Harry Potter, fanfiction, and miscellany

So, who reads fanfiction here?  Because fanfiction is the most amazing thing in the world (aside from books obviously, since that's where fanfics spawn from).  Before I get into anything, I'm going to do some shameless self-promotion and ask you all to come check out my fanfiction.net profile.  Come read my stories!  Even if they are currently being edited and some that are up are quite horrible.  Check back in a week or two.  My editing will have finished by then.

I've recently discovered this amazing Harry Potter fanfiction called Reparo by amalin.  Google it.  I'm serious.  The Harry Potter craze has been dying down a bit.  I myself have even stopped being so obsessed.  I'm just waiting for Pottermore now... and that encyclopedia that J.K. Rowling promised she'd publish eventually...  But I discovered Reparo (recommended by a fellow fanfiction author) and I'm totally hooked again.  Anyone else disappointed with how Deathly Hallows ended?  With that huge nineteen year gap between the end of the war and the epilogue?  I know I'm not the only person who would've liked to see the wizarding world, and especially Hogwarts, build itself back up from the rubble it was left in.  I mean, in the epilogue we see that all is well again.  We see that the scars from the past can be healed.  But we don't see the process of that healing.  The aftermath of war isn't pretty, but Harry Potter isn't exactly sugar and spice and everything nice.  After everything we've been through with Harry, I wanted to see him pick his life up again.  I wanted to see him have a life of his own, and not a life with Voldemort hanging over his head (or should I say inside his head, to be more accurate?).

This was/is me.  Harry Potter was my childhood.

Reparo by amalin covers the time period of reconstruction after the war.  Sure, it doesn't go all the way up to the beginning of the epilogue, but you get a glimpse of what life's like when Voldemort is gone... but the terror isn't.  After war, you don't go from fearing for your life to sending your kids off on the Hogwarts Express.  I don't doubt that in that nineteen years they would've all moved on.  But it seemed... hollow, somehow, with nothing to fill the gap.

Now, I must warn you that Reparo is a Draco/Harry fic.  I don't exactly support Drarry, though I must admit that Reparo may have changed my perspective on slash just a bit...  Reparo is definitely rated M (or R if you prefer the more common rating system).  If you can stomach Drarry enough to read a fanfiction that is practically like Rowling wrote another book, go look up this fic.  It's that good.  Dead serious.  Amalin writes the Harry Potter characters so well.  Sure, there are those fleeting moments where the illusion is shattered and you realize it's not Rowling writing, but it's as close as anyone will get without being J.K. Rowling.  She captures the post-war feeling perfectly.  She really gets Harry's character right.  He's noble, kind (but not to a fault), stubborn, uncertain, Harry freakin' Potter, and down-to-earth.

Before I start my rant about fanfiction in general, go look up Reparo.  You won't regret it.  I promise.  If you're dead set against slash, which I know one of my friends is, skip the sex scenes.  Or at least read halfway through chapter four.  It's enough to get most of the tying up of loose ends.  The rest has a lot of the Drarry relationship development though it is interspersed with more tying up loose ends.  I will admit that one of the most poignant moments is later on in the story, but take that as you will.  (Can you tell I'm trying to convince you to read this?)  It's just that we get some info about the good side of the war (not that there really ever is a "good" side... only the winning side) but next to nothing about Voldemort's side. What happened to the Death Eaters that didn't die?  Like the Malfoys.  Lucius Malfoy and Draco Malfoy to be more specific.  When the war is over, they can't run and hide.  You can't hide from the entire wizarding world.  Draco's just a teenager, but he's still been branded with the Dark Mark.  Who would testify for a Death Eater?  Harry Potter perhaps?  Hmm?  War isn't just one side wins and suddenly the losing side disappears.  There's a huge mess to clean up.

Now, all of the above isn't to say that I blame J.K. Rowling for skipping those nineteen years.  I mean, sure, I'm a little indignant, but it's not as if it's unforgivable.  If she wrote through those nineteen years, or even just through the reconstruction of the wizarding world, she'd need a whole other book.  Not as if I'd complain about that... but what we're supposed to be left with is a feeling of hope and a feeling that justice has been served.  Right after Harry's defeated Voldemort, you feel the elation that the terror of the past seventeen years is gone.  You feel the loss of the deaths in the war, but you know a new world has just been born.  Had Rowling written the aftermath, things would have started to get murky.  When it isn't you either raise your wand and say "Avada Kedavra!" or get struck by that green light yourself, the line between right and wrong blurs.  What do you do with those Death Eaters that are still loose?  How do you rebuild a world that has just been knocked flat off its feet?  How do you deal with the terror that still lingers in the hearts of the people?  If all this was added to the end of the book, we would be left with a completely different feeling altogether.  While it would be more realistic and more complete, it wouldn't send the message Harry Potter was supposed to send.

