Title: Six Pomegranate Seeds
Author: Seselt
Rating: M
Genre: Supernatural/Adventure
Status: WIP (~178k words at time of writing)
Library Category: The Alternates
Pairings: none so far
Summary: At the end, something happened. Hermione clutches at one fraying thread, uncertain whether she is Arachne or Persephone. What she does know is that she will keep fighting to protect her friends even if she must walk a dark path. *time travel*

Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12132374/1/Six-Pomegranate-Seeds


What you've got here is at its heart a fairly conventional time travel fix-it fic. As the last battle ends, something goes wrong and Hermione gets to start over at Hogwarts as 11 year old pureblood orphan Cathal Rosier, plus some overpowered hax in the form of the spirit of Hogwarts and a house-elf sidekick. So far this sounds awfully generic, doesn't it? You'd expect a Malfoy romance or something to top it off.

The thing is though that the "fix it" part isn't really there. Hermione takes a very hands off approach, although constantly conflicted, and barely interacts with the main cast (including her younger self), so the main Harry Potter story unfolds like in canon and almost exclusively off screen. What you get instead is a lonely Hermione playing Cathal Rosier navigating pure-blood society, secretly preparing for the one thing she does need to fix - some unspecified disaster at the last battle. The main conflict here isn't Hermione vs Voldemort and the Death Eaters, it's Hermione vs herself.

Annoyingly though for such a character-driven fic, Hermione's characterization feels kinda wooden, especially early on, and since she keeps her own counsel and is really much older than her classmates, there aren't really that many interesting side characters either. You get to see Hermione/Cathal be a cool mysterious badass, but there's not a great deal of depth to it. Instead, what mainly carries this fic for me is the prose, which is surprisingly crisp by fanfiction standards. It sketches with light strokes, and it's just an enjoyable read. There are some mild tendencies towards the pretentious with plenty of references to mythology etc, but it's kept reasonable.

4/5 for an easily digestible but still enjoyable read.

 

She allows all the stupid moments in canon to pile up, only to interfere in one crucial unspecific moment in the final battle, ignoring that the final battle is the result of all those stupid moments ?

 

I usually detest canon retreads abandoning them fast, but this one was surprisingly pleasurable read. I like author's writing style.
I have few problems with this story. Narrator calls her constantly Hermione, which makes plenty of paragraphs confusing. Author didn't even bother to play with identity, she starts as Hermione, she finishes as Hermione, I would like to see her becoming Cathal more and more and confused because of this.
4/5