#don't forget about my girls ... gof

[s1lentlamb]

added muses ;

NELL CRAIN ( book ) ; haunting of hillhouse .

THEODORA ( book ) ; haunting of hillhous

LARTEN CREPSLEY ; darren shan / cirque du freak

MIKA ; darren shan / cirque du freak

[greenerteacups]

What’s your watsonian and doylist explanation for why Draco doesn’t end up with Pansy in the epilogue, and not even Daphne who was in his hear, but Astoria :) ?

It's really interesting! I think there are two different decisions being made here: the first, "why not Pansy," and the second, "why Astoria." The first is much easier to answer, at least from the Doylist perspective, so I'll tackle that one first: JKR hates Pansy Parkinson, and she didn't want to reward Pansy by having her end up with the man of her dreams. She based Pansy on the girls who used to bully her in school, and Pansy never, ever escapes that one-dimensional article of characterization — in the final battle, Pansy's the one who stands up and tells everyone to sell out Harry (which, uhhh, for a scared seventeen-year-old terrified of being killed in a major battle, is a wholly understandable move, even if it's a certifiably bitchy thing to do). So she ends the series on the same note where she began: selfish, cowardly, cruel. In that respect, for her to end up with her crush would be a sort of "kindness" that Rowling was loathe to pay her. I also think that Rowling wanted to hint at the possibility of late-stage redemption for Draco: a lot of the extracanonical info we get about Astoria suggests that she was a genuinely kind person who "softened" him, which, while I don't count it for canon purposes, does tell us what Rowling's vision of their marriage was. I don't think Pansy would have "softened" Draco in any universe, and I say this as someone who likes her.

The Watsonian explanation is, I suspect, that Draco didn't actually like Pansy all that much. We don't see him show a great deal of affection for her, or at least no more than he shows for any of his other cronies in Slytherin. He does put his head in her lap at one point during HBP, and they go to the Yule Ball together in GOF, but that relationship reads more to me like a teenage-family-friends-dating-because-it's-convenient pairing than something that both of them really want. Pansy definitely has a crush on Draco, but I don't know how much of that is real affection versus the (correct) perception that he's the leader of their social pack, and confers a lot of status on whatever girl he's with. I also think that social-climbing element of their dynamic might turn Draco off, because he's pretty irritated by Pansy whenever they're not canoodling or peacocking together. That said, Pansy (my beloved) is a kind of irritating person in general.

Why Astoria instead of Daphne I have absolutely no clue; we don't get characterization for either of them. The only reason we know Daphne exists is because it's mentioned that she takes her O.W.L.s at the same time as Harry. It's unclear to me what choosing the younger sister is supposed to do except (possibly) explain why Harry doesn't recognize her by name at King's Cross (though after nineteen years, he'd be forgiven for forgetting a few names). I wonder if JKR hadn't just realized that a surprising number of her couples had ended up with someone from their own house, year, or both — and there are a lot in "both," e.g. Ron and Hermione, George and Angelina, James and Lily, Molly and Arthur — and she wanted to mix it up a little by pairing off one of the core cast with a total unknown, i.e., someone who wasn't even mentioned in the series. We can furnish post-facto reasons that Draco might have been drawn to someone younger: Astoria would have been only in fourth year when he joined the Death Eaters, so she wouldn't have known him as well, and he might like that she doesn't have a preconceived notion of who he is. That gap separates her from his life at Hogwarts and allows him to connect with her on different terms. But at the end of the day, we don't know her well enough to say much more than that.

[lunarfly]

Defending Harmione against some arguments Romione shippers use:

1. "Harry found Hermione boring."

Ok, I see where this is coming from. There is a scene in GoF where Harry thinks that Hermione isn't the same as Ron, and that having Hermione as his best friend would mean much more studying and much less having fun. But that doesn't mean he thought Hermione was boring, he just found studying and hanging out in the library boring, and since Hermione spent most of her time studying in the library, Harry didn't have as much fun. Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE Romione but I hate it when Romione shippers use that scene as an argument against Harmione, because Ron found it just as (if not more) boring to study at the library as Harry did! So it's completely unfair.

2. "Harry found Hermione unattractive."

