A different and totally serious Harry 'ship

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 98296

Erika L (Wolfraven ) wrote:
> As for Pansy... I have my doubts that Rowling could build her up 
> enough as a character in the space of two books, especially with 
> her being a Slytherin.

Del replies :
JKR built Luna up enough in one single book that people are pairing 
her off with both Harry and Ron. On the other hand, she took 2 books 
to build Cho up but by the end of OoP Harry couldn't care less about 
Cho anymore. So I think JKR could very well pair Harry with anyone, 
whether it's someone old or new, without it sounding phony.

Moreover, it's *high time* JKR finally builds a strong, real, 3-
dimensional Slytherin kid character. So the fact that Pansy is from 
Slytherin is actually IMO a good point for her.

Erika :
> It's possible I suppose, but highly unlikely IMO, and, to be 
> frank, I think I'd be a little disappointed that a character who's 
> been such a nonentity through most of the series would snag the 
> lead man.

Del replies :
But Pansy has *not* been a non-entity. Harry has known her for a 
very long time, and that's already a miracle.
We discovered in OoP that Harry doesn't know the name of one of the 
boys he's been having Care of Magical Creatures lessons with for 5 
years ! That boy was a non-entity all right, but Pansy wasn't. She 
keeps getting little scenes all throughout the books.
By the way, I guess you object to the Luna/Harry pairings then, 
because if anyone was a non-entity for 4 years, it was Luna. And if 
it had been up to Harry, things would have stayed that way !

Erika :
> That issue aside, I always had the impression Pansy wasn't as nice 
> as the abovementioned PoA quote might suggest. Doesn't she sneer a 
> lot?

Del replies :
But wasn't one of the major lessons Harry learned in OoP that people 
can change ? James was a total jerk at 15, and Lily despised him 
completely. Yet she started going out with him barely 2 years later, 
and then married him. Why couldn't Pansy do the same ?

Erika :
> I don't have a lot of time to comb through canon at the 
> moment, but I did find this bit in GoF. After Skeeter's article 
> when Hermione begins receiving hate mail and gets the bubotuber 
> puss on her hands:
> 
> "Hermione was walking towards them across the lawn. Her hands were 
> very heavily bandaged and she looked miserable. Pansy Parkinson 
> was watching her beadily." (472 UK)
> 
> I don't see much of a good side in that passage. Pansy's gaze has 
> little compassion in it.

Del replies :
The adverb "beadily" can mean pretty much anything. It doesn't say 
that Pansy was laughing, or even smirking. It just says that she was 
looking at Hermione very attentively. Who are we to guess what's 
going on in her head ? IIRC, Pansy is the one who's accusing 
Hermione of being a scarlet woman (I love that phrase :-) in Rita's 
article, so she's responsible for Hermione getting her hands burned. 
So of course she's looking at her, beadily or not. But that doesn't 
mean she's happy with what's going on. For all we know, she might be 
experiencing strong remorse, and be very sorry for Hermione. After 
all, Harry tends to act the same way in OoP : do or say hurtful 
things, and then be sorry when he realises the consequences of his 
words or actions.
And we also have to remember that the story is told from Harry's 
point of view. And at the precise moment, Harry thinks Pansy is all 
evil, so of course he sees her in a completely negative light.

Erika wrote :
> If she can only show compassion for Draco I don't see a whole lot 
> of hope for getting closer to Harry in the space of two books. 

Del replies :
Take the example of Harry's feelings towards Sirius in PoA. At the 
beginning of the book, he doesn't even know him. Then he learns 
about him being an escaped convict, but he doesn't care. Then he 
becomes aware of a connection between him and Sirius, and still he 
doesn't care. Then he discovers that Sirius supposedly betrayed his 
parents, and he suddenly hates Sirius and wants him dead for several 
months. But when the truth is revealed, he immediately changes his 
disposition, he wants to live with Sirius, he's completely out of 
his mind with worry when Sirius is caught, and he takes tremendous 
risks to save his life.
So I don't see why Pansy couldn't come around too and realise that 
she's been spending her affection on the wrong person.

Erika wrote :
> Seems to me there's a long way to go before we see a Harry/Pansy 
> ship.

Del replies :
Not to me. On the contrary, it seems to me like it could happen very 
quickly if JKR wants it that way. It took only one conversation with 
Luna for Harry to stop despising her. I don't see that it would 
necessarily take much longer for him to change his mind about Pansy.

Another possibility we haven't discussed yet is that things would 
work out through Hermione, as usual. Hermione strongly dislikes 
Pansy, and the feeling is reciprocal it would seem. But both girls 
are intelligent, and Pansy has shown that she's got some heart. 
Moreover, we don't know that Pansy is necessarily terribly happy in 
Slytherin. She's the leader of the girls' gang, true, but this can 
be a very lonely position. And as for her on-off relationship with 
Draco, I'd say it's more off than on, since he didn't even take her 
to Hogsmeade on the Valentine Day week-end (she went with her gang, 
and they made fun of Harry and Cho on the way). And finally, we 
mustn't forget about Viktor. If Pansy is in Slytherin because her 
family is another one of those Dark Side families, she might have 
links with Durmstrang and Viktor that we don't know about. It would 
be very much like JKR to throw such an unlikely link at us.

I'm not saying Harry/Pansy *will* happen, I'm just saying it's not 
at all impossible as far as I can see, considering what we know now.

Del, who thinks it's quite revealing of Pansy's inner contradictions 
that she was wearing a pale pink frilly robe at the Yule Ball...