So I bough...

So I bought my new domain yesterday but I'm struggling for layout ideas so for only the second or third time ever, I bring you a poll. Just choose whichever subject would look good at the main page/collective. If you choose any of the last three, commenting with specific people/things would be just spiffy.Poll #360250 So...layout ideas...
Open to: Friends, results viewable to: FriendsWhat should be the subject of the domain main pageThe Trio...yey for keeping everyone happy 3 (20.0%)R/Hr...yey for cool kids 6 (40.0%)Other HP...yey for Hogwarts 0 (0.0%)Keira...yey for being original ;) 0 (0.0%)Scarlett...yey for the beautiful 0 (0.0%)Jen Garner...yey for pretty people that kick butt 5 (33.3%)Mischa...yey for annoying voices 0 (0.0%)Orlando...yey for the oh so droolsome 0 (0.0%)Josh...yey for ditto 0 (0.0%)Other actress...yey for specifying 1 (6.7%)Other actor...yey for ditto 0 (0.0%)Something else completely random...yey for randomness 0 (0.0%)

I need your help.

Its a long story but in short - my laptop finally spontaneously combusted during the week so I've lost everything so I really need help from you guys. So could you all please comment with....a) A PS brush siteb) A graphic site (preferably with texture resources)c) A HP image galleryd) Any other important HP sitese) A link to a specific piece of HP fanfic - preferably R/Hr or J/L, smut optional ;) (I already have AtE)f) A HQ scan siteg) Any other site/resources that you think I might need/wantYou don't have to give me all of them, anything would be great. I'm lost without my laptop and favourites.

HP Files - Philosopher's Stone - Chapters 10 - 12

Chapter 10 - Nicholas FlamelPg 161 - "Mr Flamel, who celebrated his six-hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life Devon with his wife." I wish my textbooks were this interesting.Pg 164 - "Hermione stood up, her crossed fingers in her mouth." Erm, ok?Pg 164 - "Before Malfoy new what was happening, Ron was on top of him..." And the slash fans are going wild. Again. - "Neville hesitated, then clambered over the back of his seat to help to help." My God, she’s killing me.Pg 165 - "[Harry] had really done something to be proud of now - no one could say he was just a famous face anymore." So we have Hermione stealing Ron's lines and Harry inching in on Ron's long term storyline - tell me, is Ron going to have a character by the end of this?(That was a pretty pathetic chapter)Chapter 14 - Norbert the Norwegian RidgebackPg 168/9 - "'Hagrid was looking up at stuff about dragons!'...'Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever met him'...'So what on earth's Hagrid up to?'". Oh, I wonder. How ultimately naive are they?Pg 170 - "...when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every hour." Sounds the perfect pet.Pg 171 - "Hagrid, you live in a wooden house" Well, you know, as if that's a problem, its not like dragons breathe fire or that it's illegal or in the slightest bit dangerous.Pg 172 - "'Isn't he beautiful?'" Remember people, this is Hagrid, yes, the same one that fancied Madame Maxime.Pg 175 - "Professor McGonagall, in a tartan dressing-gown and a hairnet had Malfoy by the ear." He doesn't half get around.Pg 176 - "They'd left the Invisibility Cloak on top of the tower" - They really should be more careful.Chapter 15 - The Forbidden ForestPg 177 - "Things couldn't have been worse." Translation - They're buggeredPg 179 - "From being one of the most popular and admired people at school, Harry was suddenly the most hated." How conceited can an 11 year old be. His ego had to burst sometime.Pg 182 - "There's all sorts of things in their - werewolves, I heard" - So that's all 4 Marauders that've received a mention - intentional m'thinks?Pg 182 - "Malfoy now turned to Hagrid. 'I'm not going in that forest,' he said, and Harry was pleased to hear the note of panic in his voice". He obviously likes him vulnerable.Pg 186 - "Malfoy, it seemed, had sneaked up behind Neville and grabbed him for a joke." Well which idiot put them together and didn't even consider the fact that Malfoy's jumping everyone at the minute.Pg 187 - "Malfoy let out a terrible scream and bolted" Harry was playing rough evidently.Pg 187 - "'Are you a common mule?'" Well considering that he has a human torso, can talk, read the stars and predict the future I wouldn't say so. But that’s just me.Pg 190 - "When Harry pulled back his sheets, he found his Invisibility Cloak folded neatly underneath them." And I was half-expecting it to be Malfoy...Many apologies for the constant stream of Malfoy innuendo but apparently I have a dirty mind.Coming soon: Chapter 16 - Through the Trapdoor

