Draco has worked hard to gain a reputation as an unbiased reporter for the Prophet.
He never imagined this would lead to Harry Potter offering him a job, or how much accepting said job would change his life.
*
*
"I've had an idea," Harry said, "You were there that night, at Greengrass Moor, when I …" he trailed off looking embarrassed.
"When you told everyone they ought to be fucking grateful and leave you the hell alone? Yes, it's one of my fondest memories." Draco wasn't trying to annoy, it was true, and the image of Potter swearing at Draco's idiot, fame-whore of a boss was something that never failed to make him smile.
Harry flushed, "I didn't mean it, not in the way it came out, and certainly I didn't mean to shout it at the editor of the Prophet."
A lovely, lighthearted fic where Draco and Harry spend all their time talking about their past, Harry's life, and Draco falls in love with him along the way. Very minimal angst, funny, with a lovely plot and a Draco trying desperately not to fall in love with his ex-enemy before he can finish writing his biography. Definitely worth a read!
A Sword Laid Aside - Chapter 1 - korlaena - Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling [Archive of Our Own]
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
A Sword Laid Aside by Korlaena
(128k+)
Author's summary: When Draco’s cover is blown during a deep undercover operation and the Ministry is compromised, Ron takes Draco to the only safe place he can think of—Potter. Hiding out with a taciturn Harry Potter, who has been missing from the Wizarding World for almost two decades after a shocking fall from grace, is nothing like Draco thought it would be. Draco has to navigate dealing with this Potter while being hunted by Dark wizards and wanted by extremists in the Ministry. When things take a turn for the worse, Draco has to decide whether he's going to keep running or find a way to protect the world and the people he cares about most.
It's been a while since I posted here, not because I was not reading, but because I somewhat forgot about this rec thingy. But this story. My god, it's sooo sweet and sooo sad at the same time!
The characters are so well done and I mean if I was in Harry's place, I would have fared much worse than he did. The dark brooding thing he does just got me, yk. Draco here is also tooo adorable, and their equation even more so. The angst angsts and this had me rubbing my feet in excitement under the blanket so many times!
Heyy, do you have any drarry fic recs wherein Harry is living his quiet life in a cottage? Thank youu :D
Hi anon, yes absolutely! I love this trope, you’ll find most of my recs on this recluse!Harry list and this cottagecore list. I’m adding a few more fics below, all of them with Harry as the cottage owner. Envoy!
Glowing by @cavendishbutterfly (T, 10k)
Harry's lived alone and vampiric in his cottage for ages, until a long-lived Draco Malfoy suddenly shows up to answer an advertisement Harry had practically forgotten he'd put in the Prophet. Cue soft blood drinking, quiet nights of reading and crocheting, and Harry thinking that maybe--just maybe--he might not be so alone anymore.
Twelve Moons by @corvuscrowned (T, 27k)
Harry Potter lives a quiet life, running an inn with his two best friends. Once a month, Draco Malfoy comes to stay. A real-time fic that takes place over the course of a year; updates every full moon.
Simulation Theory by @starquestingfordrarry (E, 35k)
An offer to test out a new invention for Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes turns into a whole lot more when Harry discovers who has the other part of the paired set.
All Roads by korlaena, Saulaie (M, 36k)
Draco hates his job at the Prophet. He hates it even more when he’s assigned to write an article on Harry Potter, who left the country three years ago after their falling out. Draco doesn’t want to face the truth about himself, but he’s stuck between Harry and his duty, and he’s out of options.
Starlight in the Void by @dodgerkedavra (E, 40k)
An overgrown cottage in an unassuming seaside village is the perfect place for Harry Potter’s fresh start. Harry gets two weeks of peace before he hears rumors of a mysterious hermit wizard who lives in a stone tower in the woods.
Through the May Air, Over the Ocean by tsauergrass (T, 45k)
Draco Malfoy never expected to find himself in Scotland or being stuck in a cottage with Potter—but wonders never cease. A story about warmth, a story about falling back in love. A story about a flock of sheep in the distant fells of Scotland.
