Check out my blog at http://supremostories.wordpress.com and follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/SupremoStories

Well, hello everyone. Lord Supremo here at your service. I'm a 20 year old from Northern Cali, USA and now attending the George Washington University in Washington, DC. I came into the world of fan fiction in a similar way to a lot of people, I suspect. A week or so before the Half-Baked Plot came out, I was hoping that it had somehow been leaked onto Bearshare. I downloaded a file labeled as "Half Blood Prince," and began reading. It turned out to be Barb's Harry Potter and the Time of Good Intentions. I didn't realize it at first, but then it began making references to events that had not happened in canon. Eventually, I figured out what was going on and stopped reading. Half-Blood Prince came out, and after reading it and feeling unfulfilled, I went back and finished Barb's series. I haven't stopped reading HP fanfics since.

I like fan fics with

-Independent!Harry, especially Rich!Aristocrat!Political!Harry

-Darkbutlightsided!Harry

-Evil!Harry, especially Voldemort's Heir!Harry

Of course all of these likely have an element of Manipulative! bordering on Evil!Dumbledore, which I believe in whole-heartedly. Big thanks to the good people at darklordpotter.net for showing me the light.

Ships I subsribe to

-H/Hr is my favorite ship in theory, and is the one I'd like to see in canon, but too often H/Hr shippers have the pair meet randomly in the first chapter and declare their love for each other without any kind of preamble. I'm sorry kids, but love doesn't work that way.

-H/Tonks mainly because of Harry Potter and the Summer of Change by lorddwar

-H/Susan Bones mainly because of Harry Potter and the Emerald Tablet series by Lady Alchymia

-H/other character that JKR hasn't developed that much (i.e. Fem!Blaise, Padma Patil, Katie Bell, Hannah Abbot), although authors do have a tendency to make them a touch too perfect.

My favorite fics

-The Psychic Serpent series by Barb is absolute genius, despite the H/G and the ending (which I won't give away on the off chance someone hasn't read it yet). Everyone in the HP universe owes her an enormous debt, writers, readers, and even JKR herself, and anyone who has not read this masterwork needs to stop fucking around on my page and do so right now.

-I cite Harry Potter and the Angel of Justice by gnyarly (I think this one's only on Schnoogle, kids) as the one that convinced me Psychic Serpent wasn't a fluke, and thus, this is the fic that permanently sent me into this, my only fandom.

-I read the Harry and Hermione series by DrT (again, only on Schnoogle) over and over again, and it turned my slight favor for H/Hr into a full-blown passion, and for months on end, I refused to read any ship other than this.

-This in turn led to my accidental and perfectly-timed discovery of Harry Potter and the Emerald Tablet by Lady Alchymia (this one has its own website, but can be found on Schnoogle) a one year fic divided into three long novels, the first of which (Awakenings) was just finished literally the day I began reading it. It is not light reading, being over 500k words, but each and every one of them is completely worth it. It is easily the best written fic I have ever seen. Alphard's Atoll, an island that I mention in RotA is an homage to a similar element in HPET, I only hope that I do it justice. Lady Alchymia is a few chapters (read: 50,000 words) into the second book of the series, Psychomachia, and it shows every sign of being just as good as, if not better than, Awakenings.

-The Anima Summa trilogy by Anima Summa is a very trippy fic, in the same vein as The Da Vinci Code, except it focuses on the mythology surrounding Hermes rather than the Divine Feminine and the Holy Grail, although both topics are addressed. I read only the first book, because I found the whole thing too strange at the time, but I think now that I've read The Da Vinci Code, I could probably get back to this one. In any event, it displays an incredible depth and breadth of knowledge and research unparalleled in all the HP fandom.

-Harry Potter and the Burden of Becoming by fisico opened my eyes to the wonders that can be had with OCs, and was my favorite fic of all time for its first 35 chapters or so. I have since fallen out of touch with it, but it is definitely worth the read.

