Pretty solid update. Although the beginning was a bit slow. The Harry and Ginny interactions were kind of bland, but I enjoyed the Severus scenes. Luna and Neville were fleshed out nicely as well.

Still pretty much straight canon rehash, but I'd give it a 4/5.

 

Great storytelling, insufferably awful verb tense. 4/5

 

Ok I take that back. I was only at chapter 3, by the end of 6 I didn't even notice. I still think I'd prefer a more traditional past tense but it works. It works because Alexandra - I mean Ginny is the quintessential imperfect narrator and the present tense keeps you in the moment, out of the meta.

Reading the reviews here I knew I'd like this story, I love character stories, but I still avoided it because of an irrational aversion to Ginny. I'm so glad I read this, it has elements of so many great stories. There's the in the momentness of OtWtG, the subordinate alternate universe of ACA and the beautiful empathy inducing story building of a Change in the Family.

But what this story really reminds me of is AQ. I know everyone says that AQ is unlikable and frankly, in the beginning of this, Ginny is too, but I fell in love with AQ in a way I haven't until this story. If you did too you need to give this a chance

If you're hung up on this being Non Harry centric, it's probably not for you, but if your concern is that it's Ginny-centric or a cannon rehash, you shoul give it a chance.

Greatest new story I've read in years.

Five out of fucking five.

 

I disagree. You really should read this even if you don't normally like anything that's non Harry centric.

I don't normally like fics that aren't Harry centric.
I don't normally like 'canon rehash' fics.
I don't normally even like Ginny as a character.
But this story is told so well, paced so well and with character with real depth, that none of that stuff matters.

I also liked the original content of the parlor and the OCs introduced with it.
I guess if you are gonna do a 'canon rehash' kind of story, you really need to introduce at least something new, but this didn't feel like just filler to me. It's a major part of what got Ginny to where she is.

On the topic of the Harry-Ginny pairing... We all knew it was gonna go there of course, but it still kinda feels like Ginny starts liking Harry out of the blue a bit. That's all the negative I have to say about this story tho.

5/5 from me, ez.

PS: This story will probably be complete with 1/2 more chapter and I have faith it's gonna come. It's a shame this author only just entered the fandom, think of all the quality content we cudda had if she'd writtin HP instead of Startrek and all that other stuff

 

This story gives a whole new dimension to Ginny in a way I've rarely, if ever, seen elsewhere. The focus isn't on the external events that happen, but on Ginny's thoughts, emotions, and the way she responds to the things that happen in her life. That the general sequence of events is virtually unchanged from canon doesn't detract from the story. I loved it. 5/5.

 

Found this while searching for ASOIAF fics, and its damn good. Has the character voices down pat, which is always the most important thing for a fanfic - no voices, no immersion; no immersion, no story.

4/5

 

This fic is now finished.

 

Or, to put it another way, this fic just updated with 50,000 beautiful words that we should all start reading right now.

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Also, I don't think this fic is finished. Only Year 6 is done, and the fic isn't marked complete. I haven't finished the update yet, but I'd be surprised.

 

It's still WIP, I asked the author on twitter and she answered : "There's going to be a very short 7th year epilogue. ...and possibly a sequel."

 

The end read pretty end-y to me, and Ginny's 6th year is the Battle of Hogwarts one, but if the author says there'll be more then who am I to doubt it?

 

Finished it, but I think I'll have to re-read it in its entirety though before leaving a final verdict. I can say right now though that it's really, really good. One of the best long character-driven stories I can recall in fanfiction - introspective psychological dramas with excellent writing are very rare beasts in and of themselves.

If I have to complain about something, though, it's that after all the time spent on character development, it kinda feels like it didn't have much of an impact. Canon happened almost exactly as usual despite everything that happened differently in the story. Granted, in this type of story the journey is an end to itself and that's what it focuses on, and it's not like the ending was unsatisfactory to me, but I guess when you're reading these side character-focused fanfics you're doing so with the expectation of seeing the underdog characters being awesome. Which Ginny does get to be, of course, just not so much at the climax of the story. Either way, that's a very minor nitpick - the story is still great. An epilogue would be great.

 

Very, very impressed by all of it.
I've developed a habit of skimming fics, and I was pleasantly surprised when I look up and saw 35 minutes had just disappeared.
This is the kind of story I want to read more of. Somehow, small details impress me heavily, like how Snape never explained himself to Ginny, and in the end, Harry did. Also cool how this entire story plays up the idea of the poker face that most slytherin stories WANT to (which end up making the protagonist someone who's just incredibly narcissistic, if we're lucky). This seems very real, the sacrifice of a little more innocence each time contrasting beautifully with the strength of the aura of command she furnishes and how much more respect she gets.

And yet, in spite of all of this, she is no magical demigod. Ginny gets absolutely eviscerated at the hands of the Carrows. Realistic power scaling. Time is not infinite, and every hour that goes into honing her skills in the mind arts is an hour that wasn't spent dueling.

Loved the two-face reveal. Did not see it coming at all, it was well disguised with the allegedly valid reason of Tobias losing his girlfriend because of the war, and them already having drifted apart.

She is incredibly resourceful, ruthless to a flaw and is willing to let absolutely fucking everything go so as not to compromise the bigger picture she aspires to.
This is the essence of Slytherin, and I firmly believe this is the gold standard to be aspired to not only in Slytherin!Protagonist writing, but in the entire HP fanfiction universe.


Sideways 8 out of 5.

