Warning, I have not read any of the spoilers. I don't actually know why people are freaking out. This post contains no spoilers, just common concerns and my responses. I will be lj-cutting it anyways. I am trying to look at the concerns from a logical stance and reply to them. This is also my attempt to kill my desire to freak out about OotP.

So here's the deal: as a fandom everyone is worried about the Fifth Book. As slashers, people are even more worried. Common concerns:


What if Draco dies?

What if Harry (or Draco) get a *gasp* girlfriend?!

What if JKR ruins everything?

All the stories are going to be AU!!!

So here's my take. I too share most of these concerns to one extent or another. Obviously if JKR kills off Draco the slash fandom will be screwed. However in my heart I feel that Rowling simply wont do this. Draco is far to important to kill off. He's simply not expendable. After all every hero needs a nemesis and since Voldemort is really only there in the peripheral sense for most of the time, Draco is perfect. He's there every day, he provides comic relief, and every reader needs someone to hate (or love as the fandom certainly seems to prefer).

So since Draco is not going to die, *crosses fingers* lets move on to the other concerns. The girlfriend issue. First off, we've already seen Harry's crush on Cho. However that has mostly been written off as (a) him only liking her because he feels he should, (b) him not really knowing his true sexuality, or (c)him not ever really doing anything with her therefore it doesn't count. Well if Harry gets a girlfriend couldn't the exact same arguments be used? As a fifteen year old boy I find it hard to believe that JKR would pair Harry with someone in a serious relationship. And couldn't it be argued that some boys who are gay go through a phase of trying to date women? Also, in most of the other fandoms I've been in the girlfriend issue has been addressed in some way or another. Example: (LOTR fandom) Legolas has been paired with Aragorn remorselessly despite Arwen's presence. *NSYNC and BSB, half of the boys have had steady relationships with women, hell Brian and Kevin are married and people still slash them. I think that out of every concern this one is the one I fear the least. It is also the one that will be the easiest to get around in fanfiction.

What if JKR ruins everything? I don't really know about this one, it is absolutely possible that Rowling could do something drastic. Draco could be written as an even bigger git than he already is. He could do something completely irredeemable, hell he could join the Death Eaters and prance around naked eating babies for all I know. But honestly? pretty much every evil!Draco scenario has already been written by fans anyways so I'm pretty sure that there will be a way to negate this portrayal through fanfiction. Besides, if we don't want Draco to be a horrible person, or want to ignore the evil deeds JKR forced him into, the story can just become an AU.

And onto the AU topic. I honestly have no idea why everyone is so freaked out about labeling a story as an AU. Do people really shy away from reading AU's that much? Is this some AU stigma that I somehow missed? Some of the best stories I've ever read are AU's. And really, slash isn't canon anyways, so isn't it somewhat AU to begin with? not to mention that people often create their own spells, potions, and character backstories. Aren't those AU since technically JKR hasn't written them or included them in canon?

To sum up my thoughts. Yes I'm worried. But I don't think we need to be complete alarmists. I have faith that the collective brains involved in this fandom are strong enough to create amazing stories that utilize whatever JKR has given us. And I have faith that we can overcome certain unfortunate situations should they arise in canon. The only thing I really hope is that people don't loose faith and drop out of fandom all together because of this. We all need to remember what brought us here: the stories that we have read and/or written. So I think that we should all just embrace our inner Gryffindor and try to be brave because really, if worst comes to worst, we could all just stick our collective heads in the sand and repress all memories of Book Five.