Title: Shattered Paragon
Author: Trash_Production
Rating: M
Genre: Mystery?
Status: In Progress
Library Category: Alternates or Dark Arts
Pairings: None

Link

Summary: Harry Potter, a war-hardened survivor, is thrown into the past, but it's not his own. In a world both familiar and alien, he must navigate old scars and new mysteries. But the darkness within him refuses to stay buried.

Not my find; this was recommended by the author of Prince of Slytherin

Harry gets sent to a world where James and Lily are alive, and his twin is the boy who lived...


It's not at all like PoS and other WBWL stories, nor is it like every other time travel story. Harry's twin and his parents aren't dicks, Dumbledore and Snape aren't caricatures of themselves, and there are a lot of things that Harry isn't aware of, and often enough, he's just plain wrong.


Harry is competent, but not omniscient. His memory isn't reliable, and he is appropriately nerfed, with believable in-universe reasons.


The prose isn't exciting but there are moments where it shines.


The pacing is appropriate, and we've reached the point where lots of changes are planned. That's often the point where a lot of stories die off, but the author's already planned year four and releasing new chapters quite often.


It's been a while since a fic got me this hooked, and I've been glued to my phone reading this at every possible opportunity.


This Harry is dark, competent, but not comically so. He overshoots and fucks up, and has to deal with real consequences.


Also, he can be quite funny.


And there's no indication whatsoever that he'll be grooming anyone, which is a plot point in a non-negligible number of time-dimensional travel stories.


But enough waffling.


Why would you want to read this? Here's an excerpt that's quite light on spoilers.

Spoiler

Borgin chuckled. “My boy, that’s not the price. You can take a hundred, or—”

“Two hundred,” Harry repeated—and drew his wand.

Borgin’s eyes flicked toward his own wand, but he hadn’t expected the speed.

Slash.

A flash of silent magic, a crimson arc of pain. A shallow but sharp Sectumsempra cut across Borgin’s shoulder. He screamed—an ugly, high sound—and collapsed behind the counter.

Harry stepped over it like spilled parchment.

“Let’s be clear,” he said coldly. “I do not tolerate being played. Not by gutter rats like you.”

He pointed his wand at the wound and cast a cauterizing charm.

In Parseltongue.

The sibilant hiss that followed made Borgin flinch harder than the spell. He stared at Harry as if he’d seen death itself.

Yes.

That was the look.

Harry sat back on the edge of the counter.

“Now,” he said, slowly. “Let’s try this again. I want two hundred and fifty per bottle. For my trouble.”

“Y-Yes, sir,” Borgin stammered, clutching his arm. “Of—of course. I didn’t realize—”

“You didn’t realize who you were dealing with,” Harry said. “That’s your first and last mistake.”

“I—yes. Do you—do you have more?”

Harry gave a faint, joyless smile. “Maybe.”

He stepped off the counter, cloak swishing as he turned toward the door.

“Oh,” he added without looking back, “and next time you try to scam me... remember what it felt like to bleed.”

The shopkeeper nodded frantically, still on the ground, still clutching his shoulder.

Harry exited without a glance.

Yes, it had the desired effect. Parseltongue... it was rare. So rare. In Britain, there had only been one known Parselmouth in the last century.

Voldemort.

Let Borgin wonder.

Let him think.

Let him fear.

Because fear would keep him obedient. Fear would keep him quiet. Fear would ensure that next time Harry came calling, he’d get what he wanted—and more.

This world didn’t understand fear yet. Not really.

Not like his did.

All in all, this is a solid 3/5.

It's good enough to have kept me thoroughly entertained over the past few days, but not quite library worthy.

Maybe you'll get a kick out of it too. It feels fresh yet nostalgic. There's shades of the Denarian series and Control, that old dark!Harry fic here.

 

Should it not be in the review board? Looks promising

 

I gave it a shot.

The formatting's a bit weird.

The style leans too much on narration to push the story.

More characters need to have at least the appearance of agency. Lily and James are grief-stricken, but they ought to have been more observant.

It glosses over Harry's abandonment as a squib at the start.

Author shifts it to the end of first year.

That sequence was like reading an old WBWL fanfic and leaves me with mixed feelings.

Harry goes all edgy very early — it takes some time to get used to it and I'm not sure I ever did. Biggest point keeping me from treating the fic seriously and liking it. Dumbledore should turn him into a chair or something to blunt that edge.

It made his comeuppances fun though. Props on getting me to lol at the funny bits. An example:

Spoiler

Marginal
3/5

for year 1

The real divergences pile up from Year 2.

There are a lot more changes from canon and Harry's homicidal tendencies come to full bloom.

He gets punished for his mistakes at last.

Spoiler

That final scene was great at building up and hit hard. Both salvaged and ridiculed the entire year.

Fic gets a little serious and interesting.

3/5

for year 2

I don't like the treatment of magic. Treads too liberally on canon instead of building on it.

Spoiler

Also don't like the "Take mental therapy" bits and that's what the story is building Harry towards.
Having young Voldemort check himself into a mental hospital was a true wtf moment.