Manditory introduction, various thoughts (size of school, fan fiction FAQ, etc.)

[Teresa McKeever]

No: HPFGUIDX 10086


<smiles sheepishly> I've decided that a "hi, I'm new to the list"
mail is going to come off as less irritating than a "hi, I've been
lurking for five months" mail, so I might as well do so before I
chicken out and go hide again. I'm Teek, and I'm a Harry Potter
fanatic. <everyone: Hi Teek.> I was given a copy of SS last October
or so (of 1999) for a seminar at my school studying why books become
popular (the class never actually accomplished anything, sadly
enough). Read it overnight and the rest is history. 
  I've accidently (no, not accidentally, quite deliberately) dragged
my entire family and all my friends who'd listen into the books, too.
My younger sister and myself recieved books 2 and 3 respectively for
Christmas, and since I couldn't wait to start them, I read PoA before
CoS. (Someone asked this a while ago - I don't think it affected me
too badly, though it had me slightly confused while reading PoA...
and I did read CoS about 6 hours or so after PoA, so the time lapse
wasn't long enough for me to really think about it.)Caved in and
started reading fan fiction in April or May, or so. Went to the
midnight party dressed as Colin Creevy, so I could interview and
pretend to take pictures of adorable children, and had my sister come
as Ginny, and my mother come as Mrs. Weasley, and uh.. my father drew
the line at dressing up as Hagrid. Something about the pink umbrella
was deemed unmanly. 
Regarding various personal notes: I prefere the American covers - I
like the style, I like how the details are worked in but you can't
tell what their importance is until after you finish the book, and I
think Harry's adorable on GoF. And as to "hve you ever lost a
personal relationship because of Harry Potter?" - almost. I keep
threatening to sit on my boyfriend and read him all of SS if he
doesn't agree to do it on his own, but he continues to send me
Tolstoy and Doestoyesky. He just doesn't get it. ;)
That said, on with various threads:

Favorite Books:
My favorite book is PoA by quite a long shot. It has enough going on
to sustain me, but doesn't seem cluttered in the way that GoF does,
IMO. Harry really came alive to me as a character, especially through
his connection with his father. The MWPP connection explained the
past to me in a way that I think CoS failed to do - realistically.
I'm currently re-reading CoS for the first time since reading DS,
though, and the ancient history of Hogwarts has been seeming more
pressing and relivant this time. That, and I love the details - the
map, Lupin, Snape as a furious and jilted human being, instead of a
spiteful character with no explanation, the incredible plot twist,the
excitement of the shrieking shack scene, the interaction bewteen
scabbers/crookshanks/Padfoot... etc. It's just a wonderful book.

Fan Fiction: 

Ship preferences aside for the moment, I was wondering if anyone had
ever compiled a "If you like this, try this:" type listing for
fan-fiction. It seems like it would be a useful list for wading
through the masses of less-than-enjoyable fiction at ff.n. (as my
sister said today at dinner - it's good to see sex scenes in which
Hermione doesn't play strip poker. )
It could be done along genre lines, romance lines, AU, future-events,
what-have-you. I'd be a useful jumping off point from the fics which
are generally recommended, to some of the more obscure, but still
worthwhile, stories. I don't know whether or not this has already
been discussed for a possible Fanfiction FAQ, or something entirely
seperate. Also, not sure whether or not this is a tangent, or not
appropriate for this list.


Size of the wizard community:

A couple points that I haven't heard mentioned before:
1- Someone said that the wizarding community must be fairly large,
since Harry sees several wizards during his childhood, and Vernon
thinks there's a convention. I'm not sure whether or not actual
geography may explain thsi descrepancy (is Little Whinging much
larger than Ottery St. Catchpole?), but according to Amos Diggory,
there are only 4 families in the Weasley's area. If size or chance
doesn't explain it, does anyone have a better explanation? Could the
wizard world know where Harry lives? Would they have purposely sought
out his town? 

2 - there were about 100,000 wizards at the Quidditch world cup. From
the way people talk about it, it seems like almost everyone in the
wizarding world tries to come, and i'd say better than 50% of
England's population might have been able to be there.Can't make any
assumptions, though... Does anyone else have any theories about
exactly what proportion of the wizarding world would have been able
to shut down for a match? It's discused as an opprotune time to make
a move, since practically everyone was distracted. 

Aaannd finally, Post-War Possibilities:

Someone (Martin, maybe? oh dear, this isn't making a cohesive
impression) wrote that it's likely that Harry would have PTSD after a
life and death show down with V. A couple people have said this seems
unlikely since Harry's dealt with horrible events well. One, a
full-fledged war in which his mentors and loved ones will be
threatened and possibly killed would qualify as more traumatic than
seeing your parents killed at the age of one. Also, Harry's already
shown some signs of disorder, especially after the third task
(withdrawl from his friends, re-occuring nightmares, which have come
up several times...) He's growing up enough to really understand the
complications and reprocusions of his problems. His maturity could
effect how he deals with his problems, since most 11 year old
children, even severely abused ones, don't get PTSD. 

I doubt that Harry, after dealing with the war, would be immediately
able to form any kind of romantic bond, even with his best friends.
It seems probable even Hermione and Ron will be unable to really
understand, at least in Harry's eyes. Maybe Lori just got to my
impressionable mind first, but I'd say a H/H pairing would only be
possible on the "soul-mates" level that most fic writers attribute to
them after many years. It seems like a waste of a deep connection to
let them off as only a casual dating pair, since it doesn't seem like
their type. Ron and Hermione, maybe, but it seems like this Saving
the World stuff weighs increasingly heavily on Harry's mind.

Alright. That's all for now, and here's my solomn promise to try not
to hide in the woodwork, as I'm all too prone to do. Unless I've made
an utter fool of myself.

- Teek
___  ___  ___  ___
" 'Four to a tray - there is a large supply of pots here - compost in
the sacks over there - and be careful of the Venemous Tentacula, it's
teething.'
She gave a sharp slap to a spoky, dark red plant as she spoke, making
it draw in the long feelers that had been inching sheakily over her
shoulder."


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