Wait, why does he need someone that's a bit of a housewife? Ron himself isn't the most career-minded of people, so why can't he settle down with someone who's willing to work the long shitty hours? Or does making him happy include having him work into his old age instead of fooling around with WWW or whatever brilliant lazy fun he wants to have?

Also since when did Hermione hate Quidditch, or hate the fact that he likes Quidditch? The girl freaking cheated - ahem, helped - to get him on the team. And how does asking someone to display a bit more table manners (honestly, chewing with your mouth open is absolutely disgusting, it takes a bit of practice but it's possible to talk while eating without putting half-chewed food on display) constitute disliking food or a love of food?

 

This is what I don't understand about the shipping wars. Harry's feelings for Ginny appear out of nowhere, but it's perfectly acceptable for Harry to suddenly have a deep love for Hermione appear in two scenes of your random fanfic. The 'romances' in the story are all pretty much forced and adolescent, which is fine. I think people just seem offended by the real life feelings in a fantasy novel.

 

You couldn't possibly be more wrong. There's a whole discussion between Dumbledore and Harry about this in HBP where it is made clear that Harry is fighting Voldemort because he wants to and not because he has to.

So essentially what Ginny said, and a direct contradiction to what you're trying to say. Passive aggressive normality seeking Harry Dursley is entirely fanon.

 

Well you're both right in my view.

Harry doesn't really revel in fighting. Like Eidolonic said, it's not something he wants to do. In GoF Fake-Moody tells Harry he would make a good auror, and it wasn't something he'd thought about before, and even later when he attends his career advisement with McGonagall he's not exactly confident on the matter, but its the only thing he's really thought of.

But outside of all that, and why being an auror is something he would be good at, is the fact that Harry is a very moral person, so when he sees injustice, he stands up for what's right. That's the whole reason he fights because to do otherwise would go against the very grain of his being. He is one of those characters who doesn't want to fight, but will do so when someone crosses that line of right and wrong.

For the record, I've never been a huge of Ron and Hermione's relationship, but then I'm not a fan of any of the canon relationships. You don't meet someone during your teens and have babies happily ever after. Fact of the matter is that as a teenager, your brain is so hopped on the bat-shit crazy chemical experience that is puberty that your romantic entanglements at that point in your life will probably some of the worst ones you have. Because teenaged you is a very different person from the adult you become.

I can understand the appeal of Harry paired with Hermione, but I feel like that's a relationship that would have to happen towards the end or after their schooling, unlike how most fics portray it, which seems to be falling deeply in love within the first three years. And while canonically Rowling let her relationship with Ron culminate in DH, I just feel like the two weren't all that believable. People say opposites attract. People who've been in those kind of relationships disagree.

Though in the end, I think Hermione settling down like she did is unrealistic, at least in her twenties. She gets very passionate about things and has the smarts to see her goals through, but that sort of things takes a lot of time and dedication. Her having kids like she did in canon seems like Rowling just decided to forget about that fact, or more likely it was to end everything on that high note of "they all got married, had kids and lived happily ever after."

TL;DR Hermione doesn't really work with Ron, but I don't really feel like she worked with anyone in canon and dating in your teens isn't anything like dating as an adult.

 

I don't know why people treat relationships like an intersecting grid of character sheets. In my experience they're mostly variations of "I find you attractive, so now I'm going to make up justifications for it". Since when did people have to be perfect for each other to get together and build a life?

Also why are kids such a binary issue? I really don't get what her having kids has to do with her being a career woman, especially since Ron is the semi-retired stay-at-home partner.

 

Yeah, that's pretty much my opinion on the matter also. The canon relationships are just fine, if it wasn't for the epilogue. Until that they are pretty casual and believable schoolyard romances, but then boom, it's nineteen years later and they're married with a couple of kids, with no transition in between.

Really the awfully early marriages and children are a theme all through the series. The Malfoys seem to be the only family in canon that waited until they were at least in their mid twenties before having children.

