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cluegirl-I hate like hell when people sell Harry short just because he acts his age and gender

1. Harry's the hero for a reason, and no, it's not just that his name's on the book title. He's not a bully -- he sticks up for people who get bullied. He's not stupid -- he's not doing well in Potions for Slytherin reasons, and he's not doing well in Divination for Trelawney reasons, but he's a good enough student that he was legitimately in the running for Prefect. He's not cruel -- he has a temper, yes, and when he feels cornered, he does lash out, but when he hurts someone, he regrets it, and often tries to make amends for it. He's not without conscience -- see above. He's not incapable of working things out without Snape,Draco,Hermione to spell all the details out for him. He does get help from his allies, yes, and he does make use of that help, yes, but he also makes equal use of his enemies' mistakes, and that is NOT something a stupid person can manage with any regularity.

I hate like hell when people sell Harry short just because he acts his age and gender. YOU go and spend a week keeping company with a 17 year old boy, and see if Harry doesn't seem quite a reasonable guy by comparison!

2. I feel sorry for Percy, but he's so damned passive/aggressive, I just want to kick his arse up around his ears permanently. If he could manage to stand up to his family directly about how they treat him, instead of using his allegiance to the Ministry to try and legitimize his feelings of alienation, then they might actually be able to make some changes in the behavior that makes him so miserable. But he's too cowardly to own up to it, so instead, he's gone and got a bigger bully than either of the twins ever were to fight his battles for him. And that's just pathetic.

3. There's no excuse for not being able to use a spell-checker in today's world. By the Precious, if you have the technological expertise to do a post in LJ, then you have what it takes to find, install, and learn to use a program that will keep you from looking ridiculous when you post your fics. And no, I realize that spell checkers aren't idiot-proof. I realize that they choke on Britglish spellings often, and that sometimes they fail to recognize perfectly legitimate words, BUT. They're at least a place to start, b'god!

4. Sorry, folks; I can't hate Dumbledore. I know he's manipulative. I know he conceals things that could have saved people. I know he isn't a very good headmaster, or school administrator. I even admit that his dotty old man act is wearing at times. But. He's fighting a war. And for the Thirteen years during which Voldemort seemed to be dead, he was damned near THE ONLY one still on the front line of that war. He is shouldering a responsibility no less dreadful than the one he's asking Harry to shoulder, and it all boils down to one fact: War Ain't Pretty. Nice people don't win wars. People who are capable of being nice can sometimes win them, but during the firestorm, parlour manners must give way to strategy. It's what war IS, folks. And if Dumbledore wasn't doing it, Voldemort would already have won.

5. The purpose of a Beta reader is not to make you feel good about yourself. They're there to help you make sure you don't get crappy reviews. So if you ask someone to beta for you, and they redline the living hell out of your manuscript, then you owe it TO YOUR STORY to carefully consider the suggestions they've made. If you're not sure they're right, get a second opinion, or consult canon, or a style manual, to be sure of the answer. And if it's a subjective thing they want you to change, but it doesn't jive with where you want the story to go, then you owe it to your story to follow your instincts. But, if you ask someone to beta for you, then you ignore their advice? You really shouldn't credit them for betaing. No, really.

6. I will be astonished -- no, really, flat out floored -- if Snape survives the last book. Mind, it'll make me cry no matter how she handles it, but I can't see him getting away in the end. I really wish I could, and I fervently hope to be surprised, but... well, I don't expect to be. I think the 'unexpected reprieve' Herself mentioned was Draco. Damn it.

7. Snape is gay. Nobody who knows him is under any misapprehension as to his being a sniping, raging, guttermouthed drama queen. The reason he's so perpetually bitchy is that he isn't pulling. He doens't like children, after all -- he makes that absolutely clear whenever he's around them -- so he's a gay man trapped in a boarding school, and surrounded by people with half his IQ, who have the collective fashion sense of rabid turnips. Even canonically, he's a great, swooping, posing, shrieking, raging, hissyfit throwing Princess, he just happens to have...

8. ...Greasy hair; a large, hooked nose; sallow skin; crooked, yellowed teeth; stained fingers. Not a lot to work with, no matter which sex you prefer, really, and I've noticed that those men who prefer men seem to be less inclined to 'rescue-love' scenarios than women are. In short, his behaving like the bastard Prince of Snarkington is more likely to win him sheep's eyes from girls than from anyone he'd consider a candidate. Because women are crazy. It's to do with the hormones, really; for example, I present any woman who has given birth... and then got pregnant again.

