In defense of Hermione (was: Almost normal)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 115791


Feklar said:
> > Hermione is ambitious,liberal and pro-active. Ron may be likeable
enough, but he is  hidebound and a slacker and proud of it.
> 
Annegirl responded:
> 15-year-old boys are a helluva lot less mature than 15-year-old
girls, especially overachieving 15-going-on-25 girls like Hermione. I
have no doubt that Ron will *grow into* a resonsible, socially
conscious, motivated young man; I think he'll probably turn out a lot
like his father. 
> 
> However, right now he does have latent tendencies of the man he'll
become. He wouldn't be Gryffendor if he wasn't brave, noble, and
loyal; he wouldn't be hanging around Harry if he didn't have White Hat
tendencies (ie a drive to save the world - he did volunteer to help
Hagrid with Buckbeak's trial); he wouldn't be friends with a smart
girl like Hermione if he couldn't keep up, intellectually, even just
in conversation. <snip>

Carol comments:
I agree with most of what you say here (except Ron's being able to
keep up with Hermione intellectually; I do think both he and Harry are
intellectally lazy because they know she'll go over their
homework--part of the immaturity thing, I guess.) But one small
quibble re your characterization of Gryffindors as "brave, noble, and
loyal." Brave, yes; courage is the trait required to be placed in
Gryffindor, the one GG prized above all others, the one I'm still
waiting to see in Percy Weasley and Peter Pettigrew, who were surely
placed in Gryffindor for a better reason than Weasley family tradition
or DD's manipulation. Loyalty, OTOH, is one of the defining qualities
of a Hufflepuff, at least according to one of the Sorting Hat's songs.
I'm not denying that Ron is loyal, only that it's a defining trait of
a Gryffindor. Look at Peter Pettigrew as the most notorious example.
And Seamus (who also has yet to show his courage) wasn't very loyal in
OoP (though I agree with Del that he had every reason to think Harry
was not quite right in the head). And noble? Is nobility a defining
Gryffindor trait? DD has been described as noble. I'm not aware that
anyone else has. Certainly not a pair of arrogant little berks that we
viewed in the Pensieve.

Aside from that, I think you're right that Ron has many good traits
and will develop others as he matures and that he and Hermione will
come to terms with their differences and their affection for each
other. He just doesn't understand his own feelings quite yet.
(Hermione, *you're* a girl." "Oh, well spotted!")

Carol