HP Files - Philosopher's Stone - Chapters 10 - 12

Chapter 10 - Hallowe'enPg 121 - "Indeed, by next (typo) morning Harry and Ron thought that meeting the three-headed dog had been an excellent adventure and they were quite keen to have another one" - Somebody should quote this to Harry during book 5 or whenever it is that he's complaining about stuff always happening to him.Pg 121/122 - I still believe it's an act of complete favouritism that Harry got given a first-class broom by a staff member/Dumbledore. No wonder he wasn't allowed to open it at the breakfast table.Pg 122 - "'A Nimbus Two Thousand, sir' said Harry, fighting not to laugh at the look of horror on Malfoy's face...And it's really thanks to Malfoy here that I've got it,' he added." So Harry really is a spiteful little shit.Pg 123-126 - I could ramble on about Quidditch from its name right down to erm, the snitch but instead I'll just say genius.Pg 127 - "Hermione didn't turn up for the next class and wasn't seen all afternoon." Now as much as I understand that she was upset, would Hermione *ever* miss class intentionally.Pg 128 - "'I've just thought - Hermione' 'What about her?' 'She doesn't know about the troll'" - There's the saving people complex again, however, I don't see Hermione complaining now.Pg 129 - "Oy, pea-brain!" It is obviously Ron's turn for the hard-core insults.Pg 130 - "'Wingardium Leviosa!' The club flew suddenly out of the troll's hand, rose high, high up into the air, turned slowly over - and dropped, with a sickeningly crack, on to its owner's head." Now where would they be had Hermione not have taught Ron the correct incantation?Pg 132 - "But from that moment on, Hermione Granger became their friend. There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them." And at this moment the famous angst-ridden triangle know as 'The Trio' was born. Little did Rowling know how much aggro this would cause between her fans and the divide in the fandom it would cause.Chapter 11 - QuidditchPg 133 - "Hermione had become a bit more relaxed about breaking rules since Harry and Ron had saved her from the mountain troll ad she was much nicer for it." What happened to loving people warts and all?Pg 134 - "Getting up, he told Ron and Hermione he was going to ask Snape if he could have it.’Rather you than me,' they said together." They're connected on a deeper level already ;)Pg 134 - "'Blasted thing' Snape was saying.’How are you supposed to keep your eyes on all three heads at once.'" OOC-ness creeping in again.Pg 135 - "'Just a bit of toast,' wheedled Hermione." Wheedled anyone?Pg 135 - "Seekers are always the ones who get nobbled by the other team." Again with the euphemisms - I think he actually meant 'screwed over'.Pg 137 - You never really understand how brutal Quidditch is until you see the movies, reading someone being hit in the back of the head with a bludger has much less impact.Pg 140 - "The Weasleys flew up to try and pull Harry safely on to one of their brooms, but it was no good...They dropped lower and circled beneath him, obviously hoping to catch him if he fell." See, they're good guys really. :)Chapter 12 - The Mirror of ErisedPg 143 - "Worst of all were Professor Snape's classes down in the dungeons, where their breath rose in a mist before them." So maybe Snape is a reptile after all.Pg 144 - "Festoons of holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls." The vocabulary in this book is getting stranger by the chapter.Pg 145 - "He wasn't in Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century or Notable Magical Names of Our Time...” I know that in the interests of drama, the Flamel thing had to be dragged out but surely, if Dumbledore is particularly famous for working with him then surely he'd have a more prominent position within magical history.Pg 146 - "Madam Pince the librarian brandished a feather duster at him." The woman's violent I'm telling you - should she be working with children?Pg 147 - "She's made you a Weasley jumper." So Harry has officially been initiated into the Weasley clan.Pg 149 - "I suppose she thinks you don't forget your name. But we're not stupid - we know we're called Gred and Forge." Just hee!Pg 150 - "Harry watched Hagrid getting redder and redder in the face as he called for more wine, finally kissing Professor McGonagall on the cheek, who, to Harry's amazement, giggled and blushed, her top hat lop-sided." Welcome to Hogwarts, inbreeding capital of the country.Pg 150 - Do people under invisibility cloaks have shadows? They're still solid so in theory they still block light causing shadows but surely that defeats the object of being invisible.Pg 152 - "It was a magnificent mirror...There was an inscription carved around the top..." I didn't get that the inscription actually meant something until my auntie told me - I was only 9 but still.Pg 154 - "Anyway, maybe it only shows dead people." How tactful Ron.Pg 155 - "I'm Head Boy...I'm holding the House Cup and the Quidditch Cup - I'm Quidditch captain too." Don't you just want to hug him?Pg 155 - "You're only holding the Quidditch Cup, what's interesting about that?" Okay, so Harry doesn't understand what the mirror is or what its contents mean but he really is an insensitive git.Pg 156 - "'Strange how short-sighted being invisible can make you,' said Dumbledore" This is going to come back and bite Harry on the ass one day.Pg 157 - "Ron Weasley, who has always been overshadowed by his brothers, sees himself standing alone, the best of them all." You see. Dumbledore understands.Pg 157 - "It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live." That's extremely profound considering we're only halfway through the book.Coming soon - Chapter 13 - Nicholas Flamel

