Traveller’s Tales
Nov. 18th, 2005 12:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snorkackcatcherSo: out of curiosity (and because I'm planning to post NTLJ elsewhere when it's finished) I decided to venture out into the stormy and nearly uncharted waters that are Fanfiction.net's section for "Nymphadora Tonks".
And lo, I learned many things on my travels: #1 of which is that I just don't have what it takes to be a Real Shipper. Because it seems like at least 90% of the stories there are some variation on Remus/Tonks, pages of the things, frequently fluffy, to the point where I felt like screaming "Nooo! Stop! Enough already! I CAN'T TAKE ANY MORE!!!" if I saw one more bloody story which mentioned the pairing. I even clicked on a Tonks/Wood piece out of a mixture of relief and desperation (OK, it wasn't any good, but it did provide a short respite from the pink werewolves).
So what follows are links to a few random stories that caught my eye which were actually better than that. Plus a bit of random sporkage, which seems to be the in thing these days.
Right -- first of all, a bit of the old sporkage. Because a few of the summaries (sorry, sumeryz) really made my jaw drop.
Harry Potter and the Dragoon Lord
it has been 10,000 years since the dragoon war and now the time has come for them to rise again to battle the forces of evil.Will Harry be able to fufil his destany and clame his birth right as the next dragoon lord
Wow, who knew there were mounted riflemen that long ago? Maybe it's one of those Time-Turner fics. Obviously it can't really have meant dragons, because we know those are big things that breathe fire at Harry and there already seem to be plenty of them around.
Hermiones Insecurity
AU Hermione goes completely psyco because she loves Harry, but he thinks of her as a friend. Her only option? To kill all the girls at Hogwarts of course! Posibly Honks. It depends. OOC
Depends on whether she walks into Hermione's line of fire first, presumably. Good plan, 'Mione. Because Harry's well known for liking mass murderers, isn't he? Yeah, that'll work. OOC? Gee, you don't say?
Dragon Rider
Harry is changing, his abilities growing. He decides to take his training into his own hands and... disappears... (somewhere around chapter 5 I would think, I'm not a big planner) [Story will most likely be rated R if continued] [Story name is temporary]
Oh good, it's always nice to have the feeling that the writer knows exactly where they're going with the story, isn't it? :) You really don't want to put this sort of thing in the summary ...
OK, that's enough because I'm feeling a bit guilty about this, dammit. Names of authors omitted out of consideration. Whether for them or the reader, I'm not sure.
Anyway, more to the point, the Tonks-stories. Right. Oneshots unless otherwise stated.
Murder on the Hogwarts Express by Violet Russell
A mystery story which is a pastiche of a certain Agatha Christie novel you may be familiar with. A Slytherin prefect is murdered on the journey to Hogwarts -- and a young Tonks, who has ambitions to be an Auror, decides to try her hand at solving the crime with the help of her friend Charlie Weasley, and the new Head Boy Bill Weasley. Chaptered but not that long. Definitely an unusual story idea and nice to see these three together as leads with not a romance in sight!
Fortitudine vincimus by jadeddiva
Tonks talks to Ginny at the Burrow about when she knew she'd fallen for Remus, and what Ginny intends to do about Harry. Nice little story that draws the parallels between the two romances well.
Tonks Restored by Bottlebrush
Yes, that does say Bottlebrush. Deal with it. I hadn't realised who it was by until I took another look just now, and hence was obviously rather surprised after recent events -- but although R/T diehards will hate this one it's actually quite fun on the whole, and has a very ruthless Remus realising (after the Hospital Wing scene) that Tonks isn't who she appears to be. There's a sort of assault course at Spinners End, and I really liked the little cameo by Slughorn. Um, give the girl a chance? :)
Detention by FernWithy
A short Fernwithy fic I hadn't seen before (mind you, I haven't actually got round to reading The Doll Army or Your Very Own Dora yet, so maybe that isn't saying much ::shuffles feet awkwardly::). Fern's Hufflepuff!Tonks gets a detention with Snape. Some mysterious Snape behaviour and nice musings on Potions theory.
Deconstruction by kirikarin
Post-OotP (no longer canon-compliant). More of a Percy fic with Tonks in a major supporting role -- starts with him in a Muggle mental hospital, and both he and the reader have to figure out what the hell is going on with him. When it's realised that he's missing, Tonks is assigned to look for him, and carries on doing so after she's taken off the case. Features a good role for Oliver Wood as a friend of Percy, not some kind of Love Idol, and has an unusual but plausible choice of villain. It all gets a bit Paradigm of Uncertainty-ish towards the end, but overall an interesting one that builds up the suspense quite well. Chaptered, longish (17 chapters).
