#the drarry writes itself

[iamnmbr3]

JK Rowling: You can tell Harry loves Ginny because his chest monster gets jealous whenever he sees Dean.

Also JK Rowling: Anyway here's a whole paragraph of Harry hating on Pansy for having the audacity to stroke Draco's hair and look like she wants to hold his hand.

[maladaptivewriting]

i’ve gotten a few comments about this but i don’t really want to respond to one person specifically, so i’m just going to explain it here.

regulus black in the golden king might seem short sighted and even stupid at times, he probably makes decisions that you as an adult wouldn’t make, but this is done on purpose.

regulus, while technically an adult, grew up extremely sheltered. he was raised in a family heavily associated with dark magic, but this makes him naive in many other ways. plus 19, 20, 21 is still very young. most people at that age are not the smartest they will ever be. he seems old to a bunch of twelve year olds but he is still very young.

i was also aiming to write him in a way where he was emotionally stilted. he died a violent death at eighteen after enduring a heavily abusive and traumatic upbringing.

also, keep in mind that you as the reader already know all the twists and turns of the original harry potter series, regulus does not. i never set out to write a story where regulus spends the entire time outsmarting the plot. that would be extremely boring imo. you will never find me writing “BAMF regulus black” because that is simply not my style.

[phoenixortheflame]

Bound: I Am Not Who I Became by mab_di

Typeset, bind, and illustrations by: me, @phoenixortheflame.

Draco left England after the trials and has travelled the world meeting wizards and Muggles from different cultures and with vastly different relationships to magic, each other, and the natural world. Now he's a fisherman in Finland on commercial vessels. Harry has been struggling since the war and has become a recluse while trying to write his autobiography. An invitation to the Hogwarts class of 1998's 15th reunion isn't welcomed by either of them, but neither could predict how the night, and their reunion, will upend their lives.

I made this bind for a friend who wanted me to surprise her with a Drarry bind of my choice. I'd had I Am Not Who I Became on my list for a while, because I just knew it would lend itself to some really beautiful imagery.

In the fic, Draco teaches Harry to fly fish, and so I instantly had the idea to draw a unique fly for each chapter head (there are 15 total), which I also included on the dust jacket.

I've been wanting to push myself to include more original art in my designs, and this was the perfect opportunity to practice my drawing on something low-stakes. It took me just under a month to draw all the flies, in between binding and writing and watching Severance.

I've been really loving the printable canvas for wrap covers, and I found this piece of public domain art titled "Cleaning Fish" by George Bellows which, in my opinion, fits the theme perfectly. I was going to do gold HTV on the spine, but decided against it since the art is so beautiful.

I think I'm finally getting better at endbands, but I still hate doing them just the same. @sits-bound introduced me to a new technique, which you'll see in my upcoming bind. In the meantime, this is a faux double-core endband, which I achieved using @maleekamolscreates amazing tutorial.

I had to gild the edges, because gold. I used Liquitex Iridescent Bright Gold acrylic ink and I highly suggest doing at least a bit of a sand before you apply to keep it from flaking too much, even if you do have a guillotine.

The endpapers are chiyogami paper, which might be my favourite paper to work with. The colours are so rich, and the patterns are so striking. This one in particular was made for this book.

I kept the typeset simple so as to show off the flies. Though I really like the vertical chapter titles, which I think add a modern touch to an otherwise pretty classic overall aesthetic.

As always, I made a copy of this fic for the author. And one for me, too.

All copies were gifts and no money was exchanged.

If you have any questions and want to learn how to bind fic for yourself, feel free to get in touch!

[saiddcain]

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 wasn’t 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 — Buffy, LotR, Star Trek and others — hadn’t. 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 “fandom world” and the “real world”. Nowadays “fanfic” 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 didn’t know yet that Harry was Voldemort’s Horcrux — 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 him…

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 couldn’t see past the unsexy villain he’d become. A lack of handsomeness — that was unforgivable. Especially in an age where Japanese Animation was also a growing hype — compare Voldemort to the bishonen that treaded gracefully the western screens: Itachi, Sesshoumaru, Light Yagami, all those svelte, long-haired beauties. Even Orochimaru, Voldemort’s most obvious anime double, had more style.

I’ve 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 Quirrell’s 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 anime’s. 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 internet’s 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 — 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 who’d put Harry through hell through Voldemort’s 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 “rescuing” 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 Voldemort’s Horcrux. And we had Flayu. Flayu was the first popular, Japanese fanartist to draw TomHarry/Harrymort. We didn’t 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 Potter……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 don’t know how we moved from a very niche pairing with few fanfics and only one big fanartist to 16,120 fics as I’m 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, I’m 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 it’s insane. I’m glad more people see it, write about it, love them like me.

Hope I didn’t bore you with my (old man’s…) reminiscences. This was a fun ask to answer. Thank you ❤️

[chilledcitrus]

When people complain about why hinny is criticized more than other ships in the fandom, it's because it's canon. And canon ships carry the weight of authorial intent, so it makes sense that they’re held to a different standard than ships that exist purely in fandom creativity.

Other ships like drarry, dramione, harmione, or any other fanon pairing aren’t bound by canon, so fans can take liberties, reimagine characters, and build dynamics however they like. If someone doesn’t like a fanon ship, it’s usually a matter of preference or a disagreement with characterization.

But with canon ships like hinny or romione, criticism is inevitable because it also becomes a critique of JKR’s writing, her narrative choices, her understanding of her own characters, and how well the romantic arcs were developed. So it's not purely about the ship itself.

[ninainthetardis]

Just something I need to get off my chest

I really think that series like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, fantasy novels with high stakes focused plots addressed to children, should be romance free. They would be so much better without any romance in it.