Firstly, people's looks and attractiveness don't determine whether you like the person or not, you don't have to think the person is stunning to fall in love with them. Secondly, Harry didn't find her unattractive, he literally says he doesn't think she's ugly. And when Hermione was at the ball, Harry found her so pretty that his jaw dropped. He didn't expect her to look that pretty, and that's a bit sad, but once he did realize it was her, his opinion on her looks kinda changed and he started to see her as an actually beautiful girl ever since.

3. "Harry is too short-tempered for Hermione."

I've seen some Romione shippers say this, and I've been shocked every time I have. In OoTP, when Harry was having a hard time, was getting upset about everything and was yelling constantly, Hermione was the one person to handle it well and calm him down. She was the one to deal with him, she was the one who understood him best, knew exactly how he was feeling. If you don't remember, you can reread OoTP, and pay more attention to those moments, it will be clear afterwards. *Quick note though, Luna was the second person who understood Harry well, and Harry didn't have trouble talking to her, which is why I admire their pure friendship. 🥺

4. "Harry and Hermione barely even talked when Ron wasn't around."

No, that's not true. The thing is, Harry spent more time with Ron, obviously, because he shared a room with him, took the same classes with him and etcetera, and he was more similar to Ron as well, so it would have been easier to talk to him about things like Quidditch and studying. But when he was with Hermione, most of the time Ron was there too, and they discussed the most important things together, they wouldn't talk about their plans without Ron, they always included each other(🥺🥺🥺). And just like that, he barely had any time without Hermione. But when he did, (ex. GoF) he DOES talked to her about anything, and Hermione had no problem understanding him. If you've noticed (reread OoTP if you haven't), whenever Harry had a problem, he always went up to Hermione to get advice. And so many Romione shippers also use the scene from The Deathly Hallows against Harmione, when they're so shocked about Ron leaving them that they can't do anything alone and don't talk. They say it's because Harry and Hermione can't get along, and they need Ron to do something together, but that's not true at all. Actually, Harry was always the bridge to Hermione and Ron, but, forgetting about that, when Ron left them, they were so sad and miserable, that they lost all confidence, sadness took over them, and Harry didn't know what to say to Hermione, as he was very bad at comforting people, but you can tell he was paying lots of attention to her. That's why they didn't talk or interact much. And if you remember, right before Ron left, there's a paragraph talking about how Harry and Hermione were the only ones talking and Ron was sitting in the background, complaining about food. Please get the facts right before you say something. <3

5. "Their relationship would be so boring."

Ok, I don't fully understand what you mean by this. If you mean it would be boring for the audience, then you're not a real fan of Hermione. If you'd rather read about her crying over Ron for your own entertainment than have her happy but "boring", you can't call yourself a real fan of her, sorry, I don't make the rules.

But, if you mean that Harry and Hermione would be bored in the relationship, then let me say something against that. If you think they wouldn't be able to have a conversation with each other, then you need to reread my point number 4. If you're saying they wouldn't be able to interact and have fun together, then you're straight up lying. They've spent their entire lives together, they grew up together, went through all of the adventures together (including Ron too of course, but Hermione was also there when Ron wasn't, but I can't blame Ron), they've literally lived together so idk how you'd expect them to be bored. If there's something Ron and Hermione could do to have fun and not be "bored" that Harry and Hermione couldn't, name it, because I'm really curious. Yes, Ron was very funny, he has made Harry and Hermione laugh a few times throughout the series (and I love him for that), but jokes aren't all it takes to keep a strong relationship.

That is all I'm going to cover for today, there's so many more reasonable arguments against them that I'll fight against in the future, but, for now, that's it. I mostly see Romione or Dr*rry shippers say these, but others say them as well. As for Drarry, it's pure toxicity, basically the LGBT version of Dr*mione. As for Romione, it's an amazing ship. I love it so much, I'll defend Ron over Draco and I won't accept Ron bashing for anything, not even for Harmione. He deserves better than Draco stans coming at him for nothing. Romione is pure, Ron would do anything for Hermione, and vice versa. And the same things happen with Harry & Hermione. That's why these ships are so similar and I love them both very very very much. <3

Also, I'm putting this post under the Romione tag because I have also defended Ron in this, and I truly love Romione, so please don't be offended by that. 🥺 As for the Dramione/Drarry tag, y'all can be offended as much as you want. IDC.