Some of my absolute favorite fics with mentor/godfather/portrait/general nuisance Snape.

I appreciate all your votes and comments so much!

10k-49k

Teens and Up

Title: Harry and Draco Break Hogwarts

By: dylanpidge
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14112672/chapters/32517231
Rating: Teens and Up
Author Summary: What would you do to alleviate your boredom? Harry and Draco are willing to form a pretend romantic relationship to cause utter chaos throughout the castle. McGonagall can only count down the days until graduation. And of course, this wouldn't be a real fake relationship story if the two didn't fall in love along the way.
* Russian translation available.

Tag List: Hogwarts 8th year, EWE, part of a (short) series, 19k

Commentary: (Recced in a previous chapter) this might qualify as a crackfic (though I'm not a huge fan of that term) but it's cute and funny. Poor McGonagall, having to put up with our boys.

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Explicit

Title: 101 Ways to Heal Your Wizarding Woes (Or, an Unfortunate Incident with a Traffic Cone and a Policeman's Helmet)

⚯͛ By: who_la_hoop
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/41103
Rating: Explicit
Author Summary: Harry is a trainee Auror, and Draco is living at Malfoy Manor, bored and petulant with nothing to do, and no career prospects. Draco's attempt to heal himself via Muggle psychology – including writing a series of 'why I hate you' letters to Harry – backfires when an overanxious house elf delivers the results to Harry. Harry is bemused, Draco is angry and together they have a lot of issues to work out.

Tag List: Post-Hogwarts, EWE, Auror trainee Harry Potter, Auror trainee Ronald Weasley, humor, letters, 26k

Commentary: this fic is funny. Draco's first letter consists of only the words, "you suck," and it just devolves from there. Snape is tutoring Draco for his potion's NEWT "out of the pure goodness of [his] heart." He takes every opportunity to make fun of Draco for his Harry-related obsessiveness, of course.
Excerpt: Harry glared at the scroll before shoving it in a box beside his bed. "Evidence in case I murder him later, and need to demonstrate provocation," he said, when Ron gave him a funny look.

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Title: Slice of Life

⚯͛ By: Writcraft, phoenixacid
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16540694
Rating: Explicit
Author Summary: Luna and Ginny are worried about Harry, Greg is a very a fine baker, Snape's portrait has a lot of opinions and Draco Malfoy is (probably) up to something.
In which one man's love for jam tarts blossoms into a different kind of love entirely.

Tag List: Post-Hogwarts, EWE, Ginny/Luna, Pining, getting together, 16k

Commentary: because it's a pheonixacid and writcraft duo fic, you're getting two for the price of one (great art and a great story). This is one of my favorites of Writcraft's.
Harry is single and bitter about it. Draco keeps showing up at his house to talk to portrait Snape. Luna is trying to convince Harry to pose naked for a Save the Animals calendar. And Snape is Snape, in his best, most fanon-y form, insinuating that there's something going on between Draco and Harry (or will be, very soon). They admittedly had a bit of a ~thing~ in the past, where they hooked up once, and neither can seem to forget about it.
The story is told in past and present, divided pretty evenly among the two, and it's just wonderful.
Warnings: There are a few flashbacks to Harry's younger years and they're hard for me to get through, personally. The worst is the first, which is focused on the neglect Harry suffered in his childhood. He gets older from there, and they get less upsetting.

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Over 50k

Teens and Up

𐂂 Title: Eclipse

By: mijan
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/327164/chapters/527529
Rating: Teens and Up
Author Summary: "You're dead, Potter... I'm going to make you pay..."
Draco swore his revenge on Harry for Lucius's imprisonment, and Harry all but laughed at him. But Draco is planning more than schoolyard pranks this time. The old rivalry turns deadly when Draco abducts Harry for Voldemort. It's the perfect plan, guaranteeing revenge, power, and prestige, all in one blow. But when Draco's world turns upside down, the fight to save himself and Harry begins, and the battle will take them both through hell and back. If they come back.

