Title: Suitable Options
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Categories: First time, romance, misunderstandings, under-the-influence, pining, fluff, angst
Length: Medium (11,500 words)
Warnings: None

Author on LJ: lovely_slyth
Author Website: olivia_lupin

Summary:
A Valentine ficlet, featuring slightly!jaded!Harry and vulnerable!prickly!Draco. And lots of schmaltz. But hey, it’s Valentine’s Day. Happy Hearts and Flowers. *grin*

Review:
As with all of Olivia's fics, this has the perfect balance of angst and fluff. Harry is disillusioned with ever being able to find someone who loves him, who can look beyond the "Boy Who Lived." Rumours abound, of course, and soon Harry's reputation is wilder than it ever was in reality. Which is where Olivia drops us, with a Hermione who wants the best for Harry, and a Harry, who finds himself Portkeyed into the private room of one of his suitable options -- a drunk, vulnerable Draco Malfoy.

I love how Olivia writes Draco Malfoy, just wonderfully prickly despite his obviously intoxicated state, and her Harry makes me melt and laugh when he realises what he's gotten himself into. Olivia's writing is gentle, warm and at times humorous, and this fic will just make you sigh with pleasure at the end of it, and want to read it again.

Suitable Options

Title: Trajectories
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Draco/Harry
Categories: 8th year, first time, friendship to romance, angst
Length: Long (35,000 words)
Warnings: None

Author on LJ: bookshop
Author Website: None

Review:
So I thought long and hard about what I could say to do this fic justice. Calling it a more believable Eighth Year book than the epilogue perhaps begins to cover some of that ground. After the war, things are not all rosy, nor does it snap easily into a 19 years later epilogue. Instead, there's a lot of pain and loss that has taken place during the war, and this fic deals with that process of healing, and the new friendships that spring up.

There's an absolutely fascinating part that addresses the magical portraits, which I have always felt were one of the persistent gaps left by the series. Ron is obviously unable to cope with having lost Fred during the war -- how, then, does he deal with seeing Fred's portrait "well and alive" in Hogwarts?

This is at times painful, at times gorgeously sweet, particularly Harry and Draco's interactions and their tentatively growing friendship and romance -- but never does it lose the feeling of a complete, coherent book. This was one of the times I really felt like I was reading the eighth book in the series, if there had ever been one written. Aja features and includes a multitude of main and side characters, all of whom remarkably retain their characterisation in the books, all of whom are growing and learning to face the things they are afraid of. A wonderful conclusion to the seven books.

Trajectories

Title: P&T Muggle Adventures
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Draco/Harry
Categories: First time, romance, post-canon, Muggles
Length: Epic (43,929 words)
Warnings: None

Author on LJ: None
Author Website: Archive of Our Own

Summary:
Dean Thomas and Harry Potter start a leisure business for wizards that specializes in giving tours of muggle London. Everything goes well until they receive a booking neither one of them wants to take. Harry embarks upon what he suspects will be the worst trip of his life.

Review:
When Dean and Harry started the idea of muggle-style holiday adventures for wizards, they hadn't expected it to catch on so well. What ensues is a fascinating, often hilarious take on how wizards might view the Muggle world.

Under the duress of their Aunt Gliese, who believes her relatives need a lesson in tolerance, the Malfoys arrive at P&T at Diagon Alley. Harry is horrified to discover that he'll be bringing them around London -- or more likely, waiting on them on hand and foot. Draco's obviously miserable at the arrangement, but Aunt Gliese is a force unto herself, and our heroes soon learn to get along with each other -- and then some.

“What is that?” Draco pointed at the digital alarm clock as though it were offensive.

“That’s a clock,” Harry said as though it were obvious.

“It’s blinking. And it’s bright,” Draco said. “And it has no hands.”

"You can unplug it if you don’t like it,” Harry shrugged.


“I noticed all of these things had strings tying them to the wall,” Draco knelt down and yanked the plug free, effectively extinguishing the clock. “I assumed it was an attempt to keep people from stealing your furniture.”

This is at times amusing, fascinating (seeing all the Muggle objects through new eyes!), sometimes heartbreaking, and overall sweet fic. A lovely read.

