[switchknife's slash recommendations]

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...harry/ron...

This shelf stocks the best slash I've managed to find featuring Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. Please note that the stories here are not sorted alphabetically, but rather as per the date I add them. This is for your convenience--so that every time you visit this page, the newest recs will be listed first. Only NC-17 fics have their ratings mentioned. The very best stories have a in front of them. Of course, 'best' is an entirely subjective judgement, and all the stories here are worth reading.

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Enjoy the reading!

-switch

>>in case of broken links>>owl>>switchknife@alexandria.cc

Last updated: 09 August 2004, with 1 new recommendation.
RUNNING TOTAL: 26 recommendations.

'Credulous Hearts' by Sandy Keene
Wonderfully detailed and so very true to Ron. I'm a sucker for subtle post-Hogwarts stories that bring out the most unexpected things about the Harry/Ron pairing, and this is one of them. Ron loses his wife and breaks without knowing it--Harry arrives to put him back together. Absolutely lovely and tender without saying it. Quiet, understated angst and Quidditch. Arguments that aren't arguments, and friends that are really friends. Pairings that take a long time to build. Oh, yes. (Note: Also contains Ron/Luna. Many thanks to SQ for the link!)
Quote: He must have fallen completely apart and not even noticed.

'Close Enough' by Helen, RATED NC-17
THIS IS OUCH BRILLIANT OUCH YOU MUST READ IT READ IT. I know I squee everyday but. Damn it. READ THIS. If I can imagine Harry/Ron in the future, this is how it would be. I can imagine nothing better than this, nothing truer than this, nothing more movinghurtingbeautiful than this. This is a future-fic in which Voldemort is dead but the war isn't over (Is the war ever over? Is any war ever over? Of course not.) and Harry and Ron work for the Ministry and start shagging each other. Those are the facts--but nothing ever stays that simple, does it? Beautiful, painfully honest, and one of those stories I'd include in my 'slash curriculum' if I could teach slash as a subject. I won't tell you if it ends happily or not, because I want your heart to be in your mouth as much as my heart was in mine.
Quote: "Something like," Ron admitted. He knew Harry's body, now, more than he had ever known anyone's, the hollows of his hips, his slightly unbalanced shoulders from broom flight, the way he shivered and turned his face away when Ron kissed the palms of his hands. He looked at Harry when they changed clothes in the locker room, and Harry caught his eyes, more than once, his eyes quiet. Ron had always been good at hope.

'One Week In the Summer' by Mad Martha
A complete Harry/Ron novella that is exactly what it says--a chaptered chronicle of a week in Harry's eighteenth summer, the summer before he leaves home to begin training as an Auror. Sirius is alive here, so this counts as an AU--and Harry's living with him as promised. But can Harry hide the fact that he's in a less-than-platonic relationship with his best friend, Ron? (As in: Can they actually keep their hands off each other?) How long before Sirius finds out? For that matter, how long before Molly finds out? This is a lovely, simply written exploration of the sort of tumultuous week in a person's life in which secrets are either revealed or buried forever, and in which one might gain or lose everything. Mad Martha makes Ron hot, as usual, and she writes Harry's confusion wonderfully. Sirius is characterized brilliantly, all over-eager concern and excitement just barely reigned in by the enlightened Mr Lupin.
Quote: Ron's smile slipped slightly. They had talked about this at length and they were agreed: Neither of them wanted to break the news to their families yet, nor to the wider world. This relationship was new territory for both of them, and the future was far too unpredictable for them to want to go public with it just yet.

'Afternoon / Into the Night' by Schuyler and Amatia, RATED NC-17, THREESOME, VOYEURISM
(Also contains a Harry/Ron/Hermione threesome.) Exquisitely written, almost intolerably hot. Candy-floss fic with a sexy shine. Harry and Ron find out that Hermione's been watching them--but instead of balking, they invite her to the party.
Summary: They weren't in the tower and they certainly weren't in the library, so Hermione was fairly sure she knew where they were. She came into the second floor girls' bathroom more quietly than she needed to, just in case she was wrong, and then heard Ron's voice, harsh and panting. "Oh, Harry." Hermione crept to the sinks and peered at them 'round the other side.

'Contrition' by Breed, RATED NC-17, VIOLENCE, VOYEURISM, VARIOUS SQUICKS
I read this story ages ago, and broke and cried and came all over it, and then I--forgot. To rec it, I mean. Damn me. Well, here I am making up for it. Every once in a while you find a story that rips your heart out and sows it back together with precarious little threads--this is one such story. Breed gives me the badsex I crave combined with angst written so artfully that it isn't angst, merely metal-grey syntax and sweat and minimalism. One of the best fics I've come across, and certainly one of the best depictions of Ron. (I'd say more, but I don't want to give away plot details.)
Summary: Gryffindors and guilt do not mix. Ron Weasley becomes a dirty boy in more ways than one, and Harry picks up the pieces.

