Harry, Ron and Hermione

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 50521

One thing that a lot of commentators on the Harry-Ron-Hermione situation
forget, or so it seems to me, is that _these are teenagers,_ and fairly
well-depicted teenagers at that.

At the end of _Goblet of Fire,_ they're fifteen or right thereabouts...and
at fifteen, girls _are,_ as a rule, a couple of years or so ahead of boys in
their development.  Harry and Ron are not wild about the dance, or dating in
general, because they're still a little young for such things, and are
genuinely afraid of embarrassment and/or rejection, with its concomitant
loss of face.  Meanwhile, the girls, even those younger than they are, are
all excited, giggling to each other about what they're going to wear and
who's been invited by whom.  This all tallies closely with my own memories
of that age---when I was fifteen or so, most of my female contemporaries
were dating while my male contemporaries were still not too interested in
the concept.

As for conflict between Ron and Hermione, I think that a lot of it is just
that they come from _very_ different backgrounds---Ron's a scion of the
Wizard World down to his toenails (as is Draco Malfoy) while Hermione's
heavily influenced by her Muggle background.  What Ron sees as normal and
right (the situation of house-elves, or the prejudice against giants or
werewolves) shocks Hermione, and, I daresay, vice-versa---what _would_ shock
a lifelong Wizard World inhabitant with little knowledge of Muggle culture
about Muggle life in contemporary Britain?  I can imagine Lucius Malfoy
drawling: "Well, they let _Muggles_ run around loose, and _everybody_ knows
Muggles Have Cooties, don't they, dahling?"   Very possibly Ron would be
quite shocked at how "leniently" criminals are dealt with in contemporary
Muggle Britain, or the hysterical campaigns against "prejudice" that have
grown up in my own lifetime.

And...if Hermione didn't like Ron, would his opinions matter so much to her?
Would she care if, forex, he thought all house-elves should be slaves,
sitting around the cabin at night and singing spirituals?  I "hae me doots"
that Hermione gives two hoots about Draco Malfoy's opinions currently,
except to note that "if Draco Malfoy likes this, there has _got_ to be
something wrong with it!"