HP Files - Philosopher's Stone - Chapters 7 - 9

Chapter 7 - The Sorting HatPg 87 - "Harry had never imagined such a strange and splendid place" - If only he knew some of the other wierd and wonderful places he'll be seeing.Pg 87 - "Harry looked upwards and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. He heard Hermione whisper, "It's been bewitched to look like the sky" - Now yes I know it's fiction and that it would probably just be like being on one of those 'bottomless' boats but I really wish I could see this - it would just be so spectacular, especially at night.Pg 87 - "I read about it in 'Hogwarts, A History'" Here's something else to tally.Pg 89 - "'So we've just got to try on the hat!' ROn whispered to Harry. 'I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll'" Foreshadowing? I think so.Pg 90/91 - I wish we could have had an insight into the other two's moment under the Sorting Hat, particularly Hermione - it would've been interesting to see whether she'd been like Harry only over Ravenclaw rather than Slytherin.Pg 92 - "Nitwick! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" I'm sure there's a hidden meaning here.Pg 93 - "Great-uncle Algie came round for tea and he was hanging me out of an upstairs window by the ankles when my great-auntie Enid offered him a meringue and he accidently let go. But I bounced - all the way down the garden and into the road." That explains alot Neville - but what did we expect from an man named after pond-scum.Pg 95 - Whatever happened to the school song? It disappeared and hasn't been heard since Harry's first year.Pg 96 - As a matter of interest, does anyone know what Caput Draconis actually means?Chapter 8 - The Potions MasterPg 101 - "Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls." There was no way Snape was going to be a pleasant, undisturbed character was there?Pg 101 - "Harry Potter. Our new - celebrity" Nobody will ever say that quite as well as Alan Rickman.Pg 103 - "At this, Hermione stood up, her hand stretching towards the dungeon ceiling." I'd forgotten just how annoying she was in this book.Pg 103 - "'I don't know' said Harry quietly. 'I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?" Hee! Harry's a bad ass.Pg 103 - "Harry caught Seamus's eye and Seamus winked." And the slash lovers are all jumping out of their seats.Chapter 9 - The Midnight DuelPg 107 - "The way Seamus Finnigan told it, he'd spent most of his childhood zooming around the countryside on his broomstick". Surely this would mean he was okay at flying so why have we never heard of him trying out for the team, especially in OotP?Pg 108 - "At breakfast on Thursday she bored them all stupid with flying tips she'd got out of a library book called 'Quidditch Through the Ages'". I've got this book. Which leads me to ask, on the 'check out card' in QTtA, it says that Fred was due to give the book back in on 15 February and then Hermione was due to give it back on 2 March but in PS, we haven't even had Hallowe'en yet. Timing error me thinks but maybe I'm just looking into this too much.Pg 108 - I never got the point of Remembralls. What's the point in knowing you've forgotten something if you can't remember what it was?Pg 110 - "The Remembrall glittered in the sun as he held it up. 'Give me that Malfoy,' said Harry quietly." This was probably the worst delivered line in the entire movie.Pg 112 - "He was going to be expelled, he just knew it". The amount of times he says this you'd have thought he'd just learn to stop being such a badass.Pg 112 - "Potter, this is Oliver Wood". Ironic for a guy who spends half his life on a broomstick. Which makes me wonder, what's with all the surname-ing. Maybe she was just trying to make it more British but honestly, hardly anyone does that. I mean we refer to teachers by their surnames (obviously not to their faces) but teachers never refer to us by our last names.Pg 113 - "'Your father would have been proud,' she said, 'He was an excellent Quidditch player himself.'" And didn't he know it.Pg 114 - "Wizard's duel. Wands only - no contact." Duels will always remind me of The Sword in the Stone.Pg 119 - "They were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, a dog which filled the whole space between the ceiling and the floor. It had three heads." In which case, is it still a dog - doesn't it border into the 'three-headed monster' category?Pg 120 - "It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something" Increasingly quick to the uptake this onePg 120 - "We could all have been killed - or worse, expelled". And this goes into the hat for classic one-liners.Coming soon - Chapter 10 - Hallowe'en

HP Files - Philosopher's Stone - Chapters 4 - 6

Chapter 4 - The Keeper of the KeysPg 39 - "'Yeh look a bit like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mum's eyes'" - I think I'm going to tally this.Pg 40 - "'Shut up Dursley, yeh great prune'" - Ahh yes, one of the lesser know but more effective wizard insults.Pg 40 - "The giant sat back... and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages..." and all this fits because he bought his jacket from the same place Mary Poppins bought her bag.Pg 41 - "Uncle Vernon...whispered something that sounded like 'Mimblewimble'." This is obviously his hard core response to the prune comment.Pg 43 - "Dear Mr Dumbledore". WTF Hagrid? Since when has Dumbledore ever been referred to as Mr?Pg 44 - "I was the only one the only one who saw her for what she was - a freak!" This coming from the woman who voluntarily married Vernon DursleyPg 48 - "Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head" - Again with the Mary Poppins references.Pg 48 - "Harry saw a curly pig's tale poking through a hole in his trousers" Didn't this happen in one of Roald Dahl's short stories? It seemed familiar.Chapter 5 - Diagon AlleyPg 52 - Where does she get her names from? I know when I'm writing, I find it really hard but JK Rowling always comes up with perfect names - the best examples being the names of the authors of the school books Scrap that, I just read the answer at her website.Pg 54 - I always loved that the 'connection' point between the wizarding world and the muggle world was a grubby old pub. Just goes to show that wizards too are alcoholics.Pg 58 - "'Seventeen silver sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine knots to a Sickle'" - I always loved how random that was, I never remember the exact values, a bit like the old Imperial system here.Pg 59/60 - "...a boy with a pale, pointed face", I always knew Malfoy had a good bone structure but even from this very first description of him you can tell he's gonna be a 'bad' guy which is usual with J.K Rowlings character introductions however you then turn the page and the first thing you hear Malfoy say is "Hullo" now I'm sorry but that isn't the kind of thing Malfoy would say even to a friend. The passage then goes on to portray him as a pompous, self-righteous git but still, no-one says Hullo, even spoilt 11-year-olds.Pg 63 - "You have your mother's eyes" Tally's up to 2Pg 63 - "Your father...favoured a mahogany wand... excellent for transfiguration". She's started hinting already.Pg 65 - "It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother - why, its brother gave you that scar" Convenient that really.Pg 66 - "I'm famous and I can't even remember what I'm famous for". Why couldn't it stay that way I'd forgotten how insanely innocent he was at the beginning at the book. It's obviously Ron and Hermione that have a bad influence on him.Chapter 6 - The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-QuartersPg 68 - "Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?" And that ladies and gentlemen will b the only witty comment we'll hear from Uncle Vernon for the rest of the series.Pg 70 - "[Mrs Weasley] pointed at the last and youngest of her sons. He was tall, thin and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet and a long nose." How unattractive does he sound? Time to employ that selective reading again. Anyway, I like how this contrasts Harry who's "small and skinny". Opposites attract obviously.Pg 72 - Bless his ickle cotton socks..."'Harry Potter' chorused the twins.'Oh him' said Harry, 'I mean, yes, I am'"Pg 73 - "Harry heard the little girl's voice.’Oh Mum, can I go on the train and see him'". I will just *wook* at only_lightPg 75 - "You could say I've got a lot to live up to". This is one of the reasons I love Ron - he's so humbled and understated and unlike Harry he's so normal.Pg 76 - "It was a nice feeling, sitting there with Ron, eating their way through all Harry's pasties and cakes". Hee! Male bonding!Pg 81 - "You hang around with riff-raff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid and it'll rub-off on you". You know, plain bad-ass Malfoy is much more satisfying to read than the stupid bickering in the later books. Yey for plain mean-ness.Coming soon - Chapter 7 - The Sorting Hat

