Hermione's Career - Politics (was: Hard Choices)

[northsouth17]

No: HPFGUIDX 124615


In Message #124591, Jim Ferer wrote:

> Harry's biographer (Hermione, probably) will write that history
> someday.(1)
> 
> Jim Ferer
> 
> (1) Rowling, J.K., and Granger, H.J., /Harry's War: The Life of the
> Wizard World's Savior/ Royal Thaumaturgical Society Press, 2008.

This is something that tends to come up pretty often. Hermione is a 
scholar, a historian, a professor, a librarian. Sometimes, and this 
is me ranting a bit, it's almost taken as a given. Easy enough to see 
where it comes from - Hermione is bookish, bright, likes facts and 
has a passion for knowledge. 

That's all true, but Hermione has a very certain type of love of 
knowledge, and it's this, along with her other traits, that makes me 
think that it's Hermione, not Harry, who's going to be the next 
Minister for Magic. 

Well, a politician or activism of some kind anyway. SPEW makes it 
clear enough that not only does she have strong opinions, she's 
willing to act according to them. More than that - she's willing to 
be the one to start it, she takes the initiative, she does the 
organizing. It's a significant difference between signing a petition, 
going to a rally, and being the one circulating the petition and 
organizing the rally. 

She not only cares about stuff though - she also the ability to plan 
and organize, to think ahead, to see the big picture. It was Hermione 
who came up with and executed the whole Polyjuice caper. It was 
Hermione who invented and organized the DA. 

Now the DA. She handles all the logistics of it, and she's also one 
of those recruiting for it. She manages to get a large, complicated, 
forbidden plot off the ground, and keeps it effective. The DA also 
proves...well...she's not above subterfuge, is she? 

The meeting at the Hog's Head (good, sneaky thinking), the member 
list, the coins, the enchanted cursed member list, using the shock 
tactic of saying "Voldemort", and the list and it's consequences one 
more time. Hermione's mind works in sneaky ways. She's a competent and 
effective liar. (She lies during the troll incident, to Lockhart, to 
Umbridge in massive way, with fake crying and trip to forest, to her 
parents, and probably more I've forgotten) and rather cleverly 
manipulates and sets up Umbridge. That, like the list, like what she 
did to Rita Skeeter, shows an ability to be really, really nasty when 
she needs to. 

Hermione manages to make use of Rita, with the Quibbler article, 
(She's not above blackmail either) and this article shows a certain 
political astuteness. She pays attention during Umbridge's speech, 
she figures out what it means. Dumbledore realises it's Hermione 
who's been paying attention, not Harry. She fires back in the field 
of public opinion with the article. She's generally pretty good at 
analysing people. (Not great, not infallible, her Ron, and later Cho 
analyses are probably not spot on. But it's more than Harry sees. 
Whether she gets it right or not, Hermione tries to analyse people.)

Back to her thirst for knowledge - I'm sure Hermione reads plenty of 
fiction too, but mostly we see her reading what looks like history 
books. And what she learns, she remembers, and uses. I think her 
choice of reading materials reflect a knowledge=power sort of 
mentality. And it works too - how many times has Hermione's knowledge 
on some esoteric subject saved the day? She even says it herself, in 
her Troll lie - She says she thought she could handle it, because 
she's *read* all about them. 

And she shows an interest, thinking about becoming a muggle Liaison 
at least, which she does not in becoming a historian or a librarian. 

To summarize: Bright, knowledgeable, astute, motivated, activistic, 
takes initiative, capable organizer, ruthless, manipulative. 

In short, a politician. 

And I for one, love her for it.  

Northsouth