#that's all hp stuff

[easterlyblue]

i'm the 'mad about data' type of autistic queer so i made a whole excel file filled with fanfic prompts/starters/ideas and classified it by pairings, genre & orientation

here's how the breakdown of orientation (shamelessly stolen from ao3) with roughly 220 entries.

surprised by how much gen stuff i have ideas for. FM is an unsurprising minority. FF & MM are pretty much equal-- they take over one another depending on my mood.

[gayciate]

Keep writing Disney crossover yuri in your free time so long as you please; it's more imperative than ever

ADSFGGHFASD??? Thank you so much for this!! I must continue to contribute to the Crossover Yuri Ecosystem, rejoice - wlw be upon ye!!!!

[courfee]

» I love you. That's all.

– Art Heist, Baby! @otrtbs

paintings I referenced here:

Gustav Klimt, Death and Life, 1908-1915 – Regulus' shirt has the same pattern as Death's cloak, James' shirt is patterned like the background of 'Life'

It was life and death, and death was there, on the left side of the canvas, waiting eagerly to pluck any one person from the conglomeration of life and claim them as its own. – chapter 28

Mark Rothko, Untitled (Seagram Murals), 1958 – Regulus bleeding out into the background

And he remembers looking out at the thick red blood on the marble floors and nonsensically, being reminded yet again, of Rothko. – chapter 34

Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky, Gathering Storm, 1899 – Regulus' socks have this pattern

'Hang painting here?' – chapter 37

and here some little details and an alternative bloody version :) look at that snake ring being handed over <33

[regheart]

there's something i find particularly annoying in this fandom and it's the way purebloods are written as highly sophisticated extremely rich and straight up a rip off of regency period novels

i understand the choice of this specific portrayal, i can see it as an approximation to historical drama, where the social restrictions are compelling and are relevant to the story, and a good writer can make any concept believable and good

HOWEVER as much as the worldbuilding on wizarding costumes (and a lot of other things) is extremely inconsistent and gets progressively worse towards the later three books, the implications that i see don't point towards this version of a sophisticated performatic elite who interacts only with itself

while i tend to see the blood status in the harry potter universe as a distinction of class and not at all a distinction of race, i don't think the difference is, in practice, as marked as it is in real world contexts, mostly because of how numerically small and insulated the wizarding community is

this post is part of my personal vendetta against purebloods as charming aristocrats & what appears to be the necessity of writing each and all of them as so very well spoken and politically savvy and never-caught-dead-speaking-to-a-half-blood

for once, the sacred twenty-eight is extra canon information and is disputed IN UNIVERSE, because it was anonymously published and received backlash for the inclusion (weasley, ollivander) and exclusion (crabbe, goyle, potter) of certain names

the malfoys are the only extremely rich family we see in canon. extra canon information tells us they made money before the statute of secrecy by trading with muggles

compare that to the potters who are also very rich (there's no scale to tell us who is the richer family), but made most of their money from the invention of sleakezy in the 20th century

the blacks are also implied to be wealthy: sirius manages to live off his inheritance after buying harry an expensive broom, and he says his grandfather likely paid for an order of merlin

there's a lot to be said about the blacks (e.g. they should have at least a couple more properties other than grimmauld place), but the big picture and the similarity with the gaunts (not about the incest, stop fixating on that) suggest they were a family in decadence by the time sirius was growing up

i believe that the implication is that neither of them had a proper job, which creates a similarity with gentry, but gentry lived off rentals and while it is possible they had a country state i don't think grimmauld place was making a lot of money

lucius malfoy also didn't work and spent a portion of his time being a school counselor (and obviously not being paid for it, as it was a way to exercise his political power over the main learning institution in his community)

it's also extra canon that the nott family had equal footing with the malfoys, so we can assume that crabbe, goyle, parkinson and bulstrode were slightly beneath them, either in social standing or money, despite the later two being part of the sacred twenty-eight (or it could appear to be so because pansy and milicent are girls)

the weasleys are obviously the main example of a poor sacred twenty-eight family, as were the gaunts

