As someone who joined Tomarrymort Fandom last year, I am curious... what was it like when it was a very rare ship in the 2000s?
Well, it was a different context back then. A different internet. Mind you, I wrote in Portuguese (my native tongue) and posted on fanfiction.net. There was no ao3, only fanfic forums, livejournal and the big one, ff.net. Back in the 2000s, before tumblr exploded and concentrated fandom in its trenches, fanfic itself wasnβt a very known concept. In a way, the Harry Potter series really helped develop the genre and put it on the map in a way that previous fandoms β Buffy, LotR, Star Trek and others β hadnβt. The moment was very auspicious; HP was a global phenomenon and the internet was rising faster than ever. The months, years between the release of the final four books also helped: restless, hundreds of thousands of fans started writing their own versions of the story. I remember when a newspaper in my country published an article about Harry Potter fans and fanfics. They even mentioned Drarry! A breach between βfandom worldβ and the βreal worldβ. Nowadays βfanficβ is used a slang in my culture (to mean lie, fabricated tale) by people who have no idea where the term came from. Fandom is a known thing and its members are taken seriously as consumers. Entertainment companies are aware of ships, of tropes, even of old men yaoi.
It was different back then. Even within that huge fandom Voldemort/Harry or TomHarry was a small, almost inexistent ship. We didnβt know yet that Harry was Voldemortβs Horcrux β although some fans had already come up with the theory. There was a lot of crack involving Voldemort. Noseless, bald, snake-like Voldy. He was far from the sex symbol he is today. I remember when Ralph Fiennes was cast to play himβ¦
Tom Riddle, on the other hand, was a bit more palatable. If I remember correctly he was shipped mostly with Ginny. A lot of fans were intrigued by him. But many couldnβt see past the unsexy villain heβd become. A lack of handsomeness β that was unforgivable. Especially in an age where Japanese Animation was also a growing hype β compare Voldemort to the bishonen that treaded gracefully the western screens: Itachi, Sesshoumaru, Light Yagami, all those svelte, long-haired beauties. Even Orochimaru, Voldemortβs most obvious anime double, had more style.
Iβve always liked villains. I read the first Harry Potter when I was six or seven and I already liked Voldemort then. Even as a shade, a shape on the back of Quirrellβs head. When he was re-introduced as Tom Riddle in the Chamber of Secrets I knew he would be my favourite ever. Like many other kids I grew up with Harry. But Voldemort was my son, my love, my darling. I started reading fanfic when I was twelve but most of it was animeβs. When I came across Harry Potter fanfic my focus was the Marauders. We had a very thriving community writing in Brazilian Portuguese before we were all colonised by the internetβs Lingua Franca. Both in English (which I started to learn when I was ten) and Portuguese Voldemort/Tom Riddle was a usually side character. Ginny, Bellatrix, obvious self-inserts OCs, Lucius β those were his most common partners.
TomHarry/Harrymort started to appear more, I think, after the release of the fifth book. That connection, that dream sharing, is hard to ignore. I recall an author whoβd put Harry through hell through Voldemortβs hands (he was quite the sadist in their depiction). Others wrote him as the tender violator. Some of the tropes that are now popular began to be formed: Dark!Harry, Dumbledore bashing, Light Bashing. A lot of fics depicted Voldemort βrescuingβ Harry from the Dursleys, horrified by the abused he suffered.
Not many explored Harry and Tom, but some did. Time travel fics were almost unheard of. A few gems attempted that glorious hardship: Voldemort and Harry being together while staying true to their morals and beliefs. Those were very hard to find and I treasured them.
I think something shifted in the late 2000s/early 2010s. We now knew Harry was Voldemortβs Horcrux. And we had Flayu. Flayu was the first popular, Japanese fanartist to draw TomHarry/Harrymort. We didnβt have the incomparable @shelter-maki0 but we had drawings like this and this and this.
I stayed away from the fandom and from Voldemort/Harry for a long time. After Voldemort died in the seventh book I renounced Harry Potterβ¦β¦my baby was gone and I felt that he was done very dirty in the end. He went out like a Disney villain. No depth. So I donβt know how we moved from a very niche pairing with few fanfics and only one big fanartist to 16,120 fics as Iβm writing this. I missed that bridge. The fandom annoys me nowadays because so many works are more of the same. I feel like we used to be more daring back in my day. But that could be just me being a 30+ old man yelling at a cloud. But also:
For all the annoyance the overuse of that trope (and others) causes me, Iβm happy this fandom is so much bigger now and so many people enjoy this pairing. When I stumbled on them, many, many years ago, it was like a switch turned on in my brain. Voldemort/Harry makes so much sense itβs insane. Iβm glad more people see it, write about it, love them like me.
Hope I didnβt bore you with my (old manβsβ¦) reminiscences. This was a fun ask to answer. Thank you β€οΈ