I mean, as a young reader, I was just there for the action, the magic, the adventure, the plot twists, the plot itself, the characters as individuals, some of their friendships... that kind of stuff in general. I didn't give a sh*t about romance, not even when I grew up and became a teenager. And those are books meant for children and younger readers, right? So, I'm going to share the opinion I had when I was younger (the one I have now would be much harsher, not to mention much longer).

Now, all the romance in HP bored me to death; most of it didn't even make sense. I just wanted to know Voldemort's back story and then proceed to see how they were going to destroy the horcruxes, you know? And yes, I get it, they're teens at that point and it's realistic they have love interests, etc etc etc, except it felt like that author (*insert disgusted emoticon here*) only chose those couples to make all the characters related by the end of the series and none amongst the relationships was really developed to make any sense or look good. Take Hermione and Ron. They'd have zero chances to work irl. Be honest. But mostly, they're lame, boring, casual, rushed pairings with no development whatsoever (thankfully, I dare to add), usually involving characters who are not compatible at all/in the long run.

This is about the canon, but moving on to the fanon ships (Dramione/Drarry), I don't think that that author would have been able to write enemies to lovers properly (I'd add the plus: involving an LGBTQ+ couple, for the Drarry). The sole idea of any of it gives me the ick. Like no. Thanks, but no thanks.

About the PJ ships, on the other hand... they are a mess. None of them is even remotely good. They're all just a total mess, featuring the following problems:

Weird/creepy age gaps

Toxic behaviour

Emotional abuse

Physical abuse

Disrespectful behaviour

Judgemental behaviour

Disregard/dimishment of other characters' trauma

Isolation of characters from other characters they care about/may meet and befriend

Pairings of characters who are not exactly compatible/would never work in long term relationships

Glossing over problematic stuff, which is a big problem considering the audience the books are aimed at

Also, when they get together, some of them are still KIDS. KIDS!

(Fanon ships also fall under some of these points)

In both cases, it's not even like they are necessary to the plot. The funny thing here is that these stories would flow much better without those parts. What's the point of forcing romance into a story where so much is already going on, which leaves little to no space to develop things properly, and in which such romance has actually no purpose?

No romance at all is better than sloppily executed romance. And not every story needs romance in it to be compelling. Especially if they're meant for kids and are full of magic, action and adventure.

A better exploration of the characters and their trauma would have been much more interesting for me to read as kid who became a teenager while the series were coming out, instead of reading cheap romance while the characters were, well, you know, fighting wars and dealing with tons of sh*t.

[mintedwitcher]

What I find interesting and kind of alarming is how Bvddies/Bobs can be very mean and awful toward others who ship Buckand Eddie together. Like if the Bvddie shipper happens to multiship and also ship BuckTommy (even BuckRavi. I was on twitter before 811 aired and a couple of people joked about Buck/Ravi hooking up and Bvddies took such an offense to the idea, even though both men were very much single and it was literally a joke) or if a person headcanons Eddie as bisexual instead of gay. Bobs/Bvddies seem to take a great offense to that. I think anyone who originally shipped Bvddie and then moved on to BuckTommy/stopped shipping Bvddie were lucky to do so when they did, given how that fandom behaves and how Eddie treated Buck in episode seventeen this season.

yeah god fucking help you if you have a different interpretation of bvddie than they do lmfao

I saw the writing on the wall when Tommy was first reintroduced and a few of us (before the bi revelation) were jokingly shipping it just on the Look between them on the cruise rescue. I blocked SO MANY bvddies in that first week, because it went from "oh Tommy's a really cool guy" to "OMG TOMMY IS ABUSIVE AND HORRIBLE AND EVIL KILL HIM WITH FIRE" just because he was "in the way" of bvddie.

and its only gotten worse. death threats, rape threats, csa fics inboxed directly to bucktommy shippers or posted to the bucktommy tags here and on AO3, doxxing, etc. all because we like a different ship. for a year. it's been a fucking year. and we're STILL getting "oh but why do you Like him though? why do you ship them though? but what about bvddie though?" as if we (and the show itself) haven't already given a fucking myriad of reasons.

I'm exhausted by this stupid fucking one sided "ship war". I don't care who people ship. I really fucking don't. but fucking hell I have never hated a ship more than I hate bvddie right now because of its shippers. johnlock, destiel, merthur, stucky, none of them hold a fucking candle to the amount of toxicity and hatred coming from bvddies. hell, further back, fucking drarry wasn't this bad.

bvddies have given themselves the fucking crown when it comes to unhinged toxic stan behaviour and its fucking embarrassing that I used to be one of them.

ugh okay rant over. sorry. lots of pent up frustrations today.

[anxiousthoughts365]

Hi AT! Could you please write drarry with one of them getting featured in Witch Weekly and the other reacting to it? Does it inspire pinging? Good natured teasing/banter? Is it their gay awakening? lol 🫶🏻

Hello there! Of course, here you go :)

~🐍Drarry⚡️& the Witch Weekly Feature ~

No warnings apply

'Have you seen this?'

Draco looked up to find Dominic Havoy, the Healer that he shared an office with, standing before his desk. The man was grinning, and in his hand he held a magazine, bent over on itself to reveal a page that appeared to be entirely full of a smiling Harry Potter. Draco lifted his eyes to give Havoy an exasperated look.

'Unlike some of us, Havoy, I actually have enough work to be getting on with that I don't have to waste my time flicking through that trash rag,' Draco muttered, turning his attention back to the piles of parchment littering his desk. He'd hoped that that would be enough of a dismissal, but apparently, Havoy was insistant on being obtuse today.

