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Ravenclaw

Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres/The Boy-Who-Lived/General Chaos

Adaptational Intelligence: Harry being far more intelligent than in canon is basically the premise of the story.
Adaptational Jerkass: Compared to his canon counterpart, Harry is significantly more arrogant, cares less about others' feelings, has even less respect for authority and is much more manipulative. To be fair, he really is smarter than a vast majority of people around him and still has good intentions most of the time, but he is, nevertheless, a bit of a brat.
Adaptational Upbringing Change: Instead of being raised by his abusive aunt Petunia and uncle Vernon as in canon, Petunia instead married a scientist and became much nicer. Harry, in turn, grows up a confident person with a rational outlook and is much more intelligent and cunning (and more of a jerk) than his original counterpart.
All Take and No Give: This, to Harry's horror, becomes a nature of his "friendship" with Draco. Over the course of the story Harry manipulates Draco in the name of redeeming him, mooches him off for money, uses him as pawn in his plot to reform the Slytherin House and ends up killing Draco's father in the finale. The problem isn't Harry being selfish, it's just a natural consequence of trying to befriend someone with the purpose of changing them for your liking.
Always Save the Girl: Non-romantic example. While Harry is normally dedicated to making choices that benefit the largest number of people, he will do just about anything to save Hermione, including sacrificing his entire fortune and risking The End of the World as We Know It.
Ancient Tradition: Harry is shocked to find out that the motto of the Potter family is "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death," meaning the entire line has been trying to figure out resurrection/immortality since the Peverell brothers.
Harry: [tearfully] How? Things like that can't just be, be genetic—
Anti Anti Christ: Numerous prophecies spoke of him destroying the world. Now despite his, er, quirky personality, Harry's moral compass is relatively strong... but after Hermione is killed, we get a small taste of what he could become, and it terrifies Voldemort so badly that he uses all his power and resources to divert Harry from his despair.
The Anti-Nihilist: Harry is a very idealistic variant of this trope. He doesn't believe in any inherent meaning to the world and thinks that there is no justice in it... which is why he intends to change the world as to make it just and meaningful.
There is no justice in the laws of nature, no term for fairness in the equations of motion. The Universe is neither evil, nor good, it simply does not care. The stars don't care, or the Sun, or the sky.
But they don't have to! We care! There is light in the world, and it is us!
Awesome by Analysis: Harry has a very strong tendency to explicitly look for flaws to exploit, thinking outside the box, taking the perspective no-one ever tried. His plans are both shameless and ridiculously audacious as a result.
Badass Boast: To Lucius Malfoy.
What kills Dark Lords, terrifies Dementors and owes you sixty thousand galleons?
Badass Bookworm: Doubly so. A wizard AND a scientist.
Badass Fingersnap: Harry likes to display his power by snapping his fingers and having something strange happen at the same moment. The actual fingersnap doesn't actually do anything, but other people do not need to know that.
Big Good: He surely sees himself as such. Harry dreams of creating a world free of death and suffering an honestly thinks he has a chance to fulfill these goals. Dumbledore has his doubts about whether or not Harry's plans are feasible or even moral, but is still willing to help him do some good.
The Chessmaster: Unquestionably, but he's still too inexperienced to take it to the level of Dumbledore and Quirrell, and is often admonished for meddling without realizing the stakes involved. And when Quirrell finally shows his true colors, Harry is thoroughly out-gambitted, leading to the defeat of Dumbledore, Voldemort getting the Philosopher Stone necessary to get a new body, and allowing Voldemort to kill him whenever he wants.
The Chosen One: Just like in canon, Harry is destined to face and — hopefully — defeat Voldemort. Unlike in canon, he is also destined to destroy the world and "tear apart the very stars in heaven". He hopes to twist it into a good thing by aiming to destroy the world but not its people.
Child Prodigy: To the nth degree, although not in the sense of innate magical power as might have been expected - to Harry's own disappointment. He has managed to create two spells that do things the Wizarding world considers flatly impossible, though.
Chronic Hero Syndrome: As he put it, "When I hear a voice raised in desperate prayer it makes me feel guilty for not being god." Worse, absolutely everyone knows this about him. He at least says he's working on it, by which he of course means trying to become God.
Confusion Fu: Harry isn't just gratuitously unpredictable, he is also very efficient about it.
Dark Messiah: How people who do not agree with his philosophy tend to see him.
Deadpan Snarker: Harry is not very patient with what he perceives as stupidity, and will violently mock it, especially if it gets people hurt.
Determinator: Heroic responsibility means you have to get the job done no matter what.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Harry is apparently the only wizard in history to have killed a dementor.
Disabled in the Adaptation: In this fic, Harry has a disorder that results in his sleep cycles being 26 hours long, which has made it impossible for him to keep to a normal daily schedule. It seems to exist as a convenient excuse to give him a Time-Turner. This is, in fact, the in-universe reason; on the guidance of every prophecy ever, Dumbledore had secretly dosed him with potions to lengthen his sleep cycle.
Ditzy Genius: Deconstructed. He's eleven years old, biologically immature, and doesn't have the experience to make the best use of his intelligence socially.
Encyclopaedic Knowledge: His (foster) father is an Oxford professor, his house is full of books, and he is intensely curious and has the intelligence to assimilate the knowledge. Do the math.
Everyone Has Standards: Harry hates death with every fiber of his being. He considers finding a path to immortality to be the prime purpose of his life and even considers the use of horcruxes at more than one point. Even he is horrified upon finding out what extremes Quirrell went in his search for eternal life and comes to view his teacher as insane due to his obsession with avoiding death.
Fatal Flaw: A dangerous combination of arrogance and a Chronic Hero Syndrome. Harry tends to think of himself as the only person capable of solving difficult problems and thus the only one burdened with responsibility. This makes him reluctant to trust anyone else with that responsibility, even when it would be the best thing to do. As Harry himself realizes by the end, the story would have ended much sooner and with less losses had he simply shared all his information with Dumbledore and took everyone's advice not to trust Quirell.
The Fettered: While he is a bit of a brat and has a "mysterious dark side", Harry is an extremely principled person. He will never stand back when something bad is happening and won't cause any more harm than strictly necessary in order to stop it. His goodness gives him a unique power in the form of True Patronus Charm, as well as enables him to defeat Voldemort, who is Harry's superior in every regard save for moral values.
For Happiness: Harry describes himself as preference utilitarian, which means he wants to provide the largest possible amount of people with the objects of their desires. It's not quite the same as maximising happiness, but it's close enough in practise.
For Science!: Actually, for Humanity and/or for Truth, but Harry thinks Science is essential to serve the first and find the second.
Four-Star Badass: He leads the Chaos Army as a 'general'. He is also one of its strongest combatants, if not the very strongest.
Freudian Excuse: Harry has a suspicious lack of one, bewildering McGonagall, as some of his behavior would imply an abusive childhood. It eventually turns out that Harry did have an abusive childhood — Tom Riddle's childhood, to be exact. He just doesn't remember it.
Genre Savvy: When McGonagall tells Harry what really happened to his parents (Harry had been raised by his aunt and uncle with no explanation), Harry starts asking her which plot hooks might be left dangling, frequently making analogies to The Lord of the Rings.
Godhood Seeker: Harry very much wants to become God, as he has a rather negative opinion on how the universe is set up and would very much like to make revisions to the order of everything, and even thinks he found a way to achieve that goal at multiple points during the story. At one point, he jokingly states that people who believe him to be "God" are underestimating him.
Gone Horribly Right: Unlike in canon, Voldemort turned Harry into a horcrux intentionally, intending to pass on some of his power and intelligence in an effort to overwrite Harry's mind with his own and so make Harry a mini-me. This results in a Harry that ends up defeating Voldemort (and 37 Death Eaters) and finding a way around the whole horcrux thing in his first year.
Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: While the story mostly espouses the opposite trope, Harry has some trouble understanding evil people and tendencies. Professor Quirrell's cynicism in particular is too 'alien' for him to properly comprehend. The main thing he can't understand is indifference; for instance, that there are people who achieve great wealth and influence but then make no effort to use it to take over and impose their will is utterly bewildering to him.
Good Counterpart: He is a one to Voldemort, even more so than in canon. His 'mysterious dark side' is in fact an intentional imprint of Tom Riddle's intelligence and personality, placed there by Voldemort out of boredom of all things. It is countered by the love of his family and rational education, hence why it only really comes out at times of great stress, but essentially Harry and Voldemort are the same person; lampshaded by Dumbledore on more than one occasion.
Grin of Audacity: He's usually represented with these in fanart. You can feel it in the text too, but they get much rarer after The Azkaban Incident: Harry goes grim.
Guile Hero/Manipulative Bastard: He has the goals of a guile hero and the tactics of a magnificent bastard.
Guilt Complex: Harry routinely blames himself for bad things happening, even when his role in a given tragedy was minor or nonexistent. He reasons that, as the smartest "good" person around, everything is his responsibility by default.
Of course it's my fault. There's no one else here who could be responsible for anything.
Happily Adopted: Unlike canon, Petunia Evans-Verres and her husband Michael Verres-Evans raised Harry in a nurturing, loving environment and they love each other dearly.
