H/Hr stories =/= stories with H/Hr. Coming Back Late is a H/Hr story, Enembee's By the Divining Light is a story with H/Hr in it. The first story revolves around the pairing, and such stories should definitely be marked as such. The second one has H/Hr as a plot point, but it is not the plot. These are the stories that shouldn't be marked, so as to attract people who are wary of a particular pairing for whatever reason, and try to hook them with other, more important stuff before the pairing comes to the fore. Many readers can accept/overlook the pairing in this case, and enjoy a story that they otherwise would have avoided.

 

Xandrel, if a story that has you reading it with interest suddenly throws in slash out of nowhere, then my guess is it wasn't good to begin with. I was talking about stuff that is actually good and introduces romance at some point (the spoiler example).

Nerox, so it's a personal preference. Fair enough.

The point I failed to express.

 

If Hermione plays too big a role in the story, I will most likely nope it. I just can't stand the character.

 

I consider pairing being listed the same as things like "Grey!Character" or "DarkButNotEvil" and start reading with that in mind.

 

@ScottPress: On the subject of pairings: if you find a story you're enjoying and halfway through it turns out the author went for a particular pairing you dislike, it's really that big of a deal that you'll nope out?

If the pairing is heavily focused on then I stop reading.


Edit:
new pet peeves:
- when something major from canon is changed and yet the plot stays the same. Don't make Harry "dark" and still have him risking his life to save Ginny or sparing Pettigrew, don't put Harry in Slytherin and still have him befriend the Weasleys and have them save him in 2nd year.

- when a muggleborn is sorted into Slytherin and their life is even remotely easy. Life should be hell for them. I mean nonstop bullying and social isolation. No muggleborn student is going to suddenly take over Slytherin a week after their sorting.

- following the theme of the last one, fics where Tom Riddle, the muggle-raised halfblood with a muggle surname, is feared and respected in Slytherin after only being in it for a week or two. I am 100% positive that he had to work hard over a long period of time to rise to power in Slytherin and gain followers.

-In 'reading the books' fics, when a character is punished for something their book self does/did.

 

Does someone really read enough "reading the books" fics to have pet peeves relating to them?

 

When they were on FF.net I read through a lot of them. There were actually some good ones and it was a shame they were never finished. The fics that had BS punishments where usually BS to begin with over used cuteness between Sirius Remus and Harry, obsessive use of words like 'pup', or 'cub'. An almost pedophilic protectiveness for Harry by Snape,Sirius, and Remus. Need I go on?

 

I'm pretty sure a lot of them featured HP/SS slash so that would fit.

 

"Oh Sevvy!" bubbled Harry. "If only I'd known that you were only being an absolute fucking wanker because of a pathetic child-hood grudge that you never tried to shed for fear of what it would do to your own self-image. You're such a selfless hero! Here, let me suck your dick."

 

In Snape-centric fics, whenever writers make his father a knockoff Dursley or an abusive father twice as evil as Voldemort (sometimes both). What I mean by this is they either make him hate magic and refer to his wife and son as 'freaks', or have him abuse them in hilariously extreme ways (ex: rape, public humiliation, constant beatings, I read a fic where he castrated Snape).

Christ people, all we know from canon is that he yelled at his wife once. And we are never given anything to indicate that he hates magic. If anything he should love magic because it would help him save money (my headcanon!Tobias is like this).

 

How did this man not receive a First Class Order of Merlin medal for it?

Damn shame.

 

A new Pet Peeve of mine is when an Author misunderstands Canon and bashes characters using that flawed viewpoint.

 

While bad writing I can understand how it happens. Years of reading fanfic with a slippery slope of original character personality can quite easily lead to a misunderstanding of who they really are.

 

Why? Slytherin isn't the Be-all-end-all of evil. All we get in the books is a decidedly anti-slytherin POV due to Harry's dislike of Draco and Quidditch rivalry (not to mention Snape).

In fact, I'd suggest it probably isn't much different for a Muggleborn than a black teenager attending an almost all-white school in the US thirty years ago. Some would hate him, some wouldn't care one way or another, and some would rally to him based on ability, personality, etc. In other words, despite fandom (and possibly, the movies), Slytherin =/= Death Eater. While pureblood superiority would be higher among it's members, "Always Pure" doesn't equal Pureblood Superiority, either, or neither Tom Riddle nor Snape could have been a part of it.

"In 'reading the books' fics" . . . You lost me at those three words.

 

I remember a good one I found pretty amusing back then, where the reading was actually about an alternate version of Harry Potter, who was also cynic pyromaniac (iirc.) It turned out that the Harry Potter character present during the reading also mirrored the alternate book version. All in all there was a lot of silliness and I remember something about penguins (and the Dursley's house burning?) being involved, too.

Sadly, I could never find the story again afterward.

 

My personal favorites belonged to "Rosedragonwitch".

 

Harry being described with long hair in any fashion irritates the hell out of me for some reason. Just thought I should add that one to the list in case it hasn't been mentioned.

 

Blame the movies. Always. For everything. Forever.

In the Goblet of Fire movie, Harry had long-ish hair.

There, excuse found, the movies are at fault.

 

Someone mentioned the Polyjuice potion not changing the voice.

That is a great way to tell if someone has only watched the movies, or draws more from the movies than books.

It was a stupid writing decision in the movies and added nothing to the story, while adding a massive issue to polyjuice. Barty Jr then had to use it for a year while suposedly doing a voice. Polyjuice ould shift your vocal cords so naturally you'd change voice.

 

Idiotic plot twists. My. Fucking. God. I was just reading a fic where James comes back to life after 4th year. It was pretty good, up until chapter 5, where suddenly it is revealed that James is Voldemort's son and Harry is Voldie's grandson. There's no reason for it, it wasn't warned for at all. This nearly ruined an otherwise good fic for me.