Views of Hermione, part II

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 160453

The thing about Hermione that scares me is that she could go Dark _without 
ever really meaning to._

She's scary-smart in a lot of ways, and very good at convincing herself that 
whatever she wants to do is the One Right Thing To Do.  It's been pointed 
out that she and her nemesis, Dolores Umbridge, share a lot of traits 
besides a middle name.  I don't think for a second that Darling Dolores _set 
out to become_ a sadistic tyrant.  _Facilis descensis inferni_---"The road 
to Hell is easy," for those not Latinate.

All it took, for Dolores, was one easy, plausible, logical-seeming (at least 
from her POV, which was predicated on the fact that "Lord Voldemort is NOT 
back, Harry Potter's a lying, ego-crazed attention-seeker, and the 
Ministry's got to be protected at all costs) step after another.  For 
someone who had obtained information about Harry mainly via the _Daily 
Prophet_ and talk in the Ministry, her POV wasn't terribly unusual or 
unreasonable; apparently people who had better reason to know Harry than she 
did (Seamus Finnegan, IIRC, for one) found it at least plausible.   Even the 
Blood Quill might not have seemed terribly unreasonable---I don't think she 
was at Hogwarts after Dumbledore became Headmaster, and under previous 
Headmasters, whipping students and hanging them in chains was apparently 
SOP, at least according to Filch.  Also, the WW does play more roughly than 
our Muggle world.

So far, Hermione's mainly been right.  But, if she got off on the wrong 
trail for some reason, she could easily be as big a menace as Lord Thingy 
his own bad self---and probably more dangerous, because she doesn't look the 
part, any more than the little girl in _The Bad Seed._  (NOT saying that 
Hermione's a sociopath; just that a sweet-looking little girl can more 
easily persuade people that she means no harm and is Doing Good than a 
hairless, red-eyed, snake-faced madman with pasty-white skin)

If she persuaded herself that what she was doing was for the Greater Good In 
The Long Run---well, S.P.E.W. could have turned out very badly, but I can 
think of scenarios that might make that look pretty good.  C.S. Lewish said 
that he would rather be ruled by tyrants than by moral busybodies, because 
(paraphrased) the tyrant's greed may be satiated at some point, but those 
who torture for the benefit of the victim will do so forever, since they 
have the approval of their own consciences and are sure that in the long 
run, their victims will thank them.  Think "Nurse Ratched," only with magic 
and a lot smarter.