How did you get into fandom and what do you and don't you read?
I'm simply curious - and I'm hoping that people will see this and reply to this:
Stuff I'm curious about it is how people ended up in fandom.
Did you start with a specific pairing or a specific kind of story? Which one and why?
Did you ever start reading other pairings or other types of fanfic?
Is there any stuff you used to abhor and love now?
What squicks you out?
How active are you in fandom? (Do you just read or do you write yourself?)
What House would you be in if you were at Hogwarts?
What pet would you have?
And of course whatever else you'd like to add that fits. :)
How did you get into fandom?
After HBP came out and I had it read it twice, I was cruising around on Immeritus and stumbled upon a link to Diana Williams' The Courtship of Harry Potter. I had never intended to actually get into fandom but this one fic addicted me to Snarries. I spent the next two months scouring the net for practically any Snarry I could find. Other than fics with BDSM, Chan and similar in them I read every Snarry on Detention, Skyehawke, HP Fandom and several private sites I stumbled upon.
But then I ran out of Snarries and had to either stop reading fanfiction or extend my reading. As I was totally hooked, I ended up extending what I read. I started on some Harry/Draco (though I found very little I liked) and Harry/Ginny. Back then I was a compulsive Harry/Ginny-shipper. Funnily enough I had no problems with Harry/Snape or Harry/Draco but concerning het, it had to be Harry/Ginny.
I read a lot of Harry/Ginny Sixth + Seventh Year fics. I tried some non-Harry-centric stuff, primarily Snape/Hermione. (Even though I can't stand Snape in canon - neither in the books nor in the films and I don't find him particularly attractive in the films btw either - through Snarry-fanfics, I had "fallen in love" with the character. And I looked for stories featuring him.) But after reading two or three completely and a chapter or two of several others, I gave it up as useless - because both Hermione and Snape were usually so badly OOC, I could as well have read Parvati/Seamus...
The ones I liked best were Snape/Lockhart - as they were usually humorous. - Hmm, should go hunt some of those up again. I could use a good laugh.
I originally also abhorred the very idea of Severitus. But then - because I ran out of other good stuff to read and I had already read and liked several other pieces by Vorabiza, I decided to give her Severitus-story Malfoy Flavor a chance. And suddenly I got hooked onto Severitus and Snape as mentor-fics.
I also saw Jeconais' White Knight, Grey Queen recced quite often. While I had read his Harry/Ginny-fics, in particular This Means War, I still had not read a single story where Harry was paired with a female other than Ginny. I tried it and was hooked. I read my way through all of Jeconais' stories, then most of the other authors on Jeconais' site.
Back then I absolutely stayed away from Manipulative Dumbledore. Dumbledore was the Leader of Light to me... And the worst het-sin someone could commit was Harry/Hermione. I had read a post on Immeritus where someone had a theory that Hermione was actually Harry's sister. The post was well thought out. While I don't think that the author of the post was right of course, it still left me with the impression that what Harry and Hermione feel with each other is certainly not any kind of romantic love but a lot more like the platonic love between siblings.
But there always came a point when I ran out of the stuff I was reading - or every Sixth Year fic I found seemed to start the same way: "Poor Harry, stuck at the Dursleys, moping over Sirius' death..." While it's a logical step from the end of OotP, I simply couldn't read this anymore.
And slowly I eased into stories where Dumbledore was not so good; I had read Harry paired with several different girls, I decided that Hermione wasn't that impossible either. And slowly I expanded my reading more and more.
What do you read now?
I now read practically only Harry-centric stuff. But with nearly any pairing. The only pairings that still squick me out are Harry/Voldemort, Harry/Bellatrix or similar. I also wouldn't want to read Harry paired with Dumbledore, McGonagall or similar.
I don't read Azkaban-stories and I don't ever read Crossovers.
I usually stay with stories that take place during Hogwarts.
I still like stories where Harry gets mentored by Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape,... but I can just as easily deal with evil manipulative Dumbledore if it's properly written. (There are so many out there where Dumbledore manipulates Harry and wants to control him and there's never a proper reason given. Do they all have insane Dumbledore?)
While I keep favoring canon-pairings, I absolutely love the idea of Harry/Padma. (Too bad there's only two short stories with that pairing!)
How active are you in fandom?
I tried writing a fic or two but neither of them worked out as I wanted them, so I didn't even post the first chapters anywhere.
So now I only read and collect lists.
What House would you be in?
Ravenclaw. I used to be more intelligent than most of my classmates - and usually relied on this instead of studying. ;) I am kind of lazy!
If the Sorting Hat tried to put me into Gryffindor, I'd actively fight it: I couldn't imagine living all my days surrounded by Red and Gold. I love blue and while I don't absolutely abhor red, I wouldn't want to live in rooms decorated exclusively in red and gold.
Nor would I want to be in Slytherin. Apart from the obvious reasons (being Muggleborn, being neither ambitious nor particularly cunning and having read of Slytherin as epitome of evil for quite some time), I could not stand to live in rooms under the earth! I need some light.
I could accept Hufflepuff.
A Quiz I took recently, actually gave me slightly more points for Hufflepuff than Ravenclaw. (Hufflepuff: 73, Ravenclaw: 70, Gryffindor: 38, Slytherin: 27). As the point-difference between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff was only 3 points, though, I think my own preference would be enough to tip the Sorting Hat over to put me into Ravenclaw. :)
(Btw, in case you haven't taken this Quiz yet, it's the first one of this kind that actually makes sense. It's quite lengthy with very diverse - and not always too obvious - questions.)
And my pet would be a cat! :) Meow! I love cats (and horses - but cats more.)
I also totally feel related to cats and I think it would be my Animagus-form if I learned to be one. :)