Chapter 18: Dumbledore's Army

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 99536

Marianne wrote:

 > Hermione has a lack of empathy towards others that I find a little 
> > off-putting.  Maybe she's simply at that stage in her teen  
life   
> >where she thinks she knows it all.
> <snip>

And Bugaloo37 replied:

> Once again I feel compelled to defend Hermione.  IMO, I do not see 
a 
> lack of empathy on her part concerning Sirius (and by the way I 
love 
> Sirius too).  She seems to be the only one that senses Sirius' 
> loneliness. Keep in mind when she refers to the members of the 
Order 
> being around, she is also referring to Remus, a close friend. 

Marianne:
Granted, but that's part of my point.  Remus is a close friend, and 
maybe the only one of the Order who is.  Hermione seems to lump all 
of the Order together as equally adept (or willing) to alleviate 
Sirius' loneliness.  

Bugaloo37:
 The 
> fact that Sirius sees Harry as being another "James" is something 
> that does not occur to our two boys-but it does not get past our 
> girl. 

Marianne:

Ah, the Hermione/Molly chorus! Harry as another James is certainly 
one way to look at Sirius' perception of Harry.  The only evidence 
we're shown that this might be true is in the comment Sirius makes 
after Harry shoots down the idea of Sirius coming up for a Hogwarts 
weekend.  Other than that, we simply have to take Hermione's and 
Molly's words that this is indeed the case.  So, maybe it's really 
not Hermione that I find irritating in these instances.  Maybe it's 
that I'd like JKR to actually show me through a character's actions 
and words what's going on in his/her head, and not use the shorthand 
version of having some other character uttering statements to sum 
things up in a neat, little package.  If JKR had written this  
characteristic in Neville or Luna, and not Hermione, I'd find it 
annoying in them, too.
 
bugaloo37:
I am not saying that Hermione is perfect.  Her efforts 
> concerning the house-elfs are way-off. But as a loyal supporter of 
> Harry, her importance to him should not be questioned.  I guess 
what 
> I am saying is, that as long as she continues to provide Harry with 
> much needed support, her small quirks of character should be 
> overlooked.

Marianne: 
Oh, I'm sure I'm picking on Hermione here for pretty small sins.  On 
the whole, I really don't have a problem with her.  Nor do I doubt 
her support of Harry, and she has proven herself to be an asset to 
him time and time again.  What I'm looking to see is if JKR really 
does intend to have Hermione's judgement or assumptions take a 
spectacularly bad turn in one of the later books, as some folks have 
predicted.  

Marianne