Title: A Different Fate
Author: lordhellebore
Rating: K+
DLP Category: AU or General?
Pairing: None
Status: Complete
Summary: JKR portrays Harry as completely unaffected by the Death Curse cast at him. But how would things have gone if it had been different? Drabble series, five drabbles per chapter.
Link: FF.net

I checked the library for it and didn't find it. I apologize if I missed it somewhere!

This one has been sitting in my favorite list for a while. While it's maybe not your typically DLP genre, I think it's a masterpiece and it has its place in the library. The portrayal of the characters are very well done and that's what make this story something so amazing.

5/5 for me.

 

I liked this one a lot, very touching. 5/5

 

mentally disabled Harry is not something fun to read. Yes, it is very well written, and it draws you into it to some extent, but dammit, this isn't what HP was supposed to be.


Extremely reluctant 5/5

 

I thought this would be like a Slytherin Harry or something similiar to that.

Sorry I'm reluctant in reading this - when you have an older sister with extreme mental defects, it makes you reluctant to read or hear about stuff like this when most of the time the people writing it have no experiance with it.

It was a fic with a "some light at the end of the tunel" or the "silver lining" kind of thing.

2.5/5.

 

I don't really know how to take this fic. I feel like it was written by someone whose had some experience with children with developmental disorders, either as a teacher/nurse/etc or through a family member or family friend. I don't know enough about such things to know if the author is doing a disservice or anything like that. I don't feel comfortable rating this fic.

EDIT: OK, after thinking about it for a while, I think this is a 3/5, mostly on execution. The drabble style isn't something I really like, and anyway, I think drabbles need to be more than three sentences apiece to be considered good.

 

I have a friend who's brother has severe mental disorder and that's what made me love this fic so much. While it's hard and challenging to raise a child with a disorder like that, I think there are still moments where you tell yourself that it was worth it. I think this fic does reflect that pretty well.

 

I hated reading this because I know people who are disabled. And alot of what Harry does in this fic is something they do. It's one of the very few pieces of fan fiction that have made me connect emotionally to characters, specifically Harry and Dudley.

5/5 for me because even though I didn't enjoy reading it because of the premise, it was a, imho, well written piece that connects emotionally. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

You know that thread in Fanfic Discussion, "Aspects That Brighten Your Day"?

Whatever "Aspects" I appreciate, this fic is the opposite of them all. And it's in drabble format. The last drabble fic that was posted in For Review I gave 1/5 for the format alone.

I think you can see where this is going.

1/5.

 

This would be good for a housewives book club or a pansy man fanfic fair, but here... no.

For the subject matter - family angst, retarded Harry - it's pretty good. The drabbles give a clear picture of the characters and how they feel and their motivations; very lovey and angsty and all-together syrupy. In that regard, I can give it a 5/5. For what the fic attempts to do, it is perfect.

However, there's no magic, Harry's retarded, and Dudley is the 'hero'. Put it in the bin.

 

Well written, connects emotionally and does what the author intended.5/5
Don't know if it should go to the library though.

 

This is not a complete story. This is what you do before you actually start writing; a tentative summary of what each chapter will contain.

As far as I know, the handicap aspect is handled well. The emotions that stem from the different situations feel accurate and believable. But for fuck's sake, it's so flat! I don't understand how someone can give this a 5/5. "Petunia is sad", "Dudley missed his father", "Remus begins visiting to spend some time with Petunia." Not only is the "plot" utterly predictable, but the style makes everything so simple and flat that the intended powerful effect of the situation is mostly lost.

Take this, write it well and in detail, pace the story accordingly, and the result could easily be a very powerful thing. But no matter how well you pull it off, this still isn't a fic for this particular forum. And in this case, given the way the author handled it, the story wouldn't make it into the library even if this were compatible to DLP's preferences.

I understand the story would strike a chord with those of you with first-hand experience in this kind of situation. Down Syndrome and disability is not an easy thing to deal with. Regardless, you have to admit this is hardly a good rendition of the topic.

