I have no idea where the phrase came from and couldn't care less, but there you go. A murky provenance is no bar to theft in Anne's World.

I don't normally enjoy the squalls and tempests of fandom. In fact, I normally go far to avoid them. Having said that, there's no rational explanation for why I've enjoyed the foaming-at-the-mouth freak-out that has been the response to JKR's most recent offering.

But I have been. I've been enjoying it (Mostly via a link on Ari's journal, but the link isn't working at the moment.)

On the off chance that there's some fan out there who still hasn't read the book but for some inexplicable reason reads this blog, and who doesn't want to be spoiled, the rest is hidden....

Maybe it's because my 'preferred' pairing is a slash pairing and like most canon sources, this book neither harmed nor helped it. (Inasmuch as I have any "preferred" pairing in a fandom I've only read half a dozen stories in, I mean.) So, this book didn't disrupt my "fandom" liking of the HP universe at all.*

Maybe it's because I wasn't aware that there was such a humongous Harry-Hermione fandom and I think it serves them right for having ignored the dozens of canon signposts pointing to Ron-Hermione from the first book. I'm all about interpreting sub-text and whatnot, but there isn't any Harry-Hermione sub-text. This is just a case of people having decided, for whatever reason, that they preferred this pairing and having stubbornly tried to ignore reality to death.

As tends to happen, the weight of entropy that we call Reality rolled over them like a bulldozer on steroids.

Maybe it's because I figured Dumbledore was destined for the rubbish heap? The series is all about stripping everything possible away from Harry. He's been deprived of parents, a decent home, his god-father, his view of school as a "refuge," and now his surrogate father. Makes perfect sense. The only question left is which of the remaining three will go in the next book? Hermione, Ron, or Hagrid? They're the only points of stability left in Harry's life.

My guess is that it might be Hagrid. As Harry's first "friend," you understand, he has a special relationship with Harry. It's hard to say because the school-kid trio was uncharacteristically dismissive of Hagrid in this last book, but that could just be JKR setting up Harry with yet another load of guilt when his friend dies and Harry has to realize he'd become a Bad Friend to Hagrid.

But that's not what this post is about.

I've been reading and enjoying the hysteria, weeping, misspelled denunciations, and general wankery. That part of fandom is, IMO, getting what it deserves.

To all of who insist upon your pairing and view the existence of any other pairing anywhere as a direct, personal, and deliberate insult? Neener-neener.

And that, I'm afraid, is about all I really had to say.

I finished the list o'chores, mostly last night but a couple this morning. I have clean sheets and towels, a closet full of clean laundry, a clean bathroom, a clean kitchen, a nicely vacuumed floor, a mostly dusted home, etc.

Now can I stop and read for a while?

P. S. Gotta say it. If I were "in" this fandom to any extent, it would be for Harry/Draco. And later, when they're adults. Because I find the whole kid thing icky. I mean, did you read this book? Those two are so Destiny Boys. Look at them!

Except of course that nothing, nothing, nothing in the world will ever surpass AJHall's LoPiverse, beginning with the unmatchable Lust Over Pendle and including everything else she wrote in the 'verse. She made Draco/Neville not only inevitable, but sweet, funny, romantic, and moving. And the rest of her cast of characters...I am in awe.

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* Except, you know, that Harry-Ginny thing? Could that have been any less interesting? At least JKR tried to make the Ron-Hermione thing a little less formulaic, even if she did do it at the expense of Hermione's character, but the H-G stuff read like she'd shoved it into the book at the last minute because she'd realized she'd forgotten it previously.

Did anyone but me hear JKR checking it off on the list of Plot Points?

Doomed romantic relationship - done