Harry Potter

That is what I always thought as well.

This. Now I'll admit I'm biased because I prefer Harry/Hermione, Harry/Luna, Hermione/Neville, and Ginny/Neville to either of the canon ships but as much as I think Harry/Ginny comes out of nowhere (Ginny's crush which lasted all of two books prior to book six notwithstanding.) at least they get along. Ron and Hermione are constantly arguing and are only ever not arguing when it comes to helping Harry/when it comes to Harry in general (And even that's ignoring a few events like when Hermione gets the Firebolt confiscated.)

Hell, Hermione pretty much always sides with Harry over Ron. And yeah Ron's usually in the wrong (GoF and DH) but you'd think she'd still try to take a neutral stance rather than take Harry's side (Yes, she does try to get them to reconcile in GoF but there's no indication she's been trying to talk to Ron about things, only Harry.).

I don't like either canon ship but at least Harry and Ginny actually get along.

Edited by Chariot on Jun 26th 2020 at 12:24:30 PM

Hello 4th book Ron is the one Harry would miss the most? Not Hermione?

Personally, i don't think Harry and Hermione have any romantic chemistry, sure they are best of friends, but not romantic at all. Harry fights with her and was pissed over the whole Firebolt fiasco, and the whole Half Blood prince plagiarism. Like he can stand to ostracize her for months in Azkaban and has to be prodded by Hagrid to forgive her.

Plus Harry has this weird thing against crying women, and uhhh, that lead to the whole Cho fiasco, so i doubt he could stand a long term relationship with Hermione.

Ron and Hermione fight, but there is a certain tension between the two that is romantic attraction. When Harry and Hermione fight, it has no romantic tension, like again plagiarizing the Half Blood prince.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Jun 26th 2020 at 10:08:07 AM

I'll teach you a lesson about just how cruel the world can be. That's my job, as an adult.

He didn't have "a thing against crying women", he just didn't know how to deal with that level of emotionality. Which, given the circumstances, what with Cho grieving over her brutally murdered boyfriend, and Harry being a socially inept teenager, is perfectly understandable.

I mean, this is not just dealing with a sad girlfriend. This is dealing with someone who is traumatized. It was not something Harry was well-equipped to deal with at all. You can't blame him that there are no therapists.

Optimism is a duty.

I can't remember the passage exactly, but it was something about women turning into an emotional faucet. I'll double check when i find my copy.

Speaking of fights, Harry also takes Ron's side over Hermione's. Again the fire bolt and the thing with Scabbers and Crookshanks.

Even as early as 2, Ron was pissed when Draco said the Mudblood word to Hermione.

I'll teach you a lesson about just how cruel the world can be. That's my job, as an adult.

Then again, the whole Scabbers-Crookshanks thing really didn't make Hermione look good, even if Harry had to deal with the whole thing for weeks.

Wake me up at your own risk.

Remember that Harry and Hermione are both characterized as being rather... clueless about girls.

Optimism is a duty.

Well, now we know why Hermione's experimentation phase ended so badly.

Edited by Blueace on Jun 26th 2020 at 4:33:42 AM

Wake me up at your own risk.

That is what we're supposed to think, but... I have to say that they had a better chemistry in the movies than in the books.

True. But I have to agree with that Harry simply didn't know how to handle the situation.

Edited by Kickisan on Jun 26th 2020 at 7:59:00 AM

The movies go out of their way to make Harry/Hermione not even possible and Ron/Hermione even more obvious.

Which is one of their strengths, admittedly.

But I grew up on Inuyasha. A couple that bickers a lot is not strange to me. Ron and Hermione are a classic example of Opposites Attract. All three members of the Trio are inept at romantic relationships - as teenagers tend to be - so the natural passion between Ron and Hermione generally gets manifested in pretty negative ways. They fight more than Harry and Hermione do because there just isn't that spark between Harry and Hermion to be ignited.

But some people just don't buy into the Takahashi Couple formula. Which is fine but it's clearly what Rowling was going for.

Edited by Nikkolas on Jun 26th 2020 at 3:38:03 AM

Actually, it is not impossible for me to buy some bickering couples as still being compatible.

And I can even buy some Opposites Attract couples, if there is enough chemistry between the characters.

However, Ron and Hermione is not one of those couples to me.

Edited by Kickisan on Jun 27th 2020 at 8:00:55 AM

Yeah, bickering friends does not necessarily mean Unresolved Sexual Tension, and JK going with that reading of their relationship at the end wasn't really warranted. Like at best you could claim that Ron dating Lavander and Hermione dating Krum sparked jealousy in the other? But like, that's it, basically.

"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach."

No it's the exact opposite. They're worse to each other when they're around Harry because at that point they have to full fill the Spock-Mc Coy role to Harry being Kirk. Or where Ron is the audience stand in coming up with stupid theories and Hermione as the author stand in needs to explain why that can't be the case. (not sure what the trope name is for this)

Because unlike what fandom might think Ron and Hermione spend a lot time with each other without Harry. Every time Harry is by himself usually Ron and Hermione are together off screen. Every summer starting from the third year they meet up with each other first before meeting up with Harry. There's also the moment in the third book where Ron and Hermione spent the entire day together at Hogsmeade without Harry and they had the times of their lives.

But I do think this is part of the problem all of this is off the pages, for Ron and Hermione to work they had to be Po V characters so that we can see this interaction. They're aren't so now they're a worse version of Remus and Tonks really.

