Skip to main content


I'm restarting my new/favourite #HarryPotter #Fanfic thread here, since #BirdSite is well, that... Let's start with this incredible thing, which is keeping me so engrossed that I cannot put it down, other than to type this. I will add to the thread with subsequent reads, and perhaps some old favourites.

fanfiction.net/s/11651617/1/A-…

in reply to Andre Louis

I am going to read this one. did you ever read this one?
The Pawn turned Queen

Author:
Cyan93

Summary:
What does one do when they realize they're a pawn? Harry is going to take any good opportunity to escape the playing board. It just so happens that the way he does it, ends the game! Harry is a human hybrid! His two separate DNA strings only viable because of magic, shunting it into a human Animagus form. When he finds out, he escapes his fate.
Total chapters: 58

fanfiction.net/s/13781615/

in reply to JamminJerry

@jamminjerry OO I have not heard of this. Is it also in our folder? Thanks for sharing.
in reply to Andre Louis

not sure if it is in your folder, but if I am not mistaken it is in katies folder.
in reply to Andre Louis

I personally like that one myself. Ii have it a folder here called hp our faves
in reply to JamminJerry

@jamminjerry I'm reading this one you told me about now and it's just as good as the one I recommended early. I don't know about you, but after reading Fanfic for 20 years, I'm always genuinely over the moon when I read something new that actually keeps my attention. I love that.
in reply to Andre Louis

oh I am sure some of the ones I will show that I read might make you say yuck, but I am glad I could showyou one that keeps your attention. I always do take a look at the ones you suggest, and when I want something new to look at, I either look at your folder, or katies.
in reply to JamminJerry

@jamminjerry My preference is no m/m slash, though fem is fine, no mpreg, no Harry/Ginny because, yuck! Otherwise I@m good. Oh and Cho is just out. She's duller than dishwater.
in reply to Andre Louis

the only one of those I didn't understand is where you said no mpreg.
in reply to JamminJerry

@jamminjerry That is male pregnancy. Some authors seem to try to find a way to make that work... The *only* exception to this is Nonjon's 'Where in the World is Harry Potter' Series which is when either Fred or George I forget, gives birth to puppies... Yeah, you'd have to read it to understand lol
in reply to Andre Louis

ah, ok, yeah, those would be a bit on the odd side for sure.
in reply to Andre Louis

when I said I am going to read this one, I ment the one you gave the link for, although because I am in your folder in dropbox, I just needed to see the authors name, and pull it from there.
in reply to Andre Louis

This. All of this. It's being updated daily and it is fantastically fantastic! It can also be found in my fanfic archive.
fanfiction.net/s/14234530/1/
in reply to Johann

@johann OO, new to me, thank you. I will read. Looks interesting.
in reply to Andre Louis

Yep definitly does.
Also, wanted to ask what tool do you use to archive your fanfics?
in reply to Johann

@johann I use two things. One that TSpivey made, and another from somewhere else but I forget who made that one.
in reply to Andre Louis

Aah man. I hammered through this 36 chapter amazing thing in far too short a time. Did not want to put this down. archiveofourown.org/works/4551…
in reply to Andre Louis

I am going to be reading this one. it sort of sounds like one I have read most of called Harry Potter and the Game of Life by Abadashery. summary: Harry's plan to let Voldemort kill him has backfired as there was no Horcrux in his head. Instead Fate is one grumpy deity and decides that if Harry wants to play games well then she'll give him a game to play. A fresh attempt on the Life is a Game genre! Powerful!Harry. Fling!Harry Work in Progress! Rewrite of Chapters 21 and 22 in progress. Stay tuned!
sadly it looks like it has been abanded as there hasn't been an update sense 12/16/2020.
Unknown parent

Andre Louis
@devinprater I use ff dl winport. Or just look in my dropbox folder.
Unknown parent

MariahL
@devinprater @BrailleScreen Okay here's a question. What's the worst hp fanfiction you've ever read and why.
Unknown parent

