Whats in a fanfiction?

Lots!

I've been planning out this Harry Potter fanfiction for a while now, but I really can't seem to get down to writing it. That might have something to do with the fact that I haven't read the books in a while, and don't remember a thing about them.

This is a typical 'Harry Potter' conversation between my sister and me (I?):

Me: (eyebrows knit in perplexity) Does Snape die?

Antara: (eyebrows raised in cynicism): Yes.

Me: (left eyebrow shoots up - I am fascinated) How? When?

Antara: (eyebrows fall calamitously) Have you read the book?

Me: Yes!

*Silence during which the eyebrows perform a series of convulsions*

Me: (eyebrows knit in perplexity) Should I know this?

So maybe creating my own work of fiction based on a popular, thoroughly-analysed-by-other-people franchise like Harry Potter, I should first go over the facts.

But for some reason I can't bring myself to pick those books up again.

I don't know what it is. Maybe its the fact that I know I'm not going to be happy at the end (ref: the hideous epilogue - which I do remember, thanks to its hideousness). I don't tend to remember facts from books, but I do remember stuff like my own thoughts about it, or how it made me feel.

I remember the Read it Yourself: Level 3 version of the The Enormous Turnip excited me no end, because of the exquisite construction of the plot around an objectified thesis - an enormous turnip that promises to be delicious but evades harvest. So did the Time Life book about the three detectives. I remember loving that one because I could trace my fingers along large, intricate pictures of houses, thereby 'following trails'. The Life of Pi made me a little sad. The Lord of the Rings confused me because there were too many characters with similar-sounding names. PG Wodehouse made me laugh. Enid Blyton made me hungry ('hot buttered scones' - heaven! I still don't know what a scone is. But I've always LOVED it!)

Anyway, the Harry Potter series is by far the most brilliant book series I have ever come across. And I want to write a fanfiction not only as a tribute to it, but as a means of commentary on the book - an artistic book report or review, of sorts.

I have ideas, but I don't know how to start, or where to end - and I have a feeling that the key to this lies in the books themselves.

I've forgotten my point.

But hopefully I will return soon with a ravishing tale of intrigue, suspense, action, romance, and deep spiritual awakening. Like in a Hindi movie.