The Maeve/Mab thing I can see being a bit confusing. May nix the Mab reference, as honestly it's likely to only happen that once. Seems superfluous.

I'm beginning to feel like I should read Dresden to make sure I don't incidentally cross it. I'm aware it's out there but it's not something I've looked at.

As for the pairing, I'd really not worry too much on it for some time. If anything, it'll just be school-aged friendship in this year, as well, they're both 11-12 years old. It'll lay a groundwork, but there won't be any starry eyes and gentle sighs or any of that nonsense.

 

There's quite a few Dresden books so if you don't want to invest the time in reading them (well worth it in my opinion) you could always give the pages on Wikipedia a glance.

 

Ah, man. Harry/Hermione? That's gonna suck. I really, really hope that this story ends up becoming a gen fic or implied at best. I think romance would ruin it.

Plus, Hermione is my most despised character and you're gonna have to have interaction and building up her persona and etc, etc, to make the romance believable- which means more her.

I guess, what I'm trying to say is 'Don't do blatant romance!', because this story is off to a great start and I don't want to be turned off- especially with Hermione. I don't like her canon character and I don't like her fanon variants either. Still, I've checked your author profile and a lot of your other stories have H/Hr so I guess there's not a lot of chance of this happening.

I don't know how many will agree or disagree with me here but that's my opinion.

 

Meh, if there is to be a pairing I would prefer a non-Gryffindor - simply because I've read so many H/Hr stories that I would like to mix it up a bit.

That said, it's your story - and if you've scripted it out for Harry and Hermione to interact I'll still be glad to read it. JKR ruined Ginny for me in HBP and DH. Thankfully I can still stand to read Hermione, although I admit I tend to view her with rose-tinted glasses.

 

I don't really care who you pair Harry up with. I just hope you don't let the romance play too large a roll. Even at seventeen, true love is impossible. I'd rather Harry be mature enough to realize that.

 

Implied romance leaves the readers to their own imaginations at times. Implications are not facts carved in stone. The romantics would read more into the implications. I think romance should be minimal in a non romance fanfiction. Unless the H/Hr ship plays a major role in this story, simply implying it would satisfy a lot more readers.

 

I can see why some people would think this is related to Dresden Files with the use of the name Titania and Maeve for the fairy queens but it is more closely related to the game Changeling: The Dreaming. I think this story has a great potential and I hope the author will use other games as well for inspiration. Keep up the good work.

 

I enjoyed it - one of a few fics in recent memory that really grabbed my attention and ran with it. Nothing really to add that hasn't been said before - great portrayal of Dumbledore, the Fey, etc.

5/5

 

I really wouldn't mind discussing the pro's/cons of the ship, as honestly it's not set in stone, if there is to be one at all. This particular year in specific has no way to become a romance - sorry preteen grinding isn't my squick.

Note: this whole bloody post is opinions. I'm not saying 'this is' or 'that is' at all. We all have them. They all stink. Just assume mine's personalized and lets carry on!

Honestly my Yr3-5 briefs could just as easily go mild OC or even bend to a Fleur. Muggle may be a solid option, but it depends on how I develop that area, but more likely if it's OC it'll be a "London Underground/ Grant Morrison" kind of situation. Don't want to say too much more, yet. Basically a build on the premise 'You think everyone who gets a letter, goes to Hogwarts, or magical school at all for that matter?' Eh, it'll make sense later, maybe...

I am going to maintain a strong HHr friendship interaction, one that may eventually end in a romance issue. The main catch to this is Ron.

This is a side issue, but I suppose it's critical here. I can't honestly write Ron worth spit. I hate him, and because of it, I treat him badly as a focus. If he's there too much, I just get irritated, and it weakens my writing, because I get petty. So, I neutralized him, or rather will, here. Harry has friends before Hogwarts – Harry doesn't get on the train (lives in Hogsmeade) – Harry has a familial bond. All those variables negate the Weasley factor. Ron will be a non-entity. Due to that, and a working friendship between Harry/Hermione, the influence of Ron on them lessens. This I feel opens up options between them, by cutting out a lot of the pettiness, envy, jealousy and sloth.

As DarthBill pointed out, these kids are in High School for all practical purposes, and whatever kinds of love and romance interests there are, may end up being fleeting or just temporary. If I carry this farther than Hogwarts, there may be hope of a really solid, permanent ship.

