Title: With Malice Aforethought
Author: S. P. Smith
Rating: T
Genre: General
DLP Category: General Fics I think
Pairing: Harry/Hermione EDIT: There is Harry/Ginny at first, but the fic IS Harry/Hermione. Guess I should've mentioned this earlier.
Chapters: 18
Words: 112,665
Published: April 29, 2005
Updated: August 3, 2005
Status: Complete (though I think there was supposed to be a sequel that didn't come. The fic stands as a unit, though). EDIT: Turns out the sequel is already there. I hadn't checked for it in a while.
Summary: In the five years of his life amongst wizards, Harry had seen malice first hand. The desire to cause another harm, without excuse or justification. Voldemort exemplified malice; his followers practiced it religiously. Now in his sixteenth year, Harry Potter finds himself laying his own plans against Voldemort. Now he must balance the fight of his life against simply living it, and weight his actions against giving in to malice. Fortunately, Harry has friends...
Link: www.fictionalley.org/authors/s_p_smith/WMA01.html
Alternative: http://fanfiction.portkey.org/story/4847


Personally, I think this is the best Harry/Hermione fic I've read, in terms of relationship development. It also has a pretty good plot, imo--it doesn't exist solely for the sake of romance. It may not be as bloodstained as some people are here like, but I think it's worth a shot.


The (abandoned) Sequel

Title: And Malice Toward None
Rating: PG-13
Chapters: 6
Words: 38,582
Published: October 26, 2006
Updated: September 14, 2008
Status: Abandoned
Summary: As he starts his final year at Hogwarts, Harry is finally drawing the loose threads of his life together. He has a girlfriend, and the possibility of a peaceful year now that the Death Eaters are in disarray. But Voldemort is already preparing to rebuild his followers and subjugate the wizarding world. In this final chapter, a hero who's greatest power is love must confront the darkness one last time... else the darkness will consume all. The Year Seven sequel to With Malice Aforethought begins here.
Link (Schnoogle): http://www.fictionalley.org/authors/s_p_smith/AMTN.html
Link (Portkey): http://fanfiction.portkey.org/story/6595



Checked by Minion, July 27, 2013
I added the Sequel

 

Ill give it a try, be back later to post thoughts

Yea, he did post a sequel.. Only 2 chapters so far

The 'edit' button is there for a reason. Don't double post. -MS

 

Harry/Hermione? In the first few chapters and it seems to be heading towards a HP/GW Soap Opera. "Just don't look at me." Could have come from Days of Our Lives. Luckily the author appears to have regained sense and isn't going so obviously towards having a HarryGinny baby making factory. It was OK, I guess, decent spelling and grammar. 3/5

 

It is Harry/Hermione. The fact that Harry dates Ginny in the beginning doesn't detract from that, though maybe I should have warned for it. That's why I think this fic relationship building is so realistic.

 

Daven- you might want to hit the edit button next time, you can use it up to 24 hrs after you post..

H/hr is so common nowdays its nearly as bad as H/G, I'll read it when I'm bored then post here.

 

i agree. HH is becaming the new fashion. well it has always written but nowadays it increased. and they are boring.

 

heh sorry, i shall remember to use this so called "edit" button.

As for the story,: It seemed somewhat short to me, somewhat typical H/Hr, and somewhat !powerfullharry with no excuses beyond reading and runing.

That being said, it killed a couple hours so I still might look up the sequel from time to time.

 

Ugh...I honestly don't think a Harry/Herman story would really work...I mean honestly...Herman pokes her nose into other people's lives too often, and she's too overbearing. It "might" work in the books cuz he's such a pussy that depends on Dumbledork and Herman cuz he follows most of their ordering shit...but Harry is a little too independant in other cases (say for instance the story "Shake Me"). They date for a while, but Herman can't take that Harry's got a whore's child by the time he's 15. She's too far in about authority and school for it to work in all honesty. I hardly ever read stories with Harry/Herman pairings (unless its a harem story, then its barely bearable). Other than that, I avoid them at all costs, I don't care how good the story is, I can't stand Harry/Herman stories almost as bad as Harry/Ginny now. H/G is bad enough, but H/Hr? Ugh...no...just no!

Richard.

 

1) Don't type like an idiot. You spent 18 years learning to write English, make use of that.

2) H/Hr will never reach the level of H/G because Ginny has absolutely no character whatsoever. She was Ron's little sister for the first 4 books, with only minimal interaction in book 5. She's a Mary Sue of the highest order, Hermione has a solid foundation on which her personality is built.
I admit many of the H/Hr fics lately are complete crap, but there are more genuinely good H/Hr fics than H/G (mainly because there are MORE H/G fics than H/Hr).

3) Thought the story was pretty average. Not the best I've read, but not the worst either. Solid 3/5 because its good but nothing special.

Aekiel

 

I can type whatever way I like, if it gets the point across in a manner (unless its not eligable), then thats fine with me. Second..."I" think H/Hr is just "as" bad as H/G, why? Cuz they don't honestly fit together unless Harry's got the same personality. Harry would only fit with Herman because of his pussy attitude in the books, otherwise, it obviously wouldn't. I'm just making my point. Doesn't matter if its "idiot" sounding, you got the point. I was just saying I keep faaaar away from H/Hr pairings because it just disgusts me. I absolutely hate her personality is all.

