My Favorites—

Harry Potter Series

Star Wars

The Hobbit

Things that bother me about Cannon HP—

1. The way Ginny is constantly shunted to the side. I mean really, in POA just months before she almost died and Ron still acts like he can't stand having her around. I always thought that was unrealistic, if your sister really did just about die, I feel like you might want to spend at least a little time with her the following year. Not to mention they act like they're protecting her by leaving her behind in DH--she went to Hogwarts, a death eaters strong hold and was tortured with Neville in detention. Hardly safe.

Not to mention I didn't understand why Ginny didn't get the map instead of Harry. She was the twin's sister after all and she was the one who had just nearly died and had a year of possession. I felt like that should have trumped not getting to go to hogsmeade.

Plus I never liked how Rowling wrote that Ginny was still the same blushing girl in POA. After nearly dying I just don't think she would have been exactly the same as the previous year. I feel like it would have changed her a lot. I'm not saying she would have been the bad-ass Ginny she is in OTTP and HBP, but I think she would have at least been different. I love JK, and I love the character Ginny, but I feel like Ginny's character development, or lack-thereof, is one of the most disappointing things in cannon.

Not to mention that I thought it just made Ron seem terrible to still exclude her after she nearly died, largely in part from her being so lonely her first year. It made him come off as completely unconcerned about his family. He never wants to spend anytime with Ginny and constantly patronizes her even though she's only a year younger. Then finally when she has her own friend group and is happy in a relationship, he wants to try and pull some protective big brother card even though he has never been there for her. It is all just a little stupid.

I always saw the scene in the hall where he catches her kissing Dean, and his other objections to her relationships, not has a brotherly gesture but as him expressing yet another jealous insecurity that his little sister can get a date and he can't.

And that, not leaving Harry in DH or GOF, but his awful treatment of Ginny, is my biggest problem with Ron. She was his sister and he treated her throughout without any real care except when he thought she would die in Chamber.

2. How Ron and Hermione are Harry's only friends. I love Ron and Hermione, but when I read OTTP I got so excited because I thought that Neville, Luna and Ginny were going to be brought into the fold—especially since I had been disappointed in POA that Ginny didn't become part of the group. So I was doubly disappointed to see in HBP that it was still just the trio. I think Luna, Neville and Ginny joining the group would have been so much cooler.

3. How Harry, for really being a very good person (and I do see him that way) can be so self centered. I realize Harry has a really rough go of things, but all of his moping and completely self centered thoughts can get a little old. He never seems to realize that while yes, his life is especially hard, there are other characters in the HP world that have lost people they loved, that have suffered and that have fought dark arts. He is not the only one.

It seems he operates under that belief for much of the series and mopes about it. I also thought that after saving her life he might show a little bit more concern for Ginny. I was talking to another HG fan one time who said that it didn't make sense that he sticks his wand up a trolls nose and becomes life long friends with Hermione but yet he risks his life and faces a basilisk and avoids Ginny for five years. I love Harry, I just wish he would have realized he isn't the only one, and looked around a bit more instead of moping. Tried to help others who were going through the same thing.

Great example being Lupin, the man is shunned in the magical world and lost all of his best friends, the only people who really accepted him, for twelve years, only to regain and loose one two years later. Yet does Harry ever really reach out, maybe write a letter to Remus, or at least talk to him at all—no, not really. Really it's Remus and Sirius that have the hardest time in the series.

4. The whole Cho Chang thing. I don't hate Cho, I am a HG fan and do not read Harry paired with anyone else, but I don't hate Cho. I do think JK was a little off for still having him like her during OTTP. I'm not saying he should have fallen for Ginny or anything, that would have been a little premature, but I do think it's very unrealistic and creepy for him to still like Cho in OTTP.

I mean, he just saw her boyfriend, (who I'm guessing by being the thing he would most miss they were at least somewhat serious about each other) die. He was very traumatized by Cedric's death we know from his nightmares at the beginning, so would he really then go chase after Cedric's girlfriend? A girl friend that was still mourning Cedric tremendously? Wouldn't that just remind him more of Cedric and what happened? Honestly I was expecting that in OTTP he wouldn't even be able to look at Cho without thinking about Cedric.

