Hermione In Trouble?

[hickengruendler]

No: HPFGUIDX 120640


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "joanne mcnamee" 
<nienna_anwamane at n...> wrote:
> 
> The problem with Hermione is that she has never recieved any 
consicences for her actions. 
> 
> book 1- They win the house cup after breaking bucket load of rules.
> 
> Book 2-Stealing ingredients from a teachers private store room and 
using them to make a dark magic/restricted potion.
> 
> book 3-Breaks the law to save Sirius and Buckbeak with Dumbledor's 
blessing.
> 
> Book 4-Caputures a illegal animagus but instead of reporting Rita 
uses it to her advatage and as a benefit gets revenge on the woman 
resposible for writting some nasty things about her.
> 
> Book 5- Rita turns up looking very much worse for wear (the woman 
has had her main source of income stripped from her after all) and is 
again blackmailed into doing Hermione's bidding. Plus a pretty nasty 
secretcy spell is cast that does nothing to keep the secret just 
serves as humilitation for the person who spilled the beans.  
> 
> I'm not saying Hermione didn't have good intentions but when things 
go wrong like with the Centures Hermione is always bailed out and 
doesn't learn from these mistakes. 
> So she's grown up from a girl who feared breaking even the smallest 
rule to blackmailing a reporter to serve her own ends. Morally 
Hermione is treading deep water. 
> 
 
Hickengruendler:

Oh dear, than maybe I'm treading deep waters as well, because the 
whole book I waited for this scene. I thought: "Why don't they just 
go to Rita and force her to write the truth", and I was immensly 
pleased that they finally did it. Yes, Hermione might not have used 
the finest method in using blackmail, but truth to be told, the real 
problem lies IMO in a reporter that needs to be blackmailed to write 
the truth. Also, these people are at war, and in blackmailing Rita 
Hermione very well might have saved many people's lives, who njow 
believe in Voldemort's return and were able to prepare themselves for 
the war. My empathy for Rita Skeeter is very limited. She is a nasty 
and cruel woman who uses the amount of power she has (and yes, well 
read reporters are very powerful people) to destroy the lives and 
careers of other people by writing mean spirited lies about them. 
IMO, Rita's punishment was just as much poetical justice, as the 
memory charm that hit Lockhart. It was about time someone stopped 
her, and seeing that the alternative was a nice jailtime in Azkaban, 
I think Hermione definitely chose the more merciful way. Besides, I 
am sure Rita will be on the top again in the next books, after all, 
she is now the reporter who believed in Harry Potter and made the 
interview, while everybody else thought, that he's mad. 

And it's the same about the Time-Turner: Should Hermione have done 
nothing to save Sirius and Buckbeak, just because it was against the 
law? Obviously, it is the law that needs to be changed, with a 
Minister that can make decisions about life and death all by himself 
and chose to ignore three eye-witnesses who said that Sirius was 
innocent. Yes, he didn't even wait with the Dementors Kiss until 
Lupin returned and would be able to give an account as well. Should 
Hermione have negative consequences for not obeying to a government 
that is obviously that wrong and close to a dictatorship? In 
contrast, I think it was a major step for Hermione to develop in the 
right direction and not become another Percy (who I like as a 
character very much and who I feel sorry for, by the way). The only 
point where I agree with you is the Marietta incident. I have mixed 
feeling about this, just because Marietta seemed to be in a difficult 
situation, torn between her friends and family and did IMO not 
deserve to have the Sneak spell still on her face at the end of the 
book.

Hickengruendler