fries. envelopes. ive been awake for 18 hours can i go to bed now.
Pov you’ve just watched s2
serra (she/her), 26, queer, local hype person
my masterlist for fic recs, ao3 for bookmarks
this blog is 18+, pro ship/fic/kink & anti terf. i’m not ignoring you, i have a queue running!
jkr is garbage and so is economically supporting her. im here to queer hp up ✌🏻
expect: drarry, wolfstar, linny, romione, jegulus, lightning era, marauders, hp femslash, sprinkles of next gen (scorbus, jeddy)
would appreciate if mutuals tagged dramione, remadora and snape ships <3
You might be thinking, Tee, in your 2023 AO3 wrap up post, you said you wrote a ridiculous amount of HP fic this year - but what about reading? Well, thanks for asking, imaginary audience – as a matter of fact, I did indeed read a lot of Drarry fics this year. A fucking horrendous number of Drarry fics, in fact.
Below the cut are some of my favourites that were published in 2023, arranged by word count.
But first, a note: there is truly an overwhelming amount of talent in this fandom and this list only scratches the surface. These fics all gave me something that I was looking for and were my favourites for a number of different reasons. I hope you can find something new to love here (or reconnect with an old favourite), and that you enjoy these stories as much as I did!
If there’s a fic from 2023 that isn’t here but you really enjoyed, chuck it in the replies section so we can all see it!
🌸 AITA for being "obsessed" with my childhood nemesis? – @rainstormradish (4k, M) 🌸
Alrakis I [24M] attended a small boarding school in the UK. There was a boy in my year, a couple of months younger than me, and he became my nemesis after we developed an intense rivalry. My friend [25F] told me recently that our dynamic was "weird back then" and that "it’s even weirder" that I still think about him today. She argued that I talk about him all the time, but I believe the amount I talk about him is reasonable. AITA?
prongymcprongface i completely get what you mean. i had a nemesis (like a school one, separate to my other nemesis) and we had a dynamic super similar to what you are describing. having a nemesis is a very cool and normal thing dw about it. NTA
In which Draco asks the internet if he's being reasonable. Only one commenter is sympathetic. They start talking.
Read for: unique fic idea with a cool layout, humour, boys being idiots
🌻 Snug – @moonflower-rose (6k, E) 🌻
Potter can't keep his hands off himself. Draco can't look away.
Read for: Draco being Obsessed with Harry(‘s cock), Humorous Writing Style
🪻 Birds Behaving Badly – @peachpety (10k, E) 🪻
For eight years, Draco has been content living a quiet life of anonymity in Brighton, dodging pesky seagulls and enjoying the ephemeral boys of summer. And if these summer blokes just happen to resemble Harry Potter, it’s a mere coincidence—despite what his friends say.
But when a repeat one-night stand challenges him to face his desires, Draco thinks he’s finally over his years-long crush.
A seagull named Kevin thinks otherwise.
For: Unleashed!Fest 2023
Read for: hidden/mistaken identity, summer vibes, Kevin the seagull
🌸 Under the Confetti Mist – @azalealarae (12k, E) 🌸
Harry and Draco stay up late working on a Potions assignment in the poorly ventilated eighth-year common room, unaware that disinhibition is a side effect of the elixir’s vapor.
Read for: Sex Pollen, Drarry as Potions partners
🌻 Hellos, goodbyes, a thousand midnights – newskyillusion (13k, M) 🌻
The world, as Harry knew it, has ended.
At least he has a garden.
OR
Harry and Draco live through the apocalypse
For: Drarry Let’s Play Fest 2023
Read for: body horror, cosy vibes (just trust me, lol), Harry gardening, Powerful Harry, Harry and Draco relying on each other.
🪻 Amorous As This Lovely Green – @annanother-thing (14k, E) 🪻
Harry hates being a celebrity. Draco cannot find a single model that fits his vision for his latest line. They both make the debatable choice of trusting one PA extraordinaire/best friend, Pansy Parkinson.
