Harry & the Mysterious Curse of the Girl-Who-Lived
is an Alternate Universe Fic about Harry Potter written by Lord Jeram. The concept is simple: Harry Potter is the same old guy, but for some mysterious reason, everyone else seems to think he's a girl with the unfortunate name of "Harriet Potter".
This fanfiction contains the following tropes:
- Cannot Spit It Out: Literally. Dumbledore can not physically say Harry's name. This not only makes Dumbledore realize Harry is being serious, but that he is under a very powerful curse.
- Double Standard:
- The story explores this in the form of how Harry would have been treated by the other characters of the books if he had been a girl instead of a boy. Malfoy is a male chauvinist, the girls with the exception of Hermione earnestly try to bond with "Harriet", Snape treats "her" fairly for resembling Lily, and the girls and McGonagall are outraged when they hear of how Harry is treated by the Dursleys.
- It's even lampshaded by Dumbledore himself.
- On a less pleasant note, Harry is subject to a lot of sexist drivel from Malfoy. He reacts badly to 'her' not immediately falling for him when they first met.
- The story explores this in the form of how Harry would have been treated by the other characters of the books if he had been a girl instead of a boy. Malfoy is a male chauvinist, the girls with the exception of Hermione earnestly try to bond with "Harriet", Snape treats "her" fairly for resembling Lily, and the girls and McGonagall are outraged when they hear of how Harry is treated by the Dursleys.
- Enemy Mine: Harry enters one with the Diary Horcrux, unaware he is talking to Voldemort. Tom Riddle is aware there is some reality warping going on regarding his future self, and wants help from Harry to resolve it. Meanwhile Harry just wants this curse broken.
- For Want Of A Nail: A What If? story where Harry is perceived to be a girl, but isn't actually one.
- Gender Bender: Subverted. Harry is 100% male, but he appears to be a girl to all other wizards and witches. Early on, it is shown that Squibs will occasionally see Harry or Harriet. It may be the case with Lady Volotredi depending on whether she actually is a woman or if he's under the same curse as Harry is.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Hermione develops this towards Harry from the very moment they met, but soon they become good friends.
- Groin Attack: Discussed by Harry as a distraction."It's marvelous!" he enthused. "I'm there with Dumbledore and my parents and all my friends, and I'm holding the House Cup high! We've won! And oh, look, there in the corner is you, getting your bollocks kicked by a team of Muggles." He wiped a fake tear from his eye. "I don't know what this Mirror is, but I think I'd like to move it to my room."
- Loophole Abuse: Dumbledore starts to call Harry 'Not-Harriet' and 'not-girl' to get around the fact that he literally can't call Harry a boy and that Harry hates being called a Girl. When talking to others about Harry, like for example the Dursleys, he exclusively uses gender-neutral terms.
- Oh, Crap!: Snape visibly pales and rushes off to speak to the Headmaster when Harry raises the possibility that Volotredi's shade is working directly with Sirius Black, and is responsible for the Chamber of Secrets being re-opened.
- Reality Warper: The Curse shows signs of this. It makes so that despite Dumbledore knowing that Harry is a boy he can not physically refer to him as so.
- Take That!: Lord Jeram likes to take various Fanon clichés and turn them on their heads.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Hermione and Padma, full stop. They always find themselves on opposite sides of an argument, and get into lengthily, heated debates over it. Harry is rather surprised to realize just how much Padma likes it that way.
