Just Another Book About Harry Potter Ships

Some General Harry Potter Opinions: Likes

I thought that it would be fun to briefly go over some of my more general fandom opinions before diving into my ship specific ones, so I wrote up a list of Harry Potter fandom/fanfiction tropes sorted into likes, dislikes, and depends! This chapter, we'll be going over my Likes list. (And remember, these are just my opinions — you are more than welcome to like what I dislike, dislike what I like, or any combination in between!)

LIKES

- Amortentia — I love when characters smell the object of their love or affection when brewing Amortentia, especially if they don't realize it right away or accidentally expose themselves with an offhand comment. It's a fun, often angsty little trope that I've seen a lot in Enemies to Lovers fics. The actual use of love potions, though, is a different matter altogether (see: Love Potions).

- Case/Mission Fic — Case fics are fics where characters have to solve some kind of mystery or case, while mission fics are fics where characters have to complete some sort of mission or adventure. I'm a HUGE fan of these kinds of fics. In the Harry Potter-verse, they can range from Auror Fic (where characters are Aurors trying to solve case or complete a mission), to Ministry Employee Fic more generally, to Healer Fic (where one or more characters are Healers, usually at St. Mungo's), to 500K word adventure or fantasy epics. I usually go for Auror fics (even though I'm pretty ACAB irl), but I'll read almost anything if it's well-written enough. (See also: Workplace/Professions Fic.)

- Dudley Has a Magical Child — I love this idea! It is such a good opportunity for Dudley to grow as a person, get a redemption arc and finally apologize to Harry for everything he did to him, learn how to accept magic, and generally have a chance at being a better person. It also gives tons of opportunities to explore Harry's childhood trauma, how Dudley's relationship with his parents would inevitably shift after he has a magical child, and how Dudley would handle having to face the magical world after so many years of being sheltered from it or rejecting it because his parents did. Plus, the idea of Dudley marrying a witch is just funnily ironic to me, if that's the route that writers choose to go (because remember, he has magic in his bloodline through Petunia, so he wouldn't have to marry a witch to have a magical child, it would just make the possibility more likely).

- Eighth Year — I'm a sucker for eighth-year fics where some or all of the characters return to Hogwarts to finish their schooling after the war, either by government mandate or by choice. After all, it's canonical that Hermione returned to take her N.E.W.T.s, so why not have more characters join her? Also, given how crappy the schooling was during the Carrows' reign at Hogwarts, and how many Muggle-born students (and half-bloods who couldn't prove their wizarding parentage) were not allowed to attend that year, it's probable that most students would do well to repeat a year. I can easily imagine Hogwarts either offering that solution or requiring it for younger students.

- Enemies/Rivals/Antagonistic to Lovers — Enemies to Lovers, Rivals to Lovers, and what I call "Antagonistic to Lovers" (for those ships that don't easily fall into either enemies or rivals territory) are technically three different tropes despite their similarities, but I love them all. I will clarify, though, that just because two (or more) characters are enemies doesn't automatically mean that I'll ship them. But I do have a soft spot for this dynamic.

- Everyone Is Gay — As a bi/pan/queer woman (labels are restrictive, y'all; I just love who I love), it's always a fun time when everyone in a fic is gay/bi/pan/queer. I frankly don't give a shit that some people think it's "unrealistic" or "improbable" for everyone to land somewhere on the LGBTQ+ spectrum or date someone of the same sex. It's also unrealistic for everyone to be straight, so just give me the happy gays and go! Plus, this is literally fantasy fiction — even if you ignore the fact that gay people tend to find each other in real life (my entire friend group turned out to be LGBTQ+ except for one person (the token straight lol) and we weren't even out to each other when we first became friends!), you're seriously telling me that you can suspend your disbelief for magic and dragons but not for a bunch of gay people? Really?