Personal/Random Blog

Happy Pride Month🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🎉

I’m rekindling my love for Harry Potter. As much as I’m fond of the movie versions, my childhood idea of the golden trio was due a revamp.

★ Lists (of links) to lists (of fics) || as of 2020.08 ※ About my favourites

Timeline :

Book 2. Chamber of Secrets : Draco has the diary

Book 4. Triwizard Tournament : Draco appears in the 2nd task  |  Yule Ball

Book 6. Sectumsempra : alternate scene

Book 7. Horcrux hunting : Draco with the trio

Hogwarts Era

Wartime

8th year   •   8th year Hufflepuff!Drarry

Draco’s birthday

Halloween

Christmas

Settings :

Bets & Wagers / Pranks

Breaking the Statute of Secrecy

Clubbing

Coffee shops AU

Coming back to the Wizarding world

Different schools AU : Beauxbatons, Durmstrang

Everyone lives AU   |   Sirius Black Lives

Games : drinking games, party games,…

Historical AU

Leaving England

Muggle life   |   Muggle things

No Hogwarts AU (joining the Wizarding world later)

Non-magical AU (& high school, college/uni)

Politics

Pureblood culture

Sentient house

Sorting AU : Slytherin Harry | Gryffindor Draco | Ravenclaw Draco

Time travel   |   Dimension travel

Voldemort wins AU   |   No Voldemort AU

Genres / Formats :

5+1 things

Angst

Canon rewrite

Case fic / Mystery

Dark fic / horror

Epistolary   |   Social media

Fluff   |   Fluff (Hogwarts era)

Humour

Hurt / comfort

Kid fic   |   Raising a child

POV Outsider

Serialized fics

Slow burn / slow build

Song fic / song-inspired fic

Relationship status :

A/B/O Dynamics

BDSM

Bonding

Boss/Employee relationship

Casual relationship

Childhood friends   |   Friends in early years of Hogwarts

Counselling

Courtship

Domestic!Drarry   |   Pet names

Enemies (to Friends) to Lovers

Established relationship

Fake/Pretend relationship   |   Arranged marriage

Flirting

Friends to Lovers

Friends with Benefits

Infidelity

Marriage proposal

Misunderstandings / Miscommunication

Reconciliation

Roommates   |   Sharing a Bed

Secret relationship

Slavery

Soulmates

Stalking

Strangers to Lovers (with various AUs)

Teacher-student relationship / Tutoring

Ties switching

Unhappy ending (between H/D)

Unrequited love

Occupations :

Arts : artist, dancing, music, musician, pianist!Draco

Auror   |   Military

Breakup specialist!Draco

Chef

Healer!Draco   |   Mind healer

Minister-for-Magic!Harry

Model

Pirate

Potions Master!Draco

Professor (at Hogwarts)

Prostitution / Sex Work   |   Stripper

Secretary / PA!Draco

Seer!Draco / divination

Unspeakable!Draco

Wandmaker!Draco   •   Wandmaker!Harry

Writer

Characteristics :

Chubby!Drarry

Dark!Drarry

Determined!Draco

French!Draco

Insecure!Drarry

Jealous!Draco   •   Jealous!Harry

LGBTQIA+ : asexuality, fem!Drarry, transgender

Manipulative!Harry

Master-of-Death!Draco   •   Master-of-Death!Harry

Oblivious!Drarry

Pining!Draco   •   Pining!Harry

PoC!Drarry

Possessive!Drarry

Powerful!Draco   •   Powerful!Harry

Protective!Harry

Reckless!Harry

Recluse!Harry

Sassy!Harry

Shy!Drarry

Silly!Draco

Snarky!Draco

Spy!Draco / Redeemed!Draco

Sweetheart!Draco

Tall !Harry

Troubled!Draco   |   Exiled!Draco

Magical / physical situations :

Abused (Draco)

Age difference

Amnesia

Animagus

Bodyswap

Captivity : Draco in Azkaban   |   Harry in Malfoy Manor

Coming out

Creature!Drarry (vampire, veela, werewolf)  |  merman  |  phoenix

Crossdressing

Dark Mark

De-age

Disability (+blind, deaf)  &  mute

Drunkenness / Intoxication

Ghost

Illness   |   Hanahaki disease

Injury

Internalized homophobia

Life debt

Love / Lust potion

Mental health issues / PTSD   |   eating disorders

Mpreg!Draco   •   Mpreg!Harry

Parseltongue

Patronus

Quidditch

Recovery

Sectumsempra

Substance abuse

Suicide implied/referenced

Tattoos (magical)

