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Fanfic / The Lone Traveler

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The Lone Traveler: Young man who tried to change the past and save those he loved… plan failed and became the Lone Traveler, wandering through time and reality, making a difference wherever he went… very powerful… defeated a powerful Dark wizard styling himself a Lord… swept along the path he walked by a spectacular aura of blue light.
—Legends & Myths of the Wizarding World by Gertrude Yolanda

The Lone Traveler is a series of stories, initially by The Professional, but later taken over and massively expanded by dunuelos. Take the Harry Potter from the prologue of Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Futures Past. He performs the same ritual, except something goes wrong; instead of being sent back in time, he becomes detached from any one reality, kind of a cross between Quantum Leap and Sliders. He drifts around the multiverse, encounters pretty much every fanfic trope on the list, and helps where he can and how he can; sometimes with something big, like directly destroying all of Voldemort's horcruxes, sometimes with something small, like a few words of advice to nudge a character away from the path of evil. He doesn't know what he needs to do in a given universe. Once he has accomplished his intended task he (involuntarily) moves on amidst phoenix song and a prolonged flash of blue light. Sometimes the main reason he is in a universe is to acquire an item or piece of knowledge that he needs in his next destination.

Initially Harry Travels into various iterations of the Harry Potter fanfiction multiverse, but he eventually spreads out to include numerous other works of fiction.

    open/close all folders 
    Places the Traveler visits 

    Main stories 
  1. Harry Potter: The Lone Traveller - The Professional kicks off the story. note 
  2. Stories of the Lone Traveler Ao3- dunuelos takes over. 273,000 words later he decided the story was getting too unwieldy, so along came...
  3. Further Adventures of the Lone Traveler - Harry has truly accepted that he is now the Lone Traveler, and not just the multiverse's Butt-Monkey.
  4. Harry Potter; Lone Traveler,God, and Wizard - Harry is feeling dramatic, what with becoming God of Free Will and all.

     Side stories and spin offs 

     Recursive Fanfic 

This fan fiction series contains examples of:

  • A Nazi by Any Other Name: An unusually insightful version of Vernon Dursley points out the similarities between the Death Eaters and the Nazis.
  • Adults Are Useless: Played straight (which is largely Potter canon), exaggerated, downplayed, justified, inverted, subverted, double subverted, parodied, zig-zagged, averted, lampshaded, invoked, discussed, deconstructed, reconstructed, played for laughs, played for drama, exploited, defied, implied. About the only way this one hasn't shown up is conversed.
  • Angst: Remember how angsty Harry in Nightmares of Futures Past is, even when he knows he's succeeded in sending his memories back in time? Imagine if he'd failed and you have a good idea of the Traveler's initial level of angst.
    • At least one version of Harry point out that Voldemort coming up with his name was nothing more than a severe case of teen angst on the part of Tom Riddle.
  • Anti-Climax: in one of his trips to Babylon 5, the Traveler is incensed to find that the sole reason he was there this time was to provide cooking advice. This improvement to the recipe for flarn does, however, have significant results many years down the road, especially for Londo and the Centauri.
  • Armor-Piercing Question:
    • In one universe he hits Amelia Bones, director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, with a whole barrage of them.
    • Talking to Colonel Klink about the recently departed SS Major Hochstetter.
      Harry: Do you want to live in a world where that horrible little man who just left has the power of life and death over you and your loved ones? ...A world where the Gestapo and the SS are the ideal which children strive to be? Do you want to see that creature *points at picture of Hitler* achieve his dream of 'Aryan Superiority'?
    • In Slytherin Chronicles, Snape uses Lucius Malfoy's interest in breeding Abraxan pegasi to point out how inbreeding to keep bloodlines pure is destroying the very magical culture he wants to preserve.
    • Ron Weasley's loud antipathy towards Slytherins is entrenched canon. The Traveler (or someone operating on his advice) can shut down Ron's brain and mouth by asking him if he really hates his Gran that much, then—when confusion stalls the rant—pointing out that Arthur Weasley's mother was born Cedrella Black, and was, therefore, not only a Slytherin, but from one of the most Slytherin families in Britain.