The Bolthole by aideomai, Tepre (E, 54k)
Harry is a hoarder, Draco is grief-stricken, and both are capable human adults who can definitely spend a month in a cottage in the Cotswolds together without ever talking about the time they slept together in eighth year. Yeah, no, totally.
When It Alteration Finds by momatu (E, 55k)
After the war, Harry left most of the Wizarding world behind and built a new life for himself in the Channel Islands. He opened a bakery and is happy with his life. Draco is a fiction author who writes under a penname, and he's currently suffering from writer's block. His agent suggests he try writing in a new environment and rents a cottage in the Channel Islands for him.
A Sword Laid Aside by @korlaena (E, 128k)
When Draco’s cover is blown during a deep undercover operation and the Ministry is compromised, Ron takes Draco to the only safe place he can think of—Potter. Hiding out with a taciturn Harry Potter, who has been missing from the Wizarding World for almost two decades after a shocking fall from grace, is nothing like Draco thought it would be.
Bonus: a dark!Harry fic 😈
Now I Wake Up In The Night and Watch You Breathe by @hoko-onchi-writes (E, 24k)
Or: Harry has been pining for years. It's time he finally makes his dreams come true.
Of all the possible reasons to end up in St. Mungos, Harry was pretty sure that an icicle was absolutely the most unbelievable of them all. And the fact that the icicle was currently protruding from his abdomen after he slipped and fell in the woods, the thump of his body hitting the ground rattling the trees, and knocking loose a giant icicle, even more unbelievable.
Yet as he staggered into Mungos, a stasis spell firmly in place to keep the icicle from melting so he didn't bleed out, Harry knew the only option was to tell the truth.
"For Merlin's sake, Potter," he heard before he saw the other man, "What the fuck did you do to yourself this time?"
"Err," he said, looking up and seeing Draco stalking toward him, looking like an oncoming storm, people parting around him like the proverbial red sea. "Hi Draco."
"Healer Malfoy to you," he snapped. "What is this?" he asked, gesturing to Harry's abdomen even as his other hand pointed in the direction of the first open door down the hall.
Harry limped down the hall, keeping a hand pressed against his stomach, "An icicle?"
"Do I even want to know?" Draco groused, as he slammed the door shut behind them and vanished Harry's jacket, jumper, scarf, and shirt with one flick of his wand.
He shrugged as he struggled up onto the table, "Probably not. It was an accident."
"Of course it was," he grumped, "Lay back," he added, casting diagnostic spells. "How you're even still alive with the nonsense that happens to you is beyond me," he said. "Where was this icicle before it appeared in your body?"
He hissed as Draco poured a potion onto Harry's wound to sanitize it, "Hanging on a tree."
"What the fuck, Potter? Do you know how filthy-"
"I know," he said, gasped really as Draco pulled out the icicle and Harry's insides felt like they were being ripped out with it. "Fuck! Malfoy that fucking hurts!"
But Draco was already casting to close and heal the wound. "Drink this," he said, handing him a blood replenishing potion.
He grimaced, "Do I have to?"
Draco glared at him but didn't dignify that with a response.
Sighing, he reached out and took the potion, swallowing it down with a whole body shudder at the unpleasant taste and even more unpleasant texture.
"Don't be a baby," he said as he started casting cleaning spells.
"Draco-"
"Don't," he snapped.
He sighed, "Draco," he repeated, reaching out to grab the sleeve of his robe and give it a little tug.
"What?"
"I'm sorry. It was an accident," he said honestly. "I slipped and fell."
He shook his head, "It's always something and then I get a patronus that you're on your way. But what about the day you don't make it? Hmm?" he asked. "What about the day that you're out in that godforsaken woods of yours across the bloody ocean, with nobody around you for fucking miles, and you can't get here? How am I even supposed to find you?" He scrubbed a hand through his hair. "I can't keep doing this, Potter."
