Title: Grow Young With Me
Author: Taliesin19
Rating: T
Genre: Family/Romance
Status: WIP
Library Category: Romance
Pairings: Harry/OC

Summary: He always sat there, just staring out the window. The nameless man with sad eyes. He bothered no one, and no one bothered him. Until now, that is. Abigail Waters knew her curiosity would one day be the death of her...but not today. Today it would give her life instead.

FF.Net

Another day another rec. I think I came across this on Reddit and I gave it a go.

If you're the kind of person who enjoys sugary-sweet family moments and a slow burn romance between actual complicated people then this is definitely the fic for you.

The characters feel human in a way that few fanfiction characters do, there's a depth to them that is sadly lacking in most fanfiction. The Harry in this story is deeply lonely, unable to sleep through most nights and constantly thinking about the loss of Ginny. Yet at work he jokes and laughs with his Aurors and at home he smiles and laughs and plays with his kids. None of this is problematic, none of it is paradoxical; he's simply human. He is what he has to be for the people around him.

Only when he's alone at a little muggle café can he really act the way he feels.

Abby, on the other hand is seemingly constantly happy, and just a little bit wacky. Almost obnoxiously so (as is observed by Harry on more than one occasion) and yet she also is papering over the cracks, cracks that even now after 100k words we only have small peaks into. Ultimately it would seem to me that where Harry has put up a facade to fool his family and friends, Abby has put up a facade to fool herself as well. I am very interested to see where her story goes.

I'll be honest, this isn't really my kind of story. There's absolutely no action and I usually have little time for cutesy family dynamics. That said I have absolutely no reservations about rating this 5/5. The story is what it is, and it is extremely good at it. I stayed up much too late (and was consequently snoozing off at work today) to read this.

The characters are good. The dialogue is very good and the emotional kick is impressive considering how jaded I usually am. If there's one cutesy romance you read, make it this one.

Checked by Sorrows 05/08/2019

 

The interactions between Harry and Abby -- and then later between Harry, Abby, and Lily are great. Really enjoying this fic, and eagerly anticipating more from the author. 5/5. One of the better fics of this year and it's shaping up to be one of the better rare Harry/Muggle pairings.

On the whole Statue of Secrecy deal... I wonder if Harry is partially hiding behind the legalities of it to some extent. Even if he tells Abby, just what is enforcement going to consist in? It's not like Abby can tell anyone without looking crazy and it's not as though anyone is going to actively move in to Obliviate her. (Her only means of actually accessing the magical world is through Harry and on his terms) There's little to no risk of the Statue being violated in any egregious capacity.

He wants to tell her, but at the same time, he seems pretty hesitant about it.

 

Well I do like myself some really fluffy romance fics once in a while, but I really, I mean REALLY hate angst fests, but this fic manages to balance it out somehow. The deciding factor for me, is the utter lack of any coherent magic in the story, you get some glimpses but its as if it isn't there at all.

so 3/5. I want some more Abby/Harry interaction before I rate it more.

 

I'm with you on this - it's so not my usual thing (my teenage daughter would absolutely adore this, I'm sure of it) but I was also convinced of it from a thread on Reddit, and my occasional thought while reading was "Why the hell do I actually like this so much?"

Easy 5/5 for me.

 

As someone above has mentioned there is little magic shown throughout the fic which can be a bit dull. If you can keep on reading despite that you will find that the story does not entirely need to much flashy magic to make you like it.

Since I normally don't enjoy these kinds of fics very much, I hesitated on reading it, but I really ended up enjoying the story. I am giving this 4/5 for now.

 

Shouldn't y'all be giving the thread a rating?

Anyway, I love this story. Harry as a young parent is always fascinating for me to read, so no surprises on my part. This fic is right up there with Strangers at Drakeshaugh as far as character interactions within the family are concerned.

James and Albus appear a bit too mature for their ages at times, but that's a relatively minor complaint.

5/5 from me.

 

I really, really want to like this. There are some interesting things and ideas, and the writing is sound.

However, the story falls flat on several cases. The 'family' scenes feel too artificial, like they're cut straight out of a commercial rather than the real life they attempt to emulate. The waitress, Abby, is obnoxious without having anything to counterbalance it, and then there's the whole 'I'll go talk to the guy who keeps asking me to leave him alone'. Contrary to popular belief, being silent in a cafe won't draw particular interest from the workers.
I understand that there are some people who actually might do something like that, so I don't consider that too much of an issue, even if it irks me.

The angst. Oh, the angst. It's overflowing. I understand that it's a core aspect of the story, but there're good ways to write angst and then there is this.

I'll have to round down from 2.5 to 2/5 for technical writing and somewhat interesting premise but terrible execution.

Edit: I forgot. Fucking mobile phones? On wizards? Seriously Steelbadger?

 

It's not quite as awesome as Hocus Pocus was for me, but still library worthy.

