LYN

Ok!

This is not a 2017 “best-of” or “favorites” list, but rather a list to highlight some of the amazing ways that the Drarry fandom has been tackling important issues this year. It’s been exciting to watch and I’m so eager to see what everyone will come up with next. (Many of these fics fit more than one category, so the categorization is a bit random in places.)

Race/Ethnicity and PoC Representation

Changing Tides by @carpemermaidtales for HD-Erised: Draco has spent half of his life spouting the things his father has taught him without much thought about how he feels about what he says. When he unexpectedly comes face to face with the Dark Lord, he grapples with the harsh realities of the world and struggles with his changing views on life. Instead of doing what’s expected of him fifth year, he joins Dumbledore’s Army and learns how to defend himself, how to make his own choices, and how he can be something greater than his father’s example as he grows into his own man rather than his father’s shadow. The choices he makes change both his and Harry’s fates, intertwining their paths until they converge. Through tackling the cultural implications of PoC Harry, MA explores Harry coming to terms with his identity as an orphan without connection to his family.

Dear Enemy by @gingertodgers: An anonymous benefactor makes a generous donation to Harry Potter’s School for Squibs in exchange for a weekly letter from the Boy Who Lived. What begins as a chore soon becomes the only outlet Harry has to talk about the war, love, life, hope, redemption, his renewed obsession with a certain blonde nemesis and how he really, honestly, believes that this will be the year Puddlemere United reclaim the Quidditch League Cup. Dear Enemy features diversity in every sense of the word and PoC that don’t feel tokenised. And Draco, whose whiteness is always highlighted, having a mixed-race son whom he adores is especially exciting.

Hogwarts Crammer by @waspabi: ‘You’re a wizard, Harry’ is easier to hear from a half-giant when you’re eleven, rather than from some kids on a tube platform when you’re seventeen and late for work. Waspabi’s Hogwarts Crammer is compelling from start to finish, and features PoC Harry and Hermione.

Tales from the Special Branch by @femmequixotic: When Gawain Robards asks him to form Special Branch seven-four-alpha, Harry Potter knows they’ll have to work outside the confines of the law–even though they are the law. Tales from the Special Branch is amazing for lots of reasons, including PoC representation and Jewish Pansy! 

Wild by @seefin: “No,” Harry said, by way of greeting. Malfoy’s blonde head rose slowly, carelessly. “Get out.” “I feel as though we’ve already established this, Potter,” Malfoy responded. “And I feel that what we established was that you telling me to get out of places really doesn’t make me more likely to vacate them.” Wild is a great story with lots of non-standard magic and PoC Harry.

Body Diversity and Fat Positivity

A Matter of Opinion by @goldentruth813: Harry and Draco have been together for over a decade with a life of happiness and memories to look back upon, but when one story in the Prophet questions their relationship, Draco finds the insecurity it weaves threatening to destroy everything they’ve built. GoldenTruth tells an amazing story of Draco coming to terms with his changing body as he learns to move past his insecurities.

The Words We Say by @agentmoppet: Harry knows with certainty that he and Draco Malfoy are in love. Until one day, he doesn’t, and then the only thing he knows is that he is losing him. A companion piece to A Matter of Opinion, and another great look at the story.

The Things We Did and Didn’t Do by @gingertodgers: Harry is due back from visiting Hermione and Ron in Australia, 3 months after finally spending the night with Draco. It’s time to DTR. Chubby!Harry and discussion of how body changes can cause anxieties about a relationship.

Age

Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, 75 Years of the Golden Couple by @gingertodgers: The epic love story of Harry Potter & Draco Malfoy, narrated for the Daily Prophet (Or the Quibbler) from their rocky start at Hogwarts, to the fighting in opposite sides during the War, to the rebuilding, to the marriage/partnership until their old age. I would love something about the “big picture” of Harry/Draco’s relationship, from 11 years old to 110 years old! Another great one from GingerTodgers looking at the long-run of a relationship.

Night Changes by @writcraft: Draco and Harry have spent years dancing around one another, but Potter’s straight and married. Until one day he isn’t. This lovely fic has older, well-rounded characters who are still figuring life out.

Disability

Balance, Imperfect by @bixgirl1: When Harry sustains an injury in the line of work, he no longer knows how to navigate the life he loved, and finds help and solace from the most unexpected source. Balance is great because it consciously and tactfully tackles the mental health aspects of a disability and allows Harry to finally work through his trauma.

