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Growing Sideways

For years, Draco has been complacent. His career is on track, his future is arranged, and he's adapted to the darkness plaguing his restless nights. When paired with Hermione Granger on a top secret project, he begins to question if the comfort of familiarity is enough. As long nights dwindle and their connection grows, she shines a light on possibilities he's never imagined.

Link: AO3

Main Pairing: Draco Malfoy/Hermione Granger

Word count: 111,500, 27 chapters

Status: Complete

Rated E

Relevant tags: Emotional infidelity, virgin Draco, Draco POV, marriage contracts, debating as flirting, insomnia, anxiety, depression, existential crisis, slow burn, coworkers to friends to lovers, emotional eating, character growth.

Note: originally written for Deflower Draco Fest 2023 and finished in 2025, yes I know, but I made it! I'm in my short chapter era so this won't be epic length. The pace is quicker, the burn is slow (I am who I am), and the story expands over two years. The title is from Noah Khan's Growing Sideways, the lyrics are very fitting to where Draco begins his journey. Thanks to @dreamsofdramione for the banner, the betaing, and the friendship. 💙

ivmaruva

“Mafia Boss Draco AU” 💰

None of that blood is his, he had to defend his girls honor. Only problem is “his girl” doesn’t know she’s his yet.

Hi-res color version available on Patre0n :)

avendell

Never pray to the gods that answer after dark

ivmaruva

“Gift Exchange 🎄”

My Dhr Advent piece for 2024. Thank for all of you that nominated me!

You can check out all other Advent art and oneshots HERE

blackbearmagic

Last night, I dreamed there was this really popular youtube channel called “WolfpackDan”, and it was a guy who literally lived with a pack of wolves in the forest, just documenting daily life.

Now, I need you to understand that Dan was not some sort of Coyote Peterson type. He looked and dressed like someone who would pretend to get drunk off of non-alcoholic beer and say “bruh” unironically. He looked like the “bro I am straight up not having a good time” guy. But there he was, literally living in the forest with a wolf pack, recording and uploading videos with his phone.

One of his videos opened with him talking to the camera about “yeah, the pack went hunting today and just made a kill”. He turned his wrist to pan his phone over his shoulder, where four wolves are pinning down and tearing into a whitetail buck who is two gasps away from death.

“We’re actually hoping to make two kills today,” he added, panning his phone the other way to show two more wolves latching onto a second deer. “The Old Lady’s pups are growing really fast and it’s getting harder to provide for them. Once they can join the hunt, that’ll be a huge weight off everyone’s shoulders.”

He panned back to the first deer, where the wolves were now tearing into the meal. “I’m really hoping they’ll leave the pelt on this one intact,” he said. “I need a new cape. Winter is coming, guys.”

The last shot of that video was him running through the trees with the pack, with a still-bloody deer hide draped over his shoulders.

I can’t remember any more of his specific videos, but the gist I got from them was that he actually was a contributing member of the pack (hence the “we”) and had been raised at least partially by the wolves themselves. Not sure how they raised him into this dudebro-looking twenty-something with a name like Dan, but they did?

Where did he get his phone? How did he pay for his data? Who taught him English? Why did he dress like that?

I have so many questions for WolfpackDan.

blackbearmagic

I don’t know why this is getting a lot of notes tonight, but I’m excited for all the attention WolfpackDan is getting, and I hope that–in whatever universe he exists–he’s getting a huge influx of subscribers and is living his best life.

elodieunderglass

The wolves got him in the divorce

bajoop-sheeb

PLEASE for the love of the universe read anti-colonial science fiction and fantasy written from marginalized perspectives. Y’all (you know who you are) are killing me. To see people praise books about empire written exclusively by white women and then turn around and say you don’t know who Octavia Butler is or that you haven’t read any NK Jemisin or that Babel was too heavy-handed just kills me! I’m not saying you HAVE to enjoy specific books but there is such an obvious pattern here

Some of y’all love marginalized stories but you don’t give a fuck about marginalized creators and characters, and it shows. Like damn

spid3rgrrrl

If anyone has any recommendations give them to me please!

bajoop-sheeb

Gladly! The pieces on this list aren’t limited to specifically anti-colonial science fiction and fantasy, but they do center related and relevant topics, themes, etc.

Anything by NK Jemisin. She is the best speculative fiction writer of her generation and probably the best speculative fiction writer alive. She is easily one of the best writers working right now, across all genres. That’s not hyperbole. She deserves all the hype.

Anything by Octavia Butler. She needs no introduction. Her short fiction is incredible; “Bloodchild” is one of the pieces that inspired me to write.

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon. Excellent. Just read it.

The Radiant Emperor duology by Shelley P. Chan. It broke my heart and it'll break yours.

Babel by RF Kuang. You’ve probably already heard of this book because Harper Voyager marketed the shit out of it and was right to do so. It’s very, very good. Kuang writes a compulsively readable story, that’s for sure.

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo.

So Long Been Dreaming: Post-Colonial Science Fiction and Fantasy (anthology) edited by Nalo Hopkinson.

Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora (anthology) edited by Nalo Hopkinson.

Severely underhyped books of assorted speculative genres:

The Blood Trials by NE Davenport. Given the current chokehold romantasy has on the public it’s insane to me that this book hasn’t sold a billion copies.

The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez. It’ll change you.

The Tiger’s Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera.

