I've been following this for a long time, figured I might as well review it, even if it's dead in the water as of now.

This fic starts out alright, with some weird choices in writing that lessen as the story goes on. While it doesn't start off showy, I like how you get a sense of the writing style from the very first chapter, these long stream of consciousness paras from Harry. While yes, he is a very analytical, somewhat paranoid and angsty character in this fic, he's very much a fully realized character, and the long stream of conscious musings fit in well, are consistent, and show good progression in his opinions about love and the like as the story goes on.

Another thing it does well early on is set up Fleur as a character. Almost every other fic will have either her or Harry as a visiting figure, and then essentially use their brief meetings as a series of vignette's intercut between a main plot to show progression. This ain't that, the Fleur here is present throughout and both her and Harry's views are challenged and shift.

[FONT=-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Fira Sans, Droid Sans, Helvetica Neue, sans-serif]And what a well written character Fleur is here. She's prideful but not vapidly so, talented and witty. She turns an essentially canon esque dry Harry into an intelligent character just by talking to him and bringing out that side of him. The decision to pretty much sidestep allure and the accent, while perhaps unrealistic, is one I [/FONT]appreciate[FONT=-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Fira Sans, Droid Sans, Helvetica Neue, sans-serif] greatly too since it just makes for an easier read when she's a main character.

Fleur's interactions with Harry are very well written and incredibly realistic. You get the sense that even if they were together, they would still be teasing each other and bickering, which is so realistic compared to the common ff view of characters get together all they do is kiss and make lovey eyes.

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I do believe that the very premise of infidelity has [/FONT]rubbed[FONT=-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Fira Sans, Droid Sans, Helvetica Neue, sans-serif] a lot of people off this fic , which is fair but I do want to note that the fic handles it really well. You get no sense at all that these characters want anything romantic to do with each other until the middle of the fic, and when that does [/FONT]occur[FONT=-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Fira Sans, Droid Sans, Helvetica Neue, sans-serif] the way they try to deny it, because this is something they don't want to happen. I love Harry's mantra he keeps repeating about her status as his best friends fiance. It feels like something Harry really would do, and the interactions progress so well that you start rooting for him to break the mantra, and this feeling [/FONT]crescendos[FONT=-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Fira Sans, Droid Sans, Helvetica Neue, sans-serif] until that rooftop scene, which you just feel a lot of warmth at seeing. That scene is also handled incredibly, with Fleur still recognizing her position as an engaged woman, while they both finally acknowledge their feelings anyway.

The sideplots in this story are also great. I love the [/FONT]Dumbledore[FONT=-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Fira Sans, Droid Sans, Helvetica Neue, sans-serif] here, very canon like, and like the whole McGuffin he creates. They still remind you that this is happening in Harry's 6th year and add to the other great element here - the dueling. I do wish it was a little bit more descriptive about the spells used, but the way it's written about as this art form and how it's very much the apex of wizarding [/FONT]ability[FONT=-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Fira Sans, Droid Sans, Helvetica Neue, sans-serif] is something I can fuck with.

With Ginny,

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I do feel kind of bored during all those scenes and start rooting against them being together, but I'm pretty sure the author intended for that to happen, as it becomes more of an annoyance to Harry himself. It provides a nice point of [/FONT]conflict[FONT=-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Fira Sans, Droid Sans, Helvetica Neue, sans-serif] and contrast to Fleur.

I don't really like the ministry plot in the later chapters. It feels forced, like it's searching something for Harry (and Fleur) to do. Now this is understandable, because there's nothing more to do with the dueling plots (seemingly) but I would have much rather [/FONT]preferred[FONT=-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Fira Sans, Droid Sans, Helvetica Neue, sans-serif] horcrux related stuff, which becomes the case towards the end. Involving Harry in some order missions would have been an even better alternative, and would have given his and Fleur's [/FONT]camaraderie[FONT=-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Fira Sans, Droid Sans, Helvetica Neue, sans-serif]/dueling prowess that's been built up so much a good outlet.[/FONT]

It's a shame this story (seemingly) stopped at the point that it did where

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there relationship finally starts to become a real thing. You never get to see them interacting in that context which imo would have been the most interesting part of the fic.

I hope the author decides to pick it up, he did mention he had a finished draft written, but also said that was 100k words long and the story currently is far more than that so don't really know how that works. I doubt this story gets a happy ending, but I still just want more. If Fleur was involved in DH, if it's just a her+Harry horcrux hunt written by this author that would honestly be so fucking amazing.

5/5, in case it wasn't clear already. I fully think this is the best H/F fic out there by far, and one of the best romance fics out there period.[/SPOILER]

 

Apologies for the bump but does anyone have a download of this story? I was in the mood for a reread and unfortunately it has been deleted on ffnet. I know its on WBA but the early chapters aren't on there, and many important scenes seem to be quite different there.

I had classified this story as dead a while ago but I'm still sad it's gone now. Who knows, maybe Sophrosyne/Plothole is planning a rewrite and took it down to work on it but given the absence of any notice, I assume it has been abandoned.

 

Here's a copy of the PDF and EPUB copies I have saved.