Harry Potter/Fanfic Recs/Peggy Sue

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Revision as of 16:01, 1 February 2018 by Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (update recommendation)


These are recommendations made by Tropers for Harry Potter Peggy Sue fanfic, all of which have to be signed to stay on the page. Feel free to add a fanfic of your own to the list, but remember to use the template found here.

You can also add to the current recommendations if you want. Refrain from posting Conversation in the Main Page though; that goes in the discussion page.

Conversion from the "Comments" section to the "Reviews" option is underway. If you are adding a fic, please help us out and use the new template-format on the Fanfic Recommendations Index Page. Please start moving your comments to the reviews sections as we will soon start removing them.

Nightmares of Future Past by Starkan (a.k.a. Viridian)

  • Now has its own trope page.
  • Recommended by User:Looney Toons
  • Synopsis: Harry Potter does a Peggy Sue—by sending his memories into the past to his younger self. All of them.
  • Comments: The twists and rapid Adaptation Decay that occur due to his meddling (and the annoying force of Fate apparently working to keep events more-or-less close to canon through the ending of book 6) make for one very gripping read.


Backwards Compatible by Ruskbyte

  • Recommended by User:Looney Toons
  • Synopsis: Harry comes back from the summer after Sirius' death with a new attitude, a lot more information, a talent for mixing technology and magic—and a strange accessory: a mysterious device he calls "Father" which never leaves his side, appears to be sentient... and possesses power beyond anything ever seen by the Wizarding World.
  • Comments: Gives the standard Harry Potter Peggy Sue implementation an interesting, nasty little twist. Unfortunately, just when things start getting really interesting, it stops cold—it hasn't been updated since 2005.


Harry Potter and the Wastelands of Time and its sequel "Harry Potter and the Heartlands of Time" by joe6991

  • Recommended by User:Looney Toons
  • Synopsis: A Time-Travel Fic in which Harry is stuck in a Groundhog Day Loop that spans several decades and in which he has lost all the people he has loved to Voldemort dozens of times over, and is trying once again to stop Voldemort before he ruins the world. Only this time around, things aren't going exactly as he remembers them... Complete, and the sequel is on its eleventh chapter.
  • Comments:
    • User:Looney Toons: Seconded; but part of what makes this fic interesting is Harry finding himself—for the first time in longer than he can remember—unable to predict what is going to happen next, as some unknown force has taken it upon itself to interfere with his endless looping through time.


Oh God Not Again! by Sarah1281

  • Now with its own trope page.
  • Recommended by MKGR
  • Synopsis: So maybe everything didn't work out perfectly for Harry. Still, most of his friends survived, he'd gotten married, and was about to become a father. If only he'd have stayed away from the Veil, he wouldn't have had to go back and do everything again.


Reunion by Rorschach's Blot

  • Recommended by User:Looney Toons
  • Synopsis: Harry, Hermione, Luna, and Susan Bones as the returnees. They're on a mission to take the timeline and tie it into a pretzel -- mainly by killing everyone who ever did evil unto them.
  • Pairings: Harry/Hermione/Luna/Susan, Sirius/Professor Sinistra
  • Comments: Comedy in the same vein as 'Make A Wish', which makes sense as it's the same author. Features Harry as a crazed gunman assassin and Dobby the Cleaner. A hilarious romp through all the various fanfic cliches, blowing them up hither and yon.
    • User:Looney Toons: Seconded. The Blot's writing is not as primitive in this story—he's learning as he goes—so it's a little easier to enjoy. And it still has that strong current of over-the-top-WTF going on. Unlike Make A Wish, though, he's still too early in the story for us to see if there's an overarching direction to the plot, or if it's just chaos for the sake of chaos.


Back Again, Harry? by JediButtercup

  • Recommended by Fenro
  • Synopsis: A most unusual Peggy Sue fic, one that refuses the usual powerups and exceptional maturity in favor of sending Harry back from his visit to Kings Cross Station in Deathly Hallows to a certain night spent staring into the Mirror of Erised.
  • Comments: Extremely well thought out and executed. Unfortunately it hasn't updated in over a year, having not yet made it to the end of Philosopher's Stone... but the author plans to resume writing sometime around October 2009. Why, look what month it is! ...And J.B. was only a couple of weeks off, it's updated. :)


Altered Destinies by DobbyElfLord

  • Recommended by White Hat
  • Synopsis: Harry has defeated Voldemort, but it was a costly victory. Aberforth Dumbledore presents a plan to go back and kill the infant Riddle, but Harry will have to stay there 10 years. Can Harry alter the wizarding world's destiny? WWII and Grindelwald.
  • Comments: Very good time travel fic. Harry goes back in time to kill an infant Voldemort but faces complications. Lots of interesting things happen along the way. There are a fair amount of minor typos a decent editor would have fixed and it suffers from the Written-Before-Deathly-Hallows Syndrome, so even before Harry's arrival it's an AU. But if you can accept those things, I think you'll really enjoy it. Now completed, with a sequel -- Balanced Destinies—in progress.


