This is why

 

Well, one of those stories wasn't bad. Eh..

 

One of the links took me to a porn site -_-.

 

Considering it was smut, is it that much of a stretch of the imagination it might be on a porn site?
And if Lungs is freaking out about Porn, this must be some sickass shit.

 

I was expecting a FICWARD link or something along those lines.

 

Weighing them up side by side, I'd still rather be blind linked to god-knows-what porn than most fan-written HP smut.

 

The sad thing is, since it's fanfic, I'm guessing the phrase was a mistake, rather than a clever play on words.

 

Does this community have a group?

It'd be awesome to join...

 

I agree. Just bumping this up since I specifically joined DLP coz I found this thread and apparently it's been dead for a while..

 

No, because a good Harry/Fleur fic is like Socrates. Probably never existed and debated ceaselessly.

 

I've read some of those I can find, and I must say that none are as good as other shippers, since, in my opinion, H/F has some potential for a very good fic.

We'll, there's hoping someone out there with some awesome writing skills can make one.

 

They're definitely pretty rare. Wastelands of Time is the only one I can remember right off that was decent. Jeconais kept teasing H/Fleur, but only ever published a couple of uber-fluffy H/Gabrielle stories and one cocktease Harry-Fleur Friendship fic.

 

Undoubtedly you can find this sentiment somewhere in this thread. Probably in a post 1000 posts ago saying exactly what I'm saying now:

Why the only good Harry/Fleur fic will need to be written by you.
(and why it might still be mediocre)

Okay, let's talk shop about relationships in writing, first.

I've said this like, twice before in posts, several times on irc to various people, easily, writing relationships is hard.

The less mystical and equally difficult parallel: writing dialogue.

You say things every day to different people (assuming you are, if not possessing of a social life, are possessing of some kind of professional life. If not, you still probably trade insults with 10 year olds on Xbox Live). Yet when it comes down to writing dialogue, everyone who starts out flounders. I consider myself not too bad at writing in terms of its technical aspects, but I still fuck up my dialogue consistently to the point in which I rewrite it 4-5 times per chapter.

You get a bunch of styles - the minimalist-not-by-choice people who have a checklist of "these things need to happen for this dialogue to be cool". Then you get the other (the most major culprit, for the fanfiction-savvy would be someone like gabriel blessing) who word-vomits with an obedience to structure I'd love to have in a debate round.

And then you have people like me, who try to write out things as you can imagine the characters saying them, and then realize that holy-shit-that's-too-much-bullshit-for-written-word or maybe-I-can-be-this-curt-irl-but-just-not-here-not-now.

Now, after that sidenote, we can talk about writing relationships.

For every million words that tumble out of your mouth you've probably had one relationship. Some of you maybe more, if you're old and wise. Some of you maybe less, if you dig the fun. Some of you maybe none at all, because you have a League of Legend waifu.

So, as a distinctly human trait, you don't like making the hard decisions necessary to realize that a relationship can not be healthy. You don't like believing that She Might Not Be The Golden One.

So how does this come out to the readers? We have pet peeves about relationships in fanfiction (and lots of non-fan fiction). Someone starts a relationship sometime. It lasts for years, ends in marriage and kids. Check the pet peeves thread(s). I promise you they're there. I might have posted some.

This is cringe-worthy to the reader because of this one. damn. rule. I find so fucking hard to remember when I'm actually writing - one that I actively resist:

The Reader Does Not Have The Same Attachment To Your Character As You Do.

Especially if you've created a large and sprawling AU like I'm prone to do - in fact, if they're reading fanfiction and not writing it, they probably don't like the canonverse as much as you do. I'm not saying for certain they don't - I'm just saying that the proportion of people who care who care enough to write about things compared to people who care enough to spend a bunch of hours of free times reading the product of this caring is closer to zero than to one. (mathanalogiesi'msolame)

Shippin'

Harry/Ginny - Girl falls in love with her prince charming. They marry and have kids. They name their kids after people they don't know very well, some of which have screwed them rather directly.

Harry/Hermione - Girl falls in love with her best friend.

Harry/Hufflepuff - Guy falls in love with the nice girl.

Harry/Ravenclaw - Guy falls in love with brainy girl who isn't Hermione? Author likes Asian Amateur porn.

Harry/Slytherin - Hatesex is glorious.

These happen. These aren't hyper difficult. These are tropes which are all over our literary works, our culture, all over our every day life, in our relationships and others. We have a POINT OF CONNECTION to them.

Now... then it gets a bit... Harrier. Bwahahaha.

Harry/Tonks - Guy digs the police chick. They have kinky shapeshifting sex and fight crime. Author might like pegging.

Harry/Luna - Guy falls in love with the insane girl.

Harry/Sue - Guy inherits magical powers from the four founders and has a massive penis that the prepz hate.