"Stop calling me that."
"No!" he exploded, casting a muffliato at the door. "No, Potter, I won't stop calling you that because I need some fucking distance from you." He shook his head, chest heaving, "I can't fucking breathe when you-"
Harry climbed out of bed and took Draco by the shoulders, trying to get the other man to meet his eyes. "I'm fine," he said.
Draco's fists hit Harry's chest, "This time." He shook his head, "Every time you show up here, you look at me with those fucking big green eyes, and you bat your eyelashes at me and I'm lost. And you flirt with me and tell me I'm pretty, you take me out to dinner and fall into my bed with me only to disappear again in the morning. Every time I fall a little further. Every time you disappear it hurts a little bit more. And every time you come back to me, so I can patch up your wounds, I'm a little more afraid." He firmly pushed back against Harry, breaking Harry's light grip on his shoulders. "I can't keep doing this," he repeated. He took another step back, "Find someone else to piece you back together so you can throw them away afterward. I'm done."
Without another word, he turned and left the room, shutting the door firmly behind him.
Well fuck.
--------------
Harry stood at the bottom of the set of steps up to a muggle flat in London for several minutes, bouncing on his feet and debating, before finally summoning the courage to climb them and ring the doorbell.
"I'm not in the mood for carolers," that dearly loved voice said as the door opened, before Harry could even see his face.
"Well, I'm not the best singer, so-"
"For fuck's sake," Draco said, trying to shut the door again.
He reached out to stop it from closing, "Draco, please," he begged. "Hear me out."
"I can't just keep doing the same thing. I'm not a booty call-"
"No," Harry agreed. "Draco, you're so much more than that. I-"
Draco sighed and the door swung open, the pressure Draco had been putting on it to try to get it to close vanished. As the door swung open, it revealed Draco standing there in a pair of worn out old joggers and a Weasley jumper with an 'H' on the front. "I'm begging you, Harry," he whispered. "This is destroying me-"
"Come with me," Harry said desperately. "Let me just show you what I was going to show you in a couple of weeks at Christmas and if you still want me to go, I will."
He scrubbed a hand through his hair but shoved his feet into the boots by the door and followed Harry down to his car parked on the street. They drove in silence, and Harry couldn't help tapping the steering wheel nervously as they drove.
Fortunately their destination was only about 15 minutes away, just outside of London. He pulled up the drive to a cozy little cabin style home, gravel crunching under the tires. When he got up close to the house, he shut off the engine and turned to look at Draco.
"I'm sorry," he said softly. "For not telling you how I felt, for not telling you that you're really important to me, for," he swallowed, "well for a lot of things. I've been pretty messed up for the past like decade since the war and I just needed time and space. I never planned on you-"
"Right. This is not-"
"Please," he said quickly, cutting Draco off. "Please just let me say this."
He nodded once, tersely.
"I never planned on getting to know you, getting to like you," he looked up and met Draco's gaze, "falling in love with you," he said softly. "And it scared the shit out of me. But I've finally gotten it together a little bit, started going to therapy and stuff, and I," he shrugged, "I bought this house."
"What?"
He looked at the little house in front of them, the smoke rising from the chimney, the pretty wreath on the red door. "I bought this house because I wanted to be closer to you. I wanted to try to have a proper relationship with you," he continued, "If that was something you wanted. I was in the woods behind this house today when that icicle impaled me," he added softly.
"You were here?" he asked, looking out the window. "You've moved to be twenty minutes from St. Mungos?"
"No," he said, wanting desperately to take Draco's hand, "I moved to be twenty minutes from you."
Draco turned in his seat to look at Harry again and then before Harry could so much as blink, he was diving across the console to kiss Harry, hot and sweet, and absolutely perfect. "You moved for me?" he murmured against Harry's lips, like it was the most unbelievable thing he'd heard all day (which Harry knew couldn't be true because he'd shown up with an icicle protruding from his stomach just that morning).
