The whole premise of Harry Potter, starting from book 1 chapter 1, is that most people are just Muggles, while some people are Wizards
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I think the focus on H/Hr as central characters overlooks the importance of wizard breeding that still underlies the 'verse. Harry is a full-blooded wizard, but he was raised among muggles and so isn't ready to fully establish a new wizarding dynasty without a wizard-raised wife. Hermione, likewise, needs a to marry into an established wizard family.
The Weasleys represent the Natural Nobility of the wizarding world in very particular way. The aspect the books focus on is the warmth and inclusiveness of their family life, but it just happens to be a family life derived from an impeccable lineage. To satisfy the traditional mythic requirements of the story, everybody has to end up around the big Weasley table together, so the final pairings are the only possible outcome.
On a more anecdotal level, I see two other problems with a H/Hr marriage. The first is that I think marriage to Harry would ultimately result in diminishing Hermione. She can be comfortably alpha with Ron and he'll never challenge her career choices, nor will she have to sacrifice them for him. Mrs. Hermione Potter would end up making some of the same horrible bargains struck by Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama. With Ron, she can shine unobstructed.
The second is a little quirkier, and has to do with a personal experience of mine. I was raised in the Catholic church, but I'm now a member of the Episcopal congregation at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Almost no one in the congregation is a cradle Episcopalian. There are a lot of other recovering Catholics, quite a few converted Jews, and a lot of latecomers to religion of any kind. About 15 years ago we decided to start a new Sunday School program, and we realized that none of the volunteers involved had been raised in the church. We had absolutely no idea about the childhood culture of Episcopalians. We were well intentioned, high educated, and utterly clueless about what we were trying to create. Until we actively recruited some ringers from the "natives" of the congregation, we were at a total loss about cultural formation. This is how I imagine it would be if Harry and Hermione had a family. In a lot of ways, they'll always be ex-pats in the wizard world. The story needs more tradition than that to tie things up.
That's all fine, if repellant - I never thought of it as a *marriage* narrative, and the whole property/breeding thing just strikes me as gross. I don't have anything against Ron/Hr, though. It's fine, if incredibly uninteresting to me. My point is that this particular criticism, this hatred of H/Hr, based on a rejection the belief in the superiority of some types of people over others (which was a widely made argument at the time of the meltdown), is at odds with the central premise of the book.
I confess to knowing next to nothing about the meltdown or kerfuffle or whatever it was, so I can't comment about how that philosophy was used. And I'd hardly say that Harry is the Mr. Darcy who rescues the Weasleys from genteel obscurity. But marriage is one natural conclusion of a classical story arc -- they all live happily ever after, etc. -- so it's not a trivial consideration.
What's not a trivial consideration? Marriage? I don't think I said it was, and I'm sorry if it sounded that way, but I don't really think that marriage is an obvious component of teen stories or of the kind of magical-adventure narrative in HP. She chose to have a million weddings at the end, but I don't think there was any generic consideration that required her to.
The Weasleys represent the Natural Nobility of the wizarding world in very particular way. The aspect the books focus on is the warmth and inclusiveness of their family life, but it just happens to be a family life derived from an impeccable lineage. To satisfy the traditional mythic requirements of the story, everybody has to end up around the big Weasley table together, so the final pairings are the only possible outcome.
On a more anecdotal level, I see two other problems with a H/Hr marriage. The first is that I think marriage to Harry would ultimately result in diminishing Hermione. She can be comfortably alpha with Ron and he'll never challenge her career choices, nor will she have to sacrifice them for him. Mrs. Hermione Potter would end up making some of the same horrible bargains struck by Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama. With Ron, she can shine unobstructed.
The second is a little quirkier, and has to do with a personal experience of mine. I was raised in the Catholic church, but I'm now a member of the Episcopal congregation at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Almost no one in the congregation is a cradle Episcopalian. There are a lot of other recovering Catholics, quite a few converted Jews, and a lot of latecomers to religion of any kind. About 15 years ago we decided to start a new Sunday School program, and we realized that none of the volunteers involved had been raised in the church. We had absolutely no idea about the childhood culture of Episcopalians. We were well intentioned, high educated, and utterly clueless about what we were trying to create. Until we actively recruited some ringers from the "natives" of the congregation, we were at a total loss about cultural formation. This is how I imagine it would be if Harry and Hermione had a family. In a lot of ways, they'll always be ex-pats in the wizard world. The story needs more tradition than that to tie things up.
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