(Originally posted 8-19-2009)
I am about 100 pages away from rereading the last "Harry Potter" book and I decided I would like to write about the connection between the "Harry Potter" books and the fanfiction written about them because the connection is actually pretty interesting.
Theories and Plot Points Established in "Harry Potter" Fanfiction and How They Ended Up Relating to the Canon.
Ginny's real name is Virginia. This was apparently a very common theory for a while because apparently JK just never bothered to mention her actual first name until later in the series (book 5? I'm going to assume book 5 because I don't remember a damn thing about book 5 and yet a lot of unformation was given in it). Maybe that was when she realized Ginny was going to become kind of important, although she never really did get a personality, strangely enough. Either way, same people were mad when her name became Ginerva. I didn't care because I, like a lot of people, never really thought of Ginny as much of a character.
Harry and Herminone are made for each other. Like Draco and Ginny. I never really gave any thought to pairings (which is odd because I usually do) so the whole 'is Hermione going to be with Harry or Ron' thing was never a concern of mine.
It's true, for a long while it does seem like Hermione and Harry are going to end up together until the fourth book when Ron and Hermione have a shouting match about the Yule Ball that still reads more cruel than 'they're fighting because they like each other' to me. Seemingly out of nowhere, Ron is in love with Hermione and Hermione seems vaguely interested in Ron even though she's always hugging Harry. The movies made this confusion worse as Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson seem to have great chemistry. It's only in the 3rd and 4th movies that Harry and Hermione are just friends while in the 6th when it should be obvious that they are not going to be together, they are always cuddling and stuff.
Fans were outraged; JK laughs maniacally.
As for DracoxGinny, there is not a speck of support for this pairing in the canon but that's probably why the fanfiction community got behind it. Ginny was a minor character for a long time with a personality that could be molded into anything and people seemed to universally agree that Draco needed someone who wasn't Pansy Parkinson.
Blaise Zabini is a girl. Apparently Blaise was mentioned in the very first book as being a genderless character who was sorted into Slytherin and for this reason, Blaise was used in fanfiction when more Slytherins were needed. Often as a chick who dates Draco. Yeah. To me, Blaise sounds like a boy's name but apparently to a lot of people it sounds like a girl's name. Anyway, Blaise reemerged in the sixth book as a hot black boy whose mom is a famous model. And apparently some people missed this part of the book because there were some shocked people when they saw the movie.
Severus is totally in love with Lily. The fanfiction community saw this coming after reading the fifth book but for some reason, people were still surprised when they read the seventh book and confirmation of this fact was given.
Sirius Black is the only well known Black. Oh boy was this one fun. As it turns out, everyone is pretty much somehow related to the Black family and this is a fact that wasn't really necessary until the fifth book when a bunch of Aurors/Death Eaters became more well known. Most entertaining about this fact is that I have read a fanfiction in which Narcissa Malfoy ends up leaving Lucius for Sirius who we now know is her cousin. Other people related to the Black family include Bellatrix Lestrange nee Black, Tonks, Regulus Black (who made it into fanfiction with virtually nothing known about him), Andromeda Tonks nee Black, etc.
The most odd thing about this is even JK messed up in the Black family confusion. In the sixth book when Tonks is going emo, Ron suggests it might be because she was in love with Sirius and Harry agrees. Sirius was her first cousin, once removed. Ew.
But I bet the Blacks have inbred before. I bet a lot of pureblood families have. The Gaunts sure did.
*FURTHER EVIDENCE! So after I finished the corny ass epilogue, I looked up Victoire Weasley because I'm dumb and couldn't figure out who's kid she is and I found out this line: "Victoire Weasley and Teddy Lupin are fourth cousins once removed as they are both distant descendants of Phineas Nigellus Black."
Yep.
Sirius and Remus are gay for each other. Now obviously there are a number of slash pairings, most popular being HarryxDraco, but this is one of the very few that could have reasoned out before the canon proved it wrong.
They are both described as being good looking when they were younger and yet James is the only one who actually got married. Now the logical thing to reason is that Sirius was a man whore who get thrown in Azkaban before meeting the right woman and Remus was just not into relationships because of his condition but for a while, this suggestion almost seemed like it could be right. See also: bro-hugging in the 3rd movie.
Of course, this idea is shattered in the sixth book when Remus hooks up with Tonks and when Harry sees Sirius' room covered in girls in bikinis and motorcycles.
Bellatrix Lestrange is in love with Voldemort. I don't actually know which came first: the fanfiction or the confirmation that this is true. Again, I don't know because I don't remember much about the fifth book. By the seventh book, it is apparent but it might have been clear before that.
The representation of this fact as a pairing is interesting because it either makes absolutely no sense whatsoever or it makes tons of sense and whichever one depends entirely on if you believe Voldemort has a libido/still has a penis. (By the way, I looked up snake reproduction when contemplating this and I so regret it).
The most entertaining thing about this being true is the question: why the hell did she even get married? Society? Or because Voldemort told her to? Both theories seem to fly around in the fanfiction community but more fun is theories on Bellatrix's relationship with her husband (who actually has a name and it's Roldolphus). Either he is totally submissive to her or they have a hateful relationship that is only compromised by the joy they get in watching the other one torture people (and hate sex).
I wonder if JK is one of those authors who reads fanfiction of her work? I know some authors intentionally avoid it so it won't affect where they chose to go in their stories (which is a trope called "Running The Asylum).
I still meet people who confuse fanfiction with canon because of how large and influential the "Harry Potter" fanbase is.
I guess this is literature in a postmodern society.
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