Farmer in the Dell

[plinsenmayer]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C7536
From: plinsenmayer
Subject: Re: Farmer in the Dell
Reply To: [Yahoo! #7528] Re: Farmer in the Dell
Date: 8/22/00 11:59 am  (ET)

Me again (she says sheepishly) --

<<<OTOH, part of the reason is that Harry was acting less the usual
churlish adolescent male oaf than Ron was.>>>

I think that's the real clue to your first statements -- why she directs
her anger at Ron, rather than at Harry or at them both. I think Ron's
comments about getting the best-looking girl to go with him do piss her
off. But, I don't believe she's mad because she wishes he had asked her
-- I think she's just mad in a feminist sort of way (doesn't believe
women should be valued solely for their looks). That's my impression
anyway. Harry doesn't make the same generally offensive comments so her
anger gets directed strictly at Ron.

As for the "You should have asked me first" argument -- the fundamental
problem, IMO, is that we're in Harry's POV so we don't know exactly
what Ron said to her right before Harry climbed through the portrait
hole into the common room. His comments at the ball, however, were more
that he thought she was betraying Harry & Hogwarts by going with Krum.

If Ron said -- "Hey! I did ask you -- why didn't you just go with me?",
then her response *would* support the idea that she likes him back &
wishes he'd asked her. On the other hand, if what Ron said was more like
what he told her at the ball "I can't believe you went with Krum. You
were betraying Hogwarts, and Harry in particular, by going with him!,"
then her response takes on a completely different meaning in my mind. In
the latter case, her response turns into something less personal --
something more like "If you don't like me going with a Durmstrang student,
you should have asked me first yourself then." IMO we just don't have
the full scoop on that argument to draw conclusions.

Penny