<div dir="ltr"><div>It happens often! I think of my friends from high school, how many of them paired off and married and it's a lot. And then there were those who paired off and did not marry, some by personal choice and some because gay marriage was not (and still is not) legal where I live and again, it's a lot of them. And most of them are still together. So people do marry from relationships formed at school. Some even marry young and have successful marriages.<br>
<br></div>Lynda<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Mar 11, 2014 at 2:11 AM, Shelley <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:k12listmomma@comcast.net" target="_blank">k12listmomma@comcast.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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</p><div>On 2/19/2014 7:33 PM,
<a href="mailto:dumbledore11214@yahoo.com" target="_blank">dumbledore11214@yahoo.com</a> wrote:<br>
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Alla:
<p>As to marriages, sure, I get what they symbolized - I just
think that it would have felt more believable to leave the idea
as to whether it is possible to meet your forever true love and
never, ever date anybody else when you are eleven up to reader's
imagination. Because while I am not the one to deny teenage love
(as I am sure I mentioned before close member of the family met
his wife when they were sixteen-seventeen), I think it is rare
and meeting each other as kids is so rare that could be eye
rolling.<br>
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Shelley now:<br>
I realize I am late in answering this, but I think the pairing of
childhood friends or classmates occurs far more frequently than you
know! <br>
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I, myself, met my husband, in kindergarten. My husband and I are one
of 3 pairs of classmates of our year that married, right after high
school, along with a 4th couple that "refound" each other after a 5
year class reunion, making for 4 marriages of same-year classmates,
but I can show you another handful of classmates of mine who also
married within the school- kids of a different grade. Our school was
a small one, about 250-290 classmates per grade, in a rural area. I
know, from talking to my mother-in-law, that her rural school also
produced multiple marriages of classmates. Given Hogwarts is a
similiar set-up where the same kids attend for many years in a row,
generating a strong intimacy of your classmates, and that school is
segregated by location and lack of interaction with other schools,
pairings between classmates and pairings between kids of different
years is far from a "rare" idea. A city school, where kids interact
daily with kids from other schools in that same city produce a lot
more different school pairings, because the access is there to do
so. <br>
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I also question your "never date anyone else" comment- where did
Rowlings ever say that Ron and Hermione never dated anyone else? We
have from the books that Hermione and Ron didn't go to the ball
together, rather, Hermione had a relationship with Victor Crum, that
continued for some time past the dance. While Ron was oblivious to
"girls", Hermione was not the same about "boys". So much of
Hermione's life, when she was not with Ron and Harry, isn't in the
books, but it is alluded to. Harry was not upset that Hermione was
dating, but Ron seems to be startled by it. Whether Rowlings was
just trying to paint the boys as being new to the dating scene, or a
jealousy by Ron that was the start of his romantic feelings for
Hermione, gosh knows. <br>
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