Title: What's Her Name in Hufflepuff
Author: ashez2ashes
Rating: T seems right
Genre: Adventure / Friendship
Status: WIP
Library Category: The Alternates
Pairings: none so far
Summary: 62k as of 04.08.2018
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13041698/1/What-s-Her-Name-in-Hufflepuff

Spacebattles (reader mode)

Doesn't really have a summary so far since it has only been posted on SB so here goes my attempt: A grown woman from our world finds herself as an 11 year old girl who is about to start her life in Hogwarts at the start of canon and then gets sorted into Hufflepuff.

It's kind of a mixture between the old school SIs where people get thrown into the source material and the more modern, Dreaming of Sunshine type of reincarnation SI where the protag might not have grown up in this world but was aged back to live a real life there and accumulate the necessary skills in a more organic manner. I find that this really works for me. Admittedly, it is a bit handwavy with how it happened but honestly, it was the right call and readers generally roll with these things at the very start of the story. I don't really need a consistent, logical explanation to justify the story, I can roll with strange magic that will never come up again.

Her finding herself in a Gringotts vault at the beginning is a bit of an odd choice, which is a bit weak that she basically starts with practically unlimited funds but didn't find myself minding that either. She is a Hogwarts student so money was never going to be that big of a factor and I kinda like that she can buy cool shit and doesn't have to worry about grinding money or whatever. It is a more lighthearted story anyway, focusing more on the magic, friendship and adventure rather than a more serious tale and I found that decision to be for the advantage of the story.

Another drawback, which was a small thing really was the odd take on Ollivander. It really didn't feel much like him and felt a bit cheesy but since Ollivander is only an appears once type of character, it's not like it matters and such a different take on him was a bit refreshing but I can understand why it would rub some the wrong way. Again, just one weird scene.

Now to the good parts. The story is charming, delightful and quite honestly fun. The SI is likeable and a joy to follow, the relationship with her roommates is really endearing and there have been several scenes and lines of dialog which made me laugh. The friendship that struck up between the girls is quite real and juvenile at times, like it should be between such young kids. The take on Hogwarts and the magical world does strike the same chords as early canon did and I quite love the take on various characters (Ollivander notwithstanding). Hagrid and the other professors were nailed perfectly and most above all, I love the organic way the SI does and does not interact with the canon cast. For example, being in Hufflepuff she has yet to talk to Harry or Ron because why would they interact at all at this point? Neither did she talk with Malfoy or anything. On the other hand, she kinda befriended Hermione and interacted with some other characters. There was life breathed into the characters inhabiting Hogwarts and the magic itself and it shows. A few of the hufflepuffs having magical boyband posters was a nice touch and there is even an interesting subplot regarding that.

The story overall has some fun ideas of worldbuilding, which makes exploring this Hogwarts a joy. It's not an AU or anything but a more fleshed out Hogwarts and magical world.

The butterflies she causes are thus similarly natural and don't feel forced or contrived. As a minor spoiler

Spoiler

she kinda befriends Hermione which then causes Hermione to not run crying to the bathroom when Ron makes his comment around Halloween, because she does have at least one friend and is kinda friendly with another Hufflepuff girl, so the troll thing doesn't happen and the trip has not formed at this point in time.

There is other stuff as well and nothing felt forced so far.

The story is still in its beginnings. We are still in first year, around Halloween and it seems the author has plans for the war as well so if this keeps updating we should be in for quite a journey. It has been a while since I had such sheer fun with a HP story and I really love it so far. Protag is also in that sweet spot where she is driven to learn magic (of course she is, why wouldn't she?) and thus shows good competence because of foreknowledge and adult discipline but at the same time isn't Merlin 2.0 who just roflstomps her way through magic.

Overall, it's quite the fun adventure that me laugh and smile and am eagerly awaiting for more.

An enthusiastic 5/5 but probably a 4/5 really.

It would also be really cool if we could not have the obligatory and rather unproductive "all SI stories are shit" comments which really lead nowhere. Long shot, I know but I can hope.

 

I have to agree with basically everything above. It's a reasonably well written story, although infinite gold at the start seems to have now been forgotten.

It's nice to have an SI where the main character doesn't spend 30,000 words wondering whether it's okay to date, or have friends, and why can't they interact with children well using their vast adult intellect. Whilst the SI does make friends with kids, there's also in-text mentions of how she finds boy-band obsessing to be weird, and she is definitely more mature than her classmates, so this hasn't been completely sidelined.

On top of that, a lot of the characters seem to act their age, and (for more filled out characters) their canon selves. Classmates care about Kasey's birthday, and work at it like you would expect young kids to do so (inexpertly).

Also (and it pains me that this is a positive), there hasn't been much of a "wizards are shit, why can't we be muggles?" argument, which seems to crop up all the time with SIs, especially on SB. There's been a few instances of smaller arguments (have wizards ever been to space? I bet we'd do it better than the muggles!), but it doesn't seem to be a defining feature of the character.

I do wonder whether the main plots of canon are going to be impacted at all, or if the SI is just going to sidestep all of them by virtue of being a Hufflepuff, and finding her own 'adventures'.

The SI wants to learn more magic, but still has to work at it, rather than just snapping her fingers and being done.

A pleasant story, although it doesn't really have a massive hook. Well written, and worth giving a go if you like SoL stuff. 4/5

 

I shall preface this by saying that there are a grand total of 2 SI stories that I've read that I actually thought were good stories rather than pointless self-agrandising fanwank.