the crouch family was most like rich (they could afford a house elf), but it's likely that most of that money came from mr. crouch having a high level ministry job. his family and connections were probably an advantage to getting the job, but it's possible he wouldn't be able to maintain the lifestyle without work

longbottom, prewett and macmillan are families that appear to be very traditional, but not remarkably wealthy

other working members of the sacred twenty-eight are: horace slughorn (school teacher, but it can be argued that teaching hogwarts is a prestigious position), garrick ollivander (wand maker and shop owner, but, again, the only wand maker, which holds a certain prestige in itself), mr. burke (shop owner), arthur weasley (ministry employee), frank longbottom and kingsley shacklebolt (both aurors). amycus and alecto carrow are also temporary hogwarts teachers

the blacks married out of the sacred twenty-eight many times (max, gamp, crabbe, potter)

all of these people and every single muggleborn goes to the same school, buys magical supplies at the same place, drinks from the same pubs, etc. that alone should serve as evidence that there aren't many exclusive pureblood hangouts around

the only place that seems to attract the malfoys (arguably the richest and most important pureblood family in the 90s) and not most other people, is the knockturn alley, which is hardly a high brow sophisticated spot

except for malfoy and flint, no slytherin quidditch player during the 90s is in the sacred twenty-eight, so that's hardly a criterion for making it into the team

mulciber is not a sacred twenty-eight name, they could very well be half-bloods

tom riddle and severus snape were half-blood students who formed ties with purebloods while in school and held blood supremacist views, assimilation to a certain level was possible

[froidefille]

Day 20: a fic with fanart

📚 Who we are in the shadows by @quicksilvermaid

Draco/Harry, 99k, E

Summary:

What happens when you’re forced to become the very thing you despise? Ex-Auror Harry Potter, tossed out of the Ministry for something he had no control over, has been looking for a way back to his former life. When he comes across Draco Malfoy in the criminal underbelly of Wizarding London and in need of protection, Harry figures bringing him in to face the Ministry's justice is his ticket back to everything he's lost. But nothing is exactly as it seems. Not even Harry himself. And as he gets drawn further and further into Malfoy's world of honour and deception he finds himself questioning everything he thought he knew—about his childhood nemesis, the Ministry job he misses so much, and most of all, about himself. What happens when you’re forced to see that you were wrong?

Fanart links

🖤Kismet's portrayal of Harry's delirium in the cabin by @kk1smet

🐩 zigster's vision of Harry and his wolf by @zigster-ao3

🤍 junk-ren's depiction of their first meeting

☕ Creeee's art of Draco and Harry hanging out in the apartment by @creeeee

🐺⚡🗡🌕

I have tried, numerous times, to put my stream of consciousness that is me talking about this fic and its' fanart into something resembling a proper rec. Please be kindly informed that I have failed. Apparently, when there's Wolf Harry involved, I loose my ability to be coherent so enjoy me screaming about this work - in spoilers and quotes -under the cut <3

Thank you @hprecfest for the prompt, @quicksilvermaid for creating this story and @kk1smet, @zigster-ao3, junk-ren and @creeeee for sharing your wonderful art with us!

See y'all for day 21 prompt <3

OKAY, here goes!

In the very first scene of the fic Harry recognizes Draco while they are both glamoured by his behaviour alone. He could probably write a PhD on Draco Lucius Malfoy with minimal effort 😅 Oh and the classic "Scared, Malfoy" also makes an appearance as beautifully illustrated by junk-ren <3

The socio-political aspect of the story! Harry is bitten while on duty and he gets sacked bc they can't employ werewolves ????? But they can have people out there on the missions that have put them in this position in the first place? Literally what is this shit! The society's prejudice is harmful enough but what's breaking my heart is that Harry believes it. And then as we learn what exactly has happened and just how conficted Harry is about the way he is now - well, by the end of the story I couldn't help by feel proud of the progress he's made :') The way were-creatures are treated in this society is an excellent metaphore for minorities of any kinds and as a member of one such group, it felt so validating to read about it illustrated like that *melts*

So now Harry is ex-Auror, and rightfully bitter about it, he does private commsions under alias HUNTER JAMES. Yes, you're reading this right. Oh bby, you are NOT being subtle xd Draco, on the other hand, is a fugitive. Which makes for a very delicious suspense throughout the story, the boys never being sure of each other.