Sexual details :

Bottom!Draco   •   Bottom!Harry

First time / Virginity   |   Awkward first time

Rape/Non-Con elements

Smut : anal plug, (specialized) dildo, hate sex, hospital sex, ice play, piercings, praise kink, (semi) public sex, riding (Draco), size kink, slut, wanking

Interaction with other characters :

Animals / Pets

Draco & his parents

Draco & Luna friendship

Draco & Ron friendship  |  Draco friends with Hermione/Ron first

Draco & the Dursleys

Draco & the Weasleys : Molly  |  George  |  Ginny & others

Draco has a sibling

Drarry & Scorbus

Drarry & Scorpius

Drarry & Snupin

Drarry & Teddy

Drarry & Wolfstar

Harry & Narcissa friendship

Harry & Pansy friendship

Harry & the Malfoys

Harry & the Slytherins friendship

Harry has a sibling

Harry reconciles with his Muggle family

Matchmaking / Meddling from family, friends, professors…

Mentor!McGonagall

Mentor!Snape

Sex Ed class

The Golden Trio broken up

Misc.

+ podfic

uncategorized themes

At first Draco can’t pinpoint what it is. He can see Granger and Weasley haven’t figured it out either, from the way the former always has a little worried half frown when she sees Harry joking or laughing with that slightly wrong expression. Weasley on the other hand seems to be hurt by Harry’s ability to carry on life like none of it had ever happened. His face darkens when Harry casually skips past mentions of the brother he lost and Draco can’t help thinking the behaviour is very … un-Harry.

It takes him two months to figure it out. Two months of watching Harry - watching almost everyone around him accept this new smiling, laughing - shallow Potter. It’s not just that he’s happy … he doesn’t have the same sarcastic quips. He doesn’t eat his food so fast you’d think someone was about to take it from him. He doesn’t have that same razor awareness of his surroundings … he barely ever catches Draco watching him.

It’s the fact that they share a common room now that leads him to the secret. He sees Harry come out of his room one night, sadness floating across his face in a way Draco hasn’t seen all year - that depth of world weariness in his eyes. He’s got his cloak over his arm and the moment he leaves the room, Draco slips into his bedroom, determined to find whatever it was that had brought back a trace of the old Harry.

It takes half an hour of searching and multiple spells before he finds the chest hidden inside the window seat. He hesitates before opening it. He doesn’t really have any right to be spying on Harry … but this isn’t Harry. Not really. And he needs to know why.

When he cracks it open, he just stares, breath caught in his throat. It’s bottles … hundreds of tiny bottles, each glowing blue with a whisp of curling memory. He picks one up to read the tiny tag.

The words make his breath catch.

Punishment for ruining shirt. Iron burns. 8 yo

He puts it down as though it’s burned him and picks up another.

Locked in cupboard. Three days. No toilet. 7 yo

He feels bile rising is his throat as he picks up another.

Dropped breakfast. Ate off floor. 4 yo (?)

He scans the bottles. There are twenty or thirty of similar ages and he feels a horrified shock running through him. He wonders distantly if Weasley and Granger know this. Then he looks again at the bottles, more labels jump out at him.

Burned Quirrel’s face - first meeting with V. 11 yo

Accused by school. Spat at and hexed. 12 yo

Hunted by Basilisk. Bitten. Thought I would die. 12 yo

Draco feels a gut wrenching sadness run through him as he looks over the bottles. There are so many more. Years worth. He sees a larger one, the size of his clenched fist and picks it up, cradling it. At least twenty memories swirl around inside, mingling and then separating.

The tag simply reads, Sirius.

He’s sitting there when Harry comes back. The bottles are placed neatly around him and he’s seen the spread of Harry’s fear and doubt and sadness and loss and pain. He feels paralyzed by the magnitude of it.

When Harry asks what he’s doing, he doesn’t look up from the tiny vial in his hand.

The tag reads, My death, seventeen years old.

Harry doesn’t shout or hex him or do anything Draco would expect. Instead he picks his way through the bottles to sit down beside Draco, leaning back against the wall.

‘It’s better this way,’ he murmurs.

Draco does look over then, and Harry’s face has that look he’s had all year. And Draco realises why it bothers him so much. This is Harry without his childhood, without the trials he’s overcome, without the losses that have shaped and forged him. He still has shadows of the memories, sure, but he doesn’t feel them anymore.

This is not Harry.

