To still be annoyed that Hermione married Ron?

[ThomasRichard]

I know, the last book came out years ago, but I’m re-reading them now with DS and it’s got me annoyed all over again. He’s a mediocre, sulky man-child, while she’s a brilliantly talented witch. Why would she ever marry him?!

Hermione's race might be retconning, but Dumbledore's sexuality isn't. I'm a bit younger than the average MNer and so read book 7 as a 16 year old who'd just fallen in love, and Dumbledore's letter to Grindelwald (quoted by Rita Skeeter in her biography) read very clearly indeed to me as a love letter at the time.

Ahem

I dislike Mnetters speculating on my marriage. It doesn’t seem in the spirit of a parenting site, and I’m going to ask for this thread to be deleted.

I think Hermione is a gifted person who needed someone (a) to make her comfortable in her own skin and (b) who makes her laugh and (c) that she can be not crotchety with. I don't feel that Ron is that person. He could be (a) but he definitely would not be (b) or (c)

And Harry marrying Ginny? That's bonkers he should clearly have married Luna.

I feel that Hermione will have an affair with the Bulgarian (sorry can't remember his name) and then she will be full of remorse and leave Ron and find a wizarding superstar who will make her laugh

Harry will get bored with Ginny but stay with her regardless because he loves his PIL and his DC. He will have an allotment and make jam.

Meanwhile Hermione gets to rule the wizarding world and she definitely sorts out the house-elves thing and abolishes slavery and the wizarding world venerates her forever.

I was 7 when the first book came out (though I didn’t start reading them until I was 9) so I grew up with the characters. I ALWAYS wanted Hermione and Ron to get together - and wrote extensive fanfiction around the relationship I do see now, as an adult, how they might not work but I really do think they balance each other well. She can relax and be herself around him, and she pushes him to be better.

I can’t really comment on Harry’s relationship as I personally spend a lot of time reading (and writing) porn romantic fanfiction featuring Harry and Draco

Hermione

Uncanny, The Problem With Purity is my most beloved fan fiction of all time, @IAmWhoYouSayIAm! I've read it so much it's pretty much canon in my head, and I'm happy with that

Never liked either of the pairings.

They were all so young and I think generally people outgrow their 17yr old sweetheart. I like to think they just fizzled out and stayed good friends. I imagine Hermione becoming an environment activist for wizards and maybe marrying an acedemic to challenge themselves. Likely a ravenclaw.

I imagined Ron going to work in the joke shop with George. Weirdly I somehow saw him with Angelica Fred’s ex.

Hated Harry and Ginny together. Just felt like they were too brother and sister and he was only with her as he was desperate for a family. I also thought him and Luna were a much better pair.

I am so over invested here!

Placemarking for when I can enjoy hangover free tomorrow

I think it works to be honest.

Often you don't marry your mirror image.

They grew up together and gradually fell for each other. I find that kind of love is long lasting and adaptable and stands the rest of time.

Hermione lets go a little with Ron and Ron becomes a little softer with Hermione.

It's just a weird mix that works.

I don't see Harry and Ginny though. Even in the books it seems so rushed and all of a sudden - no real chemistry.

I do think Luna and Neville could've been a nice marriage. Perhaps even Draco and Luna (odd pairing I know but deep down Draco just wants to be loved and so does Luna).

Ginny I imagine having a girlfriend, perhaps Lavender.

Harry I don't know who I see him with tone honest. A nice Muggle woman I think who is kind but also strong willed. A mix of Molly and Hermione.

So did Harry and Ginny not give sny of their DC the name "Fred" anywhere? They name their DC after his dead Dad, his dead Mum, his dead Godfather, their dead Headmaster and the dead guy his Dad bullied, but no look in for her dead brother who was also a good friend to him?

Umm BalloonSlayer that is probably because Fred Weasley II was already taken as George named his son with Angelina Johnson that. As his twin you imagine it was his to do so

Yes to Harry and Luna. Ginny just made no sense at all and it seemed just so random

After posting about the slash site, just been on there and read an interesting one about Lupin and Snape

Ginny just made no sense at all

Ginny idolised him from a young age! So made total sense.

