A Sense of Betrayal / Unforgiveables

[sylviampj]

No: HPFGUIDX 174311

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "vmonte" <vmonte at ...> wrote:
>
> Katie wrote:
> 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.>>>


I've always found the Grangers to be more of a plot device than 
anything else. For her three central characters JKR created one pure 
blood (Ron), one half blood (Harry) and one Muggle-born (Hermione). 
What to do with their families? Harry was no problem - his parents 
were dead and as JKR herself has said, his grandparents and entire 
family were dead (apart from Petunia) because that made the plot 
simpler. Ron's large family are the central family in the series 
and - surprise, surprise, both Harry and Hermione end up marrying 
into it. But what to do with Hermione's parents? They had to be nice 
people because creating mean wicked Muggles was not part of JKR's 
worldview as it would have justified wizard prejudice. Just like 
Lily's parents they were extremely proud that their daughter was a 
witch and Hermione was obviously extremely fond of them. But did 
they have any inkling of what their daughter got up to at Hogwarts? 
Molly and Arthur Weasley seem to turn up every time when one of 
their children is ill or in danger. I wonder whether Hermione's 
parents were informed when she was partly transformed into a cat in 
COS or later on when she was petrified by the Basilisk and lay in 
the sick bay for several weeks. Did they get a letter from 
Mcgonagall explaining why Hermione wasn't answering their letters? 
Did they mind that she spent less and less time with them during the 
holidays? Already in CoS she spends Christmas at Hogwarts and by 
OOTP she has spent much of the summer holidays at Grimmauld Place. 
We are not told why. Ron was there presumably because his parents 
were there, but there was absolutely no reason for Hermione to be 
there. At the end of OOTP were they informed that their daughter had 
been fighting Death Eaters at the ministry and could easily have 
lost her life? 

I don't see any problem with Hermione modifying her parents' 
memories so that they forgot they had a daughter. They hardly ever 
saw her anyway.

I adore the whole HP series but it requires an awful lot of leaps of 
logic!

Sylvia.