Title: In the Black
Author: Izzythehutt or Ieyre
Rating: T
Genre: Drama/Family
Status: Complete (73K words)
Pairings:
Summary: Regulus survives the cave and goes to his older brother for help. He strikes a deal with Dumbledore: the Horcrux in exchange for his family's protection. Sirius, meanwhile, is faced with his toughest mission yet: managing his estranged parents, who find they like having both their sons back and are prepared to use all their cunning to make this temporary family reunion permanent.

Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12955255/1/In-the-Black

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14800721/chapters/34243049

Sequel

Title: Black Mask
Author: izzythehutt or leyre
Rating: T
Genre: Family/Romance
Status: In Progress (484K words)
Pairings: Sirius/OC
Summary: Christmas 1979—— dangers, secrets, lies and their shared history loom large over the Blacks’ first Yuletide season as a reunited family. While life as a fugitive proves bleaker—— and more boring—— than Regulus could have imagined, a botched espionage mission at Malfor Manor draws Sirius deeper into the Black family web. [Sequel to ‘Into the Black’]

Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13017159/1/Black-Mask

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izzythehutt/pseuds/izzythehutt


Not quite sure where to begin with this one, I think I’ll mention that Sirius is my favorite HP character and there is a dearth of fics with great characterization of Sirius. Fics which are Sirius centric are even rarer and then I managed to find the Black Sheep Dog series.

It was like stumbling upon something I never knew I needed from fanfic reading. I have never quite read anything like this series (whether that’s good or bad is up to you guys) because it’s as if a Downtown Abbey met the Wizarding World.

The first fic begins with Regulus surviving his little adventure in Voldemort’s Horcrux cave and managing to escape to his elder brother for help. From there, Dumbledore, the Order and Sirius’ parents get involved. The Blacks (at least Orion and Walburga) see their younger son wounded by the Dark Lord’s actions and their wayward heir and realize that they have an opportunity to fix past mistakes and to reunite their family.

Sirius, of course, wants no part of this arrangement. However, in order for Regulus and the Blacks to cooperate with Dumbledore, their price is the chance to regain their lost eldest son. Pressed by his parents, friends and Dumbledore - Sirius finds himself very reluctantly being forced back into his family’s arms.

The writing in this is lovely, there were a few times where I found myself feeling all sorts of emotions reading the interactions between these characters. Unlike canon where the Blacks are just written off as Sirius’ “evil” parents, here we get to see their perspective as well. The characterization is top notch because we get to see the regrets that the Blacks have in having their oldest son run off and how desperately they want him back.

Sirius character is written marvelously because you get a 3 dimensional version of him. He is reckless, headstrong, charming but also infuriating to deal with from other characters’ perspective. I mentioned earlier that Sirius is my favorite character because of his complexity but the author of Black Sheep Dog turns the volume up on more than canon ever could.

Apart from the family drama (there is a lot of it) we also get glimpses at the wider Wizarding World from both the Pureblood perspective and Order side of things as well.

I found this series to be absolutely exceptional and would give it a 5/5. However, that could just be because it’s a guilty pleasure for me. I shared it in Almost Recommended because it’s not Harry centric and it may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Nevertheless, I still wanted to share it.

 

So I've read the first one and was genuinely surprised. Not what I've expected from your description at all.

I'll start with problems that I've noticed. The Author has an adverb problem and has this weird idea that he has to depict the tone in which something is said every second line or so. It's not really that bothering until you notice it, and then you cannot get it out of your head. At one point, my brain just started skimming half of what comes after dialogue tags. Having in mind that the whole work is actually just a giant piece of dialogue, you can imagine I'd skimmed through like 1/10 of it. And yet I read it all.

That giant piece of dialogue, however, is engaging in the most refreshing way. After half the first chapter, the voices were so fleshed out that I knew who was speaking before I've actually seen it and that's a huge plus in my book. Voices are different, fitting to characters, and almost painfully accurate.

What is missing in action, the fic makes up with the constant tension in family dynamics, and them being Black, you can imagine how that goes on. Pureblood nonsense is there, but not over the top, and just enough to make the Black family stand out, just enough to get that sense of Pureblood family.

Some weird speech patterns, but that's okay.

It's a really good find and in this section of Almost Recommended, I'd easily give it 4/5. Such a nice Sunday read. Objectively, if considering for the library, I'd tone it down to 3/5 but that's all prone to change when I read the second part that is considerably longer. So we'll see how it proceeds, and then I might add more.

 

This is a very nice recommendation. I’ve read through both stories in 2 days straight.

