The Manor was as quiet as it always was as he opened the back doors out to the garden, crystal tumbler in hand. The brisk wind blew the curtains back and kissed his cheeks, reddening with heat from firewhiskey.
Would he consider remarrying? The very idea of it filled him with revulsion. Meeting and courting and giving an offer of marriage to a fine witch, all the while knowing the cage he’d be locking her up in, seemed a whole new low for even a creature like him. He’d be a hunter, setting a trap for a new innocence to be lost in. At least when he was first married, he was young and naive and headstrong, he could plead ignorance to all the ways in which things fall apart. There was even a time when he would have done it knowingly, a commitment to the expectations he was born under. But Astoria had changed him, altered him permanently. He would rather die and die alone than shackle another human being to him.
The sun was hidden behind a blanket of clouds, the leftovers from last nights storm. He didn’t mind, as his eyes didn’t ache with the light and he could look out over the garden, at the controlled lushness of it. Beautiful, but preened. Alive, but formed into a pleasing shape. Further beyond the rosebushes and fountains and maze, he saw out to the Hawthorn looming over the family graveyard and the wide, untended fields of spring barley. Malfoys did not farm, but to have a holding of such a crop was a wealth in itself. Sometimes they would lease it to distillers or brewers, so as to not be so exceedingly wasteful, but watching a crop live and die unharvested under the eyes of the Manor was a favourite pastime of his grandfathers. Perhaps he’d give instruction to have it sold off, allow it to go to proper use.
He sipped his whiskey and drew his gaze to the darkened edge of the property, the feral and magic-thick forest framing everything within with a reminder; that one can only control so much before the world seizes and returns one to their natural state. One is here on loan, a field of untouched barley left to the whim of a chaos unseen, gifted life for only so long before one’s body feeds the things of this earth.
This forest was where Draco intended on escaping to, once he was transformed. He would start there and see where it would take him until he was ravaged and consumed and annihilated by it. Then, perhaps, if he was lucky, he’d feed the trees.
He drained the tumbler of the rest of its firewhiskey and let the warmth in his belly pool as he tongued the leaf in his cheek. If the world hungered for him already, it would have to wait. He was due for his conversation with Potter.
_____________
an excerpt from chapter 4 of Want for Nothing 💚
Additional Tags:
Minor Character Death, Grief/Mourning, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Depression, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Self-Hatred, Slow Burn, Redemption, Auror Harry Potter, POV Draco Malfoy, Childhood Trauma, Post War, Angst with a Happy Ending, Love so strong it haunts the narrative
“No, we’re not going flying,” Potter said with a sly smile. “We’re going for a drink.”
Draco froze.
“A drink? Tibs can get you anything you want.”
“No, I mean, a drink in a place that serves drinks,” Potter yanked him out of the chair with a force so impressive that Draco immediately filed it away for further contemplation.
“Tibs serves drinks,” Draco said, childishly.
“When was the last time you left the Manor, Malfoy?”
“Am I even allowed to, being a prime suspect in a criminal investigation?” Malfoy sneered, rather harmlessly.
“You’re allowed to leave your house, just not the country. Also, you aren’t the prime suspect, you berk,” Potter said, packing his things back up and throwing the leather bag onto his shoulder.
“I’m not?” Draco asked.
Potter’s eyes darted quickly before he said, “No,” Then, “Not in my opinion.”
“Oh, right. Your opinion,” Draco mumbled. “Well then, I’m saved.”
“Come on. I doubt you’ll try to escape from an Auror,” Potter led the way out of the study. Draco crossed his arms and stood there for a second, two seconds, before letting out an exasperated sigh and following after him, muttering incoherently to himself.
He trailed behind Potter petulantly all the way to the Floo, imagining all sorts of places he could end up. End up in public. Maybe Potter was secretly going to take him to Azkaban himself, and all of this had been a ruse.
When they got to to the fireplace, Potter took a handful of powder from the mantle and tossed it into the flame. “The Three Broomsticks.”
“Oh, no, absolutely not, if you think that I—,” Draco hissed before Potter stepped into the fireplace, shooting back a mischievous grin at him as he disappeared in a burst of green.
“That arsehole,” Draco threw up his hands and paced angrily back and forth in front of the fireplace. “I could just not go. I’ll just not go. I’m not going.”
Draco.
