If I had a wand, it would be seven inches long, supple and embedded with dragon heartstring. If I had a wand, I would point it at myself and say “Obliviate!” loudly and with robust confidence. I would do that so I could forget that J.K. Rowling said she regretted pairing up Ron and Hermione.

I realize that I’m being what my family refers to as a drama llama, but for me Harry Potter and my childhood are synonyms, which means this book series is important to me.

I once spent a whole summer pretending to be Luna Lovegood and speaking in a British accent. As a kid, I pretended to crash through a brick wall into Platform 9 ¾ every time I put the shopping cart up at our local Kroger grocery store, and when I shot off Roman candles for the Fourth of July, I pretended to be putting up a fight against Voldemort and shouted spells like Avada Kadavra and Stupify.

Now that I’ve put my Harry Potter résumé out there, let’s talk about what Rowling said. I’ve had a while to sit down and think about if there were any indications in the books that Harry and Hermione should have ended up together, and I cannot find one sliver of support for this couple. 

Perhaps if I had a Pensive and could properly examine my thoughts, I would come to a different conclusion, but even then, I highly doubt it.

The awkward tension between Ron and Hermione is so intricately and wonderfully crafted. It starts with the 11-year-olds first encounter on the Hogwarts Express. Ron and not Harry was jealous of Viktor Krum. Ron, and not Harry, was constantly bickering with Hermione. Ron, and not Harry, was completely awkward and utterly adorable in Hermione’s presence.

In the fourth book, when Hermione takes Harry’s side during the Triwizard Tournament and Ron is out of the picture, Harry and Hermione spend all of their time together. 

However, their relationship is completely platonic. Things are never awkward because they don’t have feelings for each other. Harry actually complains because he is bored having Hermione as his best friend.

Similarly, when Ron leaves Hermione and Harry in the Deathly Hallows, the duo are only friends. Their relationship is best described as sibling-like. The movie adds some weird transition scenes that hint at a relationship between Harry and Hermione, but they have no textual evidence to back them up.

After a heart-wrenching, emotional scene in the seventh book, we learn that Ron is jealous of Harry and fears that he and Hermione have some sort of a relationship. Harry responds candidly and assures Ron that nothing is there. If you’ve read this part, you know he isn’t lying.

Rowling said that she felt that Hermione and Ron’s relationship became forced, but I disagree. I think it so accurately represented the phases of attraction people go through. As kids, they hated each other; as adolescents, they became friends, but they were also awkward and bickered. In the end, they were adorable together and had a relationship with a solid foundation of almost seven years of friendship.