SHIP: Multiple endings (was Authorial intent, etc.)

[David <dfrankiswork@netscape.net>]

No: HPFGUIDX 50880

Debbie wrote:

> One final thought on David's "two valid endings."  If JKR chose 
*not* to ship the Trio to one another within the four corners of the 
series, but to conclude it with the Trio as still (or perhaps again) 
best friends, would that not allow us to continue to view either 
ship as valid?  Or any other ship?  Or no ship?  

Yes, it would, but that's not quite what I meant by two valid 
endings.  I haven't read very much of the kind of literature that I 
have in mind, but doesn't The French Lieutenant's Woman have 
something of the kind?  Maybe I confused everybody by calling this 
the post-modernist option.

So, for Shipping in the Potterverse, alternative endings would mean 
*two* epilogues.  One might be H/H and the other H/R.  To fully 
qualify, the epilogues would have to have the following properties:

- they should individually be consistent with the rest of canon;
- they should be mutually contradictory;
- ideally, they should embody mutually contradictory 
*interpretations* of canon.

So, one epilogue could be R/H and refer to the moment in the potions 
lesson when Hermione blushed because of her feelings for Ron.  The 
other could be H/H and refer to the same incident, interpreting the 
blush as being for Harry.

Other non-shipping possibilities would be Voldemort wins/Voldemort 
loses/Voldemort repents; Draco's destination; any other hotly 
debated theory.

I don't believe in any of this for a minute, but it struck me as a 
logical possibility.

David