Title: The Madness of Ravens
Author: AutumnSouls and darienqmk
Rating: T
Genre: Adventure/Humor
Status: In-Progress
Library Category: Alternate universe
Pairings: None.
Summary: The fuckery of Lyra and James, two idiots who can't agree on how their thrust into the wizarding world should be handled. Double SI. Co-written with darienqmk.

ff.net AO3 SV

This is the first time I've read an SI and thought it might make DLP's cut.

Lyra is Draco's older sister. She had big and progressive ideas and is quite sociable and persuasive, to the point that Dumbledore sees a mixture of himself, Grindlewald and Voldemort in her. She's treated as somewhat of a prodigy, but freely admits that her skills is mostly based on the fact she's actually an adult and not actually a kid.

James is a muggleborn. He's more of a keep your head down kind of guy, but he does still use his knowledge to his advantage, just with less of Lyra's huge ideas and most of the time he's more responsible about it. Like Lyra he's seen as bright, but admits that's mostly his maturity showing. Lyra likely outshines him because she's sociable, not because she's much better.

The story is mostly told through the perspective's of other characters, but sometimes does follow Lyra and James.

The story does feel slightly crackish on occasion, usually when Lyra fucks with people, but it doesn't go overboard in that department, staying within the bounds a student could actually get away with. It also sticks very close to canon magic and characterisations. The SIs aren't going around criticising people for every thing and telling them how they can do it better, they certainly are not Dumbledore's level either.

Relationships between Lyra and her family make sense. She treats Draco like a little brother and loves her parents (mostly Narcissa) despite their biases. Narcissa realises the danger her daughter is in due to things she has said and done, and acts appropriately for a concerned mother.

Dumbledore acts very reasonably and shows a willingness to work with the SIs when given important information. Reasonable explanations that fit within the bounds of canon are given for Dumbledore's lack of action in certain areas and the story shows his regrets when he can't do more. The SIs sometimes think or wonder the worst about Dumbledore and are proven to be wrong.

The SIs aren't "preserving the timeline" either, so things have gone off the rails quite nicely and they do use their knowledge to their own and everyone else's advantage. Bad things have happened to them despite their very reasonable planing due to very reasonable chains of events so they do have setbacks.

The only issues I have with this are the somewhat crackish things Lyra does (which mostly happen in earlier chapters) and the authors admitted fact that most of the issues in the story could be solved by the SIs coming clean to Dumbledore, but that wouldn't make for an interesting story.

I'm giving it a 4/5 having read ten chapters.

Edit:

In terms of crack it's toned down from Autumnsoul's last DLP recc'ed fic while retaining the positives of it.

 

The crack was too much for me, I couldn't get past the 2 chapter.

No rating since I guess it's just not my thing.

The technical writing is ok though.

 

I don't think I've enjoyed the first few chapters at all. The humor didn't click with me, the initial banter between the main characters was too crack-ish for me to enjoy and Harry & his friends were forced into the plot in a way I didn't like. The story gets more interesting as it goes on though, the interactions with Dumbledore in particular.

I wish the SIs were not so close in age to Harry, or the story started at another point. I feel like the SIs would've had more stuff (that is, not related to canon events) to do if they were older or were (re)born in a different period of time. Actually, I kinda wish Harry wasn't in the story at all. Not that he has an important role, but random mentions in the later chapters are a bit annoying to me. The story is at its best when it follows an original plot point and SIs are with other people.

3,5/5 going down to 3/5 for the rating, because of the weak start. The A/N at the beginning said it's wish-fulfillment and not to be taken seriously, so I'm going to do that.

 

3/5 seems right to me as well. Humor didn't click all that much with me but I've been following it for a while and am still reading it

 

Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised by this fic. It's by no means an exceptional piece, but it doesn't try to be. Characters are fun and they avoid completely washing out all the stakes with the crackishness. Unfortunately, it's another SI fic that would be better as literally anything else. Like, if this were a time travel fic and we were building to the reveal that our MCs were Harry and Luna or something, that would probably make this a 4/5 for me, but it isn't, so I'm given it a 3/5. Readable, but not really anything to write home about.

 

I'm still reading it (even did a reread a while ago) and the later chapters are much better in my opinion. The magic and world building is quite interesting.

 

As Testamentary said, this fic was a pleasant surprise. Though slow to get into its groove, the fic did a good enough job of keeping me entertained by the silly, crack-adjacent fluff that comprises the first several chapters. Once it gets going, it is a fun project with interesting world-building that cycles through multiple POVs - both canon and OC.
In today's HP fic environment, this is an easy 4/5.