Prince of the Dark Kingdom
is a Harry Potter For Want Of A Nail fanfic under the premise that Voldemort won the first Wizarding War. The nail is that Harry's parents fled the country instead of staying at Godric's Hollow. Not being defeated by Harry, Voldemort wins the Wizarding War and takes over the country as its new ruler. Instead of killing all the Muggleborns, he implements a series of policies to better integrate them into wizarding society. When Muggleborns first display signs of magic, an official from the Wizarding Youth Reclaimant Agency is dispatched to relocate them to wizarding orphanages, wiping their Muggle parents of their memories of their child.
Harold James Potter, aka Harry, is forced to live with the Dursleys when his parents are killed by addicts robbing their home in Germany. When Harry's Jerkass cousin Dudley mocks a portrait of his mother, Harry uses Accidental Magic in a fit of anger. Two days later, the WYRA arrives to reintroduce him to the Wizarding World and join the life his parents left behind, making new friends while meeting old relations and slowly carving out a place in the Wizarding World.
So far, Books/Years 1-6 are complete, and the author promised in June 2021 to re-master the story and adapt the story into an original work.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: As their canon depictions, the Dursleys, but also Lucius Malfoy to Hermione, of the neglectful variety and to Draco of the 'disobey me and I crucio you' variety.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: The higher-ranked people in Britain are inevitably Inner Circle Death Eaters who did well during the war. The best example is, naturally, Voldemort which makes you wonder why...
- Balance Between Good and Evil: What Voldemort wants to create because the Earth likes balance with Harry as "An angel to stand beside her devil".
- Beware the Nice Ones: Harry is generally kind and polite to those he meets and will go to great lengths to help those he cares about and Ron. But if pushed into a corner he has no issues with wrecking all kinds of shit no matter what the cost to himself.
- Big Beautiful Woman: Queen Ophelia the IV, it's noted that despite being built like an opera singer but it doesn't detract from her beauty. Harry has a crush on her and Voldemort is considering "not killing her for a few decades".
- Character Development: Not a single character is a static one, but especially Harry and his friends and Ron evolve during the story.
- Characterization Marches On: Several examples, most notably Sirius and Lupin were clearly depicted as a gay couple but later chapters and
Word of God have since changed them to very close friends. - Crapsack World: Played With: In the first book The Magical Britain is introduced as being under the totalitarian rule of You-Know-Who, of course it's a Crapsack World with an elitist hierarchy based on magical prowess, blood lines and sucking up to Voldemort. Harry and friends are crème de la crème of exclusive Hogwarts and even they can see past the False Utopia. However, the farther you get into the series, the more you find out about magical Britain, and that it is in fact much better off much than it was before, with many of the problems introduced in original canon, either have already been addressed or in the process of being addressed.
- This is the way how Magical Britain is viewed in Magical Germany due to propaganda and what Dumbledore tells Vicktor it has become. Then when Vicktor, actually visits the place he is surprised to not see that it wasn't a hell hole, and that many of the things he was told weren't true.
- Ultimately Subverted and Lampshaded by Harry who he points out that many of the muggleborns left magical Britain based on the assumption that Voldemort would kill them all off, if they stayed. Then due to the embargo on the magical UK, it's likely that none of the British refugees know about its current state, and never returned. It's also pointed out that their societies aren't any better, although some of them like to pretend to be.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Voldemort is prepared to cut off the fingers of his mail sorters if he finds a love letter.
- Druid: Voldemort and Harry practice paganism.
- Eccentric Mentor: Dumbledore serves as this to Krum, rather than to Harry.
- Voldemort subverts this as he's not really eccentric.
- Even the Guys Want Him: It's mentioned that Harry has fanboys as well as fangirls.
- Exact Words: When Snape takes Harry from the Dursleys, he promises to consider returning Harry's sketchbook in exchange for his cooperation. Harry cooperates and Snape, after considering the possibility, decides not to return it.
- Extreme Omnivore: Let's just say that there is a reason why Voldemort's pack name is 'Godeater'.
- Also, he ate Tom after boiling the meat in venom...
- The Extremist Was Right: It is constantly discussed how Voldemort has helped Great Britain.
- Fantastic Racism: Werewolves receive plenty of this. To the point where the government of Magical Germany ends up targeting their own werewolf population with something of a holocaust.
- Friendly Enemy: Snape and Malfoy. Junior, that is.
- Friend to All Children: Harry often gets roped into regaling young children with heavily edited tales of his own exploits. He does not seem to mind.
- He also dislikes adults who attack or bully children, which comes up a few times when dealing with the press.
- The Ghost: Arthur Weasley 'til he dies in Azkaban.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Happens several time with various degrees of complication and finality
- Umbridge tries to betray Tom, who kills her for it.
- Tom in order to better control Harry opens the Chamber of Secrets, which leads to him being killed by Voldemort for endangering Harry.
- Harry abuses a drug that gets him possessed by a god which nearly gets him killed.
- Lucius Malfoy in a very round about way. He adopted Hermione for reasons that aren't explained, but still sees her as a Mudblood and treats her as such. In the 6th year he engages her to someone who will ruin her life, because she attacked him, because of the abuse. Hermione than gets Harry to help her escape Lucius's trap. When Lucius finds out about it he confronts Harry and is killed because of it by a 3rd party.
- Illegal Guardian: The Dursleys initially forced Harry to paint and sold his creations, while also starving him and allowing Dudley to bully Harry.
- In Spite of a Nail: Being a For Want Of A Nail fanfic, this naturally happens. Examples include how the Chamber of Secrets is still opened in Harry's second year, a prisoner still escapes Azkaban in his third year, and the TriWizard Tournament is still held in his fourth year.
- The staff members at Hogwarts do not take up a too radical change. Snape, McGonagall, and Flitwick remain among others.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: All WYRA children in Book 1 and several victims of the basilisk's attack paired with Fake Memories in Book 2.
- Military Maverick: Vesper Larousse used to be one.
- Negated Moment of Awesome: Harry's animagus transformation, twice!
- Older Than They Look: In Chapter 7, Hermione tells Harry Voldemort is "almost sixty and doesn't look a day older than twenty-five".
- Original Character: A ton of them, and Justified by different people living and dying due to a change in victors.
- Pet the Dog: Voldemort. When he is not busy with Kick the Dog.
- Poisonous Person: Voldemort. While his touch isn't deadly his blood and other body fluids most certainly ARE.
- Rule of Symbolism: Every chapter title has some kind of reference to royals or fairytales (a prince, a king, a huntress etc).
- Animal Motifs: There are Snake King, Wolf King and Phoenix King thus far.
- Running Gag: Harry's complains about running out of unmarked skin and his tendency to acquire unusual and very noticeable scars.
- Save the Villain: Harry gives Voldemort a soul.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Some characters speak like they have remembered thesaurus by heart.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The fanfic's greatest flaw is something as simple as lack of proper proofreading.
- We Can Rule Together: Voldemort doesn't ASK Harry, per se. In chapter 104 he states however: "But what's the point of holding the world in your hand if there's no one worth showing it off to?" That makes it pretty clear, that he intends to keep Harry around.
- Why Did It Have to Be Water?: Harry keeps almost drowning, made more ironic by the fact that it is his element.
- Would Hurt a Child: Voldemort's Establishing Character Moment is crucioing 11-year-old Harry.
