SHIP speculation: The Love Train (was Re: SHIP: Essays on Harry SHIPS) LONG

[antoshachekhonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 125662


kgpopp said:

> Having read the following essays I am less sure about the direction 
> the JK is going with Harry's romantic life and have even become more 
> open to different combination.  I thought I'd include the links for 
> those who are interested, these essays outline at lot of "canon 
> evidence" for their particular perspective 
> <snip>  
> Pro Harry & Hermione 
>http://www.hp-lexicon.org/essays/essay-harry-hermione.html > 
> Anti Harry & Hermione  
> http://www.hp-lexicon.org/essays/essay-hh-suited.html > 
> and a little on Harry and Ginny		 
>  http://www.hp-lexicon.org/essays/essay-harry-ginny.html

Antosha:

Those essays are excellent, kg... I've read them numerous times and they've always struck 
me as thought-provoking.

In shipping discussions/flames, we always tend to focus on who's going to end up with 
whom (which is reasonable). It seems to me that, based on what we've read so far, and 
based on the fact that the next book is going to be focussing on a group of fifteen and 
sixteen-year-olds, romance is going to be at the very least an important sub-theme in the 
next book. I joked about this in a post a while back, but as we get closer to HBP, and as I 
consider the trajectory left over from OotP and the the first four books, it seems to me 
that JKR may, in fact, be headed in a different direction entirely.

Consider the data we have--all of it fairly sketchy:

1) The two canon crushes--Harry for Cho and Ginny for Harry--seem to have hit major 
reality checks. We know about H/C; I can safely say we've seen the end of that romance, 
though I hope Ms. Chang will achieve some sort of redemption in the next book.

Harry/Ginny is a bit more problematic. Ginny's been gleefully dating--she went out with 
Michael Corner, and she says at the end of OotP that she's "chosen" Dean Thomas. 
Hardcore H/G shippers are fond of theorizing that she's just doing this to get a rise out of 
Ron, who's not-so-subtly pushing Ginny back towards Harry; the main support for this 
seems to be the fact that she is described as speaking "vaguely." (OotP, US Ed. p. 866) I'm 
not sure that this holds water. I think, until we hear otherwise in HBP, we need to take Miss 
Ginevra at her word: whether she ends up dating him or not, as of the train-ride, Ginny's 
interested in Dean.

Too, we have Hermione's statement that Ginny "gave up" on Harry at some point during 
GoF. (OotP, US Ed. p. XX) Again, hardcore H/G shippers point out that 'gave up' isn't the 
same as 'stopped caring.' That's a stronger point, but it remains to be seen whether Ginny 
has any unresolved feelings for Harry or not. 

Harry clearly likes Ginny--their relationship, of which he was always very respectful, 
blossomed during OotP, once he and Ginny could actually talk. Along with Luna and, 
possibly, Hermione, Ginny is one of the few girls with whom Harry can discuss substantive 
emotional issues. (You could, if you wish, add Susan Bones to the list, since she and Harry 
share a brief commiseration over having lost parents to LV. I think that's stretching 
matters a bit.) Mostly, Ginny keeps Harry honest, something he desperately needs. We 
don't, however, have any evidence that he is attracted to her, or considers her 
romantically. Then again, aside from Cho, Harry hasn't shown any interest in _any_one.

However, I would be shocked if a relationship which collected so much energy in books 2, 
3 and 4 (you can even PS/SS if you view Ginny's interest at Platform 9 3/4 as serious) 
would simply fade away. It would be a waste of a good story line.

2) From the Yule Ball in GoF on, Ron is extremely protective of Hermione, to the point of 
jealousy. The main factor here is his harping in both GoF and OotP on Viktor Krum's 
interest in Hermione. 

About the only canon evidence of reciprocal interest (aside from Hermione's constant 
bickering with Ron, which some see as a Benedick/Beatrice mating ritual) is Parvati Patil's 
suggesting Hermione as a suitable date for Ron to take to the ball; Parvati either knows 
something or is being mischievous. (GoF, US Ed. p. 401)

The films seem to have a stronger investment in R/Hr. But, as we know, as far as this list 
goes, the films aren't canon. ;-)

3) Luna acts differently towards Ron than she acts around anyone else. She laughs at his 
jokes. She calls him by his full name, which no one but his mother does. And it's not 
simply a matter of her always using full names; she calls Ron's sister (her friend) "Ginny." 
The Lovegoods (or, at least, _some_ Lovegoods) live near Ottery St. Catchpole, so it is not 
too much to assume that Ron and Luna have known each other for some time.

Ron seems barely aware and more non-plussed than interested in Luna as of OotP.

4) Neville asked first Hermione and then Ginny to the Yule Ball.

There are some other bits of weak canon evidence scattered in there--the odd mention, 
the occasional kiss on the cheek, etc. (Sorry, H/Hr shippers--I believe the relationship is 
possible, but I don't see any canon evidence for it... yet.) And there are, of course, some 
budding relationships away from the core characters. 

The other bit of evidence that I can propose--and it's not much--is JKR's love of the 
novels of Jane Austen, which center around wonderfully spun-out tales of unrequited love, 
unexpected triangles, and which inevitably end with the central characters, who have been 
either chasing the wrong people or in love but unwilling to admit it to the right people, 
finally getting a clue. 

Taken together, this leads me to suppose that HBP--which isn't the conclusion of the 
series, let us remind ourselves--isn't going to resemble Noah's Ark, wherein the couples 
come in two-by-two, but rather the Love Train: a loves b who loves c who loves.... It 
seems likely, given what JKR left us with at the end of the fifth book, that we will see some 
variation on the following:

Neville will have a crush on Ginny, who will, after flirting with Dean, realize that her 
feelings for Harry aren't really all gone, while Harry will develop an infatuation with Luna (I 
think their conversation during the Farewell Feast will have a profound effect on Harry in 
HBP), who will pine for Ron, who will long for Hermione, who will... Oh, I don't know. Here I 
assume we will either see Hermione fighting against the Parvati/Lavenderness of it all, or 
we will see the introduction of a new character into the mix--probably a Hufflepuff or 
Slytherin boy, since we've already got Gryffindors and a Ravenclaw. Perhaps Theo Nott will 
join the DA, inspire Hermione's affections through his studiousness and such, while he will 
fall for Susan Bones... who will, of course, be harboring a long-standing passion for 
Neville. Which would tie things up quite nicely.

Equally possible would be a more painful scenario in which Luna longs for Ron who longs 
for Hermione who longs (oh, the angst!) for Harry, who longs (oh, the irony!) for Ginny, 
who longs for Dean (as she's told us already), who longs for a Hufflepuff or Slytherin girl. 
Daphne Greengrass? Susan Bones? Hannah Abbott?

I really would not be surprised to see the DA turn into Payton Place for a while, with 
romantic chaos reigning (as the battle against the forces of evil continues) until some 
semblance of order begins to assert itself at the end of the sixth book--just to keep us 
from screaming too loudly as we wait for the seventh!

Antosha, who still believes that we're unlikely to see any homosexual relationships in 
canon, but would greatly welcome such... if only for variety and verisimilitude's sake.