#epitomereally

Quote from a charming fic that left me absolutely breathless: True Love Gave To Me by @epitomereally (Drarry, E, 24k)

True Love Gave To Me by epitomereally (24k, E)

Tags: Christmas, Time Loop, Kidfic, Grief/Mourning, Pining, Getting Together

“You did it!” Potter shouts. “How did you—” His grin stretches across his whole face; Draco has never seen Potter smile so large. Tears are starting to run down his face, amplifying his green eyes, snot bubbling out of one nostril. It should be horrifying, but it is the most gorgeous Draco has ever seen Potter. “You actually fucking did it. I can’t believe—you absolute genius—fuck!” And then Potter is sobbing, and the magic is roaring all around them, pressure building on their shoulders, distorting and compressing their faces, and Potter is reaching out, grabbing Draco around the shoulder. Potter pulls him in. Draco stumbles into his arms. And then. And then Potter’s kissing him; his lips are soft and chapped and his breath tastes like the massive amount of peppermint they had to ingest to ward off the Krampus. His stubble is scratchy against Draco’s chin, and Draco can feel the warm damp of Potter’s tears against his cheek—and Draco doesn’t know why, but maybe he’s crying a little bit too. And, incomprehensibly, Draco is kissing Potter back, filled with the golden glow of the day, in the intoxicating rush of Potter’s confidence in him, in the absolute majesty of the moment. The pressure mounts—Draco’s skull feels like it might crack. The roaring, babbling rush of magic about them is loud enough to burst Draco’s ear drums. The light is now blindingly bright behind Draco’s closed lids. And still, gloriously, he’s kissing Potter. And then everything goes to black, and Draco startles awake in his bed.

the holidays are kind of a complicated time for me in recent years, so i absolutely loved having a christmas story that made me want to laugh as much as it made me want to cry. the bulk of this fic rests on a very fun question in regards to a time loop story––what comes after a time loop stops? and more specifically, what comes after someone else's time loop stops?

epitomereally crafted this story with excellently balanced servings of hilarious and heartbreaking, a dash of casefic, and a pleasant little sprinkling of magical theory. i love everyone's characterizations so much (especially sweet little scorpius 💜)

Happy (belated) Fanfiction Writers Appreciation Day! For FFWAD, Renegade Bindery runs an event where we bind copies of fics for their authors and I was super excited to be able to bind this for a fellow bookbinder!

I'm rather new to the Drarry fandom but @epitomereally has been absolutely wonderful in providing fic recs and bookbinding advice. She is so so kind and I have enjoyed seeing the lovely books she has created for fellow authors, and somewhere along the way I hatched a sekret plan to bind a copy of her fic for her.

Some stats as usual:

97,262 words || 354 pages

body text: EB Garamond 11 point

accents: Bestaline Sans, Bell MT and Bembo Std

wondering if you want to share a tiny little morsel, a crumb, a nibble as we eagerly await what will surely be a masterpiece <3 a snip? a plot point? something about your long fic writing process if any or all of the above is confidential?

(as always, no pressure to share or answer this ask! just trying to be better about contributing to ask culture/doing public tumblr asks so fandom doesn't get siloed <3)

Helloooo El! So lovely to hear from you. I've been really absent from fandom for most of this year, not had the energy to chat with many people, and just about managing to dip my toes back in now, so thanks for thinking of me <3

Haha, my long fic! It's an idea I've had for years now - two things I've wanted to write for ages: older Drarry, and fast sexual/slow romantic burn. It involves a lot of forced proximity, and general peril, and an OC who I love, and a canon HP character I've never written before. I'm hoping that the stars align and I can submit it for Big Bang 2025 - in fact, I was writing it for this year's, until the announcement came that there wouldn't be a fest in 2024 - so I can't say any more about the content as details have to stay anon until author/artist matching.

My long fic writing process, though, is no secret <3 the first thing I ever wrote was 110k, and I had absolutely no plan, no outline, started in the middle, jumped from scene to scene, and when I got stuck I'd chuck the baby in the sling and walk around the block until I'd solved my problem. This time round, you know, bit more experienced (haha), the fic has more worldbuilding, a more complex plot - I thought I'd buy Scrivener and do what the grown ups do with making character cards and notes and little tabs for the different scenes and stuff. Anyway, long story short: I've written the 55k I've got so far in MS Word, I've jumped around all over the place, and my 'outline' is a collection of dialogue snippets meant for the scenes I haven't written yet. There really is no hope!

Carey ‘W’Recs Wednesday(｡•̀ᴗ-)✧ presents: True Love Gave To Me

epitomereally @epitomereally

Chapters: 3/3 Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter Characters: Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter, Scorpius Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson, Hermione Granger Additional Tags: Christmas, Time Loop, Fluff, Kid Fic, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, But Scorpius Can Stay, Getting Together, Falling In Love, but in reverse, Timey-Wimey, Non-Linear Narrative, Magico-Muggle Repairman Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter wants a family, Harry Potter Needs a Hug, Pining Harry Potter, Redeemed Draco Malfoy, Cinnamon Roll Scorpius Malfoy, On-Screen Past Pregnancy of a Minor Character, Past Death of a Partner, Loneliness, Grief/Mourning, Self-Esteem Issues, Bisexual Draco Malfoy, Drinking, Explicit Sexual Content, Blow Jobs, Anal Sex, Rimming, Switching, Semi-Public Sex, Additional Warnings in Author's Notes, H/D Erised 2023

Summary:

It’s the first of December, and all Draco wants to do is make Christmas lovely for Scorpius. But then Harry Potter shows up, asking him to save the world, and it turns out they’ve almost saved the world a couple of times before. One-hundred and forty-four times, to be exact.

