Harry Potter Author Admits Ron Shouldn't Have Ended With Hermione

[Amaror]

The same could be said regarding Ron and Hermione, though.

Well, Rowling should have made Ron achieve more. When I was reading Deathly Hallows, it mentioned that Dumbledore had no interaction with Ron aside from one instance (I think). This was the part where Scrimgeour was handing out the stuff Dumbledore left for Harry, Hermione and Ron. The second "lead" of the series hasn't had more than a few minutes' chat with the headmaster and they're both in every book! Can you imagine that?!

1. No that couldn't be said of Ron and Hermione. Both of them showed clear signs of liking each other more throughout the whole series. It was only really obvious since book 4, but it was there before. It might have not been perfect chemistry but there was definetly something there.

2. Yeah i can. After all Dumbledore was most cencentrated on Harry and had no particular reason to converse with Ron or Hermione other than that they are friends with Harry. Besides Hermione had no really interaction with Dumbledore either, it was just Harry.

I read what Rowling says another time and to me it sounds more like this:
She intended Ron and Hermione to end up together from the start, but feels that it wasn't that fitting in the later books and she mostly did it because she had intended to.
I partially agree. I don't think it was completely unfitting in the end, but it needed a bit more work. They should have gotten more romantic development in the 5th book and started really going out a bit sooner than the last battle.
Then again the romantic relationships were not really the part of the books i was interested in so what do i know...

 

[Toadfish1]

Of all the relationships that ended up happening, this one was by far the least stupid. So, childhood friends who have had unresolved sexual tension since both hit puberty getting together is silly. The 20 year old hugely attractive young woman ending up with a 50 year old hobo who could tear her throat out on a bad night is totally rock solid. Te midget and the savage 50 foot abomination that doesn't even make mechanical or biological sense, totally reasonable.

Edit: Okay, fine, second least stupid. Dumbledore and Grindelwald still makes the best sense.

 

[omega 616]

Shit, the only thing I liked about Harry Potter was the fact the main hero never got the girl 'cos it happens in everything else and it is just so played out.

The fact she went with the geeky, ginger side kick was fucking awesome.

 

[putowtin]

Poor Ron, his one unmitigated success in the series that had the least to do with Harry Potter, and the creator admits that he really shouldn't of had it all. Well I for one am on your side RON! Ron+Hermione=4ever! And don't be dumb, Luna is totally in with Neville Longbottom!

nope, Neville marries Hannah Abbot, who becomes the landlady of the Leaky Cauldron
Luna marries Ralph Scamander, grandson of the author of the book "Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them"

Oh and I know their her books, but I wish she'd stop coming out with statements like this!

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I am more bothered by the fact that Harry ended up with Ginny, as the author of this article said. I always knew that Ron and Hermione would end up together, but...what was it, the second book? The one where Harry completely shuts down the Ginny thing. I was okay with that. And then to have it whip up against suddenly several books later just rubbed me the wrong way. I always liked Cho myself.

 

[oldtaku]

Well, she'll just eventually write another book where Harry and Hermione are divorced and get together.

Anyone want to take any bets?

 

[Evil Smurf]

It always seems that Ginny was just a crush while Hermione was more then that. Hermione and Harry actually need each other better than Ginny knew Harry. As for Ron, I think he should have married some other bird, not from Hogwarts like Draco did. Ginny could have ended up with anyone, as it was established she had the widest dating pool.

 

[Mahorfeus]

Am I missing the part where Rowling actually said that Hermione should have ended up with Harry? Or is the title just clickbait?

At any rate, this kind of reminds me of the whole "Dumbledore is gay" thing. Does it really matter in the end? The worse that can happen is that ten dozen fanfics about how Ron and Hermione's marriage is falling apart will be created - if they have not already.

Though I do question the necessity of pairing any one of the Main Three with another. This coming from someone who likes that Harry wound up with his best friend's sister.

Sorry for that, assumed Rowling meant for Harry to wed Hermione, as it's also the title The Sunday Times is going with in their feature.

Thanks, didn't mean to come off as scathing or anything. Truth be told, I didn't read the source material, so...

On another note, the epilogue as a whole kind of rubbed me the wrong way. It was nice to see that everything went swell for the characters' foreseeable lives, but in some ways it almost felt forced.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

These match-ups certainly "cling to the plot". The characters match up quite well:

Harry and Ginny have been mostly just archetypes of "activist hero" and "damsel in distress." With Harry saving her in Book 2 and Ginny using a love potion on him in Book 6, it makes enough sense that they're together, though the last 2 movies pushed it with them at least almost kissing in every scene together.
Ron and Hermione are foils to each other. He is sensible and caring. She is intelligent and serious.
Neither Neville nor Luna appear in the movies much, but in the later movies, their influence shines bright. Luna reassured Harry and us with her calm attitude and silly outfits. Neville stood up against Voldemort and gave his friends hope in their darkest hour. I think Luna was the prettiest girl/woman in the series, while it seems that Neville became the most handsome man.

