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Bound: Soup-pocalypse and The Great Curry Cataclysm by SquadOfCats

Typeset, bind, and illustrations by: me, @phoenixortheflame.

Eleven years after the war, Draco Malfoy leads a quiet, boring, and perfectly respectable life, thanks very much. Or, at least he does, until a sudden and very unexpected veela awakening causes him to throw soup all over Harry Potter in the middle of the Ministry cafeteria.

Every once in a blue moon I pull together a bind in four days, and other times I agonize over it for months. This was one of those rare occasions where inspiration hit — and then simply did not quit.

The cover of the bind was inspired by the novel Icarus by K. Ancrum. And I drew veela Draco based on a tattoo of a falling Icarus, which is an adaptation of the Phaeton from "The Four Disgracers" (ty @haxkattpress for the art lesson!)

For programs I used Procreate for the illustrations (veela Draco, bowl, waffle), Affinity Publisher for the typeset, Designer for the full-title page typography treatment, and Canva for the book cover.

There are a lot of letters sent between Draco and Harry in this fic, so I chose handwriting for each of them.

Finally, I did a sneaky little inside cover design featuring waffles. Regular or fish — you decide!

I did not make a copy for the author, as they've left the fandom; however, I made sure to check that they have blanket permission for binds. (That said, Squad, if you see this and you want a copy, send me a DM!)

As always, the extra copies are gifts. No money was exchanged.

If you have any questions and want to learn how to bind fic for yourself, feel free to get in touch!

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Fanbind: sea change by @eleadore

„There was nothing simple between them after all. Whatever edges time had sanded down were still rough enough to catch.“

Sometimes you find the fic and sometimes the fic finds you – and sea change most definitely found me. I had just read the wonderful The Isle of Ogyia by @citrusses (make sure you read that gem of a story!) - and thus was already in the mood for more sea vibes when @eleadore's fresh-off-the-press fic appeared in front of me and lured me in with its stunning art header.

So I dove in and was absolutely swept away….by the delicate poetic prose (“layers of studied indifference shaved away by one easy look” 🫠), by this story that is so immersive and both so gentle and rough. And it’s not just just Draco and Harry’s relationship that is beautifully written as it slowly unfolds - it also has such a unique and creative take on Harry’s relationship with his mother. 

Already halfway in I knew that THIS would be the fic I want to bind as a little surprise for my dearest binder friend Anna @annaadmires for our meetup.

Also, I finally(!) wanted to endeavour typesetting and a single-chapter 40.000 word story seemed absolutely perfect. I kept it quite simple for my first attempt but wanted to integrate the feeling of the SEA™ and of course eleadore’s gorgeous art! 

Probably the most special and nerve-wrecking and absolutely lovely part for me was that for the first time I had the honour of making an author copy!! And when sending it out I just couldn't resist adding a little nod to eleadore's short yet excellent drarry thesis. Ehehehe.

It was an absolute joy making these little binds and especially the three different yet matching versions of the cover - one for Anna, one for Ella, and one for myself.

I absolutely cannot wait to read it again – you absolutely should, too!

---

Cover: Hand foiled with foil quill on smooth 180g craft paper by Paper Poetry

Binding: Pamphlet bind with chain stitch using embroidery thread

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Okay so now there's two of us crying!!! AHHH @eleadore these are the absolute loveliest, kindest, most enthusiastic words ever spoken (screamed) and they will forever be seared into my soft little heart! Yes, until eternity!!

It brought me so much joy creating this for you and all that boundless love you have for it makes me EmOtiOnAL!

All I can say is thank YOU(!) for writing and drawing this precious, precious story 🐚

the incredibly generous @mrsoread bound sea change and now i'm going to scream about it until the end of time.

when i say scream i mean just the sound bc it's actually left me speechless HAHAHAHAHAHA. i held it in my grubby little paws and thought id smudged a perfect pristine page for a second and had a panic attack. @mrsoread you are so special to do this for me but, also, SO GOOD AT IT, HE IS SO CRISP AND NEAT AND CHARMING. THE SEASHELL SCENE BREAKS. i'm going to pass out

i never ever thought anything i created could exist in this form. i am so grateful that you found this fic and that it meant something to you and so turned into THIS, A BOOK, A LITTLE BOOK YOU MADE!!!! FOR ME!!!!!!!!! it doesn't feel like i wrote it, i opened it and felt the same feeling i do when i pick up a new book, wow a story? shall i read it? i don't know how to thank you for that feeling, but thank you. am i crying as i type this. yes amazingly i am not yet all cried out,

if you don't know who @mrsoread is i'll tell you she is the coolest and thoughtful and funny as hell because i saw this and actually could not process it for a long time HAHHAHAHA. THIS FUCKIN GUY. HAHAHAHHA. JESUS CHRIST. LOOK AT HOW PRETTY THE WRAPPING PAPER IS. AND I GOT CANDY WHICH I IMMEDIATELY SHOVED INTO MY MOUTH AND CHOKED ON DUE TO THE FORCE OF MY SOBS holy shit i have to go. thank you thank you thank you @mrsoread. it is beyond anything i could have conjured up. i would die for you.

