Harry Potter fandom
The Harry Potter fandom is an international, informal community drawn together by the Harry Potter series.
Online Encyclopedias
Many online encylopedias, most famously the Harry Potter Lexicon, which was given a "fan site award" by J. K. Rowling herself, have been created to document the series. These sites tend to stick very close to the canon, trying not to jump to conclusions.
Fan Fiction
Fan fiction is fiction written by fans. There are innumerable fan fiction stories on the internet devoted to Harry Potter, and several sites dedicated to Harry Potter fan fiction (such as The Sugar Quill and FictionAlley), as well as several websites which have entire sections devoted to fan fiction too (such as Mugglenet Fanfiction).
When asked about Fan Fiction, Rowling said "I've read some of it. I find it very flattering that people love the characters that much." She generally supports fan fiction (although she has asked that sites that contain fanfic with adult content password-protect the stories so children under 18 cannot access it).
Fan fiction and fan-cognition in general tend to have an interesting derivative view of themes and characters in the books. For example, some believe that the online fan crowd has much more sympathy for Draco Malfoy than the average fan. This has led to the rise of the characterization known as "Fanon Draco" or "Draco In Leather Trousers" (coined for a scene in noted fanfiction author Cassandra Claire's "Draco Trilogy"), which some fans find annoying and similar to a Mary Sue-ized canon character (also known as a Qanonreip, which comes from The Potter Sue Of The Day Report and is derived from "canon rape").
Another popular figure of the Harry Potter fan fiction is Severus Snape, with many fictions' expansions on canon of this character being widely accepted by the fan fiction community. These include fan representation such as casting him as a Vampire, and in a mocking retort to that, giving him a set of fuzzy bat slippers to wear - a joke which was started on the "All About Snivellus Snape" threads which existed on CoSForums shortly after the release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (see also Mugglenet). Whilst the great majority of Severus Snape fan fiction includes a lot of OOC behaviour, a fair few authors also manage to write the character as true to the Harry Potter series as possible.
"Shipping" in the Harry Potter fandom
Despite its apparent irrelevance and obscurity, one of the most frequently discussed subjects in the fandom is the "ship debate", a controversy that has been going on in the Harry Potter fandom for as long as the ruling majority of its members can remember and centers on whether Hermione should/could/will romantically belong with Harry or Ron (for more about the phenomenon of "shipping", which is not exclusive to the Harry Potter fandom, see Shipping (fandom)). Even J.K. Rowling herself has expressed some enjoyment over the "shipper debates" on her website - while letting the shippers know that they should have had the matter figured out by now [1]. More recently she has referred to the two opposing factions as "scary and vehement" [2]. In some communities, even mentioning either faction (or mentioning the opposing faction in communities devoted to one faction or the other) is enough to cause a flame war.
Ships in the Harry Potter fandom are characterised by either having already happened or having some obstacle(s) which supporters of the particular ship, obviously, believe to be either nonexistent or destined to be overcome by the factors in the story that drive the relationship forward. However, debating between the two ships has been quite useless in winning converts, as both factions are quite set in their ways about shipping, to the point that emotions and allegiances to larger fandom personalities tend to dictate ship more often than logic. Most shippers will even admit to avoiding the debates, as they consider them childish, pointless, and generally wanky.
Notable "ships" include:
Harry/Hermione (a.k.a. "HMS Pumpkin Pie")
Being faced with obstacles such as the widely common viewing of Ron and Hermione as a manifestation of the "bickering lovers" cliché (in the vein of Han and Leia from Star Wars), the fanbase of this pairing prides itself on offering more detailed interpretations to whatever it is that appears to generate these obstacles. According to them, these alternate interpretations are supported in the series's subtext and are the result of a deeper reading of the text, while the more straightforward interpretations which imply evidence to the contrary are in fact a cleverly-constructed façade--a view which they generally defend by pointing to Rowling's tendency to mislead readers regarding the outcome of the story. The main point in favor of this option is Hermione being the main female lead, making her all but the default choice for Harry, and their close friendship which ties closely into that; supporters also cite many instances of possible symbolism and metonymy that outline them as a couple.
