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heterohogwarts · 7 years

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Fanworks Addressing Representation of Queer Characters

Due to the distinct lack of representation of queer identities in the wizarding world, many fans have taken it upon themselves to write (or draw!) queer characters into Harry Potter.

While not all works that portray characters as LGBTQ+ are made by fans who are themselves a part of this community, it is most important to focus on these works. This is because works by LGBTQ+ fans are attempts to see people like them within the series. Creating fanworks allows fans to reinterpret the series from their own perspective and address themes that may not otherwise be present in the series. It makes sense that fan made content would address more sexual themes, as sex and sexuality are barely if at all touched upon in the texts. A decent proportion of fanfiction and fan art, no matter the ship, is entirely sexual or alludes to a sexual nature. This is likely because individuals who grew up during the age of Harry Potter are now at an age where sex and sexuality are normal parts of life.

The works featured below are attempts made by fans to include queer identities in the wizarding world. Content includes fanfiction, artwork, and other media. It is difficult to determine whether or not the content has been created by queer people because individuals may not share that information in conjunction with their work, however an effort has been made to ensure with some degree of confidence that these works come from within the LGBTQ+ community.

FANFICTION

There is a vast amount of Harry Potter fanfiction on the Internet. In fanfiction, fans of the series write content set in the wizarding world developed by Rowling, often using the same characters, settings, and major plot devices. This is done in order to interact with the texts, to provide a different perspective, or represent characters in a way that the fanfiction authors imagine. Often times fanfiction features pairing or ships (relationships) between characters who do not share a relationship in the text, fans are able to represent characters as LGBTQ and often do so.

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“The Secret’s in the Telling” is an immensely popular fanfiction written by user Sakuri and published on Fanfiction.Net. The story revolves around a relationship between Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, a ship called “Drarry.” The work has been translated into 7 additional languages by other users and is composed of 153,300 words in 42 chapters. In the story Draco is turned into a werewolf and he comes to find comfort in the only other student who knows of this condition, Harry Potter.

It is unclear whether or not the user Sakuri is a member of the LGBTQ community, though examination of link to other social media sites seem to suggest the author identifies as a woman. Nonetheless, this is a grand example of the popularity of fan works representing characters as queer. Drarry is a very popular ship in the Harry Potter fandom, and the popularity of this particular story shows that many individuals seek to see queer representation in the wizarding world.

“Cedric looked down at him, still smiling, and Harry’s heart felt like it would explode. This was the closest he’d ever gotten to Cedric and his beautiful grey eyes were now staring directly into his’ he could feel Cedric’s warm breath over his and it drove him mad.”

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This is a quote from a fanfiction called “So I Swear” which is written by user LegendaryWrighter. This fanfiction is about a less popular gay pairing between Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory because LegendaryWrighter was inspired by The Goblet of Fire. This is a very long piece composed of over 100,000 words in 36 chapter. There are hundreds of reviews and favorites and it is clearly very popular. In the story, Harry and Cedric form a romantic relationship sometime after the quidditch match in The Prisoner of Azkaban and it affects the pair in the Triwizard Tournament.

This piece obviously reinterprets the characters as gay, though in this case it is unclear if the author himself is gay. After a scanning of a few of the linked profiles from LegendaryWrighter, the only thing that is clear is that he identifies as male and all of the fanfiction stories that he has posted focus on characters as homosexual men in romantic relationships. It seems quite possible that the author themself is gay and therefore seeking to reinterpret his favorite characters as gay to address the lack of representation in the Harry Potter series.

“Hermione crawls forward, her free hand sinking into the water and below the depths of the sand, leaning forward to press a kiss to Fleur’s cheek. Her skin is normally cold, but it heats up some.”

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Posted on Tumblr, this one-shot fanfiction is about Fleur Delacour and Hermione Granger in a romantic setting. In this story, Fleur is a mermaid who saves Hermione from drowning; the girls flirt once Hermione is safe on dry land again. Fleurmione is not a very common pairing, based on preliminary research, but there are a decent number of written pieces and fanart available.

The author for this piece labels themselves as gender: agender and bisexual demiromantic, so they are certainly a part of the queer community. As such, this piece is certainly an attempt made by a queer person to represent queer characters in the wizarding world.

HEADCANONS

Headcannons are facts or thoughts that fans come up with that could be true but are never addressed in the texts.

“When Ginny is five, she demands to be called by that name and tells everybody that she is a girl (a thing that she never really questioned). Her family accepts it right away, partly because they all wish for a girl in their rows, but also because they see that she is so much happier once they start treating her like one.”

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In this headcannon, Ginny is trans AMAB and most of her life is described. In explaining her time at Hogwarts, the author says, “Ginny goes through most of her school life without telling many people that she is trans because she doesn’t think anybody would or should care. Some find it out though, and whenever the reactions are negative, she hexes them.” Later, the author hypothesizes that after Ginny’s quidditch career she becomes an author and activist for the queer/trans community.”

Robin, the author, uses they/them pronouns and identifies as pansexual and nonbinary. Clearly, this is an attempt of a queer fan to see someone similar to them in the story. The headcannon is accompanied by graphics that depict Ginny and other images that Robin relates to Ginny. What makes this headcannon so enticing is the fact that Ginny’s fiery personality from the books is captured well and the concept of trans Ginny fits well within the canon of the Weasley family.

“All sorts of young witches and wizards were going to the 1994 quidditch world cup, right? Consider witches and wizards who weren’t even questioning their sexuality discovering some things when the veela come out to perform.”

