Fanfic / The Untouchable

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The Untouchable is a Harry Potter fanfic written by TreacleTeacups. It can be read here on Archive of Our Own.

As a child, Harry discovers that if he wishes hard enough, they'll come true, if not exactly what he had in mind. His wish to become invisible as a young child changes his life forever. His glasses become enchanted to make his appearance uninteresting and prevent others from paying much attention to him. He lives his life as The Unseen until he receives his letter inviting him to attend Hogwarts and things get a lot more complicated.

The Untouchable provides examples of:

• Animal Motifs: Harry is often compared to a jellyfish since he floats through life not caring about the world around him. His patronus is a jellyfish and he occasionally takes up calling himself "Meduza", the Bulgarian word for jellyfish, following a conversation with Victor Krum. Later subverted when he becomes an animagus. His animal form turns out to be a chimera.
• Armor-Piercing Question: After Harry gives the Philosopher's Stone to Voldemort, he's lectured by Dumbledore for doing so. Harry innocently asks Dumbledore if it's normal for a child to be expected to stand up to a dark lord, which causes Dumbledore to become uncomfortable.
• Attempted Rape: During Harry's sixth year, Draco ambushes him after he gets out of the shower and forcibly kisses him when he rejects his advances. This progresses further to Draco trying to sexually assault him and is only stopped when Harry uses magic to make it so Draco can never feel any pleasure ever again.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Harry is able to make things happen if he wishes hard enough. He learns at a very young age that these wishes tend to come true in unexpected and sometimes unwanted ways, often accomplishing what he asked for in the easiest way possible. An early example of this is when he wishes to escape from Dudley and his Gang of Bullies, he's ended up in a tree and on a roof on different occasions, neither of which he wanted.
• Being Watched: Harry often feels like Professor Quirrell is watching him whenever they pass by each other in the halls, however, whenever Harry turns to look this is never the case. Harry would later learn that he was being watched by the wraith of Voldemort hiding on the back of Quirrell's head under his turban.
• Bitch Slap: Hermione slaps Harry hard when she finds out Harry had stood by and allowed many bad things to happen at Hogwarts over the years. She feels that he should have done something to prevent people from being injured or killed in these incidents, especially since they're friends and she was one of the victims.
• Blood-Splattered Innocents: Harry wakes up in a pool of blood after the morning after his first night at Hogwarts. The blood originated from his pet cat who was killed by some of the other students in his dorm and was left hanging by a rope with her throat cut open above him. He walks around still covered in the blood and in the midst of a Heroic BSoD until he's confronted by Professor Quirrell.
• Classical Chimera: Harry's animagus form is a typical chimera, a combination of a lion, snake, and fire-breathing goat. Sirius is disturbed by this, since chimeras are traditionally an omen of destruction and chaos.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Harry comes across very strangely to other characters due to his strange outlook on life and his extremely laid-back personality despite being surrounded by chaos. He spends the majority of his childhood as an outsider looking in on others with no one noticing his presence or speaking to him, which greatly affects the way he interacts with the world as he gets older. His decisions occasionally border on Insane Troll Logic. As he grows up, he starts to get a bit more serious, but still remains an oddity in the eyes of others.
• Crippling Castration: After learning that Draco tried to sexually assault Harry, Hermione threatens to castrate him. A couple of days later, Draco is in the hospital wing after being attacked by a cutting curse and Hermione smirks about it.
• Crush Blush: In his early teens, Harry has a habit of blushing when any guy he finds attractive speaks to him or sometimes is even just around him. This includes when Voldemort speaks to him, which he's very confused about.
• Curse: On his last day at Hogwarts, Harry curses Parkinson, Crabbe, Goyle, and Bulstrode to die by hanging as punishment for them killing his pet cat on the first day of their first year. All four end up dying this way at different points during the years to follow.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • Ginny Weasley is killed in the Chamber of Secrets when Diary Tom Riddle uses her life force to bring himself back to life. Harry is the only non-petrified person who knows what was going on, but he decides to do nothing out of apathy.