Edited by zsmg on Jun 27th 2020 at 3:13:22 PM

I thought Harry and Cho’s relationship was well-drawn, and I felt sympathetic to both of them. Harry wanted a happy, fun relationship with a girl he liked and found attractive, that would be a respite from the daily stresses and strains of the war and of the government propaganda. (Which is what he got later with Ginny, and I find it easy to see that deepening into something more substantial over several years of dating post-canon.) He was a clueless teenager and had no idea how to help Cho deal with trauma, and he found talking about anything that happened with Cedric and Voldemort extremely painful - he had already done it several times, and he certainly didn’t want to repeat it during a date.

Cho, on the other hand, had never heard the full story until Harry’s interview with Rita was published - she wanted to know and talk about what had happened to get some of the same closure Harry got at the end of GOF. And that got all mixed up with the feelings she’d had for Harry since even before she and Cedric were dating (there’s definite indications she’d have gone to the Yule Ball with Harry if he’d asked her before Cedric did). She needed a therapist, not a boyfriend; all her reactions were understandable.

And the way they broke up in the book made sense. Harry’s seeing things from the perspective of the War, and Marietta is a traitor who has terribly endangered hundreds of people. She’s left Hogwarts vulnerable to attack by Voldemort by causing Dumbledore to be driven away. She’s left the students to be victims of Umbridge’s torture. What Hermione did was mild compared to the repercussions of Marietta’s actions (which included first-years having words carved into their skin). Cho’s seeing things from the perspective of Marietta’s friend, and Marietta being the only one who stuck by her all through her grief, and feelings like she has a responsibility to stand by Marietta in turn. Those two perspectives aren’t reconcilable.

Edited by Galadriel on Jun 27th 2020 at 10:21:47 AM

@Chariot I'll never understand why Harry/Luna didn't have a bigger fanbase. There interaction at the end of Order of the Phoenix was I feel more powerful than any interaction between Harry and Ginny.

You can only write so much in your forum signature. It's not fair that I want to write a piece of writing yet it will cut me off in the mid

I acknowledged the Firebolt fiasco. And while they didn't see eye to eye about Snape's textbook they still got along. It's not like Harry was pissed at and actively ignoring her or being spiteful like he was about the Firebolt incident.

I mean, I'm willing to accept that there's no actual romantic chemistry between them in canon. I just like the idea of them together in part because of the main guy x main girl cliche/trope and in part because even though their relationship isn't romantic in canon I think there's some potential there because they're best friends.

I mean, I'm a fan of tsunderes so bickering couples are part of the territory. That being said, Ron and Hermione's arguments are a lot less playful than the bickering tsunderes get into with their love interest in my opinion. Like, they're constantly fighting because of Crookshanks and Scabbers in third year. Obviously they're meant to be friends and they do care to an extent but they never felt like they were interested in each other to me.

I don't see this at all to be honest? Like, they're always working together to improve on Harry's plans (D.A comes to mind.) and Ron himself says in book seven that they both expected Harry to have a plan for finding the Horcruxes. So I definitely think they mostly get along when it comes to worrying about Harry rather than his presence making them come off worse to each other.

Oh that interaction is what convinced me that Luna is the best person for Harry. Only reason I ship Harry/Hermione more is because as a reader I have a more emotional connection to Hermione because she's been around longer.

Edited by Chariot on Jun 27th 2020 at 1:19:49 PM

If we're going off movies, then I ship Harry and that waitress from HBP.

Harry and Luna are a much better couple idea.

Like they actually have good interactions that are meaningful and show how each other can relate to their experiences.

The potential for Harry and Ginny IS there, there was a moment in OOTP where Ginny calls out Harry for not remembering she was possessed and did assure him, he wasn't possessed by Voldemort. But it's too brief and not much is built up from that.

I'll teach you a lesson about just how cruel the world can be. That's my job, as an adult.

Luna obviously thinks of Harry as just friends, not a romantic partner.

Optimism is a duty.

I actually shipped Ron and Luna at some point, and I wasn't alone.

Thank you! That's what I was trying to say, but I couldn't find the right words for it!

There should be something playful in the bickering to make you feel they're compatible after all.

And that is very much lacking from Ron's and Hermione's interactions.

Edited by Kickisan on Jun 27th 2020 at 8:02:48 AM

Ron and Luna, or Harry and Luna?

Edited by jjjj2 on Jun 27th 2020 at 8:00:55 AM

You can only write so much in your forum signature. It's not fair that I want to write a piece of writing yet it will cut me off in the mid

Harry/Luna had a pretty big fanbase after OOTP as far as I can reemmber.

Them going togetehr but not really together to Slughorn's party made me think JK was trolling the shippers.

No, I think Ron and Hermione was done perfectly well.

The earlier poster who mentioned James/Lily though, theyw were onto something. A lot of people shit on us Snape fans and "what does it say about them that they prefer Snape to James?"

It says we prefer a main character for seven books over somebody whose only demonstrated anything was bullying a kid from an abusive home. Everything else we know of James Potter was just yammered to us by his buddies who are discussing their murdered friend so they are naturally gonna be especially tactful/biased.

Was Dumbledore the only person whoever realized Snape loved Lily? Lily herself nor anyone else who actually knew him figured this out? Dumbledore knew it even back when Snape was a real Death Eater and obviously not on close terms with Dumbledore.

Edited by Nikkolas on Jun 28th 2020 at 6:57:10 AM