Wow good find. Checking it out now.

 

@Sesc

I liked that part too, but there's a problem with it: Pansy's bed shouldn't be in Harry's dorm room. Reading that paragraph carefully, I think the author meant to say the girls were passed out on Crabbe's bed.

 

A find of the year. I had a good time rereading it.

Though I have a feeling like the author skipped something. There's a chapter with Nott's father, and then the next one talks about badass Harry back in Hogwarts and people getting drunk. It's strange.

 

Confused - is the rest of book 5 already done and being posted at intervals, or still being written? I only see 3/11 chapters posted.

 

The author said this is the end of book 5, but it doesn't seem like it to me. All previous books were nicely wrapped when they were finished, but this one looks like it is cut a few chapters short, dunno.

 

I still can't get over that scene w/ Nott senior. What kind of world are we in where there is a permanent non reversible impotence hex that 15 year olds can cast on the spot and get away with. With how much everyone cares about blood and family in this story, how has everyone not been magically castrated by their rival families ?

I

 

Why are almost all of the Slytherin Harry stories filled to the brim with relatively interesting plots, but also filled to the brim with bad cliches? Fundamentally I know that reading about Harry's superlative skill with a wand stemming from genius is really not that different from Harry just having a huge magical core (in that they're both thing's he's born with), but there's a certain elegance stemming from the former.

 

It's like the difference between an enormous dick, and a normal one with superlative skill. The former is good for show-off, but will ultimately just hurt people while the latter has the potential to bring you an unimaginable pleasure.

Bad cliches doesn't equal bad story, and this story is a perfect example of it.

 

This fic has cost me an embarassing amount of sleep/productivity. I've loved it enough to give it a 5/5 despite the occasional continuity error or facepalmy Dumbledore/James moment.


tl;dr

Re: This fic vs Prince. This is engaging because amazingly character-driven. Prince is engaging because amazingly plot-driven. Don't compare when reading or be disappointed.

Re: Pairings. No Harry/Daphne pls. Too similar, no growth. Harry/Pansy yes, potential for growth.


Long version

I know some people earlier in the thread had a Sarcasm & Slytherin vs Prince of Slytherin debate, but the reading experience of both fics is very different. I don't think you should go into EITHER one expecting the other or you'll be disappointed. S&S is very character-driven. The plot isn't amazingly different from canon at all, though from 4th year on, it starts changing a little/changing enough for me. It's the characters that drive this to be such an engaging fic. They pull you in, you grow attached, you care about what happens to them, and they're all very fleshed-out/unique despite a relatively high number of main characters.

With Prince, I actually haven't read past the first quarter/half(?) of third year - but this is still a million words in I think, mind you, lol. I only stopped because I wanted to build up a buffer of chapters to read, and then for some reason never felt compelled to return. (Although S&S has made me want to read more Slytherin!Harry, so I may return to Prince.)

From what I have read, Prince is very PLOT-driven. Sesc is right in that a lot of those moments from first year are not technically very Slytherin (yelling in the library, calling Bingo in the common room, that conversation about selfishness with Snape). But you could argue not all Slytherins are the same, or not all demonstrations of power need to be 100% cunning 100% of the time, or 11 year old Harry can slip up and yell despite being in Slytherin. PoS is very sprawling, very ambitious in its attempt to shove canon on its head, and is so engaging because of how plot-driven it is. First year was good, but was absolutely blown out of the park when I started reading second year. There were mysteries I was trying to solve, trying to read faster at the expense of all else to finally uncover. There were backstories that showed the paths certain characters had taken to get where they were. I can't actually remember getting super attached to Harry as a character, but it didn't need me to.

I'd definitely go into Prince not expecting it to be anything like S&S and vice versa. (And read second year of Prince, dang it.)


I didn't mean for this to devolve into such a lengthy comparison comment, haha. Back to S&S/Vipers, and specifically the Harry/Daphne comments: no way!