'Oh, don't pretend you're unaffected, Malfoy,' Havoy sighed, and Draco could practically hear the man rolling his entirely uninteresting, mud-brown eyes. The magazine crinkled as Havoy turned it back around so that he could appraise the picture himself. 'I mean, Gods, just look at him. You know, I didn't even realise that I was bisexual until I saw his first Witch Weekly spread 2 years ago.'

'How thrilling for you,' Draco drawled, studiously staring down at his paperwork and trying very hard not to snap the quill in his fingers. Thankfully, Havoy appeared to finally catch on that Draco had no interest in continuing their conversation, and he left soon after. Only when the door closed behind him did Draco allow himself to sag, to hiss out an agrivated breath between his teeth. Unfortunately though, that was not the end of his torture.

Throughout the day, many others approached him with the same magazine in hand, the issue invariably held open at the exact same page - the centre-fold picture of Potter, lounging on a long green sofa, his tight white T-shirt contrasting effectively with his dark skin and clearly showing his defined abdominals. Each time, Draco affected indifference until the person simply gave up and went away, but he grew more and more annoyed as the day wore on.

By the time Draco was ready to leave for home, he had seen more of Potter's face grinning at him from a glossy page than he'd ever hoped to. His jaw ached from clenching his teeth all day, and he was itchy and irritable. He made his way quickly to the Floo and stepped through it, already moving when he landed on the hard wood floor of his living room. Pausing only to drop his satchel in the hall, he headed straight to the kitchen, knowing exactly who he would find there, and more desperate than ever just to see him.

He found the man he was seeking standing at the kitchen counter, cooking their dinner, as he always did on Friday evenings. As soon as Draco entered the room, however, the man put down the knife he'd been chopping mushrooms with, turned to smile softly at him and said, 'Hey, Baby, how was your -'

Harry's words were cut off as the Healer strode across the room and cupped his face, Draco's lips crushing against his a split second later. The Auror made a surprised noise in the back of his throat, then sighed, winding his arms around his boyfriend's waist and pulling him in closer. The kiss was quickly becoming heated, so Draco pulled away and ducked his head to meet Harry's gaze, to ensure that he had the man's full attention.

'No more Witch Weekly spreads,' he growled, and Harry's mouth turned up at the corners in a knowing smirk. Draco bristled, and he held Harry's face tighter as he added, 'I'm serious, Potter. If you want this relationship to continue, no more magazines.'

'Alright, steady on,' Harry chuckled, running his thumbs soothingly against Draco's hip bones. 'No more magazines.' Draco nodded, appeased, then smiled for the first time that day when Harry kissed him again and murmured against his lips, 'For your eyes only from now on, Baby.'

[letteredlettered]

Hello!! I've read all your hp works and I wanted to say that I love them all and they've made me feel feelings. The way you write drarry and just hp in general is very close to my heart.

That being said, there is a question I wanted to ask you as a writer. What does plagiarism mean and what does it constitute? Like... I hear that term a lot but just reading a definition is not making it clear to me. As far as I understand, copying someone's work, word by word is plagiarism. Does it also count as one if I copy someone's idea but just modify it a bit. Carry on is such a work and it's resemblance to hp and main pairs similarity to drarry are well known. Even hp itself has a evident similarity to Neil Gaiman's ‘The books of magic’ , at least as far as the titular character goes. It was also said that maybe jk stole the idea from there but Neil later said that it wasn't the case. So I'm guessing that's not plagiarism.

Let's take another example, I love you fic away childish things .. so if I wrote a fic with the same idea.. is that plagiarism? Or if I copy the plot? What if I liked a particular scene very much.. or a sentence very much and I used it as a base for a new fic.. or used that scene/sentence itself but in a different context is that plagiarism? I'm sure a lot of people have read Running On Air by eleventy7 in the drarry fandom. So if I use the sentence “Going away is easy, coming home is hard.” in a fic I write (maybe in another fandom or the same) does that count as plagiarism? Ofc I'm assuming that other people will know which scene or sentence I'm using on account of said fic being a famous work (in this case, fandom). But there could be a case where the source is not well known. What if I took something from a particular folktale of a community or country? Would that count as plagiarism? Jk Rowling herself has said that she used a lot of info while writing hp from various stories, folktales, religious books, lore and some good old tropes of said genre and pure imagination. Most of it was done unconsciously while writing. I guess it doesn't count as plagiarism if the place where you're copying from doesn't have a particular author (for eg folktales etc). Like.. God is not gonna sue me if I wrote things similar to some religious text. His followers on the other hand... yeah best not go there haha. But yeah.. what if I used different things from various sources, like.. just picking my way across it all and using them to write a story, just mish mashing things together like a collage and making something out of it. Will that be plagiarism? Or is that just being inspired by other art? On the other hand there is a saying that every art has a genesis and nothing is original. Every work is inspired by some other work be it art, music, writing or whatever. So where does one draw a line between inspiration and plagiarism?

I know it's a very long ask and I'm using a lot of scenarios but I wanted to cover everything that might come under the word 'Plagiarism'. What are your thoughts on it? What is included in plagiarism? Specifically, in writing.

If you made it this far thank you for reading where i essentially just ramble lol. I would like to know your answer and if you have any reading material on it please point me towards them. Thank you and I hope you're doing well xoxo

Plagiarism is copying word for word. It's one kind of stealing.

Copyright infringement is also a kind of stealing. That's a legal term about copyrighted material, but laws from some countries around this issue can maybe help clarify what is socially considered stealing and what is considered fair use. "Fair use" is also a legal term (at least, in the US); it refers to reasons you can use a copyrighted work without permission. I think that what many people socially consider "not stealing," even though its using someone else's ideas, falls under fair use.

Fanfic generally falls under fair use. The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW)--which is the organization behind AO3--argues that while fanfic uses things like characters and settings from copyrighted work, fic falls under fair use because it is creative and transformative.

