Harry Potter - Should Harry have ended up with someone else?

[Hiya Debnath]

Should Harry have ended up with someone else other than Ginny? Well, Ginny was a great Quidditch player, not only an excellent Quidditch Chaser but also an occasional Seeker. She even went on to become a professional Quidditch player later in life. Therefore, of course, she had a lot in common with Harry, including being good at Quidditch and being loved and cherished by everyone for no reason (while Harry was the chosen one, Ginny was the youngest and only female sibling in the Weasley family), thus leading to their compatibility. Therefore, it is no surprise that they bonded over their common ground. Moreover, she had a crush on Harry Potter for a really long time, and her love for Harry had enough time to solidify as she closely watched him while he was growing up and being friends with her brother, Ron. He even saved her from the Chamber of Secrets. It's only natural that a girl would admire her savior in such a dire situation. Besides, she was a redhead, and it is likely that Harry Potter thought she resembled his mother because Lily was also a redhead. It is quite common for men to fall for women who remind them of the motherly figure in their lives. As for Hermione, she was better suited to Ron, who never agreed with her but respected her nevertheless and was able to take her bossy demeanor without flinching, creating the opposites-attract kind of relationship rather than the brother-sisterly love that Harry and Hermione shared. The other contender for Harry's lover could have been Luna, owing to the shared grief and understanding of loss that they both had. If it were not for her dreamy nature and blank stares, I would have guessed that Luna had a crush on Harry Potter because she was the only one who recognized Harry even through his disguise at the wedding of Bill Weasley and Fleur. She guessed him under his disguise by his facial expression and body language, indicating that she had observed him way more closely than she was given credit for. Yet I think that while they bonded on common ground, too, Luna was better suited to a dreamer like herself, as she later found her dreams fulfilled as a magizoologist married to the grandson of yet another great magizoologist. Harry could have ended up forever with Cho, but we all know why that did not happen, both in the books and the movies, and we are all satisfied with that because it could simply be seen right from the beginning that they weren't meant to be. So, what do you think? Has Harry ended up with the right person, or could it have been better?

[Lex Green]

I think that Harry should have definitely ended up with someone else in the long run. Throughout the books, we barely see any of the characters exploring romance at all, and whilst having the four main characters tie perfectly into two couples means everything gets wrapped up very nicely for the story, I think it's silly and unrealistic to say that Harry's first and only real romantic interest, who he meets at the age of 11, and who he only really knows because she's his best friend's sister, is, in fact, the love of his life who he should be with forever.

[River Fenwick]

I agree with Lex on this matter. It's rare to meet the person you will be with forever at such a young age, let alone having it be a friend's sister. Typically, those close (or, in this case, related) to your friends are unofficially off limits, so honestly, Harry is so wrong for doing that. I can't imagine how difficult of a position that puts Ron in when Ginny and Harry have an argument or something of the sort. He either has to side with his sister (whether she's right or not because that's family) or one of his closest friends, which absolutely will result in someone getting offended that he didn't back them. It seems unrealistic and troublesome all around, so making them a forever couple makes the least sense to me.

[Janne Halla]

Depends on how you look at it, I suppose. I don’t think Harry’s actually fit for a relationship considering all the trauma that he went through. He should’ve talked it all over in therapy and waded through his issues first, but I don’t think something like that really exists in the wizarding world.

I agree with Lex and River regarding him and Ginny. I never really saw them getting together as realistic. I think she was just convenient because she was the most frequent female character that wasn’t Hermione.

Fit-wise, I think Luna would have been very good for Harry. She’s an independent thinker and doesn’t really care much about what others think, which would be good for a relationship with a ‘celebrity’. I don’t know, I just think they’d mesh well.

[Galena May]