HP Files - Philosopher's Stone - Chapters 1 - 3

So, the first installment of my Harry Potter Book "reviews". These won't be reviews exactly more just me making orderly comments as I read each of the chapters. All page references are for the UK editions of the books. Feel free to make comments, prove me wrong or just give your own POV.Chapter 1 - The Boy Who LivedPg 12 - Its only whilst re-reading these things that I realise how many descriptions I miss or choose to ignore. eg. (Dumbledore) "...Judging by the silver of his hair and which were both long enough to tuck into his belt".Pg 13 - "Would you care for a sherbert lemon?". Always makes me smile. Dumbledore should run Honeydukes when he retires.Pg 14 - "I haven't blushed so much since Madame Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs". Considering Mme. Pomfrey's nature and that she is constantly fussing, that doesn't sound like something she would say.Pg 16 - Sirius shoutout.Pg 17 - (Scars) "I have one myself above my left knee which is a perfect map of the London underground". Again with the Dumbledore love. JK Rowling made him just perfect - he's so, normal for someone so powerful.Chapter 2 - The Vanishing GlassPg 19 - Even in the first pages of the series we become aware of Harry's recurring dreams - if only we'd known then what we know now.Pg 20 - "Harry had always been small and skinny for his age". You know, I never pictured him as being small - its that selective reading again.Pg 21 - "Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a taken angel - Harry often said that Gugley looked like a pig in a wig". So understated yet so ultimately perfect.General - I used to think this chapter was silly and slightly useless however as with so many other things in the series it is used as foreshadowing. It always amazes me how much of this she has planned and how much backstory the whole thing has.Chapter 3 - The Letters From No OnePg 30 - The ever presence og Aunt Marge - nothing quite like continuity.Pg 30 - I've always loved how the letters were addressed and how they always knew Harry's exact location. It just goes to prove that Dumbledore is God.Pg 33 - (Letter 'rescue' attempt) Harry's always been a troublemaker. This reminds me of the trapdoor scebe later in the book.Pg 34 - When I first read this, I must've been about 9 and I thought that letters arriving in eggs was one of the cleverest things I'd ever read. Obviously, I had no idea what I had let myself in for.Pg 35 - "Dudley snored but Harry stayed awake, sitting on the window-sill, starng down at the lights of the passing cars and wondering..." because Harry was indeed Lost in Translation. ;)

I swear ...

I swear I'm getting worse at this...8 hundred Introverted (I) 69.7% Extroverted (E) 30.3% Realistic (S) 56.76% Imaginative (N) 43.24% Emotional (F) 51.52% Intellectual (T) 48.48% Easygoing (P) 51.61% Organized (J) 48.39%