Draco Dormiens

Fanfiction
Title:	Draco Dormiens
Author(s):	Cassandra Claire
Date(s):	July–September 2000
Length:	11 chapters; 70,314 words
Genre(s):	action/adventure, het romance
Fandom(s):	Harry Potter
Relationship(s):
External Links:	Cover art by Taylor.
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Draco Dormiens is the first novel of Cassandra Claire's The Draco Trilogy.

See The Cassandra Claire Plagiarism Debacle.

Trilogy

• Draco Dormiens
• Draco Sinister
• Draco Veritas

Summaries

Author's summary: "When an accident in Potions class turns Harry into Draco and Draco into Harry, each is trapped playing the part of the other. Romance, mistaken identities, Really Cunning Plans, evil bake sales, a love triangle, and snogs galore."

Summary at ParadigmOfUncertainty (mailing list): "When an accident in Potions class turns Harry into Draco and Draco into Harry, each is trapped playing the part of the other. Romance, mistaken identities, Really Cunning Plans, evil bake sales, a love triangle, and snogs galore."

Background

Draco Dormiens was posted serially to FanFiction.Net starting in August 2000. It was Claire's first fanfic and was not originally intended to be part of a series. In a 2005 interview, Claire recounted:

"I wrote quite a bit of Draco Dormiens before I ever posted it -- it was a gift for a friend of mine, who asked me to write her a short story about Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter. I did. She told me it was fanfiction and I ought to post it to ff.net - so I did. [...] I was very inspired by the fan feedback once I started posting Draco Dormiens, so I think that probably had something to do with my excitement about finishing the story. It felt like a really fun communal experience, with people weighing in about plot points and romantic outcomes."

Genre

From a December 2000 conversation on HP4GU:

[Ebony wrote]: Cassie classified her Draco Dormiens series as romance.... but it's more romantic comedy, and DS would be action/adventure also IMO.

[Cassie wrote]: Yes... I had a hard time deciding how to classify DD, since it was meant to be humor primarily, then romance and mystery, but I finally classed it as romance so as to avoid the rage of those how hate seeing *any* romance in their HP fics -- I figured they might as well be warned. I also agree about DS being action/adventure and have changed its categorization on ff.net to reflect that. (If only they had a romantic comedy adventure category, but alas...)

[Ebony wrote]: I've seen a few knock these ladies and other popular writers in the fandom for the "shippiness" (I tend to think it is sour grapes... if I don't like something I just don't recommend it, instead of going around ranting).

[Cassie wrote]: Thanks Ebony. <g> Hey, I'm happy just to be insulted in the same category as Lori, Penny, and Carole. But it's nice to be defended. I guess I have two Patronuses [sic] now, a Heidi-shaped one and and Ebony-shaped one....

Endnotes

Um, somebody asked me if I got the idea of "Magids" from Paradigm of Uncertainty, which has something similar..?. Well, I have never read Paradigm, and in fact I got the idea from a Diana Wynne Jones book called Deep Secret. So, sorry to the author of Paradigm…no offense intended.

Works Inspired by DD

Fan Art

• List of DD-inspired fan art at the The Draco Trilogy Archives (as archived by the Wayback Machine in April 2008)
• deviantArt search for Draco Dormiens. (Static snapshots of the search results can be seen here, here, and here, taken April 29, 2023)

Comments by MsScribe: "My Dumb Ass Letter To Cassandra Claire"

An early encounter between MsScribe and Cassandra Claire:

My Dumb Ass Letter To Cassandra Claire

This is what I wrote when I was trying to read Draco Dormiens. I think I was the only person in Harry Potter fandom who hadn't read that fic. This letter made my husband spout milk from his nose so here it is...

Dear Cass,

I'm keeping my promise to review Draco Dormiens for you, and when I started reading yesterday morning, I even took notes so I could leave the most thoughtful, insightful, and thorough review you have ever gotten.

Well...shit happens.

I told my hubby I needed some time to myself, so I could read your fan fiction. I understand it's required reading in Harry Potter Fanon, and frankly I was becoming a little embarrassed by not being able to talk intelligently about it. So he said he'd watch the baby so I could read and give a nice polished review.

Right.

10:26 am - I have only just begun reading, and I'm at the part where Draco has stepped on Seamus Finnigan's toes, and I'm thinking to myself, thank God this chick has a rabid sense of humor when my neighbor knocks on my door to ask for a favor. He wants me to watch his pet dachshund aptly named "Hannibal" because they have to go out of town on an emergency. Let me tell you how much I hate this little dog, Cass. It looks like a mad scientist crossed a deer and a rat to create this ugly little booger, but I can't very well say no can I?

11:30 am - I'm really enjoying your characterization of Draco at this point. The little git has just finished saying how much Harry needs a haircut and he actually seems REAL and I'm so happy that he isn't running around all evil like, biting the heads off of live babies that I can't wait to continue, which I would have right away...if I hadn't heard my husband screaming, and then my toddler laughing her head off. That's rarely good. So I pry myself away from the computer and go into the living room to find that she has dumped her bowl of macaroni and cheese on her father's lap, squealing away and clapping her hands together 'yay!' and he looks at me, obviously in need of help.

2:15 pm - I make a note while reading that if I had been one of the unfortunate souls who was reading this while you were writing it, left to deal with your evil little cliffhangers, I would have been one pissed off fan girl. I'm now at the spot where the woman in the portrait at Malfoy Manor is going "MASTER LUCIUS! MASTER LUCIUS!" and I'm laughing out loud because it reads like a scene from "Gone with the Wind" and my husband comes in and tells me that the damn dog is nowhere to be found.

