Hermione: Panic Attacks & Tears?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 38964

> Penny wrote:
> >>>Again, IMO Ron doesn't have the full skill-set needed for 
Auror-ship (based on what we know about Aurors).  Yes, as 
Pippin notes, he's cool >under pressure.  But, other than Devil's 
snare, so is Hermione.<<<<

Hermione panicked in GoF as soon as she was hit by Draco's 
curse, *before* Snape sneered at her  -- and it could be that the 
sneer was meant to bring her to her senses, just like Ron's 
"HAVE YOU GONE MAD? ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?"  

Ron can think logically  --when playing chess or solving the keys 
puzzle, but he can act in a hurry because he  trusts his intuition. 
Hermione needs *time* to think everything out. When she has to 
deal with a situation she's not prepared for in advance, she 
tends to panic -- as with Boggart McGonagall, to give another 
example.

I am not sure why Ron's intuitiveness  should be thought such a 
handicap to an Auror. Ron's off the cuff suggestions are 
sometimes useless but they aren't usually harmful. Sometimes 
they do suggest the solution, as when he takes Harry's bugging 
remark  literally.  That's thinking outside the box, IMO. 

I don't see his temper as that much of a problem either. He can 
hold himself back when he needs to. We don't hear about him 
getting in trouble for fighting when Hermione and Harry aren't 
around to grab his robes or give him warning looks.

Jen wrote:
>>>> Wait a moment, I'm confused here. It was Ron who 
panicked when they fell into the Devil's Snare Hermione who 
kept a cool head and got them out of it  wasn't it??<<<
> 

Er, no. I fear you've been corrupted by the Dark Side of the Fo--I 
mean, the celluloid thingy <g>  In the books, Hermione 
remembers that  Devil's Snare likes dark and damp. Harry 
suggests lighting a fire, but Hermione cries, "There's no wood!" 
and wrings her hands. Ron yells at her in capital letters, 
reminding her that she is a witch. 


Penny said:
>>>She also doesn't succumb to an emotional reaction except 
when personal arguments with friends are at play or in the case 
of the Snape incident that you mention, when she has been
personally attacked by someone in a position of authority <<<

So it's okay for an Auror to lose it when things get personal? <g>  
Also, as has just been pointed out in another thread, Evil 
Wizards generally hide their dark marks under  someone else's 
sleeves. If Hermione becomes an Auror, she'll have to be 
prepared to deal with it  should someone in authority  turn on 
her. Suppose she'd been with Harry when Lockhart  tried to 
curse them in his office, would she have caught the wand like 
Ron did, or would she have panicked?

David said:
I>>> in COS, Hermione's anger *is* the driving force in the 
Polyjuice incident. <snip>. And, yes it's achieving what she 
wants, but she wants it because she is angry with Draco over his 
Mudblood insults.<<<


The same is true of Hermione's vigilante action against Rita 
Skeeter. OTOH, Real!Moody goes out of his way to bring dark 
wizards in alive. He  turns them in even though he knows he 
can't always trust the wizarding justice system to deal with them 
as he thinks it should. Compare that to the way Hermione deals 
with Rita, holding her captive on no authority but her own.

[Penny mentioned that Ron was being left behind by Hermione 
and Harry in DADA:]

I think Ron and Hermione are both getting left behind by Harry, 
who, according to JKR, has now surpassed Hermione at DADA 
and would beat her in a duel.  Ron did win his bout with Seamus 
Finnegan  at the dueling club broken wand and all, in contrast to 
Hermione who got into a wrestling match with Miss Bulstrode, 
having once again, it seems, forgotten that she is a witch. <g>

I'd personally rather see Hermione with the Department of 
Mysteries--she could exercise her talent for investigation and  
her penchant for secrecy as well. 


Pippin