Re: Shipping — We don't have a clue!

[antoshachekhonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 97224

Robert Jones wrote:
> > > I don't think we don't have a clue what JKR is going to do about 
> > > relationships in Book 6 or 7.  
> > 
> > I fully agree.
> > 
> > I also think that the Trio's relationships will play a huge part 
> in 
> > the series.  
> 
> Er, correction... that should be, "I DON'T think that the Trio's 
> relationships will play a huge part in the series."  Sorry about 
> that.  :)

You know, I think I agreed with you the FIRST time. In the first place, there has been a 
romantic subplot or two in every one of the books since CoS. We've had Crush!Ginny/
Harry, Percy/Penelope, Harry/Cho, Hermione/Viktor, Cho/Cedric, krypto-Ron/Hermione 
(all that bickering and jealousy stuff), not to mention Ginny's busting out into serial 
monogamy in OotP--first with the loathed Michael Corner, and then, just at the end, with 
Dean. 

The second point--and it follows up on the first--is that these are books about maturing 
teens. As they approach eighteen, what do you expect them to be thinking and fomenting 
about? Classes? Saving the world? Come on, you know they're only going to become more 
and more obsessed with love and (sub-rosa, I assume) sex. For JKR to go through the 
main characters' last few years in school without romance being a central element in their 
development would make what has been a remarkably sensitive and adept portrayal of a 
group of maturing young men and women absolutely unrealistic. And in spite of the 
swords-and-sorcery tropes, I think one of the main appeals of these books has been their 
emotional realism. That and the wacky sense of humor. ;-)

I have no idea who Harry will end up with. Hermione? Ginny? Luna???? Someone we haven't 
met, or haven't really noticed? (Merlin, I hope it's not Cho!) All perfectly supportable, 
satisfying and interesting.  You can mix and match the Double Trio from here to Sunday 
(especially if you want to go slash, which I really don't believe JKR will)--the only couple I 
can't see is Ginny/Ron. Ick. I can even see JKR earning an ending in which Harry (like Don 
Pedro in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing), is the one major character who is 
without a partner, not because he isn't interested, but because his time hasn't come. But I 
just can't see these last two books not including romantic love as a central theme.