MariahL
@devinprater @BrailleScreen I read this one where harry was blind and his magic was a physical manifestation. I don't know why it gave me this bad taste in my mouth but something about that whole story irritated me. The way it was written made me feel like someone was talking down to me and the primary focus was on how Harry was going to make it around hogwarts and how his magic would help him and comfort him. Every chapter there was always a problem. It might have been a small problem, but it was always written into a dramatic thing that would usually take an entire chapter to solve.
in reply to MariahL

did you ever read Harry Potter and the Guild of the Night Series? in my opinion that is a good one. here is the summary of the first one, just in case you haven't read that one before.
Summary: Harry suffers a terrible injury at the Dursleys that leaves his ability to face Voldemort in doubt. But with the help of
Remus Lupin and a mysterious new teacher he has a chance to become more than he was before. Features a grudgingly neutral Snape and
a Ginny who knows what she wants or rather who she wants.
Unknown parent

modulux
Thanks! I'll check it out.
in reply to modulux

that isn't the site the version I have came from, but yes it is complete. in fact there is a second story to it. called Harry Potter and the Crystalline Darkness
Unknown parent

Kenny♐️
@devinprater @MariahL @BrailleScreen so is. if you have any good harry and hermione ones I'm down.
Unknown parent

x0
@BrailleScreen @MariahL @devinprater Kaleidoscopic Grangers at least isn't like that, it's got a blind trans Harry with a magic sense but the author talked to actual blind people to learn the ins and outs of things like Braille and ensure the representation wasn't ableist just realistic. Hogwarts has a fucking lot of stairs, you know. And being blind isn't the focus it's just an occasional obstacle like anything else.
in reply to x0

@x0 @BrailleScreen @MariahL @devinprater I found the focus on stairs really puzzling. I mean, sure, they can be annoying sometimes, especially if they don't follow modern architectural conventions, but I find them much less of an issue than they are in this fanfic. There are a lot of other actual problems that aren't mentioned at all or just barely, like their food system where you basically have to find and take whatever you want.
in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

@miki @BrailleScreen @MariahL @devinprater She was never actually taught as O&M how to navigate stairs, even with the cane I think. Also, they move!
in reply to x0

@x0 @BrailleScreen @MariahL @devinprater Strangely enough, I never really use my cane to navigate stairs (except finding them of course). I can usually figure them out by what the railing is doing.
in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

@miki @BrailleScreen @MariahL @devinprater It's apparently that they aren't particularly even, so simply knowing there's a stair and moving your foot doesn't work. Hell even canon talked about this, remember there's a trick stair that's actually just a plain gap that Harry fell into at night?
Unknown parent

Mikołaj Hołysz
@x0 I think uneven stairs and trick stairs were just a thing historically. I've read in a book somewhere that there were defence implications, castle residents would know that a stair was uneven but enemies would trip up. Not sure how true this is, definitely might just be a myth / something the book author invented.
@x0
in reply to x0

@miki Most of the time when we think of stairs, we think of them as being uniform. On different staircases, some are narrower, wider, steeper than others, but they're all roughly the same size and shape. By the descriptors, that's not the case here. Possibly just ware and tear from a thousand year old stone building that's had waves of students constantly going up and down them? Or actually bad architecture. Unsure, but that's why she sweeps instead of simply finding the edge like you're supposed to.
This entry was edited (1 year ago)
in reply to Andre Louis

So I've got this amazing little kid in my life at the moment. And she's really into Harry Potter. I think I've watched one of them. But with her excitement and gross deep dive into it. She's making me want to give it a go.

I just might.

Hope you're well Brotha Louis. Our collab, is upon us. Stay tuned.

Brother

in reply to Brother Soul

@brothersoul I must admit, I can no longer read the books and I'm not much of a movie fan anyway, but fanfiction has captured my attention for the last 21 or so years, some incredibly creative writing in that space which in a lot of cases, beats the books.
Read the books for background, but they no longer hold my attention.
Unknown parent

Sean Randall
I've just finished The Accident that Changed History by Trygvasson thanks to your thread. Utterly unputdownable.
in reply to Sean Randall

It could be said that I'm too picky, but this really rubbed me up the wrong way in the first chapter:

"Sirius was expelled two days later.

His wand was ceremonially snapped, ...