The quality severely deteriorates. You have to jump through holes. Tonks may have a personality that's young, but Harry and her have to find a point of connection. Easy, he joins the Unspeakables for an unforgettable summer in being cleared to use the Killing Curse. Ugh. Luna is insane. How many of you know insane girls like Luna? Well, I have a friend who's a little bit of a schizophrenic, maybe she's like him? I have a bunch of Morning Glory seeds to chomp on, maybe I can replicate schizo in my head? Mary Sue? That one's a joke.

Then...

We have... the ships that are fucking really, really difficult.

Harry/Blaise's Mom - Harry becomes the Don. He kills people. He enjoys cocaine with his afternoon tea.

Harry/fem!character - You'd best explain how genderbending's going to work out, dude.

etc etc.

And then. We have THE ship.

THE SHIP. THAT NEVER. SAILED.

Harry/Fleur

A LEETLE BOY HAS TO IMPRESS A FRENCH SEX SYMBOL FROM A DIFFERENT RACE WHO HAPPENS TO SHARE A PLACE ON THE 0-10 SCALE WITH A VICTORIA SECRET'S ANGEL WHO HAPPENS TO BE THREE YEARS OLDER THAN HIM AND IS THE MOST COMPETENT STUDENT IN AN ENTIRE SCHOOL WITH THE POWER TO MAKE MEN FALL HEAD OVER HEELS BY EXISTING.

Good. Fucking. Luck.

Ever date a girl substantially less mediocre and more physically attractive than you? I have. It didn't work out. We're still in a weird place and I certainly like her more than she likes me. Maybe it'll be kinda like that.

But do you guys really, really want to hear about Lung's adventure with Continuously Drained Self-Esteem?

Boo.

Okay. So what does Harry have going for him?

He's the Chosen One. He's the Protagonist. He fights Voldemort. He can potentially be a Quidditch champion, the Master of Death, etc etc.

Pretty cool.

Also pretty disconnected from canon!Harry, who - if he went to college with me - would be my roomate from last year. And all around extremely nice guy who smoked weed twice a week, got drunk on Fridays, and goes to a rave or two with me once in a while.

So... what stories can possibly segue into a realistic relationship between Harry and Fleur?

Harry Potter, Groundhog Day Hero of Time?

Harry Potter, Secret Agent Losing His Baggage?

Harry Potter, Time Traveling Avatar of Grimdark?

What do these things have in common?

Mental. Maturity. If you're dating a supermodel without an infinite supply of Bolivian Marching Powder, you'd have to be pretty good on a shit ton of counts.

We can conceptualize Harry as attractive. That's not enough. Plenty of dudes at the bar could match that.

We can conceptualize Harry as powerful. That's not enough. Plenty of people can gain power in magic.

We can conceptualize Harry as rich, famous, etc etc. Not enough.

Strength of character. Not. Being. Boring. (Considering canon!Fleur married canon!Indiana Jones with Dragonleather boots.) Being academically/intellectually excellent. (said Indiana was also Head Boy).

So what have we got here:

Recap:

1. Author's end: You have to let go of your personal experience and try to find experience that might not belong to you and hope you write it realistically.

2. Author's end: You have to have the hallmarks of a good story to begin with (no overwhelming piles of fail - like, make-it-into-the-library quality of writing, even if just barely)

3. Character end: A very specific Harry who needs to not only match expectations set by one of the most awesome characters in the story (per the proper interpretation of Bill) - but exceed them. Because he's younger.

(edit) 4. Also, she can throw fireballs. And turn into a bird.

Yer fucked, mate.
​

 

Is the fireballs/bird thing canon or fanon for part-veela? I don't recall any canon mention of non-wizard abilities for Fleur other than the veela charm.

 

There's no canon definition of part Veela.

We have no clue if a part Veela is a full Veela or a not Veela.

 

Well, considering that apparently Bill and Fleur canonically had a son, it's clear that part-veela do exist.

Also, if witches of Veela ancestry were considered full Veela, it is entirely likely that they would not be allowed to use wands or attend schools of magic, as this seems to be a privilege restricted solely to humans and half-breeds.

 

Crazy sex is always good.

Awesome post Lungs.

 

I find H/F quite interesting coz from how I look at it, they can kinda relate to each other in a way that others may not be able to. Harry, being the boy who everyone sees only as the Boy-Who-Lived and Fleur being seen only as the gorgeous blonde Veela.

Plus the fact that there's not much canon details about Fleur, Beauxbatons, Veelas and France and writers have more creative freedom than with writing Hogwarts based fics.

One of the first fics I've read wasLetters (found in facfiction.net). It was AU and they were kinda OOC, but it was novel length and found it entertaining.

That too!

 

Girls like being seen as beautiful damnit!! It's not a fucking curse!

Single.Most.Annoying.Cliche.Ever

 

Awesome summary, Lungs.

Some authors use Harry's ability to resist the allure as some kind of justification of the relationship. I guess that's not inherintly a bad idea, but it's been overused to the point where it makes me cringe every time I see it.