Hermione's Amortentia smells (was: SHIP! H/G indicators of Harry's...)

[susanmcgee48176]

No: HPFGUIDX 136584

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "delwynmarch" 
<delwynmarch at y...> wrote:
> Susan McGee wrote:
> "2. We find out that the potion is Amortentia, the "most powerful 
love
> potion in the world"
> 
> Hermione said '"it's supposed to smell differently to each of us,
> according to what attracts us, and I can smell freshly mown grass 
and
>  new parchment and ----' But she turned slightly pink and did not
> complete the sentence." (p. 185)
> 
> Smell is one of the great indicators of erotic attraction
.question,
> what was Hermione's third smell? Something that reminded her of 
Ron? 
> Love to hear other's thoughts here.."
> 
> Del replies:
> Hermione is in love with books, but this bit
> contradicts this. It's not the smell of old books that she likes, 
but
> the smell of new parchment. That's not the same thing at all. Old
> books, to me, suggest knowledge and passivity, someone sitting in a
> library for hours on end, while a new parchment suggests to me
> creativity and activity, someone writing or drawing or making plans.
> Not at all the same. This bit confirms me in my belief that 
Hermione's
> love of learning is not an end in itself. It's only a means to do 
what
> she really loves: *do* stuff, whether by reproducing or by 
inventing.
> Hermione is not learning for the sake of learning, she's learning 
for
> the sake of making life (hers and that of all those she cares about)
> better and easier. We don't see her showing off her knowledge just 
for
> the sake of showing what she can do (unlike the Twins and their
> overuse of Apparition in OoP, for example), but we do see her using
> her knowledge to arrange things or to make them easier (making the
> snow melt in front of the Trio so they don't freeze, enchanting the 
DA
> Galleons, repairing stuff, preparing the essence of Murtlap for 
Harry,
> and so on). As such it makes complete sense to me that she would 
love
> the smell of new parchment.
> 
>

Susan McGee's response:

Great insight.

Remember when someone notices that Hermione has done a Protean charm 
on the gold galleon in order to inform participants of the meeting of 
the D.A.? Was it Terry Boot? He asks Hermione why she's not in 
Ravenclaw with brains like hers... Hermione answers that the Sorting 
Hat thought about putting her in Ravenclaw, but finally decided on 
Gryffindor instead.

If Hermione's love of knowledge and research and books is mostly so 
that she can DO helpful things in the world, then maybe that's why 
she's in Gryffindor...(although I do think she loves learning for its 
own sake as well).

Susan McGee
Want to join Harry Potter for Grownups Over 40? Email me at 
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