Wouldn't it just be really weird to pursue the girl of the guy you watched die? So I was very surprised when I started reading it and saw he was still chasing after her. I would have felt differently had he known Cho well and really had a connection with her. Then maybe I could have seen him still liking her despite watching Cedric die, even then I would've thought it'd be an issue. But their one date shows that as soon as they are done with their brief discussion about quidditch, that they have nothing in common. So clearly he didn't have a strong connection with her or know her well at all. All he really had to go off was was that she was pretty. And I'm sorry, but she couldn't have been the only pretty girl at the whole school. There were other pretty girls he surely must have noticed, why not try to get to know any of them?

So when I write fan fiction I try to change the four points above.

My favorite characters—

1. Ginny Weasley/Sirius Black—I can't decide between the two of them, they're both awesome.

2. Harry Potter

3. James Potter

4. Remus Lupin

5. Luna Lovegood

6. Hermione Granger

7. Neville Longbottom

8. Fred/George Weasley—you never know which is which in the books.

9. Lily E. Potter

10. Tonks

11. Ron Weasley

I do really like all the next generation characters to but since all we write about them is pretty much our own, I don't count them since I'm going off established cannon personalities and traits for this list and we know very little about the next generation.

I do like Snape, but I also think this whole thing with he and James has been taken way out of hand.

Like Ginny says to Harry in Mirror, Mirror, a great fan fic by the way, 'If you saw a memory of you in Malfoy's penesieve I don't think you'd come off all that hot either,' She's absolutely right.

I'm not saying James wasn't completely wrong in that memory, but it's one memory when he was fifteen. People do stupid things often at a young age, that doesn't mean they aren't great people as adults. Snape on the other hand, bullied an eleven year old boy as an adult (not to mention was a terrible and abusive professor that allowed bullying in his classroom by himself and his house) when he should have known better.

I understand he had a rough family background, but if he really truly loved Lily that much, more than James did like I'm sure he claimed to, then why did he join a group to kill people like her while James fought to defend her?

Snape in the end was very heroic and I really admired him. But as a young man who knows what he did, who he killed, who he tortured while he was earnestly being a death eater. I'm sorry, it is very likely that Snape would have murdered as a death eater before the Potters were ever threatened when he was earnestly serving Voldemort.

Yes James was a bully when he was fifteen, but who did he ever murder?

This is why those 'Snape was so much better than James' arguments really annoy me. Snape joined a terrorist group, likely killed muggles for sport, and while he did redeem himself, he did a lot of harm before that time came and then abused students, (not just Harry but others as well) as a perfectly capable adult that was supposedly trying to be a better person.

James made some dumb and cruel choices as a young boy, but he changed, he loved Lily and he died to protect her.

Also James even saved Snape's life when Snape was trying to make Remus's life hell and expose him as a werewolf, yet Severus was content to let not only James die, but his innocent baby son as long as Lily survived so he could have her. If you still think Snapes the better man then you're a very different person from me.

You can appreciate Snape without hating James.

Snape was a good man in the end—let's leave it at that and not have a go at James.

I know I ranted pretty hard about Ron's treatment of Ginny, which does really bother me, but actually I do really like Ron. I always thought that has an adult he would have been really cool and I also thought that if he was a real person, he would have treated Ginny better. You can't stick your neck out for your best friend and willing jump down into a chamber with a basilisk for your sister and then treat her that badly.

I just think JK got a little to caught up in the plot, which is absolutely brilliant, to show us that. I don't like Ron when he's being a moron, but as an adult I think Ron would have moved past his insecurities and been a wonderful, funny and warm man.

I think as teens, we are all a little self centered, and he, Hermione and Harry were no different.

My favorite pairings--

Harry/Ginny--that's the only pairing I'll read as far as Harry's concerned.

