Title: The Secret Society
Author: Markus Ellis (previously EreborMarkus)
Rating: M
Genre: Adventure/Drama
Status: WIP (north of 40,000 words)
Library Category: General
Pairings: [Harry P., Hermione G., Fleur D., Daphne G. - FFN] [Hermione Granger/Harry Potter, Daphne Greengrass/Harry Potter, Undisclosed Relationship(s), Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Fleur Delacour/Harry Potter, pairings might change - Relationship - AO3]
Summary: When Harry was sorted into Slytherin, he started a small business with the goal of protecting himself. However, as time passed, he realized that his 'business' had grown into something much larger and darker than he could have ever imagined.
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14193169/1/The-Secret-Society, https://archiveofourown.org/works/44719771/chapters/112515010

The Secret Society is a superb because of the recasting of the main character in a different world, in a typically Slytherin Harry shroud - but keeping him human by emphasising the thorny environment that has shaped him into the fearsome character that he presents to the reader and enemies, rather than making the protagonist psychopathic. He is not invincible, not entirely immoral and while this makes him fundamentally the Harry Potter we all know and love reading, he is also as the typical Slytherin Harry is, competent, charming and ambitious - his own man. This makes the story a fun read; his proactive nature, within a challenging, ever-changing environment is endearing and makes the story even somewhat thrilling.

The fact that Harry is

Spoiler: not ... and uses ...

not the BWL is noteworthy and the use of the Room of Requirement

as a means to aid his magical education and growth is done the best I've seen so far in fanfiction in a while. The story in terms of writing keeps the lexicon basic, but with relatively less means, the author goes further to develop a story than many authors who abuse complex phrases and adopt lofty language, in my opinion. He does seem to favour dialogue a touch more than usual, but I'm not swayed by that. It has to be noted that this is Markus Ellis's first non-nsfw/smut story that I know of, though he is obviously very experienced nevertheless. I'm also encouraged by the lack of emphasis on the idea of harem, though it may or may not come to fruition.

I personally rate the fic 4/5 and await a time when the complete story (hopefully a little while in the future) blooms into being.

 

Probably one of the better HP Daphne fics out there. 4/5 As well. Thank you for the recommendation

 

Solid writing. I like the concept of the story and it avoids the mini adult pitfalls of Slytherin!Harry

4/5

 

There’s some interesting magic in this as well as a novel Harry, but it’s limited by the fact that it’s characterization isn’t great and that 15 year old slytherins are ruthless politicians. Definitely almost recommended material so 3/5. Entertaining read if you want to kill some time though especially since the writing is fairly competent.

 

I’ve been following this. It’s… ok? Harry is a little too amoral to really root for, tbh. It’s passable as a time-waster.

I should note that every other story written by this author is smut (or so a friend tells me). Fairly gratuitous, at that. While this story shows no indication of that in the tags, there’s a good chance this heads in that direction eventually.

Well-written, plot is a little trite, and as stated earlier Harry is a bit too unethical even for an edgy teenager. Overall, objectively 2.5/5, maybe a 3 if you like this kinda thing.

 

1/5 because the author is one of those assholes who locks chapters that are already written behind a Patreon paywall.

 

@Odran : The author releases them on AO3 for free, which is the only way he can legally make money from these. I personally wouldn't be offended at that but... 'it's a free country'.

@Galen: Harry may seem amoral but there are multiple instances where his aversion to behaviour that doesn't yield him profits/benefits/status is challenged. You are right that the premise of the story seems to be: 'what if Harry took on the mantle of a ruthless CEO style mentality through school and presumably into the future?' But the story has only begun - and while there are love interests I'm confident that he is continuing this as a normal story and not a nsfw harem-style gratuitous affair.

 

Read this a few months back, never noticed someone put it into review. First half is alright to good, but the second half when Fleur gets involved out of basically nowhere... kind of a vibe killer. It's rare that adding her to a story ruins it for me, but this author managed it. I liked basically nothing about those later chapters. 3/5 for the early stuff, 2/5 overall

 

b

 

a

 

Poked around after Nitefury's random necro, and it seems this author has quit writing and deleted their presence off of Ao3 and FF. There's a Patreon post explaining things and another offering refunds, but they're locked behind donations and I don't pay for smut.

 

Hello, my wonderful patrons!

It's been nearly two months without a post. Unfortunately, it's time to stop delaying the inevitable.

As much as I wish to keep writing fanfic along with my own novels, the more success I have with the latter, the less time I have to spare for fanfic. I wanted to keep writing fanfic since that's what started me on the path to this amazing new career. The smut I started writing out of boredom turned into writing 'Secret Society.'

It made me want to write my own story, and that changed my life in a significant way. I never imagined being a full-time author would be possible, but here I am.

I currently have 2 published novels (in a single series) with 4 sequels planned, and 2 other series in the works. This has made it impossible to keep up with anything else.

I tried to cowrite to keep posting some content between the gaps of my solo-written fics, but that doesn't make sense when I can no longer write solo fanfics. That led me to the unfortunate conclusion that I must give fanfics up.

It already made me queasy when you all were getting charged without content being delivered, and now that I accepted that it won't get better on my side, I have to stop.

I paused billing so nobody else can join, and you will no longer be charged. All my smut stories have been orphaned on AO3 (which means they are on the site but no longer under my name). If you search by title, you can find them.

I will refund the remaining months on the annual subscriptions. And the monthly subscriptions for the past month. (This might take some time since I have to contact Patreon and work with them on this, but I'll get it done as quickly as possible)

Also, you might see that 'Secret Society' is no longer available. I had to remove that since I'm in the process of converting it into an original novel. All other stories are available.

TLDR: This Patreon is being closed. Nobody new can join, and there will be no further charges. Annual subscribers will be refunded for their remaining months, and monthly subscribers will be refunded for their last month. This will take some time since I will have to work with Patreon on this, so please be patient.

Warning: This Patreon will be unpublished soon and will not be accessible to anyone. If there are any stories you can't find on AO3, grab them here and save them. You can also ask in a comment, and I'll find it on AO3 for you. Do not DM. For some reason, I'm not getting alerts for DMs.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1tzuMJbvo-GEMVijdu2VKl0A0SkuuLPl-

 

I'm torn on what to do here. I want to respect the author's wishes, but this really sucks. Why'd he have to remove the old stuff too?

I guess I'll look at his published work. I dunno.

 

Do you know where we can find his new stuff?

 

I don't. Supposedly, he's publishing. I don't know what or with whom. I don't even know what name he's publishing under. If/when I find out, I'll post it here.