“No, I refuse. Absolutely not. Over my dead body. He’ll have to come back and kill me.”
Draco, go after him you idiot.
“To what end!” Draco spluttered. “Hogsmeade! What are we, bloody children!”
Yes, you are. Now go.
Draco growled sullenly, took a fist of powder, flung it into the fire and shouted, “The Three Broomsticks!”
As he stepped into the Floo, he muttered “I hope it burns down with me in it.”
Draco paled. “But we haven’t even got to the pheasant,” he tried to make it sound like a joke, but he really just sounded like a child.
“Did you wish you weren’t married?” He licked his lips. “To Astoria? Do you wish you’d been free to marry who you wanted? Free to marry a man.”
Draco inhaled sharply and looked down. The plate hummed and shifted into a bowl of soup. He hadn’t had any of the tartare. He wondered if Potter noticed, noticed that he hadn’t eaten anything yet, even though he had said he was hungry.
“Potter,” he said.
“Malfoy?” Potter said gently. Draco made a humiliating sound, a whimper of sorts that should never have come from his grown frame.
“I can’t talk to you this way. These things, these are private things. I don’t even tell my best friends these things. If you were questioning me like an Auror, I could endure it. If this were an interrogation room, I could take the blunt questions about my whereabouts or if I had a motive. But you,” He covered his face with his hands, “but you, sitting there, when it’s you, and it’s me, I can’t take it. I know you don’t mean it, I know you’re doing some sort of saviour routine, or even worse, just your job, and you don’t really care. But it’ll kill me to answer this question. Please.”
“When it’s me?”
“Yes, when it’s you. I can’t bear it.”
Potter was quiet.
“You still hate me, after all this time?”
Draco’s gaze shot to Potter, to his green eyes, suddenly filled with a strange hurt. “No, you bloody idiot. I don’t hate you.”
Potter held his gaze. Draco sighed. “Eat your bloody soup and give me a minute.”
Draco raked a hand through his hair as Potter picked up the spoon and started to eat, as hungry as he seemed with the previous course. Draco watched him.
“To your liking?” He asked.
“I like lobster,” Potter answered in between slurps.
“Me too,” Draco said.
Draco watched Potter eat the soup, unable to touch his own, and far less concerned with whether or not Potter noticed.
He could see the ways the Ministry could leverage against him. He was gay, and so he wanted out of the marriage. She wouldn’t bear him children, and so he wanted out of the marriage. It seemed to him that any arrangement of any circumstances could be used to find him suspicious, to find him guilty. He had two options. Trust Potter, or be handed to the Ministry and shackled for life, either by having to register his status as an Animagus, or in Azkaban.
Trust Potter. What a foreign concept.
At least, he supposed, as the bowls of soup dissolved and shifted into plates of pheasant, perfectly cooked and drowned in a sauce that Tibs knew was his favourite, that of all the people in the whole world, Potter was the only one who kept his word. He was the only one who had never lied to Draco, pretended to like Draco, or saw Draco for his money or influence. Potter had had his nose crushed under Draco’s foot. Potter had seen Draco weep in a bathroom and cut him to shreds. He and Potter had hurt each other, hated each other, teased out the darkness in each other.
And now Potter was here, trying to make sure he wasn’t sent to Azkaban. Because he believed Draco to be innocent. He believed Draco.
Draco watched as Potter cut into the pheasant and began devouring it. Stupid, bloody Potter.
“Sometimes,” he said.
Potter froze, then looked up at him.
“Sometimes I would wonder what life could be like if I was with someone who loved me.”
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Additional Tags: Minor Character Death, Grief/Mourning, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Depression, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Self-Hatred, Slow Burn, Redemption, Auror Harry Potter, POV Draco Malfoy, Childhood Trauma, Post War, Angst with a Happy Ending, Love so strong it haunts the narrative
Summary:
Astoria was dead and Draco Malfoy decided all that was left to do was to stuff a leaf into his mouth and become an Animagus.
After his wife Astoria dies at the hands of a blood curse, Draco Malfoy falls under investigation; except the Auror assigned to his case is Harry Potter, and Harry Potter has a very different opinion of Draco than everybody else, including Draco himself.
