On Fest Virginity and Dark Marks

Fest virginity is, apparently, quite like the standard type. I was tempted when I saw hd_holidays mooted about. It looked attractive, smart, witty, and kind of cool. People I really liked, liked this fest. So I dipped a toe in the water on the comments pages. Met anthimaeria, which was worth the price of admission alone, and in the end I decided I wasn't ready. I wanted to fool around in fandom a bit longer before taking the plunge.

A few months later my dear Canadian friend rang me. "Have you signed up for Yuletide?" she asked. "God no!" I replied. "You have to! Quick, it closes in an hour." "No." "Yes!" "No!" "Yes!" "No!" "No!!" "Yes!!" "So you'll do it? GREAT! Go and sign up now!" "No … what? Hang on, did you just trick me using kindergarten trickery?" "Maybe …" "Dammit!"

Erm … you don't want to know how well this analogy holds up …

( Yuletide )

I've not made any real headway into reading Yuletide, but my absolute favourite of the few I sampled is a Thursday Next tale, featuring Sauron; The Eagle Conspiracy was so magnificently Ffordian, and funny! and smart! and  full of lovely fandom jokes that I had a solid grin on my face the whole way through.

( hd_holidays )

During this very scattered month of not enough reading I managed to catch malachic's wonderful essay on Harry/Draco, where she talks about the textual possibilities for H/Dshippers, and the textual impetus to H/D. I loved this essay, but was confused by one thing, which may be an artefact of me being an idiot (if a possible answer to any Brampton question is 'because your brain manufactures its own crack', then that is also always the most likely answer.) She speaks about Draco's Dark Mark as a proven fact, but I had always thought it was left up in the air by JKR. As I read it, the curse blocking the way to the Astronomy Tower to those without a Dark Mark is clearly set AFTER Draco is already on the roof, and it obviously lets people through from the other direction because Harry comes through it.

I'm not saying that it's in any way certain that he isn't marked, thought given the fuss that is made about the Malfoys being on the outer and the Mark being an especial sign of favour, I come down on the side of not, but am I missing something obvious? Comments, chapter directions, opinions all welcome!

On Fest Virginity and Dark Marks

Fest virginity is, apparently, quite like the standard type. I was tempted when I saw hd_holidays mooted about. It looked attractive, smart, witty, and kind of cool. People I really liked, liked this fest. So I dipped a toe in the water on the comments pages. Met anthimaeria, which was worth the price of admission alone, and in the end I decided I wasn't ready. I wanted to fool around in fandom a bit longer before taking the plunge.

A few months later my dear Canadian friend rang me. "Have you signed up for Yuletide?" she asked. "God no!" I replied. "You have to! Quick, it closes in an hour." "No." "Yes!" "No!" "Yes!" "No!" "No!!" "Yes!!" "So you'll do it? GREAT! Go and sign up now!" "No … what? Hang on, did you just trick me using kindergarten trickery?" "Maybe …" "Dammit!"

Erm … you don't want to know how well this analogy holds up …

( Yuletide )

I've not made any real headway into reading Yuletide, but my absolute favourite of the few I sampled is a Thursday Next tale, featuring Sauron; The Eagle Conspiracy was so magnificently Ffordian, and funny! and smart! and  full of lovely fandom jokes that I had a solid grin on my face the whole way through.

( hd_holidays )

During this very scattered month of not enough reading I managed to catch malachic's wonderful essay on Harry/Draco, where she talks about the textual possibilities for H/Dshippers, and the textual impetus to H/D. I loved this essay, but was confused by one thing, which may be an artefact of me being an idiot (if a possible answer to any Brampton question is 'because your brain manufactures its own crack', then that is also always the most likely answer.) She speaks about Draco's Dark Mark as a proven fact, but I had always thought it was left up in the air by JKR. As I read it, the curse blocking the way to the Astronomy Tower to those without a Dark Mark is clearly set AFTER Draco is already on the roof, and it obviously lets people through from the other direction because Harry comes through it.

I'm not saying that it's in any way certain that he isn't marked, thought given the fuss that is made about the Malfoys being on the outer and the Mark being an especial sign of favour, I come down on the side of not, but am I missing something obvious? Comments, chapter directions, opinions all welcome!