SHIP: R/H: Muddying the pool

[serenadust]

No: HPFGUIDX 31341

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "davewitley" <dfrankiswork at n...> wrote:



 

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.


I've been trying to figure out a coherent way to make this point, and 
Dave has done it perfectly.  The relationship between the 3 kids has 
definitely undergone a gradual shift and now it's obvious that Ron 
and Hermione have a very different relationship from Harry and 
Hermione.
Hermione seems to be almost maternal (or if you hate the 
term "maternal", then big-sisterish) with Harry, constantly fussing 
over him and fretting about what she thinks he should be doing.  This 
is 
obviously somewhat annoying to Harry, but instead of telling her to 
back off, he just quietly ignores her and refuses to even engage her 
on whatever topic she's going on about.
OTOH, Ron can almost never resist arguing with her and she seems to 
(mostly) thrive on this banter.  As a result, there seems to be a 
sort of closeness between them, that does not include Harry.  I guess 
what I'm really trying to say is that in PS/SS, their friendship is 
all about being with Harry, but in COS JKR gradually begins to show a 
personal friendship between Hermione and Ron that is not Harry-
centric, and by GOF whatever is going on between them has almost 
nothing to do with Harry.

I am not really into the "shipping" thing, and I trust that whatever 
JKR comes up with in this area will be fine with me.  This is the 
main reason I've stopped reading fanfiction.  For me, it really did 
start to spoil the canon because most of what I've read seems to show 
the characters developing in ways I find unbelievable, as well as 
depressing. It's pretty certain that there will be tough times ahead 
in books 5, 6, and 7, but I'd like to think that at the end, JKR will 
set things up for hopeful, productive lives (yep, I'm betting HRH all 
survive) for the trio, and not years and years of angst (broken up by 
the occasional great shag).

Jo