A bit of fridge logic but...

Right after Voldemort's demise Dumbledore recognized Neville as the Boy Who Lived. It wasn't until ten years later that Neville's magical ineptitude has shown and Dumbledore started rethinking Neville's title. In canon when Dumbledore sent Harry to the Dursleys in all likelihood he had left them a message detailing Harry's famous status as the BWL. A message like this would have scared the Dursleys and prevented them from doing anything too abusive to Harry given their fear of repercussions from someone like Dumbledore.

In this story there probably wasn't such a message. Dumbledore simply gave Harry his closest living relatives and went on his merry way not really too concerned. He had no reason to be. Harry wasn't the BWL and he didn't need to be prepared to face Voldemort. Under these circumstances given several canonical moments where the Dursleys expressed their hate for Harry, we can assume that here Harry was treated far worse then he was in canon.

Explaining his murderous rage against Dumbledore and the Dursleys.

5/5

 

Blew my mind. 5/5. I just hope that it doesn't get forgotten and end up dusted.

 

Nice piece of writing, a different perspective altogether, although there are many trying to write the darker aspects of hp fan fiction very few succeed , hoping for a quick update 4/5 for now

 

It's not fridge logic, it's shit logic. The only reason Harry was sent to the Dursley's was because he was famous and as the perceived killer of the Dark Lord there was a fear of retaliation from the Death Eaters. However, here Harry is a) not famous, and b) under no real threat from retaliation; much like Neville in canon.

Thus I see no reason why Dumbledore required Harry to be at the Dursley's, when we know from canon that there were lots of wizarding families willing to take him in. Either it is a plot-hole the author looked over in order to have a nice abusive!Dursley's twist, or Dumbledore will turn out to be an uber!manipulator and the Dursley's just like a good bit of child abuse to start the day with.

Dark-Stallion.

 

I always assumed that the nice Wizarding families would love to take him in because he was, you know, the Boy-Who-Lived, saviour of life as we know it and all round superstar. In this AU, those offers may not have existed. Since the Marauder situation is, I think, unclear at this stage, Dumbledore could easily just have gone "James and Lily are dead? Shit. Harry will just have to go and live with his closest relatives."

 

All we can do is assume, I suppose.

I'd rather not get into a debate about canon based directions with this story anymore; many people have already jumped at me for discussing the magic of the story, and admittedly it would be very anal retentive to question such a trivial thing for an AU story. I was just replying to the assumptions made earlier because they annoyed me in their naivety.

Dark-Stallion.

 

They're only naive to you because you disagree with them. That's fine and dandy.

I thought his words were well thought out and made perfect sense. I also believe as much was implied by the fic itself. True, he needed that environment in the first place for Harry to hold hatred in his heart; it's just convenient that the cliche here does make some sense. Convenient or not.

 

Right- so the reason that the Dursley's only locked him in a cupboard for 9 years of his life, neglected him etc was because Dumbledore happened to mention that he was famous and there would be repercussions if he were properly abused? Yes, that's great logic right there.

I can understand assumptions being made when switching to an AU, but that's just fucking idiotic reasoning. I'd say the same thing if the author himself stated that is what happened.

Dark-Stallion.

 

Dark-Stallion, please choose your next words carefully, for right now you are talking out your ass and relying on your emotions and not logic. Allow me to clear the fog in your mind.

Do you see the words there and what they mean? Versus...

The bolded part is where you are applying what you think to what the poster said. He did not say that.

You're right, putting your words on another's post is great logic. Try reading people's post more carefully before frothing at the mouth please.

EDIT: If this is what happened in the last argument I can see why people jumped down your throat.

EDIT 2: I'm a fool. I just realized the bolded part of your post makes no sense. What did you mean by properly abused?

 

Learn to read, twat. These are the exact quotes you just used...

Can you read that? You sure? Ok, here's how I summarised it.

It's called sarcasm, hence the emphasis on 'only'. You just made yourself look like a fucking idiot. Congratulations.

Dark-Stallion.

 

Out of Thumbs-Up. Oh well. Dark-Stallion, using sarcasm on the Internet is a great way to show that you're a ginormous prick.

