I read A Long Journey a while ago and I think I'm going to have to with Newcombs choice as well.

Edit: Changed my choice to https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7281191/1/Freedom-in-the-Eyes-of-Another it was super poignant and I constantly reread it whenever my memory of it fades and even though I know all the twists in advance, it's just overall an amazing fic and my sole complaint is the length.

 

Contemplating Clouds.

Tough decision, but my answer hasn't changed in over 5 years.

There are dozens of great stories written, and completed, since, that have greater depth, or more engrossing plot, or simply made me feel more intensely, but Clouds holds a special place in my heart.

Short, simple, sweet, never to be complete, forever floating in a pure, innocent moment.

Wouldn't deny nostalgia having its influence, but I don't care.

Contemplating Clouds.

 

Three of my favorites have already been mentioned: Forging the Sword, Prince of the Dark Kingdom, and A Long Journey Home.

But probably the story I want most to see updated is Newcomb's What You Leave Behind. (Sorry for putting you on the spot there)

There are three things that make this story exceptional:
1) It uses magic well, threading the line between technique and wonder and allowing the characters (Harry, specifically) to grow in magic at a believable, brisk pace without ever info-dumping his learning and what it means.

2) It does a good job, perhaps even better than Forging of the Sword which I hadn't thought possible, of providing a lot of information, action, and interaction in very few chapters. in particular, I'm always impressed by how each character gets his own space to be as an individual without sacrificing forward momentum or the focus on Harry.

3) What Newcomb says about A Long Journey goes for this story as well. It does a startling job of giving us an intense identification with each character (and quickly). The scene with Harry talking to Hermione at a Quidditch party is particularly marvelous. But so too is Cedric's conversation with Cho about family expectations and friendship (no spoilers in that, I don't think). Fleur, Harry, and the Dragon: enough said. These are gems of humanity.

Anyway, read it if you haven't. Read it again if you have.

 

My favorite fanfic of all time is probably A Black Comedy. The fic I most want to see updated is easily On the Way to Greatness.

 

My favorite fanfic of all time would probably be Taliesin19's Grow Young With Me

It feels like a continuation of canon Harry better than any other story I have read. The way he is portrayed as a father seems so real to his character, and the author writes some of the best children I have ever read in fiction. It is not without flaws, but it is definitely the fic I enjoyed the most while reading, and the one I most want to receive an update.

 

Son of Suns Trilogy by blank101..Palpatine is simply magnificent bastard.

 

I have to agree with a lot of you that A Black Comedy is up there on my list. It's definitely my favorite comedy.

Grow Young With Me is up there as well. I don't even know what it is about it I like but it just appeals to me. The characters seem so real... more so than a lot of things I've read in the past.

I'm not sure what my absolute favorite is though. I'll have to give it some more thought.

 

I've read most of the stories on this thread but I can't help but pick Kwan Li's The Other Boy Who Lived, especially the later half of the story. It has some issues and it is not perfect but Harry's ascent to heroness is without a doubt something that I've come to adore.The ending is bittersweet as well so that gives it a bonus from my part as well.

 

The Asking Price

Self-contained Hunger Games fic that focuses on Peeta in the games in a slight AU.

In spite of the numerous HP fics that have been mentioned (all with good reason) this remains my absolute favorite fic of all time. The writing isn't spectacular, but as Newcomb pointed out in the thread for it, the simplicity of the prose conveys the bleak, brutal nature of the Hunger Games world better than any flowery language ever could.

The characters are true to their canon selves, the OCs make sense and are given just enough depth for me to care about them, and Peeta, the main character is fabulously written. From start to finish, reading the first-person perspective is alternatively amusing, introspective, and utterly helpless in a way that resonates with me every time I pick it back up.

The helplessness is what really sticks with me. It's not a particularly happy story; the ending is pretty much known from the get go. It does what I feel the best fanfics all do: takes the canon world and explores it in a captivating way. This fic takes a world that was written as being utterly dystopian and actually makes the reader feel how helpless the characters are from the get go. It's short, not particularly sweet, and easily the best written story in its fandom.

I think I read it once every couple months, just to savor the simplicity of the writing.

 

Mind Over Matter by eyyowlf, for Mass Effect.

Never mind the best fanfiction - I think this is the best fiction I may have read. Everything ties back into itself. The dialogue is tight. The prose is just enough. As a writer, this is thing that I read that intimidates me out of writing.

Other fics may do one or two things better than Mind Over Matter. But I've never read anything that did everything as well all at once.

Everything else eyyowlf wrote is of course fucking incredible as well, the asshole.

Let me be clear, I've been on this site for years. I like you all pretty well. Even play tabletops over phonecall with some.

