[HPFGU-OTChatter] Fanfics with slash & sex...don't get it? Don't avoid everything just because of that!

[heiditandy]

Cassie mentioned: 
> 
> >Then there's the Snape/Harry pairing.  Snape/Lupin. Snape/Black.
> >Snape/McGonagall. Snape/Hermione. 
> 
> Extremely disgusting.  I'm glad my son doesn't know
> how to read my email or find fanfics online.  Triple
> yecch!

Which part is extremely disgusting? The PG-13 rated fics that pair Snape
and McGonagall or the ones that pair Snape and Lupin? 

And if so, why is it disgusting? Why would it be disgusting if the fics
were R-rated? 

It's not as if there aren't PG-13 moments in the books (Ron's comment
about "Uranus", or Percy and Penelope snogging in empty classrooms, as
witnessed by 11-ish-year-old Ginny, or the references to Snape blasting
rosebushes apart to reveal presumptively snogging teenagers. And again,
what was Florence doing, really?

And it's not as if there aren't romances - or at least the implication
of romantic interest - between an 18 year old (Krum) and a
fourteen-or-possibly-fifteen-year-old (Hermione). 

So what's the extremely disgusting? JKR's even created a universe where
the gender of individuals in the snogging - or the dancing - is totally
undisclosed - Sinistra dancing with Barty Crouch, for example, or the
genders of the pairs of teens in the rosebushes. 

> Besides, I can't see 11 to
> 14-year-old children [the age span of Harry, Ron and
> Hermione from PS/SS through GoF] being written as
> having sex at all.  

I agree with you - I don't think that the characterisations JKR's
created for Harry or Hermione would remain in character if they were
having sex at this point in canon - although I think that Ron, if Fleur
threw her full magic at him, might end up in a sexual situation without
it being OOC at all. 

> I haven't even
> ventured into Harry Potter fanfics because I won't be
> happy if I stumble onto some ribald sex scene between 
> characters currently no older than 15 (as of the anxiously 
> awaited OotP) or "secret lustful glances" between Ron and Harry.

If you stumble across it, the author is stupid and mean. No fanfic
should be posted without a rating, simple as that. And anyone who rates
a fic as G or PG when it really should be rated R would have their fic
rerated immediately, were it posted on FictionAlley (the fanfic site
that I run). 

Don't make the mistake of avoiding a lot of wonderful fanfics simply
because you're concerned that you'll "stumble" across sex in them. The
fics on FA are all rated for content (by the author) and it's easy
enough to avoid the R-rated ones - we don't HAVE anything that's NC-17. 

However, I really think it would be foolish to ignore a wonderful story
like Hyphen's The Speculum Curse
(http://www.riddikulus.org/authors/hyphen/SC.html) which takes place
when the Marauders are 6th or 7th years because Remus snogs an OC when
he's under a curse, or Sirius spends some time prowling after Narcissa.
Or to ignore AngieJ's wonderful Trouble in Paradise series which
features the trio in their late 20s - some of them are married, but
they're all well of age and creatively and appropriately characterised
(http://www.schnoogle.com/authorLinks/AngieJ/). No, don't read Snitch,
even though the New York Times thought it a good story, but take a look
at Arabella's Chance Encounters
(http://www.sugarquill.net/read.php?storyid=811&chapno=1) which features
the trio - and a lot of Weasleys) back in the mid-1980s.