Rec post for H/D

[birdsofshore]

Firstly: the spacings and fonts in this post *tears hair out*. What I get when I press 'preview' only vaguely resembles what I am seeing in the 'visual editor' box. If anyone knows where I am going wrong, pray tell. It drives me mad because I'd like all my posts to look nice and neat and tidy.


I have some recs, but only one new fic. I've been having a bit of a poke about in the H/D archives, because I haven't found much new stuff that appeals lately. I am mostly too chicken to look at darkarts, and although I have nothing against mpreg, it's not a thing I'm wildly into, (even if the fat wrists and beautiful men in this art – The Confidant – have stolen my heart). Anyway, this is what I've been reading:

Author: lomonaaeren
Title: As Beautiful As the Day
Pairing: Harry/Draco, past Harry/Ginny
Warnings: Some angst, introspective piece, epilogue-compliant
Rating: R
Wordcount: 8500
Summary: Seeing Draco Malfoy aloft on his broom, illuminated from behind by sunlight, turns out to be a defining moment in Harry’s life, and awakens parts of himself he never knew were there.

This fic took me by surprise somehow. It is really nothing more nor less than a paean to Draco's beauty, and Harry's sweetness and capacity for wonder. Lomonaaeren evokes a lovely poetic, dream-like mood, and sometimes there's nothing more enjoyable than one gorgeous man worshipping another.

Excerpt:

Harry walked to the Apparition point outside the Quidditch Pitch, and then turned around as a shadow swept over him. The summons from Kingsley had been urgent, but not overwhelmingly so, and he thought he could spare a moment to see if Malfoy still flew as well as he remembered.

He tilted his head back, and—

There was Malfoy, dancing on his broom opposite from Ginny, his head tilted slightly to the side. Harry could see the sun catch and gleam on his gloves, which looked to be made of some bright leather, probably to make his hands show up more easily to the fans straining and screaming with breathless excitement from below. The sun caught in his hair, too, turning it into a mass of bright shadow.

That was it. That was all. But the vision landed in the middle of Harry’s heart, a flaming arrow, and stuck there burning for a moment before it exploded.

*

Author:lomonaaeren
Title: Darker Than You Think
Rating: R

Wordcount: 7900
Warnings: Discussion of canonical child abuse, war trauma, arguable dub-con, dirty talk, manipulation, mindfuck.
Summary: Draco and Harry have been together for some time before Draco learns about the abuse Harry suffered at the hands of the Dursleys. Harry expected him to explode. But what he wants is to explode with Harry’s permission—and he’s perfectly willing to seduce that permission out of Harry if he doesn’t get it any other way.

So, after reading the last rec, I was meandering through Lomonoaaren's back catalogue and I found this utter gem. It features a fabulously manipulative, terrifyingly protective Draco, bent on revenging all the wrongs done to Harry. It's rather dark, and really quite dub-con, and oh, wonderfully hot. I've decided that one of my absolute favourite tropes is when Harry knows he really really shouldn't, but just cannot resist, due to Draco's wiles, and this fic ramps up the intensity and wrongness all round.

Excerpt: “What did he mean by that?” Draco asked, and his voice had changed, grown huskier. Hermione had once heard him speaking that way and teased Harry that she knew why he stayed with Draco, for his bedroom tones.

Harry had laughed, his spine crawling. No need to tell Hermione that that was what Draco sounded like when he wanted to rip someone limb from limb.

But if he could protect Draco from some unpalatable truths, it had never been an option to deliberately deceive him once he found out about them. Harry took a deep breath and plunged. “My relatives kept locks on my door when I was a kid,” he said. “They didn’t want me able to get out and do whatever I wanted.” He shrugged. “Thought I’d magic them to death in their sleep or something.”

Draco’s head twisted to the side, as smooth as a snake’s. “Your relatives,” he said, and this time, his voice had achieved the deep creak of an iron portcullis falling across all different pathways of conversation.

*


I am probably the last person in the fandom who has not read this fic, but last week I read oldenuf2nb's

Title: What You Do With Your Life, A.H.K.B.C.B. (After the Hero Kills the Batshit Crazy Bastard)

Summary: Draco Malfoy had waited years in hope of seeing Harry Potter utterly humiliated....

Genres: Fluff, Humour, Romance
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Adult Language, Sexual Content

Well, I just adored it. It was like soaking in a heavenly bubble bath with a big box of chocolates, and someone delicious to massage your feet, but in fic form. It was so intensely enjoyable and escapist, full of humour and banter and dramatic moments of romance and passion and EVERYTHING GOOD. If there is anyone else out there who has never read it, give yourself a treat.

I have had a lovely time with oldenuf's masterlist and so far I haven't found anything less than wonderful. I can't even remember all the titles of the ones I read, and I was reading mostly on my phone (in bed at night after Mr Birds is asleep – shhh, it's my guilty pleasure), so I haven't even commented on half of them, but oldenuf, you are FAB. I'm currently halfway through

When Hippogriffs and Pygmy Puffs Collide, where Harry is a baker, and Draco is a tattoo artist, and it's a joy.

What is everyone reading? Or are you mostly writing? Or is RL taking all your time?

Comments

[capitu]

Do you always use the visual editor to post? Your posts always have these crazy fonts. lol

Why don't you use the HTML option on your update page? I don't work with the visual editor so I don't know how to help, but having used the HTML for a long time, i rarely have problems with it.

I've been reading the horror fest and the mpreg fest. The fests are eating all my free time lately. :D

[eidheann_writes]

I use html for posts, then go add any coding (bold/italics to links) in visual editor after. Copy/pasting *anything* to visual editor always screws everything up.

[capitu]

I do my bold/links etc. manually. I've tried to use the visual editor and have managed to do so successfully but I don't like using it often. Sometimes it messes up with the post and ends up creating a bug when you read.


I dunno. Livejournal is just weird that way, yeah?

[omi-ohmy.livejournal.com]

Another vote for using the HTML option, especially for cut and pasting.

[birdsofshore]

OK, that sounds like a good compromise. I just wrote a post directly into the visual editor and just switched to html when I wanted to add a quote. That seemed to work much better than copy/pasting.

[birdsofshore]

I don't know enough html to easily put in links and so on, but I'm going to stop pasting from word, I think that's the main problem. I don't know where the stupid fonts and stupid spaces pop up from! It looks so neat when I'm composing it, GRRR.