"Little Miss Perfect" (Was Re: The OOTP Gripe List, v. 5,432)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 126115


Richard Jones wrote:
> 
> I think the posters are incorrect about Hermione always being right 
> in OOTP.  She has been consistently my favorite character throughout 
> the five books, but in OOTP she made some big mistakes.  Here are 
> five instances of "Little Miss Perfect," as that cow Rita Skeeter 
> called her, screwing up in OOTP.
> 
> (1) Hermione's Guerrilla Hat Campaign.  <huge snip>

> (2) The D.A. List jinx. <snip>
> 
> (3) Umbridge getting the D.A. list. <snip>
> 
> (4) The St. Valentine's Day Massacre.  <snip> [Erm, "fiasco"?
There's no massacre. Carol]
> 
> (5) Umbridge in the forest. <snip>
> I could talk about her lack of "people skills" in trying to get
Harry to do what is best for him or how she treated Luna, but enough
of my complaining.

Carol responds:
I've never thought that Hermione was perfect. In fact, when I first
read the phrase "little Miss Perfect," I thought it was a typo for
"little Miss Prefect," which is at least unarguable. Only the fact
that Rita repeats the phrase several times made me think that it might
actually be JKR's actual wording rather than an editor's erroneous
"correction."

At any rate, I agree that the overdeveloped house-elf/hats subplot in
OoP is a set-up for something to come in HBP or Book 7. More
important, I think that Hermione is overdue for a lesson about books
as a source of truth. So far, she's learned that "Hogwarts: A History"
doesn't give the full story (it doesn't mention house-elf
enslavement). In my view that's because the author is probably a
pureblood or halfblood who grew up in the WW, unlike Muggleborn
Hermione, who sees it with Mugglevision. IOW, the author doesn't
mention house-elf enslavement because he or she takes it for granted,
just as we take modern plumbing and electricity for granted. But she
may well find that her books are wrong about crumple-horned snorkacks,
too. Hermione needs some firsthand experience of both life and the WW
to balance her book knowledge and I think that lesson is coming in
HBP, via house-elves and/or Luna Lovegood.

As for JKR claiming Hermione as a source of information in one of her
interviews (forgive me for not having gone upthread to see what others
have said on the topic), I think she meant that we can generally
believe Hermione when she provides factual information about Hogwarts
or the WW that clearly comes from a book, especially when she cites
her source. But her opinions are another matter. We're free (at least
until canon proves us wrong) to dispute her views on house-elves or
her psychoanalyses of Sirius and Cho Chang). We can agree with her
that Snape deserves Dumbledore's trust or with Ron that he doesn't.
But when she tells us that you can't apparate from Hogwarts or that
only six (IIRC) witches and wizards registered as Animagi in the
twentieth century, we would do well to believe her. Part of her
function in the knowledge is to serve as a walking almanac. The WW is
not her birthplace; it's a new world that she has to live in for at
least ten months of the year and has come to love despite its flaws.
She wants to know as much as she can about it, and to pass on her
knowledge to Harry, who was also raised as a Muggle until he was
eleven. We who are forced to live in the Muggle world every minute of
every day should be grateful for the tidbits of information she
chooses to throw to us, or rather to Harry.

No, she's not perfect. Neither is the WW. Or Harry or Dumbledore or
JKR herself. But they wouldn't be interesting--or worth writing many
long posts on--if they were. If you want perfect goodness, read
Dante's "Paradiso" or the heavenly sections of Milton's "Paradise
Lost." (Snore.) 

Carol, who still thinks of Hermione as "little Miss Prefect" whether
or not that was JKR's intention.