dicta_contrion

Hello! And thanks for visiting my masterlist!

Below you'll find my policies on friending and transformative works, a hopefully up-to-date masterlist of my fic, and a hopefully up-to-date masterlist of my recs on tumblr. Enjoy, and please feel free to say hello!

( Friending Policy )

( Transformative Works Policy )

Masterlist of Fic

Most easily viewed on AO3

( Harry/Draco )

( Other Slash )

( Het )


Masterlist of Recs (all H/D)
Want to make a request? Read this first, then go here to ask!) Not currently taking requests, but check here for daily recs!

 

( By Genre )

( By Era )

( By Length )

( By Trope )

( By Career )

( By Featured Character )

( By Type of Smut )

( Misc. )

SO MUCH GOOD FIC. So much good fic that reccing is hard because narrowing it down is so difficult. Just go over to hd_erised and read everything. Everything.

Some things to start with:

Another Mask Behind You by lettered - NC-17, 120k - Draco is a high-end prostitute who hides his identity. Harry unknowingly hires him. And then there is porn, questions about identity, domestic bliss, more porn, and truth as seen through a web of lies. (And then more porn. Seriously, if you don’t want sex scene after sex scene you probably shouldn’t read this. And please read the warnings.)
If anything, I think this summary sells the story short because while the sex is hot - and hot damn the sex is scorchingly, meltingly hot - there is so much more to this fic than the sex. The hidden identity component becomes a fascinating device for exploring the evolution of these two men's beliefs about themselves and each other. Draco, especially, is explored in such beautiful, complicated ways as he sees who he could be without the baggage attached to being a Malfoy post-war. The whole story is moving and engaging and the end had me quite literally gasping out loud. It was so easy to get invested and so worth it, and even at 120k (which really flew by) I would've been happy to read more.

House Style for Gryffindors by femmequixotic and noeon - NC-17, 11.5k - The Slytherins have always ruled the Sortilegus, a wizarding society magazine popular since the Middle Ages which lost most of its staff during the recent Unpleasantness (informally known as the Campaign against Noses). Pansy Parkinson has just been made the youngest witch ever to head the publication and has been charged with livening up the magazine and helping it move into post-war society whilst maintaining tradition. Which is all fine by Draco until she brings Harry Potter on staff, an obvious attempt to force Draco into a nervous breakdown by requiring him to work cheek-by-jowl with his arch nemesis.
This fic is so brilliant snarky. Draco is delightful - snappy and clever and just a bit hilariously oblivious, and his interactions with Harry are fantastic. There's an excellent cast of secondary characters - Blaise and Pansy are everything wonderful you could imagine about Slytherins running a fashion mag - and the hilarity that ensues at the big main event at Hogwarts is, well, hilarious. To say the least. One of those fics that is seamless and lovely and feels like such good, indulgent fun. Like a good cocktail in fic form.

On the Turning Away by blamebrampton - PG, 25.5k - It's one thing to be good at not making a besotted fool of yourself over a man when he's busy being the most famous wizard in the world and you're tucked away quietly in Wiltshire. It's quite another when you have to see him every morning.
This story was positively lovely. It was full of fabulous lines and descriptions that were funny and warm and clever. Every line of dialogue hits the nail on the head; I could read these conversations forever. Harry and Draco are both more adult, in a really charming way - they have a different sort of appreciation for each other and come to slowly enjoy each others' company on new terms, but without forgetting the past. There's also a fabulous OC, a fabulous Luna, and a moment with Lucius that is positively priceless. The whole experience of reading was a pleasure.

A Private Reason for This by femmequixotic - NC-17, 92k - When the wife of a star politician in the Scottish Ministry turns up dead just outside Hogsmeade, Draco Malfoy and his murder investigation team are called in from the Edinburgh Auror force to find her killer. What DCI Malfoy doesn't expect, however, is to have an ex from two decades past end up in his murder room, cocking up not only his case, but also his heart.
I don't even know where to begin. As evidenced by the at least half a dozen lengthy comments I've left? (*cringes* Sorry, MA!) Anyway. Whew. Deep breaths. This was my gift, so perhaps I'm biased, but jfc, it's perfection. It's so beautifully written that it felt less like reading a story and more like taking a trip into another world. Every setting and every character felt so perfectly, amazingly real. The way they speak to each other and know each other, the complexity of everyone who is in this story, is mindblowing. And I haven't even talked about the plot yet, right? Well. It's a murder mystery, and it's a really good one. There are interesting, viable suspects and the pursuit of the killer is excellent. Draco's team - Pansy, Susan Bones, Lee Jordan and, in this case, Harry Potter - are all motivated to solve the case by different and equally compelling reasons that tell us so much about them, and seeing how they work together is a pleasure. (The whole cast of secondary characters is a thing of beauty.) And the relationship between Harry and Draco...holy shit. They're brought together by the case, but it goes so much further. Their relationship becomes - already is, in some key ways - really close, and they challenge each other and know each other. And the sex is fucking steamy as hell, and there are also not-quite-sex scenes that blew my mind for the sheer intimacy between these two. There's no amount of flailing I can do that will really convey how much I love this story. I will say, though, that this is one of those stories that I wanted to read all in one go but also had to ration out so it wouldn't end, and then when I got to the end just started reading it again. Which I highly recommend doing, and then we can be speechless together.

Tea and No Sympathy by who_la_hoop - NC-17, 70k - It's Potter's fault, of course, that Draco finds himself trapped in the same twenty-four-hour period, repeating itself over and over again. It's been nearly a year since the unpleasant business at Hogwarts, and Draco's getting on with his life quite nicely, thank you, until Harry sodding Potter steps in and ruins it all, just like always. At first, though, the time loop seems liberating. For the first time in his life, he can do anything, say anything, be anything, without consequence. But the more Draco repeats the day, the more he realises the uncomfortable truth: he's falling head over heels for the speccy git. And suddenly, the time loop feels like a trap. For how can he ever get Harry to love him back when time is, quite literally, against him?
I was not necessarily expecting to get totally sold on the time loop premise. I got totally sold on the time loop premise. It's brilliantly done. Draco's reactions to repeating the day are so telling. He evolves slowly and beautifully over time as he rethinks/re-imagines his options and gets to know Harry. This characterization of Draco in general felt really wonderful and spot-on. There's snark and cleverness, but also that desperation and frustration that we see in the books, and his evolution in this story is one I can absolutely see as an extension of canon. And the depiction of Harry is brilliant as well, as is the whole world of the story. Thoughtful and skillful and wonderful.

Un Noël Très Parisien by noeon - NC-17, 14.5k - When Draco crossed paths with Auror Potter at a political function in Paris, he was not expecting their former animosity to change into something rather more intriguing. But he could be certain their casual flirtation would not last more than the night, couldn't he?
Somehow, someway, this fic came out feeling like the best parts of the holiday season. It's got a wonderful, festive, glamorous feeling in parts, and really moving warmth and nostalgia in others, and loads of humor and wit all the way through. Harry is fabulously (hotly) confident, Draco is both wonderfully skillful and doing Slytherin proud in moments of sneakiness. Hermione and Pansy, as their besties, are a delight as well. And while it's going along being funny and charming, the feels are building and building, towards a conclusion that is hot, then gut-wrenching, then sweet.

There are exciting things afoot over at hp_concrit_fest! Part of what's been so valuable is having the chance to sit down and really think about how different authors balance different aspects of storytelling. It's got me thinking about stories that take narrative risks. It doesn't always work, but when it does the results can be phenomenal. A few of those fics, below.


Fear and Loathing at the Phoenix by curiouslyfic - NC-17, 20k, H/D - Harry's Hunter S. Thompson. Draco's his attorney. It's the Tenth annual Victory Day and there's Journalism afoot.
So, I don't especially like Hunter S. Thompson. Not my cuppa. I was not expecting to like this fic. Holy fuck, I love this fic. Ten years after the war Harry's a journalist (nom de plume: Regulus Black), Luna's his editor, and Draco's his (very necessary) attorney (aka: Malfuck). He won't go to the Ministry's official events in commemoration of the 10 year anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts; Instead he goes to, essentially, a Wizarding Harry Potter Con. People are cosplaying a million different Harrys and Dracos (aka: Malfakes) and everyone elses, and Draco and Harry are wandering around taking it all in. It could've been entirely cracky. Instead, somehow, it turns into a meditation on who these people are, what the war did to them, why they're together, how their shared experiences during the war, their history together, makes them indispensable to one another. It also gives an extraordinary sense for how surreal it would be to actually be Harry Potter or Draco Malfoy, what it would be like to try to parse the world after becoming that famous. And the writing, damn. It's gut-wrenching, gorgeous, emotional, sad, funny, hot. Everything. Exquisite.

