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Accidental Animagus #1
The Accidental Animagus
Fandom: Harry Potter
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Harry escapes the Dursleys with a unique bout of accidental magic and eventually winds up at the Grangers' house. Now, he has what he always wanted: a loving family, and he'll need their help to take on the magical world and vanquish the dark lord who has pursued him from birth.
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Harry escapes the Dursleys with a unique bout of accidental magic and eventually winds up at the Grangers' house. Now, he has what he always wanted: a loving family, and he'll need their help to take on the magical world and vanquish the dark lord who has pursued him from birth.
2789 pages, ebook
First published July 30, 2016
11 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 14, 2019
3.5 stars.
White Squirrel is my favorite fanfiction writer. This book just confirms it. While I like Arithmancerverse a whole lot more,( it is my favorite set of fanfictions ever) The Accidental Animagus is pretty good too. It has a lot of flaws, and it is not as solid as The Arithmancer, but if you don't compare them, Animagus is fun to read, with believable reactions and a smart plot.
I recommend it to HP Fanfiction fans who expect a good read.
White Squirrel is my favorite fanfiction writer. This book just confirms it. While I like Arithmancerverse a whole lot more,( it is my favorite set of fanfictions ever) The Accidental Animagus is pretty good too. It has a lot of flaws, and it is not as solid as The Arithmancer, but if you don't compare them, Animagus is fun to read, with believable reactions and a smart plot.
I recommend it to HP Fanfiction fans who expect a good read.
December 17, 2023
Long review of a LOOONG, and excellent, fic a-coming!
12/12/'23: I've just finished chapter 41 (the end of their first year at Hogwarts), and am pausing to say how much I'm enjoying this story. The characters are fully developed, including both Harry and Hermione having unique strengths and weaknesses (not unbelievably beyond their years), and an excellent sibling dynamic.
The Grangers, having found out about magic six years before the kids will be going to Hogwarts, make sure to truly inform themselves, and do their best to see not only Harry but Hermione, too, as prepared as possible to defend themselves, not taking No from already-proved-fallible Dumbledore, and enlisting aid from both McGonagall 😼 and Andromeda Tonks.
Sirius is cleared, obviously sooner, and in a way that uses the clever story premise well.
Dumbledore is not quite as tunnel-visioned a manipulator, but still has lessons to learn (once never being enough to truly change that man!) about secrecy and not always knowing as much as he thinks he does.
Slytherin is not entirely a monolith, and there is some interesting political maneuvering, where even young Harry reluctantly does his part as his values demand, wixen Britain being drastically in need of more legal acknowledgment of human/sentient rights.
This Quirrell's classes were an intriguing, unpredictable mix, including not underestimating Muggle invention.
... And already still more I'm forgetting to mention, involving a mix of kids and adults, including Muggles and Muggle-raised whose unexpected perspectives, approaches, and insights not-infrequently catch off guard those more limited than they realize by wixen "small town" (Good observation, author!) assumptions.
I may be biased, since I — albeit a mere "cat person", not a cat-person myself, of course — do sometimes express affection with headrubs or upset with quiet mewls, but I like the mainly-subtle (at least to those who don't know him well) ways in which Harry's instincts lead him toward certain reactions or away from others.
Btw, I'm disinclined to shelve this epic for every element it includes, e.g., Sirius's belated and efficiently brief trial, which is just part of one chapter out of so many. Even the "kidfic" portion, which for HP means to me their pre-Hogwarts years, is only about 10%.
**********
Year 2:
Cheers for an actual duelling club.
I like how it's shaping up with Luna; she doesn't deserve to keep having her stuff taken.
Ooh, it makes sense that what happens to Mrs. Norris is particularly terrifying for Harry. 🙀
Since we readers already know canon, Tom's manipulative interactions with Ginny are shown, and they're well done.
~~I'd better not just keep jotting as I go along, since I can't really tell what'd be too far in.~~
....
Okay, I loved the twists of this climax even more than "Book 1"'s, and appreciate how consideration was given afterward to others also affected by Tom's deeds.
Oh, one minor thing I hadn't mentioned yet: the "disclaimers" on all the chapters so far are each-one-different SF/F allusions, e.g., "All your base are belong to JK Rowling." (I must admit I don't recognize all of them, but a number have made me grin ... though, UPDATE, I think I'm recognizing fewer as the author has to range farther for sources.)
**********
Year 3:
The canon scare-stories of escaped "serial killer" Sirius Black naturally aren't happening, but they're cleverly replaced by the true danger of Fenrir Greyback, vengeful over Umb*tch's new, even-harsher proposed restrictions on werewolves in magical Britain — a proposal which the protags are of course working against through legal means, despite even some friends having anti-werewolf bias.
