Thirteen long, plotty fics and series.
(Sorry this is late! My Internet has been acting up. Oh yeah, and I had most of the post done when I unplugged the PC I was using instead of the laptop, and lost half the thing ¬¬)
Hi! I'm ladysugarquill and this is my turn at the Fangirl Tour! Since choosing only 13 of *all* my favourite fics was kinda impossible, I've chosen to rec you the most lengthy, epic and awesome fics - or series - I love. Let's start!
(Note: those without "Status" are one-shots)
Fandom: Harry Potter
Title: The Dark Lord's Blog
Author: Schmerg_The_Impaler
Link: http://fanfiction.mugglenet.com/viewstory.php?sid=58092
Rating: PG
Status: Complete, 6 chapters
Summary: What does Lord Voldemort do in his spare time? Well, that's an excellent question. Who would have known that the Dark Lord has a blog? (He also has a loyal following of readers, most of whom are Death Eaters and who post their comments.) Voldemort dispenses advice on everything from murder methods to germ protection to Power Rangers to shoes, and gives an account of the life of an evil overlord. But is he posting too much personal information online? And will Harry read it and find out more about the Dark Lord than Voldemort ever intended? Read and see.
Why I fangirl this: This was the first Harry Potter fanfic I ever read. And it's still amazing. Very funny, with an unique style, and the voices of all the characters are spot on. And what surprised me on my first read, in the middle of the crack, it may just have a plot! Years later, I still love it.
Title: Quick, Grab the Cheese Wheels and Run!
Author: charmingly-holly
Link: Here on FFN, or here on Unknowable Room (up to chapter 19).
Rating: PG-13
Status: WIP, 20 chapters.
Characters: Ginny/Harry, Ron/Hermione, Luna and others
Summary: Ginny Weasely is stuck as Maid of Honor in two separate, highly unconventonal weddings. She's none too happy about the situation, as it only reminds her that she is Without a Wizard. To top things off, she's hungry, and she's not allowed to eat her hat...
Why I fangirl this: The writing is really funny, and the fic gets this close to being a crackfic, yet, with all the odd things that happen to Ginny, it never crosses over to implausible... at least for wizards. And the development of Harry and Ginny's relationship is completely adorable, and very IC. Written before DH, some things are not canon-compliant, but nothing too relevant for the story. It's probably abandoned, but it doesn't end at a bad spot, and it's definitely worth reading.
Title: Opalish's post-DH crack/humour fics.
Author: opalish
Link: Here on FFN
Rating: PG to PG-13
Why I fangirl this: I'm a big fan of opalish's cracky universe and her writing style, which are one of a kind. I've enjoyed her stories for fandoms I don't even know. These are my favourites, a series of cracky post-DH fics revolving around Auror Harry Potter and his co-workers and family. In general they belong to the same universe, although the one-shots are canon-compliant and the two multichapter fics are AUs (since one is a multi-crossover and the other an Alternate Universe story). All of them are hilarious.
The one-shots:
* Gossip Queens: After the war, Neville and Harry meet up to mock people and get drunk. It's a good life. [Harry, Neville]
* The Wendell That Wasn't: The true story of how Harry and Ginny's kids got their names. Really, it's all Snape's fault. [Harry/Ginny, James Sirius, Snape]
* Broccoli and the Art of Subterfuge: Harry has some rather questionable parenting methods. And he may or may not be responsible for Draco Malfoy's receding hairline. [Harry/Ginny, James, Albus and Lily]
* The Desk: Malcolm Baddock fails at office warfare, and Harry teaches his desk to speak. [Harry, Ron, Hermione, OC - gen]
The longfics:
Harry Potter, Transdimensional Guidance Counselor
Summary: Part of being Head Auror is tracking down potential future heroes and villains and giving them a good talking-to. Harry really wishes he'd known this ahead of time. Multi-crossover crackfic WIP.
Status: 4 chapters, WIP. (But they all feature mostly random "missions" so it doesn't matter XD)
Crossover with many fandoms - from Good Omens to the Care Bears. The surprise is half the fun ;) Canon pairings, plus Luna/Zabini. All the characters are very well-done, specially her take on Zabini; and Harry's view of other canons' Heroes and Villains is priceless.
