Yup… another Harry Potter related post…

So… in the last post I mentioned that I can’t really get into some fanfiction if it changes canon that was already set by the original author. However, there are some “What If” scenarios that have been making the rounds that caught my attention and I decided… well why not add them altogether and see what would have changed?

Let’s start with a fairly recent “what if” that has been gaining momentum recently….

What if Cassius Warrington (Slytherin) was Hogwarts Champion instead of Cedric Diggory (Hufflepuff)
It all started with a tumblr post by crazybutperfectlysane
So I was rereading Harry Potter, when I came across this and thought- what if instead of Cedric Diggory, Cassius Warrington had been chosen to compete in the Triwizard Tournament?

Imagine…

• … Dumbledore calling out the name of the Hogwarts champion and it isn’t a Gryffindor, or a Ravenclaw, or even a Hufflepuff, but it’s a Slytherin. A student from a House most people hate.
• … Cassius Warrington getting up, and three out of four Houses are booing at him and shouting things like “NO!” or, “We can’t have a Slytherin champion!” or demanding a retry. But he’s a Slytherin- he’s been dealing with this shit since he got sorted, so he keeps his head high and joins the other champions.
• … Harry trying to catch Warrington alone because he doesn’t really want to associate with Slytherins (plus Malfoy seems to be around the guy ALL THE TIME now that he’s the Hogwarts champion), but at the same time he’s also fair enough not to want him to walk into the first task unprepared.
• … Warrington walking over to Harry a few months later, and Ron and Hermione both jump into a protective stance, wands out, but instead of attacking Harry he just tells him to stick the egg underwater. (Because Slytherins don’t forget those who helped them out).
• … Warrington and Harry helping each other out in the labyrinth.
• … Harry being devastated when Peter kills Warrington- because Voldemort doesn’t care what house they’re form, a spare is a spare.
• … the uproar that causes among the Slytherins, because some of their parents really are Death Eaters and they know what really happened.
• … Slytherins fighting in the Battle of Hogwarts and shouting “This is for Cassius!”

Now it would be a wonderful thought… except the majority of the above changes Book 4 and then fast forwards to Book 7… so someone took it a step further… that someone would be aplatonicjacuzzi

• … Harry returning with Warrington’s body, and the crowd realizes what’s happened, but Warrington’s parents don’t show up. There’s no one to mourn him, to cradle him in their arms and cry for their son. The Slytherins know why. His parents were Death Eaters, too.
• … Slytherins reaching out, asking for help from classmates from other houses. They’re terrified, truly terrified because the being their parents claimed would never hurt them because they’re pureblood, they realize that he does not care.
• … Slytherins in the 5th book sneaking off to join Dumbledore’s Army, to learn more about who Voldemort is without their parents acting as a filter.
• … the shock when they’re told what he’s really done.
• … that a few talented Slytherins went with Harry and the others into the Ministry of Magic. The others are a bit wary but they prove themselves as friends.
• … them being confronted by Lucius Malfoy in the the Hall of Prophecy, and when the Death Eaters descend, they know that any one of them could be their parents.
• … the shocked gasp of a Death Eater as they realize their own child, a pureblood, is standing defiantly with Harry Potter. They choke back a cry. They can’t let their child know that they were about to duel to the death.
• … a DA Slytherin facing off against their own Death Eater parent. That they make the decision to let their child defeat them, because in that moment, they realize that they love their child more than they fear Voldemort. They go down, mask unveiled, and the Slytherin kid has to be dragged from the fight before he gets killed.
• … Book 6 Slytherins getting more friendly and cooperative with the other houses. Two years of Voldemort terrorizing the muggle and Wizarding world, two years where their parents just up and leave some days, cringing from the pain in their arm, two years after the death of the first Slytherin pureblood, Cassius Warrington, killed by Voldemort’s right-hand man, and they’re slowly hitting the breaking point.
• … Slytherin kids keeping tabs on their parents, sending the information to Harry, who shares it with the Order of the Phoenix, and hoping that their parents won’t be killed.
• … Book 7 Slytherins low-key rebelling against the new oppressive Hogwarts staff.
• … the final seige on Hogwarts, where Slytherins stand proudly by their fellow houses, knowing full-well they could be fighting their own parents. Some Slytherins know their parents were in the fighting. They hope to find them first and sneak them away. Their fellow students understand. Professor McGonagall allows 7th Year Slytherin, Pansy Parkinson, to duel a death eater in her stead; her father is under that veil. She knows it.
• … the aftermath of the battle; every house suffered loses. Slytherin students crying over the deaths of friends they made in every house.
• … a Cassius Warrington statue made in his honor, the first Slytherin to fight and die nobly with Harry Potter, the boy who lived, in the face of ultimate evil. He was a true Slytherin, and its in his name that Slytherin children and their families have cut all ties with the Death Eaters, denounced Voldemort, and are finally living in peace.

And the fan created “What If” scenario just keeps going…

• From stellaathena… an expansion of what may have happened within the ranks of Slytherin House
• From aplatonicjacuzzi as a response to twentysides and their inquiry to what would happen to the Hufflepuffs

What If indeed…

And then there is an often-quoted excerpt from an interview with JK Rowling that the Ron / Hermione matching may not have been the best match for either character. Which brought a lot of fan backlash when excerpted as such, however when you read the entirety of the original interview via Hypable a lot of the interview was speculation of the marriage of Ron / Hermione which to be honest everyone speculates on everyone else’s relationship / marriage / etc it is simply human nature. Perhaps Ron and Hermione would work out in the end and perhaps it would not, at the end of the series Ron and Hermione were only 17 years old… so a lot of personality changes / adjustments could have happened after Hogwarts.

However, as is the case with other fandoms… Potterheads have their own ships that they would back down the road:

• Harry / Hermione
• Draco / Hermione
• Draco / Ginny

Are just a few… and as you may have read in my previous post… I am really enjoying the Draco / Hermione ship, as long as it happens after Hogwarts. After all Draco ended up marrying someone who was more sympathetic towards Muggleborns and a more tolerant view on life in general. And although JK Rowling has said time and again that Draco was not hiding a “heart of gold” in his years at Hogwarts that does not mean he did not change afterwards… which again is probably why I am willing to ship Draco / Hermione AFTER the Hogwarts years.

But since this is a “What if” post then that means the next post would be how would I interpret the fan theory above to include the Hufflepuffs that would ultimately be excluded from the Triwizard Tournament and where would they get their moment in the spotlight…