Title: Reforged
Author: SleeperAwakens
Rating: M
Genre: Humor/Adventure
Chapters: 20
Words: 137,333
Updated: Oct 5, 2015
Published: Mar 29, 2014
Status: Complete
Library Category: General Fics
Pairings: No pairing
Summary: Harry's encounter with Voldemort in the end of the first book didn't end like we thought. Riddle didn't pass an opportunity to screw with the boy's brain. In the end, that small difference ended up changing Harry into someone who would become so much more than merely "Dark Lord's equal"...
Link: Reforged on fanfiction.net

Right, so: this story is third year to fifth year story, sort of prequel to what author seems to consider 'main story'. The point of divergence is a different chamber scene — combined with different meeting near Mirror of Erised, which is a touch more brutal for Harry and changes him; mostly though, it's an author changing the story from children's tale to YA story sooner than JKR did.

Pros: It has a proactive Harry, and very good interaction between the trio and other characters. It has some more magic, even though it still feels Rowling-esque, meaning it has the feeling of Rowling's original magic, not something Santi or Taure would come up with (completely thought out system).

Cons: It's a bit less grim than most DLP favoured stories, meaning that while actions have consequences, the effect on characters is a bit slim in comparison. Also, the characters might seem a bit too mature, though that is might be pro with all the rehashes we've all read.

That said, I enjoy my stories where the characters aren't the whole time broken and on the brink of defeat, and a bit more involved Harry without overpowering him and without bashing is always plus.

I enjoyed this one very much, so 4/5 from me.

 

In his AN, he said he would be uploading the sequel by Nov2015…

/notimpressed

 

This is a 2/5.

The author summarizes and TELLS the reader what Harry's first two years were like. At that point why bother mentioning it at all? Just start your story at the relevant bit or reorganize the plot to weed out unnecessary details.

I skimmed the first chapter and the beginning of the second: no interest in reading the third.

 

Maybe you should try reading the first chapter instead of skimming it. It would certainly help you with understanding the reasoning between the point of divergence — which is both meetings with Voldemort and mental processes of Harry.

 

My issues had nothing to do with the mental processes of Harry or meetings with Voldemort. By skimming, I meant that I read couple paragraphs here and there and looked over the important parts (dialogue, actions involving characters) in between.

-edit-

To spell it out clearly: the author's execution is lacking and I'm not interested in whatever story he/she concocts because it'll be affected negatively. He/she might've well just put up a timeline of Harry's first two years and called it done ala Mass Effect fics.

To be fair, the author could've done a 180 in terms of quality in chapter 3+, but he/she lost me after the first two chapters. That's my basic quality / filtering test for all books/stories.

 

I have to agree. The rehash hardly changed anything and was completely unnecessary. But this is not the reason I dislike this fic.

First, Harry is annoying. He's like that hyperactive attention-whoring kid you had in primary school who you always wanted to punch. He's like that t3h PeNgU1N oF d00m copypasta. The author writes other characters laughing their asses off after he throws another "clever" one liner, but it's hard to buy it, because he's simply not funny.

After all of this quirky edginess, he suddenly turns to think warmly of Hermione and how he missed her and couldn't do without her - which just doesn't fit the fic's tone, nor Harry's personality in it. I don't really need to say how irritating it is when she bosses him and Ron around, and they comply without complaint. The author wrote that he had done this because he wanted to emphasize her character development, but my experience with fanfiction tells me that this fic is not going to take her anywhere interesting.

So now that that the humor aspect of the story fails, you're left with nothing. This fic feels immature in the most tedious manner. The plot isn't interesting. The only part that somewhat stands out in three chapters is Voldemort's double wraith, who you wish would just kill Harry and his friends already.

 

I read the first two chapters and then dropped it. Not a good fic, for many reasons. 1.5/5

 

Spoilers ahead.

This fic is all tell and no show, but its not 100% bad. All the characters are (read: most the time) shallow with no depth and are basic caricatures of their fanon selves. Don't get me started with the Professor Babbling greens-eyes nickname bullshit. It's directly copy pasted from another fic I thankfully forgot the name of.

The story suffers major pacing issues, it can expand greatly on scenes relevant to Harry's magical/personal growth but skip plot important scenes with a very small amount of words, while other plot scenes can be expanded on. Basically however the author felt at the time of writing.

The story is littered with typical fanon bullshit i.e. other schools learn dark arts and blood magic etc, so cool. Or more cliches like Harry doubling his wealth in a year after apparently taking the Malfoy's on in a small section of the herbology market. Because any child with an inheritance knows how to make money right? On the flip side, there are actually some nice repercussions for this later on the fic involving Umbridge.

However for all the bad which you can put down to poor writing there are some redeeming qualities. Not enough to make the fic good, but enough that if you wade through the mediocrity you will find some gems.

