Title: Swung by Serafim
Author: flamethrower
Rating: M
Genre: Humor/Drama
Status: Complete
Library Category: General
Pairings: No Central Pairings
Summary: In 1993, Gilderoy Lockhart points a stolen wand at Harry Potter and Ron Weasley with the intent to Obliviate them. The wand doesn't backfire. Gilderoy's "discovery" of the Chamber of Secrets is a short-term success. Other consequences are not short-term at all.
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9821300

I have found this gem of a fanfiction recently, and I simply loved it. You first get to read from Snape's perspective, but it portrays him in a realistic manner, thought this fic does make him a better person than he was in cannon.

I think the author pulled off the premise of the fic very well. We see Harry being judged for being someone he has no memory of being, and Harry himself has to deal with that.

The character interactions are also hilarious and in my opinion are executed in a great way. One of my favorite parts was

Spoiler

Albus nods. “It was true, however painful the truth was to hear. However, I reassured Miss Bulstrode that her own Head of House supplied the potion to make our werewolf professor docile and harmless during the full moon.”

Snape glares at him.

“You may feel free to say, of course, that I ordered you to do so,” Albus says with a faint smile.

He resists the urge to grind his teeth. “You did order me to do so.”

“Did I?” Albus affects surprise. “What a wonderful coincidence. Now you can tell them nothing more than the truth.”

“Are you certain you weren’t a Slytherin?” Snape asks, amused in spite of himself.

“Of course not.” Albus pops a lemon drop into his mouth. “I do not allow myself such a limited point of view.”

Snape flicks his fingers in Albus’s direction, dismissive. “That was a blow beneath you, Headmaster.”

“Mm,” Albus agrees. “You and Minerva are the definitive results of your own Houses—which is as it should be, for a Head of House. I only wish that you both would stop viewing the other Houses as the enemy.”

“They are the enemy,” Snape says. He wants the House Cup back where it belongs, thank you very much. He gets to his feet. “Good evening, Albus.”

The story does drag on towards the middle and get a bit cliche and trope-y, you could say, but the good in it heavily outweighs the bad.
Overall, I would give this fic a 3.5/5, rounded up to a 4, and if not worthy of the library, at least a very high Almost Recommened.

 

Oh this thing.

Quick off the cuff review, I read this about three weeks back and considered throwing it up for review in the early parts. My thoughts came in stages:

1. Hey, this is pretty good. Nice jump into the actual story.
2. Snape POV all the time, interesting. Non-annoying characters, maybe kinda indulgent at times, but I enjoy this.
3. Um, we've gone through three years from third to sixth year and we're only a quarter of the way through the story. Is the rest just going to be seventh year? What?
4. Well, that happened.
5. Nice backflip over a shark and off a cliff.

For the sanity of everyone in this thread, you will eventually reach the end of the plot. You will know when it happens. Like, half of the story will be left. STOP THERE. The story is over, go home. The rest is pure cringe, so much so I actually put it down. This doesn't happen. I hate abandoning things I read so far into. I either barely commit or commit all the way. I can't even summerize what happens after, I don't want to remember this and I don't want to see this story again.

Actual Story: 4/5.
After Story: 1/5.

I'm not rating it. I don't know how.

 

Sigh.

 

ew

 

I went through the first few chapters and I've got to say the premise is interesting. Writing is technically sound. Language and spacing checks out fine.

However, it has that Snape is a good person with a bad history feel. THAT is what ruins this. In one of the chapters,

Spoiler

muggle music is smuggled in by Harry. To drive the knife deeper, they actually wrote the lyrics down.

This was a major red sign and spoiled the entire atmosphere of the fic. It is a bit anti-wizard in its tone, and Dumbledore is not done very well. Also, cliche
über Harry, with unnatural character progression. Some parts of the story sound corny.

I liked what the author tried with Sirius Black, him growing up and stuff.

In the end, I give a rating of

3/5 - 1/5(for creepy snape vibes)=2/5.

 

Damn, that was quick to go from the Review Board straight to Almost Rec'd.

I haven't read this fic in a while, but I did remember how the ending ruined any goodwill that I had toward the story, which wasn't much considering that the tone of the story felt like a montage of feelgood wish fulfillment and Tumblr headcanons. Don't get me wrong, I can see why someone might like this fic, as it's long, completed, well-written in a technical sense, and has some interesting OC's and unique takes on the art of potions. However, it also embraces modern sensibilities and Muggle culture in a fashion that is completely at odds with the style and tone set by canon. It's a strange juxtaposition, and I didn't find it enjoyable.

Chapter 23, "Godric's Hollow".

Little things like this brought me out of the story. It just doesn't maintain the magical feeling of the HP universe when Muggle references and ideas are constantly thrown in.


And then the original character of Jade, who refused her Hogwarts invitation and studied engineering at a Muggle university. She was meant to be fun, fresh, and quirky, a partner to this story's quirky lesbian Luna, but her likeability was ruined for me by the most annoying dialogue. It's worse than Hagrid!

But I think the worst, most shark jumping thing about this fic was the ending.

Harry and Snape co-habiting and the story inclined toward intimating they'll become a couple later on. It can't be enough that Harry and Snape are both bisexual (Harry had a polyamorous relationship with Cho and Cedric), but then there's the age difference, the power dynamics, the fact that Snape loved Lily and now her green-eyed son goes around calling him "Sev".

It feels so weird and I didn't like it.

Maybe it's bad form to rate a fic based on my emotional response rather than an objective analysis of its style and substance, but I don't want to re-read this.

I can't in good conscience give it 2/5, because that implies I'm 40% okay with it.

1.75/5.

 

The biggest problem of fanfiction: no subtlety, coupled with slash pairings, results in every person being non-het. Every fucking person. Always.

 

I have no problem with authors writing a character with a sexuality other than what was implied by canon. That's the entire reason why AU fics exist, to go against canon. Even JKR ignores her own canon these days.

But with this story, I did not enjoy it at all because not only was it extremely unsubtle, but it contradicts the basic characterization of Snape. Snape is an angry, bitter loner who is motivated by his love (or obession) with the one good thing in his life, Lily. Gay, straight, bi, those labels don't apply because Snape is 100% Lilysexual.

Thus it breaks his character, both canon and how this fic developed him from his canon self, and jumps the shark to pair him up with Harry, the son and lookalike of James Potter. It's as weird and character-breaking as writing a straight, Casanova Dumbledore. At that point, it's not an alternate universe take on the character, but an entirely different character altogether.

I don't think I'd be inaccurate if I called Swung By Serafin the most Tumblr fanfic I've ever read.

This is a Shape centric fic all the way through. Lockhart is minor and is a plot device to create the canon divergence, not an actual story relevant character. If you are reading for the Gilderoy, you'll be disappointed. Walburga's portrait is a bigger character here than he is.

Even people who don't love Lockhart are disappointed by this fic.