Please share your recs for Harry Potter fan fiction.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

What do you consider to be the best HP fics, the ones that are especially memorable or exceptionally well-written? I feel like I'm running out of good stuff to read, but I'm sure there's more out there. All lengths, ratings, pairings, etc. are acceptable. Please also feel free to advertise your own stories.

ETA: Don't panic if your response doesn't appear right away. Livejournal is making me approve any comments that include hyperlinks.

ETA2: WIP's are also fine.

Comments

A few more

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Best canon-compliant Harry and Severus achieve an emotional resolution: Branwyn’s “One More Such Victory”
http://www.potionsandsnitches.net/fanfiction/viewstory.php?sid=1414

I put this first because, in my shock and trauma over first reading DH, this is the story that hooked me on Potterverse fanfic. Had Jo written this instead of the Crapilogue, I’d never have looked for fandom.

Great AU’s not already mentioned:

Snarry: Cybele’s “If You Are Prepared”
http://www.walkingtheplank.org/archive/viewstory.php?sid=780

If you want a tragic Snarry, this is it. (If you don’t want a tragic Snarry, read it anyhow. It’s what got me reading Snarry, years before “The White Road” would have. Indeed it’s what got me reading slash, to my bemusement.) Warnings: slash, character death. canon-shafted. If you possess tear ducts, you will cry.

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Adventure: Elsa2 “The Horse”
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1785390/1/The_Horse

Hogwarts is besieged and cut off from the rest of the WW, Slytherin loses its Head of House in battle against Voldemort’s followers, and Harry and Draco bond in friendship (and Harry and Luna start a courtship) over an injured and irascible black stallion. Best Comrade Millicent and house cooperation) ever! Might I just point out that if someone writes a great Luna or a great Millie Bulstrode, that person is probably a good writer? Elsa2 manages both. Just mentioning!

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How one of our favorite characters came to commit himself to Voldemort’s cause:
Pasi, “Into the Fold” http://www.fictionalley.org/authors/pasi/ITF.html

—Heck, go read all the rest of Pasi’s while you’re tpver here; they are all excellent. *
Best idealistic-Hermione SS/HG: Caeria’s Pet Project, recced above.

Best grungy SS/HG: (WIP): Bloodcult of Freud, “Seven Preposterous Things”—
http://www.digital-quill.org/viewstory.php?sid=754

which also has a stellar Millie and a very unique take on Wizarding culture.
Warnings: het sex, unattractive characters, alcohol abuse, Azkaban….

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Best… Argus Filch? Is that a category?

“Right Nor Wrong” by kelly_chambliss

http://asylums.insanejournal.com/snapelyholidays/39223.html


Author’s Summary: “In Greek mythology, Argus the guardian of Io is sometimes said to have a hundred eyes. In the wizarding world, Argus the caretaker of Hogwarts has only two eyes, but he sees a great deal all the same.”

I defy you to either uncompromisingly hate Argus or to feel sorry for him after reading this, and I’d have thought previously that only one of those two reactions would be possible.

Perverse_idyll, in hir review, said s/he wanted to follow Argus around and listen to his internal comments on the other characters, and so do I!

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Best Hermione-is-true-to-her-roots (rather than the canon converted-to Gryffindor norms Hermione who evolves into the witch of “Caveat Inimici”):

“In Loco Parentis” by Dolores_Crane

http://archiveofourown.org/works/109558/chapters/151674

Hermione discovers sex, Azkaban, the WW’s oppressive patriarchal base, Mud Pride, and an evil plot masterminded by a competent villain. (Obviously that last detail makes it entirely AU from Jo’s Potterverse, eh?)

AU from the end of OotP: Dumbledore’s dead wrong about how another prophecy will play out, Severus saves the day in the confrontation with Voldemort but Lucius gets the Order of Merlin, and Hermione, Harry, Severus, Tonks, and Hestia Jones end up having to try to save the WW from itself.

After Riddle’s defeat, All was decidedly Not Well.

Harry and Severus end up getting a happy ending; Hermione (and Tonks and Hestia) get a challenging new beginning; Dumbledore gets brushed off as irrelevant.

What’s not to like?

Warnings: Slash and het sex. Azkaban. Language. Bitchy graffiti in the girls’ loo. Serious and controversial issues, addressed seriously.

Re: A few more

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

----Had Jo written this instead of the Crapilogue, I’d never have looked for fandom.

Well I'm very glad that you looked for fandom. Thanks for these recs!