Hermione SHIP question

[mochajava13]

No: HPFGUIDX 79665

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Kathryn Cawte" <kcawte at b...> 
wrote:
>  
>  Can one of the Hermione/Harry SHIPpers out there explain it to 
me? I don't
> see any clues towards it in the books at all. 

Sarah:
Ooh, I can see H/Hr!  For me, it's in the imagery that JKR puts 
between them.  Physically, they're always close together.  They 
instinctively go towards each other in times of trouble, even when 
others are around.  In OoP at the Department of Mysteries: Hermione 
clutched Harry's hand when the walls to the entry way began to 
spin.  Harry pulled Hermione along after the group smashed 
prophecies.  (Which is why Harry and Hermione ended up together in 
the fight scene.)  We saw Harry and Hermione instinctivley moving 
towards each other and protecting each other when alone on an 
adventure.  Harry catching a falling Hermione in the forest and 
pulling her to safety during the Grawp chapter.  Hermione clutching 
at Harry in fear during the same scene.  Harry pushing Hermione to 
the floor when she brought Umbridge to the forest and the centaurs 
attacked.  JKR wrote that they moved instinctively together when 
they heard the other approaching them after Grawp drove the centaurs 
away from them.  During the fight at the Department of Mysteries, we 
see how they react when others are around: they still instinctively 
move towards each other, to protect and comfort each other.

Also, there are some things that seem to be a little bit beyond just 
friendship.  Not quite romance yet, but a budding one.  For example, 
Harry noticed Hermione at the Yule Ball.  Look at the description; 
Harry goes into detail about what Hermione looked like: her hair, 
her posture, her teeth, and her robes.  He gave her a pretty 
thourough once over. A 14 year old boy is describing a 14 year old 
girl he thinks is pretty (he said this earlier).  He's checking her 
out here.  And he's so taken with noticing her, that he forgets 
about Cho and Cedric.  Then, we've got the kiss at King's Cross 
station, at the end of one of the most pivotal chapters in the 
series.  JKR has said she finds King's Cross Station to be romantic, 
and train stations in general are used as a romantic tool in classic 
movies and in some literature.  (Casablanca is the first one that 
comes to mind, but I know there are a lot more!)  The hug that 
Hermione gives Harry in OoP was a little too tight and went on a 
little too long: Hermione almost knocks him over, and Ron has to 
tell her to let Harry go.  Then on the next page, we find out that 
Harry had a warm glow (he notices when it goes away) when he first 
saw his friends.  Except when he walks into the room, Hermione jumps 
on him.  He only sees Hermione's hair.  So he's got a nice warm glow 
while he's hugging Hermione tightly and for a fairly long time.  Not 
romantic quite yet, but not completely devoid of romance either.  
Also, Pig was cirling overhead while the two were hugging.  Which 
made me think of a wedding, probably because I'm planning mine right 
now!  Circles feature prominently in weddings because of their 
symbolism: circles have no end and no beginning, representing the 
hope that the couple's love will be like that.

Then Hermione is jealous when she found out that Harry kissed Cho.  
Her tone of voice, her choice of words, and her frown all suggest 
that Hermione was not happy during this scene.  Here she was, being 
supportive about Harry liking Cho, and she does an about face when 
she is confronted with the idea that Harry and Cho might actually 
date.  Saying Cho cornered Harry seems to suggest that she thinks 
that Harry didn't have any choice but to kiss Cho.  Or wants to 
think this.  She frowns during the conversation, and seeks 
confirmation from Harry that he really has liked Cho for a long 
time.  Since when does Hermione need confirmation on anything?  
She's almost always the one with the knowledge, and very secure 
about knowing things.  She doesn't second guess herself.  Here, she 
does.  A little out of character.  And there's a little detail at 
the beginning of the scene that is easily missed: Harry was with Cho 
for about a half an hour.  (He returned to the common room half an 
hour after Cho first kisses him.)  Not just a little peck on the 
lips.  Hermione isn't happy with this and second guesses herself.

In this scene, Hermione is the one that gives Harry the impression 
that Cho's a little cry-baby.   (She gives us, the reader, the same 
impression.)  Why give him this impression when Cho would 
understandably be very upset at Cedric's murder? One possible 
explanation would be that Hermione is upset with Cho, thinks about 
her in a negative way that moment, and doesn't portray Cho in a 
sympathetic manner.  

Compare this to how Hermione acts towards Cho after the disaster 
date: Hermione is very sympathetic with Cho, even though she was 
happy that the date hadn't gone well.  She knew before asking that 
the date hadn't gone well.  Harry showed up earlier than expected to 
the Three Broomsticks, without Cho.  Everyone in Madame Pudifoots 
stopped what they were doing to watch Cho and Harry's little scene.  
(Literally.  Harry says that everyone was watching them.)  Hogwarts 
has a pretty fast rumor mill; the entire school knew about Harry 
blowing up in Umbridge's class within a day.  Hermione has shown in 
this book that she talks with the girls in her dorms; one of them 
had to have told her about the blow out.  Confirming her suspicion 
that the date didn't go well.  When she asks Harry about the date, 
Hermione is smiling.  She's one happy camper.  She's sympathetic 
towards Cho, explains a little about girls to Harry.  Very different 
feel from when Harry and Cho first kissed, and everything between 
the two was presumably OK.  

