A lot of people hate Knowledge is Power, and many of the reasons to do so are valid, but I personally enjoyed reading (and do occasionally re-read) it. One of the main reasons I like it as much as I do is Fleur's characterization in that, which I think is pretty strong and still somewhat unique even to this day.

 

But you know, that happens in life; Being interested in person, and meeting the same person years later when you feel… different, or grown up. I've seen it happen.

 

I don't feel there is anything wrong with changing some facts to make the plot plausible. As long as the story is good. The whole definition of fanfiction is that you are going to change the Original story anyway.

I do like to see the characters stay 'in character' as they were build up in the canon, except if the character was never truly used in canon, where you can give your own depth to it (Daphne Greengrass seems to be popular for this).

 

I've often seen writers aging Harry to keep him more in line with Fleur but I haven't seen anyone de-age Fleur and have her travelling with the Beauxbatons entourage.

Of course you'd have to come up with an explanation as to why. >_>

 

What I'd like to see in a Harry/Fleur fic is arguably incredibly boring and I suspect I may be alone(or at least in a minority) regarding this.

I'd like to see a story where no one chases anyone, specifically. They just spend some time together, begin to get to know each other, realize they kinda share and/or are interested in each other's hobbies.

Like for example, something like...
"Oh, I always wanted to play Quiddich like you and Krum, but you have to play since you're like 4 to get good..."

"Well I started when I was 11"

"Really? How did that go?"

[Conversation goes on, Fleur learns more about Harry and is interested by it, then mentions something similar-ish about herself which also interests him, back and forth and so on.]

Then as they keep doing that, that develops in them just enjoying spending time with each other and occasionally flirting, then flirting more once they see that the other isn't exactly rejecting their flirting, until they go out on a date.

Yeah that's right, I like my romance stories to be fucking boring. I don't know I just prefer the dynamic of two people slowly becoming more comfortable with each other and being like "Hey, let's give this a try" as opposed to having a character pursue the other--probably because(and this might be irrational of me) when I see someone pursuing someone in real life my instinctual reaction is to be like "Dude/dudette, let it go. It will be healthier for you."

I know, I know, fiction and all...it's just the kind of plot I prefer.

 

Nothing wrong with a slow romance, but delayed gratification and all that jazz isn't too popular.

As romance authors through the ages have discovered, it's also rather hard to write passable chemistry that caters to most people's tastes. So it's not really romance or a slow dynamic that's fucking boring, it's just getting past boring dialogue and interactions.

 

I'm not saying it doesn't. I'm saying that when the majority of fanfiction authors do it, they do it horribly so it's probably better to just skip it altogether. Personally, I find that quite a few authors start down a weird path when they do this. They take one quick way to justify Fleur being back at Hogwarts when Harry is older and suddenly they start taking other quick solutions to get to where they want and that just isn't interesting to read and starts to feel really forced to me.

This is a large part of what I'm currently attempting to write.

 

There is nothing wrong with a slow romance, but you would need something else to keep the story engaging meanwhile. Best kind of story in this regard may be a epic multiple year story detailing Harry's development into some badass dark wizard slayer or the like. The romance would be a secondary thread in the story then.

To write a story solely about a very slowly developing relationship would be REALLY difficult without it becoming extremely boring to read. The human attention span is only so long after all, especially if nothing happens to pull the attention back.

 

There was a slow developing romance story between Harry and Gabrielle. It revolved around Harry' quidditch career and Gabrielle' ballet. Some portkey accident killed all the Weasleys and their spouses or something like that. It was very slow moving, but we'll developed. You had to really be into that type of story as their was not much action or even magic. Here is the link https://m.fanfiction.net/s/9444529/1/Vitam-Paramus

 

I reasonably liked that story, but it was an emotional drama about more than just the tension between Harry and Gabrielle. There is one other thing to say about that story relationshipwise, but I fear that talking about it would spoil too much and I am unaware of how to hide spoilers yet. Therefore I'll just say I quite like how the author decided to take the relationship.

