Romance in canon sux hairy donkey b@lls.
Ron/Hermione? Even JKR admitted that in retrospect H/Hr would have been better.
Harry/Ginny? They only ever really interacted in book 6. It came across for me personally as if Ginny fed Harry a Love Potion, that's how little sense it made.
Cedric/Cho? Happens entirely offscreen
Harry/Cho? So much of a trainwreck, it doesn't even pretend to work in canon. More on this pairing below
Bill/Fleur? Happens offscreen
Tonks/Lupin? You guessed it, happens offscreen. Seriously, sugar daddy much? Remus is like 15 years older. The only thing I can think of that they might have in common is maaaybe an interest in kinky furry sex.
Hermione/Viktor? Offscreen
James/Lily? Offscreen. Let it be noted that Lily is a totally blank character, we don't know anything concrete, verifiable about her. And... 6 years of tormenting Lily's BFF/the school in general, undone in one year in such a fashion that they make it to the wedding? My suspension of disbelief is quietly sobbing in the corner, ignore it plox.
Severus/Lily? We know precious little about it, and nothing from Lily's perspective. In my opinion, it's the best executed of the bunch, but the bar is really low anyway
Ginny/Others? Offscreen
Bella/Tom? Is it even a romance? *shudders*

So, the only place I can look for quality HP-themed romances is fanfiction, and essentially AU at that. But! I want it to be heavily HP-themed without being a complete rehash of the books with a couple names changed.
What I'd really like is fanfiction with one relatively minor divergence from canon that enables the formation of an engaging romance, regardless of it having a happy ending or not. Here follow some examples, possible plot bunnies that I'd try my hand at if I packed even a modicum of talent:

Harry/Cho Suppose the quidditch rivalry between the two went uninterrupted and Harry asked Cho first to the ball in 4th year? Maybe Cho was mad at Cedric and wanted to get back at him by going with her rival? Needless to say, sparks fly, one pairing ready to explore!


Harry/Hermione What if back in second year Ron is petrified instead? For a possible eventual love triangle, have him save Hermione from petrification to get petrified in her place? Anyway, the two grow closer, maybe to the point where Harry takes one elective in 3rd year where he gets to spend time with Hermione. Time-turner secret may end up shared earlier than in canon. What seals the beginning of the relationship is the period in 4th year where it's them against the school. Complications: Viktor, Ron making Hermione second-guess herself, Skeeter's articles inducing guilt, general Boy-Who-Lived angst, saving Gabrielle=> Veela attention on Harry...

Harry/Tonks: I see two possibilities here:
Variant A:
Summer after 5th year both mourn Sirius, both feel guilty for his death(Bella dueled Tonks before Sirius jumped in!) neither feels he can talk about it to their peers=> Firewhisky-induced guilt-partitioning=>drunk stress-relief shag=> parasitic 'relationship', shagging when they feel overwhelmed=> spend more time together=>Tonks realizes Harry is more mature than his age, Harry revels in older Tonks' experiences that are similar to his own(Aurors having been in battle before, know how to deal with shit, something Tonks can help Harry with eventually, Metamorph=Sex Object=> precious few real friends=>insecurity~Boy-Who-Lived fandom=> few real friends(+Dursley abuse)=>insecurity...)=> relationship slowly evolves from commiserating with benefits to something more... Conflict: Order business vs Harry business, Weapon, to tell or not to tell, realities of age gap(still smaller than in Lupin's case!)...
Variant B:

Suppose (slightrly deaged?) Tonks spends portion of summers with Mrs. Figg(Favourite niece? Human to care for = less cats!) meets Harry before Boy-Who-Lived fame, tells him about magic, invites him over=>Dursley neglect partially(completely?) counteracted=>Tonkses taking Mr.&Mrs. Weasley's place=> no Weasley meddling/plotting(Seriously, woman has had 5 children at Hogwarts, forgets how to access platform? Ron 'accidentally' sitting in Harry's compartment? Gred&Forge just happen to help with Harry's trunk? The crying noises you might hear are made by my poor overworked suspension of disbelief)

In a nutshell, I'd be interested in reading the kinds of stories outlined above. Are there any good ones? If not, can someone write me one please?

 

Well, first off your opening post is a couple of massive wall of texts that I quite honestly started to skim about a quarter of the way through so I'd recommend a little reformatting.

