Fanfic / The Best Revenge

Minerva nodded, and said, "You're a wise boy, Mr. Potter. After all, you know what they say-" her eyes, full of compassion, slid to Snape.

"What?" Snape asked, impatiently.

She smiled. "That living well is the best revenge."

The Best Revenge is a Harry Potter For Want Of A Nail fanfic in which Severus Snape sees the address of Harry Potter's letter, which leads him into changing his perception of The-Boy-Who-Lived, and beginning a mentorship that would change everything. While some canon bits are slightly tweaked, everything else is for the most part the same. The Author, who is also known for writing Victory at Ostagar, expands upon the Wizarding World; its traditions, lore, politics, its prejudice against the muggles and muggleborn, as well as houses otherwise not as developed as Gryffindor, and side characters who didn't get as much focus.

Her story is written into two parts, The Best Revenge and The Best Revenge: Time of The Basilisk. Both are completed.

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This Fanfic provides examples of:

• Abusive Parents: A number of cases are mentioned and shown:
  • Most prominently, Petunia and Vernon. They view their treatment of Harry as so natural that Snape has to magically manipulate them to get them to develop a sense of conscience, and its effects on Harry are not as glossed over as in canon. The story also goes to show that people outside of the Dursley household did notice the way Harry was treated and were concerned by it but were unable or unwilling to fully intervene for one reason or another.
  • Snape reflects on his own abusive upbringing when discovering Harry's situation. He's especially incensed by the cupboard under the stairs, in part because he recalls being locked in a closet as a child and how it left him with a dislike of small spaces.
  • Abraxus Malfoy, though he is never seen, is said to have terrified and controlled everyone in his family, including Lucius. By the time Harry meets the Malfoys, Abraxus has gone senile and lives in a sealed-off ward of the Malfoy manor, and everyone agrees that it is better that they do not have to see or hear him.
  • Neville's grandmother and Uncle Algy apparently kept him isolated at home out of embarrassment for the lack of magical talent that he displayed, worried that he was a squib. When he runs into Harry in Diagon Alley before school starts, Neville states that it is the first time he has ever gotten to talk to a boy his age. His grandmother does soften towards him after Neville takes part in thwarting Quirrelmort, likely helped by Neville growing a spine along the way.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • Lucius and Narcissa, though they still retain their pureblood supremacy. As Snape notes early on, at the end of the day the Malfoys are on their own side and no one else's. Narcissa especially states that she can bite her tongue and downplay her prejudices (and advises her son to do the same) so that they can get Harry on their side: a large asset to securing their power.
  • Professor Quirrell of all people, who in this fic absolutely hates being shackled to Voldemort and desperately wants to get out of the arrangement.
• Adaptational Villainy: Zacharias Smith, who becomes Harry's rival in school.
• Adults Are Useless: Averted. The whole premise is Snape doing something about Harry's abusive home life. And adults like Snape, McGonagall, Flitwick and Sprout do their part in preventing Voldemort's return, Burbage prevents bullying from happening in the Explorers Club as well as protects students when in danger, and even Lucius and Narcissa do their part to stop the Dark Lord. The only person who arguably plays this straight is Dumbledore, but it's not without reason.
• All Myths Are True: Even more extensively than the source. Mentions of demons and King Solomon containing djinns are made by the professors when planning how to deal with Quirrelmort.
• And I Must Scream: Unlike canon where Quirrell is a willing follower, here he hates Voldemort's possession and during the climax in the first story talks about what a living nightmare it is to forcibly share his mind with a Dark Lord.
• Ascended Extra: The Hufflepuff house as a whole gets fleshed out. As do Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel.
• Because Destiny Says So: Pureblood wizards believe that certain remarkable individuals, called Child of Destiny are above the rules of normal society because they've a destiny to fulfill.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Played with. Alexander the Great was neither a muggle or a wizard, though his mother was a witch, but was a sort of Magnetic Hero whose charisma was uncannily similar to the Imperius. Lucius Malfoy refers to him, and others like him, as a Child Of Destiny, and belives that Harry is one as well.
• Brainwashing for the Greater Good: This is how Snape ends up dealing with the Dursleys when he's unable to remove Harry from their care. On top of putting a spell on them that makes them pretty much ignore Harry and his room when he stays at Privet Drive, he also forcibly alters their personalities to make them less unpleasant. Among other things, he places a magic compulsion in all of them to work harder, develop healthier habits, and just overall stop being a bunch of obnoxious louts.
