SHIP: Krum's jealousy

[dfrankiswork at netscape.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 31789

May I belatedly contribute to Cassie and bbennett's discussion of why Krum is jealous of Harry.  I feel the key to understanding this (as seen within the Potterverse: I think there is a completely different type of explanation in terms of JKR's literary objectives - another post on this will follow) follows on from a point that Tabouli made (see post 31369): Hermione's life (as well as Ron's, though that is not relevant here) revolves around Harry.  This surely becomes visible to Krum as time goes by, and Krum is right to be jealous: as long as it is true, there is no hope for his suit.

However, while Harry effectively presents an obstacle to romantic involvement with Hermione for any other person who is not also closely linked to Harry, it does not follow that Hermione herself fancies Harry.

An imperfect parallel is with those religious couples where the devotion of each partner to their god exceeds their devotion to each other: for them, a partner outside the faith is out of the question; if while they were still single someone outside the faith desired one of them, they would become jealous of their desired's god.  The parallel is imperfect because Hermione's relationship with Harry is not that extreme, but it does confirm the possibility of a high degree of love and commitment without a romantic or sexual component.

I believe that this interpretation:
- does justice to Krum's intelligence and sensitivity;
- means that we cannot deduce anything about Hermione's preferences from this episode.

I have two subsidiary points.

First, I do not believe that the triwizard tournament would have been a topic of conversation. I am sure Hermione would have made it very clear to Krum that she would not be drawn on this topic, out of loyalty to Harry and Hogwarts.  Doubtless this would contribute to Krum's jealousy.

Second, the Rita Skeeter article in Witch Weekly.  It is sometimes argued that Krum is not reacting to this as he does not mention it and as a foreigner he is unlikely to read it in the normal course of events.  I believe this argument is flawed.  Draco is well aware of Hermione's relationship to Krum, and heavily influenced the content of the article in the first place.  I think that if, after a day or so, it wasn't evident that Krum hadn't heard through school gossip, Draco would ensure (probably over dinner with one of Krum's Durmstrang companions) that he knew.  When Harry mentions the article Krum expresses no surprise or puzzlement.  The main argument above is not affected by this point, of course.

Finally, it is an interesting commentary on the integrity of Krum's character that his reaction to his jealousy is to approach Harry.  He will not try to detach Hermione from Harry dishonourably.

David
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