____
Uploaded a cover for my fic; if you read it, I hope you enjoy it! 💚🍃
I have decided that all my regrets are now going to be percieved as silly little clumsy Main Character of a Late 90s / Early 2000s Rom-Com Down-on-their-Luck mistakes and not the Deep Soul-Eating Eternal Damnation Rotten Soul Sins that I was led to believe they were
Solas, outnumbered seven to one, overpowered by a lot more than that, betrayed by his best friend Mythal who bound him to her service and coerced him into leaving the Fade and coerced him into making a weapon that would make an entire people tranquil to stop the war she started AND ignored him when he said it would create *checks notes* a blight and made him do it anyway. Solas, facing seven blighted wannabe gods who turned on his best abusive friend Mythal when she finally stood up to them after CENTURIES of him begging her to do just that and starting a rebellion to free all their multitudes of slaves: *creates the veil, imprisons the blight and the Evanuris, and preserves all life in Thedas*
World: FUCK THE DREAD WOLF, GOD OF TREACHERY AND LIES *worships the Evanuris and their dragon thralls*
Solas: zzzzzzzzzz (knocked out cold from saving the world for LITERALLY SEVERAL MILLENNIA MORE)
Tevinter: *razes what's left of Elvhenan, steals all their magic, enslaves the elven people for entire length of Solas's world-saving-induced coma*
Also Tevinter: *breaks into the fucking black city and brings out the blight*
Also also Tevinter: *uses so much blood magic that the veil ends up in tatters*
The Blight: >:)
World: fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck *throws everything they can at the blight, including--*checks notes again*--the blight
Orlais: you know what sucks? elves. let's kill them all
Ferelden: good shout, mes amis
Orlais: you know what also sucks? mages. put them in prisons.
Ferelden: you're full of good ideas when you're not invading us
Free Marches: MAGE PRISON, YOU SAY?
Orlais: add templars who can decide to murder them or make them tranquil on a whim at any moment
Ferelden and Free Marches: *frantically taking notes*
Rivain and Nevarra: we're just going to be...over here...
Blights 1-5: i've got a great idea i've got a great idea
Blights 1-5 after a while: my great idea didn't work :(
Archdemons 1-5: ....... :(
Evanuris 1-5: ......... :(
Solas, waking up in 9:40ish Dragon: what the...WHAT THE EVERLOVING FUCKING FUCK. they can just KILL MAGE CHILDREN? AND PURGE ALIENAGES? AND ALMOST EVERY ELF IN TEVINTER IS A SLAVE? *absolutely rabid, seeks out the Dalish, as remnants of his people*
The Dalish, at Solas: *ARROWS*
Solas: ......fuck this shit, fuck all of this shit, fuck these tyrants in particular, fuck this fucking...UGH
The veil, after all this: (o.O:0oO.)
The remaining blighted Evanuris and the 99% of blight that did not escape: :)
Solas: well, that is a problem, going to need to address that ASAP, but turns out millennia of coma doesn't leave a spirit spry
Corypheus, busting out of warden jail: I AM FREE
Solas: hm, could kill that guy letting him unlock my orb, since he broke into my blight prison in the first place and defo deserves dying
Corypheus: veil needs a certain je ne sais quoi, a...bigger hole. i will make one.
Wardens: yes, good plan, blighted magister man. we are in control of the blight inside us and also heroes *in death, sacrifice = divine justinia's ritual sacrifice under thrall*
The veil:
O
Corypheus: >:( but like...not dead
Solas: well, i did not see that coming
Lavellan: *in chains, threatened with execution*
humans: KNIFE EAR >:(
Lavellan: *hole in the sky, hole in her memories, hole in her fucking hand* fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck, wait, this hole in my hand helps close holes in the SKY
Solas: *.* It seems you hold the key to our salvation
Lavellan: i'm sorry what
humans: HERALD OF ANDRASTE!!!!!!!! *falls to knees*
Lavellan: I'M SORRY WHAT
Chantry: *choking in the corner*
Cassandra: time for you to decide the fate of the world
Lavellan: I'M. SORRY. WHAT???????? you know what? fine. *stops alexius from blood magicking his way through redcliffe and time itself, gets punted into a hellscape of nightmares and makes it back with the help of a rebel tevinter mage* the mages i rescued from becoming probable slaves to tevinter are our allies and dorian is my new best friend for being the only reason i made it back alive and the whole world didn't die *dabs*
Cassandra: >:(
Mother Giselle: >:(
Lavellan: ffs
Corypheus: *dragon temper tantrum*
Lavellan: *somehow escapes both dragon and Corypheus, trudges through blizzard, collapses*
Mother Giselle: *.* I FEEL A SONG COMING ON
Literally everyone but Solas: *falls to their knees*
Solas: a word?
