there's a pretty strong taboo against having fictional characters who are minors (HP, S1 Buffy, e.g.) do adult things like sex or drugs (or buying a house, but that's something I don't see fanfic about very often).

bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

"NC-17, for strong language and underage purchase of real estate."

In answer to your question, though, I have no idea.

My google journey through HP fanfic sites was interesting, to say the least. I've never felt so out-of-step with fanon in my life--it's really hard to find anything at all if you don't much care what happens to Draco, or if you can live with Hermione/Ron but are more inclined to Hermione/Harry. Most other fandoms I've been part of are a bit more varied. I mean, sure, there are several popular pairings in BtVS fanfic that completely puzzle me, but there also seems to be at least a dozen good stories out there for any two characters with decent chemistry, so it's not like I can't find anything to read just because the idea of Spike/Xander doesn't turn me on.

I'm just rambling here, and cogitating on the different way people must experience canon to come up with such different fanfic consensuses.

Dude. My weekend was possessed by, among other things, the ways other poeple have researched, over the last 40 years, what Tolkien intended with this or that diacritical mark, and how to back-form past tenses of invented words according to the attested evidence.

You haven't seen fanon till you're putting little stars next to words to say, "Well, this word appears nowhere in Tolkien canon, but this is how other words like it have acted under these circumstances, and it can't be this other thing because we have a word for that, and other people think it should be like this too, so here it is."

Makes one's head spin, if one is also a student of (real) historical linguistics. Grimm's laws of Germanic consonant change? All fanon!!

Makes one's head spin, if one is also a student of (real) historical linguistics. Grimm's laws of Germanic consonant change? All fanon!!

Blimey.

it's really hard to find anything at all if you don't much care what happens to Draco, or if you can live with Hermione/Ron but are more inclined to Hermione/Harry.

HP is a very young fandom, both in the sense that it hasn't been around that long, and in that the readers and writers seem to (on average, given what I know) be younger than in other fandoms. BtVS attracts a very wide range of people, of all sorts of ages and backgrounds, who therefore have very wide-ranging takes on the text: HP seems to appeal to a narrower band, who therefore produce a narrower range of fanfics. Just my ideas.

Also, HP isn't as subtext heavy as BtVS- Joss and co. seem to have a least thought about almost every pairing possible, and put some subtext in for them, while Rowling seems to me to be a bit thin of subtext, except for a limited range of pairings/characters.

Makes one's head spin, if one is also a student of (real) historical linguistics.

Makes my head spin, too. But sometimes in a good way. One day, I will study real linguistics. It's a dream of mine.

(I'm still zinging with the realisation that Jason 'Luscious Malfoy' Isaacs is in a frock with MR in Sweet November. Going to have to see that movie.)

You see, ita? I told you. Perfect storm.

It's not a very becoming dress, I'm sorry to say. A man with shoulders like that shouldn't wear spaghetti straps.

Ah, well. If only I had time to do something with my HP plot bunny, since I've finally thought of a way to pull off an HP/Buffy crossover with Hermione coming to Sunnydale without making a terrible Mary Sue of it.

One day, I will study real linguistics. It's a dream of mine.

Am-Chau, I'm a student in the amateur, did-some-in-college, sometimes-take-a-night-class-now sense, rather than the erinaceous sense. I got a couple of books, I sat down and read them, I made a fool of myself writing flashcards and funny letters, and Bob was my uncle. Or continues to be my uncle. Next up: actually learning Latin beyond "In horto est puella, nomine Flavia." Not that girls in gardens aren't important.

I'm a student in the amateur, did-some-in-college, sometimes-take-a-night-class-now sense

And I'm a student in the I-bought-a-second-hand-book, I-read-most-of-it-and-then-haven't-found-time-to-actaully-finish-it-even-though-I-was-enjoying-it-on-the-days-I-felt-clever sense. So you beat me.