Okay, out of curiosity, having taken a bit of a look at the H/Hr fics recommended, I'm just curious: are there any good H/Hr fics that could be classified as Indy!Harry? Typically, I've seen the two 'genres' as unworkable, but I'm a tad curious if even such a fic exists (and hopefully of DLP caliber).

 

Backwards Compatible by Ruskbyte. Its a Time travel fic mixed with the Indy!Harry genre. As for being DLP caliber, its in the library.

 

Man, fuck RuskByte.

That story's all but abandoned. But instead of there being an acceptable reason (lack of motivation, author death, etc), he'll show that he's very much active by writing some other shit. As if anyone was ever clamoring for a HP/Hellraiser cross. Or fucking Billy & Mandy.

But being the crafty fuck that he is, you read these oneshots feeling like they're exactly what you've been waiting for - and promptly forget about the chaptered fic thtst you have been waiting for.

Worst part is, he could update BC, and have the "chapter" be a 5000-word wall of text that reads "smurfsmurfsmurfsmurf"...and I'd still read every line in hopes of finding clues on the direction the story's taking. Fuck you, Ruskbyte.

/rant

On topic: if mind-numbing angst is your thing, check out B.B. Ruth on ff.net.

 

This must be my first post in ages...

As much as I hate to admit it, given that I'm a H/Hr fan, there is a severe shortage of decent H/Hr fics, much less decent ones that cater to DLP's tastes.

I don't know what DLM was thinking when he recommended some of the fics in his post. Stuff like "Magic Never Dies" and "HP and the Lost Demon" cannot be classified as well-written. They are halfway decent at best. DLPers who are H/Hr shippers will be better able to enjoy it, I guess.

Even the "HP and the Seven-Split Soul", which scary recommended, will or should have difficulty making it into the Library (unless it's already there). It's a real shame that the most well-written fic in the list scary came up with is "The Human Condition", which isn't really H/Hr, though the ending hints at such an eventuality. While I do not want to digress further, it is certainly a fic that all DLPers should give a go, be they H/Hr fans or not.

DLPers browsing through the reccs shouldn't go in with too high expectations.

Backwards Compatible is probably the best H/Hr fic that is in line with DLPers tastes, and it has been abandoned ages ago. This is, I think, the biggest weakness of the H/Hr community. There are a ton of fics, but most of them are shit.

Until we see a bunch of original, entertaining or refreshing H/Hr works, I'm afraid the pairing will never be one of DLP's 'accepted' pairings.

As to how whether I think H/Hr is viable in canon, I think my opinion of that is obvious given that I'm a fan of the pairing. Everything that needs to be said or expounded has already been said.

 

I second The Human Condition. Dully written but there were nice touches, such as clever wordplay involving Harry's heart. The only thing is, in that story, H/Hr was a detriment since it supplanted the much more interesting and relevant H/Oc, which was a twisted and poignant relationship. It would've been courteous had the author given advance warning.

 

And the Final Judgment is this: Harry/Hermione, while my favorite pairing (rivaled only by Harry/Luna), is actually the worst non-slash pairing in Harry Potter fanfiction if you want DLP worthy fics. Yes, even worse than (or at least as bad as) H/G.

Thus, I have spent the last five years of my life writing ficlets on my Mac that keep me halfway entertained, while searching desperately for anything that lives up to the potential that I've always seen in H/Hr.

 

@Nukular: I was going to compliment you on your splendid trolling skills, but you seem to have devolved into more obvious dickishness in the past few posts. Too bad, as you had a good balance of subtlety and dickishness going for a while.

Now, I said in my intro to this site that I'm a fan of Harry/Hermione, and I realize a lot of that is just what JB lays out: when I think Hermione, I think Watson, and when I think about Watson, I get a hard-on. That said and admitted, I also happen to be a fan of Hermione the character, because aside from Harry, I feel she's the most fleshed-out character in all of canon (no pun intended this time), and more importantly, she's far and away the most loyal and steadfast friend Harry has, bar none, and to me that means a lot. I know many of you will repeat what you always say about her, that she is only so loyal because "what other friends does she have?" or "she's too stubborn and/or self-righteous or <insert character flaw here> to give up on Harry." Maybe you're right, since she certainly has her flaws, as do we all. My point is that she risks everything for her friend(s), and to me, that speaks volumes about her overall persona.

