Could Hermione Fight the Imperius Curse?

[blpurdom at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 25363

> > The other thing to note about Hermione is she is very lawful, as 
> > well as ethical.  This lawfulness makes her naturally obedient.   

I have to disgree with this.  She starts off this way, but very 
quickly becomes "corrupted" by Ron and Harry.  She becomes a creature 
of expedience, able to rationalize a number of infractions of the 
rules with aplomb.

In PS/SS she is the first one to take them into Fluffy's lair by use 
of the Alohomora spell.  She keeps Hagrid's pet dragon a secret, and 
even helps smuggle him out of the castle (which also involves being 
out of Gryffindor Tower at night).  She puts the full-body bind on 
Neville.  She and the boys go BACK to Fluffy's lair at the end.

In CoS she makes Polyjuice Potion (the recipe for which came from a 
book in the Restricted Section of the library).  She repeatedly takes 
boys into a girls' bathroom (Percy yells at Ron for this, so we know 
it is forbidden).  She even tears a bit from a page of a library book 
(the scrap found in her hand when she is petrified).  She also 
doesn't go to an authority figure immediately upon figuring 
everything out, and instead gets herself and Penelope Clearwater 
petrified.

In PoA she colludes in Harry going into Hogsmeade without 
permission.  She retrieves the Invisibility Cloak from the tunnel 
under the hump-backed witch.  She uses the disarming charm on Snape 
(and then moans about attacking a teacher).  She uses the Time Turner 
to go to multiple classes simultaneously, which isn't fair to the 
other students, and which isn't even good for her health or sanity 
(and which McGonagall should never have approved).  She helps Harry 
rescue Buckbeak and Sirius--patently illegal acts, not just breaking 
school rules.

In GoF the worst thing she does, IIRC, is she helps Harry with his 
tournament tasks, but she does this all through the book, even though 
he's supposed to do this himself.  She fraternizes with Viktor Krum, 
too; Ron had a bit of a point about this.  Even though he was saying 
this to cover up his feelings (IMO) her rationalization was also lame 
("international magical cooperation").  Come on.  She has an ego like 
anyone else, and the star of the Quidditch World Cup is the first boy 
to notice she's a girl.  How could her head not be turned?

Whether any of this means she can be controlled by Imperius remains 
to be seen.  I'd say there's a fifty/fifty chance.  This balances the 
trio nicely, actually, since Harry can throw it off completely and 
Ron can't at all.  So Hermione becomes this big question mark, and it 
throws a bit of unpredictability into the plot if sometimes she can 
do it and sometimes she can't.  If someone puts her under Imperius, 
we never know what to expect, unlike with Ron and Harry.

--Barb