Comments on Draco, Rita, and Hermione

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 23978

Well, once again I come out of my usual lurker-mode to add my two knuts'
worth to some ongoing discussions.  I apologize for not tying this post to
the discussions with the Subject line, but since I get the list in
digest-form, this is the best I can do.

Firstly:  Will Draco Reform, and Can He?

Let's not forget, that Draco's still awfully young at the end of GoF, and
still very much under his father's influence.  His comment to the Trio
aboard the Express was horrible---cruel, hateful and intended to hurt---but
he's more-or-less in the same mental state as a long-time cult member at
this stage of the game.  When and if he's really confronted with _how_ evil
Lord V is, or finds that Voldemort has no compunctions about hurting even
his closest supporters (remember what he did to Wormtail?  Nasty piece of
work that Wormtail was and is, I couldn't help but feel awful for him, lying
there screaming and bleeding while Voldemort calmly tells him "Robe me.")
he might well change his mind.  At the end of GoF, he's only fifteen or
sixteen---and at that age, even _I_ hadn't attained the pinnacles of human
perfection I've achieved in the years since I was that old.  ;}

Rita Skeeter-

Geez Louise--what a nasty, low-down piece of work!  She is _NOT_ a good
journalist; she's a scandal-monger and vulture, who doesn't care who she
hurts or how, just so long as she gets plenty of copy into the press.  I
_could_ say that things like outing Hagrid as a half-giant fell within her
duties as a reporter, but when she published that awful article about what a
tramp and chippy Hermione Granger was, to get back at Hermione for dissing
her in Hogsmeade, she was about as cruel and cowardly as anybody could get.
Pitting Neville Longbottom against Professor Snape, in comparison, would be
a much fairer fight.  I wouldn't be wildly surprised to find that she's a
closet Death Eater, or Vold-symp, herself; she'd fit right in with the
DEs---and, come to it, I'd bet that Lord V has sympathizers in the wizard
press.

(And, in passing, while I'm thinking about it---had I been Ron, when I found
out that my mum _believed_ what Skeeter said, I'd send her a very stiff
note, and if that didn't do it, I'd consider a Howler.  _Can_ Hogwarts
students send Howlers?  How much do they cost?  Inquiring minds want to
know!)

I thought Hermione was being terminally silly about Gilderoy Lockhart in
CoS.  However, leave us not forget that brilliant student though she was and
is, in CoS she _was_ about twelve or so.  She had every right to not always
act as though she were in her twenties or thirties---and, let us not forget,
even Molly Weasley, who's normally a pretty level-headed woman, was all
giggly and flustered over Lockhart.  Criticizing Hermione about going all
gooey over Lockhart reminds me of a line from one of Miss Manners' books: "I
once asked a six-year-old person how it could be so terminally childish, and
was struck by the justice of its response: 'I _am_ a child.'"

For that matter, just how street-smart about men in general IS Hermione?
She's book-smart, there's nobody better for that in the books---but what
sort of social life does she lead?