Evil Hermione?? (was: Re: Hermione's wand and related question.)

[meira_q <mb2910@hotmail.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 48567

Lisa:
This question is eating me because:
I have an inkling that Hermione will *inadvertantly* be the betrayer 
J.K. Rowling has alluded to in interviews, with a possibly darker 
plot development. 

Again why?
1. In a way she already has.
In her third year Hermione didn't trust Harry and Ron's judgement or, 
importantly, their ability to listen to her concerns, resulting in 
her going behind their backs regarding Harry's Firebolt.


Me:
Oh, I hope Hermione will forever remain with the Good Guys.
I agree with the person that said that here Hermione was just worried 
about her friend.
I think it was a very brave thing for her to do. Not many would have 
the courage of going to McGonnagal and tell her about the Firebolt, 
while fully knowing how touchy Harry and Ron can be when it comes to 
Quidditch, and knowing that they would be *very* angry with them for 
that.
This, IMO, shows that she was worried about her friend's safety (and 
I don't think it's exaggerated). Also shows that Hermione would 
prefer Angry!ALIVE!Harry rather than risking Dead!Harry.

Someone mentioned that she had to know about Harry's and Sirius' 
background. Personally, I don't find it very far-fetched. Hermione is 
a very bright girl, she reads *a lot*, she has shown many times that 
she is capable of putting 2 and 2 together and draw logical 
conclusions (the potions riddle in PS, discovering about Lupin being 
a werewolf in PoA come to mind). 

" `[
] I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?'
`I'm Ron Weasley,' Ron muttered.
`Harry Potter,' said Harry.
`Are you really?' said Hermione. `I know all about you, of course – I 
got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in Modern 
Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great 
Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century.'
`Am I?' said Harry, feeling dazed.
`Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if 
it was me,' said Hermione. "
(PS/SS chapter 6, The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, 
p.79)

I don't doubt for a second that she did know about Harry, Lily, 
James, Sirius and Peter more than she let on.

I'm not saying that she actually knew about Scabbers actually being 
PP and that Sirius was in fact innocent because the whole Shrieking 
Shack scene in PoA blows this theory to smithereens (or at least I 
think it does (any takers on debating this? Or is it too far-fetched 
to do more than throw rotten tomatoes?). It could be that some of the 
things she says there, such as WP&P being Animagi isn't possible 
because the MoM keeps tags on Animagi and there were only 7 in this 
century, were only a cover-up so she wouldn't have to tell what she 
has really figured out).
I don't remember if it says anywhere explicitly that she or Ron have 
seen the photo album, but I assume that being Harry's friends, he 
would have shown it to them. After seeing Harry's photo album, and 
seeing the wedding picture of James and Lily, with Sirius smiling 
there, I think that she would have realized (if she hadn't till then) 
that James and Sirius were good friends, and (this she definetely 
knew) that Sirius was considered second-in-command to Voldemort and 
he was currently imprisoned in Azkaban (this was common knowledge in 
the WW, and probably published in one of the books that she read). 
When he escaped, I think it would have been a very short leap of 
logic for her to think (like everybody else) that Sirius was after 
Harry, so, naturally, it wouldn't have been an evil thing for her to 
do to talk to McGonnagal about Harry's new broom that didn't even 
have a note attached.

As for "their ability to listen to her concerns" (Lisa's words), Ron 
and Harry *didn't* listen to her concerns, so she went ahead and did 
what she knew was the right thing to do anyway.

There's a difference between "betraying" them as in talking to 
McGonnagal about her suspicions regarding the Firebolt's sender and 
*betraying* as in handing Harry over to Voldemort.

As for her not paying too much attention to the Crookshanks-Scabbers 
situation (which someone in this thread mentioned), Hagrid wisely 
advised that "people can be a bit stupid about their pets" (not exact 
quote, don't have PoA with me, a friend borrowed it to read).

I hope my post makes some sense,
Meira.