are always at the center of it.
• Godzilla Threshold: Eventually, Freddy’s killing spree gets so bad that Hogwarts is closed for real, the Ministry is left with no choice but to publicize Voldemort’s return (who they wrongly believe is behind Freddy’s crimes), and Fudge is forced to swallow his pride and officially pardon Dumbledore so he can beg him to put a stop to the string of murders. This is after Fudge had spent the whole year running a systematic smear campaign against Dumbledore under the paranoid belief the latter was plotting to overthrow him.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: When Freddy explains his motives for killing children to Harry, Harry is utterly baffled and has difficulty fully grasping the idea of someone who kills solely because they derive pleasure from it, with the narration noting that every villain Harry had faced up to this point committed evil deeds because it furthered their goals as opposed to simply being For the Evulz like Freddy.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Since this fic happens after Harry saved his cousin Dudley from a Dementor, the latter would have already been in the process of gradually becoming less of a spoiled bully when Freddy decided to target him next after Hogwarts was shut down. Dudley's last words as Freddy roasts him alive over a fire in the dream world is to say that he's sorry for mistreating Harry in the past to no avail.
• Hidden Depths: While Crabbe and Goyle are mostly known (both in-universe and out-of-universe) for being Draco's Bumbling Henchmen Duo, Crabbe notes in his internal POV narration that he himself is actually a rather good artist while Goyle is an aspiring poet. Also, despite being a pureblood Slytherin, Crabbe is familiar enough with Muggle pop culture to know who Muhammad Ali is.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Snape's torment of Harry during their Occlumency "lessons" causes so much damage to Harry's mental shields that he even breaks down the standard barriers everyone naturally possesses, leaving Harry's mind so open that Freddy Krueger is able to use Harry to attack Hogwarts (albeit 'limited' to attacking anyone that Harry was already angry at in some way), with Snape being one of Krueger's first victims.
  • When Umbridge attempts to use these new murders as an excuse to interrogate Harry, she has two Aurors question him while he's under the influence of Veritaserum, confident that this will prove that Harry has been lying about everything. Unfortunately for Umbridge, not only can Harry honestly say that he's never killed anyone, but he also confirms that Voldemort is alive, and Umbridge is so fixated on her own beliefs that she nearly poisons Harry by giving him an overdose of the potion trying to make him stop "lying", which gives the Aurors sufficient evidence to arrest her instead.
• Idiot Ball: The whole climax from Chapters 8 to 10 gets kicked off by Madam Pomfrey (who is normally a very competent magical School Nurse with decades of experience patching up Hogwarts students). Despite knowing full well about Freddy's existence and seeing for herself the wounds that Freddy viciously inflicted onto Harry the last time he was asleep, she secretly slips a sleeping potion into Harry's food after he's spent four entire days awake out of fear of having to see Freddy again in his dreams. Pomfrey is confident that Harry will be fine, reasoning that since Freddy seemingly hasn't killed anyone else over the last few days (because Freddy can only kill people while Harry is sleeping), the Dream Killer must be gone for good and it's now safe for Harry to fall asleep again.
• Ineffectual Death Threats: During Freddy's one-sided beatdown of Voldemort in the dream world in Chapter 5, the latter threatens to repay Freddy for every injury he has dealt him a thousandfold. Voldemort says this as he gasps in pain while literally on his hands and knees before Krueger, with one hand clutching his perforated stomach while the other clutches his bleeding face after it was sliced across by his adversary. Obviously Voldemort is in no real position to make threats, especially once Freddy proceeds to No-Sell every Avada Kedavra that the former tries to cast on him.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: The morning after the first attack on Snape by Freddy, Harry (having not gotten a good night's sleep) enters the Great Hall for breakfast with Hermione, who pesters him over his health. Harry lies about being fine and asserts that today can't possibly be half as bad as yesterday. Immediately after he says this, Colin Creevey pops up to break the news that Snape was discovered to have been attacked in his sleep last night and has his eyes gouged out. Upon hearing this, Harry bitterly lampshades "I just had to open my big mouth, didn't I?"
• Internal Reveal: Harry finally tells another person about Freddy Krueger in Chapter 7 when he is visited in Hogwarts' Hospital Wing by Amelia Bones, who convinces him to cooperate with the Ministry's investigation and divulge everything he might know about the mysterious murders at Hogwarts.
