It was Witch Weekly, of all people and organizations, the first to notice and comment on The Boy Who Lived’s absence from the ranks of first years at Hogwarts. The magazine went on to elucubrate that the young hero was studying at a foreign school, possibly Beauxbatons or Holzschuhkäse.
Apparently there weren’t any other news that week, because the Daily Prophet picked it up and went crazy with speculation.
Remus Lupin’s personal favourite, however, was The Quibbler’s big reveal that Harry was asleep inside a crystal coffin in some witch’s garden. He actually went to visit said witch, because Dumbledore was adamant that they didn’t dismiss any theory. The witch was friendly and offered Remus plenty of tea and biscuits, although she refused to lift the blanket that covered the box in her garden.
He sneaked a peek anyway, while she was distracted looking for the second photo album. As he had suspected from the faint smell of earth, it was nothing more than a collection of apple crates.
It's always fun to find a fic that's obviously beloved, but that you've never heard of. This was that fic for me. I love the way it handles "Harry never knew he was a wizard," it's so different than in any other fic I've read.
Do mind the author's note, though, if you decide to read this.
Canonical bad things happen to Harry and really terrible things occur to other teenagers. The last ones are not shown explicitly, but they are discussed.
When Harry finally leaves, Malfoy accompanies him to the lift, swatting away the memos that dare beseech him.
"You'll be alright," he promises, looking nervous enough that Harry knows Malfoy needs the reassurance more so than him.
"I'll see you soon?" Harry asks.
Harry has liked Malfoy for a long time, but his thoughts have been quiet, a vague and distant longing in the back of his mind. They're louder now, and clawing, desperately tender.
"Hopefully not too soon," says Malfoy, and looks like he wants to say something else, a lot of somethings, perhaps, but a memo stabs him right in the nose. When he walks away it's without turning, keeping his eyes on Harry as he leaves at long last.
I love so many things about this story. The languid atmosphere of calm acceptance, pierced to great effect by moments of sharp anguish and fluttering hope. The expertly seeded hints and clues that reward a second reading, and the shocking twist that demands it. One of the softest, gentlest love stories I've found in Drarry fic so far. But what I love about it the most is how smoothly it weaves together the threads of three separate timelines into a continuous tale, all the while dangling the central piece of the puzzle in plain sight, and just out of reach. It's a masterpiece of storytelling, and one of my all time favorites.
so harry becomes a hermit after the war and ends up on his own magical island where he lives in a defunct lighthouse. there's a lot of fog. blankets everywhere. light metaphors. draco comes to the island to study magical evolution in isolated places, he doesn't know harry is there, but then guess what?? they fall in love.
hello friend thank you for sending this many moons ago, i was so gripped by the idea that i promptly spent two years pouring myself into it and now it has briefly raised me from ao3 death. here is an atmospheric t4t lighthouse story that's really about how sometimes you can be alone without being lonely but it takes time and the salt wind and acts of thoughtfulness and so many cozy knit sweaters
absolutely love your fic recs omg! do you have any recs for authors who are currently still active? i'll read anything but i'm a big fan of stories that take their time and have a slow slow slow burn.
aww thank you for the ask! here are some of my top-tier favorites from ~active~ authors, varying degrees of slow burn:
probationary action - @toomuchplor
this fic is like being in a carnival funhouse where the walls are writhing, panting, dumb-hot, rigorously perfect smut and then slowly, slowly, you recognize all the mirrors and the warped floor are actually soft, glancing sentiment and crisp prose and then you make it back outside to a big, real, aching world. in the parking lot you will have also important thoughts about the punitive justice system.
Harry breathes out a sigh, dropping his face into the open palms of his hands. “Thank Merlin for you, Neville,” Harry says, looking up again. “You really are the best of all of us.”
“I’m not,” says Neville, “but I do want to see you happy, Harry.”
Harry reaches out and squeezes Neville’s shoulder fondly.
“It must be very interesting, dating Malfoy,” says Neville, standing up. “He uses a lot of sex spells, doesn’t he.”
la, who am i to love you? - @epitomereally
a masterpiece! i'm actually getting sun-soaked dazed eyes just thinking about it. perfect, heat-scoured (the riddled-with-light skies! the la fires! the radiant blooming gardens! the fucking pool!) lush location, one of the most interesting takes, and still true-to-the-marrow depictions of harry, draco, pansy, luna - the list is endless. also so hot, and so dear. even the traffic feels dreamy.
“Maybe you could list the pros and cons of moving to LA for me, Harry,” Dr Goldstein prods.
Uncomfortably, all Harry can think is Draco, Draco, Draco.
the july tree - @oknowkiss
:,) this is so sweet, fun, hot and adoring from another masterful prose-maker. everything that is glanced at feels so naturally done, the vividness creeps in before you're liable to fully realize you're in fact reading and not truly looking. explorative and understanding. 10/10, wonderful, a hundred gold stars.
