This is one half of a dueling column. See the Harry/Hermione argument here.
J.K. Rowling made a big mistake when she started questioning whether Ron/Hermione was not the right pairing.
Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger Weasley are a classic case of opposites attract. And sometimes, love simply makes no sense. To quote a new Springsteen love song: “Shakespeare says, ‘Man, it’s just one and one make three.'” That’s why Ron and Hermione are the perfect couple.
In terms of canon, even the author recognizes that the seven-part story was designed to put Hermione and Ron together in the end. “I wrote the Hermione/Ron relationship as a form of wish fulfillment,” she says in her interview with Emma Watson for Wonderland Magazine.
When examining why Ron/Hermione was right, it’s important to look at why Harry/Hermione was wrong.
For starters, if Harry and Hermione were to have gotten together, Rowling would’ve played into the typical type of love story where the leading man gets the best girl. Not only is this predictable, but the story never yielded such an outcome. The Harry Potter series was so brilliant that it did not deserve anything close to typical.
The story had endless references to Ron’s interest in Hermione and their eventual realization that they were meant for each other. The earliest signs of romance appeared in Chamber of Secrets when Ron didn’t like how Hermione (and the other females in his family) would fawn over Gilderoy Lockhart. An even bigger hint came during Goblet of Fire when Ron asked Hermione to the Yule Ball, but Ms. Granger had already accepted an invite from Viktor Krum. Ron was jealous of Krum, and Hermione was slightly jealous of his feelings towards Fleur.
From there we saw the type of bickering meant for an old married couple in moments like Deathly Hallows’ Chapter 19 “The Silver Doe.” By this point, from a reader perspective, it was set in stone that Ron and Hermione would end up together:
Hermione: “I came running after you! I called you! I begged you to come back!”
Ron: “I know. Hermione, I’m sorry, I’m really—”
Hermione: “Oh, you’re sorry! You came back after weeks — weeks — and you think it’s all going to be all right if you just say sorry?… Weeks and weeks, we could have been dead…”
Before this, even Harry acknowledged that they were “sort of” together.
And finally, there was this critical moment during the Battle of Hogwarts:
“Hang on a moment!” said Ron sharply. “We’ve forgotten someone!”
“Who?” asked Hermione.
“The house-elves, they’ll all be down in the kitchen, won’t they?”
“You mean we ought to get them fighting?” asked Harry.
“No,” said Ron seriously, “I mean we should tell them to get out. We don’t want any more Dobbys, do we? We can’t order them to die for us -”
There was a clatter as the Basilisk fangs cascaded out of Hermione’s arms. Running at Ron, she flung them around his neck and kissed him full on the mouth. Ron threw away the fangs and broomstick he was holding and responded with such enthusiasm that he lifted Hermione off her feet.
Outside of the fiction, Rowling herself said numerous times that she was set on them getting together.
Back in 2000, a reader asked the author if there was something happening between them. “Yes, something’s ‘going on,’ but Ron doesn’t realize it yet. Typical boy,” she said.
In 2003, Rowling said there was “tension” between them.
In 2004 when asked if they will “get together,” Rowling said she had “given quite a lot of clues on the subject.”
That same year a reader asked her what happened between Hermione and Krum during the summer following the Yule Ball, and she replied, “Ron would like to know that, too.”
And finally, in her most infamous interview about Ron/Hermione conducted by MuggleNet and The Leaky Cauldron, Rowling said, “It’s done, isn’t it?” referring to if there’s any question that Ron and Hermione will be together. “We know. Yes, we do now know that it’s Ron and Hermione. I do feel that I have dropped heavy hints. ANVIL-sized, actually.”
All of these tidbits prove – like Rowling says in her Wonderland Magazine interview – that Ron and Hermione were meant to be. This is the canon. This is the fictional truth.
Ms. Rowling, please rescind your comments about Ron and Hermione. You are not being loyal to your own story.
And finally, look at this kiss. THERE IS NO DENYING THIS KISS.
Thanks to ShadowCry.net for a roundup of Rowling’s quotes and the Harry Potter Wikia for reminders about the history of the perfect couple.
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