Remus, however, has better sense here than to have even considered accepting a still-cursed position, so a minor-OC(?) Auror is reluctantly teaching DADA and less-reluctantly coaching Duelling Club.
This year also has more international issues:
♦︎ re. Voldywraith, later Voldymonculus, and his followers,
♦︎ re. what schools might accept future werewolves if Hogwarts's board won't, and
♦︎ re. an ICW wixen twist on RL African conflicts of the day that further complicates Dumbledore's priorities.
12/16:
The action-climax is an exciting and major one, which I mustn't spoil.
Then this year in addition to the Quidditch and House Cups, the school has the Duelling Club tourney, THEN once again the year ends with a Wizengamot vote, plus bringing friend-from-the-start Neville in on their biggest secret.
Btw, I do like the sensible way White Squirrel has been having the main protags dealing with secrets: first, to protect themselves and those secrets, learning the mental discipline of Occlumency, but not accepting too much sheltering of anyone from truths that likely concern them. In the intriguing headcanon adopted here (IIRC, White Squirrel credited Fang's Fawn for the idea, though it was in a work that was not completed, and which has since been removed from the web except in a translation), Occlumency is not actually magic, which brings in Her Muggle Majesty's Royal Court Magician as a well-practiced instructor, thereby also making HRH aware how much Fudge had NOT been keeping her and the PM informed of!
Still an easy 4★ from me — though, not having grown up in the UK, the repeated mentions of Doctor Who fan-frustration get to be a smidge much, despite my liking the (here not-yet-revived) show.
**********
Year 4 — twice as many chapters as 2nd or 3rd Year, I notice to begin with! :
The Dark Lord terrorizing Africa is defeated early, in the first couple chapters of the summer. (The Author's Note points out that the plot here diverges from history, though I couldn't tell you the RL specifics it replaces.) A powerful, widely learned, and ethical Australian OC who's had several minor PoV scenes before now meets the would-be-dictator alongside Dumbledore, using an interesting music-based magical tradition.
It's not a big scene or change, but the Muggle Prime Minister insists on involvement in organizing the prep for the Quidditch World Cup. Local non-magical authorities clearly ought to be consulted wherever that huge, annual, international influx takes place!
Harry and his kith and kin make sensible choices when the post-game attack happens.
Moldy Voldy's circle now includes a deadly, fascinating ally who cannot at all be called a "follower", as well as a few other changes of personnel and/or plans, but their goal at this point is unchanged. Harry at least has already learned the method needed to combat his ~clairvoyant~ nightmares.
Oh, I just realized I hadn't yet mentioned another world-building element that has been emphasized here since Harry & Hermione entered Hogwarts: the haunting effect of the war on British wixen birthrates. Well, this year, there are many more firsties than in the previous several years, the victory-celebration baby-boom kids.
Harry & co. continue supporting the rights of law-abiding werewolves, *SPOILER FOR YEAR 3*
On the academic front, there's a cool firsthand-sources concept being put into play to replace "Nap Time with the Late (and senile) Prof. Binns". (This theme was previously implemented re. recovered original tales dramatized on the wixen stage, to influence mainly adult public opinion. I'm not sure now which year this mention properly belongs in.) As I type this I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. UPDATE: Definitely some surprises for the purebloods re. pre-witch-hunts (i.e., pre-Statute-of-Secrecy) affiliations not discussed in the current textbook! It's cool to watch Draco be forced to examine so many of his assumptions.
The aforementioned "songline" grandmaster wizard is also a fascinating visiting lecturer, so more than just determined early-starters Harry and Hermione and a few [younger] [Muggleborns] they've inspired begin learning wandless magic.
One fun diversion not begun until we're already approaching the end is Harry deciding to do something about the glaring (to Muggleborns) scarcity of wixen options for exciting athletic games other than Quidditch. He recruits multi-House help to invent something new, something which doesn't require whole teams to play properly.
~
The setup for the [Tri]wizard Tournament is altered and supplemented to create an at least somewhat more participatory — and less life-threatening! — experience for all three schools involved.
The first two tasks are quite different, while still keeping the themes of "get X from creatures" and "riddle-&-rescue".
ANOTHER thing I'd somehow omitted 'til now 🤦 /o\ is that the Grangers met and became friends with the Delacours a couple summers ago, which naturally changes Fleur's initial reaction to the fourth name drawn. They also become cordially acquainted with Viktor at the World Cup.
