Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness

Fanfiction
Title:	Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness
Author(s):	Thanfiction
Date(s):	Jun 11, 2008 – December 2017 (purged)
Length:	256,506 words
Genre(s):	gen
Fandom(s):	Harry Potter
Relationship(s):
External Links:	Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness, Archived version (offline, archived)
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness is a Harry Potter fanfic by Thanfiction. Originally started as something of a bet. As of August 2020, the story is no longer online. TV Tropes dates the deletion of Thanfiction's account (and the removal of this fic) to approximately December 2017. The reviews of the work have been saved and are currently accessible.

Thanfiction was described the project as "the most out-of-control one-shot in the history of the wizarding world" on his fanfiction.net profile. As can be gathered from this quote, the project once started as a one-shot, but quickly became a 250k+ story. Over the years, the universe (referred to by Thanfiction and fans as the DAYDverse, and often regarded as a fandom on its own) was expanded by 2 sequels (the last one currently still a WIP) and 100+ one-shots. Some one-shots were added until the deletion of the work along with the author's profile in mid-2017.

Summary:

A novel following Neville Longbottom and the students left behind at Hogwarts while Harry and the Trio were off hunting Horcruxes in Deathly Hallows. The first novel in the Daydverse Trilogy.

Reactions and Reviews

While initially a popular and beloved fanfiction, the story's reputation has waned over the years due, in part, to the author's actions (ie the DAYDian cult) as well as certain elements of the fic being viewed as having aged poorly.

At Fanfiction.Net

The story had 664 reviews on Fanfiction.net as of July 6, 2010. On June 3, 2014, this number had more than doubled, with 1,455 reviews. Reviews continued to increase, and as of August 2020, there are 1,941 reviews.

While some reviews simply address the story, there are multiple reviewers warning of Thanfiction's previous actions and warning readers against the risk of joining his cult. Recently, there are also reviews asking the author to repost the story, which is currently offline.

See reviews at Fanfiction.net

2009

Some time ago, I read Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness. If you've been hanging around HP fan fiction communities at all (anywhere except MNFF, which by the way I think should stop trying to pretend they're the only site where HP fan fiction exists, since I really don't think your Mugglenet overlords are paying attention anymore anyway), you've probably heard of it. It's written by thanfiction , who has accomplished the fairly remarkable feat of becoming a BNF in HP fandom after the end of the series and the fandom has begun declining. thanfiction has written a bunch of prequels and sequels and vignettes now, and the "DAYDverse" apparently has spawned LJ communities and fan fiction of its own. Pretty impressive.

DAATYOD tells the tale of Neville and the D.A. during their seventh year. It's the story about what was going on back at Hogwarts under Snape and the Carrows, while the Trio was on their camping trip.

I found it to be pretty good. thanfiction is a good writer, and the story was riveting at times, though occasionally too self-indulgent with the blood and angst and horror. It was definitely not written in the same tone as Rowling -- Snape and the Carrows do truly horrific things to the students, which are gruesomely described -- which really shows when Harry finally comes back for the final battle.

But, there's a reason why whenever someone asks for fan fiction about Neville and the D.A., this is the one that almost always gets recommended.

I stopped reading the sequel, Sluagh, about halfway through, because I thought the story was beginning to bear no resemblance whatsoever to Rowling's world. Nothing wrong with that, per se, but while I think thanfiction is a good writer, he's not so good that I'm interested in his original fiction. Also, he seemed to be trying to escalate the level of blood and grit from DAATYOD, until Sluagh became almost carnographic at times.

livejournal post by inverarity, from Dec 2009

2011

It's a Neville-centric fic that focuses on how the students at Hogwarts (specifically Neville) deal with the changes that were imposed while Harry was off looking for Horcruxes in the Deathly Hallows. It's fabulous, but it's dark - a fair bit darker than the original books, I think. It's twenty-four chapters with an epilogue, and 256,430 words. There are two sequels, neither of which I've read, and a number of companion fics on the author's profile here, where there are also links to artwork and an LJ comm. Yes, that's how fantastic this fic is. I swear this is canon. (Well, it could do without having Neville/Hannah, because I can't stand Hannah, but it's well done, at least).

Read it even if you don't like Harry Potter.

Rec by xslytherclaw, from Jan 2011

2013

...I did enjoy DAYD. I'm a firm believer that one's enjoyment of a story shouldn't be tainted by the personal circumstances of the author; no matter who thanfiction actually is, she/he wrote a good story. The sequels went a bit too far into Irish mythology and were a little impenetrable because of it, but still managed to be decent.

