Hermione's female friends(was: Ginny & Hermione)

[macloudt]

No: HPFGUIDX 32833

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "serenadust" <jmmears at p...> wrote:
> One thing that's always bothered me with respect to Hermione, is 
her 
> complete lack of same-sex friends.  I agree with you that there 
> really isn't much of anything to indicate any real closeness with 
> Ginny, so far, and she never seems to have much to do with the 
other 
> girls in her year.  Parvati and Lavender don't even seem to know 
that 
> she has a date for the ball until Harry tells them, and Parvati 
> doesn't even seem to have laid eyes on her while getting ready for 
> the ball, as shown by her shock at how nice Hermione looks when she 
> appears with Victor.  This is pretty strange for girls who have 
been 
> roommates for 3+ years and are getting ready for their first formal 
> occasion.

First of all, having spent a bit of time in a boarding school myself 
I can assure you that sharing a room with other girls does not assure 
friendship.  Tolerance, yes, to preserve the general sanity, but not 
necessarily friendship.  What strikes me is the difference in 
character between Hermione and her room-mates.  I can't give any 
direct quotes because I don't have my books here...sorry...but from 
memory Parvati and Lavender are the Valley Girl types who are into 
make-up and dressing up and boys and such.  Personally I always 
wanted to throttle such girls in my classes ("GET A BRAIN!!!"), and 
I'm sure Hermione has no time for such characters either.  My guess 
is that JKR purposely made Parvati and Lavender shallow-like so that 
there wouldn't be much of a chance of Hermione forming a friendship 
with them rather than with Harry and Ron.  And who's to say that 
those two girls haven't taken the mickey out of Hermione for being so 
square (gads...I'm showing my age with that cliche!)  I'm not saying 
that Parvarti and Lavender are totally brainless (they're obviously 
not), but outside the classroom they're not interested in intellecual 
pursuits.
 
> It's pretty standard for girls in early adolesence to form close 
> friendships with other girls their age, as part of the 
> whole "becoming a woman"-thing.  While Harry and Ron are certainly 
> her closest friends, you never hear her share anything really 
> personal with them (not that they'd be much use to her if she did).
> I really hope JKR gives her a close girl friend soon, because if 
she 
> continues to hang out with the boys exclusively, she's going to 
find 
> herself excluded more and more.  It was ok when they were younger, 
> but now they can't pretend that it doesn't make any difference that 
> they are boys and she's a girl, as GOF made so obvious.
> > 
Hear, hear!  My guess is that Hermione and Ginny do become closer, 
since H. hasn't formed any friendships with any other female 
Gryffindor in four years, or she makes friends with a classmate from 
another house.  But haven't the Gryff's taken classes with all the 
other houses already?  Please correct me if I'm wrong. 

Mary Ann
(who just came off work and probably made no sense whatsoever)