By Bobmin
Reviews
cathal posted a comment on Saturday 18th April 2009 1:56am
You've already provided the solution in this chapter: the Goblins. I quote "... Gringotts is already taking steps to secure their position..."
What better way than taking care of one of Harry's problems? Make him a little grateful that one of his main problems is no longer around.
mathiasgranger posted a comment on Saturday 18th April 2009 1:50am
I can fully understand you're reasoning regarding Voldemort. For my money its why I prefer POA over the rest of the movies or books, there really isn't Voldemort anywhere to be seen.
Frankly, the whole shtick got old, and JKR milked a one dimensional evil character for all he was worth. If she had actually thought to develop her characters that might not have been the case, but such is life.
One quibble with this chapter, the whole Harry and Ginny dynamic seemed to jump several light years without any basis for it. Harry liked Ginny, although she had stated she was dating someone else, then Hermione is telling Harry how much Ginny loves him.
Does Ginny even know him? How would you bridge that gap in a reasonable fashion, unless you do it off screen? The books are written from Harry's POV, and we know from canon he hardly ever talked to Ginny before 6th year, she was merely always around.
At any rate, I rather enjoy your one shots, so there is no real hurry to rush back to this story if the muse isn't around for you.
Thanks for writing,
Matt
perspicacity posted a comment on Saturday 18th April 2009 1:46am
You don't want to deal with the big V? I don't blame you. You've written over a million words on him, so I appreciate he's just plain boring. Instead, I recommend you just ignore him. Why even deal with Voldemort? Just have Magneto kill him and shift the big baddie in the story to the real villain.
Magneto harbors resentment against the Wizarding world because of the Grindelwald thing. No way he'd let someone like Voldemort rise again and be the embodiment of everything he hates.
Let Magneto kill Voldemort. The prophesy is still valid. (The power he knows not is mutant power, which happens to do in the Dark Lord). Then let Harry be a team X member and join a different fight.
It's just a thought...
MonCappy posted a comment on Saturday 18th April 2009 1:42am
This was a good chapter. I look forqord to seeing what happens next. Hopefully, Snap will die very soon and in a very gruesome and agonizing fashion.
Matt101 posted a comment on Saturday 18th April 2009 1:39am
I love this story and I can't wait to see the new directions you might take... keep it up.
Tarkas posted a comment on Saturday 18th April 2009 1:38am
Blimey! Three new Bob'n'Alyx stories/chapters in the space of less than a week?! Whose birthday was it, and how can we arrange for them to have another one next week... and the week after that... and every week thereafter?
Lots and lots of good stuff in this chapter, not least being the ferret and greasy git being put (or kept <snicker>) in their places. One can only hope that there is more of that to follow. Luna was brilliant, both in her interaction with Harry and with his friends. I hope to see more of her, too. The usual little humorous touches (like Mandy Brocklehurst) made a nice contrast to the darker atmosphere of the rest of the story.
Oh, and IWANT one of those jump jets... <slaver, drool>
And so onto the Special Note, and the vexed topic of whither goest this tale if not to a conventional Final Battle. I am going to both agree and disagree with other reviewers on this one.
First, yes, dispose of Tommy-boy and the Dung Eaters in a fairly straight-forward manner if you're fed up with them (as well you might be), but don't make it too easy. Regardless of the fact that I would happily read of Jean lobotomising Snivellus while Scott blasts Junior and Senior Ferret and Logan skewers Bellatrix, previous parts of this story have set up the aforementioned twits and their leader as a genuine threat and they should at least be treated as such by Harry and his allies, even if that simply results in the good guys setting up an attack that wipes the buggers out in a series of massive invocations of Rule 37.
Having dealt with the pure-blood ponces and their ilk, the question arises of what next? Given my druthers, I would not have you involve Harry in the Marvel Universe as a whole, or even bring in much more of the X-Men mythos. You said in the past that you were not going to do this, and I think that was the right choice for this story. Other authors have and are writing takes in which Harry, mutant or not, becomes caught up in MU happenings, and fair enough, but that is not what this story is about, nor IMO should it be.
