Harry Potter & Seven Years of Chaos
by Severitus812 is a series of Harry Potter For Want Of A Nail fanfics in which Harry Potter was kicked out by his abusive relatives years before he ever received his Hogwarts letter and spent the next few years as a homeless Street Urchin. As a result, the Boy Who Lived Took a Level in Cynic by the time he arrives at school, and ends up sorted into Slytherin.
The main series consists of seven fics, each covering a single year of Harry’s time at Hogwarts:
- Obliviate, covering Harry's first year.
- Sectumsempra covering his second year.
- Veritaserum, covering third year.
- Polyjuice, covering the fourth year.
- Expecto Patronum, covering the fifth year.
- Avada Kedavra, covering the sixth year.
- Absolute Chaos, covering the last year.
The are also two spin-off fics that cover events that are not part of the main storyline:
- Meanwhile, in The Afterlife…: A "Let's Watch Our Show" Plot in which the late James and Lily Potter observe the events of the main fanfics from the afterlife.
- Missing Moments: A collection of one-off chapters filling in gaps from the main series, as well as the occasional “What if?”
Harry Potter & Seven Years of Chaos provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents:
- Theo's father.
- While not his parents, Vernon Dursley (and Petunia to an extent) are this to Harry, both verbally and physically
- Accidental Pervert: Remus doesn't understand why Harry doesn't trust him alone at first, but after Snape clues him in to what Harry went through while homeless, he's mortified at the realization that his efforts to be comforting and helpful made him look like a child molester.
- Adaptational Heroism: Draco, Theo, Lucius Malfoy, and Barty Crouch Junior.
- Adaptational Upbringing Change: Harry is kicked out by his abusive aunt and uncle at age eight, becoming homeless. Harry becomes much more violent and cynical in turn, and gets sorted into Slytherin.
- Anti-Hero: Harry, due to a combination of his experiences with the Dursleys and on the streets.
- Beta Couple:
- Hermione Granger and Theodore Nott.
- Draco Malfoy and Luna Lovegood.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Susan is a bundle of sunshine, always smiling and supportive of Harry who calls her impossibly kind. She also leads a month-long harassment campaign against Dumbledore after he expels Harry from Hogwarts, and is utterly ecstatic when another student is petrified since it's a major argument for Harry's innocence, completely neglecting to care about the assaulted student herself.
- She also personally subjects Vernon and Petunia Dursley to Cold-Blooded Torture at the start of Year 6 as punishment for their abuse of Harry, and sends Vernon's finger to Harry as a birthday present.
- Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Harry is a traumatized mess who often defaults to violence when startled. His first friend is Susan who's nothing but sweet and kind towards him.
- Bungled Suicide: Mentioned but not shown. When faced with the prospect of being homeless again after Hagrid drops him off at his relatives after being expelled in Sectumsempra, Harry tries to take his own life, but fails.
- Combat Pragmatist: Harry developed into one in order to stay alive while homeless, to the point of teaching himself to consciously use the Unforgivable Curses before he was 11.
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: Harry, due to a combination of the abuse he suffered from his relatives and the cruelty he experienced during the years he was homeless.
- Dead Person Conversation: Harry uses the Resurrection Stone to speak with his mother in Avada Kadavra.
- Death by Adaptation: Gilderoy Lockheart, Arthur Weasley, Hermoine Granger, Dudley Dursley, and Draco Malfoy.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation:
- In the original books, Dumbledore has Snape kill him as part of a Thanatos Gambit. In this verse, Harry murders him both to obtain the Elder Wand and to get revenge for his unjust expulsion of Harry back in Second Year.
- Even the Guys Want Him: Meanwhile In the Afterlife features James Potter developing a crush on Snape.
- Everyone Knew Already: Harry does an interview with Rita Skeeter in Sectumsempra where he reveals some of his aunt and uncle’s abuse and their hatred of magic in order to gain sympathy after his expulsion from Hogwarts. The next chapter reveals that everyone in his gang had managed to connect the dots long before then.They weren't stupid. They'd all been at this exact table when Harry found out who had put him at his relatives and he'd been furious. They knew he'd needed safe places to stay during the holidays. How nobody from his family ever wrote to him. They saw his scars. His flinches. And the way he thought all Muggleborns needed to be protected from the Muggle world.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Meanwhile in the Afterlife…
- Finger in the Mail: For Harry's sixteenth birthday, Susan tortures his aunt and uncle as payback on his behalf for their abuse, and mails him his uncle's finger as a birthday present.
- Frame-Up: Harry is framed for Goyle's murder in Year 6 and spends a considerable amount of time in Azkaban due to obstructive bureaucrats working on Voldemort's orders.
- Heel–Face Turn: Harry manages to convince Barty Crouch Jr. to defect from Voldemort's side and join his.
- Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Harry’s penchant for violence is treated as this half of the time.
- History Repeats: When looking at Harry and Susan, Snape muses they're a mite like himself and Lily — a traumatized black-haired wizard hailing from an abusive background becoming friendly with an extroverted, passionate redheaded witch.
- Insult of Endearment: Harry referring to Snape as “bastard” and Snape calling Harry “brat”
- Killed Off for Real: Several characters are killed off over the course of the novel.
- Arthur Weasley and Barty Crouch Junior in Expecto Patronum.
- Amelia Bones, Trent Bailey, and Albus Dumbledore in Avada Kadavra
- Hermione Granger, Dudley Dursley, and Draco Malfoy in Absolute Chaos.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: After being beaten by his uncle one day shortly after his eighth birthday, Harry unwittingly erases Vernon and Petunia's memories of him by wishing they would forget he existed.
- "Let's Watch Our Show" Plot: Meanwhile in the Afterlife...' centers around Harry's parents watching their son's life play out alongside the spirits of other deceased characters.
- Like Brother and Sister: Harry develops this relationship with Susan Bones.
- Official Couple: Harry Potter and Fred Weasley.
- Papa Wolf: Snape will do whatever he has to in order to to protect Harry.
- Parental Substitute: Snape becomes one for Harry and later for Theo.
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Moral Event Horizon: Snape decides that Dumbledore has crossed this when the headmaster learns that Harry has used the Unforgivable Curses at a young age and, instead of recognizing that Harry’s actions are a response to his family’s abuse and the trauma of being homeless for three years, immediately suspects him of being a dark wizard waiting to happen and begins making plans to kill him if he cannot be contained or swayed. - Rape as Backstory: Harry was sexually assaulted at least once during his years on the street.
- Street Urchin: Harry spent 3 years living on the streets of London before receiving his Hogwarts letter.
- Take a Third Option: Harry creates his own faction that opposes both Dumbledore and Voldemort.
- Teen Pregnancy: Hermione becomes pregnant with her and Theo's daughter in Avada Kedavera. And Dudley becomes a father roughly at the same time as she becomes a mother.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Harry’s penchant for violence after his years on the streets often crosses into this when it’s not played for laughs.
