JK Rowling said that Hermione was the brightest witch in her year in some interview...which I think she means to say that she is the witch who tries the hardest because you could tell she was pissed that Harry came along with a book having a few minor corrections in it and all of a sudden smacked her out of the top spot in potions without even trying to do so.

A nice little reminder that in the world of magic no matter how much time you wast in the library a slacker like Harry can still knock you out of your top spot by reading a book a few minutes a day. Actually now that I think about it, Hermione being pissed at Harry was pretty good characterization because I don't know a single person who works that hard that wouldn't be pissed off by that happening to them. 5 years of hard studying vs 5 years of hard slacking + a few minutes of interest in a book....

 

You don't recall correctly. Sirius calls Hermione the brightest witch of her age in Prisoner of Azkaban. Doesn't mean it's true, of course, and it's awfully vague nonetheless. I've seen it discussed here before, that Sirius could've meant the brightest 13- or 14-year-old witch he'd ever met or heard of, the brightest witch at Hogwarts at that time (how the fuck would he know?), or perhaps the ultimate compliment of her being the brightest witch "of the age" which to me would encompass quite a bit of time, and certainly would have to take Lily into account.

The remainder of your post hardly warrants mentioning, as it was clearly trolling or troll-bait or whatever.

Back to the point, though, I think Hermione is in fact a very good student and a very sharp mind, but Sirius' off-hand compliment is to be taken with a grain of salt. After all, he'd just been saved from the Dementor's Kiss by two time-traveling third-year students, and he'd already seen how much of a dumbass Ron was/is, and what an emo-wreck Harry had the potential to be. What did that leave him with? The third member of their group had to be the brains of the operation, by sheer process of elimination. Couple that with his understandably overwhelming gratitude at their saving his ass at the last minute (with a hippogriff getaway vehicle, no less), and of course he's gonna say she's the best thing since contraceptive charms. Hell, if Harry hadn't been there, the old dog probably would've tried to nail her, big teeth and all.

As for prodigies in the canon magical world, we see very few. Dumbledore and Grindelwald, of course, since Dumbledore talks to Harry of how he and G'wald were about even, skill-wise. Voldemort, without a doubt, as he, like D'dore, pushed the limits of magic, albeit Voldemort was pushing the dark avenues with his soul magic, etc. Let's not forget that the ritual to make him a new body was of Voldemort's own design, according to his own words in GoF. I imagine Voldemort designed the Dark Mark as well, and D'dore himself said he'd never before seen anything like the Diary!Horcrux.

Snape has to be considered a prodigy for several reasons, not least of which is his Potions abilities. He was a schoolboy when he improved on a textbook, and think about this: that textbook was fifty-odd years old when Harry got it, and was the same as the new book Harry got from F&B. That means no new Potions were added to a textbook in that amount of time, right? So at minimum, the Potions part of the magical world is pretty damn stagnant, and years before, Snape was miles ahead of where the others are still stuck. Also, as others have said, Snape was inventing spells when he was still a student, and at least two of his invented spells (Sectumsempra, Levicorpus) were cool enough that others deemed them worthy of using. There's no telling how many other spells he invented if Harry found those two in the short time he had with one of Snape's books. There's also the master Occlumens/Legilemens (spelling?) status, etc.

Oh yeah, and Snape was one of only two wizards ever mentioned that learned to actually fly. The other? Voldemort.

Other prodigies are few, but I'd have to say Lily Evans was one. In Snape's memories that Harry views, Snape sees Lily using some measure of conscious control over her own magic - before she knows she's a witch - when she jumps out of the swing at the playground, and IIRC, she does something magical with a flower as well. Who's the only other person we ever hear about in canon who had control of their magic before knowing about magic? Voldemort.

I would probably not go so far as to say James and Sirius and Peter and Lupin were prodigies, though without a doubt they were pretty sharp.

 

Or she could actually have been the brightest witch of her generation, which still wasn't enough to elevate her to being a prodigy.

 

Soooo, you're saying that being the smartest female of your generation doesn't mean so much when the competition is composed of Lavender Brown, Pansy Parkinson, Parvati Patil, Ginny Weasley, Millicent Bulstrode, Luna Lovegood and Penelope Clearwater, among others?

Is that sort of like the old adage, "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king"?

 

Less cock-waving, moar HARMONY rec's, por favor.

 

Just for you, jblaise, some Harry/Hermy smut, courtesy of chem prof and HoosYourDaddy. I don't *think* there's cock-waving involved, but don't quote me on that.

 

Couldn't it just mean that Hermione has a very sunny disposition?

Also, moar decent H/Hr fics.

 

Alright folks it's almost been a decade. Surely one or two more decent H/hr fics have cropped up over the years.

There's the added factor of being able to discuss the ship itself with an extra ten years life experience because fuck like we were all teenagers back when this thread started.

(Except Middy. Old fuck.)

 

Wow, I thought this thread was dead and buried. Why my OP is in an unreadable font, I have no idea, but it might be something a mod can fix.

I have to bail in a bit, but when I return I expect a deluge of outrage from Nukular Winter. Someone give him a call.

 

@Seratin, you were less than a month away from being able to do this on its exactly 10yr mark, but noooooo.

You're a disappointment.




