Title: A Study of Resonance
Author: mymovingfingerwrites
Rating: Mature (That's what it says on AO3, yes, but it's really a T)
Pairing: None
Length: 639,395
Library category: The Alternates
Genre: Adventure? Time Travel?
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38041177

Summary:
Percy Weasley is not particularly reckless, until he is, once, on the anniversary of his brother's death. For most people, the idea of sending oneself through time to correct one's mistake would remain a fantasy, something to dwell on in the middle of the night, but Percy has always been too capable for his own good.

Featuring: a reluctant spy, an unlikely friendship between a ghost and a lonely student, a portrait, very few friends, several very lengthy conversations about soul magic, and far too many Horcruxes.

(Or, an attempt to answer the question, if someone intelligent was sent back through time, armed only with the word 'Horcrux' and a general knowledge of the main timeline––not to mention a keen understanding of the Hogwarts curriculum––could that person logic his way to defeating the Dark Lord? Only time will tell).


Review:

I could not put this book down. It was great throughout.

The story start with Percy feeling guilty about Fred's death and figuring out how to go back in time to his first year, with the goal of eliminating Voldy before he can kill too many people. Along the way, Percy fucks up in many different ways and ends up in a ditch of his own failures. He jumps back in time with very little information about Horcruxes or what happened during Harry's seven years at school.

The story spans 11 years, Percy's first year to Harry's seventh.

I like the way the author writes, the story flows well and it doesn't diverge from canon (ie, it assumes canon happened exactly the way it did in the books and now Percy's traveling back in time). It builds its own theory of magic on top of canon and keeps it straight throughout. It involves souls, legilimency, occlumency, animagi, magical capacity, power and others. The story really is a character study of Percy Weasley, but it doesn't ignore other characters. For example, Percy's intervention in Harry's adventures leads to a more juvenile and incendiary Harry. Characters like Lucius, Yaxley, Voldemort, the Greengrasses, Tonks, Andromeda, Arthur, Draco and others have very real characters arcs and motivations. They aren't just tools that forward the plot. Similarly, the relationships between characters are really rich. McGonagall and Severus have great interactions with Percy.

I found the extension of canon lore, especially magical theory and souls, to be really interesting. You really get a feel for Percy's cognition as you read the story and see how the theory changes from his point of view and his experiences.

One criticism would be that this story could have shaved a chapter or two from the very end. The ending was a bit drawn out, mostly because the most tense storyline (and perhaps the most important storyline?) had concluded and the final chapters are just more of Percy.

I found this story to be smart, engaging and novel. It doesn't succumb to cliches, doesn't insult the source material and doesn't alter characters too far from canon. It successfully concludes most, if not all, plot points it introduces. It's the best HP fanfic I've read yet.

I haven't included any spoilers yet because I strongly believe that this is a fic you should go in blind to. I strongly recommend not looking at the spoilers.

I rate it 10/10!!!

Spoiler

Seriously, this story is pretty great. Don't look at the spoilers, it'll ruin so many surprises.

Spoiler

I wrote the following right after finishing the fic, so it is somewhat rambly.

Percy as a character was well thought-out and he had very petty motivations for doing things at first but the way the story handled his time and what he did with it was pretty decent. And it made him into something of a over-self-assured prat when really he’s the one that opens the chamber of secrets and he’s the one that get the dark mark. That entire sequence with him realizing that he’s been possessed by Tom in the diary is pretty great. And the scene in which he’s forcefully given Death Eater robes. All pretty great. The story keeps getting better. I thought he would totally destroy the horcruxes by his own seventh year, perhaps before the resurrection, but that didn’t happen. It ended up dragging out until Harry was dead. At the very least they didn’t resurrect Voldemort on their own, although Percy did manage to convert the diadem into a painting. And I liked the way soul magic was dealt with in this, it made a lot of sense and the way dementors were given a natural place in the hierarchy instead of being a kind of cursed creature was also pretty cool. The dementor’s stone was a pretty great and novel addition and so were most of the other parts of the story. Like, there were two fully real Tom Riddles running around, amazing.

