Fanfic / A Song of Ice and Fires That Weren't All My fault

A Song of Ice and Fires That Weren't All My Fault by Puzzle is a crossover fanfic between The Dresden Files and, as the name suggests, A Song of Ice and Fire. It has also been reposted on Archive of Our Own.

Warning: This story has its divergence point at the climax of Changes. Unavoidable Late Arrival Spoilers ahead!

The Red Court is dead, but at the moment of his triumph, unknown magic sweeps Harry and Maggie Dresden away to a whole new world, the planet of ASOIAF. Specifically, they end up in Braavos of the Hundred Isles some years before the first book begins. As the story starts, two years of struggle have passed since their arrival. Harry has gotten his feet back under him, giving him time to experiment with magic and reintroducing technology. He has little idea, though, that his arrival has not gone unnoticed by the local magical powers. Nor can he foresee just how far-reaching the consequences of his actions and (re)inventions are.

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This fanfic contains examples of the following:

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Harry removes the blade from a hacksaw and replaces it with a spell that cuts things so cleanly that there's no visible change until the halves fall apart. Since there's no physical blade, just a handle, you can't see that it's sharp, so he calls it the D Flat.
• Adaptational Heroism: Viserys Targaryen is a great deal saner and nicer than in canon, which might be due to the fact that the Iron Bank stepped in after Darry's death to take care of the Targaryens so he was never turned into a beggar.
• Adaptational Villainy: Gerion Lannister. A man described as a fun Gentleman Adventurer, who was Tyrion's favourite uncle and a nice guy, especially compared to his brother, now an angry Jerkass who hurls rape threats and wants to kidnap/murder children. This may be partly due to differing circumstances, since he has a grudge against Harry because the Ironborn exploited his compasses in their rebellion, and his family was threatened, with his bastard daughter nearly killed, and he was sent away from the fighting. Additionally, Harry specifically notes when they first meet that he has plenty of smile lines, suggesting that's his more usual expression.
• Animalistic Abomination: Dragons. In addition to everything mentioned in canon, they hate anything and anyone connected to ice magic.
  • Later Harry notes that Ancalagon's roar seems to be a vector for psychic attack.
• Arranged Marriage:
  • The canon contract between Viserys Targaryen and Ariane Martell is mentioned.
  • Jon Arryn thinks about arranging Maggie's marriage to Edmure Tully to bind Harry's loyalty to Robert Baratheon, as one of a number of candidates floated. He has no idea that Harry wouldn't be even remotely interested.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In a quiet moment, Harry finds it odd to have landed in a world of "fire breathing dragons, exiled royals and questionable real estate decisions."
• Be Careful What You Wish For: In Chicago, Harry often struggled with getting enough money to last a month. In Braavos, his skills get him a relatively steady source of profits, which kind of turns magic into... well, a job. His friends are both amused and mildly incredulous, remarking that he's the only man they know who could complain about making as much money in a morning as most do in a year.
• Black Magician Girl: Maggie is one now, though she’s bound to turn into a Lady of Black Magic as she grows up.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality:
  • Harry notes a mild case this about the Westerosi nobility, even ones he likes like Oberyn, noting that while he knows that Oberyn is a good, decent, and likeable man, he probably wouldn't even notice Harry if he was a serf rather than a pseudo-nobleman.
  • Likewise, the Westerosi have problems with correctly guessing his motivation and predicting his actions. Not helped by them assuming he's a native Braavosi.
  • Lydia is sweet, friendly and very amoral, because she just doesn't get human morals. The Dresdens have to explicitly spell out some points before she is able to understand their concerns.
    Maggie said what I was thinking but lacked my characteristic tact. "Neither of us will be around in two thousand years." Lydia’s face sank for an instant but she rapidly recovered.
    "Oh that’s not a problem Maggie, I can teach you how to drain the lives from your enemies and extend your own, it’s dead simple!" She finished her sentence with a smile, looking at us as if expecting a laugh at her wordplay and congratulations.
• Cat Like Dragons: Dresden notes with some amusement that little Daenaerys quickly takes to toting her dragon around like a pet cat.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Oberyn Martell, who mock-flirts with Maggie to make her blush, and is absolutely delighted when she becomes self-possessed enough to snark back.
