So grateful for the many fanfic authors who freely share their talent with us. I always find myself coming up short with the words to express my love for them and their stories since I don’t quite have a way with words like they do… But I do, however, have some f l a i r for the arts. So for this holiday break, I gave myself the challenge of creating a little digital collage as a thank you for a few of the stories I read this year that have really stuck with me. Here ya go guys!
*Best viewed via the tumblr dashboard/your phone (bc from my actual page via a desktop, the quality seems to have gone down and I’m not well-versed with tumblr enough to know why).
Astoria Greengrass can’t remember a time when she didn’t know she would one day be a Malfoy. Not even a war can get in the way of that goal—but her fiancé’s feelings for Hermione Granger just might. On the evening of her engagement ball, Astoria’s world is rocked to its foundations and she finds herself facing some difficult decisions. But if there’s one thing she’s learned from Hermione (and Draco) it’s that well-behaved women rarely make history. And sometimes the drastic choice is the only one to make.
Beautifully written, beautifully told. I always appreciate stories that feature Astoria (or Ron) as someone with compassion and understanding, instead of always being made out to be a simpering and/or evil bitch. I was cheering for them all at the end!
Every time Hermione Granger is in close proximity to Draco Malfoy, she is seized by a sudden urge to flee his presence. What on earth could be the reason for that?
Not a love triangle despite where my collage ended up… but they do “vie” for Hermione’s support on something stupidly hilarious. Poor Harry. The author was a new discovery for me this year and I’ve enjoyed so many other stories of theirs: Draco Malfoy’s Halfway House for Wayward Hens (first one I ever read!), Commonalities of the Coldest Kind, Choice and Chance, among a few others. All are HILARIOUS!!
Draco’s current mistake—well, it wasn’t simply one, but three—was a chain of seemingly unconnected events that, when spliced together just so, made one hell of a shit storm.
Loved the storytelling of the literal shit storm they went through. The author took me on an Adventure and I didn’t even notice that nine chapters flew by! Draco is an Idiot. Ha! (Also really recommend The Art of Seating Etiquette, which I read earlier in the year.)
Hermione straddles the magical and non-magical worlds as a medical researcher and Healer about to make a Big Discovery. Draco is an Auror assigned to protect her from forces unknown – to both of their displeasure. Features hypercompetent, fiery Hermione and lazy, yet dangerous, Draco. Slow burn.
My current absolute fav. Thank you to @mightbewriting (whose Wait & Hope series you should be reading!) for recommending this on her tumblr several weeks ago. This is simply top-notch! And THE BANTER (!!) IN THIS IS TOP-NOTCH. I really, really cannot express enough words to tell you how amazing and hilarious this story is. You WILL get butterflies! And squeal and smile in your room like the Dramione idiot that you are. I love this story so much that I couldn’t stop at just one collage, and so did a second inspired by the latest chapter.
It’s a year after Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy parted in Italy with promises of love and fidelity. The Battle of Hogwarts is over and Voldemort is dead. And although the price paid was high, Hermione is ready to start the rest of her life, and her eighth year studies, with Draco by her side. No hiding and no shame. But when Draco finally arrives at Hogwarts, it’s obvious that things are very wrong. Why is he acting so strangely?
If Bending Light was the warm, lazy Italian summer, this is the dark, brooding Scottish winter. Dress warmly.
Another fav author, one who’s inspired me several times before to create. And this year, she did the unthinkable and had me rooting for someone other than Draco. I’ve been reading Dramione for close to two decades now (the only ship I typically read) and never has an “other” snuck up on me and taken hold like this. Color me shocked with a side of existential crisis to boot. Kidding… mostly. The latest chapter has me ready for Draco’s comeback tho!! (This is the sequel to Bending Light, another fav, which you MUST read as well!!)
Unable and unwilling to walk away from a dare, Hermione is forced to stay up all night with Draco Malfoy. Sometimes, one night is enough to begin to understand a person.
I read this again yesterday to help me get inspired and I’m happy to report that the story still holds. This Draco is super endearing! A great fic if you’re looking for a new beginnings story for our fav duo. And speaking of an endearing!Draco, the author’s entry to last year’s @dhr-advent, Hazy, is one of my favs and I feel like it deserves so much more love and attention! Also highly recommend Chronos Historia for anyone who’s a sucker for a time travel fic.
Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy never intended to blow up their life’s work, but that’s rather what they’ve gone and done. Now they’re trapped 200 years in the past, with a broken Time Turner, a missing snuff box, a handful of overly-eligible daughters, and a House-elf in a cable knit cardigan. It will require the combined power of their keen intellects to get them home, if they’d stop arguing long enough to use them. For fans of Harry Potter, Jane Austen, and Connie Willis, a historical romantic comedy all about time, and getting the hell out of it.
Speaking of time travel, this is one of my favs! Now complete! Congrats to Pac for completing this story recently; I got into this late last year, but have been cackling at 3am with their shenanigans ever since. A funny story about this collage is that I actually meant to make one a year ago during the 2020 holiday break, but couldn’t for the life of me create one that felt “right”. (I’ve got LAOHA.psd, LAOHA 2.psd, and September’s LAOHA 3.psd in my laptop for proof!) I’m so happy these two Idiots have finally ‘caught up’ with each other and got on the same page!
An ancient artifact awakens in Magical Britain. Drama ensues. Hermione Granger doesn’t have time for rubbish like having her marriage arranged by a semi-sentient cup, only it seems she doesn’t have much choice in the matter. How is she supposed to help replenish the population of magical Britain when she doesn’t even know her husband’s name, and she’s never seen his face? And is she actually falling in love with someone who might as well be a ghost? Of course not. That would be ridiculous.
Herein contains: a library as a bribe (a bribrary, if you will), too much tea drinking, and more nonsense than you can shake a wand at. Enjoy!
And lastly, this little WIP that I’m hoping isn’t abandoned! I’m normally not one for Marriage Law fics, or anything similar which this one is, but I was pleasantly surprised by this story so far. It may or may not have been the bribrary (read: library as a bribe) that got me…?! I can’t wait to see how their relationship progresses and their reaction when everything is revealed!
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That’s it! THANK YOU once again to all the Dramione authors who’ve shared such amazing stories out there, I couldn’t possibly list all. (This pandemic would’ve been a lot worse without your stories!) I hope you all like what I’ve made; consider these my little token of appreciation for all the enjoyment you’ve given me. <3
And Happy New Year, Dramione fandom! My shipper heart is SO full with the Return to Hogwarts special, and I can’t wait to see what the fandom does with all the accidental Dramione (Feltson!) content that Tom Felton and Emma Watson have gifted us this year. ;)
Feel free to share/reblog (and send to any of the authors who may not be here on tumblr), I only ask that you mention my name in the credits. Lmk if you’d like a hi-res copy. :)Also tagging @dramioneasks and @dramioneficrecommendations for fic sharing!
suzanne collins killing prim after everything katniss did to save her………. THATS how you write a story about the brutality and futility of war ma'am thats what we call a compelling and fucked up narrative yessums thats storytelling babes!!!!
“That was one of the first questions I asked her when we sat down: ‘Did you always know that [Prim] was going to die?’ And she said, 'Oh yeah, of course, that’s the whole point.'” (x)
Hey, can I get some recommendations for well written Dramione, that may or may not be Canon compliant (strictly up to Deathly Hallows, who cares about the epilogue).
Of course I can! I could spend forever on this recommendation list but here are a few that have came to mind. Wishing you happy reading!
The Right Thing To Do by @lovesbitca8 - Hermione felt the pounding in her ears again. She would see him for the first time since the Great Hall, gaunt and stricken at the Slytherin table with his mother clutching his arm. She hadn’t meant to look for him. Not in the corridors, not beneath the white sheets of the fallen, not on the way to the Chamber of Secrets with Ron, but she was a stupid girl. (All of LB8’s works tbh)
Remain Nameless by @heyjude19-writing - How did it feel? It felt like he was barely holding it together. She, of all people, should shun him. Or yell at him. Curse him. Spit at him. Take out her wand and blast him off the face of the earth. It was crushing guilt and relief and confusion all at once when he looked at Hermione Granger….
The Politician’s Wife by pir8fancier - This story is set twenty-three years after the fall of Voldemort. Our main characters are Ministry employees, middle-aged, and the majority of them not very happy.
We Learnt The Sea by @floorcoaster - Draco Malfoy turns himself in after a very successful career as a Death Eater, then enlists Harry and Hermione to help him in a scheme to bring down the Dark Lord. A story of forgiveness.
