Hermione's idealism

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 81871

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Eric Oppen" <oppen at m...> wrote:
> You know, there's another group of people in the Wizard World that 
are
> looked down on and (apparently) not treated well for something that 
isn't
> their fault---Squibs.
> 
> What if Hermione was confronted with this in a way that aroused her
> compassion?  Would she throw herself into a project to "cure the 
Squibs,"
> and find some way to unlock the magic that _should_ be in them?
> 
> Would this go over better than her house-elf liberation, or would 
the Wizard
> World resent her for it if she managed to succeed?

I wonder if Hermione sees Squibs in the same light as she sees house 
elves.  Do we have any canon to show her opinion one way or another? 
In the Wizard World, house elves have no choice in what they do or 
how they live, with very few exceptions.  Squibs, while not being 
able to participate in the full panoply of wizardry(!), are still 
free in the sense that they can do other things.  They are not bound 
like slaves to serve Wizard masters.  I tend to think they might slip 
under Hermione's radar because they are not as obviously down-trodden 
as the elves. 

Plus, trying to unlock Squibs' magic is certainly not as easy as 
tossing a piece of clothing to an elf.  You'd think that maybe this 
task would actually appeal to Hermione more, in that she'd have to do 
all sorts of research to try to figure out a cure for squibness.

But, perhaps the idea of freeing the elves is more enticing because 
Hermione can actually envision the end of her task.  All she has to 
do is get those Hogwarts elves to pick up her knitted bits, and, 
voila! She's given them their freedom and made a visible change in 
their status.  

If a way was found to help Squibs become magical, I think that there 
would still be a proportion of people in the Wizard world who would 
look down on them. They'd still consider Squibs second-class wizards 
because they needed extra help to find and use their powers.

Marianne