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

[Michal Barnea]

No: HPFGUIDX 134932

> Hermione is a very smart girl, no doubt about that, she memorizes 
> every single book she can get her hands on, but does she *really* 
> know what it says? It's easy to memorize a poem, but to actually 
> know what it means is another story. Hermione gets all her answers 
> from books, she trusts books more than anything, and she seems to 
> dream about them (when she smell the Love Potion it reminded her of 
> books!).

just in hermione's defense, i think it's important to remember that
she's not *only* book smart. in OotP, she very accurately interpreted
umbridge's comments at the start of term feast, telling harry and ron
that the ministry was interfering at hogwarts. we should also keep in
mind that she was able to separate her combined poison in slughorn's
class to try and come up with the antidote. that, to me, seems like an
advanced application of concepts learned, rather than simple
regurgitation of facts read in a book.

as for the fact that she seemed to struggle a bit in the advanced
potions class, i can speak to that. i always had a really easy time
with math at the simple levels. i never had to work all that hard at
it, so that by the time i got to the AP level in my last two years of
high school, it was suddenly like, "what? this isn't supposed to be
hard!" i understand her frustration at a new-found difficulty with a
subject that used to come easy to her.

michal (who realizes she forgot to include the page numbers for the
quote she used in her last post... whoops!)

"...the world isn't split between good people and death eaters." -- Sirius Black, The Order of the Phoenix

"There is a shortage of perfect breasts in this world. It would be a pity to damage yours." -- Westley, The Princess Bride