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so excited to announce my new post-war, fake-dating dramione fanfiction — reputation.

Faced with Narcissa's deadline to settle down, Draco's path of defiance collides with Hermione's campaign to gain the favour of pureblood society as she runs for Minister for Magic. While convincing everyone but themselves of their torrid love affair, Draco and Hermione face both internal and external struggles that threaten to unravel both their carefully constructed facade and their preconceived notions about love.

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“Everything will be alright.”

“Thank you, I needed to hear that.”

6th year, secret relationship

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“Harry, why was Draco Malfoy just screaming bloody murder about his wife?”

Heard this audio and immediately thought of this fic…..

ff: Wait and Hope by mightbewriting

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so kiss me // a dramione drabble

words: 817 | tags: eighth year, astronomy tower, love confessions

Hermione shouldn’t have let Draco’s apparent change of heart after Christmas break get under her skin. But, months of tentative friendship and fingers brushing in the Potions classroom had buried themselves beneath her palms and her neck, pushed deeper by the silence and downcast eyes that met her when classes resumed. Draco entered the classroom as the bell rang, and was out of his seat halfway to the door by the time it rang again.

In Muggle Studies, he kept his back angled to her and refused to acknowledge when she answered a question. Arithmancy and Charms passed in much the same fashion. Hermione hoped that, as winter gave way to spring, his sudden change of heart would thaw with the ice that clung to the Whomping Willow. When the songbirds returned and warmth still remained absent from his frigid gray eyes, she knew she had to say something.

Harry had left her the Marauder's Map – an apology for not returning to Hogwarts for Eighth Year. For six months, it had stayed tucked inside her beaded bag, unused and getting bent between an ever changing load of books, quills and parchment. Her finger trailed down hallways and floors as she searched desperately for one name.

There he was: Draco Malfoy, pacing in circles around the Astronomy Tower. Before she could talk herself out of it, Hermione grabbed her wand and pulled a light jacket over her pajamas. Sneaking out past curfew brought a thrill of excitement she’d missed, tempered only by the anxious energy bubbling up in her chest. The halls were mercifully quiet, and her footsteps didn’t echo off the stone walls as she made her way up to the tower.

His back was to her when Hermione reached the top of the stairs. Tension clung to his shoulders, pulling the white button-up he still wore tight against his skin. Shaggy blond hair blew in the evening breeze, briefly distracting her from the task at hand. And when Draco finally turned mid-step, the oxygen in the air vanished.

Moments passed as the pair studied each other, Hermione at a loss for words and Draco looking like he’d rather jump than be alone with her. She took one step forward, and he thankfully didn’t make a move toward the railing.

“What did I do?” Hermione asked before she lost her nerve. Draco’s eyes were painfully blank as he regained his composure.

“I don’t know–”

“Don’t lie to me, Draco.” Another step forward, fueled by the taste of his name on her tongue. “What did I do?”

A heartbeat, then –

“Nothing.”

Hermione chewed on her bottom lip as she crossed her arms over her chest. He was beautiful in the moonlight, almost ethereal. If she didn’t know him, she might think he was an angel whose wings had been left behind in Heaven.

“Then why–”

“Granger, please.” Draco ran an uneasy hand through his hair. “Go back to your dorm, and–”

“Not until you tell me why.” Hermione took another step closer, freeing her lip from her teeth. “Tell me why you hate me.”

She watched as a myriad of emotions finally broke through his carefully crafted nonchalance. Grief, frustration, hope – Draco shook his head as if to clear them from his mind.

“I don’t hate you.” He sounded pained. Good, Hermione thought. “I could never hate you.”

“Then why–”

“Because I can’t stand the thought of losing you, Hermione.” She nearly wept at the way he said her name. “Your friendship, your trust – you – I can’t do it. And it isn’t fair to you, either. I might want you, but I refuse to spend every waking moment near you, wanting to kiss you, to touch you, knowing that I can’t. So, it’s best if you just go back to your dorm–”

“So kiss me.”

