(Mods, I searched around for a thread like this, but I couldn't find one. However, my search skills are pretty full of holes and it's more than likely that I missed a thread somewhere that's a duplicate of this. If so, I'm awfully sorry and I'd be much obliged if you'd just merge/delete this. )

I don't know about the rest of you, but I've found that the best pick-me-up for post-HBP blues is to hear stories about other readers - casual readers (not us delusional, rabid webfans ) - who also saw the Harry/Hermione dynamic and were pretty surprised (and maybe just a little bit upset) that it didn't come to pass in HBP. Finding those people make me feel like we really aren't just a bunch of weirdos, and also it leaves me with a big smile on my face.

So, please, share your stories of friends and relatives who are H/Hr shippers, however passive. It doesn't matter whether they ship merely because of the movies (after all, who can't love Dan and Emma in their roles?), or if they're pretty decent fans who got HBP on the first day it came out. Tell us about how they smiled at the hug at the end of the CoS movie, or how they turned to you once they'd finished GoF and inquired about the kiss on the cheek. Tell us about the frustration they shared with you once you'd both finished HBP, and the means you took to counteract it together. Just tell us about those other H/Hrs out there and let the delusionals know that they're not alone!

To start off the thread, I'll share a story about my little sister. She's not a Harry Potter fan at all, really - she's seen the movies and she's listened patiently to my chatter, but she's not obsessed by any means, but when I told her about the shipping developments in HBP, she nearly cried. It's honestly not even my influence because I've tried my hardest not to sway her (I actually don't think many people know how diehard a fan of H/Hr I am), but she really did think that Harry/Hermione was going to happen and felt awful that it wasn't going to. So I hugged her and led her to the happy shippy bits in OotP.

Another one is my best friend, who is a very pronounced Heron. She's one of the few people who knows about my love for H/Hr, and we've had some pretty good debates about the ships in HP, generally ending with a decision to agree to disagree. But when HBP came out, she told me that she wasn't very satisfied with the developments in R/Hr and H/G and that although she'd never admitted it before, I had convinced her in some small degree about the possibility of H/Hr and she was rather surprised that they didn't have much rapport in this book at all.

What about the rest of you? I'm sure you've all got at least one story to give us support with.

GOOD IDEA!

i'll share my story regarding my older sister...she hasn't read a single harry potter book, she's seen the movies, she likes RON's character, and yet she feels like H/Hr should be a couple..and i tell her stuff from the books and i make sure i dont convince her that H/Hr should be together but she also feels that they are meant for each other ... [SIZE=7]

My older sister 'ships H/Hr. She's not a fanatical fan - she doesn't look up websites, or anything - but she still 'ships them. When I told her of the MN interview, she was like, "Eh - she's obviously writing for kids, and not of the real world."

Unfortunately, though, the rest of my family 'ships R/Hr. But they don't really care about the romance.

well. I don't have anyone who is really into Harry POtter or H/hr shipper. But I took my younger sister and my three cousin to see PoA,...and after they saw that movie. They are all saying that Harry/Hermione are very "romantic" well I told them..all about these two lovebird and D/E how they have had "great chermistry" on and off set..blab..blab..everytime they mention about Hps world. I told them everything and I never stop talking on,..and on. But they seem to "understand" and "See" waht I mean..when they saw Movie.

My sister in law,..she isn't fan either..but when she saw Poa. She said that Hermione's is good for "harry" and she said she "hate ron"

that is my Family's story about how they are "H/hr shipper"

If anyone here's read the book Midwives...anyway, the author, Chris Bohjalian, writes for my newspaper, and even he saw the H/Hr tendencies (though his article did come out the week before HBP). Unfortunatly, after the release of HBP, my grandmother, adn avid Harmonian, comverted! Nooo!

I had a reasonable number of interested students in my Grade 12 English class (covering for a term), and we managed to get into the shipping debates of Harry Potter. I issued a challenge to the class to champion several romantic pairings, and to defend it with every literary reference or any other pertinent resource, cited properly, and the champion ship would be the one whose essays were the most convincing. Most of the class didn't have a real concern over Harry Potter books, so I was assured dutiful school work; I would then mark these papers like I would their final, so that they all got a taste of end-of-year expectations, and were all marked on the same scale, with minimum requirements set for research purposes (including citation from all 5 books). Class presentation and defense of your paper was mandatory.

I had 6 papers for H/Hr, 5 for H/G and 6 for R/Hr.

5 of the 6 H/Hr papers were the only A's I handed out. They're also the reason why I ship H/Hr, having been a "casual reader" until that point.

That's great! Teacher confirmed by his pupils!

Erm... I don't know any shippers in real life, let alone Harmonians, and my family groans when I start talking about HP in the first place, so I don't really have any fuzzy-feeling-stories to tell. Sorry.

My younger brother never read the books (still trying to convince him), but he's seen the movies. He and I both agree that H/Hr seem like the ideal couple, while his wife and my younger sister think otherwise.

Hmm, interesting.

Just stylistically, what was it about the H/Hr papers that made them more A-worthy than the R/Hr papers, out of curiosity?

Was the writing style better, grammar better, or did they defend their arguments better, or what?

Wow, Obsidian Warlock, your students must have so much fun in your class. When I was in senior English we had to read boring stuff like Joyce, Plato, Camus, Sartre and Beckett. I was always telling my teacher we should read something the students could identify with more.

Both my sister and mom ship H/H. My mom, strangely enough, still believes H/H will happen in canon, even after reading HBP and learning about the interview. Shame on me that she has more faith than me in our shared ship!