• It Only Works Once: Since Freddy was previously used to preying on Muggle victims, Harry was briefly able to surprise Freddy with his wand magic during their first confrontation in the dream world. Freddy swiftly moves to correct this by rewriting the rules of the dream world each time so that every spell casted by Harry will have no effect the second time he tries to use it.
  Freddy: Uh uh, Harry, that's not going to work twice. Fool me once and all that crap.
  • Subsequently, whenever Freddy invades the dream of a wizard, he makes sure to disarm his would-be victims of their wands so they can’t defend themselves or potentially catch him off guard with magic.
• Kick the Dog: Freddy putting Harry through a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown in the dream world at the end of Chapter 7. While Harry already knew that Freddy was Ax-Crazy, he hadn't really been scared of Freddy before since all of Freddy's prior victims had been people Harry himself already hated or felt antagonistic towards. Additionally, Freddy hadn't really harmed Harry up until this point since he relished having Harry serve as an audience for his various murders. Here, however, Freddy reminds Harry that he is not his friend and will happily murder him once he's had his fun slaughtering the children of Magical Britain. It's after this moment that Harry genuinely starts to fear for his own life when in Freddy's presence. It also helps that Freddy doesn't employ his usual theatrics in the dream world when beating Harry, instead simply using his fists to repeatedly batter Harry's face until he wakes up from the nightmare.
• Lampshade Hanging: The fact that Freddy is flagrantly breaking his own rules established in the A Nightmare on Elm Street films in order to go on his murder spree at Hogwarts gets pointed out by Harry in Chapter 4.
  Freddy: So long as the children of Springwood believe in me—remember me—then I'll always be able to get into their dreams
  Harry: This isn't Springwood.
  Freddy: [laughs] Don't be silly, kid — if there's one thing I've learned over the years — it's that every town has an Elm Street!
  Harry: Krueger, this isn't a town — it's a castle somewhere in Scotland. That means there are no streets.
  Freddy: Pfft, like I'm gonna let some technicality stop me.
• Make Way for the New Villains: Almost as soon as Freddy Krueger is introduced, he wastes no time killing off most of Harry's long-time school enemies at Hogwarts including Draco and Snape. Freddy eventually winds up removing all the major antagonists of Order of the Phoenix from the equation when he subjects Voldemort to an Uncertain Doom, kills Umbridge by setting her on fire, and indirectly costs Fudge his position as Minister of Magic, leaving Freddy as the sole remaining Big Bad for the remainder of the fic.
• Man on Fire: Freddy kills Umbridge by dousing her with gasoline and then setting her on fire in the dream world, leading to a flaming Umbridge frantically skipping and dancing around in a panic before collapsing to the floor dead as her corpse continues burning.
• Misplaced Retribution: When the Dursleys are informed of Dudley's mysterious death at Smeltings and are told about Freddy Krueger being responsible, both Vernon and Petunia immediately decide this is all Harry's fault. Vernon in particular threatens to throttle his nephew and beat him bloody with his golf clubs if he ever sees him again. This is played with a little since Harry technically is indirectly responsible as his past feelings of anger at Dudley were what enabled Freddy to invade his cousin's dreams. However, the Dursleys have no way of knowing that and them blaming Harry is due to them being abusive relatives as opposed to actually having tangible proof.
• Named by the Adaptation: One of the "jump rope children" that appear as a staple of the A Nightmare On Elm Street films is named Heather in this fic by Freddy. This could also double as a Mythology Gag since the actress who played Nancy Thompson is named Heather Langenkamp.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • During Harry's second meeting with Freddy in the dream world, after hearing Freddy's whole backstory, Harry makes the horrible mistake of giving the Springwood Slasher a list of his enemies to terrorize. At the time, Harry didn't realize that Freddy could actually murder people through their dreams and assumed that all Freddy would be doing is giving them nightmares for a few weeks. Of course, Freddy takes it quite a bit further than that and slashes his way through Hogwarts' student body.
