Hey I'm Jenny, 33, AuDHD, pan, nonbinary/autigender (they/them), and total drarry trash. This is my main blog, which is mostly full of drarry/hp content. Possible NSFW, you have been warned. I write drarry sometimes. And you can also find me on AO3.
I have a side blog for my drarry fic recs: @slytherholicficrecs
I also have a side blog for what we do in the shadows / my nandermo obsession: @nandermoinlove
TERFs and transphobes or any other form of bigotry are not welcome here.
Hi! I'm Jenny (they/them). I read, write, and rec Drarry. Although I appreciate some other ships on the side, such as romione and linny.
My Drarry recs can be found on my sideblog: @slytherholicficrecs
I am also WWDITS & Nandermo obsessed, I have a sideblog for WWDITS here: @nandermoinlove
My written works can be found on my AO3.
YKINMKBYKIO, DLDR, SALS
It should go without saying, but as a queer non-binary person, I do not condone the views of the HP author. I no longer engage with HP in ways that would line her pockets. But am a believer that the HP universe belongs to the fans now, and the joy that engaging in fandom community and fan works brings to us, should not be diminished by a hateful person.
I strongly encourage anyone reading this to not buy official HP products/merchandise or engage with the series in ways that fund the HP author. Additionally, if you are in a position to do so, consider donating to organisations that support trans people. Thank you.
Published Works
Short Stories:
Arôme d'Amour (Aroma of Love) (E, 3k) - Harry's in for a surprise when he's hit with a perfume that attracts only the true soulmate.
Sod Off Potter (T, 1.7k) - Draco regretted the decision to return to Hogwarts after the war. Why couldn't bloody Potter just leave him alone? It wouldn't be so bad if Draco hadn't been harboring a secret crush on Harry for years.
Drabbles:
Boyfriend or Faux? (G, 498) - Harry and Draco were concerned no one would believe in their fake relationship. However, it seemed they had no need to worry…
Christmas Closet (T, 499) - Serving detention with Malfoy was not how Harry had pictured his second to last day before the Christmas holidays. And he certainly didn't envision being trapped in a small storage cupboard with him either.
On Second Thought (E, 317) - Harry was annoyed at first to find out he'd be sharing a dorm with Draco Malfoy. But it wouldn't take long for him to change his mind.
WIPs
Unnamed 8th Year fic (E, ~120k+) - After the war, Harry is in denial about his failing relationship with Ginny, and in denial about his feelings for a blond Slytherin. But somehow 8th year might just turn out to be his best yet. (Currently at 119k+ words. Close to finishing editing the first draft now. Estimating finished fic to be around 120k+. Do not let me give up on this again! This has been a WIP for 12+ years, I'm confident 2026 will be the year I post this.)
Unnamed Soulmarks AU fic (E, no w/c estimate yet) - Post-Epilogue. Harry denied his soulmark and married Ginny. Now many years later and divorced, maybe it's finally time to find his soulmate. Coincidentally the blossoming friendship between Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy, is drawing him closer than ever to none other than Draco Malfoy. (Unstarted, this is just a plot in my head so far. Plan to make this a future project sometime after my 8th year fic is done.)
Santa is coming 2025 Drarry Raffle is NOW OPEN!!! 🎅🎄🎁📢🔔🚨‼️
We had an astounding 37 creators sign up to contribute prizes. Now YOU can enter the raffle to win fic, art and even physical crafts or tarot readings!
How it works:
In the event thread, peruse the offerings, read the rules
Donate to any of the three approved charities
Every $10 = 1 raffle entry
Fill out the form to enter the raffle!
As a reminder, the raffle is an event hosted on the Drarry Pit discord server. In order to view the rules, browse the list of prizes, and enter the raffle, you must be a member of the server for the duration of the event. No additional server participation is necessary. Anyone over 18 can join! Link is here. If you are having issues joining, please try on desktop.
Creators offering raffle prizes:
Here are our wonderful, hardworking elves (creators)!!
I'm offering to write a drarry fic, set in 8th year, featuring a game of 7 minutes in heaven and Pansy's little pink cauldron of love. And planning to sneak in some background pairings at the raffle winner's preference.
