Looking for Magic by Hypnobarb, (hosted by both OWL and fanfic.net) is a fantastic Post-OOTP deviation from the norm. In this story, Hermione, along with Harry and Ron, finish their seventh year at Hogwarts without making any progress in the fall of the Dark Lord. Severus is an active member of the Order, Dumbledore is alive, and Hermione is a Death Eater target. As the story progresses, she leaves England for university study at an American university in Chicago, IL, called Avalon. Hypnobarb outdoes herself with her elaboration of the depth of study and cross cultural practices between American wizarding and muggle societies. It's fantastic. Another bonus is that Draco is also attending this university, and is allowed by virtue of long distance from his family to become his own person. Severus and Hermione bond through fantastic research and discovery in which each gets to exploit his and her talents. Numerous new characters are introduced as Order members who bring much to the table and a grand plan to take down Voldemort is underway during Hermione and Draco's freshman year at university. The Malfoys are selected by Voldemort to help him advance his power into the next millennium, and are consequently forced to see the light about his delirium.
Hypnobarb started this story over 3 years ago, and is 115 chapters into a planned 100. I discovered it in early March of 2008, and was glued to my computer screen at every spare moment until I'd read up to chapter 93. From then on, it's been a bi-weekly treat to check in on Hypnobarb's take on the HP Universe. (For highly sensitive personal reasons, she's not updated since early January. My thoughts are with you and yours, Hypnobarb.)
This one's a keeper for those of you who want to have the following satisfaction: Severus is likable and insightful even with his past horrors and sacrifices, Dumbledore is still running the Order of the Phoenix, Lupin is a frequent participant and is becoming a friend to Severus, Hermione and Severus pair up, and there are tons of quite creative uses of magic and magical theory. Hypnobarb, you're brilliant!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment