From 'Manacled' to 'Alchemised': Should We Really Keep Publishing Potter Fanfiction?

By Carolina Dionísio

The progression from Harry Potter to Manacled to Alchemised has generated significant discussion across BookTok: is it worthwhile, ethical, or an instance of plagiarism?

The story of author SenLinYu, also known as simply Sen, began in 2018, when they uploaded the first chapter of what would later become the most infamous Harry Potter fanfiction: Manacled.

Image Sourced through Pinterest

Sen would write on the notes app during their free time and upload chapters on Archive Of Our Own (AO3), an online platform for everything-fanfiction. Every tag, sub-genre, kink, fandom, and ship you can think of is there. Even the ones deemed obscure, taboo, or forbidden. That’s one of the reasons why AO3 was perfect for Manacled. 

Because Manacled wasn’t the usual HP cutesy fanfiction with some magic and mischief. No. It was dark, morbid, raw, ruthless, and extremely graphic for some readers. It followed triggering themes such as sexual violence, trauma, torture, and war, which were always accompanied by the most heartbreaking descriptions of both past and present. 

This is because the story follows an alternate universe in which Voldemort wins the Second Wizarding War at the end of the series and the Order of the Phoenix is defeated. 

“Harry Potter is dead. In the aftermath of the war, in order to strengthen the might of the magical world, Voldemort enacts a repopulation effort. Hermione Granger has an Order secret, lost but hidden in her mind, so she is sent as an enslaved surrogate to the High Reeve until her mind can be cracked”, reads the description on Goodreads. 

The problem with some readers began when they realized Manacled was simply Harry Potter and a romanticized version of The Handmaid’s Tale mashed together. From the clothes to the titles and the rules, the world felt as original as it felt ripped off. Many argued it's just how fanfiction works, others felt like Sen was lazy and trying too hard to be dark and edgy, and all the trauma felt solely for shock value.  

Manacled quickly grew both loved and hated, with one side calling it a tragic revolutionary story, and others “rapey” and unnecessarily violent. Because, in its essence, it is a fanfiction where Hermione is constantly abused, tortured, and sexually assaulted by Draco — but since he was actually trying to save her all along and he didn’t want to do any of it, some readers excuse it, or even glamorize it, for the sake of Draco’s redemption character. 

Image of SenLinYu; Sourced from The Today Show

And this is where we have to draw the line.

There is never an excuse to glamorize, sexualize, or romanticize this type of systemic abuse in any form of media. A crime is always a crime, despite how many fancy covers we put on top of it. Trying to write rape as something equally traumatic for both the victim and the innocent-perpetrator-persona is more than problematic. 

In the light of such critiques, and despite following the story of Dramione, which is arguably the most famous romantic ship in Hogwarts fanfiction, Sen argued the book was never meant to be read as a romance, but as a “horror dystopia”.

The problem thickened when people started hand-making bound versions of the story and selling it as some sort of must-read, alternate universe official fanfic/book. The frenzied around Manacled was insane, and that inevitably raised the question of whether to involve or not involve J.K. Rowling in the narrative.

Although Manacled is a separate story and the original Potter author will never get a dime for it, it is still harmful to keep supporting her, even if indirectly. 

Many brought up the issue of SenLinYu, a non-binary person, openly associating their work with something written by a transphobic person. It seems to be a conflict of interest that can result in one of the following arguments: either we separate the art from the artist, or we don’t. 

Either we love and support Harry Potter and not Rowling, or we don’t. But we can’t deny that it is extremely difficult, and almost impossible, to support the books or movies without giving any profit whatsoever to the original author.

Booktok was a mix of emotions when, in February of 2024, the rights to traditionally publish Alchemised — a rewritten version of Manacled set outside Rowling’s universe — were made public. Classified as a standalone dark fantasy novel with over 1000 pages, the book was picked up by Del Rey at Penguin Random House in the U.S. and Michael Joseph at Penguin Books in the U.K.. 

Once again, the questions resurfaced. 

Should we keep J.K. Rowling out of this? And is it moral to publish fanfiction? 

Even if Alchemised has had a number of edits and revisions, the contents of the book are still uncertain. Hermione became Helena; Harry Potter became Holdfast; the Order of the Phoenix became the Eternal Flame; Dark Magic is now necromancy; the Death Eaters are now undead creatures. We can’t deny the subtle similarities, so readers aren’t sure if it’s possible to exclude all the aspects of the story that are completely copied from both Harry Potter and The Handmaid’s Tale. 

