I was reading an old thread on Barb's Psychic Serpent Trilogy, and started wondering what other stories people think of as seminal in the HP universe--stories that are groundbreaking, influential, define a genre, etc. Here's a few that seem to fit the bill:

-Barb, The Psychic Serpent Trilogy: introduced a lot of people to fan fiction, and is this the first 'epic' series of HP fanfiction?

-Rosswrock, HP and the Power of Time: for better or worse, the fic that consolidated most of the Indy!Harry cliches that pop up everywhere

-Lorddwar, HP and the Summer of Change: defined the Harry/Tonks genre; now every other Honks story has a visit to Harry's bedroom, a shopping trip, and Harry training with the Unspeakables

What else is out there?

 

I would say Shezza88's oldest stories in general, in regard to combat. It defined it pretty shallowly, with wizards slinging spells designed purely for combat at each other.

They were fun to read, but I think it encouraged other writers interested in action that readers could be satisfied with flamboyant made-up spells and shiny explosions, and not bother with making Transfiguration interesting or being creative with subtle ways to kill things.

It had a positive influence though because it pushed people away from reusing canon spells over and over and over again. Roughly at or before the time periods of when Future Remapped was being written, even good stories still had Stupefy and Expelliarmus showing up in their action sequences.

 

I *think* Sheyda wrote the very first Azkaban!Harry story - Curse of the Banshees. It's the first one I ever read, at least. I spent a lot of time wishing the author would finish it.

 

Cassandra Claire's The Draco Trilogy.

It pretty much laid the groundwork for the 'cute Draco Malfoy' cliché that has been banged to death by fangirls all over the world.

There even is a trope on tvtropes.org dedicated to this:

Draco in Leatherpants

Those were actually the first HP fanfic stories I ever read.

 

S'TarKan's Nightmares of Futures Past. Not the first redo fic, but the most influential.

Jeconais's Hope brought Harry/Veela to the masses.

Ruskbyte's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was among first (and is still one of the best) super!Harry.

Full Pensieve's Harry Potter and the Years of Rebellion is a long-running (but recently abandoned) Indy!Harry that predates Ross's and, for a time, was influential.

SerpentSannin/Oblong/twenty-other-names's Knowledge is Power was influential and inspired the "I don't know whether the author is joking with this or not" genre and was influential, judging by the number of knock-offs that it inspired.

 

Ruskbyte x2, also: After the End; no matter how you feel about the canon pairings (and they got most of them right), this was one of the biggest pre-OotP fanfics.

 

Definitely second Ruskbyte's Order of the Phoenix. And Barb's Psychic Serpent trilogy definitely deserves its' spot on the list.

I'd almost give Jeconais' "This Means War" a spot on the list. It came a bit later, but was pretty big. Rorscharch's Blot's "Caer Azkaban" was pretty big, and while it introduced me to the Azkaban genre, it probably wasn't the first.

 

Vash's Oedipus Flower 8D

Serious. D:

 

You've got a point, actually. Probably no other story (with the possible exception of The Office) has been considered a rite of passage for admission to a community.

It's an icon.

 

Big D's The News pretty much created Ice/Sex Queen!Daphne. A plus, because in his case she was awesome, and it created a Slytherin other than Pansy or Millie for Harry to sex up before plotting to kill his old friends. A minus, because of the amount of icequeen crap that has since spawned afterwards.

And of course, how could this list ever be considered complete without tribute being paid to The Office

 

I think I'll pass on the whole 'Draco in Leatherpants' phenomenon. Just read 'The Office' for the first time, and, um...wow.

I'm impressed. Sort of. If I were a lesser man, I'd make a bad pun on 'seminal,' but I'll resist the temptation.

 

Fuck You.

The News' Daphne was Mini-Bella!Daphne. Thats what made her epic. 8D

 

Intromit's Fate's Debt, and little kids discussing secrets in their heads.

So very cute.

 

This one is more personal than anything, but Fayr Warning's Reign of Power really did well the whole aristocratic Harry who deals with dark elfs and the like.

Harry Potter and the Litany of Blood, by Jon3776, is another one in the above category. One of my favorite stories. Though not as groundbreaking as it was when it came out, it's still an epic read.

Naia's Anarkia is another.

As for Harry/Tonks, before Summer of Change was jamesaddict's Extracurricular Activities one of the first Harry/Tonks stories around. Pretty good, even today.

For sheer epicness, I'd give it to ThorNairda's Shadow Play, one of the best adventure stories around. Shadow magic, H/Blaise, other worlds....

His oft-ignored The Demon Within was also pretty good, but it was scavenged largely to make the above story.

Severitus stories owe their popularity and influences from Sakyra Saisaka's Seeing Beyond the Veil . One of the only creative and bearable stories around in this genre. It greatly develops it own ideas and has alot of darker elements. I don't remember too much from this, but I know it explored Slytherin House and its occupants particularly well.

Though I'd like to give myself credit for pioneering H/Self, the kudos really goes to SilverAegis' much-rewritten Harry Potter and the Girl Who Lived. I would say though, that the Lily (fem!Harry's name) featured here isn't much of a fem!Harry as much as she is an OC in Harry's position.