Shit. My neighbors paid a fortune for that little bitch. But we haven't been anywhere all day so at least we know Hannibal is somewhere in the house. I decide not to worry about it and keep reading.

3:37 pm - I'm REALLY into this fic now. And I've just gotten finished reading the part where Harry is pissed off at Hermione for snogging Draco senseless in the wardrobe. Let me say that I also like your characterization of Harry. I'm so sick of Harry being made to look like Jesus in every other fanfic. "And Harry so loved the fucking world..."

4:00 pm - Nature calls and I have to pee. I start thinking about how I'm going to tell you how wonderful this fic is without sounding like a giddy fangirl. Then I go into the bathroom, and have a seat. That's when I get this odd feeling that I'm being watched. I look over in the corner and…well…lets just say it's a good thing I was already sitting on the damn toilet. Hannibal is staring at me with an evil grin across its little rat face.

Hello Clarice…

Fuck! So I throw the toilet roll at it and the little bitch just sits there smirking. Well, I don't know how I managed to do it but I take care of business and then scoop up the dog. I take it downstairs to my husband and daughter who is holding her hands out and yelling 'Puppy!' and I give it to her. Yep. I handed the little rat dog to my toddler, who I felt fairly certain would torture it for a few hours (ducks flames from PETA people).

Whose the bitch now ratdog?

4:23 pm - Sorry, back to your review. "Sirius," she said firmly. "Enough with the free-association. Please speak English." See Cass, its lines like these that make people pee in their pants. You are one clever, clever chick. You really brought these characters to life for me. Most people leave their characters very one-sided, but you didn't bring us demi-god!Harry or bloodthirsty!Draco or supersmart!Hermione. You brought us REAL people.

5:00pm - No distractions. I finally reach the end, and I can't believe it took me that long to read it.

Final Review: I loved it. Adored it. Funniest thing I've read in a long time. Witty, well written, not overly complicated, and clever. (I can just see you falling over your keyboard from the originality of that last sentence) So I'll read the other two one day, when the hubby is out of town, the baby is at grandmas and the goddamn ratdog is at home, where she belongs.

Later,

Dionne

Reviews

I love reading Fan Fiction, and was looking for a good Harry Potter one, and came across this one. Everyone called it "THE Harry Potter Fan Fiction". And they were right. It was like reading something J.K. Rowling had written herself! [...] The story revolves around Harry and Draco, which are stuck in each other's bodies as a result of a Polyjuice Spell gone wrong. They have to play the role of the other, so as not to raise suspicion. Like this, they both get to see what it's like to be the other. Draco, who's always envied Harry thinking his life was great, whereas his was not, finds that this is not the case. Harry, who's always hated Draco, and thought he was the most evil of students at Hogwarts, discovers that Draco actually has a heart. This piece of Fan Fiction is written in novel-length, at 207 pages. A warning: It includes the Harry/Hermione pairing, and while I'm a big Harry/Ginny - Hermione/Ron fan, I have to say, this is so well written, that I love this couple way too much! It also plays with the Draco/Hermione pairing, and we all know that this isn't too far off the actual books. One thing that makes this so amazing, and loved in the HP fandom, is, I think, the completely accurate characterisation of J.K. Rowling's characters. Yes, the pairings are changed but, the characters remain the same. Draco is still too full of himself, Harry pushes everyone whom he loves away in fear they might end up dead, Hermione is the brightest young witch of them all, and Ron... he's Ron. Only, he isn't in love with Hermione. The ending of Draco Dormiens leaves you wanting to read the sequel right away!

I just read "Draco Dormiens" and was surprised by Draco's characterization. For some reason, I thought Fanon!Draco had more to do with his characterization in Marysia's "The Marks We Bear." I mean, he doesn't appear to have any emotional problems, and he's genuinely confident. I suppose there are a lot of versions of fanon!Draco: abused!Draco, confused!Draco, snarky-but-not-evil!Draco, leatherpants!Draco, etc. Do you know if he tends to be more self-assured in sympathetic het fics?

Definitely the best Harry Potter fanfiction I've ever had the chance of reading! Thinking back, I must've read this at the time that Claire has already started on the second book of this now famous trilogy. Her work is what got me a tad more obsessive about Harry Potter than a person normally has the right to be. [...] Before you begin to get utterly confused, please remember that Claire's story takes a rather unusual turn as the students enter year five of their Hogwarts education, so this trilogy's definitely an AU (Alternate Universe). [...] For those who thought they really knew the family relationship of the Malfoys, think again. Here you'll glimpse the story of Narcissa's past and of why she married and stayed with Lucius after all this time. Does Sirius have feelings for Narcissa and vice versa? And what is an Epicyclical Charm; why must it be protected at all costs? Why is it that only Harry and Draco are the ones who can touch a sword that once belonged to Salazar Slytherin? Who are the Magids in this tale? [...] Throughout the three stories, the reader will discover that there is more than a physical connection between the two boys. Inasmuch as Harry is connected to Voldemort through his scar, he is now connected to Draco via the failed Polyjuice Potion. For the first time in his life, Draco finds what it is like to be loved as a friend and as a brother. Risking their lives for each other in the quest to destroy Lord Voldemort and Salazar Slytherin, they become dependant on each other.