In defense of Hermione (was: Almost normal)

[templar1112002]

No: HPFGUIDX 115447


phoenixgod2000 wrote:
> 
<snip> One of my peeves with book five (and there were many) was the 
way Hermione was  able to lecture Ron and Harry on the nature of the 
female mind.  I  just don't buy that a socially awkward fifteen year 
old would have  that much insight into another person's mind while 
Ron and Harry were  almost comically clueless.  Harry I could 
understand, but Ron?  This  is the guy with a huge family and 
probably large extended family as  well.  How many times did Bill or 
Charlie bring their girlfriends  over?  How much interaction has Ron 
seen and overheard?  The answer  is probably a lot.  I would have 
like to have seen Ron bust out with  the advice that he may have 
heard from Bill or Charlie about women.  
> Because a little brother not asking his older brothers about 
women?  
> Not happening.  Instead we get Hermione.  A girl who's never had a 
> boyfriend, doesn't talk with her dorm mates, doesn't seem to 
> socialize with other houses, and spends all her time in the 
> library.  And I am supposed to believe that she gets nuances in 
> social relationships.  Not so much.
> 

****I'm not sure about your last statements.  I don't know where do 
many of HP readers get the idea that Hermione is not socially aware 
or challenged in that respect -- just because Ron said so in PS 
doesn't mean it's true... To me she is just too mature to find an 
interesting exchange with P.Patil and L.Brown, and through the books 
I can see that Hermione has shown a lot of social skills:
- Hermione was the founder of the DA, she was the one whom contacted 
the students from the other Houses, she is well known by them --if 
she were a 'nutter' they wouldn't have listened to her risky idea.
- In GoF she mentions Eloise Midgen, she defends her from Ron's 
attack by saying that her acne was loads better and that she was a 
nice person --this shows to me that she has other friends/ 
acquantainces in the school, she even mentions Theodore Nott in 
OoTP, whom apparently was a non-entity to Harry and Ron.
- In PoA she managed to shut Ron up in front of Fudge politely--she 
told him it was not wise to contradict Fudge, whom was Mr. Weasley's 
boss after all, to me that shows quite a good deal a 'social 
awareness'.
- In GoF she stood up for Winky while she was being accused of 
casting the Dark Mark, she knew whom all those wizards were yet she 
fought for Winky's rights, that shows a lot of 'social 
responsibility' to me.  (Besides bravery, since she was a Muggleborn 
and they were being attacked at that moment.)
- In GoF she tried to socialize with the other schools, she was the 
date of one of the Champions --not quite a boyfriend, but a cool 
date, if you allow her that, so she is not 'that' antisocial as you 
portray her.
- Even though she doesn't agree with Hagrid's idea of teaching CoMC 
or his choice of 'eau of cologne', she is polite enough to by-pass 
those 'details' and remain a true friend to him, that to me shows a 
lot of 'peoples' skills'.
- The teachers, except maybe Snape, all think highly of her, MM 
respects her opinions (she said so to Harry).
- She knew that by kissing Ron in the Great Hall she would confuse 
him enough so that he wouldn't pay attention to the Slytherins King 
badges, that to me also shows that she knows of nuances of 
relantioships.
- About her not talking to her dorm mates, I believe it's mainly a 
female trio thing, when you get more than two girls together, you 
get one odd out, and in Hermione's case, she has never had any 
problems telling Lavender of Parvarti what was in her mind, and to 
her credit, her two dorm mates listen to her, they attended the DA 
lessons, didn't they?  Even after Lavender got a 'shout your fat 
mouth up about Harry' from Hermione at the very beginning of the 
school year.
In summary, Hermione has been shown in the books to have a bigger 
knowledge not only of the school dynamics but of its students and 
its Houses, too.  She is a more mature witch for her age, and that 
might be the reason why her dorm mates don't 'click' with her so 
much.  She is also JKR's voice, as you said it, but I didn't find 
her character overdone in OoTP when it came to 'girl's advice', 
after all, it wasn't that difficult to know why Cho was feeling like 
she was and IMO, Hermione was sort of feeling like Cho during OoTP, 
she was having mixed feelings about her two best friends plus Viktor 
(I believe she likes Harry, :P) ) like Cho did with Cedric/Harry and 
she was afraid of being expelled from school (DA) like Cho was 
afraid of being sacked from her Quidditch team.



> 
>Phoenixgod2000 (Cont'd):
  
> > <snip>  By OotP, she's not throwing this advice in his face; 
she's
> > actually trying to tell him politely, even timidly: "Looking 
> > frightened yet determined," Hermione tells Harry, "This isn't a 
> > criticism, Harry! But you do 
 sort of 
 I mean – don't you think
> > you've got a bit of a – a – saving people thing [italics]?" 
(OotP, 
> > Am. ed., 733).  
> 
> Another thing that irritated me!  That was about the dumbest thing 
> Hermione could have said.  If Harry hadn't had a saving people 
thing 
> then she would have died in her first year with that very 
impressive 
> brain of hers splattered on a trolls club.  There are a thousand 
> different things that she could have said to him that could have 
> gotten across the point of slow down and think without being 
> obnoxious.  That whole scene was more an example of her lack of 
tact 
> because honestly I think she did more harm than good there.
> 

*****I think that you missed the point, she needed to tell him that 
to explain why Voldemort expected him to do just what he was 
thinking.  I believe JKR chose those words for future reference, 
there is authorial intent with them, why else would she chose to 
make Hermione more 'obnoxious' at such a crucial point of the plot? 
I think that it was to bait us but also warn us (us readers and 
Harry, too)... I also hated Hermione for being soooo tactless at 
that moment, because I had swallowed Voldemort's bait up to the 
hook, just like Harry had, lol.  Harry saw some truth in what she 
said, and agreed to talk on the fire before rushing to the MoM.  I 
agree that Hermione could have been more tactful there, but 
considering the circumstances I think that she was quite good at 
that, I'd have been yelling at him instead of being 'polite', :).

Marcela