Brilliant essay, really! It is giving me and my husband some hope afterall. I just couldn't bear it if the "obvious" came true. Where's the fun in that? I'm rooting for conspiracy theories galore! Anyway...your essay reminded me of something else that appeared in Book 1. You quoted Molly when she says "...he isn't something you goggle at in a zoo..." or something to that effect. Now, if I'm not mistaken, later that same night, Harry has a dream about being an exhibit in a zoo! I know that during that dream, there is some Draco/Snape symbolism too. Maybe a sharp brain like yours can find some further clues in that passage! Thanks for writing your ideas down and posting them for us to read! ~Erin

Would just like to address some points in your response to me: you accused me of having an 'emotional investment' in the characters, and insisted that you don't?? what do you call this?? you're the one who's written up a REALLLLY long essay to support a theory that is probably never, ever going to happen!!! don't tell me that's the work of a dispassionate, detached mind!! I think you've probably got a lot more invested in D & G in terms of time, speculation and effort than i ever will in ANY of the characters or ships, being a mere reader of HP. And btw, being a 'Hermione fan' isn't a bad thing, as you tried to insinuate. I like all the characters, as FICTIONAL fun characters who are good to read. It isn't a mutually exclusive thing, you know. Liking Ron or Hermione doesn't mean I hate Ginny and Draco and Dobby and all the rest... please!! Lastly, when i wrote JKR was 'fond' of Ginny i meant exactly what you responded with: she likes writing her. I didn't mean that JK wants to cuddle and baby her. But i also feel she wouldn't portray her in a seriously negative light NOW when we're nearing the end of the series and she's spent time building up the character. And she did say in her interview that 'Ginny's a powerful witch' (see Mugglenet), which I took to mean she's a strong, confident girl. Turning her into a sad, clingy, Harry obsessed freak would make this like any other sad, B grade teen romance novel. Yawn! Please don't get so hung up on semantics; 'fond' is clearly similiar to 'like'. Or at least it was, the last time I checked. You also failed to address my extremely valid point regarding Hermione's reaction to the whole Quidditch/ Felix/ Ron issue. If you truly thought I was pitching for Hermione there, you're sadly mistaken. You see, I'm just a reader who likes to stick to the author's interpretation of her work and her characters, rather than yours or anyone else's. Speculation is fun, but there's a limit, i think. Just wanted to get my opinion across, and I hope you won't be mortally offended by it!

I'm beginning to think I should simply GRADE posts - it saves an awful lot of my time. So let me think now, what do I give that last one? It had ... no arguement, zero evidence, a pathetic over-reliance on personal flaming, and - oh yes - a very novel approach to the use of grammar. T for Troll, I think.

As much as I despise H/G, this feels a little like the overanalysis that got the H/Hr people in trouble. Not that I'm equating this with some of their more off the wall suff. While I agree completely with the misdirection concerning Draco (I fell for the "unimportant, soon to be phased-out bully" thing big time) and I think a lot of the analysis here is really interesting, it all seems like a bit of a stretch. I think HBP was a victim of JKR holding back for the sake of a lower page count. We got a tighter story and a fan interview, but we lost a fuller H/G storyline, as well as time at the Burrow, and time with the Dursleys. The love potions are in line with the rest of the Weasley twin products, like U-No-Poo: they are all comic relief. Like I said, I detest H/G - it means safety, ease, and familiarity for introverted!Harry, and Star-struck teen girl pay dirt for CenterofAttention!Ginny - and would have prefered to see Harry and Luna's friendship (at least!) explored a little more, I don't believe this is an elaborate game of smoke and mirrors. Why can't H/G be another go nowhere relationship, like Harry and Cho? And if they DO ride off into the sunset together in the end, whats the big deal? Its about time the Canon!bug up the HP fandom's butt died.

Well, this is unquestionably well thought out and a definite possibility for what might yet come to pass. I know some people want to forge ahead blindly with "canon" to the exclusion of any other deviations in their preferred, "plotted" storyline, but this is both very open-minded and, to me at least, eminently plausible. I think my favourite part was the reasons behind JKR's insipid writing of H/G -- I just can't believe she would have written it so badly (and unconvincingly) if she had really intended for it to be true and everlasting. No, I do belive there's something major coming that might well shock the fandom (and exhilirate others!) Wonderfully contructed essay :)

Jebus Crips! Have you nothing better to do than right that like 100 page snooze fest? god damn i just looked at it and said way to damn long i mean its a book nothing more to elaborate on you read thats what happens not what ever little stupid theory you think up in your head. You people over think things too much. GOD DAMN!

