I spent quite a while thinking about how to represent what I wanted to share with you today, and this image was the best way I could find to describe Harry and Hermione's relationship as I see it.
That's why I'm going to talk a little about colours and their psychological and emotional meanings, but I promise I won't make it boring.
Blue is one of the world's most beloved colours, and also the number one favourite when it comes to people's preferred colours.
It can symbolise trust and focus, but it can also convey coldness, distance, and depth.
And that describes Harry very well to me at various points throughout the story.
Harry is a "blue character". Not so much because of trust or focus, but because of the loneliness, sadness, and even depression he carried with him, whether through the distance he placed between himself and his friends, or through the coldness he felt inside and the sadness caused by everything happening around him.
The peak of this was undoubtedly in his fifth year (with an honourable mention to the third year, when one of the main themes of PoA was, to a large extent, the struggle with depression and sadness beneath the surface). But blue was always present in Harry's life, accompanying him throughout his childhood and adolescence in one way or another.
And then we have Hermione.
She was, in a way, designed to break through that blue ice, as his golden counterpart.
The colour of wisdom, warmth, and, above all, illumination against the darkness.
Of all the characters, Hermione was the one who was always there for him. The one who thought about him, who tried to understand him, who wanted to help, comfort, and protect him in her own way.
Does Ron have his own role in Harry's life? Yes, but as the colour orange (no pun intended about his hair), and as another form of emotional support that was also important.
For Harry, however, Hermione was his rational anchor, the voice of his conscience that he didn't always listen to.
Should Harry have invited her to the Yule Ball, spending a night having fun with his best friend after so many problems and pressures? Yes.
Should he have paid more attention to her and listened more closely to what she had to say in his fifth year before running headfirst into an obvious trap set by Voldemort? Yes.
Should he have made Hermione realise how foolish she was being in her sixth year by inviting someone she didn't even like simply to make Ron jealous? Yes.
And should he really have welcomed her into the tent when Ron abandoned them? Yes.
And Hermione?
Should she have talked to Harry before making the decision about the Firebolt in their third year? Yes.
Should she have made it clear that they could have gone to the Yule Ball together? Yes.
Should she have noticed Harry instead of letting herself be swept along by a vengeful and jealous Ron in their sixth year? Yes.
(I personally still think she had a crush on Harry during their first few years and eventually gave up when she realised he didn't feel the same way. But that's a subject for another time.)
Yeah… we all know there was a romance missing.
And I think those of us who agree will always carry that bitter feeling that "something was missing".
But we also can't deny that, despite all their human flaws, the friendship between the two of them was a shining diamond.
Perhaps that's precisely what makes their relationship so beautiful and, at the same time, so frustrating for those of us who saw something more there.
And yet, what remained etched in the pages of the books and in the hearts of the readers was the enduring relationship and friendship of the blue, illuminated by the gold.
