What are /r/HPSlashFic's favorite Products & Services?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

> Is there a ship that everyone just swoons over that you absolutely can't stand for one reason or another?

Uh this is kind of every canon pairing for me. Sorry. I didn't like how Rowling portrayed any of the romances. In Slash, I don't hate Drarry or Wolfstar but I don't care to read it either, but that's mainly because I'm indifferent to Draco and Remus (at least in fanfiction).

> Is there a fic that is continuously recommended and praised and you, for the life of you, can't understand why?

A Black Comedy and The Lie I've Lived, which are usually recommended on the main sub. I couldn't get into either and I don't get the hype.

In Slash, it's Josephine Darcy's "The Marriage Stone". I don't why it's so popular. There are so many tropes and the characterization is weird. Also anything by DebsTheSlytherinSnapefan, who gets thousands of kudos for I don't know what reason.

There's also this gem that has over 4000 kudos (WHY?) and makes me weep for humanity. linkao3(https://archiveofourown.org/works/2784851/chapters/6250025)

Hey have you read Godspeaker by Tessa Crowley? Because that is slash with some strong Tom/Harry vibes. I feel like you would enjoy it. She is a Drarry author, in case you didn't know.

The Boy Who Died A lot, by starcrossedgirl. Harry’s always been known as The Boy Who Lived. Only Severus knows that this is a lie. (Or: a portrait of Severus Snape, in seven acts.)

Snarry is pretty much the closest thing I have in any fandom to an OTP. If you had to ask me to pick like, a favourite pairing of all time, that would be it.

Unfortunately, I don't like the vast majority of the fanfic available for it.

For one thing, it's the characters. Snape becomes sappy, personable, charming or handsome. Harry becomes flimsy, doe-like and overtly innocent. These things happen in a lot of fandoms - tropes and stupid memes take over the actual character, occasionally meaning they end up unrecognizable from the original. It doesn't help that Severus Snape is an extremely difficult character to tackle and present well.

And for another thing, there's a focus on particular sorts of fanfics - creature fics, extreme underage stuff, et cetera. If you're not into those specific tropes, a huge chunk of the SS/HP fanfic is immediately unavailable to you.

The Boy Who Died A Lot is damn refreshing. It's dark, it's biting, but it's funny, and that's pretty much the only way you can show Snape's POV without going absolutely insane - showing the dark humour he finds in anything. This fic is so utterly brutal, and that's what makes it so great. There's no sugarcoating anything at all.

Does it have its flaws? Sure! Snape is tempered a little by the author, but like, you're always going to find differences in characterisation from one person to another.

The thing about The Boy Who Died A Lot is that it made me go, oh, huh. This pairing actually can have good fics for it. Super rare, sure, but they're out there!

There are so so many things I hate about A/B/O fics that have been well stated in this thread already, so no need to rehash them.

My biggest squick with them is the word “slick” used to refer to the natural lube the omega produces. The whole thing makes me feel a little gaggy.

That said, I recently read an A/B/O that I liked and was well done. It’s a Drarry with some fairly believable world building and good writing if nothing else. Embers linkao3(12133914)

Right now, I'm reading Any Instrument by dicta_contrion, a Harry/Draco piece. I've read some of her shorter things before and enjoyed them. I'm only on chapter three, but I'm entertained so far.

Another Harry/Draco I finished at the beginning of the month was Running on Air by eleventy7. Fantastic writing and a great story overall, but I felt like the tension was a little forced once the main mystery had been solved.

There used to be a whole lot more of these back in the early days of the fandom, the coming-of-age stories where sexuality became a central thing for the protagonist. I can't remember many of them off the top of my head, but one (Harry/Draco) is The Marks We Bear by Marysia. And it's complete now! It wasn't when I read it. IIRC, Harry struggled quite a bit in the first story to come to terms with his sexuality.

