Yeah, I'm starting to get a little tired of it, but I'm willing to give the author a bit more space. I'm hoping that this is some sort of interlude, and Harry goes back to being properly challenged in the next couple of chapters. I think having a short piece of breathing space where all the immediate challenges have been removed/dealt with is perfectly reasonable. In a regular book where we weren't waiting weeks for each new chapter, it wouldn't be a major issue at all.

 

I thought the first part of the last chapter was hilarious and well executed. I was surprised by the response here actually (which is why I created a DLP account).

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I agree with the prior comments that The time travel robs Harry of a lot of personal growth and (imo) makes the story less interesting. I think a world where Remus/Regulus/Marcus are dead, Harry and Neville disinherited, and Peter roams free would have been a lot more interesting. Even if the author is worried about the Ultimate Sanction derailing the story, the solution could've been to just have Sirius' Godfather oath supersede the Ultimate Sanction. Something like "I swore to protect you, and that overrides me disliking you" and then Harry gets inhereted as a Black.

The comparison to canon PoA is pretty interesting. I actually agree with the author that PoA suffers from the same problems as Year 3 of this fic (problems arise because no one tells Harry what's going on, time travel makes everything magically ok again). I actually feel PoA is one of the worst books in canon because of this.

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That said, I do believe Peter and Rookwood are going to escape by the end of the year (and a commenter earlier in this thread said someone will die) so I'm holding out that things pick up soon.

 

Thanks for that - just added tags

 

Personally the last chapter did it for me. I was enjoying this on and off but the last few chapters have been getting weaker and weaker, and this latest was the nail in the coffin for my enjoyment. I feel like Harry hasn't changed or grown significantly for some time and it has taken way too long to resolve all the dangling plot threads left over from earlier chapters. I am also not looking forward to the interminable interludes after the end of this "Book" (assuming the author follows previous trends).

 

It was never said outright, but since both Jim and Harry are Parselmouths, it would have to be.

 

No, his heritage's probably going to be revealed in the next chapter because of the 'engraved invitation' reference.

Honestly, I think TSM's smart to pull together so many subplots into one conclusion, but this is a reference to something that happened almost 60 chapters ago. Does he really expect us to remember a small reference for a tiny subplot that happened 500k words and 4 years ago?

I can't decide if this story's fantastic or fucking trash

 

He flat out tells the reader in the author's note which chapter to refer back to for the reference for (I assume) exactly this reason. It comes from a chapter posted 4 years ago.

 

I think the fact that there is some sort of mysterious ancestry has been alluded to multiple times, but after literally a million words I really can’t be bothered to check. What I am very sure of is that the exact family has never been explicitly stated.

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Anyone else thinking that Slytherin would be too obvious, btw? Does anyone recall the current status of Amy Wilkes and her prospective marriage to Tiberius Nott? I suspect revealing Lily as a long lost daughter of the House of Wilkes would be a suitably convoluted way of bringing together & potentially solving multiple plot strings at once. I’d give the Gaunts an about 1/50 shot as well, purely for shock value.

 

My response was to his comment about the author expecting us to remember a minor plot point from Feb. 2016 (i.e. author obviously expects most people NOT to remember it, hence the reference), not to anything you said.

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In order:
1) No, it's in fact the only one that makes sense. I recall at one point (maybe right around the time the twin was revealed as a Parselmouth at the dueling club) the Patils being in an argument over the topic and Padma saying something to the effect of Parseltongue predating Slytherin by centuries, but his innovation was making it inheritable to his descendants. It also ties in to something (I forget exactly where) about the Slytherin family being Spanish nobles and something about the ones remaining in England changing their names to avoid association with the Spanish Armada or something like that (it's not stated, but implied that this is where the Gaunt family came from).

2) As best I can recall, the current status is that Wilkes is engaged to Nott Sr. and Harry has some plan to break it up, but hasn't ever given any details to anyone. More recently, it was said that his plan for that would have been ruined by being sanctioned, so the implication is that it involves some kind of politicking with the Wizengamot, possibly related to his heir status.