Also, Harry and Hermione's relationship has changed.  They argue 
together, actually fighting.  Not the bickering that Hermione does 
with almost every other character, most noticably Ron.  (She's 
bickered with Percy over house elves, the twins over there pranks, 
Ron with just about anything.)  Hermione and Harry fight.  In the 
fight over Sirius' where abouts and Voldemort's possible trap, they 
move towards each other while arguing.  (Nice little tension, there.)
Harry doesn't usually fight with people; but he does on several 
occassions with Hermione.

Now on Harry's part, he treats Hermione differently in OoP than he 
has before.  He seeks her out, something he only really did before 
if Ron wasn't around.  We see that Harry only sits between two other 
people if he wants to avoid Hermione.  (He sat between Dean and 
Neville while planning to talk to Sirius about seeing into Snape's 
thoughts.)  The fact that he actively thought about sitting between 
two different people shows that he expects to sit next to Hermione.  
Which he only started doing in GoF.  (In PoA, he didn't always sit 
near her; there's a couple of times we see him look down the table 
towards her.)  

Harry seems to dislike telling Hermione things that would lessen her 
view of him, innocently brought up over his grades to seem like he 
doesn't want a lecture.  But, Harry's reaction to not receiving a 
prefect's badge is a little bizzare.  After Hermione is extremely 
excited at the thought of being made a prefect with Harry, she can't 
believe at first that Ron was the one named.  (Open mouth, insert 
foot moment for Hermione.)  Hermione is left alone with Harry, and 
he can't look at her.  He congratulates her in a hearty voice that 
isn't his own.  Why?  We know he's thrown at Ron's being made 
prefect and not him, not because Harry was expecting to be named one 
(Harry had forgotten all about it).  He expected to be picked before 
Ron would be, but he didn't really expect it at all.  OK, reason for 
him to be uncomfortable around Ron.  But he's shown to be almost 
painfully uncomfortable around Hermione.  Why?

Harry won't show Hermione his poor marks, but he doesn't say that he 
doesn't show her because he doesn't want a lecture.  At other times, 
he does think about not telling Hermione something to avoid a 
lecture from her.  Not here.

Harry is protective of Hermione's feelings, as well.  He doesn't 
tell her that Dobby has taken all her knitted clothes, because he 
doesn't have the heart to disappoint her.  Very suspicious.

In the battle scene, we see Harry's reactions to seeing his friends 
fall to the death eaters, and his reaction to seeing Sirius die.  
Harry has a pattern of behaviour when seeing someone severely hurt, 
or when he thinks someone is severely hurt.  (Scenes include Ron 
getting hit by the queen chess piece in SS/PS; thinking Ginny might 
be dead in CoS; seeing Ron get knocked unconscious by Pettigrew in 
PoA; seeing Cedric die in GoF; watching his friends get injured and 
knocked out by death eaters in OoP)  Harry looks to see if his 
friend is OK.  He's upset, sometimes extremely so.  However, he has, 
in all but one instance, kept his head, his ability to think, and 
generally didn't panic.  When Hermione was hit by a death eater, 
Harry's reaction was different to all the other ones: he drops to 
his knees while the death eater that hurt Hermione is near him.  He 
panics, can't think, and blames himself for what happened to 
Hermione.  His reaction to the death eater is pure instinct; he 
doesn't think.  Now look at the other's: he sees Ron bleeding at the 
mouth, white, mentally losing it, and barely able to walk.  (To the 
point where Harry has to drag Ron.)  Harry asks what happened to 
Ron, wants to see if he's OK.  But Harry doesn't panic, despite that 
fact that Ron was very seriously injured here.  (Ron spent as much 
time as Hermione did in the hospital wing.)  He sees Luna get 
knocked out, lying as still as Hermione.  Same when Ginny gets 
knocked out by a death eater.  And he just saw Ron summon a brain 
that is squeezing Ron so hard Ginny's afraid Ron will suffocate.  
Yet he is still able to think; he never said that he was panicing 
and couldn't think as he did with Hermione.  Same when he saw Sirius 
die: Harry went to help Sirius (but was stopped by Lupin) and can 
still think.  About Sirius, yes, but he is able to think that Sirius 
never kept him waiting before.  No whine of panic like with 
Hermione, no blaming himself immediately, like with Hermione.  His 
reaction to seeing Hermione get attacked was unique.

Now all of these things: physically close to each other a lot, 
protecting each other and comforting each other (phsycially) while 
in danger, little moments of slightly more than friendship, etc, can 
be taken as friendship separately.  But, as a whole, it seems (to me 
at least) to be pointed towards a budding romance between the two.  
The imagery of the two when together, the deepening friendship, and 
some more-than-friendship moments show that Harry and Hermione could 
be beginning a romance here.  (Slowly noticing each other, getting 
to be closer friends, longer than normal hugs, protecting and 
comforting each other even when others are around.  Signs of friends 
turning into something more.)  Plus we've got some symbolism that's 
associated with romance.  The kiss at King's Cross.  An owl circling 
over them while hugging.  Hermione leaving her parents to speak to 
the Dursleys about Harry (along with the adults).  [Someone else 
said this could be symbolic of a girl leaving her parents for a 
man.]  Too much for me to think that they're not on the path to 
romance!  

But, then again, I could just be passing the time until the next 
book comes out.

Sarah