Interesting theory, with several GIANT holes in it! first, it's simply too easy to insert 'canon proof' to make your theories plausible.. the way the books are written leaves plenty of room for speculation.. second, this is the 6th book in the series.. the penultimate one.. i think JK would want to concentrate on developing her characters, rather than demeaning/ pulling them down.. hermione dosing her best friend Harry with love potions all year?? the same hermione who threw a shit fit when she thought Harry had spiked Ron's juice with Felix? let's face it.. that sounds extremely deceitful and not like her at all.. why would JKR expose such an unattractive, seriously flawd aspect of her personality (that goes completely against whatever we know of her)? and why now? yeah, she's pals with ginny.. but she has been BEST FRIENDS with ron and harry much, much longer.. i don't see her tricking one of them for ginny, or anyone else! as for ginny, if you've read JK's interviews you'll notice that this is one character she's really fond of.. she wants to portray her as someone warm, and brave and funny and loyal.. she's got a bit of fred and george, sure, but she's also got a lot of ron in her...JK's tried to depict her as a mature, confident girl with plenty to offer.. why would she suddenly turn her into a sad, clingy little girl who's desperate to get harry? yes, she likes him, and always has, but to go that far?? your comparing her to merope is just plain insulting.. please, take a better look: one hand, we've got a pretty popular girl whose good looks even her worst enemies acknowledge: pansy parkinson etc. talk about how she's hot and how boys like her..on the other hand, we've got a cross eyed, stepped on, poor, miserable witch who's too scared to use her own powers properly around the house.. what's the connect? we've all been in love, but very few of us resort to such drastic measures.. it's akin to holding someone hostage, isn't it? hermione's liked ron for years now, and he hasn't noticed.. she didn't stoop so low, so why should she want ginny to? and if you really feel that ginny meant, 'i wanted to be more like cho chang'.. please! the pause between more and 'myself' was for emphasis and effect.. as in, 'i just needed to be myself,' rather than something extraordinary, or different...again, you could interpret that a million ways. cheers!

I, of course, must put in my two cents' worth. ;) I have to say that IMHO *any* of the clues Emma would have liked to have seen regarding love potions would simply have been too glaringly obvious. They would have been too close to the equivalent of a red neon sign on the page: "HEY! LOOK! Hermione's hovering suspiciously over Harry's glass, and she's arguing about love potions with Ginny! Lookie lookie loo!" I just don't think that JKR would have tipped her hand with anything so obvious, especially when the storyline wasn't going to be resolved in Book 6, and we all still had two years to wait until Book 7. That being said, I like to see debates. :)

To EMMA: So far we haven’t been told how love potions work AT ALL – anywhere in HBP or in any other book – we have no real idea of the logistics of them. Indeed it struck me as odd that JKR deliberately chooses to withhold that information – possibly so as not to get herself into knots. So, as we don’t have any hard intel about the logistics of administration/the methodology of effect (although we are given effect and examples of effect), then any argument against based on ‘how it works’ is a non-starter. To JOHN: We’re all perfectly aware of what she said in the interview, I was perfectly aware of it when I wrote the essay. Many anti-Draco fans were also ‘fully aware’ of her ‘attitude’ to Draco from her many interview statements on him: taking from her quotes that he was worthless/evil/due to be phased out – whatever, and they never hesitated to quote her on that. Well, that turned out wrong, didn’t it? But when you look back at her Draco-quotes, she never lied, people simply took her at face value without taking a questioning mind to what she said. I don’t see any reason for her H/G quotes to turn out any different – and indeed I have now completed my third essay in the ‘Creamtea Trilogy’ which looks closely at her Mugglenet Interview. (Anise will publish the second and third essays in due course.) And as LISSA says – these books are meant to stand the test of time, they’re meant to be read in 100 years time as Nesbit is, they’re meant to be up there with Lewis and Tolkein, and as such they’re meant to be read entirely on the TEXT alone, as the TEXT is all that the reader will have in 100 years time. In the text H/G does not work, and my LP theory is an explanation as to why it does not – because narratively it is not meant to, with the reveal coming in Book 7.

