I'm bored and have nothing to read, but I thought that asking for fics in general would give me 50% stuff I'd already read and 50% crap, so...

I'm looking to read a fic where a traditional secondary character plays a significant role in the plot (preferably where they aren't an antagonist) while the fic remains Harry-centric.

Examples:

Dumbledore
Echoes of Power (rag on it all you like)
...sadly, that's all I can think of for decent length fics with Dumbledore. The General promises this in the future, but thus far it's not quite 20k words and gets updated once a month, if we're lucky.

Flitwick
The Point (damnit Calz)
Other People's Magic (I find it to be readable)
A Clock on the Face of Hell (update....*zombie*)

Snape
The Secret of Slytherin (lolololol)
...seriously lacking in material outside of adoption/severitus.

Sirius
The Wise One trilogy
A Black Comedy

Lupin
Remus Lupin, PI (kekeke)
All at Once

McGonagall
I haven't found anything worth reading, sadly.

Lily
Oedipus Mirror (Fuck you, Vash - just kidding)

James
I haven't found anything worth reading, sadly.

Draco
On a Train, Switching Tracks
...yeah, I'm not expecting much from this.

Grindelwald
Escape to Darkness
...there are 11 fics on ffn with the HP/GG pairing - if anybody knows of a good fic not listed as such.. yeah.

OC
Circular Reasoning
...not expecting much under this, but hey.

That's about all I can think of at the moment. You may have noticed I didn't list any young female characters - most fics will tend to be romance, and I don't want to read that right now. If you do perchance know of a fic where a young female character plays an important role and isn't romantically involved with Harry, I'd like to read it.

Yeah, I spend way too much time coming up with this post.

 

Lily
Harry Potter: Lily’s Child by kb0. Only 44k and I doubt the author will write more but that's the only one I've read with Lily in secondary character other than Vash's wonderfully sick fantasies.

 

kb0 is unfortunately an author of, at best, mediocre talent. His most recent work is only just readable and I hesitate to attempt to read anything older.

 

Stronger than Hope is a pretty decent fic with Snape as a secondary character.

Indomitable even though it's only one chapter seems like it will have a pretty awesome Flitwick if it ever gets continued.

Harry Potter and the World that Waits seems to be headed in this direction with Sirius.

There are a number of fics by DLP authors with good Dumbledores (even though you've likely read them) such as the Denarian series and Dagger and Rose.

Well, that's all I can think of off the top of my head for now...

 

For Voldemort I'd heavily recommend Friend of Foe if you haven't read it yet. I personally think reading this first instead of the prequel improves the whole story.

It's a very character-driven fic, and Harry's emotional problems - while completely understandable and fitting - get annoying sometimes, but this is the best depiction of Voldemort I've ever read.

 

In Light of Silver Memories

Dark Marauder
Every Boy Should Have A Dog

Faint of Heart

 

Harry Potter and the Alchemist's Apprentice

Harry travels back in time to work together with his parents on a defence against the Killing Curse. It seems to be a large fic in the making, but the update-rate is slow.


Deception in Another Time

Does Harry's non-existant grandfather count as an secondary character? Large amounts of Grey Magic, Family Bonds and Wandless Magic, which annoyed me, but weren't enough to stop me from reading. Harry travels back in time and joins the Order during the first war. I'm predicting a larger role for Dorcas Maedowes in the near future.


When In Doubt, Obliviate

Gilderoy Lockhart adopts/kidnaps Harry. Humor fic, mostly.

 

There;s a popular timetravel story that features McGonagall as a secondary character. Can't remember the name of it right now though :/

 

Young Again by Taliath, probably.

 

"They Shook Hands" is probably the best Harry/Draco friendship fic I've come across. Buttseckz does not occur. I don't have a link or the author's name at hand, so I'll edit one in soon.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for an update if I were you... I completely forgot what I was going to do with it. Up for adoption? Heh.


Out Of The Night is a good Harry/Draco with no buttseckz...so far. Independent Harry category.

