Perfume vs. Book

[Arya]

No: HPFGUIDX 89243

"Steve" <bboy_mn at y...> wrote:
<snip> in his own subconscious misguided way, Ron tried to
buy Hermione a 'girl' present. So he bought some perfume, a sure-
fire 'girly' present, but he did it in such a totally 'GUY' sort of 
way. 

ARYA:  I really like this perspective.  I get the feeling in x-mas 
pasts, the trio has exchanged mostly "friend" gifts such as chocolate 
frogs, extra large bags of Bertie Botts beans, luxury eagle feather 
quills and even a nice Broomstick Servicing Kit for Harry who was the 
only one to have a broomstick.  Now, we have Ron, post-I-know-you're-
a-girl and he's a bit confused how to act with this fact in his 
conscious mind.  

It still makes an interesting perspective on the Ron versus Harry 
debate because, comparatively we see Harry buying a safe friend gift, 
but one that shows an awareness of what would make her pleased as it 
was something she had been wanting to get.  It's kind of like Ron's 
stuck on assimilating Hermione his friend he's known since first year 
and Hermione the girl who he has these weird feelings of jealousy 
about.  Harry, on the other hand, I think we can say he knows she's a 
girl (his PoV in the GoF scene) but he still sees her as Hermione, 
the *person* (not *girl*) she is.  Hmm, a whole long psychological 
analysis of Harry and Ron's pasts could be delved into here, but I'm 
not about to do it.  

STEVE AGAIN:
Ron is a total dunderhead when it come to women. If men are from Mars
and women are from Venus, then Ron is wandering the relationship
galaxy somewhere near Andromeda.

So Ron screwed up in a very typical 'guy' sort of way, but come on, at
least the poor boy is trying. At least he has figured out that
Hermione is a girl and is trying to do things that acknowledge the 
fact.

Besdies, isn't it girls who are always saying it's the thought that
counts?

ARYA:  
Um, yeah, we say that and all, but really--now here's a secret--we 
want you to read our minds and get us this very precise thing that we 
want and we want it wrapped nicely and all frilly like and we want it 
to be a surprise even though we will try to sneak a peek and badger 
you about what you got.  We're totally psychotic that way.  Gift 
Certificates do not count UNLESS the amount on the certificate 
greatly GREATLY exceeds our expectations for the cost of the gift you 
are getting us.  

STEVE:
Of course, from a guys perspective, it seems that the thought only
counts when you happened to think of expensive jewlery and the like.

ARYA:  Um, this is kind of related to the above and the proportinate 
cost of gift thing.  :-)  Showing us there is no amount of money that 
is too much for our happiness will always please us.  (Unless you put 
it on our credit card.  That's not funny.)