And honestly I just have to say there are so many other prizes on offer that are so incredible and it's all to support trans charities! Go and check it out on the Drarry Pit now to get all the details! Do it!
Like a lot of other authors/content creators in the HP fandom, I am feeling a sense of heaviness over the rulings that happened in the UK and feel the need to speak on my (albeit very complicated) feelings.
What JKR is doing is terrible. It will ruin lives. It will end lives.
If you feel like that is being hyperbolic, please go look up the suicide rates for the trans community. It's a staggering number and it only grows as people seeking information, comfort, and support are locked out of proper resources due to heinous legislations like the one passed yesterday.
It saddens me too because I know that so many in the LGBTIQA+ have found characters/stories in the HP universe that have spoken to them and helped to understand their personal journeys---only to have that comfort ripped away by the very person who created them.
If you can permit me to be personal for a second: My brother is trans and before/during his transition (this was early 2010s) he always cited Remus Lupin as one of the foundations for coming to terms with his trans identity because he saw some of his own internal struggle in Lupin's character. He even went so far as to write a letter to JKR (which, thank GOD he never sent...) thanking her for creating a character that aided him with the complicated feelings he had when there were no other resources for him.
My brother is now a psychologist specializing in the young trans community and speaking to him recently, he has said that he comes across this same story constantly and each one ends in tragedy because that little piece of solace and comfort was not just taken from them, but told them that no, actually. You thought wrong to see yourself in this character. You don't matter.
Watching what happened yesterday and knowing the long history of bigotry JKR has spouted for years now weighs heavy on my heart every time I step into this fandom and often I question if I should still contribute to it. I know it's not much, but I would like to share some of the things that keep me going--even when it all looks really fucking bleak:
Fanfiction and fanart are, at their foundation, anticapitalist works--and can be used to fight JKR's agenda. By consuming fanfic/fanart zero money goes towards JKR. None. And further, JKR has no say in how you use her characters in these spaces. So, if you want to use these creative outlets to uplift trans voices, please do! Support trans writers/artists and urge them to PERSIST--because I promise you nothing is going to tick off the ole' bitch more than trans bodies/ trans supporters writing her characters.
Just because the writer is the devil, doesn't mean the art has to be. I won't go into the concept of "death of the author" because I think it can be pockmarked to hell with various examples, but what I DO subscribe to is that once the art is out in the world, it is now owned by the person who consumes it. To put it simply: when I read HP I am POSITIVE I imagine characters/settings differently than the person next to me. It's the beauty of the imagination: the creator can give us the blocks but how it is built is contingent on how WE perceive it.
Did I mention money? DON'T GIVE IT TO HER. Buy the books/movies second hand. Pirate the media you wish to consume around the fandom. Don't give her any reason to give any more hate funding and instead send that money to trans communities and groups who need it (they REALLY need it.)
Maybe I'm naive to say this, but I don't think interacting with the story as an art form is bad. She invented it, sure, but she isn't in charge of what goes on in my brain. If anything, this fandom NEEDS the trans community and supporters within it because not only can they push back, but they can educate those who otherwise are listening to the author. Don't let her win the space even though she's the author. It's no longer hers to have.
If you are someone who wants to leave the fandom because you can't bear to watch her continue to destroy it--I completely understand. But, as someone who has been in this fandom for over 20 years, the one thing I've learned is: besides monetarily she doesn't own shit. Don't let her take what you love from you and don't let her get away with scaring people out of their community spaces. Support and love our trans brothers and sisters and enjoy your HP despite it all. The things you love are worth fighting for.
Hi! Thanks for all the responses -- I hadn't realized how many chapters I'd gotten through since your last round until I saw the emails lmao
I was wondering, in regards to this:
And omg, I totally feel you on being a trans person in the HP fandom. It's very weird how my tumblr dash is set up. I have mutuals still from old fandoms who are queer, and I feel so ostracized from them at times when they toe the line of 'anybody in the HP fandom supports JKR, you're a bad person if you're still engaging with it'. I'll spare you the essay on why I disagree with that, but oddly the safest place I feel on the internet as a trans person is in the HP fandom. Which is weird at face value, I suppose, given what JKR is doing, but we really are separate from her. I've yet to see substantial evidence that fandom, which is infamous for generating zero revenue, is floating trans peoples' demise. It's just a thought crime, I guess.
if you would, perhaps, not spare me the essay? lol
I feel the same sort of ostracization which is especially frustrating when I am in such "thought crimes are fake!" circles, and I'm interested in your perspective, if you want to give it!