This is one of them.

It's fun, it has a great tone, and it didn't get bogged down in the details of how the protagonist ended up in Harry Potter. Also, magic mirror to another dimension is a classic, so points for that.

I'm enjoying the butterflies, and the fact that the protagonist isn't instant besties with Harry is a nice change from the typical Marry Sue nonsense you often get with this sort of thing (whether SI or OC).

I'll give it a solid 4/5 subject to change depending on how things progress beyond first year.

 

I enjoyed it. Definitely doing well at following a protagonist parallel to HP without just dogging canon's footsteps. Even the huge vault of gold is getting a nice little side plot in the background, even if it was only mentioned briefly. The writing is good, the children are written believably, and the characterisation of the MC is interesting and engaging. 4/5.

 

It wasn't really forgotten by the story,

Spoiler

I mean it was relevant just recently when she bought the map as the simplest solution to her problem. If anything she IC kind of forgot the implications herself.

Anyways I was getting ready to put this up myself, it's a good fic. I particularly like how it reaches out a little in various interpretations to keep things fresh without going totally out of left field. It's a story that really gets the feel of things right.

 

This... Actually isn't bad. I'm not even mad at the practically endless gold. The whole thing is just quite fun.

One thing that really grated on me was her housemate and his ridiculously over the top and frankly poorly written Scottish accent. That can be toned down massively and not be immersion breaking.

Hopefully she'll actually get a chance to interact Harry sometime soon.

 

I usually don't care for SI's (with very few exceptions), but I wanted to give this an honest try. I made it about 4 sections in, before having to give up.

The writing is technically sound, and the descriptions are fairly well written. There were some that were pretty cliche, such as the description of ice cream " like heaven in a bowl". There was just nothing that really grabbed my attention, in the portion I read. Although I'm sure some will enjoy it, it's not really for me.

3/5

 

I actually really like this, there's a real whimsical feeling to it.

That said, I can't help but feel changing the name to Susan Bones and removing about half the fix it crap that Spacebattles is so fond of would improve the story immensely.

 

An awful lot of flaws can be hidden with makeup, or in this case tone. 3/5 is a good rating, I just like reading stories where the dialogue isn't ridiculous, and the sentence structure is consistent.

 

Ehh, I wasn’t really feeling this one. It’s definitely one of the best of it’s genre, but is that good enough for the library? Probably not. There were some cliches: the mountains of gold, a magical trunk. The constant repetition of the fact she’s American was annoying. Still the story is readable and technically sound.

3/5

 

Kinda fun so far, decently written and it's helpful that the character is fairly average skill-wise and shows alarm at being caught by Quirrell. It's a decent SI sort of story, which tend to be... not great. So in that aspect, it's a lot better than I expected. There are some dropped issues and a few mistakes (Terry isn't a pureblood, he's a half-blood), but overall it's not bad.

3/5

 

Genuinely enjoying this one. Very light-hearted, fun re-jig of the first book. Not too complicated, which is probably a good thing for the overall tone of the story.

4/5 so far.

 

New chapter and I am loving it. The story does an amazing job of capturing the magical and whimsical aspects of Harry Potter and its world, from the statues and the people to the magical products themselves. Loved the hair dye and the letter at the end and her approach to teaching has been rather sensible.

So yeah, new update was rather strong. Can feel myself rereading this story periodically and really hope this sticks to some kind of updating schedule. Probably my favorite updating story atm.

 

I'd just checked for updates earlier today; would have missed it for a few more days if not for your comment.

Ashez is really nailing the magical side of things in a way I haven't seen for quite a while. It might be almost textbook slice of school life, but that doesn't stop it from being genuinely interesting and doing a great job of filling in parts of a world that we only got glimpses of.

 

Not gonna lie, a bit sad this story is in almost rec. Deserves a spot in the library proper, imo.

Anyway, new chapter is out and it was as fun as ever. Had probably my favorite take on Daphne Greengrass i have seen so far. Her being so aggressively boring is quite funny and endearing at the same time.

The potion bit was great as well. It was funny, a bit concerning when thinking about it and true to Snape all at once. I especially liked how her thoughts were influenced as well rather than her inner monologue being aware of the influence.

So yeah, still immensely enjoying this. All of the kids are endearing themselves to me and I am loving the portrayal of the wizarding world and magic at large and the interaction with it.

Read and vote it up you soulless jerks =P

 

Update made me hate Snape all over again. Very rare to see canon characters nailed like that. Greengrass was lawl. I hope to hell she's taking the piss.

 

I actually want her to be just like that, just a girl who is really into rocks and turtles.

 

Daphne in that last chapter was seriously funny. Could easily turn stupid, if elaborated on or overused, but it was a great scene.

I'd say this is solid "good not great" territory for me. I wasn't ever really sucked in, but for what the story's trying to accomplish, it's nice enough. I'm not really well-versed on SI tropes, as I tend to avoid them, but there's not an obsessive, constant internal monologue about canon and how they're going to change it, which is a plus.

This has the potential to either just kind of slide into "meh" if this is all the author's interested in doing - slice of life tends to do that as the lack of planning/narrative tension really start to show - or drop/jump in quality if/when the author takes a stance on what the driving tension / narrative thrust of this is going to be.

I'm interested enough to keep reading, but I don't love it so much that I'd be sad if it stopped / collapsed, which actually is a pretty great place to be.

3/5