How could I forget: the exhibition duel between Harry and Dumbledore in sib's The Awakening Power.

/goes to re-read.

Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1709027/1/The_Awakening_Power

 

There is a particularly disturbed fic appropriately called Sanitarium, wherein the Weasley twins lock the Ministry six in their apartment so that they can work out their various post-war traumatic stresses. Everyone is severely damaged by what Death-Eaters did to them or what they did to survive the war. It's the ultimate non-parody WTF fic, in my mind.

What truly got to me though, was Hermione's particular source of damage: during the war she was captured by Theo Nott and forced to extract all her memories of her education at Hogwarts into a Pensieve, which he then assimilated to boost his own intellect. It left her a spaced-out and distracted shell of herself. Once that was revealed as the cause, I had to skip forward to a much later Hermione-centered chapter to make sure she got her mind back.

Granted, I was feverish with a stomach flu when I first read it, but it actually left me a little traumatized as well.

 

I've read so many thousands of stories that they all kind of blur together after awhile and I'm not very good at placing a scene to a particular story.

However, a memorable moment for me was in that Stalker!Harry one shot written by those 3 guys Nos Tres Reg or something like that, where he stalks Daphne (?) I believe and eventually they get down into the CoS and he

Spoiler

kills her in a duel. And then the fic ends with him beginning to stalk some other girl.

My poor description does the fic no service at all. It's much better than it sounds and I remember everyone liking it for the most part.

I think that one got 4/5 stars in the library.

 

I always remember the scene where we find out about Voldemort's creation of clones of his Death Eaters in Resistance by Lorien829. I thought it was so cool at the time, and I can still say I've not seen anything like it.

Something Grim This Way Comes by Ruskbyte really hit me too. I saw it and my first moment was very much wtf? A Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy crossover? But the story was pure win from the start.

The final seen in Evil Be Thou My Good also by Ruskbyte. So very awesome.

Forgetting the fact that the story isn't that great, Harry Potter and the Temporal Beacon with its "save game" sort of time travel always puts a smile on my face.

I could also mention the beginning of Vox Corporis by MissAnnThropic. I am sure that anyone who has read it remembers it, it was a strong scene in my opinion.

 

The moment when Harry convinces Dahlia to leave the Crystal Cage in The Phoenix and the Serpent, right before she starts "The Great Dementor Extermination".

Complete win.

 

There's one thing I still remember vividly. Was about 3 years ago, I was relatively new to fanfiction and read a couple of lighthearted, humorous stories that made me chuckle occasionally.

And then I discovered nonjon.

I was reading through A Black Comedy at ~4 AM, had to get ready for school in a few hours and was still sitting in front of my computer, breathless and nearly crying with laughter due to the Nundu-scene.

This chapter makes me laugh even nowadays, despite having read it at least 5 times.

 

Well, reading Barb's trilogy introduced me to fanfiction some time before OotP came out I think, so that's definitely up there. There's a few moments I remember about the stories, but it's the whole thing that stands out in my mind.

It's ridiculous, with the sheer number of stories I read in the following years, that I recall so few of them; most of them would not stand the test of time anyway, and they have mostly formed a shapeless blob of indy clichés in my mind, as if the whole thing was one long fic I read for years in a row.

There's a few moments and stories that stand out though. I remember getting hooked on Jeconais, when he was writing This Means War with the (at the time) hilarious magical email thing. I remember vividly The Awakening Power, which I still think is a good story, and the Harry battle with Voldemort wherein he uses a tunneling spell. I remember liking fics that lost most resemblance to Harry Potter, like Dragonmasters by Naia or Flairgold's ASCAL. And I remember waiting for new chapters of Jono's work.

Edit: Taure beat me to it. I remember the battle with Voldemort more vividly, but the exhibition duel was probably the better scene.

 

Let's see... Circular Reasoning was one of the first five fics I've ever read. At the time, the prologue had been revised, but nothing else. Nonetheless, it set a bar in terms of quality that kept me from reading shitty fics.

Echoes of Power Ring!Horcrux scene is probably the best I've ever read.

The end of book 6 of Sacrifices. I remember it better than the end of book 7 for some reason - probably it came completely out of left field, but at the same time it fit the story so well.

