STOP!
Read this first: Here is the thing with this "story"... it isn't a story, it is written as an interview with Ron and Hermione that is meant to be seen in magazine format, which is exactly what I did. You can go ahead and read the interview below, but if you want to see it all graphic-ed out (which I worked very hard on) you can look at it on my flickr or download it at megaupload. I know often messes up links, but I'll try. If these don't work you can just search "EmmaMary4" under people on flickr and I come up, check out the live journal community "honestlyronald" where I posted it today, or you can totally email me at and I'll send you the links.
This is supposed to go in a fashion magazine type thing, such as Glamour or Cosmo, this made up one I have named "Enchanted". I really wanted to wait until I had the DH publicity pics, but with Emma's hair now 1 inch long, I didn't think it would work so well, so I just posted now!
Flickr: http:/www.*flickr*.com/photos/*26043083N06/sets/*72157624732570936/
I think if you take out the stars and add an "at" symbol between the 083 and the N06 it will get you to the right place!
Megaupload: http:/www.*megaupload*.com/?d*=T7GDX*5YW
Let me know what you think if you're able to view it!
If their adventures made up the pages of a classic fairy tale, the heroic title character would live happily ever after with the heroine of the story, but luckily for Ron Weasley, this is the real world.
For two decades the wizarding world has known of Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived, The Choosen One. Then, when the war ended last year we were introduced to Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Along with Potter they made up the now famous "Golden Trio", who together defeated Voldemort once and for all. Surely you already know about their many heroic deeds throughout their school days and during the war; the stories dealing with three headed dogs, colonies of arachnids, secret armies, cursed brains, and lots of polyjuice potion. You know that Potter himself once claimed "It wasn't as though Ron and Hemione were my sidekicks, simply helping me out when I needed them, we were a solitary unit, a team, with no one person more important than the other." It is what you don't know about these two twenty year olds, however, that is even more surprising than the many astonishing things you do know.
Because perhaps the most interesting thing about Ron and Hermione is this: they are in love.
And they have been since the end of the war. Through countless interviews and appearances they have kept their relationship secret from the public, until now.
I sit down with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger to talk about how it all began, what their life is like now, and why they say they are in it for the "long haul".
Their laughter fills the cozy sitting room of Ron Weasley's childhood home, where both he and Hermione Granger are currently living, as I ask them my first question. "Do you guys feel like pros at giving interviews after this past year?" Their shared answer is a giggling "no." It is clear the pair is very down to earth, each clad in jeans and a t-shirt, and offering me lemonade and biscuits to combat the sweltering summer heat. To them, the fame that came with their heroic deeds will never be normal. I am lucky to snag a few moments from their "normal, but busy" (as they proclaim) lives to talk about the only thing, it seems, that has not been covered in the last year.
ML: So tell me, why a whole year into you relationship did you suddenly decide to go public?
RW: We never really decided to keep it a secret; we just have great friends who stay away from the press. I guess it just never really came out.
HG: But then about a month ago there were all these rumors going around that Harry and I were together, and all we just decided to tell the press. It really wasn't a big deal.
ML: Why, Hermione, do you think the press speculated that you and Harry were an item, and not you and Ron?
HG: I think since Harry has been a celebrity for so long, he was the one to kill Voldemort, and he was willing to die to do so, he was rightfully seen as a hero. Then the press kind of painted the picture that Ron was the sidekick, and I was the pretty Muggle born girl who accompanied them.
ML: So they cliché of the hero getting the girl was on everyone's minds
HG: Exactly! But it is clear that there are several things wrong with that stereotype. For one, the hero usually rescues the girl and then wins her heart.
RW: But Hermione isn't exactly the damsel-in-distress type.
HG: And Ron isn't the babbling sidekick who is good only for some comic relief.
ML: The one-year anniversary of the end of the war was just a little over a month ago, and you both admit that you are now at very transitional stages in your lives.
RW: This past year was really a time for everyone to rebuild and cope after the war. I spent a lot of time with my family after we lost my brother Fred, and I was working with my brother at his joke shop. I guess I feel a lot more comfortable with my relationships and myself than I did right after the war, it was hard to get it all figured out, but I did.
HG: I went through a similar process, but finishing my education was really important to me, so I returned to Hogwarts a few months after the war ended and I graduated last week! I finally feel like I'm ready to move on from everything that happened when we were in school and during that year we were searching for Horcruxes.
ML: But now you two are moving on to more uncharted territory. Ron, you will begin training to become an Auror and Hermione, you will begin searching for a job.
HG: I've been a big activist for the advancement of magical creatures, especially after the war ended. Change was on everyone's mind and I sort of used my "celebrity status" to get the word out. I really hope to continue with that.
ML: And you are also currently looking for a flat together.
RW: Yeah. We are both going to be so busy, and we kinda just want to have a home base…
HG: …together.
ML: But we are getting ahead of ourselves, before we can understand the relationship you two share today, we must first understand how your relationship started.
HG: Well it all started because Ron hated me.
RW: [Laughs.] I did not hate you!
HG: Well I annoyed you at the very least. You see I was very stuck up in school. My parents are Muggles so I felt I had more to prove than many of my classmates.
RW: I was making fun of her one day but I didn't know she was behind me and could hear everything. I was really ashamed at myself for upsetting her, but at 11 years old you don't really know how to handle yourself. Someone mentioned to me and Harry that she had been crying in the bathroom all afternoon, so when we heard a troll had been let loose in the castle we knew she would have no idea about it.
