I’d pay good money for someone to explain how Harry and Ron manage to be the sole example in mainstream media of two white male leads who didn’t get shipped together by main fandom
Two possible explanations;
The HP fandom hate Ron for displaying human flaws and insecurities, whilst other characters (such as Harry and especially Hermione) have their flaws and bad decisions collectively ignored by the fandom
People would prefer to ship Harry with literally anyone-else except ‘the person Harry would miss most’ Ronald Bilius Weasley
Some people also prefer to consider Harry and Ron as brothers, rather than lovers, and that interpretation is fine too!
… doesn’t mean I won’t keep on building myself a little stash of Harron fanfiction for a rainy day…
I mean, the reason I don’t ship them is because I ship Ron so hard with Hermione and it’s clear in the text Harry does too, but the biggest question is, why is it so rare in the fandom as a whole?
Compare to, say, Kirk/Spock and Luke/Han. (I am Fandom Old. These are my standard examples.)
I think there are four things that do it, honestly.
1. As @headcanonsandmore mentions, there’s a lot of irrational Ron-hate in the fandom. We can attribute some of that to the films, and also to the second point.
2. Neither of them performs traditional masculinity enough that the pairing has the right air of absurdity for slash shipping. (Compare Kirk/Spock.) Like, their relationship feels like if they had been interested in each other, we would have seen more of it. Ron especially is willing to apologize for his faults and make himself emotionally vulnerable. Given the way Ron comports himself, I really do feel like if Ron liked boys he would have kissed Harry in the forest of Dean. More generally, Harry and Ron don’t have those moments when they withdraw from emotional intimacy to prove to the audience that they’re not gay.
3. Harry ships Ronmione. Harry doesn’t want the girl, he’s happy that his two best friends are getting together. Contrast that to Luke’s reaction to Han and Leia; he only backs off because she literally is his sister.
4. Draco. Harry and Draco have a dynamic that is much easier to twist into the kind of unresolved sexual tension that Kirk and Spock have. Ordinarily shipping the two male leads is the low-hanging fruit, but the dynamic between Harry and Draco lends itself much more to easy smut than the one between Harry and Ron. Combine that with the fact that apparently more straight girls are attracted to Tom Felton than to Rupert Grint, and there we go.
Keep in mind: I’m not trying to convince anyone not to ship it. I’m trying to explain the phenomenon that so few people do.
I love all of these points, @lytefoot; you make some great conclusions here.
I still don’t understand why more people are attracted to Tom than Rupert, though. Don’t get me wrong, Tom’s a crackin’-looking lad, but Rupert is jaw-droppingly gorgeous. But maybe that’s just personal opinion, since Rupert’s the reason I don’t consider myself 100% heterosexual anymore.
I find that people tend to ship men together when the relationship has a hate/love aspect, or a soft/hard contrast.
Ron and Harry are nothing but love- and both are pretty bro-tastic together- thus they aren’t very shipped.
Add in the weird Ron-hate, and weird Draco-love (or Snape-love), and ginger men not being as sexualized- then there ya go.
People do seem to have a hard time shipping men together if they can’t make one appear more feminine than the other.
Despite his numerous feminine qualities Ron is still a very classic teenage boy, brash, loud, blunt. He swears, he eats a lot, he’s athletic, he presents himself as a knight and protector; he’s not shown crying until the last two tomes (it’s suggested he’s crying when Ginny goes missing in CoS but no mention of the word “tears” is made).
Add to it the harmful misconception of homosexual relationships commonly known as “yaoi” where it’s basically “sweet feminine boy with strong masculine boy” and it kind of explains it, really.
Harry and Ron are both athletes but they’re playing for the same team, they’re not rivals or anything. They’re comrades-in-arms. And for some reason, people don’t think it can make for an interesting relationship. Well, maybe you can make “interesting” plots (read: creepy, gross, paedophilic, borderline-necrophiliac) by shipping Harry and Snape, but I thought that a lasting relationship was supposed to be fulfilling and healthy?
Checking the tags on AO3, it seems that people tend to make Draco and Harry into the “soft boy” or “strong man” in equal measures, but Ron seems to often be made into the “alpha male” when he’s shipped with anyone. I’ve seen a few “submissive” Ron, but more often than not he’s made into the “dominant”.