• Body Horror: A passage from Voldemort's point of view while he is attached to Quirrel states that the face on the back of Quirrel's head has not just appeared but has physically grown there and apparently causes Quirrel a great deal of pain. Explicit mention is given to the eyes and optic nerves putting pressure on Quirrel's brain tissues as they grew, causing him terrible headaches.
• Character Development: Various characters undergo this. Most prominently is Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy; the former defrosts emotionally and eventually moves on from his love for Lily, and the latter's friendship with Harry, Neville, and Hermione lessens his prejudice until it almost completely vanishes.
• Cool Crown: A gold diadem with huge cabochon rubies, pearls, gold leaves and other decorations. It belonged to the Potter family before they were even named Potter.
• Covert Pervert: Lucius Malfoy, of all people. He is mentioned appreciating pretty women a few times (though he is always faithful to his wife and by all appearances loves her) and wants to hire raunchy entertainment for Snape's bachelor party. In a lesser sense, he implores Narcissa to let Draco enjoy his youth before trying to matchmake him with a witch of pedigree, implying that she should give Draco a chance to pursue girls while he's young.
• Creepy Souvenir: After Voldemort's attack, the Potter hideout was pillaged by greedy wizards and witches until the Ministry put wards one month later. Luckily, they missed most of the really valuable items hidden in the upstairs bedroom.
• Death by Adaptation: Zach Smith spies on Lucius Malfoy disposing of a certain diary and ends up falling victim to the soul-fragment it contains. Notably, this is the only death in the entire fic.
• Dreaded Kids' Table: When Snape and Harry meet Charity's extended family, Harry is "rather put out" at having to sit with the younger boys. They all end up getting on well when they start talking about Quidditch.
• Everybody Lives: There are almost no deaths among the main characters in the story or its sequel; even the basilisk in the Chamber Of Secrets is spared thanks to Harry using his Parseltongue to convince it to return to the chamber, then feeds it until it falls asleep.
• Freudian Excuse: While Snape remarks that Petunia's treatment of Harry is unforgivable, he admits to himself that her and Vernon's hatred of magic was likely made even worse by the disastrous Potter wedding, which devolved into a fight between anti-muggle purists and the Light supporters, with Petunia and her parents being among those attacked.
• Geometric Magic: It can be used to contain demons. Snape and the other teachers use Baphomet's Configuration, along with a circle of salt to contain Quirrelmort inside the Mirror of Erised.
• Harmful to Minors: During his childhood, Harry got lots of presents from wizards and witches, which Dumbledore stored away in a room within the owlery. However, a lot of presents had curses and poisons in them which would killed Harry.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: The Hogwarts teachers to Dumbledore. They are the ones who devise the Geometric Magic necessary to have Voldemort trapped inside the Mirror of Erised for all eternity.
• Impoverished Patrician: Due to James helping fund the War, most of the Potter fortune and holdings has been lost, leaving Harry with only just enough gold to get him through Hogwarts. Luckily, he's not completely on his own, as Snape, Minerva and Dumbledore find some of the family jewels and keepsakes in Godric's Hollow, and several grateful people had left money and even a house in their wills to Harry.
• Insufferable Genius: Hermione, like in canon. However, her enthusiasm for being the best, as well as being an outsider, gets her bullied by the Ravenclaw girls. Luckily, Harry informs a teacher, who steps in and stops it from going too far.
• Insult Friendly Fire: When Zach Smith taunts Harry about staying at Hogwarts for the Christmas holidays, insinuating he's "not wanted at home", Ron takes offense because he and his brothers are staying too. This turns out to be the beginning of the end for Ron and Zach being the "Gryffindor bully duo".
