The Ministry Battle: Anti-Ship (was: Rewriting OoP; some gender & SHIP replies)

[psychic_serpent]

Pippin wrote:
 
> When Harry chases Bella back through the Brain Room after 
> Sirius dies,  he leaps over Luna, who is groaning on the floor, 
> Ginny,who, by the sound of it has just come to, Ron who giggles 
> feebly, and  Hermione who is still unconscious. So at this point, 
> Ron has  fought off the brain, apparently single handed and has 
> stayed with the unconscious Hermione all through the fight in the 
> Death Chamber.>>>>>>>>>>>

Penny wrote:

> Well, er.......okay.  But, isn't Ron also defending Ginny and 
> Luna?  It's not as though Ron and Hermione are alone, after all.  
> I also just don't believe he made any conscious choices in this 
> scenario either.  
 
I do think JKR made a conscious decision here, however, to yank our 
chains some more concerning who was going to die.  I didn't have the 
impression that there was shippy stuff going on in the sequence 
depicting the fight at the Ministry.  The important aspects seemed 
to be a) equating Neville with Harry (pushing home the idea that 
they're doppelgangers and that Neville, just as easily as Harry, 
could have been marked by Voldemort); and b) making us think just 
about ANYONE could be the one to buy the farm.  

The purpose of Neville and Harry being in one place and the other 
four in another was, IMO, to hide them from Harry, and therefore 
from the reader.  A tension was created so that we didn't know 
whether one of the four was going to be the infamous death.  
Frankly, by that point in the book I was getting a little tired of 
the death red herrings.  Thus far the possibility of death had been 
dangled before us concerning Arthur Weasley, Hagrid, McGonagall and 
Dumbledore, at the very least.  During the fight we were also, I 
think, supposed to think that it could be Ron, Hermione, Ginny or 
Luna, and when Harry was with Neville, there were times it seemed it 
could be him (Neville, that is).  

I think another reason for the other four to be out of the way for a 
while is that three of the four--and maybe Luna, as well--could have 
been candidates for helping Sirius defend himself against Bellatrix, 
and JKR needed to limit the help available to him.  It seems very 
unlikely that separating the four of them from Harry & Neville had 
any shippy ulterior motives about it.  It was more like the Trio 
from the earlier books had been doubled, and Harry was on his own 
once more, even though he was with his doppelganger (they could be 
considered one person), while Hermione and the anti-Hermione (Luna) 
were also together, along with Ron and Ginny (male and female 
Weasleys).

--Barb