Believable? Absolutely. It's probably how most people would react. Enjoyable to read? Not so much. Fitting for Harry fucking Potter, the hero of this story, the guy that killed Voldemort before and has generally been dealt a pretty shitty hand in life but still persevered? Far from it.

Regarding the most recent chapter: I think it was less than decent in quality. I mean, it's a chapter that advances the relationship between the two most prominent characters in this story. It's about them, not about the plot - which is fine. The problem I have is that the script of their conversation was too obvious, their dialogue felt contrived.

Their interaction was way too rushed. We had several 'I've been through this as well's, a few desperate hugs, an overly emotional female Harry Potter. It's like this chapter was designed to cement their friendship, a friendship that is based upon their deep understanding of each other. It's a unique situation to be sure, but this did not feel like a conversation involving actual people.

This update was not enjoyable to me. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it isn't good either considering I liked the story so far. Now, though, we've got to wait another 2 months for the next chapter. A chapter that I'm no longer looking forward to.

 

This was just ... painful to read. Ignoring everything else, I lost of how many times Voldemort was referred as something like 'Lordy Tom' or shit like that.

Fanfiction 101. Come on.

 

Hmm, Iris is still desperate to see good in the Order I guess. I'm surprised Harry didn't snap back at Iris when she said "what's done is done." Way to understate interdimensional kidnapping, mutilation, and effective slavery, since they can summon Harry back at any time.

The argument about working for the "greater good" grows a little hollow when you bring in an infinity of parallel universes into play -- sure, the Order might be doing something about the Voldemort problem in this dimension, but what are they doing about the Voldemorts in countless others? Or does Dumbledore's vision of the "greater good" conveniently fail to apply then?

There's something rather ironic about the Order summoning someone to solve their problems. Just as the Wizarding World has seen fit to effectively hand off the duty to fight Voldemort and the Death Eaters to Iris Potter -- just one girl --, so the Order does the same, to one man. The reality is that Voldemort is nothing without his followers and it is Wizarding society that allowed his followers to flourish and take root post-1981. You reap what you sow.

Also, @Trig, as much as he himself was arguably led around to some extent, Harry had pretty much always chosen every step of the way to what extent he was willing to entertain danger. The choice was taken from him in this fic.

 

I did enjoy this ignoring the cruelty of the order and whatnot. His interactions with Iris, his exploration into the fields of divination, and the humor was all fun to read.

@Taure, I think the reason it may have fell out of practice is likely because it takes so long and offers no immediate reward despite being useful. It's obvious strong people like Snape, Voldy and Dumbledore already practice the mind arts, so it's not so much divination that's gone out of practice but rather the more vague and less than interesting aspects of it.

This is an easy 4/5.

 

This updated again. Some good, plenty of bad. On one hand Harry allows himself to be constantly prodded and picked on in class in a manner clearly meant to embarrass. Supposedly he allows this because it's ... a nice change of pace? But children pick up on that stuff easily and he should know this. It's very hard to keep a classroom's respect when something like this goes on.

Then Iris goes full Earth-2 on him like she inevitably was going to. I expected it, but can't say I enjoyed it and the worst/best part is that I can actually see her flying off the handle like that. Terrible as it was, it didn't break immersion for the terrified 16 year old to do and say that stuff.

Harry's reaction was nice in that he didn't just roll over and didn't (at least so far) accept the shit she was throwing his way. Most of all, I just really want Harry to not change his mind because he's right, damn it, and even if he wasn't, every single attempt to convince him otherwise so far has been so fucking terrible that they should make him want to do the opposite by instinct.

 

What do you want Harry to do?

 

Good question. He's pretty royally fucked, isn't he? If he tries to run, he has been told straight up that he will be summoned back with the very, very painful and quite fatal ritual that got him here in the first place.

Even if he could, he wouldn't because there's Iris, whom he simply cannot and will not allow to die.

It's a shitty situation where regardless of how much he doesn't want to and shouldn't help, he can't help but do so. Asshole as the Order members (and literally everyone from this world who has interected with Harry for any amount of time) have been, it's not their life Harry's non-involvement inevitably dooms. To their fortune, it's the life of Harry's counterpart, potentially the only person on this world because of whom he wouldn't fight tooth and nail to be freed from this trap Dumbledore has set up for him.

Basically, the Order pulled Harry in a fascinatingly monstrous move, and are demanding for him to do the one thing that he probably can't say no to. So, any thought of further refusal would probably be pointless.

