Another feaure of Harry Potter is the tuly amazing volume of fan fiction (fanfic for short) that have been written.[^1] It’s getting close to overtaking Star Trek…
[One site alone](http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/) has over 42,000 stories, written by over 20,000 different authors. Some of it is very, very good. But that’s not any fun…
A few highlights (which, with one exception, I’ve not read any of):
* [Masquearade](http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/viewstory.php?sid=206124): Ginny Weasley and Draco Malfoy date.
* [Its Good to Have Friends](http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/viewstory.php?sid=210529): Dumbledore’s niece Avi joins the school, and promptly becomes best friends with Harry and the others. Funnily enough, written by someone called Avi…
* [The Year When Everything Changed](http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/viewstory.php?sid=176591): Harry’s parents are transported from the past into Harry’s final year at Hogwarts
* [Missing](http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/viewstory.php?sid=66851): Malfoy and Hermione are forced to tutor younger students together, but slowly they begin to see more.
* And then there’s [My Immortal](http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2828044/1/): Quite possibly the worst piece of fan fiction ever written. Please don’t read it. You’ll scar your brain.
Although, for my money, if you still want brain melting-ly bad fanfic, you can’t go past Star Trek and [Stephen Ratliff](http://home.netcom.com/~mblackwl/mst.htm).
[^1]: Just to be perfectly clear, I think fanfic is a very valid form of writing. There are a lot of pro writers who write fanfic under pseudonyms. Writing is writing, and borrowing someone else’s settings or characters doesn’t make it less writing.