Lavellan: OH THANK HEAVENS
Solas: these people are wack and aren't going to like that Corypheus is using elven magic *cough*, they're a hairsbreadth from executing us at all moments lol, btw here's a castle, you know, for you cos i highkey see myself in you and god i'm so fucking lonely
Lavellan: me too but wait, what the fuck is happening. you know what? fuck it. solas, what if we kissed,,, in the fade
Solas: what IF we kissed,,, in the fade *fade tongue*
Solas: ...you continue to surprise me. you show a wisdom i have not seen...since my deepest journeys into the fade!
Lavellan: don't you dare walk away from me now
Solas: okay vhenan i stay
Vivienne: this is a DEMON and NOT A PET
Lavellan: *blinks* right, no, this spirit kid who is the literal only reason we escaped Haven alive is my son now. if he hadn't read roderick's mind we'd all be avalanched or blighted dragoned, so SUCK IT UP
Vivienne: >:(
Cassandra: >:(
Sera: >:(
Bull: >:(
Varric: >:(
Solas: :D
Wardens: btw we're doing blood magic and raising an army of demons. not really our fault but also not NOT our fault? idk, blight in the blood, morally grey area. get it? grey...war--never mind, we'll be at adamant xoxo
Cullen: lotsa soldiers gonna die
Lavellan: fuck, is there another choice?
Advisors: ...no
Cory's dragon: *burninating the adamant, burninating the wardens, burninating all the people and this crumbling ROCKY BRIIIIIIDGE! CRUMBLING ROCKY BRIDGEEEEE*
Lavellan, flying through the air hundreds of feet towards the ground: fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck *opens a rift into the fade*
Everyone but Solas: FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK WE'RE IN THE FADE
Solas: we're in the FADE!!!!!
Lavellan, after escaping the nightmare's lair: glad half the team is pissed at me, what's next, an imperial ball? how hard can that be?
Orlesians: they invited an ELF SAVAGE >:(
Lavellan: you know what, fuck this and fuck Celene for genociding the entire Halamshiral alienage and fuck you, Gaspard, you can be Briala's little French Orlesian bulldog
Half the Inquisition: *shocked pikachu*
Morrigan: allow me to shemsplain all of elven history to everyone, including Solas, yourself, and all the ancient elves in this temple
Lavellan: you know what? okay. *rubs at Mythal's vallaslin, makes eyes real big* who is this "Mythal"
Solas: *choking in the corner*
Cassandra, muttering: i do not want to do a ritual to a false god
Morrigan: lemme have the well, lemme have it, i deserve it more than you
Lavellan: ...abso-fucking-lutely not *drinks from the well out of pure spite*
Solas: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, VHENAN
Lavellan: idk vhenan, this world sucks and i wanna make it better and i love you
Solas: ...you are everything and you inspire me, hurry, i need to tell you i'm the dread wolf but am going to break up with you and remove your slave markings instead and btw they're basically a drawing of me in my true form and honestly, this whole thing is real fucked up and you're the only real person in my entire life who sees me
Lavellan: wait what
Solas: i'm bad and don't deserve you and had to harden my heart to save the world before and everyone hated me for it so i'm projecting when i say you must harden your heart to a cutting edge to kill Corypheus, I'll explain after we kill him
Lavellan: ...oh yeah guess we should do that but I gotta go meet Mythal first
Solas: wait what
Mythal: *is Morrigan's mum, is only mostly dead, also 100% cool with overriding her servants' will entirely for shits and giggles, 0/10 do not trust* i'll help you if you fight this dragon lol
Morrigan: *choking in the corner*
Corypheus: *has a mahoosive temper tantrum when Mythal's pet dragon kills his pet dragon, dies*
Solas: ;-; ilu, inky, what we had was real but i'm afraid to do to you what Mythal did to me. I MUST AWAY
Lavellan: ....