The Hero: At least, that is how Dumbledore thinks of him.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: Whenever something bad happens, Harry feels responsible for not having prevented it, no matter how unfair to him it is or how many people tell him otherwise. He downright calls himself an idiot multiple times in the last twenty chapters, though by then he has a good reason to.
Horrible Judge of Character: Subverted, Deconstructed and ultimately played straight in his friendship with Quirrell.
Hypocrite: Harry explaining what cognitive biases others are falling for after demonstrating them gloriously and at great length himself is practically a Running Gag. For example he rather patronizingly explains to Neville that only Neville himself blames Neville for Hermione's death and he isn't responsible, after spending the preceding chapters blowing off all such reassurances from basically everyone in his life.
Immortality Seeker: Harry seeks immortality not just for himself, but for humanity as a whole.
Improbable Age: Let's just get it out there: there is no plausible way an eleven year old child, even a genius level one with training from an esteemed physics professor, would be able to successfully quote and defend as many high level scientific principles as Harry does throughout the story in his quest to reconcile the principles of magic with the natural laws of the universe. It turns out there's actually a very good reason why he is so mentally advanced for his age.
Innocence Lost: Harry becomes much more cynical after the Azkaban episode.
And Harry just looked at the Defense Professor with cool eyes that would never flinch from anything; not even death, now. He was no longer in Azkaban, no longer fearful of the part of himself that was fearless; and the solid gemstone that was Harry had rotated to meet the stress, turning smoothly from one facet to another, from light to darkness, warm to cold.
Innocently Insensitive: Harry acts this way every so often, notably towards Snape's past. He learns his lesson.
Insufferable Genius: "I'm smarter and I know it. [wiggles]".
Intelligence Equals Isolation: Amongst muggle children, anyway. He's too involved with events in the wizarding world for it to manifest at Hogwarts, and it never actually bothered him anyway. Hilariously invoked by himself to get rid of Ron.
"See? You have to be this smart to talk to me."
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Harry can be smug, arrogant and downright obnoxious at times, but in the end, he is still one of the most moral and good-hearted people out there.
Jerkass Realization:
- After his talk with the Sorting Hat - which is really just a projection of his own subconscious thoughts - Harry realises that he was needlessly cruel to Neville and his benevolent reasons for it were really just justifications. Later on Harry apologises to Neville and swears to improve.
- A far more massive one comes near the end of the story, regarding Harry's treatment of Draco. Harry sees their "friendship" for what it really was - a long series of manipulations resulting in Draco losing one thing after another for Harry's benefit. In their final conversation in the story, Harry swears to become a real friend this time or leave Draco alone permanently, depending on Draco's choice.
Knight in Sour Armor: He realizes that the wizarding world is full of some really nasty people, but he still wants to do good and change it for the better. This is implied to be one of the ways that Dumbledore believes Voldemort to be his dark mirror; both Voldemort and Harry believe there aren't inherent moral principles, but Voldemort is a nihilist who acts For the Evulz, whereas Harry is this trope.
Large Ham: At age eleven, he talks like a book. And that's when he's being low key. When he tries to be a ham, it's spectacular.
Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb: Dumbledore intentionally shaped Harry as the one to defeat Voldemort. And, once that's done, destroy the entire world.
Locked Out of the Loop: The adults Harry is allied with are generally reluctant to share much information with him. Harry does his best to defy this by asking a lot of questions and trying to find the answers himself, but he is not entirely successful.
Mad Scientist: "I CAN DO MAGIC! FEAR ME, LAWS OF PHYSICS, I'M COMING TO VIOLATE YOU!"
Master of the Mixed Message: Best exemplified in this ramble to Hermione:
"I really didn't mean most of that the way it sounded! I'm sure that anyone taking the outside view of the whole situation and offering betting odds on who I finally married would assign a higher probability to you than anyone else I can think of -
-though not necessarily a probability higher than fifty percent, I mean, from the outside view there's a lot of other possibilities, and who I like before I hit puberty probably isn't all that strongly diagnostic of who I'll be with seven years later - I don't want to sound like I'm promising anything -
-and besides I've been reading about evolutionary psychology, and, well, there are all these suggestions that one man and one woman living together happily ever afterward may be more the exception rather than the rule, and in hunter-gatherer tribes it was more often just staying together for two or three years to raise a child during its most vulnerable stages - and, I mean, considering how many people end up horribly unhappy in traditional marriages, it seems like it might be the sort of thing that needs some clever reworking - especially if we actually do solve immortality -"
Magnificent Bastard: In-universe. In chapter 4, Griphook is noted to be "favoring Harry with a gaze of frank respect, possibly even outright admiration" as Harry persuades McGonagall to let him withdraw more and more money.
Memetic Badass: In-universe.
And from that day onward, no matter what Hermione tried to tell anyone, it would be an accepted legend of Hogwarts that Harry Potter could make absolutely anything happen by snapping his fingers.
Pop-Cultured Badass: Nerd-Cultured Badass, in this case. Harry has read numerous fantasy and science-fiction stories and often hinges on them for wisdom and inspiration.
Older Than They Look: Harry is really over sixty years old, due to being the same person as Tom Riddle.
One-Man Industrial Revolution: One of his many ambitions is to accomplish this by bringing tech to wizards and magic to muggles.
Overly Long Name: The natural consequence of taking on all possible applicable surnames. Possible an exaggerated way of demonstrating how modern and rational he and his family are (cf. The Maiden Name Debate).
Patrick Stewart Speech: Harry uses them, most notably, as a prelude to invoke his patronus. He's good at those.
The Power of Love: The power of "caring" to be specific. Harry's desire to protect people he cares about is his most powerful drive, as manifested by his unusually powerful patronus. It ultimately turns out to be "the power Dark Lord knows not" the prophecy was speaking of.
Rage Against the Mentor: Harry gets angry at both Dumbledore and Quirrell multiple times due to disagreeing with their morals and methods they are willing to utilize.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: After Hermione's death Harry chews Professor McGonagall out for not doing more to prevent this tragedy, for treating her students like little children in need of discipline and for caring more about playing a role of stern disciplinarian than about actually getting results. Dumbledore notes those accusations to be rather unfair, but McGonagall still takes them to heart.
Save the Villain: He does that to Lord Voldemort of all people, for various reasons. Mostly because this Voldemort was way smarter with his horcruxes than he was in canon; but there's also Harry's belief that nobody should die unnecessarily and, of course, his pragmatic desire for knowledge that only Voldemort has.
Science Hero: Harry happily and proudly utilizes technology as well as science itself to achieve his goals.
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Similarly to canon, Harry has little respect to rules and laws of Hogwarts, or even Wizarding Britain as a whole. He even considers launching a rebellion against the magical government, if that proves necessary to destroy Azkaban.
Secular Hero: He makes it painfully clear that he doesn't believe in any sort of higher power, nor any kind of afterlife.
Sore Loser: Harry takes losing extremely seriously, even in trivial matters such as his book reading contest against Hermione. Perhaps more importantly, he is unable to accept anyone's dominance over him, even when fighting against it is clearly not worth the trouble. Quirrell helps him get over this flaw, at least to an extent.
Spoiled Brat: More like home-schooled, but yeah, his parents were very doting.
Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: Harry is working on this, but magic in the Potterverse acts according to narrativium and Rule of Funny, which makes no logical sense. He won't let that get him down, though.
Take Over the World: Harry's main goal is to take over the universe in order to fix its underlying flaws.
World domination is such an ugly phrase. I prefer to call it world optimisation.
Thou Shall Not Kill: Downplayed. Harry doesn't exclude the possibility of killing somebody per se, but he believes that innocents deserve a "Deontological protection" and even the worst of people should live rather than die, everything else being equal.
Tomato in the Mirror: The Reveal at the end of Chapter 104.
"Hello, Tom Riddle."
Too Clever by Half: A quintessential example. Harry is extremely clever and capable, even by adult standards, but it's not enough to counter his lack of experience and refusal to defer to those more powerful than him. It loses him most of his considerable fortune and lets Voldemort, a much more competent plotter, trap him.
The Unfettered: Subverted. While Quirrell fears Harry might become this after witnessing Hermione die and resolving to bring her back, Harry has his principles and won't betray them even if the goal might seem worth it.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Defied. Dumbledore, Quirrell and Harry himself all work hard to ensure that Harry does not become this, in spite of the prophecies about him ending the world.
Weak, but Skilled: Being just an elevel-year-old wizard, he lacks the sheer magical power most adults or even older students possess. Still, his creativity and dedication to learning allow him to learn some advanced forms of magic remarkably quickly, and even make some discoveries himself.
Wide-Eyed Idealist: Harry believes that with enough time, magic and scientific knowledge he can solve all the world's problems, including ending wizard-muggle segregation and pernamently getting rid of death, without resorting to vastly immoral means at that. This attitude wavers occasionally, but Harry always finds the motivation to go on.
Wrong Genre Savvy: Harry's references to The Lord of the Rings often neglect to criticize the actual logic behind what seems like obvious plot points in his own Hero's Journey. He is also mortified to discover that his "Mysterious Dark Side" does not have any awesome magical powers.
Young Conqueror: Quirrell is trying to groom him into the darker sort. Harry, himself, hasn't decided if this is going to be necessary, and he'd rather revolutionize by example to avoid casualties.