  • As Harry bitterly concludes in Chapter 10, this fic's entire plot happened as a result of Dumbledore's naïveté and negligence. He was the one who trusted Snape (someone who he knows holds a deep-seated animosity towards Harry) to teach Harry how to shield his mind and then didn't even bother to check if Snape was actually doing his job. Because of this, Snape was able to repeatedly mentally torment Harry under the guise of practicing Occlumency, resulting in him inadvertently shattering Harry's mental defenses from the repeated stress and allowing Freddy Krueger to take up residence in his head.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Umbridge attempts to use Veritaserum to question Harry about the recent murders in Hogwarts, but this plan goes horribly against her. Not only can Harry honestly answer that he didn't kill anyone, but he also uses the opportunity to confirm that Voldemort is alive, with Umbridge giving the investigating Aurors sufficient evidence to arrest her when she nearly poisons Harry with an overdose of the potion trying to make him stop 'lying'.
• Not Me This Time: When the murders at Hogwarts continue even after Harry (the prime suspect) is put into a week-long coma from Veritaserum poisoning, the Ministry of Magic reluctantly concludes that Voldemort is behind all these mysterious deaths. While Voldemort actually had nothing to do with Freddy's killing spree and even winds up becoming one of the victims, this proves helpful in forcing Fudge to come clean to the public about Voldemort's return and officially pardon Dumbledore to get his help.
• Not So Invincible After All: During Harry's first battle against Freddy, the latter is shown to be practically untouchable in the dream world, shrugging off the effects of nearly every spell in Harry's arsenal save for the Cruciatus Curse, which — despite being Harry's first time casting that curse and this happening in the dream world where Freddy should theoretically be near-omnipotent — is shown to actually work. For a few moments, Freddy is brought to his knees while twitching in pain before slowly fighting off the curse's effects on his body. This hints that Freddy may not be completely immune to the Potterverse's magic and demonstrates that even in the dream world, he is not invincible.
• Oh, Crap!: Harry says "Holy shit" in dark fear at the end of Chapter 2 when he wakes up after seeing Freddy murder Draco in his dreams, only to be informed by Ron of Draco's death in the real world, leading Harry to realize that Freddy isn't merely giving his enemies nightmares like he believed, but actually killing them.
• "Oh, Crap!" Fakeout:
  • During Harry's first battle against Freddy in the dream world, he tries to cast the Severing Charm to slash Freddy's throat. It does nothing, but Freddy pretends his throat has been cut through Bad "Bad Acting" just to screw with Harry.
  • Freddy does this again when he forcibly drags Voldemort into the dream world for a duel, allowing his opponent to blast him with a Killing Curse and then mocking him by pretending to succumb to his spell before shrugging it off.
• The Omniscient: Downplayed. Freddy isn't all-knowing per se, but he is able to glean all the knowledge of his victims as an extension of his I Know What You Fear ability, meaning that anything they know, he also now knows. And when his victims include people like Harry Potter, Severus Snape, and even Voldemort, the accumulated information makes Freddy more knowledgeable about the current Second Wizarding War than any other individual wizard to the point where he might as well be omniscient.
• Out of Focus: Zacharias Smith is the only victim of Freddy's in this fic to not receive A Death in the Limelight where some of his perspective is shown before he is slain.
• Outside-Context Problem: Freddy Krueger presents an unprecedented threat to the Potterverse wizards because he is an OCP in several ways. For starters, he originates from the Muggle world and has zero ties to the wizarding world. He possesses supernatural abilities that were bestowed onto him by literal demons from Hell, and these powers don't abide by the rules of the Potterverse's magic system. He is an independent threat from outside the UK who has no past connections to either Voldemort or Dumbledore. Lastly, unlike every other Harry Potter antagonist for whom committing evil deeds was merely a means to an end (ex. Fudge smeared Harry's reputation to try maintaining a peaceful status quo, Voldemort is driven by a hunger for power, the Death Eaters terrorized the magical community to promote pureblood supremacy, Umbridge made Harry's school life miserable out of an obnoxious self-righteousness and fanatical loyalty to the Ministry, etc.), Freddy is motivated purely by For the Evulz. Rather than being for some grand vision or ideology, Freddy kills kids solely because he finds it pleasurable and there's no one who can stop him.
• Outside-Genre Foe: Whereas almost all Harry Potter antagonists are British wizards or fantasy creatures inspired by European folklore, Freddy Krueger is a Resurrected Murderer from the USA who normally haunts suburban teenagers in small-town Ohio.