I must point out that this story does NOT go in for the other schools' frankly ridiculous (especially Beauxbatons's) sexist-gender-roles enrollment and introductory displays as created for the movie. They are not all-girls and all-boys schools in the book!
Additionally, the "fourth school" concept is more strongly emphasized, to lessen the two-from-Hogwarts aspect and its attendant resentment.
However, the often-critical attention on supposedly "attention-seeking" Harry is increased for a while by the long-in-the-works publication of his first attempt to set the record more or less straight re. his "adventures", with all the safe-to-tell details of his first year.
(Tbh, it sounds like a narrative that no longer even holds together very well, in the version Dumbledore approved, but eh... I hope there's at least a preface acknowledging that some things had to be redacted, and I hope they hung on to the complete version, for release someday when all the secrets are already out.)
I thought about it, but decided not to discuss (read: spoil) the pairings, including several dates for the Yule Ball. I'm also not shelving it as any sort of romance, because those mainly-tentative, youthful beginnings are, again, just a few more threads among many. The "book" is not "a romance".
....
Now I have to decide what I can say about the climax and denouement. It's definitely satisfying; no question I'm sticking with 4★. It offers some original twists. However, since anyone who's read more than a couple of my reviews knows I prefer happy endings, I feel I have to disclose that I like TAA despite its having a bittersweet ending. Not every grief can be avoided, though certain timings, means, etc., are changed.
I'm not shelving this as a "fixit", though along the way many parts of Harry's life are clearly greatly improved. I think it's pretty obvious from the title of the not-yet-complete sequel, Animagus at War, that this volume doesn't end in a final, definitive victory.
********************
N.b., I started reading at fanfiction.net/s/9863146/88/The-Accid... but it very belatedly occurred to me (only after I'd manually PDFed too many individual chapters, checking each time for lines lost at the page-breaks and redoing as necessary 🤦😖 — I still can't figure out what makes the difference!) to check on my preferred AO3, and I'm delighted to report that it is there: archiveofourown.org/works/14078862/
Generally, the proofreading is good, though not perfect, especially homophone slips such as one I recall, "dually" (from dual) in place of "duly" (from due).
If you just approximated, dividing 700K by 5, that'd be about 140K per [year], but of course, as previously mentioned, they're far from equal. From the Author's Note at the top of Chapter 1, the 112 chapters (697K) actually break down as follows:
Before Hogwarts: Chapters 1-12
First Year: Chapters 13-41
Second Year: Chapters 42-61
Third Year: Chapters 62-81
Fourth Year: Chapters 82-112
Bonus Material: The World of The Accidental Animagus
Years 5[-7] in the **WiP** sequel, Animagus at War (Yes, it's still [sporadically?] active.)
Whew, this was already quite a binge (my tired eyes kind of hate me!), and it's not really over. 😉
12/12/'23: I've just finished chapter 41 (the end of their first year at Hogwarts), and am pausing to say how much I'm enjoying this story. The characters are fully developed, including both Harry and Hermione having unique strengths and weaknesses (not unbelievably beyond their years), and an excellent sibling dynamic.
The Grangers, having found out about magic six years before the kids will be going to Hogwarts, make sure to truly inform themselves, and do their best to see not only Harry but Hermione, too, as prepared as possible to defend themselves, not taking No from already-proved-fallible Dumbledore, and enlisting aid from both McGonagall 😼 and Andromeda Tonks.
Sirius is cleared, obviously sooner, and in a way that uses the clever story premise well.
Dumbledore is not quite as tunnel-visioned a manipulator, but still has lessons to learn (once never being enough to truly change that man!) about secrecy and not always knowing as much as he thinks he does.
Slytherin is not entirely a monolith, and there is some interesting political maneuvering, where even young Harry reluctantly does his part as his values demand, wixen Britain being drastically in need of more legal acknowledgment of human/sentient rights.
This Quirrell's classes were an intriguing, unpredictable mix, including not underestimating Muggle invention.
... And already still more I'm forgetting to mention, involving a mix of kids and adults, including Muggles and Muggle-raised whose unexpected perspectives, approaches, and insights not-infrequently catch off guard those more limited than they realize by wixen "small town" (Good observation, author!) assumptions.
I may be biased, since I — albeit a mere "cat person", not a cat-person myself, of course — do sometimes express affection with headrubs or upset with quiet mewls, but I like the mainly-subtle (at least to those who don't know him well) ways in which Harry's instincts lead him toward certain reactions or away from others.