The transformative part is important. If you copied Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone word for word and put it on AO3, that would be plagiarism. It's not transformed in any way. But if you write a story in which Harry and Draco fall in love, you're significantly transforming the story in a way that progresses the world of literature.

Other attributes of fair use (beyond whether the work is transformative) include whether the work is done for profit, whether the market for the original copyrighted work will be impacted negatively by the derivative work, and how substantially the derivative work uses the original copyrighted work. Fanfic uses the original copyrighted work quite substantially in many cases, but if it doesn't impact the market for the original copyrighted work and isn't done for profit, that shouldn't disqualify it from fair use. This is why it's extremely important never to ask for money for a fanfic, and why any author doing that should be reported to the hosting site.

Now, you asked about the Harry Potter series. While JKR may have gotten ideas about kids attending magical schools from other books, HP differs significantly enough that whenever she was sued for copyright infringement, she won her cases. Some might call JKR's books a ripoff of other books like it, but most agree that while not terribly original, these books do not count as stealing. (I would add, though, that just because someone wins a case doesn't mean it's not stealing. Disney steal shit all the time but wins cases because they own everything.)

You also asked about Carry On. I would say about that series, too, that it is substantially different enough from other books, that it doesn't count as stealing. There are just lots of books about kids secretly going to magic school, as it turns out. But I would add that even if there were more similarities to HP than there are in Carry On, Carry On could not be considered theft, because it is transformative.

Carry On, like Lev Grossman's The Magicians, is in a conversation with books like Harry Potter, books about magical schools and books with young, Chosen One protagonists. Carry On is not a fanfic; the characters are not the same; the set-up is not the same; the plot is not the same. But it is a book that asks questions about Harry Potter, and other books like Harry Potter. It's asking, what does it mean to be the Chosen One? Isn't there something sinister about a supportive mentor figure who pushes young people into war? Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games is also in a conversation with books that have young Chosen Ones, and it asks the same questions. Carry On further asks, isn't there a strange chemistry between the archetypal Golden Boy protagonist and the archetypal schoolmate antagonist? That's something tons of high school romance stories ask, and tons of HP fics, but it wasn't something that hadn't yet been done in a magical school Chosen One series--not with homosexuality--which also makes it pretty damn transformative.

You asked about using a line from Running on Air in a different work. This is plagiarism, because it's the exact words. Using that sentence in any work would be plagiarism. Using the exact sentence that someone else wrote, not matter how well known the work, is plagiarism. You likely won't be sued, but it's still stealing in most cases.

Now, it could be acceptable to use a phrase from the sentence to reference Running on Air. You'll see this in a lot of older literature. You'll see a little phrase in quotes that isn't credited, but your Penguin footnote will tell you they were referencing another author there. That was common because everyone was expected to have read the same body of work in certain cultures.

In fandom, lots of people will have read the same fics, so it could be a nod to another author to quote their work in a fic of your own. That's generally not the culture, mostly because the reason authors would do that had more to do with literary ideas that story telling, and most fic has a focus on storytelling. And, because fandom is a non-professional community where it's easy to reach out directly to the authors, if you do want to quote something by a different author, the author should be asked--again, because that's the culture.

Some material is so often quoted that it's idiomatic. If you say "I put away childish things" in a work, that may be from the Bible, but most people know where it's from, and even if they don't, it's part of our language now. Same would be true if I put in a work "Parting is such sweet sorrow," which is from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Few would call it stealing if I didn't credit such sentences, but if you're not sure whether it's idiomatic, a place where you're using the exact words should be credited with a footnote or citation.

You asked about using a line from a folk tale. As you say, folk tales often don't have known authors--but more importantly for your question, they usually don't have definitive versions. There are literally thousands of versions of Cinderella. If you used an exact sentence the Brothers Grimm used in their version of Cinderella, that would be plagiarism. Any exact language from an extant version of the story would be the same way.

A lot of what I'm saying is about how law works (particularly in the US), which deals with what might be socially acceptable in terms of whether something is stealing or not. But many cultures do have oral traditions that have a specific way a story is told. I would argue that's still a specific version, and if you're quoting the exact language, it's still stealing. But lots and lots of cultures have stories they like to tell but always tell it a little different, in which case you might be stealing ideas but not plagiarizing. And some things that are said enough, such as "Once upon a time" and "And they lived happily ever after" are idiomatic and not consider plagiarism.

But idioms touch on an interesting topic related to idea theft, which is how likely it is that you came up with something on your own, or that anyone could without the original text. The line you quoted from Running on Air is unique, but the idea that coming home is hard is commonly accepted. Indeed, there is an idiom that states "You can't go home again," which refers to the difficulty of coming home again.

Therefore, if someone said, "Going home is difficult," it might be a paraphrase of the sentence from Running on Air, but it might also be a paraphrase of the idiom, and it would be a little silly to call that plagiarism. Paraphrasing can be plagiarism, but it depends on a) how closely the paraphrase hews to the original, b) how much is paraphrased (as soon as you're paraphrasing more than a line, it really starts to be plagiarism), and c) whether someone could reasonably come up with it themselves.

So, if someone said, "Leaving home isn't difficult, but going home again is," that paraphrase is a lot more directly related to the original sentence and could be considered plagiarism. However, in a story without any other Running on Air references or similarities, I would assume an author came up with that based on the idiom and would never even dream of accusing them of plagiarism. But if the next two sentences were also similar to lines from Running on Air, I'd get suspicious.

In fact, the original line you quoted is close enough to the idiom that if I read it in a different story, I might assume that the author hadn't remembered that that line was from Running on Air. This has definitely happened to me--I used a line or phrase that I thought was mine, but I actually got it from somewhere else. If you're doing it consciously, you shouldn't. With paraphrasing, I think it's a little dicier; some would say if you're consciously paraphrasing anything it's a problem, but if you know you read that line from Running on Air but also know you've thought about that idiom about coming home a lot, it might be fine to say something sort of similar, as long as it's not the same and as long as you're not taking other things.

