snowgall

What follows is a list of my picks for the best Drarry fanfiction of 2015
(37 fics, sorted by date published)

Note: There are so many lists of favorite Harry/Draco fanfiction, but I'm doing something a little different. Rather than create a list based on genre or length or era or whatever, I've decided to do a series of "best-of X year" lists. This means the year the work was published not the year I read it.

Once again, this list was hard to pare down! I read more fanfic published in 2015 than in any other year, and between my LJ blog and hd_storyroom, I recced 93 Drarry fics from 2015. Consequently lots of good fics aren't included on this list. In the end any list is just an arbitrary thing based on one person's no doubt flawed opinion. It says nothing about the quality of any fics not on it!

More lists:

• Best of 2015
• Best of 2014
• Best of 2013
• Best of 2012
• Best of 2011
• Best of 2010
• Best of 2009
• Best of 2007-8
• Why am I making these lists?

( 2015 list--click to expand )

General notes:

• The "original post" column provides links to the first place I can find evidence of the work online. However, it can be really tough to determine when and where a work was first published (see my rant here: Dates Matter). So it could be that a fic was actually published earlier somewhere else and I didn't know it. Corrections are welcome.
• I've read a lot of HD fiction, but I certainly haven't read it all, so if I've left off something you think I shouldn't have, I'm happy for you to let me know.
• I may continue to add works to this list but I will try to keep the total number to something reasonable. (On the challenge of maintaining lists)
• My goal is to add lists for other years as well, time permitting.

How my fic preferences will skew the lists:

• I tend to like fics which contain explicit sex, so the list will probably skew that way. However, I prefer that there be an actual plot, not just sex, and I read PG rated fics too--just fewer of them.
• I like almost all the standard tropes, but I don't usually go for non-magical AUs, unhappy endings, dark!fic, or threesomes
• I don't give a toss who's on top or bottom, so you'll find both here.
• I shy away from epic-length fanfiction unless I'm very confident in the author, so most of my recs will be less than 100,000 words.

To celebrate the new year, I've got recs of some of my favorite 2015 Drarry fics that came out of non-Drarry focused fests (that I haven't already featured in other rec posts already, that is).

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hp_kinkfest:
( Read more... )

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do_me_veela:
( Read more... )

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hp_mhealthfest:
( Read more... )

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hp_creatures:
( Read more... )

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mini_fest:
( Read more... )

Note: I was waiting for mini_fest to post their reveals, but I have no idea when that will be, so I gave in and posted now :)

I was so excited Monday night to see that my hd_owlpost gifts had posted! And how lucky am I? I got three amazingly awesome gifts in three different media - fic, art, and video!

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Fic: New Dawn's Light by lauren3210
Word Count: 3200
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Harry seeks a meeting with Draco after the war.

What a beautiful story! I love how well it captures the sense of the lyrics "And how can I blame you / When it's me I can't forgive?" from The Unforgiven III. When the author wrote, "There are lots of dates that they have to avoid each other for. Harry doesn’t think he’ll ever know how to change that." it was just so poignant.

I also love the idea of Before and After here. And this line:

Maybe there should be a different category for some people to fit themselves into, a group called something like, Managed To Survive a War After Watching Loads Of My Friends Die, Now What The Fuck Do I Do?

Just sums up how Harry feels so perfectly!

And then the ending is so lovely - especially how Draco says that they should have been doing this from the start. Ah, those foolish, foolish, boys :)

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Art: Something Old, Something New by awickedmemory
Medium: Digital art - comic
Rating: G
Prompt: "I've been wanting to do that since 4th year"

I love this! It's wonderfully drawn and depicts a great moment.

I think it's awesome how the artist interpreted my prompt: "I've been wanting to do that since 4th year"! I never would have thought of that myself, but it works perfectly. I enjoyed this so much!!

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Video: Hold On by knowmefirst
Music: Stay by Rhianna
Rating: PG-13
Summary: A video of Harry and Draco

Oh this is awesome! All the best Drarry moments from the 6th and 7th movies set to a terrifically moving song!

I'm so impressed by the video editing skills here and can't imagine the time it must have taken to put something like this together. I think the editor's choice to keep it all black and white helps tie it all together cohesively and matches the tone of the song.

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Thanks so much to the creators of these excellent gifts - they really made my day!

I thought I'd finish up rectober with a set of my favorite fics involving time travel, in keeping with the amazing Tea and No Sympathy which I recced yesterday.

(I'm going to be posting a rectober wrap-up post in just a little bit too.)

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Time-traveler!Harry
( Read more... )

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Time-traveler!Draco
( Read more... )

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banner by capitu

First times are some my favorite parts of fanfic, because there is so much emotion that can be caught up in that moment and it can reveal so much about how these characters feel about each other. And lucky for us, there is a plethora of amazing fanfic written which explores all the many possibilities for Harry and Draco's first time.