My best friend liked the Harry Potter series as a nice read before bed. Every night he read a chapter, and he enjoyed the whole magical world thing. JKR had indeed created a very entertaining world with borrowed creatures and believable characters.

He too felt the Harry/Hermione vibe in the books, though he did not think too much of it. He wouldn't mind whichever pairings that would come, because he didn't expect much of it from the books. However, if he were to choose, he would choose a Harmony couple. Actually, he didn't think Harry/Ginny could happen, because Well, then, I was relieved to notice I wasn't suffering from biased shipping induced Ginny-bashing fever.

And it seems most of my Harry Potter casual reading friends (some are still waiting for the portuguese version) think the same - H/G... sucked.

As for the rest of the plot, all had different opinions, so I won't dwell in there.

Well, I'm not sure about shippers of Harry and Hermione, since not many of my friends actually like Harry Potter. Though, I have a friend, and she likes Harry Potter, I'm not sure if she ship and pairings at all, all I can say is that she likes Harry Potter. I also have a best friend, who reads Harry Potter, though again, I don't think she ships any pairings. Though I think I do have a friend who used to ship Harry and Hermione. It's sad though, 'cuz now, she gave up on the ship and went with Ron and Hermione instead (because of book six). I was quite annoyed when she started talking about Ron and Hermione and telling me that they kissed in real life (which I find rather amusing to listen to). Anyways, I don't think there's some of my friends who ships Harry and Hermione. Sorry.

I have a cousin who reads HP books in less than 12 hours, even OOTP! he's always been an R/Hr fan, and we always end up having arguments (nothing serious though, just exchanges of opinions) about them. But after he read HBP, he converted to H/Hr! He thought that everything seemes so forced and rushed, especially H/G.

There's also my brother, who doesn't care about the romance plot in HP. ut after he read HBP, he started complaining more than I do! It's really weird, but anyway, another fan converted!



I'm really interested in reading their essays. Could you elaborate on the fact that 5 out of 6 H/Hr got the only A's in the class? Just curious...

Good idea for a thread. I don't have too many stories to tell, because most of my friends and family members that are HP fans don't 'ship much at all. But when HBP came out, my friend who normally ships Harry/Luna, was furious. She said that R/Hr and H/G was RIDICULOUS. When I asked her if she still shipped H/L, she said, "Well... sort of but. But... DUDE! I can see that it's not going to happen. H/Hr clearly WAS. Until HBP."

I found this rather amusing, although I really don't like to bash R/Hr shippers. They are certainly entitled to their own opinions.

Hey all my brother in-law hasnt read the books and have only seen the movies but he is a H/Hr shipper (to an extent of course) he isnt die hard fan and he dosent read fanfiction (like me ) but he sincerely believes that H/Hr will happen even after HBP hehe he just said that this had to happen and that the last book will clear things out. As for me I think everyone was OOC and this encourages my faith because with these relationships nothing is the same, the characters we fell in love with were diminishing in HBP (but of course all this delusion is clouding my thinking ) hehe




~*Your Delusional Bookworm Tamjam*~

I live in southern USA and if I mention Harry Potter any, I get the whole "YOUR A DEVIL WORSHIPPER!!" treatment. It's not fun. My little sister, who's only ever seen the movies, likes H/Hr. She's 12, she thinks that Harry and Hermione would be better suited, because they always seem to have the hardships together, and their friendship keeps building, wheras the friendship with Ron, in her words is "just there."

My father thinks R/Hr, but he's only seen the movies (he doesnt pay attention) and read the first book. he says that Ron would be able to "lighten Hermione up, she seems to serious." Then again, him and my mother are very similiar to R/Hr. They bicker ALLOFTHETIME! and I despise, and am thus quite unhappy. I think it's part of the reason why I like H/Hr. Because my parents are so much like the opposition, and I hate that aspect of them. They can carry the smallest thing into a huge fight, and I'm often the mediator. Sad, isn't it?

My older sister (21) says that I don't understand romance and that Ron and Hermione balance each other. Then I pointed out moments in the book, and she didn't have much else to say. I showed the the lack of development for Ginny, the put-downs of Ron towards Hermione, and Hermiones utter devotion to Harry in books 1-5. She's only read the books once, she says that R/Hr is "obvious" and I told her about the Herons "obvious as trees exist" motto thing, and well, she thought it was quite stupid.

I'm--well--I'm basically alone in my ship, around here. Even the HP mailing list I'm in is more Heron than anything else. It was sort of a Part Role Play list, and I was indeed Hermione. Yes. I had the honor of playing that role. Everyone was just trying to get me and "Ron" together and "Harry" was supposed to be sweet for "Ginny", who was the ML's owner. I kept annoying Ginny by flirting with Harry. Lol. And Ron kept being a git because I was being uncooperative. They're all friends of mine, so they couldn't kick me out, but I was pretty much alone. Except... the character that played Hedwig. Friend of mine too. She's not always on, so you can say she's a casual reader. She flies in, reads the posts and then leaves a "hoot!" just so we know she's dropping in.

One day, she began to get more responsive in the ML. She was always deferring to my Hermione character and "pecking" Ginny. This was way before the release of OotP.

"Hedwig", played by my friend Angie, and I talked about HBP lately (the ML's long gone) and she confessed that she always thought it was Harry and Hermione. She said she was surprised at the pairing in HBP, but since she wasn't a big Harmionian or anything like that, it hardly mattered to her. Just that she thinks any other ship wouldn't make all that much sense to her. She said something like (and I remind you that she's a very casual reader), "Well, I think they'll still end up together, anyway. There's book seven, you know." I think maybe Hedwig made my day.