Title: Wyckham Academy
Author: Kneazle
Rating: T
Genre: Action/Adventure/Drama
DLP Category: The Alternate's
Pairing: None yet
Status: WIP
Summary: AU: Harry attends Wyckham Academy instead of Hogwarts. New friends, new magic, new outlooks. With Harry at a different school, can he escape his destiny as the BoyWhoLived? Can he still defeat Voldemort if he isn't at Hogwarts?
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3013043/1/
The first three chapters can be found here: http://www.wizardtales.net/viewstory.php?sid=4525&chapter=1
Kneazle started a rewrite here: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6477516/1/Footsteps-on-a-Different-Path

Look, this probably doesn't fit the type of fics that are usually posted around here due to the lack of "hack and slash", but I think it's a pretty good AU, and's got plenty of wizard politics for those who are into that aspect. Try it out.



Checked by Minion, Dec. 6, 2012
It's not really a dead link. The story was removed by the author, who started to rewrite it, but the first three chapters of the story can still be found.
If you know where to find another copy of the story, please inform the library staff.

 

I read this one a whlie back, it has some good old fashioned dumble-bashing. I like stories that mess with cannon. Plus Harry gets better friends Hermy and Ronald!

 

I read this awhile back and I stopped as soon as Dumbledore visited the Academy; that was the worst Dumbledore-oriented scene in the history of man.

Unless that's changed, this story gets a 1/5 from me for intolerable character assassination.

 

I've been keeping an eye on this for some time, but my interest was never strong enough to actually bite the bullet and read it. It seems to me like just another unimaginative new school story, where each HP canon character or idea is replaced by slightly 'improved' clone, making basically the same thing.

 

It's not bad. I actually liked it until Harry started feeling responsible for saving the wizarding world again. What's the point in creating something totally AU and then leaving Harry with the same hero personality?

I just have trouble believing that someone who never knew about magic until he turned 11 is suddenly going to feel such a connection to the world that he is willing to risk his life for it.

 

Uh...hmm. It may just be me, but I'm having trouble loading the Euro-FF.net site. Here's the link to the...regular FF.net site. Original. Whatever you call it.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3013043/1/

 

It was tolerable, but with better things to do I lost interest. 2.5/5

 

The third chapter--I'm sick of people reintroducing ideas common to canon in AU stories. Oh, hey, it's Fred and George--what this about a jokeshop? Sure, I'd love to fund it! Come on, show some sort of originality!

Oh, look, it's Alicia Spinnet, Angelina Johnson, Oliver Wood, and Fred and George--all on the same Quidditch Team, despite there being SIX teams!

This is turning into a Mary-Sue story.

 

Cthulu approves.
A cliche here and there, but nothing too bad. Writing style is good and the grammar is good enugh but leaves room for improvement.

3.5/5

 

Early on, it goes past cliche--It's simply a lack of originality. However, the further one gets into the story, the more the writing improves. I am pleased with how it's turned out so far, and that the author has changed the angle a bit so that it doesn't seem so rediculous as it did.

Overall (based on the fact that i nearly stopped reading, and that the author's writing improves dramatically from the beginning): 3.5/5

 

I still follow the story but consider it to be average. At the moment I only follow because it is regularly updated.

I generally like the 'different school' plots and Dumbles bashing, but in this story the attempts to stick to canon as close as possible are really annoying. Harry is not enlisted at Hogwarts so the author shouldn't continue to move him there to solve the canon problems.

Having him saving the Philosopher's Stone was riddikulus; Dumbles wizardnapping Harry to defeat the basilisk wasn't much better. And Harry considering himself as the saviour is just a weak attempt to explain why he enters the Chamber of Secrets against all odds. Instead he should have shown Dumbles his middle finger and left the castle.

I understand only few people (outside DLP) want to finish Ginny off, but to save her could have been done differently I.e. the Weasleys could have transferred their children to Wyckham for safety - means, Tom would have been in an unknown place. And the stone could have fallen into Voldemort's hands. Or he might not been able to get it out of the mirror and thus been found by Dumbles just in time. There are loads of possibilities to leave canon - but this story sticks to it as if the author is using superglue.

There are hints that at least PoA will take place at Wyckham, but it will be quite unoriginal, if it is done again using a timeturner.

 

I disagree. Philosopher's Stone, yes, but the fact that he started POA early, and then kept the dementors away from the school, and we likely won't be seeing Lupin, at least not as a Wyckham teacher. Dumbledore's actions are shocking, really, I never saw that coming--it seems almost like he's gone insane with...well, whatever this insanity is.

The real test will be, not with year 3, but year 4. Undoubtedly, the triwizard tournament will take place. The question is: How will Wyckham participate? Because you know they're gonna have to.

 

Didn't the author have in an AN that the Tournament would not be taking place.

But thats by the by, this gets 4/5 from me, simply because its thoroughly enjoyable. Its a bit slow and un original at the start but it gets much much better.

 

Well then...I guess that that would be some kind of pass of that test. I need to start reading AN's....

 

I finally started reading this. While not great its enjoyable enough to read once you get past some of the cliches that have managed to work their way in. My main complaint is that Harry seems too mature for a 11 year old. Also the author forgets Harry is 11, for example making the kids read Shakespear, brewing a potion to remove tracking spells, etc.

Just barely good enough for the library.

Attn Mods: can one of you change the pairing since the author says it won't be H/Hr

 

I've been reading it regularly (Excuse my Spelling) and once one gets past the first few chapters it becomes much more tolerable. In any case 3.5/5.

Also, in response to DarkSov, I think it will be likely that the author will have Harry's name being called out of the goblet somehow and him being forced to participate due to it being a binding magical contract.

 

Just a note on the Shakespeare thing, in Britain 11 year olds do study it in school. As far as I know its part of the required curriculum.

 

Same here in Germany with Goethe and Schiller. That didn*t bother me at all. Harry is definitely smarter than in canon - but that could be a result of the different circle of friends.

 

Banisher--Word is that there won't be a Triwizard Tournament. It's mentioned somewhere in an Author's note. As has been mentioned here....

Our education here in the US is supposed to focus on Mathematics and Science. It has for the last 60-70 years, or something like that. English, History and the other subjects usually take a backseat to those studies; however, culturally, we are much more oriented towards business and the like. There's no room for interest in sceince and math in the mainstream consumerist economy in the US. It's probably time to refocus our primary concerns on English and History, which would seem a bit more prudent at this time.

But, hey, that's really a conversation for a different time, isn't it?

 

Mordecai and Dark Minion: My mistake, sorry, In New York I didn't see an actual Shakespearian play, not counting excerpts, until I was at least 13.

Besides that the point remains that Harry is exceedingly mature for an eleven year old, blood magic is not a basic subject.