I was hoping if anyone here knows of -and could recommend to me- any decent stories that have Harry paired with a well-written, non (or at least, not a complete) Mary Sue type character?

(Heh, I'm sort of expecting someone to mention Calypso from The_Santi's 'Harry Potter and the Boy Who Lived', here).

I don't mind (and would prefer as it lends more to creativity, compared to having her as a regular muggle/witch) if she's not a witch, but something else race-wise, the more unusual and creative in origin, the better.

Any suggestions/recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

 

Amusingly, my favorite example of what you're talking about (including the bit about not being a normal Muggle or wizard, but something unusual) was from an H/Hr story.

In Harry Potter and the Years of Rebellion, Harry has a brief fling with an up and coming pop/rock singer in the Muggle world, named Heather - I think most of that is in the first and second parts of the fic. Like many of the OCs in that fic, Heather turns out to be surprisingly well characterized, IMO. The fic is dominated by the H/Hr, but it figures that the fling with the OC was in some ways more interesting.

 

Shit, I was gonna mention that. The H/Hr, to be totally honest, is mostly towards the end, and the story is abandoned. Still, it's definitely worth reading even outside the romance angles. It's what all post-OotP fics tried and failed to be.

All At Once has a brief dalliance with an OC but she isn't a very important character, and it's also abandoned.

...that's all I can think of, sadly. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread for results, because any other fics listed will be one's I haven't read yet..

 

I'm sure you've read all these, but in case you haven't: Bungle in the Jungle and sequel by jbern have plenty of cases of Harry hooking up with OCs. Grimm A Fairy's Tale by Belleradh doesn't really have a pairing, but if Harry's with anyone, he's with the female of the twins. Shezza's Denarian Knight/etc. stories. Nuhuh's and Water Mage's Dresden crossovers. Nuhuh's Bleach crossover. Shake Me by Roxiesnape has Harry with vampire chick.

 

Heh, funnily enough, I have the exact same situation - except it's a totally different H/Hr story.

If you have the urge to kill several days of time, check out the flawed, but still interesting Harry Potter and the Fifth Element. I'm not going to lie here, this story is well over a million words, and the cliches get a little nuts at points (but considering the story was started in 2004, I can forgive that), but it also has my favourite Harry/OC relationship, with a startlingly well-written Muggle chick called Eliza. Honestly, the time Harry spends with her, up and until the end of their relationship (which I won't spoil), is some damn near fantastic writing, to the point I stopped caring about the overarching conflict and I wanted more of Eliza's story.

And of course, I still think the way the author Bexis got rid of her was a massive copout, but he's a H/Hr writer, what are you going to do?

 

Awhile ago, I checked out 5th element, but I really couldn't get into it. Perhaps it's that I was jaded by the time I got to it. Abraxan's Refiner's Fire uses an OC in a similar way.

Spoiler

As a kill-off so that Harry could hook up with the woman he Should Have Been With All Along.

An obscure oldie would be Sins of the Father by Talia of Eragon. The writing doesn't age well and it's filled with pointless angst, but it was adequately written for a story written back in 2002.

 

I suppose I should mention Behind Blue Eyes.

The OC is a Muggle, well-written, clearly not a Mary-Sue and has a lot of flaws. This is probably one of the most realistic Harry-needs-a-break fics along with everything that teenage-romance entails.

The downside is that this is a canon-strength Harry and there's some sort of absolutely redundant and boring Remus/Tonks side-story going on.

Oh, and Voldemort gets shot.

 

I'm surprised nobody has yet mentioned Hocus Pocus, Adele Polkiss.

Wasn't that Harry/Aurora?

 

I quit reading this story after a while. It wasn't really all that great, due to Harry still being a sissy after all the bullshit they went through together, and the constant stupid fighting over piddly garbage issues.

 

It's like a real relationship!

 

Yeah, but nobody wants to read a real relationship. C'mon, who are you kidding? =P

 

Much love for that story. For a while I had been worried it would be abandoned.

Sooner or later, someone would probably mention
Harry Potter and the Daughter of Darkness by Ri-kun.

Unfortunately, as I recall, the story turns to shit at the end.
Spoiler, I'm not even fuckin' kidding.

Spoiler

Harry and the OC both suddenly turn into weak idiots and the OC is killed off in a fairly pathetic way. According to the dates on FFN, the story was finished only a few months after it was originally posted, but that's because it was reposted. Originally, the story sat more or less abandoned after the first few chapters, then the author suddenly picked it back up and rushed through to the end. And it was rewritten to be more post-HBP canon compliant at some point.

I have not yet bothered to read the sequel and see if it, in any way, redeemed what was done to the first story.

Edit: Relevant thread here.

 

Not sure if this is an option, but my favourite HP/OC story is http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2697521/1/The_Brave_New_World which features a normal witch with no special abilities or skills as far as I can remember. It's been a while since I read it but the writing is good (I think) and it's at 800000 words and completed. If nothing else you should have something to read the next week.

 

Not exactly what I'm looking for (H/Hr), but the 'Heather' bit sounds pretty good; I'll check it out, thanks!

All at Once? (Link here for other people - http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2917903/1/All_at_Once )

The potential slash warning is making me a tad wary, to be honest, but I'll browse through it.

Yes, I've read 'Bungle in the Jungle' and its sequel, but I haven't read the other stories - thanks for linking me! Shake Me looks especially interesting.

I've been keeping an eye on TFE, and it seems to be a bit of a wasted chance with the OC and Hermione - a lot of angst, drama and story could of occured, had...well, you know.

Old or not, I'll still check it out.

This -despite her being a muggle- sparks my interest; best of all, it's complete!

Looks interesting at a first glance - is it abandoned, though? Last update was about a year ago.

Aren't one of fanfiction's main points escapism from the real world? (Eg, why would you want to read about a nagging girlfriend, when your own one is nagging at you to take the trash out, for example? :awesome)

Yeah, I think I'll skip that due to the cop-out factor, then.

Thanks!

 

Just read that, loved it. Short, but definitely enjoyable.

 

Because in fanfiction, that's where Harry flips out, goes dark, and AK's the bitch :awesome

 

Forgot to mention that the author decided to forgo slash from the story, so if that's all that's keeping you from it, then go for it.

 

A quick update for this topic: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4778694/1/To_End_in_Serenity

Written by Matt Silver 3K - the OC love interest of Harry's is pretty well written, though the romance angle of the fic' is pretty sparse.

The whole 'Serenity Valley' thing made me smile; I gather that the author's a fan of Firefly/Serenity.

Anyone else got anything new to add to the list?

 

Writing on my phone so I can't easily add the link, but Betrayed by kateydidnt was a decent Harry/OC, though much of the story revolves around Harry's kids at Hogwarts. Yes, there are some cliches and all that, but I enjoyed it when I read it.