At least he had his O.W.L.s. He was still a qualified wizard, still able to purchase a new wand to replace the one that had been confiscated."

WTF? I don't mind the departure from canon, but it screams "I had an idea, what would be the quickest, most convenient way to gloss over its biggest pitfall?", and entirely negates the magnitude of the wand being snapped in the first place. If he had killed Snape, who would they have given the pointless bits of wood to? @FreakyFwoof

This entry was edited (3 months ago)
in reply to James Scholes

@jscholes Nah I disagree here.
ceremonially snapped. Like making a gun never fire again, it's the idea of that particular thing not doing magic, not the person. There's a lot of liberties in the fic as a whole. As a Harry story its not. As a potterverse, it's niche. But as a war story, perhaps even as an example of the Agent Provocateur genre, it's excellent.
in reply to Andre Louis

Don't remember you mentioning this one. I am sure you have, but I enjoyed it.
The many Deaths of Harry Potter By: ShayneT
In a world with a pragmatic, intelligent Voldemort, Harry discovers that he has the power to live, die and repeat until he gets it right.
fanfiction.net/s/12388283/1/Th…
in reply to Sean Randall

Yeah I remember reading that. It's a good one.
This entry was edited (2 months ago)
in reply to Sean Randall

@cachondo Decided to reread this last night. I'd completely forgotten about him being sorted into Slytherin... at least for right now. I suppose it's possible he'll die soon and something different will happen. @FreakyFwoof
in reply to Andre Louis

Not finished this yet but grippingly-written.
Everyone knows Dementors can take souls, but nothing says that they have to keep them. After the Dementor attack in Little Whinging ends disastrously, Harry must find a place for himself in a new world, fighting a different sort of war against the nascent Voldemort.
Words:
409,773
Chapters:
45/45
[The Second String - Eider_Down ]](archiveofourown.org/works/1546…)
in reply to Andre Louis

I'm about 40% of the way through and I actually stopped because i was sad about a character death.
I don't think i've done that in a fanfic for ... months.
in reply to Sean Randall

@cachondo I apparently haven't read this before and it's not in the fanfic archive either. So nice to find an author that either @SeveraSnape or myself haven't heard of. Rare thing these days, it seems like.
in reply to Andre Louis

it's not remotely rowling, Hogwarts is very much on the edges. Enjoy! You'll probably finish it before me
in reply to Sean Randall

@cachondo I have a phrase that fits well in this space, it's also an author name... canoncansodoff.
Why on earth would I care if it's not remotely Rowling?
The universe it lives in is honestly far more interesting than what she cooked up for it. Meh.
in reply to Andre Louis

@cachondo If slash doesn't appear please let me know and I'll move it out. I think I saw something when I was putting it in that let me know there was some.
in reply to Katy T

@SeveraSnape Yes, it's slash inasmuch as there's sex that isn't straight I suppose.
it's not flamboyant, not harem or anything like that.
If you're totally anti-adult themes, then the sex is far less of an issue than the psychological impacts of war etc.
in reply to Sean Randall

@cachondo Ok, I'll leave it in there. Some people don't wanna deal with it at all, it's why I made the category.
in reply to Katy T

@SeveraSnape @cachondo Preference is not to read M/M slash, but F/F is fine. I'm just a man.
in reply to Andre Louis

@SeveraSnape oh absolutely down with people's preferences.
Just seems odd to separate based on slash as a determinative characteristic. Be like hiding away authors who write trans. I wouldn't choose to read it, but not having it in your general list of authors seems counterproductive.

Your archive, of course, so not for me to judge!

in reply to Sean Randall

@cachondo Well that one is technically Andre's, so I suppose if he wants it all together I shall have to comply. But, I know some people are... really squicked out by it. Same for Trans probably, but I don't have a lot of those yet.
in reply to Katy T

@SeveraSnape There's a huge difference between not wanting to read sexually explicit smut with relationships that don't do it for you, and not wanting to read a work of fiction where sex isn't the main focus because some people in it are gay. If someone is "squicked out" by the latter, they're homophobic.

As Sean said, how people run their fanfic archives is their business, and I'm not directly accusing anyone in this thread specifically. But the community seems to have a thinly veiled discrimination problem, and it stinks.