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Fanbinding: What Has Eight Tentacles And Isn't Allowed To Eat Pie? by @no-gorms

Another one I typeset, uh, in January 2023. But it's done! This was an experiment in using the cricut (off-brand) hot foil attachment on leather: it worked really well for small designs, so I thought, why not fly a little higher. Five hours and six sheets of foil later, I was spitting out saltwater. But I decided that the flakiness worked for the design, so I stuck with it. (I tried a second version and added glaire between the foil layers, but the spots that got missed in that one looked worse to me because of how solid the rest was.)

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art below the cut contains spoilers for sea change (harry/draco, m, 40k)

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some of my hp sketchbook stuff from fall, mostly order of the phoenix centric

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honeypot

9k words, explicit

“Draco." Harry caught him dull and quick around the wrist. He squeezed. He didn’t think, the feeling came off his tongue whole. “You’re not threatening to sue Hermione because I didn’t call you back?” “Fuck you,” Malfoy spat, face pink. Not pretty. A hasty, hungry rash slapped on in a rush. Harry dropped his wrist. It wasn’t about how he looked, at all. The acid in his tone tolled like a bell. Clear, true. The words—I didn’t know you were so sensitive—dented Harry’s tongue and he swallowed them down immediately. He did know. Of course he knew—Draco Malfoy was much more milk than porcelain: easy to ripple, to spill. It was new, dizzying information to understand that he cared. That he noticed if Harry didn’t.

read it on ao3

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(Re)Bound: Polar Night/Midnight Sun by me (@toomuchplor)

It’s been nearly a year since I started bookbinding, so I decided it was time to revisit the first fic I ever set.

I'll do a post with side-by-side photos another time but suffice it to say, it's not so clear to me that it's like 'first book bad, this book good'.

And if you're like, wow, Plor is posting a lot of binds this week -- you are correct. I'm on vacation this week, but also I'm wrapping up a few things that were WIPs for weeks. Lots of victory laps, but this is the last one!

I did my first typeset in Word before quickly switching to InDesign (which I have for work reasons anyway) so I wound up designing from scratch. (By the way, I’m very happy to share typesets if anyone is ever interested — for personal use only, of course!)

I used Canva to create the cover page and chapter headers in this cute watercolour style. And the end papers are pretty chiyogami from a paper store in Toronto.

I rounded the spine, but it didn’t need backing as the swell wasn’t much. I am still figuring out rounding for sure — the hardest part is getting the text block and spine stable enough to trim the head and tail straight afterwards, at least for me!

Sewn faux double core silk endbands on a 2 mm leather cord core.

I dithered about the case cover art for weeks while I did a million other projects. I knew I wanted to try something new but couldn’t find the right approach or technique to inspire me. Then I randomly tried a paper onlay for a blank book I was making and had my eureka moment.

The cover design is drawn by me in Illustrator, then cut from chiyogami by my cricut. I used a PVA/corn starch paste 50-50 mix to glue on the paper directly to the cover before the gold HTV outline was applied. The gold is partly decorative and partly to protect the edge of the onlay from friction/wear.

I am obsessed with how this looks. It’s quilting and paper art and mosaic all together? I can see myself doing this style more for sure.

One challenge is that once it’s glued up, you have exactly one chance to place the paper onlay on the cover — you can’t pick it up and try again because even with mix, the glue marks the fabric. So you need steady hands and good planning. I’m wondering about transfer tape or maybe even post it flags to help guide me in future projects? I'm pleased with the result but it could be better.

After all that sweating and work, I was paranoid about wear and tear on the paper, so I made a dust jacket. (Shout out to @citrusses for advice and emotional support during lamination time, and to lately for chatting with me and advising me as I did the paper onlay design and work!)

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two gays walking slowly for once in their lives (colorized)

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Fanbind: Away Childish Things by @letteredlettered

I’ve been wanting to read this fandom classic for such a long time yet I always knew I wanted to do it in book form rather than on the screen. So I decided to do a blind bind for myself...

This project is basically an ode to @haxkattpress beautiful typeset which informed most of my design choices – do check out the post of her original bind, it is magnificent!

I wanted to keep the vintage feeling of the typeset and decided to go with a very reduced cover and focus on materials. And I knew that the dark green leather I already had at home would be perfect for what I had in mind! The idea was to make it look like an old children’s book but with a bit of a playful modern font.

I really like how it came out but it was also a long way to get there, Working with real leather is always a challenge and especially with a thick one like this. Also the foil quill did not stick evenly in all places and my case was way too small for the text block (why do I never learn!?) which made casing in quite the challenge.

BUT I love how smooth and round the leather turned on the spine, how much the endpapers fit to the typeset, how the gold and dark green interact and overall I think I did manage to pull off the classy look that I had envisioned.