Of course, this is exactly what fanfiction is for.  If these gaps didn't exist in stories, what would fanfiction authors write about?  Some fanfiction is innocent as could be: holding hands, kissing, talking, etc.  But then... there's the crazy pairings, crazier ideas, and even crazier authors who manage to make all this craziness work and fool your mind into thinking this was all canon to begin with.  Props to them.  When I say crazy pairings, I mean crazier than you could ever imagine.  Even as a fanfiction author.  Think Drarry is strange?  How 'bout Drapple?  Draco and an apple.

See?  Drapple.

Go rewatch the films.  Do you realize how often Draco is with an apple?  Pretty darn often.  How do you write a romance fic about Draco and an apple?  Honestly?  I'm not sure.  I'm not adventurous enough to look it up.  If that doesn't give you an idea of how crazy these ideas can be, I'm not sure what else would.  Of course this isn't to say that you shouldn't go read fanfiction anyway!  Because you should.  Oh, tangent-ish.  Tom Felton knows about fanfiction and fanart.  I mean, I suppose it's hard not to being an actor in the most popular series.  But there's been interviews of him talking about Drarry!  He looks suitably embarrassed each time, but it's pretty awesome.  He mentioned Drapple too.

I absolutely love Tom Felton after seeing him in interviews.  Actually, I love British and Canadian actors right now.  Not American ones though.  With the exception of Chace Crawford.  Before someone asks, I do live in America.  I am not British or Canadian and bashing Americans.  I just happen to love how down-to-earth British actors are.  I'm not sure about Canadian ones, but I imagine they're pretty down-to-earth too.  To quote one of my friends who loves Draco Malfoy, "He's aged very well, hasn't he?"  And yes, he really has.

Aw.  Look at little Tom, swimming in his jacket.  And then look at very attractive older Tom.

He looks much better in real life than in Harry Potter.  It's startling to see how different Tom is from Draco.  I've always expected that the roles actors play are at least somewhat like themselves.  But it appears I was wrong.  Tom is so nice and funny!  He makes a very good villain.  And he and Dan Radcliffe are good friends!  Shocker, much?  He's very indulgent with his fans.  He seems like the one you'd have the easiest time having a conversation with.  Not to mention, he's very, very attractive.  For someone who used to roll her eyes at my friend's obsession with Draco, I'm just swimming in praise for him, aren't I?  I just can't get him out of my head.  I tell you, this is all going to spill out of me the second I see another Harry Potter fan.

I've always wondered about actors' reactions to reading fanfiction about themselves.  How weird would it be to for Dan Radcliffe or Tom Felton to read Drarry?  I mean, for them especially since half their lives have been devoted to this one character.  I would expect that Harry and Draco, respectively, feel like an extension of themselves now.  Oh!  Watch this scene!

Now, for some background.  After filming this scene in Dumbledore's office, Jason Isaacs wanted to add something, so he and the director decided they would do another take and he would improv a line.  However, they didn't tell Dan about this.  So Jason Isaacs said that line about Harry always being around to save the day, and without batting an eye, Dan improv'd his "Don't worry, I will be," line.  Can you believe that wasn't part of the script?  It fit in so seamlessly!  And Dan was what?  Twelve?  Thirteen?

