The Fall of Childhood is FUCKING AWESOME so far, 17 chapters of 30 down.

 

Are you? When was the last time you wrote something for Yule Ball, eh? Eh?


/wants moar Harry/Fleur

 

I swear to god I read the search in this thread and was about to recommend the OP read "Sixth Year: The Steps Toward The End." /facepalm - hard.

Anyway, I'm of course then wracking my brain to think of any, and here's what I came up with:

Bungle In The Jungle by jbern - Sure, it's touted as Harry/Luna from the get-go, but that pairing only sputters until the hints of a future relationship at the end of the sequel. And in between, Harry dates (okay, mostly fucks the shit out of) a parade of other women (mostly OCs), and I think there is a glimmer of the pains of relationships in there.

Draco664's Apprentice Potter series - I admit I lost interest partway through the third story, and the relationship drama between Harry and his two love interests is mostly concurrent and leans heavily to just Harry/fem!Blaise, but hey, I don't have tons to choose from here.

On the Way to Greatness by mira mirth has some failed attempts at relationships, though this is almost entirely background info (as it should be).

enembee's Conlaodh's Song - it's a stretch for what you're after, but the memory of Harry's first love is definitely an elephant in the room for him, if not for his new interest.

Lovegood, Boobs Gooder by nonjon - you may laugh, but in the story, Luna knows what she has with Harry is probably temporary (as they're both pining for another couple), but she decides to carpe diem anyway. It was written to be funny but I thought it was refreshingly real.

...
... ...

I thought I'd have more than that, but no. Ah well.

 

Bungle in the Jungle and its sequel do have some unknown's with the relationships, but you have to get passed the second person to enjoy them.

 

Harry goes through several relationships in Sixth Year: The Steps Toward the End. The story is unfinished and unlikely to ever be finished, and most of the pairings were only slightly explored, but it does have quite a bit of variety.

 

lol.

Fucking Nooblet.

 

You present an interesting conundrum, Nooblet. I can't decide if you're rubbish at humour or just stupid XD

 

Was going to give benefit of the doubt and say shit at humor, but then I realized someone above mentioned almost suggesting it.

Plus Nooblet annoyed me by making me hope there were more suggestions.

 

What about Potter, No Angst? It's in the WbA section and certainly seems to have a Harry who can't make up his mind on which girl he wants.

EDIT: On reflection, that's probably what prompted this thread and you're unlikely to have missed the story anyway. Sorry.

 

Should I tell him, guys?

I had, in fact, missed it, but read it after Averis posted earlier in the thread. Enjoyable. Thanks anyway.

How'd it turn out? I'm a slow reader and have only read Potter, No Angst and am partway through Secret Sanctuary.

 

Fall of Childhood is very good, my only gripe is that the sequels were taken down and never appeared again.

 

Yeah, I was pretty disappointed. Still, it reads well as a standalone story as well.

 

Fucking hell.

Going to go kill myself now.

 

Here's my two cents:

Just because I have just finished reading
Holly Evans and the Spiral Path for, I believe the second time, there's quite lot's of jumping back and forth between pairings.
One of the creepiest stories out there, though. Read that one ;D


Talking about creepy and girl Harries, there's a Butterfly Effect, which probably isn't DLP friendly, so beware. I remembered it, just because of the relevant quote in the pre-first chapter author's note:

Remind's of what you are looking for, but the story itself might not be to your liking, with all the Ginny centered spotlight. No idea on the general DLP consensus about it. Probably held at bay like an old used diaper? ;D



On the whole shipping issue, personally I share the rare-ish view that there is no OTP in good stories, only choice and life, and am trying to write a more complicated interactions than one pairing can offer. Talking about self promotion, this also includes the very real possibility that the tagged pairing isn't the final one in, say FFF. That one is harry/ginny/cho, so consider yourselves warned


Because, come on, who saw a final pairing written on the cover of the book?
At the very most you may have "Where our esteemed hero falls in love with X", which may or may not hold until the end ;D


p.s.The Nooblet issue was funny, even when it took me a few seconds to realize what exactly happened...

 

Dude... don't suggest Spiral Path to anyone. I know Wordhammer is one of our own, but that doesn't excuse Holly Evans from being god awful.

As for Butterfly Effect, it doesn't fit in this story search at all. While there are other important romantic relationships for the girl!harry, the author makes it abundantly clear that H/G is the OTP. And it's heavy H/G too, which is why I can barely bring myself to read it, despite the decent writing overall.

 

I found A_Game_of_Style_and_Brutality to be pretty good, and it doesn't have a set pairing- not yet at least. It's recent, and still ongoing.

It's fun to read, I think it's one of the better lighthearted stories out there. But it's still pretty early on, so we'll see.

Edit: It's listed as Harry/Daphne, but it hasn't reached that point yet, and never let it be said that this Harry doesn't explore his options.

 

Nice find Republic....it was certainly a good time-pass. Updates are frequent too.

 

Yes, I revived this. If replying to some of the recommendations wasn't a good enough reason, let me know.

I've read the majority of these now, going in mostly order of what they were recommended.

@ Sesc.

The clear majority of Secret Sanctuary has not aged well. It's filled with numerous Indy!Harry cliché's (though back then they wouldn't have been) and a super!Harry who barely uses his powers, and even fewer for plot purposes. The endgame was... alright, but it was nothing spectacular. I doubt I would've read the sequels had they actually been written.

But the romance side was reasonably well done, particularly for Susan and Ginny. Not so much for Sally-Anne and one of Hermione's twin sisters (who were introduced as a big deal and did NOTHING), but Ginny as an overall arc was surprisingly solid for fanfiction. Despite the main part of the story making me quit reading on more than one occasion, I did mostly get what I was after (and it did fit what I asked for to a t), so thanks, Sesc.

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Averis' fics are definitely enjoyable, and I'm impatiently waiting for more. I'll be contradictory: while I want Yule Ball to be completed first since it's been a very long time coming, I'm more eagerly awaiting updates for No Angst.

Style and Brutality is... interesting. It has its problems, but I'll keep on it since it's actually updating.

Had to skip large parts of Just Lucky, I Guess. Wasn't terribly interesting.

Couldn't get into Holly Evans. Not my cup of tea.

Enembee's writing hasn't really clicked with me yet. I'll keep trying though given his popularity here.

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The one fic that stood out was by far Harry Potter and the Fall of Childhood.

Fall of Childhood was superb. Absolutely superb. I haven't lost sleep over fanfiction in over a year, and this made me do it every night for the week it took to read. (Yes, I'm a slow reader. Doesn't help when I only started around midnight.)

If you haven't read it, read it. Characterisations are nigh flawless, and in almost every instance I had a qualm with it was later explained. Writing is more than solid. Among the best in fanfiction. Every scene actually does have a purpose that, once you've finished and go back through, you can see connects to the larger threads playing out across the narrative.

For what I was after, the romance is also outstanding. However, I did feel cheated at the end in this regard, though largely because of the sequel no longer being available anywhere I have seen. Had the sequel still been around, I believe my issue on this front would be resolved.

I really, truly am sad to see the sequel is nowhere to be found.

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Now I have only the Apprentice Potter series, Butterfly Effect, Star Empire and Fangs, Feathers and Flames left to try. Only.

 

Honestly I'm really disappointed that the sequel to Fall has dropped off the face of the earth too. Apparently it had been started but got taken down for whatever reason, and it's not in any archive that I (or Ollie) could find.

 

I'm still expecting big things from this. The author is intelligent and definitely listens to constructive reviews (I've gotten into a few discussions with him over mine and I think silentclock is giving him advice). That said, not sure how relevant it is to what you stated you're interested in.