Warm fuzzy feelings

I've just skimmed the latest chapter of Turn, by Sara's Girl's, and yet again, find myself smiling dreamily into space and feeling all warm and fuzzy; couldn't let it pass without mention in the middle of yet another age crisis (lack of accomplishments crisis more like). I prefer reading finished fanfiction, because I'm too impatient to wait for each chapter, but this one is sooo good it doesn't matter.

It reminds me a lot to when I was reading Maya's Underwater Lights - and also If You've a Ready Mind, though that one is more on the funny side. Not because of similar stories, or even characterizations, but because of all the powerful feelings they leave behind. The thing is, I love most kinds of fanfiction, but I adore these ones that have great characterizations, an interesting story, a good flow, and on top of that, give me the fuzzies.

Note to self: don't forget to explore Fanlore in depth later.

So true!!

From Firefly, by Araceil:

If Harry could compare English to anything it would be the mugger's language, it follows other languages down alley-ways and beats them up before rifling through their pockets for spare vocabulary – at least that was what Hermione said about it.

On Possibility

From Lomonaaeren's 'Practicing Liars':

It was impossible. But Severus, who had designed new spells and potions in his time, considered “impossible” only a term that could be redefined with accumulations of the possible.

Audiofic

So, I've been looking for this site for days - on a whim, sure, but once I start looking for something I'm rather hard to stop, especially when I *know* there is an answer.
Anyways, here it is, a great place to download HP podfics (among other fandoms), Audiofic.
Don't lose it again!

Unbelivable!!

Let's see.
Logging off my Yahoo mail, news, an old photo of Rowling signing sth, the death of a young actor from the movies who had a page in... Wikipedia, and I was lost. A Potter-related link to Wikipedia, for someone like me, forever wandering off track, is a dangerous thing.
Then, let's continue. Somehow the Potter prequel, and the Black family tree, and of course, Draco Malfoy. And I was *astonished*:

Wizard rock band Draco and the Malfoys' lyrics are inspired by the Harry Potter books but from Draco Malfoy's point of view. One chorus goes: 'My dad's always there to open all my doors, you have to call a Patronus just to catch a glimpse of yours/My dad is rich, and your dad is dead.' As well as Harry and the Potters, the members of Draco and the Malfoys dress themselves as Hogwarts students, in this case in Slytherin-themed costumes. The band is one of about 200 bands of young musicians playing music inspired by the Harry Potter series.

200!!! I didn' even know that existed! I kept reading, wandering from page to page (did you know that "Because students in the novels board the train to Hogwarts at Platform 9¾ at King's Cross railway station in London, the real King's Cross has erected a sign at a wall between tracks 9 and 10 to commemorate this."?). And a Washington Post quote from last year in (at? note to self: review my prepositions *now*) Harry and the Potters' page:

...wizard rock is an escape into a different world - a world of non-judgmental fun where grown-ups dress as wizards, evil is vanquished by song, and reading is cool...

And then I stopped, cause It's already really late to still be at work.

Note: useless to post all the pages I've seen today, and probably not really doable. Don't know, won't check.

Going with the fllow of one's instincts

From HD Starter Kit Rec List I'm finding links to some old faves of mine, like Harry Potter and the Inconvenient Condition, by Mirabella, and this:

"And frankly, when it came down to battle between his intellect and his gut instincts, Harry had absolutely no illusions about which side was bunkered down in a rickety farmhouse praying for a swift and merciful end."

Fanfiction fest pimping (first time)

Hehe, I'm not that much into AS/S, I'm more partial to H/D myself, but this idea is so perfectly round (I think that's a transference mistake there!), that I *had* to post this. I might even think of a prompt.

WINTER SHORTS 2008!!!

art by dysonrules and aki_hoshi. banner by aki_hoshi. inspired by davidkawena

Lightning on the Wave

Before I lose it again, the site where Lightning on the Wave's stories are housed, in pdf or doc form, to be downloaded and properly read later: lightning.ffstories.net. Not only the HP 'Sacrifices Arc', but also some original fiction. Nothing recent, though, more the pity.

Aha, I'm not the only one!!

