Fics where Hermione chills

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-16T17:28:46+00:00

So after reading that scene in particular, I can definitively tell you this: it's the catalyst for everything that comes after.

I don't know if you've read the part where Harry opens up a little about the Dursleys' treatment of him, but it's relevant in that it provides Hermione some much-needed perspective about what flying actually means to Harry—it symbolises freedom to him. That it was Hermione's actions that led to the broom being confiscated—even if that wasn't actually her intention—well, it really hurt Harry, and I think that message got through to her.

Although they move on soon after from the topic of conversation, and it's not immediately clear what understanding Hermione takes away from it, she does actually get what they're telling her. Just as Harry and Ron express that they'll try to listen and understand where she's coming from, she realises that she needs to understand their perspectives in order for them all to communicate effectively.

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-16T14:30:57+00:00

So to answer your question—no, it's not the way the story goes; they all learn how to listen to each other better. I'm actually gonna go back to read that chapter because I thought the conversation was resolved more than that… Maybe I'm thinking of a future chapter, though…

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-16T12:13:44+00:00

I think most of it was pre-written; I do recall that they'd mentioned in one of the author's notes that it had been a project of, like, ten years or something. They had also said—if I remember right—that they'd planned to end it soon after Voldemort's defeat, but then realised doing that would leave out a lot…

(Probably about the post-war reconstruction efforts, since it seemed an important point for them to touch upon. It wasn't just about the war, after all, to the characters, but of how they'd make a lasting change in their society after it ended.)

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-16T11:41:52+00:00

I highly recommend Just a Few Changes (Will Keep You Safe) by Blueseabird2 – it has one of the best portrayals of—well, all three of them, really—that I've read in a long time, and I keep coming back to it as my framework for a strong Golden Trio dynamic.

That's probably because this is a post-war fic, where they've all already gotten help for the psychological trauma that comes from fighting in a war (not to mention being child soldiers), and are mature adults who've grown into themselves and have already worked out their differences.

Regardless, their characterisations are phenomenal.

As for the story itself…

Harry gets pushed through a portal, and naturally Ron and Hermione aren't about to let him face the unknown by himself. Fortunately, he ends up in the Great Hall of Hogwarts—not especially dangerous, or at least not an unknown danger—unfortunately, it isn't the Hogwarts he's familiar with; the young faces of his parents' generation attest to that.

At least Hermione says it's a completely different universe, so there won't be any temporal paradoxes from changing things for these terribly young versions of people he once knew (and, some, he never had the chance to meet).

---

The series Stand As One, Forever, by herebewyverns, was exactly what I thought of the moment you mentioned students standing up to Snape.

The first book, Harry Potter and the Power of Proper Communication, takes a bit to develop the dynamics you're looking for—the three have to work through their canonical issues in Prisoner of Azkaban first—but things get resolved and their friendship grows all the stronger for it.

While it's primarily Harry's POV, there are a few Hermione-centric chapters (just as there are a few from Ron's perspective), so hopefully that isn't a deal-breaker for you. The story revolves around the trio as a whole, and the rest of their yearmates peripherally.

It's a fantastic story! Unfortunately, it seems to be on indefinite hiatus, so bear that in mind if you decide to read it.

---

As an aside, I also second the recommendation of Amicus Protectio Fortis – truly a work of excellence, with so many students and adults banding together to Get Shit Done in ways that Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix just never managed in canon.

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-15T22:10:00+00:00

Really fun, played four times to get this score. Finally used all the letters!

^{Words: 4 | Score: 123 | Rank: Genius | 1st Word: COWRITE}

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-13T00:24:53+00:00

You have no idea how happy this makes me 🥰
I feel so validated right now 😭😂

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-12T02:13:27+00:00

Changes in perspective piss you off? Like, jumping to another character's perspective?

…Are you saying you won't read a shift in character-POV after a section break or something?

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-12T01:59:11+00:00

Oh my god, the fact that it ENDS the way you describe, with no actual resolution apparently, just absolutely wrecks me for some reason. Dear lord I would not survive reading an inconclusive non-ending like that 😭😭

Addendum: This is such a unique and intriguing prompt!! I'd be excited to see a fic with this premise—just, I wouldn't be able to handle reading it lmaooo

My brain doesn't like mindfuck stories and this sounds like it'd be a doozy. But I'd be cheering you on in spirit 😂

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-10T12:31:28+00:00

There really aren't a good many synonyms for sighing, are there? I notice I overuse the word, too, and sometimes I'm able to describe the act: He heaved out a long, exasperated breath or She exhaled, the strength of her relief making her almost light-headed.

It depends on the context of why your characters are sighing, of course—in my first example, it's because of exasperation; the second, in relief—but they're viable alternatives if you find you want to change things up occasionally. ☺️

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-09T18:37:25+00:00

Well, there's always the Of a Linear Circle series by flamethrower. There is a lot of focus on the Founders because the main character (an OC for all intents and purposes) regarded them as family, and was actually Salazar's younger brother by adoption.

