SHIP: Hermione, Ginny and Luna Oh my!

[nibleswik]

No: HPFGUIDX 84941

> In my opinion, the Tonks camp isn't dealing well with the fact 
>that Tonks really IS that much older than Harry.  <snip> Frankly, 
>up until the age of 21 to 28, most young people change a great 
>deal. <snip> Anyway, for a Harry-Tonks ship to work, Tonks will 
>have to remain available until Harry is at least 21, possibly older 
> <snip>.  This means Tonks will be at least 28, and perhaps well 
> into her 30's before settling into something serious with Harry.  
> I have a hard time believing this practical, even from an 
>epilogue's perspective.

Me:
Okay, I'm in the Tonks camp, so the following is an H/T shipper's 
justification. I snipped your explanation of how old Tonks must be 
because I agree with it -- I see her as about 10 years older than 
him.

First of all, I agree with you that any long-term Harry/Tonks 
relationship is between 5 and 10 years in coming. So what? Harry can 
have relationships with Ginny, Luna, and *cringe* maybe even 
Hermione in that time. Or he can be The Hero, busy being lonely 
because he has to be. Tonks can do her thing. I just think they'll 
eventually come back to each other. It makes sense. 

>From what we know about Tonks, she and Harry are quite similar in 
their interests. He wants to be an Auror. They like each other. Not 
only do they like each other as friends, but I think they have the 
potential for romance. So if the only problem with Tonks is age (and 
that is the only problem you brought up), I think the relationship 
is still possible. He hasn't known her as long as Hermione, so there 
won't be any "incest" issues, and he has more in common with her 
than he does Ginny. As for Luna, I just don't see sparks there. 

Richard:
> With regard to Hermione, I have a serious problem with the Ron-
> Hermione match-up.  First off, JKR has a penchant for <snip> 
>laying so many trails that picking the right one becomes a matter 
> more of guesswork than of logic and deduction. <snip>  But, there 
> is a more basic reason for not thinking this a good match. <snip>  
> Ron and Hermione are too often at opposite poles of interest, 
>beliefs and values, and both have almost routinely expressed 
>impatience with, and even contempt for, the others views. <snip>

Me:
I agree with everything you said there. I believe that there has to 
be a Ron/Hermione relationship before the series' end, but that it 
won't work. They really do have absolutely nothing in common. 
Someone else noted that a "practical" side to R/H -- Hermione would 
then be part of the Weasley clan -- had the downfall of suggesting 
that she wasn't already. Or maybe that person said the same about 
Harry/Ginny. In any case, I think it applies to Hermione. She 
doesn't need to marry Ron in order to fit in. And I really don't 
think something JKR's been setting up as obvious for so long is 
going to turn out the obvious way.

Richard: 
> The Ginny-Harry match has some real charm to it.  Ginny is growing 
> as a person, with real strength and independence.  Yet, it is a 
>little on the "pat" side, and suffers from the fact that Harry is 
>now effectively a Weasley.  With a few more years there could well 
> be the same kind of problem with a feeling of "incestuousness" 
>that the H/H match must conquer.

Me:
Harry/Ginny is my second ship choice for Harry. I don't think they 
would encounter the "incest" problem, because, yes, Harry is a part 
of that family, but I see the family itself being at once very 
unified and in clusters. The Weasley unity made Percy's twisted 
rebellion all the worse -- breaking away from a family like the 
Malfoys would ruin your name (at least in purebloods' eyes), but at 
least they aren't one big happy family. Breaking away from the 
Weasleys seems treasonous in the extreme. As for the clusters, 
though, Fred and George are a family unto their own, for example. 
Ron, Ginny, and Harry sort of fit in with them; Bill and Charlie 
don't really. Percy never did, not even a little. These clusters 
have allowed Harry to be part of the Weasley family while still not 
getting to know Ginny very well. Hence, I think H/G is still viable.

Richard: 
> Luna is a late comer, and we really don't know that much about 
>her. Harry certainly thinks her odd, but has real sympathy and 
>respect for her.  I don't see that we have much else than this to 
>base a strong SHIP thesis on, but isn't that like much of life? Who 
> knows why we fall in love with any one person, and not with 
>another? <snip>

Me:
As you've pointed out, we know very little about Harry and Luna, and 
so don't know how they'd be together. Your choice of words, though, 
I think betrays the lack of anything we have with which to build 
Luna-relationships. You say, "I don't see that we have much else 
than this to base a strong SHIP thesis on". I would prefer, "I don't 
see that we have much else than this to base a SHIP thesis on". It 
may seem like nitpicking, but the thing is, I don't see any possible 
way to build a /strong/ SHIP thesis. I think /any/ thesis at all is 
very iffy with H/L. That's why I'm going on my instincts with this 
one.

My instincts point very strongly to "no chemistry at all". Sure, he 
doesn't have the "incest" problem with her, but I don't think he has 
much of anything with Luna except the potential for a strong, 
lasting friendship. Going solely on my instincts, I think the Luna-
ship that makes sense is Ron/Luna. I felt more tension between them, 
and Ron is a wacky sort of normal, a kind of normal that goes best 
with the totally abnormal, which Luna certainly is. They both fit 
really well in their houses, in my opinion, but neither fit in 
conventional ways. Ron has a quiet sort of bravery, Luna a bizarre 
intelligence that is probably more aptly labeled "wisdom". I can see 
Ron and Luna making sense, but I can't see that for Luna and Harry.

Cheekyweebisom, who thinks Hermione's more similar to Draco than to 
any other principal character