Title: The Aurors
Author: FloreatCastellum
Rating: T
Genre: Crime/Suspense
Library Category: General
Pairings: Harry/Ginny Canon pairings
Chapters: 21
Words: 100,244
Updated: August 30, 2016
Published: February 28, 2016
Status: Complete

Summary: The last thing Harry Potter wants is to be lumped with a trainee Auror, especially one that idolises him. As he guides her through the realities of being an overworked Auror and tentatively settles into adult life with Ginny, a dark plot brews on the horizon... Winner of Mugglenet's Quicksilver Quill Awards 2016, Best Post-Hogwarts.

Link: The Aurors


I saw this reccomended on Reddit did a search for it on this site, and saw the author is a memberFloreatCastellum here on DLP. However there doesn't seem to be a WbA thread for this fic so I figured I'd post the link here.

At first I was leery of this fic since it's a post Hogwarts fic and I tend to loose interest in them. However I was pleasantly surprised to see that this fic is one well written and two it's a complete work.
As the summery suggests the OC Theia Higglesworth is a trainee auror who gets partnered with Harry much to his chagrin. Besides the technical portion of this fic. The mystery to be solved is suitably entertaining in fact the author is able to keep this fic well balanced between Harry's life which is interesting and follow the OC on her adventure.

I'd say this fic is a 4 out of 5 rating, and ask the author why she didn't post in WbA since it's such a gem.

 

Glad to know there's no surprise time travel.

 

Right. That was the wrong use of the name.

 

It's a pretty good story, though not really my cup of tea. Also, the author has posted in WBA but didn't really get much feedback (which is usually what happens when you start posting there when the story is already halfway done.)

 

Read through it today. A good procedural, if somewhat easy to predict. And the OC was good, decently developed, and didn't seem too out of place.

4/5

 

I picked the story up thanks to this thread and read it in basically one sitting, so thanks for posting Peter North!

Things I liked about this fic were pace and dialogue especially. The story jumps pov at a decent rate and there's enough interesting stuff happening without it feeling like there's too much desciption going on. A good example of this is Teddy, who's casually mentioned throughout the fic and physically present in a decent amount of scenes but doesn't get more attention than he deserves and still feels as important as he should. The dialogue is just straight up well written and realistic, grumpiness, awkwardness and humor all there in the right amounts.

I didn't really like the OC as the typical starstruck newbie and her development... I don't know really, but I feel like it could have been better somehow. The badguy gets revealed halfway through the story right after I figured out who it was, so I didn't get to bask for very long which is of course also super annoying

The fic is a good length, complete and a nice read all round, but not quite up there with the reals greats of fanfic-land. Then again, I don't usually go for post Hogwarts stories too much so maybe it's great in its kind, I'm no great judge.

3.5/5 rounded up for me.

 

I really enjoyed this fic! It's well written, has good pace, good characterizations, wasn't too long/short, and the OC--as mentioned--wasn't a Mary Sue. To me this is library worthy, although that might not mean much coming from someone who has posted so little.

I'm not a big fan of the crime/suspense genre in general, but I was still engaged throughout reading this. Bonus for it being complete. However, it didn't take that next step in being a 'great' story. Something about it made me feel like I'd read the skeleton of this story before and it didn't diverge in a way that makes it stand out as special.

Either way, solid 4/5 from me with no big flaws. Thanks for the recommendation!

 

Some of the latter scenes between Dennis and Theia are extremely well written. The slow building of suspense is brilliantly done.

Theia is a well built character, if not quite to the level of great. She has a genuineness to her that most OCs in the fandom lack.

Easily one the better fics I've read this year, though this is still the author's third best fic.

4/5.

 

I'd give this 3.5 out of 5 purely for the way it was written. One of the few after hogwarts I could stand to finish. The rookie partner was so grating on me it was really annoying the fan boyish. I get meeting your hero's and everything but this is a person who has graduated hogwarts and is a applicant in the new aurors. People who gravitate to police work or army are either much more serious or goof off so much as a form of stress realize. She just didn't really fit the part she was suppose to play

 

Good, even though rather clichéd, fic.

Still I have a few things I would like to mention.

Firstly, it was too easy to guess culprit's identity.

Spoiler

Especially the main culprit's. Really, it was obvious since we've learned that the neighbour is Dennis. In chapter six out of twenty one.

