Thoughts about fandom...
I discovered Harry Potter about the time the fourth book came out, if memory serves. I fell in love with the books instantly, and have awaited each new one eagerly. I even find a lot of merit in the last two books in the series, which separates me from quite a few people I know.
However, my love is never, ever blind. While I love my best-beloved, and have loved other women before her, I am fully aware of her faults and shortcomings. Similarly, while I love fandom, there are things about it I really don't care for much.
In Harry Potter fandom, one thing I get dreadfully weary of is the raw fanaticism of a lot of the "shippers." (For those who may not be familiar with this term, a "Shipper" is a proponent of a particular "relationship"---for example, one who thinks that Harry Potter should have ended up with Hermione Granger instead of Ginny Weasley is a "H/Hr shipper," to use the fandom's shorthand.)
I can understand finding the last two books a little lacking. My own theory about them is that JK Rowling had become SO big and had so much power that she, like Stephen King, Heinlein in his later years, and a few other authors, didn't have anybody with the clout to stand up to her and edit the books. Both Horcruces and the Deathly Hallows would have flown better with me if they'd been alluded to in passing in the earlier books, instead of (so to speak) having Rowling pull them out of her...ear...as plot devices in the last two books. For an example of how this can be done, look at Pensieves...they played a part in earlier books before coming to the front of the stage in Book #6.
That said...while I can understand feeling that Rowling was forcing her characters into behavior that didn't really feel right to a lot of the people who loved her books, I find fanatical "shippers" very wearying. I was and am mainly along for the ride when I'm reading, and being a writer myself, I can accept that an author is the final authority on her characters. People who go into purple orgasms of screaming rage and stamp away because some "ship" they really, really wanted to happen didn't happen alternately amuse and weary me.
In particular, the "Harry/Hermione" shippers, at least the really fanatical ones, can get on my nerves, mostly because of the raw venom they feel they have to throw at Ron and Ginny Weasley. To be blunt, they ignore a lot of the text they say they follow, just because (as I see it) they identify heavily with Hermione and think that means that Hermione should have ended up with Harry.
First off, while Harry would throw himself in front of a spell or a bullet for Hermione without a second thought, and she for him, that doesn't mean that they are fated romantic partners. It is possible for other sorts of relationships to exist, even between people whose orientations are compatible.
Second, I honestly think that Harry didn't end up with Hermione because they aren't all that compatible. While he respects her love of learning, it's something he doesn't share---Harry, at seventh and last, is a jock and an academic slacker, at least as much as Ron is. He also finds a lot of her qualities irritating, which does not bode well for a relationship. And, for such a smart girl, she can be surprisingly insensitive; I have all the empathy of a statue, but if one of my best friends were frantic with fear for the safety of a loved one and wanted to go charging off to see to that person's safety, I would not start scolding my friend about having a "saving-people thing," even if I did privately think that (s)he had a streak of Don Quixote.
Harry doesn't find Hermione attractive---he's quite surprised when, at the Yule Ball in Goblet of Fire, she turns out to be quite pretty when she chooses to take the trouble. And while I am not a judge of male looks myself, I somehow don't think that Harry is in any danger of winning Witch Weekly's "Most Charming Smile" award any time soon. I'd say that Harry, subconsciously, tends to react to Hermione the way he might to a sister---he got to know her before his hormones really kicked in, and down deep, he sees her as "off-limits."
As I've mentioned, though, the main thing that can annoy me about H/Hr shippers is the venom and hatred they often spew at the Weasleys. Ron, in particular---my God, what did the poor boy ever DO to them? Okay, he's not as smart as Hermione, but who (other than Dumbledore and Snape) IS? Yes, he and Hermione disagree a great deal---given their very disparate backgrounds, and Hermione's questing curiosity and intelligence, I'd expect as much. Yes, he's sometimes jealous of Harry's fame and the attention he gets. He's human. I've been guilty of the same thing myself. I'm not proud of those memories, but I'd be a liar if I denied them.
While I enjoy H/Hr stories, I can be badly turned off if they portray Ron, who is just as much a member of the Trio as the other two, as some sort of idiot, or worse. And the same goes for Ginny...no, she isn't perfect, but then no character in these books is, and she does have some things (having been possessed by Voldemort, to name one) in common with Harry that nobody else does.
My own take on "shipping" is as follows, and will probably please nobody: I'd have been happiest if the Trio (Harry, Ron and Hermione) had recognized that their relationship, as it stood, was something so special that dating, sex and all that would likely rack it up, and had consciously decided to look elsewhere for romance (in Hermione's case) or Vile Disgusting Sex (for Ron and Harry.) For an analogy, look at Modesty Blaise and her sidekick/best friend/partner Willie Garvin---they're as close as two human beings can be, both heterosexual, sexually active and attractive, but they don't have sex because they both feel that their partnership is unique and special. Either of them would, I think, throw any sex partner they've ever had under the train in a second if that was the only way to save the other. And that partnership is part of what makes their team so formidable.
I'd have paired people off as follows...Harry with Ginny (as I've said, she has some things in common with him that nobody else does, and I do think she understands him in ways Hermione doesn't), Ron with Luna (the ages work---it's usual at their ages for the boy in a relationship to be a year or more older than his partner, after all...I dated an older woman all through HS, but my example is not one I'd urge on anybody else) and Hermione with Percy Weasley. That way, you get the "One Big Happy Weasley Family" Rowling apparently wanted, without messing up the Trio.
I'll read a good story and enjoy it, no matter the "ship," (although I do think that most slash depends on extreme mischaracterization, as well as profound ignorance of how adolescent boys think and interact) but I tend to turn my hearing aids off, so to speak, when shipping fanaticism rears its head.