@cachondo @FreakyFwoof

in reply to James Scholes

@jscholes @SeveraSnape I also can't imagine using plaintext now. Authors use italics a lot in fiction and txt is very much a lossy format. I exported to txt in the 90's when I had no choice, but losing a table of contents, formatting and the benefits of compression make ePub my clear lead for storing ebooks. Not as easy to search, though, and there's no clear winner for accessible reading on windows either.
in reply to Sean Randall

@cachondo @jscholes @SeveraSnape How does hearing italics help? Genuine question, as I just don't read like that, nor do I personally think I'm missing by not having it. I don't want to have *anything* detract from the book, or tell me how my brain narrater should be reading it.
in reply to Andre Louis

@jscholes @SeveraSnape I did try getting eloquence to work on italics, but it was off-putting and jarring. But in Braille, it's helpful.
in reply to Andre Louis

@cachondo @jscholes @SeveraSnape As for tables of contents, I think I'm one of the strangest people, I actively refuse to look at them. I usually search the book for 'About the' and read from there. I don't want to know how many chapters it has in case I remember it and then know how long the book is.
I *hate* spoilers, hate knowing how many pages or how much there is left in a book or file to read, it really, really bugs me.
in reply to Andre Louis

@jscholes @SeveraSnape if I ever had to pick up on a device without bookmarking, I'd want a table of contents.
They are usually not worth reading through by normal people, I suppose, but there is something useful about being able to go to a specific bit without needing to search for a string of text.
in reply to Sean Randall

@cachondo @jscholes @SeveraSnape Yeah, I think this is due to how we both read on different things. I read in notepad, so I can just jump to a word or phrase and carry on. No easy way for you to do that.
in reply to Andre Louis

@jscholes @SeveraSnape yeah. I used to do it that way, of course. I still would be, if I hadn't had to move on. It was simple, never broke.
in reply to Sean Randall

@cachondo @jscholes Aw yeah. I love txt, I find it so easy to work with. Get that some authors use italics for formatting and such, but I let people know about things in the summaries.
in reply to Sean Randall

@cachondo To be honest, I've had to start converting fanfic EPUBs to plain text, because I no longer trust Voice Dream's HTML/CSS parser. It randomly skips entire passages in a way that's only noticeable when it makes the story confusing. @SeveraSnape @FreakyFwoof
in reply to James Scholes

@cachondo Separately from one's reading preferences, I view txt as an objectively bad format for archiving. It's the ebook equivalent of storing your music in 128K MP3 instead of FLAC, because of how much data is lost and then impossible to get back unless you have some cast-iron encoding scheme for things like metadata, chapter markers, and so on, and can write tools to use that scheme. So even though I use it in Voice Dream, I keep the EPUBs which are just a richer source of data. @SeveraSnape @FreakyFwoof
in reply to James Scholes

@jscholes @SeveraSnape Agreed entirely, of course. This is why the braille authorities have spent the last 18 months working on an eBRF spec.
My first portable eReading device only supported the ascii range, incidentally. I didn't notice the loss of smart quotes so much, but the lack of dashes and any sort of apostrophe became quite annoying after a while.
in reply to Sean Randall

Also FYI, EPUBs are smaller than txt because there's some amount of compression involved. I don't think it would be too big of a difference, but eh. I don't have that large of an archive in any case. @cachondo @jscholes @SeveraSnape
in reply to Timothy Wynn

@twynn @cachondo @SeveraSnape EPUBs are zip archives, and the repetitive nature of text lends itself well to compression. So the difference is often significant, with a text file being 2.0-2.25 times the size of the corresponding EPUB.
in reply to James Scholes

@jscholes Wait, so does that mean that tagless text files, when zipped, would theoretically be even smaller? Or does that not pan out since the tags are super repetitive. @FreakyFwoof @cachondo @SeveraSnape
in reply to James Scholes

