Title: Betrayal of the Best Kind
Author: Draco664
Rating: M
Genre: Action/Adventure
DLP Category: Romance
Pairing: HP/CC
Chapters: 27
Words: 82,771
Update: July 29, 2005
Status: Complete
Summary: When the world turns against him, leaving only one by his side, Harry finds out that life, love and truth are more complicated than they seem. Danger, suspense, heartbreak and treachery abound.
Link: http://draco664.fanficauthors.net/Betrayal_of_the_Best_Kind/index/

Since this fic won an award and all, it will get in the library. Most DLPers think that it's a good Azkaban-genre fic and the best HP/CC pairing. I'm surprised it wasn't posted. You know, the library really is missing some popular fics that are talked about a lot on the forums.

I dislike the beginning of this fic. One problem is that that cliches abound such as Harry crying after reading a letter from his parents, Harry having a phoenix animagus, Best-Friends-for-Evah! Marauders, Ginny writing letters to Harry to cheer him up (oops, I mean Cho), etc. although I suppose they weren't cliche when the fic was written.

My main problem is the characterization in the fic during the beginning. Seriously, Harry's written with more mood swings and less rationality than any other fic I've every seen. Well, maybe not every fic (I'm looking at you and H/G, Rowling). His personality swings completely turned me off. It seemed that each chapter he would be feeling or doing the opposite thing of what he felt before or should've done.

For example, he keeps his sanity in Azkaban by hating everybody and locking away his good feelings. Yet when he escapes he's talking with Sirius like he never even came to Azkaban and all that hatred he's stored up is just his imagination. A more realistic view of the converstion is made in the fic Exile by Easleyweasley.

Then Harry recalls that Cho looked disgusted at him in the trial, and he says he doesn't love her anymore. Yet he still goes to meet with her without even thinking at all that it's a trap.

A lot of the early fic seems to be about ho-hum Hogwarts stuff and everyday life. I personally prefer to read about action and suspense - as I've stated before - mainly because I got sick of reading all those 6th year Harry Potter stories. One part I skipped entirely was the Sirius-Cho interaction, which was pure drama and could've been cut without harming the story. Come to think of it, much of the romance could've been cut such as Cho's feelings - although this may be a reflection of my hatred for romance.

After this, I dropped the fic. Now I'm rereading it.

Later on, it improves. An interesting thing is that this is the only fic I've ever seen where Harry actually joins Voldemort after being imprisoned in Azkaban. Harry Potter starts acting more realistically. The cliches also disappear - for example one interesting new idea is that Voldemort only marks his inner circle.

After this, Harry tells his friends to get out of there in an attack. At first I thought it was another dumb mistake. Reading on, Draco664 apparently uses this as a very nice plot device where you're unable to figure out whose side Harry is on. In addition, the battle scene at the end was very nice; Harry's traps were original and effective, although Draco664 seems to give too much credit to muggles.

Nevertheless, the romance still turns me off. Cho has publicly stated that she hates Harry to his face. He doesn't know she doesn't. And yet, when she is captured by him, he helps her escape. But the worst part of it is the fluff. I'm still scarred. Let me quote:

Disgusting. To me, at least.

The second thing that turns me off is that Draco664 gives no reason for Harry to spy. He seems to forget that Harry has been betrayed by them and has absolutely no reason to help Dumbledore or them anymore. In fact, there is no explanation for why Harry decides to spy on Voldemort. This is - of course - in order to create confusion over whether Harry actually is a spy until it's revealed. Nevertheless, it would be nice to have the last chapters show this (they don't).

2/5 in the beginning.

3.75/5 after that.

P.S. If this fic is on the forums, my mistake. But I did search Draco664 and it wasn't there.


Checked by Minion, Nov. 17, 2012
Checked by Sorrows: 03/08/2019

 

Yeah, this is a legend. Coolness, angst and good romance. Nothing more to say than that - which is probably why it never got posted, along with several other oldies.

4.7/5

 

First when you see this fic it seems almost too good to be true since there isn't many Azkaban stories with Harry/Cho pairing. Anyway I liked the beginning with all the angst and betrayal, but it went downhill from there on.

2.5/5

 

Parts of this story and especially the sequel can be very ridiculous but I like it and I think it some how works.

3.5/5 The whole happy ending with the friends kind of annoys me.

 

Yeah, it was good--i enjoyed it a lot. BUT. Anyone read the sequel? Terrible idea--and I'm not even talking about the whole 'romance' side of the story. the way that voldemort eventually gets defeated is so anti-climactic, combined with magicalcreatureanimagus!harry AND cho. It was a terrible ending.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot to add my assessment of the final 2 fight scenes in the first one, then the way that harry survives them. I dropped my rating a whole point for them--terrible pieces of cliched crap.

this one: 2.5/5

I'll also give my preeminent opinion on the sequel: 2/5

 

I read this a while ago... I think it seemed pretty good to me then, but now it seems kind of average.

3.5/5

 

I liked this a lot my first time around. Considering the time it was written, the cliches aren't that bad. It's sequel is okay, but not as good.

4/5

3/5 for sequel.

 

The first time I read this, it was my introduction to the Azkaban-style fic, so I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Looking back now that I have read (or at least seriously started then ditched when they turned to crap) probably around 30 or so other similar fics, it doesn't really stand out of the pack that much. I really enjoyed a few scenes, like how he tried to fake his death. I mean, it wasn't perfect by a long shot, but looking back that's what I remember most about the fic.

Overall, it was pretty decent, a good thing to read if you like this type of romance or if you are out of fics to read, but I'm not going to spend a few hours rereading it by any means.

3/5

 

For me, this story is a classic. It was written in a time when the cliche's used weren't so overused. Personally, I prefer the first over the second, but I'll give it a 5/5. I liked the concept, the story and the way it was written.

 

I liked the start of it but i found it went the same way as most other azkaban fiction in that they seem to lose ideas after a while, the sequel was woeful for me but it is a classic and i mostly enjoy draco's work. overall 3.5/5

 

Considering it wasnt too cliche when it was written, I liked it pretty well. It isnt the best youll ever seen, but there are worse. Its sequel wasnt as good, but is still decent enough.

3.5/5 combine score for both.

 

This was top of it line when it was written, and while it might not be that good now thats because its older. There were annoying things when I read it, but what fic doesnt have that. The only thing that really stands out as being truly annoying is that Cho betrays Harry a few times and yet he still "loves" her. Anyway it is a classic imo so 4/5

 

Well, in my defense, it was the first time I'd ever tried creative writing, I wrote in in a month and a half, without a beta, and posted it without proofreading for the most part.

I reread it recently and I cringed at how dated it has become. When I was writing it, there were about 3 Phoenix!Harry fics out there, chiches were still new ideas, and JKR hadn't decided what the fifth book should be called.

About the only thing I am still proud of in it was the set up that sent Harry to Azkaban. I'm yet to read another fic that has even a remotely decent frame.

Draco

 

The phrase "to be, or not to be" has been used in a gazillion ways, but anyone calling "Hamlet" a cliché is simply bloody stupid. So there! This story was one of the first fanfics i ever read, and it was great. Sure, these days there's tons of fics using all kinds of themes, but i prefer to give credit where credit's due. Today, my taste is a bit more refined, but hell, so's Draco's writing. This fic may be average today, and it has some annoying bits, but to me at least it's one of the classics together with the Psychic Serpent Trilogy and the Model T Ford. Best of it's time.
g

 

I agree with gadriam. This was a classic especially amongst HP/CC fans. Plus he managed to get it finished which is ahm, well, a big plus.