Since I recently finished reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (along with half the world, it seems), I thought it would be fun to listen to some Harry Potter fan podcasts. The one that's stayed in my subscription queue is Harry Podder, an intergenerational podcast co-hosted by a child and an adult. The show has been spoiler-free through July, but the August podcasts assume you've finished the latest book.

In a recent podcast, I heard about a scandal involving "'shippers," fans who've become advocates of a particular romantic pairing between characters in the books. It interested me because there have been similar disputes among 'shippers in Xena fandom as well. Although Harry Podder is clearly geared towards children, it deals intelligently with some fairly complex subjects. The latest podcast, for example, delves into a professional tiff between author J.K. Rowling and author Terry Pratchett.

As soon as I finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince I felt very hungry for information and had to go crawling around the fan boards. There were a lot of mysteries I needed help with. Turns out the best information I could find was at The Severus Snape Fan Club Forums. Now it feels like a long wait until that next and final book.