Ehem … long time no see, I know. It’s not that I haven’t been writing lately (quite the opposite), but I haven’t been doing a lot of blog posts. This one, however, is going to be fun enough.
Fan Fiction, for all those who have not heard the word before, are stories written by people who are using characters and worlds out of movies, books, computer games or other media. They are pretty varied and pretty easy to get these days, because of the internet and the many Fan Fiction sites that have sprung up.
I will today present you with two Harry Potter Fan Fictions (well, actually one with a sequel) which I found quite hilarious. Be warned, however, that the grammar and spelling is obviously faulty, even for someone for whom English is not the native language. You can find both Make A Wish and The Hunt for Harry Potter at Feedbooks as free e-books.
That all said, here my reviews for the two stories.
“Make A Wish” starts out at the end of Harry’s fifth year at Hogwarts. Instead of returning home with the Dursleys, he decides to take some time for himself. Thinking he is going to die, he wants to have some fun – inspired by the Make A Wish Foundation. So Harry gets himself some gear for travelling around and things start to get interesting. Among the stuff he is given by a suspiciously helpful shopkeeper are a fake passport on the name Black and a bracelet which makes sure Harry is not recognized. Soon the mysterious Mr. Black, whom nobody can describe well, gains a lot of reputation. After defeating a group of Death Eaters in Amsterdam (in about 3 seconds), the law enforcement communities start watching him and making wrong connections. Soon Mr. Black goes from (possibly) being a retired Auror or Unspeakable to being a former member of the French resistance (during WWII), to being an at least 2,000-year-old Roman, to being a reformed Dark Lord who possibly killed a huge number of mages in Ancient Egypt (and possibly sunk Atlantis). Not to mention he must be a man like no other, tiring out a large group of Veela and coming back with hairline fractures in his pelvic bone. While Harry is partially responsible for things that happen, much more is simply bad timing from the Death Eaters (like portkeying outside a balcony on the tenth floor of a hotel in Switzerland or in front of a train in Austria) or simply coincidence. The story is amusing, has everything from fun to action, and actually is something I have read several times so far.
“The Hunt for Harry Potter” takes over after the end of “Make A Wish.” Harry Potter has disappeared from the face of the earth. Mr. Black came back under the guise of Harry Potter (not much of a surprise, isn’t it?) and Harry merely left his friends a note saying he needed time to himself and would, possibly, come back one day. Several parties, therefore, start looking for Harry. There’s Hermione, who teams up with Luna, Tonks, and Remus Lupin (while Tonks follows her own plans which include somehow seducing Remus) to look for Harry. There’s Albus Dumbledore, who follows his own trail. Meanwhile, a new organisation is after Mr. Black who has decided to open his fortress close to Antarctica to members of magical law enforcement and teaches such enlightening classes as making an Atlantean omelette (without breaking eggs) from Merlin’s own cookbook or underwater basket weaving (you have to learn how to breath underwater first, of course). Reading this story without reading “Make A Wish” first would not be a good idea, if you, however, want some more fun after finishing the main story, “The Hunt for Harry Potter” definitely would be a must.
Both stories make a lot of cultural references to various books, TV series, and suchlike. Think of agents 86 and 99 from Control or the phrase ‘port me up.’ There actually is an Acme Corporation in the story (and their acme spell drops something heavy on people).
Happy reading for free with those two stories!
