Title: Harry Potter and the Maw
Author: WoMo
Rating: T
Genre: Action/Adventure/Romance
Pairing: H/Hr
Status: COMPLETED
Summary: Harry Potter's full sixth year. After the confrontation in the Department of Mysteries and Sirius's death, Harry's world has been warped around. Includes a sadistic Hit Wizard, incompetent DADA professor, and plenty of twists and originality. No Slash
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2109003/1/

WoMo seems like one of those underappreciated authors that don't get much attention because they don't write teenage fluff or slash, or any other specific genre that has a large fan-base, with a lot of C2 groups to support it.

Maw is his only completed fic at the moment. It's features are good, complex and realistic plot, excelent true-to-the-canon characterisation, spotless writing style and huge length (over 300,000 words). Is it any wonder than that the story had received only 350 or so reviews?

The main plot is about an insane famous Hit-Wizard that gets magically tied to Harry and is compelled to keep him safe and train him, even though he hates his guts. There are also a lot of other subplots happening in the background, including a mystery (that is somewhat over-clued but good nontheless), dueling competition (with some great fight scenes), HHr romance, etc.

This is NOT a true Dark!Harry story, but I put it here because of the story's general dark demeanor and the dark magic Harry is being taught. There WILL be great fight scenes, just wait for the second part of the story.

The only irratating thing about this story is that Harry is very canon-like, meaning he's being pushed around a lot. Still, I wouldn't say he's a complete pussy, since unlike in other 'let's all gang up on Harry' fics, there's not much Harry can do to change his situation (with him being bonded with a ruthless maniac and all).

If you're in for an greatly underappreciated and obscure, but still excellent fic, read this (if you have the time).

EDIT: There is an excellent sequel, Harry Potter and the Nexus. The thread is HERE.

 

I was mildly interested until I saw that it was H/Hr. Harry and the Mudblood doesn't work for me.

 

Ive read part of this story and although it is a good piece of writing I just could not get into it and so stopped. I guess it just was not my shot of tequila.

 

Well, yea, the fic is very canon-like and only marginally suitable for this forum.

But consider this: After reading 100s of Dark/Independant/Super/Slytherin/Bashing stories, they all kinda started blending together in my head. Then I and all the people like me come here and bitch how all the stories are clishe and there's no more good authors out there.

I just find that reading a good stick-it-to-the-canon piece of LITERATURE (and NOT another fic targeted to satisfy readers basic needs, like need for bloodlust, power, sex etc.) tends to put things back to perspective.

 

Well my thing relates to one of Giovanni's rules.

Good Writing creates, then resolves tension. Moderation is the key. To much tension and it annoys the reader, to little and well, remind me why I am reading your story again?

That whole magical connection with the Hit wizard just stinks too much of those magical shackles that authors tend to put on Harry to keep him at Hogwarts.

Then we have Sirius being the one that set this up, which is something that would be passable only if it was Dumbledore. In canon we have evidence that Sirius encourages Harry to have some adventure and live a normal life. Something Sirius knows cannot happen with that lunatic following Harry where ever he goes.

Then there is the Hit Wizard himself. He is supposedly very powerful and famous. And was in the running for being the one to kill Voldemort. Yet we have never heard anything about him before and there is absolutely no Canon evidence that a bunch of Deatheaters were captured or killed by anyone but Moody who is heralded as the best Dark Wizard Catcher during those times. Not to mention if you compare the power he has and the fear he gains to what you see in alot of other Dark but light sided fics you will see that the only real differance is that this is an OC and not Harry who is the subject.

Sorry but I don't anything you said about originality and being in Canon. I see it as better written and changed abit, but essentially the same stuff.

 

I started reading this a long, long time ago. I lost track of it somehow and can't remeber much of it. I'll have to give it another look at and see what I think.

 

Too much tension in the story? Definitely. It kinda irked me while reading it.

I don't think that's the case coz there wasn't any indication whatsoever that Harry would even want to stay out of Hogwarts. I mean, why would he? This is pretty much canon Harry, remember?

Sirius didn't know the guy was a lunatic. He was his friend back at Hogwarts (explained later I think). And remember, that bond was only a backup solution (as far as I can remember, I've read the story a long time ago). Possibly illogic, but passable in my oppinion.

