Like nearly everyone on this site I've read this story a long time ago. I did enjoy it back then, and although I can't say it was an explosive or mind blowing kind of fic, it was a good read.

One of the major points I hated about this was the letter to Ginny in the first chapter. There are other cringe worthy points but its not worth listing.

On the other hand one of the things I liked was the slow development of Harry as an independent character.

Since this is complete as well, I'll give this story a 3/5, not because I sat there and read it, but because its one of the few Harry/Ginny fics that I can read without excessively cringing.

 

Seconded. (Filler)

 

LOL@whatTauresaid

I remember reading this (most of it) maybe a year or so ago and enjoying it then, despite the obvious reasons why I wouldn't, but I got bored with the slow updates and story progression. It could have been written in 100,000 words. Probably. Maybe.

I'll give it another chance sometime (you said the first one is completed, right?) but probably not any time soon.

 

I'm afraid I can't agree. Throughout the HP Canon, Hermione has been many things, a bookworm, an occasional plot device, a voice of moderation for Harry's sometimes rash plans, but above all else she has always been Harry's other best friend. She's been ready to set a teacher on fire for him, ready to follow him through a highly dangerous set of obstacles to stop an extremely valuable magical artefact from being stolen, ready to support him when he's dealing with enormous prejudice from a large amount of the school, ready to go back in time with him, risking being wiped out of existence, to save his godfather from a fate worse then death.

I could carry on listing the occasions when she's gone above and beyond the expected call of friendship for Harry; so I will. She was willing to let herself be used as a test dummy while Harry practiced for the Tri-Wizard Tournament, and taught Harry a large number of the spells he would need for his future confrontations. She stuck with him as he went through a hugely personal spat with another of his close friends, as he (once again) fell in the eyes of most of the school.

So presumably by the fifth book, we should see some small quirk in her previously near-flawless friendship that would allow for her to develop into the character in this fic, one that you yourself Sesc have said you find to be believable. How does she show that she's unhappy with Harry's reckless behaviour? By inspiring him to set up a self-defence club, against the rules of the top authority figure in the school, against the laws of the land? By helping him break into one of the most secret government departments in the centre of the Wizarding government? By going toe to toe with him against a group of organised killer? Yeah, what a backstabbing bitch.<o></o>

I’m of the opinion that your best friends are the one’s who are always with you, and one who will follow you when the chips are down, in fact demand that she come along with you if your going to place yourself in peril’s way, is a very good friend indeed.

So it makes sense, for Hermione to go from one of Harry’s best friends to incessantly critical annoying bitch? From an extremely intelligent witch to one who often comes out worse then Ginny in arguments? For that matter, is it obvious character development for Ginny to suddenly be all over Harry, defending him like there’s no tomorrow? I’m pretty sure the consensus back in 2005 here on DLP when HBP came out was “Where the fuck did that come from?”

Trust me, I love the Canon. If I could have my rank changed to “Vice-Canon Fanboy” I would. That or Pip Boy. Or Vault Dweller. But that’s beside the point; despite the drubbing JK Rowling frequently gets here, I still think the Harry Potter books are truly excellent, and I can’t think of any piece of fanfiction I’d rather have printed in book form on my bookshelf rather then the full series. I frequently look for Canon-ish stories, with the essential qualifiers that they are a: believably Canon like and b: good. I found this story to be neither convincingly Canon-like nor particularly good.

Well I’m afraid we’re going to have to disagree here, I personally found that the author seemed to have ripped off quite a bit of his ideas, plot twists and characterisation from crappy authors like Bobmin, but filled in the blanks with his own prodigious writing talent when Ron and Hermione weren’t being unpleasant enough.

Trust me, I know. As regards to how I would rate them; well normally I’d just avoid them altogether, but if someone had me at my computer with the point of the Ebon Wand (Ebony Wood and Griffin feather core, naturally) pressed against the back of my neck, I’d probably give it at most a 2.5/5, unless it was extraordinarily well written, so good that I could ignore it’s clichés (Timely Errors is an example of this). I’m afraid I couldn’t ignore any of the clichés in this fic, be they Dual-Animagus!Harry (one of them being the cliché required Panther-Animagus!Harry), loony old Dumbledore, training!Harry or a more then healthy dollop of textbook Independent!Harry.

p.s. Sesc, when the bloody hell are you going to update The French Affair, which really is an example of fanfic perfection and is the sort of stuff we all want more of in the Library? In case I haven’t made myself clear, it’s uber-:awesome

 

When I read the first chapters a year or so ago, I tought nah to much clichés, but I still couldn't stop reading, because the writing was not all that bad, so I gave it a shot, true it has slow update rates, there are still some clichés that are to just to used, like more then one Animagi form, but atleast its not a Phoenix or a Lion and its "only" 2 or the letter to Ginny at the start but still his writing has improved over the years the romance is belivable and well developt.

