#mintaminta

All I Want for Kwithmath by @mintawasalreadytaken (9k, Explicit)

Tags: Extremely Dubious Consent, Heavy BDSM, Mind Break, Ring Gag, Gimp Suit, Christmas Presents

It's a wonder, on his part, at the usefulness of finding a person so utterly trainable. Harry thinks he's middling at best, where Draco is in awe. He's a natural. Who would have thunk? It's easy to mistake the look for love. It's easy because Harry is good at finding what he is looking for, even if he's wrong about it. Especially when he's wrong about it.

@mintawasalreadytaken what a great idea, and thanks for the tag! I have to preface this by saying my favorite thing is very often also the latest thing I read. However, these fics stand out to me and they also (almost) all happen to have been posted this year.

Favourite published in 2022:

Tapestry by @kbrick (91k)

For everyone who waits to read until a wip is no longer a wip, the last chapter was posted today!!

Summary:

In 2017, Harry is on his way to Pansy and Luna's beach house. He’s a bit terrified of seeing Draco, to be honest. It’s been a while, and then there’s the little matter of Draco having married someone else in the interim.

In 2001, Draco is drunk, wearing Pansy's mother's ermine coat, and afraid to walk into the Leaky because someone might throw a curse at him. So, of course, he runs into his ex-nemesis and hopeless crush, Harry Potter.

This is a love story that isn't perfect, about two people whose timing is never quite right, and all the moments that come together to make something extraordinarily beautiful anyway.

Why I loved it:

Kbrick never fails to write Draco and Harry in a way that just feels so real, so tangible. Her endings are heart-throbbingly resonant. This one brought me to tears (not for the first time--so did the ending (or shall I say beginning?) of Running Mate). I loved the progress of this story--that we get a glimpse of just one summer in 2017, interspersed with nearly two decades of a love story that is imperfect, tragic, and still manages to bring out what I like best in both of them. The friendships are golden. You could even just read this for the jaw-dropping description of what's beyond the veil, and you'd still be satisfied. Just go read it.

Favourite 'New-to-Me' Fic:

This was new-to-me and also published in 2022, so I guess this counts as well. Plus I can't pick absolute favourites, anyway.

A Pocket Full of Stones by @amywaterwings (68k)

Summary:

A curse is spreading through the wizarding world, erasing memories of the war. Harry Potter is on the case!

Where Draco is the DMLE’s most wanted dark wizard and Harry is the private investigator tasked with bringing him in. It goes as well as one might expect.

Why I loved it:

The first sentence of this fic is:

The night was bleeding, the moon a lopped off head.

Just look at it! Beautiful! It sets up the tone of the fic, dark in all the beautiful ways, so perfectly, so succinctly. And then it gets better. I loved both Harry and Draco's characterization in this. It felt fresh. It was real. Why should they be complacent with corrupt bullshit? Let the liars burn. They are so obviously made for each other and Amy's writing is beautiful. There is reference to Virginia Woolf. I just can't say enough good things about it.

Wild Card

I just wanted to rec a third fic that was posted in 2022 that I loved.

An Emerald In The Sky by @corvuscrowned (6.6k)

Summary:

The hardest part about shagging an Unspeakable is that they’re not allowed to speak of anything. All Draco knows is that Harry works in Time. Harry works in Time, and while he’s out there in all of that time, it is as unforgiving to him as it is to anyone.

Somewhere along the way, Draco realizes he's been thinking in lines, when he should have been thinking in circles.

Why I loved it:

It's beautiful, obviously, because Crow wrote it. But I especially loved it because it's clever. The ending is delightful because everything makes sense. Circles. I loved the angst, the pining, Draco as an astronomer, contemplating the heavens. Re-reading it is a completely new experience. Harry suddenly makes perfect sense. All I can say is that it's a masterpiece, and that I'm seriously impressed with the mental flexibility it required to write.

We believe you are looking for Take A Chance On Me by mintaminta (41k, E)

Tit for Tat

mintaminta  @mintawasalreadytaken

​Chapters: 25/25

Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter Characters: Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Dean Thomas, Lucius Malfoy, Luna Lovegood, Blaise Zabini, Pansy Parkinson, George Weasley, Parvati Patil, Teddy Lupin, Andromeda Black Tonks, Narcissa Black Malfoy Additional Tags: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, First Love, Past Abuse, Angst, Smut, Secret Relationship, Depression, Anxiety, Eating Disorders, BDSM, Consensual Kink, everyone needs so much therapy, Dom/sub, Switching, Dom Draco Malfoy, Sub Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy Smokes, Draco Malfoy in the Muggle World, Famous Harry Potter, Magically Powerful Harry Potter, From Sex to Love, Genderbending, Crossdressing, POV Harry Potter, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Falling In Love, Romance, Explicit Sexual Content, Dirty Talk, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Angst with a Happy Ending, Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, Trust Draco to be good at everything, Enemies to Lovers, Coming Out, First Time Bottoming, Legilimency (Harry Potter), Legilimency Sex (Harry Potter), All the Kinds of Sex, Mental Health Issues, Therapy, Feels, it earns the E rating, with plenty of romance, and a healthy sprinkling of angst for good measure Series: Part 1 of Tit for Tat Universe

Summary:

Our story picks up five years post-war. Harry's ready to come out and leave the public life behind; Draco's looking for quiet reintegration into magical society in London.

True angst! Emotional vulnerability! Romance of the star-crossed lover variety!

If you're looking for a plot-driven epic with all the smut and all the feels, here it is, folks.

Excerpt:

"What do you want, then?" he asked.

“Dare,” Harry answered without a thought.

"Alright." Draco licked his lips. "I dare you to do whatever you want to me."

Harry’s thoughts stuttered to a stop. He tried to speak, but no words came to him. He cleared his throat and tried again.