Bodyguard Harry while Draco is the brain of the operation !!!!! I am not okay. Literally Harry being muscle (and scents xd) of the op while Draco does all the planning. Exquisite. Also boys just... being themselves ^^

Harry pulls his arm out of Malfoy's grip and barely resists snarling at him. He's suddenly sick of being treated like Malfoy's lackey. 'I'm just the hired muscle, remember. I hardly think it matters if I look pretty.' Malfoy's mouth thins in displeasure. 'And that is exactly why you're the hired muscle and I'm the one hiring you. I know exactly what's needed for you to fit in and not embarrass me, and it's a tailored suit and you need it now. So shut up and hurry up.' Harry narrows his eyes and Malfoy does the same right back.

Werewolf Harry!!!! Scenting !!!! Protective instincts!!!!! TAKING A LITERAL KNIFE FOR DRACO AND ALmosT DyiNg WHIle Draco takes them to a safe house in the middle of nowhere AND TAKES CARE OF HIM WHILE HE’s deLiriouS. And thanks to @kk1smet we have the visual of this scene!!! There's also this little fact that Harry is able to smell bodily reactions so he’s aware of more than Draco wants him to see:

Harry waves the question away. 'So, what prep do you need me to do?' Malfoy's eyes flick across his body for an instant and Harry smells a hint of arousal. It surprises him enough that he breathes deeper, almost unconsciously, but when he meets Malfoy's eyes, there's no hint of his reaction to the words. He wonders if he's mistaken. There's no way Malfoy could be interested in him, especially not after the conversation they'd just had.

... which still doesn't make him any smarter about said reactions 😅

Not to mention his wolf part wants what it wants:

'I need some air,' Harry growls, needing to be away from Malfoy; to be away from the intensity of his emotions. It's the moon, he knows that. He always gets more protective this close to the full moon; always fixates more on people. This level of emotion, though—jealousy—is one he doesn't normally experience. He doesn't like it. He especially doesn't like that it's directed at Malfoy. Fucking wolf. 

I don't know about you but I was cheering for the wolf to have his way 🐺

Harry having the Weasleys as his pack 😭😭😭

'Hi, Harry,' Bill says, reaching out and drawing him into a hug. There's no trace of surprise in his voice. Harry spends most of his moons at the Burrow, weak and shivering through his suppressant potions as Molly fusses over him. Bill holds him tight and Harry lets himself relax into the embrace, letting the familiar sound of Bill's heartbeat relax him slightly.

Harry not accepting himself and keeping his lycanthropy a secret while Draco has ZERO PROBLEM with it AND HE FIGURED IT OUT RIGHT AWAY!!!!!!!!!!! He was literally like, yeah, cool, cool, can we go on now please? And not only that he was literally campaigning wolf rights to Harry himself!

Loyalty Bond!!!!

You wear something of mine - traditionally it would be a house sigil, but I don't think you sporting the Malfoy crest would be advisable.' Malfoy smiles, but there is no warmth in his eyes. 'Then we cast a bond that ties you to me. […] Your mind and your will would be your own. You'd just be incapable of betraying me.' He holds up his hand, clearly anticipating Harry's next objection. 'You would be able to remove the Bond at any time. You just remove the object I give you.'

And despite knowing that, Harry keeps blaming the bond for catching feelings

The bond is creating that sharp, twisting feeling, that feels like jealousy, when he watches Malfoy flirting with the brawny man opposite him.

I hate to break it to you baby but that's just you xd

Also, right after Draco tells Harry he’s not in touch with his family, Harry emphasizes immediately with such feeling:

He feels a tug of loneliness in his chest, at the thought of being without a pack. He forces himself to put ideas like that aside. Thoughts like that are dangerous. Malfoy is his path back into the Ministry and a former Death Eater who needs to be put back in Azkaban where he belongs. That's it.

Sure bby, of course, keep telling yourself that.

