What is canon? Options

[Vlad]

Ronsmyman asked this up in Ferret Wheel but it seems to me its a questions for all the areas. Canon is one of those thing "I know it when I see it". But I find it harder to define exactly when something stops being canon. Anything taking place before year 6 can be pretty well pinned down. but is anything from Year 6 onward always "Alternate Universe" (AU)?

If you write a very plausible year 6 story with Ron and Hermione dating is that canon because it's pretty likely from what we know that they might become a couple? How about Hermione and Draco? That one seems pretty uncanon to me (although I've read some very good stories that posit that very thing and back themselves up with canonlike logic). But what about Herione and Harry? Are all 'ship's AU? Is any story with Sirius alive (again) after year 5 AU? Or with Snape being nice to Harry?

Is it only canon if JKR wrote it or is it canon if you write it in such a way that it seamlessly and logically with what JKR has written?

What do you guys think? (other than that parodies are never canon so why is Ronsmyman even asking this question?)

[cherabela]

2. We've seen that wands of other wizards will work for other people. Barty Crouch uses Harry's (and, presumably, Mad-Eye Moody's). Wormtail uses Voldemort's. Sirius uses Snape's. If people can use the wands of others - even of their enemies - then why can't someone just pick up a wand for Sirius in Diagon alley? It might not be the "perfect" wand for him, but it might work pretty well.

This stirred a thought. In PS, Mr. Ollivanders had said that it's the wand which chooses the wizard, and that it will not have the same results with any other witch or wizard, if I remember correctly. I see it, that one might not be able to use the wand, because it would cause totally different results if a spell is cast. But, if, as shown, a wizard can use another's wand, and it produces the desired effects, why not just go in the shop, and choose any wand?


I've got a question on canon in general. I've never been able to keep straight to the way it is defined, probably because I have never really understood it. I have read the Lexicon part where canon is mentioned, and it says that only what JK wrote or said is canon. Therefore, whatever we write here, can be said not be canon right? If you have an idea, and you use it in a story, it might be true to character, but not to canon. Or am I mixing things up?