-Harry Potter and the Years of Rebellion by full pensieves archives (Portkey.org, folks!)and Harry Potter and the Acceptance of Fate by Arya1 formed my introduction into Independent!Harry, and each remains among my favorites

-Dakaath: Prince of Darkness by LT2000, Ascenscion of the Scorpion Sorceror by Vorlorn666, and Potter's Resistance 1: Breaking Ties by IP82 are my favorite Dark!Evil!Harry fics, though sadly all of those have been discontinued. Vash the Unholy's Lust of a Dark Soul is incredibly disturbing, but remarkably well-written, too.

-My current hangup is a love for Voldemort's Heir!Harry and other Adopted!Harry stories. The best of these are The Happy Red Prince by LT2000, the Blood series by Shade Dancer, Darkly Treacherous by xxlostdreamerxz, Harry Potter and the Ties of Blood by WolfMoon, and Twists of Fate by Lanidur Du'Undarian

But I still do enjoy general and Independent!Harry fics. The others of my absolute favorites are: Harry Potter and the Strength of Three by Narishma, For Love and Honor by Lanidur Du'Undarian, To Fight the Coming Darkness by jbern, Me and Miss Bones by Olafr, and finally, perhaps my favorite fic of all time, Harry Potter and the Summer of Change by lorddwar

Dislikes

-Weak!Pussy!Harry (Like the Harry of recent canon)

-Melodramatic!Harry (Again, like the Harry of recent canon)

-Gred and Forge. Use their names, asswipe, and stop trying to be cute.

- H/G. I was fine with this at the time I read HBP, but the more I think about it, the more I hate it. Basically, Ginny is exactly who Harry doesn't need: Someone that sees only the fame of the Boy-Who-Lived, not the person Harry Potter, nor the things that the Chosen One must do (read the last chapter or so of HBP if you need any more proof).

-R/Hr. Similarly, I don't understand the logic behind this pairing. They are incompatible on almost every level. Hermione is a genius, Ron is stupid. Hermione is from a well-off, if not rich, family, Ron is dirt poor. Hermione is sophisticated, Ron is boorish. Hermione is level-headed and stable, Ron has been prone to jealousy, fickleness, and impulsivity. The two are complete opposites in so many ways that it boggles my mind that anyone, much less J.K. Rowling, could put them together romantically. I can definitely see Ron having a crush on Hermione, but it should be unrequited.

-Slash, especially H/Draco and H/Snape. To start off, I'm not a bigot, I live in the most liberal area of the country and am friends with several gay people including one of my uncles. But at the same time, Harry is quite obviously straight as his three year obsession with Cho Chang proves, so to write him as a homosexual makes no sense. Now, you may say that in canon, Harry is not independent, yet my favorite stories have him as such. True, but it is concievable that certain stimuli (i.e. inheriting his godfather's wealth, learning of Dumbledore's manipulations, or the deaths of his two main protectors) would cause such a shift in personality. Conversely, you cannot suddenly become gay. Homosexuality is something that you are either born with or you are not, and if people in this country understood that, life would be much better. Further, the idea that the animosity between Harry and Draco and/or Snape is merely unresolved sexual frustration is simply ludicrous.

-Unrealisticly evil!Voldemort. If Voldemort tortured/killed his Death Eaters for minor infractions or because he was having a bad day, it would not be long before said Death Eaters had a mutiny against him or left his service.

-Superpowerful!Harry. Harry Potter is not capable of killing a whole legion of Death Eaters with one curse. Nor can he turn into any animal he wishes at will. Neither can he summon demons, or call upon all four elements, or do anything of the kind. Let's keep it reasonable.

-Poor spelling/grammar. Please people, the spell checker is there for a reason. But my main pet peeve is when the names of characters/places/objects that JKR uses in canon are misspelled. For the record, here are the correct spellings of some commonly misspelled HP words: Stupefy, Occlumency, Legilimency, Arthur Weasley, Diagon Alley, Gringotts, Wizengamot, Apparating (Apparition), Grawp, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, Antonin Dolohov, Horcrux, Blaise Zabini, Avada Kedavra, Lucius Malfoy... if I see more, I'll add them to the list.

