Recs: Nothing Left to Leave Behind (The Untamed) | The Mirror of Ecidyrue (HP)

We have two recs that are completely different. The first is sparse and short (5k) and packs so much into those moments. It's The Untamed, a post-canon look at xiyao and a heartbroken Lan Xichen, but it captures how opaque and complicated Jin Guangyao can be. (And I also love LWJ and WWX here, right on the edge of being more to each other, caught in that uncertainty of the end of the show).

I'm maybe not doing it justice, but I really enjoyed it and it's short enough to be worth a read:


Nothing Left to Leave Behind (5361 words) by jjtaylor
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén/Mèng Yáo | Jīn Guāngyáo, Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn
Characters: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī, Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén, Mèng Yáo | Jīn Guāngyáo, Wēn Níng | Wēn Qiónglín
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Grief/Mourning
Summary:

There is yin energy, much of it Jin Guangyao’s. There is pain here, and much of is Lan Xichen’s. There is the energy of Nie Mingjue, like the echo of sad laughter about to turn to sobs.

But nothing here appears to have clawed its way up from the stone.

“I don’t think that’s what happened,” he tells Lan Zhan. They are both still not speaking their fear: that in an attempt to confront his past, Zewu-Jun has raised it from the dead.

---


The second rec is the absolutely opposite of that. It's a HP story where Draco goes back in time to first year, and how that future knowledge changes his choices which then changes his friendships which then changes who he is. It's a little slow to start but I really got into it, not realising that it's not one longish story, but a series that covers all seven years at Hogwarts. I'm currently up to year 4, and every spare online minute is being absorbed reading this story.

I will say there are a few phrases and word choices that feel a bit too modern to me for Draco's POV, but that's a very minor niggle in a series that's kept me reading every night for a week. (Reading to a reasonable bedtime, yes, but I usually lose focus and patience with longer stories -- so I really am enjoying this.)

This is the link to the first story, the whole series is 7 works and 1M words.


Draco Malfoy and the Mirror of Ecidyrue (90081 words) by starbrigid
Chapters: 18/18
Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy & Severus Snape, Hermione Granger & Draco Malfoy
Characters: Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Severus Snape, Lucius Malfoy, Dobby (Harry Potter)
Additional Tags: Time Travel, Slow Burn, Hermione Granger & Draco Malfoy Friendship, Fluff and Angst, Snarky Draco Malfoy, Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slightly unreliable narrator, Character Study
Series: Part 1 of The Mirror of Ecidyrue
Summary:

All it takes is one look in a mirror and an ill-advised attempt to shatter it, before an embittered Draco Malfoy fresh out of Azkaban is sent back into his body on the day he gets his Hogwarts letter.

Suddenly, Draco has an unwanted second chance, with a Sorting Hat that doesn't know what to do with him, a certain Muggleborn who won't leave his study table alone, and green eyes he just can't get out of his head. And then there's his new wand, whose choice of him could just mark him as every bit as dark a wizard as his name means he should be.