Deathly Hallows

[sebastienne]

This book has made me want to write fic again, in a way that I haven't since the publication of OotP. And here's me about to be in Edinburgh with an A4 notebook & loads of free time...

Snape/Lily.

How many of us shipped it irrationally, how many of us couldn't pin-point any canon evidence, but just KNEW that Snape saw in Harry the man he hated with the eyes of the girl he loved?

Even now I can't think why or how I knew this was coming. But I DID KNOW, even when people mocked me & pointed out my lack of canonical support.

The only other thing I have always felt as strongly as Snape/Lily is Remus/Sirius. And thus I choose to believe that Remus' out-of-character action in this book was not due to bad writing, but due to ANGST & GAY. Tonks - a dyke with exceptions? Lesbians, back me up on this, Remus is up there with Bowie & Depp on the list of exceptions, right? So I say, Tonks really did love Remus, enough to be Sirius for him, but Remus was just fucking conflicted. "But I'm a werewolf!" = "But I'm a big flamey gay!" I might even go so far as to suggest that he wanted to die, really.

Fred - ghost. Has to be. I WILL NOT COUNTENANCE George without Fred. I'd imagine there's even more mischief can be got up to if one of you is non-corporeal..

Page 84 purges Emma Watson from my mind in a wave of cleansing fire. Hermione, my faith in you was vindicated on this page. I have loved you since I was 11.

"Kings Cross Station" a bit too "Architect" for my liking, and Dumbledore, what a BASTARD, training this boy up to die - although it explains his constant withholding of plot-relevant points which seemed to me sometimes like bad writing.

A few exclamations: Aberforth! Neville! Kreacher!

The epilogue mostly just makes me feel excluded. Like they don't want My Type there, the queer & the childfree & the poly & the anti-marriage. Then again, does Luna's conspicuous absence mean that she never married, became her father to a certain degree, lived in a windmill & hunted crumple-horned snorcracks? JKR, if you're going to write a cracky epilogue like that, just to spite the ficcers, you could at least bother to include all your major characters? As it was, it was too short, too pointless, too much two-fingers to ficcers; I predict that fandom will soon come to a consensus which pretends that epilogue never existed. In fifty years' time, they'll be printing the book without it. (Hugo WTF?!)

But mostly - JKR you have rekindled my love for this world and these people! You're back on books 1-4 form!

And now; it's over. This series caught me at a unique time in my life, between 11 & 21. I will never again feel as I did the first time I met Hermione. I will never again feel as I did meeting gatty at midnight. I will never again feel as I did on threadbarewolf's carpet, talking HP Source with her & aliche. I will never again feel as I did in deathbyshines' kitchen, seeing the sun rise, crying and shrieking and laughing so intensely.

But this was just my Hobbit.

Bring on The Fellowship of the Ring.

Comments

[queerpup.livejournal.com]

I am not surprised Rowling didn't make any of the characters queer, even though a couple of them clearly would have been very happily so, but I am a little disappointed all the same.

And yes, the epilogue was a little odd. I wonder if it in part a comforting "cuddle" for younger readers, if that makes sense.

[forgiveninasong.livejournal.com]

In my part of the fandom (where I have been since I was 15), the epilogue is already being denied. I'm thinking of ripping mine out so I don't ever have to read that piece of crack ever again.

I *constantly* thought that Tonks was a lesbian. Constantly. Then I had to remind myself that no, she was in love with Remus. She is indeed a lesbian with exceptions, and Remus is there with Depp and Bowie, indeed.

Even though I like Sirius/Remus, I love my new icon <3

xxx

[deathbyshinies.livejournal.com]

:D I'm so glad to have shared the night with you!

I hadn't thought of ghostly Fred and human George, making mischief together from beyond the grave. It's a lovely idea, and I hope you write it - although it will still be very sad when George inevitably begins to age...

Also, I think you might like the way that copperbadge deals with Remus/Tonks in this fic:

http://sam-storyteller.livejournal.com/117432.html

Not to mention the depiction of sweet, pretty, bright-haired glittery queerboi Teddy Lupin, who I predict will be solid fanon in under a week...

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

meeep!

yesyesyes hello fandom no time long see yes i think i'm back to stay

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Oh, Sirius/Remus. So much agreement for all you've said there. I wonder, perhaps, if the epilogue wasn't written much, much before the rest of the book.

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

that's interesting; i think you may well be right.

also your fic made me tear up a little bit, right in my college library.

[floweringjudas.livejournal.com]

No, it was! It was! It was written like ages ago and she kept it in either a yellow or green folder on its own (I can't remember the color off the top of my head, she showed it in a television interview YEARS ago).

[jix1125.livejournal.com]

I have been so in love with Tonks since her first appearance that she has to have been a lesbian, albeit homoflexible. And I could totally see an attraction to Remus, so I back you up on that.

[foxjazz.livejournal.com]

The Epiloge was written before the first book was finished.