 

This isn't about Harry reveling in fighting. This is about killing Voldemort. Harry doesn't merely want Voldemort dead; he quite explicitly states that he wants to the job himself. That's not what moral obligation looks like. Moral obligation is Dumbledore sitting in his office, desperately hoping he wouldn't have to confront Grindelwald. He only stepped in when the body count became too high to ignore. That's unwillingness to fight and moral obligation for you. Certainly not Harry saying he would want to finish Voldemort personally regardless of circumstance.

The Hows and whys of the situation are entirely irrelevant. Harry is because he is and he wants to kill Voldemort. Ginny agrees with this, Dumbledore agrees with this, Harry himself agrees with this. So really, I fail to see the issue here.

 

The canon pairings R/Hr and H/G just don't work well. One of the main reason is Ginny being an underdeveloped character. JK had in mind the pairings before the final book was written but I would say the 5th book is when she decided which direction to go. R/Hr ended up together probably because JK wanted the trio to remain close. My opinion is R/Hr would not work as they are people who have very different goals in life. Hermione would want to be the best and succeed after she finished school so a Top level Ministry position is what she would aim at. Ron would more likely go into quidditch and would be willing to use his fame to pass through life with as little effort as possible. Ron would not like to be married to an over achiever and Hermione would not want to settle down with a slacker. Realistically they would have dated but broken up amicably.

 

Have people who think this ever actually met any married couples or

 

Lol. Seriously.

I agree with everything you've said so far.

I'm a lot like Hermione. I'm career driven, decently intelligent, logical, and I want to be successful.

My SO is more like Ron. Hilarious, easy going, more emotional than logical and a bit of a slacker in his career and education.

We work because we balance each other out. I need someone to show me the fun in life when I put the work blinders are; my boyfriend needs someone to light a fire under his butt when he slacks off too much. This pretty much defines Ron's and Hermione's relationship to me.

And for those saying Hermione being career driven means she wouldn't want kids/too early for kids...

A guy can be the house husband. It does not have to be the woman who takes care of the kids. Ron would be an awesome primary parent. We are also talking about a world of magic where spells make everything ten times easier. No cleaning, instantly transportation to work, magical toys to entertain children.

Parenting is probably a piece of cake in the wizarding world.

 

Until the little kids start accidentally blowing shit up, that is.

 

Well in real life opposites do attract because they balance each other. But considering Canon characters, Ron and Hermione do not balance each other. Harry provides the balance, simply because their relation is based around Harry. He is the linchpin of the group. If Ron grew out of his jealousy then there would be a chance for R/Hr.
Remember Ron never liked Hermione when she displayed her Know-It-All behavior and loved to bring her down a few pegs, which is fine if doing it for her sake but doing it out of immaturity is not.

 

When in tarnation has Ron ever "loved to bring Hermione down a few pegs" for her intellect

 

I wonder if you agreed with any of the other points and disagree with this one. In the first three books Ron was mean to Hermione, not always but whenever she quoted from her books or got into a rant. In the latter part of the series it was toned down. Ron never had fights with Hermione due to her intellect but simply because of events that brought out his insecurities. Over the course of seven books there are events that correlate to this but there are times when this does not happen. Bottom line is Ron has a tendency to become angry and jealous when he feels insecure which is the main reason for my saying R/Hr would not work.

 

I'll be clearer. When has Ron ever clashed with Hermione because of her intellect? When has he ever sought to make her seem or feel less intelligent or capable than she is? Seeing as that's the definition of "taking someone down some pegs".

In fact, most of their problems as friends and as a couple stem from him expecting her to know or do more than she can.

 

RonxHermione... hmm.

I don't like the pairing, but I don't hate it either. Simple fact is, the two have nothing in common except Harry.

