Title: The Halfblood Black
Author: Aetern1tas
Genre: Adventure/Fantasy
Rating: K+
Pairing: None so far
Length: 14,010 (however the Author appears to uploaded a different story’s chapter as this story’s chapter 5, so this might change by the time you read this)
Status: WIP, 5 chapters (4 actual and a 5th probably not)
Library category: The Alternates
Link FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14582879/1/The-Halfblood-Black
Author’s Summary: “He wakes up as a half-blood Black in the world of Harry Potter — but he's already split in two. One half is a frightened child. The other is something born from everything he was forced to suppress. He knows exactly where he's landed and roughly how the story's supposed to go. Keeping his head down should be easy enough — if only he didn't have that face.”

So far, I’ve found it interesting and I like the way the author limits the MC in various ways—he doesn’t just get to take over the Black fortune or 12 Grimmauld. The author has a decent track-record and a good update rate, so I’m not too worried, here.

Spoiler: The MC is . . .

Also, MC must be careful because he’s an Obscurus.

Ha! If MC thinks Harry’s got it bad in potions class, just wait until Snape sees the spitting image of Black walk through his classroom door!

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the family memories thing—something ever-so-similar, but different enough from TheBlack'sResurgence’s “The Reaver's Legacy”. I’m leaning towards “neat and interesting” but it nags as “too convenient”. We’ll have to see how it’s ultimately used—or abused.

 

Not much there, but what is there is really dumb.

 

It's very early days, but I like the first person reflective style of prose. The tired old approach of magical child gets adopted from orphanage, does magic, gets returned is right there in the second chapter (Am I the only one who would be overjoyed if my child could levitate?), as is the vicious orphanage bully who seems more mafia boss than 7 year old, the bizarre names (Arakis, apt for a Black) given only to turn into dreadful nicknames (Ara), the abuse from the orphanage matron.... it's all terribly cliche for a Harry Potter fanfic, and not very interesting.

I can't open the third chapter for some reason, even though I can see the fourth. I have never encountered that error on FFN before. Needless to say I'm not too fussed. Given its length, it isn't eligible to be considered for the library, but I don't think it would get in even if it was longer based on what I've seen so far. As such, I won't give it a rating.

Also, I don't know if this is AI written, other people are likely better placed to comment on that than me. But, the story art on this fic, and on all of the other fics the author has written (8 since 2024, some quite long) is AI generated, which is a massive red flag for me.