So what then? Well, I think you have, consciously or otherwise, introduced an interesting possibility in this chapter -- the collapse of the wizarding world, or at the very least, the British section of it, under the strain of its own backwardness, blindness and refusal to change. You've also possibly set up the beginnings of an international conflict, albeit one somewhat different to that in Sunset/Sunrise, and that gives a potential plot direction. I look forward to seeing how you handle whatever you decide to do. I just hope that, in addition to squelching the usual suspects, Umbitch gets hers in as humiliating a fashion as possible.
amulder posted a comment on Saturday 18th April 2009 1:35am
wait, I _can't_ demand a refund?
good chapter. thanks
I am a bit surprised at how Jean kept telling her class about what "man" has done. I'm just so used to gender-neutral speech these days.
LDA posted a comment on Saturday 18th April 2009 1:35am
B & A, I have to say that if this fic wasn't Harry/Ginny I would love it, but I only read it because I like your style of writing and the actual plot though I do hope you end Riddle and move it more into the X-Men universe...
Can you please either Kill Ginny in a brutally bloody manner and hook Harry up with a Mutant girl from the comics?? Please?
Bobmin356 replied:
No and if you don't like the ship DESPITE our multiple warnings then we suggest you go elsewhere.
Ryan Denton posted a comment on Saturday 18th April 2009 1:30am
just keep writing and I will be happy!
James Barber posted a comment on Saturday 18th April 2009 1:10am
Hey saw your note at the end of this chapter...makes me feel slightly guilty since I was one of the ones that was egging you on to work on this story...Now while I love this story, to be totally honest I simple love any hp story you and your wife write! I've been reading hp fanfiction for about 5 years now and out of all the hp stories I've read on the net, I consider you and your wife along with jeconais to be the two top hp fanfiction writers, of course there are a whole slew of other hp writers out their that are nipping at your heels so you cant slack off...!
Also to be totally honest I too have evolved over the years...5 years ago I was only interested in harry/ginny ships, but about 3 years ago that changed to harry/hermione and since then it has changed again to harry/hermione, harry/luna, harry/daphne or harry/harem, especially the harems! in fact now that I think on it my reading now adays lean more to stories that might have volide mention once or twice but dont really have anything to do with him....couple that come to mind and one of my favorities is redfrog "Summer of Independence" and tumshie "Indepence Day" and also anything by udderpd or witowsmp or old-crow or loralee, damn you got me to mentioning the authors, naughty, naughty!
Ken McAndrew posted a comment on Saturday 18th April 2009 1:09am
Reading some of the reviews, I think the tactic to go with this might be to indeed take Voldemort out of the equation early, with the "power he knows not." And then adapt in Finbar's idea to make it real fun. Part of the issue is, I don't know what X-Men canon you're using (movie, regular comics, Ultimate comics, etc), so it's hard to fit things that have happened. But if you go Finbar's route...
Let's say Harry is the product of Sinister's manipulations getting Lily and James together (not unprecedented, he cloned Jean to make Madelyne Pryor so that Cable would be born). So there's a genetic trait passed down that, until now, the women have been the host for: Phoenix. And I'm not talking the watered down movie version, I'm talking the cosmic, killed 5 billion people to feed herself, other races are so afraid they'd blow up the earth to kill it, Phoenix. To the point that, in the last comics I read before I stopped collecting, someone killed all of Jean's family (Jean was dead again at this point) except for Rachel (prior Phoenix host, Scott and Jean's daughter from an alternate timeline).
So you could take the story where the fit hits the shan with Voldy and all, and somehow Harry manifests the Phoenix Force. But given all the events in his life, after taking out Voldy and company, he'd probably be wearing Gryffindor colors (IE, the red and gold of Dark Phoenix). You could work it how Harry's brought back under control, or even go the sadder route of the comics and have Harry end himself to stop things. Of course, that never stopped Jean from coming back, over and over, so you can still get the happy ending. :)
It might make things more X-based than Potter-based, but I think it could broaden the story horizons if that's what you're looking for.
webdoc posted a comment on Saturday 18th April 2009 1:00am
Nice to see you both back.
I can appreciate your feelings related to your "special note" After reading both the cannon books, and all of the fan-fiction stories out there, we've all read many ways for the dork lord to die, and I imagine trying to come up with new creative ways can be a daunting task.
So my only comment to you and Alyx would be to write what makes YOU happy. I am not an author, but i have made a decent living as a musician over the years. And I will say for a fact that I have been happiest as a musician when I am writing and performing music that makes ME feel good. I would imagine that an author would feel the same way. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote his wonderful books because he was wanted to see books written that he would enjoy.
So write what makes you happy, and we'll all enjoy reading them too.
