Tell me your:

• Favourite pairings that you will always give a chance (Outstanding)
• Pairings you like, that increase the likelihood that you will click on/like a fic (Exceeds Expectations)
• Pairings you are neutral on (Acceptable)
• Disliked pairings that make you less likely to click on a fic (Poor)
• No-go pairings that prevent you from clicking on/liking a fic (Dreadful)

Mine...

• O Grade: Harry/Daphne, Harry/Fleur, Harry/Susan, Harry/Gabrielle, Harry/fem!Harry
  
  
• E Grade: Harry/Ginny, Harry/Luna, Harry/Hermione, Harry/Narcissa (time travel), Harry/Lily (time travel)
  
  
• A Grade: Harry/Lavender, Harry/Parvati, Harry/Pansy, Harry/Katie, Harry/Astoria, Harry/Romilda, Harry/Tonks, Harry/Bellatrix (time travel), Harry/Padma, Harry/Cho, Harry/Hannah A, Harry/Angelina, Harry/Alicia, Harry/Demelza, Harry/Lisa T, Harry/Penelope C

• P Grade: Harry/Narcissa (age gap), Harry/Bellatrix (age gap), Harry/Lily (age gap), Harry/fluffyGinny (soul bond etc), Harry/OFC
  
  
• D Grade: Harry/superHermione, Harry/MugglewankHermione, Harry/Umbridge, Harry/Eloise, Harry/Millicent, Harry/Minerva, Harry/Amelia, Harry/Rita, Harry/Petunia, Harry/male, pairings which do not involve Harry
  

 

Top is Harry/Fleur.

Partly because smoking hot fr*nch chick, but mostly because it's a good indication that the author is choosing to write an OP Harry, realism be damned.

Harry/any older woman for basically that reason tbh.

I don't mind Harry/Hermione in principle but Harry/fandom!Hermione is cancer. Often just a means to strip agency away from Harry, like a diet version of slash shipping.

 

O - Harry/Fleur, Harry/Daphne, Harry/Gabrielle, Harry/Fem!Harry, Harry/Fem!Voldemort, Harry/Tonks, Harry/Mrs. Zabini
E - Harry/Narcissa, Harry/Bellatrix, Harry/Pansy, Harry/Astoria, Harry/Rowena
A - Harry/Susan, Harry/Hermione, Harry/Lily, Harry/Lavender, Harry/Parvati, Harry/Katie, Harry/Romilda, Harry/Padma, Harry/Hannah, Harry/Angelina, Harry/Alicia, Harry/Demelza, Harry/Fem!Blaise
P - Harry/Ginny, Harry/Luna, Harry/Cho, Harry/Lisa T, Harry/Penelope C, Harry/OFC, Harry/Andromeda, Harry/Marietta, Harry/Merope Gaunt, Harry/Rita, Harry/Aurora, Harry/Hestia, Harry/Helga Hufflepuff, Harry/Rosmerta
D - Harry/fanon!Hermione, Harry/Umbridge, Harry/Eloise, Harry/Millicent, Harry/Myrtle, Harry/Minerva, Harry/Amelia, Harry/Petunia, Harry/Rose Weasley, Harry/Lily Luna, Harry/Molly, Harry/Maxime, Harry/Nagini, Harry/Hedwig, Harry/Fem!Hogwarts
T - Taure/Ashaya, Slash

 

Ok lets start

1. Harry/Fleur - I really doubt leetle boy has the stamina to satisfy a older veela so it's bit of a banging older + sexual creature kink.

2. Harry/Tonks - This is pretty much banging a adult auror who can change to any girl you want to satisfy you kink.

3. Harry/Daphne - I guess you wanna bang the blond hot Slytherin bitch that everyone is scared to approach

4. Harry/Bellatrix - Banging the psycho old bitch who killed your godfather because you're enamored by her insanity and power

5. Harry/Narcissa - Banging your rivals hot milf posh mother is win

6. Harry/Marietta - Banging the bitch who ratted you out to punish her.

7. Harry/Luna - The weird girl who is sweetheart and helps you get over your problems

Harry/Angelina/Katie/Alicia - Banging your hot quidditch teemates

Harry/Lavender - Banging the bombshell in your house

Harry/Susan - Boobs

Harry/Parvati/Padma - Banging hot sisters
Pairings

Harry/Fleur/Gabrielle - Hot Veela sisters

Harry/Black sisters/Tonks - Being the Black family head you take care of the ladies in your family

Lily/Snape - Beauty and the beast

Daphne/Tracey, Fleur /Tonks Bellatix/Narcissa/Tonks Susan/Hannah - Hot lesbian romances

Draco/Hermione - Seeing the mudblood bitch get what's coming for her for fucking with a posh pureblood.

