Category Archives: Misc.

Woefully, these exist.

Bad OCs, unoriginal plots, frightening grammar/spelling…well, welcome to the world of Harry Potter fanfiction.

This is the kick-off post for the category “Fanfiction” under “Misc.” where I will take you through the most common misdemeanors of Harry Potter fanfiction. Before we venture ahead, I would like to establish that there are some (though growing fewer everyday) capable handlers of J.K Rowling’s characters, who paint fantastic stories which act more as an aid to further your understanding the characters and are actually quite enjoyable. In the case of the blog, however, I will mostly be sharing the ones which are laughable at best, and at worst, might make you consider blocking fanfiction altogether from your life.

If you find any fanfictions, good or bad, that you would like to share, feel free to submit it to us via the “contact us” form. Attach your comment, and we will publish it under your name as the submitter.

Now, let’s begin on our breakneck journey down into the vaults until we reach the “a-knut-a-dozen” fanfictions.

Original Characters

Perhaps a more suitable name for these should be “unoriginal characters”. When writing fanfiction, one should never even consider throwing a bonus character who doesn’t belong in the fandom into the plot line. Especially when they have names like Jessica or Bailey. The only acceptable use of OCs is if they are spiced in the story as extremely invisible side characters; such as a barkeeper in a Marauder Era setting. Try to limit their interaction with the canon characters and never (and I mean it), ever make them the point to rally around in the story.

Common examples of cases where the horrific butchering of Harry Potter is evident:

Girl from America receives letter for Hogwarts. Somehow gets to Britain and makes friends with Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, and falls in love with Draco Malfoy.
Harry Potter fan suddenly finds herself sucked into the book and thrown into the middle of the Harry Potter timeline
OC/Any-main-character pairings

It’s funny because as I am making this post, I scrolled down a little in fanfiction.net and saw this summary.”After Angelica Turner’s magic school in America is destroyed by a bunch of drunk Muggle boys, Angelica is transferred to Hogwarts in England in her fifth year, the same year as Harry Potter and his friends are in.”

There are so many things wrong with that summary that I don’t even know where to begin. So I won’t say anything.

2. OOC Characters

Out of Character characters. That is precisely the problem faced, especially with complex characters like Snape, when twelve year-olds try to imitate him. If you can’t do it, don’t, and spare the rest of us.

Common examples of cases where the horrific butchering of Harry Potter is evident:

Snapemione is probably one of the only “serious” ships in the fandom that I do not understand whatsoever.
Dumbledore is too strict/angry/Michael Gambon-ish.
All the characters seem to have multiple personality disorder.
Putting a character in a different house.
The character’s speech is too intent on getting to the point and instead, the author ignores all their nuances of speech.

3. Harry Potter Universe Rules = Ignored

Unless it is AU, there should be no excuse for bending, stretching and sometimes completely breaking the limitations set by J.K Rowling. You cannot truly bring people back from the dead, you cannot transfigure rocks into food, Hogwarts is not visible to muggles as a castle, etc.

Common examples of cases where the horrific butchering of Harry Potter is evident:

Apparating before the age of seventeen without consequences
Doing underage magic outside of school (once again, without consequences)
Texting at Hogwarts/using any electronics in Hogwarts

4. Being Utterly Non-Canon

There is a timeline. There are major events and causes and effects. I understand it’s a fanfiction, but these things cannot be altogether ignored.

Common examples of cases where the horrific butchering of Harry Potter is evident:

The complete misplacement of a story in a time period: eg. The Marauder’s Era is definitely not 2001, and they definitely did not have iPods. See Harry Potter Universe Rules = Ignored.
Relocating important landmarks, such as Hogwarts. (I’ve seen fanfics where somebody said Hogwarts was in America.)
Changing permanent relationships, such as family relationships. Eg. Making Harry Potter the son of Voldemort.

IN CLOSING

This fandom is open to anybody. So a thirteen year-old girl with no experiences in writing can easily open up Microsoft Word and crank out 3000 words about the relationship between a Mary Sue version of herself and Draco Malfoy.

And if all else fails and you cannot scrub out the image of Snape/Dumbledore from your brain, simply pick up Harry Potter and read it through, and it will (hopefully) get rid of any lasting damage from a bad fanfiction.