Allright, in my opinion and apparently also J.K.s (Quote: "anvil sized hints"), Ron and Hermione will end up together. I've heard Hermione/Harry shippers come up with some interesting responses, as well as some other people who simply detest the idea of Ron/Hermione.

Personally I thought it was obvious from the beginning and sort of like the idea, (it's rather cute) - I admit I deviated for a while and became an annoying pesk of a Hermione/Draco shipper - however that was when I was about 12 and so I think I can be excused.

Now, opinions, thought...anyone else think it was obvious since book one?

NOTE: I meant to add another option to the poll and messed up - I'm sorry to anyone who would have chosen the "No Way!" option that I had planned.

Fixed. Just remember to use the edit button next time, ok? You can change your own posts, just not others. It's right next to the quote button, on your posts only. - Sree

 

Erm... Actually I disagree with this ship. I am all for opposites attracting and fighting = flirting...

But Ron is borderline retarded in canon, lazy, whiny, and a pretty shitty friend.

Hermione meanwhile is top 10 in the class, highly motivated, and a good friend.

I can see them dating... Even marrying... But then I see them as the couple that had the bitter divorce that had divorce proceedings that lasted longer than the marraige itself.

 

nyeh.
It was always going to happen wasnt it.
I dont know, I think sure, they will get together and to be honest Im a bit indifferent towards it but I also think that it will end with Ron doing something typically...Ronnish?

 

I didn't expect this at all, and I think Rowling's 'anvil-sized hints' are a load of bollocks.
There is a difference between two people arguing and having sexual tension and two people arguing because their personalities simply clash terribly. Guess which one Ron/Hermione is. In real life they would never be able to have a proper relationship. It's clear Rowling doesn't know the first thing about reality.

 

I think they deserve each other.
Plus pairing them gets rid of both of them for atleast 30 chapters.

 

The reason this can never happen is because simply, I dont think Hermione's going to lower her standards to a retard like Ron.

 

it was obvious from book 1 that either it'd be H/Hr or R/Hr and the loser would be bitter and pissy. Judging by how backseated and effing stupid Ron is always written as, and how annoying Hermione is, I'd honestly wish that Hr+Ron+Avada threesome pairing were obvious.

 

Wow - Lots of character hating I see...

Okay - Well Hr/H ...I'm sorry but that was impossible from the start in my opinion. Also I rather like Ron and Hermione as characters...also in my experiance from real life, relationships like R/Hr last way longer than say relationships like...H/G - I mean don't get me wrong H/G makes sense but couples that in love...well they get married and stay married desperately clinging to that love that was there once but isn't anymore.

Also yes there were "anvil sized hints" pretending they don't exisit because your in denial will do you no good in my opinion. H/Hr wasn't any more possible than H/D - Sure ship it, love it, read it constantly - just don't pretend there was anything about it in the books please, that seems rather immature to me.

So to close this particular response off, I really actually am rather fond of the whole R/Hr ship, and I think J.K. is doing a really good job.

 

Actually, after reading Darks post, I agree, this has been discussed to death.

 

I only added it because I didn't see it on the page...it's interesting how much hate people can pour into fictional characters...rather funny to be honest.

 

Which is why we have a Canon argument for Harry/Draco being Unresolved Sexual Tension *shudders*

 

Couples ppl love, couples ppl hate, various other topics where this has been hijacked into.

 

Ouch Xiph0, ouch. Play nice, .

Ok here's the thing, maybe Hr/Ron makes sense if you are willing to accept everything Rowling says, no questions asked, but a little common sense really smashes the whole thing.

And to reiterate what everyone has said, Ron is RETARDED, like seriously retarded. It's the 6th book and he (IMHO) HAS not grown very little if at all. Just dating him would drop Hermione's IQ by like 50%, which is like 1500% higher than what Ron could ever hope to achieve. As for long lasting, give me a break. Ok, realistically, a girl with some intelligence just don't go for dumb guys!!! Two female college friends and I were talking about this just a month ago. Of all the conditions they talked about, the one condition they were very clear about was that they wanted guys who were smarter than them or at LEAST as smart as them.

