Harry Potter and the Cetra Heritage is a fanfic written by Quatermass
in which Harry, after a particularly nasty day at the Dursleys in which his Uncle Vernon beats him in a drunken rage, prays for someone, anyone, to deliver him from his pain. His prayers are heard by the goddess Minerva, and she transports him from his cupboard under the stairs to the Forgotten Capital, where he is found by Aerith Gainsborough, who is on her way to the ancient Cetra city to find a way to stop Sephiroth. Little does anyone expect that Harry's arrival will change the outcome of the battles to come in more ways than they can imagine...
The series mixes aspects of both franchises together into a shared universe, with the starting premise that a group of Cetra fled to Harry's dimension after Jenova's arrival on the planet thousands of years ago, and adding more details from there.
The original was posted in and can be found here.
Following the completion of the original fic, the author is working on a series of sequels:
- Birthday: An interquel between the original story and The Philosopher's Stone, in which Dumbledore and a small group of others from the Harry Potter world travel to the Planet to celebrate Harry's eleventh birthday and deliver his Hogwarts letter.
- Harry Gainsborough and the Philosopher's Stone: The first true sequel, where Harry's first year at Hogwarts, accompanied by Aerith and Jenova drastically changes the landscape of the fight against Voldemort.
- Holiday: the second interquel, an ongoing slice of life fanfic about the summer between Harry's first and second years.
Harry Potter and the Cetra Heritage provides examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism: Rufus Shinra is more benevolent than he is in canon even before his official Heel–Face Turn
- Jenova is given a tragic backstory and eventually performs a Heel–Face Turn as well, but both she and Rufus are Reformed, but Not Tamed.
- The warriors of Deepground are less antagonistic in this universe than they are in canon. Justified since they haven't been taken over by Hojo yet at this point in the timeline.
- Adaptation Expansion: The first story greatly expands on Jenova's backstory and how she came to be the planet destroying Eldritch Abomination she is in canon.
- Adaptational Explanation: To answer the common complaint of "Why didn't they just use a Phoenix Down to revive Aerith?", the second chapter gives us a bit of Sephiroth's point of view. In it, we learn that Masamune's blade is coated with a poison that prevents Phoenix Downs and Life magic from being used.
- Ancient Conspiracy: The True Reunion is a more benevolent example. A group of Cetra who arrived on Earth infected with Jenova's cells. After a violent attempted purge by the unaffected Cetra, the group went into hiding, and gradually lost Jenova's world-conquering tendencies. After Voldemort's death, they created a Jenova Hybrid in preparation for the next time such a villain rose to power by combining all of their Jenova cells into a single unborn fetus.
- Antagonistic Offspring: Sephiroth is this to Jenova. As are the Dementors.
- Ascended Extra: In the original game, Jenova was little more than a puppet that Sephiroth controls from the Northern Crater. In this story, she (or at least a small piece of her consciousness) actively resists Sephiroth's attempts to control her and seeks a new body so that she can act of her own free will once more. she gets one at the party's first visit to the Northern Crater, and performs an Enemy Mine after they're all captured by Shinra.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Harry uses Materia for the first time to save Aeirth from dying at the hands of Sephiroth like she does in the game.
- In the final battle against Sephiroth, the previously indisposed Jenova jumps in and heals the group after Sephiroth casts "Heartless Angel".
- And again in 'Harry Gainsborough And The Philosopher's Stone', Jenova attacks Quirrel when he reaches the mirror of Erised, freeing Harry to help Ron.
- Black Comedy: Almost always provided courtesy of Jenova.
- Boom, Headshot!: How Heidegger dies in this story, as opposed to his death in canon.
- Brainwashed and Crazy:
- Cloud is briefly controlled by Sephiroth at the North Crater into attacking Tifa, just like in the game.
- And in the second story, Voldemort places Ron and Hermoine under the Imperius Curse.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Gilgamesh and Luna Lovegood at the end of 'Harry Gainsborough and the Philosopher's Stone'
- Brutal Honesty: Jenova's lines are usually either this or sarcasm.
- Character Development: Several
- Rufus Shinra gradually becomes a more altruistic person after the battle at the North Crater.
Word of God explains this as his way of reconciling Rufus' antagonistic personality in the original game with his seemingly benign portrayal in Advent Children. - After regaining a physical body, Jenova gradually rediscovers her origins and becomes more benevolent and heroic as the story goes on.
- Severus Snape gradually becomes less of a Jerkass after his first meeting with Harry in Birthday.
- Rufus Shinra gradually becomes a more altruistic person after the battle at the North Crater.
- Composite Character: Surprisingly a lot.
- The Knights of the Valiant Round are King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
- Nicholas Flamel is actually Ixion, and the Philosopher's Stone is actually his Summon Materia
- Dead All Along: The Philosopher's Stone doesn't exist, and Mr. and Mrs. Flamel died centuries ago, while Ixion and Valefor took their places to keep up the illusion that the couple were still alive.
- Dead Fic: Holiday hasn't been updated since 2016.
- Deadpan Snarker: Quite a lot of people.
- Jenova herself ends up providing a source of dark humor in almost all of her scenes.
- Deal with the Devil: Not an actual one, but at the end of Birthday, Dumbledore asks Aerith to teach at Hogwarts to keep an eye on Harry, and she agrees on the condition that Jenova comes with her. When they discuss their plans for dealing with Voldemort and the Philosopher's Stone, Jenova's ideas on what to do with Voldemort once he's been subdued make Dumbledore questions whether agreeing to Aerith's condition didn't seal some Mephistophelean pact.
- Enemy Mine:
- Rufus Shinra becomes a reluctant ally of the group after the incident at the North Crater. After Yuffie takes him hostage during their escape from prison that is.
