Hello everyone ! What a great way to start a profile, isn't it ! I am a 24 years old guy who would like very much to start writing fanfictions. I could talk about my life, but it won't be very interesting and I know for sure that people don't like to hear about other people's life. What they want to read is people's thoughts about a universe they are interested in. In my case, it will be mainly about Harry Potter, Mass Effect and The Big Bang Theory ( even though I like much more fictions than that ). I am not also going to ramble on about things totally irrelevant like what a best friend should do compare to a random friend, or poem about nature and so on. In general, we just don't care about that.

Harry Potter

JK Rowling has created one of the most immersive, engaging and fascinating world in my opinion, on par with Star Wars or the Lord of the Rings. What I find incredible is the evolution of the story and the characters, from a naive and innocent tone to something much darker and realistic. You have that kind of wonder and exploration that you can assimilate with the fact that Harry is discovering the Wizarding World for the first time, and as the books progress, so do the danger and the stakes which force Harry to grow up very quick.
Another thing that I like very much about this universe is the mix between reality and magic. For example, you could have have dragons and goblins, elves and wand, moving portraits and so on, but there is also a coexistence between magical and non magical people. A clash of the cultures, between a pretty backward culture and a society that we are all living in which creates something really weird but in the same time truly amazing. There is also the fact that you can't create something from nothing, a fact that you can find in modern physic.
However, I would have liked to see a more international point of view of the Wizarding World, but as it is only from Harry's POV I can understand why JK Rowling had only focused on the United Kingdom.
That was all for my general impression of the Harry Potter World, but now I would like to talk a bit about the Harry Potter fandom, what I like and don't like, my favorite pairings, etc ...

I. What I don't like in the Harry Potter fandom

1. The surplus of cliches :

I am well aware of the fact that everbody can do absolutely anything in fanfiction, because your own limit is your imagination. I am also aware of the fact that sometimes you can't avoid the use of certain cliches for the story you are writing. However what I tend to dislike very much is for someone to use just too much cliches, giving the impression that they were too lazy to create something original and plausible. In my opinion, it is funnier to create something new than to use tools and plot twists already used by another author ( and sometimes in a much better and more creative way ).

Among what I consider to be the worst cliches ever made, you can find :

- The cliche where Harry suddenly has to go to Gringotts to receive one or several lordships and a huge amount of galleons :

There are several problems with this cliche, one of them is the political climate that it gives to the story. I don't really like to read about politics in a fanfiction when there is already too much politics in real life. The author tend also to give their political opinions, opinions that are not necessarily shared by the readers. Moreover, there is the fact that what makes Harry Potter special is that sense of wonder and discovery, the friendships and relations between each characters, the creatures ; and certainly not a political aspect ( which doesn't even really make an appearance in the books ). If JK Rowling succeeded in making the Harry Potter World a truly engaging and fascinating world without the use of politics, then we can do it too. It is Harry Potter, not Game of Thrones.
Another problem that I have with this cliche is that it is often used to make Harry too much powerful without giving him any development, training or evolution, be it by making him discover hidden abilities ( male veela, vampire or other similar non-senses ), or by giving him a ring or a familiar knowing absolutely everything ( come on even Nagini doesn't know a thing about spells and politics, so it is ridiculous to have a snake knowing more about customs and politics in the Wizarding World than the majority of the witchs and wizards themselves ). It is one of the laziest way to give Harry everything on a silver platter, without him having to train hard for it. So you can understand why I am wary of any fanfiction with a powerful Harry in it. I think that for him to become powerful, he should train very hard for YEARS ( and not only a few weeks as I can see in many fanfictions ).
The last problem that I have with this is that Harry is usually changing too fast. One moment he is that rather shy and ignorant person, and the next he knows everything et he starts to behave like any adult purebloods who have been living in the magical word since their birth. He becomes distant, manipulative and arrogant and not at all like the harry that I love from the books. I don't know, let him have an adolescence by acting like a teenager thinking about school and girls ( and life-threatening problems ), not like a politician speaking like a person living in the Middle-Age. Oh, and just a last thing, the goblins are not nice, they are rather indifferent towards the wizards at best, or wary of them, so it is not because Harry is the Boy-Who-Lived that they prefer him over the rest of wizarding population. They will treat him exactly like the rest.