CNash, c. 2013 https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/245-harry-potter/64652876

It's really really bad at sticking to canon, like, I normally expect this from fanfiction but when it's obviously trying to fit with canon as closely as possible whenever it has to so that makes it extra jarring when it isn't. Like Ginny's sexual tension with Neville (yes, it's confirmed intentional), characters knowing things they shouldn't know but that the reader did, Snape being hit with the evil stick like a thousand times, all the characters being so OoC that when there's a scene required by canon (such as the Harry/Neville scene right before Harry sacrifices himself) the shift in character makes you do a double-take. Even the message of the story is perverted, as Harry Potter was all about how anyone could be a hero, while DAYD was about how anyone can be a hero if they amp up their masculinity (the masculinity that Neville then uses to bash Harry (his good friend for 6 years Harry) at every possible opportunity). Which brings us to the next thing.

It's ridiculously sexist. All the men work out and develop adonis-like bods, joke about scars and machismo, and generally act like jocks. All the women suddenly develop stunning figures, even Hannah (who only looked plump because of her Hogwarts robes! When she takes them off, she's supermodel trim! Because Neville can't date a slightly overweight girl!). Hannah almost kills Neville but it gets laughed off because she's a crazy girl. The author writes in Neville as the leader of the new DA when the books make it explicitly clear that Ginny, Luna, and Neville were co-leaders -- Ginny and Luna are reduced to "second-in-commands" who really just exist to tell Neville he's awesome (except when they don't, which is when Neville has a fit, sulks for days, and then gets everyone to apologize to HIM). I think this is an honest oversight on the part of the author who just assumed Neville would be in charge because he's a dude. Then there's the rape of Lavender Brown, which is the moment when all the men (count the women in the revenge party) get to avenge the honor of their fellow woman. Once the men have exacted their manly revenge and Seamus has pounced into bed with Lavender, we never hear from her again until she dies. It's a really callous use of rape as a dramatic tool to make the men look awesome while the victim doesn't get a voice, agency, or closure.

Just realized how much I'd typed. Sorry. Wasn't trying to get in-your-face or try to convince you not to like it or something. I'll try and wrap this up fast.

Neville's a Gary Stu. One who actively hopes he'll get a statue for his valor. And contemplates breaking Harry Potter's neck.

The writing has strange quirks or goofs -- my favorite one is when Harry's and Voldemort's spells collide and THEN they shout the incantations, but there are others. And all those adjectives! I can't stop seeing the adjectives!

SEAMUS IS RETROACTIVELY BEHIND SNAPE'S DEATH THEY ARE LITERALLY TAKING CREDIT FOR EVERYTHING IN CANON.

I dunno. I remember enjoying it and I can see why it's enjoyable but I can't read it anymore. I struggled through Sluagh and failed to make it through three chapters of his/her third one. "Even MarthKoopa has jumped on the MarthKoopa hate wagon." -DevsBro

CNash 12 years ago#8 Good points. I did notice the story playing fast and loose with canon, and inventing deus ex machina gimmick spells like Ernie sacrificing himself.

The third one, "A Peccatis", was fine up to a point. The discussion over the Statute of Secrecy and how new Muggle technology would make it easy to break was good (although I could've done without Prince William showing up!), and the part where Neville's mother communicates via old 60s pop songs was silly, but somehow heartwarming at the same time. I haven't read all of it myself, though.

And the Lord said unto John, "Come forth and receive eternal life." But John came fifth and won a toaster.

marthsheretoo, c. 2013 https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/245-harry-potter/64652876

2018

"Infamous fic. Originally a mixed reputation; it was dark and followed Neville, Ginny and Luna's year at Hogwarts after Harry, Ron and Hermione dropped out of school, and Snape's reign of terror flanked by the Carrows and various OCs including a Nazi-esque torture scientist.

Most of the violence was pretty gratuitous and basically any character that wasn't explicitly listed as alive in the canon epilogue was killed off in quite vicious ways, including Cho Chang (crushed), Parvati Patil (dissolved in acid), Romilda Vane (literally cut to pieces by Bellatrix) etc.It was one of the first fics I read as an adult so a lot of the elements have stuck with me.

There was also a sequel which veered into batshit crazy territory with rituals, the UK-Irish civil war, and (I believe) both time travel and sacrifice of Ron and Hermione's unborn child with Ron forced to watch.

Having said all that, it was quite well-written despite the batshit crazy elements, and the stories gained a decent following for a while because certain people felt their depiction of violence and insanity was closer to actual civil war featuring an extremist faction than the perhaps slightly sanitized version JKR presented readers with in Deathly Hallows.

I vaguely feel as well that Thanfiction's Neville started to become a bit of an OC too; by the end he was definitely much more of a hero to his peers and outwardly a leader and competent etc. than canon Harry or the Harry in the story, later on after things came out about the author this became another stick to beat them with."

u/360Saturn on /r/HPfanfiction (May 2018)

"It's pretty canon-divergent, and a little gory, but SO WORTH IT. I wish I could print it out, bind it, and put it on the shelf next to the rest of my HP books."