His neck was in shambles from where it had been bent over to one side. He tried to move but there was a heavy weight on his shoulder. He looked down and saw Potter had fallen asleep on him. Potter’s hand had slipped between Draco’s legs, just above his knees, and then the train came to a stop and Potter woke up as well, lifting his head, his glasses slightly crooked.
Draco wanted to go back an hour and keep himself awake, so that he could feel Potter on him, warm and heavy and unguarded. Instead he’d had only a few seconds before Potter sat up straight, stretching his arms overhead. He smiled at Draco before standing, resting his hand on top of Draco’s head as he walked by. It was lovely, and intimate, but all Draco could think of was the hour he’d slept through, an hour of time spent with Potter he wouldn’t ever get back, his brain repeating over and over, I missed it.
cut from the sky - @mallstars
so much of what i'm desperate to say about this fic is [redacted] for spoiler reasons! such a raw romance wound around an incredible, engaging, heart-stuttering plot. i'm jutting my lip out and there's a vacant ache in my ribs where my heart's supposed to be over this one. lovely, queer, splendid, just perfect. god.
"Please," Harry heard himself say, though he didn't quite know what he was asking.
Draco kissed his forehead. "Of course," he replied. "What would you like?"
Harry shivered, watching the runnels of water against Draco's flushed cheek.
"Please," Harry said again, dropping his head against Draco's leather-clad shoulder, thinking of his hotel room, of stumbling into Draco's store tomorrow, calling him Malfoy and pretending his days didn't revolve entirely around him, "Please don't leave. Please don't leave just yet."
gallows-bird - @jtimu
i want to describe this one with eight knife emoji's and nothing more. four chapters in and every single one individually has ruined my day. it's wonderful, dreary, just enough gray that you'll wonder if the glint you thought you saw was hope or just a trick of the light. highly recommend, misery loves company, come on through.
There hadn’t ever been anyone to soothe Harry’s hurts. To fuss over his skinned knees or brush his hair back from his temples with tender thumbs, too coo softly over a scrape. Comfort was something he’d learned secondhand, dear and hard-bought, and so sat there with his fingers twisted together, knuckles like knotgrass, and tried to wrench the words out. He wanted to touch, instinct told him that much, but he lacked the framework for how and where, and so he didn’t, and they sat there together in a thorny silence.
from love, obviously - @starsworth
counting even though bizarrestars is writing mostly (lovely! gender-explorative! wonderful! wolfstar and also black familial fic currently) not drarry because just god damn. an essential read for me. weirdo, phenomenal draco and the best teddy in the game, easily. hilarious but in that way where your breath snags after laughing really hard and the moment sort of echoes.
"You were kissing," Teddy says. "I saw it."
Harry's eyes sink shut for a moment, and he drags a hand through his hair, which Draco may have accidentally made a mess of, then he blows out a deep breath and opens his eyes. "That's—well, that did happen, yes. That was…something we did."
Teddy's eyes narrow. "I thought you were mortal enemies."
"Mortal enemies kiss…sometimes," Harry says weakly, clearly out of his depth here. He grimaces almost immediately after he says this, then seems to remember he's the adult out of the two of them and coughs, standing up taller. "Nevermind that, you'll understand when you're older."
close behind - @oflights
oh my whole fucking heart. destroyed! adrift! she died how she lived. reading this feels like listening to music, something sleek and melodic, and when i actually consider the masterfully-rendered level of complexity in the plot, it feels like trying to peer into the belly of an actively-playing grand piano. certainly does not hurt to be an enormous fan of eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, orpheus and eurydice myth, and general suffering <3
“It’ll be all right,” Draco said again, and Harry swallowed the rest of his words. He couldn’t let them out here, in their bed, in their home; not yet. And his body didn’t know how to say what he wanted it to, not with Draco this close.
Harry didn’t know how to tell Draco that they wouldn’t be all right, not in any language. Not yet.
My favourite drarry fics<3 (short version, under 50k)
long versions 1 , 2
To Hurt and Heal by cassisluna(21k)
They say that everybody who gets out of Azkaban comes out a little mad. After the war, Draco Malfoy spends three months in Azkaban. He just wants to go insane in peace, but Harry Potter finds that he, inexplicably, still can't leave Draco alone.
you've got the antidote for me by Kandakicksass(20k)
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.
In Evidence of Magical Theory by bixgirl1(43k)
When a hex meant for Draco accidentally catches Harry as well, they're forced to learn to understand each other in ways they previously might have thought impossible. In which Harry and Draco can't fight, so they fall in love instead.