P&T Muggle Adventures

For epic/super!epic rec week.

Title: Irresistible Poison
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Draco/Harry
Categories: First time, romance, angst, misunderstandings, love potion, Hogwarts era
Length: Super!epic (123,712 words)
Warnings: None

Author on LJ: Formerly iscaris
Author Website: Formerly at Magical Intrigue

Summary: Under the influence of a love potion, Draco learns that poison doesn't always bring death -- there are other ways to suffer and live.

Review:
When faced with the topic of this week, I struggled for a while, because HP fandom had so many well-written epic length fics. I eventually thought I'd go for one of the epics I was reading when fandom (and myself) was still young and impressionable. Started in early 2001, Irresistible Poison happened at a time when the Harry/Draco love just started to tentatively bloom, later fueled by the Quidditch scenes and Harry/Draco duels vividly illustrated by the Harry Potter films. The amount of fandom just hanging on and waiting for the next chapter at that time was incredible. At a time when Goblet of Fire had just been released, but the next book didn't seem forthcoming (and indeed, would not appear for another three years) -- fandom turned to the Internet.

Irresistible Poison is set firmly within canon, at Hogwarts, where most fic was still taking place. It features some of the most beloved tropes that would later become fandom cliches -- love potions, Quidditch accidents, and dollops of beautifully written angst. One of Rhysenn's strengths is her evocative writing, which she uses to great effect, painting Draco's conflicted feelings towards Harry. Draco struggles with desire and love even as he knows he can't possibly really feel this way for Harry. Being especially attuned to Harry's feelings means that he knows when Harry is angry at him, and cognitively, he knows that Harry can't possibly love him in return.

What ensues is a gorgeously wrought fic that is undisputedly one of the H/D classics of that era.

Irresistible Poison
(Start from Chapter 01, as Chapter 00 is an interlude set after Chapter 13)

Also on FF.net
(Just in case you find the Schnoogle formatting wonky; however, only uploaded until Chapter 9)

Title: Arctic Fox
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Draco/Harry
Categories: Auror!fic, first time, romance, slow build, post-war, EWE
Length: 28,000
Warnings: None

Author on LJ: scrtkpr
Author Website: None

Summary: “Isn’t that Draco Malfoy? He keeps looking at you, Harry.”

Review:
*looks shiftily around* No one to see me reccing this yet again? Okay, good.

Arctic Fox is one of those fics I read, re-read, squeal about, and read again. It features a gorgeously slow build between Harry and Draco, and so much sexual tension you could cut it with a knife.

Harry and Ron are have both just started Auror training, and are surprised and not very pleased to see Draco Malfoy there as well. Draco struggles with Auror training, and Harry struggles with his initial suspicion of Draco, and then his tentative friendship with him. Draco's reactions to Harry are a pleasure to watch through Harry's oblivious eyes -- and did I mention the UST? There're awkward glances, tense dialogue, and moments where one or both of them put their foot in their mouth and step on a verbal land mine. Also -- the all-time favourite Parseltongue trope, pulled off to great effectiveness ;)

scrtkpr not only addresses how Harry and Draco work through a post-war world, but also how George adapts to life without his twin. George starts off drowning his sorrows in rum, but when Draco starts to help out at the Weasley Wizarding Wheezes, it's wonderful to watch how they give each other a new lease on life as they find their footing in life once more.

All in all, this is a beautiful, warm and satisfying read. Don't miss it.

Arctic Fox

Title: The Way of the World
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Draco/Harry
Categories: First time, pining, post-war, fluff, angst
Length: Medium (5,520)
Warnings: None

Author on LJ: zionsstarfish
Author Website: Skyehawke

Summary:
It's been a while.

Review:
Draco is a delivery boy, barely making ends meet. One of the packages he must deliver for the day is addressed to one Harry Potter. Post-war, Draco is beaten, but not broken, though struggling against discrimination against Death Eaters and unreasonable treatment from his employer.

