Title: The Best Revenge by Arsinoe de Blassenville
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: essentially gen (with het in the latter half and Snape/Burbage (i.e. het) in the sequel)
Categories: action, AU, drama, friendship, humor
Length: Super!Epic (~220,000 words)
Warnings: not for fans of Dumbledore (and, to a lesser extent, Ron); ETA: both Dumbledore and Ron are vastly improved in the sequel

Author on LJ: n/a
Website: http://sites.google.com/site/ceindrych/

Review:
When Snape happens to see that Harry Potter's address is "Cupboard Under the Stairs" at Privet Drive, he decides to investigate. What he finds changes everything.

There are a lot of great reasons to read this fic -- the writing is superb, the pacing is excellent, and all of the characterizations (especially of the non-Gryffindors/Slytherins, who usually don't get much screentime in fanfic) are brilliant -- but for me the number one draw is Happy!Harry. Unlike nearly every other HP fic I've read (including canon), Harry is genuinely, unabashedly happy in this story, just as a kid his age should be. Which isn't something most authors could pull off without the resulting story being boring, but Arsinoe manages to not only make it work but to also speed up canon events thanks to nearly everyone (including most of the Hogwarts professors, who are all awesome) behaving intelligently (though be warned that while Dumbledore isn't evil, he's not very likeable either). Even better is the way that the author (who has children) manages to portray the eleven-year-old children *as children*, which is nearly a miracle in fanfic. Heck, I'm so impressed with the author that I even enjoyed her author's notes (something that I've never said before and will probably never say again).

In short, if you're in the mood for a long, relaxed novel featuring Harry actually being happy; (at least some members of) all four Houses working together; Snape being a good, supportive guardian (without melodrama); and brilliant characterizations for nearly every named character in the HP canon, this is the fic for you.

ETA: Just after I wrote this rec up, the author finished the sequel, adding another 100,000 words to the universe. The author's philosophy for the second story seems to have been "What if Tom Riddle and the teachers at Hogwarts had behaved at all intelligently?" Thus she manages to wrap up most of the events of the rest of the six books while Harry's still in his first year of school. There are a few loose ends left hanging, but despite those the end result is a much faster story than the first one and a very, very satisfying read (especially the end). I'd recommend setting a weekend aside and reading one after the other.

The Best Revenge
The Best Revenge - Time of the Basilisk