    • In Here Comes the Marine Barty Crouch Sr. gets hit with one from Dumbledore and Arcturus Black in front of the entire Wizengamot: "Why is Sirius Black in Azkaban?"
  • Author Appeal:
    • Just take a look at which universes crop up the most and you'll have an idea of what dunuelos' interests are.
    • Dunuelos is a big fan—admittedly so, according to the author notes—of John Paul II, despite not being Catholic.
  • Bad Future: Often what the Traveler is there to try and prevent
  • Bad Present: Like in Nightmares of Futures Past, this was what Harry was trying to fix. In his Travels, sometimes the best he can manage is to rescue someone or something from a universe that is, essentially, doomed.
  • Batman Gambit: In his Travels, Harry has encountered many versions of people from his own world and learned how they will react. This means he knows he can do things like leave a list of the horcrux locations and Dumbledore won't stop to think it could be a trap.
    • In a few universes, the Traveler's job is to move a Slytherin, or the entire house, away from their Obviously Evil canon portrayal and into a more sensible outlook where Batman Gambit and Xanatos Gambit become their hat.
  • Berserk Button: For the Traveler people being given no choice—whether explicitly or not—or being forced to make a decision when the information they have access to has been deliberately restricted.
  • Beyond the Impossible: Not the universes where he saves or redeems Voldemort, since that's something that comes up in fanfic often enough. Nor was it the universe where he made Cornelius Fudge competent. It isn't even the times he saved Bellatrix. Redeeming Dolores Umbridge? That certainly qualifies.
    • In one particular version of the Buffyverse, some of the local deities have managed to hide the entire universe from the sight of God himself. Too bad for them they forgot to guard against entry by quantum mirror.
  • Blatant Lies: Pretty much the only way to get pureblood bigots to accept Muggle tech. Tell them that whatever it is they're so uptight about is completely magical and so much better than anything the Muggles could come up with, they'd bow down to the awesome wizards just for a chance just to look at it. Even if the items in question are stainless steel lab benches or lab coats.
  • Broad Strokes: The specific backstory for the Traveler varies between authors, or even from chapter to chapter, in later stories. It doesn't cause too many in-story effects, though. One of the most noticeable effects is whether Charlus and Dorea Potter were James' parents or if it was Fleamont and Euphemia.
  • Changed My Jumper: Averted, usually. The Traveler's simple, but iconic, jeans/t-shirt/black leather jacket combination doesn't always fit in, and he knows it. Luckily, he can just transfigure them into something more appropriate.
    • Played Straight in the various Star Trek universes. The characters might note he's wearing a costume several centuries out of date, but that's all the notice that will be paid to his clothing.
  • Character Name Alias: Harry's frequent go-to alias of Gary Seven. In universes where Harry Potter is a well-known fictional character, he actually tends to avoid using his real name.
  • Colony Drop: The Traveler encounters an Earth that is totally irredeemable and has to decide whether to do this. He is so conflicted that he winds up doing both. Seriously. The first chapter in this 2-chapter arc was him destroying the Earth by dropping an asteroid on it, while the second was what happened when he didn't.
  • Cool Old Lady: Elizabeth II when Harry is at the appropriate place in the timeline. If he's too early for her to be old, she'll likely still be a Royal who Does Something.
  • Crapsack World: The one the Traveler started out in qualifies. Also the Earth that was so irredeemable he considered dropping an asteroid on it (See Colony Drop).
  • Crossover: Every damned chapter. Sometimes with more than one other universe involved.
  • Dare to Be Badass: Sometimes the whole reason the Traveler is in a universe.
  • Dead Fic: The Story of the Guys; The Lone Traveler in a Galaxy Far, Far Away; as well as the original story itself.
  • Devil, but No God: Zig-zagged. Harry confirmed the existence of God when Joan introduced them in Stories of the Lone Traveler, so it was apparently inverted, but towards the end of Further Adventures of the Lone Traveler he encounters Lucifer. Whether he's a multiversal counterpart to God or just the local universe's equivalent isn't clear.
