Microfic May: Day Five

the best woman in my style

The cutest couple❤️

II. Black

<- previous day

The main issue was the house’s deceiving magnitude. Realistically, Potter would’ve never used half of the rooms in it. The ancient house-elf was only capable of making no more than a quarter of them inhabitable. Draco was left with no space to breathe. He rotated between his room and its attached bathroom, the kitchen, and his temporary potions lab. He refused to go into the living room unless he was coming through the floo, but even so he barely had reasons to leave the house for the time being.

Regardless, Draco was too busy to spend time exploring the rooms of this wretched place.

He walked into it by mistake. It was like the other rooms he’s accidentally gotten glimpses of. The only sign of life was the worn rug. Draco walked in and scanned the surrounding area. 

Once upon a time the sitting room would’ve received many noble guests, the lumoses reflecting off their crystals as raucous laughter spilled from their mouths. Presently the room was veiled in darkness. Only the light from the hallway illuminated the skeletons of furniture, each covered in a thick layer of grey.

Draco recognized it as soon as he glanced it, the Black Family Tapestry. His eyes were drawn instantly to his mother’s name—whether by instinct or some forgotten old magic—and the golden embroidery, now in the dimness no more than an ecru line, connecting her to his father. Below them he knows is his name, but his eyes drift to the scorched mark next to his mother.

He’d seen it again at the bottom of the fireplace with a match at his hand. He’d thrown it in and watched the residue charcoal disappear under amber flames.

prompt list next day ->

You don’t own fanfics. They’re inherently public domain because they aren’t your IP. Agree or disagree with AI, there are no grounds for “protection” from AI because it isn’t your IP to begin with. That’s what you chose when you chose this medium

Oh dear.

Okay, you get an answer, because at least you took the effort to write your ask out properly, even if you are hiding behind the grey, sunglassed circle.

Do I, or any fanfic author for that matter, have any legal claims to our work? No, not really, no. (Although if someone took a fic, filed off the serial number--deleted the fandom specific elements--, and then had it published for financial gain, yeah, that would be a case.)

BUT

Fandoms are built on a social contract that says we respect each others work, the effort people put into their art. We don't steal or disrespect the work of our peers. By feeding people's fanworks to AI you both steal and disprect it, and we need to make people realize that before it's too late--before fandom falls apart, because there will be no more real, actual fanworks.

Disrepectfully,

Orlissa

(i can't believe I have to say this)

VIII. Crystal

<- previous

Turned out having breakfast with Harry Potter also meant having dinner with him.

The bastard eased Draco into it. “I’m making curry tonight, you want some?”

Spiraling out of his control, Draco went from rarely seeing Potter to twice a day. Potter’s cooking being just as good at night as it was in the morning was the only upside. 

The rising daylight was accompanied by, what Draco regrets to acknowledge, was amiable silence as they prepared for the arduous days ahead of them. The nighttime was accompanied by actual conversations. It start menially: a bunch of “how was your day?”s and “who do you think will win Quidditch?”. Then Potter would bring up a memory from their eight year and Draco would start gossiping about their old classmates.

On it went, from polite chatter to affable talk then friendly banter—or from an outside perspective: verbal war. 

“You almost murdered me once,” followed by: “Like you wouldn’t’ve.”

“You were a prick in school,” proceeded by: “You weren’t?”

One night they finished eating and Potter asked, “You want a drink?”

Draco, exhausted and always susceptible to alcoholic bribes, said yes.

Potter took out firewhisky from the liquor cabinet and poured it into two matching crystal cups.

Their conversations reached their inevitable climax: quasi-flirtation. Perhaps it was the heat from the liquor—the heat radiating off of Potter—but the air felt tight-knit with tension. It might have been Draco’s imagination warping the way Potter smirked around his glass. The light from the room refracted off the crystal somehow made his green eyes shine even brighter.

“Draco,” his name coming out of Potter’s lips sounded indecent, like intruding on a tender moment. “I’m glad you’re here.” 

Draco pretended he said it with sober fondness and not drunken impulse. He allowed himself this one thing.

next ->

prompt list previous days

but WHY is D Malf your main man?

Oh my lord that is like asking why the is sky blue, sometimes things just are you know? (because the real answer is a mile long)

I could go on and on about how I find Draco's contradictions to be endlessly fascinating (like that one lovely post that was going around, please link me to it if you know what I'm talking about), about how his narrative arc about unlearning the stupid stuff he's been taught all his life is quite relatable or even about just how vital he is to the plot of the hp books but at the end of the day the biggest reason why I stan is because I think he's a funny little man.

I enjoy the way Draco speaks (the poshness of it all), his sense of humor (I'm sorry but potter stinks is hilarious to me like, of all the things to hit Harry with this is what Draco chose???), the way he's often right about something even though his opinion was formed in the worst way possible (see: his opinions on Hagrid's teaching prowess), the comical contrast between his self preservation instinct and the way he often comes out of conflicts worse for the wear...

I think many things about Draco come together to form a hilarious picture that still manages not to be pitiful on account of his many strengths (I'll forever hold the opinion that Draco is both smart and resourceful) and his endless potential, both narratively and on a personal level.

Besides all the reasons why I find the Draco from canon to be great there's also the fact that I love what the fandom can do with him to consider. Draco is a great character in fics (I often find myself looking forward to reading a story from his pov), his features make for a very aesthetically appealing figure in fanart, I look forward to people's analysis of his character, I love drarry and he's half of the equation etc. etc. ...

I've just written a very verbose reply and I still feel like I missed half of what makes Draco so appealing to me, that's how deep my love is. Some things just can't be put into words I'm afraid, hopefully this satisfies your curiosity somewhat,

xoxo

If you all are going to jump every time that man says “We’re going to buy Greenland we’re going to call it the Gulf of America” this is going to be a long four years. Please figure out when to get worked up and when to roll your eyes.

A large part of the reason families were bigger in the past was because marital rape was not considered rape and birth control/abortion methods were ineffective, dangerous and/or illegal. We can dance around this and act like our great great great grandmothers just loveddddd being mamas so much that they decided out of their own free will to have 11 children. We can pretend that they DECIDED to have big families because it was a financially advantageous decision so they could have more labor around the farm. But a lot of children in the past were fundamentally unwanted and not conceived out of love, children were not a choice women got to make. We need to admit that and stop pretending historical women were inherently more maternal because they were impregnated at the age of 15 and kept having babies until they were 40. That did not make them loving mothers, it did not make them ‘the divine feminine’ and it sure did not make them happy.

I’ll post some of this art separately later, but for now, here is the full set for the Twenty-Two Cards Anthology by peu_a_peu, bound by @phoenixortheflame