His Own Man by Crunchysunrises

  • Recommended by User:Looney Toons
  • Synopsis: At the spectral King's Cross station in Deathly Hallows, Harry makes a different choice; disgusted by Dumbledore's machinations, he sends himself back in time to just before his first year. A fiercely independent Harry with complete foreknowledge of the next seven years then dives head-first into the Wizarding World, seeking to disrupt both Voldemort and Dumbledore's plans. However, his efforts to reshape the future may just make things worse when his actions cause the events of Philosopher's Stone, Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban to all take place simultaneously during his first year.
  • Comments: A different approach to the classic Harry Potter Peggy Sue, well-written and cleverly playing with and subverting many of the usual conventions of the subgenre. Deathly Hallows-compliant (at least up until Harry's "death"), which means he understands Snape and Malfoy far better, and which in turn means different relationships with each. Features a very pragmatic (yet oddly sympathetic and even vulnerable) Harry who doesn't feel obligated to preserve even the Golden Trio intact if it means his goals will be reached that much faster. 21 chapters as of the end of 2009 and still going strong; highly recommended.


A Mother In Law's Love by Perspicacity

  • Recommended by AbelInversion
  • Synopsis: Distraught over Ginny's death in the final battle, Harry gambles desperately and travels back in time to set things right. Unfortunately, not everything goes as planned. A twist on the classic Soul Bond tale. A cross between Peggy Sue and crackfic, this farce of a time-travel novella features a hapless Harry, for whom nothing seems to go as planned. Even his Soul Bond, the one fixture in his life, is messed up in the time travel—it latches onto Molly by mistake. Hilarity Ensues. Complete.
  • Comments: A story ripe with Tropes, it's yet another approach to the classic Harry Potter Peggy Sue. It's perhaps the only time-travel story where Harry chooses to go back to the end of Book 6. The author has penned a clever, hilarious romp with several turns of plot that the reader won't see coming. The author seems addicted to Innocent Innuendo, but it's done as well as you'll find anywhere. Also employs frequent instances of Double Entendre, and Naked People Are Funny. The protagonist's unwavering, unrequited love for Ginny is balanced by the Universe's insistence that this Just Not Be So. Told in first-person POV, it takes a chapter or so to get going. Once it does, the audacity and ridiculousness don't let up. Highly recommended.


Delenda Est and its sequel, Para Bellum by Lord Silvere

  • Recommended by Darkholm
  • Status: Delenda Est: Complete; Para Bellum: ongoing
  • Synopsis: Harry is a prisoner, and Bellatrix has fallen from grace. The accidental activation of Bella's treasured heirloom results in another chance for Harry. It also gives him the opportunity to make the acquaintance of the young and enigmatic Bellatrix Black. Marauders-Era.
  • Comments: An altogether excellent story. I haven't seen a spelling or grammar error yet while reading it. The characterizations and dialogue are both believable and enthralling. Harry does not automatically become Dumbledore's favorite new person and he isn't handed the DADA position. In fact the closest thing he has to allies are the current heads of the Malfoy and Black families. Bellatrix is not wearing leather pants and Harry has to restrain himself from attacking/insulting her several times. Harry is also very tight-lipped about the future/his past and couldn't give a rat's ass about preserving the time stream.


Hold Me While I'm Here by Nitte Iz

  • Recommended by Shinji117
  • Synopsis: Harry 'Patterson' is an exchange student who arrives in Hogwarts at the start of the Marauder's sixth year in Hogwarts.
  • Comments: Very very well done. Not much time is wasted about HOW Harry timetravelled, unlike other fics where the author spends three chapters preparing Harry. Also, the author is very good at switching the mood of the fic between bloody hiarious and deadly serious. Harry and the Marauders are all fully-fleshed characters, Harry is not stupidly powerful and when he does show some of his strength there ARE consequences. His reaction to the Death-Eater recruitment program must be SEEN to be believed, his thoughts about James and Lily are rather moving, the pranks are inspired and his realisation that the Marauders have fully accepted him by admitting to be animagi is so perfectly done that it's difficult to describe.


From the Flame to the Spark by Nightboy

  • Recommended by Ephemeral Night
  • Has a page now.
  • Pairings: Ginny/Harry
  • Synopsis: A twist on the Peggy Sue genre that features Ginny as the time traveler instead of Harry, after Harry dies at the end of DH instead of just pretending to die as in canon. Once Ginny arrives in the past, she doesn't even try to preserve anything of the old timeline, going to any lengths to make sure Voldemort can never kill Harry. Things are made more complicated by fragments of the future coming back in Ginny's wake, resulting in some tangential oddities.
  • Comments: Not very far along, so far, but already completely deviated from canon. Ginny doesn't mess around and subtlety isn't her favorite thing ever. determinator!Ginny.
    • Ginny is, without acting strange, such a good friend to Harry that he's noticeably more emotionally healthy. Her extreme proactiveness results in completely nullifying CoS's main conflict without taking the drama or suspense out of the story.


