Seven years after the seventh Harry Potter book (but still likely before the epilogue, many years in the future), J.K. Rowling questioned the relationship between Ron and Hermione in a recent interview with the magazine Wonderland. She wished she would have paired Harry and Hermione.

"I wrote the Hermione/Ron relationship as a form of wish fulfillment. That's how it was conceived, really," Rowling said in the interview. "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."

Interpreting the phrase "wish fulfillment" aside, it wouldn't have been that much of a different story if Hermione and Ron had never dated, for their love scenes were mostly plot fillers (and there to fulfill teen angst). If Harry and Hermione had found love together, however, that could have created some interesting angles -- perhaps worthy of exploration, perhaps not.

Readers were never given much depth into the emotional side (in terms of romance) of Harry Potter, besides his taste in down-to-earth, less glamorous girls like Cho Chang and Ginny Weasely. But romantic relationships were never J.K. Rowling's strength in writing Harry Potter. Friendships were. The bond between Ron, Harry, and Hermione won't ever get questioned, by her or her fans.

This isn't "The Hunger Games," where the twisting love plot is at the heart of the story. Instead, it's a series that created one of the most magical and fascinating worlds in the history of literature. Most interesting were its rules, based more on principles at times than strict formulas -- which is why Harry was able to survive his infant encounter with Voldermort. The equally complicated but possibly more twisted rules of love might not fit into that world. Or meshing them simply wasn't Rowling's strength, or intention (at the time, at least).

Calling Ron unfit for Hermione is also just another knock on the frequently slighted Weasely family. Is Ron simply not good enough for Hermione?

"I know, I'm sorry," Rowling went on in the interview. "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's second line about "personal reasons" could be important. What they may be is impossible to say, but based on the books, possibly she gave Ron the girl because it made sense in Harry Potter's world and it used to make sense in her own, but maybe it doesn't in the actual world.