Actually, it's not nearly as sophisticated (or even as important to me) as the title suggests. But a couple of nights ago lizbee and I were chatting about HP in general and my latest fic in particular, and these thoughts just sort of crystallized...

( Here's my basic premise. )

( R/H is cute, but dull. )

( H/H is like a soap opera. )

( H/G started out with a lot of puppy fat, but it's got good bones. )

So yes, I've come to recognize that if I have a ship at all, it's H/G. And I'd welcome some recs for mature, thoughtful H/G fics written post-OotP, if there are any out there (I'm sure there must be, by now). Where are the H/G fics being archived these days (besides the general archives like FA and FF.net, I mean), anyway?

Do not bother posting any more Syd/Weiss-friendly speculations or suggestions on the Alias forums at TWoP. Because apparently, nobody appreciates them.

Philistines.

*goes off in a huff*

ETA: I mean the people who say nasty things about Sweiss are Philistines, not everybody on the TWoP forums. Anyway, I'm joking. Really. It's kind of fun to be part of a fandom minority for a change...

It needs a home, and I refuse to give it one. But the idea refuses to leave me alone, and I admit to some curiosity as to whether anyone can pull it off successfully. Drabbles welcomed, no smut please, time period of your choosing, but I'd be interested in seeing a kind of HP fic I can't seem to find anywhere on the net --

Snape/Luna.

P.S. Please don't hurt me.

I'm really not an obsessively shippy sort of person on the whole -- meaning that I can't be bothered to sit around in forums arguing about why Character X and Character Y are just meant to be together and any other pairing is wrong. Still, it is true that when I get caught up in a fandom I do frequently develop an interest in a particular ship and stick by it until the bitter end.

Usually this happens with ships that seem, well, obvious: Mulder/Scully, for instance, or Edison/Theora (see who remembers that one), or Picard/Crusher. I really didn't want to see any of those characters with anybody else, and when a script came up that threw in a BOTW** I found myself gritting my teeth, or even skipping the episode altogether. And I certainly felt the same way when Sydney's ex-boyfriend Noah returned at the end of Season One of Alias, because for heaven's sake, wasn't it obvious that she was meant to be with Vaughn?

Yep, I was a Syd/Vaughn shipper all the way. Right from the first episode I watched, and so was my husband. Our friend Keith was all about the Syd/Will, but we heaped scorn upon that idea, and felt vindicated when Will bumbled about putting Sydney in danger and generally living up to his TWoP nickname of Willage Idiot. Whereas Vaughn was steady and sensible and intelligent, and he and Sydney made a great team. He was her anchor, her "guardian angel" as she put it, giving her instructions and calling in resources and reinforcements as needed, but on the whole just waiting patiently at home base for her to come back from her missions. I liked that. I liked the fact that he wasn't her partner in the field -- that she worked with Dixon, an older man and trusted friend with whom she had no romantic tension whatsoever, instead. It subverted all the usual cliches.

In Season Two, however, Vaughn stopped being the brains to Sydney's brawn and became SpyKen to her SpyBarbie. All of a sudden this guy who previously seemed to have spent most of his CIA career behind a desk was running around in the field, wearing disguises and pulling off outrageous stunts, even kicking butt and taking names. Dixon, meanwhile, faded into the background (a shocking waste of Carl Lumbly's talent). And I really didn't like the New Improved (?) Vaughn any more. By the time he and Syd actually got together, my momentary "Woo!" was quickly replaced by "Meh."

I knew that my belief in Syd/Vaughn as an OTP had died when I read a rumour about Season Three that since Vaughn had got married during her two-year absence, Sydney would eventually become involved with someone else in the cast, someone we'd never expect. My mind immediately went "Weiss!" and then I got absurdly excited at the prospect of seeing Syd and Eric together, and started thinking about how well they'd balance each other out, and all the brilliant one-liners that Weiss might be expected to supply over the course of their romance...

And now I'll be disappointed if it's not Weiss. So I guess Syd and Eric is my new OTP...

--
* One True Pairing.
** Boyfriend (or Babe) Of The Week.

Something just occurred to me today as I was driving the kids to the park.

Where are the Moody/McGonagall fics? I've never seen one. And now I'm intrigued by the possibility. They do seem to be roughly the same age... and some have speculated they might have been at Hogwarts together...

Now that I've thought of it, it seems so sensible that I don't know why it didn't occur to me before.