Mental Health

What We Pretend We Can’t See by gyzym: Seven years out from the war, Harry learns the hard truth of old history: it’s never quite as far behind you as you thought. My love for this fic knows no bounds, and anxious and obsessive Draco is one of the reasons. “You do understand that it’s not — that I’ll always be this person, don’t you? That you’re not going to calm me down with sex?”

Quiet by @silveredglass: Draco is alone in the Slytherin dorms until Harry starts coming to visit. Silv’s fic is amazingly sweet and atmospheric, tackling healing from war trauma.

The Malfoy Conudrum by Omi_Ohmy for HD-Erised: Harry’s miserable living with his memories at Grimmauld Place, so after a chance meeting he takes the opportunity to move somewhere new. His housemates, though, are rather unexpected. Especially the blond, pointy one… A great fic that deals well with depressed Harry.

Heartache by @bixgirl1: “Harry doesn’t think about Malfoy anymore. Not really. Not intentionally. What if the one person you least expect is the only one who really understands what you’ve gone through? This 8th year fic deals with PTSD.

Queer and LGBT Issues 

Adventures in Solitude (Are You There, Sirius? It’s Me, Draco) by @oceaxereturns for HD-Erised: Draco is grateful to have had Sirius’ portrait to confide in all those years ago, about his sexuality and unwanted feelings for a classmate named Harry. But when he gets the portrait out of storage after twenty years, the secrets he has kept from Sirius all along come out. Secrets about Draco’s role in the war… and secrets about Harry Potter. This fic does an incredible job of capturing teenage sexuality crisis and putting it into perspective later in life.

Out and the Open by @henrymercury: The war is over, and Draco finally has the courage to decide who she is. The war is over, and Harry finally has the freedom to decide what she likes. Trans!Draco and poly dynamics.

The Light that is Blinding Me by Leontina for HD-Erised: After Flourish and Blotts stop stocking the books of Harry’s favourite author, he is directed to a queer bookshop and discovers it’s owned by none other than Draco Malfoy, who has more in common with Harry than either of them realise. MA wrote this incredible, heartwarming fic that uses queer spaces and queer life as a setting; it is completely fluffy and romantic and 100% a love story with a happy ending; AND YET it also addresses all the nastiness in the political world—hate crimes, homophobia—and has the characters in the world, in public, engaging in it all. 

The Only True Goal of the Universe by punk_rock_yuppie: It comes up, as most juvenile things do, in a game of Truth or Dare. An 8th year fic featuring trans!Draco.

Gender, Consent, and Sex

Embers by @shiftylinguini: Werewolf Alphas aren’t meant to be alone, or to suppress their ruts indefinitely like Draco has been since he was bitten eight years ago. He needs company, companionship, to knot ― he needs an Omega Heat Companion. At least, that’s what the Healers say, and even Draco can admit contacting the person they’ve referred him to might be nice. Of course it turns out to be bloody Potter. Groundbreaking AOB that subverts standard power dynamics and trope-standard ideas about consent and restraint.

Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love by @aibidil: A group of wizards’ rights activists retaliate against the Ministry after Hermione Granger wages a campaign to outlaw love potions. The group invents a sexual assault potion that throws the Ministry into chaos and starts a debate about the horror of magic’s role in sexual assault. Auror Harry Potter, Potions expert Draco Malfoy, Senior Undersecretary Hermione Granger, and Wheezes’ love potion expert Ron Weasley are assigned to the case. As they pursue the attackers and navigate the murky legal nature of consent, Harry and Draco are forced to confront their own desires. I feel like an ass reccing my own fic, but I was told to include it. Consent! Love potions! Feminism! Political debates! 

Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood by @agentmoppet and @decanthrope: Harry’s used to finding distractions to avoid studying, but propositioning Malfoy to get rid of the pesky problem of their virginity is on a whole new level, even for him. This story is incredible for realistic sex, safe sex, awkward sex!

You and Me by @bixgirl1: When Harry sits down with Malfoy, he’s really only looking for a reprieve from the constant stares and whispers. (Mostly.) What he gets instead are a series of strange events that lead to a friendship that is something else, questions that nobody knows how to answer, and the realisation that the person that Harry doesn’t know how to hate, anymore, seems to be the person who knows exactly what he needs. A story in which everything is complicated. And yet, somehow, none of it is. A really fantastic story involving serious kink negotiation.

