there's something about the notion of history as a two sided thing, like an a4 sheet of paper or something, that PISSES ME OFF!
there's no objective past. memory starts disintegrating the moment we form it, and everyone's memory is different in the first place. it's why we have people who actually study history. photographs can be doctored. documents can be forged. i could be doing your mother (but i'm not)
there's no singular hidden past that yearns to be exposed but is stamped out by the establishment... there are just thousands of perspectives that sit outside the traditional narrative, of which yours is only one. history is not a coin thats been glued to the floor tails-up, it's an undulating, many-headed BEAST that should eat you for trying to reduce it down to such a shell of itself.
the fact you were amerisplaining the confederacy to me almost makes it worse.
i feel that most people aren't qualified to judge what is best for anyone other than themselves; which in itself is a tall order. when we try to view the world in these sweeping judgements of what things would create maximum levels of happiness/which "rules" should be followed, atypical people always get the short end of the stick. sometimes i feel skeptical about the usefulness of the pursuit of social truths at all sometimes...
but then which lines do we need to hold hard and fast, and which ones can be allowed to blur?
fun psychedelic horror! fanatasist main character who can't tell the difference between her mind and reality...
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gender-abolitionist utopia. is the main character receiving visions of the future, or is she a schizophrenic? you decide!
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A must-read for any fans of the Severitus trope. Paracosim doesn't resort to any of the modifications to canon common in these stories; Snape isn't Harry's biological father- his acerbic personality and blatant dislike of Harry remain intact.
Harry is sent to Spinner's End in the summer of 5th year to develop his Occlumency. Him and Snape are similarly horrified at the idea of having to spend an entire season in eachother's prescence, but Dumbledore is insistent. Their relationship is transformed by the proximity, and they end up developing a far more nuanced picture of eachother over the course of the narrative.
Paracosim's understanding of the two characters' personalities manages to be both unfailingly accurate and unique at once. At 98k, it's not exactly a light read, but it's definitely a rewarding one.
An incredibly in-depth character study of Percy Weasley. The author wanted to write a time travel fic where the POV character didn't have all of the information on Voldemort's Horcruxes- they felt this made things too easy for the would-be traveller. They certainly succeeded in making things hard for Percy Weasley. The resulting story is one of confusion (moral and otherwise), guilt, and of the desperate attempt to become a hero by someone who just isn't built for it.
In the years following the Battle of Hogwarts, Percy Weasley is haunted by everything he did and didn't do during the war. He feels the agonising weight of Fred's death, of his betrayal of his family, and of failing to choose the right side until the last moment. Inflamed by envy of the heroes surrounding him, he sends himself back to his first year, determined to do right this time around. What follows is a lot of groping around in the dark- Percy doesn't exactly understand what a Horcrux is, or what they could be. He doesn't know much about Voldemort other than a few offhand remarks from Harry and his own patchy recollections from his timeline. His quest leads him down a road that differs from his first life, but probably not as much as he'd have liked it to. Interesting characterisations of Snape, Moaning Myrtle, the Horcruxes and the Weasley family throughout!
This fic is 640k words long, so it is a serious committment. However, when I read it, I wasn't bored for a second. The author's Percy infuriates you as much as you root for him- it's truly an emotional rollercoaster. (640k is an amazing achievement also- very well done to mymovingfingerwrites)
Another Percy Weasley-centric fic, just as well written. On chapter 6 as of 15/04/2025, 44k words. A very unconventional pairing, Percy Weasley/Rodolphus Lestrange, one that opens many interesting questions about Percy's nature. The fic is not set chronologially, and jumps throughout Percy's life, as far back as 1980, and as far forward as 2040. The result is the details of the affair are revealed very slowly, and it's skirted around more than it's actually depicted.
Percy Weasley decided to stay in his position as Junior Undersecretary to the Minister after Scrimgeour's removal from office. The Ministry's fall to the Death Eaters was remarkably ordinary, and ordinary is Percy's element. Rodolphus Lestrange is also incredibly ordinary, a plainly dressed civil servant who seems to admire Percy's efficiency and diligence. While Percy is sleepwalking into a relationship with his co-worker Audrey, the kind of passion a man like him isn't supposed to have bursts up between him and his superior. The rest of his life is split into before and after.
Ignoring the relationship central to the fic, it's depiction of the banality of evil is riveting. Percy sends off memos from his desk that condemn huge swathes of society to torture and imprisonment. Him and his Ministry coworkers gossip and drink tea while the outside world descends into war. A very unique read.
Tomarry time travel fics are a guilty pleasure of mine, and I don't mind that they're very formulaic. However, lightningant's subversion of the trope makes the rest of them pale in comparison. A lecherous, stalking Harry Potter stars opposite a Tom Riddle at the lowest point of his dark wizarding career, and the two of them are very frustrated with each other. Who doesn't love the sound of that?
Harry Potter is deprived of purpose after the fall of the Dark Lord. He doesn't know how to live without the constant threat of death hanging over his head, and an objective in front of him. So when he gains access to an experimental time turner, he immediately jumps back into the past to try and recoup some of the damage caused by the war. Landing in 1946, he starts tracking Tom Riddle, who is chronically ill, working a dead end job, and generally just Not Having A Good Time.
Tom Riddle suffering horrible health effects from the Horcruxes so early is such an interesting concept. A mentally disturbed Harry is also a very cool characterisation. Definitely worth reading, and the author is also an amazing artist! There's plenty of illustration accompanying the fic which can be seen on tumblr. 61k words.