The Harry Potter Fanfiction Thread

And speaking about giving up on a Harry Potter fanfic...

So I just had this idea.

It's very simple.

I kinda wanna write a story in which Harry subscribes to the theory of 'don't let it get to you'.

In a world that is hell bent on breaking him, Harry manages to be cheerful in every situation and circumstance. You're an orphan and are living with relatives who give you barely enough to survive on? That's not so bad! Think of all the people who starve to death! You say that you can only ever see the sun when you're doing chores because you spend all your time locked in a cupboard? Dunno, man. I mean, that cupboard's pretty cozy and he's gotten attached to it. Vernon whips his back every night? Nah, no big deal, those are some wicked cool scars, am I right?

The point is, in most fics in which they ramp up Harry's abuse, it's an excuse to turn him into a broody psychopath barely better than the ones he fights.

This would be Harry Potter in a world that absolutely hates him and wants him broken, but in which he decided "Fuck you, I'm not gonna let you win, look at me, motherfucker, I'm gonna be happy anyway". And yes, he is genuinelly like that.

His parents spent all their money funding the order of the phoenix, so he's broke and all they left him was debts. No problem! What's life without challenges? Sirius couldn't legally leave him anything because by law everything was to be inherited by his closest relative, so Harry doesn't have a single galleon of Black money. No worries, he didn't want it anyway!

So, basically, everything that could possibly go against Harry goes against Harry, and he keeps a positive disposition regardless.

The real reason I want to write it is as a contrast to all the fics that have him become an overly negative neal, focusing on all the crappy 'aaaaaaaaaaangst!' that you usually see in this crappy kind of story.

(Incidentally, they all claim the same thing, they all claim that "Harry always forgives his friends!" in that kind of story, when the reverse is actually true.)

Sounds like a good premise for a story. Although I think it would be better if not absolutely everyone is constantly trying to screw him over, it makes it more interesting that way.

That is not to say that that good intentions still can't end up screwing Harry over anyway...

That's the point.

For instance, Dumbledore is trying to make Harry's life not suck, but he only succeeds in making it suck even harder. Also, while most people utterly hate him because so does the rest of the world, his friends do still like him and want his life to not suck so much, but again, their attempts end up backfiring.

This, of course, makes them feel even worse when he just smiles and tells them it's okay. So everyone who's trying to be nice to Harry is miserable because they keep failing at it.

Comedy is based on misery. Someone has to suffer for it to work. And since it won't be Harry, it has to be someone else.

Incidentally, the overabundance of Harry/Snape slash kind of makes me want to include at least one instance of such being mentioned to either Harry or Snape and them reacting accordingly.

edited 20th Jun '15 4:51:33 PM by IAmNotCreativeEnough

Hey everyone, I just finished reading Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality and figured I would post something.

I haven't read any HP fanfic ever since the couple of months following the realease of the final book and I have to say: I was surprised to realize how much I missed the Potter-verse. :-)

I'm planning on going through some of the fanfic recs on the Harry Potter trope page.

I had a quick question, and if this is the wrong place to post this, kindly let me know.

I once read two fics several years ago that I'm desperately trying to find again. I remember reading both of them on harrypotterfanfiction.com:

1)- The first is a Continuation fic with Scorpius as the main character. The only thing I can distinctly remember of the fic is that the writing style VERY closely emulated JKR's own and it was a joy to read. I remember there being a specific plot involving the Resurection Stone.

2)- Second story was a shipping fic set in the Marauder's Era. It featured a romance between an OC and Sirius. The OC was a tomboy-ish, athletic girl with short hair with a weird name.

If anyone knows wich fics I'm talking about, I would greatly appreciate it if you let me know!

I think the first one might be Scorpius Malfoy and the Improbable Plot.

Have I linked to this? I don't think I have. It's called "Dark Defense" and is set during Harry's 5th year. After realizing that the best DADA Professors were ones who were dark themselves, Dumbledore decides to hire Vergil as a professor.

Much glorious Umbridge and Fudge bashing ensues. Sadly, it seems to have died right before getting to a really good part.

If that involved real Vergil and not Dm C shitty Vergil, that could be utterly hilarious.

If only because I want to hear Vergil say "Don't get so cocky" before he wrecks someone. Again, since I used to hear it a lot while trying to learn how to Royal Guard my way past the third fight with him..

This was made long before DmC came out. I wouldn't recommended it if it wasn't the only person who deserves that name. Sadly, he never says "Don't get cocky" but he does put damn near everyone in their place when he needs to.

It's kinda odd because, if this was an OC, I'd probably hate it but, since it's Vergil, I absolutely love it. As a professor, Vergil is a lot like McGonagall taken to the extreme.

Both Dante and Vergil rely on the Rule of Cool a lot.

The reason we let them get away with it is because they are so incredibly good at it. They've got recognition on their side.

When Vergil does something that would normally get you to eject immediately, you let him get away with it, because it's freaking Vergil, of course he can do that. Someone else has already done the work of convincing you that he can do those crazy things.

So long as he is recognizable as Vergil, you'll let him get away with all the things you think Vergil could plausibly do.

Similarly, if you told me that Joe McSelfInsert came into the room surfing on a demon's corpse, I would laugh in your face and close the tab, but if you told me that Dante did it... well, it is something Dante could and would do if given the chance.

