Title: Mutatum
Author: Vichan
Rating: T
Genre: General
Status: WIP
Library Category: Dark Arts
Pairing: Harry/Draco

Summary:

In the summer before his fifth year at Hogwarts, Harry is drawn to a room in Grimmauld Place. Like the Gryffindor he is, he enters the room without fear. The room is a library, and Harry is surprised to find that he’s eager to learn.

Then he gets the bad news: he’s been accidentally expelled from Hogwarts, and he needs to be sorted again. Everyone is confident that he’ll go straight back to Gryffindor, but with what he's been learning, Harry’s not so sure.

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1637290

The first book of the series, Evitative, has recently concluded and the author is currently working on the second installment - Redivider.

Now hold up! I know this description sounds just like hundreds of other fics out there, where indy!Harry abandons the light and finds his “true friends”, becomes neutral etc. etc. I promise this fic is not that. Despite the summary, this fic is less about indy!Harry but far more about the exploration of dark magic. The way dark magic is explored in this fic reminded me quite a bit of "Out of the Night" by Raining Ink - where dark witches and wizards meet in secret and practice rituals. However this fic also has its own unique spin on dark magic which makes it feel fresh and interesting.

Furthermore, there’s hardly any of the political bullshit you usually find in these fics; the Slytherins aren’t mini politicians, but still have the cunning and ambition which got them sorted into Slytherin. Harry doesn’t become a blood purist or magical elitist either.

However, there are three main negatives with this fic, all relating to characters. Two of these are Albus Dumbledore and Ron Weasley. At times, these three characters feel like caricatures of themselves - unwilling and unable to follow logic and behave reasonably. I wouldn’t say it goes as far as bashing but there are times it does come close and it did irk me. The third negative is Draco Malfoy. He is completely OOC in this fic and far too nice to Harry initially for it to be realistic. There are in-text explanations for this behaviour but I found them to be weak. At times, it felt as if Draco were a completely different character, in a way that off-screen events cannot explain.

There is Drarry in this fic, which I know will instantly put people off. However, there's not much of it. It only really starts in the final two chapters. There's next to no romance either.

Overall, I'd give this FanFiction a rating of 3.5 out of 5, rounded down to 3/5. Despite what I consider to be an engaging and strong portrayal of dark magic, the problems with this fic are too great to be ignored and do detract from its quality.

 

This fic had so much potential but wasted it by white-washing characters.

The Slytherins end up being white-washed. All their sins washed away and instead are all treated as if they are misunderstood, only following Voldemort because of dark magic (so when Harry shows up wanting to learn Dark Magic, they all join him). This could have been far more interesting with inter-house and intra-house conflicts. Instead, it's bland, with Slytherins being the misunderstood good guys while Gryffindors become the 'bad' house.

Sirius is another big disappointment. He should have been the one who be against Harry declaring for the Dark. The Black who left his family and dark magic behind. He could have been great, a character who wants to support Harry but really doesn't want him doing this. Eventually, he gets behind Harry and gets Andromeda to support him. Like the above example, the author made the character always support dark magic, just not his family (which makes ZERO sense).

Add the Ron and Dumbledore bashing and I never bothered to pick up the second book. While the magic/society reminds me of *Out of the Night* by Raining Ink, it's far less interesting and the characters ruin it for me.

2/5 because it is decently written and the magic is cool.