Ummmm, well, that was an interesting read. Very creative, I must say. The thing is I absolutely abhor H/G. I can't stand it. It's contrived and has no foreshadowing. I think Ginny is not right for Harry and certainly not the goddess that the H/G fans think she is. Far from it in fact. But I can't buy into this theory either. It takes too many assumptions that are harder to believe than what was in the book. For instance, I don't think that Fred&George's room smelling like gunpowder, having a stray pasty or having flowers in there to try and cheer the place up is harder to accept as is than your idea that it's Hermione's working of a love potion. Sorry, but that one is too far fetched to believe. Because other than your assertions, there isn't canon evidence for it. And that's the beginning - both of what you say started it and what I see wrong with it. No, believe me, H/G is vomit-inducing. Poorly thought out and presented. But unfortunately there is no hidden agenda behind it. Let's just thank whoever and/or whatever we each do that it's over and pray that remaind the status quo.

JK ROWLING: "... the plan was, which I really hope I fulfilled, is that the reader, like Harry, would gradually discover Ginny as pretty much the ideal girl for Harry. She's tough, not in an unpleasant way, but she's gutsy. He needs to be with someone who can stand the demands of being with Harry Potter, because he's a scary boyfriend in a lot of ways. He's a marked man. I think she's funny, and I think that she's very warm and compassionate. These are all things that Harry requires in his ideal woman. But, I felt — and I'm talking years ago when all this was planned — initially, she's terrified by his image. I mean, he's a bit of a rock god to her when she sees him first, at 10 or 11, and he's this famous boy. So Ginny had to go through a journey as well. And rather like with Ron, I didn’t want Ginny to be the first girl that Harry ever kissed. That's something I meant to say, and it's kind of tied in. One of the ways in which I tried to show that Harry has done a lot of growing up — in “Phoenix,” remember when Cho comes into the compartment, and he thinks, ‘I wish I could have been discovered sitting with better people,’ basically? He's with Luna and Neville. So literally the identical thing happens in “Prince,” and he's with Luna and Neville again, but this time, he has grown up, and as far as he's concerned he is with two of the coolest people on the train. They may not look that cool. Harry has really grown. And I feel that Ginny and Harry, in this book, they are total equals. They are worthy of each other. They've both gone through a big emotional journey, and they've really got over a lot of delusions, to use your word, together. So, I enjoyed writing that. I really like Ginny as a character." "Equals". "Worthy of each other". "Gone on an emotional journey together". "Harry's ideal woman." Their romance is clearly the real deal.

This theory makes sense in a way - until you sit down and ask yourself why on earth JKR would have H/G crash and burn in one book after having set it up for the past five books. (See Red Monster's "Giving Her the Power" for the full story, if you haven't already. http://www.sugarquill.net/index.php?action=gringotts&st=hglovered) The infamous Mugglenet/TLC interview also provides evidence against this theory, as JKR calls Ginny "pretty much the ideal girl for Harry" and says that she "really like[s]" her as a character. We also know that she is very fond of Hermione. This theory portrays both Ginny and Hermione as being quite morally bankrupt, and for what? So that ridiculous theories can disprove H/G once and for all, just because some people don't like it. "Just to begin with, this is actually one of the most damning pieces of evidence against lasting/meaningful H/G, because Harry has had reactions to Ginny for months by this point. (snip) At this point, we have a tremendous amount of longing and yearning and fantasizing on Harry’s part. Ginny would be the most logical person, thing, or concept to leap into his mind right now, when Dumbledore brings up love. But he doesn’t think about Ginny at all. He doesn’t spare a single thought for her or about her, and this, of all times, would be the time to do it. If love is the only way he’s going to ultimately defeat Voldemort, this is the perfect moment to think about someone he does love or might love. The fact that he doesn’t do this is some pretty major foreshadowing for the idea that love for Ginny is not going to be the love that defeats Voldemort." You're right - the fact that he doesn't think about Ginny here is very telling. But notice that he doesn't think of anyone else he loves - neither Ron nor Hermione, not Sirius, not Remus, Dumbledore or any other friends or family. Could it be that the love he will use to defeat Voldemort is GENERAL love, not romantic love? Just a thought.