No girlfriends for Hermione?

[catherine at cator-manor.demon.co.uk]

No: HPFGUIDX 26723

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Mindy C.L." <mindyatime at j...> wrote:
> I find it strange that Hermione is not associating with any girls 
in her
> school. She's always hanging out with Ron & Harry. I know they're 
not
> 'boyfriends' in the sense of the word, but still, most of us girls 
in
> school hung out with the girls, didn't we? She shares a room with
> Lavender, Parvati, and two other girls -- naturally sharing a room 
forges
> a bond, just as Harry was friendly with Seamus, Dean, and Neville. 
Yet
> Hermione is never chatting away with other Gryffindor girls or 
girls of
> any sort. Why is that?

Firstly, where do you get the other two girls from?  Is this the 
debate as to whether there are other Gryffindors in Harry's year 
besides the ones actually named?  I don't believe it.   I think that 
there are only 8 students in Gryffindor in their year.

Hermione doesn't gravitate towards Parvati and Lavender because she 
seems so much mature than they do.  In CoS, Hermione goes through the 
giggly stage, with her crush on Lockhart etc.  It takes another two 
year for Lavender and Parvati to catch up - see their behaviour in 
GoF.  I think that Hermione sees them as being too frivolous for her -
she has other concerns besides boys at this stage, such as saving the 
world and doing her homework.

I do think that Ginny is a contender for girlfriend of Hermione, 
though.   They are thrown together at the Burrow, so do know one 
another fairly well.  There is also some indication that Hermione 
confides in Ginny and no one else - for instance, Ginny knew that 
Hermione was going to the Yule Ball with Krum.  No one else did.  My 
personal opinion is that their relationship has changed, from 
Hermione seeing Ginny as Ron's little sister and someone to mother, 
to her seeing her as someone on the same wavelength.  For instance, 
it seems that Ginny shares the sensitive, motherly side of Hermione's 
nature, as illustrated when she comforts Ron after his disastrous 
attempt to ask Fleur to go to the ball with him.  

This argument has been refuted before, when people have suggested 
that Ginny isn't in Hermione's confidence, and the example usually 
used to illustrate this is that she doesn't take Ginny into her 
confidence regarding Sirius.  This, however, is very much in 
Hermione's character.  Hermione has proven that she is good at 
keeping other people's secrets and is very discreet - for instance, 
she managed to hide the existence of the timeturner from her two best 
friends for almost a year.

So, Ginny is probably the closest thing Hermione has to a 
girlfriend.  However, this does come second to her relationship with 
Harry and Ron - any other potential friend would have to deal with 
this.


Catherine