If you're an obsessed Harry Potter fan, Voldemort isn't the problem. It's Hermione versus Ginny.
Neva Chonin, Chronicle Critic at Large
Wednesday, August 3, 2005
For the Harry Potter fan, puberty brings nothing but trouble. There was a time when the young protagonist of J.K. Rowling's magical saga spent his days at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry blithely dodging hexes, solving improbable mysteries and grappling with his twin roles as savior of the wizarding world and best-selling literary phenomenon. Simple stuff.
Then came adolescence and "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," the penultimate installment in Rowling's seven-part series. His hormones flowing thicker than chilled Polyjuice, a teenage Harry fell hard for his best friend Ron Weasley's sister, Ginny. Ron, in turn, toppled into the arms of Harry's other best friend and Hogwarts' resident genius, Hermione Granger. Kissing and peril and heroism ensued. Again, simple stuff.
Or maybe not. Enter the 'shippers. In the Harry Potter fandom, 'shipping (short for "relationshipping") simply means championing a romantic relationship between certain series characters, either within canon or in works of fan fiction (fan-penned fiction that spins off an original narrative). Potter fans have long been divided into camps advocating one 'ship over another: Some celebrate the pairing of Hermione and Harry, for example; others want to see Harry and his nemesis, Draco Malfoy, erase the thin line between love and hate.
Competition has been especially fierce between the Harry/Hermione and Harry/Ginny camps, where devotees have spent years on various Web sites, forums and mailing lists arguing the plausibility of their chosen pairings. "The Half-Blood Prince" should have settled the matter when it matched Harry with Ginny and Hermione with Ron. Instead, it's caused an eruption of fannish dismay. "That woman has completely destroyed my faith in ever having a real relationship," opined one Harry/Hermione 'shipper on an online message board. Another pronounced the book "a large, steaming pile of decaying crap."
Discontent trebled after administrators from two of the Internet's largest Potter fan sites, the Leaky Cauldron (www.the-leaky-cauldron.org) and Mugglenet (www.mugglenet.com), published an extensive three-part interview with Rowling. Leaky Cauldron Editorial Director Melissa Anelli and Mugglenet founder Emerson Spartz quizzed the author on numerous topics, ranging from character death to magical ethics. Unfortunately, they also brought up 'shipping. Spartz gleefully referred to Harry/Hermione fans as "delusional." Rowling chuckled. All hell broke loose.
Spartz later apologized to 'shippers for his remark, but it was too late: Enraged Harry/Hermione fans announced that they would never read another Potter book; they slung invectives at Spartz and Anelli. Hate mail clogged the Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet's inboxes. Rowling was denounced in colorful and unprintable terms.
Anelli, 25, who works as a journalist when she isn't overseeing the Leaky Cauldron, says that most abuse came from a small faction of vociferous fans. "They've lost the ability to divorce themselves between what J.K. Rowling is doing and what they'd like to see happen, and they've taken their disappointment and projected it onto her," she says. "I can totally understand how you could be upset if your preference didn't happen, but I can't understand or tolerate that people who claim to be her fans can be so mean to her."
Alison King, a 31-year-old Berkeley mother, Web programmer and Harry/Hermione 'shipper, calls reactions from some fans "over the top." But she also thinks Spartz's "delusional" comment lacked tact. "I think it was just carelessness and was not meant maliciously," she says. "But the way it read, I'm surprised they didn't realize it would be inflammatory. It was like Melissa and Emerson were our representatives, and you don't want to hear your ambassadors be so partisan. You hope that they're speaking for everyone."
"I was surprised," says Spartz, 18, of the furious response. "But in hindsight, I shouldn't have been. I forgot how emotionally invested these 'shippers get. I knew they weren't going to be happy ... but I did not see it generating this much hate." He adds, "Romance in the books is the most prominent source of debate in the online fandom, where many of the fans border on obsessive, but casual readers will never understand what the big deal is."
So what is the big deal? 'Shippers would say that expressing concern over fictional characters' love lives is no stranger than fixating on celebrity relationships or betting on who will hook up on a reality show. Romance is a universal obsession. For many Harry/Hermione fans, too, there's a personal investment: As the Potter series' brilliant bookworm, Hermione is a role model for smart girls (and boys) who find themselves overshadowed by their flashier peers. There's a certain appeal to thinking that a young academic could couple with the hero of the wizarding world -- who also happens to be her best friend.
Anelli figures that, once the dust settles, most ruffled Harry/Hermione 'shippers will return to the fold. And while their 'ship has been sunk by Rowling, it will probably continue to flourish in fan fiction. In fact, regardless of what happens in the final book -- Harry might surprise everyone by swimming off to share a love nest with Hogwarts' giant squid -- it is equally probable that the series' many 'ships will keep on sailing.
"The fandom versions of the characters have become larger than life," says King, known online by her nom de plume Ali Granger. "There's almost more freedom for people whose 'ships don't turn out in the end of the book, because they can write their own endings. In a way, it's almost more fun to be the delusional ones." - San Francisco Chronicle
WTF is wrong with these people? Harry/Hermione was never meant to be. Right from HP1, the signs pointing to Harry/Ginny were there. And Ron's jealousy of Victor Krum in HP4 meant he had something for Hermione.
One Big Happy Weasley Family rules!