I came across this so many years ago, and every time I read it again, it gives me the same warm feeling that I felt when I read it for the first time. zionsstarfish writes sparingly, but with such emotion packed into each word. The whole fic is suffused with a light sense of humour that nicely balances out the angst. A perfect fic to read and re-read for Christmas.

The Way of the World
This also comes with a podfic, recorded by vaysh11

Title: To Be Back Again in the Rest of the Room
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Harry/Draco
Categories: Action/adventure, mystery, growing relationship, drama
Length: Long (15,947 words)
Warnings: None

Author on LJ: lamerezouille
Author Website: lamerezouille

Summary: Harry’s just defeated Voldemort, and has had enough trouble for a lifetime. All he wants to do now is to get into his four-poster bed in Gryffindor Tower and sleep. Too bad he soon finds himself unexpectedly stuck in a malfunctioning Room of Requirement... with Malfoy.

Review:
I consider this one of the definitive Room of Requirement fics. In a fandom with so many classics, it's hard to come up with something new that no one else has done before -- and lamerezouille has done it here, in spades.

This is a gorgeous read that remained in my head long after the fest was over. It's funny, engaging, heart-wrenching, and has wonderful characterisations of Harry and Draco. I took a while to warm up to it, because it didn't immediately grab my attention, but it's well-worth sticking with it -- you will never forget it. Go straight into it, without reading the comments, and you will be richly rewarded.

Just a word of caution if you're saving this to read later on a mobile device: I use Pocket, and so do a couple of other reviewers I've noticed. If you save the fic from hd_holidays, be aware that the fic gets cut off slightly towards the end. No need to panic, though, just head on back to the original site to finish reading.

To Be Back Again in the Rest of the Room
On AO3

Title: Baby-sitters Club The Next Generation #6: Byron and the God of California
Fandom: The Baby-sitters Club
Pairing: Byron/Jeff
Categories: Romance, humour, first-time, teen angst
Length: Long (29,893 words)
Warnings: Underage

Author on LJ: zelempa
Author Website: merples by zelempa and yolsaffbridge

Summary:
And then he was there, standing in the doorway.

He obviously hadn't put much thought into what he was wearing, but somehow, he made a white T-shirt and jeans look like designer fashion. Unlike most of my shirts, his actually fitted him perfectly, showing off his slim waist and muscular arms. The bright white set off his golden skin perfectly. Around his throat he wore one of those hemp-and-shell surfer necklaces. His pale blond hair had been cut short and stuck out in every direction. He was grinning that wide, friendly, dimpled grin of his.

Oh, man. Oh, man. I was in trouble.

Review:
This was written for Yuletide 2010. Even though I had only a cursory affair with the Baby-sitters Club series when I was younger, I was still familiar enough with the characters to be in awe at how well zelempa has pulled off their voices -- spot-on.

Byron Pike and Jeff Schafer don't feature in the series as much as their elder sisters do, but their features in the book have been significant enough to be scraped together into a ship manifesto, and this fic takes that backstory, the entire BSC world, and builds something amazing and believable.

The fic reads exactly like an Ann M. Martin book (down to the very last pages), which is a feat, considering that it successfully incorporates sex and profanities without feeling the least bit out of place. Byron and Jeff grow up and go through their awkward and angsty teen stage together, set in a backdrop of the next generation of baby-sitters. Club business is still at the foremost, this time featuring a fascinating power struggle between the original and the next gen sitters.

Go, and embrace the feels of the BSC reboot!

Baby-sitters Club The Next Generation #6: Byron and the God of California

If you enjoyed that, there's also a sequel:
Baby-sitters Club: The Next Generation Super Special #1: What Happens in Sea City...

Title: Still He Offers the Sea Shell
Fandom: Anne of Green Gables
Pairing: Anne/Gilbert
Categories: AU, Romance
Length: Medium (5,100 words)
Warnings: None

Author on LJ: poor_choices
Author Website: NA

Summary: Gilbert Blythe is back from his semester abroad, and he wants to meet this Anne Shirley he's heard so much about.

Review:
Whose first ever ship isn't Anne and Gilbert?

