Is Hermione Supposed to be a Genius?

[Robert Jones]

No: HPFGUIDX 94417

Some of the replies to the question "Why does Ron have a crush on 
Hermione?" expressed surprise that I even asked that question 
because Hermione is so great.  (Of course, if that was all there was 
to it, why doesn't Harry have a crush?  What's wrong with Harry?  Is 
Harry superficial for being attracted only to the pretty Cho?  Why 
is Harry oblivious to Hermione's charms, both magical and 
nonmagical?)

They also make Hermione out to be a genius.  And I want to object to 
that now.  Hermione is definitely the best student in school, but I 
think it is just a matter of her "bookish" interests, not that she 
is the greatest witch of her generation.  Maybe all the magic stuff 
came naturally to James and Sirius, but Hermione studies all the 
time and is always running off to the library whenever there is a 
question.  But that does not mean she has a particularly great IQ or 
magical IQ — it is just how she handles things.

She just likes school and learning.  In POA, she was jealous of 
Ron's vacation in Egypt because of what she could have learned there 
and rewriting her essay from what she learned in France.  And she 
took every class in Book 3 and nearly studied herself to death.

And it doesn't mean she is necessarily that great at "practical" 
magic.  She certainly has advanced since the end of Book 1 where she 
did not know what to do about the Devil's Snare until Harry told her 
and she dismissed her own school work as "books!" and "cleverness."  
(Incidentally, studies of valedictorians in the USA show that they 
do not do any better after school either in business or socially 
than others — they just could "do school" well.)

But that does not mean she is a genius.  And she did make two big 
mistakes in OOTP : the hats she is knitting can't free the House 
Elves and she left the DA list in the Room of Requirement for 
Umbridge to find.  (I've discussed those in other posts.)

I think JKR said it best in an interview in Time magazine a couple 
of years ago:  "Hermione is me, near enough.  A caricature of me 
when I was younger.  I wasn't that clever.  But I was that annoying 
on occasion.  Girls are very tolerant of her because she is not an 
uncommon female type — the little girl who feels plain and hugely 
compensates by working very hard and wanting to get everything just 
so."