Years after the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J. K. Rowling continues to reveal new background information about her characters – much to the dismay of a lot of Potterheads. In an interview with Emma Watson in Wonderland magazine (and teased in yesterday's Sunday Times), had she been given a chance to rewrite the relationships between the Trio, Rowling might have done things differently – and Ron might have never ended up with Hermione.

J. K. Rowling, Deathly Hallows Part II Premiere
Seven years after the last book, Rowling Reminds Us She Still Owns The Characters, and our souls.

“I wrote the Hermione/Ron relationship as a form of wish fulfillment,” Rowling said. “That’s how it was conceived, really. For reasons that have very little to do with literature and far more to do with me clinging to the plot as I first imagined it, Hermione ended up with Ron.”

“The Harmony ship lives!” half of Potterheads online thrust their fists into the air in triumph. “It’s not canon!” the rest of the fandom objects. For everyone else, half the words above meant virtually nothing, so let’s break it down. A ship is a relationship that has happened or fans wish to see in a fictional work. Harmony is the relationship fans imagined unfolding between Harry and Hermione and as for canon, that refers to what actually happened in the book – which is that Ron and Hermione ended up together and had lovely readheaded children.

Emma Watson, Golden Globes
Emma Watson seems to be a fan of this new development.

 

Watson, however, seems to lean more on the Harmony side of the debate, telling Rowling, “I think there are fans out there who know that too and who wonder whether Ron would have really been able to make her happy.””