Title: Tied for Last
Author: Speechwriter
Rating: M
Genre: Romance
DLP Category: Romance
Pairing: Hermione/Tom Riddle Jr.
Status: Complete
Summary: Hermione is killed by Voldemort, and is now dead. Well, sort of. Turns out that death is a little more complex than she knew... Hermy/Tom Riddle. Not your standard time travel fic. Ignores the epilogue and the last 50ish pages of DH.
Link: FFN

I'm somewhat surprised not to have seen this story even mentioned on DLP. While DLP isn't big on Romance, this is surprisingly well done and doesn't seem to drag despite its (relatively) obscene length.

The premise is, as far as I know, unique, and fairly interesting. The characterizations are generally well-done and the interactions are realistic (mostly - at times seems like wish-fulfillment).

The only things that really bugged me was the setup at Hogwarts (I just didn't understand how or why the status quo was maintained at all) and the ending was... eh.

Still, I don't regret reading the story and feel it deserves a place in the Library.

4/5

 

When I saw Hermy... 1/5.

I'll give it +2 for being well written and -1 for the pairing.

2/5

 

I'm sorry, but that's an absolutely retarded way to rate. She isn't even called that in the fic, and the entire point is in making the pairing work.

 

Dude when somebody has in the plot-summary the name of a character written "Hermy" is like wow... I have no words to even say to that.

 

I read something like three paragraphs in, read that Harry ran away and decided that if the author cannot grasp the primary personality trait of canon's protagonist, I probably ought not to read it.

1/5

 

Kill it with fire.

That is all.

 

Okay, let me make one thing very clear - I'm a Lily/Snape writer (which is one of the mothers of implausible ships), and even I hated this badly-written masturbatory fantasy.

Complete waste of my time. 1/5

 

Do not want.

1/5

 

I actually forced myself down a chapter or two when I was really bored, because this was on MoR guy's rec list and I like that fic.

I regretted it. 1/5

 

5/5 as a trollfic. Unfortunately author was seriously.

1/5.

 

I skim author profiles before I read stories nowadays, helps a lot when deciding whether or not to even give their stories a try. My mind nearly imploded from the amount of sheer stupid in there. Not going to bother with the story.

 

I was all pumped to defend this fic and scold all the dudes that are hating without reading.

But then I actually read some of it.

So here's a picture of a facepalm instead:

 

Whenever you point out how something is a retarded way to criticize a story/genre, the target of the criticism you're defending is invariably shit. That alone indicates the quality of this story.

 

I actually read this whole story, because I've not really seen (m)any good redemption fics, however I was yet again disappointed. The writing was pretty good, but that's about it. I think the people who read just a little bit from the start would be happy to know that the end was actually much worse than the start. At least in the beginning Tom was really a manipulative and evil person, which you don't see too well until few chapters in. The development from that point wasn't too bad. At the start I would have kind of given the story a chance, however at some point it just got way too cliche. I have several huge issues with how the story ended, and the last few chapters made me feel like the fic was some kind of fan girl fantasy.

Spoiler

Firstly, I have bit of a problem with Hermione being the kind of person, who keeps going back to an abusive guy, but I guess you can't really get around this, if you want to write this kind of pairing. However, at the point where the pedophilia card is played I really facepalmed. How is it that when somebody is evil, there always needs to be some kind of reason behind it, so we can feel sorry for them and totally understand. I thought the part where Tom totally betrays Hermione's trust was actually pretty good compared to the rest of the fic, although this seems to be the last interesting part of the fic.

The whole story seems to go down the drain after the part where Hermione and Tom suddenly manage to come back to life (wtf was that anyway). I especially hated just suddenly killing Harry off, when we finally got to see him. What ever happened to the prophecy? Then the whole mystical connection between Tom and Voldemort, which leads the former to commit suicide to kill the latter, was almost double facepalm worthy. However the author just couldn't end it there. They just had to bring Tom back to life by some lame suicide hocrux plot twist so that they can live happily ever after. Yawn.

Anyway 2/5 for being mildly interesting in some parts.

 

I managed to read the first chapter and can honestly say it wasn't that bad. Regardless, the hint of Hermione/Riddle at the end ruined it for me. The writing was well done and there were no glaring grammatical errors, but then at the end the author starts writing about how handsome and amazing and Adonis-like Tom Riddle is. That was just wrong.
However, the idea that when someone with some sort of permanent connection to the real world will get stuck in a kind of magical, purgatory Hogwarts when they die was great. Loved it.

4/5 for the premise. 3/5 for the story.

 

The problem with this story is plotting. The author seems quite good at characterisation when they're actually trying, but they try to do too much and end up failing at everything. I think it would have worked a lot better if it had just been Hermione and Tom accepting that they were dead and moving on; it is the characterisation of Harry/Ron and the return to life that really kill it. I do like how Tom was written in the first half though; very few stories with Voldemort/Tom as a main character actually make him evil.

1.5/5, but it had the potential for greater things