There's anger in the room. Sadness. Disgust. It hits him at once, all of it, and it's all he can do to keep standing. Then Malfoy is there, and the door is swinging closed again, cutting the overload off briefly. Malfoy's scent wraps around him as he clenches Harry's arm, leaning in close to look into his face. 'Hunter?' he says, his voice a mixture of annoyance and something else Harry can't quite recognise. 'What's going on?

I can recognise it, it’s concern, it’s care, it’s a hint at the delightful hurt/comfort we are about to be treated with 😄

Oh, and in the meantime, Harry WORKS OUT. Just like that, while poor Draco tries to do some research. Go check out @creeeee's work if you want to see how difficult that must have been for our favourite Slytherin 😅

Also, the UST, the lust and wanting underlying the plot. Which takes some turns but the climax is sooooo satysfying. Of both the plot and the plot-what-plot part :D Honestly, this fic is so hot, I just cannot

THE CAVE SCENE!!

I will never forget it. It was so special :') Wolf Harry!! I love him. He's just a big puppy with sharp teeth, the end. Go see @zigster-ao3's idea of Harry and his wolf and imagine them in that scene. Now you have the visual for all those feelings, good luck ever forgetting that!

Finally I loooooove how we can see their relationship changing over chapters. It so gratyfying when reading a longer fic, when you can explore their relationship's evolving from barely accepting each other to this fierce feeling of adoration.

Lastly - the last chapter. This one I don't want to spoil because honestly, I had tears in my eyes reading this. SO IYKYK 🤍🦊

'I wanted to run with you, though.'

[winterinhimring]

Unpopular Harry Potter opinions:

"James Potter and the Marauders severely bullied Snape" and "Snape taking that pain out on Harry was ugly and inappropriate" are statements that can and should coexist.

"Publicly exposing someone and mocking him is not a funny prank" and "calling your best friend a slur is wrong even under stress" are statements that can and should coexist.

And, finally, "[Character] did something genuinely wrong and would face consequences for it in a just world" and "[Character] ultimately chose to do the right thing and should be recognised for that" are statements that can and should coexist. (James, Severus, and Sirius are the ones I had in mind as potential names to substitute for [Character] but really that could fit a lot of people.)

[mrsometimes11]

Been quiet in the community for a while, sorry about that, but I recently read a book about Cornwall, and I've come to the realisation that half the things in this series aren't Magyk, they're just Cornish.

Examples:

Petroc Trelawney - This is the name of the man who wrote the book I was reading. He's a Cornish radio host. Jenna's pet rock is named after a radio-host

The Marram Marshes - Marram is a type of sea of grass common in Cornwall. There is also a village called Marhamchurch.

Drago Mills - A play on the name Trago Mills, a chain of Cornish department stores. No wonder Lucy didn't want to get her wedding ring from there.

Wreckers - The actual term for a once common practice of scavenging from shipwrecks, which were frequent.

Literal place names (The Castle, The Port, etc.): Very common across all Brythonic languages, but non-speakers only notice it when you translate the names.

Wendron Witches - Wendron is a village in Cornwall

Talmar Ray Bell - The Apprentice of Hotep Ra has a name close to that of the River Tamar that defines the borders of Cornwall.

The Castle - geographically, it heavily resembles the town of Bude, which also features a famous castle. It even has a barge based restaurant analogous to Sally Mullin's place.

The Isles of Syren - ARE the Isles of Scilly

Merrin Meredith - Saint Merryn (ironic I know) is a village in Cornwall.

[dufferpuffer]

PoA is VERY intent on making the reader know that Sirius as a dog is huge and bear-like that if it wasn't suburban England he might have actually been mistaken for a bear. That he was more monster than dog-looking, but dog was the only thing that made sense.

I know jack shit about mammals, especially dogs and cats - what sort of breeds would that be...? Big black bear dog... People often draw him as some 'labrador' or 'german shephard' looking thing (excuse my poor knowledge of dog breeds, I am a bird and bug person not dog and cat) but I wanna see monster Sirius, not 'family pet' Sirius.

[padfootastic]

snippets! more snippets! snippets for days!

