[HPforGrownups] Ghosts / Hermione & parents /

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 102384

On 22 Jun 2004 at 0:03, Christina in GA wrote:

> >Dreadnought: Have we seen a single decent Muggle in any detail in any of
> the >books? Even Hermione's parents seem to be become estranged >from their
> daughter.
> 
> Christina: Where do you get this from? They don't keep her from doing magic
> or from school. The few times we see them in the WW they are so out of their
> element I don't blame them for being a bit quiet, especially with Arthur
> Weasley questioning them about muggle money and electricity. I get the
> impression that Hermione is pretty close to her parents.

A couple of places.

GoF, p.353 (pages in British editions)

"'Well... when I went up to Madam Pomfrey to get them shrunk,
she held up a mirror and told me to stop her when they were back to
how they normally were,' she said. 'And I just... let her carry
on a bit.' She smiled even more widely. 'Mum and Dad won't be too
pleased. I've been trying to persuade them to let me shrink them
for ages, but they wanted me to carry on with my braces. You know,
they're dentists, they just don't think teeth and magic should -
look! Pigwidgeons back!'"

There seems to be some conflict here between Hermione's use of 
magic, and her parents acceptance of it.

OotP, p.151

"'Thanks,' said Hermione. 'Erm - Harry - could I borrow Hedwig so I 
can tell Mum and Dad? They'll be really pleased - I mean prefect is 
something they can understand.'"  

That really gives me the impression that Hermione's parents don't 
understand much about their daughters life and school at all 
anymore.  

OoTP, p.440.

"'Well, to tell the truth, skiing's not really my thing,' said 
Hermione. 'So, I've come here for Christmas.' There was snow in her 
hair and her face was pink with cold. 'But don't tell Ron. I told 
him skiing's really good because he kept laughing so much. Mum and 
Dad are a bit disappointed, but I've told them that everyone who is 
serious about the exams is staying at Hogwarts to study. They want 
me to do well, they'll understand. Anyway,' she said briskly, 
'let's go to your bedroom, Ron's mum has lit a fire in there and 
she's sent up sandwiches.'"

This is the one that really makes me wonder about an estrangement. 
Hermione has passed up a holiday with her parents to rejoin the 
Wizarding World - and they are disappointed at this. She spent 
much of the previous summer holidays at Grimmauld Place. 
She spent the previous Christmas at Hogwarts, and the 
last part of the summer holidays before that at the 
Burrow.

Hermione is not spending that much time with her parents 
- and hasn't done so in close to a year and a half, by my 
reading.

And in this last extract - she doesn't say that her 
parents understand - she says they *will* understand. It 
sounds to me like they are not happy about her choice - 
and she's trying to convince herself that given time they 
will be.

I doubt it's a matter of a lack of love for the daughter, or a lack 
of love from her for them.

On the contrary - their daughter enters a world they only have a 
very poor understanding of - and even though they don't understand 
it, they *let* her do that. That can take a lot of love - to let a 
child do something you don't understand because it's what she 
wants, and it's where she feels she needs to be.

And Hermione obviously still cares for her parents - because she 
*wants* them to understand. It's not a lack of love - it's a fact 
that they are in two different worlds. And that's probably pretty 
hard to deal with.

It's a feeling - the evidence is very tenuous, but that is the 
feeling it gives me.

There's other issues too - Hermione is a *smart* girl. I'm 
*certain* that the idea of having her parents meet the Dursleys 
would occur to her - her parents are Dentists - respectable people, 
professionals, the type that the Dursley's might respect.

I'm really surprised that Hermione hasn't tried to bridge the gap 
between the Dursley's and their mistrust of the Wizarding World by 
showing them that other young wizards and witches come from 
respectable Muggle backgrounds. It wouldn't work - but Hermione 
seems the type who is likely to think it would. She hasn't tried, 
though... I wonder if that's because she's worried that rather than 
her parents convincing the Dursleys that Wizarding is fine, that 
the exchange might be in the other direction.


Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
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