World: HERALD OF ANDRASTE!!!!!!!!!!!!*
*some restrictions may apply, like in a couple years we're going to forget everything you did and be real mad at you
Solas, somewhere: been there, vhenan
World, two years later: :D we're here to hate you, right on schedule
Qunari: you are in need of the gentle path. therefore, we are coming to kill you all
Solas: like hell you will. but come to think of it, this is a good excuse to see vhenan again
Lavellan's arm: TIME TO DIE
Solas: defo another good excuse to see vhenan again. probs should study that arm anyway
Lavellan, after several Qunari too many: CAN ANYTHING IN THIS FUCKING WORLD STAY FIXED
Inquisition, including Divine Victoria: *shocked pikachu*
Lavellan: i'm going back through the fucking looking glass to talk to some ancient elven sentinels with Mythal's magic whisper well, they're the only fucking thing that makes sense here
Qunari: *destroying everything in sight but getting hounded by the dread wolf at every step*
Lavellan, whose arm is trying to kill her but is following Qunari through her own people's magic mirror world: ...i think i'm in love with the dread wolf
Companions: pfffffft
Cole: :D YES, YOU ARE AND HE LOVES YOU TOO
Lavellan: thank god i have you, cole, my spirit son
Solas, in a statuary garden of petrified Qunari: i suspect you have questions
Lavellan: honestly, fen'harel, not really
Solas: *shocked pikachu* well done
Lavellan: i'm real tired and you could have just trusted me back in Crestwood.
Solas: this world is broken, i must tear down the veil
Lavellan: yep, i'm one "knife ear" away from putting a knife in the next human's ear who says it tbh, i'd rather live in the fade with you and my spirit son, can i help you pls vhenan
Solas: ...no
Lavellan: wtf
Solas, internally panicking because he followed Mythal wherever she went and she dragged him to literal hell and trauma and now his one true love is offering to follow him while he probably makes things worse again: absolutely not, no, but i love you forever
Lavellan's arm: >:(
Solas: ...right, i gotta take that
Lavellan: wait what
Solas: i will never forget you *trundles through mirror with severed arm*
Lavellan: oh fuck my entire life, you know what, Ferelden and Orlais? Inquisition is no more, i'm going on sabbatical to Stone Bear Hold where at least people are not insane and Storvacker loves me, and then i'm going home to the castle vhenan gave me. don't call me. byeeee
ten years later
Varric: gonna go stop Solas, who invented the veil and is From Fade, from doing things i don't understand, wish me luck, inky
Lavellan: WAIT ONE GODDAMNED SECOND I'M COMING WITH YOU
Varric: no <3 i found a complete rando who will fuck everything up
Rook: hey, what if i drop a statue on this nuclear arsenal protecting the biggest biological weapon of mass destruction known to all of thedas? that'll help
Neve, a literal mage who should know even small rituals can blow up and kill you: probs not a good idea but Varric, a dwarf who knows nothing about magic or the veil or the Fade whatsoever says this ritual must be stopped At All Costs By Any Means Necessary so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Varric: Solas I will shoot you with Bianca
Solas: ffs stop *breaks Bianca*
Varric: can you promise me your way is better
Solas: i know way better than to make promises like that, have you seen this world???
