I have and interesting idea for a story I would like to write, if time permits. I have yet to see either idea previously, though if any of you know of a story using them, please direct me.

I ask for input, opinions or otherwise. If the idea sucks, please tell me why, otherwise I am likely to ignore the suggestion. Don't hold back, I doubt that any of you would, but if I can't stand the heat, I really shouldn't be here.

Here we go:

A Hannibal Lecter crossover. At first, I thought it could never work, if only because of who Hannibal Lecter is. He would not serve Voldemort, Lecter does not serve. He would not be a professor, Dumbledor would never allow such a man within Hogwarts. Indeed, Hannibal Lecter could never be a wizard of any kind without completely destroying the character. He would never adopt Harry, Hannibal Lecter does not babysit.

But then I thought, what if... What if, something happens to Harry during his early childhood that breaks his mind in a similar manner that Lecter's was broken? Perhaps seeing himself in the child could bring Lecter to watch over the boy. But why would he leave the Dursley's?

I thought of the following scenarios, but they may be inadequate, or just dumb.

Hannibal Lecter is in London to visit the Tower of London, this story begins during time after The Silence of the Lambs where Lecter is free, but his whereabouts are entirely unknown. The timeline may need to be manipulated slightly, I have yet to do any proper research on that front.

What if, through so circumstance or error on their part, the Dursley's leave Harry locked in his cupboard when they leave town, and forget to leave him any food. Such things occasionally happen with pets, and they care about Harry's health much less then any dog. Harry would starve, managing to survive through self-cannibalism. On their return, Harry kills the Dursleys.

Plot holes: Why didn't accidental magic aid Harry, conjuring food or breaking down the door to the cupboard? Why would Harry kill the Dursley's?

What if the Dursley's locked Harry in the cupboard and went off to the grocery store or something, then died in a car accident, and the cops never came looking for Harry because Dudley was big enough for two kids, or some horrific fire incited by an exploding gas tank vaporized enough of the car that no remains could be found? Or, you know, just a typical bureaucratic oversight fucks Harry over. Harry ends up on the streets, and while he's starving comes across the body of a man recently killed by the mob?

Plot holes: Is the car accident actually possible? What the hell is the mob doing in London, anyway, since this isn't a crack fic or a mob!Harry fic?

I'm sure by now you guys can see why I could use some input.

Later on I'll post a couple ideas I've had that go along with the concept, but that I'm afraid might ruin the story if not done exactly write. Or just not done.

Thanks for the help!

 

Cannibal-Sociopath!Harry could be an interesting read if for nothing other than the sheer mindfuck of it all. The idea could work, but I don't know if you would want it to work. A story like this would be really damn hard to write properly.

The little points would need to be ironed out though. For one thing, the Dursleys would have to die no matter what to remove his ties to any family. That said, a car accident seems so plain. I know it doesn't have to be some over-elaborate death like getting Saw'ed, but something like a gas explosion while Harry is at the park might serve the story better. Now homeless, he could start down his bloody road feeding on other homeless people. That cuts out pointless mob activity or anything uselessly over-thought.

Honestly, the first thing that comes to mind to kick off the fic is a newspaper article detailing the violent destruction of a suburban household, and the gruesome burning of all three of its residents. Harry just slips through the cracks.

Past that, things fall into place. Whether or not he realizes it, Hannibal is drawn to this damaged child and takes him under his wing.

Again, this could work, but damn this would be hard to tie into the magical aspect of HP. After the first chapter, the only point of the story would be to see how much Harry can creep out all his classmates.

 

Not a bad idea, but I don't think Harry suddenly cast off into the streets would really prepare him for murder, let alone cannibalism. The Dursley's defiantly have to die, but I think Harry should be slightly more involved in their deaths somehow. Something has to happen to make Harry take that step and become a sociopath, after all. For Hannibal, it was starvation followed by the murder and cannibalization of his little sister. Something has to happen, but I really don't want to go with the 'Harry is a sociopath because I'm the author and I said so, so there!' path.

