SHIP: The Problem with Reading R/H in GOF

Tue Feb 4 16:20:39 UTC 2003

No: HPFGUIDX 51583

derannimer wrote:<snip?
"Here's why: I don't think that Hermione is feminine enough to be 
comfortable with, well, being female. Not yet.
I mean, think about Hermione for a minute: she has no girl friends, 
she is *extremely* bookish, she is incredibly intellectually 
oriented, she is plain, she is the kind of girl who doesn't bother 
with the Sleek-Easy because it's too much trouble, she has never had 
a boy friend. (And she is only 14, and Rowling's world is much more 
culturally conservative than ours is--so that it's not normal for a 
fourteen year old girl to be as savvy about boys as she would be in 
our world, anyway. It's almost, culturally, as if it was set in the 
time of E. Nesbit's books--say early 1900s.)"

I agree, Hermione isn't your typical contemporary girl, as Lavender 
and Parvarti seem to be.  She is subdued, it maybe because before 
Krum no guy has ever really liked her and realized her for who she 
is. Krum, IMO, made her realize that she is pretty and can be her 
studios self.  

derannimer continues:
"If that kind of girl had any clue that one of her best friends was 
in love/like with her, she would be mortified. Even if she was in 
love/like with him too, she would be mortified. '

She would just have no idea what to *do* about it. 

So I cannot read her response here--even if the text *didn't* 
describe her as being "surprised"--as any kind of attempt to provoke 
Ron into telling the truth. 

That's just not Hermione.
<snip>
"2.Hermione doesn't like Ron. (Not that way, I mean.)
This question has already been argued *a lot,* and I don't know what 
more I have to say about it. 
3.But Hermione does dearly like Ron as a friend.
Well, duh.
4.So she doesn't want to hurt him. 
5.It would hurt him to tell him she doesn't like him. And she isn't 
going to have that conversation without dying of sheer embarrassment 
anyway.
6.So, just as she and Ron pretended that the evening of the Yule 
Ball never happened, so she is going to continue pretending that he 
doesn't like her.
If she ignores it long enough, maybe it will just go away, and 
everything can be like it was, and she won't have to deal with this 
embarrassing situation."

I've had friends like me which has made it difficult for me to deal 
with them because of their insinuations.  (Even though it is 
obviously different with Ron.  He doesn't have a clue of his 
feelings for Hermione.)  I would try to avoid the situation as much 
as possible.  You don't want to feel awkward and I wouldn't want to 
hurt their feelings either because it may mess up the friendship. 
Which, imo, Hermione is probably thinking as well.  They are just 
typical kids!  This is what I LOVE about the book. Even though they 
are wizards they're still normal.  

And I'm LOVING this argument because I am an H/H fan.  Either though 
there isn't a lot of evidence in canon that supports it.  Just a hug 
in book one (simply said as that and nothing else) and an unexpected 
kiss on the cheek, which I have to say means something because as I 
said before: being that this is Harry's POV he wouldn't have 
mentioned it being unexpected if he didn't have feelings for her. ;)
(I don't have my book, but I know it's in the last chapter in GoF)

~Greicy