Title: In The Company of Secrets
Author: Dream Red
Rating: T (PG-13)
Genre: Action/Adventure/Fantasy
Pairing: No Pairing yet, I believe he said it may be Harry/Susan or Harry/Tracy or...Harry/Millicent?!
Chapters: 89
Words: 420,992
Updated: January 20, 2009
Published: January 13, 2006
Status: Abandoned
Summary: A set of recurring dreams provoke Harry to delve into the history of some of the most powerful wizarding families in order to discover the information that he needs to uncover the mystery behind the Chamber of Secrets and begin his fight in the war.
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2750705/1/

Ignore the fact that Harry gets chummy with Ginny. I hate H/G as much as everyother DLP'er, but Ginslut does not exist here. This story has a great plot, it's mysterious and very well written. Does not follow any conventional forms or clichés. Very original, and i'm looking forward to seeing more of this story. I really do recommend you read this. 5/5


Checked by Minion, June 12, 2013

 

This fic's got a lot going for it. Good writing, mature Harry, dark elements, mysteries, etc. It's also got a good pace, and good characterization for most of the characters.

The Ginny aspect, however, is irritating. It's the fact that her being possessed by a book in her first year gives her some sort of insight into Harry's personality and also into the Slytherin mindset. Also, she spends time tutoring Harry on wizarding history/customs. That irked me for some reason. I think it resonated a bit too much with Hermione teaching Harry the summoning charm.

4/5

QR

 

So far I only had time to read only the first chapter. From what I've read so far the general premise of the fic seems interesting enough. The dream sequence is well done but the shopping trip that follows was in line with the traditional cliche for the most part. Grammatically the fic is fine but the overall writing seems mediocre up until this point.

 

This while having several annoying bits, Ginny for the most part-it really really bugged me, overall it is very well written and quite enjoyable. If you think you can get over the Ginny part then i recommend. Otherwise, stay well clear. 3/5 for serious ginny haters 4/5 for people who dont really care

 

heh - I liked it. Sure it had the founders portrait and shoping cleche and yes it has a seemingly HP/Ginny slant but it also has some original plot devices that provides lots of potential, it well written and the author says it will not endup a ginny matchup.

4/5

 

It's a nice, sweet story. Not great, but I think that it deserves a rating of good. I'd say that it's comparable to OoTP, except somewhat better in my opinion.

Ginny's not written horribly, and as long as it doesn't become a HP/GW pairing I'm fine with her. Nicely written manipulative!Dumbledore, but no bashing. Original plot devices include the founder's portraits and the Chamber of Secrets dreams. The characterization's normal. My main complaints (which could go for Rowling's books as well):

-There's no real conflict. I mean, Harry's getting powerful, but he's never using his power - although I like the fact that he's hiding it. Voldemort and the Ministry seem extremely distant and unimportant - the author mentioned Voldemort in chapter 1 for a paragraph and then he drops off the face of the Earth. Harry promises to investigate the wards, but he then promptly does nothing.

-The aching slowness of the story. He's written 46,000 words and absolutely nothing has happened. The author spends lots of time on unimportant things - Harry's shopping trip, 4 chapters before getting to Hogwarts, etc. He could've written all this in half the length.

 

Good god the amount of plotholes almost killed me. Exampe:
Its post GoF but yet they talk about OWLs they had

 

Last chapter was pretty good, I'm still enjoying this story but I am getting REALLY anxious for the next chapter. Keep in mind that this is NOT an ACTION fic, but is written with suspense and mystery in mind - I find the length perfectly adequate for this story (although I could have done without the random smoke-clothingness). And as for the timeline thing... I think it said just in the first chapter to pretend that 5th year was completely calm and normal... no attacks or anything.

 

If you bothered to read the authors notes at the start of the story, you'd know that he made a mistake. Perfectly reasonable thing, and although a tad strange, the story is developing well enough.. although I do agree about the smoke clothing... I mean, what the hell is that? His entire wardrobe is made of smoke.

There are some good uses of magic, and I've not met a fic where you get the added comedy of Ron trying to eat ice cold bacon and getting a freezing shower. Incidently, as long as they don't end up shagging.. I think the Ginny interaction is decent. We all hate her here because she just appeared for no reason in HBP and she was this perfect girlfriend... Oedipus at all... yet in this she's his best mates sister, and theyre bound to develop a friendship. I like the idea that Harry knows smeg all about the wizarding world, but I have to admit, he should know more than he appears to by his 6th year.

It does look like he's going to go trunk shopping though... and thats just annoying.

I like it.

 

I have, so far, enjoyed this fic, however I would like to see where it goes from here. The plot is somewhat original so I plan to keep reading for now.

4/5

 

Er...wow. I didn't realise my fic was up here. Thanks to Avitus for recommending it, although I'm rather surprised I got such good comments. I guess I should address some of the issues about it:

I began it quite a long time ago and didn't have the energy for a complete overhaul, which is why it's got a rather simplistic writing style and a whole ton of cliches in it. Sorry about those that crop up, like the shopping thing, but I hadn't read enough fanfic at the time to realise that they <i>were</i> cliches.

About Ginny - at the time she seemed a nice substitute for Ron and Hermione, who I actively disliked. In retrospect...maybe not so nice. She'll definately not get together with Harry, under any circumstances, but she's ended up quite integral to the plot, although I've sidelined her a bit more in later chapters. I do want him to get together with someone better than that - any suggestions are welcome.

Yeah, sorry Evil Shnitzel, but I made a stupid mistake about the plot that I only realised about half-way through.

As Avitus pointed out, it's not an action fic so it'll progress quite slowly. The plot should move at a reasonable pace, but it's not until much later on that Harry starts getting into some proper conflicts.

 

Genre: Action/Adventure/Fantasy

You got my hopes up for nothing then!

 

Heh. Didn't realise I hadn't changed that.

 

A DLP category would be nice (maybe it's there but I can't see it) and also: any other opinions and/or ratings?

 

I like it pretty well. I say put it in General or Independent.


also MS could you please maybe update your fic soon?

 

I enjoyed this one. 4/5 I'd say. I'd put in the Independent section. I'd like to see a Harry/Tracey Davis pairing since I haven't seen too many of those (although I'm not actively looking).

 

I couldn't really stand the whole chummy H/G in the begining of the story, I think it's because of how many anti-Ginny stories/scenes I've read. And the fact I didn't exactly like her character to begin with. I'd rate it 3.5, simply because of the number of innovative (at the time at least) items he found while shopping, while making it believable to an extent.

 

Whats the point in double posting?

 

There is no point in double posting. Care to tell me who did though?

It's a good fic. I haven't read much but I liked what I read. 4/5 and in the Indy's I'd say.

 

I could have swore someone who posted above my last post double posted. I might have been mistaken. But I just know someone did it above my last post.