[HPforGrownups] Hermione & JKR (Long)

[Penny & Bryce Linsenmayer]

No: HPFGUIDX 3496

Hi --

Peg Kerr wrote:

> Oh, I disagree!  Well, Ron is the one with him in CoS, but Hermione is
> the one who researched the polyjuice potion.  She's with Harry
> throughout all the action in PoA.  She's the one who resists when
> Snape tries to run roughshod over them all in the Shrieking Shack, and
> she's got her wand out to knock Snape unconscious, too. She's the one
> who, with Harry, rescues Sirius; and she's right beside him, facing
> the dementors.

> I still think you're a little too dismissive of Hermione's contributions.  She was
> the one who taught him the Accio spell that allowed him to grab the
> Triwizard cup back in the graveyard to get back to Hogwarts.  And it was also in his
> practices with Ron and Hermione that Harry learned the Impedimenta spell, which he
> used to slow down the Deatheaters chasing him.
>
> [Oh, I see Penny made these same point.  *Sigh* this is the problem
> when you're trying to answer a question that 20 people have answered
> before you]

You said it a bit better than I did Peg.  Hermione has been just as
crucial as Ron (and dare I say it without being flamed, perhaps a *bit*
more so) in helping Harry achieve the final end in each book.  The
article of the Salon.com article that sort of started this thread
basically discounted Hermione's role in all of it.  If you read her take
on this situation, you'd imagine that Hermione was back in the
Gryffindor common room studying instead of helping Harry & Ron in Books
1 and 3.  She was out of commission in Book 2, but Ron was no help at
all in Book 3.  I said Hermione might be a "bit" more helpful than Ron
-- reason being that her contribution involved the research that came up
with the spells & hexes & curses that really helped save Harry's life in
Book 4.  Without her, the boys would have been stopped by the devil's
snare in Book 1.  Without her, they'd have never known it was a basilisk
in Book 2.  Without her, there'd have been no time turner & no saving of
Buckbeak or Sirius.  Without her, Harry might not have been able to
summon his Firebolt to get through the First Task.  Without her, Harry
might not have been as prepared with spells, curses & hexes to get
himself & Cedric out of that graveyard.

> Applause.  Also, very important: Hermione models compassion to Harry
> (and Ron).  She notices people who are weak (Neville, the house elves)
> and refuses to allow others to take advantage of them.  That is a very
> important thing for Harry to learn--what if he became all powerful,
> but allowed only his own arrogance to regulate his behavior?  Hermione
> won't let him do that.  BTW: this characteristic of Hermione is also
> from JKR's own life.  She worked for Amnesty International, and this
> experience
> is a real catalyst in the her creation of the house elves story line.

More applause!  :--)

> <Simon> I think the problem is that I do not like Hermione. She annoys
> me. Quite a  few of the things that people see as being faults in her
> (taking her studies  far too seriously, especially the PoA too many
> subjects incident, and taking the political stuff too far) are
> problems that I know, looking back at my teenage years, that other
> people had with me. I can see her doing things that I did, things that
> I now realise where either stupid or irrelevant and an inner voice in
> me is screaming: "Don't do it - there is no need"

Ebony -- are you listening up?  :--)

Simon, your personal reasons for not identifying with Hermione echo my
own reasons for not identifying with Ginny.  I look at her character and
see some of my own problems as an adolescent (which now makes me
cringe), and I've transferred all of that into disrespect for Ginny's
character.  So, I can understand your feelings.  But, like Peg, perhaps
we should be more forgiving of these characters as they traverse
adolescence.  We've all been there!

Penny (last long post for awhile -- off for a walk!)


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