But I'd take a runic dagger and sacrifice any of you in the name of a black sacrament on a night with no moon if I thought some stygian anti-being from the edge of unknowing might take notice and produce an update to Cabbages and Kings, the 6 years dead sequel.

Any of you. All of you.

 

Cursed Child

 

I'll join the brigade for A Long Journey Home. The author does an amazing job of making Ms. Potter seem truly ancient (yet human) in the present chapters, and a complete, but well-flawed badass in the historical ones. The struggle she has with herself to remain somewhat in touch with Ron and Hermione in the present is very well done.

Anyone else get somewhat depressed looking at their favorites list and seeing all the stuff that's never going to get finished? Prince of the Dark Kingdom is the big one, but there are a whole lot of stories that I hadn't thought of in a while that aren't ever going to see conclusion. Bummer.

 

I really liked Metropolitan Man. Sure Lex/Superman are a bit off character, but I actually like how all the characters are now shades of grey rather than black & white, good/evil.

It hits all my buttons for subverting canon, intelligent characters with rational motivations, and hints of a deep and fleshed out universe/setting.

 

Normally I would answer with What you leave behind, but on the one hand its unfinished I have trouble calling such things „best“ and it more important it was also already mentioned.

So instead I will go with Resurrexit Funny consindering it is also a fic I would properly not read again simply for the impact the ending had. But all in all Harry change over the course of this fic and how the final is explained truly is beautiful.

 

I have a lot of fics that I consider "among the best" fanfictions, but they have all already been mentioned in this thread.
Except one, so I will go with it : The Shadow of Angmar.
I don't even care about Lord of the Rings (I saw the movies once, years ago, didn't feel the need to push further - and this fic starts waaay before the story in the movies anyway), but this fic really engages me and interests me and make me care about this world. The setting is great. The characters are great. I always eagerly awaits updates and read them with joy.
I really like that Harry is there without a wand, because with HP magic he would be overpowered. Instead he has to face hard trials, and he has to find a way to channel his magic again, and to go home (and we know he won't for many, many years, and I'm looking forward to all of it).
It contains also a very interesting way to look at potions and potion-making.

 

The fic that takes my top spot nowadays is God's Eye by Todeswind. It's a crossover between Dresden Files and Star Gate - and I've never even seen Star Gate. [WbA link]

God's Eye is brilliant. It starts with the aftermath of a ritual gone wrong and Dresden is stranded on an alien planet. It spirals rapidly out of control from there. I've never even been able to leave a proper review on it because I'm always reduced to mindless fangirlism.

It's bloody exciting. I don't think a grin is ever far off of my face when reading. The plot just bounces from one impossible bit of action to another, and everything Dresden does manages to capture the spirit of Butcher's original crazy stakes and triumphant protagonist -- but it's on a whole other playing field of badass. In God's Eye the stakes are the universe, the bad guys are your allies and the power levels are - I'm informed - well over nine thousand.

It's a kind of crazy fun that suckers you in. It's made me want to learn everything I can about the Star Gate universe, and it's made me write MLP crossover fanfiction crossover fanfiction.

11/10, would recommend.

 

I find that the stories that stick with me the most over the years are the short ones. Fics like By the Divining Light or Dark Marauder manage to distil everything I like about fanfiction without dragging on for hundreds of thousands of words. There are a bunch of stories around fifteen to twenty-five thousand words long that are in my top ten on any given day (Geminio, Scenes from the Hog’s Head Inn, Concentric Wavelengths, Memorium, ect.).


But my true favourites have always been the even shorten ones. The ones that can be read in just a few minutes but stay with you for far longer. Anything but Slytherin, Unholy and Why is it Orange all deserve an honourable mentions for being made of pure awesome.
But my favourite fic has to be Cauterize.


It's short and simple while managing to conjure vivid and emotional images. It's sad and beautiful and poignant and cathartic and feels like a sweet goodbye to a series I have loved and obsessed over since childhood. Whenever I read it I get chills and a bit misty eyed. I feel no need to seek out other fanfiction or read the books or do anything Harry Potter related for a while after, because I am utterly satisfied.


While there are more epic or technically better written stories out there I don't think I will find one that effects me in the same way that Cauterize does.

 

The Prisoner's Cipher by Ecthelion3 really hit on the all the right points for me. The way the mystery was unraveled was powerful.

 

I agree with those who said Prince of a Dark Kingdom. I love the incredibly detailed world the author created and all of the subplots. It has a compelling student/mentor relationship between Harry and Voldemort which is rare. It is one of few stories I can get carried away reading like the original series.

 

I believe that my favorite ones must be anything that includes Daphne Greengrass. I just love the potential that she has... And speaking of which anyone has any new recommendations? Animagi Fury looks very interesting