Family Dynamics

Shibboleths by @lol-zeitgeistic for HD-Erised: Muggle Immersion co-Professor Harry Potter spends his days hanging with his son, reading to his “dog,” teaching magical kids about the internet with his cousin Dudley, and irritating Snape’s portrait. He’s understandably annoyed when his cosy life is interrupted by the Headmistress hiring on Draco Malfoy to be Hogwarts’ new Ancient Magical Cultures and Spellcasting professor. But then the explosion happens, and it turns out they’ll all need Malfoy’s knowledge if they want the magical world to survive. Shibboleths is awesome for one million reasons, but one thing I love about it is the family dynamics: seriously enviable group parenting of children (Mum Three!), deep exploration of Dursley family issues, etc.

Walking on the Air by @frnklymrshnkly: In which Molly won’t stop themeing Christmas Eve and Harry has a rebellious streak. I can’t get over the family that frnkly paints here. Harry/Draco live in a townhouse with Astoria/Ginny/Luna to raise their children together. I want to live in this fic.

Poly Dynamics

Electric Light by @seefin His gloves are from last year and the left one has a small tear in the charmed leather that he has to keep out of sight of Professor Sprout, who would go into a whole lecture on health and safety if she saw it, and then insist he wore a pair from the lost and found bucket in the corner of her mouldy old office. Seefin writes this gorgeous little story that brings out the H/D/N relationship so incredibly well.

Electric Violet by @henrymercury: “If I could go back and tell my past self,” Draco says, as he hasn’t stopped saying yet and presumably never will, “that one day Harry Potter would present me with a large purple dildo…” He trails off, apparently unable to describe quite what the outcome of this hypothetical interaction would be. “Harry wins,” Neville wheezes, “it’s too good. It’s just,” Nev stops because he’s laughing too hard again, “Harry, did you think we didn’t have enough dicks between us already, or something?” I rec this fic constantly because it is so incredibly funny, but it’s also a wonderful exploration of a three-person relationship and henrymercury really highlights the way they each offer the other something unique.

I am making this for no reason except I have a migraine and I want to. I’m sure it’s not complete, and standard disclaimer that of course it’s subjective etc, etc, but I love infidelity fics so have some! Interestingly, most of these fics are old. I didn’t do that on purpose? 

Forsaking All Others, Frayach, 10k, M: Harry and Ginny’s marriage has always been solid, but can it survive Harry’s affair with Draco Malfoy? Ginny POV, and the characterization here is soooo good. H/D cheat on their wives; ends with H/G.

Eye of the Beholder, pir8fancier, 22k, M: Draco Malfoy has written an explosive autobiography. Not only does lay bare his role as a Death Eater, he also makes a number of other shocking revelations. Harry Potter owls him, asking that they meet for drinks to discuss his novel. Draco’s voice in this is so so so so good. Open ending in terms of whether Harry leaves Ginny or not.

Liar, jad, 50k, E: Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy always preferred the worst of each other; unfortunately, they had better halves. I really loved this fic because the scope is just SO HUGE and it’s just so incredibly in-your-face, long-term infidelity, and done in a way that is so human. Also Draco works in the Ministry MORGUE, which is amazing?? HD cheat on their wives. (Content note here: mild Ron bashing but I would urge you to witness the way the author uses it to show Ron as like, standard male behavior? idk I really enjoyed it even though it was cringey.)

Anything But Ordinary, 0idontknow0, 38k, E: “I got someone pregnant,” he said. “Draco Malfoy to be specific.” This is epilogue compliant mpreg after a pretty long-term infidelity that I enjoyed because it showed how Harry was struggling with his feelings for these two people. (Content note for mild Ginny bashing.) H/D cheat on their wives, get divorced.

The Perfect Husband, curlee_cue, 9k, E: “Malfoy tilts his head back, locks eyes with Harry, and he’s so open, so eager to comfort that Harry wants to punch him till he bleeds. Instead, he leans down, presses a tender kiss along the freckled bridge of Malfoy’s too pointy nose. Malfoy’s just like Ginny, in a way. So naïve and trusting, so willing to believe the perfect man Harry will never be.” This one is angsty and about coming to terms with sexuality and Harry figuring out that he can’t have the “normal” life he’d always envisioned. 

Blueprints for a Dream, Frayach, 24k, E: Harry breaks Draco’s heart, but that doesn’t mean Draco’s going to let him go without a fight. Harry cheats on Draco with Ginny early on in this fic. It is so so good. Draco opens a quill shop and is a full-blown stalker. An all-time favorite of mine. 

