Drop Dead Gorgeous

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Fanfiction
Title: Drop Dead Gorgeous
Author(s): Maya
Date(s): November 29, 2006, to October 3, 2008
Length: 130,000
Genre: slash
Fandom: Harry Potter
External Links: offline
What Maya calls "pretty much the official cover of Drop Dead Gorgeous" by lilacevans

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Drop Dead Gorgeous is a popular Harry/Draco slash novel by Maya that was posted in installments on her LiveJournal over the course of two years. The Way We Get By, a four-chapter pre-slash companion piece from Draco's point of view, was also posted during that time. Both works are consistent with book 6 canon, but were jossed by book 7. Together, these are an example of veelafic, aurorfic, futurefic, and stealth crackfic.

Drop Dead Gorgeous, along with Maya's other fics, was taken offline in November 2008 when Maya went pro.

The Story

Aside from the witty banter characteristic of many of Maya's stories, Drop Dead Gorgeous represents a creative twist on an old Harry/Draco clichéd plot device: a veelafic in which Harry, not Draco, is discovered to be a Veela. For the hilarious purposes of this story, Harry's veela powers of attraction increase exponentially the longer he goes without sex. This discovery fuels the romantic comedy plot, as Harry's overactive veela charms attract everyone to him but Draco, the only man he wants. This trope is also used to provide strangely convincing alternate explanations for several aspects of canon (for example, Snape's love for Lily and the "monster" in Harry's chest).[1]

In their mid twenties when the story begins, Harry and Draco are the resident troublemakers at Auror headquarters; as auror partners, they annoy their boss, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and solve crime in brilliant, but legally problematic ways. Their partnership is the emotional center of their lives and is rife with subtext, reflecting the tropes of buddy cop shows. While Harry deals with the fallout from his runaway veela powers, the B plot revolves around a serial kidnapping case. Despite the crackfic elements and witty dialogue, the story has its serious moments; Harry and Draco are both angry young men, damaged by the war.

Reactions/Reviews

I don’t like reccing WIPs. I don’t even like reading WIPs. But parlophone has been ironing my ears about this fic, and I caved. I don’t think a new WIP by Maya needs any recs — see the number of comments and assume that most readers interested in H/D already follow it or know about it — but I’m really enjoying it, so — reccing. It’s funny and even cracky in places, and when not outright funny, it’s amusing. It’s a Veela….. Harry fic! Draco Malfoy is Harry’s Auror partner and one of the few people immune to Harry’s super Veela charms. It all reads plausibly. Well, often crack-plausible, but still persuasive. Harry is besotted with Malfoy. Malfoy is head over heels for Katie Bell — believably too. Former Gryffindors and Slytherins are tangled into various relationships. If you are familiar with Maya’s writing, you know that however light and funny, it can’t be all giggles. There’s place for angsty and moving things too, and the further in the richer the story becomes. I love Draco in this fic: Malfoy, though he hid it well what with all his oceans of steely hatred whenever he thought you didn’t like him, was a soft touch as soon as he thought you did. Who really would have thought that Draco cooing over some chit could be so charming and heart-warming? All in all, I find it truly delightful. Hope the ending doesn’t disappoint."[2]

Fan Response

Drop Dead Gorgeous was very popular among H/D fans. Each installment received pages of positive comments, and the story has been rec'd all over LiveJournal. It has also spawned fanart, fanfic, podfic, and an LJ community (now locked).

Elsie collected a list of fanworks inspired by Drop Dead Gorgeous.[3] A small sampling of the extensive artwork is in the gallery below.

Art:

Other

Gallery of Art Inspired By DDG

  • Drawing by jad who writes: "..in the fic, Draco tends to fall asleep on stakeouts, etc, with his head on Harry's shoulder and makes little cooing noises. Which is totally adorable. So here are the two, sitting in the car, Draco using a stuffed-up cloak or something as a pillow."

  • Cartoony Snape Love by sockwithoutshoe, depicting a scene in Harry's imagination

  • The artist raitala writes: "This is an illustration to the beautiful scene at the end of Chapter 7: "Malfoy laughed again, still holding his wand in one hand, and Harry reached out and took hold of his wrist. Malfoy wasn’t trembling now, just laughing shakily with his eyes shut. He didn’t pull away and they sat there, four minutes after an attempt on their lives, sitting on old practice mats under fluorescent lights and in rumpled Muggle suits. Harry held on." It is dedicated to Maya, with thanks for her wonderful stories.

  • The artist EntropyIncarnate quotes: "“I have to go,” he said a little more firmly, and his eyes caught on Harry’s and stilled. In the one sure, graceful movement, the one movement like him that he'd made since Harry came back to the flat, he threw the bag down by the door. “But – I’ll come back,” Malfoy said, soft, and then there was nothing but the door closing behind him."

Notes

  1. ^ In other fanfic meta, Draco's description of Harry's veela attributes as "veela sparkles" may be a reference to the fannish usage of Sparkly.
  2. ^ painless_j at Know it Alls. Drop Dead Gorgeous Rec dated Jan 26, 2007.
  3. ^ Elsie's List.
  4. ^ also posted at Audiofic Archive
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