Hermione's parents (was Re: A Sense of Betrayal / Unforgiveables)

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 174257

> ***Katie:
> 
> I apologize if I post the generally same message twice - my 
computer 
> crashed and I think my first post was lost. Forgive me if it shows 
> up.
> 
> I have to completely, and respectfully, disagree with you. 
> Hermione's Muggle parents could not begin to comprehend the danger 
> they, and their daughter, were in. Had Hermione come to them and 
> said, "Mum, dad, I am dropping out of Hogwarts to go on a long and 
> possibly fruitless search for the soul pieces of an evil overlord, 
> and after we find them, we're going to fight him to the death. 
> Tea?", they would have either though she was insane, or they would 
> have wanted to protect her. Either way, they would have been 
unable 
> to understand the real danger they were in, because these things 
are 
> not part of the Muggle world. 

Magpie:
And yet every single person reading the book is a Muggle and can 
understand. Muggles actually aren't that stupid, and Hermione's 
parents have been nothing but supportive of her being a witch. To me 
this comes across just the way it does in canon--that Muggles are 
like children so Wizards can make decisions for them. Hermione has 
been treating her parents this way for a while now, and it's not 
surprising that she'd prefer to just zap them for her own 
convenience than want to explain anything to them. She's long since 
decided that they just "won't understand" so it's not worth the 
effort. But that doesn't make what she's doing right or not worth 
thinking about. 

How would Hermione have felt if her parents hired some wizard to 
memory charm her for a year to keep her out of the fight? They would 
want to protect her too, but something tells me she'd think she 
ought to make her own decisions about that rather than have her 
rights totally violated. Perhaps if Hermione had explained things to 
her parents they might have agreed to some protections, but she 
didn't give them that chance. It's easier to just do it.

Katie:
> Plus, I think it was pretty obvious that Hermione was incredibly 
> upset about it. She was crying and visibly distraught when talking 
> about it...so, I don't feel like it was mentioned casually. 

Magpie:
She is not upset about it and is not doing any such thing when 
talking about it. She tells Harry that she's coming with him and 
simply reels off that she's taken care of her parents. She begins to 
cry not because she's done something horrible to them, but because 
in talking about it she brings up the possibility of *her own 
death.* She says if she survives the Horcrux hunt she'll lift the 
enchantment. If she doesn't, well, she's cast a good enough spell to 
make them happy as the two people they aren't. She's not crying 
about having done this completely unacceptable thing to these two 
people, but her own future. Her parents get off easy as far as she's 
concerned. They'll be fine even if they live a lie the rest of their 
lives. It's Hermione who will be missing out by dying. It's her 
who's felt sorry for in the scene.

Katie: 
> I feel like people are looking for reasons to dislike the Trio 
> lately. 

Magpie:
We're not.

Katie:
These are good people, with good intentions, in an 
> unfathomably difficult and dangerous situation, so I'm inclined to 
> give them an occasional break. Plus, Jo has made it so clear that 
> they are not meant to be seen as perfect. They have lapses in 
> judgement, and they do questionable things occasionally. 

Magpie:
Lapses that mean nothing because they're good people with good 
intentions. That's the problem people have. They're not looking for 
a reason to dislike them. That's no serious exploration of right and 
wrong. 

Katie:
> I have to say, however, that I *do not* think Hermione's 
protecting 
> his parents is one of those lapses. I think it is commendable that 
> she wants to protect them from things that are not of their world 
> and that they have no natural defense against.

Magpie:
Wanting to protect them the problem. It's the way she decides what's 
good for them and completely robs them of their own will and freedom 
and at the least an entire year of their lives that's a problem, and 
she does it without the slightest thought that she's done anything 
wrong. She seems to agree with you that we should feel sorry for her 
since she's the good person who's in the bad circumstance, so it's 
unfair to even question her or consider her parents being robbed of 
their rights. It's taken as a given that Muggle parents won't 
understand, but I can't help but what Hermione wouldn't understand 
about the Muggle world and the mess this would cause that could have 
been avoided. (Things I shouldn't be thinking of because it's 
basically just supposed to be a joke.) 

It just seems like this is very indicative of the way morals are 
handled in the series already. In discussions of things like torture 
and stealing somebody's life without their permission, it's a very 
common response that people are asking too much of these good, good 
people, and questioning their ethics is a personal attack. 
 
-m