- The cliche where Harry tries to become an Animagus :

More precisely, the form that Harry is going to take and the duration of the process. I pretty much like when Harry takes a realistic form like a cat, a dog or a stag, but when some authors make him into a dragon or a basilisk, it is starting to get really ridiculous and much too easy for him to defeat his foes. Concerning the duration of the whole process, if I recall correctly from the books, it took several months or years for James, Sirius and Peter to become Animagi. So for Harry to learn it in only a few days or weeks is unlikely, even more when the process is described as very long and hard.

- Marriage contracts and soul-bonds :

If you wanted to avoid describing any progress and development in a relationship, this is the best way to go. You don't really see how two people came to be together, and that takes back all the fun in writing a romance.

- Harry is neglected by his parents because he is not the BWL :

I seriously don't think that because Harry didn't vanquish Voldemort, but his brother or sister dit it, that he would suddenly become neglected by his own parents. I know that the Lily and James we all know would never do something like that, Lily because she is kind and compassionnate and James because he married a muggleborn, showing that he doesn't care about what others might think, including the fact that one of his children is not the BWL.

- Fleur's father is an important member of the French Ministry of Magic :

I don't remember knowing anything about Fleur's father or mother in the books, except the fact that her mother likes to do housework. It could be interesting to see Fleur in a more modest environment for once in a fanfiction. Of course I say that, because I absolutely love the Harry/Fleur pairing.

2. Dark/Evil-Harry :

It is fact that JK Rowling gave Harry a shitty life : between an emotional abuse at the hands of the Dursleys, life-threatening situations at Hogwarts and people constantly distrusting and bullying him, Harry had a pretty tough time. But one of the most important quality that Harry possesses is that he is strong willed and he doesn't give up so easily. He knows that he has to do things the right way and not the easy way. That's why he doesn't give in to the dark side and becomes what he had sworn to fight, even though every one else and everything else give him every reasons to do so. He is mentally strong and that is what makes me like him. People may call him weak, emo and moody in the last books but I don't think they would be feeling very well after seeing so much death and destruction. So just give him a break, and allow him some time to cope with everything that is happening.
So, when people are making Harry dark or evil, they just take away what made him so special, what made him stronger than everyone and what made us love him in a way ; they just add a new weakness to Harry in a sense that he has given himself up and rendered the sacrifice of his parents totally useless.

3. Weasley-Dumbledore Bashing :

For all that JK Rowling has done right in the Harry Potter Universe, there are some things that I think she could have done better, like a more international POV of the events and a story less focus on the Weasleys. I have nothing against them but I would have liked to see more of other families like the Grangers or even the Delacours. But as I have said I bear no ill will toward the Weasleys, as they are quite likeable and I don't think that they had any evil plan to steal the money from Harry's vaults. You have to consider that the first Harry Potter's books were made for the children, and as such they weren't able to discern any inconsistencies ; they just followed the plot and that is what JKR intended to do, there were no underlying meanings when Molly Weasley hadn't known how to find the plateform nine and tree-quarters.
The same could apply to Dumbledore. You could say that he was too old, too verse in his own ways to consider other people's opinions, but I don't think that he had the intentions of making Harry his pawn, a child-soldier to use in the war against Voldemort and then let him be killed to have all the money and glory for himself. I don't think that JK Rowling wanted to write him that way, but more like the grandfather persona you could rely on, even if he was misguided and slightly manipulative, but that is only my opinion.
That's why, I tend to dislike the bashing of those aforementioned because it makes them look utterly stupid and impossible. Furthermore, if Dumbledore really wanted to manipulate Harry into being his pawn, he would have succeeded easily, because he has like a century of manipulation behind him. So how can a teenager with no experience in politics or manipulation beat him at his own game ? The answer is : impossible.

4. Slash/Femslash :

I am not being homophobic there, because many people in my family are lesbians or gays and I like them very much, thank you. It is just that it is not my cup of tea, and that I like to keep the sexuality for each characters. So, if one character is homosexual in the book or a movie or whatever, they will stay homosexual in my fics, the same can be applied for heterosexual characters. That's why, I will never write a Draco/Harry, nor a Fleur/Hermione for example.

5. Snape or Draco being a hero :

Snape was a very complex character that I didn't like very much in terms of personality, but that I loved in terms of ambiguity. He is an anti-hero with his own motivation and he doesn't do certain things because he wants to genuinely help someone, more like he has his own agenda. So to make him good and helpful is totally inconsistent with who he is in the books, he is a Slytherin after all, not a saint. Draco, I have the regret to say that I hate him, even though he is not as evil as the Death Eaters, or that he is confused. He has never done something heroic in the books, and in consequence he has never been a hero.

