History FandomSpecificPlot / HarryPotter

* A common minor plot element that goes with Harry being labeled as 'Serious', which often comes with being more powerful and the labels mentioned above, is Harry 'taking things seriously'. On top of generally leading to his personality being completely changed, this also finds Harry changing his Hogwarts schedule. On top of reasonable things like dropping Divination, a class that Harry hates and does poorly in, with Arithmancy and Ancient Runes (classes who the fans give special properties to that canon does not allude to), he also often drops Quidditch to study and practice more. These fics rarely explore how Harry losing an outlet like sports would affect him negatively, as fans treat the sport like a distraction in these fics instead of stress relief or something Harry just ''likes'' to do as a hobby, nor the social consequences that would surely come from Gryffindor's star Seeker just giving up the sport randomly and severely weakening the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Arguments about how plenty of skilled wizards and witches in canon still had time for such activities, like the Marauders, are conveniently ignored or downplayed to let Harry become uber badass by being 'serious' about things.

* There's a common theme of Harry, having united the Deathly Hallows, assuming the mantle of Master of Death. He then proceeds to [[DimensionalTraveler travel to whichever crossover]] the story takes place in, either attempting to take a break from his responsibilities only to end up in a BusmansHoliday, or trying remove the Hallows from reality only to discover they are {{Clingy MacGuffin}}s of the worst kind. While there he either discovers/reveals that he has the traits of CompleteImmortality or some sort of power boost that comes from holding the Hallows, whichever is needed to [[PowerCreepPowerSeep balance his abilities]] with whatever universe he ends up in.

* If anything goes wrong between Harry and his kids, be it one turns evil, resents him, isn't actually his if Ginny is being bashed, etc etc, it will always be Albus Serverus Potter. This trend, which predated ''Cursed Child'' where we do in fact see Albus resent his father, seems to have been predicated on two things: Albus getting more focus in the epilogue chapter than the others, and his name, which bares the names of two characters that many fans dislike.

* A common minor plot element that goes with Harry being labeled as 'Serious', which often comes with being more powerful and the labels mentioned above, is Harry 'taking things seriously'. On top of generally leading to his personality being completely changed, this also finds Harry changing his Hogwarts schedule. On top of reasonable things like dropping Divination, a class that Harry hates and does poorly in, with Arithmancy and Ancient Runes (classes who the fans give special properties to that canon does not allude to), he also often drops Quidditch to study and practice more. These fics rarely explore how Harry losing an outlet like sports would affect him negatively, as fans treat the sport like a distraction in these fics instead of stress relief or something Harry just ''likes'' to do as a hobby, nor the social consequences that would surely come from Gryffindor's star Seeker just giving up the sport randomly and severely weakening the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Arguments about how plenty of skilled wizards and witches in canon still had time for such activities, like the Maruaders, are conveniently ignored or downplayed to let Harry become uber badass by being 'serious' about things.

* Ron and Hermione inexplicably turn against Harry after fifth year, and he is forced to rely on new allies and come into his own with all the aforementioned political and magical power he didn't even knew he had.

* Harry gained legal adulthood and 'full access' to the Potter vaults and seat(s) on the Wizengamot because he's in the Triwizard Tournament, despite the fact that the Triwizard Tournament has included plenty of underaged students before, just this time the school administrators rigged an external age line to keep them out. These fics explain that Harry's current vaults are a trust fund (usually justified by noting that there is only money in Harry's vault while other families store all sorts of thing in theirs).

* Harry actually didn't save Ginny when he destroyed Riddle's diary. She was actually still evil, but didn't let on. This can go two ways. In the unsympathetic route, this becomes [[RonTheDeathEater Ginny The Death Eater]]. And then there's the sympathetic route, which amounts to "Ginny's evil, but that's all right because EvilIsSexy and now she can be [[DracoInLeatherPants Tom]]'s [[WeCanRuleTogether queen]]." (The latter type nearly always finds a way to revert Voldemort back to his Riddle-era good looks.)

* If it's a ''Series/{{Merlin}}'' crossover, expect jokes to be made about the phrase "Merlin's beard!" and how he actually ''doesn't'' have a beard.

* A common set up for the legal based overpowered Harrys to get that way involves Sirius's will, emancipating him on Sirius's death and freeing up all of the bottled up unfathomable wealthy, political power, ultra super amazing castles, marriage contracts, concubine contracts, latent powers sealed up as a child for safety that should have been removed years ago but weren't, and voiding various tricks by the wicked Dumbledore in the process. This then will lead to a public will reading of Sirius's will. He'll naturally invite not just people he is giving stuff to, which on top of Harry will include Remus (who generally gets a ton of money to live off of, often a home from a Black Property somewhere, and encouragement to go forward with the love interest, often Tonks, who he's hesitating to), the Tonks family (which is typically giving them money and reinstating Andromeda into the Black Family, rescinding her disinheritance), and whichever love interests and friends of Harry the author doesn't hate, find some way to publicly mock Dumbledore from beyond the grade, and Draco, who will always be disinherited from the Black family line of succession, and all of the love interest and friends of Harry the author hates. Oftentimes he will also offer a divorce for Narcissa from Lucius Malfoy, and as these stories tend to treat Lucius and Draco as much worse than in canon Narcissa, who in canon adores both, takes the deal and bails on them, often taking a lot of money with them that came to the family with her marriage as a dowry. Dumbledore will naturally not be happy and will try to get the will voided, but a combination of Harry's newfound power and the Goblins enforcing strict rules that not even he can get out of the way will render the humiliation of Dumbledore, Draco, and whoever the author hates as total.

