Harry Potter fans, brace yourself: J.K. Rowling is here to make you re-think all of your feelings towards the series' central romance. The next issue of Wonderland Magazine (awesome cover pictured above) is guest-edited by Emma Watson who, for one of the issue's features, interviewed J.K., creator of her most famous role, Hermione Granger, smarty pants-witch, trusty BFF to The Boy Who Lived, and love-interest/eventual wife of Ron Weasley. However in an advance excerpt scored by Hypable (the issue doesn't hit newsstands until February 7), Rowling admits that she regrets that last part.
As she tells Watson: “I wrote the Hermione/Ron relationship as a form of wish fulfillment.* That’s how it was conceived, really. For reasons that have very little to do with literature and far more to do with me clinging to the plot as I first imagined it, Hermione ended up with Ron.
I know, I’m sorry. I can hear the rage and fury it might cause some fans, but if I’m absolutely honest, distance has given me perspective on that. It was a choice I made for very personal reasons, not for reasons of credibility. Am I breaking people’s hearts by saying this? I hope not.”
*(Rowling has often stated that the character of Hermione bears several personality traits in common with her creator.)
Apparently she wasn't breaking Emma's, who replied "I think there are fans out there who know that too and who wonder whether Ron would have really been able to make her happy.”
And to twist the basilisk fang she just stabbed shippers in the collective heart with, Rowling added that as it is, Ron and Hermione would probably need relationship counseling. Wow. You hear that, Ginny Weasley? It wasn't supposed to be you.
Check back next week for more gems from the Watson-Rowling interview after it drops.
[via Hypable]