Ok, so Ron supporters will say that he'll ''grow up" to compliment Hermione, my question is when? I'm not raising my evulation of that moron based on what he could be. Does it make sense for Hermione to wait for Ron to do that. No way, Hermione's not that stupid! (This entire problem was brilliantly covered, I think, by Jeconais's H/Hr work.)

Btw, a lot of us here probably aren't even H/Hr shipeprs so pulling a H/Hr isn't very realistic curveball doesn't do anything other than to make us suspect the weakness of your entire R/Hr argument. And as a personal note, I write Hr together with Ron because it's easier for me to lump them together so Harry can tell them both to screw off at the same time... that's all. If I feel sympathetic for Hermione, I would have her ditch Ron at some point or maybe, MAYBE, make Ron grow up.

 

Heh. Been a while since I've been here, and glad to be back. As this is one of the subjects that I've actually had the priveledge to write on (yes, you can do an english degree JUST to write on HP! The ultimate in job slackdom!), I figured I'd weigh in. Though I'm in academia-mode, please feel free to rip this post apart if you don't agree. I ask that you do keep the ad hominem attacks (ie, your mother was a whore and your father smells of elderberries), regardless if they're true, to a minimum. Scholarly, folks; flames are great, but I'm offering you my opinion on those terms.

The whole 'shipping wars/debates are laced with ad hominems flying around the place. It's the first sign that nothing is going to come out well when someone accuses someone of being a NAZI just because they think that Ron/Hermione work together. I'm not saying, of course, that this falls on all H/Hr shippers - that's far removed from the truth, and both sides of the war would have people be hung for war crimes if it came to council. This doesn't make for a very useful set of arguments.

That being said, the Potter series are also bringing in a new kind of paradigm; never really has a series sparked interest on so broad a level - Tolkien, by comparison, although an absolute genius, and although certainly selling a hell of a lot of books never really had the gigantic fanbase be around to debate and yell at each other. As such, it's kind of a harrowing thing to comment on such a controversial topic - especially one that every man and his dog seem to have an opinion on.

A big problem is that in a series that's fraught with uncertainty - and by that, I mean that rarely is something as it seems - it's very hard to have definitive proof on anything. One cannot conclude that Harry and Ginny are a perfect couple and have been written so from the start because this largely falls into the category of liberal interpretation. In a series that is, as mentioned, rich with incertitude, you can't really cite canon proof that is definitive until the last book is out, and be sure of everything that happens (and IF it so happens that we are removed of all doubt - by which I mean complete catharsis, only then may we be sure). Just as we may examine Hamlet's actions in III,ii-iv and conclude that Hamlet deliberately killed Polonius, knowing full well it was him, we may examine Harry Potter and decide that Hermione and Draco were the most likely couple in the book - but because we do not have definitive proof (which is not to say we don't have proof, just not definitive) we cannot make definitive assertions on the perfectness of their relationships.

That being said, the crux of the issue is thusly that who is perfect with who is entirely up to self-interpretation of text and not literal interpretation, for reasons previously mentioned. If you feel skeptical, ask yourself this - do you think a person who has suffered through an abortion feels the same way about a movie that deals with the topic that a regular schmo off the street? Think about Hermione. Do people who are slightly nerdy not occasionally wish that the hero would look past their bookish exterior and take them as their lover? The interpretation of the romances in the books are entirely based off the sum of all parts of a person - experiences, morality, imagination, even own personal preferences.

Perhaps this is why the Harry/Hermione shippers reacted so violently to the MN/LC interview (which, as I know, is currently being referred to as 'the-interview-that-must-not-be-named' in several circles) - it's enough to be proven wrong in a series you're emotionally invested in - but the insult of being delusional because of the sum of their personhood was not in accordance to what JKR wrote was, I'm sure, painful. However, were there anvil-sized hints that Hermione and Ron would eventually partner each other romantically? Yes.