Scorpius Malfoy and the Improbable Plot
Summary: Scorpius really should have listened to his father's numerous and dire warnings about the Potter clan. Harry feels his pain. Gen crackfic WIP, yo.
Characters: Harry, the Potter children, Scorpius, Teddy and Victoire, plus the First Order.
Status: 19 chapters, WIP.
An accident lands Harry, his children, Scorpius, Teddy and Victoire on a parallel universe where he died as a baby and the war never ended. It's an adventure fic a lot funnier than this plot should be. Also, hers is the most canon Scorpius I've ever read, arrogant and pompous and slightly annoying, but a much better person than his father.
Title: Once Upon a Freakin' Time
Author: Evadne - evadne_noel
Link: On FFN or the LJ tag.
Rating: PG-13
Status: 40 chapters, technically a WIP but it doesn't have a real plot.
Summary: The Death Eaters attempt to do bad things, but mostly just do things badly.
Title: So You've Decided to Be Evil
Link: On FFN, except the last two chapters which are on lj. The LJ tag.
Rating: PG
Status: 8 chapters, WIP.
Summary: Harry Potter discovers there are things far, far more annoying than Death.
Why I fangirl this: These fics are simply hilarious. They used to be one fic, until the author decided to split it, leaving all the Death Eaters hijinks on OUAFT and moving the "Voldemort kidnaps Harry" plot to a new fic. "Freakin Time" is mostly about the random misadventures of a particularly thick Voldemort and his Death Eaters (including a ditzy Lucius and a Snape that's been kept surprisingly canon for our amusement). And in SYDTVE, Voldemort kidnaps Harry and forces him to become his apprentice. Harry is not amused. I must say the second to last chapter of this fic ("Harry Potter Receives a Series of Letters, Most of Which He Can’t Read") is one of my favourite pieces of writing ever.
Title: Brighter Than Sunshine
Author: hgfan1111
Link: Here on Simplyundeniable (also here on FFN).
Rating: PG-13
Status: Complete (21 chapters)
Characters: Harry/Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Draco, Tonks, Lupin and more.
Summary: The smoke clears from the Final Battle and the world is not the same. But even in the darkness, a light can still shine, leading lost souls home. AU Begun Post-HBP, disregards parts of DH. Canon pairings.
Why I fangirl this: The summary may be deceiving: this is an amazing mystery story. After the Final Battle, Harry and Ginny are presumed dead, and the spy Draco Malfoy is a hero of the war. However, in the muggle world, a young man that's been named Jack and a girl known as Emma each wake up in a hospital, with lots of injuries and no memory of their pasts...
There's a great presence of all the cast in this fic, and some of the best OCs I've read. Harry and Ginny are very IC, the story is dramatic but never wangsty, and the mystery plot hooks you.
Title: Altered Destinies (and the sequel Balancing Destinies)
Author: DobbyElfLord
Link: Altered Destinies and Balancing Destinies
Rating: PG-13
Status: AD: Complete (39 chapters). BD: WIP (19 chapters so far). The author is still active, posting new chapters first on his yahoo group.
Characters/Pairings: Harry Potter, Tom Riddle. Mostly gen. AD features Harry/OFC (and references Harry/Ginny but doesn't ship it), and the sequel has JP/LE, RW/HG, and other canon pairings.
Summary: Altered Destinies: Harry has defeated Voldemort, but it was a costly victory. Aberforth Dumbledore presents a plan to go back and kill the infant Riddle, but Harry will have to stay there 10 years. Can Harry alter the wizarding world's destiny? WWII and Grindelwald. --- Balancing Destinies: Sequel to Altered Destinies: Harry returns to his original time to find the wizarding world changed due to his actions in the past. Not only does his family and friends await, but so does a new prophecy.
Why I fangirl this: I love plotty AUs, and these are an awesome pair. The first fic starts with a "Harry adopts Tom Riddle" plot, and branches out to offer a view of the Wizarding World of the Grindewald era. Written before DH, it has no DD/GG, but the alternate dynamic we see between them is equally interesting. The historical aspects in are very well researched, and the author fills Jo's universe, extrapolating from canon and offering interesting theories (though it never seems like it's "fixing mistakes").
