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Wow, I need to get some HP icons.
Anyway.
When Deathly Hallows came out I loved it. However, the more I thought about it and the more meta I read, the more irritated I became. It felt like Rowling largely copped out or sold out or whatever term best applies. Maybe both. And one of the worst worst worst things, one of the things that made me absolutely sick was the way she treated the Slytherins. Throughout the entirety of the series there was subtle but noticeable emphasis place on this ideal of "interhouse unity" especially by Dumbledore and the Sorting Hat. I don't remember if it was ever named as such, but that's the fandom's catchphrase for the ideal, and it describes it so well. At the end Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw united I suppose, but Slytherin was left largely by the wayside. They were a house too, and yet she couldn't have said any clearer that Slytherin was the "bad house" from her particularly noting that not one person was left at their table.
This was a mistake! I believe this with every fiber of my being and I am intensely resentful of the way things played out because of it. Why? Because it's representative of so many promises she made that were never delivered on. Yes, Harry defeated Voldemort, but he never became the grand leader and force of change that at least I wanted him to be. He defeated Voldemort then apparently faded into obscurity and nothing fucking changed. Nothing in the epilogue suggested anything was any different. It could have been the day of Harry's first trip to the Platform 9 3/4 from someone else's point of view. All the old prejudices are perfectly intact. All the old problems are still there with no effort having been made to change anything. Everything has come full circle in the most grotesque way possible and it makes me ill if I think on it too hard.
While the HP series will always hold a special place in my heart for itself, I won't say that it's a particularly good place. I become too angry when I think about it. My future interaction with HP will probably be strictly fandom only, and good divergences and AUs are the only reason I bother with that anymore. For instance, Lightning Wave's The Sacrifices Arc is my very favorite work of fiction ever, published or otherwise. It delivered on everything that the original series didn't, and I recommend it to everyone whether they like Harry Potter or not. This massive AU resembles it's mother-series only peripherally, and not even that by the later "books." Also, it's Draco/Harry which is, believe it or not, just the cherry on top. I find myself horrified that I might not have read this story if it had been another pairing.
/rant
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I love how lightning addresses the issue of slytherin being a little outcasted, but points out that not everyone is bad and that people CAN unite, and that other houses aren't evil and that gryffindor isn't all good.
and i actually have the same consequence; had it not been for my somewhat like for harry/draco, i would have not stumbled upon this story. While draco/harry in sacrifices are CERTAINLY the icing, the cherry, whatever you would like to call it, i don't think it would have taken much away from the amazingness that is sacrifices had it been absent.
but i'm still so glad that she included it :)
But it was only really after I read sacrifices that I really started to see how truly unfair these prejudice against slytherin was. (or maybe sacrifices just made me angry about it)
the story is amazing and realistic in terms of characters and how they got there. and sacrifices harry is so much better than canon harry- i find canon harry as weak and relying too much on miracles and deus ex machina to solve his problems.
sacrifices is basically pure love
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this topic.these topics.