Tag List: Hogwarts Era, EWE, Hogwarts Sixth Year, adventure, travel, dark magic, death eaters, Draco redemption arc, 287k

Commentary: Wow, do I love this fic. It's the standard against which I measure all fics. I don't want to spoil it for you, but I do want you to know more about it, so I guess I'll have to give away some. It's got a lot of traveling, Harry and Draco trying to make their way back to Hogwarts safely from Malfoy Manor (which they snuck out of), and their bonding during the journey, which is just so so well done. They are constantly trying to evade capture by the death eaters (including Draco's own father, of course), which just adds to the tension. They have to stay close to each other so that the magical contraption they're using to make sure Voldemort can't locate them doesn't fail, and they can't use portkey or apparition or whatever because that would give them away, so they've basically only got each other, and it is glorious. It's basically forced proximity, without the walls around them, and they learn so much from each other, and work together so well.
I'll warn that the fic leaves you wanting more in terms of their actual getting-together (not in an entirely bad way nor good one), but it's an absolutely gorgeous story in full, and their friendship is amazing. You should read it right now. Go. The word count shocked me—I promise they whizz right by.

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Mature

Title: Draco's Boy

By: emphatic siren
Link to FFN: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/2721089/1/Draco-s-Boy
Rating: Mature
Author Summary: A mysterious little boy named Harry moves in next door to Draco Malfoy, and he's determined to make him his friend and learn all of his secrets. Years later, he's determined to make Harry more than a friend.

Tag List: Hogwarts Era (ish) and before, non-magic AU, non-canon-compliant, growing up together, childhood best friends, angst, romance, lots of OOC but it's great, 186k

Commentary: this is an absolute classic, full send. Draco and Harry growing up together is wonderful, and you get plenty of content there, and then the time skip to them being older, and all the distance between them? Marvellous. Narcissa holds a lot of guilt about what happened to Harry re: child abuse, obviously, which is an interesting dynamic, because she cared about him a lot watching him grow up before they moved away. Snape is still Draco's godfather, and he's one of the first people Harry is willing to trust again.
Draco convinces older Harry (14ish, I think?) to go with him to Hogwarts, which is like a prep school, when he sees how badly he's been treated all these years. Eventually, Harry agrees.
Some other fun stuff I loved (minor spoilers):
Draco having dated a girl that looks exactly like Harry trope
Harry working at a garden centre
Draco pampered rich boy (but not super rude, even at the beginning).
The childhood stuff is not told in flashbacks because the entire fic occurs chronologically! I like flashbacks just fine, but it is the nature of a flashback fic to skip a lot of important bits and only give you the highlights so you can focus on the present. Here, the childhood part is written in exactly the same way as the present day stuff, giving you plenty of detail and full scenes + storylines.

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𐂂 Title: Tissue of silver

By: fearlessdiva
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/892956/chapters/1723547
Rating: Mature
Author Summary: A love story concerning possessed furniture, black silk pyjamas, courtroom drama, premonitions of doom, assassination attempts, Death Eater yoga, absinthe, bare feet and a sensible werewolf. Beware: coarse language, brief drug use, some sexual content, and consideration of issues of sexual consent.

Tag List: Post-Hogwarts, EWE, non-canon-compliant, Auror Harry Potter, Guardian fic, 76k

Commentary: it took a little while for me to love this fic but, once I did, I was all in. And I knew I'd keep thinking about it for a while, which I did. Draco is a Seer in this, and Harry is in charge of keeping him alive, because Draco is pretty sure he's about to die. And he's usually right. Like, spy-for-the-order-back-in-the-day kind of right. Snape is a mentor figure, and he and Draco exchange letters where Draco panics and Severus soothes, and both of them get entirely too frustrated with one another. It's lovely.

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Explicit

𐂂 Title: Draco Malfoy and the Year When Everyone Suddenly Paid Attention to Him

By: DracoWillHearAboutThis
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19998850/chapters/47350876
Rating: Explicit
Author Summary: By the start of his sixth year at Hogwarts, Draco had sort of gotten used to slipping under the radar of his fellow students. It was a natural side-effect of being a member of the closest circle of The Boy Who Lived, newly dubbed The Chosen One. So it was a bit of an understatement to say that he was surprised to have eyes following him down the corridors now, especially when one of those pairs was familiar and piercingly green.

