Dumbledore thought he was doing the right thing by leaving the one-year-old Harry Potter on the Dursleys' door step. After all, giving the boy a normal childhood before grooming him to become the Wizarding World's savior was the best thing for him, right?
Wrong. Someone as wise as Dumbledore should have realized that Harry didn't belong with normal people. He belonged with the one family who cherished weirdness for how beautiful it is and truly understand Dark Is Not Evil. Which is why Fester Addams, the second he saw baby Harry's basket, took him immediately to the home of Gomez and Morticia. Harry Addams is raised as an Addams, through and through. The Wizarding World, and Voldemort, is about to be caught completely off guard...
Written by Tatsurou
on Archive of Our Own, this is a AU crossover fic between Harry Potter and The Addams Family. It also includes characters and elements from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, It, and others. At eighteen chapters, it is currently dormant, with the last update having been made in March 2021. It can be read right here.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Nice Guy:
- Draco Malfoy enters Hogwarts a kinder, more empathetic person thanks to Harry shattering all of his preconceptions with a single conversation, with one of his goals that he seeks to fulfill being to find ways to make Dobby's life in the Malfoy household easier after he realizes that the house elf was practically the only person in his family to ever treat him like a normal child rather than the scion of his house.
- Crabbe and Goyle are far from the brutish thugs they were in canon, instead being the ones who make sure that Draco doesn't get into trouble and serving as his confidants.
- Admiring the Abomination: The Addams clan as a whole tends to do this. When he hears that the third floor corridor is off limits to anyone who "does not wish to die a terrible death", Harry brightens up and thinks that sounds like a good time. Albus has to specifically single him out and say, no, that was not an invitation.
- Bait-and-Switch: When Gomez and Morticia are trying to find good toys for toddler!Harry, Gomez suggests a sword. Morticia objects... because the sword is too big. He'll need a smaller one until he's grown a little more.
- Been There, Shaped History: Granny's grandfather made the very first Pensieve.
- Beyond the Impossible: More than half of what the Addams family does on a daily basis is considered this by the rest of the wizarding world. They regularly use a form of Dark magic that isn't evil (as it predates the Dark magic used by Death Eaters), they can bring victims of the Killing Curse back as ghosts (which they did for James and Lily when they reburied them in the Addams family graveyard), are capable of teleportation without the use of the Apparating spell (courtesy of their distant relative, Grim), have a dragon as a guard dog, and can use magic in plain sight of Muggles without fearing repercussions (as their family name predates the Statute of Secrecy, and everyone was too scared of them to try and make them adhere to it).
- Bound and Gagged: Sirius at his trial.
- Cool Big Brother: Harry clearly adores Wednesday, and the two are inseparable from the moment they meet.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The Addams family uses Dark magic and regularly do things that scare both muggles and wizards, yet they are all driven by (an admittedly strange) moral code. They are polite and friendly with everyone they meet, and a true Addams will fight, kill, or die for their family (either way, what bliss!)
- Doorstop Baby: Harry would have been this, if the trope hadn't been deconstructed by Fester showing up, remarking how dangerous it is to leave a baby on a doorstep like that (noting that someone could abduct the baby and no one would ever know), then proving himself right when he abducts Harry and takes him to Gomez and Morticia.
- The Dreaded: The Addams family is infamous among the wizarding community for numerous reasons. First of all, their clan existed long before the Statute of Secrecy, meaning they can use magic whenever or wherever they want without facing consequences. Second, they're capable of doing things that most wizards find impossible, such as allowing victims of Killing Curses to become ghosts or befriending kitsune. Third, they are able to dabble in Dark Magic without feeling any negative effects, as Addams magic predates any evil spell (some Dark creatures, like the Dementors, are afraid of them). Fourth, the Addams clan is considered absolutely nuts by pretty much every other magic user.
- Exact Words: Part of being an Addams means learning how to break rules without ever actually breaking a rule.
- Good Parents: The Addams, who else? While their life style is... questionable by most people, no one can deny that the Addams children grow up in a loving environment. Gomez and Morticia do all they can to make sure that Wednesday, Harry, and Pugsley have everything they need and teach them all of life's skills (right from wrong, fencing, the Addams brand of magic, how to misbehave, etc). They're also more than welcoming to the ghosts of Harry's parents, and let James and Lily know that they'll raise Harry the best way they can (helping the Potters rest a little easier).
- Happily Adopted: Gomez and Morticia don't hide Harry's adoption from him, but still make it very clear to him that they love him and see him as their son just as much as Pugsley and Wednesday. Harry clearly respects and adores his adoptive parents, even after meeting his birth parents for the first time (thanks to an annual Addams family ritual).
- Happily Married: Morticia and Gomez, of course.
- I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Fester does this when he finds baby Harry. He immediately takes him to Gomez and Morticia's mansion, and moves in so he can help them both with Harry and with newborn Wednesday.
- Noodle Incident:
- Lurch is friends with the Japanese yokai Inari. All we know is that they bonded over head scritches and tofu.
- It's hinted that Granny either dated or had a brief fling with a Hogwarts professor.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: During a chapter told entirely from Wednesday's point of view (and thus out of sight of the action), Harry was targeted by Pennywise the Clown. Not only did Harry walk away without any injuries, he criticized Pennywise's scare tactics and cut off parts of it's body as gifts for Granny. Pennywise ran away crying.
- Papa Wolf: Every man in the Addams family is murderously protective of the younger family members, and yes, this includes the honorary members.
- Fester was appalled when he met baby Harry that someone would simply leave a baby on a doorstep, as he knows how risky that is (which he more or less demonstrates when he takes Harry to the Addams home).
- Gomez trains Harry how to fence so he can defend himself like an Addams.
- Grim is highly protective of the Addams children, and when he notices that Mandy is developing a Precocious Crush on Harry (earning Wednesday's ire), he immediately shuts Mandy down.