  • Distaff Counterpart: The Traveler runs into several universes where the local equivalent to Harry is female and usually named 'Rose'.
  • Doorstopper: The story spans 2 different authors, 4 main story threads and countless side stories that are too long to include in the main stories. Over 1.1 million words and still climbing.
    • And the recursion helps add to that total even more.
  • The Drifter: The eponymous Traveler.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: There are several differences between the Professional's version of the Traveller and dunuelos' Traveler.
    • Firstly, there's the British spelling of 'Traveller'.
    • Harry's aliases are very generic and meaningless in the first story. This later changes.
    • The Professional's Harry hews much closer to the Harry from Nightmares of Futures Past, while dunuelos' tends to have a more Deathly Hallows-compliant backstory, up until the point where he lost everything. One of the most noticeable effects of this is that Ginny, while she remains Harry's Lost Lenore, goes from being his girlfriend who died at the age of 16, to his fiancée who died at an indeterminate later age, to his wife who died at some point either before or after the birth of their children.
    • In the first story the Traveler had a watch that synchronized itself to the local time and date (but not year). This watch disappears when dunuelos takes over, something he noted in his author's notes.
    • In the last few chapters of the first story, Harry runs into a mysterious cloaked figure several times who disappears with much the same light show as he does. This mysterious cloaked figure hasn't reappeared since dunuelos took over.
  • Earth-Shattering Kaboom: The Traveler destroys the Earth by dropping an asteroid on it.
  • Encyclopedia Exposita: Used in the Opening Narration. Every chapter starting with Stories of the Lone Traveler starts with the excerpt from 'Myths and Legends of the Wizarding World' replicated at the top of the page. The last two paragraphs of 'Further Adventures' introduces a new excerpt from Rupert Giles' Watcher's Diaries that becomes the new Opening Narration.
  • Famous Ancestor: Apart from the canon example of Voldemort, this fluctuates from universe to universe. Some occasional examples:
    • Local Harry being descended from Godric Gryffindor.
    • Local Hermione being descended from Rowena Ravenclaw or Hector Dagworth-Granger, a famous potioneer.
  • Famed In-Story:
    • It's how Harry wound up with the name the Lone Traveler. Due to the fact that he moves through various times in various universes, he finds out out about this moniker long before he has personally done many of the deeds that result in it being applied to him.
    • The post-Traveler parts of Initiative show that Faith Lehane has acquired this status. Merely being introduced to her by name is enough to make the British ambassador start gushing praise, both on his own behalf and his boss'. Fear of pissing her off is enough to make the supernatural community of DC promise to protect her family (i.e. President Bartlett and his family) in exchange for a truce. In West Wing canon Zoë Bartlett's kidnapping and its aftermath was a serious political minefield that caused lots of problems, while in this continuity the nation of Qumar rolls over and capitulates to everything the US demands when they realize they seriously pissed Faith off by not doing anything to curb the extremists who kidnapped her cousin.
  • Family of Choice: The canon examples show up, of course. Obviously for the Potterverse, but also for the Buffyverse and SG-1.
    • After his promotion to Godhood, Harry regards Flute/Aphrael as his sister, a designation she embraces wholeheartedly.
    • Subverted by way of Long-Lost Relative in Initiative. Faith is welcomed into the Bartlett family with open arms. A few chapters later, someone does some genealogical research and finds that Faith's maternal grandfather was Abby Bartlett's estranged uncle.
  • Fandom-Specific Plot: In-universe examples of this trope make up the various worlds that are visited. Some only show up once, but many recur often enough that the Traveler has preset plans (or at least a template of a plan) prepared to deal with them.
    • Potterverse: Muggleborns are actually descendants of Squibs, wizards' magic makes them lazy and illogical, the "Wrong Boy Who Lived", Harry being a metamorphmagus or an animagus, Molly and/or Ginny ensnaring Harry with love potions.
    • Buffyverse: Calling out the Scoobies for how badly they treated Faith, getting Buffy and the Scoobies recognition and/or support from the government, being the same universe as Stargate SG-1.