It does have a nice character build for Gabrielle, not how I picture her but well rounded out. I like it when the characters I read about actually feel like true human beings.

 

Something I'd like to see in a Fleur/Harry fic is an oblivious Harry trying to be just friends with single Fleur and end up sending mixed signals throughout. Harry tries to just hang out with Fleur in ways that end up very date-like, things like that. Preferably Humor.

 

Why don't you try your hand at writing it then?

 

Best part about Fleur is that she's mostly an OC so each author can create his original Fleur.

Really a shame that most Harry/Fleur fics authors focus more on writing her accent than adding a Plot and Romance.

Knowledge is Power is one of my favorites, although abandoned before the relationship begun. Still, great developing of character and Stephanie (OC) is the main link between the two, so logical developing sexual flirtation you can't stop that ridiculous grin from forming on your face.

 

Yeah, I totally understand that slow romance is incredibly difficult to write, but that to me is what makes it worth reading. I think that there's plenty of conflict in a relationship even without other plot coming up, but it is definitely something that isn't very easy to write.

By the way I was reading through this thread and saw this post....

Did anyone ever take up this idea and write a story based on it? Because if not(and if it's okay) I'd totally want to take a shot at this. I'm a fencer myself so reading this I totally fell in love with the idea. I can totally see Harry being a tiny little french grip pommeler to make up for his height haha. Also helps that to me canonical duels always seemed reminiscent of fencing to me in a way.

 

Go for it, friend.

I'm a fencer as well, though with a proper weapon, epee. I'd love to see the idea developed further.

 

Thanks, I'll totally give this a go later. Have a vague outline in mind but I should probably make sure it works before writing it down. I'm also an epee fencer!

Time to start playing this song on loop and outlining.

 

One story that a had a lot of promise IMHO was :
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/8013031/1/The-Man-Who-Conquered
The author said he was taking a break in 2012 and did not know if story would be continued but a couple of their other stories were updated in May 2015. The story was fairly well written and was just getting started. Have always held out hope it would be continued.

 

Most Harry/Fleur fics are a ridiculously fast progressive relationship, a soul-bond or a Marriage Contract. The thing in Harry/Fleur ships is the age difference and different school is a huge obstacle in constructing the relationship so most authors just choose to skip it and throw them in a relationship together.

One of the good ones is Harry Potter and The Veela by Z-Bond although the relationship progressed rather quickly too. I can't find any fics where Harry and Fleur are friends because in order to do that and begin constructing a relationship, the main goal is to make Harry older. Which ruins the prophecy and excludes almost 98% of fics.

Waiting for a good one! Preferably no Harem as well.

 

That story is bad and you should feel bad.

I really wish I even remotely had any of the discipline for writing. I have a great H/F story in my head that I've been tweaking for years, but everytime I set out to write something I always stop after 5,000 words or so. Really makes me wish it would spontaneously write itself so its not in my head any longer.

 

I've known several High School relationship that were three years apart in High School. I haven't known one that was healthy. (To be fair, I've known very few High School relationships, period, which were healthy) But that doesn't matter, because I wasn't saying that creating a romance starting in fourth year was impossible. I was simply pointing out that creating a character-driven romance is much harder when with Fleur than other HP gals. In shpping Fleur, the participants are from different schools, where they seem to have been raised in different social milieus, when they are three years apart (and with the woman as the older party besides), and when Harry is so reclusive. These issues are not easy to surmount.

Well, what's the goal: making it difficult to write a story or writing a good story?

Often, doing most of the above doesn't accomplish either goal anyway. After all, having Random-Person-X give Harry dating tips over the summer for no reason, only for him to find the perfect person on whom to use them... not exactly believable. And that's putting aside the fact that "dating tips" are unlikely to 'snag' a woman who's likely had every womanizer south of 80 hit on her.