Melancholia | Drarry

melancholia: author's note

The idea for Melancholia began on a wintry road trip at the beginning of 2021. I watched the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for the first time, and was swept away by the scenery, the heartbreak, and the sheer talent of Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. I immediately thought of how I could write fanfiction for it, but it seemed like the film had been too perfectly wrapped up to allow anything post-canon. Then I thought of how similar fanon middle-aged Harry was to the character of Joel, and immediately began setting off on a Drarry crossover.

I went pretty much scene by scene with the movie open in another desktop window. But about a quarterways through, I realized that I was just copying the movie. Draco and Harry's characters had been smothered and made one-dimensional by my laziness. I abandoned the project altogether in favor of focusing on my longer fics.

A couple of months later, I decided that going through with this story could prove to be interesting and rewarding. New England Draco Malfoy is definitely something I had been interested in lately, thanks to an Ao3 fic by Theo_Winterwood: When the Police Come to Get Me, I'm Listening to Dance Music. I wanted to take their Maine-based, polyamorous Draco and mix it with snobby canon Draco, the unsure and witty Draco from my own series, Fate's Garden, and create a new Draco altogether.

Melancholia is told chiefly through Harry Potter's perspective, so I had to take Draco Narcissa Malfoy, once a post-preppy femme and now a rainbow-haired, indecisive extraordinaire, and view him through rose-colored glasses. Combine that with the late 2000s small town setting, and the story became a bit of a challenge, at least compared to the southeast Asian, gore-lined Auror quest fic I'd been (and still am!) working on.

The trippy, in-and-out-of-consciousness style was the most fun part about writing this fic. Every chapter, every new scene that took place in Harry's mind was an opportunity to experiment with his backstory, his doubts, and the way his thoughts manifested in a tangible form under the influence of Lockhart's technology.

Of course, I owe most of this story to the movie it's based off of, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. As I mentioned before, it's absolutely spectacular. (Unfortunately, it is, as cultural icons often are, a product of its time, and includes an unironic use of the f-slur by Winslet.) Reading this fic before watching the film will probably lead to a couple of spoilers, but it's a great watch nevertheless.

Finally, I want to thank the readers that stuck with this story until the end. Giving a fic as long as this one a try is always appreciated, and I hope you feel free to check out my other works available here :)

~ M