OOP: Some shipping thoughts

[psychic_serpent]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Neil Ward" <neilward at d...> 
wrote:
> I'm probably going to look back on these initial comments and 
wonder what I
> was thinking when it clearly states "xxxx" on page 581.  Anyway...
> 
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> 
> I don't usually comment on shipping, but there were some rather 
> heavy signs and hints in this book, not to mention actually 
> kissing.
> 
> Did JKR really need to cut away at the moment Harry and Cho were 
> about to kiss?  It's not as if the next scene had them in bed 
> smoking post-coital cigarettes [note to self: would probably be 
> pipes in the wizarding world]. 

Ha!  Quite possibly.  I'm thinking now how very peculiar it was that 
JKR told Katie Couric there might be snogging between Ron and 
Hermione.  I don't exactly call her peck on the cheek before the 
Quidditch match "snogging."  The only real indication we get of 
true "snogging" was whatever action Roger was getting at the next 
table in the tearoom.  If Harry and Cho truly "snogged" it would 
have been nice to know.  I do think she could have been a little 
clearer about what was going on there, even if she wrote about him 
pulling away from her when the kiss ended, which would be an oblique 
way to communicate what was happening and still keep the rating way 
down.  She wasn't afraid for the swearing to increase a bit; why was 
she so afraid of this?  Even the films are PG rated, but that scene 
was adamantly G.  Most kisses between fifteen and sixteen year olds 
are NOT rated G.
 
> Okay, Hermione really likes Harry and pushes him to chase Cho, 
> because she realises he likes Cho and thinks he needs something to 
> take his mind off his mind. This "why don't you go after Cho and 
> by the way mention that you think I'm ugly" behaviour could be 
> interpreted as clear evidence of Ha/He from Hermione, but Harry, 
> being rather preoccupied, is almost oblivious.

I don't think that's an indication of Ha/He so much as Hermione 
being worried that Cho might have put some stock in the Witch Weekly 
article from the year before.  On top of that, Harry was tactless 
enough to have a date on Valentine's Day and then tell his date that 
he was going off to meet another girl, with whom he has been 
romantically linked in the past and with whom he still spends a lot 
of time.

> I expect to be roasted alive for saying this, but imo, JKR is 
> definitely heading more towards a R/He ship now – the bickering, 
> the comparison to Mr & Mrs Weasley, Hermione's letter to Krum to 
> make Ron jealous.  It seems rather obvious, but she is tending to 
> follow the obvious lines rather than potentially inventive 
> theories hidden between the lines.

I've really always thought that we'd eventually see R/Hr, and with 
this book I'm now hoping that's not going to happen.  That might 
change with book six, but only if Hermione grows a heart in the next 
book and matures a great deal.  Frankly, after reading OotP I was 
hoping Hermione would go off to Bulgaria with Krum and we never see 
her again.  She was infuriating in this book.  When Nearly Headless 
Nick gets shirty with Ron because he doesn't have blood running 
through his veins, we get, "Well done, Ron," snapped Hermione.  For 
pete's sake.  Nick was being as stupidly sensitive about blood as 
Myrtle was about breathing.  It's hardly Ron's fault if ghosts have 
no sense of proportion about these things. This was uncalled for, 
and it wasn't the only incident like this. She was horrid to both 
Ron and Harry all through the book.  

I'm of the opinion that Ron deserves far better than Hermione at 
this point.  I mean, he gives her perfume for Christmas and she 
gives him a shouting homework schedule?  He's named a prefect and 
what does she do?  She shows how shocked she is.  I can't really see 
Ron with Luna either, but at this point I'd rather see him with 
anyone else apart from Hermione until she gets a lot nicer, more 
mature and more respectful of her closest friends' feelings.  Right 
now I think she's a complete nightmare.

> I felt there was a hint of Hermione/Draco in comparison to Lily's 
> attitude to James in Snape's memory and later marriage to same 
> arrogant bully, but I think the "mudblood" thing is a major 
> barrier to any sort of romance, unless Draco performs a 
> spectacular U-turn.  I don't see any evidence that JKR is going to 
> convert Draco into a nice young man.

I have to say, I didn't see a single hint of Hermione/Draco.  
There's absolutely no love lost there, IMO.  Lily, on the other 
hand, stuck up for Snape, something Hermione's never done for Draco, 
and certainly something he'd never do for her.  Snape called Lily a 
Mudblood after that, but it was almost like he was maintaining a 
role by doing it.  I'm holding out for the revelation of a secret 
Lily/Severus relationship.  While the things James and Sirius did to 
Snape were terrible, I still have a hard time believing that that is 
his worst memory, and also that that is the sole source of animus 
between them.  Losing Lily to such a prat would make more sense as a 
sort of last-straw reason for the hatred, and I should think his 
worst memory would be almost getting mauled by a werewolf and then 
being saved by Potter, who stole his girl.

> Ron obviously thinks Harry should be with Ginny and is surprised 
> that she is seeing other boys, indicating his own immaturity (i.e. 
> harking back to an old crush she had on Harry and thinking she is 
> still 10 and a virgin). There were hints that Luna Lovegood has 
> her eye on Ron, so I speculate that she may be used to wake 
> Hermione up to her unrealised interest in Ron in Book 6.

Ron was definitely referring to Harry when he suggested that Ginny 
choose someone better next time.  They both seem to be oblivious at 
this point.  I'm not sure Ron showed any interest in Luna--I think 
it was the other way around.  If Hermione only shows a true interest 
in Ron because of his being involved with another girl (such as when 
Fleur kissed him in GoF) that would be most dissatisfying.  He was 
coughing up slugs for her when he was twelve.  Does she not get that 
he fancies her rotten?  Not that I understand why now, as I said.

> Back to the ? for Harry, I think Tonks is a possible match, which 
> may be why she was introduced.  The (slightly) older woman, who 
> knows a few tricks...

Well, that would certainly be a twist, although I have a hard time 
imagining her making a risky move like that when she couldn't even 
bear to show a wee bit of Harry and Cho's kiss.  I don't think I saw 
Tonks as quite the Mary Sue some people did.  I was actually waiting 
for it to come out that Harry was also a Metamorphmagus (which is, I 
agree, a very clunky word and a clumsy combination of Greek and 
Latin).  After hearing her ability described, it seemed very close 
to what Harry did in growing back his hair when he was young, when 
his aunt and uncle gave him terrible haircuts.  So maybe when JKR 
said he wasn't going to be an Animagus, like his dad, she was 
smirking and keeping this one to herself?  


--Barb