Quality of Mercy by Maya Mistful

Quality of Mercy Reviews

• 
  emily

  legendary, life-changing, in my top 3 fav fics of all time
  
  this is a ~200k word fanfiction written from 2005-2008 as a sequel to harry potter & the half-blood prince. it's one of the first harry potter fics I ever read (in around 2016?) and I've been in love with it since then. I enjoy it far more than deathly hallows and it subverts the faults/tropes of that book in many ways; it develops the characters with so much care that it changed my views on them and made me adore them deeply in a way the original series couldn't.
  
  to be honest, despite growing up reading harry potter in elementary school, I'd never been particularly attached to any of the characters -- until I got into hp fanfic years later. I swear to you, these fic writers do it better. jk rowling started off writing a light, escapist magical adventure series and later tried to inject complexity and depth into her characters as harry grew up and the story grew darker; I don't think she fully succeeded. it's through qom (and other hp fic) and not deathly hallows that I truly felt the weight and sadness of the actual story of harry potter, a neglected child set apart from others by his impossible burden, raised solely to fight a war and defeat voldemort.
  
  ok this has been very vague and brief but someday I'll reread this fic and properly write the reasons here for why I love it so much lol. quality of mercy, I will always remember you even if no one else does :(
• 
  Emily Crowe

  In pdf form, this fanfic tops off at over 700 manuscript pages, but that didn't stop me from reading this story at a breakneck speed over the course of 2.5 days. Mistful/Maya has really cornered the market on Slytherin snark in her wonderful Draco.
• 
  Laura

  There were some really good moments but MAN, WHAT WAS THE POINT OF READING ALL OF THAT IF 90% OF WHAT I CARED ABOUT DIDN'T GET RESOLVED PROPERLY????? So much filler I didn't care about but I thought things were actually going to, you know, lead somewhere, and there was (in my opinion!) so much foreshadowing and so many hints to certain things that then NEVER HAPPENED
  
  OK COOL
• 
  Minh

  I had to add this, it consumed my life for 10 days, I even spent 3 days reading it off a PDF copy that was tiny when crammed onto my Kindle. So much angry, annoying Harry.
• 
  Eva

  4.5.
  (I'm on a Horcrux hunt AU roll this summer, who needs canon?)
  I KNEW THIS FIC WOULD ONLY BREAK MY HEART. AND YET. GAH. I know in my heart that Harry will eventually come to his senses (or Ginny to hers) and realize that while their love has been beautiful and also sad, they don't /really/ belong together. Harry, obviously, belongs to his found familiy of one: Draco Malfoy.
  Seriously, who sleeps on the bed of their family members (with them)? Especially ones that you've actually known for a few months. Thats!!!!! kind of gay, Harry.
  
  
• 
  Mona

  I've read almost all of Maya's fanfiction for Harry Potter almost 10 years ago, and if there was one author who shaped my fandom experience and how I perceive the characters, it'd be her. Thank you for your wonderful fandom work and for your delightful original books.
• 
  Kythwena

  I like that kind of fics. even if Potter was thicker and angrier than usual it was enjoyable. nice open ending full of uncertainties. family!fic 💖