In Greek mythology Hermione's promised in marriage first to Orestes and then to Neoptolemus (See where The Matrix staff got their ideas from?). As Orestes goes insane (his mum killed his dad so he had to kill her in turn to avenge his dad. Sadly, killing your mum was also a crime in the eyes of the gods, so Orestes got hunted down by some evil spirits), Hermione is given to Neo against her will. As Neo's queen, she's jealous of his mistress Andromache and plots to kill her, but fails. Orestes then comes to reclaim her when Neo's out of town, and she follows him willingly. Orestes makes her his queen and later kills Neo in an argument over her.

Hmm, how can we translate this into HP?

Let's say Orestes = Ron and Neo = Harry because:
Neo was, according to a PROPHECY, the ONLY ONE who could make the Greeks win the Trojan War. He was fetched from his home by Odysseus (The great and WISE hero = Dumbledore) and PHOENIX. He killed a long list of "bad guys" and finally theKING of Troy (Voldy, although the King of Troy wasn't evil; he just happened to have a handsome son who made a neighboring king mad by stealing his wife)and his heir (Bellatrix?).

Okay, so first JKR "promises" Hermione to both Ron and Harry (giving hints that both relationships are possible) Ron doesn't realize that he has feelings for her, so Harry gets her (end of Book 6?) Hermione then has to compete for Harry's affections against Luna (who's obviously showing an interest in him) and is mean to her (it's also quite plain that Hermione doesn't like Luna). Meanwhile, Ron realizes he loves Hermione, betrays Harry and claims her. Harry dies because of Ron's betrayal (or mistake, e.g., Ron and Harry fight over Hermione and a surviving Death Eater hits Harry in the back with a curse that kills him) (end of Book 7, after having killed Voldy).

As for Ron betraying Harry, I got the idea at HP Prognastics. I think it's really interesting and original, there's definitely been tension between them in the first 5 books and something (like Hermione's affections) might just tip the scale in the wrong direction for a while (a bit Pearl Harbor-y). If so, I'm sure there'll be a nice reconciliation death scene between the two where Harry makes a speech about how Ron must take good care of Hermione, etc. Very tragic and powerful, something about good prevailing even though he dies and blah, blah, *hysterical sobbing from all the readers and the WB people who won't be able to make money from bad sequels.*

Okay, here's a literature analysis exercise for you: there is a bunch of very weak arguments in this article, a lot of plain speculation and soggy argumentation in general. I'm fully aware of this. Now, I'd like for you to find them and give me the arguments against what I just said.

Good luck!
Maline

11/16/2003

If you'd like to contact Maline, you may do so in the forums.