I enjoyed this one

The Unicorn Incident who_la_hoop

Summary:

Growing up is hard to do, especially in the shadow of your father's reputation. Scorpius Malfoy has a tough time keeping his resolution to be the best Slytherin he can be when schoolboy games, unicorns, incompetent friends and a beloved enemy all conspire to teach him something different – and rather wonderful – about himself.

With Snarry, my gateway fic was The White Road by perverse_idyll. I started reading fanfiction for Snape/Lily and while I love the pairing, I couldn't get into most of the fics (which seemed to elevate Snape and diminish Lily). After that, I tried Snape/Hermione but I didn't care for the way the pairing was presented there either. The next stop was Snape/Harry which I was wary of because Lily is such a huge spectre. Then, I came across The White Road. It's told through the perspective of Lily Evans, and she's got a fantastic voice, vain and superficial but also lively, loving and ultimately good. The premise of the fic is that Lily sees two possible futures for her son in the afterlife, one canonical and the other with Snape surviving the war. It's as much a tale of Snape and Lily as it is Snape and Harry. It's hearbreaking, dysfunctional, romantic, funny and many other things. And Snape is at his Snapely best in this fic. He's cruel, ugly, repulsive, selfish, obsessive etc but still thoroughly loveable in all his unlikable glory. The author shows Snape being Snape so well in body language like his hand movements, gradations in facial expressions, and this is where the genius of the narrative voice comes in, because who else would notice such detail but his former best friend?

That said, there are things about it that would make people wary to approach it. For one, since it's in Lily's pov she does see Harry engage in fairly graphic sex with Snape, so that could squick people out. But if someone is able to look past that and wants to read a semi-plausible (in some strange alternate universe considering the pairing) Snarry story that also resolves certain unanswered questions from DH, I highly recommend it.

I'm 21% through Stately Homes of Wiltshire. The dialogue is great; there are some hilarious lines in here:

> “Malfoy,” Harry mumbled.

> “Murtlap?”

> “Malfoy,” Harry repeated, raising his head. “I’ve been assigned to ‘watch him’.”

> “And by watch, they clearly meant swap all his china with nose-biting teacups?”

> “I should have died when I had the chance,” Harry sighed. Ron shot him an odd look. “What, I can’t joke about it?”

I really like dark humor like that.

But I don't know, there is something odd about the narrative style, and I have this exact gripe with gyzym's What We Pretend We Can't See as well -- I feel like as I read more and more, the author's own internal voice is coming through and overwhelming the characters' voices. I will continue reading through this to the end, though, but for the time I've put it down in favor of....

Standing on the Shoreline by tofsla, a Harry/Snape piece. I'm not usually one for cross-dressing, but it's not overdone and thus tolerable. The writing in this is good.

And that's all I've got, because IRL work has been murder this past month, and I've also just (honestly, about 15 hours ago)) finished the first draft of my story that's been in the works for the past 15 months. I'll slog through all 98k words starting January. But for now I plan to go on a massive reading binge!

Harry/Other Weasleys:

Harry Potter and the Really Round-About Way of Finding a Horcrux - Harry/Percy written pre-HBP; Harry finds himself involved in Weasley Family Drama. Funny and interesting; the only drawback is that it's a bit short (under 30K).

May Contain Nuts - Post-war Harry/George; its 32K, so not that long, but it's pretty funny and cute.

Here, have an excellent dark-ish sort of fic:

73 Aberdeen by Mici (noharlembeat)

What if Sirius had been sorted into Slytherin? Not a happy fic, but a fascinating one.

Rapture by Mia Ugly

A beautiful fic in general, one of the more plausibly romantic examples for the pairing, and suitable for newbies.

Ironically, one of the main fics that got me into Snape/Harry is the complete opposite of this, but I suppose we don't want to start with a Stockholm syndrome underage fic featuring morally-grey-verging-on-irredeemable Snape, do we?

Harry Potter and the Really Round-About Way of Finding a Horcrux is a pretty good Harry/Percy fic, written pre-HBP, in which Harry gets the middle of Weasley Family Drama.