The same is true with ideas. You asked about Away Childish Things. If you read that fic and decided to write a fic about Harry de-aging, you might have been inspired by me, but it isn't stealing because de-aging is a common trope in fandom. You could've come up with it yourself or by reading any number of things. You asked about the plot; if you wrote a story in which Harry and Draco got to know each other by identifying illegal potions and then while doing some of that work together, Harry got de-aged and later Draco got de-aged, I would still say that this is a plot you could have thought of yourself. If you wrote a story in which everyone was infected by a potion that was like Imperius, meaning Harry only trusted Draco to help him, and Harry de-aged, and then to cure him Harry re-aged and then Draco de-aged, and could only re-age one year at a time, dealing with all of their Hogwarts years again and revealing Draco's history with his mentally ill mother and Muggle dating, I would say...okay, that's hewing pretty closely to Away Childish Things and feels a bit like you took something from me.

If you called a shop in your fic Tailored Tinctures, that's very specific, and I would say you took something from me. If you had an indicator solution in which you had to dip your thumb and your thumb turned cerulean to indicate a positive, I would say you took something from me. For these kinds of questions, it has to do with the amount you took but also the specificity of it.

As I mentioned, fandom has its own culture. Usually if you get an idea from someone else it's a very good idea to drop that author a line and say, "Hey, I got inspired, do you mind if I do?" But I don't do that when there are a hundred fics that all have the same idea, because by then it's starting to be fanon, and using fanon is not considered in this culture to be stealing.

Different people have different ideas about this, but I do feel that I'm pretty close to the general thought on this. Some people will say that any time you are inspired by anything you must credit, or you must ask, or you must never use it to begin with. But most of us are inspired by things all the time, and the only times we claim we aren't are the times when we really can't remember what the original inspiration was, or when things are so jumbled that ten different things inspired one idea. In those cases it isn't true that we aren't using other works, only that we can't identify them.

[greattemptation]

[Podfic] The Noble and Most Ancient House of Noir

@rainstormradish, I am so, SO excited to share this with you.

Everyone else, I am so, SO excited to share this with you. This is a hysterically funny, technically flawless, endlessly loving drarry masterpiece. Bite-sized and perfect.

Summary: The Snakehole on Dism Alley had bad lighting and good firewhisky. I sat on a stool at the bar, watching in the mirror as a lady in pearls took drags of her cigarette, puffing out magical smoke rings that turned into swallows and flew away. A saxophone played itself in the corner. The Snakehole was just how I liked it. The perfect place to dwell on schemes and forget to live The parcel could have come from anyone. The question was, who?

Or, Harry overreacts to an unexpected Christmas gift.

Length: 27 minutes Rating: M Pairing: Drarry

One bazillion thanks to @jtimu and @citrusses for all the inspiration and hand holding, and one bazillion more thanks to @starquestingfordrarry and @hoko-onchi-writes for the listening and hand holding. And I know it seems like so many bazillions but here we are with yet one additional bazillion thanks to @sweatersinthesummer for providing such generous guidance for figuring out a few new technical skills!!

[iamnmbr3]

I'm pretty sure I followed you a long time ago when I was in Marvel fandom and I'm delighted I found you again!

I remember that you had great fic recommendations and seeing that you're in hp fandom too just makes me so happy! I just finished the books (I would have read them long ago, but they were banned at my home) and I'm knee deep in drarry now and I completely understand the hype for those two idiots.

Do you have lists for long (I'm talking+80k) fics I could start with? Preferably gay/lesbian parring 🙏 and thank you in advance

Oh wow what a lovely ask! Thank you so much and welcome back!

You can check out my fic rec tag here for a ton of good recs. Here are a few good ones to get you started - mostly drarry with some other excellent ship and gen fics thrown in as well for good measure.

Running on Air by eleventy7 (words: 74,880 | rating: T | Drarry)

Draco Malfoy has been missing for three years. Harry is assigned the cold case and finds himself slowly falling in love with the memories he collects.

Amulette d'amour by The_Carnivorous_Muffin, Vinelle  (words: 105,428 | rating: unrated | Tom Riddle/Alphard Black)

Tom is commissioned to repair a magical amulet.

Nero su bianco by zuzallove (words 40,507 | rating: E | Drarry)

September 1997. Hogwarts is under the regime of Voldemort and the Carrows. Finding himself alienated by both his friends and his supposed enemies, Draco puts quill to parchment, and writes letters. He addresses them to the only person he can think of, as Hogwarts rapidly falls into chaos and ruin: Harry Potter. He goes to great lengths to ensure the letters are never discovered, and he’s pretty certain he’s done a great job. Until the day of his trial.

Ouroboros by Metalomagnetic (Words: 258,416 | rating: E | Voldemort/Tom Riddle)

A strange man adopts Tom Riddle and it is not his father, as Tom desperately wants to believe. Stranded in the past, Voldemort once again comes to the conclusion he's the only one he truly needs.

At Your Service by Faith Wood (faithwood) (words: 95,752 | rating: E | Drarry)

Hogwarts students are in danger; Harry is determined to save them all. There's only one thing he knows for certain: Draco Malfoy is somehow involved.

you've got the antidote for me by Kandakicksass (words: 20,730 | rating: M | Drarry)

When Harry Potter unintentionally severs their soulbond before it can fully form, Draco Malfoy resigns himself to a slow death and decides not to burden Harry with a soulmate he's made it very clear he doesn't want. He's never been selfless before, but for Harry, he can try.