If I'd been Harry I'd have certainly married Luna. Her offbeat quirks are hot, and Harry would enjoy looking after her.

Just the same, I can see why Harry & Ginny work, as Harry seems happy to settle down and become a sort of suburban CamryWizard.

Ron and Hermione though? No. Too obvious what will happen. He will carry on irritating her, she'll regularly tear a strip off him, which he'll endure stoically for some years before suddenly upping and leaving. Hermione will spiral into a crisis and end up having a long-running sporadic affair with Goyle, which becomes public and ruins her campaign to become Minister of Magic.

Ron will spend all his time propping up the bar of the Leaky Cauldron and develop a large Butterbeer gut, and he will moan to all who will listen about all matters under the sun. In fact, he'll become a colossal bore. Harry and Ginny will have him over for Christmas out of a sense of sheer loyalty.

They won't have had any children because Ron suffers from lack of libido due to too much Veela porn.

Harry and Ginny definitely work. Ginny is “in love” with him from day one, or at least has a crush that grows, and she’s a very clever feisty witch. With the long red hair and the refusal to take any shit later in the books, there are some similarities between her and the glimpses we get of Lily Potter (how much would we love a proper prequel?!).

Ron and Hermione.... I didn’t question it when reading it, only when others did, esp JKR. So I guess that means it works for me!

In the wizarding world it does seem the norm to marry your childhood sweetheart and to marry quite young. Harry’s parents were married at 18/19 and Lily would have been 19 when she was pregnant with Harry.

So I don’t think it’s unrealistic for the main characters to be together purely based on the fact they all met so young. The wizarding world seems to have a different attitude to sex/relationships than the muggle world.

"But ron was whiny in the 7th book for a reason."

Ron was whiny from the start. Always feeling sorry for himself (why? he's got a stable home, everything he needs), making Harry, who's never had any of that to feel guilty and apologetic, making his lovely mum feel guilty and apologetic. Fred and George presumably had to cope with almost as many hand-me-downs but you don't catch them whining.

And yet, there is no goings-on in the dorms. That's even harder to understand. Has JKL ever been asked how Hogwarts prevented it?

The boys can’t enter the girls’ dorms, the stairs turn into a slide.

They are great counterparts and they had a thing from day one

And vice versa?

Is that in the books or is it apocryphal?

Yes!! Thank you! I've said this forever and everyone I know just does this face confused
Brilliant. Just brilliant. Snape is my favourite character, books and films. RIP Alan Rickman, the only one who could do him justice and the best bit of casting in the whole series.

LOL. It honestly only hit me during my current re-read through when I was reading Sorcerers Stone. Why is he telling Draco that his potion is perfect when the other students could clearly see it wasn't. I was like, Dammit, that devious bastard is just floating them through! Voldemort will end up with a bunch of soldiers who can't even brew a simple cure for boils properly.

Arguably, not teaching kids properly because you think know they'll grow up to be just like their parents is just as bad as his "bullying", if not worse. But it's totally in character.

Also, if JK Rowling didn't want Snape to a sympathetic character, why did she cast Alan Rickman? The man who made the Sheriff of Nottingham sexy and relatable. Why did she coach him to play the part the way she did. She's got a bit of a weird relationship with that character.

In the wizarding world it does seem the norm to marry your childhood sweetheart and to marry quite young. Harry’s parents were married at 18/19 and Lily would have been 19 when she was pregnant with Harry.

Molly does say in OOTP that there was a massive spat of elopements during the first wizarding war. She and Arthur eloped as well. That generation is supposed to be similar to the generation that was young during WWII (my grandparents), you met and married and got knocked up in a matter of months because you couldn't be sure you wouldn't be dead tomorrow.

This is why I'd love the story re-told from an adults point of view. I don't think the scale of the war quite comes across from Harry's point of view (nor should it).