  • Harry kills Umbridge by tricking her into following him to the Chamber of Secrets and then pushing her down the hole that serves as the entrance. Her death is later confirmed when Voldemort gifts Harry one of Umbridge's leg bones.
  • During the summer before Harry's seventh year, he receives Draco Malfoy's head in a box as a "gift" from Voldemort.
  • During his last day at Hogwarts, Harry Curses Parkinson, Crabbe, Goyle, and Bulstrode to die by hanging as revenge for them killing his cat during their first year. The four end up dying in this way at various points over the next few years.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Sirius is livid when he discovers Harry making out with Voldemort, given that Voldemort is a dark lord and responsible for Harry's parents' deaths among other atrocities. At first, he wants to disown Harry, but can't bring himself to do it because of what his own parents did to him. While he doesn't necessarily come to accept Voldemort being a part of Harry's life, he at least puts up with it.
• Desecrating the Dead: During the summer before Harry's seventh year, he receives the body parts of some of his enemies as "gifts" from Voldemort. One of these is Dumbledore's hand which must have been stolen from his grave.
• Dragged by the Collar: Professor Quirrell finds Harry in the forbidden third-floor corridor and asks him why he's there. Harry deflects the question and tries to leave, resulting in Quirrell grabbing him by the collar and forcing him to stay.
• Due to the Dead: Harry buries his pet cat on the Hogwarts grounds after she's killed by some of his dormmates. Through the mental fog of his Heroic BSoD, he decides that this is necessary out of respect. He places her grave near the forest and plants a stick with a leaf impaled on it as a flag to serve as her tombstone.
• Empty Bedroom Grieving: After Regulus' death, Kreature blocked off his bedroom and left it as it was when he last left it. Regulus' room is left untouched for nearly two decades until Kreature decides to show Harry his room and tell him about Regulus' sacrifice, which Harry promises to honour.
• Erotic Asphyxiation: In the epilogue, it's revealed that Crabbe dies by auto-erotic asphyxiation using a curtain cord, fulfilling the Curse to die by hanging that Harry had placed on him years earlier.
• Even Evil Has Standards: While Voldemort was possessing Quirrell, he tells Harry that he wouldn't stoop so low as to wipe children's memories. During Harry's second year at Hogwarts, Lockhart dies after trying to Obliviate Ron Weasley. Harry thinks that says a lot about the two.
• Evil Smells Bad: From the moment he first meets Voldemort, Harry thinks his magic smells/tastes bad.
• Face Your Fears: Harry interrupts a ritual Voldemort was performing and ends up inside his Final Trial, an empty dimension in which he has to face his greatest fear to escape. His fear is Vernon Dursley, who throws insults and mocks him. Eventually, with Voldemort's help, Harry is able to overcome it.
• Finger in the Mail: During the summer before Harry's seventh year at Hogwarts, Voldemort starts sending him body parts of his enemies wrapped up as courtship gifts. It starts with Draco's head, followed by Dumbledore's hand, Slughorn's tongue, and Umbridge's femur bone. This only ends because Harry writes Voldemort a letter telling him to stop.
• Forceful Kiss: During Harry's sixth year, Draco ambushes him after he gets out of the shower one day and forcefully kisses him when he rejects his advances.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: Death takes the form of a young woman instead of one of her other forms, which she claims generally provokes crying and screaming. She also tells Harry she can call them "Lily" since that's Harry's dead mother's name but Harry decides to go with "Rose" instead.
• Fusion Dance: Voldemort possessing Quirrell's body merges with the revived Diary Tom Riddle to create a new adult body for himself that looks like a normal person and not a "ghoul", as Harry described him. Harry doesn't know how Voldemort did it and it is never explained.
• Goggles Do Something Unusual: Harry's glasses are enchanted to disguise his appearance and make others perceive him as boring and forgettable. They are created as a result of a wish to become invisible.
• The Grim Reaper: After Harry accidentally collects the three Deathly Hallows, he becomes the Master of Death and meets Death herself. She takes the form of a young woman to make him more comfortable.
