Title: Precocious Witches and Where to Find Them
Author: Vernerama
Genre: Gen
Rating: Mature
Pairing: None so far
Length: 260k
Status: WIP
Library category: The Alternates
Link AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/50506063/chapters/127594417
Link FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14281945/1/Precocious-Witches-and-Where-to-Find-Them

AO3 Summary: It wasn't enough that she was reborn an orphan with adult memories. No, Sylvia also had to be reborn into the bloody Wizarding World. Now a witch on her way to Hogwarts she'll have to decide whether or not to put her knowledge to the use. But really, what did she owe these people, anyway?

Yes I'm recommending a SI on DLP, but fuck it, it's 2025, the fandom is basically dead and this is an actual good story that is not abandoned. Granted, I do have a soft spot for self-inserts. I think most fan fiction is barely disguised self inserts so I appreciate the people who don't bother hiding the ball. That said all but like 3 HP SI fanfics are unreadably bad and 2 of them are abandoned.

In this story, our SI OC reacts to growing up with the memories of another life by acting out. She is moved from foster family to foster family before ending up in an orphanage. It is not made explicit to us until much later but the effect on Dumbledore of delivering a Hogwarts letter to a precocious and troubled child at an orphanage causes some PTSD that is the first flap of the butterfly's wings that keeps this from being a complete canon rehash. As of the current chapter we're at the end of the summer between 2nd and 3rd year and most of the tent pole events from canon have occurred but in almost every case made just different enough to be novel and directly traceable to the existence of the SI in the universe who, despite trying not to get involved in the plot, manages to push things slightly off course by the mere fact of her existence. In addition to the on-going cannon storyline which we see from the perspective of someone who is not in the Trio and is mostly involved from the sidelines, there is an extremely interesting developing plot line about how exactly the OC arrived in the universe.

What this story has going for it above and beyond everything else is that it's very well written from a technical perspective. There are some occasional obvious typos that indicate the Author's native language probably does not included gendered pronouns but fortunately they're not too frequently. In addition to the quality of the writing, it shines above most fanfics and, even more so other SI fics, by what it doesn't include: The kids are not written as small adults, except for the one who literally is one, they're fairly believable as 12 year olds. There isn't any bashing. The cannon characters are not wildly OC. The SI does not miraculously come into a bunch of wealth or rare magic abilities or heritages. The SI is not some mopey emo teenager who is as insufferable at Hogwarts as the author probably is in real life. It's just a good fun read, 260k words of it and counting.

5/5

 

there is nothing wrong with SIs imo. It is like any other genre of fanfiction, a lot of bad sure and some good. Heh I reject on principle the notion that somehow SI's are inherently bad (and some of the other crazy plot contrivances we see are not).

Im early still, just through the sorting. So im probably going to wait a few more chapters to give a rating. So far i would say it is very well written and engaging. The only downside perhaps is the main character is a bit too mmm...rebelious? That is perhaps not the right word. But there is a definite air of like detatchment and sorta assumed superiority that underlines a lot of her interactions that i don't really find believable.

Still it is engaging and i'm definitely planning to read more. As the original poster said it is well written and so far the other HP characters seem well fleshed out

edit to add: I am particularly liking her zabini so far

 

See I find exactly that to be more believable than someone with the memories of being a full grown adult integrating with a bunch of 11 year olds like any other. But I'm not a 'kid person' so this might be a me thing.

That said, the detachment becomes less and less as time goes on and she starts to befriend her classmates.

 

Mmm i dont need her to be close to the kids but it was happening with the adults too.

That said you were right it did fade as it went on. Its a pretty solid fic. Im still a little mixed on the main character herself but I like how she handles the other main hp characters. It sort of follows the stations of the books but diverts from it in unique ways too. The plot ties together nicely with lots of hints from way earlier becoming relevant later on. I'm definitely going to follow it to keep reading new chapters.

It's not perfect or a 5/5 tbh. But it is a solid read. i'd give it a 3.5/5 and round it up to a 4/5 in part for as you said the lack of good ongoing hp fics these days.

 

I read through the whole thing, and I think it's really good—much better than most fics, including most of the older ones in the library. I hope it doesn't get abandoned, and I'll gladly return to it once more chapters are up. It's comfortably in the 4/5 territory, definitely one of the best fics when it comes to HP self-inserts.

