I follow "The Merging" and there's some potential but the approach of the author seems unfocused, incoherent and with random personality changes which makes no real sense to me. It's like the writer's own knowledge/wishes of the world directly influences characters in the story like the whole Harry/Tonks angle. I'm not even sure if there's some really developed plot besides going through some OOTP elements.

Yeah, the trunk subplot was just awful. I confess that I enjoy gimmicks like trunks but they need to have a meaning for the plot. Here it had none. If it makes logical sense to buy a new gimmick but it is not important for the plot itself skimming over the details is the best approach.

 

I don't know if these have been posted before but I'll recommend them anyway. It's a Slytherin Harry series currently in fourth year. Here's the author profile:

https://www.fanfiction.net/u/2711324/DrizzleWizzle

The good thing the author does is cut out all filler that's the same or very similar to canon, only depicting those things which are different. So we have a Philosopher'S Stone AU which is just 24k words. By the time we get to third year the story takes 70k words, and fourth year is 60k and counting -- it's likely to pass the 100k mark easily.

The early installments are nothing to write home about, but by fourth year I'm pretty into the fic. Worth a try.

Unlike Mira Mirth's "On His Way to Greatness" this has a Harry who embraces Slytherin rather more eagerly from the start, and so is on good terms with Malfoy, both Jr. and Sr. No redeemed Malfoys though - at least not yet - and the characterisation is generally pretty good all round.


Another rec:

Prediction, no thank you!
After McGonagall's dismissal of the first divination lesson Harry decides to change elective. In the process Harry starts to understand that he can do things without Ron or Hermione and that their yearmates are worth getting to know. A different take on PoA and on. Rating's for safety. Not a Ron/Hermione bashing story.
Chapters: 10 - Words: 28,811
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9835408/1/Prediction-no-thank-you

This is a pretty standard "quit Divination" story in which Harry slowly (or not so slowly) leaves Hermione and Ron behind. You've got some heavy Dursley abuse cliches going on (luckily no angst about it though), and Hermione's characterisation is pretty terrible (essentially the same as Hermione on the train in PS), but it's decent enough to kill some time. The fic's saving grace is its fast pace, though it gets pretty tell-y at points as a result.

 

I've started reading this one. The first chapter has careless grammar: skipped words, 'of' instead of 'off', spelling errors, bad wording, etc. I can't even understand the last sentence:

What?

That aside, the premise is interesting enough to keep reading.

 

DrizzleWizzle does a pretty decent job and I've been following it for a while. It also updates every Friday (sometimes during the week as well) and the updates are always 3-6k. Also the author seems to have everything planned out, which is nice. My problem with the series is that it's kind of boring, and some things are kind of forced. Hermione's involvement, from the onset, seems pointless like the author likes her character and sort of forced her into the series, seriously, Tracy does everything Hermione does except she's more meek. But the big problem, in my opinion, is that nothing overly exciting has happened yet, it is a realistic portrayal of children, but I don't like reading stories where at any given point I can skip a chapter and not miss anything (yet alone skip several chapters and miss nothing).

Overall it's really only a story I'd recommend if you were stuck in an airport, or had literally nothing else to do.

 

@sirius009

I actually felt that the interactions between the students were the biggest strength of the series, some of the scenes were excellent, including some really great Quidditch (more the interplay between team mates and opponents than the action). The characters gave off a feeling of actually being their real ages, while still managing to be interesting, an extreme rarity for fanfiction, and it includes a version of the Slytherin house social cliche that is softened so much that it's only slightly ridiculous.

I'm fine with the friendship with Hermione - it's a good, if completely unoriginal way of showing and addressing the tension between Draco's bigotry and Harry's natural inclination to oppose it. Although I will admit that at times it feels like Harry is managing to be all things to all men - a little stu-ish.

My biggest gripe is that

Spoiler

in spite of all the character development and the different relationships between characters, there is very nearly zero change from the key events in canon - everything always ends up the same and the next events always begin the same way. I nearly cheered out loud when Harry didn't free Dobby, it was pretty much the first time the changes actually effected canon events - and nothing since then springs to mind. I'm hoping (though without any real expectation) that it will have a bit of an impact down the line.

 

I went through ' Prediction, no thank you! ' because I was bored. It wasn't terrible, but it was meh. I've skipped hundreds of words, the writting is barely acceptable, and nothing interesting ever happens. Rather, it does, but the writing makes it seem so bland I find myself skipping parts of that, too.

A decent time waster, I guess, but nothing more.

 

Here's a good fic for anyone who needs a little cheering up:

The Asp at Hogwarts
Author: Inkwolf
http://www.cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=110679
There is no given summary. But the basic plotline of the story is that Albus Potter is mistakenly sorted into Slytherin in order to fulfill a great task given to him by a mysterious, greasy haired ghost.

Yes, it's a next-gen fic...involving Albus Potter going into Slytherin...but that's why this is in the Almost Rec thread instead of the Review Board. In all other aspects--the writing, characters, story--this is a shining example of a canon-compliant fic done right. There's a charm, humor, and magic in the writing that's very reminiscent of Rowling, and Albus is no less compelling a protagonist than his father is in the original series. The author has a great understanding of how to portray children too. Albus is very much a kid spending his first year away from his family: homesick, terrified of not fitting in, and of course, he makes a lot of stupid mistakes trying to do so. But he does, eventually, figure out what it is that makes Hogwarts a home away from home. Overall, it's a heartwarming story about friendship and finding a place to belong.

