"Constant as the Northern Star"

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 115021


> Hester wrote:
> Maybe I see too much of myself in Hermione.  I have often been
> critised as being overly logical without enough heart.  I read that
> episode as if Hermione had gotten an idea and rushed off to the
> Library to check it out (or maybe she was already their studying
> before the match).  When her suspicion was confirmed she realized
she better have some precaution.  I certainly would.  She found
someone who (conveniently) was vain enough to carry around a pocket
mirror (I
> knew plenty of girls in High School who did).  She also grabbed the
> page out of the book and scribbled "pipes" on it just in case she
> didn't make it back.  This seems reasonable considering she is a
> "Mudblood" and in greater risk than other purebloods.  If I had any
> fear of being petrified or dying I would do the same for my friends. 
> To a logical mind, the sequence doesn't really seem all that
> contrived.  The convenience of someone with a mirror being in the
> library just then is about as contrived as it gets.  And even that is
> not *that* unbelievable.


Carol responds:
I agree with you. Hermione (at least after the first few chapters of
SS/PS) doesn't mind breaking a few rules (such as making polyjuice
potion from stolen ingredients) if she thinks there's sufficient
reason, and the danger of an impending attack by a basilisk is
certainly sufficient reason to scribble a word on a page of a library
book and tear it out. Her first priority is to get out of the library
and back to Harry; her second is to be sure he gets her message if
she's attacked. The mirror is probably an afterthought; she must have
convinced Penny Clearwater, another Muggleborn, that they were both in
terrible danger. I do see plotholes in CoS, or at least unanswered
questions, but not that particular one.

Carol