Black Luminary

Fanfiction
Title:	Black Luminary
Author(s):	YakAge
Date(s):	2016-present
Length:	655,000+ words
Genre(s):
Fandom(s):	Harry Potter
Relationship(s):
External Links:	https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12125300/1/Black-Luminary
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Summary

The war against the Dark Lord was the last straw. The oppressed, fed up with oligarchy, corruption, and injustice, sharpened their knives, rallying behind those who promised change. They won. Today, Magical Britain is a changed country – for the better. Hail and praise to our saviours! Finally, all is well. But listen! Can't you hear the grindstone turning still ...?

Reactions and Reviews

With the first year arc over, I think it's a good time to put Black Luminary for review.

I think you all know the type: students have their serious politics (especially Slytherin ones), there is a cultural conflict between muggleborns and purebloods, and so on, and so on.

But, despite featuring all those cliches, this fic is actually good. How is it possible? I will try to explain.

As can be guessed based on the introduction Black Luminary is a pretty AU story. One of the key differences is that the war between Grindelwald and the rest of Wizarding World had a bigger impact on Wizarding Britain. One of the key changes is that students start Hogwarts education at the age of thirteen, but are allowed to learn magic earlier. This makes the usual" first years behaving like fifteen years old" (aside from Harry who acts older, but that's actually justified) less jarring. It also allows basically every character to have a certain degree of magical skill from the start. It also shaped politics, with a current system where "Pillars" - families which led the hunt after Grindelwald supporters after the war, basically hold the power in Britain.

That brings me to wordbuilding - it is pretty good, though many important things are still left unsaid. Some things are said outright (there is an infodump on the political climate), some are suggested (wand core made from dementor's bone suggests that they are killable) but generally what we saw of the world so far is consistent and fairly interesting. Actually, the politics stuff reminds me a lot of Sescs' stuff from Pillars of Power (and not only because of the word "Pillars" being used).

Of course, being myself, I have to mention magic. I'm mostly of positive opinion about it. So far almost all seems to be good. Various people have various expertises, being good with a spell allows the caster to modify its effects, there is no "it's all intent" or "it's all matter of right pronunciation and gestures" stupidity. There is a research, there are some creative spells. So why "mostly". Well, there are some big signs of magic being some kind of energy or something similar. Signs that are pretty important to the plot and those worry me.

Onto characters then, the protagonist is Harry Black - overly mature of his age boy with some heavy problems stemming from his past. Originally known as Harry Potter, he was adopted into the Black family under dramatic and still largely unknown circumstances. He has problems with connecting with his peers, loves obscure knowledge, and overcomplicated plans. He is definitely a flawed character, that sometimes fails, but I'm afraid that his over-complicated plans may continue to always work, and get more overcomplicated at the same time.

The other members of the cast are pretty well done, a mysterious Defence teacher Rose is mysterious enough, Hermione is fittingly annoying, Draco keeps right levels of feeling better than others despite his being in Harry's circle, and Bellatrix is definitely unstable.

The plot manages to pull high stakes despite there not being main antagonist so far. The dangers also didn't come in a form of magically powerful enemy, but were of more interesting variety. But the plot so far had one, really big problem - pacing. The first year was terribly slow, but the author promises that with the worldbuilding groundwork done, the story will progress faster. With the Harry being in deadly danger in the first chapter of the second arc, it seems that he may very well deliver on this promise.

The fic has a lot of promise and I hope that it will manage to deliver on it. So far I would rate it 7.5/10 (4/5).