everything but the girl

I got a copy of the Carpet Book on July 16, and I read it on the 17th (it took a while to DL and extract) while YMing with a friend. Some of the bits of that conversation follow:


HT: Can I ship albus/gellert? Please?
SV: I'm sure you won't be the only one.


HT: Regulus was wonderful!
HT: But my god this is slow......
SV: Regulus didn't show up! He was just a story. *sad*
SV: I wanted him to be real.
HT: I know.
HT: But he is, for me.
HT: I want to go back to his story, the one I started back in
2001. Maybe I will....
SV: I mean, I wanted him to be alive.
HT: I know.
HT: Fucking inferi.

SV: My god, Heidi. After this, really and honestly....no more canon.
SV: No more Lupin.
HT: Wow.
SV: No chance of Sirius coming back...
HT: Wibble.
HT: That's why we have imaginations and AU's
SV: Yeah, but it's never really the same.

SV: Nothing new yet cept the epilogue, but don't read it, it
spoils the rest of the book.
HT: I know
HT: Remus gets dead, doesn't he?
SV: That actually isn't mentioned.
HT: Is it presumptive?
SV: Though I would say from some of the references in the
epilogue that he miiiiight be.
HT: Ok, thanks. I can live with that.
HT: Because? Wedding bonding? Is for life only.

HT: You know what I boggle at?
HT: Wizarding Law.
HT: The wizarding world just took it onto themselves to TAKE
the pottersl home and enshrine it
HT: Did anyone pay Harry for the taking?
SV: Well, if it was a rental property it might have been sold
to the gov't.
SV: What boggles me more is how vague the rest of the
government structure is.
HT: I mean, there's a value to the land. Technically
HT: [/real property]

SV: You're going to love ch 33
HT: Coool.
HT: Is regulus snogging barty in it?
SV: Better. Want to know?
HT: Not yet.

HT: Ok, I'm in snape's memories
HT: Oh love.
SV: See, told you that you'd like that
HT: Oh.
HT: Oh I knew it.
SV: HEE
HT: : copies this convo.....
HT: I told you!
HT: 10 hours ago, I said....
SV: You did! JEEZ!
SV: I can't believe you were right.
HT: : loves this book


HT: Sigh. Oh, hey! Naked Harry. Hellooooo daniel
SV: God, that part was boring.
HT: But will look soooo r-rated on screen. Haha.
HT: Fight the Dark Lord in the name of brave Regulus!

No, I didn't do NanoWriMo or even NaBloPoMo, but someone on my flist asked yesterday whether there was anything we would want to change in the HP books, now that it's all said and done. And of course, I'm sure everyone has things - big and little, world-changing and world-tweaking - that they would have done differently; I'm curious as to what y'all would have changed or expanded upon.

For me, there are tiny tweaks - to the way Hedwig died, to some aspects of Tonks' characterization, to Draco's hairline in the Epilogue - but I wouldn't want to change anything significantly. There is, however, one thing that I've always wanted, and had really weirdly hoped to see in the film even though it wasn't in the books - a soul-less Barty Crouch stuck in a corner somewhere.

So finally, I wrote the one-paragraph drop-in drabble that I would've loved to see in Deathly Hallows (and am considering trying to organize it as a Challenge in the new year):

Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: G
Characters: Barty Crouch, Jr.
Summary: A 100-word drop-in to Deathly Hallows that would've changed nothing, but would look really good on screen.

Harry was surprised to see a blank-eyed Barty Crouch, Jr. standing like a cloak-rack off by the wall nearest the Slytherin table. There were four hats piled on his head, three cloaks on each arm and a massive bag at his feet. The Death Eaters seemed to be using him to hold their stuff while they battled Hogwarts' defenders. How many years ago had Sirius told Harry that wizards could live without a soul, but Harry had never expected to see the aftereffects of a Dementor attack in the Great Hall. Someone, Harry thought fleetingly, must be feeding him regularly.

---

In other news? OMGOMG NASA is having a presser on Thursday regarding a major astrobiology discovery!?!? Gawker thinks that they may be announcing a discovery of bacteria on one of Saturn's moons!!!! How soon til we get ONTD_Aliens? Internet crash and twitter failwhale in about 51 hours, clearly.