The magical aspects IS a bit of what's bugging me, particularly Lecter's interaction with the entire thing. I'm trying to figure out how he would react, but I'm drawing a blank aside from 'Take advantage of and manipulate all involved for the maximum amount of lulz'. Not to mention the difficulty involved with interactions between him and Dumbledore or Voldemort. Dumbledore would probbably just be horrified, but with Voldemort, especially an intelligent!Voldemort, I think they might just end up trying to out mindfuck each other.

 

It doesn't have to start off as 'murder then sociopathy'. I was thinking more along the lines of cannibalizing homeless people who have already died. You know, the poor neglected who died in back alleys. When you're that desperate, you start to forget (or stop caring about) what's right or wrong. Living a life like that, Harry slowly loses perspective on what a normal life is.

For how to involve Harry in the Dursleys' deaths, or how to tie into magic, you'll have to consult the more creative elements of the site. I'm drawing a big blank.

 

The magical aspect? How about having a new world he could explore and, through Harry, fuck up people. Maybe he wonders what a wizard would taste like? He finds Harry, sees him doing accidental magic, and he begins to wonder about the kid. The owl comes and he sees possibilities about the world.

Maybe he decides to explore this world and turn Harry?

No. Discard that. Have Harry broken, that plus accidental magic attracts him to the boy and he uses Harry as a means to do something to the magical world. I do remember that Hannibal can come off as a perfect gentleman, as sociopaths are.

I'll be honest, since I've only seen Red Dragon, I don't know the motivations of the man that well, so can't help too much there, aside from the above. I do know that there was a lot of psychological stuff played into all the movies, and you may want to have something similar in the fic. At least with Harry, it would give it a lot of depth.

 

Also needing to be addressed is the issue of Dumbledore - I doubt he would just sit by and let all this happen.

Interesting idea, though I agree that I can't really see the point/aim of this.

EDIT: Epically ninja'd - shouldn't leave a page open and go away. -_- My point still stands, though, in that in any of these horror-scenarios, Dumbledore's actions while Harry is having this 'mental breakdown' need to be addressed.

 

I want your babies for considering writing this.

Two possibilities.. With Hannibal... or Harry-bal.
Offshoots from them... Hannibal as harry's inspiration, or Hannibal being consulted to catch harry, or Harry as Hannibal's apprentice (as some are want to do when confronted with their own mortality/incarceration).
Canon!harry is more likely to be mindfucked/manipulated by Hannibal then any other scenario imo. He's powerful and impressionable.. Hannibal wouldn't be able to resist.

Dursleys:
Hannibal is an extremely adept socialite, he could blend into any given situation.... perhaps one of Vernon's business dinners? He happens to notice Harry doing the cooking and eyeing the Dursley's off.....

Dumbledore: Hannibal was a professor in one of the movies.. so I don't see why it's implausible for him to be teaching at Hogwarts...aside from the crossover factor...
A simple bit of Hannibal tm, misdirection and Voldemort will be copping the blame for everything that goes wrong.

Cannibalism:
you really need to understand why Hannibal became the way he did, aside from him simply being bat shit crazy.
Something to do with a bunch of guys, eating his sister during the war, and feeding her to him in a broth. Perhaps the dursley's cook up some Hedwig soup? or some other pre-hogwarts pet non-canon.
Harry's upbringing, is strikingly similar to the dude's in Red Dragon.. overly strict and unrelenting, abusive foster parents who are relatives and all.

Magic:
Could just be a story fic, of Harry trying to make his way in this new wizarding world, despite his mental pathology.
The posted ideas so far are good ones.


Crossover:
For hannibal to be an active part... he's either got to be a wizard or squib, or merely a muggle who knows about it.
If like in the movies, he's sought from a consultative perspective, then it'll be quite challenging, as you'll have to develop and entirely different psychosis for Harry, or the crazy character you chose (who says it's got to be Harry, right?)

If he's actually in it...Given his personality.. it's entirely plausible that he chooses to live as a muggle, because he enjoys fucking with them.


That's all for now from me I suppose.

 

You could set this in a war-stricken Europe. A bit like Skitterleap but more like Italy towards the end of World War 2. I'm thinking of an England like Miracle at St Anna.

It'd make it easier to come up with an excuse for Harry to turn all ape-shit.

