Forgive me, J.K., for I have sinned.
I’ve been a believer in the magic of Harry Potter since I first read “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” in fifth grade.
It was my mom who brought “magic” into my otherwise ordinary Muggle life. I was 11 then, and just like Harry when he finally read his Hogwarts letter, I had no idea my life was about to change.
Eight years after, I finished reading “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”—all its 759 pages. After closing the book, seeing the cover with the caped Voldemort and his red snake eyes, I realized something was amiss.
With the love and joy I felt after seeing the last sentence in the end of “Harry Potter” was sadness. Surprisingly, even dislike and hate, too. Sadness, because the story I have been obsessing about for more than half my life has ended.
And hate, because I, a Harry Potter fanatic for 12 years, truly hate the “Harry Potter” epilogue.
I can almost see Potter fans grabbing their wands now, itching to cast an Unforgivable on me. A true-blue Harry Potter fan can never hate anything written by Rowling. It’s crazy, criminal even, like mad Bellatrix finding joy in killing Dobby.
Justifiable
But, there are many reasons, some of them even justifiable, why I hated those last seven pages.
(Do you wonder how main characters, including Draco, were able to procreate all at the same time? Is Harry really that cruel to inflict on his child a totally outrageous name like Albus Severus? Yes, they were great Hogwarts headmasters, heroes of the war, but seriously? Albus Severus?)
But I confess, shamelessly, one major reason why I hate the epilogue is because I truly, firmly and indubitably believe Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger were meant to be together.
It was all thanks to the numerous fan-created stories, or “fan fiction,” based on Rowling’s novels I’ve read in those months I waited for the books to come out. I found myself obsessed with fan fiction pairing Draco and Hermione, or “Dramione” in fan-speak.
Fan fiction isn’t a new phenomenon. It has always been a part of fan culture. It’s not only books that become the focus of these stories, but films and television shows, as well.
The rise of technology and the Internet made fan fiction more popular and accessible. Issues concerning copyright and plagiarism surrounded it, too. Some authors have even expressed their disapproval of fan fiction.
But Rowling isn’t one of them. In a 2004 BBC report, Rowling’s literary agent said the author was “flattered” that her fans had started to write their own stories based on her characters. Her only “concern” is these stories remain “noncommercial” and devoid of obscenity, her agent was quoted in the report.
I’ve butted heads with other fans regarding my Dramione obsession. One of my best friends, Thea, a Ron lover and a Harry Potter purist, would always remind me during my Dramione raves that “Draco and Hermione will never happen.” I also argued with another friend, a Draco and Ginny shipper, a pairing I intensely dislike.
But I also found allies in other fans who shared the same love for Dramione.
Literary criticism
In my third year in high school, I managed to convince my English teacher to let me write my literary criticism paper, our major project for the year, on a Dramione fan fiction.
The rest of my classmates chose legitimate literary works—films, novels—but I chose a topic that can’t be considered traditional literature. It’s literary, yes, but it’s derivative, unoriginal.
It was a long shot, but my teacher actually loved the idea. Serendipitously, as she later admitted, not only was she a Dramione “shipper” (follower), she’s a fan fiction writer, too!
I don’t know why, of all the pairings in Harry Potter fan fiction, I chose one so totally impossible as Dramione. Maybe it’s that line Dramione shippers often say, “There’s a thin line between love and hate.” Maybe I like the idea of giving Draco a chance to redeem himself. Maybe I’m just sentimental because the first fan fiction I read was Dramione. Or maybe I just like the idea of beautiful, blond, genius babies.
To this day, I still am a devout Dramione shipper.
The last movie may have come out and it felt like my childhood came to a close. But the magic of Harry Potter will live on. Not only because of Pottermore, but because of fan fiction too.
We fans are what make “Harry Potter” special.
Yes, Thea’s right, Dramione will never happen in the books, but it can happen in the imagination of the thousands of Dramione shippers all over the world.
Because as long as fans are inspired by Harry’s story, the magic will never end, epilogue or no epilogue.