• Hanging Around: On their first night at Hogwarts, some of the other Slytherin first-years kill Harry's pet cat, Bastet, by hanging her from a noose tied to one of the beams of Harry's bed.
• If I Wanted You Dead...: Professor Quirrell gives Harry the required potion to pass through the door of fire in the third-floor corridor. When Harry hesitates to drink it, Quirrell points out that he'd already had plenty of chances to kill Harry if he was going to. Voldemort would repeat this with Harry at multiple points in the future.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Harry threatens to kill Victor Krum if he ever hurts or takes advantage of Hermione.
  Harry: If you hurt her, I’ll kill you. They’ll never find your body. Whatever I did to Voldemort will, quite literally, look like child’s play.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: After walking in on Harry serving tea to a sphinx, Sirius decides to go to a pub and pretend nothing ever happened.
• It Amused Me: Harry decides to tell no one and do nothing after he learns that it is a basilisk that is petrifying students because he enjoyed the drama and thought the rest of the year would be very boring if the attacks stopped. The attacks eventually end with Ginny Weasley's death. Afterwards, Harry considers trying to control the basilisk himself to continue "the excitement" but decides it would be too much effort.
• Jaw Drop: Umbridge's jaw drops in a combination of shock and anger when Professor Trelawney starts giving a prophecy in the middle of her evaluation. The prophecy is actually fake, but Umbridge doesn't know that.
• Kick the Dog: On their first night at Hogwarts, several of the other first-year Slytherins kill Harry's pet cat by hanging her from a noose tied to one of the posts of Harry's bed. They do this to show him how much they hate him and want him dead.
• Lie to the Beholder: Harry's glasses are enchanted to disguise his appearance and cover up his distinguishing traits, making him look very bland and forgettable. This is on top of other enchantments that make it difficult for people to notice or pay attention to him.
• Literary Allusion Title:
  • Chapter 2 is titled "Through the Looking Glass" in reference to the second Alice's Adventures in Wonderland book.
  • Chapter 3 is named "The Kitten, The Witch and The Wardrobe" as a spin on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
• Living Hat: Ravenclaw's Diadem, which contains a piece of Voldemort's soul is sentient and able to communicate with Harry when he has it on his head. The other horcruxes are also sentient, but to a much lesser degree.
• Magic Map: Along with his letter inviting him to attend Hogwarts, Harry receives a map that points the way to Diagon Alley. The map has a marker for the holder always in the center and magically changes the rest of the parchment around it to reflect their surroundings.
• May–December Romance: Harry and Voldemort enter into a relationship despite their approximately fifty-year age gap. Voldemort being an ageless immortal and Harry later becoming one himself makes this less of an issue over time.
• Mistaken for Thief: The goblins assume Harry is a thief coming to steal from Gringotts when he goes there for the first time, since he is shrouded in illusionary magic and goblins have the ability to see through Glamours. After a less-than-legal interrogation under Veritaserum, the goblins believe him when he says he's just there to get money for school supplies.
• Mustache Vandalism: Sirius paints a moustache and beard on his mother's portrait after he moves back into Grimmauld Place.
• Nasal Trauma: Umbridge breaks Hermione's nose by backhanding her in the face while interrogating Hermione about the illegal dueling club she's involved in. Hermione is then blamed for it, with Umbridge claiming Hermione attacked her.
• Off with His Head!: Implied. During the summer before Harry's seventh year at Hogwarts, he receives Draco's head in a box as a "gift" from Voldemort. It's unknown whether Draco was dead before or after his head was removed.
• Only Friend: Harry and Hermione are each other's only friends. Harry is hated by most of Slytherin and Hermione never managed to get along with any of the other Gryffindors. This temporarily ends during their fourth year when Hermione becomes friends with Viktor Krum, although it's unclear if their friendship continued past that year.
• Original Character: Macaria "Mollie" Greengrass is Daphne and Astoria Greengrass' older cousin. She's a seventh-year student in Slytherin and the Head Girl during Harry and Daphne's first year. She quickly takes a liking to Harry and decides she's going to take care of him throughout the year, although not for entirely altruistic purposes. When she and her friends learn that Harry doesn't know anything about Voldemort or the magical world in general, they decide they can manipulate him into following their beliefs.
