Dangerverse

A group of stories by Anne Walsh (known to her fans and friends as the PAGE).

A very alternate universe series for Harry Potter. Its initial divergence is the existence of an older Granger sibling, college-aged Gertrude (nicknamed "Danger" thanks to a somewhat wild childhood). Orphaned by the recent death of their parents, she is the unemployed guardian of her toddler sister Hermione at the start of the first story. When a desperation job babysitting brings her into contact with the (very) young Harry Potter her life (and that of Hermione) takes a turn for the stranger... and better.

A cascade of events leads from this to her meeting Remus Lupin and the two falling in love, with unexpected effects on his lycanthropy. Discovery of the Dursleys' already-visible mistreatment of Harry leads them to kidnap the boy and go into hiding together. Then they break Sirius out of Azkaban and facilitate a reunion with his Healer ex-girlfriend Aletha; the two reconcile, eventually marry, and join the household. Harry and Hermione grow up as brother and sister in a magical household, adding Meghan Black (Sirius and Aletha's daughter) and then Draco Malfoy (rescued from the clutches of his father in a complicated gambit) to their number, forming "The Pack".

And that's just before First Year.

Just a note: "Living with Danger" is the author's first real story, and she was sort of learning how to write as she went along. If you find yourself disliking the first few chapters, don't worry--it gets better.


Storylines:

Tropes used in Dangerverse include:

Author's Note from Chapter 21: Our favorite Potions Master will make an appearance in this story, and get his greasy little rear kicked. Which member of the Pack would you like to do the kicking?