Sure, I’ll offer my perspective on it! This is probably best broken down into bullet points:
1. JKR was already a billionaire before she came out as a TERF.
There is nothing in the world that will change this status. Even if every single person currently engaging with her various IPs immediately dropped them, JKR would still have a billion plus dollars to drop on anti-trans movements and whatever. A billion dollars is immensely difficult to picture. The easiest way is to think like this: if you make $50,000 a year, the equivalent of her dropping $75,000 the other day is you spending $3.75. How often do you spend 0.0075% of your income and give it any thought? JKR’s wealth is not directly tied to ‘levels of fandom engagement’.
Which leads to…
2. Boycotts don’t work.
Sorry. They don’t. Not against someone this politically powerful. If they did, the flood of people out of the HP fandom in 2020 would have had a measurable effect. What did have a measurable effect? People not going to watch the Fantastic Beast movies (because they were hot trash lmao). Not giving JKR any more money works in the sense that it cripples her future projects, but it has zero effect on what’s already in her purse.
Also, think of boycotts this way: wasn’t it hilarious watching conservatives try to boycott the Barbie movie, Nike, Bud Light, and whatever else they’ve systematically locked on to? But so then why do progressives/the left/whoever think it’s going to work the other way? Like with Hogwarts Legacy? Just don’t interact with the media, dude. And if you do, pirate it.
3. Fandom is not mainstream.
I have never seen any data to substantiate that participating in a fandom directly correlates to dollars for the IP. Copyright literally prevents that from happening. To bring up to popular saying, “there is no ethical consumption under capitalism”, fandom exists outside of capitalism—for me, at least, as a fan fiction writer. This is a hobby to me. I have never seen a red cent for any of the hours of work I’ve put into my fics.
And I can probably guarantee that no one has stumbled upon Harry Potter through me, lol. They didn’t read one of my fics and go, ‘you know, I should check out what source material this is coming from’. Harry Potter is so well-known that there’s no way they came in blind.
Also, the TERF discourse is very much an online thing. I work retail irl and I’ve had conversations with customers who’ll say “you know, I really don’t get all this hubbub against trans people” but are too boomer to be anything more than tangentially aware that Harry Potter is a Thing. Like, ‘oh yeah, my kids read those books when they were coming out, but I never bothered’. One of my employees bought a set of the HP books because they were on a wicked deal at Costco, and when we were discussing it I told her that while I still enjoyed HP, I wasn’t comfortable giving JKR more money because she’s extremely transphobic and donates a lot of money to anti-trans causes. My employee was horrified and said that had she known that, she wouldn’t have bought the books. Lots of people just don’t know!
Which takes me to…
4. This type of online activism isn’t effective.
I’m talking specifically about being anti-Harry Potter or anti-JKR. Falling into those two categories does not automatically make you pro-trans. This was pretty blatantly obvious back when the books were being burned for promoting witchcraft. As far as fighting for trans peoples’ rights, screaming until you’re blue in the face about how anybody who engages with Harry Potter is a traitor and JKR BAD is wasting time better spent doing something productive - something that could actually benefit trans people rather than…I don’t know…virtue signalling that their blog or twitter account is a safe space?
5. I personally do not feel welcomed or vouched for by these people.
Listen, I’m going to break myself down into all my stupid little categories. I’m trans. Autistic. Intersex. Aromantic. Asexual. Basically, all the things that people love to try and cast out of the queer community, whether that means they’re trying to split LGBTQIA+ at the T or Q.
The anti-Harry Potter stuff, as far as attacking the fandom, feels like the latest strain of purity politics to me. As I’ve laid out above, abandoning HP will not right the wrongs of JKR in any measurable or tangible way. Boycotts don’t work. Fandom does not feed JKR’s coffers, and destroying the fandom will not cripple her. There are trans people inside the HP fandom, and what of us? Are we traitors? Are we not ‘really’ trans, because obviously we don’t care about the current political climate? Are we just confused and need to be enlightened as to what harm we’re doing? Where have I heard this rhetoric before?