Btw, I'm disinclined to shelve this epic for every element it includes, e.g., Sirius's belated and efficiently brief trial, which is just part of one chapter out of so many. Even the "kidfic" portion, which for HP means to me their pre-Hogwarts years, is only about 10%.
**********
Year 2:
Cheers for an actual duelling club.
I like how it's shaping up with Luna; she doesn't deserve to keep having her stuff taken.
Ooh, it makes sense that what happens to Mrs. Norris is particularly terrifying for Harry. 🙀
Since we readers already know canon, Tom's manipulative interactions with Ginny are shown, and they're well done.
~~I'd better not just keep jotting as I go along, since I can't really tell what'd be too far in.~~
....
Okay, I loved the twists of this climax even more than "Book 1"'s, and appreciate how consideration was given afterward to others also affected by Tom's deeds.
Oh, one minor thing I hadn't mentioned yet: the "disclaimers" on all the chapters so far are each-one-different SF/F allusions, e.g., "All your base are belong to JK Rowling." (I must admit I don't recognize all of them, but a number have made me grin ... though, UPDATE, I think I'm recognizing fewer as the author has to range farther for sources.)
**********
Year 3:
The canon scare-stories of escaped "serial killer" Sirius Black naturally aren't happening, but they're cleverly replaced by the true danger of Fenrir Greyback, vengeful over Umb*tch's new, even-harsher proposed restrictions on werewolves in magical Britain — a proposal which the protags are of course working against through legal means, despite even some friends having anti-werewolf bias.
Remus, however, has better sense here than to have even considered accepting a still-cursed position, so a minor-OC(?) Auror is reluctantly teaching DADA and less-reluctantly coaching Duelling Club.
This year also has more international issues:
♦︎ re. Voldywraith, later Voldymonculus, and his followers,
♦︎ re. what schools might accept future werewolves if Hogwarts's board won't, and
♦︎ re. an ICW wixen twist on RL African conflicts of the day that further complicates Dumbledore's priorities.
12/16:
The action-climax is an exciting and major one, which I mustn't spoil.
Then this year in addition to the Quidditch and House Cups, the school has the Duelling Club tourney, THEN once again the year ends with a Wizengamot vote, plus bringing friend-from-the-start Neville in on their biggest secret.
Btw, I do like the sensible way White Squirrel has been having the main protags dealing with secrets: first, to protect themselves and those secrets, learning the mental discipline of Occlumency, but not accepting too much sheltering of anyone from truths that likely concern them. In the intriguing headcanon adopted here (IIRC, White Squirrel credited Fang's Fawn for the idea, though it was in a work that was not completed, and which has since been removed from the web except in a translation), Occlumency is not actually magic, which brings in Her Muggle Majesty's Royal Court Magician as a well-practiced instructor, thereby also making HRH aware how much Fudge had NOT been keeping her and the PM informed of!
Still an easy 4★ from me — though, not having grown up in the UK, the repeated mentions of Doctor Who fan-frustration get to be a smidge much, despite my liking the (here not-yet-revived) show.
**********
Year 4 — twice as many chapters as 2nd or 3rd Year, I notice to begin with! :
The Dark Lord terrorizing Africa is defeated early, in the first couple chapters of the summer. (The Author's Note points out that the plot here diverges from history, though I couldn't tell you the RL specifics it replaces.) A powerful, widely learned, and ethical Australian OC who's had several minor PoV scenes before now meets the would-be-dictator alongside Dumbledore, using an interesting music-based magical tradition.
It's not a big scene or change, but the Muggle Prime Minister insists on involvement in organizing the prep for the Quidditch World Cup. Local non-magical authorities clearly ought to be consulted wherever that huge, annual, international influx takes place!
Harry and his kith and kin make sensible choices when the post-game attack happens.
Moldy Voldy's circle now includes a deadly, fascinating ally who cannot at all be called a "follower", as well as a few other changes of personnel and/or plans, but their goal at this point is unchanged. Harry at least has already learned the method needed to combat his ~clairvoyant~ nightmares.
Oh, I just realized I hadn't yet mentioned another world-building element that has been emphasized here since Harry & Hermione entered Hogwarts: the haunting effect of the war on British wixen birthrates. Well, this year, there are many more firsties than in the previous several years, the victory-celebration baby-boom kids.