 

Not HP but Luke's turning scene in the Son of Suns trilogy. I'm not even sure why, it was inevitable and everyone knew it. But something about the scene invoked a sense of melancholy in me that I've never felt again.

 

Summer of Change was what turned me into a Honks fan for that 'stage'. Pretty sure it also opened up the world of Unspeakables to the fanfiction world -bad ass Unspeakables who did secret missions, that is. There were several fight scenes I remember off the top of my head: Harry vs his trainer in the beginning chapters - I honestly forgot his name, Harry vs the DE's attacking Hermione's house, Harry vs Voldemort at Azkaban and lets not forget the showdown between Harry and Bellatrix in Diagon Alley. The scense weren't really done well nor were they really in-depth duels that blew you away with transfig and charms (pretty much just curses and such), but they were still epic and when I look at my favorite list, it is the earliest one there, and its arguably my favorite story.

 

A couple of years ago I read this one story where Neville is the BWL, but he doesn't survive the Killing Curse until he was about five or six years old. I remember that Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione were all captured by Death Eaters when their parents were killed.

The fic involved some rape scenes that really got to me. It wasn't so much the description as it was the fact that it was happening to children. I remember reading the first chapter where Ginny dies after being brutally gang raped by Death Eaters. The way she spoke to Ron before she died was a little over the top, but it really bothered me.

The story features some of the most psychotic eleven year old kids I've ever seen. It was incredibly unrealistic, but the bitterness, loathing, and desperation that Harry, Ron, and Hermione exuded, at the time, was terrifying.

I've yet to find a fanfic that gets to me like that one did.

 

Some bad and some still good:

Ron confronting Hermione near the end of Reign of Power by Fayr Warning.

Harry vs. Unspeakable Hermione in The Song of the Trees by Tinn Tam.

Birth of a Name by nonjon, the whole thing. It had me laughing in tears from start to finish.

Harry making a muggle out of Voldemort in Resonance by GreenGecko.

Harry playing guitar for the comatose Lily in Knowledge Is Power by Fettuccini.

Harry dancing with AU sisters/Ginny/Hermione/any pedo-girl around in Harry Potter & The New Life by SilverAegis.

Fleur destroying Ginny in one of DLP's Ginny-kill-offs, I don't remember by whom (maybe Tinn Tam).

Oedipus Flower by Vash the Unholy.

My first Harry/Bellatrix raping fic, in which they rape each other alternately. Good lord, how many of them I ended up reading because of this first one I can't even find anymore. Stupid raging hormones...

I don't think I'll forget any of these scenes/stories any time soon.

 

Say what ever you got the say about Miranda's ASCAL but it had original ideas wich actually what made the story but I think the best part about it was the part where Harry proposes to make a new world. At the time I thought it was amazing idea I mean really we call it magical world in canon but it is more like magical cult.

A world fully magical likes of D&D world with Harry Potter? Fuck yeah.

 

There's a whole host of moments from the Sacrifices Arc, but two stand out ones from the seventh book, 'I Am Also Thy Brother':

An interlude chapter, featuring two OC brothers and a bad case of honour.

Spoiler

The younger brother has betrayed Harry, handing over Conner Potter to Voldemort. As a result, the traitor's older brother kills him, partly to wipe clean the stain on their family, and partly to spare him what would happen if Harry or Draco got hold of him.

It's a beautiful, haunting, chilling scene.

The same can be said for the final battle between Harry and Voldemort, such as it is. There's no epic duel, just the most satisfying, well suited conclusion to all the death and horror that has taken place. When you find out just how the different prophecies have come into play, it's just...I've never seen anything in fanfiction like it.

Elsewhere, there's Sitra Arha, and the end of the second chapter. I absolutely did not see that coming.

Edited to add:

Vox Corporis. There's a moment in something like the thirtieth chapter where the tension between the Trio comes to a head, and Ron finally confronts Harry over his relationship with Hermione (which is at this stage still just platonic, although it's clearly heading elsewhere). Harry snaps, and Ron finally realises just what being the Boy-Who-Lived actually means. It's a little cheesy, but it's also quite awesome. It helps that the scenes afterwards, where Harry and Ron actually talk about why Ron/Hermione just wouldn't work in a sensible and mature fashion, are brilliant.

