Immature

Immature by Walkingcensure

Summary: Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter are seven years old, plump, cute, and innocent. Life for them is all about cake, ice cream, friendship bracelets, and premature vows of love. Humour, 8,713 Words.

Why You Should Care: Because it’s so cute! Mini!Marauders and Mini!Lily may just be the best things ever. There’s a wonderful ruefullness about reading this story, it takes you back to the dramas of being seven and all the crazy stuff you used to believe and it’s fun. Additionally, the author manages to keep all the characters pretty in character, and also passably young. It’s a nice gimmick, but done so well that it feels like more.

Why You Might Not Care: Vaguely AU. Also, small people are not everyone’s cup of tea. Plus, Lily/James.

Note: I haven’t actually been able to pin down Chelle about recs, but I guess I’ll just post as many as I can as often as I can until Chelle tells me not to…?

A Marauder’s Map

A Marauder’s Map by Xylodemon

Summary: Seven memories found in Sirius Black’s pensieve, one for each of his years at Hogwarts. Oneshot, 7,076 Words.

Why You Should Care: Xylodemon always delivers something worth a read, quite frankly, and these seven pinches from Sirius Black’s school-days is no exception.  There’s enough character to keep the boys defined, though this fic’s focus is Sirius in particular.  My favorite bits are the pranks — good Marauder pranks are difficult to come up with, especially ones that mix magical execution with light-hearted, boyish goals.

Why You Might Not Care: It’s a little overly generic, to tell the truth, though perhaps it wasn’t back when it was written in September 2005.  Similarly, a splash of Remus/Sirius is thrown in and then never really developed or explained, which makes its inclusion — for me — a little pointless, though die-hard Remus/Sirius shippers will probably disagree vehemently.

The End To ‘Always’ Evermore

The End To ‘Always’ Evermore by Juniperus

Summary: Snape. And redemption. And Poe. Drabble, 571 Words.

Why You Should Care: It’s Poe! And unrequited angsty Snape/Lily, which you just know Poe would secretly fangirl! And just a smidgen of parody! And Poe!

Why You Might Not Care: Didn’t you hear me say there was Poe? Why are you still reading this rec and not reading Snape/Lily Poe?

A Matter of Opportunity

A Matter of Opportunity by Shimotsuki

Summary: Remus is worried about Teddy, but Tonks is worried about Remus, and circumstances lead her to try something she’s never done before. She can only hope they are ready for it. Oneshot, 2,390 Words.

Why You Should Care: Mostly because I haven’t rec’d a Remus/Tonks in a little while and angsty!Remus fretting over baby Teddy’s first full moon delights me. I also quite enjoyed the interaction between Tonks and Wolfsbaned-Wolf Remus. Nice, cute, and fluffy.

Why You Might Not Care: What do you mean Remus and Tonks died in Deathly Hallows? Psht, like even. Unashamed denial-fic.

A Metaphor For Change

A Metaphor For Change by Sahara Storm

Summary: Five things Albus Dumbledore could not bring himself to say to Gellert Grindelwald. (One of them is a lie.) Drabbles, 1,000 Words.

Why You Should Care: Ah, the “Five Things” meme… what an awful lot of fic it spawned.  It is fortunate that quite an impressive percent of it turned out to be quite good.  Dumbledore is hard enough to characterise as a wise old man, and tracing him back through the years to his younger self is nigh impossible.  Sahara Storm does, I think, a reasonable job, and what’s more the drabbles she creates around her theme of things not said are well worded.

Why You Might Not Care: Obviously a Dumbledore/Grindlewald, and an R-rated one at that.  This may or may not slip over into NC-17 territory, depending on your point of view.  I would say it’s probably not worksafe.

Stealing Harry

Stealing Harry by Copperbadge

Summary: “Harry didn’t see why sharing a street with strange Mr. Black should mean he couldn’t go into the bookshop. After all, nobody actually knew that he owned it, and he had it on good authority that the shop itself was mostly run by another man named Moony.” Novel Length, Alternate Universe, Approx. 85,000 Words.

Why You Should Care: Alternate Universes are fun. They’re fun to write and they’re fun to read, and Stealing Harry by Copperbadge is no different. It’s a well paced, fully developed and well thought-out universe that branches off canon without feeling too contrived. In addition, it features a complex and interesting Remus/Sirius that feels like a fresh and original take on an over-written pairing. Their characters are familiar yet different, as all well constructed AU characters are, and while this version of Sirius may feel too settled for some people’s tastes, there is something wonderful endearing about him as he navigates deeper into the unknown territory of this new romantic relationship.