To return to fanfiction, you people really need to go read Reparo.  It's amazing.  Fanfiction is a slippery slope.  When you first start reading, your limits for what you will and will not read will be a mile high.  You'll start out finding out about M rated fanfiction and the crazy things that go on, and say, "I would never, ever read M!"  (The M rating is only one example of a limit.  There are many, many others you may start out with.)  Then one day, you'll find yourself coming upon that fic you promised you'd never read and think, "What the hell?" and read it.  Then pretty soon, you start relenting and reading more of these M rated fics.  Then, god forbid, you find yourself liking these fics.  And then, and then!  Gasp!  You find yourself clicking the rating filter and looking for M rated fanfiction.  And then one day... you'll realize that you no longer have any limits on what you will and will not read.  I must admit that I have cleared the final hurdle and made it to the "limitless" stage.  Just yesterday too!  Thanks to Reparo.  You see, I started out saying I would never read M.  Much like the quote above!  But that line was crossed ages ago.  In fact, that line has been so thoroughly stomped on, scoffed at, and scrubbed away that it's quite funny.  I don't believe I recall the other limits I set myself when I first began this activity we call "reading fanfiction."  But the one thing I always vehemently refused to read was slash (which are male/male or female/female pairings.)  That hurdle has been thoroughly smashed through thanks to Reparo.  It's not as if I haven't given it a try before when I felt particularly adventurous.  I came across a Sora/Riku fic for Kingdom Hearts once.  But I only liked it because it was very short and the slash was so mild that if you squinted just a liiiitle, you could pretend Sora and Riku were just very close friends.  Which they are.  Of course... then I decided maybe I would be okay with slash and looked up Sora/Riku straight out.  Then, I found a particularly explicit fic and was turned off the idea immediately.  Haven't thought to try it since.  When I started Reparo I had a feeling it might be Drarry, but only because somewhere it said Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy.  Being my previously non-slash-reading self, I deluded myself into thinking that just meant they were the main characters.  How my mind managed to work that out... I'm still not sure.  No one uses that notation to denote main characters.  The "/" always means romance.  But the thought just kept popping up in the back of my mind.  And when the Drarry part started... I kinda just accepted it.  My mind had already been trying to convince me it was true from the beginning.  Evidently, it succeeded.  I plan to look up more Drarry.  Though I'm not sure if I could stomach any other slash pairings...

What I have realized is that anyone can write a typical straight romance story.  But it takes an adventurous, daring, and above all good author to write slash.  Because of today's society's prejudices (even if they aren't widespread and are, for the most part, unspoken), people hesitate before writing slash.  You don't do it unless you're sure you want to.  If you're teetering on the edge, most people will choose the safer option and write straight romance.  Moreover, romance is meant to be a side plot.  Romance alone cannot sustain a story.  Not to add to the Twilight bashing, but that's why Twilight fell apart, in my opinion.  Romance can catch your attention, which is why so many people got into Twilight.  However, it can't hold your attention indefinitely.  Think of the classics, the books that have survived the ages.  Sure, many of them include romance, but they aren't centered in it.  For anyone who's read Gone With the Wind, yes Scarlett and Rhett's relationship is big part of the book.  But more importantly, it's about the South during and after the war.  It's about survival.  It's a book that takes place during the Civil War on the losing side.  Without that, the story would fall apart.  Few authors have managed to achieve the balance of romance and story in a book.  I'm afraid that J.K. Rowling does not fall under those few for me.  Well... actually, I should say that she does until we reach the sixth book.

Getting back to my initial point about fanfiction authors, most also fail to achieve the precarious balance of romance and plot in a story.  A quick, fluffy romance fic will be entertaining and satisfying to read, but not necessarily memorable.  Off hand, I can only name a couple fanfictions from the fandoms I read that I truly can't forget.  Reparo is one of them from Harry Potter.  Another is actually a trilogy with the first called Promises Unbroken by Robin4.  I've done enough ranting about Reparo.  There's little more I could say without giving everything away.  Promises Unbroken is about the Marauders and what could've happened if Sirius had remained Secret Keeper for the Potters and refused to give the location to Voldemort.  It's simply amazing.  It basically throws out everything we currently know about the HP universe and creates a whole new one but still manages to keep the characters we love in character the way we'd expect them to be if Rowling were the one writing.  This is another fic you all must read.

Wow, still haven't gotten to my point.  All I really wanted to say is that authors who write slash tend to be better authors than the ones who don't write slash.  I believe it's because it takes a special, confident author to write slash, naturally making them more inclined to write good stories.  Of course, I do not speak for every single slash author in saying that they are amazing.  Nor do I speak for every non-slash author in saying that they are not amazing.  I'm sure there are some horrible slash authors, I just haven't come across them because I haven't looked up slash yet.  And there are some truly great, unforgettable authors who do not write slash.  My standards for fanfiction have fallen some.  I often settle for average fanfictions to read because it is becoming increasingly difficult to find amazing stories in the romance section.  It's just a treat when I do manage to find one of those amazing stories.  However, for slash, my standards seem to be extremely high.  Impossibly high perhaps.  We shall find out about that soon.  In order to draw me into a slash fic, it really has to be amazing.  Otherwise, what am I doing reading it?  I can find a fic of equal quality for a pairing I like better that's not slash.

I suppose "miscellany" was not covered in this incredibly long blog post.  I did mean to go into Kingdom Hearts, but that may make this double in length.  To be brief, I had the hardest time beating Ursula in Atlantica the first time around.  Such a hard time that I even left Atlantica to go back to Traverse Town to smack some soldiers around for catharsis.  I managed it at the end, but now I have to beat her for the second time.  In giant form too.  Wooo...  Who else hates Atlantica?  I certainly do.