Apple Pies And Other Amends by ToEatAPeach - It’s not until she’s brought a basil and strawberry sponge cake to Neville Longbottom and his new girlfriend, Hannah Abbott, a dozen rhubarb hand-pies to Luna and Xenophilius Lovegood, and another basket of ganache-covered muffins to Dean and Seamus, that Hermione admits to herself what she’s actually doing: she’s making a thing of this. It’s a veritable PTSD tour. With pastries. And hand-skimmed clotted cream. And she has no idea why she’s doing it, but it’s becoming very apparent that she is.
Not Recommend Enough (in my opinion)
Once More, With Feeling by @wetpretzel - As she looked around her living room - at the green velvet ottoman she didn’t remember purchasing, the 14th century Wizarding texts on her bookshelf, the hideous and obnoxiously ostentatious grandfather clock that could only belong to a Malfoy - she pictured the toothbrush next to hers on her bathroom counter, the old Slytherin quidditch jersey she regularly tripped over in her bedroom, and the mint chocolate chip ice cream in her freezer - a flavour she abhorred, but that a particular, pale, pointy faced aristocrat sat across from her had a tragic fondness for….
Find Your Way Back by @willhavetheirtrinkets - Draco Malfoy, employed at the Ministry of Magic in the Department of Magical Creatures, is assigned to a case that could end the rules and restrictions he’s been required to follow in the fifteen years after the war. All he has to do is deal with one potential ghost. When Hermione Granger gets involved in the case as well, they both discover several other ghosts from their past. Dealing with all of their ghosts, together, will put everything in their futures at risk.
Anchors In A Storm by @inadaze22 - Draco’s current mistake—well, it wasn’t simply one, but three—was a chain of seemingly unconnected events that, when spliced together just so, made one hell of a shit storm.
The Light Is No Mystery by masterofinfinites - Defeating one man was simpler than ripping out the roots of a centuries-old belief system. For Hermione Granger, agreeing to work in the Mental Rehabilitation Center is the latest attempt at stitching her life back together. For Draco Malfoy, finishing his court-mandated rehab has just gotten a lot harder. Soon, Hermione and Draco find themselves in the middle of a storm of new politics, power struggles, and pureblood culture. But a growing connection between them might not only change the course of their lives, but also the future of the Wizarding World.
One Shots:
Out of Mind by galfoy - By all appearances, Hermione Granger runs a successful bookshop, lives a happy life, and wants for nothing. However, when a person from her past starts asking uncomfortable questions, Hermione realizes that things are never as they appear.
Slowly Towards Desire by phlox - Hermione decides then and there to stop thinking she has any idea whatsoever of what to expect from Draco Malfoy. She hasn’t a clue.
The Art Of Setting Etiquette by @inadaze22 - Hermione believes that every problem has a solution, and that solution can be found in a book. That is, until Draco starts sitting to her right every Friday. She has no answers until help comes in the form of an unlikely source: Ron Weasley.
By The Book by DarkOfTheMoon - After six months in Azkaban, six months living without magic, and six months probation, Draco Malfoy reveled in the quiet. For five years working in a small bookshop in the Scottish isles gave him purpose and the silence he craved. Until the bell above the door chimed, and Hermione Granger started to make noise. And maybe he liked the sounds she made.
There’s also a large grey area between an Offensive Stereotype and “thing that can be misconstrued as a stereotype if one uses a particularly reductive lens of interpretation that the text itself is not endorsing”, and while I believe that creators should hold some level of responsibility to look out for potential unfortunate optics on their work, intentional or not, I also do think that placing the entire onus of trying to anticipate every single bad angle someone somewhere might take when reading the text upon the shoulders of the writers – instead of giving in that there should be also a level of responsibility on the part of the audience not to project whatever biases they might carry onto the text – is the kind of thing that will only end up reducing the range of stories that can be told about marginalized people.
A japanese-american Beth Harmon would be pidgeonholed as another nerdy asian stock character. Baby Driver with a black lead would be accused of perpetuating stereotypes about black youth and crime. Phantom Of The Opera with a female Phantom would be accused of playing into the predatory lesbian stereotype. Romeo & Juliet with a gay couple would be accused of pulling the bury your gays trope – and no, you can’t just rewrite it into having a happy ending, the final tragedy of the tale is the rock onto which the entire central thesis statement of the play stands on. Remove that one element and you change the whole point of the story from a “look at what senseless hatred does to our youth” cautionary tale to a “love conquers all” inspiration piece, and it may not be the story the author wants to tell.
