Title: Ruined In A Day
Author: Net Girl
Rating: Teen
Genre: Angst/Drama
DLP Category: Dark Arts
Pairing: Harry Potter/Ginevra Weasley
Words: 9,338
Published: September 24, 2002
Status: Complete, Oneshot
Summary: Harry makes a foray into his own dark side ... with shattering consequences.
Link: Ruined In A Day (FFN)

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Read all the way through.

This is the beginning one-shot in a series of very top-notch one-shots as far as I'm concerned. More than good enough writing, diction and intelligence applied concerning technique and a very good job at building suspense. The middle makes you concern for two things: A) Is this turning into Slash? and after that B) Is this going to be Harry/Ginny? The short answers are no to A and yes to B but reading the entirety of it will enable a very, very satisfactory ending.

The angst and drama headers are appropriate but it's not the bullshit angst you're all probably familiar with and the drama is of the tolerable variety. I like the way this ends. I like the way Draco Malfoy steps in at the end. It provides for some tense discussions in the following one-shots.

I don't want to spoil anything but rest assured I think this is well deserving of Myth status. Thank Cataclysmic for the find.

Also, of course, if you enjoy this one-shot here are the proceeding pieces (sort of making it a short story):

Second Piece: Sea of Sin (FFN) -- Acceptable
Words: 9,805
Published: October 4, 2002
Status: Complete, Oneshot
Summary: Sequel to Ruined In A Day. Harry continues his fall into darkness.

Third Piece: Black Celebration (FFN) -- Acceptable
Words: 14,025
Published: October 13, 2002
Status: Complete, Oneshot
Summary: Sequel to Ruined In A Day & Sea of Sin. Harry suspects Ron and Hermione know all of his secrets. Will he go to extremes to make sure they never tell a soul?

Fourth Piece: Examination of Conscience (FFN) -- Myth
Words: 12,413
Published: Noveber 6, 2002
Status: Complete, Oneshot
Summary: The guilt over his crimes pushes Harry to do the unthinkable. Sequel to RIAD, SOS, Black Celebration.

Fifth Piece: Through A Glass, Darkly (FFN) -- Myth
Words: 18,225
Published: April 30, 2003
Status: Complete, Oneshot
Summary: Two years after Harry and his friends have left Hogwarts, the young wizard is brought face to face with his destiny. Will he survive? Will he remain ... Just Harry?

Checked by Minion, Nov. 25, 2012

 

This is damn good. It truly exemplifies what every Dark!Harry author should strive for. I barely noticed the angsty elements I was so enthralled.

 

Hey, I have a question. Isn't a series of one-shots something kin to a story? I dunnu, I'm just arguing semantics, feel free to ignore me. I don;t know where this is coming from...I'm gonna go actually read this, then maybe I'll post a REAL review.

 

This does indeed deserve the "myth" rating. Thank God it didnt turn into slash. But really this one-shot could have easily been an entry into the Annual Kill Ginny thread.

 

It would be unfair to all the other contestants if it was entered. The way this one is handled is far too epic to compete with.

Just a notice, I've added the other 4 pieces:

Second Piece: Sea of Sin (FFN) -- Acceptable
Third Piece: Black Celebration (FFN) -- Acceptable
Fourth Piece: Examination of Conscience (FFN) -- Myth
Fifth Piece: Through A Glass, Darkly (FFN) -- Myth

I particularly enjoy the ending of Examination of Conscience; very cold, very cool.

 

Truely Myth status, though I still have no idea why she doesn't connect them all into one story.

This story is so perfect.

5/5

 

The idea is pretty sweet. I loved the cold, ruthless Harry manipulating Ginny into her death.

That said, I don't see what's such a big deal about this story. Yes, the witting style is rather good and Ginny's death chillingly original, but the story itself is far from perfect.

Harry's motivation is suspect at best. It's not like we see some logical progression of his downfall. He just wakes up one day and decide he wants to be Slytherin - and he proves that by killing Ginny, which is as non-Slytherin as it can get.

Slytherin isn't about being a psychopath and doing whatever you want without conscience; it's about following your ambitions by any means necessary. The author missed the point in this regard IMO. She should have made it crystal clear that Harry in fact craved to be free of social pressures and moral obligations; being Slytherin has nothing to do with that (on the contrary - they should have MORE social pressure then the other houses).

Oh yeah, and convo with Malfoy was VASTLY blown out of proportions. I didn't find Harry's argument THAT biting to leave Malfoy speechless. I mean, if he recovered from being transfigured into a ferret in front of everyone, he should damn well recover from some empty backtalk. It seems to me the author built up this dialogue from the outside (by overblowing everyone's reaction to it), rather than make the dialogue itself more interesting/biting (or even longer then 3 sentences).

IMO, this is a fine one shot. Very nice in its own regard. But I really don't see what's all the hype about.
4.2/5

 

Very nice story, but the setup in a series of oneshots instead of one continuous story was annoying. Malfoy was creepy in a good way, and Ginny's murder was amazing. The openness of the stories was beautifully written. Excellent Dark!Harry, esp the fourth and fifth pieces.

My only complaint was Harry's obsession with Hermione: it doesn't build up and lacks foundation. It's like he simply picked her name out of the air, much like JKR did with Ginny in HBP. The author needed a reason why Harry should pine over her, but never identified it.

4.5/5-One of the best written Dark!Harry fic series I have come across;

 

I really enjoyed this series of oneshots, although it being so instead of a story was somewhat weird and a curious way to put it. I thought the way Malfoy was portrayed was perfect. He was what canon Malfoy should have been.

I agree with everyone that Ginny's death was beautifully done and the best that I've ever seen, thumbs up for that.

The stories were strong throughout but kind of dipped in the middle with the third story, although the angst in the fourth story made everything up, it was awesome.

4.5/5 for me.

 

This story was awesome, the best potrayal of the malfoys i've seen in a while.

The third story wasn't as great but the ending of the last one more than makes up for it.

 

I really enjoyed this series of fics, though I have to say that I found it somewhat unrealistic at points.

If Harry had just openly admitted to murdering Ginny it seemed to me that, regardless of what Hermione wanted, Ron would not have just stopped and gone back to being civil to Harry. Sure he may have believed that he had actually changed at that point, but I really don't think that would make him stop if he was told such a thing, especially considering that he was already consumed by anger before he was told.

Regardless of a few niggling unrealistic points, I really enjoyed this fic. 4.5/5

 

This is the first time in a long time I have been so giddy about reading a story. There are few stories that compare with these. This series truly deserves the ranking of 'myth', as even after reading them, I am uncertain as to if I really read them, or if they are a figment of my imagination. 5/5, and more, if I could.

 

I really enjoyed this series of one shots.

I have only one complaint, that there were several obvious grammar errors that a beta would have caught. And the structure as a series of one shots was somewhat annoying.

That said I give it a 5/5. It is so rare to have stories where Dark Harry is done right. Hermione is not Herman when she is the love interest. And where Malfoy is done correctly.

 

Very thought provoking the last one paragraph. The whole self-pity in ch 3-4 was believable, but not nice to read. The last chapter in which Herm wanted to stop harry was unbelievable and unrealistic - which totally killed the story for me. However, the ending made up for it.

Overall, a worthwhile read, some aspects deserve the myth and beyond (a few bits i was "WOW") status while others parts should not even be fitting for the bin. (I cant rate this)

I do want to see a sequel for some reason... really badly too.

 

So...was the last line an indication of a "joining" of Harry and Voldemort or a Voldemort takes over?