"A Little Romance" / Teamwork

[lunamk03]

No: HPFGUIDX 128007


Stefanie writes:
> Mmm, except for the fact that when Harry immediately opens the door 
> to Hermione's voice, "[t]here [is] snow in her hair and her face 
> [is] pink with cold." Bits of conversation are alluded to later in 
> the chapter, but unless she, Ron and Ginny planned really, really 
> quickly, I don't see how your scenario can be plausible, especially 
> as support for a 'shipping theory.
> 
> Also with the information that Hermione give us a bit later:
> "Ron's mum has lit a fire in there and she's sent up sandwiches." 
> it seems a bit more likely that Molly wrote to Hermione and planned 
> out this bit in a letter. Figure this: If Hermione were to just 
> burst through the door and march right up to Harry's room, only 
> someone who was already in on the idea (or who had somewhat 
> requested her arrival) would've been able to prepare a room that 
> quickly.
snip...
> I think that's a silly notion, also. Obviously they all help him. 
> However, it is worth noting that while Harry was taking "savage 
> pleasure" in keeping himself in his room and is shown ignoring both 
> Sirius's happy caroling and Molly's soft calling, he answers the 
> door to Hermione without any hesitation. That is a noted difference 
> in reaction -- he has pretty much spiteful behavior towards two 
> characters who are arguably his mother and father figures. We see no 
> effort on Ginny and Ron's part to come and get him, and see Harry 
> feeling that Grimmauld Place is worse than Privet Drive. Quite 
> dismal, really. While Hermione isn't the only one who is able to 
> help him overall (Harry *does* have good friendS), why try to 
> discount a simple fact: 'shippy or not 'shippy, Harry responds to 
> Hermione without hesitation.
> 
Luna: Are you sure about Molly writing to Hermione, I'd rather say it
was Ron? Granted, Molly might have known that Hermione was coming and
arranged to lit a fire and made sandwiches while Hermione was on her
way to Grimmauld place, but this is only an assumption, we don't see
this happeneing in the books and there could be a hundred different
explanations... The facts as presented in the book show that there
were already a fire, sandwiches, Ron and Ginny in Ron's room waiting
for Harry indicating that some kind of planning was made before hand. 

We have some facts that seem to contradict each other: the snow in
Hermione's hair and the facts that I mentioned above. The facts
mentioned above, IMHO, bear more relevance than Hermione having snow
in her hair. I think this was a way of speacking, figurative
language... Remember that Hermione knocked Harry's door "a few minutes
later." Snow melts instantly when you get inside a more or less warm
place (I would know that, I live in Canada;-)) Snow doesn't last a few
minutes in your hair without melting (maybe 40 seconds to a minute?).
Hermione wasn't wearing a cloack or a coat (which indicates that she
took the time to take it out). We know that you can magic a fire and
magically preprare sandwiches. We also know that Umbridge is screening
all mail that go to Hogwarts... Somehow I don't think that they were
able to explain so much and plan it all before Hermione got there.
Probably Ron wrote to Hermione telling her to come to his place for
Christmas. My guess is that there were no les than 5 minutes from
Hermione's arrival to her knocking Harry's door. That was enough time
to arrange it all (in a magical world). 

Then, we have the element of surprise. Harry wasn't expecting
Hermione. Read the scene again, She knocks hard on Harry's door, Harry
opens the door and the first thing he says is "What are you doing
here?" "I thought you were skiing with your mun and dad?" Harry was
expecting anyone in the house to knock his door and he was prepared to
ignore them (Ron and Ginny were aware of this). He wasn't expecting
Hermione. So he opens the door out of surprise, then it's too late,
Hermione has already started talking to him and told him about the
sandwiches and the fire. We know for a fact that Harry was hungry like
a dog. Hermione didn't need to insist too much on him leaving the
room. So, I don't believe that Harry opening the door to Hermione and
ignoring Molly and Sirius is an indication of "something going on"
between them. In anyway I see it, this whole business bears no shippy
elements whatsoever.   
> 
snip
> 
> If you read the discourse in the moment which Hermione is in Harry's 
> room, her intent doesn't seem to be to "cheer him up" -- she doesn't 
> attempt to do that, her mission is to get Harry out of the room and 
> into a discussion. I don't think it's a slight on Hermione's 
> character that she is pretty much determined to get him out of the 
> room he's been associating with his isolation and into a room with 
> two other people who he seems to trust. After Hermione enters 
> Harry's room, she tells him why she's there and leads him into the 
> other room -- involving Ron and Ginny isn't some show of how inept 
> she is at relating to Harry. I think it's a reflection, as others 
> have said, on the strength of the friendships that are later 
> solidified as the six emerging from the DoM.
> 
Luna: Excatly! I was asnwering to a message were someone wrote that
Hermione was "the only one" to deal with Harry's dark moods (or
something along those lines).  BTW, I am not claiming (and I never
have) that Hermione is "inept" in the way she relates to Harry... I
was putting into perspective this scene to show that Hermione didn't
do it all alone. I think that Hermione and Harry's frienship is and
always has been very solid. I don't see how this scene shows that
their friendship is getting more solid than what it already is. If
something, Ginny's role in the scene did came as a surprise as I think
very few of us remembered that Ginny had gone through a possession
experience in COS when we first read this scene.   
> 
snip
> 
> At this point, Hermione's nearly 16 and Ron's 15...even if they were 
> romantically inclined (which I most certainly do not buy) it really 
> doesn't make much sense for either the Grangers or the Weasleys to 
> invite her to spend vacations because of that -- especially since 
> Hermione's presence at the Weasleys has been alluded to in previous 
> books. Honestly, especially with the less-than-sexually-forward (not 
> that they'd be shagging, but having one's girlfriend stay over for 
> an entire vacation does not really seem Arthur and Molly) culture of 
> the Wizarding World, I don't find this a believable theory. It makes 
> much more sense to go with the reasoning given in the books. 
> Hermione's not been over the Weasley's all that often: the summer 
> before 4th year for the QWC she arrived only a day earlier than 
> Harry, she spent what we gather as most of the summer at OotP HQ 
> (which to me speaks more of Voldemort's rising than romantic 
> involvement), and spends Christmas in the episode we've discussed.
> 
> "keeps on spending"? Hmm...
> 
> Stefanie, who naught but two hours ago geeked out a purchased a JKR 
> biography from good ol' B&N

Luna:
At least the last two (summer OOP and Chirstmas OOP) she spent them
with Ron and Ron's family. That's a fact, that's canon. Why? I don't
know, she could have waited to meet them in the train and spend the
summer vacations with her parents. She was safe with them, I guess.
Ron might have invited her to help in Grimmauld Place, as there was so
much cleaning, etc, to do. You might be right, it could speak of
Voldemort rising... The fact is that she does spend more off Hoghwarts
time with Ron than with Harry. If, as some people point out (you might
not agree with them too), Ron and Hermione have such a hurting a
terrible relationship; how can we explain Hermione spending
extra-Hoghwarts time with the person that annoys her the most!
About the Christmas episode. Do you honestly believe that she went to
Grimmauld place with the "only" intent to "save Harry?." Do you
honestly believe that she wasn't also thinking of Ron's family
situation, and that Harry as much as Ron would be needind her support?