The customer is always right by Metalomagnetic (words: 7,200 | rating: unrated | gen)

In the summer of 1945, Caractacus Burke hires a new assistant to help with the shop. His son doesn't know what to make of Tom Riddle, the young charismatic man that doesn't seem to mind working hard for just a handful of coins.

Your Friend, James by TedwardRemus (words: 5,330 | rating: T | Lily/James)

It is the summer before their 7th year, and Lily and James spend the entire holiday writing letters to each other as their relationship slowly changes from friends to something more.

Tea and No Sympathy by who_la_hoop (words: 70,045 | rating: E | Drarry)

It's Potter's fault, of course, that Draco finds himself trapped in the same twenty-four-hour period, repeating itself over and over again. It's been nearly a year since the unpleasant business at Hogwarts, and Draco's getting on with his life quite nicely, thank you, until Harry sodding Potter steps in and ruins it all, just like always. At first, though, the time loop seems liberating. For the first time in his life, he can do anything, say anything, be anything, without consequence. But the more Draco repeats the day, the more he realises the uncomfortable truth: he's falling head over heels for the speccy git. And suddenly, the time loop feels like a trap. For how can he ever get Harry to love him back when time is, quite literally, against him?

of all my demon spirits by basketofnovas (slashmarks) (word: 1,730 | rating: T | Gen)

After the end of term, Ginny gets a new diary and struggles with the events of her first year.

War Paint by provocative_envy (word: 18,876 | rating: E | Tom Riddle/Hermione Granger)

It was small, slim, about the length of her hand; the leather cover was soft, the sewn-in binding was crisp, and the thick vellum pages were empty. 'Tom Marvolo Riddle' was printed in ancient, flaking gold leaf across the front. He had been a Slytherin, a prefect, and head boy in 1944. She had checked. [ ALTERNATIVELY - Hermione finds Tom Riddle's diary. ]

The Unwinding Golden Thread by The_Carnivorous_Muffin   (words: 50,260 | rating: T | Gen)

In his fifth year Tom Riddle discovers his destiny and meets the cold, alarming, and bizarre transfer student Harry Evans. But sometimes things unravel in ways we do not expect.

Denude by Faith Wood (faithwood) (words: 4,172 | rating: E | Drarry)

This is a HBP AU. It's set a few days after the Sectumsempra scene and takes the story in another direction, asking the question: "What if the Sectumsempra scene had a greater impact on Harry and Draco?" Harry and Draco are sixteen. In medias res beginning. Non-linear storytelling.

[plor-bindery]

Bound: Take the Moon & Two Houses, by @tackytigerfic

The final installment in my rundown of fic I bound for Tacky! And this is currently my top contender of all the books I've bound. I just fucking love it? Idk.

First things first. I wanted to try a tete-beche for a while, and when I was deciding what of Tacky's to bind, I found these two fics that both center on a forced marriage or marriage of convenience, which is just an excellent trope all around. The two fics are quite different otherwise, so I'll rave about them separately.

Take the Moon features werewolf Harry (though, as Tacky says, that's not what the fic is about) and a forced marriage (and, as Tacky also says, that's not what the fic is about either.) What is the fic about, then, you ask? For me, it's finding love and family and steadfastness in each other. The fic also features one of my favorite depictions of Scorpius, who Tacky here writes as a preschool aged boy with autism. Tacky doesn't make Scorpius a problem or a source of conflict -- of course, because of course he isn't! -- but instead makes it super clear that the world around him is the issue that needs addressing. Harry is so fiercely in Scorpius and Draco's corner through this fic. I love it so much.

Two Houses also features parent Drarry, but in this one, they are parents of grown children. I love middle-aged Drarry, and Tacky does such a fantastic job with these two wondrous idiots, their bluster and irritability and how they are absolutely just meant for each other anyway.

For this bind, I used a bit of cotton in my fabric stash from my doll clothes making stage, over ten years ago. (The children who received said dolls and doll clothes are nearly grown themselves now, so it's time to repurpose the fabric.)

I drew (actually! drew! digitally but I drew!) the artwork for both the covers, keeping the colour and design very simple because the cloth is so busy. Using little bits of gold HTV to accent the plain white is just my favorite thing. (Weeding out all the tiny holes in the title of Take the Moon was not my fave. But worth it.)

Endpapers are just scrapbook papers from Michaels. (The map is of New England, lol. But the aesthetic worked? For Two Houses?)

Shopping cart is off rawpixel.org and is from a theme in Take the Moon.

I neglected to take photos of the endbands but they were my first attempt at using the bookcloth for making my own endbands, and that went fairly well?

The book itself is another legal quarto size bind.

Long ramble short: I really, really love this bind, and I'm super proud of it. I had a little moment of feeling verklempt when I packed it up, but of course it belongs with Tacky! (I don't have any more of this fabric so this is truly one of a kind -- but I might someday make myself a copy with different cloth?)

[tackytigerfic]

Writer interview game

Thank you to my pals @arminaa8, @citrusses, @garagepaperback, @houndsinhades, @sorrybutblog, @sweet-s0rr0w, @wholahoop for tagging me - as always i'm deeply late to the party, due to an anxious few weeks/horridly busy work month! so love being tagged in these things though, i appreciate you all and loved reading yours.

how many works do you have on ao3? 69 😏 under tacky and 2 under BrassTacks (the account I set up when I was going to migrate all my fics over to a new name for some reason)

what's your total ao3 word count? 679,422 (nervous laughter) (also this is just the tacky account)

your top 5 stories by kudos? (a clear indication that kudos count means fuck all imo, three of the five of these are very much not my best imo - but which three?!)