Sometimes, in order for a given story to function (and keep in mind, by function I don’t mean just logistically, but also thematically) it is necessary that your protagonist has specific personality traits that will play out in significant ways in the story. Or that they come from a specific background that will be an important element to the narrative. Or that they go through a particular experience that will consist on crucial plot point. All those narrative tools and building blocks are considered to be completely harmless and neutral when telling stories about straight/white people but, when applied to marginalized characters, it can be difficult to navigate them as, depending on the type of story you might want to tell, you may be steering dangerously close to falling into Unfortunate Implications™. And trying to find alternatives as to avoid falling into potentially iffy subtext is not always easy, as, depending on how central the “problematic” element to your plot, it could alter the very foundation of the story you’re trying to tell beyond recognition. See the point above about Romeo & Juliet.
Like, I once saw a woman a gringa obviously accuse the movie Knives Out of racism because the one latina character in the otherwise consistently white and wealthy cast is the nurse, when everyone who watched the movie with their eyes and not their ass can see that the entire tension of the plot hinges upon not only the power imbalance between Martha and the Thrombeys, but also on her isolation as the one latina immigrant navigating a world of white rich people. I’ve seen people paint Rosa Diaz as an example of the Hothead Latina stereotype, when Rosa was originally written as a white woman (named Megan) and only turned latina later when Stephanie Beatriz was cast
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and it’s not like they could write out Rosa’s anger issues to avoid bad optics when it is such a defining trait of her character. I’ve seen people say Mulholland Drive is a lesbophobic movie when its story couldn’t even exist in first place if the fatally toxic lesbian relationship that moves the plot was healthy, or if it was straight.
That’s not to say we can’t ever question the larger patterns in stories about certain demographics, or not draw lines between artistic liberty and social responsibility, and much less that I know where such lines should be drawn. I made this post precisely to raise a discussion, not to silence people. But one thing I think it’s important to keep in mind in such discussions is that stereotypes, after all, are all about oversimplification. It is more productive, I believe, to evaluate the quality of the representation in any given piece of fiction by looking first into how much its minority characters are a) deep, complex, well-rounded, b) treated with care by the narrative, with plenty of focus and insight into their inner life, and c) a character in their own right that can carry their own storyline and doesn’t just exist to prop up other character’s stories. And only then, yes, look into their particular characterization, but without ever overlooking aspects such as the context and how nuanced such characterization is handled. Much like we’ve moved on from the simplistic mindset that a good female character is necessarily one that punches good otherwise she’s useless, I really do believe that it is time for us to move on from the the idea that there’s a one-size-fits-all model of good representation and start looking into the core of representation issues (meaning: how painfully flat it is, not to mention scarce) rather than the window dressing.
I know I am starting to sound like a broken record here, but it feels that being a latina author writing about latine characters is a losing game, when there’s extra pressure on minority authors to avoid ~problematic~ optics in their work on the basis of the “you should know better” argument. And this “lower common denominator” approach to representation, that bars people from exploring otherwise interesting and meaningful concepts in stories because the most narrow minded people in the audience will get their biases confirmed, in many ways, sounds like a new form of respectability politics. Why, if it was gringos that created and imposed those stereotypes onto my ethnicity, why it should be my responsibility as a latina creator to dispel such stereotypes by curbing my artistic expression? Instead of asking of them to take responsibility for the lenses and biases they bring onto the text? Why is it too much to ask from people to wrap their minds about the ridiculously basic concept that no story they consume about a marginalized person should be taken as a blanket representation of their entire community?
It’s ridiculous. Gringos at some point came up with the idea that latinos are all naturally inclined to crime, so now I, a latina who loves heist movies, can’t write a latino character who’s a cool car thief. Gentiles created antisemitic propaganda claiming that the jews are all blood drinking monsters, so now jewish authors who love vampires can’t write jewish vampires. Straights made up the idea that lesbian relationships tend to be unhealthy, so now sapphics who are into Brontë-ish gothic romance don’t get to read this type of story with lesbian protagonists. I want to scream.
And at the end of the day it all boils down to how people see marginalized characters as Representation™
first and narrative tools created to tell good stories later, if at all. White/straight characters get to be evaluated on how entertaining and tridimensional they are, whereas minority characters get to be evaluated on how well they’d fit into an after school special. Fuck this shit.
“White/straight characters get to be evaluated on how entertaining and tridimensional they are, whereas minority characters get to be evaluated on how well they’d fit into an after school special. Fuck this shit.”
