Why did Hermione lie?

[Andrea]

No: HPFGUIDX 51536

--- Errol wrote:
> Going way back to PS for a trivia question.You know, Hermione's 
> reaction to the Troll-in-the-bathroom scene in PS has always confused 
> me and I haven't found any discussion on this. Lets see,
[snip the passages in question]
> *What* trouble?? As far as I can see, they did nothing wrong. They 
> did go and save her when there was no time to get anyone else. The 
> only thing that Hermione lied about was *her* reason for being there. 
> She was crying and missed dinner. Surely that was better than saying 
> she went after the troll herself?

You know, I used to think Hermione was just an idiot for doing this. 
After all, the truth was better than the lie -- Harry and Ron were just
looking after their friend, who didn't know what was happening.

*Who didn't know what was happening.*

Oh.  Okay, Hermione's not so stupid after all. :)  It took me a while of
saying she was an idiot, but then I realized, duh, Hermione DIDN'T know
anything other than, "Crying in the bathroom.  Eek, troll!  Harry and Ron
saved me, yay!"  SHE doesn't know why Harry and Ron suddenly showed up. 
They went straight from knocking out the troll to explaining things to
teachers, without a chance to confer.  I'll bet Hermione thought, given
her past experience with those two, that THEY went looking for the troll,
or were just stupid boys and got caught up in it all, so that was the best
lie she could come up with on the spur of the moment to keep them out of
trouble.  She probably thought that if she took all the blame on herself
immediately, no one would question Harry and Ron.

As for why Harry and Ron thought it was important, well, they DID disobey
direct orders from the headmaster -- "follow your prefects back to your
common rooms" (with the unspoken "so we can take care of the troll without
any of you foolish children getting killed!")  As a few others pointed
out, Harry and Ron could have easily just shouted to the prefect that
Hermione was missing and have someone better equipped to tackle the troll
go after her.  They SHOULD have gotten in trouble.  But when a star
student who NEVER gets in trouble (*cough*teacher'spet*cough*) takes all
the blame on herself, McGonagall probably didn't even think that Hermione
might be lying about it.  So Hermione DID shield Harry and Ron from
trouble, even if the truth might've done it as well.



Andrea

=====
"Reality is for people who lack imagination."

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