Harry and Jane

[psychic_serpent]

Personally, I never saw any similarities between Darcy and Draco 
other than a preponderence of similar letters in their names, and I 
certainly see no similarities between Hermione and Elizabeth, let 
alone a Harry/Ginny parallel in Emma.

I don't believe that JKR ever intends to echo any of the Austen 
plots, romantic or otherwise, in her novels.  (If we ever discover 
what on earth got Lily and James together that opinion could change, 
but I still don't see her doing it with Harry's generation.)  What I 
see in the existing HP books which is sometimes Austen-esque are her 
descriptions of people, such as the Dursleys (especially Petunia and 
Marge) and her use of McGonagall.  McGonagall's remarks to Trelawney 
during the Christmas feast in PoA are a good example of this, and 
some of McGonagall's moments in OotP (especially in regard to 
Umbridge) are practically classic Austen.  Minerva McGonagall is, I 
believe, JKR's chief homage to Jane (although Sprout sometimes gets 
a sprinkling of Austen).  Percy has, of course, always seemed like a 
composite of all of the stiffer humor-challenged Austen characters, 
but he was a fifty-year-old at heart even when he was fifteen.  IMO, 
the younger characters (in which I can't bring myself to include 
Percy) resemble Austen characters and their actions as much as 
Britney Spears resembles Beverly Sills.  

--Barb