• Pig Latin: Harry uses magic on Sirius' mother's portrait, forcing her to only be able to speak in Pig Latin. This along with Sirius' Mustache Vandalism causes her to hide from everyone and rarely speak.
• Playing Sick: Harry pretends to be sick and stays in bed all day to hide the bruises and bite mark he got during a shared dream with Voldemort from Sirius and Remus.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Harry has a look that Sirius calls his "Puppy Eyes" where he widens his eyes and tilts his head. Harry notes that it's very effective against Sirius and Hermione but it doesn't work against the receptionist at the Ministry of Magic when he tries to see Tom Riddle without an appointment.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: One of the seventh-year Slytherins mockingly asks Harry if he was raised by Muggles due to Harry eating his food with his hands and having poor table manners. The students nearby are all taken aback when he answers that he was.
• Scrubbing Off the Trauma: Harry takes a scalding hot shower and scrubs every part of himself after Draco tries to sexually assault him, trying to remove every trace of that happening.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: A dementor tries to kill Harry on his way back from the grocery store. He throws a jar of pickles at it and it gets shrunk down and trapped inside the jar. Harry has no idea how he managed to do this and can never recreate it.
• Shackle Seat Trap: The goblins force Harry into a chair to interrogate him after they believe they have caught him trying to steal from them. One of the goblins snaps his fingers and the leather restraints spring from the arms of the chair to bind Harry in place.
• Shared Dream: Starting during Harry's fifth year at Hogwarts, he regularly has shared dreams with Voldemort where they're both sitting in Harry's therapist's office and can talk. During the summer before Harry's seventh year, it's revealed that the dreams are actually Harry's and he's the one who brought Voldemort there, when it was thought to be the other way around.
• Shout-Out:
  • Harry uses magic to force Professor Trelawney to prove her seer ability to prevent Umbridge from firing her. Trelawney gives a "prophecy" that is a modified version of the opening to Romeo and Juliet. Some of the Muggle-raised students know it but no one mentions it.
  • After pushing Umbridge into the Chamber of Secrets to fall to her death, Harry quotes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland from when Alice falls down the rabbit hole.
  • Harry calls the therapist Sirius forces him to see "Doctor Zhivago". This is not his real name.
  • Harry ends a list of things the Dursleys don't like with Green Eggs and Ham.
• The Shrink: Sirius makes Harry see a therapist during his fifth year at Hogwarts. Doctor Welsh is generally well-meaning, if ineffective and easily tricked or manipulated by Harry. That is, until he ends up presumably dead and replaced by Voldemort in disguise.
• Something Only They Would Say: Subverted. Harry contacts Sirius in the middle of the night after having a vision of Sirius' death. He asks Sirius what gift Dumbledore gave him during his first year at Hogwarts, trying to confirm that it really is Sirius and not an imposter. Sirius realizes what Harry is trying to do and just transforms into his dog form and back again.
• Stress Vomit: Harry vomits upon first seeing Voldemort's face on the back of Professor Quirrell's head. It's a combination of shock, a concussion, and that Voldemort's magic tastes bad to Harry.
• Time Stands Still: Time stops for everyone except Harry when he acquires the last of the three Deathly Hallows, becoming the Master of Death. He spends some time talking with Death, whom he gives the nickname "Rose". Time resumes as normal after Rose leaves.
• Titled After the Song: Chapter 12 is titled "A crazy little thing called love" after the Queen song "Crazy Little Thing Called Love".
• You Can See Me?: The Bloody Baron is able to see through Harry's illusory disguise and magic to prevent himself from being noticed. This causes Harry to be very uncomfortable around him and use magic to force him to go away. He's the only character able to do so other than the goblins, who possess some form of True Sight. This trait doesn't seem to have anything to do with the Bloody Baron being a ghost, since all other ghosts are affected by the magic the same as living humans.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: After one of his Shared Dreams with Voldemort, Harry wakes up with bruises and a bite mark on his neck after Voldemort started aggressively making out with him.