Thank you so much @haxkattpress for sharing your incredible typeset with me and @letteredlettered for allowing me to bind your story! I cannot wait to read it! 🫶🏻

Away Childish Things can be read on Ao3 - keep fanfiction free!

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A Way for the Lightning

This poem is also on AO3!

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in a name.

[ found this lovely little thing i wrote ages ago & remembered i’m rather fond of it. i hope you enjoy it, too. poem-adjacent? (happy ending, i promise!) ♡ ]

drarry | word count: 248 | a rumination on names.

_ _ _

The Malfoy line is at long last ended.

Draco Malfoy is dead.

.

Lucius Malfoy, at the end,

has no

power,

money,

friends.

He takes his name

(for it’s all he holds)

to the waiting grave.

Lucius Malfoy is dead.

.

Narcissa Malfoy singly knows,

no-where is her sudden home.

She walked eyes clear to

a gilded cage,

a glasswork house,

a burning stage.

The Manor felled her.

The ancestral home

knows her no more

and offers her no shelter.

She acquaints,

intimates herself

with the clawing marks

of shame.

She signs the papers

in her sister’s kitchen,

severs a tie,

stitches a wound.

She departs for France,

clutching tight on the plane—

a hope,

a fear,

a new-old name.

She arrives, she knows:

C’est la maison.

Narcissa Black is a woman untethered.

Narcissa Malfoy is dead.

.

Draco Malfoy who cursed the stars

is going to give up the ghost.

Haunted by the laugh of a spitfire man

who insists upon keeping him close.

Aye, there’s the rub.

What’s in a name?

A man he reads,

named Shakespeare claims,

“A rose by any other name...”

There’s something sweet

in letting go,

in healing the hurting

caused once by the rose.

He turns the thorns

from whence they came.

He lets the petals fall.

He marries, is merry,

with lover, his Harry,

who holds him

and whispers,

“Potter.”

“That’s Mr.”

Draco Potter kisses the sun,

the boy who lived,

and finds his life abloom.

Draco Malfoy is dead.

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Drarry ~ E ~ 274k

Harry Potter defeated Voldemort at the Battle of Hogwarts on May 2nd, 1998.

But what if he didn't?

A Voldemort-wins wartime AU featuring multiverse travel, multiple Harrys and Dracos, political drama, spying, plotting, and a slow burn enemies-to-friends-to-enemies-again-to-friends-to-lovers romantic arc.

21 chapters in total (I'll be posting a chapter every two days until it's all up) - read Chapter One on AO3.

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confused because

It's not like I'm falling in love, I just want ya

To do me no good

And you look like you could

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#still not over this art #the details #the colours #that quote #might be time for a re-read

The Bolthole

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Fanbind: a darker blue by @skiitter

I chose A Darker Blue by @skiitter as my contribution for a white elephant exchange we did at a meetup with binder friends in Berlin this weekend- because simply more people need to read this masterpiece!

It is one of my absolute favourite Dramione fanfics and I was thinking for a long time how I could best transport the very poetic, moody and cabin-by-the-sea vibe of this story into a bind. In the end I decided to try something completely new and opted for a handpainted cover.

Did I have any idea what I was getting myself into? No. Did I curse myself in-between? Oh yes. But in the end I really love how it came out, especially the back cover. And acrylic paint is such a great flexible medium for a cover, so I will certainly do it again 👌🏻The incredibly beautiful typeset is by my dear friend @curies_curiosities who kindly let me use it for this bind.

A darker blue by skitter can be read on Ao3.

Bound for personal use only. Keep fanfiction free!

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Fanbind: laoha by pacificrimbaud

My first leather bound book!

It was so much fun learning how to do a real leather bind. I went back to the workshop where I did my bookbinding course last year and my lovely teacher Karen very patiently walked me through all the steps.

There were so many new things I got to learn, including bevelling the case edges and thinning the leather with this funky looking tool, that is actually not as scary as it looks. Also, I realised that glue stains like crazy on suede and folding in leather corners is an art in itself. It was quite tricky and a lot of work, but also a lot of fun!

I chose to bind Love and Other Historical Accidents by @pacific-rimbaud for this project as I felt the leather would make it look like a book that Draco and Hermione might come across 200 years in the past.

I have read almost everything there is by @pacific-rimbaud and absolutely loved every single story, they are written so gentle and poetical, so witty and creative, so one-of-a-kind. But I have held myself back from reading LAOHA until I could do so as a hard copy.

The incredibly beautiful and classy typeset I used is by @hawthorneandvinebindery.

This is also my first bind for which I made a dustjacket. I really do like how it came out but admittedly I am even more fond of the velvety soft and simple leather cover.

Bound for personal use only.

LAOHA is free to read on AO3. Do not buy or sell bound fanfiction online - it is both illegal and incredibly disrespectful towards the author. Thanks for keeping the fandom ethical 🫶