-Oh, and here's another one: Harry not showing enough respect to Voldemort and/or Dumbledore. I agree with Dumbledore when he says "Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself," and the whole "You-Know-Who" business is absolute ridiculousness. However, Voldemort is still one of the three most powerful wizards alive, and so to have Harry call him "Moldieshorts," is stupid (not to mention completely unoriginal) because it makes Voldemort into someone easily dealt with, on par maybe with Severus Snape. Similarly, in Independent!Harry fics, Dumbledore should not be referred to as an "old fool," or as a "coot," for similar reasons. If the premise of your story is that Dumbledore has successfully manipulated almost the entire Wizarding World into viewing him as a benign, albeit intensely powerful, grandfather, then he is neither foolish, nor a coot. Not to mention his amazing magical reserves and the sheer immensity of his magical knowledge. Hate him all you want, but you should respect him.

My thoughts on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Posted on the eve of the release.

The release of this, the last of the Harry Potter novels (Rowling has hinted of publishing an encyclopedia of the Potter universe, which would include all the things she came up with but never found a place for in the narrative) has my emotional cauldron filled with a potion that is equal parts jubilation and remorse. I anticipate the release of this book with all the zeal I have given the other books in the series on the eve of their arrival, for Rowling makes the ink and paper of a book come alive in a way unseen in literature past, present or, I daresay, future.

It is for this reason that a part of me longs for a Time-Turner so that midnight might never come. As much as I am dying to get my hands on the next Potter installment, a part of me wishes I could live perpetually in the current state of anticipation. As soon as I read the last letter of the last word on page 784 of Deathly Hallows, I know I will break down and cry. I will weep not for the death of Harry Potter the character - which I am sure is inevitable, he stands no chance in a fight against Voldemort - but rather for the death of Harry Potter the idea, the concept of an alternate universe living alongside ours to which I can escape every other year and discover something new and wonderful. As much as I enjoy rereading the old Potter texts - I have read each of them at least 15 times, save Half Blood Prince, which I have only perused twice - there comes a point where I cannot squeeze any new insight or joy from them. Though I will forever enjoy Rowling's ingenious plots, clever political subtexts and wry sense of humor, a joke is never as funny the second time you hear it. Though Rowling's universe will be faithfully tended by fan fiction authors - including myself - none of us can dream of producing a work so thoroughly entertaining or engaging as Rowling's originals. And so I approach what will be an otherwise glorious Saturday with a certain sense of gloom, incurable by anything other than finally reading the completed work.

For now, though, all I can do is offer up my eternal thanks to Rowling for all her hard work to this point. The Harry Potter series has helped me through some of the toughest times in my life and provided me with some of the most joyous moments I will ever experience. I look forward to reading these masterpieces to my own children, and I can only hope that so long as there are kids, this series will not be forgotten.

My Predictions for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Posted on the eve of the release.

I'll go back and check off which of these turned out to be correct a week after I finish, hopefully that will be plenty of time so that I don't spoil it for anyone. (Results in parentheses)

-R.A.B. is Regulus Black. This one is a no-brainer. (Yup)

-Ginny slipped Harry Love Potion, he will find out and leave her for good. (Unfortunately, no)

-I've resigned myself to the reality that Hermione and Ron will have to attempt a relationship, but I think it will sputter and fail. (It appeared to be this way for a while, but in the end they got together and in the epilogue married and had children. Disgusting.)

-As you may guess from the above two predictions, I'm calling for Harry and Hermione to get together before the book's end. (Again, I was certain that this was about to happen when Ron ran away from the trio like the little bitch he is, but alas, JKR didn't go in that direction. Total shame.)

-We will find out more about Harry's family in this book. If JKR didn't include anything, I will scream. (Yes, but not in the way I had hoped. I was hoping to know what happened to James' parents, but I suppose that will remain a mystery)

-The Chamber of Secrets and/or Harry's ability to speak Parseltongue will play a role. (Totally, although she went the weird direction of having Ron make random hissing noises in Myrtle's bathroom. I had hoped Parseltongue was a little more special than that)

-The book will span the length of more than a school year. (False. I made this prediction on the (correct, btw) assumption that Harry stood no chance against Voldemort in a fight with his present magical abilities, so I figured he needed time to train up.)