Why You Might Not Care: I’m not thrilled with the characterisation of eight (and a half) year-old Harry in this fic. Most of the time he comes off as quite a but younger than that, except occasionally when he comes across as quite a bit older; never once in this fic did the dialogue given to him sound like it might actually have come from an eight year-old boy, or at least not any eight year-old boy I’ve ever known. Snape’s character is likewise somewhat distanced from the Snape we know from the books, but considering this was written in 2005 without some of the canon knowledge we have today, I think overall the AU nature of this fic justifies the characterisation enough to be going on with. Be mindful of a handful of NC-17 scenes throughout the latter half of this fic that are not at all worksafe.

Awards: 2008 Hourglass Award, Best AU Fic — Third Place

Now or Never

Now or Never by QueenB23

Summary: “Scorpius Malfoy, who was a Slytherin and a pureblood.  Who, even worse, was the son of Draco Malfoy, a man that her parents barely tolerated when they saw each other in public.” Novel Length Work in Progress, 94,000 Words (and counting).

Why You Should Care: Queen B does not go the predictable route here, spending thousands upon thousands of words in the long slow build up that at long last comes to fruition as Rose and Scorpius inevitably realize their feelings for each other.  Instead, she brings us in minutes before they come together and writes us a story that is equal parts about the now or never nature of teenage love and the complexities of loving across the Romeo-and-Juliet lines of family history and hostility.  Rose and Scorpius are fantastically realized, both as lovable and fallible as real people, and Queen B has given equal consideration to her supporting cast of youngsters and adults alike; parents Hermione and Ron are particularly wonderfully crafted, and their interaction with their daughter on the issue of the Malfoys is true to their character, personalities, and history.  A hopelessly romantic and carefully realistic portrayal of what Scorpius/Rose might really be like, and a unashamed exploration of the charming angst and desperation of teenage love.

Why You Might Not Care: I have hesitated so long in reccing this because it’s a work in progress, and I generally don’t rec unfinished works.  That is more a guideline than a hard and fast rule, however, and I feel this fic is well worth following.  At times, this fic seems to get lost in the sometimes too-passionate day-to-day comings and goings of Rose and Scorpius, but isn’t that exactly what teenage love is all about, really?  Love at sixteen and seventeen has always been that sort of I didn’t see you yesterday and it was just terrible, how did I ever endure it kind of thing, and so the silliness that frequently irks me also delights me because of its honesty.  Heads up for scenes with NC-17 content peppered throughout, starting somewhere around the ninthish chapter.

Thanks to:  So many people who rec’d this to me several times over, including most of the UR.org Roomies, especially Erin and Liz.

Surprises

Surprises by Lady Bracknell

Summary: Lily likes surprises, and this thing with James Potter has been positively filled with those. Drabble, 678 Words.

Why You Should Care: Ahhh… this tops up my James/Lily metre nicely.  It’s sweet, a bit romantic, and mostly sigh-worthy fluff.  Lady Bracknell’s just damn good at finding all those impossible little nothing moments that mean so much.

Why You Might Not Care: All about James/Lily for people who ship elsewhere.

Between the Lines

Between the Lines by Lady Altair

Summary: There are many tales to be told between the golden threads of the Black Family tree. Oneshot, 1,024 Words.

Why You Should Care: I love it when a clever author takes the thinnest, flimsiest of threads from some sideboarded piece of the Harry Potter universe and weaves it expertly into the broader tapestry, tucking it in here, tying it in there, and making it feel so obvious, like it couldn’t possibly have gone any other way. What was probably an unintentional gaff of math on JKR’s side is turned into an incredibly poignant story.

Why You Might Not Care: Um…? Lady Altair pretty much always deserves a read. This one looks like it’s going to be a larger collection of oneshot stories; I anticipate all of them will be of similar stellar quality.

Laughter

Laughter by Emiime

Summary: There is always laughter.  Drabble, 250 Words.

Why You Should Care: I love everything about this flash fic — the character contrasts between serious baby Neville and his light and lively parents, the suggestions of real-life unromanced sex, the foreshadowing of what we know is to come for this family.  It’s a wonderful word sculpture.

Why You Might Not Care: It’s rated R but I’m not sure I’d count it as NWS, but it’s all up to you.