It just shows that most HP fanfiction writers are teenage girls who fetishize gay relationships without trying to understand them beyond “boy on boy is hot”.
I’d pay good money for someone to explain how Harry and Ron manage to be the sole example in mainstream media of two white male leads who didn’t get shipped together by main fandom
Two possible explanations;
The HP fandom hate Ron for displaying human flaws and insecurities, whilst other characters (such as Harry and especially Hermione) have their flaws and bad decisions collectively ignored by the fandom
People would prefer to ship Harry with literally anyone-else except ‘the person Harry would miss most’ Ronald Bilius Weasley
Some people also prefer to consider Harry and Ron as brothers, rather than lovers, and that interpretation is fine too!
… doesn’t mean I won’t keep on building myself a little stash of Harron fanfiction for a rainy day…
I mean, the reason I don’t ship them is because I ship Ron so hard with Hermione and it’s clear in the text Harry does too, but the biggest question is, why is it so rare in the fandom as a whole?
Compare to, say, Kirk/Spock and Luke/Han. (I am Fandom Old. These are my standard examples.)
I think there are four things that do it, honestly.
1. As @headcanonsandmore mentions, there’s a lot of irrational Ron-hate in the fandom. We can attribute some of that to the films, and also to the second point.
2. Neither of them performs traditional masculinity enough that the pairing has the right air of absurdity for slash shipping. (Compare Kirk/Spock.) Like, their relationship feels like if they had been interested in each other, we would have seen more of it. Ron especially is willing to apologize for his faults and make himself emotionally vulnerable. Given the way Ron comports himself, I really do feel like if Ron liked boys he would have kissed Harry in the forest of Dean. More generally, Harry and Ron don’t have those moments when they withdraw from emotional intimacy to prove to the audience that they’re not gay.
3. Harry ships Ronmione. Harry doesn’t want the girl, he’s happy that his two best friends are getting together. Contrast that to Luke’s reaction to Han and Leia; he only backs off because she literally is his sister.
4. Draco. Harry and Draco have a dynamic that is much easier to twist into the kind of unresolved sexual tension that Kirk and Spock have. Ordinarily shipping the two male leads is the low-hanging fruit, but the dynamic between Harry and Draco lends itself much more to easy smut than the one between Harry and Ron. Combine that with the fact that apparently more straight girls are attracted to Tom Felton than to Rupert Grint, and there we go.
Keep in mind: I’m not trying to convince anyone not to ship it. I’m trying to explain the phenomenon that so few people do.
I love all of these points, @lytefoot; you make some great conclusions here.
I still don’t understand why more people are attracted to Tom than Rupert, though. Don’t get me wrong, Tom’s a crackin’-looking lad, but Rupert is jaw-droppingly gorgeous. But maybe that’s just personal opinion, since Rupert’s the reason I don’t consider myself 100% heterosexual anymore.
I’d pay good money for someone to explain how Harry and Ron manage to be the sole example in mainstream media of two white male leads who didn’t get shipped together by main fandom
Two possible explanations;
The HP fandom hate Ron for displaying human flaws and insecurities, whilst other characters (such as Harry and especially Hermione) have their flaws and bad decisions collectively ignored by the fandom
People would prefer to ship Harry with literally anyone-else except ‘the person Harry would miss most’ Ronald Bilius Weasley
Fourth year. Harry and
Ron are without dates to the Yule Ball. Eventually, Ron hits upon a solution; the two of them should go together. Harry bursts out laughing at first, but
warms to the idea almost instantly. Why not? Ron is his best friend, after all.
Asking a girl to the ball on such short notice would be a nightmare, and he knows Ron. And Ron knows him; possibly better than anyone else.
As they make their
entrance to the ball, people seem surprisingly unconcerned by the fact that
Harry has taken a boy to the ball. Maybe it’s the fact that Ron and Harry were
practically inseparable already, or maybe the fact that Fleur had turned up
with a Hufflepuff sixth year girl. Regardless, Harry has a surprisingly fun
time dancing with Ron. The feel of Ron’s hand in his feels… quite nice. He had never really held hands
with Ron before, but he wished he had, considering how right it felt.
Harry feels his cheeks
burning as they walk back to their seats later on. It must have him working up
a sweat from dancing. Obviously.
