Title: The Legacy Preservation Act
Author: James Spookie
Rating: M
Genre: Drama
Status: WIP
Library Category: Romance (Only because the focus is a relationship. However, there's a lot of other stuff going on as well).
Pairings: Harry/Daphne Greengrass, Neville/Tracey Davis, and several others.
Summary: Last Heirs of noble bloodlines are forced to marry in order to prevent wizards from becoming extinct thanks to a new law passed by the Ministry in order to distract the public from listening to Dumbledore's warnings of Voldemort's return.
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10649604/1/The-Legacy-Preservation-Act

This story is odd in that while the writing is just okay, I thought the approach to the forced-marriage trope was unique and actually believable given canon. In short, Lucius Malfoy influences Fudge to pass "the Legacy Preservation Act" which forces marriages on unwed, male, single, last-heirs of magical lines. The purpose is two-fold. Behind the scenes, it serves to create a diversion from the return of Voldemort, and also is an attempt at getting Harry paired with a daughter of Death Eaters. The Ministry, however, believes it's a way to stem off dying lines. The writing suffers from a lack of editing more than anything else (see summary for an example). However, the author still paints a good picture.

Harry is pretty much in character and Neville is thrust into a strong side-kick role. I got leery of Ron's character, however, and in places it feels as though the story is about to careen into Weasley-bashing in general and Ron-bashing in particular, but it doesn't. Although I personally think Ron's story arc could be better, the author has him emerge as a pretty decent guy. Dumbledore is also treated well in this story. He is neither all-powerful or bashed.

Perhaps the best part of the story is the realistic ups and downs of a forced relationship. Daphne comes into the relationship with a pretty unrealistic goal in life and has unrealistic expectations, but something that I could see a typical 15 year old doing. Harry also doesn't pour out his heart at the first sign of love or tell all about his past abuse (in fact, he divulges very little of his past).

RATING: I struggle to rate it because the story concept and execution is probably a 4. However, all the little blunders and mistakes grammatically and mechanically in story telling make me want to rate it a 2. I'll probably average it out and rate it a 3, but this one can really go either way. I wouldn't be surprised to see it end up scoring high enough for the library or low enough to miss the recycle bin.

 

Question before I read: you mention that Harry is more or less canonical. But there's a bit of variation between PoA Harry "Patronus" Potter and HBP Harry "What is a wand?" Potter. Which one are we dealing with here?

That is to say, within his largely canon characterisation, does the fic give Harry a chance to shine?

 

It does, but there's only a few places in the story so far where it is necessary. Instead, he shines in a few other ways as well that Ron's out his character gradually.

 

I dropped out of this one, which started promisingly and got kinda boring. Initially I liked it but now it's a solidly "okay" story. For me it's 3/5

 

This fic was already put up for review, it's in the trash bin.

 

Damn.

I even searched and didn't find it.

 

My stance on this fic hasn't changed since it was first started. Bad fic plagued with potentially interesting ideas all executed poorly. It's kind of amazing how the author pulled that off, when there's an idea and you think to yourself that it could be neat, the author just goes "nah" and gives you the same nonsense that has been written in a hundred other fics. So pretty much what you'd expect from a Harry/Daphne fic. This one doesn't do anything that should put it anywhere remotely near the library. It barely does anything at all.

 

Yes and no. I like the author's twist on Daphne and her future plans. It puts her in the good but naive role, which is a role often not reserved for her. Tracey is different than most fics as well. Although she's a lot more fluffy here, she also is pretty grounded as well, which is a difficult balance to achieve.

 

Surprise Stars

This is actually one of my favorite stories, not so much for Harry/Daphne but for the Neville/Tracy relationship! As the story progressed I was less and less interested in the main two stars and just wanted to focus on Neville and Tracy. Still this is a good story and well worth a read!

 

The Neville/Tracy relationship in this is literally the exact same as it is in his other 8 harry/daphne stories. Sure, sometimes the setup is slightly different, but it always plays out the same way.

 

The relationship is far from the same as similar fics, Anarchy. It's actually worse than the other stories. This story is pretentious at best in the execution of the relationships. It's a story that butchers the characters in its attempt to create a good romance. This is just plain drivel.

 

2/5
This story is awful. The flaws are many but in particular the writing is quite poor. At least it's readable.

 

I've been following this story since it started. I feel like with all of Spooky's fics as well as this one. It's a copy paste of his other fics the only difference being the premise. The premise started out interesting however the more it goes on the more it become a trashy romance "trashy" being the keyword and none of the politics ever get resolved.


2/5 to 3/5 because at least the author can write decently.