“What does that mean,” he said, though he knew precisely what it meant. He hadn’t stepped away, and Draco hadn’t looked away, and Harry knew deep in his gut that it was so much more than a look. It was an invitation.

“First thing that pops into your mind,” Draco’s eyes slid down to the low neck of Harry’s vest and back up again. He’d been caught staring before, and he wanted to keep looking, to see more. Harry could see that now. He took a deep breath through his nose, pushed it back out.

"Hit me. Kiss me. I don't care.” He swallowed, and Harry’s eyes followed the bob of his Adam’s apple, down his throat to where the faintest dusting of dark blonde hair was visible against the creamy white of his chest. “For fuck's Potter, just do something."

Harry was sure that in the silence of the room, his heartbeat was audible. That the thudding of it must be visible through his shirt.

“Come on,” Draco's voice was so soft yet pleading. He sucked in his bottom lip and let it go, watching Harry’s eyes flick to his mouth. “Where’s all that famous Gryffindor courage gone?”

Harry balled his hands into fists, relaxed them. His courage had abandoned him now, the same way it did during anytime his mouth went dry, or his cock got hard.

But want was a powerful driving force. He took a steadying breath and stepped closer to Draco, inches from his knees.

He tapped one with a finger. “Wider, please.”

Draco spread his knees without hesitation, and it was on.

This wasn’t talking, and they were so very far past flirting. This was admitting it.

This close, Harry could make out details he’d never noticed before. A tiny scar shaped like a hook, perhaps from shaving, colourless above Draco's lip. Shadows of black against the grey of his irises, like layers of marble.

“I wanted to owl you,” Harry said quietly, “I wanted…"

Harry placed his hand to the crook of Draco’s jaw, cupping it. By the tempo of the vein thudding in his throat, Draco’s heart was speeding too, and that’s what it finally took.

“What—” Draco went to speak, but his question was lost as Harry's eyes closed, and his lips landed first, stealing the words from his mouth. Eyelashes fluttered against his cheekbone, soft as a moth's wings as Draco seemed unsure as to whether he should close his eyes or not. He’d been caught by surprise and went stiff, the momentum Harry proceeded into the kiss with landing against an unmovable force.

Harry pulled back a touch, waiting until he felt those eyelashes again. A tickle returned against his cheek, and then Draco did the craziest thing in the world.

He kissed back.

He leaned in, leading with firm lips. Harry could feel his magic swirling, prodding at his own. He could taste it, like violets, just as strongly as the deep sweetness of dark cherry and the bitter tang of tonic on his probing tongue. Draco finished with a gentle bite at Harry’s bottom lip as he pulled away.

Harry touched at his own lips, in awe. He must be dreaming.

“You look surprised,” Draco said, leaning back, smiling.

“I am. This doesn’t feel real.” Harry placed his thumb in the dip between Draco's collarbones, just because he could. "I mean—I'm kissing Draco Malfoy."

The smile spread as Draco looked up at Harry from underneath his long lashes.

“I’m real,” he whispered. “Do it again.”

Harry moved first, hands grasping either side of Draco’s waist as Draco wrapped his arms around him, hands grabbing at his shoulders, his back. Harry’s ventured lower with a possessive squeeze that, well. Draco obviously didn’t hate it, groaning loudly into the touch.

“Too hard?” Harry broke away to ask.

“I won’t break," Draco sounded annoyed, "don’t lose your nerve on me now, Potter.”

Harry tightened his grip and pulled Draco towards him in one swift move, so they were touching tight from hip to hip and ground his cock into Draco’s. The sound of his soft exhalation was one that Harry wanted to commit to memory as he ground back.

When Draco curled a gloved hand into the thicket of hair at the back of Harry’s head and pulled gently, he was rewarded with a gurgling sound Harry didn’t even know he could make.

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to pull your hair,” Draco growled as he repeated the motion, tugging hard enough to make Harry’s entire body shiver.

His right hand clutched Harry’s jaw, angling to better access his mouth. They kissed messily, as though starved for it. Harry’s lips were going to be raw tomorrow from rubbing against the sharp hairs of Draco’s five-o-clock shadow; Draco’s would probably feel the same. It was glorious. It was everything Harry had dreamed of, and more because it was real.

“You want more of that, don’t you,” Draco murmured, tugging gently again.

“Do it any harder, and my knees might give out,” Harry said into lips that laughed at this admission.

Draco pulled back, breathing heavily. He leaned on one hand and removed his grip from Harry’s hair to trace the contours of his face instead. His grey eyes followed the movements, enraptured.

“I wouldn’t mind you on your knees,” he said after a beat, shimmying his shoulders out of his jacket. “Don’t go giving me ideas.”

“Make me.” The words slipped out. Harry felt high, giddy on the kiss.

“Fuck, Potter,” Draco breathed, pulling Harry back in for more kissing and Harry had the distant thought that Draco might want this—be frightened by this but still want it—just as hard as he did. It was a new thought to occur that someone he wanted might want him back every bit as badly.

Thank you! See, I wanted to be coherent and say that I find it an “easy way out” as well, but the truth is I really really like it, don’t @ me 😂 to be fair I think my perception of this trope was shaped by fics I’ve read and really loved in the past, not only Drarry ones (hello, Vortex and holemate) but in other fandoms like the MCU, and I didn’t have the same experience with tropes like fake dating, only one bed etc. What can I say, I’m a big angst fan and the thing about the soulmate concept is that it doesn’t necessarily forces proximity or physical touch.

Thank you guys in advance

We believe you are looking for Tit for Tat (28k, E) by mintaminta!

it had me thinking of how if the marauder generation were alive and raised their kids, harry and teddy would be raised like cousins, which is a theme touched on with teddy/draco, but i haven’t come across it with harry/teddy.