The Lesson by Caldwell Turnbull.

Read widely. Read diversely. People of the Caucasian persuasion need to stop getting pissy when the story doesn’t immediately center them and they don’t automatically relate to everything the character says and does and is. Just let yourself get swept in the story—even if it touches on (gasp!) racism—and maybe, just maybe, it’ll reveal something to you.

Or maybe not! Marginalized sff authors do not have to and should not have to educate their readers. But if I see one more white person complain about how Black characters are fundamentally annoying because they complain too much I’m going to fling myself into the sun

Thanks for coming to my ted talk I didn’t want to do it but here I am

teeth-and-spackle

Don't forget Aliette de Bodard! Especially her Xuya and Dominion of the Fallen series.

Zen Cho is my other favorite - Sorcerer to the Crown and The True Queen, and also Black Water Sister.

minago

Great list! I will also recommend anything by Samuel R. Delany.

ariaste

Also reccing P. Djèlí Clark's books, especially Ring Shout, which is like "what if Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a black woman and the KKK was still the KKK but now they're literal horrifying monsters as well as figuratively so". It's SO BADASS.

shu-of-the-wind

others to add!!

The Unbroken by CL Clark

ANYTHING by Nghi Vo, not just Empress of Salt and Fortune; When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain and the rest of the Singing Hills cycle, which EoSaF starts, are incredible as well as The Chosen and the Beautiful (an adaptation of the Great Gatsby).

Mexican Gothic and The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, both by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Song of Silver, Flame like Night like Amelie Wen Zhao

Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

ANYTHING by Tasha Suri but especially The Jasmine Throne and its sequel The Oleander Sword

THE LIST KEEPS GOING YOU GUYS

catchymemes

vi-sigoth

And as soon as I think about “I wish it need not have happened in my time” I then think about the greatest Tweet ever:

elodieunderglass

The news: There’s a giant, 25-foot statue of Jeff Goldblum in London now

Me: what’s he doing there?

The news: reclining, his shirt open, his angle improbable, floating slightly by Tower Bridge

Me: reasonable. Fair. do we know why?

The news: something to do with Jurassic Park, we assume.

Me: Ah yes - the iconic movie that I always associate with London, England. So obvious. Of course.

The news: experts are saying “This monstrously large Jeff Goldblum is how I like to imagine the man himself in his true form, or how he would have appeared in the age of megafauna.”

Me: sure, I don’t question that.

The news: We’ve chosen to caption this image with “Onlookers goggle at Jeff Goldblum’s low-slung trousers and single nipple.”

Me: … are you guys….. okay?

The news: it’s just. it’s making a nice change from current events

randomencounters

Encounter: giant Jeff Goldblum that materializes hovering and lounging in metropolitan areas, probably a sign or portent of something, although he’s not saying what

dramioneasks

Find My Way To You - Izzo - T, 9 chapters - King Albus and Queen Narcissa betroth their young children in the hopes of uniting their allied kingdoms. The path to love is rough for Princess Hermione and Prince Draco, who have detested one another since they first met. Yet when a disgraced dark wizard turns Hermione into a swan in a bid to steal her hand and her kingdom, she and Draco will stop at nothing to break the curse and find their way back to one another.

arctik-fox

aromanticduck

There's wholesome ships and there's toxic ships, but I'd like to coin 'sodium chloride ships', where the individuals involved are both horrible and dangerous people, but somehow being together renders them surprisingly well-adjusted (if a little salty).

aromanticduck

The opposite of this is a 'coke and mentos' dynamic, where the two people are generally chill and likeable but being around each other makes them both wild and chaotic.

aromanticduck

Here's the breakdown:

mysteriouseggsbenedict

I love Matilda because it's a story about a child who sees injustice around her and gets mad about it and questions why things aren't fair, and instead of the ending being that she learns how the world works and that life isn't fair, she catapults one of the adults who abused her out of a building with her mind

totally-ikea

“Why is snoop dogg at the Olympics-“

WRONG QUESTION!

WHY ISNT MARTHA STEWART THERE WITH HIM?

softbrah

she is! she’s joining him for the equestrian events because, and I am quoting her directly, “Snoop is afraid of horses.”

butch-ragh-barkrock

Update:

gendernewtral

this is 100% real btw

elodieunderglass

In Paris this week, he said: “I am interested in the horses that dance and I want to give them some carrots and apples … make sure they’re fed before they do their thang.”

Stewart explained the pair’s dressage plan.

“Snoop called me and said he knows I know horses, and he’s a little fearful of horses,” the businesswoman, philanthropist and octogenarian Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover model told NBC on Friday.

“I’m still scared of horses,” Snoop said.

“Have you ever ridden a horse?” Stewart asked.

“No,” said Snoop. “I’m scared.”

“So we’re gonna do dressage,” Stewart said.

teathattast

gallusrostromegalus

I dunno, Suspiciously Beautiful Horse In The Mist That's Definitely Going To Drown And Eat Me, if this heatwave continues I just might take you up on it.

horsefigureoftheday

Ehh I've seen suspiciously beautiful white horses in the middle of the woods twice and I'm still alive. It's fine. I think the danger maybe depends on your geographic area. If you're in the UK or Ireland it's more likely to be a kelpie. I live in Denmark where it's more likely to be a ghost/omen, and the worst one of those'll do to you is give you a fever.