I feel like the movie's villain, but I give it a 2/5.

 

DLP, are you going soft? This is the kind of fiction old women read in dusty rooms, sniffing and rooting for "that poor dear". The writer clearly takes a cheap shot at a theme universally appealing to every decent human being, meanwhile she hopes the reader won't remark on the abysmal drabble format or the overly generic characters.

Spoiler

On top of all things, it doesn't feel like HP fanfiction anymore, you can replace the characters without losing any of the cohesion.

48 - Stupid

Sniffy the monkey doesn't know that he's thirteen; he doesn't do well with numbers. What he does know is that he's just as old as Dudley. Lately, though, he's been noticing things that confuse him.

Dudley can read and write, just like Mum, or Remus. Dudley can tie his shoes alone; he doesn't need nappies at night, and there are so many things he understands that Sniffy doesn't.

Sniffy's friends at school are more like himself, but most people aren't. Some look at him strangely or say mean things. He doesn't understand all of them, but he knows the meaning of "stupid".

2/5, competent spelling still elevates it above the rest of ff.net.

 

I did like this - the author set out to do something, and did it. My sister is disabled, and only slightly more than Harry was in this, so I'm familiar with this situation; and I feel that the writing shows some familiarity with this.

However, Scotti is right. This isn't really a story about Harry. The characters could be replaced by a multitude of others, and if we lift the few mentions of magic out (apparation, Snape, Figg, and werewolves) then we could replace with ANYONE.

And (I do know this is hypocritic, regarding my recent post, but it did bring it home for me), the short scenes didn't work. I'd give it a 2.5/5, but rounded to 3. Good spelling and knowledge of the subject, but poor usage of the world and characters. Nothing special, but better than a lot of the crap.

 

wtf/5

Fucking hell, the only feelings a story like this can conjure are pity (for all the people that have to go through this) and disgust (that for all our progress, we still can't solve shit like this). Maybe a guilty sense of relief too - that no one close to you is disabled.

God is dead. Amen.

 

It was a good fic. I don't mind the drabbles format, or its brevity. Its concise, and that is a quality all too often forgotten.

However, as has been pointed out by Thaumologist, its too generic. It has just enough harry potter to work, but not enough to make it a great harry potter fic.

4/5. Good for the library, bad for the C2.

 

This precisely.

I had a similar problem with a story some time ago that got put in for review. Everyone's reaction was just standard fair for the situation and there was little to no magic save a bad plot-device at the end.

The same here. However, the writing was fair and the tone semi-consistent. When reading the parts from Harry's POV it made perfect sense, but switching to the others just didn't work. If this, even given the style it was in, had better ties in with the characters we knew, it would be Library worthy.

As is...not so much. It did get an emotional response from a lot of people, so you can't say the story sucked. Rarely does a fanfiction do that for me.

So I'm given it a 3/5 for the rather plain characters and plot. Worth a read, but not something to go out of your way to find again.

 

Take a look at these gems:

Burn it with fire/5

 

The story is very well written. But DLP is not the place for this story. Bin it.

 

This pretty well sums up how I feel about it. I thought it was extremely well done for what it was, and it hits on an emotional level. I'm fortunate to have never had to deal much with this subject matter, and it brought home how much impact that one change can have on a person's life and the lives around them.

No, there was almost no magic, and the characters bore little resemblance to HP. However, if reading this makes even one person act differently toward disabled persons, I'd say that the author has done something worthwhile. In my normally cynical and jaded viewpoint, that somehow counts for something. <shrugs><shrugs>/shrugs

Rating with regards to its HP-ness: 1/5
With regards to writing quality and effective storytelling: 5/5
Overall? Who fucking knows.

I Favorited it on FFN, but a scan of the author's other stories reveals nothing but horrid and whiny/emo slash-fests, so I'm gonna chalk this one up to the author unwittingly catching lightning in a bottle.</shrugs></shrugs>