SHIP--Ron and the Yule Brawl (yawn)

[Ebony AKA AngieJ]

No: HPFGUIDX 13663

The real SS H/H (clarification:  the one on which Hedwig is just 
Harry's courier pet and *nothing more*) appears in the distance.

It is being trailed by the Good Ship R/H... a self-destructing VIP 
message has fallen into the hands of a certain vacationing Special 
Agent... all other ranking H/H officers are otherwise occupied around 
the HP Fan World, as active H/Hers tend to be busy types.

On a nearby tropical island, Agent Ebony waves off the handsome 
Jamaican wizard-masseuse and sets her margarita on the beach blanket 
with a sigh.  "Call that a holiday?  I thought they were *done* with 
main-list shipping until the schoolbooks come out!"  Sighing, she 
tosses aside the message before it explodes, zips up her wetsuit, and 
dives back into the choppy waters of the Shipping Seas.

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Kimberly" <moongirlk at y...> wrote:
"While I agree with Simon that it wouldn't have made much sense in 
the context for Hermione to include Harry in that statement, I  
respectfully submit that that does not explain why she would not have 
chosen, as Mo says, to use a different retort alltogether.  Why, if 
Hermione would prefer *not* to date Ron, would she not only suggest 
that he ask her out in the future, but also suggest that she would 
go - by implying that had he asked her to the ball first, it would 
have "solved" the problem.  "Well if you don't like it, you know what 
the solution is, don't you?  Next time there's a ball, ask me before 
someone else does, and not as a last resort!"

"She could easily, as Mo said, have told him to go soak his head, or 
to stay out of her personal business, or that she didn't need him to 
tell her who to date, but instead she said that to solve his problem, 
he should ask her out. Is she being cruel, setting him up to fail?  
Doesn't seem like her."
--------------------

Penny's going to kill me, and so will the rest of my shipmates.  But 
I'll begin my approach to the Yule Brawl with this: I grudgingly 
agree with most of the R/H platform.  It was after reading the Yule 
Ball scene on July 8 that I mentally picked up an R/H pennant, glared 
at it, and waved it with a halfhearted "Whoop-dee-doo."  ;-)

Having conceded that, a whole realm of possibilities are opened up.  
There's another, deeper level of reasoning that could be at work on 
Hermione's part.

Taking for granted FITD (new members, check the archives--no time to 
explain it), IF Hermione's remarks were intended as encouragement to 
Ron, they may have been prompted by several other factors, none of 
which necessarily include "wow, I'm really starting to see Ron in a 
different light!"  

I'd elaborate at length, but this list is still on webview, and I'm 
on vacation.  :::Applause from the veterans!:::  Shipmates, just send 
me another message off list if the gloating continues... I just 
finished re-reading GoF, and I'd dearly love to use the R/H reading 
of the Yule Brawl to illustrate some of our points.  Besides, that 
masseuse of mine isn't going anywhere.  :)

I leave you with this cheesy paraphrase from the movie Titanic:  "A 
woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets."  Cliche?  Yes.  But aren't 
cliches just truths in proverbial form?

Who knows what going on with Hermione's?  We certainly don't... and 
that's because Hermione's thoughts and feelings are not something 
Harry's really interested in at this juncture.  (Waves at Jim Ferer--
I owe you an e-mail.)

There is a silver lining in canonical R/H IMO... since the books are 
told from Harry's point of view, we won't be subjected to it very 
much.  I can't imagine he'll be terribly interested in giving us a 
blow-by-blow of R/H, either.  

Let us hope that if JKR is really the captain of the OBHWF Cruise 
Lines *in absentia*, Harry in the remaining books will be too busy 
fighting Voldemort/learning more about his parents and the 
past/trying to stay alive to moon over Ginny too much.  :-)

Swimming away...

--Ebony AKA AngieJ