Author: Jim Ferer (extracted from Symbolic Flight)

I’m an H/H shipper, but I don’t go around looking for tiny clues – I don’t care whose pillow lands on whose in Charms class. I see Harry and Hermione converging all the time. They’ve changed each other and are more complete together than apart.

Never have two people been more suited to each other, perfect soulmates. Hermione has been the person who has prepared him for his challenges; while he is the greatest natural talent of his generation, she is the exemplar of what hard work and application can do - a perfect yin and yang. She understands him better than anyone else.

Hermione cares for him as much or more than anyone. When she asks after Harry and Cho, what's going on there? Is she not interested in Harry, or not aware of *how* she might care for him, or is she mature enough to know his feelings for Cho have to be resolved, that the risk must be run? I don't know, but I know that Harry and Hermione love each other already. It may not be romantic love, but they are incredibly close. Hermione with anybody else - even Ron - would be a step backward in intimacy.

HERMIONE IS IN TUNE WITH HARRY

Hermione knows exactly what Harry needs. Her DA idea was brilliant, giving him a purpose and a boost he badly needed at the same time providing others with something they needed as well. She sees in Harry his natural leadership qualities and the isolation that was hurting him, and came up with just the right thing that helped him keep going. It's not an accident that JKR tells us more than once how much the DA means to Harry. Let's remember whose idea it was, and how she cared for him at a time when Harry was just plain unlikable. (I was mad at him about fifty times in OOP). Hermione also has the idea to use Rita Skeeter to get Harry’s story out, which aids him mentally as well. You will answer that any friend might do that for him, but I offer this up as an example of how in tune Hermione is to Harry.

HARRY HAS NOTICED HERMIONE

Harry has noticed her, and the subtlety of the clues make them more convincing. In OOP, when she suggests he tell Cho how ugly he thinks Hermione is, he says 'but I don't think you're ugly!' which was a spontaneous letting out of his feelings. In GoF, there were true sparks when he noticed her at the Yule Ball. These seeds are not idly planted. They will burst out someday. (BTW, when JKR repeats something, remember it). I suspect Cho, and others, see how close Harry and Hermione are better than the principals themselves.

IT'S NOT ONE-SIDED

Harry's 'saved' Hermione, too. I don't mean physically, although he has, but Hermione knew early that she would be a different person and a lesser one without being in the Trio. “Books! And cleverness!” She started out with an affinity to Percy, but look at how the two have diverged. Because of her adventures, because she's discovered real purpose, she's a young woman of character and moral courage and Percy's a disgusting sycophant. She might have been a Ravenclaw at heart when she arrived, but there never was a truer Gryffindor now. She's seen what bravery can do. Hermione has gained immensely from knowing Harry.

WHAT DOES HARRY NEED?

If Harry ends up with Ginny, he's going to have a supportive, loving woman and family, a healing balm for all the hurts he's got and will get. If it's Hermione, she's going to care for him in a different way, pushing him when he needs it, tough when she has to be, challenging him back to health. Which will he need? He’s going to need something, because he’s going to pay a high price for defying Voldemort, as all the Dark Lord’s enemies have.

WHAT DOES HERMIONE NEED?

Hermione needs someone who needs what's special about her. She has been most alive, most vital, with Harry. She will always seek to challenge herself and her world. She wants to do something more than support her partner.

If anyone wants to argue an R/H viewpoint based on the idea that "JKR says so," that's weak, IMO. JKR doesn't want us to do that. She wants us to find it in her text. She keeps telling us everything is there, and it is, but you won’t find it in how the pillows fall or anything like that.