From the start when Harry meets the goblins and learns about Dumbledore gaining money from his vault the alarm bells start to ring, however this was just Harry's parents/grandparents supporting the war effort and there was no anger from Harry here at all. Nothing new or original, but it was handled smoothly and there was no angst scenes. A non-plot device with no relevance, but the author put it in anyway. That last sentence sums up 90% of this fic.

Other things are done well like Harry leaving the Dursleys for the summer, Dumbledore learning of this and accepting it while convincing Harry to return at night to renew his protection. He can do what he wants during the day, but sleeps there at night. This all happens without any angst or arguments, Dumbledore rocks up and accepts that Harry doesn't want to be there and explains the situation. Harry understands, goes back to the Dursleys to sleep at night and the story moves on. All done with zero fuss that a lot of fics could learn from.

This story also avoids bashing very well, so much so it must of been a conscious effort on the authors part. He tones down Hermione's character without bashing, there has been zero Ron and/or Weasley bashing which is typical in these types of fics (wtf? +1 already amirite?) and there hasn't been any 'Slytherins are just misunderstood' bullshit. Ron is becoming competent towards the end in his own way which is great aswell. Competent Ron is best.

There are even some nice character pieces with some real quality behind it, like Harrys making out with the foreign chick at the Quidditch world cup actually felt like a teenager stumbling around for the first time. Moody is actually competent in this fic and a pleasure to read, with the limited screen time he has had he feels like a veteran who has faced death and commanded others and not just some anti-dark magic rage machine. The scene with Harry, Sirius and Moody was handled well.



tl;dr This fic is just one big tell-fest of mediocrity, littered with a lot of fanon cliches and characterization that isn't over the top. It does contain surprising character pieces that are decent to read, while at other times all the characters seem shallow with no depth behind them, just going through the limited dialogue for the storys sake.

A generous 3/5 overall leaning closer to 2 then 4. I only gave it 3 because there was actually some enjoyable, if rare, scenes in the fic that shows promise. The author needs more experience, especially with less tell more show, but overall with no bashing typical to these fics and some surprisingly good scenes the authors future fics might be something worth checking out if they improve.

I think this author and and a lot of other fanfiction authors would benefit from reading the books again before they write a story to rid themselves of misconceptions we all get from reading fanfiction.

 

Fuck this guy for making me think that Awaken Sleeper got an update.

 

I couldn't make it past the second chapter. That is never good. I got bored with it quickly.

As others have said, all tell, no show. The characters were flat, to say the least and over all the whole thing was just boring. I was left half way through the second chapter asking myself "why am I reading this?" and clicked the big red X.

1/5 Seriously this fic is less exciting than watching paint dry.

 

I quite enjoyed it. It's not incredible by any means, but it's a nice competently done story. I don't think it's quite up to the standards of the library but it has moments and some cool magical ideas that made it worthwhile. It also changed names like three times, so if you don't recognize it initially give it a quick skim to make sure.

3/5

 

Reforged by SleeperAwakens - M
Series Title: Reforged
Author: SleeperAwaens
Rating: M
DLP-Category: General
Genre: Humor, Adventure
Pairings: Harry/Susan Bones...?
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10226216/1/Reforged


Part 1: Reforged
Published: May 29, 2014
Completed: Fen 18, 2016
Words: 137506
Chapters: 21
Status: Complete

Part 2: (Is supposed to start March)

Summary: Harry's encounter with Voldemort in the end of the first book didn't end like we thought. Riddle didn't pass an opportunity to screw with the boy's brain. In the end, that small difference ended up changing Harry into someone who would become so much more than merely "Dark Lord's equal"...

Ok, how to sell this story. A lot of you are quite trigger happy and turn away after the first chapter because of some trope or cliche so you assume to know how this goes.

It starts with Harry having a slightly different encounter with Voldemort in the first year which causes some personality changes and end with the COS Phoenix rebirth trope. But it doesn't really follow in the steps of *that* type of stories.

It only really results into him being more interested in developing his abilities/life as a pretext for the coming changes. He's taught by McGongal and later by Flickwick in a quite natural way. I never really get the blatant Gary Stu feeling.

The plot changes from canon at the end of COS and the summer in an interesting way with subtile changes to the PoA plot and the following 1-2 years happen different.

IMHO the biggest strength of the story is that the plot appears fresh while still walking somewhat in canon footsteps. Quite creative and natural changes. Nothing really feels forced.

Another strength are the characters. The interpretation of McGonagal, Flitwick, Moody, Sirius, Remus and also Dumbledore(which is more or less in the background) fit my taste.

The pairing part doesn't seem to be forever and fortunately also plays no big role.

The author borrows a few things from other stories like names, characterization or a few gimmick "ideas". For instance Sirius and Remus feel quite close to the "Black Comedy" characters in some scenes. The humor is lower key though.

I had a good time reading. 4/5 for now. You should give it time to develop during the summer into PoA to form an impression.

 

It's already in the trash bin.

Moved and merged.