“So, first major event was Halloween. Somehow, a troll got loose in the school, intent on causing mischief and mayhem.

“A troll?” Sirius paled. “Please tell me that’s a—a euphemism for something.”

“Siri, ew, oh my god,” Harry gagged, turning his face away from his unrepentant godfather and his ‘it’s still better than an honest-to-Merlin troll, Harry James’

“Suddenly, I’m very glad that there troll was not a—was just a troll. It was during the Halloween feast—“

“I do wonder about that day, you know. It feels so cursed.”

“You have no idea,” Harry muttered bitterly before continuing. “Anyway, so, it was the middle of the feast, Quirrell comes to warn us about the mountain troll in the dungeons before doing a dramatic faint right there, in front of everyone, and Dumbledore sends us all off to our dormitories.”

There’s a beat of silence before—

“The dormitories?”

Harry looked up to see Sirius staring at him, aghast. A small smile tilted his lips on one end. “Mhm.”

His godfather takes a deep breath. “Let me get this straight. You have a mountain troll in your school, which is supposed to be warded to high heaven and back, and your Headmaster tells you to wander through the hallways, where said troll could be lurking, to get to your dormitories??”

Harry nodded. “Yes.”

“What about the damn Slytherins? Their dorms are literally in the dungeons. They might be annoying but they don’t deserve to be killed by a thirty feet tall idiot with bad breath.”

“You know,” Harry mused, head tilting in thought, “you might just be the first, and only, adult to consider that. I’m not sure it ever even hit me until now.”

“What.”

“No one cares about the Slytherins, Sirius.”

“What—“

“I mean, I’m not saying they shouldn’t, just that they don’t. Don’t look at me like that, c’mon.”

“Harry, I have no idea what’s going on right now. It feels like I went on a weekend bender and never woke up, you’re literally two minutes in and there’s a mountain troll, a weird professor, a latently homicidal Headmaster, and still no Voldemort. How do I even react to this?” Sirius’ hands moved around frantically as he spoke, getting daste and more erratic with each word.

[aroaceleovaldez]

Your blog is the only blog where I feel safe enough asking this question. What do you think of Percy Jackson fans who feel as though they and the series have a moral superiority to Harty Potter ? Obviously, Harry Potter and its author are laden with questionable and sometimes straight-up hateful takes and views. But the way PJO fans constantly compare the two, its authors (even though RR is far from flawless), and the two MCs (ignoring how the two both share similarities in the fact that they are both traumatised, abused, angry teenage boys). I'm sorry that this ask got so long, but this has been annoying me for a while now.

This is an interesting question - for one, fandom fights over superiority is a concept that has been around for ages and has never been constructive. PJO and HP fandoms have been fighting in that exact way (and it has gone both ways!) for literal decades (remember, PJO turns 20 this year) so this isn't new, it's just taken on a moral flavor. Let's go over some things though (but please keep in mind i never got into HP and never read the books or fully watched the movies so my knowledge of HP is primarily pop culture absorption/secondhand from my family and friends):

Are either series perfect? No. HP absolutely is full of hateful sentiments and JKR is a hateful person and I do not respect her for that. Disney's marketing recently has absolutely fully leaned into trying to put Rick above her as a moral paragon and emphasizing how progressive he is and his support of diversity in middle grade series, despite some failings to reflect that in the actual text. Are Rick and JKR equally bad? Definitely not. Rick has had tangible good influence on adhd/dyslexia awareness that very directly impacted people like me as a neurodivergent kid going through school in the 2000s. JKR meanwhile has directly negatively impacted trans laws internationally very recently.

Rick absolutely isn't perfect, but he's vocally supportive, has made a lot of effort in the past to be inclusive, and still attempts to do so. Most of his issues simply stem from his own unaddressed internalized bigotry/biases and his research on varying topics not being great (plus poor management decisions such as not hiring a sensitivity reader actually fit for the story he's trying to tell). But he's not hateful. JKR is. JKR is very vocally hateful and bigoted and this is absolutely reflected in her work as well even in earlier HP. They are comparable in that they are both middle grade authors of easily two of the most popular middle grade fantasy (or specifically hidden world fantasy) series out right now. They are not equivalent in the slightest in their bigotry or tangible damage.