A few weeks later. The
second task. Harry feels his stomach drop as he realises that Ron is the
hostage in the great lake. He’s his best friend; of course he would be worried.
Anything more would be… confusing.
And yet, as Ron regains
consciousness on the lake’s surface after the task finishes, Harry feels a knot
of tension that he didn’t know he was carrying dissolve, replaced by a warm,
happy feeling.
Harry throwing his arms
around Ron, and pulling him tightly to him. Ron looking a touch confused, and
asking if Harry’s okay. Harry grinning up at him, and saying ‘never better’ as
he wipes a happy tear from his eye.
Hermione noticing this
from the shoreline, and a quizzical look passing over her face.
Harry feeling his
stomach squirm as he gives Ron one last hug before they leave for the summer.
This felt… different to how things
usually were. Probably just the increased tension because of the oncoming storm
of Voldemort’s power-building, no doubt. Why
would it be anything else?
Harry feeling a little
lonely as he considers that Ron and Hermione might be staying in the same
place. Was he…. No, that was just
ridiculous. He was just envious of the two of them spending time together
without him; that was all. It wasn’t like he wished he was in Hermione’s shoes
or anything.
However, Harry feeling
his heart beat faster against his chest as he sees Ron again at Grimmauld
Place. The redhead had grown taller, and his hair was longer. There was
something about that sparkling blue of his eyes that just sent a shiver down
his spine.
Hermione noticing said-shiver
and the blush creeping up Harry’s neck as he watches Ron talk. Hermione’s eyes
widening with a dawning realisation.
Over the next few
months, Hermione watches her two friends closely. Harry is almost constantly
staring at Ron, laughing more-than-usual at his jokes, as well as talking about
Ron in ringing tones (far more than he would have done up until their fourth
year).
Hermione struggles with
her own crush on Ron, and feels torn between her respect for Harry as a friend
and adoptive-sibling, and her own love for their redheaded friend.
Eventually, whilst Ron is
out on a solo prefect patrol, Hermione decides she can stand it no longer. In
the empty common room, she asks Harry whether he has fallen in love with Ron.
Harry blushes scarlet,
and tries to bluff his way around the question. As their tempers increase (and
their faces grow redder with embarrassment), the two friends fall into a
blazing row; their voices echoing across the room.
Before he knew it,
Harry was yelling about how amazing Ron was; how brave, kind, funny, loving and
all-round brilliant the redhead was. And Hermione joined in, yelling how she
been in love with Ron since third year for the same reasons that Harry had.
Because he was kind, and gentle, and so utterly irreplaceable…. So utterly Ron Weasley.
And, as Hermione and
Harry reach the sheer limits of how much they love Ron, the portrait hole creaks
open.
And a red-faced Ron
Weasley trips through into the common room. He had heard everything.
Hermione and Harry feel
their faces burning as red as they could possibly burn. What did Ron think of them, now? Was he going to reject them both?
But Ron simply stares
at them, his eyes wide with shock, and speaks in a confused tone.
‘But… I’m just me.’
Hermione and Harry
stare at him- this wonderful, amazing, brave, kind, and gorgeous boy that they
had both fallen for- and begin to cry.
How can he not see himself the way they see them?
Why does he not see what he means to them?
Before they know what
they are doing, Harry and Hermione both throw their arms around Ron, and hold
him closely to themselves. As the baffled redhead wraps his arms around his two
friends (but maybe they could be more-than-friends now…), Harry and Hermione
speak in unison.
‘Ron, you were never “just” you.’
Excuse you I need a part 2. Who does Ron pick? Harry or Hermione? Does Ron fancy Harry too? Will Harry have his heart broken and have to accept Ron/Hermione? Or are we talking about a poly Harry X Ron X Hermione relationship?
Watch this space….
Well, it was a long time coming, but here it is @ronandhappiness (thanks for the suggestion)!
It is a week since
Harry and Hermione have confessed their feelings to Ron.
Ron has been as close
and supportive towards his two friends as he always has been. But Harry and
Hermione are still worried about how their relationships with him had changed.
Ron found himself
blushing whenever he accidentally brushed shoulders or hands with his two
friends. Something had definitely changed.
