HELPFUL ABBREVIATIONS AND SHORTHANDS Frequently Asked HPfGU Shorthands: ! as in Evil!Draco, Dead!Ron, Clever!Neville: From the early days of the Internet, the exclamation mark is sometimes pronounced "bang", and used to attribute a characteristic to a character. Evil!Draco is evil, Dead!Ron is, surprisingly, dead. ESE: Ever So Evil -- used with a character that appears 'good' in canon, but some list members think might be secretly 'evil', e.g., Pippin's ESE!Lupin theory. Flint (or FLINT): In our group, 'flint' refers to an actual mistake, accident, 'oops!' made by JKR in the books (as opposed to clues and red herrings). It's derived from Marcus Flint, Slytherin Quidditch Captain / Chaser, stated as being a 'sixth year' student in the first book, then returning in the third book when he should have finished his seventh year in book two. A reader asked JKR about this in an online chat: http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/author/transcript1.htm Q: In the first book you said Slytherin house Quidditch captain was sixth year Marcus Flint. If there are only seven years of Hogwarts, why is he in the third book? JKR: He had to do a year again! :-) 1. GENERAL INTERNET AFAIK: As far as I know AFK: Away from keyboard BTW: By the way e.g.: for example (exempli gratia) FILK: Song parodies using words/scenes from HP's world i.e.: that is (id est) IIRC: If I recall correctly IMHO: In my humble opinion IMNSHO: In my not so humble opinion IMO: In my opinion IOW: In other words JK or J/K: Just kidding LMAO: Laughing my ass off LOL: Laughing out loud n.b.: note well (nota bene) OTOH: On the other hand PoV or POV: Point of view ROTFL: Rolling on the floor laughing ROFLMAO: Rolling on the floor laughing my ass off TIA: Thanks in advance TYK: Thank you kindly WRT: With regards to {g}, , *g*: Grin {bg}, , *bg*: Big grin {eg}, , *eg*: Enormous/evil grin {vbg}, , *vbg*: Very big grin {vbeg}, , *vbeg*: Very big evil grin 2. HP fandom-specific HP: Harry Potter PS: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (the British title for the first book in the series) SS: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (the American title for the first book in the series) PS/SS: Used to refer to both PS and SS at the same time when the specific edition is not important. CoS or COS or CS: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (the second book in the series) PoA or POA or PA: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (the third book in the series) GoF or GOF or GF: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (the fourth book in the series) OoP or OOP or OP: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (the fifth book in the series) HBP: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (the sixth book in the series) FB or FBAWTFT: Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them (one of the Comic Relief schoolbooks from 2001) QTTA or QTA: Quidditch Through The Ages (the other Comic Relief schoolbook from 2001) Jo or JKR: Joanne Kathleen Rowling (better known as J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series) DADA: Defence against the Dark Arts MoM or MOM: Ministry of Magic or Minister of Magic CoMC or COMC: Care of Magical Creatures MWPP: Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot & Prongs (The Marauders) DE: Death Eater DD: Dumbledore DDM: Dumbledore's Man LV: Voldemort AK: Avada Kedavra HRH or the Trio: Harry, Ron and Hermione Canon: JKR's work: comprises all the books, including the schoolbooks, and sometimes online chats with JKR herself. ESE: Ever So Evil FITD: 'Farmer in the Dell' theory: A loves B, but B loves C, but C loves D… OBHWF: One big, happy Weasley family HGTG: Hero (or Harry) gets the girl 3. HPFGU-specific For a complete list of the various acronyms like L.O.O.N., S.C.H.A.B.B., C.R.A.B. and L.O.L.L.I.P.O.P.S., see our Inish Alley table in the Database section of HPforGrownups. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/database 4. Fanfiction-specific terms [NB: The fanfiction works listed below can all be found at Schnoogle , one of FictionAlley's http://www.fictionalley.org/ "houses".] PoU or POU: Harry Potter and the Paradigm of Uncertainty, (fanfic) by Lori Summers ASA: A Sirius Affair (fanfic), by Penny Linsenmayer and Carole Estes TSTNE: The Show That Never Ends, (fanfic) by Lori Summers DD: Draco Dormiens, (fanfic) by Cassandra Claire DS: Draco Sinister, (fanfic) by Cassandra Claire DV: Draco Veritas, (fanfic) by Cassandra Claire TIP: Trouble In Paradise, (fanfic) by Ebony Thomas, AKA AngieJ PL: Paradise Lost, (fanfic) by Ebony Thomas, AKA AngieJ SOT: Harry Potter and the Song of Time, (fanfic) by Queer as John, AKA Crazy Ivan SOC: A Surfeit of Curses, (fanfic) by Heidi Tandy DDO: Dracaena Draco, (fanfic) by Al TOT: Time of Trial (fanfic) by Al PS: Not Philosoper's Stone here, but Harry Potter and the Psychic Serpent, (fanfic) by Barb Purdom ToGI or TOGI: Harry Potter and the Time of Good Intentions, (fanfic) by Barb Purdom Canon: JKR's work: comprises all the books, including the schoolbooks, and sometimes online chats with JKR herself. Fanon: Common conventions in the fanfiction community -- for instance, redeemable Draco, or gay Justin Finch-Fletchley. Shipper: This term (from fanfiction) stands for "relationshipper". It means a fan who hopes to see a romantic relationship between two particular characters. It is accompanied by the characters' names or initials, separated by a slash. For example, an H/H (or H/Hr) or Harry/Hermione shipper is a fan who wants Harry and Hermione to get together. R/H is for Ron and Hermione; H/G is for Harry and Ginny. D/H is usually Draco/Hermione, while H/D is Harry/Draco. Slash: Another fanfiction term, which refers to romantic relationships between two characters of the same sex Het: The opposite of slash: romantic relationships between characters of the opposite sex. FITD: 'Farmer in the Dell' theory: A loves B, but B loves C, but C loves D… OBHWF: One big, happy Weasley family HGTG: Hero (or Harry) gets the girl. OC: Original Character: i.e. one created by a fanfic author OOC: Out Of Character: a character acting in a way not supported by canon. Some people think this applies to Slut!Draco and Gangster!Harry. (Weirdos. -Ed.) AU: Alternate Universe: a story taking place in an alternate Potterverse: for instance, one where Harry was sorted into Slytherin and not Gryffindor. Mary Sue: A blatant self-insertion into a character by the author. In HP, often the bubbly vivacious blonde American Transfer student who is so perfect and outdoes everyone and redeems Draco and wins Harry and defeats Voldemort and who everybody wants to Avada Kedavra. 5. Emoticons: Many people use emoticons/smilies to show emotions. To properly read these, tilt your head to the left as you come to them. This list is by no means exhaustive, as people are constantly coming up with new symbols. Smiling :) :-) Frowning :( :-( Winking ;) ;-) Laughing :D :-D Sticking tongue out :P :-P Japanese/anime style smilies (read the right way up) are also popular, and include O_O (eyes bugging out in shock), ^_^ (smiling), o_O (one eye bugging out in bewilderment), and ;_; (crying).