"Today, we will be making soulmate potions," said Snape.
I am addicted to reading HP badfic. Specifically, from this archive. Check it out -- if you go to Romance -> Miscellaneous, you can even find a bit of slash.
I don't read these just to laugh, though I do a fair amount of that, but there's a sort of deep sweetness to this kind of story that appeals to me, pretty much the same way I feel about Ed Wood movies. The vulnerability of being passionate about your work and thinking what you've done is good and worthy, even if it's not quite up to sample.
I mean, that's what I do. That's what you do. We're just older and better writers.
There are some surprising gems:
- a clever Marcus-Oliver confrontation in an H/D fic -- beautiful dialogue
- Hermione deciding to kill herself the next day, writing her suicide note to be delivered at dawn, then rushing off so she won't be late for charms class
- a description of Harry's eyes: "They look like jungles in the sunlight." (I love that.)
- and of course: "Draco Malfoy, Head Boy and Silver Ice Prince of Slytherin".
(I can't say that's much worse than me using "Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Mad Lover of Coruscant" in a story. *g*)
And I find that these stories often deal with the same things we do; they just distill them down to their essence. In the summary for one Hermione/Draco story:
"Will looks overcome 5 years of intense hatred?"
God, that would cover half the slash out there, plus 95% of the Buffy/Spike, don't you think?
The stories are often unfinished, though. I read two chapters of a Ron/Draco that left me hot for more, so if anyone's got any recs (goodfic, not badfic *g*), lay them on me.