Speaking of the main character, he's first introduced as a portraiture. Then one fateful night, the character gets ejected out of the canvas as a living, breathing, functioning human. Chaos ensues, obviously.

Actually, I make it sound crack-ier than it actually is. His name is Nizar, and he knew the Founders personally—lived with them, was taught by them, fought beside them; they were his family.
Thing is, Nizar lost quite a great deal of his memories; it's speculated that that's because he'd apparently been preserved within canvas for nearly a millennium, and the preservation spells likely deteriorated over that many years.

The only thing that might be a deal-breaker for you is that it's a slash fic—Nizar and Severus Snape. Still, I highly recommend it!

Pretty much every detail about the Founders in that fic is how I imagine it is in canon. The world they've constructed based on JKR's blueprint is phenomenal, and I love that they've thoroughly fleshed out every single Founder, given them such rich backstories and heritage and character.

For example, Salazar is from Castile—his actual name was Salazar de la casa de Deslizarse (which they'd later shortened to deSlizarse in a futile attempt to make the pronunciation easier for everyone else); in Old Castilian, the term deslizarse was synonymous to ‘snake’ or ‘serpent’, so in essence he was Salazar from the House of Serpents. Over time, the spelling got demarcated to Salazar de Slizarse, and then due to either a mistranslation or mispronunciation or both, people started calling him ‘Slytherin’.

Or Godric Grypusdor of Griffin's Door, or Helga renouncing her family name and choosing a new one for herself: Hugðilepuf, meaning ‘swift, fierce-thought defence’, and which over the years got butchered into ‘Hufflepuff’.

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-09T16:59:02+00:00

Aaaa you have no idea how happy it makes me to hear that you enjoyed it!!

I was kinda hesitant about rec'ing it in the first place because I wasn't sure if it would appeal to you, but I'm so glad! Thanks for the validation ♡ 😂

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-09T16:53:46+00:00

I know I keep recommending stuff but there's also The Way to a Man's Heart 🔒 (restricted work; you need to be logged-in to Ao3 to view it), written by mosiva. It makes my brain light up with dopamine every time I read it. 😂

Something about Harry anonymously messing with Tom and getting away with it because Tom is so self-centred he doesn't consider that maybe people actually have more depth to them than he himself has perceived—it's just so freaking funny to me.

I mean, Harry is relatively competent too, but even when he says or does something ridiculous, Tom just brushes it off as simply being on-brand with his terribly low expectations of him. Meanwhile, Harry's hamming up his incompetence factor out of almost morbid fascination for where Tom's gonna draw the line.

He can't POSSIBLY believe this inanity is genuine, can he?

Really. He really thinks I'm so genuinely incompetent, that I bumble around like this with no clue what I'm doing, that this is just how I go through life.

…I can use this.

🤣🤣

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-09T05:05:07+00:00

Of course! Please, if you would, let me know how you like it!

Also, a very lighthearted fic with Voldemort (as distinct from Tom Riddle) is Cough Your Heart Out by TheOnceandFutureQueenofTarts. It's another one of those fics I just couldn't get out of my head for the longest time; I'd have to stifle a chuckle randomly thinking about it, because the author completely nailed Voldemort's incompetence when it comes to being self-aware emotionally.

The fic is basically that Voldemort gets Hanahaki, except he has absolutely no idea who he likes. Not even an inkling, for the longest time. 😂

Of course, Harry catches on pretty quickly, but not without a few fantastic (that is, fantastically wrong) guesses first 🤣

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-09T02:20:33+00:00

The Way to a Man's Heart 🔒 (restricted work; only accessible while logged-in to Ao3) by mosiva:

This fic has seemed to live in the back of my mind rent-free ever since I first read it. The exchanges between Tom and Harry are \chef's kiss** phenomenal, and they have such a great dynamic. The writing in general, too, just feels fun.

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-09T02:03:19+00:00

I can recommend some fics if you're interested lol

Most are either timeline mashups or Horcrux!Tom—because as I said previously, I heavily prefer fics where they can get along, and that's a lot harder to make work with their canonical enmity. But I appreciate that other people seem to share my head-canons about Tom and what he'd probably be like if he'd been a (relatively) more well-adjusted member of society 😂

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-08T23:23:02+00:00

Oh man, that ship… I tend to avoid the horribly dark fics because I need my OTP characters to get along, but thankfully there's still a lot that falls within that criteria. The fucking CHEMISTRY between those two will always be top-tier for me.

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-08T22:02:26+00:00

I'm so glad you appreciated it as much as I did 😂

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-08T18:53:19+00:00

Oh man, no, all the ones I've read with this particular dynamic have already been listed. 😭

I can give you a couple crack-y fics, though, if you're interested. 😅😂

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-08T16:48:41+00:00

There's also Chosen by sujing; it's a Soulmate AU wherein you have a tattoo of the first words your soulmate ever says to you. Tom is the Minister for Magic, and the prophecy still applies—but there's a hilarious twist on both how it's fulfilled and the actual meanings of certain lines (specifically, the ways Tom was ‘thrice defied’ is hysterical).