 

@Sin Saiori:
I was thinking something along those lines, but I think it would make more sense if Harry where to just steal some food from somewhere in that scenario, especially since nothing has happened previously to cause him to think that a person could be used as food. That's another issue I'm having some trouble with, Hannibal did it after witnessing the cannibalism of another boy, and then later on being force-fed some soup made of his sister. That wouldn't really work here, since Harry has no close relatives.

Possibly a serial killer holding the Dursley's hostage? Maybe Hannibal Lecter himself was offended somehow by Vernon?

@7ate9:
Not bad, but I don't think that really fits Lecter. His biggest draw to the magical world, aside from Harry, would probably be bringing his sister back, which in it's self leads to an different series of issues. For the momment though, I just want to see if the basic permis of this story can be done without going into incorperating the Deathly Hallows, Necromancy, or various Lovecraftian concepts.

That might be an issue a lot of people have with this, so I'll do my best to sum him up:

Hannibal Lecter lives for his own amusement. He does whatever he fancies, and does it with no moral issues. He doesn't fear much of anything, and his only real desire aside from amusement is the rebirth of his sister. He has an extreme dislike for rudeness, and is always extremely precise. He disdains the idea of a God, and collects news articles about churches collapsing, especially during mass. He is royalty by birth, and behaves as such. He is vengeful, and dislikes being bored a great deal. He has a great appreciation for the fine arts. He is perfectly willing to kill any who annoy him without batting an eye. He keeps his word. He is a master of manipulation.

I tried to throw in anything that might help, so it's not very well organized, sorry.

@Moridin:
Agreed, -that is a VERY good point, and frankly, I have no idea where Dumbledore is. Though the idea of a neglectful Dumbledore sounds good, it just isn't practical. At the same time, Dumbledore doesn't want Harry to know about magic until Hogwarts. Perhaps he looks for Harry afterward, finds him, and decides him to be in good hands for some reason? Maybe he ends up in an orphanage, or maybe he's with a sitter while Lecter is off doing something. That might work better with the serial killer idea, having the Dursley's brutally murdered or something in front of him, followed by the killer shooting himself in the head due to a missfire brought on by Harry's accidental magic. Found later by police wondering why Vernon hasn't been to work in days, Harry is traumatized beyond belief after witnessing three murders and a suicide, then spending several days with corpses for company. I don't think Dumbledore would be monitering THEIR health, only Harry's, and the blood wards only need to be charged for a few months a year so her death wouldn't effect them until after Harry was long gone.

To be honest, I'm not sure where this is going yet. Right now I'm just working on 'can it be done' and 'how can I do it' before I come up with any elaborate plot lines. This fic is still in the baby stages, at best.

@Admonkeystrator
I was thinking more along the lines of Lecter becoming a kind of surrogate big brother to Harry, using him to replace Micha (his sister) or something along those lines. Of course, this could end one of two ways: Lecter decides that Harry is better as he is, and seeks another way to bring Micha back (likely continuing his plan with Clarice), or Lecter decides that Harry's place in the world is the best place for his sister to take and uses the same mindfuckery he uses on Clarice in the last book, attempting to shape him into what he thinks his sister would be like. I'm more partial to the first, myself, because Harry isn't a female and I'm sure Lecter would recognize this important difference.

This begins when Lecter is pretty much on vacation, the man has no interest in a drill company, so I doubt he would be one of Vernon's dinner guests, unless he came as a friend of the actual invitee, which in it's self would require a reason for Lecter to bother himself in the matter. That would give Lecter a reason to kill the Dursley's if I went that way, though.

Hannibal has no knowledge of magic, and if I gave him a wand Voldemort would be the least of everyone's worries. I don't think Dumbledore would take him on as a professor to begin with, if only because ordinary people fear Lecter, and Gypsies flee him because they think he is the devil. Dumbledore was paranoid of Tom Riddle when he was a boy and had some potential for good. If Dumbledore actually met Lecter, I think he would pick Harry up and run the other way as fast as he could. You can't really classify Lecter as 'safe around impressionable or inferior minds' any more then you can label Snape 'Tooth Fairy'.