On the other hand, what they did is quite unforgivable, and should not be written off for any reason. While the circumstances force Harry to cede to their request, save Iris and probably kill Voldemort in the process, he must absolutely make sure that they brought to justice for their crime. They were wrong, and even if they don't realize it, even if they feel vindicated because despite everything, they will get their way, they must not go unpunished.
I don't know what that punishment will be. Nothing as dramatic as death, obviously, but it has to be significant, equally as much as the extent of their crime.

So yeah. Own up to the fact that even though he owes nothing to this world (rather the opposite) he can't and won't let Iris die, do his best to actually see the Voldemort problem through (even if that means co-operating with the Order for the moment) then make sure that they are suitably brought to justice. Perhaps extract promises and guarantees to that effect in exchange for that co-operation.

 

The whole Dobby thing rubbed me in such a wrong way.

It should have been the last straw in a series of ridiculousness.

The mischarectization of Dumbledore makes me want to bang my head against my keyboard. The whole thing with the rights of dimension travelers is patently retarded.

The best end to this would have been several chapters from the point I read in which Harry destroys the Order in a murder suicide. That would have been a little funny at least.

The only thing that would make this better is a lot of sweet sweet incest, everyone dying for the sins of the author and the universe to be wiped out in a whimper of failure caused by the misuse of dimension crossing rituals.

Holy shit I'm mad. Literally 1/5, would give it half a star if possible.

Edit: The attempt to make Tonks a palatable character by hamfisted denial regarding her orders from the Charlie Chaplinesque fucktard masquerading as the kind, powerful and fundamentally good Albus Dumbledore makes me want to punch the next hooker I see in the ovaries.

 

I don't really get the hate all that much tbh. I get that the story seems to be going in circles regarding the whole kidnapping Harry thing but i feel like it is slowly building to something, like what happened with Iris for example. I'll reserve my full judgement, however, until the story takes too long getting there or the crescendo is weak.

The story has my attention for now and I think for now that is enough.

 

At this point, he should be looking into eliminating Voldemort and Dumbledore both. Voldemort for obvious reasons, and Dumbledore because he clearly doesn't have Harry's best interests in mind. Not eliminate Dumbledore straight away of course, but he should fall just around the same time as Voldemort ideally.

He should also look into contingencies about dealing with anyone else that potentially can hold leverage over him with the summoning ritual -- this world's Lupin comes to mind here, as he seemed to have some familiarity with the ritual. As @Republic noted, he needs some method of keeping the Order off of his back.

In all honesty, the healthiest thing for him to do is to swallow his pride and not pursue revenge. It's just not a route that I can see ending up happy for him. Just get things done, forget about Wizarding Britain, and leave the country or something. Not satisfying or cathartic at all I'll grant you, but it'll probably be healthier for him in the long run as opposed to going on a roaring rampage of revenge or something.

Also, re: this chapter, Iris is starting to become increasingly irritating. She of all people should be able to empathize with Harry's situation, although it's not entirely surprising that she fails her social checks in terms of trying to convince Harry to join an Order meeting.

 

I'm still trying to decide if I actually like this story or not.

The bad is... pretty bad. I think that the only character I actually like (most of the time) is Iris. Of all of the people in the story she seems to be the only one that actually considers the human consequences of everything that is happening. Harry is reasonably enjoyable to read when he isn't (understandably) stewing over the injustice of everything, but I find myself growing slowly more tired of his shit.

Every other character we've seen (with the possible exception of Tonks) is an amoral sociopath. They might be sociopaths with 'good' intentions but there is no world in which telling a mutilated man (whom they themselves caused to be mutilated) that he's legally sub-human, and that his life is worth slightly less than that of a dog, is a moral act.

But here's the rub, my default assumption about the people being killed by Voldemort's rampage is that they are not amoral sociopaths like everyone we actually see. With that assumption in mind Harry's absolute refusal to take a more forceful stand makes him feel no better than the Order. He's willing to let thousands of innocents die rather than work with the Order, if he was actually doing something himself that would be less annoying. The only comfort I can see here is that the recent Tarot reading would suggest that the author is doing this intentionally, and that it may change in future.

Of course then there's the issue that another part of me doesn't want him to help the Order, that petty side of me wants him to give them the middle finger. Then the deaths as a result of Voldemort's followers are brought up and I flip-flop again. But faceless innocents just don't have the same draw as the morally repugnant Order.

In the end the world, with the possible exception of Iris, is visibly a dystopian shitheap with one of the least attractive representations of humanity I have ever read, there is almost nothing to redeem anyone.