• Paper Tiger: Minister Fudge, despite trying to convince everyone that he is a powerful and decisive leader, folds like a napkin and enters an embarrassing Villainous Breakdown as soon as news spreads of Freddy's killing spree at Hogwarts, creating a crisis impossible for the Ministry to downplay or cover up. All Fudge can do is helplessly pace back and forth in his office while pleading with his subordinates for solutions, exposing himself as an ineffectual ditherer who is so Weak-Willed that Amelia Bones easily browbeats him into ceasing his propaganda campaign against Harry and admitting to the public that Voldemort was truly back.
• The Pardon: Once the Ministry of Magic finally learns about Freddy’s existence and the terrifying extent of his power over the dream realm, Fudge grows desperate enough to officially pardon Dumbledore in exchange for his help in finding a way to exorcise ”the Dream Killer” once and for all.
• Police Are Useless: As is par for the course, the Aurors are depicted as being completely useless against any threat in this story.
  • They are utterly ineffective at stopping Freddy's murders at Hogwarts. Even as more and more Auror squads are assigned to guard the dormitories at night, nothing they do works. Which eventually leads to Hogwarts shutting down.
  • When a Mexican Standoff occurs during breakfast in the Great Hall between Dumbledore's Army and the Slytherins following the night of Zacharias's murder, none of the on-duty Aurors standing guard in the room do anything to intervene or deescalate things. It takes the sudden arrival of a furious Professor McGonagall and Amelia Bones in order to avert a literal full-blown battle breaking out between the students.
  • Even once Harry finally spills the beans about Freddy's existence and his nature as a dream demon, the Aurors are at a loss for how to actually defeat Krueger with various characters noting that they have no means of entering the dream world or intercepting Freddy's murders before they happen.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: While talking to Harry in the dream world, Freddy crudely refers to Cho Chang as a "Chink bitch" and "Chinese takeout" in order to get a rise out of the former.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: While speaking to Harry in Chapters 8–9, Freddy is cosplaying as Pennywise and attempts to do a John Wayne impersonation, neither of which are recognized by Harry as he wasn't allowed to watch a lot of movies by the Dursleys while growing up.
• Pragmatic Villainy: While Freddy usually refrains from killing adults because it's not as fun for him, he makes an exception for Voldemort and Umbridge because they posed a serious risk to Harry's life. And if Harry dies, Freddy will no longer be able to continue murdering teenagers in their dreams since he relies on using Harry as a spiritual anchor to the mortal realm.
• The Pursuing Nightmare:
  • When Freddy first breached into Harry’s mind while he’s asleep, Harry finds himself thrown into a nightmare where he’s being pursued through a muggle factory (probably the Springwood power plant) by Freddy.
  • Pansy is killed through a nightmare in which she is being chased up and down Hogwart's Astronomy Tower by Freddy, who is dressed as a black knight armed with a sword.
  • During Marietta's murder, she is subjected to a fatal nightmare where Freddy Krueger is chasing her through the boiler room of the Springwood power plant.
  • When Freddy tries to kill Hermione in Chapter 9, he does so via a nightmare where she is being stalked through the Hogwarts library by Freddy, who is dressed as a stereotypical librarian.
• Rage Against the Mentor: When Dumbledore finally appears in Chapter 10, Harry wastes no time stoically proclaiming that this whole mess with Freddy Krueger is his fault since he was the one who assigned Snape to teach Occlumency to Harry in the first place and did nothing to intervene when Snape used those lessons as an excuse to repeatedly mentally torment Harry, culminating in the destruction of Harry's mental shields which enabled Krueger to invade his mind. Dumbledore, after hearing Harry's reasoning, can't disagree and takes responsibility for his negligence being partially responsible for causing all this.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Amelia Bones, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, is presented as one to contrast Fudge and Umbridge. Unlike the other Ministry officials, she doesn't have it out for Harry nor does she think he has what it takes to engage in cold-blooded murder. She is also among those who accepted Harry and Dumbledore's claims that Voldemort has returned; when Fudge is still in denial despite the increasing evidence, Amelia leaks the details of Harry's Veritaserum interrogation (in which he confirmed Voldemort was back) to the press while simultaneously strong-arming Fudge into ceasing his smear campaign against Harry. When Harry finally decides to tell Amelia everything he knows about Freddy Krueger in Chapter 7, she not only listens to him, but actually takes his claims seriously (despite confessing that she finds the idea of a serial killer with dream powers hard to believe) and does her best to convey his warnings to the public.
