[HPforGrownups] Hermione as Stategist (was: Harry as Leader (was: What has Harry learned?)

[Vivamus]

No: HPFGUIDX 127456

> >>sherry:
> >do you truly see Hermione as a brilliant planner and strategist? I
> have never thought of her in that way, and I would love to 
> hear your thoughts on that.< <snip>
> 
> Betsy:

<excellent stuff snipped -- I really liked your posts, Betsy>

> Her treatment of Umbridge was coldly ruthless - but 
> efficiency and ruthlessness often go hand in hand (at least 
> in the books I read *e.g.*), and Hermione was working under a 
> pretty intense time crunch.

Vivamus:
I would agree that it was cold, but I would also argue that it was entirely
ethical of her to do that to DU.  DU had just admitted to sending DEs to
suck the soul out of Hermione's best friend, AND she was about to start
gleefully torturing him with the Cruciatus curse, which Hermione knows was
enough to permanently derange Neville's parents.  DU was clearly revealed in
that moment as a person no less evil than LV, despite the fact that she
probably thought of herself as working for the greater good.  I think
Hermione did a simply brilliant job of finding the most efficient method of
toad control available.

In fact, there *was* one group she was ruthless to, and that was the
centaurs.  She was every bit as arrogant as they accused her of being, in
using them to get rid of DU for her.  It was still worth doing, but notice
that, with all her brilliance, she DIDN'T have the sense to keep her mouth
shut when the centaurs started to get angry at her attitude.
 
> Betsy: 
> Even more impressively, Hermione recognizes the signs of 
> Voldemort's plan.  I think, because she's got a similar 
> strategic way of thinking she can tell that something's not 
> quite right about Harry's dream.  
> She knows what *she'd* do if she was Voldemort, and so she 
> gets suspicious.

Vivamus:
I think you are right.  It's about logic and efficiency, and she and LV are
both very good at that.

> Betsy: 
> What Hermione is *not* very good at is getting people to 
> listen to her.  

<snip>

> SPEW is another perfect example.  Hermione's plan is a good one.  
> Create awareness with Hogwarts students, disseminating her 
> ideas throughout the British WW; free the Hogwarts' 
> house-elves, creating an army of rights demanding rebels; 
> and, I imagine, start bringing pressure to bare on the 
> Ministry with the support of like-minded witches and wizards 
> and newly empowered house-elves.  Big problem is, no one 
> listens to her.  Not even fellow Muggle-borns, who should be 
> expected to have at least a small amount of similar revulsion 
> at the idea of an enslaved race, join SPEW.  Hermione can 
> throw a great party, but she can't get anyone to come.
> 
> Betsy

Vivamus:
Hermione shows an interesting dichotomy when it comes to understanding
others, doesn't she? On the one hand, she seems to have a solid grasp of
what others are feeling, even when that is very complex (such as her
explanation of Cho's feelings to Harry in OOtP.)  On the other, what others
are feeling doesn't seem to connect inside her head with the fact that HER
reality may not be the same as someone ELSE's reality.  The Centaurs get
angry at her arrogance, so she starts lecturing them on why they shouldn't
be angry with her -- oops.  Everyone from Dobby to Hagrid tells her she
doesn't understand the House Elves, and she hears them all, but she plows on
ahead with her (well-constructed) plans for SPEW as if they hadn't spoken.
Harry keeps telling her not to try to run his life, but she can't help
insisting he must not only see things her way, but decide them the way she
would decide them, and she causes him significant trouble by doing so, on
several occasions.

I see this all as a reflection of her character that you describe so well.
Her mind is orderly and logical, so she really doesn't understand why
someone should see anything differently.  If they do, she just has to
explain things and they will change -- just as she thinks she would, if she
didn't understand something and it was explained to her.   It never occurs
to her either that the assumptions may be different, or that one can make a
"right" choice that isn't logical, or even that one has the *right* to make
a choice that isn't logical (or doesn't seem so to her.)

What worries me in what we saw in OOtP about Hermione's strategy, is that
she hasn't really figured out yet that they are in a war, and the price of
losing is the freedom of the entire world, wizard and muggle both.  When she
does, I'm sure she will explain it to the others, but it had better be soon,
or kids doing jelly legs and tarantalegra against AKs are going to be very
messily slaughtered.  It's one thing to play fair, but there are times when
combat rules need to take over, and combat has nothing to do with fair or
proper or nice.

Vivamus