Your Tears Sting, Friend by alpha_exodus(10k)
Draco’s always wanted Potter. It’s only on death’s doorstep that he’s allowed to have him.
MCD
Remember Me, As I Will You by alpha_exodus(13k)
Two weeks, Harry'd said, two weeks and he'd be done with the assignment. But the longer Draco waits, the harder it is to believe that Harry is going to return alive.
MCD
Lumos by birdsofshore(41k)
Harry never expected to spend eighth year listening to Draco Malfoy wanking.
The Standard You Walk Past by bafflinghaze(46k)
On returning to Hogwarts for their Eighth Year, Headmistress McGonagall decided to room Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter together. She may have hoped for a leading example of house unity; the other students fully expected insults and fights. But nothing happened. That was, until Harry sleepwalked into Draco’s bed.
Nice Things by aideomai(22k)
The first thing that happened was Theodore Nott came back from France.
Vortex by xanthippe74(20k)
“Don’t worry, my dearest one,” Draco’s mother told him when he confided his worries to her. When he was old enough to feel the pangs of adolescent longing, but still too young to sense the storm gathering around them. “Magic will overcome any distance or obstacles to bring two soulmates together when the time is right. Circumstances will arise that steer them in the right direction; strange coincidences will make their paths cross again and again. Then the most wondrous moment arrives, when you both realize that your soulmate, your perfect match, stands before you, and from that day forward your hearts will be one.” Ten years after that conversation, the idea of perfectly-matched soulmates feels more like a curse than a blessing to Draco. Who would want a soulmate who was a schoolyard bully, a Death Eater, and a convicted felon? Certainly not Harry Potter. And Draco is determined to take this secret to the grave.
Open For Repairs by FeelsForBreakfast(34k)
After the war, Draco works at a tv repair shop and Harry breaks things. feat. sad boys in jumpers and more ABBA than is probably necessary
The Stars Above Us by 606, create_serenity (Sivany) (19k)
It started as an innocent day out taking Teddy to visit the local observatory. Somehow it became so much more.
In Pursuit of Lost Marbles by Theartfulldodger(22k)
Every night after work, Healer Malfoy follows the same routine, beginning with a familiar flight of stairs that leads to the Janus Thickey Ward at St. Mungo's. With an air of professionalism, he introduces himself to Harry, his husband of seven years, when a memory curse makes Harry look at him like a stranger. He tries not to flinch when Harry calls him sir, but he smiles when bits of the old Harry emerge. Eventually, Draco leads Harry to the Pensieve where he shows him pieces of the life they've built together, what Harry will come home to, one day, when this is all over. Then, Draco waits. He waits, and he hopes.
In The Hand by aideomai(28k)
Two months after Harry went missing, when Hermione was frantic with fear and panic and sleep deprivation, Draco Malfoy cornered them outside the Great Hall before breakfast.
Just a Matter of Time by gracerene(23k)
Draco's in a bit of a rut. He's nearing forty, divorced, and he still can't figure out how to make his Time Turner reconstruction work. He's bored, he can admit it, so he's not nearly as concerned as he should be when his pet project malfunctions and sends him twenty years into the past. That is, until he ends up relying on a nineteen-year-old Harry Potter for help and starts developing some very inconvenient—and possibly reciprocated—feelings.
Dear Diary by AWickedMemory (TeddyLaCroix)(20k)
// This can’t possibly go worse than the last time I kept a diary. // After the war, Harry picks up a journal to write in… and it writes back. Luckily, it’s not a Horcrux on the other end this time.
Chilly Feet by shushu_yaoi_lj(13k)
It all starts with a pair of chilly feet under Harry Potter’s bum.
The Art of Perfection by create_serenity (Sivany)(19k)
Harry cursed the day he’d ever made the stupid bet with Ron because that bet was what had led to him being naked in front of a Muggle art class. Of course Draco Malfoy had to be taking the class, because that’s just how Harry’s life worked.
The Frisky Furnishings of Malfoy Manor by Writcraft(19k)
The course of true love never did run smooth. Or: Hermione has a crafty plan, Harry and Draco are fake boyfriends and wizarding traditions have a lot to answer for. Featuring awkward dates, mince pies, a saucy sofa and a line of sequined house-elf haute couture nobody asked for but got anyway.
amid this warm and steady sweetness by warmfoothills (orphan_account) (21k)
Harry is not living in a period drama, no matter what his friends or his new house or Malfoy’s sudden affinity for horse-riding might suggest, and if one more person uses the word courting, he’s going to start hexing people.
freely, as men strive for right by bixgirl1(17k)
How can Harry love a man like Draco Malfoy?If only Draco would let him count the ways. (Sometimes, a happily-ever-after takes a bit longer than you expect.)
