Universe fusions - any flavor of HP, DF, NotW, YGO (yeah I know), Worm (sorta, complicated, most current attempts are complete crap).

On the HP or DF side - strong AUs, or divergences where canon is but a fleeting memory. (See: Taure's fics, Newcomb, etc.)

 

My white whale is a fiction set in Hogwarts with no Voldemort, where Harry and friends are just having fun. Preferably with some romance.

There are few like this though and even fewer good ones.

 

A single-year mystery adventure with boarding school elements and no war or resurrected Voldemort, like the first three books.

 

I'd love to read a story that feels magical, that explores the magical world inside and outside hogwarts.

 

My favorite kinds of stories are those where Harry is alone in some way, without friends. That includes stories where Harry is left alone in France to handle things for himself and those where Harry is left alone at the Dursleys instead of going to Hogwarts. Also, first year AUs.

I avoid stories in which there is no Voldemort.

 

Techno-thriller story with extensive use of magical devices.

 

Stories where the universe operates on Fairy Tale Logic instead of muggle physics.

In fact, the less muggles in the stories the better, I don't like when various authors "mugglyfy" aspects of the wizarding world.

I want to read stories about wizards and magic, with the wonder and awe that they should bring.

 

What I want to read: Harry gets a mentor, talented/hardworking protagonist, canon continuation without rehash, year spanning adventure, exploration of pureblood culture and society, exploration of magic, sweeping AUs.

Big focus on characters for eg. interactions, dynamics with each other, very much character development, more inner conflict with with grayer characters instead of cartoonishly evil or good factions, flawed characters.

Canon characterization except in AUs with diffenent backgrounds to justify the change.

Bonus points: Harry, Dumbledore and Voldemort being the major characters. Many duells and cool action scenes just not too much.

What I generally avoid: Time Travel storys, post Hogwarts, bashing/flanderization of all characters even Snape and Malfoy, characters like Snape and Malfoy becoming a major focus of a fic instead of important secondary antagonistic characters.

Fics focused entirely too much on humor, romance, pairings, fluff that you can't take it serious anymore. Fics being to edgy and dark the entire time.

MC being a woman magnet, incomparable badass who is never afraid does not ever face a real challenge, having talents which were never seen before and could stomp Dumbledore and Voldemort at age 17.

 

I'd love a Harry centric fic that sticks to the formula of the early books up to a point but with Harry showing more aptitude with magic.

One of the things about the series is it's often hinted at that Harry is very good with certain magic like the Patronus charm. There was a slow build up towards him being badass that never materialised in the books.

Oh and Busty Redhead Susan Bones.

 

For purely HP, something along the lines of Raining Ink's Out of the Night. Wizarding culture and traditions, where they actually mean something. Where being a Dark Wizard means more than just throwing around unforgivable curses. On the Wings of a Phoenix is a similar type of story, it had a lot of potential, and I like the ideas behind it, and I just want more. It's the type of story where nothing is really as it seems, and that peoples motivations aren't always clear and things that Harry have been lead to believe are truth, might not necessarily be. I've been looking for years for something new like this but they don't come up that often, and they're usually not very good. My own attempts at writing things like that come up flat.

For HP crossovers, I'm kind of a sucker for fusions, despite there being almost a zero amount of decent ones. I've said it before, but I'm of the opinion that people often overthink how to mesh two universes together. Combining Dresden Files and HP should be easy, but people get hung up on trying to have the two magic systems co-exist, when they really should just be one in the same.

They don't just have to be fusions though. So while something like HP in Mass Effect is interesting, in that you can just have the ME world be the future with little issue, a fusion with Game of Thrones wouldn't make as much sense, so I would rather read about Harry landing himself there by going through a dimensional portal or whatever. And, I would admit that I'm a sucker for when the pairing is Harry/my favorite female from that universe.

 

Ah this is a real subjective question, Jon. Like, the most subjective.

People want what appeals to them. Hell, writers write what appeals to them. That's why my stuff reads like a Stephen King fanfiction writer wrote Harry Potter fanfiction.

 

I enjoy almost anything that takes HP into a more fantasy setting. Powerful magic with the main character actually trying to better him/herself. Different races still having some power in the world can be interesting. Sweeping AUs can be fun, and my favorite updating HP fics are actually both large AU.

Honestly though, I would like to read something good. Its probably been literally months since I found something new that is being updated and its actually good in the HP fandom. I am all ears if anyone actually knows any good new fics because I feel like I can never find any.

 

Something fresh and fun, departing from anything resembling stations of canon into the unknown and just never looking back. Something that's big in scope and expands on the world in ways that still fit the "feel" of HP. No senseless drama or angst, romantic or otherwise, but just a fun romp through uncharted waters of canon.

tl;dr basically Ectomancer. But not dead.

 

A completely different world. Like say Wizarding world actually being another world that is not really part of this one.

I liked Exalted Creation for example and I am reading Fables comics right now and I think Fable homelands is really interesting.

 

Stories that don't add elements that conflict with canon (magical oaths, pureblood lords, scar-horcrux removal devices, child-raping Dursleys, Voldemort is misunderstood etc). or if they bother to add those elements, they also have to change anything else related (if you make 11 year old Slytherins Machiavellian politicians who already know most of the Hogwarts curricilum, don't make the other houses completely clueless and childish exactly as they were in canon).

Stories that completely discard everything after GoF. I don't mean that they just take it in a different direction. I mean that all the elements and information introduced in books 5-7 gets thrown out, and the author takes the plot to a place that could never have gone in the canonical universe. I'm saying that because, for one, I don't like the direction the series took since OotP, and I also find fics that were written pre-OotP or pre-HBP more imaginative and interesting.

Stories that take place in 80's Hogwarts, that is, the time between Voldemort's defeat and Harry's first year. I think that it can be very interesting to explore the effects the war had on that generation. Preferably with original characters.

Stories where Voldemort actually died in 1981.

...Where Harry isn't the BWL or isn't famous.

But most importantly, ones that are well written.

 

Building on canon instead of rebuilding it for no purpose especially the magic system.

Avoid: MC being the center of the universe and the other characters can only think about him without their own ambitions and motivation.

Introducing completely overpowered magics to tip the scale in the MCs favor, like the ultimate power of old magic which is so much better than what the silly wizards use now or who can forget ancient runes which is so much stronger than charms and transfiguration.

 

I would love to see a political AU story that has an actual muggleborn/halfblood resistance movement (outside the OotP) that never went away after Voldemort was "defeated" the first time around. I mean, how realistic is it that muggleborn witches and wizards would remain an atomized and basically defenseless group after what (nearly) happened to them? Would they really trust Dumbledore after he let things develop so far? Imagine a Harry Potter that is contacted early on by such a resistance movement, maybe by someone who knew his mother...

 

Just want to read a Dumbledore's Army/Occupation of Hogwarts story that diverges from canon.

 

Harry Potter and the Boy Who Lived.

Basically I like worldbuilding and concept exploration, I want the MC to have control over himself not necessarily his environment, an effort at intelligence.