| SPOILER WARNING! This article contains spoilers from Sunrise on the Reaping |
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Haydove is the het ship between Haymitch Abernathy and Lenore Dove Baird from The Hunger Games fandom.
Canon[]
We first learn of this pairing in Mockingjay when Haymitch tells Katniss he lost his girl two weeks after becoming Victor.
We meet Lenore Dove Baird in the first chapter of Sunrise on The Reaping. Haymitch was friends with Burdock Everdeen and one day when Burdock was 9 and Haymitch was 10, the two of them ventured towards the forest outside of District 12. Burdock’s cousin was sitting up in an apple tree and Haymitch says he noticed her around school, she was quiet and kept to herself mostly. Haymitch had to be the one to introduce himself:
“I’m Haymitch.”
“I’m Lenore Dove.”
“Dove like the bird?”
“No. Dove like the color.”
“What color’s that?”
“Same as the bird.”
From that moment on his head was spinning. He noticed more and more things about her and their connection grew into a romantic bond. When we meet 16 year old Lenore Dove she is in the meadow with her geese singing a banned song, “The Goose and the Common.” Haymitch loves to hear her sing since she never does in public, she does not even like performing alongside her uncles with her piano accordion. Her throat tightens up and her nerves get to her. But in private she loves singing to her geese and to Haymitch. After she spots him and he feeds her geese so they can have some privacy they kiss and she wishes him a Happy Birthday.They speak about Reaping day and while Haymitch is convinced there is nothing that can be done to stop this day Lenore Dove has him ponder bringing about an end to the reapings one day, since they did not always exist. She invokes famous Scottish philosopher and historian David Hume. She then apologizes for bringing these things up on his birthday. Lenore Dove gives Haymitch his gift which is revealed to be a goldplated flint striker with a snake head on one end and bird head on the other head. She tells him “you know i like my pretty with a purpose” explaining that any sparking rock can be used to create a fire with the flint striker and encourages him to use it as much as he needs.
Later in the day when Woodbine Chance’s name is called, he runs and is subsequently killed by Peacekeepers who attempt to pry his body away from his grieving mother. Lenore Dove intervenes and attempts to help Woodbine’s mother hold her son. The peacekeepers start to attack her and Haymitch intervenes. Drusilla Sickle, the Capitol Escort, decides that Haymitch will be a replacement for Woodbine and Lenore Dove pleads for them to take her instead.
When Haymitch is on the train on his way to the Capitol he is met with Lenore Dove standing outside, screaming and crying with grief over losing her love. The moment was for them, not the Capitol. Haymitch mourns the life he could have had with her, getting married, raising kids, her teaching them music and him making liquor or working in the mines. As long as he had her he would be happy.
In several flashbacks including Lenore Dove, we learn that Haymitch learned “The Raven” for her birthday and performed it for her. He talks about how the poem she was named for is about a dead girl, a man who mourns her all his life and a Raven that drives him mad with despair as he drowns himself in nepenthe. When Plutarch learns that Haymitch can quote “The Raven” from memory he wonders where Haymitch learned it. In order to protect his girl Haymitch tells a lie saying everyone in 12 knows “The Raven”
When Haymitch attempts to help Ampert with the Newcomers alliance, he tries to connect with Kerna, a girl from district 9 who had a sunflower token that Maysilee repaired. He tells her his girl back home sings a song about sunflowers. He sings for her:
“Ah Sun-flower! weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the Sun:
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the travellers journey is done.”
He realizes he sings it awkwardly but he tells everyone Lenore Dove sings it beautifully. After Haymitch’s rascal stunt in training, he receives a 1 from the gamemakers. He thinks about Lenore Dove and wonders if she blames herself for the low score he received. Plutarch, in order to get Haymitch to trust him, sets up a phone call with Lenore Dove where he learns she has been arrested by peacekeepers. Lenore Dove tells him that she felt so much guilt for his low score she went out into the town square, where the reaping stage was still set up, and she performed a few banned songs. Lenore Dove says she drew in a large crowd, many people in 12 were still distraught over the 5 lives they lost on Reaping day. Lenore Dove was arrested for disturbing the peace but she assures Haymitch she is okay and she will be released soon. Haymitch tells her she is not to blame for his being reaped, saying he is the one who stepped in and endangered both of their lives. He tells her she should not try to get herself harmed for him, he wants her alive for a long time, even if he cannot be with her.
