A fic rec of One Direction fics that have dark academia themes as requested in this ask. You can find all my fic recs here. If you enjoy the fics, please leave kudos and comments for the writers! Happy reading!
-Larry-
🖤 Love Endless (series) by wubwubnparmaham
(E, 884k, vampire au, ancient Rome, 1970s, historical, supernatural elements, homophobia, abuse, bullying, mystery, gothic mansion, violence, angst, smut)
Love Endless is a story about ancient and supernatural love between two vampiric figures of history. Centered around Aelius Hadrianus of Rome and Alexander the Great, it chronicles the tragic loss when one of them was killed and later reborn as a bullied teen in Idaho.
🖤 Young & Beautiful by Velvetoscar / @mizzwilde
(M, 227k, uni au, drugs, alcohol, poetry, music, dark, falling in love, angst with a happy ending)
Louis, to his horror, attends an elitist university in which the name Zayn Malik means something, Niall Horan doesn't stop talking, there are pianos everywhere, and Harry Styles, only son of a drug-addled, clinically insane ex-rocker, has a perfect smile and empty eyes.
🖤 Victorian Boy by audreyhheart
(E, 101k, Victorian au, historical, nobility, enemies to lovers, slow burn, angst, sexual tension, murder mystery, jealousy, smut)
Harry the virgin Duke of Somerset knows little of love, while Louis the sly Duke of Warwick knows too much.
🖤 Coax the Cold by MediaWhore / @mediawhorefics
(M, 86k, historical au, 19th century, fantasy, mermaids, angst, circus/freak show, professor Louis, mermaid Harry, violence, abuse, adventure, romance)
When he hears whispers of a travelling freak show newly established in London claiming the existence of a monstrous sea hybrid, half-man, half-fish, Louis sees it as his ticket to credibility amongst his peers.
🖤 Loyal Knight and True by rainbowninja167 / @rainbowninja
(E, 51k, magical realism au, poetry, bisexuality, love spells, unreliable narrator)
In contemporary Oxford, Harry Styles and Niall Horan run a magical bookshop, unbowed by an entire academic establishment that insists magic doesn't even exist. Sometimes, Harry finds, it's much easier to have faith in magic than in himself. Louis Tomlinson is a classically trained poet who needs something to believe in, and Liam Payne longs to be a part of something magical.
🖤 Whispers in the Trees by hazzayoudoing
(M, 51k, murder mystery au, high school, boarding school, friends to lovers, secret crush, sexual tension, minor character death, suicide, smut)
an AU in which Louis and Harry witness a murder on the pristine campus of Wellington Academy, their posh boarding school
🖤 You Came Just Like A Flower In My Darkest Hour by graceling_in_a_suit / @graceling-in-a-suit
(T, 44k, magical realism, 1920s, historical, fantasy, magical spells, writer Louis, mute Harry, jazz, mutual pining, demisexual Harry)
Harry had spent a thousand years as the king of a false kingdom, no one but his empty-minded subjects to distract him from his loneliness.
🖤 A Million One, A Million Two (a Hundred More Will Never Do) by LittleLostPieces
(E, 42k, boarding school au, inspired by Young Americans and Gotta Be You music video, rich Harry, smut)
An AU loosely inspired by the short-lived WB drama, Young Americans, and the Gotta Be You music video.
🖤 Along The Heather by noellehenry / @noellehenrymain
(M, 35k, historical, Jane Eyre au, Victorian, abuse, panic attacks, tutor Harry, attempted murder, angst, boarding school, manor house, Yorkshire, eventual romance)
Thorgill Hall, however, holds a secret; it’s becoming slightly more eerie every day and when his life is threatened, Harry makes a drastic decision…
🖤 The Blood of Love by @mugglemirror
(E, 25k, historical au, fantasy, supernatural elements, magic, mythology, nurse Harry, Louis is a portrait, pining, witches, smut)
As desire and darkness encompasses him, Harry has to learn the secrets of Thorne Hills manor before he succumbs to the mystery that surrounds him.
🖤 Drop to Hold You by QuickedWeen / @becomeawendybird
(T, 15k, Harry Potter universe, Oxford, uni, auror training, graduate school, lust at first sight)
After the end of the Second Wizarding War and the ensuing diplomacy between Muggles and the Wizarding world, the long-defunct Merlin College at Oxford opened it's doors again.
🖤 grand old ivy by orphan_account
(T, 12k, uni au, Harvard, friendship, alcohol, developing relationship)
Even though he had been so eager to start at Harvard and leave life in England behind him, Harry found himself making friends with a slew of other Englishmen (and Irishmen) on campus.
🖤 Nighttime in the Book Shop by Larry_Klaine_Stylinson
(T, 3k, bookshop au, storm, poetry, fluff)
Harry has been working in a small used book shop for as long as he's been able to have a job. One night he and his co-worker Louis are left to close up the shop, but it's storming out, and they get trapped inside.
🖤 Palace on the hill by theglitterbee (wwxmole) / @theglitterbee
(G, 1k, fable, gothic, supernatural elements, ambiguous ending, inspired by Oscar Wilde short stories)
In Holmes Chapel you were awarded blissfulness as long as you didn’t question where it had come from.
-Rare Pairs-
🖤 we are spirits of a different sort by StormDancer
(E, 53k, Zayn/Harry, soulmates au, uni, soul marks, coffee shop, enemies to lovers, photographer Harry, rebel Zayn, literary references)
O hell! to choose love by another's eyes...Or, if there were a sympathy in choice, War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it, Making it momentany as a sound, Swift as a shadow, short as any dream
🖤 if not the happiest, surely the luckiest by dangerbears
(NR, 10k, Zayn/Louis, boarding school au, new student Zayn, wealthy Zayn, popular Louis)
reform boarding school for the obscenely wealthy, essentially.
