Stop All the Clocks

by Firethesound

Fandom: Harry Potter
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Harry Potter/OMC
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Living with Draco was difficult; living without him is unbearable. But if there’s one thing Harry learned from the war, it’s that even when one life ends, the rest of the world goes right on living.

Genres: Fan Fiction, Harry Potter, Fantasy, LGBT

179 pages, ebook

Published March 5, 2014

About the author

Fanfiction author

Reviews

[Debo]

Okay, so hear me out!
I've never written a review until now, so here's a first, but there's a reason for me choosing to do so this time around. The reason is very, very simple: this fic is a genius' work (wonderfully written, the connections between flashbacks and present tense are beautiful, the little details are breathtaking) BUT I hereby give the biggest trigger warning possible! You see the archive warning for major character death? Please, please take it seriously, because this story broke me - I know that sounds ridiculous and over-the-top, but it seriously broke me. I never cried and sobbed this hard. This fic sucked me in, it touches you in all the right spots just to flash back to the present and break you all over again. It was emotional torture for me. It is brilliant and I give this all the stars I can, because being able to make me FEEL so much truly is good writing, but don't start reading this lightly. I still sometimes think about this fic and the sadness and unfairness of it all (almost one year later!^^) and it never truly left me. I talked to people in the fandom who stopped reading it after a few paragraphs for they couldn't take it. I could not stop and I regret it and don't regret it equal parts. I'll never forget about this story and it kinda scarred me (I'm never ever reading major character death again), but it was so beautiful I happily entered my breakdown :D I wish I were exaggerating, but I'm honestly not :D If you don't enter fiction with all your emotions while reading: you should definitely read this! If you do, as I do, then be warned: it's gonna hurt really, really bad - decide wisely if you wanna take it! I could never re-read this, but I'll never forget the one time I did.

[miya ౨ৎ]

i am unwell this was actually sick and twisted. i have no more words, just endless puddles of tears

[Italia Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

soul shattering. don’t talk to me for at least a week. i need time to heal from that painfully heartbreaking writing.

[Coire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly, this is one of the stories I can never get rid of. It pops up in my mind every time I think of angst because the raw emotion in this is utterly incredible. Firethesound manages to tell the story in bits and pieces, skipping from the past to the present, and though you feel the inevitable truth, the realness of Draco Malfoy's death, you can't stop reading it. I think that this story is realistic in the way it showed Harry's coping; you can't expect him to move on quickly. He goes on like that for years, clinging to memories, and really, you can't blame him. How could you? But he had to let go, and deep down, I think everyone knew it too. The author, the readers, the characters. Everyone. And so he did. I was crying when he finally did, and part of me wished he had gone with Draco so they wouldn't be without each other. The other part of me knew that this was wrong, and he had to keep moving forward. He couldn't stay the way he was, he couldn't lose his life over this feeling of loss. The story deeply resonated within me partly because of that feeling (maybe not to Harry's extent, but just enough so I could understand where he was coming from and how stuck he felt, how trapped and heartbroken he was left). I definitely recommend this, but this isn't for the faint-hearted. Read it if you can stand a major character death.

[⋆˚✧ maria ✧˚⋆]

*sobs*
i'm not doing this ever again.

[Kristyn Pittman · Rating 5 out of 5]

CRYING AND SOBBING. Unwell. Maybe the saddest Drarry fic I've read in ages

[zai · Rating 5 out of 5]

i loved this so much. i hated it, but i loved it. i love the toxicity in the first few chapters, when they were nothing but fuck buddies. i still remember harry saying “that’s the only time when we can admit that we actually want it” or something along those lines. draco’s death hurt me. physically and mentally. although it was just a fanfiction, i cried my heart out when i realised he was dead. and harry not wanting to go to therapy after draco’s death made me think of the situation differently. harry didn’t want to admit that draco was dead. harry didn’t want to remove draco from his life. it was torturous for me to read through this and it was absolutely heartbreaking. i love how the author wrote in the format of
(happy drarry moment)
(sad drarry moment)
(happy drarry moment)
(oops draco’s dead haha)
(happy drarry moment)
(suck it up harry)

and so on
i just loved that format because it made me compare the two and cry all over again because harry would never be able to experience that kind of happiness ever again.

rip draco3

[Moony · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was absolutely heart wrenching and I’ve cried harder than I have in a long time.
The way this is written is really amazing and creative. I love how this portrays grief and healing.
This is by far the saddest fanfic that I’ve ever read and I loved every second of it.
I loved Draco’s characteristically and Harry’s grieving process felt very accurate to how I think he would grieve a partner and to how he would cope.