Harry & co. continue supporting the rights of law-abiding werewolves, *SPOILER FOR YEAR 3*
On the academic front, there's a cool firsthand-sources concept being put into play to replace "Nap Time with the Late (and senile) Prof. Binns". (This theme was previously implemented re. recovered original tales dramatized on the wixen stage, to influence mainly adult public opinion. I'm not sure now which year this mention properly belongs in.) As I type this I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. UPDATE: Definitely some surprises for the purebloods re. pre-witch-hunts (i.e., pre-Statute-of-Secrecy) affiliations not discussed in the current textbook! It's cool to watch Draco be forced to examine so many of his assumptions.
The aforementioned "songline" grandmaster wizard is also a fascinating visiting lecturer, so more than just determined early-starters Harry and Hermione and a few [younger] [Muggleborns] they've inspired begin learning wandless magic.
One fun diversion not begun until we're already approaching the end is Harry deciding to do something about the glaring (to Muggleborns) scarcity of wixen options for exciting athletic games other than Quidditch. He recruits multi-House help to invent something new, something which doesn't require whole teams to play properly.
~
The setup for the [Tri]wizard Tournament is altered and supplemented to create an at least somewhat more participatory — and less life-threatening! — experience for all three schools involved.
The first two tasks are quite different, while still keeping the themes of "get X from creatures" and "riddle-&-rescue".
ANOTHER thing I'd somehow omitted 'til now 🤦 /o\ is that the Grangers met and became friends with the Delacours a couple summers ago, which naturally changes Fleur's initial reaction to the fourth name drawn. They also become cordially acquainted with Viktor at the World Cup.
I must point out that this story does NOT go in for the other schools' frankly ridiculous (especially Beauxbatons's) sexist-gender-roles enrollment and introductory displays as created for the movie. They are not all-girls and all-boys schools in the book!
Additionally, the "fourth school" concept is more strongly emphasized, to lessen the two-from-Hogwarts aspect and its attendant resentment.
However, the often-critical attention on supposedly "attention-seeking" Harry is increased for a while by the long-in-the-works publication of his first attempt to set the record more or less straight re. his "adventures", with all the safe-to-tell details of his first year.
(Tbh, it sounds like a narrative that no longer even holds together very well, in the version Dumbledore approved, but eh... I hope there's at least a preface acknowledging that some things had to be redacted, and I hope they hung on to the complete version, for release someday when all the secrets are already out.)
I thought about it, but decided not to discuss (read: spoil) the pairings, including several dates for the Yule Ball. I'm also not shelving it as any sort of romance, because those mainly-tentative, youthful beginnings are, again, just a few more threads among many. The "book" is not "a romance".
....
Now I have to decide what I can say about the climax and denouement. It's definitely satisfying; no question I'm sticking with 4★. It offers some original twists. However, since anyone who's read more than a couple of my reviews knows I prefer happy endings, I feel I have to disclose that I like TAA despite its having a bittersweet ending. Not every grief can be avoided, though certain timings, means, etc., are changed.
I'm not shelving this as a "fixit", though along the way many parts of Harry's life are clearly greatly improved. I think it's pretty obvious from the title of the not-yet-complete sequel, Animagus at War, that this volume doesn't end in a final, definitive victory.
********************
N.b., I started reading at fanfiction.net/s/9863146/88/The-Accid... but it very belatedly occurred to me (only after I'd manually PDFed too many individual chapters, checking each time for lines lost at the page-breaks and redoing as necessary 🤦😖 — I still can't figure out what makes the difference!) to check on my preferred AO3, and I'm delighted to report that it is there: archiveofourown.org/works/14078862/
Generally, the proofreading is good, though not perfect, especially homophone slips such as one I recall, "dually" (from dual) in place of "duly" (from due).
If you just approximated, dividing 700K by 5, that'd be about 140K per [year], but of course, as previously mentioned, they're far from equal. From the Author's Note at the top of Chapter 1, the 112 chapters (697K) actually break down as follows:
Before Hogwarts: Chapters 1-12
First Year: Chapters 13-41
Second Year: Chapters 42-61
Third Year: Chapters 62-81
Fourth Year: Chapters 82-112
Bonus Material: The World of The Accidental Animagus
Years 5[-7] in the **WiP** sequel, Animagus at War (Yes, it's still [sporadically?] active.)
Whew, this was already quite a binge (my tired eyes kind of hate me!), and it's not really over. 😉
June 12, 2019
This was pretty good, though far too formulaic. Characters never learned from past mistakes and often acted first and thought later.
January 19, 2025
5 days to get through this, and I don't regret a bit. Some lovely tropes - Hermione's dad has a shotgun being one of my favourites, and just a really nice take on a cleverly-handled, newly imagined rendition of Harry's first 4 years at Hogwarts.
Read
January 6, 2018Great story.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews