u/Cautious_Clerk_8106

First of all: ok?... it's literally made up people. Made up wizards even!

Secondly (depending on the fics /characterizations you prefer), explain to me how this DOES NOT make sense:

Hero complex dude, with perfect unconditionally loving family who literally adopted his stray best friend, with second best friend being another stray werewolf kid to whom he literally turned into an animagus for.......... are you with me?.......... gets a crush on his best friend's, again, stray brother who still suffers at home!

Explain to me how this doesn't make sense. Seriously, it's actually pretty much the biggest cliche you could go for, psychology wise.

"But Lily..." first of all, stop erasing bisexual people (working on this myself!), secondly IT'S FICTION!!! And also, was he supposed to be celibate forever? People die, life does go on.

Rant over, thank you for listening.

What do you think makes Wolfstar more ''official'' than any other fandom ships?

Every time there's a general discussion about shipping in the Marauders, for instance Jegulus, even non-wolfstar shippers will say something like "and there's wolfstar and you can't break them up, so they put James with Regulus". It's like even if they don't ship it, they almost treat it like it's rule.

What made this ship so powerful?

Feel free to share fics, but also just your own ideas, let's discuss!

Jegulus seems to call for extremely depressing fics or total AUs where happy ending is possible. Maybe because they both die so young and obviously Harry Potter's own existence calls for Lily involvement.

Some pairings I read: with wolfstar it feels "better" because they don't immediately die; Jily feels "complete" because they have Harry; Drarry feels plausible because they never actually die.

So I've been thinking, what would be a away to give them a happy ending and still end up with the original Harry Potter storyline?

Don't shy away from discussing Lily, obviously in this scenario she has to exist!

Does anyone know if Of Black and Gold has a happy ending?

The author notes and summary are very ambiguous and I've scrolled through the comments and came to zero conclusions! It's supposed to be canon compliant ''where it doesn't affect the story'', what do they mean by that?

I've loved to read some excerpts, but I'm really not in the right mental place to read 800k words just to end with sadness and despair.

Does anyone know if Of Black and Gold has a happy ending?

The author notes and summary are very ambiguous and I've scrolled through the comments and came to zero conclusions! It's supposed to be canon compliant ''where it doesn't affect the story'', what do they mean by that?

I've loved to read some excerpts, but I'm really not in the right mental place to read 800k words just to end with sadness and despair.

Does anyone know if Of Black and Gold has a happy ending?

The author notes and summary are very ambiguous and I've scrolled through the comments and came to zero conclusions! It's supposed to be canon compliant ''where it doesn't affect the story'', what do they mean by that?

I've loved to read some excerpts, but I'm really not in the right mental place to read 800k words just to end with sadness and despair.

I AM NOT BASHING ANY OTHER PAIRS, I'm simply defending Drarry as great.

I'll use some other pairings, NOT TO BASH, but to demonstrate how so much more layered and effective Drarry is. Again, NOT BASHING, kudos for you for loving Drapple or Dramione or Ronarry or whatever makes you happy.

Also, I'm very aware (so please be too) that this is FICTION. And FANFICTION! We created these stories, everyone has different ideas, and really I'm just taking what is widely considered ''canon'' within the fandom.

Harry and Draco are effectively enemies. They are on different sides since the beginning.

I love Wolfstar, my boys were my gay awakening. But those two are just complementary personalities. Depends on the characterization, but it's always some form of crazy guy/soft guy, and both are good people.

I love me some Jegulus, super effective for winter depression (lol), but again, they are just complementary. Regulus very early on understands that shit isn't adding up, and makes up his mind. Even if he goes on to still do bad shit undercover, his heart is ''in the good place'' from almost the beginning. So again, complementary, jock happy guy/self-sacrificing guy.

But Drarry? Drarry is just on another level. These dudes are actually on opposite sides IN LIFE. Draco sticks to his origins for a veeeeeery long time. It basically takes a whole ass death (Dumbledore) for my dude to understand that his side is the bad side. He either had no moral compass prior, or was just a dumbass prejudiced kid until very late. Harry was ABUSED AND NEGLECTED as a child, his most formative years, and he still developed an extremely strong sense of right and wrong. But he also has an extremely annoying hero complex.

For their dynamic to work they actually have to SEE each other, understand each other, empathize with each other, and let go of so many ingrained self-beliefs. They truly have to put in the work for any kind of redemption to happen. Sure, give them all the sexual tension you want, but to give them a believable connection, you reeeeally gotta work these characters.

Anyway, hard to put all my thoughts in a second language, so feel free to say more interesting stuff!

I just read this absolute masterpiece from 2021, and I just can't believe no one talks about it. I think I found 2 posts total on this whole subreddit and it's crazy!

It takes place a few weeks after the war and deals with the trials of the death eaters, in particular Draco's.

It has great storytelling, world building, prose, the characterizations are SPOT ON, the relationship actually makes sense (yes, although Drarry is in my heart, most fics don't give me enough reasoning for their relationship to make sense), there's even a mistery subplot .

