Ship Tease/Literature


 * Overlapping with Ship Sinking, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows had Harry/Hermione shippers pretty pointedly teased by the scene in which Ron destroys the Horcrux: it belittles him, saying a lot of the same things that rabid Harmony shippers did (useless next to Harry, not worthy of a girl like Hermione, etc) and then shows him an image of Harry and Hermione passionately kissing. At this point, Ron smashes the thing to bits with the sword of Godric Gryffindor.
 * Many Potterfans figured Luna Lovegood was introduced for the purpose of being Harry's intended, especially given the lengths JKR went to to establish their connection as "outsiders". And especially since - in the same book (Order Of The Phoenix), it's stated that the reason Ginny could actually talk to him without blushing was that she'd gotten over her crush on him. (The ship was subsequently sunk and eaten by Harry's "Chest Monster" in Half-Blood Prince)
 * Harry/Ginny had foreshadowing in the same book (Ginny takes the snitch right under Cho's nose). But Harry and Luna share many intimate moments.
 * Averted with Luna and Neville, where most fans seemed to be under the impression they would end up together, despite having no signs of attraction to each other.
 * A Song of Ice and Fire has, in order of descending Squee fuel, Sansa/Sandor, Jaime/Brienne, and Dany/Daario. Tease consists mostly of the aforementioned characters talking about, thinking about, and dreaming about each other a lot. There also manages to be hints for Lyanna/Rhaegar, even though both characters were dead long before the start of the story.
 * Also, some fans interpret the whole "Blue rose growing from a wall of ice" business as Jon/Dany shiptease. For the uninitiated, the blue rose is what Rhaegar gave to Lyanna when they first met (Rheagar and Lyanna being the most likely candidates for Jon Snow's parent). And the wall of ice thing just speaks for itself.
 * And the title of the series can be interpreted as lending support to the ship as well, with "ice" representing Jon (being the commander of the people who stand watch on the giant wall of ice) and "fire" Dany (with all of the dragon symbolism and the walking into Drogo's funeral pyre and coming out unscathed).
 * Percy Jackson and The Olympians has Annabeth/Luke, Annabeth/Percy, and Thalia/Luke. But especially Thalia/Luke; the readers are teased so badly that it's almost agonizing.
 * There's any number of possible ships being teased in The Dresden Files, primarily among them Harry/Murphy, Murphy/Kincaid, and some Harry/Lara Raith, but there's also some Harry/Molly and Molly/Ramirez. There's also other, less obvious ones like Cujo Hendricks/Miss Gard.
 * For the Artemis Fowl series, after about six books of going between Fire-Forged Friends and Friendly Enemy, Artemis and Holly end up
 * Don't forget Holly's date with Trouble. Bonus points for having Artemis bring it up.
 * Book 10 of The 39 Clues had SEVERAL: Some (but not as many as the shippers would have liked) mentions of Ian and Amy, several Hamilton and Sinead hints, some moments of DAN AND NATALIE (gasp!!!), and one mention of Reagan helping Ted draw some diagrams, which I'm sure pinged on at least a few shippers' radars.
 * Blyton's Malory Towers - If the shipping is kept at the level of 'firm schoolyard friends', Alicia/Darrell or Mary Lou/Darrell might be this, as the first-mentioned girls in both cases seem drawn to the heroine (by jealous possessiveness and worshipful admiration respectively). Alas, Blyton pairs Darrell off in the first book and nobody BUT NOBODY will ever replace Sally Hope as her BFF. Not in canon, at any rate. Averted by Bill, as she states outright (in the third book) that she wants Darrell as a best friend but knows she can't have her.
 * This transcription of a reading from an as-yet-unpublished Vorkosigan Saga novel teases pretty heavily.
 * Fablehaven, starting around Book 3, really enjoys tugging on Kendra's romantic strings. Her attraction to Gavin is immediate and obvious,  In Book 4, she meets Raxtus, whom she immediately turns into her own personal in-universe Woobie, and they spend the night curled up and sleeping next to one another...but species is kind of a barrier there, since  . Book 5 seems to set up the Official Couple as Kendra and , but they themselves admit that relationship won't go anywhere any time soon, due to yet more interspecies shenanigans.
 * The Last Dragon Chronciles is kind of interesting on this matter. Although the Official Couple is technically David and Zanna, Book 4 introduces Tam Ferrel, who has a huge number of Ship Tease moments with both Zanna and Lucy. Lucy harbors a fairly obvious one-sided crush on Tam, what with her obsession with him, and her excitement over getting to spend time with him. And Tam, during his initial introduction, is interpreted by many people (including Lucy) as hitting on Zanna. Even when she explains that she's taken, they do go on to form a fairly close bond. Lucy does not let this go unnoticed, either.