  • Call Back: See Crowning Moment of Heartwarming below.
  • Call Forward: Most of the prophecies, naturally.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Draco gets a bit of this with Lucius.
  • Captain Obvious: Referenced a few times; Hermione even calls Ron Captain Obvious once or twice.
  • Care Bear Stare: Harry shows Voldemort how Love Hurts.
  • Cardboard Prison: Azkaban, while ostensibly The Alcatraz, sometimes resembles this. So far there have been three breakouts, and each time more prisoners manage to escape.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: Lucius Malfoy sometimes resembles this, even if his apparent motivations--getting his son back so the family name will continue, and becoming immortal so he can make sure the family name always means something--make a twisted sort of sense.
  • Catch Phrase: Sirius punning on his name.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: Averted. There is still plenty of humor; much like the canon, the tone and story perspective have aged with the characters. However, the dark element--again, like the canon--was there from the beginning.
    • And now, like the last few books, it is definitely taking a turn for the darker, but with touches of the author's signature humor.
  • Character Development
  • Characterization Marches On: Averted in the case of Narcissa Malfoy (as in the canon, does it all for Draco). Played fairly well straight with Lucius Malfoy.
    • Alternate Character Interpretation: Then again, his motivations when it comes to Draco make more sense if you consider that he doesn't love his actual son so much as the concept of his son--in canon Draco is very much a reflection of his father, which Lucius is perfectly fine with. The Dangerverse version of Draco, however, hates his biological father and everything he stands for, and is determined to be his own person.
    • Tonks probably qualifies, though--the author clearly didn't see her relationship to Remus coming. (But then neither did most of the readers.) It was, however, alluded to.
    • Debatable in the case of Dudley Dursley. In this version, he is both a wizard and a Slytherin, and never has the experience with the dementor that triggers his canon turn-around. In canon, he moved beyond being a bully--in the Dangerverse, he's surpassed JUST being a bully, and by the looks of things, he's headed for a bad end.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The author LOVES these, to the point that not unlike the canon fanbase, the series' fanbase has become savvy enough to actively look for them.
  • Chew Toy: Lucius Malfoy and the Dursleys. Lampshaded in Author's Notes.
  • The Chosen One: That much hasn't changed! (Just gotten more complicated.)
  • Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: Eight people in their early teens pairing off romantically without anyone "settling" is a bit unbelievable (but then the same thing kind of happened in canon).
  • Cliff Hanger: Most chapters end like this.
  • Color Coded for Your Convenience: red for Gryffindor, yellow for Hufflepuff, blue for Ravenclaw, green for Slytherin--it's inescapable and usually plot-important.
  • Comm Links: The Zippophone, a lighter with Floo Powder that is recognizable as a Wizarding cell phone... about a decade before cell phones had gotten that practical for Muggles.
    • Possibly justified in that the Pack and the Pride appear to have the only ones in Britain, and they were provided by Aletha's wealthy aunt in America.
  • Competence Zone: Averted; adults in-story are presented as being competent, intelligent, and perfectly aware of what's going on around them. That said, the kids save the day more than a few times. The story tends to center more and more on the kids as they grow up, and need the adults' help less.
  • Continuity Drift: In the Dangerverse's Harry's fourth year, a theatrical representation of Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is shown at Hogwarts. The Tales of Beedle the Bard would tell that theatrical representations are forbidden at Hogwarts.
    • Justified: Who's to say Dumbledore couldn't reverse the edict?
  • Contrived Coincidence: Remus all but trips over Harry in the beginning of the first book, which everything after it stems from. This is, of course, lampshaded, and there were other forces involved.
  • Cool Car: The Weasleys' flying Ford Anglia.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Al Slytherin.
  • Dead Serious: Hagrid's death is a textbook example of this.
  • Derailing Love Interests: Played with. Though this version of Cho is significantly less weepy than her canon counterpart, hearing of Harry's swearing an oath in blood causes their relationship to go very rapidly downhill and contributes to her eventually betraying the DA.
  • Discontinuity Nod: In a version of this trope, the author has ignored Dumbledore's feelings toward Grindlewald (to be fair, they had little relevance to canon anyway, and he comes across as asexual), but does make some nods to Dumbledore's canon man-crush on Grindelwald: in a recent chapter, Dumbledore's reading room is revealed to be a closet.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Magnus Gladius means "big sword" in Latin.
  • Doomy Dooms of Doom: The patented "Minerva McGonagall I-Know-What-You-Did Look of Doom."
  • Doorstopper: The mainverse alone has more words than all seven Harry Potter books (1.4 million words and counting), and (at the time of this edit) it's only at the start of Year Six! Taking the AU fics and side-stories into account, the number is probably closer to 1.6 million...
  • Double In-Law Marriage: Considering how Harry and Hermione were raised, their relationships (with Ginny and Ron, respectively) are likely to end up as this.
  • Downer Ending: Dealing with Danger ends with Voldemort returned, an unidentified spy playing both sides and Harry being sent to the Dursleys. It Gets Better, honest.
  • Dragon with an Agenda: Lucius Malfoy sides with Voldemort believing Voldemort will share the secret of immortality.
  • Dreaming of Things to Come: Danger (and, to a lesser extent, Luna).
  • Dream Land / Talking in Your Dreams: The Pack share dreams in this sculptable world.
  • Dying Moment of Awesome: More than a few.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: More than a few characters make early appearances in the story, usually involving Establishing Character Moments, then reappear later on.
  • Early Installment Weirdness: Certain bits of magic appear early on and are never mentioned again. Arguably part of the story's beard growth.
  • Easing Into the Adventure: Both for the characters and the readers, not unlike the canon.
  • Embarrassing First Name: Gertrude Granger. No wonder she goes by "Danger"...
    • Also the canon examples, such as Nymphadora Tonks who does not take well to being called "Mrs. Weasley" after marrying Charlie...
  • Embarrassing Middle Name: Sirius Valentine Black
  • Embarrassing Nickname: Hermione goes by "Neenie" as a little girl. Needless to say, she likes it less and less as time goes on.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Voldemort, as in canon, plays this one pretty damn straight.
  • Evil-Detecting Baby: Harry as an infant--he latched on to Sirius, but couldn't stand Peter. Subverted in that it's only years later that Remus realizes that Harry understood what no one else did.
  • Evil Gloating: Voldemort is prone to this, as is Lucius Malfoy.
  • Expy: Patroclus and Theodore Nott are pretty much Lucius and Draco Malfoy. (Lucius and Draco have other roles, on opposite sides, as The Dragon and The Big Guy respectively).
  • Eye Scream: Poor Ron...
  • Fake Defector: Percy Weasley to the Ministry of Magic.
  • Fan Verse: Fans have written numerous fics set in the Dangerverse, as well as several AU fics.
  • Fandom Nod: The author manages nods to both the Harry Potter fandom in general (including jabs at numerous fanon cliches such as, for example, Veela!Draco) and the Dangerverse fandom in particular. A chapter in FD even (repeatedly) references the Harry Potter fanfiction podcast Potter Fic Weekly, which featured Living With Danger several months before. (The section in question is essentially a series of inside jokes that are funny in themselves, but a great deal funnier if you listen to the podcast.)
  • Fantastic Science: Most of the classes at Hogwarts.
  • Fiery Redhead: Ginny and Molly Weasley. Lily is also portrayed this way.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: Played with: Harry, Draco, and Hermione bond with Ron over a running snowball fight with the Weasley Twins. Ron even shows the first signs of his future role as a tactician.
  • Five-Man Band:
  • Fix Fic: Arguably, from the Founders' point of view.
  • Flashback Nightmare: Harry and Draco have to deal with these after being rescued from their respective caretakers.
  • Flaw Exploitation: Both by the good guys and the bad guys.
  • Foreshadowing: Blatant and subtle.
    • Best example (also a Brick Joke): after the encounter between Danger and the Founders, Danger curses both Gryffindor and all of his descendants to waking up on Christmas and discovering their best present was opened by someone else. That same Christmas, Draco opens Harry's present with James' Invisibility Cloak, in an oh-so-subtle way to foreshadow that Harry is Gryffindor's descendant.
  • Former Teen Rebel: The Marauders. The cubs are well aware of it, hence the need for what's called the Hypocrisy Agreement, which basically states that the cubs won't be punished for things the Pack-adults do themselves.
  • For Want of a Nail: See In Spite of a Nail above.
  • Friendless Background: Draco (before the Pack rescues him); Ron (before the Pack moves to Devon); Neville (before meeting the Pack at King's Cross). I'm sensing a pattern here.
  • Genki Girl: Meghan. She gets better.
  • Goofy Print Underwear: Draco wears green boxers with little yellow smiley faces on them.
    • At one point the Pack-parents sleep in their underwear to keep their clothes clean for their upcoming trial: Sirius is embarrassed at his choice of Christmas tree boxers... but at least they aren't the ones with little yellow duckies.
  • Good Parents: The Pack-parents (along with the Weasleys and the Lovegoods. And the Longbottoms.) Or at least they do the best they can.
  • Gratuitous Spanish: the basilisk's name is Sangre.
  • Groin Attack: Hermione pulls one of these on Snape in the first book. Though he was trying to kidnap her at the time. She was not quite seven years old.
  • Growing Up Sucks
  • Happily Married: Quite realistically; just because the various couples are quite happy together, it doesn't mean they never fight.
    • Happily Adopted: All of the cubs, save for Meghan (Hermione is at about the halfway point, raised by her sister, but adopted by Remus).
  • Has Two Mommies And Two Daddies; the Pack is essentially two married couples sharing parenthood of four kids, so the cubs basically share two sets of parents.
    • During a trial at the Ministry to determine whether Remus, as a werewolf, can adopt children, this is actually discussed:

"Most people do perfectly well with just one father.” Shybrook smiled as if he’d said something clever.
Hermione raised her eyebrows. “I suppose I’d do perfectly well with just one hand, too,” she said, “but that doesn’t mean I want the other one cut off.”
The spectators laughed again, and even Warlock Longwood chuckled at this.
Shybrook looked down at his hands, frowning, then back up at Hermione. “Yes, but having two hands is a natural condition, Miss Granger-Lupin. People are born with two hands.”
“And as far back as I can remember, I’ve had two fathers and two mothers,” Hermione said. “That’s a natural condition to me. It means I have more role-models, more places to go when I need help, more hands to help me up when I fall. More people to love me. Why do you want to take that away from me?”

"Well, you know what they say." Alex reclined in his chair. "If one man calls you a niffler, ignore him. If another man calls you a niffler, think it over. But if a third man calls you a niffler, dig for treasure." [1]

  • Honesty Is the Best Policy: Luna (of all people) manages this one.
  • Humiliation Conga: Lucius Malfoy. In the first book, he loses his wife, son, home, fortune, influence, and his freedom--his wife pulls a Heel Face Turn and gives Draco to the Pack, knowing they'll raise him better than she could, before turning herself in and telling the Ministry of Lucius' various crimes and atrocities. The Aurors then throw Lucius in Azkaban, where he stays for nine years. Upon his escape, not only does his plan backfire, he is then turned into a werewolf, though this was unintentional.
    • What happens to Umbridge also probably qualifies. However, in the Dangerverse she gets a shot at payback. Before Voldemort offs her, anyway.
    • What happens to the Dursleys definitely qualifies; the author once asked in an A/N if her readers "want the Dursleys to stay part of the story, or should I let them fade miserably into the sunset?" The fans naturally chose the former.
  • I Always Wanted to Say That: A meta-example--the author pulls one of these. Thanks to an podcast interview on Potter Fic Weekly) a lot of people saw it coming; a character named William Robinson, apparently created solely for a scene where he would be introduced to Danger.