Let's see: I was checking Amanuensis' LJ after seeing her in my own LJ's friends list (odd, that), and followed her to Entertainment Weekly's page, to read an article on J. K. Rowling's outing of Dumbledore, Dumbledore: A Lovely Outing, by Mark Harris (with whom I agree on the subject), that lead me to check some other EW's articles, including Magical Mystery Tour, an intersting summary of the first six Potter books, and J.K. Rowling's Ministry of Magic, by... Stephen King!! Yay! Finding such a fan allows me to make rude gestures to those that call me, an adult fan, nerd (take that, Nana!) And the article is good, not only on Harry but also on reading; here's a snippet, were he mentions charas and authors I'll now have to try and read.

But reading was never dead with the kids. Au contraire, right now it's probably healthier than the adult version, which has to cope with what seems like at least 400 boring and pretentious ''literary novels'' each year. While the bigheads have been predicting (and bemoaning) the postliterate society, the kids have been supplementing their Potter with the narratives of Lemony Snicket, the adventures of teenage mastermind Artemis Fowl, Philip Pullman's challenging His Dark Materials trilogy, the Alex Rider adventures, Peter Abrahams' superb Ingrid Levin-Hill mysteries, the stories of those amazing traveling blue jeans. And of course we must not forget the unsinkable (if sometimes smelly) Captain Underpants. Also, how about a tip of the old tiara to R.L. Stine, Jo Rowling's jovial John the Baptist?

On another note, in HogWebs, they review some HP site's I've been to, and for some reason (meaning that ultra long never-finished post full of links to sort) never written about. Here they are.

FOR SPOILER HUNTERS: J.K. Rowling's official site
Want to know what's going to happen to Harry in the next book? The author herself will be the first to tell you, as she often offers little clues, usually hidden like a sorcerer's stone behind elaborate visual puzzles on this site.

FOR NEWS HOUNDS: Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator
If news about the Potter books or movies appears anywhere on the Web, it'll end up here.

FOR FANS OF THE STARS: Veritaserum
This is the place for multimedia clips of the latest interviews and media appearances by Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and other stars of the film series.

FOR NEWBIES: The Floo Network
Don't know your Gringotts from your Gryffindor? Visit this webring, which includes a lexicon, an archive of indexed J.K. Rowling interview quotes, a gallery of illustrations and still photos, and a news page called The Leaky Cauldron.

FOR INTERMEDIATE AND ADVANCED POTTERPHILES: MuggleNet
If you know as much about the wizarding world as a Hogwarts upperclassman, this is the site for you. Here, fans nitpick mistakes, write fan fiction, and hold literary discussions about the characters on a weekly podcast.

Sweet little moment (aka new quote)

From Aidan Lynch's Unthinkable Thoughts, Draco's POV,

They had an almost telepathic means of communication. Not like he himself had with Harry, intermittent magical surges of emotions and feelings and certainties; theirs was far more specific, rooted in shared experiences, shared interests, shared loves. A single word would produce the same reaction from all three of them, triggering the same thoughts.
'Do you remember...?' Hermione might say. They all remembered, and all remembered whatever it was in the same order. The act of remembering was taken unconsciously for granted between them, and frequently the next comment to follow would be three or four steps down the line, leaving Draco wondering what they were talking about it. 'Do you think...?' Ron might suggest. Of course they all thought it, so much so that nothing ever needed explaining. They weren't defined by what they said, they were defined by what they didn't need to say. 'Couldn't we...?' Harry might wonder. Yes they could, they could do anything. Anything they wanted to. They had rewritten the school rules for their own benefit, they had gained the confidence and respect of all those around them, they had forged their own way of existing, empowering by its strength and rock-like in its reliability. They were a unit. They were a family. And they had no idea they were special.

Brief Quote

I was reading another H/D fic (I'm quite obsessed with HP right now, can't you tell?), and in an otherwise unremarkable fic, The Weather, by Hannah, found this and thought it a keeper (specially the part in bold):

“[...]Come on Harry,” Malfoy said as he stalked up the stairs.
Harry stood up with a sheepish grin staring at the people who were staring back at him surprised. “Well you wanted to know,” he said with a grin.[...]
“Come on Harry, I need your help, this isn’t a one man operation you know,” Malfoys voice carried out over them [...]
“Duty calls,” Harry said with a grin as he quickly made his way up the stairs."

So Far Away by gwenling

Another quote, taken from ch 34 of gwenling's So Far Away:

You can only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough

(not sure were it is taken from, but I took it from the fic)

Random quote of the day...