Think of Harry as the glue that keeps them together, and without the glue, they're just two pieces of paper with nothing to connect them. Okay sure, later on in the series they do arguably have something in common with each other, but their very meeting was very coincidental.

I just don't buy it. Ron discussing Hermione's bossy (to him) behavior at the very same time as Hermione walking by them in the first book, a troll being let in the same day, and never-mind the hours spent in the washroom-stalls by Hermione because of one comment!

Okay, all of this was necessary for the plot to continue, but I don't see any chemistry between those two.

Whatever other people say, I'm sticking with my decision.

 

I'm sure if you dig far enough into the bowels of DLP, you'll find somewhere I've said this before, but . . .

Harry/Ginny is the only pairing for Harry that makes sense. It's part of the very fabric of the story itself. Harry's mirror opposite in the books is not Voldemort, but Snape. The entire backstory and plot revolves around those two. Harry is literally everything Snape isn't, and Snape is everything Harry isn't. Pretty much every major plot-advancing action Harry takes is opposite to a similar action Snape takes in the background story. Even in their deaths in the last book, Snape shows absolute selfishness in using Harry to remember Lily (staring into his eyes), whereas Harry sacrifices himself so everyone else may survive Voldemort's curses.

So, when it comes to women, Snape is in love with a Muggle-born who's Muggle family (that we see in the books) hates wizards. They meet before school even begins, then he loses her friendship between Lily's fifth and sixth year (just after testing in her fifth year), because of his selfishness.

As an opposite, Ginny is a pureblood who comes from a family that has no problem with Muggles. Opposite of Snape and Lily's relationship, Ginny has the unrequited love for Harry as they grow up. Then, in her fifth year, they get together, opposite Snape and Lily. Except, they too split, but not due to Harry's selfinesh and wounded pride, but to his unselfishness and fear she'd get hurt. Compare that to Snape's actions that literally caused Lily to die.

Thus, plotwise, to complete the mirror opposite idea, Harry marries the woman he dates and breaks apart from at the end of her fifth year. Snape loses the woman he wants to date but whose relationship he destroys at the end of their fifth year. There is literally no other person in the book Harry could have ended up with that would have finished off the story of Harry's characterization. He is opposite of all Snape is - a selfish, small-minded wizard whose every choice seems to be out of spite or self-interest.

============

As for Ron and Hermione, Ron's very smart, he just doesn't apply himself. Yet, that even disappears as he grows older, since he made it through 3 years of Auror training.

Also, remember we're reading only from Harry's perspective in the books (except for those few chapters concerning Voldemort, or the very first chapter). What we don't see, but can absolutely assume happened, was Ron and Hermione commisserating in their fifth year when Harry was withdrawing from everyone, in their sixth year when Harry was disappearing with Dumbledore and they were waiting for him, all the summer months when they were together before Harry showed up, time before, during and after Quidditch matches, etc. etc.

Spend that much time with someone, and there's a good chance you'll develop a fondness for them despite any personality flaws on either side. Find the person attractive, and it very well could end up exactly as it did for Hermione and Ron.

On top of all that, we're also given a hint as early as fourth year that they like each other, but just don't know what to do about it (Yule Ball).

 

Is that canon? I thought there was only some interview where Rowling said that Ron got straight in to the Auror department without even finishing Hogwarts.

I think the biggest weakness with Ron/Hermione is what happens after the war. Ron basically has at least three shortcuts to choose from: he can become an auror by invitation, he could decide to go for professional quidditch or he might join with his brother in the joke shop. Hermione, on the other hand, seems likely to go back to Hogwarts to get her NEWTs, and then seek for further education. Despite the examples to contrary, Hermione is still pretty much by the book person, who's likely to frown at using shortcuts.

So that's at least a couple of years of separation from Ron, and the likelihood that she could find other friends with more similar interests/personality is pretty high.

Ron/Hermione makes perfect sense at school, not so much after. Similarly Harry/Hermione makes no sense at school, but might work just fine after.