Harry and Hermione
exchange concerned looks whenever this happens. What was going on? Why was Ron acting like this?
Over the course of the
next few days, Ron continued to blush and stammer around his two friends, often
turning bright red if he accidentally made eye-contact.
It all came to a head
one evening, once again in the empty Gryffindor Common Room long after the sun
had set.
Ron had told a joke,
making Harry and Hermione laugh. He catches eyes with both of them as they
laugh, and his face turns red again. Dropping his gaze to his feet, Ron coughs.
‘I’ll see you two in
the morning, then,’ Ron says hurriedly, getting up from his chair and moving
towards the staircase to the boys’ dormitory.
Exchanging looks, Harry
and Hermione act quickly. Harry overtook Ron and puts himself in-between Ron and
the stairs. Hermione marches towards Ron as he stands half frozen in the middle
of the common room, his eyes flicking desperately between his two friends.
‘Ron; tell us, what’s
wrong?’
‘W-wrong?’ The redhead
splutters, his ears burning red. ‘N-n-nothing’s wrong! I just… fancied an early
night, that’s all.’
‘Very early night,’ says
Harry. ‘Every night, by the time I get up to bed, you’re already asleep with
the curtains drawn.’
‘T-t-that’s not true!’
Ron stutters, not meeting Harry in the eye. ‘I’m just… I’m just…’
‘Avoiding us?’ Harry
and Hermione say as one. ‘Because we told you we love you?’
If it is possible, Ron’s
face turns a darker shade of red, so that it looks like his entire head was on
fire.
‘Please…’ Hermione pleads, her eyes beginning to glint with tears. ‘Ron,
if you don’t see us the same way, just tell us.’
‘We’re not going to
stop being your friends just because you don’t see us that way,’ says Harry,
also beginning to tear up. ‘Please, Ron;
just tell us how you feel.’
Ron’s face widens in
shock, and his eyes fill with remorse.
‘I… I don’t really
understand… I mean, yes; you two both love me… but you’re also my best friends,’
Ron mumbles, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. ‘I always seem to mess
things up… I didn’t want to hurt you if I messed things up because I was so happy that you both… loved me back.’
‘W-w-wait a second,
Ron,’ Harry gasps. ‘You mean, you… you
love us?’
‘Er, yes,’ Ron blushes,
his eyes bashfully darting between the two. ‘I guess I always have. I just…
never brought it up because I thought neither of you would ever feel the same
way.’
‘And when we told you
that we did…’ Hermione breaths, her eyes widening with a dawning realisation. ‘You
couldn’t quite believe it.’
‘Exactly.’ Ron says. ‘I…
I want to do this properly. I just… didn’t know how to start.’
Harry rubs the tears
out of his eyes.
‘Why didn’t you say
anything?’ he asks, as he steps closer to Ron. Hermione does the same. ‘You’ve
spent the past week blushing whenever you looked at us.’
‘You noticed that?’
‘How could we not?’
Hermione exclaims, her own cheeks burning red. ‘You couldn’t have been more
obvious if you tried!’
Ron chuckles.
‘I guess… I couldn’t
quite believe my luck. I mean, what are the odds that the people I love most in
the world would love me back?’
With this, Ron puts his
arms around his two friends and pulls them into a hug. Hermione and Harry feel
their faces burning as they weave their arms tenderly around the tall redhead,
pulling themselves closer into his chest.
‘You really do love us?’ Hermione and Harry breathe.
‘With all my heart.’ Ron whispers, making goose-bumps erupt up their
necks.
As one, Harry and
Hermione stand on the tips of their toes, and kiss Ron on the cheek. They feel
Ron’s heart beating hard through his jumper, and feel his face burn even redder.
He loves them. He
really truly loves them.
The three teenagers
stay like that for a long time; Harry and Hermione pulled closely and tenderly to
the torso of the boy they have fallen completely
and inescapably in love with. They
have never been this close to him before this, but this closeness will continue
for the rest of their lives.
Things were different
now. In the most amazing and wonderful way. Ron Weasley loves them, and they
love him back. And they always will.
Hope you all liked this continuation! I apologise that it took so long to do, but I had a backlog of other headcanons to complete. Hope they were enjoyable nonetheless; I wanted it to be that none of the three got left out or got their heart broken.
awwwww this was so cute!! I loved it! Glad no one got their heart broken but I thought it would be Hermione!
Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed it! What can I say? I may be a Romione shipper, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Rarry/Harron…
Come on, can you really blame Harry for falling for Ron? It’s Ron Weasley…
Taiga mentioned not knowing about ship names so Imma learn her some ship names xDD THE GOOD ONES from back when the fandom was fun and creative and not just shoving names together and making portmanteaus.
but here are some of my fave (names, not necessarily ships)
CedricxHarry – Tale of Two Seekers Lucius/Narcissa – Icicle Draco/Hermione – Leather & Libraries Luna/Rolf – Natural Attraction Neville/Ginny – Flaming Toad Draco/Pansy – Snitch & Bitch Hermione/Bellatrix – Bad Hair Day Neville/Luna – The Government Stole My Toad Oliver/Hermione – Book and Broomstick Draco/Ron – Prince and Pauper Lavender/Parvati – Dreamcatcher Cho/Ginny – Firefly
Ooh can I add on? I’ve made up some as well as some that are already used lol
Harry/Pansy: Pots N Pans
Draco/Ginny: Fire & Ice
Ron/Hermione: Rooks & Books (I made up that one lol)
What I find baffling about this fandom is that throughout the entirety of the Harry Potter series, Harry makes it repeatedly clear that he prefers being around Ron to being around Hermione, that he finds Hermione annoying a lot of the time, and that he even considers Ron ‘the person he would miss most’.
And yet, so many in this fandom think, if Harry did end up falling for either of his friends, it would be Hermione?
Please….. if Harry were to get a crush on one of his two friends, it would be Ron. No question.
Ron also has that whole Quidditch player thing going for him, which we know is a common thread in Harry’s crushes. Y’know, Cho, Cedric, Ginny…
Yes; Harry totally has a thing for Quidditch players.
I don’t read a lot of fanfiction (and the Harry x Ron ship is so tiny compared to others, so there aren’t many fanfics to choose from anyway), but here you go!
‘Wildflowers
and soft laughter’ by Cookies and Ink. Ron decides to finally confront the
stranger who’d been stealing wildflowers from their front garden every weekend.
He also manages to repeatedly embarrass himself in the process. Rated T.
‘Wedding Favours’
by Cookies and Ink. Harry had agreed to be Ginny’s fake boyfriend for a
wedding, to keep her Mum off her back. He hadn’t expected to find someone he’d
fall head over heels for there. Rated T.
Basically, check out
everything by Cookies
and Ink. They write so much Rarry/Harron fanfiction (often AU stuff, as
well as halfway-canon stuff).
‘Engaged’ by I’mdeadsothere.
All around Harry everyone is getting engaged, leaving Harry to wonder if he’ll
ever have the same honor. Especially when the one person he truly loves, well,
it’s complicated. Rated T. Contains strong language.
‘Beds’ by I’mdeadsothere.
Now that the war is over Harry treats himself by buying a nice big fluffy bed.
Only it’s too nice, too fluffy, and WAY too big. Ron has the perfect solution,
but it’ll change a lot more than just how Harry feels about his bed. Rated T.
Contains strong language. (This one also has Hermione ‘biggest Rarry shipper on
the planet’ Granger involved, so that’s a plus).
(WARNING- FLAGRANT
SELF-PROMOTION) There’s also my own ‘Having
trouble sleeping?’, which is about Ron being the crush of both Hermione and
Harry. It doesn’t have Ron choosing one person over the other, but focuses more
on why Ron is so loveable. Rated T.
I totally ship Harry and Ron, but to be fair I ship everything that has Ron in a healthy, loving relationship and have him being loved and adored for who he truly is SO LET’S GET STARTED
Or the Look Or the Words by LullabyKnell:
Goblet of Fire AU: The change in their relationship happens during 4th
year, when an exhausted and dateless Harry groans out the important
question, “Why can’t we just go together?” It’s as every bit as cute and perfect as it sounds and it just makes my heart swell. Hhhhnnngg.
Unrequited Love by themaltesefalcon:
Ron makes a startling realization one day. He decides to do something about it.
Ron is a bit ditzy in this one but we’ll forgive it because it’s so freaking funny. Also features Drunk!Ron. You know you want some Drunk!Ron.
