You don't really need to though. 99% of the story wouldn't involve '90s' things.

 

It shouldn't, but the author most likely has plans to bring muggle-related issues/items into the story, so he uses a period he is more familiar with. Which, naturally, doesn't bode well for this particular fanfic.

 

Odran, I don't always agree with you, but you are 100% right this time. "Harry complained that his iPhone didn't work to Hermione's corpse, which still clutched Hogwarts: A History in her death throes". Bleh.

 

Each time somebody uses a different date just for "convenience" sake or believes it adds to a HP story to read about computer/mobiles or similar modern gimmicks you know they suck.

So let's be thankful some writers unintentionally signal the audience that their work is a waste of time.

 

I can forgive the flaws because its killed Hermoine by chapter 2. Reading hardckre H/Hr shippers reviews is going to be so entertaining!

 

If they don't bother to do basic research, they probably won't bother to proofread, either.

After all, that certainly does make things faster to write. And faster to figure out that the fic should be dropped, too.

 

The Trial

A series of events leads to the ministry arresting Harry after the DA is discovered by Umbridge. He's charged with treason and put on trial by the ministry. There isn't much of it atm (just over 7k words), but it's a decent start, and it has potential to be quite good.

 

This is actually really good. It captures the feel of the OOTP quite well - I'm only disappointed that it's only at 7k words.

 

It seems a bit unrealistic that the papers weren't burned directly after any order member saw them - that way, the whole plot could be avoided - but other than that, I think this to be really intriguing.

 

I'm sorta reluctant to read it, mostly because it takes the shitty, absurd High Inquisitor plotline of OOTP and roles further with it. It's unrealistic that Umbridge even managed to take so much control over Hogwarts, but the Ministry invading Grimmauld Place and arresting Harry for tutoring students in DADA is even more ridiculous. The story might be good but the premise is completely off-putting.

 

That they're not questioning why Harry was at Grimmauld Place to begin with is weird, given that it is the Black family home (as far as we know) after all. And like Atram Noctem said, I dislike fanfics which give Umbridge way too much leverage over shit.

Not to mention that making an underage wizard be placed under such direct exposure to the Dementors doesn't really make sense either (in the sense why would it be tolerated by the likes of Bones).

Also, the general premise seems to be for Dumbledore to let the Ministry ransack Harry's memories, yet couldn't they say that they were tampered with beforehand to make them support his claims of Voldemort being back?

 

All of the content from this fic would make one decent chapter. I would say that this is an interesting fic, but we don't really have enough meat yet to judge.

 

The problem with most trial fics is the author usually has no idea how a court works.

 

The person being charged outwits the court with knowledge of old forgotten laws that are still active through research, obviously. Don't see what's complicated about that.

 

Ouch. Two words in and already a grammar error.

I had trouble getting past the contrived setup. The jump from

Spoiler

finding a cryptic note in petty thief's pocket to "Let's all go to the ancestral home of the Black and arrest Harry Potter for treason, yet not bother searching the place beyond that"

was too big a leap for me.

 

The only thing I can think of is this: Isn't Grimmalud Place under a Fidelius at this time?

 

Did you even bother to read past chapter one before posting? Sure, the fic might not be perfect but at least give it some effort before saying anything about it.

That said, the story is full of plot holes. I can ignore a few since the author wants to set everything up, as Perspicacity said the set up requires a big leap of faith, but we will have to see where it goes.

 

I didn't even bother reading the fic at all. People above said it was in fifth year, during OotP times, so there's basically no reason that Grimmalud Place could be infiltrated, unless Dumbledore suddenly goes brain dead and hands out the secret.

I threw in my two cents because no one else who had actually read the fic said anything about that certain detail. I'm not criticizing the fic, just pointing out a detail people may have forgotten.

EDIT: Reading some of the comments above, I can surmise that people found the note that Dumbledore wrote in Mundungus' pockets. So, therefore, I reiterate "unless Dumbledore suddenly goes brain dead and hands out the secret."

EDIT2: Directly from the Harry Potter wiki "Once the secret has been implanted, the only method for another to learn it is for the primary Secret Keeper to divulge it to that person directly". Therefore, even if Dung had that note in his pocket, it was meant for Dung and Dung only, and he is the only one that could have read it.

 

This is a pretty nice find of information actually - I don't recall it actually being mentioned in the books? - because I'm sick of fics where someone just finds a piece of paper and now they know the secret so the place gets infiltrated.

EDIT: Curses, forgot about the wiki.

 

The Harry Potter wiki is in no way a reliable source of information. They're pretty awful at it, from what I recall.