Harry/Hermione supporters have dealt with the potential damage done to the trio's relationship with regards to Ron by having him get over what are generally regarded as obvious feelings for Hermione, usually pairing him with another character (previously Lavender, now Luna) - as they in general feel that Ron and Hermione's personalities create too much conflict for a stable romantic relationship. Harry/Hermione shippers tend to think that a more harmionous friendship would be a better base for a romantic relationship, an idea borne out in one of the ship's alternate names, the HMS Harmony. This does not mean that dislike of Ron's character is necessarily the result of Harry/Hermione support. In fact, there are many Harry/Hermione shippers that adore Ron, though there are admittedly those who strongly dislike him. The Ron-bashing stereotype of H/Hr shippers is a half-truth that was perpetuated by the negative nature of Ron's characterization or/and role in a few more well-known Harry/Hermione fanfictions.
The nickname HMS Pumpkin Pie is derived from a fan fiction piece posted by a Harry/Hermione supporter at FictionAlley Park in late November of 2001 which involved the Harry and Hermione kissing after Harry had just eaten pumpkin pie with Hermione stating in the end that he tastes like pumpkin pie.
The Harry/Hermione supporters are also alternatively known as the HMS Harmony with Harmony being derived from a combination of Harry and Hermione's names. Also notable is their names: Harry James Potter and Hermione Jane Granger - the idea being that if they were married, both would have the initials HJP.
Key reading material to better understand their position includes Analysis of quotes by J. K. Rowling by Athena, The Triangle Theory - PoV Can Be Misleading by Innermurk and H/Hr, Love and Flying by Turambar. More of that can be found here. Possibly the most justified pro-Harry/Hermione essay is written by Penny Linsenmayer - Partners and Friends: The Evolving Relationship Between Harry and Hermione
Ron/Hermione (a.k.a. "The Good Ship R/Hr")
A pairing the supporters of which perpetuate the particular controversy mentioned above. With the author having referred to "tension" and "something going on" between those two in the not-so-distant past and the numbers supporting this pairing among the general public far outweighing any other, it is not so much any obstacles directly provided by Rowling that balance out the evidence for this pairing and create conflict as the insistence of the Harry/Hermione crowd that said evidence is invalid altogether. Although there are ships which equally threaten Ron/Hermione (e.g. Ron/Luna and Hermione/Victor), it is safe to say that by far the biggest reason the Ron/Hermione shippers are debating in favour of their ship is the alternative interpretations to both Harry Potter canon and several comments by Rowling suggested by the Harry/Hermione supporters, which tend to wildly diverge from their own. The Ron/Hermione supporters, of course, hold that these alternative interpretations are nothing more than unnecessary ad hoc hypotheses that have systematically been taking advantage of underdetermination in order to make the available evidence fit in with Harry/Hermione regardless of what the actual state of available evidence is.
As for Harry, Ron/Hermione supporters tend to either leave him alone or pair him off with either Luna (less commonly) or Ginny (much more commonly), but, again, this does not mean that supporting Harry/Ginny or Harry/Luna is necessarily the result of supporting Ron/Hermione.
The common motto of the Ron/Hermione ship is "isn't it obvious?" Though the phrase "Isn't it obvious" , found in OOTP had Hermione referring to Harry (as the obvious leader of the defense club), and that JKR has told the shippers to read between the lines - the "isn't it obvious?" phrase is still widely used. The more recent slogan for the ship is "we believe in trees". This is derived from a response of one supporter of this pairing when asked as to the reason she believed in it, which compared the existence of the pairing in canon to the existence of trees as something obvious that doesn't really need any leap of faith to accept.
The Ron/Hermione circle is also sometimes know as the HMS Heron which is most likely a combination of Ron and Hermione's names.
