Luke's HP Site

Relationships as of the Epilogue

While my discussion on Shipping is focused on how fan fiction has handled relationships, here I am looking at the relationships that Mrs. Rowling has ended the series with. Many of these we know only from secondary, and tertiary sources. While this may be less than satisfying, it is what it is.

Mrs Rowling has established the following:

The situation presented is fairly bleak. I feel somewhat comfortable with the Harry/Ginny pairing unless and except if you include the Cursed Child play. If that gets categorised as a fan fiction work, then my concerns are more limited. It mostly comes down to the disconnect between what I would consider an ideal ending and what secular culture does. Harry, whose greatest desire is for family, must have made many compromises to successfully navigate a relationship with Ginny as she works for the [Harpies]. While I have no moral qualms about women working, I think that the children would be impacted with Harry and Ginny both having very demanding jobs like this. In that sense I suppose Cursed Child is slightly more believable. I do not see, from the outside looking in, the same level of devotion from Ginny to Harry that I suspect he must have for her. However, the two working parent family is the secular norm, and from a secular standpoint, of course Ginny had to achieve all of her dreams without compromise. Still, I find it hard to believe that Harry would allow himself to become so disconnected from his family as Cursed Child makes out.

I think that Ron and Hermione are a disaster waiting to happen. While I do not believe in divorce, it is almost certain that Hermione would have. I can only think that unless magic makes divorce impossible, the two of them would have ended up in that state. By the epilogue, Ron still shows both a characteristic laziness and a total disregard for both the rights of non-magical people, for their worth, and for the law. These are all things that Hermione has dedicated her life to championing. While I understand the whole “opposites attack” thing in theory, I do not believe such diverged personalities could truly work together. Mrs. Rowling has stated that this relationship was a form of self-insert wish fulfilment.17 I do not think her comments really say that she intended a Harry/Hermione pairing, but rather that there is something in Harry that Ron lacks, and that this lack is important.

We have only an article that is Mrs. Rowling uses Rita Skeeter as the fictional author when we learn of Hannah’s plans to join her husband at Hogwarts. Knowing Rita, not everything printed is true, but how much is false, how much is merely exaggerated, and how much is simply shaded to look bad? Without independent collaboration we cannot say. I am concerned about this relationship. Either Hannah is going from landlady at the tavern to matron at the school to stay with her husband, or the two of them will be separated for large parts of the year by careers that both demand physical presence. In the first case, was Hannah unhappy with her apparent success? Was she manager but not owner? If so, giving up the (probably stressful) job may well be welcome. If she is owner, she now has to sell the place or employ someone. She might well consider the sacrifice worthwhile for her husband’s dream job. Perhaps they as a couple have discussed this in a healthy way. It just seems, as I said, odd.

Draco has apparently learned little to nothing from his experience. He is still attracted to the dark arts, though wise enough not to use them.18 Despite my defence of the Greengrass family, Mrs. Rowling’s statement is hardly a glowing one. We can say that their relationship with the older generation was probably unhappy, and given that Draco was apparently unable or unwilling to give up the Malfoy ways, I suspect their own relationship had some of the same tension. Which parent had more influence on young Scorpius? I suspect even that would add to the problems here. Either way, the depiction certainly destroys anyone attempting to use Cursed Child to create one big happy Weasley-Potter-Malfoy family.

  1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Epilogue. Better citation needed.↩︎

  2. Mrs. J. K. Rowling. “J.K.Rowling Official Site” “Wizard of the Month Archive” Date unknown.↩︎

  3. We need two citations:

    ↩︎

  4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Epilogue. Better citation needed.↩︎

  5. Leaky Cauldron interview↩︎

  6. Daily Prophet screenshot: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/harrypotter/images/1/12/Dumbledore%27sArmyReunitesAtQuidditchWorldCupFinal.png/revision/latest?cb=20140802152551↩︎

  7. Leaky Cauldron interview↩︎

  8. Carnegie Hall Interview, Daily Prophet screenshot: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/harrypotter/images/1/12/Dumbledore%27sArmyReunitesAtQuidditchWorldCupFinal.png/revision/latest?cb=20140802152551↩︎

  9. Mrs. J. K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Page 311. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (2011)↩︎

  10. Daily Prophet screenshot: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/harrypotter/images/1/12/Dumbledore%27sArmyReunitesAtQuidditchWorldCupFinal.png/revision/latest?cb=20140802152551↩︎

  11. Mrs. J. K. Rowling. Carnegie Hall Interview↩︎

  12. Leaky Cauldron interview↩︎

  13. I am told this comes from The Unwritten Story of Harry’s Friends and Their Children however that is unreachable.↩︎

  14. Daily Prophet screenshot: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/harrypotter/images/1/12/Dumbledore%27sArmyReunitesAtQuidditchWorldCupFinal.png/revision/latest?cb=20140802152551↩︎

  15. Mrs. J. K. Rowling. “Draco Malfoy”↩︎

  16. Mrs. J. K. Rowling. “Draco Malfoy” 2014-12-22.↩︎

  17. ERIC S. “The TRUTH behind the J.K. Rowling “Wonderland” interview” MuggleNet Published 2014-02-07. Updated: 2021-05-31. Last Viewed: 2024-04-03.↩︎

  18. Mrs. J. K. Rowling. “Draco Malfoy” 2014-12-22.↩︎