Hermione and Ron (NOT SHIP) WAS and Scabbers and wizarding problems

[charisjulia]

No: HPFGUIDX 35993

Susanne wrote:
>Are there any instances mentioned where Ron and Hermione do
>something together, that's not about helping Harry?

Sure there are! Loads of them! Festoons! Grosses even! Why, they come 
in hundreds and thousands! The books are littered with them, 
brimming, jam—packed, chockablock! They're, hmmm, <thinks>, errr, 
<thinks some more>. . .  well, not so many actually.


As Laura commented:
> we *are* restricted to Harry's POV, therefore, we see H/R 
alone/quality time and we >see H/H alone/quality time, but,
>obviously, no R/Hr alone time cause Harry isn't there. ^_~


and after all, about Harry is what the whole series (you know, the "* 
Harry Potter* and . . ." series) is. What's more, let's not forget 
that our hero –bless him!— tends to be errr, less than observant, and 
hence the conspicuous lack of comments such as "while Harry sat down 
to finish his Divination homework he was pleased to notice Hermione 
and Ron had ensconced themselves in two great armchairs by the fire 
where they were soon lost in an eager exchange and analysis of early 
childhood experiences which, as Harry contemplated, was sure to 
fortify the bond between his two best friends and push out of 
remembrance their latest argument over Crookshanks, that had caused 
Harry great anxiety" * snort!* IMO, it's more likely that it's Harry 
who just doesn't really trouble himself over the state of his 
friends' friendship too much.


And that, after all, is exactly what makes the problem we are facing 
here legitimate. If Harry had indeed been endowed with insight and 
sensitivity as exemplified above, not only would the books be 
unreadable (blah!), but what's more we would not have intriguing 
questions such as this to ponder over and Harry Potter definitely 
would not be the phenomenon it is. The answers just would be too 
obvious.


Nevertheless however I think there is sufficient Hr--R but not H 
interaction to prove that their friendship is not solely about Harry. 
And whenever such instances do creep up they always stand out, for me 
at least, in vivid relief, exactly because the series generally does 
not emphasize on this.


The most prominent of these is of course Hermione's GoF support of 
both her friends. She is sufficiently attached to both H and R to not 
want to take sides ( and sufficiently mature to not be dragged into 
doing so—something Harry doesn't manage in PoA) But there are also 
other, less obvious, indications splattered around in the books. So, 
when (at every second page) something astounding happens, Harry 
always rushes off to tell Ron and Hermione and always finds them* 
together*:

"Harry headed straight back to the Gryffindor common room, where he 
found Ron and Hermione playing chess" – PS

". . .by the time he reached the portrait hole and entered the common 
room, it was almost deserted. Over in a corner, however, sat Ron and 
Hermione." –PoA.

"He clambered through the portrait hole into the common room and 
headed straight for the corner where Ron and Hermione were sitting, 
to tell them what had happened." -- GoF


And then you've got the summer vacations. Ron and Hermione are 
usually hampered for one reason or another from communicating with 
Harry during the holidays, but that doesn't seem to stop them from 
keeping in touch with each other. In fact they're always pretty up to 
date on the other's news. In the beginning of PoA, not only does 
Hermione, writing to Harry, know about the telephone catastrophe and 
that Percy's Head Boy, but the two of them have already made plans to 
meet in Diagon Alley. This does in fact come off later on in the book 
and it is evident when Harry runs into them happily enjoying ice—
creams outside Florean Fortescue's that they've met up quite a while 
ago: they've already got their books and searched the whole street 
for Harry.


And don't forget GoF: Ron invites Hermione to the Burrow (something 
he didn't have to do—he didn't in CoS) and what's more she even 
arrives at least a day before Harry.


So, yeah, I would say there are enough instances of Ron and Hermione 
doing things together. What? I don't know, Harry's not there. Play 
lot's of chess and exchange the usual snipes? <shrug> But IMO it's 
evident in Canon that they have no problem being in each others 
company and that in fact they often are, quite as comfortably as in 
Harry's.


Anna wrote:
>For that
>matter, what's keeping the whole of the Wizarding World
>from using magical solutions to THEIR problems?


Nothing! And therefore they do so all the time. >From Lockhart to 
Hermione witches and wizards are always turning to magic to solve 
their problems whether for practical or purely egotistical 
reasons.The thing is though, if you live in a community of people 
that can wield it, magic can not only help you, but harm you as well. 
The obvious example is wizarding medicine: Madame Pomphrey has no 
trouble with broken hands whatsoever: they're healed sooner than a 
paper cut in the Muggle world. But magic can also cause you serious 
grief health—wise. E.g. a blotched Polyjuice Potion earns Hermione a 
month or so in the hospital word. So ordinary afflictions seem to 
pose no problem thanks of course to magic, but magic induced ones 
need stronger magic to counter it.


And now, it's almost 6 in the morning and I've just got home from 
dancing the night away at a friend's party, so as well as dead on my 
feet I am feeling temporarily braindead too. Sorry if none of the 
above makes sense, but I had to send this tonight because I'd started 
it on a lap—top I shall be deprived of tomorrow long before I wake up.


Charis Julia.