For: Harry/Draco Career Fair 2023
Read for: Harry modelling lingerie, Hot Harry
🌸 Help! I'm a Hopeless Romantic! – @peachydreamxx (14k, M) 🌸
Draco turns from the bar, eyes latching onto Harry. He surveys him, one brow lifting, and Harry, like a deer in headlights, throws his hand up with the world’s most awkward wave. Draco just weaves out of sight, and Harry’s face burns as Ron pats him on the shoulder, then steals a chip. “He gave you a look, didn’t he?”
~ how to get over your crush
~ places that sell cake after 11pm near me
~ how to tell if someone is playing hard to get
A year in the life of Harry's shared moments, and private thoughts
For: Wheel of Drarry Mini-Exchange Secret Santa 2023
Read for: Harry’s Google Searches, Humour
🌻 Cool About It – @oflights (M, 16k) 🌻
Harry is so excited for his first date with Draco. But what follows isn't so much a date as it is an all-night odyssey including a malevolent lift, a Gringotts heist, a Sleeping Curse, a trip to the kebab shop, a lack of dancing, a Muggle drug, a rooftop pool party, a black eye and, eventually, a sunrise over a Quidditch stadium.
Read for: Humour, idiots in love, first dates
🪻 The Eighth Sin – @thehoneybeet (16k, E) 🪻
When Draco is sentenced to five years of house arrest, without magic, alone, the only person to visit him is Potter. But Draco’s beginning to doubt whether Potter is really there at all.
For: HD Wireless 2023
Read for: dreamy/sad vibes, caring Harry, a beautiful exploration of a relationship
🌸 What’s Mine is Yours – @fluxweeed (17k, E) 🌸
Harry loses something important. Malfoy helps him get it back.
Read for: smut so hot it’ll light you on fire
🌻 O Come, All Ye Faithful – toomuchplor (19k, E) 🌻
Aunt Petunia died, that was what began everything.
Or rather, Aunt Petunia was dying. In the act of dying.
In which Draco finds faith in the church, and Harry finds faith in Draco.
Read for: Vicar Draco, Harry’s Vicar Kink, Beautiful Writing, Draco’s Hard Sanctified Cock
🪻 The Boys of Summer – @saxamophone (19k, E) 🪻
It's summer, and they're spending it at a lake, far away from everything. There’s swimming and a floating dock, cracked and warm in the sun. Fizzy drinks and fireflies. Sticky strawberry ice lollies and beach towels tangled under them.
Harry’s golden skin and love for The Grateful Dead and Fleetwood Mac.
Draco Malfoy is doomed, but what else is new?
For: HD Wireless 2023
Read for: delicious pining, summer vibes, beautiful romance, nostalgic vibes
🌸 Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage – @goblinmatriarch (E, 21k) 🌸
Lord Draco Malfoy may be a young man spending time in Dumbledore’s summer court, but that does not mean he needs to succumb to its licentious frivolity. He carries the burden of his lineage, the shadow of rumours, and the dignity of his betrothal to a good match. He is certainly not fool enough to be distracted by the dark curls and ready grin of the court’s stableboy, who seems to have taken up with every courtier who looks his way.
For: HP Bodice Ripper Fest 2023
Read for: Historical AU done right, Draco in a codpiece, more riding euphemisms than you can count
🌻 True Love Gave To Me – @epitomereally (23k, E) 🌻
It’s the first of December, and all Draco wants to do is make Christmas lovely for Scorpius. But then Harry Potter shows up, asking him to save the world, and it turns out they’ve almost saved the world a couple of times before. One-hundred and forty-four times, to be exact.
Or: what happens after the time loop?
For: H/D Erised 2023
Read for: time loop shenanigans, cosy vibes, adorable Scorpius (and his geese)
🪻 Nothing But You On My Mind – @moonflower-rose (29k, M) 🪻
Potter has been in Australia on an internship for almost a year, and Draco cannot wait for him to get back home. They'll finally have a chance to talk about their feelings for each other. What could possibly go wrong?
Loads, as it turns out.
