OT - Y'all Look Vaguely Familiar - Intro.

[lucky_kari]

Hello!

I'm Eileen, your latest new member. A couple of years ago, I was 
rather active on HPFGU, and boy a lot of you look familiar. :-) 

I'm 22, Canadian, currently working as a drafting office 
administrator for a steel fabrication company, a job that is not so 
very interesting but does pay the bills. I was on sick-leave from 
university for a while, as well, which is one of the reasons why I 
stopped posting at HPFGU. 

Now that I'm better, I can't wait to go back to school in January 
and finish my BA in English. 

As for my fandom history, my first encounters with Harry Potter was 
hearing the books were evil and occult. This I was prepared to be 
skeptical about, but when GoF came out, a kid was interviewed on the 
radio talking about how the Hogwarts students had a Dark Arts class. 
Which enraged my moral sense, since while magic is ok, doesn't dark 
mean "evil?" So I decided not to read the books, being seventeen and 
very opinionated. My mother fortunately was not so silly, and when 
an acquaintance she was shopping with pointed to a stack of HP, and 
said "My husband says these are evil," she bought them to read them 
herself. Once they got into the house, we were all pretty much 
hooked. 

I got onto HPFGU in late fall of winter 2001, I think, and my second 
post was a rather naive statement that Rowling had settle who 
Hermione was going to end up with, quoting the "typical boy" 
interview. Well, at least I didn't ask about the gleam in 
Dumbledore's eyes. Was on HPFGU for a large portion of my life for 
almost two years after that. 

In spring 2002, I started writing HP fanfiction under a very secret 
alter ego, mostly so HPFGU friends wouldn't read my stuff and see 
how awful it was - I was very self-conscious - but over the years, 
the alter ego has become more of an open secret. My lj is 
www.livejournal.com/users/narcissam 

I don't write too much fic now, though. I'm busy working on an 
original fantasy novel about a Magical America, whose beginnings 
were in HP fic, but is miles away from those now. 

I must confess that I've read OotP only once, never feeling any 
inclination to revisit it, and that indifference played out in a 
lack of HP discussion on my part over the last two years. HBP, on 
the other hand, I adored, and immediately felt compelled to talk 
about it. I bumped into Eloise on YM, and she said there was good 
discussion on TOC, and she'd ask if I could get an invite. 

So here I am. And very happy to be here. I'll be reading the 
backposts before posting *my* take on Snape, I promise. 

Eileen