Title: Harry Potter and the Bearers of the Light
Sequel: Harry Potter and the Prophecy War
Author: fieryfalcon
Warning: Ships H/Hr
Rating: M (R)
Summary: Harry must overcome Sirius' death in order to continue the fight against the Dark Lord. In the process he must resist becoming that which he seeks to defeat. Takes place directly following Book 5 in place of HBP. HHr fic [completed] Independent Harry
Summary: Harry, Hermione, and Ron struggle to defeat Voldemort as the world of magic erupts into total war. Sequel to Harry Potter and the Bearers of the Light. Rated for frequent graphic violence. [HHr]
Link [to profile]: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/906166/

Let me remind you again for those of you that hate the ship and can't stand it, this is H/Hr.

For everyone else, you may like this story. One of the most amusing things about this is the fact that Hermione and Harry seemed to have switched roles in the first story - in that Harry thinks Dumbledore's got everything worked out and Hermione is the one that's angry and suspicious and doesn't trust him. Beyond that, here's what the story has: Harry dabbles in the dark arts, there's lots of action, the battles (especially in the sequel, towards the end) are very well done, and

Spoiler

Ginny dies.

Another nice thing is that the romance in it is fairly low key. Actually, there's barely any to it.

In any case, here's a slightly more informative summary:

Spoiler

Harry starts studying harder, Dumbledore stills ignores him and keeps secrets from him, Fudge is still in control and starts turning the press and the ministry against him, and Harry eventually starts up a vigilante group of his own to replace the flaming turkeys.

 

I har really high hopes from this story (the first part). It seemed like the perfect in-canon training story - lots of new magical concepts, dark arts, great fight scenes and not too much whinning and romance. Seemed rather good, ya?

But somewhere along the line it all went straight to hell, thanks to the author's fangirlism. Simply said, this is not a story about Harry getting his shit straight and forming his own army to oppose Voldemort. This is a story about Hermione doing all this and using whipped!Harry as a public face, while she's actually pulling all the strings. Even though Harry had a nice head start with his studies, it was clear that the author's Marry Sue-ism gradually got better of her. With time, Hermione catches up with Harry, takes away the leadership in both studying and student club, gets the same amount of magical power as him, gets better at dueling and obtains the right sort of philosophy, while Harry turns into a naive goody good idiot. By the end of the first story, it's all about Hermione doing this and that, while Harry is pushed into the background and is there to do only what Hermione tells him to.

I never finished the sequel coz it seems to have gone on the same way. I really don't wanna read about the author... oops, Hermione leading 'Harry's' organization of super mighty DA to fight death eaters, while the poor sucker doesn't even know who the members are.

 

I have never read this fic, and i am a solid H/Hr shipper, with Hermione as my favorite character. On the other hand, i like eventualy!powerful Hermione, because i see her as taking the scholar road, whil harry just will magic into existence. So i dislike stories that have super!hermione and weak!harry. I don't know... I will try to read it, but i might not make it.

The point of this post? to tell you exactly what i dislike, and your opinion of the harry there, if he really is pussy!harry, or if it is just a fan of lookintomyeyesanddie!harry opinion. I do not intend any insult. after all, i *know* my taste for hermione is a bit too big.

 

Like I said, it starts well; Harry moves his arse and starts studying over summer. He keeps working with Hermione later on. Hermione quickly catches on in every aspect, since her power is represented as on level with Harry's own.

But it's like the author just couldn't find it in herself to give Hermione ANY flaw at all; she's brilliant, powerful, beautiful, innovative... hell, even her bookworm/authority worshiping nature is supressed, to turn her into a complete Marry Sue.

As for Harry, he is NOT a romantic smitten pussy. But during the story he just slowly falls into the background and does nothing but study with Hermione and lets her do all the thinking and talking. Yes, he's supposedly powerful and smart, but his character is practically non-existant. In all other HHr stories he's given some advantage over her, like better dueling and innovativeness, while Hermione is better with raw studying. Here, he has no advantage at all, but not many disadvantages either; he's just... nonexistant character, always in the background of whatever Hermione is doing. You could easily replace him with Crookshanks and get pretty much the same story.

 

I read both the stories a while ago and I'll be honest, I enjoyed them both. The action scenes are quite good, and the author had a lot of interesting concepts that were incorporated without serious divergence from the canon storyline. Overall, they are both good stories.

