Not sure if this has been posted before, a quick search didn't show anything but I've not been bothered to fiddle around with search settings. An entertaining Harry/Lavender oneshot.

 

That was... interesting. It was certainly unique as well.

Spoiler

I have never seen Voldemort killed using a purposefully picked up STD that was transmitted through Harry's link.

 

Letters
Students are required to write to a pen pal in the spirit of 'International Cooperation.' New friendships and a new romance arise going into the fourth year at Hogwarts.

Ok, so, this story was mentioned in the Harry/Fleur thread. It's quite good, if the author keeps up this level then it could be library worthy. Everyone's characterisation is very consistent and the writing itself is fresh.

The only thing I didn't care for much was the letter he sent. It was a bit too open about things that Harry in canon doesn't usually talk about with anyone. It's unlikely that Harry will describe it to someone who he doesn't know.

Overall, it's a pretty solid beginning with a plot that I thought wasn't quite that feasible.

 

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUCK YOU.

 

Only one chapter so far, it's hard to judge much of anything. But that said I wasn't sold on it. Bunch of little minor things irritated me...but the real issue like you said was the letter. The whole writing about his godfather, Dursleys, etc. was ridiculous.

Who knows how it'll develop though. Worth keeping an eye on it.

 

In that first letter, meant to be a "Hi, here are some trivial details about me", Harry discloses more explicit detail about the Dursleys than he ever did with his best friends.

Terrible fic.

 

He does seem to give way too much information out about himself in the first letter, but you've also got to remember that this Harry hasn't gone into a 'war' kind of mindset yet: that starts to develop in the following year. Sounds like he's just trying to make a new friend?

 

He still tells too much. War mindset or not, Harry isn't social, or at least not the most social. Too early to say it's terrible though, maybe gonna keep an eye on it.

 

Better explanation is he doesn't expect to ever meet this person, so he is more willing to write things that he normally wouldn't. You know, like when writing on the Internet.

 

You don't make friends by telling them how fuckep up you are on the first time you talk to them.

And war mindset? We never see Harry lauching into a "Woe is me" speech with his roommates, quite on the contrary, as he always kept things to himself, or at most sharing them with Ron&Hermione.

 

That's true: although (to a lesser, 'outer-circle' kind of extent) Luna, Neville and Ginny join his group of friends later on, he's always been very close to Hermione and Ron. Heck, I don't think that he was even close to his quidditch team-mates, and considering that most people who are on sports teams are usually quite friendly/close with one another...

Yeah, that does makes more sense...

Compare how Harry acts/thinks before and after GoF. You'll see a difference as he grows up/the war starts. 'nuff said.

But yeah, you are right; Harry is quite the private person...

 

Entertaining story, indeed. The premise is weak, but the execution is pretty great. A cute one-shot, imo. I'd rate it a tentative 4/5, because even though I found the whole Voldemort part slightly retarded, it's not the focus of the story, and the rest is really enjoyable.

Library worthy, imo.

 

I still think he wouldn't bring up anything regarding his godfather whom the rest of the world believes to be a mass-murdering psychopath. Even if he doesn't name his godfather it's till stupid.

 

While I'm not sold on it, it isn't unreasonable to think that Harry giving away these small secrets is really not that big of a deal. In Canon, post-POA, he had two friends: Ron and Hermoine. If he told them all of his secrets then he would have to deal with backlash from them, however, by writing to an anonymous pen pal, someone he never expects to meet (he has no idea about the tournament at this point) and only has to write three letters to, there is no reason for him to think that his identity will be discovered unless he tells this pen pal so. I guess you could argue that it wouldn't be hard to put the pieces together, but how many French people follow the British media closely? Especially as teenagers?

 

Wow.

I just read the first chapter of Letters, and from what all of you have said I was expecting page after page of "woe is me" from Harry. What I got was really, really mild. Basically he says that his relatives don't like magic much and make him do some chores. Then he mentions he almost got to move in with his godfather but it didn't work out.

That really had you all in a tizzy?

One thing that I did notice though is that it wouldn't be difficult for anyone to figure out who he is if they knew anything about him, but maybe he just doesn't care. Anyhow, I thought it was a perfectly reasonable start to the story.

 

It was, in particular, the use of the word "freak".

Name one part of canon in which Harry acknowledges this fact, even to himself.

If he doesn't even allow himself to acknowledge the shitty way he was treated, he's certainly not going to throw it around in casual conversation with strangers.

 

That was what bugged me. I'll even grant you that maybe he doesn't care about people figuring out his home life. The way he casually throw the info about a godfather however...after how concerned he appears for Sirius in POA I feel like he'd keep a really tight hold on that sort of info.

But like I said it's just one issue in the first chapter of a decent story so far.

 

My awesome list has been updated. >_> I only post because I haven't done it in fuck all ages.

 

I actually like the fact that he aknowledged the "freak" thing easily. It's always made such a big deal of in fanon (read: all child abuse fics ever), I was expecting an angst-fest, from some of the comments here.

The letter was pretty bland actually, a bit like the rest of the story. The only thing that stood out was the OC, who holds the distinction of being genuinely annoying ("I'm getting to that") and giving off a Mary-Sue vibe at the same time. Oh, and Hogwarts has a school tie.

I'm not expecting this to be good. Then again, it's Harry/Fleur that isn't written by an orangutan, so I'll probably end up reading it (except if the update rate sucks, which wouldn't surprise me either).