SilverAegis' other story Harry Potter & The New Life really cemented the whole 'back in time to another dimension where the Potters lived' scenario. It includes the whole getting adjusted to the Potters, Harry admiring his mom, having powers from his future self, etc.

For sheer depravity, I'm sorry to say I'm passing up Vash's Bluer than Indigo for Charlie -dashdot- Blue's Malignant Objects. Shameless smut everywhere, with the more depraved and sexual aspects of high society. Harry fucks male and female alike, but it's written in such an absolute way you can't take offense to who he's fucking. Assassins, a more calculating war, it's all there.

For mystery, the little-known story called The Human Condition by C.K. Talons takes the cake. By far my favorite story, it's a extremely well-written mystery that takes place with an adult Harry. Adult!Harry stories are few and far in between, and this is its crown jewel.

For character studies I'd have to give it to Dzeytoun's Here Be Monsters series, along with the companion story Daddy's Favorite. These stories explore what the author (and I, for that matter) see in Dumbledore and Harry's relationship: that of father and son. It can get sort of emotional at times, but I enjoyed them immensely.

For a more modern story that I believe is extremely original, take a look at RustyRed's Ectomancer. Truly a breath of fresh air in a stale fandom.

I'm going to reread most of these stories - just writing about them has me interested again.

 

Shadow Play definitely belongs there. I still remember Imbellis vividly - and this is two years after reading it - as well as this extremely inventive broomstick game - broomstick riders compete in leaping off a platform high in the air and plummet, pulling up at the last moment before splattering into the ground.

Thor is the master at describing scenery, and comes up with original ideas as easily as fangirls come up with new slash pairings.

I still have yet to find a more intriguing superpower ability as the shadow magic, with Harry able to travel through shadows and whatnot. It made it seem more than a gimmick.

Gonna reread it.

 

I'd say some of the stuff by Master Eldryn, but I can't remember if his works were actually seminal in addition to being fucking awesome.

 

If you say his name three times in front of the mirror, he'll emerge and complain that you're infringing on his intellectual property.

 

First fanfic I ever read, and still one of the best. Looking back, I think the absence of prophecies and Horcruxes is a major reason I liked it so much. The characterization is as good as any I've read, period, and the angst from Harry is believable and never over the top.

I love that fic, and the badass way Harry is written. The way he is halfway through the AK on Vernon, in front of McGonagall and Molly, but is stopped by Tonks, was when I knew it was a special story. Too damn bad the author has no plans for a sequel - it begs to be written.

I still can't believe it won't ever be finished. The story was so ambitious and epic, I guess it was almost a no-brainer that we'd never get to the end. I have to hand it to FP, he swung for the fences. Anyone who's read the Intermezzo chapters, with Hermione trying to recover after her encounter with Voldemort, knows what I mean when I say that Hermione ripped Dumbledore's and McGonagall's asses for their actions (or lack thereof) in OotP. Best wishes to Mike (Full Pensieve) with his health issues, and maybe we'll see an original fiction from him someday. FP's HP and the Last Horcrux is also a superb story, written as a believable substitute for DH, but sadly, is also unfinished.

For my own set of influential stories, I'd start the list with the ones I've referenced above, and add two of JBern's stories, namely To Fight the Coming Darkness and Bungle in the Jungle, the former because it was so damn dark and no character was safe from being brutally killed at any second, and the latter because for me, that's the gold standard for Indy!Harry. That Harry Potter finds out who he is, and decides he's not going to be anyone's puppet, ever again. The fighting is superb, and the second-person perspective is great.

I don't think many here have read it, and if they have, I don't know how many thoroughly enjoyed it the way I did, but Antosha's Back to the Garden is an extremely well-written DH substitute, with Harry/Ginny/Luna as the main pairing, and quite possibly the best Ron I've seen. Highly recommended. For people who like Harry/Hermione, lorien829's Resistance is great, but anything she's written is worth your time.

As for many of the other fics listed, I can't say I've read a whole lot of them, and here I was thinking I'd already plowed through most of the top-shelf HP fanfics. I guess I need to follow some links and get reading...

 

I think nonjon's Browncoat, Greeneyes as the best example of how to do a cross-over I can think of. Obviously by no means the first but I've never read any other crossovers done nearly so well.

What Lies Beneath by Master Slytherin as by far the best First Person/Dark Harry fic I've read. I don't think it really defines a genre, unfortunately. I know of nothing else in a similar vein at all, which is a real shame.

Forgive me if this seems wholly ignorant, but isn't the Stranger trilogy one of the better and earlier examples of a dimension hopper?

 

Another I forgot:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3092103/...adies_Of_Light

Queens Of Darkness, Ladies Of Light by Thalarian. Had the potential to be the most epic Harry Potter fanfic of all time. Unfortunately, Thalarian disappeared off the face of the Earth.

Personally, I was doubtful whether he could actually start a satisfying plot after the sheer awesomeness of the initial 60k word intro. It works well as a standalone story, though, so don't be afraid to read it.

Catch its NC-17 form if at all possible.