Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which I have just finished

[raven]

Okay, what follows under the cut is not a review of Harry Potter. It is, however, massively spoilery, and I think anyone who has both a) read the book and b) known me for any length of time, will know what it's about.

Remus Lupin is dead. REMUS LUPIN IS DEAD. hathy_col carefully checked on my mental state more than once this afternoon, because, well, it's Remus. WAAAAAAAH.

Okay. I have decent commentary coming up, probably, at some point, where I will put my grown-up hat on and talk about, I dunno, themes and morals and narrative arcs and the soppy epilogue. Maybe. But before that, this. I am twenty years old. I picked up my first Harry Potter book when I was ten. I've been in fandom for most of the intervening period, too. So that's half of my life that these characters have lived and breathed in whatever the place is where fictional characters live, and they've been part of a glorious story that I've been listening to for half my life, and I don't feel any embarrassment whatsoever for sniffling through the last few chapters.

And more that - it's a damn good story. It's a story about good and evil, naturally, and about the importance of tolerance and co-existence, and about friendship. And the thing that stuck with me when I was ten was that Harry, at the beginning, is nervous about going on to secondary school even when he doesn't know he's going to Hogwarts. It was summer when I read it, and in September I was nervous about secondary school too, and I remember thinking clearly that it was funny, and kind of nice, that the same worry persisted through the shift into worlds of magic. And I worried about making friends, and library books, new subjects, house points and tuck shops, and GCSEs and A-levels, too. (Although I note with weird amusement that I got my A-levels and Harry never got his NEWTs!) There was a current of simple reality going through the stories which I appreciated for the ten years that followed.

And everyone knows that I loved Remus Lupin a whole, stupid, idiotic lot. It's quite a long time to have loved a fictional character, and I really have done. Yep, he's not real. Not even close. He's still dead, and hathy_col are going to have a long lunch on Monday, and weep and wail and get thrown out for excessive displays of emotion.

So this is me raising a late-night toast - to Harry Potter, and the stories, characters and friends I've met through him, and to ten years of my life. Cheers.

Comments

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

OFF PAGE. OFF PAGE.

*flails and shouts stuff*
*cuddle*

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I KNOW. I KNOOOOOOOOOW. WAIL.

*is clingy teary mess*

[casirafics.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking about you where Remus was concerned, particularly thanks to Making Moony Laugh and Mapmakers - Fred and Remus are both gone now and it's killing me, and it's in large part your fault, damn it all. *smiles, hugs*

There are so many ficlets I need to write now. Oh, so many....

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

You know what I have open in the other window? The beginning of a very short ficlet, back in Fred's POV. All your fault. *loves*

I guess this is as good a time as any to thank you again for Mapmakers - I still love it, after all these years.

[casirafics.livejournal.com]

thank you, too. *hugs* If ever a fic's going to define me in HP, it's that one, and without whom, obviously.....

and I want to read that fic you're writing already!

[leiascully.livejournal.com]

I am SO ANGRY that Remus died off screen and having been miserable for most of the book. Argh. Argh. Whyyyyyy?

Ah well. At least he is happy and with Sirius again.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Amen, sister. *g* We never even got a scene where Harry and Remus talk like adults! (Although I was pleased that they are at least on first-name terms by the end of this one.)

[leiascully.livejournal.com]

Seriously. Bah. Remus. I wanted him to live more than anyone, Remus. And the twins. They were my sacred lives and she killed them. At least I know I have a good handle on her indicators of DOOM.

[likethesun2.livejournal.com]

When I got in from work today, I spent about an hour sitting in the room where Kib was reading HP, stopping her at intervals to ask "Who's dead now?" And when she got to Lupin, I died a little inside for you. I actually think I said, "WAH," which earned me a puzzled look.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I find it really touching that people all over the world knew for a fact that that was going to destroy me. *sniffle* He dies off-page! Off-page! All we know about it is a little mention halfway down a page where Harry spots him among the bodies, and I had to read it again to make sure and then go and lock myself in the bathroom for a while.

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

I read it sitting on a step waiting for an estate agent, so I couldn't sniffle. I probably shall when I reread the book though.

[amchau.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

I feel sure that some kind of memorial should be set up, for Characters We Have Loved.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

There will be ficathons, I'm sure! In the meantime I am just consumed by woe.