And lo, I learned many things on my travels: #1 of which is that I just don't have what it takes to be a Real Shipper. Because it seems like at least 90% of the stories there are some variation on Remus/Tonks, pages of the things, frequently fluffy, to the point where I felt like screaming "Nooo! Stop! Enough already! I CAN'T TAKE ANY MORE!!!" if I saw one more bloody story which mentioned the pairing. I even clicked on a Tonks/Wood piece out of a mixture of relief and desperation (OK, it wasn't any good, but it did provide a short respite from the pink werewolves).
So what follows are links to a few random stories that caught my eye which were actually better than that. Plus a bit of random sporkage, which seems to be the in thing these days.
Right -- first of all, a bit of the old sporkage. Because a few of the summaries (sorry, sumeryz) really made my jaw drop.
Harry Potter and the Dragoon Lord
it has been 10,000 years since the dragoon war and now the time has come for them to rise again to battle the forces of evil.Will Harry be able to fufil his destany and clame his birth right as the next dragoon lord
Wow, who knew there were mounted riflemen that long ago? Maybe it's one of those Time-Turner fics. Obviously it can't really have meant dragons, because we know those are big things that breathe fire at Harry and there already seem to be plenty of them around.
Hermiones Insecurity
AU Hermione goes completely psyco because she loves Harry, but he thinks of her as a friend. Her only option? To kill all the girls at Hogwarts of course! Posibly Honks. It depends. OOC
Depends on whether she walks into Hermione's line of fire first, presumably. Good plan, 'Mione. Because Harry's well known for liking mass murderers, isn't he? Yeah, that'll work. OOC? Gee, you don't say?
Dragon Rider
Harry is changing, his abilities growing. He decides to take his training into his own hands and... disappears... (somewhere around chapter 5 I would think, I'm not a big planner) [Story will most likely be rated R if continued] [Story name is temporary]
Oh good, it's always nice to have the feeling that the writer knows exactly where they're going with the story, isn't it? :) You really don't want to put this sort of thing in the summary ...
OK, that's enough because I'm feeling a bit guilty about this, dammit. Names of authors omitted out of consideration. Whether for them or the reader, I'm not sure.
Anyway, more to the point, the Tonks-stories. Right. Oneshots unless otherwise stated.
Murder on the Hogwarts Express by Violet Russell
A mystery story which is a pastiche of a certain Agatha Christie novel you may be familiar with. A Slytherin prefect is murdered on the journey to Hogwarts -- and a young Tonks, who has ambitions to be an Auror, decides to try her hand at solving the crime with the help of her friend Charlie Weasley, and the new Head Boy Bill Weasley. Chaptered but not that long. Definitely an unusual story idea and nice to see these three together as leads with not a romance in sight!
Fortitudine vincimus by jadeddiva
Tonks talks to Ginny at the Burrow about when she knew she'd fallen for Remus, and what Ginny intends to do about Harry. Nice little story that draws the parallels between the two romances well.
Tonks Restored by Bottlebrush
Yes, that does say Bottlebrush. Deal with it. I hadn't realised who it was by until I took another look just now, and hence was obviously rather surprised after recent events -- but although R/T diehards will hate this one it's actually quite fun on the whole, and has a very ruthless Remus realising (after the Hospital Wing scene) that Tonks isn't who she appears to be. There's a sort of assault course at Spinners End, and I really liked the little cameo by Slughorn. Um, give the girl a chance? :)
Detention by FernWithy
A short Fernwithy fic I hadn't seen before (mind you, I haven't actually got round to reading The Doll Army or Your Very Own Dora yet, so maybe that isn't saying much ::shuffles feet awkwardly::). Fern's Hufflepuff!Tonks gets a detention with Snape. Some mysterious Snape behaviour and nice musings on Potions theory.
Deconstruction by kirikarin
Post-OotP (no longer canon-compliant). More of a Percy fic with Tonks in a major supporting role -- starts with him in a Muggle mental hospital, and both he and the reader have to figure out what the hell is going on with him. When it's realised that he's missing, Tonks is assigned to look for him, and carries on doing so after she's taken off the case. Features a good role for Oliver Wood as a friend of Percy, not some kind of Love Idol, and has an unusual but plausible choice of villain. It all gets a bit Paradigm of Uncertainty-ish towards the end, but overall an interesting one that builds up the suspense quite well. Chaptered, longish (17 chapters).
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no subject
Date: 2005-11-18 02:39 pm (UTC)Haven't been on the archives for a very long time, I'm getting quite nostalgic. I used to read via the Niffled/recs section of FAP until the fateful day I clicked on someone's LJ links.
Pink werewolves OMG.
I've never really seen the R/S subtext, myself (although i'm quite happy dreaming up subtext elsewhere). There must be a few stories out there, surely, that deal purely with their drinking and motorbike riding days, but you'd have to tread through such mire to get there.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-19 11:23 am (UTC)And no, I don't 'get' R/S either -- a few odd things that might conceivably indicate it, and many things that make it just plain unlikely.