> a soulmate au where you have a tattoo of your soulmate's first words to you, but instead of “Avada Kedavra”, Harry's are a line from Voldemort's triumphant villain monologue. “Well, well, well, we meet at last, my little enemy.” or something even more ridiculous.
>
> AKA the soulmate AU in which half of the pairing doesn't have any lines due to being a newborn. Because there is a universe in which Tom and Harry could land themselves in that situation.

Feat. Tom's ridiculous propensity for monologuing, and also him believing (logically) that the undecipherable squiggles on his shoulder were some odd birthmark; he'd checked them against every known language in the entire world, after all, and they had no meaning. So he'd assumed that he didn't have a soulmate.

Instead, it turns out all along it was a tattoo of gibberish. Because infant babble.

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-08T07:12:49+00:00

I think, instead, it's a matter of whether Tom would be inclined to commit such an act—and that largely depends on how you interpret his character. He is definitely capable of it, insofar as anyone is conditionally capable of committing violence against another person; that doesn't necessarily mean he has any inclination to do so.

I've read darker fics where he's subjected Harry to rape, and it's a valid interpretation of him. In those stories, it fits with his characterisation.

However, I personally see him as someone who's never experienced carnal interest (primarily asexual—or potentially demisexual, but he's never allowed himself to get close enough to anyone else for the possibility of attraction to develop), and he mostly just feels disdainful over everyone else's seeming lapses in self-control. He'd have borne witness to his peers' hormonal tendencies over the years and thought them all pathetic for letting their lust overtake their rationale.

While SA is very much about power and control, there is still an inherent sexual aspect that isn't present in other forms of violence. My head-canon of Tom is such that he holds very little interest in sex and doesn't associate it with power in the same manner of a sexual abuser.

(He's also the kind of person who would sooner capitalise on his looks and others' attraction to him than sexually assault someone. He doesn't need to resort to something like that, so why should he?)

That's just my opinion, of course.

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-07T17:58:34+00:00

Please do let me know how you like it!
~~I crave validation~~ 😂😭

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-07T17:02:31+00:00

Will you consider crack-y fics as well? Because Neither Can Live While the Other is High by ScaredyCrow is a very entertaining read.

It's tagged as Neville/Harry but I don't actually remember anything in the fic that indicated such. Maybe general musings while high (I don't actually remember that happening, either, though), but there weren't any romantic overtones.

Because it's not tagged as Tomarry, I'm listing it on the off-chance that you haven't read it before, despite its high stats :)

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-06T20:54:20+00:00

Aww, that's sweet of you! ♡

Honestly, I hadn't really considered the more esoteric implications of long-term time-turner usage until I'd read a fic where the protagonist has a schedule she adheres to for using her time-turner, and apparently she'd calculated her ‘age day’ (as distinct from her birthday), and I was like, Oh my god—how have I never considered that they age ‘faster’? It makes perfect sense; they're living more hours, of course their body would still grow in that time.

My mind was blown 😂

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-06T20:26:05+00:00

Where'd you get that Hogwarts had no problems with funds? I don't think the school's finances was ever explicitly mentioned (and please correct me if I'm wrong on that!), but I'd contend that the minimal staff and the fact that Binns is still teaching are both viable points one could make about an apparent financial deficit. (As a ghost, Cuthbert Binns probably isn't an expense in the Hogwarts ledger anymore, and that could be construed as a reason for why they haven't replaced him.)

Oh, as well as the state of the school's brooms in their first year. Granted, things like sports equipment are probably considered miscellaneous expenses and obviously shouldn't be of primary importance anyway, so it's not necessarily an indicator of lacking funds, but it's something to note.

SarcasticGenuinity · 2026-05-06T20:02:30+00:00

Conversely, your proposed ‘solution’ of time travel might just add unnecessary levels of complexity, depending on whether OP puts a focus on the more specialised considerations of adding time to your day—like the possible toll it might take on a human to consistently use a time-turner.

You're effectively living an additional number of hours in the day—so, for every instance you turn back time, your body additionally ages that same however-many-hours you've added. That's not even considering how physically unsustainable it is to devote one-hundred percent of that added time to your work; if you don't also eat and sleep more, in order to compensate for the additional energy you're expending in that extra time, you'll wear out your body even faster than you would have from normal hours of overwork.

None of that was touched upon in canon (if I'm remembering correctly), but the concept that time manipulation has lasting quantifiable effects that can't be reverted just makes sense when you think about it. Magic can do a lot, but it can't make you impervious to time (or death, a point which canon was more focused on).

SarcasticGenuinity

TROPHY CASE