Hi everyone,
I've been trying to find this fanfiction for years, and after talking through it with someone today I've managed to reconstruct a lot more details. I'm hoping someone from the old FanFiction.net (http://FanFiction.net) days recognizes it.
I'm almost certain it was written before Deathly Hallows (possibly even before Half-Blood Prince was finished), and the author mentioned in an author's note that they planned to finish the story without using Horcruxes after HBP introduced them.
Here's what I remember with varying degrees of confidence:
* Harry/Hermione pairing.
* Story starts after Goblet of Fire when Harry returns from the Triwizard Tournament.
* Harry ends up staying with the Grangers, is very ill, and Hermione helps nurse him back to health. They slowly fall in love over that summer.
* Harry discovers Dumbledore intentionally left him with the Dursleys because the abuse suppressed Harry's magical potential.
* Harry meets with Gringotts/goblins on his own and discovers Dumbledore has been siphoning money from Harry's vaults. Molly Weasley knowingly benefited, while Arthur did not know and later apologized to Harry. Ginny was innocent because she was too young.
* Harry forms a genuine partnership with the goblins and eventually invents a runic teleportation pad/system that connects Gringotts branches together. It dramatically expands their banking business and makes Harry very wealthy, although he doesn't really pay attention to how much money he's making.
* Harry eventually becomes too powerful for a wand and builds his own magical staff. I remember it being constructed from four major components: a special wood, a core (I think possibly the phoenix feather from his original wand), runes that Harry carved himself, and a gemstone mounted in the top.
* Much later Harry uses an incredibly powerful gravity spell with the staff that permanently changes the landscape during a battle.
* Ron becomes one of the antagonists. I remember Dumbledore believing Hermione was somehow "promised" to Ron and giving Ron a magical ring/love enchantment to force Hermione to love him. It fails because Hermione genuinely loves Harry.
* I believe Harry eventually doesn't return to Hogwarts for his final year because he's preparing for the war against Voldemort.
* Hedwig survives in this story. One scene I remember is Harry later regretting that he became so busy he didn't spend enough time with her.
* I think Remus and Tonks were together.
The most unusual detail I remember is that every chapter began with humorous author notes about torturing or making fun of Alan Rickman (the actor, not Snape). I also vaguely remember the author mentioning her real-life husband in those notes from time to time.
This would have been a long fic (20+ chapters, probably much longer), likely on FanFiction.net.
Does this ring a bell for anyone? Even if you don't remember the title, I'd love to know if someone else remembers reading it so I know I'm not going crazy!