I found some really interesting spin on life debts in this one shot. The story isn't really great in itself and has some bashing patterns BUT the writer explained them believable. It's short enough to just read it for the idea behind it because it's worth exploring.

Life Debts

P.S. The only real short come to this story's concept is that Harry should transport the tragedy/loss of a "perceived" friend more to make him feel more real here.

 

Haven't read that one, but this short by Pers has an interesting if minor subplot concerning a life debt.

 

Yeah, I call crap on that one; in the first book before she became friends with Harry and Ron, and especially on the train, she did seem to be wanting to make friends with them - even if she did act like a snob/didn't know how to exactly go about it/was just initially for Harry being 'The' Harry Potter.

She also made attempts throughout the year, albeit somewhat misguided ones; that's one reason why Ron's comment about her not having any friends hit her so hard.

 

Have you never tried to make friends awkwardly in a new environment and then later found out that the personalities are too different to have something in common so you try it with other people?
Or were you never hurt if your social peers in some environment don't like you despite your tries to be nice? We talk here about young girls/boys without stabilized personalities therefore I don't think your arguments here devalue this specific spin in the story.

The idea that a life debt could mean that the magic of the person forces somebody to do something unconsciously to the degree of changing somebody's personality is quite interesting. And the way the writer used it here was a new concept I've never seen before.

 

That's almost as good as twelve year olds dating each other, because their souls are somehow connected.

Someone should write a story about that.

 

This idea has some small amount of utility to it - it's the sort of plot bunny I could see BajaB using to write an OK one-shot.

As executed by this author? Meh. The author turns Harry into his Inferi and has him vomit out a huge, nearly inflectionless rant. This Harry is like the trust-nobody Harry found in the early parts of Silens' Renegade Cause, except without any charm.

Ultimately the story was just too much of an empty sack to be very good. It needs something else beyond the rant to make it more compelling. A bit of humor, some more obvious emotion on Harry's part, or even just an indication of what Harry's going to do next, other than "Harry walked off into the sunset like a passive-aggressive weenie, on his way to dying because he had no plan, trusted nobody, and wasn't even interested in taking advantage of his former "friend" while he could. Also, Ron is a dumbass."

 

Fully agreed but I thought I made clear that the story itself isn't very good. It was only about this specific idea I thought would be worth exploring as it felt fresh. In a way these life debts are accidental unspecified unbreakable oaths in this story.