One small thing, tangentially related:
6. I don’t care what JKR says about how engaging with Harry Potter tells her about who her ‘supporters’ are.
Seriously? She’s a lying dirtbag, and I’m just supposed to take her word on this? This is the one thing she just so happens to be right about?
When she started spouting TERF shit, I was really saddened by the writers who, upon leaving the fandom, also deleted their works in protest. Seeing as the majority of the HP fandom is queer, I’m sure that JKR was very pleased with the amount of queer media erasure that occurred. Why did we do that for her?
7. I believe JKR actually seethes and malds over the prospect of her fandom being queer and producing queer content.
As a writer, there’s a special kind of pain that comes from someone not quite interpreting your work the way you would have wanted them to. What do you think JKR’s first reaction was when she first learned about the Harry/Draco ship? The Draco/Hermione ship? If she didn’t live in a stone castle, I bet she would’ve punched a hole in the wall.
So, yeah. Transing and gaying all of her characters is a pretty nice way to get to her in a way that she can’t legally or financially retaliate. Every time she screams ‘WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?!’ at the queer people in her fandom, a trans person’s crops are watered.
8. The HP setting is very welcoming to trans people.
Potions exist that can change your body. Enough said.
That the Harry Potter books never really says anything specifically about trans people (NOTE: obviously JKR’s prejudices even back then showed through, but this isn’t about that) leaves the question on the table. Obviously trans people exist in the Harry Potter setting, because they exist everywhere. So, how did they never get any page time?
Well, who says they didn’t? In a setting where potions exist to change your body, trans people are just…people. I don’t even think that they would have a marginalized identity because gender dysphoria would be something very easily treated. Think of it like someone who takes medication for blood pressure. They need the medication, it’s life-saving, and while there isn’t a magical pill to ‘cure’ high blood pressure, it can be managed. The magical world revels in being strange. Why would being trans, while being considered strange here in the ‘Muggle’ world, be anything other than normal there? Why can’t it be?
And then there are Metamorphmagi. People who can literally change themselves at will! If that isn’t a trans person’s dream, I don’t know what is. I would personally love the option of being the biggest, hairiest dude with a dick so big an erection would make me black out, and then ultra femme and delicate the next.
Last on this point, Harry never notes anyone specifically trans in the text (NOTE: touching on things like the physical descriptions of Rita Skeeter and Marge Dursley, JKR tends to do the ugly=bad person thing. Although she describes Rita and Marge as mannish in appearance, they aren’t trans characters. They’re women that JKR wants to frame as bad people. Like I said above, this is JKR’s prejudice showing through). If Harry never notes anyone as specifically trans, that probably means that it’s impossible to tell at face value. The same as blood pressure medication, to return to that analogy. How do you know someone is on them? They tell you. You see the pill bottle and happen to know what that medication is for. They complain about side effects. They complain about the symptoms that led them going to the doctor in the first place.
9. Queer HP fandom content can potentially be how a Harry Potter fan realizes that they’re queer (or that queer people are just regular folks).
Hey, the first one happened to me!
If someone comes into the Harry Potter fandom unaware of JKR’s politics - maybe they were gifted the books for their birthday or happened to catch the movies on TV - it’s good actually that this person doesn’t fall right into an echo chamber of JKR’s politics. I’ll be happily here to correct her record in a way that isn’t shaming or policing them.
Anyway, I think that’s everything lol. To summarize:
- The HP Fandom is a neutral setting. Engaging with it doesn’t help JKR, and not engaging with it doesn’t help trans people. Just don’t spend money on official HP merch.
- If you want to be a pro-trans activist or trans political ally, please just ignore JKR and put all your focus on the real world.
- There are trans people in the HP fandom who are left feeling awkward and uncomfortable due to virtue signalling.
You know what's wild to me is Hinny actually had the potential to be a really good ship and missed the mark so fucking hard bc Harry could never stop staring at Draco.