• City of Canals: Braavos. Harry even compares it to Venice.
• Cool Versus Awesome: Harry Dresden the Winter Knight vs. Ancalagon the dragon
  • Evolves into Harry vs. the Stone Men of Chroyane. All of them.
  • Later, Harry vs. Melisandre and Perzys the dragon. He does that a lot.
• Crazy-Prepared: After Quaithe spooks him, Harry raises every ward he knows over his house, including those against the creatures that don't even exist on Planetos.
  • During the fortnight he was preparing for a fight with kraken-controlling pirates, Harry and Maggie made four enchanted weapons, a lightning-attuned spell foci and enough escape potions to fly from Braavos to his island, among others.
• Dead Guy Junior: Rhaellion the dragon was named after Queen Rhaella.
• Deadpan Snarker: Harry, as usual. Maggie and Lydia no slouch either, and both Oberyn and Syrio happily match Harry snark for snark.
• Death by Adaptation: Euron Greyjoy is killed by Harry shortly after the Greyjoy Rebellion. In canon, he's still alive as of the fifth book.
• Does Not Like Magic: Variously present:
  • Faceless Men are against necromancy and anything that keeps people from naturally dying, but have no problem with other forms of magic, since they themselves are practitioners.
  • Dragons absolutely hate ice and cold magic, presumably because they are similar to fire elementals. They will viciously attack anyone who uses those spells near them - or, in the case of Harry as the Winter Knight, exists.
• The Dragonslayer: Harry kills Perzys by immobilizing him with ice and then putting an enchanted spear through his brain.
• Dramatic Irony: Mostly because Harry isn't aware of things that locals take for granted, and vice versa.
  • He’s completely unaware of Varys' history with magic and his status as a eunuch.
  • Various supernatural creatures refer to Harry as the Warden. He thinks it's due to being a Greycloak, while it's really about his connection to Demonreach.
  • When Harry admires the Great Hall in Red Keep, he wonders what the workers worked on next.
• The Dreaded: Harry becomes this across Essos and Westeros as he's reluctantly drawn out of his self-imposed isolation and quiet life under the metaphorical radar, and word of his exploits begins to spread. As he observes in one chapter, after the mere reveal of his name horrifies the entire crew of a ship he's accidentally wound up on, he's got his old reputation back.
  • To a lot of magical folk in Westeros, he's also this because his connection to Mab seems to connect him, in their eyes at least, to the Others, with Mab fitting in as the Night's Queen. Which means, in their eyes, he's basically the chief minion of the devil.
• Dye or Die: The Targaryen children dye their hair black after Harry fakes their deaths.
• Entertainingly Wrong:
  • Earthsingers in a heart tree notice the Winter Mantle in Harry's soul and mistake him for an Other.
  • The context suggests that Stannis Baratheon thinks that Harry is a native Braavosi, due to his involvment with the Arsenal, Iron Bank and local merchant houses (that, or he's spectacularly Gone Native, which is still amusingly - though not entirely - wrong).
  • Jon Arryn thinks that with Harry having a daughter of marrying age and being involved with the Targaryens, he would be willing to arrange a political marriage for her.
• Evil Detecting Dragon: Played with. Dragons can feel Harry's Winter Mantle and absolutely hate it (and him).
• Evil Tainted the Place: Chroyane a.k.a. the Sorrows was cursed by the magic in dragons' flames and by Prince Garin's Death Curse, which created the greyscale and the creepy fog.
• Exact Words: Used by Harry when talking about his past, so he doesn't give up any sensitive information.
• Faking the Dead: Harry does this for the Targaryens after assassins try to kill them.
• False Flag Operation: The Red Temple's shadowbinder who killed Tregar Antaryon masquaraded as a Faceless Man to keep the Sealord from retaliating. He also tried to use this disguise to try and force Harry out of Braavos.
• Foreshadowing: All over the place, often dozens of chapters before it becomes relevant.
  • Someone from a Red Temple kills Tregar Antaryon and steals some of his books. In Volantis, Varys asks Harry to recover those same books from the local Red Temple. The same evening they learn that Red Priests hatched a dragon, presumably using the stolen books.