Or: what happens after the time loop?

(੭ˊ͈ ꒵ˋ͈)੭*⁺˚. * ･ ｡ﾟ☆

Excerpt:

Then they hear a chirp. Just one. They turn. A glowing, gorgeous, bountiful pear tree has blossomed in the middle of Draco’s shop, growing right out of the wooden floorboards. Warmth suffuses the whole room, despite the snow howling through the blown-out wall. Golden sunlight illuminates the tree, full of red-yellow pears, so succulent it makes Draco’s mouth water. A single partridge is perched on a low branch.

Potter gets up and approaches the tree. He reaches out to touch a pear, and Draco says, suddenly sure, “Don’t eat the fruit, Potter.”

Potter lets his hand hang, traces the gorgeous pear with his gorgeous fingers, lit tan and healthy. “What do you think we’re meant to do?”

Draco stands and approaches the partridge. He looks at it, its burnt orange head, its wise eyes, the dove grey soft puff of feathers on its chest. He turns to Potter. “What do you think?”

Potter’s biting his lip, circling the tree. His voice is tentative, perhaps a little scared when he admits, “I just…don’t know. I don’t know, Draco.”

Draco holds his finger out and the partridge flutter-hops onto it. Potter’s known how to handle every obstacle the box has thrown at them, calling out instructions and commands like he’s the Head Auror; it’s almost enough to make Draco suspicious that Potter planned this, orchestrated it himself. But now, Potter looks lost, hands planted on his hips, scowling at the tree.

The partridge flutters its wings, just once. Draco turns back to it. Finally, he just addresses it, “Could you please let us go?”

The partridge cocks its head, regards him with one wise, black eye, and then nods. A giant rushing sound fills the shop, growing louder and louder. The partridge flaps back to its perch on the pear tree and then the pear tree is dissolving down to nothingness. Draco and Potter are surrounded by a hurricane of magic, sparking red and gold and green and silver.

“You did it!” Potter shouts. “How did you—” His grin stretches across his whole face; Draco has never seen Potter smile so large. Tears are starting to run down his face, amplifying his green eyes, snot bubbling out of one nostril. It should be horrifying, but it is the most gorgeous Draco has ever seen Potter. “You actually fucking did it. I can’t believe—you absolute genius—fuck!”

And then Potter is sobbing, and the magic is roaring all around them, pressure building on their shoulders, distorting and compressing their faces, and Potter is reaching out, grabbing Draco around the shoulder. Potter pulls him in. Draco stumbles into his arms. And then. And then Potter’s kissing him; his lips are soft and chapped and his breath tastes like the massive amount of peppermint they had to ingest to ward off the Krampus. His stubble is scratchy against Draco’s chin, and Draco can feel the warm damp of Potter’s tears against his cheek—and Draco doesn’t know why, but maybe he’s crying a little bit too. And, incomprehensibly, Draco is kissing Potter back, filled with the golden glow of the day, in the intoxicating rush of Potter’s confidence in him, in the absolute majesty of the moment.

The pressure mounts—Draco’s skull feels like it might crack. The roaring, babbling rush of magic about them is loud enough to burst Draco’s ear drums. The light is now blindingly bright behind Draco’s closed lids. And still, gloriously, he’s kissing Potter.

And then everything goes to black, and Draco startles awake in his bed.

We believe you are looking for A Case of You by @epitomereally (97k, E)

hahaha i should've predicted this. okay!!

as a reminder, 10 was: worst part of fanon

part of this is frustration with the way it's set up in canon (poorly)/i guess JKR's comments about it that i've never bothered to actually look up because i don't care about the dumb things she says. but i think that's the origin of draco never being able to cast a patronus and harry helping him, which can be a fun, romantic trope that still makes me cringe.

basically, canon sets up the patronus charm as really difficult, but then shows the main difficulty lies in finding a happy enough memory to be able to cast it. which is...kind of silly. how do you measure happiness? how does magic measure happiness?

that combined with the accepted fanon of draco not being able to cast one makes things even sillier. it sets up this scenario where draco can't cast a patronus because he has no happy memories and only harry can coach him through finding the right one. or, he has happy memories but they're not happy enough and he can only summon one that's happy enough once harry's railed him or whatever.

that's not romantic!! someone's happiness shouldn't be entirely and completely tied up in one single person over the course of their entire life! especially since we know draco had a good childhood and harry had a bad childhood (comparatively). silly is the word i keep using for it but it just has such a poor foundation that folds so easily.

and this is not, like, a sweeping generalization; some fics do this well and explore it and deconstruct it. but i think the basis of it doesn't hold up well and it's just kind of a default piece in the drarry toolbox i wish fanon would use differently.