On the Couch by frayach - NC-17, 26k, H/D - It’s a Mind Healer’s worse nightmare to lose a patient to suicide, but Mind Healer Nick Nichols can attest to the fact that a murder/suicide is even worse. If only Dr. Freud had come up with a sure cure for love.
This story is told through the eyes of Draco's therapist. It's quite a trip to go on this journey with him, to learn Draco as he does, to figure out what's going on between Harry and Draco as he does. It's sort of the opposite of Fear and Loathing at the Phoenix - instead of being inside the space of the story with Harry and Draco, you're placed outside of their relationship. Instead of feeling distanced from the emotional core of their relationship, this choice and the way it was executed had me hooked. I had to know more, to keep reading, to find out what would become of them. Their attraction is so strong, so irresistible, that it pulls everything along with it, and starting from this vantage point, with this distance, only made that more apparent. Very compelling, very intense, and brilliantly executed.

Salvation and Sacrament by abbycadabra - PG-13, 16.5k - "It seems as if everywhere I go, I find the nowhere in somewhere, or make it of anywhere."
This is another "story in the style of," this time Dave Eggers. Who I like more than HST, but mostly inasmuch as I'm pretty solidly "meh" about Dave Eggers. This one also takes on a bit of a different temporal structure - it starts by telling you the ending, and then gets you there. Because of the eventual destination (as revealed in the first line) that seemed like it was going to be rather a big challenge. And yet, it got me there. And it got me there in such a brilliantly unexpected way. This story explores Harry's hero complex and his guilt - where it comes from and where, without a war to fight, it would go - and does it starkly and unflinchingly. And while Harry is the focus, the same is true of Draco. Just as we get the darker side of Harry's "saving people thing," we see the strength the war brought Draco. It's an unusual portrait of the characters and I can't think of another fic that left me feeling this way about the two of them, or that made me feel so okay about this particular end point.


I think all of these stories are quite extraordinary, though mileage may be especially variable around narrative/structural things. They're also all fics I love talking about, so if you're so inclined (or have recs for similar) please come chat!

It may be October 29th, but it’s not over till it’s Rect-over, right?

One of the things I struggle with most is keeping things short, thus doing a couple of fests recently that had strict word limits. It's had me thinking about what makes a good shorter piece of fiction and why the short fics I love work. The process brought me back to a lot of short fic I really love. This rec list is inspired by that – a few favorite short pieces that, in under 4k (sometimes much less) manage to tell a complete story/build a complete word/create big emotional impact.


The Way (We Break) by nishizono - R, 647 words, Harry/Draco - Harry doesn't hate Astoria. He doesn't hate the way she cries when Draco recites his wedding vows, or the way Draco toys with her curls during the reception. He doesn't hate her, but god, he hates Draco.
The structure of this story is so simple, the writing is so clear, and the ending is so "oh, fuck." The author establishes everything you need to know with a few lines that make the relationship between Harry and Draco just exactly clear enough. And have I mentioned the ending? Not just because it was such a moment, but because it filled in so many blanks effectively and capped the piece beautifully, in no small part because it kept me thinking about what comes next.

Cicadas by rhoddlet - R, 900 words, Harry/Draco
This story does an incredible job of setting a scene. The language is so visceral. I could feel the heat, the intensity of these moments. Reading this felt like the grueling, stillest parts of summer spent waiting for the heat to break. By the time the pivotal moment arrives I was already invested enough to be shocked and moved. I remain amazed that anyone could fit all of this into, essentially, a couple of pages.

