I don't want to turn this into a muggles vs wizards debate Mknote but... who wants to read about muggles in a magical world?

 

If it's well-written, it has a lot of appeal. Like this one:

Memorium Author: Aesop PM The use of memory altering spells is common in the HP books. Protecting their secrecy comes before everything else, and justifies any action. Or so they believe.
Rated: Fiction K+ - English - Drama - Amelia B. - Words: 27,424 - Reviews: 81 - Favs: 277 - Follows: 44 - Published: 06-22-11 - Status: Complete - id: 7108864

 

Eh I read that fic, I guess it's a matter of opinion but I am utterly uninterested in Muggles when there are people that have magic :/

 

As dire as almost all of these fics are, and as unfinished as the readable ones usually are, I still do love a dimension travel or wrong bow who lived story.

 

Uh.. Smut fics?

 

Harry/Hedwig

 

Literally pet pleasure. I get it!

I'm so smrat.

 

Two pet pleasures come to mind right away:

1. Stories with the same tone/tonal range as canon. I'm probably the minority (here at least) but when a story feels like someone trying to do a Gritty Reboot of Harry Potter I usually hit the back button. The restraint in canon dictated by its children's-book origins is a big part of its appeal, for me; this isn't the universe where I go looking for sex and cartoon-violence.

2. Really old stories. I love really old stories—pre-Indie-Harry, ideally—because there's something about them that's so vital and less self-aware than the post-OOTP/HBP/DH work we're so familiar with now. They go off in a lot of weird directions we wouldn't think to take, and they jump into cliches like they're brand new ideas, because they were. They're so strange—AUs that don't know they're AUs.

Most of them aren't very good, unfortunately, for those same reasons, and because we were all so young. But it's a real pleasure—kind of a palate-cleanser—when I find one that is.

 

Can you give examples? It sounds interesting and AFAIK I never encountered something like this.

 

I second Bulwersator's request, it does sound interesting.

 

My pet pleasure is tearjerking stories that makes you really cry. I love when I find one of them.

 

Is the first one Luna's Year? The world-building is nothing spectacular, but it's a neat little story with some interesting ideas and characterization.

 

Protagonists with a strong personality/willpower. Change Harry's psychology enough in a believable fashion to make him less mopey is a good start. Even such a small change can be an entire plot arc of it's own.

Universal Travel. I love when the main character is sucked into a new world and is left to deal with the consequences. This is also my favorite flavor of Time Travel. Unknowing/Unexpected. When it's planned/expected the 'first' time, it loses this appeal and simply becomes another plot device.

Another, lesser, version. Is Limited Time travel. A common example being when only a message of some length and format can be sent. Or when the memories returned are only partial and may even cause more confusion than good.

 

1. Magic that is wonderful and terrible and scary and mundane and unlimited and superior to muggle technology-- as the HP books say, the problem is 'that the other side has magic too', not a magical power scale. I don't want any wizards with guns or some ridiculous technomancy.

I want magic, full-stop. I want wizards to walk on water, conjure fire that never goes out, creatures fair and endless, spells so subtle and powerful as to warp ideas and concepts, magic that is everywhere and unknown.

That's why I loved "Lords of Magic" and "Ectomancer"-- because they showed a wondrous and magic world. Taure's fics are a gem in this regard. Lung's fics as well, even though they introduce the idea of magical power, which I generally loathe. His fics are beautiful and strange, with unique and consistent worldbuilding.

2. I want a protagonist that's likable. For me, that means empathetic, hard-working, and willful. I don't mind an evil protagonist very occasionally, like in "The White Wizard" by Taure, that features a disembodied Voldemort, but I generally prefer a Harry like in "Ectomancer" or "Conlaohd's Song" by Enembee or "On the Way To Greatness".

All of those Harry's are fundamentally good, with unique personalities, quirks, skills, etc. There are many ways to construct an excellent protagonist. Even Silens's Harry in Renegade Cause, while annoying in many respects, is fundamentally concerned with others-- because of this, and other excellent aspects of his fic, his Harry is very readable.

 

Pureblood superiority. Harry learning complex magic realistically.

 

If you like historical non fiction work check out almost anything writen in Germany 1933-45.

 

I... I... You win this thread. xD

 

Badass sidecharacters. Subplots that go off the canon rail. Some characters, Dumbledore, Snape, the Twins, Luna can be awesome in a siderole, but it gets to angsty when their anywhere close to main character. And it's fun to watch the butterfly cause a storm.