"Yeah," he said. "Sorry it took me so long."
Draco's eyes looked suspiciously wet when he pulled back, "Well are you going to give me a tour then?"
He laughed and nodded, "I'd love to."
-------------
By the following Christmas Draco had moved into the little cottage just outside of the city with Harry. And the Christmas after that, they got married in the back garden when it was covered by a blanket of snow.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Of Wands and Trees
Omi_Ohmy
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Characters: Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter, Gregory Goyle, Millicent Bulstrode, Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Original Male Character(s)
Additional Tags: Post-Hogwarts, Post-Second War with Voldemort, Slow Burn, Trees, Wands, Wandmaking (Harry Potter), Tree Magic, Summer, Swimming, tree hugging, Old Wounds, Injury, Injury Recovery, Drinking, Rustic Living, Rimming, Switching, H/D Erised 2018, Community: hd_erised, Angst with a Happy Ending, Outdoor Sex, Massage, Sunburn, POV Draco Malfoy
Summary:
All Draco wants to do is be a wandmaker, but to do so he needs to understand the soul of trees. Of course, the only man who might be able to help him is the one man who is more of a mystery to him than any tree.
Excerpt:
"Can we sit for a while? This is one of my favourite spots."
Draco nodded.
All around them beech trees spread their branches wide, and the canopy was aquiver with their leaves. Light moved in patches on the forest floor, carpeted with old leaves, and in the shade of the trees the day was comfortingly warm rather than overly hot.
They sat in silence, watching the trees. Draco was aware of Potter beside him, of his tatty t-shirt over brown skin, of the hair that curled at his neck, of the broad hands that knew how to speak to trees.
"I don’t have a wand," Potter said, very quietly after a while. "I don’t know if you’ve noticed."
Draco turned to him. Potter being so quiet, and so still, made this seem important. He nodded. "Wandless magic. Are you… are you really that powerful? Is what they say about you true?"
"No," said Potter, sounding pained. "It’s not that at all. I barely use magic now, only for important things like containing my fires," He glanced at Draco’s leg, "Or setting broken bones." He paused, and took a deep breath. "Do you remember when we used to talk, in eighth year?"
"Yes," said Draco. "For a time, you were the only person who did speak to me."
"I’m sorry." Potter’s voice even more small and tight. "I want to be able to say I didn’t realise how alone you were, but… I did know. And I still ran away."
Draco thought about it. "It must have been bad, whatever it was, for you to run away."
"It was," Potter said. His hands were moving, wrapping over themselves in his lap. "I started to use magic to hide what I was feeling."
"A spell to dampen feelings down?" Draco hadn’t heard of such a thing before. A part of him yearned for it though, was immediately drawn to the idea that he could simply wave his wand and make all the difficult feelings recede.
"No," Potter whispered. "Worse. I used magic. Powerful magic that I could feel coursing through my body. It… for a while I didn’t feel like me."
This Draco had heard of, but he would never have imagined… never Potter. Some witches and wizards became almost addicted to powerful magic. Ultimately, it could destroy them as they sought out darker and darker magic.
"What happened?"
"Ron and Hermione worked it out. I thought they were too wrapped up in each other to notice, but I was wrong."
"So you came here."
"I needed to get away. I left my wand behind."
"That’s why they were so worried when you left!" It made sense now, of the way it had been splashed so much across the headlines. It had felt like too much, even for the Chosen One. If the Ministry had known Potter had left his wand behind, they would have assumed the worst.
"And then something happened when I got here. The trees… they saved me."
Draco stayed silent. It didn’t seem the time for comments or questions.
"I didn’t know where I was going, or what I was doing. Like you, I arrived in Marseille first – I took a random Portkey from the collection I’d put in my bag – and then I simply walked. I followed a stream, I ate the bread I had carried with me. I bought more food from the villages I passed. And then one day, when I’d barely slept and my whole body felt as though it was vibrating with pent-up magic and grief, I stood beside a tree and put my hand to the trunk."
