I need to add a follow-up to my comments of July 20. I wrote that in response to a horrible, sickening post on a Harry/Hermione website. I still feel exactly the same way about what I read there. I am still appalled at what someone wrote in the name of H/Hr shippers.
I wrote what I wrote, however, before the interview transcript was posted on TLC and MuggleNet which resulted in a lot of hurt feelings. As Penny pointed out to me, how would I feel if Rowling had laughed and said that the Lexicon (and similar websites) were just grownups with obviously too much time on their hands and had half the stuff from canon mis-interpreted. How would I feel? I would be devastated.
I know there are a lot of fans who feel that way today. These people are my friends. They didn’t write that nasty stuff on that website. They’re just hurting a lot right now.
Let me lay it on the line here. To those of you who are in that unfortunate place, I am truly sorry and I wish there were something I could say to lighten the burden. I promise you that I never would have intentionally said anything to make you feel worse. To everyone else, hey, stop and think about how YOU would feel. These are our dear friends we’re talking about here, and they’re hurting. Some of them are ready to leave, to pack it up and say good-bye. I don’t know about the rest of you, but to me that seems like a very bad thing. How can we, as friends and fellow fans, reach out and reverse the damage?
I’ll start. Please don’t go. I love you all and things just won’t be the same if you leave. Please accept my apology if I added to your pain. With very few exceptions, my comments were definitely not aimed at you. Take whatever time you need, but don’t leave forever. I’ll miss you all way too much.