Relationship plot elements I enjoy are:

- Harry/Hermione friends-with-benefits arrangements/teen exploration moments which do not lead to romance.

- Harry/Pansy post-Hogwarts flings where they can't really stand each other but in a moment of weakness give in to a mutual attraction. Again, should not lead to romance.

- Asymmetric Harry/Fleur where she isn't interested in Harry romantically but is casual enough about sexuality that she's rather open with him, further feeding a rather doomed crush.

- Harry/Muggle girl one night stand in the summer between Hogwarts years.

- Harry/Ginny where the relationship is treated as a teen romance not a countdown to their inevitable marriage. Basically the relationship should be adventurous and fun rather than sappy and comfortable.

 

But… What about True Love????2?

 

There is no true love anymore. Hasn't anyone ever told you that by now? It's all about sex, other forms of debauchery, and sex changes these days.

 

I actually had a thought the other day about a Temporal Beacon style time travel fic where Harry and Hermione aren't romantically interested in eachother but have a thing going because of all the timetravel making a real relationships with others near impossible.

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I was thinking to make it as dysfunctional as possible have them thinking of eachother as siblings but still doing it because they have no one else they can connect with.

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Temporal Beacon was such a waste of a good concept.

 

I truly like any Harry/Slytherin except slash. I just can't see Harry with his mortal enemy as humping buddies *yuck*. Harry and Fleur would make a very interesting couple. Except it seems on FFN that it's all rediculous 'soul bond' stuff and I can't seem to find a very good fic between the two of them. Harry and Hermione is ok not a favorite of mime but I'll read it if I ever get bored.

 

Honestly, I'm not a big fan of Canon Pairings. Feels a little wrong when you go back and realise that Ginny was virtually his stalker. As for anything else, as long as it's written well, it's good in my book.

 

There was a post on reddit a while back about the importance of pairings in HP fanfiction. In it a popular opinion is that the pairing defines the plot.

Harry/Hermione tends to be about canon done 'right' People often think Hermione 'deserves' better than Ron. Harry is the hero and for some people Hermione is the heroine rather than the side kick.

Harry/Susan Bones tends to be a competent ministry using Amelia Bones. It often features a large amount of warm fuzzies, 'cos you know, hufflepuffs and shizzle.

Harry/Fleur, Super Harry gets with the Super hot babe. Everything is bigger and more dramatic.

Harry/Daphne/Generic Slytherin. Either a more 'cunning' or dark/amoral Harry works to bring down Voldemort doing things that canon Harry would never do. OR She's basically used for her pureblood heritage to explore the wizarding world a bit more. She can take the story outside of Hogwarts more effectively than a lot of other characters.

Harry/Gabi D A slightly broken Harry jaded from the war meets a breath of fresh air.

Harry/Romilda tends to be Smut and little more.

Harry/Pansy I don't even know but the potential tension makes it interesting even if I doubt it has any substance.

Harry/Astoria Greengrass. The author probably just hates Draco and doesn't want him to have anything good in his life.

Harry/Ginny. Meh, tends to be sane. Often a bit too sane and sensible for an exciting fic. Then there are the slightly creepy time travel ones where they're destined to be together from age 12 and live happily ever after.


With that in mind, I prefer Harry/Daphne and Harry/Gabi. I have read too many Harry vs Voldemort fanfictions. I'm more into the magic of the Harry Potter world and want more post Hogwarts stuff. Harry/Ginny stuff tends to be too safe, to much on happiness and home-building which is heart warming but easily dull. I want to explore whats out there rather than read a hundred and one ways Harry blasts Voldemort. Give me a Harry who goes traveling to recover from the war. Give me a tired and fed up Harry who just wants some peace and quiet, or give me a Harry who gets bored, his whole life has been one adventure after another, give me a Harry who wants to get out there and do crazy stuff.

 

Funny you say that, because I was one of these. I never "shipped" (urgh) anyone, but I always assumed Harry and Hermione were a thing.

In hindsight, I just had limited interactions with girls my age, and it was hard to differentiate between the two. I genuinely thought that falling in love was something you did with a friend? :fire

Oh well. Glad I'm past that, but it did make for some confusing times.

