What is Hermione afraid of?

[Kirstini]

No: HPFGUIDX 80335

I wrote:
>>>Hermione doesn't try the Boggart because JKR is saving her
worst fear up for the humourous bit in the DADA exam at the end of the
book: Hermione's worst fear is McGonagall (someone she respects)
telling her she's failed her exams (which she wanted to succeed in)>>>

Jim wrote: 
>>Probably true, but the nagging doubt I have is that for everyone 
else the fear is something gut, some primal terror, the stuff of which
phobias are made.  Something abstract can't have the same punch.>>

But this *is* Hermione's fear. They have a practical DADA exam at the 
end of PoA, and Hermione jumps out of the trunk with her face white, 
having seen McGonagall. JKR treats this as a joke in the passage, but 
what I was trying to get at here was whether this might actually lead 
to something more serious. She's afraid of failure, which is far more 
convincing a fear than being scared of - say - a mummy or a Banshee 
if you ask me.

Me again:
>>>this exam comes up again in OoP, and Hermione makes a point here 
about how Harry got better marks in this exam than she did. I wonder 
if this re-emphasising of Hermione's hubris means it may turn out to 
be significant later on?>>>

Jim replied:
>>The students don't get their scores until July, after the end of the
story, so we don't know yet.  I don't have the book here, but I think
Hermione predicted Harry would do better.>>

I was referring to the exam they took in PoA, which Hermione refers 
to when trying to convince Harry to start the DA in OoP, not to their 
DADA OWL, which didn't contain a Boggart examination. The exam they 
took in PoA was the one in which we find out what Hermione's boggart 
is.

Jim again: 
>>I don't take that scene as an example of Hermione's hubris, because 
I don't think she has hubris anymore, certainly not with her Trio-
mates. I would speculate that the boggart-horror she sees is 
something else – Harry dead.  Naturally she would be reluctant to say 
it to Harry<snip>I can't back that up at all, but we may see in the 
future what Hermione's boggart really is.>>

Which scene - Hermione/Boggart? In the trunk? At the end of PoA? Are 
you suggesting that she lies about Boggat!McGonagall? It's not hugely 
clear to me, but I'm going to proceed as if all these variable are 
true. 
Firstly - I don't believe that Hermione is able to laugh at herself 
to a convincing degree to be able to create this lie, which exploits 
an often sniggered-at facet of her character. Particularly not if she 
has just had a traumatic experience.

Secondly - all the Boggarts we have seen are related to something 
intensely personal to the character. It shows, after all, a 
representation of the most urgent, fear possible for each individual 
to experience. Lupin fears the danger he may put others in at the 
full moon, fears losing his self-control. Ron's fear of spiders goes 
back to Fred having Tranfigured his teddy once (NB - where was the 
Restriction of Underage Sorcery *then*?).
Harry, as we know, fears fear the most, which ties in with 
his "saving people thing." Molly is the only person whose Boggart 
relates to directly to harm done to others, but this is because her 
entire life is devoted to her family. Hermione is more self-absorbed 
than Molly (this isn't a criticism. Everyone except the house-elves 
is more self-absorbed than Molly), and I find her Boggart extremely 
convincing for this reason. Each of the other Boggarts relates to the 
self - even Molly's rests on the grief she'd feel if something 
happened to her family, and guilt that she is unable to prevent it. 
Her Boggart could possibly be (over)analysed as a fear of failure of 
fulfiling the mother-protector role she has elected herself to - 
hence Harry appearing.

Hermione's number one priority is Hermione, not Harry. Again, not a 
criticism. She has to be fairly selfish to sustain the level of focus 
required to gain her high marks. Ambition requires selfishness, and 
Hermione has ambition in droves. As we've seen ("perhaps if I could 
take SPEW further..."), she doesn't intend to use it to do anything 
as obvious as climb a particular career ladder, but she wants to 
employ her talents to the best of her abilities. She's ambitious to 
be true to herself. Yes, she cares very, very deeply about her best 
friends, but I'm not convinced by your theory at all, because there 
is very little canon in Hermione's character to suggest that she saw 
anything other than Boggart!McGonagall. And yes, she does have a 
hubris, and it is fear of failure, just as Harry's is his hero-
complex/fear of fear. I think I'd be disappointed in JKR's powers of 
realistic character description if Hermione turned out to be as 
subconciously capable of self-sacrifice as you think. And I'd like 
and respect them both (Hermione and JKR) a lot less for it.   

Kirstini