What is Hermione afraid of?

[Jim Ferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 80408

Emily:" I have to say that I agree with Jim. Just as a human being,
putting yourself in Hermione's shoes do you honestly think that after
every single thing that she has been through that she really is going
to see Professor McGonagall giving her a failing grade? IMHO, I think
that Hermione has finally learned that there are most definitely more
important things than getting an A on the test."

She has indeed. Personally, I've always felt the truly amazing story
of personal growth transformation in canon has been Hermione's, not
Harry's.  He's growing and learning, certainly, but he's on a path
he's been on from birth.  Hermione, on the other hand, could easily
have ended up like Percy.  Achievement and respect for order will
always be important to her, but she's the master of those qualities
now, and she is now, and was in PoA, a genuine certified Gryffindor
heroine.

I'm still stuck on the "primal terror" thing. Everybody else's boggart
is that gut-level dread, the kind of thing that would reduce a five
year old to the kind of mindless horror that requires half an hour of
lap time to soothe.  I grew up during the Cold War and still have a
wrenching fear of the nuclear attack sirens they tested every month. 
No anxiety about my job or anything like that could compare; the only
thing that could would be the thought of harm coming to my daughters.

OTOH, I have no evidence whatsoever for this speculation, and
Kirstini's got it there in black and white; but it troubles me.  It
rang false from the first time I read it.  I have a hard time
believing that, by this point in the saga that a bad grade is what
frightens Hermione most.

Now what would it mean if Harry had another encounter with Dementors
and his boggart was now a dead Hermione?

Jim Ferer