Clear As Mud, scoradh, 10k, M: Set post-war and post-Harry’s-conscience…Written for the_eros_affair Harry/Draco challenge (November 2005), to cheque number 31: “I promise not to discuss our sex life with our friends.” This little fic written in 2005 is so much fun and filled with lots of amazing characterization; Harry cheated on Ginny with Draco, but before the story starts. It’s filled with incredible lines like “Malfoy inspired an incredible amount of self-doubt in Harry by doing nothing more than looking like he had enough confidence for three people and enough scathing put-downs for another five.” Also Draco lives in a disgusting Muggle hovel and is friends with a bunch of bizarre Muggle characters.

(Adding my own fic because 1) yolo and 2) when you spend so long writing infidelity you can’t write a list like this without thinking about it:)

Still Trying to learn how to draw these two

"–two weeks is a long time! "

Lucius: I’m sorry?

Harry: I said I’m in…

Sorry this is so long. I kind of just get going and can’t help myself. Hope you enjoy them anyway. Much love, happy reading :)

All Our Secrets Laid Bare by firethesound @firethesound

Summary: Over the six years Draco Malfoy has been an Auror, four of his partners have turned up dead. Harry Potter is assigned as his newest partner to investigate just what is going on. Rating: Explicit WC: 149 K

This is my all time favourite fan fiction of all time. I’ve re read it so many times.

The Sleeping Beauty Curse by who_la_hoop 

Summary: When Draco Malfoy falls into a cursed sleep and can only be woken – at least, according to the Daily Prophet, that impeccable source of truth – by ‘true love’s kiss’, Harry Potter knows there’s no way on earth he’s the answer to this particular riddle. Is he …? Rating: Explicit WC: 152 K

Things Worth Knowing by Femme (femmequixotic), noeon (noe) @femmequixotic

Summary: After the Battle, Harry thinks he’s left Hogwarts for good, but Minerva insists that all students return for an Eighth Year if they wish to sit for NEWTs in the spring, and Harry needs those NEWTs to go into the Aurors. Draco’s just grateful not to be in Azkaban. Or the Manor. He’s hoping he can steer clear of Potter this year and grapple with his own problems. Unfortunately for him, Potter appears to be one of those problems. And that’s not even addressing the fact that Potter’s got serious issues of his own, which Draco realises as he’s forced to share an Eighth Year dormitory room and several classes with the Gryffindor Git. If only they can make it through the year without killing each other, it should be all right, shouldn’t it? Rating: Explicit WC: 164 K

This is definitely my favourite Hogwarts Eighth Year fic. 

Bond by AnnaFugazzi 

Summary: I started to write this before HBP came out, and crossed my fingers that HBP wouldn’t make it totally non-canon. No such luck, I’m afraid. This, therefore, is an AU story, where (SPOILER) still teaches (SPOILER), (SPOILER) didn’t try to (SPOILER), (SPOILER) didn’t succeed in (SPOILER), (SPOILER) never dated (SPOILER), and most importantly, (MAJOR ENDING SPOILERS) never happened. Rating: Mature WC: 173 K

This is the ultimate Bond fic. 

For The Greater Good by jadepresley

Summary: When Harry and Draco discover they’ve been bonded to one another, neither one of them is prepared for the secrets they slowly begin to uncover.Together, they learn that they can’t escape their past, or the things that have been left hidden there, and that sometimes the only way to move forward is to look back. Rating: Explicit WC: 62 K

This one is beautiful and sad all at the same time. 

Turn by Saras_Girl

Summary: One good turn always deserves another. Apparently. Rating: Explicit WC: 300 K

Turn is just…..it’s just a fucking masterpiece. 

All Missing Things (Can Be Found) by gracie137 @callingdrarry

Summary: After a drunken hook up ends badly, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy have no intention of ever speaking again – but when they’re assigned to solve a case of young child disappearances, they have to put their past behind them. Rating: Explicit WC: 100 K

The original characters in this are just amazing. 

The Claiming of Grimmauld Place by bixgirl1 @bixgirl1

Summary: When Grimmauld Place begins fighting against Harry’s ownership of it, he decides he needs help to train the historic home — but little does he expect that it’ll be Malfoy who’s most suitable for the challenge. However, as Malfoy and Harry get closer, Harry comes to understand that expectations aren’t always the best path by which to guide his heart — and in the process learns just what is needed to make a house a home. Rating: Explicit WC: 74 K

I laughed SO many times through this fic. It was brilliant. Everything by bixgirl is fab. Just read everything. 

Get Some by sara_holmes

Summary: Voldemort is dead. Life goes on. Harry is sick and tired of everyone treating him differently and letting him get away with everything. Rating: Mature WC: 78 K

linny drawings….. as well as a linny fankid (the blonde hufflepuff, her name’s soleil lovegood!) and @raeamtrick‘s linny fankid as well!!