I happen to be a big fan of Ron Weasley most of the time, even though I admit to reading many a guilty-pleasure fic in which Ron betrays Harry/Hermione/who-the-fuck-ever. Yes, Ron showed a shitload of immaturity and insecurity during the seven books, as did every other character. Even goddamn Dumbledore was immature in his youth. Ron left Harry hanging at one of the worst times possible, but he's human, and he tried to come back almost right away, and didn't give up trying to find them. I think Ron is a good person. Do I think he and Hermione are all that suited for each other? Ah, who knows, maybe the easy non-jealousy he showed in the DH Crapilogue means he and Hermione will make it. No one - and I mean NO ONE - is the same person at 37 as they were at 18 (19 years later and all), and if you don't believe me, well just wait and see. Hell, they all fought a war and dealt with the deaths of close relatives and friends to boot.

On topic. Would I prefer Harry to be with Hermione? Mostly, since I think she's smart and caring and driven. I also have enjoyed many Harry/Ginny fics, including After the End, the first fanfic I ever read, and still possibly the best. It's a Harry/Ginny written between GoF and OotP, and has some of the best characterizations you'll ever, ever see. Another couple fics I'll posit as some of the very best are HP & the Years of Rebellion and HP & the Last Horcrux, both Harry/Hermione and both by Full Pensieve. FP just finished Last Horcrux and I have yet to read the final chapters, but the first 10 were amazing. Years of Rebellion, as stated elsewhere by I believe DLM has possibly the best characterization of a damaged Hermione that you are ever going to find. It'll never be finished, which is sad (not as sad as FP's health issues, but still), yet what has been posted is on an epic scale, and really, was always way too ambitious, but there you are.

The point? I like H/Hr and wish that it had come to fruition in canon, but hey, that's what we have fan fics for. I also can enjoy H/G but I'd prefer there be more build-up than we actually got in canon. Again, that's what fan fics are for. In either case, the story is utter fail if the writing, plot or characterization is shit, which if the majority of FF.net is any indication, is *exactly* what fan fics are for.

I had hoped that this thread would build up the head of steam that the Harry/Fleur thread managed, but from all the thread-shitting and trolling, it looks like the train might get derailed. I have to wonder at the amount of shitstorm and backlash that would rain down if this amount of flame-baiting were to happen in the Harry/Fleur thread or in a Harry/Tonks thread. I suspect it would end up with someone banned at least for a while.

And now for a few other read-worthy H/Hr fics. These aren't all uber-duper, but I certainly enjoyed them when I read them. Let's call them "Quality H/Hr fics," shall we?

Resistance by lorien829 - truly superb writing and plot, I can't recommend this one highly enough. It's inventive and pretty bloody, and well worth your time.
Magic Never Dies by Lynney - already mentioned and I'll second it; it's a good one.
HP & the Orb of Slytherin by mcjazzman32
HP & the Three Travelers by schlamboozle - hint for Ron-haters: Ron is not the third traveler. Remids me of Bungle in the Jungle in a couple places.
The Paradigm of Uncertainty by Lori - a bit sappy in places but it's definitely a good read and worth your time. Haven't read the sequels.
Eighth by lorien 829 - a nice post-Voldemort tale by a very good author.
As Yet Untitled by bellerophon30 - should fit anyone's idea of Harry not being controlled by Hermione; the HHr is basically incidental in this post-DH fic. More intrigue and maneuvering than spell-work, but there are fights and a sort-of big battle at the end. And lots of people get whacked.
Off Balance by InsaneTrollLogic - has an excellent take on Voldemort's endgame, though it requires suspension of disbelief. Also has too much fluff for most folks.

