#I genuinely don’t even care about the drama around the movie spun out of control

[goldenwilmon]

……..

[hogwartsfirebolt]

The most heart-warming fic I have read in a thousand years: A FIC REC

Falling for a Golden Boy - @rockmarina​ - 44k - Explicit

Merlin. Why couldn’t Draco have moved to a forgotten village in the Alps? He could have turned into a shepherd, learned to make his own damn cheese and given up his damn magic. But no, he’d had to come back to his Eighth year, hadn’t he? And this was his life now. Draping himself over Potter to hear words from him that he knew Potter wouldn’t ever mean.

Great. The school year ahead of him looked simply great.

“All I know is—when I’m with you, I…” Potter, the heathen, grunted when he read the rest of his line. “Do I really need to say this?”

“What, scared of believing your own words, Scarhead?” Draco spat.

“Boys,” O’Neill warned them.

“All I—all I know is you’re the most amazing person with weak ankles that I've ever met, Meg.” Potter scowled. He was blushing again. “And when I’m with you, I feel less alone.”

Or where a drama play, a grumpy pompom and a bunch of well-intentioned friends help Draco and Harry find peace—and each other—after the war.

Thoughts under read more

When I read the summary, I was inevitably drawn to this story like a damn bug to a lightbulb, because it sounded cheeky and clever and sweet, and I DAMN LOVE Hercules so, so so much. By the time I found it, I was on the deepest of fic reading slumps of my life, and nothing I did seemed to get me out of it. I took a chance on this, on a story that took two worlds I hold so close to my heart, and I am SO incredibly glad that I did. Marina took both my hands and pulled me out of the slump, got me so excited and charmed me so deeply that I couldn’t help but squeal, at times. Just a little. Just a tiny bit. 

This is a story about kids who recently came out of a war and whose mental dust has yet to settle. They are brought back to school to finish up their studies and, hopefully, make some sense of everything that happened to them, and in that process they are introduced to a new Muggle Studies professor and required to participate in a play. Hercules. That’s right. And just like in the movie, we need a lost boy who became a hero with the help of two great friends (in the form of a pegasus and a satyr but OH WELL), and a love interest who is on the wrong side of the war and forced to work against the hero. It DOES sound quite familiar when put like that, don’t you think? 

The characterizations are beautiful from the get-go. We enter this story holding Draco’s hand, see him struggling to be better, consciously stopping when he catches himself being an asshole in his head, and just genuinely trying so hard to shed the skin of the person he was before and resurface as a better, kinder version of himself, that it’s impossible not to fall in love with him. On the other side, we have Harry, who has put the past firmly behind closed doors, and to quote the way he’s described in the story, is fresh out of a war, barely of age. A young man who just wants to be done with this and left alone, if you don’t mind?

In this, we find both Harry and Draco slowly, but surely taking control of their own narratives, shaking off the hands that have pushed them around like puppets for their entire lives in a way that lets them be free to try new things and gives them a shot at happiness, lets them just be young and even silly, at times, and it’s so incredibly touching to see them take a chance on that. 

At first, they are a mess. Though Draco is pretty good at reining himself in, he just freaking loses it around Harry, and it’s HILARIOUS and done in a way that is SO true to their relationship in canon, I got such a kick out of seeing Draco have this almost oblivious schoolboy fixation on Harry, still, the one that just makes him want to needle him into petty fights that are sprinkled with those little moments that almost tip on the edge of a kind of flirtation that is more like a challenge, and I love, love, love the way the author did this, gave us a starting point to their relationship that already felt so volatile and set up to change as they are forced into the leading roles of the play. 

For that reason, their scenes together felt overwhelming not only to them, but also to me as a reader, both from their proximity and the way the characters they’re playing and the dialogue fit their own dynamic, but spun in a way that takes what is being said and makes it their own, and this is so incredibly well done, the scenes of the play seamlessly fitted into the eternal sideshow that is Harry and Draco, that I enjoyed it beyond measure. Seeing them slowly, very, very slowly explore and adapt to new dynamics was absolutely delicious.

The first time they kissed, when it came, took my breath away, and after, the way anticipation built every time their eyes met, the not knowing what was coming next tinged with such a deep shade of want – not even a want of anything specific, just nearness, just the other’s company – reminded me so much of the way crushes felt when I was in high school, the build up to each kiss had me clutching my chest and, when they happened, the intensity had me blushing, and every single time this happened I just marveled at the fact that this was written in a way that all these FEELINGS they had jumped right out of the page with authenticity. We see them change the way they act around each other, after that, Harry becoming charming and confident and shy, all of these simultaneously, and this gives an extra layer to Harry’s character that we learn along with Draco, all the colorful laughs and silly jokes, all the stealing Draco’s hat, how he literally pushes him to adopt a little pet and then attempts to annoy him into naming it something ridiculous.

It almost hurt to see them learning to trust each other, in how lovely and heart-warming it is, how they find in each other someone to talk about things they desperately need to let out but never felt they had the space or the words to, it just felt very organic and magical, how evident it is that they both feel like they’re allowed to be themselves and to be vulnerable when they’re in each other’s company, unveiling new parts of themselves every time they felt ready, and that was so beautifully executed that I could have swooned. 

The story unfolds along the school year, but a lot of things happen in the Christmas holidays, and it’s all just so lovely and festive that I felt completely wrapped up in it, I could see the Hogsmeade Christmas Market in my head, I could imagine snow clinging to their coats and cheekbones, I heard the fire crackling and remembered every detail about Home Alone and it was incredible. 

Every moment of this fic is dotted with details that make it feel real and alive in a way you don’t often find, all the side characters are complex and deep, so diverse, and the little time we spend with them is enough to care for them and love them deeply. Greg is autistic in this, and Draco’s relationship with him is such a beautiful, beautiful touch, as are his moments with Parvati and even Luna. I loved that there’s an openly transgender character, I loved Draco making sense of his own sexuality and finding that he doesn’t have to fit anyone else’s definition of anything, just his own. I loved O’Neill, because it feels so incredibly important to have an authority figure giving guidance to students who are lost, a teacher who, for a change, treats them with respect, wants to love them and genuinely wants to help. She was one of my favorite characters, because she helped them all, loved them, taught them to be genuine about their feelings, helped them find themselves when they needed her, encouraged them to try out new, hidden talents. I’m tearing up just remembering her. I want someone like her in my life. 

I don’t know what else to say. This story is incredibly beautiful, and much deeper than I could ever have imagined, emotional and authentic and human and true, and I wanted to start reading it again as soon as I finished it. If you like post-war stories that feature spot-on, gorgeous characterizations, mistletoes, bowtruckles, hats with pom poms on them, lilies, outings that everyone knows are dates but the people on them, and rather a lot of singing and blushing, this is the fic for you. Which, WHO DOESN’T LIKE THOSE THINGS? So this is the fic for everyone. That’s my hot take. 

If you want to feel warm and fuzzy RIGHT THIS SECOND, I’m dropping another link for you right HERE. Let Marina know how beautiful her story is in a comment, and after you’ve done that, come cry about O’Neill with me. Much love ❤️