I actually think Harry and Luna would have made a really sweet couple, as she's just about the only girl to absolutely not give a damn about him being super-special-chosen-boy, and how her completely crazy theories complimented Harry's fish out of water attitude to all things magical: Where he just kind of accepts that he will never fully comprehend this insane magical world, but Luna subscribes to a whole new sub level of guff that even though doesn't actually exist would in no way surprise him if it did. He seemed to get on really well with her in the books.

 

[Something Amyss]

That's truth in television then, ey?
I've seen lots of couples like that, me ma and da included.

You know why they say "truth is stranger than fiction?" Because fiction has to have some sort of internal consistency.

Then again, that brings me back to the book 7 comment, so....

The same could be said regarding Ron and Hermione, though.

I don't know, Hermione and Ron's borderline antagonism seems to fit. Unless the sole logic is "Hermione's the girl in the group, and Harry's the leader...."

Come on Escapist, I love you guys, but putting headlines like this is just clickbait, bordering on lies. She never said anything on Hermione/Harry and it's not like people need incentive to read any article on HP.

In fairness, this is how it was reported almost everywhere I've seen. The Escapist isn't perfect, but I think we can chalk this up to things other than "clickbiat."

 

[wulf3n]

I didn't read the source. Did she say why Ron shouldn't have ended up with Hemrione?

 

[Something Amyss]

I actually think Harry and Luna would have made a really sweet couple, as she's just about the only girl to absolutely not give a damn about him being super-special-chosen-boy, and how her completely crazy theories complimented Harry's fish out of water attitude to all things magical: Where he just kind of accepts that he will never fully comprehend this insane magical world, but Luna subscribes to a whole new sub level of guff that even though doesn't actually exist would in no way surprise him if it did. He seemed to get on really well with her in the books.

Luna's too good for Harry. I actually sort of feel sorry for Ginny, too, and she barely had any characterisation until the last book or two.

 

[RelexCryo]

Ron and Hermione are foils to each other. He is sensible and caring. She is intelligent and serious.

So, what you are saying is that Ron and Hermione's relationship is like Dr. "Bones" McCoy hooking up with Spock?

 

[Fox12]

There seems to be absolutely no logical reason for them to end up together.

That's truth in television then, ey?
I've seen lots of couples like that, me ma and da included.

Yeah, I don't see what the big deal is. The two characters were always bickering, of course they were going to be together. They probably will need couples counseling, because Ron's a dumb-ass who alienates everyone around him, but that describes... most modern families, really. They'll probably argue, Hermione will burst into tears, then they'll make up later. Normal marriage. I prefer that to "they lived happily ever after."

I don't get the wish fulfillment bit. Does she have a thing for guys like Ron? The only thing that felt forced was Harry and Ginny, since all the main cast members conveniently got to be related at the end, and Harry never seemed to really care about Ginny.

 

[Butterfly]

For some reason my love for the third outing of the series (both book and film) has stuck around, even though I really hate the time travel part. Otherwise, I've more or less reached the point of complete indifference and have forgotten much of what happened. (Voldemort kills Bumbledore, right?)

But I do remember being really angry at how the whole thing ended, and while Ron ending up with Hermione was quite upsetting, it was just a small fish in a gigantic stir fry of why-u-do-dis-author-pls.

 

[faefrost]

Wait, why should Hermione end up with Harry?
Only because he is main protagonist?

I'm not big HP fan, but the fact that female protagonist doesn't end up paired with main protagonist was awesome.

THIS. I took the article to mean not so much that she felt that it was wrong. Rather that she felt Hermione ending up with Ron was sort of outside the normal literary structures for that sort of thing. And if she had to do it all over again, now with more experience as a writer, she would have so structured things better.

 

[DaWaffledude]

You know, she never said anything about pairing Hermione with Harry instead. Just felt that needed to be pointed out.

And yes Ginny could have used more screentime. It doesn't make her and Harry incompatible and from what we see of their interactions, they actually seem like a good fit.

 

[Charli]

Ron/Hermione never offended me to the extent that Harry/Ginny did, though.

To be honest I was quite fine with Ron/Hermione.

It was Ginny that was ill planned. And if she was going to be the titular characters interest, she should have had more to do, and develop. As it is it felt forced, I'd rather Harry just stayed single, that would have been more realistic to me.

BUT as many have said. Who cares.

People write obnoxious amounts of Harry Potter fanfiction. The most the world has ever seen. So in the end if you were so dissatisfied with the book as to get enraged over this, trust me, there's a story out there for you. Just don't go manually searching, look for recommendation lists.

 

[Olas]

You know, I really don't care who ends up marrying who in the epilogue to this fantasy series of good vs evil. Probably the most realistic scenario would be each character remaining single or marrying someone they met years later, but I don't really care because that's never been a significant focus of the books. It's an ancillary detail that would probably have been better left out or left ambiguous anyway.