'well, he's more famous than you are!' - an interesting perspective. Pardon me if I raise a question - if this is true, why haven't we heard of him in canon? Bringing in OCs (i.e. characters unknown from canon) can make a fanfic interesting. It is always more effective, in my humble opinion, if there is a good rationale for why said characters don't appear in canon. You pretty much had that with the idea that Zoric quit being an auror because of cutbacks in the ministry (though the way you present Fudge's involvement in that doesn't quite fit the fact that Fudge only became Minister at the beginning [or just before] of Harry's time at Hogwarts [Book 5, p. 192 Amer. Pap.]. Having Zoric so famous (even if Neville's exclamation is an exaggeration) tends to undercut that (as does Zoric's presence in the Order; we should have seen him at Grimmauld Place and should have heard of that if he was so famous).
Author's response
Harry had also never heard of Krum, the most famous seeker around, and he was interested in Quidditch, as opposed to magical dectectives.
"T"