    • Stargate-verse: Being the same universe as the Buffyverse, helping the Asgard avert extinction.
    • Babylon 5: Saving Ivanova from a lifetime of loneliness, jump-starting her relationship with Marcus, saving Marcus, preventing the Earth-Minbari War, saving Londo.
  • For Want Of A Nail: Occurs more often as the story progresses.
  • Good Is Not Soft: The goblins of the Traveler's original universe called him Maarek Ilumian, which translates as 'Fury of the Light'
  • Good Shepherd: At the end of 'Further Adventures', Harry, the Scoobies, and Pope John Paul II come up with a plan involving the heads of pretty much every religion on Earth working together.
  • Happily Adopted: Happens a few times to various versions of Harry.
    • Harry by the Gibbses in Here Comes The Marine. Played with in that Gibbs is already Harry's sort-of father (A Wizard Did It).
    • A version of Tom Riddle living in the Vale of Aldur adopts the children of the woman he marries.
    • Harry by Sirius a few times.
    • Harry by the Dursleys a few times, too.
    • Harry by Petunia alone in the HPAU arc (4th story, chapters 37-40).
    • Harry and Hermione by alternate versions of their parents. The Traveler took them to another universe, you see.
  • Historical Person Punchline: In-universe, many times.
    • In one chapter the Traveler is in London in the Middle Ages or Renaissance and meets a healer. It isn't until he's helped this healer found a hospital that Harry learns the man's first name is Mungo.note 
    • Harry drags a girl out of a burning house she had gone into because she thought her brother was in there. Said little brother was so impressed with both the Traveler's actions and rationale behind them that he decides to dedicate his life to public service. The boy? Josh Lyman.
    • In a crossover with Real Life, Harry offers suggestions to a WWII RAF engineer on how to better protect the planes being sent off to fight the Luftwaffe or bomb Germany.
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: Many times, most frequently Minerva McGonagall trying to make her brain stop hurting after dealing with a Potter or Potters.
  • I Have Many Names: Apart from The Lone Traveler, Harry tends to use various pseudonyms because his own is somewhat recognizable, either because he's in a Harry Potter universe, or because he's in a universe where those are very popular books. Once you get through the names, there's all his titles...
    • Harry Planter, Gary Seven, Garrick Septimus (Latinization of Gary Seven), Harry Traveler (usually only used in narration to avoid confusion with a local Harry Potter).
    • Maarek Ilumian is a name granted to him by the goblins in his original universe. It means "Fury of the Light". This is also the name he takes when he is made God of Free Will.
  • I'm Mr. [Future Pop Culture Reference]: Zig-zagged and crossed with Character Name Alias. The Traveler's frequent pseudonym of Gary Seven is straight out of Star Trek, so that means it is sometimes a future pop culture reference and, at other times, a current pop culture reference. However, he tends to use this name within the wizarding world, so nobody has seen Star Trek and doesn't call him on it.
    • During The Lone Traveler in a Galaxy Far, Far Away, Harry realizes that 'Ben Kenobi' isn't exactly the best pseudonym for Obi-wan Kenobi, so he gives the old Jedi the new name Ben Kingsley.
  • Intimate Healing: Discussed by Kevin Girardi. During his visit to Arcadia, the Traveler surreptitiously used some spells on Kevin that, over time, allowed his damaged spine to heal. The first time anyone notices this is immediately after he and his fiancée... finish.
    Kevin: I guess [Marvin Gaye] was right. All I needed was some sexual healing.
  • Justice by Other Legal Means: In one arc Vernon is abusive to Petunia as well as Harry, but the local constables are all too friendly with him for Petunia to do anything. What does she do to escape? At the Traveler's suggestion she reports him for embezzling the funds that were supposed to go towards caring for Harry. The Inland Revenue agents, once Petunia explains her reasoning and shows them some of her bruises, happily throw the book at him.
  • Lampshade Hanging: On many, many, things.
    • Rowling's problems with maths are pointed out by the Traveler.
    • "Maybe this is all just some story by some bored guy from the Colonies".
