Harry Potter & the Soulmate Bond (2024)

Right about 4★ overall. It is quite long (wordcount 383.5K, to The Lord of the Rings trilogy's 481K, though the stated pagecount is closer), in 30 titled "episodes" on the author's website, but it's a richly developed 'verse and characters, worth the time... that is, assuming you're not a devoted fan of any of the "bashed" characters (discussed further down).

Some elements are worth 4.5★, such as Hermione's magical adoption by Minerva McGonagall (even if it did involve vilifying her birth parents), her unique animagus form and its well-explored implications, and Harry's wonderful way with the youngest students (learned dealing with the students at the mentioned Magical Primary School which the Lily Potter Foundation funds, and orphans of various ages in difficult circ*mstances who are among his protected wards, some of whom are now schoolmates, too).

A few elements I'm less thrilled by, such as some of the traditional ritual magic culture (so I'm a bit prudish about public sex, that's my right; even some of the characters have similar reactions), though the part of the premise that says staying virgin is dangerous, leaving recently-magically-matured wixen likely to be targeted as sacrifices by "former" Death Eaters and like-minded in Britain and abroad, is scarily plausible.

Pairing Harry and Hermione will generally find favor with me, certainly over Rowling's ill-advised epilogue, and this Harry has grown up with more scholarship and sense of authority and responsibility (as the Earl of Gryffindor as well as Lord Potter, a trained Healer, and member-turned-leader of a Parselmagic conclave), making the match even better.

Certain things are kept or cleverly modified/ echoed from canon, while others have gone very differently, such as all the pieces of Tom Riddle himself having been completely eliminated when Harry was much younger, never recorporealized. Inequitable aspects of wizarding Britain, many established in canon, are critically examined.

Re. vilified protagonists-in-canon, hmm, let's see:
* Ron Weasley (here thoroughly unpleasant — entitled and stubbornly clueless),
* Ginny Weasley (here unpleasant and unstable, plus tainted by her contact with dark magic), and
* Percy Weasley, too, is a lot worse than just annoying (offstage 'til near the end, but a player in the Ministry pureblood agenda, a guiding force in Ron and Ginny's failed attempts to use and manipulate Harry and/or Hermione — usually a role given to Molly, who isn't bashed in this epic, but is scarcely on-scene),
* Cho Chang (unfaithful by nature, and aiding and abetting her Death Eater parents),
* Viktor Krum (an entitled outright rapist and attempted rapist), and
** as mentioned before, the Grangers are abusive, selfish, and anti-witchcraft religious fanatics.
Did I miss any?
Oh, to a lesser degree of bashing, Fleur Delacour had a negative, jealous attitude toward Hermione while at Hogwarts for the 3WT, but that's remedied later.

Draco is a likable character here, otoh, chief among several non-Gryffindor secondary and minor student protagonists. This Dumbledore greatly regrets and tries to atone for having abandoned Harry to his even-worse-than-in-canon relatives; although Sirius got out of prison and got his son-by-blood-adoption back much sooner, toddler Harry still nearly died. Snape is not a major character, but his role is not as an antagonist.

Oh, btw, I included the LGBTQ shelf, because bisexual Sirius's longtime main partner is male, an important person in Harry's life, though they're only in an open relationship — for various reasons, one of which comes to a head further along. Also, Sirius was in a committed triad relationship with James and Lily, though that's not generally known, making his loss even greater. Other minor queer pairings, actual and hypothetical, are mentioned or appear.

There are a number of excellent OCs (and fleshed-out canon names), among them humans (and a Veela), house elves (I do love fics that do clever things with the lore of house elf bonds!), goblins, and familiars — the latter mainly reptilian (including a couple unusual sorts) given Harry's magical power/ orientation (huh, the blurb doesn't include that he's a trained Parselmage — and an animagus!), so maybe my rec at the top should've said, "...unless you love the youngest Weasleys or hate snakes"!

Btw, one rather icky thing they find out about Nagini, Voldemort's ~pet~ magical pit viper (at least, that's her species here; neither book nor movie canon is clear), with nasty but cleverly-thought consequences, made me wish for a little greater personal clarity on whether intelligent (sentient) familiar ~animals~ count as people (sapient) the way elves and centaurs do, and how much free will most have. Now that I know of Nagini's canon origins — though I believe this fic's original writing (when the author was much younger and, in her words, "sappy" re. the romantic element) wholly preceded that dark addition from Fantastic Beasts (??) — the icky questions would be slightly different, but no fewer!

There is the full range of emotions, from plenty of laughter, family, banter, snark, and friendship, to romance (obviously), with its natural worries and awkward moments, and gradually increasing sexual content, to not-glossed-over lasting effects of several painful backstories, plus horror at dark deeds suffered by others, and the aforementioned politicosocial conscience. Overall, though, it's a hopeful fic, not a depressing one.

The biggest climax (of the will-Harry-survive-this-time sort) is emotionally, brilliantly, and dramatically resolved in part 25, with several other threads addressed in the final parts, including a trial, several vows and alliances, and one more Harry-Potter-factor dramatic confrontation.

However, there are still several threads (of varying significance) left dangling, such as Draco and Daphne Greengrass's relationship, and Harry's scheme on behalf of Britain's house elves. Ms. Marcos had originally planned additional "seasons", which I would have happily read, but she's firmly in "Don't bug me about this 'verse!" territory now.

The SPaG/ editing quality is pretty good, though there are some word errors (I particularly recall "undulated" in place of "inundated" near the end 😖 [2/2024 note: Did that get fixed? I didn't notice it this time!]) and places where a [small] word or italicization was missing, added, or out of place, but I don't recall ever having felt truly confused. Even on the various occasions when the wording issue involved the presence or absence of a negative, e.g., "I don’t know that I’d ever be able to stop myself from not responding to a threat where Harry is concerned." (emphasis mine), the context made the intention clear.

Content warnings for the alluded-to past child abuse, violence against a child, discussion of past rape, discussion of ritual sacrifice of a minor (once explicit), discussion of canonical inbreeding, explicit sexual content between teenagers, discussion of non-consensual voyeurism, "adult" language both sexual and angry (plus general saltiness), protagonists with ruthless attitudes re. justice and the defense of their loved ones and/or the innocent up to and including the deaths of antagonists, and probably more I've forgotten to list. (Ms. Marcos also warned for "ritual magic" even on

Given its length, I waffled over including this in my Keira Marcos reread binge, but I'm glad I finally did... though as you can see, I took my time, mainly reading an episode or two at a time, interspersed with other tasks incl. other fics — just call me Diagnosably Distractable Diane!

One of these days I really am going to try my own hand at making it a cover, btw. That's an impulse I usually only feel so strongly when no-one else has done so, but there's a serious lack of reptiles in the art currently extant!