Dramione and the Power of Fanfiction: When Fandom Outgrows the Original IP
- Jacqueline Sahlin
- Oct 22, 2025
- 8 min read
Updated: Jan 23
The Evolution of Fanfiction from Secret Hobby to Publishing Powerhouse
Twenty years ago, the word “fanfiction” or “fanfics” was not in the lexicon of common media. Those of us who were around and reading fanfiction in the early 2000s were quiet about it, discreet. Flat out secretive. Like anime, it wasn’t something people talked about, and if they did, they were shamed for it.
Luckily, times have changed, and the public awareness surrounding fanfiction has grown thanks to the increasing number of published novels that started out on platforms like Wattpad and Archive of Our Own (AO3). Icons in the publishing world, from Cassandra Clare to Ali Hazelwood, first gained a following through their own fanfiction writings prior to becoming traditionally published authors.
This year, however, the conversation around fanfiction felt different. It was possibly even the loudest topic of conversation among the book community. In many ways, the topic was manufactured by publishers who intentionally advertised upcoming traditionally published books as adaptations of popular fanfics.
Even more sensational?
The books in question were renowned Dramione fanfics. And the publishers waved that flag proudly.
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What Is Dramione and Why Does It Matter?
If you’re unfamiliar with the “ship” world, that’s when fans prefer their media to focus on a specific relationship or pairing. This is true in fiction and fanfiction as it is true for TV shows and movies. To ship something is to prefer that relationship. So to ship Dramione is to prefer to consume Draco Malfoy & Hermione Granger media from the Harry Potter universe.
Now to be clear, a ship isn’t exclusive to Harry Potter. Amy has shipped Spuffy (Spike and Buffy from the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Reylo (Rey and Kylo Ren from the latest Star Wars movie trilogy) since the dawn of those characters. Ships exist in every fandom. It just so happens that Dramione is one of those ships that has enter the public group chat.
While Harry Potter fanfiction and its community have existed for decades at this point, Dramione is currently one of its most popular romantic pairings. For anyone not familiar with this particular ship, they might not understand the appeal.
But if you’ve ever been a fan of enemies-to-lovers, rivals-to-lovers, the journey from hate to love, reform, redemption, tragedy, pinning, or any of the writing tropes associated with the ship, then you may eventually come around if you just find the right gateway fanfiction to hook you.
From AO3 to Bookstore Shelves — Dramione Adaptations Go Mainstream
For those of us who consume fanfics like some kind of unsatiated beast, it’s likely you’re like me and you happened to stumble upon Dramione and never left.
From hate to love, years of yearning never recognized, and honestly some of the best redemption arcs you’ll ever read, Dramione, for better or worse, is a community that is here to stay for the foreseeable future. (Even Amy was reading Dramione back in 2004!)
So, it came as no surprise when three of the most popular Dramione fanfics signed on to be adapted for traditional publishing. To make the great crossing like their predecessors The Love Hypothesis and Fifty Shades of Grey had once done.
Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love: with roughly 4.8 million hits on Archive of Our Own, this romcom was adapted and then traditionally published as The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley.
The Auction: the 7th most-viewed fanfiction in the entire Harry Potter fandom as recently as 2022, was recently adapted and traditionally published as Rose in Chains by Julie Soto.
Manacled: This phenomenon was once the second most-read work on the entire AO3 site. With over 16 million individual downloads, it came as no surprise when it was picked up for traditional publishing and adapted into Alchemized by SenLinYu.
Like their adaptations, each of the original fanfics contained significantly disparate tropes and elements. Yet all three fall under the singular category of Dramione. Like the publishers, people not within the fanfcition community would naturally group these three together out of ignorance. But the choice to market these trio of books as Dramione fanfics that anyone can read and love is a sentiment that is not only painfully untrue, but misleading to the general populous.
Let me elaborate.
Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Bring in Love is a lighthearted romcom / buddy cop that no one knew they needed. In this story, Draco is a charming, reformed Death Eater who falls helplessly for Hermione.
The Auction begins in a post-war wizarding world where Voldemort is victorious and his soldiers are all given an opportunity to buy prisoners of war in an auction. The Draco of this story has harbored a long burning love for Hermione and will do anything to protect her, while Hermione does what she needs to join the rebellion.
Manacled was by far the most fascinating of the three. Not because it was more of my preference, but rather it was a fanfic of two IPs: Harry Potter and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. This dark story is over 370k words and broken down to three parts, each more tragic as the last. Draco and Hermione are just as much prisoners of their own lives as they are of the bond they eventually build with one another.
I think you’d agree that these three stories – and thereby their adaptations – are worlds apart in terms of what they’re trying to achieve and therefore the audience to which they would appeal.