 

How powerful and/or beautiful is the SI?

 

she is 12-13 years old as of the latest chapter

 

So there’s no reason to read it then?

 

I'm really confused by this thread. A genuinely good fic got submitted for review, and it's getting 1-star votes from people who haven't read it? And, in your case, it's because you wanted the protagonist to be extremely powerful/beautiful? I don't usually post, but I still like visiting this site to get some good fic recommendations, cause the review scores are generally a good indicator of quality, and this fic is easily in the 4/5 category. Is it just the case of disliking SI fics on principle?

 

I enjoyed this. It was clever. The main character was interesting and witty. The dialogue was good and the surrounding cast well written, without falling into stupid tropes. The divergences were good and there were some good twists. I read it over two days, and will be following it.

 

Weird pedo vibes

 

Definitively the best new HP story I've read in a while!

The story has quite a few fresh twists that keep things interesting, but definitively also has its weaknesses. Slightly overdone Slytherin house politics, magical exhaustion, "fate" forcing things to play out somewhat similar to canon are the top annoyances to me.

But all in all, this is the best updating HP story that I've found this year, and maybe also last year!

 

DLP has always been weird about stories that dont center a character named harry.

One of the most famous fic's on this forum, HPBWL by the santi was a story about Harry's OC brother who went to durmstrang and was a good student but the author made the OC be named Harry Potter and cannon harry be named something else so the story could be techically about harry potter.

The all time best harry potter fan fic IMO is the Alexandra Quick series and it was for over a year in the Trash Bin section of this website just because people couldn't handle the fact that harry potter wasn't in it.

Just a quirk of the site. Don't wory about the stars, people will read the actual comments and realize this story is worth reading.

 

I'm not totally clear on what Taure's point was, but for me, a story that by all accounts is a canon events rehash with an all-knowing character at the helm that barely manages to trudge through year 2 at 260k words seems like a painful slog to even attempt reading. Not gonna rate it either, but I wouldn't be surprised most people on here tried one or two chapters before getting the gist of it and dropping a low rating.

It's not enough for a story to be written without typos to attract attention on DLP. It has to have a decent premise and retain some mystery of where it is going. A story you can predict by just reading the summary because there are hundreds of the same story out there is never going to receive accolades here.

 

I know, over the years, I've read (or at least started reading) basically all HP fanfics that are in the library, and this story is genuinely on that level (also, much better than most of the old fics that are still there, let's be honest). It's not a top 5 fanfic of all time or anything, but I genuinely think most people on here would enjoy it a lot if they gave it a chance. It's also extremely harsh to call this story a canon rehash. I get frustrated when a fic is afraid of changing things, and I never felt like that reading this one.

 

The point is that the SI mechanism's sole purpose is to tell a guilty pleasure power fantasy but if the protagonist is neither powerful nor beautiful then there's no power fantasy to enjoy.

 

or you know it could be to tell a story…

Some of us don’t want to read about sexy OP 11 year olds, had that been this story — and there is no shortage of stories like that out there— I would not have recommended it nor kept reading.

The character is competent, top of her year but she’s still a 12 year old with 2 years of schooling and as such…not about to take out a big bad.

A bit like Victoria.

Speaking of Victoria, I’m now really disturbed to think how sexy you’re probably imagining her in your head , but if you mentioned the fact in the text, it never jumped out me. Similarly, the physical appearance of the main character of this story is not something that a lot of time is spent on.

 

Wut. The whole point of Victoria Potter is a power fantasy. It tells the story of a Dumbledore level talent.

Obviously no one’s taking down adults as a second year but the point is whether the character is special or not.

As for beauty, vanity is one of Victoria’s most prominent character traits. Not sure how you missed it.

 

Is a self-insert always the actual author, or can it be anyone from 'our' world?

For example...

What happens if a DLP user gets sent to Hogwarts as a first year alongside Harry and friends? Or what if your grandma gets sent there?

Sure, maybe if that's the case it shouldn't be called a 'self-insert' but I'd rather find an excuse to read a new fanfic than plenty to not read one.

I'm only chapter three thus far, and it doesn't strike me as your typical self-insert where somebody with meta knowledge shows up and goes full Noodlehammer...

But it could be a fantasy of some sort that the author harbours. It's clear the author isn't French, but their SI character was.