Having read the others' answers, I now have so much to think. There are points where I agree and points where I respectfully disagree with the different people who have replied to this topic.A good topic, overall. My individual viewpoints go as:
I respectfully disagree that Harry was too young to love Ginny because they only met at the age of eleven, actually they did not "get together" at the age of eleven, they grew up together upto the age of seventeen and got together only in Harry's sixth year, but their relationship was then still developing, and they also had explored other relationships to compare with before each other.
But, I also respectfully disagree that they had a lot in common, except for Quidditch and Ron Weasley, because Ginny never experienced the heartbreak and lack of family and blood relations that Harry went through. Ginny was brave and outspoken, but very respectfully, my opinion is that Ginny never had enough opportunity to explore the difficult emotions that the Golden Trio went through. She was two years behind in maturity anyway. She was a great by-the-books definition of hero's girlfriend perhaps, as compared to all the other girls who had a crush on Harry, but I don't really see her emotionally bonding with him anywhere. I see their relationship a bit superficial and partially a product of Ginny's hero-worship and attraction- based as opposed to real love, at least during the timeline of the story. In fact, I have sometimes thought that Harry's respect for Ginny looks like Ginny is Harry's sister.
But again, let me not fail to also add that this is how I see it on the basis of how much we got to know by the time the story ended. We never had time to explore their relationship better with all the Voldy stuff happening. They might have very well been perfect for each other after the serious stuff ended when they finally got the time to relax and explore their compatibility. In my opinion, J.K. Rowling simply left Ginny as Harry's hope of a stable future, not as an established relationship. We do not even actually get to read the part where their relationship develops further, that part gets just fast -forwarded upto their marriage and their children, completely skipping all the reasons why Harry stayed forever with Ginny and not someone else.
Not going to lie, from my own experience and referring to my own love-life, I don't think bonding has to occur only over having things in common, dramatic experiences, and shared conflicts. In fact, its quite the opposite. Going through a lot of trauma together merely sets the foundation for a "we understand each other" and " healing together" journey, then there's nothing left to bond over when they have finished healing, then they start exploring other options if they don't successfully create other things to do together. In fact, I have found that couples who meet AFTER completing their own individual healing journeys are more likely to last longer and create new memories thus helping to bond faster as opposed to those with shared conflicts who bond over reminiscing old traumas and are simply auto-piloted by their shared pasts and "used to " being there for each other simply because they had no other choice in their shared past which I think only delays the healing process further.
When the trauma resolves, and you are at a relatively happier place in life, you no longer have anything to bond over, and that's when you get to decide if you really want each other even in the absence of any drama. That's when you actually get to explore yourself without triggers be who you really want to be, and your bonding at this stage is more effortless, which really happened AFTER the story ended for Harry.
Basically what I am trying to say is that when you just saved the whole wizarding world, you are likely thinking about someone who mentally heals you and gives in the effort, not about what you would do together when there is nothing more to do. So, it isn't the right time to date.
Therefore, we don't have enough evidence to determine if Ginny was a good fit for Harry.
The same would go for anyone else mentioned in this topic, whether Luna , Hermione, or Cho. Even Cho could very well have stood a second - chance with Harry, because she was still sad about Cedric when dating Harry and Harry was so immature not to understand her emotions and confusion in my opinion. Would the dynamics be different if they met again after the Wizarding War after gaining maturity? We never got to read about that at all.
Overall, I think I actually agreed with Janne here. After stating how I view this, I am reminded of reading Janne state that Harry needed a therapist. Very true, in my opinion. We may actually have therapists in the wizarding realm, though. Nobody said that only Muggles have therapists, given that magic doesn't make someone immune to going through a lot, why else did magicals invent the Cheering Charm ( isn't that pretty much the magical equivalent of therapy?). Maybe we would find a therapist or two in St. Mungo's hospital though they didn't play a pivotal role in the story, because the other events took center-stage here, or maybe going to a therapist was expensive or frowned upon in Harry's days, like it still is in some parts of the Muggle realm.

[Ellie Vernez]

I believe Harry should have ended up with someone else. Through out the books and films Ginny only seemed interested in him because of his fame, she was dating multiple people before Harry and only seemed to take any romantic interest in him when he started showing an interest in cho. I dont know who harry should have ended up with in the end but I dont think it should have been ginny, hermione i think would have been a bit wierd as they were like brother and sister.

[Lexa Winslow]

I don't think so, no. I first got into the HP world through the movie series, and after watching the movies I thought Harry should have ended up with Hermione because of the way they understood each other. However, since reading the books, I changed my opinion.

Out of the four potential love interests of Harry's in the books, Ginny, Hermione, Luna, and Cho, I think Ginny is the best fit for him. I'd like to point out that Harry didn't start to like Ginny in that way until the 6th book, The Half-Blood Prince, so it's not like JK Rowling put the two of them together because of Ginny's childhood crush. Hermione even states that Ginny no longer liked Harry at one point when she was dating various other boys.

Even as a non-Gryffindor, I can admire Ginny's bravery and strength. Harry needed someone that could be his strength and support him as much as he supported them. Unfortunately, we got a very small look into their relationship (the point of the books not being romance, obviously), so it does make it hard to see exactly why Harry and Ginny ended up together besides convenience. However, I think Harry admired her once she grew out of her shyness and was able to be herself around him and others. Here are three of the main reasons I think Harry and Ginny were a good match:

1. Shared values.
2. Quidditch.
3. Personalities.

First of all, they had similar values. They both were loyal to their friends and family, brave, determined, courageous, and action-oriented. Even though Harry never had a real family of his own, he was still welcomed into the Weasley family and showed loyalty to them, no matter how unpopular or targeted they were. Ginny also loved her family above all else and was loyal to her friends to the point of being willing to fight with them. Harry and Ginny were both brave, courageous, and determined throughout the books, showing why they were true Gryffindors. Neither of them preferred to sit and wait- they would dive into things without always thinking them through.

Harry and Ginny also share a strong love of Quidditch. Sometimes I wonder if Harry would have been a professional Quidditch player if he hadn't been "The Chosen One" and marked to fight Voldemort since birth. He chose to be an Auror because he liked the career path yes, but also because he wanted to fight Dark forces. If he had been free to be whomever he wanted, he might have been able to lean into his love of Quidditch more. We see how much Harry loved and was naturally good at Quidditch throughout the books. He felt the most free when he was flying. Ginny was great at Quidditch as well, and went on to play professionally for the Holyhead Harpies. Neither Luna or Hermione enjoyed Quidditch, and JK Rowling had Ginny beat Cho for the House Cup on purpose to show how Ginny was a better fit for Harry than Cho.

Personality-wise, I think Harry and Ginny were the best fit as well. Harry needed someone emotionally tough who could handle the pressure of being his significant other. We see that Harry didn't get along the emotional side of Cho in the books. Harry is more introverted, and Ginny provides a nice balance to that. Harry is a bit more feeling and wears his heart on his sleeve (we see he struggles to control his emotions with Occlumency and other examples), so he needs someone at least as strong if not tougher than him, which Ginny is. I think the two of them compliment each other in ways Hermione, Luna, and Cho wouldn't with Harry.

[Matthew Flitwick]

Harry and Ginny had a lot in common that led to their bond, including a passion for Quidditch and the experiences that bonded them. Ginny had a long-standing love for Harry that grew stronger through her experiences. although Harry could also relate to others like Hermione or Luna, his relationship with Ginny was based on a deep shared history and understanding. Their connection seems like the right choice, based on similarities, mutual respect and early feelings that have developed over the years.