Varric: GOTCHA, YOU LYING LIAR WHO LIES
Rook: TIIIIIIIIIIIIIMBERRRRRRR
Varric: defo going to attack the guy whose millennia of existence has been centred on this massive magical problem i do not even comprehend a little after waiting ten years to ask a single question about it when he'd already got going *tries to stab Solas*
Solas, feeling everything he's spent all of world history protecting the world from breaking out of jail: turns the dagger and stabs Varric instead
Elgar'nan: >:)
Ghilan'nain: >:)
Solas: oh for fucking FUCK'S SA--*exit, stage Fade Jail*
Blight: >:)
Rook: oops
Neve and Harding: omg this could not possibly be our fault at all, not even a little. it's Solas's fault, the lying liar who lies
Lavellan: i will not murder this stupid child, i will not murder this stupid child, i will not murder this stupid child
Morrigan: we have to help the stupid child
Lavellan: we have to help the stupid child
Morrigan and Lavellan: *look at each other*
Lavellan: when this is over, i stg--
Morrigan, who has millennia of memories of Mythal abusing Solas and decades of Flemythal abusing her: yeah no i will throw you a going away party and take care of Dorian for you and help you get your boyfriend back and no way will i fight him, this is actually ridiculous
Ferelden, Orlais, and the Free Marches, all of whom turned on Lavellan ten years ago: hELP help HELP there's BLIIIIIGHT
Lavellan to Leliana: you owe me a hundred gold
Leliana: *hands over a solid gold nug*
Ferelden: X_X
Orlais: X_X
Free Marches: X_X
Lavellan: *grits teeth* i better go meet with rook
Rook: andaran atish'an, honoured inquisitor
Lavellan: yo. sure would be nice to be meeting without our gods, you know, destroying absolutely everything i've spent a quarter of my life protecting and rebuilding after the last apocalypse but here we are i guess
Morrigan: *smirks at shade*
Northern Thedas: ROOK IS THE BEST
Southern Thedas: is rook tho
Ghilan'nain: muahahaha i have so many drago---nooo you killed my dragons and i am BLEEDING LIKE A MORTAL PIECE OF MORTAL SCUM
Elgar'nan: my dragon used to be bigger :(
Ghilan'nain: your dragon's fine
Elgar'nan: Ghilly, make it bigger again
Ghilan'nain: can't, too sad. blood. :(
Southern Thedas: *throwing nugs at blight* hELP
Lavellan, with half of Southern Thedas crammed into skyhold: thanks for the castle, vhenan, we'd all literally be dead without it, again
Morrigan: erm, Inky? seems everyone's telling Rook Solas is just a big monster lying liar who lies and blaming him for everything
Lavellan: that's what people do, blame Solas. had a bad day? blame Solas. Mythal wants to sever the titans' dreams? Blame Solas. Rashvine nettle sting? Blame Solas. Bring the veil 5/7 or so of the way down themselves after releasing the blight? Blame Solas. Rook let the gods out? Blame Solas
Morrigan: Inky.
Lavellan: you want me to go pour out my heart to the person who imprisoned vhenan and let out Ghilan'nain, Mother of Tentacles, and Elgar'nan "My Dragon is Bigger than Your Dragon" First and Worst of the Evanuris, don't you
Morrigan: yee
Lavellan: FINE but you better spill every ounce of tea you've got on the stupid child before i go because i need to at least make rook squirm a LITTLE
Morrigan: i thought you'd never ask
Elgar'nan: you won't make my dragon bigger??? fine i'll move the moon instead
Northern Thedas: i'm sorry what
Anyone at sea anywhere on the planet: I'M SORRY WHAT
Ghilan'nain: *throws a temper tantrum and dies*
Elgar'nan: >:(
Solas: fuck this shit, i'm getting out of Fade Jail
Solas: hello, people who enslaved my people for millennia, i am here to save the day i guess
Minrathous, slapping blight tentacles out of their faces: ...honestly thank you
Solas: wait what
Rook: I ESCAPE FADE JAIL SOLAS YOU BASTARD LYING LIAR WHO LIES
Lavellan: i will not murder the stupid child, i will not murder the stupid child, i will not murder the stupid child
Solas: you know what, fair play, here's the dagger, there's elgar'nan, ima bite his dragon, you go have a great time. have fun storming the blight tentacle
Venatori, poster children for the Leopards Who Eat People's Faces Party: nooo the leopards keep eating our faces
Minrathous: wow who could have possibly predicted that
Everyone who has ever met a Venatori: yes, yes, very sad
Elgar'nan, eating every face in the magesterium and effectively cleansing Tevinter of the worst of its monsters in one fell swoop: ah, rook, you can't kill me, i have the biggest dragon ever to dragon
Dread Wolf: honestly he's kinda not wrong, this dragon is a bastard and i am like a fifth of its size and getting p tired, ngl
Rook's Blighted Companion: welp gonnae put this trauma to use for the greater good. go go gadget blight tentacles, release the Dread Pupper
Elgar'nan: *shocked pikachu*
Dread Wolf: *chomp*
Elgar'nan: *throws a temper tantrum and dies*
Solas: oh ffs finally
Rook: not so fast
Solas: oh ffs here we fucking go
Rook: i don't actually want to fight you
Solas: wait, what
Rook: i think this is all my fault but everyone keeps telling me i'm the hero and that's fucked up. and your vhenan, she's nice to me, no one really else is, i'm just everybody's apocalypse therapist, and i even kinda like you tbh, my whole team basically does fun stuff without me and doesn't even invite me to book club and emmrich's the only one who asks me about my feelings instead of just asking me to do stuff for them, and anyway, i'm going to trust the inquisitor here because i'm honestly starved for connection and she thinks you're worth saving so can we talk i don't wanna fight
Solas: what
Lavellan, out of sight, reliving the litany of "i will not murder this stupid child": oh haha awkward
Solas: look,,, i've been bound to the service of an ancient elvhen god for millennia and everything i do, whether i know it or not, is for her, so i can't do what you want and this sucks
Lavellan: even if i'm here, walking the din'an shiral with you?