In terms of Percy versus Harry, I personally don't think they're very comparable. They share some similarities, but mostly just in that they're both the protagonists of their stories and thus serve protagonist purposes. Beyond that their use within the narrative is pretty different functionally. Their worlds' magic systems are not comparable. The hidden world aspect in both their universes isn't even comparable, since in PJO the "hidden world" aspect is very different from most hidden world fantasy formats because the entire point is that it's functionally not a hidden world. The characters themselves are very different as well - Percy's personality and the way he behaves and reacts to his environment is absolutely nothing like Harry's.

Most of the anti-HP-in-general sentiments stem from wanting to cut off JKR's notoriety, which I think is valid to want to do. And I do think there are a lot of issues with continuing to support JKR's work especially in ways that functionally promote her work or support her financially. Obviously, we will never be able to scrub HP from the cultural zeitgeist. It's just not feasible and I'm very anti-book burning so I do think it's important to acknowledge the role HP has had in pop-culture alongside acknowledging its harmful materials. HP is a text you absolutely can't death-of-the-author your way out of because a lot of the vitriol is baked into the text and worldbuilding in very overt ways - and there are plenty of other pop-culture staple novels like this. But fandom in general, at least true fandom and not mainstream fandom, is so obscure most of the time that I don't think, so long as people are not ignoring negative themes of the source material and are being thoughtful as they navigate engaging with it, that it is an inherently bad thing for HP fandom to just exist at all. It's never going to just stop existing no matter what people do. And HP fandom are not the only ones who should be thoughtful about how they engage with their source material - PJO fandom is not exempt from examining some of the problematic aspects in our own text and figuring out how to be respectful with those topics. It's just a lot easier for PJO fandom to tune it out without it being noticed because there's less of it and it's (at least sometimes) less overt. Honestly if HP fandom decided to go more down the path of a fandom like Warriors or Miraculous Ladybug, where the average sentiment is more along the lines of "Oh god no don't read/watch the source material it sucks/we stopped paying attention to it year ago and it's not relevant at all to what we're up to. We're over here functionally rewriting everything from the ground up/doing our own thing" I would very much support them in that endeavor. I do think there is merit in limiting promotion of the HP source material as much as possible, though.

Hopefully that all makes at least some amount of sense.

[dontvap0rdawave]

Oh boy, I do feel inspired to remake some of my characters! *Dies after sketching a single circle*

Anyways, funny pizza game OCs remake go brrrr

Originals here

[zukosdualdao]

i know because of the enemies to lovers of it all, zutara is often paralleled/seen a similar ship to dramione. i'm definitely not here to disparage that or deny anyone their fun, but i don't see them as very similar dynamics except on a few surface-level points. on the other hand, while i don’t ship anything super aggressively in the hp universe, i've got a soft spot for harmione and i've recently been fascinated by two common anti talking points against them that i also see as really common talking points against zutara antis. (this is not to say that i think they are super similar ships either; they're mostly not.)

is the way people will insist that harry/zuko these ships, both of whom are abuse survivors with trauma, are "too dark" for hermione and katara and that they can't/shouldn't have to "handle" it. i always find these arguments very patronizing and rooted in misogyny, and also not great messaging on how they think about abuse and trauma survivors.

is how people insist that people shipping them devalues the friendship. a) i don't know how it does that when no amount of people shipping something non-canon changes the source material b) they have other friends anyway (why, for instance, does the canon KA or romione not devalue those friendships?) and c) saying that you like/thinking a couple could work romantically or find the concept interesting does not mean you don't appreciate the canon dynamic as is. i wouldn't ship zutara nearly as much if i didn't find their canon dynamic and eventually friendship so compelling.

what i find especially aggravating about these arguments is how often they're used by the same people and how they contradict each other? like, which is it? are they too dark and unhealthy or do you love the friendships between them sooo much that it devalues the very concept of friendship for anyone to ship them romantically (even though if you honestly find the dynamic that unhealthy, i don't know why you want them to be friends either.)