 

This right here is why I feel like there's so many stories that are utterly shit. Everyone is guilty of it, including myself. Like, the first thing I do when starting a plot for a new story is to write the pairing. And honestly, how many great stories evolve from that? Not many. Denarian Trilogy, Wastelands of Time, By the Divining Light, Harry Potter and the Boy Who Lived, those are all plot first, pairing a distant sixth.

A pairing shouldn't define the plot, it should just be part of the plot. And, if it's not a romance story, then it should just be a minor part of the plot, if at all. Otherwise, you wind up with a hundred identical Harry/Fleur fourth year fics, and a thousand sixth year political!Harry/Daphne fics.

 

Falling in love with a friend is not only okay, but if it is mutual, perhaps the best way to go.

The problem with Harry/Hermione is she is set up as his sister from book 1. Their interactions (at least IMO) are always that of a brother and sister. Moreover, it's why (again, IMO) Cho couldn't understand their relationship and didn't believe it existed without any boy/girl tension.

 

I've always wanted a fic that adds onto canon and gives us the story of Bill/Fleur.

It pretty much just happens offscreen so that's something I would be interested in.

 

Indeed, but I had trouble differentiating the two.

At the time, it seemed like romantic feelings were the only natural consequence to being very close to someone of the opposite sex. Having attended an all boys school, my interactions with girls were limited, and it was easy to misconstrue things.

I can't speak for others, but I am/have been marginally attracted to some of my female friends (and vice versa, some more than others). Given the right set of circumstances, things could escalate. It likely won't be for the best, but the possibility remains.

However, that's still very different to someone I'd actually consider dating. That would require being a lot more than just "marginally attracted". And I only figured it out after....well, after I met such girls and dated some of them.

Incidentally, Harry never really got to figure that stuff out. There was the whole Cho debacle (it's been about ten years since I read it, but I remember a lot of crying?), and then a happily ever after with the next one.

Anyway, hope that's clearer than my initial post.

 

Certainly at 11 Ginny had more of a crush on Boy-Who-Lived than Harry himself and was rather starstruck by him but I'm not sure how that equates to stalker. Are you confusing her with Colin?

 

I think the reason I used to shipped Harry & Hermione so hard (still sort of do to an extent) was because I never had that sort of relationship with my sisters. We got along sure but Harry and Hermione were best friends. Also, seeing the movies made me see some subtext that wasn't there on the books.

 

Would you say the filters system on FFnet is in anyway responsible for this? Without Scryer there is no good way to search and so pairings become the outlet.

 

I'd like to see more Harry/Andromeda raising Teddy together.

 

I don't have any sisters, and I don't think Harry's use of the word "sister" to describe Hermione matters in this case. Their relationship was always extremely platonic, Harry hardly showed any interest in her (certainly showed more interest in Ron), and at times seemed to be very annoyed by her. I really can't understand what people find between them, but my guess is that people go with the route of "Hermione is the most important female character, so of course she'll end up with the hero".

 

People also don't remember canon Hermione, and go either with fanon one, movie one, or Emma Watson.

 

Thing is that most people writing fanfiction don't know the source material well. The only real reason Harry/Hermione is so popular is because they find Emma Watson hot. That's it. The same reasoning goes for Harry's height. Daniel Radcliffe's short, ergo, Harry Potter is short in most fics (justified by having Harry be abused by the Dursleys). It's the movies that are the cause of most horrible fics out there.

 

Lolwat? Oh my sweet summer child. Given your age, I'm assuming you weren't a part of the fandom until at least mid to late 2000s.

Harmony was THE ship in the years before Goblet was published and new female chars were introduced. H/G was the only ship that came even moderately close in terms of popularity/size, and the H/G following wasn't anywhere near as die hard. You probably don't remember the massive multi-year shitfit that the Harmonians threw when Harry began showing romantic interest in characters not named Hermione. Dozens of fan communities fucking imploded due to ship arguments.

And even after goblet, with the rise of Harry/Cho and Harry/Fleur, Harmony was still arguably the top dog. And this was all long before Emma Watson "got hot".