Fifty points for Hufflepuff!

[pipsqueaky]

I don't know how I managed to exist in fandom this long without ever watching or reading Harry Potter. (I did see the first movie - and randomly, the fifth I think? with some friends - but remember nothing about either one.) And then about two months ago, I was in Tokyo waiting to board a very long flight back to the US, and completely out of the blue decided "YES. It is time now.", and downloaded alllllll the books onto my Kindle. Hee.

I have just finished Book 5, Order of the Phoenix! And I have Thoughts! Not very deep ones, but thoughts nonetheless! (I know most of the Big Spoilers, like who lives and who dies and who marries who in the end - because you can't be on the internet and NOT know that - but I know almost nothing of the journey itself, which is exciting.)

• Professor Minerva McGonagall is my FAVORITE! I want to marry her so badly. She can totally order me around, it'll be awesome. ♥♥♥♥♥
• Fred and George Weasley are ALSO MY FAVORITES. If McGonagall is my wife, then they are my two boyfriends. I mean, I loved them way before they left school, but dude, that exit was EPIC. Well done, boys! You also get all the hearts! ♥♥♥♥♥
• Should I feel bad for thinking Harry is a bit of a prat? Yeah, teenage boy, hard life, pursued by an evil wizard, nearly dies all the time. Whatevs. That doesn't give him license to be a dick to his friends. Grow up, Harry.
• Dear J.K. Rowling: Capslock is not your friend. Really. Please stop.
• Hagrid is darling (though I'm betting that's a popular fannish opinion). I want to feed him tea and cookies and bring him lots of crazy weird animals to raise as pets and never let anything bad happen to him ever.
• If you had asked me what I knew about Sirius and Remus before I read HP, I would have said "they are two dudes and apparently they are gay for each other? And maybe one of them is a werewolf? I dunno." Holy shit y'all, they are SO GAY FOR EACH OTHER. I don't even feel like I need to actively ship them, because their relationship is clearly canon.
• A downside to the story being told entirely from Harry's perspective is that we don't get nearly as much insight or exploration into the other characters, nearly all of whom I love (or at least am fascinated by) more than Harry, heh. (I realize this is what fic is for, but I don't usually read fic, so I'm screwed.) Draco in particular suffers from this; there's a HUGE story there about his childhood and motivations and relationship with his father that isn't being explored. I hope the last two books let him blossom beyond the one-dimensional bully he's been so far.
• The books' treatment of Muggles, and the relationships between Muggles and wizards, really really bothers me. I am close to disliking all wizards just on general principle. I'm not talking about the stupid wizard infighting over mudbloods or whatever; I mean the near-total separation that wizards have created between their lives and Muggle lives (to the point where they don't even know what electricity or telephones are), as if Muggles are a lesser species that wizards just can't be bothered with. Except when Muggles accidentally witness magic use, in which case it's perfectly all right to wipe their memories and otherwise fuck with their lives just so wizards aren't inconvenienced. Did we learn nothing from Season 6 of Buffy?
• I thought the first two books were moderately enjoyable, liked the third one slightly more, but didn't get fully absorbed until Shit Got Real. Order of the Phoenix is my favorite so far; I have high hopes for Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows. Bring on the pain!

After I've finished the books, I plan to marathon all the movies over a weekend (or possibly two). Woo!
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