A few others I have read and either (a) really liked at the time but have since come to acknowledge their major problems, or (b) saw that they had some potential but weren't quite worth continuing are listed below.

Sunset Over Britain and (to a much lesser degree) its sequel Sunrise Over Britain by Bobmin
[I really enjoyed these at the time, especially the ambitious scope, but they're so preposterous I couldn't read them again...]

HP & the Circle's End by Mad Scientist
[I can hardly believe I eagerly read this whole thing. Might've been the first HHr fic I read. God, the time wasted...]

Notebooks and Letters by chem prof
[I was hooked from the get-go, and it was canon-divergent enough to hold my interest most of the time. Sagged in the middle but I felt it had a decent ending, then the "sort-of" epilogue/resolution was so over-the-top all I could do was scratch my head in wonder.]

HP & the Heir of the Founders by The Cold Turkey
[I know, just the title should've been a dead giveaway, right? Still, the OC Voldemort's-leuitenant villian was well-done. Otherwise, the rampant cliches of time-turner-training-in-the-Potter-mansion, etc. are eye-bleed-inducing.]

So yes, I think there are far too few quality HHr fics out there, and even fewer that would meet DLP standards, as many of the good ones border on being too sappy, etc. To me that just means the better authors need to get off their asses, quit dicking around writing Harry/Molly/Tom (sorry Pers, 'cause your story is :awesome and I wanna read moar of it real bad, but I'm on a roll here), and get down to some serious HHr stories.

 

Ugh, I feel there's a lot of the same issue here with Harry/Tonks - except it's more like most of the fics are either abandoned or shit. On the plus side, I've now got a load of reading material for a while. Thanks goes out to Portus and DLM.

 

Honestly, Silens, there probably isn't a single H/Hr fic out there in which Harry is truly independent in the grand DLP style - that is, as he's portrayed in something like Renegade Cause, Wastelands of Time, Denarian Lord, Skitterleap, etc.

I don't think this is because H/Hr writers are incapable of writing such a story; it's just that the nature of the H/Hr relationship precludes Harry having a gritty, fuck-off-and-die attitude. It's always going to be a partnership between the two of them, often a romantic one, and that's always going to rub many readers here the wrong way.

Yeah, I agree that most of the fics recommended so far don't cater to the typical DLPer's tastes. Like I said above, H/Hr fics tend to focus on the partnership between Harry and Hermione, and very few of them are truly dark.

That said, I don't think DLP's tastes are as narrow as they once were.* For example, that HP and the Deathly Hallows redo fic made it into the library on quality of writing alone, and so have many others that don't resemble works by shezza, nonjon, jbern, vash, amerision, etc. It's been a while since I've read either the lynney or the Angry Hermione fic, but I don't remember either one being poorly written. I'll have to look at both again.

*Then again, Mindless thinks it's trolling to even start this thread. (shrug)

True, but I did open the door to flames with the OP, which may have been a mistake. Now that the official circle-jerk of Hermione hate appears to be over, the thread might pick up some steam.

Nice recs, Portus - I haven't heard of a couple of those. The reading list just got even longer.

 

Agreed.

I'm five chapters into Magic Never Dies. It's really good, and I've somehow never read it. That's probably because post-HBP stories seemed so very boxed in, plot-wise.

I like the Ron characterization, as of chapter 5. That's something of a first.

EDIT: @dlm - I guess the problem is that I'm something of a romantic at heart. In my mind, you can be gritty and say fuck-off-and-die as a pair. :awesome

 

Someone should write a mystery that features docile!housewife Hermione, an OOC characterization that becomes crucial to the plot (Harry dun something to her!) and becomes exposed as a plot twist in the end. He was drugged/mindcontrolling/brainwashing her.

Anyway, the reason I think H/Hr works (not that it's neccessarily the best - that cake belongs to one Jamie Potter) is simple. Harry is, for all intents and purposes, a muggleborn. Hermione is too. Muggleborns rarely truly become integrated into Wizarding Society. Hermione still thinks like a muggle in a wizarding world. Harry does as well. They are the only two 'normal' characters in the story.