Cedric/Harry, Harry/Bill Weasley Harry/Younger Tom Riddle Harry/Young Sirius Harry/Draco - Hot slash pairings


Pairings I dislike

Harry/Ginny - boring fangirl
Harry/Hermione - Siblings like characters romance. Hell they have same hair color
Ron/Hermione - Awful pairing. Ron is a loser, Hermione deserves much better.
Harry/Lily - Mother son incest disgusting.
Harry/Fem!Harry - Pretty much masturbation right
Albus/Grindelwald - Can't imagine Big Al as gay just can't
Lily/James - Lily deserves better than a bullying asshole

 

I'm not much of a pairings guy, it mostly doesn't matter to me who gets with who, except insofar as, it serves as an indicator of probable tropes/paths the fic will follow. So with that in mind, right off the top of my head, it'd have to be:

O: Harry/Tonks, Harry/Fleur, Ron/Hermione (but only when it's actually a thing and not just setting up Ron betraying her so she can hook up with Harry)

E: Harry/Daphne, Harry/Astoria, Harry/Ginny, Harry/Parvati

A: Harry/<insert canon character with little to no characterization here>

P: Harry/Narcissa, Harry/Lily

D: Harry/Bellatrix, Harry/Hermione, Voldemort/Anything not Voldemort

 

O: Harry/Fem!Harry
E: Harry/Fleur
A: Harry/Luna
P: Harry/Malfoy
D: Harry/Voldemort
T: Snape/Anyone

 

Uh-huh. I know, I know, don't engage trolls.

 

Atleast Draco is posh and handsome and she will live a rich life, with Ron you know she is going to end up Molly Weasley 2 with dozens of kids and lost beauty quickly and a house wife at the Burrow. Actually I think almost all Weasley wifes will end up like that.

 

Harry/Pany- Seeing the pureblood bitch get what's coming for her for fucking with a dirty half-blood.

...

Anyways, joking aside. I enjoy pairings but at the same time, I am very ambivalent about pairings in general, I am more interested if the story is focused on Hogwarts or if it is a time travel/ dimension travel story and I prefer pairings that build on the premise of the story. Daphne normally falls in this category which attracts me to the pairing, Fleur and Tonks have the problem of being out of Hogwarts which makes their inclusion in the main pairing difficult. Other pairings can also be fun to build other premises like Ginny for Slytherin Harry, Gabrielle for an Adult Harry in post-Hogwarts fic, Narcissa for a time travel fic, Pansy for crack fic. In general, I believe that a good pairing is one that adds to the story and it doesn't make the story revolve around it, which is the problem with most Harry/Hermione fics.

 

You really need to read the books again. If there is one thing I can say about Hermione Granger with utmost certainty, it's that she won't become a housewife.

Also, canonically, Hermione and Ron have lesser kids than Harry does.

Anyway, I don't really mind the pairing so long as it's written well. And it's not Harry/Voldemort, Harry/Snape, Harry/Pansy or something convoluted like that. And Harry/fem!Harry - there is just something that strikes me as wrong about it.

 

Hermione literally becomes the Minister married to Ron. The whole thing about her deserving better misses the point that she doesn't have to have a husband who outshines her, she can have someone who's pretty normal at the end of the day for reasons of personal preference. Anyway, the only pairings I like to read are ones that don't seem forced in any way, and I don't really read for the pairings. There is one that I haven't ever seen, though, that I would like to see, and it's Harry/Hannah- obviously very little is stated about her in the books, but I think it would make for a funny story. In general, I think Ginny, Daphne, and OFC have made the best stories, because I like Hermione and Luna as friends rather than love interests.

 

Hmm

O - Harry/Fleur, Harry/Hermione (Specifically during the Horcrux hunt when Ron leaves), Harry/Bellatrix (“I can fix her” time travel),

EE - Harry/Daphne, Harry/Susan, Harry/Narcissa (time travel)

A - Harry/Luna, Harry/Katie, Harry/Pansy, Harry/Tracy, Harry/Hannah, Harry/FemRiddle(altDem time travel), Harry/Lily (time travel)

P - Harry/Cho, Harry/Ginny, Harry/Millicent, Harry/OFC

D - BitchHarry/Hermione, Harry/Male, Harry/Multi(harem), Harry/MuchOlderFemale, Harry/DeathEaterBellatrix, Harry/FemVoldemort, Harry/teacher

 

Outstanding:-- Harry/Daphne, Harry/Luna, Harry/Fleur, Harry/Parvati or Padma (Patil girls are badly under represented)

EE-- Harry/Susan, Harry/Pansy, Harry/Bellatrix or Narcissa (time travel is fun)

A-- Harry/Ginny, Harry/quidditch teammates, Harry/Lavender, other minor characters

P-- Harry/Hermione (sometimes good, but way too much fanon Marry Sue Hermione to dig through and the pairing is boring now), Harry/Cho (I hate the melodrama surrounding Cedric). Harry/Astoria (wrong sister), Harry/OFC

D-- any pairing featuring Voldemort, Snape, or Malfoy with anyone else

 

I like Harry/Daphne because the ones I've read are well written. Also just read Delenda Est and Wind Shear, both of which are Harry/Bellatrix with time travel so they are both around the same age. I found I liked Bellatrix in those stories. Really what is going on, I think, is that Daphne and Bellatrix are almost OC's, so the author has more flexibility than with the stock Rowling characters. That all said I'm not much of a shipper. I tend to like adventure stories where some shipping is fine but it shouldn't take over the plot.