HG: Of course instead of telling a professor, they just came to my rescue.
RW: We ended up having to fight the troll, and it was the very first of many dangerous incidents we would stumble upon in the next seven years.
HG: After that the three of us were just always together.
ML: So obviously it wasn't exactly love at first sight. When did you first realize that maybe your feelings weren't completely platonic?
RW: For me I think it came gradually, although at the Yule Ball our fourth year I was really jealous that she went with someone else.
HG: Not that he actually asked me.
RW: When I told my brother Charlie about really hating the guy she went with, his response was something along the lines of "Do you really hate him? Or do you like her?" so that was probably my first indication.
HG: For me it was much earlier. We were twelve years old and someone was being really foul-mouthed in my direction. Ron tried to put a nasty spell on the person, but his wand was basically broken in half from another rule-breaking incident earlier in the year, and so it backfired. He was spitting up slugs for hours.
RW: [Rolls eyes.] She thinks that story is so funny.
HG: I just think it's sweet!
ML: But I hear your relationship hasn't always been so lovey-dovey.
RW: We weren't always nice to each other in school, and often times we would have fights that would last for weeks.
ML: If I may be so blunt to ask: Why?
HG: It kind of goes along with that old cliché that you tease the person you like. Obviously there has always been a lot of tension between us, add on the stresses of everything we had to face and we tended to take our frustrations on each other. We still bicker and fight, it will always be a part of who we are, but now, it is in a more loving way, if that makes any sense at all.
RW: Yeah, what she said.
ML: I think that makes perfect sense! So how would you describe your relationship now?
RW: Umm, stable is one part of it I think. We might only be twenty, but we're in this for the long haul.
ML: How do you know, at such a young age, that you are with the person you want to be with for the rest of your life?
HG: I don't really know how to explain it. I just can't imagine my life without him in it. Of course we are not going to pretend like our relationship is indestructible, we are well aware anything can go wrong at anytime, but we both want to be with each other so we are committed to making it work.
ML: Was there a certain event that made you realize you wanted to be together forever?
RW: For me there definitely was, and it was a pretty terrible experience that made me realize it. During the war we had been captured and taken to a private home, Harry and I were trapped in the cellar and they were using cruciatus curse on Hermione. I went ballistic, I couldn't even concentrate on how to escape. I just remember thinking that everything we had done would be worthless if she didn't make it, and that I didn't even care about defeating Voldemort if she died, because I wouldn't care about anything if she was gone.
ML: How has sharing such a unique and fierce past influenced the strong relationship you seem to have today?
HG: Well, our past has made our relationship what it is today for so many reasons; one of them being because we kind of did everything backwards. We had such a solid and deep emotional connection before we even admitted that we had romantic feelings for one another.
RW: Especially during that year leading up to the final battle.
HG: At one point while we were living in Harry's late godfather's house we shared a bed every night. I was so emotionally tired and even scared that I needed that simple comfort.
RW: It also helped that we knew so much about each other. Every important moment, good or bad, we went through together. Hermione saw me at my very worse, so I've never had to act like someone I'm not.
HG: Plus we aren't shy around each other. Ron met me when we were eleven years old. I had poofy hair and big teeth. When we were living in a tent for a year I didn't even think about doing my hair or my makeup, half the time we were filthy and probably stunk! So now, if I feel like I'm not looking my best, I just think about the fact that he has seen me in a worse state than this.
RW: It is like we had already dealt with so many things new couples deal with, so we didn't have to worry about it.
HG: And because of everything we've been though we have a very similar viewpoint on life. We know how fleeting it really is, and we never take anything for granted.
RW: We try and make our lives really full.
ML: In what way?
RW: We just make sure we do things with our lives. We help other people, especially Hermione, we go see different things, do different things, meet new people, the normal cheesy stuff.
HG: And we are really passionate about our families. We see them as often as we can; which is a lot.
ML: And Harry Potter is included in that family, yes?
RW: Definitely, in our minds he is our brother.
HG: Just because Ron and I have gotten so close doesn't mean our relationship with Harry has weakened. He is also dating Ron's younger sister, Ginny. She has kind of completed our little gang.
RW: The four of us do a lot together.
HG: We are even planning a trip to America in a couple of months!
ML: Now Hermione you are clearly incredibly intelligent and a self proclaimed independent woman and hard worker who is also in a very committed relationship, what would you say to those people who say that those two things don't mix?
HG: I would say that having both those things aren't what will ruin a relationship, not having them is what does that. I'm a firm believer that you need to be 100% comfortable and confident in yourself before you can be someone else's better half. We both know exactly who we are, and that is why we make such a great couple. Maybe if our teenage years weren't so tumultuous we wouldn't be so content with ourselves and we wouldn't be able to be in this relationship, but that isn't how it happened and all that turmoil left us with something amazing. Plus being in a relationship doesn't mean one person, the man, is in charge of the other, the woman, we are partners.
ML: You guys seem to have a perfect relationship!
HG: We don't want anyone to think we are living a fairy tale though. Relationships are about commitment. You have to show up everyday willing to put so much into your relationship if you want it to last.
RW: Yeah, we still fight and bicker, but at the end of the day if you know you still want to be together, which we both always do, you find a way to fix everything.
HG: It is like anything in life, like work, or school. You can't just expect to show up to class and get good grades, you have to study.
RW: Except the pay off here is much better.