That last one sounds like a niche type of torture porn fic, but the first one is certainly extremely popular and I'll happily plead guilty to that. I suspect Lily/James is the most common pairing for Marauders era, though.

 

Searching Marauder's Era on AO3 returned 4500 Sirius/Remus fics, 3000 James/Lily. I am surprised to not see James/Snape listed. I did see Remus/Snape though.

 

That is interesting, I would have guessed the other way around for S/R and J/L. Might be the new generation of HP fans having their say. Not my jam but at a guess, Lupin and Snape are both strongly disliked/polarizing characters which means some people will want to love them a little bit extra.

 

Heresy here on DLP, I know, but unironically Snape/Lily.

 

And it's not even all that unrealistic either.

Half blood Slytherin and a Muggle-born Gryffindor childhood best friends, one being tempted by the Dark Arts and the other battling prejudice, star-crossed and all that shit?

It could honestly make a good tragic romance fic, Romeo and Juliet in a Magic Castle if you will.

 

Tropes...hmm..let's see.. I think I prefer

1. Dark Lords Equal Harry: Yeah, I know, canonically Harry could be said to be Voldemorts equal and opposite in terms of their ideologies and their understanding of human emotions. But that's not as entertaining as a Harry who's his equal in a far more literal sense. Basically a Harry who has the potential to become a wizard as talented or powerful as Voldemort or Dumbledore,and actively uses that potential. Admittedly, this is borne out of my dissatisfaction at the general competency of Harry in canon, and his passive personality in the later books. ( maybe not true but that's what I got when I read canon)

2. Expanded Magical Theory: I live for expanded takes on magical theory and worldbuilding. I just like to see how esch author interprets JKRs magic and tweaks them. Like Victoria Potter, Prince of Slytherin etc. The magical theory and worldbuilding is what attracts me most to them.

3. Romances based on any trope except non con: I have no bounds when it comes to romance. I can read the cringiest tropiest shit, preferably in a pairing I like, that is, any pair other than slash and Harmony. For slash, genderbents can make it work for me, no offense, slash I just not my thing.

4. This is more of guilty pleasure. But I absolutely love psychotic and evil characters. Bellatrix, Evil Harry. Especially if they're also competent and scary. Canon Voldemort would be here, except I never felt scared of him tbh, the ingredients for a scary villain was there but it never quite mixed properly.

5. Ron as a friend. I kind of discovered my love for Ron being a friend to Harry. I mean, I still liked him before, but now I find it incredibly unique in a fic if Harry is different from canon or in a different house but still be friends with Ron.

6. Politics. Almost no fic does this well. But when it does get written by a competent writer, I would read the fuck out of it.

 

I like to see Harry be a unique race that isn't just Vampire, Werewolf, etc. Maybe be like a half giant or whatever.

 

Harry finding good use for his Parseltongue abilities, but not when the author takes it absurd levels and turns it into a written language (why the hell would snakes need writing?). It's not an overpowered skill, but you can get some interesting things done by talking to snakes. It's a shame that it's treated as an evil ability in canon just because it's the trait of a bloodline that had a bunch of bastards in it, so it's always nice when authors have Harry get some practical use out of it.

Also, I always get a laugh when authors incorporate it into smut and turn Harry into some sort of oral sex god. Because hissing at a clitoris is super erotic, apparently.

 

Wait. You mean I've been doing it wrong?

 

My favorite tropes would be

1. Non-BWL!Harry

2. I also like it when Harry is like Tom Riddle minus the evil

3. BWL!Neville

4. Ravenclaw-in-Slytherin!Harry

I wish there was a story that had all these tropes.....

 

Anti-Muggle Harry. It just makes sense considering his upbringing.

Studious Harry. He is talented in canon when he puts his mind to it. He just isn't curious or excited about magic for some reason.

 

Because Hermione is annoying and she likely made him not want to study more.

 

I like it when yer a wizard 'Arry