siriusblk_mod (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} siriusblk_mod) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} sirius_blk,@ 2013-06-28 19:43:00 |
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This rec is by
figliaperduta, the Silent Mod (at least until now).The fact that I'm recommending it here could be construed as a spoiler; however, the character tags for the story also spoil the surprise.
Title: Promises Unbroken, and sequels
Author: Robin4
Characters/Pairings: Ensemble cast, but focuses on Sirius, Remus, James, and Peter. Gen.
Rating: T (PG-13, essentially)
Author's Summary: Sirius Black remained the Secret Keeper and everything he feared came to pass. Ten years later, James and Lily live, Harry attends Hogwarts, and Voldemort remains…yet the world is different and nothing is as it seems. AU, updated for HBP.
Word Count: 170,882 for the first story, plus two sequels that are 227k and 213k respectively. Plus an entire universe of side stories, some of which delve into the history of this particular canon.
This is an old fic--it was started in that long gap between Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix, in 2003. It's been updated to take into account some of the new information, but not all of it. And it's also a really LONG fic, guaranteed to take a few weeks of your reading time. There's a prequel fic that's receiving slow but regular updates. So why am I reccing it?
It is, as the summary says, an AU, and it's one of two fics that really introduced me properly to the idea of AUs as a genre (the other will undoubtedly be recced later on). By this point, it's quite possibly the trope-definer for Alternate Secret Keeper stories. It really is that amazing.
When you read it, parts of it are going to seem cliche and overdone; some of those cliches started here, or were at least very young when this story was first started. The magic is interesting, complex, and well-thought-out; premises suggested in canon are carried through to logical conclusions here. Of particular note are the fight scenes--the combat here is some of the best I've ever read in all of fiction, not just fanfic. The focus of the story is on adults fighting a war, and the tactics and strategies are correspondingly better-developed than in canon (and most fanfic), which is extremely refreshing.
The series is not without its flaws, though. At times, it drags on, bogged down in seemingly-irrelevant details and asides that only make sense later on in the story--the second fic (Promises Remembered) is especially prone to this. Certain characters feel at times overpowered, at least until we get around to the other POVs. There's a fair amount of darkness, torture, and the inner workings of evil--the squeamish should take note. Sirius doesn't show up in person until the middle of the first book, though his presence (or lack thereof) is felt from the very beginning.
So why take a chance?
It's about the sense of wonder. The fic starts out innocently enough, with a memorial service for a dead character, and then Harry, Ron, and Hermione on the Hogwarts Express. It grabs you in with how familiar it all is to canon, and then it starts changing things around. What was true a few chapters back is called into doubt, and finally revealed to be completely false. A war progresses, and the story grows darker and darker. In this way, it holds up a mirror to canon--thus, too, did the original series progress.
And if it all seems a little too improbable at times, remember this: even in the Department of Mysteries do they study love behind locked doors.