I honestly didn't really have a problem with that. At least not so far.

The behavior itself could definitely be... questionable, but the way it's all handled makes sense. There was even a conversation about it, which partly explained why things were the way they are.

Two guys can be close friends without wanting to stick their dicks up each others arse, and I'm happy to read about that. It doesn't detract from the story in any way, and in fact, I actually find it a bit interesting. You don't see stuff like this done tastefully, or well in fanfiction really.

I'd have no issues if you put this in For Review T3t. But there is a significant chance that it'd end up in the recycle bin. Can't hurt either way.

 

The emo shit in "C'est la vie" got out of hand in chapter six, it's disgusting how pathetically dysfunctional "Hadrian" gets in the weeks before Halloween. Not only is this aggravating, but it's also psychologically unsound.

 

It's the "I'm upset, I need a drink" bullshit that gets me. It happens a lot in fanfic, and really reveals a lack of understanding of alcoholism. Normal people, no matter how much they drink, don't feel urges to drink alcohol to help them deal with things. Only alcoholics do. A character who has barely drunk in their lives should not be thinking "I need a drink!", yet we see it all the time.

And alright, in this fic Harry has had more than a few drinks in his past. But unless he's addicted to alcohol, he shouldn't be feeling the need to drink it. And given that he just spent several months without drinking with no problem, he isn't addicted to alcohol.

 

I can agree with the "I need a drink" thing that Taure mentioned, however, I don't think it's unbelievable for someone who had so many traumatising experiences on one particular date to be out of sorts around it.

And what do you mean it's psychologically unsound Noxed? If you're gonna say something like that, back it up.

 

I think context is important. I say "I need a drink," all the time and so do a lot of my friends after, say, a long week, or a damn hard test, etc. It's not because we're alcoholics, it's more about what goes along with getting drinks: relaxing, the disinhibition, the seeing friends aspect...

Then again, I agree that if you don't really drink at all, ever, you probably wouldn't connect it with all that stuff.

 

People don't go from "King of Hogwarts, future Rune master" to "depressed and dysfunctional" for weeks just because a date is nearing. Symptoms may be stronger than usual, but it's not an "on/off" condition.

It's unsound because the psychologicall problems should show much more all year around. People with PTSD and depression don't react to a callendar day like pavlov's dog, they have symptoms all the time, especially if they are untreated, as Hadrian is.

 

Maybe it's like a trigger switch.

 

I fucking hate my cellphone.

 

Here's one I just found that's decent: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5396819/1/Time-Warp

Basically, Harry wakes up as a 10 year old with all his memories. Blah blah blah - only it turns out Draco is in the exact same situation (though he doesn't want to change anything). Don't worry- it's not slash, and Harry and Draco don't suddenly become friends or anything. Also, the fic skips over 90% of the canon rehash stuff you've read a million times. Most of the events are unchanged from the books (Harry doesn't want to make HUGE changes, which would screw up his foreknowledge). The author mostly just writes the scenes that changed.

It doesn't take itself too seriously. It's not great, but it's not bad either. If you really like re-do fics (one of my guilty pleasures) and you're pretty bored, give it a shot.

 

Pretty sure you're making shit up here.

http://phobias.about.com/od/symptomsanddiagnosis/a/crisisanniversaryphobias.htm

Not to mention... he's an adult in a 14 year olds body... If you were magically transported back to school, I'm pretty sure it'd be easy to be the king of school. Especially when you have future knowledge of everyone's personality.

And he's not exactly a rune master, Bill Weasley taught him most of this before.

Anyway, thread derailment over. Sorry guys. (PM me if you want to continue the discussion)

I'm a fan of redo fics as well... but this one just... skims everything. I think I got to chapter 6 before I gave up. He'd of been better off just starting later, and writing it properly. Gonna have to give this one a 2/5. It's readable, just not really enjoyable.