* A common minor plot element that goes with Harry being labeled as 'Serious', which often comes with being more powerful and the labels mentioned above, is Harry 'taking things seriously'. On top of generally leading to his personality being completely changed, this also finds Harry changing his Hogwarts schedule. On top of reasonable things like dropping Divination, a class that Harry hates and does poorly in, with Arithmancy and Ancient Runes (classes who the fans give special properties to that canon does not elude to), he also often drops Quidditch to study and practice more. These fics rarely explore how Harry losing an outlet like sports would affect him negatively, as fans treat the sport like a distraction in these fics instead of stress relief or something Harry just ''likes'' to do as a hobby, nor the social consequences that would surely come from Gryffindor's star Seeker just giving up the sport randomly and severely weakening the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Arguments about how plenty of skilled wizards and witches in canon still had time for such activities, like the Maruaders, are conveniently ignored or downplayed to let Harry become uber badass by being 'serious' about things.

* Harry gets a new (super) wand or staff, usually made with basilisk parts.

* A plot usually linked with the 'Sirius Will Reading' plot, but not necessarily so, is the idea of Narcissa divorcing Lucius. While this often happens via Sirius offering it (via Harry) in his will, it can and does happen in other sets up. A common one is after the second book, where Lucius setting a Basilisk loose in Hogwarts infuriates Narcissa [[MamaBear for putting Draco at risk]]. This typically has Narcissa become an ally to Harry mostly out of a need for self preservation due to danger from the Death Eaters for betraying Lucius and often taking a small fortune with her via the divorce. A common part of the resulting fallout from the divorce is Draco, who is naturally put in a poor situation where his father is often arrested and in Azkaban while his mother has moved to ally with his schoolyard enemy. Typically if this happens as a result of the will reading Draco falls fully in with the Death Eaters, albeit one that has usually done something stupid during the will reading and is in disgrace. A younger Draco is usually kept, begrudgingly, with Narcissa, expected to behave better around Harry and friends. This younger Draco is usually successful at the habit and typically ends better than the older Draco, who usually ends with a lethal case of YouHaveFailedMe.

* A common solution to destroying Harry's Horcrux, and sometimes the others, without killing Harry or requiring Voldemort to steal his blood as part of the reivval ritual first, is the pure power of love. This is frequently a part of Harry having passionate sex with whoever the story has paired with him, singular or multiple, all at once naturally. This solution via the power of love is something that Dumbledore never attempts to set up by himself as this story trope nearly always appear in fics where Dumbledore is the manipulative bad guy, where as in canon if Harry could have had his Horcrux removed by having sex with his one true love(s) or some other love-based ritual without being struck by Voldemort again, Dumbledore would have either gone with that or had a really good reason not to he could quite reasonably explain if prompted.

* A common solution to destroying Harry's Horcrux, and sometimes the others, without killing Harry is the pure power of love. This is frequently a part of Harry having passionate sex with whoever the story has paired with him, singular or multiple, all at once naturally. This solution via the power of love is something that Dumbledore never attempts to set up by himself as these ideas near always appear in fics where Dumbledore is the manipulative bad guy, where as in canon if Harry could have had his Horcrux removed by having sex with his one true love(s), Dumbledore would have either gone with that or had a really good reason not to.

* "The Late To Hogwarts Fic," in which a young wizard or witch doesn't get their invitation to Hogwarts at age 11, or is unable to go, until later age (usually when romantic plots would be more okay, so from fourth year up) — the other way is to introduce a transfer student ([[SelfInsertFic who's usually from the same country/general area and of the same background as the author]], [[WishFulfillment and is very similar to them in all aspects, only better]]). The latter type has the added benefit of 1) making up a new, totally awesome wizarding school 2) enabling the character to have a unique, totally cool wand 3) creating an explanation for [[WrongContextMagic unseen-in-Britain]], [[{{Chuunibyou}} totally super magic]] 4) allowing the character to have an inherited {{katana|sAreJustBetter}} 5) being an ObviousCrossoverMethod. Details not tying into the character's origins and entrance into Hogwarts usually follow the normal self-insert/wish-fulfillment procedure. The upcoming video game ''VideoGame/HogwartsLegacy'' is using this plot but its developers have already said it's not to be considered a canon work.

* Voldemort's daughter. Became a case of AscendedFanon.

* There are a surprising number of fanfics in which Ginny has a FirstPeriodPanic during her first year at Hogwarts, and Tom Riddle is put in the awkward position of having to give her TheTalk.

* A common set up for the legal based overpowered Harrys to get that way involves Sirius's will, emancipating him on Sirius's death and freeing up all of the bottled up unfathomable wealthy, political power, ultra super amazing castles, marriage contracts, concubine contracts, latent powers sealed up as a child for safety that should have been removed years ago but weren't, and voiding various tricks by the wicked Dumbledore in the process. This then will lead to a public will reading of Sirius's will. He'll naturally invite not just people he is giving stuff to, which on top of Harry will include Remus, the Tonks family, and whichever love interests and friends of Harry the author doesn't hate, find some way to publicly mock Dumbledore from beyond the grade, and Draco, who will always be disinherited from the Black family line of succession, and all of the love interest and friends of Harry the author hates. Dumbledore will naturally not be happy and will try to get the will voided, but a combination of Harry's newfound power and the Goblins enforcing strict rules that not even he can get out of the way will render the humiliation of Dumbledore, Draco, and whoever the author hates as total.

* Harry’s real name isn’t, well, "Harry." It is Hadrian or Harrison because a worrying number of people agree with Aunt Petunia that "Harry" is a "nasty, common name" unfit for their super-special, superpowered wizard god. Weirdly, it is never "Henry" or "Harold," the two names that have "Harry" as a nickname.