I Am Your Shadow by eidheann_writes - NC-17, 3,128 words, Harry/Draco - Love (n) An intense feeling of deep affection. Yield (v) To give up or surrender (oneself).
Okay, technically I've already recced this here, but there's no way I could leave it off a list of short fics because the words:feels ratio here is out of control. This story is devastating in the best of ways, and eidheann has such a perfect sense for what to say and what to leave open to interpretation. So perfect that, months later, I still think back to this ending and just wonder.

As the Hand, the Glove by dulcemia - NC-17, 3357, Harry/Draco - "I say it again: the spirit loves/ the flesh, as the hand the glove."
Unf. If you'd like to die by smut, clicking above is not a bad way to go. Draco is so deliciously Slytherin and the tension, the wanting, is just palpable. Sentences are structured and words chosen to heighten all of that and it works beautifully, not just to make for a good read or a hot story (which would be more than enough) but to create an atmosphere that's crisp and clear and a perfect complement to the featured kink.

Kailash, When it Rises by mirabella - R, 3626 words, Harry/Draco - Harry can't sleep.
I swear this fic is bigger on the inside. The way time moves in this story is so precise and lingering that it feels like hours have passed even though it can be read instead of twenty minutes. In creating this super-slow sense of time, the story replicates the experience that Harry is having - of waiting for something while times dawdles and sticks. There are so many little choices along the way - rituals, habits, invocation of sounds - that compound that sense, and the end result is masterful.


Still working out what exactly makes short fics really work, but there are some good clues here - all this intentional language, tight storytelling and, perhaps most noticeably/surprisingly for me, a willingness to trust the reader. Lots to think about, and I'm still thinking. Short fic recs and/or insights are more than welcome!

Every time I check the internet there's something new and exciting to squee about!!

this_bloody_cat wrote me a wonderful ficlet!! *flails* Not Quite Entirely Unlike Tea - Figuratively speaking, Draco wins all the tricks.

This story is so charming! Draco and Harry are off to tea and bridge at Malfoy Manor, which is not Harry's all-time favorite activity. Draco, scheming Slytherin that he is, decides to spice things up with a bit of under-the-table action. Harry, being the dignified adult that he is, obviously manages to keep his composure entirely. Entirely. Lucius and Narcissa are wonderful, Draco is fantastically deviantous, and Harry is a flustered, charming bucket of wonderful. Do check it out, either on LJ or on AO3!

AND THEN! Two of my prompts posted to Smoochfest!!

The first is a lovely piece of art based on Casablanca: As Time Goes By - “Not an easy day to forget...I remember every detail. The Germans wore gray, you wore blue.”
Then, a darling fic based on The American President: The Minister - Harry meets Draco again years after the war ended. Harry is now Minister and Draco is a lobbyist. Harry decides to pursue a relationship with him, but his very public life interferes.

I was so excited to see both of these prompts claimed!! Both movies screamed H/D to me and I loved what these creators did with them.

Speaking of prompts, claiming is open through June 30th at this year's career fair!



Claiming at this year's hd_fan_fair starts on June 17th!

I've claimed a prompt and cannot wait to get started. AND I've had a prompt claimed for art! Mystery artist, if you're out there, I'm so, so psyched to see what you do with it!! Very much part of the crowd that will have trouble waiting for posting to start!

But in the meantime, I'm also chomping at the bit to get cracking on HP Silencio!



There's a prompt I want so badly. It's already half written in my head, and since submissions have to be under 5k, I figure it's totally compatible with other fest commitments. There are two days of prompting left, and claiming starts on Saturday!

tl;dr: I love fandom!!! And am kind of beyond myself with excitement!

Still racing to catch up on DTH before reveals, so this list is not at all comprehensive. Nor am I sure it could be, because this fest has been so, so excellent. There are tons of amazing stories and so much great art, and it's been a pleasure to follow along and be immersed in these incredibly well-told, hot, evocative fanworks. I absolutely recommend checking them all out. There are loads more that I could've recced. but a few that have especially stuck with me are below.


( This has just been the kind of fest where you think 'gee, I'll just rec a couple of things' and wind up reccing something like a sixth of what's been posted and could still rec more because hot damn there's been some quality fanwork going on. Jeez. )