For: HD Wireless 2023
Read for: Angst, Draco/Ron/Hermione Friendship, idiots in love
🌸 who will receive you in love's offices – @jtimu (30k, E) 🌸
A year in the life of Draco Malfoy, increasingly derailed by Harry Potter.
In the aftermath of it all, Draco opened an antiques shop. Sort of. Mostly, though, what he did was repair work. People brought him their grandparents’ charmed silverware or a pocketwatch which was meant to show the stars at your birth but now only held the time, and he would fix them. It was quiet work, a little lonely, but for the repeated intrusions of one Harry J Potter.
Read for: brilliant deep dive into magical theory, smarty pants Draco, enemies to friends to lovers (emphasis on the middle step), poetry references by the bucketful, a version of Draco that lives rent free in my mind
🌻 Half Sick of Shadows – @starquestingfordrarry (39k, E) 🌻
Harry and Draco have been sleeping together for months, and it's fine. It's enough for Harry.
But when things finally start to feel like the more Harry's been hoping for, a strange tapestry project has him worrying he won't ever get the chance.
Or: the one with sheep, dragons, and a whole lot of weaving metaphors.
For: H/D Career Fair 2023
Read for: Alvin the ram, Harry carving wooden dildos, magical tapestries, atmospheric vibes, an artfully created world
🪻 Now I Know In Part – @dodgerkedavra (39k, E) 🪻
Harry Potter is the savior of the Wizarding World. Draco Malfoy is a reformed Death Eater turned Ministry Curse-Breaker. Five years after the War, they're brought together by another mysterious curse.
Only this time, Harry's the one who needs saving.
More specifically, he needs Draco.
They have one month to break the curse, and the clock is ticking.
Read for: Draco taking care of Harry, Cottagecore vibes, bucketfuls of sweetness, great smut
🌸 Nothing Gold Can Stay – @moonflower-rose (40k, E) 🌸
One summer evening, Harry Potter vanished in the middle of dinner with his friends. Four days later he came back. Sort of.
Draco Malfoy is on the case.
For: H/D Erised 2023
Read for: Alternate Universes, Married Draco/Harry, Non-Painful Angst
🌻Sharper than a Sea Serpent's Tooth – @goblinmatriarch (40k, T)
Draco expects his research trip to Crete to focus on the ecology of ward design, with perhaps some cheeky visits to the elusive sea serpents and the odd sleepy beach day. Instead, he encounters a Past he's spent over a decade trying to outrun, and a familiar scowl under glasses and a scar. Featuring just so much imagining being on a hot, sunny beach for your winter pleasure.
For: H/D Erised 2023
Read for: Magical Creatures, Greek Mythology, International Location (Crete), Atmospheric Writing
🪻 LA, Who Am I To Love You? – @epitomereally (42k, E) 🪻
Harry’s summer in LA is not going as expected. Pansy Parkinson keeps inviting him to parties in the Hollywood Hills and harassing him to finally go to the physical therapist, Blaise Zabini keeps slipping new strains of his company’s magical weed into Harry’s pockets in hopes of an endorsement, and Draco Malfoy keeps having sex with everyone but Harry.
For: HD Wireless 2023
Read for: Werewolf Harry, Incubus Draco, Acquaintances to Friends to Lovers, Interesting Location (LA)
🌸 A Pulled Down Shade – fast_brother (43k, M) 🌸
Harry does not like Draco Malfoy, not even one bit. Never did and never will. That is, until he finds himself married to him.
For: HP Soulmates Fest 2023
Read for: HUGE Grounds for Divorce vibes! Angst, Harry working through trauma, Harry fighting for Draco
🌻 The Waiting – @oknowkiss (43k, E) 🌻
It’s been almost ten years since Draco Malfoy disappeared during a routine Curse Breaker training exercise. Harry, his partner in more ways than one, is determined to figure out why. As the past resurfaces and the present fades into confusion, Harry discovers the only thing more unreliable than memory is love.
