Honorable Hogwarts is a play by post roleplaying game set about a year after the seventh and final Harry Potter book. It is known for its convoluted, labyrinthine and troperrific storyline (the site emphasizes writing/storytelling over roleplaying, and because at least eight tropers are featured among its regular members is rather brightly lit).
This site is a follow-up to the now-defunct Hogwarts Rising, a similar site that took place during the Canon Harry Potter storyline. It continues following the non-canon characters from that site, with Jason Frost (who on the old site was set up as a Lancer for Harry) now playing the role of main character. The site has a Spin-Off, Hogwarts Futures, which follows the activities of various characters seventeen years later. Much of the plot comes from them dealing with the extended fallout of their own actions during the Honorable Hogwarts timeframe, as well as introducing several older, more manipulative antagonists and a new generation of student wizards.
Because this site's storyline is much, much Darker and Edgier than the actual Harry Potter books... some say it's good, and others say they need Brain Bleach after viewing it.
Honorable Hogwarts can be found here, and Hogwarts Futures can be found here. There is also a Prequel Fan Fic in the works, which tells what the characters on the site were doing during the timeframe of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
A character page can be found here.
This site provides examples of the following tropes:
- Accidental Aiming Skills: Rare non-combat version. In this thread, the Gryffindor Quidditch team's Seeker (a playing position from which goals are not usually scored) tries her hand at shooting goals and actually makes her first shot, then admits she was aiming for one of the other goal hoops.
- Actor Allusion: Jason's Quidditch nickname, Pinata, is also the internet screenname of the guy who plays him.
- All of the Other Reindeer: One of the few ways in which this site is similar to Canon... the evil Slytherins and wealthy Death Eaters are quite popular at first, and the protagonists are mostly social outcasts for one reason or another.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Several attacks against Hogwarts and the Ministry by Death Eaters fall squarely under this trope. The Ottery St. Catchpole thread also probably qualifies.
- Alternate Character Interpretation: Harry's not a noble idealist, he's a dangerously wimpy pacifist who gets people killed; Colin Creevey's actually really a chainsmoking Badass Biker who knows not only kung fu but also Le Parkour; Draco Malfoy is actually not that bad a guy, and capable of Heroic Sacrifice if need be (not to mention wearing leather pants).
- Ambiguously Jewish: The Zotermeer brothers. Their names are Jacob and Isaac, they're both rather good with money, and Jacob was once heard to say "Oy vey." But their exact religion/ethnic heritage has never been specifically stated, so they might not be Jews at all.
- Anachronic Order: Because some people are online a lot and others only check in off and on, some arcs move faster than others... this means that certain areas of the plot are sometimes as much as half a year ahead of others.
- Ascended Extra: Xanthe Chapel, Trowa Marshall, Alvin Pairis, Blair Duchess, Abrianna Madoc and Sally Carinaris were nowhere near as important to the plot as they are now when they first started out. With Character Development and more frequent logins by the people playing them, however, they've become main characters.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: River learned martial arts from watching internet videos.
- Badass Creed: Jason, addressing the other inaugural members of the Order of the Silver Dagger for the first time, told them: "From this point forth we show no mercy, give no quarter, and take no prisoners. If they want to call themselves the Death Eaters, then let them taste death!" The last line of this became the group's official motto.
- Badass Normal: The first two Muggle characters introduced on the site, David Markov and Ray Garside, turned out to be much more badass than many of the wizard characters.
- Badass Teacher: Applies to several characters, but particularly Fred Colton, Debra Reynolds and Brodie Carinaris. Also, McGonagall is a Canon example.
- Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Tawnie has moral qualms about using deadly force against the Brotherhood of the Light. Not to worry... she shares a psychic link with Sasha Rookwood, who has no problem whatsoever assuming control of Tawnie's mind and body and firing off a Killing Curse.
- Battle in the Rain: The Ottery St. Catchpole thread. Lot of explosives in use considering the inclement weather, too.
- Bears Are Bad News: Subverted. During the Battle of Ottery St. Catchpole, Cimarron magically summons a bear and it proceeds to start fighting on the good guys' side and eating her enemies.
- Berserk Button
- Most major characters have developed a Protectorate by now; Madeline especially is one of these for Jason.
- Brent Phanan goes quite literally Ax-Crazy over child abuse.
- Lucy Frost is has a borderline Hair-Trigger Temper when it comes to political issues (the environment's especially a major sticking point with her).
- Willow is this for Envy. Rape/molestation are for the girl who plays hers.
- Don't pick on the name of the city of Bangkok in front of Ratree. She's pretty much guaranteed to go off on you. For that matter, don't change her name to "Rat Tree" either.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: Lampshaded by Cimarron.Envy: So I take it you're into girls?Cimarron: Girls, boys, goats... whatever's available.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Orville Brand, pretty much since the site started. See the Smug Snake entry below for a possible reason why he'll never actually be the Big Bad.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: Jason is made of this trope. There's also the fact that the site's best Torture Technician, Kalia St. Clair, is working for the good guys.