4/5, on phone now, will give jusitfy later on demand.

 

What, is it a Dresden Files crossover? Otherwise unless he's using it in Hogwarts I don't see the problem.

 

Probably one of the best post Hogwarts fics I have found but that is not saying much. 3/5 for right now. I quite like Teddy as a character. Normally fics turn him into a super human being but this one nails how 13 year olds act.

 

Fourth chapter...

Spoiler

Oh my eyes!! WHY GINNY WHY DID YOU HAVE TO GOOOOO!!!!!

Great story so far. Definitely Hurt/Comfort early on though so it may not appeal to the regulars. Writing is exquisite, however

 

Just read all that's there in about an hour and a half when I should have been sleeping.

Excellent writing, and I ended up really liking and caring for the oc, as well as the rest of the characters.

Ymmv though, by its nature it's pretty slow, but I personally like that.

Only complaint would be that some of the family scenes feel a little too stereotypical. Then again my family situation was as far away from that as is possible, so not sure.

I'd give it a solid 4/5 - though it could get even better.

 

Well. Hmm.

I agree with my foreposters that writing is good, even... pleasant? Is that the right word? It's nice. I like it.

I didn't read all of it. About half, then stopped. I tried to get into it, even played melancholic music from The Vampire Diaries to get into the hurt/comfort/angsty mindest. That didn't help either.

It's just not my cup of tea (or coffee, in this case). Post-Hogwarts is in no way a deal breaker for me and I can deal with the kids. It's just that the whole premise of this being a family fic doesn't work for me. I can see how someone who likes this kind of a story will rate it a shining 5/5. Me, I'm bored out of my skull.

It's all family, friendship, romance all the time. Best description I can give is: imagine a Woody Allen movie, then stretch it over 100k words.

Another thing:

Harry says it right there, and I agree. Jesus, I wanted him to have Jedi mind-control powers in that moment just to pull an Obi-Wan on her.

"You do not want to talk to me."

"I do not want to talk to you."

"You want to go bother someone else."

"I want to go bother someone else."

And then Chapter 5 hit the red flag button for me. It may be realistic, but it's cringey as hell to read, at least for me.

Something this fic does that I personally think is a sign of the author not knowing what they're doing is that you can skip every second chapter and not lose much, because most chapters are very similar - it's family stuff. It's romance. It's fluffy. It's also pointless. If you can skip a chapter and no go wtf in the next, then what's the point of that chapter? Filler chasing filler.

Maybe I'm asking too much from a fic that is what it says on the label. Maybe it's not fair wanting this to be Circular Reasoning.

So, to sum up:

Pros: enjoyable writing, delivers on the premise.

Cons: the setup with Abby getting to know Harry is basically her being obnoxious. Boring. Mucho filler. Angst could've been executed better.

With that in mind, 3/5 from me.

 

I read this a few weeks back and couldn't go past a point because the fem OC was simply too annoying.The writing is technically good but the story itself isn't very engaging. The author tries hard to portray the bantering between Harry and the OC witty and original but fails. Don't know if it gets better, but I couldn't stick around long enough to find out.

2/5

 

The premise of Harry/muggle romance is interesting, but everything else is boring. The OC is obnoxious and so artifically sweet you may hurl. As said before, family scenes feel artificial and you can skip them entirely and don't loose anything of importance. Hell, skip-reading this fic alows you to know what is going on, and that is bad.

2/5, for being technically ok.

 

This wasn't very good.

While Rep compared it to a Woody Allen movie, I don't think that's quite accurate. It is more like one of those chick flicks starring Hugh Grant. Only with the plot gimmick removed and all the scenes an editor would deem superfluous put back in.

There is nothing interesting in this story, unless of course you want to read pointless minutia of Harry's and some OC's daily lives.

 

It's cute, and the author writes just well enough to make up for the lack of story. But it's not my cup of tea.

3 to 4 stars.

 

I really like it, fluffy with a healthy portion of angst. Updates are slow though

5/5

 

The OC really is obnoxious. I don't get why Harry kept coming back to get his cup of coffee, I would have gone elsewhere after the second time someone tried to make conversation with me when I clearly didn't want it.
It's not endearing at all.
Maybe I'm just not social enough.

That said, I gritted my teeth and continued to read. And I quite enjoyed this. Nothing really happens, true, you can skim it, true, but it's very pleasant to read so I didn't.
It's good to read when you need something just soothing. What it does, it does well.

I'm rating this 4/5, because well, it's pleasant and nice, but not a masterpiece that I thorougly enjoy.
It's not like "I can't put it down" like it is for what I'd rate 5/5, but more like "I don't mind reading it and coming back to it".

 

It's not bad, super fluffy but not riveting stuff. I'd come back to it maybe as a guilty pleasure so I'd rate it 3/5. Pretty decently executed Harry/Muggle.