It's an ok piece of work.
A 3,9/5 from me for it has no mind connection or other sad little fangirl dreams in it.

 

Actually, it's one of my favorite stories. Writing style is between very good and excellent, leaning to the former. I think characterization is very good too. While all what Magus said is true, there is bigger context. Every time there was Dumbledore supporting these decisions, or lack of him disapproving. In first year, Hermione decided to go after the stone because they couldn't reach AD. In the third year she only risked whatever she risked because AD suggested that she should do that. I wonder what would happen if AD didn't belive Harry in 4th year. Would she be as helpful? In year 5 she pushed Harry to start this club to oppose people who were attacking AD. Hermione loves authority, there's no denying that. Here's a quote about her priorities (from canon book 1)

And about being annoying bitch - S.P.E.W., need I say more?

That said, I don't think she wasn't Harry's friend, just if she were to choose between AD and Harry (just like in Taking Control) she'd choose AD.

Back to the reviev, romance is belivable, unlike lots of other stories. I know this is HG, but I personally hate HG just because when I read it's HG I know I have chances 100:1 that the story sucks.

Uh, well, cliches. They don't bother me that much. Well, trunk does, but rest is okay in Super!Harry for me.

As for length - I like long stories, if writing quality is ok, I just have more pleasure of reading than in oneshots.

The only thing that really bothers me, is Harry's attitude, even if it's entirely in his character. I mean, he figths DE's and uses only stunning spells. He is as foolish as AD about this, he claims to be light-sided but when it comes to removing the danger he has no guts to kill, just like AD.

I rate it 4.5/5 (voting 5)

Have you read Denarian Quadrilogy by Shezza88?

 

The story would have been better, had it been more original and not that long but I still liked it a lot. It's certainly way better than most of the fics on fanfiction.net but I'm doubting if it belongs in the library.
On the other side, I think it is too good for the recycling bin.
I'd rate it 3,5/5.

 

Sesc, WTF were you on? Crack? You may think Hermione is one hell of a bossy, irritating character, but at least she's got a character.

Ginny? You mean Wallflower Ginny- the one with no depth whatsoever? Are we talking about the same Ginny who was nothing more than a minor supporting character for the first 5 books before JKR turned her into a veritable Mary-Sue in HBP? Because that about sums up Perfect Ginny's "characterisation". Like you said, go read HBP for proof.

Edit: No, it's not just Insta-Love or Soulbond H/G fics that belong in GinnyPotter. I think fics with Ginny-Sue belongs there too.

 

I'm reading this and it reads like a regurgitation of H/G crap from GryffindorTower.net (remember that?). Ron and Hermione are made worse so Ginny can be a great friend, and Harry's affection for her comes out of nowhere (which is canon-ish, unfortunately). Does it get better? Should I keep reading?

 

That's probably the only way you can justify H/G.

PostOOTP Harry needs a confidant -- someone he can trust implicitly and feel comfortable talking to. And Harry doesn't exactly have a lot of close friends, does he? Take Ron and Hermione out of the equation and you only have Ginny, Neville and Luna up for the spot. So yeah ... that probably is the only way you can make this pairing work.

^^ What he said + Romance is a major focus in TC; if you can't stomach HG, you are better off not reading this.

Yes it's full of cliches, but you can't deny it's well written. If you make it past the first few chaps (training!Harry, Potter-bookfest, Sirius!dreaming, Harry-gets-abs) you'll probably end up reading the whole thing. There's some decent battle scenes and the author even dabs into some magical theory. The romance is slooooow as hell but it's believable.

Hermione might seem a bit off character to some of you but I totally agree with what Sesc had to say on the matter. Go back and read PoA. Hermione is a fucking menace when she thinks she's got something right. The author chose to capitalize on an established canon trait -- it might be overdone but you can't put it off as OOCness.

In a nutshell, this fic is WAY better than the usual shit that gets posted under HG and it certainly doesn't warrant a 1/5!

 

The writing is above average--mostly because it's not rife with grammatical and spelling errors. Unfortunately, though, it suffers from a good many clichés of the genre, some of which I've always found to be rather unbelievable, such as Harry becoming a professor while still in school. I don't mind H/G when done well. Heck, I can read almost any het pairing if the author makes a case for it, but while actually believable, it was too slow in this case. 3/5 for me. Average, but not library worthy.