I disagree. The guy was out of contry for years. Besides, it's not like Harry had heard a lot of Wizarding folklore on his many travels between Hogwarts, Burrow and Dursleys.

Look, I'm not saying that this is the best fic in the world. Far from it. God knows I was mightily frustrated while reading it. I'm just saying that only after reading something like this one can truly appriciate one of Shezza's works, for example. It's therapeutic.

 

I did not mean that in this story Harry wants to leave, I was just saying that there is too much of a similarity between this bond thing and the magical shackles of the other fics. The angst, no one knowing, and the fact that it just goes on for a long time. I just meant that with the magical shackles it is usually used to keep Harry under Dumbledore's thumb.

Even if Sirius did not know how insane the Hit Wizard is he still would have not even ask him to look after Harry. For that to actually fly, you would have to completely disregard everything Sirius said or did in the fifth book.

As for Shezza I have to say that he handled the whole magical shackles cliche pretty well. There was no actual angst and Harry got rid of it pretty quickly. I just wish as most of us do, that he would stop having the crossover take over the fic.

 

Read abit of it and i dont know i liked it but that dude is insane and treats harry like shit! not a fan of that. About that famous comment JK never really mentioned what Riddle did while going around the world getting power, surely in the later years he would have made a name for himself in forign contries?

If Riddle did it why couldn't someone else?

 

Oh come on people, you can't possibly beleive that the only famous wizards in the world are Dumbledore, Riddle and Flamel? Just because Harry never heard of them doesn't mean they aren't there.

Moot point anyway, you can't possibly expect me to argue each micro-point of a story I've read basically half a year ago?

 

True but no one takes it outside the Uk's sphere of influence! it would be good to have like a Dark Lord from Asia come and kick some ass as well! but noooo that just doesn't happen!

 

I totaly agree there. There just aren't that many fics dealing with the world outside of Britain.

But since the wizarding world is like 100s of years backward behind the muggle world, I'm guessing that there's still some sort of Commonwealth in effect and Magical Britain is still the most powerful magical contry in the world (in decline though). That's the only logical explanation for English wizards being so... provincial, even though thay can travel anywhere in the world with a mere thought. It's the same thing as with Americans nowdays - if you're the best, you don't give a shit about the rest .

 

I've read it, but I never finished it. Couldn't stnad that fucking psycho bonded to Harry. I really can't remember the guys name. It's was interesting at first but like said too much damn angst in it.

quote]I just find that reading a good stick-it-to-the-canon piece of LITERATURE (and NOT another fic targeted to satisfy readers basic needs, like need for bloodlust, power, sex etc.) tends to put things back to perspective.

Yeah but I need that stuff.

Anyways my problen with the story was that harry was taking all that shit from the psycho, and that it went on and on and on.[/quote]

 

Uh sorry about the screw up with the quote. I still can't do that right.

 

Alright, perusing through neglected stories, they usually have a big red flag that turned most people off. Strange crossover, Severitus, Ginny... in this case it's a H/Hr pairing which I actually quite like. This was one of the first HP stories I seriously bookmarked and followed. 4/5.

I see there's a sequel to it, so I'll give it a go.

 

Found this in the neglected stories list and gave it a read- its a gem amongst the other stuff there. Its aged incredibly well. It starts off a bit rocky in terms of the technicalities of the writing style, but it becomes pretty competent pretty quickly.

Having just finished it I can't actually think of anything in it that I distinctly dislike, however it also didn't particularly wow me. It had one of the best OCs I've read for a while- Alex Gates was truly brilliantly crafted. The best bits in this were definitely his scenes... very cold and dark.

Probably the worst aspect is the action/dueling moments which were just...meh. But again there's nothing really wrong with them other than being prosaic. This is probably the biggest flaw with this. Nothing exceptional seems to happen, ever.

I was looking forward to reading the sequel to this, but unfortunately its abandoned pretty early in so no such luck there.

This is a 4/5 from me...it just didn't leave me feeling hugely impressed at the end, despite not having any easily identifiable flaws. Recommended read though if you want a long, well thought out story with nothing to set your teeth on edge.

Edit: I just noticed the category this is in. I'm wondering if it was placed in the Independent Harry section for ironic purposes...