    • The variable spelling of the Traveler's Goblin name of Marek Ilumian is referenced multiple times in the fourth story.
  • Large Ham: Apart from canon examples, the Traveler can do this if required.
  • Lemon: There are a few of these. The explicit stuff is up on sites other than FanFiction.Net and they can be skipped, if desired, without missing anything important to the plot.
  • Long-Lost Relative: It's a voyage through fanfic-land. This occurs frequently, sometimes crossed with Famous Ancestor. If it's a Harry Potter universe, expect the relation to be through a Squib.
    • Susan Ivanova is usually a descendant of Minerva McGonagall (or the local universe's equivalent).
    • In one universe, Vernon Dursley turns out to be the nephew of Dolores Umbridge.
    • In Initiative, Faith turns out to be the granddaughter of Abby Bartlett's estranged uncle.
    • In Greatest Minister in History, a random muggleborn ministry worker turns out to be descended from a member of the Fudge family, thus making her a cousin to the Minister (who immediately insists that she call him "Uncle Cornelius").
    • In Professor of Defense, this happens several times.
      • Severus Snape and the Evans sisters turn out to be cousins.
      • Lily and Petunia's maternal great-grandfather turns out to have been a squib named Salford Dumbledore, making the headmaster their first cousin, thrice removed.
  • Loophole Abuse: Weaponized by the Traveler to get around all sorts of magical things. His maneuvering even impressed Mad-eye Moody.
    • Voldemort cursed the DADA position so nobody lasts for more than a year? Sign someone up to a 364 day contract!
    • Fidelius Charm protecting the location of the Order of the Phoenix HQ might not be working? Change the location of the HQ. The secret the Fidelius was protecting is thus no longer true, and the charm can be re-cast.
    • One of the priests of a particularly uptight god in the world of The Elenium is being a dick. Harry confirms with Aphrael that pranking followers of other gods is frowned upon. However, giving someone a "gift" is perfectly acceptable. So Harry gives him a gift that will let everyone know how important he is: for the next week, everywhere he walks the Imperial March will play. Of course, the priest doesn't realize right away that "everywhere" would include things like when he gets up at night to take a leak.
  • Lost Lenore: Before the start of the story, Harry lost Ginny. Exactly how it happened and who caused it fluctuate, but it is always awful.
  • Love at First Sight:
    • Tom the Bartender and Ellen in the Laments/Joys arc (Stories of the Lone Traveler, chapters 57-58). Tom's heart quite obviously plummets when Ellen is introduced as "Mrs. Umbridge", only to rebound just as quickly when she mentions she's going to Gringotts to finalize her divorce.
  • Love Redeems: A recurring theme.
    • In one universe the presence of a patronus created with the memory of a goddess of lovenote  is enough to pull Igor Karkaroff to the side of the light.
    • In another universe, the Traveler stops Tom Riddle from getting all that far in his horcrux research and lets him live for decades in the Vale of Aldur, where he falls in love and marries a local woman. After she dies, he returns to Hogwarts no older than he left and at the same time he left. From then on, all he needs to do to stop any nascent evil impulses is to remember her.
    • The ability to love or be loved is the deciding factor in the redemption offered to numerous Buffyverse charactersnote  at the end of Further Adventures.
    • It's how Dolores Umbridge is redeemed the one time the Traveller manages it. Even then, he had to start when she was still a toddler.
    • In Professor of Defense, there's a mutual instance. Peter Pettigrew's canon slide to the dark side is halted when he falls madly in love with a late-developing witch by the name of Petunia Evans. Petunia, because she is so in love with her boyfriend, never even considers Vernon Dursley's advances, and the horse-faced shrew of canon never develops.
    • Colonel Klink isn't particularly evil, despite who he works for, but when the Traveler uses his knowledge of history to tell him the sheer amount of death and destruction the Nazis are causing to his beloved homeland, Klink throws in with Hogan with barely a qualm.
  • Matchmaker Quest: Sometimes all the Traveler is there to do is help someone's love life. Universes where this is the case sometimes function as a Breather Level.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Dumbledore. Whether he's good but misguided, mustache-twirlingly evil, or just too lazy to try and think up a more sensible way to do things, he is always manipulative.