Has this story gotten past chapter four yet? I'm too lazy to click the link, but usually the author posts about updates.

 

@ Insane Juggler:

Yes, the story is at chapter 5 at the moment. Or rather "Chapter I", after four prologues.

 

This is probably the first really dark Harry I've liked. He just seems so... malevolent. It's very well-written if a bit overdone on the descriptions, and the Azkaban scenes are quite original. Loved the use of the dementors, but I think Bella's characterisation is what makes this work, to be honest.

4/5

 

I ignore the whole Dursley issue in regards to logic, because everyone can read into this whatever they like and argument for their point of view until the end of days without getting anyway.

The original books have flaws as well and we still ignored them for the awesome parts, why not do the same here? The Azkaban scene and Bella are so far petty much worth it in my opinion.

Only when you think too long on some matter do you really notice some strange thing and then they start to bother you. As long as this doesn't take the story away from entertaining and interesting to over the top and boring...

 

I remember liking this when I first read it, but the fact that it's abandoned at what is labeled as Chapter I really cuts it down to size (if there hasn't been a post in a month or the time between the publication of the fic and the fic's last update, I usually consider it abandoned). For the Bella and the lolz of the last installment (in hindsight, the fact that it face heel turned into almost a crack fic there should have been a sign) I gave it a 3, but we really shouldn't have fragments like this polluting the library.

 

Yes, because 40k stories that haven't been updated in two months constitute "abandoned fragments". We really shouldn't have your deliberate stupidity polluting the story threads.

That said, I expected an update by now. I hope he picks it up again.

I don't recall the story well enough to give a detailed review, but it definitely grabbed my attention. Some great writing, maybe the best Azkaban in recent memory, and engaging characters.

5/5

 

Colleges usually don't continue past May, it was his first fanfic, what's there was posted over a period of three weeks, and again, it's only one chapter beyond the prologue. I'd love to see an update as much as anyone, but I think it's unrealistic to give it even a one in three chance of happening.

Now what will probably happen, is this story will settle down into the library to rot until the end of time, and people browsing will run into a 40k start to a story that was probably intended to be at least four times that long. I don't think that really belongs in the same place with complete stories of similar quality.

Of course, if he comes back and this eventually grows to be over 100k or even is completed, I think it would very likely be library worthy, but this just seems very unlikely at the moment.

Maybe it would be helpful to have the Library subforums split into Complete/WIP subforums, or even to have a seperate subforum for WIPs that have not been updated for a very long time.

 

What first struck me by the story was the author's penname... Anonymous58. I thought it meant the author was shy, this was his first attempt, he was testing the waters to see where the journey of writing would take him. I clicked on the link to the story and took a chance at it. The first few paragraphs were written with imagery in mind, his pain, his cracked ribs, his anger, and then through the flashbacks I saw personal loss, remorse, and a sense of being wronged.

Anonymous58's writing is on a whole new level as compared to other fanfiction stories I've read. He uses imagery and wraps it around a tight emotional packed plot. The sentence in Azkaban, the terror and fear that wraps around his heart and squeezes... the coldness of the cloak. This sort of writing is of an artistic mind, painting with his words unique and masterful portraits of Harry's life.

Bellatrix's character enters the arena with a bang, shocking, a death eater, the very botttom of the barrel. All respectable society outwardly hates her, and yet she carries on in the worst place the government can throw her - Azkaban. And there, she meets Harry Potter. Her mind is subtle and cunning, yet hidden within each thought is a seed of madness. She stands on the brink of reason and insanity and the bridge between is her balancing point, hatred. She hates, and she loves as well. This strong emotion of binding hatred - she hates the muggles and ties herself in the chains of utter loyalty to her Master, Lord Voldemort - that we see a sense of character that is both unique and refreshing to the betrayals of Dumbledore in his care for one of his order members' young ones who are left astranded by the fight he leads. Bellaxtrix refuses the outside world, and Harry eagerly drinks as much as he can of it.

The enjoyment of a lemon drop will never be the same again in any fan fiction I read from now on.