SHIP: JKR Interview (what she said and what she didn't say)

[Jim Ferer <jferer@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52035

JKR, in a 1999 interview, quoted by Angua and Penny:

"Q: Do Harry and Hermione have a date?

 A: No. They are very platonic friends. But I won't answer for anyone
else, nudge nudge, wink wink." 

Penny:"She did not say that she *intends* for Harry and Hermione to be
very platonic friends. She said they *are* very platonic friends. She
also said this in response to a very specific question: "do they have
a date?" As in: Do they have a date *in GoF?* I've never understood
how it is that this implied "in GoF" can be so in contention. The
interview was given pre-GoF. The question is *clearly* directed at
what happens in GoF (and is, after all, only asking whether Harry and
Hermione have a *date* ...... not whether they will have a romantic
relationship, marriage, sordid affair or anything else). :::shakes
head::" 

Angua:"I've never understood why the question was understood by
anybody as referring to GoF. The person who asked the (awkwardly
phrased) question "do Harry and Hermione have a date" must, surely, be
understood as being curious if they have a date EVER, not if they have
a date in one specific book which JKR will somehow telepathically
understand to be the next one she plans to publish."

If the interviewer had wanted to know if Harry and Hermione would ever
have a date, he or she would have said so.  JKR used the present
tense, "are," to describe the platonic sense of H/Hr's friendship; and
nobody has ever accused JKR of tipping off much of the distant future
(as in more than a book ahead).

Some things have happened since then, in GoF, on both sides. Harry and
Hermione have been pushed closer; Harry now has noticed Hermione is a
girl.

OTOH, we H/Hr's have never denied that there's something going on
between Ron and Hermione - *now*.  Here's another JKR quote, from a
Yahooligans! interview in October, 2000:

"sammyohyeah asks: Is it just me, or was something going on between
Ron and Hermione during the last half of GOF? I love your books, btw,
and two of them I've read stright through cover to cover in under 24
hours.
jkrowling_bn: well done on the reading speed!
jkrowling_bn: yes, something's 'going on'...
jkrowling_bn: but Ron doesn't realise it yet...
jkrowling_bn: typical boy"

I'm struck that it's RON who "doesn't know it yet," when we all
thought Ron was the one that *did* know it.

That's okay. It doesn't trouble me, because we've already heard that a
lot of people end up with the wrong choices at first, and Harry and
Hermione are made for each other. It's H/Hr that can keep up with each
other; Hermione who has shown she has the personal qualities to deal
with the pressures and celebrity Harry labors under; and it's Harry
that gives Hermione's (and Ron's) lives purpose they would never have
otherwise; and I believe Ron is carrying baggage that would be fatal
to a long-term R/H relationship.

Not many people answered the first time I asked, but consider this: as
an R/H'er, what would you consider to be the vindication of the R/H
POV? An R/H romance in year 5, or another year, or a long term
partnership/marriage?  As an H/H'er, I believe in nothing less than
Harry and Hermione are excellently suited to be partners for life. 
They both get and will get too much out of it to give it up.  I won't
figure I was wrong about Harry and Hermione unless Ron and Hermione
are together at the end of Book 7, assuming they all live that long.

R/H'ers and H/H'ers arrive at their opinions from different
approaches, I believe.  R/H'ers look to canonical evidence and predict
the future on the present, and interpret JKR's current intent as being
her long-term intent as well; H/H'ers (at least this one) seek to look
into the characters' hearts and minds as canon reveals them and decide
that Harry and Hermione is destiny.  We're both giving full faith and
credit to canon, but we're using it different ways; I believe our way
is truer for the long run.

Jim Ferer