Two Households, Both Alike In Dignity is a Harry/Ron fic that's part of a series that includes James/Lily and Remus/Sirius. In this one, Harry is sorted into Slytherin, and Ron hates him - but he doesn't hate Ron.

Dammit I’ve read that but I can’t remember the name.

There’s https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3832044/1/Jaded

It’s Remus/Harry and has a sequel

And there’s also https://archiveofourown.org/series/59562 which is Sirius/Remus/Harry (although it’s not a time travel one sorry) the third story in that series is honestly one of the best fanfics I’ve read :))

ANYTHING by Starstruck1986 -https://archiveofourown.org/users/starstruck1986/pseuds/starstruck1986

Great writer and fantastic stories with unique pairings I would never agree with otherwise - def changed my mind about multiple pairings

Another one by Kedavranox is Breath Me. Oversharing time: I made the mistake of reading this at a difficult point in my life and now I have a deep seated fear of the drug Ice and feeling out of control. This shit kinda fucked me up lmao.

This one might be alright?? linkao3(640449) Here's the Pencil.... but i don't know/remember how good it is.

Being Liquid - featuring genderqueer Teddy Lupin and lesbian Victoire Weasley.

Of Leaves and Stars - Modern wizard AU featuring trans Remus/genderfluid Sirius.

Oh oh oh my time to shine!!!

I LOVE Marcus/Oliver and their dynamics. Some of my favourite favourite fics featuring them are:

• linkao3(Golden by flintwoodandco)
• linkao3(tied and true by slyther_ing)
• linkao3(but good things don't come easy by slyther_ing) - and the whole "named for you, made for you" series!
• linkao3(crawl home to you by slyther_ing)
• linkao3(Wake Up, Get Up, Shut Up by provocative_envy)
• linkao3(Tastes Like Magic by flintwoodandco)
• linkao3(The Ties That Bind by dramione84)

Not sure if this counts, but I also love Theo Nott/Harry, and olivieblake has a brilliant one called Better if you Run. (Note, it's a standalone fic but posted as a chapter in her mega-series, linkao3(Amortentia by olivieblake). Don't let that throw you off!

And, yknow, since we're here, I've written a few more AU Marcus/Oliver fics you might like:

• linkao3(Starving by hexmionegranger)
• linkao3(you love the sea by hexmione granger)

There's a TON more out there that I didn't recommend (I stayed away from super smutty ones, or a ton of the shorter ones). Let me know if you need more recs - good luck and enjoy!

That would be awesome, I'll get in touch soon! :3 In case you wanted to look over what you'd be signing up for first, I've actually self-beta'd and uploaded the first chapter here, so just let me know! Thanks for the interest!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12364653/chapters/28124964

One of my most recent reads was Time and Time Again. Time travel Snarry is always something I'm fond of, and it didn't disappoint. It felt believable, imo, and I really enjoyed watching their relationship develop. The ending was satisfying too, though I'd be curious to see what their life together is like later on.

These are the two fics I rec without fail, like book ends. If (general) you don't like either of them, you probably won't like Snarry - although that sounds awfully arrogant now that I've typed it out. Maybe it just means our Snarry tastes will never coincide.

Anyway, the fic is In Between Days by atrata.

Both fics of my heart, and like night and day.

I'm not the biggest fan of antagonists, either - there's some good Harry/Draco out there, but it's just prevalent, and I don't go actively searching for it. I'll read it if it's recommended by someone who likes the same tropes as I do or the summmary sounds interesting enough.

George/Lee is great, and I haven't seen much of it besides this and this. Do you have any recs for Ron/Dean?

I use Android so I'm not sure about iOS but Evie evoice reader works pretty well. But my personal favorite is Reedy, unfortunately, the latest update 3.3.11 broke the test to speech function so I had to rollback to 3.3.9. The voice engine I use is Google text to speech, and the voices that sounds the best are the UK varients imo, you'll want to use the options that say (uses network, high quality).

I use this one on Android:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=hesoft.T2S&hl=de&gl=US

For ios I've heard good things about Voice Dream. You need to pay for this one though.