- Bond One-Liner: Jason, after being challenged to single combat by Darius Walker and defeating him: "So, was it good for you?"
- Brainy Brunette: Acacia Webb. Strangely enough, she's also a bit attractive (Shiri Appleby for the win!).
- Broken Ace: Several, though Jason Frost, Abel King and Erastes Blake seem to be among the more prominent examples of this.
- The Butcher: In the Prequel Fan Fic, Jason names himself "The Butcher of Hogsmeade" as part of his campaign to get innocent bystanders more afraid of him than they are of Voldemort so they won't help the Dark Lord.
- Captain Ersatz: River Applewhite (River Tam), Consuela Bananahammock (Phoebe Buffett), Jacob Zotermeer (Benjamin Linus), Roland Wainwright (Roland Deschain, with magical powers), Ando Saeki (Sylar), Miranda Frost.
- Cast Herd: Many characters created to fill out a specific group usually stick around that group, easily categorizing school houses or businesses. Possible Herd Leaders include Jason, Aldous, Abel, Markov, Envy, and Sakiko.
- Catch and Return: Jason did this with his feet once. Although admittedly, throwing knives are easier to do this with than bullets or arrows.
- Catfight: Tawnie and Summit had one in Transfiguration class once. It was a pretty intense one, too.
- Chess Motifs: Jacob Zotermeer has started using these in his dialogue recently. Though he'll still need more Character Development before we know whether he's a Chessmaster or a Magnificent Bastard (the latter is more likely, considering he's inspired by Ben Linus), pre-Villain Decay.
- Child by Rape: Ivan "Muerte" Sengir, on the Spin-Off site, is the product of Cimarron Arriaga's rape during an interrogation of Irini Sengir.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Kieran Halcyon. He might talk the talk, but he wouldn't act on most of the sexual innuendo he spouts... he's doing it for laughs. Besides, he might still have a shot with the one girl who's actually really caught his eye. Possibly.
- Combat Pragmatist: Zig-Zagging Trope. Characters who you wouldn't expect to be one are, and some of the most badass characters fall closer to Honor Before Reason. Even in the same character there will be times where that character is pragmatic, and times where they aren't (even the worst fighters don't fall quite into Idiot Ball territory, though).
- Jason: Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now, you Death Eater cunt.
- Cultural Translation: Though the bulk of the storyline does take place in England still, the American Wizarding School (and Wizarding Village) have been introduced, causing several American characters to expand the site's population. Also, especially considering that the person playing him is an American, Jason's political views — especially regarding the death penalty — could be an example of this trope (though if that's the case it wasn't intentional).
- Dance Battler: Cimarron Arriaga uses capoeira, which is one of the more common fighting styles associated with this trope.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Lena Lacy is a Goth who is decidedly non-perky; Isabella Devincenzi and Erastes Blake are actual vampires. All of them are fighting on the side of good.
- Decapitation Presentation: Walter Zotermeer was elevated from Quirky Miniboss Squad member to pure evil in large part due to the glee with which he showed off the severed head of Chief Auror Gawain Robards. A lot of his fellow Death Eaters seemed to be less than enthusiastic about it.
- Depending on the Writer: As members leave the site, sometimes they will leave their characters in the hands of other roleplayers. This trope is most noticeable in the case of Lena Lacy, who has now been played by four different people.
- Distress Ball: Not surprisingly, it's rather dangerous to be Jason's girlfriend. Therefore, Madeline Pairis has found herself holding this quite a few times (she's almost literally got a bullseye painted on her ass now that she's married him).
- Door Stopper: Given the length of time the site has been running, there is a lot of material to read. Some individual threads could also qualify; Count to a Billion is easily the longest OOC topic, the the Ambassadorial Ball holds the IC record.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Mostly happens to Canon characters that aren't well-liked (or need to be killed off for dramatic purposes), though a fair amount of bridges are dropped on original characters as well.
- Dual Wielding: Jason can do this with magic spells. So can certain other characters who cast spells without using wands, but Jason does it more often than them.
- Enemy Civil War: A favorite trope of Olivier Morges, who enjoys turning his fellow Death Eaters against each other to make himself even more useful as a The Mole.
- Equippable Ally: Armamagi are witches and wizards with the ability to transform either their whole body or parts of their body into weapons. So far the only Armamagi on the site are Masher Steinbeck (mace) and Envy (scythe).
- Ethical Slut: Karina Yavimaya, and to a slightly less "ethical" extent Vix Tilmitt. Cimarron Arriaga is too unethical to be this.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Loreley had it when she first started getting broken.
- The Unmasqued World: The setting has been this since Aldous Conor abolished the statute of secrecy.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Lilliana O'Neill, although it was probably Justified seeing as how Slytherin boys were urinating on her at the time.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Jason. Noah Howerton tries to pass himself off as this in order to get people to like him more, but he's actually not.
- You Fight Like a Cow: Kieran Halcyon, Draco Malfoy and Sasha Rookwood have all proven to be very good at this type of dialogue. Jason indulges in it from time to time as well.