Oh well, random sites, random info, random sillyness, random quotes, do I really need a rational plan for a blog? No? Good. (Though I could just argue that "anything random" is a rational plan, right?)
Found this one in this fic, All about you:

Malfoy finds Harry's sense of humour lacking. Harry finds Malfoy is lacking a sense of humour.

More nonsense

Reading this H/D fic at FanFiction.Net, Black Truth, I found this jewels, and had to record them somewhere:

By Friday morning, Draco had carefully built a manor on the left bank of 'denial' and was comfortably living in it without any thought whatsoever. (chapter 7)

And with that, Harry Potter had joined Draco Malfoy on the banks of Denial, but had been very careful to build his housing of choice on the opposite side of the river, away from Draco's manor because they wouldn't want to be neighbors... no not at all. (chapter 10)

Hehe, still funny

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

A fic I found at the Ink Stained Fingers Archive, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, by FemmeSlash, in the HP fandom of course, contains this charm/spell that helps you clear your mind and find the one you love. The Amant charm, consists of an amulet made of Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, and a spell.

Parsley for desire, sage for wisdom, rosemary for trust and thyme for love.

My very own translation, 'perejil para deseo, salvia para sabiduria, romero para confianza y tomillo para amor'. Then there is the spell, in latin:

Amantium libidinis, amoris integratio est
Amantium sophae, amoris integratio est
Amantium fidelatis, amoris integratio est
Amantium amoris, amoris integratio est

Roughly, it means the same thing too.
I know, doesn't have anything to do with this blog, but I'm so charmed by it that I wanted to keep it somewhere. If I had walls I'd hang it there. Lovely!

For love is a many-splendored thing...

More HP fanfiction delicacies. This site is a rare jewel indeed. Harry Potter Rareslash, has some very odd parings, some unlikely main charas, and some good (if unusual) stories. Need to read more. Oh, and it's a rec from Maya's site.
There is also Harry Potter and the Age of Consent, where I arrived while looking for Lady of Shalott's site (didn't like it, that's why it's not here). Assortment of stories, a hole section for H/D (the most important, of course ^_^)
I know, I *know*, I'll never manage to go through all the recs I've already got, and lets not forget that I haven't checked my usual haunts for at least a couple months. I shudder at the thought of the sheer volume of piled reading. Yeah, right.

PSA // truth < harry >

From a banner in the previous rec site, I arrived at the The Potter Slash Archive. Still on the works, I think (hope), and not that much to keep this far, but I've found some good stuff. Will keep reading, of course.

Draco/Harry Fanfic Recs

Draco/Harry Fanfic Recs
Well, I probably found this site through Google, but beats me what did I Google. Anyways, redirects to Fanfiction.net as well as Schnoogle.com, among other places, (like this one I didn't know and got to check out in more depth, www.skyehawke.com), and lead me to some very good fics even though I haven't read through half of it yet.
Important Note to self: go through the whole list and save the best ones before you forget because of some shinny thing or other.

Lasair and Maya's Fanfiction and Ramblings

How did I fall into HP ff? Easy enough, perusing Aoe's livejournal in search of news about her 'Harmonics' WK arc at Bleeding Hearts. No news, but a rec of Maya's wanderful 'Underwater Light', at, precisely, Schnoogle.com.
I read it and read it and read and loved it, and decided more HP was in order, preferently H/D. I even sent Maya a very embarrasing letter asking for recs from her, and she graciously complied sending me the address to her site, Lasair and Maya's Fanfiction and Ramblings, where there are more of her fics plus recs that I have yet to check, and her livejounal, still on my very extensive "to read" list. One more comment: I actually cried last night while reading her "Dark Side of Light" and "Your Every Wish", and went home (at 11:30 pm!) feeling a knot at the pit of my stomach that you wouldn't believe!! Great authoress.

Schnoogle...Novel-length fanfiction - Seven sickles an ounce!

Schnoogle...Novel-length fanfiction - Seven sickles an ounce!

Not a clue what that "Seven sickles an ounce" means, but variations on it have appeared throughout HP fanfiction a couple of times, guess I'll have to look for the meaning.
Well, this is such a GREAT site that I'm ready to overlook the fact that searches are not so great. Contains HP lenghthy fanfiction, and is my favourite among the FictionAlley.com collectives.
By the way, can't belive it took me this long to actually post sth here, even had to ask for my username and a new password! And it's not like I haven't been around, *please*