For: HD Wireless 2023
Read for: Curse Breaker Partners, Angst, Secret Relationship
🪻 The Unplottable Time Conundrum – @writcraft (45k, E) 🪻
When the past starts bleeding into the present at Grimmauld Place, an old academic article pulls Draco Malfoy out of his life of luxury. Haunted by the memory of a fleeting post-war kiss and thrust into the ghostly spaces inhabited by Unspeakable Harry Potter, Draco’s easy life is about to get a whole lot more complicated.
For: H/D Erised 2023
Read for: House Magic, The Order of the Pheonix, Haunted House vibes, Drarry in their 30s
🌸 Our Objective Remains Unchanged – @citrusses (46k, E) 🌸
Harry Potter, returning member of the Oxford University Boat Club, has two goals for the spring of 2005: beat Cambridge, and beat Draco Malfoy. Perhaps not in that order.
Read for: Muggle AU, Sports AU, Competitiveness, Damn good writing
🌻 Everybody Hates a Tourist – @wolfpants (51k, E) 🌻
On a stag do in sunny Brighton with the Gryffindor lads, the last person Harry expects to run into is Draco Malfoy. After a glimpse of Malfoy’s Muggle life in Britain’s gay capital, Harry’s curiosity gets the better of him and he finds himself returning to the seaside again and again, drawn to the city, drawn to this new version of Malfoy that Harry barely recognises from school.
Meanwhile, Draco’s just trying to live his big and best queer life: working for the weekend, chasing hot men, getting lost in Brighton's nightlife, and making friends with the neighbourhood cats. Why does his former school rival and crush have to show up and spoil everything?
For: HD Wireless 2023
Read for: beautiful relationship building, Harry finding himself, Draco living his best life. I won’t lie, I’d read the back of a cereal box if wolfpants wrote it – do yourself a favour if you haven’t already
🪻 from love, obviously – bizarrestars (52k, M) 🪻
"I just mean, doing the right thing because it's right is better than doing it because…"
"What?" Draco challenges, amused. "Better to do it because it's right as opposed to doing it because it's not wrong? Please enlighten me on what the difference is."
"You're the difference," is Harry's answer.
(Or: Draco Malfoy comes up with a plan, drinks a lot of tea, and fails to fix a clock. Somewhere along the way, Harry Potter falls in love with him, which wasn't a part of the plan at all.)
Read for: Unhinged Draco, Harry being resigned to Draco’s antics, Weasley family feels, fast pacing
🌸 Terrible People – @getawayfox and @wolfpants (52k, E) 🌸
What happens when Harry and Draco end up on the same Muggle gay cruise? They certainly didn't plan for it to happen (but their friends might have). They're stuck with each other for a week, they might as well make the most of it, right?
Featuring a holiday-long game of Truth or Dare, a very ill-judged FWB proposition, decades-long pining, lots of gin, and a small pair of green swimming trunks.
Read for: Gorgeous Art , RomCom vibes, Gay Cruise, Friends with Benefits to Lovers
🌻 Nights With You – @the-sinking-ship (58k, E) 🌻
Draco is mortified when moments prior to departing for the most anticipated destination wedding of the year, he is cruelly dumped. But when he learns that Harry Potter has, at long last, split with his horrible boyfriend, Draco is certain his luck has changed. Never a man to squander an opportunity for revenge (and what would probably be a spectacular shag), Draco vows to make Potter his for the weekend.
Now all Draco has to do is convince him.
Read for: Fake dating, mild size kink, international location (Italy), mildly unhinged Draco, hot Harry
Note: This is the fic that made me set up a Doc for everything I’d read to make sure I wouldn’t lose it to the wide realm of the internet.
🪻 Rookie Moves – peu_a_peu (75k, E) 🪻
Aurors Potter and Malfoy crack the case.
Read for: Humour, Enemies to Coworkers to Lovers, Unhinged Draco
🌸 How To Train Your Malfoy – @fencer-x (93k E) 🌸
Good manners dictate that, when one’s best friend Apparates onto one’s doorstep holding the unconscious, haggard body of the schoolyard bully and begging for sanctuary, one ought to invite the two of them in for a cup of tea. Harry Potter sometimes wishes he weren’t so polite.