Hermione Jean Granger

Action Girl: She invokes this when she starts her society for female heroes, but even before that it's played straight as she takes action whenever someone she cares about is in trouble.
Always Second Best: A variation. Hermione is actually better than Harry in terms of academics, but Harry always manages to outshine her simply by being perceived as a hero. She takes steps to change that.
Back from the Dead: She dies and is brought back to life.
Badass Bookworm: More of a classic example than Guile Hero Harry.
Hermione Granger's bed was easy to identify; it was the one that had been attacked by a book monster.
Beware the Nice Ones: Under her conditioning to be a "good girl" and her nice bookworm reputation, she's quite devious, has an envious streak, can be plenty mean when she's upset.
Draco was beginning to realize, when he and Harry and Professor Quirrell had dismissed Miss Granger as having as much intent to kill as a bowl of wet grapes, they'd never seen her angry.
Black-and-White Insanity: PlayedWith. Hermione has a very strict moral compass and views all people as either Good of Evil, without much space in-between. This attitude contrasts with those held by people like Harry or Quirrell and gets called into questions several times during the story. Ultimately though, Hermione's black-and-white worldview proves to be accurate, at least with Quirrel. Less so with Draco.
- She points out that while appearances can be deceiving, they're usually not.
Came Back Strong: During her resurrection she is given the latent magical traits of a troll and a unicorn.
Child Prodigy: A more traditional sort than Harry, being exceptionally studious and driven to memorizing all her textbooks. Her determination towards academic excellence keeps her ahead of Harry in schoolwork and pleasing teachers, but has more difficulty with practical situations, especially at first.
Damsel in Distress: Though usually very capable, she finds herself unable to act when held on trial by the Wizengamot.
Family-Unfriendly Death: Her lower half was eaten by a troll.
The Fettered: Even moreso than Harry. Hermione won't kill, hurt or manipulate anyone - outside of Quirrell's battles that is - and nothing can really change that. Exploited by Voldemort, who resurrects Hermione after her demise, so that she can keep Harry from destroying the world with her moral guidance.
Friendly Rival: She and Harry have a bit of competition going on about who can earn more house points and do better in class (hint: she tends to win), and this escalates even more when they're both generals of their student armies.
Friendly Target: It is implied that twice, the villain goes after her to strike at Harry.
Genre Savvy: Hermione does frame events around her as if she were in a story, but she's more often seen trying to convince Harry that he isn't in a story, and that he should stop trying to be.
The Hero: In order to avoid becoming a side-character in Harry's story, Hermione aspires to become a heroine herself. She succeeds.
Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Lord Voldemort himself failed to convince Hermione to join a plot against Harry, and not for a lack of trying. And after reviving she radiates an aura of innocence and purity.
The Leader: She listens to the members of her army and of the club she starts, and takes what they say into account when making decisions.
Meta Guy: She's all too aware of how so many events around the school seemingly revolve around Harry, and takes efforts to not become merely a character in Harry's story.
Morality Chain: One of several for Harry.
Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: By the end of the fic she's part troll and part unicorn, in addition to being brought back from the dead.
The Not-Love Interest: Harry and Hermione ultimately decide that they are not in love, just close friends.
Overshadowed by Awesome: She quickly gets frustrated and worried that her accomplishments aren't recognized as those of Hermione Granger but as those of Harry Potter's friend. Later in the year, she worries that she and Harry are growing apart, as she's still thinking about schoolwork and house points and he's got a war on his mind... so she decides to push herself harder to become an actual hero.
Photographic Memory: She wishes she had this. At least she can remember exactly anything she reads five times
Sacrificial Lion: Just to show how evil the enemy is, he has a troll eat the legs of a twelve-year-old girl so she can bleed out through the stumps.
Sore Loser: She takes losing against Harry pretty hard.
Wrong Genre Savvy: Early on, she intentionally tries to frame her relationship with Harry in romantic novel terms, because then it's perfectly natural for them to be bickering with each other and it doesn't mean she's at all evil or mean-spirited, right?

Antony Goldstein

Jewish and Nerdy: Like the author.

Padma Patil

Action Girl: One that doesn't sit around and look pretty.
Dark Action Girl: She's played up as Malfoy's most important lieutenant, and later joins S.P.H.E.W.
Bastard Understudy: Possible Guile Hero understudy to Harry.
The Dragon: By the end of the first term she replaces Crabbe and Goyle as this for Draco Malfoy, at least within Dragon Army.
Ship Tease: With Draco.
Sibling Yin-Yang: Invoked. She hates being too similar to her twin.
Twin Switch: She gets "assassinated" by her twin who then masquerades as her during the very complicated pre-Christmas battle.

Slytherin

Draco Malfoy

Adaptational Intelligence: The canon version of Draco Malfoy is little more than a rich brat and a bully. Here, Draco's intellect nearly matches Harry's and his charisma and cunning fall only a little short of a Manipulative Bastard.
Affably Evil: While Draco is a blood supremacist with only a vague notion of morality, he is still perfectly polite most of the time and always treats his friends fairly. Harry doesn't see any contradiction there, since being utterly uncaring for one's enemies and strangers is a default state of being for a person who wasn't raised under modern values.
The Corrupter: Draco hopes to endear Harry to the ideals of blood supremacy and convince him to ally with the Malfoys over Dumbledore. Despite his best attempts, however, he fails to change Harry's attitude in the slightest and actually gets corrupted himself in a manner of speaking.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite his unquestionably evil beliefs, he has no trouble forming friendships and genuinely loves his parents at the very least.
Evil Chancellor: His family's dynasty basically revolves around being this.
Fantastic Racism: Accordingly with the tenets of blood purity, Draco despises muggleborns. At least initially.
A Father to His Men: Strange as it may seem, Dragon army is able to trust and rely on their commander. When Crabbe and Goyle find their friendship with Draco getting into the way of following their orders from their parents, Draco tells them he won't get angry, no matter what they do.
Four-Star Badass: The general of Dragon Army and likely its strongest member.
Friendly Rival: He is a friendly rival to Harry until he gets pulled out of school.
Genre Savvy: Draco likes to compare his own behaviour to the heroes in the opera/play performances that his father takes him to see.
Good Feels Good: Played with, since he was raised on Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad. Even if he starts to reform, "good" acts feel terrible because he was raised to be cunning and to be feared.
Graceful Loser: Unlike Hermione, he doesn't mind being Harry's inferior and doesn't see losing to him as a particularly big deal. He knows that his family maintained their power and influence during the centuries by always being the second most powerful. Those at the very top getting occasionally defeated and the power vacuum filled by the next Hero or Dark Lord, but by careful politics they always managed to stay the second most powerful.
Greek Chorus: During Self-Actualization, since he's not an active participant in the events of the story he spends most of it correctly guessing how the events around S.P.H.E.W. will end up, when he's not reflecting on how he's the only sane person at Hogwarts.
Heel–Face Turn: When Draco learns that wizards are not losing their powers because of interbreeding with muggles, he starts to come around to Harry's view even after having a Rage Against the Mentor moment followed by a Heroic BSoD.
Internal Reformist: Harry sets him up to be this over time.
I Reject Your Reality: Even after he has a proof that muggleborns are not any weaker than other wizards, Draco clings on to blood supremacy as his ideology. Harry tries to trick him into believing that fully rejecting truth is impossible, but Draco eventually manages to seemingly return to his old set of beliefs.
Manipulative Bastard: Downplayed. Draco is quite skilled at manipulating people - and is certainly a bastard - but his techniques are only mildly effective when used on people like Harry or Quirrell, both of whom treat his as a pawn more often than not. Still, some of his exploits are very impressive for an eleven-year-old.
Missing Mom: Narcissa is dead in this continuity. According to Draco, Dumbledore burned her to death. It later turns out that Dumbledore faked her death and that she was actually Obliviated and hidden in Australia, in an interesting parallel with what Hermione did with her parents in canon.
Only Sane Man: He often serves as a foil to the Slytherins' prejudice or to Harry's crazy awesome-ness.
Out of Focus: He spends most of the story as part of the Power Trio and quite a bit of it is from his viewpoint, but once the final arc kicks in he gets only some barely explained off-page actions and plays no part in the finale.
Overlord Jr.: Lucius has gone a long way to indoctrinate him on the value of blood purity and the notion that someone of his status can and should get away with anything.
Plausible Deniability: Inverted. No matter what he's doing, it must be a plot, even if he's genuinely helping. Interestingly, this in return gives him Plausible Deniability towards Slytherins, as they continue to assume he's plotting, and not simply helping people from the good of his heart.
Rage Against the Mentor: He gets seriously angry at Harry multiple times, most notably when he thinks he pernamently lost his belief in blood supremacy.
The Starscream: He is this to Harry, at least in his own mind.