Lenore Dove and Haymitch talk about him coming back as a ghost to haunt her and she promises him he is the one and only love of her life, like her geese she mates for life.
“Lenore Dove, I love you like all-fire. That’s for always.”
"I love you like all-fire, too. You and no one else. Just like my geese, I mate for life. And then some."
She promises to live for him and he promises that his ghost will find her in the meadow. Haymitch wants to tell her she can and should love another when he is gone but he cannot bear the thought of her loving someone else and before he can gain the courage to tell her the call drops and he believes that is the last time he can speak with his girl. When Haymitch is in the arena he notices a dove colored bunny and he contemplates killing it for food but it reminds him of Lenore Dove. The bunny is seen drinking from the stream and eventually it succumbs to death, alerting Haymitch that the entire arena is dangerous
“And could I possibly kill a creature that brings to mind my girl?”
His fascination with the bird for its dove color ended up saving his life by alerting him of the dangers of the arena. Once Haymitch became Victor and came home to mourn the loss of his friends and family, he learned that Lenore Dove was still on the peacekeeper’s base, likely starved and facing serious charges. She is released after the mass funeral for the Abernathy’s and the district 12 tributes. Haymitch meets her in the meadow like he promised and they share a tearful and passionate hello.
“Oh, Lenore Dove. Oh, my love,”
“You came back,”
“You came back to me. In this world!”
“And you managed not to get hung!”
Haymitch can’t leave her. He loves her too much. Then he feeds her a gumdrop. And then another until he realizes those are not the ones he bought for her, they're poisoned. Lenore Dove loses her life and Haymitch loses his love. In her final moments she asks him to promise to not let the sun rise on a reaping. Haymitch moves into his home in Victor’s village, cutting off his friends, believing everyone he is close to will lose their lives. He is haunted by all of the people he lost and drinks liquor to soothe himself. For a long time he goes searching for Lenore Dove’s grave until one day Burdock takes pity on him and shows her grave. Haymitch begs her to release him from her promise so he can join her and his family in the afterlife. He then buries the flint striker she gifted him and sleeps on her grave.
“But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, “Lenore?”
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!”
Merely this and nothing more.”
Haymitch wanders into an alleyway one day to find graffiti, which he realizes belongs to Lenore Dove. He promised her he would stop the sun from rising on a reaping
“NO CAPITOL, NO HANGING TREE!” “NO CAPITOL, NO REAPING!”
After the war, Haymitch tells Katniss all about his life before the reaping, about all the people he loved and lost, including Lenore Dove. Katniss brought him goose eggs one day, to raise, while Peeta created an incubator for the eggs. When they hatched, Haymitch’s face was the first thing they saw. He imagines Lenore Dove growing old with him, still so rare and radiant. His story ends with him sharing his undying love for Lenore Dove, because like the geese, they mated for life.
Fanon[]
Haydove as a pairing has gained popularity due to the ship being the canon basis for Sunrise on the Reaping. Although Lenore Dove was not physically with Haymitch as he navigated being a tribute in the Capitol and the arena, memories of her, the things she taught him, and the way in which he fondly speaks of her, made fans grow to adore the pairing.
Both Haymitch and Lenore Dove share similar views on the world, they want it to be a better place in the future. Lenore Dove was a practiced rebel whose philosophy on life guided her to practice nonviolent political acts in secret. While she was arrested for those acts she never confessed to anyone (even Haymitch) that it was her. Haymitch had a rebellious streak himself in Capitol and some of it was influenced by his girl, Lenore Dove .
Haymitch Abernathy came from a long line of rebels, he made his living doing something illegal, making white liquor for the people in the Seam. He was a bootlegger and he would do anything to protect his loved ones, much like Lenore Dove who came from a long line of outcasts in district 12, the Covey. She loved her family very much and would have done anything to protect them.
While Haymitch and Lenore Dove may share differences on the surface, they compliment each other very well and their deep love and political, passionate romantic gestures for one another are the guiding force of Sunrise on the Reaping.
Fandom[]
- FAN FICTION
- Haymitch Abernathy/Lenore Dove Baird tag on AO3
- Haymitch Abernathy & Lenore Dove Baird tag on AO3
- @thinkhaydove on Twitter
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| SHIPS | het | Everlark • Haydove • Kinnick • Odesta • SnowBaird |
| slash | Snowjanus | |
| femslash | Joniss | |