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When Fanfiction Canon Becomes Stronger Than the Original
Within any fandom or ship community, there are truths that are understood. For example, Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott are two characters in Harry Potter who are only referenced briefly throughout the original series by J. K. Rowling. However, in the fanfiction community, each has become unequivocally Draco Malfoy’s best friends (take that, Crabbe and Goyle).
Among some sections of the community, it’s known that Blaise is a more serious character with mommy issues while Theo is a relaxed, sexually promiscuous character with an abusive father. That might not be universally true across all fanfics ever written, but nobody’s surprised when they see it.
A similar sentiment has developed with Draco’s mother, Narcissa Malfoy. She will either be a die-hard supporter of Draco’s relationship with Hermione playing opposite to her more hateful husband, or both parents are at odds with their son. These are our community’s truths.
What I think is most important to observe is that these developments take place outside of the original IP. J. K. Rowling may have given them names, but we as a community gave them life.
So when the fandom has spent more years, words, and stories with these characters than the original author, when the fandom has poured more time, effort and love shaping them into something new, can they even be considered part or the original IP anymore?
The Ethics of Supporting Adapted Fanfiction
Another truth was the range of backlash that these books received, none as much as Julie Soto.When Rose in Chains was published earlier this year, fanfiction entered the public conversation again, but this time with more uproar than usual.
In particular, the discussion surrounded the reading, writing, and adaptation of fanfiction, and how supporting the IP supports J. K. Rowling. The prominence of the topic is due to Rowling herself, who has made her anti-trans views widely and publicly known, including the funding of anti-trans organizations. Notably, a U.K. Supreme Court ruled that trans women should not be considered women this year. While many lamented the elimination years of progress for trans rights, Rowling decided to post an image that allegedly showed her support of the ruling.
It is no secret that JK Rowling will not find a friend here on SSJ or in me. I am a passionate ally of the LGBTQ community and am horrified with how the author who wrote the most formulating books of my childhood could end up being this level of hateful.
Naturally, I can understand the concern that readers might have about supporting J. K. Rowling or her pocketbook. This is not a woman who should be supported in any way.
But does reading fanfiction and buying books that were originally Dramione fanfics support her?
The simple, financial answer is a resounding no.
Fanfictions are labors of love, and so the output is completely free to the consumer and its author benefits nothing except notoriety and fandom love. And because of IP laws, when a fanfiction is adapted, the authors take the story they wrote and apply new characters and a new universe to the story so that it is completely removed from the Harry Potter IP. We’ve spoken to Thea Guanzon about her fanfiction turned traditionally published trilogy, and she made it very clear how much new work goes into adapting a fanfiction. So while it may have similar structure, it’s a completely new book and therefore a new intense writing process. They may as well have started from scratch.
So let’s look at the broader question. Does anything that has to do with the original Harry Potter IP support J. K. Rowling? And are we okay with that?
Fandom as Rebellion — Reclaiming the Narrative
I can absolutely see where people are coming from when they say that we should not support or promote Harry Potter. The marketing behind the books by Soto, Knightley, and SenLinYu was definitely a miss on the part of the publishers. But that’s not because it promotes Harry Potter, but because it undermines the talent that these three individuals brought to the publishing world that goes beyond an IP that was formative for a whole generation of people.
At the end of the day, what I think is the most important is the fact that the publication of these books supports two female authors and a non-binary, BIPOC author. These incredible authors were able to take a creation of love and labored over it all over again so that they could stand all on their own. Once upon a time, like me, these authors may have found comfort the original IP. But now, don’t they deserve to be recognized for their talent, and their talent alone? They’re the ones who did the work to bring us three fantastic novels this year.
To me, the answer is yes. And I will follow the careers of these authors with excitement every step of the way.
When we as a community struggle with the question whether fanfiction, specifically Damione fanfiction, supports JK Rowling, I would ask you to consider this: Rowling hates fanfiction. At one point in her career, she may have been flattered by the idea of it, but she very quickly grew to dislike the pairings that her readers up with (Amy is also a big Drarry fan – Draco and Harry). Some reports have even stated Rowling particularly hates Dramione.
And isn’t that what matters most? Pissing her off.
If so, I hope you’ll join me and a bevy of fans who’ve turned her mini nazi youth Draco Malfoy into the woke king that we the fandom cherish.
Because that is my Draco.
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With an M.A. in Comparative Literature and a B.A. in Creative Writing, Jac Sahlin is a Californian with Chilean roots who once told her mom “my version is better”—and never stopped writing. Now she’s a Romantasy writer, podcaster, and unapologetic lover of smut.
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