However, our opinions diverge at that point. I'm afraid I can't see anything as impossible in the HP universe. To paraphrase Ginny in OOTP, 'nothing is impossible if you have enough nerve.' The Yule Ball. The unresolved sexual tension. The confunding and various other things? Yes. Anvil-sized? Yes. Danger of tripping over them? Yes.

That being said, consider Hermione and Harry, for example. The prefect reaction. Showing up at Grimmauld instead of going on a ski trip because Harry was upset and knowing matter-of-factly that he was upset. Harry's reaction to Hermione's injury in the department of Mysteries. There are just as many anvils as anything else. There are counterarguments to them all. Ron treats Hermione like a piece of shit during the ball - of course she's upset at him, she's going to yell at him. The prefect reaction - it's fairly commonly thought that Harry was a 'shoe-in', as Fred and George Weasley point out; why should therefore Hermione's reaction to Ron as a prefect be unexpected? Anvil-sized? Yes. Danger of tripping over them? Yes. Suitable counterpoint to them all? Yes.

Forgive me in advance for my transgressions (for great they will be) - but I must simply take the time to roast.

Excuse my frankness, but somewhere you seem to have gotten the definition of maturity shoved up the wrong ass. Beyond the little cells that are high-school and elementary, we big people like to debate issues. It's the principle that societal improvement is based around, actually - critical thinking. If I am immature because I see something and it is not there - it strikes me first that I am being overly perceptive and perhaps looking more deeply than you are. I am not certifiably insane, or in denial - I just refuse to close my mind to honest commentary. Opinions are fine - here, have some - but the minute you start to insult people and their right to opinions because they have different opinions on a very valid topic, you run the risk of being called on being the grotty little wanker you are.

Is there character hating here? Yes! Of fucking course there is! DLP is not one of these 'omg i luv jkrowling cuz shes amazing and i want to have her babez!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111!!!!!!oneoneeleven!!!!!' sites. It is a site where (so far), I have found various opinions that I may debate fairly with other people and receive no animosity for the opinions I have. I seem to remember getting into a spirited debate over Aunt Petunia's character with Burt. And I think he's a freaking amazing guy because he challenges my opinion and makes me think twice about it! The admins and the mods do a bang up job keeping people in line so that this can continue, and by insulting those who think differently you do, you tarnish the board's and the staff's reputations.

Speaking as an extremely young published author, on a genre he has admittedly not been studying for a long time (I admit my own amateur status), I do agree with you that Harry and Ginny were obvious from the start, despite of my own feelings about the relationship. The alchemical symbolism (if indeed it exists and is not a bunch of coincidences, albeit resembling this impression very closely) revolves around Ron/Hermione (although it could easily be transferable to Bill and Fleur), and in terms of fantasy, the-princess-rescued-from-the-dragon always gets the hero. Does that mean that there was never a chance of Hermione and Harry, or of Draco and Harry? No!

You disrespect the fundamental principle again. Not everyone has the same opinions as you, and to express them differently does not necessitate them inferior. Suppose JKR really enjoyed male/male action, and threw us Cho to show us how confusing life can be for individuals going through a period of questioned sexuality! Suppose JKR showed us the Ginny romance because she wanted to make a distinction between HBP being the easy and the next book being the right? What if it's really been a dream all along, and Harry is James Potter dreaming on the night of his wife's delivery? Goddamnit, we don't know JKR's mind, and we CANNOT accurately predict whether or not she is going to do something! To say that something is not possible is to make it impossible by quashing all suggestions to the otherwise!

I am forced to drag out the standard argument about dissention. Let's look at the Church of Tarawen, whose position is that the world is flat. Now let's look at lovely young Copernicus, who thinks the world is round. I'm not even going to continue with this explanation. I hope to God that you posess enough capability for critical thought that something goes *sproink* inside your head. If you pass off this rant as being the result of me not shipping R/Hr or H/G, please inform me, and I shall begin praying for humanity. If you want to hold an opinion about the shipping wars, fine; I don't have a problem with that. If you have an opinion about having opinions, hold onto that thought real tightly, and then share it with the orderly who pushes your wheelchair around when you're 100.