I liked the entire animagus arc, and I thought that a Lynx animagus was pretty cool. But Percy didn’t use it very often, with all the trouble that he went to to learning it.

The way the characters of Harry, Ron and Hermione were different because they didn’t get all the trials and tribulations they originally had was pretty decent.

Snape’s character was also pretty well done, although some parts of it were abrupt and the violence he reached to sometimes, only when he was merely annoyed, was a bit too much. Otherwise, it was all pretty great.

The pure-blood customs and traditions were made-up but in a good manner and it felt like a faux aristocratic system. I also liked how Narcissa was portrayed. And Lucius was also done justice, he was quite cunning.

I really liked Diadem-Tom, he was given a lot of character and he had a lot of innate magical power (Percy had a lot of innate power and skill too, although he wasn’t anything extraordinary).

The other Weasleys were barely in it, because Percy almost never went home and then he was estranged from them because he was imperiusing Pius Thicknesse and reporting directly to Voldemort after presenting him the painting of Tom as a gift. Crazy stuff.

He also had to kill a muggle and practise dark magic.

Dumbledore wasn’t in it much because Percy was still slighted by the lack of an invitation to the Order and Percy then ended up never revealing what he knew to Dumbledore while he lived.

Oh, and it’s pretty funny how Percy basically didn’t know what or how Voldemort used to hide his soul fragments when he first time traveled and he later regrets it often because there were many, many events about which he was simply not informed in his original timeline. He did not know that Moody was Crouch in disguise (although in this one, Crouch impersonates his own father) and he was forced to fight for the Death Eaters during the Department of Mysteries scuffle and ended up killing Bellatrix while in stealth.

He went with Severus to the cave and had to drink the potion and they were both okay after that and they managed to figure out who RAB was pretty quickly.

Percy’s time at the ministry is portrayed well, he orchestrated a lot of the inner workings, seeing how he was already privy to how things were going to go the first time. H used to be very concerned about chnaging the timeline but after a couple of things went wrong, he stopped trying to stick to the timeline and took action.

In the first year (ie his fifth year) he also goes through the door and gets the Philosopher’s Stone. He didn’t meet Voldemort, but he was standing in front of the mirror and it just dropped into his pocket. He used it to make a lot of money and buy a flat but nothing really ever came of it and no one reported its absence. He did go meet Flamel, though. Flamel lives without magic and claims that he made the stone by accident.

It isn’t revealed how Dumbledore destroyed the ring. Percy staged the encounter in the Chamber of Secrets and put the sword in Harry’s hand after he passed out. So the sword could likely not destroy Horcruxes. The Diary used Fiendfyre in the Room of Requirement, but it didn’t destroy horcruxes and the diary was dormant. Andromeda Black killed the cup with a Light Magic spell that was really powerful. That was kind of a cop-out, although it’s a good thing that there weren’t more spells of that kind. I guess Dumbledore might have used something similar.

Oh, and in Harry’s third year (Percy’s seventh) he figures out that Hermione had a time-turner and he uses it to meddle with the encounter and drives Wormtail into the forest and Severus imperiuses Wormtail to go find and resurrect the Dark Lord. He obviously already knew the entire thing and had to carefully figure out what was supposed to stay the same.

There were points when Moody felt like an imposter because most of the timeline was so similar, but it turned out that Crouch was the imposter.

Moaning Myrtle’s addition was pretty great, and she was a decent friend to Percy and even helped him in the chamber. I liked that Percy painted a small drawing of her and stuck it to the outside of her bathroom.

The conversations with McGonagall about magical theory were also pretty great, if a bit too long-winded because it felt a bit meander-y. But the theory stayed pretty consistent throughout the book.

Aunt Muriel was also done pretty well, her entire arc in which she’s really looking for a Hir and finally finds Percy is decent.

The last 200 pages or so, after the defeat, are pretty much torture and just keep going on and on and on. Percy loses his magic, cool, but the rest of the scenes were really not required. Nothing really happens, and then Severus and Percy go off to travel the world, which is a weird ending.