Solas: ...vhenan
Lavellan: ;_;
Solas: ;_; ...I cannot
Morrigan: yo dread wolf, my mum's a piece of work and i have all her memories and everything she did to you was fuuuuuuuuucked up, anyway, over to her, honestly not pissed you killed that part of her btw, she reeeeally fucked you up, but rook somehow managed to talk her out of her essence, so that's impressive
Solas: what
Mythal: yeah i kinda tore you out of your home and twisted you from your purpose and made you do murder and worse for me for millennia and said i wanted your wisdom and then never ever listened to you ever and just dragged you through every atrocity i created and perpetuated
Solas: it hurts and i guess you're going to kill me now so here's the dagger ;_;
Mythal: it's still mostly your fault but i was there too i guess, anyway, i release you from my service, which i could have done at any point in the past several millennia but instead I tortured you endlessly, lol god of retribution, that's me. k bye
Solas: what the fucking fuck
Lavellan: right there with you, like literally forever, our love is a miracle and the only thing i can even cope with
Solas: yeah honestly fuck this shit, i'm out, i will put myself in fade jail
Lavellan: you are not going by yourself i stg take me with you i wanna go home
Solas: ...home is a literal prison now
Lavellan: sealed away from all this shit? from getting blamed for everything we do no matter how much we sacrifice? if it's you and me there together, i don't care if it's a grey box full of darkspawn
Solas: there's no darkspa--
Lavellan: ffs i said i want to go, you don't have to sell me on it. you're the only person in this world who Gets It. we go on together, forever.
Solas: *.* my wife
Lavellan: *.* my wolf
Northern Thedas: and rook saved the world from the dread wolf, who was a lying liar who lies
Southern Thedas: *busy being dead and blighted*
Lavellan: yeah, fuck this shit, we're out
You can now download this shitpost in beautifully formatted PDF, courtesy of @amburuthings. Thank u for your service *salutes*
You all have had me howling with the tags on reblogs, thank you, I am absolutely dying in deadline hell and needed that
All DATV criticism I have (a lot) explicitly excludes Emmerich, save for the criticism that I should have had more of him, like the desperate greedy husk I am.
Draco Malfoy grew up during the summer of '94 and Harry Potter is a sucker for forgiving people.
2. Oxytocin by WouldItWere [E, 179k]
Draco Malfoy cannot sleep. If he keeps going like this, he will go mad, or die, or both. For some reason, though, he can sleep whenever Harry Potter is with him. And Harry Potter is nothing if not a helper to those in need.
3. Need You by @youhavemyswordandmybow [E, 114k]
Going back to school has been good for Harry. He’s enjoying it this time around, actually learning, rather than fighting for his life. Of course, there’s a few things that are keeping him occupied. One of them is blonde, insufferable and wears really nice clothes. The other one is also blonde, and is definitely dead. No matter, at least he hasn’t done anything stupid - like bonded his entire life to a certain someone who he absolutely had no need to bond himself to …
4. Lost Memories by celestine80 [M, 105k]
Harry is tired of being enemies with Draco. He has more important things to worry about. The most pressing of those being his real enemy, Voldemort, who is now at large. And then Draco starts acting suspicious and Harry wants to know the truth. He always tries to believe the best in people, but Harry is starting to wonder if there is any good left in Draco at all.
5. the keys you keep by @venrain [M, 105k]
Months after Harry is promoted to Head of Magical Law Enforcement, tragedy strikes. Cursed, Harry blames himself and flees to the States. And he's doing fine; really, he's having a grand time hiding from the world, drinking himself into a stupor, and losing himself in west Manhattan. Then, he stumbles into a lounge bar.
