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

[GRACE701 <grace701@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52123

Someone pointed out that Harry doesn't need someone who's going to 
lick his wounds and for some reason I can't find that part, but I 
think it was Laura Ingalls who said it.  I thought that was 
hilarious when I read it.  If Ginny doesn't toughen up, I don't 
think she'll be a very good match for Harry.  He needs someone 
strong.  I know she tried to escape from Tom Riddle, but she fainted 
and woke up after the ordeal!  If JK wants Ginny for she needs to 
introduce her into the Trio to toughen her up!  Though I *love* the 
Trio as just that THE TRIO!

Laura Ingalls wrote:
>>First, does Hermione really deserve the negative connotations of 
"bossy" and "argumentative", anymore?  I will give you that she *is* 
a leader, and that she does have a strong personality.  I suppose 
you are hypothesizing that her very strength would overwhelm Harry's 
personality and smother and intimidate him -- yet Neville, the most 
timid of them all (in this regard), obviously found her not only 
approachable, but sensitive enough to be trusted with his feelings.<<

Exactly!  If Harry, and Ron for that matter, never liked her "bossy" 
and "argumentative" personality, they wouldn't have put up with her 
for so long.  She's there because they like her and she's there 
because she likes them.  She is sweet and caring person.  After 
Harry and her figured out the potions part (after the wizard chess 
scene) in PS/SS, she tells Harry, to comfort him IMO, that he's a 
great wizard and that books and cleverness aren't important.  If 
that's not comforting than I don't know what is!  

Jim wrote:
>>As Penny has pointed out, the bossy and argumentative Hermione is
gone, replaced by a rapidly maturing young woman who has shown us
heart more than once. A lot of readers are stuck on first-year
Hermione without noticing how much she's grown.<<

I have noticed that Hermione has grown gradually from book 1 to book 
4.  I can't pinpoint exactly what has changed about her, but to *me* 
something has.  It could be that she hasn't changed at all, but has 
just been able to conceal some emotions and not others.  To not be 
so panicky?  I don't know.  She is becoming somewhat unpredictable.  
Who in their right mind would've thought Hermione would smack 
Draco?  She didn't make any moves at him in CoS when he was stating 
his opinions on mudbloods. Yet she did put a stop to him when he 
crossed the line and offended a friend of hers, Hagrid. 


Jim also wrote:
>>And Harry *has* noticed Hermione. In the Yule Ball scene, he sees 
her transformed, and wonders why he hasn't noticed [her] before. I 
don't think he's forgotten.<<

Of course he hasn't forgotten!  And I will quote what I *always* 
quote:

GoF US paperback, p.734 
"Bye Harry! said Hermione, and she did something she had never done 
before, and kissed him on the cheek."

That could have been a nice friendly gesture from Hermione after 
almost being killed by Voldemort for the upteenth time.  But as I 
said it before and I'll say it again.  Hermione gave him a hug in 
book one and he didn't bother to mention anything except that: that 
she gave him a hug, but now he added a little something more. ;)

Greicy
Who will be totally disappointed if Harry ships with someone else 
after picturing them he and Hermione together vicariously because of 
that small, yet "significant" comment on P. 734.