No one else Harry's age besides Ginny has had any interactions with Tom Riddle/Voldemort on a personal level. And then she spends an ENTIRE YEAR with the guy and Harry never asks her one question about it? not a one?
And I cannot remember a single interaction between the two of them in POA, there's about a million with Draco, but from memory, all I can recall is something like "Ginny was even more shy than ever around him now after he'd saved her life last year" which doesn't really make much sense because he's the only one who could even come close to understand what she's feeling and vice versa. And there's not even 1 scene. One! when they're all chillin in Diagon alley and Ginny comes up to him and they talk about the chamber, not one. It could've so easily been slotted in there at Florean Fortescues while Ron and Hermione look at books or something. But no.
Ginny and Harry could've had a deep bond over 1. knowing tom riddle personally. 2. their fears about losing their own autonomy and sense of self in the face of such a powerful enemy and 3. almost dying together at the hands of said enemy.
But they literally never do. Draco gets scratched up by Buckbeack tho and we hear about 6 renditions of Harry teeth-grittingly mad that he's playing it up for attention.
Like consider this! Harry is walking down the corridor and he hears Parseltongue. He freaks out bc WTF?! the basilisk is alive?! He bursts into Myrtle's bathroom to find Ginny, broom in hand, trying to open the Chamber with the only phrase she remembers from her possession. And he's like wtf are you doing? And she's like, I can't let this control me forever! I'm going down there and I'm going to bury this whole thing once and for all. She's a Gryffindor and essentially Fred and George's prodigal heir to mischief. OF COURSE she would try to go back down there. And Harry would hate it bc he's definitely a ignore your problems until they go awayer
But he would take her down there because he would feel guilty, and protective, and curious as well. And they could actually explore and look around and he would realise that she's actually quite fearless.
(total aside but why the fuck was Harry never pulled out of class in POA by McGonagall like "come with me Potter, you need to open the Chamber of Secrets for us so the professors can go down there and make sure it's all copasetic." Like yeah, sure, just leave a potentially dead? potentially alive? Carcass of a Basilisk to rot down there why not?)
And what if Ginny has a really hard time with recklessness after Chamber. What if she starts doing kinda crazy things that put herself in danger because she refuses to be afraid. What if she develops a "saving people thing" that forces Harry to confront what his crazy brand of throwing his whole ass self at the problem looks like to people who care about him.
What if she won't stop talking to him about Riddle, and it's making him uncomfortable bc hey, that's the guy who killed my parents. and she's like yeah but you talked about his cheekbones for at least 10 mins the other day? and he's like... ok yes but have you seen his cheekbones?!
In Philosophers, Harry says you can't go through some things with another person without becoming friends (referring to Hermione and the troll) but I guess you can almost get murdered by a giant snake and your mutual weird soul bond enemy at the bottom of a giant well and that's not a bonding moment.
The entire sequence of events served to bring Harry closer to
1. Dumbledore
2. Riddle
3. Fawkes the Phoenix
4. The Sorting Hat
5. The Sword of Gryffindor
And not Ginny in the slightest.
Hinny could've been great but Drarry just came in with a chair and fucking bodied Harry so hard that nothing else could ever even catch his attention.
Senara, as a resident serious adult with a good grasp on the UK political and cultural landscape, AND the Harry Potter fandom, may I ask:
What impact does the fandom actually have on policies that impact transgender people?
I want to be the best ally I can be to trans folk, and I have seen discussions advocating that the Harry Potter franchise falling into oblivion is the only real way to de-platform JK Rowling.
I don’t entirely disagree - but I also suspect that the fandom as we know on Tumblr and Discord could be a much less influential bubble than it thinks itself to be, and not the main target audience for new movies, shows, and merchandising.
Is simply not consuming products from the franchise enough, or is engaging in extremely niche discussions on a cloudless micro-blogging platform still fanning the fire of Harry Potter, and giving ammunition to JKR to continue on her rampage of infantilising those who challenge her and targeting trans rights?
I don’t want to be naive or wilfully ignorant about my participation in this culture. But I want to know if blogging about Snupin smut and reading fanfiction on free independent platforms still trickles down to making JKR’s voice louder.