6. Pairings that I dislike :

- Ron/anyone : I just don't like Ron very much, because even though he had his good moments, he was just too impredictable and not a really good friend to Harry to be really appreciated. You would have fought that he would have known Harry a little bit after spending three years with him, but still he turned his back on him when Harry needed him the most. That's why, I will try not to bash him in any way ( as I dislike bashing ), but I won't pair him with anyone.

- Draco/Hermione or Hermione/Death Eaters : I just don't what to say here if it is that it is horribly disgusting and impossible. The only arguments I had heard for Draco/Hermione were that it is because Tom Felton looks good or because they have a kind of love/hate relationship. With this reasoning, you could have Hitler and Gandhi together and it would be the same. You really think that a relationship based on insults and beatings is a good relationship ? No wonder why there are so many acts of infidelity and divorce. Furthermore, the authors always have to change drastically the personality and what happens in canon to try and make the relationship believable, which is not a good thing.

- Remus/Tonks : I honestly don't know how they came to be together, on one hand you have Tonks who is a very bubbly, funny and outgoing character and on the other hand, you have Remus who is very depressing and severely lacks self-confidence. By refusing constantly her advances because of his nature in the fifth book, he wore her down and even more when he just wouldn't accept his responsabilities when he made her pregnant. The large gap of about 15 years between the two of them is also to be considered.

- Harry/Ginny : I could never shake the feeling that Harry could have done much better than going out with Ginny. It is like that he resigned himself to the fact that he could never find better than Ginny. I do not hate Ginny, I don't think she is a whore or a fangirl at the end of the series, more like she has never been sufficiently developed into a person really interesting to be the only choice for Harry. Their romance in the books was too abrupt to be credible. The fact that she kinda resembles Harry's mother physically speaking doesn't help things.

- Slash/Femslash

II. Things that I am rather indifferent to in the Harry Potter fandom

1. Grey Harry :

It doesn't really bothered me when Harry has to resolve himself using more unconventional ways to resolve problems, but not if it means killing innocent or things like that.

2. Pairings :

- Bill/Fleur :

Not the worst pairing but not the best either. Bill is a great guy but I would have seen him more with Tonks. He doesn't exactly really support Fleur when she has to deal with the snide remarks of his mother. He gave the opportunity to find a job yes, but I had to go out with every women I helped in finding a job, I would have had a harem.

- Harry/Hermione :

I agree with the people who said that they should have ended up togeher after everything they went through together, and all the intimate moments that they shared, but I think there are a little too much of this pairing in the fandom and that I would like to see something else.

- Neville Londubat/Hannah Abbot

III. Things that I like in the Harry Potter fandom

1. Adventure oriented stories without political bullshit, romance stories where you get to see how they came to be together without any interference ( marriages, soul-bound etc ... )

2. Harry is a werewolf :

Because it gives him another aspect to deal with, another difficulty that could make him stronger if he accepts his new condition.

3. Smut/Lemon :

Oh don't look at me like that, we all enjoy sometimes reading a bit of smut, it is only a parody and it never hurt anyone. The only think that I don't like is when everyone is sleeping with everyone, because I always like it more when there are some feelings involved. I can enjoy equally a smut fic with or without a plot.

4. Light-side Harry and happy stories :

Because the world is depressing enough even if I also enjoy some tragedy or angsty stories.

5. Pairings :

- Harry/Fleur :

One of the pairing I would have liked to see in canon. It could have led to a more international vision with Fleur. There is also the fact that you could do so much with this romance without altering the events in canon. It could have begun with a deep friendship by the end of 4th Year, after The Second and Third Task, and then become more during the following years. I think they would have complemented each other very well, with Harry's courage and Fleur's assurance, and she also knows what Harry has to endure being the BWL, and herself being a veela, thus garnering the attention of the males and the jealousy of females. You could also attribut any behaviour to her and it would still work.

- Harry/Apolline Delacour or Harry/Narcissa :

I will admit that there isn't really a logic there, more that I like older women.

- Harry/Daphne :

As long as it is not too political, I can enjoy this pairing. We don't know anything about Daphne in the books or the movies, so you can make whatever you want with her personality. The same could be said for Harry/Susan too.