 

The author's writing style and Ginny's voice is what makes this fic. Both are incredibly well done on their own, but together they are brilliant.

Each chapter is easy to get lost in. You don't even realize that you are reading 30-40 thousand words as everything just flows well.

She manages to make Slytherin seem realistic, more so than most authors (even authors here). Slytherin is not evil, nor is it filled with a ton of 'cunning' children. Nor does she try to overpower the house and make it 'better than the others.' In the end, it's made up of everyday children trying to get by and make something of themselves.

Yes, it is a canon rehash but it works as the author introduces other characters and small fun details and plot lines that feels like something Hogwarts would have (the Parlor). The canon rehash also makes sense because as important Ginny is to Harry, she really isn't that important to the overall battle with Voldemort outside the first year (which would probably go down similarly as she is given the diary before Hogwarts).

Regardless, I would suggest everyone reads it because it's the character and writing styles that make this story.

I really hope she writes a sequel. I would love to see how she writes an adult Slytherin Ginny. She will probably be bad ass and more likeable than Harry.

5/5 easily.

 

Updated and now complete.

That was beautiful and perfect, but I have no idea why Draco would be back for another year.

 

Just finished it, it was completely brilliant. The Parlour was one of the best parts of this fic, and reading it all in one go and watching Ginny go from nervous, unsure first year to a confident, necessary fighter was superbly done.

5/5.

 

I can't help but feel an extreme under current of feminine insecurity running throughout this book, given how inorganic certain interactions are.

I'm probably not supposed to feel this way, but instead of any triumph over Ginny's character I can't help but feel an admiration for writing a brutish, self centered, hypocritical character that managed to whine through 180 thousand words.

4/5.

 

So, seeing the fic completed I've decided to finally read it. And I must say that I'm disappointed. Not because the fic is bad, not because I've expected more going into it. It's because after reading it, I've seen that it could be more, but it wasn't.

It's hard for me to write about The Changeling without comparing it On the Way to Greatness, so I won't even try. The similarities between the two are obvious, both are staying pretty close to canon "X in Slytherin" fics focusing mostly on characterisation.

But there are also differences, while one of my problems with OtWtG is that the first chapters are too long, with Changeling there are many moments that I feel that they are too short. It really shows when we come to Ginny's sixth year when it becomes obvious that some characters (mainly Parlour Girls) could use more prior characterisation.

There is also a big difference in what "staying close to canon" is for both fics. While in OtWtG there is a lot of painful railroading story back into known tracks, the events often unfold differently, have different consequences. If the end of the fic will come one day, it won't be the same as the original books (unless we get absurd cop-out). That is obvious since the end of the fourth year.

With Changeling it is different. The events stay the same, even though they clearly shouldn't. It's not noticeable for the first three years, Ginny didn't have much influence of those. But in the fourth year, we have Department of Mysteries. And everything goes exactly the same way. Despite there being one person more here, despite Ginny's completely different mindset. Sirius dies the same way, Ron gets attacked by the brains, everything is the same. This gave me premonition that nothing will change during Battle of Hogwarts. And it didn't. Despite additional intel, despite different defenders, despite the Box, everything ended the same way. The same people died, nothing changed. That clashes terribly with the theme of some actions being "necessary" despite their price. If the results are the same, then this was all for nothing. Unnecessary.

I've mentioned the Box, and this also ties in what I said about some characters needing more space. We knew that she was good, but we didn't know she was that good. It felt like a cheap plot device. Or rather it would felt like a plot device if it actually affected the plot.

Speaking of cheap plot devices, the "female magic" also was a terrible way to have Ginny learn occlumency quickly. I also didn't really bought the limited education of females. It doesn't make settings with the settings of the original books, and no changes were introduced that would make it make sense here.

Still, despite all my complaining, it's a good fic, and one definitely worth a read. 7.5/10

 

I've just finished this fic, and I must say it's a very good character-driven piece.

Most of what I liked (Slytherin rivalries not being full-blown politics, basically all the characterisations, the Harry/Ginny progression being infinitely better than in canon...) has already been mentioned, so I'll concentrate on what I didn't like so much.

The main thing that annoyed me was the introduction of the Parlor. The concept is interesting, the girls in it are all amazing characters, but I really dislike it when Slytherin has some sort of secret that sets it apart from the other houses, especially a "secret" society that everyone somehow knows about. I think it would have been marginally better had it been shared with the other houses, but even so that's a plot point that always annoy me.

There's also the fact that the early chapters and nearly all the scenes that are already in canon read more like summaries than real scenes. I understand it was to avoid doing a complete canon rehash, but still, I think it could have been done better.

All in all, 4.5/5 rounded down.

 

This feels like nBSG all over again. Really good for about three quarters and then tapers off near the end.

Everyone else has said it but basically the issue with this is it becomes a rehash. Throughout most of it it feels like there is going to be a huge canon divergence as Ginny changes massively, particularly near the end as Ginny takes centre stage as a leader of Hogwarts' little rebellion.

Great writing, great characterisation, but the ending is simply disappointing.

5/5 for the first three quarters, 2/5 for the last quarter. Overall a disappointed and reluctant 4/5.

Edit:

Forgot how annoyed I was with another part dealing with the disappointing ending:

They're in a war and nearly adults. This whole thing about "not becoming murderers" is a bit retarded. I just can't see Ginny not doing it assuming it's advantageous to them.

 

I really don't get people who are disappointed by the lack of canon divergence. This is a character study, you're not reading it for the plot. That's why we see so much of Year 7 and so little of Year 1.