6. Through The Dark by @adam-my-adam [E, 100k]
Draco refuses to return to Hogwarts for his eighth year. Harry finds himself disappointed. Guess they will just go their separate paths and never figure out their connection. Draco will never learn his self worth or make a potion to help his mother, and virgin Harry will never learn the joys of making love. And neither will learn that there is life after Voldemort. Or maybe fate crosses their paths and Harry somehow, with help from an unexpected source, wiggles his way into Malfoy's private Potion sessions?
7. Want for Nothing by @syrahbat [M, 79k]
After his wife Astoria dies at the hands of a blood curse, Draco Malfoy falls under investigation; except the Auror assigned to his case is Harry Potter, and Harry Potter has a very different opinion of Draco than everybody else, including Draco himself.
8. Draco Malfoy and the Unlikely Guardian by Happymooncactus [E, 64k]
Hogwarts, Eighth Year. After the war, Draco Malfoy returns to Hogwarts, reluctantly completing his final year at the school he once thought he’d left behind. But his return is even more unwelcome than he thought. [...] When Harry Potter witnesses Draco being harassed, something shifts in him. Unable to turn a blind eye, Harry begins following Draco, watching over him from the shadows, ensuring no harm comes his way. As the two navigate their complicated pasts, an unlikely bond begins to form - one neither of them expected, but both secretly crave.
9. The Light and Dark Inside of Us by MaryWinchester [M, 64k]
Harry and Draco overhear a conversation they probably shouldn't have. Afterward, nothing is the same.
10. Queen of the Weeds by @beloved-child-of-the-house [E, 61k]
[...] Draco returns to Hogwarts for 8th year and finds himself a pariah. To his surprise, Harry Potter is the only person who seems to want anything to do with him.
※ HONOURABLE MENTIONS :
11. Heatwaves by KateBishopHawkeye [E, 58k]
Summer, 12 years after the war. It was not the worst heatwave in London's history, but Hermione and Harry would be damned if it didn't feel like it. Especially in 12 Grimmauld Place, where four unlikely housemates find things heating up in unexpected ways amid old hurts and new threats.
12. Is It Really So Strange? by @fantasticelement [E, 56k]
Harry Potter left everything behind just to teach a bunch of kids — but so did Draco Malfoy. /// A story about rebuilding a school, and rebuilding a bond that, for better or worse, never dimmed.
13. In the Woods Somewhere by @dracopetal [E, 54k]
Draco can't remember what the world was like before Fenrir took him. His life is the cabin and the woods that surround it. But one night in winter, Fenrir kidnaps a man he calls an old enemy, and Draco's life is forever changed.
14. The Theory of Fading by Antisceptic [M, 53k]
Ten years after the end of the war Harry decides to get the scar on his forehead removed. The only person capable of doing that is a brilliant alchemist from France, who publishes his research under an alias. His real name turns out to be Draco Malfoy. They navigate the situation quite poorly.
15. The Witch and the Sorcerer by burningcherries [E, 50k]
The days of the great wand-wielding wizards are long gone, but under the protection of Rome's growing empire, magic hasn't entirely faded away. All humans have it, but only one type. [...] Harry, a recently widowed sorcerer, leaves his hometown with his children and his wixen friends in the hope of finding a witch available for mating further north.
16. In A Hundred Lifetimes by nooraska [M, 41k]
Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy are destined to meet in any version of reality. Or: Draco is weird and Harry doesn't know why but feels drawn to him anyway.
—
※ Word count: 1k ~ 15k
※ Word count: 15k ~ 40k
because my love is mine, all mine by @sachesky [E, 23k]
javelin (to have and to hold) by @garagepaperback [E, 18k]
The Loved Ones by Toffeemond [E, 24k]
Ride by @eurhythmix [M, 37k]
Something about dragons by @bakuko [E, 32k] --- translated by martir
Under Your Spell by SairleB [E, 23k]
—
Ongoing Fest/Exchange
※ Fics would be listed elsewhere.
25 Days of Draco and Harry 2024 | @slythindor100
H/D Erised 2024 | @hd-erised
Harry/Draco Owlpost 2024 | @hdowlpost
HP Soulmates Secret Santa 2024 | @hp-soulmates-secret-santa (1)
DCC Holiday Exchange
dual/ity (1)
Fifth Annual Dirty Festivus: Filthy and F*ckable (1)