The Dark Lord's Equal by Lens of Sanity

  • Recommended by AllBlueSkies
  • Synopsis: Things had been pretty sweet for the first quarter of a century following Voldemort’s defeat, but from there things started to go downhill fast. Now Harry has finally agreed to go back and stop the wars from ever happening. He wakes up during the Ministry Battle and begins changing history for the better.
  • Comments: This is a twisted Time-Travel Fic that basically takes everything that happened in canon -including the Epilogue- and goes; what is a simple explanation for all the plot holes. The sarcastic slightly insane comments Harry makes throughout are funny, and how he deals with the Wizengamot is hilarious. Lots of magic, some drama and romance with the Hermione pairing, excellent fight scenes, and it fits annoyingly snugly within the canon universe. All the while rolling every one shot plot bunny possible into such an amazing read. Complete and Highly recommended.


Sisyphus by esama

  • Recommended by PDown
  • Synopsis: After being killed by Voldemort in the climactic battle of the series, Harry finds himself learning that he is a wizard again. He things that he's going to live out a typical Peggy Sue plot, but whenever he dies, he once again is sent back to the same time and place. And furthermore, after the first time, he can't ever seem to get as far again...
  • Comments: This is quite simply the best fanfiction I have ever had the pleasure to read. It finally made me respect the Peggy Sue plot (albeit by deconstructing it and switching it to a more Groundhog Peggy Sue thing) but overall I loved it. It invoked the since of combined fear and sympathy that make me love fiction emotionally


A Switched Chance by LunaStorm

  • Recommended by Mazz
  • Synopsis: In which Hermione attempts a time-travelling ritual without due preparation and Harry happily goes along for the ride, and both have to cope with living their best friend's life.
  • Comments: It's based on one of esama's drabbles from Toil and Trouble.


He's Not Normal by Uncle Stojil

  • Recommended by SteaksAddictsAnonymous
  • Synopsis: Harry Potter goes back in time and has to start everything again. Do you think he will be careful not to screw the timeline up? No, he doesn't even think about it! A story featuring a loony Harry and a Magical World that seems willing to adapt to him. "summary from Fanfiction.net" (Basically, in which Harry goes back in time and kind -of trolls everybody.)
  • Comments: Silly, lighthearted and fun to read. Quite refreshing. (cross posted? from crack fic, as it also qualifies for Peggy Sue.) CRACK fic, so judge it as one.


Time, Mr. Potter? by Tw15ted

  • Recommended by Magic Kirby
  • Synopsis: Five years after Voldemort's victory over the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter is a man on the run. But what happens when he is thrown into his twelve-year old body in a freak accident? Non-DH compliant. Complete.
  • Comments: A pretty decent Peggy Sue fic, a few cliches and the last ten or so chapters after Harry dies prevent it from being outstanding.


Time Warp by Kittenn1011

  • Recommended by Mazz
  • Synopsis: Harry Potter wakes up one morning in the body of his ten-year-old self. This time around, he declares, no way anyone's going to die! -And it's gonna be totally awesome- "People shouldn't meddle with time, Potter." Little did they know...
  • Comments: A very ambitious story, where both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy find themselves trapped in a loop spanning their Hogwarts years.


Stormseeker: Borrowed Destiny by Keolah

  • Recommended by Jeckari
  • Synopsis: On the run from powerful dark wizards, Lexen Chelseer finds himself thrust into an unfamiliar world - and a new identity. Can Lexen hope to fill the shoes of Harry Potter, who secretly died at the age of 5?


Harry Potter:Game of the Year Edition by Casey W

  • Recommended by Dont Kill Bugs
  • Synopsis: Harry Potter dies in the graveyard of Little Hangleton. GAME OVER. Start new game?
  • Comments: Any fan of Persona4 fanfiction may recognize Casey W as the author of the very well-done Face Every Shadow. With that sort of track record, this story is shaping up to be quite good. It toys with the standard Peggy Sue concept by treating it as a video game, with points being added or deducted based on Harry's actions in life, and even alternate characters Harry can select, such as Dragonborn Harry and Harry Weasley.


Fate's Favourite by The Fictionist

  • Recommended by Namikaze Artemis
  • Status: Completed (over 350 000 words)
  • Synopsis: You always get the stories where Harry goes back into Tom Riddle's time, then either stays or gets sent back. End of, unless he tries to make Voldemort good. But what if thing's went differently? What if, just once? someone followed a time traveller back?
  • Pairings: None
  • Comments: There's also a Russian translation, Czech translation and an Italian translation.


Jamie Evans and Fate's Bitch by The Mad Mad Reviewer

  • Recommended by: The Road
  • Synopsis: "Harry Potter stepped back in time with enough plans to deal with just about everything fate could throw at him. He forgot one problem: He's fate's chewtoy."
  • Pairing(s): H/To
  • Comments: Essentially the best execution of the Harry Goes Back in Time, but Something immediately goes Horribly Wrong plot that I've read to date. Really, though, It's professional grade work.
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