Why did JKR not explore H/Hr as canon?

[Neri]

No: HPFGUIDX 168677


> Neil: 
> I think more than anything, JKR hooked Hermione with Ron rather than
Harry  
> just to be different.  The male and female leads usually get 
together.  JKR 
> wanted to be different and have the female lead end up with  the
best friend.

Neri:
She may have done it just to be different, but I doubt it. JKR doesn't
seem to be the author that does things only for the sake of being
original or different. She isn't affected much by what people will
say, this or that way. So, I think she realized that a lead female
that is based on the the author getting together with the hero of the
fantasy series would be a formula for a Mary Sue/Gary Stu couple of
the worst kind. It would have also killed the interesting symmetry of
the Trio, as H/Hr would have become the center of interest and Ron
would have become a very secondary character.

Interestingly, JKR said that Ron has acquired many of the
characteristics of her best childhood friend, although he was not
intended that way at first (not consciously, anyway). So Hermione may
actually be a Mary Sue in the sense that she fulfills a hidden wish of
the author -- to have a romance that for some reason didn't work for
the author in RL. But it also could be simply JKR finding it
convenient to describe a relationship that she's very familiar with.
In any case Hermione is still narrowly saved from the worst of
Mary-Sue-ness by Ron being portrayed as the anti-hero more than the
hero.    


> Neil:   
> Unfortunately, in my opinion, she wrote them totally  incompatible.
 An author 
> wanting to do something is one thing.   Convincing her readers that
it is the 
> right thing is a totally different  matter.
> 

Neri:
She doesn't have to convince anybody that they are compatible. This
isn't her job as the author. Her job is to convince us that their
relationship is *interesting*, which is in a sense the opposite (to
keep the romantic tension going the couple needs to be at least
somewhat incompatible, otherwise they'd just live happily ever after
the first or second book, and that would be boring). R/Hr is easily
the most interesting SHIP in the series, much more interesting than
the relationship between Hermione and Harry, So JKR is doing her job
right.