 

On the subject of Harry's attraction for Ginny coming out of nowhere, I think this is not really a very good criticism of HBP.

I mean, where else do you think attraction/infatuation/lust comes from? People don't rationalise their attraction towards someone and then come to a logical conclusion that they should like them. You just see someone and you think "I'd tap that". If you chat with them and then like them then even more so.

You're all assuming that Harry went from "I don't know Ginny" to "I love Ginny". This isn't the case. He went from "I very vaguely know Ginny" to "Woah, I'd tap that".

Love, presuming the relationship lasts long enough for it, then comes later. Never in the HP series does Harry confess love towards Ginny that I can recall. In this fanfiction it takes him 300k words to even kiss her, never mind tell her he loves her.

So all people objecting to Ginny coming out of nowhere are a bit deluded about the way most relationships form. You frame your objection by arguing against love at first sight, but this is a straw man, as what you should be arguing against is lust at first sight.

Sure, some people go from being 'BFF's to lovers, but statistically I think this is quite rare, comparatively speaking.

On the subject of Hermione, the author has taken an occasionally dominant character trait of hers (she spent most of PoA bitching because she thought she had a righteous cause, some of GoF, and then again a lot of HBP) and turned it into a more-than-occasionally dominant character trait. It's a slight distortion of canon, in that she's taken the worst of Hermione and made it all she is about, but it's not a total stretch, given that it has happened a few times in the past.

It's no different really than someone taking Ron and calling him jealous and disloyal. He has shown a few bouts of jealousy and disloyalty in the past, and some people like to then extrapolate his entire character from these events, ignoring everything else about his character.

Not the best characterisation ever, but given that the character has shown a tendency towards that behaviour in the past, not completely unbelievable.

 

You guys all complain about Ginny coming out of nowhere and having no characterization at all. But what can you guys tell about Blaise/Tracey/Daphne from first 5 books?

We know for sure Harry actually ever talked to Ginny before, even if it was just 'hi'.
We know for sure Ginny supported Harry when he needed it most (DA).
We know for sure Blaise is a boy (and yes, we know it since book 1). Slash is not my type, but well...
We know that most of school wore 'potter stinks' buttons. What exactly makes you think that pureblood/halfblood girl would go out of her way to support (by not wearing the button) a very probable enemy of her family?


Anyway, in most cases I can't stand HG pairing because I can't stand how it's done, not the pairing itself. To me, HG pairing story is a synonym of story written by 2nd grade student who got B from an essay and thinks he/she is almost professional writer. Or scratch almost. Back to the topic, in case of "Taking Control", the whole story is written in good style, all characterizations of characters are based on previous books and even cliches aren't used in too bothering way.

If Harry were to pair with the only one character that had proper characterization in canon, he would end up with Hermione.

PS. If Harry miraculously met Daphne working in this store and took her to a date instead of a muggle you wouldn't complain about how probable was that and just say "+1 for pairing".

 

uh....

Ok, i may be wrong, but when someone attacks you and you are thirteen, you attack right back. The Scabber/Crookshanks things was right there. Ron was at least as offensive as Hermione, and he was the one who cut ties. As for hermione "whining", you are so right. I mean, it's not like she just had her opinion and defended herself (she never attacked ron, only defended herself iirc), nor is it like when she was already using a TT to get more class and thus more homework, she again took the extra project to help Buckbeak.

Yeah, right, that's so bad.

And WTF about SPEW? she may have done it in a bad manner, or more precisely an immature one, but slavery is *wrong*, and all the things about House-elf needing Humans were at that time (i haven't read DH) non-canon.

It's not because broken people are happy with their position that you should ocnsider it fair, or right.

I always laugh at the Authority figure thing too, considering that hermione is the *only* character in the "right" side that mistrust AD (she says so in PS at the end).

Of course, Harry jumps at saying it was alright, so that may have been why she never brought it up again (Harry is a AD fanboi).

Defending Snape? Someone had too, as as much as i loath snape, Harry's judgement was hasty. I strongly think she may have been playing a awkward devil advocate, given that her first thought when harry was in danger in th equidditch match was *to look at snape*.

Hell, i tried to read that fic.

Both ron and Hermione are made caricature of their already previously 2D characters, with what's left being only their bad side.

Also, it has Ginny sue.

 

Your fighting a loosing war here, no offense. How about you change the name from Ginny to Lilly and see how much more positive feedback you get.