Wolfric posted a comment on Saturday 18th April 2009 12:56am
Good chapter. I think this story is a lot more about Harry's journey than defeating Voldemort. If dealing with Voldemort isn't interesting then I would suggest having somebody else kill him in a casual or accidental fashion and get back to Harry's journey. Having Remus kill him from behind appeals to me for some reason, Umbridge would have a fit. All that aside I like this story very much the emotional landscape is well realized. I appreciate your efforts despite the personal difficulties you have had. Thanks for writing. W.
Ramos posted a comment on Saturday 18th April 2009 12:51am
Frankly, I'd love to see Voldemort hanging, well perforated, from a set of Wolverine claws -- but my favorite fantasy is still Snape vs Wolverine.
"So, you're the upstart mongrel mutant.."
SNICK! SLASH!
"Cleanup on aisle 8!"
Jamey posted a comment on Saturday 18th April 2009 12:49am
*LAUGHS* at the author's note.
Yes. Voldemort is rather done now, isn't he. The fandom has uncovered thousands, even millions, of ways, completely within canon means, of getting rid of him easily and quickly. That leaves us all feeling rather unsatisfied with the world JKR built. That's why so many fanfiction worlds diverge after _Goblet of Fire_ and _Order of the Phoenix_: we had the world built, and well designed, and knew enough to create something that worked (mostly - there were all the holes she left in the first books, that never got filled in later). In the _Half-Blood Prince_, we got Horcruxes - but those were fair, we could look back at the diary and say "Yes, she foreshadowed that - we can work with that." The horcruxes get used on a regular basis. Much of the rest of the book, however, gets thrown away, as it came from nowhere, and seemed disconnected from the rest. Then _Deadly Hallows_ came, and the invisibility cloak took on supreme importance - even though there was *NOTHING* in the prior novels to indicate that even for an invisibility cloak, Harry's was unusual. We got no real clue about the ring Dumbledore recovered, save that it was yet another Horcrux. And the requirement everyone knew was coming, the Horcrux Hunt, was handled very clumsily and illogically.
At this point, we now know that JKR isn't coming up with something really good for Voldemort, so we remember all of the better ways of handling Voldemort and decide he's not worthy of a story any more. And there's so many other things to do *after* Harry is done with Voldemort, so you're more than justified in using a throw-away death on him, and getting on to the real point of the story (which, in this case, could be the tensions of a three-way confrontation between Mutants, Magics, and Majority). After all, that was the *real* plot hole JKR left - the dying Wizarding World and what eventually happened to it. And that's the theme you seem to like exploring best, with Sunrise/Sunset, with Wizard's Fall, and with Power of the Press.
Andrew2 posted a comment on Saturday 18th April 2009 12:48am
I totally agree with your sentiments about Voldemort as a plot line and, speaking for myself, I too find your storylines aka Wizards Fall to be far superior.
Mutant Storm is a brilliant crossover and tbh, i never expected Voldie to play that big a role in it anyhoo.
The way your other stories have been going of late, I didn't expect anything else.
Scathing condemnations of the Wizarding World are so much more fun...
You may not be as opaque as you think... :)
You might, however, be more god-like, brilliant and all-around inspiring that previously assumed...
Crys posted a comment on Saturday 18th April 2009 12:47am
Hmm. I don't remember Hagrid being disillusioned with AD in this one. His words to R, Hr, & G - while true - certainly don't reflect the blind follower persona he had in canon. Could be in the earlier chapters, but I sure don't recall it.
Glad to see how Harry's treating Snape and Malfoy. Just wish everyone else would treat them in the way they deserve.
Jean's defense of Harry not getting into the fight and Harry's exasperation with them. He's right, of course. All very well phrased. Now just to see if any of the idiots will actually listen.
Looking forward to reading more from you two.
Robert Malley posted a comment on Saturday 18th April 2009 12:41am
I really missed this story. Glad to see it srtarted again. I agree, kill Voldemort quickly but keep the other story line going.
mwinter posted a comment on Saturday 18th April 2009 12:35am
Again a great chapter. I like the idea of just focusing on everything but Voldermort. Your Wizards Fall story was great. Most stories that jump between the two and try to focus on both characters. It makes for a jumpy story sometimes and alot of time most authors can't get it right hence they abandon their stories. Both of you have always worked very hard to maintain the story in a precise way. Again great chapter.
sitruc1986 posted a comment on Saturday 18th April 2009 1:56am