I was thinking on this the other day, and I realised that despite always putting down that I don't exclude slash on principle, I've never read one (unless you count Prince of a Dark Kingdom's weird early overtones). And with it's dominance in the fandom, there have to be some good ones.

So, what have we found there?

Note that this isn't a sudden fondness for any particular pairing, nor for the idea of reading sex scenes or fluffy romance in laborious detail. If there's a good romance out there, with impressive writing and good pacing, by all means, but my personal taste is to prefer romances to be incidental to a wider story.

Edit: to clarify, I mean this expansively as stories featuring M/M or F/F pairings

 

Yeah, I just read up on those. Apologies if I'm opening up a can of worms, that's not my intent.


However, I don't think that's enough for me as it's 7yo and, tbh, I don't trust the quality judgement of 2010 DLP, quite besides the fact that more has been written since then.

 

Copperbadge's Cartographer's Craft.

160k words. Copperbadge is a fantastic writer in pretty much every arena and this is no exception. An extremely polished, well-paced, and frankly gripping 7th-year AU where the romance feels more natural and realistic than the vast majority of het fic, let alone other slash. Copperbadge writes a lot of good stuff in many fandoms (lately mostly Marvel).

Lightning on the Wave's Sacrifice Arc.

3 million words. The Sacrifices Arc is has so much unique world-building that you could slap on new character names and it'd be 80% of the way to original fiction. A massive 7-year AU retelling of the entire series, LotW pulls no punches. Bad things happen to people. At times, it can feel gratuitous. What is certainly gratuitous is the angst, though with the benefit of years passing and a re-read it actually seems more realistic, rather than less. This is very much a YMMV fic - its extreme strengths are balanced by the fact that most people are going to be turned off by one thing or another, whether it be the slash (honestly the weakest part of the story, though in some ways necessary), the angst and causes behind it, the AU elements, the OCs, etc. If you are willing to approach it with an open mind I would absolutely recommend it, though. If nothing else you should read to the end of Book 4; it is extremely strong. (Book 7 is also very good, with a solid ending, but 5 and 6 are a bit too long.)

scoradh's Quantum Leap.

Very short novel length - 50k words. Funny, whimsical, literary, and classy - with an ending that I really can't spoil for you. Harry/Draco, but only for a small % of the story.

TigerDragon's Personal Days and First Loves.

Personal Days focuses on polyamory (het, slash, and femslash) in the Marvel/Agents of SHIELD universe. It's definitely one of the more accurate fandom depictions of the relationship style, pitfalls and all. First Loves is Spiderman femslash, with an AU genderbent Peter (Penny) Parker. It's also pretty good.

OK stuff:

BC. Recommendations: Visionary (HP/TR), Logical Fallacy (HP/Bill Weasley).

Nea Marika's Words Fail. HP/TR.

hiddenheadspace's A Quiet Song of Magic. HP/TR/GW ...ish. No actual relationship content to date. Good worldbuildling.

 

Snarry (Snape/HP): the marriage stone, The Mirror of Maybe, A nick of time, Nocturne, In Care of, The Paradox of Existence...... If you want more, http://snarry-reader.dreamwidth.org/

Drarry (Draco/HP): secrets, eclipse, malfoy child...... In case you want more, http://my-drarry-recs.livejournal.com/

 

Let Perpetual Light - Grindelwald/Dumbledore, set during that 2 month summer. Some innovative stuff, especially Ariana's characterisation. Death is a major theme, as can be expected.

Turn - Harry/Draco, post-epilogue. Loved the writing in this. Excellently written family dynamics, and its portrayal of Harry and Ginny's dying relationship is really great.

Or the Look Or the Words - Dateless and exhausted, Harry and Ron go to the Yule Ball together. Nicely written fluff. Oneshot.

Hermione Granger's Hogwarts Crammer for Delinquents on the Run - AU in which Harry ran away from the Dursleys and thus never went to Hogwarts. Sort-of DH AU, featuring Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, Luna and Draco.

For femslash,

Ancient Magic - McGonagall/Hermione. The best chapters are the chapters about McGonagall's past, especially her involvement in past wars.