  • There are rumours about sea monsters and some ships dissapeared north of Braavos. Sure enough, Euron Greyjoy has stolen a magic horn that allows him to summon a kraken, which he controls with skinchanging.
  • Varys asks Harry to locate a certain ship for him. The ship belonged to Euron, it was sunk near Harry's island, and soon after Harry finds three ships waiting in ambush for his return.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Harry, from the perspective of the locals, goes from local gumshoe equivalent and one of many people claiming to have magical powers to a dragon-slaying badass master sorcerer with his own hidden island, feared across a hemisphere.
• The Gadfly: Oberyn, who spends most of his time steadily trying to wind Harry and Maggie up. Syrio also indulges, occasionally.
• Genius Loci: Lydia jump-starts one for Harry's island but it will still take a century to properly form.
  • The Titan of Braavos eventually becomes this - while not as powerful as Demonreach, it's capable of killing dragons.
• Giving Radio to the Romans: Harry slowly starts introducing his time's tech to the world. Mostly he collaborates on creating a printing press and writes several almanacs about various topics that he remembers. He also stays away from any kind of gunpowder, since it would be too dangerous in the wrong hands.
  • He reluctantly changes his mind after dragons start appearing beyond his control.
• Going Native: Harry, just a bit. He likes Braavos since he has a stable life and not many powerful enemies here.
• Heroes Gone Fishing: Even with just a hook on a string, Harry finds a spot of fishing relaxing (at least until the Winter Mantle means that he reacts badly to fish getting away). Maggie would rather just set off a shockwave in a fish trap and call it a day.
• I Just Want to Be Special:
  • Obara. First she tried to win glory in battle, and then to tame Ancalagon against Harry's advice.
  • Harry has to admit to himself that although he sometimes tries to keep a low profile, he doesn't actually want to be ordinary.
    Oh well, if I’d wanted to be normal I’d— actually I had no idea when in my life normality was an option. Whatever.
• Immigrant Patriotism: Harry has a distinct dislike for places that aren't Braavos, mostly because Braavos is the closest place, values wise, to 21st century America. To his own mild surprise, he considers himself a Braavosi - or at least, Braavosi for lack of a return option - by the time of the conference on dealing with the Red Priests.
• In Spite of a Nail: Some things still happen, mostly because Harry didn't do anything that could reasonably butterfly them away.
  • Ser Darry dies shortly before the start of the story.
  • Viserys loses his mother's crown though the circumstances are completely different.
  • Willas Tyrell is still accidentally crippled by Oberyn Martell.
  • The Greyjoy Rebellion still happens.
• Internal Reveal: During his stay in Volantis, Harry learns of Jon Connington, Aegon Targaryen and Varys' plot to put the boy on the throne.
• Island of Mystery: In-Universe, Harry's island is this, with people telling various wild stories about it, both true and not.
• It Amused Me: Harry and Maggie sometimes do things for this reason. See Troll.
• It Never Gets Any Easier: After slaughtering Euron Greyjoy's pirates, Harry reflects that an almost lifetime of fighting and killing hasn't managed to desensitise him to violence.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: It's hard to hide that Viserys hatched dragons nearly a decade before canon while discussing later developments.
• Long Game: A fairly innocent one. The reason Harry shares his modern knowledge is to raise the standards of living, mostly so he can enjoy them in the coming centuries.
• Mage Tower: Harry makes one for himself on a island in the middle of the ocean, on top of a volcano.
• The Magic Comes Back: The magic of Westeros and Essos experiences a resurgence when the story begins. Harry wonders briefly if his presence has somehow jumpstarted the worlds magic, but he can’t tell as he taps into a different magical source.
• Magic Knight: Harry develops into this even more than in canon, particularly when he unleashes the Winter Mantle, which generally results in absolute carnage.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: The fact that Tregar Antaryon's death wasn't this points against the perpetrator being a Faceless Man.
• Meaningful Name: Maggie sounds very much like "maegi", the Essosi word for a magic user that means "wise".
  • Daenerys' dragon is named Jelmazma, meaning "storm".
• Mêlée à Trois: Harry vs. Ancalagon vs. Stone Men. At least for a moment.
• Monumental Damage: It's Dresden, what did you expect?
