[HPforGrownups] Re: JKR and the boys (and girls)

[k12listmomma]

No: HPFGUIDX 162350

> Betsy Hp:
> I blame JKR.  Realistically, you're correct.  A girl with no interest
> in hair, make-up, and fashion does not suddenly, with no help
> whatsoever, turn out as poised and pressed as JKR has Hermione.
>
> But JKR wrote the belle of the ball scene without any suggestion that
> older Gryffindors girls (or other sort of fairy godmother) helped
> Hermione in anyway.  JKR also has Hermione poo-poo the whole effort
> as far too much time wasted on a rather silly goal.  So we have a
> girl who, as you put it, radically changes her normal behavior while
> maintaining that it was all no big deal.  Do I smell shenanigans?
> Damn straight.  Personally, I think JKR sacrificed character for
> a "think of the children!" moment.


Sorry if I am late rejoining this conversation, but at this point, I have to 
even wonder if you are reading the same books that I am. There is one scene 
that shows Ron getting excited about something, and says "Let's go tell/show 
Hermione". They step onto the stairs leading up to the girl's dormitory, and 
suddenly the stairs turn into a slide. There are magical barriers to the 
boys being in the girl's dormitory! Hence, Rowling has already told you, IN 
CANON, why the boys never see the other helping Hermione "transform" from 
this plain creature to this stunning swan for the ball. You can't say just 
because Harry hadn't seen it personally that it didn't happen in the books. 
In fact, we know that Hermione had been making her plans for the ball long 
before the boys even found their dates, and as such, you bet the girls would 
have all talked in private (read into that "in the girls 
dormitory/shower/bathroom areas") about how they were doing their hair, the 
best magical products to use to get their hair to stick the way they wanted 
it to, how to hide freckles or zits, make their skin glow, and so forth. 
They wouldn't have shared those plans in the main common room, where some of 
their dates could have overheard them, otherwise, it would spoil some of the 
surprise. I hardly doubt that Hermione found about her hairdo stuff all on 
her own. We just aren't privlidged to see into the girl's dormitory or 
girl's bathrooms to see those conversations. We do find out afterward that 
Ginny and Hermione talked a lot during that time, isn't that proof of 
girl-girl relationships for Hermione? And what about the fact that Hermione 
knows about another girl student crying a lot over the death of her 
boyfriend? That's something that would mainly stay in an all-girl support 
network. Or does Rowling have to spell out everything in detail for you to 
believe it? What gives here?

Frankly, this book is about Harry, from Harry's eyes. He hears about the 
girls' lives second-hand, and that is as it should be, considering the 
restriction of boys from the girl's dormitory. Rowling tells of girls moving 
around in "packs", and Hermione couldn't have been with Ron and Harry for 
every waking second. Reread all the times she went up to bed early, because 
she was mad at Ron or something. I hardly think she didn't bother to talk to 
any other girl during those times- that's just unrealistic. Again, just 
because we aren't privledged to see those conversations didn't mean they 
didn't happen. Even when Ginny and the Diary are vital to the plot points, 
Harry isn't privlidged to see Ginny actually writing in it, as she's doing 
that in private, up in the girl's dormitory. He just sees her mood changes 
and attributes it to the other events affecting all the other students.

It seems to me that we have another piece of Canon to say that Hermione 
networks well- and that is the whole DA organization. Harry was shocked at 
the number of people Hermione had talked to and that showed up at the Leaky 
Cauldron. You can't do that if you aren't talking to people. Seems to me 
that she is quite socially well-adjusted, and just because she isn't a 
goppipy-busy-body who flounts makeup and the latest styles, you can't assume 
that she doesn't have other girls as friends, or that she's a frump when it 
comes to taking care of herself, so that it would be unbelievable when she 
suddenly turns up looking nice at a ball.

Shelley