Harry Potter fanfiction alternative to Deathly Hallows
January 8, 2017 9:49 AM Subscribe
About 3-4 years ago I read a novel length Harry Potter fanfiction that was an alternative to the Deathly Hallows. Can you help me find it?
This person had written their own book 7, only without the Deathly Hallows as special McGuffins the way they are in the Rowling version. I don't remember a ton about it, and it's eating me! I was wandering around fanfiction.net, going from story I liked to the author's page to their favorites, to those authors, etc, and I can't remember the title or, well, anything specific to it, as it was just a completion of the series without anything new.
This person had written their own book 7, only without the Deathly Hallows as special McGuffins the way they are in the Rowling version. I don't remember a ton about it, and it's eating me! I was wandering around fanfiction.net, going from story I liked to the author's page to their favorites, to those authors, etc, and I can't remember the title or, well, anything specific to it, as it was just a completion of the series without anything new.
I know the Potter fandom is prolific but there can't be too much really long stuff.
archiveofourown.org (the newer, better fanfic repository) has 3060 Harry Potter fics over 60,000 words right now.
OP, your best bet is to go to a HP-specific forum, ideally one big enough to have its own fanfic subforum, and ask them.
posted by showbiz_liz at 11:50 AM on January 8, 2017
archiveofourown.org (the newer, better fanfic repository) has 3060 Harry Potter fics over 60,000 words right now.
OP, your best bet is to go to a HP-specific forum, ideally one big enough to have its own fanfic subforum, and ask them.
posted by showbiz_liz at 11:50 AM on January 8, 2017
HP is one of the most prolific fandoms, with an unbelievable number of novel-lengh fic and a great number of alternative 7th books, so yours will be hard to find without more details.
The best thing would be to remember as many specific, unique details as you can and ask at a ficfinder community like here or here.
posted by Nickel at 11:57 AM on January 8, 2017
The best thing would be to remember as many specific, unique details as you can and ask at a ficfinder community like here or here.
posted by Nickel at 11:57 AM on January 8, 2017
Best answer: Using the filters above (>60K words, English only works) gives around 9,000 results on ff.net. Which no one in their sane mind is going to ask you to look through.
I know you say you don't remember anything specific to it, but I'm still going to ask some follow-up questions because there are a lot of year 7 fics (and some of them are Hallows-free because they were written post-OOTP but pre-HBP).
When you say alternative to Deathly Hallows: do you mean "still tries to follow the existing plotline of Deathly Hallows (on-the-run camping, etc.), but without the actual Hallows" or "set in what would be Harry's seventh year, but the plot was totally different to Deathly Hallows"? If the latter, how the plot differed is very helpful.
Do you have any memory of any pairings? (None is a totally valid option). Any characters that were particularly important? (For example, if there was still on-the-run camping, but Luna was also with them the whole time.) Or someone survived in this fic but not in actual DH. Or the method of killing Voldemort (assuming he was killed).
(I ask these questions because if I was answering this question in a ficfinder community, I'd need something to narrow it down.)
posted by smangosbubbles at 12:23 PM on January 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
I know you say you don't remember anything specific to it, but I'm still going to ask some follow-up questions because there are a lot of year 7 fics (and some of them are Hallows-free because they were written post-OOTP but pre-HBP).
When you say alternative to Deathly Hallows: do you mean "still tries to follow the existing plotline of Deathly Hallows (on-the-run camping, etc.), but without the actual Hallows" or "set in what would be Harry's seventh year, but the plot was totally different to Deathly Hallows"? If the latter, how the plot differed is very helpful.
Do you have any memory of any pairings? (None is a totally valid option). Any characters that were particularly important? (For example, if there was still on-the-run camping, but Luna was also with them the whole time.) Or someone survived in this fic but not in actual DH. Or the method of killing Voldemort (assuming he was killed).
(I ask these questions because if I was answering this question in a ficfinder community, I'd need something to narrow it down.)
posted by smangosbubbles at 12:23 PM on January 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thank you! Pointing me to the right place to ask is awesome! I will pursue these.
posted by freyley at 12:24 PM on January 8, 2017
posted by freyley at 12:24 PM on January 8, 2017
Response by poster: It was set in Harry's seventh year, the plot did not follow the plot of Deathly Hallows, there were no pairings, and I know that the details of the plot are going to fall out of my head as soon as I stop thinking about it so actively, at which point I will either find it or post over there.
posted by freyley at 12:36 PM on January 8, 2017
posted by freyley at 12:36 PM on January 8, 2017
Response by poster: Okay, now I'm just using this thread as my own personal notebook, which isn't great, but I should have said this in the last comment. The thing that I remember about this particular story was how normal and non-gimmicky this story was. It had a name like 'Harry Potter and the ...' and the last piece was something I could imagine having been chosen by Rowling as a name, not like "Harry Potter and the Pretty Sorceror's Balls" or anything gimmicky like that. It didn't have pairings, or time travel, or anything else. It was as if someone had attempted to write a publishable Harry Potter 7th novel, but without the Hallows. Just the quest to finish the horcruxes, and then a battle.
posted by freyley at 1:13 PM on January 8, 2017
posted by freyley at 1:13 PM on January 8, 2017
Any chance it was Dumbledore’s Army and the Year of Darkness?
posted by tabula rasa at 2:39 PM on January 8, 2017
posted by tabula rasa at 2:39 PM on January 8, 2017
Correction: My brain was reading Hallows as Horcruxes for...I have no idea what reason, so Hallows-free fic could've conceivably been written up 'til Deathly Hallows came out.
One other important question to consider: Setting? (AKA mostly at Hogwarts, not at Hogwarts, or an even split? And if not at Hogwarts, where was it?)
posted by smangosbubbles at 2:54 PM on January 8, 2017
One other important question to consider: Setting? (AKA mostly at Hogwarts, not at Hogwarts, or an even split? And if not at Hogwarts, where was it?)
posted by smangosbubbles at 2:54 PM on January 8, 2017
You may be able to make use of the fanfiction search engines. For example, I searched for titles that have "Harry Potter and". I further narrowed the search by selecting based on title, length, summary, and publishing date:
Harry Potter and the Lord of Darkness
Harry Potter and the Simulacrum Seal
posted by litera scripta manet at 10:59 PM on January 8, 2017
Harry Potter and the Lord of Darkness
Harry Potter and the Simulacrum Seal
posted by litera scripta manet at 10:59 PM on January 8, 2017
Was "Harry Potter and the Pretty Sorceror's Balls" any good? ;-)
posted by xammerboy at 10:12 AM on January 9, 2017
posted by xammerboy at 10:12 AM on January 9, 2017
Response by poster: No, not particularly. :)
posted by freyley at 2:02 PM on January 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by freyley at 2:02 PM on January 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by irisclara at 11:26 AM on January 8, 2017