For the Love of Harry

[Kirstini]

Grindieloe:  However, is anyone else frustrated with
> >the lack of actual people where you live to discuss with?

***
I have quite a few HP fans to discuss with in everyday life. 
Sometimes, however, I find actually discussing HP with them more 
frustrating than I think I'd feel if it were just me. 
I'm a post-graduate, and most of my friends are also post-graduates. 
Most of them work, like me, in literature studies. Our social lives 
tend to revolve, sadly, around the consumption of alcohol in houses, 
public and private. Post-OoP, we increasingly find ourselves in 
situations where, after either cooking each other dinner and 
drinking a few bottles of wine, or going out to the pub, we sit 
around and yowl Potter at each other. Three days ago I found myself 
facing down a five-way onslaught as I tried to convince people that 
Umbridge was just as evil as Voldemort, and this was one of the 
major themes of OoP (you know, the theory that I've been trotting 
out in various forms on the main list pretty much daily). However, 
I'm beginning to find their discussion frustrating, as they trot out 
every single one of the FAQs and I begin to snap things like "Well, 
I've read the books more than ANY of you, and I can tell you that in 
chapter Seven of GoF, she mentions some middle-aged American witches 
gossiping happily under a banner that reads 'The Salem Witches 
Institute!'". I feel that HPfGU has spoilt me a little. My friends 
are all now very eager to discuss OoP, having finally finished it, 
but I sometimes appear to theorising WAY over their heads, because 
of all the potential discussion paths the list has formed in my 
brain. I actually found myself saying "Oh come on - FLORENCE! You 
must remember that bit!" the other day.
My dear partner, on the other hand, the person who got me reading HP 
in the first place, frustrated me all the more by refusing to 
discuss any possibilities whatsoever before OoP came out. He thought 
I was trying to spoil his anticipation. We had a large argument one 
night about  three days before the release of OoP because I asked 
him who he thought would die, and he said "Oh, thanks a lot. Now I 
know someone's going to die." At this point, obviously, I throttled 
him. I really don't understand the mentality of non-speculators at 
all.
Kirstini
Intolerance Central.