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by Cassandra Raven
10 April 2005

I'm a D/Hr shipper. I don't believe that D/Hr is "opposites attract." In my opinion, Draco and Hermione are actually quite similar. They are stubborn, opinionated, insecure, willing to use the means to justify the ends, etc. They come from opposite backgrounds, but their personalities are rather alike. Draco/Hermione is not just a Tom Felton fangirl ship. I didn't even notice Tom Felton until I started shipping D/Hr and I only noticed him then because he was someone to put on Draco/Hermione icons. While there are some people who ship Dramione because of Tom Felton, Draco/Hermione can also be a very deep, substance-filled ship. Draco/Hermione is also not just a "hate turned to love" ship. Draco/Hermione don't hate each other. They intensely dislike each other, yes, but they don't quite hate each other. Draco hates Harry, but not Hermione. He is jealous of Hermione for her grades, dislikes her because she beat him despite supposedly being inferior, and thinks she is a know-it-all. Is that hatred? No. Hermione dislikes Draco because he insults her friends, and she thinks he is mean and immature. Is that hatred? Once again, no. While some people may find it hard to believe that people who dislike each other could ever fall in love, it could happen. Lily intensely disliked James and thought he was an arrogant bully.

Personally, one of the reasons I like Draco/Hermione is because of the Pureblood/Muggleborn issue. Draco is loudly and vehemently against Muggleborns. Hermione is one of the most prominent Muggleborns. While Draco supposedly hates all Mudbloods because they are inferior, Hermione doesn't fit his image of a Mudblood. He's been repeatedly told that Mudbloods are inferior, yet anyone can tell that Hermione is clearly not inferior, at least not when it comes to magical and academic ability. This anyone includes Draco, which forces him to look beyond the prejudices and stereotypes drilled into him by his father. Some people may believe that Draco can never change. Realistically, that is not true. People do change and mature in real life. Draco can become more than an immature bully. James and Sirius managed it. Draco already seems to be changing, even if the differences are minor: while Draco said that he wanted Hermione dead in CoS, he saved her life, or at least her dignity in GoF. As he is being exposed to people like Hermione, who prove that his father was wrong about Muggleborns being inferior, despite his attempts to shut it out, it has affected him, to some degree. If you close the door on reality, it will come in through the windows.

I enjoy seeing how they can overcome their differences to be together. Because of the Pureblood/Muggleborn difference, their personalities, their prejudices, their friends, and their beliefs, there are so many conflicts and barriers Draco and Hermione must overcome. And these are personal differences, rather than merely being situational, which is why I prefer Draco/Hermione over other ships that depend on House rivalry or the fact that their families hate each other. While Draco and Hermione certainly don't seem to like each other in canon, at some level, they have recognized each other's accomplishments. Draco realized Hermione was pretty at the Yule Ball, he has definitely noticed that she is higher/equal to him in terms of intelligence, he knows that she can stand up to him, (the Slap, "twitchy little ferret," etc.), and he noticed all of this despite her supposed blood "inferiority." Because Hermione has proven that she is not "inferior," at least not in terms of intelligence, she can challenge Draco to think beyond his prejudices, instead of blindly following his father. Hermione understands Draco better than either Harry or Ron; she knows what to say to affect him (like in CoS: "At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in. They got in on pure talent.") I enjoy reading Draco/Hermione because I want to see how they can overcome all of this realistically, without a summer makeover. Draco/Hermione have interaction in canon. They are not just two random characters. There is evidence and subtext for Draco/Hermione in the books. I like ships that are more subtle, instead of being blatant and practically stuffed down your throat. D/Hr involves lots of character development and potential possibilities. There is tension, excitement, danger. With Draco/Hermione, you have to think much more in depth about the characters. You have to think about all the "What if?" questions. While I do agree with the people here that at this point in canon, Draco and Hermione could not be in a healthy relationship together, people do change and mature in real life. D/Hr can be written without completely discarding the real character. It is simply showing a growth in his character and giving him some depth, rather than allowing him to remain as a cardboard cutout image.

Another thing is Draco/Hermione as a literary tool. A major theme of the books is prejudice, yet the Slytherins in general and Draco in particular are dismissed as "evil." While I know it will never happen, Draco/Hermione could hypothetically create a very powerful tie into the theme of the books if Draco were to turn against his father's path and become a Blood Traitor. Hermione and Draco would each be symbolic of the Muggleborn and Pureblood sides of this war, and the pairing of the two characters creates a message about peace and tolerance. It would also bring Harry's journey of maturity into play, as he would have to examine not only the prejudices of others but also come to recognize his own, a necessary journey towards maturity that seems to begin when he looks into Snape's pensieve.

Someone brought up that Draco wanted Hermione dead. He either changed his mind or never really meant it, because in GoF, he warned Hermione to flee the Death Eaters. He didn't have to. He could have simply let Hermione be caught and tossed up in the air. He didn't. To me, that says that Draco does not want Hermione dead. He may talk about it, but he can't see it through. Someone also brought up the question if Tom Felton isn't a factor, why isn't Dudley/Hermione shipped? Draco and Dudley are different beyond Dudley's fat. Dudley/Hermione do not have the same canon interaction. Dudley is not the son of a Death Eater. He has not loudly expressed his dislike for Muggleborns throughout the books. Dudley may dislike magic, but not Muggleborns in particular. Draco has recognized Hermione's intelligence, her looks, and the fact that Hermione can stand up to him. There is a world of difference between Dudley/Hermione and Draco/Hermione, and that world is NOT called Tom Felton.

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