9. Canonically, there is no way in hell that Remus Lupin is an alpha werewolf. Every one of his canonical behavior patterns pegs him as a solid Omega. He's the peacemaker, he's the blame-taker, he's the one who tries to break the tension by distraction or diversion. He is NOT the leader of the pack. The only reason he wasn't the Marauder's Safety Monkey was because they had Peter... And because Sirius has a taste for dangerous pets. Oh, shut it, he does!

10. I do not hate Tonks/Remus. I don't. I think Tonks has every right to want him, and to pursue him to her hearts' content, and I think that if Remus can find some comfort and happiness with her after losing Sirius -- and them being a pair is not an unpopular opinion, so I totally won't even bother defending it, since I consider that to be unspoken canon anyhow -- then I say more power to him. Give him something to live for, give her someone to protect. Give him back a sense of Pack to keep him clear of Greyback, give her a sense of Family now that the war's killed her cousin, and once more put her parents in the crosshairs. It's sound storytelling, and it's just the sort of thing I'd do. I approve of it. I just don't expect it to go smoothly.

11. I like my porn to drive the plot. If it doesn't, I'm about %80 sure to be scanning it instead of reading properly. PWP's are nice as far as literary popcorn goes, but I don't keep one straight from another, generally. Fan-lit is like that for me too. I rank the two in the same category -- if you're not telling me a story, then you're feeding me popcorn. Elegant, and often well-written popcorn in some cases, but still. After awhile, who can tell one kernel from another?

12. I know bloody good and well that fanfic awards are gratuitously biased, and are really nothing but popularity contests when all is said and sifted. I know that hundreds of fantastic stories aren't even nominated for any award, and that one focused ship can totally ballot-stuff a fest, and plug all their favorites into place. I know all that. In the end, they mean nothing but a shiny banner to add to the collection... But that inner five year old who lives inside me will never be able to keep from squeeing in delight every time I find out that someone liked one of my stories well enough to nominate it. I'm shallow that way. I hoard validation.

13. I'm running out of ideas for post HBP Snarry. I'm not proud.

14. Being translated is never going to stop being cool! Okay, so that opinion may not be unpopular, but I just wanted to say it anyhow.

15. Don't like Draco. I'm sorry. No, really, I am, because there's a lot of people I know who are fully and wholly fascinated with him, who adore him, and who think he hung the moon. Maybe you can get there if you're willing to ignore enough canon, and write in enough background equivocation for him, but for my opinion, the truest, most in-character Draco I ever wrote was the one who bashed Harry from behind with an ashtray, and pushed him down the stairs in Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence. He's short-sighted, obsessed with getting his way once he's decided what he wants, even when it becomes obvious that what he wants is not in his best interests, and in fact, will get a lot of people hurt. He's cunning, in a vicious sort of way, he's unapologetically vindictive, he's a liar, he's a cheat and a thief, he enjoys seeing people hurt, and he regularly makes the choice to be ugly to the people around him. I can't even pity him for HBP -- he was given every opportunity to get his head out of his arse and think for himself, but oh, no. No, he couldn't look past his selfishness, to percieve the actual consequences of his actions until he'd snared Snape, his mother, and his Aunt in an open betrayal of the Dark Lord's wishes, AND let a band of murders into a school full of undefended children. What he pulled was no less stupid than Harry's raid on the Department of Magic, but Draco doesn't have the excuse of an enemy manipulating his dreams to lure him in. I don't even feel sorry for Draco over the Sectumsempra. He was in process of casting Crucio on Harry. Crucio; the spell which drove Frank and Alice Longbottom mad. He knows this. Casting an unforgivable on a classmate you don't much like just because he happened to see you crying is not only petty, it's so outright stupid it doesn't bear thinking about. What did he think was going to happen if he did manage it? Harry would just shrug it off and not say anything about Draco casting a spell that would send him to Azkaban with his father? Nope. I can make myself spin him in different directions in order to fulfill the parametres of this or that story, but taken purely as he appears in canon? I want nothing more than to bring him low. Just like his father, really