- Jenova makes an alliance of convenience with AVALANCHE once she regains her body, seeing them as allies in her fight against Sephiroth.
- For Want Of A Nail: The entire premise of the fic is that Harry's arrival drastically alters the plot of Final Fantasy VII, and the events of the fic do the same for the Harry Potter saga in later stories. To list any examples would spoil too much.
- Half-Human Hybrid:
- Besides Sephiroth himself, Harry inherits Jenova's cells as a result of her taking up temporary residence inside his head, and in 'Harry Gainsborough and The Philosopher's Stone', she notes that the cells are multiplying at such a rate that in time he will become a full hybrid.
- 'The Philosopher's Stone' also reveals that Luna Lovegood is a Jenova hybrid herself.
- Happily Adopted: Harry is overjoyed when Aerith's adoptive mother Elmyra adopts him as well.
- Heel–Face Turn: To the surprise of everyone, Jenova becomes less of a villain as the story goes on, until she becomes an outright hero.
- Honorary Aunt: How Harry sees Jenova in relation to his makeshift new family.
- In Spite of a Nail: With the exception of Aerith and Jenova, everyone else who died in the game still dies here, just under slightly different circumstances.
- Killed Off for Real: With the exception of Aerith and Jenova, everyone who dies in the original game is killed here as well, only by different people and under different circumstances. After the events of Final Fantasy VII have concluded:
- Ron briefly dies when Voldemort's shade (using the Imperius Curse) orders him to cut his own throat with his wand.
- Loss of Identity: What being Killed Off for Real means for Jenova. Because her cells can regenerate, her body can't truly die, but her consciousness would dissipate or be absorbed by Sephiroth.
- Manchurian Agent: Invoked and played straight. Voldemort had actually seen the Trope Namer and developed a spell based on the concept. He then uses it to compel Draco Malfoy to steal Harry's wand and Materia during a Quiditch game.
- Mirror Character: Jenova and Minerva. A brief dip in the Lifestream reveals that Jenova was a goddess like Minerva once, until the destruction of her world forced her to flee to the stars. By the time Jenova arrived on Gaia, she had gone insane from the solitude and forgot her origins, mentally reimagining herself as a ruthless cosmic predator. This gets discussed in The Philosopher's Stone, where Minvera wonders if she would have turned out like that as well if the same thing had happened to her.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Jenova openly expresses a morbid desire to consume Dementors simply to find out what they taste like. Sirius even says she reminds him of Bellatrix Lestrange at times.
- Not Quite Dead: Sephiroth is technically dead, but just like in Advent Children, his consciousness still persists within the lifestream as he finds a way to resurrect himself.
- Odd Friendship:
- There seems to be an amusing Deadpan Snarker trio centered on Snape, Aerith, and Jenova
- In 'Philosopher's Stone', one develops between Minerva (the FFVII Goddess) and Luna Lovegood.
- Offing the Offspring: Jenova helps to do this to Sephiroth.
- Off the Rails: Once Harry saves Aerith from dying at the hands of Sephiroth, the story differs slightly but remains largely on the same path as the original game. After the confrontation with Sephiroth at the North Crater on the other hand, all bets are off.
- Pass the Popcorn: When Gilgamesh sets up a fighting tournament at the Golden Saurcer, Nero swipes some popcorn from the Restrictor's secret stash for himself and Weiss while the watch the opening match of Gilgamesh Vs. Shelke.
- Pet the Dog: Rufus and Jenova have several instances even before their official heel-face turns.
- Rufus...
- Gives Aerith and Harry VIP treatment and acknowledges the fact that while the two are his prisoners, they still deserve to be treated humanely.
- Is consistently kind to Harry out of sympathy of their shared horrible childhoods.
- Even though her intentions were not entirely benevolent at the time, Jenova destroying Voldemort's Horcrux in Harry's scar certainly counts.
- Rufus...
- Reformed, but Not Tamed: Jenova may be on the side of the angels by the end of Cetra Heritage but she remains the most ruthless member of the group and not quite sane.
- The same goes for Rufus Shinra. As Jenova notes in the final chapters of the first story, his methods haven't changed, even if his motivations have.
- Right-Hand Hottie: When Gilderoy Lockheart is introduced at the end of 'Harry Gainsborough and the Philosopher's Stone', he immediately assumes "Jen Calamitas" will be this. Though not expressed verbally, it's clear both she and Dumbledore are eagerly looking forward to when she disabuses him of that notion.
- Shout-Out:
- "Nicholas Flamel's" explanation of his origins basically recaps the entire plot of Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2 in Broad Strokes.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Frequently occurs between Snape and Jenova.
- The Starscream: Scarlet seizes control of the Shinra corporation earlier than in canon, shortly after Rufus agrees to an Enemy Mine with AVALANCHE to stop Sephiroth.
- Token Evil Teammate: Rufus Shinra and Jenova become this after the first fight at the North Crater. At least at first.
-
Unexpected Character: quite a lot.- Sirius Black arrives on the Planet at the same time Cloud and Tifa wash up on the shores of Mideel.
- King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table show up as a Summon.
- Gilgamesh falls out of the sky at the end of 'Harry Gainsborough and the Philosopher's Stone,' almost immediately after Rufus and AVALANCHE uncover Deepground.
- Vengeance Feels Empty: Invoked word for word by Barrett after Scarlet's death.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Jenova can alter her appearance at will whenever the situation calls for it.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Weapons are adamant in their quest to destroy all trace of Jenova, even if it means innocent people have to die in the process.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Many characters call Dumbledore out on his decision to leave Harry with the Dursleys
- Your Soul Is Mine!: Jenova consumes the souls of her enemies as she kills them. The only exception is Voldemort's Horcruxes, since he doesn't have a body and each Horcrux is only a small piece of his soul.