Richard.

 

Dude you are going to get your ass flamed if you dont stfu right now...

As to the story it was an average 3/5 there are to many like it for it to be any good now.

 

So I'll get flamed...big woopty fucking doo! Don't like me talking...then go do something more "useful" with your "valuable" time! *rolls eyes* See if I care about being flamed. Doesn't phase me at all. They got a problem with it? That's there problem, not mine.

If it's got a H/Hr, it just went down a few point notches, period.

Richard.

 

Come on man, if you're posting to a forum then at least try and abide by a rules rather than just acting like a wanker.

The whole point of fanfiction is making things work that don't in canon. Essentially every character in canon is just putty to be moulded into a new shape in fanfiction, so saying by definition that any story with a certain pairing is doomed to fail is just ridiculous. The reason most people here don't like H/G or H/Hr is because of the type of stories it tends to produce, not because there are no good stories with that pairing. We're not talking about how the pairing would work in canon, we're talking about fanfiction, namely this story. So critique how the relationship works in this story instead of making some sweeping generalisation about all stories with that pairing. Did you even trt to read it before reviewing?

That said, there isn't anything about this story in the first chapter or so that really grabbed my attention, and there are quite a few errors as well, namely calling Tonks 'Andromeda'. The dialogue felt quite stilted and awkward in places, and while there seem some efforts at pushing plot points forwards it didn't really flow well. Mind you, that might pick up after the first chapter. I'll edit and give a proper review later.

 

Richard, you're an absolute muppet. Honestly, completely and truly.


In terms of the story, I enjoyed it well enough. I read the entire first story, and it seemed solid enough. It had some interesting ideas, but some of them were implemented in a slightly unbelievable way. The mirror of morgraine for example. Being a mirror that saps the magical power of whoever it is facing seems like a good idea, but when you read the description of the object in the Defence class, it was used as the method of control in Azkaban before the dementors. Yet somehow, Harry is able to sleep with the mirror above his bed for months with relatively few side effects. It just seems like a badly designed plot device.

Not to mention the other use for the mirror towards the end of the story.

Overall, decent. Sustained my attention and interesting enough. I shall not, however, read the sequel, as nothing special grabbed me.

3/5


A note on the sequel. There are two chapters posted, with the most recent being in november last year. I sense the author may have a block, or may have given up.

 

I rather liked the story. the romances were slow which is not typical in stories where there is a pairing. It wasn't the typical powerul-Harry type where he just has powers. this was Harry taking a full year to develope skills and angles to think differently.

and on a social commentary, is it just me, or is it being said that H/Hr is bad because it's becoming common? I think who Harry ends up with is entirely dependant on the author of the fic. In HBP, the H/G ship was poorly written and thusly poorly recieved. I think that if you want to do a H/G ship you need to do it in an A/U where she is included and developed more. H/Hr is more believable to me, and perhaps one of the more believable ships.

 

Dead link as far as I can see, bumped up for deletion/moving.

 

Link seems fine - it's FictionAlley that seems to have some issues at the moment.

 

The story is also on portkey; the author's profile page is here.

There is, indeed, a sequel - "And Malice Toward None" - and it's now up to six chapters. But the last one was on the /9/9/08, I fear it's finally ground to a halt. Although the author has surprised me before.

I think this story is one of the best H/Hr stories around ... and the general plot and Voldemort action is pretty good too. The author manages to punch almost every button of your typical H/Hr romance without making it saccharine or too fluffy to bear.

There is, initially, H/G, but it's only used to show how inferior that relationship is to what follows. Ginny is portrayed as a lightweight little serial dater, so that might appease some folks.

It's a brilliant story on the romantic and characterisation fronts. 5/5.

 

Brad's portkey link works, though fictionalley still appears to be down.

I liked this one, but I'm willing to bet that most of DLP wouldn't. The characterization is good, and very much in-canon, and it doesn't turn into a Harry/Herman. Harry decides to end the war on his own, and spends most of the story declining Hermione's help rather than being bossed around.

The only real flaw here is that the plot moves incredibly slowly, and there's too much focus on teenage relationship issues. It starts off H/G and R/Hr, and that remains true for almost 3/4 of the story. Then the plot kicks in to overdrive and there is a sudden but satisfying confrontation with Voldemort. It felt to me like it came out of nowhere.

4/5 for me - it satisfied my H/Hr craving, even though there's not really a romance

 

That's one of the few things I really liked about this story. The grammar is fine, plot line advances, most characterizations are well done, but the story just seems kind of bland to me. Goyle and Crabbe scenes seemed tedious by the sequel and I really wasn't into the whole "Magical Pez" idea.

It's a good story to pass the time when there's nothing else to read or you're in the mood for Harry/Hermione, but while there are original concepts and ideas put in every once in a while - there's nothing ground-breaking or exceptional about the story. 3/5