Harry is specially badass in this fic, and Tom gets an interesting character development. Also, it's one of the few fics where the OCs are as awesome as the canon characters. The sequel gives us more canon characters (many with interesting AU lives), and a political plot as compelling as the canon one.
Crossovers
Fandoms: Harry Potter/Naruto
Title: The "Ninja Wizards" saga
Author: Lisse (Lisse on FFN ladylisse and gotosleeplisse on LJ).
Link: The 'ninja wizards' tag.
Rating: PG
Status: Two one-shots and several ficlets, no ongoing story.
Summary: The 'what if JK Rowling had written about ninjas' fic. In another time and place, this would be magic.
Why I fangirl this: I love crossovers. Those and AUs are probably my favourite kind of fics (along with fluffy canon-compliant pairing fics XD). And this series of ficlets is a particular subgenre of crossover, the fusion, where instead of crossing characters from two universes, one canon is transformed in part of the other.
Well, this is what all fusion crossovers should aspire to be. It is amazingly done, with the humour and beautiful prose of all of Lisse's fics. The world-building is amazing, and even with the changes made to them, all the characters are instantly recognizable - and so is the whole Wizarding World. The way it portrays Harry (now called Kamajirushi Izou) is specially poignant.
In the first two one-shots, the author turns the Trio into Naruto-verse ninjas, and in the rest of the saga crosses them over with actual Naruto characters. The stories are varied, but all are mostly character studies. You can find everyone from Voldemort to James and Lily in short scenes or awesome little bits of worldbuilding.
The only reason you might not like it is because you need to be familiar with the terminology and later some characters of Naruto - or to have the Naruto wikipedia page in hand ;). On the other hand, it contains spoilers for Naruto.
Here are all the stories so far, in posting order (since there's really no proper story connecting all ficlets:
I - Three Good Reasons (also here on LJ).
Summary: Snapshots of three young shinobi. In another time and place, this would be magic.
[Trio - gen, Ron/Hermione - drama/general]
II - Home Front (Also on LJ here, and here -posted as "Homeward bound".)
Summary: Six moments in the life of Kamajirushi Izou. - Six moments from the first six HP books - or at least their ninja equivalents.
[Trio - gen - drama/general]
III - Armistice
Summary: Sasuke and ninjawizard!Trio in the same room. Parallels ensue.
[Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Sasuke Uchiha - gen]
IV - things i will never finish - ninja wizards edition
Summary: In which ninja!Lily and James meet a few... er, contemporaries. Alcohol happens. And then things go sideways and there's some Death Eater ANBU.
[Mostly gen, with some Lily/James and Kushina/Minato - humour/drama]
V - Untitled ficlet
Summary: none given, so I'll leave this quote instead: "Sasuke thinks that the boy must be his age - a head taller and red-haired and his expression all poorly-hidden annoyance and anger and outrage, threaded through with an undercurrent of fear. "Bait?" he echoes."
[Ron Weasley, Sasuke Uchiha - general ]
VI - Ten facts about the Hidden Mountain
Summary: Ten interesting facts about the Hidden Mountain.
[Dumbledore, Harry, Voldemort and others - gen - character study/humour/drama ]
VII - Diplomacy (Alt link: http://ladylisse.livejournal.com/442059.html)
Summary: Five diplomatic incidents the Hidden Mountain refuses to discuss (and the Hidden Leaf has probably forgotten about anyway).
[Tom Riddle, Ron, Snape, Jiraiya, Orochimaru, Kakashi & Sasuke - slight Minato/Kushina and Lily/James - humour]
VIII - Untitled one-shot
Summary: "The second thing Namikaze Minato notices about the Hidden Mountain is that it is much too fond of the theatrical." .
Minato & Kushina making fun of Death Eaters.
Fandoms: Firefly/Harry Potter
Title: Browncoat, Green Eyes
Author: nonjon
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2857962/1/Browncoat_Green_Eyes
Rating: M
Status: Complete (39 chapters)
Characters/Pairings: Harry, River, the crew of Serenity. Mostly gen, past Harry/Luna.
Summary: Post Serenity. Two years have passed since the secret of the planet Miranda got broadcast across the whole 'verse in 2518. The crew of Serenity finally hires a new pilot, but he's a bit peculiar.
