I've about had it with this whole Harry Potter thing. Pictures from the new movie, spoilers and snippets from the new book, and just straight-up bad fanfiction have completely killed my three-year-long-Harry-Potter-induced high, and I have no doubt that there are plenty more like me. Consider this a lamenting ground where we can complain about this new age of Potter-dom and remind ourselves why we cared in the first place. I'll start.

I started reading Harry Potter in 5th grade (seven years ago) but didn't get addicted like I am now until around 8th grade, around the same time that it stopped being a series of books and started being a franchise. Nonetheless, it still kicked the socks off of everything else I was reading, so I let myself fall into it. The books kept coming out and they kept getting better (Half-Baked Plot notwithstanding). Eventually, I found fanfiction, and became enamored. I had to sift through some real crap, but there truly are some absolutely brilliant writers out there, and I have to wonder why some of them haven't gone pro yet.

For me, I loved it because I could relate to Harry. At the risk of sounding like a depressive emofaggot, I wasn't what you might call the big man on campus for the early years of my life. Here was a fantasy world where the little guy suddenly became famous (literally) overnight, and it was a place I could escape to. It was a phase, and I've long since grown out of it, but that's how I got hooked.

Now, like I said before, Harry Potter has become a franchise. It disgusts me. There are so many losers and suckers out there with lonely brain cells who read linearly instead of understanding the big picture and seeing how everything fits in. It used to be a tightly-knit group of people who actually had the cajones to read a book longer than fifty pages, but now everyone and their mother knows the story. Worse yet are the people who just watch the movies and have never read the books and think they know what's happening! I found DLP in the nick of time, because I probably would have gone crazy.

 

I know the feeling, the whole big buzz around it died for me a few months back, I barely follow even the best stories anymore and like Syao have branched off into other fandoms, namely Naruto. I actually enjoy the Harry Potter discussions on the board then more then I enjoy fanfiction nowadays.

Trying to get back into the fandom though, it feels almost like a waste leaving something that took up so much of my time : /

Try writing, once you start publishing chapters you may start to appreciate others work more as well.

 

I don't see any benefit in telling yourself "I'm leaving the fandom." Considering how interested you probably were (and I know I was) the idea that your infatuation could continue at that level was impossible. Your interest in things will wane and then later sometime you'll be right back at it and interested again.

I agree Syao and Darius both. Check out other fandoms. Whether it's comics, tv shows, other books, or movies... just take a look at the fics elsewhere. More than likely you'll get some of that initial discovering so-and-so's fanfiction kind of high, and later you may find reading Harry Potter again interesting. For me, I wandered off towards Buffy and Firefly at first, then liked Bones and Smallville a lot.

And like Darius' suggestion, sometimes your interest wanes because everything you read seems to be taking turns in the wrong direction. So try coming up with your own plots, or takes on things that go in the right direction. Even just a drabble for yourself. For example, I just read a theoretical post-DH one-shot about Harry after defeating Voldemort and losing his magic. It featured Snivellus the misunderstood good guy of sorts and left a bad taste in my mouth. And it left me wanting this magicless Harry to show Snivellus just how dangerous he still was by killing him in a grisly manner. And then I imagined Harry without magic, terrorizing the wizarding world for destroying what he liked so much. And then I thought about how the wizarding world might view things differently when faced with a 'muggle' Dark Lord destroying them from the inside out.

But there's nothing to be gained from trying to commit or tell yourself "That's it. I'm through with Harry Potter." Just take a break and come back later when your interest is there.

EDIT: If you want a real fun venture into just about every fandom, I highly recommend checking out Methos' Tales from the Barman, which has a thread and link here: http://forums.darklordpotter.net/showthread.php?t=5475

 

It has always been about the writing for me. I picked up HP around PoA because it was gaining popularity. It was interesting enough to hold my focus, so I continued reading. In fanfiction it is pretty much the same deal. The universe never gets old because I keep finding different views on it, and as long as talented writers keep plugging out stories I shall read them.

Edit: Nonjon should write that idea into a story...