She as in Fleur? I'm really curious as to how you arrived at this. If anything, she comes across as being extremely possessive of Harry - I'm almost reminded of the Overly Attached Girlfriend memes.

As for the hypothetical of her being replaced with Ginny, that's really not a fair or relevant question since Ginny has a much more flesh out (canon) personality and different relationship dynamics (with both Harry and her family), so a Ginny written exactly like Fleur is here would just not make any sense whatsoever.

 

From the discussion here it seems like the story is still the same as twenty chapters ago. So, for someone who only read the first few -- is it any better now?

 

In some areas I think it is. I believe the cringier moments happened early in the story. Writing quality is the same, story is slow so may not have moved past what you saw coming when you stopped. Basically if it was your sort of thing for the first 30 chapters it still is, if it wasn't then you're not going to like it any better.

Yeah I really don't know where you got this from.

 

Yes it is. Not necessarily Ginny, but if I liked the Harry/Fleur pariring, I'd like it for a reason - most likely the characterisation of the person Harry is paired with.
Now, in this story Fleur has next to no character (except maybe the first 15 chapters), so I don't see how this is any different from any other female character being written like this - shallow and possessive. You could also take Hannah Abbott instead of Ginny.
I just don't see any appeal in this relationship because even if I like the pairing - the character whom I'd expect to be there is simply not recognizable.

Ginny was a bad example, but my point remains.
However, Ghosthree3 already clarified it isn't the main reason why he keeps following this fic.

 

I see. Thanks. I believe I dropped the story because I didn't really care about any characters at all and thus the conflict -- or lack thereof, as it was mostly just canon route then -- didn't really interest me.

 

That was my point - having Ginny be the "drop in replacement" for this hypothetical doesn't work because she's a (reasonably) fleshed-out character. Having it be another background character with little canonical characterization would make a lot more sense, but then you run into the issue of exactly what prompts someone to be a fan of, say, the Harry/Katie pairing instead of the Harry/Fleur pairing, when both have so little basis in canon - a Fleur and a Katie written the same way may well elicit very different responses from people depending on what mental image and/or ideas they have about those characters beyond what's in canon.

 

What I fail to see is: Where exactly is any image one could have of Fleur met in this fanfiction?
The Fleur here is one of the flattest characters I've ever come across.

My only explanation would be that a shallow Fleur is exactly what is expected.

 

Would be nice if the author reads this feedback and works on her a bit. Might be too late though.

EDIT: I don't actually have a huge issue with her character. I think it could be better, but I don't think it's dreadful. The problem is more how the relationship between them is written a lot of the time. Though again, it's not horrible. Does need work though, or perhaps less work, more quality less quantity and have more of other stuff.

 

A standoffish and lonely Fleur is not at all out of the realm of expectation given her Veela heritage (and what is commonly associated with it within fanfiction), and I don't think it's necessarily a huge leap either for her to then be highly possessive of someone who finally gets close to her. I have no real problem with that. But it should be noted though that I do not actually think the way it was done in this story is particularly great, especially with the "how dare he not notice me" setup and the rather jarring transition from that to "he must be mine for eternity". Once I got past that though, I didn't find her characterization to be particularly awful, and enjoyed the later chapters rather more.

 

I don't think her characterization is awful at all. It's just that there's no chemistry between her and Harry.

 

Agreed: there's more between Katie and Harry than Fleur and Harry. The romance aspect of the fic is failing.

 

Just why is that, though? Fleur is possessive of Harry and felt lonely before her relationship, because she was an outcast due to her heritage.
Except that she is ... what exactly? For me at least one major point why this relationship doesn't seem realistic is that I can't see WHY exactly Fleur is so incredibly possessive of Harry and accepts everything he does.
OK, he was nice to her when she was quite lonely. If he was really the only one except her family and this is really the only reason - seems a tiny tad forced. And, well, superficial.

Maybe I feel her to be flat because of this focus on a relationship I simply cannot really understand. As there is, as others already pointed out, no chemistry between them and she still shows this incredible possessiveness.

 

My impression is that she thinks that he's the only one (outside of her family) who understands her view of, and the facade she presents to, the world, and she doesn't believe that there is anyone else for whom that would be true.

Now, I'm not sure this qualifies as a good reason for the possessiveness, but I can understand and accept it, more or less, for the purpose of this story.

 

Ditto, but I'm also concerned that it will end up being the love potion/curse trope

 

This thing about girls being in love with the one person that can see through their "facade" always annoys me so much. I've seen it happen with Harry/Daphne and the whole Ice Princess thing and it just rubs me the wrong way. If you want people to care about the real you then stop pretending to be such a bitch!

Sorry, got a bit ranty there from bad experiences.

 

Well, she did have a reason to be a bitch.
It just was quite a cheap reason.
"Oh, you've grown more beautiful than me?!!! Me and all your other friends shall hate you for eternity for that heinous crime!!"

For all that criticism concerning Fleur, I am glad that this action scene happened. The fillers might be finally over now, he has a nice opportunity to skip until the new year starts, and that means less Harry/Fleur and most possibly more stuff happening.

 

This was pretty much my sentiment for the chapter. Not sure he should skip all the way to the new year yet, but accelerating through the rest of the summer would be good.

 

If he has a plot for the rest of the summer he's absolutely welcome to carry it out.
However, I really didn't get that impression from the chapters where "nothing" would've been an exciting plot point.

OK, exaggerating a bit, however, I really, really, really dislike fillers