On the other hand I want to like the story. I like the take on Divination, even if it doesn't make much in-universe sense. I like the basic premise and I think it's doing something just different enough with the 'Harry in an AU' genre to warrant proper interest. I like the character interactions when they're not trying to shit all over each-other merely because it's easier than walking all the way to the toilet.

I just wish there were more characters I could actually root for.

 

I still have the serious rub with this story of the idea that Harry has no rights.

I literally can not believe, except in the worst of the worst 'dictatorship ministry' fics, that the Ministry actually has a law on the books that actually says that a person born in another universe has no rights and is property (was that what Dumbledore said?).

I can see laws that require someone to register their arrival and submit to interrogation, but to legally declare they are nothing when they are a human magical being? Nope, not buying it.

 

I think the author thoroughly exceeded at one particular thing: Forcing the readers to share Harry's shitty situation. You can see it here in this thread, Republic and Steelbadger both make very valid points in this regard.

Harry is stuck between a rock and a hard place. He should take the 'noble' path and help the order simply because people are dying, but what the order did was so shitty and they still don't see it as wrong. So I as a reader want Harry to be petty, I want him to have his revenge against the order.

Same thing with Iris. She's actively suffering and watches Harry, who could help her and the world in general, refusing to do so because he wants revenge or at least compensation and concessions. Her behavior in the last chapter is on point, as is Harry's. Funnily enough they both haven't even considered that the same thing could happen again. Either Harry could be pulled into another dimension for the second time (which he likely wouldn't survive), or Iris is going to have to go through the same shit.

Anyway, as flawed as this story is, I think this moral quandary is really well done. There's no right answer, and both Harry and the readers struggle with coming up with at least an acceptable one.

 

This is what I feel should be the result; the twisted irony of Iris having to go through Harry's suffering as she sees the other side of the coin, firsthand.

 

Helping them at all sets a dangerous precedent and shows that doing such a thing to someone can be profitable. Harry should protect all possible future unwilling dimension travellers by discouraging use of such rituals. If there is any gain at all, someone somewhere along the line might agree to pay the price.

 

Just read the story and it's...interesting. Some things are bad, yeah, but it does have an interesting take on Divination.

As for the whole summoning thing...Harry doesn't owe anybody anything. It's not his actions that led to this situation in this dimension. He isn't law enforcement and didn't otherwise choose to get involved in the conflict. He isn't better qualified to handle the war than any other private citizen. Inaction isn't a crime if you have no obligations to step in. The only obligation one might argue for here would be a moral one; that is if one can say that helping the Order defeat Voldemort (and how exactly, btw?) would somehow weigh more than preventing other fools from summoning other unfortunate people to solve their problems in the future, as KrzaQ said above.

The whole having no rights thing is just stupid, of course. I seriously doubt that the guys who wrote the laws wrote, "Any wizard or witch who was born in this dimension..." as a qualifier. Most constitutions I've read and know of don't have "citizen" as a qualifier for basic human rights.

That said, the solution to everything seems pretty clear to me. Harry delves deeper into some Divination magic or something and finds out a way to block the summoning/scrying ritual. Then, if Iris is still alive and he still wants to help her, he gets her to come with him while they disappear somewhere in the world, perhaps fake their deaths. Get some false identification, some new muggle IDs or something and live your life. Take care of the horcrux in the scar -- it's not like it's something that must be done right now -- and let wizarding Britain lie in the bed it has made. Iris, after all, also has no obligations to the wizarding world. She has been pulled into this conflict; she should have a right to get out of it too.

 

Because canon Harry (Iris) would totally just run away and let Wizarding Britain get conquered?


That would never happen Atri.

 

If she's driven far enough...the situation's a bit different to canon-Harry's and Iris, even if she's Harry's counterpart, does seem to have a slightly different personality to him. If she finds out about the horcrux that might push her even farther. Perhaps, if her friends aren't getting plot shields, then if something happens to them, it might push her to the edge.

She's a teenager under high pressure. If someone, an adult -- family, even -- comes up to her and says, "This is not your fight. You shouldn't have to die for this world. Let the adults fight it out," then, yeah, I could see her going along with running away, especially if Harry promises to search for a way to get the horcrux out of her without killing her and, maybe, persuades some of her friends to abandon ship too.

Because, you know, if she didn't know about the prophecy -- or didn't believe it? The Aurors are doing a perfectly fine job in combating Voldemort and his minions; much better than a teenager would be able to do. She doesn't have any training that's different to Harry's, after all. What can she contribute beside stepping in front of a Killing Curse and dying? Pretty much nothing. And Harry even has proof in his own history for that.