The possibilities illustrated in these fics are really quite varied. Some first times take place during Hogwarts, some afterwards, some fics start with them already in a relationship and some don't, and a variety of acts are considered 'first time sex' - it doesn't always have to be full penetration.

But I did have some requirements to narrow this set down to a reasonable size!

These fics all feature:

• A first time that is earnest and meaningful for both of them (so no hate sex, or sex pollen, or PWP)
  
• Both boys as virgins
  
• Appropriate amounts of awkwardness/fumbling/cluelessness/trying to figure things out (no instant sex gods here!)
  

( Click for recs )

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Harry and Draco making a bet (or deal) and the loser being forced to provide sexual favors to the winner is another trope I adore. Some of these have the loser secretly happy to have lost, but not all of them! The winner is almost always happy, however :)

(There's a popular version of this trope which involves making the loser wear a dress - or heels, makeup, lingerie, etc. - but that's not really a kink I'm into, so none of these involve cross-dressing, sorry!)

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Draco wins the bet
( Read more... )

Harry wins the bet
( Read more... )

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More bonding fic recs! This set is divided into two subtypes:

• Soulmate Connections - where Harry and Draco are destined to be together and just have to discover that fact
  
• Wand Connections - where the fact that Harry used Draco's wand to kill Voldemort forges a bond which brings them together

Unlike my first set of bonding fics, these fics aren't limited to 8th year, although several 8th year fics still snuck in :)

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Soulmates

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Wand Connections

( Read more... )

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I'm combining two character-centric HP fests into one rec post for rectober. Back in January, the harrybang fest gave us Harry-focused lengthy fics, and more recently bottom_draco gave us Draco-focused transformation fics. So what could be better than the two together?
All fics recced are Drarry, of course :)

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HarryBang

Right Hand Red by lumosed_quill ( NC-17 | 73,000 )
( Read more... )

Kiss Me (Under the Light of a Thousand Stars) by sophie_french ( NC-17 | 115,000 )
( Read more... )

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Bottom_Draco

My Life As A Butterfly by digthewriter ( NC-17 | 22,300 )
( Read more... )

Full Circle by sp_owl ( NC-17 | 14,000 )
( Read more... )

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For those who care: All the fics above are bottom!Draco, except for Kiss Me (Under the Light of a Thousand Stars), which is switching.

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I usually do a wrap-up rec list after a fest ends, so I figured I should do so for slythindor100's Last Drabble Writer Standing (LDWS) contest as well :) This was the first year I've voted in the contest, and it was lots of fun. It was so fascinating to see how differently all of the talented authors interpreted the prompts, and so wonderfully surprising to find out who the drabble writers had been each week.


The cool thing is that I ended up voting for a different drabble writer each of the first 5 weeks! (completely unintentionally of course, as the authors were always anonymous until after the votes were tallied) My top picks each week didn't always match the winners of each week (in fact they rarely did :), but for the record, they were:

Week 1: Happy Birthday by josephinestone
Week 2: Then and Now by birdsofshore
Week 3: the invasion by bloodisshrp
Week 4: My Sweetest Downfall by writcraft (that week's winner)
Week 5: You Are My Greatest Adventure by capitu (how was this eliminated???)
Week 6: Coming Clean by birdsofshore
Week 7: Winning Moves by birdsofshore (that week's winner)
Week 8: Laid Bare by writcraft

Week 2 was a very strong week. I also loved:
Love tastes like... by bloodisshrp (that week's winner)
Unspeak, Speak, Oddment, Tweak by khalulu

Congratulations to birdsofshore for being the Last Drabble Writer Standing at the end, and to all of the talented authors who contributed to the fest and made it so enjoyable ♥

P.S. I hope that the authors will also feel encouraged to post their drabbles to AO3, in whatever format they happen to prefer :)

Here are my favorite fics from the first ever hd_collab fest. Authors are currently anonymous. Names will be added after reveals.


If you're wanting an angsty fic, I recommend one of these:

O Sinners, Let's Go Down (NC-17 | 32,000) by birdsofshore with art by raitala
( Read more... )

Up in the Air (PG-13 | 8,500) by dicta_contrion with art by kazuya22
( Read more... )

Until It Rains (Don’t Keep Me Waiting Too Long) (NC-17 | 7,400) by lumosed_quill and sdkshelly
( Read more... )

If you're wanting light-hearted comedy instead, may I suggest one of these:

The Four Ds of Apparition (or: Destination, Determination, Deliberation, and Dicks) (NC-17 | 36,500) by eidheann_writes and firethesound
( Read more... )

The Morning After (R | 5,500) by birdsofshore and capitu
( Read more... )

In addition to fics, there was lots of lovely art for this fest as well, and much of it seems to be by new-to-me artists. I especially enjoyed the art that accompanied O Sinners, Let's Go Down and Up in the Air above, as well as the stand-alone piece Draco Malfoy and the Temple of Runes by iwao and this_bloody_cat. Go check them out!