Honestly, for how this is going to go, I'm very open to ideas on this topic. I realize my house selection will make limitation issues in a number of ways, though. I can't shake up the world so much this first year that the foundations of those built-in prejudices are blithely ignorable. And I don't plan to.

I guess I'm a slave to logic in this. It would have to make sense, have some reasonable grounding in plausibility, and also feel relatively correct for the kids themselves. That said, being that I'm going to be mucking about in the AU principal like a Mad Hatter, I can bend this around enough to make just about anything plausible – with work. The main issue with it I see, unless I bend up a few years in a romance focus, is that anything like this will end up 'eating' the plot for a while. Unless I plan a romance, just tossing one in can easily usurp the whole focus.

I suppose I'll toss my hat in for ideas, since I have a fairly decent concept how this is going. Lets eliminate some first, though.

None of the Blacks, or Tonks. Cissy and Bella won't work here. Tonks... eh just not this time, please, I'd consider her the easy way out and I have other outlets for working with her. No Millicent Bulstrode – personal preference. Lets draw a line at four years, in age difference. Likely, no solidly aligned light families, like the Weasleys. I just can't see them overcoming the eventual half-Fey/ Unseelie preconceptions. Likewise, a Pureblood agenda dark family would be about as iffy, when it comes to blood issues (Unless we push the Morgan Le Fay card, which... eh. I dunno yet. It's not on the radar. This applies to either polar ideal).

That leaves the half-bloods: I'd lean on a less-wizarding family, in this case, though the choices are slim. Abbot, Bones, Davis, Li (who I'm hesitant to mess with at all). Possibly some of the Quidditch names. Most of these, unless given nearly 50% focus time, break down to the "Susan Bones" template, if you go into that line of thought.

Open-minded pure-bloods: The template here almost always comes back to Luna Lovegood. I've got nothing against the girl, but it feels almost like a gimme, considering. The other option is right out – I refuse to deal with Rowling's SI/Sue, Ginny.

Closed-minded pure-bloods: Difficult. Parkinson (assumed), Greengrass, Brown. Morag MacDougal is also listed, but I have a worry on building an obscure canon character into a romance object, in that it's just saying "This is an OC" for all intents and purposes. Just because they're named, doesn't make taking a human-shaped outline and filling it in my way, canon.

Muggle-born: The only one I know for certain is Hermione. This almost as a rule excludes any Slytherins.

Foreign: Fleur. She's essentially a template for any others, so we'll leave it there. Possibly we can fit in Cho/Li here but since they seem rather native to the Hogwarts ideal, the foreign concept becomes moot.

All that said, I've enjoyed and detested in about equal parts just about all pairings. Pushing a romance in this fandom pretty much by nature OOC's the players, so we'll just assume it'll happen a bit, but make it logical. I guess to a degree that is part of why I chose Hermione for any potential for a ship, as I can logic that up, at least as far as a Hogwarts scenario within the scope of my plan. I'll entertain any idea as long as it can make sense.

Alright, enough rambling from my side. Thoughts? Should I make a poll or something in the WbA when I get something posted there?

Oh, and if it wasn't too obvious - no slash. If I went that route I'd lean to fem, as it's at least familiar. I don't grok boySlash.

 

Great start so far. I really enjoyed the first few chapters of this fic, although I think Taure's criticism has merit in that Maeve's musings in ch.2 seemed to drag on and repeat. I skimmed over those parts.

Other than that and a few minor grammatical errors, this is probably one of the best new stories out right now.

I do like that you are going to keep Ron out of the picture, as I dislike him as a character in both canon and fanon. Also, I'm a bit wary of an H/Hr pairing as it usually is written by Hermione fangirls where Hermione ends up leading Harry around on a leash with his balls in her pocket. It's often super!Hermione, and pretty much just about how awesome and smart Hermione is and how lucky Harry is to have her (*projectile vomits*). As long as you're open to ideas though I'm not too worried about it.

5/5

 

If you want to go with cannon characters, only Luna, Fleur and Hermione have enough depth to not be OOC.

JKR didn't give the other girls much. They were few mentions and some family back grounds at most. Anything else about their personalities are assumptions.

I think Luna's uniqueness is very compatible with a half fae Harry. However it might be tricky to not ruin her character and still keep up with the tone you have set up.

