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Many online encylopedias, most famously the Harry Potter Lexicon, which was given a "fan site award" by J. K. Rowling herself, have been created to document the series. These sites tend to stick very close to the canon, trying not to jump to conclusions.
When asked about Fan Fiction, Rowling said "I've read some of it. I find it very flattering that people love the characters that much." She generally supports fan fiction (although she has asked that sites that contain fanfic with adult content password-protect the stories so children under 18 cannot access it).
Fan-fiction and fan-cognition in general tend to have an interesting derivative view of themes and characters in the books. For example, some believe that the online fan crowd has much more sympathy for Draco Malfoy than the average fan. This has led to the rise of the characterization known as "Fanon Draco" or "Draco In Leather Trousers" (coined for a scene in noted fanfiction author Cassandra Claire's "Draco Trilogy"), which some fans find annoying and similar to a Mary Sue-ized canon character (also known as a Qanonreip, which comes from The Potter Sue Of The Day Report and is derived from "canon rape").
A theme prevalent throughout the Harry Potter fandom (and many other fandoms) is "shipping", a term which can be traced back to the original "Rocketshipping", which in turn was coined by fans of Team Rocket as a couple in the famous animé Pokémon as a pun on the terms "relationship" and "rocket ship" (and did not originate in the X-Files fandom as is sometimes erroneously asserted). Generally speaking, an "X/Y Shipper" either predicts or hopes for eventual romantic involvement between character X and character Y (usually both), which would be reflected, for example, in the fan fiction they write; the "ship" imagery has led to naming these relationships as if they were actual marine vessels (e.g. HMS Foo Bar). Despite the apparent irrelevance and obscurity of this subject, the "ship debate"- a controversy that has been going on in the Harry Potter fandom for as long as the ruling majority of its members can remember and centers on whether Hermione should/could/will belong with Harry or Ron- is probably one of the most oft-discussed, if not the most oft-discussed, subjects in the fandom. Even J.K. Rowling herself- while letting the shippers know that they should have had the matter figured out by now- has expressed some enjoyment over the "shipper debates" on her website.
Ships in the Harry Potter fandom are characterised by either having already happened or having some obstacle(s) which supporters of the particular ship, obviously, believe to be either nonexistent or destined to be overcome by the factors in the story that drive the relationship forward. Perhaps not-so-surprisingly, the deciding factor for the popularity of a ship is the balance between these two factors (driving forces and obstacles), or in other words, the potential amount of conflict that is to be had with it- both on the fictional and rhetorical fronts.
Notable "ships" include: