Recently I found myself going down a Harry Potter rabbit hole… don’t ask me why, it just happened.
The problem with fanfiction and me is that I prefer fanfiction that sticks with what is canon (aka nothing from the original material has changed) and yet it expands from the already established world from the original author.
As thus I have found that I cannot seem to enjoy most Harry Potter related fanfiction because so much that is out there changes the canon plot points that I find are crucial to the over all story and when those changes occur I become quite twitchy. Ah well. There is nothing wrong with the majority of fanfiction out there, that is why it is called “fanfiction”… the above is just a personal preference.
So when I came across the following stories, I found myself drawn to them because they introduce plot elements that makes sense when placed in-line with the original material, and yet diverges so that the author could really find their own footing and create a seamless story of their own.
“Songs of Regret” by RavieSnake
“The Teddy Lupin Series” by FernWithy
“Songs of Regret” by RavieSnake
Considering this is the world of Harry Potter and time-traveling is as thus a by product of such a world… this device was used most elegantly in the ongoing saga of “Songs of Regret” by RavieSnake. Yes, yes I know this one is adult fanfiction meaning there is quite a bit of smut in it, but with or without the smut the storyline itself is intriguing and complex when you really take the time to think about it.
“Songs of Regret” begins with the morning of the very last scene of the Harry Potter books and movies where the trio (and other families) are getting their children ready for their first day at Hogwarts (precisely 1 September 2017 for any Potterheads keeping track). Which means the trio would be around 37/38 years of age at that point.
Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger randomly run into one another in Diagon Alley and regretted the same regret at the same time which inadvertently activates the “Paenitentia Pearl” (paenitentia = regret / repentance in Latin) which throws them back in time to the summer before their sixth year in Hogwarts.
The problem now being that although they are technically still their 37/38 year old selves, they are adults stuck in 16 year old bodies with memories of their 37/38 years of life while the rest of the world around them was from when they were 16 years old.
Confused yet?
The “Paenitentia Pearl” primary function is to cause whatever the user regrets to vanish completely. However what this really means is best summarized by Hermione Granger:
“First, if regret is declared about an object or if the regret is small or not entirely sincere then the object or regret simply ceases to be. Say I had regretted that I had to carry those heavy shopping bags. They would have just disappeared. But for big regrets, for actions or events that one regrets from their past, the pearl does much more than simply erase the event. It erases EVERYTHING. It acts like a giant Time-Turner and any moment that occurred after the mentioned regret will exist only in the memory of the person who used the pearl.”
Which begs the question: If you were given the chance to be thrown back in time prior to said regret to prevent said regret from happening, knowing full well the consequence being that you had to give up / lose the years in between permanently (you would still remember the lost years but no one else around you would) and as thus there is no guarantee of you getting any semblance of those years back… would you erase said regret?
Yeeeeaaaaah… not an easy question, let alone choice now is it?
The author adds a few other magical tidbits like elemental magic and “fated souls” (which is the magical equivalent to soulmates)… and for a little while those did bug me, but at the same time the storyline itself was intriguing because I find myself wanting to know what would happen in this alternate universe and how would the universe right itself in a way that would be ultimately satisfying even for this die-hard Potterhead? I suppose I would have to wait for that answer as this series is still ongoing… **le sigh**
“The Teddy Lupin Series” by FernWithy
This is a series of four stories that highlights Teddy Lupin’s years in Hogwarts:
- Year One: Teddy Lupin and the Forest Guard
- Year Three: Teddy Lupin and the Hunter’s Moon
- Year Five: Teddy Lupin and the Daedalus Maze
- Year Seven: Teddy Lupin and the Needle’s Eye
This series is the perfect case where the author seamlessly ties their stories to that which is canon whilst adding some of their own ideas / elements into the stories as well. There is a lot of room to work with and new aspects of the wizarding world is added in such a way where one could find themselves drawn into the world once again.
Teddy Lupin as the protagonist is spot on in this set up, very different from how Harry Potter was brought into the wizarding world. As we all know, Teddy Lupin was brought into the world as an orphan but well-loved and with lots of family around him.
Unfortunately, as the author says themself, this series was created BEFORE the J K Rowling reveal of the family trees from after the series, so there are some pieces that have diverged from the primary story. Plus the latest reveal of Teddy Lupin being in Hufflepuff from J K Rowling recently is totally different from whichever house Teddy Lupin finds himself in through this series. Despite these differentiations, I found myself binge-reading this series to the point that I completed it within a week.
This series also ties up a couple of loose-y ends that were tied far too nicely for my taste in the canon series allowing Teddy to be that tie-in point between the past and the future.
Granted, one could say that Rowling could write her own series with Teddy as the centerpoint, but if I recall correctly, Rowling also mentioned that after the events at the Battle at Hogwarts, the wizarding world enjoy peace… so I suppose for now this Teddy Lupin series is the best one could have to fulfill that hole of what happens after Harry Potter… at least to me it does.