'His Belongings' by Penelope Zach
(Also contains Ron/Draco and Harry/Draco.) It's Penelope: you know it's going to be brilliant. It is. Penelope captures Ron's perpetual yearning beautifully, making the reader's breath seize with the wonder of it. How could anyone survive love like this? How? (See 'Corridors and Stairs' for the companion story.)
Quote: His toys, their lustre gone and their paint chipped, belonged to Bill or Charlie once. He got his faded robes from Fred, his worn-out jeans from George, his torn sweaters from Percy and had to spend long nights, pricking his fingers on needles, mending them up. The clothes feel awkward against his body at first, shaped by someone else’s wrists and elbows and shoulders, with the scent of someone else’s skin still clinging on them, the cheap fabric smudged by someone else’s fingerprints. Even his face is a jigsaw puzzle of borrowed pieces, dad’s hair, mum’s eyes, aunt Virginia’s jaw, uncle Tom’s cheekbones.

'Corridors and Stairs' by Penelope Zach
(Also contains Ron/Draco and Harry/Draco.) A companion piece to the Harry/Ron story 'His Belongings', and utterly beautiful.
Quote: It’s been thirty-nine days since you saw Harry kissing that creep, Malfoy. He knows that you know and he knows that you won’t tell. Because this is the only connection you have left, the dark threat of the secret binding the two of you against the rest of the world.

'By Chance' by Trin
I DON'T CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS: THIS IS CANON. Forever unrequited, forever caught in a moment of impossibility, forever on the cusp of something beautiful. Potential gravity. Oh, yes.
Quote: When Ron closes his eyes at night, there’s always this strand of hope in him: that somewhere beyond the blindness, he will be able to grope his way and finally reach Harry.

'Waterworld' by Rhoddlet
(Also contains Harry/Draco.) Possibly the most perfect friendship-fic ever written--I'd never thought the second-person POV would suit Ron, until now. A quiet ache of longing pervades this story from beginning to end, and only Rhoddlet can make the reader yearn so. I'll say nothing more, but suffice it to say that your heart will break when Draco enters the picture. That last line will echo through my head for days to come.
Quote: It is, as Ron has discovered, almost unmentionably nasty being in love with your best friend. Especially if you’re not sure if you’re really in love. Or what love is.

'If You Do, If You Don't' by Silvia Kundera
Ouch. Something this lovely shouldn't hurt so much. Silvia manages to capture the complexity, the difficulty of loving one's best friend, and, yes, hating that friend as well. It's so difficult to find a truly dysfunctional take on Harry/Ron, to find a story that doesn't sugar-coat or simplify the dynamic between them. Silvia reminds me that there is yet hope for this pairing.
Quote: He needs to push and feel Ron push back, so he does, he says, "You wouldn't understand," and listens for the thick, rushed intake of breath.

'The Door' by Te
(Also contains Ron/Hermione.) I usually don't ship Harry/Ron, because it's sweet, and complete, or at least it's supposed to be. But Te fulfills a secret fantasy of mine: metaphoric, rich, unnerving Harry/Ron, so fluid and unquestioned and oh. I love this. Plot summaries would do it injustice--there isn't a plot. There is only allusion. It made me feel shifted & aroused & strange at once, something not many fics manage to do. Oh yes.
Quote: He knows what dreams are. Not the Divinations crap, but the real ones. The ones that bubble up inside you and make you spill all your secrets to yourself, even if you don't want to hear them. Especially then.

'Not to Forget by Merri-Todd Webster, RATED NC-17, CHARACTER DEATH
This is actually a side-story of the Severus/Harry/Hermione 'Absence Series', but concentrates exclusively on the Ron/Harry dynamic. It's hot, harsh and heartbreaking, but still with that smooth sensuality I've come to expect of Webster.

'It Was All Right' by Icarus
Such a sweet, soft, wonderful little fic. This struck true in my heart, because I could just see this as happening in canon--the sort of quiet, understated romance that goes largely undefined between two 'friends'. Ah, lovely.
Quote: Ron eyed him cautiously, up and down, for a pregnant moment. If anyone caught them even sitting like this it was a good bet they'd hear about it. But there was an undefinable line they usually didn't cross. Usually. Just friends.

