The Great Big Harry Potter Squee Bonanza

[sophieisgod]

This is it, my friends. The end is near. In a fortnight, it will all be over.

Basically, my Harry Potter Hysteria is reaching unchartable levels of nostalgia and squee, so I thought I would do the decent thing and encourage my fellow fanatics to engage in a wise and nuanced exchange of ideas (and SQUEE) about this monumentous literary occasion (I told you I was getting excited. This isn't healthy).

Basically... I want theories, I want memories, I want fic and video recs, I want favourite moments, favourite characters, thoughts on the films and any other jazz that might apply.

Please, guys. If I don't have an outlet for my excitement my head will explode and I'll die. Do you want that on your collective conscience, flisties? DO YOU?

Yours in pathetc desperation (and SQUEE),
Sophie

Comments

[sophieisgod.livejournal.com]

Okay, My Harry Potter Geek Manifesto.

I've always had a bit of a repuation as That Girl Who Reads A Lot, and when I was in year 5 (age 9), a boy called Tom in my class asked me if I'd read Harry Potter. I had no idea what he was jabbering on about, but he was so enthusastic that I was intruigued. Unfortunately, I wasn't intruigued enough to actually buy the book, so I didn't actually start reading the series until just before PoA came out. My mum bought me the first two, which were duly devoured, and the first seeds of my fangirlishness were planted.

Anyway, over the years, the books have been bought on the first day of release and there's been radio silence and a strict no-spoiler policy among my group of friends until we've all finished and squee can be had (slow reading is punsihable by shunning). Hours and hours have been devoted to analysis and flailing and doing the Harry Potter Quiz on the Scholastic website. After PoA, my best friend Emma and I had sleepovers devoted entirely to Harry Potter (Example of conversation: "So do you think something will happen with Harry and that Cho Chang girl?"). It was my fandom before I knew what fandom was.

Okay, favourite stuff.
CHARACTERS
- Ronald Weasley, without a doubt. There is so much that I love about this character that it's ridiculous. Out of al the characters in the series, it's him that makes me laugh the most. I feel for his whole massive-family-everyone's-awesome-inferiority-complex angst. I *love* watching him and Hermione stumble towards a relationship as it ever-so-slowly dawns on him. I love the fact that he gets dirt on his nose. He's unflinchingly loyal, and he's willing to sacrifice himself for his friends BUT HOPEFULLY NOT IN THE SEVENTH BOOK. He's ginger. He's ridiculous. I loves him. In fact, all the people I know who love Ron, *really* love Ron. Maybe it's that protective instinct (our boy has been savaged at the hands of those DELUSIONAL Harry/Hermione shippers), maybe it's just that there's something about him that makes you want to hug him. Maybe it's the ginger.

- All of the Marauders (not Peter, he doesn't count *spits*), but particularly Remus Lupin. He likes books. He likes chocolate. He's endearingly shabby. He's got a wonderfully dry sense of humour. He's the coolest teacher ever. Above all, there is ANGST. This is a man who, for twelve years, thought the murder of three of his best friends was caused by their other best friend. And he loses his best friend twice. Oh, and he's a werewolf. And then there are the scenes like him packing in PoA, which just make me ache because he's so dignified and wry in the face of something so horrible and humiliating. But there's also the whole Shrieking Shack sequence (possibly one of my favourite things in the whole series, and definitely the section I've reread the most) with, again, the fierce loyalty, and the resolution and the whole Marauders dynamic. And I am a huge, huge fan of the Tonks/Lupin relationship, pink werecubs and all. I live in fear that it's going to get cut from the films. And yes, I'm not ashamed to admit it. I do have a little bit of a thing for David Thewlis.

- There are a couple of characters who have grown on me immensely over the course of the books (and the films), and these are Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom, because they've had two of the most awesome character arcs. Ginny's gone from being in awe of Harry and all awkward and embarassed to being, frankly, a complete badass. Whereas Neville, while still being a bit of buffoon and loveable and all that (and I love Matthew Lewis' performance in the fillums) has grown up so much, with all the tragic backstory and, while still not a badass, is capable of great bravery and general goodosity.

SCENES/PLOTS/STUFF LIKE THAT
- Anything at all involving the Marauders in the slightest degree
- Won Won and Lavender
- Weasley's Wizard Wheezes
- The Ministry of Magic showdown in OotP
- Harry and Ginny's first kiss (bless)