I also sometimes think that Harry Potter achieved the status of undeniable cultural staple, and oblivion is simply not an option - much like Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. I can force myself to forget and never engage with it again, but is it at all realistic in a global scale?
Is there an erroneous assumption that most of us on tumblr and discord are on team “fuck JKR, read fanfcition and pirate the books”? Or are offline elder millennials buying HP merch and reading the books to their kids carrying the franchise on their backs?
Or none of this matters, because HP is already part of the popular imagination, and it’s the tragedy of our times that big corporations will inevitably milk it forever?
Hope this is not too much of an awkward question, I really appreciate your insights
the way that the fandom impacts trans rights is by earning jkr money.
jkr's public transphobia - her comments on twitter etc. - absolutely contributes to recruiting others to the anti-trans cause, and that shouldn't be downplayed.
but being loud and wrong on social media isn't the same as having political or legal authority - jkr doesn't have this, and she doesn't deserve people thinking she does.
how she causes material harm to trans people in the uk [which then hurts all trans people, because other places may choose to follow suit] is because she donates colossal sums of money to legal cases which challenge trans people's rights. it's not just yesterday's judgement from the uk supreme court - in which the plaintiff was an anti-trans group she's on the record as having donated £70,000 to - she does it all the time.
she can donate this money because it's loose change for her. she makes millions every year.
and it doesn't come from mid-tier detective fiction, does it?
so, yes, here is the first truth - if she doesn't earn any money from you, you're not contributing to the overarching way her anti-trans crusade has an impact, and that matters.
but there is also a second truth - that you need to go beyond that.
several things need to be borne in mind:
jkr is one of the most visible - if not the single most visible - transphobes in the world. but she's not the only one.
the tendency to make her the figurehead of a transphobic movement, and to assume that disengaging with harry potter without doing anything else is enough may be comforting. but it's also wrong.
indeed, a lot of the people who have the greatest power to harm trans rights are nowhere near as visible as jkr - politicians, lawyers, journalists, academics, doctors, and so on. the supreme court did not reach its judgement because of jkr. the assault on trans rights which will unfold from the judgement will not happen because of her.
i'm not saying this to deny jkr's influence or to imply that she's not dangerous.
i'm saying it because i think it's important to remember that she has a vested interest in you feeling tiny and hopeless in the face of her money - in you thinking that she's the head of a movement and that movement is winning.
instead, the uk terf movement is fragmented and riddled with internecine beef. plenty of its factions don't actually like jkr - and she doesn't like plenty of them.
it can be fought, and it can be fought at the grassroots while she's in her mouldy tower being a bigot on twitter.
it's worth being absolutely clear that yesterday's supreme court ruling was not - in and of itself - new legislation. the uk supreme court does not have the power to make new laws. only parliament can do that.
it was a "clarification" - which is to say that it was an interpretation - of existing legislation. it - by itself - doesn't compel an institution or organisation to change anything. and it is, therefore, an interpretation which can be pushed back against.
this has already started - there's an excellent summary of objections to the judgement, which also provides a rebuttal to the crowing many terfs are doing about how trans rights are being rolled back by pointing out all the ways in which they will not be surrendered:
However much campaign groups might try to claim otherwise, it will still be indirect discrimination to put a policy in place excluding trans
sadly, this is behind a paywall. it's summarised here, in an article from the same writer, a practising barrister who is a specialist in employment and discrimination law:
The supreme court judgment is contradictory and confused. And there seems no prospect of the Labour government sorting this out, says discri
and all of us can do things which enable that pushback to continue, above all, in making clear to our mps that they only have our votes if they - at a bare minimum - continue to defend trans rights.
find their contact details here:
Information on how to contact your local MP
if you have an mp who is clear that they support restrictions on trans rights, then actively oppose them - call for them to be reselected at the next election [sadly a while away...], canvas for an opponent etc.
support institutions which continue to defend trans rights. the supreme court judgement doesn't force places to, for example, ban trans women from entering women's toilets [parliament could pass legislation which does, but that doesn't exist yet, and that's why you need to contact your mp], but plenty will be frightened into doing so. be loud about how you value and will continue to use businesses and services which don't bend to transphobic pressure.
