Hermione, meet Hermione

You guessed it, I'm making the obvious comparison: Hermione as Hermione, Ron as Leontes, and Harry as Polixenes. But unlike Shakespeare, J.K. Rowling gives us the opportunity to see the friendship grow from the very beginning in childhood. The three meet when they are only eleven and grow up together, Ron becoming Harry's loyal sidekick and Hermione becoming Ron's admirer and object of affection.

The three become best friends and eventually end up spending every waking moment together on their quest to destroy Voldemort's source of power: the horcruxes. Although by this point it is obvious to everyone reading that Ron and Hermione like each other, the two still haven't managed to actually come out and become an item, but Hermione's obvious connection and friendship with Harry drives Ron to betray the two and leave the group. Hermione is deeply hurt by his assumptions and implied accusations, much like Shakespeare's Hermione, and, despite Hermione's and Harry's reassurances, Ron will not be convinced.. Leontes is jealous over Hermione, Ron is jealous over Hermione, beginning to see the connections yet?

This is what Leontes sees.

This is what Ron sees. Poor, poor Ron.

Then when Ron returns and tries to destroy the locket horcrux, he is tortured with the image of Harry and Hermione kissing passionately--a sight both disturbing and unnatural--coupled with the suggestion that he kill Harry to regain Hermione's affections. For a moment, Ron hesitates and we come to the moment of truth where the friendship between the two heroes is tested. In the end, Ron turns his sights back onto the horcrux and destroys the freaky thing before it can get into the realm of awful fanfiction pairings.

Then after all the carnage, death, and destruction is over (see, even more parallels with The Winter's Tale!), we encounter a time gap that takes us 19 years into the future, a number oddly similar to the number 16. We rejoin our heroes after they have all grown up and are now sending their children off to Hogwarts to undergo their own wizard training. Ron and Hermione are sending off their daughter, Harry and his wife (Ron's sister) are sending off their son, who, at the sight of Ron and Hermione's daughter gets nervous and stops to tie his shoe. It's rather adorable actually, and although the two children don't end up married before the end of the movie/book, I'm sure that one day they will both enjoy cute romantic relations together.

J.K. Rowling, makes a fantastic utilization of Hermione's name, drawing upon the archetypal story of The Winter's Tale to deepen and characterize both Ron's jealousy and Hermione's devotion. Despite Ron's fears and doubts, Hermione was never really interested in Harry romantically and truly only has eyes for Ron.