Fan works you could recommend to your great-grandfather without having to explain
A list of works you could recommend to your great-grandfather without embarrassment and that don't require being a fan. A reader doesn't have to have ever heard of the series/movie/book to appreciate these. They don't plod, they're not a poorly-explained snarl of canon agendas. If the story is a romance it's obvious that it's going to be one and between which sexes.
(Don't forget to click the "Works" and "Bookmarks" buttons to see the full list.)
(Open, Unmoderated)
Random works
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Summary
When Harry's aunt and uncle die, he is sent to Hogwarts, to live with his only remaining relative, Severus Snape. There he discovers a mysterious secret garden that has been locked for ten years. Why? And what is that strange crying he hears in the night?
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The Dursleys have no choice to take six-year-old Harry with them on vacation to the seaside. He decides he wants to be a sailor and runs away to sea.
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Returning for her Eighth Year at Hogwarts, Hermione Granger discovers the school itself has different plans for her.
Series
- Part 1 of Aos sí
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No, Dumbledore did not use a picture of Severus Snape to teach little two year old Harry to call the man 'Da.' That is a ridiculous accusation and it will not be stood for!
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 5,271
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 8
- Comments:
- 286
- Kudos:
- 5,205
- Bookmarks:
- 1,350
- Hits:
- 34,887
Bookmarked by PencilMarathon
10 Jul 2024
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Twenty-two-year-old Snape heard where the Potter child had been placed, made a welfare check, disliked what he found, and laid it squarely on Dumbledore's desk. A good general adapts his plans to evolving circumstances.
Frequent spelling errors. Slow first page.
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::::A Mini Sequel to 169:::: Remus is the DADA Professor at Hogwarts in 1993. Of course, there are no Dementors or wrongly imprisoned Azkaban escapees threatening the school. But even without the Boy-Who-Lived's baggage endangering lives, Hogwarts still seems to attract danger. Someone wants Remus dead, and they are willing to put the whole school at risk to do it.
Series
- Part 3 of The 169-verse
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 60,546
- Chapters:
- 15/15
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 74
- Kudos:
- 574
- Bookmarks:
- 107
- Hits:
- 15,836
Bookmarked by PencilMarathon
13 Aug 2026
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Grammatical and spelling errors. Some loose ends are never explained.
(Bookmarked because can't be invited to a collection.)
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Summary
On a holiday she never wanted to take, Zoë finds herself investigating a mysterious death.
Series
- Part 2 of Holiday Jobs
Bookmarked by PencilMarathon
01 Nov 2025
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No need to be familiar with Doctor Who or its characters (except for the epilogue, which adds nothing to the story).
(Bookmarked because can't be invited to a collection.)
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A long AU splitting off after Fractures. Following an abortive attack on Scorpius, John, Chiana, Jool, and Aeryn end up in the hands of an isolationist, militaristic species which isn't at all sure what to do with them. And then things get complicated...
Series
- Part 1 of Elite
Bookmarked by PencilMarathon
29 Nov 2022
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Season 3. Very wordy but fun adventure in a long-lost asteroid base. Idiosyncratic punctuation.
Readers who will like it best are probably superficially or not at all acquainted with Farscape. The Farscape main characters don't enter the spotlight for quite some time.
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Lying in hospital after the Battle of Hogwarts, Remus Lupin has a lovely lucid dream that he's gone back to his school days at Hogwarts. Only the day passes, then another, and another, and soon he must face the terrifying possibility that it isn't a dream — that he has irreparably altered the events of the past.
Please be advised, this one contains Adult Themes. Just, not so much in the fun flirty way, more in the midlife existential crisis way.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 120,253
- Chapters:
- 33/33
- Comments:
- 1,056
- Kudos:
- 3,408
- Bookmarks:
- 989
- Hits:
- 87,585
Bookmarked by PencilMarathon
26 Feb 2024
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Bittersweet. An adult finds himself back in wizarding school in the late 1970s, among teenagers beginning to plan their lives unaware that their paths have already been laid.
No need to be acquainted with the Harry Potter series to enjoy the story, although it would have deeper resonance. It does help to be widely read in common fanfic characteristics. I love the story and the events and remember them fondly, but in between it tends to wallow, so I kept skipping sections, which gives me a distorted memory of how "good" it is. Rough in the first three chapters, but as the plot develops it settles down. Some anachronisms, probably unintentional.