Who would I date? Who would I befriend?

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 28584

Welll...being a straight male and happy that way, my options are limited.
My age (40) also doesn't make things easy, since quite a few of the female
characters would be majorly off-limits due to age one way or another.

If I were the right age...I'd definitely go for Hermione in a big way.
Watch out, Ron!  Hermie and I have a lot in common, being both bookish as
all-get-out, although I was never as idealistic as she was (childhoods from
hell, albeit not as bad as Harry's, tend to do that) and I'm frankly rather
lazy about studying.  Never really _needed_ to study to get acceptable
grades, so why worry?

Failing that, Cho Chang would be high on my target-list, were I of her age.
She's Asian by ancestry (a big plus for me, I adore East Asian women; my
current GF's Chinese-American) smart (another plus) and nice (she'd have had
to be a total b*tch to dump Cedric just because Harry asked her to the Yule
Ball IMNSHO---there are words for this sort of behavior, and none of them
are complimentary).  My guess is that she and I would get on like a house on
fire.  ("THAT was a stupid mistake---I showed her my home, she took one look
at my bookshelves, and now she won't leave!")

At my real age, I'm about limited to Madam Rosmerta down at the Three
Broomsticks.

As for who I'd befriend, were I a student at the same time as the Trio:

I'd probably get along splendidly with Hermie.  Ron would sometimes get on
my nerves, and I don't know how Harry and I would take to each other.  I'd
probably end up in Ravenclaw by default (too lazy for Hufflepuff, not
ambitious, so Slytherin's right out, and I don't think I'm particularly
brave, so no Gryffindor am I) and of the Trio, Hermione's the most
Ravenclawish.  I wonder if she doesn't have a bunch of friends there that we
just don't see.