I like Luna also. I think her actress, despite having little part in any of the movies, conveyed her spacey-ness pretty well in her sparse scenes.

Luna/Harry = odd but better than ginny pairing = I support XD

Alright, everyone, we need a solid convo, so what are your favorite pairings? Mine are:

Ron and Hermione ~ They lurve each other.
Harry and no one ~ I would go with Harry/Ginny, but they're only together because she was once his #1 fan and had a crush on him.
Ginny and Dean ~ There was no specific reason for them to break up, and the Felix Felicis caused one of their arguments.
Neville and Luna ~ They're similar and good friends. I can't believe Luna married some random guy who wasn't even in the books.
Krum and Fleur ~ No plausible reason, really. They were just both Champions.
Snape and Lily ~ The problem is, that would cause Harry to not exist...
Angelina Johnson and Lee Jordan ~ Because of his commentary in book one.
George and Katie Bell ~ Because I'd use Fred/Angelina if Fred hadn't died ( ).
Draco and Ella Jackson ~ I just made up Ella Jackson. I've decided she's a good friend of Draco's who didn't join Voldy after all the Slytherins were kicked out.

Harry x Luna
Hermione x Neville
Ron x lonely for the rest of his days
Ginny x even lonelier for the rest of her days

And that takes care of the two trios. I'm fine with canon for all the rest.

OTPs: Hermione X Harry and Lilly X Snape
Others:
Ron X Luna
Luna X Neville
Harry X Luna ((Ok, so I like Luna with a lot of people! So sue me.))

I'm sure there is more, I just need to think for a moment-- haven't read HP or HP fics in a while.

Hermione x Fleur
Hermione x Harry
^most common ones I read nowadays. I would read more Hermy/Harry but finding good stories is murder. Hermy/Fleur is rare enough that I only have to search through a few hundred.

Snape x Lily (How in Merlin's name did Lily get together with that prick James?)
Luna x Neville
Ron x Harry/Harry x Malfoy are common enough to infest my fic as side couples so I tolerate them. A lot of stories make them into horrible caricatures though so it's really hit and miss with them.
Sirius/Lupin

Ginny can go be the old lonely cat hoarder.

Snape x Lily

Even though I didn't like Snape for his favoritism on the Slytherins, I thought he was ok before. He's probably like this because of James' bullying so I don't blame him. And same with KTC here. How the heck did Lily ended up with James?! o_O

Harry x Hermione <- At least they look more like a couple than Hermione x Ron

Why do people feel the need to replace canon with their own version of events in order to stick couples together? James was not a bad guy; he bullied Snape. It was wrong, but that doesn't mean that he was a horrible person. Snape decided to get into the dark arts, called Lily a mudblood, and joined Voldemort. These were his decisions. James bullying him had NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS. That's like saying that it's the bully in elementary school's fault that people were murdered by a serial killer. And it's ridiculous.

Support Lily x Snape. Just don't destroy canon to do it. XD

Huh? How can a person not be horrible if he's bullying someone? I don't care how he is to Lily, bullying is still wrong. No one wants to get bullied. Of course it has something to do with him. Bullying affects people on some point.

Yeah it was his 'choice' to call her a mudblood but James' actions changed his choice. Snape wouldn't do that to the person he loved if it wasn't for James' actions. I was ok with the canon pairing until I've read Snape's flashbacks. I kinda despise James now.

Lol supporting other fanon pairings itself is already destroying canon

It was wrong for Snape to call Lily a mudblood, yes. But remember, those Death Eaters-to-be were trying to take him into their group. Peer pressure, combined with his fury at James, combined with his humiliation in front of that crowd, could've made him snap and be unkind to Lily.

I agree with iPink, James isn't really a bad guy. You have to remember something, some of that bullying was just typical behavior of someone that age and someone who was extremely popular.

Also, I don't think it's right to say James's bullying drove Snape to the Death Eaters. As, iPink said, Snape joining was Snape's decision alone, and there is no way James's bullying drove him to Death Eaters. Snape started to hang out with the wrong crowd and started gravitating towards the Dark Arts. How is that James's fault? James didn't make him hang out with those people. James's bullying may have made Snape want company, but James didn't choose who Snape went to.

So if James bullying pushed Snape to suicide rather than death eaters [as sometimes happens in severe bullying situations], it's still not his fault? While I don't think James is entirely accountable for Snape's decision to join the Death Eaters, he certainly was a major part in that decision.

