This is what is stopping me from stepping into the burgeoning HP fandom -- I just can't see doing all the reading it would take to know the canon.

Oh, but that's the marvelous thing about it--the writers have done the research for you! I like the characters so much more in fanfic than in the books. I think a large part of the reason that OotP was such a disappointment to me was that I'd been reading a lot of fic in the months leading up to its release, and the book just couldn't measure up. I mean, I've read and enjoyed the books, but I certainly don't have the exhaustive knowledge of canon that others do, and I don't think it's necessary for an appreciation of the fic.

Rowling's good at broad strokes, but at this point, I fear her characters have grown beyond her ability to write them well. (She's never been able to believeably write the adults as three-dimensional characters, but when the kids were too young to relate to them as peers, it didn't matter so much.)

I'm curious why everyone seems to think Snape and Lily were/should have been a couple. In the extended flashback in OotP, Snape lashes out at Lily for interfering when James was harassing him, and he calls her a mudblood. Even if he had a secret crush on her, I don't see her going out with him if that's how he acted towards her. I suppose they could have gone out and broken up before that scene, but that's not the vibe I got.

Also, while I think it's possible Petunia's a squib, I don't know how that would fit with her comment about how everyone was so excited to have a witch in the family, as if it were an unusal occurance. (I think she says that in OotP.)

I think the half-blood prince is Hagrid, who had quite a large role (no pun intended) in CoS.

t /just reread the whole series recently

I'm also frighteningly convinced by that Ron is Dumbledore argument.

So you're saying that Ron is subletting from Dumbledore?

I fear her characters have grown beyond her ability to write them well.

Yes, this. But I also think she's got a limited fictional worldview. She's very impatient with fans who want there to be more to Draco than Evil Evil Kid. I can certainly see saying "Don't have a crush on Draco, he's not like the actor." But she's also saying that it's disturbing that people want to be Slytherins; that means that in her mind it's perfectly natural to have one house for Evil People.

It just doesn't make sense, dammit. Why would you tolerate several hundred years of a public school one-quarter of whose population are doomed to dress well and cackle a lot?

in her mind it's perfectly natural to have one house for Evil People.

It just doesn't make sense, dammit. Why would you tolerate several hundred years of a public school one-quarter of whose population are doomed to dress well and cackle a lot?

I get this, too. And no, it doesn't make real sense.

Perhaps there is a Scarlet Pimpernel factor -- the Slytherin you think is all cackle, sneer and upper-crusty hauteur turns out to be a powerful (yet manipulative -- that's what Slyth is about, right?) force for good.

I would like that to be true, but Rowlings has expressed horror at people who think there could be some good in Slytherins. I think she's afraid we are seduced by their power, money, and blond wigs.

[Not that I have an Lucius Malfoy problem or anything.]

I think the half-blood prince is Hagrid, who had quite a large role (no pun intended) in CoS.

If this were the case, I would toss the book across the room -- or, okay, skim even more than I normally do and roll my eyes a lot.

Does anyone else find Hagrid an annoying waste of space who should have been fired for real long ago?

Does anyone else find Hagrid an annoying waste of space who should have been fired for real long ago?

Only in the movies. I like him in the books, but that's because there's enough time and space (and pages) to flesh out his character fully.

In the movies, partly by necessity of the constraints on running time, he's pretty 2-dimensional.