donate to trans charities. lots are circulating, but here are some specifically northern irish options, which tend to otherwise get overlooked:
The Rainbow Project is a LGBTQIA+ Charity based in Northern Ireland, providing health and wellbeing services for our community
Mermaids Northern Ireland delivers services to trans young people and the important people in their lives.
boost stories about the impact of transphobic legislation. it's crucial that you don't underestimate how little the average person knows about this [and about jkr's role in it in particular] - and this is something which helps anti-trans messaging sound more reasonable. but we can reach them first.
what you do with harry potter as a thing beyond this is always going to be subjective. i've set out more on my personal approach before - here - and, of course, you may do what you want.
but - since you've asked - i think two things are true:
on the one hand, harry potter is a juggernaut. the tumblr subsection of the fandom could disappear tonight and the impact would be minimal - harry potter is probably one of the most mainstream cultural products in the world.
and that's how it makes jkr money - branded merchandise, the theme parks, the studio tour, royalties from streaming, and so on.
fandom doesn't require you to engage with any of these. and i do think it's acceptable to understand a commitment not to give jkr money as a viable and sincerely significant harm-reduction strategy.
however.
on the other hand, the vitality of the fandom plays a role in making harry potter marketable. this is undeniable.
and this is the case for all areas of the fandom - i see a lot of cope ["jkr would hate my queer otp!"], but people can get sucked into liking harry potter through anything. having a non-canon take on things, or writing dead dove, or whatever doesn't prevent that.
but it's especially the case for areas of the fandom which are prominent in pop-culture independently of jkr.
i don't just mean the marauders subfandom here - i think we can all stand to grapple with this implication, and i think there's a tendency from people in less prominent fandom subsections to think that they don't have to, which exists at the other end of a spectrum from the tendency from people in the marauders subfandom to assume that their lax approach to canon absolves them from any connection to jkr.
this is a difficult circle to square because it's something which gives jkr visibility indirectly. there's no way, for example, that she's in contact with e.g. artists whose songs go viral in marauders tiktoks, whose youtube comments are then flooded with "can't believe i'm thinking about harry potter's dead dad 😭". and she doesn't earn money from it.
fanfiction and fanart also lives in this indirect space.
jkr doesn't gain any money from it - and that is important. it's also a medium which may engage with the subject matter of the series critically - through taking issue with how she writes about gender, for example - and this is important as well.
but she doesn't gain nothing from it either.
my personal view is that the only way to remain in fandom is two-fold:
as discussed, make sure you're actually doing something in defence of trans people in your real life...
and make sure that your indirect contribution to jkr's nonsense never becomes a direct one.
that is to say, don't spend any money.
and - and this is the important thing - actually mean that.
i think that a very important thing to do if you want to stay in the fandom is to work on building yourself a mental defence against the fear of missing out.
by which i mean... in the circles in which i move, people seem - at the moment - to universally agree that they won't be watching the new television adaptation.
but i find it very striking - and very concerning - that lots of people seem to be taking the view that doing this will be easy, because the tv show won't be any good.
i strongly - strongly - advise you to prepare yourselves for the opposite. expect that the show will be absolutely outstanding. deal with your disappointment in missing out in advance. and do not engage with it, no matter what it tries to tempt you with.
we are about to see an unprecedented level of fan service. every single complaint people made about the film series will be addressed. it's going to make sure that ron is written book-accurately. it's going to give romione or hinny or whatever as it "should have been" in the films. it's going to whip out some really big name casting [cillian murphy has had months to shut down the rumour that he's voldemort... and if it comes to pass, his casting will bring a legion of peaky blinders fans on board. do not be one of them.]. i would bet my house that it's going to make wolfstar canon.
and it's going to do this because it knows that's how people who have committed to not watching it will waver - that, when faced with "i've got the chance to see x done properly" or "god, i love y in everything else they're in", people will go "lol, no ethical consumption under capitalism" and consume anyway.
but there is a more ethical strand of harry potter consumption, and that's consumption which does all it can to limit its impact to only benefitting jkr indirectly, and which takes that task seriously.
I read someone say that Harry only paid more attention to Draco due to how he was an abuse survivor and therefore perceived Draco as a threat and when he didn't like book 7, he barely paid him any mind.