Theodore Nott

Odd Friendship: With Neville, after being under Harry's leadership.

Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle

Hidden Depths: Both of them are far more intelligent and sophisticated than they appear at first glance. They just enjoy playing the Dumb Muscle role because it's more appropriate for the position of being Draco's lackeys, but they also know when they need to. After all, it wasn't just nepotism that got them into Hogwarts.
Crabbe: (politely) Excuse me. At your convenience, Mr. Malfoy requests the favor of a conversation.
Harry: Excuse me, don't you mean "Da boss wants ta talk wid youse"?
Crabbe: Mr. Malfoy instructed me to speak properly.
Harry: I can't hear you. You're not speaking properly.
Crabbe: (suddenly threatening) Da boss wants ta talk wid youse. Ya'd better come see him if ya know what's good for ya.
Kung-Fu Wizard: Goyle is trained in martial arts, most for thuggery purposes.
Those Two Guys: They are an inseparable duo who's been preparing to be Draco's minions for years.

Daphne Greengrass

Belligerent Sexual Tension: She attempts to invoke this by dueling Neville, but it doesn't really take.
Close-Range Combatant: Near the latter half of the story she begins to use a flashy Laser Blade in combat. She even manages to deflect a spell by slashing with it.
Light Is Good: In Slytherin, a Hogwarts dormitory known for treachery and evil, no less!
Only Sane Man: At least, she thinks of herself that way, though only up to a point.
"Well," Daphne whispered, keeping her voice as low as she could, "at least now I don't feel like the only sane person in Hogwarts any more."
"Because now you've got the rest of us as friends?" whispered Lavender Brown, who was tiptoeing along at her left side.
"I don't think that's what she means," General Granger murmured from Lavender's own left.
Phrase Catcher: When dueling Neville, she calls herself "Greengrass of Sunshine." This quickly becomes a popular joke among her classmates.
Wrong Genre Savvy: Like most of the girls, she views events like a romance plot, and tries to invoke her own romance with Neville during one of the battles.

Blaise Zabini

Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: He enjoys betraying people and is quite good at doing so.
Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: Quintuple, even. In a battle between only three armies.
Evil Chancellor: He technically fills this role as General Sunshine's foremost lieutenant.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: He is memory-charmed to remove the knowledge that he is a quintuple agent, bringing him down to quadruple.
Wild Card: Notable because he manages to pull this off among three armies of Wild Cards. It brings him immense pride.

Tracey Davis

Cloudcuckoolander: "The girl went on stalking through the corridor, like she had dramatic music accompanying her that only she could hear." This may or may not be connected to her previous association in the Chaos Legion.
Ignored Enamored Underling: Being used as a "conduit" for Harry gets her thinking that they're in love.
Jumped at the Call: She is overly enthusiastic about Hermione's call to heroism.
Teen Pregnancy: Her parents had her at 17.
True Companions: One of the reasons why Harry promised her his protection.

Lesath Lestrange

Pose of Supplication: Lesath kowtows before Harry twice; Once to ask him to break his parents out of Azkaban and then to thank Harry for (partially) granting that favor.
Right for the Wrong Reasons: After the Azkaban incident, Lesath concludes that Harry broke Bellatrix out of prison to fulfill the request he was given. While Harry did play a major role in the breakout, his reasons were completely unrelated to Lesath.
Ungrateful Bastard: He openly calls himself such, not proudly, though.

Hufflepuff

Neville Longbottom

Beware the Nice Ones: Thanks to the support he gets from being in Hufflepuff and Harry actively helping him along, he gets his upgrade to full hero status years earlier than in the books. Plus, due to training on his own time and flowering somewhat from the experience he's one of the most powerful individual fighters in the armies, and apparently something of a crowd favorite.
Calling Your Attacks: Justified, as his attacks require his allies to buff him.
Close-Range Combatant: He becomes skilled in using the Noble Ancient Blade spell to get into sword fights.
The Dragon: He's Harry's chief subordinate in the Chaos Legion.
Heroic BSoD: He has one when Hermione dies.
Kung-Fu Wizard: Part of his advanced training to fight Bellatrix involves using kicks when magic isn't an option.
Large Ham: Just like most Chaos Legnionarees, Neville tends to be very loud and expressive during combat.
Magic Knight: Almost literally at one point, when he dons Sleeping Hex-resistant armor and wields a Most Ancient blade.
Put on a Bus: After Hermione's death he is pulled out of Hogwarts and doesn't make an appearance for the rest of the story.
Screaming Warrior: Neville screams the war cries Harry taught the Chaos Legion to psych himself up in army battles.
To Be Lawful or Good: He finds himself being forced to choose in Chapter 88. He chooses to be lawful and tries to keep Harry in the Great Hall where it's safe, and blames himself for Harry not arriving in time to save Hermione.
True Companions: Even after Hermione dies and he blames himself he says:
"I want to stay here and fight with you against - against whatever's happening."
Ungrateful Bastard: Discussed. After Harry saves him from bullies, Neville does not thank his rescuer and instead chews Harry for his earlier behavior. Later on, Neville regrets his lack of gratitude, but Harry insists that Neville's accusations were correct and that he has nothing to feel sorry about.

Susan Bones

Blue Blood: The House of Bones is noble.
Doom Magnet: This is what Susan believes S.P.H.E.W. to be.
Masquerade: She's suspected by the rest of S.P.H.E.W. to be a "double witch", which is the magical world's version of someone who attends a super secret magic school.
Only Sane Man: She's probably the only one out of S.P.H.E.W., because she actually takes steps to prevent DOOM.

Gryffindor

Ronald Weasley

Adaptational Jerkass: Unlike his canon persona, Ron is extremely judgmental, impolite and flat-out obnoxious for the most part, not to mention he advocates murder when the victim is somebody he doesn't like.
Butt-Monkey: Harry refuses to take him seriously.
Demoted to Extra: He is one of the captains of Hermione's army and has a battle with Neville but is ultimately a minor character in this story.
Pet the Dog: He is one of the few people who actively helps Harry save Hermione.
Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: When Hermione is framed for the attempted murder of Draco, Ron sends his condolences and approval, but not because he thinks Hermione is innocent.

Fred and George Weasley

Bash Brothers: They use their pseudo-hive mind to double-team enemies in battle, putting up a respectable fight against a troll.
Beware the Silly Ones: Although essentially figures of comedy not connected with the main plot, they manage to pull off epic-scale pranks and are revealed as the heirs to Godric Griffindor when they pull his sword out of the Sorting Hat and double-team a magically enhanced troll.
The Chosen One: They are the heirs of Gryffindor.
Hive Mind: Wizard twins apparently form one, hence why in the past, one of the pair was normally killed at birth. They can't actually transmit information, but they tend to think the same things given the same situation so the effect is similar. When they actually disagree, they become extremely uncomfortable until they can come into agreement again.
Manipulative Bastard: They manage to royally screw over Rita Skeeter by forging a betrothal contract between Harry and Ginny, manufacturing a lot of evidence that should have been impossible to forge, and do it all in a time frame of less than twelve hours and on a budget of forty galleons^noteAbout £2000 in this continuity.
Noodle Incident: ... And then Obliviated themselves so that if they got caught, they wouldn't be able to divulge the details. It's implied that this is a fairly common procedure for the twins whenever they achieve some kind of grand-scale prank.
Overshadowed by Awesome: After Snape's apology speech...
At the Gryffindor table, where a cake waited with fifty-one unlit candles, Fred whispered, "I think we may be out of our league here, George."^note

