I just finished the e-books for the first time. Great experience!

However, I just never fully believed the Ron and Hermione relationship. Ron is a great friend, extremely loyal, and I guess he’s involved in all these cool moments Harry produces. However, I don’t see the attraction. He clearly isn’t popular amongst the schoolgirls even to the very end. Some of things he suggests is so incredibly dumb, I imagine Hermione gets an “ick.” A lot of the times, Ron just seems like a character who got lucky that he sat next to Harry on the first day of school and he knows it. Therefor, he’ll follow him to the very end. The only thing I see is maybe Hermione has this desire to be accepted by a boy who would endlessly tease her as a kid.

Whereas Hermione is at first a “know it all,” but has this huge transformation and grows to where her intellect is appreciated and is attractive in all settings even socially. She gives great advice to Ginny on her crush on Harry. She also becomes physically attractive as she gets older. I don’t think Ron had any transformation.

It’s not a hot take but the Hermione and Draco relationship makes much more sense to me. The obvious problem with this relationship is that Draco hates mudbloods but we saw the same thing with Severus and Lilly. I think Draco and Hermoine fit because they’re the only two of their grade that can really challenge and push Harry to his extent. Hermione also has an appreciation for complexity which I believe Draco is the most complex personality we see in the book. Ron might be the simplest. But maybe that’s the attraction.

Let me know your thoughts! Wrote this on a whim so sorry for the poor writing.