SHIP: R/H: Muddying the pool

[davewitley]

No: HPFGUIDX 31330

Jenny wrote:

> I also felt that there was an attraction on both sides (but I 
didn't 
> see it as early as CoS).  

I broadly agree with Jenny's assessments.

I want to add a rather more controversial suggestion.  I have been re-
reading COS and POA to my son, and have noticed that Hermione appears 
to assume an unconscious ownership of Ron and, to a lesser extent, of 
Harry.

It's mostly in little, passing comments about homework and minor 
infringements of rules.  She moves from the Hermione of PS who 
vocally and impartially upholds the rules for all people, to someone 
who concentrates on her friends.  But the next step is that Harry 
glides out of her range - I think (I confess I am not at all sure) 
she realises that when he has decided something she has little 
influence.  Whereas Ron is in some indefinable sense caught.  He 
never wavers in standing against her exhortations - but the fact that 
she continues them gets under his skin, I think.  He has to answer 
back, instead of doing what Harry does and ignoring her and doing 
what he was going to anyway.  I think the effect on Hermione is that 
she starts to do this less with Harry, and concentrates on Ron.

The controversial bit is that I wonder if Hermione bears some 
responsibility for this.  She subtly asserts ownership of him, as I 
say possibly not fully aware of what she is doing.  He signals back 
that he objects not to the idea of being told what to do, but the 
content.

Seen in this light, a major bust-up in GOF is inevitable.  But it 
does not mean that Ron's unfair treatment of her over the ball is out 
of the blue.  They have been developing a shared assumption of 
exclusivity (with, admittedly, Harry's position in the relationship 
very undefined - to a degree they battle to be the one he listens 
to), so when she accepts Krum's invitation to the ball, Ron can see 
it as the violation of a tacit, even subliminal, agreement.  No 
wonder the lad can't find a legitimate expression of his plaint, and 
switches from one lame accusation to another.

In the wider shipping debate, this argues for a short term R/H 
position - but, if continued, the relationship I described above 
feels like (ooh, is this a fanfic speculation?) developing co-
dependency.

Of course (I say just to wind you all up), there are further 
developments *after* the ball which show a burgeoning sense of true 
responsibility on both sides - and a continuing attraction.  But 
that's for another post.

David