Lily/James

Neville/Luna

Hermione/Ron

Hermione/Draco--only if Draco had a somewhat OOC personality, yes he wasn't evil, but that still doesn't mean he wasn't a coward in cannon

Ginny/Tom--yes if you stay true to cannon personality then there's no way that would happen, but I do like to read it anyways sometimes. Not as much as Harry/Ginny though.

Remus/Tonks

Things people say about Ginny and HG that really bother me—

1. That she was weak or a fan girl because of her crush.

I hate it when people say this and find it extremely untrue. Very few girls have the poise at eleven to deal with a crush in and not embarrassing and discrete way. I hate it when people try to claim that she was weak or a fan girl. She wasn't, she was just a normal young girl. Most girls at one point or another, have that crush that makes them blush and act a little stupid. Almost every girl experiences that, why she gets crucified by so many readers for experiencing what I'm sure many of them had at one point or another, has always baffled me. Ginny never threw herself at Harry. She just had a crush on him, why should that be crime?

In fact, let's look at the emotional maturity later on. I read an article that pointed these things out and it really made sense to me and made me look at the characters differently.

Ginny shows much more emotional maturity and integrity than Hermione in the romance department.

Yes she has a normal young girl's crush, but yet, look at what happens when she gets old enough to handle that.

Hermione is bitter and angry at Ron in HPB, almost destroying their friendship over it. She resorts to childish measures, asking Cormac McLaggen out who she despises, just to make him jealous and she sends birds at him to attack him.

Ginny, in OTTP, seeing that Cho firmly as Harry's attentions, she seeks out a relationship with someone that she actually likes (Michael) and attempts to make it work. She does not treat Harry bitterly or spitefully for favoring Cho over her previous, obvious affection for him, in fact she is very kind to him and is a loyal friend that year.

She is much more mature than Hermione in HBP despite the fact that Ginny is only fourteen in OTTP to Hermione's sixteen in HPB. Not to say I don't love Hermione, I do, I just get tired of people trying to say that Ginny was weak compared to her for just having a normal crush. Later on she shows much more grace than Hermione in dealing with relationships.

2. That she was a slag

She dated two other boys. Very, very, very few people marry the first person they date. In fact, dating different people as a young person is good, it helps you figure out the person you really want to end up with in the end. Yes Ginny snogged Dean in HPB, he was her boyfriend, what did you think they were going to do? This does not make her a slag, it just makes her a normal teenage girl. She stays with Dean despite difficulty from Ron, and when she does end things with him it is not messy or dramatic.

This is speculation, but I always thought that in HPB that Ginny must have been at least somewhat aware of Harry's feelings. He just wasn't exactly enough of a smooth operator that he could hide them in my opinion. But yet, she doesn't ditch Dean for him, she stays true to her prior commitment and sees her relationship with Dean through.

This however is fact from the book— If she was really a 'fan girl' as so many people say, then why at the beginning of HPB does she turn down Harry's invitation to find a compartment on the train because she already promised to meet Dean. That is not the action of a fan girl but a girl who honors her commitments and was strong enough to get over her crush on Harry. It certainly is not the actions of any slag with no principles.

3. That there was love potion involved

I really would have thought that DH ended that argument considering he still thinks of her after spending months away. But yet some people still want to make it. I hate those, "It was so sudden" arguments. Harry and Ginny are friends in OTTP, not close friends, but friends. So it's not like she was a complete stranger. Harry never really got a chance to know Ginny before HPB, both due to her own actions and Ron's. As soon as he does get to know her he likes her. It's not like he knew her for years and just suddenly fancies her, he vaguely knew very few facts about her and upon getting to know her well realizes that she is great.

Quote from JK Rowling about Ginny—

“The plan, which I really hope I fulfilled, is that the reader, like Harry, would gradually discover Ginny as pretty much the ideal girl for Harry. She’s tough, not in an unpleasant way, but she’s gutsy. He needs to be with someone who can stand the demands of being with Harry Potter, because he’s a scary boyfriend in a lot of ways…. I think she’s funny, and I think that she’s very warm and compassionate. These are all things that Harry requires in his ideal woman…. And I feel that Ginny and Harry, in this book, they are total equals. They are worthy of each other. They’ve both gone through a big emotional journey…. So, I enjoyed writing that. I really like Ginny as a character.”