  • Muggles Do It Better: Zig-zagged. Which way it goes depends on the universe.
    • Played Straight: In Building A Better Burrow acidic pipe cleaners from a plumbing supply store makes a phenomenal etching compound for adding runes to stones.
    • Inverted:In the various Babylon 5 stories, nobody has anything even close to Harry's translation spell.
    • In Professor of Defense muggle methods are used to make the best potions lab in Britain for Hogwarts, but many of the things about it (e.g. fume hoods, lab coats) are magical replication of—or improvements on—muggle technology.
  • The Multiverse: What else should the Traveler travel through?
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Maarek Ilumian is Goblin for 'Fury of the Light'.
  • Narnia Time: Time flows at different speeds in different universes. Once he figures this out, the Traveler is perfectly willing to abuse this to get far more done than should be possible, even with magic.
  • Note to Self: Played with. Harry Potter does sometimes wind up leaving notes for Harry Potter, it's just the one who writes the notes is the Lone Traveler.
  • Oh, Crap!: Sometimes occurs when someone realizes how screwed they are because of how the Traveler manipulated things
    • The last two words of the HPAU Arc (4th story, chapters 37-40) are Dumbledore thinking "Oh, shite!"
  • Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: In-universe example. When Minerva McGonagall is tired, worked up, or drunk, a Funetik Aksent appears.
  • Opening Narration: Taken from a relevant Encyclopedia Exposita (See the top of this article for an example).
  • Orphaned Series:
    • The Lone Traveller, until dunuelos came along.
    • The Story of The Guys; The Lone Traveler in a Galaxy Far, Far Away.
  • Planet of Hats: Zig-zagged. Oftentimes the locals in a Potterverse view members of the various houses this way. Sometimes it's accurate, sometimes the Traveler is there to help someone realize it isn't.
  • Precision F-Strike: Harry leaves portkeys to use in the eventual evacuation of Stalag 13. The activation phrase is something Hogan admits he would never otherwise say: "Bug the fuck out."
  • Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil:
    • The Traveler comes across a universe where his local counterpart is using his power to force himself on women and girls. The Traveler puts him down.
    • When he's in the position of Professor of Defense, the Traveler notes some problems with the Hogwarts wards, specifically the ones intended to prevent rape. Dumbledore's reaction when he finds this out is best described as 'apocalyptic fury', especially when he finds out that it was one of his predecessors—Phineas Nigellus Black—who had disabled the ward.
    • In one of his trips to the land of The Elenium, Harry is granted a Barony. He institutes some principles of the common law there. Revolutionary ideas like everyone—even bandits—having a right to legal counsel and a day in court and that the law applies to everyone. That comes as a nasty shock to some of the lesser nobles when a nobleman's son gets punished severely for not taking 'no' for an answer from a serf's daughter.
  • Real-Person Cameo: John Paul II appeared once. Elizabeth II has shown up a few times (sometimes with family members). Oh, and mitochondrial Eve.
  • Ron the Death Eater: The Trope Namer himself, as well as numerous others. Played with in numerous ways. Initially the Traveler winds up in universes where the various people's personalities hew quite closely to those of the people he knew. Then comes the A Different Universe arc/side story. For the first time he encounters a universe where Ron—as well as Ginny, Molly, Arthur, and Dumbledore—are evil and he is thrown for a hell of a loop.
    "There are some constants. Hermione Granger is always brilliant. Snape always hates Voldemort."
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: Elizabeth II again. Depending on the universe, she sometimes has a degree of authority over the Magical Government. In some universes they piss her off enough that she threatens to dissolve the Wizengamot.
  • Rule №1: In this case called 'The first Rule of Civilization'. The futurei.e. must be protected.
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Played with. Harry the Traveler gets to set right things that were going to go wrong based on his past experiences.
  • Shout-Out: Occurs in-universe.
