Death and King’s Cross

Death and King’s Cross by Sciathan File

Summary: Who was to know Death had etiquette enough to be personalized? Oneshot, 10,074 Words.

Why You Should Care: Because it’s my very favorite Harry Potter afterlife fic ever, I think.  It’s amazingly well characterised and considered, with each afterlife tailored to the individual.  It is completely canon, having been launched from the springboard of the King’s Cross chapter in Deathly Hallows, and it’s just really, really well done.  JKR would approve, I think.  Hedwig’s interlude especially made me smile.

Why You Might Not Care: If you dislike afterlife fics, that is all this one is about.  Otherwise, it’s really an excellent comment on the characters it covers.  Definitely worth the time to read.

Anagrams

Anagrams by Melyanna

Summary: On a Christmas Eve during World War II, Cornelius Fudge witnesses an ordinary children’s game and hears a name which will haunt his career. Oneshot, 2, 450 Words.

Why You Should Care: This fic chills me to the bone, it truly does. It’s not exactly angsty, it’s intense – it’s dramatic. The characterisation is spot-on: Melyanna really gets to the core of young Voldemort and shows, with subtlety and eloquence, the cruel, coldness that foreshadows the later evils. Fudge, too, is incredibly characterised: so fitting with his unfriendly, unprofessional canon exterior and yet portrayed sympathetically. The concept of this fic, that Voldemort and Fudge might’ve attended school at the same time, is a little way-out, but Melyanna more than makes up for that with her fabulous storytelling. She takes you right into the scene, putting particular emphasis on detail – you too can feel when the fire seems to have stopped crackling. And if you, like me, revel in beautiful use of language and linguistics, the anagrams and connotations thereof that the writer delves into are truly mesmerising.

Why You Might Not Care: Timeframes and timelines in canon are a little iffy as to whether or not this could have actually happened. Also, there is a corner of my mind that says this is a little unrealistic: surely if this was young Riddle he’d have been ostracized, not adored. But it’s brilliant, and so cleverly executed. A masterpiece.

Vocabulary Lesson

Vocabulary Lesson by Elektra3

Summary: Evil doesn’t always start out as cruelty. Sometimes it’s something simpler. Something as simple as aesthetic appreciation… A younger Tom Riddle reflects on the Unforgivable Curses. Oneshot, 718 Words.

Why You Should Care: The English major and closet Linguist in me adores this fic to pieces. It’s wonderful to play with the words, and to see Tom Riddle’s personality portrayed through them and the aesthetic appreciation of them. Very original.

Why You Might Not Care: People who do not love language as much as I do probably won’t understand why I love this piece so much. This is as much about the words as it the story or the character.

The Human Factor

The Human Factor by Mari-grem (This link is broken as Mari-grem’s livejournal account has been deleted.  If anyone manages to find this fic elsewhere, please email me and send me the link.)

Summary: “We all bleed red, even you.” How close did the boy Tom Riddle get to friendship? Oneshot, 1,729 Words.

Why You Should Care: An intriguing little fic that leads with Dorcas Meadowes but is really about Tom Riddle. This fic uses tense and flashback to its advantage, and some of the word play here is excellent. It toys with the idea that, while Tom Riddle was never a good person, he was at least — at some point — a person, at least a little. Unique.

Why You Might Not Care: Some of the punctuation within this story is… a little odd. The dashes have all been made hyphens, and you’ll find yourself having to read some lines several times over before you stop tripping over them. There are commas where there should occasionally be periods, and this author doesn’t quite grasp the fundamentals of punctuating and using capitol letter within and around dialogue, but it does the job and by and large the quality of the words written far outweigh any lack of skill punctuation-wise.

Take Up Serpents

Take Up Serpents by Rusalka

Summary: “There were more Parselmouths in the United States of America than anywhere else in the world.” Tom Riddle, after Hogwarts but before he resurfaces as Lord Voldemort. Oneshot, 7,091 Words.

Why You Should Care: I’ve rec’d this fic mostly because it’s an interesting transitional character piece on Tom Riddle, which are difficult to find and even harder to get right. This one comes very close – something after the Tom we see in CoS, but definitely not yet the Dark Lord. Not many people chose to write this character; especially prior to HBP. He was a little too flat and a little two dimensional at times, as is the super villain’s curse, but now we’re getting a few glimpses of his motivation and his past.

Why You Might Not Care: It’s Voldemort – or almost Voldemort. How much do you love to read about him, I mean really? Tom’s dialogue and character is excellent, but a couple of the other characters fall a bit flat.