Everyone else either has or has family that have flying cars, harbor racist feelings, are murderers, utterly illogical, or plain insane by muggle standards. It only makes sense for Harry to truly only be comfortable with one of his 'own' kind. Hermione fits the bill.

As for some well-written stories:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4410713/1/In_Retrospect

and

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3434417/1/The_Purple_Potion

and

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3686960/11/Now_Let_the_Night_Be_Dark

I haven't finished any, but they're all well-written. Note that I did not say they were enjoyable or to be recommended, mostly because as I kept reading I found myself unable to continue.

I don't like H/Hr after all. (I started this post thinking I did, then read my recommendations...)

 

From October through end of November is usually very bad for me for writing, as it's the most busy time of year for my line of work, and this year was no exception. I just finished a month of meeting/workshop travel, though, so now I feel like I can get back into writing.

In the near term, I've a short story for an original fiction anthology and the last two chapters of MILL (the first of which is written, but hasn't been posted), then can tackle something different. The D&R sequel draft is still far enough from done that it probably won't hurt to let it sit a little while longer. (Besides, I'm stuck on something).

The most interesting (to me) HP/HG story concept I've outlined is a Dark!Harry horror/thriller pseudo-crossover with Koushun Takami's Battle Royale. I call it a "pseudo-crossover" because while it borrows elements from BR, it doesn't have the bizarre pacifist politics undertone or thirty five chapters of angst. If there's sufficient community interest, I could be convinced to run with it.

 

This story IS good. A very politicalHarry, smart archenemies. And Harry doesn't use god like power. Instead we see a lot political side of things with a new war in post dh.I didn't spot any cliche.And Harry/Hermionie part didn't made me gag which is as much as I can hope from H/HR.if this story isn't in Library it shoud be. 4/5

 

Eh, the writing is sloppy and the characterizations a little off. I don't remember if it gets better later on, but those two threw me pretty quick.

Is there any story, any at all that manages to write a near-Canon Hermione that has Harry controlling the relationship? I'm not talking slave-bonding, or any stupid shit like that, but any story that basically has Harry firmly wearing the pants (and Hermione the skirt, so to speak). Be it through tragedy, illness, or change on Harry's part.

 

No. Harry in control is the antithesis of the pairing.

Typically, its Harry finally realizing he is sabotaging himself with his Ron-esque laziness where his studies are concerned and trying to follow more of Hermione's lead in his own way, and building from there. Or throw in some similar redundant, useless, or random logic jump to justify studying more...

Or you get the failure of the "NO ONE IS BETTER, WE ARE EQUALZ!" feminism logic. :/

 

More like basic equality, but yea.

 

I guess I'll put my thoughts out here:

I agree with a lot of what has been said on both sides of the argument. While I'm apathetic towards H/HR and neither like it or hate it, I do think canon evidence points more towards H/Hr than H/R. I'm of the opinion that while Hermione and Ron could have a short, intense fling, they are too incompatible for a long term relationship, and they would end up separating due to Ron getting tired of Hermione's bossiness and attitude, or Hermione getting fed up with Ron's laziness, lack of ambition, and his overall philosophy regarding life (eat, sleep, play chess, fap, repeat).

I haven't read too many good H/Hr stories, but I actually prefer stories where they are enemies a la Tinn's "The Song of the Trees" and this other recent post-DH story where Harry is believed dead (while he hides under the cloak) and Hermione finds out and goes on a chase to prove he's alive; to the point of where she force fed Teddy Lupin veritaserum. I can't remember the name of it, but it was pretty decent.

And if they come together at the end for a good hate fuck, then :awesome

tl;dr -- A good writer can make anything feasible, even such a difficult pairing as H/Hr.

 

Hermione would likely also do him with a strap-on, because Percy is a bit of a sub >_>.