What if OotP is really, really awful? (Re: Fanfiction/speculation)

[lucky_kari]

No: HPFGUIDX 31340

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "cindysphynx" <cindysphynx at h...> wrote:
> Cindy (who, in a weak moment, found herself wondering what would 
> happen if OoP were released and it turned out to be really, really 
> awful by any measure)

This hit home b/c I've twice dreamed exactly this. The first was about 
a year ago when I dreamt that it plagiarized the plot of "That Hideous 
Strength" by C.S. Lewis, and Molly Weasley was the DADA teacher, and 
was acting like one of the characters therein. (I hate THS. :) 

Then, last night, I dreamt that JKR released the book today without 
warning. I rushed out to get it, only to find it was 50 pages long. It 
opened with Petunia Dursley dying of consumption, after telling Harry 
that she had been in love with Remus Lupin once, but he had spurned 
her, and that had turned her against magic forever. Then, Harry went 
to Hogwarts and discovered that Cedric Diggory's body parts were in 
different drawers of a writing desk, so that they could talk to his 
ghost in the next world. At that point, (in the dream) I threw down 
the book and started saying this wasn't "Order of the Phoenix", it 
couldn't be! And everyone kept on saying it was, and they hated JKR 
and they never wanted to hear about Harry Potter again. But I just 
knew there had to be something wrong with this whole scenario. Then, I 
woke up. It was four in the morning and at last I knew what was wrong 
with the scenario! 

But, this brings up a point, OotP can't possibly be as bad as that 
dream, but what if it doesn't live up to our feverishly high 
standards? I've had disappointments before, but not like that. For 
example, I was a big SW fan when I was younger, so I was a bit shocked 
by The Phantom Menace, but there were months to see that coming, and I 
never was so much in SW. A bad book in the HP series would kill me 
(and least for a month). 

Eileen