I also liked the focus on Wandless and Wordless magic and how "wards" and "magical exhaustion" is a thing. Wandless magic is a pretty big deal in this book.

Oh yeah totally forgot about legilimency and occlumency and mind palaces. Pretty well done, and the way wizard cognition was described as being different and sharper to muggle cognition / recall was also pretty cool.

 

I've read quite a bit of this, though I haven't managed to finish the whole fic despite multiple attempts. It's certainly well written and has a novel premise... but ultimately the author's insistence on having plot beats from canon play out in similar ways, even after hundreds of thousands of words which would have justified deviation sort of ruins the fic for me. The nature of Percy's relationships, specifically with

Spoiler

Snape and Voldemort, but also his family in general

put me off it too. I wasn't a huge fan of the author's characterisation of Dumbledore and Voldemort either, with both straying into bashing territory at times iirc.

Despite my problems with it though, Study of Resonance is a sprawling and well written time travel do over fic, a genre I have a weakness for. There is also some good world building and interesting takes on magic. I'll give it a 4/5 because the issues I have are mostly a matter of taste.

@Republic care to add a review to that rating?

 

I can't say this is good. Personally, I struggle to get through even the early chapters.

Ignoring the magical cores, ignoring the mugglewank, ignoring the horrible characterization, ignoring the nonsense in the story...it's not even well written. If anyone tells me, random omniscience sentences in brackets are the height of style and writing, I will laugh in your face.

The time travel angle is horribly executed. Somehow, one of the primary examples of an excellent student is turned into whatever this is. Percy, who recommended divination to Harry makes light of the topic. Getting OWLs in all subjects somehow translates into barely having the knowledge in one subject.

His fixation on Voldemort is weird. I'm not sure, but I think it was Rookwood who killed Fred...why is that man not a target? If the main goal is to save his brother, why is he so focused on Voldemort instead of the actual murderer? I get that it is the ultimate original source of the death, but for such an emotional choice to not go the full distance is just weird.

Furthermore, it's frankly so incredibly stupid that he lacks so much knowledge but had all the time to research the time travel spell. If this was a planned event, why did he not prepare? There is literally all the needed knowledge at the tip of his fingers, but instead he apparently went "I go for hard mode".

To then just have Myrtle do an info dumb on him -.-

Seriously?

The whole time travel is horribly executed. Through the magical core nonsense the character is forcefully nerfed down and this even goes to his knowledge. Someone capable of doing human transfiguration wordlessly needs to study wordless spells. Instead of having a reasonable exploration of a skilled wizard reaching the level below Dumbledore, we get stumbling through the same paces of school again just because.

The magic is horrible and I dread to think what they came up with along the lines. Hardens the air under it...has been some time since I read such nonsense.

Characterization is just plain wrong, and more along the lines of common tropes than anything else. There is hardly any nuance there and if you know the most common interpretations and portrayals of characters you know what you're getting here. The constant digs at the other characters are really weird. Calling Harry, Hermione and Ron after they finished their six year barely educated is just plain wrong.

Percy himself feels wrong. It's like the author forgot or barely knew anything about the character. Percy walked out on his family. Percy didn't contact them after it came out he was wrong. Percy didn't go to the wedding. Percy was the one that came in on the last moment to reconcile. There is no sign, whiff, or anything stating that his family closed the door behind him. The opposite was the case, his family took that betrayal hard.
The moral conundrum of keeping an innocent man imprisoned? Yeah, that doesn't bother him. Considering what I read in the spoilers of the first post...there seems to be little to nothing left of Percy in this character. Certainly, his motivations feel completely at odds with his actions in the past. You go back to heal your family and then give a flying fuck about them. Instead of being more mature about past events and turning into a better version of himself, Percy somehow came to the decision to go 'I'm gonna be worse than before'.

Like wtf? 0o

It's ao3, so I already know Percy will be gay for Harry, Snape or Voldemort. Considering the tags, it's Voldemort, right?

