Hermione and her parents

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 27784

You know, one set of people that we almost don't get to see, but for whom I
have the profoundest respect, is the Doctors Granger---Hermione's parents.
Hermione is, in many ways, the bravest of the Trio, and I think she gets it
from her parents' example.

Think about it.  Her parents almost certainly knew nothing of Hogwarts and
the magical world, but were willing to let their daughter go to this
strange-sounding school, where they couldn't even see her off on the train.
Not only couldn't they see her off, they couldn't even come to visit her at
school to see how she was settling in and maybe meet a few of her new
friends.  I'm sure Hermione is a very good correspondent but it just
wouldn't be the same.  So, for months on end, they have this big
Hermione-shaped hole in their household and their lives, and they have
little or no way to even vicariously share their daughter's experiences,
since Hogwarts is so different from other British schools (edible food,
comfortable quarters, and so on---when I was younger, my parents used to
threaten to send me to a British school if I fouled up, in the same way
they'd have threatened me with the Russian Front if we had been WWII-era
Germans).

Or _is_ it impossible for them to visit?  If Hermione had been Triwizard
Champ instead of Harry, would the Grangers have been allowed onto the sacred
grounds of Hogwarts?  Harry wondered briefly if the Dursleys _had_ shown up
to watch him in the Third Task...come to it, weren't Moaning Myrtle's
parents Muggles?  In the flashback in CoS, Dumbledore mentions that they'd
be arriving for their daughter's body...and Draco Malfoy mentions to the
Polyjuice-disguised Ron and Harry that "the last time the Chamber was
opened, a Mudblood _died._"  If Malfoy's statement about Myrtle being a
Mudblood is correct, this argues strongly for at least _some_ Muggles being
allowed into Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, although this may well be an exception.

Then, they do get her back for the summer, but she's changing and growing in
ways where they can't necessarily provide guidance...and they may sometimes
see a grim look in her eyes when she's thinking.  Or she may have bad dreams
about being Petrified, or about Voldemort, or the Triwizard Tourney.
Whether they like it or not, their little girl's growing away from them, and
not even in the normal, usual way girls of her age and class do in Britain.
In future books, Hermione may well have to deal not just with being involved
in Voldemort War II, but wrestling with how much to tell her parents.  Can
she confide in them without them freaking and wanting to remove her from
Hogwarts?  On the other hand, are they necessarily better off not knowing
what's out there?  I doubt that Voldemort or the DEs would hestitate to go
after the Doctors Granger if Hermione herself proved to be a serious fly in
their ointment.