"And you felt that… that…"
"That peace. That strength. It was as though a switch had been flicked, deep inside me. When I touched the tree the shaking in my body stopped, and I felt only stillness and the slow flow of sap through wood."
If Draco hadn’t felt it for himself, he never would have believed Potter.
"And then when I let go," Potter continued, "all the terrible feelings came back. I slept that night wrapped half around the tree, just to get to some peace."
"And you decided to stay."
Potter pointed at a large beech tree, the nearest to where they sat. "It was that tree."
Draco stared at the tree that had saved Potter. It rose, tall, calm, majestic. Oblivious. "It happened here?"
"I still like to sleep wrapped around it."
Suddenly everything shifted, and the world looked different to Draco. It was as though blue had become green, or the sky changed place with the Earth. He’d thought Potter eccentric, maybe a bit potty, but instead now he saw that Potter still lived with all that pain and grief, exactly as he had done when he’d run away ten years before.
"I learned that I didn’t need a wand to do magic, not in the woods. I use the trees; I channel magic through them, and somehow it… softens the magic. Gentles it, and me," he added.
"And then I turn up and all I talk about are wands."
"It’s been… it’s been OK. Maybe if you’d been a master wandmaker it would have been different."
"But instead I was a failure and couldn’t feel the trees at all."
"But you can now."
Draco was aware, all of a sudden, of how close they were sitting. The air between them seemed clearer than normal, a crystal clear silence. The beech leaves above them moved, and sunlight rippled in patches around them, and yet everything seemed still. Without thinking, he reached out and touched the skin on Potter’s cheek, touched the stubble there and ran his finger down the side of Potter’s jaw. A vein pulsed beneath the skin on Potter’s neck.
Potter’s lips parted with a shaky inhalation.
"I…"
"I get it," Draco said, his own voice shaky. "I get the pain of it all. The way it never really leaves you. The way it’s easier to shut everything else out than feel it."
"And then sometimes," Potter said, "Sometimes something happens and it feels," he licked his lips, "wonderful."
Potter wasn’t talking about trees, Draco knew that. He moved his face closer to Potter’s face, saw the way his eyes widened. He felt the ground beneath his body, the layers of leaf and dirt, the tangle of roots and worms. Rooted in the earth, rising from it like a tree, he leaned forward and touched Potter’s mouth with his lips. The response he got was immediate: warm and hungry, Potter’s mouth fitted to his own. A groan rose from deep within Draco, and he grabbed Potter’s t-shirt to pull him closer.
He wanted to devour Potter. Consume him. Touch him like a tree, and feel his energy from the inside.
As they kissed, all the jittery feelings became keener, and grew an edge. Draco pulled back when he felt as though his skin might break apart.
"Is this…" His breath was coming in shuddering shakes, and he didn’t know how to feel. Part of his heart was still full of sadness, another wanted to climb into Potter.
This time Potter took hold of Draco, pulled him close again. "It’s OK," he whispered. "Fine, even."
Draco gave a little shaky laugh. Potter’s breath was against his skin, warm and close. Potter kissed his neck, softly, gently, and a different sensation bloomed across his skin: one of warmth.
"Breathe," Potter said, and he sat back. His hand found Draco’s, and he squeezed it. "Let yourself breathe."
Draco took a deep breath, and then another. "Sorry," he said. "It’s all a lot, all of a sudden."
Potter stroked Draco’s hand. "I think you’re amazing."
Hi Liv!! Thank you for your amazing blog I check it almost daily for new fics to read
I was wondering if you knew any recluse Harry fics? Ones where Harry has left England and lives alone away from his past. I’ve recently read ‘Among Ancient Pines’ and now I’m re-reading ‘A Sword Laid Aside’ and I just love this trope so much
Thank you!!
Hi anon, thank you for your kind words! I love those fics and I love that trope 😍 I did a reclist for recluse!Harry a while ago, you can check it here. I also recommend @bridenore’s reclist. Enjoy :)
