Harmony

"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"

- J.K. Rowling

Harmony is the het ship between Harry Potter and Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series. It is also called H/H, H/Hr, HPHG or Harmione in some communities.

Canon
Though Harry and Ron initially found Hermione Granger stuck-up and arrogant, the three became best friends after Harry and Ron saved her from a troll in there first year, and she, in turn, lied to keep them from getting in trouble. Her quick mind was at times the only thing that saved the three friends from potential failure in both life-threatening and every-day situations.

Hermione was always with Harry and was fiercely protective of him, from snapping at Lavender Brown when she doubted Harry's claim that Lord Voldemort returned to interceding when Dolores Umbridge was about to use the Cruciatus Curse on Harry. Hermione stood by Harry even when Ron doubted him during the Triwizard Tournament, accepting his story "without question," and when Ron temporarily left them in 1997, despite her own romantic feelings for Ron. Harry, for his part, was quick to defend Hermione against Cho Chang, Draco Malfoy, and others who insulted her, and protects her physically on instinct in dangerous places.

Though their friendship remained entirely platonic, at times their closeness engendered jealously or curiosity in others; especially those who had feelings for one or the other, including Cho Chang, Viktor Krum, and even Ron. When the two were briefly alone together during the search for the Horcruxes, Harry and Hermione experienced some "charged moments," in which the two "shared something very intense"; however, Harry remained devoted to Ginny.

As Harry himself described, Hermione was one of two of his best friends. It could be further said she was like his older sister, protective and always trying to keep him in line. The two were also close enough to share their feelings with one another before sharing those feelings with their significant other. Through Hermione's marriage to Ron Weasley, and through Harry's marriage to Ginny, Hermione became his sister-in-law, as well as the aunt and godmother of his children.

Fanon
As the Harry Potter fandom took off after the release of Goblet of Fire, Harry/Hermione was one of the two major shipping factions. Early communities such as Harry Potter for GrownUps had endless debates about whether Harry/Hermione or Ron/Hermione (and sometimes Harry/Ginny) would become canon. These debates generally bred ill will between the opposing sides and sometimes deteriorated into flamewars. In order to escape the ship wars, many fans created pairing-specific communities and archives. The H/H-versus-R/H ship war continued past the publication of Order of the Phoenix and came to an abrupt halt with the publication of Half-Blood Prince in 2005, the book that canonized Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione.

A post-HBP interview with J.K. Rowling further angered those who thought Harry/Hermione would become canon: interviewer Emerson Spartz called H/H shippers "delusional" and Rowling implied that they had missed "anvil-sized" hints from the first four books.

Fan Base
Although Harmony is not canon, it has quite a few shippers. Harmony shippers tend to be rivals with R/Hr and H/G shippers and, due to having as large a fan-base as the Romione shippers, have not given up.

Communities

 * Portkey - A fanfiction archive for Harry/Hermione as well as James/Lily, Draco/Ginny, and Ron/Luna.

Fanfiction

 * The Second Try
 * The Paradigm of Uncertainty

DevinantART Groups

 * HarryHermione
 * Harry--x--Hermione

Livejournal

 * HarryHermione

Tumblr Blogs

 * FuckYeahHarryHermione

Trivia

 * J.K. Rowling, after concluding the series, commented that maybe Romione were more plot driven and the realistic and possibly better choice for the story would have been Harry & Hermione.
 * This arguably falls into the category of a HIMYM ending, something the recent Gilmore Girls revival has also been criticised for: sticking to an original plot idea regardless of character developments.
 * A vocal Harry/Hermione shipper tends to be called a Harmonian.
 * The combinations of the ships Harry/Hermione, Ron/Luna and Neville/Ginny is called S.S. Dumbledore's Army.