Natural Reader works for both systems.

I haven’t been reading much fic lately but I did read one Drarry that I absolutely loved. It’s A Hag, A Hex, A Tale of Redemption . The summary didn’t hook me, but the writing is brill, and so so funny. It has a pretty snarky Harry too. It’s part of a fest so the author hasn’t been revealed yet, but I will absolutely be reading everything else by this author because their stuff is just so fun.

Thank you for linking All Things Upright. I finally found time to read it, and what a lovely piece it is. Its emotional restraint and gentle conceits are really well done, with a nice lightness of touch, even though it's another case of the prose style reconciling me to characterization that doesn't quite line up with how I see McGonagall. It also comes right up to the edge of what I can accept between Albus and Minerva; more, and I think the fic would have lost me. But its reticence just makes it more affecting.

Taking a detour from there into the question of Snape/student pairings, have you ever given Night-blooming heartsease a try? It's Snape/Neville, and it pulls off the dubious task of making the pairing plausible. Neville's narrative voice is marvelous, and the alternate version of the war is energetic and inventive. I'm not saying it will convert you - there's not much else written for this ship anyway - but it's definitely worth reading.

ETA: Ack! If you decide to check out Night-blooming heartsease, try to ignore the movie-based photo-manip posted just beneath the story. It's clashes horribly with the fic itself. Good lord, what a mood-breaker.

https://archiveofourown.org/bookmarks?utf8=%E2%9C%93&bookmark_search%5Bsort_column%5D=created_at&bookmark_search%5Brelationship_ids%5D%5B%5D=99&bookmark_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=&bookmark_search%5Bquery%5D=&bookmark_search%5...

This is my Drarry bookmark list. I read those two you mentioned, and through the list you can hopefully find more that you would like reading the sumaries. I never bookmark if it's too ooc, which is the most major flaw in any fanfic for me

Remus/Snape- Remus goes blind after the war. AU obviously since both survive.

linkao3(https://archiveofourown.org/works/29407/chapters/39102)

First War AU resulting in Snape in a coma with Sirius taking care of him.

linkao3(https://archiveofourown.org/works/1058100/chapters/2119774)

Not the one you asked but these are my favourite fics for compelling portrayals of both characters. Some of them are pretty popular too.

When the Rose and the Fire Are One by perverse_idyll. linkao3(56799)

The White Road by perverse_idyll. linkao3(19113)

Snape: the Homes Fries Nazi by pir8fancier. linkao3(67766)

Help Wanted: God and Executioner by pir8fancier. linkao3(192808)

Rapture by mia_ugly. linkao3(3836032)

Standing on the Shoreline by tofsla. linkao3(997569)

Covenant by AuctaSinistra. linkao3(1476145)

Remedial Potions by AnyaElizabeth. linkao3(41859)

Harry Potter and the Erudite Wanker by gingertart50. linkao3(1550450)

Chrysalis by starcrossedgirl. linkao3(304714)

Desolation Row by starcrossedgirl. linkao3(345739)

as the wind behaves by Caecelia. linkao3(251548)

Requiem At Dusk by Femme (femmequixotic)

If you like Snarry, you might like this fic (I personally love it, read it a few times already):

"The Same Coin"- Meri

After being injured as an Auror, Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts to teach Defense Against The Dark Arts.

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/117380

Not exactly slavery, but it might as well be - have you read JG's Cambiare series? It's Snape/Harry, and for handwavy reasons, Harry has to marry Snape in order to defeat Voldemort. He's straight, and of course he's expected to submit himself sexually. Harry fights the pressure put on him to enslave his life to Snape, but to no avail. The marriage ritual involves drugging him and putting a ring through his nipple. Snape has to persuade him to cooperate and to approach sex as something other than being raped.

Cambiare Podentes series by Jordan Grant

I'll recommend a couple classics, which happen to be the very first Fics I ever read: Left My Heart and its sequel Surrender the Grey, both by Emma Grant. Harry is an auror sent to San Francisco to find the missing Draco Malfoy, who is suspected of being a double agent.