• Red Baron: Freddy Krueger has the self-proclaimed title "the Lord of Nightmares" which he introduces himself to Harry with. In-universe, he becomes publicly known as the "Dream Killer" once the broader magical community is finally made aware of his existence and how he is murdering his victims.
• Reminiscing About Your Victims: While Freddy has cornered Harry in the dream world version of Hogwarts' Great Hall in Chapter 1, the two come across one of the white jump rope girls from the A Nightmare on Elm Street films. Freddy recognizes her as the spirit of Heather, one of the children who he murdered back when he was a mortal man, and fondly recalls to Harry how she "tasted just like chicken".
• Removed Achilles' Heel: By invading Harry's mind at the start of the fic, Freddy pretty much bypasses most of his usual weaknesses and limitations such as being limited to Springwood and relying on others believing in his existence to have power.
• See You in Hell: Freddy says a variation of this right before he kills Draco in his dream by stabbing his gloved hand into his sternum right through his heart.
• Sensor Character: It is impossible to hide from Freddy in the dream world as he possesses a supernatural awareness of everything that goes on within the dream world, allowing him to instantly know one’s exact location like a magical GPS. Hermione finds this out the hard way when Freddy invades one of her nightmares and very nearly kills her.
• Shooting Superman: This is why Voldemort fared so poorly against Freddy in the dream world. He keeps repeatedly trying to cast the Killing Curse on Krueger even after seeing with his own eyes that Freddy is seemingly immune to it. Compare this to Harry, who was at least was smart enough to try using different spells the first time he battled Freddy in the dream world and saw him shrug off his second Stunning Spell.
• Shout-Out:
  • While chasing Harry in his nightmare in the first chapter, Freddy shouts out "Come, Watson! The game's afoot!" in his poor imitation of an upper-crust British accent.
  • At the start of Pansy's nightmare in the dream world, she is dressed in a fancy evening gown and robes while being chased inside the Astronomy Tower by Freddy who is yelling "Oh Pansy! Oh Pansy! Wherefore art thou, Pansy?" at her.
  • While terrorizing Pansy in the dream world, Freddy greets her by saying "Ello, poppet."
  • When Harry falls asleep at the end of Chapter 8, he finds himself back in the dream world facing Freddy, who is dressed up as Pennywise the Dancing Clown complete with offering Harry a balloon. Harry doesn't get the reference.
  • During Hermione's Nightmare Sequence, Freddy claims that she can try to talk him out of killing her. This causes Hermione to briefly recall Yoda saying "there is no try" as she realizes Freddy is going to kill her regardless.
• Simple Solution Won't Work: Right before Harry is put into a medically induced coma by Madam Pomfrey to treat him for Veritaserum poisoning, Harry asks if she could feed him some Dreamless Sleep potion first so he can avoid having to face Freddy while asleep. Pomfrey refuses and explains that being overdosed on Veritaserum left Harry's body is in a very fragile state and introducing more potions to his body could potentially worsen his condition and lengthen his recovery time.
• Skewed Priorities: Much to Amelia's annoyance, Cornelius Fudge's reaction when told about the ongoing Ministry investigation into the series of grisly murders at Hogwarts, rather than inquiring about potential suspects, is to ask if there is a way to scapegoat Harry Potter for the deaths and then express disappointment when told that Harry was already proven innocent under Veritaserum questioning.
• Slipping a Mickey: This fic has Madam Pomfrey slip a sleeping potion into Harry's food on multiple occasions out of a misguided effort to give Harry (who goes through hell in this fic) a good night's rest.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Sirius Black doesn’t die in this fic because the events that led to the Battle at the Department of Mysteries (and Sirius's subsequent falling through the Veil) in canon never happen here.
• Squishy Wizard: Voldemort is considered the most dangerous dark wizard of all time, yet it only takes a couple of stabs to the stomach from Freddy's bladed glove to bring You-Know-Who collapsing to his hands and knees, crying out in pain.
