Reveals have gone up at this year's hp_crossgenfest, which means it's time to claim my fic!

Title: Gotta Stay High (To Get You Off My Mind)
Author: gracerene
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairings: Albus Severus Potter/Draco Malfoy, Albus/OMCs, Scorpius/OMC, past Albus/Scorpius, past Draco/Astoria
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: ~20,000
Content/Warnings: recreational drug use, drinking, casual sex between Albus and OMCs, grief, poor handling of a breakup, Scorpius is kind of a dick in this, attempted non-con (Albus/OMCs), blow jobs, office!sex
Summary: After a bad breakup sends him reeling, Albus decides to lose himself in drugs, potions, and a lot of anonymous sex. He just wants to let go and have fun, which would be a lot easier if he didn't keep running into his ex's father at every turn.
Author's Note: I had originally been planning on writing some short and smutty Draco/Teddy for this fest, since I'd wanted to try a pairing I hadn't written before and several people suggested that one to me. Instead, while driving home one evening, the song Habits by ToveLo came on the radio, and I was suddenly struck in the chest with Albus feels. Luckily, one of the prompts meshed fairly well with this sudden plot bunny, so I immediately got home and began to plot.

This fic gave me a lot of trouble. Originally I thought I'd try writing in 1st Person Albus, but I really struggle with first person, and once I got to outlining I realized that most of the scenes in my head were actually from Draco's POV. So I wrote about 9k of a fic (all but two scenes) entirely from Draco's POV but I knew something wasn't right. The more I mulled it over, the more I realized that I liked Draco's POV, but in order to really tell the complete story, we needed Albus's too. Which was a super fun realization to have. I was able to recycle *most* of what I had in some form or another, and ended up more than doubling the original fic outline when all was said and done. O_O

It was a lot more work than I'd been planning to put into this fest (especially considering I had other projects I was supposed to be working on) but I'm generally pleased with how it turned out. :D

All the thanks in the world to capitu, as always, for looking this over and being the world's best cheerleader. My drafts never seem finished until I've sent them off to you. <3

And, of course, all the love and hugs to cabinetcaligari, who mentioned she might be interested in jumping back into fandom with a little beta work, and then was totally game when I immediately shoved this 20k monster at her. She had some great insights and her enthusiasm about these characters got me excited about everything all over again. ♥

Finally, thanks to everybody who read and commented, and to those of you who recced! I know the longer fics at these rare pair fests don't always get the most love, and I so appreciate y'all taking the time to read! <33