When you first started reading fanfiction which stories acted as your first exposure to the common tropes and plotlines of the fandom?

Did they make you interested in finding more stories like them or did they put you off that particular concept entirely?

My own examples:

Poison Pen: Lordships, “swearing on your magic”, helpful goblins. Not a good story but I liked it at the time. Swearing on your magic seems very weird without fandom context, since its so obviously not a part of canon. The goblins were an anticlimactic Deus Ex Machina but didn’t alienate me from positive representations of them.

A Black Comedy: Not a trope exactly but this was the first fic I encountered that was written pre-DH and came up with its own explanation for how Harry defeated Voldemort. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realise that and I spent the first half of that story incredibly confused. I think it spoiled my enjoyment of it a little.

Methods of Rationality: My first Rational-Fic. Ashamed to say it made me well disposed to the concept and I did look for more of them in various fandoms.

Oh God Not Again: Time-travel and I think this could be safely deemed crack. It’s fine for what it is, and I think I remember some parts of it amusing me.

In this World and the Next: Harry/Hermione. Ah, those innocent days when I didn’t know to stay away from RobSt. I didn’t need much to turn me off from reading Harmony stories but this certainly got me most of the way there.

The Lie I’ve Lived: Harry/Fleur. Loved this one when I first read it and liked the romance as much as I like any romance. Didn’t make me look for more Fleur pairings, but it did nothing to put me off.

A Champion’s New Hope: Harry/Daphne, Daphne in general, magical cores. Pretty solid all around, from what I remember. I think this serves as a very good intro to Daphne and it made me well disposed to the pairing. For the magical cores, they were at least plot relevant.

Do Not Meddle in the Affairs of Wizards: Indy!Harry, Ginny bashing, possibly Betrayal and Azkaban. Oh god, the cringe on this one. Harry wears “attitude” t-shirts at all times. I don’t know how I read to the end. I did not care for the betrayal stuff and it certainly helped sour me on bashing. I was still willing to read Indy!Harry, just not ones done like this.

Earl of the North: The other possible Betrayal and Azkaban, Harry/Bellatrix. The betrayal stuff was still abysmal, though it had the saving grace of not being the main focus. As for the Harry/Bellatrix, the story itself has a disclaimer saying it’s not worthy of being compared to Delenda Est, so points for self-awareness.

Better Be Slytherin: Slytherin!Harry, Mentor!Snape. Not great. Pretty dull and I skipped to the end about halfway through. Didn’t put me off the ideas, I just hoped they’d be done better in the next ones I found.

Others I can’t find or remember the name of:

Wrong-Boy-Who-Lived: It had a Ravenclaw Harry, the brother was named Daniel, it was a romance with Hermione, I think the story ended with Hermione dying and Harry travelling back in time to fix things and the first thing he did was kill his brother.

I think at the very least, this one gave me an accurate impression of the sub-genre and it was not one I liked. It did help me better appreciate Santi’s story.

Ron/Hermione/Dumbledore Bashing, Slash: After CoS, the basilisk venom makes Harry transform into a lamia and he starts living in Diagon Alley in a hostel that had vampires and a drow that Harry began a gay relationship with. Harry drops out of Hogwarts early in his Third Year for reasons I can’t remember.

I found it very confusing. I had no idea what the author’s problem with Ron, Hermione and Dumbledore was or why Harry was thinking so hostilely towards when they hadn’t actually done anything. I also didn’t know what slash meant at that point and the gay stuff caught me totally off guard.

 

Psychic serpent - introduction to fanfic
Power of time - Indy Harry
Dragons tear - Powerful Harry.
Betrayed - Evil Ron Weasleys, Hermione, Killing Hedwig
Future remapped - time travel dark indy Harry with incest
Draco Dormiens - Leather pants draco
Cell block 4d - Harry/blaise
Shake Me - Vampire Harry
Earl of the North - Azkaban Harry, Harry/Bellatrix
Litany of Blood - Harry/Fleur
Redemption of Black Sisters - Black sisters
A Summer of Change - Unspeakable Harry Harry/Tonks
A stranger in a unholy land - Harry goes to Au
White Knight Grey Queen - Harry Pansy Romance
This means war - Harry/Ginny
Vox Corporis - Harry/Hermione
They shook hands - Slytherin Harry
R Series - Harry/Tonks
The news - Sex slaves, rape, evil Harry, smut. Harry/Daphne
Forever Knight - Vampire Hermione
The Return - Harry/Lily
Fury of the Hellspawn - Incubus Demon Harry
Sacrifices arc - slash, Harry/Draco
Cartographers craft - Harry/Sirius
The girl who lived - Harry/fem!Harry
The new life, Nightmares of future past - Going back to younger self
Family matters - Harry/Mrs Granger
On the wings of phonix/Sunset over Britain - Evil Dumbledore
Bungle in the Jungle - Love Potion Harry Harry/Luna
Back to the garden - Harry Luna Ginny
Chimera - Harry Cho Tonks
Evil be thou my good - Crossover
Dark Lords Blessing - Mentor Voldemort
Hope - Harry Gabrielle

 

@Hansar it's unsung hero - it's the first wrong boy who lived I read as well. Remember being pissed of by the ending back then.

 

That's the one. Looks like it's been deleted.