Key reading material to better understand their position includes Why Hermione is not The Right Girl for Harry by Angua and Quotes Supporting a Ron/Hermione Romance from MuggleNet.
Harry/Draco (a.k.a. "S.S. Guns'n'Handcuffs")
Although this ship is highly unlikely to find support or fulfillment in canon, the S.S Guns'n'Handcuffs (or the G'n'H for short) has one of the largest followings in the fandom, and should not be overlooked when examining ships within the fandom at large. Those who sail this ship are drawn to the rivalry and intensity between Harry and Draco, regardless of gender. While there may be no obvious love or romance, the evidence for the obsession between the boys is obvious, to include everything from Harry's observation of Draco's hair "shining in the sun" on the Quidditch pitch, to Draco's dropping of his wine goblet upon Harry's entry during the Charms portion of OWL's. This obsession, and fanfic writers' need to create tension, drama, angst, and character development have led to a fantastic variety of stories involving this unlikely couple.
A multitude of fandom sites have sprung up for this ship, to include Yahoo groups, fanfiction archives, discussion boards, and livejournal communities. Major sites include the Potter Slash Archive, Armchair Slash, and the Guns'n'Handcuffs spinoff site from the SCUSA forum at FictionAlley.org, although in truth, there are far too many to mention.
Links for reading material and references will be posted soon.
Harry/Ginny (a.k.a. "HMS Chocolate Orange")
Portrayed by the majority of its opposers and an unignorable amount of its supporters as the typical product of hopelessly romantic minds, this pairing also faces the obvious problems of Ginny Weasley having given up on ever being with Harry in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry having expressed no particular desire to be with her up to now at all. This has driven supporters of this pairing to look for reasons why it could happen on other fronts, resulting mostly in theories suffering from the same ad-hoc symptoms characteristic of the Harry/Hermione theories they have been so quick to label as irrational, but also in several meaningful finds- mainly in the areas of literary analysis, relatively simple foreshadowing and Rowling's teasing comments when asked about Harry and Ginny as opposed to her blunt denial when asked about Harry and Hermione. The "fairytale appeal" this pairing had initially and the reasonable evidence pointing in its direction which factored in later, with Ginny being the second most developed female character around Harry's age next to Hermione, have resulted in this being the second most popular pairing after Ron and Hermione, at least according to the [Are You a Muggle poll] on the subject. It should be noted, however, that the poll results portray the support for Harry/Luna as greater than for Harry/Hermione - which, considering the fact that Luna has only been introduced in Order of the Phoenix, indicates either much lower support for Harry/Hermione than previously thought or the poll somehow being inaccurate.
The name "Chocolate Orange" is a variation on the original name, "Orange Crush", which was a pun on Ginny's crush and hair colour creating the name of a well-known soft drink. With the crush having disappeared in Order of the Phoenix there was some debate as to whether this name still fitted, and while "Orange Crush" is still in use, the more apt eventually reached conclusion of "Chocolate Orange" can now be commonly encountered as well.
Key reading material to better understand their position includes A Rationalist's Guide to Chocolate Orange by Acemyth and Ginny Weasley, Why? by Cressida.
The Ron/Hermione and the Harry/Ginny Ships have also given rise to the "One Big Happy Weasley Family" theory, which is the belief in the end that with the marriages between Ron and Hermione and Harry and Ginny that all of the main characters will eventually be related to each through the Weasley family. Even supporters of the "OBHWF" (as it is commonly abbreviated), however, admit that this scenario would a require a very skillful execution to avoid being unrealistically saccharine.
Harry/Luna (a.k.a. "HMS Loony Lions")
The primary driving force behind Harry/Luna that supporters of this pairing cite is the conclusions drawn from their meeting at the end of the fifth book and various other ways by which they could relate to each other. In the book, Harry notes that he feels like talking with Luna about Sirius Black's death, when he didn't want to talk about it with anyone else. It should also be noted that other instances in OOTP occurred that suggest a possible Harry/Luna matching (Luna observing Harry standing under mistletoe in the Room of Requirement, well before Harry's crush Cho Chang observed the same thing, is a small but noteworthy event).
