Closeness of Their Friendship

[plinsenmayer]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C7193
From: plinsenmayer
Subject: Closeness of Their Friendship
Date: 8/18/00 3:11 pm  (ET)

Hi:

Doriane questioned the strength of the friendships among H, H & R. That's
an interesting take on it Doriane. Personally, I've never seen anything
but evidence that they have very close friendships in all directions.
They have their squabbles & disagreements, but that's normal.

<<<I felt very sad for Hermione in PoA when Harry and Ron let her down
just because her cat had presumably eaten Ron's rat>>>

Well, Harry makes an effort to patch things up between Ron & Hermione
on several occasions. Plus, Harry did try to make Hermione see reason &
at least admit it was *possible* that Crookshanks ate Scabbers. She was
stubborn & brought most of her isolation on herself. All of this struck
me as typical behavior for 13 yr olds.

<<<And then I read GoF and wham ! It's Ron that's letting Harry down, just
because he's a (great) bit jealous and without caring to ask himself a
few useful questions ("Would Harry really want to enter the Tournament
?" or "Would he do it without telling me ?").>>>

Well, as glad as I was to see it end, I thought it was a bit weird that
Harry & Ron had never argued or disagreed before. And, I think Ron's
jealousy & ambition will play a larger role in the books to come. I don't
think we've seen the last of the bad side of Ron (or Harry or Hermione
either for that matter).

I think these arguments & problems flesh out the characters -- they
wouldn't seem very real to me if everything was just hunky-dory with
the 3 of them all the time. But, that doesn't mean they aren't the
closest of friends. It just means they have normal ups & downs within
the relationships. The strength of their friendship is perhaps best
evidenced by the fact that they can have these problems & arguments &
still lean on each other when it really counts.

IMO, they've been through a hell of alot together to just characterize
them as "happenstance" friends. They have arguments, and it seems that
they are all 3 a bit stubborn. That's a perfectly normal personality trait
though. All in all, I think their relationship seems very very close.

Penny