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Tumblr user Permanentjetlaq, who says her name is Nicole, appears to be a part of the LGBTQ community based on posts to her twitter account about “being gay” and the fact that she specifically points out that her pronouns are she/her on her profiles. In her headcannon, Nicole points out that veelas who are humanoid female magical creatures with the ability to persuade and deceive males in the texts with their sexuality. Nicole theorizes that because the veelas’ power is based on sexual attraction, then it’s possible that some witches and wizards may find out that they are or not attracted to women after seeing the veelas at the World Cup.

VIDEOS

There is a vast number of fan-made videos (fanvids) on the internet based on or relating to Harry Potter. Some videos are skits using Harry Potter characters, some discuss topics relating to the series, and others use clips from the movies to tell and alternate story. The most wellknown examples of Harry Potter fanvids are the Harry Potter Puppet Pal videos and the Very Potter Musical series.

Two videos which particularly speak to queer representation are made by TheMischiefManagers,a group of young adults from Sweden who cosplay as Harry Potter characters and make videos for Youtube. Their channel has 11,000 subscribers which is a decent amount, but is nowhere near the amount that the “Youtube stars” have. Per the “About” section on their channel, two of the four in the group identify specifically as queer.

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“Potions & Prejudices” is a skit about the Marauders where Remus and Sirius are portrayed as being in a serious relationship and James is discussing a recent conversation he had with Lily about muggle studies as a controversial subject because it fetishizes another culture. In the description for the video, they explain that, “We have based our marauders and the HP world on what we can see in the books and…, NOT on JKR's post published additions.” They continue to say that, “We believe the wizarding world was extremely old fashioned and therefore conservative as well. We therefore DO NOT think the wizarding world, or Hogwarts for that matter, was an open and safe place when it comes to LGBTQA+ and other non-heteronormative expressions, not during the marauders time at least.”

Based on the original texts as they were published, there is support for their theory about the wizarding world as old fashioned and conservative. It does seem likely that under these circumstances, queer people would not be widely accepted by the society at large. Obviously, this group of young adults cares a lot about the world of Harry Potter as well as the LGBTQ community and including queer characters in their work is an extension of this.

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In this video, they feature Harry and Draco embracing and later kissing. When Harry and Draco are caught by Hermione and Ron, Harry merely says, “No homo.”

This video reimagines Harry and Draco as gay and includes social commentary about a recent trend of young males constantly clarifying that their actions (whether affectionate or not) are not to be interpreted as homosexual. This is likely based on societal pressures like homophobia and toxic masculinity.

FANART

The works below are examples of fanart depicting Harry Potter characters as LGBTQ+.

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A wildly popular ship in the Harry Potter fandom is Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, often referred to as “wolfstar.” The pairing is named this way because Remus is a werewolf and Sirius is named after a constellation. The Harry Potter novels do not spend very much time focusing on the marauders, but fans of the series often explore this is art or writing. Fans of this ship, from my personal perspective, are far more dedicated to their ship than even Drarry shippers. On Tumblr, when one searches the tag “wolfstar” there are posts with fan art as well as fanfiction and roleplay accounts. This attests to the popularity of portraying Remus and Sirius as homosexual despite no canon evidence that the characters are indeed gay.

The artist for this particular piece identifies as queer, uses she/her pronouns and is asexual. The artist features artwork on her blog with many pairings, including ones between two male characters or two female characters. This particular work of art is sexual in nature, which seems to be a common theme among works relating to this pairing.

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This is fan art depicting Bellatrix Lestrange and Hermione Granger in an intimate situation. This pairing is often referred to as “Bellamione” by the fandom. Pairings like this are referred to as slash in fandom, because the pairing is completely contrary to the canon text.

The artist does not share her name but does share on her DeviantArt profile that she is a lesbian who enjoys interpreting characters she likes as lesbians. This certainly fits the theme of people in the queer community representing people like themselves in fan work. The artist has many artworks posted that are similar to this one, featuring characters portrayed in lesbian relationships.

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This art piece depicts Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley embracing on the ground in the snow and was posted by user Gone-Batty on DeviantArt. This was a commissioned piece, but even other pieces posted by this user show homosexual pairings. After finding a link to Gone-Batty’s Tumblr blog, a personal post revealed that they identify as gender nonbinary. The Hermione/Ginny pairing is not unusual, though most fanfiction that I have come across merely portrays the duo as best friends. This is interesting because it contrasts the canon pairing of Hermione with Ron who is Ginny’s brother.

Since user Gone-Batty is indeed a member of the LGBTQ community, this art fits into place with the others that show queer artists representing characters from Harry Potter as queer too.

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This is an image portraying Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil enjoying an intimate train ride back to Hogwarts. This seems like a unique pairing, especially since both characters play very minor roles in the series. Many of the comments on this image discuss the fact that they have never thought of this pairing before, but that they think it is cute.

Glee-chan does not state if she is a member of the LGBTQ community on her DeviantArt, however many posts on her Tumblr page discuss being gay so it is fairly safe to assume she is indeed a part of this community.

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This is an image portraying Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood in an intimate embrace, staring at one another as if they are about to kiss. This, from personal experience, is neither a common nor an uncommon pairing. It is also reasonable to note that many fans include Hermione in their fan art or fanfiction in both heterosexual and homosexual pairings.

RowenaJackson dedicates this piece to her girlfriend in the description for this artwork. This means that the artist is also a lesbian and therefore clearly an example of queer people making attempts to see queer characters in the Harry Potter series.

#fanworks

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