 

Having personal experience with people who suffer from PTSD... I can say for a certainty that you're talking out your asshole. Some people suffer from it worse than others. Some people react strongly to certain stimuli but remain okay the rest of the time.. whilst others suffer on and off constantly. Some folks get better over time, and some people have it sit dormant for years. Waiting for the right stimulus.

Check yourself before you wreck yourself.

Ever met someone whose a total wreck during the Holidays? It's actually fairly common. A lot of people have recurring trauma and depression/dysfunction around the Holidays. And that's WITHOUT PTSD thrown into the mix.

Some people who suffer from PTSD don't want to seek professional help. Some of these folks are lucky enough to be able to be a functional person most of the time, but certain stimuli will still cause them extreme agitation and a renewal of the symptoms. A date of particularly horrible significance isn't even in the 'uncommon' category of things that may trigger symptoms.

 

Psychological stuff aside C'est la Vie suffers from one of the most unlikable Harry's I have read in a competently written story. He's boring and uninteresting, and spends entirely too much time being all angsty.

Not my cup of tea.

 

The American Journal of Psychiatry

The Harry or "Hadrian" in "C'est la vie" is a veteran of six years of brutal guerrillia war and a survivor of extreme torture via multiple cruciatus exposures. To believe that he could be a pretty functional person most of the time, who has severe PTSD symptoms only around Halloween, is total BS.

And that's what drove me nuts when reading chapter six of the story- he went from "cooking up a pentagonal rune setting in a week", "taking OWLs and NEWTs in one setting" and "brewing every potion perfectly" to being a dysfunctional victim of severe depression and borderline suicidal.

Sure, dates can trigger a reaction and a worsening of symptoms, but it's ridiculous to assume that someone who was psychologically harmed as severly as Harry could act like a moody teenager for more than a month, only to nosedive in this way.

 

It's a fanfic, guys. Written by an author who almost certainly knows nothing about psychology. In the grand scheme of things, this is a bit irrelevant.

 

Okay, why should I read this? All you've told me is that Harry/Draco go back in time, retain their memories, and Draco wants the future to turn out the same and Harry doesn't. Also it appears this story is abandoned, it hasn't been updated in a year and a half.

 

No it's not. Every single person reacts in a different way. Just because "A significant relationship was observed" doesn't mean that it has to be the same for everyone. Regardless, this debate is stupid, and considering past arguments I've seen with you, you will argue your point to the very bitter end.

It's fanfiction, and it doesn't matter, lets just drop it. I regret bringing it up in the first place.

You shouldn't. It's pretty bad, even for someone who likes that style of fic. The writing is bland beyond belief.

Edit: In case you need some evidence.

No, I am not going to put it in Spoiler tags. It's not worth it. Also, I guess people "rolling on the floor laughing"
is one of my pet peeves, because I cannot stand it.

 

The writing is definitely bland, but that particular bit isn't really representative of what most of the story is like. There are a few scenes like it, but not that many.

All I can say is there's a reason why I posted it in "Almost Recommended". It's not a fic that I'm going to look back on a year from now and think about or even remember much of what happened in it, but it's not so bad that I quit reading it in disgust. I was bored and in the mood to read a new time/dimension travel fic that I hadn't seen before, and that fic kept me occupied.

It's definitely not something that I'd recommend to most people- but if you're as starved as I am for a new time travel fic it's worth a shot.

 

Does it get any better after chapter 6? Because it was all pretty much the same up until that point.

 

Not really, though the things that will piss you off about the fic (like Harry comes up with the lame idea to call Death Eaters "Deaf Ears") happen less often.

There are some fics that have bad starts and become great- this isn't one of them. The author improves somewhat, but it stays mediocre the whole way through.

That Cest' La Vie fic got me in the mood to read more time/dimension travel, and when I went looking most of the shit I found was like

The fic I posted was the only one I came across that wasn't so bad I quit reading it. Most of the ones I found, I couldn't even get through the summary.