Why I fangirl this: I read this before I watched all of Firefly; later while watching I had to keep reminding myself that no, that's not canon, you read that on BGE. That's how perfect the blend of the Firefly and HP universes is. It's also a great plotty action/adventure fic, and that's hard to find. Plus, the characters are what makes this fic great (as any HP or Whedonverse fic should). The author manages to give canon characters like River believable character development, which is always tricky. And Harry is wonderful, an older version of himself who's lived through everything yet is again thrown in a completely new world.
Fandoms: NCIS/Hetalia
Title: AWOL
Author: Lisse
Link: AWOL.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: When a Marine goes missing, his twin brother comes to NCIS looking for help. Then things get weird.
Why I fangirl this: This is probably the fic that started my love for supernatural canon/police procedural crossovers. You don't need to know much about Hetalia to love the fic, and in fact it may be better to look it up after you've read the story. The NCIS characters are spot on, and Lisse's style (funny, brief, each line hinting at a whole story) fits perfectly. It's also a mystery fic, which is always entertaining.
Fandoms: Animorphs/Scrubs
Title: My Brain Slug
Author: Insane Troll Logic
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4322552/1/My_Brain_Slug
Rating: PG
Summary: So Turk just extracted a brain slug from a patient, JD's being stalked by a red-tailed hawk and Cox has be acting a little different. Not your average day at Sacred Heart. Crossover with Animorphs.
Why I fangirl this: I've never watched Scrubs. I'd seen the ads, and the show looked funny (also, hey it's that guy from Clueless!), but never got around to do it. Then I found this recced somewhere (probably at animorphs ). With a quick google-fu of the main characters, I enjoyed this fic immensly. It manages the task of telling an Animorphs story in the style of a slightly surreal comedy, while still keeping bit of drama.
Fandom: Danny Phantom
Title: Phantom's Sketchbook
Author: AkoyaMizuno
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2948880/1/Phantoms_Sketchbook
Rating: PG-13
Status: Complete (9 chapters)
Summary: Mr. Lancer finds himself in an unparalleled situation; he has access to something which can give him incredable insight into the personal workings of Amity Park's local ghost teen hero, Danny Phantom.
Why I fangirl this: From the not-really-canon idea of a Danny who likes to draw, the author builds an interesting character study, of both Danny and Mr. Lancer. It features a Lancer that appears only now and then in canon but is strong in fanon, the stressed teacher who cares about his students, and specially Danny. The fic also uses the sketchbook to show us details about Danny's personality. Also, there are a couple of really good action scenes. It's a compelling story that does a lot in few chapters.
Fandom: Spider-Man (movie!verse)
Title: Just a Face On a Train
Author: katheryne
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2093771/1/Just_a_Face_On_a_Train
Rating: PG
Status: Complete (5 chapters)
Characters: OC, Peter Parker [genfic]
Summary: After rescuing a train from Doc Ock's attack, Peter Parker found himself unmasked and indebted to those he had just saved. 4 months later, a train passenger again crosses paths with the young hero. Based on events from SpiderMan 2.
Why I fangirl this: This is a remarkable story in that the main character is an OFC, one of the passengers on the train Spider-man saved. A wonderful outsider-POV look at Peter, and proof that OC stories don’t mean Mary Sue. It's also a mix of adventure and character study, which I love.
Fandom: Twilight
Title: moves in mysterious ways
Author: Lisse
Link:http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4333491/1/moves_in_mysterious_ways
Rating: PG
Summary: Sometimes the prey evolves, or at least learns how to issue restraining orders. Metafic.
Why I fangirl this: I swear I didn't set out to rec Lisse's fics here. I just picked my favourites, and only later realized many were hers XD. And this one is probably her best. Somewhat of a future!fic, it's a nice deconstruction of the vampire/human story in Twilight, with a vampire Bella Swan and an OC who is... not a fan. Lisse's prose here builds a quiet drama instead of the usual humour. It's a friendship fic, a suspense story, a character study, an exploration of a whole possible universe. And a one-shot. All in all an awesome read, whether you like Twilight or not.
ETA: I think we need a couple of tags: NCIS, Hetalia, Animorphs, Scrubs, Danny Phantom, Spider-man (Yay new fandoms! XD).