This has been updated a couple times (I believe) since the last time it's been discussed.

I don't know if you guys think the same way, but personally I see a lot of breadcrumbs showing differences between canon!Voldemort and Emily. The cave scene especially felt like blatant foreshadowing of a different past than what canon!Voldemort dealt with.

I was always a fan of slower stories that told simple stuff like everyday interactions and petty fights because I liked reading stuff I related to. Epic adventure fics like Wastelands or Wand and Shield are excellent, but I tend to stray towards the simpler stuff a lot more often. So perhaps I'm biased.

Still, I don't think that, with the recent updates, I really expect Emily to be at all like Tom. She's already proven herself to be anything but.

 

I guess I'll keep talking about this even if no one will join me.

Chapter 17 was perhaps my favorite chapter of the story so far. And well, honestly the past few chapters have been pretty interesting for me to read. It's so refreshing to read a Voldemort that's actually.. you know.. a human being for once instead of an archetypal villain or insane madman.

Definitely trending upwards, in my opinion.

 

His take on Voldemort is definitely something that I enjoy but what I'm most anticipating is how the relationship affects the war overall. Judging from the summary and their interactions I don't think the relationship will develop into a romance thankfully but what effects it'll have on events to come will be interesting to see. The amount of time he dedicated to developing Emily and making us like her makes me think that the story will end on a bittersweet note but that's just wild speculation. Honestly, I have no idea where he's going with this story and that's impressive in and of itself.

 

This fic has updated yet again, so I figure I should talk about it (it is one of the few I keep an alert on, after all).

This is the third chapter since Harry was abducted from Chicago and brought back to England (and reality, really) and... he's just gotten back to Hogwarts. We get more of Emily's history (her up-and-down marriage with Martin, Harry's voyeurism with Emily's sex life that I'm certain is deliberate on her part) and end with a confrontation with Dumbledore and Umbridge. Giving credit where it is due, TheEndless7 can write an Umbridge that makes my skin crawl. Her physical confrontation with Harry was surprising, in front of Dumbledore no less (which seemingly confirms the locket as a Horcrux despite the fact Harry was unaffected), and ends with the trinket in Dumbledore's hands. Despite this chapter actually moving the plot forward, it still feels a bit like filler. My biggest complaint with TheEndless7's writing is that they are very dry, even with sensitive subjects or intimate moments (The Quidditch World Cup suffers most from this). The moments when Harry and Emily are "on-screen" together are when this fic shines due to the psychosexual dynamic between them. Any other time? It's the same thing the author always does. I'm still hanging on because when the fic is good, it's really good, and the concept is unique enough that it's still not overplayed. But when the quality varies that wildly, it turns an inoffensive fic (TheEndless7's typical output) into a frustrating read.

 

For as long as I can remember TE7 has been exploring different ideas, but always following true to his motto that everything must be realistic.

You can see it in a lot of his works (Princess explores school life from a Slytherin's perspective, and was narrated as a fifteen year old girl, Vitam Paramus explores tragedy and how to overcome/cope with tragedy). The one thing he has ways held true to is that.

And, well, that is simultaneously this fic's greatest flaw and saving grace.

Greatest flaw in that The Lord Voldemort he has crafted is too generous, too intelligent, and more than anything else filled with love that does not exactly jive with our mental image of a supervillain.

Saving grace in that the portrayals of Harry and Emily ARE the fic's selling point. The ideas and thoughts that the author must've put into their relationship (whatever that is), their interactions, and the conflict between them that stems neither from ideological or physical origins.

Do I get bothered sometimes by the Harry and his friends scenes? Sure of course. But they're necessary (Harry does rather need a school life). I'd always recommend continuing to read because they don't overall detract too much from my overall enjoyment if the story.

 

Read this and dropped halfway.. Charismatic Voldemort? This gal ain't no Palpatine baby. Her characterization sucks and it feels like the author could not decide whether Emily is a villain or one of those Conflicted!Vodlyor Misunderstood!Voldy.

Also, I don't see any reason why the pureblood Death Eaters would follow this version of Voldemort, it's damn retarded. Listening to muggle orchestra? Wearing muggle fashion? Muggle brand? What. The. Shit.

It's like the Wizarding World solely exists to provide magic and everything else (culture, music etc.) is a carbon copy of muggle society. There is no Wizarding World in this fic.