I seriously recommend this for anyone who is feeling at all nostalgic towards the original books. Or anyone who's tired of reading overpowered Harry Potter fics.

 

Just finished The Merging and honestly I liked it quite a bit. The first few chapters are mediocre and cliché ridden, but after the first... three or so? After the first few chapters it really comes into its own. Nothing egregiously awful, fairly engaging and the characterization is definitely above average. Ron's character is a bit troublesome and Harry is perhaps a bit too comfortable flirting with a half dozen girls on and off but those are the only two issues I can think of and they're minor. That's a bit of a consistent issue, on second thought, the (mercifully brief) scene about multiple wives with the goblin at the beginning was truly awful. That's about the worst of it though, and while the clichés are present they aren't major and don't overstay their welcome. The whole trunk scene? Important for around a single chapter and then just background. Which sounds bad, but it's done well enough. All in all, nothing much comes of the already mentioned bad parts of the story, and the author really comes into their own several chapters in.

In any event it's a good time waster, and while not Library worthy it's certainly leaning closer to the 'recommended' side of the spectrum rather than the 'almost' side. The characterization is the real charm, and despite the fact that not much plot-wise happens I can't bring myself to care. It's quite reminiscent of Rowling, in that sense that despite the fact that much of the later story is about Hogwarts and classes it is engaging and interesting and entertaining despite it all.

For rating, I'd probably give it a 3.5/5. Or no, I'd give a 4/5 because I really enjoyed it quite a lot, particularly the second half. It probably doesn't deserve a 4, in all honesty, so I think 3.5/5 is workable but I found it fun to read and that's enough for me. There are issues, but they're minor and ephemeral and easily forgettable. The only issue is that they are there in the first place.

 

The latest chapter of Harry Potter and the Triwizard Tournament (DrizzleWizzle's Slytherin Harry fic, linked above) was a bit weird. I think this is the first time I've ever seen "meat is murder" Harry.

 

Lolol. Now I have to read it!

 

Yeah, the Slytherin Harry fic is quite good for what it is. There are a few moments that are a little cringe worthy, like this last chapter, and an occasional 'wtf, why did Harry do that?' moments. It's worth a glance at, if anything.

 

Here's a Harry/Daphne fic I've been reading recently. So far I'm enjoying it, although it does use the idea of a marriage contract, although so far it doesn't seem to use it badly.

The Legacy
Author: storytellerSpW
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9774121/1/The-Legacy
Summary: After Sirius' death, Harry stumbles upon a book which opens his eyes as he delves into the mysteries of magic, learns about the realities of a war, and shifts towards the Grey. Life could be so easy if only there wasn't that scheming Slytherin entering his life in an unexpected manner. And in the end, there is always a price to be paid for everything. HP/DG Contract, AU 6-7th year

I'd let it go on a bit more before I consider recommending it, but so far it's entertained me. Your thoughts?

 

Could someone pass me a spoon covered in hot sauce so I can dig my eyes out?

I have to know one thing -- what's up with the stupid quotation marks being on the bottom only sometimes at the beginning of random OOC dialog? Is this the new cool thing to do?

 

Looks to just be an error, or three, as in this case. I checked the other chapters and didn't find any more.

 

It is the correct way to do quotation marks in some languages, for example Polish. Obviously, it's an error there.

 

Wordy and slow, coming off like someone's world-building infodump put to prose form. It's okay, I suppose, but one has to skip over lots of telling and Harry's tedious inner monologue. The story teases with some magical book thing (not a spoiler because it's in the summary) and some sense of interesting magic (but then after laying out why it's so cool and why anyone would totally dig learning it, Harry basically says, "Meh, I don't have time to learn that now, so fuck it.") It's taken about 90k words to deliver... not a lot, really, basically most of the setup to a story. If this does go anywhere, it's going to take about 300k words to even make it to the suburbs.

Some of the ideas are mildly interesting, but so far it has the feeling of a story that doesn't quite know where it wants to go. My money is on Peoria.

 

Sparked a thought about a fic where Hermione has her uniquie ultra-mega-intelligence, but being books smart causes her to lack common sense on top of being just a little more powerful than squib. Character arc could include her frustrations with teaching others spells that she absolutely knows will work, but can't show others because she doesn't have the magical ability to cast them.


However, a Harry/Hermione pairing with superwoman Hermione? No way, no thanks. I don't think I'll click on this fic.

 

Basically this, it's the first story I've read where the marriage contract idea doesn't instantly fail. If the guy could figure out where he wants to go with this and pulls back on the info dumps it could be an alright story.

 

Harry kills a creature of fire which can handle a dozen wizards with a simple 'incendio'

 

Meh. It makes sense within the world-building of the story. The book they found (and Charlie Weasley's hint) illustrated what happens with dragonfire meets other fire: a big boom the size of the dragon itself. And this big boom just happened to be inside the dragon's mouth.