Harry spent a year getting to know Ginny better. That's a lot longer than most people spend before they date someone. And he knew her before that, just not well. In fact he started getting to know her in OTTP. So no it wasn't that sudden and no, it wasn't just springing out of no where. As soon as he let himself get to know Ginny as a person he liked her. And yes, Ginny is the perfect match for Harry. I can see Ginny with other people actually. I think she could have been with another man and been happy, where as Harry with his emotional baggage I could not see with any other HP series character than Ginny.

4. That she was weak.

I already went over the whole emotional maturity thing so let's look at magic. You shouldn't have to be an absolutely brilliant and over the top dedicated student to be considered worthwhile. Hermione is brilliant, no doubt, but just because Ginny in not the academic genius Hermione was doesn't mean she's stupid and worthless. That's pretty sexist to say Ginny isn't worthwhile because she's not on the academic level of Hermione--what about Harry and Ron? Neither were they.

There are many things Ginny can do that Hermione can't, just as the same is true in reverse. Everyone is their own person, and just because Ginny is sporty and likes Quidditch, doesn't make her stupid. It doesn't have to be Ginny or Hermione, they both are amazing girls and both very important to the series and to Harry in different ways. We don't learn much about Ginny's academic habits or achievements, but here's another quote.

Quote from JK Rowling about Ginny—

“The backstory with Ginny was, she was the first girl to arrive in the Weasley family in generations, but there’s that old tradition of the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter and a seventh son of a seventh son, so that’s why she’s the seventh, because she is a gifted witch. I think you get hints of that, because she does some pretty impressive stuff here and there.”

So yes, Ginny was powerful, she was not stupid, she was not helpless.

5. That Hermione and Harry make more sense

I love Hermione, but Harry never expresses any interest in her that way. I never had any delusions that their relationship was anything other than a deep friendship and maybe even sibling like. And honestly I like that about the series. How many series have had a major female character the same age as the main male protagonist that didn't end up as the love interest? Not very many. I think it was a powerful message that Hermione is only ever Harry's friend because to me then it doesn't become about the fact that she is female (like it would have if she was the love interest) she is equal and valuable for who she is to him and he loves her without it being about sex. That is something incredibly special and rarely showed in the media. Men and women can be dear friends to each other and not necessarily ever go beyond that.

He describes spending more time with Hermione in GOF as a lot of time in the library and less laughing.

The time he spends with Ginny in HPB he directly says seemed to be too good to be his life, it felt like someone else's life.

I feel like this completely proves my point. Directly quoting the book we can find the words that tell us that HG makes tremendously more sense than HHR. Not everyone loves their best friend that way and most marriages start, not from two people who were best friends, but from two people who knew each other and became best friends as they also became so much more than friends.

About me--

I spend most of my time with my two horses, Top and Pat. I compete three day eventing with them which is an english equestrian triathlon basically, you have to do three very different phases with your horse, two of which involve jumping.

In my other spare time I love to read, mostly fan fiction. I also, clearly, enjoy writing fan fiction as well. I listen to all kinds of music but I really like older rock such as Queen, the Bealtes, ACDC, Aerosmith ect.

I think A Very Potter Musical is one of the funniest things I've seen.

My stories--

Believe it or not I am planning on updating When It's Dark Out soon. I also am planning to entirely re-write When It's Dark Out from scratch, there's a lot about it I want to change. But I don't think I'll get around to doing that until maybe this summer. I will be posting Chapter Twenty Nine and the epilogue of this version in the near future though.

I am almost done with A Different Kind of Brother...well sort of. Only about six chapters more to go which when I think back to first starting it, does seem pretty amazing. It's been a great ride and I am excited about writing this final part.

I will get around to updating It Takes Time, my only star wars fic, soon. The same goes for Nothing to Fear and Never too Late.

I am planning on writing a new HG fic after I complete A Different Kind of Brother and When It's Dark Out. It'll be called Always the Quiet Ones--but more on that later.