JK Rowling‘s been doing a lot of talking lately and — shock of shocks — people aren’t happy with what she has to say. Should Ron and Hermione have ended up together? Suddenly Jo isn’t so sure, saying that as a writer, she was more focused on fulfilling her initial endgame than being true to the characters.
My personal opinion is that pairing together a group of kids who’ve spent their whole lives together almost like siblings, and who then began hooking up in their mid-teens at a boarding school, was probably never going to be the recipe for a lasting marriage, but maybe that’s cynical. Rowling’s concerns are ironically a little more adult and have more to do with Ron and Hermione’s frequent combativeness and incompatibility as people, although again — they’re a pair of fictional teens, and people (and characters) change.
She backtracked slightly, saying that she’s sure Harry and Ginny really did love each other, though I might venture to argue that she’s alone in that belief, and that with some counseling maybe Ron and Hermione could make it. Cool. So all is mostly well in this fictional paradise.
All the same, this whole kerfuffle is a perfect time to re-introduce and heavily advocate for Roland Barthes “Death of the Author.” I’m being a little glib with my definition and interpretation here, so please don’t take this as a full and proper treatise on Barthes’ theory, but essentially it states that it’s probably best for everybody if they take the author and his or her personal opinions, background and beliefs out of the equation.
Remember when we found out Dumbledore was gay? And that JK had always intended him to be so? My bullshit meter rang fairly strong on that one. It’s not that I don’t think Dumbledore could’ve been gay or straight or anything in-between. It’s more that his sexuality, for me, is simply not present in the text. And it doesn’t need to be for his individual story and the larger stories surrounding it to work. And to apply that lens after the fact is silly. If she intended for it to be on the page, then it would be on the page. More to the point, apart from Dumbledore’s relationship with Grindelwald (which is classified as something of an obsession or infatuation but is never blatantly labelled as romantic or sexual), there’s nothing at all to indicate this fictional character’s sexuality. Can JK think that Dumbledore is gay? By all means, as can any reader. But at the end of the day, it stands as nothing more than her opinion, rather than an objective fact.
So the same goes for this Harry/Hermione/Ginny/Ron insanity. Can JK Rowling have misgivings or second thoughts? Absolutely, but that doesn’t change the final product — and it shouldn’t. Unless JK mandates that an introduction be added to all copies which states, “By the way Dumbledore was gay and Ron and Hermione and Ginny and Harry probably will get divorced at some point and not have a huge passel of children with groan-worthy “tribute” names. Actually just go ahead and ignore that whole final chapter, which even the most ardent Harry Potter fan has to admit was awful” then I’m afraid I’m going to go ahead and disregard all of this after-the-fact nonsense.
I invite you to do the same.
Tea Leaves and Dog Ears 
I’m almost a year late with this comment, but thank you so much for your essay! I feel downright disappointed with Rowling when she releases information on Pottermore and tries to control what the readers think about her characters (*cough Lupin cough*). Hope she doesn’t edit the newer editions and shove her thoughts down our throats.
People are acting like this is a novel based in reality! It is a book about wizards! I thought the relationship between Hermione and Ron kept it interesting. let them all double date in Ron’s flying car.. Why not a happy ending? Isn’t it enough real life can suck.
The final chapter was cheesy alright. I agree, Rowling’s opinion cannot reshape the story. There really is no point in her sharing that, why write a chapter about the happily married couple and then go back on your words?
I understand that she’s probably had second thoughts, or that so many people have railed on her that she can at least see it from their perspective, but a very cynical part of me thinks that she knows how much press any mention of Harry Potter gets, and she’s currently ramping up her next book tour for the Cuckoo sequel.
You might be right…
And, again, I’m not trying to be majorly cynical or to say that a businesswoman can’t promote herself. But I think there’s too much stock put in an author being an “artist” with nothing but pure artistic intention that needs to be done away with.
I always found the marriages of the the characters to be highly unlikely. Even if ONE of the couples made it (which is highly doubtful, given, as you said, they are essentially middle/high school romances) Both couples enjoying happy, successful marriages long term? Not likely. Then again, I have no idea if the British have different standards regarding divorce, than Americans, or how the statistics stack up regarding long term relationships… Suffice it to say, none of the characters have enough relationship experience/played the field enough to get married… Just my opinion, though. lol
Yeah. I mean, on the one hand I know the characters are from a very small community and so — like people from very small towns — I can see why they’re all inter-marrying. But a lasting romance between Harry and Ginny? Nah. Where did that even come from? It just felt like Harry trying to marry into the Weasley family officially.
Maybe he was wanting a break on his taxes 😀