Charlie led the way back across the room. “Will, this is Gertrude Granger-Lupin, but she always goes by Danger. Danger, Will Robinson.”

  • Idiot Ball: Not too often, but when it does happen, you will cringe. Draco receives a rather sinister looking globe marked with dozens of runes, described as a "study tool." None of the adults think to check it out at all, despite knowing that there are two dangerous fugitives dedicated to causing Draco harm or capturing him. Third year, Sirius and Aletha not bothering to stun Malfoy or Pettigrew, leading to their escape. Fourth year, Danger being a complete idiot and 1) Not stunning Karkoroff, 2) allowing him to take out his wand by her command, and 3) not reacting fast enough to a spell he cast after all of that. And then Cedric decides to literally run away from Voldemort instead of apparating, despite outright saying that he could a minute ago...leading to his death.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Sometimes played straight, but subverted from time to time.
  • I Know Your True Name: Comes up a couple times, but most notably during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries.
  • In Spite of a Nail: Since the plot of the Harry Potter series must be followed in the main line, if only loosely. It slowly diverges over time, though.
    • A lot of moments from the series are turned around or happen quite differently. For example, Draco still composes "Weasley is Our King"... but as Draco is Ron's friend, it's meant to motivate Ron from the start.
    • Also, Draco still gets turned into a ferret, but he was under the influence of the globe at the time and provoked the Weasley twins into it.
    • The author really wants Cedric to die, no matter how unlikely and nonsensical the events leading up to said death are. See Idiot Ball above.
  • Incredibly Lame Pun: Sirius falls asleep in the sunlight in his Animagus form. Therefore, he is a 'hot dog' and is eligible to be topped with condiments.

“Padfoot,” said Remus’ voice quietly. “You fell asleep in the sun. That made you hot. Therefore, you were a hot dog. And certain inhabitants of this Den took advantage of that.”

“What is it that mine is longer than Draco’s, Ron’s and the twins’ are all exactly the same, and Neville’s is longer than anybody’s?” [2]

    • Harry, Hermione, Draco and Meghan are laughing about their hiding under Hagrid's bed when the Pack came back from America. Ginny asks Harry to share the joke, but he asks her for a sec until he stops laughing. Ginny immediately replies with the sentence "No secs." She immediately realises what she said.
  • Insult Backfire: When, during the trial to determine whether Remus can be her guardian, Hermione says something that prompts the prosecution to ask whether she has lost her manners. Hermione answers that probably she forgot them because the man she regards as her father isn't there at home with her and her siblings.
  • Involuntary Shapeshifting: Part and parcel of Dangerverse's werewolf mythology.
  • Is That What They're Calling It Now?: Played straight. The author enjoys this trope.
  • It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Self-explanatory.
  • Kangaroo Court: Subverted as they get off anyway.
  • Kids Prefer Boxes: Lampshaded:

Nearly an hour and about an acre of shredded wrapping paper later, the children were ignoring all their new toys and playing in the large cardboard box one of them had come in.
“Never fails,” Remus said. “We should stop getting them presents and just get them boxes.”
“Don’t think I haven’t considered it,” Danger said ruefully.

Remus: Well, it all started with a comic book, an action figure, and a stuffed tiger...

"I hate my face."

  • Raised by Wolves: Referenced: Draco surprises Theodore Nott by saying he was actually raised by wolves though technically one was a wolf Animagus and the other a werewolf...:

“—looked a little like a rabbit,” Draco was saying as Harry and Sirius rejoined the main group, who were standing outside Flourish and Blotts. “And he would not leave me alone—he kept asking me questions about what House I wanted to be in, and did I play Quidditch, and on and on, and finally he got offended because I was ignoring him, and he said, ‘Honestly, were you raised by wolves?’ And I said, ‘Yes,’ and by the time he recovered I was already gone.”

...Draco Malfoy and proud of it.
I'm Draco still, and proud of who I am...
Half a smile made it onto his face. Two out of three. Not bad.

  1. ↑ The original version is: "If one person calls you a drunk, laugh it off. If two people call you a drunk, start to wonder. If three people call you a drunk, go home and lie down."
  2. ↑ Their surnames: "Black" has five letters, "Potter" has six, "Weasley" seven and "Longbottom" ten.
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