    • The Traveler's Trust Password for Tom the Bartender at the Leaky Cauldron starts out as "I am a Lone Traveler in the night." After Harry visits Babylon 5, the phrase occasionally comes out as "I am a Lone Traveler all alone in the night"
    • While he is Building a Better Burrow, Harry creates a secure area of the house that is accessed through a room that looks like the transporter room from the Starship Enterprise.
  • Shown Their Work: Yep.
    • Dunuelos makes sure that the dates of the full moon in story line up with real life (something Rowling didn't do).
    • In the Real Life WWII crossover, the methods Harry suggests the engineer use to better protect the planes are exactly the same method and rationale that were used historically.
  • Something Only They Would Say: In the Potterverse, the Traveler usually establishes his bona fides with his local version by talking about something only the real Harry Potter would know.
  • Spell My Name With An S: The precise spelling of the first part of the Traveler's Goblin-given name seems to fluctuate. It starts out as 'Maarek', though it sometimes appears as 'Marak', and is currently most consistently rendered as 'Marek'. This variation has been commented upon by the Traveler.
  • Take That!: Towards the end of Initiative, Faith makes a recommendation that helps solve a major problem the Bartlett administration is having. Someone asks her to stick around and offer more good ideas, but she responds that she'd rather deal with the "people" i.e. she normally deals with at work, instead of the people in Washington, D.C. any day.
  • This Is My Name on Foreign: In The Lone Traveler in a Galaxy Far, Far Away, Harry decides that the name 'Skywalker' is just a tad too well known, so Luke gets a new last name, specifically a German translation of 'Skywalker'.
  • Those Wacky Nazis: Averted. In Harry's trips to the world of Hogan's Heroes, they're viewed as exactly as evil and dangerous as they were in reality. In some ways Harry's trips to Stalag 13 are Hogan's Heroes played straight.
  • Time Travel for Fun and Profit: The Traveler is quite willing to use his knowledge of what is or will be happening to make craploads of money. Usually that money is left for his local alternate, or to do some other good deed. Taken to its logical conclusion when Harry works with the Gringotts Goblins in one universe to create an inter-dimensional bank.
  • Troll: In at least one universe the Traveler advises his local counterpart that the best way to do this to bullies is to be exceedingly and unfailingly polite to them. Their uncomprehending reactions are funny, and they'll get into trouble for their angry responses to the trolling.
  • Trust Password: The Lone Traveler is always welcome at the Leaky Cauldron. All he has to do is tell the bartender "I am a Lone Traveler in the night" to identify himself, if the bartender hasn't realized who he is just yet.
  • Try to Fit THAT on a Business Card!: Numerous examples
    • The Traveler himself, especially earlier on, will sometimes give his full list of titles and epithets when introducing himself.
    • At the end of Further Adventures of the Lone Traveler, Sparhawk and Garion get drafted for a big fight. Sparhawk's introduction is...lengthy. Immediately lampshaded by Garion.
      Garion: He has more titles than me!
    • Elizabeth II's full title shows up at least once in both Latin and English.
  • Tyop on the Cover: Depending on which side of the Atlantic you're on either the first story's title has one too many l's, or all the subsequent stories are an 'l' short.
  • What Year Is This?: Averted in the first story, where the Traveler has a watch that sets itself to the local time and date, but not year, but he still avoids directly asking people when he is. Zig-zagged afterwards; the watch disappears, but the Traveler doesn't usually go around asking the year. In the Potterverses, especially, he's usually able to figure it out from context.
  • Why Didn't I Think of That?: The Traveler gains a lot of experience with what can work well in certain segments of the multiverse. This lets him cheat a bit and offer elegantly simple solutions that he's either seen implemented in other universes, or just come up with along the way through trial and error. Specific mention should go to the time Harry convinced Colonel Klink to help Hogan win the war for the allies. How? Telling him the truth, which is something Hogan admits never even crossed his mind.
  • Why Me: Harry, at first. This attitude gradually decreases as he comes to accept his role as the Traveler.
  • Xanatos Gambit: For a true Slytherin, this—sometimes crossed with Batman Gambit—is the proper modus operandi. A lesson which Harry both teaches, and puts to good use.

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