You've got a point. And, in the case of Dante, it's something he has done.

Yeah, Vergil more or less perfectly in character throughout the entire deal so I'm perfectly fine with him outmaneuvering basically everyone (aside from, technically, Dumbledore).

Also worth considering: we don't know exactly how old Dante and Vergil are... but it's implied that even Young!Dante and Vergil from DMC 3 are pretty fucking old, since everyone but the people who look up demonic lore forgot about Sparda and all. It makes perfect sense that Vergil could outmaneuver everyone else because he's been there, done that and shredded the shirt he got for it.

Actually... According to the DMC 4 novel Dante ages similarly to a human.

Which, honestly, is dubiously canon.

Considering that the DMC timeline is nonexistent because the games frankly just don't give a crap, everything is of dubious canonicity.

Also, reading that fic you linked...

There's a part where Vergil says he does underhanded things and backstabs people in his quests for power...

This is actually majorly out of character for him. Vergil is a giant asshole... but he is honorable. He actually won't go back on his word and in fact is pretty damn trustworthy. Thing is, he's also pretty damn unforgiving, and from what we can see of him in DMC 3, if you betray him, all bets are off and you're gonna be dying pretty soon... but he won't backstab you.

It's part of the reason why he's actually cool and also one of the reasons for the backlash regarding his portrayal in Dm C, in which he uses a frikkin' gun, something he hates doing and only does once in DMC 3, and even then it's a collaboration attack with Dante on the asshat that stole the Force Edge... and even worse, he uses it to shoot someone in the back. Vergil does not do that shit. To start with, he won't shoot you. Ever. And he will shoot you from the back even less. No, motherfucker will make damn sure you know that it's him who stabbed you in the face with his katana.

Or, failing that, pummeled you to death with Beowulf.

edited 5th Aug '15 7:04:28 PM by IAmNotCreativeEnough

@Night

So! After going spelunking into the abyss of my Gmail archives, I found the names of the fics I was looking for.

Unfortunately, both links were dead.

The stories were

1)- Visions of Greatness by JL Hufflepuff

2)- Match by mental

They are old fics and apparently were casualties of some sort of technical issue with HPFF from way back?

Anyways, the first story is nowhere to be found.

Found the second one, however.

Ah the memories. Excuse me while I board the Feels train.

edited 5th Aug '15 7:20:18 PM by GutstheBerserker

But there's a pretty clear timeline of events for the games. That timeline even includes the anime. Of the games, the only one that's dubiously canon is the second one and that's only because no game has taken place afterwards.

Also, as for the betrayal thing, I recall either him or the author explicitly stating that he would let you know he was going to betray you and then kill you. He definitely disapproves of backstabbing. I could also see Vergil betraying people but only in the sense that "I need you to get this and, after I've gotten it, I'm going to kill you because your continued existence would be troublesome."

Vergil is more likely to tell you straight up "Our alliance lasts only until X, at which point we'll be enemies".

Betrayal is dishonorable, after all.

And as for the timeline...

I don't mean that it has continuity problems.

I mean that they don't give a crap to 'respect' it at all. They figured out that people don't really care so long as the games are good. Well, so long as the games are good and the characters in them are likable, unlike the reboot.

edited 6th Aug '15 3:00:06 AM by IAmNotCreativeEnough

Decided to have a look at the reviews for Lily's Changes again.

Still nobody seems to realize that Harry is a sexual predator. I find myself highly distressed. It's just a bunch of mindless positive reviews at how "smart" the story is.

True. I don't know how much you've read but you might want to read up to the second-to-last chapter (or just skip to it) to see Vergil unleash against a bunch of wizards (keeping in mind that demons are greatly resistant to magic and Devils, such as Sparda, are basically completely immune to it). It's pretty glorious.

Also, I can't argue with that.

Don't worry, I think most of those people eventually look back and go "wait, I liked this shit? What the hell was I on!?"

Uh-huh. The first piece of fanfiction I fully read was Harry Potter and the Invincible Technomage. One of the things I liked about Harry in that story was that he acted like Tony Stark around girls. Bleh. Thankfully I outgrew that phase pretty quickly.

i'll admit, i had a thing for the super-overpowered Harry fics. it's like playing a video game, you've struggled and beaten the whole thing and now you just want to sit back with the cheat codes on and watch all the enemies explode.

so it's fun for a while, and then it gets boring pretty quick. The problem is stories like that make up about 90% of all fanfiction and then you realize how hard it is to find a decent story...

That's the thing about super-fics.

You have to be either really good at pulling off Showy Invincible Hero, or else have something else as the prime focus of the fic. Like humor, political drama... hell, even just shipping and WAFF.

But a lot of authors' Invincible Heroes end up Boring, and they still put too much emphasis on the original form of conflict, which no longer means anything when the protagonist has what should be blatant Story-Breaker Power.

That's why it takes me so long to do Three Jerks and a Scarecrow, since the heroes are pretty much invincible and thus I have to actually work very hard to keep them entertaining and to make sure that the protagonist remains in the Awesome Ego category.

i still have no idea why Superman became, and remains, so popular though. it's always my go-to example of a popular Mary Sue. he's got a few good stories - like origin stories and the "why be responsible instead of a tyrant" story, but anything involving actual opponents feels... contrived at best.

edited 10th Aug '15 10:14:28 AM by willyolio