2/5 Because it's finished

 

Where did it stray into bashing? IIUC the entire thing was from Percy's perspective, and he gradually came to regret not associating with Dumbledore earlier and not destroying the horcruxes at the earliest opportunity.

It doesn't have "magical cores", it just introduces "magical exhaustion". There isn't any core-specific magical specialization in this story.

Flashbacks in brackets were quite alright, IMO.

The point was that the Hogwarts curriculum caters to first-time students. Percy, who is at his second attempt, can see these books in a new light. It's pretty reasonable. Percy wasn't very hot about divination even when

Spoiler

he knew Trelawney was the Seer who predicted the HP/Voldemort prophecy.

Percy went too far back in time to enact a change that small. His goal was to defeat Voldemort before the battle. Yes, it would've made more sense if he had just gone back to the battle and changed that one variable, but then we wouldn't have the fanfic. Percy is also somewhat jealous of Harry and thinks his own life has been a waste.

Percy went back to his 11-year old self. He was directing his magic for the very first time, and even then, he could ace most first-year spells. He notes that during the first Levitation lesson, his feather twitched even when he just spoke the incantation. He needed some time to acclimatize to heavy magic usage. I think that's fair when he's back to being a child.

Percy was "below" Dumbledore, yes, but he wasn't anywhere close to him. Most wizards are below Dumbledore. Percy learnt how to sense magic from Diary!Tom and there's multiple instances of him comparing his magic to others'. Dumbledore is shown to be very powerful, so is Voldemort. They are so strong

Spoiler

their magic wafts off them and can be intoxicating, especially with Diadem!Tom and Voldemort, who rely on the effect.

Even in Canon, only Hermione is decent at academics and magic, and Harry and Ron barely pay attention but get by on simple spells, bravado and moral fiber.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. Even in Canon, Molly was mollified about Percy leaving.

Yes, Percy let the timeline play out. He was also responsible for

Spoiler

the deaths of a muggle and a wizard and countless imprisonments after he became a Death Eater

. But his entire agenda was a reduction of total casualties. Even when

Spoiler

he was heading the muggle-born registration committee, he helped many of them escape

. The reason he didn't go back to his family was because

Spoiler

he was adamant about keeping the timeline as it used to be until Fred was saved.

He reneged on that later, but was unable to go back because of his own ego and the fact that he had

Spoiler

transferred Diadem!Tom to a painting that was slowly leeching on Arthur's Painting / Life Ward, and he also needed to find and dispatch horcruxes. He also did not tell his secrets to Dumbledore because he (and Snape) were sure Dumbledore would take novel decisions that hadn't happened in the previous timeline.

Overall, Percy went in unprepared and fucked it up in many ways.

 

Voldemort is much more cruciatus crazy than his canon self, to the point where you can't imagine anyone being willing to follow him, and it's a very cynical interpretation of Dumbledore. Perhaps bashing is too strong of a term, but neither seem the type who would inspire the loyalty their followers seem to have towards them in this fic.


You aren't by any chance the author of this fic @SeverusTheKnight ?

 

No. I've wasted enough time on this already. It's two decades too late for shit like this.

 

I had forgotten how handwavey it is. They didn't bother going into any details for how he'd managed it. To be fair, it doesn't really matter, but I can see how it would be immersion breaking.

How much of it did you end up reading?

 

No, I'm not the author. I go by SeverusTheKnight at AO3/FFN. I don't have the chops to write a fic like this.

Voldemort clearly did not have the loyalty of all death eaters; there's a scene at Parkinson Manor that has all these senior death eaters denounce Voldemort's actions without outright saying so (this is explicitly mentioned). Even

Spoiler

Yaxley

lies to Voldemort twice, and Percy and Severus are clearly not on his side.

And Dumbledore didn't really seem different to me from Canon. He didn't inform anyone about his and Severus' arrangement in Canon either, and the Horcruxes were a guarded secret as well.

The details were sort of mentioned: he collected time-sand from the Department of Mysteries and somehow figured out a ritual after months of effort.