I'm wondering who lived who shouldn't have...

[gatty.livejournal.com]

I spent my last book sitting in a starbucks in Japan while I read for eight hours.

I'm glad you had beauty.

It's all done now. We're done.

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

Well, I first came across the Snape/Lily theory here (http://esr.ibiblio.org/index.php?p=195), shortly after the release of book 6, and I've always thought it was extremely convincing. I see he missed the bit about Dumbledore being mortally wounded, though.

Lycanthropy stands for whatever makes you different from and despised by the herd: it could be homosexuality, or Jewishness, or skin colour, or mental illness, or any of the various excuses for oppression that have been used over the centuries. As for the "anti-ficcer" accusation... I don't think she actually cares about you guys one way or the other. You simply don't matter compared to her core market, which has always been the kids. Besides, she wrote that epilogue long before there was HP slash - long before either Sirius or Remus had been introduced, in fact.

And the King's Cross chapter reminded me more of the end of 2001 than The Matrix Reloaded, but I can see the parallel.

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

Also, on the "werewolf == gay" theme: one of the key facts about lycanthropy (and a large part of why werewolves are shunned) is that it's transmissible. Are you sure you want to go down that route? :-)

[queerpup.livejournal.com]

I just had a thought about Tonks + Remus, and I am sure it's not an original thought, but wondered what you thought.

Tonks is a metamorphmagus. Also clearly is queer. Remus is also a very plausible poof. Is it not possible that Tonks' gender-identity (and physical expression of such) has the potential to be a lot more fluid than we see in the books. i.e. she could relate to Remus as a guy in private.

[ex-leighwoos982.livejournal.com]

Has JKR ever gone on the record and said that any of her characters were gay? Anywhere?

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

Sirius is mentioned in the very beginning of book 1; Hagrid delivers baby-Harry to the Dursley's on his motorbike.

Otherwise: I don't think I'm suggesting that JKR has been practicing intentional ficcer-spiting and heteronormativity-promoting.. that's just the way it comes off. If you aren't spawning & sending them to Hogwarts, she doesn't seem to want to know.

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

call it GRIDS then..

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

I believe this quite strongly, actually. That it's not a case of her "loving him enough" to pretend to be a guy for him; she's a fscking metamorphmagus. Perhaps it's easier to present as constantly-gendered in public, but I can't see her NOT spending at least some time experiencing things in other ways.

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

no. it's a kids' book! evrybody knows teh gheyz will corrupt your children.

[queerpup.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I'm not the only one then!

I didn't mean that Tonks would adopt a male body purely for Remus, but that her gender identity may be fluid enough that she would be comfortable in various physical manifestations - including having a big ol' cock when in the mood for one.

[ex-leighwoos982.livejournal.com]

But is all published now! Surely she can say who is Gay/Bi without harming sales etc, and it's not like the Christian right hasn't attempted to boycott the books already. It felt so wrong and empty to reach the end of the book and only find hetrosexual relationships affirmed.

Anyway I think I shall write to J. K. Rowling and ask her to clarify the issue.

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

no, but a lot of people (including me in the above post, I think) talk about Tonks "loving Remus enough" to morph into Sirius for him, which is different from the point we're making here. the more I think about this, the more I think it's right; if it was that easy, even I, uber-cis-femme, would be stepping out en homme from time to time!

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

please let me know how she responds; although sadly I think she'd write you off as "just another shipper" and not even bother to reply.

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

*misses her gatty*

[gatty.livejournal.com]

*is still very much your gatty*

and I miss you too DD: WHEN I GET BACK. 20th August.

[threadbarewolf.livejournal.com]

It is a weird, isn't it? I feel all very overblown and end-of-an-era but - but - yes!! It is like something tiny dying, except it's not tiny, and it's, you know, leik, my happy teenage years! Meep.

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

The world is clearly conspiring to make us act like grown-ups.

I won't have it, I say!

When're you in Edinburgh?

[threadbarewolf.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I'm going to be now, as I seem to be pootling off for most of August - back on the 24th I think - when does the festival finish? How's the show going? Is it full of funs? How are you? Are you back in London any more? I was avoiding livejournal so as to avoid spoilers (for some reason, I was very slow reading this year) so I think I missed you here a couple of weeks ago...

BUMS! (refusing to act like a grownup).

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

show's on 'til the 27th - where are you off to?

rehearsals are frantic, disorganised, catastrophic, and So Much Fun. I'm doing a real bona fide musical, with songs & singing! I like these things very much. I'll be singing a top b a night for 27 days, so if I've any vocal cords left at all at the end I'll be very happy indeed. Xenu is essentially Jareth the Goblin King with more platform boots & glitter, so I am Very Happy Indeed.

I'm getting on the coach to Edinburgh tonight, so yes, I'm afraid you've missed me. But here: *gives you an open invitation to tea in the Pridehouse any time from September 1st*.