Title: The Changeling
Author: Annerb
Rating: T
Genre: Drama/Angst
Library category: The Alternates
Completed: April 19, 2017
Published: April 20, 2011
Words: 189,186
Status: Complete
Pairing: None so far, Minor Ginny/Harry in the future
Summary: Ginny is sorted into Slytherin. It takes her seven years to figure out why. In-progress.
Link: link

This is, as the summary suggests, a Slytherin!Ginny AU which follows Ginny through her seven years at Hogwarts. Five years have been completed, one chapter for each year with the later years far longer than the early ones. Major selling points include good writing, strong characterization and character progression of Ginny, realistic characterizations of everyone involved, good realistic portrayal of Slytherin house with some elements I've never seen before, engaging discussions and debates and some excellent Ginny/Harry interactions.

A character driven story of the highest quality. I recommend it.

Checked 20/08/17 - Palindrome

 

I actually liked this quite a bit, especially the parlor scenes. It had some familiar ideas regarding Slytherin, but also some new ones.

 

I really liked this and I hope the author will finish it.
I had read a Slytherin!Ron story that never got past first year (Red hair, green tie), and it got me interested in Weasleys in Slytherin... This was a perfect fit.

I found characterizations good. The ideas about life in Slytherin were interesting (the parlor scenes and subplot, not every Slytherin acting like 50-year-old politicians... ).
The OCs were also well done.

All in all, for the sheer enjoyment I got out of it, I'll give it 5/5.

 

I have to concur, I have enjoyed this read a great deal. The lack of dialogue in the first two chapters was off putting but the story hit its stride in the 4th and 5th year. And the characterizations and the slowly building tension between Ginny and Harry makes me alright if the two will be paired together at some point

 

This was an excellent read. It had me totally absorbed with its plot. I highly recommend it despite being a Ginny!centric story.
It has some cliches like the whole "Parlor" concept and Gryffindor/Slytherin animosity but they are executed with style and creativity.
Ginny's character certainly grows a lot and it's very well done.
It's been a while since I read something of this quality.
5/5

 

Brilliant, 5/5.

 

This is a really awesome story that's got a lot of great characters. 5/5 from me and I've already read it all twice, I hope it updates again

 

This is good, but it has issues. First the pros:
Masterfully fleshing out of Ginny, if this was the canon then I'd ship more Harry/Ginny. Canon Ginny feels very cardboard, gets little mention then shoe horned romance.
Doesn't drag on too much, it's non harry centric story and it knows that it does what it needs to do and then gets out.
Great side characters, well fleshed out, have their own lives and they aren't dependent on Ginny for their lives to move forward.
Not a player Ginny, in Canon it feels like Ginny dates quiet a few guys to get Harry jealous maybe. But not in this fic (Though I really wanted her and Antonia to be a thing.)
Kid politics, Yes there are some politics in Slytherin but it's not really complex like in most Slytherin!Harry fics, and it's not forced, it feels cliquish like one would expect from grade schoolers.
Now the cons:
At the end of the day Canon isn't changing really, Quidditch changes and a few views on people change but all the major canon events happen and we miss most of them, because Ginny is just not in them.
Bare bones story, It gets in and doesn't overstay it's welcome but the first few years feel very bare bones and could use some fleshing out.

So 3-4 out of five, I'd really rather judge this when it's done to see if it'll finish well enough, I'd rather not have a Harry/Ginny pairing at this point, but I wouldn't mind them being together in this fix.

 

I just couldn't get into the fanfic by said person's cons listed up above. Just felt weird to me. It just gives out the very basic details of every year, and needed to be expanded into better detail. I couldn't finish reading it.

 

Because it is more more fun to read about older characters and at a time much more interesting stuff happens. This is exactly what On the Way to Greatness does, less stuff first, fun stuff later. The third, fourth and fifth year are 80k words in this, and that is when important stuff happens.

Yeah, well, that's what I meant by Character Driven story. This is Ginny's story, the story of her finding her place in Slytherin and the World, and her story goes on a different path to Harry's fight against Voldemort. They do intersect sometimes, but this is far more about Ginny's struggle against the world than the struggle against Voldemort. And frankly, I would much rather see this than yet another horcrux hunt and fight against Voldemort.

This isn't a canon rehash, even if most important events in canon still happen. The most important stuff here (Ginny's character development, the Parlor storyline) are only indirectly influenced by canon events.

 

It feels like a canon rehash. There's nothing especially new here.

If it grows a plot in next chapters, I'll raise to 4/5, but for now 3/5.

 

It takes a few chapters to get going, but the last two chapters, which are exceptionally written for fanfiction, truly elevate the story to being Library quality. I can't help but think that the inconsistency may stem from a long hiatus (four years?) between the initial chapters and the last ones.

I suspect the next is going to be something special as Ginny gravitates to the center of events at Hogwarts.

5/5

 

Are other people not bothered by the present tense narration? That alone has caused my brain to lump it into an unflattering group of fics.

 

Yeah, I just started reading this, and... Yeah, present tense narration sucks. I won't bother rating, since my opinion is biased.

 

Present tense narration can absolutely be awesome.

