“In that extremity, I went into the Department of Mysteries and I invoked a password which had never been spoken in the history of the Line of Merlin Unbroken, did a thing forbidden and yet not utterly forbidden.”
So, this is the single change that makes this story an AU?
There seem to be much more changes, even that is probably the most important one.
Time Turners don’t work the same (in canon, there is no hard limit on 6 hours, it just becomes exponentially dangerous if you try that), the Sirius Black/Pettigrew thing doesn’t turn out the same at all, the Free Transfiguration stuff doesn’t seem to work the same, …
And as others mentioned, Voldemort is much more competent.
It seems like the single change (aside from aspects of how magic works) is that Voldemort is more competent, which forces his enemies to level up and go to more extreme measures. Looking at every prophecy is one of those extreme responses, which then triggered a bunch of other changes relative to canon.
As is Tom Riddle. I imagine the point of divergence is in Tom Riddle’s childhood somewhere, which pushed Albus into consulting the maze of the future, which...
As a point of interest, wasn’t it Merlin’s original intent that, at minimum, everyone mentioned in a prophecy should have access to it? It was only centuries later that the Unspeakables sealed the prophecy records away, so why does the Line of Merlin Unbroken have a function for bypassing that seal, how does anyone know this, and why is using it forbidden?
In that extremity, I went into the Department of Mysteries and I invoked a password which had never been spoken in the history of the Line of Merlin Unbroken, did a thing forbidden and yet not utterly forbidden.
It’s possible that the Line reference is misleading, but if so it is an odd piece of phrasing.
So, this is the single change that makes this story an AU?
From chapter 1:
This is not a strict single-point-of-departure fic—There exists a primary point of departure, at some point in the past, but also other alterations. The best term I’ve heard for this fic is “parallel universe.”
Well, that and the differences in the setting/magic (there’s no Free Transfiguration in canon, for instance, and the Mirror is different—there are less Mysterious Ancient Artefacts generally—and Horcruxes run on different mechanics … stuff like that.)
And Voldemort is just inherently smarter than everyone else, too, for no in-story reason I can discern; he just is, it’s part of the conceit. (Although maybe that was Albus’ fault too, somehow?)
So, this is the single change that makes this story an AU?
There seem to be much more changes, even that is probably the most important one.
Time Turners don’t work the same (in canon, there is no hard limit on 6 hours, it just becomes exponentially dangerous if you try that), the Sirius Black/Pettigrew thing doesn’t turn out the same at all, the Free Transfiguration stuff doesn’t seem to work the same, …
And as others mentioned, Voldemort is much more competent.
I was thinking along those lines as well, but at that point in time Voldemort was already significantly different from canon.
It seems like the single change (aside from aspects of how magic works) is that Voldemort is more competent, which forces his enemies to level up and go to more extreme measures. Looking at every prophecy is one of those extreme responses, which then triggered a bunch of other changes relative to canon.
As is Tom Riddle. I imagine the point of divergence is in Tom Riddle’s childhood somewhere, which pushed Albus into consulting the maze of the future, which...
As a point of interest, wasn’t it Merlin’s original intent that, at minimum, everyone mentioned in a prophecy should have access to it? It was only centuries later that the Unspeakables sealed the prophecy records away, so why does the Line of Merlin Unbroken have a function for bypassing that seal, how does anyone know this, and why is using it forbidden?
The Line may not—in ch 86 Dumbledore hints he got in via phoenix travel:
It’s possible that the Line reference is misleading, but if so it is an odd piece of phrasing.
Right at the front of the whole fic he says this isn’t SPoD.
From chapter 1:
Well, that and the differences in the setting/magic (there’s no Free Transfiguration in canon, for instance, and the Mirror is different—there are less Mysterious Ancient Artefacts generally—and Horcruxes run on different mechanics … stuff like that.)
And Voldemort is just inherently smarter than everyone else, too, for no in-story reason I can discern; he just is, it’s part of the conceit. (Although maybe that was Albus’ fault too, somehow?)