Upside Down Mirror: A Grim Tale (Harry Potter Fanfic)

Introduction

Another year rolls around and we've yet another year of ONC prompts and I am yet again writing fanfiction based on the prompts.

What prompt did you use?

The main prompt I am using for this particular novella is the first prompt, "'you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain' - from The Dark Knight." However, the story also fits prompt sixty-two, "waking up to an omen of death on your doorstep isn't exactly how you pictured your Monday morning" which ends up influencing not only the start of the story but also the title. Prompt thirty also fits this particular story because of Regulus' point of view.

What fandom did you pick?

For this particular story the fandom I'm writing for is Harry Potter, but I am adding onto my Upside Down Mirror series.

What is the Upside Down Mirror series?

Everything started with a one-shot where Neville Longbottom is the boy-who-lived. I made an attempt to write a prequel to said one-shot last NaNoWriMo, but as I wrote the one-shot I realized Regulus Black would actually be alive in said prequel and an important question popped up because of this. How was it that Regulus Black ended up surviving?

Of course, there isn't any one answer to said question and the Upside Down Mirror series shifted from being about Neville the boy-who-lived to a series of alternative universes where Regulus Black ends up living, but as I wrote these stories I also came to realize the way I wrote Regulus was as someone on the spectrum.

So yes, this piece will stand-alone despite being a part of a bigger series, the real connection between them all simply being that Regulus Black ends up living and him being on the spectrum. Is though Regulus Black a villain? He certain seems to think so, but I'll leave that up to the reader to decide.

Anything else readers need to know?

Regulus Black died the year he turned eighteen, but what we don't know is whether he died before or after he turned eighteen, let alone if he'd actually graduated from Hogwarts before he died. For this particular story I am purposefully choosing to have his death occur before he turned eighteen and before he graduated.

For those who don't know the fandom beyond the fact it's, you know, Harry Potter, in canon Sirius and Regulus grew up in a household where there was definite verbal altercations between Sirius and their mother which got increasingly worse as they got older to the point Sirius ran away from home at age sixteen and subsequently was disowned.

He openly admits to having his mother's temper, but not so much her nasty streak, given the fact he thought it great fun in canon to nearly have another student at his school (Sirius' best friend's love rival) to be mauled by a werewolf (an actual friend of Sirius) which would have left one seriously hurt or dead while the other in major legal trouble.

On top of this home life causing PTSD issues neither one will have resolved, there is the fact mental illness likely runs in the Black family, so this subject matter is likely to be touched upon in the story. Regulus also has PTSD issues because of his near death experience with the Infiri, but there are also PTSD from realizing the truth about the Death Eaters he joined.

Here is my progress.

- Chapter 1 ~ 701
- Chapter 2 ~ 2,294
- Chapter 3 ~ 3,836
- Chapter 4 ~ 5,054
- Chapter 5 ~ 6,655
- Chapter 6 ~ 7,935
- Chapter 7 ~ 9,028
- Chapter 8 ~ 10,257
- Chapter 9 ~ 11,411
- Chapter 10 ~ 12,665
- Chapter 11 ~ 14,203
- Chapter 12 ~ 15,660
- Chapter 13 ~ 16,716
- Chapter 14 ~ 17,759
- Chapter 15 ~ 18,811
- Chapter 16 ~ 19,897
- Chapter 17 ~ 21,048
- Chapter 18 ~ 22,054
- Chapter 19 ~ 23,312
- Chapter 20 ~ 24,470
- Chapter 21 ~ 25,508
- Chapter 22 ~ 26,203 - FIN