Tag List: Hogwarts era, non-canon-compliant (kinda), Time Travel, Series Retold, POV Draco Malfoy, Canonical Character Death, Friends to Lovers, Jealousy, First Kisses, 70k

Commentary: if you haven't read the Do it All Over Again series, you're missing out. Young Draco gets a letter from old Draco that tells him to try harder to be Harry's friend, and he does, and it works, so Draco officially joins the golden trio. And then you get one fic for each book in the series detailing what's different, and this one is where finally Drarry starts to happen (after a long, gruelling (enjoyable) series of fics featuring them as best friends. You know, the kind of best friends who are obsessed with each other and only want to make the other happy and are the only ones that can cheer each other up. That kind of "friend.").

Excerpt from the letter featured in the first fic: Befriend Harry Potter. You will meet him today at Madam Malkin's, and I want you to make sure you end up on his good side. Don't insult his friends, even if you feel the need to. Be polite, and in no way condescending. He doesn't know much about our world, and if you play our cards right, you can be the one to show him the way around. If you blow it, like I did, he will hate you, and the consequences of that will go much farther than you can understand now. Be his friend. You will need him someday.
Furthermore - and this is just as important as becoming Harry Potter's friend - don't believe everything Father tells you, and don't make any decisions simply because you wish to please him. The ideals he is pursuing will be the ruin of this family, not only because they are wrong and bigoted, but because it will put you on the wrong side of a crucial conflict. Purebloods are no better than Half-Bloods, or even Muggleborns. Such a thing as 'Blood traitors' does not exist. Do not stick to these false prejudices.
The Dark Side will not be the one who wins. Strive towards the light. Go to Hogwarts, make the right friends and stick to them.

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Title: Incurable

By: Warholhp
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8184169/chapters/18750502
Rating: Explicit
Author Summary: Non-Magic AU. Harry Potter was not sent to Hogwarts at age 11 as his parents intended. Instead, when an altercation with his uncle turns violent, he is sent to St. Brutus's Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys. But four years later, he has the opportunity to attend Hogwarts, where he learns to live a life he never thought possible for himself. H/D and a bit of mentor-Snape

Tag List: Angst, Alternate Universe, First Time, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Muggle AU, Draco being obvious, Harry playing football, Scholarship student Hermione, internalised homophobia (kinda), 119k

Commentary: This one is a really fantastic Muggle AU that still fits in all of the elements of the original stories that we loved. Because Harry had to wait longer to get to Hogwarts, though, he's a very different person. He's changed a lot due to the very serious physical abuse he's suffered from Uncle Vernon, the other boys at St. Brutus's, and the St. Brutus's staff. It takes him a long time to process that even though the people at Hogwarts might not like him (Snape being our starring example, initially), they aren't going to use corporal punishment or beat him up, either.
Harry and Hermione's friendship in this is really beautiful, because it's so different from what we're used to seeing. Remember, a Hermione who never met Harry and was never saved from a troll by him and Ron doesn't have many friends. So, she's going through her own stuff, but she also really wants to make Harry feel at home. They bond, it's awesome, and then Ron and Harry start to get friendly too, because they're both on the football team (I mean non-American football, aka soccer, I hope that's clear), and Draco can't stop staring at Harry, but Harry's been told by so many people at this point how wrong homosexuality is that he has a lot to work through before he's willing to approach any sort of relationship.
Warnings: descriptions of past abuse

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𐂂🥇Title: Azoth

By: Zeitgeistic
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1049966/chapters/2100285
Rating: Explicit
Author Summary: Now that Harry is back at Hogwarts with Hermione for eighth year, he realises that something's missing from his life, and it either has to do with Ron, his boggart, Snape, or Malfoy. Furthermore, what, exactly, does it mean when one's life is defined by the desire to simultaneously impress and annoy a portrait? Harry has no idea; he's too busy trying not to be in love with Malfoy to care.

Tag List: Hogwarts 8th year, EWE, Magic Theory, Potions Theory, Quidditch, Mentor (portrait) Snape, Animagus Harry, Pining, 88k

Commentary: (Recced in a previous chapter) Whew. Okay. This fic is perhaps my second favourite of all time. I say that tentatively because, unlike some other fics, it's not one I remember often, but when I do? Wow.
It starts with Harry realising that his boggart and the Mirror of Erised both show him himself. And this really jumpstarts the whole thing. How can your biggest fear and your deepest desire be yourself? Well, anyway, Harry decides he wants to be a Potions Master. And through doing so, he learns so much about himself and who he is turning out to be, bonds with Portrait Snape, and just falls hopelessly head over heels for Draco Malfoy. It's really beautiful. I promise the pages whizz by.

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