Sisyphus

The Anatomist

I have no problems with it in this story - it makes the pacing measured and atmospheric, which is helpful when you're blowing through years like this one is.

I'm 2 chapters in and won't rate yet, but so far it's pretty strong.

 

I didn't notice the present-tense narration at all, although in retrospect that does explain the tone of the story that felt slightly "off" to me the whole time.

Personally, I loved it. A divergence fic that doesn't get bogged down on the unnecessary details of early years/events, and makes me care about the characters.

5/5

 

5/5
The first few chapters are closer to 4/5, but still enjoyable, and it gets so good by the end. I can't remember seeing Ginny written this well before in any story.

My only complaint is that some of the OCs aren't fleshed out as well as the canon characters. I don't know much about Smita and Tobias, even after five years of story.

Antonia on the other hand is awesome... her conversations with Ginny are really fun to read and surprisingly insightful. The Parlor starts out like a cliche, but ends up as something much more interesting once you understand why it exists.

 

What's great about this fanfic is that it's got some huge "filters" - like, if you're not into Ginny, Quidditch, or canon rehash, you can just skip it.

If you do, you're missing out, though. It's quite well written, and there's some pretty stellar characterization.

So, negatives -

Ginny's OC friends (Tobias and Smita) are pretty cookie-cutter. They follow familiar paths, and while those paths are well-executed, they aren't exactly breaking any new ground.

The plot is extreme canon rehash. I can't think of a single time Ginny being in Slytherin actually had an impact on the canon plotline. Not that it's a bad thing, necessarily - it's more of a stylistic choice, and I appreciate the attention to detail - but some parts I just found myself skimming because there was no tension, because I knew what was going to happen.

Slytherin OC Antonia is kiiiiiinda over the top awesome. She's literally never not the mysterious older girl with all the answers. I mean, I totally ship Ginny/Antonia after the kiss, but she's still a less fleshed-out version of Ophilia Karait.

Harry gets thrown under the bus a bit. You always understand where Ginny's coming from, but after a while it starts to feel like a little much.

Action scenes (Quidditch / fighting) are pretty bleh. You get the feeling the author just kinda wants them to be over with. They're never straight-out bad, but some of them are quite rushed.

And the positives:

A few characters that appear only a few times are done really, really well. A+ characterization of Fleur. Snape came off well, too (by that I mean the canon voice felt real.) Luna was like a B+. Fred and George, very solid.

The writing's extremely clean. I don't think I saw a single typo, which is remarkable. Beyond just being free of errors, though, it's smooth and flows well and has all the pace/structure elements of a good story. Like, Quidditch isn't just tacked on. It's a big part of Ginny's character, it informs a huge arc, it matters.

Ginny feels believably "Ginny" as well as believably Slytherin. Which, when you think about it, is a pretty high bar to clear. She feels like her canon self - the good, and the bad. All that fanon!Ginny nonsense - not even a whiff of it, which is great.

So yeah, overall, if you get the urge for something very JKR-like, very close to the original series, but focusing on different characters, give it a shot.

Echoing Pers, it's only gotten stronger, and Year 7 could be quite special indeed.

4/5

 

There were hints that there is more to Antonia than has been revealed yet.

I imagine we will see more of her in the Battle of Hogwarts. But then, the kiss did seem to be sort of a passing-of-the-torch kind of moment, so it might just be possible that we've seen the last of her. I doubt it though, Antonia's too fun a character for the author to leave out when it seems that the story's only halfway finished.

And you should totally write a Ginny/Antonia sex scene. It needs to be done.

I presume you mean Year Six? But yeah, it does seem like the best is still to come. Just another way the story is similar to On the Way to Greatness -- it keeps getting better with each chapter. The next chapter will certainly be fun, with Snape and the Carrows and the DA and Millicent (I'm sure she'll have a big role next year) and the Parlor, and the final year will be completely new material, so yeah, with this quality of writing, it is hard to see it go wrong.

Agreed on the action scenes, it makes me a bit worried about the final battle. I think a large part of the reason they feel rushed is because the author needs to finish one year in one chapter only, so it is inevitable that they are rather short.

I like Harry's characterization. I can see where you're coming from, but he totally feels like canon Harry. There are some nice moments involving him -- him teaching the DA, teaching Reiko about being a seeker. But I enjoy those moments where he's off balance the most and the stubbornness with Malfoy is 100% HBP Harry.

Right, so I found another fanfic that goes really well with The Changeling.

It is another story about Ginny in Slytherin, but it was abandoned early on after only 24k words. But the story covers Ginny's first year that The Changeling totally breezed past in some detail, so the two go together very well. It is well written by fanfiction standards, Ginny's character voice is fun and Tom Riddle is creepy enough to give me vibes of The Very Secret Diary in a couple of places. It also has an outtake from Harry's POV. All in all, a decent read.

 

Updated with 40k words. Don't know when I'll get the chance to read this...

Oh, and the rest deserves a 5/5 for an amazing character piece. Truly a stunning read. The chapter style hurts the characterization of the secondary Slytherins a bit, but that's largely unavoidable and matters less given the focus. The Parlor is a tad overdone, IMO, and I'm less than fond of some of the interactions with Harry, but you just need to keep the perspective in mind.