I did a reread of it, and it still holds up quite well. Some clichés that are to be expected from a 2008 fic, perhaps a little bit to much focus on magic-theory in certain places, but overall an engaging read. It's also at a lenght where it doesn't overstay its welcome, but rather wraps it all up into a neat package.
An excellent one-day read now in these times!

 

I just reread the The Thief of Hogwarts and I still consider it one of the top HP/FD fic. Over 10 years old but still as good.

 

I also remember A Cadmean Victory fondly, though it has been quite a while since I last read through it.

 

Flower for the Soul is a decent time waster. The premise is that the Horcrux inside Harry's head speaks to him after a traumatic event when he is 7, and begins serving as a mentor / father figure.

Harry is definitely super-powered in this one, and is a prodigy on par with Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Voldemort, though the story offers a semi-believable way for him to get there.

The Horcrux Tom was probably my biggest problem with this fic. His personality is completely overhauled (which is explained as this being the last piece of humanity left in Tom Riddle) and some of the dialogue between him and Harry is cringe-worthy at best...

Spoiler: Spoiler

...which is why the story becomes much better IMO once Tom dies after the graveyard scene at the end of year 4.

That said, it's always refreshing to read a competent Harry, and some of the fight scenes and magic in this one make up for the lack of character depth.

The Harry/Fleur relationship is a pretty "meh" part of the fic IMO and feels forced at times, especially the numerous Delacour family scenes... but there was nothing there that was bad enough to make me want to give up on the story.

It breezes through Years 1-3, only dedicating 1 chapter to each. The story really takes off in Year 4.

Overall, I don't think the fic will ever make the Library, but if you want to read about a competent, ruthless Harry on who is light years ahead of his peers (and later on ahead of everyone else as well) due to Tom's tutelage and Harry's work ethic, you'll like this one. I read through it in a couple days without skimming, so it clearly held my interest.

 

I know that realistically it's probably fine because the fanfIcs aren't behind the patron paywall but it still feels shady as fuck reading a fic where the author is dedicating it to his Patreon followers. Just feels dirty.

 

Sorry for the necro post on an old thread, but delving back into the world of HP fanfiction after a long time out and wondering if anyone has any recommendations for Harry/Fleur fics which aren't set in goblet of fire? The age gap always rubbed me the wrong way, thinking ideally post Hogwarts so Harry is over 18, but at least HBP on ideally

 

Two fics. They aren't smut and they aren't harem fics where Harry somehow gets with everyone, which is unfortunately rare for Harry/Fleur fics. These are truely novel-grade stories. They aren't only about Harry/Fleur, but they are definitively Harry x Fleur where Fleur is the focused romantic interest.

The Lie I've Lived by jbern (Complete, one of my favorite stories. One reason I like this story is because the author knows how to write a main character with rizz. And he actually understands women. The author definitely has experience dating hot girls.)

And The Secret Society by Markus Ellis (Incomplete but it's so good that I mention it anyway.)

The Secret Society has some backstory. The author said he wanted to publish a real novel or something, but no one has heard a word about any published projects since, and his Twitter account has been dead for years. For some crazy reason, he purged everything related to the story, old and new, not just from Patreon, but from AO3 and everywhere else too with virtually no warning. To be fair, he did give his patrons like 3 months of money back, but he removed years of work and made it so people couldn't even go back an reread what had already been written.

The latest 4 chapters were only available on his Patreon and we're never made available to the public. If you look, you can still find the 33 public chapters, but there are 4 chapters, lost forever...

Or they would be lost forever, if someone hadn't downloaded the 4 newest chapters as txt files right before the purge.

Hands down, The Secret Society has one of the most interesting and possibly my favorite depiction of Fleur of all time, even though Harry doesn't reunite with her until halfway through the story. But I won't spoil anything.

Here are the first 33 chapters. Again, you can find them elsewhere, but you might have to look real hard. I'll add the last 4 chapters too, which were almost lost to the world.