MetaFic

The main reason people used to be so interested in Blaise Zabini was that for the longest time we were not told whether (s)he was a girl or a boy. Since the character made almost no appearance in the first several books, authors took advantage of what seemed to be a Slytherin girl with whom Harry could have some kind of cordial relationship. When it comes to "good Slytherins", Blaise is often as not the first out of the box.

Yeah I figured that would be the case with Zabini. An unknown Slytherin that authors could latch onto as someone's love interest, or just as a friendly Slytherin. A similar thing with Daphne Greengrass.

But I'm still trying to figure out where the Harry/Draco thing comes from, and why it is so popular?

I dunno. Slash is not my cup of tea. I place it with PWP.

I'll go out on a limb, perhaps sticky from sap, and merely observe from a dry distance:

1) Draco is "handsome" according to every female I've heard speak of the movies
2) Many cannot dissociate Movie-Face from Character-Nature
3) Sheep like happiness, and what can be happier than a redeemed spineless coward?
4) Check age and gender of authors, re-visiting notes 1, 2, and 3 afterward

If you're going to complain, why don't you toss out the SS-HP and the AD-HP and the SS-HP-LM or SS-HP-AD fics as well? (For the record, while I can't be certain any of those actually exist, consider it is on FFnet, it approaches tautology that they collectively must.

My rule of thumb is quite easy to follow. If I don't like something, I stop reading.

Anything else would be like reading the ten-book "story" by L Ron Hubbard, just because you enjoy torturing yourself and ranting at an author for forcing you to read 1M+ words that you hate. It's much simpler to merely walk away after the first chapter in the bookstore than to waste time and money on what will clearly suck.

I think I have come across them all. If they are not on FF.net, they are on The Quidditch Pitch. You can find anything on TQP ...

I don't read them (and I do group those topics you listed together) as the premise just doesn't interest me at all. I was just wondering if anyone had insight into why that one seemed rather popular, or maybe the others are just as popular and I didn't notice. (There seemed to be a rather rush of such HP/DM stories at the moment I was looking.)

Thanks for your insights though.

P.S. Is it possible to get a multi-quote thing setup for this site? I'd of like to include a response to both yours and Kezza's in the same post than having to make two posts.

I agree... :shudder:

...there is a lot of weird stuff on FF.net and TQP.

Never been a major fan of slashes myself with only two exceptions, Mainly Heremione or Luna with Ginny, otherwise its all cannoning to canon from there.

Most of the male slashes one can attribute to the Yaoi fangirls who are probably and read, write and breath the anime equivalents to slash fic. And with Anime, you can find the content without it being made for fans or fan made.

I ought to write a Dom Molly/sub Bellatrix and post it at FF.net just for the hell of it.
Ooh!! I can add Cornelius Fudge as a guest switch.
Or maybe I ought to take my brain out and flush it with bleach before all this occurs.

*hands you the bleach before things get out of hand

I like the fangirl answer that Darkarma gave and suspect that's part of it.

I'm also wondering if putting Harry and Draco together is the slash version of mixing good and bad. On FF.net, my best received story (hits/chapter, reviews/chapter, # alerts, etc) has been my Harry/Daphne story, where I let Harry (mostly good guy) get together with a "perceived bad girl", and I've had numerous people express that's why they started reading it and liked it, and that they look for Harry/bad-girl (Slytherin girl) stories. So if one likes (or doesn't mind) slash, then I guess you end up with Harry/Draco. (To which I say, sorry, slash is not my cup of tea.)

Kevin

The Good Boy X Bad Boy theme may be on to something. One of my one friends into some such things, and offered up a similiar explanations, though she doesn't write Fanfiction. It is along the lines of, Good Character taming Bad Character. Bad Character having their wicked way with good character. Controversy between the two pushes the story forward and adds to the plot momentum. Then again this is based on the view that majority of MaleXMale slash writers are female, I haven't really stumbled onto many that were written by other males. For Yuri/FemSlashes are more male authors but have a few more female authors. IE the gender mix is more balanced with that than said MaleXMale. Though in one its inevitable that you find the other.

Actually she just gave me the perfect example of what I'm trying to explain: 'Haha! I think fangirls have the "AWW THEIR LOVE IS SO HATE" mentality~'' ; "Also they "oh, he's hot-- oh wow, he's hot too-- THEY SHOULD MAKE OUT" mentality, lol."

Once in a while instead of clicking on the book section of FF.net, try clicking Anime and say click Naruto. The numbers are pretty comparable to Harry Potter in terms of fanbase. From there you'll find very similar circumstances only with a higher number of slash incidences.

The belief that only "pretty people" should mate with peers in the physical attractiveness department fail to understand genetics at any level. You'll wind up with incredibly attractive people that become over-exaggerated, until the point of fractured mirror images. At the same time, you're breeding out positive traits like intelligence, cunning, strength, . . . sigh.

Anyway, I assume the same Good x Bad "theory" of operation is behind the Herms-Dracoward series? Or the Ginny-Dracoward? Sounds like since those of us who are male mostly avoid MM slash, someone should start the {Ginny, Hermione, Luna, Susan} x {Pansy, Bella, Narcissa, . . . } genre as a mainstay.

Oh, wait, what am I thinking? They have to exist on FFnet already.

They do, if a bit harder to find. I know yesterday I saw a Lily Evans x Narcissa Malfoy one posted on FF.net.

Okay maybe it is not Draco/Harry...but for real?

There is a whole world of Snarry out there ... *shudders* I read some for the PFW podcast once ... it was interesting - if a little creepy ...

Honestly I wonder about some of the stories people post. I know I read the summary of one story earlier last year that sounded nothing more than a romp through pedophilia. Creepy doesn't even cover some of the stuff out there.

I've heard of some very strange pairings like Oliver/Oliver and Sirius-as-Padfoot/Remus-as-Moony. Besides H/G, I have a weird fascination with Harry/multi, for example The Harem War by Radaslab ( http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5639518/1/ ) that has a lot of wives for Harry....
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"Night falls and I'm running in circles (Whoa-oh-oh)
I'm being chased by my imagination (Whoa-oh-oh)"
Alesana - The Thespian