On topic for actually good HP romance fics, top of my list has always been Contemplating Clouds by Tehan.

It's Harry/Luna and while it is incomplete, what is written is still better than 99.9% of all the shit that pollutes the Fandom.

 

Make paragraphs.

 

Wat.

This is the internet son, you're allowed to swear.

Wut.

1) who actually says BFF
2) you mean the same BFF that was turning into a racist prick
3) don't be hatin on the smooth operator that is James Potter

My Severitus sense is tingling.

One woman harem, amirite guys. Eh, eh *crickets*

Wat, I read that moment as more a mother humouring her daughter, and of course they couldn't be doing something kind for the sake of being kind.

There is this place called the Library. Inside said place is a section dedicated to Romance. Might I suggest looking through there for a while and enjoying the best of DLP's attempts at writing romance.

Althought on second thought, I have no idea if you can even access the Library, being a new account. Is that a thing?

 

Romance section is full of short, uninteresting stuff. Don't You think I went through that first?

 

You'll have to forgive us if we don't exactly trust your judgement, especially since you wrote 'Severus/Lily' without any sort of sarcastic/ironic/shitposting tone to it.

Also, why did you not post this thread in the "Story Search" subforum?

 

Troll? Troll.

 

I don't think you'll find a lot of things you like here if your best example of canon romance is Snape/Lily, never mind the fact that it never actually happened.

 

Lily had much more reason for liking Snape than liking James Potter. I mean, how the hell did that come about? One day, James is everything Lily despises and a few short years later, they're married? I find it ironic that people think the Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione pairings unrealistic because Ginny was a once-upon-a-time fangirl and Ron and Hermione bicker lot of the time, and yet think nothing of James/Lily.

 

If in doubt, assume potions at work! Or failed potions!

I think the best (or least bad) canon romances are those who are done off-screen, or without some prior history of dislike/harted.

 

That's why I assume Timely Errors by Worfe as my canon for how James and Lily got together. Also, Lily liking a Death Eater more than an arrogant berk...be serious mate.

 

Until he, y'know, joined a peer group that specifically targeted people of Lily's cultural background and used an insulting and charged epithet to strike out at her. Then he pretty much kept on steaming with that bigoted group of friends anyway and contented himself with blaming everyone else on the planet. Then he actually went and joined a terrorist organisation bent on subjugating/killing members of that previously mentioned cultural background. Then he got her and her family killed and honestly didn't care about her son or husband also being in the line of fire.

Yeah, really great relationship material there.

And she did like him until that happened. But you know what? Snape didn't grow up, he's still stuck in the past, the same regretful and simultaneously hateful person he was on the day of the 'mudblood' incident. James grew up. We don't know the specifics of their relationship after that point but it's hardly unreasonable to think Lily might actually like a confident, charismatic yet actually mature and decent James Potter over the spiteful manchild that is Snape.

 

I'm hardly advocating Snape as Lily's soul mate here. But I can at least understand how and why Snape and Lily became friends, while I cannot comprehend James and Lily in a married relationship at all. Admittedly, this is because it is shown in canon how exactly Snape befriended Lily, where as we have only seen Lily's contempt for James. I just cannot see how that someone can absolutely despise a person for five years and then start dating him a year later.

 

I can. Hate isn't the opposite of love; indifference is.

That, and you're speaking in absolutes - we have a few scattered memories, and the anecdotes of a few people to paint a picture of Lily, and at best, it's a vague one. The thing I can't see is how you can have strong, conclusive feelings about a relationship that, by and large, developed off-screen.

 

Huh, this would validate all the Harry/Draco stories on ff.net. After hating Malfoy for years, Harry finds him crying in Mrytle's bathroom. Instead of dueling like in canon, Harry realizes that Draco is just misunderstood and soon they start Moaning together in Moaning Mrytle's bathroom.

That sounds like an actual summary for a Harry/Draco Slash fic. Then again, that's because it probably was.

I hardly have strong feelings about it. I just say it is unrealistic. From what little we have seen in canon, Lily had nothing but contempt for James for a long time - ever since James insulted her friend in the train. It would be like Malfoy repenting for a couple of months and suddenly dating Hermione. It doesn't make much sense.

 

I don't recall James Potter advocating the murder, or at the very least removal, of all non-purebloods from the wizarding world.

 

Now you are just arguing for argument's sake, Stan.