[toorurii]

Are you aware that your art is getting posted on Pinterest?

Yeah, for about 5 years now 😭 I kicked up a fuss when I first noticed it but it’s so rampant that nothing happed so I lowkey gave up complaining abt it and trying to report stuff cause literally everything I’ve ever drawn is there 🧎🏽 my only hope in the darkness are the folks that comment my username under the posts that don’t credit me 🧍🏽‍♂️ty for wanting to let me know though!

Maybe a remedy could be making my own acct and posting my own art there but good god.. I can’t handle yet another site to post art on 😫

[didias-hp]

Severus Snape is trans and that's why the bitch J. K. Rowling made my man suffer his entire life in the most miserable way possible BYEE

[greenerteacups]

Fair warning: I don't think this is going to be a question, just a few post-latest chapter thoughts haphazardly stacked together under a trenchcoat.

Thank you for this chapter. It made my day to read something almost fluffy (I don't think anything in LH can be called purely fluff, and that's a good thing because fluff is best when it is padding for the plot, and that's what this chapter was).

LH Book 5 has been the beginning of payoff for the Dramione slow burn, and while that is immensely satisfying, it also means there are less milestones to look forward to. I don't know if this was an intentional decision, but I love how you started seeding in another slow burn that has kept us equally invested: the Black family drama.

I love reading anything that does the dysfunctional family dynamic well, and seeing Draco getting old enough to identify it clearly, have questions, testing his boundaries, fighting back against what he's been told to accept, has all been immensely satisfying as someone who has gone through this myself. Your depiction of the Black family dynamics has been /chef's kiss/. * spoiler for chapter 70 * when Draco witnesses his cousins casually throwing information his way, what I wanted was for one of the adults to see how much he needed that information, that connection, and give it to him. My god ❤️ You have written a lonely boy craving family so well.

Back to the Dramione of it all (and this might be a question), I love how Harry chose to approach the contained chaos waiting to unravel around him and just bluntly told Draco what he did. Question: do you think this is something Canon Harry would have done in this instance? Was there a choice to change anything in your characterisation of Harry (with respect to Canon) that resulted in this wonderful, blunt, more-mature-than-many-adults-who-can't-even-identify-their-needs version of Harry?

If not, what canon Harry actions/traits do you think would point to him acting this way?

Thank you! This is a beautiful and very kind trench coat, and I am luxuriating in it.

I will answer your question while continuing to luxuriate: I don't think canon Harry would ever confront his friends about an emotional problem, mostly because because he never does. Hermione and Ron, the two people he's most comfortable with in the world, are feuding for most of HBP, and while he does have a few "can't you guys just get along?" type-outbursts, he doesn't really sit down and ask "hey, what's going on with you? How can I help?" because canon!Harry is, as you might expect for a 15-year-old boy, better at ignoring his problems than solving them. (I also think there's an ingredient of conflict-avoidance in there from his upbringing with the Dursleys, but I'll be the first to admit that's mostly headcanon.)

My Harry is a bit softer — in part because that's just how I prefer my Harry, my favorite scenes with him are those where he's showing tenderness for things other people have neglected. This is the best of him, and this is the core of him, in my opinion. Canon Harry has this marvelous capacity for empathy, and when he chooses to use it, it's kind of astonishing how capable he is of resisting prejudice and caring for people. He's fiercely loyal in defending Hagrid, always. He makes a point of freeing Dobby, who's just spent a book trying to maim him. He refuses to let Sirius kill Pettigrew, even knowing that Pettigrew betrayed his parents ("My dad wouldn't want you to" — sweet boy, you mean you don't want them to, and you understand on some level that's the only thing you can say that will stop them.) He saves Gabrielle Delacour, because even if she would have been safe in the end, he's not leaving a little girl at the bottom of a fucking lake. He reads the Half-Blood Prince's handwriting — Snape's handwriting — and thinks: "I bet he's someone like me." On the basis of handwriting, he empathizes with this person! Harry is constantly trying to save people, and he doesn't ever really tell us why. And we'll never know why canon!Harry does that, consciously or subconsciously, but I have to imagine that every time Harry looks at someone in pain, he sees a lonely kid stuck under a staircase, and he thinks not fucking today.