'It’s not better,’ he says, voice intense, not even questioning why he so suddenly needs to convince the boy in front of him.

Harry frowns then, breaks Draco’s gaze. 'It hurts too much to hold all of that,’ He gestures at the bottles that litter the floor and his voice holds a trace of bitterness.

Draco doesn’t know what to say to that. Who is he to ask Harry Potter - Saviour of the Wizarding World - to live with the trauma the wizarding world forced on him.

Then he thinks of the bottles he could make - the memories he could shed. He thinks of the Mind Healer his mother arranged for him over the summer break. He rubs his forearm absently as he thinks of tears and rage and shame … and the beginnings of healing.

He looks across at Harry. 'This,’ he says with the same gesture at the bottles. 'All of this - is you. You overcame it. You grew from it. You learned from it. You - you probably wouldn’t have done what you did without it.’

He looks down at the bottle he still holds.

My death.

'Remembering is hard,’ he says looking across at the bottles marked Sirius, Fred, Lupin, Dobby, Hedwig. He remembers what the Healer told him as he’d mourned his father.

'Forgetting the bad bits though, means you forget the good as well … it means you forget the person.’ He looks at Harry and sees the same sadness from earlier echoed in his eyes.

'I know it’s none of my business, but I don’t think you should forget them.’

Harry reaches out with shaking fingers to stroke over each of the bottles in turn. 'I’m scared to remember,’ he whispers.

Draco looks at him and the words are on his lips before he can think.

Cool. Then say on your fics that you welcome criticism. But if a person doesn’t say that, then you don’t leave con crit.

Do you know what I do for a living? I’m a college professor and an academic editor. I actually am professionally qualified to help people hone their skills and to improve. For example, there are at least 4 things I would edit in the ask you sent me. Not the least of which is having the guts to own your opinion by not being on anon.

But you know what I do with all the professional skills I have when I read fanfic which is a hobby and a joy for everyone who engages in it? I keep my fucking mouth shut.

Because as I tell my students to be creative and share it with the world is an act of bravery. And when we are being brave, we don’t need to be ‘corrected’ by strangers, we need to be applauded for risking ourselves.

I have never felt better about someone correcting me on a fic on ao3, I’ve never improved from it, I’ve only felt like crap, and any other writer I talk to feels the same. I got better as a writer because I wrote again and again every day. And when I engage a beta, I listen to their advice because I can trust where it is coming from. A rando whose decided they know what they are on about? I don’t trust for shit. 

If you leave UNSOLICITED criticism on fanfic you suck and are a crappy person.

It reminds me of the time one of my five got unsolicited "constructive criticism" where the person basically just told me my writing was trash and that I needed to up my game 🙄 like this fic was abandoned long ago, and I was proud of it when I wrote it but if I ever had an itch to go back and rewrite it or continue it, those thoughts were completely squashed with the comments. She commented on every chapter telling me it was bad and it was really discouraging and made me sad.

The original ask says that criticism should always be allowed to help them hone their skill and sure if they want con crit they will ask for it but personally when I wrote it isn't to hone anything. People are allowed to write without trying to improve and by writing more they will inevitably improve at their own pace.

HARRY POTTER

A Bit of Advice for One Harry James Potter (By Draco Malfoy)

1) Cut that damned hair. You’re blind enough as it is without it hanging in your face all day. You look atrocious with a bun in. Trust me. You’ll be doing everyone a favor.

2) Lose the glasses, too, while you’re at it. Much too ‘95. You’re a fucking wizard. Just say “Intarabo Visu” and all of your problems will be solved. I should know. It worked for me. Yes, Potter, you’re not the only one who has dealt with the horrors of dorky, wire-rimmed glasses. Thank Merlin I figured out the spell to fix it. No need to thank me. Git. 

3) Stand in the rain and remind yourself that you are waterproof. It will only get inside you if you let it. You have a choice now. I know that neither of us did before. But don’t be ashamed if you need to open up an umbrella every once in awhile. 

4) Sleep in on Saturdays. When the darkness scurries out across the mountains and the first rays of sun creep through your windowpane, pull the blankets a bit tighter around your chin and keep your eyes closed. Nightmares are draining, but they’re not real. Do not be afraid to allow yourself to dream.

5) Forgive yourself. There is blood on your hands, but there is blood on everyone else’s, too. Breathe deep. Touch softly. Stop clenching your fists and knitting your eyebrows together. Sit in the quiet and allow yourself to exist without guilt. 

6) Forgive me. I’m sorry. I truly mean it.