No, I didn't do NanoWriMo or even NaBloPoMo, but someone on my flist asked yesterday whether there was anything we would want to change in the HP books, now that it's all said and done. And of course, I'm sure everyone has things - big and little, world-changing and world-tweaking - that they would have done differently; I'm curious as to what y'all would have changed or expanded upon.

For me, there are tiny tweaks - to the way Hedwig died, to some aspects of Tonks' characterization, to Draco's hairline in the Epilogue - but I wouldn't want to change anything significantly. There is, however, one thing that I've always wanted, and had really weirdly hoped to see in the film even though it wasn't in the books - a soul-less Barty Crouch stuck in a corner somewhere.

So finally, I wrote the one-paragraph drop-in drabble that I would've loved to see in Deathly Hallows (and am considering trying to organize it as a Challenge in the new year):

Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: G
Characters: Barty Crouch, Jr.
Summary: A 100-word drop-in to Deathly Hallows that would've changed nothing, but would look really good on screen.

Harry was surprised to see a blank-eyed Barty Crouch, Jr. standing like a cloak-rack off by the wall nearest the Slytherin table. There were four hats piled on his head, three cloaks on each arm and a massive bag at his feet. The Death Eaters seemed to be using him to hold their stuff while they battled Hogwarts' defenders. How many years ago had Sirius told Harry that wizards could live without a soul, but Harry had never expected to see the aftereffects of a Dementor attack in the Great Hall. Someone, Harry thought fleetingly, must be feeding him regularly.

---

In other news? OMGOMG NASA is having a presser on Thursday regarding a major astrobiology discovery!?!? Gawker thinks that they may be announcing a discovery of bacteria on one of Saturn's moons!!!! How soon til we get ONTD_Aliens? Internet crash and twitter failwhale in about 51 hours, clearly.

Even though I've been reminding myself for a week to switch to this icon in honour of the release of DH1 (which should have an old-school VH1-style logo) I still managed to forget yesterday.

Well, I've corrected for it now.

As I've tweeted recently, I was lucky enough to get to see Deathly Hallows at the premiere in NYC on Monday, although my review was officially embargoed until today. ( Crossposted from FAP and HPfGU-Movies, as I am kickin' it old school for the next few months... )

Harry Potter changed my life. It's been more than twelve years since I first read Philosopher's Stone, and Chamber of Secrets shortly thereafter. And twelve years ago this week, I learned I was pregnant with a boy we named Harry, and tomorrow he'll be going with me to the movies as a very, very belated birthday party thing.

In July, we're both going to be at LeakyCon, so we can see it surrounded by thousands of friends who we've met because of JK Rowling's words, and it won't be the end of the story for either of us. I can't wait to finally get to Leavesden Studios, or see the new additions to the Museum Exhibition again some day, and of course, there will always be cons and symposia and events and revivals of the movies and maybe someday, musical theater.

And there will always be people who are new to the story, and who then discover the fandom - and those who read the books and saw the movies, but are only just now finding the news-sites and the fics and the art and the vids and the films, musicals and fancons.

The kids who are about to have their first experience with Harry Potter as their parents take them to the Wizarding World, the random grownups like Mark (of MarkReadsHarryPotter) who didn't read it in their childhood or their teens, the kids whose parents banned the films and books because of "witchcraft" and those who simply, finally, get caught up in the hype that will lead to the last movie's release - they're all still just discovering fandom, and like the influxes of the past, they will all cause fandom to change in a million individual ways.

If you have a moment and haven't voted yet, let me know what song you think I should vid each HP film to. And if you can think of a better song that charted in the UK in 1997, please let me know!

No actual spoilers, of course, in the icon. Or, frankly, IMHO, in my saying this:

The trailer says this film is "the event of a generation".

It's not.

It's the event of *generations*.

I have tears in my eyes.

And yes, we're hoping to show the trailer on a permaloop somewhere at Infinitus.

Speaking of, if you're staying at the Royal Pacific, Hard Rock or Portofino Bay for Infinitus please fill out this survey so we can give an accurate inventory to the hotel. Thanks in advance!

