SHIP: Ron in Cos, Draco in PoA.

[heiditandy]

No: HPFGUIDX 50380


 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "golden faile" <golden_faile at yahoo.com>
> I was wondering, where in COS do we see evidence of Ron 
> having an interest in Hermione?
> 
Robert wrote:
> I always felt that Rons taking up for Hermione when Malfoy 
> called her a Mudblood in CoS was indicative of his true 
> feelings for her.
> 


It's entirely possible that he already had a crush on her then, but I do
have to point out that even if he did, and this was indicative of it, he
was in a somewhat advantageous position compared to both Hermione and
Harry at that moment, given that he knew what the term meant and how
rude it was, whereas both Harry and Hermione had no idea of the
wrongness of using that term. 

This, of course, leads me to the "meta" question I always have about
SHIPping. I read the books individually - in other words, I read PS, and
had to wait for the release of CoS, then the release of PoA, then GoF
and am, of course, still waiting for OoTP. And it took involvement in
the fandom for me to see that Ron had a crush on Hermione in GoF - and I
still can't see it anywhere before that. 

That, of course, doesn't mean it's not there in the background - but I
ended PoA thinking that *Draco* was crushing on her, because of his
walking away without a word after she slapped him in PoA. And I still
think that his feelings towards her are a complete mixed bag - he's
jealous, he hates how she does better than he in school, and he's
somehow intrigued by her in a way that he probably couldn't even explain
right now. 

And in GoF, when he doesn't throw any caustic comments at her during the
pre-Yule Ball entrance bit, I really feel that JKR is trying to show
this conglomoration of feelings that he can't sort out. He has
definitely noticed she's a girl - if he hadn't noticed this the past
year when in the post-slap moment.

Of course, I don't think that she has any interest in him at this moment
in time in canon, but that doesn't mean that her feelings towards him
couldn't change, if he did - or if he even made a small step towards
nonsupport of the Death Eaters, for whatever reason. 

It's one of the reasons why I see the merits of a Farmer In The Dell
approach, although slightly different from Penny's, as she doesn't
include Draco in her mix. Of course, I do hate the "everybody loves
'Mione!" approach I see in some fanfics (although absolutely not many,
or all!) where every single male at Hogwarts realises that she is
womanly perfection, but wouldn't it be magnificent in terms of plotting
(and there's some canon basis for all of this) if Ron, still crushing,
is stuck in his GoF phase for another book or two, and unable to make a
step to tell her how he feels, and she, in the meantime, sees that Snape
is trying to play the mentor to Draco and lead him away from following
Lucius' footsteps and becomes friendly with him - this son of a Death
Eater who also has a crush on her...? There's an element of cheezy
melodrama about it, I admit, but it does create a multilayered conflict
situation without involving Harry, who, IMHO, will be too busy in the
next 2.5 books getting ready to save the world to *really* spend much
time meeting his own romantic needs. 

heidi