The Death Eaters are the opposite of everything that James and Gryfindor stood for. I don't find it unreasonable that a emotionally vulnerable (and probably isolated since who would want to be associated with the bullied kid?) Snape would be receptive to the Death Eaters because of this difference in ideology.

James was a prick because he bullied, and horribly at that. He picked on a weaker guy than him and got cheers for it. He might have gotten better later on, but that doesn't change the fact that he was the bad guy during his teenager years.

So being "popular" makes it ok to bully other people just because they're 'popular'? Just because it's a typical behaviour doesn't make it right. And a person's status shouldn't change the severity of a situation. It's like glorifying the bad behaviours of the celebs while us ordinary people gets despised by the public.


Also, I'm a bit confused on the Death Eater thing (hadn't read the books for a long time >< ); didn't Snape joined the Death Eaters just for the show? o.o I thought his real aim was protecting Harry ?_?

@KTC

Course not. I'm just saying it's not all James's fault. Snape still had to choose who he hung out with. Nor do I think James's was a bad guy. Yes, he picked on Snape, but what kid that age doesn't pick on someone?

@Ivana

No. I never said it was okay. I said that it was typical behavior. Yes, James shouldn't have been picking on people, but he did.


And no, Snape didn't join the Death Eaters just for show. It wasn't until Lily died before he switched sides.

Just because a person engages in bad behavior does not mean that they are a bad person. James's bullying was completely wrong. That does not mean that he should shoulder the blame for someone else's bad behavior as well. Blame him for what he did do (bullying) and then forgive him for it. Blame Snape for what he did (joined the Death Eaters and was partly responsible for James and Lily's deaths) and then forgive HIM for it. Don't act as if James is responsible for Snape's mistakes just because he made mistakes of his own.

Besides, while James did things that were wrong, who hasn't? Vilifying a generally good character because of one aspect of his personality isn't right. Why don't we look at Snape's problems? He bullied STUDENTS over which he had complete power, bullied Petunia before he had ever met James, and then there was all of the Death Eater stuff. He's not some paragon of goodness.

@Mopiece: He picked on? That's an understatement if I ever heard one. James hanged Snape upside down, harassed him constantly with his goons and he got away with it. Let's call it what it is: he was bullying Snape, which is akin to torturing emotionally and/or physically another person. Last I check, bullying is a bad thing that we try to stop when it happens, not glorify it or claim it's just typical behavior so it's fine to let it slide.

@ipink: I'm not saying James is the only reason why Snape joined up with the Voldy crew. But he probably is a (large) part of that decision.

Bullying leaves scars on a person and with James constant harassing for most of his 7 years at Hogwarts, I doubt Snape left unscathed. (Obviously not since his friendship with Lily was destroyed after an stupid anger filled comment. We say stupid stuff when we're angry and after Jame's antics, I'm not surprised he lashed out at the wrong person.)

Also, I never said Snape was a paragon of goodness or James was the worst villain in HP history. We aren't discussing Snape's later years where he turns into a bully (which makes some sense to me since there's some evidence that the abused have a higher chance of becoming abusers). We are discussing James behavior toward Snape during their teen years which was despicable. How he is as an adult is irrelevant to this discussion.

James was horrible when young. Arguing that he was a good guy early on is just lying. It was because they changed that they became nice. If they were never bad, why did they change

@KTC

Picked on/bulling is same thing to me. I was never glorifying, nor was I saying to let it slide. All I'm saying, is you're blowing James's character out of proportion. Yes, he shouldn't have done what he did to Snape, but he did. He did this while he was growing up. And the last time I checked, children were cruel to those they didn't like.

But again, just James's bullied Snape doesn't mean James caused all of Snape's decision. In the end, it was Snape's choice, not James. Snape could have been the better man, but he decided not to be.

@Theone

I never said he was a good guy. I just said he wasn't as bad as people are making him out to be.

But this isn't the simple "playground bully" type of thing children do. He was in high school when he bullied Snape, so he should have been already mature and rational enough to decide what he should and shouldn't do.

@IvanaDeRossi

He was still growing up. Since when are teenage boys mature and rational? And it wasn't high school. It started when they were preteens and lessened when he got older.

Snape also could have been rational, but he wasn't. James isn't the only one at fault in this.

Also remember, we don't know the whole stories about what happened during their school years. We've seen everything through Snape's eyes.

Hermione x Krum
Ron x Luna (we'd get some laughs)
Harry x Cho (Likeable, didn't take too much plot like Ginny/Harry)
Harry/Ginny moments were good in book 2. Everything else felt unappealing and RUSHED.