Running on Air
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| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Running on Air |
| Author(s): | eleventy7 |
| Date(s): | 30 September 2014 – 25 December 2014 |
| Length: | 74,880 |
| Genre(s): | Mystery, Drama, Romance, Slow Burn |
| Fandom(s): | Harry Potter |
| Relationship(s): | Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter |
| External Links: | Running on Air, Archived version on AO3 |
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Running on Air is a Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter fanfic by eleventy7 originally posted to Archive of Our Own in 2014. As of 2024, it has over a million hits on AO3, and is one of the most kudosed works in the pairing. It is considered a fandom classic by many, for the quality of the writing and storytelling.
Draco Malfoy has been missing for three years. Harry is assigned the cold case and finds himself slowly falling in love with the memories he collects.
Reactions and Reviews
Running on Air is considered a fandom classic by many Drarry fans, and has been recced and reviewed several times.
In particular, fans have praised the story's writing style in creating a tangible sense of place.
It's incredibly slow but is obviously intentionally this way, but I still found myself hooked rather quickly into it. The writing in this story is head and shoulders above almost any other fic (and most modern novels) I've ever read. I constantly found myself rereading sentences and paragraphs or just pausing to take in what I had just read to appreciate how beautiful it was. I can't remember many times I've done that in fics before this. The author has a beautiful, nostalgic writing style that is absolutely perfect for the type of story they're telling. It is a perfect match for this story of self discovery and depression and exploration.
As for the Draco-Harry relationship in this, I think it's beautifully subtle and is exactly the dynamic that this type of story needed. It has none of the tense, lusty interactions between them that are so common, but it works so goddamn well. I never would have thought reading dozens of pages of them driving wordlessly through the British countryside or playing tag in canola fields would have me this enthralled, but here we are.
This is the most literary piece of fanfiction I’ve read so far, and I know of only a few others (À Bon Chat by @oknowkiss and Between the Power Lines by @tackytigerfic) that impart such a strong sense of placedness. Whether the author is familiar with the places they describe from lived experience or from research*, the impression of having been there with the characters never faltered. I could feel the bite of cold and the sting of salt and the prickling tension of the approaching storm. When I think about this story in a few weeks or months, it is bound to evoke the images of green and golden fields rolling past the car window.
But it’s not just the geography. There’s a tangible sense of space: just how far these places are, and at the same time, how terrifyingly close. Like you could drive for days, but it still takes only a few hours to return to London, the black hole you can’t get away from: the inescapable quagmire of routine, expectations, obligations, the stubborn conviction that things can’t change and really shouldn’t, that you don’t have the right to wish for more.
Inspired Works
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
References
- ^ Rocktops. "Need to rave about Running on Air, Archived version". Reddit, 8 Feb 2023. (Accessed 30 December 2024)
- ^ smehur. "A love letter to Running on Air, Archived version". Tumblr, 17 Oct 2024. (Accessed 30 Dec 2024)