• Stating the Simple Solution: For almost the entire plot, everyone is seemingly at a loss for what to do when they see a sleeping person being attacked by Freddy in the dream world. Then Ron presents the most obvious solution in Chapter 9. The set-up is that Harry is trapped in the dream world and has resorted to cutting himself with shards of glass in a desperate yet unsuccessful attempt to wake himself up. Harry's friends and allies in the real world see his sleeping body getting sliced up and struggle to come up with a way to save him... until Ron arrives and innocently asks why they don't just wake Harry up from the nightmare. This leaves everyone else momentarily dumbfounded as none of them had ever thought of that as an option. Sure enough, a simple Reviving Spell cast by Sirius and McGonagall succeeds in waking Harry up.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: In Chapter 4, Umbridge summons Harry to her office for a "civil" discussion about the recent murders going on at Hogwarts with her attempting to trick Harry into drinking a cup of tea that she spiked with Veritaserum in hopes of extracting a confession from him. Harry is smart enough not to fall for the ploy and dumps the cup's contents onto the floor in front of her at the end of their meeting.
• Terms of Endangerment: Freddy is The Nicknamer when it comes to giving pet names to the various victims that he terrorizes in this fic. He calls Harry "kid", Draco "little man" and "ferret-face", Snape "Sevvie", Seamus "son", Pansy "poppet", Crabbe "Vinny", Dudley "Duddikins" and "Dudders", Hermione "Hermy", and Sirius "Paddy".
• This Cannot Be!: Voldemort's reaction when he sees Freddy No-Sell multiple Killing Curses to the chest while facing him in the dream world.
• Uncertain Doom: While Voldemort's Horcruxes mean that he likely wasn't Killed Off for Real by Freddy, it's never brought up again what exactly became of him after Freddy decided to fillet him like a fish with his bladed gloves in the dream world.
• Undead Child: It's all but explicitly confirmed that the little children dressed in white playing jump rope seen in the A Nightmare on Elm Street films during dreams to herald Freddy's appearance are the trapped spirits of his past victims. In Chapter 1, Harry comes across one of these jump rope children (a preteen blonde girl) in a nightmare and Freddy also notices her as well, referring to her as Heather and fondly recalling how she "tasted like chicken". In Chapter 3, Harry is visited by another ghost girl in his nightmares (this time an unnamed redhead between 8 to 9 years old) who tries to comfort Harry by telling him it's okay to be afraid and urging him to warn everybody about Freddy.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: We never find out what happened to Voldemort after Freddy curb-stomped him in the dream world. Harry hopes that he was lucky enough for Freddy to have killed Voldemort a second time.
• Who Murdered the Asshole: When Freddy begins his killing spree at Hogwarts, the initial investigation is stymied by the fact that his first two victims were Draco and Snape, neither of whom had exactly endeared themselves to the majority of the student body. It's only after Seamus (someone who was actually well-liked by his classmates) becomes the third victim that the Ministry starts a full-fledged investigation.
• The Worf Barrage: While curb-stomping Voldemort in the dream world, Freddy casually shrugs off being hit in the chest by multiple Killing Curses from the former, even throwing in an "Oh, Crap!" Fakeout just to troll with him.
• Wrong Context Magic: While the Potterverse wizards are obviously no strangers to magic, it tends to take direct physical forms such as wand-casted spells, enchantments, magical artifacts, etc. Freddy Krueger is an undead entity empowered by the Muggle children of Springwood believing in his existence, and his modus operandi is murdering people in Dream Land, something that the Wizarding World has no context for or way of effectively countering.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Harry says this at the end of Chapter 4 when he and his roommates are awakened by the sound of Dean screaming, followed by the discovery of Seamus's corpse hanging from his four-poster bed.
• You Wouldn't Believe Me If I Told You: Despite being made aware of Freddy's existence and knowing what's going on behind the mysterious murders at Hogwarts pretty early on, Harry doesn't tell anyone because he rightfully thinks that no one would initially believe him (or even worse, accuse him of being the murderer). Even Amelia Bones has a hard time refuting that argument when she asks Harry why he didn't come forward with his knowledge sooner after finding out the truth herself.
• You're Insane!: Snape says "You're mad" to Freddy in their second encounter in the dream world where Freddy is preparing to slice off his fingers.

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