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[boosette_archive]

Talked to my dad for an hour this afternoon without either one of us screaming about how the other one is Wrong About Religion.   (Hint, he’s Wrong About Religion.)  This is a massive win.

(Currently my crossposter is tagging to tumblr but not DW; I may buy the upgrade to see if it’ll tag to LJ. In the meantime, feel free to add “tweetybox” to your tumblr savior – it’s an unusual enough term that it likely won’t eat much of your dashboard, and should keep at least one instance of my twitter off your radar.  (OR if you want a broader filter, you could tumblr savior “via boosette.com/blog”, which is the footer for all my cross/posts.))

So I’ve just finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (and stayed up way too late reaching the kindle-specified 75% mark last night), and my biggest complaint about book 3 is this one:  Too Much Quidditch.  But then, I’ve never been much of a sports-book person, and it seems like at this point the only thing Harry’s really passionate about is his sport.

Seeds of books to come: you an see the origins of CAPSLOCK HARRY and, indeed, CAPSLOCK EVERYONE (Snape, lower your voice, please.).  Also, ALL of the adolescent misunderstandings and assumptions and did I mention that JKR is really good at writing pubescent children?  Because she is.  So much.  (I didn’t like this when I was in the target age group it made me uncomfortable, and made me feel rather like … what does Harry have to complain about, he’s good at sports and has friends who adore him and a found family who loves him and if the price he gets to pay for that is a death-prophecy related to the Dark Lord, well that’s not even really all that bad.  I like it now, though.)

Of books 1-3, I actually think that I like Chamber of Secrets most, with Philosopher’s Stone and Prisoner tied for second – because Chamber has less Quidditch, see above.

The stories I’m sortof wishing to see told fanfic-wise are all long and sprawling AUs,  the one where it’s Hermione who’s the chosen one, and the story where it’s Neville who’s the chosen one, and the one where the hat puts Harry into Slytherin, the one where Harry is raised by Sirius instead of the Dursleys, and, well.

The sad thing is that I’m craving stories written specifically after the (book) canon closed, since I prefer deliberate AUs to accidental ones. (But really that’s just the start.)

Pre-post ETA: I am now 5 chapters in to Goblet of Fire, which has a mediocre intro (stop jumping POVs, Jo!), and the short version is that I’m preemptively twitchy about Ron and Harry’s fight because friend-fights just make my skin crawl.  Especially when they’re with people who are so tied up in your life that the prospect of having to excise the relationship is like losing an arm.  (AKA how no small number of my friendships have ended – often aided by a convenient “SO LONG I AM LEAVING THE STATE ”)

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Comments

[kita0610.livejournal.com]

Seriously, Neville is really the hero. Far as I can tell, Harry is mainly a distraction so Neville can hold down the fort and get his hero on. I always wondered if JKR intended that subtext or what.

I ship Harry/Sirius bc of course I do. Not a lot of anything decent ficwise out there, alas.

[boosette.livejournal.com]

I ALSO want the fic where Sirius maintains his place as the Potters' Secret Keeper, but I have a huge fictional hard-on for shameless fix-it fic. It's like that moment you find out the store carries your favorite candy that they haven't stocked for two years again.

(I haven't gotten to the Neville-gets-to-be-heroic bits yet but I am basically bouncing up and down and up and down and somewhere, in this fandom, exists the ENTIRE SERIES from Neville's point of view. Because it's Potter fandom, and once you speak of it, the story exists.)

Also I know that basically all of my AND THEN THEY ALL HAD BABIES buttons are going to be pushed by the epilogue (in about two-three weeks there will be a huge LINK ME TO ALL THE FIX-IT FIC IN THE WOOOOOOORLD post from me.)

[kita0610.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I remember that series!! It's very good. There's also a Neville T-shirt that's awesome (obvs not fandom made).

People hated the epilogue. I'm not sure why. I mean, the whole series wasn't amazing in terms of WRITING but the world building and storytelling are just AMAZING and solid, and it's a KID'S SERIES. Who didn't see the epilogue coming??? It mostly eliminates the NEED for fix-it fic.

[boosette.livejournal.com]

People hated the epilogue because, I think, because of an immense sense of entitlement stemming from a lot of different places - shipper butthurt straight up through feeling like they could have finished the story better than Jo did. (I remember when the carpetbook came out, and they held the epilogue up as the REASON it had to be a fake, and then it was not a fake, and it was beautiful.)

(I'm really sad about Tonks and Lupin, mostly because I love them both individually and OTP them lots.)

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

The fireworks and cheering are for your frirst paragraph specifically and you in general. :)

[boosette.livejournal.com]

<3

[unbidden-truth.livejournal.com]

Well all I can say that at least two of your fic wishes Sirius being the Secret Keeper and Neville being the chosen one (I'm going to wait until you get to Book 5 before I comment further on this) both exist. But since I've been out of this fandom for a long time, I don't remember where. But they definitely exists...and there's a pretty good chance one with Hermione does as well.

PoA was/is my favorite mostly because we learn so much backstory. I've always found CoS interesting because it always felt like there was more she had been planning to say (and it's true part of Book 6 was originally planned to be in Book 2).

[boosette.livejournal.com]

I'm really fascinated by Sirius-as-Secret-Keeper, because it means that Voledemort would have been in power for significantly longer than he actually was, with no bb!Harry to take him down -- the Wizarding World might look entirely different from the one we get to know.

PoA was/is my favorite mostly because we learn so much backstory.

Oh man, the exchange between Sirius and Lupin in the shrieking shack is absolutely fantastic. I didn't understand it one bit when I read it the first time, but this time around ... that's about how I talk to people I haven't seen in a while but whom I'm good friends with; we don't need to enumerate the context, and they don't, and it's gorgeous in part because you don't really see it until subsequent readings.

[unbidden-truth.livejournal.com]

There are some great stories that look at what would happen if Voldemort hadn't attacked Harry, but at the time I wasn't a fan of dystopian plots (which is what a lot of them tended to be) so can't point you to one. It's kind of like a Greek tragedy at least for Voldemort, but I won't say anything further until you've read up to Book 5 since I don't want to spoil anything.

the exchange between Sirius and Lupin in the shrieking shack is absolutely fantastic.

This! Yes, I don't think I appreciated that when I read this as a teenager, but now looking back I can see the layers of the context and all the emotions/relationships that convo unveiled.

*And now you are tempting me go read HP fic :)

[elsceetaria.livejournal.com]

I've enjoyed HP over the years, but I've never been a huge fan. They are okay, but not great works in my opinion.

Personally, I enjoyed PoA more than CoS. I, however, love the back story about the marauders.

If you can find those stories, I might be interested.