Teachers

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

Adaptational Villainy: Played With. In addiction to being just as, if not more manipulative than in canon, Dumbledore has commited some morally questionable deeds such as brutally killing Narcissa Malfoy and effectively sending Potters to their deaths, but he claims to have done all that in the name of greater good. This trope gets ultimately subverted, as not only has Dumbledore never really killed an innocent person, said 'greater good" was saving the entire world from Harry.
Adults Are Useless: While he's very competent otherwise, he not only tolerates, but actively allows for rampant bullying in the halls of Hogwarts, believing these minor injustices are worth preventing escalating conflicts.
Big Good: The true example of this trope in the story, as opposed to Harry or David Monroe.
Because Destiny Says So: Many of his more bizarre actions are based on what he's learned from listening to prophecies. He doesn't understand why he has to do them, but he knows terrible things are going to happen if they don't.
Dumbledore: [in a letter] When you were six years old I crushed a rock on your windowsill, and to this day I cannot imagine why.
Cassandra Truth: He straight-up tells Harry that he's been behind everything bad that has ever happened to him in their first meeting; the absurdity of the conversation and the Chicken Incident prevent Harry from taking this seriously.
Cloudcuckoolander: No one knows whether he really is this or it's just a front.
Create Your Own Villain: Quirrell accuses Dumbledore of this, stating that he is responsible for Voldemort choosing the path of evil by chastising and hindering his search for immortality. Dumbledore denies any sort of responsibility on his part, rightfully or not.
The Chessmaster: Dumbledore is very adept at manipulating the events around him and uses just about everyone as his pawns, unwitting or nor. Yes, even Quirrell. He uses chess metaphors occasionally as well.
Genre Savvy: He likes to frame himself as the wizard Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings, and conversations between him and students are often framed in "young heroes" and "mysterious old wizard" terms.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: Dumbldeore doesn't have a particularly high opinion of himself and constantly questions his decisions and moral values. He even fears that he will perform a Face–Heel Turn eventually, even though none of his acquaintances buy into the idea.
Hypocrite: Dumbledore believes that immortality is inherently immoral, yet he doesn't see anything wrong with Nicolas Flamel or his wife having immortality. He tries to rationalize this by claiming that the Flamels are delaying their deaths for the sake of others and they aren't really immortal, they just opted to live very long.
I Did What I Had to Do: Dumbledore has sacrificed his morals for the sake of avoiding greater tragedy.
- He refused to ransom his brother during the previous war to show Voldemort that kidnapping the enemy's families wouldn't gain him anything, thus preventing future ransom kidnappings among Order members' loved ones.
- According to Harry's inductions in chapter 46, after Dumbledore learned of Trelawney's prophecy, he had Snape push Voldemort into seeking out the Potters and killing them, in the hope that Voldemort's death would end the war. Harry notes that this trope was probably in play, but he's still pretty bothered that Dumbledore is seemingly directly responsible for his parents' deaths. Dumbledore admits it to have been the case in a much later chapter.
Obfuscating Insanity: Maybe. He does set a chicken on fire to make Harry think he gets to see Fawkes's rebirth. Harry doesn't quite buy it.
- His plotting works like this, too. He has a dozen or so plans going at any one time, all of which seem insane and only eight or nine have any actual deeper goal. The fact many of his seemingly random actions are to fulfill prophesies and even he doesn't see how they're supposed to help muddles this a bit.
Reasonable Authority Figure: He's understanding of students' undisciplined behavior, to a degree.
“I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Alas, we all know that what should be, and what is, are two different things. Thank you for keeping this in mind.”
Sealed Good in a Can: His plan to trap Voldemort outside Time using the mirror of Erised backfires on him, and he ends up trapping himself.
Stupid Sacrifice: Voldemort believes that Dumbledore's decision to trap himself in the mirror of Erised in Harry's place was a show of stupidity on his part. Whether or not he is right remains ambiguous.
Reverse Psychology: A favorite trick of his, most dramatically in the S.P.H.E.W. arc. He also successfully pulls reverse-reverse psychology on Harry by being overly blatant about this trope.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: He appears to be clinically depressed, and it comes up most when talking about his war-torn past.
Thou Shalt Not Kill: He used to believe this.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: He has made his peace with death, and thinks everyone should do the same.
World's Best Warrior: Commonly thought to be the world's greatest wizard, which includes tremendous combat abilities. Even Voldemort doesn't think he can defeat Dumbledore in straight-up combat.
Wrong Genre Savvy: Dumbledore has an immense knowledge of narrative tropes and uses it to his advantage. If the story was closer to the original Harry Potter, he would probably do quite well. Sadly, the sheer amount of deconstructions makes that knowledge much less useful. A big part of it is that he puts too much emphasis on The Main Characters Do Everything; an example is that he just assumes that Harry and Quirrel are backing SPHEW and never even suspects Tonks or Snape.

Minerva McGonagall

Animorphism: As in canon, she can turn into a cat.
Becoming the Mask: She's been playing the "stern disciplinarian" role to deal with the chaos in Gryffindor for so long that she defaults to it in a crisis instead of actually thinking. The realization that not only Harry and Quirrel but Dumbledore don't think of her as enough of an independent actor to even blame her for her mistakes thanks to this almost breaks her.
Fatal Flaw: As mentioned above, McGonagall has a tendency to assume the 'role' of a stern disciplinarian whether or not it makes sense in a given situation. After Harry points that out to her, she takes steps to overcome this attitude.
My God, What Have I Done?: She has this reaction when she realizes that Fred and George, being called to the front of an assembly to be recognized for their heroism, fully expect to be expelled for going against the letter of her orders to the students to stay put.
Reasonable Authority Figure: A sane, sensible teacher, and the reason Harry respects her so much. She starts with an unfortunate tendency to play the role a little too seriously, but gets better as the story progresses.
Resignations Not Accepted: She attempts to resign late into the year, after an extremely brutal dressing-down from Harry as to why she isn't responsible for Hermione's death and what she could have done differently, but Dumbledore refuses to lose faith in her.
Shapeshifter Baggage: Watching her turn into a cat is what sets off Harry's first rant.
Skewed Priorities: Despite being aware that there is something seriously wrong with Quirrell, she refuses to even consider getting rid of him because he is a good teacher. Even when he is suspected to have made an assasination attempt on one of the students, McGonagall insists that he should stay in Hogwarts for as long as possible.
Unreliable Expositor: She is the first person to tell Harry the story of Wizarding World and the Potters' deaths, but she decides not to mention the prophecy, distorting how the events actually transpired. Aside from that, she is completely wrong about what truly happened in Godric's Hollow, but then again, so is most of Wizarding World.
You Are in Command Now: With Dumbledore being trapped outside of time, she takes his place as headmaster at the end of the story.

Severus Snape

All Girls Want Bad Boys: He gets a few female students swooning for his dark-and-brooding persona every year. It seems to squick him out and annoy him more than anything.
The Atoner: Defied. Snape has commited many immoral, even downright evil acts throughout his life, yet Harry tells him not to dwell on his past and just focus on the future. Snape promises to take this advice to heart.
Dogged Nice Guy: Refuses to let his crush on Lily go, even a decade after her death, despite her being quite clear on having no interest in romance with him. Until a few students who don't know it's her he's talking about point out how pathetic this is, it totally dominates his life.
Double Agent: Or so Quirrell thinks. He seems ready to assume that role, if and when Voldemort rises again.
Easily Forgiven: He feels that Harry is too quick to forgive him for his part in Lilly Potter's death.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He admits to not knowing much about good people, implying that he considers himself an evil, or at least morally flawed person. In particular, he fails to understand why Harry is so forgiving towards the people that wronged him.
Evil Teacher: Or so Hermione thinks. Harry concludes it is part of his role. Severus, himself, is resigned to it, thinking his position means Dumbledore gave up hope of reforming Slytherin's House.
Heel–Face Turn: He used to be a Death Eater; now, he protects first-year girls if he can.
Hidden Agenda Villain: After Harry gives him some relationship advice - namely for Snape to move on from Lily's rejection and death - the Potion Master becomes less loyal to Dumbledore and starts acting out of his own accord. Several characters notice this and suspect that Snape will outright betray Dumbledore if he hadn't done so already. Ultimately subverted, as his only hidden agenda was helping Hermione deal with bullies.
Hidden Depths: Rianne Felthorne, for one, is taken aback by him turning out to have a quite complex inner life.
I Have This Friend/… And That Boy Was Me: This is how he tells Harry he used to have a crush on Harry's mother.
Internal Reformist: This is implied to be the reason for his sabotage of some Slytherin students' more villainous efforts.

Filius Flitwick

Half-Human Hybrid: Here, its canon that he has goblin ancestry.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Hermione considers him to be this, making it all the more painful when he fails to defend her against Snape.
Retired Badass: He was a dueling champion before he became a teacher.
Special Attack: He invented a secret variation on the Stunning Hex that reorients when the target dodges; useless against shields, but a great finishing move. After he teaches it to Harry it proves decisive in several fights, especially since the very best fighters don't use shields at all.