 

O: no pairing, Harry/Katie, Harry/Ron/Hermione, Harry/Ginny (if well-written), Ron/Lavender

E: Harry/Luna, Harry/Fleur, Lily/Snape (if Snape is less of an arse than in canon), Harry/Neville, Lucius/Narcissa, Hermione/Viktor, Albus/Gellert

A: Harry/Hermione (if well-written), Harry/Susan, Harry/Lavender, Harry/Cedric

P: Harry/Tonks, Harry/Ginny (canon), Harry/Voldemort (if Voldemort has canon-ish appearance and personality)

D: Harry/Draco - ewww, Draco/Hermione, Harry/Hermione (most of the time), Harry/Tom Riddle, Harry/Daphne - I don't like Daphne, Harry/Gabrielle, Harry/OC

T: Harry/Pansy - no way, Harry/fem!Harry - I can't stand female Harry

 

I’m with @Agayek on this one - I don’t care about pairings beyond my expectance of how the tropes surrounding the relationship influence the plot.

I’d go as far as despising “shipping”, because the need of authors to shoehorn their favourite pairings often very negatively affects the story by forcing slightly (or very) different characters into very obviously unrealistic relationships.

I’m also not a great fan of high school romance for life, so I mostly ignore Ginny, Luna and Susan. Hermione fics in my experience devolves into Mary Sue Hermione devotion, so I skip those as well. Of slash I’ve read two or maybe three interesting fics, otherwise it’s a pile of angst and usually extreme caricature of gay relationships.

In the end, if the characters are interesting and have chemistry, i’ll read anything.

 

Yeah, not really.

 

O++: Harry/Daphné/Ginny (the Great Overlord of pairings, I'd consider reccing and putting a fic up for review for that alone before opening it).

O: Harry/Pansy, Harry/Astoria, Harry/Ariana (TT), Harry/Daphné, Harry/Ginny, Harry/Malfoy's daughter, Harry/Gabrielle (when adult).

E: Harry/Luna (would be O too if people could actually write her), Harry/Tonks, Harry/Fleur, Harry/Voldebabe (TT/diary), Harry/Bellatrix (TT), Harry/next-gen who's not family.

A: anyone not mentioned in other categories.

P: Harry/old!Narcissa/Bellatrix/Voldebabe/Amelia..., Harry/OC.

D: Harry/Non-TT!Lily, Harry/Hermione (the problem is that these fics tend to feature Hermione prominently, and that might be the biggest red flag I have), Harry/man.

Note that these ranks are for serious fics. If I'm in the mood for smut basically anyone can be bumped 2 ranks.

 

I’m also not much for shipping/pairing because one given pairing can just be completely different in terms of dynamic from one fic to the other because everyone just does whatever they want with the characters, which is fine since this is fanfiction, but it’s not very useful when trying to figure out if you like a pairing or not. Some characters have just completely opposite personalities depending on who writes them. Also, some people here have put actual incest pairings without specifying that they were not related, which ew.

To me, a (endgame) pairing has to be aesthetically pleasing, somewhat realistic (so no 20-30 years age gap or “I can fix them” nonsense) and there has to be some sort of balance between the two pairees. You don’t just pair, say, Hermione with Lavender, they have nothing to talk about. For that same reason I don’t really like Harry/Fleur if it starts during fourth, fifth, or even sixth year because Harry is a sometimes awkward, not very sociable, scrawny kid with glasses while Fleur is an adult confident bombshell with a snobbish streak and she sees Harry as a “leettle boy”.

With all that said, unless the pairing is actually gross like Malfoy or Snape or Voldemort with anyone or, as aforementioned, big age gaps, then I’m generally fine with the pairing as long as it’s only a side dish to the main plot. I also don’t care if it’s two men, two women, or a man and a woman in the relationship.

 

My pairing preference for Harry Potter fanfiction is: no, thanks.

I'm not entirely sure why, I like pairings well enough in most other fandoms. I'm not even all that selective; I'll read hetero, slash, femslash, age gaps, poly, weird dimension fuckery selfcest stuff. Give me an interesting premise and compelling characters and I'm in. Hell, throwing oddball pairings together in something like GoT is its own sort of fun. I've only ever tolerated it in HP fic though.

Possibly it's because I gravitate towards Harry-centric stuff, and schoolchildren fumbling around isn't my fave? I suppose I don't like my coming-of-age stories mixed with a side of romance or something.