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?)

[evlpez]

As for Gary Oldman, he is 55, He might be a little old for the part but what his incredible acting skills don't cover up make-up certainly will

I was pretty disappointed when I heard Oldman was playing Sirius. I love his work, but he just didn't fit my mind's image of him. I was looking forward to more of a Joseph Fiennes kinda thing.

Now that we're stuck with Oldman, I must remind myself that he truly is a chameleon and a genius, and I've never disliked anything he's ever done.

Re: timeline - In the PP scene 5, one of my submissions had Bill as a 5th year prefect in 1981. I had used the Lexicon to come up with that estimation... but I can't find my notes right now and am too scatterbrained this morning to recount how I explained it then to people when they asked... but Ginny might have memories of Bill being head boy, even if she was only 2 years old at the time. I like to think that things like this are more possible in the Potterverse. After all, who knows what neurology magical folk have that is different from us muggles? They live longer, certainly... it is possible that their brains are wired differently and though I have very few memories of being 2 years old, Ginny might.
At least that's my theory (and my excuse for allowing Bill and Charlie to be in that scene, not that it mattered).