-Harry (or someone close to him) will come to blows with Rufus Scrimgeour. (No chance for this, she kills Scrimgeour very early on. Another giant shame)

-Kreacher will be instrumental in helping Harry find at least one Horcrux. (As I recall, this was not the case, but what was up with Kreacher?? I loved the surly grumbling Kreacher of OotP, he was hilarious and a much more interesting character than the adoring, treacle tart-cooking minion of DH)

-Harry will use the Dark Arts, including his second attempt at an Unforgivable Curse, especially when (not if) he comes across Wormtail and Snape (Nailed the Dark Arts part of this, he throws Imperius Curses around like candy in DH, and nails one of the Carrows with a strong Cruciatus, but he lets Wormtail go unpunished in DH and Snape turns out to be loyal to Dumbledore thanks to a creepy, decades-old crush on Harry's mom, so no Unforgivables for him. Sad.)

-We have not seen the end of Horace Slughorn, he will be significant in some way. (Surprisingly, Slughorn serves only as a generally irrelevant fat fuck at the climax. Oh well.)

-Neville will play a key role in at least one battle against Death Eaters (DAMN did I nail this.)

-It will not go unheeded that Luna lives close to Ron; her relative absence in the sixth book was a fluke. (Sort of, they visit Luna's house, but its proximity to Ron is ignored. This hurts me the most of all the ones I got wrong, when I spotted that little nugget in GoF I was STOKED)

These are my ordinary predictions. As to the great questions posed by large posters at Barnes and Noble...

-Snape is a Death Eater, through and through and... (Nope. Not even close. By the way, the whole "Snape was in love with Lily" angle had been explored so thoroughly in fan fiction before DH, I thought there was no way it was coming up in canon. Way to go with the "hidden in plain sight" explanation, JKR)

-Harry dies. (Yes, but not in the way I imagined. Turns out Harry is Jesus. Who knew. The ending was such a great "fuck you" to the nutty evangelical Christians who have bashed this series for being "Evil" and "Satanic" since it came out though. How mad must that have made them? In fact, I'm gonna go look for reaction online right now.)

An Open Letter Regarding Cliches

In my reviews and on the Darklordpotter discussion thread, a few people have noted that the beginning of RotA has many cliches in it. These readers have noted that Harry's abuse at the hands of Vernon, his attendance of Sirius' Will Reading, a manipulative Dumbledore, and a jealous Ron are all recurrent themes in Harry Potter fan fiction; Dark-Syaoran, an individual I respect for his posts on Darklordpotter, even went so far as to call RotA, "Dark/Independent!Harry Prologue #5482." However, in doing so, he and the one or two others have created a great irony: isn't commenting on cliche in another's story in itself a bit cliche? I have seen discussion threads in which fics are mercilessly bashed by reviewer after reviewer for being "soooo cliched." Now it is true that these stories frequently have zero elements that haven't been seen before, but after a point, continuing to say that adds nothing to the discussion. You are, like the author, merely parroting something that others before you have said.

Also, there is such a thing as a necessary cliche, because a story is simply incomplete without it. Say, for instance, that you are writing any story that begins in the summer after Harry's 5th year. You know that you have to deal with Sirius' death in some way, and you are stuck with a very few options: have Harry come off the train recovered from his grief and ready to fight, or have him wallow in guilt and sorrow until he goes back to school. Also, you have to deal with his Will, as Sirius is plainly a man of many assets that need dividing, look no further for proof than the Firebolt he gave Harry. Here again, there are limited options: Harry can attend the reading, Dumbledore or Remus can tell him what he inherited, or you can have the goblins say that the Will cannot be enforced thanks to Sirius being a convicted criminal. Now, here comes the paradox for the author who strives for originality in his work: each of these routes have been explored in countless works of fan fiction. Yet, you cannot ignore Sirius' death or quickly gloss over Harry's reaction; Half-Blood Prince proves that doing so leaves readers feeling unfulfilled. Thus you must pick the one that goes best with your story and endure the snide remarks of readers (who frequently have never produced a scrap of writing themselves) who say that your story is "cliched."

Frequently we forget that in the entire world of literature, there are only 16-20 basic plots, at least one of which is found in virtually every short story, novel, and play ever produced. And although the fantastic world that J.K. Rowling created opportunities for ideas that would never have been though of otherwise, at least 6 years have passed since the first Harry Potter fan fiction was posted on the Internet. It is a nice concept that each new work in this fandom should be completely original, but it is also a silly one. Unless we are to completely divorce ourselves from Rowling's universe as SilverLocke980 did in Harry's Madness, some plot elements must be recurrent. You will notice that Madness hasn't gotten the greatest reviews either.

