Title: Blood Crest
Author: Cauchy
Rating: T
Genre: Adventure/Horror
Status: WIP, 28k words
Library Category: Dark Arts
Pairings: None
Summary: The blood wards hid Harry Potter from those who wished to harm him. Unfortunately, foreign dark wizard Joachim Petri had no idea who Harry Potter even was. A wizard "rescues" a clueless Harry Potter from the Dursleys, but not all wizards are good people. Eventually Necromancer!Harry, Master of Death!Harry, no pairings.
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10629488/1/Blood-Crest

This is a rather new but fantastic story - short right now, but since the author's other work is 110k I feel confident we'll see many more updates to come.

Young Harry is 'rescued' from the Dursleys by a Dark Wizard looking for a new apprentice to learn the other sort of magic - necromancy. It's not angsty or callous, but rather an engaging tale of a boy unwittingly lead down a rabbit hole of darkening morality - and above all, reading it is highly fun.

The characters are interesting and described like actual people, from the self-centered miserly Charms master to Harry himself, who knows he's wading in some deep shit but is determined to be the one who comes out of it all on top. There's some interesting explanations of how necromancy works in here and how it relates to ordinary magic, something intriguing that I've not seen before.

If you're likely to be put off by the idea of Harry raised by someone else, don't be: this story so far is really less of an upbringing and more of an origin story, like how I imagine Dresden's life apprenticed to DuMorne would be in The Dresden Files. Already the plot revolves around canon events, and it seems that the apprenticeship will end soon, and gloriously messily.

I'm incredibly eager to see where this story goes; whichever direction the author takes it in, I suspect it'll be as entertaining as the rest. Give it a go.

5/5

 

I'm following this story and overall I like it.

I have a few concerns though, that come from the author not knowing where s/he's going with it. I quote from the last author note : "As usual I have no idea what's going on in this story and ridiculous things continue to happen. And plot coherence is probably going to go downhill from there, I fear."
And with the end of the latest chapter, I don't know if it will stay good.

But still. It's fun to read. I quite liked the OC Master Petri. The magic there is interesting to read about, too.

So : not bad, but since the author seem to write this without giving thought to the overall plot, I don't know if it can become great or even be completed one day (the update rate seem to slow these days too).
I don't regret following this so I'll give it a 3/5.

 

An author's note is no reason to lower your rating. Remember, anything less than a 4 is not 'good' and does not get into the library. That note doesn't mean the quality of the story is going to get worse.

I have faith in the author: I've read the rest of their works and they've got a good style and quality that's only increased with time. I think we can be confident that whatever direction the story goes it will maintain this level of quality.

 

I like how the author has written his OC. Most times the OC will be a dark wizard who talk about Voldemort with contempt and ridicule. The recent chapter has shown that Petri clearly recognizes what kind of wizard Voldemort is.

Spoiler

I also like the idea of killing a Unicorn as a way to make a horcrux. Everyone assumes murder is the only way, but killing something pure like a unicorn is an interesting way.

It's entertaining and I'm interested in where it's going. 5/5

 

Spoiler that middle part?

 

I also didn't really like the latest chapter, plus I'm interested but I am not "eager" to read more, that was why I rated it a 3, more than the author note.
I hesitated between 3 and 4 however, but as it is now I stand cautiously by my 3.
I hope I am more clear now

 

It has an interesting subject matter, but it's been nine chapters and not even a year in-story. I wouldn't mind so much if the story had been longer than 27k after a year.

The OC is good and events are written realistically, but I can't say I'm that attached to the story. After the most recent chapter, I don't know where the plot can go from here, not to mention the pacing issue.

3.5/5, rounded down to a 3/5.

 

The story is entertaining and has me looking forward to the next update.

The characters are well characterized and IMO the story has a good pace to it, even though it is 27k words long I will rate it 4/5 as it certainly is a good story even if it is a little early to judge.

4/5

 

I liked it. The tone, the contrast of the funny, almost farcial situation against the grim darkness of the things Harry has to learn.

Still, I preferred his other works more. Especially the Kuroshitsuji crossover. Even worse, Cauchy has started 4 works and finished 0.

I will be wait for another 2-3 chapters.

 

There's no story here, it's just some magical theory and the updates are pretty rare.

Maybe once it starts moving somewhere it will be interesting but that doesn't look like it will happen for at least a good year, and there's no guarantees it will move in any interesting way.

 

I'd have to agree with IBG. It's been almost a year and the work count is under 30k.

That being said, there are a few things that I'm not fully on board with, but overall, I can overlook those because I've generally enjoyed it.

 

Ugh, you people have no sense of context. The first six chapters were written in the space of two months, the next two didn't take that much longer. There's been a long break due to the author's university studies. Either those ease up or they don't, but there's no particular reason to believe it's going to take another year for 3000 words.

This is obviously a fantastic story. Easy 5/5.

 

We have no concept of context, or you have no concept of reading?

Last chapter A/N:

From his profile:

He's never mentioned university as a reason for slow writing, and I would assume the lack of planned plot most likely means updates will be less quick in future than they were to begin with.

 

First thing that came to mind after the first chapter was: "And this is how Harry Potter got molested." I truly enjoy this story, the OC is awesome, Harrys thoughts are hilarious and the magic/neocromancy/enchantment is (so far) well done too.

Plot advancement was an issue but with the latest chapter (9 currently) things are looking to heat up.

One downside for people that don't speak german might be that some witty or cool lines get lost in the translation, but on first glance that looks well done too. I recommend this story 4/5!

 

I like this story. A lot!

I do enjoy the creepy, almost lovecraft-like atmosphere whenever the Master is around.

5/5

 

If this fic was perhaps three times longer, I'd stamp a hearty 5/5 behind it, but as short as it is, I'd be hesitant to have it in the library instead of almost recs. Do we have a minimum word-count for on-going library submissions? This seems like a useful restriction to have in place, athough obvious exceptions should be made for oneshots or novella length fanfiction.

I'm digging the premise and the execution. Always enjoy a foray out of Magical Britain. But the length just makes me hesitant to rate it yet. It's a promising start, and I'll certainly be keeping an eye on it.

 

Word counts are too arbitrary. 15k can be better than 75k for establishing a recommendation.

In my opinion, a story needs to sufficiently explore the premise before it can be recommended. In this case: Harry gets tricked by a dark wizard into abandoning the Dursleys and becoming his apprentice. If someone was asking for a list of stories with either a similar premise or some of the outlying themes, like necromancy, I would feel pretty safe including this fic. It does all that it promises to do.

Which is why the author is waffling on the remainder of the plot, he has written all he ever intended to and now he is out of material. This is often the point where a story is abandoned.

I gave this a 4/5 instead of 5/5 because the author's writing can feel juvenile and hammy at times.

 

I don't feel like this fic comes even close to exploring the premise. That occurs to me when Harry enters the wizarding world and we see the difference this AU upbringing has on his actions and outcomes.

 

I've seen this said before, but never so concisely. Well put sir.

 

So this has recently updated, and the author chose to include a house elf that is competent at magic. I've only seen this used once in a story so far, and the idea intrigues me. Rosenkol feels more like an actual servant and not like a plot-device-that-can-breathe / pet / one-dimensional character that you normally see house elfs as, and it feels so much more refreshing.
I really hope the author will take this story somewhere after all, and not abandon it.