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by Nellie Darlin

Summary: The real reason Lily Evans keeps turning James Potter down?  She’s already sleeping with his best friend…. Romance/Drama, 18,890. (NC17)

Guest Rec’d By: Kira

Why You Should Care: A canon-compliant Lily/Sirius fic that manages to (fantastically!) document how Lily migrates from one Marauder to another without being dreadfully angsty or making her seem like a fickle shrew.  Nellie writes with an entrancing voice that creates perfect imagery and captivating characters.  What really wins me over is the excellent dynamics that she writes between the characters – Lily and her conundrum between James and Sirius – and how, despite it being a Lily/Sirius fic, she manages to fill in the transformational gaps for James from “arrogant, bullying toe-rag” to love of Lily’s life and the Lily/James moments are precious.  The final scene is possibly one of the best fanfiction end-offs I’ve ever read; it takes my breath away every time.

Why You Might Not Care: There’s not much here for people who can’t stand Lily/Sirius, but if you’re even mildly neutral towards the pairing, you’ll find this fic endearing.  There’s an OFC best friend for Lily, which is common enough in Marauder-era fics, and while this one’s a little bubbly, she doesn’t annoy and serves as an important plot device as opposed to others who are window-dressing Mary Sues.  Personally, I was initially a bit off-put by under-aged sex (16 y.o’s – but I frankly prefer to think that no one at Hogwarts is tapping any ass until they permanently leave the gates), but apparently that’s all the rage these days with young whippersnappers.

Stacked Against

Stacked Against by Lady Bracknell

Summary: At Bill and Fleur’s wedding, Ron seeks advice from the two people he knows who have faced the obstacles he thinks are in front of him, and finds that Gryffindors are nothing if not lucky in love. Oneshot, 3,889.

Why You Should Care: Lady Bracknell takes her well-used pen — so deft at spinning Remus/Tonks — and creates a Ron/Hermione fic that is just as wonderful.  Charmingly canon characterisations paired with canny heart-to-heart discussion, plus just enough of the Remus/Tonks interaction we expect from Lady Bracknell to be the icing on the cake.  Should prove sigh-worthy for Ron/Hermione shippers and Remus/Tonks shippers alike.

Why You Might Not Care: Written the spring before Deathly Hallows was released, and takes place at Bill and Fleur’s wedding, which in this incarnation is not crashed by Death Eaters.  Not that that’s anything close to a good enough reason.

Variations on a Happily Ever After

Variations on a Happily Ever After by GM Weasley

Summary: All was eventually well, but it took nineteen years to get there. Drabble Collection, 7,400.

Why You Should Care: This is a wonderful series of drabbles centered around the women of the Harry Potter universe and life beyond the epilogue. Insightful, thoughtful, and occasionally even mundane, these little snatches of the painfully ordinary process of moving on after the end of the story are well worth your time. Angelina’s thoughts on her wedding are particularly well done.

Why You Might Not Care: These drabbles could have been tighter, and occasionally they suffer from awkward syntax. A couple of passes from a sharp-eyed beta would have alleviated this problem.

The Willingness to Be Duplicitous

The Willingness to Be Duplicitous by R Grayjoy

Note: This link currently points to a locked post in the Friends Only community Erotic Elves.   If anyone knows of an unlocked copy of this fic, please let me know so I can change the link.  It is against C&C policy to link to locked posts, and this was done so in error.

Summary: Those who practice duplicity always suspect it in others. Oneshot, 1,200.

Why You Should Care: This is a spin on the Founders and their breaking that I have never read before — one that intrigues me and starts to poke into my own personal canon and seed. This Rowena is as interesting a character as Salazar, if not more so, and I long to know more about the how and the why of this story.

Why You Might Not Care: The reveal has been shrouded by a flash het sex fic that is somewhat explicit and probably NWS, but it’s all over pretty quickly, and my monitor didn’t steam over once. Not the best NC17 scene ever written by any stretch of the imagination, but since it’s not really the point (and indeed might have even distracted) it can be excused.

Only In Ravenclaw

Only in Ravenclaw by Apostrophet

Summary: Friendships and fun in the Ravenclaw common room. Oneshot, 1,381.

Why You Should Care: A fluffy little gen feature on what it might be like in the Ravenclaw common room.  Practically purposeless, but kind of neat nonetheless.  I especially love the idea of Luna deep in conversation about sex with a portrait of Yoda.  These Ravenclaws seem both similar and different than the other houses we’ve seen, which — I think — is exactly right.

Why You Might Not Care: Pointless, other than to shed some light on the general common room feel of being a Ravenclaw.  Technically also Cho/Roger, but it’s by no means the centre of the fic.

Tumble

Tumble by FireworkFiasco

Summary: “There isn’t time to dream, to pretend, so she busies herself with plotting and planning and doesn’t think about caresses by the lake or how green his eyes really were.” Oneshot, 1,340.

