Hermione & parents

[annunathradien]

No: HPFGUIDX 102458

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Shaun Hately" <drednort at a...> 
wrote:
 
> 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..."

> "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..."
 
> 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


I think the situation is made even more curious in that we're told by 
Hermione, more or less, that her parents don't seem to understand 
*anything* about the Wizarding World ("I mean prefect is something 
they can understand").  Hermione chooses to spend Christmas at 12 
Grimmauld Place, in the Wizarding World, as opposed to quality time 
with her parents, yet again.  She could be owling them letters 
regularly possibly with explanations or at least updates of how she's 
doing, but you'd think some real one-on-one time is called for 
considering her parents apparent confusion over the Wizarding World 
*and* rarely ever seeing their daughter.  Not to mention, that whole 
war with Voldemort - the muggle/born hater - thing.  Yet she has, 
time and time again, chosen the WW over her family.  It really 
doesn't seem like Hermione is making the greatest efforts in helping 
her parents understand the Wizarding World.  

Do they even know the danger Hermione could very well be in as a 
muggleborn (and one of Harry Potter's closest friends)?  How much has 
she been telling them?  What if Hermione were injured or killed?  I 
recall Hermione getting petrified in CoS, were her parents ever even 
notified of what happened?  It just unnerves me that if anything were 
to happen to Hermione because of the war, her parents may never have 
the foggiest clue until that body shows up on their doorstep and 
Dumbledore and/or the Ministry are sending their deepest condolensces.

> 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.

And that's an interesting adjective in that above OotP passage as 
well, "briskly", as if the topic were closed, but it also seems to 
ruffle her a bit.  As if there's some possible tension there.  If her 
parents are "a bit" disappointed, I certainly don't blame them.  She 
seems to be almost dismissive of them and their disappointment.

Now I don't want to start opening these paranoid channels of 
discussion... but it *almost* seems to me Hermione is purposefully 
distancing herself from her parents.  Is it because she *knows* the 
danger she's put herself in and she doesn't want her parents getting 
some backlash from her role in the war, the Order or Harry's life?  
It certainly doesn't seem like Hermione is inclined to leave the 
Wizarding World, even if her parents demanded it of her.  Would they 
if they found out how much danger she could potentially be in?  
Again, I wouldn't blame them.  Hence this could be a reason why 
Hermione might not be keeping her parents informed of the Voldemort 
situation, she knows how they would react.  She may also be 
attempting to disconnect herself from her muggle heritage to keep 
them safe.  

I'll be very interested to learn in book 6 if Hermione has finally 
told her parents about the Wizarding War and Voldemort.  

> 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. 

I do wonder if Hermione's parents are the sort that cut the apron 
strings early on in life.  Basically made Hermione raise herself.  
They trust her because she's such a *smart* and/or *self-reliant* 
girl.  However, making your child responsible to pay for her own 
personal luxuries (in a RL family situation, making a child pay for 
his/her own CD player, for example) versus just sending your daughter 
to a strange world, practically never seeing her, and it's a world 
you don't understand?  These seem to me very different things.  I'm 
not entirely certain if that's so much trust and love in their 
daughter, but bordering on negligence.  This could also certainly be 
Hermione's powers of persuasion / exploiting their ignorance that 
everything is peaches & cream at Hogwarts and the Wizarding World.

It's frustrating knowing so surprisingly little about Hermione and 
her life outside of Hogwarts.  We've spent time at both #4 Privet 
Drive and the Burrow... maybe it's time to take a peak inside casa 
Granger for once?

annunathradien