Fanfic Bind: Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being In Love by ISTHISSELFCARE

I am not afraid to admit this, but at this point, being a Dramione girl is my main personality trait, no shame. Dramione is what initially inspired me to learn how to bind books. Because of that, I decided it was high-time for me to do a full bind of a fanfic, seeing as it has been over a year since my last full bind.

For this bind, I chose none other than Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being In Love by ISTHISSELFCARE on Ao3, also known as DMATMOOBIL. As in all of my posts, because I like my binds to reflect themes throughout the book they represent, this post may contain spoilers, so read at your own risk.

Below, you will find a light summary of the fic (I'll try not to spoil too much), and a deep-dive into my creative thinking process, and finally, the technicals of how I make my physical copy of this fanfiction.

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Light Summary

Going to try not to give too much away, but DMATMOOBIL follows the life of 30-year-old Auror, Draco Malfoy, as he is placed on assignment to protect professor, doctor, genius, Hermione Granger, as she works on a new, brilliant breakthrough that will rock the wizarding world. Throughout the year-long project, Draco battles his growing feelings for the witty professor.

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The Creative Process

With this book, I wanted to create something clean, elegant, and classy. I love the fanart I find for this fic, especially the one that mimics the feeling of a 2000's romcom. That being said, that is just not the style that I, personally, was going for.

Starting with the cover color choice, I decided to go with a beautiful, stark white as my main base. I did that, firstly as a nod to the OG fanart's background, but also, as it reminds me of the color of Hermione's lab coats and thought it would create a fun, almost sterile look. It also provides the elevated, clean look I was hoping to achieve with this bind.

Next, the cover design. I knew I wanted to start with a solid rectangular boarder. I like the idea of a geometric aspect being added to a book, and truly have no other reasoning to have added it beyond me wanting it. I decided to continue this boarder not only from the front and back covers, but onto the spine as well for a bit of uniformity.

As for the design on the remaining design, I wanted to incorporate a bit of Hermione and Draco's adventures by using what I saw as an integral item that brought them together – the flora and fauna that Hermione was searching for in her research. I depicted this through fern silhouettes. It was my initial intention to use detailed fern leaves, but after a few times drawing it out, I ultimately decided it was too busy and didn't mesh with the elegant look I wanted, and opted for the simpler silhouette look. Not only that, but if we are being honest, detailed leaves would have been miserable to work with outside of a screen.

With the end papers, I am a huge believer of use what you've got. I have this beautiful pack of thick acid-free card stock with gorgeous foiled designs that I have been slowly working through using. From this pack, I selected a beautiful constellation and zodiac themed paper. I picked this over others, thinking of when Draco points out the Draco constellation to Hermione (a constellation I have been actively seeking each time I see the night sky). Yes, I am dramatic and overly obsessed with Draco, but that is fine. Draco is a hill I am happy to die on. I had wanted to use a white paper with gold details, but ultimately this blue and purple pattern drew me in, and I couldn't resist going off plan. Especially when it comes to my personal binds, it has been really important to remind myself that there is no right or wrong, and to design my binds for me, even if it doesn't always match seamlessly.

As for the contents of the book, I decided to add in a decorative title page using art I created of Draco and Hermione inside of a coffee shop. The fanart I had seen prior to reading DMATMOOBIL gave me the Bewitched movie remake vibes – you know, with Nicole Kidman & Will Ferrell. Drawing from that, I created the coffeeshop art. Imagine my surprise and delight in finding that coffee was a recurring theme throughout this fic. Truly serendipitous.

Finally, for the formatting of the book, I opted to use a typewriter-esque font as the chapter headers. I did this because the tone made me think of typing up old papers for files or medical field documentation, such as what I imagine Hermione would have done (though I know she used her Muggle Computer rather than a typewriter). Additionally, it made me think of (500) Days of Summer, and how they mark the passage of time, just as chapters do.

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The Making Of

For this fic, after typesetting, I printed on my home computer on regular 8.5 x 11 in printer paper. Each of my signatures contained 6 pieces of paper. I used a French Link stitch with binder's tape when sewing my signatures to make the textblock. I chose this method to add extra support, as the fic came out to be roughly 670 pages. After this, I prepared my textblock and cover normally. If you have any specific questions, feel free to reach out.

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Thank you for checking out this bind! Make sure to follow us on Instagram to get more frequent updates on what we are working on!

Happy Reading!

XOXO, The Binder's Room

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Reminder:

Fanfic Binds are for my personal use only and are not available for commission.

Commissions are only offered for Rebinds and Original Works.