Series page: https://archiveofourown.org/series/10793

Distractions - Hermione and Ron break up, and Hermione fake-dates Ginny to make Ron jealous. Hasn't been updated in two months, but the author's still active, and it's ~66000 words so far. I haven't finished it, but I like it so far.

Written In The Body - ~330000 words and complete. Post-war fic. I haven't finished reading this one either (I read the first chapter, decided the writing was decent, and that I'd return to it), but it looks promising.

Take this with a grain of salt since I have not read it, and it's a WIP (but actively being updated), but while looking for new stories just now, I came across this Harry/Draco muggle AU taking place in America, with a bit of a twist (as suggested by the name).

No neither!! Wow I am pretty excited to read those!! I guess I don't really go looking for these fics much, even though they are some of my favorites. Who knows why.

Have you read Lumos or The Potter-Malfoy Problem? I don't remember any drinking games from them, but the Harry/Draco interactions have that same vibe of "we both want to do this but have to pretend like we don't" that the drinking game fics do.

I'm so glad you liked it!! I think the last story is the one with the Christmas party and as far as I know that was the end. This is the story that made me love this pairing, and tbh it made me feel pretty melancholy when I finished and there wasn't more (all the best stories are like that though).

I finished Wizards and Champions on your recommendation (the only one I've read so far from that list) and it wasn't nearly as good as AS so even though I liked it, it didn't quite scratch that itch.

For another great fic that features a gay Cedric (not paired with Harry but in kinda a mentor roll), try Twist of Fate. It's another one of my all time favorite Cedric fics.

I did in fact give the series link instead of the chapter link, but even correcting the mistake doesn't retrieve the fic. So here's a direct link instead:

Dark Creatures by Isis. It's a very early fic from 2003, and Snape is damaged, reprehensible, and pitiable.

Crossover pairings:

I've Come to Test the Timber of My Hearts - Crossover/fusion with Doctor Who in which Hermione becomes a Time Lord; it's about 12K words, so a bit short. Hermione/Martha Jones.

Grief Like a Threadbare Coat - Crossover/fusion with Buffy the Vampire Slayer; also short, at about 5K words. Hermione/Willow Rosenberg.

Teddy/James:

A Small Spark Neglected - Someone's setting fires in Wizarding London, and Teddy Lupin's going to have to marry a Potter. It's well-written and funny, but it is under 30K words, so maybe we could read another Teddy/James?

(i know this was two weeks ago, but i was looking through the sub and this is something i think about, so. thinking out loud)

i think a lot of discussion about snape ultimately ends up being about discussions about snape than the character himself, and that he's redeemed-without-being-redeemed, and from a relationship as toxic and dysfunctional as his with lily, has soured a lot of people on the character, who then feel the need to double down on how awful they think he is to oppose harry's 'bravest man i ever knew', and just leave him at that. so every complex, sympathetic or just likeable portrayal feels like an implicit support of a character they feel is unjustifiably praised. there are obviously people who are hyper-moralistic, but i honestly feel like people are more inclined, in certain areas of fandom, to portray, say, petunia or even tom riddle sympathetically before they would snape, who's perpetually integrated-without-being-integrated. i also love run-on sentences

edit: there's an interesting fic. Romance of the Age, and i think the impulse behind its creation and how snape is portrayed within it is...more or less how he's thought of

I can't believe no one has posted it here yet - I am guessing probably because you've already read it u/jfinner1 - but for newbies to the Snarry pairing, one of my favorites is Cambiare Podentes by Jordan Grant. The premise in the summary may sound ridiculous and bad to someone who doesn't ship Snarry, but its so so good. linkao3(714361)

No es drrary pero si queréis leer algo en español no me cansaré de recomendar marauder!Crack, es una obra de arte (Sirius x Remus). Para mí es el equivalente a aytd en el fandom hispano y parte de mi headcanon