Well after our newest idiot/slightly amusing troll mentioned a dinosaur animagus I remembered this fic. Calvin and Hobbes Crossover. Yea, you read that right. It's complete crack and references a few jokes from the comics (rubber ducks are to check for alligators in the bathtub!!!). It's over the top and completely ridiculous but it made me smile out of pure nostalgia if nothing else.

 

Dude, for some reason I love that fic. I know it doesn't really work, and there are certainly significant issues, but yeah. I don't care. I love Calvin and Hobbes and so for me that fic is absolutely fantastic to read.

EDIT: In fact, I now really want to write a Calvin and Hobbes/Harry Potter crossover. I might have a problem. (Maybe Calvin as the Boy Who Lived?)

 

Read it expecting it to be a trainwreck but it's actually quite good. The writing improves massively near the end and the final scenes are so much more epic than HBP ever was.

Hermione's character really annoyed me, though. She's made out to be Dumbledore with boobs and no outstanding magical talent. If you can get past the shitty writing and cliche-ridden start there's a gem of a fic in this.

Well, in the last chapter at least.

Spoiler

Instead of the Astronomy tower, Snape curses Dumbledore through Big Ben's clock face and into the Thames.

 

That's pretty much my only complaint. The part where Dumbledore tells Remus to do what she says without question just infuriated me. ARGH

 

Yea, those were pretty much my thoughts on it as well.

Dunno if you've seen any sites like this out there but Have Fun

 

I had never seen that before.

Excuse me while I go off and read. I imagine that I'll be delayed in updating any and all fics until I'm finished.

 

^ That was actually my biggest wtf moment in the fic. I'mma PM the author and abuse her until she drops the self insertion in the sequel.

 

I was really hoping Harry would become an Animagus before Hermione. At least then I could have felt like Hermione wasn't dominating every aspect of the story. This is the sad trap that a majority of H/Hr authors fall into. If Harry does something cool, then you can be sure Hermione did it before him and did it better.

The only unique thing that Harry seems to have done in this story is Fiendfyre. For some reason I can't help but think that Hermione can do it, too.

Also, since Dumbledore just died and Hermione's role in events is already exaggerated, this story is clearly leading up to Hermione taking over even more than she did in DH.

 

Is this one of those DarkbutnotEvil!Harry stories?

 

Oh, God, Sesc, that is truly awful. Not only the cliches, but casual disregard for spelling and grammar... I can't believe the author thought the extended, formal spelling of Mrs. was "Missus"....

 

Well Ginny apparently spent the last part of the summer of '95 with Jenna (Kalderash) the Gypsy from Romania, aka Jenny Calendar. The first season of BtVS starts roughly in the Winter of '96, which is the earliest known date of her being in Sunnydale. If he is indeed keeping to canon timelines (which seems likely if he is so obsessed with canon characters), that would explain why the cross is a long way off- BtVS itself doesn't really get started till midway through the Half-Baked Plot.

 

Aspiring To Greatness » reviews
Set at beginning of Fifth Year. Harry takes measures to defeat Voldemort in a possibly Novel way. Hard to explain without giving too much away but you should read this. I did and I liked it. It may well be a sort of H/Hr/L/NT ish. Ooh and review
Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Romance - Chapters: 7 - Words: 31,879 - Reviews: 154 - Updated: 6-14-10 - Published: 8-16-09 - Harry P. & Hermione G.

This story for me was surprisingly fun to read. Light-hearted, it features a Harry about to start his 5th year determined to become a muggle superhero. The execution is more than a tad wobbly - but I found the characterization of Harry, Hermione, Lune and Ron funny enough to keep reading. There is also heavy Molly and Ginny bashing.

This story won't win any awards, but it does make for a fun 30 minutes to read.

 

This fic is about Harry and Voldemort occupying the same body and beginning to share each others memories. Don't really want to spoil much more so I'll just say that the story isn't going to go in the direction where it initially seems to be going. Aside from the chapters which could have been made a bit longer and the absolutely horrendous update rate, for fans of this genre it's definitely worth a read.

 

So, third rec in a row:

This is definitely on the upper end of Almost Average. The writing's pretty solid, and I quite like the story so far. Even though there are only three chapters so far, the first chapter is absolutely enormous.

Honestly, the only reason I'm not posting this in For Review is because it's such a cliché. Surprisingly, so far not the male veela part, which has barely even been hinted at, and even then subtly. The cliché part is how Harry is now Lord Baron Potter-Black, complete with blood adoption and a bunch of other minor things that I normally find infinitely grating. Thing is, I don't particularly mind it here. The author manages to pull them off pretty well, as a matter of fact. Things that these sorts of stories generally focus on (to my consternation) are played off as less important, and the author seems pretty relaxed about the whole thing. There's not much angst to be had, and the little that’s there is actually logical, which is a HUGE plus. And I quite liked his take on blood magic.

This story is definitely something to follow, but, as much as has been written already, it still hasn't gotten to the point where you can be sure it won't go down in flames. For now, I'd give it a 3.5/5 (rounded to 4). If the author can pull it off, this could turn out very nicely.

 

I actually posted that one several pages back. It has some potential, but it needs to be updated. The author posted all three chapters and 60k words on one day, and another story of only 2k words. All on the same day, and hasn't updated since (over a month ago). So I'm hoping that there will be more to it but who knows.

It's been awhile since I read it, but one thing I do recall that stuck out to me was the interaction with Fleur seemed good. You can see them becoming friends before any relationship starts up.

No Harry suddenly turning into a male veela over night and Fleur deciding that he's her 'mate' or any of that rubbish.

 

Crap, it's already been posted? :/ Completely missed that. Though I suppose I can blame The Most Overused Title Ever.

Still, I like it enough that I don't feel too bad bumping it.

 

I'm less than a thousand words into this story and I already think it's the stupidest thing I've read in ages. Harry has immediately decided to forgive everyone for not writing him over the summer, he had a confrontation with Mrs. Weasley, and acted antagonist towards everyone but Hermione, who is out of character.

I'll edit back with more.

Edit 1: Read about two more lines before it was introduced that Ron is apparently chronically out of shape and unable to run up some stairs without being exhausted. Also enter jealous!Ginny.

Edit 2: Oh, ho! Another few lines into the first chapter. We have a master manipulator Ginny, who is already plotting ways to ruin Harry's, as of yet nonexistent, relationship with Cho. She's also blackmailing Hermione.

Edit 3: Harry apparantly can't trust Sirius now. I'm done trying, couldn't even make it past the end of the first chapter.

TL;DR: This fic is shit.

 

Heh, I posted Aspiring To Greatness in the Worst Summaries thread a while back, though I noted that I hadn't read the thing. Looks like that decision payed off.