Bigotry in the Potterverse/Hermione and her parents

[sistermagpie at earthlink.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 188152

> Lynda:
> 
> It seems a little shortsighted to say that simply because Voldemort had not
> yet turned his eyes toward the Muggle families of wizards and witches, that
> he would not in the future. In fact, from the tone of the last book, he
> certainly would and I never doubted that Hermione took the action she did to
> protect them. Why would I assign a different motive than the one stated in
> the book to her? Voldemort had certainly shown by that time that he was no
> friend of muggles and certainly not of muggles who had wizards in their
> families.

Magpie:
I'm not saying that Voldemort couldn't have. I'm saying that in the book--which is the whole story--JKR wasn't going there so I think it was a bad idea to throw in something that's as disturbing to some readers as Hermione memory charming them to explain some big protection that never has any payoff anyway. 

And I didn't actually assign any different motivation to Hermione than she had in the book. She's getting them out of Voldemort's immediate vicinity. (Though in defending her choice people often naturally have to make up other motivations to explain the memory charm, like Hermione protecting Harry and herself in some way by making it harder for Voldemort to crack her parents' minds--even though they don't really know anything anyway.) 

Given the unbroken pattern of the way she deals with her parents on this issue, plus the way memory charms are a running joke when used against Muggles, plus the unlikelihood of any parent agreeing to forget their child forever, I'm left with a big distraction from the story that's obviously not supposed to be. It's not that Hermione had evil designs on her parents. It's that she, like all Wizards, doesn't think of them as equals enough to worry about this being a violation.

We could have been told the Grangers went to Australia because Hermione asked them. Or that she placed some kind of charm on them and hoped it would be enough. All of those things would have been enough storywise since JKR was never planning any attack on the Grangers. Instead we got one last muddle-headed Muggle joke at the Grangers' expense where we're supposed to sympathize with Hermione over the idea that if she dies her parents will never regain their memories and so not be able to mourn her. 

-m