For: H/D Erised 2023
Read for: Dragon Animagus Draco, Harry taking care of Draco, brilliant writing, a funny as fuck premise – I wanted Draco to stay in his unhinged dragon form forever
🌻 Symptom of Your Touch – NoxNoir (115k, E) 🌻
St. Mungo's Healer Draco Malfoy is used to being pushed to his limits when providing aide to the ailing, but when an unexpected encounter with an out of character Harry Potter throws his life out of balance one night, he is forced to ask himself how far he's willing to push his own levels of discomfort to be of aid to a man in need of help that only he can provide.
Read for: Draco taking care of Harry, Pining, Unrequited love, buckets of sexual tension
🪻 Recursion – Tessa Crowley (132k, E) 🪻
A process is recursive when it defines or contains itself; e.g., the Fibonacci sequence, which determines the next number as the sum of the previous two.
But not all recursive processes are mathematical. Recursion can happen in a temporal context when, for instance, the powerful magical force that is true love drags you back in time so it can create itself, endangering the fate of the Wizarding World—not to mention the very fabric of space and time—along the way.
Read for: Canon Retelling/Divergence, time travel, Slytherin Harry, a truly insane amount of physics/magical theory/intelligence. This fic was too smart for me in the best way. If you liked Chaos Theory read this – it’s even better!
🌸 Cut From the Sky – @mallstars (150k, E) 🌸
"I'm stuck in a time loop, reliving November 2nd. This is the 111th time I've lived through today."
Draco stilled. His moody eyes, the tension in his hands where he gripped onto his umbrella, the careful mask of blankness flickering over his face — everything about him was so difficult and so very dear to Harry.
"Ah," said Draco, "and?"
Note: no rec list for this year could be considered complete without including this one.
Read for: Harry at his most loveable, a relationship story told a hundred different ways, atmospheric worldbuilding, Trans representation.
🌻 In the Blood – BiscuitBrunch (225k, E) 🌻
Harry Potter thinks Draco Malfoy is a slimy git of a defense lawyer, who couldn't care less about doing the right thing.
Draco Malfoy thinks Harry Potter is a filthy pig of an Auror, who couldn't care less about doing the right thing.
They fight, fuck, fall in love, and fight some more.
When they're on the brink of getting their shit together and starting a family, a blood curse surfaces that threatens the lives of Draco and their unborn child.
Read for: badass lawyer Draco, deep exploration of a relationship, working through trauma, slice of life, mpreg
ANTI-CAPITALIST AFFIRMATIONS
i am allowed to spend my time creating things, even if they are not beautiful.
there is no such thing as a "real job." all forms of work are real and valid.
there is nothing that i need to accomplish to be worthy. i am already worthy.
doing nothing is good for my soul.
i am not defined by what i produce.
my worth cannot be measured by my paycheck, my job title, or a list of professional or academic achievements.
i do not need to monetize my hobbies, it is enough to spend time doing something i love.
i will not let society decide what success looks like. i can define what successful life looks like for me.
michael sheen KNEW what he was doing with those shaky grasps at crowley's back during the kiss he was literally thinking "oh all the mentally ill gay people are gonna crop this shot down to just my hands and set it as their header image on tumblr" whilst smiling evilly against david tennant's lips it was CALCULATED
they really brought david tenant’s son in and said hey do you want to play a gay little boy in good omens 2. just a little camp mf. nepotism done right.
WHEN KACCHAN STARTS MUMBLING AND STUMBLING AND ANALZYING THE ENEMIES MOVES IN THE FINAL BATTLE BECAUSE IZUKU IS HIS SYMBOL OF VICTORY JUST AS MUCH AS KACCHAN IS IZUKUS SYMBOL OF VICTORY!!
WHEN IZUKU STARTS MOUTHING OFF THE ENEMY BECAUSE HES BEEN SEEING KACCHAN AS HIS HERO (HIS, HIS KACCHAN) AND HIS IDEAL SYMBOL OF HEROISM????
i was a bkdk stan fighting for my life in 2018 LOOK AT US NOW BITCHES
Horikoshi was insane for this callback
Sounds a bit unlikely.