i agree, Lindsey. i'm really impressed by how interesting Cauchy has made Divination in Blood Crest. it's an actual magical art! and Petri has a respect for it because of its connections with the Dark Arts. the fact that Divination works differently/not at all for vampires because their fates are closed (bc. dead) and Muggles because they are nonmagical is also an interesting take.

in the books the prophecy is the only real Divination we see, so as a field it can't be practiced unless you are a real Seer. the teacups, dream interpretations, they all seem to be "woolly nonsense" as Hermione says. the prophecy is interesting in the books because it basically works like the Pythian Oracle in Greek mythology (e.g. Oedipus, Croesus): it's worded in such a way to create ambiguity and cause the actions that will result in its own fulfillment.

i will be interested to see how events unfold now that Voldemort will have a body much earlier than GoF and will have access to the Philosopher's Stone. how will Harry be able to defeat him when V. has such a head start?

 

This story shines with how it presents ideas, be they magical or otherwise.

Voldemort and Petri are at odds with how they view the dark arts, and if I'm not mistaken, Petri believes in some sort of magical core, or at least a flow of magic. I can't recall the specifics of it, and I'm not sure I care. I think I enjoy it largely because of the possibilities, and reading about magic that way feels like reading philosophy.

Whatever your beliefs are, it doesn't really change the "sandbox"/world within which you're operating, although they probably set constraints on opportunities available to you.

Petri thinks the dark arts are dangerous and not everyone should learn it. But Voldemort thinks otherwise, and that difference in philosophy allows for other avenues of magical pursuit. Perhaps that's why Crabbes and Goyles can still retain some utility as Death Eaters and why a young Ginny can easily do the Bat Bogey Hex. Speaking of, is that part conjuration and animation? What is animation? Is that charming or transfiguring, both, or something else entirely? I'm not really asking for answers to this, but I suspect that stuff like that also shapes one's magic.

I'm quite impressed with this Harry. He's not a genius, but you can see he's smart and beginning to appreciate more complex ideas, like his friend-enemy relationship with Voldemort, Petri, and Dumbledore. Also how he rolls with the punches, and work through his feelings, specifically

Spoiler

Petri casting the Cruciatus on him to overcome a memory charm.

 

I noticed that in this chapter there were some really nice turns of phrase that helped to characterize Petri and others as well as add to the overall tone of the story.

For example, when Petri and Harry visit Figg, they argue about Dumbledore.

I think this exchange is perfect for capturing Harry's lack of understanding of and his desire to learn about the stakes between Dumbledore and Voldemort. Petri's take makes V. and D. somehow interchangeable and basically alike: V. kills those who don't obey, D. ruins their lives. Is there much of a difference? And Petri's bitter reply is a great play on language: "Für das größere Wohl," Petri said softly. "I did not say that he was not good."

Some other highlights:

Selene referring to Harry as "the Harry," because of his relationship with Silviu. Poor guy, he can't be anonymous or "just Harry" even with a Fidelius on his identity.

The complication of wizarding politics. Vampires' support for Voldemort makes sense. They aren't merely monstrous and therefore supportive of the Dark Lord, but he also promises to overturn wand bans, etc., that stifle sentient beings. This also complicates our idea of Dumbledore and progressive wizarding politics: why wouldn't Dumbledore and the Order reach out to vampires as they do with werewolves via Remus?

Looking forward to more, but would also like to get back to Hogwarts or have an adventure beyond the company since we've seen a couple of those now.

 

This fucking story just pitted the imperius curse vs the divination of destiny. I'm assuming there's the implication here that muggles are completely and utterly vulnerable to the curse.

What a legendary fic.

 

This latest chapter was really good, I know I say that about every chapter but this one moves the plot along nicely with the characteristic worldbuilding that's great fun

Spoiler

We see things speeding up with Voldemort recruiting the vamps, Wormtail with Voldemort so no Sirius Black plot or it might get pushed up a year, Annette confirmed still being very ignorant, although its strange Silviu never helped her out maybe it boosts her power as an Almost-Squib if she continues using her odd way of spells with no practise. I also wonder how their houses are warded with this anti-divination focus. And lastly, I love that Winky just kidnapped Harry and I wonder how Harry will be able to talk his way out of getting killed by crazy Crouch Jr.

The plot is really speeding up, oh and also Igor Karkaroff being owed favours by Petri is just as odd a connection as Figg imo.

On a sidenote, I continue to love the brilliant characterization of Voldemort in this fic, it goes from moments like this that could absolutely be a canon reaction yet the fic takes a deeper look into Voldemort's motives and personal philosophy and we also get to see more perspective on his emotions.

 

It's probably one of the best harry potter fics I've seen. Not to say everything's perfect, but imo is much better than most fics even around here!

 

There have been a lot of problems with this story, some stuff i want to nitpick about, like too much school stuff, Vampires etc. but this story always makes up for it and delivers in some way. Even if there is somekind of development that doesn't interest me much, imho is overdone or just boring, there is most of the time something that makes up for it or makes it relevant later on.

No idea why, but Petry really clicks with me, some of the small lines he delivers from time to time are just awesome and he really makes this work shine. That said this story could use a lot of trimming and try to make the 'boring' world building / everyday life more interesting. Don't get me wrong, the 'normal school life' adds a lot of the charm to the overall work and recreates a feeling I first had as a kid when reading HP... But it keeps dragging on from time to time.

Also this story is really dark. It's not dark in the edgy teenager sort of sense, but about choices 'normal' people make and how that effects the rest of the world/people. It throws a different light on known characters (see Gaius post #84) and gives plausible reasons for the main character to act differently than in canon.

