I have held back no water in its season

Review of copperbadge’s fic series, the Stealing Harryverse.

Stealing Harry (multi-part)

Tales from the River House (scattered shorts)

Laocoon’s Children, Year One, Year Two, Year Three (multi-parts, Three still in progress)

I rarely review fic, but I’ve been wanting some good HP fic to soothe me, and Em pointed out this author and ‘verse in particular, and it’s so lovely I wanted to share with anyone who might have missed it.

The entire ‘verse is a What If AU. What if Sirius had stopped to pick up Remus before he went looking for Peter, and Voldemort’s side (extremely suspicious and ticked off, to be sure) found Peter first?

From that one moment, the Stealing Harryverse spins onto a different path that runs parallel to the canon books and covers many of the same events but has all sorts of fascinating differences.

Stealing Harry covers much of Harry’s childhood. Laocoon’s Children matches stride with the books, going year by year.

One of the things I find most delightful about these stories is that the characters are still themselves. Harry is too impulsive for his own good; Snape is a bastard; Sirius needs a leash for his temper; Remus is living with hell once a month; Draco doesn’t like confrontation but has a vindictive streak; Ron is casually kind and constantly awkward. But they are these things in a world turned about fifty degrees on its axis, and, most importantly to me, they are these things in a consistent, emotionally logical fashion.

Sam clearly intends to take Laocoon’s Children through all seven years. I, for one, will be looking forward to reading it.