@jscholes @twynn @SeveraSnape traditionally, yeah. I think fanfic skews the measure because, at least historically, covers were generic, fan-art was linked separately and the density of the text was far higher than traditionally published novels. More people make ePub out of fanfic with automated tools, or even copy paste, than by using design tools for a published author.
So with longer works compressing to smaller fanfics because more of them is written text rather than publisher-backed media, you end up with ePubs that are smaller than their text counterparts by a wider margin.
in reply to James Scholes

@jscholes @SeveraSnape I had the urge to find out which fanfic I read in the last 12 months with the phrase 'crisscross apple sauce' in it, though. Can't do that with my folder of downloaded EPubs. Not easily, at any rate.
in reply to Sean Randall

@cachondo @jscholes You could do a content search on the folder with Everything. I think that would work on epub.
in reply to Katy T

@SeveraSnape @jscholes afraid not, everything's content search only index's human-readable content, at least as far as the last time I checked the docs. I suppose they might've added content for epub support without me noticing, though! I shall go look :)
in reply to James Scholes

@jscholes @cachondo @SeveraSnape I don't trust Voice Dream's epub parser either. An extreme example is any fanfic from tthfanfic.org. I reported it with examples and got nothing. HTML should work though.
in reply to Andre Louis

@tspivey @jscholes @SeveraSnape so many of my life hours in my daughter's toddler days were spent waiting for either her to finish an activity or the public transport to get us where we couldn't work.
So many of my days going to job interviews were spent sat on a bus, or waiting for my time or other candidates.
and so much of my guide dog training was about going places hours away that the need to read was pressing.
Carting a laptop about would have been possible, but difficult.
I found Rockbox so I could have accessible access to more than one book at a time, only need to charge after a good handful of books, and keep my phone's battery for GPS, camera or other more outdoorable uses than reading.
it's a couple of inches through the belt loop of my jeans, clipped onto the pocket of my dressing gown or whatever and is always to hand for me.
in reply to Sean Randall

@cachondo @jscholes @SeveraSnape The problem with that is you need two sets of headphones. One for rockbox and the other for the phone.
in reply to Tyler Spivey

@tspivey @jscholes @SeveraSnape I've switched to different input for the phone. now, I have cheap glasses with little above-ear speakers. or I fall back to a single earbud. I got airpod knockoffs (same shape and size, 10%the price), if I need in-ear. I'm a bit of a traditionalist and only use my phone for necessary things rather than leisure things most of the time.
in reply to Tyler Spivey

@tspivey @jscholes @SeveraSnape oh and, in favour of keeping a set of 3.5mm's on one's person, apart from my Mp3 player, ATM/cash machines, audio-description headsets at cinemas, theatres, museums, tours and walks, othe rpeople's computers and at-seat entertainment on some travel has ports in places.
in reply to Andre Louis

A thoroughly engrossing read that I've just finished. Haven't been able to do much else for the last few days, other than be enthralled by this. Thanks to @cachondo for pointing it out to me.

Title: The Second String

Author: Eider_Down
Summary:

Everyone knows Dementors can take souls, but nothing says that they have to keep them. After the Dementor attack in Little Whinging ends disastrously, Harry must find a place for himself in a new world, fighting a different sort of war against the nascent Voldemort.

URL: archiveofourown.org/works/1546…

in reply to Rebecca Legowski

@rlegowski1 @cachondo Fanfiction generally isn't, so no. I doubt it. Run it through Eleven Labs Reader if you want it as an audio book I guess.
in reply to Andre Louis

@rlegowski1 don't think they have a legal Stephen Fry up there yet for Fanfic, though, alas.

I knew you'd finish that damn story before me.
I want paid reading holidays, damnit

in reply to Andre Louis

Title: The Will of Gill (Harry Potter)

Author: DragonField

Summary:

A 16-year-old boy wakes up in the bed of Gilderoy Lockhart, in the body of the man himself and receives quite the warm welcome. Watch as he carves a path through the Wizarding World and learns esoteric magic, uncovers ancient secrets and solves magical maladies all the while enjoying himself to the max. This entire world will submit to his will, The Will of Gil. SI.

URL: archiveofourown.org/works/4554…

in reply to Andre Louis

This one looks fun. Too bad the ff app sucks on Android.
in reply to Andre Louis

oops, I didn’t see the URL in the post. That's what I get for skimming.