Title: Harry Potter and the Fifth Element
Author: Bexis
Rating: R
Genre: Action/Adventure / Romance
DLP Category: General Fics or Romance
Pairing: H/OC, H/Hr
Chapters: 72 (ff.net); 88 (Schnoogle)
Words: 1,130,976 (ff.net); 1,331,680 (Schnoogle)
Updated: June 13, 2013 (ff.net); October 31, 2012 (Schnoogle)
Published: January 17, 2004 (Schnoogle)
Status: Complete on Schnoogle and Portkey; WIP on ff.net
Summary: Harry's summer and sixth year. Examines H/Hr in context of his unwanted wealth and fame, and her need for independence, requiring them to save one another's lives. H struggles for magical control over a mysterious fifth element, receives an inheritance and finds OC summer romance. Hr knows everything and nothing. The brain encounter changes R. D is dispossessed and vengeful. CC is not what she seems. Featuring H/Hr affinity, Auror training, poor parenting, goblins, kidnapping, death, a crash, a fire, an explosion, bribery, funerals, testimony, battles, tarot, pensieves, and eventually secret marriage, Stonehenge, a succubus, love potion, triads, and Druidism. The war against Voldemort spreads to the Continent and becomes a liberation struggle.

Link: http://www.fictionalley.org/authors/bexis/HPATFE.html
Link: http://fanfiction.portkey.org/story/6048
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4098039/1/Harry-Potter-The-Fifth-Element


Important Warning: massive, somewhat slow moving story. Currently it resides a bit over 500k words in 34 chapters, generally updated about once a week, but the school year for 6th year has just started in the most recent chapter. It has enough action and drama to keep it interesting and the storyline moving, but there are often several different subplots going on at once, so it can be slightly disorienting to have a 3k word scene on something that was mentioned two chapters ago seem to jump out of nowhere. Regardless, I find that those looking for a massive ongoing fic will enjoy this, esp with humor derived from Harry and Hermione mangling their relationship (I find myself laughing at their misunderstandings).

It is a H/Hr centric story, but isn't the typical archtype found on Portkey (with Jaded!Ron, Jealous!Ginny, Perfect!Hermione, and Lovepotioned!DonJuan!Harry); each of the characters has major faults that are exploited in a resonable manner, and the author isn't too shy or attached to her characters to torture and kill them off. There are several twists throughout the story that kind of blindside you, but are very well done.

While Harry is reasonably intelligent, he is by no means a godlike character unlocking the power of love to smite down Voldemort. He is a bit of a bumbling fool in relationships, a bit above the curve in magic when pushed, but I found it strangely refreshing in the face of so many Casanova!Godlike!Harry fics out there (esp at portkey).

I have been following this for a few months and if you don't mind a slow romance/action fic, I would reccommend it to you. If you look at when the chapters posted so far were written, it gives you a scope of where the author is heading. I wouldn't be surprised if this topped out well over a million words... the first chapter was written in the end of July '03 and latest chapter was written in May '05. This author will probably continue posting monster chapters for several more months...

Seriously, if large, long fics turn you off, stop here. If you want to read about torture and death, you have to wade through a lot of storyline and character development to get to it, so don't bitch about it as you have been forewarned. If you want to see lots of battles, you have to be willing to put up with the political goingons and training the characters go through first. None of the characters read one novel on dark arts and instantly become Dark Lords in this, so if that's your cup of tea, skip this one.

Overall, a solid 4/5 for such a thorough job on excellent characterization and massive plot undertaking. It moves a bit slower than I would prefer, but is superbly written.

Yojo


Checked by Minion, July 08, 2013
As you might have noticed in the stats above, the story is already finished on Schnoogle and Portkey. I added the link to ff.net, where the edited version of this story is still in progress.

 

This remains one of my favorite fics ever. 5/5. Massively full of win.

 

Very good, very massive, nice characters, though Harry's bumbling can be annoying at times. But as said earler there are none Perfect characters in this fic. Surprisingly refreshing Hermione's parents - they are nice pair of bastards

P.S. I don't like the idea of Austral Pensieve, sounds like cheating to me.

4.5/5

 

Added the link to Schnoogle, which has at least a half dozen more chapters than Portkey.org.

But I've not read this yet. The summary didn't interest me and the lack of it being finished has left me simply putting off reading it until it is done. Maybe I should give it a try sooner rather than later.

 

Damn, I thought this was a cool crossover with the fifth element.

Anyway, will wait until it’s completed or I will never finish reading it because it will probably take a year or two for her to compete it and I will have forgotten most of what happened in the earlier chapters by then.​

 

I exactly wished the same... I really like the movie and it still one of my favorites. It could be an challenge idea, difficult but nice nonetheless.

Well i will do like the other, read it when finished.

 

I suspect that, if you start reading now, you won't have to worry about unwritten chapters, unless you read without any interruptions.

I haven't read enough to render my opinion.

 

This is one of my favorites. Truly a well written story.