Mainly due to there not being anyone else doing suspicious things. But also due to him being criminology student. That's even more direct than psychologist. And then you made him the sidekick's love interest.

Secondly, the latter half of the fic slightly dragged on. I'm not talking here about slice of life bits - they were fine. More about repetition in the "Harry and Theia are close to figure something out, but they can't" parts.

Thirdly there was this jarring jump where we went from Harry and Theia thinking that

Spoiler

there are two culprits to interrogation of the Fischer that supported that theory to thinking that Lars worked alone to again thinking about there being two culprits.
I understand that he wanted the case to be done and didn't want to think about someone from DA being the culprit, but it really could be done in more smooth way.

And finally, something I think, but I'm not sure is the case of typing wrong name (not the first time in the fic which supports the theory).

I guess that the Robards is a mistake here and it was supposed to be Runcorn. Or were there Robards other than Head Auror? Or is this supposed to be Gawain after all, which really doesn't fit with the rest, so I suspect that's not it? FloreatCastellum - help?

Anyway - 7/10, so 4/5 on DLP scale.

 

Yes, sorry, this is a mistake that evidently slipped past myself and my beta. I am terrible with names and it's something I did struggle to keep track of in this fic.

 

FloreatCastellum you forgot a bracket in your quote.

 

Fixed just as you wrote this

 

Maybe I'm too much of a sucker for a good procedural, but I enjoyed reading this piece. Frankly, I concur that the Dennis/Theia conversation was well-paced, and I liked that the OC wasn't a Mary Sue Wunderkind for whom Harry falls. Although I can understand why others gave it a 3.5, I personally am giving it a solid 4/5... because Elementary is my bread and butter.

 

I finished this story a few days ago. This is a great example of how one should do an OC main character in their stories. The main character is for the most part just an ordinary girl. She has strengths (good memorization and a Ravenclaw drive) which help occasionally but do not dominate the story. And she is clearly naive and flawed.

The story did suffer from a few flaws that other people had pointed out earlier, such as the villain being revealed to the reader way too early. But the story is technically sound and hits a lot of good points, so I'm willing to give it a pass on those fronts.

I'd give this a 4.5/5, rounded up because I'd like to see more good stories with an atypical cast of main characters (an OC definitely counts here).

 

While it was mildly disappointing that the antagonist's identity is relatively obvious, the story has enough other strengths that I'd not be ashamed to round it up to a 5/5.

The protagonist is interesting enough to care about, but does not take from their surroundings either.

I feel like this author could have more interesting things to say about rehabilitation, possibly. I will certainly be interested in the promised sequel.

 

Pros:
-A nice writing style which flowed well, not extraordinary but never jarring.
-Tightly plotted, the story moved along at a good pace and I never felt bogged down in a filler chapter.
-Good characterisation, both of the canon cast and the OC (and basically OC).
-Complete!

Cons:
-Only real complaint is the end, which seems a bit procedural and anti-climactic, possibly because it's aiming for a sequel, possibly because it was character focussed rather than action/suspense.

I didn't mind as others did the reveal of the antagonist, I thought it was done very well as a way of adding suspense to later scenes, and enough mystery remained.

 

I'm reading this now and liking it a lot, but really have to go to bed. It's hard to put it down. Yeah I think I have guessed the culprit too, but will have to see.

 

Just finished binge reading. Excellent story. I like post-Hogwarts stories bc I'm too old to want to read about teenagers, and the 98k length is just about ideal. It's a full novel worth of development and breathing space, but short enough to require actual planning ahead of time, unlike the aimless 500k stories where the author keeps posting new chapters without much idea of what to do next.

One weird thing was so many wizards/witches dating muggles. I would have expected that to be unusual. It's fine though, if that's the author's take.

@FloreatCastellum nice work!

Added: there are 2 sequels now, https://archiveofourown.org/series/1344421

 

Just read the first sequel. Also excellent if you like horror fiction. I hate Stephen King because his characters have no freedom of action, but he does the background vibe pretty well. This story has the vibe, AND has characters with actual agency. Harry and Ginny (as a married couple) are also presented with lots of tenderness. *****

Update: oh noes, 3rd installment is WIP. I clicked this thread looking for complete fics bc I already have too many WIPs pending, but I guess I will start this one too. Heh.