Hermione tilted her chin up to counteract the flush blooming across her cheeks and neck. Draco stared at her as if he were seeing her for the first time.

“What?”

“So kiss me.” She shrugged, as if she hadn’t just opened herself up to the first person who could break her if he wanted. “Kiss me, touch me, get to know me. Fuck, I might let you love me, Draco. But you need to–”

He moved faster than she’d expected, his hands winding into her hair and tilting her head back so that he could press his lips to hers. The kiss was frazzled – clumsy, hot, open-mouthed – and Hermione matched him movement for movement. Her lips parted the moment his tongue asked for entrance, and she lost herself in the taste and the smell of him.

They stayed in the Astronomy Tower that night, kissing, touching, and laughing until dawn broke over the horizon. When the first rays of sunrise sparkled in his eyes, Hermione understood what he meant. And she knew that she wouldn’t be able to walk away from him now.

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POV: Draco and Hermione get caught canoodling in a broom closet

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Hinny energy if I’ve ever seen it.

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I heard it's Superb Owl Sunday so I have prepared some superb owls for you.

The barn owl is the most widespread species of owl, living on every continent except Antarctica. Their faces are shaped like a disk to help their hearing, giving them some of the best hearing of any owl. They mostly hunt by sound.

Snowy owls are the largest arctic predatory birds, They are born with black feathers and get whiter as they age. Females usually have more dark feathers than males.

Eastern screech owls have a few feather variants that make them look like completely different species.

The southern white-faced owl can increase its metabolic rate during winter to compensate for the cold and lack of food. They lay their eggs in nests built and abandoned by other birds.

The great grey owl is the largest owl by length, but a lot of that is feathers and they're actually very light for their size. Their hearing is good enough to hear rodents burrowing through snow and they can break through hard-packed snow to catch prey.

Blakiston's fish owl is the largest owl by mass and eats mostly fish. Despite the name, they may be more closely related to eagle owls than fish owls.

The elf owl is the smallest owl species, barely larger than a sparrow. They hunt bugs and play dead when caught. They like to live in holes in saguaro cacti.

Burrowing owls live in underground burrows. While they can dig, they mostly take over burrows from other animals. Farmers killing prairie dogs has severely reduced burrowing owl populations. They decorate their burrows with feces to attract bugs to eat.

The barking owl is called that because

Its nice to have a day to appreciate superb owls. Feel free to spread the love by reblogging with some more owl facts.

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me, quietly whispering to the ao3 page of an author who doesn’t even know I exist: I am obsessed with you

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Pub news 😍

So thrilled to finally share this news! The Irresistible Urge will be out in July 2025 (Orbit UK & Berkley (Ace)). More details on my Instagram (brigitteknightley).

My authorial blibbityblurbbity:

THE IRRESISTIBLE URGE is my love letter to slow burn romantasy, with a STEM twist. I can't wait for readers to meet Osric the gentleman assassin (favourite colour: morally grey) and Aurienne, the healer who Doesn't Do Love. This is enemies to lovers in its purest form, featuring forced collaboration, a masochistic slow burn, crime as a bonding experience, reluctant attraction, and graphic violence, as a little treat. 

PS. This is a whole new story. The Mortifying Ordeal will continue to pspsps on AO3

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Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) dir. Gore Verbinski

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Hades and Persephone 🌸

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So, because I definitely care a Normal Amount ™ about Lionheart, I went back and re-read the entire thing in preparation for the last chapter of Book 4. It was such an interesting exercise because while I love reading serialized fiction (it's such a core part of what makes fanfic amazing) - it really does hit differently when you look at the story up until this point in it's entirety. (I could go on absolutely unhinged tangents about how much the way you have adjusted canon that just scratches the excema in my brain.)