  • During the siege of Oldtown he uses a ritual based on the story of Jericho to bring down a part of city walls.
  • In the Sorrows, he destroys the Bridge of Dreams and a large part of the Palace of Love.
• More than Mind Control: The Winter Mantle has this effect on Harry, playing on his temper, and desire to protect Maggie so that he's not willing to bind it again.
• Mundane Utility: Harry freezes the top inch of a water barrel, then breaks the ice layer, before taking a drink in hot weather.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The shadowbinder says that Syrio Forell will die to a snow-cloaked man. Canonically, he died fighting a member of Kingsguard.
  • Viserys hatches three dragons, just like his sister did in canon.
  • A Targaryen names a dragon after a dead relative. Viserys names his dragon after his beloved mother.
  • Daenerys' dragon is named Jelmazma a.k.a. "storm". In canon, she was often called Daenerys Jelmazmo meaning Daenerys the Stormborn.
• Nature Is Not Nice: Harry doesn't hate the sea lions on his island, but he recognises how dangerous they are and takes steps to drive them off.
  Nature had its place and in this case it was way over there.
• Nerves of Steel: Syrio and Ferrego keep their cool around an angry Harry despite knowing full well what he's capable of.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Back home, Harry is well above average, but far from the top. In this world, both his power and versatility are unrivalled, which he occasionally notes in a somewhat troubled way - particularly after he near singlehandedly clears the Sorrows and kills the Shrouded Lord with relatively limited effort.
• Not Quite Dead: Prince Garin of Chroyane, who survived as one of Stone Men. Harry makes sure to rectify that error.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Harry and Maggie when Quaithe first appears.
  • Quaithe when Harry traps her soul in a circle.
  • Maggie and Harry's friends when they learn about the Faceless Men's ultimatum.
  • Harry, when the Winter Mantle resurfaces after he spooked the Earthsingers.
  • Everyone when Willas Tyrell is crippled in a joust.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Harry Dresden, as per canon. He demolishes the Bridge of Dreams and the Palace of Love after he cuts loose with his power.
• Place of Protection: Dresdens' house has some very impressive wards, which get further upgraded once Harry gets conformation that there are other practitioners around.
  • Their island house is also protected, with power being drawn from a magma pocket beneath the island.
  • Dragonstone's wards are still up and running, despite nobody (presumably) maintaining them for many years if not even centuries. The nearby Dragonmount volcano might be responsible for it.
• Playing with Fire: Harry figures his expertise with fire magic may be needed if Viserys is going ahead with trying to hatch dragons.
  Harry: You may not be aware, but back home I was a bit of a champion at burning things. If you’re going to try to hatch some challengers to the title I think I’ll have to attend.
• Point of Divergence: Yup. Harry is making waves.
  • Rescuing the Targaryens from the streets and his later interactions with Viserys result in the boy being a much better adjusted person.
  • Harry helps Viserys research dragonlore and they manage to hatch eggs nearly a decade before canon. The Red Priests and Illyrio Mopatis also succeed.
  • Thanks to Harry's compasses, the Greyjoy Rebellion ends up longer and is much more bloody, with Oldtown being completely sacked.
    • Robert wasn't feeling very merciful after the Rebellion. Most of the Greyjoys are killed, Theon is sent to the Wall, and Asha is supposed to marry some noble. Euron Greyjoy escapes to Essos for some time, until Harry kills him after the fight with a kraken.
    • Varys is exiled from Westeros for not learning (or more likely, not informing the Crown) about the coming rebellion in time. He ends up with his friend Illyrio in Pentos, trying to hatch dragons.
  • Quaithe shows up in person to team up with the Targaryens. She shields them and the dragons from scrying attempts.
  • Harry kills Prince Garin, ending the curse on the Sorrows and the greyscale.
  • The Red Priests take over Volantis and prepare to conquer other Free Cities. And Melisandre is leading them.
  • To prepare for any dragons, Robert Baratheon orders restructuring of the defenses of King's Landing and construction of shelters for the population. Which, incidentally, uncovers the hidden caches of wildfire.
• Politeness Judo: Harry go to method for dealing with supernatural, both because he was a rather small fry on Earth and because he isn't sure if the Winter Mantle puts him under fae's rules of conduct.
• Psychic Dreams for Everyone: In true Planetos' tradition, Harry dreams of ravens, white branches and shadows in the trees during his first night in White Harbour.
• Rags to Riches: Thanks to his magical compasses and some other inventions, Harry becomes comfortably rich in rather short time. Of course, he muses that what passes for rich living in Braavos is not that different from his old life in Chicago.
• Really Gets Around: Oberyn Martell. Tregar Antaryon was also apparently an example.
• Really 700 Years Old: Discussed. Maggie finds it difficult that she will likely outlive everyone she knows. It's the main reason she wants to return to Earth.
• Revenge by Proxy: Refreshingly Averted. Oberyn Martell doesn't hate the Starks, Jon Arryn or even Robert Baratheon. They fought for their friends and family, and weren't even in King's Landing when Elia died. He only wants Tywin Lannister and his thugs.
• Rule of Seven: Invoked. The ritual used to bring down a part of Oldtown's city walls is based in the Bible and has this as one of its cornerstones.
• Sacred Hospitality: Thanks to the Winter Mantle being of faerie, Harry knows that there will be consequences if he ignores Prince Garin describing him as a guest. However, the "host" doesn't realise the full magical implications, and isn't sufficiently cautious about respecting such things, which soon results in threatening Harry and leaving him free to act.
  Guest rights were real and had consequences. Slaughtering my host would have repercussions, I didn’t know what, but I’d rather not find out.
• Screw Destiny: Harry's attitude when it comes to prophecies. He outright tells Quaithe he doesn't believe in destiny.
• Security Cling: Just before Harry leaves to face a band of pirates with a tame Kraken, his worried daughter gives him a hug that "would have been rib crushing if it wasn’t instead obliterating my lower kidneys."
• Seen It All: Harry is actually pleased that Maggie has seen enough amazing things to become blase about them.
  Harry: Want to go see a castle full of dragons?
  Maggie: We’ve already done that, and ours had giant black spikes.
• Shrouded in Myth: Harry is slowly getting to this point due to his accomplishments. At one point ser Davis Seaworth lists various rumours about him, with Jon Arryn noting that it sounds like something from a drunken sailor's tales.
• Smoky Gentlemen's Club: Braavos has one, the Voyagers' Club, which is mostly visited by bankers and rich merchants. Harry got an invitation from one of his friends.
• Some Call Me "Tim": The parasite/spirit of intellect born of Harry and Lash has a name that defies human pronunciation, but her mother also gave her the name Lydia.
• Superpowered Evil Side: The Winter Mantle isn't precisely evil, but it is amoral and thoroughly terrifying. When drawing on its power, Harry has superhuman strength, speed, and skill, including great affinity to ice and cold, but is also arrogant and vicious, which tends to result in him leaving a trail of red behind him.
• Tempting Fate: The black dragon is named Ancalagon. The Targaryens have severe difficulties with controlling him and, eventually, he just flies away to sounthern Essos.
• Took a Level in Badass: Slowly going but Harry and Maggie both increased their skill in magic over the course of the story.
• Troll: Both Dresdens have shades of this, using magic to make strange statues or writings in various places, and leaving people scrambling to figure their meanings.
  Our group's favorite so far had been when I shaped a cave's entrance into an immense mouth, stalagmites and stalactites forming a toothy grin. Anyone who sheltered there in the future would need nerves of steel, or willful blindness. Maggie had followed it by making strange tracks of some clawed beast into and out of it, driving paleontologists mad was a family tradition after-all.
• War Is Glorious: Obara had this opinion before the Greyjoy Rebellion. Since then she moved onto War Is Hell.
• War Is Hell: Harry's opinion about violent conflict. Initially it causes a bit of tension with Obara since she wants fame and glory. Then, she fights in the Greyjoy Rebellion and re-evaluates her opinions.
• Wrong Assumption: Pretty much no one in the world of ASOIAF really gets how and why Harry thinks the way he does, if only because the background cultures are so different - though the Braavosi tend to be better than most, if only because the culture is a little closer to the 21st century West, and because Harry's a resident of Braavos and has learned to fit in.
• Wrong Context Magic: One of the appeals of the story is comparing Harry's magic with the local systems.

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