Here for you by Focussight:
When Harry gets his arm broken in a Quidditch match, Ron is determined
to be there for his best friend. One-shot, slash. Rated K because
there’s nothing mature in this story, just good ol’ adorable kiddy
crushes.
Adorable it is, adorable indeed!
Swollen Lips and Mistaken Intentions by Adjuel:
Ron finally gets up the courage to tell Harry how he really feels. Now
all he has to do is wait for Harry to come home… from his date… with a
witch, a.k.a. a female. Yeah, life sucked.
Our boys are rather emotional in this one and they tear up easily. But I don’t care because I’m a sucker for angst and tears and Ron is adorable.
About How I Loved You by SazMuffin: Harry’s in a comaaaa! … or not because he just woke up and Ron is there. Cue shippiness. 😀
The Thrill of the Chase, Etcetera by tout-a-coup:
Harry is going to seduce Ron. Even if it kills him. A personal favourite of mine. It’ll have you roll on the floor with laughter. Plus, Ron is adorable.
Spiders by loonyluna9:
When Harry played a prank on Ron by enlarging a spider, and it chased
after him, he hadn’t expected Ron to jump into his arms. He hadn’t
expected himself to catch him either. Or the following awkwardness. Or
the part where they leaned in. Or when they… Harry’s a little bit of an ass to do that, but hey, we get Harron out of it so we can’t complain.
Friendship and Love by Guardian of Jupiter: Sometimes even if you don’t know it, love is always there. It takes something to make you realize it. The writing is a little wonky and clunky at times but it’s still a lovely story, with an absolutely perfect Ron to boot.
Harry’s Pet by earth-dragon-1: Mature! Ron’s as cuddly as a little ol’ kitten. Really. Ooooh how I love this one, it’s so perfectly written and the comparisons are so wonderful. There isn’t true smut, I promise, but I’ll tag it anyway.
Other Waters by Mad Maudlin: Mature! Three years after the way, Harry’s life is no like he expected it to be. Then a face from the past changes everything. A fanfic that deals with trauma and torture and its aftermath. Be forewarned. It’s beautiful still.
What Ron Did by Flaminia Grisandole: Mature! Harry can’t understand why Ron isn’t receiving the credit he deserves. Oh, oh, oh my stars I love this one. I even forgive Harry’s perverse little mind and his smutty slip-up in the middle I love it so much. AU of Deathly Hallows.
@headcanonsandmore, I’m going to read the heck out of these little fics you’ve proposed! I can’t believe I never even saw them before!
… And… And if anyone is interested, um… I’m going to do some shameless self-promotion too? If that doesn’t bother? ;v; You can read it on AO3 or onFFN. It’s called Lovers on the public benches, and I’d really, really like it if you could leave a little review or something! I crave reviews, I live for them, I cherish them, I promise.
I’m afraid I’m going to disappoint you, @headcanonsandmore, because even I’m new to this Ron/Harry ship. (And it doesn’t help that I’m very picky about Harry Potter fan fiction and have a complicated relationship with them.) However, you can trust @vivithefolle because she has great taste. I’ve read Or the Look Or the Words, which was really good. It should’ve totally happened in the actual book. Adorable, funny and might make you question if Ron/Hermione deserve to be your OTP (I’m telling you, it was that good.) The writer clearly knows Harry Potter, and characters like Ron, Lavender, and Fleur Delacour are respected (something that’s hard to find in a HP fics these days.)
Unrequited Love is also decent. However, it features a George/Hermione side pairing, which isn’t really my cup of tea. I really can’t see Hermione with anyone but Ron, which is hypocritical and unfair on my part, considering I ship Ron with Harry, Luna, happiness, myself, etc.
Ginny: Okay, Harry- truth or dare.
Harry: Dare.
Ginny: Okay, you have to-
Harry: I HAVE TO KISS RON ON THE MOUTH?
Neville: That’s not what she’s saying-
Harry: (walking over to Ron) I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’RE ACTUALLY MAKING ME DO THIS!
Ginny: Harry, you really don’t have to-
Harry: HERE I GO THEN; PUCKER UP, YOU SEXY GINGER MAN!
Headcanonsandmore 