However- on this re-read, the line that Draco says when he and Hermione have their seminal discussion in the owlery snagged my mind and I can't stop thinking about how Draco accuses Hermione of liking the fact that he's meaner than she is. Because on one hand - yes? He absolutely has less of a sense than she does about Right Decisions, because she always wants to do the "right" thing, but objectively its not always the right thing to do - its just moral relativism rearing its old ugly head again. But on the other hand, he's completely wrong because Hermione (at least in the original books) has this enormous capacity for cruelty that shes not even aware of - partially because girly does not have a single ounce of tact, but also because she wasn't brought up in the wizarding world. She lacks some of the context and cultural clues that allow characters like Draco and Daphne to navigate with an ease she likely envies. And while all the Slytherin bbs have high IQs and low EQs, I think they also are hyper aware of personal standing, so I could easily see Hermione blithely insulting someone without realizing it and completely RUINING their day/month/year etc.

I'm curious if you've thought any more about this dynamic between D/H - and what they think of the others capacity for mean-ness and cruelty??

YES! To all! Especially the bit about Hermione having "an enormous capacity for cruelty that she's not aware of," because yes, that's pretty much one of her cardinal faults as a character — the insidious combination of (a) not really prioritizing other people's feelings if/when they conflict with something Hermione wants or feels, and (b) not being at all aware that she has that quality, and in fact believing herself to be the most emotionally intelligent member of the Trio. (Remember "emotional range of a teaspoon"? I burst out laughing when that happened, because like... girl. The call is coming from inside the house.) At the same time, she's smart enough to recognize when other people are unkind or tactless, so there's this beautifully intricate hypocrisy to how she understands her own emotional intelligence — her pride and arrogance blind her to ways that she neglects others, but her sincere generosity, kindness, and desperate yearning to be helpful and good to other people actually do allow her to see when other people are bad at it, as well as propel her to... well... try. It's a really interesting combination. Hermione is so much fun.

I wouldn't characterize that as cruelty, though, and to an extent it's not necessarily meanness — not in the way that Draco's talking about in that conversation, anyway. Firstly, as a caveat, Draco is in the middle of a fight when he accuses Hermione of liking the fact that he's mean, so I don't think he's altogether sincere about it; I think if you asked him in a moment of repose, he would have a more measured and generous interpretation on their dynamic, even though he's not necessarily wrong. Rather, I think what Draco said is a very inelegant way of pointing out how Hermione uses Draco as a moral backboard: she enjoys the moral high ground, does Granger, and Draco is almost always completely happy to cede it to her. Being around Draco makes her feel like a Good Gryffindor, because while he matches and challenges her intellect/ambition/drive, she gives him direction and moral focus, which is a role he's explicitly told her she plays on multiple counts, and which she's expressed insecurity about in the past (their fireside conversation about "am I good?" and what that means — the idea of capital-G Goodness, and how it becomes increasingly difficult to find as you leave childhood, is one of the tenets of Hermione's arc.)

Secondly, I think Draco is just meaner than Hermione because when he is mean, he does it on purpose. One of the earliest moments of bonding that they ever have as people comes from Draco making fun of Ron's performance in Charms (while imitating his accent, to add insult). Hermione doesn't make the joke herself — but she does laugh at it. She finds it funny. Of course, that's before she's friends with Ron, and she has about 500,000 words of personal growth in front of her, but she still enjoys Draco's dry humor and his attention to detail, both of which he not infrequently uses to make fun of people on purpose. Draco knows this, and he likes amusing her, and sometimes he'll actively make a mean joke because he knows she finds it funny, and because he knows she won't make it herself. They're not the most likable people in the world.

Hermione may not have the same social graces as people born in the magical world, but when she insults people, she usually does it on accident, out of tactlessness, or because they've (in her eyes) well and truly earned it. She doesn't go out of her way to pick on people who haven't asked for it first, and I would go so far as to say her moral compass bars her from it. That's part of what Draco means when he claims to be the worse person, and while he's being wildly uncharitable in that argument, not to mention just an all-around arsehole, he is also a licensed expert on the particular subject of his relationship with Hermione Granger. He knows their dynamic very well, and she knows it.

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strings

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