If It Takes All Night (E, 11k)

A Lick and a Promise (E, 55k)

Modern Love (E, 62k)

And One To Play (E, 22k)

Through the Window, Clear Skies (M, 1.4k)

do you respond to comments? I used to reply to all, then i fell hugely behind with Modern Love, and then life got exceptionally busy and for ages it was either reply to comments or write new fics. i am currently working my way through comments on my new long fic though - really trying to catch up, albeit slowly.

what's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending? People might say my MCD fic Last Offices. I would say The Quiver of a Heartstring.

what's the fic you've written with the happiest ending? First Watch, imo - i think they really had to work for their happy ending, and also it's a double Drarry happy ending

do you write crossovers? I have a rough idea for an F1 crossover based on the Grosjean fiery crash/coming back wrong trope

have you ever received hate on a fic? a few times, that stuff doesn't really bother me though. personal unpleasantnesses are much harder to deal with but luckily don't happen often.

do you write smut? yes i do! it's something i've been actively working on improving, in fact. my most recent fic Standing in the Way is probably my best (though the sex scene at the end of First Watch was the one I found most satisfying in terms of the resolution of the fic)

have you ever had a fic stolen? yes, had a few put on that AI voice-recorded site recently.

have you ever had a fic translated? yes, a few - always a great honour as i see translation as an art in itself

have you ever co-written a fic before? yes! and it was very fun. Body Electric with @shealwaysreads and the Dreaming Skies Dronarry fics with @sweet-s0rr0w

what's your all-time favorite ship? look i've been reading drarry since around 2002 so...

what's a wip that you want to finish but don't think you ever will? Dudley with a magical baby/forced marriage/drarry on the run after Muggles find out about magic. MoD Harry who keeps dying but not for good having to go retrieve Draco from death. Draco going through the Veil to get Sirius back. Vicar Harry that I started years ago and would probably need a full rewrite. Caravan park worker Draco in a holiday camp in France. Seer Ron. I have lots. Though I do hope to finish them at some point!

what are your writing strengths? probably immediacy of emotions/ a strong visual style?

what are your writing weaknesses? sloppiness, sameiness, trying to be concise but just making it dull. getting discouraged at never being as good as the writers i really admire.

what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? i... don't really have many? if someone in the story speaks a foreign language and doesn't speak english then I'd find a native speaker to help me translate their dialogue. I would never write an accent/dialect phonetically a la JKR though (RIP Fleur and Hagrid, you deserved better)

what's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to? F1!! I have two WIPs, a Maxiel non-racing AU where Daniel owns an organic farm shop and Max is a finance bro who makes friends with him and joins his 11-a-side amateur footie team and they hook up on a stag do while dressed as mariokart characters, and a Galex fic with Vicar!George.

what's your favorite fic you've ever written? First Watch! I think it's a really good fic (relative to my writing i mean), it does exactly what i hoped it would, and the people who like it seem to really genuinely love it, which is the best feeling. Also I do love the Voldemort-Wins trope and we don't have a huge amount in Drarry so I'm happy I wrote one.

Since I'm so late I'm not sure who's done this already (will try a few F1 pals too in case this hasn't reached you yet) @beloved-child-of-the-house @boxboxlewis @disarmd @elskanellis @epitomereally @faiell @kendra-vendetta @maesterchill @magicalrocketships @powerful-owl @saxamophone @skeptiquewrites

[teaandjumpers]

✨✨Fic/Stats Game ✨✨

Rules: Give us the links to your fics with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and fewest words.

1st most Hits: Tales from the Bunker of Domesticity

This is my season 8 Destiel fix-it fic that I started writing when I realized the writers were not going to keep Cas around. It's a series of domestic moments between Dean and Cas (and Sam). Mostly fluff. I'm not an active destiel shipper anymore, but I still love this one, especially the last chapter.

2nd most Kudos: That's My Type

My first chaptered Obikin fic. I think I was in some kind of trance throughout most of this because it wrote itself.

3rd most comments and 4th most bookmarks: Obi-Wan (Anakin's Version)

My topwanfest fic! I regret not going with my alt title for this, which was The Marks We Bear, but there's a popular drarry fic with that title. This was me working out/reaffirming my obsession with Obi-Wan (and Ewan).

5th most words: Holiday Attire Required

Wrote this when I had too much stuff going on, BUT I loved writing it, so much so that I commissioned @unspuncreature to create art for it--which was lovely, like all his work.

Fewest words: Word in the Senate Is...

Still working on an Obianidala followup for this one!

Thank you to @starwalkertales and @mutteringretreats1 for tagging me! This was a lot of fun, and the AO3 filtering option continues to be such a gift.

I'm sure you all have been tagged before (or have already done this), but no pressure tags for: @voidseoul, @virahaus, @somethingsteff, @thegingerwrites, @comebackali, @barmadumet, @renlyslittlerose, @sky-kenobye, @lostinsnow, @ragnarlothcat, @piecesofeden11, @nightoncydonia, @asteroidmiyoko

I'd love some bts thoughts on your fics!

[horsemotifs]

In light of the Graham Gore book (The Ministry of Time) coming out on May 7th and a show adaption already greenlit, I think it's important to talk about the fact its about the historical Gore, not the AMC character. As far as I know, the author first was a Terror fan and then picked interest by seeing historical Gore's portrait, and then got into the historical information (and you probably couldn't write a whole book about the AMC character anyway, considering the little screentime). So, it's not a Terror fanfiction, but a book involving RP fanfiction.

Anyway, what I wanna talk about is that The Terror fandom, me included, has a problem with mixing the historical and fictional sides. The Terror is a work of fiction, the characters' personalities and their actions are fictional.

Especially Fitzjames, who is as fictional as Hickey is. He's mostly based on Battersby's "research", which we now know includes a lot of bullshit (the Barrow scandal apparently did not happen, for example). @jamesfitzjamesdotcom can probably tell you more about that than I can.

