Some shipping questions...Joshua & Kerri

[raolin1 at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 29550

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., epoch2 at i... wrote:
> Oh Joshua,
>    You are forcing me to go back a dig through the books to show 
more 
> evidence of the Ron/Harmione pairing than the Harry/Harmione 
pairing. 
> You do play devil's advocate better than anyone I have ever known. 
> Thanks for the challenge! 
>    Right now, I am finishing up book 3, for the 5th time. Once I 
have 
> finished, I will skip over book 4 and start at book one again. If 
it 
> is proof you want, it will be proof that you get. Thanks for making 
> this too much fun!
>    Kerri? What do you say? Why don't we team up and prove to Joshua 
> that we are indeed correct? My guess is it might take two or more 
of 
> us to convince him!
> 
>                               Keith


LOL!  No, one will do it, if the evidence is strong, although for a 
*good* debate, I always say the more the merrier!  I've only read the 
series twice, so I may be a little behind (although I've read it both 
times in the last three weeks, so it's all still fresh...) and my 
impression of her attitude towards Ron is more platonic, while she 
drops clues that she may have slightly more in mind for Harry.

And don't forget, much of the evidence that could be Ron-interpreted 
(blushing as she answered his questions about Krum several times) 
could just as easily be interpreted as other things, including 1) 
she's a bit embarrassed at discussing Krum's obvious attraction for 
her in front of her friends, who she correctly interprets as not 
being quite mature enough to have meaningful conversations along 
those lines, or 2) Harry is right there too, and she's more 
embarrassed about telling Harry about Krum than she is about telling 
Ron.

In addition, her portrayal of Ron to Harry during the big row before 
the Hungarian Horntail event is very much like what an older 
brother/sister figure would bring up, rather than an unrequited lover 
trying to defend the object of her affection.  Her comments to Harry 
right before he went along to face Quirrell in SS are, I think, also 
important foreshadowing of her feelings for him.  The impression that 
she spent most of her time with Harry rather than with Ron when they 
were apart is meaningful, as well as the fact that Rita Skeeter picks 
up a Harry/Hermione vibe that she can twist into a story (I doubt she 
literally made it up -- trumped it up is more likely, IMO), that Krum 
seemed very concerned that Harry was a romantic rival (and *not* 
based on the Skeeter article, rather based on long conversation with 
Hermione in which Harry seemed to feature much more frequently than 
he liked) and the goodbye kiss at the end of GF.

In addition, Ron never actually asks Hermione to go with *him* to the 
ball, he says she can go "with one of us" refering to both himself 
and Harry.  Therefore, her comment that Harry walks in on where she's 
yelling at Ron for not asking earlier, very likely has nothing to do 
with Ron berating her for not going with *him* as opposed to leaving 
him *and* Harry out in the cold, when he obviously --from his earlier 
comments-- feels very competitive about the triwizard tournament and 
feels Hermione shouldn't be consorting with Harry's competition.

Without filling in any other minor details, my last bit of evidence 
is from the JKR B&N chat of Sept. 99 in which JKR says that 
throughout GF, the they will all be in love with the wrong people.  
Since Ron is fairly obviously smitten with Hermione, that would 
indicate that she is the "wrong person" for him.  However, 
the "obviousness" of Hermione's feelings for Harry just isn't there: 
the clues are very subtle and I doubt that even Hermione (if it turns 
out they exist) is truly aware of them.  Although she's not 
particularly interested in Krum, at the same time, she's not 
particularly disinterested in him either, making the "wrong person" 
for her fairly obviously be him.

Anyway, that's my evidence.  Before you jump on it, I thought you 
oughtta know exactly what it is!  :)

Joshua Dyal