OOP: Hermione: the next Dumbledore? (without the beard)

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 69290

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "greatlit2003" <hieya at h...> 
wrote:

> I also want to know how Hermione picked up so quickly about 
Sirius's 
> reckless behavior. (when she told Harry not to take Sirius's 
advice) 
> Sirius seemed different to me in OOP, (depressed, lack of 
confidence) 
> but he didn't strike me as the type who would try to live 
vicariously 
> through Harry, and consequently put Harry in danger. It turns out 
> that Hermione was right, but how did she do it? Were there any 
clues 
> that suggested that Sirius was trying to goad Harry?

I think this was simply another way to keep telling us throughout the 
book that Sirius was rash and reckless.  We had Molly telling us that 
almost as soon as Harry met up with Sirius.  Once the kids were back 
at school, JKR wanted to keep sending us those little hints that 
Sirius was rash and reckless.  Who else was going to say anything?  
Ron?  Ron has never been portrayed as particularly  clued in to 
examining the behavior or emotional balance of others.  So that would 
have been a stretch.  Harry?  Harry had too many other things to deal 
with.  And Dumbledore absented himself from Harry's life to a great 
degree for a large part of the book, so he couldn't be the one to 
make pithy observatiosn. Thus, it fell to Hermione to be fully 
cognizant of Sirius' state of mind. Whether or not we find this 
believable is almost immaterial.  I think JKR was simply using 
Hermione as the messenger. 

It was this exact thing, along with JKR's descriptions of Sirius that 
made me convinced fairly early on that Sirius would be the one to 
die.  


> How did Hermione pick up that Voldie was trying to cash in on 
Harry's 
> heroic tendency? Is this simply a JKR foreshadowing tool (in which 
> case I feel cheated) or does Hermione have the gift of Seeing :) 
How 
> does this girl do it?

I'd vote for foreshadowing tool. Again, I think Hermione's role in 
OoP was to be the one to make statements that were actually clues as 
to what was going on or what would happen.  And, since we're 
accustomed to her school smarts, maybe we're not supposed to think 
it's a stretch that she has all these other insights, too. I found it 
a bit of a stretch, myself, but maybe I don't have enough experience 
with 15-year-olds.

Marianne