I get why it’s not up for review, as it’s really not a Harry Potter story, but at the same time it deserves to be in the library IMO.

The writing is good and has gotten better, the editing/proofreading not so much. What sells this story is the characters though. There’s emotional stakes everywhere (sometimes admittedly slightly overdone), and the characters have unique voices that really make you feel along with them. You can feel the plot driving the conflict sometimes, but it’s never to the point of idiot balls and randomness.

The cast of characters is large and perspective jumps around a lot, yet it’s basically never on characters/events that you don’t really care about, which I find really realy surprising considering we’re half a million words in by now.

Sirius’ love interest is the only OC in the story I believe, but she fits in 100%. She adds to the setting, and that’s pretty rare for OC’s in my experience.

Give me half a million more words of this and I’ll have it read by Monday. 5/5. (Unlikely btw, feels like the story is working its way to a conclusion.)

 

Thank you for the recommendation! I, like Jarizok, read through this the last couple of days.

Haphnepls has the right of it that the voices of the characters and dialogue are both done very well. I especially like the OC Colette and her naive, romantic view of the world--she is written like a Jane Austen character!

I usually don't read Marauder-era fics, but In the Black and its sequel Black Mask reminds me a bit of Blackpool in that it is a Black-oriented fic exploring the relationship of Regulus and Sirius (as well as the other Blacks). It's not nearly as tightly paced as Blackpool though.

I don't think this will be to everyone's tastes as it is very much a family drama, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. I think the author has done a fine job of adding some complexity to the view of the Blacks we receive from canon. Sirius is embittered in OotP, and we get a sense of that here, but he is much younger and still looking for family. I've liked the epigraphs for that reason.

4/5

 

If this is the story I think it is, the scene where Sirius and the love interest get off his motorbike and try to sneak back into the house is absolutely glorious.

5/5 story.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with you on both counts. I ripped through both stories (maybe like a day and a half) as soon as I came upon the series. I consider it to be Library worthy material but I wasn’t sure if everyone else would considering how different of a fanfic the Black Sheep Dog series is.

I always find myself in admiration of authors who can carry a whole story based on dialogue and Izzy certainly manages that. The way she captures the voices of various minor characters in HP canon and makes it her own is really remarkable to me considering how authentic it feels. This is a small example in a story filled with them but I could totally imagine the older Blacks sitting around grumbling about the dating habits of the younger generation. It feels like something the Blacks would do. The author is probably a little too charitable to Walburga Black compared to how cannon has her but goodness if this isn’t much more enjoyable than the caricature of Walburga Rowling provided.

While, I’m mentioning minor characters’ depictions in this fanfic. I was amazed by the characterization of

Spoiler

Andromeda Tonks nee Black

. She was only there for a chapter or two but but I was blown away especially because there aren’t that many great depictions of her in the first place. If cannon had ever expanded on what she was like as a character, I would hope that she would be close to this.

I love Colette, probably one of my favorite OC’s in fanfiction. She just fits in so well in this story and her role in the sequel is really integral because of all the places her character gets to explore. There is a real Pride and Prejudice vibe (in a good way) that gets mixed into the story because of her and I can’t stress how rare that is in fanfic.

On A03, it says we’re on chapter 30 of 38 in the story so it definitely looks like we’re winding down in the story but like you said, I would happily read another half a million or million words from this story.

No problem, I’m happy to share this fanfic. I wasn’t sure how it would be received but I was totally blown away by it and if nothing else I wanted to see what other people thought of it.

I mentioned in the first post about how much I loved Sirius’ characterization in this story and this is partly why. By OoTP, we have a post Azkaban and significantly more jaded Sirius but this version has so much potential because of the emotional baggage that he is trying to work through. In canon he never gets the chance as his emotional development gets arrested with his trip to Azkaban but here he has a chance to work through it all and maybe just maybe develop into potential that everyone around him can see that he is capable of.

Yes! It’s such a terrific way to begin the sequel. It’s reminiscent of the Aladdin ‘whole new world’ scene but with more wizards and flying motorbikes.

Totally different from how I expected Part 2 to begin but such a lovely surprise.

 

I remember reading this a while back. I thought that it was more than decent, although I never really got around to following the sequel's updates. I liked Sirius's interaction with his parents, and how Walburga was properly fleshed out as a character.
I'd give it a 4/5, and @Philly Homer if I were you I'd ask a mod to move this thread to the review board, it's more than library worthy.

Edit - On rereading, it's undoubtedly a five out of five.

 

Oh, that’s a good idea, thank you for the suggestion. I reached out to one of the Mods, hopefully they will.