The sense of wonder I have for reading HP was because of how different wizards were with their muggle counterpart. Magic is an intrinsic part of their lives, culture. They live and breath it. They have their own art, own music, own mindset and societal norms. This one was just... garbage, like his other Potter!Quidditch/Football star fic.

Furthermore, the magic fights in this fic just screams laziness especially with that WW2 segment with Dumbledore going after Grindelwald. There is no creativity, no imagination. It was all cast "explosion" KonoSuba style magic.

It was painful to read how incompetent the wizards were when fighting against muggles.

I'd give it 1.5/5.

 

I've read most if not all of the stories written by this author, so I can see some common pros and cons that seem to show up in all of them.

On the the pros, the author does seem to come up with original and interesting ideas. This FanFiction takes a female Voldemort who is drastically different than the canon Voldemort and explores both their history and how they interact with Harry. On the downside, while we have a radically different Voldemort everything else in canon seems to be the same, which makes little sense as Voldemort had such a large impact on the recent history of the wizarding world that you would expect that to have caused changes stretching back decades. A Voldemort who married a muggle and is later willing to go out into Chicago with Harry Potter for a fun time is so far from canon Voldemort that it's hard to see any similarities at this point. At times I suspected this history that Voldemort was showin Harry was a fake but I'm beginning to think it's real.

The author also has a respect for being, I'm not sure the the best word here, but I guess subtle or restrained in the writing of characters and their emotions and reactions. As in, we aren't subjected to people having screaming sessions or revealing their life stories at the drop of a hat that many stories have where people act in an over the top and exxagerated manner. On the other hand, this sometimes goes a bit too far. People at times act in a muted manner when you would expect emotion or when in an attempt to showcase a casual conversations the characters are shown to laugh at things that aren't funny. This is shown especially in the chapters where after Harry returns to Chicago besides the confrontation with Moody, everyone else seems far too calm that Harry just spent weeks with Voldemort. I'm not sure how this has just been brushed off for the moment and Harry is back at Hogwarts without the matter being properly confronted.

The less said about the Wizard VS Muggle stuff that comes up in the story, the better.

Despite the flaws, this FanFiction is an enjoyable read and has me waiting for the next update and wondering where this story will go.

3/5

 

Bumping because, hey, this thing finally updated and it looks like the plot is about to get rolling.

I'm pretty torn about it because, well, we get around to why Emily becomes LV in the first place annnnnnd.... it's cliche as fuck. Competently written cliche, but cliche nonetheless.

Spoiler

We get confirmation that, yes, Emily gets mugged and loses both her husband and her unborn kid at the same time. Yes, her pain and emptiness are decently written and yes, the fridging of family members for drama's sake is older than dirt... but it's still kind of trite at the end of the day.

There are shining moments in the rough - we get a conversation between Harry and Aberforth that I feel like was a missed opportunity in canon, Harry finding odd similarities between Emily and Hermione (there are hints that he's mildly attracted to her, but it's also made quite clear that it's not going anywhere), and I'm digging the unmistakable change the Diary is having on Harry. It's a pity it took this long for shit to get going.

No follow-up on Dumbledore and the locket horcrux just yet, but that is on the horizon. I stand by my earlier statement that this fic is a frustrating read... there's so much potential here, but the dry writing and meandering plot makes it feel worse than it actually is. When the best part of your story is the time Voldemort and Harry spend on vacation, you've got problems.

 

What chapter is this, you got me curious.

 

If you're not going to read the story front to back, reading the vacation chapters won't make any sense as a standalone.

And if you're just looking for Harry/fem!Voldemort I suggest you start looking elsewhere.

 

Updated.

I'd say this is probably the rise into the final conclusion of the story.

Spoiler

After all the buildup I'm glad to say that I'm not disappointed by the changes wrought in Harry through both his training with Voldemort and the more subtly hinted at changes resulting from the diary and the Horcrux. I liked the fight scene quite a bit.

Not quite as sold about Emily actually believing in the whole subjugation of Muggles makes the world a better place idea, but you take what you can get with a Voldemort that you want to like and genuinely root for.

 

Updated again.

Interesting Chapter, the McGonagall/Fudge/Umbridge scene went surpisingly over the top imho. I didn't really like the entire hospital wing sequence at all really.

The ending on the other hand is very interesting, with Fem!Voldemort's plans for Harry becoming exposed.

 

what do you mean? i didnt get anything about plans for harry

 

Something about Harry's vacation with Voldemort made me really happy. I love their interactions, but I do have trouble reconciling Emily with LV. She's pretty obviously not a good person and yet she is apparently capable of love and warmth when it comes to Harry. I believe it's been implied it was supposed to all be an act, but she let herself develop feelings for him.

