Best Epic Harry Potter Fanfics
Harry Potter fanfics over 100,000 words — the reader-favorite epics that define the fandom. Curated from AO3 and ranked by kudos.
Top 25 Epic Harry Potter Fanfics
Ranked by AO3 kudos. These are the Harry Potter epics readers come back to. Save them for offline reading.
All the Young Dudes
by MsKingBean89
LONG fic charting the marauders' time at Hogwarts (and beyond) from Remus' PoV - diversion from canon in that Remus's father died and he was raised in a children's home, and is a bit rough around the edges. Otherwise canon-compliant.1971 - 1995This IS a wolfstar fic, but incredibly slow burn. Litera
Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love
by isthisselfcare
Hermione straddles the Muggle and Magical worlds as a medical researcher and Healer about to make a big discovery. Draco is an Auror assigned to protect her from forces unknown – to both of their displeasure.Features hyper-competent, fiery Hermione and lazy, yet dangerous, Draco. Slow burn.
Evitative
by Vichan
In the summer before his fifth year at Hogwarts, Harry is drawn to a room in Grimmauld Place. Like the Gryffindor he is, he enters the room without fear. The room is a library, and Harry is surprised to find that he’s eager to learn.Then he gets the bad news: he’s been accidentally expelled from Hog
Lily's Boy
by SomewheresSword
Before his third year of Hogwarts has even begun, Harry faces three whole weeks of unsupervised time in Diagon Alley. In that time he takes a trip to Gringotts - and that changes everything.Burdened with the knowledge that Dumbledore has been blocking his family magic, and manipulating far more than
Oh God Not Again!
by Sarah1281
So maybe everything didn't work out perfectly for Harry. Still, most of his friends survived, he'd gotten married, and was about to become a father. If only he'd have stayed away from the Veil, he wouldn't have had to go back and do everything AGAIN.
survival is a talent
by ShanaStoryteller
In the middle of their second year, Draco and Harry discover they're soulmates and do their best to keep it a secret from everyone. Their best isn't perfect. ~“Are you trying to get killed, Potter?” Malfoy drawls, stalking forward. Quick as a serpent himself, he reaches out and grabs the snake just
Away Childish Things
by lettered
Harry gets de-aged. Malfoy has to help him.
The Cadence of Part-time Poets
by motswolo
“They’re… chaos,” Remus said firmly. “And chaos is—”“Rock and roll.”He looked at Sirius sharply, and for once, matched his grin. “Yeah.”“Maybe that’s my excuse then,” Sirius said. “I cause a bit of chaos now, and maybe one day, it’ll turn into rock and roll.”After losing his mother at age eleven, Re
All Our Secrets Laid Bare
by firethesound_HP_archive
Over the six years Draco Malfoy has been an Auror, four of his partners have turned up dead. Harry Potter is assigned as his newest partner to investigate just what is going on.
Choices
by MesserMoon
People make mistakes, but they also make choices. It’s important to James, that difference. He does his best not to confuse the two.
Mental
by orphan_account
Harry has had quite enough of sharing his mind with someone else, thankyouverymuch. A miscast Legilimecy spell says otherwise.(Fic from 2010 FF archive being uploaded here.)AND FOR THE LAST FUCKING TIME, STOP REPOSTING THIS ON WATTPAD. I DO NOT WANT IT ON WATTPAD. YOU DO NOT HAVE PERMISSION TO POST
Written on the Heart
by who_la_hoop
Harry doesn’t mind that so many Slytherins from his year have returned to finish their NEWTs, really he doesn’t. It’s just – do they have to be so friendly? He’s not prejudiced, really he’s not. It’s just – they’ve got to be up to something, right? Unnerved by the attention he’s attracting from ever
What We Pretend We Can't See
by gyzym
Seven years out from the war, Harry learns the hard truth of old history: it’s never quite as far behind you as you thought.
Temptation on the Warfront
by alizarincrims0n
Draco Malfoy is forced into hiding with the Golden Trio and dragged into their search for horcruxes. What ensues is a journey of redemption, unexpected friendships and an unwanted, turbulent romance with Harry Potter. Warnings for swearing, sexual content, and dark themes.
Kill Your Darlings
by MesserMoon
Kill Your Darlings: To remove or refrain from using something in spite of one's affection for itYears after Regulus loses his brother they're reunited, and as he struggles to figure out where he fits in Sirius's life he also struggles not to get lost in the impossible feelings he has for Sirius's be
Harry Potter and the Welcome to the World of Grey
by sobsicles
When Harry fails to keep his anger at bay and Voldemort possesses his mind, the events that follow lead him down a long road to realizing the world isn't as black and white as it seems. Chaos, hilarity, and tragedy ensue with a Dark Lord being honest all the time, a rival becoming something else, an
The Debt of Time
by ShayaLonnie
When Hermione finds a way to bring Sirius back from the veil, her actions change the rest of the war. Little does she know her spell restoring him to life provokes magic she doesn't understand and sets her on a path that ends with a Time-Turner.
Way Down We Go
by xiaq
The war was over.Or at least that’s what the papers said.They’d been saying it, for months, as if people needed reminding.Maybe they did.***In which Harry and Draco both run away from their pasts and conveniently choose to hide in the same tiny American town.It's super.
The Ordeal of Being Known
by louisfake
When Auror Potter is anonymously cursed with silence by being forced to hide his own voice inside his mind, there's unfortunately only one person in the country with the qualifications to fix it: Certified and Licensed Healer Legilimens, Draco Malfoy, specialist in Mind Curses and Afflictions. It's
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? (you should be)
by Snoweylily
“No post on Sundays” Uncle Vernon announced happily, “No damn letters today-”Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. The next moment, thirty or forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets.“That does it!” he snapped
A Brother to Basilisks
by Lomonaaeren
AU of PoA. Harry wakes in the night to a voice calling him from somewhere in the castle—and when he follows it, everything changes. Updated every Friday.
Draco Malfoy and the Talon Brand
by starbrigid
A man is dead at Draco Malfoy's hands, and the consequences will reverberate for Sirius, for Harry, for the wizarding world entire, and, most of all, for Voldemort. It is not so easy, though, to forsake his parents and his old friends in Slytherin, as he is forced to choose what he will become and w
His Darkest Devotion
by Lomonaaeren
Harry Potter has been hiding in plain sight all his life, since he carries the soul-mark of Minister Tom Riddle on his arm—and a fulfilled soul-bond will double both partners’ power. His parents and godfather are fugitives, members of the Order of the Phoenix, and Harry is a junior Ministry official
Turn
by Saras_Girl
One good turn always deserves another. Apparently.
All Life is Yours to Miss
by Saras_Girl
Professor Malfoy's world is contained, controlled, and as solitary as he can make it, but when an act of petty revenge goes horribly awry, he and his trusty six-legged friend are thrown into Hogwarts life at the deep end and must learn to live, love and let go.
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About This List
This list of 25epic Harry Potter fanfics spans 8,982,174 total words. Kudos range from 21,479 on the newest entries to 314,072 on the most established. Nearly all (92%) are complete, so you can start any of them without WIP anxiety. The most common rating is Explicit (11 of 25 fics).
Recurring tags across this list: Slow Burn · Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence · Marauders · wolfstar · Time Travel.
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