Real life AGAIN! Two posts in a row?

[lls_mutant]

I must be delerious ;)

Back from the weekend. It was fantastic- Grandma's doing well, although I worry about her to an extent (and probably will until she does die, so....)

(snipping some of the RL stuff because I felt like it.)

Must get moving on fics, as well. Especially the R/S --> R/T one for hp_synergy, the Hermione one for the femgenficathon (where I also have to READ all the fics, which I'm really looking forward to doing), and the Remus one for the Wolfstar Lost Years challenge. No, I haven't forgotten Accidentally In Love, but those three have deadlines. AiL will NOT languish as a WIP forever! (I also have to do a review of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and finish a few articles for Mutant Reviewers from Hell.)

And because I feel like I've been complaining a lot on the HP front and because I'm procrastinating doing any molecular modelling,

In no particular order:

1.) Dumbledore and Harry going to the cave. From when they left the office to when they came back to Hogwarts, that has to have been some of JKR's strongest writing ever. Gripping, creepy, emotional, heart-wrenching... it had everything, including the Birdbath of Doom. Goes up there with the ending of Goblet of Fire and the Shrieking Shack scene.

2.) Having to eat every last thing I said about Voldemort being a two-dimensional, stock Evil Overlord villian. I could not get enough Riddle backstory, but I'm happy with what I got. And extra points for Voldemort really HAVE having cursed the DADA position.

3.) Aragog died. I never really liked him, and I loved Ron's reaction. Shallow, but I don't care.

4.) The Fleur/Molly dynamic. I was actually anticipating something like this, because mothers and sons are always fun, and I suspected that Molly would not take kindly to any girl coming to take her first baby away and to take her place in his life. I also thought that Molly's reasons for not liking Fleur were realistic (Fleur was far from an angel), and her worries about the marriage were very grounded in reality. And most of all, I loved Molly's grudging acceptance of Fleur at the end- during the part of the hospital scene that I DID like.

5.) More Ron. I love Ron. Ron is one of my all-time favorite characters. He's loyal and funny and such a BOY at times. I love the friendship between him and Harry- I might grumble about how JKR writes serious romance, but I will never grumble about how she writes friendships. They harrass each other constantly, but under that is the understanding that they would die for each other, no questions asked, even if they do occasionally drive each other nuts. One of the things I missed about OotP was Ron- I felt like he kind of got shoved aside for Hermione (who got on my nerves a bit, last book). This time I felt like the dynamic shifted back again.

6.) Harry captaining Quidditch. On the one hand, it's an honor and I'm glad Harry got to have it. On the other hand, I loved that it was nowhere as easy as he thought. I thought the way the whole Quidditch aspect was handled- and Harry worrying about putting his friends on the team and whatnot- was very, very well done. And Cormac McLaggan provided tons of laughs. Speaking of which...

7.) Hermione trying to go out with Cormac to get Ron jealous and having it backfire as he kept trying to grope her. So teenagerish. So believable. So funny- because I get a kick out of it when Hermione gets in over her head.

8.) Luna Lovegood. From her poignant loneliness to her behavior at the Christmas party she was absolutely delightful. But nothing- absolutely nothing- tops her Quidditch commentary. And I really liked that Ron appreciated the humor in that.

9.) Harry's growing up. Okay, so some of the transitions were a little abrupt, but I like this new maturity we're seeing in Harry. I like the theme that people can change. And I like the idea that this is how James grew up a bit, too. I really like the man Harry is turning into, and if I were Lily, I'd be very, very proud of him.

10.) As the icons say, "Dear Voldemort- Fuck you. Love, Reg." Nuff said.

And thus endeth this round of procrastination and talking just to hear my own voice.

Comments

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

Gotta agree with everything here. ^_^ Though the Shrieking Shack scene is still my favorite dramatic moment. And I've had added the Horcruxes. I think they're really cool. (But then, anything that necessitates a Trio Roadtrip is COOL.)

Luna was just... God, I loved her in this book. I've always liked her a lot, but I LOVED her here. *sigh*

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Totally agree on the horcruxes, but 10 was actually a pretty small number when you get right down to it. But I've been venting so much about the things I didn't like that it's nice to take time to appreciate the things I did.

I ADORE the Shrieking Shack scene, but I think Voldemort's resurrection slightly tops it for me. Just slightly. Which is saying a LOT, because it doesn't have Remus or Sirius. But I could not put GoF down at that point until I finished the book.