There are anvil-sized hints. Was it inherently obvious that Ron and Hermione were star-crossed lovers? Fuck no. To paraphrase Fudge, 'The problem, [Tarawen], is that the other side have wands too.' There are hints that Harry and Hermione would get together. There are validly interpretable hints that Draco and Harry would get together. Hell, if you wanted to enough, I'm sure you could make a case for Snape and the Giant Squid. I don't dislike Ron that much - although I have admittedly spent my life trying to fix the problems caused by idiotic and narrow-minded asswholes - I think he serves his purpose admirably. I don't dislike Hermione as a character; in fact, of all the characters, I probably identify with her the most, but I am not nearly as pretentious as required to say that they were destined.

A final reminder - if you want to raise an example as you did, you need to use canon proof to back it up, not interviews. What is said in interviews, although applicable, are not valid points of argument, unless you are debating JKR's thoughts on the issue. Canon deals with anything that has been deliberately stated in the book, not in the flaps, not in reviews, not in interviews. JKR can say anything she want in an interview, but if you want to discuss an ambitious topic such as the likelihood of relationships in the book, you'd better stick to the book, boyo.

On a closing note - if you want non-canon validation that H/G was meant to be from the start, go check out JKR's website. You can see a chapter plan of OOTP as one of the bonuses, and it's indicated as such there. See above paragraph before you respond to that particular non-canon source.

 

I'm sorry Hr/R was a tad hard for me to swallow. As hard as H/G in Canon. Their personalities clash so much that its not even funny. And about couples that argue a lot being the best... I don't think so. I knew one like that and they were always angry with each other or miserable.

I really think Won-Won and Lav-Lav would have made much more sense, as teen romances go. That and I really really thought that it would be Hr/H from the other books. The two at least respects each other to a greater extent than R/Hr. Plus their personalities are more easily aligned. That’s why H/G in the Book-That-Should-Not-Exist came as a complete disappointment. Bat out of left field curving through the center.

But of course that doesn’t matter to JKR. After all, love conquers all.

 

Personally, I don't see what the big deal is with who is paired with who in the books. I mean, they're all still in school, they're teenagers, and their hormonal levels are bouncing around more than a pair of kangaroos in mating season. If you think about it seriously, looking five or ten years after the final book, If Harry is still alive after his confrontation with Voldie, how many people really believe that he will still be with Ginny? Or Ron still with Hermione? I'd be willing to bet on 'not many'.

To be honest, I picture Harry as the magical world's equivelant to Hugh Hefner; only younger, and able to get it up all of the time. Ron will be dead in the gutter outside of a dingy pub in Knockturn Alley, after shooting off at the mouth one too many times. Hermione will most likely become an Unspeakable, working on the fusion of magic and technology, while dating one of her female co-workers, and Ginny will be a five knut whore across the street from her brother's corpse. Well, that's what I want to see, anyway.

Getting back on topic, it is highly unrealistic to believe that two people who are dating while still in school, will end up spending the rest of their lives together. I must admit that I've known quite a number of people who have broken up during the first week after they graduated from school. But, let's face it, even if Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione is the direction that JK is headed in the books, there is no logical evidence that she would even consider the whole soulmate bullshit that some psychotic fangirls like to write about. Finally, allow me to re-iterate: THEY'RE TEENAGERS! Thank you.

 

Ron/Hermione is my favourite pairing.

Since I dislike them both, there's nothing better then seeing them two hook up and spending all the time snooging in some cupboard, so that:
1) Harry could do things on his own for once
2) Harry could meet other interesting but overlooked people at Hogwarts
3) Harry could hook up with some interesting girl (not Ginny!)

So, let them have it, I say. They deserve each other.