Comment by rachofsunshine on Buzzfeed's 21 "Harry Potter" Fanfictions To Read Before You Die

2020

The author uses HP-characters to write something that has nothing to do with the tone of the HP universe, but is full of terror and torture. No character acts like they'd do in canon plus a lot of blood and more blood. There's some really good fanfiction out there - this isn't.

2022

"I quite enjoyed sections of the book, the writing is very good and there are some very strong nods to JKRs style, language and prose. However, I felt like there were sections of the book that were unnecessarily graphic or gruesome (it’s pretty tame compared to actual horror), but it didn’t really fit with the overall themes of the universe. Gore isn’t something that appears in the cannon and I feel the psychological aspects of the unforgivable curses is more effective than some of the bloody examples in this book."

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10207687-dumbledore-s-army-and-the-year-of-darkness User Sam Brett on Goodreads

Transformative Fanworks

Many Daydians (the name for fans of the DAYDverse), eager for more material after finishing Thanfiction's 1,000,000+ word series, turned to writing their own fanfiction of the series – recursive fanfiction. Thanfiction heartily approves of this^{[citation needed]}, and is often willing to answer questions about characterisation and the like to help them out. A (partial) list of DAYDverse fanfic can be found over at Thanfiction's tumblr: FICEPTION! Daydverse fanfic by Daydians.

Cult Activities

The Daydian community gained a sizeable presence online due to the popularity of the DAYDverse. Thanfiction, also known by his name Andy Blake, was heavily involved in this community online and in a dedicated Skype group chat ("The Room of Requirement") which ran nearly 24 hours, 7 days a week. The community had around 25 to 50 active members at any given point in time, which was a small fraction of fandom members who simply engaged with the fanwork itself.

A fan meetup, DAYDcon, was also eventually held.

Similarly to his activities in the Lord of the Rings fandom, Blake utilized his platform to create a cult-like atmosphere with wild claims about himself. For instance, he claimed that he had only a short time to live due to a terminal heart condition and accepted donations to travel to meet with members of the community. He also obsessively tried to play matchmaker, trying to pair DAYDians off with each other.

Through platforms such as the ever-active Skype chat, Andy also claimed to channel characters from his works and would interact with members of the community as this persona. This dramatically notably resulted in wank regarding a psychic shaman wizard battle in which Andy publicly doxed a member of the community and her young children, providing their names and home address.

In 2025, an anonymous former Daydian came forward to The Tea Blogger on tumblr, providing an account of their time in the community.

I just want to say that even though they’re a decade old I just found your timeline parts for Andy that include DAYD and Brittany. As someone who was a freshman in college when I got in that chat and then was slowly sliding out when we lost Brittany, your posts meant a lot to me. I’d let myself forget how bad parts of it were. And few people talk about the people he caught up with the fic and chat so kindly. Most of us were extremely young, lonely, or both and he took advantage of us. We were isolated enough that most of us hadn’t heard anything bad about him until the shaman stuff. Anyways. It just meant a lot to me ❤️

I don’t think people realize how many of us who weren’t in the inner circle didn’t know that people were trying to warn the group about Andy and his past.

I didn’t know anything until everything went down with CFC and her kids. At that point anyone who left was getting questioned and harassed by Andy/whoever still was on his side or confused enough to listen to him. One person blocked every single one of us as soon as he heard because he didn’t have it in him to sift through and tell if there was another Andy lurking among us.

And everyone who was crawling out pretty much fell back in to varying degrees after Brittany was killed.

That Skype chat was a huge source of community for a lot of people. People were willing to listen to his outlandish stories to a certain degree. I’ll never forgive him for the fallout of insisting, once again, on making himself an Icarus.

Anonymous submission to The Tea Blogger, March 2025 https://theteablogger.tumblr.com/post/777739433504096256/a-message-i-received-yesterday-published

Tragically, Brittany Quinn- a member of the DAYD community with whom Andy was living with at the time, was murdered during a double murder-suicide in 2011. Over the years, people have speculated that Andy had some part in aggravating the events leading up to this tragedy. Andy eventually took a few of the community members to hike the Trail of Tears in Brittany's memory. During the infamous Trail of Tears hike, Andy channeled characters and both physically and psychologically abused the participants in the hike.

For more information on the activities of the DAYD cult, refer to:

• Interview with an ex-Daydian (2015)
• Interview with an ex-Daydian [different from the above link] (2015)
• Thanfiction & the Cult of DAYD by Strange Aeons (December 2023)

External Links

Further Reading

• Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness on TV Tropes. See also subpages for: Awesome, Heartwarming, TearJerker,YMMV, and Funny.
• Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness page on Goodreads
• In which I spork overrated Harry Potter fanfiction by a wanky author by nevermore999 on LiveJournal (Dec 20, 2009)

Fan Resources

• DAYDverse tag at AO3
• daydverse community on LiveJournal
• daydverse community on Facebook
• daydverse tumblr, ^{Archived version}