Essay on H/H in light of OoP (long, VERY long) (SHIP, mostly SHIP)

[pippin_999]

Captain Penny, valiantly struggling to keep her ship off the 
shoals, (are we allowed to CARP around here?) said:

> I believe that OoP sets in motion a trend that had begun 
developing in PoA and GoF: the trend of Harry and Hermione 
becoming partners.  They are in effect equals in leadership 
roles, and though Harry certainly remains the "hero," I think that 
Hermione is increasingly filling the role of "heroine."<

Followed by an extremely well-argued post, detailing the  
closeness of Harry and Hermione in eyestraining detail, to which 
I can only reply with   Harry's own argument (all together now) 
"Yeah, because we're *friends*" 

I will concede that Hermione takes the role of heroine in OOP. I 
will even concede that by literary convention, this entitles her to 
choose the hero of that book as her mate. Ah, but (you knew 
there was going to be a but) who *is* the hero of OOP?

Harry may be the narrative focus and the central character in 
OOP, but that doesn't make him a hero. His name is on the 
cover, but if that makes him a hero then Gilderoy Lockhart is one 
too. <g>

Harry didn't do one single thing to earn a hero's name in OOP. 
Oh, wait, he saved his stupid cousin Dudley from the 
Dementors. That was a brave and decent thing to do--except that 
Dudley wouldn't have been in any danger from  Dementors if 
Harry hadn't been with him, and Harry was only with him 
because he wanted to give Dudley a hard time. That rather 
tarnishes the accomplishment, IMO. Still, you have to give the 
boy credit for it, and I do, but that happens on page 19 (of the US 
edition.) For the subsequent 851 pages, Harry whines, sulks, 
blows up at  people who are trying to help him, ignores 
instructions, gets himself throw off the Quidditch team, leads his 
friends into danger unnecessarily and generally does everything 
*but* save the day. If this were Book One of the saga instead of 
Book Five, you'd be hard put to say Harry was a hero at all. 

So is there somebody else filling the hero's role in Phoenix? 
Someone who, following  an unexpected call to adventure, 
struggles against obstacles and triumphs against the odds? 
Someone who is crowned by success when it seems least 
expected? 

Pippin
exits humming "Weasley Is Our King"