Name: Love in a Time of the Zombie Apocalypse
Rating: 4.222222222222222 (9 reviews)

Rizzle

After Voldemort, there was this. The clock is ticking to create a cure to the unimaginable horror that currently grips the world. Hermione finds herself unwillingly allied with the most hated man in Wizarding Britain.

Love in a Time of the Zombie Apocalypse

Leonie

"No soft words and wooing? Straight to the main course like the predictable creature you are. If you fuck like you fight, Potter, it's no wonder you have trouble hanging on to your girlfriends."

I'm a Slytherin with all my heart and this ... this is why. 

The bleakness left his gaze. Now, there was calculation. Slytherins, thought Draco, with approval.

Ah, bloody hell, 27yo me returning to an adult and very, very morally-so-gray-it's-almost-pitchblack version of my first fictional crush (and comfort character). I'm here for it, not gonna lie. 

(And I have read published books this year that read ten times worse than this FF does, so don't ever judge just because of the format, mode of publication or stuff like that.) 

"If I had the means to do it, I would take you from this place whether you wished to go or not. I would leave your friends. I would leave Zabini and his little boy. I would abandon the chance of creating a cure. And I would do this without a second glance back, without a second thought. I would see this entire fleet sunk to the bottom of the sea, with innocent Muggle women and children, and all our fellow wizarding citizens still aboard. I would do that if it meant we could walk away, unconditionally. These are my priorities. I am not Amarov, but that does not make me one of you. I will never be one of you."

Aesthetically, he was like some sort of pale, brooding Byronic anti-hero, the sort historian Thomas Babington Macauley had once described as, " a man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow, and misery in his heart, a scorner of his kind, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep and strong affection." The kind who was banned from all the decent gaming clubs because he'd been caught counting cards— but would happily meet you with pistols at dawn if you dared to call him out— and who spent his inheritance on good claret and bad women.

He'd tell you about strategy (his) and wishful thinking (yours) and you'd roll your eyes, but secretly you believed that under all that ambivalence was something deep and immensely powerful that could move him on occasion.

Draco Malfoy didn't unravel like normal people. None of it leaked out, nor did he lash out at her. He folded in on himself until there was nothing left but a hard shell.

Easier to leave it to Draco. People like her used people like him when there was no black and white to hold on to, just shades of grey.

Maybe censure, distrust and low expectations only fed into some sick, self-fulfilling prophecy? Maybe knives only knew to be sharp because all anyone ever wanted from them was to cut?

"I am not mad," Draco snapped, surprisingly (and almost amusingly defensive), "there were tests in prison."

“Love each other and have really good sex, and occasional screaming matches that end in really good sex. We survived zombies and psychopaths. We can survive each other.”

“Survival is a brutal affair. In nature, predators don’t concern themselves with honour or ethics. When you fight to win, on the other hand, you’re inherently human. You immediately inject a value system into it. Lines in the sand, that sort of thing. Whereas for me, if there’s any sand, you can count on me throwing it in your eye. I don’t think I’m as technically skilled as some, but I’m brutal. When I hurt a man, I don’t intend for him to get back up to retaliate or call for help."

I relate to this a little too much for comfort. 

"Do you believe you’re an inherently violent, bad person?” 

Before I dive into the review of “Love in a Time of the Zombie Apocalypse” grant me a second or two to explain why this was such an unusual choice for me. First of all, I read the Harry Potter novels extremely young, I grew up on waiting for the next one to be published and then actually reading it in one sitting on a school night (oh, choices were as regrettable back then). As a kid I loved them, as young teen I’d already outgrown the hype and the world itself, which is such a shame. I moved on to other fantasy worlds, high fantasy as I would call it today, quick and started to look down a bit on the HP-world. Add in a highly problematic author and I ditched the whole world for myself. I never read any Fanfic set in this universe prior to this one.

Secondly, I never enjoyed Zombies as key players or a virus turning people into Zombies as an apocalyptic setting. It just was not my kind of thing, so far.

Lastly, I never liked Hermione nor Harry in the original works.

So me picking up a Fanfic, set in the Harry Potter universe, fighting a zombie apocalypse and focusing on Hermione? That was the least predictable choice I could have made. The one thing contradicting it? I’ve always been a Draco and a Slytherin girl, so … that might have outweighed it?

Going into this read I had no idea what to expect at all. I certainly did not count on it drawing me in as quickly. I just accepted the new reality of the apocalyptic setting of their world, I fell back in love with my boy Draco so fast it’s embarrassing. In this fic, he is portrayed as a scientist and I enjoyed this so much, I can’t put it into words. It put the essence of Slytherin and the Draco I remembered together so well that it was perfect to me. His studious attitude, the scientific approach to everything (yes, especially emotions) … that fit so well.

Hermione had to grow on me a little. I expected her to be a little more … morally gray from the start, but she did develop into a character I was able to enjoy. Harry grated on my nerves for a while, but also grew to be a friend to Hermione, whose interactions I mostly enjoyed.

Some of the side characters were wonderful and I loved to see them and hear their stories. We had numerous antagonists in this story, sometimes very detailed and well-sculpted, some with a rather vain and superficial display.

There were a few plot twists I didn’t see coming at all. That much I definitely need to admit. This fic made me suffer at times and it was hard, let me tell you. I did shed a few tears at one point, and I think some of the other situations intended to leave the reader a mess kind of went a bit over my head. I related a lot to Draco and I loved how detailed his depiction was, how many layers to his personality were to be uncovered. Sometimes there were scenes that just left a mild aftertaste though.

While I do understand that one of the main plotlines was necessary for the way this fic evolved, it did make me loose interest increasingly fast after being about halfway through the fic. The jump in terms of timelines really fortified this feeling of impending boredom to me and it felt like the author needed a break there, too.

So, the first half of this had me on the edge of my seat. I enjoyed it heaps; truth be told. Loved the dynamics between Draco and Hermione, the scientific approach to finding a solution and the side characters.

Domestic life had its moments, but as I’m neither a fan of pregnancy tropes nor the family kind of trope I had a bit more of a hard time with the second part of the fic. I need to admit, though, the manor and the soft moments in there, too, were able to get to me at parts. The story just lost a lot of momentum past the 2/3 mark, and I was not really invested in the outcome anymore.

The last few chapters especially felt like they were dragged out to torturable lengths because the author was not able to really let go of the story (understandably so).

Based on this I’m having a hard time finding an appropriate rating for this fic. The first half I’d rate a solid 4/5, maybe even 4.5 because it dragged me in and didn’t let me go for most of the chapters. The second half really left much to be desired for me, personally, which is why I might end up rating that a 2.5 to 3 out of 5. I’ll settle on a 3.5 for the whole fanfic, but it’s not entirely representable.

One thing I need to add before I am done: I am thankful and probably will remember this fic for it for a long time, because it opened a new world of reading for me, as I do enjoy zombie-settings now and it showed me how much more there is discover in the HP-universe that is not written by the original author. And for that, I’m massively grateful.

Before I dive into the review of “Love in a Time of the Zombie Apocalypse” grant me a second or two to explain why this was such an unusual choice for me. First of all, I read the Harry Potter novels extremely young, I grew up on waiting for the next one to be published and then actually reading it in one sitting on a school night (oh, choices were as regrettable back then). As a kid I loved them, as young teen I’d already outgrown the hype and the world itself, which is such a shame. I moved on to other fantasy worlds, high fantasy as I would call it today, quick and started to look down a bit on the HP-world. Add in a highly problematic author and I ditched the whole world for myself. I never read any Fanfic set in this universe prior to this one.

Secondly, I never enjoyed Zombies as key players or a virus turning people into Zombies as an apocalyptic setting. It just was not my kind of thing, so far.

Lastly, I never liked Hermione nor Harry in the original works.

So me picking up a Fanfic, set in the Harry Potter universe, fighting a zombie apocalypse and focusing on Hermione? That was the least predictable choice I could have made. The one thing contradicting it? I’ve always been a Draco and a Slytherin girl, so … that might have outweighed it?

 

Going into this read I had no idea what to expect at all. I certainly did not count on it drawing me in as quickly. I just accepted the new reality of the apocalyptic setting of their world, I fell back in love with my boy Draco so fast it’s embarrassing. In this fic, he is portrayed as a scientist and I enjoyed this so much, I can’t put it into words. It put the essence of Slytherin and the Draco I remembered together so well that it was perfect to me. His studious attitude, the scientific approach to everything (yes, especially emotions) … that fit so well.

Hermione had to grow on me a little. I expected her to be a little more … morally gray from the start, but she did develop into a character I was able to enjoy. Harry grated on my nerves for a while, but also grew to be a friend to Hermione, whose interactions I mostly enjoyed.

Some of the side characters were wonderful and I loved to see them and hear their stories. We had numerous antagonists in this story, sometimes very detailed and well-sculpted, some with a rather vain and superficial display.

 

There were a few plot twists I didn’t see coming at all. That much I definitely need to admit. This fic made me suffer at times and it was hard, let me tell you. I did shed a few tears at one point, and I think some of the other situations intended to leave the reader a mess kind of went a bit over my head. I related a lot to Draco and I loved how detailed his depiction was, how many layers to his personality were to be uncovered. Sometimes there were scenes that just left a mild aftertaste though.

While I do understand that one of the main plotlines was necessary for the way this fic evolved, it did make me loose interest increasingly fast after being about halfway through the fic. The jump in terms of timelines really fortified this feeling of impending boredom to me and it felt like the author needed a break there, too.

So, the first half of this had me on the edge of my seat. I enjoyed it heaps; truth be told. Loved the dynamics between Draco and Hermione, the scientific approach to finding a solution and the side characters.

Domestic life had its moments, but as I’m neither a fan of pregnancy tropes nor the family kind of trope I had a bit more of a hard time with the second part of the fic. I need to admit, though, the manor and the soft moments in there, too, were able to get to me at parts. The story just lost a lot of momentum past the 2/3 mark, and I was not really invested in the outcome anymore.

The last few chapters especially felt like they were dragged out to torturable lengths because the author was not able to really let go of the story (understandably so).

 

Based on this I’m having a hard time finding an appropriate rating for this fic. The first half I’d rate a solid 4/5, maybe even 4.5 because it dragged me in and didn’t let me go for most of the chapters. The second half really left much to be desired for me, personally, which is why I might end up rating that a 2.5 to 3 out of 5. I’ll settle on a 3.5 for the whole fanfic, but it’s not entirely representable.

 

One thing I need to add before I am done: I am thankful and probably will remember this fic for it for a long time, because it opened a new world of reading for me, as I do enjoy zombie-settings now and it showed me how much more there is discover in the HP-universe that is not written by the original author. And for that, I’m massively grateful.

Draco/Hermione
After Voldemort, there was this. The clock is ticking to create a cure to the unimaginable horror that currently grips the world. Hermione finds herself unwillingly allied with the most hated man in Wizarding Britain.

Love in a Time of the Zombie Apocalypse

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