 

You've probably read these, but a few more worth mentioning:

The Inner Eye of Harry Potter has Harry/Sybil in a non-romantic setting. The same author wrote Bungle in the Jungle, which is a story about Harry and Bill Weasley, with the latter in a non-buttseks mentoring role.

belleradh's Grimm: A Fairy's Tale is Harry/Maeve.

Two Heads are Better than One by nonjon is Harry/penis.

The Denarian Renegade (and sequels) by Shezza. Harry/Fallen.

 

Thanks for the recs - I have indeed read all of the stuff in the C2, Dethryl's TSH, and a couple others but there are definitely some things here listed that I haven't read.

Also, I remember Faint of Heart. It was one of the most WTF fics I've ever read.

 

I'll second the recommendation of jbern's The Inner Eye; it isn't finished (and might never be) but what's there is wonderfully and ludicrously hilarious. The take on Harry-raised-by-Trelawney is awesome.

What Pers forgets or is too humble to mention is his own A Mother In Law's Love, now finished and also beautifully addled. It doesn't take itself too seriously and while I agree with other reviewers that the ending seemed rushed, I enjoyed the fuck out of it nonetheless.

By the Divining Light and its sequel, Conlaodh's Song, have a very well-done Dumbledore as well as James Potter, but I imagine you might've already read those.

I agree that The General has a high probability of good secondary characters, but it seems everything from that trio of authors is sort of up in the air and may languish for long periods between updates.

Apprentice Potter has a great OC in Zab, a fem!Blaise, and a kick-ass Harry.

Harry Potter and the Three Travelers by has a very good take on Hagrid, IIRC.

And now for the rec I try to make as often as is appropriate: After the End by Arabella and Zsenya. Written between GoF and OotP, it isn't remotely canon, except that it got some canon pairings right. It's the first fanfic I ever read, and for that reason it has a special place in my heart. Hasn't aged as well as I'd like, but it's incredibly well-written, angsty (not too much), and has great OCs and minor canon characters in it.

I think you've already read my story Moksha, featuring Harry and Luna, and it's probably not as long as you're after, anyway.

**********

EDIT: I just read what's available of In Light of Silver Memories, and while the premise is certainly interesting, I thought the execution was shit.

 

I'll take a look at After the End. I could never get past the first chapter, but I put off reading Shezza's trilogy for the same reason oh-so-long ago.

 

I'm not sure if this story has enough material for a valid entry but I still feel sorrow for the wasted potential here for a Harry/McGonagall pairing done right.

Harry Potter and the Alternate World

 

I tried to read this, because I usually love time travel fics, but I could barely force myself through the first chapter. The writing itself isn't bad from a technical standpoint, but it's awful in a way that I can't really put my finger on to describe. It's like the author thinks he's written "clever" and "mysterious" stuff but it's not even close and that just makes it painfully bad.

Is it like this the whole way through? Time travel/dimension travel fics (even not so great ones) are my favorite, should I give it a second chance?

 

It tries too hard to be dramatic and fails. So no, it's not just you.

 

A large part of the story is about his grandfather trying to break down that shell of melodramatic mysteriousness, while forcing their family connection down his throat. It even skips several battles against Death Eaters, just so everyone can act shocked and appalled at his injuries and fighting style. And yeah, that gets pretty aggravating at times

I read on despite that, because there were just enough action scenes and normal conversations (with his grandmother and Lily & James, mostly) to hope for some changes. At chapter 15, the author seems to have finally established how amazing and tortured Harry is, but the story still isn't the awesome all-out war against Voldemort it could be. The possibility is still there though and whether or not it's worth reading will probably depend on what he does with that.

So, basically, Harry never really stops being a Mysterious Stranger from a God-Forsaken Land, but that doesn't seem to be the most important part of the story anymore.

 

I stopped as well. I ended it when the author spent so much time describing 'Harry's' hair, clothes and tattoo. It just came across to me as though the author is a young teenager trying to portray her main character as 'cool' in the way she, and she alone, sees it.