[Bubu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm too sad to write a review. but this book is beautiful and sad and honest and heartbreaking and heartwarming.

[Helen]

I am not rating this because it broke my heart. Dare you to read it and not cry. I

[meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Potter,” Draco sighed. He finished spreading jam on the piece of toast and handed it to Harry, then licked a smudge of jam from between his thumb and index finger. “You know, when you love someone you should always cut their toast in triangles.”

Harry frowned at him. “Triangles? But what’s that got to do with…” He trailed off and looked down at the toast in his hand. “You… But you’ve always cut my toast in triangles.” He couldn’t remember a time when Draco hadn’t.

“And I’ve always loved you,” Draco said simply. “You’re it for me, Potter.”

Completely and utterly devastating.

What do you mean, Harry picks up the mugs and carries them into the kitchen for washing up.

[Emily Benson · Rating 5 out of 5]

“It feels ridiculous for him to be jealous of the grief of others and he tries his best to let go of it. Draco affected a lot of people, and it’s not for Harry to say how justified they are in their loss”

This book absolutely wrecked me. The way Harry grieves hit a little too close to home, I was steady crying thru this whole book 🥲

[Willow Daoust · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first Drarry. Heartbreaking??? Not HEA but all the sweeter for it. So so so good. I love angst and pain more than an HEA, it makes the love feel more raw and real to me. So this was absolute perfection

[Cloé · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the saddest. I had to stop in the middle and come back to it two weeks later. My tears haven’t dried yet.

The grief is painfully achingly beautifully written. « I’ll see you again someday, I think. And when I do, that’s it. I’m never leaving you again. »

[Little.Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

All I gotta say is, I could have done without his death!! 🤧

And this goofy version of Draco!?! I need more!! 🥹

[nimsaynutt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cried so much reading this. This was so good.

[Karleah Olson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so flippin sad I'm still crying about it. Drarry is officially my current obsession-ship and I am totally here for it.
This was well written, devastating, funny and heart-warming. Mostly devastating, even the cute bits made me sad.
It was told in fragments between the past and present as Harry is grieving Draco, so every sweet moment the narrative draws you back to is also awful.
It was sad without being dark and bleak, and for the most part the characters felt pretty true to how they exist for me in canon. I do wish the other Weasleys/Ginny/their past at Hogwarts was mentioned more to know how it all fit into the HP world, but I do like having the characters be and feel adult and realistic. This is definitely only the beginning of my Drarry obsession, I already know.

*loses one star because as much as I like smut sometimes it's not entirely necessary, and this had a lot of repetitive sex scenes that were all very similar and not useful to the plot. Also if we are deviating from canon relationships it blows my mind every time that Hermione and Ron are still together instead of the Trio just being wonderful, platonic best friends.

[Nikole Winburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buckle up, this one hurts and hurts deep. Knowing that Draco dies on the first page of the book does not soften the blow of watching it slowly unfurl. This was such a beautifully written story of grief and coping, and of such an intense love taken away way too soon. I have read some amazing HP fanfics and this one is right at the top of that list.

I have been a Dramoine fan so long, the idea of Draco with anyone else seemed so silly that I never even entertained it. Then I saw a quote on IG from this story, and gave it a try. Turns out, I just love Draco no matter who he is with. And Draco with Harry? Holy shit, did I love every minute of this. The smut, the goofy side of Draco, their routines and traditions, and most of all the Harry coffee mug. All the little ways Draco says I love you without saying anything at all…swoon.

“It’s a strangely intimate thing, to watch someone else shatter and crumble beneath the very same grief he feels”

“Yesterday, Today, Always”

“In the depths of his grief, Harry only looked at what he’d lost, and he forgot to look back on what he’d had”

[Ness · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jesus fucking christ. I ravenously binge read this well into the early morning and I can't stop thinking about it. It's haunting, which is exactly as it ought to be. This is one of those rare pieces of writing where you can feel and inhabit a character's madness, and feel the horror of it, and remain totally unable to look away. God my heart hurts so much.

