Everybody is saying that Harry will end up with Ginny, Hermione, or Luna. I don't think it's going to be one of these three girls. First of all, there really hasn't been any real concrete clues about any of these girls, regardless of what other shippers might say. In my personal opinion Hermione and Ginny are just, well, easy. I would think of it as a cop-out if Harry were to end up with one of them. I mean, best friend or best friend's little sister? I give JKR's imagination much more credit than that. Luna? I just can't see her in a relationship with anyone, more or less a person with Harry's temperament. Don't get me wrong, though. I adore these girls. I just don't see them with Harry.

I ship Harry with Susan Bones. I know she isn't a major player yet, but I think that JKR has introduced Susan the way she has introduced a million other seemingly "unimportant" things. And with Susan being more prominent in the fifth book than all the other ones, I think JKR has made way for her to be even more prominent in the sixth book. If Susan is just to be a name at the Sorting ceremony, why "up" her in the fifth book? I think she is going to be important in some way, so why not as a love interest?

Let's take a moment to look at this ship. First, let's look at what we know about Susan. We know that she is from Hufflepuff, which implies that she is hard-working, and is "just and loyal." She also had an aunt, uncle, and cousins die by one of Voldemort's Death Eaters. We also have a quote from JKR saying that Voldemort killed her grandparents. Another aunt of Susan's, who is the head of the department of Magical Law Enforcement, was a "fair" person who resided over Harry's trial (next minister, anyone?). Susan joined the DA during the first DA meeting. We can gather that she has a great relationship with her aunt, and she isn't a regular "Lavender."

I think this is an awful lot of background that we have for a person who is going to be only a "minor" character.

Notice how both Harry and Susan have lost family members to Voldemort. Susan is the only other student, mentioned in canon, that has. This is something that neither Luna, Hermione, nor Ginny have in common with Harry. It could be a bonding point between he and Susan. Then there is this quote:

Susan Bones, who had an uncle, aunt, and cousins who had all died at the hand of one of the ten, said miserably during Herbology that she now had a good idea what it felt like to be Harry.
"And I don't know how you stand it, it's horrible."

What about the second scene with Susan, during the first DA meeting at the Hog's Head? The meeting wasn't going particularly well at first. Zacharias Smith's comments were making the other students doubt Harry's DADA abilities. But then Susan spoke up, asking about Harry's Patronus and reminding the other students that he was good at DADA. Had JKR not put her there, who knows where the DA could have gone. Also, Susan's and Harry's conversation was all about Harry's Patronus. Why don't we know what Susan's Patronus is? Was there a reason this was left out? You would think that JKR would mention it during the DA class where they are all learning how to conjure a Patronus. I expected at least a comment from Susan, since the Patronus charm was what got her "introduced" to Harry, after all. It's just curious to me, very curious indeed.

Then there are Susan's friends. Does anyone else find it odd that while we have the DoM six, there is *another* group of six -- Ernie, Justin, Hannah, Susan, Terry and Anthony -- that are always hanging around each other. Their biggest moment is on the train ride home when they stop Draco from ambushing Harry. Could this just be coincidence?

I also find it curious that we don't know who killed her family. Why was this kept out? Why say "...who was killed by one of the ten..." and not "...who was killed by so-and-so?" It seems obvious that it was purposely kept out. It just seems to me that JKR has put Susan under our radar on purpose. I wouldn't be surprised if JKR does one of her famous "plot twists" and has us all thinking that it's going to be one of Harry/Ginny, Harry/Hermione, Harry/Luna, and then have Susan come swoopin' down on her broom. It wouldn't be the first time she had surprised us like that.

Finally, let's look at Susan's name. For the first four books it was all we had of her, and names can be very important in JKR's books. In Hebrew, Susan means lily, which suggests a connection to Harry's mother, and James, a form of Jacob (also Hebrew), means conqueror, which ties in nicely with our hero.

I am just surprised that this ship didn't get more shippers, when we got a very good, although brief, picture of her in OotP and found out that Harry and Susan have about as much chance of happening as any other ship.

4/20/05

Posted by: Sara