I'm glad the author made herself clear when she said she was going to make the romance realistic for teenagers and give them many pairings. Harry and Daphne were way too similar for each other, to the point of there being zero spark. I think the same is happening between Theo and Hermione. Imagine being in a relationship with yourself? It doesn't work, no matter how many times I have foolishly irl said I'd love to date someone just like me.

I wish less authors used the ice queen fanon trope for Daphne. In this case, Harry really is somehow icier than her. If they were to realistically get together long-term, both heirs wanting to (likely) carry on their own family name, both (once the honeymoon years wore off) wanting to be the powerful/dominant one in the relationship, neither having a partner who could help soften the other and help them grow even a tiny bit emotionally, they would end up being the most stony, cold, unhappy pair to ever exist. (In my opinion.) Better as friends. If you look at most pop culture relationships, the cold one needs someone to soften them. This is true for most of the relationships I've been familiar with in real life too. Two dominant personalities will rarely work unless their outlets for dominance are very different (having different businesses, different projects where they don't conflict, one caring more to get their way with what the house looks like vs the other caring more that the family eats vegetarian or whatever).

In S&S, Harry/Pansy makes the most sense. She's slightly softer, but not soft enough to be truly bothered by Harry struggling with emotional stuff. I think he'd actually achieve a little development over the years on an emotional level with her. A weird/improbable thing I'd like, even just casually: Neville/Daphne. We don't see a lot of them, but they definitely have a lot to offer the other in the way of development. Probably too opposite, unlike Harry/Pansy.


This got way longer than intended wow. I'll put a tl;dr up there, haha.

 

Okay, this is a very enjoyable fic. I'm at the end of the second year and I'm glad I finally decided to read it after seeing the comments here.

The author does have a talent for character interactions, no doubt. Sometimes in Slytherin Harry fics, Harry and others end up damn insufferable, but luckily that's not the case here.

Spoiler: About the person possessed by the diary

I thought it's gonna be Hermione. Her outburst at Harry and other Slytherins did seem a little extreme, though perhaps only because we as readers are likely to be on his side, and being manipulated by the diary could explain it. In the dueling club chapter she surprised Harry by a spell she learned from a book. Could've been the diary, I thought.

But then she got petrified, so I though Luna. Kinda suspicious how she never got mentioned after a certain point. But I guess the author just forgot about her.

And in the end it was Megan Jorkins, an OC, I believe, whom I forgot about. Though to be fair there was a line in the beginning of the year about her not being together with her classmates, which the diary later used to manipulate her.

 

I binged this in like a week and I absolutely adored it. I totally agree with the thing about how the politicking is really good and I love how Harry isn't going 'Light bad, so I'm going to join up with the dark lord' and instead being like, very conflicted, because on one hand

Spoiler

You have the BWL who I at least am confused about but then you have the Graveyard scene where Tom is much more tempered and controlling of his minions. I also really enjoyed Barty in this fic, as a guy who was definitely not alright, but still an amazing teacher because cannon!barty/moody was also one of the better teachers.

Either way the only issue I would have is with Andromeda Tonks because she is like a Light-side Black, and that just has made no sense to me because it's said that she's a Slytherin but like forgets Rule 1 (house unity) on a regular basis? Whatever that was about she seemed like the Order of the Phoenixes' Umbridge, a Snake who forgets their house.

Overall, I would give it a 5/5, though because it's certainty one of the best TBWL fics that I have read.

 

This updated

 

The political side of this fiction is very elaborate. It reminds me of the politics of South America, like a failed military coup.
On the other hand, I find it a bit ridiculous that Dumbledore

Spoiler

would make the Longbottom insane just because they were potential political opponents and to make the Conservative side look bad

. Also, the whole thing about Sirius... There is no way a real human being would do what James did. James's behaviour is simply caricatural.

In the 2nd year, Daphne is totally forgotten and she reappears in 3rd year. The author seemed to have forgotten she existed, no letters, no nothing.
Why the hell did Harry date her?