Cheers, Lord Supremo

P.S. I do realize that some authors' overuse of cliche is unforgivable, and I get as frustrated as anyone else when I read a story in which nothing new is said. This letter was intended to encourage deeper thought about works of fan fiction, beyond just "I won't read it because they did x, which has been done 5439954905 times." So has your mom, so get over it and find something else to talk about.

STORY NEWS

I'll try to keep everyone posted of how the development of my story(s) is(are) progressing

News for 5/19: I have now finished about 50 of Rise of the Amphiptere, and I'm about 75 finished with Family History, a one-shot companion piece to RotA that will be posted when the time is right. Thus, I hope to have the next chapter of RotA posted by Tuesday the 23rd.

News for 5/21:Another couple pages are done of RotA, no progress on Family History. This update is mainly to tell you that discussion of this fic can be found on DLP at http://forums.darklordpotter.net/showthread.php?t=1938

News for 5/23: Well, it turns out that I have a bunch of projects dueover the next couple of days, so an update on RotA isn't likely until the weekend. Sorry guys.

News for 5/28:I'm about 80-90 done with the next chapter of RotA, I will try my best to have it out tomorrow. Also, Family History will come out one or two days after RotA is posted.

News for 5/30: Chapter One of RotA is now up! Family History is on the way!

News for (just barely) 5/31: I just realized that there is an inconsistency in the just-posted Chapter One of RotA that I would like to clear up, just so there's no confusion. In the documents detailing the Black family fortune, the last item was a description of the title "Count of Hampshire." A couple paragraphs later, though, I referred to Harry as "the young Earl." Just so there is no confusion, Harry's title is indeed "Count of Hampshire," although I may be compelled to make him an Earl also, through the Potter line. However, that would come much later in the story.

News for 6/1: A number of people have asked me in reviews if Dumbledore was at the hearing. The answer to that question is that Harry did not see Dumbledore explicitly, but read the description carefully for where he might have been. Also, notice the word "might" in that sentence, implying a possibility that Dumbledore wasn't there at all. PM me with you theories and I'll tell you if you are right or wrong. Ten points to whoever gets it right!

News for 6/17: Wow guys, I'm sorry, I haven't yet posted the promised Family History or a new chapter of RotA. Right now I'm on vacation and so access to the internet is limited at best. Hopefully I'll be able to find enough time to post a new chapter or two of RotA between now and when I get home, but don't look for Family History until my return to Santa Rosa, which should occur on August 1.

News for 7/8: New chapter for RotA is up, and the formatting is fixed. Sorry about the earlier mixup!

News for 10/9: Wow, I'm terribly sorry, everyone, I haven't updated RotA in forever. This is just a note to let you know that no, it isn't abandoned, I have been working on it of late and it is approximately 50 completed. I have completely neglected Family History, however, and I may post before Thanksgiving, although there are no guarantees.

News for 7/21/07: It has now been a little over a year since I last updated RotA, and I'm dreadfully sorry for the delay. When the school year recommenced last fall, I found making the time to do updates impossible, and since the summer began, I have stayed away from fan fiction entirely, so as not to sully my brain prior to the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which I finished a mere half hour ago. For the delay, I apologize in the most heart-felt way I can over the Internet. I have been encouraged, however, by the recent upsurge in interest in RotA, and I would like to say to those who have added RotA to their various updates and Favorites lists that they should not despair, I fully intend to continue the story, especially now that the tale of canon's Harry is finished. The next chapter is about 70 done in its present form, although I feel the beginning of it needs reworking. I hope to have it posted for your enjoyment by the end of the week.

News for 9/27/09: So I just set up a twitter account so I can interact with all of you better and so that you guys can stay abreast of my progress on RotA better! It's my hope that I'll get a relatively constant stream of @SupremoStories messages when I'm slacking and in that way, I'll be extra motivated to provide updates faster! So yeah, that's http://www.twitter.com/SupremoStories for the latest on everything RotA, start your following now!