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Snape starts off very bitter as he was in canon and mostly persuades himself to help Harry by thinking of him as "Lily's child" rather than his own person, though he is also shown to care for the wellbeing of his Slytherin students, whom Dumbledore often neglects. Child abusers in particular throw him into a rage, as Petunia finds out. Over the course of the story, Snape's better inclinations become more pronounced as he begins to let go of the pain and anger he has been holding onto over the years, grows to genuinely care for Harry as a surrogate son, and finds his own happiness in the present.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: The Mirror of Erised has been substantially upgraded from canon — though it is less effective on children, who have fewer regrets. It almost ensnares Snape and McGonagall, who only manage to escape because they happen to bump elbows, bringing them back to reality. It does ensnare Voldemort, with a little added assistance from the Hogwarts staff to physically transport his spirit inside, and he is expected to spend the rest of eternity there, basking in the triumph of seizing the Philosopher's Stone.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Harry tends to downplay his own injuries unless they are so severe that they incapacitate him. This especially shows when he ends up bleeding from his nose and ear, due to Quirrelmort using him as a target in class for others to throw harmful spells at and putting a knife in Harry's hand during the demonstration. This is sharply contrasted with the reactions of Snape, the other Hufflepuffs, and the rest of his teachers and friends, who show appropriate shock and concern.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: Quirrelmort makes Harry to be target practise during DADA, while having a knife magically stuck in his hand. The results is that Harry ends up bleeding from his ear and nose. It backfires on him though and only Dumbledore's intervention prevented him from being sacked.
• Mama Bear: While Lucius is concerned with power and appearances, and Narcissa does share the sentiment, she is also motivated to act against what remains of Voldemort by the danger that his actions and followers might pose to Draco. The discovery that one of the horcruxes is stored in her sister Bellatrix's Gringotts vault especially angers her; Bellatrix bequeathed everything to Draco in her will, so it was entirely possible that if the horcruxes had not been discovered, he would have fallen victim to the curses surrounding the item when he went to clean out Bellatrix's effects after her death.
• Manipulative Bastard: Downplayed. Dumbledore is portrayed as manipulative and secretive of his motives, but rather than vilify him, the author still portrays him as a good guy, just one that simply believes he knows what's best due to his age and experience. And when Dumbledore is proven wrong, he admits it.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Once Minerva borrowed her precious copy of Ogham Book of Ballymore to Dumbledore then she got it back with its pages stuck together by melted lemon sherbets. Since then she refuses to borrow books to Dumbledore.
  • There was a separate occasion that Snape refuses to speak of: During Snape's school days, he regaled the school by singing The Wintersday Carol with Dumbledore and Elphias Doge. Apparently, his singing voice was lovely.
  Snape: I have not drunk half a bottle of firewhiskey at a sitting since.
• Odd Friendship: Hufflepuff Harry Potter, Slytherin Draco Malfoy, Ravenclaw Hermione Granger, and Gryffindor Neville Longbottom become a tight-knit foursome throughout the story. Cheerful Charity Burbage also strikes up a friendship with the recalcitrant Snape, which later becomes romantic.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The Weasley twins are shown looking over the Marauders' Map and discovering that Peter Pettigrew is somehow alive and well in the Gryffindor common room. While Ron is away with the other first-years on a field trip, the twins begin performing experiments on Scabbers and do indeed confirm that it is a transformed Pettigrew somehow. This is only related to the other characters after the fact by Dumbledore, so it's not known exactly how they did it.
• Our Demons Are Different: There's very little detail about demons but they apparently are controlled by necromancers.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Since the Philosopher's Stone only works for its original creators, the Flamels end up outliving several generations of their descendants. After about two hundred years, they learned to stop getting attached, as their descendants now constituted most of wizarding England and France.
• Panty Thief: James Potter. He had kept panties stolen from girls from the four Houses. McGonagall is mortified when she finds them in his trunk, and Snape laughs until a knicker belonging to Lily is found.
• Papa Wolf:
  • Deconstructed with James Potter, who squandered the family fortune to pay for the war against Voldemort. The characters are divided with one camp, including the Author claiming that James and Lily would have preferred that Harry be poor than what would happened if Voldemort won. Others, mostly Snape believe that James was simply an idiot who squandered the family fortune and left his only son with just barely enough to get a proper wizarding education.
  • Played very much straight with Snape after he develops real affection for Harry. He is more than ready to meet many threats to Harry with lethal force, as the troll that Quirrel sets loose on Halloween finds out the hard way.
• Pyrrhic Victory:
  • While rifling through Petunia's mind, Snape discovers that she basically sabotaged her own life in a misplaced obsession to show up Lily by marrying the first suitor that came along and having a child before her sister did. When all was said and done, she was stuck in a loveless marriage with a man she couldn't stand, and a son she didn't know how to raise properly.
  • It is pointed out a few times how Voldemort's actions were ultimately self-defeating. In creating horcruxes, he constantly rendered himself less capable of rational thought and twisted his own body into something horrific and inhuman, leading him further in a downward spiral of choices that ultimately were his undoing. Even the fragment of Tom Riddle in his original horcrux is disgusted at what Voldemort became, and while not more moral than his alternate self, he does regard Voldemort's ambitions of dominating the wizarding world as foolish and resolve to not repeat the same mistakes.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Voldemort's spirit is trapped in the Mirror Of Erised, as a reflection of himself holding the Philosopher's Stone.
• Second Love: Snape finds romance with Charity Burbage, the Muggle Studies professor, after she agrees to sponsor a club for the first-year students to introduce them to the customs of the wizarding world. She later reveals that Snape is also her second love, as she was previously married to a muggle man when she lived in New Zealand.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Quirrell survives the events of The Philosopher's Stone and is exorcised of Voldemort's soul. The Flamels are also spared, as they have several Philosopher's Stones, none of which work for anyone but themselves, and so can continue producing Elixir of Life for themselves even after sacrificing one to the Mirror of Erised to keep Voldemort trapped in it.
• Stupidest Thing I've Ever Heard: Flitwick's reaction to hear about Voldemort creating horcruxes. He points out that horcruxes would cause a Death of Personality, make the wizard more irrational, and Evil Makes You Ugly.
• Title Drop: Early on in the first story, Minerva quotes the proverb that "The best revenge is living well" to Harry and Snape, in reference to Harry's desire to live peacefully rather than getting back at the Dursleys for what they put him through. It is quoted a second time at the end of the second story by Merlin Gaunt, AKA Tom Riddle, as a summary of his new plan: to make the most of his education, become well-respected and famous, and remain good-looking and powerful all his life so that he can enjoy his experiences, instead of chasing immortality again.
• Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Mysteria Bonea Dea^note Mysteries of the Good Goddess or Secrets of the Great Mother, a magical tome that is passed down to witches and cannot be touched by men without horrible pain. Lily had it in her possession when she died.
• Treasure Room:
  • The Potters kept a bedroom at Godric's Hollow with several expensive items sealed away in drawers that make up part of Harry's remaining inheritance, as well as a rare and powerful book of witch-exclusive magic that Lily was hiding, which somehow ties into how she was able to shield Harry from the Killing Curse.
  • The Room of Lost Things in Hogwarts is exactly as the name says: a room of items that people have lost in the castle over the years, many of which are old, rare, and valuable. Among them is Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem, which is also one of Voldemort's horcruxes. Tom Riddle also makes off with some of the treasures there to fund his new life after his resurrection.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: An In-Universe example, as Snape thinks of many theories regarding Zacharias Smith's disappearance. Smith's vanishing is stated to have become a famous unsolved mystery in the wizarding world and the subject of several books.
• Win-Win Ending: Snape finds a Second Love and reconnects with his mother's side of the family; Charity gets recognition for her books and has children; Harry is Happily Adopted and unburdened by fame and heroic responsibilities; Sirius is freed and owns an exotic island where Remus can transform safely; the curse is lifted from the Defense teaching position; Quirrell is freed from the possession, saved and healed; Tom Riddle (the part of him that was sealed in the diary) starts a glamorous new life in the USA. In a way, even the bit of Voldemort trapped in the Mirror of Erised gets a happy ending, as he gets to spend eternity basking in the triumph of seizing the Philosopher's Stone and never has to learn the Worthless Treasure Twist.
• Worthless Treasure Twist: The Flamels eventually reveal that a Philosopher's Stone only works for its creators, so even if Voldemort had really seized it, it would have done him no good.
• You Are a Credit to Your Race: Due to a misinterpretation of his father's words, Draco believes that if he meets the rare exceptionally talented muggleborn, he shouldn't look down on them but rather treat them as equals. This gradually lessens his prejudice, until it almost completely vanishes.

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