3) I don't recall any implication of the Wilkes family being Parselmouths. I can't imagine Voldemort tolerating a subordinate sharing the ability that makes him special for any length of time, and Wilkes Sr. was said to be one of his top lieutenants.

4) Gaunts maybe =\. Like I said above, it's been very strongly implied that the link is to some English descendants of Slytherin who changed their name to avoid being executed as traitors loyal to Spain. It could be the Gaunts, but in the 600ish years between the founding of Hogwarts and that war there could have been any number of branches in the family tree that chose names other than Gaunt. I seem to recall also that it was stated at some point that only his male descendants would have natural Parseltongue as an explanation for why Lily didn't have it. Something to do with the snake people not having genders or something?

 

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Well, guess it wasn't Slytherin. Though I'd be shocked if he wasn't there at some point in the family tree.

 

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Glad I predicted the Wilkes bit. I thought it was a bit on the nose with the "my relatives have been XYZing for centuries yada yada did you know my great-great-great grandmother was a squib" but the rest of the Wizengmont session was nice.

Also glad we're going to be seeing some arcs come together (Amy's Kidnapping, Lily/Harry's heritage, etc.)

Overall, this chapter was goodish. It has some really nice highlights, but also kind of dragged on in a few places. Definitely necessary for some of the arcs that have been building, but it's not too intrinsically engaging.

Pros:

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• The Albus/Crouch conversation was the highlight of the chapter for me. It draws direct consequences from past actions (Mandrakes blowing up means Hogwarts is in debt and needs to host the TWT, Harry pulling Dumbledore away means he couldn't stop Crouch from bringing the Goblet of Fire)
• More Jim and Ron. The bits where we actually see the main school cast are always a treat, and we get so few of them nowadays. The author spent so much care developing engaging characters like Jim and Ron, only to give them comparatively little screen time this year.
• Peter is still at large! I was personally disappointed at how fast Peter was defeated during the rerun (which tbf is because Harry knew exactly what would happen). But showing that he still has tricks up his sleeve - and accounted for this ahead of time - is great.

Cons:

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• The Snape <> Justin thing would've been great if Snape hadn't literally spelled out what would happen at the end of the last chapter. The author has done this a few times before (repeated information to the reader), which I suppose is a natural consequence of this being a serial work as opposed to a one-time published book.
• James yet again having a public outburst. I get that he's stressed, but like, can the guy just be a normal adult for once. Yeah his wife was distantly related some psychopath - does this matter? Can you just chill for like 1 chapter?
• There was a lot of infodumping

 

OK so I guessed wrong.

 

Yeah, I think this was a good update. It brought to a close a fair few of the ongoing plot lines, which I think is a good thing. And its created a good springboard for wherever they take the fic next.

 

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So this chapter hints at Peter attempting a jailbreak, with the squeaks and tiny claw sounds, horrible smelling ventilation system, and Peter still being extremely confident in his detention cell. I think that the prediction that Peter and Rookwood escape is going to come true. I also think that this is where TSM is gonna account for those character deaths. Regulus, Marcus, and Remus didn't die, and I hope for a lot of important character deaths in the next few chapters.

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One of my least favorite things about this fic is Harry's character. I do truly believe Jim, Ron, and Theo are much more likable, complex, and interesting characters than Harry. Yes, the time-travel effectively wiped the slate clean, but Harry still did murder Lupin, and the only way he's coped with that is, "HaRry sLAmmeD dOWn hIs OCcLumeNcY sHIeLDs."

Year two had such a big focus on occlumency and emotion, with a whole monologue on how Harry and Voldemort are different because Harry doesn't clamp down on his emotions. A year later, we have Harry being forced to kill his ally/friend and what is his emotional response? It's Voldemort's response.

I've seen people say here that Harry hasn't had much character development in Year 3. That's not true. His character's developed, but it's gone backward instead of forward.

Year 3 of POS is like Iron Man 2. The main character suddenly sucks while the background cast gets built up.

I will add: "Just promise I don't have to say 'Hadrian' again today," is a nice touch. Solid /5 for that.