Hermione's growth

[kneazle255]

No: HPFGUIDX 81799


elfundeb writes:

Hermione receives a lot of credit for her assessment of Sirius, but 
she's really simply echoing Molly's criticism, which happens to 
accord with her own biases. 

Kneazle responds:

I do not think Hermione is acting out of bias regarding Sirius. She 
has known Sirius as long as Harry and evidently longer that Molly. 
She is interpreting Sirius' erratic behavior in OoTP correctly. He 
does put himself into danger unnecessarily. He is NOT thinking about 
Harry's safety. Sirius' suggestion that Harry sneak out of Hogwarts 
to meet him is too crazy even for Harry to entertain. Hermione is not 
echoing anyone's biases, as if she ever would anyway.

elfundeb writes:

Hermione's ends are good, we don't just excuse, we applaud her 
manipulative techniques. Same thing with Hermione's treatment of 
Umbridge, who is as hateful as they come. But doesn't this sound a 
lot like what a certain hat said about Slytherin? That they'll "use 
any means to achieve their ends"? Hermione reveals in OOP that the 
Sorting Hat considered her for Ravenclaw. I think the Hat might have 
done well to consider Slytherin. When something truly threatens 
Hermione, she is quite willing to use any means to achieve her ends. 
 
kneazle responds:

Slytherins are Machiavellian. The end they seek is power, and they 
will use any means to get it. Hermione's end is the trio's continued 
survival. That is a key difference. IMO,using an evil person's greed 
and lust for power against them is not morally ambivalent. I just 
don't feel there is anything to excuse.

I think it is an interesting point when elfundeb says that Hermione 
has a higher stake because she is muggleborn. In CoS, that was true, 
at least until Diary!Tom decided to target Harry instead of 
muggleborns.

For me that is a telling point. Hermione has put herself in harm's 
way over and over again not to protect herself, but because Harry is 
in immediate danger. Voldemort has not been obsessing about killing 
mudbloods. He has been and continues to obsess about killing Harry 
Potter. 

I believe Hermione has made more of a target of herself by being so 
closely associated with Harry. That's why she is in Gryffindor. I 
agree with you--she understands the risk. But she sticks with Harry 
anyway. That is true courage.