Mini fest reveals: two fics from me (H/D)

[birdsofshore]

I am excited to share these two fics from the mini_fest since reveals went up today.There were some great fics and pieces of art there, so please go and have a look if you didn't follow the fest at the time.

My first fic for mini_fest was:

Title: After Hours at the Ministry of Magic
Pairing: Harry/Draco
Prompt: #124 - Co-workers trapped / stuck alone together on Christmas Eve. Griping leads to something better. Dear fantasyfiend09 I loved your wonderful prompt and hope you don't mind that I took a few liberties with it. 
Word Count: 11,500
Rating: NC-17
Notes: Thank you to who_la_hoop, marianna_merlo, and most of all omi_ohmy for the astonishing amounts of help you cheerfully gave me with this. I was flailing around in the dark, ladies, and you turned the lights on.
Summary: It isn't precisely how Harry planned to spend Christmas Eve: trapped in a lift with his ex-boyfriend, somewhere between the third and the fourth floors of the Ministry of Magic.

I adored the prompt about Harry and Draco being stuck at work together, but when I sat down to write the story, instead of the fluffy, amusing little tale I had imagined, something altogether more flangsty and awkward poured out. I was horrified, and tried to wrestle it back into fluffy submission, but when my betas saw it, they told me to get rid of all the jokey, light stuff I had thrown in, and... well, eventually, this emerged. People have been very encouraging about it, which is wonderfully kind, but I will be honest: it was such a torment to me I would have been happy to delete the fucker at some points :D

My other fic for mini_fest was the second story I ever wrote. By contrast, this one just whooshed out of me in a great joyous splurge. I wish trying to write was always like this. It felt as if this unrepentant, spoilt, shamelessly egotistical, vain and self-deluding Draco lodged in my head and wouldn't leave, during the hours I was writing it. He was a bloody delight to be inhabited by. This is far and away my favourite thing I have written, so I hope you like it too, if you try it.

I wrote it a few months ago and had it saved carefully to bring out at Christmas. Mini_fest seemed like a perfect place to share it. Thank you, kitty_fic for modding a great fest that was exactly as stress-free as advertised!

Title: The Twelve Days of Draco
Pairing: Harry / Draco
Word Count: ~3000
Rating: R for language and innuendo, although nothing explicit
Notes: Thank you very much indeed to omi_ohmy, both for the lovely cheerleading, and the comma (which I don't know if I actually put in!!)
Summary: Draco really deserves a better class of mystery admirer. Who on earth would be smitten enough to keep sending him all these ridiculous presents? And will he ever remember who he was kissing at Blaise's party?

E.T.A. the spacing seems to have gone all shonky on this entry and I don't know how to fix it. :o( Any ideas?

Comments

[bsmog.livejournal.com]

Because I am utter comment fail this fest (okay, fine, this YEAR), I didn't manage to comment on either of these in their original posting. But I DID love them, especially the After Hours one. Really, REALLY well done and believable and so perfectly in character. I so enjoyed it, and as I recall, I was in a particularly grumpy mood that day and it was just the ticket. So thank you for writing and sharing and creating such a lovely story! <3

[birdsofshore]

I completely understand about comment fail. I have been very guilty of it this winter because I read a lot on my phone, and it makes commenting a lot fiddlier. Leaving it til later to do on the pc is always a sure fire way to forget what you wanted to say!

Thank you so much for taking the time to tell me you liked them; I really appreciate it. I'm especially happy that you thought the boys were in character. I did worry about that, as I felt I was taking some risks with the way their characters had developed in the years since the war, but I tried very hard to keep it believable that they were still the people we knew from the books.

Hearing I cheered you up on a bad day makes me smile a lot!