Why You Should Care: I’m not generally fond of Ginny-centric fics, and I think it’s because I find her character as created by Jo somewhat elusive — you think you’ve got her nailed, only to read it over and find out no, no that’s not quite right.  I can’t say that this fic will suit everyone’s vision of Ginny, but it suits mine quite nicely; what’s more, it’s been carefully and deliberately designed in four verses, each with its own theme, and the entire four part oneshot stretches itself across the expanse of Ginny’s character in Deathly Hallows.  Her transformation from child to adult is as borderless as the changing of the seasons.

Why You Might Not Care: For whatever reason, there are some people who so detest Ginny as a character overall that they probably wouldn’t enjoy anything that featured her.

Paper Love

Paper Love by Lady Altair

Summary: Gideon Prewett learns to let go. Drabble, 962 Words.

Why You Should Care: Beautiful and deceptively simplistic, Lady Altair sets us up with sweet, hopeful innocence, then sweeps it away under the harsh reality of war and what it does to people.  The use of the letter in metaphor is wonderfully used.

Why You Might Not Care: Sad ending…?  Somehow I doubt that’s reason enough to stop anyone, though if you’re in the mood for fluff you should probably save this for another time.

Autumn into Spring

Autumn into Spring by Crookshanks22

Summary: In this sequel to ‘A Romance, with Dragons,’ Viktor finds love at last… and long shadows of the past. Set in Romania, Bulgaria, and Budapest in the aftermath of the second war. Drama/Romance, 19,292 Words.

Guest Rec’d By: Allie Meril (allie_andromeda)

Why You Should Care: You don’t get a lot of fics that are (a) not set in Britain/Hogwarts/etc., and have (b) really fantastic original characters.  “Autumn Into Spring” is one of those rare stories that paints a wholly new picture of a wizarding culture outside of Britain, and a totally believable one at that.  Crookshanks’ picture of wizarding Romania and the rest of Eastern Europe is appropriately bleak and harsh, and this reflects beautifully on the development of the OCs: Marina Vasik is the way she is because her life molded her that way.  Even more than in “A Romance, With Dragons,” Crookshanks22’s writing is stunning.

Why You Might Not Care: An OC-centric story, paired with a very minor character who only appeared in two books…  And to boot, Marina has a tragic past!  This sounds like a recipe of bad cliches, but it surpasses all of them to form a beautiful and touching story.  I’d say that Marina is one of the very best OCs that I’ve ever seen, and her tragic past has very real effects on her character; it isn’t used as a way to get pity from others.

A Little More Time

A Little More Time by Jess Pallas

Summary: Was it possible to save two lives without altering history? Was it possible to give them a future twenty years after they had supposedly died? Teddy Lupin thought so…. Novel Length, 120,029 Words.

Why You Should Care: This, I suppose, technically classifies itself as AU, though to be fair there’s actually nothing in it that contradicts the canon of the books — that is, after all, rather the whole point. This is one of the only Remus-and-Tonks-didn’t-die fictions I’ve ever read, and it is by far my favorite. The characters are well realized and the plot is engaging — the young man Teddy Lupin has been especially lovingly crafted to inherit pieces of both his father and his mother. Remus and Tonk’s relationship has received the same kind of attention, and in a lot of places I forgot that it wasn’t JKR I was reading.

Why You Might Not Care: NoblePrat!Remus ahoy! I love him and feel canon justifies him, but some people might not agree. And if NoblePrat!Remus bothers you, there’s a good chance NoblePrat!Teddy will too….

Awards: 2008 Hourglass Award, Best AU Fic — Second Place

Weakness

Weakness by Alyx Bradford

Summary: “This cannot possibly end well.” Oneshot, 6,761 Words.

Why You Should Care: This is a great little oneshot fiction about the coming together of the Founders that also lays the breadcrumbs of the inevitable clash between Godric and Salazar.  The characters are wonderfully three-dimensional (well… you don’t really get much out of Helga’s cameo to be fair) and the thematic elements of this fic are tied right into the centre of it.  In addition, the writing is mindful of the era this is set in, and the dialogue fits this period piece quite nicely.

Why You Might Not Care: It doesn’t win a million points for having an original premis (the Salazar/Rowena/Godric triangle has been done plenty of times before, and I can’t help but wonder why it’s always Rowena in the centre of it — anyone got a Salazar/Helga/Godric fic laying around somewhere?) but the execution is nearly flawless.  Also, warnings for NC17 and NWS material, folks.