I like your thinking, but those are all animals. Even if the Dursley's WHERE that cruel (which I don't plan to do, super abusive dursleys are just to cliche) I don't think they would bother going beyond killing it, since that would require serious effort. On top of that, it's still an animal. Wouldn't really help Harry on his path to cannibalism.

I do plan for it to follow the story to some point, but just being who he is would change a lot of things. For an example, Lockheart could end up framed for opening the chamber.

I don't know where I'm going with the rest of it, but I don't want Lecter to know about magic before Harry does. This is kinda of a 'what-could-have-happened' thing, if Hannibal had met Harry Potter. That's the best way I know how to put it, anyway.

@SacrosanctSofa:
Not a bad idea, but I don't want to make this entirely AU. That could defiantly work if I was going from the concept of Lecter meeting Riddle during their youth and becoming friends, though.

 

(shrugs) Bellatrix gets impatient, escapes from Azkaban somehow instead of waiting for Lord V' to return and bust her out as per canon so that she could find him.

She finds a young Harry when he's out with the Dursleys by chance somehow, abducts them, tortures them in front of him by basically doing twisted shit. As she's about to turn on a now mentally-shattered Harry, Bellatrix gets stopped in the end by Dumbledore who finally tracks them down, but the damage is already done.

Maybe if there was something/a scene where he had to do something twisted in order to survive that allowed him/coincidentally allowed him to accidently apparate (as he already did it on the primary-school roof in canon), that could be the root for his eventual fixation.

Harry becomes a complete nutter.

He eventually comes to the deluded conclusion that eating other Witches/Wizards' flesh (or hearts?) also gives him their magical cores, and from their brains their knowledge.

His deluded reasoning could be that since he's a powerful wizard, every-time he feasts, he gets stronger (as in reality, his magic is still maturing).

As for Hermione (being smart and all), it maybe possible to have Hermione represent the last of his innocence/sense of normality if he was her friend, like someone trying to grasp onto the broken shards of a vase in order to try and keep it whole.

Another possible character angle is that he comes to use other people/friends as living figureheads of his own shattered psyche, e.g., Hermione as his 'knowledge/sense of right and wrong', Daphne as his sense of cunning, or something.

If he lost those 'figures' via argument/split or death, he'd become more and more unstable as the series/storyline went on.

 

Magic. It tastes delicious.

 

It's magically delicious!

No really, Harry cannibalizing magic is a completely different plot bunny. He'd have to be written out as a complete abomination against Merlin that feeds on other peoples' magic.

 

Maybe you could avoid the whole living at Dursley's thing altogether? Let's say that Pettigrew was the ONLY human who knew the Fidelius secret. Let's also say that there was a house-elf to take care of Harry to fix the problem with Harry living alone when he's just 1 year old. Let's also say that the House-Elf was old as hell and died after a couple of years. What's Harry to do? Eat the damn elf after a week or so.

One could, of course, point out that harry could just leave the house now, but that could be fixed with a really overprotective elf that made Harry promise to never leave the house, or something like that.

This probably has more plot holes than the original plot bunny, but hey, had to throw it out

 

I suppose so.

Could that splinter plot bunny work out if it was combined with a Necromancer!Harry angle?

 

Eating magic and necromancy?

Anita Blake, anyone?

But really though, after going Sociopath-Cannibal-Lecter!Harry, adding in magic eating and necromancy would be faaaaaaar too much.

 

I meant as a seperate story from the Hannibal!Harry plot bunny?

 

As a separate story, it could work. Personally, I tend to stay away from Necro!Harry stories because people try to write him as good and true and unwilling to really use his power.

A dark, psycho Necro!Harry that cannibalizes corpses, however, would be too awesome to exist.

 

Huh, so if it wasn't all 'puppies and rainbows', it could work.

Maybe a Harry that's more of an anti-hero than a normal hero? Perhaps with a, "It's more in my interests to off Voldemort than just offing him to help/save the wizarding world" thing?

 

Necromancer Harry? Zombies and dead things and psychopathic awesomeness everywhere?

That sounds familiar...

*looks at Word document*

Oh. Yeah. WBA will have a necromancer in it in a few days. With lots of dead things and dying things. :awesome

 

*Gasps, looks at own documents*

Necromancer Harry fic battle in the coming months, then?