Yeah...most of this last update was a waste. I want to see things happening!

 

That has to be one of the most excruciatingly annoying things I've ever read in my life.

 

A H/Hr shipping fic, but one I found surprisingly readable.

 

The only problem I have with that fic is that Hermione comes across as the next Dumbledore. Harry is pretty much clueless. Of course, this problem happens with most H/Hr fics, but it's particularly striking here.

Regardless, I think it's worth a read.

 

Mjeh.. the romance bit actually sort of started out okay. Harry feeling something when his hand touched Hermione's etc... but then:

Spoiler

They went to her house for Christmas and it just turned into shit. The "old bully" from Hermione's former School was just so fucking shit. And Harry using his wand, almost twice, and the eventual visit by Scrimgeour and Hermione outwitting him etc... fuck mcduck what a shitfest.

And I stopped reading. A hint of potential buried at the bottom of a dumpster. Shame cus' I quite liked the potential...

 

An Unfortunate Recovery by ejhawman
Up for adoption: Something is recovered early, with unfortunate consequences.

Spoiler

Ravenclaw's Diadem

Doesn't stand on its own well enough for the Library, but I found the concept extremely intriguing.

 

That story could have potential I think, if done right.

You could even have it where a student finds it and puts it on, thinking it either A.) pretty and they want to be a princess or something daft like that or B.) they know it's Ravenclaw's Diadem and want to try and gain her wisdom.

Then of course Voldemort takes over...

As it is now though, it's sort of 'meh'. But then I prefer longer stories as opposed to something short like that.

 

I think it's safe to say that putting on a cursed horcrux does not let TMR take over your body, as evidenced by Dumbledore putting it on and being reduced to a cursed, smoldering husk that's barely alive at all.

Interesting concept for sure, but the only place I can see this going is that it accelerates canon, effectively cutting out one or two books. Sure, there would be some very different situations, but it would be a rehashing of the later books timed a couple years earlier.

 

It could with enough use either take over the persons body or use them to come back to life, a la the diary.

Just putting it on (and using it) once wouldn't be enough.

 

I agree, and not just because of author fiat- the purpose of the Diadem is to enhance intelligence, so a potential user would no doubt be opening up their mind completely to absorb the wisdom of Ravenclaw. In many ways this was a great concept that was left in a storeroom.

 

When you put it like this, it's practically the best horcrux ever. It's almost a 100% guarantee that Voldemort could be reborn through it...

...as long as it's not cursed like the ring was, like it was in that fic.

 

The idea of the diadem being found early is excellent. Everything else about this oneshot is pretty bad.

Most of the fanfiction greats are so partly because they boost Voldemort's power and capacity of strength. They make him harder to defeat. This fic does the opposite in weakening Voldemort and strengthening Harry. It would be depressing to read yet another fic where Harry is taken from an early age and trained to fight Voldemort and in which the existence of his horcruxes is evident from day one. Where's the fun? Where's the challenge in the battle between Harry and Voldemort if it's easier for Harry to win then in canon? Unless another bright interesting idea is added to this fic, I see it going nowhere.

However you can twist the idea a bit. Say instead of 1990, the year which this fic takes place in, let's have it take place in 1960. It's right after Voldemort went to Dumbledore for the job interview. Someone discovers the diadem blah blah blah, it gets to Dumbledore. He recognizes that it's a dark artifact. Runs a few more tests, realizes it's a horcrux, and sees Tom's magical signature all over it. Now the war had only begun in the 1970's, so it can be assumed that in the early 1960's Voldemort was just gathering followers and generally beginning to prepare for his war.

Dumbledore here, aside from being blatantly disturbed, has no real reason to keep this discovery to himself. Voldemort isn't yet a criminal and Dumbledore has no solid knowledge of his aspirations of becoming a dark lord and starting a war. At this point Dumbledore sees Tom as a "bad" person who has heavily studied "bad" magic, so Dumbledore will report this information to the ministry and hand over the diadem to them. Now the ministry, seeing this immensely dark and perverse artifact gives orders for the arrest of Tom Riddle. As with most big things, this somehow get leaked to the prophet. To a wizarding Britain where not much has been going on throughout this time period, such news quickly goes to the front page with headlines such as "Former Hogwarts Golden Boy Immerses Himself in Deepest of Black Arts" and "Gross Perverted Magical Experiment Conducted by Former Hogwarts Head Boy".

Naturally this news coming out is going to cause a lot of fallout and distress for Voldemort. The backers that he is trying to recruit for his cause, seeing his perverse magical transformation, are going to turn away from him. Even most pureblood supremacists and dark wizards will have levels of dark arts which they simply wont accept. Now Voldemort, severely hampered, is faced with two options. Continue to gather support underground (something very hard to do as a minor fugitive of the law and with the knowledge out that he split his soul) or break into the Ministry to get his horcrux back and become a fully wanted criminal. Not wanting a piece of his soul destroyed, Voldemort is most likely going to go for the second option. Now on the run, Voldemort's entire rise to power has effectively been sideswiped. There is a lot where this can go.

A fic using this idea is left with two main options. To continue with Voldemort's story, about what will happen to him in the near future or to do a 30 year timeskip and go to Harry's massive first year AU at Hogwarts. Hard to believe this simple idea generated this much plot expansion in my head but hey, the underlining hook is good.

 

Voldemort is plenty hard to defeat already, discounting Dues Ex Machina and authors turning him into a cartoon villain.

I'd personally like to see the bad side of Dumbledore dying early, I don't think I've ever seen Lucius Malfoy become Chief Warlock for instance.

But Voldie Jr. causing havoc would be plenty fun too.

 

Actually, it'd probably be really funny to see two Voldemorts running around all willy-nilly. Not to mention that everyone could just sit back and let the two kill each other over who gets to take over the world.

 

I'm reminded of this one crazy fic where Hermione and one of the reanimated Horcruxes fall in love (among several other random events), and it essentially becomes this huge hilarious clusterfuck. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

 

Definitely worth the read. I'd give it a 5/5 on decently written Harry/Tonks and Manwhore!Harry, but realistically speaking it's probably 3(3.5)/5.

The animagus transformation seemed to come too easily and Harry's drinking/smoking seemed completely unrealistic. Or rather, I suppose it was too many shifts at once that makes this Harry out of character at times. He sleeps around, drinks, smokes, knows how to be charming, doesn't blow up as much, etc., and the author writes in a style that consequently doesn't allow the transition itself to really show.

Still, I loved it anyways.

 

Umm, why aren't you writing this now?

Honestly, it makes sense to me as two fics covering both Voldemort's rise and Harry's time at school. Both would be fascinating tales, and could be put together very interestingly.

 

I think you're talking about Blessed by Erised Burning, who may have continued writing if he hadn't gotten so few reviews.

 

Whoa. That's definitely it. I'm going to have to reread this...