Wow, it's been so long.

I was thinking about how this place used to be. Back in those wonderful Order of the Phoenix days when everyone was so full of hope and theories. I was inspired by the H/HR essays in particular, and eventually started writing my own. That's all I practially did at my old job in those days: researching stuff for the Pumpkin Pie army (and I still got paid!)

Then along comes the Half-Blood Prince and everybody goes haywire! Like a few others, I tried to convince everyone H/HR wasn't over ("chest monster, HELLO!") but to no avail. The Harmonians needed time to lick their wounds and regain their strength ...

I left the site, and returned some time later. I was pleasantly suprised to find we were fighting again . It was the Alchemy craze! Theories based around Harry/Hermione as Sulphur/Mercury were the new thing, and there were new reasons to believe in H/HR.

And then finally ... the Deathly Hallows . It was time to admit defeat. Perhaps the effect of the Half-Blood Prince was a blessing afterall, because after the Hallows people (generally) seemed less bitter and more accepting of the outcome - myself included. I was actually able to put romance aside and just enjoy the book, which I did so immensely.

But I still believe Harry and Hermione are meant for eachother. I still believe all the theories. Harry and Hermione are infinite: sulphur and mecury, anima and animus, yin and yang ... unfortunately, this was all platonic in the end. JKR warned us but - bless our cotton socks - we just wouldn't listen! And why should we? We were having so much fun. And, more importantly, we were right. Right?

Hi Louielacious, welcome back to PK! I remember replying to a question you had (long time ago) with the author application process. I'm not sure, but I think it was about fic mods not getting your emailed samples or not getting your application form?

Also, my ex-mod-teammate Nielle / Anazecria had cited you for leading her to Portkey.
As popular as those essays and theories were, I've always been too shallow for those kinds of discussions. I was into much much lighter fare like this topic. Plus the fanfics and Fic Recs, of course.

I suppose you vaguely remember PK's old forums like the Dept of Mysteries? We've re-opened it only minutes/hours ago. There's one more mature discussion forum that'll be re-opened soon. We've also been re-displaying some of PK's old banners.

Thanx gal-texter, I do remember you from way back when! And Anazecria too. I had no idea no idea my fic lead her to come to Portkey, I don't think I've read that post of hers before ... or maybe I did and it's been so long I've forgotton? Either way that's awesome.

I'll continue to lurk about and get re-aquianted with the site ...

I thought nothing could pull me out of the ether of lurkdom but then there was Louie and I find myself making my first post at Portkey in over two years at least. Do I remember? Heady days and you were in the thick of it my friend.

Hope you're doing A1.

Sienna

SIENNA!!! Wow, its you I don't believe it! Long time no speak. I was going to mention you in my first post, because your essays were such an inspiration to me back then (they'll still an inspiration). Those days were heady days indeed, I miss those days and everybody that I used to communicate with. How scary to think it's been two years!

I hope you inspire others to delurk. I don't know exactly what I'm doing here now, I just missed Portkey and old fashioned H/Hr madness So cool to hear from you, hope you're well

It is encouraging to see that so many people are making a return appearance. I think that it is a great pity that so many of the major Harmony theorists simply disappeared soon after DH came out. I guess that they just had too much invested in their theories. I enjoyed reading all of the theories after OoTP and HBP were published, although I never used to post back then. My view was that the Harmony interpretation of the books was the only one that made sense of all the character interactions and I still believe that this is the case, even after HBP and DH. There are just too many interactions that just have little relevance to the OBHWF ending that JKR went with and it leaves me scratching my head over why she put them in. I believe that it is just a case of unstructured writing and poor editing. I reviewed these arguments in an essay, "What's the point?" that I posted on Caina's old website, soon after HBP came out. Unfortunately, I was never really convinced of the Harmony theories because I just didn’t think that JKR was as cunning as she would have needed to be for some of the best theories to be realised and I was always troubled by the ending of OotP, when Hermione is portrayed as going off to the end of term feast, while Harry finds consolation with Luna. That just would not have been feasible if JKR had intended to focus on the H/Hr relationship.

However, Louielacious is correct in saying that Harmonians were right, although I think that the statement needs some clarification. Harmonians were not right in any of their theories about JKR's intentions. Harmonians were also not right in attributing great literary prowess to JKR. However, they were right in seeing the H/Hr relationship as the only workable, realistic and consistent potential romance portrayed in the text. They can therefore hardly be blamed if they do not see eye to eye with JKR. For this reason, there really is no cause for so much disappointment. If the same type of analysis that was applied to the earlier books in developing the Harmony perspective is also applied to DH, it is still clear that the H/Hr relationship is the only one that can stand up to close scrutiny. I tried to make this point in an essay, "A Harmonian review of DH", which I posted over on HF. In this essay, I basically argued that the Epilogue really has little to do with the rest of the HP series and could reasonably be ignored by anyone who wanted to interpret the character development in the books for themselves. I also tried to show how a Harmony interpretation, even after the events of DH, was not only possible but was far more satisfying and appropriate to the text. Even if you insist on accepting the Epilogue, it still seems to me that what we are seeing is two dysfunctional relationships that will probably dissolve once there are no young children to hold them together.

This is all personal opinion, but I think that this type of approach can help some people deal with the extreme disappointment that they experienced after DH.

Hello too to Sienna and rowans37. Sienna and Louie, your essays kept getting cited in those threads I saw.

Well said rowans37. Even though I enjoyed DH, I couldn't stand the Epilogue. Not just because of the pairings, but because it was just ... 'meh'. Corny, dull, could've been better ... kind of like Harry/Ginny, really.




Sweet, we're famous I'm glad I could've helped the alchemy movement in any way, I loved those theories.

Btw, I've moved some of our alchemy talk to here. I didn't want to hijack Louie's thread.

Some of those posts linked to HF, but apparently HF's on an extended downtime. All the more reason to preserve the alchemy theories posted in here.

HF is currently on extended (and may soon be on permanent) downtime. Vance, the Admin at HF is not sure whether he'll restore the site or not. However, an earlier version of HF is at invisionfree.com and there's a small chance that a few of the Alchemy posts might be there. The address is: http://z4.invisionfree.com/HMS_Harmony/index.php