This was the first Anne of Green Gables fic I'd ever read, because -- Anne and Gilbert in a modern college AU? I thought it'd wreck my sentimental memories of Anne and Gilbert in the 1900s. I admit I clicked on it more in bewilderment than excitement. But as I read it, I was astounded by how the author made this work. She manages to update the scenario while still keeping the initial misunderstanding between Anne and Gilbert, Diana as Anne's bosom buddy, and the secondary characters and relationships between them. Gilbert and Diana and even Josie Pye are just as recognisable as they were in the books, despite the 100-year time jump, and Anne is every bit the romantic with independent ideals in a modern world.

Still He Offers the Sea Shell

Title: Who's Left and Who's Leaving
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis
Pairing: Gen
Categories: Suspense
Length: Medium (9,500 words)
Warnings: Strong emotions, "Ways to Die" challenge

Author on LJ: fiercelydreamed
Author Website: playing god in other people's sandboxes

Summary: "No names," Rodney tells them, one more time. "And no dates -- I'm serious about that. No one can know what anyone else is planning." John learns the structures of life and death.

Review:
An email comes to Rodney from the SGC: They're shutting down the Atlantis expedition. What follows is a plan that increasingly edges into uncertain territory -- in a galaxy full of unexpected danger, who's truly in control?

The best part about the Atlantis expedition is the strong bonds and friendships that are built up between people, like-minded people with a thirst for adventure and exploration and more than anything, standing together against the great unknown. This fic showcases this wonderfully, and just a little heartbreakingly.

This is a taut and suspenseful read, set in Season 4. Written for the Ways to Die challenge on sga_flashfic.

Who's Left and Who's Leaving

Squeezing in one last entry for Alternative Media Week!

Title: Wild Child
Fandoms: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Doomsday, X-Men, Battlestar Galactica, Merlin, The Last Legion, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Robin Hood (BBC), V for Vendetta, Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Rings, Doctor Who, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 28 Days Later, Children of Dune, Legend of the Seeker, Blake's 7, Star Wars: A New Hope, Terminator: Salvation, Babylon 5, Farscape, The X-Files, Torchwood, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Smallville, Superman II, Pan's Labyrinth, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Peter Pan, Star Trek: First Contact, Enterprise, Underworld, Terminator II: Judgement Day, Aliens, Survivors, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Star Trek, Stargate: Atlantis, Batman Returns, Resident Evil, The Matrix, Star Trek 09, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Ashes to Ashes, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Children of Men, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Star Trek: Voyager.
Pairing: Gen
Categories: Action/adventure, women being awesome!
Length: 3:48 minutes
Warnings: None

Author on LJ: calapine
Author Website: Unknown

Author's Summary:
A multi-fandom vid for halfamoon's celebration of female characters.

Review:
calapine makes an unconventional but beautiful choice with her song, and for something so epic in scope, she makes it impactful on a personal scale as well, and deeply uplifting. This tribute is amazing not only for its subject matter, but also for its diversity. Women are not just awesome when they are gorgeous and kick-ass and come out with both guns blazing, but they're also awesome when they're doing science experiments, or being brave, or making difficult decisions.

Women can be some of the most harshly judged characters on screen -- because often, women are their own harshest critics. This vid highlights some unexpected choices, and reminds us that every single woman is more than just the few seconds we see them on screen -- they each have their own stories.

Wild Child

And now, for my maiden voyage... What more suitable than an airship to take off with?

For Alternative Media Week.

Title: Steampunk AU
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Pairing: Gen
Categories: Action/adventure, AU
Length: NA
Warnings: None

Thanks chibifukurou for sharing this fandom with me!

Author on LJ: leyna55
Author Website: Leyna

Author's Summary: Archival photograph from the Atlantis expedition of 1907.

Review:
This is an absolutely gorgeous digital painting of the team preparing for an expedition -- but in a gloriously vintage setting. Sheppard is every bit the roguish pilot, Dr McKay is prim and proper with one of his inventions in his hands, Teyla is lovely in Victorian dress, and Ronon looks dependable and stoic as always. And the airship! ♥ Leyna's attention to detail is marvellous, and her pictures always look so lifelike. This is the kind of picture that makes imagination take flight.

Steampunk AU