 

Thinking about Luna, I really can't see her digging the unseele. If anything, I'd almost think she was touched by the Summer Court. Maybe nargles are fairys? Still, I can't see Luna loving Nightmare World.

 

To start with, 5/5.

In response to the topic, I could see some major issues or cliches coming from the Luna side of things: she always struck me as Seelie. As such, from my viewpoint, it will either end up bridging the gap between summer and winter (instantly shattering any suspension of disbelief), or one of the two will end up exiling themselves from their respective camps (also unlikely). Of course, with your characterization, the Malfoys would almost certainly lean towards the more conservative Summer.

I do agree that Tonks would be the easy out, as she is the human embodiment of change.

EDIT: Darthbill, you are a thought thief...

 

@Cheddar That's actually one of my biggest gripes with the story, as is, as well. The initial chapters are a lot of setup and setting, which is never something you want to deal with. Then again, if I just dumped FeyHarry into Hogwarts and expected to make it work.. I'm really not that fond of flashbacks. I do like detail, and this is planned to be a 30 chapter and approx 8-9k word per monster, with how my outline is expanding. Taken in perspective, it didn't seem too bad, but with the current split in setup vs. Harry, it certainly isn't balanced.

Necessary Evils. I can say with some certainty that period is over, as the rest of the story does revolve around Harry and his side more than that of the setting being established.

My god is it really that similar to Dresden? I'm somewhat cross with how it keeps coming up - not at anyone but just coincidence. I'm thinking tomorrow I should read up and see if I need to put in a crossover note just because.

Re: Dudley - I blame shock and having your Uncle trying to axe you down in a tiny closet. There's also the difference in being told vs. seeing death. He never saw Dudley, besides the blood. Detached would be a good word I suppose. He's aware, but it's not real.

Re: Shipins - I love Luna to death, and I'm of two minds here. She's generally rather benevolent - I don't know if the Unseelie ideal I'm painting with 'homicidal' Redcaps, walking corpse looking things, Headless Coachmen and a morally ambiguous Harry would jive. Then again, she seems to enjoy cuddling Thestrals and exploding Pluto in people's faces.

Luna is hard.

 

You don't really need to read The Dresden Files to determine if this is a crossover. In the Dresden Files there are six fairy queens, three for summer and three for winter. This story already suggest there are only two queens, one for each court. Wikipedia will provide you with the general information about faries in The Dresden Files. Look at section 5 under the List of The Dresden Files organizations.

 

Absolutely loved it, a good start with some original characterisations; though I have to admit, I though that Mab was the Winter Queen and Maeve the Winter Lady? If it's in the future, why is Titania still the Summer Queen instead of Lily?

 

...because it's not a Dresden cross?


Anyway, on the romance thoughts- I wouldn't put too much thought into it unless it really relates to your plot. Eg) Harry's love for girl x conflicting with his upbringing, leading to tensions with Maeve which can be resolved at a later date and so forth. Personal biases aside, what the others have said about Luna could be really interesting for you. Luna, personality wise, would make for a great plot arc with a romance for Harry, especially if you want to go down the route of Summer!Luna or something like that. You'll have conflict, tension, drama- everything a story needs.

Really, you need to think about what you want to achieve with your romance sections. Rather than who, think why. Why have the romance? Is it to make the readers empathise with really the most identifiable of human emotions? Is it to create some kind of future tension or drama? How will the romance relate to your plot and what will it do to make it richer and push it further?

Are Veela's descended or related to Fae? Could be an interesting story for a H/F pairing.

Is Luna 'touched' by Summer, or Winter?

Will Hermione be a mirror or something similar for Harry's Fae side to help him regain his humanity or etc?

I don't know your plot plans are so but I hope you get the idea.

I suppose in the end what I'm trying to say is that ignore us and our petty little character dislikes and focus on the story. Do what you think is needed to make it into an epic and maybe you'll get there. I advise you not to put in romance just because you like one pairing over another and for reasons along those lines. Still, in the end it's your story.


Edit: Oh, btw, I love your sig! Yuuko/Watanuki ftw!

 

Er. It's not a Xover with Dresden.

Dresden just has similar themes. Other than the names, and the rough affiliations between courts, there really shouldn't be any similarities. If anything from what I've seen with my research, the story more closely resembles some RPG framework from either WotC or WW, not sure who owns who really.

I think I should put something to that effect in the preface.