I was so grateful that the author didn't press us with heavy-handed what-ifs and anger, as the reader can find those all own their own without the prose slowing down for it.

The only thing holding me back from five stars is the faint feeling of inorganicness in the way Harry and Draco got together. Everything about their established relationship and the main timeline is beautiful and aching.

Don't think I'll forget this one anytime soon.

[bubblegumpopper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most compelling pieces of fanfiction that I have ever read. It had me in tears within the first 10% and I had to read it all in one sitting because I knew that it was going to rip me open and leave me raw and I didn't think I'd be able to come back to it later knowing that was waiting for me. And it did. Their portrayal of Harry's grief in this is so visceral and relateable and the way that they transitioned between the two narratives, weaving together a similar thread, was so beautifully handled. It's very rare that I am left THIS emotionally affected by a fiction, fanfiction or otherwise. A beautiful piece of writing.

[Lexa · Rating 5 out of 5]

When i reread All our secrets laid bare i thought there was something missing. I remembered it ending completely different but then i found this and realised. This is the one that broke me. I remember reading it many years ago and crying quite a lot. Well it happened again but I’m so happy that i found this. Probably the best one i have ever read.

There is one more thing i remember differently (again lol) about this and I’m not sure if it was taken out or i just imagined that. Maybe it was good that the part wasn’t there because my crying would prppoably never stop lol.
Anyway.
Loved this

[Vero · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's 2am, I have read this book in one sitting and my head hurts from all the crying. You could easily finish this book in under 2 hours, but the tears make it exceptionally hard to read, so definitely take that into account when starting it for a quick read. I never thought, that one day I will find a piece of literature that contains some of the most heart wrenching descriptions of grief over lost love I have ever read, while simultaneously using the word "cock" more often than I did in my whole life. I don't think I will ever recover from this, I will now be found thinking about this book, while sipping lukewarm tea out of a ridiculous mug.

[Connor Mckay · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I'm never reading this again," I lied as I re-read this again for roughly the eleventh time.

This story was gutwrenching and at time hard to read - I've never read something that struck me as deep as this did. Everything about it just seemed so, so real. The pain, the feeling of not being able to move on, the feeling of actually being able to move on, all of it - real. It hurt.

But it was absolutely beautiful. Breathtaking, even. I recommend this to everyone, even if this topic isn't exactly your cup of tea. It wasn't mine, yet it ended up being one of my favorites.

[Amanda Valeria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am just, I CANT decribe how devastated this let me. This is true angst, is beyond and above beautiful and more than painful. I wish no one could even have this much trauma like this Harry, I wish everyone who finds their half their love, their everything, I wish once people found them there was a contract stating how imposible is it not to lose it. She had me crying so hard from first to last paragraph. I would never ever read something like this, because is just so painful.

[Maria Drago · Rating 2 out of 5]

Should've read the tags. I had no idea this was all about Draco's death.

I dropped it halfway through because I was just way too bummed. It took me too long to realize he was actually dead.

Honestly, though, really good writing. The characters don't always sound very British, but those transitions were stellar.

[sana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m in tears
Reading the summary, I didn’t expect Draco to really be gone (silly me) and being reminded of it through every passage after his death was heartbreaking, I’m so sorry for what Harry’s been through.
It still was a good read because it’s beautifully written, and the happier passages are lovely.

[Sara A N]

I am cut open. I read the death and character deat tags and yet I continued. So I only have myself to blame for crying my eyes out right now (well.. and the author for such gut wrenching story).
It was painfully well written and I am never doing this to myself ever again. Only happily ever afters from now on.

[Ciarra · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give this 27 stars, I would. I’ve never felt so much from such a short story. Mind the tags/triggers etc. this was absolutely brutal and I knew going into it the “jist” and I was still a puddle multiple times during this brilliant piece of writing.

[Rachel B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Should not have read the reviews before reading because I was waiting for the breakdown and it never came. Yeah it hurt but it was just like one big open wound. Not sure what it says about me that I didn’t cry 🫠

[Dimplz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story was fantastic. Make sure you have a lot of tissues handy when you read this.