It's over, all over ...

Well, I finished HP&OotP today, and -- as is always the case with wonderful literature for me -- I am now in depression because some of my good friends are gone for while longer. I read books 3-5 in quick succession -- probably quicker than I've ever read them before -- and now I miss Harry. And it's a whole year or more until the next installment comes out.

I didn't read books 1 and 2 this time around, though, so I may have to read those again now. Especially after OotP, which has some very interesting implications and tie-ins with the rest of the books.

I'm actually considering reading some fanfic to help me cope. But I don't know how much good that will actually do. Fanfic usually tends to disappoint me and make me forget the real characters that I fell in love with. I often find that the writers of fanfic don't understand the characters quite right, or at least not how I understand them, and so their stories annoy me. And I can't write the fanfic myself, to suit my own understanding of them, because great literary characters are like real people to me -- I could no sooner make up stories about them as I could plan the life of my best friends and roommates. I can't live their lives for them: they are discrete entities from myself.

Anyway, I might try some out anyway, perhaps one or two from my good friends, just to see how they understand Harry & Co.

And in the meantime, I guess I'll just have to pine away for them all, while writing to my sister and reading the books over again and watching the movies and planning the HPTC (Harry Potter Training Center).