I have some thoughts on the rest of your post, which I'll get in to tomorrow (maybe, if I'm not lazy), but I did want to point out this one:

The Strange Disappearance of Sally-Anne Perks

...basically fits what you're looking for to a T. Smack dab in your word count range, a neat little pocket-mystery during October of PoA, before the Sirius Black thing heats up too much.

Completely original, non humor, non crack, set within the canon framework but completely independent of any of the overarching plot.

 

It could serve as a good space to slip in romances that did not appear on screen. For instance, there's a whole lot that could be slipped into that space between Harry's first kiss with Cho and his arrival in the common room looking rather 'rumpled.' It doesn't have to be parody or humor, but conversely, could be paired very nicely with it.

 

Interesting point. One thing to consider, if you want to stay canon compliant, is creating enough suspense at the beginning of the story that readers can’t help themselves but to plough through just to see how you connect whatever you mucked up for the protagonist at the beginning to the end.

Also, I’d abstain from using plot elements that include physical danger, at least in the sense of someone dying, or getting seriously injured. The ‘known’ fact that Harry is still alive (Seamus probably, too), takes away every bit of suspense. Which is sad, because I’d love to see Harry go up against all the nasty Australian critters.

 

What you're looking for sounds a lot like the Naruto story I'm currently writing. It is an AU and I've posted it in the WbA section.

 

Its been a while since I read it, but if I remember correctly, Geminio by Portus is a one-shot that fits within the framework of canon. Its slightly hard to keep track of all thats going on in your first read, but its a great story.

Sesc has a couple of stories of this kind as well. Pillars of Power is a great political story, as is A Beautiful World, which I can't seem to find at the moment (I would appreciate a link - it isn't there on ff.net despite saying so on the profile page).

There is also A Very Secret Diary which is a chilling exploration of events that took place in the background of the Chamber of Secrets plot. I'm not sure whether its exactly what you're looking for though.

 

This is kind of a shared responsibility of the authors in the fandom, helping one another out with feedback. I personally rather like stories like that. Dunno about others.

Twine Bracelet comes to mind.

Now if you'll excuse me I need to find that fic you mentioned, Jon.

 

I don't really need to fear characters dieing to have suspense. Not everything has to be a life or death situation.

 

A Beautiful World can be found in the WBA, here.

I came here to recommend The Strange Disappearance as well. I think it has exactly the right formula for how to run a canon-compliant story - that is, tangential to the plot, with it clearly present, but not focussed on or pushed in your face, and entirely self contained in its own story.

I agree that if it goes alongside canon (as opposed to being set in a different era - I'd consider, for example, Hogwarts House Divided and large portions of The Snape Chronicles to be canon compliant), either the protagonists must be changed, or the focus needs to be such that it can work in a very self-contained manner, as obviously we're not seeing its influence on canon. That means things like mysteries/detective stories, romances, or on magical culture not explored in canon are much more likely to work well - you can't very well have a Death Eater attack in sixth year and expect it to slot in well with canon, for example.

 

If it was HP, I guess you could use one of the holiday breaks to write a plot and then obliviate the character(s) at the end. That would be quite convoluted, but I imagine the success or failure of the story would probably depend on your plot itself.

 

Ugh, please don't. It's infuriating as fuck when this happens.

As to suspense: The Ciaphas Cain (hero of the imperium!) series manages this relatively well even knowing Cain, Jurgen and Amberley will be just fine at the end of it.

Dresden Files already has many short stories which fit right into canon yet are never mentioned except throwaway references.

 

This is something I've wondered about recently. I'm a part of the Naruto fandom as well, and I know you know that bad self-inserts have taken it over.

I thought about - HEAR ME OUT - writing the same for Harry Potter. I'm pretty sure nearly every DLP member is going to end up in Ravenclaw, to experiment with and learn as much magic as they can. Here's the catch -

Ever thought that there was too much coincidence in the Harry Potter universe? Challenges tailormade to the three protagonists, clues falling right and left into their laps, minimal casualties despite the fact that the Death Eaters and their leader are supposedly the stuff of nightmares? That's the SI's job. Make sure everything stays canon, while wrestling with the fact that they won't get any recognition for their efforts. They're forced to stay within limits because a single wrong move may end up killing hundreds of people. At the same time, they have to deal with the fact that their own family is alive, but won't recognize them. Maybe they're even in love with one of the main characters, but can't do anything about it without risking a massive timeline change.

Even a standalone few chapters during the Seventh Year would be a great story. Get dropped right into the action, and see the hero(ine) go crazy trying to save lives and protect Hogwarts from antagonists left and right.

 

Ugh, I hate this, in both time-travel and self-inserts.

 

Instead of Canon I saw Conan in the thread title. Was disappointed

 

No, definitely not. Where did you even get such an idea? I think you're focusing a little too much on the house clichés. Raveclaws do not have a monopoly on learning magic or experimenting with it.

 

Only if your goal is to troll your readers. There's probably worse ways to end a story, but I can't think of any.