Rand32085, you are absolutely right.

 

The sixth year is mostly in the same situation as in canon, except for Harry's romantic interest and haircut.

Spoilers for chapter 2 of part 3:

Spoiler

Draco took the mark and the canon assignments. Harry found the story of the hallows so it seems they will return. Neville is a prefect. Hermione is in love and radiant.

So, although it's still not slash, and it had some interesting moments, I'm disappointed.

 

Bumping this thread to put the fic on other people's radar and to give my own 4.5/5 rating. I stumbled upon this story while favorites list hopping and was pleasantly surprised to find a gem. It's a largely character driven story with part one being a fairly unconventional start to Harry's life and parts two and three being rehashes of years 5 through 7. However, don't let the idea of rehash dissuade you from reading it.

We do see familiar plot points and structures but they're tweaked slightly enough to give this story it's own breath and identity. There are also some major divergences from canon in the rehash that were very well done and exciting to read. As I already mentioned, the story is mostly character driven and that's where the fic really shines. The characters are fully fleshed out leaving clear distinct imprints in my mind including major characters from Harry to Dumbledore and minor characters such as Ginny and some OCs. It all combined together to form a strong, cohesive trilogy that really worked for me.

That isn't to say the fic isn't without its problems. The epilogue and particularly one character's actions at the end weren't all that great; it took a little longer than I would've liked for Harry to get into the thick of things; personal annoyance but I felt the martial arts wasn't all that necessary (and to the author's credit, this sort of thing usually has me closing the tab ASAP but it was written well enough that I endured on); and although the author's Voldemort was good to read (especially his weaknesses) I would've liked to see that one character fleshed out some more. Which isn't to say the author's Voldemort was bad, just that I feel he or she could've done better.

For those of you who, like me, are neurotic about this sort of thing, I almost immediately close a fic if I read Sirius or Remus calling Harry "pup" or "prongslet" and I'm happy to report that you'll find none of that in this story.

Anyway, all of the above make me grade this story a 4.5/5 rounded to 5 for the purposes of voting.

 

read this series a while a go
really good but not brilliant so
4/5 for me