That said, I completely agree with IP's analysis. This really isn't an independent Harry fic, but then again, I don't think it was meant to be, at least not by the DLP definition. The most central idea of the story, IMO is that Harry and Hermione are soulmates/meant for each other/grow together/fight together/die together, and all that jazz. Everything else basically flows from this fact, and that's why I don't think most people here will like it.

It's true that there are remarkably few parts that are pure fluff, but in a sense the entire story is fluffy because the whole idea is that Hermione is 100% loyal to Harry and will do anything to help him win (including trying to AK Ron, which I thought was pretty funny). Basically, most DLPers won't like this story because Harry doesn't do anything without Hermione, since she is almost literally his other half (they have a soul-bond or something like that), and they do absolutely everything together: study, train, fight, recruit, and form a grassroots defense organization that quickly surpasses the Order of the Phoenix in terms of effectiveness against Voldemort. Hell, they even DREAM together, and no, I'm not kidding. Again, there is a lot of good things in this fic: lots of action, killing, and destruction well-written with some good twists and turns. For example, when the war starts to really get ugly, Harry and Hermione decide to obliterate the estates of all known Voldemort supporters in order to send a message, which is something I don't think I've seen in another fic. Of course, you have to put up with a super!Harry/Hermione team where there is very rarely a scene where they are apart.

Arkeus, I think you will like this fic. Harry is definitely not a pussy; he's actually very powerful. I think what IP was referring to is the fact that he doesn't make any decisions without Hermione, so he's whipped. Basically, Harry is the moral compass/strength of the team where Hermione is the tactician/logical one and makes all the real decisions (or suggests certain decisions to Harry, who agrees with her). I had never thought of it in terms of fangirlism, but I can totally see how the author would want to write herself into the story as a superhero, and chose Hermione to do it with.

In summary: if you harbor any dislike of Hermione, these stories will probably get on your nerves.

-the Jack

 

Thanks Jack and IP, it's nice to have answered so quickly. I guess i'll put those two fics on the backburner

Ps : Uh, a detail. Maybe i should post this elsewhere, but i realized that there was no thread for "Years of rebellion" by Full_pensieve/Mike, which is rather strange. Am i wrong? And if i am right, am i allowed to start one?

 

Lots of classics don't have threads and YOR is one of them. Go ahead and open it.

 

Thats a good one...

I dont really mind H/Hr as long as it is Harry centric and has a backbone so to speak. I was thinking of reading this, but your review makes me shy away from it.

 

I read the first one ages ago on portkey. Then I read about 6 or seven chapters of the 2nd and couldnt get back into it. The idea of the Order full of years of experience, falling in line with Harry and Hermiones little crew, who are rash and gung ho, really annoyed me

 

I liked these stories and find myself partial to H/Hr ships in them. I can't stand the canon H/G ship when it is based almost entirely upon Ginny's hero worship of Harry. Harry needs someone who can challenge him and Hermione fits the bill far better. I just don't get the Hermione/Ron ships. Why would the hard-working smartest witch at Hogwarts fall for its biggest slacker and dolt? Couch potatoes, rejoice?

 

Note to self: Always listen to IP.

After seeing this thread, I read the first story and today managed to get halfway through the sequel, when I decided it really should be called "Hermione Granger and the Prophecy War":

I could overlook this and just take it as Dumbledore's mistaken opinion, but the author clearly shows Hermione to be better than Harry by far. It wasn't so obvious at first, but now he just seems to be going along for the ride, without contibuting much and even needing to be saved (by Hermione of course) a few times. Bleh.

 

I kinda like this story. However it is not a INDEPENDENT HARRY fanfic.
I would like to stress, that independent, does not mean dependent on Mbb(mudblood-beaver)

 

I liked the first one, too. The writing is good and the fight scenes even better. It's just that the author overdid it with Super!Duper!Hermione and it ended up annoying.

 

I've read these, and I think on the whole, it is fair to say that Hermione is a bit overdone in how rigidly doctrinaire she is about Dumbledore's actions and behavior. From what I recall of the fic, Dumbledore isn't even THAT manipulative, at least by the standards of some of the cliche post-OotP The-Order-Is-Spying-On-You-Harry and Dumbledore-has-banned-your-owls fics.

I'm ambivalent about the use of Unforgivable curses in this fic. Hermione the rule-abider ends up throwing around AKs and Crucios like nobody's business and even Harry uses them a few times too often for my liking.

OTOH it's a kind of weird thrill when Harry makes a Death Eater wet his pants with a well-aimed Cruciatus, although I always thought the psychological aspect of threatening someone with Middle Yard was a more original device.