I have been enjoying your essays and thinking about why D/G is my OTP, dabblings in Dramione be damned. I had to think through the history of everything to come to a conclusion.

The HP fandom was one of the funnest things I've ever had in my life, and that is saying something. The night DH was released, we had huge party in the little town I grew up in. Like many places, there were tons of festivities while we waited for the bookstore to open at midnight. I spent my time helping local kids make glittery wands in the pottery store. Then we all got our books, and my entire family stayed up all night reading. We declared ourselves very happy with the way the story wound up, and I went on never to read DH again. Looking back, I can see a lot of the glow came from the large-scale camaraderie, something that doesn’t come along every day, rather than the brilliance of the wind-up. This was experienced world-wide, and it partially explains why more questions weren’t asked about DH, at least at the time.

I think the reason for my dissatisfaction is best summed up with your observation that not one shot from one gun on the Draco-and-Ginny table ever went off. But that isn't the most important gun that was never fired. There had been years of pressure building up around Harry and Snape, and that really needed to be resolved face-to-face. Draco’s behavior in the final battle was senseless, and Ginny just dropped off the map. Tom himself was never examined. We were lucky to get the background on Dumbledore. Otherwise, the story was essentially unfinished. Instead, we got ramblings about wands and the hallows.

Right after I finished DH, I turned to fan fiction, starting with D/G. When a story builds up as much pressure as that one did, it really needs to be resolved or it will bang around in my brain forever. To be honest, none of these characters from Heathcliff on down are JKR’s. As a fiction addict, I have met all of them before, many times. What she did so ingeniously was mash them together. So I have no problem with other people re-mashing the mash up. That is what it is there for, and fan fiction has helped me come to terms with the problems in the original story.

Since reading your article, I have pondered two things. First, why did she go down the road she did with DH? My guess is that you are right, she was trying to configure the ending to match up with the primitive outlines of the epilogue she had devised years before. I also don’t think she fully understood all the characters (they weren’t all hers, after all), and didn’t get their appeal.

Second, why D/G? For me this is pretty simple. With the exception of Snape, who was spoken for long ago, Ginny and Draco are the only sex-positive creatures in the story. Ginny for obvious reasons and Draco because a) he is the hurt/comfortable character; b) his coloring (drawn from White Russians and the Jackal, I would guess) signals romantic intent and c) his tragic situation should have been transformative, which is romantic in itself.

So yes, do carry on with this path you are on. This particular ship has a job to accomplish. It would be too bad to see it descend into fluff. Nothing against fluff, but D/G could be so much more.

Author's Response: Thanks!! :) What a great, GREAT review. (And I love the phrase "dabblings in Dramione be damned." ;) I remember the DH release, too. It was at the local mall in the independent bookstore, everybody was so excited, the book was released at midnight, la la la... and then I read it. :P It's NOT that there weren't a lot of good things about the last 2 books, or that nothing worked in a logical way. But you're right. There were many more problems than just the crucial interaction missing between Draco and Ginny. Even if they never spoke another word to each other or were in the same room again, those individual characters were ridiculously underdeveloped. Harry and Snape never did resolve anything, did they? Instead, there was a fake wrapup in the epilogue when Harry named a child after him. If it comes to that, we didn't get any resolution of Draco and Snape's relationship-- and this was *after* Snape made a deal to kill or die for him, if necessary. We could go ON, and on, and on... and actually, later in the essay, this comes up again. You WILL be quoted. Well, if that's okay. ;)

There's much more to come! And I hope that you continue to enjoy it, and also to get something out of it. :)

Hi Anise.

It's been awhile, hasn't it? Completely my fault, it happens to everyone, this 'real life' business, and I know YOU know how...consuming D/G in general can be. So I thought, no, stay away, concentrate on uni, job etc etc you don't have hours to read/write/obsess over this pairing. (And it is really only ever this pairing).

But I did think of you. I knew you would still be writing, creating, brainstorming, musing, thinking of all the possibilities in the world where you could take this. And you have. And I'd like to tell you how much I admire and am grateful for this.

As for your essay - YES. All of the yes. I have held for awhile now that whilst WE (being that generation that grew up with the books and with the characters) grew up, the characters did not mature as the some of the readers did. I still find it hard to believe that many of the fics I've read on this site are not actually canon, as some of them have actually captured the characters and spirit more completely than I thought possible.

But keep doing this, all of it! The writing, the revamping and everything. And hopefully I will be more around to participate in it this time.

That fic I'm writing might be up for your approval/disapproval sooner than I thought.
Can't wait until your next update.

*blushes* *looks down shyly at feet* bye.

Author's Response: PURR!! YAY! (great big hug) So happy to see you again. :) This review really made me smile. I'm doing a LOT with this site. We have a tumblr account now, and a YT channel, and the FB page is active now, and... we're doing the D/G Fic Exchange again! :) So check out all, or any, or whatever, pretty much. I just love this review... (reads it again) Talk to you soon. :)

I agree with you on so many factors. The main factor being I would have [grudgingly] accepted the H/G outcome in the epilogue had J. K. Rowling made it more plausible than just throwing it all together just because those who were into the series on the surface level expected it to be H/G. I would have accepted her decision, just like with Sirius' death and other monumental plot twists that hurt us, if she had gone about it the right way. Just like you said, why paint Ginny as this powerful witch who were closest to the twins (known for being clever and not doing what was expected of them) and completely replace her with someone who wouldn't stand up for herself in the fact that she had been ignored for so long and then finally acknowledged because it just seemed easiest to Harry because she was part of the family he wanted to be a part of and she already "loved" him (even though she never really knew him, because he never allowed her to know him like he did Ron and Hermione). It's two entirely different people. I'm embarrassed for J. K. Rowling with how she did the epilogue. How do you end an incredble series that has reached millions of people with that? She did not bring closure at all, it feels like to me. I guess we're lucky that she says she'll keep that door open and won't say she'll never write about Harry Potter again. Maybe by then, she'll go through her notes, re-read her books, be appalled by her epilogue, have an attack of conscious, and start again with the new generation. Every time I think about the epilogue I want to beat my head against the wall. I felt so let down, not even as a D/G shipper, but as a fan of 15 years.

Author's Response: Thanks! :) I think you pointed out something that is easy to miss--the romantic aspect is only PART of what's so wrong with the H/G pairing. They never had any chance to build a relationship based on friendship. Throughout the entire series, all we ever see are Harry's complex interactions with both Ron and Hermione-- never with Ginny. I don't think we'll ever know all the reasons why the series ended the way it did. But I think that part of it might have been that JKR believed that wrapping up the existing plot points was enough. And that aspect was done very well. The big problem, though, is that if a crucial plot thread has been yanked out, a lot of readers KNOW something vital is missing. It might be difficult to put a finger on it, but we know it's not there and should have been there. And I think that's just what happened with the D/G plotline. And there's an ENTIRE chapter coming up soon that deals with theories about upcoming canon. :) I don't know if everyone is going to agree with that one, but it's food for thought...