Harry Potter: Appreciating Harry and Hermione’s friendship
The fact that the main character in Harry Potter did not end up with his female best friend was a departure from typical storytelling, and that is why it works!
I was too young to understand this when I first read Harry Potter, but a lot of people who read the books when they were older, were very much taken aback by the fact that the romantic pairings J.K. Rowling chose were Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione.
After all, friends-to-lovers is the most well-known trope in the history of tropes, and hey, Harry and Hermione apply!
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Perhaps this is why, to this day, so many people hang on to that possibility. Maybe that’s why, years after canon went another way, there are still arguments about what the right choice was.
Now, of course, when it comes to ships, it’s likely we will never agree, and I have no intention of trying to convince anyone (will also not likely be convinced of the opposite, so don’t even try), but I do have to say that growing up in a world where Harry and Hermione could just be friends was …refreshing.
There are a lot of expectations placed on little girls, from a young age. You have to be pretty and smart and you have to be self-sufficient, but oh, you also have to find love and who better to love than the guy who’s always been your best friend!
Even if you’ve always sorta thought of him as a brother.
Because that’s the thing, as much as they make sense on paper, I don’t believe there was ever any indication in the books that Harry and Hermione ever thought of each other as anything other than …well, friends.
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Which is more than okay. It’s normal. We might be girls, but we don’t fall for ALL our friends, not in real life.
And yes, you can love your friends, and hell, stand in front of a curse for them, without that meaning that you also want to make out with them.
I know this because I grew up with Harry and Hermione, with a friendship that was caring, and real, and not rooted in a romantic possibility, but in a deep respect for what the other person was. In fact, at times, I think I learned more about love, in general, by not seeing them fall in love than I did from seeing the couples that did.
Romantic stories, as much as we might end up liking them, are told every day. Stories of the kind of friendship that would sacrifice everything, are seldom seen. Especially when that friendship so happens to be between a man and a woman.
Next. The Golden Trio: Proof that Harry, Ron, and Hermione are friendship goals in Harry Potter!. dark
And we should probably appreciate them more when we do get them!