Quirinus Quirrell

Adaptational Badass: Quirrell goes from the one-note, incompetent, card-carrying, borderline comical villain of whose background we know virtually nothing in The Philosopher's Stone to an extremely complex, supremely intelligent, mind blowingly dangerous person. Naturally, this also applies to Voldemort, who is less of an Ax-Crazy genocidal maniac Drunk on the Dark Side and much more a Too Clever by Half Manipulative Bastard par excellence.
At Least I Admit It: He believes that nobody in the wizarding world truly cares about ethics and considers himself superior for not bothering to pretend. Given that the majority of Wizarding Britain supports the existence of Azkaban, it's easy to see his point.
Ambiguously Evil: His actions throughout the story make it hard to place him firmly on any side of the morality scale and point to him being either Affably Evil or Byronic Hero. He is eventually revealed to be completely evil.
Animorphism: He's an unregistered snake animagus.
Being Evil Sucks: While he believes the opposite trope, Quirrell is a walking example of how cynicism and self-centeredness can make someone unhappy. He is lonely, miserable and at one point admitted that he never felt truly happy in his life.
Being Good Sucks: He firmly believes in this, stating that so called 'heroes' are just slaves who will never truly rise above the people they sacrifice themselves for. He himself has never felt any enjoyment from being a hero back when he was playing the part.
Big Bad: He is the reason for most bad things that happen in the story and takes the center stage during the finale. That being said, he is not exactly the greatest threat, as Harry is the one threatening the entire world with destruction.
Big Good: He attempted to invoke this by taking the identity of David Monroe and leading the fight against Voldemort. He also takes this role during the final arc of the story, though his motives remain selfish all throughout.
Blank Slate: In the finale Harry erases all of Riddle's memories and experiences, though he made an exception for the ones that were genuinely good.
Blood Knight: His mild excitement upon facing Bahry implies he appreciates challenging opponents. On an intellectual level, there is little he wants more than an enemy who would match his cunning.
Card-Carrying Villain: Although he rejects the common notions of good and evil, he admits to being "what the moralists would call evil" when conversing with Dumbledore.
Complete Immortality: About as close as one can get. Being secretly Lord Voldemort, he has a number of horcruxes to keep him from actually dying. However, unlike his canon counterpart he does not take his chances with only half a dozen of those, and instead makes over a hundred horcruxes hidden in various places, including one sent into space. That said, he is not immune to Death of Personality.
The Corrupter: Quirrell makes many attempts to corrupt Harry by making him question his values. While Harry never turns evil because of this, he does become a tad more cynical and has to agree with his teacher more than once. Quirrell also tries to corrupt Hermione in a similar manner, but in that case, he fails to make her any less principled.
Crazy-Prepared: The steps taken by Quirrell to protect his plans led to the Space-Time Continuum telling Dumbledore that he was Too Late. Ultimately subverted, though — Harry calls it "fencepost security", likening his creation of hundreds of horcruxes to building a fencepost hundreds of feet tall and ignoring that no matter how tall the post is, it can still be walked around. In this analogy, "walking around the fencepost" is wiping the vast majority of Voldemort's memories instead of killing him.
Deadpan Snarker: Quirrell is very vocal about his opinions and often uses dry wit.
Dude Where Is My Respect: As David Monroe he was considered a great hero, but received little actual respect, at least in his eyes. He claims this is the case for all heroes, as they are really glorified slaves to the people they protect.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
- Even on the surface, he can only understand friendship and altruism in terms of power dynamics. It ends up as his undoing, as he underestimates Harry's determination to protect his loved ones.
- In his big Christmas speech, his argument for authoritarianism runs on the assumption that the world isn't running that way already due to sheer inertia and stupidity. He not only offers no arguments against freedom and equality as concepts but seems completely unaware that anyone is even notionally in favor of them, much less in any serious way.
Evil Counterpart: To Harry, by the virtue of the two of them being essentially the same person.
Evil Is Petty: He tends to hold a lot of grudges and repay them in a brutal manner. He even mentions killing David Monroe for being "an annoyance" as a child.
Evil Mentor: Rather than try to kill Harry, he instead tries to bring Harry around to his point of view.
Evil Sorcerer: He has dabbled in the dark arts, and even tells his class that it was his ambition when in school to become a dark wizard.
Evil Versus Oblivion: As evil as he is, he doesn't want to see the world destroyed. This prompts him to take action once he discovers that Harry was prophesied as the end of the world.
Fallen Hero: One of Quirrell's fake identities was David Monroe during the last war, who was thought to have died fighting against Voldemort before his connection to Quirrell is uncovered in the story. He claims to be one to Hermione and Amelia Bones identifies him as one.
Fatal Flaw: Selfishness, at least according to Harry. He is so self-centered, that he will often ignore the best strategy only because it involves helping others. It was a direct cause for his downfall ten years prior to the start of the story, as he didn't bother to test his horcrux system on anyone other than himself.
Faux Affably Evil: Sure, he is almost always calm and polite, but his true persona is a cruel psychopath with no trace of good in him to speak of.
I Have Many Names: He says he can no longer keep track of them all.
Immortality Immorality: While the story generally portrays seeking immortality as understandable or even noble, Quirrell went way overboard with it. He created over a hundred horcruxes, each one requiring a human sacrifice, just to be extra sure that he can't ever be killed.
Immortality Seeker: Made hundreds of horcruxes for this purpose.
Intelligence Equals Isolation: Quirrell is so intelligent that he finds it impossible to relate to regular people or to enjoy their company. This is the main reason he created Harry — to have someone equally cunning to battle against.
Internal Reformist: This is stated by Quirrell to be his agenda towards Slytherin House.
Invincible Villain: For a good while Quirrell appears to be essentially unbeatable. He is one of the greatest fighters among wizards, cunning enough to forsee his opponents' every move and has over a hundred horcruxes hidden in all corners of the world. Harry himself fails to see any way to defeat his teacher despite thinking a lot about the issue. Luckily, he eventually finds the way.
It Amused Me: How he tends to explain away his good deeds. Although almost all of them are eventually revealed as calculated moves on his part.
Mortality Phobia: Quirrell is blinded by his fear of death, as evidenced by him creating over a hundred horcruxes to mitigate the possibility of dying, yet not bothering nearly as much to secure himself against Death of Personality or a Fate Worse than Death of any kind. Even Harry, who finds fear of death perfectly normal, considers his teacher insane because of this.
Motive Rant: He gives one to Harry as they prepare to steal the Philosopher's Stone, although explaining his motives makes only for a part of the rant.
Multilayer Façade: He started as Tom Riddle playing both Voldemort and David Monroe (after killing the real Monroe). By the time of the story he's fully embraced the Voldemort persona, and Voldemort is possessing the real Quirrell and dropping hints that he's secretly Monroe in disguise. After his defeat, and Harry arranging the scene, everyone believes Monroe, pretending to be Quirrell, died heroically fighting Voldemort.
'90s Anti-Hero: As Monroe he had shades of this; his goal was to defeat himself, or rather his own personal parody of a villain in battle to become a hero to the wizarding world, but then it turned out that no one supported him in doing so, and he grew disgusted with how cowardly his fellow wizards were to refuse to stand up for themselves.
One-Hit Kill: With the Avada Kedavra spell.
Playing Both Sides: He played both sides of The Wizarding War by assuming the identities of Lord Voldemort and David Monroe, though he eventually embraced Voldemort's persona completely.
Reasonable Authority Figure: He is second only to Minerva in this. He doesn't patronize the students like much of the rest of the staff do, and he never dismisses Harry's arguments on the basis of Harry being a child but rather explains rationally why Harry is wrong.
- That is, he's a Reasonable Authority Figure until he turns out to be Voldemort and has plans to manipulate Harry into helping him regain his body, then kill him to protect the Universe.
Right for the Wrong Reasons: Harry notes that Quirrell is so ridiculously clever that he tends to arrive at the right deductions even if he's using the wrong evidence. He realizes in retrospect that that really should have set off some alarms.
Sanity Has Advantages: While Quirrell is undeniably cunning, he is also undeniably insane. Despite having every possible advantage over his foes, he gets ultimately defeated due to his obsessive fear of death obstructing his ability to think clearly.
Save Our Students: He believes that the standard DADA program does nothing to prepare the students for real life and strives to educate his pupils properly. It's all part of an act, but he genuinely succeeds in teaching his students some valuable lessons.
Self-Made Orphan: He took care of his own family issues long ago.
Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: When Harry objects to one of Quirrell's speeches (promoting fascism, no less), Quirrell claims that he only does this because he is very young.
Springtime for Hitler: "Lord Voldemort" was supposed to be an over-the-top clichéd villain who made stupid mistakes and was quickly defeated, intended to let Tom Riddle gain experience for the real run with the serious "evil genius" role he intended for his Monroe persona to beat, and just to get it out of his system. He ended up having to keep the character when he unexpectedly kept winning.
Starter Villain: He created the "Voldemort" persona with the intent of being a stepping stone for his "David Monroe" persona to take down on his way to beating a more competent villain persona. This plan flopped completely when "Voldemort" kept winning despite being ridiculous, and he eventually pivoted to being an Evil Overlord full-time because he enjoyed it. Ironically, much later, Dumbledore's plan also makes Voldemort a stepping stone, for Harry to defeat on his way to "destroying the world".
Stupid Evil: Downplayed. Quirrell isn't really doing anything purely For the Evulz, but he often neglects to do something good or nice even when it would benefit him. After Harry points that out, he resolves to correct this flaw.
Too Clever by Half: When he thinks he has people or a puzzle figured out, he will refuse to update his opinions until forced to do so. All of his major setbacks are results of systematically out-thinking himself. It eventually leads to his defeat. He fixes the main mistake his canon version made by manufacturing many more horcruxes and hiding them better, but he takes absolutely no precautions towards somebody defeating him non-lethally (Harry thinks this is part of his insanity.)
Torture Technician: Quirrell has some experience with the Cruciatus Curse, as well as other torture spells. As Voldemort, he takes it to himself to torture any Death Eaters who step out of line.
Unwitting Pawn: Despite being the Magnificent Bastard most of the time, Voldemort did ultimately play into Dumbledore's hands by "creating" Harry and setting him on the perfect path to save humanity.
Villain Ball: In the last confrontation he makes a point of removing all of Harry's equipment, to the point that Harry is stripped naked. Then he lets Harry keep his wand while asking what the secret power Harry has that's prophesied to destroy him is. This results in Harry wiping out the Death Eaters and permanently vanquishing Voldy.
Villain Has a Point: He makes a number of good points, namely how Muggle technology poses a danger to humanity and how the wizarding Britain is in need of reforming. Harry rarely debates those remarks, but he disagrees with Quirrell's rather extreme solutions to these problems.
Villainous Breakdown: After Hermione is killed by the troll he let loose, Trelawney makes a prophecy in his presence that sends him into one of these as he realises that far from diverting Harry away from his world-ending potential, he's now closer to it than ever before, given that Hermione was his Morality Pet. What follows is the closest Quirrell ever comes to losing control, to the point of ranting out a stream-of-consciousness version of his planning process in front of Professor McGonagall on the off chance she may be able to help him.
Villain Respect: He does respect people like Alastor Moody or Amelia Bones for opposing up to him and getting some results, though only Dumbledore gets anywhere near the Worthy Opponent level.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Sort of. He seeks to protect the world from the inventions of Muggle science, but it's just so he doesn't get to wander an empty world for eternity, not because he cares about anyone other than himself.
What Is Evil?: He doesn't buy into the concepts of good and evil, though he does occasionally refer to himself as evil while talking to "moralists".
Worthy Opponent: One of Quirrell's biggest desires is to fight somebody on the same level as him. Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter both came close, but their "moral constraints" make them Quirrell's inferiors in his eyes.
Your Days Are Numbered: His mysterious illness gradually drains his strength, bringing him closer and closer to his deathbed. By the end of the school year, he is expected to live for a few weeks at most. Subverted, as he is not only stronger than he appears, but also effectively possesses Complete Immortality.

