Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness

Title: Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness
Author: Thanfiction
Pairing: Gen
Rating: M

Update 6/20/2023: Thanfiction's AO3 account has been deactivated; story can be read online/downloaded at: https://www.scribd.com/doc/33499119/Dumbledore-s-Army-and-the-Year-of-Darkness.

When I first read this, none of the rest of the series existed (which means I should go read it now, ha). This is a beautifully involved story of the "side-characters," if you will - not Harry, Ron, Hermione, etc - but of Neville and all the students left behind in that year when the Golden Trio went Horcrux-hunting, how they survived with Death Eaters at Hogwarts, and strove to be "ready" when the Golden Trio returned. Gorgeous read.

Tower of Air

Title: Tower of Air
Author: cluegirl
Pairing: Gen
Rating: PG

Dumbledore makes sure all the sacrifices during the wars are not forgotten. I may not always agree with his methods, especially in the later books, but this... this was beautiful and aching.

The End of the Beginning

Title: The End of the Beginning
Author: Marina
Pairing: James/Lily (also calling it Gen because it also really is)
Rating: PG-13

Update 6/20/2023: original site hosting this story closed in 2017. Keeping this entry so I can continue to try hunting for it.

Giles and Ethan have a run-in with a strange mark in the sky, and curious robed figures... and it expands from there. This is an brilliant BtVS/HP crossover, with very believable characterizations, and it answers my question from the minute Harry could hear his parents's last minutes when Dementors showed up of "why didn't Voldmort just kill Lily that night, why did he just keep telling her to step aside?" Honestly, I really wish this story just went on and on and never ended, because the possibilities are so endless and intriguing, and I found myself re-reading paragraphs and lingering over sentences (for instance, for some reason this sentence really struck something within me: "The grin with which James Potter greeted this rather prosaic question was the unmistakable symptom of a man gone silly with love"), anyways, really, why is there no more of this story!?!?!?!?

Mapmakers

Title: Mapmakers
Author: Casira
Pairing: Gen, background Remus/Sirius
Rating: PG-13

This is a remix of Raven's Making Moony Laugh (which was also beautiful and sad),  and is the story of Fred and George's gradual awareness of who the Maurauders were, how they react to that information, and how they handle everything after the veil. It's beautiful (I've always wanted to see the Weasley twins interact with MWPP, can you imagine the shenanigans they'd get up to!?) but it's so, so heartbreaking, especially the ending, and I cry every single time I read this story. Just... oh Padfood and Moony ::sobs::

Sidekicks

Title: Sidekicks
Author: kaydeefalls
Pairing: Remus/Sirius (but this is mostly Marauder-centric, honestly)
Rating: PG-13

James and Sirius may have been the masterminds behind the Marauder's Map, but Remus and Peter give it a voice. Gorgeous story of how the "sidekicks" plan some mischief of their own, with hilarious MWPP interaction. Teehee boys.

Along The Way

Title: Along The Way
Author: Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling) (Elizabeth Culmer)
Pairing: This is a gen story, really (but if you must, Hermionie/Ron, Harry/Ginny, Rose/Scorpius)
Rating: PG

Beautiful story of Hermione growing up after the war.

Debts To Be Paid

Title: Debts To Be Paid
Author: mehnema (swedish_furniture)

Pairing: None
Rating: PG

Hahahahahha. This is utter, utter crack, except it's amazing. Yu* Yu* Hakusho and Harry Potter may become one of my favorite crossovers, because it's just so interesting to see these two world interact. Voldemort cheated death... so Koenma sends his Tantei after him (oh man now I want to see Voldemort with Death from the Sandman - can you imagine that conversation!?!?). Tee hee!

The Best Defense & A Good Offense

Title: The Best Defense & A Good Offense
Author: JoIsBishMyoga
Pairing: (but this is really gen) Kuwama/Hiei, Yuusuke/Keiko, Kuwabara/Yukina
Rating: PG-13

I totally started rereading this fic to remind myself what to rec about it... and I almost didn't remember to go to sleep last night XD Yeah, it's that good.

A Best Defense is an amazing YYH/HP crossover that integrates all the demon culture and "magic" into the wizarding world at Hogwarts. In a nutshell, the Tantei (along with Genkai, Keiko, and Yukina) to go Hogwarts to protect the student body as a whole, and if they "happen" to run across Voldemort... well, to quote Yuusuke, they will "kick his ass" XD You can imagine what sort of shenanigans they group gets up, especially after meeting the HP crowd. Genka is the new DADA teacher (OMG can you imagine taking classes from her!?), the twins are irrepressible, The Golden Trio do their thing, and Draco is The Malfoy Git (there actually isn't much HP slash in here that I can tell, now that I think of it, but you barely even notice it because you're just caught up in the story - although there were many times I just wanted to scream at Draco for being such a brat).

A Best Defense sidefics - don't read these until you've finished reading A Best Defense - you'll need the background and don't want to be spoiled. Little slices of insight regarding the various characters impacted by the merging of the two cultures.

A Good Offense (WIP as of this rec) - I haven't actually read this fic (ducks and runs), because I'm going through a period where I don't read a story until it's done (yes I hate suspense, I'm still living through that whenever I buy a new volume of manga and then go noooooooo that's IT!?!?), but considering the quality of The Best Defense, I'm highly certain this will be as good, if not better... especially with some of the plot points in The Best Defense ^_~ Another year at Hogwarts for the Tantei.

The Room with a Computer

Title: The Room with a Computer
Author: minisinoo
Pairing: None
Rating: Gen

All of minisinoo's fics are amazing - I believe hers was some of the first X-Men fic I'd ever read, so definitely check those out while you're at her site - but this was the first Harry Potter/X-Men crossover that had me go oh yes... how did I never notice the possibilities to this!? Seriously, mutants v.s. magic?? It's brilliantly done and left me begging for more - I wish it were a huge novel instead of just a 4-part series! This is one of those stories that is always in the back of my mind and every so often I go and reread and become entranced again.

A Feast in Azkaban

Title: A Feast in Azkaban
Author: nyxfixx
Pairing: Remus/Sirius, but that's not really the point
Rating: PG

This is a gorgeous back story of the all that happened to the Marauders up until the events of Sirius ending up in Azkaban, which makes so much sense - to the point where, since I knew what came after, I was already going "oh so that's why..." and "oh god and then - !" It's painful sometimes because you just want to scream at them "stop, stop now! Change it change it!" but you can't and it's beautiful and heartbreaking, the way Sirius thinks that he's protecting James once and for all by changing the Secret Keeper and - yes, go read it now.

Black Widow (The Blaise's Mum Has Got It Going On Tango)

Title: Black Widow (The Blaise's Mum Has Got It Going On Tango)
Author: Mark Sickens
Pairing: Mrs. Zabini/Various Husbands
Rating: PG-13

Sometimes stories of minor characters just hit me, and this was definitely one of them. Amusing and wistfully sad at turns, this story offers a more light-hearted look inside of a Slytherin's mother.