Almost all of Gemino.

On the downside, I'll echo Silens regarding the R-Series and Unsung Hero; so much promise, and most of it squandered. A real shame.

More personally, the sequel to (I think) Broken Mind, Fractured Soul. I loved 'Broken Mind...', although I suspect I'd hate it now (MPD!Harry, Mentor!Snape, Manipulative!Dumbledore, Psycho!Vernon...that sort of thing), but at the time I really enjoyed it. Then the sequel introduced slash.

Now, I don't actually despise slash like so many here. I really don't care, so long as it's well written. This wasn't. Everything that had been built up in the first story was reduced to Draco hugging Harry back to mental health. Even the showdown between Harry and Voldemort happened off screen, because the author was more interested in Draco avenging Harry's treatment by Umbridge. Throw in some bizarre bonding with an orphaned Muggle girl of about three, and it really all just went to hell.

A story I can't remember the name of, or the plot, or anything beyond the genre (Dark!Harry, I think. Possibly Dark!Hermione as well). I was quite happily reading it when I got to the last chapter...a message from the author's brother, saying that the author was dead and so the story was never going to be finished. Not exactly what the thread's about, but...

Finally, many, many weird reviews.

 

Mira Mirth's rendition of the Ministry battle in On the Way to Greatness.

I have a great deal of respect for authors who are able to capture something of Rowling's particular style of tension during an action scene. Obviously that isn't the only way to write an action scene, but it's the style that resonates most with me while reading Harry Potter fanfiction. Silens Cursor's action style reminds me of Rowling, sometimes.

And the same is true of Mira Mirth's scene. Mira does a delightful job of reimagining the Ministry battle for her Slytherin Harry. The end result bears passing similarities to canon, yet with its own, properly Slytherin!Harry (but not evil!/dark!Harry) twist. And tense? Yes, yes it is.

 

Thor Nairda's Shadow Play, when Harry arrives in Imbellis. Ingenious city, one of the best settings that has ever been written. It created a picture of this thriving wizarding world, in the whole world. I really loved how Harry explored the world in that story.

The scene in the beginning of Wastelands of Time where Harry tells Tonks about the birthmark on her hip, then stepping back and disappearing within his invisibility cloak. It's one of those grandly romantic kind of scenes that will make me admire it for as long as I remember it.

 

For its time, the Hero Trilogy had its particular charm, sure. I look back now and cringe. It was a long time ago, though. Almost coming up for a goddamn decade. I wrote those stories on the tailwind left by the likes of Barb, and if you look closely (or not so closely, heh) the Hero Trilogy actually follows her format.

You know: After Sirius' death, Harry trains for summer, becomes badass, then gets hurled into alternate dimension where parents are still alive. Barb did the same.

Looking back now, I can't believe I made it through all 1,000,000 words of that story. It wouldn't even occur to me to write something so... easy now. Easy isn't the right word, but generic, perhaps.

Meh. Anyway, on topic:

The end twist and reveal in The Human Condition by CK Talons has stuck in my head. Again, Talons was of the old crowd like me - and she's even publishing original stuff these days - but it was one of the most awesome moments because I did not see it coming--at all. It threw me for a loop, but once I knew the conclusion I could see how well the story had been planned from the start.

It was great.

Let's see...

There was this one-shot from years ago. A story where Dumbledore is carrying a portrait of a recently deceased Sirius up to a special wing in his office. This wing contains portraits of all the people Dumbledore has lost, fighting his wars. The good and the bad. Lily and James are there, as are others. Because they were all his students.

The entire dialogue and Dumbledore's thought patterns were fantastic.

I really want to read that now. Anyone remember it?

 

I have to agree - that is probably the most infuriating thing I've ever read in a fanfic.

I don't remember that particular part, but there were two other big moments in that fic for me. One was Voldemort making dancing Inferi out of James' and Lily's bones (I was horrified, somehow), and the other was Hermione's Portkey activating when she sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Cheesy, yes, but at the time I thought it was a novel idea.

I've said it before and I know I'm in the minority, but I thought that story was blah at best.

