Wizarding Top Ten

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 188177

Pippin wrote:
> The Grangers are dentists, not actors. And even if they were actors, they'd still have to remain in exile and in hiding knowing that terrible things were happening at home and their daughter was in danger. Sirius couldn't stand it in the end, why should the Grangers think they could?
><snip>

Carol responds:
They don't need to be actors to live *as dentists* in Australia. All they need is some magically faked documents with their new names, including their resumes (CVs) and other credentials. In fact, they don't really need new names since the DEs aren't going to follow them to Australia. Even if they could get to Australia, locate the Grangers, and torture them, what would be the point? By the time they found out that Hermione hadn't gone to Australia and was traveling with Harry Potter, whatever the Grangers knew about Hermione's whereabouts would be useless. 

As I keep saying, there was no need to alter their memories, which certainly would not have protected them from torture. All they needed to do was to get safely out of the country, which despite being Muggles they were perfectly competent to do. In fact, it's easier for a Muggle to take an airplane than for a DE to ride a broom to Australia, and you can't Apparate from Britain to Australia. Nor, as I said before, did LV have any power base or henchmen in Australia. The Grangers would have been perfectly safe in Australia with their memories intact, with or without a new identity. All they needed was the facts and the choice to act on them or remain in England and risk being tortured.

It's a simple matter of respect for Muggle intelligence and respect for parents, neither of which Hermione showed. They consistently respected her and her choices. In return, she spent nest to no time with them, lied to them, concealed information from them, and, finally, robbed them of their identities and memories. And then she cried over *her* loss because she might die without their knowledge. IMO, both JKR and Hermione overreacted to the situation here.

BTW, whatever she performed, it was a simple Obliviate like the one she says she's never cast before in the Muggle cafe. It's something more akin to the memory modification that Tom Riddle performs on Morfin Gaunt and Hokey, replacing their real memories with a false one. But she's taken away their identities and all their memories of their daughter, a huge violation of their lives, minds, and selves. The more I think about it, the more it looks like "Magic Is Might" and Muggles being controlled and manipulated, not for the "greater good" but only for their own supposed benefit. Someone should give Hermione a taste of her own medicine. "You don't learn, Granger, do you?"

Carol, who believes in forgiveness but nevertheless thinks that Hermione needs to learn a lesson in respect for others and their choices