recs

I had many weekend plans that were not accomplished because my time got eaten by extremely good fic. Ah, internets, you are so fickle. On the days when I am really, really bored and surfing around for any good story anywhere, I find nothing but dreck, but on the days when I think "I'll just peek at this story and see if it's any good," I look up 9 hours later without having had any consciousness of the passage of time.

The story that ate my brain this weekend was minisinoo's Finding Himself , a Harry Potter novel of epic length (320,000 words, which I believe translates into 800 pages). It's Cedric/Hermione, a pairing which honestly I didn't really expect to like, but I had heard good things about minisinoo's writing before, so I thought I'd try a chapter. Famous last words. I got completely sucked into this--it's a fantastic AU in which Cedric is not killed, but only seriously injured, at the end of Goblet of Fire , and we get to see what changes--and what doesn't change--in OOTP because he survives. OOTP has always been my least-favorite book of the HP canon--way too much capslock Harry--but I really enjoyed seeing the story retold from the perspective of a minor character. Cedric joins in the fight against Umbridge, but his methods are rather different than those of Harry &co. The best part of this story, though, is the slowly developing relationship between Cedric and Hermione, which works wonderfully and ends up being tremendously erotic. For whatever reasons, I tend to have higher standards for het smut than for slash, and I rarely like it--but this is one of the hottest het stories I have ever read. I highly recommend it the next time you have a whole weekend to while away.

Another immensely entertaining story I read this weekend was flambeau's The Quiet Padawan .
If Georgette Heyer wrote Star Wars: Phantom Menace slash, what would it look like? That's the challenge flambeau took up in writing this story, and the result is wickedly enjoyable, especially if you love both Heyer and TPM. It's kind of scary how well the conventions of the Regency romance can be applied to the world of the Jedi, and I literally squealed with glee at several points in the story. Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan, non-explicit, about 12,000 words.

I also really enjoyed kristiinthedark's You got me so I don't know what I'm doin' . Due South (Fraser/Kowlaski), a short but incredibly hot look at Fraser's kinks: Fraser says it's not a fetish. That for it to be a fetish, he'd need it to be turned on at all, or whatever. He tells Ray that he gets turned on no matter what Ray's wearing, except he says he gets "aroused." And, god knows, that's the truth. Tight jeans, loose jeans, t-shirts, sweatshirts, big huge winter parka - every day, whatever Ray's got on, he catches Fraser staring at him, doing that thing where he licks the corner of his mouth, and then Ray knows the next chance Fraser gets, he's gonna be pushed up against the wall, or the counter, or bent over the couch.

And finally, just so you don't all start worrying that I've been seduced away from the Smallville love, I have to recommend bagheera_san's latest story, "From the Ruins," Part One and Part 2. Set in early season 6. Clark and Lex switch bodies, and that changes everything. I love how nuanced her Lex characterization is in this story.

Heroes question

Is NBC still making episodes of Heroes available for download on their website? Apparently my power went out this afternoon, and so my VCR didn't record the episode (damn stupid Monday night meetings!!) I can only download at work, which means it has to be legal. Anyone know if/when the episodes go up on the NBC website? I may have to go into work early tomorrow to watch this, assuming I can actually download it.