Some of you may remember my ridiculous idea not to read the Epilogue, because as long as I didn't read it, there would still be new Harry Potter-verse canon that I could read.

I didn't get to a bookstore party last night - nothing was near me - and this morning I had a miserable dentist's appointment at 9AM and am still a little drugged out of my head from the drilling, but the Fedex truck arrived with New HP Canon! and while I am going to wait to read it when my son gets home and we can read it together (which I never thought I would be able to do with him and a new Harry Potter book, because when 7 came out he'd only read Book One and I didn't think he was ready yet for all the deaths in 4 - 7 anyway) I have now...
Read! The! Epilogue!
Yes, of course I was already utterly spoiled for all of the content, but I hadn't ever read JKR's own words, and now I have.

And, oh, whatever, it is what it is. Maybe I have enough distance from the series now that it just feels cute and somewhat pastede on yay but not in a particularly bad way. Maybe I'm so used to the character names that they don't throw me out of the story. It's woobie-fied, it's got some food for thought and plot, and I don't think it was necessary for the story, but it clearly was necessary for JKR herself.

In a few hours, I will open a box and decide which of the stories in Beedle the Bard I will not read. If I skip one - any one! - I will still have new canon to read whenever I want to. And if nothing new gets announced between now and then, I think I will save that last story for the hour I will spend standing in line for a ride in the World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, 12 to 18 months from now.

Oh, and speaking of Beedle, just a little azkatraz/HPEF reminder:

.go to your local Barnes & Noble, and use the HPEF Bookfair voucher or Bookfair number 352096 when you make your purchases. A portion of your sale will be donated to HPEF to continue our literacy endeavors. Use the voucher or number from December 4th through the 10th on all your B&N purchases, including books, CDs, DVDs, games, gifts, and even items from B&N Cafes. Help even more by telling everyone you know to buy with the voucher, too! And don't forget to check out your store's Holiday Book Drive benefitting children in need in your area. (Maybe you could even donate a copy of Beedle, using the voucher of course.)

More info here.

I'm never going to manage to get all my thoughts about the last third of DT on paper in a coherent form because every time I try, someone emails me a fic rec (like the one this morning by casirafics) and I get all weepy again and I have to stop and hunt down popcorn and diet coke.
But I've read so many absolutely astute perspectives from so many of you - those who loved all of it, those who loved the story but got twitchy at the Epilogue, those who liked parts but had Issues with others, and even those who are disturbed or upset by aspects of, or the whole of, the book and the series.

I'll just briefly touch on one issue that I have a specific concern with, and then go back into bullet-point mode with Things I Now Believe ( but it'll all be behind a cut )

I'm not reading the epilogue this weekend.
Not because of the content - I'm fully spoiled for the general info in it - but because as long as I don't, the series isn't over for me.

There will still be more canon for me to read.

Anyone else doing the same?

Since I'm talking about both Supernatural and Harry Potter in this post, I'll use my crossover icon!

First, the reveals for spn_summergen happened this morning, and I wanted to thank krisomniac for the amazing Fourth of July-themed fic, which you can read here.

Second, my fic, A Life Between Us, was originally posted here, and this morning, I uploaded it on the LJ I set up a few weeks ago for any fics I write in 2007-and-beyond. There's some HP, some Heroes, some Supernatural and some Torchwood (and I may put some new Who up there if I finish it...), and it's pear_vodka (which will make sense to various wedt00bage and Drunkeater-type people).

Third, squee - foreword wrote an amazing ficlet featuring Barty Jr and Regulus for me this morning and you should read it here!

Fourth, rookie131 made these adorable icons for hallows_reviews:





Shay, they're gackable if people credit you, right?

naadi - can you AIM or YM me at around 3 Eastern US time to talk layout?


Happysigh. I'm having a much better day than I did in the early part of yesterday!

Dammit.

I wanted one more year of fandom waiting and speculating and discussing and theorizing.

Not the movie and the book in the same damned week.

In case you didn't hear, book 7 is coming out July 21. 2007.

Anyone planning a reading party?

Oh, and also?

I know of some *amazing* plans now underway for Sectus and for Prophecy! For that, I will squeeee.