I’m going to make my first post about Harry Potter because lately this one ship has been the only thing I’ve been thinking about. I know the title made it seem like I was going to talk about something much more serious. Sorry.
The following contains spoilers for Harry Potter.
Not that it’s such a big deal, seen as how just about everyone in the world has read all the books by now.
I don’t want to slam Rowling for this. I love her as an author, and am in no position to criticise her. After all, we’re just human. The books have been published. There’s nothing we can do anymore but talk about it.
Harry married Ginny. Ron married Hermione. If I had to be honest, the epilogue did not satisfy me. It met my expectations, but I was already used to Harry and Ginny being together. It just wasn’t what I was into. It failed to touch me the way most books do with romantic couples. If I remember correctly (I’m somewhat hoping I don’t), Harry and Ginny had very little interactions. It was mostly just Harry telling himself to not think about Ginny like that, and Ginny telling him she can deal with all the mess going on. That’s it, right?
Now, I can recall a multitude of scenes where Harry was left alone with Hermione. Those moments reached me more so than those short scenes with him and Ginny. I feel as though the former pair truly had chemistry. I understand that in J.K Rowling’s set sequence, she originally intended (see quote below).
“I wrote the Hermione/Ron relationship as a form of wish fulfillment,” she says. “That’s how it was conceived, really. For reasons that have very little to do with literature and far more to do with me clinging to the plot as I first imagined it, Hermione ended up with Ron.”
I have had this happen to me a few times. In the glorious RP world of twitter, I’ve come across other characters who I, at first, shipped with mine. I came to find that, nope, it won’t work out; nope, those two characters should be more like siblings instead.
I remember how Ron and Hermione had this banter. Just about every time they talked to each other, it was nothing but bickering. Again, if I remember correctly, their feelings changed at the Yule Ball. Something about Hermione’s pretty dress or Ron’s jealousy over Viktor Krum. Even though we only saw everything from Harry’s perspective, I felt disconnected from the story when it came to Ron and Hermione.
Given that we had a full perspective when Harry was with Ginny, I have an even better reason to say I felt disconnected. As I stated, their relationship bloomed from Harry simply having an attraction to her. I saw no chemistry.
If Rowling had actually put Harry with Hermione, I think a lot of the dialogue between them would have been different. Those times where Harry comforted Hermione would have been Harry just telling her that Ron is not a bad guy and she would need to calm down in order to get along with him. As for Ron, I have no idea who he would have ended up with. Perhaps he could have gone with Padma (or was it Parvati he went with to the Yule Ball)? Ginny could have gone with one of her classmates. Ron and Hermione would have at least learned to get along so they wouldn’t always be at each other’s throats.
Speaking of which, some people say that Ron and Hermione would have fixed each other’s flaws. Ron would have showed Hermione not to be so uptight and Hermione would have showed Ron to be more grounded. I personally think it would have worked out, if they hadn’t been bickering for seven years. I just don’t see how two people can suddenly accept one another and get married after seven years. After all that bickering, it left a foundation of resentment, and though friendship can fix it, I doubt that a romantic relationship could have resonated. As Rowling herself said, they may have needed marriage counseling.
So my conclusion is that I rather Ron and Hermione have been good friends, and Harry be with Hermione in the end. Thanks for reading, fellas. I would love to hear what you think about this.
Wonders of Other Worlds 