I'm not exaggerating AT ALL when I say this fic could be the 8th book if JK wanted to write a Drarry finale.

Personally the only thing that didn't feel realistic was Ron's easy acceptance, but he's such a small role, it was easy to ignore it. Also, because someone will ask, Hinny is already broken up when the fic starts.

Go read it, or talk to me if you have already, because I'd looooove to discuss this beautiful piece of writing.

Just for fun really, what are your pet peeves when it comes to fanfiction?

For me it's when the author specifically says ''there's no homophobia in this universe'' and as soon as there's a same sex charged interaction at least one of the characters goes on a mental rant about them being the same gender.

Obviously there're infinite ways to write about homophobia (or lack thereof), but when I specifically read ''no homophobia'' I assume it's a universe where all pairings are genuinely equal, so it makes no sense for the characters to aknowledge they're the same gender.

What are your pet peeves?

I started in the Marauders fandom 10 years ago, with Wolfstar (realized I was gay lol), got into Drarry, a tablespoon of Jegulus...

But so many people talk about Tomarry, and how's generally written by older authors (I'm 32), and I really REALLY want to give it a try... but I just don't see it!

So, do what you gotta do and convince me (please), because I really need to read stuff written by adults (no bashing, teenage authors are one of the reasons I'm still alive).

Fanfictions, ideas, art... whatever makes you love this pair!

Looking for fics where Harry explores his sexuality, (preferably post war 18+).

We can see him going through some casual stuff, maybe a relationship or two, with eventual Drarry.

Please don't recommend A Secondary Education, I've already read it 😄

I suppose it could also be about Draco or Hermione... I just feel more connected to Harry!

Looking for fics where Harry explores his sexuality, (preferably post war 18+) without going immediately for Draco.

We can see him going through some casual stuff, maybe a relationship or two, with eventual Drarry.

Please don't recommend A Secondary Education, I've already read it 😄

I suppose it could also be about Draco going through it, I just feel more connected to Harry!

How do you decide to invest in a fic with 200k+ words?

For me (with Drarry), I look for the first kiss scene. And it works 99% of the time. If that first kiss scene doesn't hit the spot, I just can't justify getting emotionally invested.

Just something that crossed my mind, if someone wants to discuss it 😄

My favorite part of Temptations on The Warfront is early on >!when Draco breaks down over his mother's death!< and harry feels protective and it's basically when his feelings start to grow.

Any recs in this department? I'm a sucker for 100k+ fics!

This is more related to Fics with 100k+ words, not one shots or smut heavy fics.

I've read some AMAZING fics, with world building that most published authors could never even dream of, with characterizations so real it physically hurt to read, with prose so freaking good it makes you wonder if you can actually be attracted to a piece of writing... you get my point.

Yet, even in most of those fics, the Drarry relationship is never convincing. Yes yes, you ''love him'', but why?? What exactly do you love about him?? What makes you keep loving him?? What is it about him that makes your life better, besides the sex?

I've read, like many of us, millions of words about these two characters, and at least half of them were beautiful pieces of fiction, and yet I could probably only name 1 or 2 where the relationship actually made sense. In many of them I even start hoping they break up because they, at best, tolerate each other.

And yes, I do realize I could stop reading when it stops making sense, but damn, some of them are so good it makes me believe there'll be emotional payoff...

(edit: grammar)

I'm trying really hard to be respectful! I'm talking about Fics that for some reason didn't really crack your top 10, but which had a detail that stuck with you! Complete outliers really.

For me it was these 2:

- A Secondary Education:

best first kiss ever written in the whole universe, including all planets and civilizations in the cosmos. Holy sh....!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/16223264?view_full_work=true

- See Me File My Teeth:

Neville/Luna... just that really! I enjoyed their dynamic so much, I actually went looking for Fics about them (there aren't any).

https://archiveofourown.org/works/77263871?view_full_work=true

Although I'm almost the same age as the actors, I actually didn't get into HP until my 20s.

Nowadays popular fan fiction pairings get so loud (love it) that the actors/interviewers actually acknowledge it (think Byler!).

I know Wolfstar was big, specially with book fans, but I'm interested in hearing about Drarry in relation to the movie fans specifically!

I've read (completely) Temptations on the Warfront, Reparations/Foundations and All Life is Yours to Miss, and here are my preferences, if you guys can help me:

- Good writing (world building, characterization, purpose, fluency...)

- Realistic relationship progression (not looking for ''actually I'm gay and you're hot so why not'') (the thing I didn't enjoy as much about All Life)

- Mature Draco, accepts his past and tries to do better (I LOVED Foundations, every time the author reminded us of the pulled up sleeves I melted a bit)

I can get past the good writing if the relationship actually feels logical, so probably no one shots, more like 100k+

I was thinking about going through all the Saras_Girl stuff, because it's peak writing, but I can see that his characterizations vary with each story, All Life's Draco was the absolute opposite of Foundations!

Thaaaaanks