Title: Living with Danger & The Three Sequels
Author: whydoyouneedtoknow
Rating: T or PG-13
Genre: General / AU
DLP Category: AU
Pairings: SB/OC and RL/OC, later stories have H/G DM/LL H/R and NL/OC

Status: Three Complete Stories & Fourth (Final?) in Progress

Summary: Lone wolf. Dream-seer. Bright child. Scarred child. Singer. Prisoner. Dancer child. Dragon child. Eight semi-ordinary people. One extraordinary family, and how they became one. Pre-Hogwarts story.

Link: Living with Danger, Living without Danger, Dealing with Danger, & Facing Danger

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Yeah, yeah, I know. You're all going WTF is this getting recommended for in mah DLPz?

I'll be honest, I don't think it will make it into the library either. Until now I had always assumed that it had been tried, found wanting, and tossed out like yesterday's trash. But I checked the thread that lists all of those stories and these just aren't there. I also tossed it up in 'Almost recommended' a day or two ago and got some thoughts similar to mine.

It might not belong in the library, but personally I think it could find a spot in the Recycling Bin. Personally I rate it at a solid 3/5.

So for some background for those of you who haven't already wandered into it...

The gist of it is that Lupin takes Harry from the Dursley's when he's quite young still, then helps rescue Sirius. They, along with various other characters picked up along the way, live 'under the radar' until Harry is old enough to attend Hogwarts (at which point the second book starts).

With the second book the focus shifts from Lupin and Sirius more towards Harry and his friends because they are old enough to take on the protagonist role.

Spoilers:

Spoiler

Hermione has an older sister who hooks up with Lupin, so Hermione grows up as Harry's sister. Sirius also hooks up with an OC. Narcissa decides that Lucius is a jackass and gives Draco to Sirius, adding another brother to the mix for the kids. They decide to form a "pack" which sounds ridiculous but almost works because of the age of the children. Definitely seems weird later though. Pack? Pride? Srsly?

Everything else flows from that. From the second book on Neville, Luna, Ron, and Ginny take on relatively major roles as well.

So what's the problem with it? Well, several things, but the biggest problem I have with it is that there is just so much crap in the stories that does not need to be there.

For instance, the author writes a good Harry once he gets old enough to actually play the protagonist. He's a natural leader, has weaknesses as well as strengths, is powerful for his age, and he's fun.

But instead of working with those qualities she also has him with powers of fire gifted by Godric Gryffindor, a magic necklace that does all kinds of weird shit, astral projection abilities, a secret hide-out inside Hogwarts, and on personal terms with most of the children of the original Founders (even if via dream-world).

WTF? That's the gist of it -- the stories (especially the later ones, the first one focused a bit too much on lovey-dovey family stuff) could just as easily be written without a lot of the extraneous OP/weird plot devices that get added.

I think if you took all of that extra weird stuff out, and there is a LOT of it, you'd find that the characters and plots could stand on their own and end up with some good stories. Because this author's characters don't need all that to shine. Putting it there just irks me and strikes me as sloppy.

Summary: It gets a 3/5 from me, at least until I re-read it, because despite the issues I have with it I did enjoy it and continue to keep up with it.

I just can't get into it like I wish I could with all the weird random stuff always popping up.

 

I went and re-read some of this today. Everything I said earlier still stands.

If I was recommending this on another site that catered more towards this kind of story I might see myself going up to a 4/5 as I do find it somewhat engaging.

Keeping my original rating for now though because, well, yeah. It's all already been said.

 

I'm pretty sure we can recommend fics that we think are good enough for the 'Bin but not the Library.

 

Ah, alright. My bad in that case. I was going off of this thread (last sentence of Taure's post) from a while back (just spent a solid 10 minutes looking for that to link), but I couldn't remember who had said we could toss things we rated at 3/5 in "For Review." I had thought it was a mod that had said it but turns out I was wrong. Long time ago for me to have half remembered that and acted on it anyway. Ah well, it's done now.

Besides, I guess other stories that are only halfway done might still redeem themselves and move out of the 'Bin. This one is close enough to done that it's unlikely to make a come-back in most peoples opinions. Point taken.

I think these stories deserve at least a 3/5 because I find them to be better than a lot of the other stuff we have rated at 3/5 in the 'Bin -- but that's me and that's me rating by comparison to other stories. That's also why we have a rating system in the first place, so you can all veto it.