Either way, I'm not sure if it's a writing issue or just me unable to suspend my disbelief, but Voldemort and Emily don't mesh in my head. LV still completely lacks empathy in this story and kills/tortures completely on a whim, but Emily is super kind and compassionate.

I'm waiting for more horrible twists in her past to come to light or to find out she has multiple personality disorder.

 

This story was updated again.

Harry straight up had a conversation with Emilymort in this chapter and somehow doesn't realize it. Going to be interesting when he figures out she's been in his head all along.

Not sure how I feel about the whole budding romance between Harry and Hermione as I'm mostly reading this for the Harry/Voldemort stuff, even if they're not in a romantic relationship. Hermione hasn't been characterized particularly well outside of her brief moments of sanity when she's spending time with Harry alone. It appears to me that she's been written in a way that makes it clear the author doesn't much care for her, (he doesn't seem to have written any stories featuring her and this fandom can be quite polarizing, but that's just a thought), so I'm wondering if she's being set up as a romantic interest so Harry will eventually have to choose between her and Voldemort. I can respect that, but at the moment she's kind of awkwardly butting in on "screen time" as it were. I'll freely admit I might just be overthinking that.

As it is, I've actually keeping up with updates for this story regardless of any perceived flaws, so I'll go ahead and rate it 3.5./5.

 

I don't think they've exactly been characterized as a couple. I think there's just a lot of raw vulnerability there after the whole fight and the aftermath of it. Plus, Harry has gotten to the part where his parents die, so he's finally truly seen Emily as who she is. And they're also teenagers and, if the movies are to be believed, fairly attractive.

Harry's quite obviously still attracted to Emily. He cares for her in quite a different way from how he cares for Hermione though, which I think is shown in the text with the whole Em thing and the fact that he's much more emotionally invested in Emily's past (see reaction to rape vs. how he reacts to Hermione potentially being raped). That's not to say that he doesn't care for Hermione, he does to certain extent, but there's none of the outright sadness he feels with Emily.

 

The first thing I have to say after reading the last two chapters is: where the hell is this story going?

Out of nowhere we now have a budding HarryxHermione romance (if she sleeping half-naked on top of him doesn't spell romance for you, I don't know what might) that no one asked for, Emily (as it's clear now Emily and Voldemort as two different personas) growing more and more as a mother figure for Harry despite his obvious attraction to her, and the fifth year plot completely removed in favor of... what?

Endless7 has a terrible record for plot and actions scenes (Harry's epilogue in that Daphne story will forever remain in my memory as one of the worst action scenes in fanfic history) and despite how many stories they write they just don't seem to get better. The war flashback, Emily's talk with Martin's ghost, the pureblood meeting, Emily's rant to Dumbledore (something taken out directly from author's rant fanfics. Also, child rape, Endless7? Really?), and the talk with the Potters. All incredibly terrible scenes. On the other hand, the slice-of-life bites are good and would be even greater if the author could somehow get rid of all the stilled dialogue they tend to write for every character.

In the end, I think we've barely moved in the story at all since the beginning, and all we have to show is the characterization of a Voldemort that we're supposed to feel sympathetic towards, but is growing more unrealistic by the chapter. If I could be so bold as to give the author an advice, it would be that evil people don't have to be the cliched misunderstood and abused hero to be relatable. Just being human is enough.

 

Sex doesn't necessarily equal romance. That's really all there is to it.

 

So you're saying the author is setting up them as sex-friends, or just for some sort of one night stand? That's even more of a train-wreck than the romance plot, because with the romance we can at least go "harry my boy you are men now yu must choose wife, will you choose butiful Hermione, or evil dark lord who killed youre parents." Or are you telling me the author is setting this up for "Harry and Hermione have sex but then realize they really don't feel that way about each other and Harry actually loves Emily"? Because then we're just wasting words and time. Again.

 

..

You clearly don't enjoy the story, nor are you willing to really evaluate what the story is trying to tell you.

There's been literally zero sex, and even if there was sex it'd be because they're two people who have been through a lot who need it emotionally. Whether or not it turns into a relationship or not isn't the focal point of the story at all. It's been established that Harry's true attraction is to Emily. But just because you really like someone doesn't mean you abandon everyone of the fairer sex.

As a side note, please fix your spelling/grammar, it's actually hurting my eyes.