'Oh, What The Hell' by Icarus
Icarus has done the impossible--she's turned me into a Harry/Ron shipper. I mean it. And she's made me fall in love with Neville--oh, wait--I was in love with him already. Nevertheless: this is an extraordinarily cute, giggle-inspiring story in which Neville wakes up in the middle of the night to witness some... strange goings-on in his dormitory. So IC you'll cry. With joy.
Quote: The slow rise and fall of Dean and Seamus' blankets told Neville what he needed to know on their account. He looked over at Ron's bed, but of course, the blankets were squashed to the foot of the bed, the pillow dented with the memory of the red head that had been there just hours before. Well, he sure hadn't gone far.

'At Fauntleroy & Diagon Alley' by Icarus
Ha! Such fun, such utterly gay, unadulterated fun. Harry and Ron visit a certain... part of Diagon, one renowned for its queer culture. Ron's there to instruct Harry in the fine art of gaydar. Harry just wants out.
Quote: There was group of five or so young men who crossed Fauntleroy at Diagon Alley; two were dressed as if they were selling something, but – no, and nope; they were definitely not gay. But a third was dressed very conservatively, shirt buttoned to his neck; he could easily pass for Percy. His eyes were everywhere, and they widened in panic as they met Harry's. Harry immediately looked away. Not his type, even if he weren't with Ron. Two wizards in their thirties or forties matched strides and filtered through the crowd, dressed almost exactly alike as if they shopped together. They were so obvious.

'A Little Touch of Harry In the Night' by Amanuensis, RATED NC-17
(Various pairings, one of which is Harry/Ron.) I inched into this story cautiously, because Amanuensis warned her readers that Shakespeare purists (not that I'm a purist) would 'just freak' upon reading it--but no, I didn't freak, I LOVED it, and I'm still squeeing at the thorough smuttiness of her take on 'Henry V'! And regardless of the smut, the beginning of the story was so very much in the spirit of Shakespeare's text that I was biting my lip with joy. Politics and Slytherins and threatening missives--all in a good day's work.

'The Art of Fucking' by Keelywolfe
Very cute, playful, tender little story of a first time. Ron's been doing research, and he's eager to put it to use...

'Aphasia' by Rhoddlet
Clear, lucid and unfathomable as rippling water. Ron, aphasia, Quidditch, remembrance and Harry...

'Guy Talk' by Icarus
This is now one of my favorite Harry/Ron stories of all time... I was grinning madly and blushing and biting my lip and twitching and... Oh God, it's so funny and sweet and, by the end, really--REALLY hot. Harry's tired of being mocked for his 'limited experience', so he decides to boast to the other Gryffindor boys... But his story isn't quite what it seems--for one thing, parts of it are actually true. Although, if Ron were to have his way, Harry wouldn't be boasting about his 'girl' at all...

'Screwed' by Slytherlynx
'The velvet falls back into place. A soft thud of footsteps: the usual one two three that spans the gap between their beds. A faint buzz of magic, as a Silencing Charm is spelled. Ron wonders if Harry is even going back to his own bed, at all, and whether it’s worth peeking through the curtains to see.'
Slytherlynx is my new Divinity. Scarcely have I read work more put-together, complete, and visceral as hers.

'Freudian Slip' by Adelaide
This is a unique, sensitive, mesmerizingly written portrayal of Ron--as an artist, and as an adolescent in love. Very beautifully done. Novel-length.

'Primer to the Dark Arts' by Icarus
(Also contains Severus/Harry)_ Icarus writes some of the best slash on the internet. This much is true. Read this novel and be amazed... That it is indeed possible to pull of a Harry/Ron AND a Severus/Harry, at the same time. Harry gets some much-needed tutoring in the Dark Arts, with his most hated professor... But the tutoring slowly blossoms into something else--something warm, something beautiful--and something that might save them both.

'Asphyxia' by stunt girl
As·phyx·i·a. A condition in which an extreme decrease in the concentration of oxygen in the body accompanied by an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide leads to loss of consciousness or death. And that's how it feels when the sex turns cruel. (NOTE: While this isn't NC-17, I would advise you to be careful if you are younger.)

'Moving Pictures' by Anna
I don't usually go for this pairing, because it's... too sweet?... for my tastes. Or not. But this particular fic is so probable, and so canon-like that it makes the slash a thrill to read--you really *can* imagine Harry and Ron coming of age in mutual confusion, desire and tenderness... Makes for very warm-hearted reading. Has startling moments of beauty, and a deep and unflinching perception...

'The Sound of Silence' by CobraGirl
Grieving and tender... very beautiful at the end. A botched curse makes Ron lose his hearing... But with Harry, sometimes words aren't needed...