Sybil Trelawney

Fainting Seer: She gets a few more prophecies here than in canon.
Fortune Teller: This is her profession, per usual.

Other adults

Bellatrix Black

Ignored Enamored Underling: She is this to Voldemort.
More than Mind Control: Voldemort systemically tore her down and rebuilt her to love him, even knowing he did not love her in return. It's revealed later on that he simply took advantage of mental damage that was already present when they met.
Tragic Villain: Bella's had a tough life. Although, as far as Voldemort knows, she has been evil even before joining the Death Eaters, so not all of her villainy can be excused this way.

Sirius Black

Adaptational Sexuality: He and Peter used to be lovers. There is no mention whether Sirius was gay or bisexual.
Adaptational Villainy: Unlike in canon, he really is a Death Eater and a pretty awful person from the looks of it.
Demoted to Extra: He only personally appears in the story once.
Dies Differently in Adaptation: Instead of getting killed by Bellatrix, he gets his head chopped off by Harry.
Off with His Head!: Just like other Death Eaters, he ends up beheaded by Harry.
Refuge in Audacity: When Voldemort questions why Sirius quit after the Wizarding War, Sirius bluntly replies that he had no faith in his master's return. Voldemort is so amused by this he lets Sirius off the hook.

Peter Pettigrew

Adaptational Sexuality: He and Sirius used to be lovers. There is no mention whether Peter was gay or bisexual.
Adaptational Superpower Change: In terms of special magical abilities. In the books, he is a rat animagus, whereas here he is a natural metamorphmagus.
Adaptational Heroism: Unlike in canon, he really was a hero people think him to be.
Cowardly Lion: He was always something of a coward, but in the end, he stuck with the Order despite the heavy risks.
Demoted to Extra: He playes a rather minor role in the backstory and never appears personally in the story proper.
Spared by the Adaptation: He survives until the end of the story, though there is no telling how much spending over ten years in Azkaban impacted his psyche.

Amelia Bones

Ascended Extra: In the books she is mentioned several times, but never impacts the plot in any meaningful way. Here she has several appearances and is quite important to the setting as the leader of the aurors.
Awesomeness by Analysis: Despite being pretty far removed from Hogwarts and most of the plot, she manages to develop a pretty accurate picture of what's happening from a very brief, albeit dramatic, impersonal interaction with Harry.
Crazy-Prepared: She has thought of a rather startling number of contingencies about possible problems that could occur in the Auror's offices. The first one we hear of is "An auror wants to be relieved because a prisoner is attempting psychological warfare and succeeding."
Da Chief: She leads the Aurors.
A Father to His Men: Or a mother. Amelia Bones puts a good deal of trust in her subordinates and visibly cares about them, as shown by her concern about Bahry.
Good Is Not Nice: We discover this about her during the Azkaban Arc.
Hero Antagonist: She fills this role in the Azkaban Arc.
Iron Lady: The leader of the Aurors, with all the ruthlessness this role entails.
Minor Major Character: She's head of the aurors and is Dumbledore's chosen regent should he die before his real successor comes of age, but other than a single story arc where she leads the good guys she only has a few brief appearences. Her impact in the story is still so much that the reader might be surprised to realize that an important conversation with Harry in Chapter 119 is the first time they've met.
Parental Substitute: She is one to Susan Bones, her great-niece.
Reasonable Authority Figure: She is willing to make compromises for the sake of maintaining order, knows when to bend the rules and when not to and is generally one of the more down-to-earth characters in the story.
Supporting Leader: Her high degree of seriousness, intelligence and clarity makes her a strong leader, but she is too sane and too normal to be the hero.

Bahry One-Hand

Handicapped Badass: Has only one working hand, but still manages to be one of the best fighters among the aurors.
Underestimating Badassery: He picks a duel with Quirrell, not realising just how outclassed he really is.

Professor Michael Verres-Evans

Original Character: One of the few characters who did not originate from the original novels.
Parents as People: While he undeniably loves Harry and tries to be a good father, he shows his son very little trust or respect. While this wouldn't be much of a problem with a regular eleven-year-old, Harry is far more than a regular child and not being treated seriously by his father bothers him quite a bit.
Small Role, Big Impact: He is only present in half a dozen chapters, but his impact of the story is undeniable. If not for the scientific upbringing he gave to his son, Harry would be a completely different person and the story would look quite differently.

Petunia Evans-Verres

Adaptational Attractiveness: Thanks to Lily's potion she is significantly more attractive than in the original continuity.
Good Parents: Unlike in canon, Petunia truly loves Harry and offers him her unconditional support.
Small Role, Big Impact: Petunia's decision to marry a scientist and her resolve to raise Harry as her own is one of the main divergence points from the canon storyline and the basis of the whole story. In spite of that major impact, Petunia doesn't appear all that often.

Lucius Malfoy

Big Bad: Dumbledore considers him to be this while Voldemort is out of the picture.
Big Bad Wannabe: Quirrell considers him to be this.
Crusading Widower: He promises to become one if anything happens to Draco.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While sharing secrets, Draco reveals that Lucius is supremely protective, even to the point of abandoning his political game to watch his son being taken care of at St. Mungo's.
Evil Chancellor: He is this to Fudge; somewhat subverted as by most measures that actually matter, Lucius is more powerful than Fudge in his own right.
Fantastic Racism: As in canon, he is a notorious champion of blood purity.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Harry uses Lucius's (probably false) claim that he was placed under the Imperius Curse by Voldemort to insist on a blood debt from House Malfoy in return for killing Voldemort and "freeing" him.
Kick the Dog: His attempt to send Hermione to Azkaban, even though he has nothing to gain from this, paint Lucius in a very bad light.
Number Two: Voldemort's right hand and the closest thing Death Eaters have to a leader besides the Dark Lord.
Off with His Head!: Not seeing any other way out of the situation, Harry decapitates Lucius alongside all the other Death Eaters during the final battle.
Papa Wolf: According to Draco (in private), Lucius is very protective of his son, as noted above.
Screw the Rules, I Have Money! / Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Lucius believes (and has taught his son) that because of their family's high position in society, they can get away with anything.
Would Hurt a Child: This is evidenced by his willingness to send a twelve-year-old to a wizarding prison where dementors roam. However, Draco is an exception.
You Are in Command Now: After Voldemort's defeat, Lucius was left in charge of the Death Eaters. He utterly failed to keep the group intact, since Voldemort was the only factor keeping the Death Eaters together, but at least he kept the "pureblood" faction of the government strong and managed to keep Sirius Black out of Azkaban.

Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel

Ambiguous Gender Identity: If you believe Quirrell's version of the story, they were born Perenelle Flamel and created the persona of 'Nicolas' after stealing the Philosopher's Stone from Baba Yaga. As for why they did that — Quirrell doesn't say, and Harry doesn't ask, leaving the readers with nothing but their own speculation.
Composite Character: They're not a married couple, as in canon and reality — Nicolas is nothing but one of Perenelle's aliases.
Dies Differently in Adaptation: Instead of choosing to destroy the Philosopher's Stone and allow his life to end naturally, Nicolas Flamel is straight-up murdered, on Voldemort's orders, in a failed attempt to distract Dumbledore while he steals the Stone.
Knowledge Broker: Perenelle has gathered quite a bit of knowledge and influence by selling the services of the Philosopher's Stone.
Two Aliases, One Character: Nicolas and Perenelle are, in fact, the same person, a fact revealed by Quirrell.
Villain with Good Publicity: According to Quirrell, Perenelle is an evil person who killed her lover for power, created the 'Nicolas' persona as a deception and manipulated the wizarding world for centuries. Most people, including Dumbledore, are unaware of the truth and see the Flamels as good people who keep immortality for themselves out of benevolence. Although it should be noted that we never actually meet them, and only ever get Quirrel's and Dumbledore's diametrically opposed and clearly extremely biased impressions of their history and motives.

Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody

Adaptational Badass: Moody is something of an Informed Badass in canon. In this fic, his badassery is plain for all to see.
Crazy-Prepared: He is always alert for an attack in any form coming from any direction. This is helped by his magical eye, which gives him simultaneous omnidirectional vision and can see magic.
Mad-Eye Moody: I'd say that's a little... paranoid... NOT PARANOID ENOUGH!
Drill Sergeant Nasty: Tonks thinks so, but she is fond of him as a mentor.
Good Is Not Soft: One of his defining character traits.
Number Two: He's second to Dumbledore within the Order of the Phoenix.
Properly Paranoid: His other defining character trait. According to an old friend of his, most aurors and hitwizards would die an average of eight-and-a-half times in the amount of years it took Moody to gain what he now considers "an acceptable level of caution." Among other things, he figures out about "Monroe" being an imposter and a few more of Voldy's plans almost immediately after he is introduced; he just didn't manage to put it all together. In the end he figures out the broad strokes of what really happened in the final battle almost immediately this way.
Secret Test of Character: He gives one to Harry when he asks the boy to stun him. The goal isn't to check if Harry is able to take down Moody, but rather if he is willing to do whatever's necessary to achieve that goal.

Firenze

Apologetic Attacker: He apologizes to Harry right before attempting to drive a spear through the boy.
Character Death: Firenze gets slain by Quirrell during his attempt at Harry's life.
Would Hurt a Child: Firenze is willing to go against the centaur rule not to kill children, seeing this as the only way to stop Harry from destroying the world.

Posthumous Characters

Godric Gryffindor

Author Avatar: By Word of God.
Humble Hero: According to Dumbledore, Gryffindor had quite a bit of humility. For example, he explicitely hoped his descendants would be better than him, seeing himself as far from perfect despite all his heroic deeds.
Retired Badass: In his heyday he was a war hero, but he settled down to found Hogwarts and teach not Duel Magic, but Herbology.
Too Clever by Half: According to Harry's deductions, he was clever enough to realize the true nature of dementors, but not quite clever enough to figure out how to cast a true patronus. The problem is, if you're stuck at this stage, you can't cast a Patronus at all.

Salazar Slytherin

Adaptational Heroism: The canon lore portrays him as simply an evil wizard who helped found Hogwarts, but left it due to his hatred of muggleborns and left a murderous monster in the school in hopes of one day purifying it. While this version keeps his Fantastic Racism, it also mentions him fighting dark wizards and has the Chamber of Secrets serve a different, more benevolent purpose.
Fantastic Racism: Salazar believed muggleborns to be inferior to purebloods and not worthy of studying in Hogwarts. Downplayed in that he wasn't murderous about it, he simply believed the misconceptions common at the time.
Übermensch: According to his philosophy, people become who they meant to be by following their desires, whatever they might be.

James and Lily Potter

Demoted to Extra: Since the priori incantatem scene, the pensieve flashback and Harry using the Ressurection Stone were all removed from the story, James and Lily only get a brief appearance. On another level, their deaths have somewhat lesser impact on Harry's character and motivation now that he has loving adoptive parents.
Senseless Sacrifice: Since the magical element of Lily's sacrifice is absent in the story, her dying to protect Harry ultimately accomplished nothing. Then again, as Harry points out, there wasn't really any choice for her to make.

Armies

Dragon Army

Badass Army: Draco tries to invoke this. He's still working on it until Chapter 78, wherein his army achieves a victory against Chaos and Sunshine, even managing to disable Chaos's trump card against them. However, for Draco, being defeated by Hermione during the battle spoils everything.
Enemy Mine: Dragon Army teams up with Chaos Legion in an effort to prevent Sunshine Regiment from winning the Christmas wish. Eventually, Dragon and Sunshine have to team up to have any hope of taking down Chaos.
Rank Scales with Asskicking: Mildly deconstructed as Draco points out the disadvantages of being both the commander and the most powerful wizard: he needs to exhaust himself casting the powerful spells and risk himself in combat when he should be focusing on command.
Shout-Out: The name is one to Ender's Game. (Harry attempted to claim the reference intentionally, but "Draco" threw a fit, and Quirrell allowed him the name instead.)
You Are in Command Now: Padma Patil twice takes command of Dragon Army when Draco is taken down.

The Chaos Legion

Catchphrase: Seamus claims that Harry frequently says "I find your lack of skepticism disturbing" while doing the Vader-choke gesture.
Chewing the Scenery: Legionnaires are encouraged to do so.
Cloud Cuckoolander: Some members (especially Harry) are guilty of this.
Confusion Fu: In the first battle if not the others, Harry has them employ tactics meant to sow confusion in the enemy's ranks and use that to their advantage.
Conservation of Ninjutsu: The Chaos Legion continues to put up an equal fight against the combined forces of the other two armies, even after the army is further downsized. They do so with a lot of clever tricks and white fury.
Crazy-Prepared: Due to Harry's extensive science fiction knowledge he already has general strategies for the exotic scenarios worked out. Lampshaded in the Lake battle, where it blows Malfoy's mind that the Chaos Legion had a plan for 3D fighting when Harry really just gave the "Why are you all upside down?" speech from Ender's Game.
Doomy Dooms of Doom: Their theme song consists of nothing but the word Doom repeated over and over again to the tune of the Imperial Death March, a.k.a. Darth Vader's Theme, from Star Wars.
Deus Exit Machina: Quirrel forces Harry to downsize Chaos Legion after they curb stomp both other armies in the fourth battle. It works; they lose the next battle to Dragon.
Handicapped Badass: A rare example that focuses on a group rather than the individual. Harry is forced to split up his army. However, he manages to do a good job at fighting with his remaining forces, and may have possibly won if the Dragon Army hadn't copied the Legion's trick.
Mildly Military: Harry doesn't attempt to impose any kind of military discipline, instead encouraging everyone to think for themselves. This works out well for them; by the time the other armies are crippled by all the traitors, the Chaos army has mostly got it out of their system and is the most reliable of the three.
Obviously Evil: Rigorously enforced by General Chaos, just for Lulz.
Only Sane Man: Seamus says that when you first join the Chaos Legion it seems like everyone in it is insane, and then after a while you realize everyone else is insane. It turns out later that Harry has been training them in basic rationality, including anti-conformity drills.
Rules Lawyer: They are the reason no formal scoring system was administered until the Christmas battle - they would try to game the system.
Shout-Out: Mainly to Warhammer, H.P. Lovecraft, Ender's Game, Star Wars, and Monty Python.

The Sunshine Regiment

Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: They are the Jaywalking among the armies in terms of names (Dragon Army, Chaos Legion, and Sunshine Regiment) and insignias. Dragon Army's insignia is a flame. Chaos Legion's is a hand poised to snap its fingers. Sunshine Regiment's is a smiley face.
Beware the Nice Ones: Invoked by Hermione. When the armies are formed she plays up the other generals' perception of her as a super-nice goody two-shoes; e.g., naming her army the Sunshine Regiment and making their insignia a smiley face. Then, in the first battle she enacts a cunning plan, and while springing the trap has her troops sing a chilling battle song that sounds silly and very nice out of context.
Enemy Mine: Sunshine and Dragon eventually have to team up to have any hope of taking down Chaos.
The Hero: Hermione Granger.
Lethal Joke Character: Intentionally invoked both by themselves and Quirrell. On their part it's by embracing an overly sweet persona to make their opponents underestimate them, most dramatically in the first battle. On Quirrell's side he puts Hermione in charge, even though he and the other captains agree she has no chance... and then also puts every one of their suggestions for a third captain under her control, knowing that she would be smart enough to call on their tactical abilities to supplement her own.
The Strategist: Ron Weasley.

Characters / Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

Students

Ravenclaw

Slytherin

Hufflepuff

Gryffindor

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Posthumous Characters

Armies

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Characters / Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

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