So, the thing is, if you wanted to write a book about Fitzjames, about Francis, Fitzier, Goodsir or basically any other character with screentime, and then say it's about the historical persons, you could not do it if your interest and knowledge is majorly based on or fueled by The Terror.

You couldn't mix AMC James and historical James together, because they are two different people. If you write about Fitzier with their characterisations from the show, you couldn't call it historical Fitzier; it'd be like writing Destiel and then saying it's Drarry. Or some other ship that has barely any canon content, because if you look at historical Fitzier, there's no Fitzier. Like writing about Bungo Stray Dogs and then saying its about historical Ozamu Dazai just 'cause they use his name and some character traits.

It's one thing to take historical lore and use it for The Terror fanfiction or headcanons. But you can't look at historical Fitzjames or other crew members and extend their AMC/Simmons counterparts onto them.

The Terror is an amazing show in itself, but it's not a biopic or historical show like HBO War is, for example. It's not a show that tries to represent the real people as they were, the expedition as it was, it's a work of fiction inspired by real events, subjectively interpreted and then fictionalised. So if you're interested in the real events, you can't just watch or read The Terror, because it doesn't represent them. It doesn't represent the people.

This fandom, again me included, needs to be more conscious of that when talking about the historical people and events.

Especially now, because the Gore book will most likely attract more people to watch/read The Terror and get into the Franklin Expedition. So it's important that when they get here, there's a clear, or at least clearer, cut between The Terror and the real history.

For example, not tagging historical FE content with "The Terror/The Terror AMC/terrorposting" (since the historical Terror would be HMS Terror it'd be a difference) is a start. Tagging the show/book content clearly with "Simmons/AMC/2018" somewhere, and not with "Franklin Expedition", is another way.

[tenthousandyearsx]

Thanks so much for tagging me @wolfpants, I loved reading yours! I've pretty much only published lots of PWPs so far, and while I loved writing every single fic I've posted, self-recs always feel a bit weird. x_x Anyway, I'll give it a go!

Rules: Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you’ve written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💙

​‎ㅤ

Passably Wrecked (Drarry, E, 4.6k)

“Potter,” Malfoy says, sitting down next to him at breakfast. “I think we should have sex.”

Starting with this one because it's fairly recent and I don't think I've shared it here! Malfoy expresses scepticism about Harry's sexual prowess. Harry is having none of it.

​‎‎ㅤ

Keep your hands on me (Drarry, E, 21k)

Malfoy binds himself with a sex curse. Harry cannot get enough (but would much prefer to keep Malfoy for himself).

Still the filthiest thing I've written imo – it's 21k of smut and I didn't self-censor at all, but I ~think~ I consider it porn with character development rather than pwp. I wrote the whole thing in a daze, which is my favourite way to write when the muses allow – and to my absolute astonishment (I was sure it was going to get hate), it tends to get my favourite comments too. ​‎‎ㅤ

Just a trial run (Drarry, E, 9k)

Potter in his living room was a novelty and Draco could not take his eyes off him. He fixed both of them a drink, handed Potter his Firewhisky, then sat on the sofa. “From Saviour to Auror to whore,” he said. Potter choked on his drink. “Tell me, Potter, how does that happen?” In which Harry wants to get into sex work and Draco would prefer to keep him for himself.

I'm very fond of this fic and this Draco. I wrote it while I was working on KYHOM because I wanted to try a somewhat similar premise with the opposite dynamic, with top Draco and a more submissive Harry. It has both a paid sex kink and alcohol kink, which I have no idea where they came from, and while I've been postponing doing some proper edits on the second chapter, I absolutely loved writing it. ​‎‎ㅤ

Trouble with your tie, Potter? (Drarry, E, 6.7k)

The last thing Harry expects when Slughorn partners him up with Zabini is Malfoy shooting them furious looks throughout the whole class and then unceremoniously snogging Harry in the corridor.

My Erised fic from last year! I was actually working on something else entirely, a much longer fic that fizzled and died on me halfway through. I have a self-imposed rule that the energy of a story has to be right and has to be such that the story drives itself – and, specifically for fic, that if I don't enjoy writing it, there's no point in doing it. So when writing a fic becomes a slog, I just go back and delete mercilessly. It still didn't help in this case though x_x, so I started writing "Trouble with your tie" instead, which was an absolute joy to work on and I'm so happy I did. There are some parts I still think I'll probably rewrite at some point, but I really loved writing H and D's dynamic here. Even though I don't agonise over my prose when I write fic, I am super careful about the energy I'm putting out and especially the feeling I'm leaving the reader with at the end, so I'm really happy they hit the mark in this case. ​‎‎ㅤ

Not very gallant (initial Dronarry but endgame Dron, E, 3.3k)

“He likes it when I hurt him,” Harry tells Ron with a smirk. “And then you come in and soothe him.”

I wanted to include a non-drarry fic so here's a very recent one! I think I probably could have done more with it, but I loved writing Ron in this. Please mind the tags!!! Everything is super undernegotiated!!! It's endgame Dron, but Harry is perfectly fine with it. I should also probably mention that Harry is a bit of an asshole in this fic compared to the way I usually write him, but because I usually write Drarry and wanted this to be endgame Dron, I had to find a way for the dynamic to be in character, hot, and sexually charged, but not in a way that made me ship drarry too much. I'm also usually not good with threesomes or poly relationships because I always feel like someone is left out x_x, so I tried to put my own spin on it. This is what worked for me and I loved writing it! Do not expect considerate behaviour for like... most of it though.

Tagging @crazybutgood , @magpiefngrl , @orange-peony , @lumosatnight and anyone who'd like to join!