[HPforGrownups] Re: Am I the only one...

[IreneMikhlin]

No: HPFGUIDX 134861

shagufta_naazpk2000 wrote:

>>Actually I thought book 6 provided a very good
>>explanation for why Snape hasn't treated Hermione as
>>"the best student he'd ever had".
>> She is in fact a mediocre Potions student, not
>>curious, afraid to experiment, only good in following
>>the instructions to a 't'.
>>That was very surprising, at least for me.
>>
> 
> Hi
> i personally wouldnt call Hermione mediocre, in all the potion 
> classes we've seen she gets exact results, there are umpteen times we 
> see that she is the only one who gets her potion the exact colour and 
> texture that it should be.

Yes, by following Snape's instructions exactly. Which is not a trivial 
achievement and I'm not trying to belittle it.

  she even helps Neville on the sly and
> prevents his toad from getting poisoned. Afraid to experiment? this 
> is the girl who brews Polyjuice Potion in her second year, by getting 
> a restricted book out of the library. 

But it wasn't an experiment, she followed the instructions in the book.

> And to cap it all, the first 
> time she is judged by an unbiased teacher she gets an an outstanding 
> in potions (im referring to her OWLs)

She got top marks from the biased teacher as well, so that's not a problem.

> 
> And as far as HBP is concerned, Hermione doesnt get anything wrong, 
> her potions are textbook perfect, and thats really the best a student 
> aims for. 
> 
> Hermione may be lots of things but mediocre.??. you got to be kidding.
> 
> shagufta
> (long time lurker)

OK, maybe mediocre is a wrong word here. But in science there is a huge 
gap between the ability to understand and reproduce the knowledge that 
was created before you, and the ability to create a new knowledge. 
Hermione has the first ability in spades, but I'm still not sure about 
the second one.

Again, I'm not belittling Hermione. I'm like this myself - can get top 
marks in any subject as long as the marks are given for analytical 
thinking. But I don't have the synthesis ability.

So between all the fan fics about Hermione the brilliant Potions 
researcher, and all the posts here about Snape just being jealous of her 
superior potions abilities, I was a bit disappointed by HBP revelations.

Irene