SHIPping Hermione

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 97343


The recent talks about SHIPs have made me realise that maybe we're 
examining the possibilities from the wrong end.

There are as many arguments in favour of H/H than in favour of R/H. 
But one thing I've noticed is that very often, when discussing which 
boy will "get" Hermione, we focus almost entirely on the boys, their 
needs, their personalities, what Hermione brings them, and not at 
all on Hermione herself.

As I've said in other posts, we don't know much about Hermione's 
inner life, because the books are written in Harry's POV, and Harry 
doesn't care much about it. But we still do know quite a few things. 
Let's examine the most obvious ones.

1. She's *very* intelligent.
2. She's also very studious. She loves to learn new stuff.
3. She loves to help.

Hermione has got a lot of other important characteristics, but I'm 
afraid those ones are already enough to rule out both Harry and Ron 
as potential boyfriends. And here's why :

1. Neither of them truly appreciates Hermione's intelligence. Oh 
sure, they are happy to use it, to copy her homework, they are glad 
they can depend on her for all the brainy stuff. They admire her 
brilliant streaks, but they don't appreciate her intelligence on a 
daily basis, they don't challenge it, they don't take pride in it, 
and they don't see how it is a determining quality that has shaped 
her personality. Harry is allowed to talk about Quidditch as much as 
he wants, but Hermione knows that she gets on the boys' nerves when 
she talks about brainy stuff too much. I don't see how she could 
feel comfortable with someone who would rather she downplays such an 
important part of her personality.

2. To put it simply, the boys don't want to hear about the Library. 
This is akin to telling Harry to please not take his girlfriend to 
the Quidditch pitch. It simply woudn't work. The Library is where 
Hermione is happiest, and whoever she goes out with, will have to 
understand that.

3. Neither of the boys support Hermione in her attempts to help 
people. Even Harry refuses her help when he doesn't see the point of 
it. And let's not forget about SPEW : it obviously matters *a lot* 
to Hermione (she's even considering "taking it further" as a 
career), but the boys just won't make the effort to try and 
understand her. She wouldn't miss any Quidditch match even though 
she's nothing of a fan, but they try and avoid the subject of SPEW 
as often as possible.

4. They don't *listen* to her. They don't care about her life when 
it doesn't concern them in some way. They are happy to have her 
around as a walking library, they enjoy her company as long as she 
doesn't start bothering them with her passions, but they pretty much 
never wonder what might be happening in her mind and in her heart. 

I could go on and on, but I think I've made my point : neither Ron 
nor Harry would be a good boyfriend for Hermione. And I think that 
Hermione has found herself a good boyfriend without even looking for 
one. Someone who is quite intelligent, who shares her interest in 
libraries, who listens to her talk about Harry's problems until he 
gets sick of it, and who apparently doesn't mind receiving *very* 
long letters...

Del, who loves Hermione too much to want her to end up with someone 
who doesn't care about her true nature (but who also admits that she 
still reads SPEW as spew :-) )