How to Apologise to Harry Potter in 10 Days by QueenofThyme(18k)
Draco Malfoy decides to apologise to Harry Potter, but finds himself falling into old familiar patterns instead. All he needs to do is say two little words. Why is it so hard?
It Takes a Village by Saras_Girl(24k)
Eighth year isn’t exactly going to plan. Harry is definitely not running away, Draco is definitely not impressed, and it’s almost definitely not going to stop raining.
The Owl Who Came for Christmas by dracogotgame(17k)
Draco has a debt to pay off, no matter what Potter thinks. And he has a Very Good Idea to go along with it. Things don't go as planned.
Crimson Neon by xanthippe74(20k)
Winter, 1999. Harry thought going to New York would help him get his head on straight, but all he has to show for it are sore feet and a fridge full of takeaway containers. And now he’s homesick on top of everything else. It doesn’t help that his mysterious neighbour in 2C keeps cooking dishes that remind Harry of home and all the people he lost or left behind.
Before Florence by dysonrules(9k)
Harry is visiting Florence, Italy, when he runs into an unexpected person. They decide to explore the city together and by the end of the night, everything that Harry thought he knew had changed.
A Hiss To Build a Dream On by xanthippe74(10k)
Harry fancies a certain Slytherin. Draco has a snake that’s refusing to eat. When Draco asks him to use his Parseltongue skills to help, Harry sees the opportunity he’s been waiting for. There’s just one small problem: Harry can’t bring himself to tell Draco that he isn’t a Parselmouth anymore.
Drop Everything Now by parkkate(21k)
After accidentally bonding himself to Malfoy, Harry finds himself in an utterly precarious situation...
You Paint in Colours That Don’t Exist by fluorescencx(4k)
Hi! Thank you so much for your continuous hard work and absolutely amazing recs! You’re my safe heaven. 💖💖💖 I was wondering if you have any recs about addiction? Harry or Draco being addicted to a potion and the other is helping them to recover? I know it might be a strange concept but I thought if anyone would know stories like this, it would be you. Thank you ❤️
Hi anon, you’re very welcome! Your kind words made my day, thank you 💜 addiction is a heavy theme for me so I don’t read it often but I’m listing a few fics I’ve really enjoyed below. I’m sure my followers will add more. Check the tags and stay safe!
again, for the first time by @aibidil (E, 14k)
Five times Draco lied about why he wasn't drinking, and one time he gave an honest answer. Or, a love letter to sobriety.
Between Myth and Man by @slytherco (E, 16k)
Draco, lost and a little broken, navigates post-war reality convinced that people like him should not be allowed to make their own choices. To solve the problem of his self-sabotaging tendencies, he starts taking a few drops of Veritaserum every morning. A story about the complexity of choices, repressed desires that come to the surface when we least expect them, and the utter hopelessness of truths built on a foundation of lies.
Thunder by keyflight790 (E, 21k)
The storm will disappear; the rain will subside; but what's left in its wake will last forever. A story of love and loss, redemption and thunder.
Strange Bedfellows by ravenclawsquill (E, 30k)
When Harry encounters a frail and fidgety Draco Malfoy at the Ministry, he just knows something is wrong and he’s determined to get to the bottom of it. A story about Deadly Nightshade, crippling insomnia, excellent wine … and finding what you need in the strangest of circumstances.
Dreaming Darkly by @quicksilvermaid (E, 40k)
It's five years after the war, and Harry is not okay. He hates his job. He hates Robards. He hates Ron's promotions and Hermione's concern. He chases oblivion in booze and weed and quick dirty fucks, but it's never enough. Then Draco Malfoy's face comes up on the case board as a murder suspect and Harry is thrown into an investigation that will take him to dark and dangerous places.
Super Rich Kids by @thusspoketrish (E, 81k)
Draco Malfoy has become disillusioned by the glitz and glamour of the scandalous lives of the Post-Second Wizarding War Pureblood Elite. Enter: one existential crisis, one group of thieving cynical friends, and several terrible, terrible decisions.
Nor All That Glisters by @sweet-s0rr0w (E, 110k)
Lonely and frustrated on house arrest, with no prospects for the future, Draco begins brewing Felix Felicis in an attempt to improve his lot. Just in the short term, of course. He isn’t a total idiot. But before long he finds himself with a thriving business, a nice flat, some actual (albeit irritatingly Gryffindor) friends, and a very satisfying sex life. What’s more, no-one is hexing him in the street. And Harry Potter is single, and gorgeous, and giving Draco decidedly interested looks. Stop taking the Felix? You must be joking…
turnnoffyourmind
jacobvanloon
vaporwave
theartofmadeline
tangentwithtanner
dededos
kianamaiart
baratheonpilled
