Title: Of Power and Prestige
Author: Ell Roche and ExcentrykeMuse
Rating: T
Genre: Romance
Status: Complete
Length: 75k
Library Category: Romance
Pairings: Fem!Harry/Tom Riddle
Summary: Nothing could tempt Marvolo, Lord Slytherin, to leave the Lone Islands—except, perhaps, for Lady Haesel Potter, the most powerful witch of her generation. TMR/Fem!Harry
Link: See Attachment.
Prequel: Here or see Attachment (Chancing Chaos, #2).

Read this over the last days and loved it. There's probably only a handful of people this will appeal to, but since it's gone from FF.net, I though I might as well archive it here -- and I think it belongs into the Library, of course. YMMV, however. Wildly.

If you know Ell Roche's oneshots, you know what to expect. If you don't, here's the quick self-test: Not flinching when faced with Pride and Prejudice or Emma helps, a fascination with Downton Abbey probably also would be a good sign, and if you always wanted to see that crossed with HP, you should be sold.

Or from the HP side: If you like fleshing out pureblood society and reading about customs and lore, this should do it. It's HP, Regency-style: The topic is noble, powerful, beautiful, rich purebloods being ... well, noble, powerful, beautiful and rich. Otherwise, it's about propriety and decorum, dramatic love declarations, balls, gowns and hair. I adore it. The best reason to read it though, IMO, is the way Ell Roche has integrated magic into all that. It's a fundamental part of the world, and she added lots of nice little ideas everywhere that make up a well-rounded whole.

Since it's also the sequel to the oneshot "Of Ancestry and Honor", you might want to read that first; that's also an easy way to get acquainted with Ell Roche's stuff.


Plot: Beyond the obvious AU nature, Tom Riddle never became Voldemort. James also didn't marry bond with Lily but a pureblood witch, and instead of Harry, they had Haesel. Haesel is coming of age and looking for a suitable wizard to marry bond with. It's not too complex or intricate, but it's got a clear direction, a decent technical execution, and adequate spelling and grammar.

As a side note, it also successfully uses a marriage betrothal contract by adhering to the rules I suggested some time ago: It's a one-line mentioning for a side-character, it's a consequence, not a cause, and it's set in an AU. If anyone wants to read it just for that ...

4/5

 

It's par for the course. What you are describing is the picture of women in the 19th century, at least in the upper class; so in so far as that was mapped onto pureblood society, it's staying true to the source. The magic is an interesting twist on that, as Haesel probably could hold her own in an altercation; she simply blasted Diggory into a shop window when he tried to touch her, she is powerful in that sense, yes. She also has a mind of her own (which we see when she breaks conventions, and whenever she chooses for herself, instead of accepting decisions dictated by others).

But overriding that are the societal norms; in the end, she is a witch, and as such she is expected (and expects herself) to find a wizard who is powerful enough to protect her and support her and keep her from harm, so she does not need to defend herself -- and to love and cherish her, so she should want for nothing, in this romanticised version of that picture.


In other words, whether that is a good thing or not, it's definitely a feature of the story, not a bug.

 

Well, what can I say? Only that I disagree: It didn't feel wrong to me. I had no trouble accepting the world as an AU, and consider it a rather nice one at that.

And neither do I think magic needs to be the great equalizer. The same argument could be made for class differences, and they exist even in Canon. It's just one more factor to consider, and you can conceive of any number of special circumstances where magic could either lead to no change from the classical societal structures or even strengthen them. It's not as if there is a 'right' way for this to play out.

 

Qgqqqqq: Chancing Chaos is a collection of unconnected oneshots. The prequel is "Of Ancestry and Honor", which is #12 in the link, and #2 in the attachment; the content is the same. You don't have to read all OS (the rest has nothing to do with the story) and not even the prequel, but it works as a decent starting point.

This story aside, I prefer the Harry-centric OS in Chancing Chaos, e.g. "The Tears He Had Never Seen Her Cry" (Harry/Fem!Malfoy), "I'd Like to Prove Myself Worthy" (Harry/Romilda) or the "The Kiss of a Maiden" (Harry/Astoria). They are OS in the best sense -- self-contained stories covering one specific, important moment, in this case (obviously) in the relationship between the two.