[HPforGrownups] Re: On Why Hermione is a Gryffindor

[Patricia Bullington-McGuire]

No: HPFGUIDX 55114

On Thu, 10 Apr 2003, grace701 wrote:

> I wonder what exactly made her want to be in Gryffindor.  She 
> obviously knows she's smart so why not have Raveclaw as her first 
> chioce?  Is it because she knows whichever House she's put in, 
> she'll do well in class?  Yes I think so because she knows she's a 
> study freak.  So maybe Hermione, who has self-esteem issues, wants 
> to be put in Gryffindor to boost her self-confidence or to be told, 
> in a way, that she is confident.  As though Gryffindor seems to be 
> for those are brave, who can handle anything and she wants to feel 
> like she has control.  Maybe she was deep down inside anticipating 
> some sort of adventure?  

The first, and simplest, explanation for why Hermione wanted to be in
Gryffindor is that whoever she was talking to on the train about the
various houses heaped lots of praise on Gryffindor and made it sound
better than all the others.  For instance, if Hermione were talking to
Fred and George, I would fully expect them to be biased in favor of their
own house.  She almost certainly talked to Neville since she helped him
find his toad, so if he had a preference for Gryffindor for whatever
reason that may have come out in their conversation as well.

But additionally, I think Hermione wants some of the glory that Gryffindor
is famous for.  Yes, she's smart, and yes, she does love knowledge for its
own sake, but she's also a bit of a show-off.  It's not enough for
Hermione to quietly be the smartest girl in class -- she wants everyone to
*know* she's the smartest girl in class.  So naturally she'd want to be in
the house that gets the most attention (the most positive attention,
anyway).  Ravenclaws are generally respected, but they're not as often in
the spotlight at Gryffindors, so they wouldn't be as attrative to someone
who tends to want to show off.


----
Patricia Bullington-McGuire	<patricia at obscure.org>

The brilliant Cerebron, attacking the problem analytically, discovered
three distinct kinds of dragon: the mythical, the chimerical, and the
purely hypothetical.  They were all, one might say, nonexistent, but each
nonexisted in an entirely different way ... 
                -- Stanislaw Lem, "Cyberiad"