I wish I knew how to communicate the idea that to our generation, Harry Potter is at least as much shared mythological framework as it is actual text.
@starkatt By showing people epic-length fanfics that are better than the original published work.
Like the one I found on Tumblr once where Harry is a Squib, but because McGonagall refuses to go easy on him he becomes good enough at theoretical magic to lead Dumbledore's Army anyway
and an inspiring enough leader that he can mobilize his classmates to kill Voldemort in the end
and afterward he and Hermione become advocates for Squib rights
@DialMforMara I can't talk about HP that way, but I know the MLP fandom has spawned the same general idea. There's a bunch of fanfics that I would advocate as being better explorations of theme than the original, many of which featured in budding parts of my spirituality for a while.