Of course, there are a lot other characters who Harry could relate to if he tried (Ginny has also faced Voldemort and lived in a sense, Hermione has also been a stranger to the magical world for most of her life, and several other examples) but the fifth book seems to set up a relationship of at least mutual confidence between the two.
Key reading material to better understand their position includes Loonies and Lions: An Essay on Shipping Harry and Luna by Fiera and Harry/Luna: Not as Loony as You Think by Tonya.
Sirius/Remus (a.k.a. "HMS Wolfstar")
This particular relationship pairs Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, and due to Sirius' death is naturally focused on what has occured in the past rather than the present or future. This is a slash, or homosexual pairing, as opposed to a "het", or heterosexual one, and has a great fan following, including many authors of fan fiction (to the point of spurring the most discussion in the Fiction Alley forums of any Sirius ship, Remus ship, and adult ship). The name derives from the fact that Sirius is a dog animagus (whose first name is the name of the Dog Star) and that Remus is a werewolf.
Most members of the HMS Wolfstar cite the pair's strong connection, ability to overcome obstacles together, long history as friends, and lack of female romantic partners as reasons why Remus and Sirius were a couple; some of them believe that J.K. Rowling may have intended Sirius and Remus to be read as such. Well-known essays concerning the rationale behind the ship include The Case for R/S: Version 2.5 by Elwing and The Remus Lupin/Sirius Black Ship Manifesto by Blacksatinrose.
Fan Art
Sites such as ArtisticAlley host thousands of pieces of fan art, created by artists of all degrees of skill, sorted by book chapter, and by character. Also, individual sites, such as Art Dungeon and Seventeen Sickles showcase the works of talented individual artists.
Web sites
- jkrowling.com: JK Rowling's Official Site, official news and bits of info about the books and characters
- The Leaky Cauldron: Very popular Harry Potter news site with many features, reviews and interviews; J.K. Rowling called it "my favorite fan site."
- MuggleNet: Very popular Harry Potter fan site, winner of the J.K. Rowling "Fan Site Award"
- HPANA: Very popular Harry Potter news site and fan community, winner of the J.K. Rowling "Fan Site Award"
- CoSForums: Very popular Harry Potter fan community, official forums of MuggleNet.
- The Harry Potter Lexicon: An excellent, comprehensive resource for Harry Potter information, winner of the J.K. Rowling "Fan Site Award"
- Harry Potter's Page: An online forum with daily news updates, fanart, fanfic, role-playing and much more
- FictionAlley: Very large Harry Potter fan fic and fan art site
- The Snitch.co.uk: A popular Harry Potter fansite
- iharrypotter.net: International Harry Potter Fan Site.
- Hogwarts' Heir: "The Extreme Harry Potter Location"
- HogwartsNews: Harry Potter discussion forums
- Snuffles' Hideout: Information and News
- Diagon Lane: Harry Potter Site with lots of information
- Broomsticks And Owls: Harry Potter forum
- The Patronus: A positive Christian perspective of Harry Potter
- The Dueling Club: A Harry Potter fansite, also offering information for Harry Potter webmasters
- Portkey: A Harry Potter Fanfiction, Forums and Fanart site for Harry/Hermione, Ron/Luna, Lily/James, Draco/Ginny
- Gotpotter.net: An unofficial Potter fansite with news, discussion forums and much more
- Harry Potter for Grownups: Discussions on Yahoo! groups
Online role-playing sites
- Hogwarts Academy of Magic A role-playing site based on the books. Includes classes, clubs, Quidditch, and more realistic events.
- Harry Potter Fanclub (Germany)
- Deckleswood School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
- Hogwarts Extreme