 

I talked to the author. Really smart guy, lives in Philly, he's writing the fic for his daughter. Anyhow, absolutely phenomenal story. To be honest, it's the only schnoogle fic that I've bookmarked. He posted a new chapter, but I still haven't read it. Very detailed, very intelligent, great read. I suggest it to everyone, even people who dislike HHr.

 

Fixed that for you.

I'm one of the betas for this story so I'm hardly unbiased, but it's definitely worth a read -- and H/Hr is definitely not my typical cup of tea.

To reiterate JJ's point, the author is a He, and he's a pretty cool guy. He's trying to write H/Hr that breaks the Portkey mold, since he has tells me he has no intention of writing about how Harry and Hermione's epic luuurve will solve all of Harry's problems.

At any rate, although the length vs. pace would suggest that the story has stalled (generally if an author spends 500K words just to get Harry through the summer then the story will never be finished), I don't think that's the case here. The plot is fairly tight, the secondary characters are well-developed, and Bexis does a nice job incorporating a lot of interesting detail into the story -- my favorite scene is probably Harry smoking out with the OC love interest; it brought back a vivid flashback of college, I could practically smell the incense.

In summary: long story, detailed plot, good character development -- worth a read, even though it's far from finished.

-Sean

 

I have been reading this story since it was still a 50k infant and still on the bottle. Since then I would like to think it had reached puberty, and is starting to become interested in girls. Anyways, on with the review to date.

I could speak about the plot of the story and all the little details for a long time, but with this story, what it really comes down to is the author. Bexis has an intelligent way of writing (rare in writters these days) as well as a very captivating way of brining the reader into the fannon world that he is weaving. I find myself neglecting my duties, outright forgetting them, because I get caught up in the story. Bexis, like I said, is a very intelligent writer, and he shows this through the many references and factual knowledge riddled throughout each and every chapter. I find myself learning something new every chapter, whether it be mathematics, world history, song lyrics, etc. Having read HP fanfiction well over five years, it is nice to actually come across an author that I without reservation can say I wholeheartedly enjoy.

5/5

 

One of my favorites also I feel its up there next to barb's storys in my top 5.

 

I started reading this a while ago. I am glad it has been updated and I will go back to it after I get though excessivlyperky 's "the birthday present" on ff.net.

One thing both stories have in common is above average writting.

 

I lost interest around chapter 20 or so. The angst-o-meter just got to the top and kept on going. Just not my kind of fic.

That said, it is written very well, with excellent originality.

Draco

 

It is well-written, but I could not take the lack of spine Harry shows. I know the story intends to portray him as the opposite of Casanova!Harry, but I like a Harry that is more than rich boy-toy. The Fifth Element thing wasn't bad, if a bit predictable.

I find it interesting that this story is written in the traditional "independent!Harry" mold, and yet he shows independence to only the Order and Dumbledore. He is completely dependent on Hermione for practically everything.

Overall, this story is entertaining and well-written but features a Harry that grew up on a boneless chicken farm. 3/5 because it is a good story with significant issues.

 

I read this till like Ch. 38 or something. Its an INSANELY slow read, but the characterization is simply brilliant. That doesn't mean I don't wanna bash Harry's skull against the wall for being such a jackass. And although he's described that Fifth Element scene rather well, I also find it... incredibly stupid, super!Harry fic-type. 3.5/5 I guess, but I really wish the author cuts out the unimportant bits from chapters and finish this soon.

 

I give this one a 4/5. I started reading this after coming across a lemon for it on RestrictedSection and wondering wtf was going on with body-guards and explosions. An extremely intelligent and well thought-out piece of work. I haven't done any reading on it since chapter 40ish or so after losing the link, so I'm glad someone posted it.

 

I am a beta reader for Bexis, and he is one of the most detail oriented fanfiction authors I've ever come across.

If you do not want detail and do not want long periods of character development without action, then this is not the story for you.

This story is going to go well over one million words and the time period in the story is....not even a full year yet.

That said, for what the story is and what it aims to accomplish I rate it a 4/5.

 

I followed this story for quite a while and while I greatly enjoyed certain parts of it (there was an excellent chapter where Harry's girlfriend-at-the-time smoked him out), the story jumped the shark for me when Harry and Hermione actually got together and it shifted from "Cool shit that Harry was doing" to a lot of "Harry does some neat stuff, but he'd be completely useless without Hermione."

• The author decided to backfill a H/Hr "I just realized we fell in love at first sight"-thread over canon, which didn't make any sense and served no purpose I could see except to pander to his Portkey.org readers.
  
• Along that same line, the author went to ridiculous lengths to keep Harry from having sex with anybody but Hermione (IIRC, he pussed out on a couple of occasions with his first love interest, and I believe there was a Death Eater attack at the exact moment he was about to do the deed with her)--this probably had to do with PK.org story guidelines, but it was... contrived... is the nicest way I can put it and infuriating to read.
  
• Reading about the adventures of Super!Duper!Hermione (and her sidekick: I'mUnworthyOfHermione!Harry, a portkey.org staple) makes me want to kill something, no exceptions.
  
• Oh, and this:

The story is basically as long as all seven books of canon.

ETA:

• De Facto soul-bond between Harry and Hermione as the catalyst for the relationship. Ack.