There was also a discussion regarding the book cover and the usage of AI. Although the cover of Alchemised itself was not made with the help of AI, the artist behind it is known for defending AI in artistic spaces and even using it in lots of their other creations.

Then, the most recent debate comes from the movie news regarding the book. On September 10th, 2025, Legendary Entertainment bought the film rights for around 3 million dollars, making it the largest book-to-movie deal ever. 

“SenLinYu has inked a seven-figure movie deal for their novel Alchemised, which was originally a Harry Potter fanfiction on AO3”, writes Pop Crave, one of the most followed pop-culture sources on social media.

The online community didn’t take this lightly; even I grimaced at my phone. 

My first question regarding all these debates is: Should we really bring such graphic and triggering themes to the big screen? Should we adapt made-up stories of constant violence against women for no good reason?

One of my issues with fiction overall, not just fanfiction, is how the word itself could be used to excuse any and every piece of media. It doesn’t matter if it’s graphic, triggering, insensitive, extremely well-crafted, or poorly done — “it’s just fiction, it doesn’t matter”.

But it doesn't matter a lot. Especially when these types of media are being catered to mostly the YA demographic, which is basically made up of impressionable teens who are going to absorb this disfigured version of a relationship like a sponge absorbs water. 

Call me “too woke”, but I truly believe that adapting Alchemised or any sort of media that’s built around a violent and misogynistic made-up plot (meaning, it’s not based on a true story, in which case, the violence would serve as awareness and representation), is harmful and unnecessary. Not everything needs a movie or a show, especially such damaging concepts. 

There’s also the possibility of it being incredibly badly received, like, for example, Irréversible, a 2002 French film directed by Gaspar Noé. Many viewers walked out of screenings at the Cannes Film Festival due to an almost 10-minute-long assault scene, which they deemed unnecessary and borderline fetishizing. 

Manacled was initially built around children conceived by rape through forced surrogacy. Alchemised is described as a dark fantasy with themes of kidnapping, war, torture, trauma and survival.

We, readers and watchers, are not dumb. We can imagine what that character is going through based on these keywords alone; we can read the underlying message. We don’t need to actually see her go through it, especially if she’s going to end up falling into an “unlikely love with her captor”. 

Image Sourced from Artist @avendellart

Then, my second question is: Should we keep mentioning Harry Potter?

Because given Rowling’s beliefs and political takes that go against a lot of minorities, especially the transgender community, it is extremely harmful that we keep using her name and brand as clout, or a way of advertising multi-million dollar deals — especially when “Harry Potter” alone is already a pretty big neon sign. 

After decades, it has become clear that the Wizarding World will never fade. We keep getting official reboots. Every year, there’s a new generation of teenagers discovering the books. Every Fall, #Dracotok resurfaces from the depths of the internet as some sort of nostalgic fever dream. Every Winter, we get the movies recommended to us as a must-watch. 

J.K. Rowling will never stop profiting; therefore, all the racist and transphobic organizations she supports will never stop getting generous donations on her behalf. Associating her horrible acts with a non-binary author, such as SenLinYu, is damaging to both the author, the community and all the work and progress said community has made in terms of social justice and basic human rights.

The fact that publishers and bookshops are actively promoting Alchemised as a Dramione fanfiction also makes it hard for people to separate both worlds. 

Moreover, Alchemised is not even the first Hogwarts fanfiction to be picked up and published as an original work with a different title and a couple of plot changes.

Rose in Chains by Julie Soto was originally The Auction: a Dramione fanfiction in which Hermione “has been captured and reduced to human chattel” — basically sold and kept as a slave. 

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley was originally Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love, also a Dramione fanfiction in which Draco is assigned to protect Hermione from mysterious forces. 

The mold seems to be simply recycling this magical world for nostalgic value, while simultaneously relying on the renowned title of a 27-year-old series and an author who does not deserve any more recognition.  

Image Sourced from Penguin Random House

So, my third question is: Is it moral to keep leveraging Harry Potter as a marketing technique and a way to secure the success of yet another fanfiction deal?

Because even if Rowling does not profit directly from these deals, even mentioning her name is already half the job. 