[froidefille]

Day 13: a rare pair

📚 Licurici  by @lou-isfake

Draco/Harry/Charlie, wordcount 133k, E

Summary:

Charlie wanted Harry, but he’d never planned on having him. He’d never planned on Draco Malfoy, either. He hadn’t planned on anything but living out his days in Romania, with his friends and his dragons and his safe, peaceful distance. Apparently, it wasn’t a very popular plan. This is a story about crumbs and flickers and roots, running away and coming home; about falling in love without meaning to (twice), and having truly good friends, and the mutually revealing recognition between two people in love with the same man.

Licurici (m) Noun, Romanian (pl licurici) - Firefly (pronunciation here!)

🐲⚡🦗

One thing you may or may not already know from my previous recs, I love, ADORE, a good poly fic and I have to say Licurici is at the very top of my list. I wasn't sure about this pairing at first, because I am a very hardcore Drarry shipper, yet this fic has demonstrated beutifully how freaking deliciously Charlie just makes sense in this dynamics. He is the calm they need, the experience, the wilderness, the absolute devotion and acceptance. He is somehow exactly what both Harry and Draco need and I just... *melting*

There are quite a few aspects that make this story exceptional, let me enlist just a few:

Charlie being an empath (!)

while Draco is an excellent Occlumens (the angst!!)

THE DRAGONS! I would die for Mathilde. I kept imagining her as Hiccups from "How to train your dragon" and I couldn’t help falling in love with her 🐉🖤

the fact that the Malfoy grounds are being repurposed for a dragon sanctuary – as in, a place of healing and safety and DRAGONS

Charlie coming home. Not a lot of works out there describe that and I absolutely loved this aspect of the story.

Last but not least, big shoutout to @phoenixortheflame who has done a stunning bind of this fic with @saijordison Challengers-inspired art on the cover no less <3

Thank you for this lovely prompt @hprecfest and of course dearest @lou-isfake for your captivating fiction 🤍

Please find a few of my favourite moments of the story for your enjoyment under the cut

Molly explaining that traids are actually common and respected in the magical world !! I LOVE this concept. And then!

"King Arthur, Merlin, and Morgana? No?” She huffed and rolled her eyes. “The Founders of Hogwarts—did you think they were colleagues?”

All the Merthur and Mergana feels from BBC Merlin haha <3 Also all the „what do they teach in school these days” vibe, oh man, Molly <3

2. All the Draco = dragon jokes <3

"Speaking of dragons - where is Draco?"

"I have to tend to the other dragons,” he said with a wink, and Draco rolled his eyes, fighting a smile"

oh baby 😭

3.

"Love is not a limited resource"

*CRIES*

4. Charlie PERFECTLY summing Harry up in two words:

„Adorable and invincible”

I just love this boy 😍

5. Harry "conducting the electricity between them" which is the hottest and also most fitting description of their relationship at the time.

6. I am a complete sucker for situations where the third person is simply needed, like, logistically. So when Harry does his Auror stunts and Draco needs Charlie to take care of him or when Harry is in Mungo's and Draco needs Charlie there – I AM MELTED INTO THE GROUND.

7. Oh and the sex. I mean, phew, oh boy, these scenes were just SO HOT.

OKAY NOW MY FAV PART: Freaking Draco/Charlie dynamics.

I have a soft spot for the less obvious relationship in the triad, between „the others", so to say. Because Harry and Draco – that's just natural. Harry/Charlie – as we get Charlie's POV that’s also somehow... just makes sense. But Charlie and Draco – now, that's new.

At first, it seems that Harry – and their love for him – is the only thing they have in common (as beautifully illustrated in the Final Battle scene). But as the story progresses, we learn Draco's POV, we can see his "soft belly", we see Charlie falling for him and for Harry AND Draco's feelings. So once we are at this moment in the story, Harry basically just became a (cery pretty) ornament in this relationship for me 😅 And I LOVED how it was portrayed, how Charlie and Draco MAKE SO MUCH SENSE IF THEY JUST LET THEMSELVES TO.