Title: Fighting From the Shadows
Author: bachau
Rating: M
Genre: Drama/Adventure
Status: Complete
Library Category: The Alternates
Pairings: Harry/Fleur, Ron/Daphne, Hermione/V. Krum, Neville/Harry’s OC sister, Dahlia
Summary: When Sirius Black falls through the Veil, Harry Potter follows. Rather than death, he is greeted with a chance to start over fresh and live the life he always dreamed of: with a loving family and no scar on his forehead. But trouble always finds a way to disrupt Harry's goals of peace. (A time-travel/AU fic.)
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14283514/1/Fighting-From-the-Shadows

First off, I want to say that I’m very surprised that I cannot find any mention of this fic or “bachau” on using the site’s search function, so if this has been posted before, then I apologize for doing a bad job of not finding it.

At 121 chapters and over 1 million words, this fic has been a hell of a journey, and I’ve enjoyed nearly every update that popped up in my notifications.

bachau’s writing also improved phenomenally from his or her initial chapters throughout and have come to a masterful end. Although I did not go back and re-read the earlier chapters, bachau said that he or she went back and re-wrote much of it, so the lackluster areas might have disappeared.

Fair warning, Harry’s first few years see him do a lot of stupid things because he is flawed, and impulsive, working on incorrect information but believing that he knows that is going on. It ends up costing him a lot throughout the fic, but he does get better. Harry was very frustrating to read in the early chapters for this reason, but as he grew up, that frustration faded and it became a joy to read. In fact, my initial suspicion was that this fic had been posted but due to these exasperating character flaws, the fic was flamed off the site back in 2023, when it was published. (And again, bachau said that he or she re-wrote a good portion of the fic, so I can imagine that it is a lot easier to stomach than it had been).

One of the things I liked is that bachau consistently turns a lot of traditional fanfic tropes on their head. Ron ending up with Daphne is just one of many. The OC, Dahlia is a very enjoyable character and her interactions with Harry are fun to read.

In this fic, Harry has to learn about the horcruxes by himself and Dumbledore is not the all-knowing wiseman many think he is. The stakes get higher and higher, as the world gets bleaker and bleaker.

In a way, I kind of like the fact that Harry’s meddling, lack of information and impulsiveness have resulted in an objectively, craptastically worse situation than the original books, that he had to pull himself and the rest of the wizarding world out of.

The pairings are organic and I honestly thought that Harry and Fleur weren’t going to get together. Close friends, confidants, coconspirators? Sure. Lovers? That was one hell of a slow burn. Don’t read this fic looking for a Harry/Fleur fic just for the pairing, because nearly a million words to get to it . . . but yeah, it’s a really nice, sweet icing on a very delicious, if enormous, cake.

Here’s hoping you enjoy this completed, well-written time-travel/au fic as much as I did. I personally give it 5/5.

 

I dislike this fic immensely.

Harry is an utter dumbass who manages to get away with everything. There are no real consequences for any action he does. Moreover, he is vastly overpowered and it doesn't feel earned.

Spoiler

He kills Dumbledore, Grindelwald AND duels Voldemort to a stand-still while being one of the dumbest Harry's I've ever come across.

In my eyes, he isn't flawed because his mistakes don't hurt him in any long meaningful way. He should be dead 100x over because of his actions. The only reason he is not is that the author had to make everyone else EVEN dumber around Harry. For example, Voldemort. Oh my god, the whole seventh book was straight up unbelievable and not in a good way. It goes beyond the point of believability on his actions.

What makes me so angry about this fic is I followed it since the beginning. I was waiting for the day Harry kicked himself in the ass with his dumbassary and would learn. He did not. He just became more unbearable. From books six onward, I have been skimming each chapter just to see if it has improved at all. It has not.

This story is a 1-star for me in how much I dislike Harry in it. However, I will give it 2 stars because it isn't horribly written (like technical skills), and because it will be complete. A million words in three years is no easy feat.