[absinthe-shadow.livejournal.com]

*wails afresh at memory of dead Sirius, Remus, James and Lily because it is Just Too Sad*

*clings to fic and shoebox*

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Where Harry asks, "Does it hurt?" and they all know, because they're all dead - WAAAAAAH.

[absinthe-shadow.livejournal.com]

Meep. Yes. That bit. Was weeping positive buckets because Remus.

[pinkishmew.livejournal.com]

[cuddles] As soon as Harry was made godfather, there was a sense that I knew it couldn't end well.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*cliiiiiing* Oh, it's too sad! I'm never keen on Remus and het, but the thought of the baby whose parents die when he's about a month old - aaaargh.

[schlagen.livejournal.com]

I did think of you when I read that he'd died. I'm pretty pissed he didn't get a decent send off as it were, just 'oh yar, there's remus & tonks dead on the floor. Right oh.' And Mad-Eye. She could have scraped the epiloge and used the word count to write Lupin a proper death.

I love Lupin too, although I fell in love with him in the films the moment he turned the grammarphone on in the DADA lesson in Prisoner of Azkaban. I shall join you in the mourning for Lupin.

[schlagen.livejournal.com]

I obviously meant to say 'she could have just scrapped, rather than scraped, the epilogue'.

[absinthe-shadow.livejournal.com]

I really think scraping would have been good, actually.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Me too! OFF-PAGE, for fuck's sake. I wanted him to actually be involved in the plot, somehow, this time round, but nooooo. And argh, my love for him is dramatic and legendary and I'm horribly amused that everyone seems to have got to that point and fully expected me to have a fannish meltdown. Which I am, indeed, doing.

And, heh - scraping and scrapping are BOTH GOOD. Although, is it wrong that my mental image of Teddy is now of a spiky-haired indie boy with eyeliner and very sharp teeth?

[lizziwig.livejournal.com]

Nope, that's totally right. You can tell he was the coolest guy at Hogwarts, and everyone was madly in love with him.

I will add to this fannish pile of woe. *WEEPS*

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

He had a band. He had a band called the Punk Librarians, or something. And he was moody and intelligent and had a secret passion for musical theatre.

[thunderemerald.livejournal.com]

The first stage of recovery is denial, right?

EXCELLENT.

Hai guyz, my literary boyfriend is SO STILL ALIVE.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*cries* yes he IS, and no one is telling me different.

[thunderemerald.livejournal.com]

Let us commence with the alive!Remus fics.

[nerves-patterns.livejournal.com]

I cried when I read that Remus was dead. Flat-out cried. Tears rolling down my cheeks in front of everyone. I'm glad there are others who got so attached to him. I wish there'd been more devoted to his life/death in this book.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Oh, I adored him. (WAH THAT IS IN THE PAST TENSE.) I really did, and I had to go lock myself in the bathroom for a while.

[tau_sigma]

Ohhh. It's over. This wonderful thing that started nearly ten years ago is just over.

I thought of you when Remus died. *pets* He was great, yes, and there was a sad lack of him in this book, actually - he didn't even get a proper death scene!

Oh. Oh, Harry Potter.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*pets* I know. It hurts me too.

Oh, Remus John Lupin, how I've loved him. Colleen and I had a wake of sorts for him today, sitting in a diner eating ice-cream and moping. It was terribly pathetic, but I DO NOT CARE. Ten years of my life!

[rosariotijeras.livejournal.com]

I have not spoken to you in ages (have been a headcase/work/summer before higher education, etc., etc.), but your paragraph on the significance of Potter basically sums up everything I've been thinking since I finished it.

Also, stop talking about Slings & Arrows. There is absolutely nothing worth fanning over, and I do need to be buying the S&A DVDs to fill that void in my life!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*grins* Hey you, I've missed your comments. From your LJ I've been getting the sense that you're swamped - g'luck, our kid. :)

Ah, Harry Potter. Nothing ever will be quite the same, will it? And - pssst. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owfeSoW-DmY) It's fab.

[rosariotijeras.livejournal.com]

Oh, damn you. Really, damn you.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

"Good news, everyone! I have fixed the toilet!"

[rosariotijeras.livejournal.com]

In so many words: yes!

[thecapitalc.livejournal.com]

I thought of you when I saw that too :(