Some shipping questions...

[raolin1 at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 29475

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., epoch2 at i... wrote:
<snip -- some pretty good stuff>

I know it's hard to disallow Fleur as Ron's Miss Wrong.  However, 
that would imply Hermione *is* Miss Right for Ron, making any other 
pairing extremely unlikely.

Since there still isn't any evidence that Hermione is interested in 
Ron that isn't countered by evidence just as strong (or moreso) that 
she is interested in Harry, I'm looking for explanations that would 
allow any other pairings to make sense.  Of course, it's also 
possible that Hermione is Ron's Miss Right, but Ron is not Hermione's 
*Mr.* Right.  However, I find that solution to be very unsatisfying, 
especially for a book that is destined to be read by children to such 
a large extent.

As for Harry being "immune" to Fleur's charms, if I remember 
correctly, he was able to overcome the real veela's charms after 
being made aware of them as well, while Roger (Fleur's date for the 
ball) Ron and apparently others seem to be in some kind of 
supernatural stupor around her.  Perhaps it is just inexperience and 
hormones that have that effect, although I certainly never knew 
anyone that had it that badly -- but then again, if so, why does JKR 
go to such pains to highlight Fleur's veela blood, and suggest 
through Harry that Ron's attraction is a result of this?  Perhaps 
Harry is "immune" for the same reason he is able to overcome the 
Imperius curse with (relative) ease -- he's just stronger-willed than 
Ron.  Then again, at the end of the book, JKR does point out that 
Harry got quite a bit of pleasure at watching Fleur's backside as she 
walked away from him at the train station at Hogsmeade.

Anyway, I'm not suggesting this scenario as something that I 
necessarily believe in whole-heartedly, I'm still testing the waters 
with it to see if it holds up under scrutiny.

Joshua Dyal