[HPforGrownups] Re: Prefects

[Laura Huntley]

No: HPFGUIDX 35224

JOANNE0012 SAID:
>Perhaps.  Still, she reminds me of the people I went to school with whose 
>academic accomplishments were attributable solely to their 
>diligence/perfectionism. In other words, if Harry and Ron applied themselves as 
>she does, they'd probably get the same grades, too!

I have to disagree with you on this one.  I also have a strong feeling that you misjudged the efforts of the people you went to school with.  IMHO, academic accomplishments can never be *solely* attributed to any amount of diligent/perfectionism.  While the idea of "inherent intelligence" is an unpopular idea, I believe that, for all its unpleasantness, it *is* rooted in truth.  No amount of work can *really* make up for the level of intelligence you were born with.  This is true for all kinds of "intelligence", as well.  Hermione may have been born with a high level of academic intelligence, but in other areas of intelligence, she could just as well be sadly lacking.

However, the point is that I really don't believe Harry or Ron could out-do Hermione in an academic sense.  Furthermore, Hermione gets top-marks in *all* of her classes.  As most classes at Hogwarts (besides history) seem to involve hands-on learning, this shows that Hermione is not only smart in a book-sense, but also a powerful witch.  No amount of book-learning is going to make a person able to actually *perform* magic, even if studying the theory and such can help those who already have the talent.  Remember in PS/SS, Hermione is the only kid in the class able to make the feather float.  Another case in point is her continued superiority in transfiguration, in which she consistently changes her turtle into a teapot (or a sugarbowl? I forget) and her hedgehog into a pincushion, while the rest of the class seems to be struggling with these same things.  Also, in charms, she has no trouble with her banishing and accio charms, although most of the class seems to be having a considerable amount of trouble with their aim (although Harry does eventually get it right, making me think that he is probably Hermione's equal/superior when it comes to sheer power, although not when it comes to intellect).

I believe that Hermione's constant studying is more the effect of her having a great thirst to know *everything* there is to know (I feel this way myself at times, although I have never pursued this goal as vivaciously as Hermione) than the fact that she actually *needs* to be doing all that studying.  Throughout the books, Hermione not only knows enough to ensure her top grades, but vastly more than she would *ever* need to know in any classroom situation.  Reading Hogwarts: A History is such an example.  Knowing the history of Hogwarts doesn't seem to be beneficial to her grades, and yet, she's got the book pretty much memorized.

Which brings me to my next point.  Hermione doesn't just study, study, study and *eventually* engrains in her memory the things she needs to know.  From her statements about "memorizing" the class books over the summer and her ability to quote nearly every book she's ever read, we can tell that Hermione has an *outstanding* memory.  And memory, of course, is one of the key factors that makes a person inherently intelligent.  Furthermore, she is not only excellent at remembering things, but she also (with the exception of forgetting that she was a witch in PS/SS) has a great ability to, in the face of a problem, come up with the right solution, even if that solution may seem, to others, entirely unrelated to the problem.

But the best, single, most concrete evidence of her inherent intellect was her ability to solve Snape's logic puzzle (granted, to the reader, it was not that hard, but JKR obviously meant it to be a doosey, and too hard for Harry to have been able to solve on his own).  Logic puzzles are great because there is no real way to study for them.  One must simply have inherent...well..*logic* to be able to be good at them.  Hermione not only solves the puzzle in a flash, but is also rewarded by Dumbledore for her efforts, showing us that *he* felt that being able to solve the puzzle was a great achievement.

Anywho, I've rambled on enough now. G'bye.

laura


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