This is probably my current favorite story too and I dearly hope the writer will keep enjoying writing as much as we do reading.

 

I really like this story. Was so excited at the beginning with the idea of a necromancer harry story. Then went a bit slow on the updates but now has been more consistent which makes me even happier. Also I feel like there are so many different things going on that I didnt even think could happen when I first came to this story but I still really like it. Was thrown off by the vampire aspect but have gotten used to it as it develops more.

 

"Being allowed out of the house at last..."

That's some heavy-hitting prose right out of the gate for this chapter, ladies and gentlemen.

 

By all accounts this should be a fic that's right up my street, with detailed magic aplenty and a Harry who is pretty powerful. And there are bits I like, such as the use of various occult/folklore worldbuilding elements into dark magic.

Unfortunately, however, I just don't like this fic. It's a story that lives or dies on its depiction of magic and I can't bring myself to like the magic.

There are two main problems here.

1. The character of the magic itself. The scene where Harry is told that there's no such thing as the soul typifies this, I think. For all its occult trappings, the fic essentially preaches a physicalist/reductionist approach to magic that is reminiscent of Methods of Rationality and its "you can't eat transfigured things because molecules". It's a story that tries to apply logic to magic not in a "internal consistency" sense (which is good) but rather a "fit magic into a physicalist worldview" sense.

This, for me, fundamentally undermines one of the core appeals of the HP magic system, which is its complete disregard for the physical universe in favour of following purely magical rules.

2. Secondly, the approach the fic takes to magical progression. In canon, magic is difficult but fundamentally controllable/understandable, for those with sufficient talent who work hard. It's a system which rewards knowledge, understanding, wisdom, intuition and insight, which is the thing that I most enjoy about the HP system - the Dumbledore archetype is the ideal. Magic is hard to master, but once mastered, it is yours to command.

This fic takes the opposite approach. Magic is incredibly, absurdly easy, with young children capable of casting powerful magic that is rare in canon. But even for those who have mastered it, magic remains fundamentally dangerous/unreliable. It's also a world where if you haven't cast a specific spell in a while, you have lost ability with that spell. There's no real sense of magic as a single unified entity here. Everything is a discrete skill which has to be actively maintained. Wizards like Dumbledore whose deep knowledge of magic gives them a high level of ability in a broad range of magical disciplines should not exist in such a world.

This is not a system that interests me as a reader. It fails the "escapism" test. The charm of the HP magic system is that it would solve most of the material problems of Muggle life, and that's what makes it so fun to imagine having access to those powers. At the same time, the fact that everyone has those powers creates new problems which give the wizarding world fundamental relateability.

Unreliable, dangerous magic does not give you that sense of "god I wish I could do that". Magic that you put effort into mastering but then you lose a few months later because you haven't cast that spell in a while feels like too much of a grind. You don't read this fic and think "I wish I was a wizard in this world rather than real life".

Which brings us to the world itself. Needless to say, the world depicted here is very dark, but it's not dark in a way that is interesting to me. It's not dark in the sense of presenting the characters with interesting moral dilemmas, or in the Game of Thrones sense of political intrigue where no one can be trusted. Rather, it's dark in the way the SAW series is dark: gratuitous gore and casual violence. It's so gratuitous that it's almost a black comedy, something like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang or The Nice Guys, but if so it's a comedy without jokes. So the story just ends up feeling like a parody of itself.

Ultimately, I can recognise the technical accomplishments of this story but I just can't bring myself to enjoy it. Which makes rating it difficult. I think I will settle for a 3/5 as it is exactly "almost recommendable" for me - something which may interest people, and which may generate interesting discussion, but which I cannot bring myself to say is good.

 

I kind of understand where Taure is coming from here. But it's still very good compared to the vast majority of HP fics that I've read.

And the plot is just so wild and awesome that it keeps drawing me in. Yesterday's chapter had an interesting take on the dementors again. What even happened there?

 

Taure has good points.

The magic not perfectly thought out and some times it can be off-putting.

Magical progression may be rather weird but then again not completely so. I suppose it's not well executed but I feel like I understand where he comes from. Acquiring skills in the real "muggle" world does take practice and you do need to go over things again and again, otherwise in time you will lose those skills. I feel if it was better executed it could work really well.

The world itself. I kind of enjoy the "gratuitous gore and casual violence". It may not be for everyone and yes it's not justified with some moral dilemmas (which I would actually like if the author tried this), it doesn't have political intrigue. It's raw. And that kind of ties with the author's stance on the "soul issue". This story, I feel, tries to take a step towards a harsh bleak reality where people are more flesh and bone and the "dark" wizards kind of believe that the end justifies the means, where the means are not even seen in a bad light. I am very interested in seeing the writer have Harry go through this and face dilemmas and become a better person as he is now losing himself in that world.

Lastly, about escape-ism. I sort of can lose myself in the story (especially if it's not the vampire parts). And I'd have to say, at least for me, even if all is not perfectly executed, even with all its issues it's better than 95% of (excluding one-shots, I haven't read many of these) fanfiction.

There's no eye gouging errors in the story, no white, gray, dark wizards/spells etc. No magical cores and everything that's wrong with fanfiction.

Yes, maybe the character of the magic isn't great, but it is an issue that the author tackles.
Yes, maybe magical progression's execution isn't perfect, but there is a system of magical progression.

In short, what I'm trying to say is, this story has some thought going on behind the scenes. There's no pointless drama, you can clearly see that it's trying to go someplace, we'll see if it manages to do so. Oh, and the author can write people that seem real, and I think even manages to portray something that canon-Harry could become.

And last chapter's dementor scene was 10/10