So no, it is not moral. Compromising entire communities and their safety over quick money and easy access to the best-sellers list is never moral 

Instead, I suggest we invest in diverse stories from new authors that represent different communities. Instead, I suggest not using all those millions of dollars to keep adapting revised fanfictions that were inherently built on top of a foundation that belongs to another. 

Because the fourth and final question is: Where does fanfiction end, and plagiarism begin?

We should go back to the primordials of fanfiction to understand what the title really means, because I feel as the concept has gotten lost somewhere over the past generation of writers and the current one. 

According to Oxford Languages, fanfiction is “fiction written by a fan of, and featuring characters from, a particular TV series, film, etc”. 

It’s a different type of media created by different types of authors for completely different reasons, that exists in specific types of spaces. It is commonly used inside the fanfiction community as a hobby, an escape, or a way of learning and developing writing abilities without the "hassle" of creating a whole new world from scratch. 

So it’s important to remember that fanfictions, despite how well-written they are, are not books — and that’s okay. This statement doesn’t have to be taken as derogatory or insulting, because it’s facts. I noticed a lot of people have added fanfictions (such as Manacled) to Goodreads, and it simply does not belong there for two basic reasons: free fan work is not made to be critiqued like published novels would; it doesn’t have an ISBN code (a numeric commercial book identifier that all books must have). 

With time, fanfiction has lost its original essence, which is a shame. As a fanfiction reader and writer myself, I miss the days I would hide in my sheets to read until the crack of dawn, or when I would write incognito online without any sort of negative review.

I’m not saying I want to bring back the shame some of us once suffered from reading/writing fanfics, or to gatekeep the community. I’m just saying that fanfiction has history, boundaries, “rules”, and its own place already. It's a whole world accessible to everyone who desires to get in, but only if they do it through the front door, because that’s the way of keeping everything in place and respecting both readers and authors. 

But fanfics are now being criticized, reviewed, translated, and recommended online like a book would. They are now held to traditional novel standards and judged as such, to the point these unpaid authors have to apologize for the lack of weekly updates, beg self-entitled readers not to re-upload their work after it's been deleted, or constantly repeat “no, you can’t sell my fanfic”. Even SenLinYu had to come online and say they did not want Manacled on Etsy. 

We are witnessing the constant commercialization and commodification of fanfiction, and that is killing the deeper community within.  

Because we also can’t brush over the fact that not one fanfiction author has the legal rights to the vast majority of the characters they are writing about, and they also do not own the world, even if it’s an alternate version. Therefore, as I mentioned before, we can’t simply download fanfictions, bind them, and sell them. That’s plagiarism, which could lead to other legal violations like copyright infringement or fraud: criminal offenses punishable by up to five years in prison, and fines of up to $250,000. 

This is not what we want the community to be, so this is why publishers should stop picking up fanfics with millions of reads and turning them into books, hoping they’ll get millions of buys. 

And sure, nowadays, there’s a best-selling book universe that was once related to Harry Potter fanfiction, and that universe was also turned into movies, shows, merch, and world tours. But the thing is: that universe is truly, completely reimagined. The author wrote a one-shot (a complete story told in only one chapter), and then worked on it for years to make sure it was a whole new world with brand new themes, and characters that had their own personalities and backgrounds. There are really no elements across all books, sequels, or prequels that could be a correlation to either Potter or Rowling, and a big reason why is that it was never advertised as such. At least, not like Manacled or Rose in Chains, which were almost forced to piggyback off their fanfiction past, so are now inevitably forever bound to Rowling’s racist and transphobic wallet. 

So, no, I don’t think it’s worth it. I don’t think it’s even as rentable as publishers claim it to be. I think buying, editing, and publishing fanfiction is a double-edged sword that, one day, is bound to turn on the publishers who forged them — and I think that day is today. I think the online world is finally changing its mind about this.

Because once, these fanfic-book-movie adaptations were slow, subtle, and careful. You didn’t know the book you love was once published on Tumblr or AO3, unless the author's quirky username was leaked on Reddit with a bad-quality screenshot dated a decade ago.

But now, it’s all about marketing and money, like everything ever is. Money above books. Money above quality. Money above voices. Money above minorities. 

But read what you want because it’s “just fiction”, right?

Well yes, until it isn’t.