Three dollars and some change

Well, I'm not much of a Harry/Ginny fan .. don't hate it outright, but I don't quite see the chemistry either . . and you know I'm sticking with Inevitable regardless. At this point in the story, if you made it Harry/Giant Squid, I'd probably keep reading just to see if you could pull it off.

But I can sympathize with someone being bothered by a 'ship, or absence of a 'ship, or their OTP being broken up, whatever. I did stop reading a friend's fic once because the relationships portrayed (which heavily influenced the plot, btw, it wasn't necessarily just the pairings it was how they were written) just *bothered* me. It wasn't badly written, it was in fact very well-written, very in-character and very believable. The person in question did nothing "wrong" as a writer - no OOC, no implausibility, etc. It was just that I identify with certain characters in certain ways, and what was happening in the story was genuinely getting to me in a making-me-depressed sort of way. And real life does a good enough job of that, so, yeah, didn't finish the story. I felt badly, as I know this person put a great deal of effort into the story (and is probably reading this, so I hope they're not bothered by my using the example). But, it just bugged me too much.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that while I do get your protestations that it's just not *about* that and it's vaguely silly to stop reading a story you've invested 46 chapters worth of reading time in 'cause you don't like this one little bitty aspect .. on the other hand people are involved in fandom at all in the first place because they're highly emotionally invested in the characters. If they didn't care, they wouldn't be here. What exactly that means in terms of how they view the characters, is going to vary. A lot.

You may know your story isn't all about Harry's love life, but you don't know what Harry represents in your reader's head, or Ginny. So, I wouldn't take it too personally or get too offended (or think that you could possibly write it well enough to convince folks of the 'ship, or even that the 'ship doesn't matter - because odds are their leaving has nothing whatsoever to do with your story, and a whole hell of a lot to do with their own lives and what they're getting, or looking for, out of fanfic).

-Sonya