"Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness" by thanfiction

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4315906/1/Dumbledores_Army_and_the_Year_of_Darkness

I'm not really familiar with thanfiction's fandom history  but this is a pretty well-done fic with a fairly ardent fanbase. I usually try not to rec stuff that's already well-known unless I truly love it (like "My Immortal" or "Slytherin Spy") but I really quite enjoyed this and I figured, Why the hell not?

It's about what happened for the DA during year seven. Pretty enjoyable.

"The Strange Disappearance of SallyAnne Perks" by Paimpoint

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6243892

I love when stories uses flaws in Jo's writing to create a whole story arc. The only complaint I have about this story is that the author TOLD us the timeline in author's notes instead of leaving it up to the reader with clues in the texts, but really, this is something y'all should check out.

Do you know what happened to Sally-Anne Perks? To quote:

There weren't many people left now. "Moon" "Nott" "Parkinson" then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil" then "Perks, Sally-Anne" and then, at last - "Potter, Harry!" (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Chapter 7)

Ten minutes later, Professor Flitwick called, "Parkinson, Pansy - Patil, Padma - Patil, Parvati - Potter, Harry." (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 31)

~At some point between September 1991 and the spring of 1996, Sally-Anne Perks left Hogwarts. Perhaps she dropped out of school. Perhaps she fell ill. Perhaps she died. Or maybe she just vanished...

"Moving On" by LadyKatie

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3717765/1/Moving_On

Fuck, I love this fanfic. It's Harry/Draco, post DH. It's canon compliant (minus the epilogue, natch), and just ... fuck.

It wasn't perfect. There were a couple of scenes where I rolled my eyes (and some cringeworthy sex), but nothing that made me stop reading. I also love how this fic explored the notion of Wizarding Britain after Voldemort's fall.

I mentioned in my last post that I was never a Harry/Draco fan, but if one fic were to make me like the pairing, this is it. This is my "Dating Disasters of Sirius Black" for all the Drarry shippers out there. This makes sense to me.

The "Alexandra Quick Series" by Inverarity

A series about an American witch at an American wizarding institution.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3964606/1/Alexandra_Quick_and_the_Thorn_Circle

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4684861/1/Alexandra_Quick_and_the_Lands_Below

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5784632/1/Alexandra_Quick_and_the_Deathly_Regiment

One of the few things Rowling got right in the last books was that she didn't address the Veil, (and I commend her for that because in every other regard she threw subtlety out the window,) but Inverarity discusses the Veil head-on, and comes out with a pretty good story.

I love this series. It's especially amusing if you know anything at all about American history.

I believe it's Inverarity's plan to write seven books (admirable, really), and the series is much more tightly-connected than the HP books, I would say. Book three feels like the second half of book two, for example.If I had to make any complaints, it would be that I miss some of the canon characters we know and love. There are references to canon sprinkled throughout, but it's not quite the same, you know?

And also, I'm just stating for the record that any coincidences between this series and the (non-fan)fiction series I'm working on are purely that. We even use similar names. Maybe that's why I like this series so much. Sheer narcissism.

"Harry Potter and the Slytherin Spy" by Christine Morgan

What if there was another Hogwarts student in Little Whinging?

This fic, written/set right after Order of the Phoenix, is about Harry meeting a Slytherin girl and forming a friendship with her in his sixth year. It's fairly-straightforward and not excessively (wonderfully) violent at all. (Sarcasm.)

http://www.eskimo.com/~vecna/hp_spy_01.html

Morgan can imitate Rowling's writing style well, and there is something so satisfying about reading a fic you can confuse for the genuine article; especially when it gets to where Morgan is describing gruesome deaths in Rowling's simple, yet descriptive prose.

I'm not pretending this fic is without problems; it's focused on a female OC, which is a no-no to most in the fandom, though trust me when I say the writing is good enough you won't care. And there are a few canon things that would raise eyebrows - Kreacher's characterisation is all wrong in this fic, in my opinion, while I think Morgan's explanation of where Sirius was hiding during Harry's thirteenth summer is a brilliant twist. Morgan also abuses ellipses, and the ending seems a bit rushed and simplistic, but trust me when I say:
YOU SHOULD READ THIS.

"Loved By All" by Draug419

Wow. This is a weird, weird fanfic. And I mean that in a good way.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5092272/1/Loved_By_All

I can't even really properly tell you the plot without giving anything away. It's Remus/Sirius, but, once again, that is more of a backdrop to a really, really weird story. It's an AU, and Remus, Sirius and James (there's never any Peter in these things, is there?) attend another wizarding school, which is Hogwarts minus the charm and warmth. What you have here is a thriller that I couldn't stop reading almost despite myself. I kept wondering, What the FUCK is going to happen next?

Draug's writing isn't particularly good, but she does have a knack for interesting plots (she could almost release this as a whole new novel, given the way it strays from canon; I think she was influenced by The Chocolate War, but let me just say, it's not very much like that book, either), and she introduces some interesting concepts about magic (Imperius vs. Veritaserum for example) and that's where the rec comes from. A place of WTF.