non-verbal spells/SHIP Ron/Hermione

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 151557


> > Magpie:
> > Those things don't seem like non-verbal spells to me.  They seem
> > like they're something built into the magical boat or brick.
> 
> Potioncat:
> But unless we think the old man who rented the cottage to Uncle 
> Vernon was a wizard, the boat was very Muggle.
> 
> Of course, if you were talking about the Hogwarts boats, that 
could 
> be different.

Magpie:
Oops--I totally thought I was talking about a Hogwarts boat.  My 
bad, Hagrid's doing something wordlessly, you're right!

I think another thing that makes things tricky is that magic isn't 
just about brains, necessarily, but growing up.  Hermione is 
described as being smart by a Ravenclaw because she's doing NEWT 
level magic in OotP ("Why aren't you in our house?") but there's 
nothing particularly intelligent about it, that we know, she's just 
able to do a spell.  There's intelligence in her seeing how to 
modify the spell to suit her purposes, but it's not like casting a 
Patronus, which impresses everyone, takes *brains* it just takes a 
certain kind of ability.  That's my roundabout way of saying that 
all adults may be able to cast non-verbal spells, with the challenge 
being as much about growing up than skill.  I would imagine it would 
start to come naturally after a while, if you say a spell a lot.

Susan:
Also, I'd love an example or two of ways in which you've seen Ron
being good at reading people emotionally.  Maybe his guessing at
Hermione's feelings for Viktor... but do we KNOW what those feelings
were?  I think he *was* guessing and might well have *mis*read
friendly feelings as romantic ones.  Anyway, I'd be curious to hear
about times when you've seen this as a strength in Ron.

Magpie:
I think maybe we're off track describing it as reading people etc.  
Sometimes Hermione grasps a situation the right way, sometimes Ron 
does.  Hermione understands Cho's dilemma; Ron more effortlessly 
makes himself popular with the House Elves.  But understanding is 
not the same as empathy, and to me it seems like Ron is more 
naturally empathetic.  Which is not to say he's a pillar of 
sensitivity in the least--sometimes he's clueless.  When he says 
about Hermione, "She's got to have noticed she's got no friends," 
he's being perfectly insightful about Hermione, but also insensitive 
(though not completely so, because he feels badly about what he 
said, even if he doesn't want to feel sorry for her).  

So it sort of comes down to what to make of the fact that as smart 
as Hermione may often be about reading people or grasping a 
situation, Ron's more socially skilled?  We forget that in looking 
at all of Ron's blunders, of course, but in reality Ron's a 
perfectly affable guy who fits in just fine in school.  Hermione 
makes enemies and annoys people and I wouldn't give her so much 
credit as to say she just doesn't care what people think of her.  
She often cares about other things more, but I don't think the 
responses she gets from people are always what she wants.  She must 
realize, for instance, that although she's the brains behind the DA, 
she can't lead it.

So I think maybe we're unfair to talk about one or the other being 
the feeling one...neither of them is super skilled at understanding 
people all the time.  They just have different situations that they 
deal with more naturally.  Hermione is good at certain things, like 
tricking Umbridge into the forest, blackmailing Rita, picking out 
which boy would make Ron angry.  She's bad at other things.  Ron, 
probably due greatly to his role in his large family, is very good 
at letting people be themselves and knowing when not to interfere 
(he doesn't so often take control of social interactions the way 
Hermione does either).  He's bad at other things.  Sometimes both 
their strengths get read as their being the one who's the best with 
people, but that might just be inaccurate.  Or sometimes it may not 
be a case of not understanding but just not wanting to act.  Ron, 
for instance, surely knows that going above the Twins' heads to 
Molly would make them listen, just as Hermione does in OotP.  Only 
Ron also knows what the fallout for that would be if it were him to 
do it, and that the Twins will just continue what they're doing 
behind Hermione's back.  As a couple I would imagine Ron would be 
doing a lot more smoothing over for Hermione than vice versa, even 
if Hermione would think otherwise.

-m