Quite apart from her being 17 while Harry is 14 in GoT, they just never struck me as having anything other than a brief and relatively shallow platonic relationship. Harry’s actually one of the few boy characters we see who’s pretty much completely uninterested in Fleur romantically.

 

Some strange people like to pair Harry with characters who never received a description, let alone any lines, so pairing him with the hot older foreign student is to be expected.

 

Yes.

 

I think you describe yourself why it can be a good pairing, if somewhat indirectly. Fleur is one of those characters who has a cool, interesting basic premise and isn't really 'on screen' enough to have her whole personality and backstory fleshed out. This means fanfic writers can rock up and write her character with a lot of liberties without outright contradicting canon. Basically a really snazzy blank canvas that can be taken in a lot of directions, made interesting in different ways.



Also she's hot. So, like, it's hot, ya feel?

 

Canonically, no. She pretty much stood as antithetical to Harry since she was introduced - with her very extroverted, pompous personality - and while their relations are cordial, their personalities are incompatible (inb4 opposites attract).

In fanfiction, well, I personally don't read any H/F stories. I've tried, but I just can't stand them. Her personality is just too two dimensional and boring, even when it's elaborated. Half the time she feels like a trophy wife.

 

All pairings are equally bad.

 

It's a tricky age-gap to work with, to be sure, and honestly the only way I'm usually able to really accept Harry/Fleur while at school is by aging Harry up in my mind, at least when it comes to played-straight 4th year fluff. My preference for the pairing is usually for it to happen later. Either later in Hogwarts, or actually post-Hogwarts. This is fine, as I kinda prefer more grown-up versions of Harry anyway (hence my willingness to age him up in-head for 4th year fics).

And really, once you get into post-Hogwarts, pretty much any pairing can work and Fleur provides a nice enough starting point. In that situation, the way her character contrasts with Harry is actually a boon. It gives you avenues for character growth that can be closely associated with the advancement of any romance. Characters like Hermione and Ginny are often quite boring as post-Hogwarts romance options because they already kinda work. They, Harry and Ginny/Hermione, don't need to develop much to become people capable of falling in love with each other, which makes them static and boring (to my mind, anyway). Fleur falls into a nice spot of being not enemies, being cordial, or even friends, but not having a romantic spark.

It lets the story develop the spark and that's what I usually look for in a romance: the growth towards a relationship, rather than a simple *boom* they're together now. Look how happy they are!

 

I'm with Steelbadger. I do think that there's some interesting personality clash between Harry and Fleur that can be used to make for good chemistry if played right (i.e. keeping her close to her high-maintenance, judgmental, arrogant yet kind, passionate and talented canon self instead of turning her into a Veela Stepford Wife).

However:

- During Hogwarts, the age gap is simply insurmountable for me. As of GoF, Fleur is pretty much a grown woman, but Harry is very much still a boy. She's so ahead of him in maturity that the mental image of them together is more comical than romantic.

- After Hogwarts, she's already with Bill and navigating infidelity without destroying her and Harry's characters is almost impossible.

So it can only really work in an AU, I think.

 

Is it time again?

2016

2015

 

Yes.

Next question.