I have thrown around Blindness by AngelaStarCat more than once. It's a super!Harry tale, where he's basically (well, quite literally really) god-level powerful - there was a pretty cool fic that popped up on here called "Other People's Magic" that the author got very offended by the criticism and nuked it all, this is a lot like that. Voldemort blows the crib apart when trying to kill harry, and blows Harry's eyes out. Magic gives him a sort of mage-sight where he can see magic in everything, and learns to manipulate it accordingly.

It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, as there really isn't any main antagonist. It's much more of a "Man vs. his own conscience/morality" thing, but for my dollar it's done very well.

 

Well yeah but that's a month away.

I just read Story: Deathly Hallows Revisited https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6984470/1.

It's... Not great but it's reasonably written and not killer on angst or fluff. Story premise is it kicking off during the Forest of Dean incident and seeing Harry and Hermione grow closer.

It doesn't indulge in needless bashing like every other fic based on this scenario so it's readable.

3/5. Decent time waster.

 

I don't think I've ever fully realised the dearth of decent H/hr fics out there. I mean, this is pretty much the main alternate canon pairing and one of the core characters of the series and there seems to be nowhere close the amount of decently written stories based on it compared to the likes of Fleur or Daphne.

Every fic follows the same patterns with zero originality. No wonder Portkey died on its arse.

 

Welp. Time to sift through the shit and bring back anything half decent.

 

Just read lorien829's The Catalyst for the first time. 78k words. Incomplete, even though the plot is finished and the central mystery explained.

It's decent, but not great. It takes place five years after canon, and Harry is a broom designer rather than an Auror. Hermione is a healer, and the story starts with canon pairings in full swing. If you like H/Hr, you'll probably enjoy the way the fic explores why the canon pairings don't work. Ron's insecurities are explored without bashing him. If you already hate Hermione, don't bother reading it.

The technical writing is good, as it always is for this writer's work. There's a unique premise and a mystery to solve. I don't want to spoil too much. It involves a young girl who appears out of nowhere, and a dark conspiracy that involves experimenting with magic and muggle science to do something that has never been done before. Everything gets explained, but the story desperately needs a few chapters to wrap up the burgeoning relationship between Harry and Hermione, because what's here plot-wise is pretty damn tragic.

I'd give it a 3/5. Could have been a 4/5 with a few more chapters and a bit less angst. It still might scratch your itch for literate H/Hr.

Yeah, I think you're right, even though I like the pairing. The problem, imo, is that it's too easy to get them together. Almost nothing has to change in canon for them to be in a relationship. It only takes the slightest nudge: Harry being a bit more attracted to her at the Yule Ball, Hermione being a touch less bossy, either realizing how much they depend on each other during the tournament, or on the horcrux hunt, etc. Regardless of how you feel about their personalities, you only need to add a splash of sexual attraction, and H/Hr fits within canon without making any other changes.

That results in two things for fanfic stories: boring canon rehashes with a different pairing, or melodramatic do-overs to 'make things right.' The easiest way to do the latter is to create an artificial conspiracy to keep H and Hr apart, and thus we have even decently-written stories undermined by bashing and cliches.

One of the best ways to avoid the bashing is to have H and Hr get together after Hogwarts, like lorien829 did, but that runs the risk of being boring because Voldemort is already dead. I love the idea of H/Hr, but the pairing is a guilty pleasure for me because of how mediocre most of the stories are.

 

Ah, I remember this one! Yes, lorien was one of the bigger authors over at Portkey I think. I enjoyed The Catalyst; not sure I read the last chapter that is present on your link (thanks). Might be worth a re-read.

That may be true, but for me that's part of the attraction of H/Hr, and one of the biggest differences between that and H/G (or any other pairing). H/G came out of almost nowhere - Rowling's choice, that's how she wanted it - but my personal preference is for a slow burn relationship based on friendship and with plenty of substance behind it. Rowling didn't deliver, but she did provide enough critical mass for other authors to add that little bit extra to make all seven HP books worthwhile on the romance front.

Plus, if the reader is a survivor of the shipping wars there's extra pleasure in seeing all of those bits of H/Hr evidence used like they should/could have been in the canon.

And as you say, additional benefit for H/Hr shippers in enjoying "the way the fic explores why the canon pairings don't work". Let's face it, there's a lot of canon material to exploit for that purpose as well.

The other big advantage of H/Hr stories is that it makes it easier,maybe, for the author to get Harry a leg-up in promoting him to full 'hero' status? Rowling took extreme pains to keep Harry down in the mud as Mr. Average, an ordinary wizard who wanted nothing more than to have a family. That's nice, and by marrying his long-time fan girl he got what he wanted, but I prefer a more active hero who can do more than just walk to the slaughter as an automaton pre-programmed by Dumbledore. Now, lots of non-H/Hr stories have Harry step up to the plate, but having a relationship with the 'brightest witch of the age', the girl who in canon did most of the thinking for the Trio, is a quite satisfying means of giving Harry the motivation to grow up rather than bungle his way out of traps on luck and the sacrifice of others. Not the *only* way, but it's nice to see the hero paired with a worthy partner.

 

Seeing as this is the H/Hr thread I thought I'd pose this question here. Does anyone remember a H/Hr fic where Harry goes back in time and becomes a Slytherin? Hermione and he become friends later and when he kills the deatheaters and Voldemort Hermione questions how good he actually i. I think there is actually a quote where Harry says to Hermione "That he hates Dumbledore almost as much as Voldemort"