But then, it's like trying to rate your favorite movie: Star Wars IV, Fellowship of the Ring, or Raiders of the Lost Arc. Once I have two kids, ask me to tell you which one is my favorite.

And yeah, Luna just was one of JKR's best bits of this. I nearly teared up when she got so excited about Harry asking her to the party as friends, and the Quidditch commentary was the funniest bit of the book. The world needs more Luna!

[topaz7.livejournal.com]

It’s always annoyed me that Ron can be casually cruel to people he thinks are unimportant – and I loved how Luna totally nailed this. I love you Luna!

I completely agree with all of your ten. I was digging the Riddle back-story – it didn’t occur to me that this book didn’t have as much action (a common criticism) because the back-story seemed like loads of action to me. Does that make sense?

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

I think it's really interesting that that cruelty trait (which I think Ron is utterly oblivious about) is paralleled in Ron and Sirius. And yeah, Luna just totally called him on it!

And what you said about the action makes total sense to me. In fact, until you said it, I didn't really notice that there wasn't a lot of present day action. The Riddle backstory was something I REALLY wanted, and although I finished still having questions dangling, I felt like many other questions WERE answered. (And I didn't have any real new questions, aside the few obvious ones.)

[midnitemaraud-r.livejournal.com]

Glad you had a good weekend! And nothing wrong with RL posts - our LJ's are definitely not fandom exclusive. :)

I agree with all 10 of your points as well. I also love the whole horcrux concept, too! (You think? Seeing as I've metaed about them a couple of times and continue to impose my opinions on various other LJ's about it *g*)

I remember the first time I read PoA and the ending completely surprised me! Yes, I was somewhat surprised (and shocked) at the endings of GoF, OotP and HBP, but it was PoA that really got me "into" HP - and Remus and Sirius quickly became my two favorite characters. (And I was disappointed Remus wasn't in GoF at all!) So PoA still wins for me - especially with character development.

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Yeah, PoA was utterly brilliant- no denying that. And I agree that no Remus is THE major downfall to GoF. Like I said in an above comment, it's like picking your favorite movie or kid or something. :) It's interesting to see what people's favorite scenes throughout the series are!

[wickedevra.livejournal.com]

((((Liss)))) so glad you had a good weekend! Weddings are nice. It's great that you and your ex are still such good friends. You don't see that happen too often, especially when jealous current partners proliferate. So woot! (And very considerate of you to do the pregant thing with such auspicious timing)

Totally agree on the ten things.

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Distance helps a lot, I think ;) Plus, we both seem to have great partners that understand the friends thing. (And the distance DOES help :) )

[(Anonymous)]

Do you have any objections if I use parts of your AIL story in my Lost Years challenge fic?

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Well, I'd kind of like to know who you are.... ;) (I suspect you forgot to log in?) I probably don't at all, as long as you credit me and I get to read the fic when you're done. There's one important detail I'd kind of like you to know, but it's a major spoiler for the end of Accidentally In Love (although you might have put it together already and it's probably not a huge shock.) Whether or not you took it into account would be entirely up to you.

Anyway, definitely let me know who you are! :)

[(Anonymous)]

You'll find out soon enough - I'm the person assigned to write *for* you, so I don't think I'm allowed to say who I am until then, and the anonymous format is deliberate. But you'll definitely be seeing the fic, and of course I'll credit you. :-) If there's something I have to know, maybe you could ask Lindarielle to pass it along? Or ask if I can reveal myself and you can tell me?

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhh. Okay. Well, I've seen the list of people even doing the exchange, so I'm fine with it. I can at least tell you part of what I'm thinking as far as the spoiler bit, and that's that Remus doesn't really speak to Damien much at all over the Lost Years. There's some MAJOR bitterness, more from Remus directed at Damien, and Damien for once is smart enough to let Remus go. Remus is essentially pulling a Percy, but with a better cause. (That may not even affect your plans. Sadly, AiL ends exactly like you'd expect, so the rest of it isn't a spoiler!)

[(Anonymous)]

Just letting you know I've seen this, in case you want to delete it so no one else gets spoiled. Thank you. And no, it doesn't ruin what I was hoping to do. I'm not going to be using a lot of AIL-specific stuff, but I thank you for letting me throw in some references here and there. I like your story. :-)

[(Anonymous)]

Either that, or I can just say in my A/N that I'm writing with the knowledge from existing AIL canon, and that it might not match how the story actually turns out, if that would be an acceptable alternative for you, too.

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

That works too, if what I just told you really throws you off! :)