^I think most of the older crowd would agree with you, since it's more realistic.
The younger crowd would oppose you vehemently, because the 7th book killed off quite a few characters, and they'd want a happy ending over what makes the series solid.

Best Mcgonagall : Just a Random Tuesday

 

The most interesting take on goblin culture I've found is Harry amidst the Vaults of Stone. The rest of the story comes perilously close to overpowered indie!Harry at times, but it does some pretty solid worldbuilding for those little creeps.

It's a pity that the fic is deader than dead.

 

I've heard there's a great post-DH story to be played on stage.

Best canon rehash (1-3): DrizzleWizzle's Slytherin!Harry stories.

 

There are a lot of aspects I like about Harry Potter and the BWL but one thing I want to mention from it is the outsider point of view you get of the shenanigans going on in canon Harry's life through his twin. I just find the confession scene of exactly how they beat the troll compared to the rumors going around school so hilarious.

 

I really liked Older Ron in Jeconais' Hope. Of course he's somewhat slanted with the Jeconais' horrible idea of romance, but Ireally like the idea of easy going yet empathetic Ron.

I am actually rereading Hope now just because of it.

 

Best depiction of dueling/magical combat I've seen: I think it was in Echtelion's The Prisoner's Cypher?... In flashbacks, IIRC. Hope I got the fic right. I don't remember specifics, just that the dynamics and the flow of the combat scenes stood out as top-notch.

 

Hands down the best portrayal of Harry-receives-knowledge-from-Dumbledore, and the voice of Dumbledore (through Harry) is, in my opinion, The One He Feared by Taure. I absolutely loved it.

 

Wand and Shield by Mortas Priest for best HP/Marvel crossover. The answer to the prayers of HP/Marvel readers who want a fic that isn't absolute shit.

 

It's in general far better than every Harry receives memories fic out there it still has a canon feel to it, the dialogue is great and the duels are among the best out there.

Not like subpar Indy fics like Lie I've Lived where the author actually thinks they are a genius and far superior to Rowling

 

That's exactly why I felt it was so well done. Very rarely do you see fics where Dumbledore is treated with respect and dignity, instead of panned as the "manipulative old coot." I fail to see why so many authors feel that in order to portray Harry as a strong character they must demean others around him. Having him as a giant struggling among giants makes for a much better story for the reader, and that's what I feel The One He Feared does.

 

Petrification Proliferation is probably the only story I've ever read that depicts a reasonable reaction to having a basilisk loose in the school.

 

I'd nominate A Long Journey Home by Rakeesh as the best genderbent Harry fanfic out there.

To be fair though, I'm pretty sure it could have easily been written to star a male Harry, if it wasn't perhaps for the fact that a female Harry technically seemed to work slightly better in context with the story that the author was trying to write. When you think about it, most famous Biblical, Mythical and Folklore magical people other than Merlin tend to be witches, such as Morgana le Fay, Wedjit, Circe, Hecate, Baba Yaga, and Medea, so it makes sense to have Harry be a witch in the story the author was trying to tell.

I'd also nominate the same story for both it's portrayal of Merlin (there are enough times Merlin shows up in some Harry Potter fanfics I think to justify perhaps adding him here), and for it's depiction of how the Slytherin family got the ability to speak to Parseltongue (not something I've commonly seen in other fics, and to be honest I remember only three other fics that actually try to explain, and other than one of them which was a Percy Jackson crossover, and had Salazar inherit it from a godly parent, they were mostly either nonsensical or felt half assed).

 

I put forward The Phoenix and the Serpent as the fic with hands down the best OC's in any story ever.

Gallowbraid. Lyle. Magnus. Danny. Jamie. Dahlia.

So many OCs, each and every one of them really well fleshed and downright beautiful in their own ways.

 

I'm going to follow on from the last post and say my favourite protrayal of OCs. These days, I can't read any storys with an OC but this one will always have a special place in my heart since it was one of the first "Long" fics I read.

Yeah, the story didn't do too well in reviews but the personalities of the main group of OCs will always stick with me. Granted, they were the usual sterotypes (The Jock, the player, the smart asian girl, ec.) but they were memorable. Whenever I need to go on a long haul journey, I make sure to download this on my phone and skim read it.

 

I think my favourite portrayed of occlumency/legilimency is in The Seventh Horcrux, but only because I've never seen it written well in anything else. In it, "Harry" is terrible at all forms of Occlumency, so instead of doing that he just Legillimises the opponent while they're legillimising him, but harder, essentially making a loop until someone stops it. Fanfic writers really suck at the mind arts, so this gets my favourite just from being genuinely clever.

On a more serious note, I'd nominate Harry Potter and the Third Key: Reloaded as the best "Harry has magical unique powers no-one else has" fic. TTK is one of the few to actually balance out a new ability, and even make it seem like a curse for a large portion of the story. Its also just generally a really underrated fic.

 

Interesting way to handle the mind arts. Is the story good as a whole or just some good comcepts?

 

It actually got into the library, although that was in 2014, so YMMV. I did read it read it in July, and did read the whole thing. There's a few points that made me chuckle, and I did like the way Voldemort was done, but it isn't anyway close to canon.

Also, it came from spacebattles.

 

Personally I found it pretty hilarious (the occlumency thing was only in like 1 chapter) and it does have a lot of cool ideas and stuff. Well-written technically and the fast pacing, especially early on, helps it out a lot.

Does Spacebattles have a bad reputation or something? I haven't been on it much apart from that one story...

 

I thought that the way curse breaking is portrayed in "Bungle in the Jungle" was well done. I do not have ideas or recommendations for the other categories at the moment.

 

Best Master of Death!Harry as portrayed in Rayndeon's The Last Enemy.