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harry potter was, in all the ways that count, my first fandom (frasier was the very first, strange as that may seem now). it's the first fandom i joined listservs for, the first fandom in which i knew anyone else by name, and draco/harry was the first slash i read avidly. that last is also, i think, one of the hardest slash pairings to bring off convincingly, for all that it is so popular.
in rowling's books it's the characters i love -- excepting hagrid whom i hold a particular indifference toward. he's too damm solid, dependable and dull. i think i love harry, malfoy, snape and lupin best, though dumbledore wanders onto that list every so often, as he is wont to do. snape because he is vicious and intelligent, and there is room in that for subtlety if rowling would give the fact he's got greasy hair a break. enoough already, JK, enough. harry because under it all he is simple and sweet, and you can't help but love him for being stuck in a world so different and far crueler than he is. lupin because he is the truest character in all the books, and i would trust him with my life. and malfoy because he has the potential to be so much -- snarky and sexy and silly or evil and broken and dark, and everything in between.
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The Draco Trilogy by Cassandra Claire
i really do feel that no self-respecting hp rec list can do without cassie's trilogy, and that speaks volumes for how highly i think of it because, at this late date, it's been recc'd so much that the gesture itself has become superfluous.
and still, i rec it. 'cause it's that good. it's uneven, though, and sprawling and imprecise -- like good Dave Eggers (author of Heartbreaking Work) or a Buffy arc gone amok on loads of British crack. but it does have its subtle moments (like DV 12's ruminations on love), and when it does its readers may be found in small corners alternately crying, laughing and biting their knuckles; i know i've done it over some of her more painfully beautiful paragraphs.
and as if you all didn't know it already, her draco is the best fucking thing ever, in both style and substance. like, as in, well...how lovely it is to read him and love him and think about him cannot be overstated enough. i always feel a little sad, however, over her general apathy toward ron (which, admittedly, is tempered with bouts of liking the poor fellow; both moods show through in her writing).
yet in the end what always seems to stick with me about the adventures of Cassie's too-beautiful, too-witty-by-half Hogwarts gang is the sheer, brilliant fun of it all -- the gallivanting, tragic, angsty, wild, hormonal, hilarious, showy thrill of being young.
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Theme and Variation by L.C.
"intimations," as L.C. tells us, of Harry/Draco.
this fic is just cool. the rhythms of it are like swaying lanterns in the dark.
see, it makes me wish i could be lyrical too. L.C. certainly is in this. a letter from draco -- he's broken and brittle, and how insane we can only guess. just as we can only guess at how harry will respond.
bones and nursery rhyme.
The Magical Mystika Tour by Rave
i can still laugh myself into teary-eyed silliness over this. there is so much to parody in bad HP fic, but rave breaks the eggs, beats the yolk, bakes the cake and dollops on the frosting when it comes to pure goofy satire with a gusto.
"I am stricken with unrequited love," came the muffled voice of Draco Malfoy from the luggage compartment.
that's all i really feel must be said, but in case you're not convinced, then i'll tell you that it's short, sweet and spot-on. and also:
It was dawn in the Slytherin common room. Draco Malfoy, holding a pair of blue plastic "child-safe" scissors, was cutting hearts out of construction paper...
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The Familiar by Resonant
i think resonant, looking back, must laugh a bit now at how much praise this fic has garnered -- because the way she tells it, she never meant it to be that profound. just another reason why authorial intent doesn't count for everything, i suppose...
a little Snape/Harry ditty (and before those of you -- who think much like me on this subject -- run screaming into the hills at the pairing, let me say my piece, 'kay?). here's what i wrote once upon a time to resonant about it:
"To start off, I'd like to say that Snape/Harry is usually, as they say, not 'my cup of tea.' My reasoning for this: Too often, fan fic sucks. When one is dealing with such a large age difference and such delicate matters as teacher/student sex, the expected suckage becomes not only annoying -- it can become repulsive.
That said, your fic takes all my reservations and throws them calmly out the door for others to deal with. This thing that's happening here, your fic seems to say, is much simpler than all that, much quieter and subtler and in some ways, so very everyday. For after all, 'The Familiar' asks, aren't people discovering each other anew all the time?" |
Tissue of Silver by Fearless Diva
ach. what is there to say? the Chair of Doom, Malfoy's pale naked feet, Harry as love-stricken manly man, Severus as mother hen. this is just Harry/Draco done with such style and skill that it not only evades the usual pitfalls but tells a wonderful, full story. just read it. it's of that sort that reduces one to incoherent squeeing because it's so well-written. |
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