bee from OotP lodged in my bonnet

[drliss at comcast.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 108791

Subject: 


"upulwan80" 



Hello everyone,

First time poster here, so please pardon any transgressions, 
repetitions, redundancies etc.. if you point them out to me with 
compassion I promise I won't repeat them.

I don't know if what I'm about to ask has already been discussed (yes 
I did read the OotP FAQ and it wasn't there), so if it has been please 
put me out of my misery and tell me where!

In chapter 14 of OotP (Percy and Padfoot: page 268 in the hardback in 
Australia), after Ron's chucked  Percy's mutilated sermon into the 
Gryffindor fire, Hermione holds her hand out for Ron's essay, 
with 'an odd expression on her face'. Any ideas what that expression 
might be? And yes I'm quite aware that this may turn into a shipping 
matter, but I think there is a good balance of all kinds of shippers 
and non-shippers out there for me to be able to glean a reasonable 
response??


Lissa:

First off, welcome!

I actually didn't take this as a romantic thing at all (although I fall into the Ron/Hermione camp).  I took this as Hermione seeing through Ron and Harry's bravado and knowing just how badly Percy's letter upset them.

I think Hermione doesn't know what to say after they get Percy's letter.  And who can blame her?  What CAN she say?  "It's all right?"  The boys know perfectly well he's not.  "He doesn't know what he's saying?"  Percy seems perfectly coherent in that message.  "You don't need him?"  She knows that's a lie too, and although Percy may drive Ron nuts, his defection hurts.  "It'll all come right in the end?"  Who knows if that's true?  And as Mrs. Weasley's said earlier, with most of the family in the Order and Percy not speaking to them... what if one of them dies before they can make up?  

Hermione so often knows what to say, and is a pretty good judge of emotions.  (See her analysis of Cho.)  I think that odd expression was Hermione being at a complete loss- something Harry and Ron NEVER see! 

Lissa

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