Niffle #4 -- and another rec

[snorkackcatcher]

The Gift by swishandflick -- link is to the Niffle post.

And another rec, since the Niffling rules prevent me from actually Niffling this or its sequel(*) -- Harry Potter and Dumbledore's Feint by cassieverte. (Link is to the Yahoo group where it's now hosted; original version at Chamber of Secrets if you don't feel like signing up before taking a look.) It's a long H/Hr Year 6 story (pre-HBP), but don't let that put you off, because it's definitely not a fluff-fest. Here's the summary:

"Allies found, enemies created, youth disillusioned, hormones indulged, innocence sacrificed, and battles fought. Harry discovers that while he is training for a war, Dumbledore has already begun the fight.

In the beginning of his sixth year, Harry must overcome his grief and face the reality of his role in the war. Still out of the Order loop, Harry struggles to understand Dumbledore's mysterious actions while learning Occlumency, dueling, and other general how-to-save-the-world skills. And through it all, Harry falls in love."

Lots of memorable scenes, snappy dialogue, and character work, and ideas. A bit slow-starting and has some spelling issues, but hey, give it a chance. It's also one of the few H/Hr fics I've seen that has a well-written and decent Ron! The excellent and action-packed Chapter 7 of the sequel, Harry Potter and the City of Woe has just been posted.

(*) I offered some pre-posting comments on one chapter of DF towards the end, asked by the author to see if I could spot the big plot twists coming up in the next chapter. (Got close to one, competely missed the other.) I also noted a few typos etc in passing. Under the current stringent rules this means that not only can't I Niffle DF, I can't Niffle the sequel either, or indeed anything written by the author ever again. ::grumble::mutter::gripe::

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, the Niffling rules caught me that way. I made friends with lots of people because I admired their writing, and I've beta'd for, or been beta'd by, most of them by now. Which meant that when I became a Niffler and reached for all the stories I really liked, they were out of bounds! Ah well. I understand why the rule is there, but it was a surprise to me to realise how successful I'd been in chasing down good writers to friend, and how comprehensively I'd shot myself in the foot!

[(Anonymous)]

Er, that's lazy_neutino here. Computer seems to have eaten its cookies. I'll have to go and log in!

[snorkackcatcher]

Yeah -- they're a bit odd, since they don't prevent you from (say) Niffling fics by members of your flist, or by someone who's Niffled you, both of which I'm trying to avoid. Betaing in particular is something that's often done casually -- I can see the point in not allowing a Niffle of someone you work with closely on a regular basis, but if it's just a one-off "yeah, I'll help out" that's a bit extreme.