Title: Misspelled
Fandom: Supernatural RPF
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Categories: AU, humour, urban fantasy, magical accident, romance.
Length: Medium (9,000 words)
Warnings: None

Author on LJ: cleflink
Author on AO3: cleflink

Summary:
Jensen's not sure what he did to deserve getting magically bungee-corded to the most inept witch he's ever met, but he's more than willing to start apologizing if it'll get Jared off his back. Pretty literally, in fact.

Review:
I felt like something light and fluffy this week, and J2 fandom provided. This is an entertaining little tale that throws us in at the deep end by starting with a furious Jensen finding himself stuck to his kitchen wall as if gravity had just turned sideways. It turns out that this is because Jared, a co-worker he vaguely recognises, botched a spell. Which, apparently, is nothing new.

This story seems to go in for the iceberg principle of world-building. Setting up a convincing world with functioning, publicly known magic takes a bit of doing, even at this short length, and it's done largely by omission. Things that we done need to know aren't mentioned, and things that we do need are sketched in just enough to let our imaginations fill in the details. We know that Jensen and Jarod work office jobs, for example, and we even see Jensen at work, but the story never bothers to say exactly what their company does.

The same sparseness applies to the supporting cast. Only Misha gets anything like the screen time of Jared and Jensen, and he has the advantage of being a purple cat. Don't ask, just trust me that the characterisation is still great. The others only appear for their brief scenes, but still manage to be well-rounded parts in that time. We don't even get to see Chad, just hear Jared arguing with him on the other end of a phone line.

It's short and it's sweet, and it was a good thing to come across. Go, enjoy it yourselves.

Misspelled

Title: Azoth
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Harry/Draco, background Hermione/Millicent & Ron/Lavender
Categories: Romance, drama, angst, first time
Length: Epic (88,720)
Warnings: References to canonical major character death

Author on LJ: zeitgeistic
Author Website: zeitgeistic

Author's Summary:
Now that Harry is back at Hogwarts with Hermione for eighth year, he realises that something’s missing from his life, and it either has to do with Ron, his boggart, Snape, or Malfoy. Furthermore, what, exactly, does it mean when one’s life is defined by the desire to simultaneously impress and annoy a portrait? Harry has no idea; he’s too busy trying not to be in love with Malfoy to care.

Review:
There are so many things to love about this story. Eighth Year is a new beginning for Harry, an opportunity for him to begin to live a life outside the shadow of the Dark Lord. He starts to find out who he really is, and it is this self-discovery that leads to him making an unconventional choice of career. He first makes this decision out of stubbornness and a desire to tweak Snape's nose, but with time he finds that he is perfectly suited to being a Potions Master.

His journey from being second only to Neville in potions failure to Snape's apprentice occurs alongside an evolution of Harry's character that feels very natural; he finds an understanding of himself and a love of the mutable, artistic nature of potions-making. Harry also finds himself growing up and growing apart from Ron, and he wonders at the fact that Draco so easily fills the spot left by his childhood best friend -- only to realize that Draco is more to him than he could ever have imagined.

The author did a brilliant job depicting Harry's growing understanding of and skill in making potions, and the alchemical work he does with Draco was extremely well-developed. The characterizations were simply excellent all around, with Hermione as a particular favorite. And of course, the relationship between Harry and Draco evolves slowly and realistically, with just enough angst and pining to make the happy ending all the sweeter.

Really, I can't do justice to how absolutely amazing and perfect this story is. I can't recommend it enough.

Azoth