I personally get why they'd think that, but I disagree because Harry doesn't display the same behavior towards anyone else, not even Voldemort who's arguably the bigger threat, or even Snape.
The most Harry obsessed over Snape was, if I remember correctly, in book one. After that he held a grudge, but it was never rhe level of intensity and obsessive behavior he had towards Draco.
If it was about threats, he'd perceive more people in the same regard but he doesn't, but I'd like to read your thoughts on this.
Yeah. To each their own interpretation but personally I totally agree with you. I think that the relationship between Harry Dudley (pre-series and in the early books) or Snape and James and or even Ron and Draco is much more clearly victim and bully. Harry and Draco have a hostile and aggressive rivalry, but the dynamic is more equal and doesn't read to me like a bully and victim but more like two people who don't get alone and are actively hostile to each other (though Draco is absolutely the instigating party and the one in the wrong).
Harry never changes his behavior to avoid Draco like Snape does to avoid James or Harry does to avoid Dudley. He's remarkably comfortable with Draco getting all up in his space - which is notable because Harry isn't a touchy person.
And he's not afraid of Draco, ever - even when he probably should be. Like take this bit from book 6.
The whole reason Harry is spying on Draco (on the surface anyway) is because he suspects him of being a Death Eater on a mission for Voldemort. (Which he is 100% right about). And he's not afraid of being caught eavesdropping on a Death Eater's plans? Not even a little? I can't imagine him feeling this way if he was listening in on Wormtail or Bellatrix. And even when he says he doesn't want to be discovered he describes the threat as "a group of unfriendly Slytherins" rather than singling out Draco - the person he has had an aggressive rivalry with for 5 years and who he currently suspects of being a DEATH EATER. It's like even when all logic tells them to hate and fear each other they can't manage it. Because Draco also never acts fearful of Harry, even when he probably should - post Sectumsempra incident for example.
(Also interesting here that Draco sends the others out before attacking Harry - which protects him from any of them going to far. It also shows that Draco isn't worried about Harry attacking him first. He even turns his back on Harry to pick up his wand. Even though again you'd think he'd be suspicious of someone he doesn't get along with lurking in his compartment under an invisibility cloak. They know each other so well).
Even after Draco attacks Harry (after saying some pretty sketchy things that further support Harry's Death Eater theory) Harry is angry but not upset. His heart isn't pounding. He isn't thinking in relief that given that Draco is a Death Eater he's lucky it wasn't worse. No. this is his reaction:
And even the anger fades. By the time he arrives at Hogwarts he is filled with rage at...Snape....for humiliating him on the way into the castle. And when he gets a chance to test out some Prince spells he targets Filch and Crabbe and never tries to get revenge on Draco for attacking him. It's wild.
#the whole harry is hyper aware due to abuse theory falls apart so fast if you read the books#he doesn’t obsess over snape or umbridge the same way even though he has much more reason to fear them#he doesn’t obsess over Crabbe Goyle or Pansy even though they’re usually right by Draco’s side#he does not perceive Draco as a threat even when he should (train scene)#he’s just obsessed#it’s ok harry#it’s mutual#he’s not Moody with his constant vigillance via @cluelessascanbe
It really is crazy how if you mention you write fanfiction with people outside fandom, they're always like "you should change the names and try to sell it." It misses the point (fun), but more importantly to me, I get slightly (and I know irrationally) insulted on a craft letter. Excuse me, my fanfic is entwined with the canon, thank you very much. I wish sometimes less entwined. You wouldn't believe the stupid bullshit some of my fics have to include because of canon.
always torn between "this is fanfiction, it doesn't need to be 100% realistic" and "if i get even a single fact about this obscure thing wrong, i am going to be violently killed with hammers"
"here's the immensely time consuming 100K word novel-length passion project I'm working on between my real life job and family! It eats up hundreds of hours of my one and only life, causes me emotional harm, and I gain basically nothing from it! Also I put it on the internet for free so anyone can read if they want. Hope you love it!" :)
Normalize leaving unhinged comments on ao3 fics you like. I'm tired of being the only one brave enough to write "I am chewing on this fic" in the comment section. Be weird. Authors will love you for it