That was indeed an awesome fight.

Jesus, ^this. I bet my eyes were like saucers the whole time I was reading that story.

Fuck yes. That whole story is one big story-gasm for me. Another great moment in that story is Harry having a confrontation with the Slytherin Quidditch team, after the Ministry events. He tells them that yes, he's against Voldemort but that he's still a Slytherin. Just great writing.

Heh. I remember reccing that here (unless I'm mis-remembering). It's Tower of Air by Cluegirl and was posted at LiveJournal when I read it. It was really, really good.

Some of my favorite moments:

Hermione berating McGonagall for her and Dumbledore's failures in HP & the Years of Rebellion. In fact, that whole Interlude sequence where Hermione is trying to recover from Voldemort's Legilimency attack is pretty damn good.

The description of the Killing Curse from After the End. It's an old story that probably hasn't aged well at all, but when Harry casts the Killing Curse and it's described as "the opposite of his Patronus," I was blown away.

Harry, Bill, Kwan & Co. against the Greater Daemon in Bungle in the Jungle. Harry coming into his own and his new Patronus are examples of kick-ass story-telling.

The part in Ectomancer where Harry

Spoiler

drags a beaten Lucius Malfoy over to the Other Side. I love the story as a whole, but that was just awesome.

And of course, there's always Karakash.

Every instance of Dumbledore in Hallowed. Seriously, I have rarely if ever seen a better Dumbledore.

The scene in Dimension-Hopping for Beginners where the Moody-like Harry arrives in the new AU to find that Hogwarts is

Spoiler

a ballet school, Voldemort is a ballet instructor, and that version of Harry is a flaming ballerina. His reaction is to blow up the school and everyone in it, and call it a mercy killing.

Fucking priceless nonjon, right there.

One of my favorite moments is the duel between Harry and Dumbledore in Catharsis. It was just so inventive and outside the box from my perspective. I have tried to incorporate that kind of thinking into writing fights, and it honestly spoiled me for reading most duels now, since most of them are the "fire a spell, watch the other guy dodge, wait for his return fire, dodge" kind of shit I hate.

Along those same lines is another nuhuh fight scene - Harry and then Voldemort vs. The Merlin in Demon's Feign. Incredibly creative and interesting.

Dark Marauder by BajaB. The portrayal of a broken James leading some truly ruthless Marauders on a course of revenge was totally new to me at the time. And I loved it.

The netherworld and Harry's fight with the heliopath in By the Divining Light. My perception is colored somewhat by the awesome Dumbledore, but the imagery and immersion nmb produced in that story was incredible.

Shezza's Familiar Conversations. I laughed and laughed.

The one moment in A Mother-In-Law's Love where Ginny is asking her mum whether she should swallow or not. Pers had that little snippet in his DLP sig for about 6 months before posting the actual chapter, and it remains the greatest example of trolling I have ever witnessed at DLP. We all assumed and he turned it on its ear.

Breach of Contract, when the Big Bad is revealed. I was floored; I never saw it coming.

Master Slytherin's What Lies Beneath. There's a line near the end:

I still think that's an awesome line.

Another jbern moment, when in TFTCD, Neville

Spoiler

uses the cursed necklace on Pansy and they end up killing Ginny when she finds out and tries to squeal.

Just some gritty stuff.

And one last jbern spot. In TLIL, when Harry/James asks the shade of Lily, "What am I?" Very emotional, because he's unsure of everything at that point.

And of course, there's nothing quite like Big D's Parting the Continents. Even with the attempt at Hagrid/Dumbledore humor, I feel like I need a shower after reading that story. Then again, I could say that about each and every post in the "Thank God You Raped Me" thread.

Lastly, The Time-Turner's Curse by mattyjam (?). I read it on Mugglenet when I first got into fanfiction and the plot idea stuck with me. It's Hermione having to endlessly relive her life from PoA onwards, over and over, in an attempt to get it right, but she doesn't know what to do to change things the "right" way. I really liked it, and it was actually one inspiration for Geminio.

I'm sure I've forgotten a bunch of others.

 

Thanks for remembering; it let me read a good one-shot for the first time. Tower of Air

Quality.